New Release:
Willem Sannen: ‘Brussel Noord’
Gruen 168/16
Field Recordings
Gruen Digital – 5 Tracks (24:58)
framework radio | #573
phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley
Angus Carlyle | In The Shadow Of The Silent Mountain
Gruenrekorder @ Sonicykle – Austauschprozesse:Sound:Improvisation
Eine Musiksektion im Rahmen des 33. Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest. Am 17. und 18.11.2016 in der Dokfestlounge, kleine Weinkirche, Werner-Hilpert-Straße 22, 34117 Kassel.
Eine Veranstaltung des Ohrenkratzer e.V. – Kooperative für Neue Musik Kassel.
In Kooperation mit dem Kasseler Dokfest, dem Label Gruenrekorder, sowie dem phonophon e.V. – Verein zur Förderung von Phonographie und experimenteller Musik in Frankfurt am Main und dem Freien Radio Kassel e.V.
Review | By textura
Angus Carlyle | In The Shadow Of The Silent Mountain
Gruenrekorder consistently manages to extend the conceptual and presentational range of its products, the latest example being this field recordings-based release by Angus Carlyle. The project encompasses: two stitched booklets bound into a clear cover (50 copies in total), the first featuring text in the form of site-based diary records and the second colour photographs (by Chiara Caterina); sixty-six minutes of audio sound files, available as a free download from the label’s site; and a stand-alone micro-site (montesilenzio.com), which re-presents the photography (in achromatic form) and text in a conjoined display. Carlyle is hardly new to Gruenrekorder, the sound artist, researcher, and teacher at the University of the Arts in London having previously appeared on projects such as Some Memories of Bamboo (2009) and, with Rupert Cox, Air Pressure (2012). […]
framework radio | #571
phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley
Kg Augenstern | Tentacles
Gruenrekorder @ The Wire Tapper 42
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
All copies of the November 2016 issue of The Wire will come complete with an exclusive free CD attached to the cover, The Wire Tapper 42, the latest volume in the acclaimed series of new music compilations.
As with previous volumes this CD, which has been compiled by Shane Woolman, Gustave Evrard and Astrud Steehouder is packaged in a heavy duty card sleeve designed by The Wire’s art director Ben Weaver, and contains a range of new, rare or exclusive tracks from across the spectrum of the kind of underground/outsider musics covered in The Wire.
www.thewire.co.uk
Review | By textura
Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound
It’s saying something when the book component of Mikel R. Nieto’s Dark Sound is even more unusual than the CD material it accompanies. Dark it most definitely is: with its type printed in black ink on dark paper, the 176-page hardback book verges on unreadable; formally described as “partially legible,” the book requires that the reader either hold it a particular angle under lamplight to absorb it or do the same under bright sunlight. The text itself, presented in Huao (the language spoken by the Huaorani people), Basque, Spanish, and English, is cryptic, too, as indicated by the “By buying this book you are contributing to the destruction of the planet” note within and the political dimension signified by its “The price of this book is set by the crude oil Brent price (LCO)” statement. […]
Review | By textura
Kg Augenstern | Tentacles
Gruenrekorder has not only repeatedly demonstrated a remarkable talent for identifying special artists and granting them an outlet by which to disseminate their works, the label also maximizes the impact such projects can have when they’re presented so elaborately. A clear case in point is Tentacles by Augenstern duo Christiane Prehn and Wolfgang Meyer, multi-dimensional sound artists who have lived and worked on the ship Anuschka for many years. The album title isn’t as odd as it might first appear: the recording, which traces a five-month trip the two undertook in July 2014 from Berlin to the south of France, takes its title from ship-attached tentacles that scratched the bridges under which the duo traveled as they made their way through canals and rivers. […]
Review | By Matt Parker / earthkeptwarm.com
Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound
I have listened several times to the CD Dark Sound by Mikel R. Nieto over the past month and have been intrigued by the purpose of the recordings presented by the album. — Dark Sound is a CD length single track album of field recordings taken by Mikel R. Nieto mostly in and around the Ecuadorian rainforest within areas associated with the colonisation and domination of contested areas that were found to have oil reserves. The album traces the relationships between a number of different indigenous groups who have resisted becoming associated with Western European and global models of capital, in favour of continuing the heritage and lives they had prior to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the late 15th Century. […]
Review | By textura
Roland Etzin | SONIC DRAWINGS
As both a listener and reviewer, I’m grateful when a release comes with a generous amount of background detail, but I’m also charmed by those that don’t. In the latter case, the absence of information grants the listener greater speculative room regarding a recording’s origins and production, and generally the enigmatic character of a release is enhanced by leaving some degree of mystery in place. A case in point is Roland Etzin’s Sonic Drawings, which has been appropriately issued on Gruenrekorder, the German label Etzin co-founded with Lasse-Marc Riek, as part of its Sound Art Series. A note on the release’s inner sleeve does provide some clarification: “Found sounds: Italy, Ireland, Germany; Using several kinds of microphones, analog & digital machines, and self-built instruments.” […]
New Release:
Angus Carlyle: ‘In The Shadow Of The Silent Mountain’
Field Recordings
Gruen 162/16 | 2 Booklets
run: 50 copies
8 Tracks (55:21)
⇒ Free download: @ Bandcamp
Microsite: montesilenzio.com
Review | By Duncan Simpson / Musique Machine
Hein Schoer | The Sounding Museum: Box of Treasures
This is the third release from Germany’s Gruenrekorder label that I have reviewed this year after Christina Kubisch and Eckehard Guther’s Unter Grund and the startling collection of pieces collected under the Landscapes of Fear project. Despite the bar having already be set high this weighty release presenting what is in effect the doctoral project of Hein Schoer easily surpasses those other two releases in complexity, depth and intellectual rigour. The basic question that Hein poses and which provides the orientation and occasion for the recordings, book and multi-media features that are included in the Box of Treasures is stated at the outset of the text: „How do I make a good cultural soundscape composition for museum-didactic purposes“. The culture that he chose to document were the Namgis/Kwakwaka’wakw, a North American first people based around Alert Bay British Colombia. […]
Review | By Hal Harmon / Musique Machine
David Michael & Slavek Kwi | MMABOLELA
After weeks of digesting wall noise and sounds residing on the harsher side of the experimental spectrum, I was due for a respite. And what better way to cleanse the palette than to escape into the naked sounds of the natural world as provided by Gruenrekorder and friends. The German-based field recording label (arguably, one of the most prolific in the field recording arena) teams up with Tentacles of Perception Recordings to present MMABOLELA, a 2 x CD by David Michael and Slavek Kwi (Artificial Memory Trace). On MMABOLELA, both artists present sounds captured at the Mmabolela Reserve, located in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Both artists capture many of the same sounds found in the reserve, with each track title alluding to what animal/insect the listener is hearing. […]
Review | By Patricia Arredondo
Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound
Un oído puesto donde suena el Diablo
El ruido es una escucha involuntaria. En Dark Sound, Mikel R. Nieto comparte una serie de notas, observaciones, fotografías, grabaciones y reflexiones resultado de una estancia en el Amazonas. Pese a lo que se dice del libro, el libro me parece más un libro sobre la escucha que un libro sobre el impacto ambiental del ruido provocado por la maquinaria y las actividades relacionadas con los trabajos de extracción de petróleo en la selva de Ecuador. […] Nota final: La información que se recopila en esta nota se sustenta en los enlaces adjuntos en el texto, lo mismo que el gif y las fotografías; los subtítulos son frases del libro descontextualizadas. Otro texto donde el trabajo de Mikel me ha servido como base puede descargarse aquí. Agradezco a Laura Martínez-Lara, por cruzar el Atlántico con el libro en mano. Y evidentemente a Mikel, a quien está dedicados estos apuntes, por su generosidad en la escucha y por haberme compartido este proyecto desde que era silencio. All the meanings are destroyed.
