JEMH CIRCS – (UNTITLED) KINGDOM (CD by Cellule) *
JOHN TILBURY & KEITH ROWE & KJELL BJØRGEENGEN – SISSEL (CD by Sofa) *
EVELIEN VAN DEN BROEK – FALSE MEMORIES (CD, private)
SHE SPREAD SORROW – MIDORI (CD by Cold Spring)
FRANS DE WAARD & TAKUJI NAKA & TIM OLIVE – FALSE MERCURY (CD by 845 Audio) *
LUCRETIA DALT – ANTICLINES (CD by Rvng Int) *
BEN BERTRAND – NGC 1999 (CD by Les Albums Claus) *
DAIMON – DUST (CD by Silentes) *
ORQUESTA DEL TIEMPO PERDIDO – STILLE (CD by Shhpuma)
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – ALBRICIAS (CD by Panai) *
ASUNA – ORGAN LEAVES (CD by Vector) *
ASUNA – MILLE DROPS (CD by Recit) *
CASIOTONE COMPILATION 7 (mini CD by Aotoa)
LE TON MITE – I’M GOING TO THE STORE TO GET SOME VEGETABLES (mini CD by Aotoa) *
MAP 165 – OF ADAM SLEEPING IN THE LAP OF GOD (CDR by Rural Colours) *
COLD VOODOO – AB+ (cassette by Wide Ear Records)
A LINEAR THOUGHT (7” by Wide Ear Records)
TODD ANDERSON-KUNERT – A GOOD TIME TO GO (cassette by Nonlinear) *
SIMON WHETHAM – OPEN AND CLOSED CIRCLES (cassette by Mappa) *
CALINECZKA – WYDATEK NEUTRONÓW PODCZAS POBUDZONEJ WYBUCHOWO KOMPRESJI DEUTER-
TRYT W UKŁADZIE CYLINDRYCZNYM Z WARSTWĄ O DUŻEJ INERCJI (cassette by Szara Reneta Tapes)
JEMH CIRCS – (UNTITLED) KINGDOM (CD by Cellule)
Somewhere along the lines over the years I seem to have lost touch with Black To Comm, Marc Richter’s
musical project. I can’t remember I last saw a release from him. Likewise I didn’t pick up on the fact that
he has a new guise called Jemh Circs. As Black To Comm he was wrangling analogue tapes and vinyl
based sound and with the new moniker he does the same but the sources are “modern pop music (and
various other oddities) on YouTube (et al.)”. The wrangling is now described as “sending chunks of it
through a variety of arcane transformations and mutations”. I understand this to be a modern form of
Plunderphonics. The label describes this as “a seemingly one-dimensional concept into a complex
puzzle of ideas, sounds and narratives”, but honestly I fail to see the narrative. Maybe there is a sample
or two of The Fall in ‘The Fall”, maybe a bit of SPK in ‘Auto-Da-Fe’ or a bit of Zebra in ‘Zebra’, but in the
latter’s case which Zebra? The band that holds the entertainment rights since 1974 or any of the 31
other bands using the word Zebra, including one that is a similar Plunderphonic project as Jemh Circs,
taking samples of the internet, but in a more conceptual approach, like all stuff having to do with the
word ‘music’. Such an overall narrative is not here on this release, and for all we know it’s all about the
pleasure of transforming bits of sounds from a digital source into a whole bunch of loops and play
around with using an abundant wealth of sound effects. Jemh Circs loves to create short bits and bobs
with it, somewhere between a minute and four something. Nothing is very long and each is what it is,
a sketch like, but it also maintains a bit of speed in the whole thing. I am altogether not too sure about
it. I would preferred a more coherent narrative, and after a while the approach is clear and sixty-four
minutes is a bit a long if it keeps bouncing back and forth between loops and sound effects that is
mostly heavy on the droning parts and comes with occasional beats. A selection of pieces, condensed
to forty minutes would have made this a stronger (pop?) statement. Yet there is enough to select in
here and create your own album in true DIY spirit. (FdW)
––– Address: http://cellule75.bandcamp.com
JOHN TILBURY & KEITH ROWE & KJELL BJØRGEENGEN – SISSEL (CD by Sofa)
When discussing this release by these gentlemen, one can’t avoid mentioning the name AMM, the
group of which both Tilbury and Rowe was a member. A name of legend in the world of improvised
music. But they also met on other musical occasions and they have some work before, ‘Duos For Doris’
in 2003, ‘E.E. Tension And Circumstance’ in 2010 (see Vital Weekly 814) and ‘Enough Still Not To
Know’ (2015; Vital Weekly 1001). That last work introduced to the work of video artist Kjell
