For the first time we collaborate with an mp3-label “SEVEN THINGS I DAREN’T EXPRESS”.Launched on 28th February 2006.
Based in Edinburgh, Scotland – JOHN HARRIS the director of Seven Things Seriously. Take A look Inside, Please!
INTRODUCING THE ONLINE LABEL
“SEVEN THINGS I DAREN’T EXPRESS”
http://www.seventhings.com
A few facts about the label:
Launched on 28th February 2006
Based in Edinburgh, Scotland
JOHN HARRIS is the director of Seven Things. He founded the label after a
successful period spent directing the UK-based contemporary classical Paragon
Ensemble. As a composer and performer he has many credits to his name,
particularly as a writer for new music for theatre (RSC, NTS), and TV (C4, S4C)
and for the ensemble SPKE. He studied for his Masters degree in composition at
the RSAMD in Glasgow, and for his first degree at Oxford University, where he
was Organ Scholar of Trinity College.
John Harris: “Our recordings are non-DRM, 192 kbps variable bit rate mp3. The
releases are available only as downloads, except for review CDs. We make short
radio-style audio profiles of all of our artists. These are available for free
download from www.seventhings.com. The recordings we made in 2006 were by
Charlemagne Palestine (Belgium/USA), Nmperign (USA), Koji Asano (Japan), Zoe
Irvine (UK), Yannis Kyriakides with Andy Moor (Netherlands), Peter Dowling (UK),
vintage 909 (UK), Mattin (Spain), Max Richter (UK), Luc Ferrari (France),
Alessandro Bosetti (Italy), John Butcher (UK). Our catalogue encompasses music
taken from the modern composition, free improvisation, radio art, noise art,
electroacoustic and electronic music fields. The music we will release in 2007
includes recordings by: Spring Heel Jack (UK), David Fennessy (UK), Cor Fuhler
(Netherlands), Keith Rowe (France/UK), Ute Wassermann (Germany), Aleks Kolkowski
(UK), Adam Linson (Germany) and many others.”
1) CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE – The Golden Mean
Released: 14th March 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 36 minutes
Genre guide: modern composition
Charlemagne Palestine’s 40-year career as a performer and composer has resulted
in a body of compelling and – dare we say it – important works.
Often taking very long times to complete (up to 4 hours at a time), each of
Charlemagne’s performances evolves slowly and organically, concentrating more
upon exploring the complex overtone interactions between a limited selection of
notes than in developing the selection of notes themselves.
The Golden Mean is no exception. Whilst it is comparatively brief (at 36′), it
finds the composer performing on two grand pianos simultaneously, astutely
judging the slow harmonic changes that control the evolution of the piece,
oftentimes twisting and contorting his body to reach widely-spread intervals on
the two instruments. Building gradually from a slow, single-note opening, it
reaches a thundering open-handed climax before subsiding gracefully into a more
introspective coda.
Recorded live at the Music Lover’s Field Companion Festival May 2005, Gateshead
UK. Engineering, mixing and mastering by Kenny McLeod
2) NMPERIGN – Nmperign Live
Released: 28th March 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 24 minutes
Genre guide: free improvisation
Experimental American duo Nmperign (aka BHOB RAINEY and GREG KELLEY) are
renowned worldwide for their extraordinarily developed and inventive approach to
improvisation. Stretching the possibilities of their instruments (trumpet and
saxophone) beyond boundaries so far away that many people will not even have
realised they existed, Nmperign create and explore whole new worlds of sound in
their structured, highly-detailed performances.
Nmperign Live is a document of a live performance that shows them off at their
very finest. Totally unplanned before they walked onstage, their improvisation
is as detailed, co-ordinated and focused as any composed new work. Starting with
minute, barely-perceptible wisps of sound – made entirely without any electronic
support – their instruments feed off each others’ creative charge to work out a
complex, emotionally rich journey that is as satisfying as it is provocative.
Recorded live at the Music Lover’s Field Companion Festival May 2005, Gateshead
UK. Engineering, mixing and mastering by Kenny McLeod
3) KOJI ASANO – Live in Glasgow
Released: 14th April 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 32 minutes
Genre guide: noise music
Japanese musician Koji Asano carries the honour of being described as “one of
the most imaginative composers in the world” (All Music Guide, USA). His
prolific output (a phenomenal 41 CDs in 10 years) encompasses music written for
a wide variety of resources, ranging from guitar bands to brass bands and from
computers to orchestras. An accomplished pianist and guitarist, Koji
consistently works on the edges of established musical norms, pushing in new
directions to create unique and often startling results.
