ERIC LACASA – SOUNDTRACKS (CD by Herbal International) *
KEVIN DRUMM & LEIF ELGGREN – LIKE DUST UNDER A MOTHER’S KNIFE (CD by JMY Music) *
OSVALDO COLUCCINO – PARALLELO (CD by Unfathomless) *
UTE WASSERMANN & BIRGIT ULHER – RADIO TWEET (CD by Creative Sources Recordings) *
MARC BARRECA – BENEATH THE MIRRORED SURFACE (CD by Palace Of Lights) *
GENETIC TRANSMISSION – LAST (CD by Zoharum) *
MAREK X. MARCHOFF – FUNERAL MUSIK FOR YOU AND ME (CD by Zoharum) *
COLUMN ONE – CINDY, LORAINE & HANK (2CD by Zoharum) *
FJERNLYS – FOUR: ONE UNEARTHLY ROOM (2CD by Loki Found) *
KLAUS JANEK & MIRIAM AKKERMANN – THE TARTINI (CD by Creative Sources Recordings) *
MICHAEL PISARO – MIND IS MOVING IX (CD by Intonema) *
ANDREA MASSARIA & GIANCARLO SCHIAFFINI – CORINDILINDOLI (CDR by Setola Di Maiale)
ANDREA BORGHI – SALNITTER (CDR by Contour Editions) *
BAS VAN HUIZEN – KLUWEKRACHT (CDR by Moving Furniture Records) *
SERGEY KOSTYRKO & KURT LIEDWART/MUBLES – SPLIT (cassette by Spina! Records)
FORESTEPPE & 231 – llllllllllll (cassette by Spina! Records) *
BIONULOR – TROIS VERSIONS DE LA VIE (download by Oniron) *
ERIC LACASA – SOUNDTRACKS (CD by Herbal International)
By now it seems that Eric LaCasa is someone who is a fixed artist for the Herbal
International label. ‘Soundtracks’ might be his fourth release on this label and as
the title suggests these are soundtracks to movies. Three soundtracks to be precise.
A film by the ever obscure Luke Fowler, a video by Christian Jaccard and a ‘drama’
by Marie-Christine Navarro. Apart from three stills, there is nothing to see on this
disc. Maybe these films/drama exist somewhere in the digital domain, but I decided
to stick to the music and think about that. Of course we know LaCasa from his many
works that involve field recordings, and in ‘A Hemero Phaestos 2’ these might be
made in a foundry. In the other pieces it is less obvious, and sometimes I am
thinking this has more to do with electronic music than with field recordings.
Most likely however it is Eric LaCasa sticking his microphones in very unusual
places and taping sounds as they come through odd routes into the heads of his
recorders. Sometimes it sounds far away, like a motorway (the first part of
‘Polymeres 2’ for instance), or (very softy) the sound of fire in the same piece.
Jean-Luc Guionnet plays organ in the second part of that piece, but here too LaCasa
adds a lot of other sounds and (perhaps) processes. The Luke Fowler film soundtrack
might be more to do with street sounds – I have no idea why I assume this, whereas
‘A Hemero Phaestos 2’ has the most electronic feel to it. There are some interesting
combinations at work, quite some mystery as well. One never seems to be fully sure
what one is hearing, which I guess works always best for this kind of music;
no doubt these are soundtracks to more abstract visual material, and as such these
work fine. (FdW)
Address: http://herbalinternational.blogspot.com
KEVIN DRUMM & LEIF ELGGREN – LIKE DUST UNDER A MOTHER’S KNIFE (CD by JMY Music)
A somewhat older recording here, from 2007, February 24 to be precise, from a concert
by Kevin Drumm, playing electronics I assume, and Leif Elggren, who recites texts about
cutting crowns and probably much more (mothers, queens), while he sits behind a table
with tin crowns, which vibrates through the use of motors. This is one of those radical
Elggren releases, dwelling heavily on text, certainly in the first twenty or so minutes,
while it seems Drumm is not adding an awful lot. After that, up to say the thirty-eight
minute break, the music starts building and building into a mighty fine crashing noise
crescendo. It has two primary sources: one drone like that sounds like a guitar and
amplifier and one more electrical source being recorded in a space. Very stark in it’s
in minimalism, coming to us without much variation. In the third part (if they refer
to such things in this way – parts; maybe they just go by the whole notion of one piece)
of this, the sound drops dramatically into something that is much softer and we hear
the vibrating of objects on a table, but most likely upon the strings of a guitar, in
a very intense interplay of sounds. Here too there is not a lot of development, but in
these last thirteen minutes a lot more than in the twenty. It’s hard to say what each
of these players does within this piece; Elggren, one would assume, is the man for
‘action’, the visual aspect of it all, the theatre man, while Drumm lays down the heavy
drone law upon this. Captivating music. (FdW)
Address: http://jmymusic.bandcamp.com
OSVALDO COLUCCINO – PARALLELO (CD by Unfathomless)
There is an approach to field recordings that I like to call ‘the empty room’ approach:
one sets up a pair of microphones in an empty space and simply catches the emptiness of
the space in a recording, by using a lot of ‘gain’, the space becomes alive. Osvaldo
Coluccino has had two releases before (see Vital Weekly 748 and 823) of improvised music,
playing various acoustic objects and acousmatic music. Here he uses recordings he made
in the ruins of a 17th century monastery in Domodossola, North-West Italy. The work was
already composed between 2007 and 2009, and for whatever reason wasn’t released until now.
