Iain Chambers – Bascule Chamber Concert
Digital Download – 3 audio tracks – 23’44”
1. Bascule Chambers (2015)
2. Three Poems (2015)
3. Hoketus Prima (2015)
Photo: Steve Stills
Catalogue
TouchLine 6 – Iain Chambers “Bascule Chamber Concert”
Tone 52V – Fennesz “Mahler Remix”
Double Vinyl + full wav Download [If you buy from the TouchShop] – 4 tracks
Release date: 29th January 2016
Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason @ Transition
“Mahler Remix” was recorded live at Radiokulturhaus, Vienna by Christoph Amann, in May 2011. This recording is mostly based on samples taken from Gustav Mahler’s symphonies. The performance also includes an early version of ‘liminality’ from the ‘bécs’ album, released in 2014 on Editions Mego. ‘Mahler Remixed’ was a commissioned work performed together with the visual artist Lillevan.
Track listing:
1. Mahler Remix 1
2. Mahler Remix 2
3. Mahler Remix 3
4. Mahler Remix 4
TouchLine 5 – Aino Tytti “Millennium Mills”
Aino Tytti – Millennium Mills
Digital Download – 8 tracks (FLAC & mp3) – 43:20
17pp PDF booklet of photographs and text
Track listing:
1. Observations from the nightwatch hut, late November
2. These halls which used to breathe and sing
3. England’s last lies ruined
4. Silo D
5. Waxing gibbous shines on the black king’s wharf (for Chrissie)
6. First light, crepuscular loculus
7. All that which was once lost
8. A requiem for Silvertown
Spire 6 – The Eternal Chord “Orga”
Download – 1 track – 23:49
Recorded by Achim Mohné
Photography by Mike Harding
With thanks to Georg Dietzler
Performed by Claire M Singer & Mike Harding at Sankt-Peter, Köln 6th November 2015
Track listing:
1. Orga
TouchLine 4 – Mark Van Hoen – Artefacts l
Mark Van Hoen – Artefacts l
Digital Download – One track (.mov) – 10:03
2pp PDF booklet of photographs and text
Track listing:
1. Artefacts l
TO:98 – Philip Jeck “Cardinal”
Double Vinyl + Download – 13 tracks – 64mins
Photography and artwork by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition
Track listing:
Side 1.
Fleeing
Saint Pancras
Barrow in Furness (open thy hand wide)
Reverse Jersey
Side 2.
… bend the knee 1
Called In
Brief
Side 3.
Broke Up
… bend the knee 5
Called Again
Side 4.
And Over Again
The Station View
Saint Pancras (the one that holds everything)
This album comes with a free download of Philip Jeck “Live in Caen”, recorded by Franck Dubois on 28th February 2015 at Impressions Multiples #4 (ésam Caen/Cherbourg) with thanks to Thierry Weyd.
“… and they sparkled like burnished brass”*
Out of the depths of our complaints, it could be all so simple. To be never fooled by the finesse of a long-yearned for solidity, but in the momentary aplomb of a sleepy walk threading through familiar streets we’d hum our way, alto, baritone and tenor toward some harmonious end. An effect like some wonderful recollection of one or other of those technicolour movies. Not real for sure, but if you are in the mood….
I would like to acknowledge the influence the writer Marilynne Robinson has had on this work. I would recommend reading any/all of her four novels and also “When I was a Child I Read Books” [Virago, 2012]. This collection of essays include “Austerity as Ideology”, which dissects prevailing economic thinking, and “Open Thy Hand Wide…” which continues with a celebration of liberal thinking as Generosity (and also turned over my received knowledge of Calvinism). Her ability to convey a love of humanity and sense of wonder about the great mystery of existence in her writing has, since I first read a book of hers, found a way into the way I think about my work – not illustrating but meditating upon.
“After all, it’s [humankind] debts are only to itself.” (Marilynne Robinson)
To make this record I used Fidelity record players, Casio Keyboards, Ibanez bass guitar, Sony minidisc players, Ibanez and Zoom effects pedals, assorted percussion, a Behringer mixer and it was edited at home with minidisc players and on a laptop computer.
