DRAGON'S EYE RECORDINGS

Dragon’s Eye Recordings is an independent record label that focuses on limited edition and varied format releases from a growing roster of sound artists, composers, and producers. By showcasing the individual artists’ viewpoints, Dragon’s Eye acts as a platform for new, challenging, and provocative work. Founded by Paul Novak in 1989, as the audio/visual arm of Only Connect...Publications, the label was then relaunched by his son and Northwest-based sound artist Yann Novak to continue the family tradition of self publication. Novak has since expanded the label to publish works by artists whose voices he feels need to be heard. Dragon's Eye Recordings also acts as a companion label to Infrequency (CA).

Reviews

Audio Verité

Alan Lockett
E/I Magazine

WEBSITE

Sonic curator Yann Novak’s been buzzing and humming around Seattle spaces the last couple of years with a combo of installation art and field recording-based experimental electronica-cum-dronebient, accumulating a posse of kindred spirits as he goes. His Dragon’s Eye label and its roster have been quietly conducting various sonographies, as Novak’s space has opened out to extend beyond installation and studio to form an ever-growing hub around which avant-garde Seattleites have started to orbit.

Review

Claudio Baroni
ideabiografica

WEBSITE

Finalmente è arrivato l’autunno della mente con tutti i suoi rumori.

Claudio

Parte prima.

Forse amarti è non fartelo capire mai, aver voglia di piangere e offrirti il viso sereno (Cinzia)

Parte Seconda.

Words by claudio baroni

Una volta – ma non poi tanto tempo fa - Seattle divenne famosa in tutto il mondo per due fatti: il primo fu il telefilm “Twin Peaks” creato da quel genio (termine che molto probabilmente in questo mio elaborato verrà forse abusato, e me ne scuso) di David Lynch, ed appunto girato nei boschi della cittadina americana. E poi la nascita di un movimento musicale e di stile di vita denominato grunge. L’etichetta discografica a cui facevano riferimento differenti gruppi era la Sub Pop, con gli allora impavidi - ed in erba - “geniali” Nirvana. Oggi (anno 2007) la Sub Pop esiste ancora, per fortuna, ma la sua merce si distacca nettamente da quella immessa sul mercato negli anni novanta…

Parte Terza.

La Dragon’s Eye Recordings stanziata in quel di Seattle - Wa 98104 potrebbe - in un certo senso, raccogliere l’eredità morale ed indipendente della Sub Pop. Anche la Dragon’s Eye è una label di culto, anzi di (stra)culto. Gli artisti (“geniali” veramente!), e la musica che propone la Dragon’s si distaccano però nettamente dal rock virulento delle bands Sub Pop(iane). In quanto l’Eye Recordings (nata nel 1989, con una conduzione prettamente famigliare, proprio come quei ristorantini di campagna…) getta sul mercato edizioni ultra limitate di opere “prelibate”, ma dall’approccio alquanto ostico. Vogliamo scrivere, perché no, di “Auditorium” by Yann Novak and Jamie Drouin che si accoppia degnamente con il “freddo polare” di “Intermission” sempre interpretato da Yann Novak ?

Pausa.
…
…

Parte quarta.

Atmosfere. Questi delicati dischetti (che fanno le fusa come dei gattini) predicano atmosfere a perdifiato. Drone (letteralmente ronzii) che sconfigurano ambienti caldi ed eccitanti. Addirittura siamo al punto di chiederci se si potrebbe definire “musica” quella proposta da Wyndell Hunt (“Nk Ak”), artista originario di Seattle che assembla partiture soniche al limite del rumore puro. Ed ancora suoni digitali e discontinui come quelli di Tyler Potts (“The Deluge”), un anfratto roboante, dove c'è da chiedersi come le sette note possono avere ancora qualcosa da dire. Niente rock, niente pop, niente jazz; solamente pura e naturale improvvisazione coadiuvata dalle macchine. Macchine intese come Personal Computer. Personal Computer che hanno invaso la vita dell’essere umano, cambiandola quasi radicalmente. E forse tutto questo mi fa un po' paura…

Parte quinta.