Two pieces here of exactly the same length and the starting point for each piece seems
to me the sort of drone sound one gets from the empty room. That is not yet the complete
thing as Coluccino also has a bunch of other recordings to use here: there is dripping
of water, objects falling onto the floor, and everything reverberates through this giant
space, or maybe even various spaces of varying sizes. Set up one microphone in one room
and let the action take place in the room next to it: you get the idea of ancient reverb
techniques before they got stuck in binary boxes. There are also lots of rumbling sounds,
lots of vague sounds around this place, sometimes leading up to a somewhat messy sound
picture. Coluccino uses the collage form, in which he places various bits one after
another, sometimes with short silent gaps in between. It’s hard to say if he applies any
(computer-) processing to his music; sometimes one is inclined to think he does, but it
might also be very likely that he isn’t. Throughout this is a soft release, I think;
I am not sure why Coluccino choose to do that. It all makes up, however, a mighty fine
album of a highly varied bunch of field recordings, all trapped inside two lengthy
pieces. (FdW)
Address: http://www.unfathomless.net
UTE WASSERMANN & BIRGIT ULHER – RADIO TWEET (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
The cover of this release is quite interesting: it looks like a field with trees in the
far distance, but the more I look at this, these trees might also be sound waves, from
a picture of a computer screen. It is a fascinating picture and I am trying to think of
this in terms of the music; either a representation of the music as recorded or a score
to play. Birgit Ulher plays trumpet, radio, speaker and objects, and we know her from
her previous works in the field of improvised music. She has been playing with Ute
Wassermann (voice, bird whistles) for a very long time. Back in Vital Weekly 453 (which
might have been from 2004) I reviewed ‘Kunststoff’, which I found a bit long (one hour)
and too limited in what these women had to offer, variation-wise. I believe Ulher played
mostly trumpet back then; the extended set-up she uses these days adds more variation to
her playing and these days I am quite a fan of her work. This new work doesn’t disappoint
either. Like on that previous release, Wassermann’s voice is about an imitation of what
Ulher does with her trumpet and other sounds, but her voice opens up a whole world
of possibilities of her own, with those bird whistles. These eight pieces (forty-five
minutes) are quite intense in approach. There seems always something going on, even
when it’s nearly silent. One can do nothing else but listen closely to this music and
be sucked into the sound world of these two musicians. Open up your ears and mind and
something beautiful will unfold. At forty-five minutes I would think this is also the
right length. More would not be good, less also doesn’t seem right. Excellent work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
MARC BARRECA – BENEATH THE MIRRORED SURFACE (CD by Palace Of Lights)
Ever since his ‘return’ to the music scene with the CD ‘Subterrane’ (see Vital weekly
737) we have been on track with Marc Barreca’s new music. His origins, way back in the
late seventies, are in ambient music; very much along the lines of one Brian Eno, but
that didn’t lead up to many albums of the same kind of music. Between 1986 and 2006
there has been no releases, and I don’t know why, but in all those thirty years there
have been nine albums, including a compilation of his earliest tape releases (on Vinyl
On Demand, not reviewed in Vital Weekly, sadly enough), so it may occur he’s not the
busiest bee. For Barreca perhaps the purpose of creation lies not in the production
of many similar tunes but in the experiment, the invention of new sounds, new textures
and, above all, new ways to create music. On ‘Beneath The Mirrored Surface’ Barreca
works with samples he sourced from many places, field recordings, old folk recordings
and acoustic instruments. These are fed through Max/msp software and that resulted in
hundreds of sound files, which he then plays around with using Ableton Live. All too
easily one could think this will bring the usual amorphous mass of sound, the long
omnipresent drone music that could also be made by pressing down keys on synthesizer.
