Week 36

VITAL WEEKLY ENDS WITH NUMBER 1500 – SEPTEMBER 2025

RHODRI DAVIES & ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO – WIDDERSHINS (CD by ICR)
YODOK III – NIDAROSDOMEN (CD by Consouling Sounds)
WORKSITE & WORKSHOP – CARREIRA’S CROSS (CD by Unexplaind Music Group)
SYLVIA BRUCKNER / IVAN PALACKY / QUENTIN ROLLET / YORAM ROSILIO / JAROSLAV STASTNY – NATUITIVE SPEAKERS (CD by Klang Galerie)
UJIF_NOTFOUND – POSTULATE (LP by I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free)
PIERRE BASTIEN – TOOLS (LP by Esitu Records)
SCHNEIDER & SERRIES – 2 (LP, private)
MEKETA POWER ELECTRONICS – SUFFERING (CDR by Love Earth Music)
PBK & HOWARD STELZER – SHE THINKS SHE’S THE STATE DEPARTMENT (CDR by Love Earth Music)
SINDRE BJERGA & HAKON LIE – FRENCH SOUR (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
AUTISTICI – FAMILIARITY FOLDED (CDR by Audiobulb)
ANDREA PENSADO – SIMPLY HUMAN (CDR by Mechanical Presence Records)
UTON – EHEYTYS JA EHOSTUS (CDR, private)
UTON – ELONKEHTO (cassette by Magma Tones)
COME LE ONDE – LA FEDELTÀ DELLE STAGIONI (cassette by Neus-318)
SOUND + VOLTAGE – HELIOPAUSE (cassette by Neus-318)
KADAVER – THE LIGHTS ARE OFF AND NOBODY’S HOME (cassette by Aberrant Recordings)
KADAVER – VARIOUS CURSES (cassette by Fusty Cunt)
SUPERTOQUE – LEMTAT UNIT (cassette by Eh?)
SAUDARA TUA (cassette by Eh?)
MIGUEL A. GARCÍA & FRANS DE WAARD – INTERIOR SOUNDING II (cassette by Steep Gloss)

RHODRI DAVIES & ALFREDO COSTA MONTEIRO – WIDDERSHINS (CD by ICR)

The biggest surprise here is not the music but the label. I would expect such fine talents in improvised music to find their home within their musical field, say, a label like Confront. But it’s on Colin Potter’s ICR label, home for Potter’s music, Andrew Liles, Nurse With Wound and others related to these projects. Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Rhodri Davies don’t seem to be from this family. They recorded this piece on May 24, 2024, in Barcelona, with Davies on amplified harp, electronics and Monteiro on amplified objects & electro-acoustic devices. These aren’t the most conventional instruments, and the results aren’t all too traditional; at least, most of the time. The amplification is used to generate drone-like sounds, with pickups being amplified, and mechanised objects and electrical currents are incorporated into the music. Whatever these amplified objects are, we don’t know, and I thought that would be a good thing; it leaves a lot to imagine there. I can’t even hazard a guess, or perhaps I never tried in the first place. I sat back and enjoyed this work all the same. Based on what I heard, I’d say there might be one or more sound effects at work, but maybe it’s all to do with the careful placing of microphones and a clever mix of microphone and line recordings here. At least, again, that’s what I imagine here. The music is far from noisy, or all too tranquil for that matter, yet always with some force played. Here too, the buzzing of drones, no matter how quiet they are, is always present, in whatever changing form. And, sometimes, the music has a pleasant, violent feel, such as around the 25-minute mark. Whatever happens, the music never stays in the same place too long, constantly changing and moving, looking for the next sweet spot. This goes on for about 40-some minutes, and then the possibilities are exhausted. The listener (me) wasn’t exhausted and wished for some more. (FdW)
––– Address: https://icrdistribution.bandcamp.com/

YODOK III – NIDAROSDOMEN (CD by Consouling Sounds)

