MACHINE FOR MAKING SENSE – THE ACT OF OBSERVATION BECOMES THE OBJECT ITSELF (CD by Rossbin) *
LINSEY WELLMAN & MIKE ESSOUDRY – SAME (CD by Malasartes)
YUL – DEPARTURE (CD by Malasartes)
THE MAGIC I.D. – TILL MY BREATH GIVES OUT (CD by Erst Pop) *
K. LEIMER – LESSER EPITOMES (CD by Palace Of Lights) *
VATICAN ANALOG: SHOW THE LOVE (CD compilation by Vatican Analog)
SHIN JIN RUI – ZUTIQUA (CD by Ex Libris Records)
1/3 OCTAVE BAND – I WILL PASS BY HERE (CD by Humbug Records)
EDWARD RUCHALSKI – WATER TRAIN (CD by Humbug Records) *
RYOJI IKEDA – 1000 FRAGMENTS (CD by Raster Noton)
FRANK ROTHKAMM – JUST 3 ORGANS (CD by Flux Records) *
WERNER DURAND – REMNANTS FROM PARADISE (CD by Absurd) *
FEAR FALLS BURNING – FRENZY OF THE ABSOLUTE (CD by Conspiracy Records) *
SUNS OF ARQA – SUNS OF ARQA RE-MIXS MUSLIMGAUZE (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
ARANOS – MOTHER OF MOONS BATHING (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings) *
FREDERIC BLONDY & THOMAS LEHN – OBDO (CD by Another Timbre) *
CLIVE BELL & BECHIR SAADE – AN ACCOUNT OF MY HUT (CD by Another Timbre)
MAX EASTLEY & GRAHAM HALLIWELL & EVAN PARKER & MARK WASTELL – A LIFE SAVED BY A SPIDER AND TWO DOVES (CD by Another Timbre)
METALYCEE (12″ by Interstellar Records)
ZACK KOUNS – SON IS ALONE ASLEEP IN HIMSELF (CDR by Moonmoonmoon)
K.E. REVIS – SLOWLY UNCOVERING FINAL DECEIT (CDR by Boxer Music) *
ABESTA – TOSCO (CDR by Sonora) *
PAPER THING STAGES – FLYING HEARSE (2CDR by Sort Of Records)
THE FRICTION BROTHERS (CDR by Abstract Black)
DAVID BERNABO – GRAPHIC SCORES (CDR by Abstract Black) *
BRAM STADHOUDERS – MENS (CDR by Brammetje Records)
BRAM STADHOUDERS & ONNO GOVAERT – ENDERRA (CDR by Brammetje Records)
C. REIDER – FINE FAILURES (MP3 by Vuhz Music)
THE SONICS OF ART SPACES (MP3 by Stasisfield)
FOURM – CIL (MP3 by Stasisfield)
TAU – DIALECTICAL MOVEMENTS (MP3 by Stasisfield)
THE LOST DATA PROJECT – ANYWHERE OUT OF THE WORLD (MP3 by Stasisfield) *
MACHINE FOR MAKING SENSE – THE ACT OF OBSERVATION BECOMES THE OBJECT ITSELF (CD by Rossbin)
How noble! Rossbin no longer sell their CDs but give them to anyone who make a donation to a private institution for poor and disabled children in Peru. That’s something that should be done more, but I’m afraid it won’t easily happen. Over the many years of their existence, Australia’s Machine For Making Sense have had many members, with, I believe Jim Denley and Stevie Wishart to be constant factors. They play hurdy gurdy, vocals and electronics and wind instruments and electronics. Here they are together with Amanda Stewart (voice and text) and Rik Rue (analog and digital manipulation). As a ‘band they explore relations between linguistics, poetry, speech, music, notions of sound, science and politics.’ To that end the conversation is important – be it the conversation between instruments, the conversation of techniques applied as well as the multitude of voices that they use and which come to the listener in all sorts of appearances, many of them not to be dissected as voices. Above and beyond all doubt Machine For Making Sense is a group of musicians who play improvised music. Even when this was recorded in 2001, the group uses extended techniques, anywhere for regular playing of their instruments to the ‘instrument as object’ treatment from the world of silence improvisers. Text bits fly about, and the whole thing requires a lot of attention. Despite being inspired by the onkyo posse, Machine For Making Sense make a lot of sound, constant, densely layered and one has to keep the full attention span as not to make loose anything that is going on here. Not really easy listening, laid back improvisation, but sturdy and powerful. Peal off some more layers, and more beauty will unfold. (FdW)
Address: http://www.rossbin.com
LINSEY WELLMAN & MIKE ESSOUDRY – SAME (CD by Malasartes)
YUL – DEPARTURE (CD by Malasartes)
Two new releases from the small Malasartes label that is run by Damian Nisenson.
