The Soft Bit, by Jana Irmert

The Soft Bit

by Jana Irmert

supported by

Oliver Heil i like the metallic atmosphere.. this minimalism with the hesitant charm of a clove out of nowhere

JM I've been listening to this nearly every day since its release two weeks ago. One of my favorite albums of the last several years, I can tell this one will be with me for a long time to come. Favorite track: Everything Minus All.

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Cover printed on uncoated 350g/qm paper and pressed on clear blue vinyl.

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1.	Lament 06:32	buy track
2.	Against Light 06:20	buy track
3.	The Soft Bit 06:54	buy track
4.	Of Air 04:08	buy track
5.	Without Thought 06:29	buy track
6.	Underneath 05:33	buy track
7.	Granite 01:55	buy track
8.	Everything Minus All 08:39	buy track

about

With her fourth album "The Soft Bit", sound artist and composer Jana Irmert explores the materiality of sounds. Using manipulated field recordings, voice samples and synthesizer sounds, she carves out electronic soundscapes as if she were using sonar in deep darkness. Jana Irmert's artistic output takes on various forms – from live performance and multichannel composition to collaborations with filmmakers, dancers and visual artists. In 2019 she received the German Documentary Film Music Award, in 2021 she has been nominated for an Edda Award for her sound design on Jóhann Jóhannsson's film "Last and First Men".

Artist Notes:

"The compositions for this album were shaped over the course of one year, at first without a concept or storyline as a starting point. Yet what I became increasingly interested in was a kind of sensory aspect of sounds. I felt I wanted to get closer to the sounds, feel their structure and surface and how they contrast each other.

stick your hands into the sand and feel the grains against your skin.

Throughout the musical process, I used materials like metal, water, sand and air in a very direct and maybe more raw way to create and record sounds than I did in previous works, where I had often manipulated field recordings that had a more ambient character and thus strongly carried the location of origin in them. So in a sense, for the compositions of this album, I used sounds without a place, or just an expression of the sound of the particular material itself.

submerge yourself in water and listen to the sounds you hear.

It turned out the processed sounds resulting from hard materials would often have soft and tonal qualities whereas those made from "soft" materials like water or air would ultimately be of percussive or harsh and noisy character. Finishing the compositions was like feeling along the surfaces of the single pieces with closed eyes, making out their shape and outline inch by inch. Maybe this is why to me, some of the compositions feel solidified like pieces of rock, while others seem to be ready to evaporate into air.

stand as still as you can and feel the air moving against your face."

credits

released June 18, 2021

all tracks produced and mixed by Jana Irmert
Mastered by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering, Berlin
Photography by Camille Blake
Design by Scott Massey
© 2021 Fabrique Records, LC-12713
Cat. No.: FAB088

Supported by Initiative Musik gGmbH with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media

license

about

Jana Irmert Berlin, Germany

Berlin based sound artist and composer.

discography

Time Piece

Jun 2023
What Happens At Night

Apr 2022
The Soft Bit

Jun 2021
Everything minus all

Jun 2020
Cusp

Jan 2020
FLOOD

Jul 2018
End of Absence

Oct 2016

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