Steve Roden (1964) is a visual and sound artist from los angeles. his work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, film/video, sound installation, and performance, also active as In Be Tween Noise, of "possible landscapes", created by electronically and digitally processing the sound of objects, nature and spaces. They require "deep listening" to appreciate the subtlety of slight variations in the mostly silent wasteland.
On Every Color Moving (1988–2003), Steve Roden’s first 15 years unfold across six discs: from noisy, searching experiments to the hushed, “lowercase” worlds that would define his quietly radical, object‑based approach to sound and space.
On A Thousand Breathing Forms, Steve Roden’s 2003–2008 archive blooms across six discs of loop‑based miniatures, conceptual structures and quietly lyrical instrumentals, charting a mid‑period where lowercase intimacy, rigor and melody fuse into one breathing organism.
2008 release ** Cardboard sleeve. The conception, the idea, realisation and sound sources of this CD are all based on original sound material (loops and sounds) from Rapoon’s “Tribal Sci Fi”. Featuring: Francisco Lopez, Tv Pow, Machinefabriek, Troum, Steve Roden, Jorge Castro, Paulo Raposo, Aidan Baker, Anla Courtis, Gert-Jan Prins, Heimir Bjorgulfsson, Mike Shiflet, Family Underground, Ronnie Sundin, Cisfinitum & Rapoon.
In a worthy tribute to the life and legacy of one of the great artists of our time, the always fantastic, Monterrey, Mexico, based imprint, Aurora Central, returns with a stunning reissue of Steve Roden's seminal 2001 full length “Forms of Paper”. A landmark in the history of Lowercase music - the idiom that Roden helped pioneer - unfurling like an alien, microscopic landscape, it's one of the true marvels of post-millennial sound practices that remains as effective and radical nearly two and ha…
"View was first presented as part of a solo exhibition at the jennjoy gallery in San Francisco, the show also included paintings, drawings, and a silent video work. For the installation, I asked Jenn to record for me the sounds of the View from one of the gallery windows. "sounds were recorded from ledge just above radiator on various days and times in april" sometimes the window was open, sometimes closed. I used fragments of these recordings as both a compositional cue as well as the entire so…
*2024 Stock * Hardcover, 224 pages + audio CD. Sound art is among the most fascinating phenomena in the development of modern artistic expression. It has changed our awareness of space and made us realize that our everyday surroundings are also resonance spaces. This book documents examples of the work of important protagonists of sound art while also providing essays on the subject from the standpoints of music science, philosophy and perceptual psychology
Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello are sound artists working at the nexus of sculpture and acoustics. They are professional listeners, embedding themselves in the auditory and relishing that which is encompassed in their horizon of listening. It's a shared horizon, then, that is at the core of The Spaces Contained in Each. Recorded as part of their joint residency on Governors Island in New York, this edition documents their installation work created for the unique acoustics of the island's St. Co…
Notes from Steve Roden on Oionos :'Oionos was created for the exhibition The Grand Promenade, in Athens, Greece. The exhibition took place in various archaeological and historical sites in central Athens, creating a situation for contemporary site specific works to be in dialogue with their historical surroundings. While it was not originally offered as a possible site, I pleaded with the curator to allow me to work with architect Dimitris Pikionis’s Church of St. Dimitris Loumbardiardis, abo…
* Limited edition of 157 copies (of which only 100 are for sale) with unique hand made collages on every cover * In Steve Roden's onw words: "a few years ago, my mother gave me a small stack of 45s of some of her favorite songs as a kid; chuck berry, the platters, and others. when i began to listen to the records, i was not only excited about the music, but the surface-scuffs from my mother¹s repeated listening over the years of wear and tear.the source for u.t.r. and o.t.r. is a recording of '…
* Limited LP edition * Sonoris is pleased to announce the release both on vinyl and cd, with a new mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi, of some important works from the influential and respected artist Steve Roden. These tracks, which mix conceptual composition and musicality, transcend the ambient or lowercase categories too quickly applied to his music, due to its ghostly beauty. In the tradition of John Cage’s Cartridge Music amplified objects, Steve Roden extracts a fine and delicate music through …
Gradual Small Fires (and a Bowl of Resonant Milk), was commissioned by the university of Hong Kong’s new media school, and more specifically, the work was created initially for Daniel Libeskind’s building for the university’s CMC (Creative Media Center). For the grand opening of the building, several sound and new media artists were invited to create works on site. The work consisted of 5 different pieces – each object constructed of plexiglass, and each sound work anchored by a recording of a f…
Tip! **Limited edition of 200 copies on white vinyl** Over the last few years, we’ve been graced by a steady trickle of material from Steve Roden and Small Cruel Party, each drawing to power and creative rigor of both artists into the forefront of our minds and hearts. Now, the French imprint, Ferns, delivers an incredible split LP, Stratégies Obliques Ø, encountering these two veteran experimentalists weaving startling tapestries of sonic abstraction, created by deploying Brian Eno and Peter Sc…
**200 copies** Bidödaren means Beekiller, approximately... In Swedish there is a double meaning; bi is the insect bee (in English), but also has the meaning of something like a "side-effect". Like if the killing of bees is just something being done beside doing something else... Includes exclusive tracks by Unken Reflex, Joe Colley, Daniel Menche, Small Cruel Party, Tarab, BJ Nilsen, Toy Bizarre, Steve Roden.
