31 December 2010

16 December 2010

Stephen Kasner needs our help.

From ideologic.org:

If you read this site, you’ve probably partaken of Stephen Kasner’s work. He has done album covers, artwork, and posters for Integrity, Sunn O))), Isis, Justin Broadrick, Runhild Gammelsæter, Khlyst, Darsombra, Suma, and many more. His haunting style is unmistakable. I have spent much time gazing at his work. Here is an interview I did with him, in which he discusses specific pieces that he’s done. Below are some of my favorite works of his.

Now Stephen needs your help. He is extremely private, so circumstances must be dire for him to reach out like this. Out of privacy considerations, he asked that his medical condition not be named. Below is his statement.

Stephen Kasner has recently been diagnosed with some serious medical issues. Like many artists who lack the benefit of medical insurance, he pushed the situation aside until it became unavoidable. Emergency care has been initiated, but he is not out of the woods yet, and his continued care is extremely necessary – hence this call for aid to friends, admirers of his art, and comrades alike.

There are two ways to help.

1. The first is a direct donation by PayPal to kasner@stephenkasner.com. Times are tough, so no amount is too small. If 1,000 people give $5 each, that goes a long way. Depending on his health, Kasner will do drawings/sketches for all who donate.

2. The second is to purchase merch from Kasner. He has two stores, a main one and one for his Blood Fountains musical project. You can buy books, album art prints, CD’s, silkscreens, posters, and more. They make great gifts for this holiday season.

. . .

BOOK GIVEAWAY

All people who email me (invisibleoranges at gmail dot com) a screenshot of their donation to or purchase from Kasner will be entered in a random drawing for a hardback edition of Stephen Kasner’s career retrospective book WORKS: 1993-2006. 160 pages, foreword by Dwid Hellion – it’s a beautiful thing. (See details here). Kasner will autograph the book and sketch a one-of-a-kind drawing on the inside cover. International entrants are welcome. Please email me all screenshots by a week from today, midnight PST, Friday, December 17.

. . .

BLACK SLEEP OF KALI GIVEAWAY

Black Sleep of Kali have graciously donated 5 t-shirt/CD packages to this cause. All donations to and purchases from Kasner above $20 will be entered in a random drawing for these packages. (We reviewed their CD here.) International entrants are welcome. The entry protocol is the same as with the above book giveaway – email me screenshots of your donations and purchases by midnight PST this Friday.

. . .

Please help soon, as Kasner is undergoing emergency care at this very moment. And please spread the word. One of the great artists of our time needs our help.

— Cosmo Lee


14 December 2010

Reviews: Giuseppe Ielasi, Timeless Pulse Trio, Kayo Dot

Giuseppe Ielasi (another) stunt 12", Signal to Noise #60, Winter 2011, page 52, review from full-page article by Seth Watter covering Ielasi's Aix, (another) stunt and Tools releases.

Timeless Pulse Trio 2xLP, Signal to Noise #60, Winter 2011, page 67, review by Bruce Miller.

Timeless Pulse Trio 2xLP, The Wire 321, November 2010, page 62, review by Clive Bell.

Kayo Dot Coyote LP, Signal to Noise #60, Winter 2011, page 76, from "The Weight of the World" by Jason Bivins.

02 December 2010

Cafe Sonore dutch radio w/ Douglas Quin



Douglas Quin's Fathom LP was recently covered on the Dutch radio program Cafe Sonore. The show also features a cut by Rafael Toral. Listen here.

17 November 2010

Douglas Quin at University of Virginia, November 17-20



TechnoSonics XI: Mediated Nature
November 17-20

A multi-day festival to explore ways in which Nature informs, inspires and translates to creative work in the arts and sciences. Panel guests include leaders in composition and sound art, visual art, chemistry, and architecture. Other public events to include installation, guided sound walks throughout the community, a talk by soundscape virtuoso Doug Quin, and a culminating concert at Live Arts, featuring works by Quin and University composition faculty.

Full details here.

27 October 2010

Kayo Dot tours / "Coyote" vinyl

Kayo Dot is touring the Northeastern US/Canada this November and Europe in January/February 2011! They will have opaque cyan colored vinyl copies of "Coyote" on the road! European dates TBA.

