 number 1015
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week 2 ---------------------
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FEDERICO DURAND - A TRAVES DEL ESPEJO (CD by 12K) * CARLO COSTA - STRATA (CD by Neither/Nor) * VALERIE KUEHNE & THE WASPS NESTS – THE APOCALYPSE AS WITNESSED BY A SLICE OF AMERICAN CHEESE (CD by Gold Bolus Recordings) BROADCLOTH - IN STITCHES (CD by Gold Bolus Recordings) ADAM GOLEBIEWSKI - IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES (CD, private) * THE JOY OF NATURE - A RODA DO TEMPO (CD by Cynfeirdd) * REGLER - REGEL #5 (CLASSICAL MUSIC) (CD by Nuenirecs) * MATTIN - ANTI SOCIAL REALISM (DVD-R by Kwanyin) JANEK SCHAEFER/BAS MANTEL - WORLD NEWS (3"CD by Rev Laboratories) * VORTEX/J-KRISTOFF CAMPS - LE GRAND ATTRACTEUR (LP by Un Reve Nu) ELOISE DECAZES & DELPHINE DORA - FOLK SONGS CYCLE (10" by Okraina Records) ED SANDERS - YIDDISH SPEAKING SOCIALISTS OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE (10" by Okraina Records) MAZUT - 1 (CDR by BDTA) * ORPHAX - DREAM SEQUENCE #2 (3"CDR, private) * FEDERICO DURAND - A TRAVES DEL ESPEJO (CD by 12K) By now you must be familiar with the name Federico Durand, with his releases on Spekk, Own and Desire Path, either solo or with the duo Melodia. Apparently, like other musicians from Argentina, he's big in Japan and plays a lot of concerts over there. In 2014 he bumped into Taylor Deupree, head honcho of 12K and became friends and that friendship now brings us this album of new solo pieces, all inspired (apparently as always) by his family. The cover lists all of his instruments, which makes an interesting read: "Auris lyre hammered with a black pencil, synthesizer, piano, music boxes, Roland Space Echo RE-201, Ehx 2880, Mackie 402VLZ4, hokema, little objects, crystal cups bowed with a penknife, Koshi chime, Fostex X18, contact microphone, minidisc, Sony TCM-200DV, owl of wood, tape loops, scissor and masking tape"; I guess it sums up his love for small objects and all things analogue. I understand also that much of what Durand does is hands-on: playing all of this with his two hands and looping stuff on the spot, thus creating this very intimate sound his music always seem to have. More than before it seems we now hear snippets of voices, maybe from around his own house, children voices. It is perhaps a reminder of home-life when he is on the road? For me it's also another reminder: that of the music of Dominique Petitgand, who was also an avid taper of domestic life, and who also used small instruments around these home recordings; there is however one distinction and that is that for Petitgand it was almost obligatory to use them in every track, whereas Durand uses it more sparsely. For him the sound of his 'toys' play the most crucial role, and it makes his work less of a radio-play and it seems to be using a bit more melody, which he loops around and creates beautiful hissy pieces of music with. Sometimes, such as in 'Linternas Junto A La Laguna (Lanterns beside the lake)', the cassette hiss forms even the most substantial part of the composition but usually it's a few sparse notes on the piano, a bow playing a small object to create some overtones, and everything pitched up and down, to form a web of small tones, intertwining with each other. All of this is a highly natural setting, free from digital processing or other computer tricks. In the official world of music journalism one would say 'honest' music. I don't believe in such notions. But I'd say this is highly personal music, without caring too much about 'styles', 'trends' or 'scenes' and this is some damn fine release. (FdW) Address: http://www.12k.com CARLO COSTA - STRATA (CD by Neither/Nor) Ah, the post Christmas dip is here. Or is that: January, the dullest month of the year? Anyway, maybe labels need to awake and get going again, so sometimes there is not a lot to review and all the more time to listen closely to what there is. Carlos Costa is a percussion player as well as a composer and he was born in Rome, but since 2005 lives in New York, where he has various projects, such as Nature Morte with bassist Sean Ali and violinist Frantz Loriot, a self named quartet and various duos, but his most ambitious project is the ensemble Acustica. Here we thirteen musicians, trumpets, flutes, saxophones, electric guitar, violin, piano and all such like, and it's this ensemble that performs 'Strata'. Referring to layers of soil and sedimentary rock, we find here various layers of sound being played in various combinations and configurations. As you can