That’s not the case here with these twelve pieces by Marc Barreca. Instead these pieces
are hectic and nervous, crammed blocks of sounds, out of which elements pop up and
disappear. Sometimes it seems they are thrown together, but if you listen closely,
you will notice repeating sounds, or even something that resembles a rhythm, no matter
how chopped up these might seem. Barreca waves a delicate of web of many sounds; it
seems there are always a lot of these sounds playing, and usually it all seems very
abstract, but there is also an occasional hint towards a melody, such as in ‘Vermillion
Star’. Sounds are very rarely traced back to their origins, but in ‘Black Chilton’
we hear the violin, again chopped up, nervous, but still: a violin. This album lasts
over an hour and takes the listener on an extended trip, through moods, textures and
ideas; Barreca plays around with the notions of ambient music, and takes it all a bit
further. Out of the safe confines of ambient music, but also out of the whole notion
of microsound (too hectic) and musique concrete. It is ambient music that is forward
thinking, not rehashing old ideas. Maybe there is something new to add to the genre?
Let’s hope Barreca will explore the roads further and that he won’t let us wait
another lengthy amount of time. (FdW)
Address: http://www.palaceoflights.com
GENETIC TRANSMISSION – LAST (CD by Zoharum)
MAREK X. MARCHOFF – FUNERAL MUSIK FOR YOU AND ME (CD by Zoharum)
COLUMN ONE – CINDY, LORAINE & HANK (2CD by Zoharum)
As the title indicates, ‘Last’ is the final release by Genetic Transmission, the
musical project of Tomasz Twardawa, who has released a whole bunch of CDRs on Die
Schöne Blumen Musik Werk, which I didn’t hear. I have no idea how this music
developed over the past twenty years, but the fifteen pieces on this release (which
were already recorded in 2007/2008, curiously enough: when did this project end,
I wondered) show an interest in the cruder forms of musique concrete: Genetic
Transmission tapes metal objects, and presents these via loops to the listener.
Those loops are just what they are: loops. That is all perhaps not so musique
concrete, but at the same time he also has some sort of electronic process going
on, reversing sounds, pitching them up and down and such like and that is of course
very much musique concrete. Genetic Transmission has that odd mixture of mild
industrial music (the metal loops), ambient sound (the use of sound effects to
create sustaining textures) and the world of electro-acoustic music (the applied
process). It’s an interesting sound, perhaps a bit old-fashioned these days,
owing more to the late 80s when the industrial posse discovered Pierre Henry,
but Genetic Transmission adds a nice touch of himself to it. Maybe at sixty-three
minutes I found it all a bit long, and not always with enough variation, but surely
for about forty-five minutes I was all fascinated by this music, after that my
interest had waned.
The Genetic Transmission album was mastered by Marek X. Marchoff, who also has a
new album out, called ‘Funeral Musik For You And Me’, the less personal follow-up to
‘Funeral Musik Für Jenny Marchoff’, which I believe I didn’t hear. I know Marchoff
from his work with Different State and 23 Threads, but this music is quite different.
The cover says ‘brain waves, elektro space, enormous consciousness’ and the seven
titles seem to refer to geographical locations; or maybe not. I am not sure. The
music seems to be all made with electronic instruments, mostly analogue synthesizers
and a sequencer. Any rhythms used, which is actually not a lot, come from the same
synthesizers and throughout the music can be classified as ‘austere’ and somewhat
bleak. Maybe it’s implied in the title of this that this is not some fun music and
as such it fulfils its character very well. Repeating figures are played in slow mode
and set off different pictures of all things grey (not black actually), but no doubt
the fact that looking outside and seeing this grey and rainy day doesn’t help. This
is certainly pleasant music, but it’s something I like very much; it’s bleakness and
desolate feeling. Only the final piece, ‘6937’n 73.9833’w’, has a kalimba like loop
and a saxophone on top of that, which works quite all right, and lifts the mood a bit.
