SONOLOGYST – SILENCERS (CD by Cold Spring Records) *
MAYUKO HINO – LUNISOLAR (CD by Cold Spring Records) *
NOVI_SAD – INTERNATIONAL INTERNAL CATASTROPHES (CD, private) *
FABIO ORSI/ALESSANDRA GUTTAGLIERE – GIARDINO FORICO; NUMBER 1: NAPLES (CD, book by
Silentes) *
JEPH JERMAN – IMBRACTION (CD by Unfathomless) *
DIRK SERRIES – EPITAPH (2CD by Consouling Sounds) *
DIRK SERRIES & COLIN WEBSTER – GARGOYLES (CD by Raw Tonk Records) *
JACQUES DEMIERRE – ABECEDAIRE/ABC BOOK (book and CD by Lenka Lente) *
DEMIERRE-DÖRNER-KOCHER – CONE OF CONFUSION (CD by Bruit) *
GURA – CALIGURA (LP by Silken Tofu/CD by Consouling Sounds) *
JASON VAN GULICK – CONCRETE (LP by Silken Tofu/CD by Consouling Sounds) *
PLURALS – TRI TONE (LP by Silken Tofu)
NILS ROSTAD – USES INSTRUMENTS BECAUSE HE LIKES THE SOUNDS (LP by Tallerk Plater)
TWENTYTWENTYONE/DIISSC ORCHESTRA (split LP by MIC Lithuania)
PAVILION/PAVILJONAS (CD compilation by MIC Lithuania)
KATJA INSTITUTE – TIME AGE (3CDR, private) *
KALLABRIS – KETTENWINDEL BINGO (CDR by Klappstuhl Records) *
LANDSCAPE: ISLANDS (compilation cassette by Aural Detritus)
LÄRMSCHUTZ – DIVINE DESCENT (cassette, private)
SPARKLE IN GREY – THE BONES OF QUIETNESS (cassette, private)
SONOLOGYST – SILENCERS (CD by Cold Spring Records)
MAYUKO HINO – LUNISOLAR (CD by Cold Spring Records)
The subtitle of the latest Sonologyst CD is ‘the conspiracy theory dossiers’. I love me some theory, the
wilder, the better. Here it is about “Silencers, usually known as Men In Black”, who “are on the most
mysterious matter related to conspiracy and plots”. I am a sceptic, as you may know, so how come we
know so much about something that is labelled as ‘most mysterious’? I just love all of them, every alien
race invasion, illumination, chem trail or right/left wing repression theory. A website, preferable not
really well designed, packed with anything that says ‘reality can’t be that silly and don’t be fooled, there
must be an explanation’, has my attention for a solid few hours. More like a good novel, I should think. In
the meantime I’d like to hear some good, strange music and Raffaele Pezzella from Italy, also known as
Sonologyst known how to provide such as soundtrack. Before he has two releases that I know of (see
Vital Weekly 1038 and 1048) and it seemed back that he was inspired by Stockhausen, Henry, Ferrari,
Subotnick, Nono, Pousseur, Parmegiani and Maderna, but his work showed more traces of early
industrial music and that’s something that lingers on in this new work. While the press text mentions
that Sonologyst includes ‘spy tech, declassified documents, official recordings, control techs, secreted
scientific information, CIA deep black programs, NASA classified tapes”, I must ask myself: where can I
find this in the music? It is not easy to tell, I would think. There are quite a bit of synthesizers used,
surely, but also quite some effects, and, perhaps the biggest surprise, also quite a bit of acoustic
instruments. I could easily think there is a violin here, and a plucked guitar there, reminding me of
some early industrial music; think Throbbing Gristle in their most improvisational modus. Throughout,
and that should be no surprise, the mood is dark and atmospheric. Sonologyst’s music is in fact quite a
bit about improvisations on violins and guitars (I think), but covered with quite a bit of sound effects, in
order to get it all a bit spookier. The promised narrative aspect is something I don’t see, as the pieces
are short(-ish) and to the point and even at times quite melodic and structured, not very abstract and
that works out to quite a lovely CD.
