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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 582
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week 25
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Vital Weekly, the webcast: we offering a
weekly webcast, freely to download. This can be regarded as the
audio-supplement to Vital Weekly. Presented as a radioprogramm
with excerpts of just some of the CDs (no vinyl or MP3) reviewed.
It will remain on the site for a limited period (most likely 2-4
weeks). Download the file to your MP3 player and enjoy!
complete tracklist here: http://www.vitalweekly.net/podcast.html
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PLEASE READ THIS. WE WILL NOT REVIEW MATERIAL
OLDER THAN SIX MONTHS, SO PLEASE DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. NOT ONLY
WILL WE NOT REVIEW IT, BUT WE WILL SELL THE MATERIAL TO A SECOND
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AT ONCE. WE SIMPLY CAN'T HANDLE EVERYTHING ANYMORE. SAVE YOURSELVES
THE FRUSTRATION... AND US!
DAVID MARANHA - MARCHES OF THE NEW WORLD
(CD by Grain Of Sound) *
TELEPHERIQUE - SLOWMOTION (CD by Force Of Nature Records) *
SMEGMA - NATTERING NAYBOYS OF NEGATIVITY (CD by Harbinger) *
TIM CAITLIN & JON MUELLER - PLATES AND WIRES (CD by Crouton
Music) *
ELIANE RADIGUE - JETSUN MILA (2CDS by Lovely Music)
OPSVIK & JENNINGS - COMMUTER ANTHEMS (CD by Rune Grammophon)
MARK WASTELL - AMOUNGST ENGLISH MEN (CD by Absinth Records)
FREDERIK NESS SEVENDAL - NO FOLY BOW (CD by Apartment/Humbug)
*
KRAIG GRADY - BEYOND THE WINDOWS PERHAPS AMONG THE PODCORN (CD
by Transparency Records) *
KRAIG GRADY - ORENDA (3"CDR, private)
ARTEFACTS OF AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC 1930-1973 (CD by Shame
File Music)
BITE THE CAPSICUM (3"CDR by Shame File Music)
MARC BEHRENS - ENTITY MÜLHEIM (2DVD by Auf Abwegen)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - MASKENSTILLEBEN (LP by Crouton Music)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DIE WILLE (LP by Le Souffleur)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DIE SONNE (LP by Le Souffleur)
MARC MCNULTY - ASYMMETRIC ERROR PROPAGATION (CDR by Earphone)
*
HINSIDAN - SHAPESHIFTER BLUES (CDR by Verato Project) *
ASHER - THE DEPTHS, THE COLORS, THE OBJECTS AND THE SILENCE (CDR
by Mystery Sea) *
CROW FEATHERS - MOVES TO E.LANSING (cassette by Turgid Animal)
*
AAL - URANIA (5CDR by Afe Records) *
FORMATT - HIMIKO (2 3"CDR by Odradek)
FORMATT - MINOR CURATIONS (3" CDR by Pseudo Arcana) *
MATT KREFTING - MAN IN REVOLT (cassette by Hank The Herald Angel
Recordings)
DAVID MARANHA - MARCHES OF THE NEW WORLD
(CD by Grain Of Sound)
After some years of absence, David Maranha, erstwhile of Osso
Exotico then drone meister in his own right, is now back. Recently
he released a CD with Minit under the banner of Organ Eye, and
there he showed a changing interest in the drone field. It incorporated
drones from instruments as well as electronics and had a edge
to it which could be classified as 'rock'. This is continued on
this new CD, under his name, but most certainly more a rock band
then a solo effort. Maranha plays hammond organ, violin and dobro/resophonic
guitar. João Milagre (bass) and António Forte (drums),
Tiago Miranda (percussion) form the back bone while Helena Espvall
playing the cello. The drone music played by this group is one
that stands in a long tradition: from Yves Klein, Tony Conrad,
LaMonte Young and Velvet Underground. Ongoing, banging rhythm
features, with a dominant role for organ and cello, but, certainly
in 'Infinity March' also for the rhythm section, which placed
at the end makes a beautiful grand finale. The four preceding
tracks are quieter, certainly 'Virgins Visions' (which is the
only solo piece by Maranha here), but in the other three tracks
things already rock like hell or drone like heaven. It moves away
from the previous works by Maranha, which was the more classical
overtone pieces of resonating strings and beautiful humming wave
fields. The music is harsher, grittier, more angular, and I must
admit very nice, because it goes back to a tradition which is
not copied these days very much, and certainly not as nice. Its
a great thing to see this done here, moving away from his earlier
work, but still re-inventing drone music. Great stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.grainofsound.com
TELEPHERIQUE - SLOWMOTION (CD by Force Of
Nature Records)
Despite their close to a hundred releases since they started eighteen
years ago, Telepherique hasn't been that much in Vital Weekly,
for reasons, other than labels not sending promo's, not quite
clear. It doesn't make it easy to shed light on their development.
