Label founded by Taylor Deupree, based in Brooklyn, New York USA.
Minamo - Shining
Label: 12k
Catalog#: 12k1031
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Mar 2005
Genre: Electronic
Style: Abstract, Minimal
Credits: Acoustic Guitar - Yuichiro Iwashita
Electronics, Computer - Tetsuro Yasunaga
Guitar, Computer - Keiichi Sugimoto
Keyboards - Namiko Sasamoto
Tracklisting:
1 Crumbling (12:57)
2 Raum (4:31)
3 Serene (4:37)
4 Tone (8:26)
5 Stay Still (8:38)
6 We Were (8:08)
12k is proud to announce the latest release from Japan’s Minamo. Shining is the quartet’s 5th full-length release to date and continues in a common tradition of being sourced and edited from live performance recordings, a practice central to the band’s interest in improvisational forms and organic track growth.
While guitar is still the prominent instrument, Shining takes a slightly different path from the drone-oriented releases of the past. Still pursuing vague and evasive atmospheres Minamo now inject much more prominent rhythm and turbulence, as on “Crumbling’s” software driven looping or “Stay Still’s” 16th note picked guitar repetition that is quietly offset by sparse piano. This is part of what makes Shining a work of subtle pairings and contrasts. Digital hums and crackles merge with the glacial pace of peaceful, melodic string resonance, blurred echoes of familiar sounds fall away into pools of feedback. This is highly free-formed work yet at the same time there is an obvious communication between musicians (and instruments) that makes Minamo’s music a language unique to a 4-piece band as they continue to explore the unstable boundaries of free improv, post-rock, and live electronic ambience.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/36chpo
Sawako - Hum
Label: 12k
Catalog#: 12k1035
Format: CD
Country: US
Released: Nov 2005
Genre: Electronic
Style: Abstract, Ambient
Credits: Guitar - Aoki Hayato
Tracklisting:
1 Pink Liquid Cotton Candy (5:55)
Featuring - Taylor Deupree
2 Patchworked Blanket (2:55)
Vocals - George (11)
3 Rush (4:17)
4 Incense Of Voice (4:56)
5 Way Home From School (3:46)
6 White Sky Winter Chicada (8:05)
Featuring - Kenneth Kirschner
7 Cloud No Crowd (13:02)
NYC/Tokyo sound artist Sawako has recently made a name for herself with her own unique combination of field recordings and DSP combined with noticeably feminine touch. It is this strong use of both mediums that makes her hard to classify or neatly tucked away into a specific genre. Her latest release, Hum, is an elegant and detailed work in which she consciously brushes against the fringes of pop music by extracting and processing the sounds of everyday life and working them into melodies and arrangements. Coded sound blends lightly with piano, voice, roomtones, field recordings and the additional instruments from a number of supporting musicians including Aoki Hayato (guitar + pianica), and 12k’s Kenneth Kirschner (room tones), and Taylor Deupree (kyma).
Hum is very much an album about life that takes influences from Sawako’s home in Japan and her recent years as a student of sound and media technology in New York City. There is at one time both a sense of girlish innocence and curiosity and the result marks a unique point in 12k’s recent output.
While Hum is primarily a soft, ambient album, Sawako is obviously hinting at much more beneath the surface. It’s as if she is not just searching for music in non-musical places but playing hide-and-seek with the most beautiful and sublime sounds around her and forming them by hand into a dreamy work of art.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/m6qokm
Minamo - Shining
Label: 12k
Catalog#: 12k1031
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Mar 2005
Genre: Electronic
Style: Abstract, Minimal
Credits: Acoustic Guitar - Yuichiro Iwashita
Electronics, Computer - Tetsuro Yasunaga
Guitar, Computer - Keiichi Sugimoto
Keyboards - Namiko Sasamoto
Tracklisting:
1 Crumbling (12:57)
2 Raum (4:31)
3 Serene (4:37)
4 Tone (8:26)
5 Stay Still (8:38)
6 We Were (8:08)
12k is proud to announce the latest release from Japan’s Minamo. Shining is the quartet’s 5th full-length release to date and continues in a common tradition of being sourced and edited from live performance recordings, a practice central to the band’s interest in improvisational forms and organic track growth.
While guitar is still the prominent instrument, Shining takes a slightly different path from the drone-oriented releases of the past. Still pursuing vague and evasive atmospheres Minamo now inject much more prominent rhythm and turbulence, as on “Crumbling’s” software driven looping or “Stay Still’s” 16th note picked guitar repetition that is quietly offset by sparse piano. This is part of what makes Shining a work of subtle pairings and contrasts. Digital hums and crackles merge with the glacial pace of peaceful, melodic string resonance, blurred echoes of familiar sounds fall away into pools of feedback. This is highly free-formed work yet at the same time there is an obvious communication between musicians (and instruments) that makes Minamo’s music a language unique to a 4-piece band as they continue to explore the unstable boundaries of free improv, post-rock, and live electronic ambience.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/36chpo
Sawako - Hum
Label: 12k
Catalog#: 12k1035
Format: CD
Country: US
Released: Nov 2005
Genre: Electronic
Style: Abstract, Ambient
Credits: Guitar - Aoki Hayato
Tracklisting:
1 Pink Liquid Cotton Candy (5:55)
Featuring - Taylor Deupree
2 Patchworked Blanket (2:55)
Vocals - George (11)
3 Rush (4:17)
4 Incense Of Voice (4:56)
5 Way Home From School (3:46)
6 White Sky Winter Chicada (8:05)
Featuring - Kenneth Kirschner
7 Cloud No Crowd (13:02)
NYC/Tokyo sound artist Sawako has recently made a name for herself with her own unique combination of field recordings and DSP combined with noticeably feminine touch. It is this strong use of both mediums that makes her hard to classify or neatly tucked away into a specific genre. Her latest release, Hum, is an elegant and detailed work in which she consciously brushes against the fringes of pop music by extracting and processing the sounds of everyday life and working them into melodies and arrangements. Coded sound blends lightly with piano, voice, roomtones, field recordings and the additional instruments from a number of supporting musicians including Aoki Hayato (guitar + pianica), and 12k’s Kenneth Kirschner (room tones), and Taylor Deupree (kyma).
Hum is very much an album about life that takes influences from Sawako’s home in Japan and her recent years as a student of sound and media technology in New York City. There is at one time both a sense of girlish innocence and curiosity and the result marks a unique point in 12k’s recent output.
While Hum is primarily a soft, ambient album, Sawako is obviously hinting at much more beneath the surface. It’s as if she is not just searching for music in non-musical places but playing hide-and-seek with the most beautiful and sublime sounds around her and forming them by hand into a dreamy work of art.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/m6qokm
