KUCHARCZYK – BRAK (CD by Mik Musik/BDTA) *
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE – ON THE NATURE OF THINGNESS (CD by Starkland)
CLAUDIO PARODI – A TREE, AT NIGHT (CD by Luscinia Discos)
TOBIAS PREISIG & STEFAN RUSCONI – LEVITATION (CD by Qilin)
NEW OLD LUTEN QUINTET – TUMULT (CD by Euphorium)
ALEX DÖRNER/ROGER TURNER/RA RA DA BOOF – LONDON-LEIPZIG-BERLIN (CD by Euphorium)
ALAN SONDHEIM & AZURE CARTER & LUKE DAMROSCH – THRENODY (SHORTER DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA) –
(CD by Public Eyesore)
PAT COLLINS & TADHG O’SULLIVAN – SILENCE/SOUND (CD by Far Point Recordings) *
CATATONIC EXISTENCE – ELECT ME GOD, I’LL KILL YOU ALL
(CD by Epic Recordings/The Epicurean) *
END – SUBHUMAN TRACKS (cassette by The Epicurean) *
ANEMONE TUBE – IN THE VORTEX OF DIONYSIAN REALITY (cassette by The Epicurean) *
MERZBOW & GARETH DAVIS – ATSUSAKU (LP by Moving Furniture Records) *
GORDOA & MCNAB & MYBURGH – PASSIVE TRANSPORT (CDR by Shame File Music) *
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE – ANIMISTI TOTEMA (CDR by Tentacles Of Perception) *
JUAN ANTONIO NIETO & METEK – UMBER (CDR by Oblea Ungida) *
WANDER – KAT GAT SEA (cassette by Wounded Knife Records) *
LUKASZ CISZAK – THE LOCKED ROOM (cassette by Jasien)
SZRON – WOES (cassette by Jasien)
KUCHARCZYK – BRAK (CD by Mik Musik/BDTA)
Mik Musik is these days quite active with releases, which is a great thing and many of these are
in field of slightly more commercial dance music. Label boss Kucharczyk is someone who takes
the lead in doing some utterly commercial music, which is quite surprising. His ‘Demon Techno W
Okularch’ (see Vital Weekly 942) was already a most entertaining release with summertime techno
music, on ‘Brak’ he goes out even a bit further as techno might still be a bit underground and
plays around with disco tunes, laidback piano tunes (think R&B), slick singing (think more R&B)
and using chords and progressing from famous songs (‘Superstition’ by Stevie Wonder, ‘Ashes To
Ashes’ by Bowie and ‘Staying Alive’ by Bee Gees), but he stresses that he does not use samples
of these songs and all of this spanning nineteen pieces, almost an hour of music. Kucharczyk
takes the listener in this hour on a wild ride through poppy tunes, underground techno and very
occasional a bit of weirdness. Some of this was way too smooth for my taste, but as soon as
Kucharczyk hits upon something weirder, such as ‘Poczuj Muzyke’, with it’s swollen, pathetic
chords and it’s more collage like approach, I found it all of much more interest. It is
definitely a weird release indeed, bouncing all over the place, almost like a radio station
that is transmitting all kinds of dance related music, but sometimes you also pick up in-studio
banter, albeit in a language you don’t understand. This is some fine manifestation of
plunderphonics. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mikmusik.org
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE – ON THE NATURE OF THINGNESS (CD by Starkland)
The International Contemporary Ensemble is a New York collective, dedicated to the performance
of new-composed music. One of the founding members is Phyllis Chen. Four of her compositions
are featured on this cd, one of them co-written with her partner Robert Dietz. The other works
are all by Nathan Davis, including the title piece of this new cd by Starkland. The opening
piece ‘Ghostlight’ is an elegant composition by Davis for prepared piano. A friendly and poetic
work. This also counts for ‘Hush’ a gamelan-like piece of music that has Chen playing piano
and toy piano plus music boxes, accompanied by Cory Smythe also on piano. Somehow close to the
universe of Meredith Monk. ‘Beneath a trace of Vapor’ is for flute and tape. Flute played by
Eric Lamb. Gradually a deep, dynamic context, provided by the pre-recorded tape, accompanies.
