absence...
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...:::...i'm going away for a little while...so i can remember the flavor of a berry warmed in the sun, the silkiness of vermont rivers and streams, how many shades of green there can possibly be...

i will be doing more than remembering soon. i am on my way back east for a week and then even further east to prague via berlin. if anyone has recommendations for places to go (for art, for eating, for laughing, for wandering, for dancing...) i'd love to be pointed in some interesting and fun directions. lemme know.

i have been thinking about the situationists and their visits to berlin...navigating the city with maps of london.

i was recently pointed in the direction of the long now by a co-worker. for those of you who don't know, it is a project based in san francisco...

The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996 to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

The term was coined by one of our founding board members, Brian Eno. When Brian first moved to New York City and found that in New York here and now meant this room and this five minutes, as opposed to the larger here and longer now that he was used to in England. We have since adopted the term as the title of our foundation as we are trying to stretch out what people consider as now.

also, brando plank recently brouht to my attention a new release on equaliteq from poland. you can download tracks for free from the wax ages compilation. i recommend doing so.

and as it is that i am going on vacation this means no posting until i get back in september. in the meantime, here is a beastly amount of tunes to get you through. i hope they infuse your days with flavor...:::...

download: 060809-modyfier-part1 and 060809-modyfier-part2

partial arts & ewan pearson & al usher – cruising : mar 2006 on battle
guido schneider – moesko : jun 2006 on poker flat
superlux – miss moon (quenum remix) : apr 2006 on lektroluv
franklin de costa – lazy monday : may 2006 on karmarouge noir
sono – whatever (martinez remix) : apr 2006 on pias recordings
jetone – the ballad of jetone-loc (recooked by damian schwartz) : juk 2006 on apnea
paul kalkbrenner – atzepeng : jun 2006 on bpitch control
ben klock – point-blank : apr 2006 on bpitch control
arken – step off : jun 2006 on sonar kollektiv
joe haider – colours of the sea : jul 2006 on sonar kollektiv
mossa – minette (portable remix) : jun 2006 on mo’s ferry
paolo mojo – 1983 : jul 2006 on pryda friends
playgroup – behind the wheel (dj kicks electroclash mix) : apr 2006 on k7! Records
losoul – cut so sweet : may 2006 on playhouse
radiq feat. paul st. hilaire – the grass roots (dimbitronic mix) : may 2006 on logistic records
chris carrier & e-troneek funk – ladies & gentlemen : mar 2006 on dialect recordings
b-pole – the long con : jul 2006 on four:twenty recordings
tg – system of wires (tg’s edit) : jul 2006 on four:twenty recordings
daniel taylor – mord (loco dice remix) : jul 2006 on four:twenty recordings

acoustic information...
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...:::...in the current issue of the wire online, you can click your way through a multitude of free mp3s from different artists that span a cavernous range of sounds, but that are all tied together through a present intellect, through a clear intention in the music that they make. i discovered there a link to a collaboration between zavoloka and agf that explores an audial translation of visual patterning. wow. exactly what's been on my mind. in this project: "both artists can be seen as huge fans and admirers of nature and the inspiration evolved out of structure of forest leaves and berries translated into musical rhythm and moods." bingo. and about the making of this music: "the record was mainly recorded in AGF's studio in berlin kreuzberg in july 2005. edited and crafted in kyiv, ukraine at ZAVOLOKAs studio and mastered and completed in berlin prenzlauer berg in vladislav delays studio the white room in autumn 2005." there are free downloads available from their site (linked above). i've uploaded a few short clips here for you to sample:

download:

zavoloka & agf - rozmai
zavoloka & agf - v lisi
zavoloka & agf - kohaju
zavoloka & agf - efeu
zavoloka & agf - konvalija

and also along these lines, the work of kengo kuma. his words about some studies he made for walls at his stone museum: "The basic idea for the pourus masonry was to remove some pieces without affecting the structure. The possible patterns for removing were infinite, thus numerous studies were made. They are reminiscent of patterns on punch cards used in early computer systems or even music sheets. I actually asked my friend Ken'ichi Sakakibara, a musician, to read the spaces and had him play the music by scanning the walls. Le Corbusier saw the vertical louvers of the Monastery of La Tourette as musical notes, but the pourus walls of the museum contain much more acoustic information..."

i was thinking about defining edges through other means than visual markers or physical objects in public open spaces. about creating active boundaries that are verbs (active) and not nouns (not things). that is, about marking transition zones (for example, from a sidewalk into a park) with some sort of peceptive change other than with form. this might be: a moment where air pressure or temperature changes, a moment where only in a specific location can a certain sound be heard, a moment that has an electric charge that stands your hair on end. and then you pass through and it is gone. and you move back toward it in a kind of silly wonder, trying to find that exact place that grabbed you unexpectedly. just thinking about other ways to create space from apparent nothingness.

for those of you that are in the bay area this coming week, look out for the san francisco electronic music festival happening august 10 - 13 at somarts. check the website for artist listings and schedule...:::...

download: 060807-modyfier

little louie vega – africa-brasil (isolee dawn mix) : aug 2006 on vega
jetone – sufraise ii (restructured by alex under) : jul 2006 on apnea
martinez – underwater : jul 2006 on galaktika records
norman weeks – hold on (dixon edit) : jun 2006 on sonar kollektiv
damian schwartz – ryf3 : may 2006 on apnea
agf – my most amazing new patch : may 2006 on rx:tx
luomo feat joshua kit clayton – visitor : may 2006 on rx:tx
sono – open the door (extended version) : apr 2006 on pias recordings
tadeo – circunbalation 1 (alex under view) : apr 2006 on cyclical tracks

and for those of you who have been asking for lindstrom's 'contemporary fix', here is a clip and you can purchase it here.

spent...
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download: 060804-modyfier

rekleiner - realtime : jun 2006 on maschine
chris belsey & jesse rose – the source : jul 2006 on front room recordings
guido schneider – re-moved : jun 2006 on poker flat
atjazz – for real : jul 2006 on sonar kollektiv
lee van dowski – little doll chaos pounce upon assault reverberation : jul 2006 on bpitch
kiki – motorized : jul 2006 on bpitch
ada – live it up : jul 2006 on areal records
phresh n low – communicate (stranger remix) : jul 2006 deep freeze recordings
sweet n candy – tackywakeup (marek hemmann remix) : jul 2006 on raum…musik
outlines & jazzanova – just a lil lovin' : jun 2006 on sonar kollektiv

patterning emptiness...
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...:::...when someone you love goes away, as wonderful as it can be, there is a growing emptiness that fills up all things...things start to become defined in opposition to a regularity.

that emptiness has mass. that emptiness can carve out sound...it can give an edge to forms...cutting a fillet or an angle through that nothingness to change a pitch or strike a beat. in this feeling of absence, i'm thinking about making a visual pattern that records the frequency of these heavy empty moments and about how to draw sound from that image...:::...

download: 060802-modyfier

cass & mangan – i didn’t mean to turn you on (eames dub) : jun 2006 on saw recordings
solid groove & jesse rose & jamie anderson - nice & slow : jul 2006 on front room recordings
henrik schwarz & jesse rose – stop, look and listen : jul 2006 on front room recordings
alka rex – hester fenz : jul 2006 on thema (thanks to brandon for turning me on to this one)
digitaria – teen years (zoo brazil remix) : apr 2006 on international deejay gigolo records
mossa & da fluke – smashup : jun 2006 on complot records (france)
soulphiction – state of euphoria : feb 2006 on sonar kollektiv
john dahlback – it feels so good (herbert boese’s jaktronic remix) : may 2006 on systematic