Photography by Jon Wozencroft

Photography & Design: Jon Wozencroft
Mastered by Denis Blackham

The Japanese phrase 'Kiri No Oto' loosely translates to the 'sound of fog' or 'sound of mist'. In many ways it's a collection that meditates on the sense of displacement and distortion that occurs in environments which undergo extreme mists, snowstorms and sea sprays. In the same way that visual objects loose their perspective, form and shape in these environments, the sound components that make up Kiri No Oto are not quite as they first might appear.

Utilising a range of divergent mixing techniques, analog filtering and 'harmonic' distortion, Kiri No Oto offers an expansive sound space in which the listener must choose to position themselves. Focus, like that in a fog, is in a constant state of flux as elements are brought into and out of perspective.

The first in a series of records employing this technique, Kiri No Oto explores the richness in the frequencies that are usually associated with extremes of volume and through this process the recordings position 'the ear' itself as 'another layer of auditory fog' as it begins to distort and alter the sounds it comes in contact with.

The sounds sources for Kiri No Oto emanate from both instruments and found sound, with recordings on this edition made in Poland, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

Tracklist

1. Organs Lost At Sea
2. Soft Fuse
3. White Spray
4. Waves Sheer Light
5. Commentary
6. Allay
7. Figure's Lone Static
8. Oamura

Boomkat (UK):

AVUI (Spain):

VITAL (The Netherlands):

Perhaps Lawrence English needs no introduction, as recently he has presented much new work in these pages. He is from Brisbane where he deals with field recordings, installations, improvisations with people like David Toop, Terry Riley, DJ Olive, Tetuzi Akiyama and many others. Also he is the man behind Australia's more interesting labels Room40. In his own music he uses a lot of field recordings, like his recent underwater recordings. On 'Kiri No Oto', which translates as 'sound of fog', which is not what he uses, but the music that sounds like fog. Although English doesn't reveal his sound sources, just referred to as 'instruments and found sounds', which are processed until they sound like fog. Also the processing is just described as 'analog filtering and harmonic distortion', but the end result works very much like fog. No matter how hard you try to see, all you get is blurry things. And that's what this music does too. Once you think you may recognize something - be it a melody, an instrument or even a melodic part such as 'Allay' - it's never really clear what it is that you are listening to. I'm not a car driver, but I can imagine this as driving a car in fog: you notice things, and then they disappear and as such works the music also. Each of the eight pieces work like this, each piece of music has its own special quality, even when there are similarities among the various pieces. Here the fog theme works also a bigger level - by creating similar yet different tracks, a deliberate mist is also created. Great record, if not always surprising from the perspective of 'new' music. [FdW]

Other Music (USA):

Kiri No Oto is a gorgeous attempt at the sonic transposition of "the visual effects of mist, mirage, snow fall and the like" from Australian soundsmith and room40 label-founder Lawrence English. While the title -- translating loosely to "the sound of mist" or "fog" -- or mission statement might suggest that tranquility or minimalism's ahead, this album is more often than not a downright stormy one. Not to mention gorgeous. As with any Touch release, don't let the grays of the Jon Wozencroft cover photo get to you; English draws from an amazing sonic-color palette, his sounds fluid, vaporous, and shimmering, his application of field-recordings from the world over amazingly transporting. Kiri No Oto is a piece of sound art operating at a far distance from impressionism -- English does not attempt to paint us pictures of foggy landscapes or snow storms, so much as he attempts to capture us in environments similarly sublime. [AKa]

Donadea Forest Recordings, December 2007 to May 2008.

00:00-04:27 Castle Crow's Cacophony (31st December 2007, 7.20am)
04:28-10:23 January Gales 9th January 2008 10.45pm (contains references to 9/11 forest monument and the avenue of trees, captured with contact mics)
10:24-14:48 Forest Rain 12th January 2008 1.15am (extensive flooding)
14:49-20:36 Forest Harmonics 8th March 2008 6.20-11.50am (sampled forest chimes, forestry felling, and the 'carbon chorus' [surrounding motorways]).
20:37-30:47 The Dawn Chorus (recorded on National Dawn Chorus Day 20th May 2008, 4.35am)

Tom Lawrence is a composer/sound recordist. He is on the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Dublin City University. Further details can be found here.