I was convinced I had reviewed something by Yodok before, but alas, I didn’t. Maybe I reasoned that I had reviewed a lot of music by Dirk Serries, so why not Yodok (unless Yodok was a new name, but I had heard it before). It’s his trio with Serries on guitar, Thomas Järmyr on drums, and Kristoffer Lo playing amplified tuba and flugabone. The title comes from the venue where they played a concert on August 1, 2023, in Trondheim, Norway. It’s the “northernmost Gothic monument of the Middle Ages, built upon the resting place of Saint Olav. Within its stone walls breathes the colossal Steinmeyer organ, 9,600 pipes of air and thunder. A space made not only for prayer, but for ritual.” It’s an obvious choice to invite an organ player to join, and that’s Petra Bjørkhaug. They played for 55 minutes that evening, and it takes about 23 minutes to slowly expand sound upon sound, with Serries playing more ambient patterns than improvised ones on his guitar, and the drums in a free roll over cymbals and toms, while the wind instruments are muted. The organ playing sparse notes and melodies, until they arrive at a mighty crescendo, followed by a moment of tranquility, which doesn’t last very long and without a long build-up they arrive at the next big section of the piece, in which the drums play dramatical slow punches, and the horn, guitar and organ playing an intense dramatic tonal poem, full of images of Nordic forests and misty sceneries, but falling apart under the weight of the now rolling drums. The last section is definitely intended to be a coda, short and slowly working towards a mighty crescendo, with the church organ taking a central position, now ominously loud, and everybody working towards that white-out. It sounds overwhelming on CD, so what must it have been like on that evening? I can only guess about that. It’s improvised, no doubt, but I can imagine they made some notes they agreed upon beforehand. Whatever they planned, it worked very well. (FdW)
––– Address: https://consouling.be/release/nidarosdomen

WORKSITE & WORKSHOP – CARREIRA’S CROSS (CD by Unexplaind Music Group)

Between July 7 and 9, 2021, Zé Quintino and Tiago Maduro collaborated, and four years later, it finally saw the light of day. I had not heard of these musicians before, who go by the name Worksite & Workshop (I don’t know if that’s a name for each of them, and who’s who, or if this is a collective term), and this is their first release. Another thing they leave open is what kind of instruments they use, and upon repeated listening, I still don’t know. The information mentions “a sonic tapestry where shifting electronic textures met finely detailed field recordings and subtly hypnotic rhythmic patterns.”, but that can still fly many ways. However, electronics, whether analogue, digital, or modular, are part of this. Loops (again, analogue or digital) also contribute to creating a rhythmic component. Maybe there are other instruments at work, but I couldn’t say which. Voices, however, I did recognise, but whether they are found ones or by the members is, again, something I don’t know. They created eight pieces in those days, or, more accurately, they decided to release eight, and they are lovely to hear. Worksite & Workshop don’t operate in a specific musical genre, and their music can be seen as a mix of many influences. There’s a dash of ambient, some head-nod rhythm (not dance music-like), radiophonic, collage-like (without any intricate cuts; more a gentle fading), some noisier bits, but never too loud or too distorted, a pleasant use of feedback, if you will. It’s all polite and friendly, with no particular standout tracks, no bad ones either. Maybe that’s a bit of the downside: there’s nothing too personal in this music, nothing that makes it their own, I think. But far enough, it’s a most enjoyable release regardless of that. (FdW)
––– Address: https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/

SYLVIA BRUCKNER / IVAN PALACKY / QUENTIN ROLLET / YORAM ROSILIO / JAROSLAV STASTNY – NATUITIVE SPEAKERS (CD by Klang Galerie)

Two sets that this ad hoc quintet played at the first edition of Immediatus Biennale in 2024 in Brno, Czech Republic. It’s a festival where dance meets improvised music. The release featured a concert with no additional dancers, as indicated by the pictures I found online. It’s an international ensemble with musicians from Austria (Sylvia Bruckner), France (Yoram Rosilio and Quentin Rollet) and the Czech Republic (Ivan Palacký and Jaroslav Sťastný) that got together by invitation of the festival. Syvlia Bruckner is a well-known (but a new name for me) Austrian pianist. Initially self-taught, he went on to get a degree in jazz piano and, still later on, a degree in classical piano. She shares her family name with the famous Austrian classical composer Anton Bruckner. I couldn’t find out if they are related. Besides piano, she plays the accordion and the zither. It’s a stringed instrument with no neck. A piano is also a kind of xylophone. Ivan Palacký is an architect and was a member of several groups (Slede, Zivé Slede, for instance, guitar, double bass and bassoon with Palacký on guitar and vocals). Later, he became interested in electronics. A threading machine got his attention. Amplifying it, he used it as a sound generator. In this release, he utilises his voice, field recordings, and objects. Quentin Rollet has been featured on these pages numerous times. Here, he plays the sopranino and alto saxophones. Yoram Rosilio is a double bass player from France, but now living and working in Vienna. Last week we had a review of the Valentin Duit. Rosilio cohosts an improv evening in Bandland, a space in Wien. Last but not least, we have Jaroslav Sťastný. He had a duo with Palacký in which he played the harmonium and the (pipe) organ. Here he plays the synth, a Roland VR-09 to be exact. On to the music: two pieces of music of roughly equal length. The first one ends with a fade out, so it was perhaps a bit longer. The first track has a brooding atmosphere and features a snippet of a song (Talking Heads). Longer drone-like textures are coupled with drawn-out melodies on alto sax, or short bursts on sopranino. Note that there are no percussive instruments as such. There are rhythmic passages, especially in the second piece, which has a totally different quality, at least in the first part. It features brooding spoken words (in diction and in content) by Ivan, accompanied by frenzied playing on the double bass and the synth. As always, this kind of music has to be listened to. All five of them are well-versed in improvised music. And together they have accomplished an excellent example of what improvised music can be. Impromptu music with a lot of twists and turns on a small scale, but coherent in the long run of a piece. The short piece on the podcast is just that: a brief snippet. It’s all about timbres and creating an atmosphere without ego. Every musician adds a part to the music, and as a whole, this is definitely more than the sum of its parts. This one comes highly recommended. (MDS)
––– Address: https://klanggalerie.com/

