Week 24

ZYKLEN – DESIRE PATHS (CD by Owl Totem Recordings)
MIKE LAZAREV – TARNISHED TAPES AND SATURATED SIGNALS (CD by Dronarivm)
FUKUOKA RINJI & MICHEL HENRITZI (2CD by Exklageto)
SANDOR VALY – EARLY WORKS 1988-1992 (CD by New Polar Sounds, Unexplained Sounds Group)
LAURA COCKS – FATHM (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
WORTH – ME VEXAT PEDE (CD by Aussaat)
ILUITEQ & ERALDO BERNOCCHI – FADE, REMAIN (CD by 13)
SPLENDORE – I KNOW YOUR VOICE, BUT IT’S HARD TO FIND IN THE CROWD (CD by 13)
LIA BOSCH – EVER EXPANDING (CD by 13)
FRANCESCO PAOLO PALADINO & DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ – MONASTIR (CD by 13)
LIKE THE SNOW – THE POWER OF ETERNAL LOVE (CD by 13)
AG DAVIS – DECADE (CD by Psych KG)
DIETRICHS – NO BADHU (CD by Relative Pitch Records)
AUDOYNAUD – HYPERBORÉEN (CD by Eaux Sombres)
REBIS – SANS MOTIF APPARENT (CD by Eaux Sombres)
JÉRÔME NOETINGER – ELOGE DES ABFALLS (10″ lathe cut by Jack’s Quokka)
MARTÍN ESCALANTE – ICONOTECA (10″ lathe cut by Jack’s Quokka)
DUSTBREEDERS FEAT. JUNKO – AT SONIC PROTEST (10″ lathe cut by Jack’s Quokka)
DE FABRIEK – DE AANSLAG (CDR by De Fabriek)
RSN/BALTZER – APORIA #1 (CDR by Attentuation Circuit/Not Yet Remembered)
LIMINAL HAZE – VOLUME 9 (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation)
CRAIG JOHNSON & MATT ATKINS – FERRIC AFTERGLOW (cassette by Steep Gloss)
KAMLOOPS – RECYCLED WORKS (cassette by DIM Records)

ZYKLEN – DESIRE PATHS (CD by Owl Totem Recordings)

Behind Zyklen, which should be spelt as zYklen, we find Simon Ferris. I don’t think I have yet had the pleasure of hearing his music, which was released on labels such as Neotantra, Mare Nostrum, and Chitra Records. He is from Devon, and that’s all I know, other than he is labelled as “a musician, composer and synthesist”. He plays ambient music, and the eight pieces on this CD are a delight to hear, even when his statement left me a bit puzzled: “The human obsession with exploring; risking life, whether to establish a name, expand human knowledge, or simply discover what’s over the horizon—a theme repeated by civilisation over thousands of years. Our planet-wide presence is evidence of our compulsion to explore and fulfil our desire to create paths. It will continue for as long as we remain curious.” As to his instruments, I can merely guess, but a “synthesist” is no doubt a player of synthesisers, but I’d be surprised if that’s all he does. I can also hear guitars, field recordings and electronic processing (of maybe voices?), but what do I know? Perhaps it’s all imagination. His ambient music is quiet, minimal and sparse, yet very atmospheric and somewhat melodic. There is a tendency to please, making it a bit new age-like (and with that text in mind, that’s no surprise, unless I didn’t understand it correctly), but I think zYklen stays with the world of ambient music, because of the darker colours of his music. It’s all very spacious and right up my alley. I had this on repeat a few times, doing some other stuff, but also while I was doing nothing of great importance and relaxing, and this turned out to be the perfect soundtrack for that. And it’s not even a lazy Sunday afternoon. (FdW)
––– Address: https://owltotem.bandcamp.com/

MIKE LAZAREV – TARNISHED TAPES AND SATURATED SIGNALS (CD by Dronarivm)

