 number 1027
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week 15 ---------------------
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LOWERED - ARCHE (FOR GONGS) (CD by The Remains Of My Estate) * BAS VAN HUIZEN - WAANZINTRAAN (CD by Moving Furniture Records) * TAKU SUGIMOTO - SEPTET (CD by Meenna) * TETUZI AKIYAMA & MAKOTO OSHIRO & SUZUERI & ROGER TURNER - LIVE AT FTARRI (CD by Meenna) * SHIBATETSU - PLASTIC PNEUMA (CD by Hitorri) * DANIEL BENNETT & STEPHEN CORNFORD - FELLFIELD DRAFF (CD by Hideous Replica) * LUCIANO MAGGIORE - 18 RHYTHMIC STUDIES FOR A PEN, A CASSETTE CASE AND A KOREAN CASSETTE DECK (CD by Hideous Replica) * STRØM - X (CD by Mikroton) * NORBERT MÖSLANG & ILIA BELORUKOV & KURT LIEDWART - SALE_INTERIORA (CD by Mikroton) * KURT LIEDWART & PHIL RAYMOND - RIM (CD by Mikroton) * CIRCLE BROS - RUST (LP by Three:four Records) DEEPFISHK - OFFSHORE ZONE (LP by Chmafu Nocords) MOSQUITOES (7", private) UNFOLLOW - ALL MY RIFLES (7" by Lathelight) GRETEL - LIGHTS/TEMPLE/LOOP #B (7" by Lathelight) GORLEN - TAPE DEATH #10 (cassette by Lathelight) GERALD FIEBIG & EMERGE VS NYM - CONDENSED ENDEAVOUR (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) * GERALD FIEBIG & EMERGE - COMPOUND (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) * EMERGE & SINTARI MIMITHE - KAGOME (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) * RE-DRUM & EMERGE - PERSECUTORY DELUSION (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) * RE-DRUM & EMERGE (cassette by Attenuation Circuit) * SINDRE BJERGA - DREAM INTERRUPTION (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) * LEO DUPLEIX - TWO COMPOSITIONS FOR MIXED SOURCES (2CDR by Albertine Records) * SOCRATES MARTINIS - UNDER THE ARCHES OF HER VOICE (CDR by Organized Music From Thessaloniki) * ENRIQUE R. PALMA - CONTENANCE (3"CDR by Organized Music From Thessaloniki) * LE CABLE DE FEU - FIREWIRE (cassette by Tanuki Records) KALI MALONE - TRAGIC CHORUS (cassette by Xkatedral) MARIA W HORN/INSECT ARK - MAGNETA/LONG ARMS (cassette by Xkatedral) XKATEDRAL VOLUME II (cassette compilation by Xkatedral) ENTRE VIFS - KOHLE + STAHL (cassette by Aussaat) ADAM ASNAN - CARRIERS, PA (cassette by Mappa) BAKUNIN COMMANDO (cassette by Amok Tapes) ONTAL - SIMULACRON (cassette by Amok Tapes) THE LAST WAVE - COURCIRCUIT (cassette by cro2 Records) LOWERED - ARCHE (FOR GONGS) (CD by The Remains Of My Estate) This is the first in a series of works called 'Arche', and each will focus on a single instrument, along with some field recordings. Behind Lowered we find Chris Gowers, who we'd met in the past when he worked as Karina ESP and running the labels Evelyn Records and Trome Records. This new release is on a label called The Remains Of My Estate, but the catalogue number is 'trome006', so perhaps in some way there is a continuation? As said this is made with the tam-tam and field recordings, which I think might be best described as 'recordings of sea waves' but according to the cover is Psithurism (which according to the dictionary means 'the sound of wind in the trees and rustling of leaves'), with some singing bowls at the end (a forecast to the next instalment in fact), but it is also important to realize that all of this was recorded acoustically, with no 'artificial/digital effects or treatments being used', which is not easy to believe I would think, but so be it. It also says that 'all percussive sounds are absent, thereby removing the performance element of the piece to leave an arrangement of pure, decaying tones. The aim of the piece was to minimise the human element, both from a performance perspective as well as compositional one, and to focus on the pure resonant response of the instrument', which might all be mighty fine, but obviously the tam tam has been played, one way or another, however minimal it might have been and by adding field recordings and singing bowls towards the end, there is for sure an element of composition, I'd say. I have no idea how this was played and recorded by I must say I quite enjoyed these thirty minutes. Obviously it all sounded very drone like but ever since Thomas Köner and Mark Wastell that is perhaps the defined sound of the tam tam? It will also be sounding like the unearthly rumble, like the sound is coming from the earth core: deep and mysterious. It may be something you heard before, but the overall consistency the music was made, the execution the piece, it all worked very well, I thought. This is one excellent piece of drone music. Can't wait for the next instalments and maybe hear the complete piece by then. (FdW) ——— Address: http://tromerecords.com BAS VAN HUIZEN - WAANZINTRAAN (CD by Moving Furniture Records) Here is one of those Bas van Huizen releases with what seems to be a Dutch title, but it's again a word that doesn't exist. 'Madness tear' would be one translation, but what does it mean? Van Huizen came from Nijmegen, but since many years he lives in China and after some time of silence he returned to releasing last year on Moving Furniture Records on the occasion of CDR day (see Vital Weekly 1009). Now it comes on a real CD - just in time for recordstore day I guess, but I am not sure if Moving Furniture Records cares about that (or if they have a sale for that). Van Huizen's music is quite powerful, if we want to avoid the word 'noise'. Although nothing as such is mentioned on the cover, there is I think lots and lots of sound effects, both to be found in the analogue and digital world, which are used to process field recordings, but also it might be fed with the sound of the guitar, vocals and singing bowls, like on his last release. And all of that with quite some considerable force. Maybe it reflects some of the hectic, noisy life in China I was thinking. Yet Van Huizen never seems to loose touch with something melodic, like the ringing of an organ, the wall of guitar sound and that, like before, sounding a bit like shoegazing - less vocals and drums. But it's this musical aspect that sets his work apart from many other noisemakers, which use computers and stomp boxes. One hears the digital processing going on, yet it never looses the idea of a 'song' or 'piece'; none of this is a mindless attack on the senses, there is no noise for the sake of noise. In all it's heavy weight I was thinking it is perhaps a little long at fifty-six minutes so my suggestion to take this in with some care! (FdW) ——— Address: http://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/ TAKU SUGIMOTO - SEPTET (CD by Meenna) TETUZI AKIYAMA & MAKOTO OSHIRO & SUZUERI & ROGER TURNER - LIVE AT FTARRI (CD by Meenna) SHIBATETSU - PLASTIC PNEUMA (CD by Hitorri) Three new releases by the house of Ftarri, the respected house for improvised music from Japan and we meet Taku Sugimoto again. A long time ago he was very much present with releases of music in this rag, but moved away, maybe to compose pieces like 'Septet' and have these performed and focus less on the world of releases. 