LIONEL MARCHETTI – JEU DU MONDE (6CD by Sonoris) *
VERTONEN – ANCHOR/WEATHERVANE/LANTERN (6CDR by Ballast) *
ELIANE RADIGUE – OEUVRES ELECTRONIQUES (14CD by Ina GRM) *
STEPHAN MATHIEU – RADIANCE (12CD by Schwebung)
STEPHAN MATHIEU – FOLIO (8CD by Schwebung) *
ALAN COURTIS – BUCHLA GTR (2LP by Firework Edition)
SEIJIRO MURAYAMA – THE EMPIRE OF SLIP OF THE TONGUE (CD by Ftarri/Hitorri) *
TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA / KEN IKEDA / TOMOYOSHI DATE – INK ON PAPER (CD by
Ftarri/Meenna) *
ANGELO BELLO – GENDYN SUITE (CD by Elli) *
MASSIMO DISCEPOLI – THE RIGHT PLACE ON THE WRONG MAP (CD by DOF)
ABY VULLIAMY – SPIN CYCLE (CD by Karaoke Kalk)
STEPHANIE PAN – HAVE ROBOT DOG, WILL TRAVEL (CD by Arteksounds) *
GUDRUN GUT – MOMENT (CD by Monika Enterprises) *
SARRAM – FOUR MOVEMENTS OF A SHADE (CD by Midira Records) *
GIULIO ALDINUCCI AND THE STAR PILLOW – HIDDEN (CD by Midira Records) *
N (46)/[BOLT] (LP by Midira Records)
YVANKO – PTUVIOSE (12″ by Le Cabanon Records)
GUY-FRANK PELLERIN / MATHIEU BEC – SAXA PETRA (CDR by Setola di Maiale)
ANTONINO SIRINGO-YEK NUR / GUY-FRANK PELLERIN – IT DOESN’T WORK IN A CAR (CDR
by Setola di Maiale)
MARESUKE OKAMOTO / GUY-FRANK PELLERIN / EUGENIO SANNA – OPS! (CDR by Setola di
Maiale)
Not being a consumer of pretty much anything but a reader of a newspaper, I do know that
Christmas time is a time for CD boxes. Traditionally I give myself something towards the end of
the year and this year it was Eliane Radigue’s ‘Oeuvres Electroniques’, a 14CD set with her
electronic pieces. Not really warranting a review, but surely I can spend some words on it. It
arrived on the same day, true story, as a 6CD box set by Lionel Marchetti and a 6CDR set by
Vertonen and a day later Alan Courtis presented a 2LP set. The two Stephan Mathieu boxes I
had for some time already, and I wasn’t intending to review them (I went out to buy them!), but
this seems a good occasion to do so anyway. Surely this is Christmas time, so without further
ado, this first issue of the New Year kicks off with a review of Christmas Boxing set day!
LIONEL MARCHETTI – JEU DU MONDE (6CD by Sonoris)
Following similar box sets by Steve Roden and Kevin Drumm, there is now a 6 CD box set with
music by Lionel Marchetti. Some of these works are previous released. I believe; I am not sure.
There is a booklet and it’s all in French. When a couple of years ago I said something about the
French and their love to present this sort of thing in their native language (I believe it was about
press releases) I got a firm reply implying I was a racist daring to say that the French have a
tendency to think the whole world mastered their language, which actually is not what I said, I
merely pointed out that there is a slightly chauvinistic way in how they perceive their languge. But
take this release, and the words spend on various of these pieces; wouldn’t it be great if more
people could learn what it is about (and yes, there are over 274 million speakers, the sixth most
widely spoken language after Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic; I would say
the same if the booklet was in any of these languages, other than English). All right, so that is the
downside to this box set, but luckily it’s the only downside, because this is more than six hours of
some great music. All of it, actually. The pieces were composed after the year 2000, with one or two
exceptions, such as ‘Pscyhopompos’, which is from 1990, but revised in 2016, so from the earliest
days of Marchetti’s composing. Marchetti is, I should hope, well known for his work in the electro-
acoustic field, taking everyday recordings and melting these into excellent collages of sound. All in
the best tradition of musique concrete, creating aural films, or cinema for the ears. Over the years I
heard quite a bit of his music yet now that I am immersed for two days in hearing this, I notice now
more than before the quiet and slow development many of his pieces have. Sometimes it seems
like almost ambient music, with what seems mellow tones, maybe processed feedback, on top
which we hear whispering voices, fire burning and the sound of the dessert. There is not a lot of
rapid editing and montage, which is sometimes part of this kind of music. Sometimes of course
Marchetti does use those techniques and surely occasionally ups the volume ante a bit, such as
in ‘Inferno’, which samples Whitehouse’s ‘Erector’, in what results in a quite a fiery piece of music.
