Category Archives: UPDATE

Church Shuttle – ‘Zone6 Chiller’ C47
C. Durham sends a drum machine wondering through southwest Detroit in the direction of zug island. The machine reveals that the path to clarity only appears to those spaced out on marathon fumes and caked in pet coke. c47.

Memorial Day C47
K. Reinshagen and D. Allen bring together audio collected from all corners of expanded consciousness. c47.

The New Me C47
New project from Pearl Diver and Glass Path. Locked in a lingering rhythm of smoky dictation. c20.

WEBSITE

Amputee – ‘Turmoil’ C20 $7
Straight out of the cold dark earth of Sweden comes Empty Space Collective’s Amputee (Joel Simeus and åttatvå) latest creation “Turmoil”. The album begins like a polar bear walking through the streets of Stockholm after the first Winter’s snow fall. You can feel the foot steps pound into the earth as distortion and sound collide. Heavy drones and broken beats open the skies. Turmoil chants begin as we are elevated into another dimension of sound. The only respite of this album comes midway through side B – a moment of empty space that is quickly filled with metal scrapping drones and thunderous beats. Limited to 82 pea green cassettes.

WEBSITE

NNA086: Wanda Group – ‘Ornate Circular’ CS
Wanda Group valiantly returns for their third release on NNA Tapes. Since the project’s debut “Bass Urine” in 2011, Louis Johnstone seems to have worked diligently to eradicate all traces of traditional “music” from his work, leaving behind only the acousmatic sounds of life itself. The 2013 NNA LP “A Slab About Being Held Captive”, his recent digital releases on his own imprint Umbro G, and most recently the “We All Mutate Around The Mountain” LP on Italy’s Second Sleep label have all been further evidence of this musical deconstruction and deepening journey down the rabbit hole of musique concrete. Wanda Group’s brilliance is demonstrated through the use of juxtaposition of multiple levels. Johnstone’s recurring use of liquid, aqueous sounds are paired with the stifling hiss of room recordings, pitting oceanic vastness and claustrophobic confinement against each other. The muffled sounds of distance clash with magnified texture, giving birth to a palpable dynamic tension. The warm organics of tapping, squeaking, shuffling, scraping, and other sonic by-products of human physicality’s interaction with its surroundings are paired with the eerie coldness and faceless sterility of electronic frequency detritus and mechanical noise pollution. The result of all this constant friction is the atmosphere of anxiety and dread that has become a signature of the Wanda Group sound world. Although “Ornate Circular” seems to be constructed from various tape and field recordings, electronic signal processing, radio interference and digital effects, Wanda Group refuses to make these elements the emphasis of the work or give any clues as to their origin. What Johnstone presents us with instead is purely the creative manipulation of the sounds of earthly existence, void of context or traditional musical structure. His masterful use of layering and composition gives the work a deeply personal expression of abstract sound, perhaps meant for the artist alone to fully know the meaning behind. As humans, it is our nature to want to assign a reality-based narrative to sounds we cannot see the source of, but Wanda Group denies us this through the complete deconstruction and rearrangement of everyday sounds, creating a totality of abstraction which nullifies context altogether. Comes with free digital download coupon.

​NNA087: Travis Laplante & Peter Evans – ‘Secret Meeting’ CD/CS
NNA Tapes is proud to present Secret Meeting, the collaboration of Travis Laplante (tenor saxophone) and Peter Evans (trumpet). Laplante and Evans are each devoted to creating multi-dimensional improvisational spaces, pushing their instruments to the edge in the service of a musical experience that travels beyond the realm of the mind. The deeply mysterious, epic improvisations on Secret Meeting points toward a seemingly ancient relationship between these two boundary-breaking improvisers. Encompassing a vast array of sounds and an umbilical cord-like connection, Secret Meeting embodies profound exhaustion in one moment, as though the players’ collective weariness might altogether slump them over, and manages unparalleled vitality and vigor in the next. Through all of these sonic undulations, Evans and Laplante place the listener within a visceral, symbiotic torrent of beauty.

