K. LEIMER – USELESS EPITOMES (2CD by Palace Of Lights) *
KASPER T. TOEPLITZ & ZEITKRATZER – AGITATION/STAGNATION (2CD by Sacrum Propanum) *
INERT/E – TIME PROFILES (2CD by Zora Records) *
TARAB – HOUSEKEEPING (CD by Sonic Rubbish) *
MOE – OSLO JANUS IV (CD by Conrad Sound) *
A.F. JONES – BOURDON DU KINZIE (CD by Unfathomless) *
ELECTRIC URANUS & X-NAVI:ET – VOICES OF THE COSMOS III (CD by Eter Records) *
HATI & ZDZISLAW PIERNIK – AVANT-GARDE OUT OF POLAND (CD by Requiem Records/Beast
Of Prey) *
OUT INK – TIME AND EMOTIONS IN THE NATURAL WORLD (CD by INK)
ULRICH TROYER – DOLOMITE DUB (CD by 4Bit Productions) *
MICHAEL HOPPE – PUT A FILTER TO YOUR EARS AND JUST SMILE THROUGH IT (LP by Get
On Records)
RUDOLF EB.ER – BEWUSSTES STERBEN IN WIEN (CDR by Rudolf Eb.er) *
FRANK ROTHKAMM – MUSIC OF THE SHEENA PEOPLE (CDR, private) *
CHRIS DADGE – CLOSE ENOUGH FOR COMFORT (CDR, private)
CHEAP IMITATION – NO MORE WEEKEND (cassette by Oma333)
K. LEIMER – USELESS EPITOMES (2CD by Palace Of Lights)
These days it is not uncommon to find the name of K. Leimer in Vital Weekly yet there was a
moment, in Vital Weekly 533 when I wrote “it was a long time since I last heard his name”.
Already active since the mid to late 70s with releases from the world of ambient music, he returned
in 2004 with ‘Statistical Truth’ and since then has been releasing new music at a higher rate than
before as well as delving into the archives and releasing re-mastered versions of older and
unavailable works. I guess it’s now time to work on re-mastering and re-releasing music that he
did after his comeback. I am not sure why this is something he is interested in unless of course,
it’s two simple facts: the music is no longer available and the fact that there is new technology
available that brings out a different kind of quality in the music. I am not into the world of market
forces to say if something is sold out or not and if that warrants a re-issue and with regard to the
latter; I am not sure. I reviewed both albums before and I could simply refer to that, but let me work
out the bits about albums for you, as I still think the music stands as before. First there was ‘The
Useless Lesson”, which I compared to his comeback album ‘Statistical Truth’ which was “a great
album, and luckily not the-album-in-a-decade release I was afraid of, since about 10 months later
there is ‘The Useless Lesson’, which deals with two kinds of pieces: one set of pieces is composed
for a string trio and the other part are the more ‘classic’ pieces of ambient music which we know
Leimer best for. One could easily think that these will bite each other, but in his string trio pieces,
Leimer plays slow music, loaded with empathy and melancholy and as such there is not too much
break with his original electronic ambient music. Here he introduces also rhythm, which I didn’t
hear him exploring as before and sometimes he mixes the strings with the electronics. In that
sense, Leimer creates a wonderful varied CD, with all sorts of atmospheric mood music from all
sides of the coin. ‘Statistical truth’ was a good comeback album, but also the classic Leimir, on
‘The Useless Lesson’ he re-invents his music, creating new possibilities and makes quite a step
forward.” About a year later this was followed by ‘Lesser Epitomes’, of which I wrote Leimer
“continues here on ‘Lesser Epitomes’, which has twenty-one tracks, divided among three pieces,
but the cover suggests to play these in random order. It also says that this is ‘process music for
active and passive listening. The pieces are derived from the aleatoric reordering of discreet,
compatible musical components in relationships that emulate typical theme and variation’. The
cover doesn’t list any players of the string instruments, which leads us to believe that Leimer
played them himself, or perhaps uses a piece of software that imitates the sound of strings.
