Catalogue

TO:42 – Chris Watson “El Tren Fantasma”

4th November 2011 » Permalink: TO:42 – Chris Watson “El Tren Fantasma”

CD – 10 tracks – 65 minutes
Artwork: Jon Wozencroft
Mastered by Denis Blackham

Track listing:

01: La Anunciante
02: Los Mochis
03: Sierra Tarahumara
04: El Divisadero
05: Crucero La Joya
06: Chihuahua
07: Aguascalientes
08: Mexico D.F.
09: El Tajin; El dia y La noche
10: Veracruz

“Take the ghost train from Los Mochis to Veracruz and travel cross country, coast to coast, Pacific to Atlantic. Ride the rhythm of the rails on board the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM) and the music of a journey that has now passed into history.”

El Tren Fantasma, (The Ghost Train), is Chris Watson’s 4th solo album for Touch, and his first since Weather Report in 2003, which was named as one of the albums you should hear before you die in The Guardian. A Radio programme was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 30 Oct, 2010, produced by Sarah Blunt, and described as “a thrilling acoustic journey across the heart of Mexico from Pacific to Atlantic coast using archive recordings to recreate a rail passenger service which no longer exists. It’s now more than a decade since FNM operated its last continuous passenger service across country. Chris Watson spent a month on board the train with some of the last passengers to travel this route. As sound recordist he was part of the film crew working on a programme in the BBC TV series Great Railways Journeys. Now, in this album, the journey of the ‘ghost train’ is recreated, evoking memories of a recent past, capturing the atmosphere, rhythms and sounds of human life, wildlife and the journey itself along the tracks of one of Mexico’s greatest engineering projects.

The radio broadcast received national press coverage in the UK:

The Observer:

It is over a decade since FNM operated its last continuous passenger service across the country but here sound recordist Chris Watson recreates its atmospheric journey with the help of the train recordings he made while working on the BBC television series Great Railway Journeys… through desert and city, but it is the rocking rhythms of the train itself that prove most memorable. [Stephanie Billen]

The Financial Times:

El Tren Fantasma (8pm) is Archive on 4’s recollection of a trans-Mexico rail journey by sound recordist Chris Watson. From desert to rainforest, hummingbirds’ wings to the boom of heat rising from the Copper Canyon, it recalls a beloved passenger train system abandoned by privatisation. **** [Martin Hoyle]

The Daily Telegraph:

Sometimes, radio can awaken the mind and sharpen the senses like no other medium. This “sound portrait” of a now-abandoned railway line that used to run between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Mexico is a good case in point. Captured by sound recordist Chris Watson more than a decade ago, it jostles with human, animal and mechanical life, filling the room with an atmosphere that is more richly evocative of Central America than any TV travel show I’ve seen. Diesel engines thrum, cicadas chirrup and passengers chatter, sing and argue. [Pete Naughton]

About the author…

Chris Watson is one of the world’s leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena, and for Touch he edits his field recordings into a filmic narrative. For example. the unearthly groaning of ice in an Icelandic glacier is a classic example of, in Watson’s words, putting a microphone where you can’t put your ears. He was born in Sheffield where he attended Rowlinson School and Stannington College (now part of Sheffield College). In 1971 he was a founding member of the influential Sheffield-based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire. His sound recording career began in 1981 when he joined Tyne Tees Television. Since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world. As a freelance recordist for film, tv & radio, Chris Watson specialises in natural history and documentary location sound together with track assembly and sound design in post production.

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TO:42V – Chris Watson “El Tren Fantasma – The Signal Man’s Mix”

4th November 2011 » Permalink: TO:42V – Chris Watson “El Tren Fantasma – The Signal Man’s Mix”

12″ Vinyl + 320 kbps MP3 files of the two vinyl tracks
Cut by Jason @ Transition
Artwork & Design by Jon Wozencroft

Track listing:

Side A
1. El Divisadero – The Telegraph 7:56

Side B
2. Veracruz – The Tunnel 7:54

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TAPP 01 – Touch app for iPhone and iPad

12th October 2011 » Permalink: TAPP 01 – Touch app for iPhone and iPad

Touch is a new free app for the iPhone and iPad (iOS 4 and 5) 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: Dave Knapik and Tim Medcalf
Art Direction & Design: Rebels in Control
Images: Jon Wozencroft

