With its first release in 1982, Touch initially created sonic and visual productions that combined innovation with a level of care and attention under that care of highly-regarded visual designer Jon Wozencroft, Mike Harding, Neville Brody and the Hafler Trio's Andrew McKenzie, who left the label after disagreements with the other owners. Many early releases also featured design contributions from Panni Charrington.
These days Touch is a two-man operation: Mike Harding and Jon Wozencroft. In recent years, Touch is most known for its contemporary electronica releases by the likes of Fennesz, Biosphere, BJNilsen, Ryoji Ikeda, Mika Vainio, and the highly-acclaimed field recordings of Chris Watson.
From the start Touch never considered itself to be a record label, but more an audiovisual arts publishers releasing anything that interested the founders: manifestos, literature, visual art etc. Jon Wozencroft speaking about Touch, *surface magazine, Autumn 2000: "When we launched it, we envisioned Touch as the world's first 'audiovisual' label. We repeat, endlessly, 'Touch is not a Record Label!'. We depend more or less on a long-developed support system with the artists with whom we work and the key people who act as our antennae. It's all based around collaborations. We publish music and artworks in small editions just as a printmaker or photographer might make an edition of their work to sell in a gallery. Except we have to put up with the vagaries of the distribution system open to us, and its perception of where we should 'fit' - or not."
This Album is featured in Update #041:
Magda, Martyn, Modeselektor
Compilations have been the big thing this November, and no matter whether your poison's techno, dubstep, juke, or hip-hop, this month had something in store for you: Ostgut Ton's 'Fünf', Modeselektor's 'Modeselektion', Ghettophiles 'Overkill' and Listen Up's more...
Touch release the mesmerizing debut album of young Iranian producer Sohrab. 'A Hidden Place' is a griping document of an artist's cultural isolation and his displacement within his own country. Melancholic string notes and field recordings carry this beautifully fragile album.