Browse by Label: 12K

Artist:	SADJA, DORON
Title:	A Piece Of String, A Sunset
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1023CD

"Doron Sadja's debut release, A Piece Of String, A Sunset , is a five movement CD exploring the subtle fluctuations in tone and amplitude created by the combination of sinewaves nearly identical in pitch. Utilizing a 144 note per octave scale, A Piece Of String, A Sunset is made up of chords containing notes 1/12 a semitone apart, with a heavy emphasis on pitches near the threshold of human audibility. These extreme frequencies are combined with the randomatomization of data/sound files, the sparse pulse of rhythmic static, and the continuously present expressive meandering of a sol pont Violin (played by Amie Weiss) and loops of manipulated guitar (played by John Anderson) forming a highly synthetic yet still organic body of music."

Artist:	KIRSCHNER, KENNETH
Title:	September 19, 1998 et al.
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1024CD

"Kenneth Kirschner's music combines the influence of the 20th century avant-garde (most importantly Morton Feldman) with the techniques and technologies of contemporary electronic music. His methods mix a systematic use of chance procedures with the sort of rigorous editing only possible in the digital environment. An advocate of the freedom of information, Kirschner makes his work freely available online, and releases material on CD under intellectual property licenses that encourage, rather than inhibit, the music's free proliferation and appropriation. 12k is pleased to present September 19, 1998 et al., the first available CD collection of Kirschner's highly varied output. The opening track, 'September 19, 1998,' juxtaposes a spare, Cagean piano line with percussion sounds derived from found household objects, principally kitchenware. 'September 27, 2002' is a dense, polyrhythmic study in the possibilities of software synthesizer sound design. The final piece, 'February 8, 2003,' transforms tiny, unconsciously selected fragments of the composer's mp3 collection into a flowing assemblage designed to evoke the late-period orchestral music of Feldman. (All of Kirschner's pieces are titled for the date on which they were begun.)"

Artist:	VA
Title:	Two Point Two
Label:	12K
Format:	2CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	12K 1026CD

"Over the course of 7 and 4 years, respectively, 12k and LINE have been at the forefront of minimalist digital music. They have established themselves not only as a home for some of the most important contemporary electronic sound artists but also as labels who are not afraid to introduce new artists and give them the opportunity to create a unique and recognized voice for themselves in the crowded world of electronic music and sound art. With the release of Two Point Two, the continuation of 12k and LINE's joint double CD series, the labels showcase their own aesthetics and highlight some of the current and future artists that will be at the forefront of their release schedules for the next year. Packaged in a stark-white double-CD digipack that features the design and photography of Taylor Deupree and Richard Chartier, all of the tracks on Two Point Two are previously unreleased. CD1 shows 12k's current interest in melodic and acoustic instrument-based electronic compositions and experiments in deconstructed rhythmic structures. CD2, the LINE disc, continues the documentation of conceptual and installation work by artists who explore contemporary and digital minimalism and the borders of silence."

Artist:	MOTION
Title:	Every Action
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1027CD

"The 3rd full-length release from the UK's Motion (Chris Coode). The work on Every Action spans from 1999-2004, some of the material created around the time Pictures was produced, sharing that release's more obvious tonal and melodic content. Using a stripped-down setup of studio equipment Coode crafts his sound by sampling, processing, resampling, reprocessing.. back and forth, like generations of tape transfers or photocopies of photocopies, until the final results are smeared and distorted ghosts of the original: detuned, groaning, fragmented. Despite the digital sources, Coode's music is highly organic, utilizing randomness, openness and dysfunction to create an oddly ambient and quieting sound made from stressed melodic flickering and skittering, tones, drones, and overprocessed textures. Motion is important in Coode's work, too; slow motion formed in grainy timestretches punctuated by dynamics that swell and disappear creating odd suggestions of performance, structure, and deconstruction built from his always live mixdowns."

Artist:	SHUTTLE 358
Title:	Chessa
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1030CD

"Without a doubt Shuttle358 has become one of the most admired artists to emerge from modern electronic music's sea of musicians. From the humble beginnings of a demo CD in 12k's mailbox to 4 critically acclaimed CDs, Dan Abrams is, to some, the one credited for bringing a warmth and human touch back into what has often been considered a very cold, sterile genre. It began with 1999's Optimal LP (12k1005), a groundbreaking debut release that immediately defined the Shuttle358 sound; a hybridization of the then-emerging 'microsound' genre with Eno's true ambient explorations. In 2000 Abrams outdid himself with Frame (12k1011) by honing his sound design and exploring production techniques at rates that made his 'now' quite brief and creating what was to become one of the most sought-after CDs in the 12k catalog. Chessa is the third release from Abrams' Shuttle358 moniker on 12k and he continues to do what he does best: attempt to move microsound away from the world of theory and towards absolute real life. LIke his photographs, Chessa is music about, and to be listened to in, unexpected places. It is a narrative, a simple slice of life that plays out through the incidental photography of the CD cover. To achieve this Abrams fuses irregular granular sound particles, like the movements of everyday life, with a deliberate melodic base that captures emotion and simplicity."

