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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 588
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week 32
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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.
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THE FRUSTRATION... AND US!
SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY - DEEP FRIEZE (CD
by Cold Spring)
BEYOND IGNORANCE AND BORDERS : AN AFRICAN MIDDLE-EASTERN, ASIAN
NOISE AND ELECTRONIC COMPILATION (CD by Syrphe)
KEVIN DRUMM & DANIEL MENCHE - GAUNTLET (CD by Editions Mego)
*
ENCOMIAST - SELF-TITLED (CD by Lens Records) *
THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC - MUSICAMOROSA (CD by Cronica Electronica)
*
FAR CORNER - ENDANGERED (CD by Cuneiform)
INANNA - DAY OV TORMENT (CD by Cold Spring)
SHINJUKI THIEF - THE SCRIBBLER (CD by Cold Spring)
VARIOUS ARTISTS - OTHERNESS (CD by Sonic Arts Network)
FANFARE POURPOUR & LARS HOLLMER - KARUSELL MUSIK (CD by Monsieur
Fauteux)
FERRAN FAGES - CANÇONS PER A UN LENT RETARD (CD by Etude
Records) *
COTTON (CD by Dragon's Eye Recordings) *
THE LATE SEVERA WIRES - THREE MINUTES A SECOND (LP on High Mayhem)
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS - NOBODY'S UGLY (LP by No Fun Productions)
KISS THE ANUS OF A BLACK CAT - TURN HEGEL ON HIS HEAD (7"
by Implied Sound)
FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC - VARUNAGHAT (CDR by Mystery Sea) *
(AD)VANCE(D) - POEM#RED128DOT (CDR by Absurd) *
MOLJEBKA PVLSE - DRIFTSOND (CDR by Gears Of Sand) *
BPMF - PAROUSIA FALLACY (CDR, private) *
IAN HOLLOWAY - WALKING THROUGH FIREFLIES (CDR by Quiet World)
*
DARREN TATE - SMALL WORLDS (CDR by Quiet World) *
XEDH/FEVER SPOOR - NACHT UND NEBEL (CDR by Anima Mal Nata) *
MOLE HARNESS - AS LANGUAGE CARVES THE WORLD (CDR by Stray Dog
Army) *
SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY - DEEP FRIEZE (CD
by Cold Spring)
A rush of blood to the head - do you feel it? If you don't, within
the opening ten minutes of this work from Sleep Research Facility,
you'd better check your blood pressure! First track on this fourth
effort by Sleep Research Facility is an absolutely amazing trance-inducing
trip into solemn drones and concrete buzzes softly washing into
your ears. Those who have ever listened to drone ambient might
recognize the potential power of sonic drones to reach the sub-conscious
levels of perception. Latest album by Kev Doherty ( a.k.a. Sleep
Research Facility) takes its inspirational starting point in the
Polar Regions of the globe. Despite the album title's reference
to the icy territories geographically as well as to musical preferences,
there is something warm and quite emotional among the otherwise
cold and sometimes even threatening sonic expressions. There is
a nice parallel to Biosphere's ode to Norwegian ice nature as
expressed on "Substrata" (1997), thanks to the grandiose
sound impressions. But the five section on this one hour trip
to the dreaming never land of Sleep Research Facility is more
drone-based and subtle with associations back to Wieland Samolak's
"Steady state music", an album that was exclusively
based on drones of concrete sound sources, and to Robert Rich's
deep ambience on "Trances/Drones" (an album that was
created for Robert Rich's legendary sleep concerts). And as was
the case with the last mentioned album "Deep Frieze"
will be an amazing sleeping friend for those being interested
in trips to the deep sub-conscious levels of the mind rather than
drifting into deep sleep. A masterwork! (NM)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
BEYOND IGNORANCE AND BORDERS : AN AFRICAN
MIDDLE-EASTERN, ASIAN NOISE AND ELECTRONIC COMPILATION (CD by
Syrphe)
Throughout the last twenty years or so various noise compilations
with focus on the different cultures around the Globe have been
released; from the "Japanese/American Noise Treaty"
(Relapse/Release) across "Sound Of Sadism : An International
Power Electronics Compilation" (Crowd Control Activities)
to the "Extreme Music From."-series with editions focusing
on Africa, Russia, Japan and Women (Susan Lawly Label). Now Belgium
label Syrphe Records has brought us a new compilation of noise
music. Titled "Beyond ignorance and borders" the compilation
presents us for artists of nationalities from the Eastern world.
