Browse by Label: AUTOFACT

Artist:	MATMOS
Title:	The West
Label:	AUTOFACT
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	FACT 006CD

Autofact is pleased to announce a reissue of The West -- a five song album by the Baltimore electronic duo, Matmos -- in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the album's original recording, released on Deluxe Records in 1999. On this, their third release, Matmos collaborate with an all-star selection of friends to create an unusual hybrid of digitally-constructed acoustic music. Imitating but transforming rock, country, and folk gestures, The West reaches territory similar to work by John Fahey or Gastr del Sol from a perversely opposite end of the spectrum: instead of making organic music that draws upon electronic texture, this is electronic music that feels organic -- both in its sound sources and in its construction. Instead of the bizarre sound sources that Matmos have used in the past (amplified crayfish nerve tissue, rubber clothing, hair), the musique concrète elements on The West have an everyday quality: a phone rings, a car starts, the pages of a book are turned, water drips, a cigarette is smoked. Very quiet, familiar sounds are amplified into strange new shapes. Despite their temporary flirtation with traditional instruments, Matmos' conceptual antics remain: in a Cage-ian gesture, a dice game determined the selection and content of the tiny sample snippet clouds within the first song "Last Delicious Cigarette," with dice rolls selecting records by Penderecki, Minor Threat, Enoch Light, Mandrill, a "Costar" record with Fernando Lamas, and a recording of a Heidegger lecture. The resulting song starts off as tongue-in-cheek turntablism and ends in a ditch with a dark, scraping drone. "Action At A Distance" pits Dave Pajo's tranquil guitar figures against the distorted noise of water dripping on a heavily-amplified copper sheet. Listen carefully and you'll hear the crisp pages of a Bible turning. "Sun On 5 at 152," an ode to a favorite strip of freeway, flickers between gentle repetitions of Mark Lightcap's acoustic guitar and discrete, unnerving digital edits before bursting into full drums/banjo/violin/cello orchestration and peaking with thirty seconds of drum and bass. "The West" ambitiously fuses distinct sections into a continuous 20-minute road trip across quasi-country, kosmische space music, electro, Krautrock, free-jazz, and full-on noise. The final song "Tonight, The End" is a sleazy take on stripper jazz featuring Jim Putnam (of Radar Bros.) on trumpet, Rick Brown (from Run On) at the kit, and Mark Lightcap's talents on the peck horn. Matmos is Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt.

Artist:	FENNESZ
Title:	Live In Japan
Label:	AUTOFACT
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	FACT 009LP

The Autofact release of Live In Japan by Christian Fennesz marks the album's debut on vinyl. Originally released in 2003 as a Japan-only CD (Headz/Touch), Live In Japan is perhaps the definitive live document of electronic-acoustic improvisation for our time. Hailed by many to be the "greatest laptop live show in music history" and counted among the albums of the year by The Wire in 2003, one would perhaps have to go back as far as Kraftwerk to find a live electronic performance as engaging, organic and inventive as Live In Japan. The LP consists of one sublimely beautiful and haunting 43-minute long track, recorded live at the Shibuya Nest, Tokyo in February of 2003. The performance takes us from the bright codeine pop of Endless Summer to the grand & stately melancholy of Venice, with familiar bits of coda and electronic soul hooks catching us as we stream through the lush, nearly symphonic drones and soundscapes which Fennesz has expertly composed to guide us through his musical legacy. This is that rare piece of music which affects both the ardent champion and the novice alike, moving and original, with not a single note wasted and nothing out of place. Guitar music? Laptop music? Post-modern electronic soul music? Fennesz music. Mastered directly to metal at Abbey Road Studios, London. Limited edition of 1,000 copies pressed on heavyweight black vinyl and housed in a deluxe spot printed sleeve. Featuring exclusive new artwork designed by Jon Wozencroft.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Spire Live - Fundamentalis
Label:	AUTOFACT
Format:	2LP
Price:	$18.50
Catalog #:	FACT 012LP

Spire Live - Fundamentalis is a double LP-only collection of exclusive live tracks recorded at various Spire events held throughout 2005 and 2006. Released in association with U.S. label, Autofact, Touch presents a selection of tracks performed by the main performers of Spire: Fennesz, Philip Jeck, BJNilsen, Charles Matthews and Marcus Davidson. Improvised pieces from Fennesz, BJNilsen and Philip Jeck contrast with a performance by Charles Matthews of a scored composition by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, "In Nomine Lucis," and Marcus Davidson's self-penned "Standing Wave," which ends side two with a locked groove. Cut to preserve and enhance the bottom end frequencies, Fundamentalis is not merely a document; the tension between and within the individual pieces is palpable. As the Touch label places it, Fennesz's set "...evokes the rolling centuries in all their pain and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energized, but never oppressed under the weight of time." Electronics breathe new life not only into the organ, but also into the setting. But a new technological successor does not mean replacement. Ultimately, it's the majestic sound of the organ, so steeped in centuries of tradition that one remembers above all else. Spire is one of the most innovative projects around, drawing on the full canon of organ works, from the very first annotation in the Robertsbridge Codex from the 14th century, to Max MSP patches and software sampling. With two CD releases and nine performances in cathedrals and churches throughout Europe, Spire remains a potent live force in harnessing the sounds of the ages. Art direction and design by Jon Wozencroft.

Artist:	WINDEREN, JANA
Title:	Surface Runoff
Label:	AUTOFACT
Format:	7"
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	FACT 017EP

Great new Autofact 7" series, pressed in the UK w/ the same quality and design specs as Touch's recent 7" series. Perfect audio/art documentation, limited to 500 copies... Surface runoff is when soil is filled with excess water from rain, snowmelt, etc., and its subsequent flow of excess onto land. This cycle, and the dependence of life on water, is reflected in these hot and cold recordings made by Jana Winderen. Uniquely able to co-exist in its three natural states, of gas, liquid and solid, water is our most precious resource. Without it we die. Surface Runoff is the first in a new series of 7" releases.

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