Dense Promotion News

Hallo & welcome to our news 099.

A Phonetics Theme is an algorithmic composition, essentially composed with the intention to have any kind of appropriate media accompany it. It makes the use of African phonemes and words to tell a story. The story is dedicated to Sound Art.

base, matters, writing, besos, to gather, base, quality, sound, knead it, to pick up, beat, feal, beat, put into, twelve, cymbals, to dig, beat, si, rump, to grind fine, to beat, era, calling, strike, ear, take it, piece, to dance, field, festival, to spit out, beat, play music, push into, confusion [?], to descend, sound

Behold Now Bhikkus, The Sounds of Nada Yoga Nada Yoga means ‘union through sound’. It is the ancient spiritual art and science of inner transformation through sound and tone. Meditation on sound is one universal path to Self Realization, accessible to anyone, and appropriate for people of any religion.

Our mind easily becomes absorbed in sound. This is why we all-even infants and animals-enjoy listening to music. When the mind is fully concentrated on anything there arises a feeling of inner bliss. In Nada Yoga, we learn that the source of the sound may be external or internal. The sound may be gross or subtle. That is, it maybe ‘struck’ out loud (SA: ‘ahat’), as from a voice or musical instrument; or ‘unstruck’ and outwardly silent (SA: ‘anahat’), arising inwardly as from the subtle currents of energy or prana moving throughout the body.

With practice, concentration on carefully selected outer or ‘struck’ sounds will enable the mind to become calm and transparent. At this point you may begin to become aware of the subtle inner ‘unstruck’ sounds. You might perceive inner sounds that seem like bells, or flutes, or even a hum like an electrical transformer. Some of these sounds are actually just the sounds of your own body: blood pumping, or the electrical energy of nerves and inner ear. Other, deeper, sounds are the ‘sounds behind the audible sound’. It is into this deeper realm that Nada Yoga can take you.

One of the techniques used to practice Nada Yoga is ‘toning’. Toning is the creation of extended vocal sounds on a single vowel in order to experience the sound and its effects in other parts of the body. No melody, no words, no rhythm, and no harmony – just the sound of the vibrating breath.

There are many vowel sounds in the human language. As for the application of ‘Behold Now Bhikkus, The Sounds of Nada Yoga’, I focused on several principal sounds and their combinations.

Vowels-Possible Attributes or Related Perceptions,

* UU (‘who’): awareness of physicality, sensation of depth; base of spine

* OH (‘go’): individuality, conscious self-image; solar plexus

* AH (‘car’): centering, expanding, pleasant heartfelt emotions; heart area

* EE (‘knee’): energizing, awakening; head

* MM (humming, lips closed): balancing, harmonizing and integrating; the subtlest and most powerfull sound

Order of Applied Vowel Combinations,

* uu-ah-ee-mm

* uh-oh-ah-uu

Cem Güney: Laptop, live electronics, field recording & radio. All tracks composed, in the years of late 2006 to 2008.

An Ascription to Praxis

I am beholden to the harmoniousness of two essential properties that maintains the forcefullness of a cognition space. One, is a time-space continuum, stable in manner, having control over the undesired effects of duality and two, the synesthetic response, enrichining the transmutations from the abstract to the concrete. Synesthetic responses, via the many influences of sound contributes much as a motivational factor, and without the negative effects of duality-distractions so to speak-fluid impromtu motions (the essence of creation) can build up to constitute a language that becomes the basis of form.

Praxis, is the experimentations of the various emergent forms, and its application into the concrete.

Our recommendation for the hearing impaired: ECHOKRANK.

Ear drum piercer Brezel Göring and thrash lout “Hotleg” have committed themselves to a reckless and impulsive mix of Dub-Psycho-Speed-New Wave, action film soundtracks and 50’s Musique Concrète. For several years, these two desperados have hacked their way through the unpredictable weeping fistulas of post-industrial easy listening. In doing so they combine genre-spanning arranged marriages and acceleration of track playback speed. The music is played on children’s toys and fleamarket trash. Consequently their more or less ordered noises, erratic arrangements and bizarre sequences mutate into an amorphous Gesamtkunstwerk.