Principal photography by Eddie Mallin from Dublin, currently living in Kildare. Using film-based cameras, he prints using traditional darkroom techniques and favours fibre-based papers. Images for this project are mainly scanned negatives. Monochrome images © Eddie Mallin. For more information, click here.

Supplementary photography captured during recording sessions by Tom Lawrence.

Special thanks to Karen Bothwell, Forest Manager Kildare & E.Laois and all the staff at Coillte Teoranta. For more info on Donadea Forest, click here.

These recordings were made using a Sennheiser mkh20 binaural rig, a Neumann kmr82, contact microphones, a hydrophone, a Sony C1 and a Sound Devices mixer and recorder.

Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition

Track Listing:

Side A: Behind the Radiator Part 1 - 2:52 +
Side B: Behind the Radiator Part 2 - 2:58 +

Locked grooves

Mika Vainio continues the series of Touch Sevens, 7" vinyl-only releases, with this stunning record. The crackle... The fire of the analogue... Mika Vainio is the most adept at using crackle as a voice. Sound artists have used crackle ever since the reality of digital audio hit home, however there's a big difference between this and how other practitioners use it...

Here are two tracks recorded by Mika in Berlin this February.

He has released 3 solo albums for Touch under his own name [Onko, 1997; Kajo, 2000 and In the Land of the `blind, One-Eyed is King, 2003. He is perhaps best known as part of the Finnish duo, Pan Sonic, and he also releases work as Ø for Finnish label, Säkhö Recordings.

7" vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. Today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a "healthy" popular culture. It might seem like another retrograde step to launch a vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and indeed there is an element of "the rear view mirror"... the generation of Touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong emotional attachment to it. This series is more than that... an overtly critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work which cannot be applied to digital formats - the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the A & the B and the additional dimension of the visual counterpoint. As for the aspect of audience participation, we choose not to specify the RPM on the label, encouraging the listener to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. An attempt to make music that works at both speeds. The front cover might actually be the back cover...

http://www.phinnweb.org/vainio/

Simon Fisher Turner - Lifesounds - 23:08 - 96 kbps

1. Lindsay Anderson recorded at the memorial service for Andrei Tarkovsky [1932-1986] at St. James's Church, Piccadilly, London

2. Filming The Garden [Derek Jarman, 1990] at Dungeness, Kent.

3. Mrs. Oyler in conversation with Derek Jarman

4. Brick Lane Man, 1988

1. Lindsay Anderson recorded at the memorial service for Andrei Tarkovsky [1932-1986] at St. James's Church, Piccadilly, London

The Last of England...

Hot. Summer. For once I'd been unable to record Derek shooting the Super-8 set ups for The Last of England [Derek Jarman, 1988] as I was getting extras for David Leland's film, "Wish You Were Here" [1987]. I was walking down to Shipleys as you did, and I bumped into Derek. He said, "come and see what we've been doing". I've got hours of film, and Cerith Wynn Evans is editing it. So, around the corner to Don Boyd's office by the Photographers Gallery. Upstairs. Cerith is busy looking at the longest trains in the world crossing a road, shot by Richard Heslop. Fantastic footage, never made the film. This is the beginning of The Last of England for me. I set up a new workstation James bought me, and an amp and a Revox. I work at night, when the office is closed. Adam has papered the walls of the office in huge rolls of white industrial paper. Adam writes up the q sheets, scene by scene, so finally all I have to do is look up to see what we need, where and how, and who we'd like to collaborate with. So, the great filmmaker died, and I dont know how, but Swinton and I went to the memorial service in St. James's. We sang, and listened. Tramps lined the walls and the last few rows of the full church.

The Last of England is full of liferecording I made around London at this time. From Brick Lane to Soho, and I was not to be trusted. I recorded fanatically - the sampling workstation was working overtime...

