Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #153. We are delighted to be releasing a new album by Lustmord, “Dark Matter” on 30th September 2016. We are now taking advanced orders for shipping later in the month. Full album download will follow immediately when shipping commences. Click here to listen to a medley of the album.
The next Spire event occurs 8th October at London’s Union Chapel, as part of their new three-day Organ Reframed festival. For all you holiday makers, Organ Reframed early bird festival passes are on sale for a little longer than originally announced… you can still get them, but do hurry! Cut-off date for early bird discounts is now 5th September. The full Spire programme has been announced and can be read below.
Touch now has an Instagram account – follow us @toucharchive.
TO:102 | Lustmord “Dark Matter”
CD + Digifile - 3 tracks - 70:38
We are now taking pre-orders for this item, including an audio teaser, edited by Lustmord.
Conceived and produced by B. Lustmord
Recorded in Los Angeles October-December 2015
Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Derived from an audio library of cosmological activity collected between 1993 and 2003. It was gathered from various sources including NASA (Cape Canaveral, Ames, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Arecibo), The Very Large Array, The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and various educational institutions and private contributors throughout the USA.
Lustmord writes: “The Universe we inhabit is a vast expanse far larger than we are able to comprehend. As we attempt to understand its underlying structure and as we gain new insight into the nature of matter, new questions arise and further gaps in our understanding are revealed.
Behind the world that we experience lies a veil of darkness and much is hidden between, beyond and unseen.
We are limited by our inability to truly grasp the infinite breadth of the Universe, the time scales involved in its measure and our insignificant position within.
Some things will always be unknowable, and existence does not begin or end with man's conception.
Everything that has ever been observed by man, even with our most sophisticated instruments amounts, to less than five percent of the Universe.
Approximately sixty-eight percent of the Universe is unseen dark energy and approximately twenty-seven percent is unseen dark matter. We have yet to discover what dark matter is, and only know the things it is not. Although it has not been directly observed, its existence and properties are inferred from its effects on visible matter, its influence on the Universe's large-scale structure, and its effects in the cosmic microwave background.
The universe began of darkness, not of light.
While space is a virtual vacuum, it does not mean there is no sound in space. It exists in space as naturally occurring electromagnetic vibrations, many well within the range of human hearing while others exist at different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum and these can be adjusted with software to bring them within our audio range.
The recordings of these interactions in space come from several different environments including radio, ultra violet, microwave and X-ray data and within these spectra a wide range of sources including interstellar plasma and molecules, radio galaxies, pulsars masers and quasars, charged particle interactions and emissions, radiation, exotic astrophysical objects, cosmic jets and flares from magnetars.”
About Lustmord: Widely credited as the originator of the “Dark Ambient” genre. Credits on over forty motion pictures including The Crow and Underworld. One of the two composers for the Turtle Rock/2K game Evolve. Worked with John Balance, Chris & Cosey, Clock DVA, Current 93, Paul Haslinger, Maynard James Keenan, Melvins, Nurse With Wound, Tool and Wes Borland amongst others.
Order Lustmord “Dark Matter” [CD] in the TouchShop
www.lustmord.com
8th October 2016 | Spire at the Union Chapel, London
The 17th Spire will take place at Union Chapel, London on 8th October 2016 as part of the Organ Reframed Festival (7-9 October 2016).
Performers: Charles Matthews, Fennesz, Philip Jeck, Simon Scott, Claire M Singer, John Beaumont and The Eternal Chord.
Part One (7-845pm)
Charles Matthews from The Robertsbridge Codex (piano)
Simon Scott (organ and laptop)
Philip Jeck (turntables)
Charles Matthews plays Philip Glass: Music in Fifths (organ)
Interval – John Beaumont (voice)
Part Two (9-1030pm)
Fennesz (organ and laptop)
Charles Matthews – Stasis: Wastelands of Sleep from Andrew Glover-Whitley’s Symphony no.4 (organ)
Claire M Singer – The Molendinar (organ)
The Eternal Chord (organ) with John Beaumont (voice)
Charles Matthews plays Charles Camilleri (piano)
Spire, an experimental music programme for organ and electronic works, pushes the envelope for which this most traditional of instruments is used. The organ has the greatest frequency range of any acoustic instrument, but this is rarely exploited; the unique sound of the mechanical organ has often been limited and controlled and Spire aims to liberate it from its history without denying that history.
The programme is carefully curated by Charles Matthews, organist, and Mike Harding, creative producer; combining organ works ancient (The Robertsbridge Codex) and modern. Other performers use the organ and organ works as a basis for their own compositions, using piano, voice, record players, samplers and other electronic devices.
