My track on the first Virtual Ground release/self-titled compilation [VGA001]; acting as the respite after being pummelled into the ground by the other upcoming electronic and dance music producers featured. 

Improvised cello loops and audio-reactive synthesizers, processed arranged, and layered.

Full compilation/free download:
https://virtualground.bandcamp.com/album/virtual-ground

Perot [VGA001]

Recorded / Mosaicked 2017 Onwards
Electroacoustic post-rock and free jazz homunculi
2 x Single / EP / Mini-Album

Two tracks that have been kicking around for far too long in various states of gestation; my early outings working with other musicians and forays into overt genre references - in particular post-rock, free improvisation, minimalism, spiritual jazz, and metal.

Sonder - n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

A skeleton of a drum improvisation (reacting to field recordings and cello loops) scaffolded by post-produced layers of what inspired it, and my own electronic/cello reactions to the structure that emerged.

Info/Download: https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/album/anhinga-sonder

ANHINGA / Sonder

Sonder

Recorded / Mosaicked 2017 Onwards
Electroacoustic post-rock and free jazz homunculi
2 x Single / EP / Mini-Album

Two tracks that have been kicking around for far too long in various states of gestation; my early outings working with other musicians and forays into overt genre references - in particular post-rock, free improvisation, minimalism, spiritual jazz, and metal.

ANHINGA - 'Snake Bird' - a large waterbird with a long tail, a long S-shaped neck, and a daggerlike bill.

Built around two serendipitous recordings; Two guitar/looper experiments that happened to perfectly sync up, and an improvisation with an Ebow slowly running out of battery.

Info/Download: https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/album/anhinga-sonder

ANHINGA

Download // https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/album/salvaged-space

Recordings::

Andelain Wind Chime (23.12.16) 
Boiling Egg Percussion (02.08.16) 
Cathedral LC Organ (17.05.16) 
Delay Drone Loop Jam (13.09.16) 
Instrument Tent (15.07.16) 
Uketar (26.01.17)

---------------------------------

WRITTEN AND RECORDED 
between 2014-2018 in many different places 
sound collage // field recordings and noise improvisations 

Constructed entirely (*) out of phone and handheld recordings of quiet moments, street performers, instrumental improvisations, and noise pollution; Salvaged Space is a document of the last few years that I've spent experimenting with different methods of arrangement and composition. 
I aimed to prevent myself from overthinking the musical material, instead focusing on shaping and warping sound so that it shared the same alive/imperfect nature of the recorded soundscapes each piece is inspired by. 

The captured moments that drive this record hold great value to me when remembering significant days and nights over my time at university (DMU). Including many social occasions, trips abroad, projects, performances, and mental states. I hope it can bring you some kind of respite during these interesting times. 

----------------------------------------- 

Thanks to everyone intentionally or unintentionally featured within the sounds on this album 

Special thanks to my friends and family for supporting me over this time period, and to everyone who's helped me in the recording and production process of this music - I truly couldn't have done this without you, I'm blessed you could be a part of it. 


In memory of Dave Smith (Curley) 


*no-input feedback was used on Bedframe Dub (Yamaha MG102c) 
credits
released February 14, 2018 

Composed//Produced//Visualised by Harry Smith 

Unmastered 

//FA01

Salvaged Space

Сталкер

Download // https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/album/salvaged-space

Recordings :: 

Bass Antics (19.02.16) 
Battles Escalator, Sweden (24.02.16) 
World//Street Performers (31.12.14)

---------------------------------

WRITTEN AND RECORDED 
between 2014-2018 in many different places 
sound collage // field recordings and noise improvisations 

Constructed entirely (*) out of phone and handheld recordings of quiet moments, street performers, instrumental improvisations, and noise pollution; Salvaged Space is a document of the last few years that I've spent experimenting with different methods of arrangement and composition. 
I aimed to prevent myself from overthinking the musical material, instead focusing on shaping and warping sound so that it shared the same alive/imperfect nature of the recorded soundscapes each piece is inspired by. 

The captured moments that drive this record hold great value to me when remembering significant days and nights over my time at university (DMU). Including many social occasions, trips abroad, projects, performances, and mental states. I hope it can bring you some kind of respite during these interesting times. 

----------------------------------------- 

Thanks to everyone intentionally or unintentionally featured within the sounds on this album 

Special thanks to my friends and family for supporting me over this time period, and to everyone who's helped me in the recording and production process of this music - I truly couldn't have done this without you, I'm blessed you could be a part of it. 


In memory of Dave Smith (Curley) 


*no-input feedback was used on Bedframe Dub (Yamaha MG102c) 
credits
released February 14, 2018 

Composed//Produced//Visualised by Harry Smith 

Unmastered 

//FA01

Stadion Pt. 1

Download/Tapes: https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/album/live-nottingham-city-arts-24th-nov-2017

An improvised cello/FX piece captured live using a Zoom H4n, w/pedal clicks, room noise, and bum notes included. 
Performed as part of the Imprint Festival Opening Exhibition (Young Producers), alongside a slew of other great musicians, artists, and poets. 

