ambience

Offered as metaphor and delivered as analogy...

The Blizzard That Birthed Her is the continuing echo of this year’s Home Normal success, Book Of The Folded Forest. Birthed as two original Orla Wren tracks ‘Five Acre Ladder’ and ‘Mountains And Wishbones’ which were recorded in the same session, Tui then worked the cello, bass and vocals of Aaron Martin into two alternative versions of each track, making up the 4 tracks on the 10” vinyl for Facture.

He then offered the same to Isnaj Dui who contributed some flute for him to then create the two versions with her as guest. To complete the companion 8 track letter pressed CD version the two "reprise" versions were created by Tui utilizing parts from the other tracks.

Mastered precisely by James Plotkin, the project is released as a limited edition run of 300 copies designed by Daniel Crossley; 4 track 10” vinyl on reverse board heavy card with printed inner sleeves with designs by Montreal designer Urban9, download code, 8 track 4-panel letter pressed CDs with wrap-around letter pressed bands, 4 prints resting inside typed/numbered glassine photo bags, 2 x double sided large prints, pressed flowers, all resting inside large tagged/scented letter pressed envelopes with beautiful artwork again by Urban9.

To accompany the album an exclusive promo film was made for the track Five Acre Ladder (re-prise) by Lumacell. And a very special exclusive bonus track The Cup Of Remembered Things is also included as a free download.

A returned honour of growth and loss, this album complements her predecessor as an expressive companion piece requiring little explanation.
credits
released 01 December 2013
.........

Audio: Orla Wren / Aaron Martin / Isnaj Dui
Mastering: James Plotkin
Artwork: Urban9
Package Design: Daniel Crossley

http://fluidaudio.bigcartel.com/product/orla-wren-aaron-martin-the-blizzard-that-birthed-her

Mountains And Wishbones (Orla Wren with Aaron Martin)

Elizabeth Bay

Ungrid

Nureyev

Scissors x Yuri Miyauchi

okt_

From the album "Woven Tide" by From the Mouth of the Sun (Dag Rosenqvist & Aaron Martin):

http://www.experimedia.net/?artists_id=2741&typefilter=artist

Sitting in a Roofless Room (From the Mouth of the Sun)

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS & NILS FRAHM - 'a2' from their forthcoming collaborative EP 'STARE'.

ORDER the Ltd. Edition 10" Vinyl/Download HERE and receive an Erased Tapes 5th Anniversary sticker with it:
http://www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP042

'A hazy slow-builder that sits nicely equidistant between Arnalds’ solo work and his excellent Kiasmos project' – The Line Of Best Fit

CONTENT

Erased Tapes label mates Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm record and mix their first collaborative record between Reyjkjavík and Berlin as a surprise release for label founder Robert Raths.

The ambient/electronic work ‘Stare’ is a true family effort from Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm with Anne Müller joining in on cello and all graphics by close label-friend and now in-house designer Torsten Posselt of Feld Studios.

This release will be strictly limited and exclusively available on Record Store Day 2012, April 21st. Coinciding with the 5th Anniversary of Erased Tapes, it’s also available from the official Erased Tapes online store and sure to become a must-have for fans of the label and these two artists.


CONTEXT

Words by Nils Frahm: 
‘I heard ‘Eulogy For Evolution’ for the first time 6 years ago and I was totally captivated. Impossible to know back then that I was supposed to meet Ólafur many years later as my label mate. Later when he took me along a tour of his we also noted that we kind of like hanging out together, doing important things like cover versions of long forgotten songs or eating veggie pizza. Also he would join my live set for a jam and I would return the favour by playing along with his set. 

All in all, I fell for Óli and after one memorable jam session we had in Berlin at Roter Salon in 2011, he finally proposed the idea to visit me in my studio in Berlin to work on 'some music'. I was happy and delighted about that idea, so we got together in April 2011 and after having a big pizza, I plugged in some old analogue synths and we played for four days until late in the night. Also queen Anne Müller stopped by after a show with Agnes Obel to record some cello at 5 am in the morning for ‘b1’. Making music together with people is lovely! 
 
