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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 656
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week 50
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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
before submitting material please read this
carefully: http://www.vitalweekly.net/fga.html
Submitting material means you read this and approve of this.
* noted are in this week's podcast
MIGUEL A. GARCIA - ARMIARMAK (CD by RMO-Open)
BASELINE - ESTADO LIQUIDO (CD by RMO-Open)
TAYLOR DEUPREE & KENNETH KIRSCHNER - MAY (CD by Room40) *
DNE - 47 SONGS HUMANS SHOULDN'T SING (CD by Room40) *
VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED PERFORMING AS VIOSAC- RUSTYPILE (CD by
VioSac) *
DRU - L'AIGUILLE (CD by Headlights) *
SASCHA DEMAND & HANNES WIENERT - SIRENEN & BLUTEN (CD
by Creative Sources Recordings) *
AUGSBURGER TAFELCONFECT - FRIENDLY MOHAWK/TASTES MAALOXAN (7"
by NNeon)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ/MICHEAL GENDREAU - TDDM (2CD by Sonoris)
DIAPHRAGM SUBLIMATION (CD by SNSE)
NOVI_SAD - JAILBIRDS (CD by Sedimental) *
LEIF ELGGREN - VENTILATION (CD by Firework Edition) *
ANDREY KIRITCHENKO - MISTERRIOUS (CD by Spekk)
LEVEL - OPALE (CD by Spekk)
FELICIA ATKINSON - LA LA LA (CD by Spekk) *
DISTRICT OF NOISE (CD compilation by Sonic Circuits)
DEPARTURE OF MELANCHOLY (CD compilation by Firework Edition)
UNTYPICAL (CD by CAC)
REUTOFF VS TROUM - KREUZUNG ZWEI: CREATURA PER CREATURAM CONTINETUR
(CD by Ewers Tonkunst) *
HUM - THE SPECTRAL SHIP (10" by Substantia Innominata/Drone
Records)
OVRO - HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL (7" by Drone Records)
ARTEFACTUM - SUB ROSA (7" by Drone Records)
THE INFANT CYCLE - SECRET HIDDEN MESSAGE (7" by Drone Records)
1, 2, 3 WHITEHOUT (DVD+CD by Zeromoon)
RINUS VAN ALEBEEK - MUSIK FOR MITTE (CDR by Editions Zero) *
TILMAN SCHMIDT/IHLENFELD - SHIPS AND ICY ROADS (CDR by Privatelektro)
CALDERA LAKES - CALDERA LAKES (CDR by Sentient Recognition Archive)
HEAD IN BODY (CDR by Klang Und Krach) *
KASPAR VON URBACH - SELFBONDAGE (CDR by Klang Und Krach)
SINDRE BJERGA - BLACK COBWEB MIND (CDR by Klang Und Krach)
BEN OWEN/MICHAEL PISARO (3"CDR by Compost And Height)
ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO/LEE PATTERSON (3"CDR by Compost And
Height)
FERRAN FAGES/BHOB RAINEY (3"CDR by Compost And Height) *
ARCTIC CIRLE ENSEMBLE - THAT FUZZY FEELING (MP3 by Static Caravan)
*
MYSTAHR - M14 (MP3 by Just Not Normal)
DURAN VAZQUEZ - DE CATRO A CATRO (MP3 by Larriskito)
MENGELE QUARTET - MONGOLO BAT BI HIRU (MP3 by Larriskito)
ORKESTRA ZOMBIE (MP3 by Larriskito)
MIGUEL A. GARCIA - ARMIARMAK (CD by RMO-Open)
BASELINE - ESTADO LIQUIDO (CD by RMO-Open)
After a long strings of MP3 and CDR releases, which showed a constant
improving of his playing, Miguel A Garcia made the big step and
now releases his first real CD. He worked first as Xedh, but also
as several projects I never heard of such as Baba Llaga and Valvula
Antirretorno. Here he uses strictly 'a mixer with a pair of microphones,
which register its 'human activity' and the sine waves extracted
from a simple oscillator'. That might be hard to believe I think.
One thing that can be noted here is that the conversion to entirely
being microsound didn't happen, and that's a great thing. Garcia
started out in the more noise end of the musical spectrum, and
then slowly worked his way towards microsound. Here on 'Armiarmak'
he seems to be interested in melting the two opposites together,
and he succeeds rather well. Despite the fact that this album
has many 'soft' spots where the music drops in volume quite a
bit, there are also many instances were the sound gets quite loud.
Garcia seems to be introducing here also the element of improvisation
(perhaps already present before, but now more clearer), and his
electro-acoustic music, spiced with lots of processed sine waves
(making them very high or very low end), gives us some highly
refined pieces of micro- and macrosound. Its probably a great
step for Garcia to go to real CDs but this first one is surely
also a great step for him as a composer.
I never heard of Baseline, also from Bilbao in the active lands
of Basque country, but she seems to be skipping the whole notion
of releasing CDRs and MP3s (or perhaps I never encountered those)
and goes straight to a real CD. She works with 'glitchs, field
recordings, sounds of synthesis... she manipulates loops and sound
fragments to make dense and heavy compositions', but here I'm
less enthusiastic for what's on offer. Baseline creates three
long pieces of indeed field recordings, glitch sounds, but also
lots of synth-synthesis, which in 'Dentro' results in some heavy
deep ambient with a pulsating beat, but sounds somehow quite retro.
