Texture Magazine Issue #2 is about proximity, growth, and the art of feeling as much as understanding – a fractallised approach to what sound can mean now.
From a radical relistening of silence to the intellectual demise of music altogether, the words contained within are to be held, shared, caressed and torn asunder. Also featured is writing on the sociopolitics of the nightlife industry, the place-making of UK Drill, and the meaning of gatherings in northern Sweden through the eyes of Pliny the Elder. Among many others, of course.
48-page book with photographic documentation, lyrics & additional context Includes a download code for the album
Design by Niels Wehrspann Translation work by Aastha Gupta, Sheraz Ahmed, Abdur Rahman Jerral, Tazyne Fatima, and Asad Sheikh
Ruhail Qaisar’s Fatima is a requiem for a dead future. The debut album release by the self-taught artist and producer screams with the trauma and decay of life in his hometown of Leh—a high-altitude plateau region in the contested Ladakh area, extending from the Himalayan to the Kunlun Ranges. Qaisar absorbs this external condition of perpetual conflict between nation states into his internal life and resulting compositions, crossing sound art, noise music and experimental filmmaking. Hauntological drones, power electronics and convulsive post-industrial dissonance create an unnerving sense of fear, anger, and alienation. A broken transistor with a knob tuned to the abyss is bombarded with the cries and bitter laughter of a city’s inhabitants tyrannized, not only by military occupation but the soft-power subjugation of the tourism industry.
Following 2016’s Ltalam EP—released under Qaisar’s now-defunct Sister moniker—Fatima serves to transmit memories carried through the events, local mythos and personal recollections of growing up between the remote agrarian villages of Ladakh and the urban center of its joint capital—Leh. The album was mixed between that area, and a DIY home studio in New Delhi, where the artist amalgamates his collected found sounds and field recordings into unrecognizable hybrids. Discordant pads and atmospherics on the dark ambient of DailyHunger is disrupted by a crashing, pounding reverb, while contributor Elvin Brandhi shrieks towards its horrifying conclusion in the squelching, scratching sound of something soft being chewed.
An anti-lingual conjuring of metaphysical totems in music, Fatima is a seething chronicle of experience through the dynamics of riots, violence, colonization, unemployment, PTSD, and self-abuse. The cycling tumult of Namgang hosts a menacing whisper that echoes the hissing fury of something like EinstürzendeNeubauten and Lydia Lunch’s ThirstyAnimal, while a trouncing distorted bass line on Fatima’s Poplar circles a voice that barks, The Western Civilization Show has been discontinued.
“When asked what were my early influences in music, I get reminded of my teenage years in Parisian suburbs, simultaneously discovering from public libraries two important French record labels: OCORA and GRM. Then the roots of my interest in traditional music and electroacoustic experiments grew into doing it myself, recording ethnic minorities of the Zomian plateau of south-east Asia and composing a soundscape around it. This is what is happening here.” — Laurent Jeanneau aka Kink Gong
Kink Gong works with what is unknown to him, as an artist who’s attracted by beauty and strangeness. Like a stranger, he has been deeply curious about recording ethnic minority music isolated from dominating cultures within South-east Asia, thus working with musicians taking part in specific cultural communities to make almost 200 albums. Like an artist, he has been leaning towards strange marriages, building on these raw materials. They are lived moments that combine space, people and music, as if they were blocks made out of the same material.
— I 14 TUBES MOUTHORGAN PAKSE LAOS + BULANG LAWA 3 STRINGED LUTE (NIU TUI QIN) AND VOICE OF 2 OLD LAWA MEN + VOICES OF 3 AKHA WOMEN YUNNAN CHINA, FOREST LAO CAI HMONG WOMEN VOICES + ELECTRONIC MOUTHHARP (CHUNGJA) SAPA VIETNAM + BULANG LAWA MAN & DRUNK WIFE + ELECTRONIC MALIMBA TANZANIA + LUE WOMAN VOICE PHONGSALY LAOS + DONG PIPA 4 STRINGED LUTE GUIZHOU CHINA + LUE WOMAN VOICE NORTH VIETNAM + HMONG 6 TUBES MOUTHORGAN HA GIANG VIETNAM + YI NISU WOMAN VOICE + YI NISU SIXIAN 4 STRINGED LUTE YUNNAN CHINA
— II BRAO WOMAN VOICE ATTAPEU LAOS + ELECTRONIC + METALLIC TOUPIE + UYGHUR DAP HAND PERCUSSION + BRAO MAN VOICE RATANAKIRI CAMBODIA + OIRAT MONGOLIAN MORIN KUR 2 STRINGED CELLO XINJIANG CHINA + 14 TUBES MOUTHORGAN IN BERLIN TEUFELBERG + SHUI MIAO WOMEN VOICES GUIZHOU CHINA + SANTOOR IRANIAN DULCIMER IN BERLIN + YI NUOSU WOMAN VOICE SICHUAN CHINA + ARAK 16 TUBES MOUTHORGAN SEKONG LAOS + TRIANG 5 WOMEN VOICES + BELLS SEKONG LAOS + ELECTRONIC + MIEN WOMEN VOICES SAPA VIETNAM
ALL RECORDED BY LAURENT JEANNEAU BETWEEN 2004 AND 2014 ON LOCATION IN
. SOME INSTRUMENTS (MOUTHORGANS & SANTOOR) PLAYED & PROCESSED & RECOMPOSED BY KINK GONG, 2016
LP COVER BOY ON THE ROCK TADLO LAOS, 2013
Mastered by Raschad Becker, Berlin Cut by Frederic Alstadt, ANGSTROM STUDIO, Brussels Artwork by João Basto
The edition of 300 copies are silkscreened and individually hand numbered
Silkscreened at Atelier Ice Screen, Brussels Inside A4 risographed at Frau Steiner Studio, Brussels
arbitrary presents Delirious Cartographies (arbitrary13) by composer, improviser and synthesist Richard Scott. Part of the Danish imprint’s Framework editions, this release includes three pieces on 12” vinyl and six printed drawings – as well as a text by Scott – published as a limited edition portfolio folder.
