X-0-X – KRAS (CD, private) *
MULLER/COURTIS/RECHE/MERCE/PAIUK – BUENOS AIRES TAPES (2CD by Monotype Records) *
MICK CHILLAGE – TALES FROM THE IGLOO (CD by Psycho Navigation) *
ZAUM VOL. 1 (CD by Psycho Navigation)
SAITE EN SAITE (CD compilation by Licht-ung) *
VICKI BROWN – SEAS & TREES (CD, private)
HADEWYCH (CD by Tuchtunie) *
JUNKO MASAYOSHI URABE MICHEL HENRITZI – ECSTASY OF THE ANGELS (CD by Opposite Records)
JUNKO / AYA ONISHI / RINJI FUKUOKA / MICHEL HENRITZI LIVE AT PENGUIN HOUSE (CDR by An’Archives)
KNITTING BY TWILIGHT – RIDING THE WAYBACK (CD by It’s Twilight Time)
SHIFT – BULK (CD by Silkentofu / Unrest Productions)
SYNCHRONATOR – SYNCHRONATOR (DVD by Cavity)
CHRISTIAN WOLFARTH – ACOUSTIC SOLO PERCUSSION VOL.1 (7″ by Hiddenbell Records)
FAMILY UNDERGROUND (7″ by Quasipop)
ASTRO BLACK – IS LOVE THE BLOOD OF THE UNIVERSE (7″ by Tonometer)
GLOGGERNE & MARTIN KLAPPER – WITH DR. CAHDBOURNE (10″ by Tonometer)
SIMON WHETHAM – LIGHTYEARS (CDR by Traceable Echoes) *
NIENTE RECORDS VOLUME 2 (CDR by niente records)
ABUSIVE CONSUMER MONOLITH (CDR by Abusive Consumer)
R.J. SCHREY with KENJI SIRATORI – FUTURE EMBRYO (CDr by R.O.N.F. Records)
ANDRZEJ PIONTEK – MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES (CDr by R.O.N.F.
Records )
GREG HEADLEY – FRAGMENTS OF THE DREAM MACHINE (CDR by 28angles) *
ENNIO MAZZON – DIMENTICANZA (CDR by Feelscape) *
OLEKRANON – RECYCLE HUMAN LUNG (CDR by Inam Records) *
DUANE PITRE – ED 09 FOR STRING/WIND ENSEMBLE LIVE AT THE ROULETTE (CDR by Quiet Design) *
AMAUROTE – BINARY CODE FORBIDDEN (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation) *
PLATFORM – UNTITLED 3 (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation) *
HARUKI – TO HUMBLE A NEST (CDR by The Land Of) *
BILLY GOMBERG – DAYS (CDR by The Land Of) *
CONTACT T.B.D. – DUST (3″CDR by Lor Tapes) *
GARETH DAVIS & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT – GHOST LANES (3″CDR by Machinefabriek) *
UNKNOWN (3 inch CDR by zerojardins)
THE DEAR LISTENERS – MOODSWING (3″CDR by The Dear Listeners) *
THE DEAR LISTENERS – HARBOUR (3″CDR by The Dear Listeners)
New MP3 releases
Announcements
X-0-X – KRAS (CD, private)
When I read the lengthy press blurb that came with this release, I sighed. ‘Kras’ (meaning scratch) by x-0-x from Amsterdam is entirely made with old vinyl. Oh no, not again. What can one add to say Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Jason Talbot or Institut Fur Feinmotorik, to mention just four artists who come mind? So, it was with some reluctance that I started to play this album, and I must say I am not disappointed. The first and last track are perhaps too easy in the form of using vinyl as a source in some collage form, but the pieces in between show that x-0-x intends to create music, popmusic that is, with these sources. He uses drum sounds, guitar licks, bass lines and such from all sorts of music and combines that into pieces of rhythmic popmusic. He plays his music in museums and art galleries (which merely proofs in my humble opinion that the modern art world is never going to be ready for really modern music – but that story I will save for another occasion. But let me say that I have seen too many openings of art shows with some DJ doing ‘difficult’ stuff, with or without ‘installations’ running along), but also various festivals, and perhaps one could even dance to some of these tunes. Why not. I am not sure if he plays this all live or wether this is the result of extensive post production or computerized cut ‘n paste, but he does a damn nice job. Some remarks though: the use of a delay is a bit too much here and there, and the titles have room for improvement too. And maybe the text in English and aim for a foreign market? Lastly: why not release a LP? (FdW)
Address: http://www.x-0-x.org
MULLER/COURTIS/RECHE/MERCE/PAIUK – BUENOS AIRES TAPES (2CD by Monotype Records)
Musicians whose name start with the letter M seem to very productive: Merzbow, Machinefabriek, Muslimgauze in his day, but also Gunter Muller produces an endless stream of CDs. Here a double set, containing two sets recorded on February 9th and 10th 2006. The first night he played with Alan Courtis (unstringed guitar and tapes) and Pablo Reche (sampler, md’s and electronics) and on the second night with Serge Merce (4 track portastudio without tape and WX7) and Gabriel Paiuk (piano and tapes). On the first disc things are cut as one track only, while on the other there are three. In their set, Muller, Courtis and Reche take one long built up as their starting point. The first thirty minutes are relatively short, but then it seems all of a sudden that they arrived in what seems to be, at least for Muller, quite a noisy outing. Muller takes control and quickly brings back the peace and in the rest of the piece things seem to die out in a long curve. Nice piece but perhaps a bit predictable. Maybe its because there is too much similarity in the sounds used.
