Over the course of 7 and 4 years, respectively, 12k and LINE have been at the forefront of minimalist digital music. They have established themselves not only as a home for some of the most important contemporary electronic sound artists but also as labels who are not afraid to introduce new artists and give them the opportunity to create a unique and recognized voice for themselves in the crowded world of electronic music and sound art.

With the release of Two Point Two, the continuation of 12k and LINE’s joint double cd series, the labels showcase their own aesthetics and highlight some of the current and future artists that will be at the forefront of their release schedules for the next year. Packaged in a stark-white double-CD digipack that features the design and photography of Taylor Deupree and Richard Chartier, all of the tracks on Two Point Two are previously unreleased.

CD1 shows 12k’s current interest in melodic and acoustic instrument-based electronic compositions and experiments in deconstructed rhythmic structures. CD2, the LINE disc, continues the documentation of conceptual and installation work by artists who explore contemporary, digital minimalism and the subtlety of texture.

In addition to featuring much of the label’s established roster, Two Point Two brings together several artists in unique collaborations including joint projects from Sogar and Cheason (of Fonica) as well as pioneering artists Asmus Tietchens and David Lee Myers (Arcane Device). Two Point Two presents a cross section of electronic artists’ unique sound palettes, from the haunting piano intro by Sawako, to Steve Roden’s fragile digital/acoustic sculpture to the disjointed videogame techno of Kyoto’s Ken’ichi Itoi and the dark pulsations of COH.


KENNETH KIRSCHNER
Kenneth Kirschner's piece for the compilation, June 8, 2003, is composed entirely of sounds derived from the work of the other artists on the CD, including Richard Chartier, Cheason, Taylor Deupree, Ken'ichi Itoi, Komet, Motion, Ghislain Poirier, Sawako, and Sogar.


Æ LAB
"Induction piece" is derived from a 5.1 sound installation project called NightScaling, with research funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. To be released in 2004, the piece draws on total darkness as its main scenography, a series of conceptual recordings taking place at night. Experimenting with different microphone arrays and techniques, sound collected at that time offers the possibility to be impregnated with nocturnal onirism, permitting intensification and concentration through the listening-recording process away from discursive activity. By using an acoustic dynamic contact microphone through the electromagnetic field of a coil, electronic apparatus and their spatial internal activity is recorded by contact or remote induction from the emission source. DSP processes and synthesis are intertwined to the spectral compositions as elements of anchorage and direction.The normally unheard soundscape of inaccessible structures-mechanisms, monotonous self-regulated clocking devices, micro electrical impulses, tones of dormant machine rooms of miniature size. Invisible scale relations and inductions become sound thought.

In the summer of 1996, Æ was initiated as a research unit based in Montreal by new media artist Gisèle Trudel and electronic musician and engineer Stéphane Claude, with the regular participation of other collaborators. Through a more anonymous framework, Æ consolidates their interest for an ecological awareness in the use of technology, as echoed in the arts and sciences. Ælab refers to their presentation and publication projects which have been shown internationally. Selected projects include: Radical:Vaguely, group residency and exhibition at the National Gallery of Sofia (Bulgaria, Aug-Sept 2003); Data, residency at McGill University's Nanolab, funded by the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology (Montreal, 2003); Test Chamber, sound collaboration with InSitu Architects for Laboratoires, Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal, 2002); green, web project, Media Z lounge, New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, 2001); Nanospace, performance, Mutek (Montreal, 2001).


VEND
www.v3nd.org

ten.' is an algorithmic composition constructed from recordings made with a tuneable heterodyne ultrasonic microphone [with a frequency range of between 20kHz - 120kHz]

Vend are Alex Peverett (UK/b.1976) and Joe Gilmore (UK/b.1968). Over the past three years, they have have worked together under various project names. Vend was the result of a mutual interest in understated generative/algorithmic audio design. vend music usually begins with a vision which is brought about through process, the process being an integral [but discarded] element of the finished work. The project's work has previously appeared on CLEAN (LINE_011) and on the 2CD 12k/LINE compilation Between Two Points. 


STEVE RODEN
www.inbetweennoise.com

This piece is an elaboration on a short fragment of a 2002 sound installation originally presented at the Contemporary Arts Forum in Santa Barbara, California. The installation was the third in a series of installations Roden has done titled 'view' using the electronically transformed sounds of objects and spaces visible from the listening space through windows. In this case the sound source was an outdoor staircase ornamental railing visible from the museum. Instead of directing viewers gaze out towards the source material as in past versions of 'view'; Roden created a visual work inside the wall using colored lights and tin foil to be viewed through various microscope lenses. The audio was presented on headphones; while the visual aspect was a sort of homage to the works of Thomas Wilfred. The track presented here was created for quiet speaker listening, and uses part of the installation soundtrack as source material and although there are no visuals, the sound was also created with Wilfred's light works in mind.

