The collaborative efforts of Athens native Savvas Ysatis and New Yorker Taylor Deupree were well known in the early and mid 1990s through their work as SETI, Futique, and Arc, as well as their soundtrack to Japanese architect Toyo Ito's famed Tower of Winds building in Yokohama, Japan. After going their separate ways – Ysatis to recording for Tresor in Berlin, and Deupree to founding the 12k label – they have united again for their first project in nearly 10 years.

Almost all of Ysatis and Deupree's projects were founded not only on conceptual ideas, but on technical processes as well, setting rules and restrictions on themselves to help focus their creative energies in the endless playground of the studio. Whether it was the complex sound design of SETI or the cassette-tape-sourced sample manipulation of Tower of Winds, Ysatis and Deupree continually reinvented themselves, moving from ambient, to lounge, to minimal techno.

Their new EP, The Sleeping Morning, was created during a week-long visit from Greece to the US. Ysatis and Deupree wanted to freely create and see what came naturally after a 10-year hiatus from working together in the studio. However, their session quickly turned into an album guided by a select set of instruments and methods which led to their most unique work to date. The music flowed naturally, and the 10 years disappeared into a day.

All of the instrumentation; acoustic guitar, autoharp, various bits of percussion, and analog synthesizers, were performed directly to multi-track with very little editing (they preferred to re-take rather than edit). The duo recorded much of the sound with with microphones to capture roomtone which created a warm, organic and often playful mood. Loose drums, the squeak of a monosynth and lush pads from the Jupiter-8 make The Sleeping Morning appear at first as an experiment in micro-folk but when vocal tracks are added a whole new world of song-structure and post-something is created.

The four tracks they recorded hint at a variety of new avenues that Ysatis and Deupree can explore. Their extensive music careers and long history of collaboration and friendship have given them experience rich with insight and experimentation – and with the low price of airfare and the affordability of decent grappa, there will certainly be a chance to continue what they began 14 years ago.

a note on this release's package:
the sleeve for The Sleeping Morning is printed on 100% recycled stock with 3 different biodegradable inks. Even though stores demand cds to be shrinkwrapped (a still non-ecofriendly process) the use of safe materials in the package itself is our attempt at reducing the amount of un-needed waste on our planet.

August is a haunting, but beautiful album that falls neatly between the starkness of Gesine and the scattering rhythmic complexity of s/t. LIke music for a farewell, an ending of ends, August is moody, static, slow and emotional.

Who (or what) is "Myria"? It is not known, but , Cave says... "It sounds yellow..."

Pjusk is a duo from the westcoast of Norway. Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik started doing electronic music in the early nineties techno scene and layed live around the country with the Neural Network band. A dozen releases have since appeared both solo and in various bands. Most prominently the Circular project which relased several acclaimed albums on the same label as the Biosphere work of that era. Rune Andre Sagevik was an early party promoter way out in the vividly beautiful countryside in the deep fjords. He started doing electronic music a decade ago. The Pjusk project began when Jostein many years later heard one of these tracks on the radio. He liked it so much that he made contact with Rune and a fruitful, productive collaboration started in 2005. In the two years that have passed they have released work on compilations and their debut cd Sart, on 12k in New York.

12k kicks off its 11th year with a new release that takes the label down new sonic pathways. Caught between the organic and electronic minimalism that 12k is known for and the unconventional Japanese pop musings and songwriting style of Happy, Moskitoo's Drape is an infectously strange, bleepy, and dreamy debut release.

Sanae Yamasaki (Moskitoo) hails from Sappporo, Japan in the country's northern-most prefecture of Hokkaido. Perhaps a reaction to the cool climate of her home, her multi-instrumental talents bring a wide range of warm tones and textures to Drape by means of guitar, metallophone, organ, drum machines, synthesizers and nostalgic toy instruments. Yamasaki's gentle, airy vocals weave between broken beats and aqueous droplets of sound evoking half-awake memories lost and found.

Influenced by visual art (she painted the cover image), modern electronic music and abstract pop, such as Eno's explorations in the 1970's, Yamasaki does not set out to write a particular style of music, but rather, lets her creative process emerge naturally, following whims and experiments.