Linsey Wellman (alto and soprano sax) and Mike Essoudry (drums, percussion) are together here for their first effort. In thirteen pieces that are composed and arranged by themselves, they play charming duets. In most pieces Wellman leads with his beautiful saxplaying. He has a nice tone, and there is some eastern touch in his playing. But Essoudry places many effective accents with his reduced playing. Together they built nice atmospheres. Most pieces are of a meditative nature. Inspired music it is.
Yul is a trio of Pierre Tanguay (drums), Erwin Vann (saxes) and Michel Mergaerts (bass). Tanguay needs no introduction. He left his mark on dozens of albums, many of them on the Ambiances Magnétiques label. Vann and Mergaerts are both from Belgium. Vann is a professional since 1985. Worked with Toots Thielemans, Wayne Shorter, Paolo Fresu, Marc Ducret, Bobby Previte, a.o. Michel Mergaerts from Brussels, started his career as a blues guitarist. Later he played with belgian jazz giants as Steve Houben, Pirly Zurstrassen and Jean-Louis Rassinfosse. Since about seven years he lives in Canada, playing with vocalist Julie Lebon and Trioxyde, a prog-rock/jazz outfit. The three met in 2005 and started their Yul-project. The title of their CD refers to a common experience for all three of them: passing airports. Compared to the cd by Wellman and Essoudry this one is much more close to jazz. The playing of Vann is delicate and poetic. A lyrical player. Mergaerts produces a warm sound from his bass. Tanguay is the most eccentric of the three with his polyrhytmic playing. But if you don’t share their love for jazz, this one will not talk to you. (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/
THE MAGIC I.D. – TILL MY BREATH GIVES OUT (CD by Erst Pop)
Improvisation and popmusic is a rare combination, but it’s surely an interest for Kai Fagaschinski and Christof Kurzmann. They worked together on a release before, ‘First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’ by Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone, but that was merely a shadow of what now has become The Magic I.D. Back then (Vital Weekly 567) things were still firmly rooted in improvisation, here it’s starting to shape up as popmusic. The band has two clarinet players. On the right hand Kai Fagaschinski and on the left Marcel Thieke, whereas there is also on Margareth Kammerer on vocals and guitars and Kurzmann on vocals, laptop and lloop. As you should I always welcome popmusic, be it stupid, be it intelligent, and most of all in combination with all the other musical interests I have. So: hurrah to The Magic I.D. The pieces were recorded live in the studio, with the emphasis on the voice of Kammerer, who sings them with a rather sweet, jazzy voice. Sometimes in duet with Kurzmann whose voice fits well. The music on the other hand is all improvised, of course with a large portion for the two clarinets. The laptop is merely an ornament, keeping things reduced to the background, while the guitar gently weeps in the wind. Still the improvisational aspects of this release are high and mighty, but they break away from the routines that sometimes hoover in these areas and combine it with something entirely different. The Magic I.D. are not likely to be seen on MTV miming their hit, nor easily in anything even remotely alternative popmusic, or jazz by any standard. So they find a voice of their own, a rarity these days. This offers many new roads to be explored. Perhaps Erstwhile, on whose sub division this is, will surprise us some more. (FdW)
Address: http://www.erstwhilerecords.com
K. LEIMER – LESSER EPITOMES (CD by Palace Of Lights)
In less than eighteen months K. Leimer released three CDs (see also Vital Weekly 533 and 573), which is a great break from the silence of the years before. ‘Statistical Truth’, the first after his return, was the last work of the old Leimer, the world of analogue synthesizers and ambient. ‘The Useless Lesson’ after that had a more classic approach, with a string trio among others. As remarked back then, Leimer re-invented his ambient music through classical means, and this is what he continues here on ‘Lesser Epitomes’, which has twenty-one tracks, divided among three pieces, but the cover suggests to play these in random order. It also says that this is ‘process music for active and passive listening. The pieces are derived from the aleatoric reordering of discreet, compatible musical components in relationships that emulate typical theme and variation’. The cover doesn’t list any players of the string instruments, which leads us to believe that Leimer played them himself, or perhaps uses a piece of software that imitates the sound of strings. ‘Nonadaptive Layers’ and ‘Nine Approximations’ are much a like – layered string pieces of violins and cello’s, moving slowly and majestically. ‘Naive Music’ (seven parts), is the old Leimer, although it seems, again to the cover, that he uses field recordings in these pieces, but also, me thinks, analogue synthesizers. Played at random the pieces start to differentiate and as such make a bigger impact than played from beginning to end, because the first two are the beginning and sound much alike. But when the pieces from ‘Naive Music’ are thrown in, things really start to differ, and make this a particular strong album. Leimer is a highly accomplished ambient musician and ‘Lesser Epitomes’ is a great work. The press blurb says that it should ‘find favor with fans of a certain eggheaded Englishman’ and I am spending my sunday afternoon thinking who that would be: Eno or Nyman?
