Week 10

SMELL & QUIM – SPACESHIT (CD by Cheeses International)
RICHARD RAMIREZ – BODYTALKING (CD by Input Error)
SLIT THROATS – JOSHI NOISE WORSHIP: KANA BATHED IN COBALT (2CD by Input Error)
JOKE LANZ & PETR VRBA – MUTANTS IN SIBERIA (CD by Circum Disc)
MICHAEL BEGG – WITNESS. AMBIENT CHAMBER WORKS 2020-24 (CD by Omnempathy)
JOHN DIKEMAN & SUN-MI HONG & AARON LUMLEY & MARTA WARELIS – OLD ADAM ON TURTLE ISLAND (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
MAATH – VACO (LP by Anomala)
ANDREA MARUTTI & CARLO GIORDANI – IMPRESSIONI ORGANIZZATE DI ANSIE LIQUIDE (LP by Anomala)
EVAN LINDORFF-ELLERY & JOHN COLLINS MCCORMICK – DEEP TALK IN A SHALLOW CREEK (CDR by Garbage Strike)
EVAN LINDORFF-ELLERY – JUNE 26, JUNE 27 (2CDR by Garbage Strike)
FRAGORE PER QUATTUOR (CDR compilation by Aachener Benevolent Pain)
DEATH STATIC – TIME IS IGNORANCE (CDR by Sound In Silence)
JULIEN DEMOULIN – A TRIAL OF DISTANCES (CDR by Sound In Silence)
MOCKART – HE STAGGERED. ACROSS THE FLOOR (CDR by Mock Records)
PERMEATION – SPANNUNG (CDR, private)
LIMINAL HAZE – VOLUME 8 (cassette by Moonside Tapes)
FAHMI MURSYID – SUASANA LAIN (cassette by Moonside Tapes)
⎤⎤⎤ – LIVE AT OPUS 40 (cassette by Notice Recordings)
FRANCISCO DEL PINO/CHARLOTTE MUNDY – THE SEA (cassette by Notice Recordings)

SMELL & QUIM – SPACESHIT (CD by Cheeses International)

Somewhere in the early 1990s, my interest in noise music started to wane in the early 1990s. It wasn’t so much the noise itself, the use of sound as music, as everything that came with it, from the ‘shocking’ album covers to the likewise ‘shocking’ performances. The latter grew more and more later on, with spectacular dressing up. In 2008, I was one of the jurors at the Eurovision Noise Contest, and I noted the more time was spent on the act, the less on the music, and vice versa. Luckily, there were jurors for the dress and performance aspect. In my recollection, the early 1990s were a time when Smell & Quim entered the noise scene, and I heard some of their albums and came across their music on various compilations. I wasn’t a fan; I didn’t keep up with their output and never saw them in concert. That last omission I corrected today and watched several YouTube videos. The performance aspect is still not something I am attracted to, but their music, much screaming, and even more distortion and feedback worked quite well. From their vast output, I had never heard of ‘Spaceship’, released on CDR in 2000 by the Mental Guru label. The album now sees a re-issue by Cheeses International, home of more of the UK’s noise creators. The release contains one track, 53 minutes long and I expected one long howl of screams, feedback and distortion, but it wasn’t to be. I am pretty surprised by the music here. Whereas I expected a full fifty-minute blast, I got a most lovely collage of found sound, turntable abuse, microphone/spoken word, exotica loops, free-form improvisations on wind instruments, movie cut-ups, blasts of noise and all of this in an ultra-short cut manner, but some of this lasting a minute or even long. Funnily enough, the two versions listed on Discogs call this one track ‘Spaceshit’, but the cover (of the re-issue at least) mentions no less than 38 separate tracks, which I can easily see. It’s not the noisiest of noisiest here, but all the same, the free spirit of a noise record. Maybe even more noise because it’s not confined to a particular style or working up to expectations. All of this makes this a highly remarkable release, and to cover my ignorance: I haven’t heard a Smell & Quim in a long time. Expectations shattered: always a good thing. (FdW)
––– Address: steve.onomatopoeia@hotmail.co.uk

RICHARD RAMIREZ – BODYTALKING (CD by Input Error)

