Méryll Ampe "W7E" CD
MAR060
Release Date: November 4th, 2022

A multitude of processes, techniques, and forms unfold and unfurl within the work of Méryll Ampe,
an intermedia artist from Paris working through sound, sculpture, and installation using a wide assortment
of materials. What is immediately striking about Ampe’s work is the vibrant, non-linear approach to
electro-acoustic composition.
Here on the debut for Misanthropic Agenda, Ampe liberally reconfigures / deconstructs / genetically mutates
all sources: hydrophone recordings of vibrations through skin, analog synths, tape machinations,
sequencing programmed through algorithmic variability, and plenty of digital processing.
As Ampe describes it, the music on W7E is "a research with an experimental dimension, guided by notions that
systematically translate a form of ambivalence, between inside/outside, micro/macro. These intentions are
vectors of the dynamics, reliefs, depths and rhythm. My training as a visual artist also leads me to go through
mental images (such as a steep landscape, a boiling organism, an organic matter) which will then find a
sound form, states that I would describe as syncope, sound effluvia, abrasive arrhythmias. I look for a form of
plasticity in the sound medium, and that this energy become a living matter."
This multi-dimensional overlay through composition telescopes in and out of the body (not necessarily always
a human body, it should be noted), through a connectivity with technology that can influence psychological states
of being. The work addresses liminality, transitory slippages, and quantum theories of a particle being the two
separate places at the same time. If that can occur at the atomic level, why not through sound?
W7E stands as a dynamic, polydactyl album reflective of the aesthetics (if not concepts) of Keith Fullerton Whitman,
Francisco Meirino, and Bernard Parmegiani.
- Jim Haynes

links:
http://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com
http://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com
http://meryllampe.com

Méryll Ampe "W7E" CD

RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4th, 2022

http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

Prerequisite is the first collaboration between Network Glass and
Jason Crumer.

Developed from an adaptation of John Cage’s “Fontana Mix,” came a
long brewing but unlikely marriage of contrasting attitudes and
approaches to sound work. Through the vocabulary of modern noise into
the ether of the distorted and fucked, hours of source material were
shaped into a concentrated six piece album. Years of friendship,
foehood, shit talk and gushing led to this auditory thesis on the
state and history of noise.

On “Prerequisite" the olde folk theory "Incapacitants are just
distorted fontana mix" gets tested and proven very right and very
wrong. Don't worry, noise can take it. A modern look at
America's great noise Prerequisite.

- Network Glass and Jason Crumer

Network Glass and Jason Crumer "Prerequisite"

https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/point-of-memory-void-pusher

https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com/album/point-of-memory-void-pusher

Point of Memory "Void Pusher" 2xlp/tape/CD
Void Pusher is acoustic computer music; combining digital cut ups and
live ambient noise with raw organic qualities. Inaudible super-bass
frequencies pumping through a room filled with acoustic instruments
and electric guitars set to quaver and rumble sympathetically. Then
record the result; a cacophony of resounding snares, harmonizing
drones and the subtle rattle of shakers, bells and tambourines. Most
of the time you can't hear the bass, just the reactions to it.
Sometimes the bass didn't create any rattle at all. By passing the
source sounds through amplifiers at their original frequencies and
mixing them with their reactive acoustic counterparts, each moment
assumes its own physical logic, a sense of movement and consequence,
accidentally adhering to Newton's third law of motion: for each
action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The intention behind this project was to create an album that, despite
undergoing extensive manipulation, emanates a sense of human warmth
and soul. All the source sounds were recorded live or processed
through reamplification and manipulated live in a studio setting
before being edited at home. The recording sessions took place during
spring, summer, winter, and fall, capturing a broad spectrum of moods
without deliberately seeking catharsis. The aim was to remain
emotionally open and avoid excessive direction, in a superstitious
attempt to capture something of the human condition writ large.
Rather than pursuing personal emotional release, the goal was to
embrace the human experience more generally and avoid individual
emotional states. The logic is that creating music that resonates with
universal feelings and sentiments is more challenging than producing
work that is solely introspective and self-referential. In this way,
the artist sought to be a conduit of the human condition rather than a
"writer." In both method and aspiration, the artist seeks to listen
for what is already transpiring within us, between us, around us,
rather than risk drowning it out with an idea of what should
be.
Unknowable.
It is hoped that through Void Pusher, something of the human
experience has been captured. --- Point of Memory

