Manfred Werder's stück 1998 is a massive project consisting of 160,000 time units written across its 4000-page score. The piece has been performed by numerous artists and Chilean guitarist Cristián Alvear is one such musician to do so. Recorded back in April of 2014, Alvear's actualization took place in Santiago and makes up pages 676-683 of the score. Irritable Hedgehog have just released this recording and you can stream the entire performance above. You can purchase a physical and digital copy of the album on the label's bandcamp page here. CDs will start shipping around November 3rd. You can find liner notes by William Robin on the same page and more information about stück 1998 here and here.
Denis Sorokin Performs Michael Pisaro's "Mind Is Moving IX" on New Album from Intonema
Russian record label Intonema have just released their newest album. The album is composed by Michael Pisaro and performed by Denis Sorokin. According to the press release, this marks the first time an album from Russia has featured a performance of a Wandelweiser composer. Sorokin played the piece back in 2013 at the Teni Zvuka Festival. Sorokin has recorded multiple takes of the piece since and the recording that appears on this record was made this past June. An excerpt of the piece can be heard above. More information on the album can be found here. You can purchase the album at the bandcamp page here, on discogs here, or by contacting Intonema at info@intonema.org.
Edition Wandelweiser Announce New Albums From Jürg Frey, Eva-Maria Houben, and Marianne Schuppe
Edition Wandelweiser have announced a new batch of albums. The first album consists of Jürg Frey's "String Quartet no. 3" and "unhörbare zeit". The pieces were performed by Quatuor Bozzini (pictured above), who had previously released a disc of Frey string quartets on Edition Wandelweiser back in 2006. The second new release comes from the ever-prolific Eva-Maria Houben and will be performed by Wilfried Krüger. The piece is entitled "aus den fliegenden blättern eines fahrenden waldhornisten", which translates to "from the flying leaves of a traveling horn player". The third new album comes from Marianne Schuppe and is entitled slow songs. Tracklists for all three albums are below. All three albums will come out on November 9th. There's a pre-order deal available until then in which you can purchase all three at a reduced price of €30. More information on the releases as well excerpts from all three albums can be found here.
Jürg Frey - String Quartet no. 3 / unhörbare zeit tracklist:
1. string quartet no. 3 (2010-2014)
2. unhörbare zeit (2004-2006)
Eva-Maria Houben - aus den fliegenden blättern eines fahrenden waldhornisten tracklist:
1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10
11. 11
12. 12
13. 13
14. 14
15. 15
Marianne Schuppe - slow songs tracklist:
1. I see a deer
2. condensationdate
3. needles
4. fathers & feathers
5. keys1
6. pretty ride1
7. cores
8. pretty ride2
9. keys2
10. pipes
11. split away
Konus Quartett & Tomas Korber's Canada/U.S. Tour Starts Tomorrow
Last year, the Konus Quartett and Tomas Korber came together on the brilliant Musik für ein Feld and are now touring together throughout the rest of the month. The tour is entitled "The Idea of Fields" and starts tomorrow. There will be numerous stops made across Canada and the United States. The tour dates are listed below. Pieces that will be performed at these dates include but are not limited to Korber's "Musik für ein Feld", Jürg Frey's "Mémoire, horizon", and Peter Ablinger's "Ohne Titel 1-10".
There will be special guests on certain dates. For example, Laura Cetilia will appear at the Boston show and perform a set with Korber. In Chicago, Korber will play a set with Olivia Block and Adam Sonderberg. The performance in Washington, DC will be part of the Sonic Circuits program and feature four other artists. Also, the show at Crow With No Mouth marks the second to last show for the venue (for the foreseeable future) so make sure you don't miss out.