2. Filming The Garden [Derek Jarman, 1990] at Dungeness, Kent.

Shingle shoot for "The Garden" by Derek Jarman

"James Mckay, the producer, had organised a weekend shoot down at Prospect Cottage. No one had a clue what was going on, except Annie the costume lady, and Derek and I just recorded the lot. There was a group of us ready for anything derek asked for/this is how it worked on Super-8 shoots. If Derek said "dya wanna be in the next scene", hands would shoot up, or not, and off we'd go. It was a very busy few days, recording, and getting burned by flares, waiting for food and being in good company again. We were like a troop of warriors, being led by a mad genius artist. We filmed in the sea, tide out; Derek lying on a bed, four of us walking around him getting burned by flares; along the front of the huge Denge sound mirrors carrying fake guns dressed as terrorists; by the pylons out in the hinterland filming Christ and Doubting Thomas; by the radar lighthouse; setting up a traditional Punch and Judy man; outside the gates of the power station; here there and everywhere and of course Prospect Cottage. In this scene Derek is directing the papparatsi terrorists pestering Tilda as she appears as the Virgin Mary holding her newborn baby - just like real life really."

3. Mrs. Oyler in conversation with Derek Jarman

"Mrs. Oyler lived next door to Prospect Cottage, and Derek suggested we went to see her and her daughter, Sylvia, because she was the oldest resident of the beach community and Derek's neighbour... so we trundled about 15 yards across the shingle next door. Now Mrs. Oyler was rather deaf, but not stupid, and she was filled with extraordinary stories about living on the shingle as a young woman during the Second World War after moving there with her husband as a newlywed couple. She'd previously been in service in London. Tea and cakes please, yes! We only went to see her twice. I think we felt a little guilty because I'm not sure why we were asking her to tell her stories for us. Social history? Derek's own thirst for knowledge? Who knows. But I knew that I'd use some of her voice in one of Derek's films one day or other, and so we did, I think, perhaps in The Garden a few years later. She was a sweety, bless her. I'm sure the Oylers still live there now, but I'll have to check with Keith."

4. Brick Lane Man, 1988

"This was recorded for the soundtrack of the film, The Last of England. We used parts of the recording in the film, but this is the unedited version. The gentleman in the recording is selling stolen cheap jewelry... I first started to record the sunday morning market when Derek asked me to get extras for Caravaggio. The wall at the beginning of the market was best. I got the two beautifull old ladies from Italy there. They were my finest East End find. But one morning I heard this amazing ranting, and what a guy! I couldn't figure out how to record him without being seen. Always a problem when theft is involved. A few weeks later I went to see if he was still around, oh yeah there he was not far from the Doc Martin shoe shop. easy. I did the normal 'microphone up the arm job' pretending to listen. I never monitor recording out in the street. No earphones or such. Just straight top level no overload setting, and recorded straight onto a Sony Walkman Pro with condenser mic."

[See also Derek Jarman's only purely musical statement, from Meridians Two [Touch # T3, 1983], which can be heard here]

Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Cut by Jason at Transition

'Project' began as a film soundtrack for "The Overcoming of Hazard" by Brad Butler and Karen Mirza, whose 3 monitor installation piece was presented in the crypt of St. Pancras church in London, August 07. It uses four atmosphere recordings, short wave radio and an organ stop - an attempt to confuse inside and out. Mixed with Mathias Gmachl at Loop.ph using Digital Performer, one side is designed for headphone listening, the other for speaker playback. The recording of the 16mm projector was made with the assistance of Al Rees.

AER is the occasional recording name for Jon Wozencroft, art director and editor of Touch. For more information on AER, go here

about the filmmakers:

Karen Mirza is an influential figure in artist film and video, known both for her work and her curatorial practice. She has recently been appointed a director of the new LUX organisation, and has been a tutor in film and video at the Royal College of Art for several years. Her work has been screened at the Tate Modern, Dokument/Art Film Germany, the National Film and Television Theatre, ‘Other British Cinema’, The LUX centre ‘Monuments and mise en scene’ where it preceded Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the Whitechapel gallery and festivals in Australia, Holland and Germany. Karen recently completed a new body of work, ‘site/non site’ at Goliath visual arts space in New York. Through her activities as a spokesperson for experimental film, Karen has been asked to present her work at screenings in Paris, Berlin and India, as well as creating an evening for the London Film Festival. In collaboration with David Cunningham and Brad Butler, Karen is currently launching ‘where a straight line meets a curve’, her second film financed by the Arts Council.

