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Jason Kahn Vanishing Point 23five015, Compact Disc: $12.98 Vanishing Point is a 47 minute composition, which Kahn has dedicated to his daughter who died shortly before Kahn began working on this piece in 2007. For all of the phenomenological studies and stoic mesmerism attributed to much of his catalogue, Vanishing Point is a subtle and hypnotic elegy for rattling metals, timbral vibration, gossamer static, hissing field recordings, and those aforementioned colored noises. Soon into the piece, Kahn introduces a flickered ghost of melody whose luminous tones manifest ever so slightly against his contrails of noise. The upper register hiss and statics of these layered noises slowly drop in pitch and frequency over the duration of the piece, revealing subharmonic rumblings and an oceanic current that tugs at the agitated textures of Kahn’s surface noises. This glacial, minimalist shift renders Vanishing Point elegant and meditative. |
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Brendan Murray Commonwealth 23five013, Compact Disc: $12.98 Brendan Murray has become a central figure in Boston’s sound art vanguard through a reputation of exceptional live performances and a growing catalogue of slow-shifting compositions for rarified drones. A single crescendo terminating at the end of 49 minutes, Commonwealth is an epic investigation into subtle harmonics and overtones expressed through layered slippages of pure sound. Conceived through guitar, analog synthesis, and plenty of digital manipulation, Commonwealth expresses a rare confidence in Murray's finely tuned detailing of sinewy tonalities and sculpted megalithic surfaces. Murray himself has qualified this album as a "sincere bow to 'classic' minimalism," and Commonwealth is a worthy parallel to the work of Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue, and Iannis Xenakis. |
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Chop Shop Oxide 23five012, Compact Disc: $12.98 Chop Shop is the moniker of New York based sound artist Scott Konzelmann, whose activities have comprised installations featuring his speaker construction assemblages and sonic compositions since 1987. Konzelmann’s sound and noise are intrinsically connected to his sculptural objects. Forged from repurposed junkyard fragments fitted with functional loudspeakers, these objects compress and articulate particular frequencies into hissing static, jet-engine drones, and noxious rumbles, all of which retain a metallurgist residue. Such were the sounds on the original analogue tapes of Oxide; unfortunately, those tapes had endured what Konzelmann merely qualifies as "an unhappy accident," which caused extensive and prolonged moisture damage to the tapes. In revisiting these tapes, Konzelmann discovered drop-outs and print-throughs, as ghostly noises shadowed his muscular drone music. |
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Tim Catlin Radio Ghosts 23five011, Compact Disc: $12.98 Melbourne based Tim Catlin's Radio Ghosts showcases his unassuming expertise with the finer aspects of the mechanically prepared guitar. For all of its dynamic frequencies and crosshatched vibrations, Radio Ghosts is devoid of Marshall stacks, Sunn amps, and stomp boxes, as Catlin captures the acoustic phenomenon of the guitar’s transient vibrations and steers clear of any tricked out sonic demolition. Instead, Radio Ghosts focuses upon the minutiae of the guitar: wood, strings, and amplifier. Through his refined, tabletop guitar techniques, Catlin prefers to set his guitar in motion, allowing the process dictate the course of action with minor edits and sleights of hand from the composer himself. Catlin’s drone guitar work is simultaneously capable of expressionistic illusions and a sonic transcendence of pure sonic introspection. |
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Tarab Wind Even Keeps Dust Away 23five010, Compact Disc: $12.98 Field recordings are fundamental to the creative process of Tarab, the nom de plume for Melbourne based sound artist Eamon Sprod, who bolsters his field recordings with sympathetic sounds activated by his own hands rummaging through crumbling leaves, rusted bits of metal, broken concrete, and shattered glass, just to name some of the more obvious sources. Wind Keeps Even Dust Away is only the second documentation of Sprod's compositions; yet, it is an accomplished work on par with the best of contemporary sound ecologists (e.g. Chris Watson, Eric La Casa, Toshiya Tsunoda, etc.). On this album, Sprod presents an intertwining series of compacted collages that tease aquatic references from abandoned and overlooked sites of the arid Australian landscape. Every sound of a pipe gurgling with water is but a mirage of sand, rust, and dirt cleverly tricking the audience's collective ear. |