Review | By Stephen Fruitman / Avant Music News
Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound
“The only political issue that matters is climate change,” according to American writer Michael Tolkin. “Everything else is midrash.” Mikel R. Nieto is a Spanish artist/researcher from Basque country and co-editor of the sound art web portal mediateletipos. With his piece Dark Sound, he attempts to heal the world in a fashion far more oblique than any Talmudic exegesis. For Dark Sound is a 176-page hardback book containing nearly illegible texts printed in a shade of black just barely this side of pitch, which is the color of the pages, as if it had been dipped in the effluence of the Exxon Valdez. Within are essays and letters in Huao (language of the Huaorani of Ecuador), Basque, Spanish and English. […]
Review | By Richard Allen / a closer listen
Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound
Here’s a release for the blackest of hearts: a black book with black ink, housing a black disc, titled Dark Sound. In addition, the price of the package is determined by the crude oil Brent price at the time of purchase. The website warns customers that by buying the book, they will be “contributing to the destruction of the planet.” Now that’s bleak. However, it’s also the most honest advertising we can remember. So is this gothic music? Industrial? No, it’s darker than that. But what could possibly be darker than a demon? one might ask. How about a duck covered with oil, or a child swallowing water from a polluted river? Got you. Yes, this is real horror […]
Reviews | By Rigobert Dittmann / Bad Alchemy Magazin (91)
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
THOMAS M. SIEFERT & LASSE-MARC RIEK klapperten für von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe | rhein_strom (Gruen 163) den Vater Rhein ab und ‚verhörten‘ ihn von der Vorderrheinquelle bis Karlsruhe Hafen. Vorbei an Rheinschlucht, Rheinbrech, Rheinstein, Rheinfall, Restrhein und Rheinau, vorbei an 1 Hafen (Basel), 6 Staustufen, 1 Fähre (Kappel – Rhinau). Es ist das nicht mehr der romantische nationale Grenzstrom mit Rheintöchtern und Wacht am Rhein, und das Interesse daher neusachlich ernüchtert. Aber es geht auch nicht nur um eine Klangquelle für ein rauschendes und glucksendes H₂O-Geplätscher mehr. […]
Roland Etzin | SONIC DRAWINGS
ROLAND ETZIN, der andere Gruenrekorder neben Riek, zeichnete Sonic Drawings (Gruen 166) mit Klängen, die er in Italien, Irland und vor Ort gefunden hat. Unter Einsatz diverser Mikrophone sowie analoger & digitaler Maschinen entstanden die Klangbilder ‘Wand’, ‘Vinschgau’, ‘Wasser’ und das weitläufige ‘Garten’. Im Sinne von Wolfgang Welsch, der eine Abkehr von der Prävalenz des Sehens als postmodernen Paradigmenwechsel notierte, verbindet Etzin Schwarzweißgraphiken mit Futter für die Imagination des Ohres. Konkrete Klänge reizen den Hörsinn zu einem ‚Sehen‘ ohne Augen: mit Klappern und Bohren, mit Kuhglockenkonzert auf surrendem Feld, mit Kirchenglocken, vom Fliegengott umbrummt, mit glucksendem Wasser und Staustufenturbine. […]
Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound
MIKEL R. NIETOs Dark Sound (Gruen 167, Book + CD) verblüfft als Buch von 176 Seiten, Schwarz auf Schwarz (!) bedruckt mit Texten in Huao, Baskisch (Nietos Muttersprache), Spanisch und Englisch. Der Preis richtet sich nach dem aktuellen Ölkurs des Brent Crude Oil. Mein Wer ? Wo? Was? zu Huao führt zu den Huaorani, eine Volksgruppe im Amazonasurwald, deren harter Kern in einer zona intangible vor Holzfällern und Erdölfirmen letzte Zuflucht fand. Allerdings hatte ihnen in ihrer ‚guten alten Zeit‘ Blutrache eine interne Tötungsrate beschert wie einst in Medellin und Ciudad Juárez oder jetzt in Caracas. Das Huaorani-Reservat liegt nahe des Yasuni-Nationalparks und der Tiputini Biodiversity Station im ecuadorianischen Amazonasgebiet, das als Dschungel mit seinen kurios pfeifenden und knarrenden Bewohnern hörbar wird: Nachtschwalbe und Schreipipa, Fledermaus, Ameise & Co. Hörbar gemacht wird aber quasi auch die Neugier und die Besorgtheit der Forscher und die Drohkulisse der Ölbohrmaschinen in beunruhigender Nähe, der Krach eines Mantelstromtriebwerks, eines Yamaha Enduro, eines Caterpillar-Bohrers etc. Jede dieser Klangquellen wird einzeln beschrieben. […]
Kg Augenstern | Tentacles
Christiane Prehn & Wolfgang Meyer sind zusammen KG AUGENSTERN. Mit Tentacles (Gruen 170, Fotoalbum + CD) laden sie ein zu einer Flussfahrt, die sie mit ihrem MS Anuschka durch Europas Geäder führte: Via Spree – Havel – Mittellandkanal – Dortmund-Ems-Kanal – Rhein – Maas – Sambre – Schelde – Canal du Nord – Oise – Seine – Canal de L’Ourcq – Marne – Marne- Saône-Kanal – Saône – Rhône – Rhône-Sète-Kanal von Berlin über Hannover, Münster, Njimegen, Maastrich, Charleroi, Paris, Valence, Lyon und Arles bis Maguelone, über 2450 km! Der namensgebende Clou bestand darin, ‚Fühler‘ auszufahren, um die durchfahrenen Brücken zu streicheln und als kratzige und klappernde Percussion mitsamt Flussfahrtatmosphäre hörbar zu machen. 30 Brücken in Berlin, 10 in Lyon und die Gelegenheit, über „Die französische Kunst des Krieges“ nachzusinnen. […]
Review | By Piers Warren / wildlife-film.com
Animal Music – Sound & Song in the Natural World
Edited by Tobias Fischer & Lara Cory
[…] In addition there is a section where a number of leading field recordists give their expert views on recording technology and equipment. By the time I’d finished reading the book, apart from anything else, I was itching to get outside into the wilds with my recorder! Also included, and worth the cover price alone, is a specially-compiled 60 minute CD of excellent field recordings from the Gruenrekorder label, many of them made by recordists featured in the book. The recorded subjects vary from owls, water scorpions and Amazonian river dolphins to wood ants, pilot whales and hermit crabs.
Review | By Beach Sloth
Kg Augenstern | Tentacles
Kg Augenstern’s “Tentacles” is the embodiment of tactile sound. Utilizing space as an artifact of sound the pieces represent their unique geography. Like a wordless travelog the songs have love for their surroundings, exploring them in a myriad number of ways. The mixture of the calm and the chaotic works wonders for the sound as it feels positively alive with meaning. Over the course of the album Kg Augenstern lets each of these different locations show off a distinct personality. Starting things off on a mellow note is the spaciousness of “Berlin”. On this piece the transitions feel light and airy as the sound itself is one that is impossible to fully pin down. […]
Review | By Łukasz Komła / Nowamuzyka.pl
Kg Augenstern | Tentacles
Niemieccy artyści wybrali się w podróż statkiem z Berlina do Francji. Po drodze pokonali wiele mostów i w trakcie ich mijania zarejestrowali różne odgłosy. Christiane Prehn i Wolfgang Meyer tworzą duet o nazwie Kg Augenstern. Oboje działają w obszarze audiowizualnych/audiokinetycznych instalacji, performance’u, sztuki wideo, soundartu i filmu. Przez wiele lat żyli i pracowali na statku Anuschka. W lipcu 2014 roku artyści wypłynęli z Berlina w kierunku Paryża, lecz miejscem docelowym ich wyprawy była miejscowość Maguelone na południu Francji (dotarli tam w listopadzie 2014). Płynąc różnymi rzekami mijali wiele mostów i kanałów. Postanowili, iż będą nagrywać dźwięki otoczenia w momencie kiedy ich statek wpłynie pod most/kanał. […]
Review | By Guillermo Escudero / Loop
Roland Etzin | SONIC DRAWINGS
This is a new piece of prolific German artist who develops his woork in the genres of field recordings and audio art. He has a string of releases on Gruenrekorder, a record label co-founder member alongwith sound artist Lasse-Marc Riek. „Sonic Drawings“ is part of the label series of Sound Art. To the question posed by Etzin „What effects do silence and noise have?“ I think the effects would be depending on what perceptual representations we have more available, if the visual, auditory or kinesthetic (emotions, touch). Consequently the sound or silence, a human being can associate it with an image, or listening and therefore have an interpretation of what he/she hears, or experience an emotional state of joy, sorrow, anger, love, etc. […]
Review | By Gunter Heidegger / The Sound Projector
Rodolphe ALEXIS | The glittering thing on the mountain
The work of French-speaking sound artist Rodolphe Alexis has been previously documented in The Sound Projector; his contribution to the duo OttoannA’s ‘cohesive and varied – if hardly electrifying – sound-art soup’ Federated States of Micronesia provided our reviewer with some diverting hours of listening. However, while the many field recordings under his name remain largely unknown to us, little guesswork is needed to form an idea of his product, so long as this captivating natural survey is representative. Fulfilling a personal vow in July 2014, Alexis took his recording equipment to Iriomote-Jima, the southernmost island of Japan and a former coal-mining area, where jungle covers 90% of the ground and the Tropical Biosphere Research Centre (and its accompanying roads) is one of the few signs of human presence. […]
Review | By Frans de Waard / VITAL WEEKLY
Kg Augenstern | Tentacles
Following last weeks lavish dark book by Mikel R/ Nieto, there is now another oversized CD booklet (15 x 23 centimetre), 44 pages of text and colour photos of a project carried out by KG Augenstern, a duo of Christiane Prehn and Wolfgang Meyer. They have a boat, the MS Anuschka and they motorshipped their way from Berlin to Amarages de Maguelone, which is all the way down south in France. On the ship they made tentacles to scratch the bridges, under which they passed to there. All along they also took pictures and all of that resulted in installation pieces in Arles and Valence. The fun for Vital Weekly is that they passed by our sunny town also, as documented on the second piece ‚From Berlin to Nijmegen (NL)‘. […]
Review | By Richard Allen / a closer listen
Roland Etzin | SONIC DRAWINGS
Sonic Drawings is a meditation on sound, noise and musicality. As such, it may be a reaction to genre tags, especially that of “non-music” awarded by Discogs to Etzin’s last outing, TransMongolian. Can we term the sounds of our environments – natural and otherwise – music? By the wide definition, yes, although they may not be as composed as Etzin’s new creations. These drawings begin with field recordings before entering different fields, coming across as experimental due to the form of their permutations. And so, as the set starts with what might be interpreted as the sound of an animal being prepared for slaughter – grunts offset by the starting of machinery – the brain attempts to discern patterns, even though none may be intended. This is how the mind works, attempting to impose order on chaos. The second piece, “Vinschgau”, contains some of the album’s most striking moments, especially the overlay of cowbells with motorbikes and drones. […]
Review | By Pierre Cécile / Le son du grisli
Roland Etzin | SONIC DRAWINGS
Après nous avoir fait faire un petit tour d’Asie dans son TransMongolian, Roland Etzin nous revient d’Allemagne, d’Italie et d’Irlande avec des sons plein la musette (floquée Gruenrekorder, of course). Reste plus qu’à piocher dedans pour confectionner un nouvel album, et c’est Sonic Drawings ! Pour faire vite on pourrait dire qu’Etzin ne sait pas vraiment quoi dessiner et qu’il crayonne en attendant l’inspiration. Il fourre donc tous les bruits qu’il peut (cloches suspendues à des cous de moutons, bruit d’une moto sur la route, notes de piano…) sur une même piste (ou plutôt sur quatre, même si les trois premières sont bien plus courtes que la dernière) et compte peut-être sur son auditeur pour trouver un sens caché à tout ça, qui sait ? […]
Review | By Łukasz Komła / Nowamuzyka.pl
Roland Etzin | SONIC DRAWINGS
Jeden ze współzałożycieli oficyny Gruenrekorder powraca z nowym albumem.
Niemiecki artysta dźwiękowy od wielu lat zajmuje się field recordingiem. Związany jest m.in. z grupą Autumn Appreciation Society. W pierwszym okresie swojej działalności Etzin tworzył pod nazwą Rasselland. Jednak szybko porzucił ten alias i zaczął wydawać pod własnym nazwiskiem. W 2015 roku wraz ze Stefanem Militzerem opublikował płytę „O/live“ (tutaj pisałem). Najnowszy krążek „Sonic Drawings” powstała w oparciu o nagarnia terenowe zarejestrowane we Włoszech, Irlandii i Niemczech, przy użyciu analogowych i cyfrowych mikrofonów, a także rozmaitych urządzeń elektronicznych własnoręcznie wykonanych. „Sonic Drawings” nie jest materiałem w pełni składającym się z field recordingu, to raczej eksperyment z obszaru tzw. sound art’u. […]
Review | By Katrin Hauk / freiStil – Magazin für Musik und Umgebung / #67
Invading Pleasures (Nikola Lutz & Mark Lorenz Kysela) | Infinite Jest
[…] Fast alle Stücke auf dieser CD beinhalten elektronische Zuspielungen bzw. Live-Elektronik, wie etwa auch Malte Giesens Komposition mit Verlaub (gehoben, eine möglicherweise Ärger erregende Aussage einleitend). Schnelle Saxofonlinien fallen hier zu Beginn nach unten, begleitet von elektronischen Klängen, die sich im weiteren Verlauf des Stücks in Stimmengewirr veränderen. Neben Musik dieser beiden Komponisten gibt es noch Arbeiten von Remmy Canedo, Joseph Michaels und Nikola Lutz selbst zu hören. Lutz‘ Stück GraphicSound VI basiert auf Detail-Fotografien einer Kontrabassklarinette und eines Tárogató, die in einem weiteren Schritt abstrahiert werden und durch Überlagerungen zu einer variablen Partitur führen. Jedes dieser Stücke trieft nur so vor Hirnschmalz. Die Musik selbst klingt dennoch nie konstruiert, was den beiden Interpreten zuzuschreiben ist. Sie spielen gekonnt, mit Überzeugung und bringen es stets auf den Punkt.
