Number 555


GIANNI LENOCI – SEXTANT (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
ARTHUR BULL & DANIEL HEIKALO – CONCENTRÉS ET AMALGAMES (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
TIM BRADY – GO (GUITAR OBSESSION) – (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
RM74 & RLW – PIROUETTEN (CD by Crouton) *
THE LOST DOMAIN – PALACE (CD by Pseudo Arcana)
MAD EP – THE MADLANDS TRILOGY (CD by Ad Noiseam)
MAD EP – NOT AFRAID OF SPIDERS (CD by Hymen Records)
DETRITUS – THRESHOLDS (CD by Ad Noiseam)
ORGANUM – AMEN (CD by Die Stadt) *
ASMUS TIETCHENS – ZWINBURGEN DES HEDONISMUS/MYSTERIEN DES HAFENS (CD by Die Stadt) *
Z’EV – PRODUCTION AND DECAY OF SPACIAL RELATIONS VS REPRODUCTION AND DECAY OF SPACIAL RELATIONS (2CD by Die Stadt) *
Z’EV/DAVID LINTON (CD by Die Stadt)
DELUXE INCINERATOR (3×3″ CDs by C.I.P.) *
HARRY PARTCH – ENCLOSURE SEVEN (DVD by Innova)
EXIT IN GREY – NAMELESS DROPLET (CDR by Mystery Sea) *
DAVID PAPAPOSTOLOU – ONE TWO (CDR, private) *
HELMETICRONONAUT – WE WHO ARE NOT LIEK FETTOTERS (CDR by Krakilsk) *
KLUBB KANIN: 5.OKTOBER (CDR compilation by Krakilsk)
NYARLATHOTEP – SKILLFULL MEANS (CDR by Housepig Records) *
JUHYO – MESOTHESIS (CDR by Housepig Records) *
BASTARD NOISE – THREE DOLLAR DATE+ (3″CD by Housepig Records)
RED NEEDLED SEA – 4 DAYS OFF (CDR by Ambolthue Records) *
MASKINANLEGG – FABRIKK (3″CDR by Ambolthue Records) *
ANDREW DEUTSCH – BASALT 1996-2006 (cassette by Throne Heap)

GIANNI LENOCI – SEXTANT (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
‘Sextant’ is the second cd by this Italian composer and improvisor for Ambiances Magnétiques. In 2003 he recorded a cd of improvised duets with Joëlle Léandre. Now he returns with a totally different multifaceted album of nine compositions for a small ensemble. They originated from workshops given by this italian pianist at Nino Rota Conservatory in Monopoli, where he worked with new teaching methodologies. Most compositions are by the hand of Gianni Lenoci himself who graduated from Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and studied improvised music with Mal Waldron and Paul Bley. They are performed by: Adolfo Lavolpe (electric guitar, electronics), Fabrizio Scarafile (soprano saxophone), Francesco Massaro (alto & baritone sax), Francesco Angiuli (doublebass), Marcello Magliocchie (drums) plus Gianni Lenoci himself on (electric) piano, synthesizer and electronics.
In the centre of this cd however we hear a work by Morton Feldman: ‘Intermission VI’. A piece very close to silence. Tense and breakable. It is as if we are in the centre of a hurricane with this meditative piece, as most other pieces before and after are much more loud, jazzier, etc. ‘Intermission IV’ is preceded by ‘Rothko (variations)’ a piece that is about sound and texture with lots of electronics, plus piano and reeds. The second piece of this album ‘Intersezione’ and the last track of this album ‘Notturno Frattale’ are both very otherworldly electronic-only pieces, that are absolutely non-jazz. Most other pieces are very free jazz like works that share similarities with the music of Ornette Coleman of Shannon Jackson.
They catch attention most of all because of the very strange combination of odd electronic sounds combined with saxes, drums, etc., like in the opening track or in the titletrack. The works differ enormously in style and character. I wonder what the underlying musically unifying concept is for this album, if there is any. But of course there is nothing wrong with showing very different faces. (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/

