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 touch sevens 
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new to stock as of
november 25th, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
modern-composition

touch (uk) #ts 08 ep
touch sevens (uk) #ts 08 ep

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

  • in the waking (5:55)

  • withers in the whist (4:27)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "in the waking"
november 2008 release ; entirely charming pair of pop-songs from vicki bennett & ergo phizmiz, featuring the pair singing over a bed of instrumentation & perrey & kingsley-lineage sound-effect cut-ups ...

something of a red herring in the scope of the series thusfar, but possibly the only entrant thusfar to stay true to the humble 7” record’s origins ...
touch press release...
ts08 people like us & ergo phizmiz: withers in the waking

the 8th in the series of touch sevens, and the first to introduce melodic narrative. both songs are results of the wfmu podcast series "codpaste", in which vicki & ergo publicly composed a series of collage compositions, deconstructing their respective practices, and a live soundtrack to christian marclay's "screenplay". the series and soundtrack resulted in the online only album "rhapsody in glue", from which these two songs are alternative versions.

"withers in the whist" takes one of vicki & ergo's current staple obsessions: the melody line of prokofiev's 'troika' from the lieutenant kije soundtrack (originally used in v & e's work during a particularly snowy sequence of the marclay film). this treatment dispenses with sampling entirely, instead using instruments to create variations on prokofiev's deceptively simple melody-line, tied together with impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. it is playing with prokofiev like a bad child who loves it's toys.

"in the waking" began with ergo replaying with multitracked guitars the main melodic motifs vicki collaged in the composition "carmic waltz", with vicki then ornamenting the guitars with splashes of colour like a real painter of sound, all blended into a pot of carnival steam with ergo's wordplay. it is a fantasy for the dream the fairground has when the world is sleeping, but only takes place five minutes before the carousel wakes up

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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$7.27

back in stock as of
october 3rd, 2008

first in stock on
july 21st, 2008

threads:
playback-music
machine-music
sound-art
electro-acoustic-composition

touch (uk) #ts 06 ep
touch sevens (uk) #ts 06 ep

mika vainio “behind the radiators” seven inch single record

  • behind the radiators (1) (2:52)

  • behind the radiators (2) (2:58)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "behind the radiators (2)"
july 2008 release ; a surface-noise heavy experiment (no, it’s not a bad pressing ; quite the opposite actually) from pan(a)sonic’s mika vainio ... the natural rhythms of record lead-in/out grooves are abetted by a machine-music lineage static cloud, which, of course, ends in a locked groove on each side ...
touch press release...
ts06 mika vainio: behind the radiators

recorded in berlin, february 2008. special thank you for lary 7.

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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$7.27

back in stock as of
october 3rd, 2008

first in stock on
january 25th, 2008

threads:
digital-musics
guitar-themed

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

fennesz “transition” 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 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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$7.27

back in stock as of
october 3rd, 2008

first in stock on
july 21st, 2008

threads:
field-recordings
minimalism-drones
electro-acoustic-composition

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

aer “project” seven inch single record

  • headphones (3:05)

  • speakers (3:05)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "speakers"
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 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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back in stock as of
october 3rd, 2008

first in stock on
october 31st, 2007

threads:
field-recordings

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

chris watson “oceanus pacificus” seven inch single record

  • 3m

  • 10m
touch 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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$7.27

back in stock as of
november 25th, 2008

first in stock on
march 28th, 2008

threads:
digital-musics
modern-composition
concert-recordings
electro-acoustic-composition

touch (uk) #ts 01 ep
touch sevens (uk) #ts 01 ep

fennesz / philip jeck / charles matthews “amoroso” seven inch single record

  • fennesz plays charles matthews

  • philip jeck plays charles matthews
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "fennesz plays charles matthews"
touch press release...
ts01 fennesz - jeck - matthews: amoroso

side a: fennesz plays charles matthews
side b: philip jeck plays charles matthews

charles matthews plays the grand organ in york minster, during spire live on 20th january 2007.
this release is a homage to arvo pärt ...