For this new work, specially composed for Seven Things Live Studio 1, Koji works
like a sculptor, taking vast swathes of massive noise and pushing them into
compelling new forms, carrying the listener forward on an all-engulfing and
compelling tide of sound from first buzz to final fade.
Recorded live at Live Studio 1, CCA Glasgow, February 2006. Engineering, mixing
and mastering by Kenny McLeod
4) ZOE IRVINE – Magnetic Migration Music
Released: 14th May 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 26 minutes
Genre guide: sound art
Zoë Irvine is an award-winning sound artist living and working in Scotland. Her
output includes installations, live performances, radio art, and one-off events
such as the Dial-a-Diva project in 2005, which was the subject of a Creative
Scotland Award.
Other recent work includes Travels Together for the Drift online festival, and
The Audible Picture Show, which toured throughout Europe and the USA.
Magnetic Migration Music is an edited version of a live performance given by Zoe
and her collaborator Mark Vernon, in which she plays and manipulates recordings
on tapes from her extraordinary found-sound archive.
This archive consists of fragments of old audio tape collected off the street,
from every corner of the globe. Zoe’s skill and delicacy with the live handling
of these fragments is what makes this release so exciting. It is an intensely
musical experience, scurrilous in places, strange in others, and full of beauty,
humour and sadness.
Recording re-mixed by Zoe Irvine from her collaborative performance with Mark
Vernon at Live Studio 1, CCA Glasgow, February 2006. Engineering by Kenny McLeod
5) YANNIS KYRIAKIDES with ANDY MOOR – Rebetika
Released: 14th June 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 45 minutes
Genre guide: edited improvisations
Yannis Kyriakides is an award-winning composer and improviser who has worked
with the ASKO Ensemble, Icebreaker, Orkest de Volharding, BBC and the Stuttgart
Staatsoper, as well as with Keith Rowe’s multi-performer improvising ensemble
MIMEO.
Andy Moor is an improvising guitarist who has performed with punk bands The Ex,
the Dog-Faced Hermans as well as experimentalists Kaffe Matthews, John Butcher,
Thomas Lehn and Cor Fuhler.
Following the release of their landmark Red v Green album in 2004, Yannis and
Andy recorded Rebetika – seven improvisations on old Greek Blues songs – for
Seven Things at Seven Things Live Studio 1 in February 2006.
The result is a new creation that takes scratchy old recordings of Bouzouki
music, electric guitar outbursts and computer-generated sound to create a
riveting, deeply musical whole.
Recording re-mixed by Yannis Kyriakides from the original recording made at Live
Studio 1, CCA Glasgow, February 2006. Engineering by Kenny McLeod
6) PETER DOWLING – Don’t Touch Me! (I Hate You Sometimes)
Released: 28th June 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 23 minutes
Genre guide: electroacoustic
Peter Dowling is an award-winning composer who lives and works in Glasgow, UK.
His diverse portfolio includes free improvisations, performance pieces with
dancers and choreographers, concert works for orchestras, ensembles and soloists
and solo laptop pieces. Most recently his work has been presented at NIME in
Tokyo, ICMC in Miami and Upgrade! in Munich, and also performed by BCMG, RSNO,
Paragon and Orkest de Ereprijs ensembles.
Don’t Touch Me! (I Hate You Sometimes) is an amazingpiece of work that starts
with the simplest of sounds – the hum of an electric guitar distortion pedal –
and creates a complex, knotty piece of work around it. Moving forward step by
logical step, Don’t Touch Me gradually moves away from complete abstraction into
a world of fragmented samples, building and dissipating in a thoughtful,
emotionally-compelling progression.
Recording re-mixed by Peter Dowling from the original live recording made at the
Le Weekend Festival, Stirling 2005.
7) VINTAGE 909 – Scanning
Released: 14th July 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 32 minutes
Genre guide: electronic
vintage 909 is a composer, sound designer and DJ best known internationally for
his work with famed Russian dance company Derevo.
His eclectic musical background allows him to draw upon influences as diverse as
church choral music, orchestral composition, techno and electronic improv. He
constructs his electronic music as carefully as a paper composer would –
choosing his samples with care and manipulating them with finesse.
