LE FORCIBI DI MANITU: TRIVELOGUE (CD by Staalplaat)
Here’s an odd one – a three track CD, copiously detailed
texts and a small board game designed around one of the
tracks. Starting at the top – track 1 is by far the most
atmospheric on this release. It’s titled “Magellano”, is
divided into three movements and has an entertaining
stream-of-consciousness text to accompany it in the
booklet. It has something to do with that bloke and his
boats. Strangest ingredient is the weird distorted flute
which occasionally repeats a mildly hypnotic motif.
Second up is Master Audio Minimax -a set of pieces produced
by three players; for indeed, HAM is a match played with
sound. Two of the group arm themselves with a battery of
sounds in any easily accessible form, one taking the right
channel and the other the left. The remaining participant
is subjected to an improvised audio event and (as if this
were not enough) has to guess the ‘Secret Theme’ which
guided the selection of sounds used. Once a match is
completed, everybody moves around one place changing roles.
All the rules of this game are included in the CD book and
are so detailed they could hardly be misunderstood.
The final track is titled ‘Marconiplein’ and inspired a
certain Manitu Rossi (any relation to Francis) to design an
accompanying game. First fun is to be had with a pair of
scissors…yes ! build your own dice -it’s included. Next
read the instructions and get to it. Oh I almost forgot…
the music… well, it starts out as a small acoustic
chamber piece I guess, and gradually moves through some
unusual sonic events into the words… professional advice
by someone with a Ph.D., followed by an incredibly trite
vocal delivery of some rather uninspired lyrics which bring
this extremely strange item to a close. (MP) Address:
<staal@euronet.nl>
PHILIPPE MION -CONFIDENCE (mCD by Metamkine) Distort space
and time.
Now that your ear is a pond and it is early morning, we can
go further. Listen to the surface tension and the tiny
silences that briefly punctuate it after it has been
disturbed and it hastily reassembles itself into a tight
meniscus once more. Imagine dewdrops as packages of sound.
They slowly roll off the overarching foliage and splash
into the pond which is your ear. As they break through the
surface, sound bursts out of their skinshellshapes and
spreads like ink through the water. The day warms and the
dewdrops roll and fall more rapidly eager to free the
delicate contents which they have been nurturing in the
cool dark before they are vaporized by the increasing heat.
Occasionally several drops coalesce and plummet down,
falling into the pond with greater force creating minute
vortices which swirl and spin and suck sounds from beyond
this immediate environment. Evidence of activity in a
waking world. Care to join…? (MP)
Address: Metamkine -13 Rue De La Drague -38600 Fontaine –
France
A FAULT IN THE NOTHING -COMPILATION ( 2CD by Ash/Touch )
Another worthwhile excursion into the world of
Wozencroftian wrapping which gently hugs two CDs in this
new and rather extreme Ash/Touch release. In many ways it
comes across as a companion to the Mesmer Variations which
were released on this label late last year. The CDs are
distinguished from each other by two small dots…one Black
and the other White. Black Hole starts with a (( the best)
track (for me) by BERNARD GUNTER/john hudak. Just a little
over 28’00 long it set me up for an evening of threshold
listening… or so I thought, because the next piece is a
soundcheck recording by Mr. Merzbow (quite fashionable in
UK these days I’m told, and sure to help sell a bunch of
these -as will the inclusion of Panasonic and Oval). I am
convinced that Ios Smolders smiles while he works; the
titles of his pieces are usually an indication of how broad
his grin really is. Try this: ‘Prelude a l’Apres-Midi d’un
Phone’. Mark Behrens gently tenders seduction but not for
long enough. Anthony Manning owns an analogue synthesizer.
John Duncan continues to abrade like rough grade
sandpaper…just when I thought he too was exploring (and
perhaps starting to understand) seduction himself.
