LAMPIS – OBJECT SHAPE DESCRIPTION (CD by Consumer Waste) *
STEPHEN CORNFORD – CONSTANT LINEAR VELOCITY (CD by Consumer Waste) *
BRB>VOICECOIL – RECLAIM (CD by Unfathomless) *
JEAN DEROME – SUDOKU POUR PYGMÉES (CD by Ambiances Magnétiques) *
LORI FREEDMAN – EXCESS (CD by QB) *
YVAN ETIENNE – TWIST (CD by Aposiopese) *
MZ.412 – SVARTMYRKR (CD by Cold Spring) *
BENJAMIN DWYER – KNOWING UNKNOWING (CD & DVD by Far Point Recordings) *
D’INCISE – ASSEMBLEE, RELACHE, REJOUSSANCE, PARADE (CD by Moving Furniture
Records) *
TAPAGE & GARETH DAVIS – STATES (LP by Moving Furniture Records) *
IRR.APP.(EXT.) – ARE ALL THINGS EQUIVALENT (10″ by Substantia Innominata)
PUSSIFICATION (CDR compilation by No Part Of It)
HETEROPTICS (CDR compilation by No Part Of It)
MATTHIAS BOSS & GUY-FRANK PELLERIN – DU VENT DANS LES CORDES (CDR by Setola
di Maiale) *
MIS+RESS – DISPELLERS (CDR by Sound In Silence) *
WESTERN EDGES – PROWESS (CDR by Sound In Silence) *
KLINIKUM – AMBIVALENT MEMORY (cassette by Non-Interrupt) *
JIM HAYNES – INCONCLUSIVE (cassette by Audio Visuals Atmosphere) *
FORMLESS HOURS – FIVE FORM TO DESIRE (cassette by Audio Visuals Atmosphere) *
AANTREKKELIJK ZWAKTEBOD/ LÄRMSCHUTZ (split cassette by Faux Amis Records)
MINOY – SOLITUDE IN A MOTIONLESS MIGRAINE cassette by Minoy Cassetteworks) *
MINOY – CLUB CYBERCOCK (cassette by Minoy Cassetteworks) *
TOM MUDD – BRASS CULTURES (cassette by Fancyyyyy)
VAGUE VOICES – Гробник (cassette by Amek Collective) *
LAMPIS – OBJECT SHAPE DESCRIPTION (CD by Consumer Waste)
STEPHEN CORNFORD – CONSTANT LINEAR VELOCITY (CD by Consumer Waste)
The previous occasion the name M. Lampis popped in these pages was when I reviewed a CDR
by Alberorovereseciato, a duo with him and F. Cavaliere. I assume it’s the same M. Lampis as the
Marco Lampis who is responsible for ‘Object Shape Description’. That previous time was Vital
Weekly 688, say about ten years ago, and it seems that in that period he moved from free
improvisation to sound art. Along with this release, there is a booklet with much text, explaining
the nature of the work. I must admit much of it I didn’t understand. I copy this description of the
label’s website: “Lampis works between the visual and auditory disciplines, creating installations
both with and without sound, in which discrete sensory perceptions become entangled. How might
we understand sound through sight or be able to hear by looking? This collection of recordings is
inspired by the rhetorical figure of Ekphrasis in which a visual artwork is described verbally. Here,
Lampis uses experimental voice process akin to echolocation to describe using disjointed
phonemes the shape of various vases. Dense clouds of fragmented annunciations ricochet
between subject and object.” That is something I understand a bit better, even when I still have
not much idea what is going here. I think we are dealing with voice material and some sort of
computer process, perhaps something made with supercollider. It reminded me of the work of
Florian Hecker and Mark Fell. Very dry sounds, very busy as well, especially in the three shorter
pieces in the beginning and the fifth one. Inside each of these pieces, the sound shifts minimally
back and forth and does so in a quite a hallucinating manner. The fourth one, called “ergonom-
process-auto-alignmentflix-twobusts-Sculpt’ is almost fourteen minutes and sixth, ‘The-lack-of-
corresponding-features-on-surface-model_before_the_eyes’, loop a short voice fragment and
repeat them in the good ol’ Steve Reich way of phase shifting and which reminded me of the best
of blackhumour (and there is quite a lot of great releases by that project/group!). Two distinctly
different approaches are presented here and they both sound equally great, even when I may
or may not understand the underlying sound. It’s sound poetry; that’s what it is.
Label boss Stephen Cornford also deals with sound art, sub-department sound installations.
He puts the name of his label into the program that is also the music, at least on this release.
Cornford creates installations with old computers and uses them as instruments. They keep
rebooted, stop, and start again, and CD trays roll in and out. There are a few pictures in the
booklet along with some text and that gives a pretty good idea of the magnitude of this project.
Not just one, two or three of these but endless stacks and rows of these things and the sounds
they produce are, obviously, I’d say, mechanical as well as unpredictable and that is the beauty
of it. There are two pieces on this CD, recorded in three different places; judging by the quality of
the recording I would think that the shorter ‘Eject Mechanisms & Broken Drives’ is recorded in one
place and the longer title piece is, perhaps, a collage of two different recordings together. That one
is spacier and has a rather open feel to it, while the shorter is quite direct and has an industrial
feeling to it, even when there is no additional sound effect used by Cornford. The long one
reminded me of an app that I have that has a lot of relaxing and meditation purposes but, oddly,
also comes with various options for a more strange sound, such as the sounds of warfare,
Laundromat and computer room. Cornford’s music is like that last one but feels more composed
than some randomized events in the app. Fascinating stuff.
