The Seaman & The Tattered Sail - Light Folds (2013) + E And I, Putting Off Stars (2013)

Čudovište-monument bez presedana. 12-satno psihoakustično remekdjelo na različitim medijima (2 vinilne ploče, 2 CD-a, 4 DVD-a).


soundcloud.com/fluid-radio/the-seaman-the-tattered-sail-2



In these times of ongoing discussions about the decline of the music industry's physical distribution, it seems like a daring adventure (and a somewhat ironic provocative statement) to release a single package containing:

• 2 clear (see-through) heavyweight vinyl albums in gatefold covers
• 2 CD's (six panel covers)
• 4 DVD's (six panel covers)
• Two 12" prints, 4 A6 prints, and an A2 poster

... All in twelve different design varations...
When I first read about this release, I assumed that there were various configurations of the original material to be chosen from: Vinyl, or CD, or DVD, or Digital download...
But that was not as it was intended: the artists decided it was to be released the way it is: as one single package - meaning this package contans more than eleven hours of their music scattered over all these different kind of physical media.

Bill Seaman ('media artists and exploring linear and interactive works') and Craig Tattersall (The Boats, The Humble Bee, and many more) have been working on these tracks for over two years in online "Dropbox/WeTransfer collaboration". 

he original project started as a double CD, but as time passed a vast amount of 'abstracts, derivations and colliding things' materialized: shorter versions which seemed fit to be released on a vinyl version; longer versions that required a different format (Audio DVD). And somewhere along the line Bill and Craig decided that it was worth keeping all of these variations together in one mammoth-size release combining all of these.
To be honest: I don't thinks I have heard all of the 72 tracks (with average 10 minutes length) at the time of writing this post.
But, after having played the tracks of this package on 'random play' for a few days now, listening to hours and hours of variations without experiencing a single moment of 'aha, I believe I have heard this sequence before', I strongly believe they were right in this decision!
With a release this length, it is incredible that Seaman and Tattersall have managed to create music with enough variation to avoid becoming boring, yet at the same time stay within a defined framework of style and atmosphere, stimulating continuous listening without skipping a track.
"Music for Waiting Rooms" came to my mind - although unfortunately I cannot imagine any Waiting Room open-minded enough to play this kind of music (certainly not my dentist's).
Though the main body of this work was (of course) created by Bill Seaman and Craig Tattersall, the variation in sounds may also be credited to the additional accents created by Robert Ellis-Geiger (trumpet), Eric Pritchard and Hsiao-mei Ku (violin), Jonathan Bragg (violin and viola), Fred Raimi (cello) and David Beaudry (clarinet drones).
"Light Folds " is a monument without precedent.
It takes guts and a massive amount of confidence to release a single package like this. Not only regarding the creative content (try to create over 11 hours of music that is interesting enough to keep on listening), but also in regards of distribution of the physical package (which is about 1 KG to ship!).
"Why wait 25 years to release a Special DeLuxe Anniversary Edition when you can release such an edition right away?"Well, on second thought I may have to reconsider this, since almost all of the entire first edition (of 300) were sold this weekend through the Fluid Audio mailing-list pre-orders.
Which leaves only a few copies left to be ordered through regular channels at the official release date (sept, 30)....

Is that bad news or good news?
Personally, I think that it's good news: since I have already pre-ordered my copy
I guess history will decide on a re-run of this production (although I think/hope that a digital download version will remain available after the initial run of physical copies has run out). - www.ambientblog.net/