The contributions do not come from Japan, the kingdom of Noise,
but from other countries that are relatively unknown regarding
noise music. And this is what makes this compilation very interesting.
Twenty tracks from countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore,
Lebanon, South Korea (just to name a few), the styles ranges from
extreme noise to breakcore and field recording. What makes this
album interesting is that the origin of many of the artists represented
on the compilation seems to saturate the expressional style on
the contributions. Highlights on the compilation is the weird
technoid track "629" by Skorfuse (Philippines), harsh
noise tracks such as "Useless summer" by Yan Jun (China)
and the ultra-aggressive "Ithrane n ithige" from Algerian
artist Nepa Ios. Also the ear-shattering closer "The night
as it was raining (aka 26 aunigrai)" from Goh Lee Kwang (Malaysia)
is remarkable. This is certainly a great compilation, worth investing
whether you are noise-head or simply an adventurous listener of
the more extreme kind. Highly recommended! (NM)
Address: http://www.syrphe.com
KEVIN DRUMM & DANIEL MENCHE - GAUNTLET
(CD by Editions Mego)
Although I'm not sure about you, but expectations were high for
this collaboration. Kevin Drumm versus Daniel Menche. Wow. One
certified hero and one that usually does the right thing. What
can go wrong if they meet up and do something? Apparently something,
as the resulting twenty-eight minutes are what we except: noise.
Drumm plays guitar and noise and Menche plays organ noise. It
takes some minute to be spot on and towards the end things end
in a crackle of microphones. But there is something missing here,
and it's hard to say what that is. It has power for sure, but
it's not a punch like with fist, but a nice stroke, a tap on the
back, rather than bleeding knuckles. Maybe there is something
about the recording itself, which I though lacked a bit of depth.
There would be more in there, I think, than what came out now.
It's good, it's fine, it's noise. Not the over top blown Merzbow
type of noise, but it's quite, yet not entirely, full on noise.
Expectations running high but not entirely met here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.editionsmego.com
ENCOMIAST - SELF-TITLED (CD by Lens Records)
Over the years we heard quite a bit of Encomiast, which has a
strange line up. First time around (back in Vital Weekly 271),
they were trio, then a solo project (Vital Weekly 463) and then
a duo (508), and here they are still but different names: Ross
Hagen and Nick Paul, instead of Ross Hagen and Megan Garland.
Perhaps it has to that the recordings captured on 'Self Titled'
are from 1999 and which have recently been re-edited? Encomiast,
in these early recordings, start with a blueprint of what was
to come later (we can safely say with some insight), music that
we would simply call 'ambient industrial drone' music. Too loud
to be ambient, perhaps even too strange to be 'just' ambient (thank
god), but on the other hand also too soft to be real industrial
music. Sounds loop around, trapped inside sound effects (delay
and reverb are two favorite machines around here) and swirl in
all directions possible. It's like a time machine, not to 1999
when this was recorded but 1989, when industrial music softened
out and became sometimes mellow. At times it seemed I was listening
to old Illusion Of Safety LPs and cassettes, and that is certainly
not a bad reference at all. Dark, haunting, soundtrack like, Encomiast
was even in these early stages a fine, be it not very new, player
of good atmospheric music. Nice work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lensrecords.com
THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC - MUSICAMOROSA
(CD by Cronica Electronica)
As far as I remember this is the first major work by Jorge Mantas,
who has published works on CDR before as well as being part of
a previous release on Cronica Electronica. Among his influences
he ranks rather writers (such as Proust, Poe, Dante), painters
(Friedrich, Waterhouse), nouvelle vague cinema and erotic photography.
