just released: ballastnvp072—tac: soundofnoise (7” lathe, CDR)

almost one year ago I released a 7” lathe and CDR set by tac entitled vibrations. and, lo and behold, I'm excited to share that a new tac 7” lathe and CDR is here!

soundofnoise further explores audio in what I would consider tac’s signature style: a focused capturing of source material, either organically produced or constructed by tom, that is sometimes treated—or combined with other recordings. the result? one might recognize a sound, but there’s something just a bit disorienting at play. the lathe has four shorter tracks (approx. 3 minutes each) that are focused distillations of this process, and the CDR (approx. 60 minutes) further weaves and juxtaposes audio past and current into a long-form aural terrain. 

as with almost all tac releases, the packaging is part of the puzzle…for this release, fire played a role in sealing the perimeter of the packaging (see photos for reference) and the inserts provide additional insight (and clues) into the audio on this release.

edition of 22 copies, $30 ppd in the us—folks overseas get in touch so we can figure out shipping.

(also, there are very limited copies of vibrations remaining. if you want to grab both releases, let me know.)

evicshen 10” lathe (nvp066), vertonen CDR (nvp073)

super excited to share that the evicshen lathe has landed! side 1 has two tracks that, for me, really do justice to the breadth of audio victoria creates.  

(if you aren’t familiar with her work, watch this.)

side two is a cut-up 7” flexi that has both tracks from side one of the 10” on it….so,
if you have a portable turntable with no tracking features, a needle that isn’t one you’d leave in a will, and something to bump the tonearm back in place, you’ll enjoy some pretty chaotic stuff.

edition of 25 numbered copies, $50 ppd in the us. overseas, let’s be in touch.

second, a new vertonen cdr, “crevarsse,” is now available. field recordings (direct, embellished, or enhanced), shortwave, drone, and damaged electronics. it’s also the prologue to a trilogy, “phothuum,” which will be released as a 3 CDR boxed set later this year.

edition of 32 signed and numbered copies, $12 ppd in the us. overseas, let’s be in touch.

ballastnvp068 and 069 now available!

 

excited to share two new releases. 

first up, ballast nvp068—dead edits: “Everybody, this has been one of the greatest tours of our life. We really, first, I’d like to thank the band. I’d like to thank our road crew. And I’d like to thank our lighting people. Of all the shows on this tour, this particular show will remain with us the longest, because  not only is it the last show of the tour, but it's the last show that we'll ever do. Thank you.” (7” square picture disc lathe)

 

yes, that’s the title. 

 

 as with most dead edits releases, this started with a conversation—broadly about david bowie, but specifically about how utterly impeccable his “farewell speech,” as it’s come to be known, was delivered during what would be the last performance of the spiders from mars.

side one employs reduplicative strategies to degrade and evolve the “farewell speech” with various playback and recording methods to produced distorted and time adjusted “iterations” of the speech.

on the other side—because nothing can follow the farewell speech besides “rock and roll suicide,” dead edits approaches the song—as captured from the Odeon performance—with our own distinct treatment.

edition of 28 numbered copies, $22

ballast nvp069—vertonen: irreversibility (2 x CDR).

responses to death, of course, are situationally variable. irreversibility is, for me, one such response. disc one, “irreversible,” leans more towards recent work with layered, raw, or processed “small” sounds mixed with field recordings and various electronic disturbances. disc two, “death tick,” is a linked trilogy of pieces built primarily from tonal sine wave manipulation and was heavily inspired by the 1977 electronic music album Pythagoron.

edition of 22 signed and numbered copies, $12.

 

if you’re ordering from overseas, please get in touch so we can calculate shipping.

thanks as always for your support and interest!

new Eric Lunde (in collab/ with Zack Hansen, Precarian Cuts): emptiness of emptiness 3 x 7" lathe

New goodies from Mr. Lunde:

emptiness of emptiness (in collaboration with Zack Hansen, Precarian Cuts)

triple 7” lathe set: handmade/handprinted edition with a collection of prints

 

besides being an incredible art object, this release encapsulates so much of eric’s artistic aesthetic: reduplication, accidents, and the absurd—and an appreciation and expansion of all three.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

handy guide to what’s inside:

sleeve zero
printed empty matter

sleeve one
disc one: side 0, empty
disc one, side 1: track 0 pure lathe cut—only the sound of the lathe track itself

sleeve two
disc two, side 2: track 1: audio recording of lathe cut being played; track 2, recording of the recording of the lathe cut
disc two, side 3, track 3: recording of the recording of the recording of the lathe cut; track 4, recording of the recording of the recording of the recording of the lathe cut

sleeve three
disc three, side 4, track 5: sound of track 4 being cut into the disc
disc three, side 5: empty 

 

$60 ppd us: rest of world, get in touch for shipping!

kanshiketsu! built! released by ballast! much limited edition....

Also, check out eric’s various web presences AND zack’s website too: he’s cut every ballast lathe thus far and is a delightful person...

 

https://endythekid.blogspot.com/      

 https://kanshiketsu.bandcamp.com/

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/lunde

http://www.precariancuts.com/

new ballast co-release: eric lunde - eat the copy! redux (3 x CDR, 2 x books, linocut print)

Eric Lunde is one brilliant writer and artist, and I am thrilled to help distribute this item into the world.

eric lunde: eat the copy redux (3 x CDR, 2 x books, linocut print)

this release is readings and provocations from and about the book somnium 3: eat the copy!  by eric lunde.

