ANGUS MACLISE – THE CLOUD DOCTRINE (CD by Sub Rosa)
JAMEZ – DREAMCHASING (CD by Mute)
THE MOGLASS – TELEGRAPHY POLES ARE GETTING SMALLER AND SMALLER AS THE
DISTANCE GROWS (CD by Nexsound)
ALEJANDRA & AERON – SCOTCH MONSTERS (CD by Softl Music)
KENNETH KIRSCHNER – SEPTEMBER 19, 1998 ET AL (CD by 12K)
CHRISTIAN RENOU – FRAGMENTS AND ARTICULATIONS (CD by Ground Fault)
PITA – EARLY WORKS (3″CDR by Alku)
CITIES IN DESOLATION – LIVE ACTS 2003 (3″CDR by Ruins)
V.V. – 8L (CDR by Naninani Recordings)
IAN EPPS – FINDS THE4YEAROLDCHILD COURTSIDE (CD by Softl Music)
MICROCASSETTOR VOLUME TWO (CDR compilation by Pocketsound)
VERTONEN – THE OCEAN IS GONE, THE SHIP IS NEXT (CD by Ground Fault)
ORIGAMI SUBTROPIKA – ULTIMATUM (3″ CDR by The Locus Of The Assemblage)
BRIAN NORING – COLDEST OF SNOWS (CDR by F.D.R. Recordings)
MAR.TIN’S TROMBONE ON THE MOON – DESERTS WILL BLOOM THROUGH ATOMIC
POWER (CDR by Burning Emptiness)
CAL CRAWFORD – SITTING ON THEORIES ON THE FRONTIER OF EXTENSION (CD
by Squint Fucker Press)
JONATHAN PARANT – LITTERATURE (CD by Squint Fucker Press)
VALERIO CAMPORINI FAGGIONI – MULTITEMPORAL SONGBOOK VOLUME 1 (7″ by
Unbearable Recordings)
THE MARCIA BLAINE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS – PINK STICKS/WE (7″ by Static Caravan)
TROIMOUCHA CROUPISULDOS – ROADIES (7″ by Dhyana Records)
FUNKTURM – STRATA (CD by D.O.R.)
ANGUS MACLISE – THE CLOUD DOCTRINE (CD by Sub Rosa)
As one of the founding members of The Velvet Underground, Maclise was
a true artist who may have been an erasure in art space without great
efforts to define a history and catalogue works that were alas, way
before their time. The pieces on this two disc set date back to the
early 60s and the tray card offers a frank forward by co-producer
Gerard Malanga. Maclise who died in 1979 at the age of the young age
of 41 embodied the lifestyle of a free thinker/artist. His music
studies dated back to the mid 40s and he was an active poet and
magazine editor. ‘The Cloud Doctrine’ includes many quiet pieces that
just merely hint of minimalist soundscapes, so ambient and fresh. The
recording includes collaborations with John Cale, Tony Conrad and
others. ‘The First Subtle Cabinet’ was recorded in 1963 at Tony
Conrad’s New York studio. Its beautiful eastern-influenced
combination of diffused cimbalum, drums and slide are captured in
this old tape. The 26 minute piece is a truly improvised infusion of
paced meditation. The recording is spotted with Maclise’s spoken word
presentations as in ‘Description of a Mandala’ discusses the elements
so poetically. In this 1976 presentation at the Millennium Film
Workshop his words enchant, speaking of post-self and pure nakedness.
The passion in his voice embellishes the here and now of his words.
‘Thunder Cut’ is a half-hour plus wheezy blend of drones, loops,
organ and drum that repeats like tribal ecstasy. This is where I
would have been in 1968 if I weren’t but only three years old and
unaware. The process of bringing the spirit of outside elements into
a contained studio environment bares witness to human nature’s
forever craving to be wild, predatory, animal. On disc two ‘Trance
#1′ is a faded cacophony of strings and drumming and things sound
just plain wild. This reminds me of the wild films of Russ Meyer,
Kenneth Anger and Jack Smith. The pace changes from frenzy to
formidable mid way through and blends right into ‘Trance #2’. On
1965’s ‘Four Speed Trance’ it is remarkable, along with John Cale’s
strings, how much we are still induced by the frequency of noise,
here like a woodpecker out of control with a whirling dervish of a
guitar. 1969’s ‘Shortwave Radio’ is perhaps the most interesting
piece here with its frequency play and distorted samples from
international radio broadcasts. This has more in common with the work
of Scanner than anything I have heard to date. Maclise treats the
radio like a tur musical instrument and mixes its fundamental basics
for a fun and engaging three minutes. The grand ‘Electronic Mix for
Expanded Cinema’ definitely walks the blurred lines of the era’s
psycho-chemical revolution and comes out richly candy colored and
perturbingly cinematic. This is a no holes barred aural trip. The
overall work has shades of shamanistic beauty and seems to be
relegated in a class by itself, with no clear formula, just his own
recipe. (TJN)
Address: http://www.subrosa.net/
JAMEZ – DREAMCHASING (CD by Mute)
Placing this disc in your cd drive leads to an informative biography
and other background information about this producer cum mixer/dj.