I was playing this CD and couldn't help thinking: I heard this
before. Ambient scape drone music. Made with a laptop. Based on
field recordings and instruments. How easy do you want to have
it? Yet I was playing this a couple of times and every time I
thought: wow this is nice. The guiding theme here are 'romantic
drones'. Violins are sampled, layered, looped around, and sound
like a warm bed, candle lit, incense perhaps (don't know how romantic
things should be) and in the background the ambient glitch muzak
of The Beautiful Schizophonic. The music is a bit like sweet cake.
You take a bite and think that it's nice, and even the second
and third bite are great but then your teeth start hurting of
all the sweetness. That is a bit the trap of this album. It's
a sweet album, a great album, but perhaps to be taken in just
a few bites every time. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cronicaelectronica.org
FAR CORNER - ENDANGERED (CD by Cuneiform)
A recent release from Cuneiform belonging to the art rock/progressive
music-section of their catalogue. Far Corner is an american band
who debuted in 2003 on Cuneiform. I can't make any comparison,
as I haven't heard their first one. Far Corner is a quartet, assisted
in one track by violist Jerry Loughney. We hear William Kopecky
on fretless and fretted electric basses, plus spring dum; Dan
Maske on keyboards, trumpet, melodica, and additional percussion;
Angela Schmidt plays acoustic and electric cellos, violin, bamboo
flute and Craig Walkner drumset. All of them are classically trained
musicians. The playing is top-notch. The nostalgic sounding keyboard
work of Maske is often in the centre. No surprise, as he composed
all the titles. The opening track "Inhuman" begins with
a spacy intro and sets in with a Présent-inspired rock
beat. So the title, "Inhuman" may be a reference to
the most recent record of Présent "A Great Inhumane
Adventure". Far Corner moves between instrumental classical
chamber rock and progressive rock. Music that seems to arise from
its ashes in the last few years. So it is a real pleasure to hear
this kind of music meeting the standards of sound quality and
production of nowadays. "Do you think I'm spooky" and
"Creature Council" continue along similar lines. Very
well-constructed progressive rock pieces, performed with a great
drive. Music that one inevitably associates with ELP and King
Crimson. Like King Crimson and Univers Zero, Far Corner has also
another side: "Claws" is an improvisation. For this
piece the players limited themselves to scratching their instruments,
creating an atmosphere comparable to the improvised track on Univers
Zero's japanese maxisingle. It is followed by "Not from around
here", a laid back jazzy tune of lyrical elegance. The cd
closes with the titletrack, "Endangered" a 20 minute
work composed by the group, that has very interesting and nice
moments, but does not convince as a whole. Here we are arresting
the weak spot of this release, if you ask me. This and the other
compositions are lacking originality and a personal touch. The
music moves along to well-known paths. Lacking depth and a feeling
of necessity, which is so evident in the music of Univers Zero
and Présent. So I hope they work on that aspect of their
otherwise greatly performed music, and I'm looking forward to
discover what there is more behind this far corner. (DM)
Address: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/
INANNA - DAY OV TORMENT (CD by Cold Spring)
SHINJUKI THIEF - THE SCRIBBLER (CD by Cold Spring)
Once again British label has opened the treasures of the past.
This time they have dived into the dark territories of ambient
sound and found some real pearls of orchestral beauty. The first
is the classic Swedish death Industrial/dark ambient opus "Day
ov torment" from Inanna whose real name is Mikael Stavostrand.
