Tag: 29 Palms

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Chain Letter

 

Chain Letter
Curated by Christian Cummings & Doug Harvey

Summer 2011 Group Exhibition

Venue:

Shoshana Wayne Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave # B1
Santa Monica, CA 90404-4031

Date: July 23 – August 25, 2011
Opening Saturday, July 23 / 6-8 pm

Works by Yann Novak, Robert Crouch, Heather Cassills and i8u’s 29 Palms
released on DER will be part of the exhibit +  many more artists!

Chain Letter is a group exhibition based on admiration.  Initially
conceived by Christian Cummings and Doug Harvey in 2006, inclusion in the
exhibition is based on invitation by someone who admires one’s work.  Each
artist invited, then invites ten other artists whom they admire, and so
on.  This email invite will circulate for thirty days, at the end of which
each artist will install their own work on the floor at Shoshana Wayne
Gallery.

This exhibition is rooted in the ideals of inclusion, and highlights the
social nature of the art world.  It is the hope of the curators that the
response will be vast and that the artists represented will be an
exponential representation of all artists that are currently working and
admired by their peers.

Chain Letter mimics communication today; and the way in which information
is passed.  The outcome will be a testament to the power of connectivity
within society at present.

Other cities worldwide will be participating in the Chain Letter
exhibition including New York City, London, Paris, Johannesburg,
Philadelphia, Boston, Seoul.

facebook

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review – 29 Palms (der) 2010 – by Adrian Dziewanski – Scrapyard forecast

29 Palms, i8u on Dragon’s Eye Recordings

I was initially introduced to Jobin’s work under the i8u guise from her contribution to the magnificent Physical, Absent, Tangible compilation released on Richard Garet’s own Contour Editions label (read my review). Expanding greatly on that comp track, 29 Palms is a 41 minute piece for field recordings, processing and analog gear that remains true to the austerity of past i8u releases yet feels more of an organic effort. The effervescent drones that fill in the space between Jobin’s clinical frequencies during the latter half of the composition are especially note worthy, reminiscent of John Duncan’s Phantom Broadcast. Very nice.

Jobin’s pacing remains quite brilliant throughout, especially evident in the very quiet midsection, where one has to remain focused to discern for changes, and although subtle, they are there. The choice to opt for more lower range frequencies as opposed to ear splitting highs – highs that I’ve heard Jobin achieve in the past – works to her advantage here. Some of those high frequencies make themselves known though are rarely at the center of attention, existing more as appendages to a wider body of sound. Simple yet elegant packaging, edition of 200.
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The Outsider 3 | Women in music by Adrian Dziewanski

 

scrapyard forecast

The Outsider is an on-going feature that pertains to ever changing themes within the world of sound art. More specifically, it highlights micro-niches within this world, commonalities through place and style, organizations that facilitate sound practice, important sound documents, etc…Hence, the Outsider pertains to anything outside of a typical album review. Previous Outsiders have included Select Music From Australia and the Framework 250 Compilation ++.

As the title suggests, May and June will see the unfolding of an eight part series dedicated to women working in varied fields of experimental music as both curators and musicians. Over the three years of managing this blog I’ve rather embarrassingly, though unintentionally, overlooked much of the fine work produced by talented females across the globe. Let this feature make up for those years of neglect. The format for the series is such that each artist is given their own post featuring a photograph, a pre-existing bio, and a review of a select work.

I was initially introduced to Jobin’s work under the i8u guise from her contribution to the magnificent Physical, Absent, Tangible compilation released on Richard Garet’s own Contour Editions label (read my review). Expanding greatly on that comp track, 29 Palms is a 41 minute piece for field recordings, processing and analog gear that remains true to the austerity of past i8u releases yet feels more of an organic effort. The effervescent drones that fill in the space between Jobin’s clinical frequencies during the latter half of the composition are especially note worthy, reminiscent of John Duncan’s Phantom Broadcast. Very nice.

Jobin’s pacing remains quite brilliant throughout, especially evident in the very quiet midsection, where one has to remain focused to discern for changes, and although subtle, they are there. The choice to opt for more lower range frequencies as opposed to ear splitting highs – highs that I’ve heard Jobin achieve in the past – works to her advantage here. Some of those high frequencies make themselves known though are rarely at the center of attention, existing more as appendages to a wider body of sound. Simple yet elegant packaging, edition of 200.

