Browse by Artist: FENNESZ

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Hotel Paral.lel
Label:	EDITIONS MEGO (AUSTRIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	EMEGO 016CD

Hotel Paral.lel, originally released in September 1997 by Mego, was Christian Fennesz's debut solo album. This 2007 remastered reissue includes a bonus track from a 1996 7", and a video. Following up from the EP Instrument, it was an investigation into the sonic possibilities residing in guitar-based digital music, recorded just before mobile computing devices became the norm. A far more darker and experimental work than what was to follow. Freeform noise, sliced techno beats and subtle ambient textures create a timeless work, which is an essential addition to any collection of pioneering music of the late 20th century. On the closing "Aus," we see a glimpse of what was to come, a springboard into the future. In addition to the original 14 tracks, two extra titles are included: "5," originally released in 1996 as a 7" single on Syntactic, which was released only in an edition of 100, and the acclaimed video made by Tina Frank/Skot for the track "Aus."

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Endless Summer
Label:	EDITIONS MEGO (AUSTRIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	EMEGO 135CD

This version features new artwork by Tina Frank based on the original 2001 Mego release. Endless Summer, originally released in 2001 by Mego, was a breakthrough album for Christian Fennesz -- the album which brought his name and music towards the first steps of mainstream recognition. Following on from the more experimental Hotel Paral.lel (EMEGO 016CD) and the Beach Boys-homaged Plays single, Endless Summer brought the guitars more to the front, the electronics shimmered more, and the melodies shined more brightly. It went on to become a classic of its time, topping many end-of-year polls. This CD has the same audio content as EMEGO 035CD -- it is the 2007 released newly-mixed version by Fennesz, which resulted in a more open-sounding version of the tracks, especially the marimba-driven "Caecilia," the hypnotic "Before I Leave," and the towering "Happy Audio." It also contains the 2 extra titles from the updated 2007 version: "Badminton Girl," originally released in 2001 as part of the Split Series #15 12" with Main on Fat Cat Records, now out-of-print, and "Endless," which had been previously-unreleased.

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Endless Summer
Label:	EDITIONS MEGO (AUSTRIA)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	EMEGO 135LP

Remastered, expanded gatefold double LP version (briefly available as a single LP in 2001 and o/p for 10 years now). This version features new artwork by Tina Frank, based on the original 2001 Mego release. Contains "Ohne Sonne" and "47 Blues," previously only available on the Japanese CD versions, as well as a new, extended version of "Happy Audio," exclusive to this release. Endless Summer, originally released in 2001 by Mego, was a breakthrough album for Christian Fennesz -- the album which brought his name and music towards the first steps of mainstream recognition. Following on from the more experimental Hotel Paral.lel (EMEGO 016CD) and the Beach Boys-homaged Plays single, Endless Summer brought the guitars more to the front, the electronics shimmered more, and the melodies shined more brightly. It went on to become a classic of its time, topping many end-of-year polls. Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin, September 2010.

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56'
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	TO 040CD

...37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51'08". Originally released by Touch in 1999, this is Christian Fennesz's second full-length solo album after the highly-acclaimed Hotel Paral.lel (Mego, 1997). Fittingly, "+47° 56' 37" -16° 51' 08" takes its title from the coordinates of Fennesz's backyard garden, the site of the open-air studio where these tracks were created. Initial copies came in an oversized gatefold card sleeve, with booklet insert; the second edition was in standard jewel case format. This third edition is in digipak format with unaltered audio. The album has been out-of-print for two years and was Fennesz's first solo album for Touch, preceding his breakthrough Endless Summer (Mego, 2001). Anticipating his next album, The Black Sea (Touch, 2008), on +40º..., Fennesz uses guitar and computer to create shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex musicality. His lush and luminous compositions are anything but sterile computer experiments. They resemble sensitive, telescopic recordings of rainforest insect life or natural atmospheric occurrences, an inherent naturalism permeating each piece.

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Venice
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TO 053CD

2010 repress; universally acclaimed as one of the major releases of 2004! "Venice was recorded on location in the summer of 2003 and subsequently assembled and mixed at Amann Studios, Vienna in January/February 2004. Venice, the fourth studio album by Christian Fennesz, finds electronic music at a crossroads between its early status as digital subculture, and the feeling that there has to be something more, an emotional quality that rises above noise and moves towards melody and rapture. Includes the continuation of his collaboration with David Sylvian on the track 'Transit', following the success of their duo on Sylvian's 2003 solo album, Blemish.

