30th September 2014 at The Silent Movie Theatre
611 N. Fairfax, LA, CA 90036
The Golem (with live score by Jacaszek, a polish sound artist who works with us at Touch – we released an album by him in June 2014)
about The Golem
Golem | Michal Jacaszek 30th September 2014
Profile in Tokafi | 17th September 2014
“By maintaining challenging relationships with their artists, touch have remained inspiring for more than 30 years….”
Tobias Fischer interviewed Mike Harding & Jon Wozencroft for Dutch magazine, Tokafi
You can read the full article here: www.tokafi.com
Tone 51D – Thomas Köner & Jana Winderen “Cloitre”
Download – 1 track – 44:37
Mastered by Thomas Köner
Photography by Jon Wozencroft
Text by Denis Boyer
Recorded live from the cloisters at Evreux Cathedral, Normandy, France by Franck Dubois, 14th June 2014, as part of L’Ateliers
Track listing:
1. Cloître
TO:27D – Chris Watson “Stepping into the Dark”
12 Tracks – 59:43 – Download
PDF Booklet + text file inc. liner notes and images
The tracks are the atmospheres of “special places”, recorded with the use of camouflaged microphones.
“In recent years I have noticed that some of the locations I visited as a sound recordist displayed remarkable and particular characteristics. These may be sparkling acoustics, a special timbre, sometimes rhythmic, percussive or transient animal sounds. Without a doubt, playing a recording made at one of these sites can recreate a detailed memory of the original event. Also, as others have described, there is an intangible sense of being in a special place — somewhere that has a spirit — a place that has an ‘atmosphere’. These recordings avoid background noise, human disturbance and editing. They are made using sensitive microphones camouflaged and fixed in position usually well in advance of any recording or animal behaviour. The mics. are then cabled back on very long leads to a hide or concealed recording point, the aim being to capture the actual sound within each particular location without external influence. Sites are discovered by researching local natural or social history, by interpreting features on a map or through anecdote and conversation with people about their feelings for or against particular places. The author and researcher Tom Lethbridge identified the sources of several spirits within the topography of the area. I suspect that this also includes flora and fauna, local time of day, the weather and the season. The following recordings are the atmospheres of special places.” (Chris Watson)
Track list:
1. Low Pressure
0810h 6th October 1994
Wind wherever the sound recordist operates is an obvious nuisance. Just as it is with turbulent seas and fast-running water, it is relatively simple to make a recording that captures the generalised bashing and cashing of the elements, but this results in white noise that describes nothing of the detailed ebb and flow as witnessed. The remarkable thing here, in Glen Cannich, was that i could walk through the foci of these wind sounds within a few paces, as if being part of some great instrument. The blast here was so strong that it took some time to fix the microphones securely – I felt surrounded by the full force of the elements being channelled through this site, and wanted the recording to reflect the bent-double posture and sheer physicality I was experiencing. I cabled back 50 or 60m to a sheltered position and managed to run the tape for almost ten minutes before the microphones were blown over.
2. Embleton Rookery
0600h 7th May 1983
The churchyard looks out to the sea and across to the castle at Dunstanburgh Head, the vertigo cliff face forming a curve to create what was once a remote deep water harbour, used by Tudor monarchs. Maybe shipwrecked sailors have returned, reincarnated as the rooks that have chosen upon the old stone church in Embleton, whose name itself gives off a particular hum. Is it that the rooks are only rooks, and they sound dark to us because the Black Birdhas so many associations with malevolence and ill-omen? Lethbridge might have said that the birds come here, largely due to this always pagan site having obvious associations with the strong atmosphere of its ley lime and ritual past. Today, cars file past on their way to a family picnic on the promontory.
Go there at dawn, or last thing at night, out of traffic hours, and another sound takes over. The acoustic of the place spins the parliament of the rooks through the cold air, its stillness, and into the timeless chaos, as always, driven on by the ringing of the bells.
3. The Crossroads
0620h 27th March 1994
This morning the conditions were just right. This crossroads at Smalesmouth in the Kielder Forest, I am told, connects two of the ‘old straight tracks’ upon which Scottish drovers would herd their livestock south across the open hill. Today, the forest clearing is home to a host of bird, both resident and migrant. Here, however, end of March, the birdsong comes from local voices at the peak of their activity. So at our usual site on the junction of the forest tracks, recording began just after the light came up. The cold, dry air was full of detail, this isolated spot quickly reanimated by the ringing song and calls of chaffinch, robin, wren, songthrush, siskin and crossbill…
4. River Mara At Dawn
0615h 16th September 1994
A looping curve up river is edged with lush riverene forest. The location is spectacular, but its splendour has to co-exist with an oft-repeated stress on being vigilant; one does not wander alone on foot about the Maasai Mara.