imagine with such a large ensemble there is an orchestral feel to this music, and there surely is. There is a modern classical feel to this music, but that seems to be just one part of it. With all my limited knowledge of such matters, there is also an element in here of improvisation and treating the instruments in more unusual ways - mildly that is, as it never seems to be very present. It's interesting to hear this, follow a particular instrument, say the piano, and hear it play with a few of the others, and then, bumping along into another one, before disappearing itself; it's all of these small changes, however rapid these are (as this is not at all minimal music per se) and how these layers overlap each other in varying patterns. There is around the thirty-minute break quite a dramatic climax, noisy even, which added to the tension this piece has. Sometimes this tension is high and forceful, but it can also be likewise be small, quiet and creepy. This is not something to put on and play while doing something else. Sit down and listen: that is what this music requires. Not something for every moment of the day. (FdW) Address: http://www.neithernorrecords.com VALERIE KUEHNE & THE WASPS NESTS – THE APOCALYPSE AS WITNESSED BY A SLICE OF AMERICAN CHEESE (CD by Gold Bolus Recordings) BROADCLOTH - IN STITCHES (CD by Gold Bolus Recordings) Gold Bolus Recordings, a new label for me. It started as an outlet for the music of Dave Ruder, a multidisciplinary artist from Brooklyn. Nowadays the label is focussed on contemporary experimental music from NYC. Two of these projects are presented here with these two cd releases. The Wasps Nests are Natalia Steinbach (violin, vocals), Jeffrey Young violin, vocals), Alex Cohen (drums), plus Valerie Kuehne (cello, vocals,). In the Closing track ‘TEN’ they are assisted by Prehistoric Horse: David Grollman (percussion), and Lucio Menegon (guitar). Their music is song- oriented, composed by performer and free spirit Valerie Kuehne. It is close to performance and theatrical arts. Vocals and text are important. They reflect a research and obsession with American cheese, and thoughts about disintegration of society. Broadcloth is an interesting combo of Anne Rhodes (voice), Nathan Bontrager (cello, voice) and Adam Matlock (accordion, recorder ,voice). A young trio. Their debut album ‘In Stitches’ was recorded during a few months period in 2011 in a studio in Milford. We find eight tracks on their album, some of them composed by individual members, others by all three of them. Also there is one traditional folk tune included ( ŽIdumaeaŽ). Their music is situated somewhere between improvised and contemporary composed music. Most of it is composed I think. Compared to The Wasp Nests these musicians are more advanced players. But why compare? Both do their own thing. Besides their surprising instrumentation, it is singer Anne Rhodes who is most impressive. She did a lot of opera work, as well performing works by Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier, a.o. The trio delivers a clever work of lively modern music. (DM) Address: http://www.goldbolus.com ADAM GOLEBIEWSKI - IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES (CD, private) Quite hot on the heels of his previous release 'Pool North' (see Vital Weekly 1005), Adam Golebiewski from Poland returns with a more ambitious project: a book with mainly pictures and a short text about an installation he did called 'In Front Of Their Eyes'. This includes a set of binaural microphones, a drum and a performer. The binaural are placed inside the drum and the sound is transmitted into a dark room where people listen with headphones. But with the binaural microphones (on a dummy head) are very close to where the action takes place, it's all very loud, which is exactly the idea of Golebiewski. This is somewhere in between a concert and a sound installation, as someone needs to play the drum. Over the period of a few days Golebiewski performed his piece and the results can be heard on the four pieces of this disc. This is quite a heavy listening experience, I think. The recording, while purely acoustic, sound indeed very close-by and Golebiewski plays the drum with a number of objects and the result is very noise-based, but dry and clean. It's right in your face, this music, it cracks your head open in a very loud way. Objects scratch all over the surface, resulting in high piercing sounds, almost like feedback. This is some very intense improvised music; almost like an all-acoustic Merzbow record, but perhaps there is more