Taking some time out from making music with Charles Sage as Hessien, Tim Martin brings his Maps and Diagrams project back to the surface with four exclusive songs for Fluid Audio. ‘Cubiculo’ features a more structured, loop-based arrangement, drawing attention to a rounded and melodic stencil with focus on subtle, crystalised, micro- rhythm, surrounded by self-assurance and tangled textures with a salute towards the work of Oval and their deconstructed works of the 90’s.
‘Cubiculo’ creates a less-harsh listening environment compared to ‘The Giant Woods’ album on Yuki Yaki, released in December 2009 - this is another steadfast release carefully crafted, interwoven with unfolding elements that makes Maps and Diagrams’ compositions so precisely enduring. ‘Cubiculo’ will be available for free download in FLAC, mp3 and ogg formats via Fluid Audio and released on 12 March, information to follow very soon.
Maps and Diagrams – Cubiculo:
The Melancholy of the Weavers
Kopangyang
Gnomish Twang
Fragments of a former Moon.
Released 1 march - two new and exclusive tracks by Hessien on the wonderful French label Beko. ’To the Finland Station’ and ‘The Book of Lost Tales’ are available for free download, for more information and to download more of Beko’s digital catalogue visit Beko ….and dont forget, for fans of the Beko_33 ep there’s still some free, downloads of Hessien music over HERE
New release from Maps and Diagrams on the I, Absentee label. A continuation of ‘The Giant Woods’ album that was released on Yuki Yaki late last year. ‘Tööpuudus’ is made up of 3 songs spanning 20 minutes. to purchase a copy or for more information visit the I, Absentee website here
Norman Records says this about Tööpuudus:
Size matters not when it comes to Maps And Diagrams 3″s of pleasure that sort of looks and feels very much like a Cactus Island release. The disc is comprised of three tracks, the first of which ‘Urschîpfung’ has really grabbed my attention, its a real lush and emotional swirling track with vibrant textures and drifting synths that transports me to another place entirely. Then the sublime and mega gorgeous ‘Glottal’ is heavenly, like the sound of an angel playing a harp (no really!). I’m going to have to completely disagree with the press release here “featuring three ambient/minimal pieces” There really is nothing minimal to my ears just lots and lots of gorgeous electronic sounds that just flood my ears with emotion. It’s deeply soulful and feels very personal and introspective… The final number ‘KÑsiraamat’ is a super deep listen, it feels slightly uneasy, almost sorrowful and a little dark, there’s lots of layers of interesting electronics and I’d probably go as far as saying that this is quite possibly the one of the finest things in the Maps & Diagrams catalogue. Each track is a gem so you best be quick as only 100 copies exist!
I, Absentee says:
Maps And Diagrams is the highly-esteemed, long running solo project of Tim Martin. Ranging many forms of electronic music, he has released work through Static Caravan, Arable, Expanding Records, Ak Duck, Akward Silence, Unlabel, Toytronic, Smallfish, Moamoo, Symbolic Interaction and many more. He also runs the critically acclaimed labels Cactus Island and Handstitched*. Afterdelivering a remix for us last year for The Twilight Fires: Volume Three, we agreed to do a 3″ together. The result is Tööpuudus, a collection of three newly recorded tracks of ambient / minimal. We’ve provided clips below, but these are sprawling pieces, meant to be heard in their entirety. If you’re fond of past releases from us such as Sounds Look Similar or Anyteazers / Swepstone Songs, you’ll likely enjoy this. Tööpuudus is a limited edition release of 100 copies. – I, Absentee
Coming out on the 1st march Hessien release two new and exclusive tracks on the wonderful French label Beko. ‘To the Finland Station’ and ‘The Book of Lost Tales’ will be available for free download, cover art and more information to follow. Beko
‘Skurjn’ by Hessien is released today (29th January) and is limited to 100 copies for the world, packed in cork sleeves and hand -stitched. ‘Skurjn’ is available exclusively from Norman Records, quite arguably the most highly skilled handlers of music in the UK, if not the world. More information can be found below and free Hessien songs are on the Hessien website, follow the links, it wont take you long. Thanks for coming and thanks for listening.
