In the Summer of 2019 Greig Baird and his family moved home and into a new area of a city they have lived for many years.
The layers and layers of history in this new locale were palpable and inspired Baird to create this small collection of music, ‘Once Hallowed’.
This new area was home to a Franciscan Friary established in the 13th century and later home to a church, Allhallows-on-the-Wall built in the 19th century. This church was later a corset factory, then later a parachute factory during war time. The last burials in this place were conducted in secrecy by the light of a midnight moon during the cholera epidemic of 1832. The wall outside Baird’s home dates to Roman times and was once the south-western city limit.
The burial grounds now deconsecrated and long abandoned are also home to the catacombs of the city. Again abandoned long ago, bodies long removed, tales of stolen skulls and grave robbing, and the stone of which they are built are all that remains. The areas wildlife, dog walkers, children playing, students hanging around, drunks falling asleep on abandoned tombs and the city’s drug dealers plying trade all make the place what it is. Often beautiful as the light changes and Falcons fly above, the sounds of the day city form into the nocturnal; sometimes sad as the desperation of people’s modern situations becomes abundantly clear.
The relics of the past experienced in our present creates something else. Something deeply inspiring, creating an atmosphere deeply felt and not entirely understood. —GB/MCT
“Presence”
– the natural, silent, transparent state of mind, nonconceptual and not
identified with any mental content, entirely and effortlessly awake and
lucid, in total peace.
Quiet ambient soundscapes for piano, electric guitar, electronics,
livelooping, and field recordings. The music was entirely improvised and
recorded during several recording sessions in Rome between 2010 and
2018. There are no overdubs (except for the field recordings).
Releases December 20, 2019
Michael Peters (Germany) played guitar in punk bands, ambient projects, avantgarde jazz/rock bands, and open improvisational groups. His guitar is usually extended by electronics, software, and livelooping techniques, sometimes using the classical “Frippertronics” method based on tape delay. His solo ambient/experimental guitar music usually relies on improvisation and often involves sound collages and field recordings. He has performed at festivals in Europe and the USA. www.michaelpeters.de
Fabio Anile (Italy) is a classically trained pianist and composer. Over the years, he has developed his own unique approach to combining electronic tools and live playing. He defines his music as a “a work on the theme of time”. In this regard, there is a continuum between his ambient and his polymetric minimalist pieces. Fabio has worked with many ensembles and artists. He has created audio-video installations and film soundtracks. As a soloist, he performed at many international festivals both in Europe and in the USA. www.eterogeneo.com
Michael Peters – guitar Fabio Anile – keyboards Mastering by Erdem Helvacioglu Cover image by Philippe Paulus Jacobus Smeyers
A minimalist-to-slightly-noisy post-jazz, experimental project fueled by aural components from TONUS’ ‘A New Wave of Jazz‘ — along with several classic chestnuts from ECM (tracks 3, 6, 8 & 11). The goal was/is to bring TONUS’ unique & eclectic offerings to a larger audience.
“Thanks” & a “Shout-Out” to Dirk Serries for allowing us to preview the new releases (tracks 1, 7 & 9; all releasing on May 3th); listening to them helped me in the underground TONUS vault & in selecting the accompanying compositions.
TONUS keeps sharpening the improvisational Jazz blade — we aim to help keep that edge . . . bleeding! ;- )
01 Jürg Frey – Eyot (excerpt) 02 Pierre Gerard – Spécimen Dans Les Tons Proches 03 Jacob Bro – Morning Song 04 Christoph Schiller & Anouck Genthon – der Meidingersche Fullofen 05 Daniel Thompson – Improvisation Four (excerpt) 06 Terje Rypdal – What Was I Thinking 07 Arvind Ganga & Riccardo Marogna – Kzans 08 Art Ensemble of Chicago – Folkus 09 Alan Wilkinson & Dirk Serries – In the Here and Now 10 Dirk Serries & Colin Webster– Switch 11 Dave Holland Quartet – Q & A 12 Ornette Coleman & Pat Metheny – Compute
“A masterpiece of glitchy solitude & quiet causticity — already captivating our attention, spinning via ear-buds & included on our upcoming 4’33” podcast. Beautiful!” ~Ambient Landscape
“A positive nothing, eternally waiting to bloom into the everything of the universe, a sort of primal spring of being.” ~Vladimir Sergeevic Solov’ev
1. 7’30” 2. 8’35” 3. 9’23” 4. 8’14” 5. 10’52
FORMAT: CD + DIGITAL CAT. N.: 9ED016 EDITION: 200 RELEASE DATE: 23 MARCH, 2021 DESIGN: MOTE STUDIO
Liner Notes
“Un Fiocco Di Neve” (Italian word for snowflake) is one of the possible crystallisations of an ongoing project called “Nucleazione” (Nucleation), started in 2017 and consisting of the accumulation of over 200 sound files and silences pulled together and randomly overlapped with no control. The five compositions of this album originate from a series of auto-generative methods, which I found brought me to new listening experiences in the process of composing. I trace my steps back to a decentered, limited presence as an author becoming a detached listener. While “Un Fiocco Di Neve” is presented here as a CD release, “Nucleazione” is exhibited as an online project where listeners can themselves experiment the non-linear creation of unstable, undefined compositions with no predetermined beginning nor end.