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Jean-Francois Laporte Soundmatters 23five009, Compact Disc: $12.98 Soundmatters is the first major compendium of the recordings from French-Canadian sound artist Jean-Francois Laporte, including his highly acclaimed composition Mantra. In balancing formal precision and intuitive expressionism, Soundmatters results in a series of visceral compositions that build upon the traditions of minimalism, graphical composition, and phonography. Laporte reveals his colossal talents for experiential composition through deftly processed recordings of tumultuous windstorms that would make Chris Watson proud, spiralling drones that he's polished to a Haflerian sheen, the majestic bellowing of sustained horns in the empty cargo hull of a decommissioned ship, and of course the metallic growl of his immaculate Mantra. Given the numerous parallels to Xenakis' smoldering electroacoustics and Tony Conrad's delirious harmonics, Laporte's work demands the attention as an under recognized genius in the realm of avant-garde composition. |
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John Duncan and Carl Michael von Hausswolff Our Telluric Conversation 23five008, Compact Disc: $17.98 Our Telluric Conversation is the second collaborative album from John Duncan and Carl Michael von Hausswolff, which Duncan describes as having been galvanized by magnetism. In a semantic sleight of hand, Duncan and Hausswolff reveal magnetism through a duality of meanings. One on hand, they speak of the physical phenomenon of charged objects that exert an attraction or repulsion upon other objects; yet on the other, magnetism can be defined the psychological influence wielded by charismatic individuals. Our Telluric Conversation maps out the complexities that emerged through the collaborative pursuits of these venerated sound artists. |
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Francisco Lopez Live in San Francisco 23five007, Compact Disc: $12.98 Over the years, the sound-arts organization 23five Incorporated has sponsored numerous Lopez performances in and around San Francisco; and it is only fitting that 23five should publish this document of live recordings from San Francisco, with one track culled from the infamous Hexaphonic show at The Lab in August 2000, and the other from an intimate performance at 3feetofftheground in July 2001. Live in San Francisco comes with a blindfold to enhance the phenomonological experience of Lopez's dramatic compositions. |
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John Bischoff Aperture 23five006, Compact Disc: $12.98 An aptly named set of compositions by John Bischoff who is a current instructor at the esteemed Center For Contemporary Music at Mills College, Aperture opens the possibility for multiple readings through a series of diverse techniques ranging from additive synthesis to FM synthesis to sampled-based processes. Each of the pieces within the album was recorded in real-time with no overdubs. Aperture introduces itself with clusters of samples that sprawl with the deliberate pacing of Morton Feldman's later periods, yet Bischoff renders what might be recognizable citations of a piano or percussion as pointillist condensations of digitized pixels and precise plastic details. During the ensuing pieces, Bischoff unleashes coarse streams of electrons which flange and pulse within the caustic firestorm of divergent timestretching, giving the impression that Bischoff is quite literally tearing the fabric of sound. Bischoff also presents a collaboration with Kenneth Atchley in complementing the oversaturated physical noise of Atchley's water fountain sculptures with short digital articulations that ride on the top of Atchley's dense texture. |
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Gum Vinyl Anthology 23five005, Double Compact Disc Set: $17.98 Back in the late '80s, Melbourne's Andrew Curtis and Philip Samartzis collaborated in the aurally volatile project simply called Gum. With little expertise or training, the two gathered up what objects they were familiar with, in particular thrift store turntables and soiled records. Eschewing their original attraction to the giants of Industrial Culture, Gum quickly developed an aesthetic privileging the caustic rupture of skipping records and smoldering surface noise, predating the current avant-turntablist aficionados like Philip Jeck, Janek Schaefer, and Otomo Yoshihide. With the publication of Gum's Vinyl Anthology, 23five, Inc uncovers the bulk of Gum's work, including all of the material from their self-published albums Vinyl and 20 Years in Blue Movies and Yet to Fake an Orgasm as well as several infamous compilation tracks and plenty of unreleased material. |
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Coelacanth The Glass Sponge 23five004, Compact Disc: $12.98 Authored by the Coelacanth duo of Loren Chasse and Jim Haynes, The Glass Sponge takes an abstracted yet empathetic view of its allegorical subject. Throughout The Glass Sponge, Coelacanth sets textural flutters, squeaks, and scrabblings in motion. These brittle events punctuate the boundless excursions of minimalism brought to life through elegaic bell tones, ghostly feedback, and tuning fork resonance, all spiralling together into translucent drones. Despite the obvious submariner references for this album, it may be a surprise that very little water spilled into the recording of The Glass Sponge. |