E’ la rivolta – forse benevola e pacifica - dei robot/pc sul cervello “umanoide”. Amore per l’arte e l’electronica estesa all’ennesima potenza. Un’estremizzazione quasi spaventosa, dove l’uomo riesce finalmente ad interagire con i non-strumenti, ovvero loop che si agitano come spiriti benigni. Sample che rimarcano la loro indipendenza e la loro estraneità a qualsiasi movimento o classificazione. Dopo tanto caldo è iniziata l’era del disgelo artistico, con nuvole ripulite per godere finalmente di un nuovo cielo.

Label Overview

Barry G Nichols
White_Line

WEBSITE

Sound installation is very often delineated as a broad discursive field, its participants invariably wildly fluctuating between the disciplines of musicality and sonic exploration, or generally, a discrete merging of the two.

Commercially,(financially) this presents both label/publisher, and audience/listener with a seemingly unresolvable problem..how to effectively market a recorded product and reach the target audience, and how to encourage that audience to then follow not only the artist in his/or her development, but also the label/publisher through its own evolution.

Dragon’s Eye is an organisation that was initiated to address this dichotomy, at once acknowledging that it’s audience is highly specialised, and therefore limited, whilst at the same time using that speciality as a unique selling point. In their own words, they “..exist to make new, challenging, and provocative work available to the public free from the constraints of consumption based society.”

Quite what those constraints may be, are not up for discussion here, except that “consumption based society” is perhaps seen to represent those elements of the art/music world that are deemed to be either popular/populist, and consisting of work that is effortlessly assimilated and absorbed, therefore not representing a challenge to it’s audience, and following tried and tested remedies and routines. Dragon’s Eye set out their stall with disarming honesty and integrity, and have taken as their model, similar projects with overlapping intentions- the simple, crisp design ethic almost certainly emulates the highly successful L-NE series of releases, and the editions run from series of 100 to 300 copies, depending upon the format (CD/CDR).

Curated and run by Yann Novak, who recently participated in Canada’s prestigious Mutek event, Dragon’s Eye currently has a small roster of artists who produce sound work for galleries, and commissioned pieces specifically for CD reproduction. This is a mixed bag, offering everything from the audible documents of an actual installation event (Intermission by Novak himself DE5011) to the sublime musical interludes and interventions of Tyler Potts on “The Deluge” DE5013. Intermission is something of an endurance test, even for hardened auditors like myself, although its subtle drones and hums provide a serene backdrop to my humdrum existence. As an installation, it must have been wondrous to behold, as two interlocked vinyl rooms were gently inflated and deflated , literally breathing cyclically over a period of time like the lungs of some ethereal home, this release would have benefitted from a visual element, perhaps as a DVD, or accompanied by a booklet or some images. Wyndel Hunt’s “NK AK” DE5012 is another limited edition CDR that splatters visceral sounds across a canvas of white noise, encompassing subtle rhythms and digital gestures. This is not the amped up extremism of Merzbow, rather a subtle interplay of digital elements and analog drones that create a dense, gauzy textural work. The Son of Rose release, “Divisions in Parallel” DER002 is one of the label’s official CD releases in an edition of 800, and quite rightly deserves pride of place in the roster. This is an impressive foray into the world of electro-acoustic improvisation, positioning itself somewhere between the shifting digital composition of Sogar and T’uum, this is definitely a release worthy of it’s pressing run (I’m sure 800 copies will fly out). Finally, Novak appears again, with collaborator and spiritual counterpart, Jamie Drouin, this time on another official CD release in an edition of 400. “Auditorium” DER001 takes a physical auditorium space as its point of departure, and using it’s natural resonance to create a layered textural field, a series of perspectival shifts that shimmer and drone, hovering in and out of focus, a sound that intentionally blurs the boundaries of the inner and the outer world.

Overall, Dragon’s Eye is an outfit worthy of your attention, bridging gaps and exploring parameters, it neatly encompasses a minimalist approach, and combines it with a sophisticated and intelligent aesthetic. Given time, I am sure it will develop and evolve into a fascinating collection of releases that will grace the shelves of serious listeners and would be sound artists alike. What are you waiting for? I recommend that you connect.