Brezel Göring’s 2003 debut on Gagarin Records caused high blood pressure among intransigent fans. His hit “Geliebt und doch nicht gefeuert” (Loved yet not fired) was released as a 12 inch on the Belgian label “Surprise” and defiled with dance exercise remixes.

ECHOKRANK shine a light on the ugly side of the entertainment industry, getting moody people in the mood. The declared goal of this music is to bring chaos to order. It is an official tribute to the irregular, the classic freakout: sound tremors don’t rebel against the lack of innovation but against the audio events themselves. If it’s true that today’s defects will be tomorrow’s successes, then these are the defective hotshots of tomorrow. Always too much and never enough, going over the top, no matter how far, reducing to the max: these foundations make or break the whole affaire. It is magnificent that such a record is released in an era that generally lacks beauty, elegance and grace.

ECHOKRANK raise ambiguity to an art form. The songs meander, and consciously induced no-win-situations arise based on the understanding that nothing is more senseless than economic competition and the bourgeois inclination to conformity. We become witnesses to an unstable whole which could perish at any time. Anti-music and gliding tones pass the deformed musical key from hand to hand, unlocking the floodgates to an inferno of irresponsibility.  The band seems to be contented: “At least this keeps the idiots away from us.”

And what remains? – our hearing suffered.

Listening is a matter of attitude.

“Like Listening to Fripp and Eno in 1973 through a pair of massive speakers that have been slashed with a carving knife” – Andrew Weatherall

Fuck Buttons was conceived by Andrew Hung & Benjamin John Power in the winter of 2004. With their electric live performances sealing the notion that the two Fuck Buttons are attempting some kind of transcendence between the listener and the Universe itself, one could easily envisage one’s psyches being shaken by the very rumbles of the earth’s motions.

March 2008 saw the release of their debut album Street Horrrsing, which received widespread acclaim from publications as diverse as NME (8/10), Pitchfork (Best New Music, 8.6), Kerrang (4/5), Uncut (4/5), Mojo (4/5), Stereogum (8/10), The Wire, Time Out and many more on a worldwide basis.

This year so far the band have gone from strength to strength touring extensively in the UK and US and at numerous festivals including ATP vs Pitchfork, Summer Sundae, Primavera Sound, Green Man, Lowlands, Roskilde, Supersonic and Pukkelpop.

They are about to embark on a tour supporting Mogwai in the UK and US, and play headlining shows in Japan.

Sweet Love for Planet Earth appears here mixed by ANDREW WEATHERALL who perhaps first came to prominence through his remixes of The Happy Mondays, New Order, My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream in the early 1990s. Andrew is a highly respected DJ and record producer, (examples of his production can be found on Primal Scream Screamadelica and Beth Orton’s Trailer Park), and also a self proclaimed Fuck Buttons Fan!

THOMAS LEHN and MARCUS SCHMICKLER are both well-known electroacoustic musicians from Cologne, but they come from very different backgrounds: Lehn is from the world of improvisation, while Schmickler’s work lies predominantly in the world of composition and studio production. Lehn is best known for the projects Tom and Gerry, Konk Pack and e-rax, as well as for his consistently superb performances on the European festival circuit. Schmickler has been involved with numerous projects, including the seminal collective Kontakta. As a solo artist, Schmickler has created important works such as Wabi Sabi and Param as well as Altars of Science. In December of 1998, Schmickler joined the MIMEO, of which Lehn was already a member, and the two began to collaborate occasionally outside the ensemble.

Lehn/Schmickler’s first recording BART is considered one of the best synth improv albums ever made. Since BART, dating back to 2000, the duo has toured frequently through Europe, Japan and the USA. This new double-release, features some of the best performances the two recorded over the course of 15 live concerts. As a brilliant amalgam of the two musicians’ strengths, these two documents Navigation im Hypertext and Kölner Kranz utilize both improvisation and studio postproduction techniques to create a lasting work, combining the feel of classic composed electronic music with the raw, crackling energy of a free improv session. Exciting and destabilizing, Navigation im Hypertext will surprise even the most hardcore Lehn fan: intertwined with Schmickler’s, his art never sounded this rich. If anything, Navigation im Hypertext takes electronic improvisation one step further. The arrangements range from softer cluster’s of sound to more harsh and abrasive movements. Kölner Kranz sees a return to a thick molasses of digital smears welded to an ever-present system that unfolds over a staggering 36 minutes which, despite its sheer length, never rests. This music is really quite dense and difficult, heavy on detailing and spontaneity, which means that listening to these tracks takes some effort to get through. Tones cascade in waves over bitmapped crackles as Lehn/ Schmickler add layer after layer of events into a seductive audio landscape. Bewilderingly acute and brilliantly played, these two releases are compulsory listening for those interested in the state of modern electronics.

