Private Chronology

favorite releases of 2011

2011-12-03T20:55:56Z

feels as though I all but disappeared into the bedrock beneath my Allston compound this last year, but that's not to suggest that I didn't go and spend a good chunk of my disposable income on new records. Without getting into it too much, this year saw plenty of excellent releases from old favorites, up-and-comers, and folks i'd been previously ignorant about. Overall, I can't think of anything I spun more frequently than the Vincent Over the Sink 7" on Kye, over which my roommates and I all repeatedly and ritually lost our minds. Excluded from consideration below, but well worth mentioning, are the incredible new records by Glenn Jones (The Wanting, 2xLP on Thrill Jockey) and Eli Keszler (Cold Pin, LP on PAN), both of whom I had the fine pleasure of working with this past year, and through which I've benefited from a much needed cortical re-alignment.

top ten solo releases
John Fahey, Your Past Comes Back To Haunt You (5xCD Box, Dust to Digital)
Jim O'Rourke, All That's Cold is New Again (2xLP, Editions Mego)
Mark Fell, Manitutshu (2xLP, Editions Mego)
Kevin Drumm, Ghybbrish (2xCD, No Label)
Rene Hell, L.A. Phil (CD-R, Salon)
Matt Carlson, Particle Language (LP, Draft)
Grouper, A | A (2xLP, Yellow Electric)
James Blackshaw, Holly (EP, Important)
Bee Mask, Elegy for Beach Friday (2xLP, Spectrum Spools)
Kassel Jaeger, Algae (CD, Senufo Editions)

top five duo releases
Vincent Over the Sink - Dust Studies (7", Kye)
Thomas Ankersmit & Valerio Tricoli - Forma II (CD, PAN)
Red Horse - S/T (LP, Type)
Greg Kelley & Olivia Block - Resolution (CD, Erstwhile)
Jim O'Rourke & Oren Ambarchi - Indeed (LP, Editions Mego)

top five tapes
Three Legged Race - As Ed Sunspot (CS, Night People)
Carl Calm - A Party Tide (CS, No Label)
Gordon Ashworth - S.T.L.A. (CS, Iatrogenesis)
Panabrite - Norsee / Contemplating the Observatory (2xCS, Digitalis)
Various Artists - Pacific Support (Compilation CS, Draft)

And for a brief look ahead, here's a side off the upcoming Private Chronology 7", Asleep at the Drawing Board:

A bit of catching up

2011-05-21T17:41:42Z

I've got copies in hand of my new cassette, Lesslessness, published on Luke Moldof's excellent Razors and Medicine. Consider this the sister release to last year's Cortical Migrations on Digitalis Limited, recorded at roughly the same time as the Digitalis material during a muggy Boston July. Lesslessness explores a darker palette than I've utilized before, closer to the sort of harsh noise and power electronics Luke tends to curate (though, I get the impression I wasn't really being asked to submit a noise tape; oh well).

In other news, the nice folks over at Electric Temple asked me to contribute a track to their fundraising 2xCS compilation, with proceeds going to the disaster-response/relief organization ShelterBox. Being bogged down with concurrent duties, I submitted an unreleased solo guitar track from 2008. You can order the cassette edition here, or buy the digital edition here.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://electrictemple.bandcamp.com/track/dancing-into-sandtraps"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Dancing Into Sandtraps by Electric Temple&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

And speaking of concurrent duties, I spent a good part of this past winter recording guitarist and composer Glenn Jones' new record for Thrill Jockey, a portion of which already appeared on a Record Store Day 2011 split LP with The Black Twig Pickers. I'm not sure that the split is still available anywhere, but the full length record has just been mastered and should be out later this year!

Four new tapes!

2011-05-16T13:25:52Z

After a year hiatus, we're back with four new tapes by Xela, Caroline Park, The North Sea, and M Mucci. Check the panel to the right for samples and links to the descriptions. Though it's a bit of a departure from the self-issues of the first two cassettes, I'm very excited to present to this batch of artists in the Private Chronology orbit. Copies are available here, as well as through Mimaroglu Music Sales, and digitally through Boomkat.

Best of 2010

2011-01-08T15:00:31Z

It's been a good year of listening; my 2010 tops are as follows, of which the archival issue of Ferrari's Ephemere on Alga Marghen ranks as my favorite, at least for the time being.

Ben Vida - Patchwork (CS, Autumn)
Charanjit Singh - Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (2xLP reissue, Bombay Connection)
Danny Paul Grody - Fountain (CD, Root Strata)

Eagle's Breast - Assault and Flattery (CS, Razors & Medicine)
Eli Keszler - Oxtirn (LP, ESP-Disk')

Evan Parker & John Wiese - C-Section (LP, Pan)
Geoff Mullen - Bongo Closet (CS / LP, Razors & Medicine / Type)
Jack Rose & Glenn Jones - The Things We Used to Do (DVD, Strange Attractors)
Jason Lescalleet - Fantasy and Electricity (7", Kye)
Keith Fullerton Whitman - Disingenuity b/w Disingenuousness (CS, Root Strata)
Keith Fullerton Whitman - Losing Everything b/w Four Oscillators Reverb Nice (7", No)
Kevin Drumm - S/T (2xLP reissue, Thin Wrist)
Loren Connors and Darin Gray - The Lost Mariner (LP reissue + 7", Family Vineyard)
Luc Ferrari - Ephemere (CD, Alga Marghen)
M Mucci - Time Lost (LP, Tall House)
Max Eastley - Installation Recordings (2xCD, Paradigm)
Rene Hell & Three-Legged Race - Violin Petal {Auden} / Whipped Secrets (LP, Arbor)
Tom Hamilton - Pieces for Kohn / Formal and Informal Music (2xCD reissue, Kvist)

Also, some folks were sweet enough to mention Sensual Square on a few lists themselves :
landing at #7 on John Twells' list for Boomkat, #1 on Brad Rose's list of top cassettes starting with 'R' for Self-Titled; and Cortical Migrations on Roger Tellier-Craig's list for Root Strata.