Audio Verité

Darren Bergstein
e/i magazine

WEBSITE

Sound artisan Novak’s been making quite a splash this past year or two in and about the Seattle vacuum. In fact, the Pacific Northwest’s been gesticulating so vibrantly, theirs is installation art with a vengeance: we’re not talking ear canal assault per se, but Novak, his label and their roster of artists are, if anything, shaking the foundations. Quietly so, though; a good portion of the music released across the Dragon’s Eye bandwidth investigates the microplasma of sound, the ensuing “melee” echoes of determined folks proceeding apace in the urban moderne surrounding the Space Needle.

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A Rose by any other name surely won’t sound as sweet, evidenced further by Sadeghi’s atomizing contribution to the label’s Paper com, “Reunion,” which finds the composer’s strangulated noise loops spiralling ever upward in angelic, concentric circles. He’s in fine form here, as are fellow label entrees Wyndel Hunt (EKG beeps lost in bell trills), Yann Novak (low-key hushush ancient ambience), Tyler Potts (superstring loops cascading over Photoshopped waterfalls), Heavy Lids (crippled bloops dripping amongst Minamo-esque un-guitars) and Ear Venom, who finish the collection off with “Smasher & the Harar Horse,” forcefeeding enough “medieval” scrim and forestral ambulatory distortion to soundtrack an old Sam Raimi zombie pic. Soft (and stealthly) come the Dragons, indeed.

Review

Stephen Fruitman
Sonomu.net

WEBSITE

Dragon´s Eye Recordings is a label that seems to put as much thought and care into the packaging of its music as into the music itself. And why not? While you cannot tell the proverbial book from its cover, it is in fact the cover that the music will be spending most of its life in, either on your shelf or in your hand. Why shouldn´t it be as attractive as possible? Each release, regardless of size, is an appealingly austere masterpiece.

Microscopic Masterpieces

Kathy F. Mahdoubi
The Stranger

WEBSITE

Decibel's Experimental Showcase, cocurated this year by local artist nonprofit, Nonsequitur, will also present Dragon's Eye Recordings' Yann Novak and Kamran Sadeghi's sound project, Son of Rose.

Last spring Novak released Meadowsweet, a heartbreaking tincture of ghostly field recordings and haunted herringbone drones. Sadeghi's "Reunion," from the DER compilation, Paper, is the algorithmic epitome of bundled nerves ignited in tidal hissing, rapid bolts of chemical voltage, and other visceral intonations.

Data Breaker

Dave Segal
The Stranger

WEBSITE

It seems as if I've been writing a lot about Seattle-based Dragon's Eye Recordings. But I don't feel bad about it, because the label, run by producer/visual artist Yann Novak, is staking out brilliant, fresh territory on a consistent basis. I can state unequivocally that nobody else in the city is doing what DER has accomplished in its brief history.

Some record labels choose to be rampantly eclectic (e.g., Ghostly International/Spectral Sound, Fabric, Leaf, FatCat, Mush). That approach is admirable, though it tends to make for wildly inconsistent catalogs. Other imprints favor the coherent, almost monolithic aesthetic (e.g., Perlon, M-nus, ~scape, Chain Reaction); when curated by an intelligent boss, such companies can produce works that resonate on a more profound level. It's as if each release complements and elaborates upon the others, so that they form a cogent thesis statement that becomes reinforced with each new entry in the discography. DER is firmly in the second camp under discussion. Novak says the label "stands as an outlet for the unusual, celebrating diverse media content and fosters an environment where artists are provided an alternative platform to release, develop, and promote exciting projects and creative excursions."

To celebrate its first anniversary, DER is releasing the Paper compilation and hosting two nights of live performances at Gallery 1412 on Saturday, August 5, and Sunday, August 6, from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. These weekend gigs will showcase all six artists who appear on Paper.

