microsuoni: Touch

Touch

	artista : Jim O'Rourke
	titolo : Despite The Water Supply
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 7"
	cod. nr. ts07
		2008
_________________

Side A: Despite the Water Supply Pt 1 (4:12)
Side B: Despite the Water Supply Pt 2 (4:05)

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

Prezzo : € 9,00

Titolo disponibile su prenotazione. Puoi utilizzare la form oppure inviare una e-mail a bitstream(at)microsuoni(dot)com con i titoli che desideri prenotare.

Title available to pre-order. You may use the form or send an e-mail to bitstream(at)microsuoni(dot)com with the titles you would like to preorder.

	artista : Ryoji Ikeda
	titolo : Matrix
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 2xCD
	cod. nr. to:44
		2008
_________________

Double CD in gatefold wallet
Reissue of 2001 release without postcards

Matrix is the final element in a trilogy of CDs that began with +/- in 1996. When it was first released, +/- came like a bolt out of the white. Nobody had used digital recording processes to produce sound as pure, as intense and as exhilarating. Since releasing 0°C in 1998, Ryoji Ikeda has progressively refined and enhanced the distinctive sonic fields and microsounds that have strongly influenced post-digital composition, resisting the transitory cycle suggested by the term 'Glitches', creating compositions that probe deeply: our relationships to time and space, sound and light. Much of the time since 1998 has been spent touring with the Japanese performance group, Dumb Type, whose landmark show [OR] is shortly to be followed by a new presentation for which Ikeda has composed the sound, Memorandum. In January 2000, Ryoji Ikeda toured the UK with Zoviet*France. A closer connection to the 20 new recordings that make up Matrix can be found on the recent Touch 00 sampler, Matrix for an Anechoic Room, which came out in Spring 2000. That's the only forewarning of what awaits you on putting the first CD into your player. The layers of sound that make up Matrix [for rooms] transform both the listener and the listening environment into another dimension. The dimensions change as you move about the space, or simply turn your head around the sound like surveying the angles of a building. Matrix has much in common with the work of La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Alvin Lucier..., but poised closer to the imminent and auto-interactive virtual world we are promised, Ryoji Ikeda's new work pushes the parameters of the drone to ask timely questions concerning our relationship to own perception, and to our existing living spaces.

Prezzo : € 21,90

	artista : Lawrence English
	titolo : Kiri No Oto
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. tone31
		2008
_________________

The Japanese phrase 'Kiri No Oto' loosely translates to the 'sound of fog' or 'sound of mist'. In many ways it's a collection that meditates on the sense of displacement and distortion that occurs in environments which undergo extreme mists, snowstorms and sea sprays. In the same way that visual objects loose their perspective, form and shape in these environments, the sound components that make up Kiri No Oto are not quite as they first might appear.
Utilising a range of divergent mixing techniques, analog filtering and 'harmonic' distortion, Kiri No Oto offers an expansive sound space in which the listener must choose to position themselves. Focus, like that in a fog, is in a constant state of flux as elements are brought into and out of perspective.
The first in a series of records employing this technique, Kiri No Oto explores the richness in the frequencies that are usually associated with extremes of volume and through this process the recordings position 'the ear' itself as 'another layer of auditory fog' as it begins to distort and alter the sounds it comes in contact with.
The sounds sources for Kiri No Oto emanate from both instruments and found sound, with recordings on this edition made in Poland, New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

Prezzo : € 15,90

	artista : Mika Vainio
	titolo : Behind The Radiators
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 7"
	cod. nr. ts06
		2008
_________________

Side A: Behind the Radiator Part 1 - 2:52 +
Side B: Behind the Radiator Part 2 - 2:58 +
Locked grooves
Mika Vainio continues the series of Touch Sevens, 7" vinyl-only releases, with this stunning record. The crackle... The fire of the analogue... Mika Vainio is the most adept at using crackle as a voice. Sound artists have used crackle ever since the reality of digital audio hit home, however there's a big difference between this and how other practitioners use it...

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

Prezzo : € 9,00

	artista : AER
	titolo : Project
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 7"
	cod. nr. ts03
		2008
_________________

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

Prezzo : € 9,00

	artista : Spire Live
	titolo : Fundamentalis
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 2xLP
	cod. nr. tone28
		2008
_________________

Spire Live - Fundamentalis is a collection of live tracks recorded at various Spire events held throughout 2005 and 2006. Released in association with US label, Autofact, Touch presents a selection of tracks performed by the main performers of Spire: Fennesz | Philip Jeck | BJNilsen | Charles Matthews | Marcus Davidson. Improvised pieces from Fennesz, BJNilsen and Philip Jeck contrast with a performance by Charles Matthews of a scored composition by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, 'In Nomine Lucis', and Marcus Davidson's self-penned 'Standing Wave', which ends side two with a locked groove. Cut to preserve and enhance the bottom end frequencies, Fundamentalis is not merely a document; the tension between and within the individual pieces is palpable. Fennesz's set "...evokes the rolling centuries in all their pain and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energised, but never oppressed under the weight of time." Electronics breathe new life not only into the organ, but also into the setting. But successor does not mean replacement. Ultimately, it's the majestic sound of the organ, so steeped in centuries of tradition, that one remembers above all else.
Spire is one of the most innovative projects around, drawing on the full canon of organ works, from the very first annotation in the Robertsbridge Codex from the 14th Century, to max msp patches and software sampling... With two CD releases and 9 performances in cathedrals and churches throughout Europe, Spire remains a potent live force in harnessing the sounds of the ages.

