ABSENT MUSIC – CHEZ RENEE (CD/DVD by EE Tapes) *
LORENZO MASOTTO – AEOLIAN PROCESSES (CD by Dronarivm) *
THE OCTOPUS – SUBZO[O]NE (CD by Leo Records)
JUXTAVOICES – WARNING: MAY CONTAIN NOTES (CD/DVD by Discus Music)
ORPHAX – 2.20 (CD by Moving Furniture Records) *
SO LONG FAREWELL REPAIR – LIVE AT THE GLAD CAFE (CD by Iorram Records)
1982 – CHROMOLA (CD by Hubro Music)
P.O.P. [PSYCHOLOGY OF PERCEPTION] – IKEBANA (CD by FMR Records)
KILT – ELECTROACOUSTIC IMPROVISATIONS (CD by Earshots)
MUSLIMGAUZE – PORT SAID/REPORT SAID (2CD by Aquarellist) *
MENSIMONIS – CLONE FEVER (CD by Opa Loka Records) *
DRØNE – A PERFECT BLIND (LP by Pomperipossa Records)
YANN LEGUAY – HEADCRASH (LP by Vlek)
JONAS OLESEN &RUBE SØCHTING – FELT (LP by Bin)
16:9 – ECHOLOCATION (CDR by Coriolis Sounds) *
JAMES S. TAYLOR & CEDRICK EYMENIER – FALLEN OF THE BACK OF A LORRY (2CDR by
Coriolis Sounds) *
MATTHEW ATKINS – FIFTY THREE LOOPS (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation) *
TATSURO KOJIMA – A->B (CDR by Eilean Records) *
SOUND MECCANO/JURA LAIVA – SALTY WIND AND INNER FIRE (CDR by Eilean Records) *
A.F. JONES – FOUR DOT THREE TO ONE (CDR by Kendra Seiner Editions) *
MORE EAZE – WORK (CDR by Kendra Seiner Editions) *
KSE 11TH ANNIVERSARY ALBUM (CDR compilation by Kendra Seiner Editions)
GRZEGORZ BOJANEK – STORIES OF AN OLD MAN (CDR, private) *
ABSENT MUSIC – CHEZ RENEE (CD/DVD by EE Tapes)
With their many releases from Insane Music related bands you would easily forget that EE Tapes do
release other musicians as well, usually a bit older ones and quite often some historical re-issue.
Such as this one, collaboration between a musician named Jan van den Broek, who worked as
Absent Music, and performance artist Renee Lodewijckx. ‘Chez Renee’ is subtitled ‘I and erotica’
and was an art project premiered 19th of March 1988 that involved drawings, paintings, video,
performance and music; the latter was released on cassette in 1988 in an edition of 100 copies
and apparently a sought after item these days. I missed out on it back then. EE Tapes has released
some more by Absent Music (Vital Weekly 832), but I wasn’t blown away by it. I must admit that
feeling lingers on here. Absent Music, which Van Den Broek on keyboards, samples, drum
programming, acoustic guitar and vocals plus a bunch of other players on vocals, saxophone and
electric guitar, but the sound of Absent Music is very smooth; probably the best new digital
keyboards of the time playing smooth music, clean cut and without a dirty edge. Like I wrote
before, some of this reminds me of ORDUC, but then the weaker brother. There is one piece on CD
(and subsequently DVD) of twenty-three minutes, which goes along with the video. There are six
different parts to this, flowing right into each other and on screen we see Lodewijckx doing her
make-up and then posing in various ways, nude, but covered with some paint. I must admit I am
lost when it comes to performance art (of which this is a registration I assume), and also the
erotic aspect is something I don’t see immediately. It was all interesting to watch and certainly
the music made more sense hearing it along the video than as a stand-alone soundtrack, but it
didn’t win me over as a convert to the music of Absent Music. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.eetapes.be
LORENZO MASOTTO – AEOLIAN PROCESSES (CD by Dronarivm)
Italy’s Masotto’s graduated from the Conservatorio di Verona, playing the piano and later studied
composition and jazz. He’s a member of Le Maschere di Clara, a prog/post rock band, directs a
male voice choir, and composes music for film and theatre. Alfa Music and Preserved Sound
released his previous albums, respectively in 2015 and 2016. He says that never thought of
writing in one music style, as he “loves all music”, which is good to hear. I never heard any of his
music before, in any style, and I must admit his album is not really my cup of tea, even when it
seems to be tapping into the right channels for me. Dronarivm is a label that releases quite a bit
of ambient music and Masotto’s work can surely be placed on the long line of ambient music that
starts somewhere with ‘industrial’ and 180 degrees opposite we find ‘new age’. Masotto’s music
deals mainly with the use of piano, and a bit of electronics, and veers very much towards the new
age end of the line. It is melodic, reminding me from time to time of Wim Mertens (here in ‘When
The City Sleeps’ and the title piece for instance), of Harold Budd and Brian Eno, of Roedelius and
all of that, but somehow I also found this quite kitschy and filled with new age cliché’s. If the cover
would not be as dark as it is now, I would not be surprised that this could be picked by any new
age label (like I would know many of those). Masotto surely know how to play the piano and the
recording and production is all very well made, but the sugar-coated music is just a bit too much
for me. (FdW)
––– Address: http://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/
THE OCTOPUS – SUBZO[O]NE (CD by Leo Records)
Imagine four cellists on stage, playing their instruments and the image of an octopus may come
to your mind. This happened by the musicians involved here, who chose it as the name for their
collaboration. A quartet of four cellists from Paris, Cologne and Berlin: Hugues Vincent, Nora
Krahl, Elisabeth Coudoux and Nathan Bontrager. They first played in March 2013 in Cologne. They
had a match, and so things started. In September 2015 they made recordings in Dortmund that
are now released by Leo Records. It has been long time ago since I had a new release by Leo
Records in my hands. This legendary jazz label, founded and run by Leo Feigin in 1969, built up
an immense catalogue over the years. In the early years the label concentrated on introducing jazz
from the Soviet-union to the west. But that is history now.
