A series of images collected in 2010, captured during travels in North America and Europe.

My tentative event schedule for late winter 2010. Dates and times subject to change.

January 23 – 29
Sound workshop for Art Pedagogy students of Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Keil

January 31 – February 2
radio aporee ::: sound/tracks workshop, CTM Festival (assisting Udo Noll)

February 5, 19:00
Panel Talk: “Put Your Ear on the Wall – Tuned City: Platform for Examinations in the Field Between Architecture and Sound” CTM Festival, with Carsten Stabenow [DE] / Sam Auinger [AT/DE] Derek Holzer [US/DE]

February 6, starts 21.12 ends 23.30
Das Kleine Field Recordings Festival mid winter edition, performance with Paulo Raposo and murmer at K77

February 8 – March 8
X-OP Residency at Apartment Project in Istanbul. Conducting second edition of “New Maps of Time” workshop/project

April 2010
Portland, San Francisco, Calgary (details coming soon)

approximate time: 1 hour
thermodynamic+graphic : light, heat, noise, basic forms, complexity patterns

There are five parts to this video work. The first focuses on a montage of electronic wave forms from an analogue oscilloscope monitor. The second is a literal use of water waves taken from the Elbe and slowly abstracted over time. Thirdly, the water transforms to air and we see the slow moving patterns of clouds. From the large to the small we zoom in using macro photography to capture movement patterns in aquatic environments. Subtle currents, types of debris and varied lighting and feedback techniques are all qualities that define the visual field. The fifth and final part is a reworking of the original hand painted films of Rick Reed a colleague of mine based in Austin, Texas. Attention is devoted to each subject as the intricacies are given enough time to be visually absorbed.

A live mix formed from a diverse archive of recordings of the past year is used for the soundtrack. This consists of acoustic recordings of piano and pure tone ‘chimes’ and computer synthesis which is being used as material for new compositions.

Thermographic Sequences’ has been presented at: t0 Public Netbase Vienna, Cyberpipe Ljublajana, Klub MaMa Zagreb, Access Centar Sarajevo, Academy of Fine Arts Budapest, Center for Contemporary Arts Prague and Videomedja Novi Sad.

While in England last week I had the rare chance to see/hear an installation work by Jonathan Coleclough. It was initially created for a sound exhibition he co-organized in 2006 at Braziers Park in Oxfordshire. The piece is designed for a specific site, an actively used greenhouse that is divided into three parts. As one walks through the greenhouse the spatial differences are enhanced by subtle changes in the sounds that emanate from small sound systems discreetly placed in each room. The sounds are derived from a work in progress that Jonathan explained to be based on a series of slowly repeating flute recordings. Additional live sounds come [indirectly] from the plants themselves living in the greenhouse via a bioactivity translator (similar to the ones used by Michael Prime). The result is one that can draw in your attention as well as allow you to relax and sink into the pace of the place, where plants grow easily and evening sounds filter in from the surrounding park.

untitled installation, Jonathan Coleclough (2:04) England, November 2007: Download Link

sound+video presentation

presented at Stazione Topolo 2003 | PostsovkoZ 3/Territories, Estonia

Equal and Distant Lines is one aspect of the larger Time [::] Frames project. Time [::] Frames investigates, analyzes and reflects on the process of living and working in a mobile context using the broad context of the current European cultural landscape. Equal and Distant Lines offers an experimental public viewing platform for expressing the transitory aspects of being a mobile artist. Space and movement are transformed and transplanted into an audio-visual experience… much of the material used as the soundtrack for this piece found its way on to a CD release with the same title.

for Stazione Topolo: “equal and distant lines” is a piece for returning, to scale the macro back to the micro. My return [to Topolo] is a dedication and expression of what one place can give an individual and what an individual can bring to a place. Through a mix and presentation of collected audiovisual materials of the past year I wish to return and build upon the idea that: there are no forgotten corners of the earth, we all affect and are affected. Video material was an in-camera film made on a journey from Sarajevo to Friuli Italy.

a semi-transparent screen works well with the evening backdrop

thanks to mbehrens for documentation

various contact mic recordings : May 1999

all photos by andrea siegl

above photos by Brian Wengrofsky

jgrzinich and Seth Nehil live mix at the Subtonic in Manhattan 11.13.03

CD CMR recordings , New Zealand (2004)

