Longform Editions, the Sydney-based collective for deep listening begins 2020 with its 12th edition, once again featuring four diverse artists creating immersive experiences in sound composition attuned to ideas of deep listening. Now featuring 48 artists in total, Longform Editions has become a space for exploration: for the pure aesthetic of sound, reclamation of time and concentration. Longform Editions seeks to offer a way to navigate the overlap between physical experience and digital space.
We’re excited to present new work from Berlin-based Australian Jasmine Guffond, prior to her upcoming full-length on legendary label Editions Mego. Her heady, fascinating Current Harmonics mimics the motion of falling water using frequencies generated by the electricity powering a hydroelectric dam:
"Deep Listening for me is to focus uniquely on sound, and thereby on the moment. Akin to an alternate state of consciousness perhaps not unlike forms of meditation"
Feted by Pitchfork as "standard-bearers of globe-trotting ambient and psychedelic techno," long-running Belgian collective Pablo’s Eye contribute Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien, a trance-inducing meditation on urban observation through the work of writer Georges Perec's vision of Paris:
"The city with its social life can be perfect for a deep listening experience . . . the signs, symbols, and slogans littering everything; and the darkness that eventually absorbs it all"
Botany is the recording project for Austin-based producer Spencer Stephenson, refracting his sound collages through psychedelic folk, spiritual jazz, kosmische. His Fourteen 45 Tails records and loops the final downbeat of 14 thrift shop-bought singles into a mesmerizing tapestry that muses on our perceptions of time and finality through sound:
"Fourteen 45 Tails is made out of the final moments of fourteen records that once belonged to people who’ve long since lived - or from another perspective may still be living - their own final moments."
Finally, Florida's Josh Mason’s gorgeous, searching ‘Aumakua makes for a very personal reflection, amplified into universal themes of family and loss. With his trademark poise and nuance, Josh traces a spiritual line around the life and death of his grandparents, lifting their memory out of the cold reality the end of existence often signals. ‘Aumakua is the interrelation of sound and listening to foster profound connection:
"Extended and intimate time with sound, either internal or external, allows one to sidestep the juggernaut of frenetic activity in modern life. Immersive listening can broker trades of emptiness for enrichment; isolation for connection."
More information can be found here.
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