Week 35
VITAL WEEKLY ENDS WITH NUMBER 1500 – SEPTEMBER 2025
IESKADULLA – APUVÄLINEKESKUS (CD by Satatuhatta)
CHARLES BOBUCK – GOD-O MUSIC FOR A GALLERY OPENING (2CD by Klanggalerie)
RLW – FADING PICTURES (CD by Black Rose Recordings)
MOTHER TONGUE (CD by Makkum Records/Astral Spirits)
VALENTIN DUIT QUARTET – SINN/IST (CD by Klanggalerie)
UTON – UNUSUAL SUGGESTIONS (LP by Eau des Fleurs)
RUNE SØCHTING – AIR / OBJECT (miniCD by Bin)
NIKLAS ADAM & JENNIFER TORRENCE – EDAPHON (LP by Ephemeral Observer/BIN)
SΛNºJ N∈SΣL° – HIEP\FLAWIIT^ (business card CDR by Bin)
THING (compilation CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
THING (compilation CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
THING (compilation CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
VISIBLE LIGHT – SONGS FOR EVENTIDE (CDR by Permaculture Media)
EDEN GREY – IN THE FOREST OF FANGORN (CDR by EC Underground)
RICK SANDERS – THE ARROW OF TIME (mini CDR by Dronarivm)
NAILS ØV CHRIST – BEAT OF THE BLOOD (cassette by Korm Plastics D)
ROSS SCOTT-BUCCLEUCH, SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON & ANDREW SHARPLEY – RECOLLECTIONS MAY VARY (cassette by Steep Gloss)
SCOTT ALEXANDER HOWARD & STEFAN CHRISTOFF – TRANSIT ASSEMBLIES (cassette by Moon Villian)
ESCUPEMETRALLA – MATERIA EXÓTICA DEL UNIVERSO (USB by Clonaciones Petunio)
IESKADULLA – APUVÄLINEKESKUS (CD by Satatuhatta)
This is the debut album from the Finnish duo Ieskadulla, and although no names are given, I understand that one of them is also behind Kluik, of whom I have reviewed two releases (Vital Weekly 1468 and 1455). I quite enjoyed those, as they contained a fine blend of lo-fi ambient music, noise, and psychedelia. The second was a bit noisier than the first, but nothing as loud as Ieskadulla. Welcome to the world of power electronics, noise and distortion. As always, there’s no information about how the music was made, but I would think that there’s quite a bit of acoustic sound being heavily amplified and recorded quite crudely. I am told that the first two tracks were created around the time of the first Kluik release, and although there may be overlaps in sound, the execution is quite different. No doubt, some kind of electronics is at work here, but I assume these are stomp boxes and nothing fancy. The music is collage-like and not a brutal wall of noise, which means, I think, there is a bit more thought put into this. I Google translated the titles, and the album title means ‘Assistive Devices Centre’, and the track titles go along these lines: ‘Introduction to the religious crossroads of Finnish psychohistory’, ‘Survival The return of attitudes to self-expression alongside culture’, and ‘Deaconesses responsible for results’, which are most curious and it’s difficult to relate them to the actual music. The collage-style doesn’t mean there aren’t any consecutive blocks of noise to be heard, as there’s plenty of that, too. Sometimes I thought this was partly conceived by sticking random (longer) bits of tape together, incorporating found sounds and incidental recordings of working with whatever lies around the house, along with some stream-of-noise sounds, which cut in and out at the musicians’ will. At 34 minutes, this isn’t the longest of releases, but it left me longing for a bit more. I played it in rotation a couple of times, each time discovering something new. Best noise this week. (FdW)
––– Address: https://satatuhatta.bandcamp.com/
CHARLES BOBUCK – GOD-O MUSIC FOR A GALLERY OPENING (2CD by Klanggalerie)
Did you see The Residents’ brilliant ‘Talking Light’ tour in 2010? Not only was it wonderfully staged, but it was also the first time each of the members performed under assumed names: the singer was Randy Rose, the guitarist was Bob, and Chuck played everything else. This step freed them up to pursue solo projects. Randy did some solo snarling, and Chuck and Bob formed a new band with fourth member Carlos on Spanish-only vocals, Sonidos de la Noche, which unfortunately only released one (really creepy) album, inspired by a mysterious area they recalled from their childhood, ‘Coochie Brake’, in 2011 (one of my all-time favourite records, and one of the best things to be extruded from The Residents’ grotto for many years). In 2013, during their rather disappointingly staged (but great music!) ‘Wonder of Weird’ tour, the Residents re-introduced themselves as Randy, Chuck and Bob. At some point during the show, Randy revealed that Chuck lived on a chicken farm, until they got rid of the chickens, and then it was just a farm. Chickens often appear in the titles of Chuck’s compositions, this one too.
