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... happy spring everyone !!! to commemorate our favorite season (and to help get this place back to some sort of workable condition) we're having a "spring cleaning" sale !!! please visit the spring (2013) cleaning page to view a list of (recent, mostly 2012) releases that we're now offering at reduced prices (while supplies last, no rainchecks, etc) ...
previous record label:
 tonschacht 
there are 67 titles on touch in stock.
they are listed below.
next record label:
 touch sevens 
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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
musique-concrète
digital-musics

touch sevens (uk) #ts 15 ep
touch (uk) #ts 15 ep

sohrabbetween strangers” seven inch single record

  • hejrat

  • endless spring
march 2013 release ; ... two short, gauzy musique concrète pieces from the shadowy act sohrab ...
touch sevens press release...
ts15 | sohrab "between strangers"

7" vinyl only
cut by jason at transition

artwork and photography by jon wozencroft
recorded with rage during the winter of 2011/12. “voice of a burnt generation”, sung by hani, recorded lo–fi in the eissenhutenstadt refugee camp, germany.

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threads:
digital-musics
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones

 best of 2013 !!! 
touch sevens (uk) #ts 14 ep
touch (uk) #ts 14 ep

rosy parlanewillow” seven inch single record

  • willow

  • morning
march 2013 release ; ... gorgeous pair of crystalline studies from rosy parlane, the first issued set of his music since 2006’s (superb, vastly under-rated)jessamine” disc for touch ...

... have long felt rosy’s work to be at the core of what i found interesting about the whole 2000’sdecade-zerodigital-music wave ; having these two pieces as a reminder of his prowess is a real treat ... highly recommended !!!
touch sevens press release...
ts14 | rosy parlane "willow"

7" vinyl only
cut by jason at transition

artwork and photography by jon wozencroft

written and recorded in auckland, new zealand, 20082009

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first in stock on
january 25th, 2008


threads:
digital-musics
guitar-themed

touch sevens (uk) #ts 04 ep
touch (uk) #ts 04 ep

fennesztransition” seven inch single record

  • on a desolate shore (5:14)

  • a shadow passes by (3:21)
january 2008 release ; a second 7”-vinyl release (following his career-making “plays” from about a decade-back...) from christian fennesz.
touch sevens press release...
fennesz
transition
touch # ts04

this is the sister release to the digital-only on a desolate shore a shadow passes by. these three tracks are based on 8 different guitar recordings made at amann studios, vienna, between 2005-07. the acoustic guitar was recorded with an ak c12 microphone. other sounds were made using a fender stratocaster and a vox ac15 amp.

the 7" is part of the touch sevens 7" vinyl-only series, which began with oceanus pacificus by chris watson [ts02].

touch sevens series of 7" vinyl

7" vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a "healthy" popular culture. it might seem like another retrograde step to launch a vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and indeed there is an element of "the rear view mirror" ... the generation of touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong emotional attachment to it. this series is more than that ... an overtly critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work which cannot be applied to digital formats - the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the a & the b and the additional dimension of the visual counterpoint. as for the aspect of audience participation, we choose not to specify the rpm on the label, encouraging the listener to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. an attempt to make music that works at both speeds. the front cover might actually be the back cover ...

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first in stock on
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threads:
field-recordings
minimalism-drones
electro-acoustic-composition

touch sevens (uk) #ts 03 ep
touch (uk) #ts 03 ep

aerproject” seven inch single record

  • headphones (3:05)

  • speakers (3:05)
july 2008 release ; first release in a while from this jon wozencroft (touch co-boss & graphic designer supreme) project ...

ps. aer = alpha echo romeo ...
touch sevens press release...
ts03 aer: project

film soundtrack for now.here, "the overcoming of hazard" by brad butler / karen mirza, august 07. uses four atmosphere recordings, radio and an organ stop - an attempt to confuse inside and out. mixed with mathias gmachl at loop.ph using digital performer. 16mm projector loaded by al rees.

touch sevens series of 7" vinyl

7" vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a "healthy" popular culture. it might seem like another retrograde step to launch a vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and indeed there is an element of "the rear view mirror" ... the generation of touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong emotional attachment to it. this series is more than that ... an overtly critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work which cannot be applied to digital formats - the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the a & the b and the additional dimension of the visual counterpoint. as for the aspect of audience participation, we choose not to specify the rpm on the label, encouraging the listener to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. an attempt to make music that works at both speeds. the front cover might actually be the back cover ...

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first in stock on
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threads:
field-recordings

touch sevens (uk) #ts 02 ep
touch (uk) #ts 02 ep

chris watsonoceanus pacificus” seven inch single record

  • 3m

  • 10m
touch sevens press release...
chris watson
oceanus pacificus

touch # ts02
7" vinyl only - not available for digital download
limited edition of 1000

locked grooves on both sides...

artwork & photography by jon wozencroft | cut by jason @ transition

the voices and rhythms of the humboldt current around the galapagos islands recorded april 2006 using a pair of dolphin ear pro hydrophones onto a nagra ares-pll digital audio recorder.

chris watson, originally from sheffield but now resident in newcastle, england, is the world's leading wildlife sound recordist. after co-founding cabaret voltaire with richard kirk and stephen mallinder, he left in 1981 to work for tyne tees television and he also joined the hafler trio. he then left to become the sound archivist for the royal society for protection of birds. he is now working full time as a freelance sound recordist.

chris watson has released 3 solo albums for touch and 2 collaborations with swedish sound artist bjnilsen.

with bjnilsen:

storm [touch # tone 27, 2006]
wind [ash # ash 6.5, 2001]

solo:

weather report [touch # to:47, 2003]
outside the circle of fire [touch # to:37, 1998]
stepping into the dark [touch # to:27, 1996]

others:

kk null / chris watson / z'ev - number one [touch # tone 24, 2005]
star switch on - chris watson with aer / biosphere / fennesz / hazard / philip jeck / mika vainio [touch # tone 18, 2002]

touch sevens series of 7" vinyl

7" vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a "healthy" popular culture. it might seem like another retrograde step to launch a vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and indeed there is an element of "the rear view mirror" ... the generation of touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong emotional attachment to it. this series is more than that ... an overtly critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work which cannot be applied to digital formats - the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the a & the b and the additional dimension of the visual counterpoint. as for the aspect of audience participation, we choose not to specify the rpm on the label, encouraging the listener to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. an attempt to make music that works at both speeds. the front cover might actually be the back cover ...

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new to stock as of
may 14th, 2013


threads:
field-recordings

touch (uk) #tone 48 ep

geir jenssenstromboli” twelve inch single record

  • stromboli

  • stromboli dub
touch press release...
field recordings of a volcano by geir jenssen, better known as biosphere.

stromboli is an active volcano off the north coast of sicily in the mediterranean. the volcano has erupted many times and is constantly active with minor eruptions. the last major eruption was on april 13, 2009.

recorded at stromboli's crater edge (924 m) on july 19th 2012 at 9:30 pm. weather: gentle breeze, +15°c. location: 38°47'33.69"n, 15°12'50.96"e.

recording equipment: fostex fr-2le field memory recorder, audio-technica at835st shotgun microphone, and a canon 5d mkii slr.

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threads:
modern-composition
minimalism-drones
concert-recordings

touch (uk) #tone 47 lp

jakob kirkegaardconversion” long playing record

  • labyrinthitis ll (17:24)

  • church ll (16:22)
march 2013 release ; ... vinyl-only lp offering “acoustic” variants of two prior electronic works by the danish sound artist jacob kirkegaard, both realized by the ensemble scenatet, utilizing traditional instrumentation ...

... gorgeous, expansive tone-field works that have survived the translation process beautifully ; touching on similar colors as phill niblock’s work ...
touch press release...
tone 47 - jacob kirkegaardconversion

released: 2013
vinyl
artwork & photography by jon wozencroft
cut by jason at transition

composed by jacob kirkegaard
ensemble: scenatet

clarinet: vicky wright
percussion: mads bendsen
trombone: andras olsen
violin: kirsten riis-jensen
viola: mina fred
cello: sofia olsson

scenatet was founded in 2008 by anna berit asp christensen and niels rønsholdt as an ensemble of soloists and artists for contemporary art and music.

recorded by scenatet at studio 3 at the royal danish academy of music, copenhagen, denmark june 2012
mixed in berlin by jacob kirkegaard
executive producer: anna berit asp christensen
instrumental supervisor: niels rønsholdt
recording producer & sound engineer: peter barnow

thanks to scenatet, danish arts council and danish composers' society for their support.
in collaboration with danish ensemble scenatet, jacob kirkegaard's two pieces "labyrinthitis" and "church" are here interpreted by classical instruments. the intention of this transformation into an instrumental score is to explore the musical dimension and potential of the sounds that were used in creating the original works.

"church" from 4 rooms (tone 026cd) originally consists of ambient recordings of an abandoned church inside the radioactive zone in chernobyl. "labyrinthitis" from labyrinthitis (tone 035cd) is a canon of oto-acoustic tones generated by the artist's own ears. like most of kirkegaard's sound works, both pieces are characterized by a strong focus on methodology, and by the artist's wish to omit any deliberate emotional or "musical" intention.

jacob kirkegaard is a danish artist focusing on scientific and aesthetic aspects of resonance, time, sound and hearing. his installations, compositions and performances deal with acoustic spaces or phenomena that usually remain imperceptible. using unorthodox methods for recording, kirkegaard captures and contextualizes hitherto unheard sounds from within a variety of environments: a geyser, a sand dune, a nuclear power plant, an empty room, a tv tower, and even sounds from the human inner ear itself.

based in berlin, kirkegaard is a graduate of the academy for media arts in cologne, germany. since 1995, kirkegaard has presented his works at exhibitions and at festivals and conferences throughout the world. he has released five albums (mostly on the british label touch) and is a member of the sound art collective freq_out.

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first in stock on
april 11th, 2012


threads:
digital-musics
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #tone 46 cd

fennesz / ryuichi sakamotoflumina” double compact disc set

  • 0318 (4:27)
  • 0319 (5:40)
  • 0320 (4:43)
  • 0322 (5:35)
  • 0314 (6:49)
  • 0325 (4:20)
  • 0327 (5:30)
  • 0328 (5:30)
  • 0330 (4:44)
  • 0401 (4:55)
  • 0402 (6:15)
  • 0404 (4:34)

  • 0405 (4:51)
  • 0407 (4:38)
  • 0409 (4:53)
  • 0411 (5:23)
  • 0415 (5:14)
  • 0417 (3:44)
  • 0419 (5:00)
  • 0423 (5:17)
  • 0424 (4:28)
  • 0425 (6:56)
  • 0428 (4:55)
  • 0429 (5:58)
december 2011 release ; ... third collaborative project between fennesz & ryuichi sakamoto, focusing on sakamoto’s modal piano improvisations run through fenneszdigital wringer ...
touch press release...

tone 46 - fennesz + sakamoto "flumina"

released: 2011
dcd - 24 tracks

photography + cover design: jon wozencroft
mastered by fernando aponte

the 24 pieces of 'flumina' are based on piano compositions / improvisations which ryuichi sakamoto had recorded whilst touring in japan. on that tour ryuichi played a piano piece in a different key at the beginning of every show, always having a 'fennesz sakomoto' project in mind. after 24 shows he had 24 tracks in 24 different keys, covering all 24 tonal steps of the western tonal system. sakamoto sent the tracks over to christian fennesz and he worked on them using electronics, guitars and synths. they met in new york then and mixed the album together with fernando aponte at kab studios.

this is their 3rd collaboration released on touch, after the live recording of 'sala santa cecilia' [touch # tone 22, 2005] and 'cendre[touch # tone 32, 2007].

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threads:
harsh-noise
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #tone 45.5 ep

daniel menchequanta of light” long playing record

  • quanta of light l (19:24)

  • quanta of light ll (21:35)
april 2012 release ; ... quite subtle music from pnw mainstay daniel menche, revolving around an almost laurie spiegel -esque row of cycling analogue synthesizer chords ...
touch press release...
tone 45.5 | daniel menche "quanta of light"

12" white label vinyl
cut by jason @ transition

the fifth in the series of limited edition vinyl in the tone 45 series. 100 copies only are available in the touchshop.

artist's note: the distortion on the run in groove on side a is intentional ...

in a genre known for its randomness and chaotic structure, daniel menche has established himself as a musician with an uncharacteristic sense of focus and determination. rather than creating "noise," he strives for order and cohesiveness. his work originates from the idea that there is no restriction to potential sound sources, especially in terms of a sound's potential sonic energy.

subtle and patient compositions rely on long, dense layers of droning sounds, while abrasive pieces rely on sounds amplified and processed to extreme levels, pushing the full spectrum of frequencies to the threshold. intense, percussive sound works resonate a primal chaos while gracefully reaching towards something beyond "noise."

through this intensity, menche bridges the gap between sound and listener, a one-on-one, personal impact with pure sound. the greater the intent, the greater the intensity, and intensity is based upon the blood rising in speed and heat through our bodies. this is dedicated music that expresses the undisciplined purity of emotion and intensity.

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threads:
digital-musics
minimalism-drones
modern-psych
guitar-themed
electro-acoustic-composition
modern-composition
free-improvisation

touch (uk) #tone 44 ep

fenneszseven stars” ten inch single record

  • liminal (3:07)
  • july (5:06)

  • shift (6:47)
  • seven stars (3:01)
july 2011 release ; ... mini-ep from fennesz, to tide us over until the next full-length ...
touch press release...

fennesz - seven stars
touch # tone 44
10" vinyl
printed inner and outer colour sleeve
design & photography by jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham
recorded in studio b, amannstudios, vienna.
acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers
seven stars features steven hess on drums, recorded at amannstudios by christoph amann

fennesz's first solo release since black sea [touch # to:76, 2008] - cd version. using acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers, fennesz continues to engage and entrance us in equal measure.

fennesz writes:

seven stars was recorded in vienna in january 2011. i recorded and mixed the album within 3 weeks. liminal and july were existing pieces which i have reworked. (i wrote an early version of liminal in a hotel room in bali in 2010). there is also a version of liminal that i have been playing live for some time. my friend steven hess, with whom i have worked before, happened to be in vienna at the time of the sessions, so i invited him to join me in the studio. christoph amann recorded the drums using a selection of his great microphones including his amazing new josephson.

i wanted to make a record that has a certain lightness about it and at the same time explore new territory using drums on one track. this might be something i will continue with in the future.

fennesz's third collaboration with ryuichi sakamoto, flumina, is due out in november on touch.

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first in stock on
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threads:
digital-musics
electro-acoustic-composition
guitar-themed
free-improvisation
modern-psych
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #tone 44 cd

fenneszseven stars” compact disc

  • liminal (3:07)
  • july (5:06)
  • shift (6:47)
  • seven stars (3:01)
october 2011 release ; ... something of a mini-ep from fennesz, to tide us over until the next full-length ...
touch press release...

fennesz - seven stars
touch # tone 44
cd ep in digipak

design & photography by jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham
recorded in studio b, amannstudios, vienna.
acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers
seven stars features steven hess on drums, recorded at amannstudios by christoph amann

fennesz's first solo release since black sea [touch # to:76, 2008] - cd version. using acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths, computers, fennesz continues to engage and entrance us in equal measure.

fennesz writes:

seven stars was recorded in vienna in january 2011. i recorded and mixed the album within 3 weeks. liminal and july were existing pieces which i have reworked. (i wrote an early version of liminal in a hotel room in bali in 2010). there is also a version of liminal that i have been playing live for some time. my friend steven hess, with whom i have worked before, happened to be in vienna at the time of the sessions, so i invited him to join me in the studio. christoph amann recorded the drums using a selection of his great microphones including his amazing new josephson.

i wanted to make a record that has a certain lightness about it and at the same time explore new territory using drums on one track. this might be something i will continue with in the future.

fennesz's third collaboration with ryuichi sakamoto, flumina, is due out in november on touch.

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 $14.51

back in stock as of
march 12th, 2013

first in stock on
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threads:
site-specific
field-recordings
electro-acoustic-composition
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #tone 43 cd

chris watson / marcus davidsoncross-pollination” compact disc

  • chris watson - midnight at the oasis (28:13)
  • chris watson & marcus davidson - the bee symphony (20:07)
may 2011 release ; ... two discrete pieces by chris watson paired together on disc :: a 2007 recording made for the ba festival of science (involving the dusk chorus of insects in the kalahari desert) & a 2009 piece, composed by chris, marcus davidson, & mike harding for field recordings & choir, “to explore the vocal harmonies between humans and honey bees in a unique choral collaboration, around and within the hives of an english country garden.” ...
touch press release...

tone 43 - chris watson & marcus davidson "cross-pollination"

released: 2011
cd in digipak - 2 tracks - 48:20

art direction: jon wozencroft
cover image: yusuke murakami

midnight at the oasis: - the piece is a 28 minute time compression from sunset to sunrise in south africa's kalahari desert and features the dense and harmonic mosaic of delicate animal rhythms recorded in this remote habitat. "midnight at the oasis" was first performed at the marquee in parliament street, york, on 13th september 2007 as part of sight sonic.

the kalahari desert is a vast and open space where most of the wildlife is nocturnal. after sunset the dunes, grasses and thorn bushes are patrolled by an emerging alien empire - the insects. midnight at the oasis' presents an unseen soundscape from this beautiful and hostile environment.

the bee symphony: a project conceived by chris watson originally for "pestival" in 2009 to explore the vocal harmonies between humans and honey bees in a unique choral collaboration around and within the hives of an english country garden. recorded live at the rymer auditorium, music research centre, university of york, england on december 17th 2010 by tony myatt, using a soundfield sps200 microphone recorded onto an edirol r4 (surround version), and 2 x neumann u87 microphones via grace microphone preamplifiers, recorded onto an edirol r44 (stereo version). composed and arranged by marcus davidson using recordings made by chris watson & mike harding, and diffused through a 4.1 genelec system by chris watson. the bee choir: dylan de buitlear, lisa coates, steph connor, lewis marlowe and shendie mcmath. with thanks to peter boardman (the event producer), tom emmett, celia frisby & bridget nicholls, who originally commissioned the bee symphony.