With Michael Santos, happiness is just an error away

UK electronic artist Michael Santos releases his first widely distributed, commercially available album. The Happy Error features 11 tracks of soft sonic textures articulated over subtle chords and harmonic changes. The music on The Happy Error is resolutely cinematic, without falling for the usual trappings of the genre. The album offers songs without words in which digital glitches and computer filters replace vocals, bringing in a different kind of warmth.

Even though he mostly works with computers, Michael Santos is more of a musician than an experimental sound artist. Most of his melodic material he draws from guitars and sine waves. To this material he imposes software-based manipulations, making sure to integrate along the way the ìaccidentsî that are unavoidable with digital treatments.

The Happy Error is Michael Santosís first album to be pressed on regular compact disc, with commercial distribution. He has released two prior albums, Matters (Benbecula, 2006) and Soft Pocket (U-Cover, 2007), both as very limited CD-r editions. His compositions have also appeared on compilations curated by the labels Benbecula, Miso, and Audiobulb.

The webzine Touching Extremes puts Michael Santos “among the most noteworthy young electronic composers in recent years, one of those artists who exploit every creative germ until it becomes a fully developed virus of aural pleasure.”

The Happy Error is being released by the French independent label Baskaru. Baskaru publishes only a few carefully-selected releases each year. Its previous productions (including albums by Yoshio Machida, Lawrence English, Maurizio Bianchi, GoGooo, ENT, and Urkuma) have established uncanny artistic and visual standards, by which this new opus fully abides.

1. BURROUGHS’ BUNKER Music by Gudrun Gut 4:22

2. MY FRIEND SHERRY Music by Gudrun Gut 4:16

3. RAIN Music by Gudrun Gut 4:12

4. STUFF Music by A. Hacke & D.de Piciotto 6:49

5. HANOI Music by Beate Bartel 4:08

6. QATAR Music by Gudrun Gut 5:10

7. DRILL Music by Gudrun Gut 5:27

8. WORM Music by Gudrun Gut 5:27

9. CALGARY Prod. G. Gut 2:55

10. GOODBYE BELFAST Music by Gudrun Gut 6:24

Canadian spoken word artist Myra Davies is back with her new album CITIES & GIRLS, a fresh collection of witty stories. As with their MIASMA trilogy, Davies’ stories have been set to music by Gudrun Gut, whose own solo album I Put A Records On came out last year, as well as Beate Bartel and the team of Danielle de Picciotto / Alexander Hacke – who provide the musical accompaniment on two tracks. Berlin Electronica is the warp in which Davies weaves reportage on global life in the early 21st century. Cities and Girls are prevalent themes. “The city is our social heart and creative core” Davies says. That sounds odd coming from an artist who lives in The Rocky Mountains. “I see cities with fresh eyes,” she says. “Look around. This is a great time for cities.” And Girls? “I was a girl once myself. It’s fun but not easy. Wherever I am, I tend to notice how girls are handling the challenge. My friend Sherry is a dead girl. She began haunting me in San Diego when I was first exposed to the new anti-abortion campaign.” There are several dead people walking in this album. “It’s good karma to give some air time to the past and gone.”

The stories in the GIRLS & CITIES cd range widely in time and space. For the composers, the challenge was to find musical ideas that support specific story settings and also ground the track in the album as a whole.

As a taster to the new Myra Davies album, CITIES & GIRLS, we have a 4 track online only EP, THE GIRL SUITE, coming out in August 2008.

The album opens with BURROUGH’S BUNKER, a tale of what can happen on a night out in New York City when you don’t know your host is legendary New York poet John Giorno and you’re hanging in William G Burrough’s inner circle.

MY FRIEND SHERRY looks back to the early 60s. Pigtails, pop songs and no legal abortion; Gut and Davies use a 50s pop song format to tell a true story of how it was then and could be again. This is a powerful response to the campaign to limit women’s right to legal abortions.