Brad Butler graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Documentary Direction. He also has a first class degree in Anthropology from UCL. His documentaries have been screened on Channel 4 and the BBC, as well as the ICA, NFT, Hedah, Amsterdam. Mute Loops, D-Net, The Lux Centre for Film, Video & Digital Arts. Instit. Francais d’Architectur, Paris. Architecture Film Festival, Rotterdam, BBC British Short Film Festival, London. Experimenta Media Arts, Melbourne, Australia. New British Cinema, Cinema de Balie, Amsterdam, The Tate Gallery, London and multiple festivals across Europe and the US. In September 2000 he won and headlined BBC2’s talent 2000 competition, as well as winning the National Student Television Award in 1998. Brad has just directed his first feature length documentary in the US entitled ‘The Tunnel’, launched in Dec 2002. Brad is actively linked to the DocHouse initiative in London and is co-curator of the light reading series. In 1998 Brad Butler and Karen Mirza established no.w.here. Building on their training as film specialists, their vision was to create a cross-disciplinary, multi platform studio for experimental film. no.w.here have grown to become major activists in this area and now manage ‘Artslab’, a not for profit professional studio dedicated to film as a fine art practice. Artslab was launched in January 2003 and is the only lab in the UK to offer the filmmaker hands on manipulation of the film negative in post production and is a central meeting point for Independent filmmakers interested in the preservation of the film form.

Tracklist

Side A: Headphones

Side B: Speakers

Boomkat (UK):

The less than evocatively titled Project is a marvellous new soundtrack work by Touch owner and photographer Jon Wozencroft, mixed by Mathias Gmachl of the great Farmers Manual. The piece was penned for an installation on show in the crypt of St. Pancras church last year, based on the film 'The Overcoming Of Hazard' by Brad Butler and Karen Mirza and is presented on this 7" in mixes for both speakers and headphones. The composition draws together four field recordings of "atmosphere", some radio signals and an organ stop, all drawn together into an extremely beautiful, uncommonly musical concrète outing. Given how few and far between AER releases tend to be, this latest in the Touch singles series feels even more special than usual, and like the Chris Watson 7" in the series, it uses the two-sided format cleverly to offer two non-hierarchical variants on a single idea rather than opting for the conventional A-side and B-side routine. Incredible.

Click here to read the full review online at frieze.com

Spire Live - Fundamentalis
Autofact FACT 12/Touch Tone 28
Double LP Vinyl only
Art Direction & Design by Jon Wozencroft

Spire Live - Fundamentalis is a collection of live tracks recorded at various Spire events held throughout 2005 and 2006. Released in association with US label, Autofact, Touch presents a selection of tracks performed by the main performers of Spire: Fennesz | Philip Jeck | BJNilsen | Charles Matthews | Marcus Davidson. Improvised pieces from Fennesz, BJNilsen and Philip Jeck contrast with a performance by Charles Matthews of a scored composition by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, 'In Nomine Lucis', and Marcus Davidson's self-penned 'Standing Wave', which ends side two with a locked groove. Cut to preserve and enhance the bottom end frequencies, Fundamentalis is not merely a document; the tension between and within the individual pieces is palpable. Fennesz's set "...evokes the rolling centuries in all their pain and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energised, but never oppressed under the weight of time." Electronics breathe new life not only into the organ, but also into the setting. But successor does not mean replacement. Ultimately, it's the majestic sound of the organ, so steeped in centuries of tradition, that one remembers above all else.

Spire is one of the most innovative projects around, drawing on the full canon of organ works, from the very first annotation in the Robertsbridge Codex from the 14th Century, to max msp patches and software sampling... With two CD releases and 9 performances in cathedrals and churches throughout Europe, Spire remains a potent live force in harnessing the sounds of the ages.

Track Listing:

Side One

Philip Jeck - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels
[as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] 7th May 2006
16:36

Side Two

1. Charles Matthews - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels
[as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] - plays Giacinto Scelsi: In Nomine Lucis 7th May 2006
11:29

2. Marcus Davidson - Live in Masthuggs Church, Göteborg
[as part of the GAS Festival] - Standing Wave 4th October 2005
9:11

locked groove

Side Three

BJNilsen - Live in Masthuggs Church, Göteborg
[as part of the GAS Festival] 4th October 2005
19:36

Side Four

Fennesz - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels
[as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] 7th May 2006
16:02

