Editorial news: we have decided to stop reviewing MP3 releases. Please do not send any discs with MP3 releases. Just send me an e-mail with a link and a short description, so people can download it. The amount of releases pile up every week and I can no longer devote time to MP3s. Whatever you see coming in the next few weeks are the last ones. Please do not send anymore. Also: releases that do not contain the original artwork will most likely be no longer reviewed. The real thing is necessary for a real judgment. If you wish to send us not the real thing, please contact us first. <vital@vitalweekly.net>
FENN O’BERG – IN STEREO (CD by Editions Mego) *
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – AMAROK (CD by Glacial Movements) *
AARON MARTIN – WORRIED ABOUT THE FIRE (CD by Experimedia) *
AARKTICA – IN SEA REMIXES (CD by Silber Records)
CELER – IN ESCAPING LAKES (CD by Slow Flow Records) *
FABIO ORSI – WINTERREISE (CD by Slow Flow Records) *
[POST-FOETUS] – THE FABRIC (CD by Mü-Nest)
FRANCIS DHOMONT – ETUDES POUR KAFKA (CD by Empreintes Digitales) *
DOMINIQUE BASSAL – UBIQUITE (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
BRENDAN MURRAY/PERISPIRIT (split LP by Semata Productions)
CAPE FEAR – WINDS OF THE DEAD AIR (LP by Sound On Probation)
ERIC LUNDE/KOMMISSAR HJULER (LP by Psych KG)
SONS OF ALPHA CENTAURI/A DEATH CINEMATIC (split CDR by Simple Box Construction) *
GUTTA PERCHA – TUBE OVERTURE (CDR by The Land Of) *
NICK HENNIES – LINEAL (CDR by SRA Sounds) *
POST MORTEM/FEVER SPOOR – OFF COLOUR (CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
KASPER VAN HOEK – FRANK 1 (CDR by Heilskabaal Records) *
KASPER VAN HOEK – FRANK 2 (CDR by Heilskabaal Records)
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON – AMYGDALA MANDALA (CDR by Prime Cuts) *
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON – PEOPLE IN SORROW (CDR by Prime Cuts)
BOTANICAL ISOTOPES: PHYLLOCEPHALA REFOLATED (CDR compilation by Prime Cuts)
ANDREW PERRY & DEAD WOOD – THE SWEETEST MEAT (CDR by Striate Cortex) *
NEW HORIZONS FROM THE DISTANT VOID (CDR compilation by Striate Cortex)
FENN O’BERG – IN STEREO (CD by Editions Mego)
Is there something that you really want? That one coming release that excites you very much? In the world of reviewers: hardly. There is tons of music coming out every week, and everything is examined carefully (we do out best). But sometimes there is a release coming which even excites the overloaded reviewer. Say a new album by Christian Fennesz, Jim O’Rourke and Peter Rehberg, who work as Fenn O’berg. They released two albums almost a decade ago, classic works of computerized madness, culled from live shows. Mayhem, plunderphonics, laptop a gogo (recently re-issued as double CD – see Vital Weekly 685). Workload was also heavy for these musicians, always touring, recording, touring and recording. In October of last year they meet up again, for a week, in Tokyo, to sit together and record their first studio album. Six tracks and what a difference from the previous two. Its no longer laptop madness, but a fine blend of that with analogue sound material, guitar, piano, bass and percussion. I must admit its not easy to spot these instruments in these pieces. The music has changed though. Its not a wild and vivid collage of sound, but more concentrated efforts of sound, more composed than improvised. I think they laid down all the various sounds in an improvised form and then mixed it together into quite dense music, which has partly an ambient character (in a rather unique way) and also a strangely psychedelic atmosphere. Sometimes the computer processed sounds play a role, such as in ‘Part VII’, but by and large its not easy to spot here. Its an excellent release, I must say. Especially the first four tracks are great here, where they really go out into their own form of psychedelic music. ‘Part III’, the opening of the CD is perhaps the standout track of the CD. An excellent release, as said, well worth waiting so long for, but let’s hope the next one will come sooner. (FdW)
Address: http://www.editionsmego.com
FRANCISCO LOPEZ – AMAROK (CD by Glacial Movements)
