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previous record label: textile		there are 9 titles on the helen scarsdale agency in stock. they are listed below.		next record label: the now sound

$12.81

back in stock as of
june 18th, 2008

first in stock on
april 23rd, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 013 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 013 cd

bj nilsen / stilluppsteypa “passing out” compact disc

passing out (67:50)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "passing out"

a single hour-plus construct/suite jointly composed by the stilluppsteypa duo of sigtryggur berg sigmarsson & helgi thorsson and bj nilsen ; not exactly the ice-cold blast of scandinavian warmth you might expect, but a rather zonked cut-up of tape-speed mangle & deviant synth-patterns - of the triptych of albums that make up the trio’s work for hms, this one’s my favorite (for obvious / aesthetic reasons) ...

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

hms013
bj nilsen & stilluppsteypa
passing out
cd

release date: april 2008

the first chapter found the drink.
the second came after a night of intoxicated shouting.
the third chapter is inevitable: passing out.

the nordic sound artists bj nilsen & stilluppsteypa have authored the last component to a trilogy of isolationist compositions for barren field recordings and lumbering electric drones, thematically linked in the psychotropic effects of alcohol. in doing so, they have issued a brief statement in defense of their research: "it's been four years and three studies, passing out being the final. even in its most general, colloquial usage, passing out indicates the occurrence of a state that is incompatible with active behavior. it is possible that the individual could experience both consciousness and unconsciousness at the same time while encountering passing out."

yes, passing out is a crepuscular recording, with the flickering of twilight further dimmed by the distant arctic sun in wintertime and the blackened numbness of too much drink. with one singular track that spans 60 minutes, a nearly constant thrum and rumble of monochromatic low frequencies casts a grim pall upon the precisely dialed-in modulations and vibrations. spectral guitars, maudlin tunes from haunted radios, angrily growling voices, and field recordings of wind-whipped snow and ice bury themselves deep amidst these subharmonic drones. all of these tease at the edge of perception, sculpting the narrative of the drone into a vehicle for unhinged expressionism of varying degrees of horror, melancholy, beauty, and oblivion.

the swedish born bj nilsen defines his work as "focused upon the sound of nature and its effects on humans, and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound." he has numerous recordings on touch and has collaborated with the likes of chris watson, christian fennesz, and z'ev. the icelandic citizens sigtryggur berg sigmarsson and helgi thorsson are stilluppsteypa, whose electronic abstractions engage absurd theatrics that mar the pristine surface of minimalism.

passing out features letterpress and silkscreen artwork in an edition of 1000. there are two separate versions of the artwork: one with all black, the other with the white overprint on semi-opaque vellum.

$12.81

new to stock as of
june 18th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
field-recordings
site-specific
sound-art

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 011 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 011 cd

murmer “we share a shadow” compact disc

untitled (27:48)
untitled (18:35)

... missed this one in the last few rounds w/helen as it’s out of print.
luckily she found a few errant copies for us @ mms ...
very nice set of field-oriented drone-events from patrick mcginley ...

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

hms011
murmer
we share a shadow
cd

release date: december 2007

murmer is the pseudonym for patrick mcginley, a man with several passports which have taken him to many a foreign land in search of found sounds of the unsettled, the forgotten, the mysterious, and the beautiful. his field recordings of activated environments (e.g. resonant industrial spaces, windswept telephone lines, bowed branches, gasping ventilator systems, etc.) originate from all of the locations where he has traveled; yet, the documentation of these sounds is the not the terminus of mcginley's work. he is far more interested in extracting a particular emotional, transcendent, or metaphysical kernel from those sounds, and then recontextualizing that germinated sound into sympathetic compositions of magnificent dronemusik.

we share a shadow continues where murmer left off with the exceptional husk album (in collaboration with jonathan coleclough), in spiraling his manipulated field recordings as a slow revelation of the environmental sonorities that undeservedly go unnoticed each and every day. singing frequencies of a bowed piece of metal undulate against a grey tapestry of rain and rasping insects. golden overtones from shimmering drones quell what agitated textures reside in mcginley's active field recordings, rendering the aggregate sound a nocturnal opiate with considerable potency.

as murmer, patrick mcginley has produced a handful of releases on icr, ground fault, drone records, and absurd; and he has performed in venues both large and small across north america and europe. he is also the host the framework radio show on resonance fm, dedicated to the consecration of field recordings and their use in composition.

we share a shadow is strictly limited to 300 copies, featuring hand water-coloured artwork and letterpress printing.

