For Bernard Parmegiani
RIP

Q&A: Chris Berry

1. Where are you based?

Minneapolis, but writing from Florida.

2. What is the last food eaten?

chicken wings

3. Last drink?

water

4. What do you do to pay the bills?

work

5. Last film watched?

Jimi Hendrix documentary on PBS that my mom recommended.

6. Last book you've read?

The Son by Philipp Meyer.

7. What is the last thing you've listened to?

The new Josephine Foster, but I've been listening a lot to the newest Ignatz album, too. Both are great.

8. Do you have a favorite format? (ie tapes, CD, vinyl, digital audio)

Not really.

9. Favorite piece of musical gear?

Casio SK-1

10. What inspires you?

I'm not entirely sure.

11. What is beautiful?

Everything

12. Any upcoming projects?

Several releases are imminent for Soft Abuse (Exiles from Clowntown, Pigeons, Ulaan Markhor, Pumice, etc) and for the new label, Fruits & Flowers, too.

Chris Berry runs the Minneapolis based record label Soft Abuse.

Q & A: Lali Barrière

1. Where are you based?

In Barcelona.

2. What is the last food eaten?

Breakfast: orange juice, coffee and muffin.

3. Last drink?

OK. Coffee...

4. What do you do to pay the bills?

I teach Mathematics and Creative Programming at the University.

5. Last film watched?

Carla Subirana's "Volar".

6. Last book you've read?

Edith Sitwell's "English Eccentrics".

7. What is the last thing you've listened to?

Jason Khan's "Things Fall Apart".

8. Do you have a favorite format? (ie tapes, CD, vinyl, digital audio)

For practical reasons, CD and digital audio.

9. Favorite piece of musical gear?

The HOHNER Guitaret I got in Amsterdam in 2003. My mics.

10. What inspires you?

Time.

11. What is beautiful?

Everything can be beautiful.

12. Any upcoming projects?

Changing my solo set.
Also playing mostly in 2 duos and 1 trio:
A=B with Ferran Fages; Blaast, with alfredo Costa Monteiro; Ziz with Eduard Marquez and Ferran Fages.
Other projects in preparation for early 2014... sorry about the mistery!

Lali Barrière is a musician active in the free improv scene in Barcelona. She works with acoustic and amplified objects, electronic devices, field recordings and programming, with a minimalistic approach.

As a Mathematician, she is a Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.

Q&A: Jesse Goin

1. Where are you based?

Since 1979, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2. What is the last food eaten?

Vegetable soup and a salad, sourced from a local, organic co-op.

3. Last drink?

My daily drinks – Guatemalan light roast from a French press, and a lot of reverse osmosis 
water. 

4. What do you do to pay the bills?

I have been, at various times, a mental health therapist, a case manager for persons with 
severe disabilities, and a volunteer manager.

5. Last film watched?

Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013) 

6. Last book you've read?

In October: Gaza In Crisis (2010), Noam Chomsky / Ilan Pappe. and In Praise of Love 
(2012), Alain Badiou

7. What is the last thing you've listened to?

Are you kidding? From today:
Là Où Nos Rêves.. (Bruno Duplant), At The End of an Endless Stream (Reed Evan 
Rosenberg), Logical Harmonies (Richard Glover), Karen Studies (Nathan McLaughlin), 
Hontatedori (Taku Unami/Tetuzi Akiyama/Moe Kamura), Piano Concerto #2/#4 
(Beethoven, London Symphony Orchestra, Katchen, piano)

8. Do you have a favorite format? (ie tapes, CD, vinyl, digital audio)

I don’t; I judge and enjoy on a case-by-case basis. I seldom enjoy digital audio, though, 
regardless of the lossless formats.

9. Favorite piece of musical gear?

I have retained only one guitar, and it goes back to 1974, a Guild D-35 six-string dreadnought. 
It’s difficult to imagine our being parted.

10. What inspires you?

Ordinary things, numbering about 10,000.

11. What is beautiful?

Increasingly I am drawn to the idea of, as the composer Benjamin Briten had it, “the 
everlasting beauty of monotony.”