going on here than on an average Merzbow record. Golebiewski plays with furious intensity on a single object, the drum, with a multitude of objects to create some of the more aggressive sounds possible. This is an excellent release, both a stand-alone music release and art catalogue. The only pity that the only website mentioned (see below) just has an address to write to but nothing else. Maybe the website needs a bit of updating. (FdW) Address: http://adamgolebiewski.com/Adam_Goebiewski.html THE JOY OF NATURE - A RODA DO TEMPO (CD by Cynfeirdd) The two previous releases by The Joy Of Nature (originally called The Joy Of Nature And Discipline) were reviewed by someone other than myself (see Vital Weekly 764 and 832), so this must my first introduction to their music. This band is from the Azores, which might also be a first for me. The title of their new release translates as 'the wheel of time', maybe inspired by the book series? It could be, as the musical world of The Joy of Nature could be that of a phantasy world. The lyrics used by Luis Couto, the main man here, were inspired by many sources, from traditional poetry of the Azores to Celtic people and ancient Chinese poetry and all deal with cyclical nature of time. Musically The Joy of Nature sounds like anything but what I usually hear for these pages. It's partly folk like but it comes with a lot more rock instruments. Guitars play the biggest role, but drums and bass are also present. It is perhaps something that I would also call 'gothic', but I always enjoy 'Aion' by Dead Can Dance (actually pretty much all of their releases), so I occasionally dig this kind of music. And I did also like this album, at least 2/3s of it. Like with many releases, certainly if it's more or less a band, I think the length of a LP, say forty minutes max, is the right length. That also goes for The Joy of Nature. The strumming of guitars, the deep melancholic voice, and the mediaeval sounding strings, the pounding of the drums: it all works quite well, but after about ten (out of sixteen) pieces my interest started to wane. It doesn't help, I guess, that the lyrics aren't always to be understood, even if they are in English (which I believe they sometimes are). On a cold Monday in January, the bleakest of all months (and it's not even blue Monday!) this is however some perfect doom and gloom music. Sometimes sit and sulk is the best remedy against depression and The Joy Of Nature has the best soundtrack (FdW) Address: http://www.infrastition.com/index.php/en/ REGLER - REGEL #5 (CLASSICAL MUSIC) (CD by Nuenirecs) MATTIN - ANTI SOCIAL REALISM (DVD-R by Kwanyin) So far I quite enjoyed the music of Regler, Mattin (on guitar) and Anders Bryngelsson (on drums) in which they "set up rules and try to do different genres of music with rock instruments", and so far they tackled 'dbeat' ('Regel 1', see Vital Weekly 966) and 'dub' ('Regel 2', see Vital Weekly 966), free jazz ('Regel 3', see Vital Weekly 957) harsh noise wall ('Regel 4', see Vital Weekly 983), all with quite diverse results, ranging from the very loud to the very quiet. For 'Regel #5' they perform a piece by Manfred Werder, from the Wandelweiser group, which is modern classical music, all about very quiet music. The piece has a Walter Benjamin quote as a guiding principle, about how he got home and fell asleep, for a few seconds. It's in German on the cover. Scores are open ended in the world of Wandelweiser (as far as I know), so who knows? Maybe Regler does exactly what is required and perform a very silent piece. What do we hear? Two people stumbling into a room and rumble about for a bit and then, perhaps, fall asleep. Beyond the ten-minute break we don't hear much anymore, just some static hiss and very occasional a rumble - the musicians fell asleep, as depicted on the inside of the cover. This is music that is about something else and it's music that is about music, about listening. I quite enjoyed their previous releases, but in this instance I am not entirely convinced, I must say. I am already aware of silence, silent music and all that rattling of John Cages. I understand the concept of silence, or the absence of it, and I simply prefer a great piece of music. Likewise I had some trouble with Mattin's DVD-R release. On the cover I read "in 2004, Sub Jam established its sub-label: Kwanyin Records. in 2010, Kwanyin starts 'Mini Kwanyin' series. CDR. limited copies. unified package. hand produce. the value of CD (or CRR, vinyl, etc) is not as medium of music. but how it build relationship with people. this is a