Touch live @ Madeiradig 30th November
Thomas Ankersmit
Jana Winderen
Biosphere
Touch
Monthly Archives: November 2012
Tone 33 – Various Artists “Thirty years and counting”
CD – 4 tracks – 70:16
Edition of 1000 oversized digifiles
Compiled, edited, mixed and produced by Mike Harding & Jon Wozencroft
Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye, 26th October 2012
Track list:
SIDE A 16:58
Touch 33 – Pont Saeson
Fennesz – 55 Cancri e
Bruce Gilbert – Apis
Rosy Parlane – Awhitu
Oren Ambarchi – Merely A Portmanteau
SIDE B 17:15
The Book Depository
ELEH – Over Woven
BJNilsen – The cackle of dogs and laughter of death
Nana April Jun – High And Low And Mid Plane Mass
SIDE C 18:14
Chris Watson – Brussel-Nord
Mika Vainio – Erstwhile
Carl Michael von Hausswolff – Cleansing of the Cruel Tyrants Chamber
Jana Winderen – In a Silent Place
SIDE D 17:49
Philip Jeck – Saint Pancras
Francisco López – untitled#286
Z’EV – the inreadables
Hildur Gudnadottir – Just This
Senescent
Biosphere – Gryfici
“30 years and counting is an echo of a time when the world was in a critical condition, and potentially about to blow itself into oblivion at the tail end of the Cold War. As such the title is a wry reflection on the situation we find ourselves in today, where the final curtain is less likely to close, but the stakes somehow seem to be more extreme and polarised than ever.
As far as Touch is concerned, it is an expression of our youthful relationship to the work. Mike Harding and Jon Wozencroft invited each of the Touch artists to contribute a glimpse of their current practice to what is effectively a group show rather than a compilation. The brief was not only to celebrate a situation, but to remind each other why we are doing it, and make a kind of documentary realism.
Some artists responded quickly with significant twists and returns to their signature sound and others left it to the last minute. The net result was that Mike and Jon mastered the LP/CD more or less as live performance in the cutting room, Transition, as an expression of the vitality of the project rather than some pre-ordained historical item.
The history is built into the cover with two images of the first computer, the ‘Colossus’, built in Bletchley Park during the early 1940s as a means of cracking the Enigma codes… Here the pressure of time is at its most compressed. Two contra-punctal images were shot only recently, backstage moments of Touch 30 situations which as historical events, pale in comparison – they are just personal, memories in a flash.
30 years and counting is a filmic/time-based response from a collective of artists who have made a distinct impression on contemporary music and the way things go. Fennesz, Eleh, Hildur Gudnadottir, Chris Watson, Philip Jeck, Biosphere… We should really list everyone. That’s what they try and do on hip-hop albums.
We started with cassettes; this project commenced as a dedication to vinyl rather than digital, a question concerning the art of recording. 30 years and counting is a manifesto after all these transformations. It is available on CD and download. The vinyl flares with the crackle of the present.” Jon Wozencroft, November 2012 Continue reading
Tone 33V – Various Artists “Thirty years and counting”
4 tracks – DLP – 70:16
Gatefold full colour sleeve with black inners
Limited edition of 1000
Compiled, edited, mixed and produced by Mike Harding & Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition, 16th October 2012
Track list:
SIDE A 16:58
Touch 33 – Pont Saeson
Fennesz – 55 Cancri e
Bruce Gilbert – Apis
Rosy Parlane – Awhitu
Oren Ambarchi – Merely A Portmanteau
SIDE B 17:15
The Book Depository
ELEH – Over Woven
BJNilsen – The cackle of dogs and laughter of death
Nana April Jun – High And Low And Mid Plane Mass
SIDE C 18:14
Chris Watson – Brussel-Nord
Mika Vainio – Erstwhile
Carl Michael von Hausswolff – Cleansing of the Cruel Tyrants Chamber
Jana Winderen – In a Silent Place
SIDE D 17:49
Philip Jeck – Saint Pancras
Francisco López – untitled#286
Z’EV – the inreadables
Hildur Gudnadottir – Just This
Senescent
Biosphere – Gryfici
“30 years and counting is an echo of a time when the world was in a critical condition, and potentially about to blow itself into oblivion at the tail end of the Cold War. As such the title is a wry reflection on the situation we find ourselves in today, where the final curtain is less likely to close, but the stakes somehow seem to be more extreme and polarised than ever.