12. Any upcoming projects?

The 2013 crow with no mouth concert season just ended October 19th.
I am currently exploring funding for a possible 2014 concert series.
I am continuing to write about experimental music, when so moved

Jesse Goin has written extensively on the subjects of new music and electro acoustic improvisation. His work can be found in such publications as The Wire, Paris Transatlantic, Dusted, Junk Media, Compost & Height, Wolf Notes and One Final Note, as well as his blog Crow With No Mouth.

Jesse also curates the Crow With No Mouth Concert Series.

Q & A: Nathan McLaughlin

1. Where are you based?

Hudson, NY

2. What is the last food eaten?

Vegan Pizza

3. Last drink?

Green Tea

4. What do you do to pay the bills?

Outreach for the Camphill Communities of North America

5. Last film watched?

Happy People: A Year in the Taiga

6. Last book you've read?

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

7. What is the last thing you've listened to?

Nils Frahm - Screws

8. Do you have a favorite format? (ie tapes, CD, vinyl, digital audio)

Vinyl

9. Favorite piece of musical gear?

TEAC 3440 with a side of banjo.

10. What inspires you?

My boys, Oliver and Curtis

11. What is beautiful?

Cabin C3, Lake Maria State Park

Winch Road, Cecil County Maryland

The uninhabited places

12. Any upcoming projects?

Massive collaboration with Joe Houpert, Cody Yantis & Josh Mason + plus other guests. New music from Tilth as well.....

Nathan McLaughlin creates music in groups HMS, Loud & Sad, and Tilth. He also employs the TEAC 3440 to great use in his solo tape musique.

Check out his recent releases for Tranquility Tapes and Nada.

Q&A: Ennio Mazzon

1. Where are you based?

Treviso, Northeast Italy.

2. What is the last food eaten?

Cod Sautéed in olive oil with fresh tomatoes, boiled carrots & broccoli, rye bread, half banana, 3 walnuts and lemon ice-cream.

3. Last drink?

Water.

4. What do you do to pay the bills?

Multitasking mechanical engineer. 

I work with computers.

5. Last film watched?

"The Bling Ring" at the cinema.

"This Must Be The Place" at home on my laptop - but I fell asleep twice during the first 30 minutes.

6. Last book you've read?

"Algorithms for Visual Design Using the Processing Language" by Kostas Terzidis.

7. What is the last thing you've listened to?

"Complicated" by Rihanna.

8. Do you have a favorite format? (ie tapes, CD, vinyl, digital audio)

I love CDs and lossless digital audio. 

Tapes: I like them a little bit less. 

Vinyl leaves me quite indifferent, perhaps it's because I don't even have a record player.

9. Favorite piece of musical gear?

Max/MSP and my old KORG nanoKONTROL. Black version. 

For unknown aesthetic reasons the white nanoKONTROL hurts my feelings.

10. What inspires you?

Physics, maths, colors, nature.

11. What is beautiful?

Beautiful is what makes you find "beauty in the dissonance". 

I know it doesn't mean anything but it would have been a pity to not take this opportunity to inappropriately quote a verse of the song "Schism" by Tool.

12. Any upcoming projects?

At some point there will probably be a new solo album titled "Cerise Icicles". 

Electronic musician Ennio Mazzon has recorded music for such labels as Crónica, 

Nephogram, Resting Bell, Triple Bath, and Q-tone. With collaborator Gianluca Favaron they comprise the duo Zbeen.

Ennio also curates Ripples Recordings.

Q & A: David Perron

1. Where are you based?

Mankato, MN

2. What is the last food eaten?

Baked tilapia and mint tea

3. Last drink?

Surly's Furious beer 

4. What do you do to pay the bills?

Teach

5. Last film watched?

A Band Called Death

6. Last book you've read?

The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida

7. What is the last thing you've listened to?

An insane amount of tapes from various labels, Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet's Photographs, and Sky Needles' Debased Shapes. 

