★Touch
Saor
Following her previous solo works Solas (2016), Fairge (2017) and Trian (2019) Saor [pronounced Sieur: meaning "free" in Scottish Gaelic] is the first release in a triptych of albums, inspired by escapes to the peaks of Claire M Singer's homeland of Scotland. Saor perfectly encapsulates Claire's experimental approach to the pipe organ, exploring rich harmonic textures and complex overtones creating ever-shifting melodic and rhythmic patterns, which conjure visions of the Scottish dramatic landsc…
Touch Works, For Hurdy Gurdy And Voice
*2023 stock* "Phill is a sixty-something New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade-hopping. He says: 'What I am doing with my music is to produce something without rhythm or melody, by using many microtones that cause movements very, very slowly.' The stills in the booklet are from slides taken in China, while Niblock was making films which are painstaking studies of manual labor, givin…
Touch Five
*2023 stock* In October 2013 Phill Niblock will be 80 - the grand old man of minimalism. These CDs include pieces made in two different ways. Traditionally (since 1968), I recorded tones played by an instrument (by an instrumentalist), arranging these single tones into mutli-layered settings, making thick textured drones, with many microtones. In the early days, I prescribed the microtones, tuning the instrumentalist, when I was using audio tape.
Later, I used the software ProTools, and made the…
Touch Food
*2023 stock* "In the mid 1960s, I was riding a two stroke, Yamaha motorcycle up a long mountain slope in the Carolinas, stuck behind a diesel engine truck. Both of our throttles were very open, overcoming the force of gravity. Soon, the revolutions of our respective engines came to a nearly harmonic coincidence, but not quite."The strong physical presence of the beats resulting from the two engines running at slightly different frequencies put me in such a trance that I nearly rode off the side …
Touch three
*2023 stock* This is Phill Niblock's third release on the Touch label. Phill Niblock is a New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade hopping. He has been a maverick presence on the fringes of the avant garde ever since. In the history books Niblock is the forgotten minimalist. His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V. Vierk, David First, and Gl…
The Blue Beyond
The Blue Beyond is produced by Touch and Audemars Piguet following Audemars Piguet Contemporary's commission of two new compositions by Jana Winderen in 2019. The record offers edits of two sound compositions "Du Petit Risoud aux profondeurs du Lac de Joux" (2019) and "The Art of Listening: Under Water" (2019).
"Du Petit Risoud aux profondeurs du Lac de Joux" was first presented at Art Basel in Basel from 13 to 16 June 2019. A live performance of the piece was given at HEK (House of Electronic A…
Oxmardyke
Philip Jeck sadly passed away at the end of March 2022. But before he died, he was able to work on some audio files sent to him by Chris Watson, who writes: "In 2017 I was recording along the north bank of the Humber estuary and one morning driving back from Faxfleet I was stopped at the Oxmardyke rail crossing. The gates were down. After setting up a microphone array by the tracks for a passing freight train the signalman shouted an invitation to climb up into the gate box to make some more rec…
intimaa'
Intimaa' (belonging in Arabic) is a documentation of pieces composed for Touch's 40th anniversary celebrations in Los Angeles and Santa Cruz in the Spring of 2022.
Pulling from ongoing research in weaving and textiles, the pieces are informed by the interchangeability of the weaver's process with the sequencing of sound – from sourcing and preparing materials to be woven (recording, editing, and formatting samples), preparing the loom (programming the sequencer), and finally, weaving the cloth (…
Senzatempo
The music of 'Senzatempo' moves in balance between composition and improvisation. It is a symphonic work for an imaginary orchestra in which melodies, counterpoints, dynamics and sonorities define a structural breadth reminiscent of classical music.
Austrian guitarist, composer, and electronic musician Christian Fennesz is recognized as the key figure and one of the most distinctive voices of electronic music today. His wide international reputation has been consolidated through his substantial …
A Meditation On Discord
Zachary Paul's debut album for Touch, A Meditation On Discord, compiles two live recordings from 2018 and a short film score, showcasing his expressive range and unique playing style. Both live recordings -- "Premonition" and "Slow Ascent" -- were fully improvised on his violin ("The Duke," 1878), with a minimal assortment of pedals (Earthquaker Afterneath, Diamond Memory Lane Jr, and Boss RC-30) and looped vocals. Mastered by Simon Scott at SPS Mastering; artwork and photography by Jon Wozencro…
Another Way Of The Heart
Travelogue [Bali] is the second in an ongoing series of collected international audio diaries. The premise is quite simple: the two meet at a mutually agreed upon destination along with the facilitation of something to record audio of these experiences on. The intent is to capture and augment these sonic documentaries of their travels which then are sculpted into soundtracks. This is done by sourcing the culture, environment, persons or events that make their voices available.