‘Nonadaptive Layers’ and ‘Nine Approximations’ are much alike – layered string pieces of violins
and cello’s, moving slowly and majestically. ‘Naive Music’ (seven parts), is the old Leimer,
although it seems, again to the cover, that he uses field recordings in these pieces, also, I think,
analogue synthesizers. Played at random the pieces start to differentiate and as such make a
bigger impact than played from beginning to end because the first two are the beginning and
sound much alike. But when the pieces from ‘Naive Music’ are thrown in, things really start to
differ and make this a particularly strong album. Leimer is a highly accomplished ambient
musician and ‘Lesser Epitomes’ is a great work. The press blurb says that it should ‘find favour
with fans of a certain egg headed Englishman’ and I am spending my Sunday afternoon thinking
who that would be: Eno or Nyman?”
As said I am not really sure what this new mastering has to offer in different quality, but if these
works really sold out then this is your chance to pick up fresh copies plus you have gifted the
possibility for an additional forty minutes of music through a download. Here Leimer reaches
towards a more experimental set of ambient music, occasionally even a bit spooky and strange,
such as in the slighly distorted ‘Naivete’, whereas the other two are spacious and synth-heavy and
above all share the delicacy with what is on the two CDs. Why these are on available as MP3
eludes me. For someone who cares about sonic quality, WAVs would surely be the better option.
Now if that isn’t worth your while, with some great quality music for a long winter’s evening, then I
don’t know. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.palaceoflights.com
KASPER T. TOEPLITZ & ZEITKRATZER – AGITATION/STAGNATION (2CD by Sacrum Propanum)
INERT/E – TIME PROFILES (2CD by Zora Records)
Two double CDs is surely a lot of music and let me assure you it wasn’t all consumed at once. For
no reason, in particular, I started with the one Toeplitz recorded with Zeitkratzer, the well-known
ensemble of new music, who perform scores by contemporary composers (the kind of which you
can read in Vital Weekly), but also performing songs by Whitehouse or Lou Reed (well, if Metal
Machine Music is a song, that is). The ensemble uses acoustic instruments (clarinet, French horn,
trombone, piano, percussion, violin, violoncello, double bass) to create music that sounds
electronic. Composers hand in their scores, traditional notated or graphical. Kasper T. Toeplitz,
however, decided to do something different and created an electronic piece, made out of sounds
from his bass and electronics, and gave that to Zeitkratzer, who would play it by ‘ear’, which I
assume means listening along as the things unfold, with a timeline to guide them. This double CD
contains their interpretation, as played by the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Poland (who also
produced the CD), and the original score. Both of these have the same length (and I mean exactly
the same), so you could overlay both versions and create your own mix out of this. I first played the
Zeitkratzer version than the electronic score, and afterwards, stupidly enough, started to think if that
was the ‘correct’ route. Maybe I should have reversed it. I didn’t, so it doesn’t matter anymore.
Zeitkratzer follows the score precisely, with all its ebbs and flows, coming with what I could
consider their trademark sound by now; scraping, hissing, bowing, rumbling and rambling their
music together, played with the same kind of furious attack Toeplitz has in his solo work, and also
in his score, along with some full stops and subtle parts in between, where only a few instruments
play. To play the electronic score after that feels a bit like a second main course at dinner time, but
it is interesting to hear this and compare it with the ensemble version. Should I have more time
available, I’d be indeed to trying a mix of both, just to hear how that would work out and of course
to see how these different versions mix up together.
The other release sees Toeplitz working together with Lars Akerlund, no stranger to these pages
either (see for instance Vital Weekly 1147 for a review of his ‘Sub Liminal Transmission’ 3CD set)
under the name of Inert/e. I reviewed a previous release by them in Vital Weekly 910. Both discs
here contain one piece; one is 47’47” and the other one is 57’57”, should those things concern you.