The next day Muller, still armed with Ipod and electronics, and here things work better, and perhaps that’s because there is Muller and Merce on one side, playing something that is electronic and Paiuk piano playing swirling around it, providing a nice counterpoint to the proceedings. This makes this music much more playful and open in character, hence perhaps the fact that we have three quite different pieces here. For me the second disc was the better of the two, but that doesn’t mean the first one is bad or anything such like. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com
MICK CHILLAGE – TALES FROM THE IGLOO (CD by Psycho Navigation)
ZAUM VOL. 1 (CD by Psycho Navigation)
The man behind Mike Chillage is Micheal Gainford and on the picture behind the CD we see a bird view of his studio set up – always fun, even when the apparatus in question is stuff that doesn’t mean much to me. Three bank of keyboards, two modular synths with no keys, a big mixing board and two computer screens. If that doesn’t give you clue about the music, then perhaps the rest of the cover does: computer manipulated shots of the northpole, an icebear and the title ‘Tales
From The Igloo’. There is still a corner of the
musical world which concerns itself with the true legacy of the cosmic music which started in the early seventies, divided in true purists and those who do things a bit different. I think Mick is one of those. He adds a bit of technoid rhythm to some of the pieces, where he is otherwise heavily engaged in playing deeply atmospheric music. This has nothing to do with say Emeralds, but this is good, clean cosmic music. A straight line runs from Tangerine Dream via Pete Namlook to Chillage. Recently I played some old Fax Records releases and thought they still sounded quite nice. Tonight I play Chillage, and think this is quite entertaining chill out music. Nothing new under the sun happening in this corner of the musical world, but I guess they gave up thinking of doing something new already some time ago and all they care is about doing nice music, and Chillage succeeds well in that.
Enrico Coniglio and Emanuele Errante, two Italian ambient composers, compiled for Psycho Navigation (a label from Ireland) a CD with the current situation of Italy’s finest in ambient music. I have no idea why an Irish label would do that, but alas, so it is. There are some names we recognize, like Netherworld, Aquadorsa, Luca Formentini, but throughout the others seem to be new names for me. Con_cetta vs Antartica, Illachime Quartet, Zoo Di Vetro or Arlo Bigazzi? The music is like an Yves Klein painting. All blue, but with the smallest variations. And perhaps the music itself is also ‘all blue’ too. Deeply atmospheric through stretched out synthesizer patterns, some processed field recordings and low end bass and high end clicks (Aquadorsa of course). The smallest variations that is in ambient music, sometimes pretty traditional (and cliche like), sometimes Isolationist and at times ambient glitch. Nice enough but the only one who steps out of line is Zoo Do Vetro, the last piece, which is almost a shoegazing piece, including female vocals. Perhaps the best track, because its so different. (FdW)
Address: http://www.psychonavigation.com
SAITE EN SAITE (CD compilation by Licht-ung)
One of the strangest covers I’ve seen in a while. A nice booklet with full color photos of nocturnal landscapes, but no information whatsoever. Then I spot on the spine some information, for which I need my 1 euro reading glasses to see what it says. The title is ‘Saite En Saite’, it is released by Licht-ung and has music by Milan Sandbleistift, Aidan Baker and relapxych.0. Plus website from the artists. Each artist gets a fair amount of time to play music. ‘A string based compilation’ it says on the spine too. Aidan Baker’s piece is the longest of the three and clearly based around a guitar and a loop device. In a strict minimalist vein he builds his track with sparse moments that, once in the chain of repetition, will move along. Somewhere a more dense solo guitar comes in feeding through the distortion pedal. Quite nice and highly atmospheric. relapxych.0 is not an entirely new name, but their (his? her?) piece on ‘Diaspora’ (see Vital Weekly 639) is too buried away. That was on a Neo Ouija compilation, this Licht-ung, a label we perhaps better know for some harsher music. However relapxych.0 aren’t a typical Neo Ouija band, nor a typical Licht-ung band. His piece is a collage like affair of guitar sounds, that swell and rise, diminish and disappear again. Maybe a bit too haphazard this piece, or better, a bit too long for the amount of ideas it is carried by. A bit shorter would have been an improvement on this piece. The CD opens with Milan Sandbleistift, the label boss (a bit odd to open a compilation on your own label me thinks). He did a CDR before with Earzumba (see Vital Weekly 618) and recently I saw him play a solo live piece on a violin and effects for a group of bewildered punks. Also oddly enough, this is most experimental piece of the three. Lots of careful feedback is generated through the pick up of the violin and Sandbleistift creates a fairly dense piece of music with it, in which the strings only seem to play a minor role. However this is not the real noise onslaught, yet not quite either. It makes a good companion piece for the other two pieces, although I could imagine it to be second or third on the compilation. (FdW)
