JASON BIVINS & IAN DAVIS – BENTHIC (CD by Family Vineyard)
THE BLITHE SONS – WE WALK THE YOUNG EARTH (CD by Family Vineyard)
KAHN/MULLER/DIEB13 – STREAMING (CD by For4Ears Records)
VOICE CRACK/MULLER – BUDA_ROM (CD by For4Ears Records)
GUNTER MULLER – EIGHT LANDSCAPES (CD by For4Ears Records)
VERTONEN – THE BLISTER OF COMMUNICATION (CDR by Naninani)
K.M. KREBS – THE LIGHT WILL FILL THE DARKNESS AND OBLITERATE IT (CDR by Mystery Sea)
LOREN CONNORS – THE DEPARTING OF A DREAM VOL. 2 (CD by Family Vinegard)
IDEAL ELECTRONICS (CD compilation by Ideal Recordings)
LONGINA – !SIAM ACNUN (CD by Cronica Electronica)
VITOR JOAQUIM – LA STRADE IS ON FIRE (AND WE ARE ALL NAKED) (CD by Cronica Electronica)
VIOLET – LET THE SUNSHINE IN (3″CDR by Zeromoon)
VIOLET – GREEN (CDR by Zeromoon)
ANDREY KIRITCHENCKO INTERPRETS SECOND VIOLIN – VE.COND.SIO.LIN (3″ CDR by Zeromoon)
RINUS VAN ALEBEEK – KULISSEN ABRISS (3″CDR by Zeromoon)
NORMAL MUSIC – BREV (3″CDR by Zeromoon)
ZEROMOON SAMPLER (businesscard CDR by Zeromoon)
UNIFORM – NOT A WORD (CD by Ad Noiseam)
ANDREY KIRITCHENKO – KNIGA SKAZOK (CD by Ad Noiseam)
ANDRES MELAND – LENESTOL/NALEPUTE (7″ by Humbug)
DARIN GRAY – ST. LOUIS SHUFFLE (CD by Family Vinegard)
THE HAFLER TRIO – PART THE SECOND: NO MAN PUT ASUNDER. 7 FRUITFUL AND SEAMLESS UNIONS (CD by Die Stadt)
THE HAFLER TRIO/DITTERICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG/KONTAKT DER JUNGLINGE (2×7″ by Die Stadt)
MIRROR – DIE SPIEGELMANUFAKTUR (CD by Die Stadt)
JIM O’ROURKE – SCEND (LP by Three Poplars)
WILLIAM BASINSKI – A RED SCORE IN TILE (LP by Three Poplars)
JASON BIVINS & IAN DAVIS – BENTHIC (CD by Family Vineyard)
As simple as it may seem: here is a duet between a guitarist and a drummer. The strings are touched by Jason Bivins, who has been playing improvised music for a great number of years. He has a duo with flutist Richard Patterson, a trio called M and plays with the Unstable Ensemble. Ian Davis has even more projects running in the fields of improvisation. Apart from his duo with Jason, he is playing with the same Jason in Slugworth and is a member of the Micro-East Collective. As a duo they offer a very nice set of playing and interaction together. At times furiously in free jazz areas – for instance in ‘Sipunculid’ – which is maybe the sort of thing to expect. But when they turn their hands to more subtle, micro sounding improv things really get nice. Such subtle work is added to ‘Eelpout’, with just a tiny dash of echo on the guitar and the percussive playing, being the cross-over between research and playing with brushes, but as the piece evolves the free jazz elements return. It’s all over the place. Pricewinning piece is the eleven minute ‘Bathysphere’, which is the perfect blend of the various interests they have. (FdW)
Address: http://www.family-vineyard.com
THE BLITHE SONS – WE WALK THE YOUNG EARTH (CD by Family Vineyard)
Loren Chasse is a name that I do seem to remember from before but his sporadic releases always seem to miss me for some reason. So I am suprised to see his name come up in The Blithe Sons, a duo he is doing with Glenn Donaldson. This is their third full length release, after two CDRs on their own label. Apperentely only the first was recorded in a studio, the second and this new one were recorded outside. That is an old bunker and under a creek bridge. The location becomes an instrument too, apart from the use of acoustic guitar, harps, bells, harmonium, toy-amplifiers, vocals, birds, branches and much more. There is an overall drone like character on these recordings, which works in quite a mysterious way. The music is largely instrumental and, as said, has a drone like character. Sometimes there is a sort of folky singing. The whole atmosphere of the disc reminded me of Richard Youngs’ solo work. Very intimate and private playing, but also very open. Loosely improvised, but these boys know what they are doing. Great stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.family-vineyard.com
KAHN/MULLER/DIEB13 – STREAMING (CD by For4Ears Records)
VOICE CRACK/MULLER – BUDA_ROM (CD by For4Ears Records)
GUNTER MULLER – EIGHT LANDSCAPES (CD by For4Ears Records)