Artist:	DEUPREE & KENNETH KIRSCHNER, TAYLOR
Title:	Post_Piano 2
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1032CD

"Taylor Deupree and Kenneth Kirschner's Post_Piano 2 continues the two New York composers' collaborative investigation into the intersections of digital minimalism and experimental piano composition. Working with his childhood acoustic piano and the accidental sounds of an imperfect recording environment, Kirschner first composed a simple, austere 'piano sketch' to serve as raw material for the project. This sketch was then passed on to Deupree, who created three new compositions entirely out of sounds derived from Kirschner's piece. The two then collaborated on editing the new recordings, which transform the original piano sketch into a diverse array of sounds both familiar and unexpected. Like their previous CD, Post_Piano 2 is released as an open source project, and the composers invite other artists to continue the interpretation and transformation of their work in an ongoing process of open collaboration."

Artist:	BRETSCHNEIDER + STEINBRUCHEL
Title:	Status
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1033CD

"12k presents Status, the result of two of the genre's most talented, and different, composers; Frank Bretschneider and Ralph Steinbr�chel, sharing their sounds and styles. Status began in the Spring of 2003 when they designed their own sound sequences and samples and sent the material to each other, waiting and hearing what the other would create out of it. They played this game for nearly two years, sending sequences and tracks back and forth until both of them were satisfied with the result. When the minimal 120bpm rhythmic structures of Frank Bretschneider and the austere sonic minimalism of Steinbr�chel get together, a rare piece of atmospheric rhythmics is created. Sometimes very melodic, sometimes abstract, sometimes very rhythmic, sometimes nearly pop, and always minimal. Detailed, fragile and full at once, Status shows where rhythmic and abstract music can get together, how different sonic worlds combine to create a unique listening experience."

Artist:	RANNISTO, ANTTI
Title:	��niesineit�
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1034CD

Classic sinewave pulse, rooted in the grand Finnish tradition! A la early S�hk� releases. "The debut full-length CD by Antti Rannisto. Rannisto [b1978] is a Finnish artist whose ultra-spare sound was formed via a diverse background of hip-hop, house, and experimental electronic music. Despite the highly improvised and free-form influences, ��niesineit� is highly calculated music so stripped down to the basic elements that subtle shifts in panning, envelope, or phase become instruments in themselves. He explores the ideas of rotation in much of his music, utilizing repetition and overlapping, out of sync structures that create networks of hypnotic patterns. ��niesineit� is a minimalist foray that defines Rannisto's sound and breaks away from 12k's recent mold of organic and melodic microsound. The beating of a sinewave over a 4/4 kickdrum, or a blipping polyrhythmic loop creates ever-shifting patterns forming his style that is too sparse to be called techno, but far too rhythmic to ever be called ambient. His palette is simple, pure, colorless, and free of any unnecessary sound or movement. It is minimalism in the truest sense. It is challenging music that demands attentive listening."

Artist:	ROUX, SEBASTIEN
Title:	Songs
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1036CD

"Songs is the much-anticipated follow-up to Parisian sound designer and musician S�bastien Roux's beautiful CD Pillow. The simple title of Songs hides a deep work that Roux states is based in mathematics, symmetry (and asymmetry) and organized randomness. Songs is a skillfully and beautifully rendered album of gentle and sometimes not-so-gentle acoustic instruments and melodic granular clouds. Each song is titled simply by the instruments that make it, thus stressing the process involved in their production. From the ubiquitous guitars, piano, and drums to the more exotic metallophone, harp and contrabass, Roux combines these acoustic instruments with digital sounds and makes a point to keep the focus on the instruments themselves, allowing for their subtleties and idiosyncrasies to come to the forefront. Roux's music is personal and multi-faceted; From warm and drowsy ambient tones to digital fests of errors and erratic rhythms to a more song-structured approach hinting at a distant relative of submerged pop music. His influences include musique concrete, folk songs, and electronic music and his work at IRCAM in Paris wraps his eclectic tastes into an expertly produced work of digital sound that does not rely on one particular sound or motif but rather highlights a breadth of processes and unique sonic juxtaposititons."