ARTHUR BULL & DANIEL HEIKALO – CONCENTRÉS ET AMALGAMES (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
Two canadian guitar improvisors joined hands once again. As a duo they play since 1995 and in 2000 it was time for their first duo-recording for Ambiances Magnetiques. Arthur Bull is a veteran from the canadian improv scene and played with Michael Snow, Paul Dutton, John Oswald, etc. As a poet he published three books. Heikalo is an improvisor and composer. He also runs his own label: Heïkalo Sound Productions. Having a look in this catalogue learns that Heikalo released many solo-albums that show his interest in a diversity of strings instruments and also in electro-acoustic music. This label released also the second duo-recording of Bull and Heikalo. So with ‘Concentrés and amalgames’ were are listening to their third collaboration. Bull plays electric and prepared guitars and e-bow. Heikalo we hear on acoustic and classical guitars, but also on drums and percussion. The album features six guitar duets and five duets for guitar and percussion. In their playing they show a great togetherness that results in great music. Improvised music at its best. Both gentlemen speak their language of free form and non-idiomatic improvising very well and give way here to some very communicative and musical interaction in the classical Derek Bailey-style (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellec.com/

TIM BRADY – GO (GUITAR OBSESSION) – (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
A great album for lovers of the electric guitar. It should appeal for instance to fans of mister Fripp. There are already out a great many records from canadian Tim Brady. Most of them cover Brady as a composer. ‘Go’ is his first solo-album and focuses on Brady as a guitar player. It’s an album that I instantly liked. We hear rich and multi-layered patterns, all generated by the guitars and electronic devices of Tim Brady. The feeling of blues, (hard) rock, jazz is always nearby, but most of the compositions are situated on a higher abstract level. The compositions range from quiet soundscaping like in “Le chant des Baleines’, to very loud heavy metal like excursions like in ‘Vampyr’. All is done very intelligently and with great affection. The first four compositions are by Brady himself, and reworkings of pieces he composed in the 80s. The other four are works by four different composers: Jean-Francois Laporte, Alexandre Burton, Tristan Murail, Laurence Crane. 3 tracks were recorded live, the others in the studio. But the soundquality is very homogeneous. Brady leads us through a variety of atmospheres and musical idioms, ending up in ‘Bobby J’, a pastoral and elegant finale to this very enjoyable cd (DM).
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/

RM74 & RLW – PIROUETTEN (CD by Crouton)
Many of the recent works by Ralf Wehowsky, also known as RLW (formerly the main man behind P16.D4) are collaborations with others, and here it is Reto Mäder, also known as RM74. Their work is ongoing, as before the released pieces of the ‘Epitaph For John’ compilation, the Wire website and on RM74’s ‘Fireproof In 8 Parts’. ‘It exploits the authors’ long-lasting dedication to the unpure tradition of centurial folkways’ – whatever that may mean. Ralf plays gamelan, sitar, guitar, trombone, chimes, recordings of populated fields and Reto plays organ, accordion, cello, bass, guitar and harmonica, while both are responsible for all the transformations and composition. It’s good that the mention all these instruments, since it would not be easy to recognize them. Some are all alright such as organ, harmonica and field recordings, whereas others may proof to be difficult. Or more difficult. But wether knowing what they used or not, is, I believe, not of real importance. They treat their material in a good old musique concrete like manner, except of course that they use computers and no longer reel-to-reel tapes. The music has been through improvisation, but in the end it comes down to hours and hours of editing. They did a wonderful job. It’s experimental but light and they never loose ‘music’ out of sight. In ‘Abwege’ an organ plays a shimmering tone admist a bed chirping insect like sounds and the accordion takes over. Each of the eight moves gently back and forth between the unknown landscape of the digital terrain and more familiar music terrain. In all it’s experimentalism actually quite an accessible CD! Comes in a nice plastic box with separate cards for each track, just like the RLW/Frisch CD – a small new tradition was born. (FdW)
Address: http://www.croutonmusic.com

THE LOST DOMAIN – PALACE (CD by Pseudo Arcana)
Where Bruce Russel makes use of the editing techniques of musique concrete and dub to deconstruct blues schemes (see his album “21st Century Field Hollers and Prison Songs”), The Lost Domain from Brisbane come up with narcotic drones, that present themselves as a psychedelic slow-motion version of traditional blues aesthetics. Interwoven sustained guitar tones open this disc, overtones and fragile feedback, slight tremolos – lost vibrations in empty space, crawling forward at a minimum speed. Only gradually the music gains some density, and a vague idea of structure comes in. Later the tension is raised, some more gritty surfaces are sketched out and on the third track (five in total, all untitled) the disc reaches a short dramatic peak with heavy percussive bangs and wordless vocals somewhere between crooning and screaming. Then things get quieter again and the last track, much lighter in sound than the rest, marks a wonderfully calm ending. The music is of a warm and rich quality throughout, evoking the saturated, slightly blurred sound of ancient recording devices, and delivers a fine example of drone-improv capturing nostalgically-charged moody vibes. (MSS)
Address: http://www.pseudoarcana.com