Download the free Touch app at the iTunes App Store

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Tone 45.3 – Oren Ambarchi & Joe Talia “Hit & Run”

23rd September 2011 » Permalink: Tone 45.3 – Oren Ambarchi & Joe Talia “Hit & Run”

12″ White Label vinyl + 320 kbps MP3 download of the tracks
Cut by Jason @ Transition

The third in the series of limited edition vinyl in the Tone 45 series. 100 copies only are available in the TouchShop…

Track listing:

Side One 33rpm
1. Live at Café Oto 14:29

Side Two 33rpm
1. Live at Café Oto 14:39

The third in the Touch white label series after BJNilsen – Vinyl [Tone 45.1] and The Sight Below – N-Plants_Remixes [Tone 45.2]. This was recorded live at Café Oto, London, on April 14, 2011.

Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, “re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation”. (The Wire, UK). Oren Ambarchi’s works are hesitant and tense extended songforms located in the cracks between several schools: modern electronics and processing; laminal improvisation and minimalism; hushed, pensive songwriting; the deceptive simplicity and temporal suspensions of composers such as Morton Feldman and Alvin Lucier; and the physicality of rock music, slowed down and stripped back to its bare bones, abstracted and replaced with pure signal.

From the late 90’s his experiments in guitar abstraction and extended technique have led to a more personal and unique sound-world incorporating a broader palette of instruments and sensibilities. On recent releases such as Grapes From The Estate and In The Pendulum’s Embrace Ambarchi has employed glass harmonica, strings, bells, piano, drums and percussion, creating fragile textures as light as air which tenuously coexist with the deep, wall-shaking bass tones derived from his guitar. Ambarchi works with simple constructs and parameters; exploring one idea over an extended duration and patiently teasing every nuance and implication from each texture; the phenomena of sum and difference tones; carefully tended arrangements that unravel gently; unprepossessing melodies that slowly work their way through various permutations; resulting in an otherworldly, cumulative impact of patiently unfolding compositions.

Ambarchi has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists such as Fennesz, Otomo Yoshihide, Pimmon, Keiji Haino, John Zorn, Rizili, Voice Crack, Jim O’Rourke, Keith Rowe, Phill Niblock, Dave Grohl, Gunter Muller, Evan Parker, z’ev, Toshimaru Nakamura, Peter Rehberg, Merzbow and many more. Since 2004 Ambarchi has worked with American avant metal outfit Sunn 0))) contributing to many of their releases and side-projects including their Black One album from 2005 and the recent Monoliths & Dimensions release. For 10 years together with Robbie Avenaim, Ambarchi was the co-organiser of the What Is Music? festival, Australia’s premier annual showcase of local and international experimental music. The festival hosted over 200 local and international performers. Ambarchi now curates the Maximum Arousal series at The Toff In Town in Melbourne and has recently co-produced an Australian television series on experimental music called Subsonics. Ambarchi recently co-curated the sound program for the 2008 Yokohama Triennale.

Ambarchi has released numerous recordings for international labels such as Touch, Southern Lord, Table Of The Elements and Tzadik. In 2003 his live release Triste received an ‘honourary mention’ in the Prix Ars Electronica digital music category.

Joe Talia is a drummer, percussionist and electro-acoustic performer based in Melbourne, Australia.

Never satisfied with containment to any one style or discipline, He plays drums, percussion, amplified objects electronics and tape machines. After studying improvisation at the Victorian College of the Arts, Talia went on to become involved in the Australian jazz and improv scene. As well as being a respected drummer, Talia also works in the realm of electro-acoustic music, both live and studio based. His debut solo work, in/exterior, a four part suite of musique concrète compositions, was released in 2006 and since then he has formed an electro-acoustic duo with composer James Rushford, together they have completed two albums, Palisades (sabbatical records 2009) and the upcoming paper fault line, a through-composed tour-de-force of instrumental concrète, blistering noise and contemporary classical virtuosity. He also has a long standing musical partnership with singer-songwriter Ned Collette, working as both a drummer and producer/engineer on Collette’s album Future Suture (Dot Dash 2007) and with Wirewalker, on Over the Stones, Under the Stars (Dot Dash 2009) and performing on several European tours. Talia is also member of the ARIA award winning Andrea Keller Quartet.

