SICKNESS "Wax Casting" review

 

Huge thanks to Vital Weekly for the lovely review of the SICKNESS lathe. The combination of the writer's personal memory of a SICKNESS show and an appreciation for Chris’s work really shone through.   

The full review can be read here, but perhaps my favorite excerpt, a recollection of a SICKNESS show from 2009 is as follows:

 

It was all a bit blurry to me, partially due to the fact that is was November and outside and cold. I remember cold. But I also remember the impact that SICKNESS had on me that evening. So much power, so chaotic and yet so much control in the consistency of his sounds. Chris Goudreau was a name I dove into after that weekend had the music of him I discovered since then hasn't let me down so far. Not once.

 
(And while the lathe is indeed sold out, don’t let that stop you from exploring Chris’s back catalogue [and other endeavors!] to either fill in gaps or get on the path).

 

recently released (and reviewed!): Adam Sonderberg, Page F (C-100)

 

 I am extremely pleased to make available ballastnvp048, Adam Sonderberg: Page F (c-100 cs)

 

 

The two sides of page f, “installation” and “composite,” use personal archival material to explore therapeutic counseling. 

 

Patient / client confidentiality is the utmost concern for counseling professionals, and the sound screen machines placed outside office doors are a ubiquitous feature in many facilities; they help to ensure privacy to those in-session via a veil of white noise. 

 

I consider side 1, “Installation,” the more voyeuristic of the two pieces, “placing” the listener in an approximated waiting room. Adam’s mix of white noise, encroaching incidental environmental sounds, and voices creates a space where privacy issues loom large: what is the difference between hearing and listening? What is the human desire to piece together a satisfactory narrative when that narrative is concealed? What resolution, satisfaction, or insight does one hope to uncover by linking the elements to produce—accurate or otherwise—a narrative?

 

The “Composite” side explores this question further and manipulates the experience more directly: the legibility of the voices is reduced and brought into greater focus through discreet processing; the chorus of white noise aggressively denies disclosure. This side, for me, creates an environment not unlike Z’EV’s uns project where “information,” almost reluctantly, presents itself: the listener must willingly bring engagement to the experience and, at the same time, be comfortable fending for themselves.

 

In his review in Vital Weekly, Frans de Waard noted, The level of conceptology is quite high here, and as such, I retreat to another level. Regardless of the concept, do I like what I hear? Yes, I do, even at the full 100 minutes. Or rather, maybe, because it is so long. Both sides have a tremendous amount of white noise, and somewhere, far away, there are voices. It is as if the microphone is three doors down from the waiting room, and someone made a lot of trouble picking up these sounds, pumped the sound a lot but never bothered to remove unwanted white noise. This is fascinating stuff, so I imagine some people will find this highly annoying. Also, I am unsure if one should play this at a low volume or crank it up high to make the best experience. I kept it on a normal level, did some chores around the house, and found this quite the surreal soundtrack for such tasks.

 

Edition of 21 copies in a white, windowless c100 cassette housed in a hand-typed and stamped outer o-card, an opaque white case, with a hand-typed, signed and numbered j-card, plus two inserts including notes from Joseph Clayton Mills.
$17 ppd in the united states: overseas, please get in touch.

SICKNESS: "wax casting" 7" lathe now available

 

I am excited to present ballast NVP049: SICKNESS: “wax casting” (7" lathe; encased in wax)

 

Chris Goudreau’s audio output as SICKNESS over the past three decades has been defined by an unmatched intensity, precision, and purpose. As with all of Chris’s work, the audio is the driving force. However, the complementary material—and in the case of this release, the textual element and the packaging—are integral, essential components in appreciating and understanding the work.

The overarching theme of “wax casting” is the relationship between narrative and truth and how interpretation makes the difference in how each person sees it (though it rarely is the truth).

Adventurous listeners will have many decisions to make, and their rewards will be proportional.

Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies.

$35 ppd in the United States. overseas, please get in touch for shipping.

Bonnie Jones: "The Possibility of Objects" now available.

 

I am thrilled to present “The Possibility of Objects” by Bonnie Jones.