UJIF_NOTFOUND – POSTULATE (LP by I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free)

This is the third release by Georgy Potopalskyi, also known as Ujif_notfound, from Ukraine, a country still at war. The profits generated from this LP and the rest of this label are allocated towards supporting their struggle against the enemy. That alone is a good reason to have a look and buy something from this label today. I reviewed some of Ujif_notfound’s previous releases, and I never seem to get a grip on his music. There’s always a love for strong beats, think the Pan Sonic-styled ones. More so than before, he incorporates some heavily distorted guitar playing into his music. That seems a chance, but also the beats are different. No longer is it the strict 4/4/ bass pump, but a plundering of the breakbeat and drill/drum’n bass hammering away. Somewhere in the middle, there’s a bunch of synthesisers, drifting and hazing, never to the foreground, never melodic, but as raw as the rhythms and the guitar: bold like sine waves and oscillations. This music isn’t polished, but it’s music from the warzone, and it is the perfect soundtrack. The aggressive beats (most of the time) are like firing back at the enemy. There’s no time to polish the music, to make it smooth, there’s no wasting time, and there’s a call to resist the enemy. Ujif_notfound delivers the marching music for this struggle. Dark and menacing. (FdW)
––– Address: https://ishallsinguntilmylandisfree.bandcamp.com/album/postulate

PIERRE BASTIEN – TOOLS (LP by Esitu Records)

Rotterdam-based musician Piere Bastien’s claim to fame is the creation of machines from Meccano, the century-old metal toys for kids, and he uses these constructions as sound machines, adding his trumpet playing and possibly some electronics. It’s been a while since I last attended a concert by him, so my memory is a bit sketchy at this point. He has collaborated on various releases with others, and also performs in concert with many other musicians. I can’t remember when I last reviewed a solo record from him. Some time ago, he moved to a small studio, and that limited the creation of new devices and return to the ones he had, which resulted in the pieces on this LP, specifically, “a rhythm section, a sox-valve harmonic section playing six major chords, a rotating nail violin, eight equally rotating flute mouthpieces and an automated record player skeleton”. The resulting music is indeed rhythmic, a mechanical one, but also sounds old-school. It’s like a hand-cranked machine, or a machine running out of steam (and I mean literally out of steam). Towards the end of the first side, it’s almost like an old, 1930s fairground music piece. I assume some of this comes from a record, and with Bastien’s mechanics adding more fairground feeling. His trumpet playing adds an even more laid-back feeling to the music, and it all works very well. Each side consists of smaller pieces, so maybe five or six in total, but they are mixed in a way that creates a natural flow within these pieces, further adding to the notion of a nostalgic trip. It’s not something I hear a lot, but something that I enjoy a lot. (FdW)
––– Address: https://esiturecords.bandcamp.com/

SCHNEIDER & SERRIES – 2 (LP, private)

