Originally based in Chicago, Tiny Music developed a uniquely organic performance style, laying out an instrumental smorgasbord on the floor and performing acoustically—an intimate throwback that put the listener in direct contact with the band. In recorded form,Epitaph reveals even more of Tiny Music's sense of structure and dynamics that makes their music so fascinating. The two sidelong pieces flow, as through a house or a silent film, from one musical doorway to the next—sometimes foreboding, sometimes flowering into complex or even composed musicality, but always dense and colorful. Side A meanders from its appealing din into a low drone, and Side B weaves abstract melodies through a hectic sound marketplace, with winding, squeaking, and even laughter dotting the mix, interspersed between plaintive, dark motifs. Tiny Music's homey clatter on Epitaph uniquely mixes group improvisation, folk tradition, and pure exploration.

Notice Recordings

Those with a certain taste will be familiar with Ben Owen's subtle yet stunning design work with his Brooklyn-based Winds Measure Recordings imprint, which also releases his own carefully crafted music in both collaborative and solo form. These are two masterfully textured sidelong pieces exemplifying his attention to craft, process, and detail at the most painstaking levels, while still embracing the sonic imprecision of the cassette tape medium.

"These recordings were made on residency with The Experimental Television Center in Owego, NY during May 2010. This was my third and—unknown to me at the time—last residency, as the Center has now closed. While two of three residencies were in partial an audio/video collaboration with Justin Lincoln, the Birds and Water series is my main body of work created at ETC. The recordings are both sound and sound and image based pieces using David Jones' image processing system. ETC expanded operations in 1974 with the first Jones Colorizer, and in 1975 with a set of keyers, a multi-input syncable sequencer and a bank of oscillators, all designed and constructed by David Jones. The analog system modules coupled with several external op amp generators are heard in these sessions. Numerous patches and variations of each were recorded in extended durations. Side A was recorded direct to cassette tape. Both recordings are presented in their unedited duration.

Thanks to Hank Rudolph, Sherry and Ralph Hocking, Justin Lincoln, Giuseppe Ielasi and Evan Lindorff-Ellery."

Notice Recordings

Notice's own resident artist returns with his second solo tape. The Tea Merchant and His Atmospheres is a fully realized and personal work of minimal, expressionist sound art that incorporates elements from the artist's life, including field recordings from his home and travels as well as layers of at-home processing, including the use of radio static, room tone, and cassettes that he's developed as half of Dense Reduction. Minimal yet highly textured sound environments run up against each other loftily like waves against foreign shores. As the pieces deepen over the course of each side, Lindorff-Ellery unfolds the mysterious connections that make up a sense of home and a sense of self. Non-narrative, nonrepresentational, closely observed and resolutely analog. Through the use of these elements, Lindorff-Ellery is mapping his life and environments.

Notice Recordings

Dealing with both fabricated and real paradises, and the streamlined means for arrival. A demanding listen — one which sits well with the Notice catalogue, both past and future. Present is implied.

Notice Recordings

Notice Recordings house band Dense Reduction have explored much new territory recently (mostly yet-to-be released), but they return to their signature sounds on Shadows Of Shipwrecks In Napkins on Shore. The A-side delivers their unique brand of texture and energy, shifting through AM radio, synthesizer squeals, looped bells and Theremin, and no-input mixing. The B-side shows off the extremes of Dense Reduction, building from a quiet, ambiguous synth figure to a wave of noise that simmers, lying in wait until the very last seconds. Recorded almost one year ago, and initially slated for release in 2010, Shadows of Shipwrecks can now be seen as a summation of Dense Reduction's early-period work.

Notice Recordings

What once contained inner solitude is gradually swallowed by swinging green Calder miniatures. The crashing waves and wind punish the eponymous mill, the industrial taken over by the pastoral, itself ground into dust. These sides rudely fold in on themselves, stubbornly skirting the hollow hum of their origins. Tapes looped and repeated and left to tear themselves apart.

Notice Recordings