Francis Alÿs - Nightwatch (2004) & Seven Walks (2005)
Friday, September 28, 2007
The Belgian artist Francis Alÿs collaborated with the National Portrait Gallery to create a piece generated by the gallery's state-of-the-art internal CCTV system.
Alÿs released a fox, called Bandit, into the deserted gallery at night. Seen from the high viewpoint of the security cameras, the fox looks a little puzzled among all the paintings of the great and the good. Like the guards, the fox is out of context; an intruder, observed dispassionately.
This rip includes two videos from his 2005 pieces "Seven Walks" in London. This video shows the artist rattling a stick along railings of the crescents in Regents Park. This may not sound promising but as this lone figure wanders at variance with the surrounding buildings, the effect is subtly disturbing.
Karagarga; Nightwatch and Seven Walks. Demonoid; Nightwatch and Seven Walks.
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Supersilent Discography
Friday, September 21, 2007
Over 3 hours totally improvised deathjazzambientavantrock from new limitstretching quartet featuring members and ex-members from Terje Rypdal Skywards, Farmers Market, Motorpsycho, Deathprod and Veslefrekk.
Supersilent 1-3 at Karagarga.
New, quite stunning recordings from the quartet spearheading the new wave of Norwegian jazz. Colourful, dynamic and more varied than their debut, it combines improvisation and electronics, without a drumloop or computer in sight.
Supersilent 4 at Karagarga.
Producer and member Helge Sten (Deathprod) went through some 30 hours of live recordings to come up with this 70 minute collection, including selections from Oslo, London and Bologna. Mostly a calmer, more reflective side of Supersilent that those familiar with their concerts might have experienced. As always an utterly thrilling experience in the art of improvised soundcreation and even more difficult to define than before.
Supersilent 5 at Karagarga.
Supersilent have been a solid cornerstone in Rune Grammofon since the very beginning and are seen by many as the very essence of the label. From the monumental hardcore blizzard storms of "1-3" to the elegant electrojazz of "4" and the almost quiet soundscapes of "5", this new album is where the sum of all things Supersilent comes together in a shape of almost epic proportions. Like "1-3" and "Scorch Trio" it was recorded at Athletic Sound in Halden, Norway. More than ever it appears clear that their music lives in a no man's land between the genres, somewhere between rock, electronica, jazz and modern composition. As with all their recordings and live performances, everything here is improvised. That most of the music on "6" appears to be written or at least arranged, is testament to the high, almost telepatic level they work at . Needless to say, there are no overdubs. Often being labelled jazz because of the improvising aspect of the music and the fact that three of the members come from a jazz background, with "6" they are just as likely to attract followers of bands such as Goodspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Rós, King Crimson, (late) Talk Talk or Popol Vuh.
Supersilent 6 at Karagarga.
Note: This is ONLY the audio from the dvd. The dvd can be found here.
Finally we can present this longawaited treat of a concert film. The sold out concert took place in Oslo in August last year and was beautifully captured by Kim Hiorthøy and friends to 16 mm black and white film, and later edited by Hiorthøy. The sound was recorded by Athletic Sound and mixed by Helge Sten. Needless to say, it looks and sounds fantastic. The concert itself was rewarded a six out of six review at the time in Norway´s major national paper Aftenposten. You get the complete concert, 109 minutes, 6 tracks, in the same order as on the night, there are no overdubs or repairs. And there is no bonus material, not even a menu. This is a conscious decision by the director, artist and label. We wanted it to work like a cd, with instant access to the concert material and individual tracks. Both sound and picture has been coded in the best possible way. It´s a DVD-9 (as opposed to the more normal DVD-5), meaning it´s a dual layer disc with more space for information and therefore better picture quality. In addition to the standard Dolby Digital, there is also a DTS sound option for those with players equipped for this. Please note that we now have both a PAL version and a NTSC version available. NTSC is generally used in North America, Central America, Japan and Taiwan and some countries in South America and Asia. Today NTSC versions will play in most PAL territories while it might be more difficult the other way around. Apart from this coding, the versions are identical. Please note that it is your own responsibility to order the correct version for your player.
Supersilent 7 at Karagarga( audio/dvd).
Helge Sten, Ståle Storløkken, Arve Henriksen and Jarle Vespestad celebrate 10 years as a groundbreaking quartet with their first studio album in almost 5 years. Their music lives in a no-man's-land between the genres, somewhere between rock, electronica, jazz and modern composition. Yes, we say composition because when listening it´s not far fetched to think it could have been, although everything here is improvised, as it has always been with Supersilent. With ”8” they have yet again re-invented themselves, exploring more abstract and mysterious pathways and ending up even further away from traditional categories.
The album is produced by Deathprod and mastered by US mastering guru Bob Katz.
Supersilent 8 at Karagarga.
Demonoid links will be added later.
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Olga Neuwirth - Lost Highway (2007)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Lost Highway is a composition that decidedly lives from the transformation of physical spaces, diverse inner and outer spaces, into sound spaces. In performance, this is achieved through various, three-dimensional sound projections, which surround the audience with playing, live-electronics, and virtual acoustics, resulting in different experiential relationships from within and without, close by, and from a distance. The illustrations of these sound spaces and notes naturally are only an attempt to approach the experience in the theater. Fortunately, the possibilities of surround-techniques have come to our aid, which envelop the listener with alternating, overlaying sound-strata. Thus, the present production was intended to be mixed for 5.1 surround.
Olga Neuwirth participates in Documenta12 with a work called '…miramondo multiplo…'. The piece consists of a video along with various bits of sound, which fills the somewhat intimate room at Neue Gallerie. Screenshot from the video below.
Share Lost Highway via karagarga or demonoid.
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