Since there’s been some interest in the substance of the presentation from people who were unable to attend, I’ve finally gotten around to posting my program notes (pdf) and audio examples. The mix below was intended to situate the audience in the affective context/general soundworld of Touch and is divided into three ten-minute segments, the first of which concerns the San Francisco Tape Music Center, Mills College, and experimental music in the Bay Area in the 1960s and 70s. The second involves selections from works associated with Subotnick’s Bleecker Street studio and the NYU Intermedia Program, and the third explores the symbiotic relationship between the Buchla System and the various artistic/intellectual milieus within which it was/is employed.

A full discography can be found in the backmatter of the pdf linked above. For the time being, please excuse my flaky editing and inconsistent citation formats. The program notes should be regarded as a draft, insofar as I have yet to find time to work a final edit into my schedule.

…and in the interest of not letting another one slip through the cracks, you heard it here first: there will be another Deception Island Invitational, co-presented with Bowerbird in Philly on January 21, 2011. Details will be posted here as they’re confirmed.

Finally, I gotta ombudz for a minute: J Guy Laughlin reminds me that his Apnoea c30 (DI31) was recorded by John Delzoppo at Negative Space, rather than at the Embassy, as the liner notes claim. This correction will be posted on the discography page momentarily. Mea culpa.

*For those of you who are interested (as you should be) in Thomas’s other activities, allow me to refer you to his excellent music history blog, Acousmata.

In case you need any further convincing, reviews are creeping in from Olive Music (NB: Hyperborean Trenchtown actually precedes Prelude and First Enormous Peacock and Colony Collapse 2 by quite some time – about a year between sessions and a few months between releases – and Canzoni and Odysseus were recorded more or less at the same time. Sorry to throw a wrench into your theory! -Bee Mask), Sounds From the Rust Belt, and Volcanic Tongue.

Finally, those of you with ears particularly close to the ground may have arrived at the suspicion that a Deception Island Invitational-related update is long overdue. You’re right, of course, and I’ll hopefully get to it early next week!

This is the short version of the post that says “I’m back from tour and doing mailorder again.” It also mentions that said tour was a total blast and that a “best of tour” post is forthcoming, but I probably need a ton more coffee and a couple days to get my head together before it happens.

For now, thanks as usual to everyone who set up shows, everyone who played, everyone whose couch I slept on, and everyone who came out to trade records and bullshit about synths or food or Logan’s Run or whatever. Thanks in particular to Harpoon Pole Vault and Telecult Powers for being exemplary traveling companions on the first and second legs of this voyage, respectively!

Never buy falafel in Burlington, Vermont. No matter what they tell you, it’s not really falafel.

Bee Mask
Harpoon Pole Vault
Sanguine Piss
Neckhold
Findings
Two Years on Welfare

So check it. 8pm, 6th/Bainbridge suggested donation axis.

Oh yeah, and because I’ll be out of town from tomorrow through July 20 or so, there will be NO MAILORDER till I get back. Any orders placed while I’m gone will be filled on a first come/first served basis (based on time of emailed request) starting on July 21. I might have a chance to get at emails, but I might not, being as I’m an old-fashioned no internet on tour sort. Cool?

Also, Volcanic Tongue weighs in on Canzoni dal Laboratorio del Silenzio Cosmico:

Luminous new set of tone sorcery from Chris Madak’s Bee Mask, with a set of surreal 20th century sonics that mainlines the cosmic tones of Nurse With Wound’s Soliloquy For Lilith before taking off on hysterical gothic keyboard runs, thick beams of drone and ghostly radiophonic melodies. On Brother Raven’s label, hand-numbered edition of 200 copies.

Again, I’m flattered by the comparison! For now, however, I’m mostly gearing up to hit the road in a few days. Check the events page for more details on the New England steamed minotaur and Champagne of Fests IV!

• 7/9: Pageant Soloveev, Philadelphia, PA.
• 7/10: Port d’Or, Brooklyn, NY.
• 7/11: Firehouse Gallery, Burlington, VT.
• 7/12: Flywheel Arts, Easthampton, MA.
• 7/13: Zacchilli House, Providence, RI.
• 7/14: Zebulon, Brooklyn, NY.

More details will be filled in over at the events page as they’re nailed down. Anyway, come check it; these are the first-ever Harpoon Pole Vault appearances in New England and Bee Mask’s first in three years.

EDIT: Due to day job-related complications, Zaimph will be performing on the 9th, 10th, and 14th only.

Last, but not least, my proverbial hat is off to Keith Fullerton Whitman for his writeup of Canzoni dal Laboratorio del Silenzio Cosmico over at Mimaroglu Music Sales. Bayle’s Erosphere and Toupie dans le Ciel were massively formative influences for me, and I’m flattered by the comparison:

june 2010 release ; here (and below) are evidence of a massive 7-part spring 2010 gift tapes batch – each of these comes as a pro-duped / imprinted black-or-white tape inside a collage-heavy double-sided j-card (each individually hand-numbered) inside a “rounded” norelco …

for my money this is the best tape of the batch, but honestly, they’re all pretty damn great !!!

While I’m telling you stuff, perhaps I should also tell you that I had a blast playing with Drainolith, Honed Bastion, Newton, and God Willing at Deep Pizza Zone last month. There’ll be another Philly show in July…updates coming very soon!

Also, Dialobe Warrior said some stuff about Colony Collapse 2 a while ago! Thanks!

Telecult Powers (Bklyn)
Bee Mask (Philly)
Zomes (Bmore)
DJ sets by TJ NUTZ CREW

Saturday, 4/24 at Tarantula Hill, Baltimore, MD. 9PM. Also, it’s Kate’s Birthday and she’s coming down to hang, so come out to wish her well!