$12.01

back in stock as of
april 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
june 26th, 2007

threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
minimalism-drones

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 010 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 010 cd

matt shoemaker “spots in the sun” compact disc

... (1) (6:04)
... (2) (17:57)
... (3) (7:00)
... (4) (16:46)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "... (2)"

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

hms010

matt shoemaker
spots in the sun cd

matt shoemaker pulled his chin away from his hand after several ponderous moments, positing that the title to this electrically charged opus of encrypted drone holds at least two entry points. the most obvious reference for spots in the sun would be the astrophysical study of sunspots with all of the allusions to earthly disturbances triggered by events millions of miles away. yet, on the other hand, shoemaker also proposed an earthbound reference to regions of the world that only exist – perhaps literally, perhaps psycho-geographically – under the intense glare of sunlight. he then shrugged his shoulders, hoping for an ideal situation in which his audience will confront his work as a vacuum and allow personal references to be drawn from within.

in simplest terms, spots in the sun is a grotesque, sonic landscape with details exaggerated out of proportion and narratives folded upon themselves in a magnificent abstraction of electro-acoustics, rarified field recordings, and particulate matter plucked from ether. shoemaker works in monochrome, shaping his gray tonalities into rhizomes of shadow which occasionally erupt in brilliance of hyper-realized clarity. while the familiar sounds of encircling birds, turbulent weather, and temple bells litter shoemaker's recordings, the sonic topography describes a vulgar and hostile landscape where fits of delirium and circadian arrhythmia are common human responses. shoemaker achieves these complex metaphors through labyrinthine drones spiralling through irradiated fog and glassine vibrations, punctured by the scars of a landscape in perpetual revolt. in many ways, shoemaker's spots in the sun could be mistaken for bernard parmegiani at his most focused or even john duncan at his most gracefully brutal.

shoemaker has two previous recordings for bernhard günter's seminal trente oiseaux label of lowercase sound, and he currently resides in seattle.

$12.01

back in stock as of
april 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
june 26th, 2007

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
plunder-phonic

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 009 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 009 cd

jim haynes “telegraphy by the sea” compact disc

telegraphy by the sea (55:55)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "telegraphy by the sea"

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

hms009

jim haynes
telegraphy by the sea cd

release date: september 26, 2006

"i prefer to abstract recorded sounds to the point that i can't remember how i made them," says rust-tinged artist jim haynes. "this way i can't go back and reverse engineer anything." the source material for telegraphy by the sea spans four years and several continents. during the time between conception and completion, mr. haynes perfected fragments of the album in numerous contexts, including an exhibition in melbourne, australia, a marathon six-hour performance at the diapason gallery in new york city, and a fortuitous encounter with a rainy stairwell. mr. haynes submitted an early version of the album to sound artist giancarlo toniutti, who provided caustically constructive -- yet graciously enthusiastic -- criticism, sending him back to toil away in the depths of his sonic workshop for two more years before emerging, blinking in the harsh light of day and drastically higher gas prices, with the finished product clutched in his battered, grime-stained hands.

as a result of this process, mr. haynes has forged a breathtaking album of mangled field recordings and droning techniques perched at the allegorical intersection of electromagnetic landscapes and meteorological phenomena. here, it is not uncommon to find exasperated blasts of air bellowing in harmony with a swarm of mechanical locusts and a tumbling landslide of jagged rock. yet mr. haynes grounds the bulk of the album in a dynamic play of sinusoidal drones. at times, these timbral flutterings waver into asymmetrical smears of holy-minimalist splendor; at others, monolithic grey slabs of drone collapse upon themselves into turbulent oceanic currents. if comparisons must be made, perhaps telegraphy by the sea parallels william basinski at his most fortified or the hafler trio at his least arcane.

mr. haynes is a san francisco-based artist, who describes his work by simply stating: "i rust things." he has exhibited his work internationally and collaborated on four recorded documents with loren chasse as coelacanth. he is one of the conspirators behind the sleeping moustache (alongside m.s. waldron, steven stapleton, sigtryggur berg sigmarsson, and r.k. faulhaber) as well as a contributing writer to the wire. this is his second solo endeavor for the helen scarsdale agency.

telegraphy by the sea sports mr. haynes' own handsomely hand-printed letterpress & silkscreen artwork in a meager edition of 500 copies. -- helen scarsdale

$12.01

back in stock as of
june 18th, 2008

first in stock on
june 26th, 2007

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 008 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 008 cd

bj nilsen / stilluppsteypa “drykkjuvísur ohljódanna” compact disc

svefnlaus / sömnlös (14:44)
elstöt / rafstuf (12:36)
undir ahrifum / sundurlaus (12:29)
supbröder / drykkjufélagar (6:15)
undermaskin / töfra maskína (4:20)
skuggbild / skuggamynd (13:28)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "svefnlaus / sömnlös"