That seemed most welcome after forty-five minutes of despair.
I never quite figured what Column One is about; throughout their many years of
existence I quite enjoyed what they do, but ask me ‘what are Column One’s ideas and
intentions’, I wouldn’t know. There is always an element of collage to their music,
plunderphonics, magick, and field recordings and, who knows, some thematical/conceptual
approach in their pieces. Apparently they worked for ten years on ‘Cindy, Lorraine &
Hank’, and we see the group in the biggest line up: Rene Lamp (singing glass), Robert
Schalinski ((zither piano, flute, gongs, saw, synth, acoustic devices, voice, field
recordings), Jürgen Eckloff (piano, synth, source donation), Andrew Loadman (montage,
field recordings) with Nada and Rasmus Schalinski (voices); even Reinhold Freidl from
Zeitkratzer is enlisted as a guest, among others. The eclectic approach of Column One
is something one can easily see in the ninety plus minutes of this work and all of
their interests easily flow into each other. There are parts in which Column One acts
as a band, playing together some improvised music (such as in ‘Warsaw Part 1 and 2’,
and which is a lovely title if you know your history), blending into collages of field
recordings, modern classical music, and then, as easily, into a montage of voices
(speed up), electronics and Dixie land; then a bit of ambient with sighing into a
microphone, and sometimes most of this seems to be happening within the space of one
piece. In a way one is reminded of the very first records by Psychic TV, but then less
the singing of pop tunes. But otherwise, this is very much all over the place and it
makes up music that has very much that great radio play like quality. This is best
enjoyed as one continuing piece of music, as an extended radio drama; not a lot of
text, but lots of pictures are emitted through these waves. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zoharum.com
FJERNLYS – FOUR: ONE UNEARTHLY ROOM (2CD by Loki Found)
It’s been a while since I reviewed ‘Beyond The Undulant Quiescence’ by Fjernlys,
from Leipzig. That was in Vital Weekly 718, and I predicted the return of ambient
house back then. Cosmic music was already making waves and it would not be for long
and musicians would add beats to that cosmic tune and we’d be enjoying a rehash of
the nineties ambient house. Maybe that didn’t happen at the same full scale as I
thought it would be (never have me working for a record label again: I’m not the
best A&R manager). Here we have, after five years, a new album, which comes with
a bonus CD with remixes. It seems to me that Fjernlys moves away from the beat
oriented music and ends up with some more gothic sound. The vocals are deep,
majestic even and embedded in a field of ambient inspired synthesizers. Beats as
such, one of the main ingredients of ambient house obviously, are not present to
a great extent. These eight pieces are more ‘songs’ than ‘pieces’, if you get my
drift. His previous release wasn’t about ‘dancing’ either, but seemed to be more
ambient than this one. Only in ‘A New Plane’ we recognize some of the ‘old’ sound.
Otherwise these songs are quite moody and dark. This time it is more Staalplaat
than Silent Records, if you get my drift. It’s all again very retro in approach;
the ‘f’ on the CD itself is of course a reference to musical notion but it reminded
me also of the logo of Factory Records.