Returning to The Octopus, we enjoy here four very experienced and skilled players of
improvised music, and classical and contemporary repertoire. The CD consists of fourteen free
improvised pieces of a dazzling quality. Because we are talking of four cellos, I was afraid the music
would offer too little contrasts for my tastes. But this is absolutely not the case. The four create
very different improvisations with much variety in timbre, sound and energy, etc. In each piece
they demonstrate some well-aimed and accurate interactions, without using an overload of
extended techniques. Leading up to fascinating results of a refined musicality. This is truly
vibrating, passionate music by four musicians who are in a very good contact with each
other. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.leorecords.com/
JUXTAVOICES – WARNING: MAY CONTAIN NOTES (CD/DVD by Discus Music)
Martin Archer gave me a hard time with his previous release ‘Story Tellers’, a double CD with
music that I found difficult to appreciate. Now again a double release is at the table, albeit of a
very different nature. This time it concerns music for choir. I don’t listen much to choir music
and I certainly don’t have any idea of the modern repertoire, developments etc. I have good
memories however to the release of Matja Ratkje’s ‘Crepuscular Hour‘(2016), a work for chamber
choir and instrumentalists. So let’s see what I can make of this release by Juxtavoices.
This is a large antechoir of people from the Sheffield scene of music, poetry and visual arts,
including trained and untrained voices. They debuted in 2013 on Discus Music with ‘Juxtanother
Antichoir from Sheffield’. Martin Archer is one of the members. He is also the composer of two of
the six works that are featured on the CD. Like the intriguing opening track ‘Ascent’ where the
music progresses exactly as the title says. It is as if one climbs higher and higher during the piece.
The choir produces a mixture of singing and exalting screaming. This is also the case for most
other compositions that are performed here, often in the company of a few instrumentalists;
theatrical music, full of drama and intensity. Most outspoken is the cacophonic ‘To You and Me
Krakatoa’ for choir and two saxophones, that I also enjoyed for its spatial sound. Four
compositions are also featured on the DVD. The compositions are now supplemented with nice
art videos, all produced by Bo Meson, a poet, etc. and part of the same collective. The closing
title on the DVD is again a work by Archer: ‘Western Works’ that has tracks of Cabaret Voltaire
arranged by him. In all, Juxtaposes offers some unusual vocal music, expressive and engaging. (DM)
––– Address: http://discus-music.co.uk/
ORPHAX – 2.20 (CD by Moving Furniture Records)
Last weekend I was in Paris and visited the bookstore/gallery of Yvon Lambert. Quite some years
ago he started a legendary publishing enterprise of prints and multiples by artists. At Lambert,
safely beneath a glass cover, a copy of Eliane Radigue’s double 7” ‘Σ = a = b = a + b’ was on
display. One for sale. Signed, numbered but not in immaculate condition the coveted release
was there to change hands for a hefty sum.
Sietse van Erve is an avid collector of experimental music and the like himself, but somehow
I don’t see him shell out hundreds of euros for two 7”-s. Then again, who knows? Especially when
the release concerns one of his true inspirations. Van Erve produces music himself using the nom-
de-plume Orphax, firmly and squarely in the drone department of experimental music and is deeply
influenced by the works of Radigue. Perhaps never this has been so openly on display as on his
most recent cd ‘2.20’.
Van Erve cites Radigue’s ‘Vice Versa’ as the main inspiration for ‘2.20’. This installation on
the cross-over point between music and sound art featured two reel-to-reel recorders. The two
tapes on the machine were very much alike. In playback in the installation setting these could be
played at different speeds, forward or backward and with stereo channel manipulations (left only,
right only, both, none). The audience was to ‘conduct’ the final – lengthy – piece, wholly
indeterminate thus. The two 7” for sale at Lambert hold the same basic premise. Clashing sound
waves, fluctuating pitches, overtones and subtle beatings further enlarge the already impressive
drone tones Radigue laid down.