Away now, it seems, from his ‘Untitled’ releases, Francisco Lopez here has work which he created at Mobile Messor (no doubt the name of his laptop) over a period of two years in a variety of places: Madrid, Murcia, Riga, Belgrade, Tel Aviv and Amsterdam. That’s more information than usual with Lopez releases, I guess (well, not all of course), but what’s lacking is the nature of his sound sources. No doubt field recordings, but which kind of fields would that be? Wind seems to me an obvious choice, since it seems to link to the name of the label. The music like a cold wind over some glacial mass. Lopez’ piece (always one piece on a CD, unless its a compilation of shorter works) is divided in various passages: some loud, some very quite, with a long dramatic build up when it comes to the louder pieces, seems to be getting a bit more electronic these days. Away from the previous work where he used field recordings and equalization taken to the extreme, he now treats the sounds with computer plug ins (it seems so at least). A minor change, but an essential one. Yet, I also believe that this work, which now lasts sixty four minutes, could have been shorter. Especially the louder bit which starts at forty minutes (to about fifty minutes) seems a re-run of sound material which we came across in the earlier parts of this piece. Lopez takes his time to tell his story and he does a fine job, as always, but somehow I have the feeling that there is a bit of overproduction on his side. A good, fine work it is, but it doesn’t necessarily stands out from the majority of his recent work. That’s something I think he should take in consideration. (FdW)
Address: http://www.glacialmovements.com
AARON MARTIN – WORRIED ABOUT THE FIRE (CD by Experimedia)
Last week I traveled a small bit with Rutger Zuydervelt of Machinefabriek and I couldn’t help noticing that he has collaborated with a whole bunch of people which I never heard of, mainly from what can loosely be called ‘modern classical/improvisation’. The name Aaron Martin was not mentioned in this connection, but its also someone Zuydervelt worked for his ‘Cello Recycling’ (see Vital Weekly 564). This new release, I believe the first pro-pressed one for Experimedia, is my first proper introduction to the music of Martin. He started out on guitar and drums, but at the age of seventeen he switched to the cello. He has already had a bunch of releases on various labels. ‘Worried About The Fire’ started out a soundtrack to a short film, but here, on CD, he uses bits of that to create new work, and adds along the road also cello, banjo, harmonica and organ. Some of it is treated electronically and appears in various layers throughout the twelve pieces. Martin’s pieces are rather short, which I thought was a pity. His minimal approach is well-suited, I think, to play pieces of music that is beyond the three minute mark. Often employing a few sounds per track, which are all ‘played’ (as opposed to ‘sampled’), there is natural element in the music, which could be expanded, perhaps into some more ‘formal’ minimal music approach. That is a pity, as it seems now a bit too ‘sketchy’ in approach. That’s a pity, I think, as there is great potential in the music. Also the recording sounds a bit hollow, like it was recorded in a big open room with some natural reverberation, which add a bit of unwanted treble to the music, and is not as warm as it could have been. This especially is the case when the cello is heard, and not in the various other instruments. However all of this is minor stuff. The music throughout is very nice and thoughtful. Modern classical in approach, recorded through the methods of improvisation, carefully constructed (I assume) on a computer. Nice one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.experimedia.net
AARKTICA – IN SEA REMIXES (CD by Silber Records)
Back in Vital Weekly 703 I discussed ‘In Sea’ by Aarktica and was not blown away by it. It lacked variation mostly, in my opinion. Jon DeRosa, the behind behind Aarktica played guitar, lots of echo and reverb and a bit of singing. I’m not sure why this album needed a remix treatment, perhaps because ‘the material on the original lent itself well to reworking’, and surely its a nice passtime to create remixes. Perhaps it will boast the sales of the original too. Lots of names here of which I never heard, like Planar, Al Qaeda (well, I heard of the other one), Pan, Landing, Ramses II, as well as some I recognized such as Mason Jones, Slicnaton, Remora and Yellow6. Up until the eleventh piece its all fairly ok in terms of remixing. Everybody seems to be emphasizing the ambient structures set forward on the original, sometimes with a bigger role for a guitar, or for effects or for the vocals, but it all makes a pretty decent listening. Not great, not bad, not highly original. The James Duncan remix then takes everything into a whole new territory, with a house based remixed. Totally out of place, but perhaps therefore quite alright. Declining Water, an off-shoot of Hood, has a nice piece for strings, following that, Pan brings in drum machines again. Those three, all at the end, make the right sort of wrong moves: they take the original into a whole new area, which I believe to be the best thing for a remix album. Attract a new audience to your music. Throughout quite an alright compilation, quite pleasant to listen. (FdW)