 

the book somnium 3: eat the copy! is an account of eric lunde’s experience through high-grade covid infection that landed him in the ICU for the first week of December 2023. In Eric's own words:

 

the third installment in the somnium™ series, series 3 follows the somnium template of 137 episodes of 137 words (think physics not psychics....the significance being that in physics 137 was once believed to be the exact value of the fine-structure constant, a number which, according to leon lederman, "shows up naked all over the place.”) the series follows the authors adventures in covid-induced hallucinations until arriving at the obvious conclusion: we are the virus! we are all copies of the virus! eat the copy!

 

it is a poetic rendering of the experience, hallucinatory and ultimately enlightening for mr. lunde.

 

this release includes somnium 3 (208 pages); eat the copy! redux (124 pages, textual and textual/visual rendering of elements of somnium 3) a print, and three CDRs:

 

disc 1: 137 degradations by eric lunde

disc 2: “137 at 137 inches” by blake edwards: four layered microcassette to microcassette recordings of layered readings of somnium 3 redlined and then mixed

disc 3: various expositions by j soliday, blake edwards, karl paloucek, and jeph jerman, framing selected readings from somnium 3.

just look at this party:

the release is in a limited edition and is $30 ppd in the US: overseas, please get in touch about shipping!

thanks,

Blake

two new ballast releases (nvp63 and nvp65), and...bandcamp!

thrilled to announce two new ballast releases.

ballastnvp063: vertonen: she would have made such a lovely bride 
(5” x 7” postcard lathe, 2 x CDR)

there were four elements of the Eras Tour I attended june 2, 2023 that I wanted to capture with audio, but an unexpected fifth one—the crowd response at the end of “Champagne Problems”—is what set this release in motion.

as far as I knew, this song didn’t particularly carry the gravitas of other Swift songs, so after about 15 or so seconds of applause I decided to start recording the audience (and Swift’s) response. 

About a month or so later, I learned that “Champagne Problems” had become a song in the setlist for which audiences really went off the deep end with their applause. Swift, a consummate performer and no stranger to working a crowd, responded accordingly as the tour went on. 

 

The audio on the picture disc postcard is the “Champagne Problems” audience response I recorded in chicago.

disc 1, american crowd work, is a collection of “Champagne Problems” audience / Swift interactions I pulled from youtube: many have been taken down (due to, understandably, copyright violation of the recording of the song). as luck would have it, I was able to grab the first and last night of the 2023 US portion of the tour.

disc 2, the idea you had of me—who was she?  is the most traditionally “musical” component of the release: a continuation of my interest in piano—specifically the work of Conlon Nancarrow and Steven Reich. disc 2 is multiple phasing layers of two two-second Swift piano loops (from “Champagne Problems” and “Last Great American Dynasty”) anchored by drones built off the bass line from “All Too Well.”

Edition of 30 copies, $18 ppd in the US.

 

ballastnvp065 modelbau: groef (CDR)

after Frans de Waard reviewed a copy of my 30th anniversary release, he mentioned he had started making tape loops from some of the lock grooves—was I interest in a collaboration? I agreed, but when he sent me the files, the way he’d transformed / modified / permutated the source material—well beyond recognition—was to such a level that not only did I feel any further efforts by me would have been gilding the lily but, in fact, not of any concrete value, which puts us at this release as it sits.
(fun fact: groef is dutch for groove.)

edition of 47 numbered copies, $10 ppd in the US.

 

overseas, please get in touch so I can calculate shipping.

 

as a side note, I've finally joined 2008 and vertonen is now on bandcamp. 

no ballast releases, of course, but old CIP titles and (soon) audio exclusivew to that platform.

thanks as always for your interest and time.

blake

 

 

 

...and reviews for tac and jacob deraadt!

 

Thanks to Frans de Waard for his kind words in vital weekly about the tac lathe / CDR release and the Jacob DeRaadt CDR: below are the highlights, and the full review (and rest of the issue) can be read here.

tac 7” lathe and CDR:
“TAC’s music is also something different. The CDR, for instance, is one endless stream of sound, a collage of field recordings, some very closely made and others from far away. Also, there is a lot of object abuse here, tossing about objects (and I have no idea what they are). Because there are no individual pieces, it all becomes an endless stream of sound, in which there is, deliberately, no head and tail and something you get sucked into. The two shorter pieces on the lathe cut are different. Here, TAC works with a more compositional approach of metal rods dragged across a surface, along with some highly obscured on one side and a deep bass drone opening on the other side, gradually moving towards something that works with individual sounds of contact microphone abuse but with that bass drone lingering in the backside. 7″ and CDR are definitely two different sides of TAC.

 

Jacob DeRaadt’s Universal Hotel CDR
“‘Universal Hotel’ is the second release for which he uses his own name and primarily uses field recordings taken from the places he used to live in. […] Each of the seven pieces has a minimalist look at these locations. In each piece, he uses various recordings from that place and lets the various sounds work together to find a dialogue between them, albeit a minimal one. I have no idea if there is some kind of manipulation other than mixing a few sounds, but it all sounds great.”