As far as Touch is concerned, it is an expression of our youthful relationship to the work. Mike Harding and Jon Wozencroft invited each of the Touch artists to contribute a glimpse of their current practice to what is effectively a group show rather than a compilation. The brief was not only to celebrate a situation, but to remind each other why we are doing it, and make a kind of documentary realism.
Some artists responded quickly with significant twists and returns to their signature sound and others left it to the last minute. The net result was that Mike and Jon mastered the LP/CD more or less as live performance in the cutting room, Transition, as an expression of the vitality of the project rather than some pre-ordained historical item.
The history is built into the cover with two images of the first computer, the ‘Colossus’, built in Bletchley Park during the early 1940s as a means of cracking the Enigma codes… Here the pressure of time is at its most compressed. Two contra-punctal images were shot only recently, backstage moments of Touch 30 situations which as historical events, pale in comparison – they are just personal, memories in a flash.
30 years and counting is a filmic/time-based response from a collective of artists who have made a distinct impression on contemporary music and the way things go. Fennesz, Eleh, Hildur Gudnadottir, Chris Watson, Philip Jeck, Biosphere… We should really list everyone. That’s what they try and do on hip-hop albums.
We started with cassettes; this project commenced as a dedication to vinyl rather than digital, a question concerning the art of recording. 30 years and counting is a manifesto after all these transformations. It is available on CD and download. The vinyl flares with the crackle of the present.” Jon Wozencroft, November 2012
Buy “30 years and counting” [DLP] in the TouchShop
also available:
Buy “30 years and counting” [CD] in the TouchShop [Now available on pre-order]
Buy “30 years and counting” [FLAC] in the TouchShop [Available later in December]
Tonight Touch.30 Live in Glasgow
8pm 22nd November | The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Scotland
Philip Jeck, Thomas Köner, BJNilsen
Fairy Tales | DVD BFI & Touch
DVD – Region 2 only
Commissioned exclusive work from Fennesz ● Chris Watson ● Oren Ambarchi ● BJNilsen ● Hildur Gudnadottir ● Sarah Nicolls ● Jana Winderen ● Michael Esposito ● Leif Elggren ● Maia Urstad ● Achim Mohné ● Tom Haines & Chris Branch (members of The London Snorkelling Team) ● Pascal Wyse ● Marcus Davidson ● Joachim Nordwall & Henrik Rylander ● Philip Jeck ● Sohrab and others
also with free extras not on the DVD from Jacob Kirkegaard:
&
Pascal Wyse:
Once upon a time, during the belle epoque in turn-of-the-century Paris, a short-lived film form called scenes de feeries, or fairy films, was becoming popular thanks to the Pathe Frerer company. In jewel-like colours the films, made to appeal to young and old alike, recreated the theatrical spectacles of the age with their fantastical settings, dancing girls, mythical beasts, supernatural beings and a plethora of stage tricks enhanced by the techniques of the new medium of film.
Presented here with original hand-colouring, each film is accompanied with a newly commissioned soundtrack by recording artists from the leading experimental music label Touch.
Film notes written by Bryony Dixon. Extra films notes written by Michael Brooke. Music notes written by Mike Harding.
Touch.30 – Atmospheres 4 at Beaconsfield, London SE11
FENNESZ SHOWCASES NEW MATERIAL • MASTERCLASS IN SOUND TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITAL MUSIC • PETER SAVILLE NAVIGATES THE BRIDGE BETWEEN DESIGN AND FINE ART • BRUCE GILBERT READING & MUCH MORE…
“SOME KIND OF WOODSTOCK WHERE YOU WOULD LEAST EXPECT IT…”
A two-day festival celebrating 30 years of Touch, with performances, installations and displays, and a full programme of workshops and masterclasses in design and music, recording, mastering and the digital realm. The full programme is now available to read below.