Address: http://www.licht-ung.de
VICKI BROWN – SEAS & TREES (CD, private)
Somewhere I missed out on the first release by Tucson based violin player Vicki Brown, but ‘Seas & Trees’ is her second release. Although the violin and improvisation are her tools of trade, she also plays cello, viola, voice, casios, loop stations, pedals and some guest players on bass, pedals and casio sk 1. That makes this CD into a nicely varied bunch of music, and not just a bunch of solo violin pieces. Fourteen pieces is of course a lot to keep the attention span going, but its the variation in these pieces that make things pretty nice. Per track she employs a few sounds, which of course loop around. Sometimes a bit too simple and those are the tracks that I think could have been skipped, but sometimes the simplicity works really well, in a nice minimal way. Then gentle melodies are woven together into a dreamy landscapes. Not in a drone sense however, more like post rock meeting classical music. At nine or ten tracks this would have been a near perfect CD. Now its just very good. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/vickibrown
HADEWYCH (CD by Tuchtunie)
The name Hadewych comes from the Dutch medieval literature, but its also the name chosen by one Peter Johan Nijland for his music. This self-titled release was first released in 2007 as a limited CDR but is now re-issued in some fancy packaging. Nijland is a member of ‘drone folk trio’ Red Velvet Corridor and ‘neofolk’ Volksweerbaarheid and his album as Hadewych is received with mixed feelings by me. Its a mixture of various musical styles. There are droney bits and pieces, ambient music, but also more industrial parts and the guitars from the world of shoegazing. Sometimes vocals are used, but they are mixed to the background, but which remind me at some of the old Cold Meat Industry releases (maybe new ones too, but I haven’t a release from this label in close to ten years, come to think of it). Its not a real mystery to see which parts of the music I liked, which might not be the bits that the majority of the listeners may like. I’d bet they go for the industrial banging and obscured, grunty voice pieces, such as in ‘Ava’. Throughout however this was an album that seemed to combine experimental music with shoegazing pop and the darker edges of electronic music, what I would call ‘gothic’ – perhaps for the lack of a better term. The black and back to nature aspects didn’t appeal that much to me, but then it wasn’t a big deal either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tuchtunie.nl
JUNKO MASAYOSHI URABE MICHEL HENRITZI – ECSTASY OF THE ANGELS (CD by Opposite Records)
JUNKO / AYA ONISHI / RINJI FUKUOKA / MICHEL HENRITZI LIVE AT PENGUIN HOUSE (CDR by An’Archives)
On the first of these two remarkable releases we have Michel Henritzi -snare drum, wood and metal junk, turntable and feedback, Masayoshi Urabe – alto sax and guitar. & Junko – vocals – on the second Junko – vocals Aya Onishi – Drums Rinji Fukuoka – Violin & Guitar & Michel Henritzi – Guitar. Well I’ve been playing these for sometime and trying to think of how and what to say, but must admit I’m somewhat defeated. The construction of these works is such that it could almost be considered classical, that what I suppose is improvisation is so closely listened, and listening is the key to making sound as music, that one could imagine that these musicians were either playing from a score or playing a traditional set of pieces, to the extent it could, but does not, almost spoil the work by a seeming lack of spontaneity. But rather like a ballet whether the product of accident or
endless rehearsal the result is something aesthetically beautiful, and perfect in its accomplishment. (jliat)
Address: http://www.oppositerecords.com
Address: http://anarchives.wordpress.com/
KNITTING BY TWILIGHT – RIDING THE WAYBACK (CD by It’s Twilight Time)
The persistence of Knitting By Twilight to send their new releases to Vital Weekly is actually quite nice. Their previous CD was called ‘An Evening Out Of Town’ and reviewed fairly recent (Vital Weekly 655), and now they follow it up with ‘Riding The Way Back’, maybe a sort of thematic continuation of traveling? The music by Knitting The Twlilight is still far away from whatever Vital Weekly usually writes about, although there seems to be also a bit of a change in the music. These pieces, so we are told, didn’t fir on the previous album. Things seem to be more rockier than before, with bits of drums banging about, making the proceedings a bit more heavier. That’s one change and the other is that it seems to me that some of these pieces are slightly more improvised in nature. Still quite far away from what is normally playing around here, and still quite alright. For just every now and then. (FdW)
Address: http://www.itstwilightmusic.com
SHIFT – BULK (CD by Silkentofu / Unrest Productions)