Mikael Stavostrand is first of all known for his Archon Satani-project
in collaboration with Thomas Petterson, but also for his more
sound art-based releases under the Korm Plastics-label as Mikael
Stavostrand. This album originally released by Dutch label Staalplaat
operates in the dark and gloomy caves of industrial ambient as
was the case with his Archon Satani project. "Day ov torment"
though, focus much more orchestral expressions and grandiose soundscapes
and lesser on the extreme blackness of Archon Satani. The emptiness
and the grandiose impression on the album are intensified by the
presence of eerie choirs, ghoulish voices and creepy passages
of screeching violins. The repetitive nature of the musical expression
combined with the echoed sound production, sounding like had it
been recorded in a cathedral, assist to create an intense ritual
atmosphere. Remixed by Havukainen of In Slaughter Natives the
album has gained the perfect sound for a voyage into the darkest
areas of ambience! Listeners of neo-classical ambient, should
not miss this classic piece of dark symphony. Operating in similar
territories this classic album from legendary Australian sound
artist Shinjuki Thief presents a more harsh and Industrial-based
side of this very widely approached sound artist. The album titled
"Scribbler" was created back in 1992 as a minimalist
re-work of Kafka's novel "The trial" (1925). It was
the follow-up to the debut album "Bloody tourist" (released
in 1992 on Extreme Records). But where the debut had a more exotic
and ethnic approach to the ambient-style, the "Scribbler"
has a more classical approach to the music with a comprehensive
use of string instruments such as violins and guitars, once in
a while reminiscent of Philip Glass. On "Scribbler"
background atmospheres begins to assume greater importance, especially
with the incorporation of passages of the Kafkan texts. Despite
the casual use of harsher sonic tools to create an edgy approach
is far away from the abrasive E.P.A.-project that the Shinjuki
Thief main-man Darrin Verhagen has been known for. "Scribbler"
sounds like the soundtrack for a movie thanks to the blend of
environmental sounds and cinematic soundscapes of moody, mellow,
beautiful and ugly atmospheres. Two excellent reissues from Cold
Spring Records both of them highly recommended to people interested
in neo-classical or orchestral ambient. (NM)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
VARIOUS ARTISTS OTHERNESS (CD by Sonic
Arts Network)
The 20th edition of the Sonic Art Network's theme-based CD series
is curated by composer and conceptualist David Cotner, who chose
the concept of "Otherness" as a framework for this compilation.
There are no less than 27 tracks on the CD, and the list of contributors
includes some of experimental music's most seminal figures like
Karlheinz Stockhausen or Eddie Prévost, along with names
which are less publicly present (or at least less present these
days?), like Lovely Midget, Kallabris or Ramleh or rarely found
on compilations, such as Lee Ranaldo, Conrad Schnitzler and Wander.
Most, if not all the people featured on this CD have been around
for quite some time already, and thus also parts of the material
date back up to a few decades, while other pieces have been recorded
very recently. All this constitutes a truly heterogeneous collection
of styles and approaches. The downside of this is of course, that
the playing time of the individual tracks is mostly limited to
two or three minutes (with Karlheinz Stockhausen's 7-minute track
being the only and in my opinion not fully justified
prominent exception). This is a pity, since especially the drone-based
works on this compilation would for sure benefit from a greater
time frame. As with so many other compilations the material is
somewhere between alright and pretty good, without any real dropouts
and with a few standout tracks. Some of my picks for the most
notable contributions here would include Michael Prime's recording
of electronic fields produced by fungi, the ceremonial dialogue
recorded by David Toop in the Amazonas region of southern Venezuela
and not to forget the beautifully Oriental-flavoured track by
Cluster & Eno, featuring Asmus Tietchens and Okko Bekker,
but of course there are more and as usual too many to describe
or even list them all.
The CD comes in a 16-page booklet in 7"-format, which not
only contains black and white illustrations by Jeffrey Jones,
but also short thoughts on "Otherness" and/or their
own work by the featured artists. Although Jones is highly praised
in the liner notes, the illustrations, which show a naked woman
alone on an deserted tropical island seem to present an all too
common male fantasy topos of the "Other". Or maybe I
just didn't get the conceptual twist here (OK, so Jeffrey Jones
now works as Jeffrey Catherine Jones). The artists' statements
are again a mixed affair, some of them informative, others too
esoteric for my taste or plainly annoying in their commercial
bluntness (guess who). However, to be honest I decided to largely
neglect the conceptual framework and what I got then was a nice
collection of quiet and often drone-oriented sounds, which, given
the relative short length of the contributions, work much better
as a whole than taken individually. (MSS)
Address: http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org
FANFARE POURPOUR & LARS HOLLMER - KARUSELL
MUSIK (CD by Monsieur Fauteux)
In one word: this is a fantastic cd! Hollmer and Fanfare Pourpour
would have fitted perfectly in the program of the resurrected
RIO-festival last april in France. Between the dark - but more
then excellent!! - music of Guapo, Présent and others,
their positive and uplifting music would have been a great contribution.