The shorter one is a studio piece made from various studio and live recordings while the other one
was recorded during a residency in the planetarium of Poitiers, with its multi-surround sound set-up,
obviously reduced here to stereo. In that piece, they use “doepfer dark energy, bass and laptops”,
whereas on the other it’s a mixture of old analogue synthesizers, such as Serge, Buchla, Teisco
and Lyra 8, along with custom ring-modulator and computers. It continues where I once found
Inert/e and that is in the world of noise, but then perhaps the kind of noise that requires some
thought and idea. Not so much the world of harsh noise walls, Merzbow and the like, but
transformed minimalist sounds, slowly developing and changing. Maybe one could argue this is
musique concrete, even when it seems to lack the collage/cut-up approach. Also one doesn’t
recognize any instruments being processed; or field recordings for that matter. Just these
occasionally loud sustaining clouds of sound, like being inside a large turbine hall, without the
hearing protection. But just as easily they drop the volume to the threshold of hearing (or perhaps
I am deaf now?), with a few sparse sounds, and some earth shaking bass drones barely audible
but certainly very well present. That happens more on ‘Profils Irrationels’ (“the Planetarium piece’)
than on ‘La Perte Du Temps…”, which its deep bass sounds and loud noise, but seldom with some
quiet movement. This is all not an easy trip, but I found it all most rewarding. (FdW)
––– Address: http://sacrumprofanum.com/
––– Address: http://www.sleazeart.com
TARAB – HOUSEKEEPING (CD by Sonic Rubbish)
Though Tarab’s work is based mainly on field recordings, it’d be a mistake to think of it as
documentary or sound ecology. On his latest album, composer Eamon Sprod jams his source
sounds together into action-heavy audio dramas that leap from one intense space to another in
a way that demands active, attentive listening. The sudden shifts in tone, volume and character
are ideal for headphones. Maybe don’t listen before going to sleep, though. This is music that
delights in subverting expectations over and over again. The dull drone of people in a reverberant
hallway settles into a lull for just long enough to make the punctuating slam of ear-boxing trash
hilariously startling. Doors shut, the wind sings, motors whine… a distant murmur comes slowly
into focus and then suddenly runs straight at the listener. The impetus for this work was Sprod
dealing with his accumulated clutter, using up the debris one last time before he throws it away.
Between its first iteration as an 8-channel installation to the current 2-channel distillation, the
debris generated by the process has also been folded back into the music. Somehow, the three-
dimensional character of the multi-channel installation is preserved on this stereo composition.
All the junk swirling inside “Housekeeping” seems so tactile that at one point I had to take my
headphones off to make sure something hadn’t fallen off a shelf in my living room. (HS)
––– Address: https://sonicrubbish.bandcamp.com/
MOE – OSLO JANUS IV (CD by Conrad Sound)
Like a lot of artists currently working in Norway (such as Fe-Mail, Lasse Marhaug, Paal Nilssen-
Love, etc), Moe makes music that aggressively combines several idioms at once: electronic noise,
free jazz/improv, rock/metal, and modern composition. All three members of Moe have careers that
blend diverse styles… why not play everything at once? Bassist/band-leader Guro Skumsnes Moe
(yep, the band’s name is her own surname, following the example led by Winger and Van Halen
before her) is a pigeonhole-averse polymath performer/composer whose work is all over the sonic
map but recognizably her own. Drummer Joakim Heibo plays both free jazz and hardcore. Guitarist
Havard Skaset is active in free improvisation, and also chamber-music-adjacent group Sult. As
Moe, this trio plays what could (in an overly-general way) by called heavy rock, though the
members’ extra-curricular interests are audibly present throughout. On their latest album, they
immediately sound like a more equitable Fushitsusha, if that band wasn’t so focused on providing
a backdrop for the guitarist. Drums propel each song with an ever-present jazz swing while guitar
rains a solo squall and the bass runs up and down as the lead voice. By the second song, they
splinter into angular jabs and intense repetition like some lost 90’s Touch & Go band… think Don
Caballero meets Zeni Geva meets Storm & Stress. It’s to the band’s credit that I can’t tell whether
this music is composed or improvised. I suppose I could look it up, but I don’t really care because
these are just good tunes so it doesn’t matter how they were made. All three rock-familiar
instruments are cleanly and legibly recorded, which makes their fiery jazz-adjacent explosion
more appreciably listenable than it might have been had the producer pushed them into the red.