Again minimal information, pictures of the Tricorn Centre Portsmouth – looks like a 60s car park, and the text “Recorded at the Second Floor, July 2007”. Note not *on* & 2007. Three tracks of continuous rumble which could be noise but lacks harshness, and I might have stopped there- merely adding out of spite that it’s the kind of thing which The Wire would approve of – noise lite? The Silkentofu site adds nothing – a case of NIENTE, but yours pedantically googles – and finds – “The Tricorn Centre *was* a famed Brutalist shopping, apartment, nightclub and car park complex in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It was designed by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon and took its name from the site’s shape which from the air resembled a Tricorne hat. Constructed in the mid-1960s, it was demolished in *2004*. It was home to one of the first Virgin Megastores and housed the largest Laser Quest arena in Europe…..Portsmouth City Council deliberated the demolition of the centre for many years. However, the uniquely designed car-parking block was too useful to the city – providing 400 car parking spaces – to be destroyed until recently. This car park was the scene of many suicide attempts, being amongst the highest publicly accessible buildings on the South coast. For this reason, a plaque offering the support of The Samaritans organization was positioned at this infamous point… The site is now occupied by an open-air car park. The 1812 Overture was played at its demolition – a reflection of the Tricorn’s heroic status in people’s imagination.” I recommend http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=C628_5rpj7w – view / sound of its destruction. Recorded *at* the second floor and not on the now non existent second floor is interesting- as is the video of this failed modernist building complex. A failure which might be dissected and discussed as it could reveal a truth- but then truth was the very metaphysics of modernity – something else demolished and what we are left with is everything and anything. The Tricorn’s progress from high art to suicide platform is not an optimistic trajectory.. And non of this interesting story is in or on this CD? (jliat)
Address: http://www.silkentofu.org/
SYNCHRONATOR – SYNCHRONATOR (DVD by Cavity)
If my memory serves me right, the first time I saw Gert-Jan Prins in concert was at the sadly no longer existing music festival Earational, the first edition in 1997. Prins had a big table, filled with cables, wires, small boxes and a TV monitor on which we saw static that somehow interacted with the noise Prins produced by touching the cables. It looked primitive but it was captivating. My memory no longer serves me when it comes to reminding if I ever saw that TV set again at later concerts. Since some time he works with Bas van Koolwijk (who also worked with Radboud Mens in the past), a video artist from the Netherlands. Basically the concept is the same – transforming audio to TV – but it seems to be a bit more ‘refined’ – even when that seems hardly to be an appropriate word for what we see and hear on this DVD. Prins’ music is still dealing with feedback, broken cables, static hum and distortion and Van Koolwijk translates that is a visual bombardment of black and white images. Best seen when things are totally dark and superloud. There is an immediate treat from the visual and aural attack. I didn’t watch this on a ‘CRT Television Monitor’ but on a computer but that meant I could use the regular audio playback better, but the room was nearly dark. An effective blast on the senses. The next step would be to get all the senses synchronized and hit them in a similar way. Normally I don’t like noise (hey, didn’t I write that last week also?), but this is absolutely great; heavy shit! (FdW)
Address: http://www.synchronator.com
CHRISTIAN WOLFARTH – ACOUSTIC SOLO PERCUSSION VOL.1 (7″ by Hiddenbell Records)
An improviser who releases a 7″? That’s odd, I thought. The time span of a 7″ is too short, I’d say, to show what an improviser can do, and perhaps a 7″ for this kind of music in general is not great either. This first out of series of four 7″s will show us all aspects of Christian Wolfarth’s acoustic solo percussion. ‘Skyscraping’ (with the unpop length of six and half minutes) seems to be concentrating on rubbing the skin of one drum part with an object, plus or perhaps with a violin bow. A haunting and spooky piece of music. ‘Zirr’ on the other is the total opposite. Rattling on the snare, while crashing one or more cymbals, this is almost a piece of marching music. Through the use of various microphones, the emphasis shifts to overtone qualities of the cymbals. Slowly the marching band moves away, around the corner into the next street. No popmusic here, but as separate tracks they work wonderfully well. It made me curious for the next releases in this series. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ch.wolfarth.ch.vu
FAMILY UNDERGROUND (7″ by Quasipop)
ASTRO BLACK – IS LOVE THE BLOOD OF THE UNIVERSE (7″ by Tonometer)
GLOGGERNE & MARTIN KLAPPER – WITH DR. CAHDBOURNE (10″ by Tonometer)
The reservations I made with the Wolfarth 7″ and which were wrong, do apply to these 7″s. I know Family Underground was already on a compilation of Quasipop, but otherwise no info. The two pieces seem like cut out of an improv section of jagged guitars and violin scraping, especially ‘Blood Temperture Pool’. But are nice pieces along the lines of Jackie O’Motherfucker or The No-Neck Blues band, but both are over before you realize it. Just by the time it gets working, its done.
