news & updates

bagatellen review of century oaks and dogs in english porcelain

2009-07-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

Further activity from Vanessa Rossetto, who, including the production of three recordings last year on her Music Appreciation
label, has developed a distinctive, recognizable voice within a field
of music that is hyper-productive, to put it lightly. She’s an
interesting (and rewarding) musician to follow, and it deserves mention
that, for many, both in the states and abroad, she’s become a point of
representation with which the arts-conscious city of Austin, TX is
currently identified. What’s most engaging is that this voice — in a
comparatively small span of time — has developed without setting foot
outside a 20-mile radius, and that it’s projected from a shoestring.
Using minimal, inexpensive gear and freeware, Rossetto capitalizes on
the freely available environmental noise unique to Central Texas, and
augments with signals from “found” or “everyday” objects, often laced
with her own playing on stringed instruments. Listening to her music,
one gets a very real sense of a musician’s response to (and interaction
with) the surrounding environment, by way of cello, viola, and field
recordings. Many musicians seek the same juncture, but with flat
results. A Rossetto recording leaves us with the appreciation of a
musician’s sincere investment in the process of it all. Two recent solo
recordings are discussed here.

Among her latest work is a short-ish piece entitled, “Century Oaks,” and is available for free download from Recreating the Domain,
an audio gallery where Austin artists re-imagine and repackage a
high-end local commercial district using site-specific recordings.
“Century Oaks” exemplifies well that aforementioned voice and does so
making full economy of what can be achieved in twenty minutes. I find
it to be her definitive work thus far, for its range of sounds that
sway on hinges affixed to a single mood. An outdoor field capture opens
the piece, from some place in Texas where the birds and wind are active
and cars and airplanes are extinct. These sounds are superimposed with
electrical hums before a semi-abrupt transition to urban sprawl made
acoustic, presumably near The Domain. Industrial rumbling finds kinship
with electronics, only to be supplanted by a continuous, sustained loop
and the fledgling resonances of a bowed viola string. Rossetto deflects
any temptation to settle into a drone, merging the naturally acoustic
with bits of fabricated electronic sound, in sing-song with the backing
environment. Then, a low chunk of cello appears for the denouement just
before a three-note arco viola pattern. Amid field recordings, the
viola makes the transition from happenstance sketch to central figure,
finding company with gradually added, multi-tracked clones of itself,
with no semblance of cadence and building to something orchestral
before dying a lonely death, in a final statement absent of all but the
viola itself. It’s a powerful work whose evolution only its maker will
understand, but with an existential grip from which breaking free is
difficult. It’s a provocative instance of musician-courting-environment.

Dogs In English Porcelain is the bigger, but more timid,
brother to “Century Oaks,” and is the fourth title to be released on
the Music Appreciation imprint. It takes a commitment of time to get
the full impression from this single 41-minute piece, but it’s a
worthwhile investment whose return pays in dividends of minimalist
electronics and audio captures of small animals and inanimate household
stuffs. Such sounds are eased into the track’s beginning before a
decisive excision around three minutes in, at which point the recording
settles into a room with in- and outdoor activity slowly building.
Interesting here is the introduction of Rossetto’s viola, more as
component of the background, as if played from the furthest corner of a
25′ by 25′ room. Oscillators make quick entrances and faster exits. The
dirty sputter of a passing car finds belonging with the more inherently
musical songs of nearby birds. And then begins the central pursuit: the
periodic consummation of acoustic instrumentation as a feature among
its environmental counterparts. Her cello swaggers in finite
statements, and later, impromptu, unrehearsed viola recitals seem
delivered from a seated position on the floor of that room. This room,
we want to see its walls, know their textures, their colors, their
influence on the sounds that come out of our speakers. From inside
them, Rossetto pulls out hidden sources, like the steady flow of water
and air through household piping, the last sounds we hear. Like last
year’s The Breadwinner, Dogs In English Porcelain brings
things overlooked out of simplification and allows objects and everyday
occurrences to make their own statements, only here in unashamed duet
with the person doing the recording. Where the former is operatic,
Rossetto’s piece is suitably, properly modest. Here, her touch is
everywhere, whether or not she’s making a sound.