Compiled and edited by Mike Harding October/November 2006
Cut by Jason at Transition, London, on a Neumann VSM 70 March 2007

Now available from the TouchShop

Art Direction & Design by Jon Wozencroft

Spire Live - Fundamentalis is a collection of live tracks recorded at various Spire events held throughout 2005 and 2006. Released in association with US label, Autofact, Touch presents a selection of tracks performed by the main performers of Spire: Fennesz | Philip Jeck | BJNilsen | Charles Matthews | Marcus Davidson. Improvised pieces from Fennesz, BJNilsen and Philip Jeck contrast with a performance by Charles Matthews of a scored composition by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, 'In Nomine Lucis', and Marcus Davidson's self-penned 'Standing Wave', which ends side two with a locked groove. Cut to preserve and enhance the bottom end frequencies, Fundamentalis is not merely a document; the tension between and within the individual pieces is palpable. Fennesz's set "...evokes the rolling centuries in all their pain and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energised, but never oppressed under the weight of time." Electronics breathe new life not only into the organ, but also into the setting. But successor does not mean replacement. Ultimately, it's the majestic sound of the organ, so steeped in centuries of tradition, that one remembers above all else.

Spire is one of the most innovative projects around, drawing on the full canon of organ works, from the very first annotation in the Robertsbridge Codex from the 14th Century, to max msp patches and software sampling... With two CD releases and 9 performances in cathedrals and churches throughout Europe, Spire remains a potent live force in harnessing the sounds of the ages.

Tracklist

Side One

Philip Jeck - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels
[as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] 7th May 2006
16:36

Side Two

1. Charles Matthews - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels
[as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] - plays Giacinto Scelsi: In Nomine Lucis 7th May 2006
11:29

2. Marcus Davidson - Live in Masthuggs Church, Göteborg
[as part of the GAS Festival] - Standing Wave 4th October 2005
9:11

locked groove

Side Three

BJNilsen - Live in Masthuggs Church, Göteborg
[as part of the GAS Festival] 4th October 2005
19:36

Side Four

Fennesz - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels
[as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] 7th May 2006
16:02

Compiled and edited by Mike Harding October/November 2006
Cut by Jason at Transition, London, on a Neumann VSM 70 March 2007

Boomkat (UK):

Compiling various performances from Spire events spread between 2005 and 2006, this magnificent double LP contains pieces by all the big names to grace the Touch label: Fennesz, Philip Jeck, BJ Nilsen, and Spire organists Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson. Of all these contributions, Philip Jeck's is probably the most immediately arresting. It's a truly odd experience listening to his incredibly tactile, crackly old vinyl manipulations on a vinyl format, but don't worry, that's not the pressing erupting into a scratchy mess, that's just how Philip Jeck rolls. Perhaps predictably, Fennesz is the other real showstopper on the selection, launching a simply immense sound from his laptop. It's all quite overwhelmingly grand at times, but never exhausting. Excellent. ...

The Wire (UK):

The Blogglebum Cage (UK):

This massive sidelong testament to the transcendental powers of digital time-stretching comes from Spire Live: Fundamentalis, a double various artists LP on Portland's Autofact label, which forms part of Touch's ongoing investigation into re-fixed church organ music. The whole album is great. It's basically a massive expansion of the recent Fennesz/Jeck split single that I wrote about here. With a little extra room to breathe (five inches, to be precise), Fennesz really comes into his own. Fantastic to see that the great man is on such fine form but where where where is his new solo full-length?

cut by Jason @ Transition
artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft

Electric guitars, organ, samples, bells, percussion and motorised cymbal recorded at BJB Studios, Sydney with additional overdubs made at home 2005-2007. Gratitude to Fairport Convention and Boris D Hegenbart.

Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, "re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation". (The Wire, UK).

7" vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. Today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a "healthy" popular culture. It might seem like another retrograde step to launch a vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and indeed there is an element of "the rear view mirror"... the generation of Touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong emotional attachment to it. This series is more than that... an overtly critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work which cannot be applied to digital formats - the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the A & the B and the additional dimension of the visual counterpoint. As for the aspect of audience participation, we choose not to specify the RPM on the label, encouraging the listener to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. An attempt to make music that works at both speeds. The front cover might actually be the back cover...