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

hms008

bj nilsen & stilluppsteypa
drykkjuvisur ohljodanna cd

release date: september 26, 2006

in scandinavia, it's not uncommon to hear of someone's mother, grandfather, uncle, or plumber who drank him-or-herself to death at an early age; and the swedish drone artist bj nilsen has felt the alcoholic pangs which may foreshadow his own demise. in recent years, nilsen has turned to his icelandic neighbors sigtryggur berg sigmarsson and helgi thorsson (collectively known as stilluppsteypa) in existential sympathy over the problems of their collective lust for alcohol. drykkjuvisur ohljodanna marks the second collaborative document of abject minimalism that these three have composed; and like its predecessor vikinga brennivin, this album is spiked with drunken thought. any alcohol induced euphoria has been tempered by perturbing blackouts, moments of cruelty, and an all-consuming nihilism. beyond their shared scandinavian heritage, their expressionist urge for the frigid drone, and their penchant for drink, bj nilsen and stilluppsteypa intend this recording as an open ended experience, wandering through their sound without the burden of any exegetical text that may get in the way.

drykkjuvisur ohljodanna resolves itself as a grim kaleidoscope, where the bleakness of the wintry scandinavian landscape and the langour of a drunken escapade constantly mutate through the highly refined sensibility of dronescaping. sonar pings announce the beginning of this album, with its echoes returning as an amorphous fog and locating little but a gloomy pall upon the event horizon. clattering electronics scurry across the barren sounds like death-watch beetles upon the tundra; and creaking doors offer something much more foreboding than what pierre henry envisioned for musique concrete. drykkjuvisur ohljodanna adheres to the psychological dis-quiet through sound design that alan splet provided for eraserhead or that nurse with wound achieved on salt marie celeste. yet for all of their tendencies for brooding and desolation, bj nilsen & stilluppsteypa retain a compulsion for a glacial beauty through their intoxicated visions of the sublime.

bj nilsen has released numerous records for touch and ash international, both under his given name and as hazard, often focusing the sound of nature, its effect on humans, and the perception of time & space as experienced through sound. he has also previously collaborated with christian fennesz and chris watson. stilluppsteypa have unleashed well over a dozen releases in their tumultuous existence of electro-absurdism laced with subversion, blackhumour, and horror.

drykkjuvisur ohljodanna is a limited edition pressing of 1000 copies.

$13.21

back in stock as of
june 18th, 2008

first in stock on
june 26th, 2007

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
sound-art
sound-poetry

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 007 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 007 cd

m.s. waldron / steven stapleton / sigtryggur berg sigmarsson / jim haynes / r.k. faulhaber “the sleeping moustache” compact disc

sprawled naked across a piano (10:13)
the over-night sister (1:47)
a few items known as children (10:45)
look out! that one's dangerous. (2:31)
a bottomless black eye (10:08)
woolen pubic hair (2:11)
a little act of familiar daily routine (10:21)
annoyance, ignorance, and forgetfulness (3:20)
oh sir, i'm scared (11:15)
candlelight ceremonies for killing time (2:26)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "look out! that one's dangerous."

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

hms 007

m.s. waldron, steven stapleton, sigtryggur berg sigmarsson, jim haynes, and r.k. faulhaber
the sleeping moustache cd

release date: may 2, 2006

let's begin with the introductions.

m.s. waldron may be best known for his work as irr. app. (ext.), an unwieldy moniker that begets uncanny, hallucinatory sound. steven stapleton is the genius behind nurse with wound, the consistently unpredictable project that scrambles musical obsessions for krautrock, surrealism, and avant-garde composition into a brash quest for expressionism through experimentation. sigtryggur berg sigmarsson hails from the icelandic electro-absurdist duo stilluppsteypa, which continues to investigate the finer points of drunken minimalism. jim haynes prefers to merely state that he rusts things. r.k. faulhaber is something of a mysterious figure, looming around mr. waldron's irr. app. (ext.) recordings and performances while keeping his own work a hermetic secret.

each with a peculiar understanding of the audio arts, these five artists came to the proverbial table and thought it a good idea to collaborate. given the predilection for the surreal and the sidereal that each of these five employ in their many audio and visual projects, those agendas oozed from the recordings that became known as the sleeping moustache.

an epiphany of controlled disorder, a convulsion of beauty, a cascade of thought from delirious minds, the sleeping moustache is an exquisite manifestation of sound poetry scattered into a tortuous collage mired in an oblique melancholy. magnetic tones extracted from the ether, mechanical sounds smeared into a lugubrious growls, horns trumpeting straight out of john's book of revelation, ululations sliced into information overload that schwitters himself would be proud of. the sleeping moustache presents a psychically instable landscape, where dreams and nightmares wreak havoc upon the drudgery of daily life. the closest audible territory for the sleeping moustache might be the psychoactive constructions of nurse with wound's homotopy to marie, although the characters in this drama happened upon an entirely different map of that terrain.

the artwork for the first edition of the sleeping moustache features five letterpress prints from each of the artists with an edition of 1700.