Buy tickets at unionchapel.org.uk
Facebook event page
www.spire.org.uk
Tone 54 | Bethan Kellough “Aven”
Compact disc in slip case - 5 tracks - 27:54.
Limited edition of 500 copies
Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft
Mastered by Denis Blackham
Track List:
Descent
Vision
An Opening
Canopy
Low
Live at Volume, Los Angeles, 30th April 2016 as part of Touch Conference.
The word ‘Aven' refers to an underground shaft that leads upward from the roof of a cave passage.
Recorded with SoundField SPS200 & JrF C-Series contact microphones, Sennheiser ME64, Sound Devices 788T, Elektron Monomachine, RME Fireface UCX, and Cockos Reaper. Field recordings from Iceland, June 2015 and South Africa, November 2015.
Strings performed by Bethan Kellough.
Bethan Kellough (formerly Bethan Parkes) is a sound artist and composer. Her work spans across ambisonic composition, field recording, sound design and multichannel sound installation practices, drawing a focus on sonic spatial experience. Her works are designed to open out spaces with sound, exploring spatial aesthetics and the interactions between sonically and visually articulated spaces. The immersive sound-worlds she creates inhabit the boundaries between music and sound design, weaving together instrumental materials, sound design and ambisonic field recordings.
She holds a PhD in Sonic Arts from the University of Glasgow. In 2015 she joined the Touch Mentorship Programme.
Her works have been exhibited and performed internationally, including at Touch Conference, Los Angeles, USA; Gallery of Russian Art and Design, London, UK; Resonant Forms Festival, Los Angeles, USA; Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway; Jardins Efemeros Festival, Viseu, Portugal; Spazio Bocciofila, Venice, Italy; The Global Composition International Conference, Dieburg, Germany; Symposium on Acoustic Ecology, University of Kent, UK; Sound Thought Festival, Glasgow, UK.
Order Bethan Kellough's “Aven” [CD] in the TouchShop
www.bethankellough.com
WHO#07 | Dale Cornish and Phil Julian “Laughing Out”
7" Vinyl EP + WAV download – 3 tracks. Edition of 123 copies. Cut by Jason Goz.
Artwork – screenprint of a legendary double–act by Lukas Julius Keijser.
Track List:
A: Laughing Out
B1: For Vocal
B2: Palazzo
Dale Cornish: born, raised and current of London (south). Previously in No Bra (2004–6): co–wrote unexpected hit “Munchausen”. Terse humour and observations/worldly interests further evident with work of ecstatic noise trio Baraclough (2006–2012). Current focus is on solo recordings for labels including Entr’acte, The Tapeworm and Beartown Records, and collaborations with artists including Adam Asnan, Andie Brown, Powell and Phil Julian.
Phil Julian is a UK based composer and improviser active since the late 90s principally working with modular electronic devices and computers. Releases have appeared on labels including Entr’acte, Harbinger Sound, The Tapeworm and Beartown Records. Recent collaborations on recordings and performances with Dale Cornish, John Macedo, Kostis Kilymis, Jason Kahn and Angharad Davies. Regular live performances since 2004 in the UK, Europe and North America.
Buy Dale Cornish and Phil Julian “Laughing Out” [7" EP + WAVs] in the TouchShop
More information on www.tapeworm.org.uk
Watch a video for “Laughing Out” directed by Dale Cornish
www.dalecornish.com
www.cmx.org.uk
WHO#08 | Paul H Williams “Fallen to Earth”
7" Vinyl EP + WAV download – 4 tracks. Edition of 123 copies. Cut by Jason Goz.
Cover image and text by Paul H Williams.
Track List:
A1: Part III
A2: Part IV
B1: Part I
B2: Part II
Industrial space rock recorded in a bedroom in Beckenham one weekend in the winter of 1981 on a hired Tascam Portastudio and Korg synth with borrowed guitar, bass and FX pedals.
Buy Paul H Williams “Fallen to Earth” [7" EP + WAVs] in the TouchShop
More information on www.tapeworm.org.uk
Watch a video for “Fallen to Earth” (Part III) directed by Paul H Williams
Guerrilla Audio
Guerrilla Audio is a new series of audio raids by Simon Fisher Turner.
guer·ril·la
ɡəˈrilə/
noun
noun: guerilla
a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces.
Each audio edit will be posted for 14 days and then removed from the site, although the information about each guerrilla activity will be archived, but without the audio. There will be two postings per month with the first (also featuring Klara Lewis & Rainier Lericolais) on 1st August 2015, so please check in regularly to listen to the latest offering.
Guerrilla Audio
www.simonfisherturner.com
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The previous Touch NewsLetter can be found here.