'Septet' is for seven players (duh) and has Sugimoto on electric guitar, while other players are Rebecca Lane (flute), Michael Thieke (clarinet), Johnny Chang (viola), Derek Shirley (cello), Bryan Eubanks (sine-tones) and the man I recently bumped into by sheer accident in two very different cities in a very short time, Koen Nutters (contrabass). According to the liner notes the clarinet and flute plays no melody, just one tone and Sugimoto wanted 'to have the other instruments work as if they are drawing several spectrums with the sound of the clarinet or the flute, so each of these instruments has a specific set of microtones to play'. According to Ftarri Sugimoto is now also connected to the Wandelweiser group and hearing this it is easy to see why; the music is not entirely quiet but moves very slowly, and changes only gradually over the course of these forty minutes. Sounds move in and out, make a connection with another and then disappear; then there is another connection to be made, somewhere else in time and all of these with all seven of these instruments. If one listens only superficially - never recommended of course - then it seems that these instruments play the same thing over and over again, but I can see it would evoke some Zen like meditative force here; if you decide to listen closer than you would notice the gradual shifts between the various instruments. This is a work of true majestic beauty. Slow and solemnly moving music. Ftarri also has the possibility to do concerts and 'Live At Ftarri' documents the recording of a concert held over there on February 19, 2013. Here we have a quartet of players on the shortest piece, fifteen minutes, with Roger Turner on drums, Tetuzi Akiyama on guitar, Makoto Oshiro (self-made instruments) and Suzueri (piano, toy piano, objects, voice) - the latter preferring to write the name in small caps. The CD opens up with a recording of the three Japanese players playing a set together that lasts almost forty-two minutes. Maybe a bit long for an opening act, I was thinking, but maybe there are other reasons for such a division. In the trio recording everything happens on more or less the same dynamic level, and best is to play this at a somewhat lower volume; not because it is very loud music, but because it sinks in with your environment, and one sometimes hears the more abstract tones produced by Oshiro and suzueri, while the somewhat blues like playing of Akiyama rises up from that like turning the dials on your radio. In the piece with Turner, called 'Yotarri', the sounds of the drum kit make it less easy to play this at a lower volume, I think, as it is somewhat more demanding. It's not that Turner is banging his kit in a loud manner, but in order for you to differentiate between the various instruments, not to let them melt together, I turned up the volume a bit and another world opened up; the bowing of cymbals, the drumming, the feedback like tones from Oshiro and the now abstract guitar playing by Akiyama. Quite different pieces I think, but together they work quite well. More of an oddball, perhaps, for Ftarri is the release by Shibatetsu, born in Tokyo in 1959. Since 1980 he is actively in music playing piano and keyboard harmonica player, both composing and improvising on these instruments. On 'Plastic Pneuma' it is however just the keyboard harmonica and on this album he offers thirteen pieces, short pieces at that, clocking in at somewhere between one and three minutes. Almost song like structures, but it's of course not really songs. The instrument is not really one we hear a lot on the releases we review, but it is an instrument that is well suited to play drone like sounds, as well as shorter sounds, and Shibatetsu alternates between both ends in these pieces. It makes this into quite a warm record with delicate, short, well-rounded compositions. The closest this reminded me of was music by Pascal Comelade; it shares that same naive sensibility, while this one is not even being very close to being conventional in musical approaches. Short but a highly refined release; you leap from song to song and Shibatetsu takes you on a well thought out journey through his musical world. (FdW) ——— Address: http://ftarri.com/ DANIEL BENNETT & STEPHEN CORNFORD - FELLFIELD DRAFF (CD by Hideous Replica) LUCIANO MAGGIORE - 18 RHYTHMIC STUDIES FOR A PEN, A CASSETTE CASE AND A KOREAN CASSETTE DECK (CD by Hideous Replica) One quite conceptual release and one from the realms of noise; let's start with the latter. It's a duo recording of one Daniel Bennett on electronics and software and Stephen Cornford on electronics and objects. I believe I only heard of the latter before. They recorded the three pieces (spanning thirty-three minutes) in Bristol in 2013 and 2014 and it shows a love for true noise on one hand and objects abuse on the other. Yet one cannot say this is all about pure noise, but it rather combines loud and louder bits of noise, usually in the form of a real time sound collage. Bouncing back and forth between distorted line hum, crackling of faulty cables and some obscure rustling of objects in the background. In 'Draff', the last and longest pieces on this release, they cut back on the more extreme frequencies and it opens up a more interesting pattern of moving and changing lines of noises, electronics, buzzing and hissing, always on the move towards the next stage. Quite dark and very intense, this piece works rather well, and takes up half the length of the entire release. As far as I am concerned I would have loved a bit more of this, than of the two other pieces, which seems by comparison straightforward slabs of noise. Maybe that's the way this duo should go next time? Luciano Maggiore, of whom we reviewed