Blueprints
Over the past 10 years 12k has established itself as a label on the forefront of minimalist music and has become home to some of the most important artists of the genre. It is label that time and time again has not been afraid to release debut albums from new artists, drawing on the new energy they interject into both the scene and the label.With the release of Blueprints, 12k presents 2 tracks each from 6 artists new to its roster and showcases some of the new sounds and influences that will ca…
Letter of sounds
Following the release of his work as part of the electro-acoustic quartet Minamo on 12k (12k1031, 2005) and the proto-pop outing under his new moniker Filfla (Plop, 2005), Fourcolor (Keiichi Sugimoto) is back with his second release on 12k, Letter of Sounds. His previous work, Air Curtain (12k1029) was a critical success selling out the first pressing in little over one month.On Air Curtain, Fourcolor explored new directions, building upon delicate, implied rhythmic structures moving away from t…
Songs
Songs is the much-anticipated follow-up to Parisian sound designer and musician Sébastien Roux’s beautiful cd Pillow (Apestaartje, 2004). The simple title of Songs hides a deep work that Roux states is based in mathematics, symmetry (and assymetry) and organized randomness. Songs is a skillfully and beautifully rendered album of gentle and sometimes not-so-gentle acoustic instruments and melodic granular clouds. Each song is titled simply by the instruments that make it, thus stressing the proce…
Ääniesineitä
12k is proud to release Ääniesineitä, the debut full-length CD by Antti Rannisto. Rannisto [b1978] is a Finnish artist whose ultra-spare sound was formed via a diverse background of hip-hop, house, and experimental electronic music. Despite the highly improvised and free-form influences, Ääniesineitä is highly calculated music so stripped down to the basic elements that subtle shifts in panning, envelope, or phase become instruments in themselves. He explores the ideas of rotation in much of his…
Status
12k presents Status, the result of two of the genre’s most talented, and diffferent, composers; Frank Bretschneider and Ralph Steinbrüchel, sharing their sounds and styles. Status began in the Spring of 2003 when they designed their own sound sequences and samples and sent the material to each other, waiting and hearing what the other will create out of it. They played this game for nearly 2 years, sending sequences and tracks back and forth until both of them were satisfied with the result.When…
Post_Piano 2
Taylor Deupree & Kenneth Kirschner’s Post_Piano 2 continues the two New York composers’ collaborative investigation into the intersections of digital minimalism and experimental piano composition. Working with his childhood acoustic piano and the accidental sounds of an imperfect recording environment, Kirschner first composed a simple, austere “piano sketch” to serve as raw material for the project. This sketch was then passed on to Deupree, who created three new compositions entirely out of so…
Every action
12k presents Every Action, the 3rd full-length release from the UK’s Motion (Chris Coode) and the follow-up to 2002’s critically acclaimed Dust (12k1019). In addition to his work with 12k (Dust, as well as a collaboration with Doron Sadja on 12k’s recent Two Point Two compilation, and an MP3 only release on 12k’s term. series) Coode has worked with Fat Cat and also released the debut Motion cd Pictures (now out of print) on his own imprint.The work on Every ActionPictures was produced, sharing t…
Tasogare: Live in Tokyo
Recorded live on April 10th and 11th, 2010, Tasogare: Live in Tokyo documents the performances of five 12k artists at two temples in Tokyo, Japan. Komyoji Temple (April 10th) saw the first-ever performance in Japan by Australia’s Solo Andata, known for creating deep, textured music with found objects, homemade instruments and very little in the way of electronics or software tricks. The duo was joined by 12k veteran Sawako whose voice and delicate computer work were accompanied by guitarist Hofl…
Alpi
oreledigneur is the duo of giuseppe ielasi and renato rinaldi and “alpi” is the new film by photographer and filmmaker Armin Linke. rinaldi followed linke’s shooting sessions between 2004 and 2009, recording on-location sound for the film, which was then edited and sound-designed by oreledigneur. the whole sound archive was used by ielasi to edit and compose (without any additional processing) those two sides, which bear very little resemblance to the final soundtrack of the film. the lp consist…
The Gorilla Variations
This is the first full-length collaborative release by Richmond, VA-based musician and sound artists Molly Berg and Stephen Vitiello. The CD title, The Gorilla Variations came about from a request for a short-soundtrack from Éder Santos, a Brazilian video artist who Vitiello has worked with for 20-years on an uncounted number of projects. For Santos’ recent video installation, Boxing The Game, Éder asked for a 3-minute soundtrack to accompany a video portrait of Idi Amin, a lonely gorilla housed…