The sound is in full flight, freely flaunting its aural space with
references to Future Sound of London on the opening track, ‘People
Will Believe’. As the billowing beats drift and fade up right into
the more pulsating techno-funk of ‘Thanx’ the listener heads for the
dancefloor, or living room, kitchen, wherever, to get their freek on.
At times the beats subside to make way for more orchestral
electronics. ‘Feeling Good’ jump cuts its way into the mix with a
flavored scat from an anonymous dive and then on to more Thrill Kill
Kult type beats circa mid 90s. These two entities collage until the
whole place has built up to a real chili-heat. Jamez uses some hints
liberally taken from likely denizens, the Pet Shop Boys and even
Felix da Housecat, but retains his own identity for shoulder
revolving dreamaticism. The track concludes in a mix of unlikely
samples and quirky organ grinding. The joint now attempts to
‘Levitate’ and shape shifts left of center. It’s as if he took
Seefeel and jazzed up the percussion for a more strident club trip.
And this is rave music, no doubt. Sir Jon’s Dave Gahan-like moaning
soaks into the threads of the ‘Energy of Life’. Studded with bass
continuum and scattered colors, this is the perfect foil for the
bloated ‘Falling In Love’ which follows. This is a continuous mix
that flows repetitively. ‘Dreamchasing’ is shiny happy music for
happy go luckies and those who had a long week at the office. Punch
the clock, throw on something sweatproof and catch this dream.(TJN)
Address: http://www.mute.com/
THE MOGLASS – TELEGRAPHY POLES ARE GETTING SMALLER AND SMALLER AS THE
DISTANCE GROWS (CD by Nexsound)
There is something in common with the gaps of time Dr. Who once
experienced that cavorts with this new recording from this Ukranian
trio. A heightened sense of proper weight carries each measure and
stuns the ear with its sweet bass drones. A surrealistic blend of
untailored improv, with a film noir edge. ‘Telegraph’ is The Moglass’
post-rock take on modern sound by these guys who have been around for
a handful of years reconstructing guitars into atonal minimalism. I
like this record because it utilizes guitar in a way that the beefy
instrument doesn’t have to take center stage. The darker lines of
observation grow and grow on track four where the haunted chamber of
braided electronics surrounds and envelops you. The mix is an
analytical search and destroy approach to its own past. These gents
have taken fair risks in implementing something this freely informed,
but there are moments where the repetition just goes on a bit too
long as on track five where the patters avenge my nerves. The damage,
if it were, is made up as the thirteen minute closing track is just
an investigative sonic pleasure. The strings bow with taut curiousity
and tenuous mediation. Playing with fire could get you burned, or
might make way for a greater elemental magic. This sizzles slowly.
(TJN)
Address: http://www.nexsound.org
ALEJANDRA & AERON – SCOTCH MONSTERS (CD by Softl Music)
This is the third and final reworking on an audio installation held
by Alejandra & Aeron in Scotland, presented by Diskono. The
installation consisted of buried mushroom shaped speakers that played
music that is now on this CD. The second rework of the installation
was the 12″ released by En/Of last year in a very limited, and now
slightly changed, it is more openly available. Each of the sixteen
tracks deal with a specific Scottish spirit (not the drink, but
monsters). In Scotch myth, people are sometimes warned of the
presence of monsters by the particular sounds they make. The first
seven tracks are the water spirits and the others are the earth
spirits. Naturally all sounds used in this recording were made in
Scotland and deal to a great extent with water and earth sounds. It’s
a great pleasure to hear music by Alejandra & Aeron: altogether
obvious elements of computer technology do not stand the warmth of
their music in the way, and that is a most rare feature in computer
treated music. Bird sounds, water, people walking: all of these
sounds are presented in some treated via laptop wizzardry, but
sometimes the natural, unprocessed element drops in and out and this
happens almost occassionally, but it makes that this music is still
attached to the earth. Once again, they succeeded in a very nice work
and lovingely packed, like all Softl Music releases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.softlmusic.com
KENNETH KIRSCHNER – SEPTEMBER 19, 1998 ET AL (CD by 12K)
You may have heard the name Kenneth Kirschner before, because of his
CD with Taylor Deupree, ‘Post_Piano’ for Sub Rosa. Otherwise there is
just music available from his website. An interesting, yet not new
aspect to this music, is that it’s all freely available. There are
three pieces of music on this CD, all of which are dated on the day
the piece was begun. Each piece chooses a distinct soundsource (resp.
