Pond
Life meets art. Born of a long written corresPondence and a mutual affection for frogs between David Myers (the artist formerly known as Arcane Device) and Tod Dockstader which eventually spawned this programme of electronic & concrete pieces derived almost entirely from field (and swamp) recordings of frogs - choral and solo processed, manipulated and organised in a million ways. This release also marks the welcome return of Tod Dockstader to the lists; it's his first large-scale new published …
Apocalypse
Tod Dockstader's musique concrete turns out to have a surprising relevance to music created decades later; he's been described as "one of the godfathers of Nurse With Wound, and a distant cousin of rap and techno" (Option). Craig Anderton writes that Dockstader was one of the few to master "the art of assembling tape-recorded sounds and painstakingly splicing, cutting, dubbing, manipulating and mixing to create final compositions," then adds: "If you think that sounds similar to the procedures u…
Quatermass
Seminal musique concrete recordings from the early 60s that were first issued on CD in '92/'93. This CDs offer all of Dockstader's principal solo works, including unreleased works and material that has been out of print on LP for over a decade (spread over 3 LPs on the Owl label). Dockstader deserves shelf space next to Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, Varése, etc. -- historically vital, minutely detailed experimental electronic music and tape composition. "My choice of the term 'Organized Sound' …
Aerial # 2
This release is the second (Volume 2) in the three-part Aerial series. Tod Dockstader is one of the all-time great figures in the world of musique concréte composition, with his "organized sound" works from the 1960s being amongst the most radical ever conceived -- in league with Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, and Varese. Aerial is a rare new work in the realm of shortwave radio, from one of America's most experimental composers. Volume 1 was released in March 2005 inside a slipcase. Volu…
Aerial
Tod Dockstader is one of the all-time great figures in the world of musique concréte composition, with his "organized sound" works from the 1960s being amongst the most radical ever conceived -- in league with Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, and Varese. Aerial is a rare new work in the realm of shortwave radio, from one of America's most experimental composers. This release is the first (Volume 1) in a three-part series. "I've written before of my interest in shortwave radio. When I was ve…
Mort aux vaches
Tim Hecker is not be confused with Mego's Florian Hecker, but is rather the alter ego of techno maverick Jetone. As Jetone he has released a full length for Pitch cadet aswell as the brand new cd Ultamarin for Force Tracks. There are certainly similarities to the likes of Angelo Badlementi, Fennesz, Gas and Oval, but overall the sound is incredibly unique. Tim Hecker has managed to create some of the most memorable ambient music in the last few years. Much like the Austrian guitar-lap top experi…
Live in Groningen
Dutch electro-acoustic ensemble Thu20 is the co-operation between Roel Meelkop, Peter Duimelinks, Sjac van Bussel and Ios Smolders. Live in Groningen is an edited version of a performance they did during the Casa Electronica festival high up north in the Netherlands. The hearplay-like character of their set/ music is very much imaginative and holds a lot of reminding -- but not recognisable -- elements. It's almost as if a parallel world of sound is created, making the one it refers to as estran…
The Sound of Defekt Skulls and Intense Cranium Contact (Feedback
The Year of the Skull. The Skull Defekts, represented by Henrik Rylander and Joachim Nordwall, were invited in late September 2006 by the Chicago non-profit organization Lampo to make their U.S. debut. With them they brought recorded sounds from their home on the Swedish west-coast Gothenburg. A city breathing culture, it is also Sweden's most important export harbor. While spending close to a week in Chicago, Rylander and Nordwall carefully prepared a piece to be presented on the Lampo event on…
Hhhh
Cor Fuhler has brought together a quartet of unique and unconventional improvisers that explore worlds of complex sonic textures with ensemble playing of the highest order. The sound world that is conjured on this CD owes as much to electronic music as to the free improvised music styles from which the musicians hail from, and although three of the four instruments are purely acoustic, it is the aesthetics of electronic music which have had a clear influence on their sound. Textures reminiscent …
Rotterdam 1
Recorded at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in January 2005, this explosive piece from Text Of Light typifies their abilities as a vivid freeform improvisational unit. Ranaldo and Licht’s measured guitar work sets a basis on which Kreiger’s blaring saxtronics, Barnes’ percussive explorations and DJ Olive’s swirling turntable incursions can intertwine and augment one another. This piece ebbs and flows, each of the players listening intently and guiding the proceedings with disarmingly s…
Futuro
In early 2003, AKIYAMA (guitar) and BARNES (percussion(s) began a tour that took them from Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo in Japan, to New York, North Hampton, and Boston. Along the way, they picked up many friends (Ami Yoshida, Matt Valentine, Sean Meehan, Toshimaru Nakamura) to perform with them as trios. One night in particular, a below freezing evening in Osaka, AKIYAMA and BARNES were joined by one of the most exciting trumpet players to emerge from Japan in the last 20 years -- Masafumi EZAKI. Pro…
Field Tracker
Field Tracker was recorded at the Institute for Electronic Art, Alfred NY during the Winter of 2000. Inoue, utilizing his digital sound processing systems in combination with bells, guitar, and other odd sound making objects, constructed tiny improvisational sound moments each one having a shape and gesture of their own. These micro compositions were at times highly abstract and noisy and at other times extremely melodic and calm. Many of these micro compositions were used in the production of h…
Listening garden
Line boss Taylor Deupree teams up with Christopher Willits, who himself is also a big shot in the world of ambient glitch or whatever one calls it, for a work which they composed for two 'quiet indoor/tea spaces installed at the Yamaguchi Center For Arts and Media in Japan in June of 2004. This is ambient music in the sense that Eno intended it to be when he first thought of it. Music that wouldn't be really present but fill the ambiance in a nice way. Deupree and Willits recommend the listener …
Translations & articulations
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.
Speak no more about the leaves
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.
Schindler house
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…
Airforms
Airforms was first presented at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [Scottsdale, Arizona] in April of 2004. The work was inspired by a group of experimental houses designed by Wallace Neff in the 1940s using a process he called airform construction. The houses were built by spraying concrete over an inflated balloon structure. Inspired by the nautilus sea shell, the houses were an investigation into the aesthetic possibilities of structures formed by air, and the psychological effects of l…
View
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, somethimes closed. i used fragments of these recordings as both a compositional cue as well as the entire so…
The sad mac
4-panel V-fold hard cardboard with Japanese OBI strip, softer insert for CD and a 4-page fold-out booklet in English and Japanese. Lucky restock, few copies available. Stephan Mathieu's original Japanese edition copies of his lost classic, recorded and produced between Summer 2001 and 2004 and originally released on the Headz label from Tokyo in the Winter of 2004. All the factors that make Mathieu's trademark sound today are already in full play here, the spectral drones, early instruments an…