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Balance is the first collaborative release from Frank Bretschneider (Berlin) and Taylor Deupree (Brooklyn). Both of these artists are no strangers to the ears of many; Taylor Deupree is one of New York’s most vibrant electronic producers. From his early techno days as a member of Prototype 909to his current status as one of N. America’s key “microscopic” electronic composers and to add runs the prestigious 12K and LINE labels. Frank Bretschneider is key member and founder of the prestigious Raster Music label (a collective that includes the talented Carston Nicolai and released the 20 – 2000 series), he has critically acclaimed releases under the names Komet and Produkt. It’s easy to say that Frank Bretschneider has created some of the most influential spatial electronics of the late 90’s.

Utilizing both artists keen ears for carefully crafted sounds, Balance blends the clean sine wave / white noise of Bretschneider with the defined grit of Deupree’s granular synthesis. Realized entirely on Nord Modular synthesizers, Bretschneider and Deupree exchanged patch files through email and began constructing foundation loops. Bretschneider then created initial mixes of 9 songs and then sent them to Deupree who remixed and re-processed them. This digital exchange allowed for them to work using their own methods and aesthetic while combining the similarities of each others interests. The result is a looping and churning rhythmic work that is both synthetic, warm, dubby and tonally challenging. Thus Balance creates an engaging balance between the 2 artists aesthetics.

After is the product of the meeting of Kim Cascone, Richard Chartier, and Taylor Deupree at Montreal’s Micro_Mutek 2 on April 6th, 2001. Scheduled to perform solo sets they decided to do an unexpected improvisational live laptop set at the end of the evening which ended up being one of the highlights of the evening.

Each artist utilized his own software and contributed his own sound to the 20+ minute performance. Cascone’s custom Max/MSP patch sputtered and spewed random chunks of soundfiles while he processed the output in real time through various effects. Chartier ended up being the unlikely designated rhythm unit for the night; supplying pulses, basses and precision-craftted clicks. Deupree washed over the whole mix with gentle drones and blankets of sine wave layers. The result was a surprisingly diverse, layered, and engaging recording.

With a desire to release and catalog the evening’s production, Cascone, Chartier, and Deupree decided that to extend the time of the project to make a full length cd that each of them would create a new work using the original live set as source material for their piece. Cascone ushered in a new era of dense DSP with the “New World Rising (New Density Mix),” a reworking of key elements from the end of the performance treated with his ever-evolving Max creations. Chartier chose the more subtle elements of the night and created “Afterimage.” Deep, filtered tones create warm washes of bass that are punctuated by fragments of the original soundfiles that he used during the live set, more audible than his more recent compositions. Deupree’s “4+2_Stil Live” reconstruction uses a mix of 4 loops layered by an additional 2 passages which he then works into new loops using custom programmed software algorithms. These new loops are then structured to form a highly repetitive and evolving piece of churning, hypnotic tones . . . a preview and exercise into methods for his upcoming cd Stil.

Taking cues and production practices culled from his collaboration with Tetsu Inoue on the CD Active/Freeze (12k1009) and his recent compilation appearances on Ritornell and Intransitive Recordings, among others, Occur is a work of non-repetition and subdued melodic passages composed almost entirely by granular synthesis algorithms.

Initially inspired by the often quiet urban sounds outside of his studio in Brooklyn, New York, the concept behind Occur grew to become pieces about all things brief – glimpses, events that come and then are gone. These are singular occurances in time, like the passing of a car or the blinking off of a street light at night. The brittle and sporadic granular tones crunch and crumble about the stereo field creating an implied urban soundscape.

This is the first solo cd on 12k from Taylor Deupree since the minimal rhythmics of 1998’s Comma, (12k1003). Part one of a two part series, Occur is to be followed up within a year by its polar opposite entitled Stil., a work of intense repetition, a movment towards implied stillness. Deupree is also in the progress of creating photographic diptychs of Occur and Stil. for a project to be completed in 2002.

Between Two Points is the first release between 12k and LINE showcasing the audio aesthetics of each label on two separate discs. All of the tracks on Between Two Points are previously unreleased and represent the current and future rosters of the labels, encompassing an international selection of accomplished artists from the world of minimalist digital sound art.

disc one: the sound of 12k
Founded in 1997 by Taylor Deupree, 12k has continued to fuse music, design, technology and minimalism with releases of numerous critically acclaimed cds. Notable cds like the label defining .aiff compilation which helped usher in the new genre of microsound, or the debut and follow-up cds by Shuttle358, a newcomer who quickly became one of the most respected artists in the field. There have also been releases by artists such as Tetsu Inoue, Frank Bretschneider and of course, Deupree himself. 12k’s aesthetic has always remained focused on ultrasynthetic sound – compositions of clicks, pops and granular textures – forming rhythmic textures and faint hues of melody. Minimal techno at its most micro.

disc two. the sound of LINE

September 2000 marked the beginning of LINE, founded by Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree as a sublabel of 12k focusing new, digital, conceptual, ultra-minimalist sound and the relationship between sound, silence and the art of listening. the artists featured on this disc explore the elements of audibility, the physical nature of timbres, the space between sounds. From the frequencies of *0, the organic textures of Steve Roden and Miki Yui, the pure subtle digitalism of Immedia, Duul-Drv, and Richard Chartier, the sparse sound events of Roel Meelkop, to Bernhard Günter’s “urban autumn raga”, the focus of the listener unfolds layers within the understated intricacies of the works.