Edition Block presents Australian Sound Sculptures, an essential documentation of pioneering work by American sound artist Bill Fontana, a leading figure in international sound art since the 70s. Bill Fontana (Cleveland, Ohio, 1947) is internationally recognized for his pioneering experiments in sound art, using sound as a sculptural medium to reveal hidden acoustic worlds and transform the way we perceive the visual and architectural spaces around us. His works have been installed in museums and public spaces worldwide, from the Brooklyn Bridge and the Arc de Triomphe to London's Millennium Bridge and Big Ben. The album exemplifies Fontana's unique approach to environmental sound art, characterized by the radical relocation of ambient sounds to urban public spaces as "an experimental redefinition of acoustical context." As opposed to other field recordists, Fontana obviously used a number of microphones and careful studio mixing to achieve a wide soundstage and complex, multilayered soundscapes. The work sits within the categories of sound art, musique concrète, and environmental music, while maintaining its distinct identity as sculptural composition.

The album opens with Acoustical Views (Sydney, 1988), a 37-minute work realized on the facade of the Art Gallery of New South Wales during the 1988 Sydney Biennale. This installment in Fontana's Acoustical Views series pools eight locations into one, embodying the notion: "hearing as far as you can see." The second track, Kirribilli Wharf (Sydney, 1976), represents a watershed moment in Fontana's development. This 1976 recording was the first time he attempted to apply sculptural thinking to the recordable listening process by making an 8-channel field recording. Kirribilli Wharf was a floating concrete pier in perpetual self-performance, with cylindrical holes creating percussive tones as waves closed the openings.

The percussive wave action had continuousness and permanence - this 8-channel tape was not a recording of a unique moment, but an excerpt from a perpetual sound process. The work gained significant recognition, being later installed as a gallery installation played from 8 loudspeakers and exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York in 1986. SFMOMA became the first American museum to acquire one of his installations in 1997, and in 2009 honored Fontana with the Bay Area Treasure Award for lifetime achievement.

Australian Sound Sculptures documents Fontana's formative years working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1974 to 1978. The album features texts by Bill Fontana and Andrew McLennan, producer of ABC programs "360 Shift" (1976) and "The Listening Room" (1988). For enthusiasts of sound art, environmental music, and experimental composition, this release represents an essential document of one of the medium's most influential pioneers.

In Fontana's words, "I was fascinated with how familiar sound sources had many possible acoustical perspectives, and how the simultaneous perception of these possible perspectives could transform the acoustical meaning of the sound."