Will Thomas Long - Sequoia (Basic Sounds, 2010)

1 Sequoia

After a lengthy period of silence in music production, American producer Will Thomas Long comes out with Sequoia, a twenty-two minute track dedicated to the memory of his wife Danielle Baquet-Long, who passed away last year at the young age of twenty-six. Together they were known for their prolific collaborative work as Celer and have appeared internationally on such labels as Infraction, and/OAR, Dragon’s Eye, Home Normal, Spekk, Yard Rec., and Smallfish.

Will’s latest work Sequoia is inspired by an illustration of a California Redwood, one of the tallest trees in the world. Perhaps it is the scale of this gigantic pine that reflects how small and fragile we are in comparison. Sequoia is a deeply dense and emotional journey that delicately immerses you within his subtle, gentle low-end tones and slow pulses. As his only long-form work to be published since 2009, it’s an honour to have such a moving piece as our second release.
Basic Sounds

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Celer - Compositions For Cassette (Digitalis, 2009)

A1 Untitled 7:51
A2 Untitled 1:43
A3 Untitled 9:00
A4 Untitled 2:50
A5 Untitled 8:33
A6 Untitled 2:51
B1 Untitled 1:02
B2 Untitled 4:15
B3 Untitled 4:51
B4 Untitled 7:02
B5 Untitled 5:27
B6 Untitled 8:25

Huntington beach's husband/wife duo celer lull you into an enchanting, yet slightly uncomfortable stasis with over an hour full of solemn piano-based drones. "compositions for cassette" is distilled in glass and sent down a river of molasses. what danielle baquet-long and will long do is set this decaying, enchanting journey on it's course. they built the multiple cassette loops used to create this minimal symphony, this ode to american pianists of the 1920s.

"Compositions for cassette" is a funeral march of ghosts through alien fog, lost in a world that no longer exists for their original beings. in the end, it's only the whispers in the air that remain, a near silent elegy for notes and nooses left behind. stunning.
Digitalis

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Mirror - In To The Wood (Three Poplars, 2002)

1 In To The Wood 71:48

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now available!: Hiroki Sasajima - Suikinkutsu (3Leaves, 2010)

Suikinkutsu is recorded in "Stalactite grottos of Nippara" at Tokyo Okutama.

"Suikinkutsu" is a decoration of a Traditional Japanese garden.

"Suikinkutsu" is usually put in the Japanese garden, however, it is unusual for it to be put in stalactite grottos.

Drop of water to run down from stalactite at random plays these metallic sound.

Sound echoed with a bottle buried in the underground, amplifies it more by the grottos.

It is a particle of the beautiful sound that is meditative in deep quietness...
Hiroki Sasajima

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Raoul Hausmann - Poèmes Phonétiques (Kaon, 1978 (1997 reissue))

*** the artwork featured is the original release ***

1 R.L.Q.S Varie En 3 Cascades 23:28
2 Phonemes (15:58)
2a BBB
2b FMSBW
2c K Perioum
2d Offeah
2e Oiseautal
2f Cauchemar
2h Vali Tali
3 Interview Avec Les Lettristes 7:06
4 Soundreel 4:18

... real history is written with the beautiful item by Raoul Hausmann, key figure of the DADA scene. Two long pieces recorded by Henri Chopin (himself a legend) and two short pieces recorded in 1959...
Kaon

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Daniel Menche - Blood Forest (Trickhouse, 2010)

Daniel Menche's sound is a bridge. One made of stone, bone, blood and wire. It is solid enough to build eons of civilizations upon, yet high enough off the floor of the canyon to give you the chills should you peer over the edge.

With performance tools such as contact mics adhered to self constructed instruments, or more famously, his own body, Daniel sculpts systemic waves found within and brings them pulsating, shaking, and exploding into our audible state. His live performances constitute some of the most physical music being performed today. At his most intense, you will feel as if the piece is about to pulverize you, while he leaves just enough breathing room for you to witness it happen to yourself.

What we have here though is another aspect to his well-honed craft. Assembled from field recordings made in the Pacific Northwest, Daniel carefully brings out the rhythm and spacial textures of the region's natural settings and presents us with an iconic piece that spans the awe of the raw forest and the reassembled/re-purposed contemporary age.

Walk fully onto the bridge. Take a look over the side.

Eric Jordan, Trickhouse Curator

little reminder: Daniel Menche just released "Silver Hell" cassette on Banned Productions so order it...

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David Velez - Vacío Retórico (Audio Gourmet, 2010)

1 Division 1 06:12
2 Division 2 07:51

David Velez is a Colombian sound artist whose work focusses on the use of field recordings, dealing with textures, landscapes and objects. His work has been released on labels such as Test Tube, Ripples Recordings, Mandorla and Rain Music among others and he is also a staffer on the field-recordings based label Impulsive Habitat.

