Ballast NVP032 and 31 out now!

I'm pleased to announce the last two ballast releases for 2020.

 

NVP032, Hali Palombo: Homer & Langley c-20 cassette. 

Hali’s work focuses on processed 78 RPM records and cylinder records, shortwave, CB, and field recordings. Her releases and live performances are immersions into odd liminal worlds, where signals and ideas crossfade and collide, distorting originals forms just beyond the brink of familiarity yet retaining enough grounding to recall familiar forms.

“Homer & Langley” is an audio tour (of sorts) of the Collyer brothers’ mansion in New York—often considered one of the first examples of “hoarding” brought to the public’s eye in America. Reflective of the literal impenetrability of the property given all the obsessively collected materials inside, these two short tracks offer intriguing slivers of an aural glimpse inside the mansion. 

 

For a more immersive “visit,” the first 20 copies come with a bonus flash drive containing the following:
1) a 15 minute narrative (with accompanying soundtrack) by Hali about the Collyer brothers (in both .wav and .mp3 format)

2) select contemporaneous newspaper articles

3) select contemporaneous photographs

The 15 minute narrative comes in both .wav and .mp3 formats.

These first 20 copies come in a hand-stamped cloth bag with an envelope filled with early 20th century ephemera assembled by Hali.

Edition of 52 copies. $10 ppd US; overseas, get in touch for shipping.

NVP031, Boris Einhoff: Suicide Meditations 1951-2001 (booklet and CDR)

For fans of Fluxus, Vienna Actionists, Chris Burden, and Vagina Dentata Organ. The 20 page booklet features the transcript of the in-depth, illuminating, and often entertaining conversation between curator David Dierman and Einhoff in Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern as part of the 50 year retrospective of Einhoff’s Suicide Meditation installations. The attendant audio covers all 50 years of the works, with an emphasis on the recordings that did not manifest as installations.
Edition of 22 signed and numbered copies.

$10 ppd US; overseas, get in touch for shipping.

Three New Vertonen Releases!

And please note, I will happily "bundle" pricing if you order all three releases.

Ballast NVP027: Jeanne the Maid, Daughter of God (CDR, inserts)

I’m not particularly interested in religion, but there are some personas, Joan of Arc being one of them, that I will contend eclipse any belief system. I had finally sat down to read through her trial and, while I knew some of the key turns in it, I was amazed by her sheer force of will and fortitude in what was a completely loaded trial.

The audio is drawn from a processed, computer-generated woman’s voice reading, in French, what is arguably her most famous utterance during the trial. Asked if she knew whether she was in God's grace, she answered: "If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” Of course, the question was a trap: she could not answer yes (because according to doctrine, no one could “know” they were in God’s grace) and she could not answer no, for then she would admit to being in a state of sin. Her deft response “left the court stupefied.”

The audio is fairly dronish / minimal, and I am extremely satisfied with it. This has become one of the few releases of my own that I’ve listened to repeatedly after editing.

Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies in an envelope with a stamp of Joan of Arc’s signature and a insert that includes (in 21st century, re-translated French) all the quotes directly attributed to her during the course of her trial.

$13 ppd in the US; for folks overseas, please contact me so I can calculate shipping.

NVP029, Vertonen: Disorientation Studies (book and 4 x 3” CDR), focuses on geographic surveys. The text explores the history of cartographic studies in three ways: definitions (from the Bureau of Land Management), an overview of key historic moments in surveying, and the surveying “notebook” of a rather uncertain (and perhaps slightly unhinged) surveyor: consider Donald Crowhurst’s ship log as a starting conceit. The artwork in the book reflects this “surveyor’s” mapping as it evolves over the course of the process.

The audio on the four discs reflects the contents of the book: two unprocessed field recordings, one slightly processed field recording, and one heavily processed field recording. Edition of 33 signed and numbered copies.

$20 ppd in the US; for folks overseas, please contact me so I can calculate shipping.

NVP030, Vertonen: Disassociation Studies (book and 4 x 3” CDR), focuses on erasing. The book, besides some introductory framing texts, is focused on erasing and asemic writing: prepared / processed texts treated as graphics / visuals. Samples are included in this email. The audio primarily explores aspects (and shortcomings) of analog erasing as well as the idea of processing audio (either by analog or digital means) well beyond their starting point. (Note: there are no blank discs: there is audio!) Edition of 33 signed and numbered copies.

$20 ppd in the US; for folks overseas, please contact me so I can calculate shipping.

Luer "Dog Days" 2 x 3" CDR and Vertonen "Drowning Machines" 2 X CDR

 

Thanks to Frans De Waard for his kind reviews of Luer’s Dog Days 2 x 3” and my own Drowning Machines 2 X CDR…both of which I realized I didn’t get around to even annoucing here, so here we go for a double whammy.