Its the least interesting piece here. 'Publico' with a variety
of street sounds is better, but not great either. 'Escuchando',
the second and shortest piece, is not bad either, but the 'gothic'
undercurrent in her music doesn't work for me very well. Its all
OK, but not great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.rmokultur.com
TAYLOR DEUPREE & KENNETH KIRSCHNER -
MAY (CD by Room40)
DNE - 47 SONGS HUMANS SHOULDN'T SING (CD by Room40)
Side by side at the piano - that reminds me of that dreadful song
McCartney once recorded with herr Wonder, but thank god in the
future I will also be reminded of Taylor Deupree and Kenneth Kirschner.
On May 9 of this year they sat side by side at the grand piano
- each played the piano, each transforming the sound: Deupree
the inside of the piano and Kirschner the keys. On top they played
the piano. The interesting thing of course here is the fact that
this is a live recording. This means more notes per minute. Whereas
in the studio of them (solo), sparseness is one of the greater
virtues and sometimes nothing much seems to be happening - and
this I mean in a positive way - things here are much more 'lively'
with more 'action'. Having said that, this is of course not an
album of 'fast' music, or 'noise'. It still has that fine trademark
of both Deupree and Kirschner: lots of sound moving into free
space, with minimalist changes - but the changes occur quicker
than before. Great weightless space music - sparse tones, humming
drones, this is an excellent work of microsound meets improv meets
minimalism.
Something entirely different is the album by DNE, also known as
Eugene Carchesio, who recorded '47 Songs Humans Shouldn't Sing'
in 1987, but when he scraped together the money to press up 250
LPs the pressing plant when out of business and the master disappeared.
Salvaged from the original cassette this now comes here. Forty-seven
songs in close to thirty-two minutes. Some of these pieces last
for mere seconds. Mostly made of acoustic sources, like guitar,
saxophones and drums, this is truly strange record. For what it
is? Jazz? Well, perhaps, to some extent. Improv? Surely. Post-punk
weirdness? Also. No Wave then? That too. The name of that 'other'
Eugene, Chadbourne, is mentioned in the press blurb, and that's
also a strong reference. A record that is, so to say, hard to
pin down. That's a great power of it, but also, to be honest,
in all this briefness its hard to pin a track down, or various
tracks. Things happen so fast, that it leaves quite a fragmentary
impression. When there is something that you really like, its
broken down again and torn up. That perhaps is the downside of
such weirdness. Otherwise, the weirdness itself is great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.room40.org
VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED PERFORMING AS VIOSAC-
RUSTYPILE (CD by VioSac)
This is what sometimes happens: a name from the past pops up again
(everything is eventually recycled), but one totally forgot what
it sounded like. Violence & The Sacred is such a name. In
2007 they started again, after a 14-year sleep, although it seems
to be reduced to one member only Graham Stewart (I honestly don't
remember if it was an one-man band before) and goes by the name
VioSac (the cover says 'Violence And The Sacred perfoming as VioSac).
On the cover there is a list of equipment, ranging from the Korg
family to guitars, cello, bass guitar, garage sale LPs and the
words of William Shakespeare. All of this captured on analogue
tape. As said I can't remember how the old Violence And The Sacred
sounded, perhaps they failed to make an ever-lasting impression,
but I'm afraid it happens again. They are at their best in six
of the shorter pieces, when things are kept to their bare minimum,
with just a few synthesizer sounds, some spoken word and a hand-spun
record. There are however also two epic pieces of twenty-three
and fifteen minutes, and here things are too widely spun and moves
seemingly on end through the same sort of sounds - pretty much
all of the above ingredients, but taking so much time to develop
- or rather undeveloped. These pieces seem to be the unedited
results of a jam session on a few dislocated sounds. If these
two pieces would have been cut to also say five or six minutes
than I would have thought this was a pretty good CD. Now they
stand at the heart of the CD and the result is less positive,
because it takes the CD down for me. I am told a new CD is ready
the very near future, so let's hope for some better and more concise
ideas. Perhaps it will stick better. (FdW)
Address: http://www.viosec.net
DRU - L'AIGUILLE (CD by Headlights)
Throughout the years I have been a great fan of David Maranha,
a solo composer of minimal music, or his collaborations with Osso
Exotico or the excellent Organ Eye. Here he teams up with Manuel
Mota on electric guitar and Riccardo Dillon Wanke on electric
piano, whereas Maranha plays organ. I must say I had a hard time
getting into this release. To start with things are pretty soft
in volume. So you need to crank it up to quite some extent. That
in itself doesn't have to be a problem, but the music here, all
improvised is of such a nature that one keeps thinking: what exactly
is it that I'm hearing? Its like all three hold back in what they
are doing as to not disturb the others. Quite some free doodling,
but all a bit too free and with any focus or plan. Perhaps not
bad for a couple of tracks, but all seven more or less sound alike.