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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
modern-psych
guitar-themed

touch (uk) #tone 40 cd

oren ambarchiintermission • 2000-2008” compact disc

  • intimidator (12:45)
  • iron waves (11:45)
  • moving violation (8:20)
  • the strouhal number (7:06)
  • a final kiss on poisoned cheeks (20:16)
november 2009 release ; ... something of an “ods & sodds” for oren’s various compilation & one-off work(s), including the “bonus” track on the vinyl edition of “in the pendulum’s embrace”, the pieces from the “touch 25” & “live & direct” discs, the table of the elements 12 track, and a remix of a paul duncan song ...
touch press release...

tone 40 - oren ambarchi "intermission 2000-2008"

released: 2009
cd in digipak

artwork & design: jon wozencroft

intermission brings together a range of material oren ambarchi has contributed to compilations and limited edition vinyl releases between the years 2000 and 2008. highlights include two live recordings - an early, fragile solo guitar recording taken from a radio broadcast in 2000 and a final kiss on poisoned cheeks, his powerful 12" recorded live in vancouver in 2007 and originally released on table of the elements. additional tracks include iron waves an exclusive track in collaboration with vocalist paul duncan and intimidator featuring australian pianist/composer anthony pateras originally released on southern lord.

these are special anomalies in the ambarchi canon but nonetheless feature the hallmarks of his unique soundworld, all underpinned by his trademark deep guitar tones and meticulous attention to detail. all tracks are newly remastered, many of which are available on cd for first time.

intimidator
guitars and prepared piano recorded at jerker house and enormodome, melbourne in 2006
anthony pateras: prepared piano.
originally released on the 2lp version of 'in the pendulum's embrace' southern lord, usa.

iron waves
remix of paul duncan's 'parasail' from the 'above the trees' cd, hometapes, usa
guitars, bells, cymbals recorded at jerker house, melbourne and bjb, sydney in 2008. previously unreleased.

moving violation
guitars recorded at jerker house, melbourne november 2005. a version was originally released on touch's 25th anniversary cd, touch 25, uk.

the strouhal number
guitar recorded live at 2ser fm sydney in 2000 by tony dupe.
originally released on 'live & direct' cd spunk / preservation records, australia.

a final kiss on poisoned cheeks
guitar recorded live at vancouver new music festival oct 17, 2007 by gary morgan
bells and motorised cymbal recorded at bjb, sydney.
originally released as a limited 12" on table of the elements, usa.

all tracks remastered by lachlan carrick at moose, melbourne august 2009.

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threads:
minimalism-drones
analogue-synth
electro-acoustic-composition
machine-music

touch (uk) #tone 39 lp

eleh / nana april junobservations & momentum” long playing record

  • eleh - slow fade for hard sync (21:35)

  • nana april jun - sun wind darkness eye (12:45)
november 2009 release ; ... a side-length piece each by christofer lämgren’s nana april jun (an extended take from his “ontology of noise” disc) & eleh (twenty-one minutes of deep bass chiming & assorted analogue interference ; listen to the sound-sample) ...
touch press release...
tone 39 - eleh | nana april jun "observations & momentum"

released: 2009
lp vinyl only
limited edition of 1000

artwork & photography: jon wozencroft
cut by jason at transition

sun wind darkness eye” is taken from the nana april jun album the ontology of noise [touch # tone 37, 2009]

about 18 months ago, we were advised of some interesting activity online concerning the nom de bruit of swedish artist christofer lämgren, nana april jun; we didn’t know it at the time, because the authorship was something of a mystery. we produced a cd together, the ontology of noise in feb 2009, in which one track, particularly, stood out as being perfect for a vinyl edition.

in the same timeframe, the stream of releases by eleh on important records attracted our attention. these homages to la monte young, pauline oliveros and charlemagne palestine, vinyl-only limited editions stunned us with their acuity and passion for detail … there was something other in the sound. eleh, also, is an artist who prefers the work to speak for itself, and has other ideas about noise. the digital is questioned by a commitment to a working practice based around analogue tone-generators and letterpress printed covers. the important records / taiga releases are now sought after with a passion by anyone who recognises something truly special occuring. on this new record, eleh develops the waveforms that the important records series started.

the split vinyl format is a great meeting point for this idea of digital persona and analogue privacy. the effect, we hope, is for the vinyl to represent a digital question … that this lp summons up a universal sound and an intimate sphere of operations … which is of course a continuing dilemma. here is a great opportunity to hear eleh and nana april jun at their finest.

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first in stock on
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threads:
digital-musics
black-metal
electro-acoustic-composition

touch (usa) #tone 37 cd
touch tone (usa) #tone 37 cd

nana april junthe ontology of noise” compact disc

  • the one substance
  • process philosophy
  • space-time continuum
  • semantic shift
  • sun wind darkness eye
touch press release...
nana april jun - the ontology of noise

touch # tone 37 [cd]
5 tracks - cd - 36:40
photography & design by jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham with thanks to annika von hausswolff

the ontology of noise

the ontology of noise researches the dark associations of post-black metal. no traditional instruments are used on the album and all techniques are digital in their application. there are almost no arrangements or layers, but the pieces consist of single streams which change intuitively. this makes the ontology of noise a concrete journey through an abstract language evolving around light and darkness, nature and artificiality, and sometimes even takes the form of a sound very similar to an electric guitar...

the ontology of noise explores the filmic qualities of noise - the image-creating mechanisms that arise almost hallucinogenically from subtle variations of frequences. by using a special set of digital mastering and filtering techniques, the recordings often sound very much like the sounds of nature; wind in trees and water. the ontology of noise opens up an audial perception for these sounds of nature and ask questions about their ontology...ref: burzum's filosofem

nana april jun is one of the personas of christofer lämgren (b 1974), a visual artist, composer and art magazine ykky editor/curator based in gothenburg, sweden.

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touch (usa) #tone 36 cd
touch tone (usa) #tone 36 cd

jana winderenheated: live in japan” compact disc

  • tetsuro yasunaga (1:24)
  • jana winderen (26:21)
february 2009 release ; first full-length release from this norwegian field-recordist, after an appetite-whetting single for the autofact label last year ...

a single piece, recorded live, presented after an introduction by her japanese host ; impeccably detailed sound-environments seamlessly bound together into a coherent whole ...
touch press release...
jana winderen - heated: live in japan

touch # tone 36 [cd]
limited edition cd - 2 tracks - 27:54
cd in full colour wallet
artwork & photography by jon wozencroft

live performance at super deluxe, tokyo, 24th october 2008. source material recorded with 2 x 8011 dpa hydrophones, 2 x dolphinear/pro hydrophones and 2 x 4060 dpa microphones on a sound devices 744t recorder in greenland, iceland and norway.

following tetsuro yasunaga's spoken word introduction, here unfolds jana winderen's blistering live set from her recent trip to japan as part of 'norwegian music today'. her first cd, 'heated' follows her only other release to date, a 7" vinyl limited edition, "surface runoff", on autofact [usa, 2008]. improvising from recordings taken on field research trips, she forces the power of the hidden to the surface, making the unheard audible. its a strange world down there; a world of which we know little, replete with its own instrumentation and orchestras. tapping into these, jana's vision encourages us to explore the fertility of the oceans...

jana winderen researches the hidden depths of the sea with the latest technology; her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. the audio topography of the oceans and the depth of glacier crevasses are brought to the surface. she is occupied with finding sound from its hidden source, like blind field recording. her most recent sound works include "submerge" (2008), for färgfabriken norr in sweden, based on hydrophone recordings in the local lake, "freq_out 7" curated by cm von hausswollf at the happy new ears festival in belgium (2008), "rainbow audio transformation" (2008) at extra city in antwerp, belgium and the 6 channel sound installation "+4°c - from folgefonna to the north sea" (2007) at "sleppet" during the centenary of edvard greig, "greig07" in norway. future projects includes a studio album, released through touch in 2009, based on hydrophone recordings from the icefjord kangia and disco bay by ilulissat in greenland, and an installation work "voices from the deep" in collaboration with chris watson. recently bbc radio 4 followed jana on her recording trip to the barents sea for the radio series "world on the move" [bbc, prod. sarah blunt, 2008]. she is a member of spire, freq_out and field.

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touch (uk) #tone 34 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 34 cd

gavin bryars / philip jeck / alter egothe sinking of the titanic” compact disc

  • the sinking of the titanic (72:35)
december 2007 release; a new, extended recording this classic gavin bryars piece, performed in venice by the composer himself on double bass, with philip jeck on turntables and the alter ego ensemble handling the score/sound-projection.

a lovely realization, on par with the original eno-produced obscure-label version from 1975; miles ahead of the 90s crépuscule & point music realizations ...
touch press release...
gavin bryars / philip jeck / alter ego - the sinking of the titanic

limited edition of 2000
cd in special wallet + postcard [postcard image by andrew hooker]
artwork by jon wozencroft
1 track - 72:37

this version of gavin bryars's seminal piece, the sinking of the titanic, was recorded at the 49th international festival of contemporary music at the venice biennale on 1st october 2005 at the teatro maliban.

gavin bryars - double bass
philip jeck - turntables
alter ego - strings, brass, wind, percussion, keyboard, tape recorder and sound design

...

on april 14th 1912 the titanic struck an iceberg at 11.40 pm in the north atlantic and sank at 2.20 am on april 15th. of the 2201 people on board only 711 were to reach their intended destination, new york. all the materials used in this piece are derived from research and speculations about the sinking of the "unsinkable" luxury liner. the initial starting point for the piece was the reported fact of the band, a small group of string players, having played a hymn in the final minutes of the ship's sinking in an extraordinarily noble act of self-sacrifice. in the various performing versions of the sinking of the titanic made since its inception in 1969, this has involved the hymn-tune "autumn", following the evidence of the surviving wireless operator harold bride. he told the new york times in april 1912:

" ... the band was still playing. i guess all of the band went down. they were playing autumn then. i swam with all my might. i suppose i was 150ft away when the titanic on her nose, with her after-quarter sticking straight up in the air, began to settle slowly ... the way the band kept playing was a noble thing ... and the last i saw of the band, when i was floating out in the sea with my lifebelt on, it was still on deck playing autumn. how they ever did it i cannot imagine. that, and the way phillips (the senior wireless operator) kept sending after the captain told him his life was his own, and to look out for himself, are two things that stand out in my mind over all the rest." as walter lord wrote: "bandmaster hartley tapped his violin. the ragtime ended, and the strains of the episcopal hymn autumn flowed across the deck and drifted in the still night far out over the water."

the hymn tune was played between 2.15 and 2.20 am, the last five minutes of the sinking, and this unit becomes the building block for the music. this music can go through a number of different states, reflecting its implied slow descent to the ocean bed, which provides a range of echo and deflection phenomena, allied to considerable high frequency reduction.

given the 'ceiling' effect of the water's surface, and the greater efficiency of water as an acoustic medium, the music may continue indefinitely beneath the sea. this presupposes that the music was played as the water engulfed the ship and, from bride's account, there is no reason not to think this. remember that the band were not only playing ultimately in water, but also with the ship standing almost perpendicular in the water for these last five minutes. bride could not imagine "how they ever did it". but we know that the band was playing outside the gymnasium doors, and these formerly vertical open doors would have become the horizontal floor that served as their last bandstand (in the ship's vertical configuration).

apart from the equipment operated by the two wireless officers - phillips sending, bride receiving - there were other examples of the transmission and reception of acoustic signals. there is, for example, a technical illustration of an audio transducer attached to the hull of the ship, on the inside shell nestled against the ship's frame. this was to enable the ship to hear underwater bells, which were attached to floating buoys out at sea along the east coast of canada and the united states to warn of the approaching coast (the approaching iceberg was, of course, notoriously silent).

it is impossible to underestimate the importance of the great italian guglielmo marconi in the tragedy. marconi had developed the principles of wireless telegraphy over great distances and he had made the first transatlantic transmission of a signal (the letter "s") only ten years earlier (from poldhu in cornwall to st johns in newfoundland). this, however, was the first extensive use of wireless in ocean rescue and the log of signals to and from the ship chronicle the whole progress of events. one of the survivors, drifting in the open sea, even expressed the somewhat mystical wish that they might be able to "marconi" their gratitude to him from the lifeboat. and in fact, when bride arrived in new york on the carpathia, marconi was waiting to rush on board and shake his hand.

the prolongation of the music into eternity, however, comes about from another "scientific" point of view. towards the end of his life, marconi became convinced that sounds once generated never die, they simply become fainter and fainter until we can no longer perceive them. marconi's hope was to develop sufficiently sensitive equipment, extraordinarily powerful and selective filters i suppose, to pick and hear these past, faint sounds. ultimately he hoped to be able to hear christ delivering the sermon on the mount. curiously enough one of the rescue ships, the birma, received radio signals, apparently originating from the titanic, 1 hour and 28 minutes after the ship had finally gone beneath the waves.

it is perhaps fitting, therefore, that this recording of the sinking of the titanic should have taken place in marconi's native country and, moreover, in a live performance at the teatro malibran in one of the supreme aquatic environments, venice. curiously this theatre was built on the site of the home of one of the world's greatest travellers, marco polo ....

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touch (uk) #tone 33 lp

touch. 30 years and counting” double long playing record set

  • 1 - 16:58

    touch 33 - pont saeson
    fennesz - 55 cancri e
    bruce gilbert - apis
    rosy parlane - awhitu
    oren ambarchi - merely a portmanteau

  • 2 - 17:15

    the book depository
    eleh - over woven
    bjnilsen - the cackle of dogs and laughter of death
    nana april jun - high and low and mid plane mass

  • 3 - 18:14

    chris watson - brussel-nord
    mika vainio - erstwhile
    carl michael von hausswolff - cleansing of the cruel tyrants chamber
    jana winderen - in a silent place

  • 4 - 17:49

    philip jeck - saint pancras
    francisco lópez - untitled#286
    z'ev - the inreadables
    hildur gudnadottir - just this
    senescent
    biosphere - gryfici
november 2012 release ; ... neat set of deftly collaged music (by something of a “who’s who” of the label’s current roster) signifying / celebrating the first 30 years of mike harding & jon wozencroft’s touch label ...
touch press release...

tone 33 | "touch. 30 years and counting"

4 tracks - dlp - 70:16
gatefold full colour sleeve with black inners
limited edition of 1000

compiled, edited, mixed and produced by mike harding & jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham at skye, 26th october 2012

30 years and counting is an echo of a time when the world was in a critical condition, and potentially about to blow itself into oblivion at the tail end of the cold war. as such the title is a wry reflection on the situation we find ourselves in today, where the final curtain is less likely to close, but the stakes somehow seem to be more extreme and polarised than ever.

as far as touch is concerned, it is an expression of our youthful relationship to the work. mike harding and jon wozencroft invited each of the touch artists to contribute a glimpse of their current practice to what is effectively a group show rather than a compilation. the brief was not only to celebrate a situation, but to remind each other why we are doing it, and make a kind of documentary realism.

some artists responded quickly with significant twists and returns to their signature sound and others left it to the last minute. the net result was that mike and jon mastered the lp / cd more or less as live performance in the cutting room, transition, as an expression of the vitality of the project rather than some pre-ordained historical item.

the history is built into the cover with two images of the first computer, the ‘colossus’, built in bletchley park during the early 1940’s as a means of cracking the enigma codes… here the pressure of time is at its most compressed. two contra-punctal images were shot only recently, backstage moments of touch 30 situations which as historical events, pale in comparison – they are just personal, memories in a flash.

30 years and counting is a filmic / time-based response from a collective of artists who have made a distinct impression on contemporary music and the way things go. fennesz, eleh, hildur gudnadottir, chris watson, philip jeck, biosphere… we should really list everyone. that’s what they try and do on hip-hop albums.

we started with cassettes; this project commenced as a dedication to vinyl rather than digital, a question concerning the art of recording. 30 years and counting is a manifesto after all these transformations. it is available on cd . the vinyl flares with the crackle of the present.

- jon wozencroft, november 2012

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touch (uk) #tone 33 cd

touch. 30 years and counting” compact disc

  • 1 - 16:58

    touch 33 - pont saeson
    fennesz - 55 cancri e
    bruce gilbert - apis
    rosy parlane - awhitu
    oren ambarchi - merely a portmanteau

  • 2 - 17:15

    the book depository
    eleh - over woven
    bjnilsen - the cackle of dogs and laughter of death
    nana april jun - high and low and mid plane mass

  • 3 - 18:14

    chris watson - brussel-nord
    mika vainio - erstwhile
    carl michael von hausswolff - cleansing of the cruel tyrants chamber
    jana winderen - in a silent place

  • 4 - 17:49

    philip jeck - saint pancras
    francisco lópez - untitled#286
    z'ev - the inreadables
    hildur gudnadottir - just this
    senescent
    biosphere - gryfici
november 2012 release ; ... neat set of deftly collaged music (by something of a “who’s who” of the label’s current roster) signifying / celebrating the first 30 years of mike harding & jon wozencroft’s touch label ...
touch press release...

tone 33 | "touch. 30 years and counting"

cd - 4 tracks - 70:16

edition of 1000 oversized digifiles

compiled, edited, mixed and produced by mike harding & jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham at skye, 26th october 2012

30 years and counting is an echo of a time when the world was in a critical condition, and potentially about to blow itself into oblivion at the tail end of the cold war. as such the title is a wry reflection on the situation we find ourselves in today, where the final curtain is less likely to close, but the stakes somehow seem to be more extreme and polarised than ever.

as far as touch is concerned, it is an expression of our youthful relationship to the work. mike harding and jon wozencroft invited each of the touch artists to contribute a glimpse of their current practice to what is effectively a group show rather than a compilation. the brief was not only to celebrate a situation, but to remind each other why we are doing it, and make a kind of documentary realism.

some artists responded quickly with significant twists and returns to their signature sound and others left it to the last minute. the net result was that mike and jon mastered the lp / cd more or less as live performance in the cutting room, transition, as an expression of the vitality of the project rather than some pre-ordained historical item.

the history is built into the cover with two images of the first computer, the ‘colossus’, built in bletchley park during the early 1940’s as a means of cracking the enigma codes… here the pressure of time is at its most compressed. two contra-punctal images were shot only recently, backstage moments of touch 30 situations which as historical events, pale in comparison – they are just personal, memories in a flash.

30 years and counting is a filmic / time-based response from a collective of artists who have made a distinct impression on contemporary music and the way things go. fennesz, eleh, hildur gudnadottir, chris watson, philip jeck, biosphere… we should really list everyone. that’s what they try and do on hip-hop albums.

we started with cassettes; this project commenced as a dedication to vinyl rather than digital, a question concerning the art of recording. 30 years and counting is a manifesto after all these transformations. it is available on cd . the vinyl flares with the crackle of the present.

