LAST DOMINION LOST – ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION (CD by The Epicurean/La Esencia)
FTARRI 5TH ANNIVERSARY (4CD by Ftarri/Meenna)
ROLAND KAYN – A LITTLE ELECTRONIC MILKY WAY OF SOUND (16CD by Frozen
Reeds) *
JULIEN OTTAVI – SECRETS TELLURIQUES (CD by Fibrr Records) *
JARL – HYPNOSIS COLOUR (CD by Reverse Alignment) *
INVENCIONES. LA OTRA VANGURADIA MUSICAL EN LATINOAMERICA 1976-1988
(2CD by Munster Records)
VISION OF DARKNESS IN IRANIAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (2CD by Cold Spring
Records)
MIREILLE CAPELLE WITH HERMESENSEMBLE – DO’UN (CD by audioMER) *
AUXHALL PLEASURE GARDENS – Same (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
ERIC ZINMAN – ZITHER GODS (CD by Improvising Beings)
KENT CARTER & SYLVAIN GUÉRINEAU – COULEUR DE L’EXIL (CD by Improvising
Beings)
RYOJI HOJITO & HUGUES VINCENT – STRANGE DAYS (CD by Improvising Beings)
BURTON GREENE – COMPENDIUM (SOLOS DUOS TRIOS) (2CD by Improvising Beings)
RAISON D’ETRE & TROUM – XIBIPIIO. IN AND OUT OF EXPERIENCE (CD by
Transgredient Records) *
HORST QUARTET – EDGED TIMBRE (CD by Intonema) *
KICKGUITARSINRUN – THERE AND BACK (DVD-R by Intonema) *
TRAX TEST (2LP by Ecstatic Records)
BASS COMMUNION – SISTERS OREGON (10” by Substantia Innominata)
PROTOCOL WARUM (CDR by Care Not Care) *
FRED LORCA – EVERY MOMENTITO (CDR, private) *
ZOUL – JISATSU (CDR by Bellerpark Records) *
PHILIP NUSSBAUM & DAS KRAULEN BRAUCHEN (CDR by Bellerpark Records) *
PLATZANGST – CALL BEFORE YOU DIG (cassette by Ota Tapes) *
LAST DOMINION LOST – ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION (CD by The Epicurean/La Esencia)
When all is said and done, the netherworldly rustles and rumbles and death gasps emanating from a
rotten earth of oblivion scream of departure, loss and desolation; of no remit but total and utter
terminus. Reaping the harvest of destruction and nefarious odors post-industrial’s masterminds Last
Dominion Lost wrest their mangled noises from decaying structures and decapitated shrines formerly
inhabited by breathing souls.
The sentiment here is oppressive and bleak, subjective as in: not even remotely machinelike –
there’s still some thin air and a weezer’s breath left, somewhere. Sirens of feedback run amok; trying to
hold on, to what?, for dear life disembodied screams fill stale and toxic nebulae. Chanting turns anxious
turns ominous turns dead-like, invoking notions of use, abuse, dis-use, uselessness. Desolation now.
Now, that may all sound like vintage Last Dominion Lost to most people’s ears, were it not the
group lost post-industrial grand-seigneur John Murphy in 2015. The album was finished without him,
however: carrying through Murphy’s ideas to produce an electronic record reflecting his experiences
while hospitalized and comatose, not in the least informed by a breathing machine from which the
bizarrest of sounds were emitted in a constant stream.
Last Dominion Lost carries this torch of initial inspiration with new members Till Brüggemann
(from Gerechtigkeits Liga) and guest performers Annie Stubbs, Lori Goldston and Nikolas Schreck.
There’s a constant flow of currents of air. Of gasps and winds. Of analog and electronic whooshes and
washes of noise storms. Caught in the midst of the hurricane there’s a deceptive ease and peace to
maybe be found. A delicate one that is – uncanny, scanning darkly, monitoring and preying on every
pulse.
Feedback feeding back upon itself – the load turning unbearable, yet the machinery plows and
churns on, loops, crawling, aggravating more than aggressive. And virtually non-regressive; that is…
while there are plenty of hints of for example SPK (nothing wrong there) on this record, Abomination
of Desolation affirms itself as a product from resolute icons of contemporary post-industrial, with one
of the keenest ears in the genre for spacious, bass-heavy and yet very vivid separation and timbre-
clarity in terms of recording and mixing. (SSK)
––– Address: http://the-epicurean.transformed.de/theepicurean.html
FTARRI 5TH ANNIVERSARY (4CD by Ftarri/Meenna)
Back in Vital Weekly 1000 I reviewed the 6 CDRs Ftarri released as part of their third anniversary,
now, sadly not in Vital Weekly 1100 (for the perfect symmetry of such things) I listen to the 4 CDs
they put out for the label’s fifth anniversary; leaving of course me to wonder what they did for the
fourth one? Each of the four CDs here has a title, which might be the program of the disc. ‘Ftarri Jam’,
‘Ftarri de Solos’ and ‘Scores At Ftarri’ are probably self-explanatory, but the first one is called ‘Ftarri
After Tomorrow’, which I am not entirely sure what that means; maybe it’s about the future of the
label? It’s not easy to say, judging by these five pieces here, but it could very well; or not. These pieces
deal with the label’s template of carefully improvised music, be it on violin/flute (by Yoko Ikeda/
Wakana Ikeda) or acoustic guitar (Takashi Masubuchi), which would find easily their wway onto a
regular disc of the label. It’s the modular synthesizer and samples of Hideka Umezawa (an excellent
piece this is) and the more drone minded synth and field recordings of Yoichi Kamimura that provide
something that is less represented in the label’s catalogue so far. Most enjoyable pieces, but perhaps
also because they are right inside the alley of Vital Weekly, I guess and so I wouldn’t mind seeing
more of that on the label, besides all the improvisation that they cover pretty well. This is a good,
varied start of the celebrations.
