Things unfold. But, things, also, echo. Back and forth. The beginning and the end, together. Music. Like a thread, going from there, to here. Or, like a balloon, which is, of course, a captured breath: held, inside, to carry forward, that energy, to, somewhere, else. I always thought, the balloon floating in the sky, was like a lost breath. A body, someone's. And if you were to find that balloon, open it up, slowly, you would receive, that breath. To let it, out slowly, against one's own lips. To inhale, that other breath, that had floated, from somewhere. Or, to hear it. Suddenly. A voice. Brandon LaBelle [1]
‘grass folded and pressed’ is a project in collaboration with craig tattersall, and started on site(s) in the north west and the south west of england where we are located. field recordings were captured along with close recordings of site specific/historical objects using combinations of open mics, contact mics and hydrophones.
once the audio had been harvested it was shared between us, along with photographs we made from the sites that would be further developed in our studios. again the results were sent back and forth, this time to be taken back to the original site to be played back and recorded in symphony with the spaces. slowly building a layering of site upon site, sound compressing sounds like geological layers.
musical responses are weaved into the score; utilising spoken word, typewriters as well as tape loops, humming, harmoniums and pianos. Accompanying the audio is a sound object in the form of a book that illustrates interventions with place, and the intimate act of listening throughout this collaborative process- merged places unfold.
the final audio and book are a result of these ‘conversations’ between artist and site, artist and artist and site and site.
[1] LaBelle, B. (2013), ‘Tender Beats’, in A. Carlyle and C. Lane (eds) On Listening, p. 112. Axminster: Uniformbooks.
this project consists of a limited edition 60 page art book and cassette of 75 copies. the book is printed on 135gsm recycled paper stock with a 300gsm heavy-weight cover which was hand stitched by us with yellow French linen thread. inside includes foldout sounds maps, and a hand signed and editioned information tab.
the book is held in a glassine envelope with a photographic c-type print affixed to the front with fluorescent green cloth gaffer tape, also used to seal the envelope.
the book comes with a pro-duplicated cassette, consisting of two longform tracks, a folded insert and finished with a high-gloss front sticker all hand assembled by us for you.
project credits:
craig tattersall & chrystal cherniwchan - all artwork and audio
umbrella publishing 2022
mastered by ian hawgood
quoted text from Brandon LaBelle
copies are available at
umbrella-publishing.bandcamp.com
pricing: £ 35 + p&p
Boomkat Product Review:
Smallsound specialist Craig Tattersall returns with a unique handmade edition featuring art and music created in collaboration with Canadian multi-disciplinary artist Chrystal Cherniwchan. Utilising photographs, spoken word, typewriters, tape loops, harmonium and piano, the result is a 60 page art book and tape that's highly evocative of both artists’ respective locations, and the dialogue between them. Beautiful, quiet music that comes highly recommended if yr into work by Richard Skelton, Ulla, KMRU, Elodie.
‘grass folded and pressed" is described by the label as a series of conversations between the two artists and their locations in the North West and South West of England, respectively. Field recordings sit alongside found and historical objects captured on contact mics and hydrophones, then shuttled between the duo alongside photographs of those same locations. The results are again sent back and forth, eventually returning to each original site to be played back and recorded in symphony with each space, slowly building sounds like geological layers.
Cherniwchan brings an academic rigour and philosophical grounding to the project that allows it to develop in surprising ways; the crumbling, dusty processes might be somewhat familiar, but the music's poignant historical and locational depth lends it a narrative that's unexpected and challenging. It's music that's got almost as much in common with Richard Skelton's site-specific work, or Steve Roden's atmospheric and academic minimalism, as much as it does with Tattersall's well-worn ambient miniatures.
On the opening side, chirping birds and workshop scrapes slowly give way to fluttering piano trills that form fleeting melodies before dissipating into a fog of harmonic synth. The flipside is more unusual, deploying typewriter clacks and spoken word passages from both Cherniwchan and Tattersall that offer a window into their creative process. Voices overlap like waves on a beach, eventually taking us back to the opening side's slow-motion piano. The composition peaks in its final third, when the duo's voices decompose into faint traces and white noise, overdubbed on top of each other until all that’s left is a wordless smudge.
Accompanying the audio is a 60 page handmade // hand-stitched book that features photos, prints and artefacts documenting the process, making a sort of gesamtkunstwerk of doing, listening, touching, and seeing wrapped up in one dense, stirring artefact that's somewhere between a geological survey, audio diary and photobook.