01.30.2011
This sunday on Framework resonance.fm : “these are few of my favorite things” by i8u
/*framework* / – phonography / field recording;
contextual and decontextualized sound activity
presented by patrick mcginley
framework broadcasts:
– sunday, Jan 30.2011 -10pm, london, uk on resonance 104.4fm (http://www.resonancefm.com)
– tuesday, Feb.01.2011 – 2pm, london, uk on resonance 104.4fm (http://www.resonancefm.com)
– wednesday, Feb.02.2011 – 1am, thessaloniki, gr on cooradio (http://www.cooradio.com)
– wednesday, Feb.02.2011 – 3am, lisbon, pt on radio zero (http://www.radiozero.pt)
– thursday, Feb.03.2011 – 7pm, lisbon, pt on radio zero (http://www.radiozero.pt)
– friday, Feb.04.2011 – 1am, brussels, be on radio campus 92.1fm (http://www.radiocampusbruxelles.org)
– saturday, Feb.05.2011 – 7am, new york state, us on wgxc 90.7fm (http://www.wgxc.org)
– saturday, Feb.05.2011 – 5pm, south devon, uk on soundartradio 102.5fm (http://www.soundartradio.org.uk)
~ time zone converter: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html ~
Framework – i8u – my favorite things (Installment #7)
Happy New Year and welcome back to “these are a few of my favorite things”.
As mentioned in earlier installments, my interpretation of field recording based works, is very broad however, the thread I like to follow is to find artists who have mastered their unique identity through the music of sound.
This 7th installment will focus on the label DER, Dragon’s eye recordings, based in LA and run by sound artist Yann Novak.
Focusing on limited edition releases by emerging and mid-carrier sound artists, composers and producers, Dragon’s Eye’s goal is to foster personal and artistic relationships with its artists and to function as a meeting ground for its artists to further develop relationships with one another. The curation of the imprint by Novak is done primarily through real world relationships, with some virtual exceptions. By focusing on human interactions and talent, rather than style or genre, Dragon’s Eye’s catalogue has slowly become a melting pot of sounds, processes and practices.
Dragon’s Eye values interconnectedness and encourages it by offering its artists a chance to showcase their own visual concepts, commission artists they have worked with, or recruit Dragon’s Eye’s partners to help create the visual representations for their releases. Through these practices, Dragon’s Eye offers a more personal presentation of its artists for their audience and creates a catalogue that is diverse yet bonded through human collaboration.
Dragon’s Eye Recordings was originally founded by Paul Novak, (Yann Novak’s father), in 1989 as the audio/visual arm of Only Connect…Publications. Paul was and still is a bread baker and avid record collector. Only Connect…Publications was his first venture to self-publish his bread recipes. Through his new publishing company, Paul designed his book on a Apple Plus computer, commissioned a friend and artist to create the painting for the cover, and recruited a musician to compose an original work to accompany bread making. Due to his love and passion for both music and record collecting, Paul created Dragon’s Eye Recordings to compliment his publishing company. All of these pursuits had a strong impact on his son who would later relaunch the label in 2005 and try to stay true to these communal values endowed in the label.
Yann Novak
Artists , Track, Album on DER , Websites
- Shinkei , Untitled, Static Forms, www.yugen-art.org
- Pierre Gérard , wooden mouldings for the assembly (to Constantin Brancusi), Static Forms, www.pierregerard.eu
- Fourm, Seagram Series, Clean Forms sicomm (for Mark Rothko), www.myspace.com
- Turra, Alluminium.Zinc, Clean Forms, www.navenight.com
- Tomas Phillips and Jason Bivins, Ohne Titel 2, Blau, www.incursion.org/phillips
- Mimoza Moize, Live at unit 3.03, Live at unit 3.03, www.mimosamoize.com
- Simon Whetham, 02 Part (Paths, Crossings), prayers unheard, www.simonwhetham.co.uk
- Yann Novak, The breeze blowing, Infrequency Editions, www.yannnovak.com
over us
Additional info about featured album and tracks
Artist, Track Title, Album
1- Shinkei, Untitled, Static Forms, see #4*
2 – Pierre Gérard , wooden mouldings for the assembly (to Constantin Brancusi), Static Forms
In lieu of a traditional album description, the artists and Dragon’s Eye Recordings offer the following quotations.
“The silence that I manufacture, hears only my ears. like these lengthened forms, often.”
– Pierre Gerard
“Le silence, c’est la meilleure production qu’on puisse faire, parce qu’il se propage : on ne le signe pas et tout le monde en profite.”
– Marcel Duchamp
“On peut voir celui qui regarde, mais on ne peut pas entendre celui qui écoute.”