Let’s open this review with the exact words on the Bandcamp release page: ‘Most intros to a Richard Ramirez album mention he’s an artist that needs no introduction. Presenting a brand new album with five tracks of harsh noise, low-end drone thrumming, crunchy textures and good old-fashioned sleazes. Further indication that Richard remains one of the most consistent and important artists in noise.’ The real question is whether I can or should add anything to this because it’s all been said. Well, I’m still gonna write a review.
Richard Ramirez is one of the big names from the noise scene. He is from Houston, Texas originally, but from what I understood, he’s now in Pennsylvania. He has been active since 1989, and of his many projects and involvements, the most well-known are Black Leather Jesus and Werewolf Jerusalem. And, of course, releases under his own name. It’s difficult to have never heard his name if you like noise in its many glorious aspects, but for those who aren’t precisely noise heads, why should you listen to him or his work?
“Bodytalking” is ‘just’ an album, and when you go to Richard’s Bandcamp page, you get the offer to buy all his releases as you do with all artists. I just looked there, and you will be getting no less than 964 releases. Nine hundred and sixty-four!!! And all of those releases have something to do with Richard. It’s incredible. I don’t know all of them, but I do know that anybody with a curriculum/back catalogue like that knows his gear and what he’s doing. Musically as well as conceptually. So no, “Bodytalking” is not ‘just’ a new Richard Ramirez album. It’s another chapter in a continuing story told by someone with a proper vocabulary for telling said stories.
This story has five chapters in between 5 and 15 minutes. A total playing time of just under 50 minutes. Musically, it varies from crunchy direct sounds in “Making Entries” to suffocated HNW with, let’s call them ‘field recordings’ and even some more direct harsh noise structures in “The Way He Looks” and even ambient / drone scapes in “Not Alone / Hidden Kiss” (here I suspect the hidden kiss being the sudden noise eruption).
Richard knows exactly what he’s doing to keep the tension in this album and created a beautiful release. Maybe for many people, noise is a difficult genre, but if you want to explore, this album will lure you into a genre as deep as the ocean. And there, too, is a lot of unexplored territory. (BW)
––– Address: https://input-error.bandcamp.com/

SLIT THROATS – JOSHI NOISE WORSHIP: KANA BATHED IN COBALT (2CD by Input Error)

Released in 2020 as a download, then rereleased in 2021 on three cassettes and now available on CD, this is Slit Throats. Slit Throats is Roman J Leyva, and he has a few other projects too. For his militant vegan straight-edge power electronics, he uses Strangled Cop, his main project is Plague Mother, and here we have Slit Throats. I haven’t heard anything from him, but this might be his harsh noise project. No vocals, no recurrent patterns, just harsh noise closing in on HNW.
“Joshi Noise Worship: Kana Bathed In Cobalt” has six tracks of just under 15 minutes, and it’s all about Roman’s ‘obsessive exploration of the pageantry in Japanese women’s wrestling (joshi puroresu)’ (promo). I didn’t know there was such a thing, so learning something new is fun. Learn something new each day, and you’ll never be bored, they say, so may this be the fact of today for all the thousands of VW readers.
The inspiration for this recording was one of Roman’s favourite matches Kana vs Meiko Satomura. The actual match can be found on YouTube (youtu.be/v0aC-dRO0Ek) and has over 1 million views. I watched the game while listening to this album, and even when I couldn’t really find a link – except for the sounds used in “Gravure Girl” and “2.25.2014” – it was fun to combine this. The video takes 20 minutes while the album plays for 90, but that’s ok. Hit replay for the best result.
Meiko Satomura is set to retire on April 29, 2025, at the Sendai Girls event “Satomura The Final”, and because of her retirement, Input Error thought this was a perfect moment to reissue this album. This time remastered by the always amazing Grant Richardson with new artwork. The one thing that hasn’t changed in all its formats is the beautiful cobalt blue lights, which give the whole setting a cold vibe. The harshness of the noise warmens the whole atmosphere again, though.
“Dedicated to the spectacle of violent beauty”, the band camp page states, and well, yes. It’s an acquired taste, but I can imagine this very well. My favourite track is probably “Gravure Girl” because of its extremities. Though I must admit hangs head in shame that I skipped some of the feedback part. It’s just bloody painful 🙂 (BW)
— Address: https://input-error.bandcamp.com/

JOKE LANZ & PETR VRBA – MUTANTS IN SIBERIA (CD by Circum Disc)