Bjørgeengen. Back then he did the video installation, now he gets credit as an equal partner on ‘Sissel’,
even when his work is only to be seen as part of the cover; no DVD included this time. So we have the
musical part by Tilbury on the piano and Rowe on the table top guitar and objects and this work is
dedicated to Bjørgeengen’s wife Sissel who died a few weeks before the recording took place. I guess
that was an influence on the music found its shape as it is very quiet, perhaps as expected, but taking
in account the sad occasion one is bound to read that into the music. Tilbury’s piano seems to be more
than ever in a contemplative mood with some very sparse notes played in a very majestically slow
pace with lots of space between them. Rowe plays on a few occasions a bit more sounds, the scanning
of rusty objects so the speak and they become dense and drone like, at which moment Tilbury seems
to be quiet, so as Rowe is very quiet at other times. Hard to put into percentages, also because one
doesn’t know how each sound is generated (for all I know Tilbury plays the keys of piano but maybe
also other parts of the instrument?), and it may seem at times there is no connection at all, whereas
on other occasions there is an absolute fine interplay between the two of them. This is all very
contemplative music in the best AMM tradition, but with that oddly strange edge to it from time
to time. (FdW)
––– Address: http://sofamusic.no
EVELIEN VAN DEN BROEK – FALSE MEMORIES (CD, private)
Evelien van den Broek is a composer, singer and songwriter based in Amsterdam. She composes for
film and dance productions. She was part of the group Daisy Bell with Richard van Kruysdijk and
Dyane Donck. Nowadays she is leading her own experimental projects like KUrKKU. The ´False
Memories´ project was initiated in collaboration with the prestigeous November Music festival, and
premiered on November 12th, 2016. It was a multi-media project in collaboration with video artist
Marcel Wierckx. For this cd-release Wierckx provided some video-stills for the booklet. Musicians
involved are Koen Kaptijn (trombone) and Tony Roe (Moog, OB-6 synths, clavinet, Wurlitzer); unknown
musicians for me. Kaptijn is member of the New Trombone Collective, and the Orquestra del Tiempo
Perdido. Van den Broek composed, arranged and produced everything and is responsible for vocals,
electronics and programming. For this project van den Broek took inspiration from an interesting and
even scaring phenomenon: false memories. Scientific research by A.R.Hopwood proved that we can
have memories of an experience of something that – in fact – never happened. For the lyrics she used
fragments from the rapports of these false memories. Van den Broek composed eccentric pop-songs
of an intelligent complexity. Structure, sound and arrangements are constructed in function of the
story. With a clear voice she sings of a world that never existed, a dreamy world somewhere between
fact and fake-fact. The atmospheres she creates remind me a bit of Kate Bush and Björk and even
more strongly, the work of singer Maggie Nicols with Uwe Lask. Voice, electronics and trombone
make a good combination, evoking with imagination and phantasy the curious world of false
memories. (DM)
––– Address: https://evelienvandenbroek.bandcamp.com/
SHE SPREAD SORROW – MIDORI (CD by Cold Spring)
This is the third album by She Spread Sorrow – solo project of Alice Kudalini, also known as Alice
Deviated and 50% of power electronics outfit Deviated Sister TV. Last year I really enjoyed her
release “Mine” on Cold Spring, so I was anxious to give this one a spin. Midori, which is a both a
given name and the Japanese word for “green” (as far as i know), is an album tied together by a
dark narrative filled with personal trials and insurmountable terror. Fortunately the digipack
contains all lyrics for those who like to indulge, but also without this lyrical context the album is a
deeply dense sonic trip worth your while.