Following their first collaborative LP, which I reviewed in Vital Weekly 1451, there’s a new album by Dirk Serries (guitar) and drummer Jörg A. Schneider. For me, that was an introduction to this musician (Dirk, I have known since 40 years!), who plays with Gaffa, Glimmen, Jealousy Mountain Duo, Les Hommes Qui Wear Espandrillos, Nicoffeine, Roji, SWWS, Tarngo, Teen Prime, The Nude Spur and has several collaborative projects, mostly with guitar slingers, such as Thisquietarmy, N, Mikel Vega, Aidan Baker and others. No doubt, Schneider operates in a wide field of interests, but I am unsure, as I haven’t heard them; for Serries, I am sure, as I have listened to a lot of his music over the past 40 years. With Schneider, he taps into an interest he doesn’t tap into very often, and that’s the combination of improvisation, noise and metal music, which, on paper, may sound like an oddball thing, but it works pretty well. Schneider rocks his kit in a wild manner (can I reference the Muppets’ Animal for once?), and creates a hotbed for Serries to go all wild with his guitar and effects. These effects set this improvisation aside from his other improvised music, for instance, his solo work or with Tonus. These effects create the buzz and distortion that is now part of his playing. As before, the music is dark, loud, and owes something certainly to a highly demented shape of jazz music. The previous may have a ‘light’ piece, but not so on this one; the six pieces are concise explosions of fragment bombing and not for the weak of heart. I wonder if they play concerts and at what volume they do so. Now it’s time for a lie down. (FdW)
––– Address: https://schneidercollaboration.bandcamp.com/

MEKETA POWER ELECTRONICS – SUFFERING (CDR by Love Earth Music)

Steve Makita / Meketa is no stranger to Vital Weekly. I had the pleasure of reviewing several releases by him on the Alpha Morzel label, most recently – just a few months ago – the “Pray Before You Become Prey” album. Since then, I’ve gotten in contact with the man himself, and it turns out he is also doing hardcore in Apartment 213 and doing a very nice job there. He likes to stir things up now and then, and he is not afraid to just be who he is. Because being who you are is also being all you can be. No mask, no fake, just Steve.
Why do I write this? Steve is a born-again Christian who is not afraid to share it in a world where artists still try to shock others with nasty or extreme imagery, visions, or words. The times I’ve thought about why people want to shock others with images of violence or pornographic material. At the same time, their music didn’t connect, or it was connected but didn’t add anything, or it lowered the impact of the sounds because it was simply distracting. And I can’t remember being at a concert where there was the most extreme noise with a simple video of lambs playing in a meadow. Why wouldn’t artists do something like that …
So in this case, Steve spews his words at the audience, telling them about what he is about and what his mind is about. Over layers of noise and power electronics because that’s what he is about. Heavy vocal treatments with feedbacking delays and pulsating atmosphere. Four tracks covering a little over half an hour, sonically hurtful at moments, always truthful in words. I am non-religious myself, and I’ve listened to this release several times now from the perspective of what it does to me. I can only say that the music is very, very nice, though it could be a bit more bassy/low-end for my personal taste. The words and text are heavily treated, so for a non-native English speaker not always easy to follow, but they’re brought to you sincerely and direct. The message I’ve extracted was basically “it has to go bad before it gets better”, and whether it’s God, Jesus or yourself, don’t give up because it will get better. And for an album with music like this, it’s weird to hear such a positive message. But it’s not because the message is weird, it’s because the extremes in the past may have ruined the expectation. Props to Steve and Steve for creating and releasing it. (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

PBK & HOWARD STELZER – SHE THINKS SHE’S THE STATE DEPARTMENT (CDR by Love Earth Music)

Here we have two musicians, one active longer than the other, who love to collaborate, and perhaps it’s pdd they didn’t work together sooner. It’s quite an odd one, because on three of the five tracks there is the alto & tenor saxophone of Parker Weston and on one of these the trombone of RVD. I assume Stelzer is on his trademark cassette releases and PBK on electronics, and all of this was created using the Internet. The release opens with ‘You Could be Lying Right Now. (I Am a Terrible Liar)’, A strong piece of acoustic sound being amplified, with unstable, droning elements. It buzzes and rattles, as things do when they rest upon surfaces. More instability from cassette players in ‘A Legacy, At Least’, but there’s also quite a lot of saxophone here, plus the trombone drones, which isn’t my cup of tea. It isn’t easy to see this as something by PBK and Stelzer, save for the ending. ‘Sanctioned By Reflection’ also contains the saxophone, but in a much different shape and here, we return to the beautiful balance of distant drones and acoustic manipulations. Maybe some of these are from a saxophone, which returns more audible in ‘Drop Anchor Somewhere!’, and this time I’m reminded of 1980s industrial music, like a NWW track with a leading role for the saxophone; or the ‘150 Murderous Passions’ LP, but not as noisy here (luckily). The disc ends with ‘Top Management Has Vowed to Stop What It Is Doing – Not Now, But Soon’, and this, too, harks back to the same time. Still, we delve into the world of cassette releases, with a mass of repeating loops, phase shifting about, uncontrolled, like the bastard son of Steve Reich, with a firm amount of noise. This release was a bit of a mixed bag; some of it I enjoyed a lot, and some wasn’t for me. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