This might very well be the first time I am somewhat disappointed
in the work of Maranha. This seems to me a bit of a hasty job.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.geocities.com/headlightsrecordings
SASCHA DEMAND & HANNES WIENERT - SIRENEN
& BLUTEN (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
AUGSBURGER TAFELCONFECT - FRIENDLY MOHAWK/TASTES MAALOXAN (7"
by NNeon)
Last week I saw Ensemble Integrales perform a live soundtrack
with Augsburger Tafelconfect to Walter Ruttman's 1928 film 'Berlin'
and got these two items handed. Guitarist Sascha Demand from the
ensemble teams up with Hannes Wienert, who handles soprano saxophone,
trumpet, trumpsax, sheng and tubes here on a CD that holds eightteen
tracks in thirty minutes. I am not sure why they are so short,
but it makes great sense. Each of the pieces seem to explore their
own sound world within the miniature frame. The table top guitar,
and the various wind instruments merge together most of the times,
and its hard to tell which instrument does what here. Sometimes
they drift wide apart and each is on his own. And then things
are over, and things start again. Nothing lasts more than its
supposed to be, which is the greatest thing about it: a fine quality
that is: knowing when to stop. Excellent CD, not just for those
who love improvisation, but also for those who love electro-acoustic
and acousmatic music.
Augsburger Tafelconfect (Jürgen Hall on synths and Sebastian
Reier on electric guitar) did a 7" with the help of Andrew
Sharpley (sampler, wet computer) and Mauro Pawlowski (electric
guitar) which was produced by Brain Emo (great!). Its a risky
affair, to produce a 7" at 45 RPM with improvised music.
But they manage to get away with it, through three short pieces,
which one could say work as 'songs', albeit of course of a more
improvised nature. Elements of rhythm leak through, especially
in 'Tastes Maaloxan', which has a vague jazzy feel (fake jazz?)
and ends nicely in a lockgroove. Great effort, this one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
FRANCISCO LOPEZ/MICHEAL GENDREAU - TDDM
(2CD by Sonoris)
One morning this week I played an old 7" by Vivenza - the
futurist inspired musician, who used machine like sounds. I was
thinking about Vivenza and that someone told me he didn't use
actual machine recordings, but a Putney synthesizer, which somehow
sounded like machines. Curiously enough in the afternoon a new
double CD arrived from Micheal Gendreau and Francisco Lopez. Looking
at the sparse credits on the cover this seems not to be a collaborative
effort, but both deliver two long pieces entirely based on their
own recordings of machines in Taiwan and Malaysia (Gendreau) and
Singapore, China, Taiwan and Japan (Lopez). In the first Lopez
piece he comes close to the old Vivenza sound: hammering machine
rhythms with lots of sound effects to transform the sound, but
his other is entirely different. Very low in volume, and the sounds
of the machines seem to be pushed to the background. There is
a sense of rhythm to it, but it sounds quite strange. Ultimately,
in fine Lopezian twist, things go up and the real machines comes
in and as suddenly disappear. In the two pieces by Micheal Gendreau
machine sounds play, obviously I say, a role too, but somehow
he seems to be interested to create 'more music' out of it, especially
in 'M928', with its organ like tones comes in and out of the piece,
before it slips into silence first and then into noise. The first
piece by him has a similar built-up but a different ending. Four
different sides of the same coin. Excellent stuff, but I don't
think I expected something else. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonoris.org
DIAPHRAGM SUBLIMATION (CD by SNSE)
"amalgamation of dark droning machinery, choppy shuddering,
and static-laden buzz." Which is a pity given what I've said
regarding noise and industrial.- and those industrial wastelands
of which the inspiration of this kind of thing derives is at least
in Europe an endangered species. But I must thank the label for
at least sending a flyer with information - but inspiration from
"the greyed-out hulks of broken concrete and broken razorwire"
is now a little passé? And at the risk of annoyance such
collectives might find some solace in the inward stare and dereliction
of the post industrial scene - and if Caldera stops releasing
stuff and the recession continues they may have more of that kind
of landscape to brood
about - but it wont be factories- but empty deserted shopping
malls and plazas, smashed and boarded up wine bars and burnt out
Porsches. However shaky the stock gets though Eva and Brittany
can make everything fine - soooo mine will be a dry martini -
with olive and definitely stirred not shaken. (jliat)
Address http://www.snse.net/
NOVI_SAD - JAILBIRDS (CD by Sedimental)
The fastest rising star in the world of microsound might be Novi_Sad,
being on Thanasis Kaproulias. He has a damn fine debut CD 'Misguided
Heart Pulses, A Hammer, She, And The Clock' (see Vital Weekly
611), and his work has been on TouchRadio and soon a release in
the 'Mort Aux Vaches' series. The attraction of his music lies,
I think, in the combination of microsound and dark ambient music.
There are the cracks and hisses of micro world, but also the thunderous
deep ambient drones which can be top heavy, like in the opening
'Komdu! Hvert?'. Field recordings, the call of the birds, leak
through here, as the deep bass dies out very slowly for the rest
of duration of the song. 'Torched Estates' starts out with some
nasty high pitched sounds, but throughout the pieces moves into
various heights and depths, and it strikes me that this is the
more complex piece of the two on this release. Many heavily processed
field recordings are present, but then also sometimes naked and
pure. Whereas the first is built around one theme, is the second
piece more a collage of various moods and textures. Quite loud
microsound altogether, and thus a strong break with tradition.