piano and found objects, software synthesizers and mp3s), but
nevertheless the sound quite coherent. Kirschner’s main influence is
the late Morton Feldman. In the opening piece ‘September 19, 1998’
there are piano strums and loose percussive sounds playing on
kitcheware, which over the course of the piece are slightly changed.
A subtle piece that is much to my surprise quite acoustic. This is
contrast to the lenghty next piece, ‘September 27, 2002’, which deals
with software synthesizer sounds – unnamed which they are – but are
either a washy, ambient affair, or short cut to only form dense and
complex clicks and cuts rhythms. The last piece, ‘February 8, 2003’
seems to me a bit of random piece… ‘transforms tiny, unconsciously
selected fragments of the composer’s mp3 collection into a flowing
assemblage designed to evoke the late-period orchestral music of
Feldman’. But it seems to me it’s just a mix of mp3 files, but the
‘orchestral’ feel seemed a bit of out of place with the other two
pieces. This CD, while showing three aspects of Kirschner’s music, is
quite coherent and yet quite different at the same time. Nice one.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
CHRISTIAN RENOU – FRAGMENTS AND ARTICULATIONS (CD by Ground Fault)
Recentely Christian Renou decided to change his long time monikker
from Brume to Christian Renou, his own name. Maybe one reason might
be that on the old Brume releases it always said: no samplers, no
computer and while reading the sparse liner notes to this release,
all of these pieces were processed with a computer. In the opening
piece (which are all called ‘Fragments And Articulations’) for
instance he takes a short drum part, which will be, over the course
of twenty five minutes, entirely transformed. Somewhere in the
beginning the sounds of drumming are to be recognized, but sometimes
there is a thick buzzing sound, forming a clouded drone, which seems
to be hard to relate to the original drum pattern. The second piece
uses only a field recording, which was ‘re-injected into an old
computer with a damaged Cyrix processor which decomposed the sounds
into something much better’. This piece with it’s ongoing sounds and
small processings, reminded me of Renou’s other recent work ‘Flat’
(on Bake Records). It’s a kind of ambient music that is much more
forcefull then the regular ambient washes. In the final piece he uses
a ‘home-made Galene receiver’, producing some very dirty frequencies
(his own words), but in the presented collage form it works fine. The
main question is of course, is there a difference between the old
Brume sound and the recent Renou work? I think there is. The old
Brume sound was always ‘loaded’ with sound, silence was never a
matter; in his recent work, dynamics seem to be playing a bigger role
for him. Things move from loud to quiet and there is an overall sense
of depth in this music, more so, then in the old Brume work. A good
move. (FdW)
Address: http://www.groundfault.net
PITA – EARLY WORKS (3″CDR by Alku)
The long awaited 3″ CDR on Alku by Pita finally arrived. Announced as
‘Early Works’, I couldn’t have anticipated that it would have been
this early. I expected some work just before his current laptop
period, but these works are from 1982-1984, so by my estimation, Pita
was around sixteen or seventeen when he made this. The cover lists
tape, radio and synth and the work was edited in 2000 (so you never
know what was done afterwards). The music consists of crude
tape-loops, radio frequencies and synth doodlings – being of almost
similar age as Pita, I can fairly easily say that this kind of music
was a typical sort of thing for that day. Inspired by the likes of
Throbbing Gristle, MB, Nurse With Wound and harsher blokes as Ramleh
or Whitehouse, Pita did his own thing, which is nothing
outstandingely new or innovative for the time, but which still
sounds, after all these years just as an archetype of experimental
music from those days. That it comes to us on a CDR, rather then a CD
or vinyl, is, me thinks, linked to the fact that it would have been a
home made cassette twenty-years ago – it continues the home-taper
feel. And for an old man like me, it’s great to see that his history
is like that of some many of our age. That makes this into a nice
artefact of the past. (FdW)
Address: http://www.personal.ilimit.es/principio
CITIES IN DESOLATION – LIVE ACTS 2003 (3″CDR by Ruins)
Cities In Desolation are a two piece group, I believe from Greece (or
maybe from former Yugoslavia, as this release contains live
recordings from Mostar and Ljubliana and the release is from Greece),
who play laptop, bass, electronics and synth. As said, the three
pieces on this release were all captured live and combine an interest
in lo-fi electronic and less subtle ambient music – maybe this has to
do with the fact that it’s live. Small and microscopic are the sounds
captured here, with a love for loops and repeating sounds. The best
piece is the opening piece, aptly called ‘Intro’, with it’s ongoing
small keyboard melody and sounds coming and going like snowflakes.