series of guerilla publishing. it awaking more sounds" plus what I assume is the same text in Japanese. When you open it up it has one static image that says 'anti social realism' in four languages and that's it. Static as in not-moving - it's not a film of a particular length with a single frame, it's a single frame. I barely know how to review music after thirty years; reviewing conceptual art is not something I can do at all. (FdW) Address: http://www.nuenirecs.com JANEK SCHAEFER/BAS MANTEL - WORLD NEWS (3"CD by Rev Laboratories) So far Amsterdam based label Rev Laboratories worked together with Aagoo Records for their releases, and so far much of this deals with handling the visual side of the releases (check for instance Vital Weekly 881 and 906), but perhaps Bas Mantel (from Rev Laboratories) was also responsible for curating the musical sides of these projects? He is surely now, on this 3"CD and booklet. The booklet takes the size of a newspaper (tabloid size) and deals with 'claustrophic revelations, silent confessions and tormenting nightmares. Its source material is taken from several international newspapers over the period May 03 to May 10, 2014". It comes to you in stark black and white, like cut-up poetry in the best dada style (soon celebrating 100 years of the Cabaret Voltaire, mind you! - if of course that has any relevance on this particular project). It looks great I think. I am not sure of course, but it might very well be that Janek Schaefer takes his source material from radio sources (more world news!) and to various degrees processes these. In 'This World', the opening piece, this is most present, with various radio signals floating about in the mix. This world sometimes makes you insane. In 'Our World' Schaefer turns towards his family with something that sounds like recorded in a war zone, with somebody (Schaefer perhaps) telling us about explosions outside and that his daughter is sleeping beside him, but in the end he goes to sleep again, all of this with a fine, dark drone based undercurrent. 'Imagine A World' is news from the future world, which may not always be bright if we don't look at the changes of our climate. The final piece is 'Another World' there is not much spoken word, but perhaps the lengthy, austere drones of this pieces is supposed to be a space ship transporting us to another dimension? This is quite a diverse release, with quite a bit of spoken word of varying sources and perhaps much like a newspaper has many voices. Both music and visuals make up an austere yet beautiful package. (FdW) Address: http://www.revlaboratories.com VORTEX/J-KRISTOFF CAMPS - LE GRAND ATTRACTEUR (LP by Un Reve Nu) The problem with language is that no one will be able to understand them all. It would be a good thing to reach out if you want to have some publicity outside your own field. Part of the press text is in French, part (a different one) in English. Handwritten it is also says 'the B-side contains some French words so maybe a French reviewer would be nice… maybe not…' I could send the record back to France and get a review made; I didn't. On the first side we have Vortex, a duo of Sebastien Cirotteau on amplified trumpet, tubes and snare drums and Heddy Boubaker on analogue modular synth. They have six pieces, which sound like they were improvised on the spot. It also seems they aren't particular careful musicians; everything rumbles and bursts, thrills and shakes. Vortex sound like a band that plays improvised music from a noisy perspective, but it's never something very over the top noise-like, with lots of distortion going on. All of their instruments don't sound like they are supposed to, and yet one can recognize easily the trumpet and the snare drum being played with objects. Boubaker adds some nasty tones from his modular set-up and these six pieces are quite vibrant and energetic, but it's a controlled form of energy; these two musicians know what they are supposed to do and to create a highly dynamic atmosphere. On the other side we find one J-Kristoff Camps, who takes samples out of each of the six pieces by Vortex to create a new piece. There are also some more cryptic messages: "The numbering (I assume of the pieces - FdW) also determined the time signature, so this remix is shaped as a 'dances suites'. These samples are extracted the "Blow Up" technique (i.e. screening process allowing to look for small details within the flow of sounds)". I vaguely understand the latter, not the first. Camps also added his own sounds: "Mocchitsuki in Nara, the Kyoto station, my kettle, a