ASMUS TIETCHENS – ZETA-MENGE (CD by Line) *
SEBASTIEN ROUX – SONGS (CD by 12K) *
MCWAIN & BALGOCHIAN & COOK – VIGIL (CD by Fuller Street Music)
THOMAS STRØNEN – POHLITZ (CD by Rune Grammofon) *
MOHA! – RAUS AUS STAVANGER (CD by Rune Grammofon) *
IVAN PALACKY & VJ VERA LUKASOVA aka CARPETS CURTAINS (DVD by Errant Bodies)
JARROD FOWLER – TRANSLATION AS RHYTHM (CD by Errant Bodies)
YUKI KAWAMURA – SLIDE (DVD by Lowave)
JACK-JACK & DE WANDELENDE FEEDBACK (CDR by De Hondenkoekjesfabriek) *
NETHERWORLD – OTHERWORDLY ABYSS (CDR by Deep Listenings) *
JIM DENLEY & JOEL STERN- TAPE AND PAINT GAME (CDR by Aject Leader Records) *
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & SIGMAR FRICKE – ENDOKRANIOSIS (CDR By Tib Prod) *
MIKRONESIA – TISSUE PAPER GHOSTS (CDR by Gears Of Sand) *
EDDIE THE RAT – DROP ME OFF IN DENPASAR (CDR by Comfort Stand) *
CT POEM (CDR compilation by CT Collective)
PI CAB ALTER – MEMOIRE DE L’ETHER FLUCTUANT:1937-1947 (CDR by Verato Project)
PI CAB ALTER – KINOTERPATIK (CDR by Verato Project) *
FILTHY TURD – DEATH LETTERS (CDR by Verato Project)
FAMOUS FOR 15MB (MP3 monthly by AA/Nosordo)
ASMUS TIETCHENS – ZETA-MENGE (CD by Line)
SEBASTIEN ROUX – SONGS (CD by 12K)
As a non-classical trained person, I don’t know how many letters the Greek alphabet has, but Asmus Tietchens reaches with Zeta-menge the sixth letter, following Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and Epsilon. It’s a specific group of works, like not is uncommon with Tietchens to work in groups (one could think of his various works with water sounds called ‘Hydrophonie’), that deals with the processed sound of sine waves and white noise. In all his work, the ‘menge’ series is Asmus in his most reduced form. Somewhere there is a basic hum, that in ‘Teilmenge 37’ sounds like someone is breathing. Somewhere there is a sound that leaps in and out, sometimes there is a slight variation in that sound. There is somewhere some change, but not much. And that’s about it. Highly reduced material, but full of intensity. Play this loud and very detailed variations will occur in the material. Play this soft and only the ‘top’ sounds will be clearly heard, which would be a pity. In all this vast emptiness there is a lot of stuff to discover. Maybe with six albums, the concept of the ‘Menge’ series is quite clear, but perhaps Asmus will give it another dimension in the future. He can do that.
Sebastien Roux shouldn’t be unknown by now, for his various releases on 12K and Apestaartje, and ‘Songs’ is the follow up to ‘Pillow’, which wasn’t reviewed in Vital Weekly. The title implies that we are dealing with songs here, and of course there are eight tracks on the CD, which may be songs. But if we take songs literally, as ‘songs’ than Sebastien Roux doesn’t play traditional songs. He plays guitar, and processes that playing through his laptop. Sometimes his guitar sounds like a guitar, but most of the time, it doesn’t. It crackles, hums, sounds like an organ, like chirping insects, or like a spacecraft landing in the ocean. All eight ‘songs’ are collages of sound, sometimes a small portion of it forms what could be song, but sometimes the collage as such seems like a merely random set of sounds. Sometimes they don’t seem to add up to a real song. Although it’s all beautifully produced, soundwise, I have some problems with the overall result. Maybe my expectations are just wrong, based upon the title, but some of the pieces sound a bit too haphazard for me. The real challenge lies, I think in making them into real songs. Next time, perhaps… (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
MCWAIN & BALGOCHIAN & COOK – VIGIL (CD by Fuller Street Music)
A trio of Andy McWain (piano) with Albey Balgochian on bass and Laurence Cook on drums. Yes, a jazz trio. A classic format, but – happily – not engaged in an revisionist exercise here.