 Peter Evans is a trumpet player, and improvisor/composer based in New York City since 2003. Evans is part of a broad, hybridized scene of musical experimentation and his work cuts across a wide range of modern musical practices and traditions. Peter is committed to the simultaneously self-determining and collaborative nature of musical improvisation as a compositional tool, and works to use the great music of the past as a springboard to forge new directions with his colleagues. His primary groups as a leader are the Peter Evans Quintet and the Zebulon trio. In addition, Evans has been performing and recording solo trumpet music since 2003 and is widely recognized as a leading voice in the field, having released several recordings over the past decade. He is a member of several fully cooperative groups, such as Pulverize the Sound, Rocket Science, Premature Burial and is constantly experimenting and forming new configurations of players. Evans’ work as a band member extends to groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble and Wet Ink. He has been commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, the Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival, the Jerome Foundation’s Emerging Artist Program and was a 2014 Artist-in-Residence at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY. He has presented and/or performed his music at many major international festivals and has toured his own groups extensively in Europe, Canada and the United States. Travis Laplante is a saxophonist, composer, and qigong healer living in southern Vermont and Brooklyn, New York. Laplante leads Battle Trance, the acclaimed tenor saxophone quartet. He is also known for his solo saxophone work and his longstanding ensemble Little Women. Laplante has recently performed and/or recorded with Trevor Dunn, Ches Smith, Gerald Cleaver, Michael Formanek, Mary Halvorson, Darius Jones, Matt Maneri, and Matt Mitchell, among others. He has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many major international festivals throughout the US, Canada and Europe. As a qigong student of master Robert Peng, Laplante has undergone traditional intensive training. His focus in recent years, under the tutelage of Laura Stelmok, has been on Taoist alchemical medicine and the cultivation of the heart. Laplante is passionate about the intersection of music and medicine. He and his wife are the founders of Sword Hands, a qigong and acupuncture healing practice based in Brooklyn, New York and Putney, Vermont. Cassette version comes with free digital download coupon.

WEBSITE

NNN Cook – ‘Singing Monads’ C20
Singing Monads are my kinetic sound sculptures utilizing hanging cymbals with motorized wooden-wheels attached to them. The motorized wheel, once powered on, rolls and strikes against the cymbal in such a way that it excites a dance of shimmering overtones with ever shifting patterns of metallic harmonics. Conceptually the form of the cymbal is focused on as a study of sacred geometry, archetypes, semiotics, symbols, motion, cycles, and seasons. It also references the Quadrivium: the four liberal arts of number, geometry, music, and cosmology, which states “Geometry is number in space, music is number in time, and the cosmos expresses number in space and time.” From this stems a study of the monad, which the Quadrivium states, “is simultaneously circle, center, and the purest tone.” Professionally duplicated and printed. Recorded by Jonathan James. Full color four-panel J-cards. Edition of 50 on Chrome Tape.

Nyfolt – ‘Gutter Echoes’ C20
NYFOLT MANIFESTO (PHILADELPHIA / ST. LOUIS):Transmission 1: Nyfolt is a multi-faceted / pluralistic Afrofuturist, Neoplatonic, and Cyberpunk sound art / noise group. JoAnn J. McNeil, as a black American entity, presents an afrocentric perspective manifested through her voice, words, and electronics. She is a wellspring of creative / transcendental thought and energy. Nathan N. Cook, as a white American entity, presents his perspective through a personal kind of Neoplatonic / Cyberpunk thought focused on sound exploration / therapy. We are fed up with divisive rhetoric / actions and are seeking communion. Together, through our art, we explore themes of futurism relating to personal identity and working against the isolating effects of racial politics and social stratification. The genesis of our sound is the coalescing of our individual psychosocial topographies. The nexus is our shared interest in the aether and soul that transcends the shell / vessel of the self. The synthesis stems from the earthly / universal commonality of being human. Humanism is our catalyst against marginalizing and alienating ideologies. Earth is our home. Transhumanism aids in our understanding of how to use technology and electricity to diffuse our art effectively. We are investigating immateriality and the metaphysical that at times is indifferent to the flesh. The Neoplatonic aspect focuses on our thoughts, ideas, and philosophies that are not concerned with the superficial and, to a certain extent, reject it. Conversely our genetics, experiences, and identities in the stratified and class obsessed landscape of American society are inextricable and irreducible. We confront the turmoil, frustration, and anger involved in the culture wars and through interrogation transmute these feelings into communion, accord, and empathy. Nyfolt is critical of materialism. Other trajectories are led by intuition, an affinity for the peculiar, and of a desire to avert, neutralize, and extinguish the corrosive and paralyzing effects of prejudice, discrimination, and conformist thought / living. We are humans. Ultimately, Nyfolt is a mystical catalyst for the investigation of our identities / existence with a vision of egalitarianism and social communion from the present to the future. We are people. Our intention is to avoid ensnaring otherness figments. We are in the process of discovering mystical kernels… Professionally duplicated and printed. Edition of 100 on Chrome Tape.

