Hans Bernhard’s highlights of 2009

Hans Bernhard

My digital diary 2009

Hans Bernhard
UBERMORGEN.COM

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Music

Wrong by Depeche Mode (& Video)

Other listening materials include Lady Gaga, Turkish Turbo Folk Music, from the country corner: Dixie Chicks and Tanya Tucker, and from the classics: Marianne Faithfull, Jeff Mills, Leonard Cohen, NIN, Stereo Mcs, Madonna, Lucio Dalla, Peter Tosh, Public Enemy, Robbie Williams, Sugababes, System of a Down, The Verve, Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Edith Piaf, Eminem, Falco, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Gossip, Guns N Roses, INXS, Juanes. Our assistant Wendy is really deeply involved in Techno and since his arrival we listen a lot of it at the studio, so there we go again, i am feeling like 20 years ago at an illegal party, an underground club or a huge rave somewhere in the outskirts of Rotterdam.

Cinema

The most amazing cinematic experience was with my daugther Billie-Ada watching the Disney flick „G-Force“ – 3 guinea pigs saving the world, not very funny BUT in 3D. The technology is so far advanced that i suggest to everybody to go for a test-view, it’s mindfucking and so cool; i couldn’t follow any story for the first 20 minutes, i was absorbed by the visual power and i can now see the application of 3D not only for movies but for art installations.

TV (torrents)

Dexter S1-S4 (pervert, a perfectly mirrored image of contemporary american society)
In Treatment S1-S2 (makes you wanna join the couch workers again)
Hung S1 (good fun)
Breaking Bad S1-S2 (sensational)
Mad Men S1-S3 (stylish soap)
Rome S1-S2 (seksie bloody)
The Wire S1-S5 (can there be anything better, i don’t think so)
Two and a half men S6 (what do you want me to say?)
United States of Tara S1 (way way cool)
Generation Kill HBO Miniseries (eye-opening)
Battlestar Galactica S1-S4 (highly addictive)

Movies (torrents)

Bruno (sensationally radically subversive)
District 9 (way cool, especially the first 45 min.)
Body of Lies (remote war technology)
Angst essen Seele auf (Fassbinder, seen it again after 20 years, it’s wonderful)
Che (boring but still good, especially if you have asthma yourself)
Choke (nice)
Der Herr Karl (Austria a nazi country)
Dude, where’s my car (there we go again)
Eastern Promises (revisited, still good)
Frost-Nixon (way good talking movie)
Depeche Mode 101 (time travel baby)
Frozen River (sad)
G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra (OMG!)
Gran Torino (old man playing it cool)
Idiocracy (revisited)
In Bruges (tension)
In the valley of Elah (ugly)
Inside Man
I Robot
JCVD (wow)
Juno
Knocked Up
Mala Noche
Lars and the real Girl
Milk (gay)
Max Payne (jodi.org)
Mr. Brooks
Night Train
Nothing but the truth
Once upon a time in Mexico (RR)
Paycheck (the worst movie ever, but i always knew why i hated ben affleck, and it’s not only for his shit-face, he also happen to do mostly bad movies)
PI (revisited)
Pineapple Express
Hayao Miyazaki – My Neighbor Totoro (the kids love it, tx Lia)
Wanted Desired Polanski
Pride and Glory
Redacted
Religulous (Maher running wild)
Revolutionary Road (Best Oscar material)
RocknRolla (the last one was better guy)
Role Models
Serpico (revisited)
Sex Drive
Slumdog Millionaire (yes!)
Standard operating procedure (A MUST SEE)
Star Trek (way cool)
State of play
Superbad
Team America – World Police
The Wrestler (we all end this way)
The bank job (supergood)
The curious Benjamin Button (i cried at the end of the movie)
The Departed (revisited)
The girlfriend experience (with Sasha Grey, nice!)
The Good Sheperd (revisited)
The Hurt Locker
The Illusionist (shit)
The Informers (i love the book, i love the film)
The Killing Room (research material)
The Queen (revisited)
Traffic (revisited)
Training Day
Transformers (pure bullshit)
V for Vendetta (a good old friend, a berlin based stuntmen, has his first acting role in this movie, i laughed my ass off, and it’s a very good movie).
X-Men Origins Wolverine WORKPRINT (lots of wireframe, revealing and fun)
Zack and Miri make a Porno
Zohan
Baader Meinhof Komplex (R.A.F. history revisited, well done simplification)
American Gangster (revisited)
Alpha Dog
Bandidas (Salma and Penelope)
City of God (brutal brutal brutal)
Dear Wendy (revisited, OMG, how can you!)
Brother (revisited)