Novak himself leads off the comp with "Basilica di S. Maria Aracoeli," a warm, subliminally morphing drone that sounds as if it were channeled from a massive seashell and then blended with the underwater prayers of Buddhist monks. Son of Rose's "Reunion" gradually builds in intensity to a pebbledashed drone and tidal wash, and then finishes with a devastating bass frequency. On "Unfold," Wyndel Hunt explores the infinitesimal particles of sound that compose the never-ending hum of the universe—or perhaps he's just mutating with a vengeance the start-up sound of Apple computers. Either way, it's damned riveting.

Tyler Potts's "Still Happening" is a symphony of smeared bell tones and distorted bleeps that becomes increasingly frenzied as it progresses, until it's overcome with a remarkably tranquil, wavering airplane-engine drone. "Drum and Ghost" by Portland's Heavy Lids could be an opiated new track by Windy & Carl, with its ectoplasmic guitar meekly wailing over beats that pop like distant fireworks—very languid and liquid. Closing out the hour-long disc is Ear Venom's "Smasher & the Harar Horse," a mesmerizing, lo-fi procession that recalls Nurse with Wound's factory-shop desolation.

The music DER champions will likely appeal only to a small fraction of the population. But for those who appreciate musicians finding creative ways to stain the canvas with rarefied drones and unusual textures within a minimalist context, DER is becoming a rich source of sonic stimuli.

Oz & Ends

Maxwill Oz
e/i Magazine

WEBSITE

Seattle’s own Dragon’s Eye Recordings is not only that city’s best kept secret, they provide one of the better arguments in recent memory for the legitimacy of the CDR as recording format. Skinny clear jewel boxes shorn of tray card and booklet immediately bring Raster-Noton to mind, but Yann Novak’s label isn’t strictly an exercise in glitch politics as usual. In fact, Wyndel Hunt strikes me as a chap who’s yet to dump his Belgium EBM/Play It Again Sam stock. Fascillations fairly reeks of the swanky Euro bump ‘n’ grind so popular in those late 80s days pre-techno, slowed down and emasculated, but there all the same. It’s also shot through with test-card frequency phases and some good ‘ol fashioned U.S. grade-A prime noise for comfort, straight outta the RRR catalog. I’m there. Yann Novak himself could be any one of a dozen phonographers/field recordists, and, well, he is, thank you. He’s also got more ideas in his pinky than some of his colleagues have in all their DATs. Fade Dis/appearances just about defies easy categorization, if not criticism. A work such as “Julia With Flanking,” with its obtuse pulses, insectile thrush and burnished surfaces, puts to shame most sweathogs who labor intensely over the latest plug-in without finding a suitable plug to stick it in to; truth is, Mille Plateaux in its heyday would’ve killed for this (are you listening, dear Sirr?). Son Of Rose hath slayed me as well, his self-titled debut corrugated ambient/dronestuff that actually plays too coarse on the tongue to be, as goes the trad “ambient” definition, ignored. But it should be admired. “Baltic” goes from imperceptible blackness to snap, crackle ‘n’ pop so subtly, effectively and exuberantly your head’ll be days catching up. Then there’s Family Affair, the requisite label compilation, featuring all the above in addition to other comparés. This lot mandates Seattle be embossed on the proverbial map.

Unknow Pleasures

Eli Anderson
Resonance

Electronic music aficionados should investigate Novak’s fledgling record label, Dragon’s Eye Recordings (dragonseyerecordings.com). The label’s catalog includes an excellent recent disc by fellow Seattleite Son of Rose, who treads on similar less is more ground. Promising to bring even more underground artists to the world, Dragon’s Eye stands as a seal of quality for intellectual electronic music.

Slog

Dave Segal
The Stranger

WEBSITE

Seattle laptop producer Yann Novak’s album Fade Dis/Appearances received a positive review from Chris Sharp in The Wire’s October 2005 issue (see page 69; the review isn’t online). It’s quite a feat for a release on a tiny label such as Novak’s Dragon’s Eye to get ink in the highly respected U.K. magazine. Sharp compared one track to Gavin Bryars and deemed the disc “an assured and distinctive success.” Congratulations to this promising recording artist whose label is becoming a fecund source of challenging abstract electronica.