New Arrivals
Foley Folly Folio
Pinkcourtesyphone is the not so secret alter ego of renowned sound artist Richard Chartier, and while it seems to be geared more towards a looser, more relaxed sensibility than the serious artist guise that is usually thrust upon him, it lacks none of his careful attention to structure and detail. Quite a bit of the material on this compilation (recorded erratically between 1997 and 2011) could pass for his normal work, but throws enough curve balls to give it a distinct identity all its…
Making The Walls Quake As If They Were Dilating
Recording of the sound sculpture in the Polish Pavilion at 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. Sound sculpture by Katarzyna Krakowiak. Sound design by Ralf Meinz. Voices by Ulrike Helmholz and Sabina Meyer. Recorded, edited, mixed and mastered by by Ralf Meinz. 32-page booklet. 'Architectural Biennale sound sculpture amplifying the entire building of the Polish Pavilion turned into a flat CD ? Will you say it completely misses the point? Brings the real space into a stereo syst…
Malpais
Malpais is the first collaborative effort between William Fowler Collins and Gog. With both musicians based in the American Southwest (WFC in New Mexico and Gog in Arizona), the music is layered with hallucinatory visions of abandoned mines, atomic bomb blasts, genocide, and space travel. The listener is taken to a place that feels as though it could be the surface of the moon or a scorched earth strewn with bone dust and ash. Photograph by Max Aguilera-Hellweg.
12k Promo Sampler 002
The second 12k sampler CD features 12 songs chronologically looking forward to early 2012 and back to the recent releases and clocks in at over 60 minutes. It offers a sneak-peak at upcoming music plus a re-cap of the past year. The CD is being sold for only $4/$6 (USA/INT'L respectively) and that includes shipping. It's an inexpensive way to familiarize yourself with the latest on 12k. 12k welcomes two new artists to the roster: The Boats (UK) bring their electro-acoustics into song-stru…
For Tomasz Sikorski
This release then of three short pieces under ten minutes by the Pole; Autograph (1980), Rondo (1984) and Zertstreutes Hinausschauen (1971) clearly holds some emotional resonance for Tilbury as he reflects on the music of his deceased old friend, and he then adds a fourth track here, a thirteen minute long improvisation in Sikorski's memory. The composed pieces here are each a nice listen, with the opening Autograph possibly the pick, as small flurries of melodic fragment are rotated, so …
The Sleeping Morning
The collaborative efforts of Athens native Savvas Ysatis and New Yorker Taylor Deupree were well known in the early and mid 1990s through their work as SETI, Futique, and Arc, as well as their soundtrack to Japanese architect Toyo Ito's famed Tower of Winds building in Yokohama, Japan. After going their separate ways, Ysatis to recording for Tresor in Berlin, and Deupree to founding the 12k label, they have united again for their first project in nearly 10 years.
Almost all of Ysatis and Deupree…
Apparitions
Bleak analog electronics and voice from Justin K Broadrick. Apparitions is a dark, insalutary recording of sub bass throb, scathing frequencies and sheets of feedback unleashed with the ferocity of early power electronics sides. A material electric attack from places unknown. Photographs by Paul Lee. Edition of 500."