8. Do you have a favorite format? (ie tapes, CD, vinyl, digital audio)

I am open to music presented on virtually any format, but I can honestly say that I have a hard time organizing and fully appreciating music that is submitted to me on a purely digital basis. When I have a physical release, in any format, it works its way into my everyday life in some way: tapes are great to listen to on a boombox when making dinner, CDs are ideal for providing the soundtrack when driving about town, and LPs are the best when hunkered down for a night of doing whatever. I probably listen to tapes more than any other format, but they are a pain in the ass as a medium for radio purposes. In the end, though, I'm interested in the music itself, but I think presenting music in a meaningful and artistically engaging way, in some physical format, is so crucial.    

9. Favorite piece of musical gear?

As a non-musician, I'm quite fond of my micro-cassette recorder and any potential percussive device at my disposal, be it fingers or otherwise.

10. What inspires you?

I'm inspired by the great number of talented DIY artists and musicians from around the globe that continue to press on with their craft in the face of total indifference and utter lack of support. I hope that the work that I do within my small musical realm serves to spotlight and to pay tribute to these artists and musicians in some small way. I'm also deeply inspired by the everyday folks I'm surrounded by that through their kindness, generosity, passion, and love can't help but change the world for those that come into contact with them. More than anything else, that is my true inspiration.

11. What is beautiful?

I'd like to think that I'm surrounded by simple beauty all of the time: my wife, my kids, nature, long walks, music, conversations with friends and family, home-cooked meals, pure silence, well-crafted beers, thoughtful prose and poetry - these all carry more weight for me than any glamorized notion of what is "beautiful".    

12. Any upcoming projects?

I have a bunch of feature shows lined-up in the months ahead focused on various labels, artists, and writers, all of whose work I respect greatly. 

David Perron hosts the Free Form Freakout podcast series highlighting new and experimental music. His writing has also been featured in Foxy Digitalis and Decoder Magazine.

Q & A: Tim Blechmann

1. Where are you based?

vienna, austria

2. What is the last food eaten?

chinese hot pot

3. Last drink?

ginger-lemon tea

4. What do you do to pay the bills?

developing audio software

5. Last film watched?

i do not watch movies

6. Last book you've read?

harry partch: genesis of a music

7. What is the last thing you've listened to?

daniel menche: face of vehemence

8. Do you have a favorite format? (ie tapes, CD, vinyl, digital audio)

high-quality digital audio. i release most of my music online as
bittorrent download, both in stereo versions, but also in various
multi-channel formats (though very few people may have the possibility
to listen to it)

9. Favorite piece of musical gear?

the SuperCollider audio programming language

10. What inspires you?

spending time in the studio to work on things which i have not done
before, working with like-minded artists and performing concerts in
front of open-minded people, who are not familiar with my music.

11. What is beautiful?

this question cannot be answered

12. Any upcoming projects?

a new digital multi-channel composition, a new modular synthesizer as
live instrument & sound generator for a new composition. a tour to
south-east asia.

Tim Blechmann is a computer musician and frequent collaborator with other musicians including Mattin, Klaus Filip, Seijiro Murayama, and Manuel Knapp. 

He also runs the excellent Moka Bar netlabel.

Nathan McLaughlin - Riding The Bronc

Nathan McLaughlin – Riding the Bronc
Nada 15
c64

Nathan McLaughlin is a busy man. Having released numerous tapes and LPs over the last few years under his own name and as a member of the groups: Tilth, Loud & Sad, and HMS.

Solo, McLaughlin is best known for his Echolocation series, showcasing his improvisational work with tape loops. Through Echolocation and subsequent work, McLaughlin continues to create beautiful pieces of ambience that are at times fragile, subtle and quiet.

Riding the Bronc is the latest release of tape music from McLaughlin. Displaying a talent for focus and patience. The title of this cassette is a reference to McLaughlin's live sets, which are filled with an underlying sense of the ominous. In his own words:

they tend to be very intense high frequency affairs...lots of tension, riding the bronco as i like to call it, and not of great volume....recreating that can potentially be hard because the tension is a product of the environment and mood.