Point Of Memory "Void Pusher"

In Spite of Dreams "subject:empty"

https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/in-spite-of-dreams-subject-empty-cd-preorder-ships-oct-25

In Spite of Dreams "subject:empty"

Gerritt & John Wiese "The Disappearing Act" CD (excerpt)
Released by Misanthropic Agenda
http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

Gerritt & John Wiese "The Disappearing Act" CD-EP 
Gerritt runs the Misanthropic Agenda label out of Oakland, California. Los Angeles resident John Wiese is a member of LHD and Sissy Spacek, and both have been freelance members of drone metal unit Sunn O))). "The Disappearing Act" displays the pair's expertise in pulling transmissions from an elusive dimension utilizing elements of dynamics, noise, rhythm, silence and tone.

Gerritt & John Wiese "The Disappearing Act" CD (excerpt)

LHD "Limbs of the Fawn" (excerpt)
Released by Misanthropic Agenda
http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

LHD "Limbs of the Fawn" CD
Burning in hell with no relief. Double flamethrower unit.
Phil Blankenship (The Cherry Point) & John Wiese.
Los Angeles harsh city crust. 

LHD "Limbs of the Fawn" (excerpt)

Track from forthcoming:
Seers "From the beginning...until the end" CD

In 2004-2005 Pete Swanson and Gerritt Wittmer formed the group Seers in Oakland, California. They played a handful of shows (including at the famed Il Corral in Los Angeles) and recorded several studio sessions.

This work was planned to be released on a now-defunct imprint and was shelved following the labels dissolve. Despite the passing of several years, the value of this collaborative work has endured. Destined to undergo a journey and be resurrected on the other side. An exercise in time, challenging communication and the transfer of energy. 

Seers literally and intentionally incorporated the ability to "transfer energy" during improvisations via developing instrumentation that allowed one player to influence the other's sound through direct routing. Much of the music is built on various feedback loops and other chains of chance.  

This is tape music, this is drone music, this is psychic music, this is spiritual music. Like the sound of the universe, undulating and folding unto itself, filled with transference and decadent illusion.

Here now in its original entirety is Seers "From the beginning...until the End."  

100 copies of the album will include a bonus disc "Live Testament", recorded at Il Corral, Los Angeles by Damion Romero.

Gerritt Wittmer is a sound and performance artist based in Oakland, California. He is in the band Names and curates the Misanthropic Agenda imprint.

Pete Swanson is a musician currently based in Brooklyn, New York. His most recent work includes "Punk Authority" on Software and "Man With Potential" and "Pro Style" on Type Records, which all vaguely resemble severely corroded dance music. He was formerly a member of the psychedelic noise/drone act Yellow Swans.

Now accepting Pre-Orders for limited edition double disc version!

http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

Seers "Untitled 3" (from forthcoming: "From the beginning...until the end" CD)

Michael Gendreau & Francisco Meirino 
"13'36 10'42 12'48" CD

Recorded live in Switzerland in July 2008 at Cave 12, Geneva and Oblo, Lausanne.
These live recordings were lost and forgotten in our archives, more than a decade later, they were found on a dusty external hard drive in Meirino’s home studio. 
Re-discovered, edited, mixed, and mastered in 2021.

Big vibrations in perspective

Michael Gendreau is an artist and acoustic researcher, he uses architectural vibrations specific to
each building as an imposing live sound source, digging inside the sound system and its limits the
necessary power to use the building itself as some kind of loudspeaker moving over a wide
spectrum of sound frequencies. As Michael says: « Each building speaks a unique language ».