I would like to thank Octopus Collective’s Full Of Noise Festival where “The Station View” and “Barrow in Furness” were first recorded. Guy Madden and InMute’14, Athens who commissioned me to play a live soundtrack to Guy’s film “Cowards Bend the Knee” [2003]. “… bend the knee 1” and “… bend the knee 5” are reworked sections from that performance.
The two Saint Pancras Tracks are remixes of part a performance at St Pancras Church, London; an earlier version was made for “Touch. 30 years and counting” [Touch, 2012]. Saint Pancras (Latin: Sanctus Pancratius; Greek: Ἅγιος Παγκράτιος) was a Roman citizen who converted to Christianity, and was beheaded for his faith at the age of just 14 around the year 304 AD. His name in Greek literally means “the one that holds everything”.
“Called in” is an edit of a live performance at Spire in Krems, Austria [Kontraste Festival, 2013]. “Reverse Jersey” is an edit of a live performance for WFMU in New Jersey as part of Touch.30 [2012].
“Fleeting”, “Brief”, “Broke Up”, “Called Again” and “Over Again” were made at home in Liverpool between 2012 and 2015.
Thanks to everyone who has invited me to play, to Daniel Blumin at WFMU, to Mike Harding for the original recordings of “Called in” and “Saint Pancras” and a belated thank you to Jacob Kirkegaard for playing the chimes on “Ark” from “An Ark for the Listener” [Touch, 2010].
“… weeping for the wrongs we cannot undo.”
Philip Jeck, April 2015
*from The Book of Ezekiel
TO:97 – Heitor Alvelos “Faith”
CD – 12 tracks – 40:20
Photography: Jon Wozencroft & Heitor Alvelos
Mastered by Denis Blackham
Track listing:
1. Errant
2. Exodus
3. Edict
4. Alluvion
5. Pseudoself
6. Vicarious Solace
7. The Way of Malamat
8. Peirasmos
9. The Other
10. Home, Elicited
11. The Hopeful Night
12. Dedication
Faith is the first full-length sound release by media researcher and curator Heitor Alvelos under his own name. Heitor Alvelos has been a long-time on/off collaborator of Touch, having on occasion provided photography and stage visuals for Biosphere, Fennesz, BJNilsen, Rafael Toral and Philip Jeck, as well as releasing sound pieces under the aliases Autodigest, Antifluffy and Before Surgery, on Ash International, TouchRadio and The Tapeworm.
“The essence of the present piece is autobiographical: therefore the use of my own name”, the author clarifies. “And yet it aims at being resonant to others”: in this context, resonance may be regarded as both semantic and visceral, as the sound frequencies on Faith are often of the kind that “rearrange one’s organs”, to quote the recently departed Bernadette Martou. A necessity in order to carry the gravitas inherent to the subject, a confessional confrontation with the zeitgeist.
All sources have been gathered, recorded and produced throughout five decades, all the way back to a recording by Francisco Alvelos in 1972 that closes the release. Elsewhere, sounds have been processed to various degrees, the bookends retaining their original contexts, others mutating into deep abstraction. Overall, they flow as one single composition, evocative and foreboding in equal measures.
TouchLine 3 – Yann Novak “Scalar Field (9a00ff, ff6600, ff0066, fe0000)”
Yann Novak – Scalar Field (9a00ff, ff6600, ff0066, fe0000)
Digital Download – HD video (mp4) – 9:00
24pp PDF booklet of images and text
Wallpaper for a variety of devices
Track Listing:
1. Scalar Field (9a00ff, ff6600, ff0066, fe0000) You can watch an excerpt here
TouchLine 2 – Simon Scott “Below Sea Level”
Simon Scott – Below Sea Level
Digital Download – One track (wav) – 34:07
74pp PDF booklet of photographs, maps and text
Track listing:
1. Below Sea Level You can listen to an extract here
Robert Macfarlane: “It’s an amazing sound world, into which you fall (subside)”
The Wire: “… this exquisite study in sound ecology.”