However, death industrial fans be warned; although it is classified as such, this album does not
contain anything even remotely akin to the work of Puce Mary, Control or Brighter Death Now – also
unlike Kudalini’s previous releases, that were much more abrasive. So yeah, don’t get your hopes up
if you’re looking for that kind of intensity. If anything, descriptions like dark claustrophobic ambient
with whispered vocals makes – despite its lack of snappiness – a lot more sense for most of the tracks.
Anyway, the artist is not to blame there of course. Just a minor caveat.
The album has some nice layered synth textures next to the more obviously acoustic sounds. The
multiplexed atmospheres had images of Svankmayer films popping into my head every now and then,
while actually most of the album could be used as film music, if you dropped the voice. “Night One”
songs starts off with this lovely synth stab that dances statically around repetitive exploding noises
and echoing bells, which gives the whole thing an esoteric colour, reminiscent of 90s Coil. In retrospect
this is, without a doubt, my favourite track. “The House” features the return of the ticking clock element
that also provided a sparse hint of rhythm at the end of track one. This is also the first song of the album
that has a clear beat – albeit it a swampy one, that sounds like it is coming from the living room of that
downstairs neighbour who loves to play his 45rpm disco maxis at 33, with the bass dial on max.
Track four, “Who are you, Midori”, could be the score to art housy psycho drama – which yes, is exactly
what the album is about. The only thing is that the vocals are whispered all of the time. Some may take
some kind of SMRI pleasure from that, but personally I was waiting for Kudalini to speak up or at least
for the vocals to become more intense in order to resolve some of the lingering mystery that permeates
the whole album.
Closer upper “End Of Midori” drops a minimal triphop beat and has paper chains of shrill noise
hissing about your ears while you constantly expect the track to climax into something quite
unexpected, but unfortunately that doesn’t happen and slowly the track dies away. So yeah in a way
I guess that was kind of unexpected. Perhaps I just wanted it to go out with a proper bang. Not a big
issue though. All in all I liked this new She Spread Sorrow, but I do hope the next album will be louder
again. It is very different from 2017’s “Mine” (or “Rumpspringa”), so if you liked those two, prepare to
be confronted with something different. If you have a problem with change, just imagine you will listen
to this one before you go to sleep and you’ll keep the older SSS records for unwanted guests or as a anti-
piped-muzak-extinguisher for shopping sessions. (PJN)
––– Address: http://coldspring.co.uk/
FRANS DE WAARD & TAKUJI NAKA & TIM OLIVE – FALSE MERCURY (CD by 845 Audio)
This album was recorded at Extrapool in 2016, mixed by Takuji Naka, mastered by Jos Smolders and
then released via Tim Olive’s 845 Audio, which is based in Kobe Japan, so quite a decent amount of
ping-ponging back and forth between Japan and The Netherlands before this collaborative effort was
realised. According to his website Naka works with prepared turntables, amongst other things, and
my guess is that this also the case on this album. Regarding the contributions of both De Waard and
Olive; after listening to it I’m not entirely certain who had what part to play in the creation of False
Mercury. Still that may just be the beauty of it; how the work of these three just naturally blends
together as one, because it really does that.
The album kicks off with a wobbly but rhythmic lofi piano loop followed by a dense drone that
consists of some kind of modulated static. Still, nothing too punishing and like a lot of the bits that
follow, these are mere snapshots of different atmospheres. At several points undulating streams of
noise and electro-acoustic plucking and electric humming create a field of aleatoric randomness, that
sounds well balanced, while at the same time remaining unpredictable. The overall sound is very
saturated and raw which gives the album a pleasant vintage veneer. Slowly the coercive sound
movements steer us through a mechanical landscape of steam-punk machinery, ranging from tiny
pocket watches to massive, city-powering generators, each with their own grating voice and
repetitive rattling defects.