The two recordings are unique enough from one another as to make
their own statements, but at the same time mark a clear, homogenous
waypoint in Rossetto’s growing discography. Dogs In English Porcelain
is irresistible for its strange obscurity, easy on the ears in its own
transformation. And “Century Oaks” assists in the slow drying process
of that cement encasing the merits of free, downloadable music. That
it’s a gem sitting modestly in a small, non-advertised archive only
adds to its appeal.

other: Vanessa Rossetto’s “Fall”, a bagatellen listen

~Alan Jones

dogs in english porcelain available for preorder

2009-05-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

Dogs in English Porcelain is a composition for electronics, field recordings, viola, violin and cello.It was created with many layers of very quiet elements that advance and recede, forming the episodic structure of the piece. The overlapping of electronic and environmental sounds with extended technique and traditional playing disturbs the boundaries separating the natural and artificial, the intentional and the incidental. The counterpoint and rapid changes between sections add to the nonlinear feel, keeping the listener in a state of acute alertness. In this world, the chamber becomes the meadow but also the alley and the suburban street.

cd-r edition of 250 with printed full color cardboard sleeve, $8 ppd US, $10 ppd intl. available for preorder May 20, ships June 10

click here to purchase

2009-05-03T13:11:00.001-07:00

get it here

Bright Duplex- Strawberry Trust CDr

PRE-ORDER. SHIPS MAY 5.

Vanessa Rossetto first knocked us out with a trio of CDrs on her own
Perverted Logic label. Her violin/viola improvisations and compositions
saw through drones in the way Tony Conrad conjures multiple waves of
sound just from one instrument. And when accompanied by electronics,
Rossetto uses feedback as a terrifying weapon. Her duo with fellow
Austinite Matthew Armistead (drums, percussion, clarinet) is an
exercise in taut communication. Bright Duplex delights in little
percussion clatters, hiccuping gongs, snares rubbed raw, wild reed
melodies and strings bowed hard against the wood. When the duo reaches
a climactic paramount, the drones thunder from temples like Taj Mahal
Travellers. Pro-printed CDr comes in a mylar sleeve with artwork by
Matthew Armistead printed on heavy cardstock and a vellum wrap-around.
Edition of 100.

Price: $7.00

http://www.myspace.com/brightduplex

saturday 4/25/09 resculpting our city with sound lecture

2009-04-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

SATURDAY APRIL 25, 2009

Re-Sculpting Our City With Sound 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
-------------------------------------------------------------
Presenter: Alex Keller recreatingthedomain.org
Event Description: Lecture discussing the Recreating the Domain project, set of artist-created recorded walking tours.

Acton School of Business
1404 East Riverside Drive
Austin, Texas 78741

recreating the domain, free download

2009-04-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

Recreating the Domain is a set of artist-created recorded walking tours of the Domain, the controversial north Austin shopping center/residence/office park. Rather than having a traditional gallery presence, visitors will be able to download the walking tours and attend the exhibition on their own time, making Recreating the Domain a permanent exhibition.

my piece, century oaks, is included in this project and available for free download at recreatingthedomain.org

sous le pieds la terre comp available, free download

2009-03-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

One year ago, Philippe Baudouin (aka Monsieur Tympan - phonographer)
and Alexandre Manzanares (photographer) have produced a sound and
photographic documentary about rural world, available on CD, called
"Sous les pieds, la terre" (which means "Under the feet, the land"). To
realize this project, they have collected sounds and pictures of people
and landscapes they've met on the road: old country people, kids in
garden, sounds of agricultural tools, beauty of mountains... In
September 2008, Philippe decided to put online 30 samples of the sounds
he recorded and to collaborate with Headphonica to release on their
netlabel. With this sound samples, everyone was invented to make his
own remix! The idea was to propose people to appropriate these
field-recordings and to make a subjective remix. Even if these
different sounds come from a very little part of the world (Vaucluse,
France), the 80 remixes we've received show us the universality of
these ones. Here is the result sent by people from all over the world!
Enjoy yourself!

i have a piece on this comp, you can download it free here

second mind publication with piece by me now available

2009-02-10T23:14:00.000-08:00

second mind publication with piece by me now available

Pamphlets, chapbooks, photos, broadside, postcards, and a CD-R!