SINDRE BJERGA & HAKON LIE – FRENCH SOUR (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)

As far as I could tell, Hakon Lie’s name came up once in Vital Weekly, 1160, when I reviewed his ‘Memorex’ cassette. That was quite an obscure release, information-wise. Lie played ‘prepared turntable, tape and electronics’ and as such he’s a most suitable musician to play with Sindre Bjerga. His name came up a lot more, and as I had the pleasure of doing a few tours with him, I know a few things about his music. Sindre has a limited setup consisting of a Dictaphone, a Walkman, a metal cylinder, a microphone, and some amplified children’s toys. His concerts are about 20 minutes long and can be best classified as ‘always the same and yet always different’. Much to my surprise, this new release contains four music pieces, with a total length of 60 minutes, so it’s about three full Bjerga concerts. Spoiler alert: that’s a bit much. The two men play their music in an improvised way, but far removed from the traditional ways, and that has to do with the lack of conventional instruments. It’s part of the world of electro-acoustic music and musique concrète, but without the refinement and editing of the latter genre. Bjerga and Lie explore their instruments extensively and not always in an all too noisy manner (if that is something you would expect them to do), but just as well, they keep things neatly under control. It all bursts and rumbles, cracks and hits, and without too many electronics, very much in an in-your-face way. That works well for about 30 minutes, say the first two pieces, but that’s 33 minutes. The other two pieces are great too, variations on a theme and all that, but they’re best saved for the next day and started afresh. (FdW)
––– Address: https://emerge.bandcamp.com/

AUTISTICI – FAMILIARITY FOLDED (CDR by Audiobulb)

It’s been a while since I last heard music from David Newman’s project Autistici. I am unsure whether he was in hibernation for a while or if he had only online releases. On this album, he has one solo track and three tracks in collaboration with others, none of which I had heard before. Two pieces with Jacek Doroszenko, each taking the lead, and one with Russ Young and Corey Gordon. As I play this release, I think about the entire laptop ambient genre. Music from labels such as Newman’s Audiobulb, 12K, Home Normal and others, and I realise these are all labels of which I haven’t heard new releases in a while, and I am unaware of changes, if any, that took place in this kind of music. Perhaps I am also a bit surprised that people work along these lines, as I assumed many had turned to modular synths. It’s great to hear this kind of thing after not hearing it for a while, or at least not to the extension I heard this 20-25 years ago. Newman is someone who writes his software patches (I recommend his ambient patch, which I found very resourceful and easy to work with), and I assume he uses these in his music. He uses it to process sounds from instruments, even when we no longer recognise them, and field recordings, also rendered beyond recognition. While there is an unmistakenly digital quality to the music, fragmented in grainy details, there’s also a subdued character to these pieces, warm and with an ambient feeling. Rhythm is, however, not absent as it is to a larger and lesser extent part of these pieces. The four pieces are certainly extensions of one another, with the last one, the three-way collaboration, containing the most experimental scratchy sounds but set against the most traditional synth backing. This is a lovely ambient for the changing season, with autumn colours spread across the sounds here. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.audiobulb.com/

ANDREA PENSADO – SIMPLY HUMAN (CDR by Mechanical Presence Records)

Despite having reviewed some of the works by Andrea Pensado, I don’t know much about her methods of working. She had a career that started with traditional composing for acoustic instruments, but gradually she moved towards digital noise and voice processing, “voice combining with hybrid synthesis techniques”. On this CDR, we find five examples of her work, ranging from three to almost 12 minutes. This is some very intense music, very noise-based, and if I am told that this is digital, then I take her word for it. However, if I were told it was analogue circuit bending, I would have believed that all the same. Her voice is transformed along similar lines, but sometimes we recognise some of her vocalisations. In that respect, she’s as extreme as her electronics. This is not harsh noise or power electronics, but more akin to the world of sound poetry, like the work of Henry Chopin, but taken to an even greater extremity. At 39 minutes, this is the ideal length; more would be a strain, and less might also work, but I feel this captures the complete picture. There is room for improvement in the art department. (FdW)
––– Address: https://mechanicalpresencerecords.bandcamp.com/