Address: http://www.palaceoflights.com
VATICAN ANALOG: SHOW THE LOVE (CD compilation by Vatican Analog)
“We are Vatican Analog. We play and book shows for both music & art. We release silly records for silly people […] this CD is 1 euro. Don’t pay more”. Tilburg is by now the fifth biggest city of The Netherlands (I believe), so it has lots of artists and when they decide to be together and make something happen together they have my warm enthusiasm. On this sampler we come across names that are common places in Vital Weekly, such as Jos Smolders, Staplerfahrer, Vincent Koreman, THU20 (not strictly a band from Tilburg, mind you), DMDN & The Haters (with a recording from 1987) but also names that are entirely new to me such as Neurobit, The Truth Is In The Eyes Of The Deer, Meldy Peaches, Jimmy Hawthorne, Autonon, Bas Verbeek. This 1 euro CD has sixteen bands and projects (some of these may contain the same names actually, but in different combinations). The musical range of the boys (no girls can be seen from this end of the telescope) is wide apart. There is breakcore, old school industrial, current day laptop microsound, ambient drones and wacked out techno. Maybe a too mixed bag to be fully enjoyed as one thing, but perhaps if you are open minded enough. Otherwise pick your favorites and start throwing a party with them. An amazing collection of music from one city, where just a lot of very interesting things are happening. This is your ticket inside. This is just well spend 1 euro. (FdW)
Address: http://www.vatican-analog.com
SHIN JIN RUI – ZUTIQUA (CD by Ex Libris Records)
More and more people try to send anything to the Vital Bunker, and more and more they have no clue what Vital Weekly is. ‘Here’s our two house tracks’, ‘here’s a re-issue of ‘The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’ or ‘here’s comic book punk rockers discuss Spielberg, the undead and valve amplifiers’ – all three actually happened in a matter of a week. The first two wait for possible inclusion (more likely not to happen), the latter is said about Shin Jin Rui, a three piece from Newcastle, packed with all the marketing language that is required to sell anything mediocre as exciting. Name dropping, David Lynch, Birthday Party (plays loud on the stereo 8-track), Mark E. Smith, Pixies, Marquee Moon – geeh – what an arty street credibility. I’m well into the third track now of the first round of playing. The next minute will be spend skipping through the rest [skip] O.k. it was two minutes, but sixteen tracks. Mediocre, semi alternative rock music that these pages should not pay attention about, but just did, for about fifteen minutes. (FdW)
Address: http://www.exlibrisrecords.com
1/3 OCTAVE BAND – I WILL PASS BY HERE (CD by Humbug Records)
EDWARD RUCHALSKI – WATER TRAIN (CD by Humbug Records)
This is already the third release by the 1/3 Octave Band from New Zealand, following ‘Sub Limina’ (Vital Weekly 515) and ‘Icarus’ (Vital Weekly 586). Originally the 1/3 Octave Band was a solo project of Bill Wood, who produced a whole string of CDRs, lathe cut records, vinyl and CDs, but now a duo with Jules Desmond (of Black Boned Angel and The Grey Daturas). Humbug announces this new CD not to be ‘an original piece of music’, but the result of many influences, such as the early Tangerine Dream, Taj Mahal Travellers, Tony Conrad, Stars Of The Lid, Oren Ambarchi and more from the field of drones, atmospherics, dark ambient or isolationist music (to use that fine old phrase). Still lots of guitars, doubled by more than you eat sound effects, creating five lengthy pieces (from five to twenty-five minutes) of highly atmospheric music. Humbug is right, there is no prize to win here for original thoughts on the subject of drone music, but it still sounds great. Orchestral at times, spherical, like drifting, grey clouds passing by like a Ligeti piece. Very nice indeed.