TouchLine 1 – Budhaditya Chattopadhyay “Decomposing Landscape”
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay – Decomposing Landscape
Multi-channel sound composition
Digital Download – One track (Binaural + Ambisonics B-format) – 35:00
13pp pdf booklet of photographs
Track listing:
1. Decomposing Landscape, audio only edition You can listen to an extract here
FOLIO 001 – Josephine Michel & Mika Vainio “Halfway to White”
60pp hardback book + 60 min CD
Bound in a grey linen cover, printed on heavy hi-white paper
There are no digital versions or copies of this release in any format
Track listing:
1. Fade from Black
2. Missing a Border
3. Notes on the Exposures
4. Line of a Curve
5. White Out
TO:99 – Biosphere Deathprod “Stator”
CD – 7 tracks – 44:37
Artwork and photography is by Jon Wozencroft. The CD was mastered by Helge Sten [Deathprod].
stator (ˈsteɪtə) n
1. (Electrical Engineering) The stationary part of a rotary machine or device, esp of a motor or generator
2. (Aeronautics) A system of nonrotating radially arranged parts within a rotating assembly, esp the fixed blades of an axial flow compressor in a gas turbine
[C20: from Latin: one who stands (by), from stāre to stand]
Track listing:
1. Muses-C (Biosphere)
2. Shimmer/Flicker (Deathprod)
3. Baud (Biosphere)
4. Polychromatic (Deathprod)
5. Disc (Deathprod)
6. Space is Fizzy (Biosphere)
7. Optical (Deathprod)
TO:53V – Fennesz “Venice”
Double vinyl & digital download – 14 tracks + pdf booklet
Release date: 20th October 2014
Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition, mastered by Denis Blackham
Featuring David Sylvian and Burkhard Stangl
Special 10th anniversary edition
Track listing:
A
The Future Will Be Different
Rivers of Sand
Chateau Rouge
B
City of Light
Onsra
Circassian (guitar: Burkhard Stangl)
Onsay
The Other Face
C
Transit (vocals: David Sylvian)
The Point of It All
D
Laguna
Asusu
The Stone of Impermanence
Tree
The Future Will Be Different and Tree complete the Venice sessions in one release…
“Venice” was recorded on location in the summer of 2003 and subsequently assembled and mixed at Amann Studios, Vienna in January/February 2004.
“Venice”, the fourth studio album by Christain Fennesz, finds electronic music at a crossroads between its early status as digital subculture, and the feeling that there has to be something more, an emotional quality that rises above noise and moves towards melody and rapture.
It was voted No. 3 in The Top 50, The Wire, December 2004, was album of the week at BBCi on its release and remains Christian Fennesz’s best-selling record to date. prefix (USA) noted: “Although Fennesz’s breakout record Endless Summer was followed by a live release and a collaboration with Jim O’Rourke and Peter Rehberg as Fenn O’Berg, Venice is the true heir to that album’s ascendant pop. Venice is not as unabashedly poppy as its predecessor (the lack of Beach Boys references can attest to that), but still mines much the same vein. It was marked by critics at the time as a move away from the relatively robotic music spawned by the IDM craze of the late nineties. Instead, its melodic, emotive tracks foresaw an electronic music that could be purely human.”
Pitchfork Media (USA), in a lengthy review, also noted: “Venice’s quality extends beyond its sound. Touch proprietor Jon Wozencroft– through his breathtaking design and photography – continues to fight the good fight against records-as-pure-data by making the CD a value-added prospect.” and The Declaration Online (Web): “Two blue empty row boats left listless on rippling water. Red orange green riverbed foliage reflected in the water’s gauzy oil slick surface. An airport enveloped in dull gray stratus and snow. Upon seeing the photography and packaging accompanying Christian Fennesz’s latest recording, Venice, it is clear that the record label Touch remains intent on not simply putting out records but creating audiovisual imprints dedicated to inextricably tying sound and vision.”
Tone 45.7 – Achim Mohné “Accelerated Standstill”
Limited edition vinyl + free bonus download track
Cut by Jason at Transition, this release is dedicated to Paul Virilio
An assembling for locked grooves. Collected and performed since 1997, recorded live in 2013 as part of “Touch presents…” at Café Oto, London; Ausland, Berlin; the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, and the Centre for Arts and Media (ZKM), Karlsruhe.
This record can be played at all speeds, but the recommended speed is 33 rpm.