'Light Folds' is a remarkably ambitious project by the ever-endearing Craig Tattersall (The Boats, a.o) & Bill Seaman plus a huge cast of instruments and friends. For those listeners who really like to immerse themselves in a proper gesamtkunstwerk, this comes with warmest recommendations. "The work took place via the internet, sending differing files back and forth using Drop Box, wetransfer.com, and vast quantities of email. After about 2 years Tattersall and Seaman met face to face! It started with a simple back and forth set of responses to a few audio files, building up loops and tracks. Over time it built up to over seven hours of music. We initially made a double CD of works but we kept abstracting and remixing and colliding things. Tattersall brought his distinct form of “dusting” which explored unique forms of noise, tape ambience, tape degradation, etc. Seaman often explored abstraction using Ableton Live, especially in terms of time / pitch manipulation, and exploring the combination of a multitude of Ableton plug-ins. Huge amounts of data were sent back and forth! Occasionally we went a bit mad with naming and keeping track of things… Usually a number of mixes for each initial work emerged out of the process. Sometimes the abstractions went quite far away from the original tracks. The double album on Vinyl came late in the game where a series of shorter versions and new abstractions were defined. The musical influences run the gamut from ambient, industrial, glitch, dance, pop, jazz, classical, experimental, noise art, etc. Seaman has called this alt.genre in the past… although it really defies a single musical label… Needless to say - "Light Folds" can be understood from many different perspectives. - Craig Tattersall" - boomkat 


Seven hours on a sea of sound.  That’s what The Seaman & the Tattered Sail has to offer: an amazing seven hours of music on 2 CDs, 2 DVDs and 2 slabs of vinyl.  The question is never one of quality when it comes to Craig Tattersall, whose work with The Boats, The Humble Bee, and the Cotton Goods label (among others) is consistently worth seeking out.  Now add Bill Seaman (SEA, Attsea) to the mix – literally – and it’s not hard to see where the duo got its name, or what the two artists have in common.  What started as a simple exchange of files ended up as a massive collaboration of sight and sound that is Facture’s most ambitious release to date.  Again, a trusted name adds to the confidence of the prospective purchaser.
If it’s not a question of quality – and we’ll get to the music in a moment – it’s a question of time.  The amount of leisure time available to most people seems to be in inverse relationship to the amount of leisure time they were expected to have at this point, given technological innovations and a shorter work week.  And yet, not only do people seem to have less time than ever, they try to pack more into that limited amount of time through multitasking, and end up with less quality time than ever before.  And so it would not be unexpected to hear the question, “Who has time to listen to seven hours of music?”  Ironically, this is the sort of question that would likely be asked by a person who has already stopped reading these words!  This sort of question also exposes the entire dilemma of the modern age: leisure should not be a chore, for as soon as it becomes a chore, it ceases to be leisure.  The same question is applied to various pursuits:  ”Who has time to read a book?  Who has time to go to the beach?”  Anyone who has seen a person taking a “leisurely” walk on the beach while yelling into a cellphone has seen this principle in action.
You may be listening to samples of the music right now.  That’s okay.  That’s not the point.  The point is that seven hours of music is neither a chore nor a challenge.  It’s a gift.
While many sea-themed releases seek to imitate the experience of a sea voyage (or even a long sail), few people (outside of tourists) ever get on a boat for the length of a single CD.  A calm ocean teaches lessons about patience, vastness, and the passage of time.  Hours flow into each other like waves.  Clocks and watches give way to the passage of stars, the shifts of swells, the angle of the sun.  The clouds shift above, morphing into elegant shapes, exuding remarkable hues of white and grey.  After a while, one starts to gain a sense of the sea that transfers itself from the external to the internal.  This is exactly the sense that is gained as one listens to Light Folds, which seems at first like an album of tracks, but slowly becomes an album of perceptions.
The sea is represented in literal references: surf, rain, and the rocking of the hull.  The songs are tempoed, although not always percussed.  Occasionally a squall surfaces, causing the metal to knock and the sail to abrade.  Such moments remind the listener that the ocean can also be dangerous; as many a venturer has been told, “never turn your back on the sea”.  These moments provide the dynamic contrast that allows one to listen for such a long time; the music is nuanced, even in its placidity.  And just as one might perceive a small shift in the wind, presaging a major front, one can perceive the differences between the alternate takes on this album.  One never steps into the same river twice, nor does one record the same song twice.  The listener may choose favorites, or allow the album to wash over the senses like a changing ocean.  ”Oh, but that’s just water”, one might say during a second sail.  ”I saw that water yesterday”.  But this is far from the truth:  one saw water.
The glitches, pops, and static detritus that one has come to expect from Tattersall are present throughout the set like debris on the waves.  Each artist contributes his fair share of crackle and loop.  Each plays piano.  Seaman adds lovely touches of trumpet, clarinet, violin, viola, and cello from a host of guest musicians.  But just as the lines are blurred between tides and timbres, so are they blurred between musicians.  After so many file exchanges, who’s to say which artist is responsible for what?  It might be accurate to say that a light industrial influence comes from Seaman (because we’ve never heard it in Tattersall), but perhaps the latter artist was influenced by the former and decided to go in that direction as well.  The only thing that one can say for certain is that the trumpet, whenever it appears, is played by Robert Ellis-Geiger, and that its presence is invaluable to the languid mood of the recording.  Even when the trumpet is absent – even when a beat emerges, sublimating all like a rogue wave – brass echoes remain in the head, phantom notes on a driftwood raft.