Sometimes we stumble upon the lingering ghost of musicality that stands midway between
accidental radio test frequencies and a the arbitrary spasms of a wonky 78 rpm record player, but it
rapidly trails of again before the haunting becomes real. Throughout the album there is a strange
sensation of spatiality. Not due to the use of any effects – it rather seems like the whole thing was
recorded without the use of an sound mangling tools, save a sparse filter here and there – but because
of the extreme and extensive focus on some of the sounds, that in a less minimalistic composition would
have gone completely unnoticed. All of it is very direct and honest – owing to the obvious minimalism it
seems that despite the aforementioned mixing, most of what we hear is actually that what was recorded
during the session at Extrapool. Although some of the sounds are somewhat intense, especially on
headphones, nowhere does it become too abrasive or harsh, which really is a good thing with these
kinds of records. To me at least, since i severely dislike having to reach for the volume dial every other
second. The album ends with a piece (if you don’t count the one single track that this album basically
consists of as one piece) that seems to allow a tiny bit of high end cluster sounds to enter into the mix,
which provides an interesting spectral change next to the reintroduction of aleatoric elements similar
to the ones that featured at the beginning of the album. The whole thing last just over 30 minutes,
which is a good length for this kind of stuff. A very uniform and aesthetically solid piece of work. (PJN)
––– Address: https://845audio.org/
LUCRETIA DALT – ANTICLINES (CD by Rvng Int)
Here we have a “former geotechnical engineer from Colombia currently residing in Berlin”, where
Lucretia Dalt sometimes works with Juoia Holter and Gudrun Gut. ‘Anticlines’ is her sixth solo album
yet the first time I hear her music. On this album she uses the Clavia Nord Modular, “forming a
rhythmic feedback flow with it”, a Moogerfooger MuRF (I am sure that means something to someone
who reads this; I had to Google it) and her voice. Especially the latter is quite important; textbook
enclosed. The songs are about El Boraro, the Colombian myth monster and Martian traces on Antartica.
Some songs are instrumental. The label says that “her slippery spoken word and performative nature
recalling the work of Laurie Anderson, Robert Ashley, Asmus Tietchens and Lena Platonos”; the latter I
don’t know, but Asmus seems rather out of place to me in this context. I can, however, clearly see the
connection with Anderson here. Dalt has a similar command of the voice, and doesn’t sing but speaks,
recites, tells a story, set to music. And that music is minimal, electronic usually just a few lines on a
synth, some rhythmic construction and quite stripped down. Perhaps not as stripped as Anderson’s
‘Oh Superman’, but like said it is easy to see the similarities in approach here, and yet by keeping it
all electronic makes that Dalt has something that she can call her own. Some of these pieces are rather
short and perhaps a bit too brief, but it maintains the speed of the album, which is actually quite nice.
Altogether I thought was a very fine album with some delicate pop inspired electronic poetry
pieces. (FdW)
––– Address: http://jgetrving.com
BEN BERTRAND – NGC 1999 (CD by Les Albums Claus)
Les Ateliers Claus in Brussels is a fine space to see exciting concerts; sometimes even of bands and
people discussed in these pages. They also have a label, which is new information for me, but this
album by Ben Bertrand is already their eleventh release. Bertrand is from Belgium and plays the
bass clarinet along with effects and loop pedals and is influenced by early minimal music of Steve
Reich and Terry Riley. However don’t take this inspired by thing too literal in this case, as Bertrand’s
music is not as loopy or bouncy as the early works of the American pioneers. In the five pieces on this
album Bertrand is more interested in playing a mellow tune, more ambient and the comparisons
made by the label to Jon Hassell and Gavin Bryars make in that respect quite some sense. The bass
clarinet is not always easy to recognize here; most clearly it sings in ‘V380 Orionis’, with some nice
melody played over a repeating phrase. In ‘Sanctus Hubble’ the bass clarinet is introspective and the
loops is kept simple. In the three other pieces the clarinet sound is much obscured by these effects
and it becomes a bit blurred but in a very pleasant way. This is some truly fine minimal ambient music.