my piece string quartet and lawnmower is on the cdr that comes with it, plus lots more from a bunch of different people. $10, limited to 100 copies.

for more information or to order go to second mind

bright duplex ’dangerous celebrities’ free download on austinnitus

2008-12-24T23:17:00.000-08:00

and lots more here

foxy digitalis reviews wondrous horse

2008-12-10T23:18:00.000-08:00

here
Double bass and piano weren’t used in the recording of this album.
Which is significant, as the list of instruments used makes up four
entire lines of the press sheet (and a considerable part of the liner
notes) and includes just about everything from theremin to Turkish saz,
from violin to shruti box and from xylophone to drum machine. While
such eclecticism isn’t always a good thing, Vanessa Rossetto and
Salvatore Borrelli (aka etre) somehow make it work: The eleven tracks
on “Cavallo Meraviglioso” are given enough room to breathe, even the
meandering eleven-minute track “Ogni intuizione Ë il tangibile segno
del declino” never gets lost on its way to bucolic bliss.

Rossetto and Borrelli hail as an Italian/American duo, but I feel that
they would sit nicely in the Finnish scene as well, what with
Rossetto’s vocals reminding me of Islaja or Kuupuu. Wondrous Horse’s
dreamy free folk really is that good. I’m particularly fond of the
gentle strumming on tracks like – wait – “Il tempo ha posato sei voci
she gridano” but this playful, yet focussed album is enjoyable from
start to finish. Ah, and Valerio Cosi appears on one of the tracks as
well: “Questi Orizzonti Scomparsi” – even their track titles sound like
music! 7/10 -- Jan-Arne Sohns (10 December, 2008)

’fall’ available for free download on bagatellen

2008-11-18T23:21:00.000-08:00

“fall” achieves industrial ambiance through strings and whispers, and manages to confound a little. Eleven minutes of evolution is poised for at least another 20. Yet concision is eloquence, and “fall” is mighty effective in that regard. Vanessa’s Whoreson In the Wilderness gets regular play around here, so it’s extra nice to feature her music for “listen”.

Environmental recordings, viola, and cello; Recorded and mastered by Vanessa Rossetto, Austin, October 2008.

available here

collab with barry chabala up at compost & height

2008-11-02T23:24:00.000-08:00

From Viola City began life as viola improvisations made in response to environmental sounds in recorded in New York City by Vanessa. Barry took that piece and processed it through a program he wrote in ChucK.

free download here

new piece 'gloria tejana' on homophoni

2008-09-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

free download/streaming audio here

massive new 3 disc comp w.2 tracks by me

2008-09-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

one mighty acts of god track and one by catrider (me & michael donnelly) and lots of others from a whole lot of people!

here

'Hand Rolled Oblivion' 3xCDr $30(US)
"3 jam packed cdr's containing 52 tracks gathered together over the last two years featuring tracks from mymwly regulars , friends and collaborators from all over this fucked up planet working/walking in the fields of noise , neofolk , psych and experimental music…'this is an epic compilation that will surely create a history and a legend that will reverberate through the long corridors of time from now into forever.' Or not." Packaged in hand assembled , 5 piece card thing.

Disc one: inhibitionists , no guru , catrider , hronir , cadavre esquis , kageplane , lamppukello and the north sea , ThrouRoof , mac temple , terracid , futurians with s.t.u.d. , autumn galaxy , charles curse , wolf skull , mark dagely , soulighters , ffehro , Corsican paintbrush]

Disc two: medroxy progesterone acetate , the golden oaks , innig , ajilvsga , autistic daughters , c.g.o.d. , eastern fox squirrels , jitka , bloom , akhet , mansion , chuffo and the grillers , blank realm , soarwhole , eye baba , mosseisly , 6majik9