A long time ago, in Vital Weekly 315, I was first introduced to the music of Edward Ruchalski, though his self-released ‘Radio Journal’ CDR which was later he re-release by Norway’s Humbug label who also released ‘Moveable Sites’ (Vital Weekly 355). Ruchalski also released music on Taalem and Digitalis Industries. Ruchalski, by day a teacher of the guitar, does a variety of works: sound installation, collages, builds his own instruments and works with field recordings. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, well other than of course someone really liking the old material, Humbug’s latest Ruchalski release is a best of of the first two releases on Humbug, selected by Ruchalski plus two new pieces. Ruchalski uses field recordings, motorized objects and loops of sound. Ruchalski’s work is of great, beautiful simplicity. His pieces evolve or revolve around just one or two sounds, which are played in a kinda irregular manner. They are looped by the irregular (slightly I must add) of the motors running say rubbing bands against them. This adds a strange effect to the music, which is of great naivety. Ruchalski’s music is a delight to hear. Part improvised, part drone based, part musique concrete, but all combined in a highly personal manner. None of the material lost their strength over the years, so perhaps its entirely justifiable that it’s preserved for a longer period through the release on CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/humbugofnorway
RYOJI IKEDA – 1000 FRAGMENTS (CD by Raster Noton)
This afternoon I spent some time with nostalgia, flipping through Vital, when it was a real, small fanzine on paper. I was looking for a review of ‘1000 Fragments’ by Ryoji Ikeda. When released in 1995 Vital was still on paper, and then shifting in that year to an e-mail newsletter. For whatever reason, I didn’t review it, nobody did, but I don’t know why. In the world of digital music there are a few groundbreaking records, and ‘1000 Fragments’ is one (oddly enough ‘Get Out’ by Pita was also just re-released) for sure. Ikeda plays around, for the first time, with digital sound manipulation in a highly vivid mix of radio sounds, sine waves and clicki-click rhythms. If you hear this now it is perhaps a bit too much of plunderphonics, certainly in ‘Channel X’ (which spans nine tracks), but all the elements of the future Ikeda is in there, best captured in ‘5 Zones’ and ‘Luxus’. Not as refined and heavy in the real low and real high end of his later work, this is however a landmark of digital electronic music, one of the few starting points for so many of what is discussed in Vital these days. I didn’t hear this in a long time and I am still amazed by it’s quality. Much needed re-issue. (FdW)
Address: http://www.raster-noton.net
FRANK ROTHKAMM – JUST 3 ORGANS (CD by Flux Records)
The organ depicted on the front cover of this new Frank Rothkamm CD are those that my little nephew used to play: a big machine with a built in speaker, blue, green, yellow and red knobs to handle the rhythms and sounds. A cheesy organ I always thought, but these days I would love to have one. Everything on the Rothkamm deals with the number three: three organs, thirty-three minutes and thirty-three seconds, nine (three times three) tracks, which don’t last three minutes however. The organs are played with six hands, well, no doubt three times two. Rothkamm plays it like a modern classic master. Sounds swell and die, like those nice oscillator albums of forty years ago, except that the sound is like an organ. It’s not unlike his previous album ‘LAX’, which also sounded like another attempt at playing like ‘Forbidden Planet’, but with a different sound. Rothkamm puts out interesting conceptual records that work well throughout. Here is all quite nice again, just ‘LAX’, with not every track being a masterpiece but as a concept it’s certainly well-made. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fluxrecords.com
WERNER DURAND – REMNANTS FROM PARADISE (CD by Absurd)
The name Werner Durand might not be very well-known, which is a great pity. His claim to fame has nothing to do with his real music: he played flute on Muslimgauze’ ‘Mort Aux Vaches’ release. But Durand’s background is with improvisation and wind instruments. As far as I can remember there is only solo release by him, ‘The Art Of Buzzing’ on X-TRact/Edition RZ (see Vital Weekly 305), where he plays PVC pipes with saxophone mouthpieces or flower pots and tin foil plates as resonators. His great power lies in multi-tracking his playing, obscuring the original sounds through very simple means of layering many on top of each other. After all these years it’s still his favorite method of composing music. The cover lists the instruments such as bamboo and metal mouthharps, tanpura, sliding pvc-ney and sliding pvc clarinets with prepared resonators, electronics and delays. The end result is a highly minimalist pattern which he gently waves together, going to small changes all the time, thus avoiding leaping into pure minimal music. One could say that this is drone music, but like before I like to draw a parallel to the work of Phill Niblock, even when Durand’s music is a bit more clouded and less detailed. Overall however it’s a highly atmospheric set of sounds Durand is playing here. Hopefully more music will be made available and not in another seven years, as this is really nice stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.void.gr/absurd
FEAR FALLS BURNING – FRENZY OF THE ABSOLUTE (CD by Conspiracy Records)