Reviews | By Ed Pinsent / The Sound Projector
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
The field recording record Von Der Rheinquelle Bis Hafen Karlsruhe (GRUENREKORDER Gruen 163) is credited to rhein_strom, but is in fact the work of Lasse-Marc Riek, the label boss Gruenrekorder; he did these field recordings of the Rhine river, while his collaborator Thomas M. Siefert was the “location scout” – a role which sounds not unlike something you’d expect in a move production company – and took the colour photos which appear in the foldout booklet. Across 21 tracks which segue into each other, we have a detailed sound map of the river, one which is illustrated by a very precise schematic time-line / diagram included in the printed insert, telling us where we are on the stations of this journey; in structure, perhaps, not unlike Annea Lockwood’s Sound Map Of The Hudson River, which she undertook in 1982. […]
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther | Unter Grund
We’ve heard a few items from German sound artist Christina Kubisch over time, but not encountered many instances of her installation work, so it’s good to get our ears around this copy of Unter Grund (GRUENREKORDER Gruen 160). These two tracks might be taken as a partial, representative snapshot of a much larger and highly ambitious 26-channel installation piece which she made at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen. It’s to do with water streams both above ground and below the ground, and her work has led her into a detailed research of the history and geography of the area, as well as an understanding of the workings of this 19th-century mineshaft. […]
R. Schwarz | The Scale Of Things
Austrian composer Robert Schwarz, appearing here as R. Schwarz, mixes field recordings with droning analogue synth noise on The Scale Of Things (GRUENREKORDER Gruen 154). It’s a strange surface he creates, slow and eerie, yet seething with some kind of unidentifiable energy underneath. As far as I can make out, he wants to assert the importance of his own reworkings over the original source recordings, and thereby portray the world as an alien and unfamiliar place. At the same time, he’s encouraging the force of nature to bubble its way to the surface at unexpected points, as if to prove to himself that you can’t keep a good insect down, nor tame the ocean or prevent the seedlings from growing through the concrete. He seems to perceive nature as somewhat threatening, or at least governed by rules that we puny humans would find to be quite chaotic and unexpected. […]
Selected Recordings of Bayaka Music by Louis Sarno
Song from the Forest: The Soundtrack
A Documentary Film by Michael Obert. Selected Recordings of Bayaka Music by Louis Sarno. GERMANY GRUENREKORDER Gruen 150 CD (2014)
Need an interesting solution to the problem of market saturation? Try marketing your charming recordings of an African tribe and their wild locality not as ‘World Music’ but as the soundtrack to a film about… a white American gone native. Add a varnished cover, fit for a mid-budget Hollywood project, copious and illuminating annotation along with rich illustration and bingo: something to compete with the eye-catching graphic design and oddball eccentricity of labels like Sublime Frequencies and Nonesuch Explorer. I’m making this sound far more cynical than it actually is of course, and it’s purely a result of my own petty envy at the remarkable life experience of said American, the recording artist and film subject Louis Sarno, who tracked down the Bayaka pygmies after hearing them on the radio, then went on to become the only outsider (let alone westerner) to be inducted into the tribe. […]
Review | By Frans de Waard / VITAL WEEKLY
Roland Etzin | SONIC DRAWINGS
From these two new Gruenrekorder releases I started with the one that has the most regular package, a digipack and CD by Roland Etzin, who has had releases on this label before (see Vital Weekly 631 and 851). On the cover we read that this contains ‚found sounds: Italy, Ireland, Germany; using several kinds of microphones, analog & digital machines and self built instruments‘, which is probably I would describe this myself, as it what I hear too. It also lives up to it’s title as these four pieces (ranging from two minutes to thirty-five minutes), as these are very much drawings with sounds. We hear cow bells, cars, chainsaws, water, church bells and what have you, played together, perhaps not always ‚possible‘, but that’s the beauty of music: it can all sound together and make a wonderful visual piece. […]
Review | By Frans de Waard / VITAL WEEKLY
Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound
[…] There are lots of wildlife, rain, and thunder sounds but also the sounds of the oil industry. Of course I should say about the latter they are ‚awful‘ sounds, but it makes up a fascinating listening experience, moving from one sound into the next; the whole piece has thirty-four different segments, but it is cut as one piece on the disc, perhaps to suggest a unity of location. Nieto, who is from a Basque background, in case you were wondering why that language is part of this, created a great imaginative piece of sound art based on totally contrasting field recordings. Meanwhile you can read the book, obviously, but I must admit I found it not easy to read, or even to search for those bits that were in English, as the four languages are together, arranged per chapter/section. Holding this against the light, concentrating really hard to decipher it, made me think: ‚okay, I sympathise with this message, even if I can’t find the concentration to take it all in‘. But this is all together an excellent political statement.
Review | By Łukasz Komła / Nowamuzyka.pl
Mikel R. Nieto | Dark Sound
Hiszpański artysta dźwiękowy w swojej książce „Dark Sound” porusza wiele zagadnień związanych z hałasem, ciszą i słuchaniem. Oprócz tekstów naukowych mamy też nagrania terenowe zarejestrowane w lasach tropikalnych Ekwadoru. Mikel R. Nieto jest także naukowcem, wykłada na różnych uczelniach, prowadzi warsztaty oraz konstruuje własne mikrofony, pozwalające mu odkrywać nowe metody zapisu dźwięku w terenie. „Dark Sound” to jego pierwsza pozycja w katalogu niemieckiej oficyny Gruenrekorder. W pierwszej kolejności dostajemy do ręki czarną książkę, w twardej oprawie, 176 stron, którą najlepiej czyta się przy świetle dziennym z uwagi na sposób w jaki ją wykonano – na czarnych, atramentowych kartkach wydrukowano teksty w kolorze przypominającym „złoto”. Artykuły są napisane w czterech językach: huao, baskijskim, hiszpańskim i angielskim. […]
Dark Sound (On Fire) Amazonian Version
Video: Diego Mosquera
Sound: Mikel R. Nieto
More info about Dark Sound: dark.mikelrnieto.net
Purchase at gruenrekorder.de
Dark Sound (On Fire) European Version
Video: Patricia Gómez Rojo a.k.a INWOKO (Bitamine.net)
Sound: Mikel R. Nieto
More info about Dark Sound: dark.mikelrnieto.net
Purchase at gruenrekorder.de
Upcoming Release @ Gruenrekorder – Tentacles / Kg Augenstern /Book & CD / Gruen 170
For preorder (15 €) please drop us a line here and we’ll get back in touch.
Ausstellung: „Tentacles 2“ – Audiokinetische Rauminstallation von Kg Augenstern / MS Anuschka/Berlin | 20.-24.06. an Bord MS Stubnitz, Kirchenpauerkai, tägl. 14-22 Uhr
Die Künstlergruppe Augenstern (Christiane Prehn und Wolfgang Meyer) lebt und arbeitet seit vielen Jahren auf der MS Anuschka. Im Juni 2014 machten sie sich auf den Weg von Berlin über Paris nach Südfrankreich. Unterwegs wurden zahlreiche Brücken, welche Flüsse und Kanäle überspannen, untersucht. Mit an Bord installierten Tentakeln, welche an den Brücken kratzten, wurde das Schiff zu einem sensiblen, wahrnehmenden und tönenden Labor, welches mit der Umgebung interagiert. Während des Tentacles- Projektes entstand die audiokinetische Rauminstallation Tentacles 2, die an Bord der Stubnitz zu sehen und zu hören sein wird. Sieben am Strand des Mittelmeers aufgefundene Bojen werden an sich drehenden Elektromotoren aufgehängt. An jeder der Bojen ist ein Tentakel angebracht, welches immer wieder an die Grenzen seines Aktionsfeldes stößt und dann an Wänden, am Fußboden oder an der Decke kratzt. So entstehen, abhängig vom bespielten Raum verschiedenartige Geräusche und Rhythmen. Die Installation dreht sich mit der langsamen Präzision eines Uhrwerks. Durch eine flexible Aufhängung an Tauen sind die Bewegungen und Geräusche trotzdem in permanenter, dem Zufall unterworfener Veränderung. Materialien, Struktur, Form und Akustik des Raumes werden auditiv und visuell in einem permanenten Prozess transformiert. Die Stählernen Wände der Stubnitz und die an den Wänden verlegten Rohre der historischen Kühlvorrichtung lassen im Bauch des großen Schiffes ein ganz spezielles Kratzkonzert erwarten.
Review | The Wire Magazine / Issue 389
Roger Döring & Konrad Korabiewski | Komplex
It would be a cliche to recourse to the idea that Iceland’s treeless environment impacts on any music made by artists living there. But the plaintive baritone saxophone on “Kremmerstrasse” vividly suggests it does, as it plays out over voices that alternate between agitated talk and half-singing. There’s also the sound of traffic and a whining dog, albeit buried in the deep drone of the saxophone. These tracks coulbe be brief extracts from films, their mood and tempo changing as the flicker from one to the next. The clarinet melody closing “Zeit Heilt Alle Wunden” is an almost direct reference to the vocal melody ending “Warszawa” on Bowie’s Low. […]
We did it! Our project has been funded!
Many thanks to all our backers – we will send you more news, and a download code for fifth song for forgetting, our kickstarter-only reward for our backers, later this evening. But first we’re off to raise a glass! One more time, many, many, many, many thanks for your support!
framework radio | #555
phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley
Various Artists | Landscapes of Fear
Open Call for participants at the first Audiotalaia Summer Camp
Encounter of Sound and Digital Creativity.
At Catalan Mediterranean Coast. July 2016.
www.audiotalaia.net/files/AtSummerCamp_ENG.pdf
www.audiotalaia.net/actions/summer-camp
New Release:
Mikel R. Nieto: ‘Dark Sound’
Gruen 167/16 | Book + CD
Field Recordings
11 Tracks (82:33)
PRE-ORDER at a preferantial price of only € 34. Sells after June 24th for the latest closed crude oil brent price. For details visit this page.