‘On speaking a hundred Names’(Davis) is also for a solo wind instrument (bassoon). Not with
tape, but with live processing this time. ‘Mobius’ (Chen & Dietz) for music box and electronics,
is the most abstract work using – no wonder the loop-principle. ‘On the Nature of Thingness’
could be the title of an philosophical essay. It is a work for soprano (Tony Arnold) and ten
instrumentalists. It has the complete ensemble at work, with the composer himself on jaw harp,
an instrument that is also played by most of the other performers. The composition consists of
four parts. The first orchestral part ‘Study of the object’ is very dramatic and colourful piece
with Tony Arnold singing a text by Zbigniew Herbert. In the second part Arnold sings and recites,
in the company of many jaw harps, a dada poem by Hugo Ball, interspersed by explanatory texts.
Followed by the introvert and delicate section ‘Vowels’, with a text by Rimbaud. It opens almost
like a Popol Vuh song. The closing part is centered around following lines by Italo Calvino:
“I made some things with things… An outside with an inside in it”. It is the most impressive
and convincing work of the cd. But the other compositions are also very worthwhile, and together
the offer a very rich and colorful world, all excellently performed. There is a a lot to be
discovered and enjoyed here. (DM)
Address: http://www.starkland.com
CLAUDIO PARODI – A TREE, AT NIGHT (CD by LUSCINIA DISOCS)
Claudio Parodi is an Italian composer, sound artist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist. He made
very different statements up till now. I remember a solo album, ‘Heavy Nichel’ for solo clarinet
for Creative Sources. Another one, ‘Prima del Torzo’ (2015), had a prominent role for field
recordings. This time Parodi made a very vocal- and text-oriented work. Knowledge of the Italian
language is essential for this work, built around spoken word as it is mainly spoken in Italian,
besides a bit in English. Text and music are by Parodi. In all nine tracks Parodi plays thumb piano
and shakers, evoking African atmospheres. The vocals come from Luigi Marangoni and Bobby Soul –
artist name for Alberto de Benedetti, plus a few guest appearances. The voice of Marangoni is
most of the time in the forefront, reading a story. In the background we hear Bobby Soul, singing
in a gospel and soul inspired way, repeating short English phrases. It is a minimalistic work that
Parodi offers here, that moves somewhere between music and radio play or ‘Hörspiel’. Although I
didn’t understand a bit, there is some hypnotic magic in this work that affected me and made me
forget what it is all about. Especially where Parodi makes layers of spoken and sung vocals, he
celebrates the beauty and expressiveness of the human voice. A plain narrative work. “The
relocation in a new house is the excuse to make a portrait of the new neighbourhood which is a
mirror of a part of the country and a social reflection as our cities became empty as book shops
and cinemas close”. A work of clear vision and inspired execution. (DM)
Address: http://www.luscinia.org/
TOBIAS PREISIG & STEFAN RUSCONI – LEVITATION (CD by Qilin)
An exceptional album by two Swiss musicians. Rusconi plays the organ of the Saint-Etienne Church in
Cully, Switzerland. Preisig plays violin. A recording made on location, using also the acoustics of
the church. I suppose they deliberately chose for this location for its organ and acoustics. This is
what the project is about. The ideas for this undertaking started to grow in 2012 and led to this
recording session in the summer of 2014. First a bit on their backgrounds. Preisig studied at the
Swiss Jazz School and studied classical violin afterwards. Played with George Gruntz, David Liebman
a.o. He is also involved in a new band by Dieter Meier (Yello). Stefan Rusconi is pianist and composer
from Zurich and tours the world since 2004 with his band Rusconi. He composes for film and theatre and
has an experimental electronic duo with Ephrem Luchinger. He also worked with Dieter Meier. May be
this is the way Preisig and Rusconi met. Their cd counts nine tracks. One hears that they tried very
different approaches to built a piece of music. Some sound very conventional, like ‘Gillian’, others
are more far out. ‘Mme Tempete’ for example is a beautiful massive stream of dark organ-generated
sounds. In a piece like ‘Fiona’ rhythm is most important. It seems they positioned microphones inside
the organ, so that one hears the inside mechanics of the organ. This makes the organ sound very
percussive. On ‘Chantall’ Rusconi repeats a funny pattern on the organ, giving room to Preisig for
an improvisation. The acoustical and spacial characteristics of the sounds coming from his violin are
very tasty and worthwhile. Afterwards they did editing and mixing in the studio. It is difficult to
determine how different results are from the original recordings. Anyway, overall I liked this one
more for their explorations of the sound qualities of the space and instruments, than for their
compositional talents. A beautiful sonic experience (DM).