Overall it’s too short to leave a good or bad impression, but I’d
say: so far so good. (FdW)
Address: <ruins@mail.gr>
V.V. – 8L (CDR by Naninani Recordings)
V.V. aka Ven Voisey might not be a household name yet, but that will
come, believe me. He has various releases on such labels as C.I.P.,
Throat and Aesova – mainly CDRs and CDs. Essentially V.V. is a laptop
artist, let there be no mistake about it. He is out there with a
microphone and some recording device taping whatever sound he finds
around, but when moving back to his computer he alters the sound on
his computer and offers a strong sound collage. On this new release,
the field recordings were all made at the ‘100 font blvd apartment
8L’ – an address which doesn’t mean much, nor the state it was in.
New? Old? Demolished? Empty? We don’t know, nor can we tell by just
listening to the music captured on this release. V.V.’s sound is one
of continous sound, its always there. It’s not so much about
dynamics, as it’s more an environment by itself. Six strong pieces of
heavily processed sound, which seemingely drone away nicely, in a
highly digital form. Slowly building crescendo’s, slowly adding more
sound processing to the already existing layers. Simple, but highly
effective. Watch this name. (FdW)
Address: <naninanicorp@free.fr>
IAN EPPS – FINDS THE4YEAROLDCHILD COURTSIDE (CD by Softl Music)
This is the first time I hear of Ian Epps, who is a sonic/visual
artist ‘customizing his life and belongings in Brooklyn, NY’. The
concept is quite intruiging: ‘The 4yearoldchild is a continuing
series of audio portraits, documenting a world through child’s eyes’.
Being vaguely familiar with four year old children (or better: one of
them), it’s nice to hear some of the results of such audio portraits.
For the four year old the world is getting bigger and more complex
then for children which are younger then four. Slowly they start to
understand the bigger concept of time and space, which is something
that is both fascinating and frighting to them. But the four old
start to understand and communicate. I am not sure what Ian Epps uses
sound wise for this CD and so it’s hard to relate to his concept.
It’s a highly digital scenery he is painting here for the listener.
Heavily influenced by the likes of Oval, Tone Language or Fennesz,
his compositions are short and filled with warm sounds – warm but
digital. Glitch one could call it and Epps remains in that tradition,
but finds his own way. Maybe the concept here is harked together with
the music – who am I to agree or disagree – but the result is what
counts. But maybe Ian Epps will make school… under ‘kids and cuts’.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.softlmusic.com
MICROCASSETTOR VOLUME TWO (CDR compilation by Pocketsound)
Second Volume in a collection of sounds captured on microcasettes,
which are usually found in answering machines or small recorders used
to record interviews. Volume one was reviewed in Vital weekly 343.
