Preslav Literary School

2009-08-18T10:16:00.109+01:00

||| Showtime

Preslav Literary School will play in Leipzig [ˈlaɪptsɪç] , Germany with the effervescent noise-maker Benjamin Laurent Aman on June 5th at Projektwerkstatt. Details to follow.

||| In progress

/Working on the mastering and mixing of the Echolalia recordings (featuring Posset, Poldr, Machinefabriek and other friends) for a 2010 release on NO-FI.

//Recording sonics for a forthcoming summer 2010 12" split with Poldr, out via the esteemed aural cult of Razzle Dazzle.

///A Preslav track and artwork will also feature on a forthcoming (__________ shhh.) compilation double vinyl.

||| Outsider networks

Preview and download tracks at Bandcamp...
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Do timestamped commenting and all that with SoundCloud...
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||| Galactic Hits

Preslav Literary School is delighted to feature on the Galactic Hits CD! Produced by Maison d'Ailleurs especially for the Galactic Hits exhibition and in partnership with the magazine Vibrations, the CD demonstrates the contemporary facets of the link between music and Science Fiction, from folk to electro via experimental, pop and surf!

The CD includes exclusive new works by Matt Wand, Scanner, Piano Magic's Glen Johnson, Jean-Jacques Perrey & Dana Countryman, Autistici, Carsten Stabenow and many others.

See the full track list or order it from Maison d'Ailleurs exclusively (for 8.- CHF or 6.- Euros, postage not included, comes with the March 2010 Vibrations magazine).

||| exquisite_code

Preslav Literary School performed at the launch of exquisite_code at E:vent gallery, E2, London on 20th February 2010. exquisite_code interrogates notions of read/run in a radical experiment hothousing a collaborative novel. Stay tuned for details of a publication and CD release.

Audio documentation from the event:

http://xxn.org.uk/doku.php?id=exquisite_code_event_documentation:launch_party_audio

Images (lo and hi-res):

http://xxn.org.uk/doku.php?id=exquisite_code_event_documentation:images

||| staaltape

Staaltape, Staalplaat's tape label which started in the eighties releasing works by The Hafler Trio, Zoviet France, Current 93, Nurse With Wound and others, has a new release due; Berlin Tape Run by various artists. A previously unreleased Preslav Literary School track is on the tape.

Berlin Tape Run – 40 minutes, white cassette, chrome tape. price 5 euro at release party, 6,50 euro at the shop

Reminiscent of the early days of the cassette culture when cassettes travelled all over the globe and through the years turned into audio documents, the Berlin Tape Run was initiated to restore this movement, but also to bring it to another level. The cassette was handed over in person from one artist to the other. During four months in 2009 the tape changed hands and places in Berlin. The track order follows this trip; it starts on the 15^th of May and ends in September.

PRESLAV LITERARY SCHOOL

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Three albums to preview and download.

Outsider networks

Preview and download tracks at Bandcamp...
Connect through MySpace...
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Listen and share with last.fm...
Do timestamped commenting and all that with SoundCloud...
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View full Preslav Literary School discography...
See current projects...

AURAL EXPEDITIONS

2009-08-18T10:00:00.084+01:00

...

Preslav Literary School / Live in Berlin from marion aub on Vimeo.

FUTURE DATES

05 June 2010
Projektwerkstatt, Leipzig, DE
w/ Poldr

To book Preslav Literary School...
Go to current projects...

PREVIOUS SHOWS

Sunday 20 January 2008
Winter Weekend: Guessmen, Preslav Literary School, Mushi Mushi, Laish, Semi-Squared, Ree Du DJs, Cumberland Arms, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, United Kingdom

Monday 28 April 2008
Crëvecoeur, Preslav Literary School, Chippewa Falls. The Head Of Steam, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, United Kingdom

Friday 27 June 2008
Preslav Literary School, Antoine Chessex, Demolecularisation, JD Zazie. ACUD, Berlin, Germany

Thursday 24 July 2008
Preslav Literary School, marcel türkowsky, James Edmonds, Rinus Van Alebeek. B-Lage, Berlin, Germany

Monday 28 July 2008
Preslav Literary School, Black Ninfea. madame claude, Berlin, Germany

Sunday 3 August 2008
The Natural History Museum of Sound presents... Preslav Literary School, James Edmonds, Rinus Van Alebeek, Kim Laugs. o-tannenbaum, Berlin, Germany

Thursday 7 August 2008
Preslav Literary School, Simon Whetham, Rinus Van Alebeek. Valentin Stüberl, Berlin, Germany

Saturday 20 September 2008
Das Kleine Field Recordings Festival at o-tannenbaum. Preslav Literary School, Derek Holzer, Kate Donovan, Ryan Hardman. o-tannenbaum, Berlin, Germany