Since Joke Lanz started to more rock music-like music with his Sudden Infant project, initially a noise project, we can no longer equal Sudden Infant with Joke Lanz. There for his collaborative album with Petr Vrba is under his Christian name. The two met standing in line for the Hermitage in St Petersburg, didn’t go in, but instead went for dinner and decided to record music together, using turntables, electronics, voice and trumpet; Lanz on turntables, his first choice of instrument, many years ago and Vbra on trumpet; we know him from various improvisation projects from his homeland, the Czech Republic. Lanz and Vbra toured that country twice and performed multiple concerts in Vienna and Berlin. In 2023, they recorded this album in Prague. If you are familiar with their work, even in Lanz’s case, older work, then you know what to expect: chaos, madness and fun. Noise and improvisation go hand in hand, and that combination isn’t new, not even with turntables and an instrument, the trumpet in this case. But what these two men do is very nice, mainly because of their free approach and not taking things too seriously. It all comes with energy, and noise dynamics meets punk meets improvisations. None of these 12 tracks take too much time; all this comes with much variation; they’re not repeating ideas or sounds quickly. Sometimes, the trumpet is not to be recognised as such, and Vbra uses it as an object, whereas Lanz throws in weird children’s records and the occasional shards of a melody. Vibrant stuff, lovely music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://circum-disc.bandcamp.com/

MICHAEL BEGG – WITNESS. AMBIENT CHAMBER WORKS 2020-24 (CD by Omnempathy)

It’s been a while since I last heard from Michael Begg, ambient music operator par excellence and collaborator with Clodagh Simonds in Fovea Hex. I wish not to speculate about the reasons, but having a new sign of life is good. This CD is a collection of pieces from the last five years, which include working with Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex), Ben Ponton (:zoviet*france:), and the Black Glass Ensemble, but also going on field recording trips with the European Marine Board, Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute and the Ocean ARTic Partnership. He saw different vistas than most of us. Some of these pieces are alternative mixes; some are live recordings. This combination of works and environments adds an interesting variation to the music. On one side, Begg loves his orchestral side, with slow, sustaining strings and ditto wind instruments, bringing a slow and majestic wave to the pieces. It’s here where Begg is most traditional in modern composition. Some of these pieces wouldn’t have been out of place on a record in the Obscure Records series. On the other hand, when working with field recordings, he goes into a more electro-acoustic field, treating these sounds so they become ambient soundscapes. Sometimes, we hear the original sounds (birds, ice); sometimes, it isn’t easy. Like the orchestral pieces, the ambience aspect is essential. These pieces are fluid, and things aren’t as black and white, and both ends meet up, the orchestral backing in a field recordings piece, or so some birds flying over the orchestra. It’s a long album, close to 80 minutes, and none of the 13 pieces seems long or too long. As the true master he is, Begg knows about length and pacing, and he does that very well. (FdW)
––– Address: https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/

JOHN DIKEMAN & SUN-MI HONG & AARON LUMLEY & MARTA WARELIS – OLD ADAM ON TURTLE ISLAND (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