Telepherique is a German trio of Klaus, Danijela and Rene Jochim
from Würzburg. Their releases came to us on labels as Ant-Zen
and Old Europa Cafe and many take the form of a collaboration,
such as with Ulf Harr, Echart Seilacher, Harry Luftl, Stefan Au
and Stefan Alt. That is important to Telepherique as they are
also politically inclined. 'This CD is dedicated to all the people
who try to simplify their life in modern times, marked with materialism,
business, stress an sickness. Like said, it's hard to tell where
this album is to be placed in the extensive Telepherique discography,
but it is safe to say that 'Slowmotion' is well chosen title:
the music is mostly ambient in approach, with long washes of synths,
but it's never the big A ambient. Telepherique also uses rhythm,
a lot of it, but it's a slow pulse, whenever it is used. Not exactly
dance music, but a sort of driving pulse, a heart beat if you
want, or the steady bump of a train ride. You watch outside and
the landscape slowly changes, with altering colors and sceneries.
The rhythms have a sense of tribalism, which is not far away from
some of the mechanical beats of Muslimgauze. Excellent production
of music that is best heard when traveling. Leave what you are
doing behind and start a journey with this as its soundtrack.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.forceofnature.cc
SMEGMA - NATTERING NAYBOYS OF NEGATIVITY
(CD by Harbinger)
To be honest: I am and never was the biggest fan of Smegma, that
free form combo from Portland, Oregon, but there are a few things
which I like about them. The name for a start, but also the fact
that they have been around for so long now, perhaps thirty years
(judging by discography in the booklet, which goes from 1976 to
1988, and that it seems they never dramatically changed their
sound. Also I believe they still play every week in Portland.
An unique band. The booklet discography going to thirty-three
releases by 1988 (including appearances on compilations) shows
as the final entry, 'Morass', a cassette release on Soleilmoon
(spelled Solielmoon, a common US mis spelling) and shortly before
that 'Nattering Nayboss Of Negativity', a LP for Dead Man's Curve,
the long gone UK label from Dave Henderson (who also compiled
'Three Minute Symphony' and 'Elephant Table Album'). Smegma is,
musically, also a curious band. They use the format of a rock
band, although it seems no one can really play an instrument properly,
including vocals that hardly make sense. But to their total free
playing of whatever instrument comes in hand, they also make use
old reel to reel recorders, making loops on them, or inserting
weird sounds and conversations in the mix. This links them, certainly
in the period of their career covered on this release, to say
Nurse With Wound and P16.D4, with whom they worked on 'Distruct'.
The mayhem here is spread over twenty-one tracks and at so much
chaos I must admit its a bit too much chaos, but it's also good
to hear it after so many years. It shows Smegma in a phase of
their career where they got more and more international recognition
and places them alongside The Nihilist Spasm Band as true outsiders
to the format or (free) rock music and musique concrete. This
is a great re-issue! (FdW)
Address: http://www.harbingersound.org/
TIM CAITLIN & JON MUELLER - PLATES AND
WIRES (CD by Crouton Music)
Years pass by without reviewing anything by Australia's Tim Caitlin,
and here is the second release with him in a few weeks, following
his release 'Radio Ghosts' on 23Five Incorporated (see Vital Weekly
579). Here he teams up with Jon Mueller, the US percussion player
and owner of Crouton Music. Both Tim and Jon love resonant frequencies
from their instruments. They prepare their instruments with objects
and watch the thing play itself, as it were. This is how drone
music can be made. Caitlin using motorized objects to play his
guitar and Mueller places various parts of his drumkit on top
of eachother and below is a amplifier with sine waves or a cassette
player with such like to get the whole pile moving. The recent
CD by Caitlin was a nice one, but effectively also a sound that
can be heard on many other releases, here, on this collaboration
however, together with somebody who does similar things but to
a less common instrument, it works much better. The drones set
forward by the two is almost violent in approach. Mean, up there,
present, this is not the sort of drone music that lulls the listener
into a state of sleep, but keeps him awake. A pretty strong release
of highly captivating drone music. The cover is great too: a 10"
cover with a hand stuck print on by painter/printer Thomas Kovacich
of two different pieces of monochrome types, each reflecting the
color of the other - the perfect visualization of this collaboration.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.croutonmusic.com
ELIANE RADIGUE - JETSUN MILA (2CDS by Lovely
Music)
Eliane Radigue is known artist in the fields of drone related
music. Born in Paris, she studied electro-acoustic music techniques