MAD EP – THE MADLANDS TRILOGY (CD by Ad Noiseam)
MAD EP – NOT AFRAID OF SPIDERS (CD by Hymen Records)
When composers with backgrounds in other territories of music, bring their musical skills into the electronic sound world, it quite often ends up with a very interesting result. This is also the case with American composer Matthew Peters alias Mad EP and his two latest releases out on German labels Ad Noiseam and Ant-Zen Recordings. With a background as a cellist and as a producer of Chicago Symphony radio broadcasts, the Iowa-based composer has put a clear imprint of his past into these two albums. What characterizes “The Madlands Trilogy” is the comprehensive use of acoustic instruments throughout the album. Counting everything from saxophone on the “Gumbo on the run”-track to excellent Spanish guitar strumming on the “7 pounds”, – a track that beautifully opens with a pleasant acoustic guitar passage reminding of the melancholic opening of legendary singer-song writer Leonard Cohen’s “Suzan”. On the rhythm side there is a massive use of hip hop-beats melting beautifully into the acoustic sound-spheres. Also the rich amount of samples from spoken voice to ringing telephones adds to the extremely rich sound texture of the album. Stylistically the album ranges from drum’n’bass to ambient. The styles are impressively melted into each other as a one whole form, meaning that the flow of the music drifts beautifully throughout each of the discs. When you receive an album the runs over three discs with a playtime of 105 minutes, you might worry about the trip being too long. But in this case there is absolutely no reason to worry. All of the tracks on “The Madlands trilogy” constitute as relevant pieces of the work as a whole. “Not afraid of spiders” roughly moves in the same spheres as “The Madlands trilogy”, with complex musical textures. The fusion of many music styles and musical instruments remains the same here, but the expression on the album is harsher on this one. The tracks of “Not afraid of spiders” are catchy with cool jazz rhythms, and heavy bass-lines added some cool hard rapping. Generally the album is darker and more threatening in expression compared to “The madlands trilogy”. Both albums demonstrate in two quite different ways the great compositional skills of Mad EP. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
Address: http://www.hymen-records.com

DETRITUS – THRESHOLDS (CD by Ad Noiseam)
A year ago David Dando-Moore (alias “Detritus”) released the album titled “Origin” on German label Ad Noiseam. Now the American composer is ready with this follow-up mini-Cd titled “Thresholds” containing four tracks and a total running time of 20 minutes. The classical oriented ambience of “Origin” that was a central part of the album, is continued on “Thresholds”. Even though the orchestral ambience is intact, there is quite a change in sound expression on this one. The atmosphere of “Thresholds” is more dramatic and threatening, thanks to the use of hard-hitting breakbeats. The four tracks are exclusively instrumental apart from final track “Melting snow” that contains a vocal sample of French chanson-legend Edith Piaf in the deepest sub-levels of the sound picture. The ambient part of the album creates a great cinematic atmosphere, while the effectively moving breakbeat-texture adds a more physical impression to the music. The title of the album “Thresholds” probably symbolizes an opening into new musical explorations for Detritus. If this is the case “Thresholds” is a warmly welcome step. This is a truly satisfying continuation of the otherwise excellent previous effort: “Origin”. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net