The second CD has five lengthy remixes, by Kammarheit, S.E.T.I. (twice), Herbst9
and Peter Bjärgö and it lasts in total thirty-seven minutes. I already wrote a lot
on the subject of remixes and I feel that if they don’t take the original into an
absolutely new territory, one could ask: what’s the point? I wouldn’t have mind
hearing a great techno take on the Fjernlys original, a bouncing ambient house
version that emphasizes the word house or maybe some big beat version. That doesn’t
happen in these five remixes, which all seem to stay quite close to the original
music of Fjernlys: dark, atmospheric, emphasizing the electronics more than the
vocals, add a bit of rhythm, but never a lot of these. For the true fans, as they
say in these cases. I like the original as it is. (FdW)
Address: http://www.loki-found.de
KLAUS JANEK & MIRIAM AKKERMANN – THE TARTINI (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
Over the years I don’t think I reviewed a lot of music by Klaus Janek, who plays
processed double bass. In Vital Weekly 962 there was his release with Claudio
Rocchetti, a tour document of their concerts in the Far East. Here he shows up with
a recording from 2012 where he performs with Miriam Akkerman who plays processed
flute. I never heard her work before. I had no idea what to expect here and when I
heard this I could not have imagined it would sound like this. The release is by
Creative Sources Recordings, which, in my book, means this is all about improvised
music, and surely this is too, but it sounds quite different. I have no what kind
of processing these two musicians apply to their instruments, but effectively they
create loops of the lowest fidelity possible. One hardly recognizes the double bass;
it results mostly into a deep dark rumble. With the flute it is actually not a lot
different. It barely resembles a flute in part one; it does to some extent in part
two. The two pieces, around twenty minutes each, are more creations of ambient
industrial music, creating dense fields of utter vague sounds, and sometimes one
thinks; oh a flute! It sounds like music of early zoviet*france being recorded on
a cassette with dirty recording heads. I must say I very much enjoyed this release.
It didn’t sound like something out of the book of improvisations, but something out
of the archives of a band that recorded hissy cassettes in the early 80s. Obviously
a sound I grew up with. This is one of those releases that shatters all expectations
and that’s something I always enjoy a lot; here it results in something that I very
much like, music wise. This music reminded me of so many things and yet coming out
of an entirely different world. Highly recommended. (FdW)
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
MICHAEL PISARO – MIND IS MOVING IX (CD by Intonema)
The Wandelweiser group is a (loose) collective of composers, who deal with very
quiet music. Michael Pisaro is one of them. In many of his pieces silence plays an
important role, but it’s not exclusively about that. ‘Mind Is Moving’ had already
eight pieces, which were already composed between 1995 and 1996, and they were for
various instruments (classical guitar, four classical bowed instruments, voice,
oboe and trumpet). These pieces were exploring overtones and resonance. The ninth
was already sketched back then, for electric guitar, but first completed in 2011.
As a small tribute to Keith Rowe there is also the use of radio sounds, stones and
whistling. Denis Sorokin, with whom Pisaro also made some changes to the piece,
which was recorded in St. Petersburg, performs it on this disc. This lasts some
forty-two minutes and it is indeed a very quiet work, but unlike the work of some
of his peers, one doesn’t have to turn up the volume. Everything happens with
refined slowness. A pluck on a string, quietness, sustaining sounds from
amplification and a bit of radio, followed again by silence. A series of short
sounds on various strings, followed by some feedback and, as always, more silence.
This is all very contemplative music; there is nothing in here to offend the casual
listener. This is music one plays for its sheer beauty; at least that’s what I did.
A grey day, coffee within reach, a great book on music and this CD on repeat for
at least three times. There are worse things in life! (FdW)
Address: http://www.intonema.org
ANDREA MASSARIA & GIANCARLO SCHIAFFINI – CORINDILINDOLI (CDR by Setola Di Maiale)
Atmospheric improvised textures by an Italian duo of Andrea Massaria (guitar)and
Giancarlo Schiaffini (trombone). Schiaffini was a member of the legendary Gruppo
di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza from 1972 until 1983. Also he has a career as
a composer of modern music. Andrea Massaria is a guitarist from Trieste and started
in the 90s from what I can trace. In their open, free floating improvisations they
make extensive use of effects and extended techniques. This makes their sound far
more broader than just trombone and guitar, turning it into an electro-acoustical
kind of music where it is not always evident that it all starts with trombone and
guitar. Also the vocal contributions by Tiziana Ghiglioni in ‘Chirullimaconi’ and
Silvia Schiavoni in ‘Ho veduto Volare’ are manipulated. This makes their music of
a very abstract nature. Point of departure however is a poem by Fortunato Depero
‘Verbalizzazione astrate di signora’ that is transposed intuitively into music.
