MARK HARRIS
An Idea Of North/Learning To Walk
CATMD195
n5MD 2012
05 Tracks. 44mins22secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: DLD iTunes: DLD

West Midland-based artist Mark Harris was originally primarily involved with visual arts, but a keen interest in generative systems led him to develop software applications which consequently used during live performances, and resulted in a spot on Birmingham Sound Matter, a compilation curated by Francisco López published on  Audiobulb in 2009, and in a first album, The Boy Observes The Ocean, released on Hibernate two years ago. Harris is also a member of Birmingham’s audio visual collective Modulate alongside, amongst others, Higher Intelligence Agency’s Bobby Bird.

The recording of this album came about when most of the UK faced an unusually cold and snowy spell over Christmas 2010. Harris found himself snowed him at home and, making the most of the situation, started improvising what would become the centre piece of the record, a sprawling nineteen minute atmospheric formation built from processed field recordings and acoustic instruments. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Birmingham Sound Matter
AB023
Audiobulb Records 2009
08 Tracks. 65mins53secs

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Over fifty years ago, French composer Pierre Schaeffer, the father of musique concrète, described sound recording as ‘objet sonore’, suggesting that, while documenting a sonic event, it is also one. This is very much the philosophy behind the Sound Matter series of projects orchestrated by Spanish sound artist Francisco López. After Brussels in 2004, Montreal in 2006 and Victoriaville in 2007, López was invited to come to Birmingham and gather a handful of regional sound artists.

The concept behind the Sound Matter projects is pretty simple. Get a few sound artists together, send them to collect sounds from a particular city, let them process them as they see fit. These two sound pools are then a common platform for each of the artists involved to create their own work. Continue Reading »