Those piece add variation to the menu, which is a good thing, even when I prefer the long form
works of field recordings such as ‘Nuit, Insectes, orage’ or ‘Mohave Desert’, or works that combine
sounds like these with instruments such as ‘Une Serie De Reflets’ on the otherwise very quiet CD
‘Le Temps Qui Est La’), when the most becomes introspective as well as something that is indeed
a movie with no image, all sound and very evocative. All together, despite the text difficult to read,
this is a must have box set as well as a fine point to start exploring the work of Marchetti. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.sonoris.org/
VERTONEN – ANCHOR/WEATHERVANE/LANTERN (6CDR by Ballast)
Blake Edwards’ Vertonen is, I noticed this before, a project of various musical interests; lots of his
work deals with drones, but also noise and turntable abuse. Drones play the biggest role in his
work and there too are differences to be spotted. There are works that deal entirely with the use of
computer treatments, or those with synthesizers. The six CDRs in this box, two each called ‘Anchor’,
‘Weathervane’ and ‘Lantern’ (noted by the stamps depicting these) are from the latter category and
were composed over a period of six years, using the Polivoks synthesizer. This was synthesizer
manufactured in the Soviet Union in the 80s and was duophonic and in difference with the synths
you probably heard about (Korg, Moog, Roland) it had a “filter that can be switched from low pass
to bandpass and two envelopes that can be looped over the AD sections” (Wikipedia). I must admit
I don’t know much about synthesizers to understand what that means or, by going by various
YouTube clips, how the sound compares to other synthesizers. I am not versed to review gear. The
works created by Vertonen here are all to be found in the realm of drone music, but there are some
minor variations. For instance, both ‘Anchor’ discs have one long piece, both a very minimal when it
comes to development and both a very quiet. ‘Mirovial Deepwaters’, the second Anchor disc goes
all the way down, so it seems, below the threshold of hearing. The second disc of ‘Weathervane’
and the first of ‘Lantern’ has four and five pieces each, and here Vertonen diversifies his sound,
making things slightly noisier in ‘Hadopalegaic Mapping’, industrial (‘Beebe Hydrothermal Vent
Field 2′) and even slow rhythmic in ‘Beebe Hydrothermal Vent Field 1’. On the first disc ‘Lantern’ it
seems as if Vertonen plays around with external effects a bit more, but I couldn’t say if that is true
or not; maybe it’s all part of the synthesizer. Likewise I have little idea to what extend this is the
result of multi-tracking and/or if it was all played live. For those who listen superficially these
differences would no doubt appear to be small, but for me these are essential and the mark of
someone who knows what he is doing. All pieces were good, but oddly enough the best and
the least shared a disc. The best being ‘Meridonal Overturning Circulation’, which is a beautiful
spooky, haunted house soundtrack, going all-dark at one point and with what seems to be flute
sounds. I watched ‘Nosferatu’ by Werner Herzog the other day and noted the music by Popol Vuh;
I am hearing this Vertonen piece and reminded of that. This could be a great soundtrack as well.
