The source of the Stonehenge bluestones is widely accepted to be the Preseli Hills, in Pembrokeshire, SW Wales, 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.

Supported by the Royal College of Art, Paul Devereux and Jon Wozencroft present this updated report on their findings. The website is designed by Rebels in Control and represents five year’s worth of research into these two “power spots”.

www.landscape-perception.com

Today, 11th March, is the official 30th anniversary of the founding of Touch in 1982…

First contact with New Order after their concert at the Newcastle Mayfair on 11th March 1982…

You can follow our progress year by year here…

One year after a triple disaster hit Japan, an internet-video platform entitled Sound of Sirens (SOS), created by the artists Edgar Honetschläger and Sylvia Eckermann, will go online. It calls on people worldwide to reflect onto the consequences of the catastrophe in cinematic form. All participants will take part in a contest which will result in a feature-length film and opera production.

Win a prize, share your story – make a film about how 11/03 changed your life. Use your cell/webcam/digicam – anything that captures running pictures and shoot up to 7 minutes. Upload at www.sound-of-sirens.net (click right top for English version.)
Start 11th March 2012 – End 11th July 2012

2012年3月11日に日本を襲った悲劇、アーティストのエドガーホネットシレーガーとシルビアエッカーマンで制作したSOS =サウンド・オブ・サイレンスのビデオ·プラットフォームがオンライン化されます。このプロジェクトに参加してくださった 方達には、コンテストの一参加者になっていただき、最終的に長編劇映画とオペラプロダクションに反映されます。

サウンド・オブ・サイレンスコンペテション。賞を勝ち取ってください。あなたの物語をシェアして ください。3月11日にあなたの生活がどのように変化したか。携帯、ウェブカメラ、デジタルカメラ、7分以内に撮影したもので、アップロードできる映像なら何でも大丈夫です。アップロードは www.sound-of-sirens.net でお願いします。

Sounding City: Public Sound, Kortrijk, Belgium, 28.04.12 – 13.05.12

Opening on the 28th with a presentation of the work of Chris Watson by Mike Harding and a live performance by Jana Winderen.

Chris Watson – installation inspired by “After the Deluge (Na de Zondvloed)” @ Broel Museum
Jana Winderen – installation & live performance

Unfortunately Chris Watson cannot be present for family reasons, so his work will be presented by Mike Harding from Touch.

Spire: Live @ Passionskirche, Berlin, 5th
CTM12

Marcus Davidson
Eleh
Hildur Gudnadottir
Charles Matthews
Jana Winderen
The Eternal Chord

“To conclude the Festival and celebrate its own thirtieth anniversary, British label Touch invites us to one of its Spire events, which are centered on the sonic power of the organ. Almost no other instrument can trace a vector from the deep time of technology thru to the present, and thus equal the several thousand-year history of the organ. Consequently, the curators of Touch are just as interested in transferring this instrumental concept to modern technology (the organ as a forerunner of the synthesizer), as they are in the psycho-physical impact of its sound, in the history of political instrumentalisation of the organ, and in the first experience and ritual appropriation of its underlying principles in prehistoric times – namely of wind, whistling through natural cavities and chimneys. As a deep-listening event with works by Giacinto Scelsi, Jana Winderen, Olivier Messiaen, Marcus Davidson, Gyorgy Ligeti, Hildur Gudnadottir, Frank Martin, Charles Camilleri, Stephen Montague, Arvo Pärt, Eleh, Diana Burrell, The Eternal Chord and a group improv session, Spire makes manifest the metaphysical focus that has permeated the Touch label program since its inception.”

All photos by Jon Wozencroft

Transmedia presents: The Art of Listening 2, Touch’s residency in Brussels, January 16-20 2012. This residency is part of the Masters Degree course at Sint Lucas College.

BJNilsen & Mike Harding

The January 2012 issue of Creative Review is a music special with features on festivals, the future of the music video and much much more.

Touch’s Jon Wozencroft is interviewed for the magazine by The Wire’s Jennifer Allan about the tendency for “music’s more obscure genres to adopt distinctive, common visual styles.”

Read online at www.creativereview.co.uk [subscription required]

Transmedia presents: The Art of Listening 2, Touch’s residency in Brussels, January 16-20 2012. This residency is part of the Masters Degree course at Sint Lucas College.

Continue reading →

Congratulations to Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) for winning a Spellemann Award (Norwegian Grammy), in the Electronic Music section, last night in Oslo.

N-Plants was released in 2011 and is still available in the TouchShop.

NATURE: The Water Boatman’s Song

BBC Radio 4, Tue 10 Jan 11.02, rpt Thur 12 Jan 21.02

Writer Paul Evans accompanies sound recordist Tom Lawrence on a journey in sound across Pollardstown Fen to hear the extraordinary sounds of an underwater orchestra of aquatic insects. Additional sound recordings: Chris Watson, Producer Sarah Blunt.
For over a year, sound recordist Tom Lawrence has been capturing the sounds of Pollardstown Fen in Ireland. These are no ordinary sounds, but the sounds of a hidden world; an underwater world, where an orchestra of creatures create an extraordinary and vibrant music. Above the water’s surface, grasshoppers and crickets stridulate; that is, they rub one part of their body across another to produce ‘those fiddling tunes so evocative of summer’. Below the surface, something similar happens as water beetles, water scorpions, great diving beetles, water boatmen and lesser water boatmen and hundreds of other species produce sounds day and night at over 2Khz, reaching 99 decibels in some cases – the equivalent of sitting in the front row of an orchestra “Tapping, knocking, hammering, drumming, clicking, creaking, cracking, croaking, buzzing, fuzzing, bleeping, winding, reeling, revving, puttering, pattering, humming, pulsing, squealing, shrieking…. the insects reveal themselves”. Writer and narrator Paul Evans meets Tom Lawrence and takes a journey into the Fen to hear these sounds for himself. Tom leads the way. His friend, Jim Schofield joins them, bringing with him a boat (an inflatable boat that they first have to pump up), and then the three men ‘wobble’ along reed-lined drains into the Fen. It’s a journey of revelations; not only does Paul encounter the underwater orchestra, but also Old Ireland and with it a magical adventure; They find a snake, haul up a bag of treasure, climb the steps of a Famine Tower, experience vertigo as they stand with their heads in the clouds high above the quarried land, watch Peregrines swipe through the air like sharp knives, and learn the story of a hanged man, his lost love and a vixen who wanders amongst the reeds, her piercing cry echoing through the darkness.
“Sadly, since the making of this programme, Tom has died, but this is a very beautiful and fitting tribute to his work.” (Jane Anderson, Radio Times)

“The Water Boatman’s Song” on the BBC iPlayer

Chris Watson, Jana Winderen & Mike Harding have contributed sounds to the educational project “Minute of Listening”, produced by Sound and Music.

Minute of Listening is a creative learning project through which Sound and Music hopes to enable every child in the country to gain access to a huge diversity of music and sound and, for sixty seconds each day, to focus on the richness and enjoyment of the act of listening.

www.minuteoflistening.org
www.soundandmusic.org