The brand new TODAYSART 09 festival website is finally online. The full program, the time schedule, an overview of venues on our festival map and a lot of interesting information is now online! In the coming two weeks, our newsletters will help you navigate through the festival, as we will update you on highlights in our festival program. This newsletter is all about the artists from the label Touch: Biosphere, Philip Jeck, Jana Winderen and Hildur Guðnadóttir.

One of the founders of the ambient genre, an absolute icon in electronic music, Biosphere, will perform in one of the most exclusive venues of the festival. The Lutherse Kerk will be the place to experience concerts from artists from the label Touch. A special church hall, inspiring artists and great acoustics; all the elements are in place to make the performances at this location legendary. Due to the size of this venue, it is advisable to show up in time to see your favorite artist.

Since its first release in 1982, Touch has created sonic and visual productions that combine innovation with a level of care and attention that has made it the most enduring of any independent music company of its time. The first period up to the digitalization of music in the mid-80’s saw the release of several cassette magazines, where sounds by luminaries such as New Order, Cabaret Voltaire and The Residents were paralleled by visual work and writing by Neville Brody, Jon Savage, Joseph Beuys and many others. As the industry went through its usual elaborate cycles of self-annihilation and rebirth, Touch adapted to incorporate new technologies with the old, underscoring the power and necessity of editing and presentation to bring the best out of each production.

Now working extensively with Fennesz, Chris Watson, Philip Jeck, Biosphere, BJNilsen, Oren Ambarchi and many others, Touch celebrated its 20th year in 2001 with a UK CMN-backed tour, including sell-out dates in Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, Newcastle, Salisbury and the QEH in London. The transitions from analogue to digital, from camera-ready artwork to broadband file-sharing and from 1/4‚ masters to website downloads are only the surface manifestations of the great changes that have taken place in recorded music over the last 25 years. Touch has been at the forefront of these changes, and will continue to be. Therefore, Touch is a welcome guest at TodaysArt.

Led by Mike Harding, Touch will be doing a Q&A in the Filmhuis during the festival, where anybody who is interested will get the chance to talk with the people from Touch, including the artists who will be performing at TodaysArt (Biosphere / Philip Jeck / Jana Winderen /Hildur Guðnadóttir).

Biosphere (NO)

Born in Tromsø (Norway) 1962, Geir Jenssen is better known as Biosphere, a key figure in contemporary Norwegian music. In 1992, Jenssen shot to fame with his Biosphere-debut album‚ Microgravity, becoming one of the pioneering ambient artists from the 90’s. He was one of the first to come up with a mix of soundscapes, voice samples and atmospheric noise with trancey melodies and solid beats. Since Cirque in 1999, all Biosphere’s releases have been on Touch. As an inspirational influence for many new electronic music acts that have performed at TodaysArt, we are very proud to present this exclusive performance by Biosphere. Due to the limited capacity of the building, we advise you to show up early for this act.

biosphere.no

Philip Jeck (UK)

Philip Jeck studied visual art at Dartington College of Arts. He started working with record players and electronics in the early 80’s and has made soundtracks and toured with many dance and theatre companies, as well as his solo concert work. His best known work is Vinyl Requiem‚ (with Lol Sargent): a performance for 180 50’s/60’s record players that won the Time Out Performance Award 1993. Over the last few years, he has returned to visual art, making installations that utilize from 6 to 80 record players, including ‚ Off The Record‚ for Sonic Boom at The Hayward Gallery, London [2000]. Jeck, also known as the Vinyl Alchemist, works with old records and record players salvaged from junk shops and he modifies them to suit his own purposes. He really does play them as musical instruments, creating an intensely personal language that evolves with each added part of a record. Philip Jeck makes genuinely moving and transfixing music, where we hear the art, not the gimmick.

philipjeck.com

Jana Winderen (NO) - Sub-Pelagic Voices / Evaporation

Jana Winderen researches the hidden depths of the sea with the latest technology; her work reveals the complexity and strangeness of the unseen world beneath. She is concerned with finding sounds from unseen sources, like blind field recording. Jana will present both an installation, as well as a performance. The installation, "Evaporation", is recorded and filmed in and around the icefjord Kangia by Illulisat, Greenland. Winderen visited Greenland in July 2007 where she made hydrophone recordings not only 25 metres under the ice, but also from inside the ice itself. The video footage is from the same trip. Her performance Sub-Pelagic Voices is based on hydrophone recordings of the invisible audioscapes of the oceans and their smaller inhabitants. Jana has collected the sounds on her field trips during the last 3 years to the Barents Sea and also in the Norwegian fjords.

janawinderen.com

Hildur Guðnadóttir (IS)

Hildur Guðnadóttir (1982) is a cellist and composer. She has a rich catalogue of collaborations and varied projects behind her. Hildur has collaborated, played and recorded with other artists such as mum, Pan Sonic, BJNilsen, Hilmar Jensson, Hafler Trio, Nico Muhly, Valgeir Sigurdsson, Angel, Schneider, Ben Frost and Stilluppsteypa. As a composer she has written music for plays, dance performances and films, pieces for chamber orchestras, various instruments, voices and electronics. Hildur likes to explore the nature and movement of sound, and often turns her experiments into sound and visual installations. She recently co-composed a live soundtrack to Derek Jarman’s 1980 film In The Shadow of The Sun with legends Throbbing Gristle, arranged choir for performances by them in Austria and London. Her latest album, Without Sinking‚ came out on Touch earlier this year. For this live performance, Hildur will perform material from her latest solo album as well as new material and improvisations. She plays cello and uses live programming to create a multi-layered effect.

hildurness.com

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Greetings from The Hague, see you in 9 days!

The TODAYSART crew.