‘Arachaea’ on the same disc is a more chaotic and uncontrolled affair, good but not as good as the
other one on the disc or in the box. But overall this is a great set as well; limited to 33 copies. (FdW)
––– Address: http://ballastnvp.blogspot.com/
ELIANE RADIGUE – OEUVRES ELECTRONIQUES (14CD by Ina GRM)
So, forget what I just wrote about French booklets as this one shows us how these things should
be done; a proper, informative booklet in both French and English. I started writing this review way
before I actually finished hearing all of these CDs. Is there a more honest reviewer? I didn’t stop
because I hated it, for from it, really. I actually went out and purchased this, even when I have some
of the original release and I just couldn’t remember if I ever sold ‘Adnos’, a 3CD set, or if someone
borrowed it without returning. It is part of this box set as well as, along with ‘Les Chants De
Milarepa’, ‘Biogenesis’, ‘L’ile re-Sonate’ and so much more. It spans Radigue’s work from 1971 to
2000, and surely it will be followed one day with another box set of works. There are more reasons
not to consume this in one long go (say the time span of boxing day) and that is because the works
of Radigue aren’t easily consumed. You don’t stick on one after another; at least not me. I play one
and then play the next one a couple of days later, and so on. The radical minimalism of Radigue
with its long sustaining notes, sometimes very high frequencies and prolonged passages of
seemingly nothing going leaves the occasional sense of emptiness and that is somehow a very
nice feeling, and not replaced by sticking on the next work by her. Or anything else for that matter.
Radigue is an inspiration for a lot the musicians I review, especially when their names are used in
combination with the words ‘drone’ and ‘modular electronics’ and the really low price these fourteen
CDs there is hardly no excuse to not go out and buy this. I’d say it’s a Vital piece of musical and
historical significance. (FdW)
––– Address: http://inagrm.com
STEPHAN MATHIEU – RADIANCE (12CD by Schwebung)
STEPHAN MATHIEU – FOLIO (8CD by Schwebung)
These boxes were released earlier this year and all together span a lot of music by Stephan
Mathieu. He came up from the world of computer music at the end of 90s and became one of the
heroes of minimalist drone pieces, releasing works on 12K and Line. At one point he decided that
his music sounded better when it was not reduced to the 16bit rate (which the CD is), but 24bit or
even 96bit was to be preferred and releases much of his music through his own Bandcamp page.
‘Radiance’ features a selection of pieces from his Bandcamp page and ‘Folio’ was released to
generate money to start an audio mastering service. Both boxes look great, well designed and
capture some of Mathieu’s best music, a clear example of what he does. Most of these disc contain
ultra minimal pieces (some CDs actually contain one long piece) in which nothing much seems to
be happening, but unlike say Eliane Radigue, the overall approach is a bit smoother and can be
consumed, well at least by me, by playing a bunch on a lazy Sunday afternoon. That’s however not
what I did when I got them, some time ago already. I played them as a first thing in the morning, the
sort of neat way of waking up with music that isn’t too demanding or strange, but essentially fills up
your space in a refined way. Both boxes are still available. Mister Mathieu has asked me to tell you
that he has download codes for a compilation, called ‘Scale’, with music by many of friends and
which was available for a while on a 2CD, but which is now sold out. Download codes are for free,
so just ask him for one. I don’t like reviewing compilations and with all these box sets to hear I
should think I have enough to hear anyway. (FdW)
––– Address: https://schwebung.bandcamp.com/
ALAN COURTIS – BUCHLA GTR (2LP by Firework Edition)
Five years ago former Reynols member Alan Courtis spend five days in the surroundings of
Elektronmusikstudion EMS in Stockholm, Sweden, a place with various studios, each with some
specific quality. There is a room for surround sound mixes for instance but most famous is the
room which holds on one the few Bucla 200 modular synths in the world. Courtis spend his days
on that machine, but also using his Spirit electric guitar, Digitech RP100, boss volume pedal and
Mac & PC computers. He recorded a whole bunch of stuff, but mixing took place in his hometown
Buenos Aires from 2015 to 2017. It’s not uncommon to use the studio with the Bucla to tape sounds
to be used in a later stage. Each side is about eighteen minutes and have a single piece. Within
each piece he explores the instruments at great length, and I would think in combination with each
other. The guitar as the primary instrument to get the Bucla going perhaps. There is, perhaps as
always with Courtis, an element of noise to be spotted in the music, along with something that we
could vaguely call ‘rockist’, the guitar and it’s feedback, but this time around mixed with the
mysterious sounds coming from the Bucla. Like all good modular synthesizers the possibilities
seem endless, but Courtis in his four pieces knows how to carefully select a few sounds and to
craft a composition out of them. In each of these he builds his pieces slowly, moving from end to
another, slowly but unmistakably moving and changing. What starts out quiet can end on a wild
note, drones morph into rhythms; sometimes all of this happens with the space of a piece. For
some reason it seemed that the mastering (or cutting) of the record was a bit on the soft side, as I
had to put the volume quite up a bit. But in doing so it unfolded quite a bit of sonic wealth and
detail, which worked very well. Most of the times it is not easy to figure out what is the synth and is
