Artist: Various
Title: Yasujiro Ozu - Hitokomakura
Price: $14.00
Catalog #: and26
Released: 2007

 

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

Disc One:
01 tapping the inside of sitting still by Steve Roden
02 ka ra mo by Hitoshi Kojo
03 tadaima by Koura
04 two tables (2) by Kiyoshi Mizutani
05 tsuiso (chasing memories) by Aono Jikken Ensemble
06 kaze by Yoshio Machida
07 ukigusa by Alejandra & Aeron
08 kodama (echoes) by Aono Jikken Ensemble
09 blind by Haco
10 pillow shot 10, ukigusa by Jason Kahn
11 from scene 99 to the end - kohayagawa-ke no aki by Asuna
12 seen by Steinbruchel
13 tengu in linguistics by Taku Sugimoto
14 tooi soba by Sawako
15 one and the same, beginnings and endings by Dale Lloyd

Disc Two:
01 iki no kaiga by Bernhard Gunter
02 my windsock by John Hudak
03 waldsee by Steinbruchel
04 similar figure on horizon by Toshiyo Tsunoda
05 hatsu yume by Keith Barry
06 two tables (1) by Kiyoshi Mizutani
07 hitan by Michael Shannon
08 dakara by Koura
09 ukigusa by Roel Meelkop
10 samma no aji by Marc Behrens
11 before the tower lies by Lawrence English
12 rendered by Sukora
13 jiken by Michael Shannon & Dean Moore
14 w* by Heribert Friedl
15 graced by lonliness by Michael Shannon
16 return to me who sleeps by Dale Lloyd

This is the second of a series of label projects pertaining to film directors.The first one was for Andrei Tarkovsky, the third one is currently in progress and pertains to Michelangelo Antonioni's "Tetralogy" (L'Avventura/La Notte/L'Eclisse/Deserto Rosso).
This second release turns its focus upon Yasujiro Ozu's use of "pillow shots" (i.e. short poetic pauses that appear between the acting segments of his films. The term "pillow shot" was not coined by Ozu himself, but several years after his passing in the early 1960s by a Japanese journalist who was trying to draw a comparison of the intermediate scenes to "pillow words" found in traditional Japanese poetry. This is a double CD release with both CDs featuring audio plus a cross-platform compatible PDF booklet containing pillow shots (courtesy of Criterion Collection) and liner notes.
Each artist who appears on this release was asked to choose one or more "pillow shots" to use as inspiration for their pieces. A link to web pages containing a large assortment of pillow shots" was provided, and accordingly, the pillow shots were reserved on a first come, first served basis. The artists also watched the films from which the pillow shots came from in order to get a sense of how their chosen pillow shots were employed by Ozu.
The sound work featured represents a wide range of artistic approaches, but as always with these projects, the artists were chosen specifically, based on their previous work and on how it might contribute to the collective whole of each project.

Artist: Marc Behrens and Paulo Raposo
Title: Hades
Price: $10.00
Catalog #: and25
Released: 2006

 

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

01Gate
02 Crossing Into
(03 Hades)
04 Gate
05 Crossing Out Of

After their first successful collaboration "Further Consequences of Reinterpretation" (premiered in May 2003 at the Goethe-Institut in Lisbon, released as a CD album by the Portugal-based label Crónica), and the project's appendix release entitled "Product", the sound artists Paulo Raposo and Marc Behrens have created a new dynamic sound work entitled HADES.
HADES is based on sound recordings made aboard Lisbon ferries and at the quays of Cais do Sodré, Trafaria and Cacilhas 2001-2005. Both artists had initially set out to record independently, being fascinated with the sounds of the ship hull and landing gear, as well as with the actual passage on the river, which gives a magnificent (maybe the best) view on large parts of the old city of Lisbon.
During the course of the work which took three years to complete, some more precisely directed recordings were made together. Understanding the actual crossing as a symbolic passage, and once it was reduced to sound and memory, it became associated to the crossing of the mythic river Styx to enter Hades, the ancient Greek underworld.
As the different sound recordings provide the artists with very diverse material (for example low frequencies from the ship's hulls and motors, high frequencies and beats from the gates at Cais do Sodré), they understand the composition as hovering on the delicate borderline between a soundscape portrait and a multi-strata arrangement, in which things happen parallelly, and individual layers move on more than one path simultaneously.