Currently residing in Bogotá, David is taking a Master in Fine Arts where he is focusing on sound installations. Through this ongoing Master David developed the idea towards art that in some places rhetoric is more important than the actual work itself and this concept gave the title to this release.

'Vacío Retórico' is as good an example you're likely to hear of the kind of high quality field recordings based sound work that David Velez is renowned and respected for; it is a sheer pleasure to have an artist of his calibre grace our catalog.
Audio Gourmet

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Mirror - Solaris (IDEA Records, 2002)

1 Solaris 41:33

Andrew Chalk and Christoph Heemann, the core members of Mirror, have churned out countless expensive, gorgeously packaged LPs in highly countable numbers (typically under 400). The duo’s strategy has baffled me almost as much as it’s put me off, because their atmospheric music could easily find a much wider audience than the cabal of record collectors who are seduced by the bogus romance of self-imposed scarcity.

Solaris departs from Mirror’s usual MO; it’s their first CD (albeit one packaged in a lovely LP-styled sleeve), and it’s not a limited edition. The differences don’t stop there. Previously Heemann and Chalk have maintained a certain musical density and continuity by relying on drones, but Solaris is quite sparse; although it’s not improvised in real time, it sounds more like AMM than Thomas Koner.

Long clarinet tones, isolated prepared piano notes, and metallic reverberations mark a trail through the album-length piece’s empty spaces. Signal processing magnifies and warps individual sounds so that the woodwind sounds like a wind tunnel, tiny taps become echoing steps, and small scrapes become furry with static.

The change in material doesn’t lead to a diminishment of returns. Solaris goes beyond mere prettiness to sharpen one’s senses in a way that once again reminds me of AMM. Here’s hoping this record does so well that Mirror have no choice but to reissue their entire back catalog to the masses in all formats.
Dusted Reviews

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Vanessa Rossetto - Bookpacking 2 (Compost And Height, 2010)

I sell books for a "job," so I pack books every day. This summer I began recording myself working over a period of several weeks. At various times throughout, mostly toward the beginning of the recording period, I wore headphones while working so I was made even more aware of the sounds I was making in the course of my daily activities. Immediately it began to affect the gestures used and the speed with which I was going about my tasks. I began to think more and more about the specific sounds I was making while still being able to maintain a productive work flow. In turn, I began to think about all the sounds I was making whether I was working or not, whether I was recording them or not, and about the rhythm of labor in general.

This piece was edited down from many hours of recordings in Texas in August and September 2010. While it is edited, there are no additions; no parts that were not recorded during the process of working. Some days it rained and some it did not.
Vanessa Rossetto

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Achim Wollscheid - In Your Necessary Ear (Bad Alchemy, 2001)

1 First
2 Last

Comes with issue 38 of the Bad Alchemy magazine.

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Spiracle - Sacrifice + Phosphorus (Octpia, 1998 (2000 reissue))

1 Masticate Shrine 3:00
2 Gratified Lungs 6:09
3 Evil Organs 8:26
4 Evacuation 8:38
5 Galactic Bladder 5:31
6 Fire Eater 5:11
7 Sacrifice 11:15
8 Phosphorus 7:27

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Lionel Marchetti - Portrait D'Un Glacier (Alpes, 2173m) (Ground Fault Recordings, 2001)

1 Portrait D'Un Glacier (Alpes, 2173m) 28:40

"Tape-music composer Lionel Marchetti seems to be most comfortable when creating short works. To his credit are two 3" mini-CDs (on the Metamkine label), one split CD with RLW (on Selektion), only one full-length album (on Intransitive), and now, a brief 28-minute work. It is far different from the complex tape-splicing Marchetti has become known for, a rather more sedate and deliberately paced collage made from footsteps walking through wet snow, metallic clanking (perhaps of hiking equipment?), and occasional voices murmuring or calling to each other. The events within the piece are small ones, and an understated calm prevails as the overriding mood of this trip up Mont-blanc to le Glacier de Tre la Tete in France. One steady tone modulates quietly behind the main events, a musical ground to offset the concrete documentary aspects of the piece. These finally come to the fore for a beautiful finale of long high tones; an airplane flies overhead, and we arrive at the top of the mountain. The duration is an excellent compositional decision, concisely implying (rather than demonstrating) distance and remoteness." Howard Stelzer

"Some of the best concrete, environmental works you could hear, weaved location recordings I guess from the Alps, adorned with sound sources that come from far away to the left or right occasionally. You are always travelling, there's always movement, seamlessly, calmly, not sudden switches of environment, but a steady flow of change and new characterization. I like the use of one time sounds that don't get repeated. You want to click back and hear it again but then some other current scenario is making your mind work by then. These works are great, not since some of the best Eric La Casa or the Liminality comp have I been transported so completely. The wind, the crunch of snow underfoot, the bent branches left behind, the far away hail of a fellow trekker." Manifold Records

Lionel Marchetti has blended field recordings with electronic drones and other sounds to create an incredibly dramatic recording. Recorded on the Glacier de Tré-la tête on Mont-Blanc, in France, at an altitude of 2173 meters we hear low rumbles, creaking, water splashing and sounds of footsteps crunching the icy surface all appearing out of the silence. Voices in the distance...a small propeller rescue plane overhead?