Great one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sedimental.com http://www.novi-sad.net
LEIF ELGGREN - VENTILATION (CD by Firework
Edition)
Elsewhere I write about the 'Departure Of Melancholy' compilation
on Firework and I suggest its 'art' at work. That might also be
the case with the work of Leif Elggren. He likes ventilation,
he likes hats and ties these two together - inside and outside,
two spaces communicating - to sell us a CD with sixteen tracks
of ventilation recordings. The first one was already released
on 'Testament' (the 5 times 7" on RRRecords), in 1991, and
there are three recordings from 1987, but otherwise the recordings
are from 2007 and 2008. Pure and unprocessed. Ventilation on the
street mainly and mainly in Stockholm, one at a firestation in
the USA. A nice set of field recordings. Beautiful recordings,
and great material to work with if you plan a radioplay, an experimental
DJ set, or simply want to upset any visitors. We only have to
consider this a nice one, and that we did. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fireworkeditionsrecords.com
ANDREY KIRITCHENKO - MISTERRIOUS (CD by
Spekk)
LEVEL - OPALE (CD by Spekk)
FELICIA ATKINSON - LA LA LA (CD by Spekk)
Kiritchenko returns here to Spekk, following 'True Delusion' (see
Vital Weekly 476), although of course Kiritchenko has released
various other releases in the meantime. He set himself at work
with the idea of creating something that was more acoustic than
electronic, with the vague notion of jazz, in the Kiritchenko
way that is. The album is built from various elements. First there
is the piano playing of Kiritchenko, with some guitar parts. To
add he added some percussion of his own, mainly a snare and a
cymbals, but also he asked Martin Brandlmayer and Jason Kahn to
play some real drums. Last but not least he added some insect
field recordings from the Crimea area. Maybe the drumming is a
bit jazz like, but throughout I didn't perceive this as a jazz
album. But then perhaps also I didn't hear this to be a microsound
album, or glitch or, well fill in whatever you think is appropriate.
Its one of those albums that avoids any tags. Postrock, ambient
rock, may come close, but then its hardly rock what is going on
here. Very mellow music, with an excellent mixture of instruments
and field recordings, and indeed to a very minimal extent an album
of electronics. That perhaps is the greatest achievement of this
disc, to move away so strongly from the old territory and so finely
moving into a new one, or rather: expanding on the old one, and
create something that may sound like the old one, but achieved
with new means. Fine album indeed.
Barry G. Nicholas (which sounds like a familiar name, but I have
no idea where i recognize it from, and Spekk has no additional
information) works as Level. His 'Opale' was recorded 'during
a period of personal turmoil, and creative turbulence', along
on the piano and keyboards. The piano is played by Linden Hale
(and in one instance by Keith Berry), which are sampled by Nicholas
and then transformed into the eight pieces of his release. Though
its certainly not a bad release, I am not jumping of ecstasy either.
Nicholas uses a great amount of reverb and echo, letting the music
sink down into this bath of effects which are only very occasionally
well used. Certainly in the opening piece this is all a bit too
much. In the other tracks he makes up quite a bit, but throughout
the Eno-like textures were no more than 'pretty decent' and not
'outstandingly great'. Pretty solid ambient music, nothing special,
not bad either.
Felicia Atkinson regards herself a multimedia artist rather than
a full time musician, which probably explain why she wants to
make a CD (a multimedia artist does all media). She recorded some
basic stuff with free software, such as Garageband, which she
used to record other music on top, using her voice, piano, acoustic
guitar, glockenspiel and the ambiance of the room. Put together
in a rather improvised mode of operation. Its the ambience of
Level mixed with the acoustic sound of Kiritchenko, but with the
strong addition of the voice. Short pieces (eleven in thirty minutes),
singer songwriter like material (hard to say what these songs
are about) of a rather intimate kind. Sparse sounds and tones,
a few words, some sounds from the kitchen sink. Quite a nice release,
bringing Spekk more towards the world of pop, although this will
be hardly chart topping stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spekk.net
DISTRICT OF NOISE (CD compilation by Sonic
Circuits)
DEPARTURE OF MELANCHOLY (CD compilation by Firework Edition)
UNTYPICAL (CD by CAC)
I think I may have mentioned the fact that I don't like reviewing
compilations? Yes, I did, on many occasions, and here's a couple
to make life more difficult and in one case more easy. In the
first instance there is no information but with some clever thinking
and deducting, its a compilation of 'noise' from the Washington
area, Washington D.C. - district of Columbia, district of noise
- gettit? The excellent Sonic Circuits festival hosts every year
a long list of international acts, but never forget the 'community'
in their immediate surroundings. You can find them on this CD
compilation. A few names have been part of Vital before, like
Myo, The Caution Curves, Northern Machine, RDK, Mind Over Matter
Music Over Mind and of course Violet (since more than twenty years
part of Vital), but lots and lots of new names, such as BLK w/Bear,
Blue Sausage Clique, Echolalia, Janel & Anthony, T.A. Zook,
Corpus Callosum, The Cuttest Puppy In The World, Tone Ghosting,
Barsky/Allison and Twilight Memories Of Three Suns. The good thing
about this compilation is that it is not entirely about 'noise'
and that feedback is not always propagated here. Not that's ambient
or rock in anyway, as the pieces on this compilation are certainly
more forceful, more present and occasionally loud, they side step
the 'real noise' tag, and do something that is much more interesting.