ORGANUM – AMEN (CD by Die Stadt)
ASMUS TIETCHENS – ZWINBURGEN DES HEDONISMUS/MYSTERIEN DES HAFENS (CD by Die Stadt)
Z’EV – PRODUCTION AND DECAY OF SPACIAL RELATIONS VS REPRODUCTION AND DECAY OF SPACIAL RELATIONS (2CD by Die Stadt)
Z’EV/DAVID LINTON (CD by Die Stadt)
Two re-issues and two new releases by Die Stadt. To start with the latter one. ‘Amen’ is the second installment which started with ‘Sanctus’ on Robot Records, which I sadly missed. Is David Jackman all of a sudden a religious man? Sounds like it. He plays here grand piano, hammond organ, tower bell, gong and voices. It’s hard to believe it was recorded by the same man who surprised us some twenty years ago with ‘In Extremis’. Pastoral voices, a bang on the piano, a continuous drone on the organ. There are two pieces here ‘Amen I’ and ‘Amen II’, and Jackman plays another of his plays of deception. Are we perhaps listening to the same track twice? Or two very similar mixes? In that respect Organum didn’t change, as it’s a small game that he always plays with his listeners. It’s work that is different from much of his previous work, and certainly needs to grow on me. I played it already a couple of time, and despite the somewhat sacral atmosphere it starts growing.
The first re-issue is by Asmus Tietchens and is number nine in his series of re-issues of his old LPs. ‘Zwingburgen Des Hedonismus’ was never a big favorite of mine. This one sided LP, originally released by Multimood, is one of a series of pieces Tietchens made with a fairlight computer, and is a study over the notes ‘b-a-c-h’ for piano and synthesizers. It sounds very serious avant-garde, but somehow things never seemed to happen here. Also the bonus from the first CD re-issue (in 1994) is present here, and is also an orchestral piece, with bassoon sounds, harp and flutes. It belongs to my least favorite Tietchens works, but the CD is saved by the re-issue of ‘Mysterien Des Hafens’ which was released on a split LP by Odd Size in 1988. It was recorded circa ‘Geboren Um Zu Dienen’, but is much lengthier and spacier than many of the ‘Geboren’ pieces, but it has the same mechanical drive as the shorter ‘Geboren’ pieces. Tietchens in optima forma, with dark atmospheric pieces, just like a harbor would like at night, and ship horns fill the night. Austere, dark, shimmering: classic Tietchens music.
The next three hours are reserved for z’ev. For a man who said he one foot in the grave in 1990, he is remarkable present these days. It seems like he manically catching up, and as such the re-issue of ‘Production And Decay’ is more than well-come. This was z’ev’s first studio LP from 1981, recorded and released in Rotterdam on a curious and regrettable long forgotten experimental music label Backlash Records (who also released Tuxedo Moon and Nyrabakiga). Up to that point z’ev in various guises just released live recorded material. It is where the interests of z’ev started to mingle: the live playing of percussion and the studio techniques, which he used in several other projects, such as Stefan Weisser. I don’t what the studio of Backlash looked like, but it’s a pretty interesting production. The sound gets processed, slowed down, but then new layers are added and strange muffled but strong rhythmic sounds occurs. None of the original power has been lost here. It was in its day already a masterpiece of ‘industrial’ music, and still is. On the same CD all the material gets a treatment in 2005, through some of the techniques z’ev uses these days. The layers are much thicker and fatter and lays less on the rhythm aspect. It makes this a great document. And with the first 500 copies there is also a second CD with three pieces from 1982. The first one is a live piece of metal percussion, which gives an idea what it sounded like in the day: raw and untamed. The second piece is a sound poetry/tape piece of heavily layered voices and ‘Element/L’ is a highly deformed piece of layered percussion, until it becomes an engine like sound.
More z’ev can be found on a CD released on the occasion of his concert in Bremen on November 11th, together with David Linton. Linton is a percussion player and multi-media artist, but in my book a member of the long forgotten Plus Instruments. The first z’ev piece is a merging of a drum recording from 1990 together with a sermon by Reverend John Mac Arthur about the gulf war. Quite a unlike z’ev piece with such a clear voice. His second piece is a rework of David Linton’s sound material: short sounds are time stretched and pitched up and down the scale, to form a continuous, almost rhythmic piece. David Linton’s solo piece is drone like piece of music. It’s hard to tell what it is that he does, but he works in a skillful manner with overtones. In his remix of z’evs work he emphasis the rhythm, by making it sound like a drumcomputer. I’m sure another great concert night was missed by me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de

DELUXE INCINERATOR (3×3″ CDs by C.I.P.)
In the world of noise, a lot evolves around friendship, and it seems more than in other areas, well, perhaps save for improvisation. Boxed sets of various artists in the realms of noise music happen quite a lot, like a 10 LP set of Californian noise artists. Here a small set of three 3″ CDs on Blake Edwards’ C.I.P. label, and it’s perhaps a remarkable step. The label seemed to have grown into a more all round experimental one, moving away from the strict noise. But the decision to put these on three separate discs is fine, one can select what to play and within the time span, things are long enough. Xome starts the proceedings (random pick actually) with seven short and highly intense blasts of noise. Things are furious, but due to the shortness it works well on the intensity level. Goat on the other hand offers just one track and here is what I sometimes find problematic about noise music: the ‘let’s carry on and don’t look back’ approach. Full on distortion and feedback, but that lacks the true power, and in the end may end up something worn out. Sixes is the new name for me, and they are from Oakland. For some odd reason I think they are the most interesting of the lot, and perhaps it comes, curiously enough, from the somewhat lo-fi recording. Sixes uses the same ingredients, but also loops and built in a balance between harsher and less harsher parts. Sometimes it sinks to an almost low volume threshold. Sixes it seems have thought out what they wanted to do, and actually started composing with the various components of noise in an interesting way. Perhaps the quality of the recording could be better, unless of course it’s all intentional, which would sharpen the music, but throughout this is nice work. In all, quite a good set, with one weaker brother. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cipsite.net

HARRY PARTCH – ENCLOSURE SEVEN (DVD by Innova)
A long time ago, when I was in my Residents-phase I discovered the world of radical Harry Partch, through that long piece on the b-side of the ‘Fingerprince’ album called ‘Six things to a cycle’. It opened up a new world for me. ‘Petals fell on Petaluma’ became one of my favorite records of his. Partch is one of those eccentric american composers like Conlon Nancarrow. One day he decided to destroy all of his compositions and made a new start from scratch, composing in just intonation for instruments he designed himself. He died in 1974 and in recent years it was Dean Drummond with his Newband a.o. who kept the music of Partch alive. Some of his work is released by CRI. I wasn’t aware until now that Innova Recordings was also building a impressive catalogue of Partch, work. In their Enclosure-series Innova Recordings released now the seventh and last item. In the past cds, videos and a book on Partch were released. An overview of this series is contained on the dvd in the ‘extras’-section. I must say, a true monument for this important american composer. All this is the work of Philip Blackburn who worked 20 years on the Partch archives. Let’s turn to the dvd. It opens with a documentary ‘The Dreamer that remains’ (1972) by Stephen Poliout. Partch, tells the story of his life, alternated by performances of his music. We see a passionate man.
The documentary is followed by ‘Delusion of the fury’, one of his major works. Now it is possible to enjoy this work at last in its totality. We can see the choreography and strange antiquity- and japan-inspired costumes of this ritual-theater. I must admit I found more drama and expression in the face and presentation of Harry Partch himself. Just look at that funny little fragment where he is cooking ‘Rose Petal Jam’, or his performance of ‘The Letter’.
‘Delusion of the Fury’ was originally released as an double album by Columbia in a nice box, that I happen to have in my collection. Alas without the third album that was included with the first edition. On this record Partch introduces 27 of his instruments, and it offers the opportunity to taste all of his inventions one by one. Happily this record is enclosed on this DVD accompanied by photos from the respective instruments. The oldest moving pictures on this dvd date from 1960. We see a fragment of the extensive work ‘Revelation in the Courthouse Park’. Dancers, gymnasts, majorettes, fireworks fill the stage. It is also special for its combination of the instruments of Partch combined with brass band. This dvd, because of the combination of documentary, music, introduction to his instruments, etc., serves as a perfect introduction for those who want to know more about this composer. Also for fans this one is of course not to be missed! Sound quality is okay. (DM)
Address: http://www.innova.mu/

EXIT IN GREY – NAMELESS DROPLET (CDR by Mystery Sea)
By now the Mystery Sea label has a status of a well-known CDR label and they get demo’s from around the globe – or so we must assume. Sergey and Stas are Exit In Grey and they hail from Moscow region, where they produce their music and run the Still Sleep label. Their music is a combination of ‘guitar drone ambient’ with the usual field recordings and sounds from analogue devices. On ‘Nameless Droplet’ (their first release on a label other than their own) they have two tracks, the longer part one and the much shorter part two. I must say that things start out pretty well in part one, very intense with a careful, but great built up. But somewhere along the lines of this piece they loose me, and I don’t recover. It is if they want to shift through all the various textures possible, which could have been perhaps great separate pieces by themselves, rather than part of a longer composition. Perhaps that would have been a better idea, as the idea of the total gets a bit lost here. It’s music that fits the Mystery Sea catalogue very well, but perhaps a bit too well: music made to fit the label, rather than music for the sake of music itself. Although it’s a well performed release, there is a bit too much of the same going on. For die-hard fans of the genre, I guess. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net