You might recognize the name of Mayuko Hino as one of the four members of C.C.C.C., who by now
could be labelled as ‘Japanese noise legends’. Among their ranks was also Hiroshi Hasegawa, who went
on to play heavy-duty psychedelic noise, but also Hino works in a similar direction. She uses, next to
instruments she made herself, her voice in combination with six Theremin oscillators (all in bright
pink), made by Ryo Araishi, but there is also the use of metallic percussion; that very much in the first
piece, ‘Faintainhead’. Those percussive bits are slow and somehow intended to be meditative, but the
Theremin’s of course produce quite a bit of noise. I can understand that for some people the
overwhelming aspect of pure noise can be a form of meditation, but I am not one of them. Of course I
do like a fair of bit of noise, as the other piece here, ‘Astral Traveling’ has no percussion and just
electronics. Hino uses in the first piece quite a bit of phaser and flanger effects, which not many people
do these days, and those add quite a bit of a rainbow coloured psychedelic feeling to it. The second
piece starts out more in a chopped up way, but slowly comes together when more and more effects
are spun together and comes together in a more traditional noise manner. This is some true noise
music, but ‘Faintainhead’ is a piece that marks a different approach. I wouldn’t mind hearing more
of that direction. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
NOVI_SAD – INTERNATIONAL INTERNAL CATASTROPHES (CD, private)
The name Novi_sad, also known as Thanasis Kaproulias, doesn’t pop up very often in Vital Weekly. Since
2007 there have been a few releases, on Sedimental, Gradual Hate Records and three on Sub Rosa; seven
albums in total, eight if you count ‘International Internal Catastrophes’. I am not sure I am not sure
why there isn’t more but I believe much time goes into traveling, concerts and installations. Likewise
I couldn’t say if I heard all of them; I doubt I did. This new one doesn’t have any information, except
the somewhat cryptic poster ‘Music Is Our Answer To Death’ and it consists of two distinct parts,
“which have been composed by processing recorded sounds from Iceland and New York”. Novi_sad is,
as far as I know, mainly a laptop artist and in the first piece, which, including silence, is about fourteen
minutes he offers a very heavily processed versions of field recordings. It is hard to say what these field
recordings are; it could the rustling of leaves or some form of white noise. It kicks in, after a minute of
silence, in full force and stays there, more or less, until the very end. It is quite brutal, perhaps keeping
the word ‘catastrophes’ in mind. The second half, roughly eighteen minutes, builds from very quiet to
very loud, and the field recordings have been on a meltdown course in a blast furnace and the result is
a blast of organ like drones, in which in the final part of the piece has a similar heavy treatment as the
first half. Screaming voices (or voice, I am not sure) can be recognized occasionally in this section, which
adds to the creepy feeling of the music. If you equal laptop music with warm glitch drones, then this
new Novi_sad release should give you a serious rethink. This is some excellent scary music and it cuts
out abruptly as to make the full force darkness complete. This is some fascinating music. (FdW)
––– Address: http://novi-sad.net/releases/iic-7-2/
FABIO ORSI/ALESSANDRA GUTTAGLIERE – GIARDINO FORICO; NUMBER 1: NAPLES (CD, book by
Silentes)
While I couldn’t find what ‘Giardino Forico’ means, an Italian friend tells me that it could be something
‘Garden Of Emotion’, but that it is a neologism. The first garden is (perhaps) located in Naples. The book
part is 60 pages, 17×24 centimeter, and contains photographs and graphic work by Alessandra
Guttagliere. Some of these photos have been treated with ink and some of this graphic work looks like
painting but upon closer look it seems more like a photo. This all makes up some strange imaginary
and each of the images seems quite poetic and naturalistic. Lots of trees, branches, sea, but also people;
I assume the latter coming from Naples. I am not sure but it could very well be that that duties here
aren’t as clear-cut as I would expect. I don’t know about Guttagliere and involvement with music; but
Fabio Orsi is as well informed in the world of photography as he is in the world of music. Sadly only
three tracks (although there is also a limited double CD version), spanning thirty-six minutes of which
the first one, ‘Charabia’ is the longest and also taking up quite a bit of field recordings. Here too I must
assume they come from the city of Naples. Towards the end and in the other two pieces there is a bit
more Orsi’s trademark drones to be heard. These are usually made with a guitar, a whole bunch of
effects and perhaps some kind of computer technology. In these new pieces it seems as if he wants to
set the field recordings and drones apart from each other a bit more than what we are used too. In the
final ‘Hanami Il Passaggio’ it seems as if these comes together a bit more, with water sounds and Orsi
using the e-bow on the strings to create some seventies guitar drones before landing in a very unusual
melodic bit at the end of that. Sometimes, in all three pieces, there are abrupt stops and things move to
somewhere else. The mood of the music, which is dark but also at the same time not necessarily so, fits
the dreamlike collages inside the book quite well and we can say this is a most successful collaboration.
