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.”

ballast nvp061 and 064, tac and jacob deraadt, now available!

excited to share these two new releases!

nvp061: tac – vibrations 7” lathe and artifacts CDR

 

if you know tac, you know what joy awaits. if you don’t know tac, think electronics / field recordings collected and assembled in ways designed to  provoke uncertainty of source material and composition process and you’re (kind of) in the right ballpark….maybe. jeph jerman, joe colley, and chop shop are not too far afield. as for the packaging…again, if you know tac’s work, you’re likely already all in…and in for a treat. if you don’t, here’s a hint: almost hermetically sealed. here’s another hint: unequivocally hand made.
bonus: the lathe was cut for visual appeal. 

edition of 24 copies.
$28 ppd in US: overseas, get in touch so I can calculate shipping costs to your location.

 nvp064: Jacob DeRaadt: Universal Hotel CDR

 

 

I first knew Jacob’s work as Sterile Garden, which I enjoyed immensely: “wonderfully uncomfortable” electronics, let’s call it. this release, his second solo work under his own name, is primarily field recordings—as Jacob says, it focuses on “water and natural and urban domestic sounds of places I lived in, with very little or no effects or manipulation.” personally, this feels a bit of a descriptive oversimplification, if only because the choices of sounds to capture (and then present here) reflect Jacob’s ear for creating small “scenarios” with each track. akin to what I noted with tac, Jacob is definitely playing on the same side of the street as jeph jerman, albeit by slightly different rules....

edition of 45 copies.

$11 ppd in US: overseas, get in touch so I can calculate shipping costs to your location.

 

 

thanks as always for your interest and support!

b

two new ballast releases to kick off 2024!

pleased to announce the availability of nvp059, MV Carbon's tears rotate the river 10" lathe, and nvp062, vertonen: flora CDR.

mv carbon’s tears rotate the river is the fourth release in the 10” lathe series.

I first met Carbon some 20+ years ago when she was in the duo Metalux. Since then, Carbon has created a solid body of solo works as a transdisciplinary artist. She also has collaborated with artists such as Tony Conrad and Charlemagne Palestine.

The recordings on this 10” emphasize her use of magnetic tape, voice and extended vocal techniques, poetry, electronics, and other handmade objects to create sound.

Although Carbon’s approach to audio output is uniquely and indelibly hers, I cannot help but think this release would pique the interest of folks familiar with Algebra Suicide, Inflatable Boy Clams, Nervous Gender, Devo, or Suicide.

 edition of 25 numbered copies. each lathe in the series is $50 ppd in the US.

If you subscribe to the lathe series, the price per lathe drops drastically and guarantees you will get copies of each release in the series, which includes Aaron Dilloway, Evicshen, vertonen, Olivia Block & Adam Sonderberg, and Relay for Death.
See this post for more information.

 

the vertonen CDR, flora, is possibly the closest I have come to intentionally creating “ambient” music—in this case, audio for a botanical conservatory. 

The four main audio facets explored for this release are:

1. warmth (residential and institutional heating vents, institutional floor and baseboard radiators, residential window air conditioning units)
2. moisture (rain, freezing rain, hail, drainspouts)
3. pollinators (birds, wind)
4. sine waves (659.26 hz, 587.33 hz, 440 hz)

Suggested playback is low volume over speakers or over headphones.

 

 

edition of 24 signed and numbered copies: $10 ppd in the US.

folks outside of the US, please get in touch so I can calculate shipping to your location. 

thanks as always for your interest.

recent reviews (relay for death, animist ark 2023+)

thanks to Frans de Waard for his recent reviews of the Relay for Death 10" lathe and the animist ark 2023+ 3 x CDR and 7" lathe release.

full reviews can be found here, but these would be my favorite nuggest from each:

relay for death: "This is quite a heavy piece of dark tones, industrial clatter and piercing statics, and I found this delightful - exactly the kind of noise I enjoy; not too loud but with enough force."

aminist ark 2023+: "there is also a lot of acoustic object abuse here, but at times, I had the idea they were in a rowing boat."

limited copies of each remain: please reach out if interested!

ballast nvp060: animist ark + 2023 (3 x CDR, lathe, objects, supplemental materials)

some 20 years ago in 2003, the animist ark project—a collaboration by Eric Lunde and Jeph Jerman—appeared. this was a 2 x CDR set with objects in a hand-painted wooden box. the edition was seven copies, and very little information attended its release.

that same year, Jerman and Lunde released a CDR under the name “animist motors:” the edition number was not released, and again, very little information attended its release.

this ballast reissue, which comes in a painted reel to reel box with linocut stamping, contains all three animist recordings, a 7” lathe composed from original animist ark project source material (one side by Eric, one side by Jeph), objects, and supplemental items.

in the original edition, it was suggested that the CDR labeled “random” could be played back in a randomized /shuffle format. for this ballast edition, each copy of the “random” disc was shuffled before being burned to further facilitate that effort.

edition of 21 signed and numbered copies.

$36 ppd in the US: overseas, please get in touch, as I am currently completing paperwork with the US Department of Agriculture for shipping regulations.

ballast nvp058: Relay for Death–Delta Loop/DMZ 10" lathe now available!

I am thrilled to announce that the newest lathe in the 10" lathe series, Relay for Death's "Delta Loop/DMZ," is now available!

the "Delta Loop" side was created from live sessions aboard a houseboat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta along with some field recordings and AM radio static collected whle driving along the Delta levees.
the "DMZ" side was created from radio signals (and radio jamming signals) captured on site in 2023 in the demilitarized zone separating South and North Korea. 

the found materials for each hand-assembled cover collage were sourced from a three-story family warehouse built by Rachal and Roxann's grandfather to house his cold-war era radio equipment.

edition of 25 numbered copies. each lathe in the series is $50 ppd in the US.

If you subscribe to the lathe series, the price per lathe drops drastically and guarantees you will get copies of each release in the series, which includes Aaron Dilloway, Evicshen, vertonen, Olivia Block & Adam Sonderberg, and MV Carbon.
See this post for more information.