UTON – EHEYTYS JA EHOSTUS (CDR, private)
UTON – ELONKEHTO (cassette by Magma Tones)

Hot on last week’s heels when I reviewed ‘Unusual Suggestions’, Uton follows this LP with two very homebrew releases. The CDR is an edition of 12 copies, the cassette (recycled! hurrah!!) is an edition of 20 copies. Once again, Jani Hirvonen plays field recordings, electric guitar, bass, mandolin, balaika, radio, sampling and piano. Yet a great deal of the ‘real’ work lies in editing and mixing this material into the music we hear. It’s too easy to call this musical surrealism, something along the lines of Nurse With Wound or early HNAS, but one could say that about many of the releases I review, in one way or another. It’s the bigger picture of musique concrète and electro-acoustic manipulation, combined with a firm amount of improvisation, resulting in these pieces. Improvisation, I hasten to say, not for the sake of improvisation, but as a generator of sounds, to be explored further. ‘Eheytys Ja Ehostus’ is along similar lines to the recent LP, but perhaps less fragmented. Or, instead, the fragments are now cut into songs, with a beginning and end, and not a long collage of sound, consisting of songs, sketches and shards. Sometimes Uton keeps it all under control, and sometimes he goes on a psychedelic trip, extending his piece quite a bit, but he knows what he’s doing and keeps it well under control.
A 2008 recording, initially intended for a collaboration which was never finished, was buried and exhumed 16 years later, and the various parts were mixed and edited. In two versions of the same piece, one per side of this cassette. The differences are in the details. Here, Uton takes a different direction, using a more stream-of-consciousness approach. His sounds are rougher than we know from him in recent years, bordering on some noise approach, and even at one point in the piece, it’s a full-force noise approach, but kept within reason, and this is the complete psychedelic approach. On LP and CDR, he controls this more than he does here, and this is a great old-school noise release. Aimless, drifting, and drifting a bit too long, but somehow it works very well. Maybe I’m too much of a sucker for this sort of old-school thing, or a hopeless nostalgic. Either or both, perhaps. (FdW)
––– Address: https://uton.bandcamp.com/

COME LE ONDE – LA FEDELTÀ DELLE STAGIONI (cassette by Neus-318)
SOUND + VOLTAGE – HELIOPAUSE (cassette by Neus-318)

The name of the music project should be spelt in lowercase, but the title starts with a capital ‘L’. Behind come le onde we find Andrea Porcu, from Italy, and he’s also known (not by me) as Music For Sleep. He’s also the founder of ROHS! and the Lontano Series, both labels. Listening to the two relatively short tracks on this cassette, which are both somewhat ambient, I wonder what Music For Sleep sounds like, as the name also implies ambient music. According to the brief information, Porcu uses “sound textures, tape loops and melancholic atmospheres”. The two pieces, ten minutes each, are a synth-heavy affair, and indeed loops of some kind. A thick swirl of synthesiser sounds, looping around and some minimalist changes. It reminded me of the earliest ambient pieces by Vidna Obmana, who experimented extensively with this kind of looped, synthesised sound. Two charming pieces of music, and what else can I say? Other than, perhaps this is way too short. Once I am into the music, it’s over. That’s a pity. I wouldn’t have minded hearing a full-length album by him.
A bit longer, 15 minutes per side, is the cassette by Jeff House, who works as Sound + Voltage. He’s from Vancouver, Canada and described as a “synthesist, musician, software engineer and educational YouTuber. I believe this is his first release. His music is ambient too, but it works a bit differently. Whereas Come le onde’s music is very cyclic, Sound + Voltage is anything but. I can imagine that some kind of input, such as a field recording, is fed into a modular setup, and the electronics follow the contour of the source. On the exit side, the music is dark and ominous, with little light in the first piece, ‘Solar Wind’, whereas ‘Interstellar Medium’ features a more cosmic synthesiser approach, accompanied by a darker undercurrent. Whereas come le onde’s pieces are similar, Sound + Voltage opt for diversity in approaches. However, the result is the same: due to these different approaches, a longer album would be most welcome. (FdW)
––– Address: https://neus318.bandcamp.com/

KADAVER – THE LIGHTS ARE OFF AND NOBODY’S HOME (cassette by Aberrant Recordings)
KADAVER – VARIOUS CURSES (cassette by Fusty Cunt)