Address: http://www.qilinrecords.com
NEW OLD LUTEN QUINTET – TUMULT (CD by Euphorium)
ALEX DÖRNER/ROGER TURNER/RA RA DA BOOF – LONDON-LEIPZIG-BERLIN (CD by Euphorium))
New Old Luten Quintet has veteran Petrowsky amidst its members. He is in his 80s on this recording.
Just imagine! He was one of the leading forces from the DDR free jazz scene. It is here that he
started playing jazz in the 50s. He is documented on dozens of records. One can write a book on him
I guess. All these years he stuck to playing free jazz, without ending up in a dead end street.
Far from it, if you listen to this new recording ‘Tumult’. Petrowsky, playing alto sax and clarinet,
is in the company of Elan Pauer (piano, percussion), John Edwards (bass) , Robert Landfermann (bass)
and Christian Lillinger (drums, percussion). The cd counts one extended improvisation, titled ‘Lutens
Letzter Tumult!’. By the way, Elan Pauer is one of the aliases of Oliver Schwerdt, a young improviser,
author and journalist, who also happen to run Leipzig-based Euphorium Records. Also Christian
Lillinger and Robert Landfermann are of a younger generation of German improvisers, all in their
30s. John Edwards toured with B-Shops For The Poor and GOD in his early days, and became part of
the London improve scene. In 2013 the Quintet released its first statement for Euphorium, ‘Big Pauer’,
a live recording from December 2012. Their new release is recorded exactly one year later on the
same spot.
As said it is one continuous improvisation of about 45 minutes. The improvisation starts like a
whirlwind. From this anarchic explosion they start to develop and work out their ideas. As things go
in improvisations of this length, high energy passages are followed by more quiet and introvert moments.
Time to take a breath, before another battle is started. Often I think why have improvisations to take
so long? Is there any necessity? Sometimes I feel the game is over, but musicians continue. Luckily no
dull moment in this trip here. Constantly new patterns and interactions are tried. Without hesitation
they are seeking and finding their way through. Petrowsky is in a prominent role, but all others are
also fully engaged in this group improvisation. They are some beautiful moments between the bass and
drums. Halfway they come near to silence, and a dialogue starts between impressive drummer Lillinger
and Petrowsky, turning into another dynamic episode. All in all a furious and spirited improvisation.
Ra Ra da Boff is another alter ego of Oliver Schwerdt, one that he uses for his collaboration with Axel
Dörner (trumpet) and Roger Turner (percussion). Again a combination of players of different generations.
Turner started recording in the 70s, Dörner in the 90s. The recording we are now talking of dates from
December 18th, 2013, one day after the ‘Tumult’ recording. Their improvisations are of a different
nature as on ‘Tumult’. Turner uses no drums, but a lot of percussive instruments and tools. Dörner
plays trumpet, using extended techniques. So their improvisations are much about coloring. Very
different sounds emerge. Complemented by Ra Ra da Boff playing an electric organ and little instruments.
In the first improvisation it is Turner who decides where to go. The patterns and runs he plays are
very entertaining. Ra Ra da Boff provides dark and uncomfortable sounds in the background. Dörner makes
full use of this range of techniques. A joy to listen to. This is also counts for the other two
improvisations. The subtle playing of Dörner and Turner is full of details, little twists, short runs.
Ra Ra da Boff adds often long-sustained sounds from his organ. Playing in a way that is not often
heard in contexts like these. But it really works. So two excellent works by Euphorium (DM)
Address: http://www.euphorium.de
ALAN SONDHEIM & AZURE CARTER & LUKE DAMROSCH –
THRENODY (SHORTER DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA) – (CD by Public Eyesore)
Reading the name of Alan Sondheim I had to think of old ESP-releases from the 60s. Are we dealing with
the same person here? Yes we are! Sondheim is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist, musician, writer-
philosopher, and performer. Virtuality is his main theme in many of his works I read. For his work as a
recordings musician we have to make a big jump from his 60s releases for ESP into 21st century, to find
new releases. Music is not his main thing, I suppose. However in the last few years he made several
recordings with his partner Azure Carter. This resulted in ‘Cauldron’(2011) together with Helen Espvall.