One can probably attribute the uncluttered recording quality to engineer Alex Bennett at Sound
Recordings, where Moe laid down all ten of these tracks in a single day (!) before the last date of
their 2018 Australian tour. The typically loud and aggressive band had to adjust to their recording
situation to the new studio, resulting in a rather clean and balanced sound. (HS)
––– Address: http://www.conradsound.com
A.F. JONES – BOURDON DU KINZIE (CD by Unfathomless)
In my little (non-existent) book I had A.F. Jones as a guitarist of more improvised and drone-related
music, and perhaps not the sort of guy who runs around with microphones at Battery Kinzie, “a
concrete Endicott Period Battery located on Fort Worden, Jefferson County… The Battery was
begun in Jun 1908, completed in 1910 and transferred to the Coast Artillery for use 10 Jan 1912 at
a total cost of $207,832.50. The guns were dismounted in 1944 toward the end of World War II”.
Jones went out there and recorded the empty space, and by the look on the big web, it is a massive
place, with no doubt cavernous nooks. Just how this sonic exploration went I am not too sure of, but
I would think Jones uses a variety of microphones to capture the space. Some capturing the wide-
open space of the place while others are aimed smaller sounds, lurking in a corner, or even through
contact microphones capturing vibrations of the place. Knowing this is a military facility may draw
you in a certain direction; I believe. Why would this otherwise sound all bit grim and dark; the
desolation of it all? Maybe one hears what one wants to hear here. Maybe it is because one thinks
of this place as a former military complex? Would one think differently if this information weren’t
known? Obviously, that is hard to say now, because I already know about it. Jones being a
musician with a strong love for the world of drones, that is something that also comes about in
this piece. I am not sure if there is any kind of processing going on; I feel strongly there isn’t. By
layering these sounds together, Jones creates a rich tapestry of dark sounds, with creepy wind
sounds hovering around the complex. Sometimes I think there are voices in there (other visitors
maybe?), or the drones of a machine (an aeroplane overhead), but here too I have no idea at one
point in time it was added (or taped during the whole process of recording these sounds). It is
quite a creepy piece, not to be played right before going to sleep. (FdW)
––– Address: https://unfathomless.bandcamp.com
ELECTRIC URANUS & X-NAVI:ET – VOICES OF THE COSMOS III (CD by Eter Records)
HATI & ZDZISLAW PIERNIK – AVANT-GARDE OUT OF POLAND (CD by Requiem Records/Beast
Of Prey)
Here we have two sides of the musical spectrum of Rafal Iwanski, as X-Navi:et and as part of Hati;
he’s also working as/with Innercity Ensemble and Kapital. Quite different universes really as we will
see and as X-Navi:et he teams up here with Sebastian Soberski, who is an astronomer from the
Astronomy Centre of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Wojciech Zieba, who plays music as
Electric Uranus and who runs the Beast of Prey label. The music here is dedicated to Nicola Tesla
and uses sounds from the cosmos, such as “pulsars, magnetospheres of planets, the sun and
northern lights, captured with radio telescopes and other radio devices, archive recordings from
space missions and signals from space”. They also use electronic instruments (analogue and
digital) and acoustic objects. I reviewed their first volume of ‘Voices Of The Cosmos’ (Vital Weekly
894) and missed out on the second, I guess, as they now return with the third instalment in this
series. Now, you could easily think, ‘cosmos’ and ‘synthesizers’… well, no doubt that would lead to
some cosmic music, in the best Tangerine Dream tradition? Right, it is not actually and that’s great.
The music here has only a little bit of that mellow synthesizer stuff, such as in ‘Solar Burst’, but even
that one has a dark undercurrent. Sometimes it is all much darker and more alien (if you forgive me
the pun), with highly obscured sounds, such as the dark rumble of ‘Solar Activity 2’ and ‘Star Quake
Voice’, the drones of ‘Luna’. There is, however, also room for a bit of rhythm, slow and reverby in
‘Magnetospheric Chorus’ or the lighter, moodiness of ‘White Dwarf Dance’. It is all eight pieces
considering quite a varied trip to the stars and back, and despite the somewhat new age title of
the release, it is a great set of music.
