pop_and

and/OAR is extremely happy to present this powerfully mesmerizing
work; carefully remastered and reissued for the first time on CD
format. Under the original title of "Der Sonne", this work was
originally issued as a limited quantity CDR release on Andrew
Deutsch's Magic If label several years ago.

"The Sun was constructed by passing ocean waves (recorded at
Rye Beach, New Hampshire), through various digital processing
devices. The most articulate of these processors was a tone
generator able to isolate and respond to specific frequencies
present in the ocean waves. The concept behind The Sun was to
make a static music or a kind of music that just shimmered in place.
This concept can be traced back to the works of Anthony Braxton in
his Tri Axiom Writings, and to Stockhausen in his early serial pieces.
As Stockhausen says, "there is a difference between starting and
stopping and beginning and ending". The pieces presented here do
not begin and end but simply start and stop. The Sun is also a work,
in a series of works, I have created to aid in the process of drawing. I
call these works 'image drones/sounds for drawing'. The sounds
were all inspired by the 'power field theories' of Joseph Beuys and
are dedicated to him and his family." (Andrew Deutsch)

This release will present the first of a new line of packaging for
and/OAR. Nicely printed oversized cardstock inserts inside a sturdy
clear plastic sleeve with a flap. The CDs will be protected by cloth
safety sleeves made in Japan. Special thanks to Kiyoshi Mizutani
and Kiyoharu Kuwayama for their help in obtaining the sleeves.

ARTFORUM (DECEMBER 2005)
BEST OF 2005: MUSIC
1. Steve Roden (On The Boards, Seattle, WA)
2. Andrew Deutsch: The Sun (and/OAR)*
3. A Trove Of Archival Performances By Charlotte Moorman
   (Ubu Web)
4. Chris Watson: North By North West (BBC Radio 4)
5. Alarm Will Sound: Acoustica - Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex
    Twin (Cantaloupe Music)
6. Tony Conrad: Bryant Park Moratorium Rally - 1969
   (Table Of The Elements)
7. Githead: Profile (Swim)
8. Boards Of Canada: The Campfire Headphase (Warp Records)
9. Climax Golden Twins: Highly Bred And Sweetly Tempered
   (North East Indie)
10. Richard Thompson: Grizzly Man Original Soundtrack
   (Cooking Vinyl)

* A CD consisting of five long tracks in which the sounds of ocean
waves were filtered through digital processors. There's an ambient
quality to Deutsch's richly textured work (he describes each piece as
having no beginning or end) but not one that easily settles into the
backdrop. (Stephen Vitiello)

VITAL WEEKLY
number 526 week 20 (MAY 2006)
In the releases of the and/OAR label field recordings are always
important, but the label doesn't exclusively work with that. They have
two new releases out, one of them being a pure field recording work
and one with electronically processed field recordings. The latter is
the responsibility of Andrew Deutsch, a composer who has been
using max/msp extensively over the last decade. This new work
contains of the sound of passing ocean waves through various
digital processing devices. 'The most articulate of these processors
was a tone generator able to isolate and respond to specific
frequencies present in the ocean waves', it reads on the cover. It
also that the concept behind 'The Sun' was to make 'static music or
a kind of music that just shimmered in place'. It surely does that, just
that. The sound is vaguely like an organ that washes ashore, just
like an ocean wave would do. It is working without many dramatic
developments (it has small and subtle changes, rather than
developments, so I guess it's not that static), but rather a sound
environment that works rather nicely when played softly and perhaps
put on repeat for a day or two. There are five variations on this CD
however, which might make a repeated playing somewhat more
difficult: the flow will be interrupted. (Frans De Waard)

TOUCHING EXTREMES (June 2006)
Recording in natural settings has recently become a sort of "can't
miss" experience for many multi-talented composers, yet I can't
seem to remember anyone - other than Andrew Deutsch - having the
idea of recording ocean waves (in this occasion, New Hampshire's)
and put them through a processing apparatus in order to let us
discover "the voice of the sea". This happens courtesy of a tone
generator which recognizes certain frequencies in the waves and
responds accordingly; the sublime result is a collection of six deeply
touching static pieces that Deutsch defines "image drones/sounds
for drawing" as they should facilitate this kind of application. What
was directly experienced by yours truly is being conducted into a
suspended state of torpor, where the resonance game of the
shimmering pseudo choirs emitted by the ocean dissolves any kind
of tension, delivering our system both from expectation and fear,
finally wrapping us in a womb-like atmosphere of security which
could be sustained forever. (Massimo Ricci)

SONOMU (July 2006)
Molded out of the swelling ocean waves off Rye Beach, New
Hampshire, Andrew Deutsch claims that The Sun is a work of sound
art constructed in accordance with the "power field theories" of late
German artist Joseph Beuys, to whom this recording is dedicated.

Deutsch has more than merely achieved his goal of creating "static
music...that just shimmered in place"; he proves once again that he
is a master of the genre. As he did several years before with Loops
Over Land, where Deutsch took the quietest of moment out of their
contexts (as integral parts of Gustav Mahler´s compositions) and
wove together a pastoral of excruciating beauty, The Sun amazes by
how much one can do to a single sound source with a little
electronic processing. Or rather, while everybody and his brother can
process any kind of sound and make it sound completely different,
Deutsch is that rare artist at whose hands entirely brand new worlds
emerge.

Each of the five extended tracks are unique moments in time, each
creating a mood all its own while remaining subtle and coherent
throughout.

A music that will catch your eye like the sun dappling off the heaving
waves.... (Stephen Fruitman)

SMALLFISH (July 2006)
The Sun, ironically, was actually created using the sound of waves
from Rye Beach in New Hampshire. The sounds were then
processed and reconstructed to form a 'static' work that sits in place
and shimmers - like the sea, I guess. Concepts aside the work is
incredibly beautiful - a really soothing mixture of Kirschner /
Basinski-style filtering and manipulation coupled with a deep and
warming drone texture. This is one to put on and chill to or, in my
case, watch the world go by on a train. I'd love to hear it at the beach
though and feel that it may well make even more sense in that
environment. A delicious album. Recommended. (Mike Oliver)

E / I (Septmeber 2007)
With The Sun, Andrew Deutsch aims to construct a sound event that
is static, or which, at any rate, shimmers in its fixed place. Towards
this end, an ocean’s wave is adopted as the sound source which
becomes the object of an excessive fixation on the part of Deutsch.
Over the course of the work, however, the recording moves from its
largely immobile, frozen state, and comes alive as a spectral
apparition. What remains fixed, that is, what one experiences as
stationary, is the gaze of Deutsch itself. Through various digital
processing devices, then, Deutsch not only makes the ebb and flow
of the waves chime, rattle and clang along an expanded dynamic
range, he stands himself in as the frozen point of immobility,
creating a fine catch and retreat game between him and his source
sounds. Hovering clusters of organ-like notes and panoramic
spaces are thereby seen from a fascinating perspective, one that
participates in rather than frames the proceedings. Deutsch himself
makes efforts to point out that this is music specifically intended to
aid in the process of painting. While this work is no doubt
successful on that front, intentions be what they may, the simple
appearance of this work, with its sonorous humming and eloquent,
effulgent tones, is becoming in and of itself. (Max Schaefer)