Talia has performed, recording and toured with diverse range of musicians and ensembles, including Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Avenaim, Anthony Pateras, Francis Plagne, Thembi Soddell, Sean Baxter, David Shea, Marco Fusinato, The Bartok Project, Rand and Holland, Erik Griswold, Adam Simmons, and countless others.

Tone 44 – Fennesz “Seven Stars”

21st August 2011 » Permalink: Tone 44 – Fennesz “Seven Stars”

CDEP
Design & photography by Jon Wozencroft

Track listing:

1. Liminal 3:07
2. July 5:06
3. Shift 6:47
4. Seven Stars* 3:01

Recorded in Studio B, Amannstudios, Vienna.

Acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers.

*Seven Stars features Steven Hess on drums, recorded at Amannstudios by Christoph Amann

Fennesz’s first solo release since Black Sea [Touch # TO:76, 2008] – CD version. It will also be available as a digital download. Using acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers, Fennesz continues to engage and entrance us in equal measure.

Fennesz writes: “Seven Stars was recorded in Vienna in January 2011. I recorded and mixed the album within 3 weeks. Liminal and July were existing pieces which i have reworked. (I wrote an early version of Liminal in a hotel room in Bali in 2010). There is also a version of Liminal that I have been playing live for some time. My friend Steven Hess, with whom I have worked before, happened to be in Vienna at the time of the sessions, so I invited him to join me in the studio. Christoph Amann recorded the drums using a selection of his great microphones including his amazing new Josephson.

I wanted to make a record that has a certain lightness about it and at the same time explore new territory using drums on one track. This might be something I will continue with in the future.”

Fennesz’s third collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Flumina, is due out in November on Touch.

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Tone 45.2 – The Sight Below “N-Plants_Remixes”

8th August 2011 » Permalink: Tone 45.2 – The Sight Below “N-Plants_Remixes”

12″ White Label vinyl + 320 kbps MP3 download
Cut by Jason @ Transition

The second in the series of limited edition vinyl in the Tone 45 series, after BJNilsen’s now deleted “Vinyl” [Touch # Tone 45.1].

Track listing:

Side One 45 rpm
1. Shika 1.1 5:55
2. Shika 1.2 8:03

Side Two 33 rpm
1. Ikata 6:21

The Sight Below is a project created by Rafael Anton Irisarri, an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, curator, producer and mixed media artist. In this guise he has produced two full-length CDs on Ghostly International, “Glider” (2008) and “It All Falls Apart” (2010), and most recently, under his own name, “The North Bend” for Room 40. The connection between The Sight Below and Biosphere starts with the latter’s remix of ‘The Sunset Passage’ from the “Glider” CD, released on a limited 12” in 2009.

“N-Plants_Remixes” is a superb extension of Biosphere’s “N-Plants” CD as well as a fine release in its own right. Only 300 copies have been pressed.

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TS12 – Bruce Gilbert “Monad”

8th August 2011 » Permalink: TS12 – Bruce Gilbert “Monad”

7″ Vinyl Only – cut by Jason @ Transition
Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft

Track listing:

A: Ingress 2:42
B: Re-Exit 2:42

TS12 – the next in the series of vinyl-only Touch Sevens [TS11 and TS13 to follow in 2011] – is Monad by Bruce Gilbert, whose career stretches back to late 1960’s British avant garde art & music scenes, and has since played an important and influential role with his involvement in various rock based formations, work for choreographic projects and art installations…

Instruments: Korg Monotron Analogue Ribbon synth, Zoom RFX-200, Korg Kaos Pad 2, Apple GarageBand

Coruscating | Metallic | Hard | Structured Chaos | Loud

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Tone 42DR2 – Sohrab “You Are Not Alone ll”

6th July 2011 » Permalink: Tone 42DR2 – Sohrab “You Are Not Alone ll”

320 kpbs mp3 – 1 track – 37:09
Photography: Sohrab

The second in a series of reworkings of Sohrab material by artists showing solidarity to his cause… all label and artist money goes towards the fund for his appeal against refusal to be granted political asylum in Germany…

Philip Marshall mix content providers:

Daniel Menche – Zarinn (menche mix) 11:45 | Jana Winderen – Susanna 7:00 | Philip Jeck – Susanna (remix) 5:23 | Philip Marshall – Somebody, Hidden 7:45 (Mastered by BJNilsen, Berlin, 20th May 2011) | Michael Esposito – Somebody’s Ghost 6:47

