Touch Newsletter #217

Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #217. In March 2020, Organ Reframed returns to London’s Union Chapel. In performance: Chris Watson, Anna von Hausswolff, Claire M Singer, Abul Mogard, Ipek Gorgun, Katherine Tinker, Jacob Lekkerkerker, James McVinnie and the London Contemporary Orchestra and Choir. Tickets are on sale now. Full details below.

The Tapeworm closes 2019 with two new tapes – spooky synthwave on “Scrutiny” by Middex and a 26-track mixtape, “XYZ – an ABC of The Tapeworm as Mixed by Dale Cornish”, produced in collaboration with Stellage, Moscow.

On 14 December in London, Savage Pencil and Barbara Frost will be appearing at “Satanic Flea Market: AntiChristmas Fayre 2019”, signing copies of their book and also a special postcard in an edition of 100 numbered and signed copies. For those who cannot attend, a few unsigned copies of “Cuckoo Head Cool Dog” remain on Bandcamp.

“Organ Reframed”
27–28 March 2020
Union Chapel, London

On 27 March 2020 the fourth annual Organ Reframed returns to Union Chapel with a programme packed full of innovative music. Alongside headline performances, the two-day international festival will also feature talks, masterclasses, an interactive soundscape and family-friendly workshops. Tickets are on sale now.

Organ Reframed launches with three new works composed and performed by artists known for redefining their fields: Anna von Hausswolff, renowned for her gothic organ creations; enigma Abul Mogard, a synth visionary; and Ipek Gorgun, a composer of energetic, textural masterpieces. All three works for organ, electronics and the London Contemporary Orchestra will push Union Chapel’s sonic possibilities to the extreme.

The Saturday afternoon will see the Chapel transformed by sounds and rhythms echoing the seasonal shift of the Highland year. This free installation by Chris Watson and Claire M Singer will feature the wind, weather and animals of Scotland. These sounds will interact with the organ played by James McVinnie, Katherine Tinker and Jacob Lekkerkerker.

The festival concludes on Saturday evening with the world premiere of “Voci del Vento” by Chris Watson and Claire M Singer. This collaborative work will combine organ, field recordings, modular synths, the London Contemporary Orchestra and Choir to transport audiences on an epic journey from pole to pole.

Tickets now on sale at unionchapel.org.uk

Middex
“Scrutiny”
TTW#119

Cassette only – limited edition of 100 copies. Recorded with Lindsay Corstorphine at Devil’s Mango III. Oblex versions mixed by Oblate and Middex. Illustration: Simon Scott. Releases 13 December – pre-order now.

Tracklist:
A1: Visitor Fed
A2: Rook Takes Town
A3: Scrutiny
A4: Taker
B1: Visitor Fed (Oblex Version)
B2: Rook Takes Town (Oblex Version)
B3: Scrutiny (Oblex Version)
B4: Taker (Oblex Version)

Middex came out of the city-edge where aircraft fly low, where runways and canals are false exits and disappeared in to the dense city and with crude electronics and blunt voice attempts a communication beneath tarmac, above rooftop and with side-eye slowly surveying left and right.

Middex performs very occasionally and has released on Polytechnic Youth and Making Books.

Pre-order Middex “Scrutiny” on Bandcamp
More information on www.tapeworm.org.uk

Various Artists
“XYZ – an ABC of The Tapeworm as Mixed by Dale Cornish”
TTW#123

Cassette only – limited edition of 75 copies. Illustration by venoztks. Releases 13 December – pre-order now.

A scrambled ABC of The Tapeworm, as mixed by Dale Cornish.

A 26-track mixtape featuring, not in alphabetical order…

A is for Laura Agnusdei, B is for Blood Music, C is for Dale Cornish, D is for The Dead Mauriacs, E is for Michael Esposito, F is for Le Forbici Di Manitù, G is for Stefan Goldmann, H is for Howlround, I is for Iceman Junglist Kru, J is for Jay Glass Dubs, K is for Kostis Kilymis, L is for Davide Luciani, M is for Achim Mohné, N is for NYZ, O is for OUT, P is for Marta de Pascalis, Q is for Quietitude, R is for Rishaug Marhaug, S is for Steinbrüchel, T is for Tears|Ov, U is for UnicaZürn, V is for Wouter Van Veldhoven, W is for Paul H Williams, X is for X-Ray Sally, Y is for Yol and Z is for Ziúr x Château Laut.

Pre-order “XYZ – an ABC of The Tapeworm” on Bandcamp
Buy the limited red-shell version from stellage.store, Moscow
More information on www.tapeworm.org.uk

Strafe F.R.
“Shadow Position”
Tone 68

Vinyl LP, and on digital services. Buy Strafe F.R. “Shadow Position” on Bandcamp. Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft.

