May 2004 Newsletter
2 new releases from Touch are available now, and also the Japanese version of Fennesz recently released 'Venice', with an extra exclusive track, all available from the TouchShop
(which you may now notice operates on a secure server.)
1.
BIOSPHERE - Autour de la Lune
TOUCH # TO:62
9 tracks - 74:32
Track Listing:
1. translation
2. rotation
3. modifié
4. vibratoire
5. déviation
6. circulaire
7. disparu
8. inverse
9. tombant
Widely regarded as one of Norwegian electronic music's most important artists, Biosphere's [Geir Jenssen] career spans nearly two decades, six albums, lots of remixes, various sound installations, commissions, soundtracks and even the odd Himalayan summit.
Says Jenssen on his latest commission: "Radio France Culture contacted me some time ago and proposed a commission that was to be premiered at the Le Festival de Radio France et Montpellier. I was granted access to Radio France's archives and given permission to use this vast source of audio material. I settled on this early 60s dramatisation of Jules Verne's "De la Terre à la Lune" that totally captivated me. The story is quite amazing - Verne wrote it in the nineteenth century; still he managed to describe a manned space flight in such detail one is stunned. In "De la Terre à la Lune" Verne describes a space mission that sees the astronauts launched from Florida and returning from space to land in the Pacific Ocean exactly the same procedure that the US space program would follow many, many years later. I have sampled bits and pieces of the dramatisation's dialogue, coupled it with sounds recorded at the MIR space station and then incorporated it with my own compositions."
Following the original broadcast, Jenssen continued to work on the recording which now sees the light of day as "Autour de la Lune", a 74 minute symphony made up of nine 'movements'. The propulsive opening sequence "translation" gives way to the crosstalk and scrambled communications of "rotation" and "modifié", before the listener is enveloped in a dense and seemingly endless space (the sound of zero gravity?).
The circular flight of "Autour de la Lune" is Biosphere at his most expansive. Featuring a specially-commissioned painting by Tor-Magnus Lundeby, one of Norway's most prominent visual artists, this new release is set to compete with Brian Eno's "Apollo" recordings as the definitive homage to the space age.
For more information, go to his site.
Ffor an interview about the commissionning of the above work, please go here.
For more on Tor-Magnus Lundeby, click here.
Biosphere CDs till available:
TO:55 Shenzhou
TO:50 Substrata 2
TO:46 Cirque
2.
OREN AMBARCHI - Grapes from the Estate
TOUCH # TO:61
4 tracks - 55:44
1. Corkscrew
2. Girl with the Silver Eyes
3. Remedios the Beauty
4. Stars Aligned, Web Spun
Oren Ambarchi's third solo project for Touch sees him reaching beyond the work for electric guitar that he's become recognised for, expanding his palette and taking his investigations into another sphere entirely. Grapes from the Estate features new instrumentation (strings, tuned bells, percussion and others that can only be guessed at), but the singular and unmistakable influence that Ambarchi exerts on these new materials is what makes it such an indelible work.
There is a reconciliation of his love of song based music and his determination to deal in pure sound. The result is a work that truly eludes such arbitrary definitions. Grapes From The Estate is an all consuming experience that draws the listener out of an ordinary sense of time, into a world beyond it.
On more than any other release, his entire body of work to date can be experienced in a single statement. There are the seemingly random tonal structures that are such a large part of his vocabulary, the playfulness and humor of his formative noise schooling, his love of free jazz, of pop music, and rhythmic elements, perhaps subconsciously derived from his Sephardic heritage. Another outpouring of personal, intimate and enduring music from Oren Ambarchi.
http://www.orenambarchi.com
http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
https://www.touchshop.org
« back