★Notice Recordings
Ribbon
Tim Olive returns for his third album on Notice, a rare solo outing from this avid collaborator. “Ribbon” is a document of his highly developed relationship with amplified object manipulation, in a manner most cathartic and engaged, and yet informed by compositional sensibility. This release is constructed from multiple tracks of a variety of sound sources recorded in his studio in Kobe, Japan; these tracks have then been edited and layered, in shifting densities and evolving textures. Despite t…
Space Collective 2 Live
Space Collective 2 Live commemorates Portuguese musician Rafael Toral’s first U.S. tour in several years. Since the 1990s, Toral has been primarily known for his guitar work, but has since been working on the Space Program project, within which he has probed visceral and personal components of electronic music performance, and how they relate to the performer’s experience, not to the resultant product.
These recordings, taken from a live set at All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2012, find Toral perform…
Fissures / klisi
Lituus is from Chicago, IL; less is known of Black William. Somehow, on this split of hypnotically minimal synth pieces, that seems appropriate. Black William’s side takes a simple repeated figure and expands it (by hand) into an expansive buzzing drone. Lituus likewise programs a sequence that remains in constant change throughout the piece’s duration. Both sides combine programmed sequences with planned change, but also include a certain level of machine/human interaction. Certain parameters a…
Primary / Unit 11
Samuel Rodgers (co-curator of Consumer Waste) pairs up with sound artist Jack Harris on two explorations of minimal performance and sound creation. Working in a semi-urban ambience—open windows, barking dogs, distant sirens—the duo suggest both a specific location and a generic one. Their previous work has explored tensions between analogue and digital processes; here, sounds remain mainly non-instrumental in source: amplified object manipulation, cable hum, and different types of feedback intru…
Jaw Works & Behind a Dead Tree on the Shore
Two sets of music by Chik White, an alias of Darcy Spidle, whose Nova Scotia-based Divorce Records has been slinging LPs of sonic bemusement since 1999. Jaw Works is made up of solo jaw harp performances, wringing mesmerizing detail from variations in rhythm and tempo, while achieving a wide variety of barely believable, almost synthesized-sounding timbres. Behind A Dead Tree On The Shore also features the jaw harp, albeit in concert with the North Atlantic Ocean, which inspired the more minimal…
Radio: Vol. 2
Upon seeing Ryan Jewell’s patient, rigorous and riveting performance at Chicago’s very first Neon Marshmallow festival, we were fascinated by his meticulous sonic explorations falling somewhere in-between percussion, minimalism and electronic composition. Several years on, Jewell, still based in Columbus, OH, has continued to build an impressive resume as a co-conspirator with all sorts of people. Populated by acoustic textures, percussion-based sonic events, and unconventionally performed sound…
Birds and Water, 4
The third entry in Ben Owen‘s Birds and Water series of recordings. As with Birds and Water, 1 (NTR018), these two sidelong electronic drones reflect Owen’s typically rigorous compositional choices. They display remarkably disparate, rich textures and are extremely immersive, especially when played loud and/or on headphones. Owen once again displays an ability to invite multiple levels of reaction to deceptively complex timbres, ranging from meditative to oppressive.
“The third release of record…
I hope you like the universe
Vancouver-based composer Joda Clement has been widely praised for qualities in his work that could be described as natural: unassuming complexity that elegantly reduces, and an indifference to overt emotional direction. I hope you like the universe brilliantly continues this path, as Clement blends field recordings, shifting synth textures, and instrumental performance. These pieces vividly suggest both exterior and interior environments and the boundaries between them, like peering through laye…
immobilite
Although living in separate European countries, Akama (electronics) and Duplant (organ, electronics) have forged a strong musical bond on a handful of collaborative releases, often with titles related to nothingness, which, in turn, mirrors the minimal, contemplative drone pieces contained therein. As its own titling suggests, immobilité (“immobility”) extends their musical concerns, and distills them in an extraordinarily rich way. More textural than event-based, these pieces are exquisitely pa…
Fukuoka / Osaka
Kahn (American, living in Zurich) and Olive (Canadian, living in Japan) recorded these pieces while on tour in Japan in May 2014. This release features two unhurried explorations for radio, synthesizer, and mixing board (Kahn) and magnetic pickups (Olive). “Fukuoka,” presents a series of gradual unfurlings; pockets of pockmarked, dented and torn glass clusters, tumbling upon and over each other, perhaps briefly interlocking by way of some fragile barb, only to instantaneously break loose. “Osaka…