Oct 17th - Guelph, Ontario at silencesounds
Oct 19th - Toronto, Ontario at Gallery 345
Oct 20th - Ottawa, Ontario at Origin Studios
Oct 21st - Boston, MA at Non-Event *
Oct 22nd - Pawtucket, RI at Machines With Magnets
Oct 23rd - New York, NY at 59 Jefferson St. Bushwick (Brooklyn)
Oct 24th - Washington, DC at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center ^
Oct 25th - Cleveland, OH at Guide To Kulchur Bookstore
Oct 27th - Chicago, IL at Elastic %
Oct 28th - Minneapolis, MN at Crow With No Mouth
* with Laura Cetilia
^ with Jaap Blonk, Tag Cloud, Ariadne, and Solar Return
% with Olivia Block and Adam Sonderberg
Astor Returns With Lina in Nida on Penultimate Press
Mark Harwood aka Astor is releasing his third album entitled Lima in Nida on Penultimate Press in November. The press release for the album is as follows:
Mark Harwood's third album under his Astor moniker slips away from the obtuse atmospheres and concrete field recordings of Alcor and Inland (released on Graham Lambkin's Kye label in 2012 and 2013 respectively). Lina in Nida sits more in a melodic electronic framework covering a wide range of sonic and emotional states.
"The East" initiates proceedings as a proposed anthem for Britain during a potential invasion by ISIS. Things soon move into the uncomfortably claustrophobic "The Landowners," where an oblique narrative by Estonian artist Kris Lemsalu spirals into a blurred fantasy of musical roads, nocturnal wanderings, and entrapment under floorboards. The B-side relocates itself further out as "They Cling to Each Other" hovers over uncharted ketamine lows while "The Sleepwalkers" lurches around a spider-like environment. "Amusement" tackles a cosmic music, but one that hurtles itself far beyond the outer regions of the cosmos, while "5:00am" contains within the greatest sound known to mankind. As a further shift from reason, Lina in Nida is a thrilling expose of intense atmospheres, emotional states, and ecstatic physics.
Recorded in a bedroom in Clapton, East London, throughout 2014 and '15.
Mastered by Rashad Becker in August 2015. Matte sleeve with artwork by Mark Harwood and design by Maja Larsson.
Lima in Nida will be limited to 400 copies. The tracklist for the album is below and album cut "Amusement" can be heard above. You can pre-order Lima in Nida by emailing info@penultimatepress.com. You can read more information on the album here.
Lima in Nida Tracklist:
A1. The East
A2. The Landowners
A3. Venery
A3. Orion
B1. They Cling to Each Other
B2. The Sleepwalkers
B3. Amusement
B4. 5:00am
Mikroton Announces Foreign Correspondents Double Album
At the end of this month, Mikroton will be releasing a double album entitled Foreign Correspondents. The first disc will feature a recording from Ryu Hankil, Noid, and Matija Schellander that took place at Ftarri in Tokyo on October 13th, 2013. The second disc will feature the same artists as well as a slew of others. These include Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Nikos Veliotis, Klaus Filip, Ali Morimoto, Radu Malfatti, Syo Yoshihama, Takeshi Ishihara, Lionel Marchetti, Quing Li, Weisi Li, Luciano Maggiore, Jin Sangtae and participants of the dotolimpic workshop.
The full tracklist for the album is below. More information can be found here. You can purchase the album on the same page once they become available. Copies of Foreign Correspondents will also be at the Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Australia. Foreign Correspondents will be the final Mikroton release of 2015 but there a lot of releases that they already have planned for the next couple years. You can see a release schedule below.