On ‘2.20’ Van Erve creates a sustained, barely changing drone. Almost twice as the
difference between both tracks is pretty slight, yet manifest. Both are also exactly 20 minutes
in duration. And the most fun bit is: you can download the files and start to mix these yourselves.
Although… the ‘fun’ is a bit marginal here as the audience now lacks the tactile handling of the
turntable or reel-to-reel machine and mixing desk. We’ll have to make do then with this as second
best in the digital age, oh well.
These two drones bring out the best of Orphax’s tonal exuberance. Minimalism doesn’t have
to mean lack of attention, at all. The timbres are tweaked towards bringing out the most detail in
the glistening glissandi. Jarring clashes only emerge from less scrupulous mixing by your truly,
though it must be said it’s quite stunning to hear how easily both tracks can be played
simultaneously without the sum being a blur or indiscriminate soup. Also: in your private mix
Orphax brings to light how sine waves can cancel each other out in counter-phase or multiply/
amplify when flowing together – at your own hands that is. This alone is a recipe for hours and
hours of mixing joys.
Back to the album as is, without the virtual mixing game. As with Radigue the drones project
massive steadiness and slowly moving, waving and gliding movement(s). More than before in
Orphax’s work the drone is informed by an emotive undercurrent; like a primordial rumbling of the
soul, maybe even so indeterminate that this might concern his soul as much as the listener’s.
The drone doesn’t discriminate. It fills the room; permeates the living air we breathe. And
breathes along; sucks up the air blown into it from our lungs. The possibilities are endless. The
loop variations more than a Σ Van Erve can ever have foreseen. Releasing the power of the
unforeseen, as emotionally informed as ‘2.20’ (and thus not an academic White Cube abstraction
of the clinical sound art laboratory sort) can not only be considered a daring highlight in the
massive (and sometimes not all that focused) catalog of Orphax, but also and even more so: a
highly astute tribute to one of the absolute grandmasters of the drone. (SSK)
––– Address: https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/220
SO LONG FAREWELL REPAIR – LIVE AT THE GLAD CAFE (CD by Iorram Records)
A trio consisting of Daniel Carter (saxophone, piano), George Lyle (double bass) and Fritz Welch
(drums), here caught live at the Counterflows Festival on Sunday April 5th at the Glad Cafe. This
is a release in memory of member George Lyle who died in 2016. Lyle has been an active
participator in the jazz and improv scene in Scotland. Welch is a drummer and vocalist, originally
from Houston, Texas, but living and working in Glasgow. He and Carter, a veteran of the New York
Loft Scene of the 1970s, know each other for a long time, but rarely played together. This
changed in 2012 when Carter performed with William Parker in Glasgow. It was on this occasion
Carter and Welch decided for a new project and invited Lyle. The one-hour live recording on this
CD introduces us to the trio that plays in a very relaxed and open way. Their interplay echoes
many motifs and elements from the jazz tradition but they are used in a way that keeps jazz
conventions and clichés at a far distance. Instead they spin their very own conversations from
this vocabulary. And that is what jazz is all about. A very inspired and satisfying set of improvised
music. And probably this will remain the only release by this trio. Released by the Glasgow-based
Iorram label, specialised in experimental and improvised music from the Glasgow-area. (DM)
––– Address: https://iorramrecords.bandcamp.com/
1982 – CHROMOLA (CD by Hubro Music)
1982 is a trio of Nils Økland, Sigbjørn Apeland and Øyvind Skarbø. A trio with a very unusual and
probably unique instrumentation: Hardanger fiddle and violin by Økland, pipe organ and harmonium
by Apeland, and drums by Skarbø. Their new album marks their 10th birthday. They did their first
performance on February 14th, 2007 and released about six CDs. As said, an unusual
instrumentation but also one that works well in the hands of these experienced musicians. Their
music is improvised and the Hardanger fiddle, an instrument with a strong personality, is often in
an leading, soloing role. Økland uses many melodic elements in his meandering playing style that
continues throughout more or less in the same pace. Harmonium and organ remain often in the
background providing moody textures, but there are enough moments where Apeland takes a
more active role. The drumming is very sparse and open, but also very to the point and essential.
On a few occasions the music reaches a very concentrated state and comes to a climax. However
the improvisations never lose their serene and reflective atmosphere, maybe because the music is
recorded in a church (in Bergen). The recording and production is well done. Everything is in a good
balance, so that instruments and their movements can be enjoyed fully. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.hubromusic.com
P.O.P. [PSYCHOLOGY OF PERCEPTION] – IKEBANA (CD by FMR Records)
Recently I reviewed the debut album by The Octopus, a quartet of four cellists, Nora Krahl being
one of them. With P.O.P. we are again talking of a quartet, again with Nora Krahl (violoncello) on
board, now in a unit with Reinhold Friedl (piano), Hannes Strobl (electric bass) and Elena Kakaliagou
(French horn, voice). Not an improvising combo this time. Ikebana performs four works that are
composed by member Reinhold Friedl, and another four works composed by him and Hannes Strobl.
