ballastnvp067: The Hafler Trio: If Take, Then Take: Tricks, Half-Tricks & Real Phenomena (2 x CD, DVD, cards, and enamel pin in custom fabricated box)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After more than four years in the works, I am beyond elated to announce the release of ballastnvp067: The Hafler Trio: If Take, Then Take: Tricks, Half-Tricks & Real Phenomena (2 x CD, DVD, cards, and enamel pin in custom fabricated box)

I originally released If Take, Then Take: Tricks, Half-Tricks & Real Phenomena in 2005 as a vinyl record, and it didn’t go off without a hitch or two. (In the end, I played almost every copy prior to sending it to a customer or distributor as a quality check against [maddeningly] inconsistent anomalies.)

My lingering itch: I want to do this release justice.

And now, here we are.

Certainly, there were challenges along the way—nothing worthwhile is ever without. Files got corrupted. Technology failed. Older, critical programs were inexplicably rejected by their longstanding operating system. Older, critical programs were subsequently rejected by a “newer” (relative) operating system. Experts were called in. Concerns and recommendations voiced. Experts tapped other experts when their equipment didn’t deliver.

Everyone is doing what they can, but, as you surely understand, there can be nothing guaranteed.

However. There were also strokes of luck and good fortune sprinkled along the path and, most importantly, Andrew and I had a rapport healthy with levity underlying the entire process.

Without straying too far (or at all, to be honest) into an “all will be revealed” (because it very well may not, nor should it be—let’s continue being honest) trope, I will state this release contains everything I could have hoped for. Hearing the original recordings—which often lean extremely delicate and quiet—in this format is simply a joy, and the second CD and DVD each sweep through a breadth of ideas in ways for which I was not prepared. For which I was pleasantly unprepared, in fact, because one of the pleasures, for me, of the work of the Hafler Trio is misdirection.

Edition of 500 signed and numbered copies. 
$72 ppd in the US. 
For folks overseas, I am solidifying distribution, but please contact me if you wish to order direct. 

thanks as always,

 

b 

Now available: Dan of Earth: Dolores Ericson Slept Here while Herb Alpert made this (10” lathe, 7” picture disc lathe, booklet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve known Dan for a good chunk of years, and his audio—all generated with hand-built equipment—consistently delivers. Whether it’s his bibletron synth, “equivocator” atari 2600 cartridge, or foxhole radio, Dan’s audio output is like no one else’s.

For this release, Dan was inspired by Herb Albert’s Whipped Cream & Other Delights LP (shocker) and A Humument—an “altered” art book by Tom Phillips that he created by painting over pages and “connecting new narratives through textual pathways.”

The 7” pays homage (visually and aurally) to two other works that have influenced Dan: The Haters Mind the Gap and Gavin Bryars’s The Sinking of the Titanic.

The release come in a Whipped Cream & Other Delights jacket (how could it not…) and includes a booklet with photos of all 101 jackets (match the one you get with its picture in the booklet!), a brief overview of Dan’s interest in Whipped Cream & Other Delights (and his subsequent acquisition of 101 copies of it), and a description of the audio creation process.

Edition of 26 lettered copies (lettered with a Dymo label maker, no less.)
$60 ppd in the US. If you’re overseas, please get in touch.

thanks!

Now available: ballast nvp078: vertonen: phothuum (3 x CDR)…plus, new reviews!

phothuum is a trilogy that explores similar elements / ideas explored in its prologue, crevarsse: embellished field recordings, electroacoustics, damaged and repurposed electronics, tape, turntable, and shortwave.
edition of 32 signed and numbered copies in hand-printed sleeves and box.
$16 ppd in the US.

 

 

Thanks to Frans from Vital for these kind words about phothuum:
I know Edwards draws inspiration from Eliane Radigue and The Hafler Trio, but zoviet*france also seems to be a significant source. The first two discs contain shorter pieces, between five and ten minutes, while the last one has two very long pieces, from the noisy first part of ‘White Stones I’ to the very delicate sine-wave-like minimalism of the third part of that title. Sometimes the field recordings take the lead, while on other occasions the electronics are the sole presence in a track, and more than once, these shifts take place within a track. From delicate analogue processing to firmly digital variations, and seamlessly going from one to the next, I am a fan…so maybe this isn’t the most objective review.

Frans also took the time to review the Eric Lunde 8 x cs set, Shoulda killed me when you had the chance……:

The first few releases I heard by Eric Lunde, from the late 1980s, made a significant impact. They were the first ones on RRRecords, and it was noise, but of a different kind. Voice manipulations, site-specific performances, a sort of ritual? It wasn’t easy to understand, and, to my delight, with many more releases by Lunde, including a wealth of written material, I still don’t understand, yet I am still fascinated by his output. the way Lunde treats his voice material is still compelling; he calls this his “reduplicative degeneration processes”. Another way to describe this is as a poor man’s version of Alvin Lucier’s ‘I’m Sitting in A Room’, and I mean this in the most positive sense. Playback of voice material from a dictaphone, recorded on another one, in a space, and this process repeats itself over and over, with the erosion gradually leading to mean noise, distortion, and feedback. Lunde also employs other sounds in similar ways, which is what makes this music compelling. It’s sound poetry, but also much more. The ‘Bruise Grind Kill’ cassette is all instrumental: “electric motor apparatuses on bass guitar and drums”, which, so says Ballast quite rightly, reminds one of early Chop Shop. One remarkable set of early Lunde music for sure.

now available: ballast nvp077: Eric Lunde: Shoulda killed me when you had the chance...... (8 x cs, book, prints, and more!)

When it rains at ballast, it pours at ballast...

