12" Vinyl or FLAC

Photography by Geir Jenssen & Emilija Skarnulyte
Design by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition

Field recordings of a volcano by Geir Jenssen, better known as Biosphere.

Stromboli is an active volcano off the north coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean. The volcano has erupted many times, and is constantly active with minor eruptions, often visible from many points on the island and from the surrounding sea, giving rise to the island's nickname "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean". The last major eruption was on April 13, 2009.

Track listing:

Side A Stromboli 9:40
Side B Stromboli Dub 9:36

Recorded at Stromboli's crater edge (924 m) on July 19th 2012 at 9:30 pm.
Weather: gentle breeze, +15°C.
Location: 38°47'33.69"N, 15°12'50.96"E
Recording equipment: Fostex FR-2LE field memory recorder, Audio-Technica AT835ST shotgun microphone, and a Canon 5D mkII SLR.

At the request of the artist, there will be no mp3 version of this release, but we have made a FLAC edition available…

Buy "Stromboli" [12" Vinyl] in the TouchShop
Buy "Stromboli" [FLAC] in the TouchShop

15.05.13 - Placencia Bay - 16:32 - 320 kbps

Photograph: Peter Worth

Equipment used: 4 x Reson 4042 Hydrophones, rigged for MS recording, post-processed using Max/MSP; Nagra VI recorder.

Location: Placencia Bay, Belize.

Date: 13th December 2012.

Narrative:

After a long day of finicky experimentation in the sun, I returned to the bay to wash salt water from the equipment and to hose down. From 16°30'37"N, 88°22'1"W I looked out on a tranquil evening scene and decided to attempt one last recording.

I had recorded throughout the day in shallow coral seas off the coast of Belize. I’d attempted to capture a spatial impression of the clouds of clicks and pops produced by crustacea and who-knows-what; a sound present at almost every ocean location on Earth.

In the evening bay one boat was at anchor, a jet ski idled around and I saw a couple of tiny and distant fishing boats. Yet the underwater acoustic landscape was dense, quite different from the gentle evening scene that played out above the water.

I assembled this sequence of recordings to share my experiences of these two places. The recordings made among the shallow reefs are filled with crustacea sounds punctuated by communication calls between toadfish and an occasional dolphin.

Other impressions of this remote environment came to light when I auditioned the recordings back in the studio. The hydrophone rig became a barometer for other encounters. The tiniest brushings with what appeared to be fluffy fingers of soft coral revealed their harsh surface, rasping and gritty. As the evening currents shifted and strengthened “strumming” hydrophone cables conveyed the power of the underwater gales.

Many thanks to Francesca von Habsburg and the T-B A21 Academy for the opportunity to record in these places.

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Play "Placencia Bay"
www.touchradio.org.uk

01.05.13 - Urban Dawn Chorus - 49:46 - 192 kbps

Recorded in Balham, south west London, from 0400 HRS 1st May 2013

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Play "Urban Dawn Chorus"
www.touchradio.org.uk

Edition of 300 vinyl and download only

The second in a new series of vinyl and download only releases, "from the archives...".

The first, Islands Inbetween, was originally released on cassette in 1983 [Touch # T33.2].

The second in this series, "Drumming for Creation" [Touch # T33.3V] is now available on vinyl. Originally released on cassette in 1985 [Touch # T33.3], this edition focuses on the recordings of Walo Shatan Gwari. The ensemble, led by Malam Walo, belongs to the Gwari people of Niger State.

The performances, at London's Commonwealth Institute, also encompassed drumming sessions and instrument-making workshops.

Tracklist:
Side One 15'31"
A1: Farming is the Most Important Occupation Today
A2: If You Have Something Today, Try and Enjoy It, For Tomorrow You May Not Be Alive to Do So
A3: Let Us Love One Another

Side Two 11'25"
B: Live

Buy "Drumming for Creation" [LP] in the TouchShop

16.04.13 - Live at The Exchange, Cornwall 12th August 2011 - 16:27 - 320 kbps

Unprocessed recordings of a 16 foot pipe organ - built 1861, standing in a 13/14th Century rural church in West Penwith, Cornwall), guitar feedback, unprocessed field recordings, ventilator and microtonal dubplates & turntables.

Field recordings from contained and reverberant spaces in the cities of Berlin (2007), Tokyo (2006), Sydney (1999), Milan (2008), Hamburg (2009) and Osaka (2006).