Tracklist:
A1: Nachtmaschine
A2: Every Day XXL
B1: Shadow Position
B2: Isabella B.

There are 4 tracks, 4 different windows to look out from our studio in Düsseldorf into the street and their different layers of sound.

4 horizons, 4 spy holes in the door, 4 eyes and 4 shopping windows. 4 landscapes.

Witness the electric city and the power house. Strafe F.R. is sitting inside the fuse box. The electric chirp of the night. The socket in which we sleep. The dog comes, in order to devour Strafe F.R. First he eats the rebellion and next he bites the Strafe.

The house and the body, both are earthed and the veins are vibrating. Between the 3rd and the 4th hour of the morning we enter the realm of insomnia. You fly by not using an airplane.

An old woman is cleaning the door bells with her own spittle. The old man is distilling schnaps in his back garden. The swimmers are gliding through the day on top of a greasy film. The reception is a flare into seconds until it fades away into noise again. The kettle drum gives the rhythm of breathing, the bass determines the time. You stumble forward, forward into the next day.

From our window we see a public building where there exists a toilet, its porcelain shows the most beautiful craquele fissures. There is an historic poster of Lenin. It is fixed on a garden fence in the landscape and the stinging nettles grow over it softly swinging in the wind.

There are shadows but there is also brightness, this means there are complementary colours and contrasts, movements and reflection until there is stillness. We see the back-breeding of cattle in the Neanderthal age and at the same time we look into the large heating room of an art museum, where we observe tubes and their upstream pressure regulators.

All sounds and music instruments recorded by Strafe F.R. – Bernd Kastner, Siegfried M. Syniuga. “Shadow Position” was mixed by Rasmus Zschoch. “Nachtmaschine”, “Every Day XXL” and “Isabella B.” were mixed by Strafe F.R. at Strafe studio in 2019 / Düsseldorf. Thanks to Detlef Klepsch for additional technical support. Female vocal by Anna Nettra.

Buy Strafe F.R. “Shadow Position” on Bandcamp
Videos for all four tracks have been uploaded to Touch’s YouTube channel

Laura Agnusdei
“Laurisilva”
WHO#17

Vinyl LP in an edition of 300, and on digital services. Buy Laura Agnusdei “Laurisilva” on Bandcamp. Cut by Jason Goz at Transition Mastering Studios. Illustration: Laura Agnusdei.

Tracklist:
A1: Epiphyte Blues
A2: Lungs Dance
A3: Shaky Situation
B1: Laurisilva
B2: Jungle Shuffle
B3: Golden Kites

Laura Agnusdei is an electroacoustic composer and saxophone player from Bologna. Classically trained, she also holds a master’s degree in electronic music composition from The Institute of Sonology of The Hague. Until recently she was the saxophonist of Italian cult psych-rock band Julie’s Haircut.

“Laurisilva” is the scientific name for a kind of subtropical forest, charactarised by the presence of laurophyll, broadleaf tree species and high humidity. Laura Agnusdei borrowed this scientific term, which contains also the same Latin roots of her first name, to describe the personal musical ecosystem of her debut album. Its six tracks invite the listener to explore an imaginary landscape made from sounds growing and layering like biological organisms within a forest.

“Laurisilva” is a hybrid habitat, where the acoustic dimension of wind instruments – explored both in their melodic and timbral possibilities – meshes with polymorphic electronic sounds. The high biodiversity of the record takes inspirations from Jon Hassell, Charles Mingus, Björk and Terry Riley as well as the “Fifth World Music” of Italian label Artetetra. It also reflects Laura’s eclectic experience as a saxophone player and composer, ranging from psych to marching bands, from acousmatic composition to free improvisation.

While her saxophone is often the leading voice of the work, it occasionally shares the stage with the trumpet of contemporary music player Elisabeth Lusche, the swinging reeds of Italian jazz musician Giacomo Bertocchi and the ancient flutes of early music expert Thomas Reyna.

Buy Laura Agnusdei “Laurisilva” on Bandcamp

Guerrilla Audio

Guerrilla Audio is a new series of audio raids by Simon Fisher Turner.

guer·ril·la
ɡəˈrilə/
noun
noun: guerilla
a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces.

Each audio edit will be posted for 14 days and then removed from the site, although the information about each guerrilla activity will be archived, but without the audio. There will be two postings per month with the first (also featuring Klara Lewis & Rainier Lericolais) on 1st August 2015, so please check in regularly to listen to the latest offering. We are well into the 3rd year and have just posted episode 104…

Guerrilla Audio
www.simonfisherturner.com