under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. I'm
familiar with her 'Adnos' release, in her music she uses Arp synthesizer
and recording tapes. She has become a Tibetan Buddhist in 1975
when stopped composing for some time and when getting back to
music in 1979 she continued to work with the Arp synthesizer,
which has become her signature. 'Jetsun Mila' is one of her works
inspired by the Tibetan poet and yogi Milarepa and another CD
on the same theme is 'Songs of Milarepa', released also by Lovely
Music. Eliane Radigue received a "Commande de l'etat"
from the French Government to compose 'Jetsun Mila' and the piece
was originally performed, recorded and produced by the artist
in 1986. The music on this double CD release is separated on both
CDs and there's one longer piece on each CD, the second continuing
where the first ends. The atmosphere on both of the CDs is very
calm, a bit more unsettling on the second CD, with it's sensibility
it is in many aspects like ambient music and it has a distinctive
atmospheric sense. This music is also very poetic and thinking
about that, while listening to it, I can conclude that 'Jetsun
Mila' can be perceived as poetry, in a very subtle and wide meaning
characteristic about that word. (BR)
Address: http://www.lovely.com
OPSVIK & JENNINGS - COMMUTER ANTHEMS
(CD by Rune Grammophon)
With "Commuter Anthems" Eivind Opsvik and Aaron Jennings
present their second album. Their first one, "Floyel Files"
(NCM East) dates from 2005. Mister Opsvik comes from Oslo, living
in the States since 1998, and playing bass in too many groups
and projects to mention here. To put it simply, he is deeply involved
in the New York Downtown scene. Jennings is a guitarplayer who
has his roots in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But who is also living nowadays
in New York. To give a first hint for what they are up to on their
new album, we can say it fits perfectly within the well-defined
aesthetics of the Rune Grammophon label. "Commuter Anthems"
is an interesting melting pot of a great many influences: easy
listening, film music, muzak, jazz, pop, Bill Frisell, postrock,
etc. It is evident that Jennings and Opvsik take their inspiration
from almost everywhere. But nowhere the music sounds meaninglessly
eclectic. No, they succeed from their various inspirations and
experiences to create a very original musical universe, that result
in a very satisfying musical experience. Opsvik plays double bass,
electric bass, drums, percussion, piano, organ, theremin, vocals
and software. Jennings: electric and acoustic guitars, lap steel,
banjo, concertina, vocals, software and electronics. In some tracks
they helped out by Ben Gernstein (trombone), Rich Johnson (trumpet)
and Peter Opsvik (flute). So you understand this a real studio-product.
But the music is very open and sounds loosely constructed, sometimes
even in a collage-like way. The music they create is very accessible
on the hand, and may pass by without noticing it like some ambient
music, when listening superficially. The reward comes from listening
with more concentration. As said above they use a great diversity
of sounds and instruments, and they paint very colorful pieces
with good feeling for style and a great sense for detail and finesse.
Also their music is very well constructed in an inventive and
original way, far from any cliché. Funny to find this sense
for musical adventure within this friendly and comforting music.
A great album. (DM)
Address: http://www.runegrammofon.com/
MARK WASTELL - AMOUNGST ENGLISH MEN (CD
by Absinth Records)
As the other releases on Absinth Records, this CD is packed in
a cover with a size for a 7" vinyl, with interesting handmade
looking design. In the brackets of the subtitle of this a little
bit more than half hour piece by Mark Wastell it's written: for
piano, tam tam and tubular bell. To be more precise, on the back
cover it says that Wastell plays: steinway grand piano, paiste
tam tam and tubular bell. The music on 'Amoungst english men'
has an atmospheric sense and it's very much close to ambient music,
but it's not pure ambience, since in the approach it is still
improvised music. It's a subtle crossover of the ambient style
and the improvised approach, even in it's unity sounding like
a drone piece, in a wider context of the impressions that this
music associates, while listening the whole piece of almost 34
minutes. Maybe more diversity in the sounds would bring in more
intensity, but maybe that will be the case on the next or is on
other releases by Mark Wastell, while the atmospheric 'Amoungst
english men' is my first encounter with his music. (BR)
Address: http://www.absinthrecords.com
FREDERIK NESS SEVENDAL - NO FOLY BOW (CD
by Apartment/Humbug)
The name Frederik Ness Sevendal popped up a few times in Vital
Weekly, through his LP with Bill Wood of 1.3 Octave Band and a
self-released CDR (see Vital Weekly 409 and 463). He has also
played with people like Makoto Kawabata, Tabata, Lasse Marhaug
and Crazy River. 'No Foly Bow' however is his first solo album.