Accelerated Standstill is an assembling of locked grooves found on customary vinyl records. The records have been collected and performed live between 1997 and 2013. Locked grooves normally functioning as a ‘barrier’, avoiding the needle coming into contact with the label at the centre of the record. All grooves sound different, depending on how dust has effected and transformed the soft surface of the vinyl.
By using a triple vinyl deck set-up this (analytic auditory observations of) ending grooves are mixed live thus composing a “music that lies hidden in the medium itself”. The tiny dust particles inside the vinyl groove convert into a ‘sound sculpture’ – an important syntactical parameter (of the apparatus) is formed by the turntables themselves. The speed of their rotation is not limited to 33 or 45 rpm, but expanded between 1 and 150 rounds per minute thus determining the loops and the rhythm.
Achim Mohné started working with record players, cassette recorders and other sound-media-apparatus in the mid 1990s. He experiments with the space and time intervals of sound-media and is especially interested in the “music that lies hidden in the medium itself”. His method is to subject the support material to a forensic autopsy. His most recent project analyses the transfer data of a Wi-Fi router called Fritz Box/Fritz Kiste (cf TouchRadio). His further work features sound tracks for film and theatre performances (with Yoshie Shibahara) as well as collaboration with classical musicians (such as violinist Ayumi Paul).
TO:96 – Hildur Gudnadottir “Saman”
CD – 12 tracks – 39:06
Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft
Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye
Vinyl cut by Jason @ Transition
This album is about resonance: on “Saman”, which means “Together”, Hildur melts her voice with her cello, connecting the two instruments together. The result is a highly involving and moving album, recorded, mixed and mastered in Berlin. Hildur’s sylph-like vocals contrast beautifully with rich cello tones, resolving the tension between light and dark to produce a unique listening experience.
Track listing:
1. Strokur
2. Frá
3. Birting
4. Heyr Himnasmiður
5. Bær
6. Heima
7. Í hring
8. Rennur upp
9. Til baka
10. Líður
11. Torrek
12. Þoka
All tracks composed, performed and recorded by Hildur Guðnadóttir in Berlin, except Heyr Himnasmiður (track 4), composed by Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson, lyrics by Kolbeinn Tumason. Cello made by David Wiebe in 1991. [Cello nr 49]
Track 6, bass by Skúli Sverrisson, string fretted cello built by Hans Jóhannsson, resonated through two grand pianos.
Tracks 1, 4 and 6 recorded by Francesco Donadello.
All tracks mixed by Francesco Donadello and Hildur Guðnadóttir at Vox-Ton Studio, Berlin.
TO:94 – Jacaszek & Kwartludium “Catalogue des Arbres”
CD – 8 tracks – 46:06
Track listing:
1. Sigh (Les peupliers)
2. Green hour
3. A book of lake (Roselière)
4. Garden (Les sureaux)
5. From a seashell
6. Circling (Le pré)
7. Anthem (La forêt)
8. Kingdom (Les chênes, les bouleaux)
For the past decade or so, Polish musician Michal Jacaszek has been exploring a new, resolutely modern chapter in Eastern Europe’s long, storied love affair with classical music. His creations are painstakingly crafted collages of electronic textures and baroque instrumentation, harpsichords being swarmed by woolly static one minute and pulled apart by billowing wind the next. A push-and-pull tension runs deep and constant throughout. Ambient music is rarely so sonically challenging. Jacaszek has recorded for Ghostly International, Miasmah, Gusstaff Records and Experimedia and other labels. This is his first release for Touch.
Michał Jacaszek writes:
“When poets and writers declare their enchantment for the forms of nature, they often use musical terms as metaphors. Visual artists’ creations often resemble graphic partitas, when recapturing the rhythms of landscapes. Confirming, in a way, these musical intuitions, composers write great music deeply inspired by birdsongs, wind rustlings, waves repetitions etc.