RAIN is an impressionist audio picture. It could be any city. In fact, it’s Berlin.

STUFF is a comic riff on our attraction to Stuff and how to use landfills to resist it, with music by Danielle de Picciotto and Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neutbauten).

Beate Bartel (Mania D., Liasons Dangereuses) created the music for HANOI – a good place to hang and smell the coffee. Bartel’s music features the evocative sound of a single string Vietnamese instrument, the Dan Bau.

QATAR is a slow groove track about Doha’s lively City Centre Mall and the fabulous flowing fashions of the Qatari women who hang there.

DRILL puts a spin on the idea that a girl had best get herself a drill at the start or she’ll be mewing for favours for life.

WORM. This cinematic trip starts with an earthworm; cut to horse’s mouth, erotic suggestion, battleship, gay guy, Italian sailors, Jean Genet, Jeanne Moreau. Circle back to worm. Life’s a cycle and the parts all work together.

The penultimate track, CALGARY, is a cover tribute to 2 pop artists who were hot in 1900. The poem is by Canadian/Mohawk performance poet, E Pauline Johnson (1861-1913). The melody is by American, Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862 – 1946) who wrote hit songs. Today, Calgary (CA) is an oil capital and Europe’s cities aren’t what they were either. It’s fun to hear how Pauline Johnson compared Calgary with European cities in 1900. (Source MIDI file used with permission of The Parlor Song Association, parlorsongs.com)

GOODBYE BELFAST speaks to our relationship to family history and the foreign land of grandparents. When that land is the ‘Little Piece of Heaven’ called Northern Ireland, going back to the roots was no fun-filled vacation. Gut’s music includes strains of Irish immigrant pop songs from the early 20th century and old Irish melodies including The Last Rose of Summer, recorded by Kathleen Parlow in 1912. (Samples rights free from the Canadian Govt site, “Virtual Gramophone”.)

Omit is the nom de plume for CLINTON WILLIAMS, an electronic musician who has been quietly toiling in New Zealand for a good portion of the past two decades. His work has appeared alongside such luminaries of the NZ free noise community as Birchville Cat Motel, The Dead C, Flies Inside The Sun, Dean Roberts, Surface Of The Earth, etc.; however, Omit’s home-spun constructs widely detour from the sculpted grit and mottled distortion found in the work of his countrymen and -women. In listening to his masterful Quad (a 3CD opus released in 1998 through Corpus Hermeticum), one gets the very palpable sense of an artist in a contentious argument with his own unwieldy mousetrap of tape-loops, modular electronics, effects pedals, drum machines, and the creaking sounds of his house. That internal debate with himself through his machine exudes an existential melancholy, which could be applied to any number of grander metaphors of the dependency of electronics, cybernetics, and technology upon mankind.

Interceptor is the result of an experiment whereby Williams worked with a portable studio away from his longtime home of Blenheim. He possessed two suitcases of drum machines, effects, and analog synths; and, Williams recalls being “pissed off with myself wasting time recording this stuff when I was trying to find a job.” His frustrations stripped away much of the grandiose sweeps of ambience and shadow, leaving behind a life-support system grid of overlapping, phase-shifted blip and click. An undertow of hypnotic tonalities pulls those rhythms towards a crepuscular gloom. Williams has always been at odds with his own work, yet his self-doubt continues to deliver magnificent albums which thrive in a symbiotic struggle with mechanical disintegration. Interceptor conjures the best offered by Mika Vainio, Klaus Schulze, and the Throbbing Gristle tracks authored by Chris Carter. Always the pessimist, Williams grumbles, “In many ways, it’s a document of my failure to do the most simplest things in life.” If only all of our failures could be this brilliant.

All audio made by Peter Rehberg 2004-2008

For the following Gisèle Vienne productions:

‘I Apologize’ (2004)

‘Une Belle Enfant Blonde’ (2005)

‘Jerk’ (2008)

Text written and spoken by Dennis Cooper

Action on ‘Murder Version’ by Catherine Robbe-Grillet & Jonathan Capdevielle

Mastered at Piethopraxis, Köln, June 2008
Artwork by SOMA
Photos by Gisèle Vienne

Peter Rehberg’s collaboration with the Paris based puppeteer and choreographer, GISELE VIENNE began in 2001, with the production of the DACM piece ‘ShowroomDummies’, followed by ‘Stereotypie’ in 2003.