The second disc has single, thirty-three minute piece called ‘Ftarri Jam’ and is improvisation
session with Masahi Takashima (drums, G.I.T.M.), Yuma Takeshita (electro-bass), Yuji Ishihara
(drums), Atsushi Arakawa (electric guitar) and Fiona Lee (DIT electronics, objects) and is, perhaps
also a bit unlike Ftarri, quite a wild jam, and not so much the carefully and quiet get together that
one associates with the label. But of course setting up two drum kits is asking for a bit of power and
in the process a lot of chaos. This is one total free improvisation that stirred close towards the world
of free jazz. Not entirely the sort of thing I enjoyed, but I can see why there is place for this here.
Two solos can be found on the third disc, and the first is by suzueri (no capitals), also known as
Elico Suzuki, who before was present in a group recording (see Vital Weekly 1027), but here plays in
solo mode upright piano, toy piano, self-made instruments and objects, all at the same time, but she
uses a few mechanical devices to hit and bang objects, which gives this piece a pleasantly mechanical
feel to it. It is very acoustic and yet in a way also quite electrical, moving along the various objects of
her choice. This is a very direct recording also. Fiona Lee uses the same for her piece that she also
uses on the second disc (it was recorded on the same day). Two hands, but sounds like more than
that also play her piece, and here too it is not easy to say how she made it. There is water dripping,
rubbing of surfaces and banging of percussive objects and the rolling of marbles in metallic bowls.
A bit unfocused I thought from time to time, but the rubbing of surfaces sounded quite fine.
And finally a trio performing a score by Hiroyuki Ura, who also is one of the performing artists on
a VSS-30 sampling keyboard and drums, along with Satoko Inoue on upright piano and Kenichi
Kanazawa on steel square tubes and hammer. And with this final disc we seem to have landed with
what I would think comes closest to the sound of Ftarri. This is quiet music, loosely organised and
played freely, on a sparse set of sounds, and which comes with quite a bit of silence between the
notes. Very acoustic, very Zen, very Wandelweiser, perhaps. It would be great to see what the score
looked like, but no doubt this is some very graphical and open-ended. As such it’s impossible to say if
this performed up to standard but it sounds great as far I am concerned, and it kept my attention for
the exact full hour. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.ftarri.com
ROLAND KAYN – A LITTLE ELECTRONIC MILKY WAY OF SOUND (16CD by Frozen
Reeds)
During the thirteen hours, forty-two minutes and fifty-seven seconds that these sixteen CDs span
there is a lot one can do, but what is it that the late Roland Kayn would have want us to do? That was
the first question I asked myself. Would he want us to play all of this in one long go, which is by
human standards of course possible, or maybe in small portions at a time? And at what volume
should this be? I can imagine that at full-force this is perhaps a most tiring thing to hear, so I had it
my usual more ‘listen to music at home’ setting. I can imagine that the name Kayn is perhaps not one
you heard before (not a lot in these pages at least), and why the hell is there is a sixteen CD box anyway.
Roland Kayn (1933-2011) was a German composer, who lived in The Netherlands for a long time
and who composed a few pieces for instruments, but turned all-electronic in 1970, abandoning in the
process also any notation. Kayn became interested in the concepts of ‘Cybernetics’, as described by
Norbert Wiener in 1948; “cybernetics attempts to find the common elements in the functioning of
automatic machines and of the human nervous system, and to develop a theory which will cover the
entire field of control and communication in machines and in living organisms”, which Kayn translated
to music playing itself along set-up systems, going back and forth between fixed parameters. In the
seventies Kayn released a couple of box sets of his electronic music, composed at the Institute for
Sonology in Utrecht, which each of them getting more and complex; if you can find them, do check
these out; ‘Infra’, ‘Projekte’, ‘Makro’, ’Simultan’ and ‘Tektra’. The latter being perhaps the best of that
lot and sadly the only one that was released on a 4CD set. When that happened in the 90s, by the
Dutch label Barooni, Kayn discovered that he was somewhat of a unsung hero by then, and the
remaining stock of his LP boxes were quickly sold off and led him to continue to record works, at home
and release some of the new works on double CDs. Somewhere after 2006 he stopped releasing them,
for reasons I am not aware. He continued composing new works, up until 2010. Find a complete list
here https://kayn.nl/works/ and you’ll see there are over 300, all stored, and I have no idea if there
are plans to release any of that, but maybe, seeing this work released, there are plans.
Number 256 on that list is ‘A Little Electronic Milky Way Sound’ (829,54 minutes it says) and it
was broadcasted by De Concertzender in the Netherlands and is now available on 16 CDs. Check that
list and you see many large scale works, some even longer than this, and you have an idea what work
force this man in this late stage of his life. Listening to this work, and going back to his older box sets,
means I lived with him his music for two full days and it made my head buzzing. Partly also because I
was thinking about Kayn himself, whom I met a couple of times, when I worked for the distribution of
the ’Tektra’ 4CD and asked him about those old box sets, which he believed no-one would be interested
in.