Live 8-channel diffusion at The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall as a response to the exhibition "An Urban Silence" curated by Blair Todd. Diffusion through 8 Genelec 8040A monitors with 7070A & 7050B subwoofers courtesy of University College Falmouth/Dartington College & Rob Gawthrop.

Live room recording by Martin Clarke
Mixed and mastered by Robert Curgenven

Subscribe to the TouchPod podcast of TouchRadio via the iTunes Music Store
Play "Live at The Exchange, Cornwall 12th August 2011"
www.touchradio.org.uk
www.recordedfields.net

Download only (320 kpbs MP3)
Reorganised by Philip Jeck

This live recording was made at Experimental Intermedia, New York City, for Touch.30 on 16th September 2012, and has been reorganised and edited by Philip Jeck. With thanks to Phill Niblock and Byron Westbrook. Live photo by Dave Knapik. Stone by Jon Wozencroft.

30 is the number of upright stones that originally encompassed the Sarsen Circle, Stonehenge's best known feature.

feat. Marcus Davidson - percussion | Mike Harding – Conductor (& percussion) | Philip Jeck - Casio SK1 keyboard, effects, mixing desk and MD player | Dave Knapik - radio, iphones, Buddha Machine, Polaroid 450 Land camera, Knockman toys: the Pororon and the ChaCha, and police scanner | Lary 7 - contrabass | Ken Montgomery - Slepian Modified Casiotone M-10, Trogtronics 655 Black Box & Kaoss Pad | JG Thirlwell - laptop, keyboard | Brian Turner - guitar/amp | Andrea, The Enchantress of Bioluminosity - Zils

Tracklist:

1. The Sarsen Circle 30' 00"

Download "The Sarsen Circle" [Zipped 320 kpbs MP3] in the TouchShop

27.03.13 - Indian Storm - 22:31 - 320 kbps

Equipment Used:
Pearl MS-2 CL microphone outputting MS, matrixed in a Sound Devices SD302 mixer and recorded stereo to a Nagra BB+.

Location:
Camp Forktail Creek just outside the Corbett Tiger Reserve near Ramnagar, Uttaranchal, Northern India.

Date:
March/April 2009. [On a Wildeye trip to India with Chris Watson.]

Narrative:
After our evening meal of vegetable curry which followed a long, bumpy day in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (looking for... tigers of course!), we settled down to the sound of distant thunder. Our hosts advised that we took shelter before the rain started and soon after the short walk to my hut the first spots were falling. Recording equipment was hurriedly set up under the veranda and my hut-mate and I settled down on deck-chairs. After only a very short wait, with skipper frogs calling from the nearby pond, the rain started. Very soon the only sound was of rain and distant thunder and everyone, even the monitor lizard that lived in the thatch of our roof, stayed put until the storm passed.

Subscribe to the TouchPod podcast of TouchRadio via the iTunes Music Store
Play "Indian Storm"
www.touchradio.org.uk
www.rmartinseddon.co.uk

Vinyl & download only
Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition

In collaboration with Danish ensemble Scenatet, Jacob Kirkegaard's two pieces Labyrinthitis and Church are here interpreted by classical instruments. The intention of this transformation into an instrumental score is to explore the musical dimension and potential of the sounds that were used in creating the original works.

Church (from "4 Rooms", Touch, 2006) originally consists of ambient recordings of an abandoned church inside the radioactive zone in Chernobyl. Laybrinthitis (Touch, 2008) is a canon of oto-acoustic tones generated by the artist's own ears. Like most of Kirkegaard's sound works, both pieces are characterised by a strong focus on methodology, and by the artist's wish to omit any deliberate emotional or "musical" intention.

Jacob Kirkegaard is a Danish artist focusing on scientific & aesthetic aspects of resonance, time, sound & hearing. His installations, compositions & performances deal with acoustic spaces or phenomena that usually remain imperceptible. Using unorthodox methods for recording, Kirkegaard captures and contextualizes hitherto unheard sounds from within a variety of environments: a geyser, a sand dune, a nuclear power plant, an empty room, a TV tower, and even sounds from the human inner ear itself.

Based in Berlin, Kirkegaard is a graduate of the Academy for Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. Since 1995, Kirkegaard has presented his works at exhibitions and at festivals and conferences throughout the world. He has released five albums (mostly on the British label Touch) and is a member of the sound art collective freq_out.