various works in the past (see Vital Weekly 959, 921 or his works with Enrico Malatesta, see Vital Weekly 941 and 947), follows a more conceptual approach. In much of his solo work he shows an interest in using speakers and analogue and digital devices, such as Walkman, CD players, tape recordings) and you probably have guessed by looking at the title of his latest release what it is about. Here we have a man who plays a pen, a cassette case and a Korean cassette deck, I presume the latter to do his recordings. I am not sure if the pen is used to play steady rhythms onto the case, but that's what this sounds like. It could also be that the pen is held against the case in the machine and there is some additional line noise from the player, which makes up this hissy drone background sounds. We get this times eighteen, from one minute to five minutes, in total forty-nine minutes. For a while I thought some of this was quite captivating, but forty-nine minutes was too much. Especially the longer pieces I found a bit hard to get into. I get the point of this! Whatever happened to 3"CDs, I wondered. Those were perfect for such conceptual meandering. (FdW) ——— Address: http://hideousreplica.co.uk/ STRØM - X (CD by Mikroton) NORBERT MÖSLANG & ILIA BELORUKOV & KURT LIEDWART - SALE_INTERIORA (CD by Mikroton) KURT LIEDWART & PHIL RAYMOND - RIM (CD by Mikroton) The word 'Strøm' means electricity and for Gaudenz Bradutt (electronics, analog synthesizer) and Christian Müller (electronics, contrabass clarinet), that may cover what they do, well, save, perhaps, the contrabass clarinet of course, which may not need electrical power. They already worked together as Strøm for fifteen years and they have played all over Europe and two of their previous releases where reviewed before (see Vital Weekly 682 and 836). I thought both previous release to be all right, but I found it on the safe side of improvised music. This new work, recorded in 2014 and 2015 shows Strøm in a less safe place, which works all the better for the end result I think. There is throughout quite an electronic feel to the music, much more than before, and it hisses and stutters all over the place. Maybe one could say there is a noise edge to the music, but that is over doing things. The music is certainly forceful and vibrant, with quite some intensity in the dynamic range. Maybe this has something to do with the origin of the material. I understand one of these pieces is the original and the other six are 'reworkings' of that, using extensively live sampling; maybe that explains the somewhat hit 'n scratch approach some of these piece have and that works quite well. It's a dynamic work of improvised musique concrete approaches, and so far their best album. The other new releases (more of this label next week) include label boss Kurt Liedwart, who plays analog synthesizer, electronics, ppooll (a software thingy) and the first collaboration is one with Norbert Möslang on cracked everyday-electronics and Ilia Belorkuov on alto saxophone, electronics and laptop and it is due to his involvement at the Experimental Sound Gallery in St. Petersburg where this was recorded. Möslang is of course the main point of focus, having a long career in playing cracked everyday-electronics, which is to be understood as 'modifying and recontextualising the use of home electronics'. He had a duo for thirty years with Andy Guhl called Voice Crack and since 2002 he plays solo and with others. His Russian partners are quite well known players from the world of improvised music and their releases find their way to these pages a lot. 'Sale_interiora' is the result of some four hours of playing together, preparing for the concert and is this trio at their best. Whereas Belorukov and Liedwart are sometimes on the quiet side when it comes to improvisation, it is Möslang who drags them into the world of noise, or so it seems. Of course this is not all a furious blast; in the second piece 'Nero' there is quite some room for a more careful exploration of everyday debris, but through these thirty-four minutes it all appears with some brutal force and has a crude edge; it works however very well. It bounces off in many directions and all roads go anywhere, but the fine interaction between these three players prevents it from being messy. On the other new release, Liedwart gets credit for playing lloopp, electronics and percussion and he teams up with one Phil Raymond. He plays computer and percussion and together they released 'Absence' in 2008 as a download and 'Rim' is their second album. Somehow, somewhere they use a fair bit of percussion sounds in this music, heavily processed, the information tells us, but also adding more percussion, sine waves and quiet noises as the music progresses. While many of the releases by Mikroton are in the realm of improvised music in one way or another, this one seems to be made within that too but it doesn't sound like it. Or at least not to the same extent. In each of these five pieces there is some deep rumble to be heard, of various bass tones colliding together in all sorts of forms and shapes and on top of that there is some highly obscure rattle of a solitary object. More dark ambient, I would think, than strictly some kind of beep/scratch improvised music release. I thought all of this was highly enjoyable. Not because it was so much different than other works in this particular scene, but because it was quite a lone wolf in the Mikroton catalogue. (FdW) ——— Address: http://www.mikroton.net CIRCLE BROS - RUST (LP by Three:four Records) Five years it took Willem Lecluyse to finish this album and whilst most previous Circle Bros work was released by his own label - Morc - this time it's the people of Swiss experimental music label Three:four Records who have decided to dedicate a spot in their catalogue to the Bros. The title it seems does not refer to the result of the process of oxidation; it rather pertains to the Dutch word 'rust', which translates to 'rest'. And indeed the record starts out very quietly: there are harmonium drones, ambient guitar riffs and soft, almost muttered vocals. Most sounds seem to have an acoustic origin, which together with the ostensibly lo-fi recording methods makes the listening experience a very intimate one. Halfway through the first side the music becomes slightly more dynamic