Address: http://www.silbermedia.com
CELER – IN ESCAPING LAKES (CD by Slow Flow Records)
FABIO ORSI – WINTERREISE (CD by Slow Flow Records)
A new Japanese label, Slow Flow, gets ready to be part of the already crowded field of ambient music, by choosing two non-Japanese musicians to open the release schedule. The first is by Celer. Only two weeks ago I Iearned that Danielle Baquet-Long died last year and that basically all works that are released these days under the name Celer are made by her and her husband Will Long. Apparently its quite an archive as there seems to be lots of things coming according to the myspace page. All of these works were completed before she died and now are being released. According to the press release “‘In Escaping Lakes’ is the sequel to ‘Cursory Asperses’, previously released on Slow Flow” – and a quick look at the website learns that there have been a couple of CDR releases before these two ‘real’ CDs (although the website is in need of an update). For their music Celer use piano, strings, gong, tingshas, voice, electronics, hydrophone, flute and while the cover mentions four different parts with some great titles (“Australis A Buoyant Object, That Rests And Moves In Such A Way When Recounting Futures, Don’t Fail To Mention Me”), there is only one track on the CD, that lasts almost forty minutes (although there are clearly marks to make them into separate tracks). Its hard to believe that they used all these instruments – something I wondered about before. Its a beautiful release – once again. Very spacious music, with long sustaining sounds of (processed?) instruments. They glide majestically along eachother, and over the course of this work, it seems that is turning ‘inside’ towards itself. From nicely flowing at the start to a more moody ending. This is the first time I discover such as story like approach in their music (might of course be my problem). An excellent release.
The second release is by Fabio Orsi, from Italy, of whom we encountered music before on labels as Small Voices and Digitales Industries (as well as some more, which I believe weren’t all reviewed in Vital Weekly), and here Orsi has ‘Winterreise’ (without a connection to Schubert I think). Playing guitar, effects and old keyboards on this six part work that lasts almost fifty minutes. Not mentioned on the cover is the use of field recordings, which I think there are several of them (people talking in a restaurant in the third piece for instance). The press text (by Will Banquet of Celer) mentions ‘mythical symbolism’ and ‘impression’ and surely there is something to say to link it to the older art movements, but perhaps the safest thing to say is that it sounds like ambient music. Great ambient that is actually. Orsi does a really fine job. The guitar never sounds like a guitar, but flows freely among the hot bed of sound effects, and so do the old keyboards. Music that transports the listener to a dream world of its/his own. The six pieces do not necessarily go into eachother, but each is a specific entity of its own; Part V for instance is a much darker than the rest. Orsi’s ambient music is something that moves in traditional circles of what is called ambient music but adds darker undercurrents to add something to the material that is also his own. Not the biggest surprise, on both accounts but both are quite nice. (FdW)
Address: http://slowflowrec.web.fc2.com/index.html
[POST-FOETUS] – THE FABRIC (CD by Mü-Nest)
Behind the quite strange name [Post-Foetus], you find L.A.-based sound artist Will Wiesenfeld. The 20-year old composer already has a background in classical music, a background he cleverly uses on this present debut album titled “The fabric”. The album is a sonically warm experience combining sounds acoustic instruments with gentle electronic explorations, neither getting too mainstream or too demanding. Some track puts special weight on the classical tradition with inclusions of cello in the case of opening track “Migration” drawing associations towards chamber music-traditions but with clicking beats added. Other tracks put more strength in the contemporary electronic expressions with IDM-rhythm textures and ambient-electronic soundscapes, sometimes with funky samples as on the piece “All of the world”. Favorite moments comes with the beautiful clicks’n’cuts-tune “Kiki”, a piece so gentle that it could be used as the lullaby for your new-born and the final non-rhythmic loop-based closing title “Haruka” – a truly fascinating work balancing between abstract sound-art and electronic pop. Highly recommended debut! (NM)
