04.06.13: The Kilowatt Hour – Mathieu, Sylvian, Fennesz
The Kilowatt Hour will be performing live at Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, Norway, on the 7th September 2013. Tickets are available for purchase here: www.billettservice.no
21.02.13: "17.02.12" - a limited edition box set
FACT Magazine writes:
"Austrian sound artist Fennesz will release a live box-set this month.
The laptop ‘n’ guitar mastermind behind albums like Endless Summer, Christian Fennesz hasn’t released a full solo album since 2008′s Black Sea, instead focussing on soundtracking and collaborative projects. Last year, he released his soundtrack to Aun, an Austrian film that tackles death, alternative energy sources, maths, the supernatural and more, and this new release documents a live performance of music from Aun‘s soundtrack that took place in Florence, February 2012 [via RBMA].
This box-set comprises both vinyl LP and double-CD recordings of the performance, a 12-page photo book, and a DVD of Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (Symphony of a Great City), a German silent film made by Walter Ruttmann in 1927. It comes limited to 500 copies, and will set you back £80 to £110, depending on where you buy."
03.12.12: Fennesz Plays Atmospheres 4 | Touch.30 Live at Beaconsfield
A two-day festival celebrating 30 years of Touch, with performances, installations and displays, and a full programme of workshops and masterclasses in design and music, recording, mastering and the digital realm. There are a limited number of these discounted "early bird" festival passes, so hurry! The pass entitles you to access all events at this festival.
Beaconsfield, London, December 5-6 2012
For a full programme, visit the Touch website here.
Fennesz will be performing new material during his set on 5th December and you can buy your tickets here
20.11.12: Fennesz back catalogue available on FLAC
Some Fennesz back catalogue releases are now available as FLAC high quality audio downloads
Live in Japan
This release consists of one sublimely beautiful and haunting 43 minute long track, recorded live at the Shibuya Nest, Tokyo in February of 2003. The performance takes us from the bright codeine pop of "Endless Summer" to the haunting melancholy of "Venice", with familiar bits of coda and electronic soul hooks catching us as we stream through the lush, nearly symphonic drones and soundscapes which Fennesz has expertly composed to guide us through his musical legacy.
Field Recordings
“Field Recordings” brings together a range of material Christian Fennesz has contributed to compilations, special projects and film soundtracks between the years 1995 and 2002. Also, for the first time on CD, it includes his debut 12" for Mego, the awesome “Instrument”, remastered, and a new track recorded specially for this release, “Good Man”. It is his first release since “Endless Summer” [Mego, 2001] and a prelude to his next studio album, which will be released on Touch in January 2003.
plus forty seven degrees 56' 37" minus sixteen degrees 51' 08"
This is Christian Fennesz's 2nd solo full album after the highly acclaimed 'Hotel Paral.lel' (Mego 16). He also released 'fenneszPLAYS', a 3" CD originally issued by Mego but now on Jim O'Rourke's new label, Moikai. Fennesz has also made various contributions to compilation CDs, including the awesome 'Surf' on 'DECAY' (Ash International 3.9) and is a member of MIMEO, fixed line up orchestra alongside Keith Rowe, Kaffe Matthews, Jerome Noetinger, Phil Durrant, Peter Rehberg, Thomas Lehn, Rafael Toral, Gert Jan Prins, Cor Fuhler, Markus Wettstein, and Markus Schmickler. He has also released a live CD on Touch, # TO:CDR3. 'plus forty seven degrees 56' 37" minus sixteen degrees 51' 08"' was recorded in his garden in Austria in July and August 1999; the photographs in the booklet by Jon Wozencroft embroider this.
More items will be added in due course...
12.11.12: Fennesz features on new ECM release, by Food
The Food team of Norwegian drummer Strønen and British saxophonist Ballamy continues to invite guests to bring something to the table. The form-and-texture conscious improvisations here are drawn from live performances in Norway, England and Germany and studio sessions at Oslo’s Rainbow. To the latter group belong tracks on which Indian slide guitarist and singer Prakash Sontakke is partnered by Eivind Aarset’s atmospheric guitar and electronics. The first half of the album finds Food augmented by Austrian guitarist Christian Fennesz, taking further the experiments with layers of sound begun on Quiet Inlet. Nils Petter Molvær joins Strønen, Ballamy and Fennesz for a track recorded at Mannheim’s Enjoy Jazz Festival. Release date: 5th November 2012.
13.09.12: Fa 2012 - new 12" on Editions Mego
1. Fa 2012 (9:06)
2. Fa (Mark Fell Remix) (12:06)
Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin, July 2012
Layout by Tina Frank
Special 12” featuring new versions of the track Fa, taken from the debut Fennesz solo album ‘Hotel Paral.lel’ (1997). 15 years after its initial release, Christian Fennesz gives this throbbing monster of a track a new seeing to, extending it and adding more of that magic he is so well known for. The album was always an exercise in exploring alternate means of hearing club based music. This new version carries that concept further.
This is backed by a cracking new mix by the ever productive Mark Fell, adding his unique beat structures, and even a MLK sample, which lends his contemporary rhythmic landscape a odd nostalgic twist.
This 12” can be seen as a warm up for the new Fennesz album, which is currently scheduled for 2013 release.