White Hole, the other CD, has some exqusite tracks. It
starts with a contribution from Panasonic -low thudfrob
which is beautifully contrasted by Chris Watson’s recording
of ululating grey seals on The Isle Of May. Joe Banks as
Disinformation (see: Ash LP Ghost Shells, and new CD out
now) provides what sounds like the end of a record slowly
being ground up by a blunt spike. ‘Nix Zwei’ by Rehberg &
Bauer is a soft spray of surf noise and something stretched
-a gorgeous warm embrace. Mr von Hausswolf visits the Royal
Chamber and flushes some grit. There is a live track by
Ralf Wehovsky in which he carefully introduces sounds to
each other in slower time. Oval do the usual when will
these boys invent yet another new technique…) before we
are buffeted between the speakers by Daniel Menche whose
staggered sonics and subsequent gentle freefall into
mechanical space is the last cool breath on this CD. Ryoji
Ikeda provides what can probably be compared to the audio
equivalent of an earbud…pure cleansing frequencies which
cleverly define the space they’re played in. Achim
Wollscheid…well Achim should have been somewhere else
when this was compiled…the packaging includes an
explanation of his piece which does nothing to improve the
quality of the sound recording…no point in being clever
if it sounds like shite.
Personally, I would have preferred a different sequencing
of all these track and even 2 separate releases confining
the brutality to one and the caress to the another. Never
mind, it still retains the eclectic Ash/Touch aura of
strangeness and is well worth getting a copy of. (HP)
Address: <touch@touoh.demon.co.uk>
IN BETWEEN NOISE -HUMMING ENDLESSLY IN THE HUSH (CD by New
Plastic Music)
To follow last years debut CD, yet another delight from
somebody hasn’t been picked up -shame on you. You get this
second opportunity. Steve Roden, the gentle bloke behind
all of this, plays a wide variety of instruments, almost
all of them acoustic (except for micromoog in the third
track) and recorded allover the planet -from Slovenia to
Lake Bled to Rakushiha. Instruments include a ‘Retch’,
‘Scot tie Bagpipes’, ‘Stringcan’, ‘Kooky Kombo’ and many
more -all explained on the cover. The music has drones
derived from sometimes ancient sound sources, a mystical
eastern feel in strings or percussive instruments. Gently
played. Yet another excellent CD -so for once: go out and
get it!
Address: New Plastic Music -P.O. Box 36B16 -Los Angeles, CA
90036-1154 -USA
BLOWHOLE -BILLOWING SHEEN (CD by Apraxia) PROJECT W (CD by
Apraxia)
Two CD’s dealing with, roughly said, the same musical
interest: free improvised music. Blowhole surfaced on Vital
before, and I must admit, more and more I’m attracted to
what they do. Not necessarily because I think they make
good tracks, but they sound intense. This is physical music
that both hurts the listener and the player. Unlike many
industrialists who sit back when their feedback gets going,
these boys (and girls) must go. It surely hurts their
fingers, lips or whatever body part they use to play their
instruments.
Project W appears to be more a close trio (as opposed to
the open membership of Blowhole), whose aims come ‘out of
shared belief that interactive improvisation, with an
emphasis on close, detailed listening, can create a group
sound that has a life of its own… ‘. I must admit I am
not too familiar with the terms used to describe this kind
of music, but from these two CD’s, this one is the more
‘free jazz’ one, instruments being fixed to alto saxophone,
cello and drums. This one is as intense as the Blowhole –
yet less electric, and more acoustic. Address:
<apraxia@apraxia.seanet.com>
JOHN HUDAK -NATURA (7″ by Apraxia)
Hudak has been involved in making music for more then 10
years, mainly producing cassettes only. Much of his work
could be defined as ‘minimal’ : it seems as if he is using
tape-loops to construct his work, yet in many cases this is
not it. Many of his pieces are real time field recordings
which are carefully edited. This 7″ has on one side the
sound of fruit flies and the other side ice pellets falling
on snow, which are used to trigger a synthesizer. On both
sides the sound moves slowly, no sudden outbursts, but a
gentle, minimalist approach. Somebody should offer John
Hudak a CD release… (FdW) Address:
<apraxia@apraxia.seanet.com>
BLOODYMINDED -TROPHY (CD by Bloodlust!)
Just as much as Whitehouse is still an active force, so are
many of their successors. A synth or two are set to a
drone, rumbling low end and a voice starts to shout about
murder, sex, s&m and these subjects alike. Nothing new
under the sun. (FdW) Address: Bloodlust! -JAF Box 7962 -New
York City 10116 -USA