Eric Lunde: shoulda killed me when you had the chance…… (8x cs, book, thumb drive, hand printed postcard, hand-printed cassette artwork, two short essays, temporary tattoo) 

Housed in a wood recipe box with Lunde’s logo branded on the lid, this is the salient collection of Lunde’s earliest—and long unavailable recordings: 

Expositions of the Virus (1987)
Infected Text (1987)
Scramble (1987)
Form’s Forced Surrender (1987)
Operative (1987)
Live Censor / Censure Live (1988)
LLND reading—Sept. 20, 1991, Lower Links, Chicago IL (1991)
Bruise Grind Kill [as Accelerator] (1988) 

Making these releases available again is, for me, cause for celebration alone. I could easily talk about the merits of each cassette for longer than most people would appreciate. So, I’ll call attention to three elements. First, the Bruise Grind Kill cassette. This project of Eric’s is unlike the other recordings here in that there is no voice present: it’s all electric motor apparatuses on bass guitar and drums. The resulting audio has an aggressive Chop Shop feel, and it hits me just right. Second, the 1991 recording of Eric reading his book, LLND. Many moons ago Eric had mentioned he thought he had a recording of this but knew not where it was. 

Well, he found it, and as I was able to patch in a small element (24 seconds, from when the tape flipped over) from Karl Paloucek’s audience recording, we now have a complete recording. Which leads me to item 3, the reprint of Eric’s book LLND. I picked up a copy of this perhaps in 1991 or 92, a year (give or take) after it came out. The binding has seen better days, and there were some pages missing (which Eric included as part of a stand-alone erratum sheet). This edition brings everything together in one volume. (And for those wondering why there is a digital version—anathema to ballast—of all the audio included on the branded flash drive, it’s because this is a co-release with Eric’s label.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edition of 50 signed and numbered copies, $87 ppd in the US. rest of world, please get in touch for shipping.

now available: Steve Fors: it’s nothing, but still: japan/us tour, 2023-24 DVDR (ballastnvp070)

I saw Steve perform these pieces in Chicago in 2024 and immediately asked if he had an interest in releasing the material asa DVDR.
The audio, which sweeps seamlessly between field recordings, drones, and other electronic and electroacoustic elements is lovely, but the video elements accentuate and elevate the audio and provides a layer of densely personal and simultaneously opaque narrative to the performance.
When viewed sequentially, the archival home video, nature imagery and themes, medical processes, what may (or may not) be found footage from abandoned locations (think Priyapat), abstract geometric patterns, and Stan Brakhage-esque painted film cels create an overarching voyeuristic, eavesdropping puzzle of a narrative. Not unsurprisingly, the packaging for this release is also a wonderfully personal puzzle of artifacts that I am excited for folks to dig into and piece together.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edition of 32, $22 ppd in the US. please get in touch for shipping.

ballastnvp079: Blake Edwards & Simon Whetham: Uncultured Media (2x3" CDR)

After trading releases with Simon for about a year, he asked if he could process some of my sounds for one of his live performances.
When he sent me a recording of one of the performances, we agreed the next stop would be a formal, studio-composed collaboration.

This 2 x 3” CDR set unites our interest in the sounds of malfunctioning and repurposed equipment, found and salvaged equipment, and electroacoustics… and I daresay the result is exactly what we’d hoped for: audio that isn’t quite like what either of us would do individually yet complements each of our sound sources and composition aesthetics.

The release comes is a petri-styled dish sealed with medical tape and some resinous “uncultured” materials…

 

 

 

 

 

Edition of 24 numbered copies: $12 ppd US, rest of world, get in touch for shipping info!

ballast nvp075 (vertonen) and 076 (Pope Joanna) now available!

excited to share these two new releases, which are, coincidentally, both in 5" reel to reel boxes...

ballastnvp075—vertonen: on company business (CDR, 3” CDR, booklet)

the full-length CDR component of this release is an unabashed homage to the audio work of Eric Lunde. first, 80 to 90% of the audio was processed using the opycay device Eric gave me some 10 years ago. those familiar with Eric’s work will easily recognize its unmistakable aural signature. (for those unfamiliar, think of a device that accelerates the process of duplication exemplified by Alvin Lucier’s “I am sitting in a room.”)

layers of cut-up, duplicated, and distorted voices and cassette players churning, sputtering, and dying, obscuring and uncovering elements of communication and language à la the cut-up text ideas of William Burroughs and others.

the 3” CDR explores one of the outgrowths of “mind control” projects of the CIA’s MKULTRA project, and the booklet features cut-ups from declassified CIA documents.

edition of 24 signed and numbered copies.

$16 ppd US, overseas, let’s be in touch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

ballastnvp076—Pope Joanna: Holy Furnace (CDR, booklet, ephemera)

honest to goodness power electronics. I have known Clarisse (Pope Joanna) for almost 25 years—we performed two shows in CA in 2002, did a very short east coast tour a year later, and then she pretty much put the project to rest and focused on her academic career. although we never fell out of communication, our chatting picked up a bit after she released a split cassette in 2010. I had long hoped Clarisse would make a recording of Sermon I—the piece she performed at the two shows in CA—partially because I had fond memories of the shows but also because it seemed a glaring gap in her fairly thin recorded output.

over the course of nine years, Clarisse recorded an iteration of Sermon I along with seven other pieces and has deemed this release the conclusion of Pope Joanna.

The lyrics, as Clarisse states, “are almost all based on the hypocrisy of religion and cloaked in the tropes of religious texts: sermons, prayers, etc.”

In addition to a booklet of lyrics and a thorough interview, the release comes with a reliquary of sorts: Clarisse cut up elements of her Pope Joanna costume (pontifical gloves, stole, and mitre) and attached them to the inside bottom of the box.

Edition of 26 signed and numbered copies.

$16 ppd US, overseas, let’s be in touch.