A fine compilation.
The 'Departure Of Melancholy' does have a press text, but its
entirely in Swedish, a language which I haven't fully mastered.
I recognized none of the names and didn't like what I heard. Swedish
texts (sound poetry), with some music, no doubt dealing with melancholy,
the sound of sobbing, crying. I am pretty sure I miss out on the
finer point of this - art perhaps?
Lots of reading material comes with the CD 'Un Typical', or perhaps
rather, lots of things to hear come when you read the ninth/tenth
(double issue) of SMC Interviu. On the white papers the tetx in
Lithuanian, and on the blue papers the translation in English.
This issue deals with art/music/sound and has interesting pieces
on Glenn Gould, Art strike and various musicians I never heard
of, all from Eastern Europe. Even if you don't know who they are,
its still a highly intelligent reading matter. On the CD, curated
by Arturas Bumsteinas, music from Eastern Europe, or people from
the west with strong eastern European ties, such as Violet. An
active scene and we recognize many names such as Anton Nikkila,
Alexei Borisov, Antanas Jasenka, Gintas K, Critikal, Zenial and
Twentytwentyone, but also many names. They aren't always (or not
at all) discussed in the magazine, but that's ok of course. Many
of them deal with electronic music, some of them even tap into
techno inspired music, but throughout the experiment prevails.
None of the tracks jump out immediately, but there is likewise
no weak brother here either. However specially worth mentioning
is the piece by Twentytwentyone, the laptop quartet by Bumsteinas,
which perform graphical scores, here by Viking Eggeling. I also
received a DVDR with seventeen of such pieces. I am not sure if
this is an official release but if you are curious to see the
laptop quartet in action, you should kindly ask for a copy. They
play pieces by Stockhausen, Beksiak, De Waard, James Tenney, Cardew,
Frobi, Duchamp, Smithson, Arnold, Brun and Bumsteinas himself.
Scores are projected in the background, to give you some clue.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.dc-soniccircuits.org
Address: http://www.fireworkeditionsrecords.com
Address: http://www.cac.lt
Address: <bumsteinas@gmail.com>
REUTOFF VS TROUM - KREUZUNG ZWEI: CREATURA
PER CREATURAM CONTINETUR (CD by Ewers Tonkunst)
HUM - THE SPECTRAL SHIP (10" by Substantia Innominata/Drone
Records)
OVRO - HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL (7" by Drone Records)
ARTEFACTUM - SUB ROSA (7" by Drone Records)
THE INFANT CYCLE - SECRET HIDDEN MESSAGE (7" by Drone Records)
Lots of works from the house of Drone Records, although the first
release is not by Drone but by Ewers Tonkunst but it's by the
Drone Records band Troum. Inspired by the cosmology of Hildegard
von Bingen, they work together here with 'basic sound sources
and samples made by Reutoff', from Russia. I don't know wether
its this collaboration or not, but the material sounds like it
has gained a lot of more depth. The previous Troum releases always
seemed a bit of a low affair, with sounds pushed together in the
spectrum, but here things are much more detailed and richer, all
over the sound spectrum. The guitars sound crisp and clear, its
ambient and drone, but spiced up to get a lot more bite. 'Ignis
Niger' has a rhythm machine to it and humming voices, which both
seemed to me a first time for Troum. The rhythm even has a break/bridge
between various passages, and the voices chant like mad monks.
Quite a nice one this release. It expands on the concept of Troum
and has some pretty strong music - always handy!
'Sing The Song Of The Unknown' is the guiding theme of the 10"
series on Substantia Innominata, part of Drone Records. More ties
to Russia (where Troum I believe is hugely popular) here with
Hum, who is from Moscow. Two pieces, twenty some minutes in total,
of dark ambient bliss. It sounds like a variety of organs sounding
at the same time, mixed together with lots of sound effects, making
miniature differences in the overall sound. Especially the title
piece on the a-side works like this. On 'Tidal Fire' it seems
as if things are pushed away, below the surface as it were. A
rather subdued piece of music. This record is like two sides of
the coin. The more present 'Spectral Ship' and the subdued refined
piece of 'Tidal Fire'. Pressed on silver colored vinyl and still
sounding great.
Slowly Drone Records goes towards the 100th release (I wonder
what kind of celebration that will be, but let's hope for multiple
CD set of all releases). Here, number 93 is done by Finnish Ovro,
'the wondergirl of Finnish experimental music', but here on her
7" things go out of control I thought. Both sides are highly
unfocussed with 'Horizontal' having a vague rhythmic notion and
'Vertical' being built around field recordings. That one I thought
was slightly better, but both tracks didn't do much for me.