Three persons, three countries, one profession: Gunter Muller is of course the well-known percussion player (as well as minidisc and electronics) from Switzlerland, whose career spans a lot of years and a lot of persons. Jason Kahn lives in Switzerland, but he is from the USA and is also a percussion player, although these days he plays around with his laptop more and more. Dieb13 is from Austria and he is solely using turntables. They are all refined improvisers. One may expect total percussion mayhem and plunderphonica on top, but nothing such is the case here. The electronica elements of both percussion players is a strong element in this music, but it’s a subtle play between live percussion and sampling. So subtle that it’s hard to see which sounds are played ‘live’ and which are sampled. Kahn and Muller certainly are two players who are matched together. The elements thrown in by Dieb13 form an interesting counterpoint to the subtle interactions of Kahn and Muller. Most of the time, Dieb13 limits himself to a fairly abstract use of vinyl, and just very occassionally recognizable elements from records pop through. The whole scenery is one of majestic calmness, a distant sound, a blurred photograph. This is the kind of improvisation that I like very much.
Another work of improvisation involving Gunter Muller is a CD that he recorded with Voice Crack on two occassions in Rome and Budapest in 2000. Voice Crack play cracked everyday electronics. It’s always a real pleasure to see Andy Guhl and Norbert Moslang, aka Voice Crack, busy in concert. A large table full with wires, electronic devices and all sort of strange connections between them. They play this with their hands in a fully controlled manner. The one time I saw is ages ago and that was pretty loud. Maybe it’s Muller’s influence that things are a bit controlled here, who knows, and maybe it’s also the reason that it’s a bit more rhythmical and not just cracking noise. The playing reaches here a certain refinement that one doesn’t see to often, this is not the sum of some individuals doing their thing, but rather a group in which each has his distinct voice in an overal group sound.
And finally there is a solo release by Gunter Muller. Strange to think that this man has been on so many releases, and yet no solo work. I wonder why, after hearing this disc. Muller pictures eight sonic pieces that might very well be aural landscapes. Combining electronica (in the form of ipod, minidisc, electronics and processing) with percussion, he offers an extremely varied, yet well fitting together disc. Ambient textures are coupled with more rhythmic excursions (at times he may even sound like Pan Sonic or Noto). Muller’s landscapes are not landscapes in reality but rather photographs of landscapes, still lifes. Let’s hope Muller will be exploring more in his own right soon. (FdW)
Address: http://www.for4ears.com
VERTONEN – THE BLISTER OF COMMUNICATION (CDR by Naninani)
I am told it’s a mere coincidence that we have in a very short time this flow of Vertonen releases (see also Vital Weekly 369 and 371). It’s just because all of these things seem to be released at the same time. The four pieces on this disc bring the work of Vertonen in an even more droning affair. Using the air organ and metallic percussion again, Vertonen adds an old synth and processors and together they sound more like drone music then his previous ‘Stendac’ and ‘The Ocean Is Gone, The Ship Is Next’. Vertonen draws a clear inspiration from ‘classical’ drone composers, like Phil Niblock, Charlemagne Palestine or perhaps most clearly in ‘False and/or Selective Memory’ from Eliane Radigue. The piece that is longest here, but the least interesting for me is the live cut called ‘Notes From The Mouth Of My Dead Daughter’. It’s has a vaguely industrial texture, but drags on a bit too much. Having seen Vertonen live, I know he can do much better (and see announcement list for his upcoming US east coast tour). Together with V.V. and Crawl Unit, Vertonen has built himself an interesting niche inside the more thought out noise music. (FdW)
Address: <naninanicorp@free.fr>
K.M. KREBS – THE LIGHT WILL FILL THE DARKNESS AND OBLITERATE IT (CDR by Mystery Sea)