Light is as important to this collection as sea.  If one listens in order on any of the formats, one travels from filtered light to crisp, like a morning of clearing fog.  Beats poke through the ether like beams through stratocumulus clouds.  The notes grow brighter, and in one case, beepier.  The distant song of sirens becomes a sailor’s tender hymn.  Then a soft, gentle return to shore.  But these tracks are not necessarily intended to be played in a particular order; in fact, this is the perfect release for the Random Play button.  As much as meteorologists may wish to argue the point, light and clouds and sea are never quite predictable.  Only afterwards can one find a pattern in what was once perceived as random.  Light folds like memory, refracts, diffuses, illuminates.  This album does the same.  Seven hours won’t be enough; listeners will want to drop anchor. - Richard Allen

Craig Tattersall:

Craig has been involved in several music projects chiefly The Boats, The Humble Bee, The Remote Viewer and some labels too…

He currently lives in a 1930′s spy thriller

*Guitar, piano, dusted loops, analogue loops, digital loops, drum machine, analogue synth, synth bass, field recordings, abstractions, fragment constructions and reconstructions, abstractions of Seaman (etc.), analogue spatial recordings, artificial wind, crackles (record surface noise).

Bill Seaman:

Bill is a musician and media artist. He early on explored interactive and generative music (he calls this recombinant music). He has been in multiple bands and collaborations. His own albums as SEA — Thoughtbody, and Songs and Dances of the Neosentient, as well as his album Entry with ATTSEA (working with Rafael Attias) are available on itunes. He has recently collaborated with Daniel Howe on an album entitled Minor Distance (available at billseaman.com); and is currently working with John Supko on a project entitledS_Traits. Seaman and Craig Tattersall (The Boats, The Humble Bee, The Remote Viewer, etc.) have worked for approximately one year on their large scale project – The Seaman and the Tattered Sail – Light Folds. Seaman has also done numerous soundtracks for his media works. He currently lives in Ableton Live…

* Piano, vocal, text, fragment constructions and reconstructions, time abstractions, quartet samples, trumpet samples, clarinet samples, drum machine abstractions, drum machine constructions (samples), digital distortions, bit reductions, synth abstractions, abstractions of Tattersall (etc.), digital loops, radical pitch shifts, noise enhancements, historical samples, crackles – record surface noise (from Tattersall), artificial crackles.