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Miguel Carvalhais’s highlights of 2009

polyp
Records:

  • Florian Hecker, “Acid In The Style Of David Tudor”
  • Tortoise, “Beacons of Ancestorship”
  • Mika Vainio, “Black Telephone of Matter”
  • Ben Frost, “By The Throat”
  • VA, “Crónicasters”
  • This Immortal Coil, “The Dark Age Of Love”
  • Morten Riis, “Digital Sound Drawings”
  • Oriol Rosell, “EP 1”
  • The Beautiful Schizophonic, “Erotikon”
  • Cruz, Pedro Almeida, Pedro Tudela, MC, “Futurónica #1-4”
  • Molly Berg + Stephen Vitiello, “The Gorilla Variations”
  • Durán Vázquez, “Home, Sweet Home”
  • King Tubby / The Scientist, “In A Revival Dub”
  • Madjid Khaladj, “Iranian Percussions: Tombak, Daf, Dayre and Zang-e Saringoshti”
  • Stephan Mathieu, “The Key To The Kingdom”
  • Janek Schaefer / Stephan Mathieu, “Fifty Inner Spaces [for JG Ballard] / Girl”
  • Piotr Kurek, “Lectures”
  • Gintas K, “Lovely Banalities”
  • DJ Sprinkles, “Midtown 120 Blues”
  • Nana April Jun, “The Ontology Of Noise”
  • Marc Behrens, “Sleppet”
  • Nuno Aroso, “Technicolor”
  • Horace Andy & Alpha, “Two Phazed People”
  • Arturas BumÅ¡teinas, “Uniforms”
  • Robert Hampson, “Vectors”
  • Beck, “The Velvet Underground & Nico (Record Club version)”
  • Russell Haswell, “Wild Tracks”
  • Alva Noto, “Xerrox Vol. 2”
  • Morrissey, “Years Of Refusal”
  • Supersilent, “9”
  • UBERMORGEN.COM && Nussbaumer, “1001 Songs of eBay”

Comics:

  • David Mazzucchelli, “Asterios Polyp”
  • Marjane Satrapi, “Chicken with Plums”
  • Rutu Modan, “Exit Wounds”
  • Dave Gibbons and Frank Miller, “The Life & Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-first Century”
  • Warren Ellis, Darick Robertson and Rodney Ramos , “Transmetropolitan”

Two amazing weeks:

  • Perugia
  • Ljubljana

Lawrence English’s highlights of 2009

IMG_0666b
Plus

  • Halting of Dolphin hunting in Taiji (even if only temporary) see savejapandolphins.com
  • Official room40 possum moves in
  • Guggenheim House
  • Okinawa
  • Nago Milk
  • South Torin Pumplings
  • Claudio Sinatti and Deaf Centre
  • Lillevan and Fennesz
  • Köner/Tietchens
  • Frankly!
  • Raven Rooks of Torun
  • Performing at Soup, Tokyo (a sound system with no end!)
  • Grouper live
  • abandoned minefields
  • nice collabs with Circa, Makino Takashi, Gen Lacey and Craig Walsh
  • Battlestar Gallactica
  • Twin Peaks (again…)
  • Chris Watson
  • Ben Frost at Open Frame
  • so many great friends and artists visiting us this year….
  • super-schnapper and the beck!

Minus

  • Astounding mismanagement – locally, nationally, globally
  • Continued unregulated consumption of fish stocks
  • The passing of my grandfather
  • Time lost and not found again
  • The growing sense of lacking critical faculties in general…

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The Beautiful Schizophonic’s highlights of 2009

two-hearts-pola02

Two thousand and nine was a wonderful year for my ears and for my heart. First things first. The Beautiful Schizophonic’s second full length album on Cronica – ‘Erotikon’ – and the collaboration with composer and multi-instrumentalist from Tokyo Yui Onodera – ‘Radiance’ – on Basses Frequences, were released in the beginning of the Summer. Two exciting releases bringing my own project to a whole new level of music production. Highlights for the live performances: Festival Rescaldo, concert at Casa da Música opening for Marc Behrens, Sonic Scope 09 with Laetitia Morais on visuals and EME.LL (ensemble of Live Laptops). Great shows and excellent opportunities to meet and hang out with very nice people!