Review | By Ed Pinsent / The Sound Projector
Roger Döring & Konrad Korabiewski | Komplex
Konrad Korabiewski and Roger Döring took about two years to complete Komplex (GRUENREKORDER Gruen 126 / SKÁLAR 001), a sound-art work that involved travels in Berlin and Iceland, much recording and playing, and contemplation…it might be more helpful to think of the work as a dialogue between the two men that gradually picks up steam, although “steam” is the last word on one’s mind as one endures these freezing-cold and deathly slow explorations in sound. Döring plays his clarinets and saxophones at a lugubrious speed, while Korabiewski processes the results in some way using “electronic live treatments”. Location recordings play a part in the finished product too, and quite often the performed sounds are embedded directly in very specific – and very audible – places in Germany and Iceland. […]
It looks like that this project will be come true – deeply thanks to everybody who took care!
Materialhaufen | Deutschlandradio Kultur
Uwe Raschs multimediale Adaption der „Winterreise“ | Von Julian Kämper
Exzerpt:
MP3
Uwe Rasch entwirft einen multimedialen Raum zur Reflexion über das kalte Unterwegssein – mit Hundechor, Spielzeug und Fleischwolf.
Uwe Rasch | aus vierundzwanzig
songs for forgetting – Interview with Patrick McGinley @ KNITSONIK
Those of you who listened to the last episode of the KNITSONIK podcast may recall the interview with my good friend Patrick McGinley, AKA murmer. In that episode we spoke of our mutual love of sounds and shared some of our field-recordings.
I’m really excited to tell you that Patrick has been working on an album called songs for forgetting. Gruenrekorder – an amazing record label responsible for publishing some of my favourite field-recording releases – are currently running a Kickstarter to raise the necessary production funds to put this out there as a gorgeous vinyl LP. If the glimpses of sounds shared on the campaign video are anything to go by, it’s going to be a wonderful listen.
Review | The Wire Magazine / Issue 387
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther | Unter Grund
Ceaseless extraction of groundwater from a network of disused mines is required to prevent Germany’s Ruhr district from meeting a soggy fate. Without the constant operation of underground pumps the region would become an uninhabitable quagmire. In collaboration with sound engineer Eckehard Güther, sonic topographer Christina Kubisch tracked the Ruhr’s subterranean waterways, took samples, and diverted their acoustic energy into a 26-channel installation. The project also found room for noises of heavy machinery, designed to limit physical subsidence and the contamination of drinking water. Unter Grund is a tributary from that installation, a stereo composition that recycles recordings made – mainly with hydrophones and contact mics – in pumping stations, ponds, waterworks and mineshaft sumps. […]
Reviews | By DM / VITAL WEEKLY
Uwe Rasch | aus vierundzwanzig
Two very experimental and ambitious works by Gruenrekorder. ‘Aus Vierundzwanzig’ is a multimedia-work. A thick booklet is included. There is some work to do here. Rasch studied composition with Rolf Riehm in Bremen. His works feature above all audio-visual projects and installations, with in interest for the relation between body (movement) and sound. ‘Aus Vierundzwanzig’ is no exception to it. We are talking here of a project Rasch started in 2009 and is about adapting Schuberts ’Winterreise’, composed in 1827. A very conceptual work, that is very far from any reprise of the Winterreise in whatever romantic sense. […]
Invading Pleasures (Nikola Lutz & Mark Lorenz Kysela) | Infinite Jest
So let’s change to the Invading Pleasures, which is the name of a Stuttgart-based duo of saxophonists Mark Lorenz Kysela and Nikola Lutz. They have an interest for combining saxophone with electronics. ‘Infinite Jest’ is their debut album, counting six compositions that all illustrate this interest. Five works are especially written for them. Two parts from Rasch’s work ‘Aus Vierundzwanzig’, a work by Nikola Lutz himself, Plus three compositions by Malte Giessen, Remmy Canedo and Joseph Michaels. All works have in common that electronics play an important role in embedding, manipulating, transforming the sax playing, etc. Highly experimental and conceptual. […]
Review | By Roger Batty / Musique Machine
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
Von Der Rheinquelle Bis Hafen Karlsruhe (Of The Rhine Source To Harbor Karlsruhe for none German speakers) takes us on fascinating field recording journey down one of Europe’s most mighty rivers. Traveling through different season, and stopping off at twenty track one stops along it’s nearing 600 Km length. The Rhein Strom [Rhine River] project brings together respected german field recordist & sound artists Lasse-Marc Riek , & location scout and photographer Thomas M. Siefert. As you’d expect from the Gruenrekorder label- the packaging is a colourful, well thought-out, visual rewarding. The full colour digi-pak takes in on it’s front cover a photograph from with-in the Rhein’s water looking up into green grass, hills, woodlands & summer blue skies of it’s banks. […]
Rodolphe ALEXIS | The glittering thing on the mountain @ WRECK THIS MESS
1112 – 03/05/16 RADIO LIBERTAIRE 89.4 PARIS
framework radio | #551
phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther | Unter Grund
[Deutsch]
Gruenrekorder proudly presents „songs for forgetting“ by Patrick McGinley AKA murmer
To make this project come true we need your support on Kickstarter
Since 2007 sound, performance and radio artist Patrick McGinley, AKA murmer worked on his first full-length solo release since 2012: songs for forgetting.
In 2016 Gruenrekorder will release this 45min LP of great field recordings from Germany, France, Spain and Estonia as a Vinyl-LP.
The project has a unique story:
The ca. 45 minutes of recordings are going to be released on a 180g heavy vinyl. Delivered with a unique sleeve, produced by friends and supporters of the artist Patrick McGinley, the whole project support a creative community in Estonia, where Patrick lives with his family. The outer sleeve, designed by the Armenian illustrator Vahram Muradyan, will be produced from 100% locally-sourced recycled card from the oldest continuously-operating industry in the country, the Räpina Papermill and be printed, locally as well, on the historical machines at studio.tartuensis…
For more information about this great project please visit our Kickstarterpage!
songs-for-forgetting–kickstarter.gruenrekorder.de
We need your support to make this project coming true!
We are aiming to create an artwork as visually worthwhile as the audio it contains. This involves paper, vinyl, printing, love and time. For it to be worthwhile, we need to know there is an audience for a physical release in these days of digital, online media. By backing this project you help to bring it into the world. Without your support and appreciation, it just can’t happen.
By supporting our project you will receive amazing rewards, like the record itself, a handmade designed tote-bag, a special self-made item from Patrick’s home in põlgaste…
Curious?
Visit Kickstarter and support this really great project, so we can make
an object that looks and feels as good as it sounds.
THANK YOU FOR YOU SUPPORT!
Wir, das Label Gruenrekorder, sind froh „songs for forgetting“, das neue Projekt von Sound Artist Patrick McGinley AKA murmer vorstellen zu können:
Um dieses Projekt umsetzten zu können, benötigen wir deine Unterstützung auf Kickstarter
Seit 2007 arbeitete der sound, performance und radio Künstler Patrick McGinley, AKA murmer an seinem ersten großen Soloalbum seit 2012: songs for forgetting. 2016 wird Gruenrekorder diese 45minütigen field recordings aus Deutschland, Frankreich, Spanien und Estland als Vinyl-LP veröffentlichen.
Das Projekt hat eine einzigartige Geschichte, die wir dir hier kurz vorstellen wollen:
Die 45minütigen Aufnahmen werden auf eine 180g schwere 12inch Vinyl-Schallplatte gepresst. Diese wird in einer einzigartigen Hülle, die von Patricks Freunden und Unterstützern hergestellt wird, geliefert. Du unterstützt mit deiner Spende also auch eine große kreative Gemeinschaft in Estland, wo Patrick mit seiner Familie lebt und arbeitet. Das äußere Sleeve, welches von Patricks Nachbar, dem armenischen Designer Vahram Muradyan designed wurde, wird aus 100% lokal recycelten und in der Räpina Papermill, Estlands ältester Papiermanufaktur, hergestelltem Papier produziert und im studio.tartuensis auf historischen Maschinen bedruckt werden.
Für weitere Informationen über dieses einzigartige Projekt besuche bitte unsere Kickstarterprojektseite.
songs-for-forgetting–kickstarter.gruenrekorder.de
Wir brauchen deine Unterstützung, um dieses Projekt zu realisieren!
Unser Ziel ist es ein Kunstwerk zu schaffen, welches genauso gut aussieht, wie es sich anhört. Das beinhaltet hohe Ansprüche an das Papier, das Vinyl und den Druck sowie viel Zeit und Liebe, die wir in das Projekt investiert haben und investieren werden. Um dieses Projekt zu etwas wertvollem zu machen, ist es für uns wichtig zu wissen, dass es in diesen Zeiten von digitalen Onlinemedien ein Publikum für Projekte wie dieses gibt. Mit deiner Unterstützung werden wir dies beweisen und das Projekt der Welt vorstellen können. Von deiner Unterstützung hängt ab, ob wir dieses fantastische Projekt wirklich realisieren können.
Für deine Unterstützung wirst du fantastische Belohnungen, wie beispielsweise die Aufnahme selbst, eine handgefertigte Designer-Tragetasche, eine handgefertigte Belohnung von Patrick aus seiner Heimat in Põlgaste und vieles mehr erhalten.
Neugierig?
Besuche Kickstarter und unterstütze dieses großartige Projekt, um ein Kunstwerk zu erschaffen, das genauso gut aussieht und sich ebenso gut anfühlt, wie es klingt.
DANKE FÜR DEINE UNTERSTÜTZUNG!
Phonophon | 27 April 2016 | 8:00 PM | 7 Euro
Institut für neue Medien (INM)
Schmickstraße 18
60314 Frankfurt am Main
* Ponton (SRB)
www.pntn.bandcamp.com
* Orfada (SRB, MEX)
www.orfada.bandcamp.com
Society for the Advancement of Phonography and Experimental Music (e.V.)
www.phonographie.org
www.inm.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
Offers of the Month
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther: ‘Mosaïque Mosaic’ Gruen 131/13
Feu Follet (Tobias Fischer): ‘Paradis Paysan’ Gruen 055/08
shop.gruenrekorder.de
Roger Döring & Konrad Korabiewski | Komplex
The Wire Tapper 40 compilation CD with the composition Hof from Komplex is out in the current The Wire Magazine #387
www.korabiewski.com
www.thewire.co.uk
Review | By Duncan Simpson / Musique Machine
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther | Unter Grund
Unter Grund is a two part composition originally produced as a sound installation for the NOW / Parallele Welten festival in 2014 at the Zollverein coal mining site near Gelsenkirchen. The choice of location was apt as the material which makes up this recording is principally derived from underground sources involving mines, pumping stations and other machinic locations associated with the Ruhr area which have some connection to water. The liner notes describe Kubisch’s work as being about „alternative ways of perceiving and accessing correlations“ and „autonomously provided ways of experience and unofficial versions of reality“. The choice of source material brings together historical themes of technological progress and the costs to the environment but also more socially minded reflections on the lives of miners „competing with the bowels of the earth“. […]
Listen | Jenseits der Stille: Field Recordings | SWR2 Cluster
Die Geschichte des Field Recording in 12 Teilen
www.swr.de/swr2/programm/sendungen/cluster/field-recordings
Hörsaal 08 ((((UNTERWASSERWELTEN))))
Liebe FreundInnen, KollegeInnen und HörerInnen,
Tauchen Sie mit uns ein in eine unbekannte und faszinierende Geräuschwelt unter den Wasseroberflächen. Wer und was klingt unter Wasser? Sind die Ozeane still? Wir erfahren von Kommunikations- und Soziallauten der Tierwelt, Klang-phänomenen aus der Antarktis, der Karibik, Mainklang und verschiedenen künstlerischen Arbeiten zu Themen der Unterwasserakustik; Eisberge, Wale, Pistolenkrebse. :: Kuchenbecker und Riek verarbeiten ihre hydrophonen Klang-Sammlungen aus dem Meer, den Seen und den Flüssen in einem gemeinsamen Konzert.
