[TO:42V] Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma - The Signal Man's Mix Vinyl 2011

Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma - The Signal Man's Mix
Label: Touch – TO:42V
Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: 09 Nov 2011
Genre: Non-Music
Style: Field Recording

Tracklist:
A         El Divisadero - The Telegraph        
B         Veracruz - The Tunnel   

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/466770-chris-watson-el-tren-fantasma-the-signal-man-s-mix
Holy crap - Chris Watson on vinyl? Is it true? Well yeah, Touch are really treating us with this one, and veteran field recordist Watson has pulled out all the stops for this very special release. Whereas usually Watson's recordings are 'pure' representations of the subject matter, here we are presented with two 'mixes' of audio collected as he recorded for a BBC documentary. The difference in approach can be heard almost instantly as the train's engine forms rhythmic pulses beneath what sounds like manipulations of the train horn itself. This collision of drone and environmental sound is nothing new, but Watson does it with such skill that it's hard not to be totally taken aback by the sheer quality of the sounds. On the flipside, the harmonic elements are almost removed entirely to allow the crushing engine noise to take centre stage, bellowing and wheezing like the Wolf Eyes record you never heard. Sterling stuff as always from Watson then, and all the better for being on vinyl! Highly recommended.   

[TO:42] Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma CD (Album) 2011

Chris Watson – El Tren Fantasma
Label: Touch – TO:42
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 09 Nov 2011
Genre: Electronic, Non-Music
Style: Field Recording, Experimental

Tracklist:
1         La Anunciante     4:00    
2         Los Mochis     6:29    
3         Sierra Tarahumara     5:24    
4         El Divisadero     5:34    
5         Crucero La Joya     4:58    
6         Chihuahua     4:34    
7         Aguascalientes     3:26    
8         Mexico D.F.     9:14    
9         El Tajin     10:16    
10         Veracruz     3:11

http://boomkat.com/cds/449402-chris-watson-el-tren-fantasma
A stunning tapestry of field recordings from the master, Chris Watson, with his fourth album appearance on Touch, and his first since 2003's acclaimed Weather Report. Originally aired in a BBC Radio 4 broadcast last year, the sounds that constitute El Tren Fantasma (The Ghost Train) replicate the cross-country, coast to coast, Pacific to Atlantic FNM train route from Los Mochis to Veracruz. This line, a high watermark of Mexican engineering, no longer exists as a passenger route, but Watson beautifully recreates and evokes it using archive recordings. Watson spent a month on board the train with some of the last passengers to travel the route, when he was working as a sound recordist on the BBC TV series Great Railway Journeys. Watson fans will know what to expect: an aural adventure of great beauty, poignancy, humour and vivacity.

[TO:84] Biosphere – N-Plants CD (Album) 2011

Biosphere – N-Plants
Label: Touch
Catalog#: TO:84
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 27 Jun 2011
Genre: Electronic
Style: Abstract, Downtempo, Ambient

Art Direction – Jon Wozencroft
Cover [Cover Image] – Yusuke Murakami
Mastered By – Denis Blackham
Recorded By – Geir Jenssen

Tracklist:
1 Sendai-1 8:01
2 Shika-1 7:54
3 Jōyō 5:31
4 Ikata-1 5:05
5 Monju-1 2:42
6 Genkai-1 6:37
7 Ōi-1 5:10
8 Monju-2 3:58
9 Fujiko 4:56

Okay so this is weird - in February 2011 Gier Jenssen finished an album dedicated to the Japanese post-war reconstruction and, specifically, the country's futuristic nuclear program. After surveying numerous photos he became fascinated by the idea that nuclear power plants could be built so close to the sea in earthquake-prone areas, and this slowly became the focus for his recordings. A few months later and, alas, the album has gained considerable poignancy - we are now in the aftermath of one of Japan's most serious disasters and Jenssen's concepts have a strangely prophetic quality to them. The music itself is hardly melancholy, but has a damaged, cold, digital edge which mirrors the clean architectural perfection of the ominous structures, pre-earthquake of course. As Jenssen's clipped, purposeful rhythms slowly make their way into synthetic patterns, they guide the record and imbue proceedings with a fitting Kubrickian haze. 'N-Plants' almost reminds of early SND (think 'Stdio' or 'Makesndcassette') but played at the wrong speed. These are slow, booming passages of sound carried out with a masterful ear, displaying the razor sharp precision of a true veteran of the field. Lazy, lackadaisical witch-house this is not, but 'N-Plants' shares threads with its purposeful slow-down of dance music tropes. It's a powerful record: without the context 'N-Plants' is an affecting, engrossing listening experience, but with the added air of melancholy, it becomes all the more haunting and memorable. Highly Recommended.


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[TO:73] Jana Winderen - Energy Field (Album) CD 2010

Jana Winderen - Energy Field
Label: Touch
Catalog#: TO:73
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 06 Apr 2010
Genre: Electronic, Non-Music
Style: Field Recording, Experimental

Credits: Composed By - Jana Winderen
Mastered By - Denis Blackham
Photography - Jon Wozencroft
Notes: Recordings made in the Barents Sea, Greenland and Norway using four DPA hydrophones & 4060s, a Telinga parabolic reflector and a Sound Devices 744T.
Mastered @ Skye.

Tracklist:
1 Aquaculture 18:00
2 Isolation/Measurement 12:11
3 Sense Of Latent Power 20:04

This outstanding new Touch release is an album comprised of documents made by sound recordist Jana Winderen over a number of field trips to the Barents Sea, Greenland and Norway. Winderen's focus takes in above-ground sounds of extreme Northern weather systems and the wildlife that inhabits such surroundings, but perhaps more significantly and insightfully, the Oslo-based artist makes probing recordings of sub-aqua environments/habitats using hydrophones. Winderen delves deeply into glaciers, fjords and the open ocean with her equipment, capturing incredible unseen worlds populated by baffling and wholly alien sounds. You'll seldom have any idea as to what might be making some of these amazing noises, but among them are: "Sounds of crustaceans, fish such as cod, haddock, herring and pollock recorded as they are hunting, calling for a mate or orientating themselves in their environment". The disc is divided into three lengthy pieces, each one assembled from a variety of different recordings, carefully layered and edited so as to give a flowing, seamless account of the various locales Winderen explored on her field trips. In terms of recording fidelity and all-round immersive brilliance, Energy Field is right up there alongside Chris Watson's greatest works - it really is that good. Anyone with an affection for the art of sound recording will instantly adore this release; it's an album that offers a consistently surprising and illuminating depiction of regions in our natural world that would otherwise be inaccessible to us.

**When you purchase this CD from the TouchShop you will receive as a free download: Jana Winderen - Live in Den Haag, recorded on 25th September 2009 at the TodaysArt 2009 festival. This performance was recorded straight to digital from the main desk. In order to obtain your free download, click "Return to Touch" at end of PayPal process, and you will be given a download link**

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