Click here to read Paul Sharma’s interview with Fennesz in The Wall Street Journal.

Jon Wozencroft writes: “Came across this text whilst we were preparing a display of adverts made for The Wire. It was commissioned by Rob Young/Chris Bohn for the magazine’s Epiphanies column (at the back of the magazine) in March 2001. The text was a tiny bit too long so an important section got chopped.

Amazingly, I eventually met the man who had been sitting next to me, Duncan Haysom. We met up in Waterloo in the August of 2007 following an internet quest of dedicated JD fans. The master recording of Joy Division’s ULU concert became the bonus disc for the reissue of Closer by Warner Bros in November that year. There is thus a strange intertwining between this account and the outcomes of the two films, Control and Joy Division, six and seven years later, ie. 29 years after the fact.”

Text: Jon Wozencroft.

Couverture: J-F JAMOUL

Dusted managing editor Otis Hart has included Philip Jeck’s Sand among his 25 favourite albums of 2008.

Otis writes: “Mr. Jeck takes home the Robert Wyatt prize for oldest musician on a year-end list. The 56-year-old turntableplayer (emphasis mine) weaves a dense fog of samples and loops on his 10th album. No surprise there. But for one reason or another, Sand tugs at the heartstrings a little more than past excursions. It could just be the Emily Dickinson poem quoted in the liner notes. That’s the thing about Jeck’s nebulous compositions – they mold to our imagination.”

Touch presents, as part of The Short Circuit Festival:

Philip Jeck [UK] and the Gavin Bryars Ensemble [UK/FR] – The Sinking of the Titanic
Biosphere [NO] (Visuals by Jon Wozencroft)
Hildur Gudnadóttir [IS] & BJNilsen [SE]

In addition, works by Chris Watson and BJNilsen, with film by John Aitchison, will also be presented.

www.roundhouse.org.uk

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Touch have three editions, Philip Jeck, Jacob Kirkegaard and Lawrence English, featured in The Wire’s 2008 Records of the Year lists.

Number 2 overall in the Top 50 was Philip Jeck’s Sand.

The Wire say: “The Liverpool based soundscaper has honed his turntablist montages to a consistently fine art. His eighth solo album may have contained few surprises, but Sand displayed Jeck on peak form, mysteriously allusive and gorgeously melancholic.”

Also in the top 10 Outer Limits Albums of the Year was Jacob Kirkegaard’s Labyrinthitis and, in the top ten Electronica albums of the Year, Lawrence English’s Kiri No Oto.

More about Philip Jeck’s Sand.
More about Jacob Kirkegaard’s Labyrinthitis.
More about Lawrence English’s Kiri No Oto.

Christian Fennesz will be performing live, alongside the likes of Philip Glass, Matmos and Michael Gira, at Big Ears 09. The festival, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, runs from February 6–8, 2009. Fennesz will be performing both solo and as part of a trio, Fennesz/Linkous/Minor.

Big Ears say: “For the first time, this collaboration between Christian Fennesz, Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) and Scott Minor (Sparklehorse) will occur on US soil. Originally sprouted from mutual admiration, the three began collaborating in the early 2000’s while Sparklehorse was touring in Europe. Sparklehorse’s damaged pop songs and Fennesz’s guitar and laptop explorations might at first seem strange bedfellows, though upon further listen each artists interest in melody and aesthetic starts to seem much less distant. Lying dormant for years – this not to be missed live event will occur only at Big Ears 09.”

www.bigearsfestival.com

The Sinking of the Titanic by Gavin Bryars | Philip Jeck | Alter Ego [Touch Tone 34] has made Mojo’s Top 50 albums of 2008 list.

Mojo write: “Bryars’ 1969 modern classic refurbished by UK turntable artist Philip Jeck and Italian ensemble Alter Ego. They lent eerie atmosphere to Bryars’ ethereal orchestrations. based on the hymn Autumn, as rendered by the ship’s string ensemble as the liner sank.”
The Sinking of the Titanic, recorded at the 49th International Festival of Contemporary Music at The Venice Biennale on 1st October 2005 at the Teatro Maliban, is available in the TouchShop.

Tokafi’s Tobias Fischer has interviewed Christian Fennesz about his new album, “Black Sea”.