JACOB KIRKEGAARD : CONVERSION

Composed by Jacob Kirkegaard
Ensemble: SCENATET
Clarinet: Vicky Wright; Percussion: Mads Bendsen; Trombone: Andras Olsen; Violin: Kirsten Riis-Jensen; Viola: Mina Fred; Cello: Sofia Olsson
Scenatet was founded in 2008 by Anna Berit Asp Christensen and Niels Rønsholdt as an ensemble of soloists and artists for contemporary art and music.
Recorded by Scenatet at Studio 3 at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, Denmark June 2012
Mixed in Berlin by Jacob Kirkegaard
Executive Producer: Anna Berit Asp Christensen
Instrumental Supervisor: Niels Rønsholdt
Recording Producer & Sound Engineer: Peter Barnow

Thanks to SCENATET, Danish Arts Council and Danish Composers' Society for their support.

Tracklist:

Side One: Labyrinthitis ll 17:24 - you can here an edit of this track here http://www.touchshop.org/media/conversation.mp3
Side Two: Church ll 16:22

Order "Conversion" [LP] in the TouchShop

Today, 11th March, is the official 31st anniversary of the founding of Touch in 1982...

First contact with New Order after their concert at the Newcastle Mayfair on 11th March 1982…

Visit the Touch Archive pages
Touch's history

The fourth in the series of limited edition vinyl (now deleted) in the Tone 45 series is now available as a high quality FLAC download, only available from the TouchShop.

Track listing:
Track 1: Scuttling Around in the Shallows 11:25
Track 2: Drying Out in the Sun 16:01

"Scuttling Around in the Shallows" is from the quadrophonic installation of the same name showed at Galerie B-312, Montreal, Canada 8th January - 5th February 2011.

"Drying Out in the Sun" is from a four-speaker outdoor public installation at "Starfield Simulation #36", Scaniaparken in Malmö, Sweden, 4th September - 2nd October 2011.

What they said about the vinyl release:

Norman Records: "What a beautiful unnerving organic cacophony this is, the rugged brutality of the oceans and uncharted icy crevices are captured in blistering fashion here, the enhanced low-end capabilities of the 12” vinyl format further exposing the sheer terrifying natural wonder of it all. Heartily recommended for fans of pure dark ambience and Chris Watson’s absorbing harnessing of the sound of nature."

The Field Reporter: "The horizontal timeline narrative in ’Debris’ is strongly engaging and that is probably because it sounds very natural and organic but also reveals an intentionality behind it. To me ‘Debris’ works like some sort of cinematographic piece where the artist explores different sounds in a quest that seems more emotional and narrative than conceptual. We can hear recognizable sounds such as voices, bells and birds, that when combined with other sounds - whose causality is not so clear- build altogether a very effective composition." [David Vélez]

Boomkat: "This piece reminds us strongly of works by Thomas Köner and Jim Haynes, juxtaposing bleak, perilous subaquatic ambient pressure with crystallising surface textures."

Forced Exposure: "The two sides of Debris were both extracted from a couple of her sound installations, the longer of which is entitled "Drying Out In The Sun", based on recordings made at / near / beneath the surface of the ocean, which plunge into the nether regions of the deep-sea trenches and alluvial plains, amassed into pressurized low-frequency drones. "Scuttling Around The Shallows" returns to her fascination with shrimp which she first displayed on her Tapeworm cassette The Noisiest Guys On The Planet, with erratic snaps, clicks, and crunches made by those small crustaceans amidst deep-ocean ambience."

Buy Jana Winderen "Debris" [FLAC download] in the TouchShop
www.janawinderen.com

02.03.13 - Silo - 17:47 - 320 kbps

Photo: David Cowlard

Live at Silo 6, Auckland at the Audio Foundation’s Now! Here! Festival 12.08.12

A performance in one New Zealand’s most reverberant spaces, a complex of six disused cement silos on Auckland’s waterfront. Harnessing their amazing acoustics, Stanier Black-Five made a series of initial field recordings within the silos, which were then re-introduced into the same space as the source material for this live performance. All the reverb is natural. No effects were used.

Stanier Black-Five is the New Zealand-based sound artist and writer, Jo Burzynska. Her audio work is largely based on the manipulation of her own environmental recordings and found sounds, which she uses to create dense soundscapes that use sources such as the pounding rhythms of trains to the sounds of the earthquakes that have recently shaken her city. She also creates multi-sensory installations that combine sound and taste.

Thanks to the Audio Foundation for hosting the event, David Hornblow & Shaun Collins for the live sound & Malcolm Riddoch for the mastering.