From Poland hails Artefactum, and this 7" is
their first vinyl release. They are, I think, a typical product
of former Eastern Europe. Their music is dark, inspired by some
templates from the west, and they work from there to deepen the
sound, but sometimes things sound a bit lo-fi. There is some mild
distortion on this record too, but throughout I thought that these
pieces were quite nice, especially 'Rosa Rubea', with its more
open character. Its hard to tell what they use, instruments or
otherwise, but they make a fine impression.
The experimental edge of drone music comes here from Jim DeJong's
The Infant Cycle project. Active since quite some time, with lots
of releases on his own The Ceiling label, presenting here two
older piece. The A-side was recorded in 2006, and the B-side even
in 2000. He uses here a 'guitar, cookery, carved playout groove,
marimba, bird cage, wind chimes, concoted field recording, electronic
organ, guitar and the b-side is entirely a trombone. The title
piece reminded me of the more experimental side of Richard Youngs
(era 'House Music'), whilst '(And Then The Dog Replied)' is a
nice piece of drone music, but much too short. The b-side is made
with a trombone and called 'Trombone' and has some highly processed
trombone sounds. Feeding through delay machines it seems, the
sounds are cut short in itself. It reminds me of some of the releases
by Experimental Intermedia, if their artists would have been on
drugs (or loved noise, or vice versa). Quite a nice one this one.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.dronerecords.de
1, 2, 3 WHITEHOUT (DVD+CD by Zeromoon)
Lets be frank (again): I am not a reviewer of films, simply because
I like everything that a film reviewer needs to have, one of that
being of any knowledge about films, how they are made, or the
history thereof. Certainly when it comes to experimental movies
I am totally lost, unless somebody explains it to me. So, I watched
'1, 2, 3 Whitehout' and read the Zeromoon website what the Leeds
International Film festival had to say: "This 'tone poem
for darkness' mixes amazing original vignettes with diverse archive
found footage, an exceptional sci-fi sensibility and incredible
soundscapes to form a blissfully imaginative and retro-futuristic
creation. Set in 'an old-fashioned kind of future', Veronique
and an inventor (the legendary Lou Castel) are trying to bring
back a 'positive' darkness to offset the glaring, bright, technological
man-made light and 'make the night night again'. As much about
sound as about darkness, it asks: Can we shine when we are faced
with blinding light?" That didn't clarify things very well
either. But it deems to me that sound plays an important role
here. It seems to be always there, always it seems to be derived
from field recordings. Perhaps that's why we get an extra CD with
just the soundtrack. The music is by Elmapi, Accident and Emergency
(which has Andrew Sharply in their ranks, who also play a small
role as onstage musician), Richard Harrison and Michael Schumacher.
It doesn't clarify the music for me at all, I must admit, but
some of the dreamy sequences mixed with sound make a nice thing
to watch. Perhaps I understood the extra features better, maybe
because they were more abstract. Two short films by the same director,
James June Schneider, made with x-ray (unexposed film going through
customs check at airports and government buildings, a lot of time)
and music by Violet growing in extreme intensity. Highly abstract
- one color, changing all the time. Quite like Alvin Lucier's
work-as-progress, but then for film. These six minutes made more
sense: this I understand and appreciate right away. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zeromoon.com
RINUS VAN ALEBEEK - MUSIK FOR MITTE (CDR
by Editions Zero)
Berlin is an exciting place to be, although I never considered
moving there. I certainly like it, but to live in a big city is
not just what I was made for. Rinus van Alebeek settled himself
there, armed with his dictaphones, walkman recorders and mixing
board. Van Alebeek's career started as a writer in The Netherlands
(under a pseudonym which I forgot) and then turned, at a later
age than most of his peers, to music, with some obscure releases
by Zeromoon, but these days is the spotlight. His main interest
is in creating music out of field recordings, but unlike say someone
like Chris Watson, part of the Alebeek esthetic is use lo-fi equipment
and deliberately add the hiss, the tape inadequacy and the low
resolution as part of the music. In the centre (mitte) of Berlin
he taped a whole bunch of sounds and created these eight pieces
of music. These are not pieces of music that are cut out of a
bigger part of unedited field recordings, but in a 'studio' set
up been collated together to make well finished off pieces of
music. Each tells his own story, and contains the sounds of the
city. Quite a nice release altogether.