Address: http://www.mu-nest.com/
FRANCIS DHOMONT – ETUDES POUR KAFKA (CD by Empreintes Digitales)
DOMINIQUE BASSAL – UBIQUITE (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
Its a bit unclear when Empreintes Digitales releases something on CD and when on DVD (24 bit audiofiles, surround sound etc.)? Why Dominique Bassal on DVD and Dhomont on CD? Two weeks ago we came across Dhomont on a compilation (on DVD!) by the same label and that works dealt with the work of Franz Kafka, just like the works on ‘Etudes Pour Kafka’. These three works predate a longer work on Kafka. Dhomont already started in the late 1940s, and since 1963 his works deals only with tapes, and no longer scored music for instruments. He has won tons of awards. Ok that’s the history. On the CD we find ‘Brief An Den Vater’, which was also on the ‘ZKM: Trans_Canada’ compilation (see Vital Weekly 717), so just two new pieces. All deal with the texts of Kafka, although they are not always easily understood. The troubled life however of Kafka is represented well in the music. The pieces are well versed in the tradition of acousmatic music. Sounds are processed through all sorts of computer techniques, which we find en masse on albums by Empreintes Digitales – the rumble and tumbling of sounds, that somehow always seem to remain distant. Its never music that really grabs you, despite all the quality this music no doubt has. Very academic and that always seems to be a bit in the way of pure appreciation.
The music of Dominique Bassal is alike, yet also, at the same time, a bit different. Apparently he has worked in the field of popmusic, as an arranger, producer, studio manager ‘where he applied avant-garde techniques to the world of pop music’ (names please!), and later on returned to electro-acoustic music. His four pieces are between ten and twenty minutes – which seems to be the average length in this field of music. It seems to me that his music is a bit more electronic, and that he uses longer sustaining sounds at various time, and not the rumble/tumble that is common in this music, except perhaps in ‘Mont Des Borgnes’. That makes this into a release that I actually seemed to enjoy more than some (many perhaps?) of the releases of Empreintes Digitales. Still, not entirely grabbing the listener as much as I would love too, but , surely nice enough. Maybe I’m just lacking the right speaker set up to fully enjoy the music, I sometimes wonder. (FdW)
Address: http://www.empreintesdigitales.com
BRENDAN MURRAY/PERISPIRIT (split LP by Semata Productions)
Its hardly a secret that I am a big fan of the work of Brendan Murray, the US drone meister. Here he shares a record with Perispirit, a duo of Ricardo Donoso and Luke Moldof. Their cassette ‘Cynical Overlaps’ was reviewed in Vital Weekly 710. They use synths, electronics and guitar. Like on that tape, Perispirit move along lines of noise, ambient, electronically composed and experimental music. At times loud and vicious, at other times leaving room for improvised sounds on the guitar and sophisticated electronic music. It reminded me of music from the 80s, when people from the industrial scene moved towards the more academic music, while maintaining the own fresh, unique sound. Some of those bands had a free-jazz/rock background, such as P16.D4, P Children and Illusion Of Safety. Perispirit continues that particular line of interest, and bring us a fine piece of music. Brendan Murray piece is called ‘Birches And Marksman’s Graves (voice and computer #1)’, and he uses the voice of Noell Dorsey. Unlike much of his previous work his work here seems to be taken apart into separate smaller pieces, all of which seems to be based around processed voice material and sometimes the pure voice. These smaller pieces flow into eachother, so perhaps its still to be seen as one long piece. I must admit: this is not the strongest piece I ever from Murray. Maybe it has to do with the source material? I am reminded of some of the recent voice work of Komissar Hjuler/Mama Baer, but Murray’s music is certainly more complex than of the Germans. Yet it also sounds a bit too easy in the field of computer processing, like some simple studies made into a drone like piece. The nicest thing is the fact that processed material and the raw sound material flow very gently into eachother. But there was room, I think, for some more in-depth rework. (FdW)
