new & recent releases

on the 3leaves label:

Mark Peter Wright - Inanimate Life 2xCD-R (Free Shipping)

Inanimate Life is an ongoing audio catalogue, initially conceived whilst making a series of field recordings along the North East coast of England in 2006. For anybody who has walked, swam, sat or indeed attempted to record in these exposed conditions, they will be all too familiar with the experience of blustery coastal winds. During one such excursion I stood for some time watching and listening to seagulls drift on unseen and unheard thermals of air. I became fascinated by the intangibility of wind and its effect on physical objects. All around me seagulls were supported, pulled and caressed in suspended flight, sand was shaped and whipped into the air, coastal marram grass trembled and Victorian hand railings wailed.

This inaugural installment features some of natures most complex and vibrant audial worlds; including the creaking roots of wind blasted heather, the playful gusts that animate giant oak trees and the wailing drones that resonate along wired fencing.

Inanimate Life examines these delicate thresholds in our environmental, auditory perception and unveils a world teeming with sonic activity. The catalogue offers a moment to settle upon these events and in doing so, settle the ear upon the elusive, often fleeting phenomena of sound.

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on the gruenrekorder label:

The Clearing by Rebecca Joy Sharp & Simon Whetham Field Recording | International Dawn Chorus Day | 3rd May 2009 | Sefton Park, Liverpool, UK 6 Tracks (57:39) CD-R (50 copies) [Simon Whetham] In early 2009, Rebecca Sharp kindly invited me to work with her and record her playing harp in an outdoor setting. She proposed a recording session during daybreak on International Dawn Chorus Day, where she would improvise with the birdsong as the sun rose. We met at 03:45 and took the harp and recording equipment to a central point of the park. The weather was against us and rain was falling as we set up. Rebecca carried on as best she could under the conditions, playing when the rain eased up, as I moved around, finding positions that captured both the harp and all the other sonorous activities of the park, until after two hours, cold and damp, we called it a day. We met later the same day and discussed the session. We decided to embark on the same mission the following day, hoping the weather would be a little better… At 4am on 4th May we set up in the same spot. It was cloudy but dry, and a combination of being more prepared, listening more closely to the individual birds and feeling more relaxed led to an incredibly rich session. The harp sounds fantastic! On this album you will hear Rebecca and the wildlife of Sefton Park were conversing with one another – a truly beautiful experience – one I will always be thankful I was witness to, and able to record. [Rebecca Joy Sharp] I had suggested to Simon that we might use a piece of mine called The Clearing, a fairly ambient piece that I wrote a few years ago (in fact, a homage to John Martyn’s Small Hours), that had never quite found a home in anything else I’d done. It ended up being the only composed (musical) element we used; any other tunes I played felt intrusive and arbitrary and were quickly abandoned in favour of abstract improvisation. At times I find the recurring glimpses of The Clearing to be reassuringly formal, familiar. Other times, I hear them as a reminder of my own absurd need in the beginning to impose elements to something that is already beautiful and in essence untouchable; over which I can never, must never have any affect. For me, the presence of The Clearing (and indeed the project as a whole) toys with several such delicate tensions, between things I know next to nothing about – ornithology, botany, this time of the morning – and the desire to abandon knowledge, temporarily at least. It also perhaps creates an aural equivalent of its physical counterpart – a meeting point, a place for resolution. I enjoy the occasional falters, hesitancies from cold hands, a buzzy string. A major arpeggio is as surprising when it comes, as an unidentifiable rustling sound. The clunk of my tuning key slotting onto the peg (the harp waking up) provides context and a reminder of the machinery involved; my own agency, a few necessary decisions. We are also reminded that this dawn chorus includes a fox-fight, distant traffic and shouting. This is due in no small part to Simon’s expertise and I am immensely grateful to have been able to realise this project with him. We worked as I’m sure you will listen: with a certain reverence, a feeling of being let into a secret, albeit a poorly-kept one that happens every day. This is bird-business and will happen whether we are here or not.

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on the mystery sea label:

Banks Bailey "Upwelling"

Banks Bailey hails from Tucson, Arizona, a region renowned for its natural wonders... mostly there, he selectively captures sounds letting them tell intimate stories, and interact with our own trajectories... Brought into the light by Ian Holloway and his Quiet World imprint, he has entrusted him with his eloquent "still lifes", translating them into a few rather remarkable collabs, notably with Ian himself ("A Brief Sojourn") and Ian augmented by the presence of drone-cult figure Darren Tate ("Summerland")... His solo outing ("Vibrations from the Holocene") showed his strength in assembling fascinating soundscapes while using simple, sometimes commonplace, elemental field recordings...

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Upstream memories flow into our veins like a dense river... Dark night is howling, and fatherly words still resound in our ears...

Lonely drops punctuate the drift, echoes of dust, and past activities, tiny jerks of life, A ceaseless wandering...

Glide along the twists & turns, groping for another moment of truth, dragging the remains on the banks, "Upwelling" is a lantern, an improbable guiding gleam...

a deep voice, articulating our innermost fears... a sort of supreme loop, where start & end meet, leaving you naked, washed out, just virginal, once again...

MS63 cd-r ltd to 100 numbered copies artwork + design + treatments by Daniel Crokaert /2010- based for the most part on photos by Banks Bailey/photo insert : Banks Bailey duration: 44:59