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review – 29 Palms (der) 2010 – by Allen Lockett – Igloo Magazine

29 Palms, i8u on Dragon’s Eye Recordings

Montreal-based France Jobin has been active since 1999, with albums on labels like Bake/Staalplaat, Room40, nvo, Atak, and Vague Terrain. Specializing in “sound-sculpture” in her i8u guise, she’s aided and abetted here by California’s Joshua Tree national park, whence she drew both inspiration and field recordings, edited and processed into the spatial environments of 29 Palms. Its single long format tract eschews a linear narrative in favour of ineffable dwellings and unwonted divergences; for all that it dwells on spaces it creates, its audio-visualizations constantly shift, between deeply textured dronal swells and billows and attenuated higher end microsonics – binaries that Jobin stitches together into audio tableaux that are at once evacuated and replete, expansive and intimate. Poking discreetly into the interstices of lower spectrum digital and analogue tone, softly prodding pulses and held back bass gesture, the trajectory of 29 Palms describes a event horizon onto which microvariations hove into view; ambiguous atmospheres unfolding out of a seemingly infinitely creatively configurable trio of materials – synthetic sustain, wavering tonalities and digital crackle – that commingle with occasional emergent harmonics. It rises and falls, building into whirling dirges (clip below), softening to mid-range pulse, descending into spectral sound and liminal near silence. Appeal – no soundalike reference intended – will be to those who cherish the likes of Richard Chartier through to William Basinski, to the ear that cleaves to a certain desertification, and the expressivity of absence.

 

Igloo Magazine

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review – 29 Palms (der) 2010 – by Fabrice Allard – EtherReal

29 Palms, i8u on Dragon’s Eye Recordings

i8u est le projet de France Jobin, plasticienne et musicienne canadienne qui collabore assez régulièrement avec Tomas Phillips que l’on a déjà croisé chez Dragon’s Eye Recordings. 29 Palms est une petite ville de Californie, connue pour sa situation, en plein désert des Mojaves, à proximité du parc national de Joshua Tree. C’est justement ce parc qui a servi d’inspiration à l’artiste qui y capté des sons qu’elle a ensuite sculpter de manière à créer une version sonore des lieux.

L’album est constitué d’une seule piste de 41 minutes, d’une ambient faussement linéaire, minimaliste et d’une finesse incroyable. Alors que le disque commence à tourner sur la platine, on n’entend rien. Il faut bien une dizaine de secondes pour commencer à deviner un souffle, 30 secondes pour se rendre compte que celui-ci va de pair avec un drone linéaire, l’ensemble envahissant l’auditeur d’une douceur cotonneuse. L’album possède un niveau sonore assez bas, certainement pour coller au mieux à la notion d’ambient, à une musique que l’on entend sans vraiment l’écouter, qui se fait oublier, et se rapprocher de l’ambiance de ce désert, vide et silencieux, seulement parcouru d’un brise légère.

On aura donc tendance à mettre le volume un peu plus fort que d’accoutumé afin de capter toutes les subtilités de la musique de i8u, un sifflement suraigu, de micros craquements et frétillements, ou encore l’apparition régulière de nouvelles strates sonores, un drone tantôt plat, tantôt ondulant, impliquant un certain rythme alors que d’autres éléments s’effacent. Faussement linéaire donc, donnant l’impression d’une succession de plans finalement très semblables, à l’image des horizons océaniques du photographe Hiroshi Sugimoto.
Au bout de 29mn, on entend distinctement le tintement d’un triangle dont l’artiste joue avec le résonance, à la manière d’une pulsation régulière et suraiguës. Les nappes oscillantes se font alors plus puissantes, plus denses, enveloppantes, mais on ne parlera pas pour autant de tension. Tout juste une présence affirmée, envahissante. Le désert s’est imposé.

Plages minimalistes et déserts sonores font de cet album un petit bijou pour les amateurs d’une ambient façon microsound. On conseillera tout particulièrement ce travail aux fans de Richard Chartier ou William Basinski, en attendant d’en écouter un peu plus.

Fabrice Allard
le 20/02/2011

EtherREAL

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review – 29 Palms (der) 2010 – by innerversitysound – Cyclic Defrost

29 Palms, i8u on Dragon’s Eye Recordings

France Jobin, in her i8u guise, has created a work that is listened to in an immersive space, or at least with an excellent pair of headphones able to render spatial distinctions with precision and clarity. It is inspired from spatial environments, from a visit to Joshua Tree national park in California and makes use of field recordings and processes these sounds utalising analog and computer based processing methods. Her work within the ‘sound art’ domain incorporates visual elements and navigates the intersection of digital and analog environments to create installation art. So to the degree this is a review of a release, it is more a prompt to attend spaces created by artists such as Jobin as the translation to the personal space is fraught with an absence. Spaces which can render such environmental portraits in a greater depth than the ad hoc environment available to the home listener.

29 Palms is 41 minute piece of predominately lower spectrum tone, incorporating soft pulses and bass texture with micro events and highly minimal changes. There are sections of distinct movements whose passage has been so intricately woven into the overall piece as to be indicatively marked or demonstrative in its motion. When eventually distinct change occurs, after a long low pulsed ultra minimal section which strains the listener to hear the micro texture, it arrives from the slow build of a high pitched sound out of the miniature. The movement of this sound into long drone that provokes the idea of a reserved majesty and wavers on a sharp note impressing itself on the consciousness. It is a cumulative effect as well as being the event of the environment, perhaps the twilight depicted on the cover that can be more greatly conveyed through an immersive listening environment for which it is constructed.