CASINO Filmtheater Aschaffenburg
Ohmbachsgasse 1, Aschaffenburg
www.casino-aschaffenburg.de
Sonntag, den 17.4 | 10:45 – 12:15 | Eintritt 8.50 €
Review | By Ksenija Stevanović / Radio Beograd 3
DinahBird | A Box of 78s
Gramofonija – U ovoj emisiji priključujemo se međunarodnom projektu „A Box of 78s“ (Kutija sedamdesetosmica) koji je inicirala umetnica Dina Berd. Naime, ploča koju večeras preslušavamo već više od dve godine putuje svetom (od Franucke, preko Australije do Srbije) i emituje se na radio stanicama, sa idejom da sva oštećenja koja budu nastala na ovom putu postanu deo zvučnog identiteta ovog radiofonskog ostvarenja. […]
Review | By Laurent Diouf / MCD#81 – Arts & Sciences
Various Artists | Landscapes of Fear
Entre field recordings et expérimentations, musique concrète et art bruitiste : une double anthologie en forme de topographie sonore dont chaque piste — il y en a 15 pour plus de 2 heures d’écoute attentive — ouvre sur de singuliers paysages et questionne les notions d’espace, de territoire, de frontière…
Review | By Aurelio Cianciotta / Neural
R. Schwarz | The Scale Of Things
R. Schwarz in The Scale of Things relies on evocative and enveloping patterns, with strong explorations of natural environments. The implications of the field recordings are given room to develop, but this is balanced with musicality and a pre-arranged structure. Seven tightly worked compositions reverberate here with a particular and abstract essence that is not easy to decipher. The Viennese architect and sound artist, currently on the MAK Schindler Artists and Architects-in-Residency Program in Los Angeles, acts simultaneously on multiple levels by interacting with various field recordings, creating layers of sounds that are sometimes quite cryptic but always in balance, forming a hybrid between natural and abstract moods, between frequencies and musical composition. […]
‘SONIC MMABOLELA 2016’ has just officially launched
4th Annual Workshop/Residency for sound artists & composers
at Mmabolela Reserve, Limpopo, South Africa
16-29 November 2016
You can find all the detailed information here:
www.franciscolopez.net
Review | By Constantin Gröhn / Landschaften der Angst und Zuversicht
Zur CD-Compilation „Landscapes of fear“. Veröffentlich in Evangelische Stimmen.
Forum für kirchliche Zeitfragen in Norddeutschland / April 2016
„Abraham aber machte sich früh am Morgen auf an den Ort, wo er vor dem HERRN gestanden hatte, und wandte sein Angesicht gegen Sodom und Gomorra und alles Land dieser Gegend und schaute, und siehe, da ging ein Rauch auf vom Lande wie der Rauch von einem Ofen (1. Mose 19,27f.).“ Orte und Landschaften der Angst sind uns bereits aus der Bibel bekannt. Manche davon wirken noch erstaunlich zeitgemäß; so können in Doris Dörries aktuellem Kinofilm „Grüße aus Fukushima“ durchaus Parallelen zur Geschichte von Sodom und Gomorra gezogen werden. Mit künstlerischen Mitteln wird hier versucht, Angst nicht zu verdrängen und zu unterdrücken. Vielmehr versucht die Regisseurin die Angst so fokussieren, dass wir klug und feinfühlig unsere Wirklichkeit wahrnehmen und dabei Energien freisetzen, die die Quellen der Angst aufdecken. Schritt für Schritt könnte dann auch eine Verhaltensänderung erfolgen. […]
Gruenrekorder @ Radiokolleg – Soundscapes & Fieldrecordings
OE1 | ORF.at | Gestaltung: Hans Groiss
Von Klangökologie und Geräuschesammlern (1).
Trottellumme auf Helgoland in Deutschland, Flughunde auf Iriomote-Jima in Japan oder Hippos im Mmabolela Rerserve in Limpopo, Südafrika – all diese Tiere machen Geräusche. Ob in Island, in der Lobau oder in der Antarktis: Schallerlebnisse gibt es überall zu finden, wo es Leben, Klima und Vegetation gibt. Aber nur manche dieser Klangwelten sind ohne menschliche „Störgeräusche“ zu entdecken. Klangforscher machen sogenannte Soundscapes vom tropischen Regenwald, von Zikaden oder einer singenden Nachtigall.
Soundscape ist ein Kunstwort, das von dem Komponisten Murray Schafer 1977 geprägt wurde und Soundscape legte auch die Basis für die Klangökologie, also akustischen Umweltschutz. Schafer selbst forderte in Restaurants oftmals ein, die Musik abzuschalten und er entwickelte sogenannte „Soundwalks“. Doch sind Soundscapes und Fieldrecordings auch Musik und in wie weit grenzen sich diese von Sound-Poesie und Soundscape-Kompositionen ab? Wo ist die Schnittstelle zur Ornithologie und welche technischen Standards haben sich für Geräuschesucher etabliert. Machen Sie sich mit Hans Groiss auf zur Klangjagd.
Review | By Richard Allen / a closer listen
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
[…] Does the recording succeed? It’s not meant to trick the listener, nor to challenge global travelers. Instead, the album seeks to philosophize by asking an easy question with complicated implications. Can a soundscape be “pure” in the company of human intrusion? Can an environmental viewer ever be subjective when immersed in a landscape? It’s a modern take on the old question, “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Yes, of course it does, yet the real question is not that one, but the one we take with us. Like it or not, this is the Rhine, and since we can’t separate the Rhine from ourselves, we can recognize it ~ fair or unfair as this answer may be.
Review | By Guillermo Escudero / Loop
Rodolphe ALEXIS | The glittering thing on the mountain
This is the third work on the German Gruenrekorder imprint [‘Sempervirent’, 2012 and “Morne Diablotins”, 2014] of Rodolphe Alexis, sound artist and French designer who lives and works in Paris. His work is based on field recordings, electroacoustic composition, radio parts and specific sites for installations or presentations.
In 2009 Alexis was a few hours away by boat from the southernmost island of Japan, Iriomote-Jima, part of Okinawa Prefecture and former part of Yaeyama archipelago and Ryukyus Islands. At that time he didn’t have no means to get there, therefore promises to come back. […]
Review | By Guillermo Escudero / Loop
Invading Pleasures (Nikola Lutz & Mark Lorenz Kysela) | Infinite Jest
Behind Invading Pleasures are Stuttgart-based saxophonists Nikola Lutz: soprano, alto, bass saxophone, Tárogató [an Eastern European folk instrument], sound objects, voice, electronics, and Mark Lorenz Kysela: soprano, alto, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, sound objects, electronics. Both musicians hold an important career in contemporary and improvised music. Their interest is pointed at to expand the possibilities of the instrument through electronics.
„Infinite Jest“ is a new release in the Sound Art Series of the German label and consists of six compositions by musicians Uwe Rasch [two pieces], Nikola Lutz, Malte Giesen, Remmy Canedo and Joseph Michaels. […]
Gruenrekorder @ WATER WHEEL
Eric Leonardson selected work are „Railroad Storm Drain“ by Christopher DeLaurenti; „Unter Grund“ by Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther; „von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe | rhein_strom,“ by Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek; and Jay Needham’s „Liquesce 1.“ www.water-wheel.net
The Tap is free to sign in and interact with anywhere in the world. Programme, dates & times: http://bit.ly/program-WaterWorks
Phonophon | 22 March 2016 | 8:00 PM | 7 Euro
Institut für neue Medien (INM)
Schmickstraße 18
60314 Frankfurt am Main
* Sindre Bjerga (NO)
www.sindrebjerga.wordpress.com
* Modelbau (Frans de Waard) (NL)
www.fransdewaard.com
* Tech Riders (NO, NL)
www.phonographie.org
Society for the Advancement of Phonography and Experimental Music (e.V.)
www.phonographie.org
www.inm.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
Phonophon | 18 March 2016 | 8:00 PM | 7 Euro
Institut für neue Medien (INM)
Schmickstraße 18
60314 Frankfurt am Main
* Aidan Baker (CDN)
www.aidanbaker.org
* N (DE)
www.n-1511.com
Society for the Advancement of Phonography and Experimental Music (e.V.)
www.phonographie.org
www.inm.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
Field Recordings – Der Klang der Welt
So klingt die Welt – die bekanntesten Field Recorder der Welt haben eine Weltkarte aus Klängen erstellt: so klingt das Korallenriff, so klingt ein radioaktiv verseuchter Ort wie Fukushima, so klingt der Regenwald.
Bayerisches Fernsehen: www.br.de
Autor: Andreas Krieger
Feature | By Jack Chuter / ATTN:Magazine
Animal Music – Sound & Song in the Natural World
Edited by Tobias Fischer & Lara Cory
Tobias Fischer and Lara Cory run the fantastic Fifteen Questions website, which (as the title suggests) compiles 15-question interviews with all manner of sound artists and musicians. The questions are always attentive yet open, catching that balance between a comprehension of the artist’s work and a humble desire to explore the unknowns around artistic influence and creative process. Their book/CD package Animal Music is their first collaboration outside of Fifteen Questions. Through first-hand interviews and research, the pair dig deep within the practice of recording, researching and contemplating the sounds made by animals: the role these sounds play in everyday life, the implications as to animal sentience, the unearthed assumptions about the dynamic between animals and human beings. […]
Gruenrekorder @ 6. Karlsruher Festival für Improvisierte Musik
Donnerstag, 31. März 2016, Orgelfabrik, Amthausstr. 17, Karlsruhe-Durlach
www.facebook.com/events
Roland Etzin – Fieldrecordings, Elektronik
Stefan Militzer – Modular-Synthesizer
In komplexen Geflechten aus Feldaufnahmen und elektronischen Instrumenten machen Roland Etzin und Stefan Militzer die Texturen und Risse, die Energien und Ideale, die Niederungen und Schmerzen ihrer Welt hörbar. Eruptiv und meditativ sind diese Klanglandschaften, rhythmisch und grenzenlos – je nach dem Raum und der Atmosphäre, in der sie spielen.
