Taylor Deupree + Christopher Willits “Listening Garden” first review June 28, 2007

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Boomkat listed “Listening Garden” as its album of the week and posted a very nice review!:

Well I wasn’t expecting this – a collaborative project from 12k boss Taylor Deupree and expert guitar-manipulator Christopher Willits coming as if out of nowhere. Not nowhere exactly though, to be more precise it’s coming from Japan, and this project was funded by the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media in 2004. Deupree and Willits were asked to provide a soundtrack for tea spaces in the Yamaguchi Center itself, designed to heighten vistor’s senses as they sat in the beautiful rooms drinking tea or chatting quietly (see why it would never work in the UK?) and the musicians proceeded to craft short randomly-sequenced pieces to mirror the mood of the place. Taking the sounds of nature as a template Deupree and Willits manipulated the recordings accordingly making sure they never sounded overtly digital or removed from life (as so much digital, minimal music can be) and this album itself is actually environmental recordings rather than the tracks themselves. Occasionally you hear the clink of a teacup or a hushed whisper, and the slow breeze is constantly caressing the microphones as they record, but this doesn’t distract from the enjoyment of the music itself which ebbs gorgeously in the background. You might hear a rhythm for a second, the subtle pulse of Deupree’s electronics and then the hum of Willits’ processed guitar but everything is fleeting and dissolved into the rich atmosphere. This is both field recording and minimal music, and those slightly frightened by the record’s placement on ultra-minimal offshoot label Line shouldn’t be, ‘Listening Garden’ is like reclining into a gorgeous pillow of sound, relaxing without being audio wallpaper and absorbing without resorting to clichéd digital trickery. Easily one of the finest bedtime albums I’ve heard this year, and something I’ll be playing a lot more in the months to come. As usual the Line cds are limited to a one time pressing of 1000 copies so make sure you buy quickly if you want to secure yourself a copy, there’s not much chance we’ll be able to get restocks on this. Sublime.

12k t-shirts now available in online shop June 25, 2007

the shirts are now available in the online shop. pricing is as follows:

USA: $20
OUTSIDE USA: $28

unfortunately, it costs $8.80 to mail one shirt overseas! this is killer… and that’s before i add on the cost of the box, and the costs of my postage rental system. i apologize for the slightly higher cost on the shirts this time around… but hopefully you’ll find them worth it… they are, after all, designed by the stunning talents of Fehler, who did a shockingly simple, but effective remix of the 12k logo.

shirts are on a first-come-first-serve basis and many of them are going to get shipped to japan to our distributor there. but i will make more if we run out.

INFO IS HERE
DIRECT LINK TO SHOP IS HERE

12k shirts are here! June 25, 2007

new new “12k vs Fehler” shirts are here! after i sort everything out and add them to the shop, you’ll be able to order them. quantities are limited.. but i will likely print up more..

details and availability later tonight!

Sawako European Tour June/July June 20, 2007

Sawako will be out and around in Europe at the end of June into July for a few concerts. be sure to check her out if you’re nearby. here’s the schedule:

June.21.2007 Kunstraum Walcheturm (Zurich, Switzerland) http://www.walcheturm.ch
June.24.2007 C.B.K. Art Center (Dordrecht, The Netherland) http://www.cbkdordrecht.nl
June.27.2007 Salon Des Amateurs (Dusseldorf, Germany) http://www.salondesamateurs.de
July. 07 2007 ZDB (Lisbon, Portugal) http://www.zedosbois.org
July. 12 2007 M12 (Berlin, Germany) organized by http://www.myspace.com/mariusreisser
July. 20 2007 TBA (Napori, Italy)
July. 21 2007 Glade Festival (Belter, UK) http://www.gladefestival.com/stages/algorithm/

EXTRACT now available at 12k’s online shop June 18, 2007

NVO’s impressive 96 page, 2 X CD hardcover book “EXTRACT” is now available in 12k’s online shop.