Of an entirely different nature is the release by Hati and Zdzislaw Piernik. The latter is a new
name for me, and he plays the tuba, prepared tuba, percussion and objects. Hati is a percussion
duo, with next to Iwanski, Rafal Kolacki. Between them, they play the gongs, cymbals, bells,
bandair, bodhran, wooden and plastic pipes, objects, ocean drum, wooden block and flute. I am
sure if the album’s title is meant to be tongue in cheek or serious. The music on this album is
improvised music of the highest order. Unlike some of Hati’s previous releases, which were slow,
introspective pieces, with the gong sustaining for a long time, a bang here and a thud there. There
is not a lot of that on this disc, as these seven pieces are all from some constant changing tones,
especially on the part of tuba, but also on the percussion. Sometimes of them plays a more
continuous sound, as a bed in which the others play their music, and that might account for some
difference with the more traditionally inspired companions. The overall mood is a bit darker also; I
am not sure why that is. It might have to do with the fact that this is a microphone recording; at least
that could be it. It is a fine, if not the easiest of releases, and I am not entirely sure, but probably
something of a shock for some of the die-hard Hati fans. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.voicesofthecosmos.bandcamp.com
––– Address: https://requiem-records.com/pl/main
OUT INK – TIME AND EMOTIONS IN THE NATURAL WORLD (CD by INK)
Out Ink is a band from local scene of Sheffield, UK. Formed in 2015. On board are Sam Neilson,
Jonathan Willmer, Brian Ellis, Jon Willis, Lee Knights and the Ink Choir. I couldn’t find out much
about their backgrounds. In 2017 they debuted with the release of the ‘Increase my Privacy’- EP.
Last year they recorded their first full album by The Essence at The Hinge June 2018. It is an
album of free rock with touches of jazz, a bit of Beefheart, 70s rock, etc. They don’t break new
grounds and it all remains rather conventional. They seem to be a bit out of step with musical
developments. Of course they all well aware of their choices, which implies these guys are
pleasantly obstinate. And that is a good thing. Also, they have the freshness of a young band,
but in the end – although they make a few interesting breaks and turns especially in the longer
tracks like ‘Beauty Pageant Past’ – they didn’t give me much reason to reconsider my musical
parameters. (DM)
––– Address: https://outink.bandcamp.com/
ULRICH TROYER – DOLOMITE DUB (CD by 4Bit Productions)
As noted before, I didn’t keep up with the entire output from Ulrich Troyer, having only reviewed a
bit of it (see, for instance, also Vital Weekly 1076). Back then I enjoyed his music very much, being
the sort of thing one wanted to hear after a day filled with difficult music. Perhaps that’s the reason
why I saved this too for the end of such a day. Troyer is also a member of the Vegetable Orchestra
(see Vital Weekly 1156) and has ties to the world of sound art and improvisation but here he works
with dub music and he does a great job. It’s not the kind of digital dub music, which sees him behind
Ableton Live producing some beats but he has Didi Kern on drums and percussion, Susanne
Gartmayer on contra-alto clarinet and Juergen Berlakovich on bass. At the house of his deceased
grandmother in Klobenstein, he recorded roof beams, stoves, furniture, floors, doors and windows,
all of which are incorporated in this music and it works really well. The music is very dub-like, but
introspective, with excellent use of reverb and delay, with the clarinet on a repeat mission, but live
as opposed to being sampled and it has a great groove, which such through these four parts of this
album. Field recordings can be recognized, well, more or less of course, and with the melancholic
tones of the clarinet it is a perfect soundtrack for… hiking, apparently. Troyer says the tempo is 133
1/3 BPM, “very suitable and pleasant speed to walk with”. Hiking up and down mountains is not an
activity I engage in here in the Lowlands, but I could easily see how that work. The four pieces are
variations on a theme and could perhaps come across as monotonous but I started cleaning up
after the day, preparing food and let this album guide me in these activities and found it a most
wonderful record to do so. This is some excellent stuff, a fine blend of such extreme opposites
such as dub, field recordings and improvised music. I couldn’t offhand think of anyone else doing
a something similar and that is perhaps a great accomplishment. (FdW)
––– Address: http://4bitproductions.com
MICHAEL HOPPE – PUT A FILTER TO YOUR EARS AND JUST SMILE THROUGH IT (LP by Get
On Records)
Michael Hoppe is a musician based in Berlin, who is also active in theatre. He has a background in
jazz and free improvisation and also he composed contemporary chamber music. For his first solo
album, he wrote, recorded and produced the project. He made individual recordings with dozens
of musicians, over a period of three years, including professional musicians as well as amateur
musicians. Playing a diversity of instruments: bass, guitars, saxophones, kora, marimba, piano,
voice, and so on. During these recordings, his ideas for a musical form began to take shape.