Chuck, or Charles Bobuck, was a pseudonym that Hardy Fox (1945-2018), co-founder and primary composer for The Residents until 2015, used from 2012 to 2017. He released about a dozen albums under that name – he called many of them ‘contraptions’ – starting with ‘Codgers On The Moon’ (2012) and ending with ‘Nineteen-Sixty-Seven’ (2017), which is when he started using his real name for his last few solo recordings. Around this time, he also deservedly took credit for releases originally credited to The Residents that were all his work. However, this double CD, ‘GOD-O’ takes us back in time to 2011, when he was still using the ‘Charles Bobuck’ alias.
The first CD opens with three short tracks, all outstanding, the first, a rip-roarer without clucking titled ‘God Damn Chickens’ (toldya), featuring Nolan Cook’s stupendous angular guitar work. Track 2, ‘Nada Dago’s Eye’ (eyeball) screams out to be snuck into a DJ set when the twisters and froogers have eaten all their jellies and are at their most vulnerable, and the third track – which opens with a cheeky quote, the opening flute line from Uncle Igor’s ‘Sacre’ – is absolutely mesmerising. Track 4, ‘GOD O’ is just over 40 minutes long. It was composed as the opening music for a Homer Flynn art exhibition in Oakland, California (April-June 2011), and originally released in March 2012 as a download MP3 file only, and later as a limited CD by The Cryptic Corporation.
I must confess to not being a huge fan of drone music or long meandering compositions (not enough space here to go into all the reasons why), but, like this one, they sometimes tend to sound like someone scrolling through a sound library after laying down a muffled drone or drum loop, or playing a record at the ‘wrong’ speed (as it sounds like here, in the middle section). In a way, it’s all been done before, a lot of drone music is formulaic, Paul-Stretchy, overloaded with energy-sapping bass or the ever-predictable electric humming contrasted with loud bumps and crispy field recordings, but this was composed 15 years ago and for a purpose, which I’m sure it adequately fulfilled (a lot of music is purely functional). ‘GOD-O’ has got a good beginning, drifting into trademark Residents gamelan territory for a while, but for the rest, well, it’s not something I will listen to over and again.
The second CD begins with ‘GDC’, an unreleased, 28-minute piece likely composed by Hardy in 2017. This one really sounds like Hardy’s letting his fingers walk through the yellow pages of his sound library, lots of percussion, some familiar Residential sounds and riffs, but a bit directionless nonetheless. Still, it’s the brighter of the two long pieces. The last three tracks are slightly different mixes of the download versions of the first three tracks on the first CD.
I have a bunch of these contraptions, and somehow all the longer pieces seem to move air molecules similarly, the sound palette is too much the same. To my ears, Hardy’s forte lay in shorter tracks, with a strong theme, made with other musicians who, of course, participated in shaping and enriching his music, making it far more dynamic than it is on its own. However, there is no doubting his genius – witness the innumerable songs and set pieces he composed for The Residents. And of course, a lot of his other output is worth the time. Check out Klanggalerie’s Bandcamp pages. Two favourites of mine are ‘Nachtzug’(2018), and ‘A day hanging between heaven and earth’ (2017, with Fred Frith). And let’s not forget ‘The Godfather of Odd’, a tribute compilation by some of our favourite weirdos to this totally unique composer whose influence has seditiously seeped into countless cultural crevices and will forever remain inerasable.
The sky fell on Hardy Fox, and he flew the coop in 2018. Hopefully, he is now dreaming of a better tomorrow where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.
Great packaging again by Klang, once again featuring Hardy Fox’s art, but with the CDs exiting next to the spines, unfortunately, the cardboard tears too easily. (MP)
––– Address: https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/god-o-music-for-a-gallery-opening
RLW – FADING PICTURES (CD by Black Rose Recordings)
It appears that with Black Rose Recordings, Ralf Wehowsky, better known as RLW, has found a steady home for releasing his music. It seems there aren’t as many as there were years ago, for reasons I am unaware of. I believe liner notes for his work are pretty rare, although they have become less uncommon with recent releases. On the cover of ‘Fading Pictures’, RLW writes about electroacoustic music, describing it as cinema for the ears and explaining how it differs from program music, as understood in the classical sense of the term. You write a symphonic poem, called ‘The Moldau’, and listeners see the flow of the river from a small creek ending in the black sea. The opposite of this is absolute music, even when RLW doesn’t mention this word. Francisco Lopez’s ‘untitled’ compositions are a radical, contemporary example of this. The listener is free to develop any narrative here, any picture and is even encouraged to fiddle with the frequency range and alter the work further.