Spoken word, punk bands, weirdness while ordering food and home
recorded oddities is what one gets here. Highlights are for me the
more weird tracks, such as by My Brother The Cyclops, Newton, Minga,
New Dawn Rising, Teen Wolf, Supression and The Un-Ones, sho all sound
like captured inside an asylum, on the phone, spitting out their
weirdness. The overall quality of the music is of course not great,
but what else can one expect from the recording quality that is not
ment to record high quality music. The CDR comes packed in a
quarter-sized, hand-etched vinyl – so I guess all the formats are
enclosed here (vinyl, CDR and tape). (FdW)
Address: http://home.earthlink.net/~microcassettor
VERTONEN – THE OCEAN IS GONE, THE SHIP IS NEXT (CD by Ground Fault)
It’s not that Vertonen is going to be the next Merzbow in an attempt
to release more CDs, but with the review of ‘Stendac’ (Vital Weekly
369) we were just catching up with some older release. I believe this
is more new. Vertonen, aka Blake Edwards, is back with five lengthy
pieces of his usual drone like style, which is most certainly
apparent in the opening piece ‘Untitled For Air Organ And Turntable
Motor’, which clocks in at some fourteen minutes, with subtle
shifting frequencies of the two primary sound elements. In the other
four tracks, Vertonen goes back to using the turntable as his musical
instrument, but he manages to do it in such a way that it’s not
always that obvious. Vertonen uses metal sheets and objects attached
to the turntable’s arm and that creates an ever evolving drive to the
music. Occassionally crackles from vinyl pop up, which hints at the
more common use of turntablism. In all, it’s very nice work and maybe
more diverse then ‘Stendac’. (FdW)
Address: http://www.groundfault.net
ORIGAMI SUBTROPIKA – ULTIMATUM (3″ CDR by The Locus Of The Assemblage)
The slick textured blue cover with a palm tree conjures up music for
having fun in the sun. Especially if you find high pitched sine waves
and white noise the ideal soundtrack to prancing in the ocean on the
shore of some tropical island. This ep is the debut release from the
Puerto Rican branch of The Origami Republika, headed by Jorge Castro.
The music uses the very basic sound elements mentioned above-a high
pitched sine starts off the disk and later is joined by some white
noise. A very simple construction, nothing unique but it acts as an
aural palate cleanser for the sounds to follow. The noise is filtered
and modulated into a pressurized drone that fades in and out. The
second track uses the same basic elements again of sine and noise,
but they are softened with the use of filters with some percussive
pulses for accent. With many of Castro’s drone compositions there is
a feeling of pressure building up, which he releases at just the
right moment. The end result is a good sonic arrangement that uses a
modicum of materials. (JS)
Address: http://www.assemblage.freeuk.com
BRIAN NORING – COLDEST OF SNOWS (CDR by F.D.R. Recordings)
Brian Noring is part of the old hometaper network from the 1980s.
This is his 177th release on his label and was recorded last December
2002. Crappy color print out cover, crooked and unevenly folded with
cut and paste artwork well suits the dysfunctional keyboard/synth
music that goes around on this album. This is what I consider to be
true American folk music-devoid of any current (or past) stylish or
genre idioms. Cheezy keyboard sounds, that crappy casio drum machine
all done with a total lack of pretense, which I find so appealing.
This is music to listen to after a long day, relaxing on the couch.
And chances are Brian made this after a long day as a way to unwind.
Simple tunes that perhaps you’ll hum during your workday as they are
never cloying. Only the last track does Brian leave off the rhythms
to end with a dark piece of muffled tones and white noise portamento.
The 80s are alive and kicking. (JS)
Address: <bnoring@ msn.com>
MAR.TIN’S TROMBONE ON THE MOON – DESERTS WILL BLOOM THROUGH ATOMIC
POWER (CDR by Burning Emptiness)
This is one of the strangest things that has hit my cd player in a
while and that’s a good thing. This project is made up of Margrave
Ruediger& Trombone, Tin.RP & Moon, and The Guy Who Invented Fire.
What this mob of people bring on this 21 minute ep are seven songs of
samples and electronics bathed in a small room reverb, which probably
accounts for its overall strange sound. The music is a bastard blend
of 50s scifi films’ bloops and bleeps with laptop precise beats and
noises. Some of the tracks contain voice samples, which makes me
think that it would be interesting to hear this group with a proper
vocalist. This first track hints at such a concept, with its snippets
of female dialogue, albeit somewhat mangled. This is fun, freaky,
alien music great for your next party. Great full color cover too.