I understand that the album is also available on LP, which makes that it is not very long, but even at
thirty-two minutes still is rather short. I for one would not have minded this to be a bit longer, both
as an album, I guess, as well as individual pieces to be longer in duration. Hopefully there will be a
follow-up album soon then! (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.lesateliersclaus.com/les-albums-claus
DAIMON – DUST (CD by Silentes)
From the trio that makes up Daimon I heard of one player before, and that is Simon Balestrazzi, here
on “(d)Ronin/vibes/treatments”. The other two are Nicola Quiriconi on voice, percussion, microphones
and Paolo Monti on electric guitar and electronics. Seeing this being released by Silentes, you could
easily think that this is an unusual release for them; no synthesizers used, which might seem an odd
thing for this label. The four pieces here are quite atmospheric and that is of course in line with what
this label does. The voice is not something that is used a lot, unless of course the electronics stretch this
out to a mighty drone, which mixes gently with the drones from Balestrazzi (however that instrument
works I have no idea) and the guitar of Monti. The gentle howl is part of all of these pieces in a various
shades of grey, along with field recordings and percussion. Vibes might very be vibraphone, I think,
judging by ’So High So Close’. Through there is a post-rock vibe to be noted in these pieces; perhaps all
of this was made by ways of improvisation around a set of drones producing instruments with some
more loosely arranged ornaments around them. In ‘Awash’ there is some spoken word, and somehow I
think it’s not by Quiriconi but taped somewhere else and it reminded me of Silent Records in the mid
90s, say John C. Lilly. This is a most pleasant dark trip, combing ambient textures, drones and an
improvised rock approach. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.silentes.it/
ORQUESTA DEL TIEMPO PERDIDO – STILLE (CD by Shhpuma)
We are talking here of a project by Jeroen Kimman. He studied jazz guitar at the Arnhem Conservatory,
and works almost in any thinkable musical direction. Jazz and improvisation, composed music, country,
pop, you name it. He played with Rosa Ensemble, Brown vs Brown, het Doelen Ensemble, het Radio
Filharmonisch Orkest, het Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Pump Organ, David Kweksilber Big Band, to
name a few. He likes it to work with big ensembles, I conclude. Which is illustrated by this new release
by his Orquestra del Tiempo Perdido, the name of which is a reference to Marcel Proust’s ‘In Search of
Lost Time’. The ensemble consists of Tristan Renfrow (drums, drum rolls), Leo Svirsky (accordeon),
Michael Moore (clarinet, alto sax), Anna voor de Wind (clarinet, bass clarinet), Koen Kaptijn (trombone),
Mark Morse (lapsteel guitar, screw), Seamus Cater (concertina and bass harmonica1), Sjeng Sschupp
(double bass), Michiel van Dijk (tenor sax, flute) and Jeroen Kimman (all other instruments). One senses
all kinds of influences pass by in this amusing universe created by Kimman and his team. Easy listening,
much Americana, and more is touched upon. But they play in original and enjoyable way with these
idioms. Resulting in pleasantly weird music. It is one continuous demonstration of playful madness yet
accessible music also, albeit rhythmically complex and with many unusual twists. And it is not just
weirdness that they produce. All influences are melted into something of their own. A bizarre and
overwhelming musical world. Impressive. (DM)
––– Address: http://shhpuma.com/
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – ALBRICIAS (CD by Panai)
This is a CD all right, but with a total length of twenty-five minutes it is a very short one. The title
means ‘good news’ in Spanish, and the music is all about joy and happiness, receiving and perceiving.
Franov is a big time artist in Japan where, so it seems to me at least, since whenever I get to hear his
music it is on a CD released in Japan. Unlike previous work by him, this is all based on the piano and
not a combination of piano, guitar, percussion, bass and such like, but effectively nothing changed in
his approach. The music is indeed rather cheerful and I know I wrote last week that it seems that all
piano based music these days and in these pages is based upon the heritage of mssrs Satie and
Debussy, so this is the one to proof me wrong. As I have observed on numerous occasions I know very
little about the world of classical music, which I believe this should be placed in, even when it is all
sunny and cheerful. I was playing a whole bunch Frederic Chopin CDs the other week and quite
enjoying that, and this particular Franov work arrived on a rather sunny day, and as I was doing
nothing much, other than sipping coffee and reading a book, waiting for mister mailman (one of
many) to arrive, this was a very pleasant release of piano music to further enlighten the bright day.