It’s always interesting to think about how music is made, especially if one has little idea about it. I
mean with a rock band it’s not difficult to understand, but with the electronic music of Kayn, it is
somewhat difficult. Jim O’Rourke, who worked on the restoration of the tapes, claims that he has
usually an idea when he hears difficult music but is clueless as to working methods of Kayn. I am not
sure either but what I noted is that ‘A Little Electronic Milky Way Sound’ sounds to me less complex
than his ‘classic’ seventies period. Back then I had the idea he was using many different sources,
feeding them all into a variety of filters and made these complex compositions with them. On this
box I have the impression that Kayn is working in a more minimal way; using fast forwarding sounds
of reel-to-reel tapes or the bang on a piano, or well, I am not sure, whatever single sound source,
adding reverb, delay and maybe a few pitch shifting devices and plays around that for the duration of
a piece, which can be anything from eighteen to fifty-six minutes. Sometimes going all-quiet, sometimes
doing all wild bursts, but all of these essentially minimal strokes of massive sound. I didn’t listen to all
of this in one long session. That is simply too much to ask. I took a few breaks to play something else,
but I happily returned each time and continued further, more so enjoying the overall stream of sound
than, I guess, each individual composition. And all along playing some older Kayn works, studying
Mark van der Voort’s liner notes (corresponding with him as well for some background information),
Kayn’s website for information, made this all quite rewarding. I am sure I will return to it again the
work of Kayn, but I am sure that will not be somewhere really soon. For now, this short amount of
time, it was more than enough, rewarding as the experience was. This box set may serve as an
introduction for newbies and old fans alike. (FdW)
––– Address: http://frozenreeds.com/
JULIEN OTTAVI – SECRETS TELLURIQUES (CD by Fibrr Records)
While there is no information in the sense of a press release, Julien Ottavi attached a small post-it note
saying that ‘this CD is only TAMTAM SOUND no electronics’, which is perhaps something that is also
mentioned on the cover, an otherwise very much information lacking affair as well. Here we read the
name of the artist, the title, the name of the label and catalogue number, and also ’solo for symphonic
tam-tam’. It is easy to understand why Ottavi gives me this heads-up; mostly he is known for his
somewhat more radical excursions using computers, although he played the tam-tam in duo with Goh
Lee Kwang, along with bass drum and laptop. None here however, and while am now privy to this
information, I couldn’t help wondering what the review would have looked like, had I not know this. I
would surely mention the fact that this is probably a lot less noise based than of Ottavi’s previous
output, but words as ‘electronic processing’ would surely be part of such a review. Now I listen with
different ears I guess, and of course that’s fine. Besides I must admit I know very few other players for
this instrument, although the name of Mark Wastell springs to mind (and Stockhausen’s ‘Mantra’ of
course). The way Ottavi plays it reminds me very much of Thomas Köner’s earliest works on Barooni,
especially in the first piece of this disc, which is very drone like and ambient; it is like long stroke of a
paint brush on canvas. It’s blurry and fading at the edges and lots of thick paint in the middle (times
two, as the piece has two of these moves). The second piece has a more modern classical feel to it. The
tam-tam is more recognizable as such as Ottavi plays it various objects including a mechanical device
rattling the surface (well, maybe hand played; I am not entirely sure here) and moves along various
parts inside the space of one piece. Quite a surprising ambient feel from both of these pieces and it
works very well, I must say. The biggest surprise being, of course, a noise composer as Ottavi pulling
such quiet music off. (FdW)
––– Address: http://fibrrrecords.net/
JARL – HYPNOSIS COLOUR (CD by Reverse Alignment)
Over the years Erik Jarl from Norrköping, Sweden, presents single-minded work of highly charged
drone music (see also Vital Weekly 1029, 995, 959, 860 and before that in 401 and 470; there was
some hiatus for reasons I don’t know). In the early days I believed that Jarl was somebody who plays
acoustic guitars with motorized vehicles and tops that with a firm amount of sound effects, such as
delay, reverb, chorus, flanging and phasing, and perhaps that is really the case, or maybe it was me
fantasizing about such thing, based upon hearing the music. In more recent times I am less sure about
that, and maybe Jarl is a man with a modular set-up, or, for all I know and can judge these things,
armed with a laptop and a lot of granular modulation tools. His machine like approach when it comes
to choosing sounds to work is by now a familiar feature in his work, and that ringing and singing of
machines set in one giant motion, is what you get on ‘Hypnosis Colour’ as well. There is a deep bass
sound rumbling underneath, but everything is on the midrange. This is not really ambient or drone
music I think, even when it could be lumped in with the drone posse. The music Jarl produces is louder
and perhaps meaner than many of his peers and I think it is served best when played a lot louder than
you would, perhaps, do with your average drone album. This is something to be fully immersed; this is
something to play very, very loud and let it sing loud and clear as one cascading wave through your
space, crashing after forty-seven minutes and twenty-two seconds on a very mellow note. You went
through heaven or hell, either way it was a great trip. (FdW)
––– Address: https://reversealignment.bandcamp.com
INVENCIONES. LA OTRA VANGURADIA MUSICAL EN LATINOAMERICA 1976-1988
(2CD by Munster Records)
With a title like ‘Invenciones’ and that subtitle, a black & white cover I immediately thought that I’d
be dealing with another bunch of totally obscure and forgotten electronic composers, this time from
Middle and South America. That is not the case but there are links to that, but also towards hippie
music and punk. It’s from a time when people started to release their own music; music from a difficult
time for the continent, with military regimes and lots of repression also. A quick scan of the names told
me I may have heard of Decibel before, but maybe I am confusing it with another band of the same
name and the only name here I really recognized (and even met a couple of times) is the late Jorge
Reyes. But not to worry: there is a highly informative booklet enclosed about these bands and persons.