Scanning is born of orchestral samples, snatches of dialogue from film
soundtracks, electronic tones and a hefty dose of ambient electronica. It’s a
compelling listen, taking the listener through all 3 of its ‘movements’ in the
same way as classical music would once have done – although classical music will
never be able to have anything like Scanning’s cool, contemporary intelligence
ever again.
8) MATTIN – Wrong Commodity
Released: 16th August 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 29 minutes
Genre guide: noise art
Highly conceptualised but at the same time incredibly straightforward, the music
of Basque-country-born improviser / performer Mattin explores the fundamental
nature of sound in both primitive and sophisticated ways.
Mattin is a true radical. He’s prepared to question everything – from what it
means to perform music, to what music might mean – and he’s not at all afraid of
upsetting some apple carts on the way through.
Wrong Commodity is 50% complete silence, and the rest is blistering noise.
Recorded in front of a live audience, Mattin opens by standing completely
motionless in the darkness on stage, making no sound whatsoever. The recording
is detailed enough to pick up every mutter from the bewildered audience, members
before Mattin unleashes an incredible watershed and squall of feedback from his
computer – which finally leaves as suddenly as it began.
This is 29 minutes of What the…? To get the complete experience, listen very
loud with the lights off.
Recorded at the Le Weekend Festival, Stirling 2006. Engineering, mixing and
mastering by Kenny McLeod
9) MAX RICHTER – From “The Art of Mirrors”
Released: 13th September 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 52 minutes
Genre guide: modern composition
Composer, performer and producer Max Richter was born in Germany but moved to
the UK as a young child.
He trained in composition and piano at University of Edinburgh, the Royal
Academy of Music, and with Luciano Berio in Florence. After finishing his
studies, he co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus. In 1996
he worked with Future Sound of London on their album Dead Cities.
He has also collaborated with Mercury Prize winner Roni Size on In The Mode. Max
has released three albums to date; Memoryhouse (2002), The Blue Notebooks (2004)
and Songs from Before (2006). He also produced the 2005 Vashti Bunyan album
Lookaftering.
From “The Art of Mirrors” is described by Max as a sketch designed to accompany
films from the extraordinary archive of films by Derek Jarman called “The Art of
Mirrors”. Captured in live performance with the composer’s own ensemble, this
recording finds Max in fine form, delicately threading piano and strings
together in to a gentle, melancholy whole.
Recorded at the Le Weekend Festival, Stirling 2006. Engineering, mixing and
mastering by Kenny McLeod
10) LUC FERRARI – Madame de Shanghai
Released: 13th October 2006
Format: mp3 download (non DRM)
Length: 15 minutes
Genre guide: modern composition
Performed by: The Scottish Flute Trio
It’s no exaggeration to say that the work of Luc Ferrari (1929 – 2005) has a
profound influence on composers and musicians worldwide today. Ever since the
release of his pioneering tape works Heterozygote and Presque Rien (literally
‘almost nothing’) No.1 in the 60s and 70s, Luc’s use of ambient environmental
sounds in “an organized and poetic, though non-plot oriented manner” resulted in
the creation of a body of remarkable works that continues to influence today’s
foremost musical artists.
His life and influence reads like a roll-call of twentieth-century composers and
institutions; he founded the GRM in Paris with Pierre Schaefer, studied under
Olivier Messiaen, Arthur Honegger and Edgard Varese, and made films about
Stockhausen. And in-between he taught around the world and composed some of the
most potent music of the 20th century.
Luc was commissioned by Seven Things to create a new work for us in 2005, but
sadly had no time to complete it before his death on August 22nd 2005. So, in
grateful memory of a remarkable man, we have re-recorded one of the finest of
his recent tape-and-instrument works Madame de Shanghai – a re-working of themes
and ideas from the film by Orson Welles.
The Scottish Flute Trio have been working together for 10 years now and have
commissioned and premiered new work by Gordon McPherson, Peter McGarr, Javier
Alvarez, Thea Musgrave, Edward McGuire, Robert Dick, Kenneth Dempster, Joji
Hirota to mention just a few. They have collaborated with visual artists and
poets and performed at some of the UK’s leading festivals including the
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Warwick Festival, and have
broadcast live for Radio 3. Their CD Feasibility Studies is released on the
Metier Label.
Studio recording. Engineering, mixing and mastering by Kenny McLeod
Thanks for reading & best wishes
Dense Promotion
Reichenberger Str. 147
10999 Berlin
Germany