Furthermore, writes RLW, electronic instruments were once the playground for individual ideas, but these days, for standardisation: autotune, quantisation, and AI to recreate your favourite artists. “Therefore, common virtual instruments are used for fading pictures. Although the effort required to ‘brush against the grain’ is considerable, aesthetically it is comparable to the remodelling of conventional electric instruments in post-punk of unusual instrumental playing styles in free and new and therefore worth the effort”. I am unsure what this means, which is a pity as it explains, I think, the title of the CD. Does RLW use virtual electronic instruments? As he says, the listener is free to have any associations, and titles are merely suggestions or clues to be disregarded. We can listen to this as purely musical pleasure. I go for that last option, because, to be honest, that’s what I do most of the time. I admit I don’t play as much of RLW’s back catalogue as I probably should (but the future looks bright in that respect), I always play his releases with much interest, as, regardless of what he’s using, it always sounds compelling. There are feedback-like sounds in the opening piece, ‘ertraeumtes intro, vorzeitig abgebrochen’, a reminder of the early days of musique concrète, but also recordings of stringed instruments, played with bows, played in a somewhat improvised way, but hacked into fine little pieces, edited and served as the next course in this fine dinner. Between these ends, the pure electronic sounds and the improvised recordings, all extensively processed, is where we find RLW at work. Sometimes loud, sometimes quiet, with lots of dynamics, and an extreme eye for detail. I am the kind of listener who sees no images with this kind of music, but I enjoy it on a purely musical level. This is a highly diverse and excellent work. (FdW)
––– Address: blackroserecordings@yahoo.co.uk
MOTHER TONGUE (CD by Makkum Records/Astral Spirits)
Hold your horses. This is not the famed collaboration between Andrew McKenzie and Z’EV, finally making it to CD, but a trio featuring Mola Sylla (voice, Xalam, M’bira, Kongoma, Bolon Rota), Oscar Jan Hoogland (electric clavichord), and Frank Rosaly (drums). Sylla is a Senegalese musician who came to the Netherlands in 1987 with his band, Senemali, and has since collaborated on a few records with musicians from the improvised music scene, including Tristan Honsinger, Ernst Reijseger, and Wouter Vandeabeele. On 18 April 2021, he played a concert with Puerto Rican drummer Frank Rosaly and Amsterdam-based Oscar Jan Hoogland on his electric clavichord in De Ruimte as part of the ‘Impro To Go’ series. This is improvised music, and I have no idea if they went on stage with or without a plan. Whatever they recorded that evening resulted in seven pieces. Improvised music quietly entered Vital Weekly and became a central part of it. But as I keep saying, we’re way understaffed to write about the lot. Sometimes I come across a release that I find particularly interesting from that world, and at the same time, I feel a bit lost about it. ‘Mother Tongue’ is such a release. The improvisational element is part of all pieces. Still, it’s the singing and instruments of Sylla that add another perspective to the music, the global music element (if that is the proper term), and that’s something I know even less about than improvised music. I don’t understand the lyrics, but they work well within this context. Rosaly’s drums are steady, sometimes even rock-like in ‘Kaing’, but with a strong groove; the clavichord also plays a fine role in this psychedelic piece. Even when I don’t ‘get’ what this is about, nor can I say anything about any possible tradition this is in, I found this a very captivating release. The same captivating experience I had when I first heard Konono No.1. Some excellent interaction here. (FdW)
––– Address: https://astralspirits.bandcamp.com/ https://makkumrecords.bandcamp.com/
VALENTIN DUIT QUARTET – SINN/IST (CD by Klanggalerie)
The Valentin Duit Quartet evolved out of the Tobias Meissl Trio, which consists (and still exists) of Tobias Meissl (vibraphone), Ivar Roban Križić (double bass) and Valentin Duit (drums). They (the trio) released one record (Mr. Resolved) with all compositions written by Meissl, and in 2023, they formed a quartet when Robert Unterköfler (tenor and soprano saxophones) joined them. All four musicians are new to me. Tobias Meissl has a music education that culminated in a summa cum laude degree from Berklee College of Music, with a focus on jazz composition and the vibraphone. Ivar Roban Križić holds a musical degree, with a specialisation in double bass, from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, and a Doctorate in Artistic Research from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. From his website: His research explores the epistemological dimensions of free improvisation, drawing on philosophy, performance theory, and embodied cognition. He is particularly interested in how improvisation generates knowledge, its relationship to processes of listening and decision-making, and how instruments—especially the double bass—can be extended through both technological and conceptual means. No experiments with technology on this release, though. Robert Unterköfler has his own quartet, with the same personnel, except that Robin Gadermaier plays electric bass instead of Ivar Roban Križić. The quartet released a record on its own label, Rote Welt Records. Unterköfler has a musical degree as well from JAM MUSIC LAB Private University, located in Vienna and Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien. Valentin Duit, like the others, also has a musical degree from Luzern and Vienna. What we have here are accomplished musicians with extensive experience in playing together in various settings. The vibraphone is a type of replacement for the piano, serving as both a melody instrument and a chord instrument. And just like a piano, there’s a sustain pedal for