Why linking this Karusell with RIO? Well, Lars Hollmer with Samla
Mammas Manna, was one of the groups involved in the RIO-network
in the early 80s, as were Stormy Six, Etron Fou, Univers Zero,
Henry Cow, etc. RIO had its function in creating a global audience
for these groups. Now, so many years later, we can say this was
a success. Accordionplayer Lars Hollmer made friends in Canada
(Jean Derome, a.o.), and travels the world with his Accordion
Tribe. But before that Hollmer made several great solo-albums
in the 80s and 90s. From these lps come most of the compositions
that we hear on Karusell Musik,. Great tunes, all inspired on
swedish folk music. Jean Derome did a great job in arranging them
for the fanfare. Fanfare Pourpour are some 20 musicians playing
a diversity of wind instruments of course, but also several string
instruments (mandoline, guitar, banjo, violin) plus percussion.
And accordion not to forget, one of them played by Lars Hollmer
himself who also sings on several pieces. The pieces were rehearsed
and recorded with Lars Hollmer during a week in october 2006.
They must have had a lot of fun, as the Fanfare gives way to a
very joyous interpretation of Hollmers, pieces. They embraced
his music with great enthusiasm. For Hollmer it is the second
time that his super melodic tunes are interpreted by musicians
somewhere else on this planet. In 2000 he recorded with a group
of japanese musicians (Global Home Project). Fanfare Pourpour
has a history going back to the 70s, but since they are working
together with musicians from the impro scene, they release every
now and then a cd. The first one in 1999 ('Tout le monde'), the
second one ('Le bal') in 2004 with compositions by band members.
And now the irresistible 'Karusell Musik', a very successful collaboration.
Chapeau! (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/
FERRAN FAGES - CANÇONS PER A UN LENT
RETARD (CD by Etude Records)
Over the past few years, work by Ferran Fages has been reviewed
in Vital Weekly, where we saw him armed with a turntable, but
he also plays electronics and guitar and usually in collaboration
with others, as Fages is a respected improviser. 'Cançons
Per A Un Lent Retard' is his second solo CD in which he explores
the acoustic guitar. A 'cançon' is a song, but the nine
songs on this CD are hardly songs. Or at least not songs as most
people, perhaps us included, would know and recognize. Fages plucks
his instruments, strumms loud, hits quiet, hardly uses anything
else (but I thought to hear an e-bow in there somewhere), and
the recording is of crystal clear nature. The music is loud and
present. It's a fine CD, if not a great CD. However, one thing
must be noted: it's also a very long CD. Music like this asks
for a great deal of concentration, and at seventy-one minutes
of high concentration listening efforts, I felt kind of tired.
To listen carefully to all the details, such as in 'Paraula Clau'
with it's extensive use of silence, hum and pluck, it's already
a great effort (at seventeen minutes this would be a great work
in itself), but there are nine of them, although not everyone
as radical, but it is a bit much. A small portion to be tasted
daily. (FdW)
Address: http://www.etuderecords.com
COTTON (CD by Dragon's Eye Recordings)
Since a few weeks we have been receiving and enjoying music released
by Dragon's Eye Recordings. Here the present a compilation of
artists that are currently releasing their work on the label or
that soon will be. The music released by the label is, perhaps
easily, best classified as computerized microsound and glitch
music. The children of Alva Noto at work, certainly when it comes
to Yann Novak and Kamran Sadeghi. Other take their inspiration
from Stephan Mathieu, such as Corey Fuller (in his solo piece)
or take a more narrative road such as the fine piece by Tadahito
Ichinoseki and Tomoyoshi Date. It makes the music not be the most
original one under the sun, as much of what can be heard here
was heard before elsewhere. But none of the eight brothers (I
believe no sisters here) play a bad piece. These pieces make quite
a coherent listen, maybe a bit interchangeable, but quite nice
throughout. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dragonseyerecordings.com
THE LATE SEVERA WIRES - THREE MINUTES A
SECOND (LP on High Mayhem)
Carlos Santistevan is one of the driving forces behind the High
Mayhem festival (Santa Fe) and label. Also he is involved in several
groups and projects, The Late Severa Wires being one of them.