Tracklist
Side One
Philip Jeck - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels [as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] 7th May 2006 16:36
Side Two
1. Charles Matthews - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels [as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] - plays Giacinto Scelsi: In Nomine Lucis 7th May 2006 11:29
2. Marcus Davidson - Live in Masthuggs Church, Göteborg [as part of the GAS Festival] - Standing Wave 4th October 2005 9:11
locked groove
Side Three
BJNilsen - Live in Masthuggs Church, Göteborg [as part of the GAS Festival] 4th October 2005 19:36
Side Four
Fennesz - Live in St. Michel & St. Gudula Cathedral, Brussels [as part of Les Nuits Botaniques] 7th May 2006 16:02
Compiled and edited by Mike Harding October/November 2006
Cut by Jason at Transition, London, on a Neumann VSM 70 March 2007

Prezzo : € 19,20

	artista : Philip Jeck
	titolo : Sand
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:67
		2008
_________________

"... the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity" (from "The Chariot" by Emily Dickinson) "Sand" was recorded live in Holland and England in 2006-7 and edited in Liverpool January, 2008 using Fidelity record-players, Casio SK keyboards, Behringer mixer and sony mini-disc recorders. In memory of Phyllis May Jeck (1920-2008). Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft. Mastered by Denis Blackham.

Prezzo : € 15,90

	artista : Oren Ambarchi
	titolo : Destinationless Desire
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 7"
	cod. nr. ts05
		2008
_________________

Electric guitars, organ, samples, bells, percussion and motorised cymbal recorded at BJB Studios, Sydney with additional overdubs made at home 2005-2007. Gratitude to Fairport Convention and Boris D Hegenbart.
Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, "re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it's no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it's a laboratory for extended sonic investigation". (The Wire, UK). 7" vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music. Today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a "healthy" popular culture. It might seem like another retrograde step to launch a vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and indeed there is an element of "the rear view mirror"... the generation of Touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong emotional attachment to it. This series is more than that... an overtly critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work which cannot be applied to digital formats - the sonic texture, the use of a locked groove, the A & the B and the additional dimension of the visual counterpoint. As for the aspect of audience participation, we choose not to specify the RPM on the label, encouraging the listener to experiment with playback options and personal preferences. An attempt to make music that works at both speeds. The front cover might actually be the back cover...
Tracklist
Side A: Highway of Diamonds 5:55
Side B: Bleeding Shadow 6:38

Prezzo : € 9,00

	artista : Fennesz
	titolo : Transition
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 7"
	cod. nr. ts04
		2008
_________________

Side A: On a desolate shore [5:14]
Side B: A shadow passes by [3:21]

This is the sister release to the digital-only On A Desolate Shore A Shadow Passes By. These three tracks are based on 8 different guitar recordings made at Amann Studios, Vienna, between 2005-07. The acoustic guitar was recorded with an AK c12 microphone. Other sounds were made using a Fender Stratocaster and a Vox ac15 amp.

Prezzo : € 9,00

	artista : Fennesz - Jeck - Matthews
	titolo : Amoroso
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 7"
	cod. nr. ts01
		2008
_________________

Charles Matthews plays the Grand Organ in York Minster, during Spire Live on 20th January 2007. This release is a homage to Arvo Pärt... Arvo Pärt is often identified with the school of minimalism and more specifically, that of "mystic minimalism" or "sacred minimalism". He is considered a pioneer of this style, along with contemporaries Henryk Górecki and John Tavener.
Charles Matthews: "I felt you were pure music, not human flesh, music through time, music played from the Universe, without boundaries." Born in 1966, Charles Matthews studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and was an organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. His teachers have included Beryl Tichbon, Gwilym Isaac, David Pettit, Patricia Carroll, Nicholas Danby, Charles Spinks and Dr Richard Marlow. Charles pursues a varied career as pianist, organist, composer and teacher, performing and broadcasting for radio and television within the UK and internationally. He has won numerous awards, perhaps most notably the first prize in the 1999 Franz Liszt Memorial Competition in Budapest. His recordings have been issued by Olympia, Priory, Guild and Touch; he is the organist for the Touch project, Spire, which also includes Christian Fennesz and Philip Jeck.
Christian Fennesz: Fennesz uses guitar and computer to create shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex musicality. "Imagine the electric guitar severed from cliché and all of its physical limitations, shaping a bold new musical language." - (City Newspaper, USA). His lush and luminant compositions are anything but sterile computer experiments. They resemble sensitive, telescopic recordings of rainforest insect life or natural atmospheric occurrences, an inherent naturalism permeating each piece. He lives and works in Vienna and Paris.
Philip Jeck: Philip Jeck studied visual art at Dartington College of Arts. He started working with record players and electronics in the early 80's and has made soundtracks and toured with many dance and theatre companies as we as well as his solo concert work. His best kown work "Vinyl Requiem" (with Lol Sargent): a performance for 180 '50's '60's record players won Time Out Performance Award for 1993. He has also over the last few years returned to visual art making installations using from 6 to 80 record players including "Off The Record" for Sonic Boom at The Hayward Gallery, London [2000]. Philip Jeck works with old records and record players salvaged from junk shops turning them to his own purposes. He really does play them as musical instruments, creating an intensely personal language that evolves with each added part of a record. Philip Jeck makes geniunely moving and transfixing music, where we hear the art not the gimmick.