$40 (USA)
$45 (OUTSIDE USA)

www.12k.com/shop (OTHER LABELS section)
www.nonvisualobjects.com/label/

artists: 22 various artists
title: extract – portraits of soundartists
cat#: nvo_o11
format: book (hardcover, 96 pages) + 2 cds
release date: may 07
limited edition: 500

cd 1
01 Keith Berry | Finger Pointing At The Moon | 6’00
02 Richard Chartier | A Field For Recordings 2 | 8’43
03 Taylor Deupree | Live In Osaka | 6’00
04 Heribert Friedl | nbvto | 5’52
05 Richard Garet | Précis | 6’00
06 Andy Graydon | Microclimates For Paliku | 5’57
07 Bernhard Günter | Listen to what you see (audio
— sample of location of all Koblenz photos) | 6’00
08 John Hudak | Radio | 6’00
09 I8U | Steganography | 4’22
10 Dean King | In Absentia | 5’53
11 Dale Lloyd | Provisional | 4’06

cd 2
01 Roel Meelkop 1 | (hole in a heap) | 5’30
02 Will Montgomery | Split Chance | 5’55
03 Tomas Philips | Each More Melodious Note | 6’01
04 Steve Roden | air into form/voice into breath | 6’49
05 Jos Smolders | Aiolos (Vangsaa Interior) | 6’00
06 Steinbrüchel | Parallel | 7’02
07 Nao Sugimoto (mondii) | Nature Out | 5’33
08 Asmus Tietchens | Vierte Beisetzung in Wien | 4’37
09 Toshiya Tsunoda | Scenery of vibration/Listening
— to the reflection of points (@Westspace) | 5’36
10 Ubeboet | Lux Vivens | 3’43
11 Michael Vorfeld | Geste | 5’29

Since we started the label Nonvisualobjects two years ago, many collaborations with artists worldwide have arisen, a large, growing network has evolved and an extensive body of work has been formed that we would like to explore and try to sum up. The book developed from the idea of presenting an extract of artists involved in the current experimental electro-acoustic music scene, often following a rather reduced approach in their work. We would like to present artists that work in different areas in this field of electroacoustic music, to cover a large spectrum even in this quite specific area.

With essays, interviews, photos, drawings and other materials presented in this book, we try to look at the motivation and intention behind the sound production from different perspectives, to possibly allow for a new/extended approach to this form of music.

Many of the artists involved in this project do not exclusively work with sound, but also in other artistic disciplines. In this book we would like to present these other sides of their work to allow crossreferences/crosslinks to open up new aspects of the music.

EXTRACT contains interviews, essays, photos, drawings and 22 tracks by: Keith Berry, Richard Chartier, Taylor Deupree, Heribert Friedl, Richard Garet, Andy Graydon, Bernhard Günter, John Hudak, I8U, Dean King, Dale Lloyd, Roel Meelkop, Will Montgomery, Tomas Philips, Steve Roden, Jos Smolders, Steinbrüchel, Nao Sugimoto (aka mondii), Asmus Tietchens, Toshiya Tsunoda, Ubeboet and Michael Vorfeld

12k forum update June 15, 2007

i wanted to give a report on the 12k forum that i started last week. after only 7 days of being active we have 117 members and 72 different topics going. THANK YOU everyone for joining and making it a fantastic source for studio information, new releases, art and ideas. it has turned out to be better than i imagined and only after a week.

i really wanted it to be a source for studio and music techniques and that has certainly been the most active section. it’s nice to have a place to discuss important recording topics while focusing on our own niche genre.

ironically, the LEAST used section has been the 12k and LINE music/artist area 🙂

i love watching the forum take on a life of its own and really enjoy when someone finds an answer to a question or a tip that influences or inspires them.

thanks again, everyone.

new 12k tshirts are in production June 9, 2007

happy to report that the new 12k shirts are finally in production. however, they are a LOT more expensive than i thought they would be. over twice as much. this has to do with the fact that i’m using American Apparel shirts this time around and also it is a 2-color/2-sided shirt.

in the past 12k shirts have sold for $15 usa and because it costs over $7 just to ship one shirt to europe, overseas prices were $20 or more. this time around i suspect prices will be a couple of $$ higher.

the shirts should be ready in a couple of weeks.

12k forum: day 2 June 8, 2007

the forum has been alive for 2 days now.. and already we’ve got 78 members and a handful of great discussions going on. it’s turned out great. thank you for everyone for participating… i really looking forward to watching it grow.

seems to have a usable spread of topics, but i’ll add more/edit/adjust as time goes on.

thank you again everyone. hope you’re all finding it entertaining and most of all, useful.

a 12k forum is born June 6, 2007