This is the second release by this quartet, with one change in personnel: Hong replaces Rosaly on drums. The first release is Sunday at De Ruimte and came out in 2022 on the Doek RAW label. A DIY label from Stichting DOEK, a music collective based in Amsterdam. That release has a more immediate quality and the fact that it was completely improvised and recorded in a former control tower of the port of Amsterdam, a relatively small space. Splendor was the recording location of this current release: a former bathhouse and perhaps with more mics to record the music.
Another difference is that this is composed of music with room for improvisation. They did a first run of the music in 2021 at Zaal 100, almost exactly a year before recording it at Splendor. Seven tunes penned by Dikeman, spread over two tracks, beginning with four pieces and ending with three. A bit more about the music can be read on the site of Zaal 100, and I quote it in full here: “Old Adam On Turtle Island is a new program composed by John Dikeman for this quartet. It draws influences from sacred music stemming from Western Christian traditions and native American songs, specifically Chippewa and Ojibwe traditions. Old Adam refers to the concept of original sin in some Christian theologies, and Turtle Island refers to Mishee Mackinakong, which is a part of the creation story of the Ojibwe. After a great flood, a turtle raises its back out of the water and thus begins the recreation of life on Earth. This relationship also acknowledges the genocide of Native Americans and Christianity’s role in that history and speaks to religion as a means of control throughout history.” Musically, the compositions reflect all of this in a fractured way. The compositions act as both uplifting and potentially transcendent elements and oppressing forces. It’s a heavy program indeed. But the music is of another worldly beauty by all musicians. John Dikeman shows his more gentle side here. In Cactus Truck, a power trio with Jasper Stadhouders and Onno Govaert, he channels his inner Albert Ayler. Here, his sound has an almost Dexter Gordon quality mixed with a dash of John Zorn. That is to say a lot of melody combined with more avant-garde stuff. Marta Warelis on the piano does what she does best, as always: delicate runs across the keyboard, pointillistic patterns on a single note, plucking the strings inside the piano. Sun-Mi accents the proceedings delicately and efficiently, and Lumley, with his double bass tuned in fifths, bows and plucks with impressive subtlety and finesse. There’s much to enjoy here with an excellent recording, mixing and mastering by Aaron Lumley. All details are easily discernible in the recording. This one comes highly recommended and merits repeated listening, not for background music. It draws you in and never lets go: there’s never a dull moment. (MDS)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/

MAATH – VACO (LP by Anomala)
ANDREA MARUTTI & CARLO GIORDANI – IMPRESSIONI ORGANIZZATE DI ANSIE LIQUIDE (LP by Anomala)

A new (so it seems) label from Italy and the first one is by Maath. I forgot I reviewed music before by Marco Ramasotto, the musician behind the project. Some of these are pretty old, in Vital Weekly 357 and 364, but also more recent, in Vital Weekly 1176 and 1180. One of the two reviewed in Vital Weekly 1176 was about 14 years old! I don’t know much about Marco Ramasotto and his music-making methods. Bandcamp mentions a collection of field recordings and “once resembled”. They gave the impression of sound film. It’s a relatively slow film, as not much happens in the two side-long pieces here. That’s, of course, right up my alley, as I love minimal and slow music. I would think that Ramasotto, in his music, uses a combination of instruments and electronics, with the latter transforming the first. Maybe it’s all heavily treated field recordings? A bass is mentioned but also “other instruments”. My best guess is a combination of all of this. One can never be sure when the information is sparse; it may be a deliberate ploy so the listener has no idea or guidance. The text on Bandcamp certainly hints in that direction. The music is as wonderfully mysterious, from the drone-like start of ‘Vaco I’ to the almost disappearance of sound at the beginning of ‘Vaco II’, but it all slowly returns, and there’s more subtle droning matter, which might be derived from bass bowing or machines out in the field. Maybe this is a field recording in that sense the instruments are outside, and we hear them playing with the natural surroundings. It is not easy to define, and I guess that’s the whole idea of the music. It’s dark, but what isn’t dark these days in Vital Weekly? Maybe the kind of grimness is the sad reality, the sorry state of the world. Perhaps the deliberate obscureness of the music isn’t for me, but I sure like the music.
“You might think that the disc by Marutti and Giordani is a re-issue, as you saw the title already reviewed in Vital Weekly 1223. But I wrote “that this piece is the first part of a bigger work to be released in the future”; this is the more significant work. Well, or part of it at least, as these are parts two and three of the work, and all of this is (again) part of a multimedia project by Massimo Indellicati called ‘Aqualogy – Oceano Interiore’, and you don’t need to be a linguistic expert to realise this is all about life below the waves.” Those are my words from Vital Weekly 1234. It took some time to complete the third part, but it is, on vinyl. But what’s time? This work started in 2011 when Marutti composed the soundtrack to Indellicati’s work, and during the following years, the work slowly expanded, and got reworked many times over. As I noted before, this is not all about the ocean and deep sea sounds, but it became a project about field recordings and electronic processing of these sounds. Marutti is someone you can trust to do a great job, and he takes the material to a new level, a level where we no longer recognise the original sounds, save for a drip of water here and there. Maybe this is all sub-aquatic level, hydrophones sunk deep, picking the sound from vessels above, all thrown in a blender, cooking up this ambient stew. If I have to guess how Marutti works, I’d say it’s all within the digital world, with lots of granular synthesis. I might be wrong, of course. And also, why would this be important to know? The two sides of this record are pretty long, one over 23 and the other over 24 minutes, so there is a lot to enjoy here. (FdW)
––– Address: https://anomala.bandcamp.com/