In November and December of 2017, I toured Japan, during the peak of autumn colours. Knowing my passion for tea, my friend Makiko invited me to her parents’ house for a tea ceremony held by her mother in an informal tea room filled with tools and objects belonging to the tradition. Among those, I was stunned by a kakejiku (hung scroll) of Japanese calligraphy displaying the kanji 紅 kou (red), 炉 ro (hearth), 一 i (one), 点 ten (point), and 雪 yuki (snow). While apparently illogical, Makiko’s mother explained the poem’s meaning roots in the concept of impermanence: a single fragile snowflake falls until it touches the fire pit and instantly disappears. Since that day, this image of Zen white delicacy, full of Japanese poetry, has never abandoned me and continues to resonate in my mind from time to time.
In May 2019 I visited Zen monk Toryo Ito at Ryosoku-in Temple in Kyoto, where I had performed in 2017 as part of the event Hodokeru Mimi. Between a bowl of matcha and discussions about travel, design, and religion, he laid out his philosophy of objects having their own meaning or energy that spreads toward us. I shared my idea of objects’ solitude as non-living entities and their intrinsic power to take on different meanings. Sound has its own organic flow in the world, which exists regardless of our connection to it. We encounter its complexity, give it a name, store it as a weightless memory, share its inconsistency. While walking back to the Higashiyama area, my thoughts reminded me of a YouTube interview with David Toop when he said, “You could argue that sound doesn’t actually exist: it’s always in a state of emerging or decay, it’s never actually there.” For me, this is an irrefutable truth. Why do we ‘fix’ sounds to precise forms, progressions, starts, and ends? Fused within this indeterminacy, I experience the beauty of listening.
In the mountain, a humble tea house. Snow forms outside. Between these states and the tension of opposites, density vanishes into sparsity, weight defies lightness, shadow intersects light, heat meets cold, in a continuous play of illusory forms generated out of empty spaces.
A snowflake disappears. Memory fades away, sometimes it lasts.
Credits
Created (2017—2021) in Italy and Japan. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Pantings and photos by Fabio Perletta. Calligraphy by Kumaki Takahito. Designed by Mote Studio.
Biography
Fabio Perletta is a sound artist and curator living and working in Italy.
His work encompasses recorded compositions, performances, site-specific interventions, text scores and installations, appearing worldwide at festivals and art spaces like A×S Festival (Pasadena), Human Resources (Los Angeles), Pollinaria (Civitella Casanova), BlueProject Foundation (Barcelona), Arts Santa Mònica (Barcelona), Museo De Arte Moderno (Medellín), Musee National des Arts Asiatiques Guimet (Paris), Ftarri (Tokyo), Ochiai Soup (Tokyo), Kid Ailack Art Hall (Tokyo), Ryosokuin Temple (Kyoto), Museum of Modern Art (Wakayama), Café OTO (London), O’ Art Space (Milan), Saturnalia Festival (Milan), TOdays Festival (Turin), Eufònic Festival (Ulldecona/Barcelona), E-fest Cultures Numériques (La Marsa), roBOt Festival (Bologna), Acusmatiq Festival (Ancona), Flussi Festival (Avellino), Krake Festival (Berlin), Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome), AlbumArte Gallery (Rome) and others.
He has participated in various artists residencies including Aequusol MMXX (Civitella Casanova), EMS Elektronmusikstudion (Stockholm), VOLUME (Los Angeles), Aqua Matrix (Bagnoli Irpino) and mAtter (Japan).
Perletta’s solo and collaborative recordings are documented on LINE, Dragon’s Eye Recordings, aufabwegen, Dinzu Artefacts and his own imprint 901 Editions. Founded in 2008, his label has since released more than 50 close-to-silence, immersive and experimental music editions by internationally renowned artists like Akio Suzuki, Asmus Tietchens, Nicolas Bernier, Richard Chartier, Adam Basanta, Yann Novak and many more.
Since 2014, he has co-curated Lux, an artistic program dedicated to presenting visual artists working with sound. In its 7 years of activity Lux has collaborated with museums, curators, exhibitions, festivals and contemporary art galleries, promoting solo and group exhibitions of artists like William Basinski and James Elaine, Thomas Koner, Arnold Dreyblatt, France Jobin and others.
He collaborates with sound designer Pierluigi Scarpantonio for the impro project Cygni.
He is currently a professor of sound design at ISIA University in Pescara, Italy.
Since 2011, Foundations has been honoring the works of artists that have had an notable impact on the direction of Dewtone’s long-standing broadcast. Collectively, these compilations encompass a set of shared values that have helped shape and define the boundaries of our programming.
