Friday 29 May 2009

new release - Jez riley French - 'audible silence'


egcd028 - Jez riley French - 'audible silence'

*69min + taiyo yuden cdr with photo prints etc / limited edition of 280 copies*

after several months of living with these recordings & waiting for them to feel 'ready' this new release if now completed. As some of you aleady know these recordings capture sounds gathered in Kettle's Yard - Cambridge, the JdP building - Oxford & several sites in the Czech republic (Skolska 28 gallery, Josef Sudek attelier etc).

The three resulting tracks represent, as far as i'm concerned, the music of these spaces using elements such as the sound of vibrating tables / surfaces, floors, empty rooms & heating systems filtered through various surfaces & objects.

more details can be found here: audible silence edition

mp3 audio extract: click here






postage options






>* review of '....audible silence' on Brian Olewnick blog can be found here (nb. in answer to Brian's pondering in the first sentance: none of the recordings are processed - I never process my recordings as i'm always fascinated by the sounds I explore as they are).

* it also gets a nice mention in the latest Paris Transatlantic here

Moks residency journal (updated every couple of days)


can be viewed by clicking here
text: This trip to Estonia & Latvia was my first time in both countries. I was, as often, struck by how fortunate I am to be able to travel to different places & explore them.
Standing still
listening to the sound of telephone transmitter cables or of insects in the mirror surfaced forest lakes
I found empty architectural spaces to record - factories, barns, houses - each one with it's own unique audible silence
I pressed record a lot
I didn't press record a lot
I took photographs
I heard fallen tress, glass, paper, salt, stones, my own fingers echoing inside an empty oil storage tower
I presented my work at Y gallery in Tartu - the performance went ok.
I presented my work on Latvian radio - the performance went ok, though I was tired.
I presented my work at Goyia in Riga - the performance started with my stressed due to a problem with the projections, but soon the performance managed to draw me away from that & I think the performance went ok.
I spent time with Evelyn Muursepp & John Grzinich (MoKS, Estonia) - nice people. John performed at Goyia too - a set of recordings, sticks, bottle caps, wire & steel plate - accompanied by a small girl in the audience who sang sometimes, wandered up to watch John & stole the show....
Maxs Shentelevs (host in Riga) performed too....along with others and all were interesting (except for one set of standard laptop from someone I don't know)....playing to a good audience with a healthy mixture of male & female
Max arranged a trip to a disused power station in Riga....full of sounds and spaces....I found silences and old time cards / employee records
so, I think there will be a release when I have lived with the recordings for awhile....limited edition, with special paper items found on location....
John Grzinich has just posted some photo's & mp3's relating to the time I spent in Estonia on his site. They can be found here:
also, there is an article (in Latvian), some images & some sound clips soon about the visit to the powerplant in Riga here:

Lee Patterson - 'Seven vignettes'


Lee Patterson - 'Seven vignettes' (sha07)

It's fair to say that a full length solo cd from Lee Patterson has been eagerly awaited by many.

1) 'Nine lucifers' - built from recordings of nine match burns

2) 'Springworks # 3' - a further example of Lee's work with small springs attached to his self-built contact mic'd springplate

3) 'Three hazelnuts burn' - Lee is well known for burning nuts & seeds - attached to specially adapted contact mics - & this track captures this side of his work to full effect

4) 'Butane, first movement' - close mic'd recordings of discarded lighters as they discharge thier contents & the sound of Lee's self-built Springrod instrument, played with an e-bow

5) 'From Formby Point to Gent' - combines sounds extracted from a large pinecone & contact mic recordings of a kettle & heating pipes

6) 'Butane, second movement'

7) 'Plateau # 1' - this last track comes close to Lee's live current live set-up: electric toothbrushes, Andrews liver salts in water filled wineglasses, springrods, springplate and amplified cd players alongside a recording of the studio's central heating system.

it can be obtained by sending an email to the labels owner, film maker & artist Luke Fowler at:
fowl@cenotaph.org

or by contacting:

http://www.myspace.com/shadazzrecords
sound 323
metamkine


Most of those visiting this blog will be well aware of Lee's work already - whether you are or not I strongly suggest you take a look at this interview will Lee for Bagatellen here Lee has also been interviewed for the May edition of The Wire magazine. His work is always interesting (a better word would be 'good' !) & he's a nice chap too.
Lee can be found on the following discs:


Heatworks (with Ben Gwilliam) on New Acoustical Pleasures

live at Seeds & Bridges (with myself) - on engraved galss

Bouy (with Paul Vogel & Phil Durrant) - on Cathnor

for Hugh Davies (with Mark Wastell, Adam Bohman & Hugh Davies) - on Another Timbre

Springwork # 1 (split release with Alfredo Costa Monteiro) on Compost & Height

Terrain (with Graham Halliwell) on Confront
& his first full solo cd just released: 'Seven vignettes' on shadazz

& he also crops up on a few compilations & download only releases



surround - Japanese blog

just found an interesting collection of pages relating to the work of group of folks based in Japan - lots of pages to explore & the main ones featuring field recordings can be found by clicking:

surround Kamikochi here
surround field recording here

John Grzinich - 'Phase inversion'


'Phase inversion' (mystery sea 51) is the latest disc from John Grzinich, currently resident in Estonia & part of the MoKS team.


Having just spent a few weeks in residence at MoKS & going on several field recording trips with John it's still a mystery to me what sounds are used on his releases. I can guess at extended tensioned wires & large plates of metal on scrap piles but the exact sources remain to be pondered.


Listening to this new release, a set of three intense pieces that fit in to but also expand on Mystery Seas penchant for drone based works, one is aware that this is field recording based work that seeks to be music in & of itself. I dare say, without reading the sleeve notes, most folks would believe the sounds to have been generated by other means. There's an impressive choice of source material on display.


Generally i'm not someone who always needs to know what object / process makes which sound but I have to admit that these pieces contain such seemlessly blended elements that I am left trying to work out what environmental sources i'm actually listening to.


Having spent some time with John & also witnessed a great live performance from him I have to say that if you're interested check this release out of course, but better still try to get to one of his workshops or concerts. The combination of experiencing all these aspects of his work leaves one wanting to know more.

Monday 18 May 2009

new release on Gruenrekorder

Marine Mammals and Fish of Lofoten and Vesterålen
Recorded by oceansounds / Norway Heike Vester
Gruen 066 Audio CD 54:48 min Digipack

Reviews:

01 Frans de Waard VITAL WEEKLY
Behind Oceansounds we find biologist Heike I. Vester, who is specialized in ‘bio-acoustics of marine animals’, following various studies in that direction. In the winter months 2003-2008 she studied Killer Whales in the northern Norway, and currently vocal behavior of killer whales. This is what is captured on this CD: the plain sounds of killer whales during post feeding, ‘echolocating male sperm whale’, the ‘harbour seal pup calling for its mother’, ‘basking shark and mackerels feeding on plankton’, ‘pilot whales resting in Vestfjord’ and such like. Its of course for an untrained, non-bio acoustic ear such as I have, but lots of these sound quite similar. I have not passed the test to be a biologist I guess. The high chirping sounds (which we may remember from John C. Lilly’s CD for Silent Records, here without any other instrument of course) is one that we are quite familiar with. It makes a nice musical sub aquatic trip this CD. It seems that pieces flow into eachother and tell us a story, but perhaps I am just doing my own interpretation. Very nice work, best enjoyed as ‘one piece’. (FdW)