Foreign Correspondents tracklist:
CD 1
Ryu Hankil, Noid, Matija Schellander
Tokyo Office
1. Ftarri | Tokyo | Oct. 14th 2013
CD 2
Ryu Hankil, Noid, Matija Schellander and others
Field Report
1. Tokyo subway closing door signature sound / 100¥ donation @ Sensō-ji shrine | Asakusa | Tokyo
2. Guggenheim House | Kobe | Oct. 11th 2013 | Ali Morimoto, Hankil Ryu, Klaus Filip, Matija Schellander, Nikos Veliotis, noid, Radu Malfatti
3. pachinko hall near Chidoribashi station | Osaka
4. Common Cafe | Osaka | Oct. 13th 2013 | Matija Schellander, noid
5. Port | Osaka | Oct. 12th 2013 | Hankil Ryu, Matija Schellander, noid
6. visitors platform on the 45th floor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Tower
7. Groove | Urasoe | Okinawa | Oct. 16th 2013 | Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Matija Schellander, noid
8. acoustic traffic light | Naha | Okinawa
9. Groove | Urasoe | Okinawa | Oct. 16th 2013 | noid, Syo Yoshihama
10. bird at a peacecamp in front of the american army military zone near Takae village | Okinawa
11. Morso | Naha | Oct. 19th 2013 | noid, Matija Schellander, Takeshi Ishihara
12. Dotolimpic festival @ Mullae Art Center | Seoul | Oct. 26th 2013 | Into The City | participants of the workshop our inner public space by Noid & Matija Schellander at Mullae Art Center playing air horns while walking away from Mullae Art Center
13. Dotolimpic festival @ Mullae Art Center | Seoul | Oct. 27th 2013 | Luciano Maggiore, Matija Schellander, Sangtae Jin
14. Dotolimpic festival @ Mullae Art Center | Seoul | Oct. 27th 2013 | victorian synthesizer orchestra | participants of the Workshop our inner public space by Matija Schellander & noid @ Mullae Art Center
15. wheeled suitcases on a paved street | Seoul / walking from Mullae Art Center to Yeongdeungpo metro station | Seoul
16. CIA | Hong Kong | Oct. 29th 2013 | without me everything would be even worse | Matija Schellander
17. CIA | Hong Kong | Oct. 29th 2013 | annoy the void | noid
18. machine drones in the staircase of the CIA Building | Hong Kong
19. CIA | Hong Kong | Oct. 29th 2013 | tiny tones | Matija Schellander, noid
20. fuel tank filled with Sound Art | Shanghai
21. Rockbund Art Museum | Shanghai | Nov. 2nd 2013 | freedom is the recognition of necessity | blank | silent dance | compacting by impact, all accompanied by huddle | noid, mp3-players of the audience playing random music through headphones
22. jing-hu players @ Ditan Park | Beijing
23. Zaija | Peking | Nov. 3rd 2013 | Lionel Marchetti, Matija Schellander, Quing Li, Weisi Li
Read Production Notes on Amorphous Spores from Takahiro Kawaguchi
Photo by Yohei Chiba
If you're like me you purchased Amorphous Spores, the new album from Takahiro Kawaguchi and Utah Kawasaki, immediately after pre-orders became available. It's an incredible album that doesn't sound like anything else right now and I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy if you can.
A couple weeks ago, Kawaguchi tweeted some interesting anecdotes about the album. Yuko Zama, the wife of Erstwhile label boss Jon Abbey, recently took the time to translate this series of tweets. They're presented as is below:
About Production of "Amorphous Spores"
I would like to write about the production process of our new CD that will come out by the end of this month.
Production Note 1:
The first recording day was at Ftarri, an open live recording. Although there was a big earthquake during the recording session, we kept recording our performances while the room was shaking badly. Somehow I remember that Nancy came to see our show by bicycle on the day. The owner (Suzuki) told me, "For the first time, I recognized you as a musician". He said so after ten years since we have met...
Production Note 2:
On the second day, we recorded at pool, creating the atmosphere of an organic reverb driving through the underground drainage tank like a motorbike runs through a mountain path aggressively. The heavy bass sounds of analog synthesizer made the metal walls of the ditch sound amazing. Everything was recorded perfectly by the wonderful engineer Taku Unami. After the session, we went to eat ramen at Maruyoshi Store.
Production Note 3:
We listened to the recordings and worked on editing. By overdubbing wild runaway sounds via automatic synchronization of a synthesizer, the whole album was tightened up nicely. We had an after-working party at Hinata in Shimurasakaue. It was a nice bar.
Production Note 4:
We went to a mountain in the morning with our designer Hirozumi Takeda and a photographer Ujin Matsuo, to look for mushrooms and fernbrake for our cover image shooting. The strangeness of mushrooms that emerged in the middle of the forest out of blue was quite interesting.
Production Note 5:
After adding some adjustments with patience, we completed the whole production. The CD will be released from Erstwhile Records in the US. The contents are quite deep and interesting.
Production Note 6:
I am a kind of person who listens to anything from improvisation, experimental music, hip hop to J-pop of idol singers, but I can recommend this album as something that anyone will find interesting with some strange impression.
