François-Emmanuel Fodéré - Cochin (Impulsive Habitat, 2011)

1 Cochin

Recorded in November of 2009 by François-Emmanuel Fodéré on Kochi (India).
Thanks to Allamprabhu & his family, Julien, Louise, Shivu.
- François-Emmanuel Fodéré

"Cochin" was the colonial name for the city of Kochi and it is also the title of the first of two releases to be published this year on IH of phonographic works recorded in India. We would like to welcome sound artists and documentarists from all nationalities to continue sending us their phonographic works from different spots on the planet as publishing them is one of the main reasons why we are here for.
Impulsive Habitat

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Spheruleus - Debris (Audio Gourmet, 2011)

1 Debris #1 06:27
2 Debris #2 06:03
3 Debris #3 07:29
4 Debris #4 03:51

For the first Spheruleus outing of 2011, Audio Gourmet label curator Harry Towell has scoured his hard-drive to put together a collection of tracks that are born out of unfinished samples and discarded parts of previous projects. They have been presented as a four track EP which is aptly titled 'Debris'.

The source material was drawn from the usual collection of instrument samples that Towell's work typically comprises of, although heavily processed with 'vintage' style ambient production techniques. The resulting soundtrack is loose and drifting with moments of hiss and static - a production style that you might not always associate with the work of Spheruleus.
The aim was to draw out the near 24 minute duration as long as possible, giving the impression of time standing still and allowing these otherwise unused sounds a chance to have their 'day'.

2011 is to be a big year for Spheruleus, with CD album 'Voyage' scheduled for release on Hibernate this summer and another short album coming out on Resting Bell at the end of February. Not to mention the debut Paper Relics album recorded with brother Stuart due out in March/April...
Audio Gourmet

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Simon Whetham - Cold Shoulder (Audio Gourmet, 2011)

1 Cold Shoulder (Part 1.1) 02:51
2 Cold Shoulder (Part 1.3) 07:19
3 Cold Shoulder (Part 2) 06:45

Simon Whetham has been capturing and composing almost primarily with field recordings since taking part in a research trip to Iceland in 2005.
Since then he has been gaining a steadily increasing profile: exhibiting in Iceland; recording in the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil; performing at a large number of festivals and events, both nationally and internationally, notably the recent Madeiradig 2010; having work accepted for release by labels such as Cronica, And/OAR, Dragon's Eye, Con-V, Trente Oiseaux, 1000fussler, Mystery Sea, Entr’acte, Install, Lens and Gruenrekorder; commissioned by Creative Labs to build a surround sound installation to demonstrate their equipment and software; commissioned by painter Kathryn Thomas to compose a surround soundtrack to accompany her ‘Lightyears’ series of exhibitions; producing radio works for Resonance FM, Overlap.org and Kunst Radio Austria; and invited to participate in two residencies at the Art Container in Tallinn, Estonia, the second to compose new work, collaborate with other artists using sound and run deep listening, field recording and compostion workshops.
This residency has resulted in ‘Active Crossover’, a touring exhibition and exchange project which continues to tour through 2011 in four further exhibition spaces across the UK.
Future events and projects also include a performance at Experimental Intermedia in New York, and running field recording workshops in Bogota, Columbia.

Simon is based in Bristol, UK, where he has lived on and off for 14 years. Whilst much of his work is based around his travels, Simon took time out to record some sounds within his locality to make up an Audio Gourmet EP called 'Cold Shoulder'...
For four months Simon lived facing an industrial area of Bristol called St. Philips, where on quiet evenings he would wander around the buildings, listening to the city, but from somewhere very still and lifeless compared to it's daytime activity. Of course, as we all know, these areas are never silent. These nocturnal sounds of an area, normally crashingly loud, are the raw materials of 'Cold Shoulder (Parts 1 and 2)'
Simon has also put together a bonus track continuing from where he left off with this EP and it will be available to download as part of a forthcoming compilation album here on Audio Gourmet.
Audio Gourmet

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Darren McClure - Semi (Impulsive Habitat, 2011)

1 Semi 23:25

"Semi" is a recording of cicadas, made in late August in my garden. The summer had been
especially hot, and the sound of cicadas in the trees was really overpowering at times.
From absolute silence, their sounds would suddenly emerge and escalate, before returning
to silence again.