Credits:

Trumpet (sample recordings) – Robert Ellis-Geiger
Ciompi Quartet (sample recordings) – Eric Pritchard (violin), Hsiao-mei Ku (violin), Jonathan Bagg (violin and viola), Fred Raimi (cello)
Clarinet drones (sample recordings) — David Beaudry
Ableton Live (construction space), Roland Edirol R-09HR Ver.3.0 instrument and voice recordings
www.fac-ture.co.uk
www.tape-dust.tumblr.com

www.billseaman.com

Run time... 
674.11 minutes! (yes that is correct) 
The audio process... 
Light Folds by The Seaman and The Tattered Sail is a collaboration between Craig Tattersall (The Boats, The Remote Viewer, The Humble Bee, Cotton goods, Theodore and Hamblin, The Famous Boyfriend, etc.etc. and artist/designer) and Bill Seaman (SEA, Attsea, Otic.Info.Set, sp.op.cit, Spilly and the Drops, etc. and media artist exploring linear and interactive works). The work took place via the internet, sending differing files back and forth using Drop Box, wetransfer.com, and vast quantities of email. After about 2 years Tattersall and Seaman met face to face! 
It started with a simple back and forth set of responses to a few audio files, building up loops and tracks. Over time it built up to over seven hours of music. We initially made a double CD of works but we kept abstracting and remixing and colliding things. Tattersall brought his distinct form of “dusting” which explored unique forms of noise, tape ambience, tape degradation, etc. Seaman often explored abstraction using Ableton Live, especially in terms of time / pitch manipulation, and exploring the combination of a multitude of Ableton plug-ins. Huge amounts of data were sent back and forth! Occasionally we went a bit mad with naming and keeping track of things… Usually a number of mixes for each initial work emerged out of the process. Sometimes the abstractions went quite far away from the original tracks. The double album on Vinyl  came late in the game where a series of shorter versions and new abstractions were defined. 
Tattersall played Guitar, piano, dusted loops, analogue loops, digital loops, drum machine, analogue synth, synth bass, field recordings, abstractions, fragment constructions and reconstructions, abstractions of Seaman (etc.), analogue spatial recordings, artificial wind, crackles (record surface noise). 
Seaman was working primarily with Ableton Live and contributed Piano, vocal, text, fragment constructions and reconstructions, time abstractions, quartet samples, trumpet samples, clarinet samples, drum machine abstractions, drum machine constructions (samples), digital distortions, bit reductions, synth abstractions, abstractions of Tattersall (etc.), digital loops, radical pitch shifts, noise enhancements, historical samples, crackles – record surface noise (from Tattersall), artificial crackles. 
We worked with some excellent musicians in the construction of the samples… 
Trumpet (sample recordings) – Robert Ellis-Geiger; Ciompi Quartet (sample recordings) – Eric Pritchard (violin), Hsiao-mei Ku (violin), Jonathan Bagg (violin and viola), Fred Raimi (cello); Clarinet drones (sample recordings) — David Beaudry; in Ableton Live (construction space), and Seaman used a Roland Edirol R-09HR Ver.3.0 for instrument and voice recordings. 
The musical influences run the gamut from ambient, industrial, glitch, dance, pop, jazz, classical, experimental, noise art, etc. Seaman has called this alt.genre in the past… although it really defies a single musical label. 
The working process was quite exciting to hear what each had done with the tracks as an ongoing process… The project is incredibly rich in its subtle exploration of psychoacoustic spaces and layerings, and it is vast... The works form a series of plateau-like spaces where time is explored and erased, and an atmosphere for reflection and association is presented. Duration was not worried about and many of the works are quite long. The entire project has been incredibly exciting and rewarding in that we each seemed to pull the best out of the other! 
It is also worth noting that as an aside to creating within this album, there was a huge element of learning within the album. 
Working with a new creative partner always begins with finding a commonality in working practices, then from this you can bring your individual approaches to working practices, it is in the dialogue whilst working through these passages that you learn from each other. 
The artwork process... 
Like most work undertaken there is a underlying aesthetic language that has been built up over years of arts practice, whether this be audio or visual production. 
An aesthetic language seems to span audio and visual works that is to say that you use a language and approach to creation in the same way whether it be audio or visual work, so it seems obvious that visual artwork that is in creation at any given time will in some ways mirror audio creation at the same time. 
So as we where in the thick of creating the audio I had started making some experimental pin hole lumen prints (a photographic technique where you work with photographic paper within direct sunlight). 
These were simple images of dots created with holes in little metal boxes. They were interested in capturing light and time rather than a conventional image. So the images were created using one (pin) hole exposed for one hour, two (pin) holes for two hours and so on up to 12 holes/12 hours. 
I was sharing these with Bill and as well as Bill liking the work/process it became apparent that they seemed to share an aesthetic with the audio we were working, looking at light, time, space. 
So in conversation with Bill I started to take the photographs into digital forms, exploring how the ‘dust’ of the analogue process could be extrapolated through digital forms, and then of course taken back into the darkroom and analogue processes, exactly how we were working in the audio work. 
From there, and through extensive email conversations the artwork developed into the body of work that comes with the release. 
Like the artwork the titles also reflect the abstraction process. Needless to say - "Light Folds" can be understood from many different perspectives. - Craig Tattersall

