and/mim1

Track List:

01. Sonarchy: March 17, 2007
02. Chapel Performance Space: February 29, 2008
03. Contemporary Crafts Gallery: September 16, 2004
04. Hollow Earth Radio: September 8, 2008
05. Decibel Festival: May 24, 2007

This is a Mimeomeme release in cooperation with and/OAR.

"The Seattle Phonographers Union convene to explore the ways in which we
recognize, differentiate, map, and navigate our sonic environment. Our intent
is to move beyond habitual experience of sound and uncover what is foreign
in the familiar and familiar about the foreign; to explore what we hear and
relearn what we know. Some sounds will be familiar, others less so. Both
novel and familiar sounds will be juxtaposed in ways unique to each event.
Our intent is to investigate and enrich both our intuitive and analytical
relationship with sound. The goal is not to excite, confuse or entertain per se,
but to attend to the world, which is much more detailed and diverse than any
one person's perception of it." (from program notes written by Yitzchak
Dumiel for the very first SPU performance in 2002)

As has always been the case with this particular Phonographers Union
group (there are several in located in other cities in the US and UK), no
processing is used during the performances, so what you hear are
straight-up field recordings mixed within live improvised settings. This
release encapsulates some of the finest performances over the span of four
years from 2004 to 2008. Longtime followers of and/OAR's catalog and
history (e.g. the compilations produced for Phonography.org) will be familiar
with names of most of the members of SPU featured throughout this release:

- Steve Barsotti
- Peter Comley
- Christopher DeLaurenti
- Katie Gately
- Mark Griswold
- Doug Haire
- Susie Kozawa (also of Aono Jikken Ensemble)
- Dale Lloyd
- Perri Lynch
- Robert Millis (also of Climax Golden Twins)
- Toby Paddock
- Heather Perkins
- Steve Peters
- Jonathan Way

The Seattle Phonographers Union also have a CD released by Accretions
(Live On Sonarchy Radio, 2004) which features Marcos Fernandes (founder
of Accretions).

Reviews
_________________________________________________________________________________

Vital Weekly (June 2010)
The Seattle Phonographers Union is a group of people who improvise live
with unprocessed field recordings. A floating membership, but we recognize
such names as Dale Lloyd (who co-released this on his and/OAR label),
Steve Peters, Christopher DeLaurenti, Steve Barsotti but also people I never
heard of, such as Perri Lynch, Rob Millis, Toby Paddock, Heather Perkins
and more. The deal is that people bring field recordings to the concert venue
and play them, from a laptop, mini disc or such like, while listening what the
others bring to the table, and make a sonic construction out of that. I must
say I really like the idea behind that. There are five unedited bits from live
concerts, between nine and twenty minutes. The problem might be a bit with
this, that it perhaps all sounds a like. There is a steady stream of sounds of
sounds fading in and out and sometimes they are familiar (rain, wind,
human labor, birds, talking) and sometimes harder to pin down, but its all a
bit too much presented as a flow. A sudden break, a swift change, or maybe
some sort of effects, even it be only a loop of a sound, would have a made a
small but interesting difference and make a more musical piece, but
perhaps that is not the intention of The Seattle Phonographers Union. Now,
don't get me wrong, if field recordings are your cup of tea, and its mine, then
this is a great work. You can tune into the world around you, lie back and
enjoy this continuous stream of sound. Quite nice. (Frans de Waard)