Address: http://www.semataproductions.com
CAPE FEAR – WINDS OF THE DEAD AIR (LP by Sound On Probation)
Laurent Perrier has already quite a career behind his name. Under a plethora of disguises, such as Zonk’t, Pylone, Heal, his own name, and in the past Eleve Model and a membership of Nox. That latter band was a combination of industrial music and rock, and somehow I must admit I never liked it that much. Following that band, Perrier started a new project Cape Fear and as such he released one record in 1998, which I am not sure I heard. Now twelve years he’s back with that name, which turns out to be sampling, guitars and breakbeat rhythms. The guitars play riffs that owe much to the world of metal. Odd record, I must say. An unlikely marriage of breakbeat like rhythms, these metal riffs and some nice cosmic lines on the synthesizer and sequencer. Perrier mentions various links to old bands, like King Crimson, Neurosis, This Heat, which I all don’t really see, but I see that it indeed shares the music of Chrome. Banging rhythms and nasty guitars. Perhaps not entirely my cup of tea, this music, but as I sometimes like Chrome too, this record is not bad. Its one of those things that I enjoy on a very loose basis, but not the kind of music to hear all day (well, is there an music you would want all day then?). Not my most favorite Perrier project, not a bad record either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soundonprobation.com
ERIC LUNDE/KOMMISSAR HJULER (LP by Psych KG)
When Vital Weekly was called Vital, and printed on paper (1986-1995) the name Eric Lunde appeared with some regular intervals, simply because he was quite active releasing records and tapes. His performance like approach to noise music, his elaborate packaging which always raised more questions than it would give answers made a big impact. And then he seemed gone and now he has returned. I have no idea what he did in the years in between. His music doesn’t seem to have changed very much (I am still thinking wether that’s good or bad) and its still his trademark sound we find here: eroded sound. Lunde uses cassettes, memo recorders and cheap microhones to tape sounds and mix these. Played back into a space – re-record, played back, re-record until quite a crude sound appears. That’s what he does here in his three tracks, including a ‘live site recording of two air ‘separtion’ tanks’. Crude, very crude ambient music. Lunde takes the ideas of Alvin Lucier’s ‘I’m Sitting In A Room’ to the extreme, with very low grade equipment and builds from the dirty sounds beautiful music. Time to dig out the old stuff and play that again.
On the other side we find Kommissar Hjuler, without Mama Baer this time. I tried to translate the liner notes from German in Dutch, but I failed. It has something to do with scooter? We hear some sort of (toy?) car sound, lots of rumble and a voice. Much alike last week’s tape of Hjuler, this seems to be another example of highly personal audio poetry. Twenty minutes of this. It certainly has a great charm indeed, but its significance somehow eludes me here. Truely outsider music, that’s for sure. (FdW)
Address: http://www.psych-kg.de
SONS OF ALPHA CENTAURI/A DEATH CINEMATIC (split CDR by Simple Box Construction)
Too young to have bought ‘Alpha Centauri’ by Tangerine Dream, I got it much later on from the sales bin – no doubt when all the true fans bought it on CD and replaced the LP. I quite liked some of those early Tangerine Dream albums, at one point that is, but these days I don’t play them too often. Sons Of Alpha Centauri is, as far as I understood, a side project of Ambient Visions, or rather the alter ego ‘representing their experimental synthesized work’. Its a four piece band with synthesizers, textures, bass, samples, keyboards, atmospherics, percussion and noise. They share a release here with A Death Cinematic, ‘one man with a single guitar, an amp and some effects’. Sons Of Alpha Centauri have long track on offer, which is split into four different sections. A Death Cinematic has two tracks. Although musically they are not alike, there is one thing that seems to tie them together. Both bands use a short of improvised means to produce their music. Nothing wrong with that, but all three, lengthy, pieces suffer from the same problem: they are without much direction. The music is as is. Put down to tape, perhaps mixed a bit (in the case of the Sons), but that’s minor stuff. A Death Cinematic doesn’t do that, and plays his pieces on end, without any editing. The music for him is mild noise, I’d say, a bit of heavy post rock at times, and suggests atmosphere which it’s not. The Sons are in that respect more atmospheric, but also quite dark at the same time. Their part was the one I enjoyed best. (FdW)