Astro Black from Danmark is Kirk Mingle (composition and conducting) and Chr 5 (composition and electronics), along with lots of other people. Their music is a bit drone/noise band, and its hard to detect the timpani, drums, trombones and such like, but both are so brief that again its over before you know it. That’s a pity, because both seem promising. Next time a full length for both please.
Although I hardly have a release by Eugene Chadbourne I must say that he is one of the most likeable musicians I ever met – and during a stay in the big city, work-wise of course – I met him a lot. Here he plays he with Martin Klapper (toys, amplified objects and live electronics) and a band called Glöggerne, being Mikkel ring on live electronics, SK5 and amplified objects and Christian Skjødt on live electronics, toys and amplified objects. Chadbourne plays guitar, banjo and sings. The recordings were made in mono at a concert, back in 2006. Highly improvised in nature of course, and I must admit things drag a bit on. The a-side had the best piece, the funny ‘It Was A Good Year For The Wine’, but the b-side sees them searching for sounds, and never seem to get into it, but hearing all those toys it surely must have looked great. Maybe it would have been a good idea to make this into a nice 7″ and Astro Black into a 10″. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quasipop.org
Address: http://www.tonometermusic.com
SIMON WHETHAM – LIGHTYEARS (CDR by Traceable Echoes)
It kinda eludes me to see why Simon Whetham would want to copy 300 CDRs instead having it properly pressed. But of course: what do I know? ‘Lightyears’ is a piece commissioned by Kathryn Thomas for ‘Darkspace’, an exhibition by her. She asked Whetham to create a piece of music for it, and this CD only has a stereo version of the 7.1 surround sound one. Whetham uses the sounds Thomas painting in her studio, but also sounds from Aurora Borealis, shipping forecasts and transmission from Nasa. I don’t know Kathryn Thomas’ work, so I have no idea where those sounds fit in her work. The press text has some favorable quotes, by people like those from Fat Cat, Stasisfield, Room40 and Cold Blue Music (if you like it that much, boys, why didn’t you release it, I thought) and indeed I must say its quite a nice work. Many stringed like passages, which could have fitted on say Fat Cat or Cold Blue Music, making this into some great music, in the best tradition of Cold Blue Music, as well as the Obscure Records series. Nice classical music. That’s the main portion of the music, and those are great. There are however two things which I didn’t like very much about this (minor detail critique). The cross fading between the various passages seems to be at times quite abrupt and breaks the atmosphere of the recording. Also the Aurora Borealis and Nasa recordings stand too much by themselves and also break the general atmosphere of the music. That’s a pity, since the actual music parts (maybe 80% of the total music) is great. I have no idea why Whetham did it like that, but it’s a bit of a bummer, I thought. Otherwise, top release. Could/should have been a real CD still. (FdW)
Address: http://www.simonwhetham.co.uk
NIENTE RECORDS VOLUME 2 (CDR by niente records)
NIENTE Record’s flyer makes a deal out of not explaining of not providing information and all their material is packaged alike in a mirror covered CD case. In this particular issue 11 tracks of industrial synth and clatter processed voice etc. And by etc, loops of metal – vowel sounds – string instruments and oscillators- a smorgasbord of what was once called experimentalism which reminded me of a “Mediterranean” pizza once served to my dear wife which looked like something from star wars – some kind of incinerated alien which one would rather give a good funeral to than eat. (jliat)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/nienterecords
ABUSIVE CONSUMER MONOLITH (CDR by Abusive Consumer)
The accompanying blurb for this gives perhaps too much information (am I ever pleased?) AC is J Morales who has spent the last 20 years playing drums/percussion – from Improv free jazz prog rock and now uses synths – influenced by Xenakis. Pan Sonic Bastard Noise Terry Riley? And no doubt Max Bygraves? This piece was made direct to computer (his first and a birthday present) in MONO J.M. admitting he is a bit of a luddite- the intent here to move from one texture to the next in an organic manner yet “improvised in their entirety with a little post editing to cut out the crappy parts” I think you could say he achieves his goals – but that makes this a demonstration – ideologically a muddle then (see Tom Wolfe’s- The Painted Word for why) once the metaphysical frameworks of modernism are removed this edifice becomes a point of suicide. Once the handrails are removed the careless fall. (jliat)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/abusiveconsumer
R.J. SCHREY with KENJI SIRATORI – FUTURE EMBRYO (CDr by R.O.N.F. Records)
ANDRZEJ PIONTEK – MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES (CDr by R.O.N.F.