EVAN LINDORFF-ELLERY & JOHN COLLINS MCCORMICK – DEEP TALK IN A SHALLOW CREEK (CDR by Garbage Strike)
EVAN LINDORFF-ELLERY – JUNE 26, JUNE 27 (2CDR by Garbage Strike)

Here are two releases by Notice Records’ head honcho Evan Lindorff-Ellery for another label, Garbage Strike, run by John Collins McCormick. Together, they recorded ‘Deep Talk In A Shallow Creek’. The creek part is crucial here, as the two recorded the music in the Stony Kill creek in Kingston, New York. Lindorff-Ellery brought a cornet, which he played with a balloon mouthpiece, and McCormick “a few things including a harmonica and found a few more including some branches”. Water plays an essential role in this recording. It becomes the uber-drone that is part of the two pieces on this CDR. Both pieces sound alike, but I understand the second one is a bit slowed down and not what my initial thought was a different angle. The instruments sink in the mix, often beyond recognition. This happens even more in the second piece, which I attribute to the slowing down process. I assume both players walk around, and we hear a bit of the rest of the environment. It’s difficult to call this improvised music or field recording, as it is a bit of both. It has very little to do with traditional improvisation because of the domineering presence of the water. I found this to be quite radical music, which I enjoyed quite a bit.
The other release is by Lindorff-Ellery solo, playing cymbals, electric guitar and objects. The first disc is ‘as recorded’ on June 26 and June 27, the respective titles of the pieces, while the second disc sees John Collins McCormick reamplifying the music outdoors. While this release is a bit more traditional improvised music, it is not. Sure, we recognise the electric guitar, the howl of feedback and the shuffling about of the cymbals, creating occasionally screeching sounds; one could also think of this as electro-acoustic improvisation with a firm dose of noise. And at that, it’s more acoustic than distorted noise from stomp boxes. It’s all straightforward, in-your-face music of brutalist attacks on instruments. Play loud is my best advice.
The re-amped version uses “simultaneous layers of the original recording combined and overlapped into different spaces, different rooms. Rooms, guitar bodies, drum, empty silo, speaker, amplifier, microphone in the room monitoring some other room, some other day”. John Collins McCormick then sticks these recordings together again, making sure everything is synced, and it gives a most interesting reworked version, allowing other sounds, such as insects, to play a role in the new version. It adds even more brutality to the original, with all this additional layering and adding new sounds. It’s an interesting concept, and I wondered: should we rush outside with Lindorff-Ellery’s original pieces and do this ourselves? The label has no Bandcamp page for the results, sadly. I would think some people wouldn’t mind giving this a try! (FdW)
––– Address: https://johncollinsmccormick.bigcartel.com/products

FRAGORE PER QUATTUOR (CDR compilation by Aachener Benevolent Pain)

A ‘Crash for four’ is a new series by the Aachener Benevolent Pain label. It is meant to become a series so collectors might be triggered to start at #1 directly. Because if this is the beginning … You’re in for a treat!
The CD opens with three tracks by Positive Adjustments, a.k.a. Krister Bergman. I had nothing of him in my collection, so this is a new name. If ‘Disgust’, ‘You Deserve’, and ‘Amusement’ define his style, it’s noise drones with a hint of power electronics—a beautifully created atmosphere with a recurrency in layers and for away vocals. “Amusement” is extra nice because of the feedback patterns that are a constant threat, but it’s never painful. It is like a dog that barks loudly but never bites. It shows the function and beauty of the dog, though.
The second batch of three tracks is for Persons Unknown. I reviewed him before in VW 1465, and he is Marcus, the label owner of Benevolent Pain. His main project was always Dazzling Malicious, but it seems Persons Unknown has more frequent output these days. I’ll ask him next time I see him what the status is. ‘The Individual Perishes In Consumption” is a symbiosis of noise, drone and power electronics here. In “District Control”, he’s not afraid to experiment with melody, noise and rhythm. Finally, in “Talking To Me”, there is a layer that might even make it suitable for a larger audience: A friendly Darkwave noise experiment.
But: No rest for the wicked. The soothing end of Persons Unknown is blasted away by the first of 4 tracks of Praying For Oblivion. Andrew-Jonathan Seal can probably be considered European by now, but his sound still resembles American harsh noise/power electronics. Relentless, loud and in your face, though there is one different track. “Valley of Grass” has a significant buildup of noises and almost dancing layers. Beautiful coherences and interlocking signals. Maybe a ‘fragile’ side of Andrew I hadn’t heard before, but I love it.
The last act, Necroviolence, presents three tracks—minimal harsh constructions with vocals. I don’t know how to label this. Necroviolence is Zach Wettstein or Zach Einsamertod, and he has a background in industrial, blackened power electronics, black metal and various noise styles. I think it’s only fair that I describe his tracks as a mixture of these styles. Here and there – only in comparison with the other tracks – his tracks lack a bit of the deep bass rumble the others use, but having said that, the styles are so mixed up that Necroviolence is the most dynamic of the four acts.
It’s a great start to a new series. The podcast includes two tracks, Positive Adjustments and that one personal favourite by Praying for Oblivion. (BW)
––– Address: https://itdrones.bandcamp.com/