Address: http://www.simpleboxconstruction.com
GUTTA PERCHA – TUBE OVERTURE (CDR by The Land Of)
The two brothers Brent and Ryan Hibbett, out of Illinois, are behind Gutta Percha and ‘Tube Overtures’ is their debut – lovingly packed in a wooden box. Apparently it all started with a series ‘of voicemail messages containing pocket trumpet improvisations on eighties-era television themes’ (of which none sound familiar to me). They added a whole bunch of sounds to that, found in the immediate surrounding of their home: the ventilator, backyard insect choirs, traffic sounds, television hum and all such like. All of this is, I guess, taken to the computer and put together into music. The release is with seventy minutes very long. I was doing a lot of other small things at the same time, all along enjoying the music. When it was over, I played it again, now listening more closely and thinking what to write. Perhaps I am a little less convinced now. The music is quite sparsely made, with just a few sounds per track. Distant trumpet sounds – that could be whistling any television tune as far as I’m concerned – and drone like sounds in the background, some quite static, sometimes more in a melodic vein. Bits of guitar I thought were also part of it. True and well ambient music, and in that respect this was all more interesting than some of the ambient music that is build from a bunch of analogue/digital synthesizers, but maybe in all its sparseness also a bit too sparse. Sometimes the pieces could have been a bit shorter according to my feeling and it would make the same story. Still quite a nice release I think, that only has one problem: its all a bit long. (FdW)
Address: http://www.thelandof.org
NICK HENNIES – LINEAL (CDR by SRA Sounds)
The background of this release is pretty interesting: Nick Hennies grandfather used to recite poems and stories and at the age of 15 he recorded them, purely for private family use. The cassette was recently found by Hennies and transferred to the computer. He uses them on this release, and adds snare drum, no-input mixer, wine glass, ice cubes, guitar and piano. The first piece is all instrumental and may act like an overture. It sounds the ice cubes being computer-wise manipulated. The second, long, piece has the stories and poems, with a beautiful ‘old’ American voice and music. The music is sparse, but highly effective. The rumbling of the snare drum, the singing of the wine glass (which sounds like a train passing), the crackling of sounds, mild drones from the no-input mixer and such like create a perfect backdrop for these poems (of which I never heard, but then perhaps I am not much of a literary guy anyway). Normally such spoken word releases are not my cup of tea, but in the thirty minute piece, they are presented with some distance, leaving room for some great music. Excellent release, very intimate. (FdW)
Address: http://www.srasounds.com
POST MORTEM/FEVER SPOOR – OFF COLOUR (CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
Jan-Kees Helms, in the late 80s/early 90s working as Post Mortem (and a plethora of other names) and his own Lor Teeps, re-appeared on the music scene early last year and since then has released a couple of new music releases, under his own name. Expanding now, he also resurrected his more noise based Post Mortem project and hooks up with Marcel Herms, best known (in The Netherlands perhaps) as a visual artist, but also as noise artist Fever Spoor. Post Mortem’s three tracks on this split release deal with traveling over land, snow and sea. No information has been given on the origins of the three Fever Spoor tracks. Its not really the noise that is purely based on getting as many distortion as possible, but surely has links to the noise world. Things crack under the feet, in the snow, on water and inside the computer. Post Mortem’s pieces seem to be owing more to computers than Fever Spoor. There are bits of time stretching, and throughout it has multiple layers of sound, all equally mildly distorted and grainy. Fever Spoor’s ‘Green’ and ‘Red’ the heaviest track of the lot, with the strongest noise ties. For all six pieces I must say that they deal with being radical manifestations of noise, rather than heavily based in actually composing with the material at hand. That comes, quite naturally I’d say, with the territory. Not a great release, but surely ear damaging enough for the true noise heads. I’d prefer if Helms would stick to his own name and game. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/animamalnata