DAVID PAPAPOSTOLOU – ONE TWO (CDR, private)
Despite his name sounding Greek, David Papapostolou is a French man living in Bristol. With ‘One Two’ he makes his debut into the world of music. He plays here acoustic guitar, cello and soprano saxophone – they marked on the each track as ‘gc’, ‘gs’ and ‘g’. There is some sound leaking in from the outside and that may perhaps be qualified as field recordings. He doesn’t play both instruments at once of course, but layers them in the computer, but they are responses to each other. This means we are dealing here with some highly improvised music, and Papapostolou does a great job. Carefully strumming and using his instruments as objects, using a bit of overtones through feedback in ‘g’, this is very much the product of silent playing and using the instrument as an object. This is a statement: I’m here, listen and invite me to play around with others. As such this is very good point of departure. (FdW)
Address: http://david-p.blogspot.com

HELMETICRONONAUT – WE WHO ARE NOT LIEK FETTOTERS (CDR by Krakilsk)
KLUBB KANIN: 5.OKTOBER (CDR compilation by Krakilsk)
Two releases of noise on Norway’s Krakilsk label but both from a different perspective. Helmeticrononaut plays more traditional forms of noise, using microphones and headphones to create feedback, on top of which the man behind rambles his texts, or sometimes just produces a bunch of throat sounds. It’s all a bit too standard for me. Helmeticrononaut plays thirteen tracks, which are all kind of interchangeable, as far as I’m concerned. Five would have equally made the same point.
The noise on the compilation recorded in Trondheim’s Klubb Kanin is of a different order. Five bands, each about fifteen minutes of free rock noise. Improvised but in a highly noise manner, with feedback and torture of instruments. It’s a bit difficult to point out the exact differences between these bands, but Noodt/Nohr started out silently, former mentioned Helmeticrononaut proofs he can do the same thing live, Lebensraum was more rock oriented, Swamp Up Nostrils use circuit bending and Ice White Slut throws it all in the blender. But throughout none of these tracks sounded really interesting. Too long, too mediocre. Perhaps watched live it was all great, but here on CDR it couldn’t interest me very much. (FdW)
Address: http://www.krakilsk.org

NYARLATHOTEP – SKILLFULL MEANS (CDR by Housepig Records)
JUHYO – MESOTHESIS (CDR by Housepig Records)
BASTARD NOISE – THREE DOLLAR DATE+ (3″CD by Housepig Records)
From the world of noise, to precise from the
Housepig Records label, three releases of which two are newies for me. Nyarlathotep is one John Luba from Arizona, who gets his inspiration from H.P. Lovercraft’s Cthulhu mythos, and the six pieces are culled from ‘cassette vault and live recordings’ and is brutal slab of noise. Feedback over crashing metal, distortion pedals on full speed ahead. Maybe due to the nature of the recordings, things sound indeed a bit lo-fi, but that adds to the charm of it all. It’s not really a great release and ‘Evocation Through Amplification’ is with it’s full twenty-four minutes a bit too long, but it forms a pleasant, even softer side to the music.
Apparently Juhyo is a Japanese word for trees covered in snow that look like monsters. It’s also the name of Minneapolis based Brian Kopish (a.k.a. Surround) and Bill Henson (a.k.a. Oblong Box), but these side projects are unknown to me. As Juhyo this is their first collaborative release, and I am not sure what to make of it. It is certainly not bad, not real noise blasts going on, but rather a good flow of sounds going through reverb and delay units. But they search for their flow a bit too much and certainly in ‘Gallery 79’ things are being searched for too long. With some editing out of the weaker parts, the pieces could have certainly gained more power. Now it’s all a bit too stretched out, and good and lesser parts stand equally next to each other.
Pressed as a real CD is a 3″ by Bastard Noise. Originally started out as a solo side project of Man Is The Bastard, Eric Wood is still around after fifteen years. This 3″ re-issues two long long out 7″s, one on AIPR (if anyone knows where the owner is, please let me know, as I have urgent question since ten years) and one on Peter Zincken’s New Noise label. Back in the day I wasn’t a big fan of Bastard Noise, but I must say that I have no idea why not. The recordings here show a love of noise which is beyond the ordinary. Tracks are kept short and to the point. There are screaming walls of feedback, but also ‘quieter’ tracks, such the eleventh (even with the delivered magnifying glass I had trouble reading the miniature reprints of the covers), which is creeping violent beast. Twelve tracks in fourteen minutes and not a single second of boredom, or a note (tone?) too much or too less. Classic noise work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.housepig.com

