Wednesday 9 February 2011




Jez riley French . between gestures . glasgow


live and field recordings


one . between kinetics (live sections from performance at sharmanka)

two . spaces between others (between scores, concert room at wandelweiser event)

three . between window and table (live sections from performance at 12 / 2)

four . between still morning and a long picnic (recording of room at 12 / 2)

five . between agedashi tofu, udon and central (recordings in restaurant and station)


Jez riley French - field recordings, zither, salt, glass lenses, lx-1 camera, paper, contact microphones, table, fingers, shells


p&c 2011


engraved glass eg-sr02


42.25 mins

free download
(loseless wav audio file + pdf)

engraved glass / compost & height

to visit the download page click the link below


revenant : zeltini


Maksims Shentelevs
, Eamon Sprod, John Grzinich, Kaspars Kalninsh, Felicity Mangan

‘revenant’ is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions. All sounds originate from materials found in-situ, and from interactions with the space itself.

There were some “dark” elements surrounding this session. It was mid-November in the Baltics which meant that it was cold, gray and the sun goes down early. By the time we entered the bunker and set up to record there was no natural light left to see. Trying to find a shared experience through improvisation among a group that is not familiar is hard enough, trying to do this in the dark in an unfamiliar place is even harder. Knowing we would be without visual and sometimes auditory communication because of the multiple spaces available I suggested to do a recording experiment, to each use our own equipment yet synchronize the timing at the start. If we were to get “lost” or immersed in our own experiences, it would be interesting to reassemble them later as a shared “fictional” space. This is indeed what we ended up with. Using only my ears and a headlamp to guide my way, I foraged through that unknown space collecting objects and playing them on the varied surfaces I discovered. I remember the old rags, the dust, broken pieces of concrete, pipes coming out of the ground and how I searched for ways to animate the space and instigate interactions with the others. Whether it was the quest for new objects or the need to stay warm I constantly moved around and even ended up outside toward the end. (John Grzinich)

U05_revenant_zeltini_front sleeve

U05

cd ltd to 250 copies hand numbered copies - all include an additional art card on 300 gr satin-paper
cover design + treatments by Daniel Crokaert
based exclusively on photos by John Grzinich and Eamon Sprod

track listing

zeltini

length

57:30

Wednesday 2 February 2011

two new releases on 3leaves



Ákos Garai | BARGES & FLOWS

2011, 3L005, CD-R, 100 numbered copies

Mathieu Ruhlmann & Banks Bailey | ANÁÁDIIH

2011, 3L006, CD-R, 100 numbered copies


the first thing to say about these two new releases on 3leaves is that they look great ! packaged in environmentally friendly brown card slipcases, complete with obi & a photographic print attached to the front. This attention to detail is also present in the choices the label has made in terms of the material it issues.


I have to say that the write up on the 3leaves website for the cd by Mathieu & Banks doesn't (for me anyway) capture what one will find on this release & that is why I haven't included that here. My advice would be to buy it & lets it's sounds capture your attention without referring back to those words. Here we have both straight field recordings & the sounds created by the artist from natural objects. This is music of detail & whilst the pieces occasionally become very active indeed there is always a sense of space & forward movement. I confess that the hydrophone recordings of water born insects & plant life sound like they were recorded with the hydrophones I make (correct me if i'm wrong) & if so then it's great to hear them put to such use.


This music sounds like ones ears have been placed on the living ground, twigs pushed aside & leaves crumpled by ones breath. All around nature is moving, waiting & speaking not to the human but amongst itself & we are listening in on some form of bio-acoustic radio signal, complete with static. A disc well worth checking out - but grab it fast as there's only 100 of them out there !


Next up we have a new cd of work by the labels owner, Akos Garai which focuses on untreated field recordings of, as the title suggests, barges & river flows. Capturing these types of sounds is a well documented area these days. I have 35 cd's on my shelves by different artists featuring the creaks & groans of barges, jetties & other structures floatings on rivers & lakes. However, what is interesting is the way the sheer number of discs featuring these sounds illustrate that even though they all use unprocessed field recordings it is in the choices made by the artist involved that the success of the release is decided. I'd guess that around half of those discs are 'ok' - more documentary than anything else & of the others there are only a handful that really stand out. So far, I think this one by Akos can be added to that handful. When I made my first jetty recordings back in the 1990's I was fascinated by the range of sounds & the way things moved from incredible subtly to ear-pounding force. I would listen for hours to a single structure & become transfixed by its voices. The way Akos has put this cd together, by recording in autumn 2010 & deciding on the choices by October does manage to capture something of a sense of his immediate fascination with these sounds. I think with sound worlds that have been well explored it's always best to keep things simple, as if saying '& this is what my ears liked, simply presented to you'


I'm glad to have this cd & to add it to the handful of dics in this area that I will listen to many times. Again, I recommend you get hold of this pronto - 100 copies only !


you can find more info + sound clips & a way to order by visiting the 3leaves website here.