$13.21

back in stock as of
april 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
june 26th, 2007

threads:
sound-art

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 006 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 006 cd

spoonbender 1.1.1 “stereo telepathy academy” compact disc

stereo telepathy academy (40:44)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "stereo telepathy academy"

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

hms 006

spoonbender 1.1.1
stereo telepathy academy cd

release date: valentine's day, february 14, 2006

in 1913, marcel duchamp dropped three pieces of string, each a meter long, from a height equal to their length. he then cut shapes into pieces of wood in order to document the rumpled line of his three fallen strings. in essence, duchamp conceived his 3 standard stoppages as a preservation of chance, which he viewed as a means to combat logical reality. in addition to duchamp's self-proclaimed antipathy to the rational world, he was quite particular in how he contextualized and executed his ideas through readymade objects, chance operations, and his notorious psycho-sexually charged dioramas. it is this dualism between the chance operation and an absolute intellectual/technical control which brings us to the present age, and to spoonbender 1.1.1 in particular. the acceptance and integration of opposites results in the 3rd option: everything.

the san francisco-based spoonbender 1.1.1 outlines itself as the 'tele-ambient dream self' of the critically-acclaimed, 'populist avant-tronics and media group' i am spoonbender. it is important to note that spoonbender 1.1.1 declares itself not a side project of i am spoonbender, but a psychologically immersive extension of the central ias concept. both projects uncover the hidden connections that lie beneath the surface of reality by delving into the arenas of paranormal research - the exploration of the occult significance surrounding the number 3 and its strange laws, for example - but the intended outcomes for these concepts are decidedly different. for stereo telepathy academy, spoonbender 1.1.1 exercises psychic community through the architecture of the soundtrack.

at the beginning of the first 'transmission' of stereo telepathy academy on november 3rd, 2004 - a performance where the group supported genesis p-orridge's ptv3 - 1.1.1's dustin donaldson announced that "tonight's spoonbender 1.1.1 show is governed by chance operations and the 'third mind' technique. spoken text was taken from one film, overlayed onto images from another film, and the score was composed while viewing a third (and secret) film source. the synchronistic results appear to be intentional." such was the strategy of duchamp's aforementioned piece nearly a century ago; but spoonbender 1.1.1's collision of artforms also employs the technique found in the william s. burroughs / brion gyson classic the third mind. as the images of david cronenberg's rarely seen film crimes of the future flickered, spoonbender 1.1.1 radiated an inverted telekinetic minimalism of undulating tones supporting the third piece of the puzzle: spoken text from cronenberg's stereo, a faux-documentary detailing a surgical procedure for the advancement of telepathic communication. the result: a sort of 'wizard of oz / dark side of the moon' for the mimetic engineering mindset.

(not surprisingly, another triangle was completed at this event: donaldson and p-orridge met for the first time. burroughs and donaldson were friends, as were burroughs and p-orridge. psychic tv 3 / spoonbender 1.1.1 on the 3rd of november...)

the same principles and elements apply for stereo telepathy academy, the group's long-awaited debut studio recording (1.1.1 has existed solely as a live group for years).

$12.01

back in stock as of
april 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
february 17th, 2005

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 004 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 004 cd

b. j. nilsen / stilluppsteypa “vikinga brennivin” compact disc

en dåre kan fråga mer än tre visa kan svara (einn fáviti getur spurt meira en thrír adrir geta svarad) (12:54)
heiler, thorn eirs hlyddu (lycklige de, som lyssnat) (12:26)
untitled (1:37)
vidunder (4:20)
det är bäst att jag börjar, annars kommer jag aldrig hem (nú er kominn tími til ad byrja, annars kemst eg ekkert aftur heim) (24:51)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "heiler, thorn eirs hlyddu ..."

february 2005 collaborative effort between the icelandic/dutch ensemb. stilluppsteypa (very active in the pre-and-post digital sound-research wasteland of the late 90s) and touch/ash artist bj nilsen (aka hazard).