The recording is untreated, except for some filtering: the first few minutes have a high pass filter so that only the cicada sounds are allowed. Gradually, over the course of the recording, I filtered in the rest of the lower frequencies, so the street ambiance slowly bleeds in and the full sonic picture comes into view. During the final seven minutes, the cicadas cease to be heard and only that street ambiance remain.

>> Darren McClure

The sound produced by the male cicada to attract the female is so powerful that at some point it could cause hearing loss, anxiety, aggravation and high blood pressure; the sound is produced by a corrugated exoeskeletal structure called "tymbal". The sonority of the song of the cicadas has had an impact on many cultures for example in japanese cinema the sound of cicadas is often used to symbolize the hot temperatures of the summer.

The cicadas spend most of their life as underground living nymphs; finally when they reach
an adult age they dig an exit tunnel to emerge from the ground also leaving the shell that protected them during their metamorphosis. In Japan this process philosophically symbolizes a "re-birth". Cicadas also symbolize in Japanese culture "evanescence" referring to their short adult reproductive life.
Impulsive Habitat

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Jez Riley French - Between Gestures (Compost And Height, 2011)

one . between kinetics (live sections from performance at sharmanka)
two . spaces between others (between scores, concert room at wandelweiser event)
three . between window and table (live sections from performance at 12 / 2)
four . between still morning and a long picnic (recording of room at 12 / 2)
five . between agedashi tofu, udon and central (recordings in restaurant and station)

field recordings, zither, salt, glass lenses, lx-1 camera, paper, contact microphones, table, fingers, shells

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Hiroki Sasajima - Joya No Kane (self release, 2011)

1 Joya No Kane 16:14

New Year's Eve. Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times at midnight. This tradition is called joya no kane which means "bell rings on new year eve's night." The rings represent 108 elements of bonno, defilements, or Kilesa in Sanskrit, which is said people have in their mind. The bells are rung to repent 108 of the bonno.
Hiroki Sasajima

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Akos Garai - Barges & Flows & Mathieu Ruhlmann & Banks Bailey - Anaadiih out now on 3Leaves!

Akos Garai - Barges & Flows (3Leaves, 2011)

It is dawn by the Danube. The river is flowing quietly. There are only a few moored ships, and many empty docks.

No movement? No sounds? It is quite the opposite. From close-up, you can hear the docks and their vessels sing their own rusty songs incessantly. I find a place and set up my recording equipment.

The purpose of these unprocessed field recordings is to introduce the harbor sounds along the riverbank of the Danube. Some areas are filled with people and ships on a daily basis, while others are only visited occasionally or never at all.

I collected these field recordings in the autumn of 2010 in Budapest, Hungary.
Akos Garai

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Mathieu Ruhlmann & Banks Bailey - Anaadiih (3Leaves, 2011)

Within each location, there is profound history. From their first collaborative album, artists Mathieu Ruhlmann and Banks Bailey have created an album that is not only a record of detailed documentation and imagination, but a depiction of a time and place, which also represents an idea, and maybe more importantly, a future. Details have been so meticulously collected and arranged accordingly, that momentarily, everything is illusory, yet retaining completion, and full realism.

Inspired by a Native American Navajo writing, natural material remains one of most important contributions to Ruhlmann and Baileys' work. As is present in both of their musical histories, the heart of the recordings are captured and documented from these
collections of nature and real objects, a truth instead of any other means. The title of the album, 'Anáádiih', is the Navajo word which describes the phase of the moon disappearing. Any moment of these recordings could be mistaken as a complete, straight recording from a desert hilltop, a crackling fire in the center, with a world of action and life surrounding in every direction, pouring life and spirit into each moment.

