January 2010
Oltre was released on January 12 by American label LINE/12K. Oltre is the second work in a trilogy based around pieces developed from the Transparence limited edition dubplate following on from Largo Affetuoso (Compost & Height, 2009). Documenting the degradation and transformation of the dubplate over two months of live performances, the dubplate operates within an integrated system of subsonic feedback from ventilators, acoustically gated binaural microphones, modal micro-variations in guitar feedback, field-recordings from across remote areas of Australia and its own manifold resonances which incorporate deep undertones to blossoming overtones created by the live, physical interplay of the turntable, dubplate and stylus. These elements combined to create a field within each piece which moves beyond the original recordings and their individual spaces. From performances in Greece, Poland and Italy, these "fields" which have been created live are borne out as a suite of pieces which individually reveal the compositional complexities of the dubplate as well as forming an oeuvre where Oltre itself becomes a series of movements forming a complete composition, as suggested by the titles drawn from classical Italian musical terminology. All tracks were recorded live with minimal editing and mastered by Rashad Becker, who cut the original Transparence dubplate in Berlin.

In addition, Jörg Maria Zeger features on "Largo Capriccioso". His guitar part was originally recorded on the 11th September 2001 (yes, that September 11) in Berlin - creating a thunderous and captivating addition to the live performance recorded in Poland that forms the basis of the track.

Limited to 500 copies packaged in a single panel sleeve by LINE/12K featuring a lucid and arresting photograph by Patrick Boland, Oltre is available from the online shop, and the LINE/12K online shop, mp3s are available from iTunes.

Oltre has been well-received already, Lawrence English of Room40 describing it as "elegantly tactile... A humming sound world which hides within it filigree-like detail", Vital Weekly's Frans de Waard, in a genuinely positive moment  remarking it to be a "damn fine release" and Boomkat commending it to their Album of the Week section as "astonishing... dark and absorbing... The best 12k/LINE release in ages" and an "essential purchase".

In addition Boomkat have included "Acciaccatura Amplificata" from Oltre as the first piece on their latest 14 tracks online compilation, Under the Influence of Angelo Badalamenti, alongside Stars of the Lid, Pluramon and Aethenor.

December 2009
The last few months have been quite busy, with several tours in Poland of newly named duo TSÜ (my duo with Jörg Maria Zeger) as well as live public recordings in northern Germany; solo shows in Italy and Germany; inclusion of “Unsilenced Landscape” in the 10ms (ten years of microsound) exhibition at Diapason Gallery in New York; the new soundtrack to Celia Arias’ film “Study of the Soul’s Molecule” by TSÜ shown in London as part of the Season of Jodorowsky and the debut of new duo Plateaux (with Jonathan McHugh) also in London.

2010 will have a strong beginning with the release of OLTRE on LINE/12K; a new release on Recorded Fields of the “Three Locations” project, which has been in production for about 18 months; a short tour for the air+electricity project with overhead projectionist Katrin Bethge; and a two month/10,000km tour by road in Australia to support the new 12K release. Also, you may notice that finally the Recorded Fields website has been updated and split to reflect the divergence between my work and that of the label. Much thanks to Janette Towell for her hard work to make this possible.

August 2009
Coming up over the weekend 5-6 September in Joachminstal, Germany, just 50kms from Berlin's Fernsehturm (TV Tower at Alexanderplatz) as the crow flies, Anke Eckardt and I will be presenting the new installation "17räume + !" in the Weiße Villa at Biorama. "17räume" will use 24 speakers throughout the three storey Villa to create a range of site-specific spatial and immersive sound environments. As well, coming directly from Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, ! comes as part of Eckardt's Vertical Hearing project developed at UdK.

July 2009
It’s been a little time now, "Silent Landscapes No 2", which unsurprisingly features on the Recorded Fields release "Silent Landscapes", also appears on Gruenrekorder and CRISAP's "Autumn Leaves" download project which is the downloadable complement to the book of the same name. As one of the tracks on the complilation, it can now be said, perhaps with a shiny silver sticker on the front cover, that Silent Landscapes features the "award winning" track Silent Landscapes No 2, as Autumn Leaves was the winner of the best compilation award at this year's Qwartz Music Awards in Paris. Hurrah and so forth, congrats to Gruenrekorder and also to CRISAP, and of course to all the artists that made the project a success. Perhaps amusingly, the works are all field recordings and not strictly electronic, but it is a digital download, so touche to such petty amusements...

In more recent news, the first of the releases featuring work employing the Transparency resonating dubplate (of which the three virgin, hand-cut and limited edition dubplates are still available from the RF site) can be found via the excellent label Compost & Height. This nifty little 3 inch CDR, which is limited to 50 copies, is hand-sawn, -glued, -nailed, -stickered and will set you back a handy five pounds. The CDR is a split with Jez riley French and part of an excellent collection of works, which are mostly sold out (hint hint). Get one before someone else does. For details about "Largo Affetuoso" (recorded in Nijmegen and Berlin) and to get your copy go directly to the Compost & Height release page. Two more such releases are set to follow soon....