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

hms 004

bj nilsen & stilluppsteypa
vikinga brennivín cd

release date: april 5, 2005 brennivin is an icelandic liquor vulcanized from the humble potato and flavored with cumin, although you’d be hard pressed to taste much beyond the astringent burn that it leaves in your mouth. bottled in matte black glass and stamped with ominously simple labels, brennivin appears less like something to imbibe and more like poison; and in that creeping slow death kind of way, it is. for the icelandic electro-absurdist outfit stilluppsteypa, brennivin has soaked into every fiber of their being; and as a result, oozes out of their terminal drones, sputtered rhythms, and atomic fractures. as much brennivin (and mind-altering chemicals in general have been a muse for stilluppsteypa, they are also a curse; stilluppsteypa’s oblique dada expressionism and devilish black humour erupt with megalomaniacal invincibility that comes with a few too many drinks; but at the same time, stilluppsteypa has developed a parallel ethos of clinical minimalism the reflects the introspection, headaches, and melancholia of the morning after.

in their poetically abject celebration of brennivin, stilluppsteypa (comprised of sigtryggur berg sigmarsson and helgi thorsson) accepted the invitation from swedish composer bj nilsen to collaborate upon an album related to alcohol and its mind-numbing effects. nilsen has been working in various constellations of experimental music, best known for his recordings as hazard published through touch and ash international. focusing the perception of natural sounds through a reconstruction of time and space, nilsen has rendered the commonplace sounds of wind, rain, and snow as stealthfully seductive and quietly menacing drifts of frozen sound. their resultant collaboration is an existentialist allegory in which the three drunkenly stumble out in a scandinavian winter night and spiral toward the inevitable point in which they blackout. lest this be construed as a derelict piece of method acting, the craft that nilsen, sigmarsson, and thorsson brought to vikinga brennivin is impeccable, as the extended soundfields breath with the majesty of distant fog horns and sparkle with the delicate light of countless stars cast down from the black heavens onto the frozen tundra below. frightening and barren, yet hauntingly compelling, vikinga brennivin is an isolationist masterpiece.

$12.01

back in stock as of
april 23rd, 2008

first in stock on
january 25th, 2005

threads:
jewelled-antler

the helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 000 cd
helen scarsdale agency (usa) #hms 000 cd

coelacanth “the chronograph” compact disc

a peculiar stone or the iron molecule (25:08)
method of extricating a live wire (8:27)
how bodies become phosphorescent (10:36)
vaporization of convergence (6:29)

click the play button to hear an excerpt of "how bodies become ..."

believe this is the earliest of the four coelacanth titles currently stocked by mms, covering the the first few years of this jewelled-antler aligned duo’s existence. a fine a point as any to begin your delve into the rust-themed sound research of mr.s chasse & haynes.

the helen scarsdale agency press release...

coelacanth is loren chasse and jim haynes
all recordings are treatments of various unspecified public and private performances from 1999-2001
our blessings to jeffre cantu

“sound much more than visual culture or the poetics of language often eludes the self-explanation of from demonstrative signifiers. in categorizing sound within the semiotic realm, contemporary post-structuralist theories and utopian ideologies may add baroque flourishes to the sound work at hand; but such overemphasis upon intention over execution has the potential to leave the work aesthetically hollow. thus it is not uncommon to find within experimental musics that meaning is assigned to the work before an audience can develop a critical reading for themselves. collaborating under the moniker coelacanth, loren chasse and jim haynes have intentionally reversed this dialogue to put the aesthetic process ahead of a conceptual manifestation by favoring evocation, empathy, and transcendence through sound. initially, coelacanth's quest may have been to engage the drone supreme, an aesthetic previously sought by c.m. von hausswolff, morton feldman, and :zoviet*france:. yet, the duo is known to get distracted by the minutiae of sound itself, or some instantaneous revelation about the history of decay, or simply the sublime beauty of nature. the drone in fact does go on, but it's course is quite circuitous.

the chronograph is the debut release from coelacanth. the album opens with an lengthy passage of creakingly creepy submariner ambience as if the oxidization process itself had been amplified within the realm of the audible. spiked electrical surges and controlled feedback oscillations build the intensity of the album, until coelacanth unleashes their symphony of tiny whirring machines, gritty textual striations, and clattering pulsations. the chronograph then descends into a blissful tone float of dense bell reverberations and oceanic washes of shortwave. independent of each other, both haynes and chasse have qualified this album as 'phosphorescent'.”

previous record label:
textile

...and that's everything on the helen scarsdale agency in stock.
(why not take a look at the previous and next labels?)

next record label:
the now sound

.home.

.artists.

.labels.

.new.

.restocks.

.best.

.faq.

.blog.