Yet, even with its incredible realism and depicted respect of true documentation by these two sound collectors, there is a voice that comes through, which surpasses even the recorded vision. These pieces of music not only document realism, but they are abound in enigmatic imagery. Insects buzzing, horses whimpering, overhead thunderstorms, and coyotes howling. There is movement, there is work. Little can it been seen in nature of development, or of time passing, except in long term. Yet, from this work, it can be understood of one of the most important aspects of nature: the results from the capability of our imagination; seeing and hearing those things that are otherwise invisible, or overlooked, and what we find inside.
3Leaves

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Judith Egger & Michael Northam - Andapa Garden (Edition Graphon, 2003)

01 Andapa Garden 20:04

Sound substrata of the inner garden. Underground Sound wide open. Trees and bushes as a long sustained, hollow music.
Birds, butterflies and other animals seen only in sounding forms by the internal eye, entering the night in an ecstatic sleep state, dreaming with the sound of a human hidden light. Leaves with tiny little poems of sound written on it, the drone flowers of a secret floral language...
A cd not just to hear but also to plant in the cd-player, to let its roots grow deep in the electronic filaments of the equipment and watch patiently the blossom of digital flowers of sound. A small musical herbal. Organic music in the true sense of the word...
Edition Graphon

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Underwater Noises (Lost Children / Ephre Imprint, 2011)

01 Paolo Veneziani – Inside the edge
02 Cop killin’ beat – Tanaro
03 LLS04 – 80% water
04 Ennio Mazzon – Plain
05 Enrico Coniglio – The carb’s secret
06 Un Vortice di Bassa Pressione – Hydrocoma pt.3
07 Christian Di Vito – Arborfelix
08 Leastupperbound – The humpback whale
09 Alessio Ballerini – Half water
10 Francesco Giannico – Another time in this earth
11 Obsil – Two years ago
12 Ornitology – Restless
13 Elisa Luu – Piano
14 Gigi Masin – A fog book
15 Pierpaolo Leo – Bioluminescence

The Lost Children Net Label proudly presents Underwater Noises - a compliation album curated and produced by Attilio Novellino and Enrico Coniglio in conjunction with Ephre Imprint.

The theme running through all tracks of this work is 'water' (and its numerous concerns risen around the globe).
The album is comprised of tracks by 15 Italian artists (Enrico Coniglio, Francesco Giannico, Gigi Masin, Obsil, Elisa Luu, Attilio Novellino (Un Vortice Di Bassa Pressione) and Pierpaolo Leo among others) working with electroacoustics, microsounds, emotional drive and drowned sounds, all in a free-experimentation zone.
Each artist was prompted to submit a track inspired somehow by the notion of water, according to their individual angle. The upshot is a multilayered work, giving voice to the umpteen facets of a theme which has always created a particularly deep and serious attraction for musicians working in the drone/ambient scene.
The sonorities of field recording, glitched digressions, electroacoustic idylls, dreamy soundscapes, abysmal notes, dilated, diluted, purified, desecrated water...
Together these artists have releases across labels such as Touch, Porter, Laverna, Sub Rosa, Ripples, Cronica, Zymogen and more.
The project is released on Ephre Imprint as a strictly limited edition CDR, plus in conjunction with the Lost Children Net Label as a download.
Lost Children / Ephre Imprint

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Juanjo Palacios - Portuario (Audiotalaia, 2011)

01 Rozamiento
02 Atraque
03 Contenedor
04 Pantalán

I personally met Juanjo Palacios a few months ago. We had the opportunity to gather in Madrid for a gig organised by our friends of Latimeria (Juan Antonio Nieto and Almudena Villar). I had been chatting on the net with him since I found it’s release as Blezna, released at Alg-a Netlabel. Since always we had in mind a future collaboration and I wanted him to work on a project for Audiotalaia. Finally after a wait that was worth here we have Portuario. The new instalment of Juanjo Palacios is a four track EP that combines all the interests of this particular artist.