Production Note 7:
I would like to thank Jon who has been pushing us with patience, Unami-san for recording, Takeda-san for design, Matsuo-san for photography, Suzuki-san from Ftarri, biki from pool, Michael Pisaro for his help in deciding the track order, and everyone in the audience who had listened to our performances so quietly during the big earthquake. It was really fun!
Production Note 8:
As a bonus for you, I attached a motion video of the mushroom on the CD cover: (It was on Twitter)
moby.to/kmw3gb
Production Note 9:
Takahiro Kawaguchi/Utah Kawasaki"Amorphous Spores"
Kawasaki-san is the best in this album.
http://goo.gl/VlW7C6
BTW, Kawasaki-san and I played in the entire album. (I added this comment since it sounded like it was my solo album when I read my tweets again.)
Jon Abbey also mentioned on Facebook that he and the artists would like to thank Michael Pisaro for his help in sequencing the tracks on Amorphous Spores. You can pre-order a copy of Amorphous Spores now by emailing Abbey at erstrecs@aol.com. All pre-orders come with immediate digital download.
Takahiro Kawaguchi/Utah Kawasaki's Amorphous Spores & Kevin Drumm/Jason Lescalleet's Busman's Holiday Out Now
To solidify itself even further as the best record label of the year, Erstwhile Records has just released two new albums. The first comes from Takahiro Kawaguchi and Utah Kawasaki and is entitled Amorphous Spores. This marks the second time Kawaguchi has appeared on Erstwhile. His first appearance was n 2011 when he collaborated with Taku Unami on Teatro Assente. This is, however, Kawasaki's first time on the label. Kawasaki released the charming U as in Utah last year with Ju Sei.
The second new album comes from Kevin Drumm and Jason Lescalleet and is entitled Busman's Holiday. This is a follow up to The Abyss, the ambitious double album they released last year on Erstwhile. The album has 6 tracks and is about 52 minutes long. The album covers for both Amorphous Spores and Busman's Holiday are above.
You can pre-order both albums now by contacting label owner Jon Abbey at erstrecs@aol.com. Pre-ordering Amorphous Spores comes with an immediate digital download (note: it's .wav files). Busman's Holiday, however, needs to reach 100 pre-orders before digital copies will be given out. Tracklists for both albums are below.
Amorphous Spores tracklist:
1. 12:32
2. 10:59
3. 4:17
4. 10:01
5. 5:20
Busman's Holiday tracklist:
1. The Hunt
2. Powerless
3. The Wait
4. The Push
5. Belligerence
6. Honest Toil
Penultimate Press to Reissue Works by Étant Donnés, Aurore Out Now
Étant Donnés were an experimental French duo made up of brothers Eric and Marc Hurtado. In 2008, Vinyl-on-demand released a 6 LP box set comprising their early tapes from the late 70s to early 80s. Musique concrète practices were present even then and continued to develop throughout the 80s. This culminated in a trilogy of records—Aurore, Royaume, and Bleu—that Étant Donnés released in the early 90s. They were more nuanced and incorporated field recordings and whispering more purposefully than anything they had created before. The result feels very much like the musical embodiment of a fever dream.
Aurore, the first album in the trilogy, is out now. You can hear the first two tracks from the album above. Royaume, the second album in the trilogy, will come packaged with the tracks that ended up on Étant Donnés' split with D.F. Sadist School in 1992. Aurore is limited to 500 copies and comes with a fully-printed high-gloss inner sleeve. Rashad Becker handled the remastering. You can find more information on the album and purchase it over here.
Ftarri Release New Album from stilllife (Takashi Tsuda and Hiroki Sasajima)
Late last year, Japanese record label Nature Bliss released the debut album from stilllife, the collaborative project from Takashi Tsuda and Hiroki Sasajima. The duo have quickly followed up that album with archipelago, which has been released on Improvised Music From Japan sublabel Ftarri. archipelago comprises recordings taken throughout the past couple years. Both Tsuda and Sasajima performed outside and the sounds of birds and the ocean coalesce with their own playing to create something tranquil and elegant. The album is made up of a single hour-long track and the recordings were, according to the press release, "arranged like an island chain". Hear more samples, and purchase archipelago here. The album cover is below.