 

Ballast NVP028: luer: dog days (2 x 3” CDR)

Over the past few years, Matt Taggart has been doing a lot more work with modular synthesizer gear, and the results here are some of my favorite, for a few reasons. First, the stereo field is in full play. This isn’t to say his previous recordings (either as Luer or PCRV) haven’t explored the stereo field, but the slow burn of the tones combining and evolving stereophonically, is for me some of his strongest. Second, and tied to Matt’s exploration of the stereo field, both of these discs, which are drone-based, are testaments to Matt’s compositional ability to let one or two slowly evolving tones linger and fill a space. One of the reasons I appreciate this so much comes from knowing Matt’s previous work as PCRV, which was more of a harsh noise style that jumped around quite a bit, as well as his live sets, which also had a lot of quick edits. I’m intrigued as to how friends change and shift as artists, and Matt’s compositional decisions here, their restraint, is wonderful.

The release also comes with a cut up collage Matt created, which listeners are encouraged to reassemble however strikes their fancy.

 

Edition of 30 signed and numbered copies. The price in the US is $12 ppd. If you're overseas, please get in touch so I can calculate shipping. Payment can be sent via paypal to endtime34@hotmail.com.

 

 

Review:

As Luer, Taggart seems to enjoy the wilder end of drone music on the second disc and the first one options for a more broken-up sound, but that too is quite forceful at times. Not necessarily 'loud', I would think, but 'heavy' in approach. The addition of reverb on both pieces helps quite a bit in the department of 'heavy atmospherics'. Disc one, 'With Movement Comes Failure' Luer sets his broken electronics against bits of silence and creates a fine dramatic piece, whereas on disc two, 'Future Problems', he tells us the tale of heavy space trips going wrong and the soundtrack resembles the malfunction of motors of these spaceships. I was reminded here of the Korg Monotron, of which I wouldn't be surprised Luer has a couple, in combination with some pedals. It is easy to see why these two pieces are on two different discs, as they occupy different musical territories, and yet it is easy to see as always that the come from the same composer.

 

Ballast NVP026: Vertonen: drowning machines 2 CDR and 64 page book
The audio is created from my Polivoks synth and is an aural medical exploration of drowning.

In that aspect, it shares some ideas as side one of my 2013 11° 22.4'N 142° 35.5'E / HACE/26,250' LP: what would a body, on the neural and microbiological scale, “sound” like? Pulses come through as the small eruptions of pathophysiological events, and other electrical misfirings are conveyed with elements that linger behind or beneath, decaying and collapsing, while pushing those pulses along: biological response and resistance.

The graphics were derived from documentation of events leading up to what one could call a “noteworthy," drowning event (which, it could be contended, overshadowed the drowning itself).

The text was created from medical analyses of drowning, the autopsy report of the aforementioned drowning, descriptions of the event prior to that drowning, and other adjacent (chronological, geographical, and asynchronous) and related ideas.

 

The release is in an edition of 33 signed and numbered copies. The price in the US is $14 ppd. If you're overseas, please get in touch so I can calculate shipping. Payment can be sent via paypal to endtime34@hotmail.com.

 

 

Review:

I have no idea what 'Drowning Machines' is about. I read the short texts in this book, which seems like diary entries about hospitals. I might be wrong of course, but the two parts of the first piece are called 'Initial cardiac Arrhythmia' and 'Secondary Cardiac Arrhythmia', while the second CDR is called 'Drowning Machines 2: medical and biological'. The two pieces, altogether over 100 minutes, are drone-based but at the same time also a not your usual drones. Starting with a low-thump, steadily growing in intensity until in the second part it slows and tones down. Around that big drone-based mass of sound. Adding reverb to several parts gives this an additional atmospheric layer as if you are in a hospital. There are more small changes; the second part of the second part sounds like Vertonen uses computer processing, and has almost a melodic edge to it, which is not something one hears a lot in the work of Vertonen. It's little changes like this that makes me enjoy the work of Vertonen a lot. Within that whole big space of drone music, it is the small changes that make the difference and Blake Edwards is very good at that.

Review of Dead Edits St.Uns: ceremonial venerations and devotions

Much thanks to Frans de Waard for his thoughtful review of ceremonial venerations and devotions in Vital Weekly:


"There is more to this than what I list in the header of this review; there is much more than that. In the final year of his life, when recovering from a train accident, Z'EV stayed with Blake Edwards in Chicago for quite some time. Edwards is the man behind Dead Edits, a duo he does with Eric Lunde, and various of their releases deal with the Z'EV legacy and more in particular Z'EV project with voices, which he called UNS. On February 24, 1980, UNS played live for the first time and Dead Edits have declared 24th of February as St. UNS day. This box provides you with everything you need for a proper celebration of St. Uns day; "ceremonial venerations and devotions (7” lathe, CDR, 3”CDR, book, votive candle, foldable shrine, fetish and veneration objects". When I reviewed a double CD by UNS on C.I.P. (see Vital Weekly 721), 'I quoted the Industrial Culture Handbook about UNS saying, a "band producing "low-tech" rhythms and rants (the vocalist's name is Saul Zev)". Through some sort of lo-fi process is applied to the voice and it all sounds warped and folded up. There is surely also some sort of loops employed here and the text as such is not easy to recognize (as in: not at all). It is indeed rhythm and rants going down here. Dead Edits have three sound carriers here, in which they work out how the UNS sounds work and they come remarkably close to the original. C.I.P., Blake Edwards' previous label enterprise, released 'An UNS Momento' as the inaugural CD release for the label a long time ago (see Vital Weekly 174) and comparing what Dead Edits are doing on the 5"CDR here comes very close. Here we have short pieces, noisy, repetitive and, most of all, a very captivating listening. As said, I have no way of knowing how they do it, but they do it. On the 3"CDR they have one long, twenty-minute piece, which is more in line with longer UNS pieces, as documented on 'What Does The Brain Have To Do With It' (see Vital Weekly 721), leaving also the voice territory a bit, which some more field recording material (or so it seems), which all mixes up into a lengthy and noisy excursion, which is less voice-based than the shorter pieces. On the 7" it is all a bit more traditional UNS with voices and a cut-up recording of organ playing drones on one side and voices and loops on the other side. Altogether this is a wealth of music and with some interesting variety throughout the various formats.
    There is also a small booklet with further texts and images, all cut-up, distorted and mysteriously and deliberately vague. All of this in a neat black box, crafted with much love for the actual physical release. A most complete package, I would think. There are only 24 copies of this made, so should want one, there is no time to waste."

dead edits presents: st.uns—ceremonial venerations and devotions

Hello all,

very excited to announce ballast NVP 025: dead edits presents: st.uns—ceremonial venerations and devotions 
(7” lathe, CDR, 3”CDR, book, votive candle, foldable shrine, festisch and veneration objects)

February 24 marked the first public performance of Z’EV’s uns project in 1980, and dead edits could not let this date go unnoticed, as both of us are not only fans of Z’EV’s uns project but also previously paid tribute to Z’EV’s lesser heralded works with our authorized "forgery” of his “editeditions contexts” 7” in 2015. 
So, in mid-January, we got to work and decided to take another lap in our quest to shine more adulation on Z’EV’s work with this release, which began with our declaration that Feb 24 should be recognized as “st.uns day.”

• The 7” lathe (plays at 33 RPM), contains both homages to and “reinterpretations” of uns material. (The center label awaits your opening.)

• The  5” CDR focuses more on the uns style captured in the “life sentence” release from 1986 (and subsequently reissued by my former label, CIP, as a chunk of the “an uns momento” CD I released in 1999—not unsurprisingly, perhaps, the first CD I released on the label)

• The 3” CDR contains a more “long form” style-inspired composition (not ~ as ~ speech / utterance driven: similar to the longer form recordings on CIP’s “what does the brain have to do with it” 2 CD set from 2010 or the “past todays” track in the die stand reissue of production and decay of spacial relations, 2006)

• The foldable shrine and votive candle both are decorated with screen-printed cut up text

• The “st.uns” pin is fabricated to replicate the matchbook cover Z’EV described seeing in NYC when he decided, “uns, that’s a hell of a name for a band” (prior to being told it the matchbook cover actually said “sun” and he was holding it upside down)

• The book contains some of the texts created for this release, as well as uns inspired artwork

Some adjacent festisch objects and hand manufactured prints round out the release.

Edition of 24 signed and numbered copies, and the price in the US is $42 ppd. If you're overseas, please get in touch so I can calculate shipping. Payment can be sent via paypal to endtime34@hotmail.com.

thanks as always for your interest and support!

Vertonen: Venn Diagram Proposals (Ballast NVP021)

Welcome to the first release of 2020 for ballast!

Ballast NVP021: Vertonen-Venn Diagram Proposals: An Activity Book with Complementary Audio (36 page book, CDR and 5.5” x 6.7” Euler lathe) aims to deliver about as directly what the title says as possible.

The audio on both the CDR and the lathe are inspired by the circular facet of Venn diagrams; whether it’s the needle running along a runout groove, a record skip, a loop created from an audio snippet, or layers of any (or all!), the aim is to create a meditative quality, either as one creates the diagrams or as stand-alone audio.

What is clearly the oddest part of the release, the lathe (plays at 33 RPM), was a bit of good fortune: a lathe cutter had some drilled Euler lathes (Euler diagrams being a less restrictive form of Venn diagrams) and the size and quantity fit with the book I had already designed, so it was an opportunity I could not pass up. And, of course, I could not resist placing the vertonen stamp “in between” the apparent “common area” of the two sides, as I am the common connection between the two sides...

Edition of 30 signed and numbered copies, and the price in the US is $25 ppd. If you're overseas, please get in touch so I can calculate shipping. Payment can be sent via paypal to endtime34@hotmail.com.