TO:84 – Biosphere “N-Plants”

11th June 2011 » Permalink: TO:84 – Biosphere “N-Plants”

CD in digipak – 9 tracks – 49:50
Art Direction: Jon Wozencroft
Cover image: Yusuke Murakami
Mastered by Denis Blackham @ Skye

Track listing:

1. Sendai-1
2. Shika-1
3. Jōyō
4. Ikata-1
5. Monju-1
6. Genkai-1
7. Ōi-1
8. Monju-2
9. Fujiko

Geir Jenssen writes: “Early February 2011: Decided to make an album inspired by the Japanese post-war economic miracle. While searching for more information I found an old photo of the Mihama nuclear plant. The fact that this futuristic-looking plant was situated in such a beautiful spot so close to the sea made me curious. Are they safe when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis? Further reading revealed that many of these plants are situated in earthquake-prone areas, some of them are even located next to shores that had been hit in the past by tsunamis.

A photo of Mihama made me narrow down my focus only to Japanese nuclear plants. I wanted to make a soundtrack to some of them, concentrating on the architecture, design and localizations, but also questioning the potential radiation danger (a cooling system being destroyed by a landslide or earthquake, etc). As the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said: “the plants were so well designed that ‘such a situation is practically impossible’.

The album was finished on February 13th. On March 17th I received the following message from a Facebook friend: ‘Geir, some time ago you asked people for a photo of a Japanese nuclear powerplant. Is this going to be the sleeve of your new coming album? But more importantly: how did you actually predict the future? Kind regards, David.'”

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Tone 42DR1 – Sohrab “You Are Not Alone l”

10th June 2011 » Permalink: Tone 42DR1 – Sohrab “You Are Not Alone l”

320 kpbs mp3 – 1 track – 37:09
Photography: Jon Wozencroft

The first in a series of reworkings of Sohrab material by artists showing solidarity to his cause… all label and artist money goes towards the fund for his appeal against the refusal to be granted political asylum in Germany…

Touch mix content providers:

JG Thirlwell – Susanna (Uxorial mix) 4:48 | Achim Mohné – Milan Knizhak mix#1 (side a) 6:05 | Jóhann Jóhannsson – Zarrin (remix) 6:01 (Mixed by Jóhann Jóhannsson at NTOV, Copenhagen, 24th May 2011) | Anonymous – Triple Exposure 9:10 (Mastered by a different Anonymous 24th May 2011) | Leif Elggren – No One Really Knows (destroyed) 11:46

T-Phone 4 – Budhaditya Chattopadhyay “Eye Contact with the City”

31st May 2011 » Permalink: T-Phone 4 – Budhaditya Chattopadhyay “Eye Contact with the City”

.m4v video for iPod/iPhone/iPad

Track listing:

1. Eye Contact with the City 9:33

“Eye Contact with the City” is a sound installation with video projection, produced for the Bengaluru Artist Residency 2010, supported by India Foundation for the Arts. It was recently nominated with an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica 2011.

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is a sound artist, researcher and audiovisual media practitioner based in India; he incorporates sound, visual image and digital media to produce works for installation and performance.

audionomad.blogspot.com

Tone 42DS – Sohrab “Shouting at Dictators”

20th May 2011 » Permalink: Tone 42DS – Sohrab “Shouting at Dictators”

‘Faryad bar Dictator’ ‘فریاد بر دیکتاتور’

1 track – Download only – 8:56

Mastered by BJNilsen

As you may know, Sohrab managed to leave Iran late last year for Germany, where he appealed for political asylum having been interned in Brandenburg. This appeal has failed and he is trying to raise funds to appeal against this latest ruling.

If he fails, it is probable that Sohrab will be flown back to Iran and arrested at Tehran Airport… Europe is reassessing its policy to ‘immigrants’ on a daily basis, partly because of the rise of the political right, but also because of the influx of refugees from the ‘Arab Spring’. The vast majority are being unceremoniously shipped back to their point of origin…

This release is a fund-raiser to help pay for a lawyer to help with his appeal against the ruling. 100% of Artist and Label money from this release will be donated directly to the appeal fund.