Prezzo : € 9,00

	artista : Chris Watson
	titolo : Oceanus Pacificus
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 7"
	packaging : cardboard sleeve
	cod. nr. ts02
		2007
_________________

1. 3m
2. 10m
Locked grooves on both sides...

Artwork & Photography by Jon Wozencroft | Cut by Jason @ Transition
The voices and rhythms of the Humboldt current around the Galapagos Islands recorded April 2006 using a pair of Dolphin Ear Pro Hydrophones onto a NAGRA ARES-Pll digital audio recorder.

Prezzo : € 9,00

	artista : Gavin Bryars - Philip Jeck - Alter Ego
	titolo : The Sinking of the Titanic
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : oversized cardboard sleeve
	cod. nr. tone34
		2008
_________________

Limited Edition of 2000
CD in Special wallet + postcard [postcard image by Andrew Hooker]
Artwork by Jon Wozencroft

1 Track - 72:37

This version of Gavin Bryars's seminal piece, The Sinking of the Titanic, was recorded at the 49th International Festival of Contemporary Music at The Venice Biennale on 1st October 2005 at the Teatro Maliban.

Gavin Bryars - Double Bass
Philip Jeck - Turntables
Alter Ego - Strings, Brass, Wind, Percussion, Keyboard, Tape Recorder and sound design

Prezzo : € 15,90

	artista : Oren Ambarchi
	titolo : In The Pendulum's Embrace
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:78
		2007
_________________

sample | mp3

Oren Ambarchi continues his otherworldly investigations with "In The Pendulum's Embrace", a dark twin to his landmark 2004 album "Grapes From The Estate" [Touch # TO:61]. Returning again to the hallowed halls of BJB Studios in Sydney, Ambarchi expands the scope and range of his unique musical language, incorporating an even broader pallette of instruments and sensibilities. Despite the use of glass harmonica, strings, bells, piano, percussion and guitars, it's startling that the world created is still unmistakably his own, and that there is such a cohesion of vision throughout the albums's three lengthy pieces. With this record there's an even more tenuous coexistence of fragility and density; sounds as light as air mingling with wall shaking low-end. The converted already know the kind of trance-inducing euphoria of Ambarchi's music. Newcomers will be scouting the back catalogue...

Prezzo : € 16,50

	artista : BJ Nilsen
	titolo : The Short Night
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:75
		2007
_________________

Black Light | mp3

Using location recordings, weather, birdsong and radio, BJNilsen continues to map and explore uncharted territory.

A follower to 2005's Fade to White [Touch # TO:65], BJNilsen develops his work further, based on field recordings and electronics. This time he adds harsher yet clearer harmonies with musical elements to the compositions, creating a beautifully complex and detailed study. Recorded in 2006-7 with mostly analogue equipment, using up to 50 year-old tapemachines, filters and generators that end up being the soft cushion in these cold location recordings.

Location recordings from Mälaren, Stockholm, Sweden; Coombe Gibbet, Berkshire, England and Landakot, Vatnsleysuströnd, Iceland. Telefunken M10 and M5, Studer B67, Ferrograph Series 4, Bruel and Kjær Sine-Random Generator and Frequency Analyzers. Also Monowave, Sequential Circuits ProOne, Korg MS20, Esq1, MOTU 828MK2, Ableton Live, Logic Audio 6
Morin khuur on Black Light played by Hildur Ingveldardóttir Gudnadóttir

Prezzo : € 15,90

	artista : KK Null
	titolo : Fertile
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	cod. nr. to:74
		2007
_________________

Fertile is KK NULL's first album for Touch, following his collaboration with Chris Watson and Z'ev [Number One - Tone 24, 2005], which boomkat called "moving and atmospheric", and The Wire wrote "a complex dramatic work from a strict economy of means".
KK NULL (real name Kazuyuki Kishino) was born in Tokyo, Japan. Composer, guitarist, singer, mastermind of Zeni Geva and electronic wizard. One of the top names in Japanese noise music and in a wider context, one of the great cult artists in experimental music.

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Fennesz - Sakamoto
	titolo : Cendre
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. tone32
		2007
_________________

This is the highly anticipated full-length collaborative release by Christian Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto, following the 19-minute CD EP overture, Sala Santa Cecilia (a completely separate release which is not included here). This release features a massive duet between worldwide laptop guru Fennesz (guitar/laptop) and Japanese electronic music legend Sakamoto (piano/laptop) -- a continuing collaboration between two much-lauded composers. Every once in a great while, a collaboration comes along which hints at a brighter future, a collision of giants that indicates a convergence of method and music. This is one such event. Cendre was recorded between 2004 and 2006 in New York City by Ryuichi Sakamoto and in Vienna by Christian Fennesz. Fennesz would send Sakamoto a guitar or electronic track and Sakamoto would compose his piano piece. This process was also reversed -- Sakamoto initiating the track with a piano composition and Fennesz responding. Meanwhile, they met for live shows, or communicated via digital means to compare notes, swap ideas and develop themes. And the cyclical process continued right up until the final mix. Christian Fennesz is far and away the standard-bearer of laptop music, his thawed sound of fractured guitar chords and warm noise melts hearts around the world. Ryuichi Sakamoto, meanwhile, has been a contributing force in electronic music for almost three decades in Yellow Magic Orchestra, not to mention his vast solo oeuvre. This remarkable duo blends the unstructured and imaginative qualities of improvisation with the satisfying sculpture of composition. Sakamoto's piano, his style reminiscent of Debussy and Satie, perfectly complements Fennesz with his powerful blend of shimmering guitar and passionate electronics. Together they have combined to create 11 tracks of satisfying and challenging possibilities.