In February 2020, …
CSound & Saz
Anthony Moore (Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, Kevin Ayers, Pink Floyd) releases his second album and first CD for Touch. CSound & Saz was recorded live for Touch's 40th anniversary event at Iklectik in May 2022. "I wanted to balance the digital output of a CSound orchestra with an analogue instrument and chose the Turkish saz, a sound I've loved and lived with for the last 6 decades."
Of Endless Light
Cleared is the longstanding project of Steven Hess and Michael Vallera, based in Chicago, Illinois. The six tracks complete the longest release to date by the duo, who were resolute in utilizing the maximum time available on the compact disc format. Cleared has produced a series of critically recognized recordings since its self-titled debut in 2011. Working with the Touch label on The Key (recorded in spring 2019, released in October 2020) was a leap forward, prompting remixed tracks by Philp J…
Black Sea
Christian Fennesz takes his time. He's been a busy guy all through this decade in terms of collaborations, live records, remixes, and so on, but he's only released a few proper albums under his surname, and each has been brilliant. Just before the new millennium he released the 1999 album Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08". It took the blissed-out sense of surrender that My Bloody Valentine specialized in into a harsh and assaultive realm, and the album can seem downr…
Working Touch (USB)
USB in digipak; 11 films, three hours 55 minutes. Films includes: Praised Fan, for bassoon (2016, 17 min) Dafne Vicente-Sandoval, bassoon. Commissioned for the Adelaide Festival, Australia, by Ilan Volkov. Material recorded at Marcus Schmickler's P I E T H O P R A X I S studio in Koln, Germany. First Out, for guitar (2015, 22:14) David First, guitar. Completed in November 2015 in Hong Kong. Premiered on Czech Radio in Prague, Czech Republic, Nov. 27 2015. Material recorded at Berklee School of M…
Stardust
Stardust uses cassette recordings from 2015-2018. Some songs (in different form) appear on the Mára recording Here Behold Your Own. Remixed using dubplates of Faith Coloccia's mixes and additional recordings by Philip Jeck in Liverpool, UK, 2020. Mastered by Denis Blackham. Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft.Faith Coloccia is an American artist and composer based in Vashon, WA. She was born and raised in Palm Springs, CA, and attended Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles (BFA). H…
Living Space
Following Slow Fade for Hard Sync (2009) and Location Momentum (2010), Living Space is Eleh's third physical release for Touch. Seven years in the making, this new release consolidates the artist's parallel narrative between a series of vinyl and CD releases for Important Records -- where the emphasis is on a minimalist aesthetic -- to a visual counterpoint that hints at the cinematic and painterly qualities of the music. Sound, as a healing force, is an idea as old as the medium itself. Inspire…
Migrations
**300 copies** Recorded in Holme Fen nature reserve, Cambridgeshire, with two JrF contact microphones on 22nd to 25thMay 2020. The long lines of wires and wooden posts stretched across the sunken landscape of the Fens follow the man-made drainage canals and rivers for hundreds of miles. Bowed, plucked and struck by natural phenomena (strong winds caused by climate change) and indigenous flora, reveals dynamic sonic intra-events and hidden acoustic ecologies.
A. Red Square 14’ 14”Field recordings…
Shadow Position
"There are 4 tracks, 4 different windows to look out from our studio in Düsseldorf into the street and their different layers of sound. 4 horizons, 4 spy holes in the door, 4 eyes and 4 shopping windows. 4 landscapes.Witness the electric city and the power house. Strafe F.R. is sitting inside the fuse box. The electric chirp of the night. The socket in which we sleep. The dog comes, in order to devour Strafe F.R. First he eats the rebellion and next he bites the Strafe.The house and the body, bo…
The Heat Equation
**750 copies** The Heat Equation is a 100pp book and CD set showcasing a new photographic work by Joséphine Michel alongside a live recording of Mika Vainio's final performance in the UK, featuring all new material intended for his proposed 2017 solo CD for Touch.Following their previous collaboration on Halfway to White, Michel and Vainio had been planning a second production, and in March 2017, Michel visited Vainio in Oslo to show him the first examples of the photographs she had been taking …