and holds a more open character. However, since many of the instruments seem to be drenched in a thick layer of delay, the timbric changes have a mere rippling effect on the surface and after a while the sting furtively seeps away again underneath a warm stargazing guitar drone. All in all much of it rather befits the background of a dreary, rainy evening, dimly lit by the outside city lights. The second half instantly jumps into a more dynamic track of a dissonant and more experimental nature, though the added glockenspiel takes the edge off somewhat and gives "Breadcrumbs" that eerie-nursery atmosphere, for which bands like Múm are famous. After a while the abundant presence of delay made me cringe a bit, especially since it renders some other rhythmic sounds slightly out of sync. It might be an intentional wonkiness that comes with the Circle Bros sound, but the fact that at times a lot of the mix seems to be routed through the delay unit, made it a little obtrusive to my ears. What is wrong with delay as such, you ask? Personally I think it obscures the actual sounds by superimposing a more dominant musical experience of rhythm. I feel slightly tricked each time, since basically any sound that is fed through a delay unit appeals to our musical sense - moreover seems to make 'musical sense'. Of course it can contribute much if (poly)rhythmically used, but I can't shake the idea that it sometimes just sounds like an 'easy' way to create a sense of impetus without too much effort. This is not to say I believe Lecluyse to be a lazy composer - far from it. It is crystal clear that the record was carefully composed and within his style the delay unit definitely serves a creative purpose. Perhaps it is just the downside of having to work with devices like these on a daily basis that renders one more testy.. or even slightly blasé. Anyway, if I had to pin a reference on the overall sound of the album - which is quite a cumber- some task, but perhaps necessary since there is much electro-acoustic ambient out there - I'd say that parts of it reminded me of Drekka, whilst other bits sounded a bit like Grouper, but clearly more embellished with regard to the instrumentation. As stated I could have done with less delay, but it's a fine, dreamy and understated album nonetheless. (PJN) ——— Address: http://www.three-four.net/ DEEPFISHK - OFFSHORE ZONE (LP by Chmafu Nocords) The letter 'K' in DeapseafishK (as it should be spelled) stands for keys and it refers to the fact that all three players use instruments with keys; we have Juun (pianoguts, hammered dulcimer, toy piano), Katharina Klement (piano, clavichord, zither, synthersizer, electronics) and Manon Liu Winter (piano, clavichord). From a video of a concert I understand these instruments are flat on their back and played like percussion instruments, but due to the various surfaces of these instruments (metal, wood, strings) there arises an interesting vast majority of possibilities. It's not easy to say if we should DeepseafishK as a group of improvisers or perhaps as performers of fixed compositions. A piece like 'Luminous' sounds like a fixed composition, sounding like being aboard of a sinking ship. It has repeating fragments making this into a solid composed and rather beautiful piece of music. Other piece sound perhaps a bit more improvised. Throughout the music sounds carefully played, which maybe the downside of the album. One could wish for some heavy explosion of sound, something that bursts out every now and then, but with these three players that doesn't seem to happen, maybe save towards the end of the record, but even then it remains highly civilized. I think this is quite a good record, with a fine balance when it comes to improvised and composed music, but it's also a bit too careful at times. (FdW) ——— Address: http://nocords.net/ MOSQUITOES (7", private) This is a highly limited 7" by Mosquitoes, who call themselves an 'experimental rock trio from South- east England', to be played at 45 rpm, and which gives such a brief introduction not a very clear idea of what they do, I would think. There are three pieces here, and the guitar is noisy and different than y'r usual rock guitar, while the drums are bit jazz like. The bass is also not working coherently towards a line that underpins the songs, which is great. It is music that I don't hear a lot these days, and it reminded me at best of the music of P.D., the group that later became P16.D4; they share the same sensibility when it comes to deconstructing rock and (free-) jazz and even the mumbling voice of 'Keep Breathing' is quite similar. All three songs are rounded off and don't sound like excerpts from something much bigger. It lasts less than nine minutes, but it sounds great. Very lo-fi with a direct in y'r face approach when it comes to recording and production, but for me that enhances much of the fun. I'd be curious to see where they would move next; or there is no next move and maybe Mosquitoes sink in total obscurity and this is a pre-programmed collectors item. (FdW) ——— Address: <mosquitoesuk@gmail.com> UNFOLLOW - ALL MY RIFLES (7" by Lathelight) GRETEL - LIGHTS/TEMPLE/LOOP #B (7" by Lathelight) GORLEN - TAPE DEATH #10 (cassette by Lathelight) Three new releases by Lathelight, C. Jeely's most recent foray into label land, and pressing up mostly limited lathe cut 7" singles and cassettes. Perhaps it is a bit of a surprise to see music from Unfollow released. This is the musical project by Tony Boggs, who once named himself Joshua Treble, and who was one half of Desormais and as Unfollow released a cassette by Kikimora Tapes (see Vital Weekly 1005), which showed an interest for the more experimental version of techno music. I wondered how that would sound on a lathe cut 7", but the two pieces here don't use as much rhythm as his previous release and is more about the computer-processed sound of decay. A warm, glitchy atmosphere is put forward on this release and in the title piece there is a bit of rhythm to be noted, but pushed towards the background with some grainy textures running along. With some imagination one could say this is a bit of ambient dance, but 'Lost In It' on the other side is all of decay and grainy textures and heavy laptop processing, and sounds like a release from Ritornell release circa 2001. Not entirely new, but it sounds quite good. Perfect 7" songs! The other 7" is by GreteL (as spelling is required), the musical project of Katerina And from St. Petersburg. I have no idea what she uses sound wise, but no doubt there is a laptop stage central and a microphone; I believe to hear some humming in 'Light's, the piece that fills up the first side of this record. She creates a minimal sound pattern, built around some out of phase loops, but it remains a bit on the static side for my liking. The other side has two pieces, of which 'Temple' also uses a bit of vocal humming, but there is also some more rhythm to this piece, as well as the buzz of a synthesizer. Not really dance music, but over the course of two and half minute there is also a bit more variation than on the other side. 