Making “Cataloguge des Arbres”, my ambition was to join this broad artistic movement devoted to natural phenomena and find my own way to describe trees: their forms, atmosphere and mystery. I have started with “open air” recordings, capturing mainly leaves” rustlings – from different distances, in different locations and weather conditions. This collection of nature recordings was transformed into a kind of “organic drone” and becomes a main background for instrumental and voice improvisations. My initial inspiration here was Olivier Messiaen’s’ bird songs transcriptions for piano – the composer’s work title “Catalogue d’Oiseaux” I have paraphrased on my album . A piano, clarinets, violin and percussion parts, performed by the Kwartludium ensemble, were electronically processed, and afterwards all this electro-acoustic material was turned into a collection of 8 soundscapes – forgotten songs performed secretly by my beloved trees.”
composed, recorded and produced by Michał Jacaszek | additional composing and all instrumental parts performed by Kwartludium | Voice parts (tracks 1, 8) performed by 441 Hz chamber choir | Additional clarinet parts (tracks 2, 3) performed by Andrzej
Wojciechowski Grand piano recorded by Cezary Joczyn at Gdańsk Academy of Music
Kwartludium are Dagna Sadkowska: violin | Michał Górczyński: clarinet, bass clarinet | Paweł Nowicki: percussion | Piotr Nowicki: grand piano
Biography:
Michał Jacaszek lives in Gdansk, Poland.
Author and producer of electroacoustic music, composer of soundtracks and theatre music, and sound artist. He is a curator of C3 Festival /Club Contemporary Classical/. Member of Polish Society for Electro-acoustic Music. Michał Jacaszek lives in Gdansk, Poland. Jacaszek gained Grand Prix at “Dwa Teatry” Festival for music composed for the play “Golgota Wrocławska” directed by Jan Komasa. “Walking underwater” a documentary by E. Kubarska with music by Jacaszek has recently been awarded The Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto.
He has performed in USA (Unsound New York, Communikey, Hopscotch), in Canada (Mutek ), in Great Britain (Fertilizer Festival, Apha Ville Festival), in Nederlands (Urbanexplorer Festival), in Belgium (Fereejen Festival), Portugal, Sweden (Volt Festival), Slovakia, Germany, Ukraine and Russia (Electro-Mechanica Festival); as well as in Poland at the most important festivals: Heineken Opener Festival, Off Festival, Unsound Festival, Astigmatic.
TO:93 – Thomas Ankersmit “Figueroa Terrace”
CD – 1 track – 36:49
Track listing:
1. Figueroa Terrace
Thomas Ankersmit is a musician and installation artist based in Berlin. Since 2006 his main instrument, both live and in the studio, has been the Serge analogue modular synthesizer.
Acoustic phenomena such as sound reflections, infrasonic vibration, otoacoustic emissions, and highly directional projections of sound have been an important part of his work since the early 2000’s.
In the winter of 2011-2012 Ankersmit was invited by the CalArts electronic music studios, Los Angeles, where the Serge was originally developed in the early 1970s, to record new music with their heavily customized and recently restored “Black Serge” system.
In addition to conventional analog synthesis techniques (FM, AM, ring modulation, filtering, enveloping and panning under voltage control), Ankersmit used various kinds of waveshaping, distortion and feedback (both internally as well as via a microphone and speaker setup in the studio); oscillator-generated frequencies at the upper and lower limits of auditory perception; a patch matrix to control quick transitions; a homemade circuit-bending type interface to create momentary interruptions to the signal flow, and the scraping of a contact microphone. Aside from recording, editing, and a few instances of reverb no digital technology was used.
The music is finely tuned and highly detailed, yet also visceral and raw. Marked by sharp perceptual contrasts, the piece shifts between dense formations of electric noise, to fields of micro-events moving with an intuitive logic, and feedback-drones of overwhelming intensity. The sounds have a real-world physicality, bringing to mind swarms of locusts, distant storms and creaking machinery rather than “synthesizer music”.
The piece was premiered in North America at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles and in Europe at Berghain, Berlin, for the MaerzMusik Festival.
The music is originally quadraphonic and mixed to stereo for this release. Figueroa Terrace is Ankersmit’s first full-length solo studio release.
Thomas Ankersmit: Serge analogue modular synthesizers, contact mic. Recorded at CalArts, Valencia and in Los Angeles, December 2011-February 2012. Thanks to Kye Potter, Kevin Drumm, Valerio Tricoli, Darrel Johansen, Kevin Fortune, and everyone at CalArts.
TAPP 02 – Touch app for Android
TAPP 02 is a new app for Android that keeps you up-to-date with Touch news; read about and listen to tracks from the Touch catalogue; stream each and every Touch Radio episode; save Jon Wozencroft’s Touch cover art as wallpaper and cook meals from the Touch Recipe Book.