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Lasse Marhaug - Nils Henrik Asheim
	titolo : Grand Mutation
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	cod. nr. tone30
		2007
_________________

Lasse Marhaug: electronics
Nils Henrik Asheim: organ
Lasse Marhaug and Nils Henrik Asheim started their collaboration in 2004 at the All Ears festival in Oslo, Norway. This turned out as a fruitful meeting between two musicians of very different backgrounds. Marhaug's feedback to Asheim's organ sounds in the Oslo concert started to reflect how the work was to develop. Asheim is working with half-stops and subtle playing techniques that create multiple layers of sound with a vibrating or fluctuating character, as well as with the power of the full organ. Marhaug's tools belong to the world of sine wave oscillators and noise generators. The aim was to set a sonic frame into which they could both gradually tune.
The two musicians met again in June 2006 just before Oslo Cathedral (which contains Asheim's favourite instrument) closed down for a few years of renovation work. One day of soundcheck and musical work and one night of recording produced an improvised flow of one hour, afterwards structured into five tracks.
The recording was made in a live setup on the organ loft. Nils Henrik Asheim was sitting at the organ console and Lasse Marhaug right behind, playing his electronics through a loudspeaker system in order to make the electronics and the acoustic organ sound blend as close to each other as possible. Sound engineer Thomas Hukkelberg used two custom-built condenser mics for the organ, two Shure KSM 44 for the electronics and two Neumann U87 by the altar for the ambience. He used a Millennia Media HV-3 preamp and an Apogee AD-16X converter. The recordings were made at night to avoid unwanted ambient city sounds. The final mix was made by Marhaug in January 2007.

Prezzo : € 16,80

	artista : Phil Niblock
	titolo : Touch Three
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 3xCD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:69
		2006
_________________

This is Phill Niblock's third release on the Touch label. Phill Niblock is a New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade hopping. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant garde ever since. In the history books Niblock is the forgotten Minimalist. His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V. Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. Touch Three is minimalism in the classic sense of the word, if that makes sense. Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones, and the result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you. The vocal pieces are like some of Ligeti's choral works, but a little more phased.
He says: "What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly." These nine pieces were made from March 2003 to January 2005. They were all made (except "Sax Mix") by recording a single instrument with a single microphone. The recordings were direct to the computer/hard disk, most of them using a Powerbook G4, Pro Tools, an M-box and an external firewire drive. The resulting mono sound files were edited to remove breathing spaces, leaving the natural decay of the tone, and the attack of the subsequent iteration of the same tone. Each note was represented by several repetitions, perhaps ten for each tone, of about 15 seconds duration each. Each piece uses a few tones. A simple chord, perhaps. Additional microtonal intervals were produced in Protools using pitch shift. The pieces were assembled in multitracks, usually either 24 or 32 tracks. The recording environment varied from a simple apartment in Berlin (Ulrich Krieger's) to a very large hall used for symphony orchestra performances and recordings, with a sizable audience space. The recordings were generally done quite closely miked. One hears only the sound of the instrument. There is no electronic manipulation in the recording, the editing of the tones, or in the mix. The only changes to the recorded tones are the pitch shifts to create microtones...the microtones are doing the work.

Prezzo : € 25,50

	artista : Rosy Parlane
	titolo : Jessamine
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:68
		2006
_________________

With Jessamine continues to incorporate new musical elements from unconventional as well as orchestral instrumentation. To him, everything is an instrument: from household objects to nature sounds, thus placing him firmly at the centre of the avant-garde. But it is the human element, as with all Touch artists, which gives his work such a distinctive sound. Ranging from ambient to noise, he gives full rein to textures of living; to start, languid and mournful; later harsh and assertive. Jessamine is a magnificent follow-up to a classic Touch debut.

CD Credits:
Written & Recorded in Auckland, NZ August 2004 – August 2006

Rosy Parlane: electric and acoustic guitars, piano, melodica, accordion, violin, trombone, snare drum, shimsaw, amplified sawblade, bowed metal, household objects, contact microphones, field recordings, radio, computer

Marcel Bear: shimsaw on Part 1

Tetuzi Akiyama: resonator guitar with samurai sword and contact microphones on Part 2

Individual guitar contributions on Part 3 by Lasse Marhaug, Anthony Guerra, Michael Morley, Donald McPherson, Matthew Hyland, David Mitchell, Stefan Neville, Campbell Kneale

Shimsaws and amplified sawblade designed and built by Marcel Bear

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Chris Watson - BJ Nilsen
	titolo : Storm
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. tone27
		2006
_________________

This CD continues the collaboration between UK sound archivist Chris Watson (Cabaret Voltaire) and Swedish electronic artist BJ Nilsen (Hazard), which began with Wind (Ash International, 2001) and Land (Touch, 2001) and comprises 3 tracks, 2 solo and 1 collaboration. Chris Watson (formerly of The Hafler Trio) is a sound recordist with a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world. As a freelance recordist for film, TV & radio, Chris Watson specializes in natural history and documentary location sound together with track assembly and sound design in post production. He has previously released 3 CDs for Touch. BJNilsen lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden, and began working with experimental music and sound at an early stage. He was influenced by the early tape movements and founded Hazard in 1996. He now focuses on the sound of nature and its effect on humans, field recordings and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound.

