Monthly Archives: June 2008

TS06 – Mika Vainio “Behind the Radiators”

30th June 2008 » Permalink: TS06 – Mika Vainio “Behind the Radiators”

7″ vinyl only
Limited edition
Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition

Track list:

Side A: Behind the Radiator Part 1 – 2:52 +
Side B: Behind the Radiator Part 2 – 2:58 +

Locked grooves
Mika Vainio continues the series of Touch Sevens, 7″ vinyl-only releases, with this stunning record. The crackle… The fire of the analogue… Mika Vainio is the most adept at using crackle as a voice. Sound artists have used crackle ever since the reality of digital audio hit home, however there’s a big difference between this and how other practitioners use it…

Here are two tracks recorded by Mika in Berlin this February.

He has released 3 solo albums for Touch under his own name [Onko, 1997; Kajo, 2000 and In the Land of the `blind, One-Eyed is King, 2003. He is perhaps best known as part of the Finnish duo, Pan Sonic, and he also releases work as Ø for Finnish label, Säkhö Recordings.

7″ vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. Today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a “healthy” popular culture. It might seem like another retrograde step to launch a vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and indeed there is an element of “the rear view mirror”… the generation of Touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong emotional attachment to it. This series is more than that… an overtly critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work which cannot be applied to digital formats – the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the A & the B and the additional dimension of the visual counterpoint. As for the aspect of audience participation, we choose not to specify the RPM on the label, encouraging the listener to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. An attempt to make music that works at both speeds. The front cover might actually be the back cover…
http://www.phinnweb.org/vainio/

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Subsonic

4th June 2008 » Permalink: Subsonic

rosy parlane’s Iris [Touch # TO:58, 2004] is being played on rotation inside “the bunker” at the christchurch city art gallery (nz) until mid july

more info can be found here

TS03 – AER “Project”

2nd June 2008 » Permalink: TS03 – AER “Project”

7″ vinyl only
Limited edition
Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition

Track list:

Side A: Headphones
Side B: Speakers

‘Project’ began as a film soundtrack for “The Overcoming of Hazard” by Brad Butler and Karen Mirza, whose 3 monitor installation piece was presented in the crypt of St. Pancras church in London, August 07. It uses four atmosphere recordings, short wave radio and an organ stop – an attempt to confuse inside and out. Mixed with Mathias Gmachl at Loop.ph using Digital Performer, one side is designed for headphone listening, the other for speaker playback. The recording of the 16mm projector was made with the assistance of Al Rees.

AER is the occasional recording name for Jon Wozencroft, art director and editor of Touch. For more information on AER, go here

about the filmmakers:
Karen Mirza is an influential figure in artist film and video, known both for her work and her curatorial practice. She has recently been appointed a director of the new LUX organisation, and has been a tutor in film and video at the Royal College of Art for several years. Her work has been screened at the Tate Modern, Dokument/Art Film Germany, the National Film and Television Theatre, ‘Other British Cinema’, The LUX centre ‘Monuments and mise en scene’ where it preceded Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the Whitechapel gallery and festivals in Australia, Holland and Germany. Karen recently completed a new body of work, ‘site/non site’ at Goliath visual arts space in New York. Through her activities as a spokesperson for experimental film, Karen has been asked to present her work at screenings in Paris, Berlin and India, as well as creating an evening for the London Film Festival. In collaboration with David Cunningham and Brad Butler, Karen is currently launching ‘where a straight line meets a curve’, her second film financed by the Arts Council.

Brad Butler graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Documentary Direction. He also has a first class degree in Anthropology from UCL. His documentaries have been screened on Channel 4 and the BBC, as well as the ICA, NFT, Hedah, Amsterdam. Mute Loops, D-Net, The Lux Centre for Film, Video & Digital Arts. Instit. Francais d’Architectur, Paris. Architecture Film Festival, Rotterdam, BBC British Short Film Festival, London. Experimenta Media Arts, Melbourne, Australia. New British Cinema, Cinema de Balie, Amsterdam, The Tate Gallery, London and multiple festivals across Europe and the US. In September 2000 he won and headlined BBC2’s talent 2000 competition, as well as winning the National Student Television Award in 1998. Brad has just directed his first feature length documentary in the US entitled ‘The Tunnel’, launched in Dec 2002. Brad is actively linked to the DocHouse initiative in London and is co-curator of the light reading series. In 1998 Brad Butler and Karen Mirza established no.w.here. Building on their training as film specialists, their vision was to create a cross-disciplinary, multi platform studio for experimental film. no.w.here have grown to become major activists in this area and now manage ‘Artslab’, a not for profit professional studio dedicated to film as a fine art practice. Artslab was launched in January 2003 and is the only lab in the UK to offer the filmmaker hands on manipulation of the film negative in post production and is a central meeting point for Independent filmmakers interested in the preservation of the film form.

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