I must admit I never heard of K.M. Krebs, but apperentely he is the co-founder of the online label Nishi, an off-shoot of No Type. Musicwise he also works as 833-45, but again not something I heard. Being on Mystery Sea means that there is a strong interest in the darker side of ambient music. I guess that Krebs is using a fair dose of synthesizers, sound effects and samplers. Unlike many others who operate in this field, Krebs likes to keep his tracks short. He has no less then thirteen in just over an hour. That’s a nice thing for those who are tired of one hour track per CD approach that some ambient artists tend to have. Another thing is that Krebs is not out for the entire 100% living ambient experience. He has built in some sounds in some tracks that are a bit more experimental and might be somewhat unsettling for the listener, like the reversed voices at the end of ‘A Large And Shining Gate’ or the crackles in ‘Dissolving Into The White Horizon’. Of course the gentle and darker moments prevail here, and in that respect this is no different then most other releases on Mystery Sea. It has a distinct quality in sound and will certainly appeal to fans of their previous releases. (FdW)
Address: http://home.planetinternet.be/~chalkdc
LOREN CONNORS – THE DEPARTING OF A DREAM VOL. 2 (CD by Family Vinegard)
This may come as a surprise, but I do like Loren (MazzaCane) Connors music. In case you don’t know what his music is about: it’s a man who plays guitar. Just like that. Sometimes acoustic guitar and sometimes electric. He strums a couple of notes, waits until the sounds have died out and strums a couple more. Occassionally there is a bass guitar to guide the guitar. It’s very moody music here. It’s a feeling of desolation, darkness, black and white film noir. He adds on this disc a strange mixture of environmental sounds, which seem like deliberately badly recorded with lots of hiss. Sometimes one recognizes some bird sounds, but most of the time it’s hard to identify anything at all. Loren Connors is still called a blues guitarist, but it’s not the kind of blues that is so common. Loren’s music more breathes the atmospheres of blues music, the despair, anger and anxiety. I am told that this CD, a follow up to ‘The Departing Of A Dream’ from 2002, is lighter then than the first volume. That’s hard to believe, it’s probably a lighter version of black and not even grey yet. But I might wrong of course. In any case, Connors has added another fine record to his extensive discography. (FdW)
Address: http://www.family-vineyard.com
IDEAL ELECTRONICS (CD compilation by Ideal Recordings)
A compilation with electronic music from Sweden, focussing for the bigger part on names that might not be that well-known, save maybe for Mokira and Claudia Bonarelli. Ideal Recordings moves with this compilation into the world of dance/techno electronica and a bit out of the world of noise and improvisation. That’s a nice thing, even when this disc contains no real surprises, the level of quality is quite high. From cracking laptop textures of Mokira, Dwayne Sodahberk or Tsukimono to the even more ambient scapes of Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words (their ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’ hardly counts as a cover) and Henning Lundkvist. Straight up techno-like are Normal Music, C.P.U., Claudia Bonarelli and Frak. Pieces by Marcus Wrango and 8tunnel2 are sort of inbetween the straight techno and the ambient pieces. Only Henrik Rylander dashes back to the older school of industrialized rhythms. Much of this music could easily meet the better parts of the Mille Plateaux catalogue, so be daring and find out. (FdW)
Address: http://www.idealrecordings.com
LONGINA – !SIAM ACNUN (CD by Cronica Electronica)
VITOR JOAQUIM – LA STRADE IS ON FIRE (AND WE ARE ALL NAKED) (CD by Cronica Electronica)
Two new releases from Portugal, and both from people I never heard of. Chiu Longina makes music and specializes in dolby 5.1 installations for small groups of people (4-10 person concerts). He is depicted on the cover as Franz Schubert without glasses, playing laptop in some rocky area, very romantic. His CD has six audio tracks, which are strangely all over the place. From it’s opening ambient laptop piece to the closing Kompakt styled techno, Longina doesn’t want to choose what he wants. Ambient? Laptop crackles? Microsound? Techno? Trip Hop? It seems a very difficult decision. By themselves the tracks are quite nice, but as a whole the album is not very coherent. It’s almost a compilation CD. The techno pieces are by far the nicest around, so if I can make a suggestion: develop that, sir.