Gruenrekorder @ quiet cue #167
March 13th · 8PM · start 8:30
www.quietcue.blogspot.de
Elliott Sharp – guitar
David Rothenberg – clarinet and bass clarinet
Lasse-Marc Riek – field recordings
Korhan Erel – computer, controllers
Gruenrekorder @ grün
kunstaktionen im stadtraum heidelberg und ausstellung zum thema grün
im DEZERNAT 16 | 31.03. – 30.04.2016
www.gruen.konnex-art.org
Review | By Julian Cowley / The Wire Magazine – Issue 384
Uwe Rasch | aus vierundzwanzig
Five cardboard boxes, arranged to resemble a human torso and limbs, twitch and shuffle on a worn, grubby floor. The image resembles some animation dredged from the collective unconscious by Czech surerealist Jan Svankmajer. But dancer Kiri Haardt is encased within the brown taped packaging, a living being, clearly depleted and struggling in vain to defy gravity. On the soundtrack breathy, introspective voices become more and more wrapped up in their own obscure deliberations, while a sonic scrawl that initially suggests writing grows increasingly raucous and illegible. As the title Aus Vierundzwanzig (which translates as Out of 24) is intended to indicate, this sequence is part of a 2012 adaptation by Uwe Rasch of Franz Schubert´s 24 song cycle Die Winterreise (The Winter Journey). […]
New Distribution:
Uwe Rasch: ‘Musik als Leibesübung 1993–2009’
GrD 29/16
Sound Art
9 Tracks (111:08)
Review | By Richard Allen / a closer listen
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther | Unter Grund
Many of the water-based recordings we receive are beauty-based, calling to mind vacations by the sea, meditations by the river, the sweetness of summer rain. Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther‘s Unter Grund is different: historical, political and metaphorical, it prompts the listener into larger modes of thought. The original presentation was a 26-channel installation, and we’re intensely jealous of those who were able to check it out. The CD version is an intricate soundscape of water movement in the Ruhr area, recorded above and below ground, in spouts and pipes, pumps and ponds. The expanded recording area paints a fuller picture of water flow than one might receive from the personal experience of water from faucets and shower heads, heaters and drains. Where does the water come from? Where does it go? Is it clean? Few people ask such questions, content to trust that what enters their homes must be pure. And yet an entire industry exists to verify that it is. […]
Reviews | By textura
Since its 2003 founding, Gruenrekorder co-managers Lasse-Marc Riek and Roland Etzin have done much to establish the German label as one of the foremost outlets for field recordings-related work, and for that matter have been instrumental in establishing field recordings as a legitimate stand-alone genre. Two new releases, the first by Christina Kubisch and Eckehard Güther and the other by Thomas M. Siefert and Riek (under the rhein_strom name), reflect that ongoing commitment; Riek’s also represented here by Schwarm, an hour-long recording that while issued on ALARM could just as easily have appeared on Gruenrekorder.
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther | Unter Grund
Though the two Gruenrekorder releases are classified differently, Kubisch and Güther’s as part of the label’s Soundscape Series and rhein_strom’s as a Field Recording Series installment, they have more in common that that distinction might suggest: both are grounded in field recordings activity and, as a result of the manipulations applied to them by the artists involved, are soundscapes, too. In terms of content, both also are conceptually oriented around water-related activity. As always with the label’s products, the visual presentation adds considerably to one’s impression of the material, with each release enhanced by texts and photos to bring clarity to the project and the artists‘ intentions. […]
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
Siefert and Riek’s rhein_strom release, von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe (in essence, from the source of the Rhine to the Karlsruhe harbour) is succinctly encapsulated by the question, “Would you recognize the Rhine by its sound?” Working with recordings collected along a 589-kilometre stretch, the two (Riek credited with field recordings and Siefert with location scouting and photos) have assembled a seventy-three-minute ambient portrait of the river that shifts the focus away from the visual to the purely sonic realm. The river gurgles so dynamically it feels close enough to touch, and rushing water isn’t the only sound either: chirping birds, machinery grinding, distant traffic noise, the chatter of people who live by the river as well as other creatures all surface, making for a rich, detailed travelogue; if anything, it’s surprising how plentiful non-water sounds are on the recording. […]
Review | By textura
Invading Pleasures (Nikola Lutz & Mark Lorenz Kysela) | Infinite Jest
Gruenrekorder has certainly made a name for itself as a central hub for field recordings-related activity, but there are other sides to the label, too, one of which is symbolized by Infinite Jest, a seventy-minute collection produced by Stuttgart-based saxophonists Mark Lorenz Kysela and Nikola Lutz under the Invading Pleasures name. Though it’s tempting to describe the release as representative of the label’s more conventional musical side, such a description is misleading: the material, while rooted in musical form, is anything but conventional; instead, it’s as daring and experimental as anything else in the Gruenrekorder catalogue and fittingly is presented as an installment in the label’s Sound Art Series. […]
Review | By Duncan Simpson / Musique Machine
Various Artists | Landscapes of Fear
Now this is a fascinating thing; a two disk set presented in an oversized gatefold wallet with a lavish full colour fold out. On one side a large topographical map of the area around Cologne marked with strange labels such as „Inner Space“, „Refugee trails“, and „Frontex Operation Corridor“. On the other side a multitude of diagrams, photographs, graphical models and maps, some with accompanying text in English or German. The organisation responsible Gruenrekorder specialises in what they call „soundworks and phonography“ but this doesn’t clarify much for us. The English introductory text begins with a quote from W.J.T. Mitchell’s Landscape and Power which starts „Landscape is a natural scene mediated by culture“. […]
Review | By Guillermo Escudero / Loop
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
This is a new installment of German Gruenrekorder Field Recording series. Rhein Strom [Rhine River] are field recordits Thomas M. Siefert [location scout and photos] and Lasse-Marc Riek [field recordings]. This work took place on various locations and seasons during the last seven years and its purpose is the natural state of sound [no processing techniques], soundscape and the “sound identity” of the Rhine. “Von der Rheinquelle Bis Hafen Karlsruhe” [From Rhine’s birth to Karlsruhe port] contains not only falls and streams of water, but also animals and humans who live by the river, who move and rest there. Some of the locations are natural areas, others are pools for water treatment. Conceptually, one of the questions asked for this work, was what relationship we establish with the Rhine River, romantic one, after the ecological damage that have suffered some of its parts? […]
Reviews | By Frans de Waard / VITAL WEEKLY
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther | Unter Grund
Two new releases by Gruenrekorder, who now clearly state on the cover of which series these releases are part. Thus we learn that the release by Christina Kubisch and Eckehard Güther is part of the soundscape series. I am not sure if I heard of Güther before, but surely I did of Kubisch, even when in recent times she seemed more active in building sound installations rather than releasing music on CD. This new CD however is a bit of both: it is a CD (obviously), documenting a sound installation, which had no less than twenty-six channels, and which uses the sound of water from the Ruhrgebiet area. To be more precise water that is underground, in old and disused mines and they have to be clear of water, so pumping goes on and on, as one doesn’t want the water to mix with the normal groundwater,
out of fear for contamination. […]
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
Would you recognize a river by it’s sound? That’s the question poised by Lasse-Marc Riek (field recordings) and Thomas M. Siefert (location scout and pictures) – a proper band then? The river in question originates in Switzerland and ends in the North Sea, near Rotterdam (having split at the Dutch border, becoming two rivers (Nederrijn (which also splits) and Waal, the latter passes the sunny city of Nijmegen). That’s not the entire course this piece of music follows. We start the end spring of Rhine in Switzerland up to the harbour of Karlsruhe, a total length of 589 kilometres, roughly half the total length. To answer their question: no I did not recognize this as the river called Rhine, even when perhaps at various points where Rhein_Strom made their recordings I also passed the river. It’s hard not to think of the ‚Sound Map Of The Hudson River‘ by Annea Lockwood, who does the same thing, albeit with the Hudson River, but I believe she follows the river over greater distance. […]
Review | By Stephen Fruitman / Avant Music News
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
“Would you recognize the Rhine by its sound?” asks Lasse-Marc Riek. The river, that ever-flowing, every-changing artery, the thoroughfare of our landscapes, is a popular subject for field recordists. Perhaps because no two sound alike. Each breeds its own flora, fauna and civilization. Cédric Peyronnet curated a whole series of recordings along the River Taurion by various artists in three-inch format, Flaming Pines its own from artists and rivers around the world. Annea Lockwood´s superb triple CD set A Sound Map of the Danube was painstakingly constructed after previously doing the same thing closer to home, along New York´s Hudson River. And those, excuse the near-pun, are merely a drop in the bucket. […]
Reviews | By Łukasz Komła / Nowamuzyka.pl
Nowości z Gruenrekorder. Dwa duety, dwa różne problemy, ale związane z wodą, więc wsłuchajcie się w odgłosy przepompowni z Zagłębia Ruhry i w pejzaż dźwiękowy rzeki Ren.
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther | Unter Grund
„Unter Grund” to już drugi album duetu Kubisch/Güther wydany przez Gruenrekorder. Ich pierwsza wspólna praca to „Mosaïque Mosaic” (recenzja) uwieczniająca nagrania terenowe pochodzące z Kamerunu. Tym razem niemieccy artyści postanowili zmierzyć się z zupełnie inną przestrzenią, a mianowicie z problem wód gruntowych i układem podziemnych rurociągów. Materiał z „Unter Grund” powstał w Zeche Zollverein – w kompleksie przemysłowych kopalni i koksowni znajdujących się na północy Essen w zachodnich Niemczech (Zagłębie Ruhry). Tam Kubisch zarejestrowała wiele odgłosów przepływającej wody zarówno w naziemnych, jak i podziemnych strumieniach, które nie są łatwo dostępne, ale odgrywają bardzo ważną rolę przy odprowadzaniu wody pojawiającej się w niechcianych miejscach. […]
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
Projekt „von der rheinquelle bis hafen Karlsruhe” powstawał dosyć długo, bo aż siedem lat zajęło artystom zarejestrowanie nagrań terenowych wód Renu. Takie rozciągnięcie w czasie miało na celu odwiedzenie tej rzeki w różnych miejscach i różnych porach roku. A jednym z podstawowych pytań, jakie postawili sobie Siefert i Riek w momencie rozpoczęcia tego przedsięwzięcia, było: czy można rozpoznać Ren po jego dźwiękach? Ci twórcy, podobnie jak Kubisch i Güther, również odnoszą się do problemu ingerencji człowieka w dziedzictwo przyrody, w tym przypadku jest to rzeka Ren. […]
Phonophon | 25 February 2016 | 8:00 PM | 7 Euro
Institut für neue Medien (INM)
Schmickstraße 18
60314 Frankfurt am Main
* tbc_czepoks (DE)
www.soundcloud.com/wachsender-prozess
* The New Magic Easel Orchestra (DE)
www.phonographie.org/?p=1111
* Matze Schmidt (DE)
www.matzeschmidt.de
Society for the Advancement of Phonography and Experimental Music (e.V.)
www.phonographie.org
www.inm.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
framework radio | #545
phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley
rhein_strom | von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe
Die Geschichte des Field Recording – Teil 6 | SWR2 – Michael Rebhahn
Das Frankfurter Label Gruenrekorder
Seit 139 Jahre können wir Schall aufnehmen und konservieren. Seitdem müssen wir niemandem mehr mit Worten erklären, wie es klingt, wenn eine Mücke summt, oder wie ein Motor anspringt. Field Recordings haben unseren akustischen Horizont geweitet. Sie haben die Forschung und die Kunst verändert. Im 6. Teil unserer Serie geht es um das Frankfurter Label Grünrecorder. Das Label veröffentlicht aktuelle Field Recordings. Michael Rebhahn war bei einer Aufnahme dabei.