The time I spent with Óli in Berlin made me very happy and the music wasn't like anything I have heard before. It was all very reduced and minimal and I felt like I couldn't have done this alone. So we decided to do another 4-day jam at Óli´s E7 studio in Reykjavik. So I flew there in the end of October to repeat the trick and record some out of this world ambient music. It didn't take us too long to write ‘a1’ and ‘a2’.  I can’t wait for the follow up!’

Words by Olafur Arnalds:
 ‘After having toured together and having had many inspiring late night conversations, I decided to visit Nils in his Durton Studio in Berlin for a weekend. We didn't have anything specific in mind, we just wanted to hang out, jam and eat some falafel. That's what we did, but somehow we also made 25 minutes of ambient bliss that weekend. 

After that we quickly decided we had to do the same in my studio in Iceland. Just hang out for a weekend and possibly make some music. So the album became kind of an Iceland vs. Berlin thing. I think you can hear it very well in the sound (side a vs. side b) and that is the most interesting thing about this record for me: that subtle but significant different in the characteristics of the music two people made in Iceland against what the same two people made in Germany. 

I'm not sure why we decided to keep it secret, it just happened. But it sure was fun! I remember a party at Robert's (Erased Tapes founder) flat in Berlin, where me and Nils stood in the corner the whole night whispering about the project. We then delivered the fully mastered record with finished artwork to Robert around the 5th anniversary of the label. It would have been nice to be there to see his face…"

The live video of Nils and Ólafur’s spontaneous improv live set in Berlin last summer won them many fans since, including UK electronic music producer Max Cooper who is now remixing two of his “absolute favourite artists”. Nils and Ólafur will be touring together throughout Europe this spring.

You can watch it here: http://vimeo.com/28631568
 


LABEL: ERASED TAPES RECORDS    UK RELEASE DATE: APRIL 21, 2012
CAT.NO: ERATP042 EP/DL   EAN: 4050486068137

TRACK LISTING:  1. a1  2. a2  3. b1

OFFICIAL WEBSITES:   OLAFURARNALDS.COM   DURTONSTUDIO.COM   ERASEDTAPES.COM 

Stare

Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm - a2

10 years past when release "ripple" as fonica.
this is remastered track "twang".

***********************************************

fonica "ripple"
01. soar 02. twang 03. whirr *04. perch 05. fluid 06. coda 07. rusl 08. skim 09. zephyr 10. perch (mitchell akiyama rmx)11. rusl (sogar rmx)
*trk03:material by sogar

Fonica is a male - female Duo from Tokyo, Japan - Keiichi Sugimoto and Cheason. Their debut "Ripple" (released as CD version in Japan) in November 2002 has been highly acclaimed in their home country and is now published by Tomlab in Europe and North America. The Tomlab version comes as CD/LP with special Artwork and a reduced tracklisting. The Japan release contains 2 additional tracks - remixes by Sogar/12k as well as by Mitchell Akiyama/Raster Noton.

Fonica use a lot of live instruments and DSP processing in parallel. Their approach of combining electronic and acoustic is very spontaneous and is so beautiful, revelling and dreamy in a way that can only be described by using the band Mum as a reference. "Ripple" works without ressorting to clichees or kitsch and somehow reminds "Endless Summer" - with Sack+Blumm waving their hands in the background.

The most wonderful part in all of this: "Ripple" doesn't sound like a typical, eclectic, japan style combination of references. Fonica have been inspired by quite a couple of things out there but at the same time they have managed to record an album that shows a unique character, verycharming, joyful - a pleasure to listen to.

PLOP: http://www.inpartmaint.com/pdis/
TOMLAB: http://www.tomlab.de/

Twang

Noon

Amber Sky

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & The Picket Line - Lay and Love

In July 2003 12k released E•A•D•G•B•E a CD that brought together artists who used the guitar as their main sound source in the then burgeoning "microsound" music scene. For 12k it was a bold move. As a label previously known for pure, synthetic tones, shying away anything that sounded like an "instrument" in its early years, a new sound had firmly taken root and unknowingly planted the seeds for what 12k listeners today take for granted: the subtle organic tones of acoustic instrumentation and human sound that now so naturally defines 12k.