You can donate more if you wish simply by purchasing multiple copies of this release.
The protest was recorded in Tehran in the autumn of 2009.

On June 12, 2009 the Iranian presidential elections were held, and the results were strongly contested by the population. For the first time after the Islamic Revolution, Iranians expressed their dissent by organizing huge demonstrations against the regime. But the protest was not limited to demonstrations in public spaces; every night at 10 o’clock, citizens gathered on rooftops to continue their protests, chanting “Allah u Akbar” (“Allah is great”). At times, these chants would be interrupted by other, more indignant, chants of “Mag bar diktator” (“Death to the dictator”). During these protests, the dark Tehran nights were haunted by the ghost-like shadows and their eerie voices. Dreams, memories, emotions, and hopes roam around like ghosts on the rooftops of Teheran.

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Tone 43 – Chris Watson & Marcus Davidson “Cross-Pollination”

14th April 2011 » Permalink: Tone 43 – Chris Watson & Marcus Davidson “Cross-Pollination”

CD in digipak – 2 tracks – 48:20
Art Direction: Jon Wozencroft
Cover image: Yusuke Murakami

Track listing:

1. Midnight at the Oasis 28:03
2. The Bee Symphony 20:00

Notes:

Midnight at the Oasis: – The piece is a 28 minute time compression from sunset to sunrise in South Africa’s Kalahari desert and features the dense and harmonic mosaic of delicate animal rhythms recorded in this remote habitat. “Midnight at the Oasis” was first performed at the Marquee in Parliament Street, York, on 13th September 2007 as part of Sight Sonic.

“The Kalahari desert is a vast and open space where most of the wildlife is nocturnal. After sunset the dunes, grasses and thorn bushes are patrolled by an emerging alien empire – the insects.

Midnight at the Oasis’ presents an unseen soundscape from this beautiful and hostile environment.

The Bee Symphony: A project conceived by Chris Watson originally for “Pestival” in 2009 to explore the vocal harmonies between humans and honey bees in a unique choral collaboration around and within the hives of an English country garden. Recorded live at The Rymer Auditorium, Music Research Centre, University of York, England on December 17th 2010 by Tony Myatt, using a Soundfield SPS200 microphone recorded onto an Edirol R4 (surround version), and 2 x Neumann U87 microphones via Grace Microphone Preamplifiers, recorded onto an Edirol R44 (stereo version). Composed and arranged by Marcus Davidson using recordings made by Chris Watson & Mike Harding, and diffused through a 4.1 Genelec system by Chris Watson. The Bee Choir: Dylan de Buitlear, Lisa Coates, Steph Connor, Lewis Marlowe and Shendie McMath. With thanks to Peter Boardman (the event producer), Tom Emmett, Celia Frisby & Bridget Nicholls, who originally commissioned The Bee Symphony.

Marcus Davidson writes: “The first thing that struck me about the bees was how tuneful they were. During the day, their pitch was always based around A an octave below 440, the note we tune orchestras to. I found that the bees formed chords around the A, which varied depending on their mood. I spent time notating these bee chords, or note clusters, and as the bees sing easily in the human vocal range, I then scored the actual bee music for choir.

The sound of humans singing bees was strangely engaging. I thought it was reminiscent of Aboriginal music, perhaps showing how in tune with nature the native civilisations are. In fact, all the chords and ‘tunes’ in The Bee Symphony are taken from actual notes sung by the bees in the field recordings. The score was written so the choir sings exactly with different aspects of the bee song in real time, so hopefully we indeed have humans singing in harmony with bees!”

For further information, visit The Bee Symphony microsite

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Tone 45.1 – BJNilsen “Vinyl”

14th April 2011 » Permalink: Tone 45.1 – BJNilsen “Vinyl”

12″ White Label vinyl + download
The first in a new series of limited edition Touch white labels releases…

Track listing:

Vinyl:
1. Side A 14:44
2. Side B 15:14

Download:
3. Side C 19:52

Recorded on location in Sweden, Iceland, Austria and England using various microphones, media and formats. Sources include wind, waves, tone generators, piano, guitar and other stuff. Mixed in Berlin 2010. Cut by Jason at Transition, 13th January 2011.
Recommended nocturnal listening…

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

25th January 2011 » Permalink: 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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Tone 42 – Sohrab “A Hidden Place”