Records )
Both of these orbit the idea of sci-fi / horror / dark ambient /soundscapes – which means basically any sounds need the reverb and echo set to the maximum and I can see an interest in that idea – but its Dali not Miro, and they appear well after such has been appropriated for mass-entertainment.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oYNvmNZP2o Piontek’s second and third tracks especially. I’m sure I’ve said this before but the whole thing can slip into cliché, and here it does. OK some may like these soundscapes- but why if this is a very personal work through fields of despair does it sound like every Sci-Fi soundtrack since Alien. A film which simply added horror to 2001 and removed the brilliant idea of the contrasts in that sound track. The only redeeming feature of the Schrey release is
the spoken voice of Siratori – but here it’s the idea in my head of the exotic of orientalism which gives its piquancy, something which Edward Said would rightly rail at. If these guys want to express what they say they do then throw away the obvious and get some symbolic sound that uniquely puts across the ideas/feelings, however that I know is hard and trying genuinely to be helpful here a key is to take the ordinary as a starting point – that it turns out is the source of the most surreal, so a child asking a repeated question can become ominous as does the question “is it safe” or what derives from the statement “its gonna rain”..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG5Qk-jB0D4
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x90h1r_steve-reich-its-gonna-rain-part-1_music (jliat)
Address: http://www.ronfrecords.com/
GREG HEADLEY – FRAGMENTS OF THE DREAM MACHINE (CDR by 28angles)
Bravely going on, still strong, our man Greg Headley. This is already his 8th release on his own 28Angles label. His previous releases became quieter and quieter, hovering on the ambient side of things. His prime musical source, the guitar, seemed to have disappeared from the scene in favor of more abstract electronic sounds. But while working on this new release he was ‘unable to get them to sound in reality like they did in my mind’, and out of the frustration that came with it, he abandoned the album and started to work on a more noise oriented album, which resulted in ‘Fragments Of The Dream Machine’. Don’t expect Headley to operate as a new Merzbow or something like that, but things are indeed a lot louder than we are used to here. Five pieces in total. The first two are quite heavy affairs, which reminded me of loud musique concrete works, with many sounds pitched up and down the scale. ‘Spasm’, the third track on the other hand sounds a bit more industrial. The final two pieces are a bit more quieter and show his background in ambient music, even when ‘Eye Of Silence’ has its loud moments. Its good to see him break away from the microsound, and it may take some time to get used to this new, ‘loud’ sound, but its quite a daring move, even when not entirely convincing. (FdW)
Address: http://www.28angles.com
ENNIO MAZZON – DIMENTICANZA (CDR by Feelscape)
From Italy hails Ennio Mazzon, who plays drone
music to which end he uses Ableton Live. That is the extent of information I got for this. How these drones were generated is a bit unclear. It might be field recordings, or internal computer feedback which is then stretched out and processed. Or something like that. In five lengthy pieces he offers five variations to this theme. He does a pretty decent job I must say in wind like pieces. Soft, not too outspoken, highly ambient and drone based. Having said that, I must be honest too. There is not much here that I haven’t heard elsewhere. Mazzon plays music that so many do, and at times I hear other people doing things with a bit more imagination and perhaps also a bit more refined at that. Mazzon’s music is by itself nice enough, but it doesn’t stand out too much though. (FdW)
Address: http://www.feelscape.net
OLEKRANON – RECYCLE HUMAN LUNG (CDR by Inam Records)
‘Recycle Human Lung’ is the third and final release by Olekranon for 2009, the piece of paper that came with tell us. I have no idea why Ryan Huber, the man behind Olekranon takes the second half of the year off, but for the seven pieces here, he opens all fire power. He still plays the guitar and lots of stomp boxes on the floor, with a drum machine backing things up. ‘Black Sunday Brunch’ is a nightmarish piece of furious sounds. Its the fifth piece here, but by far the loudest, and its also a trademark piece. Things seem to be a bit more louder, a bit more furious and fuzzier, a bit more aggressive than before. Quite a funny release, with a short piece of one strum only in ‘The Son Never Sits’, but also some more subdued moments as ‘Trinac’ or the title piece. But that’s just a minor part, as the rest is loud and meaty as hell. Maybe at twenty-five minutes a bit short, but with so much energy and speed, its probably the right length. (FdW)
Address: <inamrecs@yahoo.com>
DUANE PITRE – ED 09 FOR STRING/WIND ENSEMBLE LIVE AT THE ROULETTE (CDR by Quiet Design)
We already heard music by Duane Pitre before, an album on Trome Records called ‘Organize Pitches Occurring In Time’ (see Vital Weekly 605), which he recorded with the Pilotram Ensemble. That was a relatively small ensemble of a tone generator, bass clarinet, alto saxophones and a violin, whereas on this new work ‘ED 09’, which is performed by twenty-one musicians, which includes no less than five cello players, violin, viola, clarinet, various saxophones. About half the music they play is set in the score, whereas the other half is left for the players to fill in. Pitre as a composer is interested in microtonality, that is tones that are a very close to eachother and may sound like a cluster. In this forty minute live recording this works absolutely beautiful. Sounds swell, sustain, go away and everything flows into eachother in what seems to be a natural way. Again, if you like Phill Niblock, then this is right up your street too. An excellent work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quietdesign.us
AMAUROTE – BINARY CODE FORBIDDEN (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation)
PLATFORM – UNTITLED 3 (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation)
So far the Minimal Resource Manipulation label released music by Matt Atkins, the label owner who works as Platform. Now he releases music by someone, one Joey Frohikey who lives in the Czech Republic, where he works with a netlabel called Cryoworks and since short with Amaurote as his own musical project. ‘Binary Code Forbidden’ is his debut release and has four tracks of what can be best classified as IDM music. Minimalist beats, which bend back and forth, pitch up and down in the best Autechre, the early mark thereof. Bits of melody are used, an throughout its not the most complex thing, mainly due to the somewhat minimal rhythms used. Four tracks are perhaps a bit short to form an opinion on this, but its sure nice enough.