The first time I reviewed Kadaver was over three years and almost 150 Vitals ago. His personal output, as well as his label output (999 cuts), have been frequent visitors, and somehow, he still manages to surprise me. Regarding his label activities, it’s that he manages to find hidden pearls (Maskhead or Apex Parasite) or somehow connects to the right people, which has gotten him beautiful releases by, for example, K2, Atrax Morgue and the Contagious Orgasm split tape. Sure, they’re my personal favourites, but there is a proper factor of exploration with 999 cuts. And that exploration is also audible in the immensely heavy noise Kadaver produces. And these two tapes are as good an example to explain as possible.
The first tape is a C38 titled “The Lights Are Off and Nobody’s Home”. Aberrant Recordings from Oakland released it earlier this month as a limited edition, clear green cassette. Catalog number 21 with some really nice names between the previous releases: Dodssang Tempel, Kazumoto Endo, SBTDOH and Iugula-Thor (all as artists or in collaboration). To the label: Keep on going, this looks very promising! But we’re here for Kadaver.
The first side counts one track, “Everyone Wants to Live”. Pulsating, distorted, saturated sounds in low frequencies completely choke the tape, and yet still Michael manages to put a layer on top of it with high-frequency distorted material. It is as if the midsection doesn’t exist at all. There isn’t a lot happening to the ears of an untrained listener, but there is constant movement of the bass frequencies. If you play it at a high volume, you’re in for a party.
The reverse side features two tracks; the first, “A Passion For Killing”, begins with a sample of a murderer. The first words made me think it was Donald J., but soon that changed into someone else. The massive noise attack that follows is intense as hell, and only in the end does it simmer down a bit, where you can hear what it was built up to. It closes down with the killer talking about passion, and it’s creepy. The closing short track “Everyone Wants to Leave” only takes a little over three minutes, and it’s more introvert than what I’m now used to from Kadaver. No high-frequency layers, just a massive, deep, troubled atmosphere. The label labelled these noise escapades as ‘the void of saw-buzzed HNW hellscapes’ and it’s remarkably found.
The second release by Kadaver is again a tape, but this time it’s a 90-minute full-force two-tracker, released on the mighty Fusty Cunt. “Various Curses” it is called, and it has a Part 1 and 2 titled “Klalot” (curses) and “Od Klalot” (more curses)—two 45-minute exercises in how to make obnoxious sounds and still make people enjoy them. The tracks are close to HNW, so it’s challenging to write a lot about it.
SIDENOTE: That’s the only thing in my function as a reviewer that bothers me a bit these days. Minimalism in either drone or minimal music may be gorgeous, but how to describe the interpolation of two sine waves creating a fluttering layer in three or four paragraphs? Same with true HNW. True HNW is so static that you can describe the sound or concept, but then it’s pretty often ‘an hour of the same stuff’ … Does not being able to write about it, the release good or bad? END SIDENOTE.
“Various Curses” is a massive wall of harsh noise. Still, in contradiction to the static variant of this genre, Kadaver manages to keep it interesting through the manipulation of the sounds within the track. So even though you might think it’s HNW, it’s not, in my honest opinion. This is just about the loudest noise you can imagine. The HNW sounds with which this track begins are only one layer. In this production, it’s pushed to the front, and therefore, it sounds like a full HNW all the time. However, play it on high volume, and you will open up the depths of hell itself, where people go who are cursed. Incredibly loud feedback patterns and angry voices are super loud, and yet still secondary when compared to that massive wall. AH! MA! ZING! And the track on the reverse side continues, and the result is just super hypnotic. But then, just over two-thirds of that second track, the composition shifts into a little less HNW and a bit more breathing space for the other layers and events in this track. It’s like a rollercoaster ride that takes you around for 90 minutes. And there simply is no way you want to get off that ride because it fills your body with adrenaline, endorphin and any other -in you can think of.
Michael himself says about this release: ‘Not only is it the longest album I’ve recorded, it’s also among my sickest works.’ I concur. (BW)
––– Address: https://aberrantrecordings.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://fustycunt.bigcartel.com/

SUPERTOQUE – LEMTAT UNIT (cassette by Eh?)
SAUDARA TUA (cassette by Eh?)