28 September 2008
Festival der Ungewohnten Musik, Preslav Literary School, Ohmnoise. Lohmuhle, Berlin, Germany

Saturday 1 November 2008
Natural History Museum Of Sound: Preslav Literary School, James Edmonds, Rinus Van Alebeek, Kim Laugs, Laura Arragones. Radio Aporee, Berlin, Germany

Monday 3 November 2008
Preslav Literary School, Valerio Tricoli, Ayankoko, Eran Sachs, Six White Horses. madame claude, Berlin, Germany

Friday 14 November 2008
Preslav Literary School, les molaires de l’est. Electronic Church, Berlin, Germany

Saturday 28 March 2009
Preslav Literary School, Pali Meursault, :take:, Cawa Sorix, aymeric hainaux, Le Lit (in bed with Schubert). Espace en Cours, Paris, France

Sunday 5 April 2009
Matt Elliott, Preslav Literary School. The Head Of Steam, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, United Kingdom

Sunday 19 April 2009
Preslav Literary School, Noerz. Ohrenhoch, Berlin, Germany

Tuesday 28 April 2009
Preslav Literary School. Ballast der Republik, Berlin, Germany

Saturday 23 May 2009
Preslav Literary School, TG, Angie Nina Blue. Staalplaat, Berlin, Germany

Wednesday 27 May 2009
Films Without Music at Staalplaat. Mangrove Kipling, marcel türkowsky, Stephane Leonard, Preslav Literary School, James Edmonds, Nicolas Wiese, Lara Schroder, Lauren Moffatt. Staalplaat, Berlin, Germany

Friday 29 May 2009
Preslav Literary School, Mario De Vega, Dominique Vaccaro. ACUD, Berlin, Germany

Monday 13 July 2009
Crystal Plumage, Preslav Literary School, Shitty Listener. madame claude, Berlin, Germany

Sunday 8 November 2009
Abraham Hurtado, MosaIqUe, Preslav Literary School. Jesus Club, Maria am Ostbahnhof, Berlin, Germany

Friday 4 December 2009
Passo Uno, Preslav Literary School, Felicity Mangan, poldr, Benjamin Altermatt WHITE RABBIT/GDK, BERLIN, Berlin, Germany

Saturday 12 December 2009
Echolalia at Star & Shadow Cinema, Machinefabriek, Jazzfinger, Preslav Literary School, Posset, poldr. Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, United Kingdom

Sunday 13 December 2009
SUDDEN INFANT, Preslav Literary School, Nicholas Bullen, poldr. Vivid, Birmingham, United Kingdom

14 December 2009
SUDDEN INFANT, Preslav Literary School, poldr. Chameleon, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Tuesday 15 December 2009
Preslav Literary School, poldr. MAP, Leeds, United Kingdom

Thursday 17 December 2009
Preslav Literary School, James Edmonds, poldr. 113 Dalston Lane, London, United Kingdom

Friday 18 December 2009
Resonance FM w/ Preslav Literary School & Poldr at Resonance Radio 104.4fm. London, United Kingdom

Sunday 20 December 2009
SoundCurious at Coachwerks; Preslav Literary School, James Edmonds, poldr.Coachwerks, Brighton, United Kingdom

Saturday 13 February 2010
Staaltape release party: Ben Owen, Preslav Literary School, James Edmonds, Bloodthings & Mornings. Staalplaat, Berlin.

Saturday 20 February 2010
exquisite_code Launch: Preslav Literary School, Martin Howse, Leif Elggren. E:vent Gallery, E2, London

Friday 05 March 2010
MMX Open Art Space, Linienstrasse 142/143, 10115 Berlin

PRESS CLIPPINGS

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"Beautiful was the Time just sort of falls into your head without much regard for your place in time or space, excitably extolling the benefits of finding yourself in the midst of a Slavic conversation. The words drifting half-complete are spoken in a language you cannot hope to understand... It's as if these tapes captured the moments before a nuclear explosion.....Beautiful was the Time bears repeated listening. There are numerous indescribable sounds that weave their way into Preslav Literary School's gorgeous recording, and as with any complex music, you discover something new with each listen."

Junkmedia, 5/5, Album Of The Week

"There is a definite “ghost” quality to this music, brought out by the use of found and manipulated tapes . “Beautiful Was the Time” is an interesting listen and serves as a nice short introduction to the music of Preslav Literary School."

foxy digitalis

"Three pieces of highly drone music from the lower end of hi-fi spectrum. Things rumble and rattle in a very low grade manner, like in the good ol’ days when people released cassettes and nothing else.

Vital Weekly

"At times disturbing, definitely inquisitive, this composition requires attention, rewards lurking behind the corner if one’s patient enough."

