Reviewed by: Seth Arden Hill

the only thing that is not art is inattention’-marcel duchamp-
about a year ago when i first joined the internet discussion group, lowercasesound, i did not expect to be writing a review of a special post that landed in my inbox. that special post i am referring to is this beautiful compilation of 27 various sound artists, and exploratory composers released on bremsstrahlung recordings. initially ‘this 2-cd set was intended to be tiny CD-R release for exclusive distribution to members of the lowercase-sound list server ( but now, it’s public and getting its share of media coverage.

the 27 contributors to the compilation have all at one time been members of the lowercasesound e-group. lowercasesound was a term used by steve roden in an interview in 1999, to mean literally lowercase sound. the term was never meant to be a title for roden, bernhard gunter, or richard chartier's music, but to associate the aesthetic found in lowercase-ness to the ether and orientation of their music. the egroup was set up by james coleman in early 1999 as "an unmoderated discussion & announcement list concerning a disparate group of musics, sound art & listening experiences that emphasize or include some or all of the characteristics of low volume, silence, soundscape/environmental/field recordings, indeterminacy, psycho/acoustic treatments of space, environment & context & possible relationships of this work to art in other media i.e. painting, drawing & film & poetry". some of the list’s discussions have revolved around the music and approach to creation of bernhard gunter, taylor deupree, and morton feldman, films of andrei tarkovsky, painting of mark rothko, richard serres, richard chartier...

the compilation is the offering of a new label, bremsstrahlung, which was set up specifically by josh russell to release the compilation. russell, with richard chartier laying out and preparing the packaging, invested a lot of time and energy to give us this sonorous packet. the lowercase compilation "comes packaged in a double gatefolded box printed in 3 colors. the package was designed by richard chartier and features photography by carmen resendez which captures the rich, subdued texture of much of the music. included are 30 silver printed inserts with biographical, track and contact information on each of the artists, in addition to 3 inserts of artwork by richard chartier, steve roden and josh russell." another feature of this compilation, making it distinct from other compilations in this genre is the included bonus set of discs packaged individually in their own envelope "to be passed on to another curious listener". the lowercase compilation in my mind is one of the most unique releases to be published, for its organization, dedication, approach and generosity. also it is the only compilation released since scumtron, that bernhard gunter has contributed to.

the contributers to the compilation are roel meelkop, artificial memory trace, bernhard gunter, richard chartier, nosei sakata, jason lescalleet, howard stelzer, steve roden/in be tween noise, josh russell, pimmon, brekekekexkoaxkoax, michael northam, taylor deupree, oren ambarchi + matthew thomas, quockenzocker, ios smolders, kid 606, (a)d(r)i(a)n(l)e(e), warsaw (1921), colin jenkinson + kevin schwartz, it carmel, joseph zitt, ecclesiastical scaffolding, richard cochrane, dale anderson, rod staick and tone speak. the sounds found on the 2 disc range between the inaudible trickery of bernhard gunter, roel meelkop, and (a)d(r)i(a)n(l)e(e), to the composed glitchery of oren ambarchi + matthew thomas, richard chartier and pimmon, to the adventurous composition of joseph zitt, and the abstract minimal beats of ios smolders and taylor deupree. each tracks is completely distinct from the others with hushed sound being the only commonality. i wish i could say more about the artistic beauty and surreality of this release, but i am paralyzed and in a state of awe. thank you josh! and the lowercasesound e-group.