Nathan Nolan Newrohr Cook – ‘Transmutation Passages I-IV’ C21
Cassette edition documenting Cook’s sound installation in the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis’ elevator for the Audible Interruptions sound art series in 2014. Audible Interruptions is a series of site-specific sound installations that investigate the sonic identity of the museum’s architecture. First presented in fall 2013 and continuing through summer 2014, the three-part series features works that occupy museum areas— the restrooms, a hallway, and the elevator—that are not traditionally used for displaying art, removing distinctions between exhibition and common spaces. Such utilitarian environments, having a specific and limited purpose, typically do not promote thoughtful analysis and are used in mechanical and unconscious ways. By re-inventing the aural and conceptual landscapes of these areas, the works in Audible Interruptions offer a unique experience, helping us discover new and unexpected ways to interact with architecture and rethink familiar places. Audible Interruptions is a yearlong exhibition series organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by guest curator Kevin Harris, a St. Louis-based artist, musician, and engineer. Nathan Cook often presents live sound art performances that invite unique interactions with the audience and where patience, commitment, and engagement are rewarded with meditative and thought-provoking soundscapes. With Transmutation Passages, Cook uses the controlled environment of the elevator to explore the relationship between sound and space. Four separate pieces rotate over the course of the exhibition, each using sound to encourage a novel way of experiencing the movement of the elevator.
I. Driving: Spatial Displacement Digital stereophonic audio, 6:23 minutes Driving: Spatial Displacement uses cassette recordings Cook made while driving on highways. The raw field recordings from under the hood, outside the car window, and inside the vehicle were edited, layered, and arranged. The result provokes memories and induces the feeling of horizontal movement while the setting of the elevator provides a simultaneous, contrasting experience of vertical movement through space.
II. Network Overheat Digital stereophonic audio, 4:03 minutes The claustrophobic setting of the elevator is paired with an anxiety-inducing electronic score, encouraging passengers to question their level of trust and to what extent they are willing to surrender to technology.
III. Verticality: The Fountain of Bliss Digital stereophonic audio, 5:00 minutes Verticality: The Fountain of Bliss is a layered arrangement of digital field recordings of several local water fountains. The work playfully reinforces the vertical movement of the elevator while inviting poetic interpretations of the sound of falling water, re-contextualized in an unlikely interior.
IV. Enter as Flesh and Exit as Gold Digital stereophonic audio, 4:00 minutes Enter as Flesh and Exit as Gold was created by manipulating the pitch of several electronic oscillators in order to generate subtly shifting waves of harmonic overtones. At first listen, the work is awash in static. The chamber of the elevator facilitates focused attention however, revealing a myriad of pulses and beating patterns. Professionally duplicated and printed. With color double-sided, 4-panel j-cards. Digital download link included. Mastered by Jonathan James. Edition of 100 on Chrome Tape.

Alex Cunningham – ‘Kinesthetics’ C42
Alex is a St. Louis-based guitarist and violinist originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His sensibilities and prowess range from extended technique/experimental playing in solo and group free improvisational settings to performing composed post-rock in Hardbody alongside members of Spelling Bee and Stonechat. The latest entry into the Close/Far catalogue is Alex’s new tape “Kinesthetics” featuring nine solo improvisations on violin. Overall the collection displays a very distinct quality of earnestness and alertness while communicating with a spectacular vocabulary of texture, rhythm, and gesture making it quite a stunning debut solo recording. Professionally duplicated and printed. Digital download link included. Edition of 100 on Chrome Tape.