Maybe joy and happiness are a bit strong words for my current state of mind, but sure, why not, this
carefree music is certainly part of my well being. Just today of course! (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.naturebliss.net
ASUNA – ORGAN LEAVES (CD by Vector)
ASUNA – MILLE DROPS (CD by Recit)
CASIOTONE COMPILATION 7 (mini CD by Aotoa)
LE TON MITE – I’M GOING TO THE STORE TO GET SOME VEGETABLES (mini CD by Aotoa)
Last Sunday afternoon I saw Asuna in concert for the second time in my life. The first time around he
played 100 keyboards in a massive drone set-up, this time it was probably the same amount, but all
children’s toys, and while not as drone or minimal certainly a fine display of the man’s many interests,
plus it’s great to see him leap about to keep all those toys going. Naoyuki Asuna gave me these four
releases, and ‘Organ Leaves’ is a re-issue of his first real CD released by Lucky Kitchen in 2003, yet
never reviewed in these pages. ‘Mille Drops’ is his latest work. Asuna’s work found it’s way on labels
as Home Normal, Spekk, Paddy White Mountain and Students Of Decay, so you might correctly believe
that somehow, somewhere Asuna is part of the world of glitch, 100 keyboards or toys not withstanding.
On a sound carrier his music is much more fragile, as proven by the delicate organ like tones on ‘Organ
Leaves’. Shimmering, low in volume, drone like, mysterious and gentle; these are keywords for the early
work of Asuna, but one could also see this as computer based music, yet it always remains warm. And
come to think of it, closing one’s eyes during his concert one could easily think an element of glitch is
still present in his sound, but then a bit louder than this one. I would think Asuna uses organ sounds,
small percussion (glockenspiel), loops and maybe a bit of field recordings. It’s small and intimate
music, the perfect wake-up music on a sunny spring Sunday.
That was in 2003, ‘Mille Drops’ is from 2017. What is the development? One of the things that one
immediately notices that the sound is fuller, even when less seems to be happening. This time there
are only three pieces on this CD, spanning just thirty-four minutes and all three have a minimalist
approach. The organs still produce drones, but reach out for overtones and hum about, while the
percussion is looped around with some richer sound. This is still a xylophone, I think, but it sounds
like a thousand raindrops, which is reflected in the title of the release. I would think, but perhaps I
am all wrong, that there is more computer processing on this record than so many years ago. Asuna
has two long pieces and one shorter and while these pieces are minimal he creates within these pieces
some radical changes so it moves into entirely different territories. Sometimes by slowly fading new
sound material into the equation, but sometimes also by letting something die out and then slowly fade
up something entirely new and let that slowly expand. It is all very much like an Asuna work but one
can easily see the progression. After you woke up, had a coffee, ‘Mille Drops’ easily can go along the
second coffee.
Asuna also runs a label, Ao To Ao, and the two recent releases are pro-pressed mini CDs; you don’t
see that many anymore. The first one is a twenty-piece compilation and all the music is played on
machines produced by Casio. There are no titles, except that each song is named after the models
used, so for instance Otk has ‘Cz-1000, Ctk-701, Dh-100, Mt-68’ and Stijn Huwels ‘Vl-1’. On the labels’
website there are a bunch of pictures of these. Some musicians add a bit of singing and maybe some
other instruments and also I assume to some extent there has been additional (computer) production,
but throughout the characteristic Casio sound can easily be recognized in these pieces, and with
everybody doing roughly an one-minute song there is some excellent speed here among these pieces.
It ranges from electronic pop to more drone like excursions with A Les yachts also using the surprise
appearance of a Casio clock. Excellent compilation! With: Bitchin Bajas, Sam Prekop, Otk, Lau Nau,
Minamo, Fukurahagibatake + Noblue, Dudal, Ten Tote, Velveljin, Stijn Huwels, Nesbitt’s Inequality,
Yohei Yamakado, A Les Yachts, Ichito Mori, Red Brut, Mermomoc, Yingfan, Steteko + Tatami, Federico
Durand and Shibata & Asuna.