Disc two: alligator crystal moth , cja , demented thrugg , dyja , dinmuckf , helen southall , horn and talon , iced bird spiral , mshing , didgebaba , brothers of the occult sisterhood , oriente lux , planadin , the mighty acts of god , the north sea , v , xelaeondion

signal to noise reviews misafridal/ib/witw

2008-09-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

signal to noise reviews misafridal/ib/witw

in the new issue! (51, fall 2008)

link to review here

signal to noise magazine

terrascope reviews wondrous horse

2008-09-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

Wondrous Horse's "Cavallo Meraviglioso" album is a rich tapestry of instruments, voice and mad percussion, created in the main by Salvatore Borrelli. The feel is otherworldly, the mood bizarre, but it is Vanessa Rossetto's natural/treated voice that makes this music freakily addictive. Weird cellos duck and dive, deraboukahs and tablas rustle and tap, and over some of this Rossetto's seductive voice floats and swirls (Borrelli sings too, less successfully). The track titles are all in Italian, but each is a variation on the main theme. The range of instruments is vast: the sleeve notes list fifty one, some of them multiples. This, then, is an eclectic mix, but it's impossible not to get sucked into the weird and mischievous sound-world, not least because all the songs have a Heath Robinson-esque 'stuck together with tape and glue' charm. Unexpectedly good, this one, dog, cat and duck samples and all...

here

misafridal/ib/witw review on kathodik

2008-08-31T23:36:00.000-07:00

read it here

misafridal/ib/witw now available at end of an ear

2008-08-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

if you're in austin, tx you can now pick up my albums at end of an ear!

http://www.endofanear.com/

from the 'new arrivals' email:

Rossetto, Vanessa "Whoreson in the Wilderness" CD Homemade sound effects and detuned strings combine to create something that exists somewhere between Tony Conrad and Pierre Henry.

'for quiet room' free download at compost & height

2008-08-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

Begun on January 1, 2008, and completed at the beginning of August. Made using very thickly layered environmental recordings made in one seemingly 'quiet' room; no instruments were played. Through the layering, emergent melodies and drones reveal themselves. The idea was to explore the sounds heard in a music room that was idle. headphones are recommended but I have also found the piece works well when played in an active house; the quieter parts blend in with the normal environmental sounds at the location so that the louder parts seem to develop from nowhere and take you by surprise.

free download here

another new book of shadows release with me on it

2008-08-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

Mymwly0107 book of shadows – isadora shadow cdr $10

Austin texas produces yet another glorious batch of sublime freaks growing a glooping , pulsating garden of acid fried driftetables and deconstructed space blooms. vast open vistas of echoed out cosmic tones all given depth and dimension by the wandering lonely wails of human women folk , blending all within a dream teetering on the edge of nightmare.

epiro/rossetto on vinyl beards comp

2008-07-09T23:42:00.000-07:00

available here

new book of shadows release with me on it

2008-06-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

available here

http://www.myspace.com/bookofshadowsaustin

new uton album with me on it

2008-04-19T23:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.myspace.com/utonheaven

UTON
radio olio metaphysica!
om ha sva ha ksha ma la va ra yam recordings
OM-07 (edition of 100 copies) 9 euros

first disc recorded in july/august 2007, collecting sounds and tunes together with experimental new methods. from small no-fi dada sounds to space-ambient atmospheres to acoustic pseudojazz to psychedelic moonshine to screaming guitar feedback to violin scratches... making a tour to the mind of what is. second disc, The Book of Beginnigs, is mostly recorded early 2006, and shows the another deep-drone-dream-realm of Uton. few tracks with J.Koho (from Kulkija, Free Players, Tulasi etc.), and also some help from Vanessa Rossetto (Mighty Acts of God, Pulga etc.), Brad Rose (the North Sea etc.), Maxime Primault (Enfer Boreal) and Magnus Olsen (Elektronavn). comes in beautiful silkscreened clothe-sleeves and small booklet.

prices do not include the postage.
write to: aubauzhitou@yahoo.com

misafridal/imperial brick/whoreson writeup on bagatellen

2008-04-05T23:47:00.000-07:00

One of the pleasures of following new music is when someone springs up out of the blue (at least, to you), almost fully formed, with no particular connection to any musicians or musical scene of which you were aware, if anything known only as an avatar on a discussion board. For this listener, that happy circumstance occurred in the case of Vanessa Rossetto, a violinist/violist/electronicist from Austin, Texas. These three discs were all recorded in 2007and, though not intended as a triptych of any sort, can easily be heard as such, and a mighty impressive one at that.