Having set the mics, I cabled back some distance to the Land Rover and started to record. Eventually, building with the heat, were the convergent sounds of swirling water, black kites, wind through the surrounding vegetation and a blanket covering if flies.
5. River Mara At Night
2130h 16th September 1994
The same evening, Francis asked one of the other Maasai guards to take me back up river. Nightfall brings more danger. The hippos, who spend the day in the river, come out and graze on the vegetation, and can be very threatening animals… more people are killed by hippos than they are by lions.
The ‘atmosphere’ had changed. Listening for the wooden chimes of tree frogs, we were met by heavy rhythm, a wall of nocturnal sound. Moths and night flying beetles are being hunted – you can hear the deep octaval roar as they come close to the microphone. The metallic sounds, I suspect, are the acoustic calls of bats.
6. A Passing View
2350h 3rd April 1992
Today, Fai – a local fisherman, took us into the huge mangrove forests at Los Olovitos by canoe. We had spoken about some of the special places in the mangroves and in the early afternoon we stopped at a resting place bordering the lake. It was hot, humid and very quiet. I cabled some mics out into the water’s edge with the idea of returning before dawn the following day. Curiosity forced my return that night when I heard and recorded these mechanical sounds of fishing bats in the darkness. Afterwards, in torchlight, I could watch these beautiful, long-legged russet coloured animals trawling for small fish feeding on the surface of the water.
7. Bosque Seco
0540h 6th April 1995
I left the camp at 0500h this morning and followed the winding path east towards my marker. Within the forest it was still very dark and quiet, with rising warm dry air. Just as the light was breaking through the canopy, I found my site at a fork in the path. I rigged up the tape recorder. The temperature began to climb like a jet off a runway. The acoustics changed, the orchestra awoke and the forest found its rhythm.
8. Sunsets
2230h 16th May 1994
During the late afternoon I cabled the equipment out into the marsh from a track. At 2000h I went back to listen out for the evening chorus of snipe. On the ground, they are cryptic birds and will choose their spot, usually reedy and damp, close to their very well camouflaged nestling places in tussocks and long grass.
The evening was quiet until the point at which the light dramatically changes and colour vision vanishes. At this hour, the snipe will perform. In an amazing ritual and localised aerial display, they dive vertically like guided missiles towards the water, the sound of their tail feathers buzzing through the air.
9. The Blue Men Of The Minch
1400h 30th July 1994
I was fortunate enough to borrow a hydrophone from the research station at Cromarty. Five metres beneath the surface of the Moray Firth and directly over a particular deep water channel, common seals roar during their diving displays. Within a 1km radius of the hydrophone, bottle-nosed dolphins navigate and hunt using echo locating clicks. Occasionally they communicate with their unique signature whistles.
10. High Pressure
0550h 25th February 1994
On the hilltop, there was no shelter this morning from the intense biting cold – or a feeling of growing anticipation. The hard dry air gripped the trees and margins of the pool – now frozen, with only one small area of water by the mics.
Daybreak revealed a small constricted community of coot, mallard, widen and teal.
11. Gahlitzerstrom
1740h 5th October 1993
Observing from a hide over the previous two days, the cranes have followed a similar path towards their roost out on the waters of Udarser Wiek. In particular, they seem to favour a narrow channel to navigate east to west – flying in low over the end of a thin spit of brown reedy marshland where earlier this afternoon I concealed the mics.
In Greek mythology, Hermes is said to have envisioned the Greek alphabet by watching the beating wings of cranes as they passed by his line of sight. Their calls and signs remain across the centuries…
12. The Forest Path
0625h 7th October 1994
It was raining hard – there was cover under the edge of a large dark section of mature plantation. Gradually, out from the background, came the crook of distant stags. A rich, velvet acoustic rolling down through the trees and suspended in a low clinging mist.
TO:96V – Hildur Gudnadottir “Saman”
LP – 11 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:
Side A
1. Strokur
2. Frá
3. Birting
4. Heyr Himnasmiður
5. Bær
Side B
6. Heima
7. Í hring
8. Rennur upp
9. Til baka
10. Líður
11. 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.