Side A

Recorded April 11, 2013, at Madame of the Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by John Marks.

Side B

Recorded August 6, 2011, at Studio Z in St. Paul, Minnesota, as part of the Crow with No Mouth concert series, curated by Jesse Goin.

(Professionally duped on Chrome tapes and professionally printed)

nadacdr.blogspot.com

nathanmclaughlin.info

Cassette (shipping included)

US $7.00 USD Canada $11.00 USD World $15.00 USD

.mf contributes a track to FFFreakout/KMSU benefit compilation

Support great music by checking out Free Form Freakout. Purveyors of a wide range of underground and experimental music.
http://fffreakout.blogspot.com/2013/10/fffour-kmsu-benefit-release-for-kmsus.html

Nada Mix 02: Fall

Nada Mix 02: Fall by Mptyvssl on Mixcloud

Spent the afternoon collecting a set of my favorite pieces of music. Later…edited, collaged, and faded in a simple audio editor to create this mix. A sampling of beautiful sounds and musics.

01 Bismillahi ‘Rrahman ‘Rrahim - Harold Budd
02 Piece 2 (Koln Concert 1975) - Terry Riley And Don Cherry
03 Side A - Nuno Canavarro
04 Promises - Nathan McLaughlin
05 Kalimba Sketch - The Green Kingdom
06 Music in Circular Motions - John Celona
07 Myoshini Temple (AD 698), Kyoto, Hanazono (Ukyo) with drums - Japanese Temple Bells
08 Maximum Alpha - Mkwaju ensemble
09 Nachbugzerlo - General Magic
10 Them Their - Jan Jelinek
11 Scarescarab - MT Coast
12 Ennio Mazzon - 26 of December
13 The Siamese Level - Cedric Stevens
14 Excerpt from String Quartet #5 - Mehldau/Hays
15 Utakata No Hibi - Mariah

I Prefer the Term Artificial Person Myself

.mf contributes a track to new digital compilation of automatic, generative, aleatory, and stochastic musics:

Meta Wave - Rise

For those who missed Meta Wave's excursions into ambience:

Rise by Meta Wave on Mixcloud

Latest Happenings

Recently made a visit to the beautiful city of Chicago. During my stay I was able to visit and record Harry Bertoia's "Sounding Sculpture." The following recording was made 8:30 am on June 20th amongst the bustle of Chicago's Near East Side:



Take some time to check out what people are saying about nada releases:
Tim Blechmann/Manuel Knapp - viii
http://www.thewatchfulear.com/?p=8481
http://olewnick.blogspot.com/2013/05/andrea-borghi-vetrale-obs_6.html
Lali Barrière, Noish and Xedh - icgs el
http://acloserlisten.com/2013/06/28/lali-barriere-noish-and-xedh-icgs-el/

Also, look out for some new "tape music" from Nathan McLaughlin coming soon to Nada. In the mean time, check out his excellent Karen Studies from Scissor Tail Editions: http://scissortail.bandcamp.com/album/karen-studies

Lots of love to all who've supported Nada over the years. More to come soon...

nada 14

Lali Barrière, Noish and Xedh - icgs el

Edition of 50, CDr

nada 14

Two long form pieces of amplified objects, electronics, and computer.
Professionally printed sleeves and discs featuring macrophotography of minerals by A. Lighfoot

Lali Barriere is active in the scene of free improvisation in Barcelona. She works with acoustic and amplified objects, electronic devices, field recordings and computer programming.

http://www.lalibarriere.net/

Noish is the moniker of experimental programmer and musician Oscar Martin. He bases his work on the deconstruction of field recordings, non-conventional synthesis and the creative use of technological errors.

http://noconventions.mobi/noish/hotglue/

Miguel A. García (aka Xedh) from the Basque country, is one of the most dynamic sound artists in the Spanish scene. His work focuses mainly on composition and electro-acoustic improvisation. He uses sounds taken from electronic residue, often interrelated with field recordings or acoustic instruments, in the search of an intimate, intense and immersive experience.