There is an interesting variety of musical interests here to be noted, but many seem to have, one way
or another some sort of influence of traditional, home grown folk music, and I readily admit I am not
an expert on that. It seems that it doesn’t mind what the overall thing is, pure folk, hippie drumming,
improvised music or some experimental electronics, there is always some kind of traditional music as
influence in this. For instance on the piece by Miguel Flores; improvised music for sure but also with
some fine guitar parts that sound to these untrained ears as Latin American, or the flutes of Amauta
for that matter. Technical proficiency doesn’t seem to be required, but it is all about the energy of the
moment, such as the noisy electronics of Autoperro or the field recordings and percussion of Jorge
Reyes. For my personal taste I prefer the more out there electronic music (Auoperra, Carlos Silveira,
Musikautomatika, Reyes, Quum, Necronomicon) but also the more gentle synth/cosmic music of Miguel
Noya. Mostly these are on the second disc; whereas the more ‘hippy’ typed music is on the first disc. I
am not the sort of person to rush straight away to the stores to find more, or online for that matter, but
I quite enjoyed this introduction of obscure music from the past that I knew next to nothing about. For
the freaks who explore old music on vinyl only: also available on vinyl. (FdW)
––– Address: http://munster-records.com
VISION OF DARKNESS IN IRANIAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (2CD by Cold Spring
Records)
As much as I don’t like to review compilations, there are exceptions of course. The one above about
obscure music from Latin America for instance, but also this double pack of music from Iran, not the
most likely country to have an underground scene. Perhaps it is very likely, come to think of it. Think
of the Russian music underground under communism. Of course we have had a bunch of musicians
from Iran before (Porya Hatami, Sana, 9T Antiope and Tegh) but here we have no less than twenty-
one other (!) names, none of which I heard before, and they are all working in a similar field of
electronics, ambient, atmospherics, a touch of ritual and gothic never far away. Had it not be for the
been for all the Soundcloud and Bandcamp links mentioned in the booklet for all of these musicians,
I could have believed that this was all done by the same person(s). Cold Spring informs us why there
is so much of this obscure electronic drone music in that country, compared to techno, of which there
is not a lot (I don’t know the validity of that statement) and that is techno music engages people of all
sexes to dance, which is not allowed, and with the experimentalists people sit down and listen. The
mood is dark, but then so is life in Iran (actually also a statement that I believe is true, but I am not
sure of). Two and half hours of moody electronics, obscured voices, a piano packed inside this, and
occasionally a bit of gear. I envisioned all of these boys (and girls, perhaps, who knows) in their
bedrooms working with a cracked version of Ableton live and playing around with plug-ins, cassettes
of field recordings, and the outcome can be towards the noisy side of ambient or the very quiet one. It
all depends on the presence of neighbours listening in, I guess. While not every track is equally
awesome, I believe that is not the point anyway of this. This is a guide; an introduction, a dark hole in
which, like Alice, you can fall and you have the opportunity to do the most interesting discoveries. All
right, and of course you want the names of these musicians: Saint Abdullah, Xerxes The Dark, S.S.M.P.,
Alphaxone, Limen, Ali Phi, Reza Solatipour, Nojan, Hossein RangChi, Narcissa Kasrai, Rhonchus, DSM,
idft, Nyctalllz, PooYar, Anunnaki Signal, XSIX, Crows In The Rain, Downtown Of Hongkong and Mehdi
Behbudi & Vahide Sistaani. That’s probably halfway down the rabbit hole. Get in contact with any of
these if you want a slice of Iranian underground and find out about the rest. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
MIREILLE CAPELLE WITH HERMESENSEMBLE – DO’UN (CD by audioMER)
Sometimes land on this desk, where I scratch my head and think ‘oke, so is this all about’; this release
by Mireille Capelle is one. “The world of Mireille Capelle is one of music and theatre. She has performed
as a singer in numerous European opera houses, under the artistic direction of the foremost stage
directors and conductors. Mireille Capelle is singing professor at the Ghent School of Arts and member
of the artistic board of HERMESensemble”, I read on the website. She has a triple CD set on the same
label (in 2009) and one by Inspiratum, and with one called ‘Sunyata’, I was thinking I tapped into the
world of new age perhaps. There are no instruments listed for the Hermes Ensemble, but I understand
that that “DO’UN is an Architecture Sonore composed for the exhibition INTUITION curated by Axel
Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti, at Palazzo Fortuny, in Venice, 2017”. A lot of this deals with voices that
much is clear. In the first half of the pieces these voices sound resonating through a space, wordless
humming and such, but then moves over after the twenty-five minute in a spoken word piece, with
various different voices reciting texts and a slow sort of drum sound below all of that. That lasts about
ten or so minutes and then moves into that layered voice stuff again, but perhaps now with the addition
of instruments (strings perhaps) or effects (reverb no doubt). While I thought this was a enjoyable
release I am not sure what to make of it, and that is mostly due to the somewhat new age vibe that
comes from this, but I might be entirely wrong about that. That wordless, long sustaining humming is
not so much for me, but I liked the spoken word/drum bit and the more processed vocal stuff at the end.