Francisco Meirino’s work explores the tension between programmable material and the potential for
its failure, he is primarily interested in the idea of recording what is not supposed to be: gear failures,
the death of PA systems, magnetic fields, and electro-static noises and in how he can use them and
hear them radically out of context. His music tries to push the physical limits of either the electronic
material or when he composed music for acoustic ensembles, the musicians with pieces that
require a strong presence and sonic tension.
Together, they tried their best to activate on the same sonic level, both the room and the audience
within the room with a sense of danger, urgency, sonic distress, and architectural awareness.

https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/michael-gendreau-francisco-meirino-13-36-10-42-12-48-cd

"13'36 10'42 12'48"

Michael Gendreau & Francisco Meirino  "Extract 1"

Michael Gendreau & Francisco Meirino "13'36 10'42 12'48" CD

Recorded live in Switzerland in July 2008 at Cave 12, Geneva and Oblo, Lausanne.
These live recordings were lost and forgotten in our archives, more than a decade later, they were found on a dusty external hard drive in Meirino’s home studio.
Re-discovered, edited, mixed, and mastered in 2021.

Big vibrations in perspective

Michael Gendreau is an artist and acoustic researcher, he uses architectural vibrations specific to
each building as an imposing live sound source, digging inside the sound system and its limits the
necessary power to use the building itself as some kind of loudspeaker moving over a wide
spectrum of sound frequencies. As Michael says: « Each building speaks a unique language ».

Francisco Meirino’s work explores the tension between programmable material and the potential for
its failure, he is primarily interested in the idea of recording what is not supposed to be: gear failures,
the death of PA systems, magnetic fields, and electro-static noises and in how he can use them and
hear them radically out of context. His music tries to push the physical limits of either the electronic
material or when he composed music for acoustic ensembles, the musicians with pieces that
require a strong presence and sonic tension.
Together, they tried their best to activate on the same sonic level, both the room and the audience
within the room with a sense of danger, urgency, sonic distress, and architectural awareness.

Michael Gendreau & Francisco Meirino "Extract 3"

Perverts In White Shirts "Pangolin"
from: Perverts In White Shirts "Meaning What Exactly?" LP

https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/perverts-in-white-shirts-meaning-what-exactly-lp

https://youtu.be/lIjBbV5anIQ

Meaning What Exactly?

Perverts In White Shirts "Pangolin"

Méryll Ampe "W7E" CD
MAR060
Release Date: November 4th, 2022

A multitude of processes, techniques, and forms unfold and unfurl within the work of Méryll Ampe,
an intermedia artist from Paris working through sound, sculpture, and installation using a wide assortment
of materials. What is immediately striking about Ampe’s work is the vibrant, non-linear approach to
electro-acoustic composition.
Here on the debut for Misanthropic Agenda, Ampe liberally reconfigures / deconstructs / genetically mutates
all sources: hydrophone recordings of vibrations through skin, analog synths, tape machinations,
sequencing programmed through algorithmic variability, and plenty of digital processing.
As Ampe describes it, the music on W7E is "a research with an experimental dimension, guided by notions that
systematically translate a form of ambivalence, between inside/outside, micro/macro. These intentions are
vectors of the dynamics, reliefs, depths and rhythm. My training as a visual artist also leads me to go through
mental images (such as a steep landscape, a boiling organism, an organic matter) which will then find a
sound form, states that I would describe as syncope, sound effluvia, abrasive arrhythmias. I look for a form of
plasticity in the sound medium, and that this energy become a living matter."
This multi-dimensional overlay through composition telescopes in and out of the body (not necessarily always
a human body, it should be noted), through a connectivity with technology that can influence psychological states
of being. The work addresses liminality, transitory slippages, and quantum theories of a particle being the two
separate places at the same time. If that can occur at the atomic level, why not through sound?
W7E stands as a dynamic, polydactyl album reflective of the aesthetics (if not concepts) of Keith Fullerton Whitman,
Francisco Meirino, and Bernard Parmegiani.
- Jim Haynes

links:
https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com
https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com
https://meryllampe.com/

Méryll Ampe "Iluminan"

Méryll Ampe "Close To"

Moth Drakula "Cast A Bitter Cold"

from: Moth Drakula "S/T" CD

http://www.misanthropicagenda.com/

Moth Drakula was an aggressive experimental duo based in Southern California. Their roots firmly planted in DIY hardcore, as much as early harsh industrial/noise.