Tracklist

Side A: Highway of Diamonds 5:55

Side B: Bleeding Shadow 6:38

Boomkat (UK):

The 5th instalment in the Touch 7" series is for our money the most incredible of the bunch - with the always brilliant Oren Ambarchi delivering two exclusive new tracks recorded in Sydney between 2005 and 2007. Opening piece "Highway Of Diamonds" develops around a fluttering organ loop and immersive static, a radiant, sonically cushioned arrangement that leaves you unprepared for the stark organ transmission that breaks loose halfway through and takes the piece to a much more sonically daring environment. It's beautifully conceived and expertly realised at the hands of Ambarchi, interweaving textures and barely perceptible undulations in the most confident and original manner, once again stamping out a brilliantly unique niche for Ambarchi somewhere between the dense drones of sometime bandmates Sunn O))) and the more ethereal, processed beauty of his label contemporaries BJ Nilsen and Fennesz. Flipside track "Bleeding Of Shadow" is just breathtaking - features almost 7 minutes of electric guitar, samples, bells, percussion and a motorised cymbal in the most exquisite fashion, making use of some ghostly Fairport Convention recordings and creating the kind of re-working last heard on the mighty "Plays" single from Chrisitan Fennesz almost 10 years ago. With the record framed by another oddly moving image by Jon Wozencroft - it's a compelling proposition, and an utterly essential purchase.

Aquarius (USA):

Brand new 7" of delicate beauty and haunting songsmithery from Mr. Oren Ambarchi, who hasn't had much time lately for his own music making, as he seems to be a constant part of the Southern Lord / SUNNO))) axis, being a part of at least three groups we know of. But we've pretty much loved every one of Ambarchi's releases and this new single is no different.

Using electric guitars, organ, bells, samples, percussion and motorized cymbal (!), Ambarchi has created two dramatically different pieces. The A side is a woozy, washed out underwater sounding loopscape, peppered with record crackle (unless that's coming from the record player, either way, it sounds great!), like a slightly jauntier, less melancholy Oval, major key melody, all softly sunshine-y, a dreamily hypnotic stretch of soft swirl that could go on forever.

The B side is much darker, long streaks of shimmery low end beneath haunting slowed down vocals, mournful and mysterious, the vocals and the guitar drift and shift, all wound up in and around each other, throughout, bits of electronic glitchery, smears of muted buzz, snippets of conversation and dialogue, but all that stuff seems to be woven into an undulating backdrop for Ambarchi's ghostlike disembodied blues. As always, packaged in super striking thick matte sleeve with gorgeous photos and layout from Touch head honcho Jon Wozencroft.

The Wire (UK):

earlabs.org (Netherlands):

RATED: 9/10

A new series of releases on the already amazing label imprint of Touch is the Touch Seven Series. Musicians on the roster of Touch are asked to make music for a 7" release. On the fifth edition Oren Ambarchi has the honor to show us his lovely music. Destinationless Desire has become a surprising piece in an already amazing discography. Oren Ambarchi adds new elements to his music which work out really well.

At the end of 2007 the British Label Touch started a new series of 7" releases as much as a protest to the ease of digital downloading as a statement of art of the analogue. After really lovely 7" releases by Fennesz, Chris Watson and the split of Fennesz and Philip Jeck reworking the organ works by Charles Matthews it's now turn for another one of those renowned musicians of the touch label: Oren Ambarchi.

The past few years Oren Ambarchi has been quite productive with releasing an album a year and mostly also one or two EP's, either solo or in collaboration with others. And this year is going to look exactly the same. Besides a full length album with Ze'v there is also the 7" Destinationless Desire.

This 7" is a tricky one, because since I own this I have been playing it various times at both 33 rpm and 45 rpm. The touch website says people should choose the speed what they find to be the best. I guess most people will choose for 45 rpm (as I do) but playing it at 33 gives the same duration of the tracks as is mentioned on the 7" label. So what it should be might stay a mystery.

The mystery does not only stay with this playback speed, also the sleeve leaves enough questions. The front cover, as I see it (the one use here) shows a very descent classical dining room. But as descent as it looks, as creepy it is to me. Where are the plates, where is the silverware? The scenery brings to mind the movie The Shinning by Stanley Kubrick, or maybe a David Lynch setting. Yes, it is creepy to me.