http://www.xedh.org/

SOLD OUT

Forthcoming:
nada14: lali, noish, and xedh
nada15: nathan mclaughlin

Music as a Means to Experience Time

Michael Flora featured on Free Form Freakout

Michael Flora. Interview, DJ, and live set on: Free Form Freakout

Blechmann/Knapp - VIII review

via vitalweekly:
TIM BLECHMANN & MANUEL KNAPP - VIII (CDR by Nada)
A work of laptops and electronics that started in the world of improvised music, more or less that is. Tim Blechmann studied informatics and is 'predominately' an improviser with laptop and a composer of computer music, while Knapp studied painting in Vienna and computer music and electronic music at the University of the same city. I assume this forty minute piece is the result of playing together and taping that, rather then the product of endless shaping and editing of recordings. A very linear work here with atmospheric drone at the core and slow building of the final composition. Buzzing static, humming, but with some interesting variety of sounds here. What I like about this is the fact that is doesn't stay in the perfectly nice drone scapes world, but rather adds a whole bunch of nasty sounds and makes it almost aggressively loud. It's like they found a bunch of recordings made inside airplanes and added those the music. When it gets loud, say around the twelve minute mark it stays loud almost until the very end, but it end is again delicate. It's the louder mechanical machine humm that made this for me into a very nice work. It borders to the edges of noise music but has so much more to offer. (FdW)

nada 13

Tim Blechmann and Manuel Knapp - viii
Edition of 100, CDr
nada 13

Tim Blechmann – laptop
Manuel Knapp – electronics

Nada is very proud to release VIII, the latest in a series of collaborations between Tim Blechmann and Manuel Knapp. A single 40+ minute piece of ominous digital static and humming electronics. Slow building with strong linear momentum eventually swells into a dense cloud of digital grain and electronic skree. A late night burner.
Featuring original artwork from Manuel Knapp.

Tim Blechmann studied music informatics in Tübingen, Stuttgart and Vienna. Blechmann's musical work is predominately as an improviser with laptop and composer of computer music. He lives and works in Vienna.
tim.klingt.org

Manuel Knapp studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and computermusic and electroacoustic music at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Knapp works as an artist in the fields of painting, graphics, animation and electroacoustic music. Currently, he splits his time between both Vienna and Tokyo.
knapp.klingt.org

the music of Tim Blechmann has shown itself to be able to charm me easily.
- Richard Pinnell

reviews:
http://olewnick.blogspot.com/2013/05/andrea-borghi-vetrale-obs_6.html
http://www.vitalweekly.net/872.html
http://www.thewatchfulear.com/?p=8481

CD + Shipping

US $7.00 USD World $15.00 USD

Tuesday February 19

Tuesday, February 19

Paul Metzger, Tim Glenn, Andrew Broder

Michael Flora

Jonathan Kaiser

at

Madame

3401 Chicago Ave

8pm

nada 12

.mf - Throwing Shapes
limited edition CDr
nada 12

Throwing Shapes is the first CD release of computer music by California born and Minneapolis based Michael Flora. Deeply inspired by a love of techno's repetition and sequencer based compositions, modern minimalism, as well as the extreme computer music of the 90's Mego label. The disc features recordings of different patches created through Miller Puckette's Pure Data. Only sine waves are used, sometimes showcasing the pure frequency of the wave itself or often subjected to further abstractions.

01 NOISE
02 PVRC
03 ACIDPAN
04 PATTRN2
05 ACI3
06 246
07 EDIT10SEC
08 MNMLC
09 IMPROV

What people are saying: "Sounds like a modem connecting in slow motion." - A.L.

SOLD OUT

field recordings

recently added a field recording page for focused listening here

"Listening is key. Having the ability to listen is a learned function. It is a very creative activity, not passive and important for all aspects of our daily lives. Listening is not a light artistic whim, it is quite a deep emotional and creative experience. Where as hearing, we hear everything, but we rarely get the chance to focus and listen."- chris watson