Saturday, March 13, 2010 – 7:30 pm
Kranzberg Arts Center
501 N. Grand
John Tamm-Buckle will be performing a piece, Dronning Maud Land, for the The New Music Circle. Read more about it here.
Kvist005 - Guillaume Gargaud - Here
Kvist 005 – Here by improvisational guitarist Guillaume Gargaud is out now! Go to the release page to place an order. Reviews forthcoming.
EU customers will be able to order Kvist 003 – EOD – Untitled at a more EU-friendly shipping rate soon. A batch has been shipped to Kvist UK headquarters and should be there by the end of this week (ending Friday Sept. 11th) while EU distro issues are being sorted.
***********Update***********
Records are in the UK now. Records are £6.50 and postage within the EU is £2.00, pay via paypal. For multiple copies, contact Kvist for correct pricing. For single copies click the button below:
The San Francisco Bay Guardian has written a feature entitled Lords of Drift and Discovery. From the article:
“Now, in August 2009, adventurous listeners can bask in the slo-mo beauty and consistent warmth of Solid Dawn: Electronic Works 1979-1982 (Kvist), a collection of Emmanuel tracks accompanied by gorgeous sunrise and sunset photos, another one of his specialties. Over the course of a few decades, customer service workshop gigs kept Emmanuel on the road and in the air — he estimates he has logged 1.5 million miles. “If I was seated by a window, I’d take out my camera and see if I could find something fun,” he says, with characteristic lack of pretense. “I was very fortunate to see a lot of beautiful things from six, seven, (laughs) eight miles high.”
And we are fortunate that he took pictures, and even more lucky that he’s created the sonic equivalent of natural wonders — songs like Solid Dawn’s “Sunrise Over Galveston Bay,” a water-swept and windblown chime dream that makes reference to Emmanuel’s childhood surroundings in its title. Personal and universal wonder is at the core of Emmenuel’s meditative outlook. “For whatever reason, when I was a little kid, around eight or nine, I discovered how fun it was to put myself into an altered or dream state,” he remembers. “I would go into my grandmother’s bedroom, close the curtains to make the room as dark as possible, turn on the air conditioner and just lay down. I’d take these one hour naps … ”
Coming soon – Kvist 006 – Pieces for Kohn/Formal and Informal Music.
About Pieces for Kohn/Formal and Informal Music:
Reissue of 2 out-of-print works originally released on the artist’s own Somnath label. Formal and Informal Music contains the title piece Formal and Informal Music (1980), and Crimson Sterling (1973) for electronics, winds and percussion, and also features JD Parran, woodwinds and saxes, and Rich O’Donnell, percussion. Pieces for Kohn is comprised of four electronic pieces, musical responses to four paintings by artist Bill Kohn.
About Tom Hamilton:
TOM HAMILTON has been composing and performing for over 40 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. Hamilton often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of “present-time listening” on the part of both performer and listener.
Hamilton was a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and he participated in a residency at the foundation’s center in Umbria. His CD London Fix received an honorary mention in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica. His performing and recording colleagues have included Peter Zummo, Bruce Gremo, Karlheinz Essl, Bruce Arnold, Rich O’Donnell, Jonathan Haas, Jacqueline Martelle, Al Margolis, Steve Nelson-Raney, Hal Rammel, Christopher Burns, Thomas Gaudynski, Rick Aaron, Thomas Buckner, David Soldier, Bruce Eisenbeil, Richard Lerman, and Lisle Ellis. He has been a collaborator with visual artists, including Fred Worden (filmmaker), Van McElwee and Morey Gers (video artists), and the late Ernst Haas (photographer).
An active participant in New York’s new music scene, Hamilton was the co-director of the 2004 Sounds Like Now festival, and he has co-produced the Cooler in the Shade/Warmer by the Stove new music series since 1993. He is a longtime member of composer Robert Ashley’s touring opera ensemble. His audio production can be found in over 50 CD releases of new and experimental music, including recordings by Muhal Richard Abrams, David Behrman, Thomas Buckner, Bernard Hoffer, Alvin Lucier, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, and “Blue” Gene Tyranny.
Tom Hamilton’s sound installations have been presented in New York at Diapason, Studio Five Beekman, the 479 Gallery and Experimental Intermedia, and elsewhere at CCNOA (Brussels) The St. Louis Art Museum, CalArts (Valencia, CA), the Sound Symposium festival (St. John’s NF), Woodland Pattern Book Center (Milwaukee) and the Subtropics festival (Miami).
Recordings include:
Local Customs (Mutable)
Shadow Machine (Pogus)
Intersections (Muse-Eek)
Disklaimer (Muse-Eek)
London Fix (Muse-Eek)
Analogue Smoque (Pogus)
Jump The Circle, Jump the Line (Mutable)
Slybersonic Tromosome (Penumbra)
Sebastian’s Shadow (Monroe Street Music)
Off-Hour Wait State (O.O.)