1. kinetic sense [12:42]
2. sinking tides [15:50]
3. sun in hand, stone in water [19:00]
4. fluid itinerancy [08:32]

info

‘intimations’ began as a series of piano recording experiments in the spring of 2001 in Austin, Texas and continued as a sonic diary of life in transit throughout Europe. The resulting CD came from a culmination of experiences, continually worked through as dynamic and personal electro-acoustic reflections. ‘intimations’ is comprised of recordings from Texas, Croatia, Italy and Germany and was composed at numerous locations from the Balkans to the Baltics. The CD includes an extended essay by the composer. “These are intimations of a different kind; as if listening was no longer about finding references in a mediated culture but is about sensing the coordinates of ones position through a set of precise signals present in the environment.”

reviews

Where Meelkop keeps the secrets of his locations and his processes very much to himself, the long essay accompanying John Grzinich’s Intimations goes into a little (though not much) detail about how some of the source recordings of a grand piano were recorded in an unheated and unlit chapel. But it’s a long way from the raw recordings of attackless piano clusters, birdsong and footsteps to the dense, rich tapestry of sound that Grzinich weaves from them. Like his friend and occasional collaborators Seth Nehil and Michael Northam, Grzinich works slowly, building a labyrinth so irresistibly beautiful (the end of “Kinetic Sense”) we walk inside (“Sinking Tides”) without a second thought. “Lying in complete darkness with the locus of a stereo sound field positioned in the direct center of the head, the music sinks in deeply to saturate the senses,” he writes. “In time the body settles into a stasis somewhere between being awake and asleep. Hearing takes over in its totality as touch, taste smell and sight manifest through a complete ‘listening’ body. A conscious being, immobilized in a quantum reality, is left without doubt as to the singular inseparable relation of time and space.” It’s the kind of writing that will have the Ben Watsons of this world reaching for their well-thumbed copies of Adorno, but if you ain’t tried it, don’t knock it. Whether or not you consider such so-called deep listening as some trippy, hippy cop-out, the fact remains that the only way to engage with music such as this – not to mention much latter-day sound art and electro acoustic improvisation – is by getting inside the sound, either by clamping a set of headphones on (a shame in this case, as Grzinich’s sounds need space to breathe) or by finding a time and place where the sensory stimuli of the rest of the world can be filtered out as far as possible. If approached in the wrong frame of mind, the slow, shifting drones of “Sun in hand, stone in water” would likely as not come over as mere soporific ambient fluff, but pay attention and you’ll find they reveal a sense of timing and structure as impressive and moving as Eliane Radigue’s.
- Dan Warburton, November 2004, Paris Transatlantic Magazine

Close to a decade ago, two emerging sound artists living in Texas thought it clever to compress their names into unpronounceable monikers. Hence, we now have mnortham (Michael Northam) and jgrzinich (John Grzinich). While the meanings of such monikers may no longer be relevant, they’re permanent fixtures for both artists, like faded tattoos. Throughout his career, Grzinich has played second fiddle to a handful of acousmatically minded composers, including Northam, Seth Nehil and Rick Reed. ‘Intimations’ is his debut recording despite a wealth of those collaborations. This album began as a series of recordings for piano, with Grzinich quieting all of the attack from whatever he was performing and stretching into sustained drone undulations. The incessant chorus of cicadas and the calm lapping of the Aegean Sea interject distinct environmental overtones amid the ephemeral and amorphous flutter of Grzinich’s heavily processed tonalities. ‘Intimations’ sleevenotes flip back and forth between a philosophical cry to reorder the nature of perception and a personal exposition of the construction of this music. Where the former is tentative in its questions and answers, the latter is poetic in its sombre, solitary mood, more in keeping with the spirit of the music to be found here.
- Jim Haynes 2004, The Wire #244,

This is among the top most mind numbingly ethereal recordings I have ever heard in my life, ranking high up there with Nurse With Wound’s ‘Soliloquy for Lilith’. The ambient drone is something born out of hyperventilation and cascading emptiness. Jgrzinich’s Intimations are personal dark entries into the wondrous crossing between vapory industrial sound and delicate field recordings with experimental piano. His past work has included duo recordings with peer acousticians Seth Nehil and MNortham. The hushed ambience of these sounds is actually quite piercing, with just a paranormal presence, only a permeable sense of realism, providing a textural aura –Mute crackle, wispy crunch, still crumble. The track “Sun in Hand, Stone in Water” has a menacing circular tone that curls like chronic vertigo. Oblique mist that snakes as the disc closes with an organic leak of water that sounds as if it is falling atop a glass piano, causing a fountain.
- TJ Norris, USA, 2004, Igloo Magazine