In 2013 Strobl and Friedl released their Tabriz-project for Monotype. And later they decided for a
next step in a quartet-format. By the way, Friedl you probably know as founder of the ensembles
Piano-Inside-Out and Zeitkratzer. For what he is up to with P.O.P., ‘Ikebana’, the title of the album,
is a good starting point. This term refers to the Japanese art of flower arrangement, an art of
combining colours, shapes, etc. with well- proportioned and -chosen measures. This art inspired
Friedl and Strobl to compose new work. I am always wondering how this actually works. Qualities
like structure, minimalism and strictness are transposed to a musical world of “slowly mutating
patterns that appear as musical bodies: sensual, three-dimensional, organic.” Along the lines of a
‘psychology of perception’: “which sounds, which flowers are similar to each other, which different,
which are repeated, which varied, etc.” Almost a scientific, analytic procedure. That luckily resulted
in some appealing music. The cd consists of eight works that illustrate their approach. Floating
sound-entities of a delicate and sensual nature. Built from many detailed sounds produced the
players. Fascinating stuff! (DM)
––– Address: http://fmr-records.com/
KILT – ELECTROACOUSTIC IMPROVISATIONS (CD by Earshots)
Earshots Recordings is a new label from London focused on improvised music and field recording
works. Daniel Kordik an Edward Lucas initiated the label and both are member of the London-
based improv trio Kilt. Kordik, originating from Bratislava plays Vostok synthesizer. Ken Ikeda, a
composer and performer from Tokyo but working mainly in the UK, plays DX synthesizer. Edward
Lucas is part of the London improv scene and plays trombone. Kordik and Lucas operate as a
duo already for a long time. Now joined by Ikeda, the veteran of the three with most international
projects behind his name. For example, he worked with David Lynch, released albums on Touch
and produced an album with David Toop that will appear one of these days. Listening to
improvised music is daily business at my place, but not often from a unit dominated by
synthesizers, as is the case with Kilt. The first aspect that makes this one an interesting release.
The CD takes about 31 minutes and presents four improvisations. It is music that works best after
repeated listening. It takes some time to unfold and to accommodate to it. They don’t deal in
spectacular poses and gestures. They keep things small and play in an original way with archaic
sounds from the analogue synthesizer, combined with sounds of a digital nature. The trombone
of Lucas fits well in this unusual context. He is in a prominent in the closing piece ‘Tak’, the
improvisation that is the most ‘musical’ one of all four and the most satisfying one for me. A fine
little gem! (DM)
––– Address: http://earshots.org/
MUSLIMGAUZE – PORT SAID/REPORT SAID (2CD by Aquarellist)
Now you’d probably think I will go all bananas over this as you would expect that I am known for
not liking to review compilations, have my doubts about remixes and am I known as not the biggest
lover of the music of Muslimgauze. However I won’t. Following a heavy listening sessions years and
years ago I decided to keep exactly three Muslimgauze releases; ‘Emak Bakia’ (the one the late Bryn
Jones didn’t like), ‘Azzazin’ and it’s blue print ‘Port Said’; the latter perhaps also because I was
involved in the production on a little enterprise I was running at that time called Audio.NL. So there
you go with the first wrong assumption. I handed in the permission to re-issue this 12″ on a short
CD, and Russia’s Aquarellist released that as a CD, stand alone, as well as a double CD with remixes
by some of the usual suspects, I guess, in the field of remixes and in the area of Muslimgauze; this
being Scanner, Esplendor Geometrico, Rapoon, but also Steven Wilson’s Bass Communion, Dead
Voices On Air and ex-Bourbonese Qualk Simon Crab are present, along with Pacific 231, of whom
we don’t see many remixes and more unknown players, at least to my ears, such as A.P., In Dead
It Ends, Velehentor, QST and perhaps Troum is the biggest surprise, of whom I never knew they
were in the business of remixes. Both ‘Azzazin’ and ‘Port Said’ have a very distinct synthesizer
sound, which is rhythmical in itself yet this time it is Muslimgauze without his usual tabla’s and
other hand drums. That distinct sound returns in quite a few of these remixes, as a thread
through these mixes; whatever else happens is up to the remixers. It ranges from some very deep
drone music by Troum, via the noisy approach of Velehentor to the somewhat lighter brother of
Dead Voices On Air, Rapoon and Pacific 231 on one hand, but in most pieces there is some form
of rhythm. From basic structures with Bass Communion and A.P. towards more up-tempo pieces
by Esplendor Geometrico, QST, Simon Crab, In Death It Ends all in varying degrees of techno music,
which leaves Scanner’s modular synth and radio approach as the odd-ball here. While the original
shimmers through all of these remixes it surely works out in many different ways, which makes
this a really fine compilation of remixes. (FdW)
––– Address: http://aquarellist.ru/
MENSIMONIS – CLONE FEVER (CD by Opa Loka Records)
The name of this duo is made from the two surnames of the musicians that make up this duo,
Radboud Mens and Lukas Simonis, both residing in Rotterdam. I know both of them for many
years, also on a personal level, so perhaps that makes a review perhaps a bit more biased. Simonis
I was already in contact with more than thirty years ago when he released his own brand of
improvised music on audio cassettes but Mens, whom I may have met little over twenty years ago
for the first time, I know better, simply because we worked in the same record companies office at
one point for a couple of years. For me it seems unlikely these two working together, I thought, as
Simonis works mainly along improvisation, in rock and/or free jazz contexts, even noise at times,
and Mens did his own noise before moving towards minimal techno and ambient music. They met
up doing courses for teenagers and found common ground to play and record together.
