from:
Untitled Tapes: 1991-1993
3particles [US] (3particles12)
digital edition 
December 2011

2 full hours of unreleased work from 1991-1993.

untitled. summer 1991  (40:00)
that now hollow chamber. summer 1991 (19:30)
untitled. fall 1991 (16:12)
untitled. winter 1991 (37:48)
untitled. winter 1992 (6:21)
untitled. summer 1993 (5:36)

all materials recorded by Richard Chartier using various synthesizers in bedrooms sitting on the floor.

recovered from audio tape with subsequent minimal EQ and crossfades as intended. hiss and distortion was inevitable.



Untitled Winter 1991

shouting at nuance

Shouting at Nuance

problematic interior 3

Desensualized

desensualized

no one wants to admit that i am afraid (for W.B.) (emotionally overextended version)

interreferences II

interreference.2

interreference.8

stase hivernale

on a continuous form

on a continuous form 1

on a continuous form 4

on a continuous form 2

on a continuous form 3

Specification.Twelve

new single from the upcoming Pinkcourtesyphone album 'Arise in Sinking Feelings' (out on Room40, Australia on April 12, 2024)

first new pinkcourtesyphone material in 2 years.

https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/arise-in-sinking-feelings

Arise in Sinking Feelings

Pinkcourtesyphone 'pre-sumptuous / post-sumptuous'

On Leaving

variance.a

variance.1

variance.2

variance.3

variance.4

from the album 'On Leaving' on Touch, UK (TO124)

dedicated to Steve Roden (1964-2023)

For over a quarter of a century, sound artist and composer Richard Chartier has interrogated an ever deepening thread of minimalist sound that meshes questions of stasis, pulse and timbre. The results of this work is some of the most quietly intense compositions of this century. His is a music of subtle variation, unwavering concentration, and also patience. This five part work created between 2020 and 2022 is dedicated to his friend and fellow sound artist Steve Roden.

"I first became friends with Steve Roden (and later his wife, Sari) back in 1998 when my first album 'direct.incidental.consequential' was released. He was one of the first group of artists to whom I sent the album. Almost instantly he had been there on the other side of the phone (or email) and ever since.

His way of listening and attention to details (no matter how small) was inspirational — the clarity and complexity of his understated and only seemingly simple compositions, engaging. Underneath it all, 'the less’ truly opened your ears to 'the more.' Steve saw and heard everything between the noise, no matter how faint.

Some of the last times I was able to see Steve were right before the pandemic. The effects of his advancing Alzheimers were present, still somewhat subtle, but increasing. I am still regretful that we were unable to spend more time together prior to his succumbing to his condition’s cruel effects. Another regret is not engaging in the collaboration we had both talked about for YEARS. 'We should really start on that sometime soon' Steve and I would say with each passing year.

I worked on the compositions included on this album as Steve gradually slipped away from communication. He was not in my life like he had been before. During this time it became apparent that these pieces were for Steve. A reflection of his ability to find beauty in the most minute details. Even when finally reviewing the final masters after his passing, I tried to think about how Steve would listen.

What would Steve hear in the details? His effect on this album is strong... the accumulation of influence and inspiration. This album feels organic and warm and was developed during a time when his absence in my life increased. That warmth is reflective of the nature of who Steve was himself, his friendship, and his visual & sound work.

on listening... on loss... on leaving...

As Steve and I mutually suggested... for quiet amplification or headphone listening.

Variance.1

LINE_157

A decade is a long pause… how the world has changed since…

Longtime friends and collaborators, iconic ambient composer William Basinski and sound artist/composer Richard Chartier return to LINE with 'Aurora Terminalis', their first new work together since 2015’s ‘Divertissement’ LP (Important Records, US).

From an unexpected sudden burst of sound jaggedly spiraling outward, the tumult fades and shockwaves slide into lulling haze of a melody. Background nuance—nearly imperceptible—and foreground romanticism ripple near each others’ edges. Then, rhythmic and liquid, an erratic drifting over a clouded void... an 'un-still' life... a slow tracing.