Sevendal plays guitar and sound effects. The result, the seven
tracks that can be found on this release, is quite an interesting
affair, as Sevendal doesn't have one sound in mind, but several.
He can play a beautiful piece of drone music with various layers
of sustaining guitars, but on top he plays a nice set of slide
guitars. In the next track he can play a more melodic tune that
harks back to folk music. It makes this into a highly varied CD
release, but it works well. The various tunes, which were apparently
created through improvisation (hard to believe really), make a
consistent whole, and displays a true talent at work. Nice recording,
with a keen ear for details, this might still appeal to the fans
of music from New Zealand, especially when Sevendal plays a drone
like piece, but he has so much more to offer. Great debut. (FdW)
Address: http://www.apartmentrecords.com/
KRAIG GRADY - BEYOND THE WINDOWS PERHAPS
AMONG THE PODCORN (CD by Transparency Records)
KRAIG GRADY - ORENDA (3"CDR, private)
Quite wrongly I believed work by Kraig Grady had been reviewed
before, but a search through the vaults of Vital Weekly did bring
nothing. Yet the name sounded familiar, perhaps I saw him on the
microsound discussion list. Much to my surprise came this debut
CD by him. Grady is connect to Anaphoria, which I believe is a
made up land, where they have their own tuning system. Also they
believe "that traveling religious artifacts have been known
to cause earthquakes as the result of evil forces fleeing their
presence". That aside, the music on 'Beyond The Windows Perhaps
Among The Podcorn' is great. It's a composition Grady wrote for
six players: cello, saxophones, bassoon, trumpet and two voices.
They perform exact pitches 'but also to use the wide range of
timbres possible'. Grady follows the tuning invented by Erv Wilson,
whom he met in 1975. The slowly unfolds it's beauty in a strict
modern classical sense of the word. No electronics are applied
in this recording, which, if you didn't know this, would probably
something you could all to easily think. There are references
to people like Ingram Marshall or Alvin Lucier, but more to Phill
Niblock, especially his string quartet. The listener is elevated
in a seemingly weightless space through these vibrations and endless
sustaining sounds. Music that can drive the listener if he is
not open to it, but if you let this in, it's of an amazing beauty.
I may say this before, but this is a stunning beautiful work,
an instant classic piece.
At the same time there is also a 3" inch CDR played by Grady,
Ellysa Shalla and Erin Barnes, who all play vibraphones. "Orenda
is a both a Huran and Anaphorian word meaning 'that kind of power
that mortals can summon to combat the blind forces of fate'".
It starts out silent, but sooner than later becomes more audible
and the overtones the three vibraphones can produce fill your
space. But it's a percussive work, obviously, and it works well,
but not as great as the full length. The true suspense that that
one has, is a bit missed here, even when this is a fine work by
itself, it's not the similar blow as the full length just produced.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.anaphoria.com
ARTEFACTS OF AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC
1930-1973 (CD by Shame File Music)
BITE THE CAPSICUM (3"CDR by Shame File Music)
Probably every country have it's secret history with regard to
electronic music. Me personally I am waiting for the box set of
'Anthology Of Dutch Electronic Music 1955 - 1977', which is not
likely to happen for reasons unclear, but Shame File Music just
released this 'Artefacts Of Australian Experimental Music 1930-1973'.
Of course the older, the more avant-garde it is. Jack Ellitt has
the oldest piece, apparently from the early 1930s, made on the
soundtrack part of a film, even when it sounds like it could have
been some twenty years later. I might not be surprised if this
guy never existed. That is perhaps the trouble with some of these
musicians, artists and outsiders to the world of experimental
music. Did they ever exist? Or is everything a big hoax? The only
name I recognized here, is that of Felix Werder, of whom Pogus
recently released a CD too. So, let's safely assume these are
genuine old pieces. Keep in mind that we are dealing with 'experimental'
music here and not 'electronic' per se. This leads to improvised
madness of Melbourne Dada Group and the more controlled improvisation
of Robert Rooney. I must admit I was more pleased with the crude
electronic music that is also on this disc, such as the piece
by Bruce Clarke and Val Stephen (who apparently manipulates everyday
sounds) and Felix Werder's piece (which was also on the Pogus
release). It's altogether a great overview of music that is not
always that great, but from a historical point of view makes perfect
sense. More countries should follow.