And in 2014 ‘Avatar Woman’ saw the light. This makes ‘Threnody’ in collaboration with Luke Damrosch, the
third statement. Sondheim plays a wide range of instruments: alto clarinet, Bb clarinet, alto recorder,
Irish banjo, alpine zither, viola, cura saz, electric guitar, di Giorgio classical guitar, qin, chromatic
harmonica, electric saz, long-necked saz, oud, pipa, shakuhachi, madal, erhu and dan moi. Damrosch plays
guzheng, madal, revrev supercollider software. Carter sings. Together they deliver an overwhelming and
mind blowing work, consisting of 24 songs and improvisations. If only by the different sounds and timbres
of all these instruments. But there is a lot more here. The music often sounds like blues or folk music,
but from a totally other planet. It’s improvised microtonal music. Very much alive and emotional on the
one hand, but also of very a abstract and imaginary nature. A perfect combination if you ask me. Very
weird are the tracks where Carter sings a melody over the improvisations of Sondheim and Damrosch like
in the opening track ‘Comeforme’ of ‘Bone’. Sondheim creates a very idiosyncratic, one of a kind, musical
universe. A deep bow! (DM)
Address: http://www.publiceyesore.com
PAT COLLINS & TADHG O’SULLIVAN – SILENCE/SOUND (CD by Far Point Recordings)
Or maybe it should say ‘Tadhg O’Sullivan & Pat Collins’, I was thinking. This is one of those
collaborations that include film and music, and since the whole film part is lacking from this package,
we should perhaps put the composer first, which is Tadhg O’Sullivan. In 2012 Collins did a film called
‘Silence’, “the story of of Eoghan, a sound recordist who is returning to Ireland for the first time in
fifteen years. The reason for his return is a job: to record landscapes free man-made sound”, so he goes
into remote areas, but still has encounters and conversations and “gradually divert his attention towards
a more intangible silence, one that is bound up with the sounds of the life he had left behind”. If I
understood well this CD is not the OST from the movie, but a recombination of sounds and spoken word from
the movie set to a unique version thereof. Ireland is one of those European countries I have to visit yet,
but the sounds of sea waves, sea gulls and rain and rough wind is something that I imagine this country to
sound like. In between there are people talking about such things as silence and about the people living
on the land. Even if you don’t pay very close attention to the narration, which becomes something very
poetic, rather than a documentary, embedded in the music, which of course sounds very natural and works
in a similar way very poetic. This is truly a movie without images and one can easily follow the story as
it is. A work of refined beauty and once again confirming that no matter how hard one looks for silence it
is very difficult, if not impossible, to find. But with such music: who cares anyway? (FdW)
Address: http://www.farpointrecordings.com
CATATONIC EXISTENCE – ELECT ME GOD, I’LL KILL YOU ALL (CD by Epic Recordings/The Epicurean)
END – SUBHUMAN TRACKS (cassette by The Epicurean)
ANEMONE TUBE – IN THE VORTEX OF DIONYSIAN REALITY (cassette by The Epicurean)
Today is one of those very sunny early spring days here in Nijmegen, cold but very bright. To find oneself
with a stack of sound carriers that look as grim as these three is perhaps not the best thing one can wish
for. All black covers, but then: maybe it’s best to hear the content on a day like this.
I can’t remember I heard of Catatonic Existence in the nineties, but apparently this was the solo project
of Guy Mulidor from 1994 to 1996 with help from Meatshits’ main man Robert Deathrage on backing vocals/
programming and Pat Oliquin on ‘occasional euro electro style bass’. There was a connection with Meatshits,
and all of Catatonic Existence releases were splits with that band, and apparently much sought after these
days. If I understand well this CD compiles the complete recorded output by this band, ten songs in total,
all in one bunch now. This is not the kind of music we review a lot in Vital Weekly, leaning towards heavy
rhythms, samples from movies, sequencer/synthesizer lines, something core (I would never know what ‘core’
it is, hardcore, deathcore, grindcore) in combination with an electronic groove, all of this with the heavy
grunting vocals of Mulidor. The label refers to Pitchshifter, Sonic Violence, Godflesh and (‘of course’)
Meatshits, but none of that means much to me. The short ‘A Pile Of Little Arms’ had a sample that sounded
familiar, but no matter how often I played it, I don’t seem to recall this. All of this might be ‘extreme’
to some, but I thought it was all a good laugh really. All of these samples with the word fucking in it,
or about murdering, lifted from films, documentaries (about the mafia) and then these heavy guitars and
rhythms: in no way I thought this was a real menace. Perhaps the release that was most fun this week!