Strange one indeed. (FdW)
––– Address: http://audiomer.org/projects
AUXHALL PLEASURE GARDENS – Same (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
Behind this long name hide Viv Corringham (voice), Stephen Flinn (percussion) and Miguel Frasconi
(glass). Corringham is a British singer and soundscape artist who studied with Pauline Oliveros (Deep
Listening) and is currently based in New York. Earlier we reviewed her solo album ‘Walking’ for Innova.
Also work by Stephen Flinn has been reviewed earlier here, like his solo album ‘Architect of Adversity’.
Flinn once started in hard rock bands, and changed it for jazz later. Nowadays he is into improvisation
and avant garde and played Phil Minton, Jaap Blonk, a.o. Miguel Frasconi is an American composer with
a love for improvisation, electronics and experimental musical instruments, especially for glass made
ones. He was a founding member of The Glass Orchestra (1977-1986), who debuted in 1978 on Music
Gallery Editions. Together as a trio they work since 2015 and they named themselves after a public
garden near the Thames in London. The six improvisations on this cd are untitled and were recorded
November 27th, 2016 at The Pencil Factory, New York. They paint abstract, subtle improvisations of
an introvert nature. The sounds produced by Frasconi’s glass objects are of an intimate character. Flinn
uses a very diverse set of small percussion and percussive objects. The vocals by Corringham fit well in
these sensible sound textures. They create strange atmospheres that don’t make an immediate appeal
to the listener, but open themselves only for concentrated ears. (DM)
––– Address: http://creativesourcesrec.com
ERIC ZINMAN – ZITHER GODS (CD by Improvising Beings)
KENT CARTER & SYLVAIN GUÉRINEAU – COULEUR DE L’EXIL (CD by Improvising
Beings)
RYOJI HOJITO & HUGUES VINCENT – STRANGE DAYS (CD by Improvising Beings)
BURTON GREENE – COMPENDIUM (SOLOS DUOS TRIOS) (2CD by Improvising Beings)
Improvising Beings is a French label that consistently works on their catalogue of improvised music.
Zinman is a pianist and producer from Boston where studied music and composition with Bill Dixon,
George Russell, a.o. He had his own trio in the 90s. Since 2000 he played a lot in Europe with Linda
Sharrock, a.o. More recent he worked with young improvisers like for example Onno Govaert and Jaspar
Stadhouders. ‘Zither Gods’ is his first solo album, collecting recordings from different locations between
2011 and 2015. The cd consists of 13 improvisations, most of them lasting around 2 or 3 minutes. The
CD however opens with the title track that takes 10 minutes. Some tracks are close to traditional jazz,
using melodic elements, and of a lyrical and moody atmosphere. Other tracks however are far more
avant garde. Like the title track that has Zinman playing also the inside of the piano. An engaging and
dynamic improvisation with unlisted percussion in the background.
Sylvain Guérineau is a painter and improviser from France, the country where American bassist Kent
Carter works since the early 70s. Kent worked a lot with Steve Lacy in those days. Here we have them
in five fine duets for double bass and tenor sax. They play in expressive, less is more style and offer
concentrated and mature dialogues. Kent plays inspired, creating little motives that are repeated and
changed, evolving into other patterns. Nicely underlined and contrasted by Guérineau.
Another duo effort is the one by Ryoji Hojito (piano, toys, voice) and Hugues Vincent (cello, effects).
Recorded at Studio Nyima in Orléans, on two days in October. Hojito started his career in 1986 and
developed his very own style of piano playing over the years. Vincent uses many extended techniques,
turning the cello sometimes in a percussive instrument. They explore their possibilities in 14 short
improvisations. Hojito has a transparent sound, and a clear and distinct style that has elements of
classical music. Sometimes the improvisations are close to the song-format as in ‘For Sun’ that has
Hojito singing, or ‘Promendade’. ‘Rock in farmyard’ as the title suggests, has a rocking Vincent on the
cello. ‘Promenade’ is a folk ballad. Other tracks like ‘Joue ..’ are very free improvisations, or more close
to jazz as we know it, ‘Sweet Morning’. In many of their improvisations melodic elements occur evoking
inspiration from traditional music. Creating a wide diversity of ambiances. And they do that with wit
and humour.