Palacios defines himself as a phonographer and sound artist and he has been involved in many projects regarding Soundscapism. He combines the materials and soundscapes that he captures on field trips with processed drones and ambient textures. Palacios uses soundscapes as textures and elements to transport certain sonorities to specific places. This time, with Portuario, the issue its a Harbour (Musel Harbour in Gijón, North of Spain). The usage of both soundscapes and field recordings provide the release with a bast palette of sound structures that can be heard as abstracted soundscapes, or auditory schematisations of the sound of a shore.

Finally and reviewing it’s previous work at GreenField Recordings, we can understand the consistency of Palacios’s work. At Luis Antero Netlabel, Palacios released a Soundscape album based on shore recordings (Borde Litoral), on Audiotalaia this artist releases an abstraction of the shore or the coastline. If on the previous album we had a precise study of the northern coastline of Spain here we have an evocation of the same.
Audiotalaia

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Philippe Faujas – Deriva Sonora (Just Not Normal, 2011)

1 Deriva Sonora

Joining the ranks of avid Field Recordists is Philippe Faujas from Spain. Making Just not Normal not per say a field recordings netlabel, but since I personally am a big fan of field recordings and feel they go extremely well amidst experimental music Philippe is very much welcomed to the world of JNN. Follow his link to an even bigger world of recorded sounds, but let this release be your guide into the world of this fine French artist living in Spain. He won my heart with his great sounds and I know you’ll love it too.

Photograph is by Jacqueline Heeley – www.fotosdesdeelzaguan.net
Just Not Normal

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Toshiya Tsunoda - Extract From Field Recordings Archive #3: Solid Vibration (Infringitive, 2001)

1 Metal-Plate Fence 10:23
2 Wire Net Fence Inside A Tunnel 5:43
3 Wharf, Electric Driver 1:58
4 Wharf, Two Vessels 8:00
5 Asphalt Road Surface 7:52
6 Metal Door 5:02
7 Gas Cylinder 4:50
8 Scrap 7:13
9 Drum 14:03

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David Velez - Funza (Impulsive Habitat, 2010)

01 Funza 43:04

Part of my job involves taking photographs of industrial processes to illustrate a series of manuals with production instructions and guidelines that the company gives to the machine operators. Parallel to taking the photographs. I capture the sounds from those processes most of them involving steam and pneumatic powered machines whose sonorities I found quite interesting for their percussive nature and their high pitched textures respectively.

These recordings reveal an interesting obvious and irrelevant phenomena that captures my interest: parallel to making a product, the operator is performing a sound score using the machines as instruments.

The operator is unadvisedly reading and performing a score unadvisedly written and encoded in the instructions and guidelines.

While aware of "a performance" I advisedly record it.

(Some recordings were later treated. Found sounds collected during that period were also used).
David Velez

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.RR - Hum (Amplified Music Pollution, 2010)

1 silicone
2 end
3 noise-free_splices
4 vuelta magnética
5 ee
6 e
7 piece
8 1200 Ft

manipulation of magnetic tape loops with four broken tape recorders

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Toshiya Tsunoda - Extract From Field Recording Archive #2: The Air Vibration Inside A Hollow (Häpna, 1999)

1 Bottle At Mountain Road 15:58
2 Bottle At Park 4:46
3 Tub-Type Container 5:56
4 Drain Hoses 13:26
5 Connecting Duct 14:35
6 Downpipe For Rainwater 6:33
7 Crack In The Lid Of A Manhole 2:35
8 Cavity In A Cliff Wall 9:24