For their newest release 'Three minutes a second' they choose
to release it on vinyl. In their opinion the warmth and space
of the studio recordings are captured better on vinyl then on
cd. For my ears it wouldn't make any difference I guess, but anyway
that is how they decided. The Late Severa Wires is a group consisting
of Santistevan on bass and electronics, Mike Rowland (drumset),
Ultraviolet (turntables, guitar, electronics) and Yozo Suzuki
(guitar, electronics). In february 2006 they spent 2 weeks in
the studio to work out their ideas in 17 hours of recording sessions.
In about 40 minutes they condensed their results on the vinyl.
9 short outtakes define the core of their musical excursions.
I appreciate it that they choose for limited outtakes and pieces,
probably catching them at their most concentrated moments. Often
these kind of improvisations continue endlessly.
We hear great noisy improvisations with a definite rock feel.
Raw and unedited they found their way to the vinyl. The music
bursts of energy and intensity. In some tracks they integrate
prerecorded material from different sources, bringing the old
days of Can to my mind. Some tracks are based on a rhythm, others
create a spacy atmosphere in a free collage-like way, or develop
towards a climax. Different moods and atmospheres are expressed
by the four, originating from the different ideas and angles that
make up the basis of these groupimprovisations. The music, as
the band, sounds very 'together', as one massive whole. Must be
a great joy to experience this free rock band live. (DM)
Address: http://www.highmayhem.org
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS - NOBODY'S UGLY (LP
by No Fun Productions)
For reasons not entirely clear to me, Philip Best never really
seemed to have pushed his Consumer Electronics project. From a
very early age he was a member of Whitehouse, played with Ramleh,
and Consumer Electronics seemed to have died a slow death. Which
is a pity since what we heard on 'Neuengamme' or 'Fuer Ilse Koch',
or on obscure bootlegs that floated around at that time, the mixture
of classic short wave noise, synthesizer and effects sounded quite
nice. For the same unclear reasons, there is now an album by Consumer
Electronics on giffoni's No Fun label and has Best gone soft?
Nobody's Ugly sounds far from the topics touched upon by Whitehouse.
His buddy William Bennett produced the album and both sides are
gigantic slabs of noise, big time clusters of sound, which are
greeted by an extensive mass of sound effects. Deep, massive,
loud and mean but no doubt Consumer Electronics. The only minor
thing is the quick fade at the end, thus not giving the pieces
an ending, but it seems more like shorter versions of longer pieces.
Not confirming to the world of 'real' noise, Best plays his own
version of noise, and that's something he is particular good at.
Great album. (FdW)
http://www.nofunproductions.com/
KISS THE ANUS OF A BLACK CAT - TURN HEGEL
ON HIS HEAD (7" by Implied Sound)
Welcome to the world of the tormented souls. Belgium's Stef Heeren,
who calls himself Stef Irritant here, is the core of Kiss The
Anus Of A Black Cat, of whom we reviewed the CD 'If The Sky Falls,
We Shall Catch Larks' in Vital Weekly 469. Kiss The Anus is an
apocalyptic folk band, with Heeren's voice, guitar, drones, skins
and bells an help on the drums, guitars and vocals from others.
Hegel's dialectic is the edge of this record, which I honestly
will admit is all a bit beyond me. I hear Heeren once again singing
like David Tibet, and the folk drones are along similar lines.