Burton Greene, started in the mid 60s, as an exponent of the free jazz-scene that was emerging in those
days. He lives in Amsterdam since 1969 and still is a very active musician as this release proves. During
his lengthy career he went through different phases. His project with klezmer music, named
Klezmokum, being one of the most recent ones. However this new release leads us to what Greene is
presently about. Cd 1 is recorded by Jason Alder at the Goethe Institute, Amsterdam, April 10th, 2016
and features Roberto Haliffi on drums, Stefan Raidl on double bass and Greene on piano. Recordings of
the second cd date from January 20 this year at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam and is comprised of solo,
duo and trio improvisations with again Roberto Haliffi on drums, Tilo Baumheier on flute and Greene
on piano. Haliffi comes from North Africa and has a Sephardic background. And is Amsterdam-based
as well for many years. Greene and Haliffi work together for about 25 years now. This double release
mixes (co)compositions by Greene with compositions by others, and gives a good overview of Greene’s
musical activity in the last few years. Many influences from his musical past are condensed in these
joyful improvisations: influences of klezmer and music from the Balkan, traditional jazz standards and
free improvisation. Integrated in an accessible and friendly style. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.improvising-beings.com/
RAISON D’ETRE & TROUM – XIBIPIIO. IN AND OUT OF EXPERIENCE (CD by
Transgredient Records)
Here we have the follow-up to ‘De Aeris In Sublunaria Influxu’ (see Vital Weekly 999), and now the
roles are reversed. Previously it was Peter Andersson, also known as Raison d’Etre, to transform
sound delivered by Troum. Now the German duo lays their hands on his sounds, whatever they are,
as none are really specified here, while adding their own guitars, voices, flutes, accordion, cello, violin,
didgeridoo, dombra, tapes and found sounds. Since about twenty years Troum has been at the forefront
of all things atmospheric and drone like, with a massive, sometimes orchestral sound. Their music deals
with reaching for the unknown (and perhaps unused) parts of the consciousness, which I am not
entirely sure works all the time, and surely not always for me. In my defence I have to stay clear to pen
a few words obviously. I can imagine that this somewhat more mystical approach is what works pretty
well for their many fans. Whatever Andersson delivered it is carefully twisted and turned, and lots is
added by the two from Bremen, who this time around opt for a more introspective sound, and not have
their drones spread as thickly as they did before, maybe just in a piece like ‘Dreiklang Aus Äther’, with
it’s swelling orchestral moves in a cave of reverb, or the heavy drumming of ‘Expulsion Of The False
Self’. That bit of technology is used on many of their pieces, but it seems to me that this time the sound
is just a bit lighter, or perhaps opener is a better word, with a bit of air coming in. Troum sometimes
turns a bit more minimal and introspective, as with the wordless humming of ‘In Den Wellen, Ein
Sehnen’, or the sparse machine sound of ‘The Machine Starts To Sing’; it’s here that Troum shows they
are still keen on exploring new aspects to the overall sound and that this is another fruitful collaborative
work. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.dronerecords.de
HORST QUARTET – EDGED TIMBRE (CD by Intonema)
KICKGUITARSINRUN – THERE AND BACK (DVD-R by Intonema)
There is no one named Horst in the Horst Quartet, which is however indeed a four-person group from
Finland and consists of Luukka Haapakorpi (electronics), Lauri Hyvärinen (electric guitar, objects),
Taneli Viithuhta (alto saxophone, objects, piano) and Hermannu Yli-Tepsa (violin, objects). They were
formed in 2010 and released a bunch of cassettes and two CDs, but not much in recent years. According
to the label the music changed from pure free improvisation towards a combination of that with electro-
acoustic experiments, and that is surely something that can be found in the five pieces on this CD they
recorded in 2016. Apparently the space in which they record also plays an important role in their music,
which however is something I may not hear too well in this; or maybe it is the fact that some of this
seems to be played closer to the microphone than other bits. Despite the fact that there is electronics
used, and an electric guitar, the whole thing sounds sound rather acoustic, but maybe that has to be
attributed to the fact that this was picked up with a pair of microphones, in a space, rather than a
direct input recording. The music is quite dense and intense. Sounds stay close together and operate
all, so it seems, or a similar dynamic level. It makes it less easy to identify individual sources or players,
save perhaps for the three real instruments, as occasionally one recognizes a saxophone, violin or guitar.
There is a fair amount of scraping, hitting and scratching going on here, and one needs to give it some
attention; superficial hearing might not work very well.
The other release is a composition by Intonema’s boss Ilia Belorukov, who wanted to share his love
for loud guitars, and created a piece that involves Guitarist Pavel Medvedev (from Moweton; see also
Vital Weekly 918 and 889) and choreographers Anna Antipova and Daria Plokhova. On this piece there
are two parts, ‘There’ and ‘Back’, divided in four parts. It all has to do with “interaction of the
frequencies of different sound sources and human movements during running due to changes in tempo”.