Continue reading →

Touch and Elgaland-Vargaland are working at Les Borealis Festival in Caen from Monday 24th November until Thursday 27th November inclusive.

[During this period you can still place orders at the TouchShop but please note your order will not be processed until Friday 28th November.]

Touch presents, as part of The Short Circuit Festival:

Philip Jeck and the Gavin Bryars Ensemble – The Sinking of the Titanic
Biosphere
Hildur Gudnadóttir & BJNilsen

The Roundhouse
Chalk Farm Road
London NW1 8EH

LP – 6 tracks – 40:28

[also available on CD and as a CD/LP bundle.]

Track Listing:

Side One:
1. Black Sea
2. Perfume for Winter
3. Grey Scale

Side Two:
4. Glide
5. Glass Ceiling
6. Saffron Revolution

Christian Fennesz used acoustic and electric guitars, synths, electronics, lloopp and computers

All tracks composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Christian Fennesz at Amann Studios, Vienna and C-street, Paris except “The Colour of Three” by Christian Fennesz & Anthony Pateras and “Glide” which was composed and performed by Rosy Parlane & Christian Fennesz (recorded live in Paris and then edited and mixed at Amman Studios).
Black Sea is Fennesz’s 4th solo album for touch and his first since Venice in 2004.

“Black Sea is the much-anticipated new album from Christian Fennesz, his first since “Venice” [Touch # TO:53, 2004], about which US magazine Stylus wrote:

“Fennesz does with sound what Stan Brakhage did with film, altering its very fabric and texture, employing disorder and error as forms of communication and expression. He forces you to learn a different method of perception and interpretation, to look beneath the chaos that seems to govern the movements of life and find the patterns beneath.” [Nick Southall]

Fennesz’s career has come a long way since “Instrument”, his debut for Mego in 1995, and his first solo album “Hotel Paral.lel which followed in 1998. “Endless Summer” [Mego, 2001] brought him to a much wider audience and “Venice” underlined his mastery of melody and dissonance. His songs usually embody the skilful application and manipulation of dense sonic textures with a genuine feel for the live, and real-time.

Black Sea features guitars that rarely sound like guitars; the instrument is transformed into an orchestra. Fennesz lists the elements used to make the compositions: “Acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers, electronics, computers and live-improvising software lloopp.”
On ‘Glide’, Fennesz duets with Rosy Parlane (NZ) [www.rosyparlane.com], whose work is also released on Touch. Fennesz also teams up with eMego artist Anthony Pateras’s (AUS) [http://www.anthonypateras.com], whose prepared piano features on “The Colour of Three”. Fennesz pushes his work into a more classical domain, preferring the slow reveal to Venice’s and Endless Summer’s more song-based structures.

Jon Wozencroft’s artwork makes visible this carefully hidden world resting beneath the surface of “the first impression”. A series of shots, taken in quick succession as the tide recedes, reveals a world of specific activity only visible at a particular time and place, histories appearing and disappearing.

Continue reading →

BBC 2 9pm 15th November 2008

The Fallen is BBC Two’s most ambitious single documentary ever… contains music by Oren Ambarchi, Biosphere, Fennesz, Ryoji Ikeda, Jacob Kirkegaard, BJNilsen, Rosy Parlane and others

This autumn BBC Two remembers every single serviceman and woman who has died while serving with the British Armed Forces in the current conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan, in an epic three-hour documentary.

The Fallen, from acclaimed filmmaker Morgan Matthews, spans the last seven years of conflict and will chronicle all those who have died, focusing in detail on the stories of a significant number of these.

With intimate testimonies from families and loved ones, combined with compelling archive, the film acknowledges these individuals’ sacrifices and the effects of grief on those who loved them.

Says Roly Keating, Controller BBC Two: “The Fallen remembers all of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country in the current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and we hope will go some way towards creating a televisual memorial.

“It’s a hugely moving and dignified account of what it means to lose someone you love to conflict and wholly worthy of the three hours of primetime television we will be dedicating to it.