opening the tubes underneath the tuned metal bars. A prime example for me is Bobby Hutcherson on Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch!. Or more contemporary Mike Manieri in Steps Ahead or Jason Adasiewicz. I really like the sound of the vibraphone. This is a relatively short release, concise and to the point. Five tracks, starting with SINT. Some sections are composed, with melodic lines doubled between instruments. Far from being cocktail jazz, but equally far from being the radical, noisy free impro from the likes of Peter Brötzmann, this is educated and atmospheric chamber jazz and improvised music with ties to the classical Second School of Vienna (Webern, Schönberg) in terms of the formation of the melody of some pieces. But things always get into an exciting groove, reminiscent of Steps Ahead in the eighties. In short, powerful jazz fusion. The interplay between these musicians is incredible. This is a delightful release and merits multiple listening rounds, as it should. (MDS)
––– Address: https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/
UTON – UNUSUAL SUGGESTIONS (LP by Eau des Fleurs)
Here is one of those names I recognise, as I reviewed Uton’s music before, but at the same time, I could adequately describe it if I’m asked. I blame the influx of new music and the advancing effects of old age. Uton was a group, but since time is the solo vehicle of Jani Hirvonen, who played all instruments, “percussion, kalimba, violin, radio, balalaïka, flute, kantele, electronic effects”. About his last CD, I wrote (Vital Weekly 1434) that it all seemed quite electronic to me, but that’s not the case here. Initially, Jani recorded a series of spontaneous improvisations using these instruments, then cut and mixed various tape loops from this material. Sometimes stuff from the same sessions, and sometimes not. If needed, he added more music. There are also field recordings and processing. The music has a loosely improvised feel, yet the tape loops are still easily recognisable. Both sides have a single piece; if you look at the record or on Bandcamp, you’ll find that deception. Each side contains many shorter pieces, ranging from brief moments to more fully formed songs, and everything in between. Shards of silence separate them, so you don’t have this idea of one long track, but a series of heavily fragmented pieces. Do they fit together? Not necessarily, as one moves from one section to the next in a seemingly random way. Occasionally, the music adopts a more rock-like approach, featuring some fine guitar work, but this too is never too lengthy, so nothing outstays its welcome here. It is a pretty wild ride, but a most lovely one too. (FdW)
––– Address: https://eaudesfleurs.bandcamp.com/
RUNE SØCHTING – AIR / OBJECT (miniCD by Bin)
NIKLAS ADAM & JENNIFER TORRENCE – EDAPHON (LP by Ephemeral Observer/BIN)
SΛNºJ N∈SΣL° – HIEP\FLAWIIT^ (business card CDR by Bin)
Here we have three new releases by the Danish Bin label, run by Jonas Olesen. Sometimes these releases take on a slightly conceptual character and are not always easy to grasp. One such release is the mini CD by Rune Søchting, which is, in fact, a reissue of a 2010 release. “This work was developed as an exercise in restraint. The starting point was a reflection on how to work with elementary relations, i.e. between foreground and background, figure and frame, between sound and its absence. Perhaps the nature of this reflection inspired a result that today appears quite abstract. Yet the work could also be heard as a document of an investigation into possible figures, voices and even a way of listening: How do we think of someone through the traces they have left behind or the anticipation of their appearance> or maybe even better: can we listen to the world only through the rumours of it?” The CD was playing while I was retyping these words (not yet online, I think), and most of the time my typing was louder than the music. That’s not odd, as it deals, also (!) with the absence of sound. On Discogs, there is another description of the music, one that makes more sense, perhaps: “Composed of source material extracted from a recording of tuning forks in rainy weather. Vibrations of the metal, rain on the contact microphone, small movements and noise from an electrical system.” Some of the music on this disc is inaudible; I loaded it into my music software, normalised it, and, lo and behold, some music appeared. I remember doing this with old Francisco Lopez and Bernard Günther records, thinking, ‘What’s the fun here?’ I had the same thought with this release, even when some of the pieces were quite nice indeed.
On an LP, we find music by Niklas Adam and Jennifer Torrence, both of whom I have not heard. While the description is a bit vague, it’s somewhat understandable: “An assortment of percussion and found objects spread onto a rectangular field. Captured through a spaced microphone array. Sticks, blocks and bells. Voice and synthesis. Third place.” I took from that this is improvised music recorded with many microphones, but that’s also the way this music sounds: improvised music. And sure enough, the first few pieces come across as improvised percussion music, played on a wide variety of instruments. But, hold on, what’s that, halfway through the first side of the record? That sounds like electronics. Maybe that’s the synthesis mentioned? Where’s the voice? That doesn’t seem to be very present, but whatever synthesis means here, it involves some kind of electronics. At one point, I assumed this to be one of those Korg Monotron machines, but the sounds produced in other pieces indicate a more complex machine. The percussive side of the music is usually clustered tones, played on bells and surfaces, and not all too freely. That side is covered by the synthesiser, scratching and oscillating away. It makes an interesting combination, and rather musical, as opposed to some other releases on this label. Throughout not always my cup of tea, but I played this with great pleasure.
