Touch Newsletter #302
Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #302. Announcing two new releases, Youmna Saba’s first CD for Touch and The Howling (on The Wormhole), alongside two London shows at Iklectik and a BBC Radio 6 Music playlist.
Mike Harding was invited to curate a playlist for Stuart Maconie’s BBC Radio 6 Music show “Freakzone”, to be broadcast on Friday 14 September. Mike writes: “Sound Travels is a snapshot of a musical journey around the globe and across the dimensions. Featuring Hildur Guðnadóttir, Jana Winderen, General Strike, drøne, EVP, as well as music from Ancient Egypt and Albania, contemporary Los Angeles and West Sussex, Bali and Beirut.” The show will be available on BBC Sounds for 28 days after transmission.
Youmna Saba’s “Wishah وِشاح” is now available to pre-order. Following her previous solo works “Njoum” (2014) and “Arb’een (40)” (2017), this album marks a significant turning point in Saba's work. Created after leaving Beirut and settling in Paris, "Wishah" reveals a profound shift in her musical expression, informed by rigorous research in the sonic properties of sung Arabic phonemes and their role in shaping synthesised electronic sounds.
The Howling is a collaborative project started by writer Ken Hollings and sound artist Howlround devoted exclusively to their shared love of text, audiotape and Trash Aesthetics. An intense collision of spoken word and analogue tape effects, their second album, “Incredible Night Creatures of the Midway” is now available to pre-order. Details below.
On Saturday 16 September, Touch, Iklectik and Mary Prestidge invite you to “A Tribute to Philip Jeck” – very few tickets remain. Further details below.
On Wednesday 19 September 2023, drøne, English Touring Opera and Iklectik present “Vox Interruptus”, an evening of voice versus noise. In performance, drøne and Julia Mariko (soprano), The Howling, Dale Cornish and JTM.
Youmna Saba
“Wishah وِشاح”
T33:22
CD and digital – 5 tracks. Release date: 6 October 2023. Buy “Wishah وِشاح” on Bandcamp. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Design and photography: Jon Wozencroft.
1. Akaleel أكاليل
2. Ba'oud بعوض
3. Al khayal الخيال
4. Ahad أحد
5. Tareeq طريق
“Wishah وِشاح” was written and performed by Youmna Saba. Recorded and mixed by Fadi Tabbal at Tunefork Studios, Beirut. Produced by Youmna Saba and Fadi Tabbal.
“Wishah” (“Veil” in Arabic) is a composition in five stages, written by Youmna Saba between 2021 and 2022, for voice, oud and electronics.
Following her previous solo works “Njoum” (2014) and “Arb’een (40)” (2017), this album marks a significant turning point in Saba's journey. Created after leaving Beirut and settling in Paris, Wishah reveals a profound shift in her musical expression, informed by rigorous research in the sonic properties of sung Arabic phonemes and their role in shaping synthesised electronic sounds.
The album employs a digital extension for the oud, a concept developed by Saba in her research project Taïma’. This device enhances the oud's sonic range, seamlessly integrating synthesised electronics. It also amplifies subtle, often overlooked sounds generated during playing, such as resonances and fingerboard friction.
The composition is organised into five distinct stages, each contributing to a process of gradual revelation. As the tracks unfold, they strip away layers of constructed emotions and perceptions that have been intricately woven over time, to expose a space that no longer exists. Wishah is a farewell to home.
Youmna Saba (Beirut 1984) is a musician, composer and musicologist. Her current research focuses on instrument and space resonances in different sonic and musical contexts. With four albums to this date, she has collaborated with musicians of different musical expressions such as Kamilya Jubran, Floy Krouchi, Mike Cooper and the Neue Vocalsolisten ensemble, and has taken part in numerous artist residencies. She is the laureate of the first sound residency at Quai Branly Museum, Paris (2022-2023) with her research project and installation “La Réserve des Non-Dits”, now on view at the museum; and a laureate of the music residency program at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2020-2021).
Buy on Bandcamp
The Howling
“Incredible Night Creatures of the Midway”
WHO#22
CD and digital – 5 tracks. Release date: 29 September 2023. Buy “Incredible Night Creatures of the Midway” on Bandcamp. Bandcamp sales include a .pdf zine. Mastered by Steven McInerney. Illustrations by Stefan Fähler. The duo preview the album at Iklectik on 19 September. Tickets: dice.fm.
1. Contents Warning
2. David Gest, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor
3. The Skydivers
4. A Picture of the Picture of Dorian Gray
5. Miss Frost Miss Leslie Miss Frost
The Howling is a collaborative project started by writer Ken Hollings and sound artist Howlround devoted exclusively to their shared love of text, audiotape and Trash Aesthetics. An intense collision of spoken word and analogue tape effects, their debut album “All Hail Mega Force”, released by The Tapeworm in 2022, was hailed by The Wire as a “mesmeric disorientation.”