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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$16.49

new to stock as of
february 24th, 2009

threads:
digital-musics
black-metal
electro-acoustic-composition

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

nana april jun “the ontology of noise” compact disc

  • the one substance
  • process philosophy
  • space-time continuum
  • semantic shift
  • sun wind darkness eye
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "the one substance"
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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$12.59

new to stock as of
february 24th, 2009

threads:
field-recordings
concert-recordings

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

jana winderen “heated: live in japan” compact disc

  • tetsuro yasunaga (1:24)
  • jana winderen (26:21)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "heated: live in japan"
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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$15.59

back in stock as of
february 24th, 2009

first in stock on
may 10th, 2007

threads:
digital-musics
minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #tone 32 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 32 cd

fennesz / ryuichi sakamoto “cendre” compact disc

  • oto (3:49)
  • aware (4:46)
  • haru (4:39)
  • trace (5:46)
  • kuni (2:24)
  • mono (4:13)
  • kokoro (4:16)
  • cendre (3:09)
  • amorph (5:58)
  • glow (7:12)
  • abyss (5:38)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "kuni"
touch press release...
fennesz sakamoto
cendre
touch #tone 32
release date: 28th may 2007

cd - extended digipac
artwork and photography by jon wozencroft
11 tracks - 51:56

this is the highly anticipated full-length collaborative release by christian fennesz and ryuichi sakamoto, following the 19-minute cd ep overture, sala santa cecilia (a completely separate release which is not included here).

this release features a massive duet between worldwide laptop guru fennesz (guitar/laptop) and japanese electronic music legend sakamoto (piano/laptop) -- a continuing collaboration between two much-lauded composers.

every once in a great while, a collaboration comes along which hints at a brighter future, a collision of giants that indicates a convergence of method and music. this is one such event. cendre was recorded between 2004 and 2006 in new york city by ryuichi sakamoto and in vienna by christian fennesz. fennesz would send sakamoto a guitar or electronic track and sakamoto would compose his piano piece. this process was also reversed -- sakamoto initiating the track with a piano composition and fennesz responding. meanwhile, they met for live shows, or communicated via digital means to compare notes, swap ideas and develop themes. and the cyclical process continued right up until the final mix.

christian fennesz is far and away the standard-bearer of laptop music, his thawed sound of fractured guitar chords and warm noise melts hearts around the world. ryuichi sakamoto, meanwhile, has been a contributing force in electronic music for almost three decades in yellow magic orchestra, not to mention his vast solo oeuvre. this remarkable duo blends the unstructured and imaginative qualities of improvisation with the satisfying sculpture of composition. sakamoto's piano, his style reminiscent of debussy and satie, perfectly complements fennesz with his powerful blend of shimmering guitar and passionate electronics. together they have combined to create 11 tracks of satisfying and challenging possibilities.

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$16.49

back in stock as of
february 24th, 2009

first in stock on
july 21st, 2008

threads:
electro-acoustic-composition
minimalism-drones
field-recordings

touch (uk) #tone 31 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 31 cd

lawrence english “kiri no oto” compact disc

  • organs lost at sea (4:42)
  • soft fuse (6:52)
  • white spray (5:08)
  • waves sheer light (5:23)
  • commentary (4:30)
  • allay (5:21)
  • figure's lone static (7:26)
  • oamura (3:49)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "figure's lone static"
july 2008 release ; new music from my man in brisbane / room40 founder lawrence english ...
touch press release...
tone 31 - lawrence english "kiri no oto"
released: 2008

cd - 8 tracks - 43:10
photography & design: jon wozencroft
mastered by denis blackham

the japanese phrase 'kiri no oto' loosely translates to the 'sound of fog' or 'sound of mist'. in many ways it's a collection that meditates on the sense of displacement and distortion that occurs in environments which undergo extreme mists, snowstorms and sea sprays. in the same way that visual objects loose their perspective, form and shape in these environments, the sound components that make up kiri no oto are not quite as they first might appear.

utilising a range of divergent mixing techniques, analog filtering and 'harmonic' distortion, kiri no oto offers an expansive sound space in which the listener must choose to position themselves. focus, like that in a fog, is in a constant state of flux as elements are brought into and out of perspective.

the first in a series of records employing this technique, kiri no oto explores the richness in the frequencies that are usually associated with extremes of volume and through this process the recordings position 'the ear' itself as 'another layer of auditory fog' as it begins to distort and alter the sounds it comes in contact with.

the sounds sources for kiri no oto emanate from both instruments and found sound, with recordings on this edition made in poland, new zealand, australia and japan.