DEATH-STATIC – TIME IS IGNORANCE (CDR by Sound In Silence)
JULIEN DEMOULIN – A TRIAL OF DISTANCES (CDR by Sound In Silence)

Death-Static sounds like the name of a power electronics project, but it’s far from it! It is the name of a new solo project of Gareth S. Brown. he’s from Leeds and a former member of Hood (which made me think this label contains more musicians from that group) and Canvas. He had previous solo projects as The Unpleasants, Jerstice and Royal-Librarian. Sometimes he’s a member of Memory Drawings and The Declining Winter and had releases on Domino Records, Misplaced Music, Home Assembly Music, Hibernate Recordings, Zozaya Records, Second Language, Signal Records and other labels. And yet, I believe this might be my first time hearing his music. I wondered what the differences would be between these monikers of Brown, and a possible answer is that “Death-Static is a conceptual project in that Gareth S. Brown is trying to explore the hopeless melancholy of the New Age movement”. I admit I am not a big fan of New Age music, and I even realise I never heard a lot of New Age music, but what I heard I thought of as watered-down ambient music. Granted, there is a fine line between ambient and New Age music; this release is a perfect example of that fine line. Musically, I read the difference is that the work he did “in the past under his own name, as that was all midi-based, whereas this is strictly hardware, with no computers involved”. Hardware with no computers involved? I have no idea how that works out. But the hardware is described as “warm organ chords, minimal piano melodies, broken 4-track tape recorder, sampler loops and various effect pedals”, which I would say is not your standard gear for New Age music. In ‘Latent Body’, there is indeed the sound of whirring and buzzing of what seems to be a broken cassette player, and while neatly atmospheric, it is also quite experimental. Grief seems to play a role in the music, explaining the somewhat dark tone of the music. Death-Static has an excellent variation on offer here. From the repeated, interlocking cycles of ‘Final’, a curious title for an opening piece, the hazy organ drones of ‘Reentry’ and the piano of ‘Return’, which is by far the most introspective piece of a collection of introspective pieces. I can see this as an album of grief, music for contemplation.
I reviewed several releases by French musician Julien Demoulin, some of which are on the Sound In Silence label. These days, Demoulin lives in Brussels, working solo as Silencio, under his own name, and as Panorama and Aeons. I admit to not knowing the differences between these projects. A busy bee with numerous releases on such imprints as Audio Gourmet, Resting Bell, Basses Frequences, Time Released Sound, Three:Four Records, Duotone Records, Rusted Tone Recordings, Shimmering Moods Records, Aural Canyon, Healing Sound Propagandist and his own Eglantine Records. His latest album contains three parts of the title track, which is described as a “long-form suite for brass and synthesisers”, and three remixes/reworks by HTDC (How To Disappear Completely), .foundation and Zakè; the latter clocks in at 30 minutes, half the album. Kelly O’Donohue plays the brass sounds of trumpet, trombone and flugelhorn and Demoulin, the synthesiser. The original pieces last about 15 minutes and are three variations of long-form sustaining brass sounds, washes of synthesisers and a fair amount of reverb to suggest more space further. These pieces have a fine modern classical mixture with an organic drone feel. The three remixes are in a similar territory, with minor differences. In the HTDC remix, there is effectively a one-on-one copy of the original, but .foundation and Zakè stretch out the sounds, alter and process it some more, with the music becoming a less defined and less detailed composition and more a muddy drone, with elements of the original. You can wonder if Zakè needs the full 30 minutes, but, hey, it’s a quiet afternoon, so why not? (FdW)
––– Address: https://soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com/