I had plans to see Le Ton Mité when they were in town earlier this month but another meeting
took too much time and I missed out. So I am not sure what it is all about, but here is a mini CD with
one song, ‘I’m Going To The Store To get Some Vegetables’, played twenty-one, each in a different
style; space, electro, grunge, art school, reggae, s.c.a., hip hop, ambient, folk, rave, quartet, low fi, funk,
charles ives, computer, country, choir, far out, le ton mite, metal and live in berlin, all as listed on the
cover. Le Ton Mité takes the idea of say funk, ambient, folk and tries to play it on his instruments as
rudimentary as possible. It never becomes very much country, hip hop or metal, but throughout there
is a very naive approach to all these styles. Some of these are really funny, like ‘country’, but I didn’t
recognize much ‘reggae’ or ‘hip hop’, but in the latter’s defence: it is only fifteen seconds. It is all
nineteen minutes and throughout it is quite funny I guess, but perhaps also a bit too much of a
novelty thing. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.faderbyheadz.com/
––– Address: https://www.recit-rec.com/
––– Address: https://sites.google.com/site/aotoao3inch/
MAP 165 – OF ADAM SLEEPING IN THE LAP OF GOD (CDR by Rural Colours)
For me Map 165 is a new name. It is a collaboration between Martin A Smith and Tim Hooper, also
new names for me, and they have had their debut released in 2014 by Voxxov. This new work is
inspired by the “North portico of Chartres cathedral, melting stone into music”, as it says on the
cover. To that end they picked up synthesizers and guitars and along with field recordings and no
doubt sound effects they created four pieces, all around ten to twelve minutes. In each of these pieces
time is brought to a standstill, or at least a serious slow motion with very majestically moves. It is like
they are drawing circles, long ones by hand, so there are small irregularities to be noted. It is not a
long loop on a mindless repeat action. Throughout each piece, movements are added and subtracted,
going round and round, and the mood of the music is very solemn and quiet. It invites, well, no,
screams for contemplation, but having said that Map 165 isn’t the most traditional ambient group,
nor is the music new agey. There is a pleasant form of disturbance to be noted in this music, a rough
edge, a mild dissonance if you will, that makes that I for one really like this music, despite falling
asleep on the first time playing. That rough edge can be a ringing sound in the higher frequency
range, a buried oscillating synth underneath or the overtone of guitar feedback, but with the spacious
humming voices one doesn’t note it that much, or rather it makes a very fine balance between the
dissonance and the gentle approaches. This is some very refined music for the moods. (FdW)
––– Address: https://ruralcolours.bandcamp.com
COLD VOODOO – AB+ (cassette by Wide Ear Records)
A LINEAR THOUGHT (7” by Wide Ear Records)
Cold Voodoo is a Swiss duo of Tobias Meier (alto saxophone) and Silvan Jeger (bass). Both are young
improvisers whose names appear regularly in Vital Weekly. Jeger may be known from his participation
in Day & Taxi, the group led by veteran saxophonist Christoph Gallio. Tobias Meier participates in
Things to Sound, a trio with his brother David Meier on drums and Yves Theiler on piano and synth.
Both musicians work together since many years in different projects. And these recordings illustrate
their fine interplay and communication. Very engaging improvisations that are lively, spirited and
sensitive. Improvised music as it should be. I especially enjoyed the nice tone of Meier on his
saxophone. All condensed in two improvisations of about 15 minutes. Recorded in Basel somewhere
in 2017. A Linear Thought is a curious collaboration of Tobias Meier (composition) with Dalia Donadio
(voice) and Berni Doessegger (words). Released as a 7”-single with two tracks, recorded 2016 in Basel
and Berlin. It shows Meier from a totally different side. As a composer of two short vocal works, which
has nothing to do with improvisation. Dalia Donadio performs them. We know her from her
collaboration with Linda Vogel as Schwalbe & Elephant, who released the excellent ‘Ich Als Du’- album
also for Wide Ear. In these two multi-tracked pieces we hear Donadio producing long sustained sounds.
Singing if you want in a non-verbal way. With a nice poetic and thought provoking text by Berni
Doesegger, in German only. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.wideearrecords.ch/
TODD ANDERSON-KUNERT – A GOOD TIME TO GO (cassette by Nonlinear)
One of the more original packages for sound carriers to land on our desk was an artificial flower that
came with an USB drive, or vice versa, delivered from Australia with music from Todd Anderson-
Kunert (Vital Weekly 1070). His releases so far are conceptually strong and musically interesting.