Chris Watson writes: "During December 2000 several significant storm fronts developed across the North Sea and Scandinavia. Benny remarked to me that he had recorded some of these on the Baltic coast and proposed a collaborative CD project based around our mutual interests in the rhythms and music created when the elements combine over land and out to sea. We spent the next few years gathering recordings on our respective coastlines and islands during the very active weather windows during the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. This was focused around our following one particular cyclonic system, which veers over Snipe Point on Lindisfarne to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, and finally descends upon Öland and Gotland where Benny listened in with a favourite pair of Sennheiser omnidirectional microphones."

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Jacob Kirkegaard
	titolo : 4 Rooms
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. tone26
		2006
_________________

This is Jacob Kirkegaard's second release for the Touch label, after Eldfjall. Born in Denmark, now living and working in Germany, here he explores one of the worst man-made disasters in history. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded on April 26, 1986; clouds of radioactive particles were released, and the severely damaged containment vessel started leaking radioactive matter. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the city and other affected areas. Despite the fact that radiation is still being emitted from the nuclear disaster site, the 900-year-old city of Chernobyl survives, although barely. As of 2004, government workers still police the zone, trying to clean up radioactive material. Some -- mostly elderly -- have decided to live with the dangers and have returned to their homes in the zone's towns and villages. The effects on the environment were catastrophic: huge areas of northern Europe were dosed with radioactivity. This work is a sonic presentation of four deserted rooms inside the "Zone of Alienation" in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
Jacob Kirkegaard deliberately picked rooms that once were active meeting points for people: a church in village Krasno, an auditorium, a gymnasium and a swimming pool in Pripyat. Two decades after the event, Kirkegaard explores the phenomenon of radiation with the medium of sound. By listening to the silence of four radiating spaces he aims to unlock a fragment of the time existing inside the zone. Silence, unfolding in space. The sound of each room was evoked by sonic time layering: in each room, he recorded 10 minutes of it and then played the recording back into the room, while at the same time recording it again. This process was repeated up to ten times. As the layers got denser, each room slowly began to unfold a drone with various overtones. From a technical point of view, Kirkegaard's "sonic time layering" refers back to Alvin Lucier's work "I Am Sitting in a Room" (1970). Lucier recorded his voice in a space and repeatedly played this recording back into that same space. In this work, however, no voice is being projected into the rooms: during the recordings Kirkegaard left the four spaces to wait for whatever might evolve from the silence.

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Biosphere
	titolo : Dropsonde
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:66
		2006
_________________

Biosphere is Norwegian composer and performer Geir Jenssen, and this is his fifth release for Touch. In the early 1990s he was a pioneer of so-called "ambient techno," but since then, he has refined his sound into something more magnetic and enduring. Dropsonde isn't a soundtrack like the interwoven Substrata nor an episodic journey in the way that Autour de la Lune is. Here Geir Jenssen is pushing new directions towards the jazz colors of Miles Davis and Jon Hassell, while re-invigorating the pulse and projection of his signature sound: a hypnotic combination of pleasure and dread. The spatial aspects some have dubbed "Arctic sound" but as Exclaim from Canada put it, "in order to climb higher, you must first go deeper." Just as a dropsonde (weather balloon) measures pressure, humidity, and temperature, this is synaesthetic, carefully-measured music. Liquid beats, samples as snapshots, and faraway speeches combine to produce a surprisingly deep human warmth.

Prezzo : € 16,50 disponibilità immediata - in stock

	artista : KK Null - Watson - Z'EV
	titolo : Number One
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	cod. nr. tone24
		2005
_________________

Z'EV writes: "In March of 2003 seeing my friends Stephen & Josephine in Los Angeles they suggested that i get in touch with japanese composer/performer KK.NULL. There followed a string of weird email occurrences which delayed our communicating until, as it turned out, we eventually met in Paris on 18 November.After his performance we were talking about a possible collaboration and during his set a possibility had occurred to me. I ran the idea by him and we agreed to proceed with it. The idea had 3 elements: 1 - to use the structure of the NOH THEATRE cycle as the basis for the composition. 2 – to consider the initial sound development in terms of developing 'characters' which would then interact with one another through the specific "scene" [which is a fairly non-traditional way to work with sound elements] and 3 – to place the 'character interactions' as the 'figure' inside of particular sound-scapes as the 'ground'.
So in January 2004 I returned to London and began to work on my initial character developments. Coincidentally at this time I received a copy of a CD compilation i had a piece on which was released by TOUCH, which also had a piece by Chris Watson. So i got on the phone to TOUCH who put me in touch with Chris who has joined in on the project. Sometime after I had completed mixing the 5 pieces, I sent a copy to my friend Boyd Rice. He emailed me back: "This is the first avant-garde piece I have heard in years that is truly avant-garde."
In the production process, Z'EV framed his and KK.NULL's electro-acoustic musics inside Chris Watson's field recordings from East Africa. A dynamic dialogue and inside-outside mirroring of natural and synthetic sound is the result: where the click and rhythm of an insect merges with KK.NULL's drumming; where the calls of the elephants combine with the electronic bass frequencies; where bird and frog song and Z'EV's harmonic structures produces surprising counterpoints.