One year later, and with some blistering live performances at Iklectik, The Horse Hospital and the British Film Institute under their belts, The Howling are back with their second album release. Inspired by their passion for Trash Cinema, Hollings and Howlround have come up with “Incredible Night Creatures of the Midway”, which celebrates some of their favourite exploitation movies. “Contents Warning” pays tribute to the quantities of sex, horror and violence to be found in the genre as a whole, while “David Gest, Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor” is a veritable Trash Aesthetics checklist. Each of the remaining three tracks is devoted to a specific movie dear to The Howling's hearts. “The Skydivers” is a deadpan exposition of a spectacularly lacklustre 1960s soap opera set on a California airfield, backed by the throbbing of a customised street rod engine. “The Picture of the Picture of Dorian Gray” is a pounding response to a 1970s Italian soft-core porn adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s classic novel. Finally, The Howling are joined by Beth Arzy of Jetstream Pony and composer/performer Ela Orleans for “Miss Frost Miss Leslie Miss Frost”, an exacting dismemberment of “Miss Leslie’s Dolls”, a creepy Florida-based slasher flick rumoured to have been produced with money smuggled out of Castro’s Cuba. We dare you to play it in the dark!
Ken Hollings is a writer and broadcaster. His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and he has written and presented critically acclaimed features for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and Resonance 104.4 FM. His books include “Welcome to Mars”, “The Bright Labyrinth”, “The Space Oracle” and “Inferno”, all available from Strange Attractor/MIT Press. His latest book for them is “The Trash Project Volume Two: Purgatory”.
Howlround was founded by sound designer and radio producer Robin The Fog in 2012 to create recordings, performances and installations entirely from manipulating magnetic tape on a quartet of vintage tape machines, with all additional effects and artificial reverb strictly forbidden – a process that has been described by Electronic Sound magazine as “conjur[ing] magic”. Several albums later, his initial attempts to become a “one man Radiophonic Workshop” have morphed into using closed input tape-loops to create blistering noise and primitive techno, which is quite a long way from where he started.
Buy on Bandcamp
A Tribute to Philip Jeck
Iklectik, London
16 September 2023
Chris Watson presents Oxmardyke, Claire M Singer, Jonathan Raisin, Liverpool Improvisation Collective and John Beaumont. Doors: 7:00pm. Start: 7:30pm. Tickets: dice.fm.
Touch, Iklectik and Mary Prestidge invite you to “A Tribute to Philip Jeck” at Iklectik, London on 16th September 2023. With a presentation of “Oxmardyke” by Chris Watson, a performance by Claire M Singer and others who have collaborated with Philip through film, dance and music over the decades.
Chris Watson presents “Oxmardyke”.
Claire M Singer – solo performance.
clairemsinger.com
Jonathan Raisin – piano solo. ‘in the absence…’ an improvisation, a memory… half a duet. Jonathan is a composer and improvising musician, based in Liverpool, who played with Philip several times over the last few years, and co-released “Resistenza” in 2022.
Liverpool Improvisation Collective (Andrea Buckley, Paula Hampson, Mary Prestidge and Kate Brown) – “Echoes of Philip”, an ensemble performance with dancers from Liverpool and London.
John Beaumont (Tenor) – Gregorian chant.
spire.org.uk
Tickets: dice.fm
Facebook Event Page
Vox Interruptus
Iklectik, London
19 September 2023
drøne and Julia Mariko (Soprano) in collaboration with English Touring Opera, The Howling, Dale Cornish and JTM. Doors: 7:30pm. Start: 8:00pm. Tickets: dice.fm.
Vox Interruptus – an evening of voice versus noise. Operatic soprano from Julia Marika alongside drøne (their UK premier), The Howling (Ken Hollings and Robin the Fog) talk trash over tape loops and distortions and Dale Cornish delivers south London keening in all its joy, horror and sadness. JTM is the overseas special guest - the mystery voice (What’s My Line for the 21st Century?) in this eclectic lineup.
drøne are Mark Van Hoen and Mike Harding, exploring a soundworld characterised by tiny, almost imperceptible changes in currents. Snatches of overheard conversation and baritone prayer calls join hissing noises and faltering shortwave data broadcast with tiny clusters of electronic melody. This is their UK debut, and features Julia Mariko (Soprano) in collaboration with English Touring Opera. field.nu/drone
The Howling is a collaborative project started by writer Ken Hollings and sound artist Howlround devoted exclusively to their shared love of text, audiotape and trash aesthetics. At Vox Interruptus they preview their upcoming album for The Wormhole, “Incredible Night Creatures Of The Midway”. robinthefog.com
Through his wickedly experimental approach to electronic music, South London’s Dale Cornish explores the outer-edges and inner-workings of musical forms. Cornish has been gleefully deconstructing club and experimental music and reassembling it in his own fashion. dalecornish.com
Tickets: dice.fm
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 fifth year and have just posted episode 195…
Guerrilla Audio
Long Wave
“Suspending time and immersing the listener in a widescreen of sound.”
Long Wave has now moved to the second Tuesday of the month from 8am-10pm PST.
You can catch up with the dublab archive on dublab.com, and for the entire Long Wave history (12 series so far for dublab and resonancefm) visit mscharding.net
Touchpoint
Steve Roden (1964-2023)
Steve Roden, who sadly passed away yesterday, was a sweet, gentle, curious and funny man, great company and a huge creative force. In September 2015, with Mark Van Hoen and Simon Scott, Touch visited Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve to play a show in an old ammunition bunker. His set that night filled what was a storage of destruction with positive, defiant sound. He had lugged his full modular synth set up all the way from Pasadena. Steve was a real joy to interview (see link below) and his set at dublab was a very special event, full of risk-taking and spontaneity. We will miss him.
Steve Roden on Touch Radio and Long Wave, where you can listen to the live set.
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