the guitar, as the latter sounds most of the time as a synthesizer anyway, producing mostly long
form tones. This is all quite a tour de force but it is worth your time to hear it all in one go,
preferable, I would think at a louder volume. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.fireworkeditions.com
But hold on there’s more;
SEIJIRO MURAYAMA – THE EMPIRE OF SLIP OF THE TONGUE (CD by Ftarri/Hitorri)
TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA / KEN IKEDA / TOMOYOSHI DATE – INK ON PAPER (CD by
Ftarri/Meenna)
Back in Vital Weekly 1118 I was pleasantly surprised by ‘Downdate’, a release by Seijiro
Murayama. The surprise was found in the fact that we know him best a great improviser on drums
and voice, but which was now part of an electro-acoustic composition, also including field
recordings and electronics. His new release ‘The Empire Of Slip Of The Tongue’ (a curious title
indeed) continues that and perhaps the surprise isn’t as strong anymore but I must say Murayama
is on an interesting new track here. He does work that very few others do. He tapes all his
improvisations, I assume in concert, but maybe he also has rehearsal tapes, or private sessions in
unusual places and creates collages with these recordings, by overlapping them and mixing them
with these field recordings, which are not easy to trace back to their original source (at one point I
believed to hear traffic lights) and occasional piercing electronics. More than on the previous I hear
his voice and his extraordinary percussion skills, scraping pieces on surfaces, beating around with
sticks on objects and the result is quite intense. At one point in ‘Exterior’, the opening and longest
piece here, it sounds like we are present at some private ritual, full of howling and percussive
bangs, but just easily he moves to introspective drones and thus moves along various interests.
For all of you who dislike anything that deals with the word ‘improvisation’ I would suggest to hear
this, because this is actually so more ‘composed’ than ‘improvised’. No longer is this a big surprise,
but surely another excellent work.
The other work is more what you would think the house of Ftarri stands for and that is a trio
work by Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board), Ken Ikeda (DX7 synthesizer) and
Tomoyoshi Date (contact mic, endless tape, Six-Trak synthesizer). They worked together before,
results which were being released by Baskaru on the ‘Green Heights’ (se Vital Weekly 897).
Already in 2013 they worked together again and now these pieces are released as ‘Ink On Paper’.
Or perhaps, piece? It is cut as one piece on the CD, but according to the information consist of five
individual sections. They all flow right into each other. While this may be improvised the music is
quite easy going; something in which the word ‘flow’ might not be out of place either. In that sense
this too might not be the most typical Ftarri release either. Whereas their usual releases hoover
quietly around the threshold of hearing, ‘Ink On Paper’ is at times a very ambientesque affair,
especially in the first two-thirds of this forty-minute work. After that it seems to me that Nakamura
has a bit more to say and it becomes a much abstract thing with sounds being slightly harsher,
with more feedback based sounds, but here too the ambient tones of DX7 shine through and it’s
all like with their previous release, ambient meets glitch with a slight touch of noise. There is
nothing too special about it, it goes with the flow I guess and it’s good, sturdy, sweet (at times),
angular (towards the end), slowly drifting music. At the end of the day, at the end of the year that
is sometimes more than enough and I love it. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.ftarri.com
ANGELO BELLO – GENDYN SUITE (CD by Elli)
First, I must admit to a pet peeve: composers who believe that the most significant aspect of their
work is the means (either instrument or process) used to create it. Unless it’s conceptual sound
art or a document of some kind, I like to think that a composer sets out to make music rather than
to demonstrate a product. That was a hurdle I had to overcome (and overcome I did, mostly) when
listening to Angelo Bello’s brief “Gendyn Suite”, the title of which gives away that it was composed
using Xenakis’ Gendyn algorithmic synthesis software. You are welcome to sort through CMJ
articles to read about what the software does and how it works, if that’s the sort of thing you enjoy
doing. As a listener, I would much prefer to simply listen to the result of Bello’s work… exactly half
of which is quite good. Yep, half. If you’re already a fan of Shirt Trax or Evol, this is probably for
you. The suite is comprised of four short pieces totaling just 19 minutes. The first two of those,
“Invention” and “Fugue 2”, are flurries of jagged, two-dimensional bleep that recall the techno-
fetishistic activity of mid-1990s Max-MSP abstraction, the sort that proliferated when scads of kids
heard the same couple of Pita and Farmers Manual records and thought “Hey, I can do that.” The
second piece, “Fugue 2”, is built around high-speed chirps cycling so fast that they barely seem
to move at all. Surrounding the chirps are arhythmic white-noise blasts which jump from speaker
to speaker like a boxer toying with his opponent before delivering a knockout blow (that final
punch is not included on this album… I’m afraid you’ll need to listen to a Zbigniew Karkowski
record for that). Things improve significantly by the third track, “Fugue 1” (yep, it comes after
part 2… clever?), in which the same white-noise strikes are backed up by a syrupy, almost
romantic melody. The idea recalls something that Pita did much more mercilessly on “Get Out”.