Address: http://www.noise-below.org
TILMAN SCHMIDT/IHLENFELD - SHIPS AND ICY
ROADS (CDR by Privatelektro)
Three pieces by one Tilman Schmidt and three by Ihlenfeld, both
are new names to me. Both hail from Berlin and both cover slightly
similar territory, but both with finer differences. Tilman Schmidt
is of the two the one that has most interest in playing around
with real instruments. He samples the drums, trumpets and cello
for instance and works into an atmospheric sound. In 'Sophie Spandau'
this works out into the fields of post-rock, while Sigur Ros lurks
around in 'Ferner'. Jazz is explored in 'Flance', which is my
least favorite cut on the release. Ihlenfeld uses field recordings
which are highly processed into the world of glitches, but his
music is only partly abstract, and partly covered with shimmering
small melodies. The fence sounds of 'Clouds And Cardingans' are
covered with hissy textures of a rather moody nature, while 'Catching
Minnows' has broken up beats and tinkling bells. The more amorphous
mass of 'Dinja' is then totally abstract and closes a rather fine
release. None of them do really something new or out of the ordinary,
but throughout these six pieces are highly enjoyable. Would have
been a very fine split LP, I guess. (FdW)
Address: http://privatelektro.de
CALDERA LAKES - CALDERA LAKES (CDR by Sentient
Recognition Archive)
An obscure project - of Eva and Brittany (no second names on the
CD) on an obscure label. The Caldera website http://deathbombarc.com/calderalakes/index.htm
gives little away as does the myspace page, the label also has
a myspace page but more information can be found here
http://auxiliaryout.blogspot.com/2008/10/caldera-lakes-caldera-lakes-sentient.html
"This piece is profoundly expressive. This is one of those
releases where words fail. Fuck the financial crisis and all that,
everything will be fine as long as Caldera Lakes keep putting
out records." Wow - and Gordon Brown thinks he is on to something.
The blog gives a friendlier description than I would - it mentions
harsh noise (from Eva) and Björk singing (by Brittany). Given
the hosting sites "belief that music has no rules" this
could be noise, "eerie though calming female coo[ing]. Peaceful
vocal loops and the agitated harshness . it takes a sampling of
the entire spectrum of sound and births an entirely coherent work
of art that creates so many sensations and feelings in me that
I don't know where to begin." If noise is the deliberate
attack on the edifice of the given norms of beauty and behavior
- which I a) think it is and/or b) think if not it should be then
this is not noise, or is the rebellious behavior of another Brittany.
Noise always should be politically incorerent - the spell checker
suggested incoherent but I meant incorrect - but incorerent is
even better. Ben Johnson was a shit- or shite? or shiite) (jillyhate)
Address http://www.myspace.com/calderalakes
HEAD IN BODY (CDR by Klang Und Krach)
KASPAR VON URBACH - SELFBONDAGE (CDR by Klang Und Krach)
SINDRE BJERGA - BLACK COBWEB MIND (CDR by Klang Und Krach)
Of these three releases on Klang Und Krach (sound and noise that
is) from the Czech Republic we of course recognize the name of
Sindre Bjerga. The other two are new to me. What I could find
about Head In Body is in the Czech language, so not much use for
me. They (he? she?) calls it minimal music and that is true. A
simple straight forward rhythm is used, some bass sound is added,
and voice through a delay unit. The shortest track is two and
half minute, but the other eight are somewhere between five and
nine minutes, which seems to me at times a bit long for what the
actual track is, but through this rather lo-fi techno hybrid music
was quite nice. Maybe with some trimming down and a somewhat better
production there is more to it, but who knows, time will tell.
I'd say: keep up, get on.
Also from the Czech Republic are the noise band Kaspar von Urbach
which "focuses on an obstinate and deeply unnatural sound-mining:
partly from things and devices originally designed for very different
purposes and partly from musical instruments, effects and processors
that are broken, left-off, cheep, despised, incorrectly used,
crap etc. " They make it sound like this too, I must admit.
Partly they find their inspiration in noise, but also the folk
noir of say Current 93, especially in those pieces that have vocals
to it. Though not entirely my dark cup of tea, I thought that
this mixed bunch of music was pretty much alright. It moves into
various places (noise, gothic, even microsound in 'Almost At The
End', and obscured darker ambient electronics), which may come
off also as a bit of searching which style they fit best. I'm
curious to see where that is.
No further info on the Sindre Bjerga release, just a twenty-five
minute piece of music. Its an electronic piece of shimmering electro-acoustic
sounds, looped around, colliding against eachother, and fed through
some effects. The bass end seems to be lacking a bit here. Somewhere
half way through things collapse and it moves on with the same
sound pushed to the background and a sort of glitchy sounds in
the foreground. It slowly decays into sonic debris. Its a nice
piece for sure, but why stand by itself? Why not add something.
Its seems a bit a release for the sake of a release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.klangundkrach.net
BEN OWEN/MICHAEL PISARO (3"CDR by Compost
And Height)
ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO/LEE PATTERSON (3"CDR by Compost And
Height)
FERRAN FAGES/BHOB RAINEY (3"CDR by Compost And Height)
The next three releases by Compost And Height are again packed
along with a lump of wood - packaging makes the difference. Like
the first these are all split discs of two artists. The first
has a piece by Ben Owen, sitting with a radio next to a canal
in Berlin, and recording that radio as well as the wind, people
passing, birds and such like. A very Cageian exercise in silence,
through a very planned but open score. Nice, but you can do it
as well. And that's perhaps the point of it. Second on this disc
is the for me unknown Michael Pisaro, who composed a piece that
was to be played outdoors or that should have a field recording
going along. The music is played on various instruments, such
as flute, clarinet, violincello, trombone (by Radu Malfatti),
guitar and stone harp. In a curious mix the instruments are quite
soft and the field recording (the waterfall close by to a town)
is quite loud, which makes this into a gentle piece of music with
'loud' extra noise. As said, quite curious!