clock, a steam train, ululating (singing that is - FdW) from a protest and festive rally, a guitar" as well some others on instruments, and also 'extracts from police court case Minutes and from the Invisible Committee (Editions "La Fabrique")', which also is not quite clear. And there is the voice of Camps, who recites texts, rather than singing, whispering or shouting. The texts seem to be about a court case and recounts about his movements - at least if I understood this well. I must admit that this side does not blow me away. Partly because I didn't understand all that was said, but more so because it seemed to be largely based on the voice reciting a text, and samples seemed to be more to the background. That is usually the kind of thing I don't like - my bad of course. I am more the pure music-man and less the poetically inclined person. (FdW) Address: http://unrevenu.bandcamp.com/album/le-grand-attracteur ELOISE DECAZES & DELPHINE DORA - FOLK SONGS CYCLE (10" by Okraina Records) ED SANDERS - YIDDISH SPEAKING SOCIALISTS OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE (10" by Okraina Records) While my father had loads of classical music on record, very little was 'modern classical'. I think Stravinsky must have been the most modern, with one or two exceptions. One of these exceptions was 'Folk Songs' by Luigi Berio, sung by his then wife Cathy Berberian. These folk songs are a cycle of traditional songs, or songs of folk inspiration, from various countries and adapted by Berio, some fifty years ago. I was especially taken by 'I Wonder As I Wander', which is a US traditional. Now it's time for Eloise Decazes (vocals and on one piece piano) and Delphine Dora (piano, harmonium, field recordings, vocals) with a bit by one Mocke on guitar, to try their own version. When my father got rid of his records, I took the Berio LP to my own home, and, while it's tempting to play that before or after this one, I resisted. The instruments these ladies use are sparser than in the Berio version, in which some of the strings sound damn right frightening. That doesn't happen here, but the dual voices on these versions are actually great to hear, that makes a nice twist. Perhaps it adds to the folk character of the music - the sparse instruments making it all more intimate, but the expanded singing sound like it's being taped in an ancient bar, or at a campfire. All of this makes that it sounds more conventional than the original, it seems to me, but that's really not a problem; it offers something else, something different than the original and it works very well. Tomorrow I will dig out the original Berio recording. You may or may not know that Ed Sanders was the founder of the Fugs in 1964, a satirical and political band from the sixties, with songs about Vietnam, sex, drugs and all such niceties of those days. Sanders is the poet from the group, which is something that one finds present in his piece 'Yiddish Speaking Socialists Of The Lower East Side', which was first released in 19901 on cassette and now on this 10". It's solo and mono. Sanders recall the story of fifty-years history of Jewish militancy, from 1880's until the mid 1920's. About pogroms in Eastern Europe, escape from there and crossing the Atlantic and arriving in New York at Ellis Island and working for a small fee in sweat shops. I mainly am quoting the press text here. Sanders sings and recites his text while playing the 'pulse lyre' a small finger-operated synthesizer of his own invention, which has a great organ like quality to it. While I just wrote about the Vortex/J-Kristoff Camps record that voice stuff is not my cup of tea, the half-sung, half-spoken text of Sanders, with the accompaniment of an organ like sound is something that I actually quite enjoyed. Both of these records come with a great folk art full coloured sleeve and make these delightful art objects. (FdW) Address: http://okrainarecords.com/ MAZUT - 1 (CDR by BDTA) This is the first release by Polish duo Mazut, which consists of 'melody and rhythm' by Pawel Starzec and 'noise and structure' by Michal Turowski. They have been together since 2013, but after a few years of talking together about starting. On November 25th, 2015, they spend a few hours in their basement recording music, all ended up using the Yamaha MT50 four track recorder, and their equipment consists of stomp boxes, toy synthesizer, laptop, old radios, recorders, tapes found in dumpsters, 1970s microphones, simple generators and drum machine. While the original idea was to sound like Skullflower with 'drums