We are very pleased, finally, to be able to bring this long out-of-print music back and make it available again. Listening to it now, 10 years on, the music still sounds fresh, adventurous and beautiful and remains a vital turning point in the sonic history of 12k.


TRACK LIST
01 Fonica "4:55" 
02 Fonica "3:33" 
03 Keith Fullerton-Whitman "Lettera" 
04 Sébastien Roux "Biratori" 
05 Sébastien Roux "Utaro" 
06 Sébastien Roux "Toasa" 
07 Christopher Willits "The Baroque Machine" 
08 Christopher Willits "The Macrobiotic Machine" 
09 Christopher Willits "The Roller Skating In San Francisco Machine" 
10 Christopher Willits "The Kotekan Machine" 
11 Christopher Willits "The Yellow Sprout Machine" 
12 Christopher Willits "The Seaweed Machine" 
13 Christopher Willits "The Fall In Love Machine" 
14 Christopher Willits "Champagne and Soda" 

ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE: 
Instrument relatives of the guitar can be traced back as far as the 3rd century. Many adaptations were made to the interface over hundreds of years: 3, 5 strings, coupled strings, no coupled strings, 6 strings, always changing with technological advances in instrument craft, new materials from overseas locations, and selection pressures brought upon by musical fashions of the day. The 20th century mixture of guitar + electricity (pickups, amplifiers, processing circuits) changed music as we know it. The 21st century guitar, still cousin to the third century Arabian ‘ud, can now be seduced by personal computers and software tools. The old stringed melody-maker, re-sonified and exploded though do-it-yourself digital signal processing, has assumed yet a new form of assemblage and mixture with modern technology. Suddenly the 6 strings seem refreshed, and open to a new notion of guitar music; a music generated from vibrating strings meshed with software processes.

12k embraces this idea by presenting four artists who create contemporary sonic hybrids of guitar and digital processing. E•A•D•G•B•E is by no means trying to be a definitive voice of these practices, but rather a sound focused through the 12k filter of minimalism and subtle textures.

The title, E•A•D•G•B•EE, comes from the root tunings of each string on a 6-stringed guitar.

FONICA (JP) 
Fonica are duo Keiichi Sugimoto and Cheason from Tokyo, Japan. Keiichi is also a member of Minamo and runs the Cubic Music label. Cheason designs all the artwork for the Plop label.

KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN (US) 
Keith Fullerton Whitman has produced full length recordings for the Kranky, Locust, Planet-Mu, and Reckankreuzungs Klankewerkzeuge labels under his own name as well as under the guise of Hrvatski. He has collaborated with Matmos, Oren Ambarchi, David Grubbs, Michael Karoli, and Joseph Suchy.

SÉBASTIEN ROUX (FR) 
Sébastien Roux is in charge of development in the room acoustics team at IRCAM (Paris) where he builds spatialisation and room effect synthesis tools. He first explored music as a guitarist in various experimental-post rock-ambient bands. His current solo work can be defined as melodic, electronic and organic ambient compositions based on digitally processed guitar drones. He also plays with Eddie Ladoire in a duet called Heller in which he combines his electronics drones with Eddie’s hyper digital manipulations.

CHRISTOPHER WILLITS (US) 
Christopher Willits is a musician, multimedia artist and sound engineer located in San Francisco. His musical focus is characterized by guitar + computer software processing and improvisation that generates a unique folded and woven surface of melody and rhythm. In late 2002 12k released Folding, and the Tea, the first widely distributed release of Willits’ folded guitar recordings. Willits studied Electronic Music and Recording Media at Mills College, and he instructs Sound Design and Electronic Music courses at the San Francisco Art Institute, Vista College, and The Bay Area Video Coalition.

ambience

james jensen