Touch Newsletter #252

Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #252. Cristian Vogel’s “Mind Control” is released today on 12” vinyl and digital. Full details below.

A reminder of two recent Touch releases. The first, “Gardenia” by Jacaszek, features field recordings from the Mmabolela game reserve in South Africa, digitally processed and used as part of nine musical arrangements. The second, “The Key” by Cleared, is a project formed to focus on repetition and patience as central elements of composition. Cleared also invited Philip Jeck, Fennesz, Bethan Kellough and Olivia Block to investigate and reimagine the four compositions. Both “Gardenia” and “The Key” CDs are packaged in DVD packaging with design and photography by Jon Wozencroft.

Cleared’s Steven Hess is also a member of Apiary whose self-titled tape, a recording from 2010, is one of two tapes just out on The Tapeworm. The other is “Hidden Codes” by Trinovantes, a new collaboration between old friends Franz Kirmann and Stuart Bowditch – songs by metal bands interpreted by algorithmic functions into MIDI.

In other news… Geneva Skeen has a new album, “Double Bind” out on Lawrence English’s label, ROOM40. The archive of “Hymns Ancient & Modern”, Mike Harding and Bana Haffar’s latest radio show “Long Wave” on Dublab is now available from dublab.com

Cristian Vogel
“Mind Control”
WHO#15

12” EP in an edition of 250 copies, plus digital. Buy “Mind Control” on Bandcamp. Mastered and cut by Jason Goz. Artwork: Federico Gargaglione.

A: Acceleration Morphosis
B1: Acceleration Morphosis (Mind Control Version)
B2: La Neta

All music written and produced by Cristian Vogel, Copenhagen, 2018.

What is Mind Control? Making people believe by shaping what they hear; a sonata for the age of acceleration morphosis; a music born under punches. Play at any required speed.

Cristian Vogel is a life-long innovator in the design, composition and performance of electronic sounds. His independent career in music and audio technology has won prizes and awards establishing him as an outstanding influence in the field of composition for studio, club culture and stage. He performs, remixes and produces original music and sound design at an international level. He has lived in Brighton, Barcelona, Berlin and Geneva and is now permanently based in Copenhagen where he continues creating technologically based music, sound and audio technology at his design studios Ekometic and NeverEngineLabs.

Buy “Mind Control” on Bandcamp

Cleared
“The Key”
TO:116

CD in DVD case + DL - 8 tracks - 72:24. Buy “The Key” on Bandcamp. Photography and design: Jon Wozencroft. Mastered by Denis Blackham.

1. The Key 10:51 - you can hear this track here
2. Bonded 7:11
3. Of Air 12:56
4. Mesa 10:32

5. Philip Jeck - The Key 10:46
6. Fennesz - Bonded 6:28
7. Bethan Kellough - Of Air 6:52
8. Olivia Block - Mesa 6:48

Cleared is the Chicago-based duo of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera, formed in the latter part of 2009 as a project to focus on repetition and patience as central elements of composition. Hess and Vallera have previously worked in various contexts of improvisational, long form and experimental music (Hess contributed to Fennesz’s Seven Stars, released on Touch in 2011). Cleared is an effort to take the knowledge both have gained from these arenas in order to build hypnotic patterns of sound and rhythm.

“The Key” was recorded in the spring of 2019 at Electrical Audio in Chicago Illinois with engineer Greg Norman. After a silence of several years, Cleared went into the studio with a set of drawings and notes describing the arcs of various systems for the creation of soundscapes and rhythmic patterns. There was no rehearsal, demo recordings or any other preparation besides theses diagrams which were designed by both Hess and Vallera in tandem. The logic behind this strategy was to erase the confines of previous releases and return to the origin of the project, which simply began as an open improvisation between the two musicians, centering a focus on slow, gradual changes and a meditative sensibility.

The recordings were made with a specific attention to sonic detail and fidelity, resulting in hours of material that was arranged and mixed over the next year by Michael Vallera in his home studio.

The resulting four tracks were further investigated and reimagined by Philip Jeck, Christian Fennesz, Bethan Kellough and Olivia Block, adding another form of “The Key” as a collection of discreet and weighted sonic explorations.

Steven Hess is an American drummer and sound artist living and working in Chicago. He is a member of Cleared, the Vienna/Chicago trio, Innode (Editions Mego), and the long running electro-acoustic group, Haptic. He has collaborated with a number of artists over the years and has recorded for labels ranging from Relapse Records (with Locrian) to Kranky (with Pan American) and many others.

Michael Vallera is a musician and photographer who lives and works in Chicago. Prolific as both a solo artist and collaborator, he has released albums under his own name and as COIN (Denovali / Opal Tapes), with percussionist Steven Hess as Cleared, and with Joseph Clayton Mills as Maar (Umor Rex, Entr’acte). An MFA graduate of School of the Art Institute of Chicago, his work has been exhibited in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

Buy “The Key” on Bandcamp

Jacaszek
“Gardenia”
TO:117

CD in DVD case + DL - 9 tracks - 48:29. Buy “Gardenia” on Bandcamp. Recorded, composed and produced by Michał Jacaszek. Photography and design: Jon Wozencroft. Mastered by Francisco López.