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$15.59

back in stock as of
february 24th, 2009

first in stock on
june 22nd, 2007

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

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

  • bordunal (15:53)
  • phoneuma (13:48)
  • magnaton (1:53)
  • philomela (11:29)
  • clavaeolina (13:29)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "bordunal"
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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$15.59

back in stock as of
february 24th, 2009

first in stock on
november 22nd, 2006

threads:
field-recordings
electro-acoustic-composition

touch (uk) #tone 27 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 27 cd

chris watson / bj nilsen “storm” compact disc

  • chris watson - no man's land (15:51)
  • chris watson & bj nilsen - sigwx (18:50)
  • bj nilsen - austrvegr (15:28)
touch press release...
storm
chris watson ¬ bjnilsen
touch # tone 27

chris watson writes:

“during december 2000 several significant storm fronts developed across the north sea and scandinavia.

benny remarked to me that he had recorded some of these on the baltic coast and proposed a collaborative cd project based around our mutual interests in the rhythms and music created when the elements combine over land and out to sea.

we spent the next few years gathering recordings on our respective coastlines and islands during the very active weather windows during the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. this was focused around our following one particular cyclonic system, which veers over snipe point on lindisfarne to the isle of may in the firth of forth, and finally descends upon öland and gotland where benny listened in with a favourite pair of sennheiser omnidirectional microphones.”

chris watson
newcastle upon tyne august 2006

track listing and notes:

1. chris watson - no man's land 15:51

late october on the strands of budle bay where dense layers of transient alien voices are swamped by a full moon tide creeping across the island’s silver causeway.

now lapping out of the gathering gloom an immersive sea wash is filling then draining away carrying slow currents from here to another place.

there are no reference points in this darkness.

glimmer dawn in the gaping mouth of a sea cave below tarbet gulley where the siren songs of cromarty, forth & tyne ebb and flow with the swell.

draw in close but hear now a fresh voice from beyond the horizon.

recorded during the months of october & november from 2000 to 2005 on the north east coast of england and scotland. microphones; sennheiser 2 x mkh 110's binaural pair, mkh 60/30 m&s rig, dpa 2 x 4060's spaced omnis. recorders; nagra lv-s, nagra pll and sound devices 744t. edited and mixed in boston july 2006

2. bjnilsen & chris watson – sigwx 18:50

viking, forties; cyclonic north east gale 8 backing north later 3 to 4.thundery rain, moderate to good.

mixed in boston and stockholm june & july 2006

3. bjnilsen – austrvegr 15:28

a black ruthless sea. heavy winds making it impossible to stand up straight, icy rain hitting your face like needles.

recorded on the southeast coast of islands gotland and öland, sweden, using a pair of sennheiser 110 binaural mics straight to a tascam da p1 dat during december 2003 and july 2004. locations used included cottages, sheds, barns, fields and the coast. edited and mixed in stockholm 2006

...

chris watson

a sound recordist with 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. he has released 3 solo cds for touch: 'outside the circle of fire' [1998], 'stepping into the dark' [1996], 'weather report' [2003] and one album, 'star switch on' [2002, tone 18], features recordings based on his work by aer, biosphere, fennesz, hazard, philip jeck, mika vainio as well as two original recordings by chris. 'stepping into the dark' won an award of distinction at the 2000 prix ars electronica festival in linz, austria.

bjnilsen

bjnilsen lives and works in stockholm, sweden, born in 1975. he has been active with experimental music and sound since the early 1990s with various constellations. since 1999 he has been releasing records as hazard on the uk labels ash international and touch, making music and sound for documentary film, television and commercials. he is focused on the sound of nature and its effect on humans, field recordings and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound, sometimes electronically treated.

he has released various albums for touch and ash international. his last solo release was 'fade to white' [touch, 2005] and he collaborated with chris watson on 'wind' [ash international, 2001] and 'land' [touch, 2002].