Mensimonis should be an ongoing concern for the next few years.
Musicwise it combines both of their interests; Simonis gets to play the guitar, loud en clear,
with a fair amount of distortion, but also in a strict minimal way, whereas Mens’ electronics loop
the bottom end of that guitar playing and along with his sine wave generator and long-string
instrument provide the drone of the music. This results in four long pieces with a total length of
seventy-eight minutes, which I thought was a bit much, to be honest. Each of the pieces seems
to be following the same compositional model of starting with a few sounds and slowly adding
more and more sound, until a vastly layered pattern of sounds emerges, with Simon’s guitar on
top, repeating his playing (or maybe using loop devices). I enjoyed each of these pieces
individually and a combination of two of these would have been a very good CD (or LP for that
matter), but all four in a row was for me a bit too tiring. If sonic overload appeals to you, then you
won’t have any trouble with its duration. (FdW)
––– Address: http://opa-loka-records.com
DRØNE – A PERFECT BLIND (LP by Pomperipossa Records)
Bring in the heavy-hitting names… Touch head boss Mike Harding and Mark van Hoen make up
the duo drøne. The record is released on Anna von Hausswolff’s label. The jacket photography
is shot by her mother Maria. And that’s not everyone involved; not nearly. Touch mates Philip
Jeck and Bethan Kellough are present too. As is an ensemble featuring Paul Hasling on piano,
Marie Takahashi playing baroque viola and Oleg Belyaev with Charlie Camapgna on (baroque)
cello. And still: ‘a perfect blind’ doesn’t sound filled to the brim or maximalist. On the contrary:
this record plays games with fleeting memories and presences in a disruptive effort wherein
classical acoustic instruments, short wave radio signals, droning organ and windy field recordings
for a patch work blanket only just held together by gossamer threads.
This LP is like a soundtrack for the hauntology of the hunter-gatherer musics of now; the
hunter hunted, too – besieged with strangely familiar textures, timbres and instrumental
characteristics that somehow still merge into dense fogs when the ear prods to grasp a hold,
to have a closer listen. Like memories being pushed aside by acute happenings in the present,
only to fold back on themselves to open onto a back to the future, still out of reach,
however indeterminate.
These are multi-layered and complex sounds; shards like leaves of grass one can recline in
and enjoy the merry spring light. Meadows to of morning cold that beckons for a long walk in
the aural countryside. A place where past, present and future are done away with. A place and
non-place in one. A locus, too, where (anywhere) memories and desires and actual sensations
not only seem to merge, but flow gently into one and oneness.
Harding and Van Hoen tread lightly when dealing with archaic tropes and reversals of or
reversing into the future. Only just these men therewith avoid the retro or revisionist tag.
Because it has to be said that ‘a perfect blind’ does meander into clueless oblivion and new
age-ish sheepishness at times. Cliché eerie shimmerings and worn and tired, too often tried
and tested, hallowed reverbs of the darkest gothic ambient sort don’t propel anyplace but
towards murky waters of same old yawning.
However: for most of the 37 minutes of running times Harding and Van Hoen keep the ear
scurrying round and round with an indefinite sense on not-belonging anytime, anyplace.