Through intensive editing and processing, Hoppe concretized the music he had in mind. So, first
of all, it is a meeting of acoustic and traditional instruments with technology. Also, it is very multi-
coloured work because of the wide range of instruments. Changes of dynamic, rhythm, and pulse
make it feel as if one jumps from one stepping-stone to another in wild river. The album consists of
nine tracks, but they sound as one continuum of very different chapters that are organically linked
to one other, despite all its complexity. A very dramatic work of symphonic and theatrical
proportions, that makes the walls of your apartment shake. This project was a very time-consuming
exercise and it is impressive how Hoppe assembled all ingredients into a consistent whole. It
needs absolutely repeated listening to pick up all the details that make up this impressive mosaic.
It is worth it! (DM)
––– Address: http://www.getonrecords.de/
RUDOLF EB.ER – BEWUSSTES STERBEN IN WIEN (CDR by Rudolf Eb.er)
Readers of VW are surely familiar with the monumental sound/performance/audio work of Rudolf
Eb.er, who for decades has been poking at people’s comfort levels with puckish malevolence and
bleak humour. Eb.er, of course, has been the main provocateur behind Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock
since the late 1980s. But rather than repeat the past, Eb.er forges ahead under his own name with
work that is just as upsetting and challenging as it’s always been while stepping confidently in a
new direction. And that direction is towards death… yep, the same direction we’re all heading in,
though perhaps we don’t like to think about that. Eb.er has always referred to his work as “psycho-
physical tests and training” or even “rituals”, and in that light his new focus on “conscious dying” is
a logical continuation of his ongoing interest in overcoming limitations of the human body and
mind. Whereas R&G albums and Eb.er’s visual art in the 1980s/90s/00s were about coiled tension
and focused (if absurd/perverse) release, his new work revels in decay. In the case of this
document of a live performance in Vienna (the title translates to “Conscious Dying in Vienna”),
the listener is subjected to two “instructions” and three “slaughters”, concluding with one “large
slaughter and damage”. Yikes! Of course, separated from the live action that this CDR documents,
it’s impossible to tell what is being introduced, killed and damaged, which only leaves one’s
imagination to wander and imagine some horrible possibilities. Not that this album is a noise
assault of the sort that revels in typical “horror” cliche… that would be too easy, and Eb.er does
not do easy. He prefers to create immersive atmospheres that are both uncomfortable and
uniquely compelling. Right away, the listener is submerged in a vat of rotten meat. Flies circle the
listening space for long enough that I began to swat around my head and itch my arms as if the
nasty bugs were coming to decompose me… a troubling sensation, to be sure (and one Eb.er has
conjured in other recent studio works, making it as much a theme/signifier as his barking dog or
accordion honk used to be on his 90s recordings). Nasty animal growling ensues, with dangerously
irregular percussion hits. The whole thing sounds as if it’s being played too slow, adding the overall
sense of unease. About 15 minutes in, a monstrous low tone creeps in, growing ever more insistent.