Steady shifts you hear in the stream are thanks largely to individuals like this passing through and providing us with fresh approaches to formulas we’ve grown to love. It’s a privilege to bring a group of talented music makers together again to help mark a 15 year milestone for this independently funded platform.
Special thanks to Archives, Moshitaka, Home Assembly Music, Dreiton, Monography, Sutemos, Untitled & After, Nephogram, Halftribe, Liquid Delay, Textural Being and all the artists for their individual offering. .
D E 5 I G N 2 | an Ambient/Experimental sound assembly | 78:10
Part 2 of 3 (part 1) More aural design work, driven by the duo Minamo; off the beaten path & down the experimental wormhole . . .
Longer fades & segues render it compositional (as opposed to merely “mixed”). Diligence in listening is strongly advised as well as a strong grip upon reality (lest the listener become an eternal guest of said wormhole).
01 Miki Yui – Vibra 02 J. Soliday – Untitled 200613 (edit) 03 Morimoto Naoki – Light 04 Minamo – Conceal 05 Pleq – The Lost 06 Robert Fripp – Time Promenade 07 Ümlaut – The Blue Field 08 Donato Wharton – A Thousand Miles of Grass 09 Neuro..No Neuro – I’m Just Pretending 10 Bruno Sanfilippo – Subliminal Pulse 11 Minamo – Sym 12 Strom Noir – The Weight of it All 13 Minamo – Yarn 14 offthesky – Undoing Us 15 Mike Bullock – TREAD
I visited Taiwan in the spring of 2019. Over the span of 10 days, and from the back seat of a bus that slowly rumbled around the island, I recorded the sounds that shaped this album: sonic traces of the endless mountains, gorges, beaches, and forests visible from the windows; ancient and imposing geological forms, immune to the human forces at play there. The island of Taiwan has been repeatedly subjected to cultural whiplash and regime change at the hands of various nations since its settlement by indigenous groups over 6,000 years ago, including the Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch, but it was the colonial Portuguese term “Ilha Formosa” – meaning “beautiful island,” and coined at their first sighting of the island in 1542 – that seemed most capable of describing the place, and most capable of transcending all those man-made barriers, borders, and governing articles.
Released November 29, 2019
Music by Andrew Tasselmyer Mastered by Ian Hawgood Cover photo by Yong Chuan Cassette j-card layout by Steven Kemner Shimmering Moods Records 2019
From Ian Wellman The scientific term Bioaccumulation is used to describe the accumulation of toxic substances occurring in the environment. Bioaccumulation takes place when an organism absorbs a substance at a faster rate than it can lose in catabolism or excretion. This process only magnifies as it moves down the food chain.
Similarly, the concept for my album Bioaccumulation started with idea of sounds cycling and mingling together, eventually attacking one another or disintegrating completely. Our relationship with nature is mirrored in this endless cycle of extracting and using the land’s resources until they run dry. We seem hell bent on absorbing and in turn obliterating anything in our path.
This year I had a chance to mull on this while I attended a week-long bioacoustics workshop through Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the Sierra Nevadas. The idea of bioacoustics has become increasingly important to me. Through listening and observation, we absorb most of our information. The capacity to study animals, through the ‘lens’ of the sonic environment, to analyze how they have changed over time amplifies the importance of sound. We can learn so much about ourselves just by being present and listening to our surroundings.
The field recordings in Bioaccumulation are meant to serve as real-world examples of how we affect the environment and our surroundings, even simply by being present. The human-generated sounds left in the recordings are intended to reflect the inescapable amount of noise pollution we have contributed to the world. On example can be heard in the recording of the woodpeckers from Carlton Flats in the Angeles National Forest. While walking around, I heard a cooing from a nearby tree. After realizing this sound was a baby bird inside a nest, I was greeted by a group of angry woodpeckers knocking their beaks has hard as they could against the tree, flicking their wings back, and vocalizing shrill calls. Nature is literally screaming at us to leave.
Each musical piece is assembled with 4 track tape machine played as an instrument with loops sourced from digital synths and manipulated or dissolved completely by effect pedals. In this way, digital becomes both analog and physical. The pieces dwell on feelings from our environmental collapse (the real and the most sensationalized versions), guilt of humanity’s destructive shadow, and hope for the realization of a balance with nature, as mythical as it may seem.
Having become mutual admirers of each others work; English of Cortini’s Sonno and Cortini of English’s Wilderness Of Mirrors, the pair were very pleased to receive an invitation to collaborate together.
Following a number of months exchanging compositional ideas and materials, Cortini and English met in Berlin several days ahead of the festival and commenced an intense period of rehearsal and arrangement. The resulting piece, Immediate Horizon, traces their shared interests in harmony and texture. It is a work that meditates on saturation and the ruptures that occur when harmonic elements are stacked. Immediate Horizon’s five pieces swell and burst in a perpetual sense of pulse.
This LP is a live recording, made at the premiere of the piece during Berlin Atonal, held at Kraftwerk in Berlin.