On the music side it's less mysterious, though Oren Ambarchi really knows to surprise us here with the music on here. Where on the last few releases the pieces by Ambarchi were long (almost nothing below 15 minutes of length) here of course we find two short tracks.

Side A is called Highway of Diamonds and starts out with rhythmic glitches that could be samples of an old scratched vinyl record. Through this a slowly changing reworked guitar loop is running and swelling up. The sound leaves me really warm, but halfway everything changes. All of a sudden a harmonic organ drone is started which shows slight dissonance. The unsettling feeling I got from the artwork comes back to me. It's gorgeous but haunting. Somewhere there is a summer feeling to this, but at the same time it sounds slightly cold. A great track. Side B is called Bleeding Shadow and here probably the biggest surprise comes up: vocals!

Never before I had heard so clear vocals in the music of Oren Ambarchi, if they even ever where there. On the sleeve he pays gratitude to Fairport Convention. This might be the band the vocals come from, though of course nothing is sure ever in this part of the music scene. These vocals are combined with stripped down guitar sounds that are so familiar to the music of Oren Ambarchi, bells, percussion and loads of weird sounds. In comparison with other music, like grapes of the estate or the whole stacte series this track is much more organic which is result of these vocals. Nonetheless it's an amazing tune and it might be an element he should try working with some more. It adds to the already great diversity in the music by Oren Ambarchi.
Very well done.

Again Touch shows that they still have a keen eye on music. With this fourth instalment (fifth according to the sleeve, but the fourth hasn't been released yet) in this new 7" series they prove to have found another amazing idea for releases. And I hope, like with the previous three releases that the future ones will be as good and pleasant to listen to as this one. Destinationless Desire shows the diversity of a great musician and is a recommended release in a lovely format. [Sietse van Erve]

Record Collector (UK):

Dusted (USA):

Two new pieces by one of the few artists who seems intent on expanding the notions of ambient music to new heights, with “Highway of Diamonds” rising quickly from the bass-heavy depths of more recent works like In the Pendulum’s Embrace to a bright, present high-pitched tone, while “Bleeding Shadow” puts some of his folkier, more traditional aspects on display. Both cuts feature that milky, omniscient manner of which his drones connect to the listener and showcase an artist who understands how to control his surroundings, and in kind our own.

The Blogglebum Cage (UK):

From Destinationless Desire, Ambarchi's contribution to the admirable Touch Sevens series. "Bleeding Shadow" samples a fair chunk of Fairport Convention's "Quite Joys of Brotherhood" (I think) and weaves all manner of electro-acoustic abstraction around it. The folks at Touch have a policy of not putting any playing speeds on their 7"s, in the hope that listeners will experiment interactively with the RPM settings on their record decks. While I'm not all that into the whole concept (preferring to respect an artist's opinion on how a record is supposed to sound) it does work rather well in this case. The Fairport sample sounds distinctly "right" at 45 and "wrong" at 33 but there are these little snatches of dialogue dotted throughout the track, of which the exact opposite is true.

You can visit the Boomkat website here.

Date: Wednesday 09.04.2008 19:00
Location: Cabaret Voltaire, Spiegelgasse 1, 8001 Zurich.
contact email fo reservations etc: info@cabaretvoltaire.ch / +41 43 268 57 20
website: http://www.cabaretvoltaire.ch
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Programme

1900 Chris Watson presents...

1945 Mike Harding Presents Touch

2030 Chris Watson Live

Novi_sad - dramazon - 22:52 - 259 kbps

Recorded, assembled and produced by Novi_sad, March 2008. Mastered by Electroware and Novi_sad at Dsp Lab, Athens

The whole piece is based on field recordings from:

Mamori Lake, Amazonia, Brazil
Alphios Bridge, Ancient Olympia, Greece
Vibrations from the bridge which connects Denmark with Sweden
A bottling plant in operation

and hydrophone recordings* from Mamori Lake.

Also used were sounds and notes from a church organ.

Output signals have been manipulated and electronically treated.

Dramazon is made in memory of a long rainy night in Amsterdam...

In the era of 01110011000111010110, one thing remains stable and it will remain stable and non-mutated for eternity. The way people kiss, the way bodies are connected...

[*thanx to Scott Konzelmann]