Both releases come with a 7″ sized booklet on recycled paper and a letterpress cover, which
looks austere and great. (FdW)
––– Address: http://consumerwaste.org.uk/
BRB>VOICECOIL – RECLAIM (CD by Unfathomless)
Over the years I reviewed a fair bit of the output of Kevin Wilkinson’s BRB>Voicecoil project. There
were a fair number of releases around 2006-2010 and then a hiatus and return after 2016.
‘Reclaim’ is his first ‘proper’ CD release. All of the material used in the three pieces was recorded
at ‘green belt destruction sites for new developments in Great Park, Newcastle Upon Tyne and
derelict farm buildings in Melmerby, North Yorkshire. These recordings were made in 2017 and
2018 in various seasons of the year. It also mentions ‘additional processing’ being part of this. Of
course, there is an environmental/political stance to it, nature being destroyed for the purpose of
new housing. But Wilkinson states that “these environments are temporary residence, history
demonstrates that nature has the ability to reclaim its space and return structure to dust”, and such
is the case by the derelict farm being destroyed by nature. In the past, I compared BRB>Voicecoil
with the music of Small Cruel Party when it comes to using sound effects and acoustic objects
being rubbed together. There are very few electronics at work on this release, I would think, and
yet that here too he has a sound that is again close to Small Cruel Party. I would think that
Wilkinson uses various layers of sound together and that in the first piece it is perhaps a bit too
obvious water, wind and bird recordings, before getting to the real deal, and which is also
continued in the next two pieces and that is the multitude of sounds from debris; rubbing metallic
objects together, the cracking of leaves and branches, creating some very rich sound tapestries.
Processing as such, I think, is to be found in the use of equalisation and the level of occasional
amplification, which makes this not necessarily loud, but this is nicely present in the mix. Nothing
is obscured here and it is a great CD. I hope that BRB>Voicecoil will continue with some more
releases and fewer intervals of silence. (FdW)
––– Address: https://unfathomless.bandcamp.com/
JEAN DEROME – SUDOKU POUR PYGMÉES (CD by Ambiances Magnétiques)
Jean Derome, composer and improviser from Montréal is one of the most active forces in the
Ambiances Magnétiques-scene, that was co-founded by him in the early 80s scene. ‘Sudoku
pour Pygmées’ is his most recent release in a series of uncountable releases over the decades.
This one has Derome as a composer. The CD counts three compositions for a large ensemble.
Composed for different occasions over a period of 20 years. The title piece was composed in
2010, 7 danses (pour «15») in 1989 and 5 pensées (pour le caoutchouc dur) in 2001. They have
been re-orchestrated by Derome for an extended line up of Dangerous Zhoms: Jean Derome
(flute, baritone saxophone, composer), Guillaume Dostaler (piano), Pierre Cartier (double bass),
Pierre Tanguay (drum set), Jean Rene (conductor), Guido Del Fabbro (violin), Lori Freedman
(bass clarinet, clarinet), Andre Leroux (tenor saxophone, clarinet), Craig Pedersen (trumpet),
Julie Houle (tuba), Bernard Falaise (electric guitar) and Olivier Maranda (percussion). For the title
piece, Derome took inspiration from the Sudoku puzzle, a square of 45 units that Derome divided
into 5 groups of 9. He composed nine canons and created a polyphonic whole, which is a very
musically complex and enjoyable work that started with playing with a non-musical game. ‘7
Danses’ (1989) is a work that plays with contrast in styles and genres. Seven short miniatures,
moving between one and four minutes, are dressed in different musical styles: rock, jazz, shuffle,
waltz, etc. Concluding composition ‘5 pensées (pour le caoutchouc dur’), was originally
composed for Vancouver’s Hard Rubber Orchestra in 2001, is likewise a journey through different
moods en thoughts. The second part refers to Monk, the third one to Ellington. Derome is well
known as an improviser and jazz musician. But it is really a joy to have him here as a composer of
very well constructed, though not renewing chamber music. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.actuellecd.com
LORI FREEDMAN – EXCESS (CD by QB)
Lori Freedman is a very profiled Montréal-based clarinettist, improviser and performer of
contemporary composed material, by others as well by her own hand. She worked over the years
with diverse composers and performers like Maurice Kagel, Joëlle Léandre, Ab Baars, etc.