As for the special listenings of the year, well there were actually a couple of outstanding records that made my nights. Steve Roach’s 1984 masterpiece “Structures from Silence” was a late bloomer but it’s for sure among the most wonderful drone music ever produced. Italian duo TU’M’s “Monochromes Vol.1” was also a listening in wonders, post-orchestral ambiences immersed in a soft sea of static. This is what I call elegant late night music. Another fine piece of music is “Bewilderment”, a nocturnal voyage between the sparse and delicate piano notes of Sylvie Walder and the evocative field recordings of entia non. “Entropy” from dear sound colleague Yui Onodera is an excellent release for people, like me, who’s searching for moments of time suspension: the illusion of movement through ambient stasis. More mind blowing music, hidden vaults of the golden age of electronics: Klaus Schulze “La Vie Electronique 2” and Roedelius “Works (1968-2005)”. Maybe this is not music, only a place.

2009 was the year of my return to Paris, even only during half a week. I had the pleasure to have my friend Cécile Schott (Colleen) as a wonderful host who showed me the many cities of Paris.

Sadly, the year was also marked by the departure of my dear friend Danielle Baquet-Long, from the Californian ambient outfit Celer. She passed away on July 8, of heart failure at the age of 26. Much love and missing, wherever she is.

Last but (definitely) not least. I met Susana M., my new girlfriend, and life in general seems now more beautiful than ever. She is a song. Love forevermore.

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Steinbrüchel’s highlights of 2009

cronica-2009

  • giuseppe ielasi, aix, 12k
  • atom tm, liedgut, raster noton
  • stephan mathieu, the key to the kingdom, dekorder
  • nana april jun, the ontology of noise, touch
  • mark wastell, after hours, cathnor
  • nils frahm, the bells, kning disk
  • rickard jäverling, the valleys, kning disk
  • in the country, whiteout, rune grammofon
  • billy gomberg, comme, moar
  • attila faravelli, beneath the surface, die schachtel
  • soisong, xAj3z, soisong
  • lokai, transition, thrill jockey
  • wixel, clouds, self released (2009 series)

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Janek Schaefer’s top 10

Inner-Space-Cover-image
My top 10’s seem to change slowly over time, and to find 10 new amazing things and remember them each year has never been an ability of mine.

I used to love reading, but that was back when I commuted across London to the part time architecture job last century… For most of this century I have not made any time to read novels… I did manage one book recently, and this is my top tip of the year I guess. JG Ballard died this year, and I was in the middle of reading his delightful autobiography “Miracles Of Life”. He lived a mile from my house, and my tribute to him includes a 5” vinyl on Crónica — Go read the book.

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“Praxis” reviewed by Kwadratuur

Praxis
Voor de Turkse geluidsartiest Cem Guney zich ging toeleggen op experimentele elektronica kwam hij vooral aan de bak als dj en trompettist. Via zijn liefde voor jazz belandde hij bij pure improvisatiemuziek en abstracte geluidskunsten, een reis die zijn voorlopig eindpunt kent in ‘Praxis’, zijn eerste plaat op Crónica.

Op ‘Praxis’ brengt Guney een negental composities die hij van 2006 tot 2008 bijeen experimenteerde in zijn huisstudio. Met opener ‘A Phonetics Theme’ praktiseert hij een soort rudimentaire, geïmproviseerde knip- en plaktechniek met allerlei huis-, tuin- en keukengeluiden, afgewisseld met bizarre lettergrepen en fonemen. ‘Impulse’ is een veel subtieler, microscopisch spel van sinustonen, abstract geknisper en onherkenbaar vervormde omgevingsgeluiden die in loops van verschillende lengte over elkaar gelegd worden. ‘Undulations’, opgedragen aan de bekende geluidsartiest Janek Scaefer, opent met een galmende passage van Edward Elgar’s ‘Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra, Op. 36 (“Enigma”)’ en meandert vervolgens 10 minuten lang langs abstracte fluittonen en traag evoluerende soundscapes. Ook de overige tracks illustreren dat Nada Yoga – het oosterse principe dat alles in de cosmos (ook mensen) bestaan uit vibraties (nāda) – al jaren Cem Güney’s belangrijkste bron van inspiratie is . Telkens weer worden langgerekte mono-tonen afgewisseld met korte impulsen van elektro-akoestische opnames om tot meditatieve, haast spirituele composities te komen.