Touch App for iPhones and iPads & Android phones [TAP 1]
***New version (1.2) submitted to Apple has been approved…***
Version 1.2 is now available from iTunes
Owing to an issue with some changes in Flickr’s API, the photo section of our app has been disrupted and is currently not available.
We are working to resolve this issue and will make an announcement about an update as soon as we can. In the meantime, please bear with us…
Lecture & Conference | Evreux, France 14th June 2014
SATURDAY, JUNE 14th | 17h | Media Center of Evreux
Denis BOYER (Feardrop) | Mike HARDING (Touch) | Thierry WEYD (Ésam Caen-Cherbourg)
Collaboration |’Atelier(s) | Media Center | Ésam Caen-Cherbourg | Feardrop
Free entrance
Media Center, Square Georges Brassens, 27000 Évreux – France
www.lateliers.fr/lectureconf_e.html
Before Jana Winderen and Thomas Köner concert the same day at the Museum of Art History & Archeology cloister, a lecture will be provide by Denis Boyer, director of sound review Feardrop, on its texts on the Ice musical Imagination (L’imaginaire musical des glaces) and Thomas Köner. You can find information on the concert here.
Presentation of Touch with the presence of its director Mike Harding (who publishes among other works, Jana Winderen and Thomas Köner), and Thierry Weyd (teacher and editor) in the matter of Jana Winderen residency at the Laboratory of Art and Water initiated by Esam Caen-Cherbourg (Art Academy).
Franck Dubois, director of |’Atelier(s) and Frédéric Cosset, president of |’Atelier(s) will question Denis Boyer, Mike Harding and Thierry Weyd.
Denis Blackham | Skye Mastering
From Denis Blackham’s twitter feed:
‘After 45 years of mastering music, I’ve decided the time has come to hang up my ears and retire. So as of today,… fb.me/6wlimrrBm…’
Mike Harding replied:
‘a HUGE thank you for all your amazing work over the years. How long did we collaborate? #skyemastering skyemastering.com @skyemastering’
Denis responded:
‘Thank you! It’s been a total pleasure mastering for Touch since 1988, with the 7″ Touch Ritual: Cut Up, which Denis cut onto vinyl when he worked at Tape One.’
Today is 32 Today
Today, 11th March, is the official 32nd anniversary of the founding of Touch in 1982…
First contact with New Order after their concert at the Newcastle Mayfair on 11th March 1982…
Landscape & Perception on BBC iPlayer
Paul Devereux and Jon Wozencroft, supported by the Royal College of Art, have since 2007 been researching sensory ways of perceiving landscape. The project, named Landscape & Perception, has focussed primarily on the Carn Menyn ridge in the Preseli Hills of South-West Wales and environs.
The source of the Stonehenge bluestones is widely accepted to be the Preseli Hills, a heritage site seldom studied but rich in sonic phenomena, notably the lithophones that litter Carn Menyn, the main rocky outcrop on the Preseli range.
A central premise of the Landscape & Perception project is to question the hierarchy between vision and sound in the building of prehistoric monuments, in particular the sacred sites of Avebury and Stonehenge, whose acoustic dimensions have never been properly assessed.
The BBC’s Inside Out South programme joined Devereux and Wozencroft first in Wales and then at Stonehenge, to report on their research and witness the sounding of the bluestones. You can watch the 10 minute package for the next week on the BBC iPlayer (UK only).
Android version of Touch app
There is an Android version of the Touch app now available. You can install it here.
Touch is a free app 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.
Download the free Touch Android app on Google Play
Download the free Touch iOS app at the iTunes App Store
David Attenborough: My Life In Sound
In an exclusive interview for BBC Radio 4, David Attenborough talks to Chris Watson about his life in sound.
Monday 16 December
11.00-11.30am
BBC Radio 4
You can now hear this episode on iPlayer
One of Sir David’s first jobs in natural history filmmaking was as a wildlife sound recordist. Recorded in Qatar, Sir David is with Chris Watson (a current wildlife sound recordist), and is there to make a film about a group of birds he is passionate about, The Bird of Paradise. It is in Qatar where the world’s largest captive breeding population is and it is in this setting Chris takes Sir David back to the 1950s and his early recording escapades, right through to today where Sir David narrates a series of Tweet Of The Days on Radio 4 across the Christmas and New Year period.
Presenter: Chris Watson
Producer: Julian Hector for the BBC
Further information: www.bbc.co.uk
The Sound of One Ant Walking | Radio Times December 2013
Inside the world of a wildlife audio expert
Chris Watson, who has worked on Attenborough’s Frozen Planet and Life in the Undergrowth, shares a remarkable insight into sound recording, some exclusive clips – and his feelings about music in wildlife shows.
Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers
Many congratulations to Chris Watson for winning the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers for 2013
We are proud to reflect that this is the second Touch-related award winner. Chris Watson follows Philip Jeck in collecting this highly prestigious award.
Touch Presents… | Sohrab, Achim Mohne, Jiyeon Kim
UPDATE – Sohrab has been refused entry into the UK.
New line-ups for London dates:
BJNilsen and John Chantler added to Touch presents… line up at Café Oto on Friday 8th November 2013, and BJNilsen will also perform at Pelican on Saturday 9th November 2013. NB: Sohrab will still be performing at the Berlin date.
In November Touch presents a short series of concerts in London and Berlin, featuring performances by Sohrab, Achim Mohné and Jiyeon Kim – a triple bill of exploratory music with three artists each defining their own sonic territory. German artist Achim Mohné works across different media formats, blurring the edges between them and exploring unexpected uses of modern and outmoded technology. Sohrab is a Tehran born musician whose ambient works are both a product of his environment and a reaction against it. Korean sound artist Jiyeon Kim’s experiments in resonance have led to an unconventional approach to field recording.
8th November 2013 | Touch presents… at Café Oto, London
Achim Mohné, BJNilsen, John Chantler Sohrab & Jiyeon Kim
Café Oto, 8pm
www.cafeoto.co.uk
Buy tickets
9th November 2013 | Touch presents… Hidden Narratives of Empty Spaces at The Peckham Pelican, London
BJNilsen, Sohrab Jiyeon Kim & Mike Harding
The Peckham Pelican, 7pm
www.thepeckhampelican.co.uk
Buy tickets
12th November 2013 | Touch presents… at Ausland, Berlin
Achim Mohné, Sohrab & Jiyeon Kim
Ausland, 8.30pm
www.ausland-berlin.de
Touch presents… | Live in Lincoln Cathedral
Two World Premieres from Chris Watson + Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Anna von Hausswolff
19th October 2013, 7:30 – 9:30pm, Lincoln Cathedral
Touch is delighted to be invited back to play live in Lincoln Cathedral by Frequency, after the hugely successful 13th edition of Spire, which took place in the same space, in October 2011.
Chris Watson (field recordings) and Hildur Guðnadóttir (cello) will be collaborating on a brand new collaborative multi-channel sound work, titled “Sönghellir (The Cave of Song)” – a sound journey from under the waters of Faxafloi, Iceland, alongside some of the largest animals on the planet. Up, onto the lava beach, across the lava fields and reindeer moss to the foot of the snow mountain, Snaefellsnes. The journey continues up and then into the mountain, ending inside Sönghellir, the song cave…
On a clear day in Reykjavik, one can gaze northwest and see the shining Snaefellsjokull glacier, 60 miles away. Though the glacier is nowhere near in size to some of Iceland’s others, it is by far the most mysterious and popular. It rests near lands end on one of Iceland’s most beloved landscapes – the Snaefellsnes Peninsula – and its bright, mysterious beauty seems to embody the entire region. One of the reasons why Icelander’s love the Snaefellsnes Peninsula so much (aside from its enchanting landscape brimming with lava caves, waterfalls, and mineral hot springs) is that it is a veritable heartland of history. Some of the best and most important sagas took place here, and it is said that Christopher Columbus once spent a winter in Ingjaldsholl, where he heard stories of lands to the west.
Anna von Hausswolff, a Swedish singer, pianist and songwriter, will be performing a new score for the organ, titled “Källan”.
The Eternal Chord, an improvisational work from some of the artists present, will close the evening.
Further details at frequency.org.uk
Book tickets for Touch presents… Live in Lincoln Cathedral
Phill Niblock is 80 | 2nd October 2013
Today is the great Phill Niblock‘s 80th birthday. We wish him all the very best. Its a huge honour to work with him. Happy birthday, Phill!!!
TO:88V – Mika Vainio & Joachim Nordwall “Monstrance”
Limited edition 2x45rpm vinyl version
Cut by Jason at Transition
Sticker design & photography: Jon Wozencroft
Track list:
1. Alloy Ceremony 11.02
2. Live at the Chrome Cathedral 07.06
3. Midas in Reverse 05.32
4. Irkutsk 03.54
5. Praseodymium 08.32
6. Promethium 05.31
7. In Sheltering Sanctus of Minerals 09.05
Mika Vainio – Electric Guitar, Processing, Metallic Percussion.