Venue: Beaconsfield, 22 Newport St, Vauxhall, London, SE11 6AY
Dates: 5-6 December 2012
The Festival Pass entitles you to access all events at this festival and is now onsale here:
Buy the Festival Pass in the TouchShop
Buy your ticket for 5th December 2012 (programme below)
Buy your ticket for 6th December 2012 (programme below)
Atmospheres 4 – Touch.30 at Beaconsfield is the main UK event in a year-round programme of activities celebrating 30 years of existence.
Atmospheres 4 – Touch.30 at Beaconsfield is a two-day festival with performances, installations and displays, and a full programme of workshops and masterclasses. The Festival will explore all aspects of Touch: the music; the distinctive and influential design and photography; the process of recording and mastering; and the opportunities of the digital realm.
Participation in the event will extend well beyond Touch artists and creative team into the hinterland around the label: academics, industry professionals, other ground breaking music organisations etc.
Atmospheres will be curated by two of Touch’s founders and the current creative team, Mike Harding and Jon Wozencroft, and produced by them with along with Touch’s experienced digital and live production team already responsible this year for events in the UK, Germany, Belgium, USA and elsewhere detailed here.
Day One – Wednesday 5th December 2012
Afternoon events, 2pm-6pm:
• 2pm: Jon Wozencroft talks about the history of Touch, “Through the Digital Glass”
• 2:30pm: Denis Blackham (Skye Mastering) and Christian Fennesz on mastering for digital manufacture and the demands of the “Venice” project
• 3pm: “When did sound become music?” Sonic intervention from Panasonic.
Chaired by John Kieffer: Denis Blackham, Jason (Transition Mastering Studios) and Jon Wozencroft, a panel on digital and analogue sound, and how this determines listening outcomes
Sonic intervention from Ryoji Ikeda
4pm Break
• 4:15pm approx. Edwin Pouncey discusses his record collection…
• 4:30pm: Chaired by Tony Myatt (University of Surrey): Mike Harding, Seb Jouan (Aecom Acoustic Design & Arts & Culture) on multi-channel with Hildur Gudnadottir. This session reflects upon hi-audio formats, a specific example, and their future
(Followed by questions)
Screening Situations (upstairs), 6pm-7pm
• Coda-plus 47 (audio by Fennesz & Ryoji Ikeda)
• Liquid Music (audio by Fennesz)
Evening Performances, 8pm-11pm
• Hildur Gudnadottir – Leyfɗu Ljósinu (Beaconsfield version)
• audio intervention by David Toop, a presentation of “Yanomamo Shamanism”, released on ‘Touch Travel’ [T4] in 1984.
• Philip Jeck
• People Like Us – 4′ 33″
• audio intervention by BJNilsen, who plays a new piece recorded outside the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, “The cackle of dogs and laughter of death”.
• Playback of a surround-sound rendition of his Touch.30 piece “Brussels Nord” by Chris Watson (in absentia)
• Fennesz
Day Two – Thursday 6th December 2012
Afternoon events, 2pm-6pm:
• 2pm: Mike Harding introduces Touch’s digital presence on the web with Philip Marshall (websites) & Tim Medcalf (iOS devices) followed by at
• 2:45pm: Paul Wilson & Cheryl Tipp from The British Library on the TouchRadio archive
• 3pm: Jon Wozencroft & Garry Mouat – “Bromides and Spray Mount” – Touch design in the early years
• 3:45pm: Design Seminar by Jon Wozencroft – How Touch has responded to changing formats and download culture
•: 4:30pm Jon Wozencroft & Peter Saville discuss their parallel experience of visual culture, and the movement of graphic design to the art world (Followed by questions)
Screening Situations (upstairs), 6pm-7:15pm
• The Whitstable Symphony (audio by BJNilsen)
• The Suffolk Symphony (audio by Philip Jeck & BJNilsen)
Evening Performances, 8pm-11pm
• Thomas Köner
• followed by an audio intervention by Bruce Gilbert – “Sliding off the World”
• CM von Hausswolff
• Jon Wozencroft introduces Jon Savage’s and his pirate broadcast for Network 21 in 1987
• Biosphere – transfiguring Arnold Schoenberg’s “Verklärte Nacht”
Bar area: audio interventions by Simon Fisher Turner and others…
In the Bar: Photography by Jon Wozencroft: The Listening Eye
Buy the Festival Pass in the TouchShop
Buy your ticket for 5th December 2012
Buy your ticket for 6th December 2012