And be sure to check out Non-Event's year-end fundraising drive and podcast, for which I recorded and submitted a chunky slice of synth/tape music.

Early October Update

2010-10-02T14:09:11Z

Here's a live recording of a set I played a couple of weeks ago at Cafe Fixe in Brookline. As far as the music goes, it's an untitled piece that's currently a work in progress. Instrumentation includes a Korg MS-20, cassette walkmen, and a Nagra tape machine. Thanks to Non-Event for organizing, Maks at Cafe Fixe for hosting, and Keith for recording.

Also, this thursday I'll be playing some electric guitar music at Whitehaus in Jamaica Plain, opening for Expo 70 and Keith Fullerton Whitman.

Digitalis Tape

2010-09-11T02:15:02Z

My newest tape, Cortical Migrations, published on Digitalis Ltd., is now in stock here (see sidebar, under the new "Distributed Items" section). Following that, I have a tape forthcoming on Razors & Medicine, and a batch of tapes here on Private Chronology. Speaking of which, I've re-pressed PC01 as a second edition of 100, which is now back in stock.

If you're in the area, I've got a show coming up on the 14th of September at Cafe Fixe here in Boston as part of Non-Event's monthly experimental coffeehouse series. As with my more recent studio work, I'll be forgoing the guitar in favor of synth+tapes.

Plus, something from the archives:

Daniel Palacios' Waves

2010-06-10T03:02:50Z

Daniel Palacios' 'Waves' utilizes a basic construction of a long piece of elastic string and two motors to visualize the
presence of people close to the installation. The string between the two motorized chambers reacts to the people presence and movements, it twirls to produce a sine-wave simulation that eloquently resembles both the digitization of real-time sound waves and patterns of flow and connectivity found in natural systems.

Via Everyday Listening

Live at Boston's Goethe Institut

2010-06-07T01:25:30Z

In the spirit of compulsive auto-documentation, here's a recording of my first live performance, on April 14, 2010, at the Goethe Institut in Boston. Audio recorded, mixed, and edited by Ernst Karel (Non-Event).

Also, here's a video excerpt from this performance, recorded by Keith.

In other news, Brad Rose wrote a flattering blurb about my tapes in his Long Decline column on Foxy Digitalis; check it!

Max Eastley's Aerophones and Installation

2010-04-11T14:33:29Z

Paradigm recently released a 2-disc retrospective of Max's work, and it's totally amazing.

PC02 available now

2010-04-01T02:28:34Z

My second cassette release on Private Chronology is available now! It's a C22 entitled Sensual Square, and you can listen to the first three minutes of each side on the sidebar.

Also, Glowing Departure has recently been reviewed on Justin Snow's Anti-Gravity Bunny and Frans de Waard's Vital Weekly. Copies are still available ...

Stephen Cornford - Air Guitar(s)

2010-03-26T02:51:44Z

Stephen Cornford: "Kinetic sound sculpture in which a guitar and amplifier are both rotated slowly by the same motor, producing an eternal chord which is modulated by the doppler effect of the moving speaker and the reverberation of the room."

via Stephen Cornford's Vimeo page.

also: check out a recent interview with Stephen by Everyday Listening.

Ringing, Whipping, Raining ...

2010-03-08T03:46:21Z

Here's something I recorded in late February. Instrumentation is minimal, using a microphone, two walkmen, a singing bowl, and an open window.

Part of this recording will also reappear on the upcoming Private Chronology cassette.

Also, thanks to Susanna Bolle for giving this piece its radio broadcast debut on her Rare Frequency program on WZBC 90.3 FM; playlist available here.

Red Pony

2010-02-28T17:08:37Z

One of my favorite recorded moments of Fahey, playing here a rather rare and hypnotic Bacon and Day guitar.

1976: Robbie Basho Talks! (w/ Charles Amirkhanian)

2010-02-21T21:00:24Z

I came across Charles Amirkhanian's 1980 interview with Eliane Radigue previously via Root Strata, but I was surprised to find that Amirkhanian had also interviewed Robbie Basho in 1974.

Charles Amirkhanian interviews Robbie Basho

Also: fantastic interviews w/ Joan La Barbara, and Annea Lockwood.

Typecasted

2010-02-18T00:20:36Z

John Twells (Xela) has got a new edition of his Typecast radio series up; it clocks in at a monstrous 173 minutes, and includes B.1 off Glowing Departure! Needless to say, it's awesome and eclectic. Listen to it here. My track starts just around the 2 hour mark, but seriously, there's plenty to love here.