TROUM – RYNA (CD by Myotis)
TROUM – DAUR (10″ by Cohort)
JOHN HUDAK – BROOKLYN BRIDGE (CD by Shirocoal)
THE SILVERMAN – SILVERMANDALAS (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
JOHN DUNCAN – MORT AUX VACHES : SEEK (CD by Staalplaat)
VAINIO, PITA & PALESTINE – THREE COMPOSITIONS FOR MACHINES (CD by Staalplaat)
TROUM – RYNA (CD by Myotis)
TROUM – DAUR (10″ by Cohort)
Maeror Tri are now officially dead – long live Troum. Two members of Maeror
Tri have been playing intensely in the last year and now the first
productions are available, and this is their first CD. Packed in an
oversized folder with vague images, this can unmistakenly be classified as
ambient industrial. The eight tracks all clock in at somewhere between 6:40
and 8:30 and they are all of an unmistakenly dark character – organ like
guitar treatments howl by like the wind, or huge thunder storms being
captured on Riqis. Too raw to be ambient by any means, and too ‘soft’ to be
considered the grandchildren of Throbbing Gristle. My favourite tracks
include ‘Thalamus’ and ‘Thumus’. The dark atmosphere is kept throughout the
entire CD, and one wished it contained also a bit more light in this
tunnel. But as debut, a damm fine opening.
The blue vinyl captures on one side ‘Daur’, a beautiful slowly increasing
wave of guitars. The b-side holds two tracks, of which ‘Venustas’ is simply
beautiful guitar plucking and is a great post rock doodling (hello Kranky?
sign this!). ‘Krypte’ then starts out with a bass and more chorused
guitars. The 10″ is more post rock then the CD and displays two sides of
this young band.
Now of course I am obligied to say something about the difference between
Maeror Tri and Troum (or that what linked them together), and I must say
that the early Troum reminded me a bit of the early Maeror Tri (circa their
first CD), in a way it is a much more raw and unpolished diamont.
Address: <myotis@planetinteret.be>
Address: <cohortrec@aol.com>
JOHN HUDAK – BROOKLYN BRIDGE (CD by Shirocoal)
What is the sound of one bridge clapping? John Hudak has been around for
two decades outliving ideas skecthed by John Cage and Zen. Only this year
he released his first CD, the beautiful ‘Pond’ on Meme, and now his second
CD, wherehe uses sounds from around the area (Hudak lives in Brooklyn), the
bridge that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan. These recordings are treated
with the usual touch of sampling and other fine gadgets harddiscs offer.
The first part is like the wind howling along the suspenders. The second
part reminded of sampling at 2K rate, very raw bits in there. The third
part, with its 11 minutes the shortest, is very dark with lots of rumbling
at the base (think Guenther in raw mood) and the fourth one a more high
pitched work of birds flying. Needles to say, I guess, that each track
develops slowly and is minimal to the bottom. That is Hudak’s trademark and
it’s fine. (FdW)
Address: <info@soleilmoon.com>
THE SILVERMAN – SILVERMANDALAS (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
For those unaware, The Silverman is one of two founding fathers of the
Legendary Pink Dots, and together with Edward Ka-spel responsible for
writing much of the bands material. This is second solo CD (were frontman
Ka-spel is more active in his solo material). The Silverman offers seven,
mostly instrumental of layered synthesizer music. 25 Years ago, this would
have been classified as cosmic music and in certain ways it still is. Nice
background listening, that is close to the edge of new age, but which is of
course way too dark to be big in those areas. What else can be said? Dream
on… float by. (FdW)
Address: <info@soleilmoon.com>
JOHN DUNCAN – MORT AUX VACHES : SEEK (CD by Staalplaat)
This is one of the last releases of1998 in this series co-produced by
Staalplaat and the VPRO radio show ‘De Avonden’, which is itself presented
by that dynamic duo Berry Kamer and Jan Hiddink. It is a good addition to
this almost flawless collection, although my spies have informed me that,
unlike all (or most) of it’s predecessors, it was not composed in the VPRO
studios, but was delivered as a DAT, apparently the result of some tiny,
yet somehow significant misunderstanding. This deviates slightly from the
concept of this series, but I suppose if Mr The Aphex Twin can get away
with this type of maneuver, then Mr Duncan might as well give it a bash.
Know what I mean ?
There are five tracks on this CD, one of which is a collaboration, and two
of which are untitled. Track 1, “Hymn’ is a slow stomp through shortwave
topography – architectectonic music – big gritty blocks of multiband. Track
2 reeks of danger – indistinct voices lurk, then loom behind a
malfunctioning electric fence. The dark air quivers like heatwaves rising
off asphalt. Soft rustle spreads itself like slow rust. Wet wind whistles
and chatters – it’s closing aperture ends this untitled piece. The
collaboration is titled ‘L’Attesa’ – something hesitates beyond the
perimeter, plucks up power and bursts closer to look and take. Big breaths
from a persistent, ticktocking pendulum. Then there’s the sound of blood
rushing through empty temples, and finally the aptly titled ‘Scramble’
documents voices babelbabbling from the pit, while their guardian strums an
infinite monochord.
Less radical than the Merz (and Mariah), this CD nestles comfortably
between ‘Incoming (Streamline) and ‘Send’ (Touch) by the same composer. (MP)
Address: <mailorder@staalplaat.com>
VAINIO, PITA & PALESTINE – THREE COMPOSITIONS FOR MACHINES (CD by Staalplaat)
For those not fortunate enough to attend the Staalplaat ‘Masterclass
Festival’ held just over a year ago, there’s now this rather delightful CD,
which documents the closing concert (and highlight) of the event. German
inventor Christof Schlage has spent several years developing MIDI
controlled mechanical machines and composing pieces for them, or presenting
them as installations at manifestations through Europe.
Staalplaat were cunning enough to commission three pieces, one by each of
the (very hip) above, to be performed on these visually (and sonically)
beautiful machines. Mika Vainio (of Finnish fame) performed a piece on the
rustler – an arrangement of asthmatic, pneumatic wheezes and roars and the
introvert whistling of the Demon-Sultan. PITA (Rehberg) inspired myriad
goblins to play finger-cymbals and tap-dance on a click-clackety crescent
and Charlemagne Palestine squeezed sirens till they matured from a young
whine to a full-bodied drone. You can almost hear the audience hold their
breath at the end of this composition.
There is a bonus track which was recorded at the Cocktail Event held in the
Volksbuhne, Berlin in October last year. The idea behind this festival was
to mix and (mis)match artists from various disciplines and see what they
managed to churn out.
This last track is the longest and has all the subtlety of the others –
contact microphones were fixed to a typewriter and the sounds it produced
were then run through a Powerbook, the LiSA sound manipulating programme
and effects to create a quite mysterious sonorous-scape.
Shame about the shoddy cover.
Very, very pretty music, tho’. (MP)
Address: <mailorder@staalplaat.com>