Name: VAK 44 | yolabmi - To Forget Everything (Snippet) by VAAGNER
Duration: 4 min
Description: A work about creation, loss and recollections, yolabmiʼs latest album ‘By The Seaʼ is as much about remembering, as it is about letting go.

Shelter Press is happy to announce the release of Perceptual Geography, Thomas Ankersmit’s latest record. The music was created as a loosely structured piece for live performance in 2018-2019, commissioned by CTM in Berlin and Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, and premiered there on the GRM Acousmonium. The music is inspired by - and dedicated to - the pioneering research of American composer and installation artist Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009), and created entirely on the Serge Modular analog synthesizer.

Ankersmit and Amacher first met in New York in 2000, and kept in touch over the following years. Her concerts and installations left a deep impression on him. Amacher, being close to the Tcherepnin family, also first introduced Ankersmit to the Serge synthesizer, developed by Serge Tcherepnin in the 1970s.

In the piece, Ankersmit explores different “modes” of listening: not just which sounds are heard and when, but also how and where sounds are experienced (in the room, in the body, inside the head, far away, nearby). So-called otoacoustic emissions (sounds emanating from inside the head, generated by the ears themselves) play a prominent role. When turned up loud, the material moves beyond the loudspeakers and starts to trigger additional tones inside the listener’s head; tones that are not present in the recorded music. Cupping the ears with the hands and slight movements of the head also help to bring these tones to life. Maryanne Amacher was the first artist to systematically explore the musical use of these phenomena, often referring to them as “ear tones”.

The title is a reference to Amacher’s essay “Psychoacoustic Phenomena in Musical Composition: Some Features of a Perceptual Geography”, and despite the all-electronic instrumentation, a dramatic sense of landscape and environment often emerges. There are sparks of fire, howling wind, distant thunder, a swarm of bats disappearing into the distance. Ghostly, floating tones are contrasted with highly dynamic sounds darting around the listener, and large, heavy waves rolling in slowly. “Ear tone” stimuli weave in and out of these textures, emerging from them. Once or twice, the music seems to completely freeze in time, but a slight movement of the listener’s head reveals changes.

For each live performance, Ankersmit tunes his instrument to the resonant characteristics of the performance space, so that the sounds activate the structure, traveling through the architecture and setting it in motion.

The record is accompanied by an extensive conversation between Ankersmit and Serge Tcherepnin, creator of the Serge Modular and friend and collaborator of Amacher.

This is a digital-only release (CD and download) because the “ear tone” material can’t be adequately transferred to vinyl.

Please play loud and use speakers, not headphones. 
credits
releases March 19, 2021

Music: Thomas Ankersmit
Mastering: Kassian Troyer
Design: Bartolomé Sanson
Interview editing: Michelle Arrouas

THOMAS ANKERSMIT 'Perceptual Geography' (EXCERPT) (SP130)

Altar of Flies "Bortom Reven". iDEAL191 LP. Transparent blue vinyl. Cover by Altar of Flies / Allon Kaye. Ltd to 300 copies. Released in late April/early May.

Altar of Flies - Under Vår Livstid (iDEAL191 LP)

Far Away Rock

A work about creation, loss and recollections, yolabmiʼs latest album ‘By The Seaʼ is as much about remembering, as it is about letting go.

VAK 44 | yolabmi - To Forget Everything (Snippet)

breakfast in the rose garden (for catalina)

https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/by-the-sea

By The Sea

1.  At The Seashore
2. To Forget Everything

"A work about creation, loss and recollections.‘By The Seaʼ is as much about remembering, as it is about letting go."

https://soundcloud.com/vaagner

By The Sea

At The Seashore - SIDE A (VAK 44 - By The Sea )

'Meditations on almost falling. All proceeds will be donated to Vagus, a local organisation helping people experiencing homelessness.

Meditácie o takmer padaní. Všetky výnosy budú venované lokálnej organizácii Vagus, ktorá pomáha ľuďom bez domova.
credits
released May 6, 2021

Released by Warm Winters Ltd. as WW010'

Malvern Brume - Putting The Cart Before The Horse (Clip)(Warm Winters Ltd.)

Celebrating 2 years of Eastern Nurseries.

Last night I dreamt of a hotel room by the ocean, saltwater was coming in beneath the windows. Did you know that most cells in the human body replace themselves every 7 to 10 years? This idea is in fact somehow inaccurate, even though beautiful in its own naive, poetical ingenuity. I've pinpointed my oldest olfactory memory down to saline skin and the scent of nasturtiums in a midsummer heatwave.

~there's a million things I'd like to tell you.

EN21

Mastered by Thomas Carney
Artwork by Tikusha

Track 3 produced by acedia
Additional instrumentation in track 4 by Concrete Fantasies & Swan Palace

Burning Pyre & Canadian Rifles - Peachblow

Naive Slumber out on @amekcollective / 

"For “Naive Slumber”, his long due full-length album appearance on Amek, Evitceles reached deep into his well of emotional ambient and carefully picked nearly 60 minutes of music, which we couldn’t be releasing at a more appropriate time. Mostly melancholic, border-line uplifting and always deeply contemplative, the album unfolds and blooms into vivid visions of vast rainy gardens, secluded urban passages and abandoned seaside resorts. “Naive Slumber” is structured by warm, swirling synth loops, floating melodies, subtle pads and hidden audio artefacts. Its tight and focused production turns the album into a gripping musical experience, which reveals its deepest secrets only with the listener put into full submission.

VAK 44 | yolabmi - To Forget Everything (Snippet)

VAAGNER

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