(FdW)
––– Address: http://13.silentes.it/
SANDRO MUSSIDA –VENTUNO CONSTELLAZIONI INVISIBILI (Blu Ray Disc by Metrica)
Italian-born Mussida works and lives in London as a composer, cellist and electronic performer. I don’t
know much about his whereabouts. He collaborated with Mark Fell, a Sheffield-based experimental
electronic musician, for releases on The Tapeworm and Object Relations. With ‘Ventuno Costellazioni
Invisibili’ Mussida presents his first solo-work, containing two versions of the same composition. The
work is performed by Enrico Gabrielli (flute, clarinet), Yoko Morimyo (violin), Suzanne Satz (piano),
Alessandra Novaga (electric guitar), Giulio Patara (triangles, celesta), Sebastiano de Gennaro (triangles,
glockenspiel, chinese gongs), Giuseppe Isgrò (winds live looping) and Mussida himself (director, violin
live looping). The composition is built from small motives and gestures embedded in a silent space.
Electric guitar and piano are most prominent. The other instruments weave a tapestry of delicate and
elegant textures. The second version opens with strong glissandi by the violin. The music is classical
and minimalistic. It is sounds misleadingly simple, but this is really a well thought-out composition.
Not a demanding listening experience. But totally tranquilizing. The blu ray release entails also a
visual composition by Rebecca Salvadori, titled ‘synchronized and non-synchronized exercises of
arrhythmic empathy’. It is “a series of animated shapes and colours, assembled together according
to constantly evolving combinations of intentionalities”, commisoned by Mussida for his ‘Ventuno
Costellazioni Invisibili’. (DM)
––– Address: http://sandromussida.com/
JEPH JERMAN – IMBRACTION (CD by Unfathomless)
The first time I heard the word ‘imbrication’ was when PGR used it in the late 80s as a term for their
music. It is also the last time I heard it and perhaps that is strange. It is a word that is actually very
useable for music, where stuff is usually layered. Jeph Jerman uses it here and he lists a whole bunch
of locations where he made his recordings, so I assume there is some layering. It is unusual for a
release on Unfathomless to have recordings from nine different locations. Usually it is one or two. The
cover shows images of some of these locations and curious enough there are also small battery operated
speakers to be seen, which made me believe that Jerman performed sounds on locations with natural
elements. Which is in fact something I believe he does for some time. These days we don’t hear a lot of
his music, unlike the late 80s/early 90s when he was working as Hands To and in a more electronic/
noise area. Since the mid 90s he works with sounds on locations and that sets his work apart from the
‘other’ people who work with field recordings. Quite rightly Unfathomless is very happy with the
addition of a work from him to their catalogue, and they asked me to inform you that they now also
have a limited art edition with a set of a different set of covers available from their releases. Their
regular edition still looks fine to me, as always. The music is an excellent mix of field recordings and
manually operated sounds. In the first half there seems to be insects and water sounds, maybe frogs
near a pond, in other sections it is less obvious. There is a section where rocks are rolled around, there
is a section in which there is some rusty metal being twisted and in the middle there is something
electronic, like the vibrating of a plate upon a metal surface. And all of this flows very slowly into each
other, quite a like a journey over a rocky mountain road. This may not be an all too standard release
for this label; the fact that it is different is surely a most welcome addition to the label’s already great
output. (FdW)
––– Address: https://unfathomless.bandcamp.com
DIRK SERRIES – EPITAPH (2CD by Consouling Sounds)
DIRK SERRIES & COLIN WEBSTER – GARGOYLES (CD by Raw Tonk Records)
While the title ‘Epitaph’ suggests something else, Dirk Serries says goodbye to ambient, but only for
now. On the cover he writes that he has been producing ‘vintage ambient’ (his words) for thirty years
and that was as Vidna Obmana when he used synthesizers, and with a guitar as Fear Falls Burning
and later on under his given name, but it’s time to move on new challenges. Perhaps a bit odd, me
think, that he says on the cover “Epitaph is therefore my finest collection of ambient pieces to date”.