Ah, the lovely format of the business card CD. I list the label’s Bandcamp, but this is what I found on Discogs about this:
CD-SINGLE. Total size: 62 MB (06:12.08) = 27906 sectors
Strictly intended for playback on a hardware CD player. Listener discretion is advised.
Mixed and edited in Adobe Photoshop by JºnΛs °lΣs∈n. LIMITED EDITION 50 COPIES, FIXED MEDIA,
NO OFFICIAL DIGITAL FILE EDITION EVER ~ SUPPORT THE COMPACT D!SC.
So you won’t find this one on Bandcamp. How do you edit sound in Adobe Photoshop? That’s perhaps the most obscure thing I took away from this release. The name is easy; it says Jonas Olesen in reverse with some odd symbols. The disc contains six short pieces, each one minute and two seconds long, featuring glitchy software music, but who knows, these days this might be called modular electronics. It reminded me very much of the best of clicks ‘n cuts music from the early years of this century, which somehow hasn’t had a proper revival. Due to the brief nature of these pieces, everything sounds very fragmented, which is not helped by the strict left-right stereo channel separation. There’s a lovely confusion here; it’s also very conceptual, but I’m not sure about its meaning. I love this format! (FdW)
––– Address: https://bindata.bandcamp.com/
THING (compilation CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
What? Another Thing? Yes, another one! This ongoing series, also titled ‘This Ongoing Series,’ with different artists featured each time, has been reviewed multiple times before in VW, and here we have yet another instalment. A brief recap of what this series is about: The Attenuation Circuit has an open window for a sampler series entitled “Thing”. Artists can apply for the series with a maximum duration of 15 minutes, and the man behind Attenuation Circuit, Sascha Stadlmeier, will attempt to combine submissions until a new product is created where the tracks fit together. After a set fee, the 100 copies are distributed equally between the artists and the label (so, 20 each) and this way, you get a) a nice release and b) the possibility to get distributed amongst an audience of each of the three other projects.
This Thing opens with the German project Problem Anderer Leute. The original PAL was already taken, but like SPK, the abbreviation has also been used for releases under Perfect Attractive Lover and Police And Lust. In this piece titled “Stück” (German for ‘Piece’), there is a lot of chaos. Freehand improv on what sounds like an organ on a feedback / no input mixer with layers of noise. Have I mentioned it is chaotic already? The peace after playing is worth every penny.
Tracks two and three are reserved for two artists from Czechia. RDKPL excels in his “240310_05”. He released quite a bit on Inner Demons, and because of that, I’ve heard a lot of him. This one is a bit more distorted, but his chaotic cut-up noise is a bit more layered this time. It could have used a bit more dynamics, but … Nice track. The manufacturer provides the shortest track on this sampler, and yet it plays for 12 minutes and 12 seconds. Michael Borůvka is the man behind the project, and “A Nothing Is Near” is a throbbing experiment in how some sounds can hurt while others, more aggressive, can be soothing.
The fourth and final act is Fallen Sun from Malaysia. Behind this project is Y’ng-Yin Siew, who is also active under the names Hexagon Forest and Reverse Image. According to Discogs, she has been musically active for only a few years, but she has been interested in noise music and labels for a long time. Her track “GEOGLYPH 1” is my favorite of this release. Massive noise constructions with a contemplating end. Will have to look into her work a bit more. And as that is the goal of this series, win! (BW)
––– Address: https://emerge.bandcamp.com/
THING (compilation CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
What? Another Thing? Yes, another one! Wait, where have I read that before? I remember, look above, and you will see the why and how of this series. This time, four different artists, along with Sascha, did a great job in combining these acts. These things sound very nicely as a dark ambient sampler, precisely what you would expect from this musical style. Minimal, ghostly, spacious, creepy, slightly unsettling and, well, you know, dark.
First up is Humanfobia. A duo from Chile, consisting of Mist Spectra, who handles the female vocals and visual support, and Sábila Orbe, who handles sound programming, mixing, and the male vocals. They’ve released quite a lot in the past 15 years, but it’s the first time I’ve heard of them. Minimal, dark experimental layers featuring spoken word and a touch of classical singing can be found in “Reflection of Darkness & Grey Lights (Ghost Drone edit)”.
Olik Nesnah from Iowa (who, according to Discogs, did a split with Mindspawn, whom I haven’t spoken to in ages; Tell him I said ‘hi’) does a track titled “The Thing”, which is, of course, fitting for this sampler. And actually, the icy atmospheres and the unsettling tension at the station are captured very well in this track. Close your eyes and you’re there. It lacks the monster, though …
The third one on here is Kathodos, a labelled apocalyptic folk, black metal, drone project from Kansas City. “Window (Edit)” is a 12-minute track featuring minimal, noisy experiments and melodies set over a continuous loop played in the background. The fun part here was to discover where the sounds originated from. I think the melodic sequences are somehow guitar-related, but for the rest, who knows? I wish there were a bit more variation, but it’s not bad at all.