22nd November 2010 » Permalink: Tone 42 – Sohrab “A Hidden Place”

LP – 6 tracks – 40:20 + free download: Aamookhtan Baraye Zistan (42:46) when you buy the vinyl from the TouchShop

Mastered by Denis Blackham
Cut by Jason @ Transition
Photography by Jon Wozencroft

Track listing:

side one
Susanna (9:51)
Somebody (5:59)
Pedagogicheskaya Poema (3:28)

side two
Himmel Über Tehran (5:31)
A Hidden Place (9:27)
Zarrin (6:16)

Sohrab was born in Tehran in 1984. He was seven when the Iran-Iraq war ended. His name, from an old poem called ‘Shahname’, means ‘rouge water’, which can also mean ‘blood’. He started a punk band with his brother and a friend, which lasted about two years before splitting. Sohrab is totally isolated in Iran, with little or no connection to what is happening there. Sohrab is, like so many, displaced within his own country and occupies a similar internal cultural isolation. This is suggested by Jon Wozencroft’s imagery and artwork; looking in through shattered glass and an air of menace underneath the surface.
He recently performed live at Berghain for a Touch night, with Fennesz, Hildur Gudnadottir and others. It was his first legal gig since a performance by his punk band was broken up by the police in Tehran…

He is currently seeking status as a political refugee…

Sohrab used Reason 3, his midi controller (R)evolution UC-16 and a sampler, recorded live through Ambrosia recording software.

You can listen to his contribution to TouchRadio, “Tanhayi – Live in Tehran”, recorded in October 2009

و چنان بی تابم، که دلم می خواهد
بدوم تا ته دشت، بروم تا سر کوه
دورها آوایی است، که مرا می خواند

so restless am i that i wish
to run to the end of the plain,
to top of the mountain
there is a voice in the distance,
that is calling me
(Sohrab Sepehri)

Visit Sohrab’s website here

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Spire 4 – Pietro Riparbelli “4 Churches”

21st October 2010 » Permalink: Spire 4 – Pietro Riparbelli “4 Churches”

4 tracks – mp3 download – 42:09
Mastered by Giuseppe Verticchio

Track listing and notes:

1. The Dome, Orvieto

I was in Orvieto for 3 days and recorded some sound during the morning, trying to avoid the tourists. I always try to find the cathedral without too many people but at the same time there must been some, because their sounds allow us to perceive the reverb of the space.
Moreover, I’ve recorded voices from a choir during a celebration and I’ve utilised a sample of the organ of the cathedrals. The Dome of Orvieto is a fantastic gothic church. Orvieto is an Etruscan city and it’s on a hill in which caves were excavated by the Etruscans. During the Second World War the Nazis didn’t bomb Orvieto because of the amazing cathedral that they wanted to take back to Germany!

2. The Basilica, Assisi

I was for one week and recorded sounds within the interior of the Basilica where the relics of Saint Francis are kept. It is a really dark place where there are a lot of passages with stairs to reach the crypt. There are many frescoes by Giotto – really wonderful. It is a place of meditation and there is an incredible silence, although you have to find the Basilica without tourists early in the morning. I was seated in front of the stone of the relics for a long time each day. There are a lot of guards that control everything – especially people like me who were there everyday. At the end of the track you can hear a chant by nuns recorded from within the Basilica. They were behind a window and it was a fantastic experience.

3. The Cathedral of Saint Germain, Paris

This was the first Cathedral of Paris built around 500 A.D.
I found within this cathedral a crazy English woman that was telling stories and laughing to herself. I stayed close to her and she thought I wanted to kill her; so she attacked and punched me. I’ve recorded organs and chanting voices. The distorted sounds are pitched organs.

4. Notre Dame, Paris

This is the least organised composition because it is almost impossible to recorded the reverb of this place because of the tourist that are there all the day at every hour. But I’ve managed to record an organ session and a mass.

www.pt-r.com
http://www.pt-r.com/About.asp

 

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T-Phone 3 – Jana Winderen “nightwater”

29th September 2010 » Permalink: T-Phone 3 – Jana Winderen “nightwater”

.m4v video for iPod/iPhone
Seoul, Korea
20th September 2010

Track listing:

1. nightwater 12:49

TO:81 – Philip Jeck “An Ark for the Listener”

6th September 2010 » Permalink: TO:81 – Philip Jeck “An Ark for the Listener”

CD in jewel case
Photography & Design: Jon Wozencroft

TouchShop exclusive – this CD is released elsewhere on 20th September 2010

Mastered by Denis Blackham
The cover shows Mirosław Bałka’s installation at the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, “How It Is”, April 2010.

