Monthly Archives: January 2011

Shaping Voices | A Shapeshifters Anthology

Hard back book featuring Jon Wozencroft’s ‘Heart and Soul’
148pp full colour

Shaping Voices is distributed by Oogachtend NV

Today, design exists in multiple contexts and encompasses a broad range of disciplines, practices, technologies and forms. Our information society is constantly pushing and redefi ning the visual landscape, opening the field for new developments and ideas. Throughout the book, the different authors present arguments and ideas to broaden the readers’ perspective, allowing them to go beyond the complexity of the current design debate. Shaping Voices aims to discuss the questions (and possible answers) concerning the development of new concepts for re-evaluating contemporary design practice and theory. The book contains the ideas and reflections of a variety of authors, ranging from a selection of designers and artists who have addressed this question within the framework of their work and design practice, to researchers and media art and design theorists who are facing these questions in their daily routine as lecturers and coaches of design students. The book is intended to be a means for the authors and contributors to communicate their shared passion regarding the rich potential of the design landscape for enlivening our environment.

TO:82 – CM von Hausswolff “800 000 Seconds in Harar”

Released: 2011
CD

Track listing:

Track A: Day and Night 27:14
1. Day
2. Night
3. Alas!

Track B
4. The Sleeper in the Valley 13:32

CM von Hausswolff says: “I was approached by my old friend and Radium 226.05 colleague Ulrich Hillebrand, now director of Angered Theatre in Göteborg. He informed me that there was a new play in the process of being written by author and theorist Michael Azar called “Jag är en annan” (I is another) stemming form the famous letter written by Arthur Rimbaud in his youth. The play uses Rimbaud’s life from being a young poet in Charleville ending with him being the trader in Harar, Ethiopia. Hillebrand asked me if I was willing to compose the music to this play. I accepted. I told Hillebrand that I needed to use material that had something to do with Rimbaud’s life and as he had connections in Ethiopia and in the small city of Harar he said: why don’t you go to Harar for 10 days and see what you can find?

So I went to Addis Ababa where a guy was waiting for me and drove me the 10 hours beautiful ride to Harar. I made recordings and looked for other useful material.

There are 2 tracks. On the first track, which consists of three “parts” I have used material from Harar. The long dronic sounds are taken form an instrument that I, after searching for days, bought in Harar – it’s called a “krar” and is a string instruments (it’s quite clear that I have used a string instrument- also if you study Ethiopian music you came across the name of Saint Yared and he was the first to construct a notation system for music… much earlier than the Europeans). As I could not really master the actual playing of this instrument, I bought a bow for a violin and some rosin and with this I got one good tone out from this krar. Then the computer helped me to sort the modes and pitches out. On this piece there also two location recordings: the first one you hear is a recording I did outside Harar on a hill where there are next to no car sounds or other machine sounds – just the wind, insects, some kids and that (I wanted this recording to be more or less timeless or at least 19th century and forward… The second location recording was done in the night in my hotel, where I woke up one night and became fascinated by the leaking taps in my bathroom so I decided to record this.

On the second there are only oscillators used … several of them … AND using one low pitch oscillator I ran a sound filtered through. This sound is the low “rhythm” you can hear, and it’s a low pitched morse code signal… and the text is the famous poem Rimbaud wrote in his youth called Le Dormeur Du Val (The Sleeper in the Valley). This poem is a beautiful text starting off in the nature, where a person is sleeping in the grass. Slowly Rimbaud zooms in and we read that it’s a soldier and at the very end we are told he has two red wounds on his chest – the guy is dead!”

Arthur Rimbaud lived in Harar from 1894 until shortly before his death in 1891.

This is Carl Michael von Hausswolff’s first album for Touch, but the connection goes back many years, of course. Carl Michael von Hausswolff was born in 1956 in Linköping, Sweden. He lives and works in Stockholm. Since the end of the 1970s, Hausswolff has worked as a composer using the tape recorder as his main instrument and as a conceptual visual artist working with performance art, light and sound installations and photography. You can read a full biog on his website here.

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Festival in Athens, Greece | 28th – 29th January 2011

BJNilsen, Mika Vainio, Jacob Kirkegaard & Hild-Sophie Tafjord are all taking part in the Hertz Festival in Athens this week.

Curated by Novi_sad, who is also performing.

More information can be found at www.hertzfestival.com

Sohrab – A Hidden Place in Brainwashed

Brainwashed (USA):

There is an obvious sense of isolation, both overt and implied, within this album. As a young composer in the culturally restricted country of Iran, the hushed textures and quiet moments feel forbidden, and therefore all the more attractive to hear. In addition, the quiet, meditative passages are occasionally broken up by sharp, loud outbursts that magnify sense of paranoia in listening to the proceedings. Continue reading

The Art of Listening

The Art of Listening – a blog from Touch’s residency in Brussels, January 17-21 2011.

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Touch at Sint-Lukas Brussels University | 17th -21st January 2011

The Art of Listening

Mike Harding & BJNilsen, with a sound seminar by Jon Wozencroft. (see above for our daily blog)

Transmedia in association with Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel, as part of The City of Sounds’ Research Project by Joost Fonteyne, Boris Debackere and Steven Devleminck.
Workshops, talks & field trips with a performance at Recyclart on Thursday 20th January.
Although the teaching element of the week is not open to the public, all are welcome to the performance night. For further information please visit the Recyclart website.
BJNilsen & Touch live

Thursday 20th January 2011 21h00
Recyclart
Station Brussel-Kapellekerk/Gare Bruxelles-Chapelle
Ursulinenstraat/25/Rue des Ursulines
1000 Brussel/Bruxelles

Sohrab on BBC Radio 3 Late Junction | 13th January 2011

2011

BJNilsen & Mike Harding kick off the year with a week-long course at Transmedia, Brussels. CM von Hausswolff releases his first album on Touch. The Touch Sevens series continues, and releases from Fennesz, Biosphere and Chris Watson adorn the year. A new series of limited edition (300) white label vinyl only releases commences with ‘Vinyl’ by BJNilsen. The ‘Touch’ iPhone & iPad app is submitted to Apple iTunes on 2nd October.

TO:64LP – Jóhann Jóhannsson “Virthulegu forsetar”

Released: 2011
Double Vinyl

Track list:

1. Part 1 (14:51)
2. Part 2 (14:14)
3. Part 3 (14:45)
4. Part 4 (21:45)

Bass, Electronics – Skúli Sverrisson
Conductor – Guðni Franzson
Glockenspiel, Bells, Electronics – Mathias M.D. Hemstock
Horns – Anna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, Einar St. Jónsson, Emil Friðfinnsson, Stefán Jón Bernharðsson, Þorkell Jóelsson
Organ – Guðmundur Sigurðsson, Hörður Bragason
Performer – The Caput Ensemble
Photography – J. Wozencroft
Recorded By, Mastered by Sveinn Kjartansson
Trumpet – Eiríkur Örn Pálsson , Ásgeir Steingrímsson
Tuba – Sigurður Már Valsson

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