'Aurora Terminalis'… a fading gauzy signal for a finality.

Basinski and Chartier have previously released two collaborative works on LINE; Aurora Liminalis (2013) and Untitled 1-3 (2008, an expanded reissue of 'Untitled' originally on Spekk, Japan, 2004), as well as the archival Bandcamp exclusive 'Something from the Pink House' a live improvisation recorded in 2004.

William Basinski's archival album 'The Clocktower at the Beach (1979)' was released on LINE in 2023.

-

composed & recorded by Basinski & Chartier 2024

William Basinski: Voyetra 8 + loops
Richard Chartier: electronics, field recordings, processing, mixing

Mastered by Lawrence English at Negative Space

cover image: detail of 'Glass Eye', 2024 by James Elaine (acrylic and house paints, razor cuts on canvas, 62 in x 92 in)

© 2025 LINE

William Basinski published by Musex International (BMI)
Richard Chartier published by Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd

Aurora Terminalis

Aurora Terminalis (excerpt 1)

Aurora Terminalis (excerpt 2)

from 'Eventual'
901 Editions (Italy) (9ED031)
CD + digital / edition of 300

OUT NOVEMBER 14, 2025

Los Angeles-based sound artist, composer and LINE imprint curator Richard Chartier returns to 901 Editions with Eventual, his first solo album for the label. This work follows two collaborations with fellow American artist Yann Novak (Undefined, 2013), and Dutch harpist Gwyneth Wentink as Pinkcourtesyphone (Elision, 2016). Eventual probes the nuanced interrelations between sound and silence, engaging audiences in attentive listening and a heightened sense of spatial and temporal perception. Chartier shapes a terrain of vanishing tones and subtle variations, a quiet tension that dwells within sound’s slow unfolding.

—

Formed & recorded 2024-2025 by Richard Chartier.
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Design + photography by Fabio Perletta.

Thank you to Fabio Perletta, Asmus Tietchens, and Robert Eckhardt.
Published 2025 Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd.

BUY ON BANDCAMP

'Eventual (a)' [excerpt]

Untitled 1-3

Untitled 3 (reprise)

Taken from the album 'taking into account only a portion of your emotions' released as CD and Download

Released by:
Editions Mego
EMEGO236

Release date:
24 November 2016

taking into account only a portion of your emotions

Taking Into Account Only a Portion of Your Emotions

High End Smalls by PINKCOURTESYPHONE

LINE_095 

I think about the work of Mika Vainio almost every day since his sudden and untimely passing on April 12, 2017. 

His work as one half of Pan Sonic and his solo work under his own name and as Ø and Philus were and are incredibly influential to me. It was partly one of the reasons I began working with sound again in 1997 after stopping for almost 4 years, central to the evolution of my own listening. 

His sounds and arrangements were always elusive, otherworldly, unreal, strange, unsettling, often abrasive, and at the same time expressed a sheer unrelenting beauty. They seem to represent a push and pull between states, warmth and cold, silence and fury, future and past, life and death. 

I was fortunate enough to perform with and for him (in the audience) and despite his being a man of very select words, to share conversations with him. The prospect of a new release by Mika always thrilled me. I am still saddened to think that there will not be more of his work to be heard each year. 

These two pieces pay homage to Mika and the subtle and unquiet gifts he gave all listeners.
credits
releases April 20, 2018 

1. Central (for M.Vainio) 44:40 
2. Unquiet (for M.Vainio) 07:10 

formed and recorded April 2017-March 2018. 
track 2 intended to be played as loud as possible.

Centra (for M.Vainio)

Unquiet (for M.Vainio)

from DUO
by France Jobin + Richard Chartier
on mAtter, Japan
release date: Dec 16, 2018

DUO is the first collaborative project from minimal composer France Jobin and Richard Chartier.