The music part is quite strong, again, but also again, the singing
is not my thing. Though to be honest (also again) I quite liked
this 7". It's short, two tracks only, which are tied together,
theme-wise, and for a day with grey clouds that is far enough
from the world of apocalyptic folk. I'm sure loads of people will
like this more than I do, but sometimes even I do, when it arrives
in a small dose. (FdW)
Address: http://www.publicguilt.com
FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC - VARUNAGHAT (CDR by
Mystery Sea)
It's hard to imagine where Mystery Sea finds them, but he does
find them. Five Elements Music hail from Russia and I haven't
got the faintest idea about the who or what. I do know about the
why though: according to the vedic concept there are five elements,
ether, air, fire, water and earth and releasing on Mystery Sea
is perhaps something that fits the schematics. The Sergey bloke
who is behind this release takes the name of the label as a starting
point for his three untitled pieces, as water seems to be recurring
element in his music. Highly processed at the start, but the cascading
waves become an apparent feature later on. The main features are
there: drone, deep rumbling drones of the subaquatic nature of
the sea waves, while slowly move forward and which bring structure
to the music. There is nothing we haven't heard before in the
same field that we hear on this release, but Five Elements Music
do a pretty fine job in creating underwater music, which is a
bit on the dark ambient side on one hand but never looses it's
sense of experimentalism. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
(AD)VANCE(D) - POEM#RED128DOT (CDR by Absurd)
Vance Orchestra from Arnhem are no more, but out of his ashes
new paths are chosen. Robert Deters plays around with various
people from the local scene, including Machinefabriek, while Mars
Wellink goes on solo. As (ad)vance(d) he now presents his first
solo work, I think, for the Absurd label. It has been around in
their offices for a while, but it's release comes in handy. In
various cities (Arnhem, Leiden, Molovos) Mars recorded some field
sounds which he knits together to a thirty six minute sound poem.
Voices play a role, but more over it's here to create an atmospheric
piece of music. The backdrop is a sort of ambient piece of a wall
of synthesizers, but it's too angular to be a dull piece of music.
On top of that hotbed, Mars lets his recordings drop in and out
of the mix, bird calls, insects, people walking and talking. Over
the course of the piece things move away from the ambient patterns
played at the beginning and moving into the world of strict soundscaping
and then spiral back into the ambient backing of the start. A
highly atmospheric work that is more like a sound picture, be
it of different places, of sound moving in and from various directions
than a strict music piece, more like a sound environment. (FdW)
Address: http://www.void.gr/absurd
MOLJEBKA PVLSE - DRIFTSOND (CDR by Gears
Of Sand)
By now Mathias Josefson's project Moljebka Pvlse has gathered
some interest due to a bunch of interesting ambient industrial
drone releases. Here he presents his latest work, which perhaps,
I am merely guessing here is a of a bit of different nature than
his previous works, and one possible reason for that might be
that it's a CDR release (although on Gears Of Sand the quality
is so high that's hard to to tell the difference). The four pieces
on 'Driftsond' are more minimal than before. Each piece seems
to be built around one set of sounds and a little bit of electronic
processing. A bit like Alvin Lucier's 'Music On Long Thin Wire'
at times, but here with a touch more musical sense, like a drone
version of his work. But it has that same minimalist approach.
But nowhere that this leap into boredom, not at all really. Each
of the pieces depicts a desolate world, pictured in one color
and the more one looks at this image, the more details are revealed.
Quite long pieces here, but needed to bring out the finer subtleness
of the music. Perhaps nothing new under the drone sun, that must
be said too, but throughout a great disc. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gearsofsand.net
BPMF - PAROUSIA FALLACY (CDR, private)
This CDR came with a note that said something along longer lines
than this: "Hi, I just released my first CD after 25 years
of creating music". As I never heard of one Jason going by
the name of BMPf, I looked up his history in music, and found
out that he sold his guitars in 1982, got a synth, and then turned
towards techno after hearing Taylor Deupree, with whom he formed
Prototype 909. Around that time he started to use the name BMPf
for more 'chill out' music, launched and killed Serotonin Records
and was active in The Rancho Relaxo All-Stars. However with/as
BMPf his work is not entirely based on rhythm, although on the
other hand also not entirely free of it. It's a bit hard to tell
what BMPf wants with his music. The whole thing has quite an ambient
touch to it, created with analogue synthesizers, but overall it's
not that sonic carpet that ambient sometimes is. Which of course
is a great thing. But then some pieces break out of that and voices
and rhythms are added, which makes the whole thing moving into
a different direction. It makes the release a bit unfocussed ('what
does he want?'), even when the individual pieces are quite alright.
