Year

Exhibition of Jon Wozencroft’s cover photographs at Aeterna, Los Angeles. Touch Conference tours west coast of USA and first album’s for Touch by Simon Scott and Claire M Singer.

First release of the TOUCHFOLIO series of hard back books with audio by Joséphine Michel & Mika Vainio. First series of TOUCHLINE releases, online only paralleling Folio. Biosphere & Deathprod reunite for Stator and Philip Jeck’s seminal Cardinal is released in the autumn.

Touch releases Anna von Hausswolff’s “Källan (Prototype)” as part of the ongoing white label series. Live events occur in Los Angeles (Amoeba Records & Private Island), the Touch Mentorship programme continues with Pepa Ivanova presenting her work at the Royal College of Art, London…

So after a momentous year…, Touch31 kicks off with a 2 x USB release of recordings from Touch.30 live at Beaconsfield, and restarts the 7″ series, ‘Touch Sevens’ with releases from Rosy Parlane & Sohrab. Jacob Kirkegaard’s first vinyl, Conversion, followed in March. Further releases followed from Bruce Gilbert + BAW, Burkhard Stangl, his first for the label, and a collaboration between Mika Vainio & Joachim Nordwall. BJNilsen’s “The Eye of the Microphone” followed in December.

Meanwhile field trips with Jana Winderen (Scotlland), various talks and presentations (Lincoln University), live events included Anna von Hausswolff and Chris Watson, collaborating for the first time with Hildur Gudnadottir (with programming by Tony Myatt), at Lincoln Cathedral as part of Frequency Festival of Digital Arts. Spire continued its select programming at Kontraste Festival, Austria – releasing Marcus Davidson’s “The Passing” as a download only production, with Charles Matthews on Organ. Bergen Cathedral also hosted Spire at The Festival for Church, Art and Music in Bergen kirkeautunnale 2013 (Norway).

The Touch Mentorship programme opens with Jiyeon Kim (South Korea) and Pepa Ivanova (Bulgaria) as the first two recipients. Jiyeon Kim performs at the Touch live event at Ausland, Berlin.

Touch’s 30th anniversary year is documented on a micro-site which can be found here, The 30th year kicks off with a series of events and releases, including albums by Oren Ambarchi, Hildur Gudnadottir (CD and multi-channel version on USB stick), and Thomas Köner…

BJNilsen & Mike Harding kick off the year with a week-long course at Transmedia, Brussels. CM von Hausswolff releases his first album on Touch. The Touch Sevens series continues, and releases from Fennesz, Biosphere and Chris Watson adorn the year. A new series of limited edition (300) white label vinyl only releases commences with ‘Vinyl’ by BJNilsen. The ‘Touch’ iPhone & iPad app is submitted to Apple iTunes on 2nd October.

The British Library accept TouchRadio as a ‘named collection’ in their sound archive. Touch goes to South Korea for the first time; performs at Berghain, Berlin and releases new albums by Philip Jeck, Phill Niblock, Sohrab and Eleh.

2009 sees the debut albums from Jana Winderen and Hildur Gudnadóttir. Amidst great changes in the industry, Touch starts to offer bespoke A3 prints and downloads as a product. London shows at the QEH and The Roundhouse take place in April and May.

The Touch Sevens Series continues, and Philip Jeck’s album, ‘Sand, is released in March. Touch are nominated for numerous awards at Qwartz 4, Paris, and Touch artists appear over two nights at the ceremonies in early April. Atmospheres 2 takes place in London during May.

Touch 25 finished with a sell-out event at The Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol with a live performance of Storm, Biosphere and a workshop by Chris Watson & Mike Harding. The year began with albums by KK Null, Lasse Marhaug | Nils Henrik Asheim, Oren Ambarchi and BJNilsen as well as the full length studio album by Fennesz Sakamoto. The Touch Sevens series of 7″ vinyl began with Chris Watson’s recordings of the Pacific Ocean, heralding a foray into vinyl, which will be continued into 2008. Most of the Touch back catalogue also appeared as digital downloads… The first Atmospheres festival take place at various venues in England. The Sinking of the Titanic by Gavin Bryars/Philip Jeck/Alter Ego was released at the end of the year.

The year begins with a major new release by Biosphere, and the start of the 25th anniversary events. A dedicated show was held in October in London, and a festival in York immediately after. Rosy Parlane came over from New Zealand, and other Touch artists who took part were Biosphere, Fennesz, Ryoji Ikeda, Philip Jeck, Jacob Kirkegaard, BJNilsen and others. The tour coincided with new albums by Rosy Parlane and Chris Watson ¬ BJNilsen, and field Recordings from Geir Jenssen [Biosphere].

BJ Nilsen releases Fade to white, and Spire Live from Geneva [see above] is produced. First release on Touch for Jacob Kirkegaard, and in June a live collaboration between Christian Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto. In October Touch plays Ultima, Oslo, and then Spire Live in Göteborg, Sweden.