The word ‘therefore’ seems a bit odd, and also to say this is the finest could mean the rest of his
previous, vast output isn’t as good? Armed with a guitar and sound effects and playing it lived, going
straight into the computer. Ten pieces, spanning some ninety minutes of music and Serries delivers
what he can do so well, indeed for thirty years. Long sustaining pieces of guitar music, which could
just as easily pass on as something played on a synthesizer. And sometimes it sounds indeed very
much like a guitar indeed, such as in ‘Formations Of Grace’. Serries waves together long form tones
and it moves glacier like around. Slow and massive. Is this the finest collection to date of his ambient
music? I find that very hard to say. Over the years I heard a lot of music by Vidna Obmana, even when
it was still hard-core noise in the mid 80s, and also quite some Fear Falls Burning, yet not all of it, so
who am I to tell if this is the finest? It is however a very solid work, with Serries knowing exactly what
he does and he does that very well, but he has been delivering consistent high quality ambient for
many years. He leaves (if he leaves at all, of course) ambient on a very high note.
So what is Serries going to do? That is a bit of a rhetorical question as we already know that since
a couple of years he’s also into producing improvised music (see also Vital Weekly 1110 and 1101 for
more work in that direction) and one of the persons he regularly plays with is Colin Webster, who
handles alto and baritone saxophones. On June 11th 2017 the two of the met up in a studio in London
and recorded the seventeen pieces on ‘Gargoyles’. That may sound like a lot of music, but it all happens
within the space of twenty-seven minutes. The shortest is 1:01 and the longest 2:20; that is almost
punk rock like, and while some of this is certainly chaotic and strange, I don’t think the two set out to
create something wild necessarily. It is more about to create something full energy within a very
limited time span. There is something Zen like about it. A controlled burst of energy if you will and
once that is done, it is time for the next one. The level of control is also to be found within the use of the
instruments. Both are recognizable as guitar (without many effects, I would think) and the saxophones,
but especially Serries doesn’t play his teacher ever told him (assuming he had a teacher of course).
Scratching, plucking and hitting, mainly on the fret board, while Webster plays mostly short notes,
fierce and loud, or introspective and spacious. Everything is recorded in a very direct way, which
makes that the music is very much in your face, but that is what makes this also quite enjoyable.
This is overall an excellent improvisation duet. (FdW)
––– Address: https://consouling.be/
––– Address: https://rawtonkrecords.bandcamp.com/
JACQUES DEMIERRE – ABECEDAIRE/ABC BOOK (book and CD by Lenka Lente)
DEMIERRE-DÖRNER-KOCHER – CONE OF CONFUSION (CD by Bruit)
Give me a book on music and I will read it. Recently I read Bruce Dickinson’s autobiography, Art
Pepper’s autobiography and re-read the ever brilliant ‘The Dirt’ about Mötley Crue. I don’t care much
for any of that music (and in Bruce’s case I could have done without the many stories about his life as a
pilot), but of course I like to read something about music that I like. In the case of Jacques Demierre I
had to go through the old Vital Weekly archives to see to what extent I heard his music. It turned out
not to be a lot but I do know that he is a gifted improviser on the piano. I started reading his book,
before playing the CD that came with it, and just two days later, true story this, a CD of his with Axel
Dörner (on trumpet) and Jonas Kocher (on accordion) dropped in, so it placed a bit more perspective
on what I was reading. Lenka Lente publishes the book and unlike the small books they also publish,
this is in French and English. For every letter of the alphabet Demierre has a one or more words and
he writes a short about that subject. It ranges from auto-biographical notes about pianos, works he
performed, people he has played with, circumstances of playing, listening to other people’s music,
calligraphy and so on. Demierre has a very pleasant style, which makes this all very easy to read. I
would like to think Demierre enjoys writing texts (a bibliography is enclosed, just as a discography)
and I understand from his book that he also works as a sound poet. An example is enclosed on the
piece on the CD, which is called ‘Ritournelle’, It is a word piece, in which each word is repeated at
approx. 130bpm, “in a way to create a horizontal acoustic matter that unfolds in a movement of
consonant and vocalic morphing”. “Fremd” becomes “Freld”, which transforms into “Frelt”, morphing
into “Feld”. This is a totally fascinating piece, which somehow gave me the impression is recorded live,
as we hear Demierre grasping for breath at the speed of pronouncing these words. It’s interesting,
fascinating and beautiful how one words morphs into the next word, into the next and so forth. Mainly
German words (I think) but that’s not really important. It is about the idea and the execution there of,
and it sounds like very rhythmic tour de force. This is not something to play when reading the book, I’d
say.