Still, it’s nice enough. The last piece, “Ricercar”, is the one that’s entirely worth the admission
price. In fact, if the EP was twice as long and sounded entirely like “Ricercar”, I’d be a happy
listener indeed. It’s where Bello begins to show some blood… the same basic sonic elements
used in the first three parts are present in the fourth, but there’s a malevolence and tension that
kept me riveted for the piece’s 7+ minutes. Ringing high tones provide a narrative through-line,
wavering drunkenly around a dominant note until a low-frequency cement-roller barrels in and
takes over. The closing moments, when some layers drop out and the random-seeming digital
bleep-cycle is left hanging bodiless in the air, is effectively tense. This piece is the only real
audible indication that a human is acting intentionally behind the sounds, that they didn’t simply
appear as the hands-off result of inputing some code. (HS)
––– Address: https://www.elli.media/
MASSIMO DISCEPOLI – THE RIGHT PLACE ON THE WRONG MAP (CD by DOF)
Discepoli is a drummer and multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer and many more. In 2009
he founded the Acustronica label, as an outlet for his work as well as of other musicians. Jazz, funk,
drum ‘n’ bass, are main ingredients of his music released under the monikers of Vibrham, Nheap
and LED. In 2014 he started the DOF-label (= Depth of Field). In that same year he debuted with
the album ‘Parallax’ on this label, using for the first time his own name. Now he makes a next step.
For his new album ‘The Right Place on the Wrong Map’, Discepoli plays drums, electronics, bass
guitar, piano, synths. He composed and produced the whole project himself at Acustronica. The
album consists of seven well-proportioned ambient textures. The opening track, ‘Once in a Minute’
has an important role for melody. Other tracks, like the closing ‘Shapes’ depart from rhythm. The
shifting patterns in ‘Thin Border’ obviously refer to minimal music. In other tracks Discepoli moves
away from rhythm and melody into dreamy and stretched-out soundscapes. As is often the case, if
not by definition, ambient music keeps you in the comfort zone. This is also the case for this one,
although some of his soundscapes have clattering percussion in the background. In all, this is a
carefully and tastefully organized trip. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.doflabel.com/
ABY VULLIAMY – SPIN CYCLE (CD by Karaoke Kalk)
Vulliamy is a classically trained in pianist and violinist, and works as a music therapist. In 2004
she settled in Glasgow where she became involved with folk-oriented ensembles The National
Jazz Trio of Scotland and Sound of Yell. Earlier she worked with many improv legends like John
Tchicai, Evan Parker, Maggie Nichols, Annie Whitehead, among others. But also with Hans
Joachim Irmler and Yo La Tengo, and folk musicians like Bridget St John, Mike Heron, etc. She
is a musician with a very mixed background. With ‘Spin Cycle’ she presents her first solo
statement. She is assisted by George Murray (trombone), Stevie Jones (guitar, double bas), Bill
Wells (melodic), Fritz Welsh (percussion) and Christina Rhys (harp). Vulliamy herself sings and
plays viola, piano, accordion and saw. Her vocals and piano make up the heart of the songs, with
fine colouring by the other instruments. It is one of those albums that I like to classify as ‘typical
English’. But what makes this typical English? It is the atmosphere and a sense for tradition: folk-
influenced songs, somewhere in the same universe as the songs of Robert Wyatt. Maybe it has
also some connection with her attitude as a music therapist, understanding music as something
bodily and natural. There is also a childlike, uncomplicated atmosphere captured in the music.