Closing track is “Jötunn” by Her Menacing Pet. Not a new name for me, as I’ve seen it in connection with Owlripper Recordings, which I follow on Bandcamp. A nice place to explore things and a new way to listen to ‘Radio’ (create your own). Behind Her Menacing Pet is Chris Campbell from Saint Paul, Minnesota. With “Jötunn”, he delivers a delicious dark ambient track, the way dark ambient should be. Favorite of this thing. (BW)
––– Address: https://emerge.bandcamp.com/
THING (compilation CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
What? Another Thing? Yes, another one! Deja vu!
Substak has not been featured in Vital Weekly before; let’s take a look at who this is. Behind the name is Kostas Staikos from Athens (Europe, not Georgia), and I had seen his name previously on releases from Adventurous Music, Inner Demons and Attenuation Circuit, yet never wrote about his works before. Weird … Some of those must have slipped through, and yes: weird, because his minimalism on this track should have caught my ear—ultra-minimal, drone-like experiments, featuring microscopic movements and simply beautiful sounds.
Behind Der Domestizierte Mensch with their “Dingsbums” is a project I’ve written about already on another Thing. It’s a variation on Problem Anderer Leute, and there I wrote ‘Freehand improv on what sounds like an organ on a feedback / no input mixer with layers of noise. Have I said it is chaotic as hell already?’ On this track, there is the same chaos, only without the organ/feedback sounds. More digital, mangled voices and rhythms, kinda things. Label under experimental weirdness.
The longest track on this Thing is by South Carolina-based Thomas Bey William Bailey. “Vapnatak” is almost 14 minutes and consists of chaos on another level. Whereas the previous track on this Thing is rhythmically chaotic, here it’s the sounds and overall composition that leave you puzzled. A mixture of synthesised and organic sounds in something that holds the mid of noise, ambient, cutup, fluxus and … I had to listen to it several times, and I still don’t understand. Intriguing.
Jo Bled, also known as Jabe Ledoux, made me smile. His Discogs page features a quote from our friends at The Wire, stating, ‘Equally resembles a garbage truck compacting metal trash in a pre-dawn alley, and a gamelan orchestra heard through a malfunctioning walkie-talkie.’ This eloquence says it all. This is not my kind of music at all, but I suppose you should just listen to it and form your own opinion. Experiments in minimalism with an acoustic, organic, and percussive character. (BW)
––– Address: https://emerge.bandcamp.com/
VISIBLE LIGHT – SONGS FOR EVENTIDE (CDR by Permaculture Media)
In Vital Weekly 1364, I reviewed a CDR release by Hiram, also known as Matthew Hiram, which was a 40-minute piece that utilised field recordings and underwater hydrophone sounds, as well as wooden flutes, brass bowls, woodwind acoustic instruments, analogue synthesis, natural sounds, magnetic tape, and electronic processing. Here, he has a new release from his duo with Amy McNally, who plays cello. Matthew plays flute, synthesiser, bowls, and field recordings. They are depicted on the cover, armed with the cello, standing in a sun-soaked forest. I admit it looks a bit new agey, and that word I also used in my previous review. Maybe it also has to do with some of the things they write about this release: “Soundtracks for the edge of day.” “Visible Light uses their instruments to open portals of seasonal consciousness through site-specific recording and real-time composition.” “‘Songs for Eventide’ offers an open doorway into a brighter world.” But it’s not bad at all; I found these five pieces (34 minutes), recorded outside, to be very nice. There’s a folk-like drone character in these pieces. The birds add a pastoral quality to the music, and Visible Light take its time to explore the minimalism of each piece. Long sustaining bowing, a melody perhaps, set against more amorphous drones of bowls and such alike, and everything moves slowly. This is not some highly abstract form of drone music, as the cello plays some great melodies. With some reverb added, the pastoral element extends further, taking on a sound reminiscent of a hurdy-gurdy. The music walks a fine line between ambient and new age, but I remain captivated until the end of the CDR, so that’s good. (FdW)
––– Address: https://visible-light.bandcamp.com/
EDEN GREY – IN THE FOREST OF FANGORN (CDR by EC Underground)