NEW RELEASE on . point engraved series:

STEFAN THUT - 'an ort, 1-9'



nine sound recordings

spread over a year

always at the same place and at the same time of the day

eight minutes of each recording, uncut

to be aligned (almost) seamlessly: seventytwo minutes altogether


score written & performed by Stefan Thut, 2009


engraved glass / . point engraved series eg.p009


"i'm very pleased to be releasing this work - a 72 minute composition of field recordings that both transport the listener & focus ones attention (as all good field recording based work should) on the art of listening & the endless vista of natural sound. The subtle task of composing with these sounds is best left simple, clear & focused & that objective is achieved here by Stefan" - JrF








prices inc p&p







review by Richard Pinnell (the watchful ear website):

Tonight, another release on Jez riley French’s prolific Engraved Glass CDr label, the ninth in his .point engraved series of releases by musicians other than himself. Now, if you played me this one blind, and asked me to name the label it was released on, I think I would have guessed correctly, such is the fit between this release, Stefan Thut’s an ort, 1-9 and riley French’s personal musical aesthetic. The written score for this piece, which was both composed and recorded by Thut, reads as follows:

nine sound recordings
spread over a year
always at the same place and at the same time of the day
eight minutes of each recording, uncut
to be aligned (almost) seamlessly: seventytwo minutes altogether

The CD consists of just what the score prescribes, nine eight minute long pieces placed one after the other with no space in between. So obviously then, what is important for any particular realisation of this score is the choice of place and time of day. I imagine that if you chose to record a deserted forest at midnight nine times the results may not be so great. Or maybe they would be fantastic? perhaps the point of this composition is to draw attention to one place, wherever it may be, and through close listening notice how different one place may sound, even at the same time of day if recorded on separate days.

Thut seems to have chosen a site that sounds not that dissimilar to my own home, a suburban site, quite peaceful and full of birdlife, but also not so far from a large town or busy traffic as to remain completely separate from the sounds of human activity. After just a cursory first listen, nothing particularly dramatic seems to happen across the nine recordings here. There is a calmness to them all, seemingly recorded during the daytime while birds are out singing, and a soft grey hum can be heard, a composite of what I think may be distant roads, wind in the air, passing aircraft etc… They are all generally quite serene and gentle, but it would do Thut’s score an injustice to reduce any commentary to that.

What is interesting here (to me at least) is how recordings made, presumably with the same equipment and the same volume and gain settings each time, can sound subtly different each time, so that the joins between the recordings really stand out a mile. In a few of the recordings rain can be heard, never that heavily, even though a roll of thunder appears at one point, and on these sections the recording feels darker, perhaps due to changes in air pressure? The birds sing happier on some pieces. One, that I am guessing was recorded on a Sunday as it includes rolling churchbells, is absolutely full of the sounds of what I would have easily accepted to have been an English summer’s afternoon, churchbells, dogs barking, choruses of twittering birds, light aircraft passing overhead. Only the sound of leather on willow seems to be missing! What stands out is the overall difference in feel to the nine parts here. I sense that they were all recorded at considerably different times of the year, as, perhaps like if you viewed the same place photographically, there seems to be a different colour to the recordings, as you might expect if viewing different seasons. The most summery part of the disc includes insects buzzing close to the mic as well as all the birds. The colder, more desolate recordings, that suggest winter to me, such as the one that opens the CD contain much less activity, and somehow the greyness of the background sounds seems amplified further.

OK, so this isn’t a release for everyone. Its possibly not even a release that every fan of field recordings will enjoy, as the subject matter is hardly unusual or original. The idea to reflect one place as it changes at different parts of the year though is a very nice one, an audio equivalent to the sped-up time lapse films we see every now and again that show how particular places evolve across the seasons. I found myself listening here in manner that didn’t really consider this release as ‘music’ as such, rather as a kind of audio documentary. I wondered about the place, wishing I could see it, picturing it in my mind, maybe a suburban back garden, with plenty of trees to catch the wind and hide the birds, the local church just down the road, the neighbour’s dog lying in the sun… A nice release anyway, coupled with one of riley French’s distinctive photos that I like, but can’t easily connect to what I hear on the CD.