Prixars 2003

[vze26m98 <vze26m98@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This years winners in the Digital Musics category:

Digital Musics - Golden Nica:

Ami Yoshida, Sachiko M, Utah Kawasaki / F.M.N. Sound Factory (Japan):
"Astro Twin / Cosmos"
White noise, tuning pitches and a voice more reminiscent of a howl than
of singing: these are the ingredients from which the Astro Twins Ami
Yoshida and Utah Kawasaki mix their shrill performances - disturbing at
first hearing, but fascinating as one becomes accustomed. Ami Yoshida,
however, is not only one half of the Astro Twins; under the name of
"Cosmos" she also appears on the musical stage together with Sachiko M.
With her daring performances and her highly individual style, Ami
Yoshida wins the Golden Nica for the "Astro Twins" and "Cosmos" double
album.

Digital Musics - Distinction:

Florian Hecker / Mego (Germany / Austria): "Sun Pandämonium"
Florian Hecker is a core member of the "mego" label that won a
Distinction in 1999. Since 1996, he has left his mark on the style of
this much-talked-about artists' group. He focuses on live performances
and on the development of artistic uses for new production formats like
MP3. His CD "Sun Pandämonium" shows the enormous bandwidth of what is
summed up under the "noise" heading in digital jargon.

Maja Ratkje, Jazzkammer: John Hegre, Lasse Marhaug (Norway): "voice"
The Norwegian experimental artist Maja Ratkje operates exclusively with
her voice - no wonder that "voice" is the title of her first solo album.
Improvised and composed parts are fused into an entity that may be
confusing for the listener. The vocalist who has been awarded several
prizes in her home country tackles the task of fathoming the human voice
in combination with electronic media by taking them to the absolute
limits of feasibility and sometimes endurance. "Not a CD for the heart,
but remarkable in any case," is what one critic wrote of "voice."

Digital Musics - Honorable Mentions:
     
TRISTE                          Oren Ambarchi   AUS
risk                            Gert-Jan Prins  NED
foldings                        Mark Wastell, Tetuzi Akiyama,
                                Toshimaru Nakamura, Taku Sugimoto;
                                confront    UK
Bird Seed                       Whitehouse; Susan Lawly UK
The Movement of People Working  Phill Niblock; Extreme Records  AUS
Sheer Hellish Miasma            Kevin Drumm USA
Director's Cut                  Rechenzentrum   GER
pieces of air                   Toshiya Tsunoda; Lucky Kitchen  JPN
Journal de Tokyo                Yuko Nexus6; Sonore Records JPN
HUMPA.ZERKÖRPERT                Rudolf Eb.er    JPN
Hard ni sasete (make me hard)   Noriko Tsujiko  FRA
nymphomatriarch                 venetian snares CDN