Joachim Nordwall – Electronics, Electric Bass Guitar, Metal Objects, Hammond Organ, Vibraphone.
Recorded in Berlin at Studio Schwedenstrasse one day in June 2010. Recording Engineer: Marco Paschke. Mixed and Mastered by Daniel Karlsson in Stockholm at Elektronmusikstudion.
Mika Vainio was a member of the legendary minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic. Emerging from the Finnish industrial and rave music scene in the early 90’s, they became one of the most important electronic music acts. Vainio’s solo works goes from abstract drone to minimal and experimental techno, under his own name or as Ø for labels like Touch, Raster Noton, Sähkö and Editions Mego. He has worked with Alan Vega, Keiji Haino and many others. His music is always extremely physical and present. Mika Vainio lives and works in Berlin.
Joachim Nordwall runs the iDEAL Recordings label since 1998, releasing intense electronic music of various kinds and organizing club nights and festivals around the globe. He started making electronic music as a teenager in the late 80’s in the psychedelic drone duo Alvars Orkester (Ash International), drifted off to sweaty avant garde punk rock with Kid Commando in the late 90s and formed the ritual rock and electronic drone group The Skull Defekts in 2005. He is also recording solo works under his own name and works with Mats Gustafsson, The Gagmen (with Aaron Dilloway and Nate Young), Mark Wastell and The Sons of God. Nordwall is based in Stockholm.
“Monstrance” is their first album together and is released June 2013 and consist of drone works and pulsating electronic minimalism but also guitar, acoustic elements, organs and metal percussion. It was recorded in Einstürzende Neubauten’s Berlin studio during an intense session in early summer of 2010. “Monstrance” is a place where Vainio’s and Nordwall’s backgrounds as musicians and composers meet, and something new and extremely powerful is born. Something deep, raw and direct…
Brainwashed wrote: “Monstrance is an intense, rumbling piece of jagged metal that, even in its lighter moments is unsettling and uncomfortable. But despite its iron trappings and serrated surges of noise, it is indisputably organic, a sensibility that is rarely associated with Vainio’s output. It comes across as natural though, and results in this bleak, moody recording that excels in its darkness.”
Buy Mika Vainio & Joachim Nordwall “Monstrance” [2 x 45rpm Vinyl + MP3 download] in the TouchShop
Anthology Film Archives | A Tour of Phill Niblock’s Film Works
Phill Niblock’s 80th birthday is to be celebrated at the end of September with screenings of his film works at New York’s Anthology Film Archives. Details of his upcoming Touch release to follow soon…
28th September – 30th September 2013, Anthology Film Archives, NY
It is mindboggling that a man with the tireless energy and ceaseless touring schedule of Phill Niblock is about to turn 80. An internationally recognized artist with a wide body of music, film, photography, video, and computer works, Niblock has specialized in making intermedia performance since the mid-1960s. As a composer, he creates thick clouds of drones that are filled with surprisingly active microtones and timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. During concerts of his music, Niblock simultaneously presents films/videos focused on the movement of people working, or computer-driven black-and-white abstract images floating through time. While Niblock is best known today as a minimalist composer, he actually started his artistic practice with film (and photography) – in fact, his first compositions were created to accompany his films.
Born in Indiana in 1933, he has been an artist/member of the vital Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York since 1968, and its Director since 1985. Over the years he has produced more than 1,000 performances at the EI loft in Soho, acted as curator of the innovative XI Records label, and launched a second EI space in Ghent, Belgium. Recordings of his music are available on the XI, Moikai, Mode, and Touch labels, and DVDs containing his films and music have been released on the Extreme and Die Schachtel labels.
This program provides a glimpse into the broad range of Niblock’s cinematic explorations, from rarely-presented early works to a selection of films from his well-known “Movement of People Working” series, which he usually shows at his concerts.
This 80th birthday tribute has been curated by Katherine Liberovskaya.
Screening details can be read at www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
In St Cuthbert’s Time | BBC Radio 4 “Saturday Live”
BBC Radio 4’s “Saturday Live” this morning featured a package by John McCarthy, who travelled to Durham to see the Lindisfarne Gospels, on loan from the British Library for 3 months and on display as the centre piece of a major exhibition at Durham University’s Palace Green Library.
Chris Watson is featured in the piece, discussing his part in this project, which resulted in his latest CD, “In St Cuthbert’s Time”.
Listen again on the BBC iPlayer – the section featuring Chris commences 32m56s into the broadcast.