Programmers: Gary Homewood, Pavel Ivanov and Tim Medcalf
Art Direction & Design: Rebels in Control
Images: Jon Wozencroft
Download the free Touch app at the Google store
Tone 50D – Jana Winderen “Out of Range”
1 track – Digital Download – 40:00 – 668Mb zip file [inc wav, pdf booklet and pdf text files]
Performed, composed and recorded by Jana Winderen
Photography by Jon Wozencroft
A lower quality audio file will be available from all good download stores on 3rd March. However, we strongly recommend you obtain the version in TouchShop. It is better and cheaper…
Track listing:
1. Out of Range
“Out of Range” is an audio work based on ultrasound and echolocation used by bats, dolphins and other creatures who operate beyond the range of human hearing – ‘seeing’ with sound, or perhaps ‘hearing’ objects.
All sound is invisible; ultrasound is inaudible. Of course, many species have a greater range of hearing than us humans and also more specific and specialised with complex combinations of the different senses… Creatures on both land and under water produce and/or perceive very high sound frequencies. Some species of insects, birds, fish, and mammals can emit and hear ultrasound, used for communications, hunting and orientation. These creatures operate on a different level of perception to us, in an inaudible range above 20kHz…
Many animals also use the acoustic properties of a space; a bat for example can use the echo from a tower block wall to amplify their calls for mates in the autumn; a toadfish uses the shape of a cave to amplify their calls to protect their habitat. Whales use the different acoustic properties at different depths in the ocean at different pressure levels to send their long distance calls. An astonishing fact about moths is that they have a reflex action with their wings to shut down when they hear the bat echolocation calls… That we reckon that this is so astonishing says something about us….
The mix for the piece is based on ultrasound, hydrophone recordings below the water and also of echolocation sound within audible range. The recordings were made in various locations in Central Park and East River in New York, USA, a forest outside Kaliningrad in Russia, Regents Park in London, UK, and various locations in Madeira, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. The ultrasound is time-stretched to bring it into a frequency range audible for human beings.
Recordings were made on a Pettersson Ultrasound Detector D1000X, Reson 4032 and DPA 8011 hydrophones and 4060 dpa microphones onto a Sound Devices 477T hard disk recorder.
Deutschlandradio Kultur, Redaktion Hörspiel / Klangkunst commissioned the piece for Elektroakustischer Salon: Art’s Birthday 2014, which was performed live at Berghain, Berlin, on Friday 17th January 2014. With thanks to Marcus Gammel.
The photographs mirror “the audible range” through a contrast between gateways, portals and sight lines, set against situations where the camera eye cannot make sense of the optical event it is confronted with.
Tone 45.6 – Anna von Hausswolff “Kallan (Prototype)”
2 tracks – Vinyl LP – 39:57
Limited edition of 500, white shrink-wrapped sleeve, with colour metallic sticker and black inner sleeve, with white labels. Expected shipping date: 3rd March 2014.
Cut by Jason at Transition Studios on 22nd January 2014
Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft
Track listing:
A. Källan (Prototype) part one 20′ 10″ (with locked groove)
B. Källan (Prototype) part two 19′ 47″
Organ: Anna von Hausswolff. Recorded live at Lincoln Cathedral, 19th October 2013.
Performed at Frequency 13 Lincoln Digital Culture Festival as part of Touch presents…, (which also featured Chris Watson & Hildur Gudnadottir). Recorded live by Mike Harding using 2 x dpa 4060s onto a Nagra Ares Pll digital recorder. This recording is unedited from the original raw file.
Though she now lives in Copenhagen, Anna von Hausswolff grew up in the once vibrant, bohemian neighbourhood of Haga in Gothenburg, Sweden, to a family who counted amongst their ancestors Bernhard Reynold von Hausswolff, an 18th Century governor of Falun, Sweden, who helped bring an end to the burning of witches. Although Anna has achieved acclaim with her song-based albums “Ceremony” and “Singing from the Grave” (both first released on Kning Disk in Sweden), she has always had an ear for the radical approach, and this is the first step in a long-term collaboration with Touch.
