In my latest issue of This Week in Sound, I posted a photo of a photo. The photo I shot contains a photo of the San Francisco sound performance space called the Audium back in the early 1970s, when it was under construction. I’m holding the photo in the space as it is today, and the resemblance between the exposed beams and the actual lobby of the Audium is self-evident. Here, to follow up, is another photo, which is one that my friend Łukasz Langa, who accompanied me that evening, shot of me taking the photo I put in my newsletter:
Italian sound artist Emiliano Pennisi (aka Avenir) develops software instruments that range from complex drum machines (Assembly-7) to geographically determined environment generators (Interfera) to “unstable” noise sources (Vortessa). This example video features an instance of Envion, another Pennisi project, which he describes as an “ecosystem … designed for algorithmic and procedural composition, musique concrète, and experimental sound processing.” The Envion system allows for numerous opportunities to select presets and work on freely available internet-based audio samples. The example here explores “lowercase” music, in the spirit of the late Steve Roden, with an emphasis on extremely quiet and subtle sonic signatures. A hallmark of Pennisi’s work is that it is as visually striking as it is sonically. To get a sense of Envion’s potential, here’s another piece composed with it, an homage to Autechre:
On Sundays I try to at least quickly note some of my favorite listening from the week prior — things I would later regret having not written about in more depth, so better to share here briefly than not at all.
▰ This track, “Steel Mill,” is a taste of the forthcoming Daniel Lanois album, Belladonna Nocturne, due out June 19. The core band is Lanois (piano, pedal steel, and “dub orchestration”), D’Angelo veteran Jermaine Holmes, and bassist Jim Wilson, of Rollins Band. In addition to drummer Brian Blade, Emmylou Harris is listed among the guests, so presumably it won’t be entirely an instrumental album, but this glitchy soulful ambience is certainly appreciated.
▰ Track one is super murky aquatic ambience. Track two has a rusty pulse that is quietly alarming. Track three sounds like someone struggling to be heard. It’s dark, rich, encompassing. That’s Lo on the Ilm by TKB, released by Burgan Triangle Tapes. Embed isn’t working, so check it at the label’s Bandcamp page. Follows up last year’s Relentless Ambience.
▰ Been spending a lot of time with trackers. Amazing what can be done on the modern equivalent of an old Game Boy, or on a Game Boy itself. This is Ukraine-based F32.0 doing some dub techno.
