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CD
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EMEGO 305CD
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Irreal definition is -- not real. "In order to imagine, a consciousness must be able to posit an object as irreal' -- nonexistent, absent -- Jean Paul Sartre Irreal is a selection of recordings from different situations encountered in Austria, Russia, South Korea and The Benelux. The range of sound is as wide as is the emotional impact which slides from the unnerving to the shimmering and gorgeous. Doors, bells, birds, wet snow falling from a tree, hacking of wood, water dripping in a cave are all exquisitely captured and molded into vast landscapes of sound. Human voices, string instruments, descending trains, oceans, winds, grass, trees. These diverse sonic elements are grafted around and upon each other to create a rich tapestry of sound. Electronic embellishments harness the whole to create a singular expressive canvas. The three-part suite concludes with the "Beyond pebbles, rubble and dust", a grand glacial work which serves as a masterclass in extraordinary transcendental drone. The sound of nature, the nature of sound and the effects these have on humans has been a primary focus of BJ Nilsen's investigation over the years. Irreal resounds with a level of sophisticated enquiry one would expect from one of the contemporary masters of the form. Includes 16-page booklet. All material by BJ Nilsen. Recorded and Mixed at Odd Phasing and Echoes, Amsterdam NL 2021. Source material from Austria, Russia, South Korea and The Benelux. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu. Photography Karl Lemieux. Design by Stephen O'Malley.
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LP
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EMEGO 233LP
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BJNilsen is a composer and sound artist based in Amsterdam. His work primarily focuses on the sounds of nature and how they affect humans. Recent work has explored the urban acoustic realm and industrial geography in the Arctic region of Norway and Russia. His original scores and soundtracks have been featured in theater, dance performances, and film. Celebrating 27 years as a recording artist, Massif Trophies is his first solo release for Editions Mego. In 2015, he set off on a month-long hiking trip in Gran Paradiso to explore the acoustic environments in the alpine landscape. Drawn to the monotonous and physical effort that mountains and high altitudes contribute, this became one of the main inspirations for Massif Trophies, reflecting upon the perception of the landscape during several hours of physical difficulty, let alone rapid weather changes, horizontal thunderstorms, and rock avalanches. Massif Trophies is also about the scope of details and perception of the path and the myth of the mountain as the accursed or sacred place. The five pieces contain narratives based on experiences and recordings from the trip. All source material recorded in Gran Paradiso, July 2015; Engineered at Odd Phasing and Echoes, Amsterdam NL; Photography by BJNilsen. Includes download card.
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CD
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TO 095CD
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BJ Nilsen's fourth solo album for Touch is a surreal audio rendition of the sounds of the city of London recorded and mixed 2012-2013. A sound and recording artist born in Sweden, Nilsen primarily uses field recordings and electronic composition as a working method and has worked for film, television, theatre, dance and as sound designer. "In 2012 I received a scholarship from the Leverhulme Trust for a one-year Artist in Residency at the UCL Urban Laboratory in London, to introduce sound as an art practice to urban scholars and students. As part of my research I decided to dérive the city. I spent full days and sometimes nights sweeping the streets and its interiors for sound - walking and listening with no route or intention. A city without sound does not exist. Every location, passageway, alley, road, park, and pub contains its own world of isolated sound events and patterns - the sound of a shopping bag caught by the wind on the asphalt of a busy street when a bus passes by. What seems to be merely a bus is also a cacophony of sounds, a sound world in itself: hydraulics, breaks, interior noise, honking, public announcements, humans, rolling bottles, cell phones, mp3 players. The rattle of an air-conditioning unit in an old pub toilet gradually develops its broken down sound over many years, creating a raga for it own demise. Nobody seems to hear it. Is it there? The choice of sound varies; its a personal selection, some sounds made it into this composition, many hours of recording didn't. Sound composition can alter space and time and transform a specific location and experience into an imaginary world." -- BJ Nilsen
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Cassette
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ASH 9.1CS
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Ash International presents a cassette-only release of 2008 live tracks from Swedish sound recordist BJ Nilsen. BJ Nilsen was born in 1975 and he has been active with experimental music for over 20 years. For the past 10 years, he has been releasing albums on Touch, and making music and doing sound design for documentary film, television and commercials. He is focused on field recordings and on the sound of nature and its effect on humans and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound, often electronically treated. Nilsen has collaborated with artists such as Chris Watson, Hildur Gudnadóttir, Philip Jeck and Stilluppsteypa, amongst others. Illustration by Sav X, entitled Dead Flowerz 1 (first in a series of 6).