'Loop #B' is the other song and is basically a bunch of loops at the same time, but due to the variation of the sounds there is actually a bit more happening. I am not entirely convinced by this yet, I must say. I would need to hear from her. On cassette we find Gorlen; actually the website says 'tape and 7", and lists fourteen pieces for both formats in total, but the cassette I have here apparently also contains fourteen pieces, and there is no sign of the 7". Never mind, it's good to have them all in one place perhaps. There is no information as to who Gorlen is exactly or what he or she does. The pieces were rather short here, usually somewhere between one and two minutes with some longer exceptions. Here we have the microsound version of the laptop music. It seems that the primary instrument of Gorlen is an old cassette player, with some very dusty mechanisms and dirt covered recording heads on which a bunch of piano music is recorded. It all sounds mildly distorted which of course is fine, but it could have used a bit more variation music wise in the end, I think. Now many of the pieces sound quite similar, which is a pity, unless that's the conceptual notion behind this. Even for the thirty plus minutes this lasts it is all a bit much. (FdW) ——— Address: http://lathelight.org/releases/ GERALD FIEBIG & EMERGE VS NYM - CONDENSED ENDEAVOUR (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) GERALD FIEBIG & EMERGE - COMPOUND (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) EMERGE & SINTARI MIMITHE - KAGOME (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) RE-DRUM & EMERGE - PERSECUTORY DELUSION (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) RE-DRUM & EMERGE (cassette by Attenuation Circuit) SINDRE BJERGA - DREAM INTERRUPTION (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) Here's a whole bunch of releases, all but one dealing with the music of Sascha Stadlmeier, also known as mister Attenuation Circuit (sharing duties with Gerald Fiebig) and working as Emerge. I am not sure what prompted this sudden flood of releases. I dived in starting with the release by Emerge, Fiebig and the mysterious named Nym. At the genesis of this lies a live recording by Fiebig and Emerge made in a club named Cairo, in Würzburg (Germany), which was then further treated by Nym (or NYM as the cover and information spells this), and it's of course not easy to say what Nym does to what kind of original. Make more drones out of drones is perhaps the best thing I could think of. Adding sound effects or some kind of computer treatment, filtering out most of the mid to high ranges out of the original (I assume at least) and the dark rumble of plate tectonics is what remains here. I thought it was quite good, but maybe a bit too heavy for me in all its darkness. The other recording by Fiebig and Emerge is also live and there is no treatment, so we have a clearer picture of what it sounds like. Opening up for Nocturnal Emissions, the duo decided to add some metallic sounds via loops in their work and have something a bit more industrial. I must admit I don't hear this industrial angle in the music that much. It seems to be fitting whatever it is that Fiebig and Emerge normally do, which is creating drone like material using electro- acoustic sounds in a more improvised manner. There is the rustling of objects onto the surfaces, which are in turn being looped and fed through sound effects to create even longer curves and that constitutes as drone music. Within these thirty minutes the two men move through various textures, loud and dark, quiet and subdued and it works better, at least for me then the one with Nym. Also a live recording by Emerge, this time with female vocalist of whom I never heard before, Sintari Mimithe, which sounds Japanese, but the information says 'improvised lyrics in imaginary Japanese', so maybe she's not Japanese? Emerge this time samples the voice and creates vast expanding sounds from that, moving away from some of his more Asmus Tietchens inspired material and moves into the world of glacial drones, while Mimithe adds whispering vocal material to the mix; one could expect something very quiet and eerie, but it is actually not really the case here. The music is quite most of the times, sometimes even at the fringe of distortion but the vocal interjections keeps it from leaping into noise land too much. This I thought was quite a closed recording nevertheless, which didn't allow for much light. Re-Drum from Russia is one of Emerge's steady touring buddies and sometimes (or maybe most of the times) they also end up playing together, such as on this recording from two years ago. It was recorded in a concert series called 'Noise Angriff', which translates best as 'noise attack', so the result is also a bit louder than one would expect. Using lots of electronics, loop devices, sound effects (delay, reverb), and the two create a rich palette of sounds and it stays never anywhere long, giving the music quite some vibrancy. There isn't much noise to be found on this work, but I found it all rather spacious and slowly meandering about, with occasional small sounds popping up in the mix. Head trip music! How they sound separately can be found on a cassette, maybe because that format is well suited for a split release. It was recorded in concert in 2015 when they toured Europe and Re- Drum has a forty-three minute recording from Augsburg that is quite strange. It doesn't have the usual playfulness of sounds, but slowly develops into one point and then seems to stay there for quite some time. It