The work Demierre recorded with Axel Dörner and Jonas Kocher is the second release by them,
following ‘Floating Piece Of Space’ (see Vital Weekly 1056), which I didn’t review. Following all that I
read in his book in the past days, picking up to play this CD afterwards (and that wasn’t a consciousness
decision; I realize I would have looked at it in a different way when I had played it before reading the
book) and I noted it didn’t matter that I knew more now than I did before. This trio practices improvised
music and the instruments sound very much like you know how they sound. The piano being the piano
and the trumpet the trumpet, but perhaps the accordion only partly being an accordion, and sometimes
sounding like a big acoustic box being rubbed and scratched. That combination delivers something that
is perhaps a bit more traditional in approach, more leaning towards the world of free jazz. There is a
fine interaction among these players, listening and responding. Mostly it is on the quiet side with
introspective tones on the piano and the trumpet, with accordion providing something that is a bit
longer in approach, and perhaps also adding an element of darkness, curious enough. ‘The Errors
Introduced By Such An Exchange Are Within The Errors’ is a piece that is a bit louder and partly
noisier. But when it is quiet, it is very quiet in that piece. This trio delivered a very refined CD that
requires one’s full attention. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.lenkalente.com
GURA – CALIGURA (LP by Silken Tofu/CD by Consouling Sounds)
JASON VAN GULICK – CONCRETE (LP by Silken Tofu/CD by Consouling Sounds)
PLURALS – TRI TONE (LP by Silken Tofu)
There is musical terminology in which I am not well versed. Sludge is one such term. I never know
what that entails. Silken Tofu calls the music of Gura ‘experimental sludge’ (to make matters worse?)
and they started in 2004 as a duo on bass and drums, but in 2014 Ludo joined them on saxophone and
that (apparently) changed the music. This music is quite strange, but perhaps more so for someone like
me who isn’t used to ‘sludge’. The saxophone wails about, occasionally that is, drops in at other times
and the bass and drums play in a slow metal fashion. Doom is another word that applies here, I would
say, but it’s mostly the chaos that prevails here. This is surely music that could appeal to a wider
audience, not just sludge lovers but basically anybody with open ears to sludge, metal, John Zorn, free-
jazz. I am sure there are plenty, but as much as I enjoyed hearing this, I don’t get it. No doubt, in
concert, I would enjoy it very much (I know a dingy basement where this would fit very well), but on
CD, on a sunny morning, I am not overjoyed. Maybe I am not depressed enough yet? Or manic?
More along the lines of Vital Weekly is the work of percussion player Jason van Gulick. I didn’t
review his previous release, ‘Entelechy’ (Vital Weekly 930), so this is the first time I hear his music. I
believe he is from Belgium, but recorded his CD in Halle B of the ‘La Condition Publique’ in Roubaix.
It is apparently a space with some great acoustic proportions and Van Gulick has an interest in using
sound and the way it travels through a space. Interestingly enough not all of the five pieces here have
this massive, natural reverb. In the opening piece everything is very close and quite direct. The ringing
of cymbals open up and at one point in this (untitled, all are) piece the sound is being picked up from a
bit further away and we hear a massive drone like. Van Gulick shifts back and forth with his playing,
using sticks, bows, and objects on the entire kit. This results is an occasional thick, massively sound, in
which Van Gulick’s playing blends refined with the travels of those sounds through that space. I can
imagine he used quite a bit of microphone set-ups in this to come up quite close or, as a total opposite
very far away and in the process of making this CD, Van Gulick mixes these recordings together. While
it may sound like a ‘live’ record, I am pretty sure it isn’t. Quite a bit of work went into balancing the
various recordings and Van Gulick delivers a beautiful record. Loud and dark, light and quiet; he
knows how to built excellent soundscapes in space, but also he knows how to transfer these to the
listener and give him a similar experience.