- jon wozencroft, november 2012

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touch (uk) #tone 30 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 30 cd

lasse marhaug / nils henrik asheimgrand mutation” compact disc

  • bordunal (15:53)
  • phoneuma (13:48)
  • magnaton (1:53)
  • philomela (11:29)
  • clavaeolina (13:29)
huge resonant throb of wind/air and electronics from lasss & composer/organist nils henrik asheim... completely non-hostile, just about as far away as you can get from lasse’s current/recent modus otherwise as you can get... surprisingly serene actually...
touch press release...
marhaug | asheim
grand mutation
touch tone 30

cd - design: jon wozencroft
barcode: 5027803903029
5 tracks - 56:30

lasse marhaug: electronics
nils henrik asheim: organ

lasse marhaug and nils henrik asheim started their collaboration in 2004 at the all ears festival in oslo, norway. this turned out as a fruitful meeting between two musicians of very different backgrounds. marhaug's feedback to asheim's organ sounds in the oslo concert started to reflect how the work was to develop. asheim is working with half-stops and subtle playing techniques that create multiple layers of sound with a vibrating or fluctuating character, as well as with the power of the full organ. marhaug's tools belong to the world of sine wave oscillators and noise generators. the aim was to set a sonic frame into which they could both gradually tune.

the two musicians met again in june 2006 just before oslo cathedral (which contains asheim's favourite instrument) closed down for a few years of renovation work. one day of soundcheck and musical work and one night of recording produced an improvised flow of one hour, afterwards structured into five tracks.

the recording was made in a live setup on the organ loft. nils henrik asheim was sitting at the organ console and lasse marhaug right behind, playing his electronics through a loudspeaker system in order to make the electronics and the acoustic organ sound blend as close to each other as possible. sound engineer thomas hukkelberg used two custom-built condenser mics for the organ, two shure ksm 44 for the electronics and two neumann u87 by the altar for the ambience. he used a millennia media hv-3 preamp and an apogee ad-16x converter. the recordings were made at night to avoid unwanted ambient city sounds. the final mix was made by marhaug in january 2007.

biographies of the artists:

lasse marhaug (b. 1974) has since the early 90s been one of the most active artists in the so-called norwegian noise scene. as a performer and composer he has contributed to well over 200 cd, vinyl and cassette releases over the years, as well as extensive touring and performing live in europe, asia and america. in addition to his solo work, marhaug plays regularly in projects jazkamer, nash kontroll, del and testicle hazard. past projects and bands include origami replika and lasse marhaug band. he has collaborated with several artists in the noise, improv, jazz, rock and extreme metal fields, as well as working with music for theatre, dance, installations and video.

composer nils henrik asheim (b.1960) combines his work with a career as a performer, as well as regularly collaborating with other artists on projects integrating spatial and theatrical elements. asheim started out as a pupil of olav anton thommessen and made his début as a composer at the early age of fifteen. in 1978 he was awarded the ebu rostrum prize for his work ensemblemusikk for 5. he subsequently went on to study organ and composing at the norwegian academy of music and the sweelinck conservatory in amsterdam.

from about the year 2000 onwards asheim’s music displays a stronger focus on texture and the physical and tactile qualities of sound. his music presents parallel temporal proportions; asheim works with layers of closeness and distance. recurring material undergoes variation, thereby creating a form that appears open and self-generating. in the course of this same period asheim makes his mark as a performer with his free-improvisation disc 16 pieces for organ and its sequel 19.03.04, oslo cathedral, and a collaboration with soprano anne-lise berntsen resulting in the recordings engleskyts and kom regn. asheim also appears as a pianist in various projects.

nils henrik asheim has written several chamber music pieces including vannspeil, navigo, chase, nicht and broken line; his output for orchestra includes the works speil, turba , wind songs and degrees of white. he has also written a number of large-scale sacred works. since 1991 asheim has lived in stavanger where he is active as a composer, performer and organizer, and not least as the principal initiator of the founding of tou scene, an alternative centre for contemporary arts.

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touch (uk) #tone 25 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 25 cd

touch 25” compact disc

  • bjnilsen - gotland (1:47)
  • unknown artist - minutiae (0:20)
  • oren ambarchi - moving violation (8:18)
  • fennesz - tree (3:21)
  • unknown artist - quick and cold (0:39)
  • unknown artist - actual time of arrival (0:29)
  • chris watson - conversations (2:48)
  • unknown artist - safely short (0:11)
  • chris watson - oujela mine (2:24)
  • mother tongue - rewording (4:04)
  • peter rehberg - tt1205 (2:53)
  • tanja orning & hild sofie tafjord - live at blå, oslo (0:36)
  • pan sonic - slovakian rauta (5:47)
  • jóhann jóhannsson - tu non mi perderai mai (9:07)
  • jacob kirkegaard - heavy water (barsebäck) (4:53)
  • unknown artist - solent rd. (0:55)
  • ryoji ikeda - untitled #25 (5:41)
  • rafael toral - glove touch (3:15)
  • philip jeck - hindquarters (6:10)
  • unknown artist - atc graph (0:18)
  • bruce gilbert - sliding off the world (2:02)
  • mark van hoen - put my trust in you (5:15)
  • unknown artist - chorale (0:57)
  • biosphere - spring fever (3:15)
  • rosy parlane - atlantis (4:03)
25th anniversary compilation from touch, featuring exclusive material from pretty much the entire active roster.
touch press release...
touch 25
touch # tone 25
release date: 26th june 2006

digipack + 20pp colour booklet

photography & design by jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham

touch 25th anniversary edition cd with exclusive tracks from:

oren ambarchi | biosphere | fennesz | bruce gilbert | ryoji ikeda | philip jeck | jóhann jóhannsson | jacob kirkegaard | mother tongue | bjnilsen | pan sonic | rosy parlane | peter rehberg | rafael toral | mark van hoen | chris watson |

there are also several insert recordings and a live edit from hild sofie tafjord & tanja orning
touch was conceived by jon wozencroft in 1981, and released its first cassette magazine 'feature mist' in 1982 [more information on the early cassette releases can be found at www.touchmusic.org.uk/catalogue/first.html].
this compilation was produced initially for the magazine, his voice, to promote new music in the czech and slovak republics. these questions [below] were originally in response to hynek dedecius and pavel klusak at his voice. this completed version of touch25 is now commercially available.

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touch (uk) #tone 21 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 21 cd

spire - live in geneva cathedral saint pierre” double compact disc set

  • marcus davidson - opposites attract (10:05)
  • marcus davidson - psalm for organ 3 (1:24)
  • andré jolivet - hymne à l'universe (11:58)
  • liana alexandra - consonances lll (6:52)
  • henryk gorécki* - kantata for organ op. 26 (15:42)
  • bjnilsen - la petite chapelle - rues basses (29:59)

  • philip jeck - the crypt (44:14)
  • fennesz - la petite chapelle - morning (24:49)
touch press release...
st. pierre cathedral, geneva, was the crucible of the reformation in 1534…

the second release in the spire series [cf spire, organ works past, present & future, touch # tone 20, 2004] is more than a document of ‘spire live’, which took place as part of la batie 2004, at st. pierre cathedral, geneva, on 5th september 2004. curated by eric linder, from la batie, and mike harding, the dynamism of the event, where the audience rotated between 3 separate venues within the cathedral precinct, is reflected in the individual recordings: philip jeck goes heavy metal in the crypt: bjnilsen comes over all moody in the side chapel, and fennesz soothes and seduces in the same place.

all this is set up by charles matthews and marcus davidson on the main organ [4 manifolds, computer operated] which dominates the time and place. davidson plays gorécki's extraordinary kantata for organ, [full stops on max employed here] which segués into bjnilsen's ultra-heavy live organ and electronics next door. this follows charles matthews's excellent renditions of pieces by jolivet and alexandra which, as the text by thierry charollais says: "the event seemed provoking and iconoclastic in contrast to the severe and austere atmosphere of the cathedral. though some of the musical pieces were audacious, the music focused mainly on spirituality. it generated a different perception of the organ pieces, thus modifying our perception of the cathedral and making the event truly exceptional."

and to finish, fennesz soothed us with sound. his set evoked the rolling centuries in all their pain and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energised, but never oppressed under the weight of time.

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touch (uk) #tone 20 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 20 cd

spire - organ works past present & future” double compact disc set

  • leif elggren - royal organ (3:28)
  • z'ev - if only that love lets letting happen (organ music for organs) (4:11)
  • philip jeck - stops (1:39)
  • sigtryggur berg sigmarsson - details of a new discovery (5:26)
  • bjnilsen - zephyr (0:46)
  • marcus davidson - organ psalm v (3:40)
  • scott minor / fennesz - dwan (2:37)
  • finnbogi petursson - diabolus (4:35)
  • biosphere - visible invisible (4:47)
  • toshiya tsunoda - layered (9:58)
  • tom recchion - shut eye train (3:40)
  • lary seven & jeff peterson - disorganised (7:15)

  • bjnilsen - breathe (26:53)
  • scott taylor - droner (8:39)
  • jacob kirkegaard - epiludio patetico: a tribute to rued langgaard (5:56)
  • oren ambarchi & tom recchion - remake (8:22)
  • chris watson - askam wind cluster (4:01)
touch press release...
1st fruits of collaboration between fennesz and sparklehorse - recorded in geneva by christian fennesz and scott minor * touch regulars biosphere, philip jeck, benny nilsen [hazard], chris watson... * newcomers include us free music composer and designer tom recchion, uk's scott taylor, icelandic artists finnbogi petursson and sigtryggur berg sigmarsson, and one of sweden's premier performance artists leif elggren [the sons of god, firework edition records etc.], and one of the kings of elgaland-vargaland * uk finest organist charles matthews and classical composer marcus davidson * highly regarded japanese field recordist toshiya tsunoda

the story:

the thought of producing a compilation where the tracks were all either inspired by or more directly influenced by the organ had been frequently aired over the years. the conversations were always animated and expansive. the organ works of arvo psrt, those performed by christopher bowers-broadbent, a pupil of richard rodney bennett at the royal academy of music in london, and others, have reached a wider non-classical audience. eventually benny nilsen arranged to visit st. mary's church, warwick and work with one of england's finest, charles matthews. crawling around inside the instrument, positioning microphones most appropriately in the church, or 'capturing' the psalms composed by marcus davidson, nilsen explored the possibilities with all the familiar lust of the avant-garde. as the brief widened, so did the responses... some contributors referred to earlier versions of the organ and its often highly political usage, others explored aged instruments themselves. some studied the effects of the sounds produced on the physique and the psyche, others conceptualised the brief and either built their own or recorded natural or man-made phenomena which utilised the same basic process, wind through pipes. the organ represents the marriage between acoustic complexity and ritualised space. it is impossible not to be drawn upward, towards the spire of the church or cathedral, or to the huge and daunting forest of pipes themselves. the organ dwarfs all comers, and unlike other instruments, it is this non-musical element which makes the organ stand apart.

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

touch (uk) #tone 18 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 18 cd

star switch on” compact disc

  • mika vainio - outside the circle of fire (5:06)
  • philip jeck - capriole (4:52)
  • hazard - debugged (4:00)
  • chris watson - cassarina (2:42)
  • fennesz - pannonique (3:11)
  • aer - goat behaviour no.3 (5:57)
  • biosphere / chris watson - night & dawn / wolves (7:42)
touch press release...
touch # tone 18
cd
8 tracks - 33:34

every two years or so, touch has produced a sampler giving an overview of our current activities and affiliations. following touch 00 (2000), and even prefiguring its release, we wanted to make something that reflected the increasing reliance on the already recorded, whilst suggesting a more lateral approach to the use of source material. this first tendency is manifest everywhere, from tribute bands, to remixes, to updates or clones of earlier sound successes (oasis and blur vs. the beatles and the kinks, and so on). another syndrome has developed whereby sounds are transformed by various software programmes, and what seems to be an innovation soon reveals itself to be generic.

"star switch on" is not an answer to such questions, but it is a reflection of the current obsession with ‘mapping’, ‘storing’ and ‘modulating’. we were interested in what would happen when artists were given a 'carte-blanche' to work with recordings that had a definite and undeniable subject, location and atmosphere - the wildlife sound recordings of chris watson published on “stepping into the dark” (to:27) and “outside the circle of fire” (to:37) – imagining a perverse take on library music, sampling, remix, all inadequate in denoting the soundscapes we hoped such a brief would encourage.

"star switch on" features two new recordings by chris watson, alongside biosphere, fennesz, hazard, mika vainio, philip jeck and aer. chris watson, former member of cabaret voltaire and the hafler trio, has many credits to his name, not least the series of wildlife programmes made by david attenborough to which he contributed. in 2000, “outside the circle of fire” won a distinction for ‘digital music’ at ars electronica. currently, he is on location in kenya working on a new series of the bbc’s “big cat diary”.

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threads:
digital-musics

touch (uk) #tone 16 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 16 cd

fenneszfield recordings • 1995:2002” compact disc

  • good man (4:05)
  • instrument 1 (5:27)
  • instrument 2 (6:05)
  • instrument 3 (5:16)
  • instrument 4 (5:05)
  • betrieb (remix) (3:55)
  • menthol (3:51)
  • surf (5:36)
  • stairs (1:28)
  • ivend00 (1:30)
  • namewithnohorse (version) (2:02)
  • odessa (version) (1:28)
  • codeine (remix) (5:17)
collection of fennesz’ compilation, remix, and ep work, containing the entirety of the “instrument” 12” on mego, and remixes for ekkehard ehlers, hrvatski, and many others... a few brilliant new tracks thrown in for good measure. awesome...
touch press release...
touch # tone 16
cd
13 tracks - 51:08

“field recordings” brings together a range of material christian fennesz has contributed to compilations, special projects and film soundtracks between the years 1995 and 2002. also, for the first time on cd, it includes his debut 12" for mego, the awesome “instrument”, remastered, and a new track recorded specially for this release, “good man”. it is his first release since “endless summer” [mego, 2001] and a prelude to his next studio album, which will be released on touch in january 2003.

1 previously unreleased

2 3 4 5 originally released as " instrument " on 12 inch vinyl, mego 004
6 remix for "betrieb" by ekkehard ehlers, mille plateaux
7 "menthol", clicks&cuts vol.2, mille plateaux
8 "surf", decay, ash international 3.9
9 new version of "stairs" from the movie blue moon
10 "ivend00", reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge rkk 013 cd. contains elements from various pieces originally released on "attention:cats", reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge rkk 000 lp.
11 new version of "namewithnohorse", krev x, ash international 6.6
12 new version of "odessa" from blue moon
13 "codeine", remix for for stephan mathieu & ekkehard ehlers, heroin, orthlorng musork

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touch (uk) #tone 14 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 14 cd

touch ringtones” compact disc

  • john hudak - cellular research (0:06)
  • oren ambarchi - skadooor (0:08)
  • john dexter zetterquist - uggue (0:08)
  • johannes bergmark - psst... shsh! (0:07)
  • unknown artist - the birth of newsprint (0:06)
  • unknown artist - security clearance code (0:07)
  • chris watson - tawny owl / african fish eagles / atlantic puffin / corncrake / curlew / golden plover / spotted crake / spotted hyenas / wolves (1:59)
  • thor mcburnie - digi bird (0:07)
  • neophyte (2) - hi-speed insect of the night (0:23)
  • doug quinn - arrowfrog / baboon / emperor penguins / hippopotamus / hyrax / oropendola (0:46)
  • touch 33 - cool in the north (0:07)
  • bigert & bergstrom - four seasons (0:28)
  • unknown artist - radio bulgaria (0:32)
  • cecilia heisser - molar (0:17)
  • brandon labelle - eavesdrop (0:07)
  • unknown artist - la illaha... (there is no god...) (0:09)
  • aer - washing machine (1:23)
  • gilbert and george - the world of gilbert and george 1 (0:29)
  • evan parker - mono (0:07)
  • ken ikeda - yume (0:22)
  • raymond cass - hello everybody (0:06)
  • leif elggren - help! / manslaughter (0:14)
  • lily otic - cowlick (0:09)
  • unknown artist - black sabbath riot milwaukee 1980 / the japanese imperial army (0:14)
  • richard bell (2) - hell's bells (0:15)
  • regina lund - come, take me (0:26)
  • aer - arctic (1:43)
  • rosalind waters - queen of the night (0:05)
  • conet project, the - v2 "attençion" (0:07)
  • åke hodell - 1234 / law and order (0:16)
  • unknown artist - forty thirty (0:12)
  • atau tanaka - therering (0:18)
  • tobias frere-jones - trip / tenthprime / lighthouse / octave / demand / asymptote (0:42)
  • crosby binge - whirleygig (0:10)
  • brendan walls - ipcress (0:07)
  • people like us - i know... (0:11)
  • gen ken - enotgnir (0:07)
  • grime - shifty slippy (0:06)
  • gilbert and george - the world of gilbert and george 2 (0:24)
  • marcus davidson - grand organ / ringer’s revenge / samba (1:30)
  • paul williams - sqk_0003 (0:11)
  • lary seven - waveforms 1–8 (1:59)
  • carl michael von hausswolff - (ap. 7500 hz) (0:17)
  • new order - video 5-8-6 (0:21)
  • venoz tks - “carry on sergeant. right oh, sir!" (0:08)
  • unknown artist - homage to rhythm & sound (0:17)
  • serrata - horn (0:08)
  • simon fisher turner - be calm (0:08)
  • unknown artist - radio bulgaria (continued) (0:27)
  • agniesz-+++ ++++-+ka lewalski* - sniff (0:06)
  • alku 2000 - el ringtones es el challenge (0:07)
  • andreas karperyd - accelerate (0:23)
  • hazard - magnet (0:07)
  • fear - jimi burns the phone down (0:08)
  • aer - conduct endangering the safety of information (0:53)
  • farmers manual - jar: fnn / snull 2000: snull_cell (0:20)
  • disinformation - live (1:26)
  • carsten nicolai - sound mobile (0:08)
  • dj guacamole - a concise history of californian rock music in under 5 seconds (0:07)
  • bruce gilbert - robbery / air raid (0:25)
  • unknown artist - krevmorse (0:08)
  • d - stereocellular (0:07)
  • edvard graham lewis* - fiat / kanuanser / ker-ring! (for use with the nokia vibrating phone only) / doob (0:31)
  • edwin van der heide - touch.3 (0:07)
  • fennesz - blau (0:57)
  • unknown artist - homage to pan sonic (0:19)
  • joel stern - it's for me (0:26)
  • gilbert and george - the world of gilbert and george 3 (0:16)
  • ikue mori - trickling (0:07)
  • hecker - hekrito (0:07)
  • unknown artist - on the beach (0:07)
  • i.d. (2) - :cd=mltpl.dvsn (0:07)
  • heitor alvelos - red lights (0:20)
  • kaffe matthews - still striped (0:07)
  • main - where the fuck are you? / i’m a few minutes late / i’m on the train / hold on, i’m losing you! / the battery’s going! / i’m in the pub / ciao! (0:49)
  • rosy parlane - touchtone (0:11)
  • gilbert and george - twisted and aggressive (0:07)
  • scala - naked (0:13)
  • unknown artist - a ringtone from under the floorboards (0:44)
  • mika vainio - polar / tele / whale / sounder (1:16)
  • mark van hoen - note / oatmeal / pencil / stalker bell / bees (0:39)
  • monika nyström - nºs 1-4 (0:28)
  • s.e.t.i. - crab nebula 3 (0:10)
  • gilbert and george - twisted and aggressive 2 (0:08)
  • aer - organ loft (2:12)
  • phill niblock & guy de bièvre - tones for guy (0:48)
  • thomas lehn - cellphone sonata (0:07)
  • ryoji ikeda - ringtone_1 / ringtone_2 (0:14)
  • unknown artist - the portuguese cleaner (0:07)
  • unknown artist - preacher talking backwards / embassy voice (0:16)
  • pita - ichiban (0:06)
  • snd - ..-.-.. (0:06)
  • unknown artist - ¡it! ¡it! (0:07)
  • zbigniew karkowski - úk (0:06)
  • mscharding - the becquerel (0:10)
  • francisco lópez - untitled #124 (1:42)
  • joel stern & anthony guerra - engaged tone (3:32)
  • ryoji ikeda - unobtainable (3:04)
  • unknown artist - 11.09 — 09.11 (0:07)
touch press release...
touch # tone 14
cd - 177 ringtones
99 tracks - 44:58.17

the process of transferring made-to-measure ringtones to your mobile phone is, at present, a fixed casino... chart hits, cod celebrity voices, action heroes, lame keyboard melodies... so the likelihood of hearing one of these on the 07.34 from the suburbs is, at present, remote, although new ranges of mobiles are on hand to promise better things. anticipating this, each of the included has been composed with exactly this eventuality in mind. they are in one way or another intended to be experienced as isolated, personal interventions: low-res loops, creature calls, in low-res environments...

in whichever form you find them here, do sample remodel and employ these humble suggestions... we assume you already agree that the cheap 'cheep cheep' tones of nokia, ericsson and the others leave a lot to be desired. but there is huge commercial possibility here, not least with the fact that these selections have not been motivated by database usage... this is far cooler, and the contributors have responded accordingly... this release shows what is possible and how far behind the phone companies actually are despite their desperation to uncover new ways of selling the next generation of phones to an already saturated market.