Following that I moved to Norway’s group End, who have been silent for fifteen years. Now they release
a new cassette, packed in a very black cover, with gold and white text, on fine paper stock. Back then I
never heard of them, which may (or may not) seem a duo of ‘ohq’ and ‘belzebob’. With titles as ‘Gaschamber
Death’, ‘Slaughterhouse’ and ‘Daughter Of Satan’, you might perhaps expect something with tons of feedback
and distortion, but the distortion here all comes through the use of rhythm. Loud, fast rhythms that remind
the listener of mid 90s gabber techno music, which is actually I something I sometimes enjoy. Especially
when it sounds over the top. End doesn’t necessarily sound over the top. They are loud and fast, but also
quite polite, more industrial, more Skinny Puppy than Rotterdam Termination Source, if you catch my drift,
but maybe I lost you at the word ‘gabber’ already. This is just a twenty-minute tape which I thought was
rather short and I wouldn’t have minded a bit more, but with eight tracks this means that these pieces are
quite short and to the point, and that something that counts too. Crazy samples from movies are thrown in
the melee of analogue drum sounds and ditto synthesizers, there is a bit of voice material and the whole
thing sounds like two guys poking fun with the listener. Excellent shit, as they say in the scene.
Second funniest!
Recently Anemone Tube released ‘Golden Temple’ (see Vital Weekly 1020), but just before that they released
‘In The Vortex Of Dionysian Reality’, a five-part work that lasts nineteen minutes, which is repeated on both
sides of the cassette. This is ‘related to Nietzsche’s notion of the Wagnerian music drama as a revelation of
the abysmal truth about man, “In The Vortex Of Dionysian Reality”, allures into the Dionysian dreamland, where
tragedy reigns, in the pursuit of ultimate oneness’, which all of a sudden sounds a bit less jokey that End.
The musical world of Anemone Tube is dourer than that of End, that much we can be sure off. Here the noise
and feedback, as intended by the gods of industrial music sound loud and clear, but as with ‘Golden Temple’,
Anemone Tube is someone who knows what he is doing and how to create powerful music that actually sounds
powerful, which is to use considerable yet not excessive force and keep matters within a fine time constraint:
leave the listener hungry, craving for more, and not, as is usual in some parts of the noise world: too much
is not enough. But Anemone Tube knows how to circumvent all of this, and adds a bit of ambient synths to the
music, such as in ‘Le Pont Du Diable’, but otherwise this is all furious and excessive, but then just of
the right length. (FdW)
Address: http://www.transformed.de/theepicurean.html
MERZBOW & GARETH DAVIS – ATSUSAKU (LP by Moving Furniture Records)
There was a time when I heard a lot of music by Merzbow, even to extent I would call myself a fan. But as
the man released more music than busy ears such as myself could keep up with, releases piled up, unplayed,
sometimes for an alarmingly long period. That’s where I decided to play whatever new came along, and whatever
old release time provided me, but perhaps not purchase every new release. I was surprised to see Merzbow
working with Gareth Davis, who I knew best for playing with Machinefabriek and Julie Mittens, but who also
played with people such as Scanner and Elliott Sharp. His clarinet playing, along with electronics is something
that I didn’t see fit to the wall of noise that is common trade for Masami Akita’s project Merzbow. And upon
playing this work, it is indeed not easy to see and hear where the clarinet goes. Here we have two sidelong
pieces and while both are unrelenting slabs of noise, there are also differences to be noted. ‘Haihan’ on the
first side is a most minimal streak of power noise, sticking around in a small circle that is explored to the
max. On the other side there is ‘Kyouhan’, slightly longer than the other side, but moving through a wider
spectrum of noises and variations on a similar theme. To those who are not initiated in the Merzworld there
is probably very little difference between both sides, but I quite enjoyed the variety both offer. The
minimalist approach on one side versus the constant changing textures of the other. Not that it is easy to
recognize the clarinet of Davis I readily admit that. I safely assume that whatever he plays is the very
starting point of all of this, from there on it starts leading it’s own life, through rainbow coloured stomp
boxes and digital processors, laptops and all of that feeding against each other, constantly creating new
connections. It’s not a Merzbow record that is any different, by and large, from many of his other releases
but that’s something his fans no doubt will love about this. Me too. (FdW)
Address: http://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com
GORDOA & MCNAB & MYBURGH – PASSIVE TRANSPORT (CDR by Shame File Music)
Here we have three improvisers of whom I never heard before. Two of them are from Australia, Michael McNab
(percussion, drums) and Josten Myburgh (electronics) while Emilio Gordoa (vibraphone) is originally from
Mexico, but currently living in Berlin. It is in his studio where they recorded a couple of hours of
improvisation back in 2012, which became the raw material from which Myburgh mixed together two pieces of
almost twenty-two minutes each. The instruments seem to be heavily prepared in what seems to be attempt to
make them sound as electronic as the electronics used by Myburgh. There is lots of sustaining sounds from
using bows on the surface of the vibraphone and the cymbals, and the rattling of small objects on the skins
of the various drum parts. This is silent in one way, and in another way it is quite unsettling. It seems
quiet but somehow I don’t think it is. That may sound a bit odd, I know, but that’s how I feel about this.
