William Basinski and Richard Chartier


Aurora Liminalis cover

With about 60 releases since 2000, the LINE (L-NE) IMPRINT label has built a firm reputation as “a programmatic sound platform with a strong inclination towards the visual arts and multimedia, born from the desire to take the tactile qualities of audio installations from the gallery space to listeners’ living rooms.”

Curated by Richard Chartier, LINE not only releases impressive sound art CD’s, but also DVD’s and Artwork Prints.

With its focus on audio/multimedia installations, mostly electronic by nature, LINE aims at the more ‘serious’ –  investigative – listener: this is definitely no ‘pop-ambient’ label. If you insist on comparisions, the label may be best compared to Raster-Noton, in style and artistic approach.  

At the start of 2013, LINE announced an impressive series of new releases, of which the new collaboration by William Basinski and Richard Chartier may obtain the most attention.
But in fact, the other releases deserve your attention as much. I’ve combined the four latest releases in these two posts, demonstrating the versatile output of the LINE label.

Fovea Hex – Here Is Where We Used To Sing

The music that is presented on Here Is Where We Used To Sing” is not the kind of music usually presented here on Ambientblog.
But ever since their impressive debut release “Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent” I have a weakness for all things Fovea Hex. 

Apart from that, they are closely connected to the ambient music scene because of the musicians involved in the project, and expecially for the extremely mininal drone remixes that come with the special editions of their albums.