<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">CMR: Three New Releases</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://www.cmr.co.nz/">http://www.cmr.co.nz</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="mailto:info@cmr.co.nz">info@cmr.co.nz</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------------------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">CMR21: Richard Francis 'Together alone, together apart' CD</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">CMR22: Sam Hamilton 'Tropics' Lathe 7 inch</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">CMR23: Ian-John Hutchinson 'An Utterbook' Lathe 7 inch</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------------------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">CMR21<SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Richard Francis 'Together alone, together apart'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Compact disk</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">29:25 minutes</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Edition of 300</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-sound sources: field recordings of indoor and outdoor spaces; handling of fabric, wood and plastic; self noise of home stereo amplifiers, loudspeakers and record players.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-'refined and highly recommended'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">THE WIRE 286, Dec 2007</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-'A strong CD'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">VITAL WEEKLY 596, October 2007</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-'convincing examples of Francis’ skill to transfer acoustic traces of movements, electric currents and spatial situations into restrained, yet powerful abstractions. 9/10'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">EARLABS, December 2007</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">REVIEWS</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------------------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">'The building blocks of 'Together Alone, Together Apart' by New Zealand's Richard Francis are 'sound moments': sonic interludes of a dozen or so seconds of environmental sound, whose subtle arrangements and cross-contaminations are the springboard for the compositions found here. Given the quiet volumes, sounds at the threshold of audibility are presumably those which have captured his imagination. A soft hiss and variable low end frequency introduce the first untitled track, with small crackles, glitches and echoes sporadically breaking through. The second is considerably more dramatic, with a flapping rhythm emerging from a grounded hiss like a moth's wings beating against glass. The final track is almost undetectable, even with headphones, and strengthens the connections between Francis's work and the reductive strategies of Bernhard Gunter or John Hudak. Here, swells of deep frequencies rise and fall along a fog of unsettled static, concluding a refined and highly recommended album.'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">THE WIRE 286, December 2007</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">'Despite still be young of age and nature, Richard Francis has been active in the field of music since 1996. You may remember his Eso Steel band and his CMR label which he uses these days as a vehicle to release lathe cut records from the New Zealand scene. But here he releases his own work on a CD. Since many years Francis' work deals with field recordings and acoustic objects, such as fabric, wood, plastic, 'self noise of home stereo amplifiers', loudspeakers and record players. He writes that he is inspired by 'a particular moment of sound heard in my surroundings, [I've] come to call these brief sonic impressions 'sound moments', of 10-20 seconds in length where my attention is drawn to an interesting combination and arrangement of sounds'. His music is not a recording of these moments, but rather a 'cover' version using different sounds. That is a nice way, but hard to check out. We didn't hear these original sound moments. Three lengthy tracks here of not too careful music. It seems to be based, at least from this perspective, on a bunch of loops, which fade in and out in an irregular mode. Continuos sustaining sounds of crackling sound, low sonic rumble and debris flying around. Is it drone music? Well, perhaps it is. Is it microsound? Indeed, it might be. But it's harsher, more present, certainly in the first two tracks. It doesn't lull the listener to sleep. Perhaps it's musique concrete? It is, but the aspect of a continuous sounds built from loops may suggest otherwise. I think this is the strong thing from this CD. It sounds familiar but upon close inspection it's not easy to lump this into any genre. A strong CD, that at just under thirty minutes, is perhaps a bit short. Another piece would have been most welcome.'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">VITAL WEEKLY 596, October 2007</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">'Richard Francis lists “field recordings of indoor and outdoor spaces, handling of fabric, wood and plastic and self noise of home stereo amplifiers, loudspeakers and record players” as the sources for “Together alone, together apart” – common and marginal sounds, that you would not necessarily notice. However, Francis’ use of these sounds adds a layer of mystery to the quotidian – not mystery in a surrealist tradition, though, but a process of abstraction that leads to intensified sensual awareness and brings about an oscillation between absence and presence of physicality. This is also reflected in the description Francis gives of his approach: “Each piece was inspired by a particular moment of sound I heard in my surroundings. I’ve come to call these brief sonic impressions ‘sound moments’, of 10-20 seconds in length where my attention is drawn to an interesting combination and arrangement of sounds. I attempted to draw or notate the sound moments, with the intention of composing a kind of ‘cover version’ of each one. During the recording process, each piece took a feel and sense of its own, while retaining some relationship to the original sound impression.” Compared to earlier works, such as “Technology of Sleep” or “20 Ways” (both released under the name Eso Steel), the overall sound of “Together alone, together apart” has become softer and more refined (in part due to a shift from analogue to digital equipment, I’d assume), while still maintaining a distinctly rough textural character and focusing on the concrete (‘concrete’ as in musique concrète) qualities of the sound rather than on extensive digital manipulation, thus again achieving the highly organic effect that had been characteristic of the aforementioned releases. Track one and two weave low-end bass sounds, gritty textures and very vague, far-away melodic hints, into a dense fabric, with the individual elements continually shifting in and out of the listener’s perceptional focus. This density produces an intensely immersive effect, which is, however, not based on sheer volume, but on the phenomenological richness of the grinding, hissing and humming sounds that emanate from the speakers. The third and final track, recorded three years earlier than the other two, then changes density for reduction and presents sparse, circulating low frequency pulses, which are accompanied by delicate hiss. The result is no less intense, though, and is here brought about by the almost complete withdrawal of sound, which demands an amount of concentration that borders on absorption. One might notice a certain imbalance between these different approaches, but eventually they prove to be complementing and to be equally convincing examples of Francis’ skill to transfer acoustic traces of movements, electric currents and spatial situations into restrained, yet powerful abstractions.'