Disembodiment of the listener is maybe at stake too, like two ears disconnected from a head
floating around in thin air. It’s this ‘thinness’, this not Wagnerian, Mahlerian, this absence of the
Grand Gesture that remains a vital and inviting red thread on this LP. Don’t expect to be taken
by the hand and shown the tricks of the trade of the tall tale here. Harding, Van Hoen et al. have
found the ideal spot where-from to treat us mere mortals as ‘the observing observed’. Surely non-
participant the listeners – in a way, some way – are kept at bay as she/he hears how Big Brother
hears (and sees and reads et cetera) us trying to hear what’s there to hear and what this might
be telling. The stories we then tell each other might just be the ones that informed the jolly
jumbled and glorious symphonic mess (or: mass?) of a record this LP is. (SSK)
––– Address: http://field.nu/drone/
YANN LEGUAY – HEADCRASH (LP by Vlek)
This is the first time I receive a record from Vlek, a label from Brussels, so maybe ‘vlek’ does
indeed mean ‘stain’, as it does in Dutch. Their latest release (catalogue number 25!) is by Yann
Leguay, of whom I reviewed ‘Quasi Static Crack Propagation’ back in Vital Weekly 899. I said I
wouldn’t seeing Leguay doing his stuff in concert, but when he played here I wasn’t able to attend
or I arrived too late (or something like that, as I don’t remember it; maybe I did see it), so I still
have no idea how he plays his hacked hard drives and how to pick the sounds up with his magnetic
sensors. Back then I very much enjoyed his noise, and seeing a record from him I wondered why it
took so long to do another one. In what way he hacks his hard drives I don’t know, but apparently
he uses very little to no treatments save for fiddling with the EQ. It seems that Vlek’s usual roster
of artists deal with playful house and ghostly techno, but also psychedelic analogue electronics
and Japanese rap, which makes this perhaps something else altogether, and yet it seems to fit
quite well in that catalogue. Whereas Leguay’s previous release was quite noise-based this new
one deals with quite a bit of rhythm. Still trying to get my head around the notion of ‘hacking
hard drives’ and ‘magnetic sensors’ that brings us this quite rhythmic affair. It is of course not
that these rhythms would do well on a dance floor, far from it, as the basic beat material might
be a thump and a bump but it is far from a 4/4 beat that makes your feet move. If something
at all, this music owes to the very early releases of the Sähkö; the rudimentary rhythm of it all,
complete with the buzzing of faulty wires and nearby electrical sources, which generate another
set of drones that go along with this. It’s dance music, Jim, but not as we hear it a lot. This
record comes with a velum cover and has a fine arty to touch it. Excellent stuff. (FdW)
––– Address: http://vlek.xyz/
JONAS OLESEN &RUBE SØCHTING – FELT (LP by Bin)
Over the past few years I have reviewed some releases by Jonas Olesen from Denmark, whose
work is as easily part of the world of music as well as art. Here he has a collaborative work with
one Rube Søchring, of whom I don’t think I heard before. Together they explore ‘the sonic potential
of electromechanic movements, resonance and different modes of transmission of sound’. Before
committing their work onto vinyl they already played some concerts, in which they use
“transducers mounted on glass, worn-out microphones, small devices such as bells, clocks”
as the press text tells us. The ‘mirror foil cover’ has no information at all besides the names and
title. The two sides that make up ‘Felt’ are from the world of electroacoustic music, musique
concrete if you will. There is no noise here, no sudden outbursts of sound, harsh cuts and such,
but all the more careful exploration of acoustic sounds and field recordings, shimmering in half
darkness, meaning it is a not always very outspoken. The pressing of this music into vinyl adds
another layer to the music, with occasional pops and clicks. With the delicate nature of the music
I would think it would sound better when it was released on a CD, really. ‘Play loud’ is an option
that is recommended here, I should think. I found this not to be easy music; it might be my
‘problem’ of course, but I thought it was not easy to get into. Maybe I wished for it to be more
‘there’, more outspoken in the mix of sounds and hence the composition(s); now it remained
all a bit too distant for my taste, a bit too disorganized and vague. What is it that they want, I
wondered. Some of the sounds used however held much promise and I am sure there is more in
here that is yet uncovered. (FdW)
––– Address: http://totem.menneske.dk/
16:9 – ECHOLOCATION (CDR by Coriolis Sounds)
JAMES S. TAYLOR & CEDRICK EYMENIER – FALLEN OF THE BACK OF A LORRY (2CDR by
Coriolis Sounds)
Coriolis Sounds is the label run by Cedrid Eymenier, which his runs with his brother Guillaume, of
whom we reviewed a release in Vital Weekly 1074. Cedric is also producing “photography, video,
collage, installations and screenings”, but music also plays an important role. I believe this is the
first time I come across with it. I believe his own musical interests lie in the use of the modular
synthesizer, at least judging by the music on this release. The modular synthesizer, the new laptop
of the post 2010 generation; everybody seems to be using them. The music by Eymenier is all
‘improvised and recorded live’, which is perhaps a pity. In social media, especially when you know
people who play modular synths, lots of short (video-) clips pop up with these people fiddling with
filters and such and the thing I notice that it is not easy to do a good composed piece with these.
Often it sticks with the production of a few sounds and then feeding these through some filtering,
which then effectively becomes the piece. That is also the impression I get from the ten pieces by
16:9 here. Sometimes there is a rhythm machine underneath, but it the synths bubble and
oscillate; sometimes all of this without the rhythm, playing a more ambient tune. As a sketchbook
of results of investigating modular synthesizers this is probably not a bad thing, but a digital
release would have been in just a fine place also.