‘Excess’ is her latest recording and documents her solo program ‘The Virtuosity of Excess’ and
has Freedman performing six compositions by Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, Paul
Steenhuisen, Paolo Perezzani, Raphaël Cendo and one by herself. In 2016 she toured eleven
cities in North America, and I guess the recording took place afterwards. Besides bass clarinet
and contrabass clarinet, freedman plays kick drum, electronics and voice. Thematically this turns
is about excess: ‘With this project, I wanted to discover the beauty of the extremes, exploit them
and embody them in the music’, Freedman explains. With these, she is pushing the limits of what
is possible on the low clarinets. In all its virtuosity there is also pure rawness in her performance
that is loaden with her emotional energy. By far the oldest composition is ‘Time and Motion Study I’
composed in 1977 by New Complexity composer Brian Ferneyhough. Maybe most close the
theme of excess is the opening work ‘Interference’ composed by Richard Barrett in 2000. This
work starts with very expressive vocals by Freedman screaming, growling and shrieking, that after
a while a changed for equally growling, etc. playing of the contrabass clarinet, supplemented with
some kick drum. Also, the closing work ‘Décombres’ by Raphaël Cendo is a very dramatic and
extravagant work for contrabass clarinet and disturbing electronic noise. Her own composition
Withwhatbecomes’ (2016) is in contrast with the above-mentioned works in the sense that we
stay more in calm and quiet regions of the contrabass clarinet, with parts that are almost of a
lyrical nature. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.actuellecd.com
YVAN ETIENNE – TWIST (CD by Aposiopese)
From French composer Yvan Etienne I reviewed only one CD, ‘Feu’, back in Vital Weekly 942. He
had a previous release in 2006 and is part of Le Verdouble who did an LP in 2015, which I didn’t
hear. As a quick reminder, I can say he’s involved in the field of sound art, such as site-specific
installations and concerts in which he plays analogue synthesizers, electronics, hurdy-gurdy and
phonography. He played with Phil Niblock, Yann Gourdan, Richard Glover, Robert Poss and Paul
Panhuysen. His main instruments are the Serge Modular and field recordings, and no longer uses
the hurdy-gurdy as he did on ‘Feu’. His work is “conceived as spaces, moments to experiment [and]
generally related to contexts, climates induced by the specificities of the sites and/or supports
invested. With ‘Feu’, meaning fire in French, Etienne worked with recordings of fire. There is no
such thing here with ‘Twist’, which is a pity. The two pieces here are twenty-two and nineteen
minutes and both pieces are delicate affairs of shimmering Serge modular sounds and field
recordings that one can no longer trace back to its origins. Both pieces are various distinctly
different sections and there may not be much relation between these sections, so it seems. For
all I know he could have decided to cut these into separate pieces and then the CD six or seven
pieces. It all sounds pretty decent and not bad but at the same time, I also thought that there was
not much more than that. A fine forty minutes of sound exploration but also not more than that
and I wondered if that is enough. (FdW)
––– Address: https://label-aposiopese.bandcamp.com/
MZ.412 – SVARTMYRKR (CD by Cold Spring)
Here’s one of those things that keep falling between the cracks. It is heard, set aside, thought
about and somehow a review seemed far away. It landed again here and you might be surprised
to see me reviewing this dark lot, who have been around for what seemed ages now. Their music
is very loud; it is very dark and crosses the lines of metal and industrial music. Graphics wise this
is very much a metal thing, but the music seems to be more electronic/fewer guitars and it is fine
nightmare. I know, one should not think of nightmares as being ‘fine’, but it is like with horror music;
you love to get spooked, right. This is what the music of MZ.412 does best: scaring the shit out of
you, but positively. And perhaps also funnily (perhaps not intended). You can take the whole thing
seriously and with some of these black dudes you should (otherwise they burn down your church!),
but here I’m not sure. Some of the singing is like the chanting of a bunch of mad monks, which
surely gave them a chuckle while recording. Everything is powerful on this record; the singing/
chanting, the orchestral samples, the timpani-like drumming. It is a true celebration for the end of
times, as predicted by anyone who is something in end-time prophecies since the dawn of
mankind. I have no idea what the title means, but surely not ‘love and peace for all eternity’ and
more likely something ‘black and darkness’; who would have guessed? I was playing this on
Easter Sunday, Sun out the whole and it was entirely the right soundtrack for the resurrection to
be celebrated with a bunch of dark symphonies from a cold country. Lovely stuff but not every
day. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk/
BENJAMIN DWYER – KNOWING UNKNOWING (CD & DVD by Far Point Recordings)
There is quite an amount of information here; sonically in seventy-five minutes of music on the CD,
thirty minutes on the DVD, which also includes a dance performed by Helen Kindred and a twenty-
page small print book on A5 size, explaining the works were are hearing. Before reading the
booklet, I had a quick peek at the CD and put it aside thinking this kind of improvised music
needed another day. When I started a fresh view of the material and reading the booklet, I realized
that this music is rather in the world of modern composition, with a bit of crossing to the world of
improvisation. All of these pieces seem to have been worked out to some extent so that Dwyer is
the performer of compositions by David Fennessy, Peter Moran & Judith Ring and Paul Hayes.
