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
Music score for four toy pianos, revolving around four notes—A, B, C, and E. Inscribed in the minimalist aesthetic of contemporary music, the piece was inspired by the rhythm of traditional Moroccan ceremonial music. With an essay by video artist and writer Laëtitia Laguzet.
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.
Catalogue from Patti Smith’s exhibition and poetry reading on the occasion of Arthur Rimbaud’s 123rd birthday (October 20, 1854) at the Galerie Veith Turske on October 20, 1977. The book contains images of Smith’s paintings and drawings as well as photographs and poetry, in English and German.
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
Since the end of the 90s, Laurent Jeanneau, aka Kink Gong, has been recording the musics of mostly endangered minorities mainly in Southeast Asia. Alongside his relentless pursue of collecting predominantly unknown and unpublished musics, he produced a series of remixes combining these recordings with natural sounds, archive material and electronically treated sounds.
