Touch Newsletter #227
Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #227. A further two new tracks, from Mark Van Hoen and Richard Chartier, are now available to subscribers of Touch: Isolation – a project that will evolve over the coming weeks. We plan to upload the series twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays… A time to support independent music while it still exists! Click here to subscribe.
Touch is proud to co-host Natura Urbana, with Sandra Jasper, the film co-author and Junior Professor of Geography + Gender in Human-Environment-Systems at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Jules Cooch from the UCLA Botanical Gardens, Los Angeles. Originally intended for live presentation with a panel discussion on 2 April 2020 at the La Kretz Garden Pavilion, there is now “Natura Urbana: The Brachen of Berlin - Virtual Film Screening & Urban Ecology Panel Discussion”. See below for details.
Chris Watson appeared on BBC Radio 3’s “Private Passions” yesterday. During the hour-long broadcast he talked to presenter Michael Berkeley about how his favourite music is inspired by the natural world. His musical selections include tracks by Hildur Guðnadóttir and Claire M Singer, and the show opens with a track Chris recorded for Ánde Somby from 2016’s “Yoiking with the Winged Ones” album. The show is available on BBC Sounds for the next month.
“Touch: Isolation”
V33:40
Touch: Isolation – A promise of at least 20 new and exclusive tracks recorded by Touch artists. A photographic counterpoint, the view from Hampstead Heath during the London lockdown. Addressing the distance between the micro and the macro – scenes that are familiar and universal, with forensic attention to the suspended nature of our time now. They are a bit nervous.
Subscribe at any point. Six tracks are now available. The sampler, the opening transmission by Jana Winderen, followed by Chris Watson, Bana Haffar and, as of today, two new tracks from Mark Van Hoen and Richard Chartier. We plan to upload the series twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays…
Mark Van Hoen
“Rewilding”
“I made some recordings around my home in Topanga, notable due to the significantly lessened car traffic and airline activity – which has had the effect of increasing sound from birds, frogs & wildlife… as well as the ability to record these things with greater clarity due to decreased background noise. There has also been a lot of rainfall, so the creeks are flowing too. I also recorded my acoustic piano (free running with no clicks/metronome) and my Farfisa organ.”
Richard Chartier
“Away”
Subscribe to “Touch: Isolation” on Bandcamp
“Natura Urbana: The Brachen of Berlin”
Online Film Screening & Urban Ecology Panel Discussion
Friday 17 April – Sunday 19 April
“Natura Urbana: The Brachen of Berlin” tells the post-war history of Berlin through its plants. The film takes us from the Trümmerlandschaften and their unique ecologies to the abandoned roofs of the Friedrichshagen Waterworks on the edge of the city. Encountering an extraordinary variety of spontaneous vegetation from all over the world that has sprouted along railway lines, street corners, and in the distinctive Brachen of Berlin. In Natura Urbana, the changing vegetation of Berlin serves as a parallel history to war-time destruction, geo-political division, and the newest phase of urban transformation. Natura Urbana takes us on a unique journey through Berlin ranging from the botanical microcosm of cracked paving stones to elaborate attempts to map the entire city in terms of its distinctive ecological zones.
An estimated 80% of the US population lives in cities, and that proportion is growing. As an urban Botanical Garden, the value of nature in the city seems obvious, and yet it is not often protected. Though urbanization is at odds with habitat destruction, there is an opportunity that with thoughtful planning and design, we can weave natural spaces into our cities to support a variety of critical public health benefits and ecosystem services. As we approach the 50th celebration of Earth Day this April, we recognize that an incredible amount has changed since 1970, and yet, today there is even more environmental conservation work to do. We come together in this time of physical distancing to discuss a case study of the evolution of some unique wild green spaces in Berlin, and how the concerns around development there today reflect similar issues in our home of Los Angeles. We will explore questions around the language we assign to plants, the value of wild versus manicured green spaces, and the importance of land planning in cities.
Enjoy a personal screening of the film, followed by a recorded panel discussion exploring themes around urban ecology, landscape architecture, history, city planning, language, and more. This event is free, but you must RSVP to receive links to the content. These will be emailed out by Friday 17 April, so that you may enjoy at any time during the weekend in your own time zone.
Click here for further info and to RSVP
Guerrilla Audio
Guerrilla Audio is a 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 third year and have just posted episode 113…
Guerrilla Audio
www.simonfisherturner.com
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