Many of these pieces deal with microtonality, prepared guitar and bowing techniques. The sound
seems rather acoustic, and not electric and overall it is not very loud music. One piece seemed to
have some tape and layers of sound (the one by Moran and Ring) but I must admit I got a bit lost
here, thinking what is what. It is also not very easy music so that after some forty minutes I had well
enough and put it aside for some time until I felt the time was right to come back to it. It is, perhaps,
not a bad idea, to have a look at the DVD in the meantime, as we are experiencing here a totally
different Dwyer. His music here is very rhythmic, with a stick through the strings and him stroking
the string with some vigour. He plays with a blindfold (in two of the three parts), so he’s oblivious
about the actions around him; plural, as there is the dancing of Helen Kindred (also blindfolded for
two parts), but there is no collision) but also the camera seems to be dancing around the space;
slower perhaps but it is in a constant shift around both the musician and the dancer. This is quite a
fascinating experience. I know nothing about modern dance but the interaction here between both
look great. I enjoyed the music but thought it was a bit much, while this half hour on DVD was a
true delight to watch and hear; one wished a bit more there. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.farpointrecordings.com
D’INCISE – ASSEMBLEE, RELACHE, REJOUSSANCE, PARADE (CD by Moving Furniture
Records)
TAPAGE & GARETH DAVIS – STATES (LP by Moving Furniture Records)
As I was listening to this new release by Swiss-based musician D’Incise, and thinking about the
instruments he uses (it seemed wind instruments, objects and organs; more later), I realized I have
not much idea about his work. I first heard him as part of a group called Diatribes and in Vital
Weekly 686 I reviewed his first solo release, which I described as ‘one guy armed with a sampler’.
Over the years I heard quite a bit of his releases, and there seems to be a constant drift and shift
when it comes to choosing instruments, styles and partners. He certainly keeps the experimental
drift alive in his work. I read in the press text that for the four parts of ‘L’Anglard De St-Ondat’ he
uses recordings of “bowed metallic objects, electric organ, harmonium, banjo & double bass”,
while for the two parts of ‘Le Désir Certain’ there are “bowed metallic sticks, performed live, over
detuned/retuned organ backgrounds”; no wind instruments. The last two pieces take up twenty-
eight minutes while the other four about twenty minutes. The first four are loosely based on the
Mazurka (a traditional dance), which in D’Incise interpretation is no longer a dance. Somehow in
these pieces he retains a more song-like structure, stretching out sounds just a little bit, and use
them in different configurations, moving around in the mix, which gives the idea of a slow, solemn
song. The drone, which seems a constant idea within the music of D’Incise is not far away. It is
quite an interesting different approach there. The two longer parts of “Le Désir Certain” have also
that drone-like sound, based mainly on the use of detuned organs and on top of that he plays his
bowed metal sticks in a bit of an improvised manner. The organ is looped and layered but not in a
very repetitive way throughout; it shifts back and forth in changing patterns and has some crude
feel to it. It is this raw approach that can still bring relatively delicate music.
Delicate might not be the term that springs to mind easily when I hear the collaboration between
Tapage, also known as Dutch musician Tijs Ham (now living in Norway) who teams up with bass
clarinet player Gareth Davis (who had a record with Merzbow on the very same label). Ham is
someone who creates his sound tools from ‘coding, hacking and circuit design’ and here is
responsible for setting up a system in which he combines “analogue feedback with digital
manipulations which resulted in a self-balancing and self-generating chaotic system, capable of
producing deep, melodic and textured soundscapes” and here sees Davies playing along with
those feedback moves. On this relatively short (thirty minutes) LP, they arrive at three different
states using this system. On the first side, we find the title piece, which is a heavy and dramatic
piece of slow movements for both players. The bass clarinet is here as brutal as the feedback,
while the feedback is at times as gentle as the bass clarinet. There are some subtle shifts to be
noted here. There are also in ‘State I’, but with some differences as well. Here there is more an
element of improvisation to be noted and it seems that Gareth Davis has a slightly bigger role in
the proceedings ‘State 0’, the second piece on the second side, is, dynamically speaking, the
most radical piece of the lot. It ranges from something well over the top to something very quiet
in a short time span and it all works fine. This is thirty minutes of well-sorted explosive
material. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.movingfurniturerecords.com/
IRR.APP.(EXT.) – ARE ALL THINGS EQUIVALENT (10″ by Substantia Innominata)
Slowly the catalogue of this Drone Records sub-division is growing and now up to their 26th
release and one that is a bit of surprise. Well, for me that is, as it has been a while since I last
heard music from Matt Waldron’s Irr.app.(ext.) project. The last solo product might be as far back
as Vital Weekly 682. Waldron is also a part-time member of Nurse With Wound, the concert
version that is, and in his solo work he shares some of that Nurse sensibility when it comes to
the ‘studio as instrument’ approach. On the first side there could very well be some sort of acoustic
string object that is producing long wave string sounds, of which he recorded a whole bunch and
then stuck them together, treating it with the change of tempo, some reverb and, perhaps, adding
some sort of field recording – I was thinking of some heavily treated recordings of water. If that is
really the case of course. I have no idea. It has a certain random approach, but in a way that
random approach is quite captivating. ‘Sleep Turbines’ is the piece that is to be found on the
other side and has similar darkness that clouds the sound. It seems to me that here Waldron
uses fewer sounds and that results in a somewhat opener sound here; open yet dark. Here I am
absolutely clueless what Waldron took down to the studio, but it seems that sound effects are in
wide abundance here as well. This is quite some mysterious music, both from the sounds used,
and the way Waldron crafts his compositions. It is musique concrete alike, but also not without a
touch of the good ol’ industrial music. ‘Sleep Turbines’ could very well include some machine
sounds, judging by the cyclical approach towards the end of the piece. Spooky! (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.dronerecords.de
PUSSIFICATION (CDR compilation by No Part Of It)
HETEROPTICS (CDR compilation by No Part Of It)
Here a few things come together. First of all, there is the thorny issue of compilations. They are
great to be on; it helps your music getting out there. I love being as someone who dabbles a bit
of music as well. But here I am with my review hat on, and this may come as a surprise to Arvo
Zylo, who sends me the two compilations, I don’t like reviewing them at all. In the past twenty-four
years, indicating that I have been doing and saying this for some time, I kept banging the drum: I
don’t like reviewing compilations. As a quote from a previous randomly found review: “our lack of
enthusiasm when it comes to reviewing compilations. We, as in the whole VW team, that is.” So
that’s one, and then the other is ‘animals’. Here I am strictly speaking privately of course, as I have
no idea what the general stance on animals is with the VW team, but I am not a big fan of animals.