Innerversitysound

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

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review – 29 Palms (der) 2010 – by Guillermo Escudero – loop.cl

29 Palms, i8u on Dragon’s Eye Recordings

(English below)

France Jobin aka i8u es una artista sonoria que reside en Montreal, Canada. Ella ha estado activa desde 1999 editando varios disco en sellos como Bake/Staalplaat, Room40, Oral, Atak, Vague Terrain y otros sellos independiente alrededor del mundo.
Ella ha trabajado junto a Goem, Martin Tétreault, David Kristian y con el también artista de Dragons Eye Tomas Phillips.
“29 Palms” fue la inspiración de la experiencia que tuvo la artista en el Joshua Tree National Park en la parte sur de de California. Para este álbum i8u trabaja con registros de campo, dispositivos análogos y procesamiento digital.
Comienza con una oscura atmósfera que desarrolla una sección de drones hecha de gruesas capas de una sostenida línea de sinte, sonidos oscilantes, ruidos crujientes y su ocaso tiene una melodía inspiradora.

France Jobin aka i8u is a sound artist based in Montreal, Canada. She has been active since 1999 releasing several albums on labels like Bake/Staalplaat, Room40, Oral, Atak, Vague Terrain and other independent labels worldwide.  She has work along with Goem, Martin Tétreault, David Kristian and also Dragons Eye’s artist Tomas Phillips.

“29 Palms” consist in a one piece only of 41 minutes long and it is inspired by her experience at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. For this album i8u works with field recordings, analog devices and digital processing.
Starts with a quite dark atmosphere unfolding a drone section out of thick layers of a sustained synth line, oscillating sounds and crackle noises, and ends with an inspiring melody.

Guillermo Escudero
loop.cl

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Review – 29 Palms (DER) 2010 – by Ron Schepper – Textura

29 Palms, i8u on Dragon’s Eye Recordings

In her i8u work, Montreal-based sound artist France Jobin specializes in “sound-sculpture,” an exemplary example of which is documented in the forty-one-minute, single-track work 29 Palms. Her inspiration for the piece came from a recent visit to the Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California from where, presumably, she collected the field recordings that appear in the piece; Jobin also used analog equipment and computer processing to capture her response to the site. 29 Palms doesn’t adhere to a single, predictable developmental arc; instead, the material rises and falls, grows louder and then softer as it pulsates at medium volume and then burrows into microsound where the listener strains to catch whatever details are in play; at the ten-minute mark, for instance, the barest tinkle of a triangle can be heard amidst ghostly tones that are as just as faintly defined, and when a high-pitched sine tone suddenly appears twenty-eight minutes into the piece, it has a huge impact it wouldn’t otherwise have in another context. Soft residues of static and wavering tones commingle within a sonic space largely inhabited by gently droning swells of nearly imperceptible ebb and flow. So muted is the material that when played at low volume (and sans headphones) it blends indissolubly into the immediate environment—until, that is, a noticeable increase in volume and intensity occurs three-quarters of the way in as 29 Palms undertakes its final ascent. One might characterize the recording as immersive and hyper-minimal microsound.

December 2010

Textura

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Review – 29 Palms (DER) 2010 – by Stephen Fruitman – sonomu

29 Palms, i8u on Dragon’s Eye Recordings

The vanity licence-plate monicker France Jobin has chosen to work under is intended as a jab at arts-industry consumerism while also proclaiming that the performance of her art makes her audience aware of the process, the better to engage with it actively rather than allow it to “eat” them up as they listen passively.

A little too art schooly for this reviewer´s taste. Because it distracts from the fact that France Jobin is an otherwise accomplished and talented multi-tasking sound and visual artist from Montreal whose works have been installed and favourably received in myriad venues all across North America and Europe.

29 Palms is her sound portrait of the unique desert community Joshua Tree in the Californian desert, and is an attractive addition to the drone genre in its sophisticated mix of highs and lows. Like the desert itself, a cursory glance can leave the listener unmoved, but screw up the volume and prick up your ears coyote-like and you will hear that the wind carries a multitude of sounds and signals to be decoded.

One of the most successfully subtle recordings of the year deserves thus not to be treated as ambient, background music, but requires genuine focus to unveil its laden vastness.

Stephen Fruitman
Sonomu

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29 Palms on DER

i8u
29 Palms
de5030

i8u’s 29 Palms takes its inspiration from her recent experience at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. Through the use of field recordings, various analog equipment and computer processing, i8u explores her response to the isomorphic spaces she encountered. 29 Palms takes form as a single track that ebbs and flows from high frequency minimalist moments to lush drone swells. These counterpoints weave together to create a truly unique space for the listener to inhabit that is both expansive in its emptiness and personal in its inclusive embrace.

DER