Steve Roden new double album! "Small songs for Kack Jirby began in 2014, when i stopped performing with the tools I had used since 1993 (pedals, contact mics, cassettes, etc.). As I was trying to find a way to some 'new' tools, various friends had suggested I work with a modular synthesizer. At the time, I didn't know anything about the modular, but it offered me the thing I wanted - something I didn't understand, and to begin again as a musical child. Instead of working for several years to mas…
pcahuilcsaigmon is the new cassette release from innovative US based sound and visual artist Steve Roden and the second instalment in our new series of cassette tape editions. Farpoint Recordings are pleased to present this latest audio work from Steve Roden containing two new long tracks presented on compact audio cassette. Featuring a vibrant blue cassette shell, each wrapped with full colour fold-out artwork with a front image by Steve Roden all housed in a clear plastic box. On the i…
"Considered "lost" for the better part of the past decade, these two live pieces, commissioned for a performance in Berlin, has some unexpected moments for those familiar with these two composers. Steve Roden and Frank Bretschneider blend their strengths of subtle electronics and improvisation, but also bring in some surprisingly conventional beats and rhythms, resulting in an unpredictable, yet diverse and gripping record. The first piece, performed live for the 2004 Suite in Parochial festiva…
Steve Roden writes:"Flower & Water began with an offer to work with the first Dragon’s Eye release – a flexi-disc with a recording of George Winston playing a blues piano composition called “Medley: Bread Baker’s Stomp” – as source material. Since I am not a true remixer, I decided to modify the track via physical manipulation. Most of the material began with cutting up some of the flexi’s and taping back together in ‘wrong’ ways. I then played (or tried to play) the broken records that had been…
A big circle drawn with little hands was created from a box of things sent to Steve Roden by label owner Sylvian, who runs the ini itu label. the box contained everything from newspapers, coins, wooden toys, pamphlets, plastic objects, plastic bags, broken airline headphones, notes, a bottle opener, a noise maker of wood, a small electronic toy shaped like a butterfly that offered tones and animal noises, cardboard, a fan, and other things. i also used a banjo in the first track, and my voice in…
Lichtung is a collaborative project centered around an audio-visual installation. Sound artists Steve Roden and Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) composed the audio, while the video element was provided by the German visual artist Sabine Bürger. The Mindelsee Lake, situated just a few hundred yards away from the gallery, became the natural focus of the installation. During their stay, Sabine and Rutger recorded the video and audio footage that became the foundation which Steve Roden res…
Berlin Fields is a sonic journey not limited by national boundaries, city limits, or material limitation. Roden perambulates, recording as he goes with the immediacy and quirks that come from using both portable recorder (a Sony PCM-D50) and phone. Exploring intuitively, Roden brings together 19 sonic vignettes via “finds”: things discovered; and “activation”: objects performed on site.Using intuition as a guide, Roden's interactions and sonic interventions – “play” in every sense of the word –…
Lovely first volume of the “seven inch series”, a series of limited and coloured 7″, in which the italian band Luminance Ratio collaborates with different artists and musicians from the electro-acoustic and ambient scene all over the world. This first chapter features a track by the American musician, artist and performer Steve Roden, here with “Marvelous Is Flairs”: arch drones, vocal loops and field recordings driven by a melancholic pulsation. Luminance Ratio present the track “Reoccuring Dr…
In 1995 Steve Peters and Steve Roden toured as a trio with singer Anna Homler; sometimes they would vocalize behind her, and they liked the way their voices blended together. They then spent about 15 years saying that “someday” they should record a voice-based project together. Aside from the physical distance between them, the problem was always: What would we sing? Neither wanted to write or sing lyrics.Inspiration came in the form of a book of Japanese jisei – poems allegedly written by monks…
Finaly restocked: Line is proud to present Proximities the first solo recording by Steve Roden on the label since 2005′s critically acclaimed release, Airforms. "Proximities was recorded in 2010 during my time as the artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. I began by recording a performance of a series of tones played on an old battery powered Paia Oz, that were determined by the letters A-G as found in a text by minimalist sculptor Donald Judd. I recorded the tone seq…
restocked! Artist Steve Roden combines found old pictures, recordings and text to create his new CD "… and I listen to the wind" that feels like something altogether different, though, more like a silent movie, a collection crafted from crumbs of the past. Tucked within the simple, minimally designed book's front and back covers is the music, which Roden organized into a two-volume mix of similarly excavated documents culled from flea market 78 rpm discs.With no biographical information on …
'Last summer, while in Paris, I was given a beautiful small bell as a gift. it has been a constant sounding companion ever since. At times, during my travels, I would shake it to bring certain spirits forth, and at times it would ring on its own, living in constant motion in my pocket or my bag. As with some of my earlier works with single sounds (the lamp, chair, splint series and the tea cups in winter couplet) I wanted to see what such a simple singular object could generate, as well as if so…
Last copies. All sounds generated and-or organized by Steve Roden at the Bubble house, nov-dec 2008. Sound sources: the chinese Christmas Carol stars of ice, from can old 7 record; the song snow from the 78 set songs from the first grade reader; and various other objects and instruments. The poem is the lyrics to stars of ice, with numerous words erased.