Northern
The inspiration behind Northern (including its music, title and photography) comes from Deupree’s recent relocation from the heart of urban activity in Brooklyn to the tranquility of the forest in upstate New York. Inspired by nature and the winter during which it was created, Northern, like much of his recent work, explores Deupree’s interest in stillness and a slowed sense of time. Through quiet textures, subtle movements, faint loops and echoes, it was his goal to create the type of music tha…
Mit ohne
Mit Ohne is a sound documentation of an audio/visual installation by Yves Netzhammer and Steinbrüchel. The installation entitled “The feeling of precise instability when holding things” was part of the group exhibition “Wohnträume/Wohnräume” exhibited from 26.07. to 28.09.2003 at the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, Switzerland. The audio sections by Steinbrüchel where composed in sync with the visuals by Yves Netzhammer and succeed in translating and supporting the poetic vibrancy and slow morp…
Rave Slime
Limited edition 12" vinyl. Comes in a 140 micron polished finish PVC sleeve. Contains 2 locked grooves and a palindrome. 45 RPM. A double blow of brutalist composition and raw electronic music. Key words: extreme rave, radical synthesis, computer music for hooligans.
The Sleeping Morning
The collaborative efforts of Athens native Savvas Ysatis and New Yorker Taylor Deupree were well known in the early and mid 1990s through their work as SETI, Futique, and Arc, as well as their soundtrack to Japanese architect Toyo Ito's famed Tower of Winds building in Yokohama, Japan. After going their separate ways, Ysatis to recording for Tresor in Berlin, and Deupree to founding the 12k label, they have united again for their first project in nearly 10 years.
Almost all of Ysatis and Deupree…
Hourglass
Savvas Ysatis and Taylor Deupree were at it again in Deupree’s country studio, about two years after the creation of 2007’s The Sleeping Morning EP. They gave themselves one week to see what they could create with the studio as a blank canvas, and the two emerged with Hourglass, four songs of carefully crafted pop-infused ambient music destined for release on 12” vinyl.Hourglass follows in The Sleeping Morning’s footsteps with two instrumental pieces and two vocal songs created with a multitude …
Shoals (Edition)
Shoals (Edition) is a companion release to Taylor Deupree’s 2010 full-length CD Shoals. This limited edition 7” record has a shortened version of “A Fading Found” (from the album) on Side A and a B-Side called “Sere.” While the 7” format only allows for brief works - and in this case extracted from much longer compositions - Edition creates intimate and physical vignettes into these highly acoustic and tactile recordings.
dyed in the grain
All sounds processed from recordings made during the manufacture of ceramic tiles: from prime material collection to the hammering of the final test tile. Recorded, processed and composed in August 2005; re-arranged in May 2009. A single 19-minute piece, mixed by Renato Rinaldi and Giuseppe Ielasi.Renato Rinaldi studied drama, composition and electronic music. After a number of years working as an actor he began composing music for theatre, radio dramas and video installations. He has produced …
voluntary milking system
Unprocessed recordings made at the farm “Le Petit Bouveuche” in Saint Leger sur Sarthe (Normandy region, France). The farm’s main building is a large stable, where approximately a hundred cows live. The stable is open on one side, and the cows are free to wander around, even to leave the stable itself towards the open fields. At the other end, two large milking robots are installed. The cows voluntarily enter the robot area twice a day to be milked, while a central computer scans and recogn…
Bored Fortress
"Iowa City silver apple-pickers Wet Hair pitter-patter into yet another picture-perfect futurist synth-pop raga, 'Blessed.' Yes you are. On the flip, kindred midwestern matrimony team Peaking Lights hotbox a basement of black ark basslines and waterlogged reggae 45s. Sleeve art by Robert Beatty."
Strategies Against Architecture IV
"Strategies Against Architecture IV is a double disc release that collates the band's output from 2002-2010, a period which saw Einstürzende Neubauten release Perpetuum Mobile, embark on the Musterhaus series (a collection of very limited edition experimental albums that were available exclusively via the band's website), the release of Grundstück (2005), Palast der Republik (2006: material from the band's deeply symbolic appearance at Berlin's Palast der Republik -- the former seat of power of …