Welcome to the Touch Newsletter #199. Released today, “Agora” is Christian Fennesz’s first solo album since “Mahler Remixed” [Touch, 2014] and “Bécs” [Editions Mego, 2014]. You can read an interview with Fennesz at cycling74.com
Zachary Paul’s debut album for Touch, “A Meditation on Discord”, compiles two live recordings from 2018 and a short film score, showcasing his expressive range and unique playing style. Available to preorder now.
On 6 April in Athens, Charles Matthews, Claire M Singer, Sohrab and The Eternal Chord perform a Spire concert as a part of Borderline, the most adventurous music festival in Athens. For further information: www.onassis.org
On 12 April in Berlin, there is a launch party for Thomas Mahmoud’s recent release on The Tapeworm, “Univorm”. Also in performance: Jan St. Werner, Andi Toma, HIGGS and more, with The Tapeworm doing a cassette DJ set.
TO:115 | Fennesz “Agora”
CD/DL
Mastered by Denis Blackham
Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Track listing:
1: In My Room
2: Rainfall
3: Agora
4: We Trigger The Sun
You can hear a medley of the 4 tracks, which constitute a symphony*, here
* a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four
“Agora” is Christian Fennesz’s first solo album since “Mahler Remixed” [Touch, 2014] and “Bécs” [Editions Mego, 2014]. Fennesz writes: “It’s a simple story. I had temporarily lost a proper studio workspace and had to move all my gear back to a small bedroom in my flat where I recorded this album. It was all done on headphones, which was rather a frustrating situation at first but later on it felt like back in the day when I produced my first records in the 1990s. In the end it was inspiring. I used very minimal equipment; I didn't even have the courage to plug in all the gear and instruments which were at my disposal. I just used what was to hand.”
Neil Kulkarni in The Wire writes: “The results are gorgeous… up to an azure sky, out to a rolling ocean, down to geological depths, back to the hinterland. There’s something almost mystical, the promontory it takes you to… a vantage point high about earth, where God whispers in your ear… completely absconds from any trace of human touch… seems to emerge direct from the imagination without physicality… facing forward, apprehending an uneasy future as not engulfs the listener.”
Buy Fennesz “Agora” on Bandcamp
www.fennesz.com
Tone 67 | Zachary Paul “A Meditation on Discord”
CD/DL
Mastered by Simon Scott @ SPS Mastering
Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Track listing:
1: Premonition
2: Slow Ascent
3: A Person with Feelings
You can listen to an extract of “Premonition” here
Zachary Paul’s debut album for Touch, “A Meditation on Discord” compiles two live recordings from 2018 and a short film score, showcasing his expressive range and unique playing style. Both live recordings — “Premonition” and “Slow Ascent” — were fully improvised on his violin (“The Duke,” 1878), a minimal assortment of pedals (Earthquaker Afterneath, Diamond Memory Lane Jr, and Boss RC-30) and looped vocals.
The Quietus writes: “Zachary Paul proves one human being alone on stage with a violin can still conjure up a whole world.” Read the full review here.
Anna von Hausswolff says: “this is just… wow.”
Preorder Zachary Paul “A Meditation on Discord” on Bandcamp
www.thezacharypaul.com
06.04.2019 | Spire live at Borderline, Athens
Charles Matthews
Claire M Singer
Sohrab
& The Eternal Chord
In its ninth year, Borderline, the most adventurous music festival in Athens, returns more timely than ever. The Onassis Stegi, in collaboration with the Irtijal Festival of experimental music in Beirut, brings us the most contemporary and avant-garde sounds of the international musical stage, in concerts, dj sets, screenings, and talks.
German Evangelical Church, Sina 66, Athens
8-10PM 6/04/19
Visit www.onassis.org for further information
www.spire.org.uk/a>
TTW#112 | Thomas Mahmoud “Univorm”
On 12 April in Berlin, to celebrate the release of his tape, Thomas Mahmoud presents Risc Night #3 – full lineup and details on the Facebook Event page.
Cassette only – limited edition of 100 copies. Artwork by Stefan Fähler.
Tracklist:
A: Univorm A
B: Univorm B
Born in 1977, Thomas Mahmoud is a Berlin based cross-disciplinary artist – musician, sound designer, performer, author and radioplay producer.
Since stepping down as the singer with Cologne based band Von Spar (L’age d’or, Tomlab), he has pursued his interests in deconstructing sounds, using analogue and digital tools to work with textures and field recordings. His installation and sound design work is renowned, not least his 48-hour opera with the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop or his work with choreographer Kat Válastur at the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens.
Many musicians erase mistakes – static produced by tangled wires between the instrument and the amplifier painstakingly filtered-out, the random recording mistakes deleted and corrected, until everything is pleasantly plain. Others work with the waste of these procedures, with the dispensable, the sonic trash. This is how Mahmoud works. He listens closely and grabs the hiss and the hum, not the tone, of a thick bass string. He samples the breathing, not the voice, of his favourite singers.
A collaborator by instinct, Mahmoud has worked with the likes of Can Khan Oral, Michael Wertmüller, Mouse on Mars, Birds Of Death, Jammin’ Unit, Dr Walker, Marcus Schmickler and many more. “Univorm” is his most recent multimedia project, in collaboration with visual artist Stefan Fähler.
Buy Thomas Mahmoud “Univorm” on Bandcamp
More information on www.tapeworm.org.uk
Facebook Event page for “Risc Night #3”, the “Univorm” release party
28.04.2019 | Touch presents… Live at Iklectik
UnicaZürn
Mark Van Hoen
Touch
Doors: 7pm
Film*: 730pm
Concert: 8pm
*Film: Stargazers Assistant – Resurgam II (An Audio Visual work by The Stargazer’s Assistant and Maurice Burns). Taken from the 2018 LP Resurgam I, Resurgam II by The Stargazer’s Assistant. Duration: 19mins 52sec
Click here to purchase tickets
14.05.2019 | Touch presents… Live at Zebulon, Los Angeles
Carl Stone
Kid606
Geneva Skeen
Zachary Paul
Click here to purchase tickets
Facebook Event page
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. We are well into the 3rd year and have just posted episode 83…
Guerrilla Audio
www.simonfisherturner.com
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The previous Touch NewsLetter can be found here.