NOVEMBER

6 / Middle East Upstairs (All Ages) / Cambridge, MA
7 / SUNY Purchase Student Center (All Ages) / Purchase, NY
8 / Casa del Popolo (All Ages) / Montréal, QC, Canada
9 / Cafe Dekcuf (19+) / Ottawa, ON, Canada
10 / Sneaky Dee's (19+) / Toronto, ON, Canada
11 / Eclectic House, Wesleyan University (All Ages) / Middletown, CT
12 / Orion Sound Studios (All Ages) / Baltimore, MD
13 / Secret Art Space (All Ages) / Bethlehem, PA
14 / Littlefield / Brooklyn, NY

* further information can be found at myspace.com/kayodot

21 October 2010

Kayo Dot "Coyote" LP packaging pt1

The Kayo Dot Coyote LP will be packaged in a letterpressed jacket wrapped with a 28" x 7" strip with a 4-color offset printed inside and letterpress printed outside. The offset side of the wraps are finished and the letterpress side will be printed by the end of this week. The jackets were printed yesterday at Studio on Fire.





09 September 2010

Timeless Pulse Trio 2xLP available now




Timeless Pulse Trio 2xLP available now at www.taigarecords.com

Timeless Pulse Trio is Pauline Oliveros, accordion, with percussionists George Marsh and Jennifer Wilsey. Released in honor of the 20th annual Deep Listening Retreats held this year in Camallera, Spain and Petaluma, California, this is the third Timeless Pulse album. Formed in 1991 during a residency at the Deep Listening Institute, the full ensemble, including Thomas Buckner and David Wessel, has released two live recordings on CD: "Live at CNMAT" and "Quintet." This is the first time this entity has been stripped down to a trio, recorded in a studio and released on vinyl. Divided into four sides with titled subsections, the album includes guests Ione and Joyce Kouffman contributing spoken word and cello on “Real As Any Dream.”

Their double LP comes packaged in the custom designed slipcover and jacket with doublewide spines used for the Deep Listening Band "Then & Now Now & Then" 2xLP. 500 were pressed, 100 white and 400 black vinyl.

07 September 2010

Timeless Pulse Trio 2xLP in Record of the Week blog

The Timeless Pulse Trio 2xLP is an honorable mention in Pirates Press Record of the Week for September 3, 2010.

13 August 2010

Eye of the Storm T-shirts arrived today




TAIGA records Eye of the Storm T-shirts arrived today. We made 25 natural with green print and 50 green with discharge print in various sizes. Pre-orders will ship on Monday, August 16, 2010. We have some extras so if you are interested but did not pre-order, please e-mail info@taigarecords.com for availability.

23 July 2010

TAIGA 13 test pressings approved

TAIGA 13 - Bryce Beverlin II Seizing Fate by the Throat: Vocal and Percussion Improvisations LP test pressing has been approved today.

bryce beverlin II live improvisation february 2 2010 from brycebeverlinII on Vimeo.

02 July 2010

"Eye of the Storm" T-shirt available until July 25

TAIGA records Eye of the Storm made to order unisex T-shirt
Available to order until July 25, 2010. Ships around August 9, 2010.
Two variations are available, for details & to order visit www.taigarecords.com


11 May 2010

Douglas Quin "Fathom" LP available now



TAIGA 11 - Douglas Quin Fathom LP

Packaged in custom letterpress materials.
100 white / 300 clear / 600 black
Now available in our shop.

Audio sample
Release information
Order

04 May 2010

MAY 2010

Douglas Quin "Fathom" LP insert assembly



Insert assembly; still waiting for jackets and vinyl. To be released May 11, 2010.

26 April 2010

New Rafael Toral LP reviewed at Sound Projector

Most excellent newie from Rafael Toral, whom I previously knew only for his excellent solo albums of processed guitar work. On Space Elements Volume II (STAUBGOLD DIGITAL 5), he’s exploring his collaborative endeavours and working with some topnotch musicians including Manuel Mota and Evan Parker. The instrumentation here (vibraphone, trumpet, percussion, Fender Rhodes) isn’t too far away from what you’d expect to find at any Miles Davis session recorded after 1970, and perhaps it isn’t too fanciful to suggest Toral is attempting a contemporary update on electric free jazz. Of course, this album is far more restrained and abstract than Agharta or Dark Magus, curbing the excesses of free improvisation into a carefully-constructed suite of space-age sounds, with oodles of ‘white space’. On the strength of this, I’d expect Toral to be awarded a pavilion to himself at the next world’s fair where he shows us the living room of the future with its weightless bookcases and music imprinted on little sugar-coated pills. This’ll be out at the end of April 2010.

http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2010/03/16/hate-song-halo-antenna/

22 April 2010

Douglas Quin "Fathom" LP printed at Studio on Fire

Studio on Fire in Minneapolis letterpress printing the packaging for the upcoming Douglas Quin Fathom LP










20 April 2010

Douglas Quin "Fathom" LP excerpt

Douglas Quin Fathom LP posted here.

