Sawako has released her latest album on the 12k label. From the official press release:

NYC/Tokyo sound artist Sawako has recently made a name for herself with her own unique combination of field recordings and DSP combined with noticeably feminine touch. It is this strong use of both mediums that makes her hard to classify or neatly tucked away into a specific genre. Her latest release, Hum, is an elegant and detailed work in which she consciously brushes against the fringes of pop music by extracting and processing the sounds of everyday life and working them into melodies and arrangements. Coded sound blends lightly with piano, voice, roomtones, field recordings and the additional instruments from a number of supporting musicians including Aoki Hayato (guitar + pianica), and 12k’s Kenneth Kirschner (room tones), and Taylor Deupree (kyma).

Hum is very much an album about life that takes influences from Sawako’s home in Japan and her recent years as a student of sound and media technology in New York City. There is at one time both a sense of girlish innocence and curiosity and the result marks a unique point in 12k’s recent output.

While Hum is primarily a soft, ambient album, Sawako is obviously hinting at much more beneath the surface. It’s as if she is not just searching for music in non-musical places but playing hide-and-seek with the most beautiful and sublime sounds around her and forming them by hand into a dreamy work of art.

More info:

> Hum on 12k.com

Chicago's Fessenden will be performing live at The Ice Factory, 526 N. Ashland, Chicago IL 60622 this coming Friday, November 4th.

Also on the bill are Sylvain Chauveau & Felicia Atkinson (Paris) and Tony Buck (Berlin).

The show starts at 9pm with a $6 cover charge.

This fall also sees the release of "2nds", a new Fessenden 10" containing remixes by Casino vs. Japan and Millimetrik on the Nataural Anthemes label.

More info:

> The Ice Factory

> Nataural Anthemes

David Hahn has a new 5-track CD available at CDBaby. "Giraffes" contians music composed while Hahn worked at a background music company; one piece is based on samples of a conversation between two Apollo 14 astronauts, while another is based on a creatively edited vocal sample of George H.W. Bush.

More info:

> "Giraffes" at CDBaby

Stasisfield founder john kannenberg will be performing at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art on Sunday, September 25 during the Chicago premiere performance of John Cage's MUSICIRCUS, a free afternoon-long event of continuous multiple performances throught the museum's galleries. The event's official press release is below.

---

John Cage's Phenomenal MUSICIRCUS Coming to Town!
One Day Only! Sunday, September 25th, 1:00 to 5:00 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago Avenue
FREE ADMISSION!

"You won't hear a thing; you'll hear everything."
—John Cage on the Musicircus, 1969

The Chicago Composers Forum is proud to announce the Chicago premiere of John Cage's Musicircus, to be presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art on one day only — Sunday, September 25th, from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. In accordance with Cage's belief that "art is life" — to be experienced freely and un-choreographed — more than one hundred different musical ensembles, performance groups and individuals representing over 500 performers in many different art forms will be simultaneously presented both inside and outside the Museum of Contemporary Art. No lions or elephants, but expect refreshments, balloons, clowns, jugglers, acrobats and puppets.

This "event invention," first staged in 1967 in Urbana-Champaign but never before in Chicago, lets each thing that happens, happen. Cage once said, "Sounds don't worry about whether they make sense or whether they're heading in the right direction . . . they are, and that's enough for them. And for me too." The Chicago Composers Forum invites everyone in Chicagoland to come and wander freely through these "acts" at his/her own pace.

For more information and the listing of acts, please visit:
http://musicircus.chicagocomposers.org/
http://mcachicago.org/

Support provided by the Boeing Company.

The annual Soundwalk event is taking place this Saturday in Long Beach, CA. Stasisfield artists Steve Roden, Glenn Bach, j.frede, and john kannenberg will be either performing or exhibtiing installations as part of a 60-artist free event at various venues throughout the city. The official press release is below.

-----

LONG BEACH, CA- On August 20th, 2005, the Long Beach artist group, FLOOD presents SoundWalk2005, the second annual SoundWalk event with 60 contributing artists from Southern California, Germany, Italy, UK, and New Zealand. The art follows the concept of a one-night audible/visual experience of sound installations in a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces throughout the East Village Arts District in Downtown Long Beach. Furthermore, performances will be scheduled throughout the month of August for sound artists with exhibited work in this year‚s event. The artwork includes a wide variety of combinations with visual and audible components. There will be sculptures, environments, installations, and performances. It is the variety of work that makes the event memorable for all who visit.