In between hanging around with Aussie sound art artist chap called Charles Sage, Tim Martin (Maps and Diagrams) has been hob knobbing and hanging around with Dennis Nilsen and Jeremy Bamber, Crazy times! Tim & Charles (no Jeremy an Dennis though…) have created some music under the guise of Hessien. They’ve collaborated to make a rather lovely 5 track EP called Skurjn. Like the other releases on the Handstitched label it’s lovingly packaged in some hand stitched cork and uber limited (there’s 100 of this one). Well nice!! This is dreamy stuff…. beautiful post rock style guitars over fuzzy soundscapes. Plenty of micro noises and electronics going layering over the field recordings to make a complex yet accessible lump of ear noise. It’s very busy yet un cluttered. Listen to it with headphones though and you’ll be amazed at the level of detail and the richness of the music comes alive. Fans of Moteer, Mobeer, Manual will lap this up!! This will make a superb addition to your 3″ family but be quick as the last 2 releases on the label sold out in hours!
Hessien usually occurs somewhere between the UK and Australia, somewhere between the hours of 11pm and 6am (Southern Hemisphere) & 9am and 8pm (Northern Hemisphere) Hessien is made up of acoustic noise artist Charles Sage (Australia) and Tim Diagram (UK). They collided through a coincidence and were pleased to note that the collision has produced an EP – ‘Skurjn’, to be released 29th January. ‘Skurjn’ is the first EP from Hessien, is limited to 100 copies (worldwide) and housed in hand-stitched cork sleeves (from a sustainable source)
The musical content is acoustically-challenged, inverted and lo-fi, an amalgamation of tanglible styles, pedal-work and mangled, modern conversions that combine the audible landscapes into one bigger image. Each song has been constructed from live workings and sketches of sound and field recordings, stitched together with fine acoustic thread and broken down into less accessible fragments to be built up again into mutual timings and compositions.
‘Skurjn’ will be available from Norman Records and eventually via digital form from Handstitched* Recordings. Hessien also have a single due for release shortly on Beko (digital single label) in France. Hessien can be found randomly recurring at short intervals around the Equatorial 3rd parallel-north in the early hours of the morning (or late at night, depending from which side you’re looking at it)
For more information and five songs that were found under the old hessian rug go here.
soon – hessien release some music on handstitched* recordings in the form of an ep called ’skurjn’ – until then there are free songs over at hessiens’ website for download if you click this – if you find the music page – samples of ’skurjn’ can be found inbetween other things*
video for the third part of the citizen trilogy ‘gypsy pattern’ by epix – part of the citypulse video collection, based in Chile and combining visual artists and musicians from around the world* visit the citypulse website for more information
maps and diagrams releases a new album for winter 2009 on yuki yaki, download the album ‘the giant woods’ for free at the yuki yaki website here
YkYk019 maps and diagrams: The Giant Woods
It started out as a 4 track EP-isode and has finally grown into a fully-fledged album. Maps And Diagrams’ latest strike on classical electronica is also his first release on Yuki Yaki, which marks a little beatless respite after a number of more rhythmic outputs recently. Warmly droning ambient-textures with plenty of endless space echo, like in the good old days, dominate the album. Melancholy, contemplation and calm prevail – nicely wrapped in mysteriously shining soundscapes with a kiss of lo-fi noise. “The Giant Woods” seems to be rather predestined for the dark winter days to come.
01. Duplicate
02. Eleemosyn
03. Gauche
04. Last Train Home
05. Navel
06. Savannakhet
07. Shuffel
08. Spirals
09. The World And You
the white finger mix featured on fluid radio a while ago is now available to stream on mixcloud on behalf of fluid radio along with other great mixes by the likes of; jimmy behan, relmic statute and others. listen to maps and diagrams’ white finger mix here
also, on sunday night 11/10/09 at 1900GMT is another exclusive mix for fluid radio by maps and diagrams – fromideastowords mix*