Portrait d'un Glacier is a Series I release which puts it in Ground Faults quiet category. While most of the CD is relatively quiet, there are moments at the middle of the CD where things get a little nerve wracking. It's very cold, dark and dramatic.

This is one of those CDs that is great to drift asleep to in a darkened room only to be awaken by the sudden "events" that occasionally happen.
Ground Fault Recordings

"I used to hike mountains, (the Alps), and the first time I descovered the Glacier "Tré-la tête", on Mont-Blanc, in France, with my friend Bruno Roche, I realized that we met a strange "vivacity". This glacier is coverd with stones, on 5 "kilometres" at less. It's a sort of desert where it's possible to see, on the floor, near our feet, a strange blue eye looking at us, saying : - do you want to know more about my face ?"...

In "Portrait d'un glacier (Alpes, 2173m)", I tried to find beauty of the mountain when it is abble to give us an incredible geomorphic entity as the glacier ; I tried to represent the breath of who is walking in a such beauty, dealing, in that way, with more than only his human condition - "the most difficult area" - ; but with not forgetting this idea of "panic" i can feel when mountain is danger too, archaicism i can feel under my feet, and sometimes should distruct me only with a breath..." LM

Glacier de Tré-la tête (2173m)

Ce matin, réveillé vers cinq heures

couleurs métalliques et vertes
lumière, force
tournoiement de l'esprit projeté
psychisme, sécrétion
lente humeur animale

soudain sonore

aurore en montagne

intelligence.

Lionel Marchetti

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Jonathan Coleclough - Makruna · Minya (ICR / Siren Records, 2004)

1 Makruna 38:20
2 Minya 29:37
3 Makruna Coda 1:53

From all the UK drone meisters (I never understood why they are called 'meisters', but anyway), I think Jonathan Coleclough is one of the best, with a most diverse catalogue of music available. In this new CD, a split release between ICR and Siren, he offers two very lengthy tracks that take his sound a little bit further. Whereas
until now, much of his music was multi-layered aspects of similar sounds, here he extends his already richly layered sounds by multiple, different layers. In "Makruna" there is an ongoing deep, repeated bass sound, embedded in stretched out structures with, as icing on the cake, various field recordings of water and rain.
Changes are there, but as usual with this kind of music, the developments are slow. However, as said, Jonathan is a meister, and he knows how to keep the listeners attention and prevents from leaping into boredom. "Minya" is not unlike his older work, as here too he works with multiple layers of similar sounds, but unlike his
previous work, his sounds are more upfront, more present. Sharply mixed, with lots of attention for colour and detail. Quite a blast!
Vital Weekly

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Difondo - Habitat (La Bèl Netlabel, 2010)

1 Bioma
2 Cuore di tenebra
3 Koto sun
4 Muta
5 Habitat
6 Senza ferro
7 Resilienza
8 Addio mio concubino

This work starts from two improvisation sessions recorded in the first part of 2009 and then edited on the computer in spring 2010.Using the metaphor of “habitat” to give the title to this album comes from the desire to imagine the sound space as a dimension in which the musical processes are ideally considered at the same strength of the typical developing and connection processes in nature.For this reason every piece has to be seen as closed in itself, as a specific habitat, but at same time contributing, as a jigsaw part, to create an immersive listening dimension.In a wider sense the term “habitat” refers to a music vision which John Cage would define “ecological” in his ideal effort to consider all the aspects of the sound field as belonging to nature without genre distinction or, may be better, as “a whole game of his elements”.The emphasis given to the term “habitat” takes us to dedicate this work to the celebrations linked with the ONU’s choice of declaring 2010 as the “Year of the Biodiversity”. This as an ideal support to the reflection on human life considered in its essential relationship with the environment surrounding us, our habitat indeed.
La Bèl Netlabel

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Dead Voices On Air - Abrader (G.R.O.S.S., 1994)

A1 Concretion 16:38
B1 Vaerglas 9:55
B2 Hafted Maul 6:44

sold out but an extended version can be bought here
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CEZAR - Vol. 24 (Isolationism Records, 2010)

1 #0248 (6:53)
2 #0249 (8:23)
3 #0250 (4:31)
4 #0251 (24:41)
5 #0252 (7:00)
6 #0253 (16:29)