12k is very happy to announce the much-asked-for and long-awaited re-release of not only one of the label's most popular and critically acclaimed albums but one of highlights of the entire microsound genre: Shuttle358 Frame.

Complete with the original recording and video, Frame has been repackaged for 12k's Limited Series into a unique chipboard sleeve on which all graphics and text are printed only with white ink. The re-issue of this classic album will give a new generation of 12k followers a listen to one of the label's most defining moments.

The orignal press-release text (from 12k1011, Shuttle358 Frame):

Frame is the much anticipated follow up release to 1999's debut optimal.lp, a compact disc which caused quite a bit of critical stir as a very impressive and original work for a new artist. Dan Abrams (aka: shuttle358) seamlessly blends stark textures/drones with digital disfunction. Clicks, skips and tiny mechanized rhythms intertwine in hypnotic form that Abrams allows to evolve in a very organic way. Frame picks up where optimal.lp left off. a bit more distant with excursions into deeper realms of Abrams' signature skittish minimalist rhythmic work.

Frame includes a video, filmed and directed Abrams himself, in DVCAM for the opening title track of the album. It is available on the cd in Quicktime format, as well as a separate high-res VHS release (12k9004). The use of movement and abstracted forms along with a subtle color palette of whites, blues and yellows is a perfect visual accompaniment to the fragile rhythms of his work.

Dan Abrams — "If you put an empty frame against a blank wall, you suddenly notice the the color, the patterns, the imperfections in the plaster. The frame is like a window of perception. It takes the wall outside time. The frame draws attention to what is within it—it magnifies it, you focus on it, it begins to symbolize the whole wall."

Seaworthy, a three piece collective based in Sydney, Australia that revolves around core member Cameron Webb as well as Sam Shinazzi and Greg Bird, was formed in early 2000 to explore melodic and experimental approaches to the construction of minimalist sound scapes from looped guitar, warm drones, piano, electronics and field recordings.

Map In Hand often blurs the lines of conventional categorisation with elements traditionally considered part of "indie" or "post" rock blended with processed musical and field recordings usually associated with electronic music. Instruments and samples are often looped through amps and effects pedals, giving the sound an organic feel. Avoiding the muscular approach of loud/soft dynamics, Seaworthy concentrate on subtle shifts in melody, tone and texture to convey a sense of time and place.

The core sessions for Map In Hand took place over a few days in early Spring, 2006 and were book ended by recordings of birds from outside the home studio. There was little rehersal or preparation with many pieces featuring a strong element of improvisation. Recorded initially to cassette and reel-to-reel tape, the guitar loops and drones were then transferred to computer and assembled with minimal processing, preserving the initial feel of the music's performance, complete with the happy accidents of errors, tape hiss and microphone overload that became intrinsically part of the compositions as much as any sounds produced by the instruments themselves.

There is a reflective quality to Map In Hand. A reminder that things don't always need to be changing, to be attention grabbing or distracting and that there is beauty, not only in the object itself but in the process of appreciating that beauty.

* packaging note: as Fourcolor's cd Air Curtain (12k1029, 2004) was the commercial introduction of the revised 12k logo, Letter of Sounds launches a new, more streamlined digipack design in celebration of 12k's upcoming 10-year anniversary. In addition to the changes in layout the new digipacks feature a matte varnish which allows for richer colors and sharper lines than the previous digipacks.

Songs is the much-anticipated follow-up to Parisian sound designer and musician Sébastien Roux’s beautiful cd Pillow (Apestaartje, 2004). The simple title of Songs hides a deep work that Roux states is based in mathematics, symmetry (and assymetry) and organized randomness. Songs is a skillfully and beautifully rendered album of gentle and sometimes not-so-gentle acoustic instruments and melodic granular clouds. Each song is titled simply by the instruments that make it, thus stressing the process involved in their production. From the ubiquitous guitars, piano, and drums to the more exotic metallophone, harp and contrabass, Roux combines these acoustic instruments with digital sounds and makes a point to keep the focus on the instruments themselves, allowing for their subtleties and idiosyncrasies to come to the forefront.