The band’s use of organic samples, vocal manipulation, broken synths, tapes; all processed through and lifted by blistered electronics. These broken arrangements express the freedom of the zero expectations or ambitions of their creators.

Moth Drakula’s sound is a twisted reflection in the blazing inferno of musical detritus that was left behind in their city home of Redondo Beach, CA.

Originally recorded in 2007, soon abandoned, lost, forgotten, and rediscovered, this stranded recording is finally presented in perfect fidelity in its originally intended format on Misanthropic Agenda.

Mastered by Daniel Voss.

Moth Drakula "Cast A Bitter Cold"

from: Moth Drakula "S/T" CD

http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

Moth Drakula was an aggressive experimental duo based in Southern California. Their roots firmly planted in DIY hardcore, as much as early harsh industrial/noise.

The band’s use of organic samples, vocal manipulation, broken synths, tapes; all processed through and lifted by blistered electronics. These broken arrangements express the freedom of the zero expectations or ambitions of their creators.

Moth Drakula’s sound is a twisted reflection in the blazing inferno of musical detritus that was left behind in their city home of Redondo Beach, CA.

Originally recorded in 2007, soon abandoned, lost, forgotten, and rediscovered, this stranded recording is finally presented in perfect fidelity in its originally intended format on Misanthropic Agenda.

Mastered by Daniel Voss.

Moth Drakula "Blood Moves Slow"

Prerequisite

Francisco Meirino "Notebook (Techniques of Self-Destruction)" CD

"Notebook (Techniques of Self-Destruction)" is the new studio full length album from Francisco Meirino. Making his return on Misanthropic Agenda since critically acclaimed and criminally limited "Recordings Of Voltage Errors, Magnetic Fields, On-Site Testimonies & Tape Tension" LP.

Eight pieces of abrasive music made of electricity, mysterious forces, sharp knives, dying tape recorders and voices below the threshold of intelligibility.
Assembled and mastered by Francisco Meirino at Shiver Mobile, 2012-2014.
Features "Techniques Of Self-Destruction" originally a piece for eight speakers commissioned by Jerome Noetinger for l'Audible Festival, Paris 2012.

Born in 1975, Francisco Meirino is active since 1994 (as phroq until 2009) in sound and live performance, he explores the tension between programmable material and the potential for its failure by working mainly with the computer, magnetic fields detectors, reel-to-reel tape recorders, piezo transducers and various acoustic devices. 

Available now at:
http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

Francisco Meirino "You Know Nothing"

from forthcoming: Francisco Meirino "A Perpetual Host" CD

A Perpetual Host is Francisco Meirino’s fourth full-length, solo studio album on Misanthropic Agenda.
A deep dive into personal loss and the banalities of life and art, A Perpetual Host captures the raw, solitary, and often acerbic extremes that drive creation. Across four pieces, Meirino explores sonic tension and boredom, questioning the simplicity and complexity of the mundane with bursts of clarity that redefine existence itself.

Francisco Meirino is a Spanish sound artist based in Switzerland.

His music explores the tension between programmable material and the potential for its failure. His interest lies primarily in what is not supposed to be recorded : the end of life of electronic devices, electrostatic noise, magnetic fields and the unconventional use of music hardware and sound systems and how to exploit these sonic failures in radically different ways in his sound pieces.

His music combines intricate textures, sonic precision, wide spatial panning and is fascinating by its physical intensity and detail precision.