If Amaurote is perhaps early Autechre, then the new Platform release is perhaps more mid to later Autechre. Messing around with 808 and 909 drum machines in a minimal style, Atkins adds an interesting blend of electronics that make the whole thing a bit more abstract for dance music. This is not dance music per se, not for the masses at least, but perhaps it could work at some underground tekno party, certainly with pieces like ‘Thoracic Drop’ or ‘Polarity 3’. When the beat is absent, in ‘The Eye Of Silence’ or ‘Prensig’ he aims for a more experimental ambient sound, which adds a nice variation to the release. Quite groovy stuff. The dance pieces should be on vinyl, I’d say. (FdW)
Address: http://www.minimalresourcemanipulation.co.uk
HARUKI – TO HUMBLE A NEST (CDR by The Land Of)
BILLY GOMBERG – DAYS (CDR by The Land Of)
US label The Land Of always creates one of the nicest packages in CDR land. Carddboard stock, full colour print work, with a nice design. Boris Snauwaert is the man behind Haruki, who has had a couple of releases on Kaspar Hauser Records, Rain Music and Corps-Morts Records, as well as doing a remix for Machinefabriek and My Brightest Diamond. On ‘To Humble A Nest’ he has nine pieces of field recordings, acoustic objects, electronic sounds and digital sounds, which he all threw on a computer’s hard disc and then starts to unfold them – or so it seems. Let’s say there are eight tracks, and they are all filled with sound, then Haruki will find the dialogue between those sounds. Sometimes it seems that sounds from one piece appear also in another, but perhaps I am imagining this. Haruki succeeds quite well in this dialogue. The music is quite vibrant and not silent throughout, although a piece like ‘If I Wrote You’ is a sparse violin like piece, followed by other two others pieces that are somewhat quieter too. Otherwise his methods are a bit Brume like: make sure always something happens. Very nice release, which blends field recordings together with real instruments.
Perhaps the cover of Billy Gomberg’s release is a bit ordinary, compared to some of the other releases on The Land Of. Gomberg was recently in Vital Weekly for the first time (as Gromberg, sorry about that), with his joint release with Jan-Kees Helms. He is from Chicago but lives in the big apple, Brooklyn to be precise. Unlike his release with Helms, this release deals more with instruments, voice and piano to be precise. The voice, of Anne Guthrie, sings an old folk song in Swedish and English, and Gomberg plays the piano. All of these sound heavily treated, and perhaps the piano can be recognized, the voice is hardly to be recognized, Five pieces of microsounding sound collage, eerie and atmospheric, this is quite nice music. In ‘Lights Form Her Body’ things melt together: voice is stretched but sounds like a voice, there is piano and the processing makes this into a beautiful sustaining piece. If I had to choose between Gomberg and Haruki, it would a difficult decision, but then it would Haruki, as its just a bit more out of the ordinary for me, but Gomberg is nice too. (FdW)
Address: http://thelandof.org
CONTACT T.B.D. – DUST (3″CDR by Lor Tapes)
In Vital Weekly we pointed you to the return of Jan Kees Helms to the world of music after a hiatus of many years, with his collaborative release with Billy Gomberg (see also elsewhere in this issue). In the 80s and 90s Helms used to work as Contact T.B.D. (as well as Little Seed, perhaps before that, but I forgot the minor differences in these names), using self build and traditional instruments. ‘Dust’ is not a release of archive recordings, but two new pieces using a dusty guitar with three strings found among the garbage. ‘Dust One’ is the heavier version of the two, with what might be strumming the guitar through sound effects. Maybe a bit long to be really effective. ‘Dust Two’ is about eleven minutes, more or less, and in a more introspective mood. Here I think computer processing plays a role, in a somewhat crude way. Not noise like, but it lacks the refinement we find in some other computer treatments. Both pieces lack a certain amount of composition and sound more composed as things proceeded. That means it certainly defies any genre, which surely is a fine thing. Not the best release of the week, but a good starting point for a come back. (FdW)
Address: http://jankeeshelms.nl/
GARETH DAVIS & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT – GHOST LANES (3″CDR by Machinefabriek)