Feel free to unsubscribe straight away. In fact, I am even scared of animals most of the time, no
matter how big or small. I wish, though, I had a cat, subject of the first compilation, as a mouse is
holed up for some time in my walls, keeping me awake with his insistent scratching all night
(perhaps an explanation for the grumpiness?). Maybe the compilation can be put to some use, I
wonder. In all 18 pieces, there are recordings of cats. Real ones, I should think, even when not
always they can be recognized as such (and while I may not particularly like cats, I can tolerate
their laziness to some extent and lived with two for a while, so I know what they sound like). Some
of these cat sounds are imitated by bows on violins, or voices and all of that is set against
electronics, samples, a bit of rhythm. Mostly mild electronic ones, a bit of noise by the curator
himself and someone who goes by the name ‘Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman’. Wasn’t she a GP and
not a Vet? This track takes too much time anyway. And Suffering Profusion is a bit noisy.
Throughout, mostly pleasant and it helped against the pest in the wall I will know tomorrow.
I don’t tap into the world of radio, except for the alarm in the morning (and switch that of real
quick), simply because I have so much music to hear already. I, therefore, had little idea as who
was Wm Berger, to whose memory the compilation ‘Heteroptics’ is dedicated. Discogs says: “US
sound artist, radio host at WFMU, owner/operator of Prison Tatt Records and ex-member of Uncle
Wiggly.” He passed away in 2017. Arvo Zylo created this “an authorized compilation as a “mixtape”
which “focuses mostly on artists who are either highly inactive, side projects which have maybe
fallen by the wayside, or somehow related to elements that NO PART OF IT would release if the
proverbial “we” had more time and resources”. I assume this is all in the spirit of Wm Berger and
radio shows bringing music you wouldn’t discover somewhere else. It is quite an eclectic mix here
of alternative weird rock music, sound collage, noise, guitar doodles, punky songs, folk and just a
bit of doodle. I recognized only two names Hecate and Costes; Hal McGee, a cassette veteran that
is not mentioned a lot in these pages, is behind Captain Mission, apparently a short-lived project,
which sees him in a rather melodic mood. Also included are Taki, State Research Bureau,
Angelblood, Sesso Violento, OMBRELLI SCIOLTI, Pigswill, Infectious Rex, Mossy Throats, Vacio
Perfecto, Mass Marriage, Regosphere, Sharlyn Evertsz and Essen Dreck. There is after all these
years still a wealth of new names to discover, for which the medium of compilation is probably well
suited (but perhaps bypassed by Bandcamp and Soundcloud), so who knows? Maybe we secretly
like compilations. We did in the 80s, long before the arrival of the Internet. (FdW)
––– Address: https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/
MATTHIAS BOSS & GUY-FRANK PELLERIN – DU VENT DANS LES CORDES (CDR by Setola
di Maiale)
Last year Setola di Maiale released several beautiful collaborations of Guy-Frank Pellerin: a duo
with Mathieu Bec; and another one with Antonio Siringo-Yek Nur, plus a trio with Maresuke
Okamoto and Eugenio Sanna. Pellerin seems to be in a productive phase. Not only productive but
also a very creative one. His latest collaboration with Swiss musician Mathias Boss is a real gem!
In January 2017 Boss (violin, percussion, voice) and Pellerin (soprano-, tenor – and baritone sax,
percussion) recorded a beautiful session in Castiglioncello. Boss studied classical violin at the
University of Bern, and works as a painter and sculptor as well. He worked with people like
Marcello Magliocchi, Carlo Zingaro, Jean Michel van Schouwburg and others. Earlier – in 2015 –
Pellerin and Boss released a trio work with Marco Magliocchie: ‘The Sounding Door’. But what
counts now is their new statement. They offer us a set of very virtuosic and concentrated dialogues
that have body and content. Many moods and tempers pass by in their strongly intertwined
manoeuvres, like in ‘Short Letter for the Water’. At times their interplay is very subtle and of an
introvert nature, at times loud and dissonant as in ‘Steppe’. We witness two engaged performers
who really match whatever they do. With a wide range of techniques to their disposal and lots of
ideas, they lift one other up into a very inspired meeting. Excellent stuff. (DM)
––– Address: https://www.setoladimaiale.net/
MIS+RESS – DISPELLERS (CDR by Sound In Silence)
WESTERN EDGES – PROWESS (CDR by Sound In Silence)
These two new releases by Greece’s Sound In Silence are relatively short, around twenty-eight
minutes each. I guess they are mini albums or EPs, rather than full-lengths. Mis+Ress is the
project of Brian Wenckebach from New Jersey. His is also part of Elika, Thee Koukouvaya and
Measured; the latter being something new by him, Evagelia Maravelias and Ulrich Schnauss
(whose name I hadn’t heard in a while, but who is a recent member of Tangerine Dream). As
Mis+Ress there was already an album on Somewherecold Records in 2017 and an EP in 2018.