DUO creates an “intemporelle“ and pervading atmosphere, where sounds intermingle within an intricate and delicate system delineated by spatial and temporal boundaries.

composed by  France Jobin and Richard Chartier.
mastered by Stephen Mathieu 
thank you to Yukitomo Hamasaki and Shuhei Miyagi
design by Richard Chartier

https://www.matter.jp/work/#/duo-france-jobin-richard-chartier/

DUO 1

LINE_SEG06

Sonic smudger Pinkcourtesyphone and harpist extraordinaire Gwyneth Wentink first met at an elegant garden party chez William Basinski, where they became instant accomplices. 2016's 'Elision' EP (901editions, Italy) soon followed, full of rich chords, lush hues, and enticing flickerings.
 
Now the pair invites you to get carried away in a cascade of murmurs with ‘when she had no mirror…she watched her shadow.’
 
... a powerful conception that plumbs the very depths of human emotion. Here is a picture of a woman's passion painted with strokes of shocking brilliance... vital music written and performed with bold imagination... daringly executed for the who can sustain the most stimulating of listening sensations.

when she had no mirror​.​.​. she watched her shadow

when she had no mirror... she watched her shadow (excerpt)

 Richard Chartier & CoH’s as NICE BOX
cover of Soft Cell’s “Bleak is My Favourite Cliché”

Recovery
Various Artists
Fractured Recordings [UK] 
10 x 7″ vinyl box set / numbered edition of 500
2008

What happens when you ask 20 electronic artists, each renowned for their own inimitable style, to cover a song from the past that holds particular significance to them? Recovery is a series of cover versions, tributes and appropriations of classic hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s from the following artists:Richard Chartier and coH, Fennesz, Jason Forrest, Robert Henke, Jenny Hoyston’s Paradise Island, Ryoji Ikeda, Johann Johannsson, Robert Lippok featuring Caroline Thorpe, Momus with Germlin, Matmos, Barbara Morgenstern, BJNilsen, Alva Noto, People Like Us with Ergo Phizmiz, snd, Susan Stenger, J.G.Thirlwell, Carter Tutti, Mika Vainio, :Zoviet*France:

www.fracturedrecordings.com/recovery

CoH + Richard Chartier as NICE BOX covering Soft Cell's "Bleak Is My Favourite Cliché"

A piece that I had been working on for a year. It never quite found a place within other works on an album, as it seemed unusual for me. 

Elements were incorporated into the DUO live performances. 

But not as an entity on its own. so here it is... 

isolated, dark, but hopeful. 
for these trying and anxious times. 

stay safe.


3particles25

Absention

no one wants to admit that i am afraid (for W.B.) [emotionally overextended version] 
Pinkcourtesyphone

there comes a time on any dance floor when the lights go low, the music turns pretty, and everyone gets that cheek-to-cheek look in their eyes. 

this deflated valentine from Pinkcourtesyphone is not for that time. 
is your heart awake... yet? 


originally created during the "sessions" for the album September 2020 Pinkcourtesyphone 'Leaving Everything To Be Desired' (room40, Australia) [https://richardchartier.bandcamp.com/album/leaving-everything-to-be-desired] 

... further manipulations, pokings, and frostings continued through January 2021.
released February 5, 2021 as a bandcamp exclusive download

photography: James Elaine 
thank you: L.English, W.Basinski, J.Elaine, M.Harding 

published by Touch Music/Fairwood Music UK Ltd 
3particles28

no one wants to admit that i am afraid [emotionally overextended version] by Pinkcourtesyphone

Richard Chartier (b.1971) is a Los Angeles based artist, considered one of the key figures in minimalist sound art. Chartier’s works explore the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception, and the act of listening itself. Chartier’'s sound works/installations have been presented in galleries and museums internationally and he has performed his work live across Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America at digital art/electronic music festivals and exhibits. In 2000 he formed the recording label LINE and has since curated its continuing documentation of compositional and installation work by international sound artists/composers exploring the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism.

He is also Pinkcourtesyphone.

Richard Chartier

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks