Week 21

JONATHAN COLECLOUGH & COLIN POTTER – CARBONIFEROUS (CD by ICR Distribution)
SISSY SPACEK AND VORTEX CAMPAIGN – THE MAN AND THE OLD SEA (CD by Troniks / Helicopter)
LEFTHANDDECISION – 1997-2002 (2CD by Troniks / Helicopter)
THE CHERRY POINT – LIVE HELL 2 (CD by Troniks / Helicopter)
THERESE – LOWSHIFT (CD by Cheap Satanism)
MARIUS ATHERTON – MUSIC FOR A WHILE (LP by Cheap Satanism)
PIERRE VERVLOESEM – EXPECTED NOISES (CD by Cheap Satanism)
AYAMI SUZUKI – REBIRTH/OMEN (CD by Cloudchamber Recordings)
MARC BARON & ERIC LA CASA – CONREFAÇOS (CD by Swarming)
COAGULANT – SPATIAL EMISSION PLACES (CD by Rizosfera)
VIDNA OBMANA – TWILIGHT OF PERCEPTION REDUX VOLUME TWO 1995 – 2002 (3CD by Zoharum)
BRANDON LOPEZ – NADA SAGRADA (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
TETÉ LEGUÍA – INTO A GREATER NOTHING (CD by F.I.M. Records)
XU – PIANO THINS (lathe LP by Spalt-ung)
LES MARQUISES & QUATUOR UNA CORDA SOLEILS NOIRS – LIVE À L’OPÉRA UNDERGROUND (lathe LP by Spalt-ung)
HOWARD STELZER + LICHT-UNGHERE – THERE (lathe 10″ by Spalt-ung)
MERZBOW + LICHT-UNG – MERZLICHT (10″ by Licht-ung)
BIONULOR – 23 (lathe 10″ by Spalt-ung)
OREST SMOVZH – KALLE HERMANNI AUTIO/KOOTUT TEOKSET SOOLOVIULULLE (7″, private)
LUNT – NOISE TO BODY, REPAIRS IN D (CASSETTE BY EH? RECORDS)
POST HUMANIST HANGOVER – PARABOLIC DIALOGUE (cassette by Servataguse Muusika)

JONATHAN COLECLOUGH & COLIN POTTER – CARBONIFEROUS (CD by ICR Distribution)

Sometimes people ask me what I will do when I am no longer writing reviews for Vital Weekly, and my answer is that I’ll be working on publishing books. I also realised I will be ‘free’ to play whatever music I want. I didn’t keep a copy of every single release that came in, as it would require a house multiple times the size I have now, but it will be great to return to music I haven’t heard in some time. Today, I concluded I haven’t listened to a lot of Jonathan Coleclough’s music in recent years, except for his work with Theo Travis and Jeph Jerman (see Vital Weekly 1426). This new CD is, in fact, an older work. Colin Potter has been running the ICR studios for over 40 years, and that means there’s a lot of music in storage, and recently he found a folder labelled ‘Period Remixes’. ‘Period’ is a 2001 work by Jonathan Coleclough, and I am unsure if I wrote a review of that one (I attempted to find one and failed), and I had to refresh my memory of what it sounded like. It was a work that included piano sounds and treatments thereof, and at the time, Potter did some additional mixing. He mentions this to be the time before computers were used in studios, so these remixes were all “mixed live, without editing, using a physical mixing desk and external analogue and digital effects units”. Upon re-visiting this material, Potter decided the material is still good enough for release, and who am I to disagree? In this particular world, sound material can be shifted in any direction and reworked at any time. The four pieces on this CD proof this, even when I needed to hear the original Coleclough release first, which was a happy visit. People like Potter and Coleclough, as well as Darren Tate, Andrew Chalk, and Paul Bradley, are a particular breed of musicians who use electronic means to create atmospheric music, each with a personal style. Potter’s speciality is working with effects placed upon the original material, so it becomes something else, and his mastery is to make it sound like it’s static and minimal. In contrast, it shifts and moves around, very rarely staying in one place. The pure piano sometimes starts the piece or appears halfway through, playing minimalist patterns that are undoubtedly also created by Potter. This serves as a fine reminder of the sources. These are four strong pieces, in which the ‘live’ element is a strong presence, adding to the lively atmosphere of the music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://icrdistribution.bandcamp.com/

SISSY SPACEK AND VORTEX CAMPAIGN – THE MAN AND THE OLD SEA (CD by Troniks / Helicopter)
LEFTHANDDECISION – 1997-2002 (2x CD by Troniks / Helicopter)
THE CHERRY POINT – LIVE HELL 2 (CD by Troniks / Helicopter)

It’s time again to get your ears blasted out with this triple treat from our friends at Troniks and Helicopter. Troniks is the label run by Phil Blankenship, whose name we will see a few times in this review. Helicopter is the label run by none other than John Wiese, who, like Phil, is one of the artists on these CDs. As long as I can remember, the Troniks website has been http://www.iheartnoise.com/, and it always made me smile. It still does because “Yes, we do!”
First album to get some attention here is “The Man And The Old Sea” by Sissy Spacek in collaboration with Vortex Campaign. Sissy Spacek is the project of Charlie Mumma and John Wiese, the latter being the master of experimental noise, whose name is also connected, albeit recently or in the past, to Bastard Noise, LHD, and Smegma. Additionally, collaborations have been released with Wolf Eyes, Pain Jerk, K2, KK Null, and Merzbow. This is just scratching the surface, as we only have a limited amount of space for a review. Vortex Campaign is a name you don’t see that often, and I personally only know it from the 1984 release with The New Blockaders and Coil. More information than it being a project by Jan and Paul Verstraete, who are also active under Orchestra Of The Obvious, I couldn’t find.
The album was created through mail collaboration with the sounds being generated by before mentioned artists, but who did the final sculpting, I have no idea. What I do know is that it is an intensive release to listen to. So much is happening, and it keeps changing as soon as you think you’re in the flow: two long tracks (20 and 30 minutes) and two short ones of under 5 minutes. I’ve now played it 4 or 5 times to try to describe what I’m hearing, but I gave up. I’m just going to pour myself a glass of red wine and listen to it yet again.
Lefthanddecision is the project of Phil Blankenship, solo, and it has been active in the late 90s and early 00s. I remember meeting him for the first time in Amoebe Records in Berkeley, where he guided me through some of the sales bins, and I went out with way too many releases to carry home on the flight back. Still grateful though 😉 He was active as LHD back then, so yeah, there were a few of those in there too. He developed himself as an artist after that, and now he is one of the names where I’m always curious what happens next. Troniks has become one of the leading noise labels, and the collaboration with Helicopter solidifies this status. Under LHD, he no longer releases music, but more on that later, because we’re focusing on the period from 1997 to 2002.
“1997-2002” is a double CD with 130 minutes of noise. Beautiful noise with various aspects. Saturated layers of drone basses, some feedback, some structure, some structure missing. Twenty-one tracks, all untitled, and according to the promo text, ‘sound from the early self-released cassettes, material culled from rare international releases, live performances, and beyond.’ No sources can be found on which track was released when or where, but if I’m honest, that was of no concern to me. As it stands now, this collection has turned out to be great.
The tracks on this album are carefully put in this order, I think, because there is an overall flow to the pieces. The length of the tracks ranges from 2 minutes to 30 minutes. It might indicate that the longer tracks are from live performances, but let’s face it, how often have we all been to concerts which ended after a few minutes of sonic eruption, and we were left with the feeling we wanted more. So I could be very wrong there (I probably am).
This is an excellent album, as you might have understood, and I look forward to listening to it more often in the future. The noise and drone parts in here are hypnotic; the extremes are deafening, and the atmosphere is thrilling. All reasons to try it out on Bandcamp and decide you need it.
The Third and final release in this batch is The Cherry Point, and you’ve guessed it, maybe, but this is the new/current project by Phil Blankenship. Active after the demise of LHD, with a high output until ’08, then some silence, and again active after 2015. We won’t delve into Phil’s background because it has already been mentioned above. This is “Live Hell 2,” so it’s interesting to see if there’s a #1. And yes, “Live Hell” was released as a single-sided vinyl in 2015. Unobtainable now, as there were only 30 copies.
The recordings on this CD are all from 2005 and 2006, except one (#7). All performances took place in Los Angeles, California, except for one (#5). And finally, all tracks should be labelled as harsh noise, with no exceptions. This is a short intro; let’s dive in. A few of the recordings were done with fellow musicians. The first show, “Berserk,” was performed with Andorkappen on vocals; it was short, heavy, and angry. The third track, “Salt Killers,” was a performance featuring NVH, also known as Noel Harmonson. Part of it seems to be previously released as 7″ on Troniks. Track 6 is – like the first track – also titled “Berserk”, but this one is a performance with Blud Thirst. They also released a single-sided album on Troniks in 2005. There are also two tracks titled “Live Hell”. The one closing the album is a performance from 2018 together with John Wiese, the other one is the second track and this one I may like the most in composition. It’s strongly loop-based and gets a bit of a power electronics/death industrial vibe on top of the harsh noise experience. Tracks 4 and 5 are both titled “Avalanche” and were recorded less than 10 days apart. Two live shows with probably the same setup and preparation, resulting in two different approaches. #4 keeps on pounding with saturated bass layers while in #5 there is a liiiiiiitle bit of breathing space for the higher frequencies. It’s recorded a bit sharper, for lack of a better word. I’m feeling in need of a live noise festival now …(BW)
––– Address: http://www.iheartnoise.com/
––– Address: https://helicopterdistro.bigcartel.com/
––– Address: https://helicopter.bandcamp.com/

THERESE – LOWSHIFT (CD by Cheap Satanism)
MARIUS ATHERTON – MUSIC FOR A WHILE (LP by Cheap Satanism)
PIERRE VERVLOESEM – EXPECTED NOISES (CD by Cheap Satanism)

Here’s an interesting bundle from Belgium’s Cheap Satanism label. One is very much up my alley, one is a maybe, and one is not, yet that one is quite fun.
First, there’s a duo called Therese, consisting of Eliane Bliase (also known as aefv, where the ‘a and ‘e’ are combined) and Emmanuelle de Hericourt. In 2022, they organised an event called ‘Esperiancia Society Mall’. Please don’t go looking for it online, as it’s impossible to find (says the label), but this CD is a reconstruction of the original soundtrack. Blaise was trained by Chris Watson in field recording and had a few releases on Nostakgie de la Boue and MMLI. De Hericourt runs the Lentonia Records label, “dedicated to women in music production”. She had a solo record on Powdered Hearts in 2022. Cheap Satanism describes the music on ‘Lowshift’ as “haunted dark pop”, and “searching for a flattering comparison, it’s Coil from the mid 1980s”, but “surprisingly less risque than what the British band offered at the time. And, above all, much more feminine”. If you think of pop music as something with vocals, then this album isn’t pop music, as the six pieces are instrumental. Dark, however, the music most certainly is, and this darkness is generated by using quite some reverb. Therese adds a few melodic lines on the synthesiser, and there are some slow and heavy percussive bits thrown in. These, too, receive an intense reverb treatment. I admit I’m not a Coil fan, but from what I’ve heard, I can see the comparison—the slow thuds, the sparse melody and yet that massive, orchestral sound. It’s impossible to say what this event was about, the music contains no clues, nor do the titles (‘Itcher Eyes’, ‘Her Dark Night’, ‘Paranoid Void’), and whatever is written on the cover is unreadable – I am sure if it looked great on the designer’s computer but not in print. It’s an excellent release, nothing special, but most enjoyable.
The maybe is represented by Marius Atherton, whose music is described as “Thee Oh Sees sounding like Henry Purcell and Henry Purcell like Suicide”. There is a bit of a problem if you have no idea who some of these people are, such as, in my case, Thee Oh Sees. There are a lot more names in the press text, Mathieu Boogaerts, Alan Vega, Julien Gasc, The Space Lady, and Atherton quote prosaically Anne Sylvestre, Bach, Pergolesi, and Francois Couperin. These are more names I had not heard of before, but I did witness a concert by The Space Lady a long time ago. Atherton is from Paris and plays, according to some, “baroque synth pop,” which differs from Scarlatti Goes Electro. That was a fun thing, whereas Atherton plays serious electronic music. ‘Music For A While’ is his second record, with lyrics in French (so, lost on me), but that also goes for the music. Sure, I can hear the baroque element, as far as I know about such things. Music with vocals usually isn’t my thing, and there is something in the sad voice of Atherton that isn’t my thing, but I enjoyed the consistency of the music, the execution and the voice. There is something quite intimate about the music, chamber synth pop kind of thing, not bad at all, and while not my cupper, I was fascinated by the difference it made to my daily routine.
Around 2006, one of my favourite pastimes was looking for blogs where one could download old records. I’d take out any old music magazine, and if something sounded interesting, I’d try to find it online. I am sure that’s when I first heard the 1980 release by Brian Brain, ‘Unexpected Noises’. The album’s main attraction was drummer Martin Atkins, who plays drums on PIL’s ‘Metal Box’ and ‘Flowers Of Romance’; especially the latter being a personal favourite. I hadn’t heard this LP (oops, download) in a long time (one of the to-do things when Vital Weekly ends: listen to everything I ever downloaded), but I still enjoy the wackiness. I disagree with Pierre Vervloesem, who says the album is “pretty bad. It sounds like bad Devo – a series of poorly structured tracks with mostly unintelligible shouted lyrics”. Vervloesem, of whom I had not heard before, is labelled the Belgian Frank Zappa, formerly a member of X-Legged Sally and Flat Earth Society and produced the debut album of dEUS. And, according to Cheap Satanism, records at least an album per month (“without pressure, without even trying to sell them and hardly ever performing them live anymore”). He took the Brian Brain album and made it into real songs, intros, outros and structures. An interesting proposition indeed. Vervloesem, who plays bass, guitars, keyboards and sings, leaving drums, wind instruments and such to three other players, is a better musician than Atkins and his compadres back then. For example, he remakes ‘I Get Pain’ into an almost prog rock piece, miles away from the weirdo screamo post-punk of Brain Brain. Vervloesem does ‘real’ music, and his version is ‘better’; but it lacks the excitement and madness, the weird experimentation, the anything-goes approach of Brian Brain. It’s fun to play each song back to back (I see there is no CD re-issue of this album! Isn’t it about time?). I like them both, to be honest. Oh, and it’s pop music, and as such, perhaps quite outside our field. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.cheapsatanism.com/

AYAMI SUZUKI – REBIRTH/OMEN (CD by Cloudchamber Recordings)

The works I reviewed by Ayami Suzuki were all Japanese (if I remember well). This is her first release in Europe. She works with her voice and has a background in folk music, but that’s not to be heard in her music. Her new CD contains two long pieces, one just over 30 minutes and one over 34 minutes long. The first is a live recording from 2023, and the other is a live recording from January this year. On Bandcamp, she writes about her concert from 2023, but not from 2025. She mentions the sound system of the venue to be quite big, so here was some feedback, which she played around with. If you think this leads to a noise release, because, hey, all feedback does, then you’re wrong. “My performances are deeply affected by what happens right before the show — emotionally and situationally. Because I improvise, I’m able to reflect those raw, immediate feelings. I love those moments that can only happen then and there. That’s probably one of the reasons I’m so drawn to improvisation.” Suzuki’s music doesn’t sound too improvised, luckily enough. Whatever she does with electronics, which includes reverb and delay, among other things, she has fine control over the machines. Her voice is not always in the foreground, but rather a shimmering ghost in the background, but towards the end of ‘Omen’, the voice is very much present. ‘Omen’ is of the two pieces, the one that uses more improvisation, or so it seems, while ‘Rebirth’ at one point dabbles with some forceful drones, almost in a noisy way. This piece features stronger dynamics, transitioning from quiet to loud, and it’s one that I prefer. Throughout Suzuki’s music, there is a dramatic quality, sometimes a bit over the top for my liking. It is also a distinctly Suzuki trademark, as she has now developed her unique style. (FdW)
––– Address: https://cloud-chamber.bandcamp.com/

MARC BARON & ERIC LA CASA – CONREFAÇOS (CD by Swarming)

In September 2023, the Hiventy laboratories in Joinville-le-Pont invited Marc Baron and Eric La Casa to record the entire process of film restoration, encompassing both the sound and image aspects of movies. La Casa made field recordings of the process at this laboratory, while Baron, with his tape machines, captured these sounds and played them back in small rooms of this place. Baron uses analogue tapes, with analogue treatments, including demagnetising the recordings. There is not a lot on the cover about this process, just a quote from Benjamin Alimi about the process, along with the objective standards and how it’s sometimes impossible to reach them. You wouldn’t know what this quote is about if you don’t know what the Hiventy photochemical laboratory is. Maybe the music would come across as something very obscure. Maybe using field recordings from an industrial site, a factory or some place that uses electricity. Lots of vague sounds from this process, but something that is also captivating to hear. The music seems at times to be caught from another room, or a broken-up conversation from next door. Sounds being erased on the spot, but maybe restored later on, there is a specific process aspect to the music. But, fascinating as things may be, it’s not always easy to listen to. Maybe it’s me and a lack of concentration. Or, perhaps, I feel like I should see something of this process, the restoration of movies and two men with machines capturing the sounds there of – maybe that would clear things up a bit. (FdW)
––– Address: https://swarming.bandcamp.com/

COAGULANT – SPATIAL EMISSION PLACES (CD by Rizosfera)

It’s been a while since I last heard music by Fabio Kubic, also known as Coagulant, and that’s a pity. From the few works I heard and reviewed (Vital Weekly 1280, 1363, 1240, 1421, 1382, 1326, and 1349), I understood he’s a man of field recordings and captures places, and then maybe does some treatments. I like to see his work as sonic architecture, capturing reflections of sounds within spaces. And that’ll be places with buildings, but on this new work he has recording from the Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats, “vast open landscapes possessing distinct acoustic identities shaped by their ecological conditions and atmospheric interactions”. I couldn’t say if that’s true, as I have not been to these places. Kubic uses geophones and ambisonic environmental microphones to capture these spaces, which, to the uninitiated ear, may sound like wind blowing down a microphone. Whatever else he does to the recordings remains a bit of a mystery, but I’m sure some kind of processing is involved. The album consists of one piece, precisely 74 minutes long, which moves through various sections. The opening segment, approximately ten minutes long, features a ‘blowing down the microphone’ element. Still, the subsequent section is quite electronic, perhaps incorporating real-time sound manipulation into this environment, a spontaneous process. And so the piece moves on, from one section to the next, each very atmospheric and drone-like, although not exclusively. Around 25 minutes, there’s a whole section of what sounds like harbour sounds. Throughout, each section is quite minimal, but Coagulant knows when it’s time to move on to the next one. Dark music, obviously, and very well put together; this is something that one should indeed hear as a single, uninterrupted piece, preferably with added volume and incredible immersive audio surround. Not music to please and ignore, as is the idea of ambient music, but to experience without any other interruption or distraction. Another excellent work in an otherwise great catalogue of works. (FdW)
––– Address: https://rizosfera.org/

VIDNA OBMANA – TWILIGHT OF PERCEPTION REDUX VOLUME TWO 1995 – 2002 (3CD by Zoharum)

If you wonder how deep the vaults of Vidna Obmana are, I have the same question. I’ve known Dirk Serries, also known as Vidna Obmana, since the first day he started as a short-lived noise project, and now, 40 years later, he surprises me with yet another triple CD of music, comprising 16 long pieces recorded from 1995 to 2002; only four of these have been released, three on compilation CDs and one on a very limited 7″. I heard one of these four, so, for all I know, all the stuff I never heard before. By the mid-1990s, Serries had a clear vision of what Vidna Obmana should sound like, utilising “Atmospheres, various flutes, overtone flutes, percussion, rhythm programming, dreampipes, recycling, and abstract mutations, as well as voices,” and expanding on these ideas. Massive, sustaining ambient pieces, long flowing paths, lots of sound effects, processing those acoustic sounds. Sometimes there’s a bit of tribalist rhythm, nothing too much in your face, except for the first part of ‘Recoils In Anger I & II”, which is something of a distraction, but working very well as a counterpart for the rest of the album. The use of voice in ‘Shaking The Surreal’ is something I haven’t heard before in Vidna Obmana’s music, but maybe I simply forgot. Otherwise, it is a very coherent collection of very typical Vidna Obmana pieces. I am wondering why they have not been released. They are as good as any from that time, and I can imagine a well-known name like Vidna Obmana being swamped with requests for a compilation track in those years (the compilation as the starting point for any new label). After three solid hours of musical head spacing, that’s one question I had, the other being: how deep are these vaults? What’s more to come? How many more 3CD sets can we expect – you may not find the answer in Vital Weekly, as Vidna Obmana outlives us. (FdW)
––– Address: https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/

BRANDON LOPEZ – NADA SAGRADA (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

On to another Nothing. ” Nada sagrada” (meaning “nothing sacred” in Spanish) is a work composed by Brandon Lopez for ensemble, incorporating live film manipulation. Previously dubbed the Gospel of Nothing, Nada Sagra is a work for seven musicians and film. The seven musicians are Brandon Lopez on double bass (and composer of the piece), Tom Rainey on drums, Gerald Cleaver on drums, Cecilia Lopez on electronics, Matt Maneri on viola, Zeena Parkins on electric harp, and DoYeon Kim on gayageum, a Korean string instrument. You can see the instrument in its full glory in a duo with Trevor Dunn. It’s on YouTube. We have four string instruments, two drum sets, and electronics. The recording is from the piece’s premiere at Vision Festival 2023, held yearly at Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, New York City. One long piece, almost forty minutes long, it’s quite a ride. Rumbling bass, polyrhythmic patterns due to having two drummers, each playing their patterns. All seven musicians are deeply rooted in improvised music, having shared the stage at one or more moments in their respective musical careers. What we have here is a journey full of unrest, a coming together of like-minded musicians. It’s a joy to listen to, and they draw you in with their meticulous playing. I wonder what the score looks like for this piece. The last five minutes serve as a kind of coda, where the unrest subsides somewhat. An angelic voice enters the proceedings, but it receives a rather hostile accompaniment, and the angelic voice transforms into one of despair, anger, and frustration. The piece concludes without resolution or closure. This comes highly recommended and warrants repeated listening rounds. Heavy stuff, yes and absolutely not happy-clappy music. (MDS)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/

TETÉ LEGUÍA – INTO A GREATER NOTHING (CD by F.I.M. Records)

This is the second time Teté gets a review on these pages. The first instance was in 2021, in Vital Weekly number 1042, featuring a duo recording of electric guitar and saxophone courtesy of Martin Escalante. Here we have Teté torturing (in the words of Frans de Waard in the review mentioned before) the six strings of an electric guitar and the four strings of a regular bass guitar. Leguía hails from Lima, Peru and is also a visual artist. He recorded with Weasel Walter of the Flying Luttenbachers. As for the music, this is intelligent hardcore noise with numerous nuances. Not surprising because the source material is excellent, but the recording engineer for this record is Jason Lafarge, who did multiple recording sessions for SWANS, Spinifex, Irreversible Entanglements and Cactus Truck, among many other groups. Mixing and mastering were done by Lasse Marhaug, a well-known figure in the noise and experimental music scene, based in Norway. Yes, there are heavy noise sections with a lot of distortion and feedback, but also delicate sections, like in the middle part of Trinitarias. For some, this might be too much to take in in a single listening session. But as always with this kind of music, listening to all the details is like a (super)sonic meditation, albeit not with New Age drivel but with high-level intelligent noise. And by intelligent, I mean with intent and purpose. Teté knows what he’s doing. I like this one a lot. (MDS)
––– Address: https://fimimprovisation.bandcamp.com/

XU – PIANO THINS (lathe LP by Spalt-ung)
LES MARQUISES & QUATUOR UNA CORDA SOLEILS NOIRS – LIVE À L’OPÉRA UNDERGROUND (lathe LP by Spalt-ung)
HOWARD STELZER + LICHT-UNGHERE – THERE (lathe 10″ by Spalt-ung)
MERZBOW + LICHT-UNG – MERZLICHT (10″ by Licht-ung)
BIONULOR – 23 (lathe 10″ by Spalt-ung)

Here’s a very kind bundle of lathe records and one vinyl by Germany’s Spalt-ung, a subdivision of Licht-ung.
A lathe cut is a record not pressed on vinyl but cut onto polycarbonate plastic, and is usually more expensive. I started with XU, the musical project of Nicola Fornasari, which has been active since 2010 and has released numerous albums on Eilean Records, Triple Moon Records, Cathedral Transmissions, Twice Removed, and many other labels. I only reviewed three of his works, see Vital Weekly 939, 999 and 1135. Some of the older music I found a bit jazzy, and the last one was more ambient. This new record contains six pieces, created from tracks and sketches recorded between 2018 and 2020, and the piano plays a primary role. XU also uses tape loops, field recordings, Minibrute, Vocla FM (the latter two only on one track each)and lots of processing through Ableton Live. This results in some lovely music, even more ambient than before, I think and very much along the lines of what I remember from latter-day 12K releases—reflective music, minimalist and painterly. Slowly tunes on the piano, lots of atmospheric treatments, lots of delicate interaction. In my (solo) household, this accounts for early morning music; I’m awake but not ready to face the world and want my day to start slowly (and remain in that pace, and that rarely happens), and have some filling this space with gentleness – that’s not the morning paper, but music by the likes of XU. Do I care that it sounds like old 12K releases (which rarely pass the CD player these days!)? Not really. I care about something relaxing and pleasant, and XU delivers that.
The other lathe LP in this lot is a big surprise, a bigger one than XU. If XU is the result of some fine composing at home, ‘Soleil Noirs’ is a live recording by Les Marquises & Quatuor Una Corda. The first is a trio of Jean-Sebastian Nouveau (“claviers, sampler, chant”0 and Martin Duru (claviers, sampler) and Agathe Max (violin), while Quatuor Una Corda is a string quartet. They recorded the music on March 6, 2024, at L’Opéra Underground in Lyon, and 30 copies of the recording are available. However, it sounds like music that could sell a lot of copies. Very modern classical in all its sustaining and melodic minimalism. Filmic and massive, and with a streak of post-rock meets ambient; that part we thank the electronic part for. The two ends, electronics and strings, blend very well, in an elegant long first side, called ‘L’Etreinte de l’Aurore’, while on the other side, ‘Le Sommeil Du Berger’ has a slightly more dissonant approach, with every player having a distinct different role, with the violins playing shorter attacks. There is a shorter, second piece on this side of the record, which is the most rhythmic piece, in which there is also room for vocals (the ‘chant’ might also be on the first side, in the form of choir sounds), and form an interesting coda at the end of the record. As said, I think this is the kind of music that easily appeals to a broader audience, beyond the 30 copies available. Not entirely my cup of tea, but in terms of electronics and violins playing modern music, something I nevertheless enjoyed.
On 10, we find a collaboration by Howard Stelzer and licht-ung. This is the second pressing of 13 copies, following a first one of seven copies. The first one indicated that this was a split record, but that has now been corrected as it’s a collaborative record. ‘Here’ opens with licht-ung’s violin, an instrument he uses a lot, extensively and minimally layered, with a bit of the Stelzer static/white noise in the background until, midway, he takes over, like dust covering the strings, and residual sound is left behind. It’s an excellent piece of music, a meeting of two distinctly opposite sound events, which kept me interested for the full 13 minutes. ‘There’ is a different proposition, in which noise elements, captured on tape, set against hissy drone sounds, both perhaps more Stelzer than licht-ung, but who knows? As a piece of noise music, fairly interesting, but maybe also a bit too straightforward? Only when the noise wore out but didn’t disappear did things become more interesting, but unfortunately, it was too short.
On ‘real’ vinyl (edition of 100 copies), a meeting of licht-ung and the Japanoise master Masami Akita, also known as Merzbow. There is no additional information on the cover or Bandcamp, and I assume this is one of those collaborations in which one party provides sound material to the other. The other applies various sound treatments, resulting in the final product. In both parts, I recognise the licht-ung material, violin bending and such. In the first part, it takes about three minutes for Merzbow to go out on a full blast, yet appearing in the piece before that, but when he takes over, it’s a complete haul-over – a classic Merzbowian blast and none of the source material can be recognised. The second part is, perhaps, more interesting if you want to hear them on an equal part, as the licht-ung material stays recognisable part of the piece. I admit I am no longer the Merzbow I once was, but I always hear something new with keen interest, and this is a most enjoyable record; the side on which I hear both is my favourite; the other side will appeal more to strict Merzbow die-hards.
And last but certainly ot least, is Polish musician Bionulor. I reviewed some of his work before. He usually concentrates on a single sound, and after performing numerous processes, he creates his piece by editing and rearranging these processes until the composition is complete. A computer musician. On his 10″ he lists for side A the following sources: “a girl singing on a train and her electric toy”, and for the other side it is “sounds of a church tuning in a small mountain town and teenagers gossiping on a mountain trail nearby”; I believe there’s a word missing after church, organ, perhaps. As before, Bionulor arrives at the most delicate music, with some material being stretched out, forming vulnerable drones, and leaving some of the original sounds to be part of the finished result. On side A, this is the girl’s voice, and although I have no idea what she sings, there is a sad, melancholic quality to it. Another trademark is the minimalist exploration within the piece. The other side is even more minimalist with what I suspect are organ sounds. The piece has two parts, and in the second part, the organ is joined by a minimalist voice sample, which works like a rhythm. Quite a lovely record, which in a way sounded like a time travel to the early parts of this century when this sort of warm laptop music was en vogue. (FdW)
––– Address: https://licht-ung.bandcamp.com/