Where to next? It’s a question that is sometimes raised here in these pages, certainly for those artists who have a flood of releases in a short period. I think it’s a valid question: how many releases can you create that sound the same? Only so much. I don’t know but it might have been a train of thought that also went on in the head of Dirk Serries, formerly of Vidna Obmana and since a few years as Fear Falls Burning. As Vidna Obmana he had many releases too, but every now and then he re-set the standards and moved somewhere else. So far he didn’t do that with Fear Falls Burning, his project of playing live guitar and sound effects. He played with other people, such as Nadja and Birchville Cat Motel, but those were collaborations. On his new, main 2008, release he changes in his song by allowing drummers to be present on his music. On the CD three long tracks (that feature remained) of his heavy guitar playing – more heavy, less subtle than before, with the addition of very slow drums in the title drums an on ‘We Took The Deafening Murmer Down’ and bowed cymbals on ‘He Contemplates The Sign’, adding a whole new layer to the sound. The built up of his pieces for instance changes: no longer the long crescendo and quick break, but remaining the same on the same dynamic level, with the differences in the playing. Sounds feed of through all the effects, in which they get stuck and lurk around like bacteria. Wailing around like endless drones, but stuff gets added and perhaps removed in the process. A pretty clever move if you ask me, this is vital yet subtle change in the sound, opening new paths to explore. Perhaps it would be wise(r) to change perhaps a bit quicker next time, but no doubt the many fans will disagree. (FdW)
Address: http://www.conspiracyrecords.com
SUNS OF ARQA – SUNS OF ARQA RE-MIXS MUSLIMGAUZE (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
ARANOS – MOTHER OF MOONS BATHING (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
There was a time when I heard the music of Muslimgauze almost every day, because it was my work back then. When it was no longer my work, I didn’t play it again for three years, unless I was reviewing something for these pages. I still like that small, minimal intake, but there is no necessity to keep up with everything that still sits in vaults, now, almost ten years after Bryn Jones died. My best guess is that Soleilmoon has the best filled vault when it comes to unreleased Muslimgauze music. Jones working methods were very straight forward: sampling drum bits, ethnic (arabic) sounds and cook up a mix with electronics. Taping everything for possible release, Jones would mail off everything to his labels, Soleilmoon and Staalplaat. But not every master contained great music: some of the pieces were too sketch like to be released. Probably one of the reasons why not everything has been released. It would be a good idea, me thinks, if a dedicated producer would take the best bits and make a proper release. As such we should also see this release. Muslimgauze liked to make ‘remixes’ of whatever he was sent, and through the connection he had to that ever lasting, friendly Japanese force Satoshi Morita he got to know Micheal Wadada, also known as Suns Of Arqa, who produces some curious mix of reggae and eastern music. In 1996 Jones created these twenty-one remixes, which are sometimes merely a curious notion, a sketch, a start but also some great pieces. Here’s where the producer should have come into action: select these great moments, shape them a bit further and make that killer CD. But now it’s too much a mix up of great and weak moments. Great for completists though and that’s perhaps why releases like this will appear until the vaults are really empty.
I am not sure wether I reviewed the music of Aranos, who is from the Czech part of Bohemia but now lives in Ireland, not far away from Steve Stapleton. Perhaps not, but I don’t know the reasons. There have been releases on Beta Lactam-ring Records, Brainwashed, Crouton, Klanggalerie, Noise Museum an United Daries. It’s certainly not music that is easy to catch – and maybe that’s my problem with it. His principle instrument was the violin, but Aranos plays so much more, mainly in the field of electronics, looping sounds and voices. Sometimes one has the idea that it’s a folk like record, but electric, but there is also the Reichanian looped voices in ‘Ta-taa-ta, Taah Merged’ or the long violin improvisations of ‘Towards Glittering Warm Dumplings’ that moves towards a dance piece. Tracks run into eachother, which makes things even more complicated. The influence of Stapleton’s Nurse With Wound is never far away, the two share a taste for the bizarre combination of music, although Aranos puts them on one album, and the Nurses one style per album. I am not sure if this mixture really appeals to me: there are certainly bits and pieces that I like, but as a whole, as an album it didn’t work for me. Too fragmented and scattered, and not all the ideas fully explored. Some pieces needed some more editing and working it seemed. Mixed music bag received with mixed feelings. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
FREDERIC BLONDY & THOMAS LEHN – OBDO (CD by Another Timbre)
CLIVE BELL & BECHIR SAADE – AN ACCOUNT OF MY HUT (CD by Another Timbre)
MAX EASTLEY & GRAHAM HALLIWELL & EVAN PARKER & MARK WASTELL – A LIFE SAVED BY A SPIDER AND TWO DOVES (CD by Another Timbre)
One can only be jealous I guess at the workings of labels of Improvised music. Are they sponsored by the mafia? Just where exactly do they get their money? Another Timbre exists only a few months and here they offer release number eight to ten. Two times a duo and one quartet. File under: improvised music. First we have Frederic Blondy on piano and Thomas Lehn on analogue synthesizer. The latter picks up the sounds produced on the piano with his ‘external input’ and thus can do real time processing of the sounds using the filters, reverberation, ring modulation and what else such a machine offers. The have two pieces, the first and shortest one is an edit of various bits from a concert in Bourogne with a bit of a recording from Montreuil, whilst the second, title, piece is a straight recording from one concert, save for some minor adjustments. It’s interesting to hear what editing could do here. In ‘Pooq’, things are kept highly ‘silent’ with just a few careful sounds. It sounds like the music was edited out, certainly if we compare it to ‘Obdo’, which is a much fuller piece, if not, at times, a noisy piece. The piano is scanned for all sorts of sound possibilities, hitting the keys, the body, the strings and together they wave an endless stream of sound together, a pairing that goes wonderfully well together. A fine, thought out work of improvisation.
Wind instruments are the main players on the disc by Clive Bell, who plays Shakuhachi, and Bechir Saade, who plays the Ney. Two non-western instruments, recorded live in concert in 2007 in London. I must admit it costed me considerable more trouble getting into this. They have seven piece, each of around five to almost nine minutes, and the playing and recording is more than excellent. That isn’t the trouble here. After I heard three pieces, I thought I heard enough. Everything after that seemed a mere repetition of moves, skills, techniques. I thought the best pieces were the most silent ones, in which they work the overtones, like in ‘Cloud Trapeze’ (which proofs I heard the entire disc, which sometimes people doubt). Like the previous, this is also an endless stream of sound, but with less density and variation and one that probably requires a totally different listening approach.
Two generations meet up, it seems, on the disc of Eastley and Parker on one side and Halliwell and Wastell on the other side. Parker plays his soprano saxophone, while Halliwell is on computer and electronics, Wastell on tam tam, metal percussion and harmonium and Eastley on an electro acoustic monochord called Arc. The music on this release is from their very first concert as a quartet, which continued afterwards. The improvisations going on here aren’t easy to describe. There are on one hand the electronic and electric charged machinery, which provide a very modern look, crackling, drone, static, but on the other hand there is the acoustical instruments that, especially Parker’s saxophone, that sound very traditionally improvised. However most of the times this marriage works wonderfully well. The stream of sound thought, let’s continue that here too then, works fine here too. An endless stream of sounds colliding into eachother, bumping but also carefully missing eachother, like a near collision. In that way each of the player knows how to avoid the other, but also it’s a matter of respect for the others; each of the players get room to play, to develop, take shape and transform, noting what the others do and adding where necessary. A great work too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.anothertimbre.com/
METALYCEE (12″ by Interstellar Records)
Much water has passed under the bridge since I heard ‘Another White Album’ by Metalycee, back then (Vital Weekly 443) a duo of Armin Steiner and Nik Hummer (who are also part of Thilges3), taking heavy metal drumming into the world of electronics. I thought it to be a daring album, but not entirely convincing. After years of silence they return, as a five piece, with Bernhar Breuer on drums, Melita Jurisic on vocals and Matija Schellander on bass and the original two on synth and trautonium. Their metal drumming is slow core by any means, actually more hip and trip hop, with deep rumbling bass and synthesizers, with dark spoken (even more rap) rather than sung texts. Like before I think more appealing to people who like electronic music rather than metal heads. I must admit that I quite liked the three songs on this 12″ single, a well rounded dark trip along empty barely lit streets. Big city angst. Time for another album I’d say. (FdW)
Address: http://www.interstellarrecords.at
ZACK KOUNS – SON IS ALONE ASLEEP IN HIMSELF (CDR by Moonmoonmoon)
‘As you’ll notice there are intentionally no song titles (much the same way that every book doesn’t contain chapter titles because the main title of the book provides the necessary theme)’ it says on a piece of paper that comes with Zack Kouns release ‘Son Is Alive Asleep In Himself’. A handmade package tops the lo-fi quality of the release, which music is much alike the package. Kouns signs no-sense words, feeding it through an echo unit, and has a bunch of sounds to go along. In the first ‘song’ a saxophone, in the second feedback humming and maybe some computer processed sounds, which quickly disappear. Later on in this long track the saxophone returns, but sounds distorted. In the third piece all of this comes together again, but here we recognize some words. I have no idea what the theme would be here. ‘Isolation’? ‘Be creative alone’? I must admit things like this are not well spend on me. Things could be worked better here, I imagine. (FdW)
Address: <lucpascal@yahoo.com>
K.E. REVIS – SLOWLY UNCOVERING FINAL DECEIT (CDR by Boxer Music)
Despite him working on his own music since the late 80s, I never heard of K.E. Revis, partly because he didn’t release any until 2007. He started Boxer Music and has released seven CDRs so far of which two contain the music of Revis. ‘Slowly Uncovering Final Deceit’ is his second release. It’s hard to tell what exactly is at work here, as the cover doesn’t provide with much information. Some weeks ago I was playing some music to someone, totally unlike Revis actually, and my friend remarked: typical Ableton music. That still floats through my brain. I am not at all qualified to comment on either studios, instruments let alone software used, but I do know what Ableton does, and why is this in my head when I hear the music of Revis? Partly this has to do with the fact each of the five, lengthy pieces uses a lot of loops. Loops of whatever origin (hard to know what), but they are sliced to portion. Some longer, some shorter, forming small blocks of rhythm, which Revis lets run through his mixing board (well, perhaps Ableton even), adding a bit of sound effects here and there. But throughout things remain rather unprocessed. It’s nice as a backdrop, but if you listen more closely, there is great sense of uniformness in these sounds, which doesn’t always sound very engaging. Pieces are too long and don’t use enough variation inside them, nor do they have tension or built up like say in trance inducing state. But as said as a backdrop, say reading a nice book, this worked alright. (FdW)
