A duo for clarinet and piano, performed by ensemble intercontemporain.

Shard (clarinet and piano duo)

»grain« is the third Innode release following on from »Gridshifter« in 2013 and »syn« in 2021.

A new methodology to make the album is applied yet again from the trio of Bernhard Breuer, Steven Hess and Stefan Németh. The approach is more an anti approach where the trio let the process of creation itself steer the development of the recording, without any prior conceptual agenda.

Irregular rhythmic patterns often served as the initial springboard for each piece with Breuer creating a loop either by playing drums or with the aid of a modelling percussion synthesizer. The results often bypass existing formulaic grids. The outfit embraced these anti-precision steps building shapes around the tarnished templates.

The process of building upon the core structures laid forth alters throughout. In the case of »Splitter« you can hear an example of Bernhard´s core loops dominating a skeletal audio sphere. The title of the track »Impactopium« reflects the process of its construction being a conglomeration of individual titles meshed into a whole. The audio is a non-linear compendium of several fragments of individual elements. A conscious method of exploring a more decentralised architecture saw three disparate elements layered randomly on top of each other with some synths added as a sonic seasoning at the later stages.

Elsewhere sonic elements are restructured in unusual ways. One member's contribution is completely stripped away, quiet sounds captured with contact mics are highly amplified, the last track introduces twisted themes of the first track.

The title »grain« refers to the roughness resulting from these explorations. It also takes note of the term grain as used in analogue photography or in the case of audio as a distorted signal, or »noise.« All of these elements, normally eschewed, are here embraced as a thematic thread to instigate the exploratory proceedings.

This is a playbox of inventiveness, a hall of mirrors and an endless search for unusual tactics and fresh results.

Tackling the initial loop tracks from a wide variety of strategic approaches Innode has concocted a strangely cohesive work. From sparse source material to heavy overdubs of overdubs »grain« is a uplifting collection of works from this relentlessly curious and exploratory Austrian outfit. Humans make the work but the random embracing of unexpected processes means the gentleman of the outfit is not fully ruling what becomes of these works.

grain

Splitter

Innode 'Splitter' (EMEGO311)

Created for An Taobh Tuathail 25th Anniversary

Taken from the bandcamp/soundcloud release “Three Ghosts, One Forest” with
Petri Lahtinen: field recordings/electronics
Paul Mimlitsch: clarinet
Martin Hoogeboom: objects, electronics, guitar
Bandcamp: https://petrilahtinen.bandcamp.com/album/three-ghosts-one-forest
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/petrilahtinen/sets/three-ghosts-one-forest?si=3e5647bae49b4c75b974202e69f69635&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Three Ghosts, One Forest

Ghost in the Forest, act 3 (Lahtinen/Mimlitch/Hoogeboom)

Suite of film music by Rasmus Zwicki from episode 3 of the Danish Broadcastingcorporation nature documentary 'Wild and Wonderful Denmark'. Performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Choirs.

The Heath - Suite № 2 from Wild and Wonderful Denmark - by Rasmus Zwicki

the being/the world (2024)
for Juliet Fraser and Ensemble Musikfabrik

extract recording: scene 5: duo (love)

Juliet Fraser, voice
Sara Cubarsi, viola d'amore
Benjamin Kobler, synth organ
+ MusikFabrik

premiere recording extract from WDR, Köln on 3 March 2024

total piece duration: 1 hour

in loving memory of Amelia Cuni

commissioned by Ensemble Musikfabrik and Kunststiftung NRW
photograph: Janet Sinica

the being/the world (2024) scene 5 (extract)

A little piano piece written as a birthday present for a friend.


YouTube SCORE-VIDEO
https://youtu.be/-vkcWQZKegA?si=LhhwExSOh7dmjP-M

For Joy

Directions Out Of Town is the latest and teased as (possibly) the last LP by DIY electronic abstract pop wizard Finlay Shakespeare.

Directions Out Of Town is a fierce mix of headstrong pop bangers. Fact. There is simply no one else traversing the field that Shakespeare is exploring. It can be lonely in the desert, Simon says. Lyrically, Directions Out Of Town is dealing with loss; personally, geographically, politically, culturally - a general decay of everything.

This new record is heavily inspired by structural film where the results unravel a method where metaphor is removed from the act of sound synthesis, production and mix of the tracks. Fiercely independent and brimming with integrity this is a deeply effective journey through machines of the human experience.

The track titles are telling: ‘Away’, ‘Get’, ‘Direction’, ‘I go for a walk’, etc. This is sentiment via complex synthesis wrung through patterns of pop. One also finds ways out that only turn out to be false/untrue. “I essentially don’t know where I belong any more. This record is the precursor to that.”

What is ostensibly an electro pop record reveals a multitude of layers and depth as one man and his machines wrestle with the reality of this tangled matrix. If the charts had brains this would be album of the year.

Finlay Shakespeare is an electronic musician working in the UK. His fascination for synthesized sound was born out of his parents’ record collection, leading him to explore the electronic music of decades past throughout his teenage years. While starting to write and record his own tracks, he also began learning analogue electronics, which led him to design and build his own equipment. To date, he has released work on Editions Mego, Superpang, and his own GOTO Records.

Directions Out Of Town

Face Value (Trio Mandala)

Finlay Shakespeare 'Face Value (Trio Mandala)' (EMEGO310)

An early exercises recorded in 2017. I made it on a Make Noise 0 Coast, PO-12, a piano sample, a photocopier sample, and a Tascam DR-44WL.

Appears on the album: An Ornamental Light Glows Beneath the Tinted Window, available here: seanclancy.bandcamp.com/album/an-orna…nted-window-2

Piano, Photocopier, & Kick

Solo electronic music from Seán Clancy. 

Ad Astra Fellow Assistant Professor of Music at UCD in Ireland. Likes acoustic & synthetic sound, mostly minimal and experimental stuff, philosophising & so on & so on...

Piano, Photocopier, & Kick

Sean Clancy (Elektronische Musik)

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