On the same label also a 3"CDR of someone named Bite The
Capsicum, entirely based on a TV appearance this guy did in 1995
for a program called 'The Iron Chef' which turned out to be some
sort of disaster. The music is a sound collage of said TV show,
mingled with electronics and noise. It's all ok, but also perhaps
a bit too haphazard and short to form an opinion about it. Maybe
seeing the program in question would have helped. Maybe something
for Youtube? (FdW)
Address: http://www.shamefilemusic.com
MARC BEHRENS - ENTITY MÜLHEIM (2DVD
by Auf Abwegen)
In 1998 Marc Behrens started to work on a series of audio installations,
which aim at portraying a particular location by means of its
sonic appearance and apprehend the location's sound as an entity,
in the sense of a being or an essence. After realising installations
in Frankfurt ('Entity INM', 1998) and Darmstadt ('Entity K', 2002),
Marc Behrens presented 'Entity Mülheim' as a 4-channel sound/2-channel
video installation at the 'Kulturbunker Mülheim' in 2005.
Mülheim is a suburb of Cologne, a, as its mayor euphemistically
puts it in the liner notes, lively, diversified and enormously
heterogenic district. Marc Behrens chose two persons who represent
the two biggest population groups in Mülheim: "a Turkish
mother, about 40 years old, and a circa 60-year-old German man"
(just why does 'woman' equal 'mother' here?), asked them some
questions about the respectively other population groups and the
district itself and recorded their answers to video. Additionally
Marc Behrens made further audio and video recordings in and around
Mülheim. As he explains in the extensive and informative
liner notes, some of these sounds and images are directly linked
to what the two people said, while others reflect his own perception
of the location.
From this material Marc Behrens assembled two
audio-visual compositions, each of which is attributed to one
of the two population groups. At the 'Kulturbunker' these compositions
were shown simultaneously on two monitors and now they are available
on two separate DVDs to allow a similar mode of presentation.
The visual part consists of a series of short films which are
shot with a static camera and deal with rather commonplace subjects
like children playing, traffic on a bridge, a tree in sunlight
or wind stirring a small pile of rubbish and dry leaves. Throughout
Marc Behrens works a lot with slowing down movements or with emphasizing
their rhythmic aspects by cutting them up and rearranging them.
His treatment of the recordings of the two persons, for example,
brings about fragmented syllables and quivering images, which
exaggerate the persons' mimics and make them look like bizarre
grimaces, while other sequences are tranquil and almost meditative.
At times the results bring to mind the work of experimental filmmakers
such as Kurt Kren, which, however, stand in a wholly different
context. The soundtrack seems to be based entirely on highly processed
field recordings, but the connection between the sounds and the
images is loose, and there are even some passages concentrating
solely on the sounds without any images. The familiar, yet capably
applied vocabulary of digital sound processing works best when
the sounds bear a trace of their origin (without necessarily being
recognizable), whereas it sometimes risks missing the point when
it focuses too much on the manipulation itself.
Marc Behrens' approach of exploring rather inconspicuous phenomena
and rearranging their internal chronological sequence might be
understood as a metaphor for reading between the lines, for finding
a truth (or whatever there is to be found) hidden between the
words. Rather than proclaiming to have found this truth, however,
it cleverly deceits the viewer's expectation to learn what the
interviewed people hold as typically German or typically Turkish
and instead makes the viewer project her/his own imagination on
what she/he sees and hears.
One of the weak points about this work is that parts of its imagery
stay in all too conventional notions of the poetic, such as the
slowed down footage of dry leaves and rubbish stirred by the wind
or the starting aeroplane, which closes the second DVD. I would
also be reluctant to think that something like the essence of
a location actually exists. Still, leaving all these issues aside,
'Entity Mülheim' works well as an essay-like audio-visual
portrait. (MSS)
Address: http://www.aufabwegen.de/
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - MASKENSTILLEBEN (LP by
Crouton Music)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DIE WILLE (LP by Le Souffleur)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DIE SONNE (LP by Le Souffleur)
It's perhaps no big secret that I am a big fan of the work of
Raymond Dijkstra, and maybe reviewing all of his previous work,
entitled me to a copy of each of this: a big black wooden box
with golden text, in an edition of merely 100 copies - the preprogrammed
art item or well calculated collector's item? (You decide). Times
three. Crouton released a big wooden box, while Dijkstra's Le
Souffleur label releases two LPs at the same time in a linen hardcover
box with debossed and gold print, like his previous 'Affen-Theater'
(see Vital Weekly 479). Sound wise Dijkstra continues the road
he choose now for a while. A while ago I saw him in concert, with
Timo van Luyck, with whom he has an ongoing collaboration, and
their set up is very simple. An ancient loop echo, a small table
and a small bunch of objects that are played on the table, like
glass, knives, forks and wood. On 'Maskenstilleben' Dijkstra continues
this. Somewhere in the back there are the disharmonious drone
like chords he plays, seemingly at random, whereas in the foreground
there are scrapings and scratching of the surface, which are fed
through the ancient echo machine (which, to be honest, could have
been a little less). Perhaps the use of echo makes this 'electro-acoustic'
music, but its merely a deception to call it like that. This is
acoustic music in optima forma and one of a highly original kind.
