Various Artists Sound Canvas 1
Compilation of sound art, minimal and improvised music | part 1


Sound Canvas 1 Cover

1. Knut Aufermann :: Dyname
2. Alva Noto :: Garment
3. Alexei Borisov & Anton Nikkilä :: Pink Bread
4. Frank Bretschneider :: Frijd
5. Lawrence English :: A View At The Edge Of An Ice Field
6. Freiband :: (Rough) Sketch For Autumn
7. Heribert Friedl & Sascha Neudeck :: Co1P
8. Kenneth Kirschner :: December 2, 2005
9. Kurt Liedwart :: Untitled
10. Sawako :: Short Windy
11. Wouter van Veldhoven :: Schetsje (Machinefabriek Remix)
12. Zenial :: I'm With You

MD 1
Released: September 24, 2008


Download the release



"The art" of music making becomes the "art itself", moving away from the visceral chic that has characterised much of improvised music, towards an investigation of tension, silence, stillness, economy, volume, sensation, time, pulse, what is it to be a musician? Indeed, what is music?

KEITH ROWE*


Comparing, let's say, to classical music or jazz or even traditional kind of improv music, our kind of music is less going from start until the end, from A to Z. I understand music much more as a field, as a canvas or even as a space. And I can move forward, can go back again, can change the directions. For me it's like shifting around the space, the canvas. Putting texture there, colour there, a line in this place, repeat this line in another angle, in another corner of the canvas. That's how I understand this music.

GÜNTER MÜLLER**


Onkyo or electro-acoustic music has become a wholesome toy which is not mysterious anymore. It reflects only the society. Today nothing is really distinctive between old electro-acoustic masters and young techno kids. They both must work as the artisans in the field that they are co-sharing.

TAKU SUGIMOTO*


Press
These are the first three releases on the new Mikroton label from Moscow, all three in the digital domain, although physical releases will follow later on. They open up with a compilation, perhaps the programm of things to come. It's a meeting of some well-known people in the field with some introductions. I have no idea how he did it, but he managed to get new (?) pieces by Alva Noto and Frank Bretschneider, and some more usual suspects as Lawrence English, Heribert Friedl and Sascha Neudeck, Lawrence English, Freiband, Sawako, Alexei Borisov and Anton Nikkilä, Kenneth Kirschner and introduces Wouter van Veldhoven, Zenial, Knuf Aufermann, Sawako and Kurt Liedwart (the man behind the label). As one can imagine, lots of digital manipulations around here. Some without too many surprises, like Alva Noto or Bretschneider, but it's the variety of approaches that makes this into quite a nice dish. Ranging from the noise of Borisov & Nikkilä and Aufermann, to the crystal clear beats of Alva Noto, Bretschneider towards the more ambient approaches of English, Liedwart, Friedl & Neudeck, Sawako, Van Veldhoven and the odd acoustic guitars of Freiband. Kirschner is also ambient, and his twenty-six minute piece is great and he steals the show by his sheer length. He also delivers four long pieces on the second release by Mikroton Digital. In the pieces 'March 20, 2007' and 'December 18, 2004, he uses his trademark piano sounds with lots of hiss, which is nice but also common ground for him. The other two pieces (all between thirteen and twenty-three minutes) are more interesting, since they sound like something which I haven't heard from him. 'January 13, 2007' is a rhythmic piece, full of sampled sounds, forming a heavy (for Kirschner at least) piece of phase shifting sounds. Maybe a bit too much in the field of computer work here. 'September 10 2006' is a very soft, ambient piece built around sine waves from all over the frequency range. Great stuff, fine release. For me Phil Raymond is a new name, and he presents two pieces of a total length of seventeen minutes. He too works with sine waves and crackles in a more ambient direction. Not too outspoken music here, not bad to hear but also something that is a bit too much in the middle. Certainly someone to keep an ear open for.
Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly


Dmitry Uhov, Newsweek


Legal and production notes

01
Previously unreleased track
Produced by Knut Aufermann
(O) 2008 Knut Aufermann

02
Previously unreleased track
All sounds by Carsten Nicolai
© 2008, courtesy Raster-Noton

03
Previously unreleased track
Written by Alexei Borisov & Anton Nikkilä
© 2008 Alexei Borisov & Anton Nikkilä

04
Previously unreleased track
All music by Frank Bretschneider
© 2008 Frank Bretschneider

05
Previously unreleased track
Written and produced by Lawrence English at 158
© 2008 Lawrence English

06
Previously unreleased track
Written by Frans de Waard with acoustic guitar only
© 2008 Frans de Waard

07
Previously unreleased track
Written by Heribert Friedl and Sascha Neudeck
© 2008 Heribert Friedl & Sascha Neudeck

08
Previously unreleased track
Written by Kenneth Kirschner
(O) 2005 Kenneth Kirschner

09
Previously unreleased track
Written by Kurt Liedwart
© 2008 Kurt Liedwart

10
Written by Sawako
© 2008 Sawako

11
Previously unreleased track
Written by Wouter van Veldhoven
Remixed by Machinefabriek
© 2008 Wouter van Veldhoven
© 2008 Machinefabriek

12
Previously unreleased track
Written by Zenial
© 2006 Zenial

* From liner notes of AMPLIFY'02 Balance box set. © 2003 Erstwhile Records, Inc.
** From AMPLIFY'02 Balance DVD from AMPLIFY'02 Balance box set. © 2003 Erstwhile Records, Inc.

Produced by Kurt Liedwart
Compiled by Kurt Liedwart
Graphic design by Kurt Liedwart
Photography by Lena Avdeeva

Artwork is designed for a slim box

The following volume of Sound Canvas will be released
in November 2008 on Mikroton Digital label

Creative Commons License

Sound Canvas 1 by Various Artists is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at www.mikroton.net/md1.html.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.mikroton.net.