Massimo Ricci, Paris Transatlantic/Touching Extremes

"Not unlike William Basinski with his Disintegration Loops, Preslav Literary School focuses on creating something new and personal out of found sounds and dull, everyday happenings. A sense of wonder and amazement is conveyed through the sounds, and a sense of otherworldly significance is given to the simplest of actions. Thomas succeeds in making something fragile and exquisite out of tedium and monotony, and that is where the art of Beautiful Was The Time lies. This time truly is beautiful."

4/5: Sputnik Music

"The sounds themselves are reminiscent of minimalist composer William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops, with both the content buried within the tapes and the audible process of their destruction and erasure playing equal roles in the sound. occasionally, distant melodies or vocal samples appear in the fog, only to slip back into the drone. We’re left with a haunting, subtle piece of sound art that sounds like it could have been emitted from some archaic dream-capturing device."

When We Were Younger And Better

"A soft scatter from static and the voice loops, determined to be heard among the din and chirping birds. The wails of strangers hum in other rooms. Holy places, perhaps. Alchemists bleeding life into their sullen gold mourning as if that sacrifice might shed some magic into the mosaic of ghosts. Of orchids. Of language raised in unknowable reaches... Preslav (proper) was founded in God as much as it was in man and this is a piece wrought by a divining hand."

4/5: Pinpoint Music

"This is a lovely, creaking, ruddy-complexioned brew of staggering dictaphone melancholy, the sound of a faraway alien orchestra slowly swallowed by warm, wet marsh-gas."

alt.vinyl

"Preslav Literary School salvages tapes and reconstructs them. Pre-recorded sound is given life and vice-versa... optimistic, idealistic and dreamy, he desperately clings on to the new elements which arrive fully formed, escaped from his guidance, and persuades them to stay."

By Chance Upon Waking

"Half way music, halfway aural investigation... the approach of Preslav Literary School results in rich textures and a specific sound that makes his tracks unique and memorable."

Phlow Magazine

"...a fine balance between deconstructing itself and creating an audio-environmental soundscape that is fascinating and diverting."

Ampersand Etcetera

Listen to Preslav Literary School...

RECORDED OUTPUT

2009-08-18T10:00:00.059+01:00

amp046: Preslav Literary School - Aura (October 2009)

Aura contains a piano piece originally written by ocdc, the words of Carlos Fuentes, odd environmental recordings, elements taken from decaying magnetic tape, and various other forgotten and untitled audio materials. Apologies and thanks where due. Originally made for a dance performance of the same name by Katerina Valdivia Bruch in Smederevo, Serbia in 2009. Mixed and mastered on Audacity for Linux. Free download through Mexican netlabel A.M.P..

EC002: Preslav Literary School - Beautiful Was The Time (May 2009)

Layered composition from over 100 salvaged and reconstructed cassette tapes out on Paris-based label Elephant & Castles. Featuring moments of ecstatic, neo-classical harmony and disintegrating analogue phrases, this album retains both Preslav Literary School's trademark live aural energy and meticulous process-led compositional technique.

Limited edition handmade CD available now via alt.vinyl. Includes original commissioned artwork by Cara Bell-Jones, full picture CD, and inner notes on the composition process. Free/donation digital download available.

GFDM013: Preslav Literary School & Fake Mistress - Radioarchiv (August 2008)

Improvised radio duet performed at Funkwelle FM, Berlin. Free download via archive.org.

GFDM010: Preslav Literary School - pretext/context (March 2008)

Resonance FM London live session. Distribution in mainland Europe and mailorder purchase via Maquillage et Crustaces and in UK through alt.vinyl.

GFDM003: Preslav Literary School - Live At Tripswitches (April 2007)

Live Newcastle-Upon-Tyne performance. Limited edition hand-made CD-R sold out.

GFDM002: Preslav Literary School - Autumn Bricolage (Nov 2006)

Soundscapist composition set in English parkland. Free download available through Clinical Archives re-release. Limited edition hand-made CD-R no longer available.

ECHOLALIA

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Echolalia was an live investigation into cassette culture led by Adam Thomas (Preslav Literary School). Involving public submissions of audio material, a workshop and a publication, the project will climax in a vast tape orchestra concert exploring obsolete technologies, lost performance techniques and underground artist networks.

Live recordings from the event, commissioned photography by Marion Auburtin, speculative fiction and critical writing on cassette culture will be released in 2010 by experimental UK label NO-FI (home of Sir Richard Bishop, Yellow Swans, Burning Star Core, Emeralds) as a limited edition CD and publication (designed by Supanaught).

Introducing the players...

1. Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt) is one of the most exciting, diverse and prolific artists working in experimental music today. With over 100 multi-format releases in the last five years for labels such as Type Records, Lampse, Digitalis, Staalplaat (Mort Aux Vaches) and 12K, his resonant work has amassed a dedicated audience all over the world. [http://www.machinefabriek.nu/]

"His work nestles tantalising between genres, counterbalancing immersive swathes of ambient sound with astringent textural challenges and offsetting a predominantly electronic mode of production with an emotionally-charged smattering of found sounds and naked instrumentation." (The Wire)

2. Preslav Literary School (Adam Thomas) makes live tape collages using sounds drawn from an ever-growing archive of self-generated or discovered outsider noise, found sound and spoken word cassettes. A process of transference, overdubbing and live manipulation reworks these source materials into compelling, ambient broadcasts. Adam has released three albums, numerous live CDrs and played at venues and festivals throughout Europe.[http://www.preslavliteraryschool.co.uk]

"Like William Basinski's Disintegration Loops, Preslav Literary School focuses on creating something new and personal out of found sounds and dull, everyday happenings... wonder and amazement is conveyed through the sounds and a sense of otherworldly significance is given to the simplest of actions." (Sputnik Music)

3. Since visual artist and experimental musician Poldr (Benjamin Laurent Aman) relocated from France to Berlin, he has become one of the rising stars of the capital's established underground scene, marking himself out as a performer who deals with texture, frequency and field recordings with a distinct and unafraid ear. Founder of the cult Razzle Dazzle label, Benjamin is also one half of the French/US improv-duo Crystal Plumage. [http://www.benjaminlaurentaman.com/]

"Drawing equally from a contemporary droned madness and a hypnotizing minimalism.... A dense and harrowing musical experience." (Tomentosa Records)

4. Newcastle-upon-Tyne's Posset redefines cassette-based music for a new century. Freely releasing CD-Rs and tapes of sonic experiments, magnetic interruption and dislocated environmental recordings, Posset filters everything through a C60 haze that transforms the listening experience into something fragile and compelling. [http://www.myspace.com/iamposset]

"An impressive combination of hands-on tape manipulation and outsider guitar self struggle, leaden chime, bursts of tape movement and strung-out muzzled feedback." (Rock-A-Rolla)

5. Jamie Charlton is interested in all areas of sound manipulation but has a particular interest in analogue sound. His experiments with four-track tape recorders and cassette manipulation attempt to remove sounds from their original contexts and turn them into something different. Recently, he has been collecting field-recordings of everyday things and juxtaposing these sounds with instrumentation. [ www.myspace.com/jamiecharlton]

6. Benjamin Freeth's artistic practice explores the themes of movement, desire, the infinite and the finite, intimacy, emotions, ritual, delay, drone and significant memory. He performs with Helictite and has played alongside Faust, La Foxe, Aki Onda and Sunn O))). Ben is currently studying an MRes. Digital Media at Culture Lab, Newcastle University. [ http://www.filmmustburn.com]

7. WAMA is a multi-media collaboration between artists Bethan Maddocks and Steven Walker. Working together they share a desire to embrace concept and ethos over discipline. WAMA explore multiple artforms, creating new relationships between text, psychology and contemporary art production, with the aim to produce audience interventionist artworks. [http://www.50 ftlonghorse.com]

6. Nick Williams completed a BA in Music and the Creative Arts with Performance Technology in 2001 and is currently researching electronic music in cross-
disciplinary performance for his PhD at Newcastle University. Nick has been co-
director of the interdisciplinary performance group theybreakinpieces since its formation in 2004. [ www.virb.com/njw]

The Workshop

In workshops held before the performance on 11th December 2009, the artists and a limited number of selected workshop participants created a series of unique, tape-based compositions from an archive of rare cassette material. On 12th December, these collaborations were realised in front of a live audience, culminating in a vast tape orchestra concert exploring obsolete technologies, lost performance techniques and underground artist networks.

Participants had the chance to:

- learn how to make tape-loops using ordinary cassettes
- construct hand-held tape-readers
- collaborate with known experimental artists
- construct an original composition using the tape archive
- contribute to a live record release

Other projects...
Listen to Preslav Literary School...

Echolalia is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

ACCEPTED HISTORY

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As Preslav Literary School, Adam Thomas makes live tape collages using sounds drawn from an ever-growing archive of self-generated or discovered outsider noise, found sound and spoken word cassettes. A process of transference, overdubbing and live manipulation reworks these source materials into compelling, ambient broadcasts. Adam has released three albums, numerous live CDrs, and played at venues and festivals throughout Europe alongside Machinefabriek, Leif Elggren, Sudden Infant, Jazzfinger, Antoine Chessex, Matt Elliott, Shitty Listener & many others.

Previously Assistant Guest Curator for transmediale.10 (DE), Programme Manager for AV Festival 08 and Festival Co-ordinator for Dott 07, he is now working for a Prague-based NGO focusing on free software for quality journalism, with an emphasis on countries with a history of media oppression.

Links

Preview and download tracks at Bandcamp...
Connect through MySpace...
Follow updates via Twitter...
Listen and share with last.fm...

View full Preslav Literary School discography...
See current projects...