“These compositions capture aspects of my personal sonic experience of specific times and places. Extending beyond my usual work with analogue synthesizer, these pieces open the doors and windows to the outside world, incorporating field and live recordings made in various locations and situations. Rather than intending any clear sense of narrative, these are molecular dialogues between elements and geographies which do not necessarily share organic points of connection, other than my own incomplete experience and memory of them.”
The final piece 6 Graphic Etudes (included as digital prints) is intended as a set of visual / sonic sketches, each of which describes a discrete kind of movement or texture. These may have a variety of uses; as musical exercises, as scores, combined as parts of scores, or simply as stand-alone visual propositions / artworks.
The pieces were composed between 2017 and 2021 at Sound Anatomy, Berlin, Spektrum Berlin, EMS Stockholm, NOVARS, University of Manchester, the Electronic Music Studios, University of Huddersfield and in Boliqueime, Portugal.
As well as various microphones, hydrophones and recorders, the instruments used on this recording are mostly analogue and modular synthesizers: Hordijk Modular, Serge Modular, EMS Synthi A, various Eurorack modules, Buchla Thunder midi controller, Oberheim Xpander, Clavia Nord Micro Modular, CataRT and maxMSP, Rob Hordijk Blippoo box. On Thunder, actually bicycles… Axel Dörner plays a Holton Firebird trumpet with additional live-sampling via maxMSP and a controller interface developed by Sukandar Kartadinata.
Written & produced by Richard Scott. Drawings by Richard Scott. Graphic design by Mads Emil Nielsen. Mastered & cut by Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin. Thanks to Axel Dörner, Rob Hordijk, Beatriz Ferreyra, Ricardo Climent, David Berezan, Joseph Hyde, Richard Whalley, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Tim Scott, Andy Adkins, Electric Spring Festival, Sines & Squares Festival, Basic Electricity and Sound Anatomy.
After a very brief hiatus we are back on deck and ready to share with you our newest musical arrivals. Make sure to check Motto’s full catalogue for an immersive experience and our Motto Disco page, revived and refreshed especially for your ears.
To hear a selection of sounds from these albums, follow this link to our new mix created by Max Parnell.
The mix features sounds from:
King Gong Accou Richard Scott Kristen Oppenheim YL Hsueh Vladislav Delay & Eivind Aarset Sonic Boom / Papiro DJ Fusiller x Fusiller
“Many years ago Alan Courtis and I started swapping audio recordings we made in deserted places known as “steppe”. I recorded many in South Ukraine, on the last spot of the European virginal steppe known as Askania Nova. Alan found his sounds in Patagonia, Argentina, it’s another steppe territory, another part of the globe. Both are unusual places to get some interesting field recordings.
What you can hear on these audio files? It is something close to “nothing”. No clear particular sound objects, no dramatic movements, or even no specific audio atmosphere. Maybe a little of distant wind’s breath. Maybe some touch of dry summer grass. Maybe some echo of Bird-Queen singing her eternal song. Maybe the memory of ancient Godness walked these fields long before us. Maybe it’s just the vibration of Earth. Maybe it’s just our imagination. Too many “maybe” you can hear there…
Alan and I composed our pieces based on these original recordings and layers of processed/altered/filtered etc. variations of sounds.
Learn to listen to nothing and you will get to hear everything.” – Edward Sol
Released October 25, 2022
Edward Sol – field recordings & tapes, sound sources recorded in Ukraine Anla Courtis – field recordings & tapes, sound sources recorded in Argentina Artwork by Alexander Khaverchuk Layout by Zavoloka Release produced by Dmytro Fedorenko
The Russian producer Vladimir Karpov is well on his way towards a lasting legacy as a modern synthesizer wizard in the grandiose vein of Vangelis and Jarre. With a propensity for concept albums he has built a sturdy discography during this past decade that echoes the progressive ideas of the psychedelic generation as it moved into adulthood with Moog in hand.