"misafridal" opens with some almost idle sounding flicking, presumably of a stringed instrument but abstracted enough to suggest almost any taut pieces of material, from plastic to paper. One of the first magical moments in this music occurs subsequently as rich, dark bowing from the viola enters quite unexpectedly, soon overlaid by field recording atmospherics, either out in the wind or inside some large enclosure, among which plaintive violin pluckings are briefly heard. It's quite evocative and mysterious and sets the table perfectly for what follows as the music caroms between the impassioned string playing and the tapes. While she'll occasionally, as near the beginning of the second track here, play rough-edged quasi-melodies, more often Rossetto fluctuates between freer playing inspired by musicians such as Polly Bradfield and Phil Wachsmann and low drones that recall Tony Conrad but with perhaps a greater emotive range. These drones constitute one of the deeper elements at play throughout the discs, often anchoring farther flung sounds though Rossetto is quite content to abide in a given area for an extended time, wringing out variation upon subtle variation. The third cut here, "eohippus" (Rossetto also has a way with titles), is gorgeous, all slightly splintered but relatively tonal, high-ish drones, one lapping at the heels of the next, with a soft rumble of something, perhaps a rogue field recording, maybe just ambient sound in the studio, beneath. As an album-length suite of sorts, it's not perfect—the fourth track throws in a bit of a wrench with some accordion-like wheezing and disjointed, scrabbling string attacks, but on the whole it holds together beautifully, Rossetto varying both sound and structure within a seemingly narrow plane but achieving great breadth. The closing string piece (three or four overlaid, I think), returns to a fairly tonal character, a wonderful rumination that recalls, just a bit, the bluesy keening of the late Leroy Jenkins while also making reference to early minimalism.

The "middle" disc (they were in fact recorded in the order issued), "imperial brick", consists of seven improvisations on the viola, all laid down on the same day. (One can sometimes make out ambient sound from outside the room, traffic and such, a very nice effect). Here, the connection with earlier free improvising string players is the strongest and this set can be heard as part of the entire tradition of solo performances in that vein, though still the strongest attractor seems to be that of the ornamented drone. As ever, it's a difficult feat to pull off consistently and Rossetto wavers here and there but by and large holds matters together with a sure hand. Not that it's technically flashy, but I admit to being a bit wowed every so often, unable to quite believe that a mere single viola was in use; I get the feeling she has chops to spare. My favorite cut is "The Girlhood of Baba Yaga", once again a drone-centered improvisation, with coiling, smoky tendrils unfurling off the central spine. Though I don't know his work terribly well, I was reminded a good bit of a fine solo concert I saw in Nancy several years ago by Malcolm Goldstein. There's a similar latent romanticism in Rossetto's playing, not woozy at all, but clear-eyed with a dash of harshness and possessed of a striking vocal quality. While I can't say I'm the most knowledgeable fan of the genre (solo string improv), I do have very fond memories of seeing Jenkins playing alone at Washington Square Church in the late 70s, an amazing performance. This session, at its best, isn't far short of that or the Goldstein.

But Rossetto saves the best for "last" with "whoreson in the wilderness", a title out of Cormac McCarthy. It opens with a thrilling quartet (? I actually have no idea how many violins and violas are involved) that spirals up into a dizzying column of sound complete with what sounds like feedback. Indeed, that feedback initiates the next track, "myself with water", in my opinion the finest track from these three discs and one of the single strongest pieces of music I've heard over the last year, period. An eruption of clatter ensues, soon embedded in that recurrent low, creamy drone, pulsing along at a relatively rapid pace. These, in turn, subside into a crystalline, delicate mesh of high arco and electronic tones, with metal scrapes weaving through, morphing into keening, birdlike wails. Specific sounds aside, the structure of pieces like this one is hugely convincing; more than once, in this respect, I was reminded of Olivia Block's constructions, heady company to be sure. "stale cream moon" is more composed, a lovely mix of groaned low tones and march-like middle ones with a sorrowful, chorded middle plaint. The sawing grows more and more frantic on "impending shark music", verging on derailment, Rossetto in full maximalist mode. She takes things out with a marvelous funnel of taped sounds and strings, an intense eddy of echoic, metallic swirls, those deep string drones and insectile chirps.

As I said above, very impressive work, beautifully conceived. It held my attention throughout and provided more than a few thrilling moments. Highly recommended.

--Brian Olewnick

link