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Jos Smolders - Textures & Mobiles (CONV, 2004)

1 Texture 3 8:38
2 Mobile 1 (CCITT) 3:52
3 Texture 2 (49-50-51 Hz) 10:10
4 Mobile 6 3:03
5 Texture 5 (75-100-150-200 Hz) 7:26
6 Mobile 3 (DTMF) 8:35
7 Texture 4a (Risset-Texture) 5:55
8 Texture 4b 8:02
9 Mobile 2b 2:26

Known as six years co-editor of Vital Magazine and as founder/owner of Earlabs.org, Jos Smolders is active in the underground electronic scene since early 80's. Founding member of the renowned Dutch electroacoustic ensemble THU20 (which also features Roel Meelkop and Peter Duimelinks, both of Kapotte Muziek and Goem), his music was released on cassette, LP and CD. He now works as a sound designer and composer in Tilburg (The Netherlands). "Textures and mobiles" is his latest work. Based enterely on pure sine waves and mobiles tones, the CDr has a really nice flow in the pieces and can easily meet as one of the best composed works of Jos Smolders. It has the Jos trademark all over it, despite the fact that he limits himself to just pure sine waves. One hour of introspection with minimals elements.
CONV

Jos Smolders might be more known these days as the driving force behind the Earlabs site, a true online goldmine for electronic music,both old and new, but many forget that he is also a composer in his own right and for a very long time. He earliest releases were released on cassettes on labels such as Midas Music (where are the
CDR re-issues, please?) and Korm Plastics. Then he produced two more than excellent LPs in the early nineties, and some more conceptual works for CDs on Staalplaat. Those are more 'create your own thing with this'. Jos Smolders is also part of the never really ceasing to exist group THU20 (who are preparing for a new project next year). Since some time Jos Smolders is back at composing music himself, and
for no other purpose than to create beautiful music. On 'textures And Mobiles', the first CDR release from Con-V, otherwise known as an online label, Smolders finds his inspiration in two visual artists. For the textures he is inspired by the paintings of Mark Rothko and the mobiles by the mobiles of Alexander Calder, using CCITT ringtones (mobiles getit?) as sound sources. Of the nine pieces, five are from
the texture series, and here Smolders uses static tones that are similar but not the same to create a richly varied elegant tapestry of sound. The sounds glide and pass by, move gently through space. The connection to Rothko is indeed present, and musically it relates to the work of Alvin Lucier. The mobiles are shorter tracks of
shorter sounds that sound unlike anything those annoying ringtones I hear on the street or in the train. Maybe bythemselves the 'Mobile' pieces aren't that convincing, but they form an interesting counterpoint to the longer 'Texture' pieces, which if only present on this release, would maybe a bit too much also. Now the balance is just perfect. Moving along the lines of his previous release 'Music
For Kalx.com' (on ERS Records), this is a more than excellent release. For those who love Lucier, Asmus Tietchens and 12K, this is definetely a must have.
Vital Weekly

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Anton Mobin - Floating Wood (Green Field Recordings, 2010)

1 Floating Wood 20:00

Devises used for field recordings:

-Hydrophones
in The washhouses of Avaray and in the river called Le Lien (Cher / France)

-contact microphones
Buried in the sand in Le Croisic (Bretagne)
A bottle-boat Immersed in the sewers of Paris

-Nagra Ares M2
For all the recordings in location (France)
the wind in Crozon-Morgat (Bretagne)
Flys in Le Croisic (Bretagne)
Animals in the Zoo de Vincennes (Paris) : monkeys & birds
Ducks around the Serpentine in London and around the Spree in Berlin
sound effects in all these locations

Calm and surrealist nothing is real in the composition which combines Improvisation & Field Recordings.

For all the improv part Anton uses a handmade Prepared Chamber in wood, using its natural reverb, associated with many metal elements like springs and a home made calimba build with a trap of pigeon.

This meditative sound art composition is contemplative, very languishing melody at the rate of the nature and reveal numerous sound effects in forest produced by my own movements ; Bough, shock of pebbles, crushed leaves...

This composition by Anton Mobin takes part of his serie of recomposed soundscape, with âMicro-Climatâ released by Konkretourist netlabel.
Green Field Recordings

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Darren Tate - Formation (Fungal, 2005)

1 Formation 40:09

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Classwar Karaoke - At Philosoph. (Classwar Karaoke, 2010)

1 At Philosoph. 28:18

Made by Adrian Beentjes, Anthony Donovan, Arturo Ortega, Bryan Lewis Saunders, Colin Johnco, Hopek Quirin, Igor Jovanovic, Jaan Patterson, Laura K. Tattersall, Kidderowski, Pixyblink and Thomas Fernier.

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