– Marcel Duchamp
“…But now there are silences and the words make help make the silences. I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry, as i need it. We need not fear the silences, we may love them.”
– John Cage (from Lecture On Nothing)
“Music already enjoys inaudibility.”
– John Cage (from Satie Lecture)
3-Fourm, Seagram Series (for Mark Rothko), Clean Forms, see #4*
4* – Turra, Alluminium.Zinc, Clean Forms
Minimalism, arising from the tide of abstract expressionism of the early 20th century, was one of the signal developments in the art of the 1960’s. Rather than being a defined “movement” as such, minimalism became the fuel for debate that surrounded a new kind of abstraction for the post-war generations. Arguments have prevailed over the precise meaning of the word, and some of the visual artists associated with its original incarnation in the early 60’s firmly rejected it as not being entirely prescriptive of their work – most notably, and ironically one of the movement’s principle exponents, Donald Judd. Overall, the works of the minimalist artists sought out a simplification of format and technique that implied that the work harboured no meaning beyond its material components and the fact of its construction, thereby studiously avoiding the metaphysical claims of the artists of previous generations. Minimalism in the 1960’s became a new, and highly controversial avant garde, producing some of the finest, and most influential artists of the mid 20th century.
The three artists here openly recognise and acknowledge the profound influence of early minimalism on the relatively contemporary field of sound art. The trio of Turra, Shinkei and Fourm have all gained wider recognition for being fundamentally “minimalist”, or “reductionist” in their approach, often producing epically austere pieces that verge on near-silence, a nuanced interaction of minute and discrete elements that actively denigrate them as musical works. Indeed, in the most recent descriptions of their work, the artists themselves often use metaphorical language more readily associated with the visual arts and sculpture. With this in mind, the three artists decided to make recordings alluding to, and partially descriptive of the minimalist artists that they favour most, or have had the most profound influence on their work and imagination. It was decided that each artist would make a sound piece, naming it after a visual work, or an artist (or both) that was highly significant to each of them, translated into sound. We present here the first wave of recordings by each artist, in the hope that it will simultaneously pay homage to a great moment in contemporary art, and also fuel its influence on the next generation of minimalists.
5-Tomas Phillips and Jason Bivins, Ohne Titel , Blau
A marriage of guitar improvisation and through-composition, its immediate reference point beyond lowercase sound art is the work of painter Barnett Newman. His solid color canvases, broken by vertical lines of various shades, reveal an aesthetic preoccupation with minimalist imagery aligned with a reverence for the philosophy of Spinoza. An equally pleasurable matrimony.
6-Mimoza Moize, Live at unit 3.03, Live at unit 3.03
Live at Unit 3.03 is a sequence of sound sketches that were spectrally deconstructed and reconstructed live, with intentions of engaging the listener with the space. Each sound used was mono allowing any stereo effect of movement perceived to be those created from the influence of the space itself.
The nature of performing at Unit 3.03 is generally one of a more domestic gathering than that of a public event. This shared domestic-come-temporary-social situation creates an interesting interaction with the sounds to be heard coming from within and beyond this personal and intimate space. Interestingly, this situation also directs ours attention inwardly to the sounds that we carry with us and outwardly to the ones that people carry with them.
This recording was taken during our very first live performance held at Unit 3.03, where we shared tea, coffee and cake, met old friends and new ones, and shared old stories and made new memories.
7-.Simon Whetham , 02 Part (Paths, Crossings) , prayers Unheard
In February 2010, Simon Whetham was invited to perform at Audio Art in Krakow by Marek Choloniewsky, for which he proposed visiting the city for three or four days prior to the performance in order to record the sounds of the place, to compose a site specific piece for the event.
Whetham stayed in the Kazimierz area of Krakow, the old Jewish area that during the Second World War became a ghetto through Nazi persecution. Walking the streets, he felt a certain sadness and longing that was almost tangible. The buildings, the very fabric of the city there, had to bear witness to the atrocities of that time. The walls still stand, unable to impart their testament to the horrors committed – the roads that bore tanks and trucks that took hordes of innocents to nearby Auschwitz unable to show us the despair of families torn apart…
The Jewish people of Krakow believed their God would save them, and yet they still suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis. Their prayers, along with the sounds of pain and suffering, have long since died away, unheard. But perhaps the stone and metal of the city retains some echo, some imprint from that time…
9- Yann Novak, The breeze blowing over us, Infrequency Editions
Recorded on one of the hottest days Seattle experienced in 2008, as well as the first weekend Novak spent with his partner, The Breeze Blowing Over Us is based upon a simple recording of a fan beside their bed.
This is Novak’s first solo release on Infrequency and an extremely fine example of his technique for transforming a simple environmental recording into a richly layered, and emotionally tense composition.a box fan is the only sound source)