Mcwain is a improvising pianist and composer from Boston. He has several other things going on: a quartet named Starfish, the ensemble Resemblance. Plus he played with many musicians. Still I think McWain is a relatively new talent. Anyway, I guess he is younger then Balgochian and Cook. Albey Balgochian is Cecil Taylor’s current bass-player. Laurence Cook started in the end of the 60s and played with Alan Silva, Paul Bley and Bill Dixon to name a few. So different generations and experiences meet in this trio. No problem because all three speak the language of jazz fluently and they must have enjoyed that day in october 2004 enormously, when they made the recordings for this cd. The cd captures seven lively improvisations in an excellent recording from three technically very advanced players. The three form a great team showing real togetherness in their playing. They play intelligently with the idiom of jazz, avoiding cliches and offering some nice surprises from time to time.
The drummer has a modest way of playing but he makes sure that he is there. Always interested in the sound of color of instruments, my attention was caught to the very characteristic sound of Balgochian on bass. For instance, the opening of the last track opens with a vibrant bass-solo with some nice dissonance. McWain is an original and enthusiastic player with lots of ideas, crazy jumps and twists. A very pleasant cd from an original trio. (DM)
Address: http://www.fullerstreetmusic.com/
THOMAS STRØNEN – POHLITZ (CD by Rune Grammofon)
MOHA! – RAUS AUS STAVANGER (CD by Rune Grammofon)
So far I wasn’t aware of Food, a quartet around drummer Thomas Strønen, sax-player Iain Ballamy and the recently departed bass-player Matts Eilertsen and trumpet player Arve Henriksen, or in fact any of Strønen’s activities, such as Humcrush (a duo with Stale Storløkken of Supersilent) or his various other improvising projects. ‘Pohlitz’ is Strønen’s first solo work. I learn from the cover that he plays ‘beatable items, live electronic treatments, music’ and read in the press message that he plays a variety of percussive instruments here, uses live sampling from the percussion, thus in real-time stacking all the elements together. I must admit, I am rather impressed by this. His music is true cross-over of improvised music, electronic music and composed music, but played with sheer elegance. The sampled elements provide a nice, relaxed bed for the percussion to sleep in. Minimal in it’s playing, a bit Steve Reich like, but more smeared out, a bit more empty, but always with a slow building of the pieces, by slowly adding elements, real time percussion and sampled elements thereof. In ‘Natural History Of Creation’ Strønen reaches for a Gamelan sound, with a similar hypnotic feel to it. Quite an amazing debut.
Nothing subtle however with MoHa!, a duo of guitar player Anders Hana and drummer Morten Olsen, the two youngest Rune Grammofon artists, but despite their age (23 and 24), they have been playing together for eight years. Maybe it’s their youth, but they like to be a fine piece of noise music. But they keep their pieces short and to the point. All ten pieces are heavy feedback guitar pieces, scraping, scratching guitars and percussion, but each of them explores a certain area of noise. You never get the idea of listening to ten times the same track, but in all the improvised-no overdubs-live-to-tape recording there is a great sense of communication between both players. They exactly know each-other and know how to play these ten blocks of highly concentrated pieces of free form noise improvisation. Another great disc! (FdW)
Address: http://www.runegrammofon.com
IVAN PALACKY & VJ VERA LUKASOVA aka CARPETS CURTAINS (DVD by Errant Bodies)
JARROD FOWLER – TRANSLATION AS RHYTHM (CD by Errant Bodies)
First I must apologize for not writing correctly the names of the two artists mentioned above. They require dashes and other marks that I do not have readily available in plain text. Secondly I must state that I was very pleasantly surprised by this release. The DVD contains five tracks, all with a very strong minimalist approach to sound and image. Main concern of both artists, Ivan Palacky the musician and Filip Cenek (aka Vera Lukasova) is the play with mistakes occurring during live situations or the glitches originating from flaws in hard- or software. This underlying concept is expressed very minimally, with a keen sense of spacing and timing and plenty of attention to detail. The music is very quiet, with lots of (near) silences, giving enough space to the imagery to stand on its own. The same thing can be said the other way around: Cenek’s visuals are quiet and evocative textures based on almost negligible scenes from daily life with enough space for the music to be worth listening to. So maybe audiovisual collaborations are the future after all…
So, yes, this is something different: a conceptual artwork relating to music and music practice, seen from a philosophical and percussive perspective. Fowler’s disc is a hermetic universe of thoughts about music and its practice expressed in sound. Interesting? Hell yes! Difficult to understand and get into? Hell yes! I just had to check out his site (www.jarrodfowler.com) and learn more. Did I? Hell no! So, what have we here? We have serious art, packed in a normal CD case, presented to the public as music. Is it? You tell me!
But it is certainly enticing en gets on one’s nerves… (MR)
Address: http://www.errantbodies.org/
YUKI KAWAMURA – SLIDE (DVD by Lowave)
Lately more and more DVDs landed at the Vital Headquarters and that’s nice, but I doubt wether the music heads of the Vital reviewers are capable to do proper reviews of them. At least, I am pretty sure I am not the right person to review them. I can take the art film purely face value: I view and can describe what I saw, and give an opinion, but not exactly place it inside a tradition. Japanese video artist Yuki Kawamura lives in Paris and on this DVD are nine of his films, accompanied by the music of Yoshihiro Hanno, who plays a rather glitch related soundtrack to the nine films. Stuttering rhythms, made out of voices, guitar-playing through digital effects. Nice music and one that fits the idea of the images quite nicely. Kawamura uses also a highly digital form of filmmaking, sometimes dream like, like the free floating glass of ‘VE’, or heavy flicker in ‘Scene H’. His images are abstract, even when he takes them from the real world, such as people arriving and departing from the airport. None of the films are very long, capture one idea and does it well. Quite an enjoyable set of films. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lowave.com
JACK-JACK & DE WANDELENDE FEEDBACK (CDR by De Hondenkoekjesfabriek)
Jack-Jack And The Walking Feedback, that’s how this translates. When we see this coming from the Dutch Hondenkoekjesfabriek, we know what to expect. Do we? I expected the full noise blast, howling feedback, distortion, mayhem, screaming voices. Nothing so. The twelve pieces deal with feedback alright, but throughout in a more thoughtful way. The rhythmic beating on a contact microphone, looping into feedback, the softly arising sound of feedback, the collage/cut-up approach in some of these pieces and of course some of the more nasty frequencies makes this a highly unusual release for this label. Especially the rhythm approach is something. Some of these excursions are bit too long to be interesting through their entire length, but it certainly has potential. And then the titles: they are hilarious! ‘The Rebels Were Unable To Come To An Agreement On The Amount Of Brutal Violence Necessary For The Revolution’ or ‘The Beat Is A Fascist Dictator That Withholds You From Being Free And Accustoms You To Systematic Oppression’. Great move. (FdW)
Address: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tellab
NETHERWORLD – OTHERWORDLY ABYSS (CDR by Deep Listenings)
Knowing that one Alessandra Tedeschi is behind Netherworld is perhaps not the most exciting thing to know about the project, but it’s the only thing that we do know. He or she is from the ever so lively dark ambient scene in Italy and that the instruments used are loops, synths, gong, voice, field recordings. What misses from this list is the vast amount of reverb, used in all five of these cuts, that is used to expand the sound of all used instruments. There was a time when the use of reverb was quite nice to create dark textured music, but these days, I find it pretty much a cover-up to hide imperfections in the music. I’d be curious to know how this would have sounded without all this reverb, but I guess still pretty decent, as this is quite nice dark atmospheric music, that in a sparsely lit room would certainly create the right atmosphere for a good spirit calling. Dark, austere music that fits any grey winter day. (FdW)
Address: http://www.deeplistenings.it
JIM DENLEY & JOEL STERN- TAPE AND PAINT GAME (CDR by Abject Leader Records)
Jim Denley isn’t perhaps someone who is reviewed a lot in Vital Weekly, but he is still one of the leading persons in the Australian improvisation scene, playing with anyone (it seems) and everywhere (that is a fact). Denley’ skills lie in playing the alto saxophone, but you never have the idea that it’s one. Plus he is responsible for field recordings and editing and teams up with a younger (?), newer generation improvising musician Joel Stern, who lived in London for a while, but I believe is now back in Australia and who plays electronics, feedback and field recordings and does a share of editing too. The editing is important. The material itself was recorded through methods of improvisation, but all the material was carefully looked at, added too, cut and reshaped, and put together in a collage form of one kind or another. This makes this still sounding improvised on a superficial level, but if you listen carefully, then you notice all the editing parts. The opening piece ‘Cornish Tape Stratagem’ for instance with it’s precise edits, is almost like a popsong. Multitracking plays a bigger part in some of the other pieces, such as the more subtle ‘Ancho-rubbed Ground’ or ‘Wild Game Crockpot’. Here it seems that some specific layers form the backbone of a piece over which other sounds were dubbed. The whole things sounds surprisingly electronic, with the saxophone playing usually a sustained note, rather than free-form melodies. The whole encounter of eight tracks breaths a very vibrant and lively atmosphere. All together a most enjoyable release, a well-done mixture of improvisation and composition. (FdW)
