Heathaze

From forthcoming LP "Murmurations" available on Cibachrome Editions April 1st 2022 https://leabertucci.bandcamp.com/album/murmurations

A Vast Interiority - Lea B + Ben Vida

What Did You Say Before That?

À l'occasion d'un atelier de Contact Improvisation avec Anne-Gaëlle Thiriot à la Briqueterie (CCN du Val-de-Marne), cette conférence considère les écotones en traversant des philosophies écologiques, féministes et décoloniales, à la recherche des zones lisières, des frontières épaisses qui assurent la transition entre différents milieux (entre une forêt et une prairie par exemple) et qui favorisent la diversité en raison de la multiplicité des échanges et des dépendances mutuelles qui se contractent entre les vivants. Qu’avons-nous à apprendre, pour nos danses, de ces zones de contact?

Emma Bigé, Écotones

Whitelabrecs label owner Harry Towell is perhaps best renowned for his long-standing Spheruleus project, with a discography listing releases on Lost Tribe Sound, Home Normal, Time Released Sound, Hibernate and Eilean, as well as his collaborations alongside Sven Laux, Guy Gelem, Ekca Liena and more. Harry returns to his own label, following 2021’s ‘Canvas Homes + Supplémentaires’ and EPs ‘Absent Frames’ and ‘Inaugurate’, in this special collaborative album called ‘Petrologist’s Lens’.

January is a month we usually reserve for a compilation album, such as our Sleeplaboratory series. This year Harry decided to invite 12 artists who had contributed more than 2 releases on Whitelabrecs to submit a short sketch or sample, and then he developed these into the tracks that make up this album. As with some of his more recent work, this album is created under his own name, but with ‘& friends’ added to credit the label artists and good friends which he has worked alongside.

The title ‘Petrologist’s Lens’ nods to the concept of this body of work, which is rooted in the ancient geological history of the earth. Harry studied the land history of the areas where his collaborators reside, to help form a title for each piece. Tracks are named after particular fragments of rock or sediments, land regions or fossils for example, and the compositions were developed in a way which mimics the layering of these. The layers tell a story, giving clues of how they came to be. Sonically, filigree details and eroded tape textures ride waves of modern classical orchestration, ambient drones and electronics.

The packaging for this release features cover artwork by Soraya Kornblum, an art student in Adrian Lane’s class, submitted to Whitelabrecs as part of a school project. Each of the 200 editions include a 16 page booklet with words provided by Neil McRoberts, who transcribed his thoughts after listening to the music and reflecting on the concept. Physical copies are split into two runs; a standard gold disc version and a special marble print deluxe edition.

Credits:
Written and produced by Harry Towell
Additional production and inspiration provided by Adrian Lane, Andrew Heath, Blochemy, Edu Comelles, Glåsbird, Guy Gelem, James Edward Armstrong, Paweł Pruski, Phil Tomsett, Polaroid Notes, Simon McCorry, Sven Laux

Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Cover Art by Soraya Kornblum
Booklet Notes by Neil McRoberts
Art and Design by Andrew Heath

Petrologist's Lens

wlr127 Harry Towell & Friends - Petrologist's Lens

Biebrza Marshes 23.5.2002
Returning from recording aquatic warblers at nightfall one evening I caught the faintest whisper of a pixie party happening somewhere out over the flood meadows. Surely not - an elusive great snipe lek, unknown to the official birding parties scavenging for rarities and spectacles? I approached cautiously to try to get a closer fix on its location - difficult in the vast undifferentiated expanse of low sedges and grasses, and the disappearing light. But it seemed to be in the vicinity of a small patch that appeared whiter in the gloom, maybe a colony of some lighter-coloured plant. I took a trig from some distant silhouetted landmarks and headed back to base over a mile away.