Als concrete uitwerking van een theoretisch concept is ‘Praxis’ een interessant geluidsdocument, maar in praktijk zal deze cd waarschijnlijk zelden in huiskamers te beluisteren zijn. Daarvoor is Güney’s muziek veel te abstract en te koud. Voor een ongeoefend oor zijn bovendien haast alle composities (zeker naar het einde van de cd toe) onderling verwisselbaar. Tenzij als alternatieve soundtrack bij ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ zal deze ‘Praxis’ dan ook weinig luisterplezier bieden aan niet-ingewijden. Filip Martens

via Kwadratuur

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Durán Vázquez’s highlights of 2009

carlos_suarez-alegorias_del_poder-portada
In the bad side:

1. Great lies from media manipulation increases once again:
-Economic Crisis instead of Monopolistic concentration of wealth; -War on Terror instead of False Flag Attacks; -Improvement of Security instead of Control on population; -Sanitary Alarm instead of Pharmaceutical business; -Anthropogenic Climate Change instead of Further carbon taxes; -Genetic Property Rights instead of Conquest of the seeds and food of the world; etc., etc.

2. Global pre-war atmosphere with the effective start of Colombia Plan in south-America, Africom in Africa, conflicts around the Caucasus and middle east, Afghan war enlargement towards Pakistan and tensions raising between India and China.

3. Still alive the greatest of all lies: food scarcity due to lack of production, but the truth is that agriculture produces two times alimony needed. Third World’s food crisis of 2007-2008 continues and begins to hit First World’s population, while food and agronomic mega-companies reaches record earnings. Only in Spain, 1500000 people can not afford their food.

4. Sonic weapons as means of social control becomes public (at last) in Pittsburgh, but with no outstanding reply.

In the good side:

5. It seems to come winds of change for the electronic/sound-art/experimental music in the Spanish radio stations, with several radio programs which seems to left behind obsolete categories: ‘Sismógrafo’ by Jordi Giráldez, new stage of the classic ‘Ars Sonora’ by Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, ‘Vía Límite’ by José Manuel Costa,…

6. Galician composer Carlos Suárez play live at Sonar2009 and Xesús Valle aka Xe at Staalplaat in Berlin.

7. Galician artist Chiu Longina creates controversy in the Spanish media with his workshop about Sonic Weapons and Mosquito device.

8. First “Galician Experimental and Sound-artists Meeting” (nov. 2009 in Vigo [galicia,spain]) and the second ArtEx Sonora sound-art show (may 2009 in A Coruña [galicia,spain]).

9. Once again, this year Zeppelin Festival call for sound pieces Sounds of Power / Listenings of Fear, proposes to work with a focus onto social cares rather than formal implementation of technology.

10. I fond of this year releases: äNACRUSä’s “Noitebra” and Carlos Suárez’s “Alegorías del Poder”, both released on Larraskito netlabel; “Vórtice” by Jazznoize & Trio Antimanierista, released on the excellent Ruidemos netlabel; “Estrellas Transcompactas” by Mika Martini + Edén Carrasco, released on Exp_net, the netlabel of the Experimentaclub Festival from Madrid.

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“Arcs21”, Lia’s new iPhone app is now available (and free)

Arcs21_001
Arcs 21 is about the generation of spaces.
Create your own personal art work by experimenting in a playful way.

Arcs 21 originates from an online Software Art project by Austrian artist Lia – one of the early pioneers of Software and Net Art. The original work deals with mappings between color space and architectural space. The viewer is drawn into a world that is constructed around them, with which they can interact in a playful way. Interaction alters the behavior of the elements which construct the image, allowing for an infinite range of possible results.

From December 2009 until April 2010 the original Arcs 21 can be viewed in the Victoria & Albert Museum as a (non interactive) work, in the scope of the exhibition “Decode: Digital Design Sensations“.

Now with the iPhone version of Arcs 21, you can carry around this art creation tool in your pocket and use it wherever art is needed.

Various controllable parameters allow you to influence the creative process, sculpting the development of the artwork on your screen. An element of random influence means that no generated image will be the same as any other.
Additionally to the original artwork you are presented with a multitouch feature.

If you like one particular creation, you can save it as a Photo by accessing the Menu, and it can decorate your iPhone with a totally unique, personal image.

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