The guitar seems to be his main instrument, along with quite a bit of electronic effects. Delay and
reverb, foremost, but I would think he also uses loopers, chorus, flangers and whatever else there.
The eight pieces on this release are relatively short, around three to four minutes, and to the point.
The label refers it to Daniel Lanois, Michael Brook, Durutti Column and July Skies; I know the
music of Durutti Column best of these four and had the label not mentioned this, I would have
come with this myself (although Mis+Ress, unlike Vini Reilly, never sings). The arpeggio tones
gently strummed strings that feed of neatly through various delay pedals suggest some green
landscapes, a brook, meadows and whatever else there is, pastoral wise. Mis+Ress plays the
music that is not very abstract and quite pleasing to hear and yet somehow also avoids easy
clichés. This is lush music for fine spring days to come. Soothing.
I have heard of Hood from Leeds, the band of Richard and Chris Adams. Since the band went
on hold Richard Adams worked as The Declining Winter and released music on Home Assembly
Music, Rusted Rail, Mosopsone, Mobeer and Rural Colours. He’s also a member of such projects
as Memory Drawings, Great Panoptique Winter and Northern Exchange. ‘Prowess’ is the third
album he does for Sound In Silence, but I believe the first I hear. He too delivers eight pieces and
does not rely on one specific instrument nor one style. Within the space of twenty-eight minutes,
his music ranges from dreamy ambient pieces played on a synth, recorded to a Ferro cassette in
‘Suddenly: A Dream’ to a minimalist techno ditty in ‘Solid Gold Soul’. Oddly enough, perhaps, that
piece lasts only two minutes and twenty seconds. Creating something that is atmospheric seems
to be his goal and he succeeds at that pretty well. I am not sure if it worked really to move into
such distinctly different genres (the crunchy lo-fi 4/4 rhythm in ‘Very Good On The Rushes’ seems
a bit out of place) or that the briefness of some of the tracks is a big success. Some of these seem
a bit too much of sketch and not a fully formed piece. All in all, I think there could have been a bit
more consideration into this and not go for the quick release. (FdW)
––– Address: https://soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com/
KLINIKUM – AMBIVALENT MEMORY (cassette by Non-Interrupt)
As said in Vital Weekly 1180, after a long hiatus Egbert van der Vliet, by day a painter and by
evening a musician, picked up doing music and his label activities, settling on the name Non-
Interrupt, as a follow-up to Interrupt, his enterprise in the early ’90s. This is the third album as
Klinikum, the second one I heard (mainly out of laziness/busyness: they are available for free
download) and continue where I left the previous, ‘Dia Of Green Mountains’. Van der Vliet using
means of sampling of every day objects and via the use free sound editors and no doubt some
copy/paste activity creating some interesting hybrid form electronic music that is both atmospheric
and yet also touches upon the noisy element and a fair dash of rhythm, The latter not only because
he uses quite a bit of loops in his work, but also because he samples rhythms from other sources.
The influence from a band such as zoviet*france seems apparent to me in all of these pieces, and
especially zoviet*france in a more playful modus; the ethnic percussion of ‘Hammond Mom’
reminded me of Muslimgauze. In most of these pieces, Van der Vliet knows to how to build up a
fine composition, with some interesting changes and moves throughout a piece; it never carries
on for too long and no reason, even in the longer pieces, which is a good thing. It all comes with
a black and white Xeroxed cover, which reeks of the old days! (FdW)
––– Address: https://egbertvandervliet.bandcamp.com/
JIM HAYNES – INCONCLUSIVE (cassette by Audio Visuals Atmosphere)
FORMLESS HOURS – FIVE FORM TO DESIRE (cassette by Audio Visuals Atmosphere)
A while ago I reviewed a really, really great record by Jim Haynes, ‘Flammable Materials From
Foreign Lands’ (Vital Weekly 1056), declaring it the best work I heard from him so far. He moved
from away from what I called ‘a drone merchant’, into the realm of a more collage-like approach to
sound, with interesting cuts and great acoustic and lo-fi sounds. Spoiler alert: this new cassette is
not an even better work, but that said, it is a very fine work too. Haynes didn’t return to drone-land,
but stays in the world of ‘noise’, for the lack of a better word. In the five pieces that span thirty-eight
minutes, Haynes works with some hefty sounds. Bits, so I assume, taped from shortwave radios,
fed through sound effects, (modular) synths, or computer processing, are looped and played
around in a rather noisy manner. Added to that are the lo-fi charges of electricity, crude
synthesizers square and saw tones and a pair of rusty scissors to chop this tape and cut it
together again with old sticky tape. There is throughout quite a rhythmical aspect to the music that
reminded me of very early Esplendor Geometrico (area of their first cassette), such as, especially,
in ‘Through Diana’s Stare’. It is all very industrial, machine-driven music, but it does not lead to a
pointless noise exercise. Haynes knows how to handle these matters with great care. There is
noise but there is also detail and clarity in the material. This is damn fine release as well!