Address: http://www.abjectleader.org/
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & SIGMAR FRICKE – ENDOKRANIOSIS (CDR By Tib Prod)
Not just one voice from the past, but two. The resurrection of Maurizio Bianchi has been noted before. Not just about everything he ever did is being re-issued on CD or LP, but he’s also producing much new work, and much to my surprise in collaboration with others. How this works, I am not sure. But if we see that this is produced in Wilhelmshaven, I gather it’s more a Fricke production than Bianchi. But perhaps Bianchi likes to travel these days? Sigmar Fricke released a bunch of synthi pop like tapes in the eighties, did an ultra serious and ultra long in the making CD and book with Giancarlo Toniutti and then disappeared, at least from this perspective. I tried reading the liner notes of this release, but medical english is always a bit difficult. As long as the musicians understand it themselves, me thinks. So I didn’t hear much from Fricke in the last decade or so, but Bianchi’s return to the music wasn’t always well spend on me. Too light hearted ambient music, with a nod too much towards new age. So I started to listen with some reservation, but I was pleasantly surprised by these four lengthy exercises in tone and change. There are hints of the old Bianchi, but less lo-fi and without the harshness of some of the earlier work. The music is smeared together with an extended use of sound effects which are responsible for creating the changes in the sound. The ambient element of lately is still a present feature, but the whole breaths alien worlds, decay, darkness and other less pleasant things. The tracks are long but one never has the idea that they are too long or that they collapse under their own weight. There is always an escape route to another alley, where new sound effects drop in. This makes this into a most powerful ambient-industrial release. And a call for me! (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
MIKRONESIA – TISSUE PAPER GHOSTS (CDR by Gears Of Sand)
Gears of Sand is one of the more professional CDR labels. Nice design, full color label artwork, printed on the CDR and great music. It’s a pity though that not much information is available on some of the more unknown artists. Like: who is Mikronesia? Since I got this, some two weeks ago, I have been playing this a lot, but I can’t make up my mind on what I think about this. It’s surely quite a nice release of melodic ambient music that is throughout these eight pieces rhythmic oriented in a sort of tribal/pseudo ethnic way, a bit like a more mechanical Rapoon, with mumbling voices here and there, chilly synths and all other fine ingredients for solid atmospheric music. But still it’s not easy to up my mind. I sit back and listen… I like what I hear but it also moves out of the attention pretty easily. The music doesn’t grab one and forces to pay full attention, but perhaps that’s not the idea of Mikronesia. In another life, this would be the more adventurous ambient house things, reminding me of Meridian Dream (but I might the only one to remember). It’s pleasant music to whatever you do when you pleasant, not too demanding music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gearsofsand.net/
EDDIE THE RAT – DROP ME OFF IN DENPASAR (CDR by Comfort Stand)
Pete Martin is the man behind Eddie The Rat, here a four piece band that are named after a real living rodent. I’d say here a four piece, because they have a fluctuating membership of up to twelve musicians. Pete Martin is the main composer and there are releases on Negativland’s Sealand label and on Entartete Kunst. Here five parts of ‘Drop Me Off In Denpasar’ (which is the capital of Bali) which Martin wrote as a finger studio while playing the piano. A bit like a drummer would use his arms and legs to create a rhythm. The pieces were laid down on four track, with the help of a drummer, percussion players and a second piano. The ‘Denpasar’ reference is not just a reference for the sake of it, but throughout these five pieces, one gets the idea of listening to Gamelan like music, although it’s less flowing and a bit more hooky. These Gamelan like pieces are at the end, the first two a bit jazzy, but with a very nice twist to it, making it not entirely jazz, but still quite groovy. Personally the third and fourth track are my favorite, with the gamelan influences and in the fourth piece there also seems to be some electronic sounds, or something that imitates an electronic sound. That for me was the best track of the lot, but the others were pretty pleasant too. Nice one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.eddietherat.com
CT POEM (CDR compilation by CT Collective)