seems, but I readily admit I am no expert on all of the music by Re-Drum, that this is a bit noisier than his usual approach. The recording quality left also room for improvement. On the other side a recording from Warsaw by Emerge who this time around is also a bit noisier than he usually is, I think (and from him I heard quite a bit by now). He plays around with some versatile sound material and does that in a way that is very much like musique concrete. A bit of reverb to add some more body to the material, lots of reversed sounds popping in and out of the mix and Emerge keeps consistently working with that for the entire thirty-three minutes, which I admit is perhaps ten minutes too long, but it belongs easily to his better works. The only release not to include Emerge is by Norway's Sindre Bjerga, of whom I recently witnessed 8 concerts in a row, each with slight variations; it was almost as if he performs a fixed composition every night. This recording was made last year when he toured the Baltic States and upon playing 'Dream Interruption' I am thinking this is another execution of the same piece. Bjerga uses a microphone, some cassette recordings, Dictaphones, small cymbals and a metal object with spring to come up with something that sounds like an outsider piece; something that is covered in the world dreams (as suggested by the title) but could easily be having a place in mental illness or some kind of disturbed life. Things can go wrong here, objects are trashed around, but carefully placed acoustic sounds play an important role. Towards the end Bjerga cooks up a drone, a rather violent one actually, of disturbed transmissions from the other side. Very consistent in it's execution, every time with another variation. (FdW) ——— Address: http://www.attenuationcircuit.de LEO DUPLEIX - TWO COMPOSITIONS FOR MIXED SOURCES (2CDR by Albertine Records) Two compositions by one Leo Dupleix, born in 1988, graduated in Brussels, now living in Paris. He is an electronic music, but also plays the piano, and working in the field of improvised music. To that end he uses computer, contact microphones, speakers, electronic devices, pianet, synthesizers, field recordings and such like. These two compositions could have easily fitted on a single disc, but they are two different compositions, so Dupleix decided to copy them on separate discs on his own, recently founded imprint Albertine Records. In 'Bruit(s)' (meaning 'noises') he uses field recordings, white noises and sine waves - some of the latter in a very high frequency range, which was better noticed by the 16 year old in the household than the actual reviewer. If you are born in 1988 you might also still hear these frequencies. In this thirty-two minute piece he sets all the sounds after one another, using the collage form; it cuts quite radically back and forth between some highly crude sine waves sounds, distorted sine waves but also more gentler field recordings. It doesn't always have the same tension but it worked throughout quite all right. 'Process #1: Changes' he uses an 'open hard drive and fan and digital processing' and it lasts thirty minutes but is spread out over five separate pieces (unlike the other composition) and each is his own thing. What could be some crude form of noise actually works out quite well, in various stages of decay, as that's what it sounds like. Minimal in approach, away from the collage approach, this is the kind of intelligent noise that reminds me of someone like Francisco Meirino; powerful yet not without some clear thought and not aiming for the sheer mind numbing noise. (FdW) ——— Address: <leodupleix@gmail.com> SOCRATES MARTINIS - UNDER THE ARCHES OF HER VOICE (CDR by Organized Music From Thessaloniki) ENRIQUE R. PALMA - CONTENANCE (3"CDR by Organized Music From Thessaloniki) Music by Socrates Martinis from Athens, Greece has been reviewed before, by various reviewers, meaning some of his work can be regarded as noise (see Vital Weekly 850, 921 and 949) and maybe it says something about the ever shifting perception of noise that I now review this, perhaps because of some rekindled interest in noise. Maybe there is an electro-acoustic edge to the music that made me listen and listen again here. 'Under The Arches Of Her Voice' is not a very long release, twenty-six minutes, and has six pieces, which were constructed using found sounds, objects and field recordings. Some of these sounds like it have been recorded on a street, using a handheld recording device and sounds coming from small speakers, while someone is shuffling about. These outside positions are well chosen as it seems that he sometimes finds himself below some buzzing sound, like a security camera; of course this might not at all be true, I am merely guessing at all of this. It seems possible, that's all I am saying. It makes these pieces very good; very vibrant and full of action, even when not necessarily something is happening, or there is a lot of things going on. It is a pity that this is all a bit short, length wise, but it is a great release! The other new release by the same label is by a Mexican musician called Enrique R. Palma, all the way from Yucatan and over there he is part of the 'noise, metal and improvised music communities'. Palma plays his music solo and in a duo called Xtul. He also has his own label called Lengua de Lava. Here he has a solo piece for 'computer, bowed cymbal and concertina', but there is also help from Javier Beci on melodica. I found the whole thing to be sounding quite improvised, with a lot of sounds coming from the bowed cymbal, so it's a bit unclear what the computer and concertina do. There is, very occasionally, something of an electronic nature to be detected in this, and maybe that counts for the computer involvement? I am not sure. In the beginning of the piece there is clearly quite some computer originated sounds to be detected, but everything is cross faded into each other, forming one twenty-minute piece of overtones, acoustic room recordings of the cymbal and while it didn't sound too bad, I was thinking that I also didn't entirely understand the idea behind these separate pieces creating one long piece together. It seemed to lack a bit of coherency; it was more a calling card: see what I do. What Palma does he does pretty well, but now its time to do a composition with