Whoever is behind Formless Hours, I don’t know. ‘Give Form To Desire’ is her/his third release,
following last years cassette for Aught Void and CDEP for Atlantic Desolation. I heard a piece on
the compilation ‘The Field Out There’ (Vital Weekly 1171), which I thought had its roots in acoustic
sound treatments. Here we have four pieces and perhaps I am less sure about the acoustic sounds.
More so, I would think that Formless Hours uses field recordings that undergo a treatment in the
world of modular synthesizers and the result is, perhaps, not the most original of sounds, but the
results are both lovely and spooky. In ‘Subsurface’ we are below the earth’s surface and from afar
we pick up some mighty obscure sounds, while worms are surrounding us. This sort of otherworldly,
or underworldly is the recurring theme for the thirty minutes this lasts and Formless Hours does a
great job in producing four coherent pieces of music. It’s drone-like, there are field recordings hard
to figure out and it is never too long or too short, but it seems to be spot on when it comes to the
length of these pieces. What it may lack in originality, it surely makes up in perfection when it
comes to the music itself. (FdW)
––– Address: https://audiovisualsatmosphere.bandcamp.com/
AANTREKKELIJK ZWAKTEBOD/ LÄRMSCHUTZ (split cassette by Faux Amis Records)
For the month of April, Lärmschutz decided to share a cassette with Aantrekkelijk Zwaktebod, which
is a trio of Mo van Alen (guitar, kaoscillator, loops & samples), Arnoud van Zoest (fretless bass,
synthesizers, sequencer, Theremin) and Erwin van der Laan (drums, percussion). They are, like
Lärmschutz, from the Dutch city of Utrecht and I never heard of them. Their music is quite an
interesting mixture of strange rhythms that sometimes one could dance too, but sometimes also
not at all. Samples are thrown around, the guitar is in experimental post-punk fashion but also
improvising at various places and the sound is a very direct, perhaps even a live recording. There
seems to be not much attempt in making it all more beautiful with fancy post-production techniques.
I can see why Lärmschutz wants to work with this group, as they seem to share a similar free
approach to styles, playing and influences, here taking a leaf out of the post-punk experiments,
improvisation and some kind of ‘techno’ notion (take that with a pinch of salt).
On the other side, we find hosts Lärmschutz, this time without Thanos Fotiadis, but he is replaced
by Niels Achtereekte on bass, while Stef Brans is still on guitar and Rutger van Driel still trombone
& electronics. Their five pieces last all five minutes exactly and show the group improvising in a
controlled manner and also in a slightly more rock-oriented fashion. Perhaps more than we were
used from them in recent times. Lärmschutz remains a very free band; exploring wildly their
interests in free improvisation, free jazz, electronics, control and chaos. Here the five pieces seem
to have one idea that they are trying to work out in a different way and they succeed quite well at.
This is another fine tape by them. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fauxamisrecords.bandcamp.com/
MINOY – SOLITUDE IN A MOTIONLESS MIGRAINE cassette by Minoy Cassetteworks)
MINOY – CLUB CYBERCOCK (cassette by Minoy Cassetteworks)
Philip Klinger/PBK is doing a major cultural service by making available the recorded legacy of
Stanley Keith Bowsza, aka Minóy. If you were around in the 1980s/90s, Minóy’s name was as
ubiquitous in the noise underground as Zan Hoffman, Bene Gesserit, If Bwana, David Prescott,
John Hudak and the rest of the international cassette network crew. During his lifetime, Bowsza
produced an astonishing 70+ albums (almost all of them cassettes) and contributed tracks to
more than 50 compilations. He died in 2010, tragically young at just 58. Though Bowzsa never
seemed to get (or want?) wide recognition for his work, he had die-hard fans who hung onto his
every inscrutable sound. Klinger (who collaborated with Minoy as Disco Splendor in the late 80’s)
has been steadily working to remaster tapes from Bowsza’s archive to dust off unreleased gems
and put them out as cassettes and downloads. Most Minoy albums consist of monolithic drones
and dense, static textures that take up the entirety of whatever cassette Bowsza happened to be
recording onto. Both of these albums must have been originally recorded to C90s, because each
contains one 45-minute chunk of sound per side. You can expect that what you hear in the first
seconds of each album is pretty much what you’ll hear at the 20, 30 and 40-minute mark also. The
density and general character of each piece changes very little, which (depending on your tastes)
can be either compelling or enervating… or both.
