FRANCISCO LOPEZ & RICHARD FRANCIS - 'BromBron 14: In De Blaauwe Hand' CD (Korm Plastics)
Francisco López (Spain) and Richard Francis (New Zealand) have created "in de blaauwe hand" upon invitation from Extrapool for a brief working residency in Nijmegen, to develop a collaboration piece for the Brombron CD series. Working with very small seed source sound samples that were exchanged between them, two intermingling compositional paths unfolded in two parallel small studios. In a short (but very intense) period of time a whole world of very delicate and subtle materials arose. The hour-long track merges without mix a dreamy geography of subtleties and complex organicities that is more the result of aesthetic affinities than pre-structured plan. In that sense, this is a composition born from the sound themselves, following the paths indicated by them. Presented in a card-slip-sleeve.
RICHARD FRANCIS - 'Together Alone, Together Apart' CD (CMR)
"The building blocks of 'Together Alone, Together Apart' by New Zealand's Richard Francis are 'sound moments': sonic interludes of a dozen or so seconds of environmental sound, whose subtle arrangements and cross-contaminations are the springboard for the compositions found here. Given the quiet volumes, sounds at the threshold of audibility are presumably those which have captured his imagination. A soft hiss and variable low end frequency introduce the first untitled track, with small crackles, glitches and echoes sporadically breaking through. The second is considerably more dramatic, with a flapping rhythm emerging from a grounded hiss like a moth's wings beating against glass. The final track is almost undetectable, even with headphones, and strengthens the connections between Francis's work and the reductive strategies of Bernhard Gunter or John Hudak..." [Wire]. Ltd x 300 copies in a digifile with inner sleeve.
VA - 'The Year 25 / 25 Years Korm Plastics' Cassette (Korm Plastics)
Korm Plastics release this compilation to commemorate 25 years of the label. 25 exclusive tracks by 25 artists, each lasting 2:50mins: Asmus Tietchens, Ben Gwilliam, Big City Orchestra, Edward Ka-spel, Francisco Lopez, Freiband, Howard Stelzer, Idea Fire Company, Illusion Of Safety, Jason Zeh, Jos Smolders, KK Null, Machinefabriek, Mirko Uhlig, Peter Duimelinks, Pick-up , Radboud Mens, Raymond Dijkstra, Richard Francis, Roel Meelkop, Silverman, Stephan Mathieu, The Haters, The Tobacconists and Z'EV. A fine mixture of microsound, noise, experimental and pop music. Ltd x 250 pro-duplicated cassettes with cover by Meeuw.