OREST SMOVZH – KALLE HERMANNI AUTIO/KOOTUT TEOKSET SOOLOVIULULLE (7″, private)

Like many promos, this one also comes with a note. It says that the record (one-sided), contains “my complete works for violin alone. I don’t care if it’s reviewed or not” and that the composer is aware that we encourage people not to send “contemporary music”. Okay… well, let’s review it anyway. The 7″ comes with a nice booklet with scores and drawings, and perhaps (!) they are related to the three pieces on this record. On Bandcamp, I also read this about the pieces: “Couch – the Zeno Cosini tapes was first performed in February 2023 in Kharkiv. [This is four minutes and 20 seconds]. (call it anything) – osmvzh 33 notes young was given to Orest as a bookmark at 8:00 outside of Airo kahvila ja kauppa in Töölö. [30 seconds]. In maximum yeah yeah the performer takes only one breath. [11 seconds).” Plus. “Kalle Autio is a composer working in Herttoniemi, Helsinki. Orest Smovzh is a violinist, tries to do interesting things.” The only violin solo composer I know that plays a similar kind of music is Japanese Agencement. There is a similar extremist attack on the strings. Still, Smovzh leans more towards serious modern classical music and less towards improvisation, and I am writing this on the condition that the reader knows I have no idea if this is true or not. I enjoyed this more as a complete package, a glimpse into a world I know little about. A neat little object! (FdW)
––– Address: https://orestsmovzh.bandcamp.com/

LUNT – NOISE TO BODY, REPAIRS IN D (CASSETTE BY EH? RECORDS)

Behind Lunt, we find Gilles Deles-Velins, who has been releasing music since the early 2000s, with albums on Another, Carbon, and his own Unique Records. I reviewed three of his works (Vital Weekly 934, 480 and 422), and I admit I have no idea what they sounded like. Deles-Velins plays the guitar alongside objects, effects, and amplification. In my previous reviews, I don’t recall the word ‘noise’ being used frequently, but on this short (23-minute) cassette, there are quite a few instances of it, especially on the first side. There is some lovely, controlled feedback and distortion, mixed with finger picking. However, I enjoyed the other side even more, as here the atmospherics come to the foreground, even when the music has a roughness, adding to that atmospheric quality. It tinkles away, drifting slowly, rumbling and stumbling, and there is the occasional noise outburst at the start and towards the end, as if to say: this is where it’s coming from, or this is what precedes it. I’m not sure, but I immensely enjoy this approach; noise is good, atmospheric noise is even better. (FdW)
––– Address: https://publiceyesore.bandcamp.com/

POST HUMANIST HANGOVER – PARABOLIC DIALOGUE (cassette by Servataguse Muusika)

If I’m honest, the credits are a bit unclear. It says Post Humanist Hangover, as being the name of the project. Still, it lists Erik Alalooga playing “mechanical sound-machines” on the first five tracks (side A) and Sigrid Savi and Karolin Poska playing the same on two tracks, side B of the cassette. I don’t know what connects them into one name. From a note with the cassette, I understand Alalooga is “the sorcerer of mechanics and DC motors”, and I am urged to look at some YouTube clips. I did, and it seems indeed impressive; he plays large mechanical structures manually. And, maybe a spoiler, the kind of thing that needs to be watched because the sound is half the fun. There is an industrial music aspect to these recordings, featuring machines in large halls being switched on and off, with wires connecting and disconnecting, reminiscent of machine installations from a time when that was considered hip. Maybe it still is, but I move less in art circles than I used to, so I am thinking of people like Stelarc and Barry Schwartz or Survival Research Laboratories. I enjoyed the brutalist machine sounds on this cassette, also made me remember Vivenza’s music, but in the hands of Post Humanist Hangover, all a bit more organic. There is not a lot of difference between the sides, but if any, I’d say the B-side is more spun out, minimalist, exploring a few sounds for a more extended period. Maybe the gentler side of industrialism, whereas Alalooga works with dystopia in his mind, the crushing wheels of industry. Look up some videos on YouTube for some context, as I’m sure it will make appreciation even easier. (FdW)
––– Address: https://erikalalooga.bandcamp.com/