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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)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "bj nilsen - gotland "
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 24 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 24 cd

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)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "invocation"
touch press release...
kk.null/chris watson/z'ev
number one
cd - 5 tracks - 48:15
touch # tone 24
artwork & photography: jon wozencroft

z'ev writes: "in march of 2003 seeing my friends stephen & josephine in los angeles they suggested that i get in touch with japanese composer/performer kk.null. there followed a string of weird email occurrences which delayed our communicating until, as it turned out, we eventually met in paris on 18 november.after his performance we were talking about a possible collaboration and during his set a possibility had occurred to me. i ran the idea by him and we agreed to proceed with it. the idea had 3 elements:

1 - to use the structure of the noh theatre cycle as the basis for the composition.
2 – to consider the initial sound development in terms of developing ‘characters’ which would then interact with one another through the specific “scene” [which is a fairly non-traditional way to work with sound elements] and
3 – to place the ‘character interactions’ as the 'figure' inside of particular sound-scapes as the ‘ground'.

so in january 2004 i returned to london and began to work on my initial character developments. coincidentally at this time i received a copy of a cd compilation i had a piece on which was released by touch, which also had a piece by chris watson. so i got on the phone to touch who put me in touch with chris who has joined in on the project.

sometime after i had completed mixing the 5 pieces, i sent a copy to my friend boyd rice. he emailed me back: "this is the first avant-garde piece i have heard in years that is truly avant-garde."

in the production process, z'ev framed his and kk.null's electro-acoustic musics inside chris watson's field recordings from east africa. a dynamic dialogue and inside-outside mirroring of natural and synthetic sound is the result: where the click and rhythm of an insect merges with kk.null's drumming; where the calls of the elephants combine with the electronic bass frequencies; where bird and frog song and z'ev's harmonic structures produces surprising counterpoints.

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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 19 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 19 cd

organum / z’ev “tinnitus vu” compact disc

  • i (4:40)
  • ii (3:54)
  • iii (4:09)
  • iv (3:33)
touch press release...
long long ago and far far away... holiday season 1999 & i was in london, & my dear friend barbara took me to dinner at the house of her friend olivia -- round the corner & down the block & olivia had invited her friend david jackman (aka organum) there also -- and so we met.

fast forward... it's july 2003 & i'm in london again & will be here for a while so i see if i can hook up w/ mr. jackman again. thus begins a search for the man himself -- thanks here to brainwashed & robot records for facilitating this flow of info -- so we meet one sunday afternoon in the hottest summer london has ever seen at the crown & greyhound for a bit of a chat.

the next day mr. jackman is going into the studio to record some source for a new series of compositions & invites me by. there am i bright & early (but certainly not bushytailed) at 11 am in the morn (just about the middle of the night for me actually). but anyway. during the some breaks in his process we retire to a most delightful garden behind the studio & chit & chat & get around to a major congruence -- ie, our hearing -- or, in fact, our various lacks of it to be precise and go onto getting into details regarding the intricacies of our varying degrees of tinnitus.

that was the impetus behind david offering to give me a copy of the session to dirty my hands w/ -- as i did. anyway -- one treatment led to another & david came by for dinner & i played him some early results & it seems he was enthused. he came by for dinner again & he heard the initial 4 treatments & so began the talks about this actually becoming a collaborative project that would release product.

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touch (uk) #tone 17 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 17 cd

hazard “land” compact disc

  • substation (11:18)
  • church (5:33)
  • old lead mine (4:37)
  • lock (1:26)
  • windmill (8:04)
  • stile (0:59)
  • kissing gate (7:34)
touch press release...
touch # tone 17
cd
7 tracks - 39:38.37

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

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)
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 11 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 11 cd

john duncan “tap internal” compact disc

  • tap internal (46:47)
2000 release by john duncan containing a single piece seeking out various pleasure-centers ... out of print ...