Artist:	FOURCOLOR
Title:	Letter of Sounds
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1038CD

"Following the release of his work as part of the electro-acoustic quartet Minamo on 12k and the proto-pop outing under his new moniker Filfla (Plop, 2005), Fourcolor (Keiichi Sugimoto) is back with his second release on 12k, Letter of Sounds. His previous work, Air Curtain was a critical success selling out the first pressing in little over one month. On Air Curtain, Fourcolor explored new directions, building upon delicate, implied rhythmic structures moving away from the strictly drone-based material on his debut CD Water Mirror. With Letter of Sounds, Sugimoto pushes his sound even further by bringing the rhythms more to the foreground and taking influences from his previous, more pop-based work, as Filfla. The album uses many dominant rhythmic structures such as on the opener '02' which couples catchy guitar harmonic hooks with sliced melodic beats, or the beautiful 'Rowboat' in which Sugimoto collaborates with long-time friend Naoko Sasaki/Piana (Happy) using a variety of instrumentation and vocals. Similarly, a majority of the work on Letter of Sounds finds itself working around tight, syncopated micro-rhythms. Of course Letter of Sounds is not without its delicate undercurrents and warm, stretched-out, whispy tones that have become signature to Sugimoto's sound (the gorgeous finale 'Frame'), but his desire for a more up-front and structured approach continues the evolution from a style he has mastered into new, more challenging territory, and expands his palette as an artist."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Blueprints
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1039CD

"Over the past 10 years, 12k has established itself as a label on the forefront of minimalist music and has become home to some of the most important artists of the genre. It is a label that time and time again has not been afraid to release debut albums from new artists, drawing on the new energy they interject into both the scene and the label. With the release of Blueprints, 12k presents 2 tracks each from 6 artists new to its roster and showcases some of the new sounds and influences that will carry the label into its 10th year (2007). The artists on Blueprints span the globe and offer a variety of sound that both compliments and expands on the style that 12k has become known for. Christmas Decorations tread a fine line between organic and electronic, experimental and rock music. Seaworthy: their compositions often blur the lines of conventional categorisation with elements traditionally considered part of 'indie' or 'post' rock blended with processed musical and field recordings usually associated with electronic artists. Autistici: Autistici's music incorporates a wide range of sources and inspirations including obsessional microsounds, textural orchestration, near silence and field recordings. Jodi Cave explores the potentials of home-made, MaxMSP-based software, to extend, augment and re-contextualize acoustic sound in composed works and improvised performance. Pjusk has an electronic sound that is deep, dark and pulsing that evokes a narrative and sense of other-worldliness. Leo Abrahams: using a laptop to process his guitar in real time, he creates music which contains elements of folk, electronica and contemporary classical."

Artist:	SEAWORTHY
Title:	Map In Hand
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1040CD

"Seaworthy, a three piece collective based in Sydney, Australia that revolves around core member Cameron Webb as well as Sam Shinazzi and Greg Bird, was formed in early 2000 to explore melodic and experimental approaches to the construction of minimalist soundscapes from looped guitar, warm drones, piano, electronics and field recordings. Map In Hand often blurs the lines of conventional categorisation with elements traditionally considered part of 'indie' or 'post' rock blended with processed musical and field recordings usually associated with electronic music. Instruments and samples are often looped through amps and effects pedals, giving the sound an organic feel. Avoiding the muscular approach of loud/soft dynamics, Seaworthy concentrate on subtle shifts in melody, tone and texture to convey a sense of time and place. The core sessions for Map In Hand took place over a few days in early Spring, 2006 and were book ended by recordings of birds from outside the home studio. There was little rehearsal or preparation with many pieces featuring a strong element of improvisation. Recorded initially to cassette and reel-to-reel tape, the guitar loops and drones were then transferred to computer and assembled with minimal processing, preserving the initial feel of the music's performance, complete with the happy accidents of errors, tape hiss and microphone overload that became intrinsically part of the compositions as much as any sounds produced by the instruments themselves. There is a reflective quality to Map In Hand. A reminder that things don't always need to be changing, to be attention grabbing or distracting and that there is beauty, not only in the object itself but in the process of appreciating that beauty."