KASPER VAN HOEK – FRANK 1 (CDR by Heilskabaal Records)
KASPER VAN HOEK – FRANK 2 (CDR by Heilskabaal Records)
Things have been quiet from Kasper van Hoek for a while, both his own music and his Heilskabaal Records label. It turns out he is now doing his masters degree at the Frank Mohr Institute for interactive media and environments in Groningen, The Netherlands. On five separate CDR we will know what he’s doing there. ‘Frank 1’ has four pieces, and three of them uses also source material from one Micheal Dotolo and two with Hideki Kanno. One piece is a pure solo piece. The first two pieces are based on live recordings, the other two on field recordings. I think these are the more interesting ones of the two. The opening piece (live) starts out nice, but then stays a bit too much in the field of improvisation, without too much tension. The second does have that tension, mainly a noisy character. The pieces based on field recordings have some extensive manipulation on the computer and can meet with the best he did in this field, which is his ‘Den Haag/Groningen/Froombosch’ (see Vital Weekly 615) release.
On ‘Frank 2’ we find two solo live recordings, both of them made with a self-built instrument: a suitcase with guitar strings, connected with screw terminals on one side and on the other side some potentiometers and switches, which control a sampler in Max/msp. The Groningen variation opens up and is shorter than the Maastricht version. Both of these pieces are of course improvised. In the first piece Van Hoek keeps things well under control and offers a strong interplay with the sounds at hand. In Maastricht (some twenty-five minutes) things went a bit out of hand and the piece glides off in a pool of rough sound treatments and a somewhat muddy sound. When Van Hoek has released all five ‘Frank’ releases, there will be a best off release. From these two, I’d say three and four of the first release, and the first one from the second (that almost sounds like poetry). For the time being available in an edition of 20 copies with silkscreened covers. (FdW)
Address: http://www.heilskabaal.net
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON – AMYGDALA MANDALA (CDR by Prime Cuts)
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON – PEOPLE IN SORROW (CDR by Prime Cuts)
BOTANICAL ISOTOPES: PHYLLOCEPHALA REFOLATED (CDR compilation by Prime Cuts)
Upon hearing these releases by Micheal Thomas Jackson I was thinking that it would be too easy to say its noise. Its music that is indeed noise, such as the long ‘Amygdala Mandala’ on the release with the same name, which is all about ‘analog/digital feedback generated loop and analog feedback processing’, and which is indeed quite a heavy and (too) long beast. But as it is made clear in the other two pieces, Jackson does other things too, which are much softer, but in each of these three pieces the process is important. Jackson takes his time to alter in a highly minimal way his music, making the slightest changes in his sound and develop them, thus making the process in his music audible. Like said the long title piece is too long for my taste, but it isn’t helped that I am not the biggest lover of noise music.
The people in sorrow mentioned in the title of his other new release are first the people who suffered from the Tsunami in 2005 and those from the hurricane Katrina, also in 2005. In both works Jackson uses the guitar. Once along with tapes and electronics and once with objects, damaged CD and electronics. The guitar plays some multi-toned/multi-layered hectic nervous play on all the strings and on top effects are used to add more hurricane like effects. An endless cascading of sounds, capturing the mood of the tragic events quite well. The Katrina piece, called ‘Gulf Ghosts’ is with forty-five minutes the longest but not the best. It has a rather improvised mood and bounces off the rails. ‘From The Legend Of Kao Kao’ is more concise and the better of the two. In both pieces Jackson uses his notion of process music quite well, but some editing would be necessary.