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threads:
machine-music
experimental-instruments
beat-research
electro-acoustic-composition
analogue-synth
minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #to:86 cd

mika vainiofe3o4 - magnetite” compact disc

  • magnetia (8:23)
  • magnetotactic (7:04)
  • magnetosphere (7:44)
  • magnetosense (8:34)
  • magnetism (7:52)
  • magnetosome (9:36)
  • elvis's tv room (6:37)
september 2012 release ; ... excellent, “return to form” set from panasonic’s mika vainio, consisting of huge walls of electronic standing waves, rendered via customized analogue apparatuses & honed into bleak, barely progressing études that take me back to the days when i first sat down with the “vakio10 boxed set (one of the few records that has survived many cullings to my record-collection over the years) ...
touch press release...

to:86 | mika vainio "fe3o4 - magnetite"
cd (digipak) - 7 tracks - 55:51

cover photography: joséphine michel
art direction: jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham

mika vainio, currently based in berlin, was one half of the minimal electronic duo pan sonic from finland (with ilpo väisänen). before starting pan sonic in the beginning of the 90's, mika vainio has played electronics and drums as part of the early finnish industrial and noise scene. his solo works, under his own name and under aliases like ø, are known for their analogue warmth and electronic harshness. be it abstract drone works or minimal avant techno, vainio is always creating unique, physical sounds. he has released on other labels such as editions mego, wavetrap and sähkö and he has produced work with, amongst others, alan vega of suicide, keiji haino, and bruce gilbert. since 2009 mika vainio has contributed to the music for cindy van acker’s dance pieces...

this is his 5th album for touch, after onko [touch # to:34, 1998], kajo [to:43, 2000], sokeiden maassa yksisilmäinen on kuningas (in the land of the blind one-eyed is king) [to:54, 2004] and black telephone of matter [touch # to:72, 2009].

"fe3o4 - magnetite" was recorded in berlin between 2011 and 2012. in contrast to the dark vistas of his most recent releases, "fe3o4 - magnetite" oscillates between the two poles of silence and noise. using his signature sources which range from radio signals to sine wave generators, mika vainio creates a unique emotional journey that moves from the serene to the unsettling, always challenging the listener's comfort zone.

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threads:
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digital-musics
minimalism-drones

 best of 2012 !!! 
touch (uk) #to:85 cd

thomas könernovaya zemlya” compact disc

  • novaya zemlya (1) (11:15)
  • novaya zemlya (2) (12:46)
  • novaya zemlya (3) (12:20)
june 2012 release ; ... striking disc of gaseous, crumbling forms from inarguably the contemporary master of said, thomas köner ...

... three extended pieces, each concerned with extremely muted, real-world sound-events, transformed to point of alienation via software processes, yielding a surreal void where reality meets memory meets half-forgotten vividness ... impeccable.
touch press release...

to:85 | thomas koner - "novaya zemlya"
cd - jewel case + booklet - 3 tracks - 36:36
mastered by denis blackham
artwork & photography by jon wozencroft

the artwork includes an essay by thierry charollais, "thomas köner's novaya zemlya: towards a metaphysical geography"...

of course we find the unique koner-esque glowing drones that we know from his previous works. but we will also be touched by an unrevealed, barely perceptible sense of melody and harmony that köner gradually developed since kaamos (1998) and nuuk (2004).

novaya zemlya (lit. new land), also known in dutch as nova zembla and in norwegian as gåselandet (lit. the goose land), is an archipelago in the arctic ocean in the north of russia and the extreme northeast of europe, the easternmost point of europe, lying at cape flissingsky on the northern island.

thomas köner (b. 1965) is a pioneering multimedia artist whose main interest lies in combining visual and auditory experiences. over his long, much celebrated career, he has worked between installation works, sound art, minimal soundscapes, and as one half of porter ricks. he attended music college in dortmund and studied electronic music at the cem-studio in arnhem. until 1994 he worked in the film industry as editor and sound engineer. thomas has extended his concept of time and sound colour to images, resulting in video installations, photography and net art.

his point of departure was composition of sound in which aspects of a performance and visual language were gradually integrated. at first in the collaboration with film artist jürgen reble and the live performance alchemie (1992). following this, he started to compose film soundtracks and music to accompany historic silent films for the louvre museum and the musée d'orsay, paris, who called him a major innovator in the contemporary music scene, as well as noted his collaborative practice which has led to his working with musicians, filmmakers and visual artists on installations and sound performances, and to his creation of six video works produced in two cycles, starting in 2003.

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 $20.01

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first in stock on
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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
modern-composition
folk
modern-psych
guitar-themed
free-improvisation

touch (uk) #to:83 lp

oren ambarchiaudience of one” double long playing record set

  • salt

  • knots (1)

  • knots (2)

  • passage
  • fractured mirror
august 2012 release ; ... double-lp version ...

... something of a form-breaker from oren ambarchi, working here in a series of small chamber groups (involving folks like joe talia, paul duncan, eyvind kang, jessika kenney, & crys cole) across a quartet of pieces ranging from the keening highland folk of the opening “salt(featuring straight-up, un-electronically-processed vocals from paul duncan ; discernible lyrics, the whole 9) to the extended psych-jazz-drone blowout of “knots(my favorite cut on the disc ; joe talia’s straight-free-time erupts into a gnarly processed-guitar freakout) to “passage” ‘s measured, pastoral psalmody (featuring further vocalizing, albeit wordless, c/o jessika kenney) to the closing drum-machine / organ-growl / acoustic guitar lines of “fractured mirror(which, it turns out is an ace frehley cover) ...

ps. , “[knots has been edited by the artist for vinyl into two parts]” ...
touch press release...

to:83 | oren ambarchi "audience of one"

cd - 4 tracks - 53:51
artwork & photography: jon wozencroft
mastered by francois tetaz at moose, melbourne

on "audience of one", oren ambarchi presents a four-part suite which moves from throbbing minimalism to expansive song-craft to ecstatic free-rock. his previous solo albums for touch exhibited a clear progression towards augmenting and embellishing his signature bass-heavy guitar tones with fragile acoustic instrumentation. audience of one, while also existing in clear continuity with these recordings, opens the next chapter.

remarkable in its confidence and breadth, but also in the sensuous immediacy of its details, this is the first time a single record has come close to encapsulating ambarchi’s musical personality in its full range and singularity. the techniques and strategies developed in his refined improvisational work with keith rowe and his explorations of the outer limits of rock with sunn o))) and keiji haino are both in evidence, alongside the meticulous attention to detail and composition of his solo works. and on the cover of ace frehley’s ‘fractured mirror’ which closes the record, ambarchi even points to his roots as a classic rock fanatic, in an epic yet faithful version which extends the shimmering guitar patterns of the original into a rich field of phase patterns reminiscent of the classic american minimalism of reich and riley.

the album features a multitude of collaborators, who, far from appearing in incidental roles, are integral to the pieces on which they perform: on ‘salt’, ambarchi paints a hypnotic, chiming backdrop for paul duncan’s (warm ghost) vocals, and joe talia’s virtuoso drumming and driving cymbals are at the core of the epic ‘knots’, in which ambarchi, alongside a chamber arrangement by eyvind kang, weaves a net of frequencies and textures with the organic push and pull of a 70s psych jam, the bass response of a doom metal ritual and the psycho-acoustic precision of an alvin lucier composition.

on his previous records, ambarchi’s signature guitar tone was the ever-present bedrock over which other elements sounded. at moments on audience of one, this disappears entirely, as on the beautiful ‘passage’, which, recalling the 70’s italian non-academic minimalism of roberto cacciapaglia and giusto pio, is composed of overlapping tones from hammond organ and wine glasses, jessika kenney's voice, various acoustic instruments, and the delicate amplified textures of canadian sound-artist crys cole. rather than being provided by any particular sound, the unified feel of audience to one stems simply from the unique, patient sensibility ambarchi has developed over the last twenty years; abstracting musical forms into their barest forms, while somehow always managing to leave their emotive power intact.

- francis plagne

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first in stock on
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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
modern-composition
folk
modern-psych
guitar-themed
free-improvisation

touch (uk) #to:83 cd

oren ambarchiaudience of one” compact disc

  • salt (5:32)
  • knots (33:23)
  • passage (6:41)
  • fractured mirror (8:20)
january 2012 release ; ... something of a form-breaker from oren ambarchi, working here in a series of small chamber groups (involving folks like joe talia, paul duncan, eyvind kang, jessika kenney, & crys cole) across a quartet of pieces ranging from the keening highland folk of the opening “salt(featuring straight-up, un-electronically-processed vocals from paul duncan ; discernible lyrics, the whole 9) to the extended psych-jazz-drone blowout of “knots(my favorite cut on the disc ; joe talia’s straight-free-time erupts into a gnarly processed-guitar freakout) to “passage” ‘s measured, pastoral psalmody (featuring further vocalizing, albeit wordless, c/o jessika kenney) to the closing drum-machine / organ-growl / acoustic guitar lines of “fractured mirror(which, it turns out is an ace frehley cover) ...
touch press release...

to:83 | oren ambarchi "audience of one"

cd - 4 tracks - 53:51
artwork & photography: jon wozencroft
mastered by francois tetaz at moose, melbourne

on "audience of one", oren ambarchi presents a four-part suite which moves from throbbing minimalism to expansive song-craft to ecstatic free-rock. his previous solo albums for touch exhibited a clear progression towards augmenting and embellishing his signature bass-heavy guitar tones with fragile acoustic instrumentation. audience of one, while also existing in clear continuity with these recordings, opens the next chapter.

remarkable in its confidence and breadth, but also in the sensuous immediacy of its details, this is the first time a single record has come close to encapsulating ambarchi’s musical personality in its full range and singularity. the techniques and strategies developed in his refined improvisational work with keith rowe and his explorations of the outer limits of rock with sunn o))) and keiji haino are both in evidence, alongside the meticulous attention to detail and composition of his solo works. and on the cover of ace frehley’s ‘fractured mirror’ which closes the record, ambarchi even points to his roots as a classic rock fanatic, in an epic yet faithful version which extends the shimmering guitar patterns of the original into a rich field of phase patterns reminiscent of the classic american minimalism of reich and riley.

the album features a multitude of collaborators, who, far from appearing in incidental roles, are integral to the pieces on which they perform: on ‘salt’, ambarchi paints a hypnotic, chiming backdrop for paul duncan’s (warm ghost) vocals, and joe talia’s virtuoso drumming and driving cymbals are at the core of the epic ‘knots’, in which ambarchi, alongside a chamber arrangement by eyvind kang, weaves a net of frequencies and textures with the organic push and pull of a 70s psych jam, the bass response of a doom metal ritual and the psycho-acoustic precision of an alvin lucier composition.

on his previous records, ambarchi’s signature guitar tone was the ever-present bedrock over which other elements sounded. at moments on audience of one, this disappears entirely, as on the beautiful ‘passage’, which, recalling the 70’s italian non-academic minimalism of roberto cacciapaglia and giusto pio, is composed of overlapping tones from hammond organ and wine glasses, jessika kenney's voice, various acoustic instruments, and the delicate amplified textures of canadian sound-artist crys cole. rather than being provided by any particular sound, the unified feel of audience to one stems simply from the unique, patient sensibility ambarchi has developed over the last twenty years; abstracting musical forms into their barest forms, while somehow always managing to leave their emotive power intact.

- francis plagne

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 $14.51

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first in stock on
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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
musique-concrète
field-recordings

touch (uk) #to:82 cd

carl michael von hausswolff800 000 seconds in harar” compact disc

  • day and night (27:14)

    day
    night
    alas!

  • the sleeper in the valley (13:32)
2011 release ; ... two extended pieces from c.m. von hausswolff composed for a theater production based on rimbaud - a collaging of ethopian instrumental sounds & field studies (made in harar, ethiopia, where rimbaud lived during his final years) - then a transformation of a morse code translation of a rimbaud letter turned into an eerie, buzzing drone ...
touch press release...

to:82 - cm von hausswolff "800 000 seconds in harar"

released: 2011
cd

cm von hausswolff says:

i was approached by my old friend and radium 226.05 colleague ulrich hillebrand, now director of angered theatre in göteborg. he informed me that there was a new play in the process of being written by author and theorist michael azar called "jag är en annan" (i is another) stemming form the famous letter written by arthur rimbaud in his youth. the play uses rimbaud's life from being a young poet in charleville ending with him being the trader in harar, ethiopia. hillebrand asked me if i was willing to compose the music to this play. i accepted. i told hillebrand that i needed to use material that had something to do with rimbaud's life and as he had connections in ethiopia and in the small city of harar he said: why don't you go to harar for 10 days and see what you can find?

so i went to addis ababa where a guy was waiting for me and drove me the 10 hours beautiful ride to harar. i made recordings and looked for other useful material.

there are 2 tracks. on the first track, which consists of three "parts" i have used material from harar. the long dronic sounds are taken form an instrument that i, after searching for days, bought in harar - it's called a "krar" and is a string instruments (it's quite clear that i have used a string instrument - also if you study ethiopian music you came across the name of saint yared and he was the first to construct a notation system for music... much earlier than the europeans). as i could not really master the actual playing of this instrument, i bought a bow for a violin and some rosin and with this i got one good tone out from this krar. then the computer helped me to sort the modes and pitches out. on this piece there also two location recordings: the first one you hear is a recording i did outside harar on a hill where there are next to no car sounds or other machine sounds - just the wind, insects, some kids and that (i wanted this recording to be more or less timeless or at least 19th century and forward) ... the second location recording was done in the night in my hotel, where i woke up one night and became fascinated by the leaking taps in my bathroom so i decided to records this.

on the second there are only oscillators used ... several of them ... and using one low pitch oscillator i ran a sound filtered through. this sound is the low "rhythm" you can hear, and it's a low pitched morse code signal... and the text is the famous poem rimbaud wrote in his youth called le dormeur du val (the sleeper in the valley). this poem is a beautiful text starting off in the nature, where a person is sleeping in the grass. slowly rimbaud zooms in and we read that it's a soldier and at the very end we are told he has two red wounds on his chest - the guy is dead!

arthur rimbaud lived in harar from 1894 until shortly before his death in 1891.

this is carl michael von hausswolff's first album for touch, but the connection goes back many years, of course. carl michael von hausswolff was born in 1956 in linköping, sweden. he lives and works in stockholm. since the end of the 1970s, hausswolff has worked as a composer using the tape recorder as his main instrument and as a conceptual visual artist working with performance art, light and sound installations and photography.

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touch (uk) #to:81 cd

philip jeckan ark for the listener” compact disc

  • pilot/dark blue night (8:47)
  • ark (4:21)
  • twentyninth (2:36)
  • dark rehearsal (7:36)
  • thirtieth/pilot reprise (2:56)
  • the all of water (8:29)
  • the pilot (among our shoals) (4:33)
  • all that's allowed (released) (3:24)
  • chime, chime (re-rung) (7:34)
2010 release ; ... very sizable, very soft spot for mr. jeck’s work, heard here in a matured, digestible form ...
touch press release...

to:81 - philip jeck "an ark for the listener"

released: 2010
cd in jewel case
photography & design: jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham
the cover shows miros aw ba ka's installation at the tate modern's turbine hall, "how it is", april 2010.

philip jeck works with old records and record players salvaged from junk shops turning them to his own purposes. he really does play them as musical instruments, creating an intensely personal language that evolves with each added part of a record. philip jeck makes genuinely moving and transfixing music, where we hear the art not the gimmick.

philip jeck writes:

a version of "an ark for the listener" was first performed at kings place london on 24/02/2010. it is a meditation on verse 33 of "the wreck of the deutschland", gerard manley hopkins’ poem about the drowning on december 7th 1875 of five franciscan nuns exiled from germany. this cd version was recorded at home in liverpool and used extracts from live performances over the last 12 months. the "coda:" tracks are remixes of 2 pieces from "suite: live in liverpool". "chime, chime (re-rung)" was originally made for musicworks magazine (#104, summer 09) and "all that's allowed (released)" is previously unreleased. all tracks were made using fidelity record-players, casio sk1 keyboards, sony mini-disc recorders, behringer mixers, ibanez bass guitar, boss delay pedal and zoom bass effects pedal.

an ark... is jeck's 6th solo album for touch since 'loopholes' in 1995. his body of work and his achingly brilliant live sets are rapidly defining him as one of our best artists, and his recent award from the paul hamlyn foundation confirms him as such.

philip jeck studied visual art at dartington college of arts. he started working with record players and electronics in the early 80's and has made soundtracks and toured with many dance and theatre companies as we as well as his solo concert work. his best known work "vinyl requiem" (with lol sargent): a performance for 180 50's / 60's record players won the time out performance award for 1993. he has also over the last few years returned to visual art making installations using from 6 to 80 record players including "off the record" for sonic boom at the hayward gallery, london (2000). in 2010 he won one of the paul hamlyn foundation awards for composition.