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">EARLabs, December 2007</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">'Sound artists like Matt Shoemaker, Loren Chasse, and Steve Roden are some of the very few who are successful in turning found objects and field recordings into thoroughly engaging compositions that don't rely upon the flashiness of techniques to make their work successful. Add New Zealand's Richard Francis to that gaggle as well. It's been a while since any solo work has been available from Francis, who has previously recorded under the moniker Eso Steel; and more recently, he's been entertaining many a collaboration with his fellow NZ noiseniks such as Campbell Kneale and Michael Morley. On Together Alone, Together Apart, Francis turns to the miniscule events of daily life whose peculiar sounds capture his imagination. It could be a crackle from rain falling or the distant surf of the Pacific Ocean or a creaking electric radiator or the hissing static from television snow. It's these small sounds which Francis has recorded and stretched into relatively longer compositions. These rattling, crackling streams of softened white noise move in a synchronous fashion, much like the way that a huge flock of starlings can gracefully circle in the sky without bumping into each other, all moving organically in three dimensions. Think Loren Chasse, as if he were reworking any of Bernhard Gunter's compositions, making them rougher, in line with Chasse's Hedge Of Nerves disc. Headphones are certainly recommended for this album, as the last track is awfully quiet... at least, it is when there's a record store full of people. Very well done!'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">AQUARIUS RECORDS, January 2008</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">BIO</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-----------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Richard Francis (aka Eso Steel) has been active as an experimental music composer and improviser since 1996. His work over the years has explored different techniques of sound generation and processing, with a focus on the collection and digital processing of various natural and artificially produced sounds from the surrounding environment. He has released solo and collaborative sound works on labels such as Drone Records (Germany), Stateart (Germany), Celebrate Psi Phenomenon (NZ), Digitalis (USA), Absurd (Greece) and Scarcelight (USA). He currently operates CMR, a record label through which he publishes the work of New Zealand and international experimental music artists. The main output of CMR recently has been a series of lathe cut 7 inch records by NZ sound artists and musicians. As a performing artist he has toured in Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. From 2003-2006 Francis co-operated ACROMA, an organization that coordinated a number of live experimental music events in Auckland hosting local and visiting experimental sound artists. Francis is a member of the Alt.Music committee, and in 2005 was appointed to the board of the New Zealand Audio Foundation. He has collaborated for recording and/or performance with Birchville Cat Motel (NZ), MSBR (Japan), Empirical (NZ), Tetuzi Akiyama (Japan), Gate (NZ), Mattin (Basque Country), Lawrence English (Australia), Rosy Parlane (NZ), Greg Headley (USA), Pumice (NZ), Whitebass/Clinton Watkins (NZ), Howard Stelzer (USA), Kuwayama Kiyoharu (Japan), Phil Dadson (NZ), Joel Stern (Australia), Sean Kerr (NZ), Andrew Clifford (NZ), Anthony Guerra (Australia), Sean Meehan (USA), Antony Milton (NZ), James Kirk (NZ), MHFS (NZ), Tim Coster (NZ), Paul Winstanley (NZ), Ishigami Kazuya (Japan), Takefumi Naoshima (Japan), Toshihiro Koike (Japan), Jason Lescalleet (USA), Jay Sullivan (USA), Jason Kahn (USA).</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://www.midstreams.net/">http://www.midstreams.net</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------------------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">CMR22<SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Sam Hamilton 'Tropics'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Lathe 7 inch</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Edition of 45</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- electric guitar, sampler pedal, spring reverb, computer and lathe</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">BIO</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-----------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> ' sitting free from the shallow waters of borderline music, watching stones sink and demanding rigidly defined area's of doubt and uncertainty in the ripples: "hey dickhead,your guitar is out of tune!" '</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://www.myspace.com/samhamilton0">http://www.myspace.com/samhamilton0</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">---------------------------------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">CMR23<SPAN class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Ian-John Hutchinson 'An Utterbook'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Lathe 7 inch</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Edition of 45</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-combinations of field recordings: birds, train stations, hums, noises and the artists vocal utterances</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 13px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">BIO</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-----------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">'Developing from an interest in poetry Ian-John began making field recordings in the late 90’s, making collages with both a journalistic, documentary ethos and a flavour of audio-book narration…and none of the above. Subsequently he has developed a fascination with the linguistic and extra-linguistic vocal products (utterance objects) of various social situations, an interest amplified through exposure to the sound environments of Taiwan and Japan. One strategy is a performance practise of integrating utterances into various sound environments e.g. he’s that nutter in the street wearing headphones and talking into an expensive looking microphone. Starting in 2003 he has published a short series of field recordings of utterance objects collected around particular themes under the title ‘Utterbooks 話本 ‘. Ian-John is an active member of the Auckland improvised music network ‘Vitamin-S’, and is a contributor to the online archive ‘soundtransit.nl’.'</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">---------------------------------</DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>-</DIV><DIV>CMR//<A href="http://www.cmr.co.nz">www.cmr.co.nz</A></DIV><DIV>MUSIC SILENCE NOISE//<A href="http://www.cmr.co.nz/musicsilencenoise.html">www.cmr.co.nz/musicsilencenoise.html</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>