(JS)
Address: http://www.burningemptiness.fr.st
CAL CRAWFORD – SITTING ON THEORIES ON THE FRONTIER OF EXTENSION (CD
by Squint Fucker Press)
JONATHAN PARANT – LITTERATURE (CD by Squint Fucker Press)
Squint Fucker Press is a small label from Canada, run by Christof
Migone and Alexandre St-Onge. Their releases are truely a work of art
– not greatly designed, if designed at all, but the hardly readable
writing on both CDs do not make things easy. I was glad I got some
extra information on a piece of paper. Also musicwise, Squint Fucker
Press, likes the more extreme and conceptual approach. How about Cal
Crawford’s CD, which uses ‘sounds generated by sitting on top of a
bundle of blankets with a microphone rolled up into its center’. That
was a starting point: later on he made other recordings of various
types of microphones under pressure: in water, clothing, skin and
even boiling water. They are all ‘attempts to create a spatially
extended recording from acts that lacked a movement through space and
instead focused on increasing the distance of/inside specific points:
pressure point’. It all sounds like a mouthful, but the muffled,
crackling sounds captured in the various tracks on this CD are quite
nice. If you don’t know the story behind it, one may wonder what it
is all about as none of the sounds on this CD seem to be related to
anything we know – maybe then, in some cases, for static hiss coming
from the radio, but as we know it’s not. It’s a strange release, a
lot of times it hoovers somewhere down there, in which we don’t hear
anything at all, sometimes it’s just soft crackle and occassionally,
yes, it’s more audible. Captivating release.
I read the notes that came with the Jonathan Parant CD, but it didn’t
make much sense to me. Jonathan is a member of Fly Pan Am and Les
Sirenes De Sorrente. I haven’t heard the latter, but I do know Fly
Pan Am and I must say that what Jonathan does in his spare time has
nothing to with Fly Pan Am. Here he plays around with sound – small
sounds, large amplification. There is a bit of sound processing going
on, but it might be just an odd recording process going on.
Concpetually maybe less intruiging then Crawford’s disc, but sound
wise there is much more diversity going on here. Sometimes it sounds
like a bunch of alarmclocks going off or chairs being pushed around a
room, or radio disturbances. At times a noisy version of Roel Meelkop
or Bernard Gunter. (FdW)
Address: http://www.squintfuckerpress.com
VALERIO CAMPORINI FAGGIONI – MULTITEMPORAL SONGBOOK VOLUME 1 (7″ by
Unbearable Recordings)
Here is a little something that I fail to understand. It’s a record
by Valerio Camporini Faggioni, whohe, and has a computer sung and
children’s like synth backing, but never has the wit of Andreas
Dorau. Digital baroq music? It sort of eludes me. As a novelty act
nice, but that’s it… (FdW)
Address: http://www.unbearablerecordings.co.uk/html.gs.html
THE MARCIA BLAINE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS – PINK STICKS/WE (7″ by Static Caravan)
A highly unusual name for a band – or probably an one person unit –
who has releases before on Awkard Silence and Dalriada. ‘Pink Sticks’
is a very nice song. Plinkity plonk loops on a piano form the
backbone of the piece and the icing is a nice set of ‘intellegent’
dance rhythms in the veins of the Morr Music or City Center Offices.
Gentle but pulsating. Nice groove there.
A xylophone tune opens ‘We’, and just like the piano loops on ‘Pink
Sticks’ inspired by that one true master of minimal music, repeating
and phasing. Electronica is added slowly and the song’s melancholical
lines slowly evolve from there. The a-side could get a spin at a
party but ‘We’ is certainly for home entertainment. Nice record. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staticcaravan.com
TROIMOUCHA CROUPISULDOS – ROADIES (7″ by Dhyana Records)
A bit clueless as to whom the Troimoucha Croupisuldos are, but their
7″ is all about cars and moving in cars. The a-side is a mournful
sung song, a kind of voice I am a bit allergic for. Also a bit
clueless again about what the lyrics are about. The instrumental
b-side is much nicer. Heavy on guitar sounds with an ongoing
psychedelic drumsound and e-bows that sound like carhorns. Both sides
have a retro 80s doom sound, but especially the b-side reflects big
city life music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dhyanarecords.com
FUNKTURM – STRATA (CD by D.O.R.)
Improvisational specialist Richard Gallon is now ready with his third
release under the name Funkturm (taken from the name of Berlin’s
famous radio tower). Funkturm works with collages of sounds and
noises first of all taken from everyday sounds being processed,
re-arranged, manipulated into free flowing sound structures. The
complex multi-layered mix have been added spoken cut-up samples just
like most tracks are built on rhythmic textures ranging from slow
jazzy beats to cool dub patterns. Quite a few of the fourteen tracks
come out as live collaborations with Timothy Evans and have been
recorded at various shows. If you appreciate music based on sound
collage complexity, Funktum’s “Strata” is definitely worth checking
out. (NMP)
Address: http://www.dor.co.uk/
correction: Steve Curtain, reviewed in Vital Weekly 370, is actually
mis-spelled; it should be Steve Curtin. Sorry