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Fennesz - Sakamoto
	titolo : Sala Santa Cecilia
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CDEP
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. tone22
		2005
_________________

Every once in a great while, a collaboration comes along which hints at a brighter future, a collision of giants that indicates a convergence of method and music. This is one such event. Sala Santa Cecilia documents the meeting of worldwide laptop guru Fennesz and Japanese electronic music legend Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Auditorium Parco della Musica for the Romaeuropa Festival in Rome, November 2004. This is a unique and complete 19-minute piece which marks the recording debut of this new collaborative unit. It is exclusively available via this CD EP and will not be released elsewhere, and not as part of the forthcoming Fennesz Sakamoto album. The impact and importance of this recording is difficult to overstate. Christian Fennesz is far and away the standard- bearer of laptop music, his thawed sound of fractured guitar chords and warm noise melts hearts around the world. Ryuichi Sakamoto, meanwhile, a contributing force in electronic music for almost three decades in Yellow Magic Orchestra and his vast solo oeuvre, takes his place on laptop next to Fennesz for this historic meeting. Anyone concerned with the future of sound, or interested in modern music composition, or anyone who simply enjoys sweet ambient music should welcome Sala Santa Cecilia as a herald of what is to come. This is brilliant music from brilliant talents... towards a more brilliant world.

Prezzo : € 12,60

	artista : VVAA
	titolo : Spire Live In Geneva Cathedral
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	cod. nr. tone21
		2005
_________________

St. Pierre Cathedral, Geneva, was the crucible of the Reformation in 1534…
The second release in the Spire series [cf Spire, organ works past, present & future, Touch # Tone 20, 2004] is more than a document of 'Spire Live', which took place as part of La Batie 2004, at St. Pierre Cathedral, Geneva, on 5th September 2004. Curated by Eric Linder, from La Batie, and Mike Harding, the dynamism of the event, where the audience rotated between 3 separate venues within the Cathedral precinct, is reflected in the individual recordings: Philip Jeck goes heavy metal in the crypt: BJNilsen comes over all moody in the side chapel, and Fennesz soothes and seduces in the same place.
All this is set up by Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson on the main organ [4 manifolds, computer operated] which dominates the time and place. Davidson plays Gorécki's extraordinary Kantata for organ, [full stops on max employed here] which segués into BJNilsen's ultra-heavy live organ and electronics next door. This follows Charles Matthews's excellent renditions of pieces by Jolivet and Alexandra which, as the text by Thierry Charollais says: "The event seemed provoking and iconoclastic in contrast to the severe and austere atmosphere of the cathedral. Though some of the musical pieces were audacious, the music focused mainly on spirituality. It generated a different perception of the organ pieces, thus modifying our perception of the cathedral and making the event truly exceptional."
And to finish, Fennesz soothed us with sound. His set evoked the rolling centuries in all their pain and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energised, but never oppressed under the weight of time.

Tracklist
CDOne 76:04
On the main organ in the cathedral: Charles Matthews plays tracks 1-4:
1. Marcus Davidson - Opposites Attract [10:05]
2. Marcus Davidson - Psalm for Organ 3 [1:24]
3. André Jolivet - Hymne à l'Universe [11:58]
4. Liana Alexandra - Consonances lll [6:52]
Marcus Davidson plays track 5:
5. Henryk Gorécki – Kantata for organ op. 26 [15:42]
In the side chapel: 6. BJNilsen - Live in La Petite Chapelle [29:59]

CDTwo 69:06 In the crypt: Philip Jeck - Live in the Crypt [44:14]
In the side chapel: Fennesz - Live in La Petite Chapelle [24:49]

Prezzo : € 21,00

	artista : BJ Nilsen
	titolo : Fade To White
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:65
		2004
_________________

Benny Nilsen writes: "Fade To White contains material from the making of 3 pieces which were created within a different season and then edited, re-arranged and re-mixed in the summer of 2004. 6 pieces contain outdoor field recordings from travels in mainly central europe in 2003 [Gdansk/Poland, Narva/Estonia, Sarajevo/Serbia Herzegovina, Arad/Romania, Trieste/Italy], and static indoor recordings from 2004 Stockholm/Sweden, Brussels/Belgium, Amsterdam/Netherlands, Vienna/Austria, Geneva/Switzerland. I used acoustic and electrical instruments recorded in open spaces picking up the natural ambience, blending those with environmental sounds of nature and then arranged it in the computer, creating dynamic layers of sound that feed from one another."
This is BJNilsen's 3rd album for Touch, after Land [Touch # Tone 17 - as Hazard] and Live at the Konzerthaus, Vienna [Touch # TO:CDR5]. He also recorded 3 Hazard albums for Ash International.