Silken Tofu seems to be taken by the music of Plurals; as a follow-up to a double CD
‘Atlantikwall’ (see Vital Weekly 1076), they now release a LP. This LP is the first studio recording of
them as a trio, and the first studio recording to be released since 2014. This trio of improvisers (Daniel
Mackenzie, Michael Neaves and David Hamilton-Smith) use a variety of tools (guitar, synthesizers,
keyboards, vocals, tape machines, radio and reed and string instruments) and then go about to do their
improvised work. For this record they recorded some three hours of music and extracted forty-eight
minutes spread out over the two sidelong pieces. I can’t judge if that is a lot or not. The music on both
pieces is quite dense, rich with sound and also mostly not too loud. That seems to me a bit of break with
what I know from them so far, which was always bit more towards the noise of lo-fi drone music. Like
always the changes within the pieces is quite minimal; Plurals take their time to slow go from one point
in their piece to the next. In ‘Sun Lock’ for instance a simple drone starts out and little by little they add
more and more sound, while the original drone lingers on, and towards the end it is very much changed
and no longer recognizable. It ends as quiet as it started. Hard to say how much post-production and
editing took place here. Surely something, I would think, but for all we know, it is released as it was
played back then. ‘Bas Fond’ on the other side is more from the drone rock side of Plurals with mildly
distorted guitars played long form drones. A record with two sides, obviously, showing two different
sides of Plurals, not as obvious. From what I heard from them, this is the most refined work. (FdW)
––– Address: https://silkentofu.bandcamp.com/
NILS ROSTAD – USES INSTRUMENTS BECAUSE HE LIKES THE SOUNDS (LP by Tallerk Plater)
With all those strange sounds that drop by this desk on a daily basis, all the noise, electronics, technoids,
improvs and dronists, one could easily forget there is also a bunch of people who play weird music that
upon closer inspection is perhaps not as weird. Or maybe vice versa. People like Nils Rostad from
Norway for instance. He’s a man who loves instruments and who loves sounds, as the title of his latest
record implies, but the outcome is not necessarily weird and alien and at the same time it is also not
really pop either. It is a bit of all and everything, just like we know his music best by now as Rostad has
been going for some time now. Many of the instruments are played by the man himself, bit he gets help
from friends on flute, trumpet, baritone saxophone, and violin, among others. His songs are strange
hybrids of jazzy tones, of folk music, of improvised music; sometimes seventies progressive rock, but
played in a very naive way, which is most enjoyable. Sometimes Rostad sounds like a one-man This
Heat, but fully instrumental. And if you think this would be a strange mismatch of sounds, instruments
and ideas then you are wrong. Rostad keeps his music very much together; his naivety in playing as
well as in structuring his songs, works like charm here. Like before Jos Smolders did a great job on the
mastering and there is a fine, crisp clear sound to these pieces. It comes with a gatefold sleeve, perhaps
to stay in line with the idea of a seventies record, so I was thinking, but the drawing of Rostad on the
cover, as well as some of the titles, is guarantee that Rostad surely celebrates a lighter side of life. This
is the perfect antidote for an afternoon of grim music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://nilsrostad.com/
TWENTYTWENTYONE/DIISSC ORCHESTRA (split LP by MIC Lithuania)
PAVILION/PAVILJONAS (CD compilation by MIC Lithuania)
It has been a while since I last heard the name Twentytwentyone, the laptop quartet from Lithuania,
with members Lina Lapelyte, Antanas Dombrovskij, Arturas Bumsteinas and Vilius Siaulys. They never
released that much, but I didn’t know they were still playing. They perform graphical scores by all sorts
of composers, and each member prepares stuff at home and then it is played live. A score that has been
used a lot of Cornelius Cardew’s ‘Treatise’, which they also used when I heard of them first time around,
back in Vital Weekly 562. I quote myself ‘some 193 or pages of lines, symbols and circles, one can select
one or more pages and ‘do whatever comes to mind’. I no longer recall how that sounded like, but the
new version, with each supervising one of the mix of one of the four parts, sounds very good. Hard to
say, obviously, what goes into the computer and what kind of treatments they use inside the box, but
one can easily assume a whole bunch of treated acoustic sounds and electronic patches. No matter
what those Cardew pages look like, the outcome is very good. There is an excellent dialogue between
sounds and treatments and it’s not a matching and patching of sounds. Just some solid electronic
music, of the live musique concrete variety, going on here.
On the other side we find the Diissc Orchestra, also consisting of four persons (Martynas
Bialobzeskis, Antanas Jasenka, Vytautas V. Jurgutis and Jonas Jurkunas). They started out in 2008,
also with ‘special’ graphic scores but also “disc players, stopwatches and low-tech devices”. Each
member composed a piece for the orchestra, and I would think there is quite some vinyl being spun
here, but there is also quite some electronics at work, I would think as it never has that rotating
feeling that ‘music with vinyl’ a lot of times. Diiscc Orchestra skips back and forth between abstract
drone music and towards the end the skipping of vinyl of vinyl is elegantly chopped up into almost
dance material, which for a serious institution like MIC Lithuania seems a major step in a different
direction. Diiscc Orchestra is a more varied bunch than Twentytwentyone, who keep things more
together but it works out pretty well for both of them.