To that end we see the dancers running and the music stays very much the same throughout, except
that it changes when the dancers run slower. Or are they running faster when the speed of the music
goes up? Hard to say, I guess. A static fast pulse is what the music is made of, with the guitar in a very
fast 2-note lock that goes on and on. This is not something you stick on for pure entertainment
purposes, I guess (unless you have a masochistic streak), but there is something to be enjoyed this is
utter conceptual release, even if you view it one time only. Use a big screen and a likewise big sound
and you will develop to urge for some physical exercise yourself. Maybe something for a sporting
area? (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.intonema.org/
TRAX TEST (2LP by Ecstatic Records)
When I reviewed ‘Kale Plankieren – Dutch Cassette Rarities 1981-1985’, in which I had some
involvement, I wrote: “If you happen to hang around long enough you’ll be regarded as an expert I
guess”, and so as an ‘expert’ I sometimes get requests to submit liner notes to releases to re-issues of
somewhat ancient releases, especially if they are from world of cassettes. So inside ‘Trax Test’ there is
a booklet, detailing the various tracks and a text by mister Trax, Vittore Baroni, and one by me, about
the ancient days of cassette releases and their labels but also that Trax was so much more. Should it
exist today it could have been an online social network and thank god it doesn’t exist. That last bit is
not part of the liner notes, but it was great to be part of that analogue network that dealt with music,
cassettes, mail-art, video, performances and everything else. Although I had very little to do with
Trax, maybe submitting a silly piece of mail art somewhere, but I was fascinated as a young man by
what Trax did, how it looked and sounded. This wasn’t the pure industrial music thing but extended
to electronic pop, sound poetry, cartoons and more. Over the years there have been re-issues of Trax
releases (see for instance Vital Weekly 841 and 786) and as such ‘Trax Test’ is not a previously released
cassette (or LP; Trax did those as well), but excerpts from their various thematic releases, such as
‘Rednight’ (Burroughs themed), the ‘Anthems’ project, musical collaborations or benefits for the
oppressed Polish people or Horror soundtracks. The music meanders about from synth pop (the
excellent ‘Castratronics’ by Monte Cantsin is included, as well as ‘You’ve Lost That Lovely Feeling’ by
M.A. Phillips), noise, experiments, sound poetry, Residents inspired weirdness, funk (by Piermario
Ciani, Ado Scaini, Enrico Piva and Giancarlo Martina) but by far the weirdest you’ll hear is the version
Merzbow did of the Japanese anthem with rhythm machines and guitar solos; it’s the weirdest
Merzbow you heard after 1990, I guess, and that is probably thanks to the kaleidoscopic interests of
that great Italian label. (FdW)
––– Address: https://ecstaticrecordings.bandcamp.com
BASS COMMUNION – SISTERS OREGON (10” by Substantia Innominata)
Online I read that this is first new Bass Communion album in six years, which I don’t believe to be true
(see Vital Weekly 1000 for instance), but that said, there isn’t a lot of Bass Communion around. That’s
not because Steven Wilson, the man behind this project, has not enough ideas, but simply not enough
time. By day he’s the rock musician, who released just an excellent new solo album, inspired by Kate
Bush, Tears For Fears and 80s Peter Gabriel (of the song ‘Permaneting’ might very well be the best
new pop song I heard this year; a pastiche of Abba, ELO and Daft Punk, if you can believe that), and
when not touring his music for his many fans (and there are many, believe me), he’s doing surround
sound versions and remastering of classic albums by XTC, King Crimson, Jethro Thull, Yes or Gentle
Giant (among others), he has a project with Ari Geffen, called Blackfield and whatever spare time he
has he has his solo ambient drone project Bass Communion, which is perhaps the only thing of his
that gets review in these pages.
At the basis of the music on ‘Sisters Oregon’ there is a recording Wilson made of a boys choir that
he used on his previous solo album ‘Hand.Cannot.Erase’, but which offered also possibilities of further
manipulation and was heard again on the night Wilson played a collaborative piece with Thomas Köner
(thanked on the cover here), which is sadly still unreleased. Maybe we should, with this information,
think of this 10” as either a further exploration of the material, or as some kind of documentation of
that collaboration, but without further input of Köner? Either way, ’Sisters Oregon’ is now separated
into four parts in which the boys choir recording is treated a bit further into a gentle massive humming,
that reminded me of Cardew’s ‘Great Learning’ or some spooky soundtrack to a horror movie. Added
are a bit of heavily treated guitar sounds or very few bangs on the piano, set to an endless sustain
drifting away into infinity. There is a wintery mood around the pieces, a glacial like atmosphere; winter
is coming, although I easily admit I don’t have clue what ’Sisters Oregon’ actually is. In the world of 10”
by Substantia Innominata, of which this is number twenty-five, this is a most wonderful addition,
mainly because it is not really a forceful piece of drone music, but rather gently works through a
beautiful set of spacious sounds. Eerie, spacious and sparse music. It is a pity that Wilson is such a
busy bee that there is not much more around by Bass Communion. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.dronerecords.de
PROTOCOL WARUM (CDR by Care Not Care)
Maybe you find such a name pretty silly, but I thought the name Protocol Warum was pretty funny.
Here we have the return of Paul Collins, whom we met before with such releases as Collins & Palix, P-
Lab, Unstable Lands (see Vital Weekly 1005, 871 and 856) and who works here with Jules Negrier,
who is also a member of Unstable Lands as well as Caandides. Collins takes credit for ‘dactylic
synthesis’ (“that is he plays DAWless abd awry, letting his fingers do the walking over the keyboard
and dials of his analogue synthesizers. His method of playing is corporeal, physical” – oh!) and Negrier
for modular and granular synthesis. Flemming C. contributes guitar to one of the five pieces. These
five pieces, somewhere between five and seven minutes are a varied bunch of interests. There is a bit
of collage cut-up in ‘Le Cube Des Couleurs’, which didn’t work for me very well, whereas all sorts of
loops are used in the other pieces and those worked better. In ‘Voiture 16’ this is somewhat nervous
and hectic, which continues in a lighter form in ‘Phase 37’, but the best pieces are at the beginning.