Artist:	MOSKITOO
Title:	Drape
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1041CD

"12k kicks off its 11th year with a new release that takes the label down new sonic pathways. Caught between the organic and electronic minimalism that 12k is known for and the unconventional Japanese pop musings and songwriting style of Happy, Moskitoo's Drape is an infectiously strange, bleepy, and dreamy debut release. Sanae Yamasaki (Moskitoo) hails from Sapporo, Japan in Hokkaido, the country's northern-most prefecture. Perhaps a reaction to the cool climate of her home, her multi-instrumental talents bring a wide range of warm tones and textures to Drape by means of guitar, metallophone, organ, drum machines, synthesizers and nostalgic toy instruments. Yamasaki's gentle, airy vocals play off of broken beats and aqueous sound drops evoking half-awake memories lost and found. Influenced by visual art (she painted the cover image), modern electronic music and abstract pop, such as Eno's explorations in the 1970s, Yamasaki does not set out to write a particular style of music, but rather, lets her creative process emerge naturally, following whims and experiments. Drape is, by far, the most structured and songwritten release on 12k to date. It's a release that signifies not a complete directional change for the label but the creative go-ahead to add new nuances to the already established sound that the label has pioneered."

Artist:	PJUSK
Title:	Sart
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1042CD

"Sart is the debut full-length CD from Norwegian duo Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik and Rune Sagevik, collectively known as Pjusk. First heard on 12k's Blueprints compilation, Pjusk's sound can be characterized as warm, dark, delicate, and wet. Sart builds a cavernous scape that listens like a surreal storybook, utilizing a combination of electronics, dub, rhythm, found sounds such as tape machine noise, fans, and ski lifts as well as field recordings from around the world. It is in their inspiration from very human events, such as private conversations, empty rooms, or smells, that gives Pjusk's music a strangely familiar yet very disconnected and alien mood. They are very interested in the presence or disappearance of man and mankind's impact on nature, building on this dichotomy of tension as they create their work. Difficult to immediately classify, Pjusk carry on the organic and tonal tradition of 12k's recent output but twist it into darker and more narrative territory. Sart is a beautifully-produced debut that clearly carves out the artists' own niche in electronic music."

Artist:	CAVE, JODI
Title:	For Myria
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1043CD

"On his CD debut, UK sound artist Jodi Cave creates seven short compositions united by themes of singularity and natural randomness. One of the most immediate features of For Myria is its restrained sound palette. Like an instrumentalist who has laid a small collection of choice instruments out in front of him, Cave creates beautifully intimate collages, each touching on maybe only 2 or 3 sounds, woven together by computer processing which has been pushed into the background, utilized more as a compositional aid than a sound source. With instruments such as harmonium, clarinet, and guitar, through field recordings, stones, and scraps of metal, Cave paints a most introspective music in blurred swatches of minimal color. The tones are musical, delicate, punctured by the scraping of close-mic'd found objects rattling across the stereo field. Cave's choice of instrumentation helps him create pieces that exist as singular objects, each ebbing and shuffling with accidental dynamics. There is a very tactile and earthy feel to his work as he lets the sounds take a natural course, influencing and sculpting them with his own studio techniques. Who (or what) is 'Myria?' It is not known, but, Cave says... 'It sounds yellow...'"

Artist:	IELASI, GIUSEPPE
Title:	August
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1044CD

"12k presents the latest solo work from Italian composer Giuseppe Ielasi. August is the 4th full-length CD from Ielasi following his critically-acclaimed debut, Plans (Sedimental, 2003) and the stunning Gesine and Untitled (H�pna, 2005, 2006). August takes a more linear approach to Ielasi's composing with sounds stretched like layers of gauze forming a thick, soft blanket. Utilizing piano, Hammond organ, guitars, dobro, synthesizers and shortwave radio, Ielasi creates deep, warm drones and suspended, scratchy melodies with a hint of despair and melancholy that make this a very introspective album. His trademark guitar and live approach to instrumentation are in the forefront, yet set behind an expertly processed veil of subtle electronics. The textures are unabashedly acoustic but buried and moody enough as to question their origin. August is a haunting, but beautiful album that falls neatly between the starkness of Gesine and the scattering rhythmic complexity of Untitled. Like music for a farewell, an ending of ends, August is moody, static, slow and emotional."

Artist:	AUTISTICI
Title:	Volume Objects
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1045CD

"In the desire to make recorded sound as tactile as possible Autistici (UK), recently featured on 12k's Blueprints compilation , has sculpted found objects, broken acoustic instruments, synthesizers and environmental recordings into Volume Objects. Expertly realized and designed, Volume Objects is loose and organic but demands careful listening. Melody and form are hinted at and then in a whisper, a crackle, are gone. A sense of narrative and place created as if a hundred tiny objects are scattered in front of you, a fractured story that you thought you once remembered."