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touch (uk) #to:79 cd

phill niblocktouch strings” double compact disc set

  • stosspeng i (10:00)
  • stosspeng ii (10:00)
  • stosspeng iii (10:00)
  • stosspeng iv (10:00)
  • stosspeng v (10:00)
  • stosspeng vi (9:03)

  • poure (23:32)
  • one large rose i (10:00)
  • one large rose ii (10:00)
  • one large rose iii (10:00)
  • one large rose iv (10:00)
  • one large rose v (5:55)
2009 release ; ... a trio of recent pieces by phill niblock, including an hour-long piece for guitars performed band of susansrobert poss & susan stenger (quite elegant, occasionally resolving into a consonant interval ; listen to the sound-sample for their arrival at a nice, round, major second before drifting apart) & shorter ones for cello & even a chamber ensemble ...
touch press release...

to:79 - phill niblock "touch strings"

released: 2009
2xcd album
artwork: jon wozencroft
photography: phill niblock

track listing:

cdone - 59:03 (6 tracks)

1-6: stosspeng (59 minutes)

susan stenger and robert poss, guitars and bass guitars

cdtwo - 69:28 (6 tracks)

1: poure (23:30)

arne deforce, cello

2-6: one large rose (45:55 minutes)

the nelly boyd ensemble, hamburg

robert engelbrecht, cello
jan feddersen, piano strummed with nylon strings
peter imig, violin
jens roehm, acoustic bass guitar strummed with nylon strings or e-bow

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touch (uk) #to:77 cd

bj nilsenthe invisible city” compact disc

  • gravity station (16:52)
  • phase and amplitude (2:03)
  • scientia (4:10)
  • virtual resistance (14:48)
  • meter reading (4:08)
  • into its coloured rays (6:10)
  • gradient (11:17)
  • the invisible city (3:15)
2010 release ; ... ever-impressive electro-acoustic work from bennybjnilsen ; rooted / steeped in “the drone” but built of discrete acoustic & electronic sounds that are multiplied & aggregated to achieve a greater whole ... interesting that the mythical subharchord is being put to use here (a close relative of oskar sala’s mixtur-trautonium developed in parallel in the gdr) ...
touch press release...

to:77 - bjnilsen "the invisible city"

released: 2010
cd - 8 tracks - 1:04:57
jewel case with concertina insert
artwork & photography by jon wozencroft

recorded and mixed during 2008-2009 in berlin.

all tracks composed by bjnilsen using tape recorders, computer, organ, acoustic guitar, electronics, viola, subharchord.

field recordings from; sweden, iceland, norway, uk, japan, portugal and germany.

the subharchord was recorded in the eam studio @ adk, berlin.

viola played by hildur i. gudnadottir.

mastered by denis blackham at skye
published by touch music [mcps]

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 best of 2008 !!! 
touch (uk) #to:76 lp

fenneszblack sea” long playing record

  • black sea
  • perfume for winter
  • grey scale

  • glide
  • glass ceiling
  • saffron revolution
november 2008 release ; vinyl version of the fifth album from christian fennesz, here working on a couple of tracks with a few close-knit collaborators (namely, rosy parlane & anthony pateras) but mostly by himself (the album was largely recorded @ his paris flat & with christoph amann in vienna) ...

i’m sensing a stronger affinity with “the drone” here than on previous albums (which almost always offered some sort of cycling chord progressions rather than a static tonal bed) and much more present “guitar” content (straight, un-muxed playing peppers the album alongside the more familiar walls of granular haze) ...

compared to some of the more unfinished-sounding sketches of “venice,” this record is cohesive when taken as a whole, each track seems much denser (read: “heavier” - from a production standpoint at least) with tons of added digital filigree fleshing out the various frequency ranges, with much more emphasis on the lower registers ...

after repeat listenings (and despite my initial misgivings), i’m willing to concede that this is one of christian’s finest efforts ; whether you see him as a time-capsule artist or as a constant source of innovation, there’s no denying that he’s making some of the most relevant music of these troubled times ... highly recommended !!!
touch press release...

fennesz - black sea
touch # to:76lp [vinyl lp]

black sea is the much-anticipated new album from christian fennesz, his first since "venice" [touch # to:53, 2004]. 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), whose work is also released on touch. fennesz also teams up with emego artist anthony pateras (aus), 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.

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 best of 2008 !!! 
touch (uk) #to:76 cd

fenneszblack sea” compact disc

  • black sea
  • the colour of three
  • perfume for winter
  • grey scale
  • glide
  • glass ceiling
  • vacuum
  • saffron revolution
november 2008 release ; fifth album from christian fennesz, here working on a couple of tracks with a few close-knit collaborators (namely, rosy parlane & anthony pateras) but mostly by himself (the album was largely recorded @ his paris flat & with christoph amann in vienna) ...

i’m sensing a stronger affinity with “the drone” here than on previous albums (which almost always offered some sort of cycling chord progressions rather than a static tonal bed) and much more present “guitar” content (straight, un-muxed playing peppers the album alongside the more familiar walls of granular haze) ...

compared to some of the more unfinished-sounding sketches of “venice,” this record is cohesive when taken as a whole, each track seems much denser (read: “heavier” - from a production standpoint at least) with tons of added digital filigree fleshing out the various frequency ranges, with much more emphasis on the lower registers ...

after repeat listenings (and despite my initial misgivings), i’m willing to concede that this is one of christian’s finest efforts ; whether you see him as a time-capsule artist or as a constant source of innovation, there’s no denying that he’s making some of the most relevant music of these troubled times ... highly recommended !!!
touch press release...
fennesz - black sea
touch # to:76cd [cd]

black sea is the much-anticipated new album from christian fennesz, his first since "venice" [touch # to:53, 2004]. 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), whose work is also released on touch. fennesz also teams up with emego artist anthony pateras (aus), 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.

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touch (uk) #to:75 cd

bj nilsenthe short night” compact disc

  • front
  • finisterre
  • pole of inaccessibility
  • viking, cromarty...
  • black light
  • icing station
  • viking north
touch press release...
bjnilsen
the short night
cd - 7 tracks - 48 minutes
tusing location recordings, weather, birdsong and radio, bjnilsen continues to map and explore uncharted territory.

a follower to 2005's fade to white [touch # to:65], bjnilsen develops his work further, based on field recordings and electronics. this time he adds harsher yet clearer harmonies with musical elements to the compositions, creating a beautifully complex and detailed study. recorded in 2006-7 with mostly analogue equipment, using up to 50 year-old tapemachines, filters and generators that end up being the soft cushion in these cold location recordings.

location recordings from mälaren, stockholm, sweden; coombe gibbet, berkshire, england and landakot, vatnsleysuströnd, iceland.

telefunken m10 and m5, studer b67, ferrograph series 4, bruel and kjær sine-random generator and frequency analyzers. also monowave, sequential circuits proone, korg ms20, esq1, motu 828mk2, ableton live, logic audio 6

morin khuur on black light played by hildur ingveldardóttir gudnadóttir

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touch (usa) #to:74 cd

k.k. nullfertile” compact disc

  • 01 (4:15)
  • 02 (4:18)
  • 03 (3:57)
  • 04 (5:00)
  • 05 (3:59)
  • 06 (6:44)
  • 07 (9:57)
  • 08 (13:43)
touch press release...

touch # to:74
compact disc
digipac design and photography by jon wozencroft
barcode 5027803147485

51:00 with 8 tracks, all untitled

fertile is kk null's first album for touch, following his collaboration with chris watson and z'ev [number one - tone 24, 2005], which boomkat called "moving and atmospheric", and the wire wrote "a complex dramatic work from a strict economy of means".

kk null (real name kazuyuki kishino) was born in tokyo, japan. composer, guitarist, singer, mastermind of zeni geva and electronic wizard. one of the top names in japanese noise music and in a wider context, one of the great cult artists in experimental music since the early 80's.

kazuyuki writes:

in june of 2006 i had the good fortune of visiting darwin in the northern territory in australia and explored in kakadu national park with some good friends. i took my digital recorder along with me and did some live field recordings there. first we encountered a flock of wild birds (little corella or cacatua pastinator) just beside the south alligator river, and then we happened to find "bush fire" flaring just beside the road we were on. i also had a unique opportunity to record a magnificent symphony orchestra of insects, frogs and birds in wetlands just before sunset.

at that time i had no idea or no specific purpose for using these field recordings, and in the middle of working on this album [fertile] in my home studio, suddenly came up with the idea of mixing these field recordings into some of the tracks that were unfinished.

i felt comfortable with layering & mixing different sounds from different locations and times, digital and analogue sounds into one piece. i like also the balance of spontaneity (field recording) and intentional act (studio recording).

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touch (uk) #to:73 cd

jana winderenenergy field” compact disc

  • aquaculture (18:00)
  • isolation/measurement (12:11)
  • sense of latent power (20:04)
2010 release ; ... three extended musique concrète pieces from field recordist jana winderen, inserting the composer’s hand just ever so slightly into the presentation of a collage of often incongruous, but ultra-detailed environments ...
touch press release...

to:73 - jana winderen "energy field"

released: 2010
cd - 3 tracks - 50m 11s
6-panel digipak
photography by jon wozencroft

armed with four 8011 dpa hydrophones, dpa 4060 omni mics, a telinga parabolic reflector mic and a sound devices 744t digital hard disk recorder, jana winderen studies and records wild places which have a particular importance in our understanding of the complexity and fragility of marine ecosystems.

the recordings were made on field trips to the barents sea (north of norway and russia), greenland and norway, deep in crevasses of glaciers, in fjords and in the open ocean. these elements are then edited and layered into a powerful descriptive soundscape. the open spaces of greenland, northern winds, ravens and dogs in an icy landscape provide the setting for these haunting but dynamic pieces. sounds of crustaceans, fish such as cod, haddock, herring and pollock recorded as they are hunting, calling for a mate or orientating themselves in their environment, are all included in the mix. the result is a powerful, mesmeric journey into the unseen audio world of the frozen north.

i like the immateriality of a sound work and the openness it can have for both associative and direct experience and sensory perception. i have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. over the last four years i have collected recordings made by hydrophones, from rivers, shores and the ocean, and more recently also from glaciers in greenland, iceland and norway. in the depths of the oceans there are invisible but audible soundscapes, about which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. i am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room for broader, more imaginative readings. i use these sounds as source material for composition in a live environment or to create installations, currently
also for film, radio, cd and vinyl productions.

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touch (uk) #to:72 cd

mika vainioaíneen musta puhelin • black telephone of matter” compact disc

  • roma a.d. 2727 (4:14)
  • silencés traverses des mondes et des anges (9:33)
  • bury a horses head (11:35)
  • in a frosted lake (5:53)
  • swedenborgia (5:34)
  • a measurement of excess antenna temperature at 4080 ml/s (10:39)
  • the breather (7:10)
2009 release ; ... incredible, noisytape music” from mika vainio ; a mix of purely “elektronische” work & straight musique concrète transforms ...
touch press release...

to:72 - mika vainio "black telephone of matter"

released: 2009cd album
7 tracks - 54:38
artwork by jon wozencroft

this is mika vainio's 4th solo album for touch, after onko [touch # to:34, 1997], kajo [touch # to:43, 2000] and in the land of the blind, one-eyed is king [touch # to:54, 2003]. he is, of course, part of pan sonic with ilpo väisänen, and also records solo as ø.

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touch (uk) #to:71 cd

robert hampsonvectors” compact disc

  • umbra (17:08)
  • ahead – only the stars (13:12)
  • dans le lointain (20:00)
2009 release ; ... in conversation with robert over the past 6 months (since working at the grm on & off over the past half-decade, he actually ended up moving to paris for good) i realized that i’d never actually heard this one, and that we (at mms) were somehow missing a good chunk of the last 2/3 yearsworth of touch releases ...

... here we get a triad of digital-age musique concrète pieces ; a clean break from robert’s work as main in that the software processes heavily utilized throughout tend to make more of a sonic impact than the source material (which, yes, is comprised of drones, in-situ “field” sound & assorted instrumental color ... albeit torn to shreds via the grm’s “tool-kit” & re-cast well below & above their natural spectral ranges) ... the results are strikingly event-heavy ; while steeped in atmosphere, the rich animations & automations are at the heart of the work(s), showing a great technicality & an incredible amount of attention paid to detail and/or compositional filigree ...
touch press release...

to:71 - robert hampson "vectors"

released: 2009
touch # to:71
cd in digipak - 3 tracks
artwork & design by jon wozencroft

umbra (2006) - is the second commission for grm. this 16 channel piece had it’s debut performance on the acousmonium - grm’s speaker orchestra - at salle olivier messiaen, maison de radio france, paris “the umbra (latin: shadow) is the darkest part of a shadow. from within the umbra, the source of light is completely concealed by the occulting body. in astronomy, an observer in the umbra is said to be in the shadows experiencing total eclipse.” this phenomenon is a direct influence on the work in the sense of the way that sounds are cast in the shadow of others, slowly becoming more distinct and featured as the piece progresses, materialising and then casting a shadow of their own.

ahead – only the stars (2007) - commissioned by vibrö for a performance at the planetarium de poitiers in 7.1 surround ratio. inspired and dedicated to the astronauts of the nasa mercury missions space program and possibly the greatest pilot ever, chuck yeager. after the introduction of jets blasting across the soundstage, the piece is then interspersed with radio transmissions (com. bleeps and static, with dialogue removed) that form the framework.

dans le lointain (2008) - the third commission for grm. a 2 channel stereo piece, it’s debut performance on the acousmonium - grm’s speaker orchestra - at salle olivier messiaen, maison de radio france, paris. sounds of shortwave radios, recorded by hampson in the very early 80’s and recently rediscovered on a cassette, are manipulated through very traditional techniques utilised by early tape experimental works of the grm and collected with more modern forms of digital manipulation. the title (in the distance) refers to the distance radio signals can travel, but also the distance of time that elapsed since the shortwave recordings were made on a four track recorder and dubbed onto cassette by hampson around 1981/82.

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touch (uk) #to:69 cd

phill niblocktouch three” triple compact disc set

  • triple-disc niblock feast !!!
cd one
  • "sethwork" (21:48 - 2003) seth josel: acoustic unamplified guitars played with e-bow
  • "harm" (24:43 - 2003) arne deforce: cello
  • "lucid sea" (20:24 - 2003) lucia mense: recorders
cd two
  • "parker's altered mood aka owed to bird" (16:27 - 2004) ulrich krieger: alto saxophone
  • "zrost" (23:32 - 2004) martin zrost: soprano saxophone
  • "not yet titled" (22:20 - 2003) franz hautzinger: trumpet
cd three
  • "valence" (2005 - 23:02) julia eckhardt: viola
  • "alto tune" (25:08 - 2004) ulrich krieger: alto saxophone
  • "sax mix" (25:08 - 2004) ulrich krieger: alto & tenor and baritone saxophone
touch press release...

touch # to:69
2006
3cds in digipac

artwork: jon wozencroft
photography: phill niblock
barcode: 502780314692

these nine pieces were made from march 2003 to january 2005. they were all made (except "sax mix") by recording a single instrument with a single microphone. the recordings were direct to the computer/hard disk, most of them using my powerbook g4, protools, an m-box and an external firewire drive. the resulting mono sound files were edited to remove breathing spaces, leaving the natural decay of the tone, and the attack of the subsequent iteration of the same tone. each note was represented by several repetitions, perhaps ten for each tone, of about 15 seconds duration each. each piece uses a few tones. a simple chord, perhaps. additional microtonal intervals were produced in protools using pitch shift. the pieces were assembled in multitracks, usually either 24 or 32 tracks. the recording environment varied from a simple apartment in berlin (ulrich krieger's) to a very large hall used for symphony orchestra performances and recordings, with a sizable audience space (deutschland radio, cologne). the recordings were generally done quite closely miked.

one hears only the sound of the instrument. there is no electronic manipulation in the recording, the editing of the tones, or in the mix. the only changes to the recorded tones are the pitch shifts to create microtones. the microtones are doing the work.

"harm" (24:43, march 18, 2003) arne deforce, cello . the recording of the tones was done by johan vandermaelen (amplus) in the orpheus institute in gent, belgium, direct to the hard drive. the piece was finished in berlin and premiered at maerz musik festival (the day after finishing). it was commissioned by maerz musik.

"sethwork" (21:48, 2003) seth josel, acoustic, unamplified guitars played with e-bow, june 21 2003

"lucid sea" (20:24, august 8, 2003) lucia mense, recorders

these two pieces were commisioned by deutschland radio in cologne, germany. frank kaempfer, producer; michael peschko, recording engineer for the recording of the guitar samples and the recorder samples at the deutschlandradio studios in cologne.

the piece was constructed in the experimental intermedia studios in new york (sethwork) and in gent (lucid sea), in protools. the broadcast was on saturday october 4, 2003 at 2205 on deutschland radio in cologne, "atelier neuer musik". there was a commentary and an interview by the critic and author egbert hiller.

it was for the 70th birthday of phill niblock, which was october 2.

"parker's altered mood, aka, owed to bird" (16:27, 2004) ulrich krieger, alto saxophone. the tones for this piece and for "alto tune" were recorded in berlin in ulrich krieger's apartment (very nice sound; high, peaked ceiling) with thomas ankersmit recording, using his neumann microphone, direct to hd through mac powerbook/protools/mbox. for 'mood", i asked ulrich to pick a parker tune for the theme. we decided on "mood", a slow blues, a thirteen note theme. we recorded ulrich playing each note for about 15 seconds, the thirteen notes in succession, and for six repetitions of the theme. ulrich did not listen to the previous takes, so the notes are slightly out of tune with each other, creating the microtones i would have made in protools. the piece starts with all six playings of the theme, superimposed.

"zrost" (23:32, 2004) martin zrost, soprano saxophone. martin had just bought a new soprano, which sounded great, so we recorded in his work room in vienna.