Together with one James S. Taylor, Eymenier created music for an exhibition, curated by
Judicael Lavrador Esbama in Montpellier and on the first disc of ‘Fallen Of The Back Of A Lorry’
we hear ten pieces from that whereas on the second disc there is a remix of the thing by Taylor,
which spans a piece that lasts an hour, and one that is a bit shorter. Here too, on both discs
actually, I would think there is much of modular set-up to be heard, but feeding into that are field
recordings of various locations, voices and such like. Rhythm is less prominent here, if at all and
the two are more interested in playing some kind of experimental ambient sound, more than 16:9,
which is quite nice. Sometimes the pieces are also a bit on the long side and meander too much
about without seemingly going anywhere and some editing would have been in place, I think. Not
every CD has to last seventy minutes; some editing would surely make a stronger release. The
remix takes the material even further down the road of abstraction, and even when this is also
long, this I liked even better. The meandering of sounds, spacious field recordings, some sparse
synthesizers make the long remix very nice. In a way it is very ambient, but it comes with a twist,
rough at the edges and it works very well. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.coriolislab.org/
MATTHEW ATKINS – FIFTY THREE LOOPS (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation)
More and more Matthew Atkins works under his own name, leaving behind his Platform moniker.
Many of his albums are released in the digital domain only but sometimes he does a CDR, like
‘Fifty Three Loops’, in a small edition; twenty-one copies in this case. This new work is inspired by
the work of Giuseppe Ielasi and Graham Dunning and as the title indicates it deals with the use of
loops. There aren’t fifty-three pieces on this release, but six, and in each title it is said how many
loops it uses, ‘Twelve Loops’, ‘Seven Loops’ etc. As Platform Atkins plays more rhythm based
music and under his own name it is rather computer-manipulated ambient/musique concrete.
On this new release this is a bit different, as some of the loops used are short and therefore used
in a rhythmical way. Some of these loops receive a bit of sound effects along the way, and all of
this sounds very much like ‘Ableton Live’ music, even when that program is quite complex these
days. The sound sources used by Atkins are all, as far as I can judge them, from acoustic sources,
even when I couldn’t say what these sources are, save for a piano in ‘Seven Loops’. Scratching the
surface is most likely and played together, with or without effects, makes up some form of
musique concrete that is quite unusual. That is because of the use of those shorter loops, even
when they are stretched out by the use of effects; and when played in a longer form it lacks the
cut-up approach of some of the more traditional musique concrete works. I can very much see
the influence of Ielasi in this, foremost some of his later work for 12K and the ‘Stunt’ 12″s.
Atkins also has that playful approach that Ielasi has on those records and the only downside is
that at twenty-nine minutes this is a rather short record. I certainly wouldn’t have minded two
or three extra pieces; but then I realized that many of the old Ielasi CDs were also of similar
length, so maybe there is an additional inspiration there. (FdW)
––– Address: http://mrmrecordings.bandcamp.com/
TATSURO KOJIMA – A->B (CDR by Eilean Records)
SOUND MECCANO/JURA LAIVA – SALTY WIND AND INNER FIRE (CDR by Eilean Records)
Here I find two new names for me on the French specialist microsound/ambient label Eilean
Records, who produce a steady of that kind of music. About Kojima there is not a lot to know;
he’s born in 1977, works with field recordings, synthesizer and electronics and that he has two
previous releases on Audiobulb. In the time frame of forty-eight minutes he plays nine pieces of
music, ranging from just three minutes to almost ten. For me this is the release I took from a pile
of stuff waiting for me after I returned to my desk, following a week of absence. Partly I choose
this because it’s quite early morning and Eilean Records produce music that can fit that time of
the day pretty well, and I got what I hoped for here. Soft, piano-like sounds, crackling field
recordings of rain, water and wind, a all of that fed into software for some additional time
stretching, it makes up undemanding, pleasant microsound music, which I thought was quite
nice, but at the same time also quite unoriginal. Labels as Spekk and Flau, both from Japan,
produced quite a bit of this kind of music and Kojima’s music doesn’t shed any new light on the
music or takes it further down any road, which is perhaps a bit of a downer. But with some mild
Easter rain outside and a quiet Sunday morning what is there to complain, really?
On the other new release we find actually two new names (for me that is), as this is a
collaborative work between Sound Meccano, the name chosen by Rostislav Rekuta, who hails
from Riga and who has been creating electronic, electroacoustic and ambient music since 1999,
teaming up with an ambient guitar player Jura Laiva, “whose alias is a pun on his first name and
words in Latvian, and which loosely translates as Sea Boat”. They worked together before, releasing
music on Cronica and Flaming Pines, in the form of EPs, but this is a full-length collaboration. And
full-length it surely is; seventy-two minutes with eight fairly long pieces, somewhere between seven
and fourteen minutes. The music is abstracter than that of Kojima, but works pretty much along
similar smooth lines. Crackles hiss and plop play a role here, along with field recordings (wind, rain)
with the sustaining sounds from Jura Laiva on top of the various layers of sound woven together.