“The Fallen reflects the scale and ambition of factual programmes on the channel this season: from a landmark series exploring the hidden world of the planet’s oceans to the painstaking piecing together of what really happened behind closed doors in WWII; from Simon Schama’s historical journey on the American election trail to Bruce Parry’s treacherous and fascinating journey down the Amazon; from Griff Rhys Jones’s startlingly honest look at anger to John Prescott’s personal exploration of Britain’s class system.
The Radio Times (Pick of the Day) writes:

“Harrowing doesn’t begin to describe Morgan Matthews’s extraordinary film. It sets itself a huge task: to commemorate every British serviceman who has died in the Afghanistan and Irag conflicts. It achieves this mostly by talking to surviving family members… The film is mostly about remembering, and the way grief can shred lives and families…”

Yesterday Mike [Touch], and Colin [3BC], visited Delga Press near Rochester in Kent [UK] to check the printing of the CD digipak and LP inner and outer sleeves.

The Heidelberg SM CD printer, valued at over £1 million, is computer controlled and subtle changes can be made to alter and improve the colour grading etc. It was a good experience and certain improvements were made on the spot. Flats were run off for checking and then signed off.

Jon Wozencroft’s images look amazing, particularly on the vinyl edition. Click here to view the Black Sea cover art for both CD and vinyl.

With thanks to Bob, Arthur & James at Delga Press.

Festival Les Borealis

25th November
Touch @ Beaux-Arts Ecole de Caen
26th November

BJNilsen
Hildur I. Gudnadottir
Duet

Installation: Chris Watson – Beyond Ol’ Tokai.
Panel discussion chaired by Mike Harding with Peter Cusack, Tony Myatt & Jana Winderen – Tipping Point.
Presentation & Performance: Jana Winderen.

For further information, visit South Hill Park’s website.

Interzone festival

Touch 25
BJNilsen | Philip Jeck
[duet]

Pitchfork are premiering an exclusive stream of “Saffron Revolution”, from Fennesz’s forthcoming “Black Sea” album, scheduled for release at the end of November [Touch # TO:76, CD and vinyl].

Pitchfork’s Mark Richardson writes: “… this lead track certainly keeps expectations very high. Beginning with some of Fennesz’ trademark neo-industrial gurgles, it folds in bits of guitar and strings rather beautifully, creating a cluster of sound that trembles, seeming to wait for something. And that something moves in gradually in the form of a massive cloud of distortion, a fine white mist of harmonics mixed with a dark undercurrent of rumbling bass. The tension between these elements is so well balanced, each individual element remaining in the mix even as the sound field becomes impossibly dense, that it’s no surprise that it takes a while to get it just right. And as it begins to draw down about five minutes in, you can’t help but wish that another full Fennesz album was following behind it. Soon.”

Preview “Saffron Revolution” on www.pitchforkmedia.com by clicking here.

FACT Magazine’s Kiran Sande conducted an extensive interview with Touch founder Jon Wozencroft for their August/September 2008 issue.

Sande writes, “Touch is an example to us all of what can be achieved with collaboration, commitment and an intelligent sense of restraint, or, more accurately, control. Twenty-seven after its inception, the singularity of Touch’s vision, and the multitude of ideas contained therein, is as remarkable as ever. Its history of responding to change, and seriously evolving, without ever giving in to the petty comings and goings of fashion, is infinitely admirable; in contemporary audio-visual art, its successful synthesis of style and substance is without parallel.”

The interview is now available to read online in the Touch Archive and also at www.factmagazine.co.uk, where it is illustrated with images from the Wozencroft archive and augmented by streaming audio samples from key Touch artists.

Published quarterly, and available for free from independent record stores and selected clothing outlets in the UK and Europe, FACT is a music and street culture magazine, comprising of features that fully dispense with spin – a platform for talented young musicians, artists, designers and more…

An unexpected pleasure is to be found within the pages of the October 08 issue of Mojo magazine. Two Touch artists feature at positions two and three of the Mojo Top 10 playlist: Lawrence English’s “Organs Lost At Sea” and “Cima Verde” by Chris Watson.
Lawrence English’s album, “Kiri No Oto” can be found in the TouchShop. Chris Watson’s “Cima Verde” is available via Touch’s distributors, Kudos, and can be purchased via www.kudosrecords.co.uk. To purchase his Touch editions click here.