Two projects that are new to me, even when I think Supertoque is no longer a going concern. This was a trio of Kelly Churko, Cal Lyall, and Tim Olive; the latter no stranger to Vital Weekly, but I had not heard of the other two. I understand that Churko passed away in 2014, and he was from Canada, a guitarist who moved to Tokyo. The other two are also former Canadians living in Japan. Lyall is also a guitar player, “focusing on improvisation, spatialization and urban noise”, and Olive “uses magnetic pickups to amplify the inner voices of metal objects”. ‘Lemtat Unit’ was recorded “at Ochiai Soup in 2014, shortly after a trio performance at SuperDeluxe”, and I am not sure why that was mentioned. The recording was recently unearthed and consists of thirty minutes of music, chopped up into many smaller pieces. It doesn’t sound like a live recording, but come to think of it, maybe it’s not a live recording at all. There is an excellent interaction going on here between the two guitarists, whose instruments we recognise most of the time, but it’s Olive who adds a level of abstraction to the pieces. He uses his magnetic pick-ups to sing, hum, bending and droning his sounds backwards over and turn them inside out, whereas the guitars buzz and scratch, and sometimes try to emulate what Olive is doing; or that’s what I gather from this. The music is loud but not all too noisy (as in distortion galore). There’s a distinct, direct-in-your-face sound here, with effects notably absent. Lovely stuff!
Something completely different is the collaboration between “Rahul, a Tabla and pakhawaj player from India, and Aldo Ahmad, a multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder from Indonesia”, going by the name Saudura Tua, “meaning “elder sibling,” reflects both a bond of kinship and the wisdom of ancient
musical lineages, reimagined through contemporary, experimental soundscapes.” I know next to nothing about the musical traditions of these countries, but the label tells me this music has “roots that span Sumatran traditions and Western classical training.” The music was recorded in Bandung and has a somewhat improvisational character, with one of these players also using his voice. I readily admit that this release ticks many boxes in areas where I have no expertise, such as improvisation, global music, and traditional music, among others. It seems at times an oddball combination at work here, but somehow it works well, even if not my cup of tea. If you want to hear something out of the ordinary (as in VW ordinary), then I suggest going to this place. (FdW)
––– Address: https://publiceyesore.bandcamp.com/

MIGUEL A. GARCÍA & FRANS DE WAARD – INTERIOR SOUNDING II (cassette by Steep Gloss)

When Miguel A. García died in January of this year, this album was already finished. It is the second instalment of a project between Miguel and Frans de Waard (Modelbau, Kapotte Muziek, THU 20, Wieman, Vital Weekly, etc), but it had been shelved somehow. That first part was released back in 2020, and it was actually one of the early releases on Steep Gloss (#13). Now, in all honesty, I have not yet heard that release, so this review is all about this one. The difference is that Frans mixed the first one, and Miguel mixed this one. Both artists did the sound creation, and there is an elaborate text on the Bandcamp page about it. Short recap: They decided to collaborate, recorded sounds, manipulated and developed them further, and then both started mixing and creating tracks. However, when it was time to compile an album, it got stuck. But there was so much beautiful material, so they decided to do Frans’ interpretation first and Miguel’s one later. And ‘later’ is now.
The first side has one long track, no title (they’re all just named ‘one’ to ‘five’), and here the concept starts to crystallise slowly. The sounds were recorded with a magnetic pickup in the interior of machines, and now and then, knowing this little fact, you can recognise one. Or it’s your head making fun of you and making you think you recognise it. Either way, this first track is like an exploration of the whole house. Different fragments, long static noises suddenly breaking up and still a connecting layer in between the sounds. As stated earlier, an exploration where the storyteller has a defined role. Miguel, being the storyteller, you know in advance that the sounds are descriptive in nature and super focused.
Then it’s time for the other side of the cassette. Here, the playing time is divided into four separate tracks, and because of that, there is more space for dedication to the tracks. On the A-side, it’s maybe more the exploratory aspect that leads, here it’s the different ‘rooms’ and a more in- depth look at the sounds within each ‘room’. There is more happening, yet there is less change. I love this side of the cassette! The sudden noises in ‘Three’ are a welcome break in a beautiful drone-like structure, the dissonance in ‘Four’ and the noisiness of ‘Five’, yes, this makes me really, really happy.
So, to top this one off, you will find a few links at the bottom. First, there is the link to the Steep Gloss Bandcamp. Here you can see both the “Interior Sounding” releases. I myself will still check that first because, well, you kinda know how impressive I thought this one was. The second link is to an online tribute to the memory of Miguel. For this tribute, Frans created a track using the original material. It can be seen as an addition, but it isn’t; at the same time, it kind of is. That one is a free download in honour of a great guy.
––– Address: https://steepgloss.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://kaarmiic.bandcamp.com/album/kaarmiic-audio-homenaje-audio-tribute-miguel-a-garc-a