people like us / ergo phizmiz “withers in the waking” seven inch single record

• in the waking (5:55)
  
  
• withers in the whist (4:27)

mika vainio “behind the radiators” seven inch single record

• behind the radiators (1) (2:52)
  
  
• behind the radiators (2) (2:58)

fennesz “transition” seven inch single record

• on a desolate shore (5:14)
  
  
• a shadow passes by (3:21)

aer “project” seven inch single record

• headphones (3:05)
  
  
• speakers (3:05)

chris watson “oceanus pacificus” seven inch single record

• 3m
  
  
• 10m

nana april jun “the ontology of noise” compact disc

• the one substance
  
• process philosophy
  
• space-time continuum
  
• semantic shift
  
• sun wind darkness eye

jana winderen “heated: live in japan” compact disc

• tetsuro yasunaga (1:24)
  
• jana winderen (26:21)

lasse marhaug / nils henrik asheim “grand mutation” compact disc

• bordunal (15:53)
  
• phoneuma (13:48)
  
• magnaton (1:53)
  
• philomela (11:29)
  
• clavaeolina (13:29)

k.k. null / chris watson / z’ev “number one” compact disc

• invocation - kami, (the celestial) jupiter sight wood east spring dawn (8:20)
  
• introduction - man, (the warrior) mars speech fire south summer morning (9:44)
  
• development - woman, (the balance) saturn taste earth center late summer noon (12:03)
  
• climax - madness, (the trickster / fool) venus smell metal autumn dusk / sunset (9:40)
  
• conclusion - demon, (the super-natural) mercury hearing water north winter twilight (8:28)

“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)

fennesz “field 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)

jana winderen “débris” long playing record

• scuttling around in the shallows (11:25)
  
  
• drying out in the sun (16:01)

fennesz “seven stars” compact disc

• liminal (3:07)
  
• july (5:06)
  
• shift (6:47)
  
• seven stars (3:01)

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.

oren ambarchi “audience of one” compact disc

• salt (5:32)
  
• knots (33:23)
  
• passage (6:41)
  
• fractured mirror (8:20)

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

k.k. null “fertile” 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).

phill niblock “touch three” triple compact disc set

• triple-disc niblock feast !!!

• "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

• "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

• "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.

rosy parlane “jessamine” compact disc

• part one (13:13)
  
• part two (16:29)
  
• part three (19:08)

touch press release...

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

bj nilsen “fade 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)

touch press release...

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.

z’ev “headphone 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)

touch press release...

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].

rosy parlane “iris” compact disc

• part one (19:09)
  
• part two (18:14)
  
• part three (12:09)

touch press release...

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

philip jeck “stoke” compact disc

• above (5:59)
  
• lambing (4:48)
  
• vienna faults (6:08)
  
• pax (8:09)
  
• below (7:32)
  
• open (5:57)
  
• close (14:54)

touch press release...

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]

fennesz “venice” 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.

phill niblock “touch 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]

rafael toral “violence 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.

chris watson “weather 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.

rehberg & bauer “passt” 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

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.

chris watson “el 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)

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.

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)

touch press release...

+/- 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]

chris watson “stepping 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)

touch press release...

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