In 2004, Vienne started to direct under her own name and began to work on pieces collaborating on text with US author, Dennis Cooper. This CD is a document of selected audio parts of all Gisèle Vienne productions made between 2004 and 2008, except for the epic ‘Kindertotenlieder’, whose audio material was presented on the various KTL releases in 2006 and 2007 (eMEGO 084, eMEGO 085).

The range here is vast from the upfront noise excess of the ‘I Apologize’ (2004) tracks to the lonely synth passages which were used in ‘Une Belle Enfant Blonde’ (2005), and the sad coda used for ‘Jerk’, which began as a radio play for Radio France Culture in 2007, before being adapted for stage in 2008.

The opening ‘Murder Version’ is a version of the recording ‘Meurtre’ by Catherine Robbe-Grillet & Jonathan Capdevielle, which was released as a single sided 12″ vinyl in 2005 (UBEB 001), and is to be considered as a tribute to the Alain Robbe-Grillet film ‘Glissements progressifs du plaisir’ (1974).

Although this material was intended for consumption in a theatrical setting, it has been edited with domestic use in mind ultimately representing that the grey zone where puppetry, literature, contemporary theatre & dance, visual art, and extreme computer music meet.

Sep 24 CH ‘I Apologize’ (Gisele Vienne), L’Arsenic, Lausanne

Sep 25 CH ‘I Apologize’ (Gisele Vienne), L’Arsenic, Lausanne

Sep 27 CH ‘Kindertotenlieder’ (Gisele Vienne), ADC, Geneve

Sep 28 CH ‘Kindertotenlieder’ (Gisele Vienne), ADC, Geneve

Nov 21 FR ‘Kindertotenlieder’ (Gisele Vienne), Festival Automne en Normandie, Rouen

May 22 2009 DE ‘Kindertotenlieder’ (Gisele Vienne), Kampnagel, Hamburg

Thrill Jockey is pleased to announce the imminent arrival of High Time on October 21st! The new album finds Chicago’s Pit Er Pat exploring new sonic territory, pushing boundaries, and continuing to defy categorization. Fay is playing a lot more guitar, her wiry guitar lines holding down the rhythm, while Rob and Butchy are using an array of new percussive instruments, sequencers and beat making machines to supplement their already tight grooves, and in general the band has once again branched out to experiment and explore new sounds which are completely different from their previous albums yet remain undeniably Pit Er Pat.  A feat that elludes many bands. Keep an eye out for an extensive US tour in support of High Time this fall!

Dublin act Sunken Foal consists of one DUNCAN MURPHY and occasional friends and collaborators when they record or play live. Fallen Arches is their amazing debut album of intensely evocative guitar-based electronic music, with piano, strings and occasional vocals which build up and then collapse under the weight of digital rhythms that twist and turn at every juncture. Sounding not unlike an Irish Fennesz playing mandolin, these twelve organic-sounding compositions have a definite ‘plucked’ feel with the ever-present detuning adding a slight unsettling mood which feels right at home on Planet Mu. As played on Mary Anne Hobbs Radio 1 experimental show.

Tracks by: Spike Jones and his City Slickers, Raymond Scott, Paul Lowry, Leif Elggren & Thomas Liljenberg, Komar & Melamid and Dave Soldier, Ground Zero, John Oswald, Nurse With Wound, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck, Nihilist Spasm Band, Anne McGuire, Don Joyce & Wobbly, Vomit Lunchs, Rank Sinatra, DJ Carhouse & MC Hellshit, DJ Brokenwindow, Christian Marclay, Viennese Seven Singing Sisters, M.A. Numminen, Tommi Parko, Pekka Kujanpää, Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device, Adach i Tomomi, Bill Morrison, Zatumba, People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz, Christian Bok, Gwilly Edmondez, Spaz, Komar & Melamid and Dave Soldier, Xper. Xr., Richard Lair

Virus Syndicate are DJ/producer M.R.K.1 (formerly Mark One) and MCs GOLDFINGER, JSD and NIKA D – Manchester’s foremost grime crew, represeting the North-West UK scene in their inimitable style. Virus are an integral part of the UK Grime scene having played numerous Sidewinder raves and countless shows on Rinse FM and Manchester’s Unity as well as radio support from Cameo, Semtex & Mary Anne Hobbs.