Artist:	WILLITS + SAKAMOTO
Title:	Ocean Fire
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1046CD

"Christopher Willits and Ryuichi Sakamoto's new release, Ocean Fire, is a sublime soundtrack for the ocean. It is an intense and stirring wash of cascading tones and textured harmony. Willits + Sakamoto surprise with rare form in this collaboration, creating a sound world unlike anything they have produced previously. Each artist has gently pulled the other into new sonic territory. Sakamoto's gorgeous processed piano sound reflects Willits' beautiful shimmering clusters of notes, a new aspect of Willits' pioneering guitar/computer approach. Together, their sounds merge effortlessly, creating deep and seamless swells of gigantic melodic waves. Ocean Fire was recorded live at Sakamoto's studio in NYC in spring 2006. The improvisations found their final form through some further editing in the months to come, and final mastering by Clayx in Berlin. We hear the artists exploring their relationship to each other, new sounds, and the ocean's boundless force and importance. This release is dedicated to the healing and restoration of our fragile oceans. Sakamoto is a living legend in music. His numerous releases in YMO, and his Grammy award-winning solo work has inspired two generations of fans and artists. Christopher Willits is a young talented artist who has shown he can do just about anything. In the late-'90s Willits began integrating his guitar playing with unique custom digital processing, and has since been instrumental in redefining the sound palette of the guitar. Overlapping all forms of music, sound, and visual art, Willits' work defies genre and retains a presence of its own. 12k is proud to release this work that pairs one of its core artists with a legendary composer."

Artist:	SAWAKO
Title:	Bitter Sweet
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1047CD

"New York/Tokyo-based Sawako is a musician, software designer, and multimedia artist whose multi-disciplinary works intermix and pollenate her music with inspiration ranging from nature, science, academia and poetic motion. Following releases on Anticipate and And/Oar, Bitter Sweet is Sawako's 2nd release on 12k after the critically-acclaimed Hum in 2005. Her music is fragile and intimate, delicate, ephemeral and resonant. Bitter Sweet is unmistakably Sawako but finds itself moving into much, much deeper territory than her previous works. Building on her past forays into experimental pop, she uses low and mid-frequency drones and soft, melodic highlights to shape beds of stripped-down, hypnotic and very linear tracks that fill the space in which they exist. Bitter Sweet is more drone and tonal-based than Sawako's previous works. However, these gentle movements are punctuated by field recordings and acoustic instrumentation with cello provided by Jacob Kirkegaard and guitar by Radiosonde and Ryan Francesconi who also co-write two of the pieces on the album. In what has become a bit of a signature, Sawako lends her own voice to the ending lullaby, 'A Last Next.' These combinations produce rich results. Bitter Sweet's diffuse and hazy soundscaping is Sawako's most mature work to date, relying less on her previous child-like melodies while remaining feminine and tender. She has come into her own after having established herself for a number of years as a New Yorker where she has tirelessly performed, studied and created as an important member of the city's electronic music community. Bitter Sweet is packaged in a 6-panel digipack with photography throughout by Brooklyn-based artist and photographer Maki Kaoru."

Artist:	MACHINEFABRIEK + STEPHEN VITIELLO
Title:	Box Music
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1048CD

"Rutger and Stephen sort of accidentally met through e-mail. A simple note regarding an ordering question for a CD led to an enthusiastic e-mail conversation and climaxed in a musical collaboration. This all happened in a very short period, both musicians being very inspired by the concept of 'exchange,' as a means to cross space and time -- Rutger living in the Netherlands and Stephen in Virginia. Most of the time, when (electronic) musicians work together, it's a matter of swapping digital files. In this case they decided to do something different and sent each other a box full of (mostly non-musical, or musically non-functional) objects and recordings, with the 'assignment' to make music with those objects and all as source materials. As the titles tell, we're talking about an egg cutter, thumb piano, a broken Kraakle box, rice, chocolate sprinkles, old cassette tapes, a broken 7" record, etc . Both musicians made two of their own solo tracks with the box they received, and the last track was done together by Rutger adding sounds and processing to a piece started by Stephen. For Rutger/Machinefabriek, this is part of his most delicate work. For Stephen, it was a new and extremely enjoyable form of long-distance collaboration."