And there is more from Lithuania; Arturas Bumsteinas is the curator of a compilation CD, ‘Pavilion/
Paviljonas’, of which ‘Listening Practices by Lithunian artists’ is the subtitle. Bumsteinas contributes a
piece; Darius Ciuta is the only other name I recognized, next to Gaile Griciute (but I only recognize the
name from a previous Bumsteinas release). This compilation is “made up recordings of sounds from
particular environments or situations, the compilation is an exercise in active listening”. This can be for
instance a mother walking up a monument in Kiev with a tour guide. We hear some obscure metallic
stairs and somebody talking in a foreign language. Without the booklet I would not have guessed this; a
translation is inside the booklet. There is an audio documentation of a four-day long ritual of semi-
traditional Japanese ceramic kilm firing that took place in Lithunia. Again I would not have been able to
tell you, yet again there is a translation in the booklet. It is all very documentaries like, but some other
pieces are also a bit more musical, such as the whispering sounds by Gaile Griciute. I am a bit confused
as to what would be the best approach here; leave the booklet for what it is and actively engage in
listening to the sounds, without knowing what is going on (which in my case of course doesn’t work
anymore) or actively seek context there? I’d say: first try without and enjoy a pure, clean experience,
and then seek more information if you listen another time. There is some surely fascinating sounds on
this release. (FdW)
––– Address: http://mic.it
KATJA INSTITUTE – TIME AGE (3CDR, private)
It is no secret that I make a lot of mistakes when I write. Should all 4282 subscribers to Vital Weekly
be willing to donate 1 euro a month to read my words I’d be happy to stop any half-hiding garage sales,
donate all material to an archive, review online releases and hire someone to proof read these words.
Until then (and we all know that’s when hell also freezes over) you have to live with the occasional,
regular mistakes. And/or take advantage of those mistakes as Katja Institute did. When I reviewed ‘This
Age’ in Vital Weekly 1076 I wrote mistakenly somewhere in the review ‘Time Age’. It is something the
Katjas liked and now used it for a triple CDR release, with some 150 minutes of drone music. As before
Katja Institute plays long form pieces of drone music, but what seems to be a change is that is now less
static and minimal but more fluid and yet still minimal. Something seems to have changed along the
lines, maybe a change of software, or something else in the way of technology, but there is a subtle
back and forth shifting in this music, which works very well. It is of course quite a sit, all of this music,
but sit back, pick up a book and make a coffee (maybe in a different order) and let this music immerse
you. Maybe it’s a pity that it is spread out over three discs, yet one could always go to the Bandcamp
version and listen from there uninterrupted, but alas a bit of physical movement every now and then
is good. Seven pieces we have here, ranging from three to fifty-three minutes and it all makes a very
coherent listen; the bit of spoken word at the end of ‘They Attack You They yell They Scream They Act
Like Zombies’ (titles on Bandcamp, none on the cover, as usual with Katja Institute releases) seemed
like an odd-ball; I thought a website piped up on top the music I was playing but it is part of the music
and once you get used to it, it makes perfect sense. It neatly breaks with the steady stream of sounds,
but. like said, it works very well. This is another great release. (FdW)
––– Address: https://katjainstitute.bandcamp.com/
KALLABRIS – KETTENWINDEL BINGO (CDR by Klappstuhl Records)
Klappstuhl Records mainly in the digital domain, but I am guaranteed that they also do CDRs ‘should
someone asks for it’, and hence I got this on a CDR. There was a time when I found Kallabris quite
mysterious, connected to Cranioclast and Core and such industrialists from Germany but with the
passing of years I am not really interested in mystery I guess. Kallabris is the one-man project of
Michael Anacker and in the old days he played accordion and voice, but in more recent years it is
mostly electronic. This new release is a re-issue of two earlier releases. ‘No Bingo’ from 2002, although
only half of it, and ‘Kettenwindel’ from 2004. Recordings used on ‘No Bingo’ were already made in the
mid 90s. Not that there are many different approaches here, be it that the thirteen pieces from
‘Kettenwindel’ also have some acoustic sounds, but all within the sampled domain. Tracks from this
release are brief, from merely ten seconds to just over three, whereas the nine tracks from ‘No Bingo’
are from seven seconds to over eight minutes. Sampling and rhythm play an important role in all
twenty-two releases I would think, and there is an element of humour in here that is quite nice;
perhaps also something of a new perspective from Kallabris himself. “Look, I am not that mysterious
and serious”. Some of the sampled voices seem to also point in that direction. That kind of thing. This
is quite a lovely release from a period that I thought Kallabris had disappeared from the world of
music and it sheds an interesting light on the development of Kallabris. (FdW)
––– Address: https://klappstuhl.bandcamp.com/
LANDSCAPE: ISLANDS (compilation cassette by Aural Detritus)
Over the period of one year there was project called ‘Landscape: Islands’, which “explored the
representation of landscape in ceramics and sound” and which included exhibitions, concerts, a
catalogue, a CD and now this cassette of live recordings. All of this took place in 2016. Included here
are pieces by Joseph Young, Paul Khimasia Morgan, Brambling and Steve Beresford and Blanca Regina.