Composition? Not of great interest for Dijkstra. Structure? Nope.
Being part of a scene? Which one, or in fact is there one? Not
for Dijkstra. He claims to work best in strict isolation, building
up the pressure and when he plays his music, he releases his pressure.
Inside his closed system (both mentally and in the real world),
he derives the sounds which he likes, plays them ad infinitum,
without beginning or end. This is noise music, but stepped outside
the relatively known genre of overload. This is improvisation,
but not as we knew it. Total outsider music, as it's hard to come
across Dijkstra, who hardly plays concerts. Not part of the serious
music world, the underground noise scene, microsound or the laptop
flock, he persists very much in his world. "Releasing my
work I only do for metaphysical reasons; to keep all psychic and
physical channels open, and maintaining a healthy system. It is
not much more then relieving yourself in the toilet", he
says. I hardly see anything more beautiful, both music and package
wise, coming from 'relieving yourself in the toilet' (the analogy
is a bit lost on me, but then I am an outsider to his world).
The differences between the three LPs is not very big. Normally
it could result in me nagging about that, but in the case of Dijkstra
you can only see the purity by which he works. We hardly complain
about people using guitars and drums, so why should we complain
about Dijkstra using objects like glass and metal? It's not the
same song repeated three times. Each is genuinely different from
the previous or the following record. The instruments remain the
same, the 'composition' remains the same, yet, like a good monochrome
painting, the differences are in the detail. 'Die Sonne' I thought
was a bit more minimal than the other two, more sparse, while
'Maskenstilleben' was a bit more dense, and 'Die Wille', although
close to 'Die Sonne' fell sort of in between the two.
After a bunch of self-released records, the release for Crouton
may open more doors for Dijkstra, and probably he doesn't care,
but at least the public should care. Three great LPs, by all means,
although Art (big A in place) doesn't come cheap. (FdW)
Address: http://www.croutonmusic.com
Address: http://www.le-souffleur.nl/
MARC MCNULTY - ASYMMETRIC ERROR PROPAGATION
(CDR by Earphone)
Since Vital Weekly 549 we know Marc McNulty is back. This new
release sees him taking the material on the previous two releases
'Faraday Cage' and 'Neurontin' to the stage through two lengthy
pieces culled from live recordings - although dates are not given.
The material at hand is the highly processed field recordings
on one side and shortwave/number stations on the other hand. Through
minimal changes he works through his set. Building slowly, and
in the piece that was recorded in Boston in an almost ambient
way and in the second piece (recorded live in Krakow, Poland)
he creates even a techno party for a while, though not too long.
The field recordings are difficult to track back to whatever origin,
and the use of short wave radio, number stations and airflight
control add a political and also creepy element to the music.
Not as microsound as one could expect, this McNulty release hoovers
in a more louder textures, and on CDR they two pieces may sound
a bit long, which could have been helped with some editing, but
it has some intense music on it, even when I personally would
have either trimmed it or released it as two separate releases.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.earphone.org
HINSIDAN - SHAPESHIFTER BLUES (CDR by Verato
Project)
Packaging craziness here: for whatever unknown reason, this release
was smeared with shampoo, maybe to indicate we deal with nice
music here? Hinsidan is a duo of Supertius and Atish Pare, and
'Shapeshifter Blues' is their second CDR release, while a 10"
on Ant-Zen is forthcoming. That's about the extend of information
to be given as we don't know anything else. 'Mastered by Lasse
Marhaug' it says on the cover, but don't be fooled by that: Hinsidan
doesn't produce noise music, although their machine like drone
sometimes comes very close. In each of the seven pieces they enroll
a drone that is omni present, enlarged and enhanced by sound effects
to make it thicker and fatter, but also more of a menace. Only
in one track, 'A Second In The Mind, A Day in The Life' they approach
noise very close and it happens to be the weakest link here. The
other six pieces are beautiful drone within the well-defined area
of course and it makes a very solid release. I wouldn't be too
surprised if they will have a release on Mystery Sea on day too.