The previous one used vibrators and people masturbating. This new cassette is about the right
moment to leave. You are at a party, talking with someone and the other leaves and doesn’t return
to the conversation. I am sure that this is something that happened to anyone at one point. It is
something Anderson-Kunert wanted to reflect in the five pieces on his cassette, and while I am not
how it works out exactly, I can say that regardless of this the music is very enjoyable. As before
Anderson-Kunert’s music is drone based, a bit louder and a bit grittier than many of his peers, but
it is never very noisy. In the past I compared it to the likes of Joe Colley and Francesco Meirino, but
here Anderson-Kunert continues to progress and leaves out overtly harsh tones and rough cuts; not
that he used many of those before. The element of sound collage is something he does keep around,
but sounds move around in a gentler way. It is not too easy what he uses here, unless one finds the
vague notion of ‘electronics, synthesizers and samples’ enough. I would think those would do tricks
like this. The music is quite personal, especially a piece like ‘A Moment To Have’, which seems to be
using voice as well, mumbling, sighing and slightly altered, but which comes also across as a bit sad.
In his sound treatments that melancholic aspect is also used quite a bit I think with a soaring, ringing
organ tone sound. This is another beautiful release from this fine composer. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.thisisnonlinear.com
SIMON WHETHAM – OPEN AND CLOSED CIRCLES (cassette by Mappa)
When Mappa invited Simon Whetham to do a cassette release he was not over the moon with joy.
Whetham’s delicate field recordings based music is better suited on LP or CD, he thinks, but upon
further thought the idea to do a work that is made for cassette became something he was excited
about. For these six pieces on this cassette he collected a whole bunch of sounds he associates with
cassettes; “mechanism, magnetism, friction, rotation, failure, repetition, fragility, ephemerality” as
he calls it, and to that end there is a whole bunch sounds used in these pieces. There is a fine amount
of crackling sounds, electric charges, magnetic sounds from electrical devices, all from around the
house but also there are, so I believe, sounds from outside, machines, fences in motion through
vibrating objects adding a sense of space to these recordings. While there are six pieces on this
cassettes I must admit that the medium of the cassette gives the listener a hard time identifying
each individual piece and I for one wasn’t paying that much attention where a track starts and stops,
and simply enjoyed the whole thing as two side long collages of sound. In each piece, so it seems to
me, Whetham uses this collage approach, by placing small blocks next to each other and via a rough
cut going back and forth between them, not unlike Francisco Meirino or Joe Colley’s treatment of
electrical sources. This is a great tape release, with a rather normal cover, very unlike Mappa’s
previous releases. (FdW)
––– Address: http://mappa.bandcamp.com
CALINECZKA – WYDATEK NEUTRONÓW PODCZAS POBUDZONEJ WYBUCHOWO KOMPRESJI DEUTER-
TRYT W UKŁADZIE CYLINDRYCZNYM Z WARSTWĄ O DUŻEJ INERCJI (cassette by Szara Reneta Tapes)
That title us surely one tongue twister, even in English, I guess, as it is supposed to mean “neutron
yield for explosion-induced DT compression in cylindrical system with heavy inertial layer”. I have
no idea what any of that means. Calineczka is a new name by behind is someone whose work was
reviewed in Vital Weekly 391 and 420, back under the flag of Aleph. After some fifteen years of silence
here’s another tape, with “three miniatures for a modular synthesizer”; miniatures that take up about
a little less than one hour. Of the two older releases I reviewed one, but I couldn’t honestly remember
what it sounded like. Modular synthesizer music is out there quite a bit and while not everybody is
out to release his or her music, preferring to let it exist in the moment, Calineczka’s takes quite a
radical approach. On the first side everything is faded up slowly but once in place it is quite a heavy
slab of a single dark tone, which may set the foundation of house in serious jeopardy. I turned down
the volume, as I was afraid for neighbourly complaints. The two pieces on the other side are alike,
but both have one or two extra sounds it seems, yet also gravitate around the low end humming. As
said this is quite the radical approach and for one I am not sure if a modular set-up is at all required
here. Heavily amplified electrical hum picked up from the wall socket may to the same trick. Play
with caution and enjoy its single-minded approach. (FdW)
––– Address: https://szarareneta.bandcamp.com/