« October 2008 | Main | December 2008 »

The Sinking of the Titanic by Gavin Bryars | Philip Jeck | Alter Ego [Touch Tone 34] has made Mojo's Top 50 albums of 2008 list.

Mojo write: "Bryars' 1969 modern classic refurbished by UK turntable artist Philip Jeck and Italian ensemble Alter Ego. They lent eerie atmosphere to Bryars' ethereal orchestrations. based on the hymn Autumn, as rendered by the ship's string ensemble as the liner sank."

The Sinking of the Titanic, recorded at the 49th International Festival of Contemporary Music at The Venice Biennale on 1st October 2005 at the Teatro Maliban, is available in the TouchShop.

Announcing Ash 7.6 – a limited 7" vinyl in a hand-numbered edition of 500 copies only. Available now in the TouchShop. This 7” is the third in a series of vinyl acoustic versions of the National Anthems of Elgaland-Vargaland. See also the Mariachi version [Ash 7.2] and the Klezmer and Afrobeat versions [Ash 7.4], both issued in 2007 via Ash International.

A: Kampen Skoles Musikkorps performs The Kingdoms Of Elgaland-Vargaland National Anthem #5
B: The KREV Underwater National Anthem

The Kingdoms Of Elgaland-Vargaland's National Anthem #5 was performed by Kampen Skoles Musikkorps. Kampen Skoles Musikkorps consists of around 24 musicians aged from 9 to 16. It was founded in 1906 and is the third oldest school marching band in Norway. Recorded on 12 March 2008 at Kampen Skole in Oslo. www.kampenkorps.no

The KREV Underwater National Anthem was recorded under MS Reichenau on the occasion of the Annexation of the Bodensee (Lake Constance) including Überlinger See, Zeller See, Gnadensee, Untersee and the Insel Mainau (Island of Mainau), formerly a part of Switzerland, Austria, Germany, by the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland on Wednesday, 28 May 2008. In attendance were Kings Michael I & Leif I, The KREV Ambassadors for Basel, UK and Zürich; The Minister of Galleries and many others. Recorded using Dolphin Ear hydrophones and a Nagra Ares P–11 flash recorder whilst The Emmishofer Brass Band and The Diessenhofen Yodelling Choir performed… With thanks to Adrian Notz at Cabaret Voltaire, Richard Tisserand at Kunstraum Kreuzlingen and Stefan M. Seydel at (((rebell.tv))).

www.elgaland-vargaland.org
www.ashinternational.com
www.touchshop.org

Tokafi's Tobias Fischer has interviewed Christian Fennesz about his new album, "Black Sea". You can read the interview over at www.tokafi.com or here on www.touchmusic.org.uk

18.11.08 - Submarine – 9:12 - 192 kpbs

A submarine-like structure sits on a traffic island in the middle of Akerman Road, London SW9. It was built in the 1970s above the large underground boiler room that provides heat for the Myatt’s Field estates, which lie on either side of the road. The boilers still heat more than 300 buildings to the south of the road, but their unreliability caused the north-side estate to switch to another heating source in the early 1990s. The heating system was sited underground because to do so was considered ‘best practice’ at this stage of the Cold War, when a nuclear conflict sometimes seemed a distinct possibility. At the time the estates were built, both the US and the USSR maintained large fleets of weapon-bearing submarines: ocean-going doubles of the Akerman Road structure. In spring 2008 I made some recordings of the machinery in the boiler room. These have been organised into a composition. I have filtered some of the sounds but no digital processing has been used.

Photography by Dollan Cannell.

Thanks to Stuart Dixon and Lambeth council for letting me in.

Touch Radio is internet audio broadcast streaming direct from the server. To listen you need a mp3 player app that supports streaming such as Apple's iTunes for Mac and PC. www.touchradio.org.uk

A collection of photographs from the Thames Estuary taken by Jon Wozencroft in September 2008 for the Fennesz CD and LP, "Black Sea". Certain shots were never intended to be used (the close-ups of the water) and served as 'focus pulls' against existing imagery used for "Liquid Music". The window reflection, used on the inside cover of the LP, is the only one from a separate location, Holland Park. This was taken in March 2008 when Christian first came up with the title for the project; it worked as a catalyst for thinking about how the finished recordings might be expressed visually.

BBC 2 9pm 15th November 2008

The Fallen is BBC Two's most ambitious single documentary ever... contains music by Oren Ambarchi, Biosphere, Fennesz, Ryoji Ikeda, Jacob Kirkegaard, BJNilsen, Rosy Parlane and others

This autumn BBC Two remembers every single serviceman and woman who has died while serving with the British Armed Forces in the current conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan, in an epic three-hour documentary.

The Fallen, from acclaimed filmmaker Morgan Matthews, spans the last seven years of conflict and will chronicle all those who have died, focusing in detail on the stories of a significant number of these.

With intimate testimonies from families and loved ones, combined with compelling archive, the film acknowledges these individuals' sacrifices and the effects of grief on those who loved them.

Says Roly Keating, Controller BBC Two: "The Fallen remembers all of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country in the current Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and we hope will go some way towards creating a televisual memorial.

"It's a hugely moving and dignified account of what it means to lose someone you love to conflict and wholly worthy of the three hours of primetime television we will be dedicating to it.

"The Fallen reflects the scale and ambition of factual programmes on the channel this season: from a landmark series exploring the hidden world of the planet's oceans to the painstaking piecing together of what really happened behind closed doors in WWII; from Simon Schama's historical journey on the American election trail to Bruce Parry's treacherous and fascinating journey down the Amazon; from Griff Rhys Jones's startlingly honest look at anger to John Prescott's personal exploration of Britain's class system.

The Radio Times (Pick of the Day) writes:

"Harrowing doesn't begin to describe Morgan Matthews's extraordinary film. It sets itself a huge task: to commemorate every British serviceman who has died in the Afghanistan and Irag conflicts. It achieves this mostly by talking to surviving family members... The film is mostly about remembering, and the way grief can shred lives and families..."

The eighth in the Touch Sevens series, "Withers in the Waking" by People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz, is now on sale in the TouchShop.

Side A: In the Waking 5:55 [Locked groove]
Side B: Withers in the Whist 4:27

This edition is the first in the series to introduce melodic narrative. Both songs are results of the WFMU podcast series "Codpaste", in which Vicki & Ergo publicly composed a series of collage compositions, deconstructing their respective practices, and a live soundtrack to Christian Marclay's "ScreenPlay". The series and soundtrack resulted in the online only album "Rhapsody in Glue", from which these two songs are alternative versions.

Touch Sevens is a series of 7" vinyl only limited editions, with previous offerings from Fennesz, Chris Watson, Oren Ambarchi, Jim O'Rourke, Mika Vainio and others. Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft; cut by Jason at Transition. You can now order a bundle of all eight produced so far from the TouchShop by clicking here.