He mostly uses the modular synthesizer (Eurorack-Serge), various microphones, the computer, the field recorder, tape recorders and tape echoes, EMF detectors and various home-made electro-acoustic devices.

https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com/album/francisco-meirino-a-perpetual-host

misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/francisco-meirino-a-perpetual-host

A Perpetual Host

Francisco Meirino "Something Always Remains"

from forthcoming: 

Point of Memory "Void Pusher" 2xLP/tape/CD

Void Pusher is acoustic computer music; combining digital cut ups and
live ambient noise with raw organic qualities. Inaudible super-bass
frequencies pumping through a room filled with acoustic instruments
and electric guitars set to quaver and rumble sympathetically. Then
record the result; a cacophony of resounding snares, harmonizing
drones and the subtle rattle of shakers, bells and tambourines. Most
of the time you can't hear the bass, just the reactions to it.
Sometimes the bass didn't create any rattle at all. By passing the
source sounds through amplifiers at their original frequencies and
mixing them with their reactive acoustic counterparts, each moment
assumes its own physical logic, a sense of movement and consequence,
accidentally adhering to Newton's third law of motion: for each
action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The intention behind this project was to create an album that, despite
undergoing extensive manipulation, emanates a sense of human warmth
and soul. All the source sounds were recorded live or processed
through reamplification and manipulated live in a studio setting
before being edited at home. The recording sessions took place during
spring, summer, winter, and fall, capturing a broad spectrum of moods
without deliberately seeking catharsis. The aim was to remain
emotionally open and avoid excessive direction, in a superstitious
attempt to capture something of the human condition writ large.
Rather than pursuing personal emotional release, the goal was to
embrace the human experience more generally and avoid individual
emotional states. The logic is that creating music that resonates with
universal feelings and sentiments is more challenging than producing
work that is solely introspective and self-referential. In this way,
the artist sought to be a conduit of the human condition rather than a
"writer." In both method and aspiration, the artist seeks to listen
for what is already transpiring within us, between us, around us,
rather than risk drowning it out with an idea of what should
be.
Unknowable.
It is hoped that through Void Pusher, something of the human
experience has been captured. --- Point of Memory

misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/point-of-memory-void-pusher

https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com/album/point-of-memory-void-pusher

Void Pusher

Point of Memory "Most Of A Murder"

https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/point-of-memory-void-pusher

https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com/album/point-of-memory-void-pusher

Point of Memory "Void Pusher" 2xLP/tape/CD
Void Pusher is acoustic computer music; combining digital cut ups and
live ambient noise with raw organic qualities. Inaudible super-bass
frequencies pumping through a room filled with acoustic instruments
and electric guitars set to quaver and rumble sympathetically. Then
record the result; a cacophony of resounding snares, harmonizing
drones and the subtle rattle of shakers, bells and tambourines. Most
of the time you can't hear the bass, just the reactions to it.
Sometimes the bass didn't create any rattle at all. By passing the
source sounds through amplifiers at their original frequencies and
mixing them with their reactive acoustic counterparts, each moment
assumes its own physical logic, a sense of movement and consequence,
accidentally adhering to Newton's third law of motion: for each
action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The intention behind this project was to create an album that, despite
undergoing extensive manipulation, emanates a sense of human warmth
and soul. All the source sounds were recorded live or processed
through reamplification and manipulated live in a studio setting
before being edited at home. The recording sessions took place during
spring, summer, winter, and fall, capturing a broad spectrum of moods
without deliberately seeking catharsis. The aim was to remain
emotionally open and avoid excessive direction, in a superstitious
attempt to capture something of the human condition writ large.
Rather than pursuing personal emotional release, the goal was to
embrace the human experience more generally and avoid individual
emotional states. The logic is that creating music that resonates with
universal feelings and sentiments is more challenging than producing
work that is solely introspective and self-referential. In this way,
the artist sought to be a conduit of the human condition rather than a
"writer." In both method and aspiration, the artist seeks to listen
for what is already transpiring within us, between us, around us,
rather than risk drowning it out with an idea of what should
be.
Unknowable.
It is hoped that through Void Pusher, something of the human
experience has been captured. --- Point of Memory

Point of Memory "Carried By Ravens"

https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com/album/point-of-memory-void-pusher

https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/point-of-memory-void-pusher