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touch (uk) #tone 02 cd
touch tone (uk) #tone 02 cd

etant donnes “royaume” compact disc

  • royaume (7:16)
  • matin (3:46)
  • 4 (3:15)
  • bleu (7:41)
touch press release...
this is the 2nd cd released by eric and marc. the 4 tracks on this cd, royaume, matin, quatre, bleu, form the soundtrack to a powerful ritual carried out by brothers eric and marc hurtado that celebrate the awesome force and forceful beauty of the natural world.

the fantastic sounds you hear are sourced from the a series of field recordings made by etant donnes, but not in the manner of a wildlife documentary. the two brothers approach recordings as part of their whole performance ritual, with great attention to detail given to each context within which these sounds originate. the end result seems of another dimension entirely, but you realize that it is right here, surrounding you.

presented with a 12pp full-color booklet that includes poetry and stills from the film royaume.

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touch (uk) #to:cdr5 cd

bj nilsen “live konzerthaus, vienna” compact disc

  • live konzerthaus vienna (37:53)
touch press release...
touch #to:cdr5
1 track - 37:53
cd in slip case with b/w sticker

the 5th in the live recording series

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:75 cd

bj nilsen “the short night” compact disc

  • front
  • finisterre
  • pole of inaccessibility
  • viking, cromarty...
  • black light
  • icing station
  • viking north
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "black light"
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. 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)."

biography

in 1981 kk null studied at butoh dancer, min tanaka's "mai-juku" workshop and started his career by performing guitar improvisations in the clubs in tokyo. he continued by collaborating with merzbow for two years, and joining the band ybo2 (with tatsuya yoshida, drummer of ruins) and starting the improvized noise/rock trio absolut null punkt (with seijiro murayama, the original drummer of keiji haino's fushitsusha).

in 1985 he established his own label nux organization to produce & release his own works and subsequently the bands such as melt-banana and space streakings. he also produced the series of "dead tech" (compilation albums by japanese bands) which heralded a japanese alternative music boom internationally from the early 90's to date.

in the early 90's he gained world-wide recognition as the mastermind, guitarist and singer of the progressive hardcore trio zeni geva with their extremely heavy sound, releasing five albums produced by steve albini (two on jello biafra's alternative tentacles label) and a few more on other labels such as neurosis's neurot recordings. also zeni geva recorded twice for john peel sessions on bbc, and toured heavily throughout europe, usa, australia, new zealand and japan, playing hundreds of concerts.

throughout, kk null has worked on his solo career and collaborated with other musical innovators such as z'ev & chris watson, [number one, released on touch in 2005], daniel menche, keiji haino, seiichi yamamoto, jon rose, bill horist, philip samartzis, alexei borisov, zbigniew karkowski, james plotkin, jim o'rourke, fred frith, john zorn to name a few, and has been invited to perform at international festivals such as "sonar" in barcelona (spain), "beyond innocence" in kobe (japan), "exiles" in berlin (germany), "international sound art festival" in mexico city (mexico), "sergey kuryokhin international festival (skif-6 & 8)" in st.petersburg & moscow (russia), "x-peripheria" in budapest (hungary), "totally huge new music festival" in perth (australia), "avanto helsinki media art festival" in helsinki (finland), "all tomorrow's parties uk" and more.

after playing the guitar as his main instrument for some twenty years, kk null has gradually moved towards a more electronic approach. in recent years he has concentrated his efforts on his solo & collaborative recordings, exploring the outer territories of electronica his intense clashing wave of noise, structured electro-acoustic ambience, broken down rhythmics, scattered pitch sculptures, droning isolationist material could be described "cosmic noise maximal/minimalism".

at present kk null has more than 100 recordings released (inc. solo, bands, collaborations, compilations).

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touch (uk) #to:63 cd

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].

