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!

Eric Lunde: dressage 7" lathe now available

 

I’m kicking off a year of limited edition lathes, and the first in the series is by Mr. Lunde. The audio is a reading (with processing) of Lunde’s text, “dressage.” I’ve enjoyed the bulk of Eric’s writing (going back to LLND), and for me this piece carries overtones of some of the ideas addressed in Meat is Music and Art and Its Other(s). I don’t want to project too much, but this is a text that had some lovely resonance for me.

The 7” comes in hand-stamped sleeve designed and executed by Eric, a printed and stamped insert that includes the text, and a hand-stamped cardstock insert. Of course, Eric did some lateral thinking with the supplemental material, as on the cardstock insert he provides an email address that, if you send an email with your land address, will result in Eric sending you mail art (primarily in the form of postcards) from now until (near) the end of time.

Over the course of the pandemic, I have received about 40 such postcards, and they range from fluxus-esque phrases to asemic writing to patterning.

Edition of 26 lettered copies, of which 19 are available for sale. This is the first in a series of eight limited editions lathes by various artists throughout 2021. 

 

the lathe is $35 ppd in the US, and subscriptions to all eight lathes in the series are still available.

series participants include:

Maria Chavez (with Devin Kenny)


Joe Colley

Jeph Jerman


Bonnie Jones


Eric Lunde

Hali Palombo

Vanessa Rossetto

SICKNESS

jeph jerman quarry 7" lathe now available

excited to announce jeph jerman: quarry (lathe 7”, CDR, booklet, inserts)

 

 

 

The lathe features the magnificent field recording work of jeph jerman. Recorded around Antelope Hill, AZ, jeph explores the aural history of the site as both a quarry and a place of tool manufacturing for American Indians.

 

The release comes in a hand-stamped reel to reel box and includes the following supplements:

a) three double-sided inserts of photo documentation and background information

b) a CDR of audio adjacent to the lathe recordings

c) a booklet with reproductions of the hand-written notes jeph made during his trip to Antelope Hill.

 

The release is in an edition of 26 signed and lettered (A-Z) copies and is $35 ppd in the US: overseas folks, please contact me first for shipping, and folks in general email me first to ensure copies are available.

 

Subscriptions to the lathe series are still available as well. participants are:

Maria Chavez (with Devin Kenny)


Joe Colley

Jeph Jerman


Bonnie Jones


Eric Lunde

Hali Palombo

Vanessa Rossetto

SICKNESS

 

thanks,

 

blake