While equally a part of the postmodern generation; Karpov’s ouvre also embraces the utopian daydreaming of the new age, the environmental concerns embodied in field recording, and the holistic approach of Jon Hassels 4th world concept.
While the esoteric fantasies of previous works linger on, the conceptual aspect of “Anciente” is rendered more abstract. And instead of dividing ideas into tracks that form an album, here Karpov is pushing the boundaries of his compositions further into longer forms. Like trails into humid forest landscapes, they run deep enough for one to get lost along the way.
Clocking in at a neat 20 minutes per side, the two tracks that make up “Anciente” weaves soft brushes of undefinable sounds and tropical field recordings that almost create ASMR-inducing vibrations in the minds of the listener. Eventually they might open a doorway to a twilight-lit wilderness and the possible secrets of the first civilised men. As Carlos Castaneda once wrote, relaying the wisdom of the Yaqui; “twilight is the crack between worlds. It is the door to the unknown.” Or, as in this case, the door to the ancient.
For December 2022 Music Mix we hosted Broshuda on a two-day residence at Motto’s store. The artist created a mix featuring music from our latest arrivals.
Donghoon Gang, a Frankfurt-based South Korean artist and composer, has released a new album titled 4.6m/s. This album is inspired by Yeondeunggut–an annual ritual summoned to the God of wind that takes place in early February in Gangʼs hometown, Jeju Island, in South Korea. In the spirit of the God believed to protect the wellness of the island and sow seeds for a fruitful spring, islanders pray, hoping for the peacefully calm sea surrounding the island during the two-week duration of the ceremony.
The title of the album, 4.6m/s, is the average wind speed on the day the God of wind arrives on the island for over the past thirty years. Each track was written and presented in the order of the traditional ceremony procedures: Calling, Telling, Seeding and Playing – all of which are symbolic gestures of welcoming the wind deity and sending her back to her origin. Every component in the album is created in mixtures of field recordings and collaborative fulfillment with traditional instrumentalists and shamans based on the island. All the tracks are also incorporated with ambient sounds, spoken words and musique concrète, generating a variety of aural and texture affections at different parts of each sequence.
Released on December 10, 2022
Edition of 200
One side (22ʼ16”) 1. Calling (06ʼ50”) 2. Telling (09ʼ38”) 3. Seeding (03ʼ26”) 4. Playing (02ʼ22”)
Tracing the the potential of sound, infrasound, and ultrasound to access anomalous zones of transmission between the realms of the living and the dead.
For as long as recording and communications technologies have existed, operators have evoked the potential of sound, infrasound, and ultrasound to access anomalous zones of transmission between the realms of the living and the dead. In Unsound:Undead, contributors from a variety of disciplines chart these undead zones, mapping out a nonlinear timeline populated by sonic events stretching from the 8th century BC (the song of the Sirens), to 2013 (acoustic levitation), with a speculative extension into 2057 (the emergence of holographic and holosonic phenomena).
For the past seven years the AUDINT group has been researching peripheral sonic perception (unsound) and the ways in which frequencies are utilized to modulate our understanding of presence/non-presence, entertainment/torture, and ultimately life/death. Concurrently, themes of hauntology have inflected the musical zeitgeist, resonating with the notion of a general cultural malaise and a reinvestment in traces of lost futures inhabiting the present.
This undead culture has already spawned a Lazarus economy in which Tupac, ODB, and Eazy-E are digitally revivified as laser-lit holograms. The obscure otherworldly dimensions of sound have also been explored in the sonic fictions produced by the likes of Drexciya, Sun Ra, and Underground Resistance, where hauntology is virtually extended: the future appears in the cracks of the present.
The contributions to this volume reveal how the sonic nurtures new dimensions in which the real and the imagined (fictional, hyperstitional, speculative) bleed into one another, where actual sonic events collide with spatiotemporal anomalies and time-travelling entities, and where the unsound serves to summon the undead.
Contributions by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Lendl Barcelos, Charlie Blake, Lisa Blanning, Brooker Buckingham, Al Cameron, Erik Davis, Kodwo Eshun, Matthew Fuller, Kristen Gallerneaux, Lee Gamble, Agnès Gayraud, Steve Goodman, Anna Greenspan, Olga Gurionova, S. Ayesha Hameed, Tim Hecker, Julian Henriques, Toby Heys, Eleni Ikoniadou, Amy Ireland, Nicola Masciandaro, Ramona Naddaff, Anthony Nine, The Occulture, Luciana Parisi, Alina Popa, Paul Purgas, Georgina Rochefort, Steven Shaviro, Jonathan Sterne, Jenna Sutela, Eugene Thacker, Dave Tompkins, Shelley Trower, and Souzana Zamfe.