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back in stock as of
march 7th, 2008

first in stock on
january 27th, 2006

threads:
guitar-themed
modern-composition
minimalism-drones

touch (uk) #to:61 cd

oren ambarchi “grapes from the estate” compact disc

  • corkscrew (9:43)
  • girl with the silver eyes (9:40)
  • remedios the beauty (15:37)
  • stars aligned
  • webs spun (20:40)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "corkscrew"
touch press release...
touch # to:61
cd
4 tracks - 55:44

oren ambarchi's third solo project for touch [after suspension and insulation] sees him reaching beyond the work for electric guitar that he's become recognised for, expanding his palette and taking his investigations into another sphere entirely. grapes from the estate features new instrumentation (strings, tuned bells, percussion and others that can only be guessed at), but the singular and unmistakable influence that ambarchi exerts on these new materials is what makes it such an indelible work.

there is a reconciliation of his love of song-based music and his determination to deal in pure sound. the result is a work that truly eludes such arbitrary definitions. grapes from the estate is an all consuming experience that draws the listener out of an ordinary sense of time, into a world beyond it.

on more than any other release, his entire body of work to date can be experienced in a single statement. there are the seemingly random tonal structures that are such a large part of his vocabulary, the playfulness and humour of his formative noise schooling, his love of free jazz, of pop music, and rhythmic elements, perhaps subconsciously derived from his sephardic heritage. another outpouring of personal, intimate and enduring music from oren ambarchi.

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back in stock as of
february 24th, 2009

first in stock on
october 19th, 2006

threads:
playback-music

touch (uk) #to:56 cd

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)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "vienna faults"
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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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back in stock as of
june 22nd, 2007

first in stock on
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threads:
electro-acoustic-composition

touch (uk) #to:54 cd

mika vainio “in the land of the blind one-eyed is king” compact disc

  • sunder here, sailor (1:10)
  • it is existing (8:30)
  • ahriman (4:35)
  • he was a sound sometimes (9:50)
  • colour of plants (6:53)
  • streets (1:07)
  • motel (3:23)
  • snowblind (6:30)
  • further, higher! (1:59)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "se on olemassa (it is existing)"
touch press release...
touch # to:54
cd - 44:03
9 tracks

generally speaking, contemporary musicians produce too much stuff. it is easy to do. but if you feel like sighing, "oh, it's another mika vainio cd", then mr vainio himself has anticipated such sentiments with the opening track, a 2 minute blast which sounds like an angry animal breaking free of its cage. what follows is probably vainio’s most accomplished work to date, a series of rich soundscapes whose beauty is always on the edge of darkness.

"in the land of the blind one-eyed is king" is mika vainio’s 3rd solo cd for touch, after kajo [to:43, 2000] and onko [to:34, 1997]. best known as one-half of pan sonic [blast first], mika is from finland and now lives in berlin.

not wanting to bang a drum, anyone who has been invigorated by the work of mika and ilpo in pan sonic will be keen to hear these more pastoral takes on their more propulsive sound – in places, being reminiscent of artemyev's recordings for tarkovsky films, in others, suggesting sound recordings of frogs and insect life. all framed by the distinct touch of mika vainio, who confirms his long–standing reputation as one of the most acute musicians of our times.

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back in stock as of
june 22nd, 2007

first in stock on
march 30th, 2007

threads:
analogue-synth
electro-acoustic-composition

touch (uk) #to:51 cd

locust “wrong” 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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march 7th, 2008

first in stock on
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threads:
field-recordings

touch (uk) #to:47 cd

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.

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back in stock as of
june 22nd, 2007

first in stock on
march 30th, 2007

threads:
digital-musics
concert-recordings

touch (uk) #to:45 cd

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
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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back in stock as of
march 28th, 2008

first in stock on
november 6th, 2003

threads:
field-recordings

touch (uk) #to:37 cd

chris watson “outside 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.
touch press release...
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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threads:
minimalism-drones
electro-acoustic-composition
beat-research

touch (uk) #to:31 cd

mark van hoen “last flowers from the darkness” compact disc

  • 1967 (5:50)
  • another light casts its will (4:49)
  • night sky alternatives (7:46)
  • the once green hill (3:01)
  • suggestions (3:57)
  • xenophobe (4:44)
  • vessel of flight (4:59)
  • channel of light (5:25)
  • a glimmer of forgotten ancestors (23:30)
touch press release...
mark van hoen - the last flowers from the darkness

touch # to:31
cd
9 tracks - 64:07

 mark van hoen / info

look out for a new album on touch in 2001. mark also records as locust, late of r&s records in belgium, and also produced scala. he also released aurobindo: involution with daren seymour (seefeel/scala) on ash international. 