"not yet titled" (22:20, 2003) franz hautzinger, trumpet. the tones were recorded in volker straebel's apartment in steglitz, berlin, on a summer afternoon, with the balcony door open, the sounds of birds and planes coming through. melvyn poore was the engineer, using franz's neumann microphone, mostly in the bell of the trumpet. franz produced the low bass sounds with the horn. we premiered the piece in a musikprotokoll concert in the steirischen herbst festival, graz, austria. it was commissioned by them as well.

"valence" (2005, 23:02) julia eckhardt, viola. "valence" was commissioned by the q o2 ensemble, brussels, and the tones were recorded by johan vandermaelen in his studio in the belgian countryside.

"alto tune" (25:08, 2004) ulrich krieger, alto saxophone. recording info noted above.

"sax mix" (25:08, 2004) ulrich krieger, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones.

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touch (uk) #to:68 cd

rosy parlanejessamine” compact disc

  • part one (13:13)
  • part two (16:29)
  • part three (19:08)
november 2006 release from rosy parlane - i’ve been eagerly awaiting this moment for many years now as rosy’s first album “iris” has become something of a high watermark in contemporary digital-music circles, and is among my favorite albums of the last 5-odd years - he most certainly does not disappoint with this opus...
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touch # to:68
3 tracks – cd only
48:42

photography & design: jon wozencroft

rosy parlane [nz]'s previous album for touch, 'iris' [2004] was hailed as a masterpiece by the red hot chilli peppers guitarist, john frusciante, who wrote: "...it’s such an incredible, beautiful energy inside of it that to me, it sounds like listening to a great pop record or a great rock record or a great classical record or whatever."

jim haynes in the wire wrote: "jon wozencroft's impeccable photography and design packages rosy parlane's 'iris' inside a predominantly blue package, inextricably linking the music to the emotional resonance of the colour... he flushes his soundfields with cascades of digital fragments which he separates into two distinct compositional categories. on the one hand, parlane stretches sounds from guitar, piano and organ into unrecognisable drones that swell into dense layerings, every once in a while coalescing into fluttering half-melodies. on the other, he emphasises the textural qualities of those digital fragments, simulating the natural acoustics of ice crackling from trees in winter or the gentle patter of rain on a windowsill. when fusing these together by placing the textures against the backdrop of the drone, parlane effectively builds pointillist sound environments with a profoundly human melancholia."

with 'jessamine', rosy develops these themes, and continues to incorporate new musical elements from unconventional as well as orchestral instrumentation. to him, everything is an instrument: from household objects to nature sounds, thus placing him firmly at the centre of the avant-garde. but it is the human element, as with all touch artists, which gives his work such a distinctive sound. ranging from ambient to noise, he gives full rein to textures of living; to start, languid and mournful; later harsh and assertive.

'jessamine' is a magnificent follow-up to a classic touch debut.

...

cd credits:

written & recorded in auckland, nz august 2004 – august 2006

rosy parlane: electric and acoustic guitars, piano, melodica, accordion, violin, trombone, snare drum, shimsaw, amplified sawblade, bowed metal, household objects, contact microphones, field recordings, radio, computer

marcel bear: shimsaw on part 1

tetuzi akiyama: resonator guitar with samurai sword and contact microphones on part 2

individual guitar contributions on part 3 by lasse marhaug, anthony guerra, michael morley, donald mcpherson, matthew hyland, david mitchell, stefan neville, campbell kneale

shimsaws and amplified sawblade designed and built by marcel bear

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touch (uk) #to:66 cd

biospheredropsonde” compact disc

  • dissolving clouds (4:28)
  • birds fly by flapping their wings (6:35)
  • warmed by the drift (6:50)
  • in triple time (5:50)
  • from a solid to a liquid (5:19)
  • arafura (5:10)
  • fall in
  • fall out (7:10)
  • daphnis 26 (6:45)
  • altostratus (5:11)
  • sherbrooke (5:55)
  • people are friends (10:39)
touch press release...
touch # to:66cd
11 tracks - 69:53
artwork & photography by jon wozencroft

so you might like to note that "in the shape of a flute" is exclusive to the vinyl format of the release, and tracks 1. 3. 4. 5. 6. 11. are exclusive to the cd version

widely regarded as one of norwegian electronic music's most important artists, biosphere's [geir jenssen] career spans nearly two decades, several albums, lots of remixes, various sound installations, commissions, soundtracks and even the odd himalayan summit.

you may recognise his work without knowing it, so frequently does it crop up on tv trailers and idents. in the early 1990s he was a pioneer of so-called 'ambient techno', but since then, he has refined his sound into something more magnetic and enduring.

dropsonde’ isn't a soundtrack like the interwoven 'substrata' nor an episodic journey in the way that 'autour de la lune' is. here geir jenssen is pushing new directions towards the jazz colours of miles davis and jon hassell, whilst re-invigorating the pulse and projection of his signature sound: a hypnotic combination of pleasure and dread.

the spatial aspects some have dubbed "arctic sound" but it summons strong feelings, or as exclaim from canada put it, "in order to climb higher, you must first go deeper". jon savage adds: "as with all of the biosphere albums, the music draws you in and makes you want to listen and feel. jenssen's work acts on a very emotional level, one that encourages you to drift away into a haze of images and scenes brought to you by the music, where spectacular beauty hides unseen danger. intense and moving, but comforting and soothing at the same time."

[a 'dropsonde' is a weather reconnaissance device designed to be dropped from an airplane or similar craft at altitude to take telemetry as it falls to the ground. it typically relays information to a computer in the dropping airplane by radio. the fall may be slowed by a parachute. information collected by a typical dropsonde may include wind speed, temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure.]

this is biosphere's 5th release for touch, after "cirque" [touch # to:46, 2000], "substrata 2" [touch # to:50, 2002], "shenzhou" [touch # to:55], and "autour de la lune" [touch # to:62, 2004]. he has also contributed to various touch compilations, including "spire - organ music, past, present & future" [touch # tone 20, 2004), and more recently to the storr walk on skye, scotland, a guided tour through stunning landscape accompanied by illuminations and sound recordings.

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field-recordings

touch (uk) #to:65 cd

bj nilsenfade to white” compact disc

  • purple phase (9:54)
  • dead reckoning (5:07)
  • let me know when it's over (5:25)
  • impossibilidad (5:06)
  • grappa polar (4:55)
  • nine ways till sunday (15:02)
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touch # to:65
cd
45:30 - 6 tracks

composed and mixed by bjnilsen @ toneroom stockholm 2003-2004
artwork & photography by jon wozencroft

benny nilsen writes: "'fade to white' contains material from the making of 3 pieces which were created within a different season and then edited, re-arranged and re-mixed in the summer of 2004. 6 pieces contain outdoor field recordings from travels in mainly central europe in 2003 [gdansk/poland, narva/estonia, sarajevo/serbia herzegovina, arad/romania, trieste/italy], and static indoor recordings from 2004 stockholm/sweden, brussels/belgium, amsterdam/netherlands, vienna/austria, geneva/switzerland.

i used acoustic and electrical instruments recorded in open spaces picking up the natural ambience, blending those with environmental sounds of nature and then arranged it in the computer, creating dynamic layers of sound that feed from one another."

this is bjnilsen's 3rd album for touch, after land [touch # tone 17 - as hazard] and live at the konzerthaus, vienna [touch # to:cdr5]. he also recorded 3 hazard albums for ash international.

bjnilsen lives and works in stockholm, sweden. born in 1975, he began working with experimental music and sound at an early stage. he was influenced by the early tape movements with the pioneers of sonic assault and released his first recordings at the age of 15. benny founded hazard in 1996 after a couple of years as a guitarist/bass player in several local bands. he has since then focused on the sound of nature and its effect on humans, field recordings and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound.

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touch (uk) #to:64 lp

jóhan jóhanssonvir?ulegu forsetar” double long playing record set

  • disc 1 - normal stereo cd (with four untitled pieces)
  • disc 2 - hybrid dvd-audio with a high resolution 96 khz - 24bit 5.1 surround mix and a 96khz 24bit stereo mix
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touch # to:64
cd + dvd-a
4 tracks - 65:26

jóhann jóhannsson is one of the most active participants in the new icelandic music scene. he has one of the founders of kitchen motors, the art organization/think-tank/record label which specializes in instigating collaborations, promoting concerts and exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films, books and radio shows based on the ideals of experimentation, collaboration and the search for new art forms. jóhann has produced and written music with artists as diverse as marc almond ("stranger things" album), barry adamson and pan sonic, the hafler trio, magga stina and many others. he has also written music for the theatre, documentaries and soundtrack music for 3 feature films.

this is his second album for touch, after the highly acclaimed 'englabörn' [touch # to:52], about which the wire said: "...expressive leitmotifs that unveil a profound sadness without ever wallowing in pathos" and boomkat called it "a work of rare beauty and ... a rare jewel". 'virthulegu forsetar' contains one hour-long piece for 11 brass players, percussion, electronics, organs and piano. it's presented as an ordinary stereo cd and as a dvd-audio with a high resolution 5.1 surround mix. the piece had its live debut in hallgrimskirkja, a large church in reykjavik and the city's towering edifice, and was named "the most memorable musical event of 2003" in iceland's leading newspaper. the piece has englabörn's quiet, elegiac beauty, but abandons the brevity of the first album's exquisite miniatures in favor of an extended form that reveals a long, slow process. a simple theme played by the brass section is repeated throughout the entire piece using different voicings and instrumentation. as the piece goes on, the tempo slows down, until it is extremely slow. around the middle of the piece, the tempo starts to speed up again, until it reaches the original tempo. space and the sense of place were very important in the performance and recording of the piece. players were positioned both in front and at the back of the church and two organs were used, again, one in front and one at the back. this created a sense of immersion and a sound that is powerful without ever being 'loud'. as the piece is written for a specific location, it made sense to record it live in this same space and attempt to 're-create' it for the listener with 5.1 surround technology. this was like creating an audio 'mold' or 'cast' of the inner sonic architecture of the building. in this way, the music engages in a dialogue with the space it's performed in and the recording process becomes as much a documentation of a place as a documentation of music.

johann writes: "during the first live performance of the piece, the church ceiling was filled with blue helium balloons which were timed to fall extremely slowly to the ground during the performance and scatter among the audience. to our pleasant surprise, the balloons reacted with the sound, falling with greater frequency as the volume increased. during the performance the light slowly changed through the church windows as the sun went down. the concert was fairly late, ending at around midnight and it being a bright, cloudless spring evening, the combination of all these physical and natural processes made for quite a memorable moment". "i had a number of things going through my mind during the writing of the piece, some of them being an obsession with entropy, pynchon's "the crying of lot 49", postal horns, cybernetics, small birds, heat, space, energy, "singularities", nietzsche's eternal recurrence, moebius strips. i'm absolutely not interested in imposing any one 'meaning' on the piece, but all these things were flying around somewhere in my head. a casual listener might categorize the piece as ambient or meditative, but i think this is really wrong - for me it's much more about chaos and tension rather than harmony. i go through many different emotions listening to the piece, veering from intense joy to acute sadness. the central point is perhaps how a very simple thing can change by going through a very simple process - something about change and transformation and the inevitability of chaos."

"virthulegu forsetar" is performed by the caput ensemble, conducted by gudni franzson, with skuli sverrison on bass and electronics, matthias m.d. hemstock on bells, glockenspiel and electronics, hordur bragason and gudmundur sigurdsson on organs and johann johannsson on piano and electronics.

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touch (uk) #to:63 cd

z’evheadphone musics, 1-6 b/w as is as” compact disc

  • headphone musics 1 (9:05)
  • headphone musics 2 (7:02)
  • headphone musics 3 (9:01)
  • headphone musics 4 (7:26)
  • headphone musics 5 (8:22)
  • headphone musics 6 (8:08)
  • as is as (7:22)
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touch # to:63
cd - 7 tracks
56:28

jewel case with artwork and photography by jon wozencroft and tereza stehlikova

in 1967 z’ev took a tape music class at the ucla night school. the leader of the course was joseph byrd who was the founder and theoretician of the first electronic rock band; the united states of america. so while it’s almost 40 years now that he has been involved in the production of electro-acoustic music, "headphone musics" marks the first release of a product exclusively featuring this form of music. all of the source material is drawn from the collection of cassette tapes z'ev has amassed over the last 30 years - sounds and soundscapes he has either recorded himself or witnessed, or tapes that have been given to him by various peoples on his travels or been received by him through the mail from fans etc. technically he remains a bit orthodox in that basically he still plies the old tools of the tape manipulation trade in the current digital sphere. what this means is that he concentrates on editing, phase relationships, time dilation, and inherent and 3rd harmonic distortion as his only means of processing the information he is transforming. there is no looping involved, although #2 features a recording he made in 1984 using his controlled-skipping lenco turntable.

as is as is a live recording of a sound poem z'ev produced and performed under the name "s. weisser" at a sound poetry festival in 1976 at the la mamelle art space in san francisco. it was produced using 2 reel to reel tape decks, 3 cassette decks, and 2 microphones.

biog:

since the 1970’s z'ev worked in a variety of media and was one of the founders of the cultural movement now known as ‘industrial’. he was born in 1951 in los angeles and began playing with percussion at 3, building his first 'drum set' at 6, with formal study of percussion beginning at 8. professional performances begin when he was 12. at that time he also began to study the plastic arts and poetry.

1969-70 z'ev attended the california institute of the arts (villa cabrini campus), enrolled in both the ethnomusicology and critical studies departments. between 1974-6 he developed a unique and influential form of instruments and instrumental techniques, employing hi-tech materials (stainless steel, titanium and pvc plastics) to produce a music based on the orchestration of acoustic phenomenon as opposed to conventional/traditional tuning systems.

in 1980 fetish records in london released "shake rattle and roll" – a video documentation of a live performance which turned out to be the first "music video" ever commercially released. from 1984-91 he completed many collaborative projects with viennese multimedia artist konrad becker in both europe and japan. during this period he also worked (performance/recording) with most of the major european multimedia organizations: bow gamelan, la fura dels baus, and psychic tv.

in dec '89 z'ev became involved with elizabethan drama. two of his plays, based on king lear and entitled "wheels on fire #'s 1 & 2", were published in england in 1990 in "ratio 3" [temple press, uk]. in 1991 "one foot in the grave" [touch # to:13], an audio-visual retrospective of his work from 1968-90 was published. now out of print, the textual parts, press and selected photographs of performances and installations are available online at http://bulletin.touchmusic.org.uk/catalogue/to13.html.

in 1992 "rhythmajik: practical uses of number, rhythm and sound" was published (temple press). murry hope, the author of "the psychology of ritual", wrote: "z’ev presents an original approach to the energies released via the rhythmic process... including the healing potential of correctly structured rhythms and their possible value as access codes to those frequencies unbound by the space-time continuum. dare one suggest that this could be the pre-cursor of the long forgotten science of 'sonics', which many believe will resurface in the next millennium?"

in 1992 he also began collaborations with d.j. dano (daniel leeflang). in 1990 in conjunction with konrad becker he released "trance-former", which at 150 bmp launched a variety of house music known as 'hard core'. many examples of our "house musics" were released as singles and appeared on several cd compilations in europe. in 1992 the english music magazine the wire included his lp ‘bust this!’ [released in 1988] in its list of the 50 greatest percussion records of all time.

in 1993 z'ev composed "heads & tales #'s 1-19" under the project name 'hypercussion' which was recorded at fun city nyc. it was commissioned by john zorn for his avant label in japan [avant 034]. at this time zorn also commissioned an article for a book he was editing comprised of writings by contemporary composers, entitled 'icons'. icons was finally published at the beginning of 2000 by grannary press [nyc]. the article, entitled "the three-fold ear and the energies of enthusiasm" is available online at http://www.t0.or.at/zev/fold.htm [that’s t + zero].

in november 1999 zorn again commissioned a piece from me for his radical jewish music series, a series of translations; sonic, esoteric, metaphoric and allegoric, of the sefer yetzirah [the most ancient mystical text in the jewish corpus] which he is in the process of completing.

more recently he has been working with david jackman [aka organum], and they released the cdep "tinnitus vu" on touch earlier this year [touch # tone 19]. he also contributed to the first in a series of organ works for touch, spire [touch # tone 20, 2004].

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touch (uk) #to:58 cd

rosy parlaneiris” compact disc

  • part one (19:09)
  • part two (18:14)
  • part three (12:09)
entirely elegant set of digital music from new zealand composer rosy parlane. rosy’s name often gets buried amidst those of his label-mates; but for my money this is probably my single favorite touch-label release of the last five years. three patient pieces that never wear out their welcome...
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touch #to:58
cd
3 tracks - 49:31

rosy parlane is a musician from new zealand who began playing music with the avant-garde rock trio thela. thela released two cds, 'eponymous' and 'argentina' on the label ecstatic peace! he subsequently began working with abstract electronic based music, both as a solo artist and as parmentier with fellow thela collaborator, dion workman. his full and intricate soundscapes are comprised of of sample-loops, pianos, guitars, and field recordings manipulated via digital means. parlane has released two solo albums on sigma editions, and a collaboration with christian fennesz on the australian label, synaesthesia ['live', syn001]

'iris' is the result of a concentrated period of activity and artistic development that will introduce rosy parlane to an audience hungry for innovative music. he both challenges and invigorates the current bias towards immersive sound, without ever losing sight of the human touch

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touch (uk) #to:56 cd

philip jeckstoke” compact disc

  • above (5:59)
  • lambing (4:48)
  • vienna faults (6:08)
  • pax (8:09)
  • below (7:32)
  • open (5:57)
  • close (14:54)
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touch # to:56
cd
7 tracks - 53:32

with its acrobatic athleticism and penchant for charming gimmicks, in all likelihood hiphop will indefinitely dominate the field of turntablism. even record-spinning abstractionists like christian marclay and martin tetrault, who may not always share hiphop's necessity for the beat, put on flashy demonstrations that engage the machismo of technique, alongside their critically minded recombinations of cultural readymades. while philip jeck's performances, installations, and recordings have centred around his arsenal of turntables (at last count, he was up to 180 antique dansette record players, though more normally he performs on two or three, and a minidisc recorder), he isn't terribly interested in the contemporary discourse of turntablism, preferring to coax a haunted impressionism with those tools. however as a calculating improvisor, he shares affinities with the turntable community. once he is in control of the overall context of the music, he leaves much to the spontaneous reaction towards sound at any given moment.

a typical jeck composition moves at an incredibly lethargic pace through a series of looped drone tracks caught in the infinities of multiple locked grooves. as he prefers to use old records on his antique turntables, the inevitable surface noise crackles into gossamer rhythms of pulsating hiss. occasionally, jeck intercedes in his ghostly bricolage with a slowly rotated foreground element - a disembodied voice, a melody, or simply a fragment of non-specific sound - which spirals out of focus through a warm bath of delay. for almost ten years now, jeck has been developing this methodology, building up to stoke, his strongest work to date. its opening passages are on a par with his vinyl coda series, with jeck effortlessly transforming grizzled surface noise into languid atmosphere.but stoke really gets going with the breathtakingly simple construction of pax, upon which jeck overlays an aerated ambient wash with the time-crawling repetition of a single crescendo from an unknown female blues singer. by downpitching her voice from the intended 78 rpm to 16 rpm, he amplifies its emotional tenor by making her drag out her impassioned declarations of misery far longer than is humanly possibly. the effect is just beautiful. philip jeck has always been good, but stoke makes him great. [jim haynes]

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touch (uk) #to:53 cd

fenneszvenice” compact disc

  • rivers of sand (4:42)
  • château rouge (6:40)
  • city of light (6:34)
  • onsra (0:20)
  • circassian (5:49)
  • onsay (1:08)
  • the other face (3:25)
  • transit (4:59)
  • the point of it all (5:01)
  • laguna (2:56)
  • asusu (0:55)
  • the stone of impermanence (6:37)
touch press release...

touch # to:53
cd - 49:13
12 tracks

"venice" was recorded on location in the summer of 2003 and subsequently assembled and mixed at amann studios, vienna in january/february 2004.