Act of Finding (O.O.)
French improvisational guitarist and member of experimental groups Zooloop, Aarde and Zwann eï, Guilaume Gargaud will be releasing a 9 track CD entitled Here sometime in august. This will be his third solo CD, with previous releases She on Utech Records and Le Lieu Dirty Demos. Go to the release page for mp3 clips and additional info.
Press for She:
The unobscured natural photography on the cover of this disc sets up what is contained within. While the label is usually focused on the dark, opaque droning sounds, Gargaud’s contribution to Utech is much clearer and lighter, at least in relative terms. Mixing abstract electronics with some occasionally plaintive guitar playing, it stays relatively warm and organic throughout, with a few intentional, but compelling bumps along the way. At its core, it feels like a more stripped down version of Fennesz.
The comparison to Christian Fennesz is not just one of convenience though. Both artists meld the abstract chaos of electronics with some pure and melodic guitar, allowing the timbre and color of the instrument to shine through the mire at times. However, Gargaud is less focused on the complex composition techniques of Fennesz, and the result is a somewhat less nuanced and complex sound, but more of an improvisational one that allows more than a modicum of chance to come in.
Tracks like “Le Chien De Jose” push the guitar to the margins to focus on the electronics. The tracks is focused initially on a quiet, distant hum that slowly comes into focus, high end digital tones, gurgling noises, and ultrasonic squeals eventually come in, with what sounds like it could be some extremely unconventional guitar riffs buried in the low end of the sonic spectrum. “Clairiere” similarly keeps the guitar at bay by leading off with some subtle static and running water type sounds, a few shards of guitar tones buzz in and out, but the electronics stay the focus.
“La Legende Du Scarabe” does feature some soft, untreated guitar notes, though they, along with electronic strings, pings, and organ tones, are all fed through a dubby echo chamber that allows each to just bounce around the mix into infinity. The closing “Au Bord Du Lac” is similar, letting beautiful guitar notes shine through a hazy, opaque atmosphere of lush electronic tones. “Mer Du Nord” is perhaps the most overt, letting the clear guitar strums dominate while organic, atmosphereic ambience subtly punctuate.
While the album never gets “harsh,” both “Lumiere Froide” and “Emissaire” are perhaps the most pronounced, both being focused on a swirling mess of sounds that, at least in the microscopic sense, sound orchestral, but are so jumbled as to be less than discernable, the latter adds some vaguely kraut rock guitar soloing, albeit heavily treated and somewhat obscured by the chaos.
Once again I have to give kudos to Keith Utech for releasing yet another young project that, even without a major discography, has already developed a definite and specific sound and style. While the label is mining somewhat consistent territory, it is widely encompassing enough that I know roughly what I will get with each new release, but it’s never a faceless or generic disc at all. — Brainwashed
Press for Le Lieu:
Although limited to a mere 150 copies, Guillaume Gargaud’s wonderful Le Lieu is the type of record that deserves a large-scale release. This is a magnificent drone album that ranks among the best I have heard. Armed with only a “prepared” guitar and a computer, France’s Gargaud has created an inspired and inspiring mood piece that is a joy to behold. You’ll want to find yourself a pitch black room and a comfortable chair so you can best immerse yourself in the atmospheric bliss that comprises Le Lieu.
The record begins with its most intense composition, the eleven minute “Téphrosia.” Soaked in a reedy electronic hum, it introduces a dense, pulsing drone that is somehow dark and tense, yet miraculously calming. There is a sense of something brooding – a brittle image of the unknown lurking under the surface – yet the result is meditative in a manner akin to Biosphere’s work. Similarly dense and bass-heavy is “Mille plis,” a hazy mass with an oddly regal glow. On a different note, “Au milieu” is clicky and finicky, drenched in reverb but strangely anxious and a tad overwhelming. A similar formula is employed on tribal “Le lieu” which makes use of acoustic guitar and woodwinds to build towards a wonderful climax. However, the album’s hidden treat is the brief “Les feuilles des forêts vierges,” a composition so overwhelmingly haunting that you’ll want to leave a nightlight on.
This recording proved to be a real gem for me. Limited-edition drone albums have reached Starbucks-calibre ubiquity on today’s music scene it seems, but it is rare for one disc to be so exceptional. Dark, cinematic, and unfailingly emotional, Guillaume Gargaud’s Le Lieu has solidified its place as one of my favourite releases of 2008. Very recommended for serious music fans.
90%
Matt Shimmer/indieville
KVIST 004: Solid Dawn
Go to the release page to order from this site. Otherwise, coming to a record shop near you soon!