Their debut album ‘The Work Related Illness’ was everything you could ask for – a cartoon gangsta movie of an album with a beginning, middle and end – all the tracks link into each other in a narrative and the entire album tells a story in the life of the Virus Syndicate!

The follow-up “Sick Pay” is more of the same with both Bhangra and Electro influences coming to the fore in tracks such as “Dippin'” And “Vibrator”.

The Taxman gets a return visit on track 2 with another tale of urban robbery and the autobiographical “Live at The Apollo” rests on a surf guitar riff that will rock any party.

Oct 15 BE Ancienne Belgique, Brussels

Oct 17 DE Gebaude 9, Koln

Oct 18 FR Nouveau Casino, Paris

Oct 19 NL Paradiso, Amsterdam

Oct 20 DE Gleis 22, Munster

Oct 21 FR La Catonnerie, Reims

Oct 22 DE Ubel & Gefahrlich, Hamburg

Oct 23 DE Festsaal Kreuzberg, Berlin

Oct 24 DE UT Connewitz, Leipzig

Oct 25 DE Scheune, Dresden

Oct 26 HU Merlin, Budapest

Oct 27 AT Arena, Vienna

Oct 28 DE Feierwerk, Munich

Oct 28 DE Manufaktur, Schorndorf

Oct 29 PL Club Firlej, Wroclaw

Oct 31 CH Bad Bonn, Dudingen

Sep 7 UK Colour out of Space Festival, Brighton

Sep 21 NL ZXZW Festival, Tilburg

Sep 5 NL Paradiso, Amsterdam

Sep 12 JP Earthdom, Tokyo

Oct 18 SR Dispatch Festival, Belgrade

Sep 26 NL Den Haag, Today’s Art Festival, w/ Steven Hess

Sep 27 NL Den Haag, Today’s Art Festival, w/ Steven Hess

Oct 16 SR Belgrade, Dis-Patch Festival, w/ Steven Hess & Martin Siewert

Oct 19 PL Krakow, Unsound Festival, w/ Steven Hess & Martin Siewert

Oct 31 FR Paris, Bbmix Festival

Sep 24 CH ‘I Apologize’ (Gisele Vienne), L’Arsenic, Lausanne

Sep 25 CH ‘I Apologize’ (Gisele Vienne), L’Arsenic, Lausanne

Sep 27 CH ‘Kindertotenlieder’ (Gisele Vienne), ADC, Geneve

Sep 28 CH ‘Kindertotenlieder’ (Gisele Vienne), ADC, Geneve

Nov 21 FR ‘Kindertotenlieder’ (Gisele Vienne), Festival Automne en Normandie, Rouen

May 22 DE ‘Kindertotenlieder’ (Gisele Vienne), Kampnagel, Hamburg

Oct 4 DE Freiburg, White Rabbit Club

(Harry Stafford, Vince Hunt, Boz Hayward, Rob Haynes)

Oct 11 FR v?l [solo exhibition], le laboratoire, paris

Oct 11 IT datamatics [ver.2.0], RomaEuropa, rome

Nov 21 FR datamatics [ver.2.0], pompidou centre, paris

Nov 22 FR datamatics [ver.2.0], pompidou centre, paris

Dec 18 FR data.tron [installation], grand palais, paris

Sep 6 CN Kluubb, Hongkong

Sep 9 CN Waterland, Beijing

Sep 11 JP Koenji High, Nakano Soup, Tokyo

Sep 15 JP Kakutanama, Kobe

Sep 16 JP Namba Bears, Osaka

Sep 17 JP Urban Guild, Kyoto

Sep 18 JP Shinjuku Urga, Tokyo

Oct 7 CH Cave 12, Geneva

Oct 8 CH Moods, Zurich

Oct 28 AT Wien Modern Festival, Noise Night at Fluc, Vienna

Oct 31 DE Sophiensaele, Berlin

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Thanks for reading & best wishes

Dense Promotion

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