The initiated already recognize the name: Tsunoda is a member of the WRK collective. A group of artists from Japan who are specialized in producing sound installations. To quote from the excellent Site Of Sound book: "WrK has attached importance to conceptual attitude that each member gives consideration to phenomena as shift/passage in time-space and to reception/perception of the phenomena". A strong conceptual approach, but never theless with a highly listenable result. Tsunoda placed microphones in hollow objects (bottles, drain hoses etc.), which act as an amplifier when placed outside, either in urban or rural environments. Whatever happens on the site is what you get. If they are placed under bridge, you hear the traffic moving over he bridge. It's that simple. The result are huge resonating tracks of vibrating ambiance. There is not the disturbing character one can find on some other WrK releases, but more "ambient" (= environmental). Beautiful release with adequate descriptions of each track.
Vital Weekly

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Stefan Thut - An Ort, 1-9 (Engraved Glass, 2011) out now!

nine sound recordings

spread over a year

always at the same place and at the same time of the day

eight minutes of each recording, uncut

to be aligned (almost) seamlessly: seventytwo minutes altogether


score written & performed by Stefan Thut, 2009

"i'm very pleased to be releasing this work - a 72 minute composition of field recordings that both transport the listener & focus ones attention (as all good field recording based work should) on the art of listening & the endless vista of natural sound. The subtle task of composing with these sounds is best left simple, clear & focused & that objective is achieved here by Stefan"
- Jez Riley French

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Toshiya Tsunoda - Extract From Field Recording Archive #1 (WrK, 1997)

1 Solid Vibration Of The Surface Of A Concreted Wharf Where A Marine Products Market Used To Be 11:11
2 Solid Vibration Of A Glass Bottle At Ship Anchorage Area 8:11
3 Air Vibration Of The Hollow Part In The Middle Of A Buoy Used For Large Ships 9:55
4 Air Vibration In A Bent Pipe 5:27
5 Solid Vibration Of A Steel Plate At A Loading Area 6:46
6 Solid Vibration Of A Support Pillar For The External Unit For A Large Size Refrigerator 6:42
7 Solid Vibration Of An Anchor For Small Boats 9:36
8 Air Vibration Of Elevator Motor Room In Stairwell 13:33

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Federico Monti - Sorolls (Impulsive Habitat, 2010)

1 Perfil 1 10:40
2 Perfil 2 09:58

The field recordings for 'Sorolls' were taken on the sea and mountains between March and June of 2010.

Sorolls' two pieces were processed with granular synthesis. This release was put together for a deep listening.
Impulsive Habitat

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Philip Sulidae - Lux (Impulsive Habitat, 2010)

01 Lux 06:55
02 Lumen 04:45
03 Foot Candle 02:35
04 Candela 07:12
05 A Distance 09:28

Lux was recorded and created during the Autumn of 2010 with field recordings made in the inner city of Sydney, Australia. The recording locations were all made over a week at around dusk. This busy time when the air is filled with the sound of commuters returning home, transportation and the process of day turning to night formed the conceptual basis for these recordings. It's an interesting and dynamic environment, that slowly eases into the quiet and dark evening.
Impulsive Habitat

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Daniel Barbiero – Monuments Seen Through Peripheral Vision (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Monuments seen through peripheral vision
02 Listen to the room
03 Violet grey black on blue

A native of New Haven, CT, Daniel Barbiero has been involved in creative improvised music in the Baltimore-Washington area for several years as a performer, composer, and sometime bandleader. He has worked in a variety of contexts, including modal and post-bop jazz, free improvisation, and world fusion drawing on the Indian classical and Middle Eastern musical traditions.

Fans of NTNS radio know that I have a strong taste for free improv jazz, where the likes of D’Incise and many others have passed the airwaves. It is with great honor that I may introduce this fine gentleman that provides the JNN airwaves with a very strong free jazz sound that is interspersed with field recordings and all kinds of other background noises that have one big commonfactor; the sensuous sounds of the standup bass. It is just delicious!
Just Not Normal

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