Showing posts with label taiga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label taiga. Show all posts

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Douglas Quin- Fathom (Taiga, 2010)



“Douglas Quin’s Fathom brings together four extended underwater soundscapes—two each from the Arctic and Antarctic. The recordings have been gathered over a period of 15 years, capturing an extraordinary palette of sonic voices, events, spaces, and textures. To the human ear, these soundscapes are haunting and otherworldly; yet they are very much of this world—out of earreach. The tracks are minimally edited and are his first field recordings to be archived in vinyl. Included with the release is a sealed envelope containing an insert with specific locations, animals, and other elements heard, giving listeners the option to absorb sound with or without association. The envelope is printed with liner notes and comments from Dutch journalist and music critic René van Peer. Mastered by James Plotkin, cut direct to metal and pressed on 200 gram virgin-vinyl, Fathom comes packaged in custom letterpressed materials and is presented as a limited edition of 1000.” (Taiga)

Just last week, my sister's friend Chance took off to Chile for his seasonal gig on an Antarctic research vessel. At his goodbye dinner, he was explaining how amazingly laser-like leopard seals sound when swimming underwater. Its true. You can hear them in droves on this album's second Antarctic track: "77° 37’ S 165° 48’ E". Fathom offers a fascinating presentation of unprocessed, ethereal polar sounds. Quin's field recordings fall nicely within the very best, most authentic genre of ambient music; that of the natural world. As always, Taiga has pulled out all the packaging stops with a beautiful, deluxe letter-pressed album cover. I believe I'm gonna grab a copy of the real mccoy from Mimaroglu while there's still some left. Big thanks to Dom (in Portugal) for this album rip.

Download Links, Douglas Quin- Fathom (Taiga 11, 2010): FLAC and 320 mp3

Arctic
58° 37’ N 159° 59’ W
59° 02’ N 158° 25’ W
Antarctic
64° 49’ S 64° 02’ W
77° 37’ S 165° 48’ E

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Deep Listening Band- Then & Now Now & Then (Taiga, 2008)



Deep Listening- "First it was the name of an album that came out about 20 years ago and made new music history...Then it became the name of the band that recorded that album. Then it became the name of a practice, an approach to art, improvisation, exploration and, well, living, that drove that band, a band of crazies led by Pauline Oliveros, to lower themselves into a huge underground concrete cistern in the state of Washington”.

Here, 20 years later, Oliveros, Stuart Dempster and David Gamper celebrate an anniversary of improvisation, innovation and commitment with their first ever vinyl release. This vinyl-only document contains four sidelong tracks, one reissued and three previously unreleased. “Cannery Row” was originally available on the Troglodyte’s Delight album and captures the band in Tarpaper Cave, which Dempster recalls as “an old limestone quarry near Rosendale, New York that had lovely dripping water sounds and Valhalla-like mists.”

The previously unreleased tracks were gathered from three separate live performances at the Sounds Like Now Festival, Sound Exchange American Composers Forum, and Engine27, a 16-channel installation of special speakers. The audio was mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin, cut direct to metal and pressed on 200g-virgin-vinyl in a limited edition of 500." (source)

*Not a composition from this collection, but...here's The Deep Listening Band performing with Ellen Fullman & her Long String Instrument.


Mediafire Download Link: The Deep Listening Band- Then & Now Now & Then (Taiga, 2008)

Cannery Row 17:59
Enginuity / Deep Hockets / Spatial Specialization 19:16
Then & Now Now & Then 21:20
Deep Sound Exchange 20:23