Plus bonus 320kbps .mp3 download – 1 track – 30:59
TO:81DL – Philip Jeck “Live at Corsica Studios”, recorded on 1st July 2010.
This performance was recorded straight to digital from the main desk.

Track listing:

1. Pilot/Dark Blue Night 8:47
2. Ark 4:21
3. Twentyninth 2:36
4. Dark Rehearsal 7:36
5. Thirtieth/Pilot Reprise 2:56
6. The All of Water 8:29
7. The Pilot (Among Our Shoals) 4:33

coda:
8. All That’s Allowed (Released) 3:24
9. Chime, Chime (Re-rung) 7:34

Philip Jeck works with old records and record players salvaged from junk shops turning them to his own purposes. He really does play them as musical instruments, creating an intensely personal language that evolves with each added part of a record. Philip Jeck makes genuinely moving and transfixing music, where we hear the art not the gimmick.

Philip Jeck writes: “A version of “An Ark For The Listener” was first performed at Kings Place London on 24/02/2010. It is a meditation on verse 33 of “The Wreck of the Deutschland”, Gerard Manley Hopkins poem about the drowning on December 7th 1875 of five Franciscan nuns exiled from Germany. This CD version was recorded at home in Liverpool and used extracts from live performances over the last 12 months. The “coda:” tracks are remixes of 2 pieces from “Suite: Live in Liverpool”. “Chime, Chime (Re-rung)” was originally made for Musicworks magazine (#104, Summer 09) and “All That’s Allowed (Released)” is previously unreleased. All tracks were made using Fidelity record-players, Casio SK1 keyboards, Sony mini-disc recorders, Behringer mixers, Ibanez bass guitar, Boss delay pedal and Zoom bass effects pedal.”

An Ark… is Jeck’s 6th solo album for touch since ‘Loopholes’ in 1995. The Wire reckoned it was ‘Stoke’ (Touch, 2002) which ‘made him great, but his body of work and his achingly brilliant live sets are rapidly defining him as one of our best artists, and his recent award from The Paul Hamlyn Foundation confirms him as such.

Philip Jeck studied visual art at Dartington College of Arts. He started working with record players and electronics in the early ’80’s and has made soundtracks and toured with many dance and theatre companies as we as well as his solo concert work. His best known work “Vinyl Requiem” (with Lol Sargent): a performance for 180 ’50’s/’60’s record players won Time Out Performance Award for 1993. He has also over the last few years returned to visual art making installations using from 6 to 80 record players including “Off The Record” for Sonic Boom at The Hayward Gallery, London [2000). In 2010 he won one of The Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Composition.

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Tone 41 – Hildur Gudnadottir “Mount A”

19th August 2010 » Permalink: Tone 41 – Hildur Gudnadottir “Mount A”

CD in digipak
Photography & Design: Jon Wozencroft
Remastered by Denis Blackham

Track listing:

1. Light
2. Floods
3. Casting
4. Shadowed
5. Self
6. Growth
7. In Gray
8. My
9. Reflection
10. Earbraces
11. You

This album was originally released by 12 Tónar in 2006 under the moniker ‘Lost in Hildurness’. The first solo recording from Hildur Guðnadóttir (who is a member of the Nix Noltes band and has performed regularly with múm and Pan Sonic). In her dreamy soundworld she plays the cello, gamba, zither, khuur and the gamelan so this cd sounds like nothing else. This is exciting, tranquil, and melancholic stuff and at times it makes you think of a lost place and times gone by – and the music has the power to take you there. Recording sessions took place both in New York and in a house in Hólar, Iceland, specifically chosen for its good cello acoustics. It is strictly a solo album, Hildur has attempted to “involve other people as little as I could.” Like the cover art, it is personal and intimate.

It has been called “the perfect soundtrack to get lost in a forest at night”, but this version, remastered by Denis Blackham, sounds fresher and better than ever.

Her latest solo album, the widely reviewed and highly acclaimed Without Sinking (Touch # TO:70, 2009) is still available from Touch.

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