The experience of motherhood was crucial in her life for finding her own – musical – voice. Before
she was most of the time involved in projects of other musicians. Now with ‘Spin Cycle’ she
expresses for the first time her own musical ideas with lyrics that all deal with the power of
(mothering) love. One feels all participators are tuned in and contribute to this inspired project
that took four years of preparation. A beautiful album! (DM)
––– Address: https://karaokekalk.de
STEPHANIE PAN – HAVE ROBOT DOG, WILL TRAVEL (CD by Arteksounds)
GUDRUN GUT – MOMENT (CD by Monika Enterprises)
Here we have an example of hard to define what it is and if it is something we should be writing
about. I never heard of Stephanie Pan, a “vocalist, performance artist, composer and multi-
instrumentalist”. We learn that “at the root of her work is the notion of pure communication; find a
form of contact with the audience that is stripped of social expectations and distractions, that
speaks beyond the conventional and social limitations and constructs of language”, which delivers
something that is a bit performance-like, theatre, experimental music, pop, chaos, classical and
such some more, but these songs are in English, so which language is deconstructed here I am
not sure. She sure knows how to sing. She has a great voice. Her music is quite electronic,
synthesizers, a bit of rhythm, a dash of samples, I would think, sitting in my safe corner of the world
of experimental music that this is very much pop music; surely a bit alternative to be played by the
commercial radio stations, but from this perspective quite ‘normal’. Pan’s voice is quite virtuoso and
she does some things with it. But it is far from what I would label experimental. I can easily she her
performing to an audience of curiously interested civilized people with the heart for all things a bit
alternative in the right place, and they could surely think this is wonderfully experimental. If you
visit noise shows on a regular basis you might find this all too polished. I know I did. That’s not to
say that I didn’t like it; I did. I played it all the way through, thinking to play a Nico record following
the drones of Pan’s ‘Beast’ and I am not sure when and if I would return to the music of Pan.
It is not strange I would think to continue with the music of Gudrun Gut, who started her career
back in the very early 80s with Einsturzende Neubauten and Mania D, then Malaria! and later on
running labels as Monika Enterprises and Moabit, as well as club nights and record producer. She
still has time to record her solo music and her new solo record is called ‘Moment’ and just like
Stephanie Pan it is part of the world of alternative pop music more than, I would think, that of the
experimental music of Vital Weekly. Her music is based on synthesizers and sequencers, a bit of
dark wave, cold wave, techno and minimal, and she adds her voice, half reciting poetry, half
singing. A lyric like ‘Baby I Can Drive My Car’ is quite political (about women driving cars in Saudi
Arabia), but others might be less overtly political. Gut also recorded a cover of Bowie’s ‘Boys Keep
Swinging’. Ermm… what else? Lovely stuff, great pop, less theatrical than Pan, more straightforward
in the use of beats and a bit of place in these pages for sure. (FdW)
––– Address: http://artekfoundation.com
––– Address: https://www.monika-enterprise.de/
SARRAM – FOUR MOVEMENTS OF A SHADE (CD by Midira Records)
GIULIO ALDINUCCI AND THE STAR PILLOW – HIDDEN (CD by Midira Records)
N (46)/[BOLT] (LP by Midira Records)
From what I know about Midira Records, who have about sixty releases so far, which I haven’t all
heard, the label is all about guitar slingers from the world of drones/ambient/atmospherically
inspired musicians. I did hear of Sarram before, which is the perhaps not so clever alias of Valeria
Marras; well, perhaps it is that easy. Anyway I heard his music recently in concert rather than from
a release and the concert wasn’t great. Easily Sarram builds a wall of guitar sounds with loop
devices, building to crescendos and then quickly fading them out and start the same a new. Maybe
such are the limitations of using a single loop device? It says on the cover of ‘Four Movements Of A
Shade’ to play this loud, which as may know, is not something I easily do. I was thinking about the
concert when listening to this release, wondering about the differences, if any of course, and to
what extent the release is a combination of live elements and editing/layering/mixing of various
parts together. It is not a question for which I found an answer actually, even when the press text
says something about this being an improvisational session and ‘just a guitar and some synths’. I
must say I enjoyed the CD to some extend; of course at home you can set the volume, which
maybe is also to the benefit of the music, I thought. Also one play when one is up to forty minutes
of drone-like guitar sounds, with quite a bit of effects (reverb, delay, loops, chorus, distortion and
what else is available for the modern Jimmy Page) to create a rich mass of guitar sounds, ending
with sort of jubilant choir of sounds in the fourth part. It is all quite all right.
