ambient, instrumental

Our ongoing investigations on soundcloud.

TheOfflinePeople digging Club

2nd cut

A Colour For Autumn is the second in a series of editions from Australian sound artist Lawrence English that trace the experience of seasonal transit. Following on from For Varying Degrees of Winter (published by Baskaru), A Colour For Autumn reflects on and explores the transitory nature of Autumn - counterpointing the uniformity of the ‘term’ with the varied qualities expressed by landscapes in different countries.

Like all environmental phenomena, seasonal variation is highly localised, and expressed not only visually through vegetation etc, but also sonically as insect life, leaves under foot and fauna all change in response to the climatic shifts. Northern and southern hemisphere experiences of Autumn are strikingly different and it’s also this contrast which rests at the very centre of A Colour For Autumn.

Recorded between 2007-2009, this series of pieces acts almost as small auditory portraits of given spaces in the often gentle throes of Autumn - ‘Droplet’ for example features field recordings gathered in Notre-Dame De La Garde in Marseilles, capturing the infamous ‘Mistral’ wind as it blows the first cooler breezes of Autumn into the city in 2007. By contrast ‘Watching It Unfold’ measures a more Australian experience of Autumn - a series of open static phrases, shifting ever so slightly - a reflection of the slow changes of the season around English’s home of Brisbane.

Working with a range of analog approaches, A Colour For Autumn is a tonally rich affair, sourcing much of it’s sounds from a mixture of instruments, field recordings and assorted electronics. A Colour For Autumn also features contributions from New Zealand’s Dean Roberts (whose vocals adorn the opening moments of the album) and Viennese musician Christian Fennesz, who offers intricate clusters of electronics in ‘The Surface Of Everything’.

This is an album of subtle variation, graded hues and tonal warmth, all of which act as an invitation for the listener to consider their own localised transition of Autumn.

Lawrence English - A Colour For Autumn

night#1

from the album "Holiday for Sampler" – (Planam, 2013)

Giuseppe Ielasi / Andrew Pekler - Vegas

Fire In My Heart - Kayhan Kalhor & Shujaat Hussain Khan

I just got these fresh valvocals from the mail. I listened to them and wept as they were like cotton buds touching a wet nipple.

Plans (shake your own tambourine)

A Colour For Autumn

Watching It Unfold

…And Cliuds For Company

…And Clouds For Company

Stillness of Motion

Stillness Of Motion

New York/Tokyo based Sawako is a musician, software designer, and multimedia artist whose multi-disciplinary works intermix and pollenate her music with inspiration ranging from nature, science, academia and poetic motion. Following releases on Anticipate and And/Oar, Bitter Sweet is Sawako's 2nd release on 12k after the critically acclaimed Hum (12k1035) in 2005. Her music is fragile and intimate, delicate, ephemeral and resonant. Bitter Sweet is unmistakably Sawako but finds itself moving into much, much deeper territory than her previous works. Building on her past forays into experimental pop, she uses low and mid-frequency drones and soft, melodic highlights to shape beds of stripped-down, shifting into hypnotic and very linear tracks that fill the space they exist. These gentle movements are punctuated by field recordings and acoustic instrumentation with cello provided by Jacob Kirkegaard and guitar by Radiosonde and Ryan Francesconi who also co-write two of the pieces on the album. In what has become a bit of a signature, Sawako lends her own voice to the ending lullaby "A Last Next." These combination produce rich results.

Bitter Sweet's diffuse and hazy soundscaping is Sawako's most mature work to date, relying less on her previous child-like melodies while remaining feminine and tender. She has come into her own after having established herself for a number of years as a New Yorker where she has tirelessly performed, studied and created as an important member of the city's electronic music community.

Bitter Sweet is packaged in a 6-panel digipack with photography throughout by Brooklyn-based artist and photographer Maki Kaoru.

bitter sweet

looped labyrinth, decayed voice

Looped Labyrinth, Decayed Voice

On his cd debut, UK sound artist Jodi Cave creates seven short compositions united by themes of singularity and natural randomness. One of the most immediate features of For Myria is its restrained sound palette. Like an instrumentalist who has laid a small collection of choice instruments out in front of him, Cave creates beautifully intimate collages, each touching on maybe only 2 or 3 sounds, woven together by computer processing which has been pushed into the background, utilized more as a compositional aid than a sound source. With instruments such as harmonium, clarinet, and guitar, through field recordings, stones, and scraps of metal, Cave paints a most introspective music in blurred swatches of minimal color... The tones are musical, delicate, punctured by the scraping of close-mic’d found objects rattling across the stereo field.

Cave’s choice of instrumentation helps him create pieces that exist as singular objects, each ebbing and shuffling with accidental dynamics. There is a very tactile and earthy feel to his work as he lets the sounds take a natural course, influencing and sculpting them with his own studio techniques.