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Tetsuo Furudate & Zbigniew Karkowski World As Will II 23five003, Compact Disc: $12.98 The World As Will collaborations between composers Tetsuo Furudate and Zbigniew Karkowski reflect their mutual adherence to the principles of the 19th Century thinker Arthur Schopenhauer, who had demonstrated a necessarily pessimistic philosophy within the comprehensive four volume set entitled Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (World As Will). It is the opinion of Furudate and Karkowski that "Will keeps creating the World and History, Will creates human Tragedies, causes Chaos and is the primary source of Creation." Furudate and Karkowski have forged a collaborative sound that builds upon these principles, highlighting that their synchronized wills can unleash an infernal majesty through the cruel manifestation of electronic sound. Drawing also from the acknowledgement of Schopenhauser's influence upon Richard Wagner's vigorous operas, Furudate and Karkowski have centered World As Will 2 almost exclusively upon samples of Karkowski's little heard orchestral work and Wagner's masterful Götterdammerung. Augmented through the crucible of digital processing, these electronic samples of vivid polyphony found in the masculine crescendos of orchestral sound take a violent turn towards the realms of militant noise. World As Will 2 results in an unrelenting soundtrack of expressive power and will, shaped within arenas of sound. |
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Michael Gendreau 55 Pas De La Ligne Au No. 3 23five002, Compact Disc: $12.98 Gendreau has constructed his most recent work, 55 Pas De La Ligne Au No. 3, entirely on several turntables, a very common tool within Gendreau's catalogue. Immediately upon listening to this album, it will become apparent that any associations to fellow Bay Area wax wizards as Mixmaster Mike or Q-Bert should be tossed out the window. This album doesn't even have many similarities to such avant-turntablists as Janek Schaefer or Philip Jeck. Rather, Gendreau actively seeks out the rarely considered sonic spaces within the confines of the record player itself. This micro-space is alive with the muffled whirrings of motors quietly spiraling in place and the delicate precision of belts and gears designed to make as little noise as possible. Gendreau amplifies such spaces through the use of accelerometer -- technical devices used detect very minute vibrations with a far greater sensitivity than the more commonly used piezo-electric contact microphones. When Gendreau inevitably drops the needle on the record, the whole cavity of the turntable resonates with those vibrations inscribed within the vinyl. For this album, Gendreau relies upon run-out grooves and the hissing crackle of antique vinyl with only the tiniest of references to any appropriated sounds or cultural ready-mades, which appear as merely as quiet upsurge of incomprehensible voices. Compositionally speaking, Gendreau is at his best on 55 Pas De La Ligne Au No. 3, as the album constantly shifts through subtle passages that incrementally increase up to a crescendo of nervous squeals and squalid whistles from his overworked turntables. |
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JU-JIKAN: 10 Hours of Sound From Japan 23F/SFM 901, Double Compact Disc Set : $17.98 An exhibition companion compilation to SFMOMA's 2001 listening room program JU-JIKAN: 10 Hours of Sound From Japan, co-curated by Atau Tanaka, Ryoji Ikeda, and Shunichiro Okeda. JU-JIKAN's Double Compact Disc companion features compositions from Tamami Toro, Pain Jerk, Yasunao Tone, Nerve Net Noise, Otomo Yoshihide, Atau Tanaka, i.d., Masonna, Kozo Inada, Ichiro Nodaira, Hanatarash, Yuji Takahashi, Ryoji Ikeda, Merzbow, Kazuo Uehara, Astro, and Testuo Furudate. Comes with a 20 page booklet and original program details. |
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VARIABLE RESISTANCE: 10 Hours of Sound From Australia 23F/SFM 902, Compact Disc: $12.98 An exhibition companion compilation to SFMOMA's 2002 listening room program VARIABLE RESISTANCE: 10 Hours of Sound From Australia, curated by Philip Samartzis. VARIABLE RESISTANCE's Compact Disc companion features compositions from Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Avenaim, Philip Samartzis, David Brown, jim knox, Thembi Soddell, Darrin Verhagen, Pimmon and Delire. Comes with a 24 page booklet and original program details. |
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33 RPM: 10 Hours of Sound From France 23F/SFM 903, Compact Disc: $12.98 An exhibition companion compilation to SFMOMA's 2003 listening room program 33 RPM: 10 Hours of Sound From France, curated by Laurent Dailleau. 33 RPM's Compact Disc companion features compositions from Kasper Toeplitz, Kristoff K. Roll, Jean-Claude Risset, Lionel Marchetti, Christophe Havel, Laurent Dailleau, Mathieu Chamagne, pizMO, Jean-Philippe Gross, and Mimetic. Comes with a 24 page booklet and original program details. |
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Surface Tension: The Probematics of Site BOOK/CD $23.99 300 Page Book edited by Brandon LaBelle and Ken Ehrlich. CD compiled by Stephen Vitiello. Surface Tension aims to broadly explore the notion of Site by addressing questions of public space and the frictions and conversations that occur as intersections of the imagined and the real. Through investigating these interactions, Surface Tension will seek to make apparent connections between cultural production and the very spaces in which such work functions. |