WEBSITE

HARRY BERTOIA – ‘Complete Sonambient Collection’ 11xCD + book
The Complete Sonambient Collection features all 11 Sonambient releases newly restored from the original master reels. A heavy duty box holds 11 CDs each packaged in replica sleeves and a 110 page book contains a lengthy historic essay, a Smithsonian interview with Harry Bertoia, exclusive Sonambient era material from the Bertoia archive, photos of the Sonambient barn during Harry’s lifetime and updated with many shots of the barn today. Also included are reflections on Bertoia from David Sefton, Tom Welsh, David Harrington (Kronos Quartet) and all three of Bertoia’s children. In the late fifties Harry Bertoia began working on long-form improvised compositions by utilizing pure acoustic tones produced using his own metal sound sculptures. Bertoia coined the term Sonambient to desribe the music of his sculptures and the lush overtones they evoked, renovated a barn on his property deep in the PA woods, and often recorded his nightly sessions in the barn using 4 overhead microphones and a 1/4″ tape recorder. Bertoia dedicated the last twenty years of his life to his Sonambient work and in 1970 he released the first Sonambient LP. In 1978, in the final months of his life, he selected recordings from his archive and produced 10 more Sonambient records. He would not live long enough to see these records in person.

ELEH/TARA JANE O’NEIL split LP
Tara Jane O’Neil Medusa Smack; ELEH Circle Four: 100 Gongs For Arieto. Sound sculptures and gongs by Harry Bertoia unite the sides of this split LP from Tara Jane O’Neil and Eleh. Packaged in deluxe screen printed jackets in an edition of 800. The first 300 copies are on metallic gold vinyl. O’Neil’s composition was commissioned by Venessa Renwick for her Medusa Smack video installation (originally screened in 2012 at the Oregon Biennial). The piece is partially comprised of sounds recorded by Harry Bertoia on his own Sonambient sound sculptures, as well as a recording Tara made of Athanasius Kircher’s Bell Wheel at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Eleh’s side consists of 100 gongs synthesized on a Serge modular system to honor the centennial of Bertoia’s birth in 2015.

WEBSITE

terrine/fusiller split CS
pseudo-conceptual tape – terrine side rec. may 2015 – fusiller side rec. june 2015 – 16:32 per side. terrine is a lofi industrial beer trip dedicated to the divas from your teenage world. fusiller is the dust of the warm-up and technical misdemeanour sessions preceding the 2015 tapette fest. this is screams & tears & love & fury & misadjusted microphones & loopings.

dmz – ‘carex boréal’ CS
back again, forever & again. electronics looking into your eyes with their silicium heart. adulterated electricity, synthetic birds, brain diving board, some kind of hyperactivty. the final proof that you can play while turning your back. printed on full super germanic quality with inserts super easy to lose. ultra-pro dubbing.

WEBSITE

BODY MORPH – ‘Mold in a Meaningless Coffin’ box
Reissue. Lovingly crafted 8 cassette box set containing out of print cassettes and other material from BODY MORPH, originally released between 2008 and 2016. Set contains a poster, 10-page booklet, and wrap-around cover all in full color and housed in a “library-style” vinyl box. Edition of 25 boxed sets. Set contains the following material: “The Foam” (Hermitage), “Muted Me” (EXBX), “Sensorium Connect” (EXBX), split w/INVASION STATUS (American Tapes), split w/ GAB (EXBX), “Travel Keys” (Digitalis), “Gibbering Rot” (Hermitage), “Leech” (Gods of Tundra), “Bone Alone” (EXBX), “Mountain Manglings Vol.2” (EXBX), “Live with the Hamtramck Philharmonic Orchestra” split w/ J.LORENZ (EXBX), “Centipedes” (EXBX), “Negative Face” (Arbor), split w/GOLDBERG (aSoundesign) “The Villagers Will Never Wake…”

WEBSITE

HF12 Braeyden Jae/AMULETS split
Split release of heart rending ambience from Braeyden Jae (Salt Lake City, UT), and AMULETS (Austin, TX) engineered from inception as two halves of a single emotional whole. A pair of devastatingly beautiful long form droners. Ten thousand pounds of weightlessness. Forty five hand assembled copies, professionally dubbed on chrome tape. Inserts duplicated directly on individual pages of a 1984 copy of the novel Planet Of Whispers, by James P Kelly.