Vitor Joaquim is involved in making music since 1982, but I don’t think I heard his music before. He had a release as Free Field on Ananana in 1997 and played with a whole bunch of musicians from Portugal. Unlike Longina, Joaquim’s CD is much more coherent. Joaquim works, he says, in a searching way. Searching among small acoustic sounds, soft- and hardware until he stumbles upon an idea that he thinks is strong enough to record. From then on it’s recorded in one go. It’s hard to say what these small acoustic sounds are, as in the final composition they are completely transformed and unrecognizable. In eight relatively tracks, Joaquim explores a soundsource and builts a composition out of the various processings he’s done. The cover lists also the use of saxophones, bass, voice and tv snippets, but I failed to recognize them. Vaguely linked to ambient music, but always with a more harsher and electro-acoustic edge to it. One piece seems really out of place here and that is the fifth piece (all pieces untitled), which is an acoustic piece of improvised music with bass, drums and saxophones. It lies far outside of the rest and could have been left off. Otherwise a fairly nice CD. (FdW)
Address: http://cronicaelectronica.org
VIOLET – LET THE SUNSHINE IN (3″CDR by Zeromoon)
VIOLET – GREEN (CDR by Zeromoon)
ANDREY KIRITCHENCKO INTERPRETS SECOND VIOLIN – VE.COND.SIO.LIN (3″ CDR by Zeromoon)
RINUS VAN ALEBEEK – KULISSEN ABRISS (3″CDR by Zeromoon)
NORMAL MUSIC – BREV (3″CDR by Zeromoon)
ZEROMOON SAMPLER (businesscard CDR by Zeromoon)
Here is a whole bunch of 3″ CDRs by Zeromoon, the label from V. or Violet as it is called these days. Most of these releases are in very limited editions available, ranging from 23 to 50 copies per release. And it’s like a who’s who on the Zeromoon, with various cross connections and solo projects.
To start with Violet, the solo project of Jeff Surak (once of -1348- and New Carrollton, currentely of Second Violin and V. or Violet as his solo monniker). For ‘Let The Sunshine In’ he uses guitar, recordplayer, autoharp and tape. It’s a kind of strange interaction going on that defies the categories such as ‘improvisation’ or ‘composition’ – maybe it’s a combination of both. No doubt the use of a record player delivers the somewhat vague industrial character of some of the music, but it never gets to a point that it’s too noisy or too industrial.
The only full length of the new lot on Zeromoon is “Green” by Violet. Captured in a live concert with sine wave, guitar and record player. The three tracks form a highly hypnotic affair of drone music. The first piece with it’s pulsating and phasing ending reminded me of Jim O’Rourke circa ‘Disengage’. ‘Part B’ is also rhythmical but with a certain amount of decay in the sound. As far as ambient goes, the final track might be it. One could be fooled for thinking that this is just a laptop work… Great stuff.
Second Violin was an improvisation group featuring Jeff Surak, Zann Hoffman, Adam Bohman and Rinus van Alebeek – I believe the latter two collaborated via the postal system. The busy as ever bee Andrey Kiritchenko remixes, or maybe more appropiate, recycles recordings by Second Violin in his “usual” laptop manner. None of the bands normal work can be easily recognized in here. It beeps and hisses, hums and hisses. Over the course of twenty minutes he works nicely through the material and transforms the pure acoustic material into pure electronic material.
>From Second Violin member Rinus van Alebeek a limited release becomes available. He dwells entirely on field recordings for ‘Kulissen Abriss’. A girl reading a letter, street sounds that seem recorded with a cheap recorder. Strange atmospheres, static hiss. It’s hardly music going on here, but more a ready-made poem.
Normal Music is a trio, whom, I think, work by mail. It includes Jeff Surak (of Violet), Raphael Irisarri (of The Musique Concrete Ensemble) and Thomas Ekelund (of Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words). Knowing some of their music, I think the result is quite a surprise. Five tracks of beat oriented music, for which they use surface noise from vinyl and acoustic sounds. These are sampled and put into minimal beat stuff. Not something I haven’t heard before (the influences are obvious Pan Sonic, Goem or Pole), but it’s done rather nice and certainly adds to the genre. Less minimal Goem, louder then Pole and certainly as danceable as Pan Sonic. This deserves a full length release.
And if nothing of the above means anything to you, then I recommend getting the Zeromoon sampler. A business card CDR with five minutes of music, displaying no less then nine different bands, including the above aswell as Critikal, Second Violin, The Music Concrete Ensemble, V+Sumerki and Pleasure Girls.