Multimedia artist John Grzinich has a remarkable series of releases under his belt in collaboration with mnortham, Seth Nehil (who indeed helps with some recordings on one track of this cd) and the Frequency Curtain trio, but oddly enough this is his first solo album. Co-released by CMR (New Zealand) and Maaheli (USA/Estonia, where Grzinich currently lives and works), “Intimations” immediately stands out as one of the best 2004 releases. Grzinich reaches a synthesis of field recordings and electronics which is, simply put, trascendental beauty. This kind of delicate, yet extremely powerful “acoustic ecology” reminded me of Lionel Marchetti’s “Portrait d’un glacier” – textured organic drones created with a perfect merging of concrete sounds (running water, cicadas, blowing branches…) and electronic processings. The mystical intensity of “Sun in hand, stone in water”, based on resonating grand piano clusters, also brinds to mind Osso Exótico’s equally moving “Church organ works”. Grzinich’s writings in the inner sheet also offer interesting insights and theoretical reflections about sound, composition and listening experience. A truly awesome release.
- Eugenio Maggi, Italy 2004, Chain DLK

intimations is a coproduction between CMR Records (New Zealand) and maaheli studio (Estonia/US)

I just got back from a week long trip to Russia to give two performances, one at the Experimental Sound Gallery in St. Petersburg and one at the DOM Cultural Center in Moscow (venues pictured above). All was organized by Dmitry of the fine label and distribution service Monochrome Vision and partly sponsored by the Estonian CCA (one of my biggest surprises in Russia was to find that there currently is a market for smaller independent labels, even in the face of rampant piracy). Both performances went well with an attendance of about 30-40 people for each show. In DOM there was also a performance by Nikita Golyshev, aka CD-R, a young architect and musician who is one of the people behind the Musica Excentrica net label. Afterwards at each venue there were a number of people who came up to me to give comments and ask questions. This is a good sign considering the environment for performances in the former eastern block where 5 or more years ago it was normal for there to be no response at all after a show (sometimes not even applause).

On Friday evening I gave a talk about my work at the Theremin Center in Moscow which is a small department in the conservatory of music devoted to electronic music. Afterwards there were also a number of questions about my various recording and composing techniques as well as a discussion about quality vs convenience in the current trends of digital production and distribution of music (some were asking why I don’t use best recording equipment possible indicating that people are not entirely aware of the idea of the independent scene). Pictured below are some of the true gems of electronic instruments from Russian history, which were sitting in the same room I gave my lecture! The first is an original Theremin presumably from the 1920s. The second is the one and only ANS Synthesizer made by the engineer Evgeny Murzin in the late 1930s. This is the very instrument used by Alfred Schnittke and Edward Artemiev (whose work with the synthesizer can be heard on various Tarkovsky soundtracks). It has been restored and is in working conditions and it is even possible to take classes in how to compose for the ANS (although someone said they will move it soon to the Museum of Musical Instruments in Moscow).

The last photo is from a place known as “space city” about 40km north of Moscow. We took a trip to a place that was supposedly someone’s dacha and ended up sneaking into a soviet cosmonaut training base (supposedly still in use) to check some ruins. Our guide called the place the “Stalker pools” because nobody knew what they were used for and the place felt like a lost “zone”. Unfortunately it was raining and it was illeagal for us to be inside so it was not optimal for further exploration. Sadly once you leave the outskirts of Moscow the conditions of living decay rapidly (and they are not always so great within the city). I noticed many block house areas simply being overgrown with trees and strewn with trash illustrating the growing poverty and prosperity gap in Russia. Nonetheless the trip provided me with a number of enlightening views into understanding whats happening across the border from Estonia.

I have not written too much about my photographic practices here, mainly because I hope the images I post speak for themselves. As noted on my website, the photos I take help add some additional stories of my travels and projects. As for those who have browsed my image galleries before, you know I enjoy taking photos at night using the artificial light that exists, particularly in urban areas. On a recent trip to Helsinki I took the opportunity to wander the streets for a few hours and capture some images. In particular I found nice contrasts between the light reflecting off the melting ice and water in the harbor areas. You can see more of these shots and others in the photo galleries for the month of March.

(Lisbon) Mid-October, I’m traveling now, performing and working on projects.

I just spent two weeks in Portugal enjoying the chaos.

There was a one week sound/art symposium called Pushing the Medium ..2. It was in the town of Nodar where an international group of artists came to realize project in the place. There were a number of concert evenings as well.

After here I perform in Barcelona at La Sala Castello with Paulo Raposo.

After that we’re off to Italy