An intense and beautiful release, it explores memory as a palimpsest and considers sound as vibrational force and material as resonant history. The items included in this release—audio, text, video (accesible via QR code), and visuals—are all in circulation in the world: an intermaterial, moving system. These traces and inventories are both Bonnie’s and, more broadly, ours.

Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies.

This is the fifth release in the lathe series.

Please note, the lathe subscription offer is closed, so individual lathes are $35 ppd in the US: overseas, please get in touch for shipping costs.

 

 

four new titles to launch into 2022

 Four recent (and new) releases to welcome in 2022. For folks overseas, shipping continues to be a battle: please get in touch so we can arrange for something.

 

NVP043: Hali Palombo, Infinity Room (7” lathe, cassette, art, objects)

The fourth release in the lathe series. I met Hali several moons ago on a shared bill where she was doing a lot of manipulation and processing of shortwave. I had the good fortune to release her Homer & Langley cassette in 2020, and this release focuses on the Wisconsin experience that is the House on the Rock. Each copy comes with House on the Rock carousel tokens and a unique piece of art by Hali.

Edition of 26 lettered copies. Please note, the lathe subscription offer is closed, so remaining copies are $35.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NVP044: vertonen, territories et terrains 1 & 2 (2 x cassette, objects)
NVP046: vertonen, territories et terrains 3 & 4 (2 x cassette, objects)

The audio for both of these vertonen releases continues in the quieter field recording / acoustic / electronics work mode. Both releases come in a (potentially) needlessly complicated / elaborate package, including objects used in the recordings.

Each release contains approx. 80 minutes of music and come in an edition of 26 signed and numbered copies.

$25 ppd in the US.

If you’re interested in ordering both, that can be arranged for $40 ppd in the US.

 

NVP047: vertonen: 2022 calendar (12 x 3” CDR, calendar)

Given that we’re rolling into the third year of the pandemic, I figured I might as well create a full-color calendar that is (theoretically) enjoyable.

Each month is accompanied by a 3” CDR of audio, and each day is annotated with a fact that can be a jumping off point for further investigation if you so choose.

four hours of audio and 365 facts: who could ask for more?

The calendar is in an edition of 16 signed and numbered copies, and it’s $42 ppd in the US.

 

 

 

Joe Colley "Tear" lathe released

I'm thrilled to share that Ballast NVP041, Joe Colley: “Tear” (7" lathe, CDR, and materials) has now gone out into the world.

Joe told me late last year that he had some recordings he thought would be perfect for the lathe medium, but the challenge would be unearthing them. Lo and behold, he did find them, and when he sent them across, I could not have agreed more: the recordings have a heavy “covert ritual recording” feel to me, and it’s just the right duration to pique the mind. 

Edition of 26 signed and numbered copies.

 

Please note: for all realistic intents and purposes, this release is sold out. As a result, subscriptions to the lathe series are now closed.

 

 

Jeph Jerman's Quarry review

 Thanks to Frans de Waard at Vital Weekly for the kind words about Jeph's "Quarry!"

The music uses field recordings Jerman did at Antelope Hill in Arizona. The site has been used by Native Americans as a source for stone used to make milling implements, and on the site, there are "many heavily patinated boulders displaying petroglyphs, ancient to modern". Jerman was looking for a boulder made by J.J. Glanton, a notorious scalp hunter. On his trail on the hill site, Jerman made photographs and recordings, using the stones on the site and, I assume, later on, he worked with those sounds. I might be wrong, of course, but I don't think these are the recordings as he made them. In 'Three' (the first track on the CDR) there are also some electronic sounds to be heard. But by and large, the music is 'acoustic', as we have come to know Jerman's music in the last twenty or so years. Working with elements from nature, rubbing stones, breaking sticks and crushing leaves, but also man-made material (fences, barbed wire) which I would think are heavily layered by him, and perhaps looped in an organic mass of sounds. As said, with perhaps a few additional electronics. This is not ambient music, nor pure field recordings. These works are interesting, complex pieces of soundscapes that deal with a location-based concept. Words, images and music are connected and amplify the meaning of it all. It is all around fascinating trip. At times, it all may sound so 'easy', but upon closer inspection, you realize it is not. A work of art!