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Jóhann Jóhannsson
	titolo : Virðulegu Forsetar
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD+DVD-A
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:64
		2004
_________________

Double disc release: disc 1 = normal stereo CD. Disc 2 = hybrid DVD-Audio (both NTSC and PAL compatabile, for world-wide use) with a high resolution 96 khz, 24bit 5.1 surround mix and a 96khz 24bit stereo mix.

"Jóhann Jóhannsson is one of the most active participants in the new Icelandic music scene. This is his second album for Touch, after the highly acclaimed Englabörn [Touch # TO:52], about which The Wire said: '...expressive leitmotifs that unveil a profound sadness without ever wallowing in pathos' and Boomkat called it 'a work of rare beauty and ... a rare jewel'. Virthulegu Forsetarcontains one hour-long piece for 11 brass players, percussion, electronics, organs and piano. It's presented as an ordinary stereo CD and as a DVD-Audio with a high resolution 5.1 surround mix. Virthulegu Forsetar is performed by the Caput Ensemble, conducted by Gudni Franzson, with Skuli Sverrison on bass and electronics, Matthias M.D. Hemstock on bells, glockenspiel and electronics, Hordur Bragason and Gudmundur Sigurdsson on organs and Johann Johannsson on piano and electronics."

Prezzo : € 17,70

	artista : Z'EV
	titolo : Headphone Musics # 1-6 b/w As Is As
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	cod. nr. to63
		2004
_________________

Jewel case with artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft and Tereza Stehlikova
In 1967 Z'EV took a tape music class at the UCLA night school. The leader of the course was Joseph Byrd who was the founder and theoretician of the first electronic rock band; the united states of america. So while it's almost 40 years now that he has been involved in the production of electro-acoustic music, "Headphone Musics" marks the first release of a product exclusively featuring this form of music. All of the source material is drawn from the collection of cassette tapes Z'EV has amassed over the last 30 years - sounds and soundscapes he has either recorded himself or witnessed, or tapes that have been given to him by various peoples on his travels or been received by him through the mail from fans etc. Technically he remains a bit orthodox in that basically he still plies the old tools of the tape manipulation trade in the current digital sphere. What this means is that he concentrates on editing, phase relationships, time dilation, and inherent and 3rd harmonic distortion as his only means of processing the information he is transforming. There is no looping involved, although #2 features a recording he made in 1984 using his controlled-skipping Lenco turntable.
AS IS AS is a live recording of a sound poem Z'EV produced and performed under the name "S. Weisser" at a Sound Poetry Festival in 1976 at the La Mamelle art space in San Francisco. It was produced using 2 reel to reel tape decks, 3 cassette decks, and 2 microphones.

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : VVAA
	titolo : Spire: Organ Music Past, Present & Future
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 2xCD
	cod. nr. tone20
		2004
_________________

1st fruits of collaboration between Fennesz and Sparklehorse - recorded in Geneva by Christian Fennesz and Scott Minor * Touch regulars Biosphere, Philip Jeck, Benny Nilsen [Hazard], Chris Watson... * Newcomers include US free music composer and designer Tom Recchion, UK's Scott Taylor, Icelandic artists Finnbogi Petursson and Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson, and one of Sweden's premier performance artists Leif Elggren [The Sons of God, Firework Edition Records etc.], and one of the Kings of Elgaland-Vargaland * UK finest organist Charles Matthews and classical composer Marcus Davidson * Highly regarded Japanese field recordist Toshiya Tsunoda

Tracklist
CDOne
12 tracks - 52:10.21
1. Leif Elggren – Royal Organ
2. Z'EV – if only that love lets letting happen (organ music for organs)
3. Philip Jeck – Stops
4. Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson – Details of a New Discovery
5. Zephyr
6. Marcus Davidson – Organ Psalm V
7. Scott Minor/Fennesz - dwan
8. Finnbogi Pétursson – Diabolus
9. Biosphere – Visible Invisible
10. Toshiya Tsunoda – Layered
11. Tom Recchion – Shut-Eye Train
13. Lary Seven & Jeff Petersen - Disorganised

CDTwo
5 tracks - 53:55.54
1. BJNilsen - Breathe
2. Scott Taylor - Droner
3. Jacob Kirkegaard- Epiludio Patetico: a tribute to Rued Langgaard
4. Ambarchi/Recchion - Triste Remake
5. Chris Watson - Askam Wind Cluster

Prezzo : € 21,60

	artista : Ryoji Ikeda
	titolo : op.
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:60
		2003
_________________

Brilliant new Ikeda CD, utilizing string quartet sounds (mostly recorded in France at the Art Zoyd studios), with no electronic sounds used. Some tracks include: "op. 1 [for 9 strings].", "op. 2 [for string quartet]", "op. 3 [for string quartet]". This is Ryoji Ikeda's sixth solo CD and his fourth for Touch, following the highly acclaimed +/- [1996], 0°C [1998] and matrix [2001]. He previously released 1000 Fragments on his own CCI recordings, and Time and Space, a double 3 inch CD, for Staalplaat. 'op.1' was originally commissioned by 'experience de vol #3'. One notable aspect fans of his previous work will highlight upon, is his declaration that no electronic sounds have been used on this recording. This is not to say that Ikeda has in any way renounced the world of electronic music that he has done so much to shape over the past seven years. 'op. 1' is a brave and deliberate step that also lends a new dimension to his previous output, with the acoustic space created by his string arrangements being subject to the same forensic attention to detail as before.