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CD
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TO 077CD
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BJ Nilsen is a sound and recording artist born in Sweden. He defines his work as "focused upon the sound of nature and its effects on humans, and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound, often electronically treated." He has numerous recordings on Touch and has collaborated with the likes of Chris Watson, Christian Fennesz, and Z'ev. Recorded and mixed during 2008-2009 in Berlin. All tracks composed by BJ Nilsen using tape recorders, computer, organ, acoustic guitar, electronics, viola, Subharchord. Field recordings from: Sweden, Iceland, Norway, UK, Japan, Portugal and Germany. The Subharchord was recorded in the EAM Studio @ Adk, Berlin. Viola played by Hildur Ingveldardóttir Gudnadóttir. Track notes: 01. "Gravity Station": Subharchord, pitch-regulated viola, amplified chair dragged across floor, window shutters, grand piano, virtual Hammond organ, steel whistle coffee-pot, acoustic and electric guitar feedback run through B&K Frequency Analyzer Type 2107, Various DSP; 02. "Phase And Amplitude": bumblebees, acoustic guitar, Studer B67, various DSP; 03. "Scientia": birdsong feed-backed and overdriven through a B&K Frequency Analyzer Type 2107, B&K Sine Random Generator Type 1024, Subharchord, wing-flaps and bird eating. B&K Sine Random Generator Type 1024, virtual Hammond organ, door slam, glockenspiel, online voice decoder, Studer B67, Various DSP; 04. "Virtual Resistance": Subharchord, acoustic and electric guitar feedback run through B&K Frequency Analyzer Type 2107, cat climbing up door, virtual Hammond organ, broken Fishman parametric EQ, bowed acoustic guitar, footsteps on snow, Studer B67, various DSP; 05. "Meter Reading": virtual Hammond organ, various DSP, Studer B67 tape cut-ups, boat ramp; 06. "Into Its Coloured Rays": wasps run through B&K Frequency Analyser Type 2107, piano, dead trees leaning against each other, crows, Studer B67, various DSP; 07. "Gradient": acoustic guitars, virtual Hammond organ, B&K Sine Random Generator Type 1024, Studer B67, various DSP; 08. "The Invisible City": amplified chair dragged across floor, feed-backed Ferrograph Series 4, rain, acoustic guitar feedback, tape-loops of found sounds, various DSP.
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LP
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TO 075LP
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This vinyl version of BJ Nilsen's highly-acclaimed 2007 CD album The Short Night was edited and remixed in Berlin in July of 2007. It was cut by Jason at Transition, London, on a Neumann VSM 70 in April of 2009. These tracks have been radically remixed and presented for vinyl. A follow-up to 2005's Fade To White, BJ Nilsen develops his work further, based on field recordings and electronics. This time he adds harsher yet clearer harmonies with musical elements to the compositions, creating a beautifully complex and detailed study. Recorded in 2006-2007 with mostly analog equipment, using up to 50 year-old tape machines, filters and generators that end up being the soft cushion in these cold location recordings. Location recordings from Mälaren, Stockholm, Sweden; Coombe Gibbet, Berkshire, England and Landakot, Vatnsleysuströnd, Iceland. Telefunken M10 and M5, Studer B67, Ferrograph Series 4, Bruel and Kjær Sine-Random Generator and Frequency Analyzers. Also Monowave, Sequential Circuits ProOne, Korg MS20, Esq1, MOTU 828MK2, Ableton Live, Logic Audio 6. Morin khuur on "Black Light" played by Hildur Ingveldardóttir Gudnadóttir of Hildurness. "Thrown by a gust of wind onto the rainy south coast of Iceland, an upset crow is moving around on his shed. Simultaneously we hear an echo from a night in northern Italy where some unidentified animals and birds can be heard. He welcomes the night who has enough provisions. Short are the sails of a ship. Dangerous the dark in autumn, the wind may veer within five days, and many times in a month." Artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft.
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CD
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TO 065CD
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Benny Nilsen writes: "Fade To White contains material from the making of 3 pieces which were created within a different season and then edited, re-arranged and re-mixed in the summer of 2004. 6 pieces contain outdoor field recordings from travels in mainly central Europe in 2003 [Gdansk/Poland, Narva/Estonia, Sarajevo/Serbia Herzegovina, Arad/Romania, Trieste/Italy], and static indoor recordings from 2004 Stockholm/Sweden, Brussels/Belgium, Amsterdam/Netherlands, Vienna/Austria, Geneva/Switzerland. I used acoustic and electrical instruments recorded in open spaces picking up the natural ambience, blending those with environmental sounds of nature and then arranged it in the computer, creating dynamic layers of sound that feed from one another." This is BJNilsen's 3rd album for Touch, after Land [Touch # Tone 17 - as Hazard] and Live at the Konzerthaus, Vienna [Touch # TO:CDR5]. He also recorded 3 Hazard albums for Ash International."
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CD
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TO CDR5
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"Christian Fennesz has started curating a series of events at the Konzerthaus in Vienna as part of the 'generator' series of live performances held there each month. In early December he performed with Philip Jeck and BJNilsen (aka Hazard) as part of the Touch night, during which Jon Wozencroft also showed his films. All the concerts were recorded, and BJNilsen's becomes the 5th in the TO:CDR series." CD (wallet) -- factory manufactured.
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