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new to stock as of
june 22nd, 2007

touch (uk) #to:14 lp

soliman gamil “ankh” long playing record

  • ,dance of ka
  • lamentation
  • pharoah funeral process
  • isis looks for osiris
  • supplication
  • echoes of memphis
  • dance of gaiety
  • shadows in the desert

  • alexandrian dance
  • cairo at dawn
  • dance of the campaign
  • village and town
  • ghost dance
  • dervish dance
  • clown dance
touch press release...
ankh
touch # to:14
lp and cassette
15 tracks

this is the 2nd release for touch by soliman gamil, after the egyptian music [touch # to:7]

ankh is the egyptian symbol of life, of fertility and of growth. from the rich tonality of dance of ka to the exuberant clown dance, soliman gamil draws on ancient egyptian culture to create soundscapes that transcend the stereotypes handed down from films like cleopatra; in the process they also challenge the shrink-wrapped mentality of 'world music'.

on ankh, soliman gamil plays 17 different instruments on 15 new compositions written and recorded since the 1960s. the cover comes complete with full colour artwork that features a painting by panni charrington.

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new to stock as of
june 22nd, 2007

threads:
sound-art
electro-acoustic-composition

touch (uk) #t33.17 cd

ken ikeda “tzuki [moon]” compact disc

  • manifest destiny (1:25)
  • evolution (3:41)
  • yawarakai hada (3:30)
  • tzuki (moon) (5:03)
  • in between frames (2:15)
  • infinitely gray (4:28)
  • borderland (4:45)
  • 444 (4:35)
  • looking for the moon (4:21)
  • hydantol (5:19)
  • flicker (5:21)
  • motion pictures (3:10)
touch press release...
tzuki [moon]
touch # t33.17
cd
12 tracks - 48 minutes

"this work has as its purpose taking samples from old movies and, by erecting a memorial for the blanks between frames, communicating with the god of images and attracting that holy being. i will be happy if, by saying a mass for our ancestors, i can reconstruct the time of darkness and the energy of the universe and so reach the far ends of the space between frames. honouring the place our outer eyes cannot see is most necessary for our present-day materialistic society and for our virtual value standards."

having been recently featured in the hayward gallery's "sonic boom" exhibition for his collaboration with the japanese video artist mariko mori, tzuki [moon] is ken ikeda's first cd release in his own right... hypnotic sound-fields strangely reminiscent of early durrutti column.

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new to stock as of
june 22nd, 2007

threads:
folk

touch (uk) #t33.15 cd

soliman gamil “map of egypt” compact disc

  • dance of ka (2:39)
  • melody of nile (2:17)
  • pharoah funeral process (6:15)
  • sacred lake (1:39)
  • the sinsimia (2:35)
  • melody of love (1:28)
  • dervish dance (1:59)
  • sufi dialogue (5:29)
  • promenade on the nile (7:36)
  • rhythmic dialogue (1:59)
  • valley of the kings and queens (2:28)
  • collecting the harvest (2:21)
  • inshad (2:27)
  • improvisation libre (3:04)
  • pretense and destiny (2:44)
  • ghost dance (2:00)
  • echoes of memphis (3:58)
  • supplication (1:36)
  • clown dance (1:36)
touch press release...
a map of egypt before the sands
touch # t33.15
cd
19 tracks - 56:20

soliman gamil is a musicologist and composer who lived and worked in cairo, egypt. born in 1924, his soundtracks for theatre and film have won international awards. his compositions are frequently used for radio and television. soliman gamil died in 1995.

the catalogue wrote in 1988: "instead of trying to create an atmosphere, this record reflects one. from the opening seconds of melody of nile, you are there - lying in the sand, lips sore, throat parched, staring at the huge river. quite why this record works when so may other atmospheric records just irritate, i do not know. there are no traditional synth sounds or strange electronic wave noises, just really interesting sounds, alien tunes. the egyptian music is wonderfully refreshing." the observer noted: "gamil mixes past and present into a remarkable organic whole."

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... this page was last updated on thursday, march 18th, 2010 @ 8:12 pm