I had not heard of Eden Grey before. This is the music project of Dr. Chelsea Bruno from Miami. She organises modular synthesis events for CV Freqs and holds a PhD in music composition from Royal Holloway (University of London). Her inspiration comes from dub, electro, ambient, and techno music, and she works within “composition, installation work, modular synthesis, and involving cross-disciplinary collaboration and improvisation as a basis for her new works”. On this album, which could deserve a more engaging cover, all her musical influences shine on. This is the kind of music which I received a lot more of in the past, from labels such as Boltfish and Highpoint Lowlife. Music which we called ‘intelligent dance music’, and which, as far as I was aware at the time, was made with laptops. These days, it’s all modular electronics, replacing laptops, and that’s the approach from Eden Grey. I could say something about this being the real deal, with its rougher sound compared to digital sound, but I am not a gear freak; I rarely notice those things. Her ten tracks are pleasant to hear, engaging me to work behind my desk, move around a bit, basically anything other than sitting back. It’s debatable if this is dance music, but that’s a discussion for purists, and I am not. Rhythm plays a vital role in these pieces, not through consistently fast pacing, but rather through an uplifting quality that is balanced with a serious, dark edge to the music. Perhaps the slower rhythms and implied darkness make this less suitable for the dancefloor, but for home entertainment, it does the job very well. As said, not something I hear a lot these days, but maybe I should return to more.(FdW)
––– Address: https://edengrey.bandcamp.com/
RICK SANDERS – THE ARROW OF TIME (mini CDR by Dronarivm)
Dronarivm, the power house for ambient music, have a sideline label releasing 3″CDRs in a cardboard box with all sorts of ephemera, in the case of Rick Sanders, “an artwork card, and two additional cards made with a spirograph on special scratch paper. The box also includes an intricately folded copy of a 17th-century celestial map, and a set of mechanical inserts: gears, metal balls, and light diodes.” These releases are seasonal, and with autumn pending, Sanders offers four tracks for the upcoming season. Rick Sanders, who lives literally down the road from the VW HQ, plays ambient music in the strictest sense of the word. I reviewed some of his work and attended his concert a couple of times. These days, he’s into creating a modular setup that almost plays by itself, following patterns and rules; not totally automated, as the composer needs to be present. By moving filters around, there are very subtle changes within the music. And when I say very subtle, it is very minimal, almost on the threshold of noticing. I am not sure if that is what he does on this release, but it sounds like the recent pieces I heard from him. He has four pieces on this CDR, nearly 24 minutes of pure sonic bliss. It is very spacious, a bit dark, but not the dark of winter. You can see the golden glow of the setting sun in a forest, a mix of gloomy and shining. Autumn music it is, and not, surprisingly, my favourite time of the year, just because it leads to this kind of music. A great release, with one notable downside: it’s only 23 minutes and 45 seconds. I could have enjoyed this for much longer, so maybe it’s time for another full-length album by him. (FdW)
––– Address: https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/
NAILS ØV CHRIST – BEAT OF THE BLOOD (cassette by Korm Plastics D)
And here ends a series of beautiful cassette reissues released by Korm Plastics in the 1980s and early 1990s. Staalplaat hand-picked a few titles and re-did the covers to a level that a label like Korm Plastics never could have done in the 1980s – a practice that has become quite rare these days. This last one is by Nails Ov Christ, a name I didn’t recognise right away. However, once I learnt it was a side project of The Grey Wolves (which didn’t exist at the time of the original release), everything fell into place. Before they were wolves, Trev Ward and David Padbury had numerous projects, both together and solo, under various monikers. Nails Ov Christ was by Trev Ward solo, and ‘Beat Of The Blood’ was its first cassette release. It was also released by Zeal SS, Trev’s label and V, Ingo Techmeier’s label. From what I heard, only the first edition of Zeal SS and Korm had links between the tracks, which were taken from a Richard Wagner recording. The Grey Wolves is a power electronics heavyweight from the 1990s, in my opinion, and whatever they did under that guise is also present, in its distinctive, raw, and primitive form, in the music here. We hear layers of synthesiser doodles, radio noise, and broken toys, as well as swirling noise in the brutal onslaught. And when it all ends, there’s a bit of classical music to soothe the senses. The presence of Wagner surely has some significance, but I’m unsure what it is. I don’t even know what they’re playing here, so the classic music interludes are mainly moments of rest for my ears. The pulsing and throbbing opening sounds of ‘Pulsehater’ are fairly conventional tones for the noise that’s to come. It’s a descent into the underworld, and ‘Beat Of The Blood’ is the soundtrack to that journey.