I discussed it with my local contact, who happened to own this land; sure enough this was an unknown lek and yes he was happy for me to have a go at recording it when conditions were good. For a while the wind blew. Then a few days later at the end of a hot afternoon, with the breeze dropping to negligible, I decided to go for it. I headed out a couple of hours before dusk to put the mics in place and got a disheartening shock when I flushed a few of the birds - early arrivals waiting for dusk. And no sign of my white patch. But there was an area with a concentration of dandelion stalks; so just maybe the whiter area had been the seed heads, now blown off in the last few days winds. So I set my mics up there, ran a 100m cable off to a peaty gulley and headed off to the river to wait for twilight.

I wasn’t sure what I’d find when I returned cautiously. Put on the headphones and wow, they were right there. They put on a good show - purely for my ears, as I couldn’t see them. But I was very happy. The mosquitoes were bad that balmy night, but I was well insulated. No blood donations.

Many thanks to Colin Bradshaw for use of his photo.


Great Snipe Lek

Track from the new album "Changes II"

hannesbuder.de/index.php/release…olo---changes-ii/

Ich Hab Die Nacht Geträumet

MakeNoise Tempi patch experiment

Native European and Irish Tradition posits the existence of an Otherworld realm lying beyond the furthest reaches of the horizon; an  island of plenty and abundance, where happiness lasts forever, and where one hundred years pass as one day. The Greek Elysium, King Arthur's Avalon, the Odainsakr of the Norse and the Irish Land of the Living all point to a long-held corpus of beliefs regarding a paradise across the ocean.

For the 16th instalment of Blúiríní Béaloidis, hosts Jonny Dillon and Claire Doohan set forth upon the waves to Teach Duinn (The House of Donn), to which the souls of Ireland's heathen dead were said to travel with the setting of the sun. Continuing their voyage, Claire and Jonny venture onwards over the seas 'flowery plains' visiting 'thrice fifty islands' with the great Connle, Mael Dúin, Bran and St. Brendan as their companions.

Our ships are coursing over the sea; strange panoramas and otherworld islands await:

'There is a distant isle,
Around which sea-horses glisten:
A fair course against the white-swelling surge,
-Four feet uphold it.

A beauty of a wondrous land,
Whose aspects are lovely,
Whose view is a fair country,
Incomparable is its haze.

Wealth, treasures of every hue,
Are in Ciuin, a beauty of freshness,
Listening to sweet music,
Drinking the best of wine.’

Blúiríní Béaloidis 16 - Otherworld Islands In Folk Tradition

Pre-Order available now via imprec.com 
Cassette edition of 100 via Cassauna/Imprec

“Rupture” was inspired by the southern Italian folktale of Tarantism,
which is said to be an epidemic provoked by the bite of the tarantula.
It causes extreme spiritual possession. 
Aki Onda composed these tracks using the traditional folk music of the region as underlays, mostly in indirect ways but occasionally directly sampled. 
The tracks were recorded with musicians Tatsuya Nakatani, Gareth Davis and Clifton Hyde. The artwork features eerie and uncanny images of the Japanese
photographer Daisuke Yokota.

1. Rupture 
2. Betrayal

3. Rebirth
4. Growth 

Aki Onda : electronics, field recordings (1-4)
Tatsuya Nakatani : percussion, gongs, bells (1-4)
Gareth Davis : bass clarinet (4)
Clifton Hyde : mandolin (3)

Soundtrack for “Rupture” by Aki Onda
Recorded by Tatsuya Nakatani, Gareth Davis, and Aki Onda 
Edited and mixed by Aki Onda 
Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper



Photography by Daisuke Yokota

Aki Onda - Rupture - Cassette - August 3, 2020

TR100 - Maggie Nichols - Shadow and Light Source Both

Bluiríní Béaloidis is the podcast from The National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin, and is a platform to explore Irish and wider European folk tradition across an array of subject areas and topics. Host Jonny Dillon hopes this tour through the folklore furrow will appeal to those who wish to learn about the richness and depth of their traditional cultural inheritance; that a knowledge and understanding of our past might inform our present and guide our future.

Podcasts are available for download directly from SoundCloud or via iTunes.

Blúiríní Béaloidis 16 - Otherworld Islands In Folk Tradition

Blúiríní Béaloidis / Folklore Fragments

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