As I write this, a bit later in the day than when I heard Kojima, the clouds have disappeared
and there is a bit of sunshine even, looking like a nice spring day. In a similar way the music of
these two musicians also is a bit lighter and opener than Kojima, with a sparkling inch of mild,
organ like drones. This is music for a slow day at home. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.eilean-records.com/
A.F. JONES – FOUR DOT THREE TO ONE (CDR by Kendra Seiner Editions)
MORE EAZE – WORK (CDR by Kendra Seiner Editions)
KSE 11TH ANNIVERSARY ALBUM (CDR compilation by Kendra Seiner Editions)
From A.F. Jones I heard before when I reviewed a collaborative work with Derek Rogers in Vital
Weekly 985, but this is the first time I hear his solo work. I don’t know much about Jones, or
how he works, but the five pieces on his ‘Four Dot Three To One’ are very interesting, and mostly
built, it seems to me, from the use of field recordings. On the cover it says: “Key sources: a pond,
a pool, a harbour, an estuary, an open ocean charter”, so I would believe these pieces use sounds
from those place, but the way Jones treats these sounds into music makes it also a bit difficult to
recognize them. Take for instance the opening piece ‘Bellerive’ and you know what I mean. The
deep bass resonating sound with which this piece opens fly slowly around and after a while you
start to think it is maybe the sound of frogs; but as I say ‘mostly field recordings’, I would easily
believe that there is a bit of instruments used by Jones, as we could be hearing a violin sample also.
In the final piece of the release, a geographical code, I think there is a bunch of cello sounds, and
probably the clearest example of the use of instruments on this release. In other pieces we hear
sounds from ponds, shopping malls, and outside open fields, collaged together, sometimes
seemingly without too much process going on, but also with some deep end processing,
emphasizing certain frequencies. All of this made an excellent impression on me. It seemed to
me very well thought out and carefully constructed and maybe with a refined sense of composition.
Marcus Maurice Rubio’s who works as More Eaze, has been reviewed before by Vital Weekly
(996, 988, 968). This time round he has nine pieces on offer of quite some musical diversity. The
opener ‘N3V3R 4Fit’ is a noise blast but in the other eight pieces Rubio uses the sampler to create
strange collages of sound. There is the sound of the clarinet in ‘GQDQ’, but also violin (or some
such stringed instrument), drum machines and electronics, which are all sampled together, in
quite an abrasive way; loud most of the times, but I don’t believe Rubio has the intention to play
noise per se. There is not much in the way of distortion here, and mainly it is swift, abrupt changes
in the music that makes this perhaps ‘noisy’. Last time around I thought Rubio played out a
combination of pop like tunes and experimental sounds, on this new record I would think it all
veers more towards the abstract side of his work. Though I don’t think this is all quite ‘easy’
music. Rubio has quite a bit of variations in his approaches, which makes this album quite a fine
release; clocking in at thirty-three minutes it is never too long and it works very fine.
About a year ago I reviewed the tenth anniversary album by Kendra Steiner, and I partly rework
that into the 11th anniversary album review; and then there is the 11th anniversary compilation.
Of course you celebrate with a compilation and here we find many of the label luminaries who also
found their way to these pages with releases such as Vanessa Rossetto, John Bell, Ernesto Diaz
Infante, Jen Hill, Steve Falot, More Eaze, Fossils, Lisa Cameron, Matthew Revert, Brian Ruryk and
Massimo Magee. It involves all of the label interests, from improvisation to drone and a fine bit of
noise by Magee. Great pieces no doubt, but especially attractive for those who like to learn from
this highly prolific label and perhaps less for those already initiated. (FdW)
––– Address: http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com
GRZEGORZ BOJANEK – STORIES OF AN OLD MAN (CDR, private)
Apparently it has been three years since we last heard from Grzegorz Bojanek, which was
‘Analogue’, reviewed in Vital Weekly 946. Much of what Bojanek does is part of the world of
microsound, drone and ambient, and as such his new album ‘Stories Of An Old Man’ is not
much different. Except perhaps that the music was created a bit differently, as they were
originally recorded for an audiobook, with stories read by Konrad Maszczyk, and which are
apparently very dark, dealing with murders, explosions and arrests by the communist regime.
It is not that these words are on this release; this is a reworked version of the music, which
stands by itself. Seven pieces, forty minutes of music and we see a slow but significant
development in this music, when Bojanek is now also adding a bit of rhythm here and there,
such as in ‘An Old Factory’ and ‘Names Of The Villages’. It doesn’t have the full-formed beats
that would do well on a dance floor, but it’s a slow thud here and there, the sequencing of a
guitar sound, all embedded in the hiss of drones that is the hotbed in which all of this takes
place. I can’t say I miss the stories; I would not have understand them, although it would have
been nice to have an English text in the form of a booklet with this, I guess. The seven pieces
here are heavy on the atmospheres, with lots of drones woven together on the whole,
sometimes taking the listener into a lulling sleep, but as easily pointy and sharp such as in
‘Wartime Memories’, which makes all of this quite a varied disc and probably his best one so
far. (FdW)
––– Address: http://bojanek.bandcamp.com/