Artist:	AMPLIFIER MACHINE
Title:	Her Mouth Is An Outlaw
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1049CD

"Amplifier Machine began in 2002 with James Dixon (Swordfish, Supagroop, James Dixon) on guitar, Korg & piano, Seth Rees (The Spheres, This Is Your Captain Speaking, I Want A Hovercraft, Seth Rees) on drums, violin, samples, piano & guitar and Alex Jarvis (Automatic, Black Cab, Registered Nurse, Alex Jarvis) on guitar & drums, with the intention of combining their songwriting talents. Something about getting three solo artists together, or maybe something about what rehearsing for so long in a freezing Collingwood warehouse does to the brain, caused the pop-bred members of Amplifier Machine to spiral out into a peculiar music of inquisitive, atmospheric, half-improvised mini-epics. Amplifier Machine is a self-described experiment in anemocratic process and near-improvisation (anemocracy = rule by whim or the wind). Through earnest discussion and endless unending jams, Amplifier Machine came upon The Rule: that when the other two members have settled, it's your turn to change. The Rule was found to be useful, not only in musical terms, but also as a strategy in discussion, advocacy for the devil, and reducto absurdums. Each members' musical approach is informed by knowledge of various artistic process, including: visual art, drama, the written word, carpentry and car maintenance. Thus, in music and in discussion, Amplifier Machine tends to start with a thesis, then to spiral out into varying antitheses, to arrive at some sort of synthesis. At least, that's the idea. Somewhat of a departure, in terms of sound, for 12k, Her Mouth Is An Outlaw breezes darkly languid chords over a post-rock-meets-experimental structure that is decidedly lacking in micro-electronics. These echoes reach for new 12k-heights while the spirit of ambience and space remain familiar."

Artist:	KIRSCHNER, KENNETH
Title:	Filaments & Voids
Label:	12K
Format:	2CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	12K 1050CD

"A subdued chord, and a subsequent quiet. A hovering drone, followed by a compelling absence of sound. True to its title, Filaments & Voids is comprised predominantly by one or the other: by carefully constructed audio of lingering delicacy or by singular silences of ambiguous depth. Over the course of two discs and nearly two and a half hours of music, composer Kenneth Kirschner focuses the listener's attention on the silence inherent in his sounds, and the sounds implicit in silence. Like the night sky evoked by the album's title, the music heard on Filaments & Voids is a broad and dark space inhabited by dispersed and luminous materials. Filaments & Voids is a 2CD collection of Kenneth Kirschner's music featuring liner notes by Disquiet.com's Marc Weidenbaum and photography by Taylor Deupree."

Artist:	IELASI, GIUSEPPE
Title:	Aix
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1051CD

"Aix is the latest work from Italian artist Giuseppe Ielasi and the follow-up to 2007's August (12K 1044). With Aix we see Ielasi building his layered, atmospheric music around rhythmic grids. Most of the time these are quite irregular and the pulses are not necessarily stable or clear. Where his previous work approached sound in a linear fashion Aix imposes a strong vertical development with the aforementioned grid and a production consisting of ons and offs, employing as much improvisation as Ielasi's previous work, but in a different way. Despite the self-imposed grid structure, Aix relies heavily on randomization. Not in the traditional sense of sound placement but instead of the spatialization of sounds, echoes, reverbs and the stereo image. As a result, Aix has an amazing sense and clarity of space as the small fragments of sound breathe and find their own place in the mix, thanks to Ielasi's sublime skills as a mixer and engineer. Ielasi relied heavily on numerous short samples and combining them in ways that fell into his groove; some found from others' recordings and many more recorded during the past year. We hear fragments of percussive (acoustic) objects, drums, piano, trumpet, guitar, and, of course, synthetic textures. Although there is a distinct rhythmic pulse to Aix, Ielasi manages to mold it into something wonderfully languid and warm... and strangely inviting."

Artist:	SEAWORTHY
Title:	1897
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1053CD