Address: http://www.boxermusicstore.com
ABESTA – TOSCO (CDR by Sonora)
Two brothers from Brazil, Zimmer (vocals, screams and feedback) and Suzuki Bata (scrap metal, contact mics, effects and noise generators) form Abesta. The picture provided by Sonora makes it look like a Merzbow line up of guitar pedals and the music certainly borrows ideas from the Jap master, but there are some differences. Abesta is more rhythmical in their approach, cutting sounds in and out, against the wall of noise approach. Also they have shorter pieces, with minor differences that is, but there are differences. One thing is that I think Abesta are more interested in taking noise to another level, not play the endless stream of feedback and distortion, but actually composing with the noise they put on. Maybe the sound is still a bit too Merzbow like, but here’s a noise band which I think has potential to grow further and move beyond. Future will tell, but this is solid start. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonorodisc.com
PAPER THING STAGES – FLYING HEARSE (2CDR by Sort Of Records)
THE FRICTION BROTHERS (CDR by Abstract Black)
DAVID BERNABO – GRAPHIC SCORES (CDR by Abstract Black)
The covers of these CDRs on Sort Of Records and their subdivision Abstract Black are all digipacks and look quite professional. I think, judging by these three releases, that Abstract Black releases the more experimental and improvised music, while on Sort Of releases slightly more ‘normal’ music. Paper Thing Stages is a trio of Nate McDermott (guitar, vocals, sound), John Perotti (pedals, vocals, sound) and Edward Hadley (percussion, bass, sound), who now live in Boston. Their music is rooted in rock and post music, culled from hours and hours of improvisations. Eight pieces on this double release, which is a bit much. Why not five on one disc, and make the exact same point. They play right by the post rock book, though not as complex as some of the others, earlier bands in the field. They move into a set of sounds together and when there they continue to explore the sounds until the end of a piece, and sometimes it may take some time before they are there. Nice, but not great or exactly original.
Behind the Friction Brothers we find the not exactly young (but not old either). long serving improvisers Micheal Zerang (percussion, piano insides), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello, implements) and Michael Colligan (dry icy, implements). I copied the instruments from the press blurb – the cover lists many more. All three hail from Chicago and have played with almost everyone in this city. As The Friction Brothers they play three piece of improvised music that deals partly with objects and partly with instruments. However the outcome is fairly traditional in approach, I think. Lots of sound exploration, lots of small things happening but also not always engaging to make a difference. Nice, but not great again. I think they could do much better.
Labelboss David Bernabo is from Pittsburgh, who is a member of the ‘afro-beat-noise-improv band DBL D’ and before that of Boxstep and Vale And Year. He plays various instruments such as the guitar, percussion, piano and synthesizer. Here he interprets ‘graphic scores’, which are not on the cover, nor who composed them. So let’s say it’s Bernabo himself who composed them, and executes these with the help of some people on violin, acoustic guitar and violin. This is much more varied than the Friction Brothers. Some pieces seem to be more like group improvisations, whereas others are more like solo pieces. Here too things are heavily covered in the world of improvised music, but the variations on offer here, make it quite a nice disc, perhaps the nicest of the three. I say perhaps, since the improvisations themselves are quite ‘regular’ and ‘old-fashioned’. So it’s all o.k. but not great again again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sortofrecords.com
BRAM STADHOUDERS – MENS (CDR by Brammetje Records)
BRAM STADHOUDERS & ONNO GOVAERT – ENDERRA (CDR by Brammetje Records)
In Vital Weekly 606 I reviewed ‘Tonelist’ by Bram Stadhouders which had some spacious, jazzy piano playing. I was not entirely convinced, and perhaps in an attempt to convince this time, he sent me three releases, but didn’t notice (reading in the age of internet is a much underdeveloped skill) that I wouldn’t review ‘Glasba’ which was already released in May 2007 and which sounds much like the jazzy ‘Tonelist’. So I skip that one, and turn to the music of the future. On the cover of ‘Mens’ we read that it was recorded in November 2008 in Oslo. Future music was never more future, I am obliged to think. On ‘Mens’ (meaning human), Stadhouders explores once again the piano, through just playing it, sampling it, adding electronics. As the release progresses things grow fuller and fuller until in ‘Prek’ he uses orchestral samples (well, that, or Garage band) to play semi classical music. Using a big amount of echo and reverb on his music, perhaps in attempt to be Brian Eno/Harold Budd, this is again not really highly engaging. Not unpleasant to hear either, head down in a good book, this is a bit too much aural wallpaper.