Very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.verato-project.de
ASHER - THE DEPTHS, THE COLORS, THE OBJECTS
AND THE SILENCE (CDR by Mystery Sea)
It's been quiet for a while for Asher Thal-nir from Somerville,
Massachusetts, who has produced an interesting string of recordings,
mainly for netlabels and CDR labels such as Con-V, Leerraum, Earlabs
and Term. Here he returns with three long pieces that are totally
like the Asher we know, and not very much alike the recent releases
on Mystery Sea. It fits however well on that label. Asher takes
field recordings of every day life, maybe even as simply as hanging
a microphone out the window and picking up the sound, feeding
it directly into his computer, feeding it through his filters
and cooking up an austere, hermetically closed mass of sound.
Microsound in optima forma. It's hissy, scratchy and blurry -
and while those three terms may have negative connotations, there
are all to be seen in a positive manner. It may not sound hip
and fresh, as Asher's music stays firmly in the well fitted areas
of microsound (with strong nod to the work of William Basinski),
but the three pieces capture a great ambient mood. Thoroughly
digital, which may sets itself apart from some of the more sub
aquatic releases on Mystery Sea, it all makes perfect sense to
make this a release on this by now well respected ambient label.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
CROW FEATHERS - MOVES TO E.LANSING (cassette
by Turgid Animal)
Brandon Miller, the man behind Crow Feathers doesn't trust Vital
Weekly to own their own cassette player, so he added a CDR of
the music that can be found on 'Moves To E. Lansing'. Miller plays
guitar, synthesizer and electronics. Turgid Animal is known to
release noise music, and there are indeed moments when Miller
shows his love of the genre, but not until we are well into the
fourth piece 'Kursk Magnetic Anomaly'. The three preceding pieces
are filled with soft tinkling guitars and likewise soft keyboard
moves on 'Elegia', which ends with some force, before the real
thunder starts. The noise piece isn't well spend on me, but the
three tracks on the b-side aren't like that at all. Here Miller
further explores the use of guitar and electronics in a rather
melodious manner, but also in a free spirit. He doesn't let his
sound to be restricted inside a composition, but rather sets a
more free, spacious tone for them. Quite cosmic in approach, even
when 'A Meditation' is hardly meditative, but a more angular take
on cosmic music. Quite nice stuff altogether, and certainly should
have found its way to a CDR release, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://ravenweather.blogspot.com
AAL - URANIA (5CDR by Afe Records)
Davide Valecchi, the man behind Aal, started in 2001 with playing
more experimental music, after years of dabbling around in various
other musical genres. In the early days of his career he released
music on S'Agita, which is still regarded as one of the more exciting
labels from Italy, and sadly no longer around. These days Valecchi
releases on Afe Records, and they are now responsible for this
five/six CDR set, which looks professional and lovely, but of
which apparently merely fifty copies exist. Five or six I write,
as the official release is five CDRs, but a sixth one is included,
but which is sold separately and only available on demand, even
when the catalogue number and cover artwork are similar to the
box. The works in this box contain works from the period 2000
to 2004 which haven't been released before or privately in a small
edition. The enclosed list shows more unreleased works, so no
doubt another box will follow one day.
The box set opens with 'Disc 2' (2000-2001), 'Disc 1' was released
by S'Agita) and is one of the first works he produced as Aal.
Here he works with synthesizers, effects, tape recorders, microphones
and samplers, as opposed to the later work which uses a lot more
computers. The pieces here are drone like, partly even referring
too cosmic music of the seventies. The pieces are throughout a
bit dark, as can be expected in the world of drone music and also
a bit unfocussed. It was a promising start.
'Disc 3' sees a continuation of 'Disc 2' (2001), but with one
big difference: it's more or less a live recording of 'altering
streams of sound in real time'. These streams of sound come from
radio, television, shortwave and analogue tape recorders, feeding
through sound processors and samplers. Three long(er) pieces of
floating and more angular drone music, bouncing up and down the
scale in a kind of vibrant way, It moves back and forth in a sci-fi
soundtrack manner and floats around like a space ship. A bit like
good ol' Arecibo.
Both ends of the first two discs are brought together on 'Composita
Solvantur' (2002-2003), which is a four part work, 'each part
of which can be considered as a static description of the same
place viewed from a different angle'. The four long pieces have
the drone like character of 'Disc 2' but also the vibrancy of
'Disc 3'. The space age motif of the previous disc continues here,
but the tracks are worked out better. At times it sounded like
processed feedback, such as in '(Fase Solare)', and when things
get more darker and moodier, the influence of Maurizio Bianchi
never seems far away. It's all quite ambient like, but it never
looses the experimental touch. Quite a refined work.