If you play this at a modest volume, than it seems very quiet, almost like gentle flowing music, but if you
put up the volume quite a bit, you will notice that there are quite some nasty piercing sounds in here.
Nowhere the music becomes very quiet, as it’s always buzzing and ringing; unlike say a recording by a
Wandelweiser composer these three players are not interested in pure silence, but more in a dynamic approach
to music, steering from the quiet towards the loud and moves back and forth between these parameters. It’s
a very challenging work, and I mean this in the most positive sense of the word. Very engaging and lots of
things to discover upon repeated listening. (FdW)
Address: http://shamefilemusic.com
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE – ANIMISTI TOTEMA (CDR by Tentacles Of Perception)
From the ever so active Artificial Memory Trace comes another work, which spans compositions from 1998 to
2014, and it sees Slavek Kwi using a variety of field recordings, made in The Netherlands (wrongly described,
I’d say, as ‘Holland’, but Limburg is really a different part of the country), Ireland, Canada, Australia,
South Africa, Amazon, Spain, Belgium and Czech Republic, and this time around he doesn’t use the entire length
of a CD for a single piece, but three pieces, clocking in at just under one hour. In these three pieces we
are treated to some classic Artificial Memory Trace sounds/music/processing. There seem to be lots of animal
sounds in here and I couldn’t say which those animals were, but surely lots of insects, but perhaps also birds
and monkeys. There are lots of processed sounds of these recordings and in ‘Vopice A Lemuri’ there is a large
section of some very dark drone based sounds, which seems to me to be totally abstract and devoid of much
animal sounds. In ‘Simulacrum Verliba’ there is also the sound of water and through some very dynamic
interaction it is sometimes very quiet but also heavy on the bass end. Dynamics is something that goes for
all of three pieces: it is sometimes piercingly loud with all of these choirs of insects and somewhere below
there is droning low end that moves around like some iceberg. Through the use of editing, Artificial Memory
Trace moves from section through section and sometimes one or two sounds continue into the next section,
which makes this both intense and powerful. It’s not a release, so it seems to me, that is very different
from the Artificial Memory Trace that you might know and perhaps you were looking for that. Maybe not, and
if that is the case than this is another fine addition to the work you already know. (FdW)
Address: http://artificialmemorytrace.bandcamp.com/
JUAN ANTONIO NIETO & METEK – UMBER (CDR by Oblea Ungida)
For me Metek is the one here whose music I know better than Nieto. From him I only heard his collaboration
with Leo Alves Vieira, which Nieto did as Pangea (see Vital Weekly 818), in which he applied treatments to
the clarinet, flute and acoustic guitar played by the other. Metek, also known as Frederik Nilsson, recently
(see Vital Weekly 996) resurfaced as Metek, after some years of being not presented in these pages. That
album was a fine statement of good ol’ fashioned noise music, but with some fine thought put into it. This
collaboration, which I assume was generated through the use of e-mail or large file transfers and which I
think deal by and large with field recordings of an obscure nature. Maybe al of these field recordings were
taped in cavernous surroundings, like empty factory halls, or perhaps there is the addition of reverb in the
process of creating this music, but it’s all sounds quite moody and atmospheric and not as noisy as I would
assume this would be. All of these sounds are quite mysterious and the same goes for the processing that
takes place. I really have no idea if they fed these recordings through analogue devices, synthesizers or
a bunch of digital sound processors and to what extent they added new recordings later on. It brings us a
bunch of dark drone based sounds, the rumble of rain recordings and percussive debris from objects being hit
in a bigger space. It is all quite spooky stuff, which is brought to us with quite some vigor. These men
take their time to time this story, but none of the seven tracks seem to be too long; it always seems to