RED NEEDLED SEA – 4 DAYS OFF (CDR by Ambolthue Records)
MASKINANLEGG – FABRIKK (3″CDR by Ambolthue Records)
Ambolthue Records is a new label, run by 18-year old Kjetil Hanssen, which seeks to release experimental and noise music. Red Needled Sea is one Panos Alexiades from Greece, of whom I never heard. Apparently he had four days off somewhere and used that time to record this work. Things start out in the very soft manner, and it seems like another Francisco Lopez. But out of the shimmering mass very loose ends come forward and suddenly we recognize that all of it comes from a guitar. Red Needled Sea plays the guitar in a rather improvised manner, feeding it off through a couple of sound effects (one of them being a phaser, which I didn’t expect to hear again in my life), and throughout it’s quite a nice work. Sometimes it all drags a bit on without too many changes or new ideas, or, such as in ‘Day 4’ when we get to hear all the sound effects and their endless possibilties, but it was not bad at all.
Maskinanlkegg is Bjørn Hatterud, of whom reviewed some music before. For this new release, Bjørn uses “one Roland R77 Rythm machine from 1977, one studiomaster mixing table from 1980, cheap cables and a computer” to create a twenty minute piece of harsh rhythmic music, that sounds as gritty and dirty as in Esplendor Geometrico’s early (and best) days. The rhythm is fed through a bunch of plug ins and outs and make a heavy deforming sound. It moves away from the previous Maskinanlkegg releases, which were more towards real noise, without too much rhythm. You can wonder if twenty minutes is perhaps a bit too much for such a single minded piece, but it works well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ambolthue.com

ANDREW DEUTSCH – BASALT 1996-2006 (cassette by Throne Heap)
There isn’t much information to go at with this cassette – even when the format might be something of a surprise. If I understood correctly this release is based on a live recording of a concert by Deutsch and Pauline Oliveros in 1996, which are now fed through a whole bunch of computerized effects. One could expect some introvert drone music, based on the accordion of Oliveros, but it’s not. Deutsch uses many layers of processed sound to tell his story. It’s throughout quite noisy and chaotic, even when it never goes over the top as sometimes happens with noise. It’s not easy to find a structure in this music, but perhaps that’s not the idea of Deutsch. Maybe it’s all intended as a free flow, streaming like lava downhill. Maybe a different kind of drone music is searched for here, not the quiet one, or the noisy one, but the chaotic one, without a hierarchy in sound. It is quite captivating this stream of sound and clocking at thirty two minutes the right length. (FdW)
Address: http://www.throneheap.com

Addition: Last week’s No More Music CD was a co-production of Absurd (as mentioned), but also ideal recordings (www.idealrecordings.com) and8mm (www.8mmrecs.com)

1. From: “Marten Sahlen” <DrMarten@swipnet.se>

Celebrating their 10 year anniversary, Stockholm based organisation The Nursery present mono:ton, a three day festival on the themes drones and minimalism.

Dates: 7-9 December
Venues: Fylkingen, Moderna Museet, Kulturhuset (all in Stockholm, Sweden)
Full lineup: Charlemagne Palestine, Eliane Radigue, Bernhard Günter, Beequeen, Alejandra & Aeron, Kasper T. Toeplitz, Daniel Teige, Ronnie Sundin, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Sheriff, Moljebka Pvlse, The Idealist, Ingrid Engarås, BJ Nilsen, Jean-Louis Huhta, Johan Boberg

Playing schedules, artist bios, etc found at <http://www.nursery.a.se/>http://www.nursery.a.se/

2. From: ” nikos veliotis – gmail” <nikosveliotis@gmail.com>

7th 2:13 athens festival
7, 8 & 9 december 2006 @ the small music theatre – athens, greece.
program:

07-12______________________________

Screening: 2:13 videos
live sets

Ben Drew & Emma Hart [uk]
textu rizer ( nikos veliotis & coti k ) [gr]

08-12______________________________

Screening: Phill Niblock films 1966 – 1969

livesets

NTSC (dieb13 & billy roisz) [at]

Anastasis Grivas & Mecha Orga [gr]