"venice", the fourth studio album by christain fennesz, finds electronic music at a crossroads between its early status as digital subculture, and the feeling that there has to be something more, an emotional quality that rises above noise and moves towards melody and rapture.

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touch (uk) #to:52 lp

jóhann jóhanssonenglabörn” long playing record

  • odi et amo (3:10)
  • englabörn (1:34)
  • jói & karen (3:24)
  • etta gerist á bestu bæjum (1:02)
  • sálfræingur (3:49)
  • "ég sleppi ér aldrei" (2:57)
  • sálfræingur deyr (3:40)
  • ba (3:07)

  • "ég heyroi allt án ess ao hlusta" (2:05)
  • karen br til engil (3:45)
  • englabörn - tilbrigi (1:24)
  • "ég átti erfia æsku" (3:41)
  • krókódíll (2:45)
  • "ef ég hefi aldrei..." (3:42)
  • …eins og venjulegt fólk (3:51)
  • odi et amo - bis (4:00)
touch press release...
touch # to:52
lp - 16 tracks
48:06

jóhann jóhannsson is one of the most active participants in the new icelandic music scene. he has one of the founders of kitchen motors, the art organization/think tank/record label which specializes in instigating collaborations, promoting concerts and exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films, books and radio shows based on the ideals of experimentation, collaboration and the search for new art forms. jóhann has produced and written music with artists as diverse as marc almond ("stranger things" album), barry adamson and pan sonic, the hafler trio, magga stina and many others. he has also written music for the theatre, documentaries and soundtrack music for 3 feature films.

englaborn is jóhann's first solo album. it is derived from music he wrote for an icelandic play of the same name. for the cd release on touch, the music was revised and restructured to make it stand as a work on its own and not simply function as a collection of cues. the music is written for string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion. these elements were processed and manipulated, adding delicate electronic backgrounds to the otherwise entirely acoustic recordings. one song, "odi et amo", is a setting of catullus's famous poem. he says "this was a happy accident; i'd written the music and wanted a computerized counter-tenor vocal singing a latin text and was looking through a collection of latin poetry when i remembered this poem from college and it did fit the melody perfectly and was also thematically perfect for the play. it’s in the final scene. what i really like about it is the harsh contrast of the computer voice and the strings, the alchemy of total opposites, the sewing machine and umbrella on a dissecting table”.

jóhannsson continues: "the plays is extremely violent and disturbing and basically when faced with the script i decided to work against it as much as possible and just try to write the most beautiful music i could. that approach seems to have worked, at any rate, the music got really good reviews, the leading drama critic calling it "the most beautiful i've heard in icelandic theatre." i must say i’ve never had such a strong reaction to anything i’ve done before; strangers have actually stopped me in the street and hugged me because of it...! bizarre.. it is gratifying though, because it’s probably the most personal thing i've done. this stuff is very very close to me."

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touch (uk) #to:51 cd

locustwrong” double compact disc set

  • heal (5:10)
  • make a difference (3:51)
  • believe in the one (4:34)
  • sweet sky (3:33)
  • what do you care? (4:42)
  • separate (4:23)
  • wrong (4:20)
  • impossible adventure (4:57)
  • haze (4:11)

  • presence and gifts (5:08)
  • create, dissolve and recreate (3:51)
  • faith grows from trees (4:33)
  • distopian (3:34)
  • strings that bind or drop (4:42)
  • playing with time (4:23)
  • night navigation (4:20)
  • candle wishes (4:57)
  • conversations beyond the end of the sky (4:19)
touch press release...
touch # to:51
dcd - 39:47/39:54

the album, mark van hoen’s second for touch after “the last flowers from the darkness” [to:31, 1997], features holli ashton on lead vocals, and various backing vocalists including lisa millet, tara patterson (autocreation), sarah peacock (scala, seefeel, january) and 4ad artist vinny miller. the instrumentation is purely electronic analog synthesizers, edited and manipulated in digidesigns' protools. mark van hoen, who programmed and produced the lp, wanted to invoke some of the spirit of late 70's british electronic music, combining that sound with his now familiar brand of electronics for which he became known during the 90's.

the fragility and unpredictability of vocalist holli ashton’s personality and vocals, combined with the decayed and warped quality of the sound offer a warmth rarely found in such pure electronic music. imperfections are the source of that warmth and there are several connections here between the late 70's (the period which first inspired mark to make music) and the last few years. electronic music in the late 70's was forced to become more inventive because the limitations of the instruments of the time needed the musician to craft each sound by hand, and the instruments often went wrong; out of time and out of tune. these same instruments were used on this album; there are no samplers, guitars or anything else but analog synthesizers and vocals on this recording. more recently, artists such as ryoji ikeda, pan sonic, and hazard have sought to bring out imperfections in digital music, and those influences are here, too. even the second cd, to be played simultaneously with the first is a 'misuse' of technology, yet it makes a beautiful sound.

sometimes things just don't work out right...
in the spring of 1998 mark van hoen aka locust had just finished exhaustively promoting the critically acclaimed 'morning light' album. this hitherto much lauded, yet underground electronica artist was about to break into the mainstream. but then things went wrong. the usual story of falling out with an independent label which was eventually resolved with mark's liberation.

during this difficult time mark recorded 'wrong' - an album of songs with holli ashton, the dominant vocalist featured on morning light. like so many artists before him, through his plight, mark became all the more driven to produce a work that would meet his objective of being both commercial and also innovative. summing up this frustrating period of enforced silence, the aptly titled wrong, finally sees the light of day on touch.

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touch (uk) #to:50 cd

biospheresubstrata2” double compact disc set

  • two discs of turn-of-the-century biosphere !!
substrata
  • as the sun kissed the horizon (1:47)
  • poa alpina (4:11)
  • chukhung (7:34)
  • the things i tell you (6:28)
  • times when i know you'll be sad (3:44)
  • hyperborea (5:45)
  • kobresia (7:12)
  • antennaria (5:04)
  • uva-ursi (3:01)
  • sphere of no-form (5:47)
  • silene (7:53)
man with a movie camera
  • prologue (0:19)
  • the silent orchestra (7:52)
  • city wakes up (5:58)
  • freeze-frames (6:46)
  • manicure (4:43)
  • the club (1:57)
  • ballerina (7:50)
  • the eye of the cyclone (7:22)
  • endurium (10:47)
touch press release...
touch # to:50
dcd - 55:20/53:32

biosphere's 2nd cd for touch after cirque [touch # to:46, 2000] is a double cd in digipac designed by jon wozencroft.

cdone - substrata
originally released in 1997 on all saints records, this remastered version of substrata contains 11 tracks with a total length of 55:20. "...by many (the undersigned included) considered to be the finest ambient album of the 1990s" [motion/state 51], and "three years after its release, biosphere's 'substrata' is already being recognised as one of the all time greats of deep electronica." [top magazine]

cdtwo - man with a movie camera
contains 9 tracks, total length 53:32. the first 7 tracks consist of the soundtrack to "man with a movie camera" [vertov, 1926, ussr], originally commissioned for the tromsø international film festival in 1996, released here for the first time. the last 2 tracks, endurium and the end of the cyclone, were originally released on the limited edition japanese version of substrata in 1997 - they have never before been released outside japan.

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minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #to:49 cd

phill niblocktouch works for hurdy gurdy and voice” compact disc

  • "hurdy hurry" (15:20 - october 1999) jim o'rourke - hurdy gurdy (samples)
  • "a y u" aka "as yet untitled" (21:30 - october 1999) thomas buckner - baritone voice (samples)
  • "a y u live" (21:30 - october 1999/2000)
touch press release...

touch works for hurdy gurdy and voice
touch # to:49
cd - 58:20
3 tracks

this is the first cd by phill niblock for touch. thomas buckner, baritone voice (samples and live) all were completed with protools software in a macintosh computer, and are 24 tracks mixed to stereo. there are two versions of the voice piece, one the original tape piece, the other a version with three added voices, live, plus four tracks of pitch shift on each, done in robert poss's (trace elements) studio. samples and live elements were recorded by robert poss at trace elements studios in new york. the pieces were constructed and mixed in protools by phill niblock at experimental intermedia in new york. [ayu was commissioned by thomas buckner]

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minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #to:48 cd

rafael toralviolence of discovery, calm of acceptance” compact disc

  • desirée (3:30)
  • measurement of noise (6:00)
  • quiet mind (3:57)
  • maersk line (2:49)
  • liberté (5:42)
  • optical flow (3:17)
  • energy nourish (5:07)
  • hay que trabajo me cuesta quererte como te quiero (8:30)
  • we are getting closer (3:56)
  • mixed states uncoded (3:55)
touch press release...

considered by the chicago reader to be "one of the most gifted and innovative guitarists of the decade", rafael toral has been developing in the last 15 years a unique sound world, having been as influenced by alvin lucier and brian eno as by sonic youth and my bloody valentine. using the guitar as part of a complex electronic instrument, toral has collaborated with jim o'rourke, john zorn, sonic youth, rhys chatham and phill niblock and played in many european countries and in several states in the us. he's also a member of mimeo, the electronic orchestra featuring keith rowe, christian fennesz, peter rehberg, kaffe matthews and many others.vdca is a collection of ten small pieces crafted by toral with extreme precision and care through the last seven years. using guitars and analogue technology, it can be described as toral's best work, embodying all the directions he explored in his previous critically acclaimed records, "sound mind sound body" [moikai, usa], "wave field" [dexter’s cigar/drag city, usa] and "aeriola frequency" [perdition plastics, usa] but taking them into new dimensions.

lee ranaldo: i think the most interesting thing about raphael is that he lives out on the end of the world, which is about how isolated portugal is, even for the rest of europe, and that he has managed to forge some sort of interest and trajectory for himself in the esoteric realm of "new" music. he's a young man forging ideas out of what he has heard and read about, and has a good set of ears and knows what he's listening to. (he's) rather scientific in his approach...

jim o'rourke: rafael is a really good guy with a good ear, i think, and a sense of timing and density that is a luxury to find. he is a swell, honest person too.

this is his first album for touch. the highly evocative intricate and subtle guitar drones are captured in the beautiful photography of heitor alvelos, a portuguese artist, and in the artwork of jon wozencroft.

the background noise on track 10 is a recording of silence during a space shuttle mission real time webcast. all other sounds were released by electric guitars. the album was recorded between 1993 and 2000 and mastered at noise precision, lisbon.

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touch (uk) #to:47 cd

chris watsonweather report” compact disc

  • ol-olool-o (18:06)
  • the lapiach (18:06)
  • vatnajökull (18:00)
touch press release...

touch # to:47
cd - 50:08
3 tracks

the weather has created and shaped all our habitats. clearly it also has a profound and dynamic effect upon our lives and that of other animals. the three locations featured here all have moods and characters which are made tangible by the elements, and these periodic events are represented within by a form of time compression.

this is chris's first foray into composition using his location recordings of wildlife and habitats - previously he has been concerned with describing and revealing the special atmosphere of a place by site specific, untreated location recordings. for the first time here he constructs collages of sounds, which evolve from a series of recordings made at the specific locations over varying periods of time.

tracklisting:

ol-olool-o -18' 00"
a fourteen hour drama in kenya's masai mara from 0500h - 1900h on thursday 17th oct. 2002

the lapaich -18' 00"
the music of a scottish highland glen through autumn and into winter during the four months of september to december

vatnajkull -17' 55"
the 10,000 year climatic journey of ice formed deep within this icelandic glacier and it's lingering flow into the norwegian sea.

chris has released two previous solo albums for touch, outside the circle of fire [1998] and stepping into the dark [1996], as well as contributions for samplers and compilations for ash international. his work was also used as source material for the compilation star switch on [202], with contributions from aer, biosphere, fennesz, hazard, philip jeck & mika vainio, as well as two tracks from chris himself.

chris is possibly best known for his sound recordings for bbc tv, particularly the "life of..." series written and hosted by sir david attenborough. but his preferred media are cd's and the radio. he has presented several programmes; "a small slice of tranquillity", "nighttime is the right time", "sound advice" and "tyneside dawn", all broadcast on bbc radio 4.

chris was previously a member of the popular beat trio cabaret voltaire.

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touch (uk) #to:45 cd

peter rehberg / ramon bauerpasst” compact disc

  • finga 1
  • finga 2
  • finga 3
  • sunday 1
  • sunday 2
  • nixnull
  • revolver 1
  • revolver 2
  • revolver 3
  • revolver 4
  • revolver 5
  • revolver 6
  • revolver 7
third disc in a triptych of said by editions mego’s peter rehberg and ... regular mego’s ramon bauer, lovingly referred-to by these records’ (r.i.p.) andrew jacques as “...possible the first comedy laptop record ever.”
touch press release...

touch # to:45
cd - 33:16
13 tracks

five years ago, 'faßt' declared itself to be entirely made up of the ‘mistakes’ and system errors of the digital processes rehberg & bauer had used in its making, thus finding themselves at the front end of an emerging tendency in new music that came to be known as ‘glitch’... frustratingly to those actively involved, because it freeze-framed the more critical dimension of such works into a genre that quickly became a gliché.

following faßt and ballt, and originated live on their tour of australia last year, passt completes rehberg & bauer's trilogy for touch; as such, it provides a window through which to monitor the progress (and atrophy) of this phase of development, now that the laptop seems as commonplace as the electric guitar.

visitors to last year’s sonar 2000 festival might have witnessed the spectacle of rehberg & bauer joining forces with merzbow, hecker, lopez, haswell et al under the sobriquet of the laptop orchestra – in itself a wake-up call, a performance wherein those with nothing to show you were being videoed, en masse, by those with nothing to watch.

a year on, those with nothing to say are busier than ever, producing cds whose distinguishing exteriors give listeners nothing to look at. in 2001, surface abstraction is easily output. passt therefore is an attempt to relocate this mode of music– making into something once again more progressive.

originated live on their tour of australia last year [what is music @ big_day out, sydney/revolver, melbourne and palladium, sydney], passt completes rehberg & bauer's trilogy for touch, following fa§t and ballt. 'revolver', tracks 7 to 13, is a recording of the gig itself in melbourne. the other tracks were edited from elements of the shows and then mastered. the venues where the recordings were made vary in character: palladium - sleazy, red light district, urban decay: revolver - classy, good p.a.: the olympic stadium [what is music festival] - held 70000 pissed aussies and featured red hot chilli peppers, nine inch nails etc. you can imagine... the introduction is provided by eric mitsak, some kind of local celeb, but now a cult figure and destined for, um, we are not quite sure. we are sure, however, that he'll crop up again.

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sound-art

touch (uk) #to:44 cd

ryoji ikedamatrix” double compact disc set

  • matrix [for rooms] (1999-2000)

    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 (12:00)
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 (5:30)
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 (4:30)
    0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 (5:30)
    0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 (4:30)
    0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 (5:30)
    0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 (4:30)
    0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (5:30)
    0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (4:30)
    1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (7:57)

  • .matrix (1999-2000)

    1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 (3:02)
    1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 (2:24)
    1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 (1:00)
    1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 (1:27)
    1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 (3:34)
    1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 (2:42)
    1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 (4:55)
    1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (5:22)
    1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (0:59)
    0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (5:32)
2008 repress of this, the third album in ikeda’s touch triptych ...
touch press release...
to:44 - ryoji ikeda "matrix"
released: 2000
[touch # to:44]
double cd in gatefold wallet

matrix is the final element in a trilogy of cds that began with +/- in 1996. when it was first released, +/- came like a bolt out of the white. nobody had used digital recording processes to produce sound as pure, as intense and as exhilarating.

since releasing 0°c in 1998, ryoji ikeda has progressively refined and enhanced the distinctive sonic fields and microsounds that have strongly influenced post-digital composition, resisting the transitory cycle suggested by the term 'glitches', creating compositions that probe deeply: our relationships to time and space, sound and light.

much of the time since 1998 has been spent touring with the japanese performance group, dumb type, whose landmark show [or] is shortly to be followed by a new presentation for which ikeda has composed the sound, memorandum. in january 2000, ryoji ikeda toured the uk with zoviet*france.

a closer connection to the 20 new recordings that make up matrix can be found on the recent touch 00 sampler, matrix for an anechoic room, which came out in spring 2000. that's the only forewarning of what awaits you on putting the first cd into your player. the layers of sound that make up matrix [for rooms] transform both the listener and the listening environment into another dimension. the dimensions change as you move about the space, or simply turn your head around the sound like surveying the angles of a building.

matrix has much in common with the work of la monte young, tony conrad, alvin lucier ..., but poised closer to the imminent and auto-interactive virtual world we are promised, ryoji ikeda's new work pushes the parameters of the drone to ask timely questions concerning our relationship to own perception, and to our existing living spaces.