"1897is the second full length album on 12k from Australian soundscapists Seaworthy. Primarily the recording project of Cameron Webb, Seaworthy have continued to develop their sound over the last eight years with a move towards a greater emphasis on minimalism in their improvisation and composition of guitar, electronics and field recordings. In the winter of 2007, Webb commenced recording in and around a 100-year-old decommissioned ammunitions bunker. Constructed in 1897 to store gunpowder, the bunkers were in use by the Australian navy until recently, including during the Gulf War of the 1990s. In stark contrast to the cold dark interiors of the ammunitions bunkers, surrounding the building are extensive remnant wetland and forest environments that provide locally important habitats for a number of endangered and internationally protected wildlife. These areas are essentially off limits to the general public. During a three month period as an 'Artist in Residence' with the Sydney Olympic Park Authority's Arts Program, Webb undertook a series of improvisations, compositions and field recordings within the bunkers and surrounding natural environment. As well as pieces of looped guitar and electronics, installations of field recordings played back with the bunkers were also recorded, using the natural reverb of the large rooms as a way of processing the sounds of birds, insects and wind through trees. The large sandstone bunkers were infused with so much natural reverberation that even the gentlest footstep seemed to take on a life of its own. Over 6 hours of 4-track cassette, minidisk and computer recordings resulted from the sessions, and the processing, assemblage and mixing of the tracks that make up 1897 took most of 2008 to complete. The process was made more difficult with the recording and post-production sessions punctuated by the birth of Webb's first child. As a result, most of the post-production was completed under the haze of sleep deprivation and was a long, drawn out process. Unlike the warm pastoral sounds on Map In Hand (12k1040), 1897 is a starker, more melancholic album. Some tracks stripped back to a single guitar track while others feature a colder, abrasive approach to drone pieces. Generally more minimal compositions that reflect the emptiness of the bunkers and the eerie quiet that so often descends on the natural world within the depth of winter. Since the release of Map In Hand, Seaworthy have increasingly stepped out to perform live with a diverse range of artists including Philip Jeck, Christopher Willits, Birchville Cat Motel, ii, Love of Diagrams, Papa M, Rand and Holland, Tujiko Noriko, Adrian Klumpes and Because of Ghosts."

Artist:	PILLOWDIVER
Title:	Sleeping Pills
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1054CD

"Sleeping Pills is the debut release from Germany's Pillowdiver, whose concepts of simplification and minimalism led him to self-imposed limitations for the creation of this work. Utilizing primarily a Fender Jazzmaster, with a small amount of synthesizer and field recording, Pillowdiver took advantage of very lo-fi and modest mediums such as 4-track cassette and various guitar stomp boxes. Appropriate to its title, Sleeping Pills is a dark and dreamy album of often-melancholic, post-rock influenced ambience. Most tracks rely on a bed of one or two simple loops over which guitar melodies, incidental sounds and harmonies are overlaid, enveloping the listener in a sleepy din of tape distortions and warm noise. Sometimes about dreaming, sometimes about escaping, Pillowdiver's focused approach is a unique voice among artists who tread the fine line between experimentalism and indie rock.'

Artist:	BEDNARCZYK, TOMASZ
Title:	Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 1055CD

"Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow is the third full-length CD from the young Polish musician Tomasz Bednarcyzk. Following Summer Feelings and Painting Sky Together (Room40), Bednarczyk naturally continues his process of utilizing mainly treated piano and guitar to create fragile, lingering structures that hover around only a few fundamental notes. Let's Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow is divided into two sections, split down the middle by 'The Sketch,' which was written in cooperation with Adrian Klumpes (Triosk). The first half of the album floats like a pellucid veil: higher frequency whispers, surface noise and glassy textures create light, calm drones, and noticeable bass tones aren't heard for nearly 20 minutes. 'The Sketch' serves as a turning point, a snap from light to dark; field recordings of children alongside Klumpes' punctuated piano contrast sharply with the linearity of the surrounding works. The listener is then presented with the final four pieces, which descend into deeper territory. Darkness and murky frequencies prevail, and the surfaces become more distressed and stormy, finally submerging to 'Night,' which closes the album with its languid, sleepy bass loop that lulls away to silence."

Artist:	MOSKITOO
Title:	Moskitoo Remixes
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	12K 2006CD

"The Moskitoo Remixes CD is a 4-track single featuring remixes from Moskitoo's full length CD, Drape. Released as a limited edition of 500, the remix CD features 'Wham & Whammy' remixes by Raster/Noton founder Frank Bretschneider and SND's Mark Fell. 12k's Taylor Deupree remixes 'Skie' and the album version of 'Wham & Whammy' is present as well. Bretschneider's remix comes in his signature style of ultra-clean bleeps and bouncing machine beats, layered with Moskitoo's delicate vocals. Mark Fell takes a decidedly different approach chopping the original into hundreds (thousands) of fragments and recombining them into a jittery and jarring recontextualization. Deupree's 'Skie' remix adds organic tones and new layers of guitar and ambience to the lazy calm of the original." Last copies of this now deleted edition.