Stadhouders is on a Dutch tour soon with Onno Govaert, who plays drums, bells and crotales. Stadhouders plays here guitar, guitarsynthesizer and laptop. Eight improvisations here, with another unhealthy amount of reverb suggest ‘space’ and ‘mood’, which really puts me off. Stadhouders waves together a very ambient setting together, while Govaert bangs his drums, all drowned out in reverb. I see they don’t visit my city. That’s fine; I had no plans to get out. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bramstadhouders.nl
C. REIDER – FINE FAILURES (MP3 by Vuhz Music)
Maybe my idea about C. Reider is clouded by ill judgment, who knows? If you would asked me before I started playing this new release, I would have said he is one of the drone boys, but this new release proved me wrong. In the early ‘zeroes’ (C. Reider expression) he got interested in minimal techno but with a less mechanical groove and when downloading some through dial-up (which he still has, as one of the few I guess), some of the techno had little ‘hiccups’ making the music a little bit off beat. Thats what inspired his ‘Fine Failures’. He makes his point loud and clear in twelve pieces, which is a bit much. His piece have a certain groove indeed, but it’s not entirely indeed dance floor material. Some of the pieces go off the rails like ‘Ovea Disrhythmia’, in which too much happens. The best pieces are those at the beginning when he still uses a stripped down version and the hiccups are less apparent. Throughout this material is pretty much o.k., but a bit too much. The good thing is that with downloads like this, you can always throw away those pieces you don’t like. File under head nod music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.vuhzmusic.com
THE SONICS OF ART SPACES (MP3 by Stasisfield)
FOURM – CIL (MP3 by Stasisfield)
TAU – DIALECTICAL MOVEMENTS (MP3 by Stasisfield)
THE LOST DATA PROJECT – ANYWHERE OUT OF THE WORLD (MP3 by Stasisfield)
Things have been quiet for a year or so for Stasisfield, the online label from John Kannenberg. The first one is a compilation of ‘field recordings and musical compositions focussing on the acoustics of art museums and galleries around the world’, with various pieces by Kannenberg, Anne Guthrie, Mike Hallenbeck, Christopher DeLaurenti, My Fun, Tau and Steve Roden. Lots of recordings that sounds like empty halls with silent activity, and as such the piece ‘SFMOMA4’ by Glenn Bach is nice, since it has music. Music and museum/art spaces don’t mix very well, I sometimes experience, but of course this is the sound from a museum/art space. It’s an o.k. collection of sounds, raw and processed, but nothing special as such.
Fourm is one BG Nichols, who has a long career in journalism (Music From The Empty Quarter, EST and such like) and worked together with S.E.T.I. on ‘Probe’ (see Vital Weekly 426). Here he returns with a release of seven tracks which shows a love for sine waves and ring modulation. Everything happens in the upper high sound spectrum. It sounds like Nichols takes a track and then feeds it through the plug in ‘ring mod’ and leaves the result as is. After three of these pieces headache leaped in and I got tired of listening to the same thing over again. Music like this, ‘releases’ like this, make want to give up reviewing MP3 releases.
One Melissa Moore is Tau, who offers two tracks of what could be field recordings being reworked. Perhaps I’m entirely mistaken. It’s a microsound affair for which I can hardly find any excitement. It sounds alright, but worn out. There is a massive flood of music like this, and this marks hardly a difference.
The best is kept until the end. The Lost Data Project is the improvisational powers of Jon Mueller, Jim Schoenecker and Hal Rammel with a live recording of september last year. Analogue synthesizer, a drumkit, electronics and samples make up a solid but silent improvisation for some fifty minutes. Things slowly develop, slowly change and slowly die out. Clearly the work of three accomplished improvisers who enjoy what they are doing, and knowing they are in good company to do this. In terms of improvisation nothing new, but by itself a mighty fine work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.stasisfield.com
correction: the tape by Adam Sondererg reviewed last week is actually a split release with Ophibre on the oph sound label. Not that I could tell in anyway. Ophibre’s piece is untitled for ‘.aiff and magnetic tape’ while Sonderberg is the author of ‘untitled for bell and sine tone’.