MOCKART – HE STAGGERED. ACROSS THE FLOOR (CDR by Mock Records)

On mockART’s (as is the preferred spelling) website, there is a lengthy biography of the project, started by visual artist rabirius (all lowercase, please). “The project experiments with music and sounds. As all music follows certain established patterns in structure, composition and instrumentation, mockART tries to leave these established paths and find other ways.’ I reviewed two previous albums (Vital Weekly 1299 and 1350) by what is now a duo, rabirius and Christoph Dorner. The latter played the flute on the last release, and that’s repeated here. The two “experimenting with flute tunes that they looped through various effects. The resulting sounds were recorded and fed through the loop.” The result is two pieces of 18 and 19 minutes: ‘He Staggered’ and ‘Across The Floor’. We are to expect something ‘noisy and minimalist’. I concur with the minimalism, as both pieces are straightforward affairs with many densely layered sounds without too much movement. The listener can easily adjust to he proceeding and find a way to experience the music. ‘He Staggered’ is not very noisy; more ambient in a kind of industrial way, and the flute can be recognised with some imagination. In ‘Across The Floor’, they open up to the world of noise, with a short loop stuck in the feedback machine, and while not entirely harsh noise wall music, it’s still relatively minimal. Two different pieces with similar concepts. I thought it was alright, not bad at all, but maybe a bit too much on the minimal side to hold my attention throughout. (FdW)
––– Address: https://mockart.bandcamp.com/

PERMEATION – SPANNUNG (CDR, private)

Following a string of names, Egbert van der Vliet put aside his best-known moniker, Pool pervert and started Permeation. It is, spoiler alert, effectively a continuation of what he did as Pool pervert, and that’s treating field recordings with laptop methods. He gets to work using free audio software and free sounds from public libraries. You won’t recognise any of the original sounds, as Van der Vliet keeps working and changing these sounds. Add another layer of the same sound but just a specific frequency; reverse that; stretch it a bit, then out another set of frequencies, reverse again, and speed it up again. And then repeat this process, with different sounds. Stick them all in that free audio software (Audition, I happen to know), see the interaction, and mix from these. Sounds easy? Maybe it is, but playing guitar is also easy – ask any punk band. I am a sucker for this kind of dark and atmospheric music, and I heard a lot of his music, so I am somewhat of an expert/fanboy (take your pick). With his digital means, Permeation knows how to make it sound lo-fi, grainy and, throughout these four pieces, it sounds like music recorded on some old reel-to-reel that has been recycled too much. Spacious and darkly atmospheric, just the sort of thing that is right up my alley. (FdW)
––– Address: https://permeation2.bandcamp.com

LIMINAL HAZE – VOLUME 8 (cassette by Moonside Tapes)
FAHMI MURSYID – SUASANA LAIN (cassette by Moonside Tapes)