Fennesz burst upon the scene with Instrument [Mego, 1995] and followed that up with a succession of ground-breaking and highly original solo albums. As The Wire wrote, 'he offers all the puzzles and adventures of experimental music, but with a more assimilable grasp of melody -- and a prominent role for the guitar', and to be sure, 'though the process may sound simple, it takes some skillful manipulation to simultaneously tug those heartstrings and poke them with tiny pins.' [Nick Phillips, City Pages, USA]. Fennesz has been active in film soundtrack work -- for Gustav Deutsch and his forensic view of cinema, film ist'... Live performances, improvised music within a modus operandi that adheres itself more to jazz than computer software... everywhere from Tokyo to Bratislava. Fennesz has also taken part in many collaborations: Fenn O'Berg, with Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg [Mego], a duo with Rosy Parlane [Synaesthesia], and with Polwechsel [Erstwhile]. He has also been recording with Sparklehorse, the first fruits of this collaboration appearing on the recently released Spire [Touch # Tone 20]. He lives and works in Paris and Vienna."

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Black Sea
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TO 076CD

Black Sea is the much-anticipated new album from Christian Fennesz, his first since Venice (2004), about which Stylus Magazine's Nick Southall wrote: "Fennesz does with sound what Stan Brakhage did with film, altering its very fabric and texture, employing disorder and error as forms of communication and expression. He forces you to learn a different method of perception and interpretation, to look beneath the chaos that seems to govern the movements of life and find the patterns beneath." Fennesz's career has come a long way since Instrument, his debut for Mego in 1995, and his first solo album Hotel Paral.lel which followed in 1998. Endless Summer (Mego, 2001) brought him to a much wider audience and Venice underlined his mastery of melody and dissonance. His songs usually embody the skillful application and manipulation of dense sonic textures with a genuine feel for the live, and real-time. Black Sea features guitars that rarely sound like guitars; the instrument is transformed into an orchestra. Fennesz lists the elements used to make the compositions: "Acoustic and electric guitars, synthesizers, electronics, computers and live-improvising software lloopp." On "Glide," Fennesz duets with New Zealand's Rosy Parlane, whose work is also released on Touch. Fennesz also teams up with eMego artist Anthony Pateras whose prepared piano features on "The Colour of Three." Fennesz pushes his work into a more classical domain, preferring the slow reveal to Venice's and Endless Summer's more song- based structures. Jon Wozencroft's artwork makes visible this carefully hidden world resting beneath the surface of "the first impression." A series of shots, taken in quick succession as the tide recedes, reveals a world of specific activity only visible at a particular time and place, histories appearing and disappearing.

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Live at Revolver, Melbourne Australia 3.02.00
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	TO CDR3

"Running time: approximately 17 minutes. Recorded on the recent Mego tour down under, this is Christian Fennesz' first live CD, his second release for Touch. Although it carries a CDR catalog number, this is not a CD-R. The CD will be manufactured at Universal, like all the other Touch CDs. The packaging will be the same as the Phillip Jeck and S.E.T.I. CDRs however- i.e. in a white wallet with a black and white sticker. This edition is limited to 1000 copies."

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Field Recordings 1995:2002
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TONE 016CD

Repressing of this 2002 release. Field Recordings brings together a range of material Christian Fennesz has contributed to compilations, special projects and film soundtracks between the years 1995 and 2002. It also includes his debut 12" for Mego, the awesome Instrument remastered. Contains his remix of Stephan Mathieu & Ekkehard Ehlers, tracks from the Clicks&Cuts 2 comp, the Ash Int'l compilations KREV X and Decay, excerpts of his soundtrack to the movie Blue Moon, and one exclusive new track.

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Seven Stars
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	TONE 044CD

Fennesz's first solo release since Black Sea (TO 076CD/LP). Using acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths and computers, Fennesz continues to engage and entrance us in equal measure. Fennesz writes: "Seven Stars was recorded in Vienna in January 2011. I recorded and mixed the album within 3 weeks. 'Liminal' and 'July' were existing pieces which I have reworked. (I wrote an early version of 'Liminal' in a hotel room in Bali in 2010). There is also a version of 'Liminal' that I have been playing live for some time. My friend Steven Hess, with whom I have worked before, happened to be in Vienna at the time of the sessions, so I invited him to join me in the studio. Christoph Amann recorded the drums using a selection of his great microphones, including his amazing new Josephson. I wanted to make a record that has a certain lightness about it and at the same time explore new territory using drums on one track. This might be something I will continue with in the future."

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Seven Stars
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	10"
Price:	$12.00
Catalog #:	TONE 044EP

Fennesz's first solo release since Black Sea (TO 076CD/LP) is a 4-track 10" vinyl. Using acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synths and computers, Fennesz continues to engage and entrance us in equal measure. Fennesz writes: "Seven Stars was recorded in Vienna in January 2011. I recorded and mixed the album within 3 weeks. 'Liminal' and 'July' were existing pieces which I have reworked. (I wrote an early version of 'Liminal' in a hotel room in Bali in 2010). There is also a version of 'Liminal' that I have been playing live for some time. My friend Steven Hess, with whom I have worked before, happened to be in Vienna at the time of the sessions, so I invited him to join me in the studio. Christoph Amann recorded the drums using a selection of his great microphones, including his amazing new Josephson. I wanted to make a record that has a certain lightness about it and at the same time explore new territory using drums on one track. This might be something I will continue with in the future." Printed inner and outer color sleeve.

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