December 2008 (II)
The "Transparence" dubplate (RF007) developed as part of the Artist in Residence program at O’Artoteca, Milan, Italy, is a limited edition (of three) 10” vinyl consisting of two pieces composed from nineteen minutes of feedback recorded in O' exploring the resonances of the gallery.

Cut at Dubplates and Mastering in Berlin at extremely low volume and having no audible bass response of its own, the dubplate works within the physical limitations of the vinyl medium, employing the object as sound source and sound medium to become an instrument in its own right. The ephemeral audio signal becomes present only when played at high volume, allowing the dubplate to produce room-filling bass feedback via the resonance of the turntable and space - “Transparence” is not a passive mechanical reproduction of sound, instead it is designed to be “played” – an active engagement with the manipulation and evocation of the sound to produce a unique response from the room and amplification with each playing and simultaneously to gradually cause its sound to disappear every time it is played, as is the nature of dubplates.

To see an extract of the performance debut of “Transparence” at the Mikro_Makro Festival in Slupsk, Poland on 6 December, 2008 during the"air+electricity" audiovisual performance with Katrin Bethge (overheadprojection) go to the RF007 release page.

Alongside the development of the dubplate, a new eight channel scupltural sound installation was realised during the residency at O. "Rebirth of Tragedy" arose from weeks of investigations into the peculiar resonances of the gallery space. Distinct high frequency transients and heterodyning overtones were identified and also recorded utilising room feedback, some of these recordings going on to form the basis of the “Transparence” dubplate. The tubes, almost ugly and improbable at their angles to one another, are suspended in a Dionysian tryst over the plastic (Apollonian) art objects – quietly singing as resonating tones are played through them in a slow 15 minute elegy. The speakers on the floor, playing recordings from the feedback in the O gallery, reach up, like stalagmites to the hanging speakers’ stalactites, like lightning coming from both the ground to meet the charge in the sky – sounding against one another to quietly meet the lone visitor. The crackle from a distant desert emanating from the remaining hanging speakers merges with the different but not opposing dialectic of the rotating vinyl locked-groove, creating a sonic surface that flickers against the ear, allowing the transient sounding tones to emerge in a new cast.

The constellation of objects were all sourced locally, the concrete that forms the base of the work came from further up via Pastrengo - a floor broken up from a studio apartment on the day of the opening - the local soil from the Garabaldi highrise developments were regarded as too toxic for anyone to touch, so a more fabricated “earth” had to be employed. The speakers all came from “rubbish” at Milan's Bonola Markets, as also the record player and the 45rpm American 7” of Johnny Dorelli’s “Pione”.Played on an automatic record player, designed to reset at the end of the playing side, when the vinyl is placed off-centre it acts like many people in a city – the arm of the player is guided by the needle, not apredetermined path, and as the groove wobbles about, the stylus is bound to follow the groove, stuck in the groove, unable to finish.

December 2008 (I)
“Soundscape” – like the term of loathe it, it’s a name which has become inextricably linked to the sonic arts and the new edition of Lo Squaderno is dedicated to this woolly word. Published by Andrea Mubi Brighenti in Italian and English the articles broadly encompass contemporary investigations into sound, landscape and soundscape. Among the contributors including Rowland Atkinson, Renato Rinaldi, Piero Zanini, Francesca Aste, Antonio Bove, Penelope, Cristina Mattiucci and Attila Bruni is an article by Robert Curgenven deconstructing the theme of soundscape in favour of new definitions and horizons for perception of sound and landscape.

Recorded Fields discs are now also available through Metamkine distribution (France), Sound 323 (UK) and Soundohm distribution (Italy).

July 2008
The upcoming Milan Sound Atlas, Tacit:Tacet, will be previewed at Tuned City, a series of events in Berlin from 1-5 July, including installations, performance and workshops operating between sound and architecture. At Alexanderplatz on 3 July, Katie Hepworth (architect/curator) and Robert Curgenven (sound artist) will present the project and selected sounds from the recording process. Further information about the session can be found here.

May 2008
Silent Landscapes is now available from the new PayPal shop under the purchase section. A series of four compelling pieces composed from field recordings spanning the past nine years work across remote regions of Australia. Extracts from the CD can be heard as part of the outdoor sound installation at Biorama-Projekt for the Offenes Atelier weekend, May 3-4 in Joachimstal, Germany – 70 kilometres north of Berlin. Silent Landscapes No. 4 was also previewed at “Mimicry”, an exhibition of 2, 3 and 4D works that examine and critique cultural constructs of the organic, 2-19 April, Darwin Visual Arts Association.

January 2008
The first release of the New Year, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney (RF004) from the Field Recording Series, is now available. Released in tandem with AnA Wojak's "triLamina" exhibition (5-29 January) in the Botanic Gardens' Palm House.

August 2007
The Recorded Fields label and its first release, the first volume in its' Sound Atlas Series, Alice Springs, Central Australia Sound Atlas (RF001), were launched at the Australasian Sound Recording Association Conference in Melbourne on 15 August where the CD was also acquired by the conference’s hosts, the National Film and Sound Archive for its contemporary Australian sound art collection.