‘Exactly That’ is a drone based loop sound, which an orchestral analogue synthesizer dropping a
massive chord/oscillation and ‘Ornitologize’ is moody throughout with some fine process of voice
material on top. Once you heard these five pieces, you will no clue as what their main focus is with
their music, but you’ll be pleasantly entertained by it; at least I was by this colourful dish of vibrant
electronic music. (FdW)
––– Address: care.not.care@gmail.com
FRED LORCA – EVERY MOMENTITO (CDR, private)
This is mostly a download release, but Fred Lorca also sells it on a CDR, on Bandcamp and at concerts.
Lorca hails from Argentina and it has been a long time ago that I reviewed his ‘Cosas Que Suceden’,
back in Vital Weekly 712. On the ‘press text’ Lorca hand wrote that this new one, his thirteenth album,
’starts too pop but immediately develops into different style’. Lorca plays ‘voc, sampler, synths, maus’
and indeed that first piece is quite poppy, but most enjoyable with that laidback voice and drum
pattern. In the title piece the rhythm starts to stutter a bit, but here to the element of pop is surely
present, again mostly due to the vocal. The other two tracks are instrumentals and also last longer, ‘En
Midi Menor’ takes up almost half of the disc’s length at sixteen minutes. Both instrumentals are a bit
chaotic with sudden start/stop element, breaking down the groove of it all, which is a pity; once Lorca
gets his stuff (to avoid the street smart word ‘shit’) going it works quite well, but somehow he seems
afraid to work up a fine tune for too long. I don’t mind a bit of good pop, and certainly what Lorca does
in the first two pieces I can appreciate very much and as far as I am concerned I would have rather
enjoyed 7 shorter but similar poppy pieces, than two somewhat notions of what he calls ‘afroandino’
or ‘polyglitch’. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fredlorca.bandcamp.com/
ZOUL – JISATSU (CDR by Bellerpark Records)
PHILIP NUSSBAUM & DAS KRAULEN BRAUCHEN (CDR by Bellerpark Records)
Here’s a new label that call themselves ‘a label for unclassifables’, but auf Deutsch sounds so much
better, ‘unlabelbares’. Without much consideration all the information is all in German, and that’s
fine for me, as I paid attention in high school, but I can imagine this will be a problem for some
others, providing they send other promos outside der Heimat.
On the cover of Zoul we find no information but then also not really in the German information. It has
something to do with dying, eternity, and beauty and without compromise. I think. There are four
pieces, two at the beginning and then 90 or so six-second pieces (in which somewhere there is one
that one and half minute), and then one more at the end. All of this deals with atmospheric music of a
more noisy nature, except those near blank pieces, which seemed nothing else than a single sound.
That sort of eluded me. The three/four pieces with sound I quite enjoyed. It’s quite dark and
mysterious, seems to be using field recordings of some kind but in a raw and noisy way. Like sounds
trapped in an empty shaft, recorded on a Dictaphone from afar, with the second piece quite a deep
bass/high pitched noisy outing of opposite extremes. I wish it was all a bit clearer with titles and
such but who knows; maybe there is a conceptual explanation for that as well.
The other one is a collaboration between the text and voice of Philip Nussbaum and the music of
Das Kraulen Brauchen, from Berlin. This is the label’s first release (and there is referral to The Normal,
Frank Sinatra and Burial and their first’s on a label, but I fail to see the connection, other than dropping
a few names). I must admit it was towards the end of the day that I played this and wasn’t paying
attention that much to the words of Nussbaum, but it’s perhaps also that he doesn’t talk in a very
engaging way. The music is rather minimal and very much undefined. The second piece seems to me
almost entirely instrumental of some far away piano melody being played, which worked much better,
but mostly as an afterthought after a long day of playing too many difficult records, with a loop of
Nussbaum’s voice at the end. As an inaugural release I was not so impressed. I doubt that this is the
classic in forty years that ‘Warm Leatherette’ is these days. (FdW)
––– Address: http://facebook.com/bellerpark.records
PLATZANGST – CALL BEFORE YOU DIG (cassette by Ota Tapes)
There is not a lot of information forthcoming from Platzangst (which translates as agoraphobia, I think).
Not even where they are from (parcel came from the USA, that much I know). In the band/project’s
Bandcamp page this is said: “Platzangst sometimes makes noise, and sometimes makes music.
Sometimes a little of both at once. What will come next? Difficult to say. Who likes it? Precious few.”
Their/his/her cassette lasts sixty minutes and has fifteen songs; at least that seems to me the most
appropriate word. As for instruments I would guess that there is a fair amount of synthesizers and
drum machines in place here, but also the sampler has a central place here, picking up bits and pieces
from media sources, and in the opening title piece you could think this a form of plunderphonic/vinyl
abuse, and some of that Tape-beatles inspired talk returns in a few pieces, but throughout crude beats
and synthesizers is what this is about. Not necessarily to create a wacky form of dance music, I think,
as some of these beats are to alien to dance to (unless you’re an alien I guess), but as form of feet-
tapping, head-nodding armchair techno it surely has a place. And then just sometimes there is a
steady pulse’n groove as in The Orb inspired ‘Data Rate’ or ‘Fiber Optic Nerves’, which, come to think
of it, might also be a source of inspiration for all those voice samples. An hour is quite long, I think, but
I’d say with this amount of variation this is quite a pleasure trip. (FdW)
––– Address: https://ostresamigos.bandcamp.com