it. (FdW) ——— Address: http://thesorg.noise-below.org LE CABLE DE FEU - FIREWIRE (cassette by Tanuki Records) The name of the band translates as 'Firewire', which is also the name of the release. Lots of the text in the booklet is in the French language, which doesn't help. Google translate makes this into the usual garbage, so I understand that this is a trio of Olivier Meyer, Laurent Berger and Aymeric De Tapol, who recorded somewhere in the Elzas, in a cabin. A piece of land, which was very quiet, but the music is not necessarily as quiet. There are no instruments mentioned here, but I could easily believe there is a whole bunch of synthesizers available, modular systems perhaps, electronics, an organ of some kind, but also field recordings and maybe a guitar, but I must admit I am not sure. Le Cable De Feu plays what we could call drone music, especially in the longer pieces on this release, the opening and closing piece and 'Mantra Express'. Their drones are quite gentle and have a refined, rich sound, full of light and variation; in some of the shorter pieces they are experimenting with some more field recordings and the use of sound collage, which due to the brief character of these pieces form an interesting counterpoint to the longer pieces. The one piece that I felt was out of place, was 'Post Scriptum' with it's heavy drumming, which none of the other pieces had. Maybe here too was the idea to provide with something different but it just didn't work for me. Otherwise I thought this was a really great release with some excellent subdued music. (FdW) ——— Address: http://tanukirecords.bandcamp.com KALI MALONE - TRAGIC CHORUS (cassette by Xkatedral) MARIA W HORN/INSECT ARK - MAGNETA/LONG ARMS (cassette by Xkatedral) XKATEDRAL VOLUME (cassette compilation by Xkatedral) Three releases by Swedish Xkatedral label all filled up with names I never heard of. The aesthetics of the label is rather 80s like, with hand printed/Xeroxed artwork. The first release I heard was by Kali Malone, who plays electric guitar and 'generative organ', whatever that may mean, and it sounds great. The slow swelling of tones, locked in an environment of drones, with intervals overlaying each other at what seems to be irregular paces. Sometimes it sounds like bagpipes, but then slightly processed. While I was doing other stuff for quite some time this afternoon, and this on repeat play for quite some time, these twenty minutes (which actually never sounded like two pieces of ten minutes each. It seems longer. But maybe that's a mistake on the information) really stuck in my brain and the more I played the more I liked it. Some excellent rougher edges of the world of drone music here. The next release is a split one by Maria W Horn and Insect Ark, whose piece originally released in 2013 by Geweih Ritual Documents. Horn may have three pieces, judging by the cover, but it's not easy to say what is what, which is odd since Kali Malone plays songs in some way or another. These are moody pieces, or even doomy to some extent, with some hollow sounding drums and lots of the lower end of the keyboards and you would expect some dark voice intoning something about death and decay or other such pleasantries, but that's not present here. I am not sure if just some dark drum sound and ditto keyboards are enough to hold my interest. On the other side we find Insect Ark, with just one long fifteen-minute piece of music. Here everything is also doom and gloom, drums in place but instead of keyboards there is an extensive use of guitar sounds. They drone heavily about with long sustaining sounds in the first half, and in the second half of the piece it's all about more conventional dark rock music. Not bad, but not entirely my thing. The final release is a compilation with five artists, including Kali Malone, which is described as 'a compilation of spectral monoliths for baroque organ, disklavier, string trio and hand crafted gamelan instruments by Ellen Arkbro, Isak Edberg, Marta Forsberg, Kali Malone and Kristoffer Svensson'. Each has piece on this tape and I am not sure how to understand that whole list of instruments, other than each of these musicians use something from that. Listening to the music clarifies that; it is indeed a description per piece. The drone piece that opens up the cassette is by Edberg and is simply great. It puts the mark high for the rest, but it all lives up to it. There is some excellent music on this, all of which sounds perhaps way more modern classical than one would expect on a low budget cassette release. Much of this is from the world of electronics, drone and ambient, but none of this sound hastily made or with rather low means. I think it would be a great idea to re-issue this on a CD(R) and use the much better sound quality to make the music shine even more. An excellent release! (FdW) ——— Address: http://www.xkatedral.se ENTRE VIFS - KOHLE + STAHL (cassette by Aussaat) In the week where the Dutch people vote on some treaty with the Ukraine (or as some put it about the whole nature of European collaboration between nations), I am listening to 'Kohle & Stahl' by Entre Vifs. The European Coal and Steel Community was a forerunner of the European Union, the starting point for this whole EU thing, to work together with six nations, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Italy and Germany, so that a future war between countries would not happen. I understand this release is about the Lorraine, a part of France that was "heavily affected and effectively rendered powerless by the crisis of the steel-industry of the 1980s and 90s". I also understand that Zorin, the main man from Entre Vifs (also of Le Syndicat), is from this area and his industrial music fits very much the idea of standing right in the middle of an ironworks. As a student I once paid a visit to such a factory, albeit in Liege, with a friend who was also interested in 'industrial' music and we both agreed that sticking up a microphone right there would result in a much better industrial music than we'd usually hear. We didn't do. The music of old-timers Entre Vifs was in the old days a bit of mystery to me, and for some time I assumed they just used synthesizers and short wave radio, but apparently also in the old days they built their own 'muckrackers', apparatus with plugs and metal, wires and such