Steve Roden is a visual and sound artist from los angeles. His work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, films, and sound installation. His works involve a combination of conceptual strategies and intuitive movements. Found structures are lifted from their original intentions and combined with invented systems to be used as the basis for improvisation and abstraction. In the sound works, singular source materials such as objects, architectural spaces, and field recordings, are abstracted through electronics to create new audio spaces, or 'possible landscapes'.

Steve Roden has been exhibiting his visual and sound works since 1986. he has had numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally, including museums, galleries and arts spaces in the USA, Italy, France, Japan, Bulgaria, Slovenia, the UK and beyond. Recent shows include the Stadt Galerie Museum in Saarbrucken, Germany, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark, Podewil, Berlin, Germany, Gallery E/Static, Torino, Italy; Studio 5 Beekman, NYC, and many others. Roden's work 'moon field' was featured on the cover of the Kehrer Verlag book 'Resonances' aspects of contemporary sound art. Roden has performed live improvised soundscapes in arts spaces, galleries, museums, theatres, and alternative spaces worldwide including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the ICA & the Hayward Gallery, London; MIT Boston, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Musee de Beaux Artes Nantes; as well as performance tours of Brazil and Japan. 

Roden has released several cd's of his sound works on international labels include Trente Oiseaux, Germany; Sonoris, France; GMBH, France; Digital Narcis; meme, Japan; and LINE, US.


RICHARD CHARTIER
www.3particles.com

"Archival1992 is a recomposition utilizing works originally recorded in 1992.

Richard Chartier (b.1971) minimal sound/installation artist and designer has produced critically acclaimed solo recordings for labels including Trente Oiseaux (Germany), LINE (USA), Meme (Japan), and Fallt (Ireland), as well collaborative works with Nosei Sakata (*0), Taylor Deupree, and Kim Cascone on 12k (USA) and has appeared on numerous international compilations. His minimalist work explores the relationship between focus, sound, silence, and the act of listening. Awarded one of twelve Honorable Mentions in the category of Digital Music by the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica, 2001 (Austria), Chartier's CD Series, was featured in the Whitney Biennial 2002 exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY).

Both his visual and sound works have been exhibited in museums and galleries including ICC (Tokyo, Japan), Castello di Rivoli (Torino, Italy), the Art Institute of Chicago, The Contemporary Museum (Baltimore), Diapason (NY), and Fusebox (DC). As a performer Chartier has been invited to present his work at numerous noted digital music/culture events in North America, Europe, and Japan including MUTEK (Montreal), Transmediale (Berlin), Lovebytes (Sheffield), Transmissions (Chicago), The Leeds International Film Festival (UK), The Rotterdam International Film Festival (NE) and in conjunction with the sound art exhibit "Frequencies [Hz]" at the Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt).

With Taylor Deupree, he founded the recording label LINE, as a subdivision of 12k documenting compositional and installation work by international sound artists exploring the aesthetics of contemporary digital minimalism.


Asmus Tietchens + David Lee Myers
www.pulsewidth.com
www.tietchens.de

Asmus Tietchens: First release of electronic music in 1980. Since then about 30 more records on numerous labels dealing with electronic and conctrete music. Last project is the "Mengen" series released by Ritornell/Mille Plateaux (Alpha-, Beta- and Gamma-Menge), Delta-Menge will be released in the Autumn of 2003. All pieces of this series are based strictly on sine tones and white noise.

David Lee Myers is a sound and visual artist living in New York City. He has created music based on feedback principles since 1987 using his unique "feedback machines". As Arcane Device, and more recently under his own name, Myers has had twenty recordings released on numerous international labels, and ReR Megacorp will rerelease his classic "Engines of Myth" album on CD in the fall of 2003. Using the portable feedback apparatus, Myers continues to perform in the U.S. and Europe, and exhibits his paintings and prints based on electronic traces generated by Feedback Music.

"One" is from the upcoming release 60:00 (LINE_017), the fourth collaborative album from Asmus Tietchens and David Lee Myers. On their first three projects the working method was essentially the same: Myers provided Tietchens with raw feedback sound banks and the latter constructed the compositions from this source material using his varied processing and editing techniques. For 60:00 the approach was altered; again beginning from the feedback sources, tracks were repeatedly exchanged between the two composers, transformations and edits by each resulting in several levels of manipulation. In the final pieces, the particular contributions of each composer can no longer be precisely identified.


STEINBRÜCHEL
www.synchron.ch

Ralph Steinbrüchel, sound artist, was born 1969 in Bad Homburg (Germany) and raised in Zurich (Switzerland), Midland (USA) and Den Haag (Netherlands). He studied Communication Design at Central Saint Martins School in London, where he acquired the Masters of Arts and Design with distinction in 1998.