Address: http://www.zeromoon.com
UNIFORM – NOT A WORD (CD by Ad Noiseam)
ANDREY KIRITCHENKO – KNIGA SKAZOK (CD by Ad Noiseam)
The guy behind Uniform is apperentely the same guy as behind 2nd Gen, who has a CD called ‘Irony’ on Mute Records – needless to say I didn’t hear that, as I in general don’t keep up with the releases on Mute (or rather they don’t keep me updated). Oh well. It’s not easy to describe the music of Uniform. File under ‘electronica’ your store would say. Most of the pieces have a drum machine basis, with synthesizers and samplers on top and sometimes spiced with a dash of voices (although not as in singing, as this CD is apptly called ‘Not A Word’). Overall the atmospheres that come out of your speakers is a rather dark one. Occassionally Uniform goes into the fields of techno driven music, and on other occassions it stays on the industrial side of things. The two don’t meet very often. That makes this CD into a less uniform thing as the bandname suggests, but altogether also a well varied and pleasent CD. Some of the paths that Uniform goes are well explored already but it’s all well executed by Uniform.
On the same label we get the first real CD by Andrey Kiritchenko. He hails from the Ukraine and has in the past released his works on CDR as Nihil Est Excellence and Sidharta. His collaborative work with Kim Cascone and Andreas Berthling was reviewed in Vital Weekly 350. The underlying theme of this CD seems to be fairytales – one could have fooled me. For his recent solo work, Andrey dives deep into the world of clicks and cuts and therefore in the world of Mille Plateaux. He sounds very much like a lot of people there. Playing around with his powerbook, technoid rhythms and clicks and beeps, he doesn’t do something new, but rather instead is a fellow-traveller. Albeit a good fellow traveller. Pleasentely and entertaining is his CD, but nothing new under the sun. (FdW)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
ANDRES MELAND – LENESTOL/NALEPUTE (7″ by Humbug)
This guy is one third of the experimental trio Duplo (see Vital Weekly 314), but nowadays also quite active in solo works (besides running the Safe As Milk Records and Melektronikk labels and the Safe As Milk Festival in Norway). On this very limited 7″ (lathe cut) he offers two tracks. ‘Lenestol’ starts out like radio drone but as the piece evolves things are put in decay in the various filters inside the laptop. ‘Nelapute’ on the other side starts out likewise noisy, but gradually fades over in a more continous rhythm with noisy elements brought back in and out of the mix. Short, sweet and noisy pieces from the world of powerbooks. Get them while they still last. (FdW)
Address: <tchartan@online.no>
DARIN GRAY – ST. LOUIS SHUFFLE (CD by Family Vinegard)
It’s a pity that this album has no subtitle, but it could have been: ’19 ways how not to play your bass guitar’. Darrin Gray is a bass player for the extremes. He was once a member of Brise-Glace, Yona Kit and You Fantastic! and has recorded with Jim O’Rourke, KK Null, Cheer accident, Kevin Drumm and Will Oldham, to name but a few. On his solo CD he plays electric bass. Nothing else. For those who suspect sustained deep end ambient drones, I have some bad news. Not so. Although it seems that this album would easily find it’s ways to the improvised music section, it’s much more a microscopic exploration of what the bass guitar can do. It scratches, humm, buzzes and produces a whole bunch of uncomfortable noises that only bear superficially relations with the sound of a bass guitar. The tracks are kept short, nineteen short, almost sketch like pieces in just under thirty seven minutes. This CD reveals only it’s beauty upon repeated listening and certainly takes bass playing to it’s logical extreme. (FdW)
Address: http://www.family-vineyard.com
THE HAFLER TRIO – PART THE SECOND: NO MAN PUT ASUNDER. 7 FRUITFUL AND SEAMLESS UNIONS (CD by Die Stadt)
THE HAFLER TRIO/DITTERICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG/KONTAKT DER JUNGLINGE (2×7″ by Die Stadt)
One of the first things that was released in the recent flow (flood?) of Hafler Trio releases was ‘Cleave: 9 Great Openings’. That CD certainly came as a surprise. One long drone piece, based, I think, on the sound of cello’s in the best Phill Niblock tradition. On the second part ‘No Man Put Asunder – 7 Fruitful And Seamless Unions’ the whole process seems to be repeated, but that’s only upon first hearing. The first part had distinct movements, here in the second part everything seems to be operating on the same level throughout. As the piece evolves – as if there is such a thing possible – overtones seem to be moving in and out in very gentle way. The piece is solemn, in a religious sort of way. More static and minimal then ‘Cleave’, this is probably the most austere work I ever heard coming out of Andrew’s hands. I think I said that before, so knowing this will be a trilogy, I assume the third part will be even more sober. The package is almost similar to ‘Cleave’ and I must admit again that the booklet’s font makes it hard to read. Beautifully printed, but hard to capture.