New Release:
Christina Kubisch & Eckehard Güther: ‘Unter Grund’
Gruen 160/15
Soundscapes
2 Tracks (32:15)
New Release:
Thomas M. Siefert & Lasse-Marc Riek
rhein_strom: ‘von der rheinquelle bis hafen karlsruhe’
Gruen 163/15
Field Recordings
21 Tracks (73:25)
Gruenrekorder | call for contributions
Compilation album (birdsong collection)
Dear musicians and sound artists,
for my interdisciplinary musical project „loudl-oudl-ow“ about human perception, representation and appreciation of birdsong I am looking for musicians and sound artists from various backgrounds who are interested in contributing a musical portrait about a bird species to a compilation.
Since I ́m looking for a wide range of different musicians and artists, I would be delighted, if many of you are joining in. If you are interested let me know and I ́m gonna send you the details on the procedure as soon as I heard back from you. Just two things beforehand: I have a list with different bird species that can be part of the compilation. From that list you can choose your bird. And the deadline is around the end of April 2016 – but maybe it will be postponed.
You can contact me by email: ch.hoechsmann@googlemail.com
or on Facebook via PM (Tschok Skott): www.facebook.com/events
To find out more about the project, see here: https://db.tt/agBtb4g5
Thank you in advance & looking forward to hearing from you!
Charlotte Höchsmann
Phonophon | 06 February 2016 | 8:00 PM | 7 Euro
Institut für neue Medien (INM)
Schmickstraße 18
60314 Frankfurt am Main
* Capsular (D)
www.disrupted.de
* Kaffee und Kuchen (D)
www.phonographie.org/?p=1129
Society for the Advancement of Phonography and Experimental Music (e.V.)
www.phonographie.org
www.inm.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
Review | By Ed Pinsent / The Sound Projector
Hafdís Bjarnadóttir | Sounds of Iceland
A sumptuous field recordings set is Sounds Of Iceland Íslandshljóð (GRUENREKORDER Gruen 157) presented by Hafdis Bjarnadóttir, composer and native of Reykjavík. It’s intended to take the listener on a physical journey which complete a round-trip from the South by way of the West Fjords and the Highland Plateau, and the proud boast is that there’s not a single “human-derived” sound anywhere on the entire album – just water, air, birdsong, geysers, lakes, waterfalls, caves, and other examples of nature’s watery bounty. Needless to say it’s more than a sound trip, and the record is illustrated with gorgeous full-colour photos by Dagný Bjarnadóttir, Guðmundur Harðarson, and Nick Martin. A beautiful, peaceful listen to the sound of a still-unspoiled region of our planet. From 8th April 2015.
Reviews | By Łukasz Komła / Nowamuzyka.pl
Nowości z Gruenrekorder. Tym razem coś dla miłośników eksperymentów rozpisanych na saksofony i modułowe instalacje nawiązujące do dzieł Franza Schuberta.
Invading Pleasures (Nikola Lutz & Mark Lorenz Kysela) | Infinite Jest
Nikola Lutz studiowała naukę gry na saksofonie w Bordeaux i Stuttgartcie. Podobnie Mark Lorenz Kysela. Oboje w swoich pracach skupiają się na łączeniu swobodnej improwizacji z elektroniką. Niekiedy w trakcie komponowania wykorzystują kilka saksofonów naraz. „Infinite Jest” to ich pierwsze wspólne wydawnictwo, które przynosi sześć kompozycji będących próbą interpretacji utworów, takich kompozytorów jak Uwe Rasch, Joseph Michaels, Remmy Canedo czy Malte Giesen. Duet zaskakuje mnogością użytych technik odnoście saksofonu, co w zestawieniu z muzyką komputerową daje nam postmodernistyczną tkankę zanurzoną w eksperymentach z formą, jak i brzmieniem. […]
Uwe Rasch | aus vierundzwanzig
Niemiecki kompozytor Uwe Rasch pracuje już od 2009 roku nad materiałem „aus vierundzwanzig” („Out of Twenty-Four”). A jest to współczesna adaptacja cyklu pieśni „Die Winterreise” Franza Schuberta pochodzących z 1827 roku. Próżno szukać u Rascha romantycznych zawodzeń, nawet melancholijnych mrugnięć oka w stronę tamtej epoki. Jego prace, jakie znalazły się na płycie DVD „aus vierundzwanzig”, to raczej złożony i eksperymentalny projekt składający się z modułów, które to konsekwentnie odnoszą się do takich pojęć jak marginalizacja i społeczna izolacja. Rasch woli sobie podrwić z romantyzmu, niż go gloryfikować. A robi to często na przykładzie prostych scen. […]
Review | By Łukasz Komła / Nowamuzyka.pl
Rodolphe ALEXIS | The glittering thing on the mountain
Francuski artysta postanowił wrócić na Okinawę i uwiecznić odgłosy tamtejszej przyrody. To już nie pierwsze spotkanie na łamach Nowej Muzyki z twórczością Rodolphe Alexisa – w 2014 roku opisywałem jego album „Morne Diablotins” (Gruenrekorder) będący zapisem podróży do Parku Narodowego Gwadelupy i Dominiki. Pierwszy raz Alexis wybrał się na Okinawę w 2009 roku, ale wówczas nie udało mu się pobyć tam dłużej. Latem 2014 roku Francus zaopatrzony w rejestrator i mikrofony czterokanałowe wyruszył w głąb wysp Ryukyus i Iriomote-Jima wchodzących w skład archipelagu Yaeyama. W efekcie powstał materiał na płytę „The glittering thing on the mountain”. […]
Review | By Łukasz Komła / Nowamuzyka.pl
Various Artists | Landscapes of Fear
Strach i granice – to odwieczni kompani, przeciwnicy i polemiści. Nowa kompilacja z Gruenrekorder pozwala zastanowić się nad szerokim kontekstem obu tych pojęć. Projekt „Landscapes of Fear” powstał w wyniku powtarzających się seminariów „Unsite temporalities”, które odbyły się w Akademii Sztuk Medialnych w Kolonii. Głównym przesłaniem tegoż przedsięwzięcia jest omówienie kwestii granic i terytorialności, ale przez pryzmat strachu. Problem syryjskich uchodźców idealnie wpisuje się w zakres poruszanych zagadnień. Nieodłącznymi elementami ludzkiego życia są: strach, dezorientacja i niepewność zwłaszcza, kiedy człowiek zmaga się z różnymi podziałami typu: osiedla zamknięte, rezerwaty przyrody, strefy śmierci etc. […]
Review | The Wire Magazine – Issue 384
Various Artists | Landscapes of Fear
This thought-provoking sound art project is an offshoot of the “Unsite Temporalities” seminar series at Cologne’s Academy Of Media Arts. It takes its conceptual lead and title from a book by geographer Yi-Fu Tuan. Political and social exploitation of fear is explored and reflected upon through sonic materials that range from recited text to digitised topography, natural world samples, mocked up conflict, interference and intimations of environmental catastrophe. Some make their point with shocking directness: Ali Chakav’s audio mapping of bullet fragments in the skull of a victim of political assassination; or Tim Gorinski’s “Amuse 2”, which seems to fuse the terror of an actual warzone with an adrenalin rush at a games console. Others are ominous rather than overt: Sebastian Thewes’s use of recordings of waterfalls above the arctic circle; Linda Franke’s vocal spooling of letters of the alphabet into a state of alarm; or Stephanie Glauber and Miriam Gossing’s drive along mysterious tone roads between two Cologne hotels, steered by sat nav voices. Fresh discursive means to address persistent plights and problems.
Review | The Wire Magazine – Issue 384
Rodolphe ALEXIS | The glittering thing on the mountain
Iriomote Jima is Japan’s most southerly island, a dense jungle far from the mainland that might resemble paradise, were it not for the malaria that kept extensive human settlement at bay. Human absence means a thriving ecosystem, much of which may remain undiscovered. That one of its largest inhabitants is a leopard cat known as the yamaneko was only discovered in 1965. But the CD’s title refers to the myth of even larger beasts dwelling in Iriomote Jima’s undergrowth. When Parisian sound recordist Rodolphe Alexis visited the island in 2014 with a four-channel microphone set-up, he captured nine tracks of natural ambience and unusual nature, ranging from the chirruping choruses of a rice frog to the cry of the brown-eared bulbul. The Glittering Thing On The Mountain is as close as you can get to a pure document of nature, untouched and untamed.