09-12_______________________________
Screening: 2:13 videos

live sets

Free Piece of Tape [gr]
Phill Niblock [us]

party : dj great moments

3. From: Phill Niblock <pniblock@compuserve.com>

Experimental Intermedia
The Thirty-third Anniversary of EI performances at 224 Centre Street, The
Thirty-eighth Anniversary of the Founding of Experimental Intermedia, the
Thirty-eighth Anniversary of the 224 Centre Street loft, and, not least,
The Seventeenth Annual Festival with no fancy name, Part One (or A)
Phill Niblock, curator
December 2006

Giles Thomas and Patries Wichers Wednesday 13
Respectively the guitarist and vocalist from Bateau Lavoir, Antwerp, have
been working on a side project together; the approach remains –
no-repertoire, improvised music; both musicians started working with delays
but recent development has seen a shift from delays to fixed instruments;
listen at http://www.bateaulavoir.org/tw.html

Andreas Weixler & Se-Lien Chuang Friday 15
A concert of computer music, video and interactive audiovisual
improvisation; the 25th anniversary of Atelier Avant Austria/ the 10th
anniversary of artistic cooperation between Weixler-Chuang;
http://avant.mur.at/concerts/ei06/index.html – in collaboration with the
Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, support by the province government of
Styria and province government of Upper Austria, comission of SKE Fonds

Andrea Parkins Sunday 17
Electro multi-instrumentalist Andrea Parkins is a sound artist, composer
and improvising musician who also makes and/or arranges objects, images and
(sometimes) words; she will perform solo pieces for electronically
processed accordion and MAX processed sampling (merging analog electronics
with treatments by “Rube Goldberg,” a live generative processing
instrument), writing a fractured yet fluid sonic language as she releases
awkward electronic disruptions, dislocation-inspired samples and noisy
feedback into a rising flow of accordion sonority

Yasunao Tone Monday 18
Zeena Parkins joins the concert cum launch party in celebration of the
release of “Yasunao Tone – Noise Media Language” (Errant Bodies Press) –
given the release of the book will not be ready for the concert date a
mock-up version of the book will be shown at the concert, and introduced
through a video work by the editor Brandon LaBelle; the concert will
consist of Tone’s new piece for Parkins, Origin of Geometry: An
Introduction, based on the text of Husserl/Derrida, and a duo performance
by Tone and Parkins; the book – with contributions by Robert Ashley, Dasha
Dekleva, William Marotti, Federico Marulanda Rey, and Achim Wollscheid, and
an interview with the artist by Hans Ulrich Obrist; “Yasunao Tone – Noise
Media Language” is an indispensable monograph on this enigmatic artist

Maria Blondeel Tuesday 19
48 minutes; a steady sound accompanying an almost empty, steady image on
the screen; sonic video made in a driving car – the recordings where shot
during the Argos Festival 2004 that took place in Brussels on the R20; a
track has Dreaming / Rethinking and Transfiguring the Sites and Sounds of
Brussels’. (Argos/(K-RAA-K)3); http://www.mariablondeel.org

Phill Niblock 6pm until midnight, Thursday 21
So what’s new?- with six hours of music and film/video, who can tell?; 6pm
until 12am of the longest night of the year (what’s to do for the rest of
the night?)

Our programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, the
Aaron Copland Fund For Music, The Amphion Foundation, and the Phaedrus
Foundation
224 Centre Street at Grand, Third Floor, N Y 10013 $4.99
212 431 5127, 212 431 6430 9pm, except the 21st
www.experimentalintermedia.org and www.XIrecords.org

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), The Square Root Of Sub (MP <sub@xs4all.nl>), Dolf Mulder (DM) <dolf.mulder@hetnet.nl>, Robert Meijer (RM), Gerald Schwartz (GS), Niels Mark Pedersen (NMP), Henry Schneider (SH), Jeff
Surak (JS), TJ Norris (TJN), Gregg Kowlaksky (GK), Craig N (CN), Boban Ristevski (BR), Maurice Woestenburg (MW), Toni Dimitrov (TD <info@fakezine.tk>), Chris Jeely (CJ), Jliat (Jliat), Freek Kinkelaar (FK), Magnus Schaefer (MSS) and others on a less regular basis.
This is 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.
Announcements can be shortened by the editor. Please do NOT send any
attachments/jpeg’s, we will trash them without viewing.
There is no point in directing us to MP3 sites, as we will not go there. Any MP3 release to be reviewed should be burned as an audio CDR and send to the address above.

the complete archive of Vital Weekly (1-494) can be found at: http://staalplaat.com/vital/