Something similar can be said about 'Delicate Debris' (2004),
even when it consist much more and much shorter pieces. Here Aal
tells us that he's using acoustic instruments such as piano, guitar,
flutes and mandolin and 'it deals with the essence of loss'. Throughout
the eleven tracks sound indeed desolate and empty, like small,
mournful tunes. I am not sure here, but this could also be the
point when Aal uses more computerized methods to work on his music
(though I might be wrong of course). If this had to be classified
as something, I think ambient glitch would be the most appropriate
term. Although mood, working method and shape is different from
the previous one, this is also a great work.
The fifth one is 'Engine Summer' (2004). Various interests that
we saw on the previous four discs (as well as other releases by
Aal in the past) are combined here: the deep end ambient music,
electro-acoustic processing of objects and field recordings, but
also there is rhythm to be found here, in a sort of slow, Chain
Reaction manner, which makes this quite a full and somewhat unfocussed
release. What does Aal want here? Maybe the idea was the make
a more mature album, of various interests combined into an album,
but unfortunately the results are not always as great. It makes
a ok release though.
The sixth, bonus, CDR is a 'La Ruina', which is the one that goes
to the area of field recording most. Aal recorded a river on various
locations and layers these recordings into a forty some minute
piece. Of all the discs this is the one that lacks any form of
electronics, and it's a pure soundscape, much along the lines
of 'Map Of Hudson River' or similar works. Hard to believe it
has ten voices as it sounds consistent throughout. Quite a nice
work.
Altogether this is a great work, showing a strong development,
and Aal venturing into different kinds of music, which sometimes
works and sometimes it doesn't. Let's wait for the next box, to
see where he leads us then. (FdW)
Address: http://www.aferecords.com
FORMATT - HIMIKO (2 3"CDR by Odradek)
FORMATT - MINOR CURATIONS (3" CDR by Pseudo Arcana)
Over the years we have come across the music of Formatt, in all
sorts of formats really, but CDR remains the most important one.
Here two of them arrive at once. The first, released on Belgium's
Odradek label, is a double package with a 'multi-channel audio
installation at Galerie Jan Colle in Ghent Belgium'. The idea
is to play both CDRs at the same time, but I have no such set
up. Even if I don't play them at the same time, I can form an
idea what it would sound like, although no clear view what this
installation would have looked like. One CDR has the more longer,
sustaining sounds which seems to be derived from radio transmissions,
while the other has a shorter, more irregular web rhythmical sounds,
which no doubt was derived from similar source material. Nice,
but I think a mixed stereo version would have been preferred here.
How this can work is heard on 'Minor Curations', released on New
Zealand's Pseudo Arcana (and maybe an unlikely label for Formatt).
More microscopic sounds treated through the big computer screen
and plug ins running amok. There is an extensive use of the delay
machine, which add, oddly enough, a sort of lo-fi quality to the
music, which was perhaps appealing the Pseudo Arcane labelboss.
It makes a pretty strong release all together. Not by a new and
refreshing look at the genre of microsound, but just by itself:
an intense piece of computerized processing of sound. Nervous,
hectic, dark and sometimes menacing. A very fine and refined piece.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.odradek.net
Address: http://www.pseudoarcana.com
MATT KREFTING - MAN IN REVOLT (cassette
by Hank The Herald Angel Recordings)
When checking if I wrote about Matt Krefting before, I came to
the sad conclusion I didn't. Which is odd, since he's closely
connected to my beloved Idea Fire Company. Krefting is also a
member of many other bands, such as Son Of Earth, Duck, Itchy
Pits, The Believers, Destroyer and many more. He plays everything,
everywhere and with everyone. 'Man In Revolt' is the total opposite:
he's alone at the piano, plus perhaps a bunch of electronics,
most likely guitar effects. These are kept however to a minimum,
as the main thing is the piano. It's an utter lo-fi, hiss covered
tape, but no doubt it's intended to be like that. Minor keys are
played, while the sustain pedal is pressed down hard to add that
darker texture to the music. On the B-side there is a short track
'Forgets Breakfast' which is made with fog horns (or so it seems).
It's a great release, along the lines of the recent Graham Lambkin
CD, or even Organum's recent work ('Amen'). A pity that it's on
cassette and not CDR - maybe I could ask for a re-issue? (FdW)
Address: http://www.hankrecordings.com/index.html