-------------------------------------------- 

Special thanks to City Arts and Amelia Middle for organising such a fantastic event, as well as Miles Otto and Ben Middle for being the excellent compadres/fellow noise makers that you are.

released March 7, 2018 

Music/Mastering by Harry Smith 

Photography by The Young Producers 

Music for Dozens / MUDO

FA02

String Pillars - Live (Nottingham City Arts, 24.11.17)

Exclusive Bonus Track for the Tape release for 'Salvaged Space' Available through Aurora Borealis recordings -

https://auroraborealisrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/salvaged-space

-----------------------

Kogawa Transmissions is an improvisational composition focused around the use of Tetsuo Kogawa’s Micro FM radio transmitters; Exploring the way they interact with each other to generate sound, and how they can be used to degrade/shape sound through gestural performance. 

The piece features field recordings which I captured over my final two years living in Leicester, and in some ways marks the end of a series of compositions based primarily around the manipulation of sound. 

Sounds // 

- Dalek Space Announcement (22.02.17)

- Desertcore Guitar (25.02.17)

- Speaker Glitch Techno (04.05.17) 

- Leicester Street Drums (06.05.17)

DL: https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/track/kogawa-transmissions

Kogawa Transmissions

Kid Claude's remix of Salvaged Space, featuring samples from 'Salvaged Space' and 'Stadion Pt.1'

Massive thanks and love to Kid Claude (AKA Sven AKA Dom AKA honourary member of House 153) for doing this for me, a true purveyor of finesse // https://soundcloud.com/kid_claude

Salvaged Space (Kid Claude Remix)

RECORDED AND ARRANGED 2017-2018 
improvised ambient-noise and beat music on obsolete toy keyboards 
processed, mixed, and layered 

SIDE B 

Chime Bowl Satan (16’06-20’36) 
Dark Beaty Bass (20’36-28’22) 
Sk-1 Lament (28’22-30’00)

Digital and Tapes: https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/album/upp-yrs-goons-mix

FA03

Upp. YRS//Goons [Mix] - SIDE B

RECORDED AND ARRANGED 2017-2018 
improvised ambient-noise and beat music on obsolete toy keyboards 
processed, mixed, and layered 

SIDE A

Kaleidoscope Chimes / Crispy Dimple Clunks (0’00-3’51) 
Wonky Kid Artifact (3’51-8’37) 
Harmonica Organ (8’37-9’54) 
Gregorian Hoo-Ha (9’54-16’06)

Digital and Tapes: https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/album/upp-yrs-goons-mix

FA03

Upp. YRS//Goons [Mix] - SIDE A

Available Here:  https://fermata-ark.bandcamp.com/album/thus-excepts-from-a-smaller-work

Composed and arranged by Fermata Ark between November 2018 and April 2019 (UK/Iceland). Extra processing at Greenhouse Studios (Iceland). No extraneous instrumentation was utilised within these recordings. All sonic manipulation of a captured improvisation, all first takes. Instrumental source material from Spencer Grady and Mark Wastell recorded by Rupert Clervaux at Studio 3, London, October 2017.

-----

Harry Smith’s work is always looking in two directions at once: towards sound, and towards process. Listening to ‘Thus’, we are clearly immersed in both of these: it is a glorious celebration of sound, spinning a world of glittering textures, hovering drones, and fractured kaleidoscopes; but we are equally caught up in the unfolding of the work, with the riveting feeling that we are discovering the work at the same time as its maker is, with a shared sense of discovery and rapture. The soundworld evoked by Smith follows its own inevitable path, with Smith perhaps serving more as host or catalyst than calculating composer. But this image is deceptive: there is impeccable mastery and control here – control of his sounds and materials, but more importantly, an effortlessly masterful control of the shaping of time – that mark Smith as an artist of remarkable insight and talent.

‘Thus’ is a work that rewards headphone listening. No background music this; it is a work to lose yourself in. It is by turns intoxicating, hypnotic, ominous, serene, profound. It is a world of space and of texture, moving effortlessly from the gentle fluttering of insect wings to the dizzying swirling of primordial masses. Occasionally, the curtains part, to reveal a fragile and human world behind; before we can quite reach it, the fog rises, the clouds close, and we are lost once again in a sea of sound.

It is difficult not to be moved by the music on this album. It is a tactile and bodily experience, music to be felt as much as heard. The feelings it evokes, the imagery, the sensations, are all fleeting, transitory, evading any attempt to take hold of them and draw them into the light. Give yourself up to this music. You will not come away unchanged. (James Andean) 
credits
released August 20, 2020

Harry Smith (Fermata Ark) : composition, field recording,

post-production, mixing, mastering

Spencer Grady : 5-string banjo, ebow, violin bow, brass slide

Mark Wastell : violoncello, double bass, harmonium

Produced by Mark Wastell (Confront Recordings)

THUS : EXCERPTS FROM A SMALLER WORK - Spencer Grady / Fermata Ark / Mark Wastel

UK-based electroacoustic Producer/Composer and Sound Designer

////////

Music for self-immolation, nighttime ego-abolishment, or vaguely religious shamanic practices.

-----

Experimental Electronic,
Punk-Ambient / Transcendental Noise Music, and Post-Totalism

Fermata Ark

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