and bass', they are now actually doing something similar but more mechanical: the drum machine plays a central role in these five long pieces (clocking at an hour), but around that monotonous hammering of the drum machine there is a lot of noise being spun. Mazut however keeps the balance right. The drum machine is never over taken by the noise; it's mid- tempo techno inspired beat dominates each of these five pieces and doesn't change much, save for the addition of some delay here and there. It is fed into a synthesizer or two, and there are also stand-alone generators of sine waves, square waves and such like. The effect that Mazut intends to each for, I would think, is something psychedelic, maybe trance-like, hallucinating. Maybe if you consumed the right (amount of) drugs then this altered state could be reached, but on a cold, uninspired grey Sunday late morning, sipping some coffee this is not the case. While I think the ideas behind each of these five pieces are not bad, I would also think that four of the five pieces are just way too long. Maybe this is sort of thing you can get away with in a concert situation (everybody dancing), but in the form a release I think it could benefit from some more rigorous editing. Once the marching rhythm of a piece is in place than you know pretty much what is going to happen: it stays in that place, save for some extra effects or in the first two songs 909 bassline - which is Mazut's most dance-like offering. Don't get me wrong: I actually do like this album, it is just that I think some of this is just too long and it could have benefitted from some bolder choices; it would have resulted in an even stronger album. (FdW) Address: http://bdta.bandcamp.com ORPHAX - DREAM SEQUENCE #2 (3"CDR, private) Last year I saw Orphax play a couple of concerts, three, as far as I can remember, and heard a whole bunch of his releases; well, maybe also three. I liked the concerts, as they are very pure musical expressions, and there is very little to see. From the releases I particular enjoyed the first instalment of 'Dream Sequence' (see Vital weekly 1001), where Sietse van Erve, aka Orphax, used an ancient home made synthesizer, and got no results that were much different from his drone world, but this was a particular atmospheric and very deep release. On th second release in this series all sounds are generated live, using a Casio SA10, one of those cheap instruments would-be synthesizer players used in the 80s (or would-be samplists if they have the SK1 or SK5). Some ancient keyboard always seems to be at the heart of the Orphax sound, but it's always feeding through a software tool called 'Audio Mulch' to get that extra drone out of there. Orphax' musical world is one obsessed with drones and as such many of the works may sound the same. Like before this new piece moves in between two sections, with a longer middle part in which the volume goes down a bit and the reverb up a bit more. This is, oddly enough the more industrial sounding part of the piece, a bit shrill. But in the two parts that bookend this softer yet shriller part, there is more use of low-end, mixed with the shrill sounds towards the end of the whole thing. My preference was with the more subdued opening nine minutes, which was all about the low end and which made this more of a follow-up to the first instalment than the rest of the piece. Throughout I thought this was well made but I preferred overall the first one to this second part. The more industrial these drones become, the less interested I seem to be. Keep ‘em warm and ambient! (FdW) Address: http://www.orphax.com • Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to anybody with an e-mail address. If you don't wish to receive this, then let us know. Any feedback is welcome <vital@vitalweekly.net>. Forward to your allies. Snail mail: Vital Weekly/Frans de Waard Acaciastraat 11 6521 NE Nijmegen The Netherlands All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), Dolf Mulder (DM) <dolf.mulder@hetnet.nl>, Niels Mark (NM), Jliat (Jliat), Freek Kinkelaar (FK), Jan-Kees Helms (JKH), Michael Tau (MT), Peter Johan Nijland (PJN) and others on a less regular basis. This is a copyright free publication, except where indicated, in which case permission has to be obtained from the respective author before reprinting any, or all of the desired text. The author has to be credited, and Vital Weekly has to be acknowledged at all times if any texts are used from it. The complete archive of Vital Weekly including search possibilities: http://www.vitalweekly.net • |