Review | By Guillermo Escudero / Loop
Various Artists | Landscapes of Fear
A new release on the sound art series of German label Gruenrekorder conceived and produced by Dirk Specht and Sebastian Thewes. The double CD contained in a vertical case that both art-cover and inside cover is a map, details which are shown in detail in a fold-out map that displays air bases and refugee trails and nuclear bases, sites that instill fear, emotion and spaces that have been worked as a source by a wide spectrum of sound artists. The participants on this double CD are Sebastian Thewes, Tim Gorinski, Public Demand, Katharina Mayer, Ali Chakav, Linda Franke, Achim Mohne, Stephanie Glauber/Miriam Gossing, Zo-on Slows, Alisa Berger, Axel Pulgar, Lena Ditte Nissen, Tzeshi Lei, Renate Boden ann Random Supply. Here we find soundscapes, field recordings, deep Listening experiments, and radiophonic works. […]
Phonophon | 14 February & 2/3 April 2016
Institut für neue Medien (INM)
Schmickstraße 18
60314 Frankfurt am Main
We recommend two workshops:
Workshop/Performance – 14 February 2016:
Movement, voice and theatrical techniques with Muyassar Kurdi
Kurdi’s engaging, lively workshops are focused on movement, voice and theatrical techniques with an emphasis on freedom of movement, spontaneity, meditative improvisation and the relationship between body and voice. She encourages participants to free their voices with wordless song and phonemes and builds interdependence between sound and movement through exercises built on trust, listening and slow, concentrated, ‘soul’-generated theatrics.
www.phonographie.org/?p=1149
Workshop – 2/3 April 2016:
Einführung in die (experimentelle) elektronische Musik / Modularsynthese mit Jasuto
Ein spielerisch-experimenteller Zugang zu Klangerzeugung / Sounddesign soll die Teilnehmer zu den Grundlagen der elektronischen Musik hinführen. Als zentrales Werkzeug wird uns dabei das Smartphone-App „Jasuto“ (erhältlich für Smartphones/Tablets mit den Betriebssystemen iOS und Android) begleiten. Wir wollen dabei nicht den Paradigmen der klassisch-subtraktiven Synthese folgen, sondern die Möglichkeiten, die uns ein so flexibles virtuell-modulares System wie Jasuto bietet, erkunden. Dabei sollen bereits bestehende Gewissheiten immer wieder in Frage gestellt werden, um zu einem möglichst freien und damit flexiblem Zugang in der Klangsynthese zu gelangen. Auf verschiedenen Wegen können ähnliche Ergebnisse erreicht werden – allerdings mit dem jeweils entscheidenden Differenzgewinn. Wir wollen dabei niemals aus dem Auge verlieren, dass es bei alle diesen Möglichkeiten um das Generieren und Verarbeiten von Signalen handelt.
www.phonographie.org/?p=1146
Society for the Advancement of Phonography and Experimental Music (e.V.)
www.phonographie.org
www.inm.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
Phonophon | 18 January 2016 | 8:00 PM | 7 Euro
Institut für neue Medien (INM)
Schmickstraße 18
60314 Frankfurt am Main
* 1000schoen (DE)
www.soundcloud.com/1000schoen
* Nostalgie Éternelle (DE)
www.nostalgieeternelle.net
Society for the Advancement of Phonography and Experimental Music (e.V.)
www.phonographie.org
www.inm.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
New Release:
Invading Pleasures (Nikola Lutz & Mark Lorenz Kysela): ‘Infinite Jest’
Gruen 156/15
Sound Art
6 Tracks (70:14)
Review | By Simon Scott / Caught by the River
Lewis Gilbert | Roundstone
Roundstone, Co. Galway – The ocean, as Bernie Krauss wrote in his book Wild Soundscapes, is very difficult to record. He created his using layered sounds when he was recording ocean waves to include on the accompanying compact disc Discovering The Voice Of The Natural World. Sound recordist Lewis Gilbert, with the purpose of field recording for a short film score called Taboo in Co. Galway, has beautifully captured the Atlantic Ocean and presents its unique ambient soundscape as the opening track on Roundstone. Waves crash and hiss with a luminous flow of sound that allows small sonic fragments to emerge and pull your ear out of the low tones and rhythm of the ocean and onto the west Irish beach. […]
Review | By Gonçalo Meller Cohen / Ponto Alternativo
Hafdís Bjarnadóttir | Sounds of Iceland
Living in this hostile land of northern Scotland, I’m closer to Iceland than most. A two-hour flight from Glasgow to Reykjavik, provided by the always sympathetic and easy-on-your-wallet Icelandic Air, is all that it takes to get me there to imbibe a tasteful pint of Einstök. From all the cities and nations that I’ve visited, Iceland is probably the one and only where I get this peculiar feeling of humans actually knowing their place. The inhospitable, glacial landscapes keep people humble, an inverted island mentality, as if all Icelanders have the awareness of Nature’s impending doldrum days. […]
R. Schwarz | The Scale Of Things & Stefan Militzer & Roland Etzin | O/live (Galaverna)
@ Espaces Sonores | Stéphane MARIN
2015 : a year of listenings – a 12 months retr-audio-spective
Review | By Martin P / Musique Machine
Antje Vowinckel | Terra Prosodia
‚Terra Prosodia’ comes in a shiny digipak, with liner notes from Vowinckel and Christina Kubisch. The album has eight tracks, all to the shorter side of things: the longest, nearly eight minutes; the least, just over two minutes. The pieces have all been constructed from short recordings that Vowinckel has collected, of disappearing European dialects. Vowinckel’s notes inform us that her intentions are to present the spoken words as pure, melodic sound, deliberately stripped of context and connotation. […]
Review | By Agostino Scafidi / agostinoscafidi.com
Andrea Polli | Sonic Antarctica
Whenever I hear or see the words “field recording” I get a little tinge of excitement. It fills me with wonder and interest to discover what might lay in store for me in such a piece of music (or non-music, if you prefer). […]
The topics they discuss are very down to earth, which might surprise you coming from people of science, but this is also a preconception specifically addressed. Some people may view science in a harsh light, but the talks you hear bring forth a much more human point of view. Yes, the sounds you’ll hear have been captured mainly from the south pole. The description goes into more detail about this. I recommend this very interesting work. […]
Review | By Ingo J. Biermann / NORDISCHE MUSIK
Hafdís Bjarnadóttir | Sounds of Iceland
Auch wenn Hafdís Bjarnadóttir zuerst Musikerin ist, —die Isländerin machte sich als Jazzgitarristin einen Namen, bevor sie jüngst auch als Komponistin in Erscheinung trat— als »Nordische Musik« ist ihre CD »ÍSLANDSHLJÓЫ nur mit einem sehr offenen Ausdeutung des Begriffs »Musik« zu bezeichnen. Da landet man sofort bei Pierre Schaeffer bzw. der »Musique concrète«, und Kategorien wie »Songqualität« und »Interpretation« sind hier total inadäquat. Soweit die 42 Minuten lange Kompilation aus Field Recordings isländischer Natur, die Hafdís zwischen 2009 und 2013 an verschiedenen Orten der Insel aufgezeichnet hat, zu beurteilen sind, wurde nicht verfremdet oder verändert, allenfalls wurden einzelne Tonaufnahmen von zumeist einer bis maximal vier Minuten Länge zu sieben »Suiten« montiert. […]
Roger Döring & Konrad Korabiewski | Komplex
Flucht @ Soundplay 2014 – the album
“Soundplay 2014” album contains a collection of recordings by artists who visited Gdańsk within the framework of Soundplay Festival which took place on 24-29 June 2014. Some of the compositions were created during the festival and can be treated as a sound documentation of the events.
framework radio | #539
phonography / field recording; contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley
Rodolphe ALEXIS | The glittering thing on the mountain
Phonophon | 08 January 2016 | 8:00 PM | 7 Euro
Institut für neue Medien (INM)
Schmickstraße 18
60314 Frankfurt am Main
* Martwa Natura (PL, DE)
www.attenuationcircuit.de
* Eigenidyll (DE)
www.acrylnimbus.de
www.attenuationcircuit.de
Society for the Advancement of Phonography and Experimental Music (e.V.)
www.phonographie.org
www.inm.de
www.gruenrekorder.de
Various Artists | Landscapes of Fear @ WDR 3 Open Sounds
Akustische Wellnessoasen sucht man vergeblich in „Landscapes of Fear“, einem Projekt der Kölner Kunsthochschule für Medien. Dabei versteht sich das Doppelalbum nicht als sensationslüsterne Horrorshow, sondern als Versuch, den unterschiedlichsten kollektiven Angstzuständen mit den Mitteln der Klangkunst produktiv zu begegnen. WDR 3 Open Sounds stellt die „Landscapes of Fear“ und ihre Komponisten vor.
Hörstücke von Sebastian Thewes, Tim Gorinski, Public Demand, Katharina Mayer, Ali Chakov, Linda Franke, Achim Mohné, Stephanie Glauber, Miriam Gossing, zo-on slows, Alisa Berger, Axel Pulgar, Lena Ditte Nissen, Tzeshi Lei, Renate Boden und Random Supply
Sechs Splitter blieben von der Kugel eines Attentäters in Alireza Sabouris Kopf. Ihre Position ist auf Röntgenaufnahmen dokumentiert. Sabouri hatte in Teheran gegen Wahlbetrug demonstriert, als ihn das Geschoss traf. Zwei Jahre lebte Sabouri noch nach dem Attentat mit den Splittern im Gehirn. Als die Splitter ihre Position änderten, starb er. Der mit Sabouri befreundete Filmemacher und Medienkünstler Ali Chakav hat für sein Hörstück „A Shimmer Of Reality“ Sabouris letzte Monate akustisch dokumentiert und die Klänge in einer Installation entsprechend der Position der Splitter in Sabouris Kopf positioniert. Chakavs Hörstück ist eine von 14 Erkundungen unterschiedlichster Gefahrenzonen bzw. „Landscapes of Fears“, die das gleichnamige Projekt des Kölner Kunsthochschule für Medien auf einer neuen Doppel-CD vereint. Andere Beiträge beschäftigen sich z.B. mit der ehemaligen Nervenheilanstalt in Görlitz, Elektrosmog aus WLAN-Routern oder Gewalt auf der Tanzfläche.
Gruenrekorder @ Nachtquartier | By Hans Groiss / ORF.at
(Artificial Memory Trace, Craig Vear, Lasse-Marc Riek, Rodolphe ALEXIS,
David Rothenberg)
listen here:
www.oe1.orf.at/programm/423631
Review | By textura
Various Artists | Landscapes of Fear
Obviously the first eye-catching thing about this double-CD installment in Gruenrekorder’s Sound Art Series is the package design, specifically its vertical case and even more the wall-sized fold-out insert displaying track-related photos and text on one side and a map on the other. Having been summarily dazzled by the visual component, one’s next move is to get a handle on the conceptual side. As a title, Landscapes of Fear carries with it an ominous undercurrent, and sure enough the project, which grew out of the seminar series Unsite Temporalities at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, deals with issues of borders and territoriality, the lines of demarcation that separate the autonomous from those subject to control and manipulation. […]
Review | By textura
Rodolphe ALEXIS | The glittering thing on the mountain
Positioning itself firmly within the field recordings genre, Rodolphe Alexis’s The glittering thing on the mountain presents an immersive, fifty-one-minute sound portrait of Iriomote-Jima. This southernmost island of Japan is almost entirely covered by jungle and mangrove, and as a result the largely human-free locale is home to a plenitude of insects, frogs, birds, flying foxes, and even a famous leopard cat called the Yamaneko. The recording itself came about rather serendipitously for Alexis (b. 1975), a sound recordist and designer with a particular interest in electroacoustic composition, site-specific installations, and the impact of human activity on the environment. […]