Independent from our organized events, some of the local galleries will also feature sound related art in August.

WHAT: Sound Art Event "SoundWalk2005", a one-night event of sound installations by over 50 local and international sound artists. Select works will be on exhibit from August 13th thru September 7th.

WHERE: Within and in front of businesses throughout the area encompassed by Broadway, Atlantic Avenue, Ocean Boulevard, and Elm Street in the East Village Arts District of Downtown Long Beach.

WHEN: Saturday, August 20th, 2005 from 5 - 10 pm

Opening Reception, 5-6pm at Koo's, 540 E. Broadway
Closing Reception, 10pm at Basement Lounge, 149 Linden Ave. (B-100)ADMISSION: Free

PARKING: Free parking is available in the lot at the NW corner of Broadway Blvd. & Elm Ave. and in the SST parking lot at the SW corner of 4th Street and Linden Ave. Metered parking is available on the street

Installations at Koo‚s, Open, and Utopia will be on display from August 13 thru September 7. Gallery hours for Koo‚s: Thursday-Sunday, noon ˆ 5pm.

A Catalog/CD compilation of work by participating sound artists will be available for sale during and after the event.

This event is free to the public and is being sponsored in part by the Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA), The Arts Council for Long Beach, The East Village Association (EVA), Koo‚s, Logistik Media, and The City of Long Beach. More information about FLOOD and the artists is available upon request.

-About FLOOD-

The artist group, FLOOD has been working on installation projects for the last three years. FLOOD is interested in testing the limits of artistic expression through collaboration and experimentation within a variety of artistic genres. Current members of FLOOD are Kamran Assadi, Frauke von der Horst, Shea M Gauer and Scott A Peterson.


SoundWalk2005 Participants: 

Adam Willetts (New Zealand) / Alan & Carolyn Lechusza / Albert Ortega / Andrea M. Dominguez / Ava Mendoza (Oakland) / Bijan Rezvani, Stanley Perecko, & Jason Perecko / Bob Bellerue / Bobby June / Bruce Friedman & Scott Fraser / Carlo Giordani (Italy) / Carrie Yury / D. Jean Hester / Eric Kabisch / EverLovely LightningHeart / FLOOD / Gary Raymond / Glenn Bach / Harry Um / Helga Fassonaki (New Zealand) / hop-frog / j.frede / James Adams / Jed Smith / Joe Negro / Joe Winter (San Diego) / John Kannenberg (Chicago) / John Vallier / Kadet Kuhne / Leticia Castaneda / Lucy H.G. / Madelyn Byrne, Michael Mufson & Molly Faulkner / Marcos Fernandes (San Diego) / Mark X Farina / Mark M Mclaren (United Kingdom) / Melissa Longenecker / mem1 / Michele Jaquis / Mike Brown / Mitchell Brown / MLuM / mt / Nicole C. Russell / Nina Waisman (San Diego) / Patricio Wolovich / phog masheeen / Redux / Robert Adam Malin / Ron Saunders, Mackenzie Bristow & Joe Tepperman / Sabine Pinkepank (Germany) / Sander Roscoe Wolff / Scott A Peterson / Scott Vance / Shea M Gauer / Shiteasters / Steve Roden / Sumako / Surrealestate / Susie Leonard / The Unwrinkled Ear / Tim Coster (New Zealand) / William Leavitt & Spencer Savage / xtine / Zear

More info:

> Soundwalk 2005 website

Formatt has a new release out on the Entr'acte label. From the official press release:

Engtevrees (Entr'acte 14)

Belgium-based Peter Smeekens' work straddles analogue and digital technologies to great effect without being overly suggestive of either. Engtevrees illustrates this well over its 20-minute duration, being composed entirely of a recording made at an underground car park in Antwerp which was then manipulated with a computer, tape decks and effects. This is the final release in our series of five three inch CDs. Packaged in a white-on-white liquid-rubber coated pouch inside a white dual-textured fold-out sleeve.

More info:

> Entr'acte
> Formatt official site

Frequent Stasisfield contributor and collaborator Glenn Bach has launched a new research facility for those interested in pedestrian culture. At the moment consisting of a website, listserv and blog, The Center For Pedestrian Culture invites all interested in the practice of walking to contribute to its research. Glenn's official announcement is below.