Roux’s music is personal and multi-faceted; From warm and drowsy ambient tones to digital fests of errors and erratic rhythms to a more song-structured approach hinting at a distant relative of submereged pop music. His influences include musique concrete, folk songs, and electronic music and his work at IRCAM in Paris wraps his ecclectic tastes into an expertly produced work of digital sound that does not rely on one particular sound or motif but rather highlights a breadth of processes and unique sonic juxtaposititons.

12k is proud to release Ääniesineitä, the debut full-length CD by Antti Rannisto. Rannisto [b1978] is a Finnish artist whose ultra-spare sound was formed via a diverse background of hip-hop, house, and experimental electronic music. Despite the highly improvised and free-form influences, Ääniesineitä is highly calculated music so stripped down to the basic elements that subtle shifts in panning, envelope, or phase become instruments in themselves. He explores the ideas of rotation in much of his music, utilizing repetition and overlapping, out of sync structures that create networks of hypnotic patterns.

Ääniesineitä is a minimalist foray that defines Rannisto's sound and breaks away from 12k's recent mold of organic and melodic microsound. The beating of a sinewave over a 4/4 kickdrum, or a blipping polyrhythmic loop creates ever-shifting patterns forming his style that is too sparse to be called techno, but far too rhythmic to ever be called ambient. His palette is simple, pure, colorless, and free of any unnecessary sound or movement. It is minimalism in the truest sense. It is challenging music that demands attentive listening.

Taylor Deupree & Kenneth Kirschner's post_piano 2 continues the two New York composers' collaborative investigation into the intersections of digital minimalism and experimental piano composition. Working with his childhood acoustic piano and the accidental sounds of an imperfect recording environment, Kirschner first composed a simple, austere "piano sketch" to serve as raw material for the project. This sketch was then passed on to Deupree, who created three new compositions entirely out of sounds derived from Kirschner's piece. The two then collaborated on editing the new recordings, which transform the original piano sketch into a diverse array of sounds both familiar and unexpected. Like their previous CD, post_piano 2 is released as an open source project, and the composers invite other artists to continue the interpretation and transformation of their work in an ongoing process of open collaboration.

Kenneth Kirschner on post_piano 2:
"Taylor and I wrote post_piano in 2002, and since then I had added to my studio an actual acoustic piano – in fact, the very piano on which I first started studying at the age of 5. It's an old piano, with an old sound, and I knew I wanted to use it for post_piano 2. But my studio doesn't exactly offer a pristine environment for recording acoustic instruments – not least because an elevated train runs by the window every few minutes. My idea, therefore, was to emphasize the environmental sounds of the space, and create a piano piece that was as much a series of field recordings as an actual studio work. The result was "November 11, 2003" – a spare, fragmentary piano sketch recorded using techniques that ranged from the relatively high-tech to the very, very low-tech. This formed the source material for the entire project. And from that point on, the process was similar to our previous CD: the piano sketch was handed off to Taylor, who chopped it up in the computer and built new compositions from the resulting fragments. I encouraged him to focus as much on the accidental sounds – the passing subway, the street noises, the creaking of the old piano's mechanisms – as on the piano notes themselves. Taylor wrote three long pieces using three distinct approaches, and each transforms the piano sketch into something new while still evoking the character of the original. His tracks have a modern, state-of-the-art sound – yet they never let you forget that what you're hearing was once a piano. We then collaborated on the editing of these pieces, which make up the first three tracks of the CD. The final track is "November 11, 2003" itself; the CD thus concludes at the project's beginning, with a coda that reveals the origin of all the sounds that preceded it. And as with the first post_piano, we're presenting this new CD as an open source project: it's released under an open license, and we eagerly look forward to hearing how our friends and colleagues take these old sounds and find new uses for them."