1. Waterhole 05:50
2. Mmabolela 06:19
3. Riverbed 03:20 - you can hear this track here
4. Red Dust 04:30
5. Dawn 06:14
6. Bones 05:23
7. Nidus 05:55
8. Nebula 05:35
9. Ruins 05:23

“Gardenia is an existing land located at the Limpopo province of South Africa, right at the border with Botswana. The place’s real name is Mmabolela and it’s a private nature reserve covering 6500ha of subtropical savanna and part of Limpopo River.

In November 2019 I had a chance to visit the location and participate in an annual residency for composers and sound artists called “Sonic Mmabolela”, initiated and curated by Francisco López. We lived in an isolated property in the middle of savanna having a unique opportunity to exist in undisturbed touch with the African wilderness.

All the natural sounds later used to create “Gardenia” were captured there — during longtime recording sessions over the virgin interior of Mmabolela Reserve. The album’s field recording content was selected from several hours of birdsong, calls of frogs, insect noises, sounds of trees, bushes, grass as well as non-living natural elements like stones or shells. These field recordings were later digitally processed and used as part of nine musical arrangements.

However the recording sources and the location of Gardenia is defined, it was not my intention to document a South African natural soundscape nor create any other kind of strict concept album.

All I do in my work is an affirmation of beauty hidden in various aspects of the Creation.” (MJ)

Buy “Gardenia” on Bandcamp

Apiary
TTW#135

Cassette in an edition of 100 copies. Buy Apiary on Bandcamp. Illustration: SavX.

A: Apis (Day)
B: Apis (Night)

David Daniell: guitar. Steven Hess: drums. Joseph Clayton Mills: electronics. Jason Stein: bass clarinet. Recorded by Nick Broste on May 9th, 2010, at Strobe Recording Studio, Chicago, IL. Edited and mixed by Joseph Clayton Mills and David Daniell. Mastered by Helge Sten at Audio Virus Lab.

Formed in Chicago in 2009, Apiary brought together four of that city’s most versatile and prolific musicians: David Daniell (guitar), Steven Hess (drums), Joseph Clayton Mills (electronics), and Jason Stein (bass clarinet). Together, Apiary interwove disparate strands of Chicago’s improvised music community, seamlessly incorporating their influences—ranging from jazz to minimalism to noise—into a whole that was dense and hypnotic.

Having developed a reputation for the intensity of their live performances, Apiary entered the studio in the spring of 2010 in an attempt to document their unique sound. These recordings, uncovered and revisited a decade later, have lost none of their power or immediacy. If anything, the intervening years provide a sense of perspective and insight into how vital Apiary’s music—grounded in collaboration and possibility—remains. Apiary was reworked and brought to completion in 2020; it provides a fascinating window into a crucial moment in Chicago’s musical history, one that still vibrates with startling urgency.

Buy Apiary on Bandcamp

Trinovantes
“Hidden Codes”
TTW#136

Cassette in an edition of 100 copies. Buy “Hidden Codes” on Bandcamp. Artwork: Roman Gamaury. Type O Graphy: Stefan Fähler.

A1: Turn Loose The Swans [My Dying Bride]
A2: At Rest [Decomposed]
A3: From Ignorance to Oblivion [Gorefest]
B1: Hallowed Be Thy Name [Iron Maiden]
B2: Through The Collonades [Entombed]
B3: The Night Eternal [At The Gates]

All eponymous tracks made using MIDI data extracted by algorithmic processes. Produced by Franz Kirmann and Stuart Bowditch.

Trinovantes is a new collaboration between old friends Franz Kirmann and Stuart Bowditch, who originally met in 2007 at the Multivitamins events in Shoreditch.

The body of work on Hidden Codes employs a new approach. Songs by metal bands were interpreted by algorithmic functions into MIDI. The extracted data was then edited and played through a variety of software and synthesisers to generate warm, ambient layers that, whilst removed from the original songs, retains a sentiment of the original ideas. The layers were then arranged and further processed to form new pieces.

Buy “Hidden Codes” on Bandcamp

“Touch: Displacing”
V33:50

Touch: Displacing is a new subscription project where the focus falls on longer-form compositions, to be released on a monthly basis over the coming year and featuring artists for whom duration is a key feature of their work. It follows on from Touch: Isolation which covered the first lockdown period in the UK.

Twelve new and exclusive tracks recorded by Touch or Touch-affiliated artists for one year’s subscription, with contributions from Oren Ambarchi, Olivia Block, Richard Chartier, Ipek Gorgun, Bana Haffar, Philip Jeck, Chris Watson and others, leading with “Kharabat” by Sohrab – all mastered by Denis Blackham, to whom once again grateful thanks are due. Receipts will, as with Touch: Isolation [the collection is still available], be shared amongst the artists. A time to support independent music while it still exists!

Each of the releases will be mirrored by a cover/counterpoint by Jon Wozencroft – not fixed to one location, as they were with Touch: Isolation.

The subscription costs £33 for twelve tracks – please support the artists by investing in the Touch: Displacing project, and expect surprises – good ones for a change.

Subscribe at touchdisplacing.bandcamp.com

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 128…

Guerrilla Audio
www.simonfisherturner.com