Jackson, in case you don’t know, has been active in the world of experimental music since the 80s with his own label and his own music, but also actively involved with ‘the network’. For his compilation he send out a work he did in 2005 to twelve different artists, all in a separate pieces, to be remixed. Its maybe ‘just’ a remix project, as he says on the cover (which on all three accounts have room for improvement), but it was he wish that the individual sounds would be used by the others. I don’t believe I heard the original, which was made with analog synthesizers, a five heart monitor, a turntable, acoustic feedback, q bugle, digital processing and sundry field recordings. Lots of new names are to be discovered in this lot (just how many experimental musicians are there in this world, I sometimes wonder?), such as Jabberwocky, Aaron Bachelder, The Syntax Of Things, Thee Embroynic Crusader, Sambson, The Days Of Perky Pat but also Cheapmachines, Mental Anguish (another long time collaborator from the 80s) and Thomas Dimuzio. As said, I don’t know the original, so its not easy to judge the remixes. For all I know this could also be a compilation of electronic music. Lots of analogue synthesizers, digital processing, cut ups and such like. Some sounds seem to return, which may count for a remix project indeed, but each one seems to be taking a different approach to a limited set of sounds. The results are quite good, and some really good, such as the speeding sounds of Dimuzio, the suppressed silence of Cheapmachines and The Days Of Perky Pat or the psychedelics of Mental Anguish. A nice set of music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.microearth.com/jackson
ANDREW PERRY & DEAD WOOD – THE SWEETEST MEAT (CDR by Striate Cortex)
NEW HORIZONS FROM THE DISTANT VOID (CDR compilation by Striate Cortex)
Adam Baker is best known as the man behind Dead Wood and his Dirty Demos label who teams up here with Andrew Perry, who is also a member of Gish. No information is given as to what and why for this release, but let’s assume they spend some time together recording this release in a room. I imagine there are guitars, one for each player, a whole bunch of electronic devices to feed those sounds through. These boys play drone music, like so many others. A bit dirty and lo-fi, but not too much, so it stays on the nice side. E-bowed tones mostly, a low grade effects. In ‘The Shove’ things are the most noisiest and as far as I’m concerned could have been much shorter. Not a great release, but decent enough.
The other new release on Striate Cortex is a compilation of various artists. Of course Sindre Bjerga, main stay of the label, is present, either with his duo with Iversen, as part of Dictaphonic Youth and a collaboration with No Context. Nine tracks here in total, including The Good Time Guys (inc Andrew Perry once more, in a horrible block of noise), Culver (with a lo-fi drone piece). Very Rich Lexicon (with obscured objects thrown around), an interesting acoustic improvisation by Nils Rostad, the somewhat obscured improvisations of Dictaphonic Youth and noise drones of Gish. The best tracks are by Bjerga/Iversen, Dead Wood and No Context with Sindre Bjerga. These three use drone like sounds, but gentle and in improvised music territory. Quite a mixed bunch here and sadly not the greatest selection of pieces. (FdW)
Address: http://www.striatecortex.co.uk
New MP3 releases
1. From: michaela <michaela.treffil@patpongrecords.com>
qbik – ROBOTS CRY TOO (digital album by patpong records)
A typical ‘qbik’ production: disturbing, not from this world and absolutely electrical. The Romanian artist ‘qbik’ presents on his 5th album one more time a part of his electric universe. With his extravagantly sound and his spirit, he will at last create a new genre of music. You got the impression, that these tracks are not composed by a man, but more likely by an android or a robot. The source of inspiration of his unusually compositions are, on his own words, his deep-rooted believing in God, conciliates very special emotions in his universe of music. That sounds abstract like his music rather you got the impression to listen to a Perry Rhodan roman set to music. ‘qbik’ lives in a small village near Resita in the west of Romania, far away of any metropolis with its performances, concerts and clubs. At this point of view it’s astonishing or better: evident why his tracks sounded so extraordinary. On the one side peaceful and melancholic, but on the other side extraterrestrial and bleak. All in all this is a very exciting production from a very special artist. Address:< http://patpongrecords.com/qbik_robots_cry_too_prm.html”