Without a doubt Shuttle358 has become one of the most admired artists to emerge from modern electronic music's sea of musicians. From the humble beginnings of a demo CD in 12k's mailbox to 4 critically acclaimed cds, Dan Abrams is, to some, the one credited for bringing a warmth and human touch back into what has often been considered a very cold, sterile genre. It began with 1999's Optimal.lp (12k1005), a groundbreaking debut release that immediately defined the Shuttle358 sound; a hybridization of the then-emerging "microsound" genre with Eno's true ambient explorations. In 2000 Abrams outdid himself with Frame (12k1011) by honing his sound design and exploring production techniques at rates that made his "now" quite brief and creating what was to become one of the most sought-after cds in the 12k catalog.

Chessa is the third release from Abrams' Shuttle358 moniker on 12k and he continues to do what he does best: attempt to move microsound away from the world of theory and towards absolute real life. Like his photographs, Chessa is music about, and to be listened to in, unexpected places. It is a narrative, a simple slice of life that plays out through the incidental photography of the cd cover. To achieve this Abrams fuses irregular granular sound particles, like the movements of everyday life, with a deliberate melodic base that captures emotion and simplicity.

Chessa is packaged in an expanded digipack that features Abrams' photography which is an equally important part as the music. He is planning a printed series of works as well as an online gallery of images to develop this unexpected story.

12k presents "Every Action," the 3rd full-length release from the UK's Motion (Chris Coode) and the follow-up to 2002's critically acclaimed "Dust" (12k1019). In addition to his work with 12k (Dust, as well as a collaboration with Doron Sadja on 12k's recent Two Point Two compilation, and an MP3 only release on 12k's term. series) Coode has worked with Fat Cat and also released the debut Motion cd "Pictures" (now out of print) on his own imprint.

The work on "Every Action" spans from 1999-2004, some of the material created around the time "Pictures" was produced, sharing that release's more obvioius tonal and melodic content. Using a stripped-down setup of studio equipment Coode crafts his sound by sampling, processing, resampling, reprocessing.. back and forth, like generations of tape transfers or photocopies of photocopies, until the final results are smeared and distorted ghosts of the original: detuned, groaning, fragmented. Despite the digital sources, Coode's music is highly organic, utilizing randomness, openess and dysfunction to create an oddly ambient and quieting sound made from stressed melodic flickering and skittering, tones, drones, and overprocessed textures.
Motion is important in Coode's work, too; slow motion formed in grainy timestretches punctuated by dynamics that swell and disappear creating odd suggestions of performance, structure, and deconstruction built from his always live mixdowns.

DISC 1
sawako "'air.aif"
sebastien roux "villa e-1007"
taylor deupree "unnatural template"
mark fell "egg from a fetus"
ken'ichi itoi "455"
komet "looping 4-d"
sogar + uison "local times"
doron sadja + motion "3small"
ghislain poirier "les pyromanes..."
kenneth kirschner "june 8, 2003"

DISC 2
aelab "induction piece 1"
vend "ten"
steve roden "for thomas wilfred"
richard chartier "archival 1992"
tietchens + myers "one"
steinbruchel "eventuell"
thom kubli "virilo-cubes soundtrack"
skoltz_kolgen "ukliko"
william basinski "worry"
coh "...and shuttled across the sky"

Doron has collaborated with 12k's Motion, during a recent extended stay in London (a portion of which will be released on the 12k/LINE double cd compilation in autumn 2003), as well as Pony (Matt Mehlan, Seve Martinez, andAnthony Lowe), John Anderson, Climax, and dancer Jean Copeland. His liveshows include laptop, homemade electronics, accordion, and/orcassette loop and mixerloop manipulation. Doron is currently studying Technology in Music and Related Arts at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and is also the co-founder of the electronic music label Shinkoyo.

0/r is Nosei Sakata (*0) and Richard Chartier.
Varied is the follow up to 1999's highly sought after self titled release 0/r (12k1006), recently noted in Computer Music Journal essay "The Aesthetics of Failure: Post-Digital Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music" by Kim Cascone (MIT Press, USA) in its discography of resources for listening). While 0/r suggested a sense of chaos with its jarring and syncopated digital sound, Varied utilizes much more refined compositional techniques to create highly deliberate passages of whispering sine waves, extreme frequencies, and looping rhythms of noise and detailed sonic pops.