During the recent Hafler Trio tour in Germany a double 7″ was available with The Hafler Trio on one side and Ditterich Von Euler-Donnersperg on the other side. ‘Episode 2 (Water)’ by The Hafler Trio is a spoken word piece (I believe the voice is by Ditterich) which sound like recorded from beneath the sea level. Maybe simple in approach but also strangely poetic at the same time. The b-side by Ditterich is on the other hand just instrumental (for those who expect some of his spoken word stuff). Maybe he put his voice inside the sampler and makes a piece with various samples. I don’t know. The piece is alright, Hafler Trio inspired, but maybe a bit long.
A bonus 7″ is added for those who act fast and here we find Kontakt Der Junglinge doing a remix of the Hafler Trio piece. Each member (that is Thomas Koner and Asmus Tietchens) do one. Tietchens stays close to the original, but knows very cleverly to remove the spoken word in order to do an even more sober piece. Thomas Koner on the other hand digs out frequencies that are unheard in the original and manages to create a dance rhythm out it. Not entirely like his former Porter Ricks project, but altogether with a fresh look at the original. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
MIRROR – DIE SPIEGELMANUFAKTUR (CD by Die Stadt)
For some odd reason I never reviewed ‘Die Spiegelmanufaktur’ by Mirror. This was a highly limited (although everything by Mirror seems limited) picture disc and the most curious thing was that Mirror was not just the usual two suspects, Christoph Heemann and Andrew Chalk, but also Jim O’Rourke. Jim has been seen playing with Mirror on various live concerts, but this is a studio recording. And just in case you think you are being ripped off: the CD holds a different mix then the previous LP, plus one gets an extra seventeen minute piece. The first piece is really in true Mirror style. Vague metallic percussive sounds, guitars bended and organ drones, evoking a great atmosphere. In the second track however it seems to me that Jim has turned on his powerbook for some ambientesque doodlings. Surprisingely the sound is a bit more digital, but it works quite well in the context of Mirror music. The third piece is one that works with a long, majestic drone and somewhere, far away, there is the metallic rumbling and maybe even the sound of the ocean. Mirror is maybe a hippy band. Music for smoking a big, big sigaret with some illegal substance. I am neither a hippy nor known for smoking illegal substances, but I do know Mirror is by far the most interesting drone band I know and this CD proofs it once again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
JIM O’ROURKE – SCEND (LP by Three Poplars)
WILLIAM BASINSKI – A RED SCORE IN TILE (LP by Three Poplars)
For those who found about Jim O’Rourke later on, there are these things in his discography which you by now would have thought: I am never going to hear that (‘The Ground Below Our Heads’! the split Syllyk! ‘Scend!’). Well, in one case the ordeal is over. Scend is now re-issued as a LP on Christoph Heeman/Andrew Chalk label Three Poplars (aka the label ran by Mirror). But ‘Scend’ is revised and I might think it’s quite strongely revised. The CD had quite abrupt changes in sound, the surprise/shock element that was common in music then. Here the flow of pieces seem to come in a much natural way. ‘Scend’ is a tape piece: environmental recordings of water, streets etc are combined with tape trickery and maybe a little bit of ‘real’ instruments (I am wildly guessing here, but I think cymbals). Everything is quite stretched, changes come and go very slowly. It seems almost as if Jim (sometimes a member of Mirror) is highly influenced here by Mirror. And sorry for all those who think that they can throw out the Scend CD: this is almost like a different record, so I suggest keeping both formats. The cover is absolutely gorgeous, with leaf like figure cut out and the information printed on thick transparant plastic.
The other new release on Three Poplars is by William Basinski with also an ancient tape composition, this one from 1979. The title is a painting by James Elaine and formed the inspiration for this record. It’s a most curious piece which stretches over on both sides of the record (and therefore would have been better off as a CD?). It seems to be a loop of a chord played on the piano and a tape-loop in decay of a mumbling voice. Both run on end and nothing much else seems to be happening. Or maybe it does, but on such a microscopic level that it’s hard to notice? Maybe this is just a purely environmental piece, living room muzak? I must admit I quite enjoyed the highly minimal approach, even when it’s just such a simple thing that is going on. Great stuff for hardcore minimalists. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de