“Club Cybercock” from 1993 is Minoy at his most noisy and extreme. A blast of radio static
kicks the party off, with mangled voices yammering incomprehensibly behind howls of peeling
feedback. This relentless stuff, stubbornly irritating and thick as a tidal wave of warm syrup. Both
sides churn and grind, oozing and throbbing without respite for an improbably long time, and yet
the deeply-stacked layers remain legible to those who listen attentively. Of course, an hour and a
half is tough to deal with in one sitting. My close listens found me zoning in and out, resuming my
focus to notice that the spinning feedback sound I had latched onto before my attention shifted was
in a different place from where I left it… or what seemed to be a simple loop was adjusting in tempo
and pitch the entire time. There’s no release at the end of the side, no ground that the music
comfortably returns to. What strikes me is that Minoy’s work at its best (which undoubtedly includes
“Club Cybercock”) is entirely separate from recognizable genres. It’s not a harsh noise wall, not a
drone, not ambient in any way… it shares aspects of all of those descriptions, but seems to exist
outside of them all.
“Solitude in a Motionless Migraine” from 1987 is a rather on-the-nose title. The title track
begins with a single note on what could be a bowed cello sawing back and forth extremely slowly,
with the back-and-forth pace of slow breathing or snoring. After a few minutes, it becomes clear
that this sound will continue unabated for 3/4 of an hour. As with all of Minoy’s long-form works,
this one is static on the surface, but constantly moving it’s component pieces in subtly-shifting
circles. Minoy has buried a stew of alien whispers, blurping and hiccuping and spitting at each
other from below a pool of cheapo reverb gunk and radio hiss. The track on other side, “Side
Effects”, seems to be made of rubbery gloop that wavers nervously for a preposterously long time.
The component sounds (whatever they are… amplified Jell-o? cold noodle kugel? a ray gun that’s
low on batteries?) are slightly friendlier than those on the A side, but still… this gargantuan slab
won’t be confused with ambient drone by anyone with a pulse. (HS)
––– Address: https://minoy.bandcamp.com/
TOM MUDD – BRASS CULTURES (cassette by Fancyyyyy)
From Tom Mudd, I already reviewed a previous work, the CD ‘Gutter Synthesis’ (Vital Weekly 1136),
which about something he developed himself in the world of digital tools. On his previous CD, he
used an organ, but now it’s about brass music. On Bandcamp, we read this: “Massed brass
synthesis: Created with digital models of physically impossible brass instruments, Brass Cultures
sits uncomfortably somewhere between radical computer music and 19th-century band music”,
plus more gobbledegook that went way over my head. There are links to the work of “David Tudor,
Insook Choi, Toshimaru Nakamura and others” (now that I almost understand) and in the pieces
on this thirty minute cassette he explores his software with the sound of brass instruments, even
when I found it hard to see the relation between the two; I mean ‘why brass’? Why not guitars,
percussion, or such like? “The tracks are made exclusively with the Next Generation Sound
Synthesis (NESS) Brass environment, created by researchers at the University of Edinburgh
(freely available from the NESS website). Algorithms were created in Python to specify both the
size and shape of the instrument, and how these instruments are played over time in terms of
parameters such as breath pressure, lip frequency, lip mass, valve fingering, and even
temperature”, which might offer some explanation. Listening to this tape I was thinking to hear two
pieces per side, but upon checking the Bandcamp site I noticed these are shorter pieces altogether,
which explains some of the gaps between the pieces; I thought it was a collage style thing. While I
may not necessarily be the greatest lover of brass sounds, I thought this was pretty interesting.
Mudd’s meltdown of the brass with computer treatments add a mean character to the music,
occasionally stretching his sounds a bit, going in the realm of musique concrete, but keeping a
rather fresh and somewhat dry approach to the sounds. This is all some very curious music and
as such strongly appealing. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fancyyyyy.bandcamp.com/
VAGUE VOICES – Гробник (cassette by Amek Collective)
Let’s hope that the Cyrillic title will not be lost in translation when I try to post this. According to the
Bandcamp page “the name of the record comes from an old Bulgarian word meaning an elderly
person approaching their death, a mythical vampire-like creature or а grave-digger”, which is more
explanation than Google translate gives out, simply translating it as ‘tomb’. Vague Voices is a new
duo of Stefan Bachvarov (Cyberian) and Angel Simitchiev (Mytrip), and they started out when
asked to do a live performance for Sofia Game Night 2018, an event dedicated to gaming culture.
Here they combine their love for “video game sound, depressive club music and black metal”. I
would think they use a fair bit of sampling, electronics and perhaps, who knows, guitars. I myself
am not the sort of person to be engaged in gaming (don’t think I ever sat down to play a computer
game or even looked at one) and also not a kind of metal head, so I had mixed feelings what to
expect. I must say I am quite surprised. I have not much idea what music and games would sound
like, somewhere a cross-over between 8-bit electro and bad fantasy soundtrack I imagine, but
Vague Voices here combine the best of dark ambient with a touch of industrial music, spacious
synthesizers and a fine dash or two of rhythm. Not much, as far as I can judge by way of metal
music. Lots of reverb is used to make sure we realize that this is moody music. The tempo is
mainly in slow motion and throughout each of the pieces is quite full of sound. There is always
something happening on some scale in this full and rich sound. Vague Voices produced their
work with great care and while this is not exactly my daily bread and butter, I very much enjoyed
this. (FdW)
––– Address: https://amekcollective.bandcamp.com/