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.

Douglas Quin is a sound designer, naturalist, public radio commentator, educator, and music composer. For over 20 years Quin has traveled widely, documenting the natural soundscape—from Antarctic ice to Arctic tundra and from African savannah to Amazon rainforest. His recordings of endangered and disappearing habitats represent one of the most unique and extensive collections anywhere. Quin recently created the sound design for and mixed Werner Herzog's Academy Award® nominated film, Encounters At the End of the World. He contributed to the sound design for Spore, a game from Maxis/Electronic Art, and has also worked on exhibits for the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, American Museum of Natural History, and the Polish Academy of Sciences, among others.

Quin is an Associate Professor in the Television, Radio and Film Department at the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He is currently involved as a bioacoustics researcher with the Kagu Recovery Plan and Conservation Research New Caledonia in conservation efforts to protect the critically endangered kagu bird. Quin recently collaborated with clarinetist F. Gerard Errante on his CD release, Delicate Balance, and is composing a new work for the acclaimed Kronos Quartet featuring soundscapes and interactive electronics using the K-Bow—a new bow controller by instrument builder Keith McMillen.

30 March 2010

Tatsuya Nakatani Solo USA 2010 / April 3 in MPLS



Tatsuya Nakatani of MAP recently left for a 4 month solo tour across the USA. His ever evolving schedule is available here.

From the Chicago Reader:

Tatsuya Nakatani is no punk, but he's a self-sufficient road dog on par with the Minutemen, who famously declared "We jam econo." The Osaka-born, Pennsylvania-based percussionist is in the middle of a four-month tour he booked himself, which will take him across the country and down to Mexico; along the way he'll be selling his self-released CDs and sometimes sleeping in his Honda Element. During his three days in Chicago this week he'll play with locals in configurations that will showcase his mastery both of egoless collaboration and of solitary performance. On Fever Dream (Taiga), a new double LP by the improvising trio MAP, Nakatani's strategically placed drum strikes and rushes of clattering metal mesh with Reuben Radding's groaning double bass, Mary Halvorson's tight knots of guitar notes, and potent silences to form constantly shifting, perfectly balanced tableaux. And his latest solo CD, Abiogenesis (on his own H&H label), is a study of economy; many of its 15 tracks make concise, compelling statements using just one element of his percussion setup, which usually includes metal bowls, three drums, a homemade bow, and two sizable gongs (which he's bringing with him on tour for the first time). Tonight he'll play duets with pianist Ben Boye at Heaven Gallery, which recently acquired a grand piano. Tomorrow he'll play solo on WNUR at 11 AM; see also Wednesday. 8 PM, Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee, second floor, heavengallery.com, donation requested. —Bill Meyer

wednesday31
On the last night of his visit to Chicago, percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani will perform solo, as will reedist Edward Wilkerson Jr. For the evening's first set, Nakatani will play alone, then in a duo with Wilkerson. For the second set Wilkerson will play alone (the first time he's done so in concert), then in a trio with Nakatani and bassist Joshua Abrams. 9:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433 or 866-468-3401, $7. —Bill Meyer

29 March 2010

To the Best of Our Knowledge / Douglas Quin

Wisconsin Public Radio program To the Best of Our Know Knowledge presents Polar Stories featuring Douglas Quin.

Douglas Quin is an award-winning sound designer, naturalist and composer. His latest project is called "Fathom." It's an album of underwater field recordings from the Polar regions of the earth. Quin plays some of his favorites for Anne Strainchamps and talks about them with her.



Douglas Quin Fathom LP, available April 2010.

23 March 2010

Recent magazine action



Article on Eleh, "Sensations of Tone" in The Wire 314, April 2010



Columbia University School of the Arts honors 2009 William Schuman Award winner Pauline Oliveros w/ Deep Listening Band, International Contemporary Ensemble, Timeless Pulse and Triple Point. Saturday, March 27, 8:00 PM, Miller Theater, Columbia University, Broadway & 116th St. From Signal to Noise #57, Spring 2010



Forced Exposure new releases highlight, MAP Fever Dream 2xLP, Signal to Noise #57, Spring 2010

22 March 2010

RAFAEL TORAL, new LP out now, TAIGA 10!




Rafael Toral Space Elements Vol. II LP is now available at www.taigarecords.com. Go there to find the full layout, an audio sample and press PDF. It is available on both opaque red (ltd 100) and clear (ltd 400). There are also a couple of package deals in the shop.

For an alternate audio sample to the one on our website, visit our myspace page.