Umbra
"Umbra was recorded in 2010 in Barcelona. I used a modified AM radio and a home-made oscillator. I found the radio in the street the previous year, discarded outside a huge warehouse full of electronic ‘garbage’. I took it to my studio and modified it using circuit-bending techniques. Umbra is comprised of ten short pieces. In most of them I played only the modified AM radio, in others just the oscillator, and in some both.”Juan Matos Capote is an artist from the Canary Islands living in Barcel…
Phoenix & Phaedra Holding Patterns
Live composition for portable radios, FM transmitter, 4 corner speaker PA, found sound textures, & Shruti drone box. Sound is all around us. An ethereal tapestry of invisible radio waves and sound pressure waves fills our world. Live in concert, Phoenix and Phaedra plays with our sense of place and scale, by using a surround sound speaker system in combination with a short range FM transmitter which broadcasts to a collection of hand held radios located within the audience. The concert is perfor…
Reflectors
The Preservation label presents the second album from New York's Nickolas Mohanna. Also working as a visual artist, Nickolas draws unique forms from the wealth of sounds found in New York's complex sprawl and imbues them with feeling and subtlety. The sounds on Reflectors buzz with rich detail and rhythmic interplay for a work alive with beauty and mystery in its atmospheric reach. Previously living in San Francisco for a number of years, Nickolas studied with noted electronic composer Bob…
The Sleeping Bag Sessions
You already know about Arthur Russell from disco classics like "Is It All Over My Face" and "Go Bang" (maybe you even watched the recent documentary), but do you know about all the early/mid-80's work he did on his own Sleeping Bag label? This awesome compilation collects the gems you might've slept-on or never came across. Whether its early hip-hop boogie (Sounds Of JHS 126 Brooklyn's "Chill Pill(1)"), left field electro beats (Bonzo Goes To Washington's "5 Minutes(2)"), or underground disco ba…
Thing
This powerful 1972 performance by Arni Cheatham's group provides a unique glimpse of the jazz scene in Boston. The group borrowed the most innovative characteristics of jazz and rock, but never sounded derivative. This is early seventies "jazz fusion" of the highest order, before the term evolved to mean a light, commercially acceptable genre. As with many innovative jazz forms, the recording was made at one of the many local universities, Harvard. The resulting album was pressed in scant…
Book Of Nods
A new landscape is painted out of darkness by progressive strokes of the dawn. The finished piece is neither night nor day, but the transformation itself. Aidan Baker's (Nadja) "Book Of Nods" crests experimental peaks in similarly paced sonic transmigrations. His lustrous chimera blooms open in shifting onion layers built out of slow-moaning guitar, flute, organ and drums. The resonant frequencies of quietly crashing nodes vibrate the ozone with a sub-textural beating of multi-pianic fea…
Piano & Percussion Works
2011 release. Satoko Inoue is an experienced performer of Ferrari’s works and had a lively exchange of ideas with the composer, who was also present at the recording sessions. No wonder then that precisely those ideas of open work and its “anecdotal” interpretation were the ones that were most important to him – as such sounds were to him always abstract at the core, even if he first illustrated them in a very visual and associative way. Satoko Inoue writes: “We discussed, he explained ab…
s/t
Collaboration between Canada's prolific neo-doom duo (NADJA) & New Zealand's pitch black droners (BLACK BONED ANGEL - featuring Campbell Kneale of BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL). These two 20-plus-minute instrumental tracks have a less accessible vibe then the Jesu-like track on last year's Christ Send Light EP. They are comprised in equal parts of Nadja's fuzzed-out, lurching, hazy dream-doom, & Black Boned Angel's razor-sharp, metallic riff-shards. Eventually, the whole thing collapses under the weight…
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle is the new solo album by Alio Die.. trance & drones,acoustic and electronic sound-effects, melt together in five tracksthat are characterized with a touch of grace that expand consciousnessin new and unforeseen dimensions...after a few seconds the music absorbs the listener under induction into the internal space that vibrates and resonates..A lovely sensible experience is just close to be discovered and to spread its fragrance.Like the hummingbird that suck the honeysuckle's nect…
Point Break
In 2010 electronic musician Esther Venrooy and drummer Lander Gyselinck were invited to collaborate with two Chinese musicians during the Shanghai World Expo. This event inspired Venrooy and Gyselinck to start their own collaboration which resulted in the creation of Point Break. Fascinated by speech patterns, film dialogues and cut-up techniques they explore the interaction between acoustic drums, electronics and digital processing.
Limaro
Xavier Charles (clarinet), Nicolas Desmarchellier (guitar), Ulrich Phillipp (doublebass), Eiko Yamada (flute) and Burkhard Schlothauer (violin). Recorded live in concert direct to digital stereo by Uli Böttcher 18-06-07, Bergkirche-Wiesbaden.
Llum moll
Llum Moll is a multilayered composition made with a manipulated AM radio receiver subjected to interference by LED lamps. The combination of the lamps in tandem with the radio tuned to certain frequencies creates a phantom organ' sound, turning the receiver into an instrument with a peculiar timbre and pitch. The composition was made in two parts. The first was to record and then select fragments with different lengths, pitches and textures. The second was to readjust the pitch of the chosen fra…
Gratuitous Abuse
The London based improvising string trio Barrel of Alison Blunt on violin, Ivor Kallin on violin & viola, and Hannah Marshall on cello, all members of London Improvisers Orchestra and performers at the 2007 Freedom of the City. "These three musicians have been performing in various combinations with others on the London improvising scene for several years. As well as the numerous small groups they have participated in, all three are members of the London Improvisers Orchestra. About six years a…