Artist: Various Artists
Title: May 6, 2001
Price: $10.00
Catalog #: and24
Released: 2006

 

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

01 bank by steinbrüchel
02 negative architectures by aaron ximm
03 may 6, 2001 (abridged) by kenneth kirschner
04 financial district by tomas korber
05 dust by taylor deupree

On the night of Sunday, May 6, 2001, composer Kenneth Kirschner, as part of a series of pieces documenting the sounds of different New York City neighborhoods, took his tape recorder to the Financial District of Lower
Manhattan to begin field recordings for a new piece. The resulting low-resolution portrait captured the sounds of a deserted urban landscape: the empty, winding streets of old Dutch New Amsterdam, its modern, towering
skyscrapers -- and a region of the city that, several months later, would be renamed Ground Zero.
and/OAR is proud to present "May 6, 2001", a collection of five interpretations by five renowned contemporary composers of the aforementioned field recording portrait.
With excerpts from Kirschner's original 2001 composition based on the field recording, the CD also includes pieces by Taylor Deupree (USA), Tomas Korber (Switzerland), Ralph Steinbrüchel (Switzerland), and Aaron Ximm (aka Quiet American; USA), all utilizing the 2001 Financial District field recording as their sole source material. The result is a project that obliquely and subtly evokes the source recording and its subsequent meanings, while also standing on its own as an estimable example of each artist's mastery of his craft.

Artist: MNortham
Title: automnal 2003
Price: $10.00
Catalog #: and23
Released: 2006

 

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

01
02
03

Highly indicative of the nomadic life that international sound artist Michael Northam has come to know over the past 5 or so years, this release represents a sonic recollection of his life dispersed across a vast geography, pinpointing three specific locations and moments from his long journey:
- Glacier du Trient, Switzerland / France
- Eagle Creek, Indianapolis
- Ils Grosbois, Montreal
At times, this hypnotic release presents meditative, invigorating, and eerie translations of places and experiences in ways that only Northam can poetically convey.
Originally dispersed among friends in 2003, as a limited edition "spontaneous document" CDR, this work is now re-issued on CD so it can finally be enjoyed by more people. And deservedly so.

Artist: Afflux
Title: Bordeaux TNT
Price: $11.00
Catalog #: and/all1
Released: 2006

 

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

01

Long after the first two releases issued by Ground Fault and Edition Ellipsis, and/OAR & Alluvial Recordings are pleased to finally be able to present the final release in a trilogy covering the sonic expeditions of the French location-specific electroacoustic trio Afflux (Eric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet & Eric Cordier).
This release summarises what was initially a 6 hour performance / installation / radio broadcast that occurred at the TNT cultural centre in Bordeaux, France.The TNT centre is situated inside a former shoe manufacturing building. With several hundred meters of cables, the exterior and interior of the building were recorded using several different condenser and contact microphones, modified and mixed in real time on a 32 channel mixing desk. Simultaneously, the live mix was played into the concert hall / space using 8 channels for 8 loudspeakers.
While the improvisers were on the upper level, the audience was listening and walking around on the lower level.

Artist: Kiyoshi Mizutani
Title: Scenery of the Border: Environment and Folklore of the Tanzawa Mountains
Price: $13.00
Catalog #: A22
Released: 2005

 

2 CD

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

Disc One:
01 kurokura power plant
02 in the tunnel at kurokura path
03 the chain at mt. ohishi
04 hail at mt. tanzawa
05 wind at dohdaira
06 birds at dohkaku mountain ridge
07 classical dance music at the festival of aburi shrine
08 substation at shibusawa
09 birds at yokuzu path
10 ohdana (large waterfall)
11 lower stream of ohdana
12 yokuzu river

Disc Two:
01 watering place at haragoya-daira
02 at the foot of mt. yakeyama (the leaves and slight chime)
03 yabusame (horseback archery as shinto ritual) at murou shrine in rain
04 view of nakagawa river from under a hohki-sugi (a great japanese cedar tree)
05 million times invocation of yozuku (a huge rosary suspended by a pulley and rotated)
06 west tanzawa in rain. nishizawa and nakagawa river
07 yamabushi at the top of mt. tohnodake (yamabushi is a mountain priest who conduscted the ceremony)
08 blue-and-white flycatcher at shiomizu pass
09 narcissus flycatcher at dohdaira
10 watering place under kannogawa-nokkoshi
11 cicada at mt. hinokiboramaru
12 indian tree pipit at mt. hinokiboramaru