contain the right amount of time for each of the stories they want to tell us and makes this a wonderful
release, with quite some variety in approaches. (FdW)
Address: http://gruppoungido.net
WANDER – KAT GAT SEA (cassette by Wounded Knife Records)
As I know of the existence of another group who call themselves Wander, from The Netherlands, I checked on
Discogs if there were more, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Yet I am pretty sure this Wander is a
different one, and judging by their names they are from Italy. It is a duo of Vincenzo De Luce (acoustic
guitar, trumpet and sounds. He is also a member of Zero Centigrade and Drowning In Wood) and Matteo Tranchesi
(acoustic and electric guitar) and the seven pieces show a fine interaction between both guitars, recalling
Americana, but rather naively played, and the addition of extra sounds, reminded me of Gast Del Sol, less
any singing. The strings are not strummed but played plucked, like blues music, like some ancient country
and western; imagine sitting on a porch somewhere in some southern US state and two guys pluck their strings;
now close your eyes and let the mystery of the ‘other’ sounds come to you; the buzzing opening of ‘Black
Powder’, the voices of ‘Unfinished Departures’, the mechanical rhythms and high pitched sounds of ‘The Steps
Of Your Way Back’ or the drones of ‘Into The Flood’, captured with a lot of delay. All of that seems to add
a ghostly texture to the music, something unnerving in what seems to be an otherwise quite setting. The
mysteries of the marsh; hot and sweaty and quite inexplicable. This is some great mood music. This is an
excellent release. (FdW)
Address: http://woundedknife.bandcamp.com
LUKASZ CISZAK – THE LOCKED ROOM (cassette by Jasien)
SZRON – WOES (cassette by Jasien)
By now we reviewed a whole string of releases by guitarist Lukasz Ciszak who goes out all the way on this new
one. Four pieces, all clocking in at around ten minutes, of Ciszak’s heaviest rock outing until now. The label
compares this to Unwound (which is a name I know, but not the music) and Godspeed You Black Emperor, which is
a name I can relate to when hearing these four songs/pieces. In ‘Exit Notes’ he strums on end, and it takes
a while before he decides to use any effects, but when he does, and this goes for all four pieces, it immediately
becomes a heavy wall of fuzzing and buzzing guitars. In ‘Remain Alterted’ there is also the addition of pounding
drums, perhaps out of a box but which sound nevertheless quite forcefully loud. Another name that sprang to mind, especially in the first piece, ‘Empire In Decline’ and ‘Remain Alerted’ was that of Alien, the highly obscure
Dutch band, who released a 12″ in the mid 80s of similar walls of guitar and drums, layering instrument upon
instrument, like there was no end to it. I quite enjoyed these four pieces by Ciszak, and thought this was
his best effort yet in being a single man guitar orchestra.
Szron is a name I never heard of but apparently this is a trio from Warsaw, ‘inspired by modern experimental
electronics, noise, ambient and guitar landscapes’ and to that end they also have four pieces of music, ranging
from nine to eighteen minutes. There is no indication towards instruments used, but I would think there is a
bunch of guitars, synthesizers and sound effects. While there is something noisy about the music for sure, I
wouldn’t say ‘noise’ is a big part of their game, but otherwise it’s a pretty accurate description. One could
perhaps add ‘psychedelic’ to the equation, as all four pieces meander heavily about in Technicolor, flying sparks
everywhere and drifting away, while place the listener in the cockpit of a spaceship. The guitars play sustaining
sounds and there is an on going battle of the ebows. Vaguely there is a notion of melody thrown into deep space.
Quite krauty, all of this, but not with too much motorik drumming. Only ‘Loathing’ seems to have a drum machine
in there somewhere; sometimes we tap into the machineroom of this spacebeast and that’s where the noise comes in. Like Ciszak this is pretty orchestral also but using a wider variety of sound sources and also a variety
of sonic interests. (FdW)
Address: http://jasien.bandcamp.com