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 best of 2011 !!! 
touch (uk) #to:42 ep

chris watsonen tren fantasma • the signal man’s mix” twelve inch single record

  • el divisadero - the telegraph (7:56)

  • veracruz - the tunnel (7:54)
november 2011 release ; ... “companionvinylremix issue for the recent watson full-length, presenting alternate versions of the two more “hands-on” pieces from the disc on a nice 45rpm cut ...
touch press release...
chris watson - el tren fantasma: the signal man's mix

touch # to:42v [12" vinyl]
cut by jason @ transition
artwork & design by jon wozencroft

take the ghost train from los mochis to veracruz and travel cross country, coast to coast, pacific to atlantic. ride the rhythm of the rails on board the ferrocarriles nacionales de méxico (fnm) and the music of a journey that has now passed into history.

el tren fantasma, (the ghost train), is chris watson's 4th solo album for touch, and his first since weather report in 2003, which was named as one of the albums you should hear before you die in the guardian.

a radio programme was broadcast on bbc radio 4 on saturday 30 oct, 2010, produced by sarah blunt, and described as “a thrilling acoustic journey across the heart of mexico from pacific to atlantic coast using archive recordings to recreate a rail passenger service which no longer exists.” it’s now more than a decade since fnm operated its last continuous passenger service across country. chris watson spent a month on board the train with some of the last passengers to travel this route. as sound recordist he was part of the film crew working on a programme in the bbc tv series great railways journeys. now, in this album, the journey of the ‘ghost train’ is recreated, evoking memories of a recent past, capturing the atmosphere, rhythms and sounds of human life, wildlife and the journey itself along the tracks of one of mexico’s greatest engineering projects.

chris watson is one of the world's leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena, and for touch he edits his field recordings into a filmic narrative. for example. the unearthly groaning of ice in an icelandic glacier is a classic example of, in watson's words, putting a microphone where you can't put your ears. he was born in sheffield where he attended rowlinson school and stannington college (now part of sheffield college). in 1971 he was a founding member of the influential sheffield-based experimental music group cabaret voltaire. his sound recording career began in 1981 when he joined tyne tees television. since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world. as a freelance recordist for film, tv & radio, chris watson specialises in natural history and documentary location sound together with track assembly and sound design in post production.

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 best of 2011 !!! 
touch (uk) #to:42 cd

chris watsonel tren fantasma” compact disc

  • la anunciante (4:00)
  • los mochis (6:29)
  • sierra tarahumara (5:24)
  • el divisadero (5:34)
  • crucero la joya (4:58)
  • chihuahua (4:34)
  • aguascalientes (3:26)
  • mexico d.f. (9:14)
  • el tajin (10:16)
  • veracruz (5:45)
november 2011 release ; ... it’s been 8 years since the last chris watson full-length, so many of us have been waiting with baited breath ...

... presented more as a “composition” than a series of raw field recordings (listen to the sound-sample for a clearer indication of what i mean ; there’s tons of editing & “programming” afoot)el tren fantasma (aka “the ghost train”) paints a narrative picture of the landscape & mechanics of the last days of mexico’s storied ferrocarriles nacionales de méxico railway ...

incredible work, as expected ...
touch press release...

"el tren fantasma"
cd album - 10 tracks - 65 minutes

artwork: jon wozencroft
cd mastered by denis blackham

take the ghost train from los mochis to veracruz and travel cross country, coast to coast, pacific to atlantic. ride the rhythm of the rails on board the ferrocarriles nacionales de méxico (fnm) and the music of a journey that has now passed into history.

el tren fantasma, (the ghost train), is chris watson's 4th solo album for touch, and his first since weather report in 2003, which was named as one of the albums you should hear before you die in the guardian.

a radio programme was broadcast on bbc radio 4 on saturday 30 oct, 2010, produced by sarah blunt, and described as “a thrilling acoustic journey across the heart of mexico from pacific to atlantic coast using archive recordings to recreate a rail passenger service which no longer exists.” it’s now more than a decade since fnm operated its last continuous passenger service across country. chris watson spent a month on board the train with some of the last passengers to travel this route. as sound recordist he was part of the film crew working on a programme in the bbc tv series great railways journeys. now, in this album, the journey of the ‘ghost train’ is recreated, evoking memories of a recent past, capturing the atmosphere, rhythms and sounds of human life, wildlife and the journey itself along the tracks of one of mexico’s greatest engineering projects.

chris watson is one of the world's leading recorders of wildlife and natural phenomena, and for touch he edits his field recordings into a filmic narrative. for example. the unearthly groaning of ice in an icelandic glacier is a classic example of, in watson's words, putting a microphone where you can't put your ears. he was born in sheffield where he attended rowlinson school and stannington college (now part of sheffield college). in 1971 he was a founding member of the influential sheffield-based experimental music group cabaret voltaire. his sound recording career began in 1981 when he joined tyne tees television. since then he has developed a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world. as a freelance recordist for film, tv & radio, chris watson specialises in natural history and documentary location sound together with track assembly and sound design in post production.

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" data-timeformat="2" data-media="http://www.mimaroglumusicsales.com/m/mms.to40cd.mp3">
 $15.51

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modern-psych
harsh-noise

touch (uk) #to:40 cd

fenneszplus forty seven degrees 56' 37" minus sixteen degrees 51' 08"” compact disc

  • 010 (4:44)
  • 011 (2:49)
  • 012 (3:29)
  • 013 (6:21)
  • 014 (8:09)
  • 015 (8:03)
  • 016 (2:27)
  • 017 (2:03)
2008 release ; ... easy to forget about this earlier, far more vicious set of digital music miniatures from christian fennesz, especially in the wake of the increasingly more ... palatable (!?) work that followed ... but for me, this (and possibly “plays”) have long been the highlights of his recorded oeuvre ; worth a (re) -visit, esp. if you haven’t heard it (or not for a while) ...
touch press release...

to:40 - fennesz "plus forty seven degrees 56' 37" minus sixteen degrees 51' 08""

touch # to:40
cd - 8 tracks - 37:45

released: 2008

touch has reissued a digipak version of fennesz's first studio album for touch, previously released as a jewel case in 1999. [there was prior to that a deluxe edition of 1000 copies in landscape art format, which sold out immediately.] it has been out of print for a couple of years. the audio remains the same, the imagery uses the location shots from the deluxe edition.

this is christian fennesz's 2nd solo full album after the highly acclaimed 'hotel paral.lel' (mego 16). he also released 'fenneszplays', a 3" cd originally issued by mego but now on jim o'rourke's new label, moikai. fennesz has also made various contributions to compilation cds, including the awesome 'surf' on 'decay' (ash international 3.9) and is a member of mimeo, fixed line up orchestra alongside keith rowe, kaffe matthews, jerome noetinger, phil durrant, peter rehberg, thomas lehn, rafael toral, gert jan prins, cor fuhler, markus wettstein, and markus schmickler. he has also released a live cd on touch, # to:cdr3. 'plus forty seven degrees 56' 37" minus sixteen degrees 51' 08"' was recorded in his garden in austria in july and august 1999 ; the photographs in the booklet by jon wozencroft embroider this.

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touch (uk) #to:37 cd

chris watsonoutside the circle of fire” compact disc

  • waiting (1:53)
  • breathing in cold air (0:15)
  • horse of the woods (5:57)
  • song (0:16)
  • at dusk (5:50)
  • winter flags (3:51)
  • machine noise (1:16)
  • canopy (4:55)
  • song (0:54)
  • across the iris beds (2:32)
  • threat (0:10)
  • cracking viscera (3:23)
  • deep roar (0:28)
  • unknown forest (1:36)
  • out of our sight (2:59)
  • leaf litter (0:51)
  • souls of dead children (3:26)
  • forest fire (0:21)
  • sleeping in warm air (4:54)
  • rattle of wood (1:42)
  • moonlit fog (3:02)
  • contacts (0:31)
second collection of phenomenally detailed field recordings captured by chris watson, considered by many to be a “classic” in the... field. essential for any collection of site-specific sound recordings.
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touch # to:37
cd
22 tracks

the purr of a leopard close up against a baobab tree, waiting. whales surfacing, breathing in cold air. coll starling imitate the noise of farm machinery from the hollow ring of a ruined bothy. the rattle of wood over a black stream... chris watson's second cd is a dramatic contrast to the spacious atmospheres of "stepping into the dark" (touch to:27, 1996). featuring 22 close-up recordings of animals, birds and insect life, "outside the circle of fire" enlarges our awareness of the sound universe, intimate with voices from the past. there is an intensity here that television pictures cannot conjure.

1. waiting
close up against a baobab tree, a cheetah, waiting...

2. breathing in cold air
breathing in cold air, southern right whale

3. horse of the woods
capull coille,'horse of the caledonian woods'

4. song
red rumped tinkerbird song

5. at dusk
the maasai say hippos spend the day on the river bed telling jokes. at dusk they surface, laughing

6. winter flags
winter flags on a spring tide. 20 000 knot find a roost

7. machine noise
in the hollow ring of a ruined bothy, a starling mimics the noise of farm machinery

8. canopy
dry topical contact calls follow spider monkeys through the canopy

9. song
lemon rumped tinkerbird song

10. across the iris beds
an evening chorus of corncrakes across the iris beds

11. threat
a lioness threatens

12. cracking viscera
vultures taste the dry, crackling viscera inside the rib cage of a zebra carcass

13. deep roar
the deep roar of a red deer stag

14. unknown forest
unknown forest duet

15. out of our sight
out of our sight, motionless anticipation, along the dry sandy banks of the zambesi a mozambique nightjar is sucking in all the remaining light

16. leaf litter
leaf litter insect detail

17. souls of dead children
the souls of dead children are said to pass into kittiwakes

18. forest fire
wood pigeon wings across a forest ride

19. sleeping in warm air
elephants, sleeping in warm air

20. rattle of wood
deathwatch beetles, the rattle of wood over a black stream

21. moonlit fog
tawny owls sing in moonlit fog

22. contacts
hyena contacts

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back in stock as of
september 5th, 2012

first in stock on
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threads:
digital-musics
minimalism-drones
sound-art

touch (uk) #to:30 cd

ryoji ikeda+/-” compact disc

  • ikeda’s classic 1996 touch debut !!!

    headphonics (1995-96)

  • headphonics 0/0 (3:12)
  • headphonics 0/1 (3:11)
  • headphonics 1/0 (4:16)

    +/- (1996)

  • + (2:50)
  • +. (5:07)
  • +.. (10:55)
  • - (6:36)
  • -. (11:51)
  • -.. (13:24)
  • +/- (1:05)
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+/-
touch # to:30
cd
10 tracks

3rd edition of this timeless classic:

1st edition: 1996 [original edition]
2nd edition: 2000 [millennium edition]
3rd edition: 2006 [touch 25th anniversary]

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first in stock on
november 6th, 2003


threads:
field-recordings

touch (uk) #to:27 cd

chris watsonstepping into the dark” compact disc

  • low pressure (3:46)
  • embleton rookery (4:24)
  • the crossroads (5:02)
  • river mara at dawn (6:27)
  • river mara at night (4:59)
  • a passing view (1:51)
  • bosque seco (9:03)
  • sunsets (5:02)
  • the blue men of the minch (4:51)
  • high pressure (5:13)
  • gahlitzerstrom (4:05)
  • the forest path (4:52)
chris watson’s first solo disc from 1996. along with douglas quin & toshiya tsunoda, watson signifies the height of field-recording as an art-form (far beyond pure documentation) by presenting naturally occurring sound-events, devoid of any sort of post-processing, in a conceptual sequence.

technically brilliant and well out of this world (despite being, specifically, within it.) awesome.
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comes with a a 24-page booklet filled with photography and text.

the tracks are the atmospheres of "special places", recorded with the use of camouflaged microphones.
low pressure glen cannich, inverness-shire, scotland
(57.21°n 04.57°w) 0810h 6 october 1994
embleton rookery embleton, northumberland, england
(55.30°n 01.38°w) 0600h 7 may 1983
the crossroads kiedler forest, northumberland, england
(55.09°n 02.27°w) 0620h 27 march 1994
river mara at dawn river mara, maasai mara, kenya
(01.25°s 35.07°e) 0615h 16 september 1994
a passing view los olivitos, lake maracaibo, venezuela
(10.46°n 71.02°w) 2350h 3 april 1991
bosque seco santa rosa national park, costa rica
(10.49°n 85.39°w) 0540h 6 april 1995
sunsets breachacha, island of coll, scotland
(56.36°n 06.37°w) 2230h 16 may 1994
the blue men of the minch moray firth, scotland
(57.30°n 04.15°w) 1400h 30 july 1995
high pressure ravenstonedale, cumbria, england
(54.25°n 02.24°w) 0550h 25 february 1994
gahlitzerstrom ummanz, rügen islands, germany
(54.32°n 13.11°e) 1740h 5 october 1993
the forest path meallan na ceardaich, glen affric, scotland
(57.19°n 04.52°w) 0625h 7 october 1994

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threads:
field-recordings

touch (uk) #t33.3v lp

walo shatan gwaridrumming for creation” twelve inch single record

  • farming is the most important occupation today
  • if you have something today, try and enjoy it, for tomorrow you may not be alive to do so
  • let us love one another

  • live
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t33.3v | walo shatan gwari "drumming for creation"

edition of 300 vinyl

the second in a new series of vinyl releases, "from the archives...".

the first, islands inbetween, was originally released on cassette in 1983 [touch # t33.2].

the second in this series, "drumming for creation" [touch # t33.3v] is now available on vinyl. originally released on cassette in 1985 [touch # t33.3], this edition focuses on the recordings of walo shatan gwari. the ensemble, led by malam walo, belongs to the gwari people of niger state.

the performances, at london's commonwealth institute, also encompassed drumming sessions and instrument-making workshops.

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field-recordings

touch (uk) #t33.2v lp

islands inbetween” twelve inch single record

  • day and night
  • gending gending
  • suling
  • degung instrumental
  • genggong
  • cremation gamelan
  • dag combination dance
  • ramayana ll

  • watermark
  • temple gamelan
  • frog sound
  • degung instrumental no. 2
  • ducks
  • tenun
  • anjung
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touch 33 - islands inbetween

touch # t33.2v

edition of 500 vinyl

a new series of vinyl and download only releases, "from the archives...". islands inbetween was originally released on cassette in 1983 [touch # t33.2]. 3 tracks, by john keliehor & orlando kimber, have been removed from this edition for copyright reasons. the second in this series, "drumming for creation" [touch # t33.3v] will be released in the autumn...

philip jeck says: " this is one of the best productions of vinyl i have ever come across: superb cut and brilliant pressing - i am really impressed!"

indonesians often use the name 'nusantara', meaning 'the islands in-between', when referring to the archipelago that forms their republic. this cassette covers only some of the cultural activity on java and bali, the best known islands out of the 13,700 counted by statisticians, so it is not intended to be in any way definitive. the selections are more like musical postcards of two cultures balanced between tradition and tourism.
legend: meridian 105º - 115º east

side one

there is no specific translation for 'gending gending'. the term generally means 'orchestra' or 'gamelan composition'. the javanese word for hammer is 'gamel', and the music is said to encourage the growth of plants. 'suling' - the end blown flute. 'degung instrumental' - from the sudabese region of west java to the speakers of tourists cafes. 'genggong' - the first balinese instrument, a mouth harp made from the palm and played by igusti ngurah togog at his homestay in peliatan, bali. 'cremation gamelan' - a portable ensemble plays while the cremation tower is raised from the death pavilion. before travelling a mile along the peliatan road to the temple of the dead, the tower is spun around on its bearer's shoulders to confuse the soul, preventing its return home to trouble the living. the overture played as the tower is set alight (with a magnifying glass - matches are thought to be unclean), is recorded on 'touch travel'. dag combination dance - in bali, individual dances are sometimes merged into modern adaptations, not only as a result of tourism - the gamelan elders think popularisation is the best way to attract young people to dance, though dividing lines are difficult to draw. 'dag' is a combination of 'kecak' and 'kebyar', performed from the squatting position in a pantomime style very popular with children. attention is focused on the facial expressions of the dancers which interpret man's ever-changing moods. 'king rama' - the story of the 'kecak' (monkey) dance is taken from the hindu ramayana epic and portrays rama'a search for his wife, sita, who has been abducted to the monkey forest. rama is an incarnation of vishnu, the creator, and serves as an ideal for the hindu man. 'ramayana ll' - the opening sequence of the gamelan acvcompaniment to the 4 part ballet held on the full moon-lit nights of june, july and august at prambanan temple complex. the largest central temple is dedictade to shiva, the destroyer. the voices that follow were recorded on a train at bandung station at 3am, en route to yogjakarta. local sellers board trains whatever the hour, and every carriage becomes an indoor market.

side two

'watermark' - nightfall by a bridge near the monkey forest, ubud. 'one language' - there are c. 300 different languages and dialects in indonesia. after independence in 1945, bahasa indonesian became the universally accepted language, though its use had already been encouraged by nationalists as a political tool against the dutch colonisers, and sanctioned by japanese invaders who wished to spread propaganda to the villagers. 'temple gamelan' - musicians play while women bring ornately prepared offerings to the temple shrines on auspicious days of the hindu calendar. spirits and demons cannot live without food and drink, so the women fan the essence towards the divine recipient before offerings are placed on the ground to waiting dogs. smaller offerings made daily, are left at strategic points around the house and alongside the ricefields. 'frog sound' - the sound comes from the reed mouthpiece of the genggong harp. played by togog and his son. 'ducks' - every morning young boys and old men direct the family ducks out of their pens and along narrow paths into ricefields that are wet enough to paddle in. 'tenun' - the balinese weaving dance depicting women working at this traditional craft. 'anjung' - the name given to the hordes of semi-wild dogs that roam bali's villages, barking instinctively at any approaching white man. 'garuda' - indonesia's national symbol is the garuda bird. vishnu's chosen vehicle and thus the king of flight associated with creative energy. garuda is a dominant motif in indonesian art, the name of the national airline and the seal of the official state coat of arms, beneath which appears the words 'bhinneka tunggal ika' - literally 'many are there but there is only one'.

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threads:
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touch (uk) #t33.19 cd

ken ikedamerge” compact disc

  • merge
  • lightdark
  • cityscape
  • no beginning nor end
  • gate
  • usual path
  • yume (dream)
  • old moon in the arm of the new moon
  • ambiguity
  • equinoctial week
  • merged into a circle
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merge
touch # t33.19
cd - 54:30
11 tracks

ken ikeda writes:

i started to keep a sort of "sound diary" in 1990. and it has become a bulky record (over 140 tapes!) of improvisational, fragmental pieces of sound reflecting my everyday life over these years. the present album resulted from this "diary."

i avoided an ordinary way of making music, that is, editing and transforming sound sources into a fictional composition independent of any particular time and place. for me, the process was more important than the result. each note evolves following its own time and there is no hierarchy between them. everyday life is affluent in sounds which escape from being represented by symbols. behind a piece of sound exist numerous incidents. i did not try to throw light on them. i just wanted to present them as they were with their shades and shadows.

previous record label:
 tonschacht 
...and that's everything on touch in stock.
(why not take a look at the previous and next labels?)
next record label:
 touch sevens 
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... this page was last updated on sunday, may 19th, 2013 @ 7:13 pm