Hf11 Sound_00 + Lefterna – ‘Collab 6’
The sixth in a series of collaborative releases between aural architects Sound_00 (Antonio Dimitrov) and Lefterna (Boban Ristevski). Shattered memories reimagined as echoes. Sound sorting machines. Forty five hand assembled copies, professionally dubbed on a single side of chrome tape. Inserts duplicated directly on individual pages of a 1983 copy of the novel The Cosmic Computer, by H. Beam Piper.

WEBSITE

German Army – ‘Yanomami’ CS
Since first establishing its elusive roots in some undetermined location in 2011, German Army has led a darkly addicting, fascinatingly consistent run of surreal dirges on some of the most revered outsider imprints in the game, including Night People, A Giant Fern, Monofonus, Skrot Up, Burka For Everybody, and Yerevan Tapes. Peter Kris, the project’s “known” bandleader, brandishes a flurry of post-industrial vignettes, tinged with dubby effects, atonal clatter, and shimmering, uncanny beauty. On ‘Yanomami,’ German Army tightens its approach to hypnotic, vaguely plunderphonic approach to its signature rhythmic sound collages. Tracks like “Serve in Aramaic,” “Tomochic Rebellion,” and “Advanced Prophecy” speak to scenes both doomed and hopeful, churning through bleak beats and flanked by distorted odds and ends. “Blue Gold Show” and “Copyist” channel some spiritual cousin to Cabaret Voltaire, Ministry, Seefeel, careening in a metallic drift of mechanical movements and blissful melodies. ‘Yanomami’ is the latest chapter in German Army’s sublimely sardonic campaign. Limited edition of 100, imprinted cassette, fold-out j-card and insert with download code.

Andreas Brandal – ‘The Thursday Curses’ CS
Andreas Brandal is a Norway sound designer with more than two decades of texture exploration to his name. Having already issued a number of cassettes, CD-rs and vinyl on celebrated outsider imprints (including but certainly not limited to Smalltown Supersound, Field Hymns, Kendra Steiner Editions, 905 Tapes, and No Kings), Brandal now joins the Sacred Phrases family with ‘The Thursday Curses,’ a five-song suite that underlines the producer’s tonal sleight of hand. Opener “From the Bed To the Fire” dives headfirst into an undulating aural murk that ebbs and flows in waves of digital decay and sweeping beauty. “A Moment Passed And All Was Changed” plays like an avalanche of sustained blips and serrated snow, simultaneously collapsing and building up speed and mass along the way. “A Murmured Name” and “The Thursday Curses” are distant, alluring sheets of warm desolation, culling an air of mystique and a distant presence. Closer “No Symbols Where None Intended” wraps up the tape with calm resolution, providing a fitting space for meditation on preceding emotional arc of ‘The Thursday Curses.’ Limited edition of 100, labeled cassette, fold-out j-card and insert with download code.

WEBSITE

Esh & Arc – ‘Death Doesn’t Want You’ C48 $12
Boston-based rapper-and-producer duo Esh & Arc are pleased to announce the release of their debut LP, “Death Doesn’t Want You,” An album about courting death through self-destructive behavior, “Death Doesn’t Want You” approaches the party lifestyle from several angles, with songs celebrating debauchery giving way to ones addressing the emotional toll of hard living. Esh the Monolith, the vocal piece of the two-headed werewolf, wrote much of the project during a self-described unstable period. That phase birthed the concept of the record: if his lifestyle couldn’t kill him, it was clear that death didn’t want him. Musically, the album draws on a wide array of influences, feeding elements of punk, surf, ’50s-style pop, drum & bass and dance hall into a hip hop format. Produced as a collaborative effort and utilizing mostly live instrumentation, “Death Doesn’t Want You” features musical contributions from members of bands such as Radclyffe Hall, Boogie Boy Metal Mouth, Bad Rabbits and Tigerman Woah!, as well as guest verses from veteran wordsmiths Slaine and Reks. Friends since a chance meeting on their first day of college, the duo first officially paired up for 2013’s “Nightworks” EP. Each brings a rich musical background to the collaboration: Esh’s previous work earned him a spot on XXL’s 15 Boston Rappers You Should Know, while The Arcitype has gained notoriety both as a producer for various rap heavyweights including Vinnie Paz and La Coka Nostra, and as co-owner of the Cambridge-based recording studio, The Bridge Sound and Stage.

WEBSITE