His 2002 release zwischen.raum (Domizil) was awarded with the Max Brand Award for Electronic Music at the phonoTAKTIK.02 Festival in New York. In the same year he received a composing scholarship from Pro Helvetia, Arts Council of Switzerland, to work on his release circa (LINE_012) in 2003. At present Steinbrüchel is working on a variety of cooperation projects, e.g. an installation with the Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer (Museum fur Gestaltung/Zurich, July 03) and a project with the musician Frank Bretschneider from Berlin. Additionaly he has been invited to contribute a composition at the Taktlos Festival in Berne/Switzerland in November 2003.


THOM KUBLI

The "Virilio-Cubes Soundtrack" initially was done for the installation Virilio Cubes that refers to the basic ideas of the French media theorist Paul Virilio. According to Virilio just the logic of the course respectively speed, the „dromologie", is predestinated for the understanding of social conditions. Our societies live in new megalopolises of steady tele- audiovisual acceleration, which do question the traditional structure of a town as place of duration and stay and thus negate space in terms of locations.

The installation consists of five cubelike elements made of gelatin in which voice coils are countersunk that let perceive the passages of diverse skateboardrides in urban space. First exhibited at the Akademie der Künste / Berlin 2003. Thanks to Àndre. Ferdinand, Tom, Fabian and Till for letting me record their skateboard rides.

Köln sound installation artist Thom Kubli has exhibited/presented his work over the past several years in spaces/festivals including: ICA (London, UK), Akademie der Künst (Berlin, Germany), Ars Elektronika (Linz, Austria), Center for Contemporary Art (Prague), Transmediale (Berlin, Germany), Podewil (Berlin, Germany), and Deutsches Museum (Munich). His audio work has been released on CD through WDR/Studio akustische Kunst, Lucky Kitchen, and BMB-Lab.


SKOLTZ_KOLGEN
www.dioxyde.net

"Uhliko" created in Praha by Skoltz_Kolgen in July 2003.

Skoltz_Kolgen is the Montreal based plurimedia duo of Dominique [T] Skoltz and Herman W. Kolgen. Their artistic thought essentially focuses on the immediate relationship between sonic systems and visual material. Using digital platforms, they intuitively create a dynamic dialogue of fusion between the particularity of each medium. By injecting digital audio data into the images, and vice-versa, an optic influx into the sound, they construct what they like to call acoustic pigments. Their multipolar work includes, among others, pictorial, sonic, and kinetic objects, installations, as well as performances. They are currently working on a 90 minutes film-poem entitled [ silent room ]. They have performed their audio visual work [ ovskii ] at the 2002 edition of Montreal's lauded Mutek Festival and were featured on the festival's compilation cd. Their first full length cd Hyalin (LINE_014) was released in 2003.


WILLIAM BASINSKI
www.mmlxii.com

William Basinski is a musician/composer/pioneer who has worked in experimental media for over twenty years in New York City and released work on 2062, Raster-Noton, Three Poplars, Robot, IDEA. As classically trained clarinetist, he studied jazz saxophone and composition at North Texas State University in the late 70's. In 1978, inspired by minimalists such as Steve Reich and Brian Eno, he began developing his own vocabulary using tape loops and old reel to reel tape decks. He developed his meditative, melancholy style experimenting with short looped melodies played against themselves creating feedback loops. His early studies with piano and tape, from 1980 -82, Variations: A Movement in Chrome Primitive, will be released in September 2003 for the first time on David Tibet's London label, Durtro.

During the early eighties Basinski performed and created installations throughout NYC, at legendary NY art spaces and venues such as Fashion Moda, Just above Midtown/Downtown, The Franklin Furnace, PS122, PS1, The Mudd Club, Danceteria, Exit Art, Thread Waxing Space, BACA, The World Trade Center Plaza for LMCC. Creative Time sponsored a two-night sold-out performance in 1985 at Art in the Anchorage, entitled Flesh Winter, with a set by James Elaine. More recently he has shown his work at Galerie Fur Zeitgenossische Kunst, Leipzig in their New Forms: Contemporary Electronic Music in the Context of Art series curated by Carsten Nicolai, Sideshow Gallery, and the Geffen Center at MOCA


COH

Ivan Pavlov is a former acoustic engineer from Russia, currently resident in Sweden who has been releasing his work under the name COH (Russian for "sleep" and "dream") through various record labels including Raster-Noton (DE), Mego (A), Eskaton (UK), souRce-reSearch (UK), IDEA (USA), wavetrap (UK/SE), Staalplaat (NL) and error (RU). His work is distinguished by the somewhat emphasized emotional content of the sound forms as well as a certain level of humor inherent in both concepts and execution. He has collaborated with artists Coil, Cylobe, Annie Anxiety, and most recently Richard Chartier on their upcoming conceptual "Chessmachine" project. COH has performed at numerous festivals and events across Europe and North America including 20 to 2000 (Volksbeuhne, Berlin), ARS Festival (Linz, Austria), Rotterdam International Film Festival, MUTEK (Montreal, Canada), Frequenzen/Shirn Kunshalle (Frankfurt, Germany),Wien Modern Festival (Vienna, Austria), Acces(s) ( Pau, France), and Sonic Light (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).