Everything is left of the 'real' ambient music, with a great sense
of experimentalism to it. I wonder why it took him so long to
make this debut? (FdW)
Address: http://www.bpmf.us
IAN HOLLOWAY - WALKING THROUGH FIREFLIES
(CDR by Quiet World)
DARREN TATE - SMALL WORLDS (CDR by Quiet World)
The Elvis Coffee Records label is no more and it's now moved on
to be Quiet World and the first release is by Ian Holloway. Another
move, since before he called himself Psychic Invasion, but with
the new label name also a change of his own project. Music wise
there has been not much change, I think. Holloway, as before with
his Psychic Invasion, plays a fine set of dark atmospheric music.
Using something that sounds like synthesizers (but they might
very well be coming from the computer), field recordings, guitars
and loads of sound effects, Holloway created seven pieces that
sound quite different from eachother, and not throughout the same.
'A Lighter Being' has not much to do with drone music per se,
and quite an improvised feel to it (and it's not the greatest
moment here). Other pieces are more quiet and drone like and are
just better. A pretty varied and throughout fine release.
The second release on Quiet World is much to my surprise a CDR
by Darren Tate. Tate is a main player of things dark and drone
since the mid eighties, working with Andrew Chalk and Colin Potter
(with him as Monos) and solo. In 'Small Worlds' it seems to me
that Tate is exploring one instruments per track. The first and
third piece seem to be a synthesizer piece while the second is
a guitar piece. No titles for these pieces. The first one is actually
not as drone like as I would have expected. The synthesizer makes
quite some high and low end which especially in the upper end
of the sound spectrum is a bit mean. But it's a fine piece, nothing
to do with noise or such. The guitar piece sees Tate strumming
away, almost inaudible, but it's feeding through a large amount
of sound effects, which makes it quite spooky. And spooky is a
word that can also be applied to the final piece, which is a dark
drone piece played on a synthesizer, with some tones rising out
every now and then. It's great release, of quiet music, although
not always the most new and innovative. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quietworld.co.uk
XEDH/FEVER SPOOR - NACHT UND NEBEL (CDR
by Anima Mal Nata)
When I started to play this CDR I made sure the volume was a bit
down, since I know Xedh can be a real beast when it comes to digital
noise. However the seven pieces on this CDR were not really that
loud. Not at all actually, save perhaps for some feedback outburst
here and there. Anything goes in the world of Xedh, who plays
noise, rhythmic music and apparently also his own version of musique
concrete, which is what he does here. Taking apart concrete recordings
of whatever kind and transform them beyond recognition. Not every
moment is great but throughout it's fine release. Fever Spoor
is, if I'm not mistaken, Marcel Herms, who also runs Anima Mal
Mata when not making crazy comic like drawings. He too opts for
some lo-fi musique concrete here, through the use of delay, picking
up rain on the window, using his fingers on the same window, and
various kinds of electronics to feed his electro-acoustic sounds
through. There is not always going on a lot in these recordings,
which are at times also a bit too long, but throughout it's quite
nice. Fine noise. (FdW)
Address: http://www.animamalnata.nl
MOLE HARNESS - AS LANGUAGE CARVES THE WORLD
(CDR by Stray Dog Army)
Recently James Brewster, the man behind Mole Harness relocated
from the UK to Sweden's Malmö and the three tracks on this
CDR, with a total playing time of twenty minutes, is the first
result of this relocating. Brewster likes his instruments, the
piano and the guitar, along with field recordings of rain and
thunder. There is a long, almost fifteen minute piece at the center
here, which is built around repeating guitar loops and cracks
and it has quite an organic and meditative feel to it. A new element
seems to be that sound is picked up through contact microphones
which add a slightly different dimension to his music. Brewster
creates rhythms from those, feeds them through effects, but always
stay on the gentle side of things. Melodic ambient and glitch
like, but throughout the element of music is an important one
for Brewster. His next release will be a real CD, which seems
to be a logical progression, on Apestaartje. (FdW)
Address: http://www.straydogarmy.co.uk