Space is the dominant metaphor that comes to my mind listening to their music and
can be applied to all of their echoing excursions. One can feel improvisation is
the way by which these pieces come into being, starting in one piece from an idea
by Massaria, and in another one from an idea by Schiaffini. I experienced their
interactions – recorded live during a concert in Trieste – most enjoying in the
opening track ‘Chirullimaconi’. There is a laid back feel to their music as both
musicians take time to develop their movement in sound. On the other it was hard
work for me to find orientation in their unconventional musical universe. (DM)
Address: http://www.setoladimaiale.net
ANDREA BORGHI – SALNITTER (CDR by Contour Editions)
Music from Andrea Borghi has been reviewed before, either his solo releases, as
well as Vipcancro, the group he is a member of – see for instance Vital Weekly 785,
862, 868 and 872). In his solo work computers and Max/Msp play an important role.
The title translates as ‘saltpetre’ and ‘refers to the medieval theological
principle according to which creation is carried for contraction’. There is not
a lot of information on the cover (besides a label statement, which I thought was
a bit odd) as to what kind of sounds that he uses. The level of abstraction is
very high with this kind of music; certainly with the kind of extensive treatments
Borghi gives his original sound material. My best guess would still be that it’s
some kind of field recordings that go into one of the chain and via the extended
tools Borghi built with Max/Msp something entirely alien is received at the output
end of things. If you want, you can recognize the sound of dripping water, slowed
down like a jackhammer. Maybe I am entirely wrong of course, but that’s what it
sounds like. The music is very much inside the stratosphere of musique concrete,
galaxy: digital treatments. At one point we called this microsound, clicks ‘n
cuts or even noise, and the heavy textures, rambling noises of loose fittings in
the ceilings and sometimes consecutive sounds that form the occasional rhythms
may be something that you heard before, but Borghi does a fine job. The six pieces
here are concise and condensed: it’s never too long. That makes the album perhaps
a bit on the short side, clocking in at just less than twenty-six minutes. However,
I am not sure if I would this any longer. It is, in all its briefness, just right.
Not too long, to the point and more would probably destroy the built tension
curve here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.contoureditions.com
BAS VAN HUIZEN – KLUWEKRACHT (CDR by Moving Furniture Records)
For about five minutes every morning I listen to the radio, and it catches my ear
every now and then that are a special days, for secretaries, TV, Indonesian Kitchen
or Aids day (which happens to be the day you read this – I looked it up). Not on the
radio last Saturday was the fact that day was CDR day, for the second time. I have
no idea who invented it, and normally I don’t care about special days (birthday and
1000th issue days included), especially when they are for hip media, like vinyl or
cassettes, but let me applaud the CDR, that much neglected and despised medium. Very
much like the uberhip cassette, the CDR is a print-on-demand format, allowing anyone
to burn some of his or her own music on a CDR and sell it, in any small number. The
CDR is the perfect testing ground for new music, quick ideas and concert recordings.
They sound better than cassettes and songs are (usually) easier to locate, so I am
slightly oblivious as to why so few people love such a medium (oh yeah, they wear out,
right? Like there are no scratches on my ‘beloved’ vinyl). I am proud to say Vital
Weekly never looked down upon this medium, and treated it with much respect. Moving
Furniture Records started out as a CDR label, even when they branched out later to
cassettes, vinyl and real CDs these days, they never forgot about their roots. For
the occasion of CDR day they release ‘Kluwekracht’ by Bas van Huizen, who was once
from the lovely city of Nijmegen, but is these days based in Xi’an, China. He used
to have his own CDR label, Etherkreet and the last time I heard his music it was
way back in Vital Weekly 743, when I reviewed ‘Glasgrazer’ (even for Dutch people he
surely has weird titles). Here we have eight pieces called ‘Kluwekracht’, plus a coda
and a remix. As Basi Goreng, Van Huizen plays ‘beat based electronic music’ and as
Shogania ‘experimental noise’, but under his own name it’s all about using the guitar,
voices and singing bowls, which he all puts into a pot, called the computer no doubt,
and starts a slow meltdown to steam up some excellent ambient drone music; music that
is not about lulling the listener into a deep sleep, but Van Huizen keeps the listener
awake and, more importantly: the listener keeps listening. Most of the times these
guitar sounds are heavily orchestrated and manipulated into grainy textures, almost
like word- and drum less shoegazing. The music is throughout quite sharp and direct:
it sticks right into ones brain, there is no escape from this. One could argue that
since that last release, which is about five years old now, the development in Van
Huizen’s music is very limited; I have no idea why that is. Maybe Van Huizen was busy
with other projects; maybe he didn’t do any new music at all? Who knows? Who cares
either, now he’s back? As this is released on CDR, it might very well be a temporary
report, a sketch for now, a comeback album or simply something he wanted to share
with his friends. This is an edition of 50 copies, with an A5 cover. Great welcome
back release. (FdW)
Address: http://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/
SERGEY KOSTYRKO & KURT LIEDWART/MUBLES – SPLIT (cassette by Spina! Records)
FORESTEPPE & 231 – llllllllllll (cassette by Spina! Records)
Labelboss Sergey Kostyrko and Mikroton’s label owner Kurt Liedwart team up for the
first time with a joint recording, made last summer. I know Liedwart’s music as
relatively quiet, so I must admit I was a bit surprised here, with the noisier outing.