My morning ritual consists of drinking coffee, reading the news paper and playing some ambient music, not intended to write a review about. That went out of the door this morning, first coffee in, paper unfinished as I review something I heard three times in a row. Liminal Haze is the duo of Craig Steward Johnson & Ross Scott-Buccleuch. They also have other projects, solo and with other people. Liminal Haze is the one project from them I love very much. Their previous releases are very well the sort of thing part of my morning ritual, so why not start the day with something new from them? They number the pieces, so we have here ‘XXXIV’ to ‘XXXVII’ (for those who don’t have classical training in Roman numerology, this is 34 to 37). Liminal Haze creates rusty drone music with old reel-to-reel machines of saturated tape without much magnetism, some stomp boxes and a synthesiser on the side. This is used to create lengthy pieces of very minimal sound. But these pieces are never very long, nor all too minimal. ‘XXXIV’ is such a piece of slowly building and adding layers as they go along. I couldn’t say if the music results from endless mixing and editing or the result of playing live. Nor do I know what kind of sounds they use. My best guess would be a lot of field recordings, best heard in ‘XXXVI’: the sounds of a construction site or harbour. As the project’s name indicates, it is all a haze, a blurred hearing. The residue of sounds, recycled and stewed up sounds great. The short ‘XXXV’ sounds rushed, which should remind them to use a longer time frame; eight to eleven minutes seems the perfect length, as indicated by the other three on this cassette. In each of these pieces, there is also a melodic drift to be heard, however remote and vague, making the music excellent. Not just abstract but also human and warm. The dystopian sound, grainy, post-nuclear fallout sound is right up my alley, and this is another excellent release.
I had not heard of Fahmi Mursyid before, who is from Indonesia. Via the Moonside Bandcamp page, you can get to his personal Bandcamp and discover much more of his music. As for instruments, listed are microtonal synthesisers and electronics. In the opening piece, ‘Roso Slendro’, he uses single, short tones, reminding me of a plucked string instrument, which he repeats in ‘Iring Miring’. Nice, but I like the pieces with sustaining sounds better. There’s also a piece like ‘Elok Pelog’, which combines both ends of his approaches. Throughout this release, the music is relatively minimal, plucked or sustaining in all six pieces, but it is never too long. For some reason, all six pieces are between five and six minutes (with one over six), like there is a special meaning to that (and probably, there isn’t). In his drone-like approach, the music turns darker, which works pretty well. Like Liminal Haze, the shimmering of a melody is never far away and just as buried just below the surface. Even while it’s sunny and springtime-like, something is appealing to this darkness. That probably says more about me than the music, but that’s how this is perceived here. Most welcome! (FdW)
––– Address: https://moonsidetapes.bandcamp.com/

⎤⎤⎤ – LIVE AT OPUS 40 (cassette by Notice Recordings)
FRANCISCO DEL PINO/CHARLOTTE MUNDY – THE SEA (cassette by Notice Recordings)

If you wonder why I was always hesitant to have a spoken word Vital Weekly podcast, there were various reasons, but one main objection was ‘how do I pronounce this name’. I didn’t want to add that ‘I’m so sorry I don’t speak this language’ because I’m not sorry for having not mastered all the world’s languages. As a band name, ⎤⎤⎤is next level difficult. It’s a duo of Chantal Michelle and Grace Villamil, who have an interest in what they “term “sound obliteration”—a paradoxical process that, in their hands, reveals teeming masses of sonic detail”. They performed at Opus 40, “an expansive land sculpture in upstate New York. Each field recording offers a unique spatial and acoustic perspective, ” which plays a role in the music. The pieces were recorded from eight different angles. What these instruments are, we’re not told, and from the image enclosed, it is not easy to see. “Various instruments were placed throughout the site, inviting audience members to interact with them—their playing captured, processed, and reintroduced into the evolving soundscape”. Had I not read all this information, I would have assumed this was the work of someone operating a modular synthesiser with some acoustic sounds and a love for all drone things. And, mind you, there might be electronics on this record, especially on the second side. All of this, the electronics, the instruments, and the recording process make this a strange but fantastic release. The music is very dense, at times very droney in a noisy way, especially on side two, and sometimes a sound sticks out, a scratch or a peep, the rustle of something acoustic. The whole sound palette is rich in texture, and while not always in detail, I think that works very well—massive music, defying easy categorisation. Is there a video we can check out how this concert looked like? I am curious!
The other new cassette by Notice Recordings features Charlotte Mundy’s performance of two compositions by Francisco del Pino. This is modern classical territory, one of the various areas Vital Weekly receives promotional material, but it is not easy to review; lack of knowledge is an essential reason. There are two pieces, one per side. On the first side, we find ‘Material’, in which Mundy sings without words in what seems to be a cathedral; no location is mentioned. Her voice is multilayered and edited; it’s not a straightforward recording. There is much panning and reverb to suggest ambience and space. Yet, the music isn’t all long flow, as she changes from long-form signing to short bursts, ‘The Sea’, on the other side, has words, a long poem by Victoria Cóccaro, sung in an English translation. Here, too, there is layering, so it’s not always easy to follow what’s being sung, and it has that sea-like wave idea, rocking slowly back and forth. I heard it with interest, but I admit it’s not my cup of tea. (FdW)
––– Address: https://noticerecordings.bandcamp.com/