18.06.12: AUN - The Beginning and the End of All Things [Original Soundtrack]
*** Pre-order - shipping w/c 25th June 2012 ***
An original soundtrack [OST]
CD jewel case - 28pp full colour - 15 tracks - 50 mins approx
This CD is the soundtrack to the film AUN, directed by Edgar Honetschläger. With stills from the film in the full colour 28 page booklet, the artwork is designed by Philip Marshall. You can see a clip here: www.aun-film.com
Track Listing:
1. Kae
2. Aware*
3. Haru*
4. Sekai
5. Euclides
6. Sasazuka
7. Trace*
8. Mori
9. AUN40
10. Nemuru
11. Himitsu
12. AUN80
13. Nympha
14. Shinu
15. Hikari
* These titles also appear on the fennesz sakamoto album, 'Cendre' [Touch # Tone 32, 2007]
Intention:
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ tells the story of mankind’s quest for the future, his desire to create the tomorrow, his fear of and loathing for the apocalypse. It spins the Faustian theme twice and lays bare open the inexhaustible Judea/Christian believe in progress, which by the 21st century has taken over the entire world and has succeeded in maneuvering the globe into a situation that can’t be solved by means of economics and science anymore. Enlightenment’s merits have taken the West’s ability to sense what is not to be seen, what is only to be felt. Believes are so much more than religion, than monotheistic concepts. Souls and spirits exist not only in film. Denial and neglect of eternal laws lead to extinction – of the individual and the entire human race. AUN invents rituals as well as mythologies and worships the creator of it all – nature – by playfully laying out its dichotomy with human culture. The film equals mankind’s beauty with nature by announcing that ‘everything mankind creates in nature’. Sadly the hubris ends and gives the audience the chance to heartily weep for the world.
Director's Statement:
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ follows the strings of thoughts the late Claude Lévi-Strauss revealed in his anthropological essays throughout the 20th century, as well as those of Japan’s unique Shintoism who’s millions of gods inhibit and preserve nature. The film focuses on the dichotomy man/nature and envisions a future world where life will be nothing but sensual. It contains references to Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, Italian anthropologist Fosco Maraini and the Japanese writer Yoko Tawada.
‘AUN – the beginning and the end of all things’ is a 100 min., 35mm feature drama written/directed by the Austrian artist/filmmaker Edgar Honetschläger. It is a Austrian/Japanese co-production realized by Edoko Institute Vienna and Ribo Ltd. Tokyo in cooperation with KGP Vienna. AUN was supported by the Austrian Film Institute, the Vienna Film Fund, the ORF (Austrian TV), the province of Upper Austria, the City of Tokyo, Tochigi Province, Shizuoka province, Yamanashi province.
For AUN film distribution contact filmdelights.com distribution. With thanks to Edoko Institute, Vienna and Ribo Ltd., Tokyo
Buy Christian Fennesz "AUN - The Beginning and the End of All Things" in the TouchShop
www.aun-film.com
www.honetschlaeger.com
www.ashinternational.com
14.06.12: Feeding Back: Conversations with Alternative Guitarists from Proto-Punk to Post-Rock
A chapter on Christian Fennesz's guitar playing is included in author David Todd's new book - Feeding Back: Conversations with Alternative Guitarists from Proto-Punk to Post-Rock - a collection of interviews with 26 of the most innovative musicians of the last few generations, including Tom Verlaine, Rowland S. Howard, James Williamson, Zoot Horn Rollo, Lenny Kaye, Richard Thompson, Lee Ranaldo, and Lydia Lunch.
Although the discussions are intended to stand alone, taken together they capture a guitar tradition that runs counter to the mainstream pantheon, from sources like the Seeds and Captain Beefheart, to the MC5 and the Voidoids, to the Birthday Party and Dinosaur Jr., and beyond. This underground lineage ultimately becomes an informal movement, with its members - additional subjects include Keith Levene, Johnny Marr, J Mascis, Bob Mould, and John Frusciante - engaging in a musical conversation. From the proto-punk of the Stooges to the post-punk of Sonic Youth, from the Krautrock of Neu! to the post-rock of Tortoise, Feeding Back charts this alternative thread as it makes its way through rock guitar from the late '60s to the present.
15.05.12: "The rebirth of cool"
m=minimal is pleased to release a masterpiece of the early 21st century on vinyl.
"Till the old world's blown up and a new one is created" is an outstanding work of reductionism and minimalism. Martin Brandlmyar ( Radian / Trapist / Kapitalband 1 ), Werner Dafeldecker ( Polwechsel, David Sylvian, Autistic Daughters) and Christian Fennesz ( Touch / Mego / Thrill Jockey ) on this record created a new kind of Cool Jazz coupled with a big portion of New York School ( Cage, Feldman, Brown und Wolff).
It’s hard to describe the music with words. This work reveals his secrets only after listening to it a couple of times. It grows with each time you listen to it.
In this work, silence and noise are never used as an end in itself. As equal parameters they stand in the composition that also has space for some tonal "flowers". Our recommended listening time is – round about midnight.
The cd version is available on mosz.
21.04.12: "Genesis"
A track by Fennesz Sakamoto has been used for an unofficial Mac ad - see it here.
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