like which are amplified to a volume tres fort, but also as a tribute to the band of the same name, who come from this area and to whom this release is dedicated. These are played in an improvised way and it doesn't sound like a full blast of distortion but rather like a fine mixture of loud noise, improvised plucking and scratching and in 'Le Coeur Machine' it goes straight into the heart of the machine, but the two pieces on the other side show more dynamics, ranging from loud to well, a little less loud than this. It all makes up a good ol' fashioned noise cassette, and the only major difference is that the printed cover looks much better than in the old days - with probably one of the exceptions being Entre Vifs first casette, but maybe that's because Aussaat is the successor to the label Cthulhu Records, who already had a great reputation in that department and who happened to release that first cassette? (FdW) ——— Address: <ernten@aol.com> ADAM ASNAN - CARRIERS, PA (cassette by Mappa) Besides being one-third of the trio VA AA LR (with Vasco Alves and Louis Rice), Adam Asnan is active composing music on his own, dividing his time between London and Berlin. Much of his solo work is quite minimal and noise-based, but it never goes over the top. Trained as a composer of electro-acoustic work, he is more interested in the recording situation than in the result of that. On his new cassette we find a collection of pieces using two different techniques. There are three pieces called 'Carrier', in which two ring modulators are connected through their 'carrier' outputs, controlled by the potentiometer (and since everyone, but me, plays a modular synth these days, everybody has an idea what I just wrote), while the three parts of 'PA' (meaning 'phantom artefacts) uses "a technique of sending phantom power to a device that also offered phantom power (which was powering a stereo pair of mics) and the subsequent 'electro-static' sounds that it would produced, and various recordings of amplified hum and detritus." Each piece is about seven to nine minutes and contains quite radical sound and it's usually quite minimal. We hear what seems to be static electrical currents, line hum and what sounds like sine waves beating and bashing into each other; it is music that is quite loud but the goal is not to play a heavy noise tune. The pieces are 'Carrier I', 'PA I', 'Carrier II' etc, and they have a distinct quality to them, so it doesn't sound like six variations on a theme. There is the more static approach of the three 'Carrier' pieces, loudly humming, and the varied crackles from the 'PA' pieces. There is somehow, somewhere a 'live' feel to the material, I think, making this all a little less composed. This is noise too, but one with some fine thought to it. Great silkscreened cassette box to make it a great release. (FdW) ——— Address: http://mappa.bandcamp.com/ BAKUNIN COMMANDO (cassette by Amok Tapes) ONTAL - SIMULACRON (cassette by Amok Tapes) From the house that primarily brings electronic hardware, Koma Elektronik, for all your lovely voltage controlled boxes, sequencers and whatever else there is now also a cassette label, which they cleverly called Amok Tapes. Amok, Koma, you get the drift. There are now four releases, all housed in a plastic bag, sealed and such, and so far these releases show a love for some of the more heavy rhythm-oriented music. I started with Bakunin Commando mainly because when I was fifteen I called myself an anarchist, so I have an idea who Bakunin was. Anarchy might not be the guiding principle of Francesco Baudazzi, who also works as Violet Poison, but under his new moniker plays what he calls “1984-alike weird minimal/EBM tapes” and "those squatter- alike 1980’s obscure home-tapes’s filth", so hence a bit of anarchism I thought. There are some vocals but I don't think it is supposed to mean a lot. The music is not exactly aiming straight to the disco floor, as it seems somewhat rudimentary and crude, or perhaps one could say some of the beats and/or beats are too loosely organised, but I agree, this would as easily sound like something from 1985. Most enjoyable if you are in for a retro adventure. Ontal is a duo of Boris Brenecki and Darko Kolar from Serbia and their beats are also quite dark. They started out in November 2011 and unlike Bakunin Commando their beats are straight forward and without compromise. This is the kind of music that is both influenced by techno and industrial music in equal portions. Now here I can easily imagine that this blasts at full volume in a dark basement, entirely concrete surrounding; the garage below an apartment building, a huge sound system and then these two playing their unrelentness beat music. Both cassettes aren't very long, but I would think that twenty to thirty minutes this is also long enough. I was however pondering over the question: which DJ has these days a cassette player on his technical rider? (FdW) ——— Address: http://amoktapes.bandcamp.com THE LAST WAVE - COURCIRCUIT (cassette by cro2 Records) Oh yeah, and we also received this. All the information is in French, and someone wrote on it, 'In French', thinking maybe I wouldn't recognize this language. I am never bored to repeat myself, so here we go again: if you aim to promote something outside your own country, it is wise to add information that is most likely to be understood by the recipient, and if you are not sure what the recipient's language, best use English, even when at one point in history quite a few people mastered your own language (and of course I receive sturdy spanking for writing all of this). But no doubt that is all spoiled words, as who knows, this review may never reach the sender (and not because of a language barrier), because this is another case of mistaken identity. The sender, crO2 Records from Switzerland, may have no clue as to what Vital Weekly reviews, as these eight mediocre rock/blues pieces are way outside what we write about (well, maybe they are the works of a genius, but we wouldn't know, we honestly admit this music is not on our turf). We simply are clueless about this. We mention this so you know it's out there and there is a link for you to check. One purpose of sending out a review, getting acknowledgement of your existence worked. Let's move on. 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