---

"Walk, Observe, Reflect, Report." With that motto, The Center for the Study of Pedestrian Culture seeks to promote the act of walking and the creative research and activities that result. The Center's website is an online portal of resources on walking-related cultural and creative activities, with bibliography, links, articles and interviews, and various walking-based creative projects. There is also a section, "Data," where place-based information is available for downloading/remixing/seeding under a Creative Commons license.

The website, still a work-in-progress, will grow and develop as we add new participants and contributors. Perhaps a collaborative wiki might emerge down the road. Until then, I will review contributions of projects, bibliographic entries, artist statements, manifestos, reviews, and other content.

I would like to invite you to join the Pedestrian Culture listserv to engage in discussion about walking and related topics: place, landscape studies, mapping, psychogeography, soundwalks, field recording, sound art, acoustic ecology, soundscapes, history of walking, flaneur culture, walking in literature and the arts, locative media, urban studies, New Urbanism, walkable communities, pedestrian safety, street photography, placeblogs, etc.

Please visit the links below, and I hope to see you at Pedestrian Culture.

Thanks,
Glenn Bach

Website: http://www.pedestrianculture.com
Listserv: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pedestrianculture
Blog: http://www.pedestrianculture.blogspot.com

A profile of Stasisfield contributor David Hahn was recently published in the July/August 2005 issue of Brown Alumni Magazine. The article discusses Hahn's diverse catalog of compositions as well as his website.

> David Hahn article: "The Middle Ages Goes Electronic"

> David Hahn's official website

Stasisfield contributor Albert Casais, aka Omnid, and Stasisfield founder john kannenberg will release a new split full-length CDR on Indiana's Cohort Records in September 2005. "Entropy and Incandescence" contains 30 minutes of audio by each artist. Omnid's set consists of seven short pieces that further explore his overall focus on degradation, while kannenberg's 30-minute piece, "Aestivus [chiasmos]" presents a sonic representation of extreme heat using the ancient literary form of the chiasm as its structural foundation.

kannenberg is also included on a new compilation to be released in August 2005 on Grain of Sound. "35 Mutant Seconds" contains pieces by Stasisfield artists Sawako and john kannenberg as well as works by Raphael Toral, Richard Chartier, Ent, Ian Epps, Stapletape, @c, Kim Cascone, Blake Strickland, Pita and Allto. Each track on the compilation is a reinterpretation of a guitar piece by Raphael Toral.

bremsstrahlung Recordings has released a new mp3 compilation featuring several Stasisfield artists. "Golden" contains tracks inspired by the Golden Mean and the Fibonacci number sequence, and contains work by Stasisfield artists Dale Lloyd, Dan Warburton, Elektronengehirn, josh russell and john kannenberg as well as works by Alex Keller, brekexkexkoaxkoax, Brent Farris, Jos Smolders, Toshiya Tsunoda, and Toy Bizarre.

and/OAR records recently teamed up with Alluvial recordings to release Dale LLoyd's "Semper", a suite of music that, in Lloyd's words, "illustrates a series of self-searching questions (with subtle epiphanies) followed by a somewhat enigmatic resolve or 'answer'."

Malaysian artist/composer Goh Lee Kwang's Why Not LTD label released a limited edition CDR by Dan Warburton. "A Walk Through R/ A Walk Through V" in June 2005, a continuation of Warburton's "A Walk Through L" released on Stasisfield in 2004. The CD is based on field recordings the artist made in Saint Remèze, Ardèche, France, May 2003 and Vier Bordes, Hautes Pyrénées, France, August 2003.

Finally, Why Not LTD will also release a limited edition CDR by john kannenberg. "Autumn Enso" is a suite of meditations on the cyclical nature of autumn. The disc is due for release in August 2005. Detailed liner notes for the project are available on kannenberg's web site.

> Cohort Recœords

> Grain of Sound

> bremsstrahlung recordings

> and/OAR recordings

> Why Not LTD

Chicago's Brian Labycz, aka Stasisfield's koura, will be performing this week at Chicago's Heaven Gallery as part of a trio with two other prominent Chicago artists, Rob Drinkwater and Jason Soliday:

January 13th, 2004
7pm door

Peter Brotzman / Fred Lonberg-Holm duo
Jim Baker / Michael Zerang duo
Rob Drinkwater / Jason Soliday / Brian Labycz trio
Dragons 1976

$7
Heaven Gallery
1550 N Milwaukee
2nd floor
Chicago, IL
info: brian@koura.us or 773-342-4597

More details:

> Brian Labycz official website