Point of Memory  "Void Pusher"  2xLP/tape/CD

Void Pusher is acoustic computer music; combining digital cut ups and
live ambient noise with raw organic qualities. Inaudible super-bass
frequencies pumping through a room filled with acoustic instruments
and electric guitars set to quaver and rumble sympathetically. Then
record the result; a cacophony of resounding snares, harmonizing
drones and the subtle rattle of shakers, bells and tambourines. Most
of the time you can't hear the bass, just the reactions to it.
Sometimes the bass didn't create any rattle at all. By passing the
source sounds through amplifiers at their original frequencies and
mixing them with their reactive acoustic counterparts, each moment
assumes its own physical logic, a sense of movement and consequence,
accidentally adhering to Newton's third law of motion: for each
action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The intention behind this project was to create an album that, despite
undergoing extensive manipulation, emanates a sense of human warmth
and soul. All the source sounds were recorded live or processed
through reamplification and manipulated live in a studio setting
before being edited at home. The recording sessions took place during
spring, summer, winter, and fall, capturing a broad spectrum of moods
without deliberately seeking catharsis. The aim was to remain
emotionally open and avoid excessive direction, in a superstitious
attempt to capture something of the human condition writ large.
Rather than pursuing personal emotional release, the goal was to
embrace the human experience more generally and avoid individual
emotional states. The logic is that creating music that resonates with
universal feelings and sentiments is more challenging than producing
work that is solely introspective and self-referential. In this way,
the artist sought to be a conduit of the human condition rather than a
"writer." In both method and aspiration, the artist seeks to listen
for what is already transpiring within us, between us, around us,
rather than risk drowning it out with an idea of what should
be.
Unknowable.
It is hoped that through Void Pusher, something of the human
experience has been captured. --- Point of Memory

Point of Memory "Pro Dread"

In Spite of Dreams "Ate Up"

https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com/album/ate-up

Ate Up

In Spite of Dreams "Ate Up"

Nicolas Bernier & Francisco Meirino ‎– Fiction LP  

Fiction marks the first collaboration of sound artists Nicolas Bernier and Francisco Meirino. A study in feedback and psychoacoustics challenging the listeners perception and raising questions of what reality and fiction truly are.   

Nicolas Bernier’s exciting sound and installation work has been awarded the Prix Ars Electronica’s Golden Nica award. His artistic concerns remain constant, an exploration of balance between the cerebral and the sensual, and between organic sound sources and digital processing.

Francisco Meirino, an accomplished sound artist at the top of his game has released multiple works on Misanthropic Agenda including his most recent, critically acclaimed solo album, “Notebook (Techniques of Self-Destruction)”. He explores sound and its possibilities for failure while exhibiting his masterful editing and compositional skills.

Its perfectly fitting that these two artist come together to collaborate on this epic release.

available at: http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

Nicolas Bernier & Francisco Meirino ‎– Fiction LP (excerpt 1)

In Spite of Dreams  "subject:empty"

https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/in-spite-of-dreams-subject-empty-cd-preorder-ships-oct-25

subject:empty

In Spite of Dreams "Come Inside"

Nicolas Bernier & Francisco Meirino "Fiction" LP

Fiction marks the first collaboration of sound artists Nicolas Bernier and Francisco Meirino. A study in feedback and psychoacoustics challenging the listeners perception and raising questions of what reality and fiction truly are.   

Nicolas Bernier’s exciting sound and installation work has been awarded the Prix Ars Electronica’s Golden Nica award. His artistic concerns remain constant, an exploration of balance between the cerebral and the sensual, and between organic sound sources and digital processing.

Francisco Meirino, an accomplished sound artist at the top of his game has released multiple works on Misanthropic Agenda including his most recent, critically acclaimed solo album, “Notebook (Techniques of Self-Destruction)”. He explores sound and its possibilities for failure while exhibiting his masterful editing and compositional skills.