I understand from communication on social media that more old works by Ward and Padbury will be reissued, from their releases on a relatively obscure imprint, Opus Dei Society (one of Korm honcho Frans de Waard’s other labels from yesteryear). That will be beyond Vital Weekly, so you’ll have to keep an eye open for that, but with my own eye on the catalogue on Discogs, it will be a most welcome reissue (with quite some input from Belgian musicians, hurrah!). The rest of the old Korm cassettologue will be reissued in the digital domain only, and, no doubt, will also contain much that is worthwhile. (LW)
––– Address: https://kormplasticsd.bandcamp.com/album/nails-ov-christ-beat-of-the-blood
ROSS SCOTT-BUCCLEUCH, SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON & ANDREW SHARPLEY – RECOLLECTIONS MAY VARY (cassette by Steep Gloss)
With a two-way collaboration, it’s challenging to determine who did what; with a three-way collaboration, it becomes even more difficult, especially when no information is available anywhere. Scott-Buccleugh is also known as Diurnal Burdens. Sigmarsson, as one half of Stillupsteypa, and having worked regularly with BJ Nilsen and Andrew Sharpley, was once a member of Stock, Hausen & Walkman and Dummy Run. This is the third time they have collaborated, and even though we don’t know what it is, they do deliver some great music. My safest guess would be to call this musique concrète-inspired music, in which each party provides sounds and manipulations. The next step is to generate more of these manipulations, a process that can be repeated as many times as necessary, before proceeding to the final phase: the editing and mixing stage. If some of Scott-Buccleugh and Sigmarsson’s other work is more drone-based (I admit not knowing too much of Sharpley’s other music), there is only a limited amount of that on this cassette. The two side-long pieces of music are collages of sound, featuring smaller and longer segments of manipulated sound, and employ an interesting glitchy, rhythmic approach at times. It’s hard to recognise any sound sources, which is what great musique concrète should do; otherwise, it’s more field recording or soundscaping. These two pieces, forty minutes in total, are intelligent pieces, heavy on the dynamic (of which the quieter parts may get a bit lost on the cassette), going from extremely careful to modestly loud. The plunderphonic element never seems far away, although I am not sure why I believe this; it must be Sharpley’s background. This would have made a great LP or CD release, rather than a limited cassette. I’d love to see releases like this include more information, specifically how these works are made and the decisions that lead to the results I am hearing. But if it’s all part of the mystery, I am happy with the result nonetheless. (FdW)
––– Address: https://steepgloss.bandcamp.com/
SCOTT ALEXANDER HOWARD & STEFAN CHRISTOFF – TRANSIT ASSEMBLIES (cassette by Moon Villian)
So far, I have reviewed various releases by Stefan Christoff, and more than these are collaborations with musicians I have never heard of (well, I think I have). Here, he teams up with Scott Alexander Howard. No instruments are mentioned on Bandcamp or the cover, except for the guest contributions to ‘Equatorial Radius’, featuring Zoë Thomas (violin) and Claire Abraham (cello). I’d say Christoff and Howard delve deeply into the world of modular electronics, field recordings, and acoustic guitars, and the result is the kind of mood music I’m familiar with from Christoff. ‘Equatorial Radius’ is, with the additional instruments, the most ‘musical’ piece, with the violin and cello adding quite an orchestral tone. The other pieces have a stripped-down version of mood music. ‘Roses’, for instance, is a piece with a gentle guitar, some drones and ending in street recordings of what could be a political demonstration, as that element is never far away in Christoff’s work. I’m unsure how the electronic aspect of the music functions here, which results in drones (and possibly incorporates another acoustic instrument). They are vulnerable in the shorter pieces on the first side, except the first piece, and massive in the side-long ‘A Ride To Jubayl’, which also has a slightly more improvised tone. As before, I can hear some influence of Town & Country from many years ago, or the early works I heard by Ben Vida, albeit a long time ago, meaning there’s a delicate balance between atmospheric music, soundscaping and improvisation, in shifting measurements. (FdW)
––– Address: https://moonvillainrecords.bandcamp.com/
ESCUPEMETRALLA – MATERIA EXÓTICA DEL UNIVERSO (USB by Clonaciones Petunio)
This group from Barcelona was active in the 1980s, releasing several cassettes, and then went into hibernation. In recent years, they have released new works. Today, however, we dive into the group’s ancient history with several remastered cassettes from 1988 to 1995. There’s at least one I heard at the time, ‘Vida Y Color’, as they performed a ‘visual score’ from me (‘The Four Elements’). Maybe I heard some others, because looking at the covers also included, some look very familiar. Escupemetralla’s music was never easy to place. It’s heavy on the rhythm side, going from beats inspired by Esplendor Geométrico on their earliest releases (topped off with a fair bit of noise) to a more organised, techno-inspired set of beats with ‘Multimierdo’, from 1995 and the most recent of the included recordings. Oddly enough, maybe here too they follow some of Esplendor Geometrico’s later leanings towards techno. There’s also another element, unique to Escupemetralla, and that’s their love of sampling: old records, TV snippets, radio voices, and instrumental bits (including a snippet from OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’), which they cook in this industrial kitchen into a dish of rhythmic noise. This is more on their older work, such as the first cassette ‘Sublimado Corrosivo’. There’s over three hours of music on this drive, enough to keep you happy for a while. I admit, the music was enjoyable, but all of this in one go was quite an exhausting trip. (FdW)
––– Address: https://escupemetralla.bandcamp.com/