Also from Italy is The Star Pillow, also known as Paolo Monti who works here together with
Giulio Aldinucci, whom we know from various works, including collaboration with Martijn Comes
(see Vital Weekly 1144). I am not sure if Aldinucci is also a guitar drone meister, but The Star
Pillow surely is. There is, apparently, on this record a combination of “field recordings, electronic
sounds and guitar drones”; I could easily believe the latter to be the main thing here, as it is not
easy to spot any field recordings here. There are three pieces that can be labelled as ‘short’, five
to seven minutes, and one long piece, spanning at some twenty-seven minutes, more than half of
the disc. The differences with music like this are in the detail and where Sarram’s drones clearly
contain the sound of the guitar, the four pieces here are a bit different. The guitar gets a heavily
treatment into something slightly different; it sounds at times more like an organ of some kind, or
perhaps wind instruments closely looped together, with when played on rotation, the appearance
of the field recordings. They seem to be pushed towards the back but in the long ‘Hypothesis For
An End’, one hears raindrops and sounds picked from a street downstairs. The drones of this
collaboration are gentler and press less against the eardrum, unlike Sarram does, even ‘Third
Space’ is the loudest here and easily matches Sarram in its full furious approach. This is more a
chill out version of his music; first his, and then this. I prefer these more complex approaches over
Sarram; this is all a bit more delicate and refined, more detailed, more varied when it comes to the
use of sounds and the treatments of them. The long piece is the one true standout piece, almost
worth alone to get it for.
On vinyl we find the collaboration between the mysteriously called N and [BOLT]. I am sure I
reviewed N before, but how I find this in my archive? Usually the letter N is followed by a number,
in this case (46), indicating the release number. [BOLT] is a band of two bass players and a
drummer and N is the guitarist here. The self-titled genre of the music is ‘black drone’, which I am
sure you can imagine what it is. Or perhaps you think all drone is black anyway? And black is to
be understood as ‘dark’ and ‘atmospherically’. That is surely the case in the four pieces on this
release, but then with the added component of ‘noise’ and ‘metal’. While not strictly the sort of
music that is really noise or really metal, in whatever variety these could come (heavy, hard,
speed), the basses throb slowly, the guitar howls around like a lone wolf in a forest of feedback
with the drums pounding majestically but not all the time. Hardly at all. It is more a trio of two
basses, one ringing and one riffing, while the guitar provides the industrial landscape of
desolation. Spacious music but not in the sense of empty desert, it depicts more the landscape
of the Ruhrgebiet where these musicians work. This is a massive psychedelic record, one up
in the contest of ‘play me louder than the rest’. Now, with some sparse lightning and lots of
smoke, this could be a hell of a concert; anyone up for that? (FdW)
––– Address: http://midirarecords.com
YVANKO – PTUVIOSE (12″ by Le Cabanon Records)
Behind yvanko (no capitals required) is one Yvan Tekoutcheff and his recorded was “composed
between Reunion, Kiev and Ivry-sur Seine”. I don’t think I heard his music before, as this is his first
release. He says he put in “a long period of thought and study” and that the seven pieces (five on
the record, two as a download) were “all written meticulously and thought horizontally by shapes
and sentences freed from all constraints of time grids”, which eludes me. But apparently he uses
compositional techniques from the world of electro-acoustic music, along the lines of Pierre
Schaeffer, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Henry, which he calls his ‘”philosophical fathers”. The music
Yvanko composed takes a slightly different shape, not really like father like son here, as Yvanko
takes the techniques into a new territory. Vaguely owing to the world of dance music as well as
ambient, even when, at the same time, he does not exactly what he should be doing within those
styles either. I would think computer processing is his primary tool, shifting those grains up, back,
down and sideways, creating blocks that could be a rhythm, but it never says in one place for very
long place and thus defies to be dance music, as this is not the sort of record to bring to a party.