Something new is The Chain Tape Collective, ‘a community of individuals, dedicated to creating an ongoing series of idea-based collaborative CD compilations. The projects are organized and discussed through an online mailing-list, and the discs are organized and produced by members on a volunteer basis’. I am not sure what other projects are organized so far, but the central focuses here is the poem in any language and a create a background for the poem. Not always the poem is a poem, but it can be a real song, such as the piece by Klobuchar in ‘It’s About Shirts’, set against some mediocre rhythm-box and bass. His other two pieces are also not great. Biffoz delivers a short (instrumental!) and long piece with guitars and lots of distortion, semi-krautrock or Adam J Wimbush’s looped voice feeding through distortion. That is unfortunately the majority of this CDR. The best pieces are short and at the beginning, such as the spooky piece by Gydja, with it’s traces of Nurse With Wound or the laptop intimacy of Anders Ostberg. The two pieces by Tim Nelson are nice, but already a bit more traditional with voice processing and a variety of synthetic sounds, but still are quite nice. And then follow the pieces that have, me thinks, not much to do with poems or that are just not very nice pieces. This compilation or this theme, just didn’t have it for me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ct-collective.com
PI CAB ALTER – MEMOIRE DE L’ETHER FLUCTUANT:1937-1947 (CDR by Verato Project)
PI CAB ALTER – KINOTERPATIK (CDR by Verato Project)
FILTHY TURD – DEATH LETTERS (CDR by Verato Project)
On the ever so lovely Verato Project label three new releases, spanning the wide territory of experimental music. Pi Cab Alter leaves us still in the dark as to who and what, but he’s from France and this is his fourth album. No more of the heavenly voices as on the first two, but still working his way into the mood music, playing his own fine blend of ambient music. Fifteen track, playing over an hour worth of material – that is perhaps a bit too much, but I strongly suggest listening to the entire album, since towards the end there are a couple of more experimental pieces, with vague metallic percussive sounds. The first say ten tracks are loosely based on heavily processed radio waves (such is at least suggested by the title), which altogether make up some pretty decent, not at to clean ambient music. Say of the more adventurous kind.
In a lovely small film can we find another release by Pi Cab Alter, together with a few stripes of film. The music has changed here and tends towards a more rhythmical version of his own work. The ambient as influence is still here, but in many of the tracks, sampled, minimalist rhythms are used, voices of various media are incorporated. Overall this is much more ‘free’ material than the previous release. It’s also a more varied release, with piece that tend to be downright soft such as ‘Entracte’ or more present and even a bit noisy, although it shouldn’t be regarded as noise with the big N. Quite a nice release again, but the other suits the late night listening better.
Also up their fourth album are Filthy Turd from the UK. Now here we speak noise with the big N. Three tracks, forty seven some minutes of unrelentness noise, like the previous releases. Distortion, feedback, noise, mayhem and chaos. It lacks the perfection of say good ol’ Merzbow, but again, for what it is, it’s not that bad. Noise is a genre which lacks progression, well most of the time, and Filthy Turd will certainly not progress for a while or two. (FdW)
Address: http://www.verato-project.de
FAMOUS FOR 15MB (MP3 monthly by AA/Nosordo)
Last week we mentioned a couple different magazines, and Famous For 15MB is something a like, but then as a website. Each month they introduce a bunch of music and film makers through small MPEG films, MP3 music and introduction-airy text on a website. This is all highly informative stuff, introducing a musically wide variety bunch of artists, such as the ambient guitars of Greg Kowalsky and Ljudbilden & Piloten, technoid music of Crampcat, bad krautrock guitars by Fria Konstellationen, Oval rippers Portabot, R’n’B/hip hop by El Chavo, Postrock by One Second Bridge and Les Aus and the noise trip of Pistol Disco (reviewed here before). Some short films by Iris Piers which are very nice and Todosantos. As said, a highly varied bunch, which is best in your whatever Mp3 programm (no adds here), and have it played on shuffle. You can discover many nice things here and the presentation is great. A well-worth initiative. (FdW)
Address: http://www.famousfor15mb.com
Correction: in the review of the CD by hhtp & Portablepalace it is said that the music was probably made via the exchange of sounds through mail. However the recordings were made by three musicians live in the studio. Nothing was added later on, save for some editing and mastering.
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