Who (or what) is “Myria”? It is not known, but , Cave says... “It sounds yellow...”

for myria

for myria (two)

For Myria (Two)

Parallel Landscapes is the first solo full-length album from Swiss artist Steinbrüchel on 12k, despite his relationship with the label and apperances on compilations, collaborations (Status, with Frank Bretschneider (12k1033)) and EP releases (Mit Ohne, (12k2010)). It seems that Steinbrüchel was waiting for the right moment to release such an illustrious album that is not only a release of music but of visual art as well.

Parallel Landscapes consists of a compact disc in a cd wallet and a beautifully printed sixty page colour printed booklet with a laser stenciled wrap-around cover conceptualized and designed by Steinbrüchel featuring photographs from Taylor Deupree and an essay by Lawrence English. The booklet and cd wallet are housed in a slipcase printed inside and out in black and white on contrasting paperstocks.

The music on Parallel Landscapes was created with the design process in mind. Steinbrüchel engaged himself with ideas of «designing» music instead of making or writing music and about the importance of music existing with (or without) visual enhancement.

The ideas of landscape, while not new in the musical world, were prevalent throughout the creative process. Music vs. landscape, music as horizontal layers, drawing new curves (landscapes) over sound files, imposing one landscape onto another and hearing/seeing the results. However, the album isn¹t just about horizontal combinations but vertical inbetweens as well. What happens from one event to the next? What happens when events are combined? How does the addition of one object (audio, visual) redefine another object next to it? What happens to a table when a chair is placed in front of it? ... And how does all of this coalesce into sonic and visual space?

There¹s an incredible amount of exploratory thought behind Parallel Landscapes that make this one of Steinbrüchel¹s most ambitious projects to date. His music has become increasingly refined but always retaining his signature sound. Still using the ideas of sine waves and pure tones but now softened with time, his palette stretches across electronics into a variety of found and acoustic sources. Bell tones are in the forefront, interspersed with the soft crackles of noise and static. Tones are stretched across the visual plane like a bell being carried across the land forever duplicating itself. Parallel Landscapes is engaging and reflective and sets a new standard in Steinbrüchel¹s creative output.

Parallel Landscapes

From the upcoming Rekem Records LP, 'Bethnal Greener' (rekem 07).
rekemrecords.tumblr.com

Mastered by Jacques Beloeil. jacbeloeil.blogspot.co.uk/

The ghost in the typewriter (for Leif Elggren)

12k is happy to present the debut release on the label from Argentinian composer Federico Durand who has had a series of amazing releases on labels such as Spekk, Own, and Desire Path. Federico and 12k crossed paths on a tour of Japan together in 2014 where the personal friendships among the artists and the label are such a part of what 12k is about. Sharing music and ideas throughout the tour led to an invite to make an album.

It’s no accident that Federico’s music has a dusty air of nostalgia surrounding it. It has always been a very personal affair. Songs inspired family, local life and the world around him are woven by hand with a selection of very physical instruments. He works like a craftsman, piecing together fragments of sound from cassette recorders, small instruments and loopers and creates music that’s as softspoken as he is. No pretenses, no disguises, just the most honest and down-to-earth music that can be made. Broken melodies spinning from tape reels, the sounds of bells and small found objects being played with care... The music is as beautiful as it is introspective, like a small window of antique glass looking right into Federico’s soul.

In his own words:

“A través del espejo in Spanish means “Through the mirror”. I am fascinated with the experience of putting a mirror in front of another: as a miracle, the image turns in a loop that flows into infinity. Loops in the mirror get less clear with each repetition, the color becomes diffuse and greener. When these loops turn into a lullaby we can enter the other side of the mirror: a place of delight and insight.

I always make simple melodies as they are born free. In many pieces, I use cassette recorders as an instrument that play friendly with others such as piano, lyre, toys, bells or effects. I enjoy the possibilities of cutting tape and making loops, reversing, and even using many tape recorders at the same time making air recordings of the sound. The Roland Space Echo or 2880, which are loop-machines themselves, match perfectly with this way of working.

When I see an emboridery I enjoy both the front and back where a mysterious, invisible world suddenly appears. For this reason, I am grateful to the natural sounds made by the machines, the crackle of loops and other sounds that appear while working, as an unexpected gift.

A través del espejo is a dream of beauty, A love of handcrafted music.” 

- Federico Durand

A Través Del Espejo

El jardín encantado (The enchanted garden)

12k is happy to present the debut release on the label from Argentinian composer Federico Durand who has had a series of amazing releases on labels such as Spekk, Own, and Desire Path. Federico and 12k crossed paths on a tour of Japan together in 2014 where the personal friendships among the artists and the label are such a part of what 12k is about. Sharing music and ideas throughout the tour led to an invite to make an album.