The latter two have two pieces together. As with many of the releases by Aural Detritus the music
walks the fine line between art, music, improvisation and composition. Everything is recorded with a
microphone in the space in which these pieces are performed and that means that whatever else is
happening, audience shuffling their feet or coughing becomes part of the music. There are a lot of small
sounds on this cassette, percussive mainly, but also flute like. Sounds of clay and baking are also used,
but there is also a fair share of field recordings. The cover lists five distinct pieces, but this being a
cassette it is not easy to figure out who did what here (this was one of the main lines of criticism back
in the day about cassettes). This is all some very obscure yet very lovely improvised music, of shuffling
about with objects, tinkering with objects and sitting in nature while doing so. It is all a bit vague, but I
would think that’s the whole idea of it all. (FdW)
––– Address: http://auraldetritus.blogspot.co.uk
LÄRMSCHUTZ – DIVINE DESCENT (cassette, private)
What would another week with Lärmschutz release? Indeed, that would be a quiet week. I must admit
I am not always sure what they are after. ‘Divine Descent’? Is that something religious, perhaps? And
what about the fact that they have thirty tracks here in just over thirty minutes? Jesus lived to be thirty-
three before doing a divine descent, but then this was released on February 21, 2019 (yes, that’s right,
planning ahead). So whatever the concept is, it is not always easy to guess. But within the short
timeframe of a thirty to forty seconds per piece, Lärmschutz can do a lot. I sometimes (or always, even)
refer to them as ‘Dutch anarcho impro-punk’, or something like that, and that is quite well
demonstrated on this new release. Lärmschutz is wild, chaotic, strange, obnoxious in a true free
improvisation mode, but just as easily they hammer out something that could be, in a parallel universe,
be a punk song, or the start of it; Lärmschutz uses no vocals, just guitar, bass, trombone and drums,
with each of the players their own fair share of electronics. Perhaps the only band that fits comparing
is The Ex. While Lärmschutz uses no vocals, it shares the feeling of musical freedom; within the notion
of what could be a song, but just easily off the rails, into free jazz territory or noise. They do it all, and
they do it well. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.larmschutz.nl/
SPARKLE IN GREY – THE BONES OF QUIETNESS (cassette, private)
Here’s a group from Italy that has been around since 2005, and in their first concert they played three
pieces, which were later released on their first official CD, ‘A Quiet Place’ in 2008. Now Matteo Uggeri,
one of the four members returns to the material and does a sort of reductionist of the original multi-
tracks. I can’t find any review of that album, so it might very well be that I never heard it. And if I did I
don’t remember, but luckily there is an online version on the band’s Bandcamp page. By 2008 the
group was four persons, Alberto Carozzi (guitar, bass, effects), Cristiano Lupo (guitar, drums,
glockenspiel) Franz Krostopovic (violin) and Matteo Uggeri (field recordings, samples, bass, objects).
Sparkle In Grey is perhaps a rock group, but one that is very fond of improvisation and also they are a
group that likes to the use the studio as an extra instrument. It is certainly worth your while to
compare this new one with the old one, as there is indeed a fine element of reduction in these pieces.
Whereas the original is very much in the world of rock music, with extensive roles for guitar and
drums, rocking and’a rolling but deconstructed, everything here is very sparse and torn apart. It is,
effectively, like listening to an entirely new work. In almost nothing it seems to resemble the original
and it further more proofs the point that the studio is an instrument. It can create an entirely new
world with the same sonic building blocks. Here rock music is no longer a word we can use, and the
music on this cassette (also available as a CDR actually) is more along the lines of improvisation, yet
with occasional weird sounds and perhaps a somewhat higher level of control. This is an excellent
work, I think. The perfect companion to the old version. (FdW)
––– Address: https://sparkleingrey.bandcamp.com/