The Squid's Ear Magazine


Fennesz: Mosaic (Touch)

Working in his new Seven Fountains studio in Vienna, guitarist and sound artist Fennesz developed these six works as a "mosaic" of elements derived from improvisation, composition and experimentation using unexpected influences and time signatures, each piece a richly immersive environment of bright harmonics with turns into intricately shadowed space.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Christian Fennesz-guitar, processing


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UPC: 5050580830141

Label: Touch
Catalog ID: TO 125CD
Squidco Product Code: 35538

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: UK
Packaging: Digipack w/ booklet
Recorded at Seven Fountains, in Vienna, Austria, between January and May 2024, by Christian Fennesz.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"This is Fennesz's most reflective album to date. Composed and recorded at the end of 2023 and completed in the summer of 2024. Fennesz set up a new studio space, the third one in four years. He had no immediate concept, this time starting from scratch, with a strict working routine. He got up early in the morning, worked until midday then had a break and worked again until evening. At first, just collecting ideas, experimenting, improvising. Then composing, mixing and correcting. Yet the title came early, Mosaic, which mirrored this process of putting an element into place one at a time to build the full picture, an ancient technique of making an image, before pixels did it in a flash.

This '9 to 5′ working routine had already been developed on Agora [Touch 2019]. All the other albums before were done differently; a few weeks work, then months in between and another few days or weeks of work. Mosaic was done from beginning to end without a break.

Packaged in the now familiar DVD-style case with artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft, there is an echo to Venice but 20 years later the division between the land, the horizon and the deep blue sea is more extreme.

Fennesz experiments with unusual time signatures. It's not obvious, but 'Love and the Framed Insects' is in 7/4. 'Personare' is somehow influenced by West African pop music from the 1980s. 'Goniorizon' originally consisted of six hard rock guitar riffs mixed on top of one another. Then it became this 'thing' that somehow opened possibilities for new things to come... all this adds up to a filmic, highly involving and beautiful score of diverse influences and multiple possibilities to be explored by the listener."-Touch


Artist Biographies

"Christian Fennesz (born 25 December 1962) is an Austrian guitarist and composer active in electronic music, often credited on recordings simply as Fennesz. His work utilizes guitar and notebook computers to make multilayered compositions that blend melody and treated samples with techno-influenced production. He lives and works in Vienna, Austria.

Fennesz first received widespread recognition for his 2001 album Endless Summer, released on Mego Records. He has collaborated with a number of artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jim O'Rourke, Ulver, David Sylvian, and King Midas Sound.

Fennesz was born and raised in Austria and studied music formally in art school. He started playing guitar around the age of 8 or 9. He initially performed as a member of the Austrian experimental rock band Maische before signing to electronic music label Mego Records as a solo artist. In 1995 he released his first EP Instrument, which explored electro-acoustic and ambient stylings.

In 1997, Fennesz released his debut full-length album Hotel Paral.lel, which saw him delve more explicitly into laptop production and early glitch aesthetics. He followed with the 1998 single Plays, which contained near-unrecognizable covers of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" and the Beach Boys' "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)". In the following years, he released his second album Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08" and collaborated with a variety of artists, including Peter "Pita" Rehberg and Jim O'Rourke as part of Fenn O'Berg. In 2001, he released his third studio album Endless Summer to widespread critical praise and recognition. He collaborated with figures such as David Sylvian, Keith Rowe, eRikm, Ryuichi Sakamoto in the following years, and released the albums Venice (2004) and Black Sea (2007) to further critical praise.

In 2009 Fennesz teamed up with Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) to create In the Fishtank 15. The following year Fennesz released Szampler, a cassette containing his sample collection on the Tapeworm label. This release was later remixed by Stefan Goldmann and released as Goldmann vs. Fennesz: Remiksz. In 2011, he appeared on the live Ulver release The Norwegian National Opera, contributing guitar and effects to "Not Saved." In November 2013, Fennesz played the final holiday camp edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Camber Sands, England. In 2014, he released the studio album BŽcs. In 2015, he collaborated with UK group King Midas Sound on the album Editions 1."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fennesz)
12/9/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Heliconia 9:14

2. Loved and the Framed Insects 5:54

3. Personare 5:00

4. A Man Outside 6:31

5. Patterning 7:32

6. Goniorizon 8:58

Related Categories of Interest:

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Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Improvised Music
Electroacoustic Composition
Organized Sound and Sample Based Music
Sound, Noise, &c.
Electronica
Guitarists, &c.
Solo Artist Recordings
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
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