Sometimes the results of shifting these grains end up longer, continuous blocks which have a
more atmospherically nature and even a bit of noise is never far away. Yvanko plays this with
great care and showmanship and at times could easily count as sort of very abstract pieces of
dance music, even when I couldn’t imagine seeing anybody dance to this. Lovely stuff! (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.lecabanonrecords.com/
GUY-FRANK PELLERIN / MATHIEU BEC – SAXA PETRA (CDR by Setola di Maiale)
ANTONINO SIRINGO-YEK NUR / GUY-FRANK PELLERIN – IT DOESN’T WORK IN A CAR (CDR
by Setola di Maiale)
MARESUKE OKAMOTO / GUY-FRANK PELLERIN / EUGENIO SANNA – OPS! (CDR by Setola di
Maiale)
Guy-Franck Pellerin started playing saxophone some 40 years ago. He started with a Canterbury-
influenced group in Paris, then studied at the IACP with Alan Silva, playing with this ensemble
famous Celestial Communication Orchestra. Many collaborations followed. In later years for
example he played with Bruno Griard (Bratsch), Marcello Magliocchi, Massimo Falascone, a.o.
It is also in those ‘later years’ that Pellerin started to release his work. Of his early work not much
is documented as far as I know. This is compensated a bit now by three new releases by Setola
di Maiale.
On ‘Saxa Petra’ Pellerin plays soprano, alto and tenor sax in a duo with Mathieu Bec
who plays stones and percussion. Recorded early 2018 in a church somewhere in France. Bec
is a drummer and percussionist from Montpellier who started playing hardcore in the 90s inspired
by John Zorn and Nomeansno. With Sébastien Job he released two albums in 2014 and 2016 as
the electroacoustic duo Dubrovnik. His collaboration with Pellerin illustrates his latest musical
activitiy as a free improviser. Both are engaged in subtle and colourful improvisations, creating
intimate and textures. Ten intense and concentrated dialogues with nice phrasing by Pellerin
and Bec using a diversity of objects and stones. In a nice recording reflecting the spatial qualities
of the church.
For ‘It doesn’t work in a car’ Pellerin works with a musician with a totally different background.
Siringo is a gifted, classically trained pianist who worked as a soloist as well as member of
chamber music ensembles. Since 2003 he also chose to work in the fields of contemporary and
improvised music. His collaboration with Pellerin is a satisfying example of his development as
this recording from November 2015 shows. He is a dynamic and versatile pianist. Abstract sound
textures like ‘Deep the See behind you’ and ‘Breath’ make a nice contrast with exuberant and
playful improvisations like ‘No Traffic Lights’. Again Pellerin (saxophones, bone flute) is engaged
in a balanced and communicative interaction with his companion.
Finally there is a trio work of Pellerin (baritone, tenor and soprano sax and gong) with
Eugenio Sanna (amplified guitar, metal sheets, balloons, red cellophane, voice) and Maresuke
Okamoto (cello and voice). Maresuke Okamoto is a contrabass and cello player from Tokyo where
he entered the improv scene in the early 80s. In more recent years he worked with people like
Carlos Zingaro, Frantz Loriot, Hugues Vincent, Hui-Chun Lin, Terry Day, Paulo Chagas, Tristan
Honsinger, etc. Guitarist Eugenio Sanna was co-founder of CRIM (Centro per la Ricerca
sull’Improvvisazione Musicale) in Pisa, Italy in 1976, playing improvised music ever since. It may
become boring, but this is again a very worthwhile exercise in abstract and dynamic
soundsculpting. All three are equally participating in inspired and intertwined movements. Great
work! And compliments to Setola di Maiale making more work of Pellerin available at last. (DM)
––– Address: https://www.setoladimaiale.net/