and/OAR is very pleased to present this double CD release by Japanese sound artist Kiyoshi Mizutani. The second CD is a cross platform enhanced CD containing audio that can be played on a regular CD player, plus two PDFs that can be viewedon a computer.
One PDF contains a photo gallery of Kiyoshi's journey around the Tanzawa mountain region of Japan. The second PDF contains a very large topographic map with recording points corresponding to the track numbers. Since the map is a very large file size, it is recommended that you drag the PDF onto your desktop for faster
viewing. The closer into the map one goes, the more detail of the landscape one sees. Both the audio and the PDFs can be accessed at the same time on a computer. The insert also contains a quick reference map corresponding to each track number.
The audio portion of this release relays a kind of tranquil and introspective sonic journey through the rugged yet mystical terrain. The region is full of historical significance, natural beauty and folklore (as referred to in the title). Although this release mostly features straight field recordings, there are also some composed impressionistic moments that have been inherent in much of Kiyoshi's previous work.
Also presented are recordings of certain Shinto and Buddhist ceremonies and rituals rarely heard outside of Japan.

Artist: Andrew Deutsch
Title: The Sun
Price: $11.00
Catalog #: and/21
Released: 2005

 

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

01
02
03
04
05

The Sun was constructed by passing ocean waves (recorded at Rye Beach, New Hampshire), through various digital processing devices. The most articulate of these processors was a tone generator able to isolate and respond to specific frequencies present in the ocean waves. The concept behind The Sun was to make a static music or a kind of music that just shimmered in place. This concept can be traced back to the works of Anthony Braxton in his Tri Axiom Writings, and to Stockhausen in his early serial pieces. As Stockhausen says, "there is a difference between starting and stopping and beginning and ending". The pieces presented here do not begin and end but simply start and stop. The Sun is also a work, in a series of works, I have created to aid in the process of drawing. I call these works 'image drones/sounds for drawing'. The sounds were all inspired by the 'power field theories' of Joseph Beuys and are dedicated to him and his family."
- Andrew Deutsch

Artist: Dale Lloyd
Title: Semper
Price: $11.00
Catalog #: A19
Released: 2005

 

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

01 Semper
02 Magnesian Recumbit

"Semper is Alluvial's first release of 2005 and is co-released with the and/OAR label. Seattle-based composer Dale Lloyd has collaborated in the past with people such as Yannick Dauby and Michael Northam, and has had work released by labels such as Bremsstrahlung Recordings, Staalplaat and Sirr.ecords. For the past 5 years, Lloyd has played a quiet but strong role in bringing new life to the notion of "environmental recordings as sound art" (or "Phonography") with the highly regarded compilations produced for Phonography.org, as well as other projects and activities.
The first piece entitled "Semper", is mostly a quiet and contemplative work, yet it contains sprawling builds from near silent ebbs and flows to thunderous crescendos. Also heard are delicate field recordings and found objects transformed and woven into intricate electronic tapestries. The second and shorter piece titled "Magnesian Recumbit" is a slowly building ambient work with a unique sense of melancholy that makes for a perfect ending.

Artist: John Hudak
Title: sand or stars
Price: $11.00
Catalog #: and/16
Released: 2005

 

Tracklisting and preview MP3s:

01
02
03

Comparisons between the sand of the earth with the stars above aremany, but comparisons of this release by American composerJohn Hudak with his previous work are far less to be found.
The first piece of this CD mastered by John's friend and collaborator Stephan Mathieu (Sirr.ecords, Lucky Kitchen, Hapna, etc),is unlike much of John's previous work in that it features sharp staccato
percussive sounds suddenly dodging in and out, but neverthelessit still has John's "endless" compositional sense written into it.A subtle sense of humor seems to be inherent in the piece as well,as if some of the sounds hesitate with indecision as to whetheror not they should make their presence known or perhaps they aretrying to avoid colliding with some of the other sounds.And upon listening to this piece, be careful with volume settingsat first listen, because the listener will quickly discover another aspectof this piece that is unlike much of John's previous work: suddenvolume shifts. This seems to suggest that the sounds are alsochangeable in temperament as well!
The second piece on this CD is perhaps the most meditativeof the collection with its muted midrange buzzing that jumps aroundwithin the stereo spectrum, perhaps being reminiscent of musicalradar signals or sonifications of normally inaudible activity occurringin a planet's magnetosphere, all the while maintaining a benevolentwarmth throughout.
And what could possibly be described as the amplification of rolling ionparticle blasts being broadcast via shortwave radio, tells us thatwe have reached the third and final piece of this collection ofwhat could be considered as being among John Hudak's finest works.