They use modular synthesizer & synthesizer (that’s what it says on the cover),
electronics and light electronics. That results in four noisy and minimal pieces of
electronic music. It scratches and peeps, it bursts with low end sound and in ‘Under
Left’ there is a bit of light, albeit not a lot. This perhaps exactly the kind of
thing that people release on a cassette: an impromptu noise session, straight forward
and no bullshit.
Mubles from the Basque country appear on the other side. Mubles is Miguel Angel De
Blas, Miguel A. Gracia, Kakofunk, Al Karpenter and Loty Negarti. Their music can be
called ‘demented free rock’ at their best. I am not always a big fan, I must admit.
In this twenty-two minute piece, ‘Oh Pequeno Muble’, Garcia mixes together a bunch of
recordings from the band into a highly lo-fi affair. Maybe some of these tracks didn’t
consist of hardly any sound, yet had all the more hiss, I wondered. One hears guitars,
percussion, and vocalisations, which grow in intensity throughout the piece (not so
free then, this music?), but just as easily disintegrates as well. I have no idea what
to make of this. It’s quite enjoyable, for now. Would I want to hear a whole lot?
I doubt that.
The other new release by Spina! Records is by Igor Klochikhin from Berdsk and 231,
“a family group from Saint-Petersburg” (and not be confused with Pacific 231). Klochikhin
is a history teacher and he records in his bedroom, using cassettes, toy instruments,
field recordings, while the family do “from time to time home art with their children,
calling this manner of their lifestyle as mom-and-pop”; they already have seven albums
out in the last three years. I am not sure how this collaboration was made, in person
or via mail exchange. This is quite strange music. It sounds like someone set up a
microphone in a space and everybody makes some sounds, in other rooms. Trying out that
guitar in one, while someone else knows how play a few chords in another. Children talk
through this, there is a bit of percussion by them, etc. Two times nineteen minutes of
this. One could do an extended piece on creation, naivety, art brut, outsiders, or
simply put it down as people have a great laugh at all of that. One could easily say
this is all bullshit. I was reminded of some of the work of Dominique Petitgand,
especially with those children voices; I quite enjoyed it. Just with Mubles (even when
this is entirely different), I enjoy this but I may not necessarily want to hear a lot
of this. Great idea though. (FdW)
Address: http://spinarec.bandcamp.com
BIONULOR – TROIS VERSIONS DE LA VIE (download by Oniron)
The label took the trouble of recording the music onto a CDR even it’s only available as
a download. Maybe to trick us into reviewing it? I have reviewed Bionulor’s music before,
and I quite enjoyed his take of the dark drone, Stephan Mathieu inspired sound recycling.
I would have put this aside, but I was also bit curious what this was about. Much to my
surprise there are six pieces here and the total length is eight minutes – I can do this
easily (and this is by no means an invitation to send me more download music, mind you!).
This is Bionulor’s third release with music from theatrical performances (see also Vital
Weekly 901), in this case Yasmina Reza’s play ‘Trois Versions De La Vie”, and I have no
idea why this is all so brief. Was there no need for more music? Bionulor, who uses ‘100%
recycled sounds’, takes whatever sounds and in these six brief pieces he doesn’t use the
long form drone music trick, but rather has it all a bit more playful; like loading up
sounds into a sampler and playing the keyboard a bit more randomly. There are piano
sounds, something of a more electronic origin and some sound effects. Everything is a
bit sketch like here – no surprise there with six pieces in eight minutes. A bit short,
granted for that reason a review, but one wonders: why so brief? (FdW)
Address: http://onironlabel.com
•
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