It’s no accident that Federico’s music has a dusty air of nostalgia surrounding it. It has always been a very personal affair. Songs inspired family, local life and the world around him are woven by hand with a selection of very physical instruments. He works like a craftsman, piecing together fragments of sound from cassette recorders, small instruments and loopers and creates music that’s as softspoken as he is. No pretenses, no disguises, just the most honest and down-to-earth music that can be made. Broken melodies spinning from tape reels, the sounds of bells and small found objects being played with care... The music is as beautiful as it is introspective, like a small window of antique glass looking right into Federico’s soul.

In his own words:

“A través del espejo in Spanish means “Through the mirror”. I am fascinated with the experience of putting a mirror in front of another: as a miracle, the image turns in a loop that flows into infinity. Loops in the mirror get less clear with each repetition, the color becomes diffuse and greener. When these loops turn into a lullaby we can enter the other side of the mirror: a place of delight and insight. 
I always make simple melodies as they are born free. In many pieces, I use cassette recorders as an instrument that play friendly with others such as piano, lyre, toys, bells or effects. I enjoy the possibilities of cutting tape and making loops, reversing, and even using many tape recorders at the same time making air recordings of the sound. The Roland Space Echo or 2880, which are loop-machines themselves, match perfectly with this way of working.

When I see an emboridery I enjoy both the front and back where a mysterious, invisible world suddenly appears. For this reason, I am grateful to the natural sounds made by the machines, the crackle of loops and other sounds that appear while working, as an unexpected gift.

A través del espejo is a dream of beauty, A love of handcrafted music.”

- Federico Durand

Linternas junto a la laguna (Lanterns beside the lake)

RÊVE PARISIEN features four new Rhys Chatham compositions that were performed live at Kassay's exhibition at Art: Concept in Paris in 2010, and loosely functions as an audio catalogue to the exhibition.

RÊVE PARISIEN contains compositions that were both performed live and used as a soundtrack through Kassay’s exhibition. These compositions mark a change in direction for Chatham, who has abandoned the trumpet style he developed in the nineties for a non-distorted, less effects-driven sound that compliments his minimalist compositions and his free jazz training. The LP is packaged in a stunning gatefold with an arced die-cut cover, which was designed by Jacob Kassay in collaboration with Frank Napolski.

Rhys Chatham- Un chanson si vieille

from the organized music from thessaloniki release, 'A Void'. Available as CD or free download: https://thesorg.bandcamp.com/album/a-void

A void is a space to be filled.

Down there (là-bas)

Hamza-El-Din- -Shams-Esh shamusa

From: Love Me Oh Please Love Me EP
Label: DEEK
Buy: shop.bullionness.com
Credits: Nathan Jenkins - Vocals, Electric Guitars, Synths, Drum Machines
Juliano Flori - Percussion

Save Your Lubb

Side A (excerpt) from the upcoming debut LP 'Two Words' by Australian musician Francis Plagne & Canadian sound artist crys cole.

Two Words 
Francis Plagne & crys cole 
On Black Truffle Records 
Release date: July 27, 2018 
BT035

Cover Painting by Anne Wallace (AU)
Words by Marty Hiatt 
Mixed with Joe Talia @ Good Mixture in Tokyo, JP
Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker @ D&M Berlin

two words side A edit

IN C #4 for Terry Riley

Unmastered, normalized version of an archived track.
Funky ooze.
(Personal or DJ use only)

Funky Ooze (Audio 1#01 - December 16 2010 - Unmastered, Archived)

some bits off the Tapeworm edition, 'Second Saturation'. Following up on Arctic Saturation, this is a “live” record of sorts, its mood and good chunk of material captured live at a gig in Stockholm, there was a quad PA which made the whole room shake, and luckily some of that sound carries over to the tape. The rest is me in a little lonely room overlooking the garden in Haringey trying to do dub ambient field recordings on the B-side.

http://touchshop.org/product_info.php?products_id=860

Second Saturation (excerpts)

Recorded in my living room on a rainy autumn weekend.

Erik Satie: Gymnopedies No 1-3

With over 100 physical releases since its inception by Taylor Deupree in 1997, New York-based music label 12k has decisively defined and developed the concept of minimalism in the realms of electronic music for more than a decade. Fusing elements from Ambient and Electro-Acoustic Composition with carefully arranged digital textures and associative micro-noises, the label's aesthetics revolve around a precisely-outlined, yet deeply emotional concoction of the technological and the organic. Eschewing the typical marketing mechanisms of the commercial music industry, Deupree has sculpted a platform whose influence today extends well beyond the confinements of the experimental community. 12k's integral approach, in which the label's instantly recognizable, elegantly spartan artwork enters into an inseparable symbiosis with the music, has created a timeless audiovisual language respected and appreciated all over the world.