Artist:	DEUPREE, TAYLOR
Title:	Northern
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	12K 2009CD

"12k is re-issuing Northern in an expanded package with re-mixed and re-mastered audio. Not content to merely order a re-pressing of the same masters on hand at the CD manufacturer, Taylor Deupree set out to create what he calls the 'director's cut' of one of the most important CDs in his catalog. The idea was to open the now 2-year-old computer files to remix and remaster the tracks. Of course, over the course of years computers change, formats change, and Deupree found himself faced with missing plug-ins, errored sound files and other oddities that made working with the files difficult. What first seemed like roadblocks turned into a mission to work with what was there and re-do what was not. The result is a Northern that will, on the surface, seem quite similar to the original, however, listeners will hear new sounds, extended endings, shortened endings and most of all, an overall mix that presents these works with a new clarity and spaciousness. Mastering in the analog domain has given the work a new-found sense of delicacy and detail. A heavyweight cardboard wallet with debossed typography on the front cover. Inside are two pockets, one for the CD and one for a 24-page booklet of photography, credits, and lots of white space. All printing, as with the original, is in black and white. The inspiration behind Northern (including its music, title and photography) comes from Deupree's recent relocation from the heart of urban activity in Brooklyn to the tranquility of the forest in upstate New York. Inspired by nature and the winter during which it was created, Northern, like much of his recent work, explores Deupree's interest in stillness and a slowed sense of time. Through quiet textures, subtle movements, faint loops and echoes, it was his goal to create the type of music that comes naturally to him while also highlighting the input from his dramatic new surroundings. In contrast to the brazen repetition found on Stil., Northern's more ephemeral approach to Deupree's theme comes from looking at the stillness found outside of his studio windows: large, looming boulders, the softness of snow, and the hushed whisper of wind and fallen leaves; it is a world of countless tiny movements -- so active that an implied stillness results from the din it creates."

Artist:	STEINBRUCHEL
Title:	Mit Ohne
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$10.00
Catalog #:	12K 2010CD

"Eighteen-minute CD-EP, with EP pricing. Mit Ohne is a sound documentation of an audio/visual installation by Yves Netzhammer and Steinbr�chel. The installation entitled 'The Feeling Of Precise Instability When Holding Things' was part of the group exhibition 'Wohntr�ume/Wohnr�ume,' exhibited from 26.07. to 28.09.2003 at the Museum f�r Gestaltung in Zurich, Switzerland. The audio sections by Steinbr�chel were composed in sync with the visuals by Yves Netzhammer and succeed in translating and supporting the poetic vibrancy and slow morphing movements of the 3D rendered animation. For the exhibition, an atmospheric, fragile and detailed work was created involving a three-part projection and multichannel sound which conveys an abstract audio and visual approach to the environment surrounding us and the concept of a room itself. Each audio track takes the listener into a new form of 'room' and simple patterns of single tones are layered into dense movements surrounding the listeners space. The crystalline polished sounds form a highly precise environment which interacts with particles of melodies searching for space to breathe. Between the tracks there are no pauses, which gives the dedicated listener the feeling of being moved suddenly from one room to the other. Space and silence are sensitively woven into each other while forming an atmospheric and organic surrounding. Through the sound the feeling in every room changes from dark to bright, from large to small, from lonely to crowded, from silent to loud."

Artist:	BERG & STEPHEN VITIELLO, MOLLY
Title:	The Gorilla Variations
Label:	12K
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	12K 2013CD

"This is the first full-length collaborative release by Richmond, VA-based musician and sound artists Molly Berg and Stephen Vitiello. The CD title, Gorilla Variations came about from a request for a short-soundtrack from �der Santos, a Brazilian video artist who Vitiello has worked with for 20-years on an uncounted number of projects. For Santos' recent video installation, Boxing The Game, �der asked for a 3-minute soundtrack to accompany a video portrait of Idi Amin, a lonely gorilla housed in the Belo Horizonte Zoo. Molly and Stephen recorded a 40-minute improvisation, straight to a stereo hard disc recorder (no overdubs) with the intention of choosing 3-minutes to send to Santos, the bulk of the material from that session becoming the basis for this CD ('Variations' 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The 'Variations' include layers of looped electric guitar, clarinet, voice, whistling and samples played from laptop and from Molly's Fischer Price cassette player. For Stephen this is a return to playing guitar, the first time in 6-years. A desire for melody to accompany voice was certainly an impulse to play again, as were recent collaborations with Machinefabriek and with Steve Roden, both of whose use of guitar offered useful reminders of what a nice thing it could be to play again. Additional tracks on the CD were performed, edited and performed again over a period of 6-months, drawing primarily on improvisations but also allowing for healthy doses of editing and processing in post-production. Field recordings from sites in and around Richmond are heard throughout. Recurring characters include the 14 hunting beagles in Stephen's neighbor's yard. Throughout, a shared desire to bridge songwriting with soundscape, melody with texture shape the intention of the project."

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