What you get... 

Deluxe 300 run limited edition set / 4 panel heavy card stock gatefold covers / 2 x clear vinyl / 2 x printed inner sleeves / 2 x double sided 12″ prints / 6 panel (2 x CD 1 x DVD – There are 12 designs of the covers so there are only actually 25 of each in existence!) / 4 x limited edition A6 prints that rest inside hand typed/numbered photographic glassine bags / A2 double sided non coated poster / Scent / Printed download code / All housed/wrapped/sealed in black bags that are used for underexposed photographic storage 

- www.fac-ture.co.uk/

Craig Tattersall - Man with a tape recorder (mix)

DOWNLOAD     LISTEN     FLUID RADIO

The Humble Bee - The Bedside Book (A Miscellany for the Quiet Hours) Cotton Goods

The Archivist - (i did it deliberately) (David Newlyn/The Archivist/Insecto) Mobeer

The Seaman and The Tattered Sail - Suspended Dust, Slow Movement, Light's End (Light Folds) Facture

E and I - Tiniest Smile (An Inch of Air) Cotton Goods

E and I – Putting off Stars (Putting off Stars) Cotton Goods

The Archivist – Untitled 6 (The Keeper of The Library, Handmade Edition 3” CDR) Lacies Records

The Archivist - Mining for Sound (The Wooden Laser) The Archivist Self-released

The Humble Bee – Beginning (Henrietta) Other Ideas

E and I - Pearls for Alma (Projected Images) Cotton Goods

The Humble Bee - 31 jan 2010 (Morning Music) Cotton Goods

Music by Craig Tattersall

exept E and I with Emmanuel Witzthum, The Seaman and The Tattered Sail with Bill Seaman

Craig Tattersall is a brilliant multi-talented artist, member of Remote Viewer, The Boats and several other projects, the man behind the much loved bespoke imprint Cotton Goods, Other Ideas and the Moteer/Mobeer labels. He makes beautifully modest and understated music, highly recommended to fans of life's subtler joys.

“A lot of times it’s not only the sound itself but also the way it has deteriorated. I just love the crackle of vinyl, the saturated distortion of analogue tape, the hiss of wax-cylinders, the aging process of the artifact itself is equally important as the sounds themselves. They add a second layer of emotionality to the sounds. The medium is part of the instrument”. (Craig Tattersall)

tape-dust.tumblr.com

E And I, Putting Off Stars (2013)

Craig Tattersall and Emmanuel Witzhum 

3" CD mounted on hand-numbered and printed artwork, housed in hand-printed wallet with letter-pressed insert. Edition of 100 copies** 'Putting Off Stars' is a genteel 18 minute piece of slowly unravelling strings and vocals by Craig Tattersall and Emmanuel Witzhum aka E and I. The music was developed from a poem by E.E. Cummings called 'Sonnet9' from Tulips 1922. The score was generated by transcribing the poem into musical notes using a Hermes Baby typewriter, the letters on the keyboard being replaced with musical notes and the poem being retyped into music. Emmanuel played the score on his viola and the pair processed the strings back-and-forth with tape loops and digital manipulations. The result is a beautifully solemn piece of neo-classical music for home listening, in the label's typically gorgeous packaging. - boomkat