Its perfectly fitting that these two artist come together to collaborate on this epic release.

available at: http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

Nicolas Bernier & Francisco Meirino "Fiction" LP (excerpt 2)

Francisco Meirino  "GHETTO PHASE IV"

From: Francisco Meirino, "Three Realizations for Ensembles" CD


https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/francisco-meirino-three-realizations-for-ensembles-cd

http://www.misanthropicagenda.com

https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com

Three Realizations for Ensembles

Francisco Meirino  "GHETTO (PHASE IV)"

Joe Colley "Melody Of Failure" from:

MAR053  Joe Colley "Psychic Stress Soundtracks" 2xLP 

https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/joe-colley-psychic-stress-soundtracks-2xlp

https://youtu.be/UyOh6d-XiAY

Psychic Stress Soundtracks

Joe Colley "Melody of Failure"

Mark Vernon "The Consensus Is To Delete"

MAR051 Mark Vernon "An Annotated Phonography of Chance" LP

order:
https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com/product/mark-vernon-an-annotated-phonography-of-chance

www.misanthropicagenda.com

https://youtu.be/cT23W3UFPHk

An Annotated Phonography of Chance

Mark Vernon "The Consensus Is To Delete"

Track from:
Simon Whetham "Forced to Repeat Myself" CD

“When performing with a limited set of resources, through choices in materials to work with and the constraints of being nomadic, there can be a tendency to repeat actions and scenes that 'work', even when improvising and having to respond to each new situation in a unique way.”

One characteristic aspect of the touring experience that is not discussed often enough is the dilemma of repetition. Not repetition as a mechanism of the work itself, but as a tedious consequence of being obligated to perform night after night in quick succession. Generating a completely unique performance for each stop, even with the assistance of improvisation,  is a laborious undertaking that consumes too much time and sanity, while adhering to a rigid set of rules leaves one open to both burnout and diminishing returns. Is there a way to split the difference so that both performer and audience are always engaged to the highest standard?

“I set these constraints on myself. The need to produce something (at least a little) different in each event of a tour was fierce, especially when traveling with other musicians.”

Explicitly within the title itself of his latest CD, Forced To Repeat Myself, UK sound artist and composer Simon Whetham tackles these questions with both a sly wit and sincere inquisitiveness. The tracks, all collected from recordings documenting a 2018 tour, utilize analogous source material and means of execution.  Whetham paid particular attention to the contour and character of each venue when deciding how to best put the pieces together, offering a customization that subverts pure deja vu for a sharp observance of the unfamiliar.

“In each situation objects and materials unique to the space were incorporated into the performance setup and structure, generating sounds or resonating with them. And yet I could hear similar scenes, movements, even spaces. This repetition determined the dynamic of the composition, working with it and against it.”

By the very nature of their disseminating sparseness, the tracks of Forced To Repeat Myself demand from the listener an attentiveness fixed on nuance and variation. The amplified cracks and static of ethereal currents and anonymous electronics infer the works of others who’ve made it their mission to attune our attention toward sounds outside our natural perception, including Christina Kubisch’s electrical walks, Toshimaru Nakamura’s no-input mixer excursions, and Jason Zeh’s experiments with blank tapes and the mechanizations of his cassette players. Whetham’s shaping of the album’s source material to highlight certain exclusivities of each live performance emphasizes how the inherent dynamics of time and chance guide his self-imposed constraints into pathbreaking spectrums. 

“The title references a phrase many of us will have heard in our formative years, ’Why do you force me to repeat myself?’ I have no answer to this question. I never forced anyone to do anything. But with this work, I did.”

One inherent paradox of Forced To Repeat Myself is that each listen naturally manifests a distinct, individual experience. The way sounds are received and processed in one instance to the next each forget their own entryway into transcribing meaning from this abstraction. And Whetham is keenly aware of this as the sounds of Forced To Repeat Myself find consistent, unique ways to perpetuate themselves, ensuring any repetition to be delicately understated.

Forced to Repeat Myself

Forced to repeat Myself

Simon Whetham "08-11"

Houston, Texas based experimental noise and sound art label, created in 1998 by Gerritt Wittmer.

Misanthropic Agenda

Pinned to spotlight

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