Following the last review of fortnight ago of Monteiro, another
piece here and its on similar conceptual length. Monteiro uses
just the sound of paper, which I believe he did before. What is
hard to believe is that this is just the sound of paper. It sounds
like metal being played, with all the deep frequencies cut out,
rotating on a turntable. A great piece of electro acoustic music.
The best of this lot. Lee Patterson works with 'the timbral and
tonal complexities generated by plucking selected springs'. These
springs were attached to a metal plate and picked up with a contact
microphone. The attack of the sound was removed and only the sound
in decay were used. This piece is also great, starting out in
the fields of drone music, but eventually goes into the world
of electro-acoustics. A great pair of more conceptual music, but
in both cases the musical element remains important.
We haven't heard much from Fages recently, but its good to hear
him again. Here he has a seven minute piece of acoustic turntable
and field recordings, in a fascinating interplay of rotating and
clicking sounds in a free improvised manner. It makes a nice contrast
to the following piece by Bhob Rainey, which is a dreamy piece
for solo saxophone. Distant, sustaining, minimal. Like air being
captured on tape. Its a pity that it's so relatively short. Don't
forget to check out the label's website as there is plenty more
free to download by all the good field recording boys. (FdW)
Address: http://www.compostandheight.blogspot.com
ARCTIC CIRLE ENSEMBLE - THAT FUZZY FEELING
(MP3 by Static Caravan)
That time of the year again, and never a particular favorite of
mine, except of course waiting for the annual Meeuw 7", which
still hasn't arrived, but these five songs on Static Caravan make
up a little bit. I don't think Meeuw would release this on a 7",
but they make up some very delicate, nice christmas songs. Melancholic
songs, with the bells shimmering, bittersweet melodies and a touch
of jazz in 'It's Christmas (And I Hate You)', which is a great
piece. Sweet but with a nasty painful lyric. 'I hate you a little
bit more than last year'. By far the nicest song for such a depression
season of joy. The other songs are more introspective, fitting
the grey, short, sunless days of the year. And somehow it seems
that Josh Weller's 'I'll Save The Bath Water For You This Christmas
Time' is borrowed from 'Across The Universe', but maybe my mind
is blurred. I may have time to play some Beatles during christmas.
Right after the Meeuw collection and this nice short collection.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.staticcaravan.org
MYSTAHR - M14 (MP3 by Just Not Normal)
The options here were to translate the press text from Dutch into
English and then send it off to Jliat, or review it myself. I
choose the latter. Mystar is one Mark Stolk, who runs the Just
Not Normal net label - we reviewed some stuff before. He also
has a radio program and before starting this, he plays some music
to get into the mood of things. Here has four analogue synthesizers,
some effects and a four channel mixer. Everything, the entire
thirty-three minutes, was recorded in one go. Its a pretty noisy
affair -that was clear already from the fact I would sending this
to Jliat, but then perhaps a bit too soft for him - of heavy electronics,
feeding through a line of reverb and delay machines, partly exploding
into the world of feedback and then going back to a sub-standard
noise thing. Not entirely satisfactory to my taste - maybe too
long and maybe too much the 'one attempt' approach. Maybe if he
would explore the parameters of his sound more and put that in
a more concise version, and less going for the noise effect, this
could have been much better, I guess. (FdW)
Address: http://www.justnotnormal.wordpress.com
DURAN VAZQUEZ - DE CATRO A CATRO (MP3 by
Larriskito)
MENGELE QUARTET - MONGOLO BAT BI HIRU (MP3 by Larriskito)
ORKESTRA ZOMBIE (MP3 by Larriskito)
A variety mix, these three new releases on Larrakito, the net
label from Miguel A. Garcia. Unfortunately all the information
on the website is in Spanish, which I try to interprete. Duran
Vazquez is from Gallicia and produces music that is based on organic
electronic textures. Maybe build from sounds generated on a no-input
mixer and sound effects, but perhaps I am barking the wrong tree.
It sounds so. The music seems to spiraling around some sounds,
flowing in, going out and then coming back to the same texture
again, and then moves on to an almost identical texture, yet a
little bit different. On the fourth part has some field recordings
from the sea, and seems a bit out of place here.
Nine tracks in fourteen minutes are offered by Orkestra Zombie.
I couldn't make any sense of the website, but it's nine pretty
varied bits of music. Vocals, field recordings, electronics, noise,
microsound. Not entirely convincing in what it is that they (?)
want, the very briefness makes this also quite an enjoyable thing.
Pretty vague and rough stuff altogether.
Behind the unpleasant name of Mengele Quartet we find Mikel Etxegarai,
Joseba Irazoki, Xabi Iturria e Iban Urizar, playing guitar, percussion
and electronics, but the outcome is something that is rather 'free',
rather 'improvisation' and rather 'jazz' like - even. This is
most apparent in 'Mongolo Bi' and 'Mongolo Hiru', two rather free
jazz styled pieces with some feedback like sounds, of which the
second is the best. 'Mongolo Bat' is much more spun out, with
sounds wide apart, and covered with lots of silence. Not entirely
my cup of tea this one, but I guess for what it is, not bad. (FdW)
http://www.xedh.org/larraskito_netlabel/