Four artistic projects concerning historic sound devices from Steve Roden & Martin Riches, Thilges and Frank Bretschneider in a DVD of sound and video performance captured at Tesla in Berlin, 2006
Second installment in the "Cosmic Debris" split ART-LP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka My Cat Is An Alien, on their own Opax Records. The Vol.II sees the two space brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Californian visual and sound artist Steve Roden. What makes this collaborative release so peculiar is the natural interactive exchange occurred between the artists, and that came out from the concept behind the experience itself. Roden's contribution thus represents the unique e…
CD re-issue of the second installment in the "Cosmic Debris" split ART-LP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka My Cat Is An Alien, on their own Opax Records. The Vol.II sees the two space brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Californian visual and sound artist Steve Roden. What makes this collaborative release so peculiar is the natural interactive exchange occurred between the artists, and that came out from the concept behind the experience itself. Roden's contribution thus repr…
"In april 2007, i made several recordings on a ferry in norway, of the engine resonating through the metal hull. later, i recorded my voice humming and singing to the ferry, using it as a harmonic guide or drone. i then erased the original ferry recording, and replaced it with a bowed banjo. the piece was created for the FM ferry experiment, and broadcast from the staten island ferry in ny. special thanks to jorgen larsson for the norwegian journey, and valerie tavere for including the piece in …
a rare early work by Steve Roden, a visual and sound artist from Los Angeles, known for his musical work under the name 'In Be Tween Noise'. Steve felt that this particular work, music for an installation he has done, was far enough from the music of 'In Be Tween Noise' to ask us to release it under his own name. It is a quiet soundscape, produced by using only a microphone and a speaker to create the sound material, and designed to fill the room at a moderate loudness to let the listener take a…
2005 release ** This new double CD compilation project departs by celebrating the seminal Gesang der Jünglinge by Karlheinz Stockhausen. 21 sound artists and composers share their views upon this piece and reflect its groundbreaking dimension, as for the first time in 1956 it fused electronic and acoustic sounds within a new idea of sonic and listening space. With: @c, Achim Wollscheid, Andre Gonçalves, Andrew Deutsch, Anna Homler, Anthony Pateras+Robin Fox, Asmus Tiechens, cmv Hausswolf, Dale L…
A few years ago, Tu m' and Steve Roden began a correspondence. This led to the idea of a collaborative project. This led to bedroom audio experiments in American and Italy. This led to CDRs being sent through the mail to cross over the ocean. Tu m' used Steve Roden's audio as the working material for several works. Steve Roden used Tu m's audio as the working material for several works. This project contains a bit of both. Limited to 500 copies. Broken Distant Fragrant is a collaboration that wa…
Resonant cites was made entirely from field recordings in different cites around the world. It was originally created for Kunst Radio project "frequencity", curated by Steve Bates. The work was recorded at the bubble house, in 2002. It is dedicated with love to Ruth Steiner.
Catalogue of the exhibition "Translations & Articulations" Griffin Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. published in an edition of 2000 copies. This special edition of 966 copies contain the compact disc of space enclosed by planes or surfaces.
This cd contains 3 pieces inspired by Arnold Schönberg's 'The Book of the Hanging Gardens' and in particular the poems by Stefan George that Schönberg used as lyrics. Track one uses Steve Roden's voice reading/singing part of the text as the only sound material. Track two uses the vowel structure from the text as a score for striking five tones on a small chime. Track three uses samples from the Schönberg work as well as Roden's voice singing the same text as track one.
This is the third release on the Semishigure label that specializes in music & sound works related to films or installations from the visual arts. Light Forms is the new album from Calfornia based musician/artist Steve Roden which contains two pieces that are constructed from the sound material of two installations that he made in Germany. Both of these pieces started with the same sound: a group of small glass light bulbs handled acoustically. These acoustic sounds were then processed electroni…
This cd documents a series of 3 sound installations originally presented at the Schindler house / MAK center for art and architecture Los Angeles in 2001. Garden was placed near the back of the lot facing the house in a bamboo grove via 8 small speakers. A quiet flexible background for a harmonious life was placed in a small hallway of the house on headphones. Pathway was placed along the front path to the house on 4 larger speakers. The outdoor works were set to relatively low volume lev…
the series of texts was originally spoken improvisationally into a micro cassette recorder while driving to and from my studio in 1988. nothing was written down or planned before i pressed 'record'. the entire work is printed here. unedited and in the order spoken. the periods mark the ending of each recorded segment. some of the pieces are responses to things seen and some are about speaking, and the sounds of words. i would suggest not only a mental reading, but a verbal one as well.the drawin…