The former Russian label, now operating out of Amsterdam, has already brought a lot of ambient releases, and with that, a lot of new names. I did hear of Mike Lazarev before, when I reviewed his work with Arovane (Vital Weekly 1197), and back then I wrote that he has a studio in London, with a piano, but otherwise I know nothing about him. I haven’t heard solo music from him, and when he writes that “‘Tarnished Tapes and Saturated Signals’ continues the sonic journey I explored in my last album, Sacred Tonalities (Past Inside The Present, 2023)”, I have to take his word for it. He’s returning to his roots, sculpting “each sound within a heavily layered texture, lo-fi aesthetic, and analogue recording, but also in the central idea behind each piece”. And there’s something about old tapes, warped and distorted, but, oddly enough, that’s not something I hear in the music. There seems to be a lot of synthesisers and electronics at work, and not much else, and like the label’s catalogue, it’s all very atmospheric, pretty dark, but never too dark. There is also a trace or hint of a melody buried in these washes, a piano even (in ‘Leaving This Behind Again (And Again)’). An oddball is ‘Buried Riddles Under Broken Glass’, which has a quite present rhythm machine, and synthesisers, which breaks with the carefully constructed mood of the first five pieces, but seeing also the next one has rhythms, less forceful but still present enough, so maybe it’s all less of an oddball and more a display of his talents. Great release! Another one for long, cold days, which isn’t today, but quiet ambient music always has a welcome stay here. (FdW)
––– Address: https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/

FUKUOKA RINJI & MICHEL HENRITZI (2CD by Exklageto)

Germany’s Exklageto label loves old stuff, but not necessarily reissues. Sadly, I only heard a handful of their releases, as some great names are in their catalogue. Here’s a double CD with two live recordings by Michel Henritzi on lapsteel and Fukuoka Rinji on electric fiddle, percussions and voice, and the first CD on piano. There are also guest players, and it says on the cover, ‘piano on 4’ or ‘voice on 5’, but both CDs contain one long track, and the parts are indicated by times, so you can figure it out (if you want to). The first disc is a recording in Tokyo in 2018; the other is in Osaka from 2013. It’s a bit much to listen to these two hours in one sitting, even when the music is a pleasant form of unrest. The music is improvised, as is to be expected, but with the fiddle, lap steel, and a ton of reverb, the music has a sort of minimalist, folk-like feeling. Metal on metal and some kind of 1960s New York feeling, meeting free noise rock from the early years of this decade. On the Osaka recording, there is also piano, guitar and saxophone, and especially the latter does its best to draw this into the world of free improv; luckily, only in the latter half of the recording. I think the first disc is a more coherent piece, with some great reflective folk-like moments, but also bursting with pain and agony. Here, the material stays together, has that same early minimalism feeling, meeting free rock. It’s all a bit much, but it’s also quite rewarding. (FdW)
––– Address: psychkg@online.de

SANDOR VALY – EARLY WORKS 1988-1992 (CD by New Polar Sounds, Unexplained Sounds Group)

Early experimentalists are fun. Why do you think? It’s because they experimented with sounds when I wasn’t active with sounds. The limitations of the techniques during the experiment show how artists back then worked and thought. So yeah, some sounds in the past are evident in their ‘reverb and delay’ or even a particular type of delay. Compression was either an Alesis 3630 or a tape compression through use of a cassette player, etc, etc. But the German phrase ‘In der Beschränkung zeigt sich der Meister’ (Goethe) perfectly describes why I like listening to ‘early masters’.
And while talking about experimentalism, there are different eras of experiments. The 50s and 60s, when there was just electronics and measuring equipment and not really synths. Then the 70’s and 80s when there were synths but they were mainly used to mimic ‘real’ sounds, but at the same time in the 70s and 80s (mostly 80s though) the use of real instruments to sound unreal, and showing at the same time the beauty of the electronics and synths. Sándor Vály’s “Early Works 1988-1992” is an example that fits in this last category. We will let the promo sheet do the talking for us.
‘Early Works is a selection of experimental two-channel recordings made between 1988 and 1992, first released as a limited edition cassette 30 years later by New Polar Sound. Side A was conceived in Hungary between ’88 and ’89 during a forced visit to a mental hospital to avoid the army, inspired by reading Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Side B collects recordings of emotional impressions of Finland between ’90 and ’92, a time when he met his wife.’ It was initially released as a limited cassette and rereleased by New Polar Sounds in 2022. And now Unexplained Sounds Group is releasing it as a CD.
Sound wise the 88/89 pieces will be interesting for fans of Lustmord (“Bardo Thodol I”) and early T.A.G.C & Clock Dva (“Souldrum I”) stuff. Maybe the trumpet is part of why, but most of all, it’s the general atmosphere. “Limbus Patrum” and “Souldrum II” are quite erratic and at moments noisy and would have matched a release on Ant-Zen during the time of ‘Veromon’ and ‘Xerosma’. And finally, “Life-Death” and “Melancholy” are very nice ambient pieces, I suspect will be written after he met his wife; These tracks are filled with love. In conclusion, this is an album that fits perfectly in my collection of early experimentalists. I will happily play it when I feel like getting some inspiration to look twice at the tools I’m using to get the most out of what I have (instead of buying new stuff each time I feel a writer’s block coming up). Very inspiring works! (BW)
––– Address: https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/

LAURA COCKS – FATHM (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

Last time Laura Cocks was featured on Vital Weekly (number 1324) was with works by others with only the piccolo as the main instrument. FATHM is a solo record with the concert flute and the alto flute. What Cocks does is extend the traditional flute sound with added voice. Simultaneously using her voice while playing the flute. In the first track, that technique adds a second line of melody, and it’s wonderful to hear that extra voice with a slightly different timbre. She does the same in track three with the alto flute (or is it a bass flute?). In FAVN, she uses the flute primarily is a way to function as a mouthpiece for her own voice, making guttural noises and even mimicking electronic sounds. It stems from her dissertation “Corporeal Analysis: The Performing Body as Analytic Site”. Or more correctly, perhaps vice-versa: her way of playing is quite visceral, and she wanted to write about this as an additional way of research on musical communication and analysis. It’s an interesting notion because musicians, whether they improvise or play a written score, are not robots that play a score in the same way each time. On this release, she successfully recorded her extraordinary prowess and ideas of how a flute can sound. Not only that, but also how you can improvise and come to finished pieces that keep the listener engaged with the music. In other words, this comes highly recommended. One word of advice: listen to this in a quiet environment. The music deserves attentive listening. (MDS)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/

WORTH – ME VEXAT PEDE (CD by Aussaat)

Thankfully, there is the web for translating Latin, as mine is quite rusty after not using it for about 40 years. ‘Me vexat pede’ should mean something like ‘it annoys me at the foot’ or more freely ‘my foot itches’. And that means as much as ‘being bothered by something trivial’. But the whole CD is filled with Latin references so there must be many trivial things pissing William van Gorder off. “Me vexat pede” is the second album by Worth on the German Aussaat label, which is quite a loud label. Circle of Shit, L’Eclipse Nue, Entre Vifs … Not the stuff you want to listen to when you’re crocheting.
The album consists of 11 tracks with a total playtime of under 40 minutes. Five tracks are under tw minutes and two are over 7 minutes. My first thought was that it’s all over the place, and many of those short ones are like amuses in a luxury restaurant. They taste good but are too small to give you a feeling of fulfilment. The longer ones are well-thought-out compositions or explosions of sound. What kind of sound? From what I thought, I could recognise it’s a plethora of ‘stuff’. Contact mics, pedals, loops, probably some prepared sounds on tapes for that nice tape compression effect, and then all those frequencies through a mixer and EQ.
Yes, a lot is happening, even or maybe especially in the short tracks. Those come out like the experiments that William used to explore different setups. Because of that, I like the short ones, but the long ones are more interesting because they offer time and space for a better flow and development. I’ll ask Frans to include 2 of the shorter tracks in this week’s Podcast so you can listen to it and see what I mean. Besides that, this album is loud and in your face. Not much vocals but a lot of noise. (BW)
––– Address: https://www.facebook.com/Aussaatundernte/

ILUITEQ & ERALDO BERNOCCHI – FADE, REMAIN (CD by 13)
SPLENDORE – I KNOW YOUR VOICE, BUT IT’S HARD TO FIND IN THE CROWD (CD by 13)
LIA BOSCH – EVER EXPANDING (CD by 13)
FRANCESCO PAOLO PALADINO & DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ – MONASTIR (CD by 13)
LIKE THE SNOW – THE POWER OF ETERNAL LOVE (CD by 13)

One of the things I noted when I opened the package with this new bundle of releases by 13/Silentes/Standa is various new names I had not heard of before. I started with the release by ILUITEQ (preferred spelling) and Eraldo Bernocchi. The latter is a name I am more familiar with by name than by music. He has a decades-spanning career, including work with Sigillum S, The Sodality and working with Bill Laswell and Mick Harris, among others, but I have never heard much of this. ILUITEQ is a duo of Sergio Calzoni and Andrea Bellucci, who have various albums on n5MD, and their music is new to me. If 13 is a label for all things ambient, this album is a trademark example. It’s an ambient dealing with “the condition of “fading”, meant as leaving or departing, with the notion of “remaining”, either physically or spiritually”—spacious, atmospheric music, with long-form synthesiser sounds (all analogue, so we’re promised, plus outboard gear), moody and slow piano parts. This is not the soundtrack for a bright and sunny day, but then, today, there are grey clouds covering the Netherlands, and then this music makes it the perfect mood for some heavy contemplating the sad state of the world. That, or this is the funeral music, the farewell to the world. It’s not music you haven’t heard before, but it’s done with great care for detail and an absolute great production. It can’t always be new and innovative; sometimes it has to be too sombre and dark, and I love it.
SPLENDORE (again preferred spelling) is an Italian musician, DJ, curator, and performer from Ivrea, a small town in northern Italy. This an album centred on using the voice, “the compositions in this work are made up almost exclusively of voices—an extensive spectrum of voices that sing, speak, whisper, processed through Auto-Tune, or emerge from WhatsApp messages, VSTs, analog and digital keyboards from the ’80s and ’90s, field recordings, and samples from films, TV, and YouTube.” Interesting, “the titles of the compositions are inspired by the work of Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader”, the artist who made films f him crying, falling from a roof and who disappeared while trying to cross the ocean in a small boat. This is a short release, clocking at 28 minutes, of stretched voices, sampled voices, some in Italian, English or languages I can’t decipher. I don’t understand much of what is said or the general idea behind this music. It’s less ambient than I expect from this label, and deals more with experimental music, from the perspective of voice and its various uses. Maybe, there isn’t much to understand and it’s all to be experienced and enjoyed on an emotional level, but then I’d think the language barrier is too high. For me, at least.
Also new is the name of Lia Bosch, and there is no information about her (not sure of gender). The information about the music is somewhat cryptic: “‘Ever Expanding’ unfolds like a fissure in the continuity of the real. Each sonic fragment carries the memory of an archaic gesture, heralding a form yet to come. Nothing asserts itself, yet everything emerges with the gentle force of an apparition—unstable configurations that breathe in the space between the familiar and the elusive. The pieces overlap without collision: each remains distinct, yet surfaces within a shared field. What arises is a multiplicity that resists synthesis, favouring coexistence instead. A quiet tension transforms listening into a practice of exposure to the other, the distant, the nearly familiar. Sound draws mobile surfaces, where inside and outside no longer stand in opposition. “Ever Expanding” is a geography of impermanent presences. Here, listening means becoming porous: welcoming the simultaneity of what insists without a name and leaves behind a trace without origin.” That’s the complete text from the website, and that’s a long quote indeed, but maybe you can make more out of this than I do. While the intellectual side of the release didn’t work for me, I thought the music was quite interesting. It’s pretty experimental, and it’s hard to define its instruments. My guess is Lia Bosch uses electronic means, a combination of synthesisers and sampling, without knowing what she samples. Maybe field recordings? I don’t know. The music is relatively quiet and could have been mastered more. It all remains very obscure and hermetically closed, which is a pity.
The final two releases are more son-based. First, there is the music of Francesco Paolo Paladino, which is the soundtrack for a film he made, ‘Monastir’, with the vocal help of Dorothy Moskowitz and texts and more voices by Luca Chino Ferrari and Edward Ka-Spel (one track out of 15). The music reminds me of modern classical music, but I read there is also a randomised aspect to the music, in the tradition of John Cage. It would take another very lengthy quote to tell what this movie is about, but a monastery in the skies plays a role, and it’s some kind of science fiction, if I understood it in some way. I admit I am not impressed. The music is too classical for me, and the voice of Moskowitz is not for me. The package of this release is beautiful! A 21×21 cm, 24-page full colour book, with the complete libretto, and lots of images (I assume from the film), makes this an excellent production, and I am sure this is something that could appeal to a broader audience; my opinion in this should be irrelevant.
I end with Like The Snow, of whom I reviewed three previous releases (Vital Weekly 1390, 1333, and 1234). This new album continues the earlier releases, about which I wrote last time, “This is, perhaps, not the kind of music for Vital Weekly. Like The Snow combines electronics with the orchestral sample pack; it’s all a bit gothic. Heavy on synthesisers, full of big drama and triumphant music, sitting next to introspective pieces.” Last time, there were some voices, which seem to have disappeared again, and the new album is all instrumental, and relies heavily on the atmospheric side of things. Very melodic and not very abstract, and like the Paladino release, something for a broader audience, especially suited for the big screen, depicting the big drama. I am reminded of NLC, who operate in a similar territory, which is, in all honesty, a different world than Vital Weekly. That’s also something I wrote before, and I hope it will work one day Like The Snow, as his music deserves it. (FdW)
––– Address: http://store.silentes.it/

AG DAVIS – DECADE (CD by Psych KG)

I had never heard of AG Davis before, so I looked on Discogs (the label’s website needs some updates). It says, “AG Davis is an author, performance artist/poet and composer from Jacksonville, Florida. His work often delves into the aphotic side of the human psyche, exploring the multifaceted realms of psychosis.” From this, I deduced some kind of outsider music, and judging by the 18 pieces, maybe this is the case. Outsider music isn’t a well-defined musical genre, but rather a feeling. Think of naivety, spontaneity, and technical incompetence to make a proper recording, leaving in all failures and, generally, a release of emotions. There’s more to it, but maybe you get the drift. David plays guitar, uses electronics, sings and perhaps there are some keyboards. He creates some wild and intense music, which I didn’t find easy to understand or like, partly because it’s difficult to understand the outsider artist. What motivates the artist, or what emotion is the artist looking for? That said, Davis also plays some downright instrumental pieces, such sampled voice madness of ‘The Heavens Open’. I don’t know what to write because I find music with lyrics difficult to review, as they usually elude me. I imagine this kind of tormented music is something for a broader audience, beyond the world of Vital Weekly. The most remarkable track is ‘Anthrgrl’, a cover of The Only Ones’ ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’. And knowing the background of the composer of that song, it’s less of a surprise to find it included here. (FdW)
––– Address: psychkg@online.de

DIETRICHS – NO BADHU (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

The Dietrichs are Don and Camille, father and daughter; this is their third release, their second for Relative Pitch Records. Their previous release was recorded with a live audience. This latest effort is a studio session—four pieces in over forty minutes. Tenor sax with added distortion, probably a mic and a pedal and the same for the cello, this is a fascinating musical ride into the world of noise making. Noise not for the sake of noise, but with intelligence and yes, subtlety within the not-so-subtle sonic assault of the senses. There are moments where the tenor sax isn’t recognisable as a tenor sax, and the same goes for the cello. When Camille plucks the strings, it sounds like an electric guitar. The last track is the most uncompromising and the least subtle, except for the final five seconds. Kudos to the unknown engineer, mixer, and mastering engineer. They did a fantastic job as well because everything sounds crisp and clean. Yes, you read that right. This kind of music could be on an indiscernible wall of sound, but it all sounds crystal clear within the layers of distortion. Don Dietrich and fellow sax player Jim Sauter were guest musicians on the ‘Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style’ track on Sonic Youth’s ‘Murray Street. Jim and Don founded Borbetomagus with Donald Miller on guitar and Brian Doherty using electronics. They were into heavy walls of noise. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, because Don’s daughter uses the same mentality with the cello. All in all, a terrific record, definitely not spouse-friendly. Put this on if you want to eliminate some cobwebs in your head. (MDS)
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/

AUDOYNAUD – HYPERBORÉEN (CD by Eaux Sombres)
REBIS – SANS MOTIF APPARENT (CD by Eaux Sombres)

Eaux Sombres is a new French label, and a short note with these two CDs says that ReBix plays improvised music, and Audoynaud plays experimental chanson. I started with the latter, and I am not afraid to say that I dislike chansons. It must be a language thing. Which is also a problem on Bandcamp, because everything is in French. I wonder why bother sending a promotional CD abroad to an online publication, which continuously mentions that song and lyric-based music is not their interest, and in a language we don’t understand (well, possibly you couldn’t know, even when also mentioned before). Much like Wiki, Google Translate is a trusted friend who tells us that ‘Hyperboréen’ is “a journey to a fantastical and dreamy North, where the cold and d
istance call for contemplation.” There are six musicians: Raimon Castells Juli (nylon guitar), Evelyne Coen (oboe, English horn, cello), David Michelet (nylon guitar), Jean-Marc Ladet (violin, viola), and Michel Granon (accordion). “This powerful atmosphere of mental and literary images resonated with the recording, isolated in the heart of the Puisaye countryside, of the album’s six tracks.” and “The sounds of the instruments are deconstructed and reassembled in a process close to electroacoustic editing, while sounds from elsewhere, produced by analog machines, are added, evoking the ghosts with which we coexist.” Granted, this music has an experimental edge, with some electronic colouring, but that’s not enough to save it for me.
The program I use to rip CDs for the podcast lists ReBix as jazz, which is, no surprise, not a genre I love either (and because of its influx in the VW HQ, not something I will miss when I leave this behind). We have here a duo of Fred Wall°ich (saxophones) and Pierre Audoynaud (electro-acoustic manipulations), the latter, I Google Translated, doing this: “the sound of the sax being run through a mixing desk and its various filters returning the sound to a live setting, giving it a different feel.” There are four pieces, each about 15 minutes. The music is interesting, even for someone not particularly fond of saxophones. Maybe I expected the saxophone to disappear in the treatments, which it doesn’t, but the electronic side sounds pretty good, and Wall°ich’s saxophone isn’t the all-dominating instrument it sometimes is. Melodic at times, playful, it reminds me of Lol Coxhill (incidentally, also the only saxophone player with a CD I return to often, his collaboration/split with Eyeless in Gaza). But an hour is quite long to get this point across. After 30 minutes, I knew what it was about, and the other two pieces continued that. Still, a pretty solid work, even when not entirely my cupper. (FdW)
––– Address: https://eauxsombres.bandcamp.com/

JÉRÔME NOETINGER – ELOGE DES ABFALLS (10″ lathe cut by Jack’s Quokka)
MARTÍN ESCALANTE – ICONOTECA (10″ lathe cut by Jack’s Quokka)
DUSTBREEDERS FEAT. JUNKO – AT SONIC PROTEST (10″ lathe cut by Jack’s Quokka)

Jack’s Quokka is a subdivision of Germany’s Psych KG (like Exklageto) devoted to releasing lathe-cut records. The catalogue has seven releases, all in 10″ format. Because I know his music best, I started with the record by Jérôme Noetinger, who takes a delve into his archive of magnetic tape scraps, which he “accumulated and preserved for better or worse over several years of practice, a revisiting of personal trash and other musical borrowings.” Noetinger is a man of tape manipulation with a career that spans nearly 40 years. His live manipulations work is excellent; his craft is outstanding. Using a single loop and four tracks, he keeps feeding sounds into the melee, overlaying and erasing sounds on the spot. Electronic sounds, acoustic sounds, it doesn’t matter, and Noetinger makes excellent use of the stereo field. The music is in constant motion, moving and shaking, a wild collage of musique concrète, but then the brutalist version, uncut and untamed. There are two pieces on this record, twenty minutes of music, which is not nearly enough to satisfy my appetite. Intense music, but I played it repeatedly until I realised I had more music to listen to.
Twice in a row, I wrote about saxophonist Martin Escalante, and twice I expressed my non-enthusiasm for the saxophone, but “I think of two instances of saxophone music I loved; one is a cassette by Lol Coxhill and Eyeless In Gaza, and the other is my fond memories of seeing Borbetomagus twice.” Escalante’s music is somewhere in the latter territory: noise music. That prompted Escalante’s request to send me three further albums, which I declined. On this 10″ lathe cut, he plays solo saxophone, one side having one track of ten minutes, the second has 32 tracks, also ten minutes in total, so a very fragmented thing. He recorded the music in the bathroom in May and June 2023, which is more noisy saxophone music. Even without amplification, Escalante knows how to play very loud, veering towards feedback. It’s very chaotic, so a ten-minute track is no different than 32 tracks of mere seconds each. This 10″ record doesn’t win me over for all things saxophone, even when I liked it. But what I liked about it is also its brief character of 20 minutes, which, in terms of noise, is usually enough, a solid ear cleanser and time to move on.
On the 10″ by Dustbreeders with Junko, we find more noise. They often appear together. Junko is a voice artist, and Dustbreeders is a trio of guitar improvisers: Yvos Botz, Thierry Delles, and Michel Henritzi. However, according to the cover, they play record players this time. That’s not to say this drastically changes their music; it remains noisy. Juko’s voice reminds me of Yoko Ono in her most radical shouting and screaming, without the backup of the feedback by John Lennon, but with the densely orchestrated sounds of vinyl abuse, so I assume. These vinyl treatments are routed through their guitar pedals, and it all becomes highly unrecognisable. The result is an endless barrage of noise, picked up at the Sonic Protest festival with a pair of microphones, which adds a lovely spacious quality to the music. The music isn’t hermetically sealed off in a wall of distorted feedback, like many harsh noise wall musicians proudly do. Here, the music drifts somewhat unevenly through the venue, which marks quite a difference. Lovely improvised brutalism here. (FdW)
––– Address: psychkg@online.de

DE FABRIEK – DE AANSLAG (CDR by De Fabriek)

The Dutch tax office sends out its requests in a characteristic blue envelope. The tax assessment is ‘aanslag’, which means ‘a hit’ or an attempt at someone’s life. The latest release by De Fabriek comes in one of those envelopes. It’s about what is called ‘kinderopvangtoeslagaffaire or toeslagenaffaire’, which Wiki explains for us as “The Dutch childcare benefits scandal (Dutch: kinderopvangtoeslagaffaire or toeslagenaffaire, lit. '[childcare] benefits affair’) refers to a political scandal in the Netherlands involving false allegations of welfare fraud by the Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst) against thousands of families claiming childcare benefits. Between 2005 and 2019, approximately 26,000 parents were wrongly accused of making fraudulent benefit claims, resulting in demands to repay their received allowances in full. This sum often amounted to tens of thousands of euros, driving families into severe financial hardship.” De Fabriek makes clear, in no uncertain terms, what they think about this. For this release, De Fabriek honcho Richard van Dellen took a backseat and Chandor Gloomy delivered sound material to Martijn Hohmann, who mixed this with his music, and reasonably quickly, there was this concept and four finished pieces, and with Van Dellen’s blessing released. Music-wise, we find De Fabriek in a particular experimental corner we haven’t heard in quite some time. I know Gloomy lives in the Netherlands, but I don’t know much about him. The four pieces deal with the cruder end of drones, primitive sampling, and, possibly, turntable manipulations; I hear looped and scratched vinyl. There are also some highly obscured field recordings. However, the music refrains from being all too noisy, as distortion is not too much part of it. There is a creepy undercurrent here, which is hard to define, but I like to think of that spooky uneasiness; maybe of a bit of dystopian, big brother is watching you, but that’s no doubt the thematic approach drawing me right in.
The titles and some info are printed on the playable side of the disc, which I never saw before and looks great. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.universaal.nl/site/

RSN/BALTZER – APORIA #1 (CDR by Attentuation Circuit/Not Yet Remembered)

Usually, a release which separates the artists by / is, in my book, a split release, but in this case, I think it is a collaboration, and perhaps & would be more appropriate. I reviewed work by RSN (or rather rsn) before (Vital Weekly 1431), and it’s the brainchild of Thomas Rosen, also a member of [ B O L T ]. The two releases I heard were solo, but I know there have been a few collaborations already. This one is with Baltzer, a new name and behind that is Sebastian Brohn. They work with electronics and electric guitars and created four lengthy pieces, which, at 77 minutes, make this quite a lengthy release. The press information mentions Tony Conrad and Phill Niblock, and the latter is challenging to hear in the four pieces, and Conrad? Well, maybe, in some drone-near feedback use of amplification in these pieces. Perhaps it’s the guitar, but I connect the music with the bigger picture of drone rock, with people like N and Multer, or Dirk Serries’ current guitar music. There is a fair bit of amplification, and that creates some distance, like howling from afar. Throughout these pieces, have a minimal development, but a different kind of minimalism than those mentioned US masters. More is happening here, and below the droney surface, there’s that shimmer of melody, especially in the shortest piece, the album’s closing, the very gentle, ‘Aporia #1.4’. In the opening piece, the two slowly open all gates and reach a wall of sound, full of distortion, without being too noisy. There is quite some variation in these pieces, all having a firm base in the world of drone rock, and given the length of this release, the variation is a great thing—quite a spacious release, quite dark and a lovely atmospheric mood. (FdW)
––– Address: https://emerge.bandcamp.com/

––– Address: https://emerge.bandcamp.com/

LIMINAL HAZE – VOLUME 9 (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation)
CRAIG JOHNSON & MATT ATKINS – FERRIC AFTERGLOW (cassette by Steep Gloss)

These two releases are connected. Liminal Haze is a duo of Craig Stewart Johnson and Ross Scott-Buccleuch. Their ninth release is on Minimal Resource Manipulation, a label run by Matt Atkins. Johnson released a tape on Steep Gloss, run by Scott-Buccleuch. Small world indeed.
I heard every Liminal Haze release so far, yet didn’t review each of these, and conveniently, the group numbers each piece, so I know there are 41 pieces of music. I am a big fan of their work, as it ticks every box. It’s droney and ambient, dark and atmospheric and sounds like it is made with heavily deteriorated magnetic tape. Tapes that have been reused many times, leaving traces of old music, no longer recognisable. Maybe they amplify their music, capturing it with a microphone, adding natural warmth. We have four pieces here, each about ten minutes, which seems the perfect length for this kind of music and a length they often use, so it also feels natural for them. It’s minimal music, with few changes, but just enough, which they do exceptionally well. This is another excellent release, very much like all previous releases. While no massive changes, I should hope they continue to do many more, and hopefully keep me in the loop, even when I am no longer in the reviewing business.
Matt Atkins has proven to be a solid musician of improvised sounds, using small objects, captured on Dictaphones and cassettes and an avid collaborator. As seen with Liminal Haze, Johnson’s interests are similar yet slightly different. In his work, solo and with Liminal Haze, it’s all obscured by layers of hazy manipulations of worn-out magnetic tape. It’s a combination that works very well. It opens Johnson’s obscured world and simultaneously clouds Atkins’ object abuse. Much like Liminal Haze, they too work with tape loops, but it’s more obvious. Maybe this has to do with Atkins’ background as a drummer (at least, that’s what I think explains his love for all things rhythmic). In these seven pieces (total run time about 37 minutes), they play around with these obscured sounds, bringing them to live with tape loops, but nothing becomes very static, as they keep things moving forward and backwards. The result is an interesting variation of Liminal Haze, sometimes sounding like an earlier stage in their process, and sometimes very much a completed something unique. It’s best played in a tandem, and it doesn’t matter where you start. (FdW)
––– Address: https://mrmrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/volume-9
––– Address: https://steepgloss.bandcamp.com/

KAMLOOPS – RECYCLED WORKS (cassette by DIM Records)

You may know Steffan de Turck for the music he releases, or in the past under the guise of Staplerfahrer, but he also has a project called Kamloops, which represents his love for noise. I reviewed a CDR from him a long time ago (Vital Weekly 563), and I saw a concert from him some time ago. Not wanting to this to be a plug, but ‘Recycled Works’ came about after reading a book I wrote about RRRecords and in particular the chapter about the Recycled Music label made Steffan think ‘would Ron Lessard accept my music for his label?’ Deciding it would probably take too much time, and having enough old cassettes to recycle, Steffan released it on his DIM Records label. It’s a best-of from Kamloops, using unreleased bits, compilation tracks and other pieces, and there are nine tracks, lasting 45 minutes (the B-side repeats the selection), and Steffan goes out all noise here. There are the minimalist distortion bits, the scratched records through distortion pedals, radio signals through the same pedals and maybe some voice manipulations—lots of repetition, lots of overdrive and some classic noise music from the more low-end technical spectrum. I couldn’t say if Lessard would have accepted this, but I know he listens to very little on Recycled Music, operating this as an open platform for anyone to join. If noise were a quality to accept submissions, then Kamloops would be selected. It ticks all the right boxes. (FdW)
––– Address: https://dimrecords.bandcamp.com/