Under the mythic moniker Ulaan Khol, psychedelic figure Steven R. Smith finds some sort of middle ground between the proggy excesses of the 1970s and the searching minimalism of today’s extreme noise makers. One of the 10 tracks on the newly released I, all untitled (naturally — for what is psychedelia if not a plumbing of unknowable depths?), is available for free download. It’s just over five minutes of roiling guitar, dense with the crackle of overcharged electricity (MP3). Yet for all that energy, it’s deeply introspective, with moments of calm reflection amid — and, often, within — the cacophony. More on Smith at worstward.com and at the label website, softabuse.com.
Lullabye-tronic DJ Mayonnaise MP3
With its sing-songy beats and layers of simple sampled percussion, “Easily Distracted” by DJ Mayonnaise (aka Chris Greer), off his Still Alive collection from last year, is a perfect example of the space where instrumental hip-hop and bedroom electronica meet up and make beautiful lullabyes together. The tone is all early Aphex Twin, thanks to a fuzzy automaton foundation and a melody consisting of held notes that quaver more than they sing (MP3). Still Alive was released quietly last July on the Anticon label. More details, and MP3s, at djmayonnaise.com, including a decade-old mixtape titled I’m Not a Turntablist.
Two Hyper-Delicate MP3s from Autistici
Two complete tracks off Autistici‘s Volume Objects album, released in January, are up for free download at the website of its label, 12k, 12k.com. The mix of field recordings and computer-generated sound is transformed with an emphasis on a kind of listening that requires attention moment by moment — the pieces are more akin, in that respect, to short stories than to songs, and they’re atmospheric short stories at that.
“Wire Cage for Tiny Birds” is a delicate construction in which tiny water drops balance with guitars whose strings are plucked with an emphasis on pristine, bright sound (MP3). “Heated Dust on a Sunlit Window” is both darker and softer by comparison; it emphasizes broader textures as it slowly gains chopstick percussion that plays in the stereo field (MP3). More on Autistici at autistici.com.
tangents / Sound Art (Furlong, sonochemical, toys …)
Recent Items from the World of Sound Art: Interview with early sound-art figure William Furlong, founder with Michael Archer of the publication Audio Arts, by Ilari Valbonesi (at ecopolis.org): “The tape was also an economic form of production and distribution.” … Interview with Adam Nash, whose sound work has been exhibited within the online simulation zone Second Life, at transition.turbulence.org: “I really love music, but I think new environments like this reveal music as an outdated concept”; more on Nash and his partner, Mami Yamanaka, at yamanakanash.net. … Interview with Pipilotti Rist on how technology has become more portable … more “ladylike”: “When I started, the recorders and the cameras were so heavy”¦and we are, at least physically, weaker [laughs]. You know, it made a big difference” (at tokyoartbeat.com).
Images of Dan McPharlin‘s toylike renderings of fictional synthesizers at samadhisound.com (from which the above picture is borrowed); more info at danmcpharlin.com. … Images from a presentation by Rob Cruickshank (interaccess.org). … Video footage from a corridor of computer fans by Studio Roosegaarde at engadget.com (screenshot directly below); more on the organization at studioroosegaarde.net.
Lina Dzuverovic notes the current “love affair between the museum and the arts of sound” — and asks, “But will it last?” (axisweb.org). … Documentation, including video, of a subway “Ghost Station” installation by Kristen Roos in Toronto: ghoststation.blogspot.com; more on Roos at microradio.ca. … Details on the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, which ran in Hong Kong last November, at microwavefest.net; participants included Interactive Sonic Systems (reactable.iua.upf.edu), Henry Chu (pillandpillow.com), FM3 (fm3buddhamachine.com) and others.
Examples from Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas‘s “encyclopedia of radio waves” at nearfield.org, including the one below:
Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand‘s installation Camera Lucida: Sonochemical Observatory, “an installation work [that] visualizes a sonic wave which should be invisible,” was honored at the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival (plaza.bunka.go.jp). … DJ Olive is among the participants at the Whitney Biennial in Manhattan (nytimes.com); he’s hosting a “sleepover” at the museum; elsewhere in the sprawling exhibit, a piece by Bozidar Brazda includes “a microphone [that] picks up ambient sounds from visitors to the room.” … Submissions due for the Prix Ars Electronic 2008 by March 19, 2008; details at aec.at.
Reviews: Christian Marclay-curated Ensemble at ICA in Philadelphia (artcal.net); Brian Belott at the gallery Canada in Manhattan (artfagcity.com); Ivin Ballen at Winkelman in Manhattan (newsgrist.typepad.com); Chia-Ying Lee‘s Sonic Graffiti, along with work by Mike Fleming, Kang Chang, and Kyle Millns (we-make-money-not-art.com); Phil Kline‘s Unsilent Night in Baltimore (citypaper.com); Luis Gisbert at Mary Boone in Mahattan, with a score by Phoenicia (nytimes.com); Georg Gatsas at James Fuentes LLC, with a “recording of dark ambient rumblings and tribal drumming by the band I.U.D.” (nytimes.com).
Back in December, sound art made Liz Smith‘s column at nypost.com; the subjects included artist-brothers Shelby and Latham Gaines, who had an exhibit running at the gallery Think Tank 3 (thinktank3.com).
ODC/Dance’s Musical Season (San Francisco)
A flyer arrived in the mail from a San Francisco performing arts organization, listing upcoming shows featuring work by Darius Milhaud, Osvaldo Golijov, Laurie Anderson, Michael Nyman and David Lang, among others. And it wasn’t a new season of the San Francisco Symphony. As it turns out, those are just some of the composers whose music will be heard as part of the Downtown 2008 series of performances by the SF dance ensemble ODC/Dance.
Now, ODC/Dance, led by artistic director Brenda Way and co-artistic director KT Nelson, has always had an adventurous streak when it comes to music, and not just because its theater hosts concerts by the sfSoundSeries (sfsound.org). But this upcoming season, which runs throughout March, may be ODC/Dance’s strongest yet in that regard. The recently announced programs running throughout March include music by the above composers, as well as by Meredith Monk, Brian Eno and David Byrne, not to mention JS Bach, Heinrich Biber, Arcangelo Corelli and Johann Heinrich Schmelzer.
More details, including the complete schedule, at odcdance.org. Downtown 2008 will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (ybca.org). Technically, compared to the ODC’s own theater, the Yerba Buena is “downtown” San Francisco, but culturally speaking the temporary move is more “uptown.”