A few weeks, nay, days ago, June 21st to be precise, Rutger Zuydervelt and Gareth Davis met up at Steim in Amsterdam and recorded music. A particular fruitful day it was, which delivered two, to be released, full length album and ‘Ghost Lanes’, perhaps the teaser for these albums. However I must admit the music of ‘Ghost Lanes’ didn’t grab me at all. Its very much improvised music but it lacks tension. Things drag on and on, a bit of loops, some free whistle and some cracks. On the middle part, around the ten minute break revealed some of the classic Machinefabriek drones and careful playing of the contrabass clarinet. The otherwise fine formed Machinefabriek let me down with this piece. To haphazard or perhaps his speed of working works against being critical? (FdW)
Address: http://www.machinefabriek.nu
UNKNOWN (3 inch CDR by zerojardins)
All I could find out was this is a label from Lyon France which is into Folk, Free Improvisation, New Wave, Noise and some details of live performances. We have four tracks of improvised abstract sounds using real as opposed to electronic objects. It could be made using kitchen equipment – pots and pans with the string sound made with an egg slice but I suspect it’s a guitar and drums.. and so these sounds rumble on like a slow goods train, I’m sure whoever made this was having fun and its quite fun to listen to. Oh – and the last track uses a wah wah so strike egg slice and replace guitar. And some electronics – but that’s OK – it’s as they once said ‘groovy’ (jliat)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/zerojardins
THE DEAR LISTENERS – MOODSWING (3″CDR by The Dear Listeners)
THE DEAR LISTENERS – HARBOUR (3″CDR by The Dear Listeners)
On a couple of occasions I misspelled their name but its The Dear Listeners (not Deer, my dear), being the duo of Robert Deters (of previously Vance Orchestra) and Martin Luiten (of Uw Hypotheek Advies and Pick-up, as well as producer of Titmachine and Rene SG). Every now and then they meet up and record a whole bunch of pieces through improvisation, especially the favorite activity of Luiten. These two releases were recorded fall, winter 2008. I once seen them just before they started to record and was impressed by their set-up: lots of small electronic boxes, acoustic objects (balls, comb, screwdriver), a piece of vinyl but no record player in sight, the various stringed instruments of Luiten and various microphones (Luiten’s second love, next to the guitar). They play live but its picked up from various ends, with a microphone and through line recording. That allows them to mix the live recordings afterwards. ‘Moodswing’ has two pieces of around ten minutes, and ‘Harbour’ one of twenty minutes, which in both cases seem to be the average length of a Dear Listeners piece. Of the three pieces, the second piece on ‘Moodswing’ is perhaps a ‘classic’ Dear Listeners piece: drone like with sparse elements in loop mode dropping, but it also introduces an element that is more present in the other pieces: abrupt changes and more dynamics. More a collage form. Drones built up, but are then cut off abruptly and replaced by a new set of drones and crackles, hiss, ticks. My favorite is ‘Harbour’ which blends all of these together in the best way, whereas ‘Moodswing’ isn’t bad either, but maybe a bit lesser focussed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/thedearlisteners
New MP3 releases:
1. From: Adern X <adernx@libero.it>
Xevor has just released “Concept Buildings”, the first album from sound artist Adern X. It can be freely downloaded at this address:
http://www.xevor.net/releases.html
The three tracks are improvisation (re)constructed and layered. Adern X use, as a building blocks, loops and samples that were manipulated in real time with a style between eai and glitch.
2. From: Simon Whetham <simon@simonwhetham.co.uk>
‘SIMON WHETHAM – ratcha anachak thai
Con-V CNV55
www.con-v.org
release date: 25.Jun.2009
This new release by Simon Whetham features two immersive tracks composed from field recordings captured in two specific locations in Thailand, a village on the banks of the River Kwai and the jungle island of Ko Kradan.
Published by Touch Music [MCPS]’
Simon Whetham
http://www.simonwhetham.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/simonwhetham
Announcements
1. From: Sindre Bjerga <sindrebjerga@hotmail.com>
Sunday July 19th – ROTE FLORA, HAMBURG
SINDRE BJERGA
DEATH SENTENCE: PANDA!
URI GELLER
BRUNO & MICHAEL ARE SMILING WITH SKIPERR
START AT 9PM
ADRESS: Achidi-John-Platz 1, 20357 Hamburg