Subscribe to the TouchPod podcast of TouchRadio via the iTunes Music Store
Play "Silo"
www.touchradio.org.uk
www.stanierblackfive.com

7" vinyl only
Cut by Jason at Transition

Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft

Track listing:
Side A: Hejrat
Side B: Endless Spring

Recorded with rage during the winter of 2011/12. “Voice of a Burnt Generation”, sung by Hani, recorded lo–fi in the Eissenhutenstadt refugee camp, Germany.

Buy Sohrab "Between Strangers" [7" Vinyl Only] in the TouchShop
www.touchmusic.org.uk/sohrab

7" vinyl only
Cut by Jason at Transition

Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft

Track listing:

Side A: Willow
Side B: Morning

Written and recorded in Auckland, New Zealand, 2008–2009

Buy Rosy Parlane "Willow" [7" Vinyl Only] in the TouchShop
www.rosyparlane.com

2 x USB cards in white outer, with 2 colour sticker, and two inner wallets
Strictly limited edition of 50 ***This edition is now sold out***

AUTODIGEST ● BIOSPHERE ● FENNESZ ● BRUCE GILBERT ● CM VON HAUSSWOLFF ● PHILIP JECK ● THOMAS KÖNER ● GARRY MOUAT ● PEOPLE LIKE US ● JON SAVAGE ● DAVID TOOP ● JON WOZENCROFT

Most of these recordings were made direct from the mixing desk onto our Nagra Ares Pll digital stereo recorder. In three cases we have used the original files provided by the artist - autodigest, People Like Us and Jon Savage. (The performance by Hildur Gudnadottir was not recorded).

Tracklist:

USB Card One

David Toop - 16 bit aiff audio recording of his presentation of "Yanomamo Shamanism", released on 'Touch Travel' [Touch # T4, 1984]. 12' 45"
Fennesz - 24 bit wav recording of his performance (unedited) 34' 16"
Garry Mouat - m4v slide show of his scans of his artwork for Touch
Philip Jeck - 24 bit wav recording of his performance (unedited) 33' 20"
People Like Us - mp4 of "4' 33" and mp3 of "Cage Silenced" 4' 33"

USB Card Two

autodigest - 16 bit wav file of "30 releases in 30 years of Touch fitting into 30 seconds and 3 bonus seconds..." 0' 39"
Biosphere - 24 bit wav recording of his performance (abridged) 15' 32"
Bruce Gilbert - 16 bit aiff recording of "Sliding off the World". Live performance of his piece originally released on Touch 25 [Touch # Tone 25, 2007] 3' 07"
CM von Hausswolff - 24 bit wav recording of his performance (unedited) 26' 48"
Jon Wozencroft - m4v slide show of his cover art
Jon Savage - 16 bit wav recording of "Ritual", from his pirate broadcast for Network 21 in 1987 1' 05"
Thomas Koner - 24 bit wav recording of his performance (unedited) 36' 53"

Order "Live at Beaconsfield" [2 x USB Cards] in the TouchShop

01.02.13 - instamatic: blue mountains, new south wales, australia - 12:40 - 320 kbps

bower floor | dawn chorus with rain | canyon wires

music sits above and under the first impression.
when duration allows these things come into focus, increasingly.
in swifter moments a sense of quietude is possible.
still, finding pace with listening as a lens, moving

recorded september 2012, during time spent following a residency at The Wired Lab, this piece begins with two recordings playing at the same time. One of a bower floor, with contact microphones and geophone (nb. some of these low frequencies will not be audible via computer speakers) alongside a dawn chorus amidst light rain - drops falling centimetres from a conventional stereo microphone. Towards the middle of the piece, a further contact microphone recording enters, revealing one of the most bizarre fence wire sounds i've yet managed to gather. Despite returning to the same stretch of canyon fence several times, this particular effect was only present on one occasion and lasted for around 10 minutes. My best guess is that humidity and the rising temperature combined to create a momentary, unrepeatable and extremely evocative effect on the wires. It is this infinite and unpredictable aspect to listening in situ that continues to fascinate me. Getting closer to and underneath the surface of environments and spaces is a constant revelation, a constant pleasure.

jrf c-series contact microphones | jrf prototype geophone | sanken cuw-180

thanks, always, to Maureen and Pheobe and to Sarah Last and Dave Burraston (The Wired Lab)

Subscribe to the TouchPod podcast of TouchRadio via the iTunes Music Store
Play "instamatic: blue mountains, new south wales, australia"
www.touchradio.org.uk
www.jezrileyfrench.co.uk