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Phill Niblock
	titolo : Touch Food
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : 2xCD
	packaging : jewel case
	cod. nr. to:59
		2003
_________________

CD1: "Sea Jelly Yellow" [Ulrich Krieger, baritone saxophone]. "Sweet Potato" [Carol Robinson, bass clarinet, basset horn, and Eb clarinet]. "Yam Almost May" [Kasper T. Toeplitz, electric bass].
CD2: "Pan Fried 70" [Reinhold Friedl, piano].

"In the music of Phill Niblock, we are confronted with the aural equivalent of trompe-l'oeil. Apparently static clouds of harmonically dense material turn out to be not so static as they appear. What's more, one has the distinct impression that the music is changing spatially over time. How is all of this possible? The key is in Niblock's use of time. In his music, the experience of time is as very slow and continuous. There are no disruptive, discontinuous musical events to disrupt the flow of time. Time is suspended. Niblock's music gives the impression of having always been and continuing to be. Yet, this is not the idea of Being as stasis. Each time one feels tha Niblock's music isn't changing, one realizes that it is never the same, an yet, always the same. Being and Becoming as one. Moving Immobility. This is a music that breathes slowly and deeply. It changes its spatial form slowly, as a person who is in deep meditation changes the form of his body ever so slowly as he peacefully expands and contracts the walls of his chest cavity with each new cycle of inspiration/expiration." [Gerard Pape]

Phill Niblock is a sixty-something New York based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade hopping. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant garde ever since. In the history books Niblock is the forgotten Minimalist. That's as maybe: no one ever said the history books were infallible anyway. His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. He's even worked with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo on Guitar two, for four which is actually for five guitarists. This is Minimalism in the classic sense of the word, if that makes sense. Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones. The result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you.

Prezzo : € 19,20

	artista : Rosy Parlane
	titolo : Iris
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : jewel case
	cod. nr. to:58
		2004
_________________

Rosy Parlane lives in New Zealand; he began playing music with the avant-garde rock trio Thela. Thela released two CDs,Eponymous and Argentina on the label Ecstatic Peace! He subsequently began working with abstract electronic based music, both as a solo artist and as Parmentier with fellow Thela collaborator, Dion Workman. His full and intricate soundscapes are comprised of sample-loops, pianos, guitars, and field recordings manipulated via digital means. Parlane has released two solo albums on Sigma Editions, and a collaboration with Christian Fennesz on the Australian label, Synaesthesia [Live, SYN001]. Iris is the result of a concentrated period of activity and artistic development that will introduce Rosy Parlane to an audience hungry for innovative music. He both challenges and invigorates the current bias towards immersive sound, without ever losing sight of the human touch.

Prezzo : € 16,20

	artista : Mika Vainio
	titolo : In The Land Of The Blind One-Eyed Is King
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:54
		2003
_________________

This is Mika Vainio's 3rd solo CD for Touch, after Kajo and Onko. Best known as one-half of Pan Sonic, Mika is from Finland and now lives in Berlin. Generally speaking, contemporary musicians produce too much stuff. It is easy to do. But if you feel like sighing, 'Oh, it's another Mika Vainio CD', then Mr Vainio himself has anticipated such sentiments with the opening track, a 2 minute blast which sounds like an angry animal breaking free of its cage. What follows is probably Vainio's most accomplished work to date, a series of rich soundscapes whose beauty is always on the edge of darkness. Not wanting to bang a drum, anyone who has been invigorated by the work of Mika and Ilpo in Pan Sonic will be keen to hear these more pastoral takes on their more propulsive sound -- in places, being reminiscent of Artemyev's recordings for Tarkovsky films, in others, suggesting sound recordings of frogs and insect life. All framed by the distinct touch of Mika Vainio, who confirms his long?standing reputation as one of the most acute musicians of our times.

Prezzo : € 18,00

	artista : Fennesz
	titolo : Venice
	etichetta : Touch
	formato : CD
	packaging : digipak
	cod. nr. to:53
		2004
_________________

Venice was recorded on location in the summer of 2003 and subsequently assembled and mixed at Amann Studios, Vienna in January/February 2004. Venice, the fourth studio album by Christian Fennesz, finds electronic music at a crossroads between its early status as digital subculture, and the feeling that there has to be something more, an emotional quality that rises above noise and moves towards melody and rapture. Fennesz burst upon the scene with Instrument [Mego, 1995] and followed that up with a succession of ground-breaking and highly original solo albums. As The Wire wrote, 'he offers all the puzzles and adventures of experimental music, but with a more assimilable grasp of melody -- and a prominent role for the guitar', and to be sure, 'though the process may sound simple, it takes some skillful manipulation to simultaneously tug those heartstrings and poke them with tiny pins.' [Nick Phillips, City Pages, USA]. Fennesz has been active in film soundtrack work -- for Gustav Deutsch and his forensic view of cinema, film ist'... Live performances, improvised music within a modus operandi that adheres itself more to jazz than computer software... everywhere from Tokyo to Bratislava. Fennesz has also taken part in many collaborations: Fenn O'Berg, with Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg [Mego], a duo with Rosy Parlane [Synaesthesia], and with Polwechsel [Erstwhile]. He has also been recording with Sparklehorse, the first fruits of this collaboration appearing on the recently released Spire [Touch # Tone 20]. He lives and works in