The piece ends with more garbled speech and circling flies. I’ve no idea what just happened. Am I
more conscious of dying? Not sure, but I’m glad I spent some of my remaining minutes by letting
this fill my headspace. (HS)
––– Address: https://rudolfeber.bandcamp.com/
FRANK ROTHKAMM – MUSIC OF THE SHEENA PEOPLE (CDR, private)
For whatever reason I am not entirely sure, I get a lot of emails from Frank Rothkamm, inviting me
to listen to his works online. Not always, but I do read what it is about, and sometimes they are very
conceptual and I can’t make a clue what it is about. Lots of this contains references to the world of
pop and classical music, but also visual art. I am a bit surprised to find this on my actual desk, as I
wasn’t aware that Rothkamm was still into the whole process of manufacturing physical releases,
but apparently, so he still is. Here are five pieces for the ‘Sheena People’. I hate long quotes, but
this one is just so good, I quote the text from the website in total. With some white space, so you
know it is all a quote;
“The music of the People has never been heard before.” Sheena was not in a good mood. “For
millennia it has been suppressed, or worse, simply ignored in the Western narrative of supposedly
postmodern philosophers. Today, nobody cares anymore unless there is a Like button. Reality
does not have buttons.” Furious, Sheena commanded us to stay on the narrow path through the
dense forest and to not touch anything, especially those lovely apples over there. “Don’t even think
about eating these, and why in the world would you just eat apples that hang around here, don’t
you have any granola bars or something?” We did have provisions, those super duper trail-mixes
with the chocolates in them. Talking about in the mix. “Yeah, just eat your cheap sugar and kid
yourself with all that extra dopamine in your brain that you are feeling satisfied with this buttoned-
up reality in front of you.” We immediately sat down and tweeted this because for some miraculous
reason our cell phone reception was 4 bars and counting here in the middle of the narrow path
through the dense forest. “Boy, oh Boy, it is hot in here, I want to take all my clothes off.” Ashamed,
we looked at each other, and then stared at different parts of rhizomes that appeared to be
everywhere, like a network, that is everywhere but nowhere in particular. “Derrida would have a
field day today, this ain’t no Orange County, no, all these are arguments for Conservatism, in
particular for the pentatonic scale.” We finally reached an overlook and could see how far the
dense forest stretched, all the way to the horizon, if we were to see the horizon, so we imagined.
“See, with the pentatonic scale you can compare apples and oranges.” Sheena was in a good
mood. “Each step, therefore, can be considered a tonic, each note is a starting point, no doubt,
There are no small 2nds, we don’t want no half-step sidekicks, we prefer whole 2nd ones.
Harmonically we only add or subtract 4ths, sometimes 5ths, but from each of the 5 notes of the
pentatonic scale.” What about the rhythms, are they like the Lizard People’s binary? We looked
around for answers in the East, West and South. There is nothing in the North. Ask any Mason.
Sheena was long gone but left us another Intelligent Formula Music (IFORMM) to ponder. I guess
we are in the 5th world now. Come to think of it, “Music of the Sheena People” is nothing but an I-
Ching-like cheap imitation of Jon Hassell’s 4th world: Sheena People are just Plastic People from
LA.
Does that sound great? It sure does. Of course providing, I would know what it means, and I have
no clue. But that’s okay; meaning and understanding should never spoil a good story, I’d say.
Obviously, after writing some thirty years about music, I still haven’t got a clue about music, so 4ths
and 5ths…? But as I said never leaving meaning and understanding, or the lack thereof, spoil a
review, good or bad. I always enjoy the music of Rothkamm, conceptual as it sometimes is. Here in
these four pieces, he takes a rather musical route and at the core is the sampling of instruments. In
‘We Are The 5th World’, with almost fifty minutes by far the longest piece, it is all with an orchestral
set; percussion, wind instruments, playing very fine minimal yet melodic pieces, revolving around
repeating phrases, which seem to be changing all the time, every so lightly. Quite an evocative
piece and it would have already been enough for me. The others are fine as well but somewhat
more minimal in approach, both from the composition and the use of sound sources, faster (‘We
Will Go Now’) or slower (‘We Will Be Heard’ and ‘We Have No Children’). As I was struggling with
the end of year tax paperwork and general accounting bullshit, I had this on repeat for a few hours
and found the meditational aspect of the music to be very suitable for doing such work. Excellent
music with an obscured story; what else do you want? (FdW)
––– Address: http://rothkamm.com/
CHRIS DADGE – CLOSE ENOUGH FOR COMFORT (CDR, private)
Recently we reviewed here a bunch of new releases from the Bug Incision label. Behind this label
hide a group of improvisers who have their base in Calgary, Alberta. Chris Dadge is one of them.
He is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, composer, and he is running for many years Bug
Incision, implying planning concert series and running the label. Recently Chris Dadge opened a
Bandcamp site as an outlet for his solo work, making material available that was released in the
last decade by small labels like House of Alchemy and Holy Cheever Church Records. Solo
records with titles as ‘Not Sudden’, ‘What comes after Dust‘ and ‘A Bird is as Light Thing’. All of
them are also re-released as CDR in very limited quantities. This also counts for ‘Close enough
for Comfort’, which is an album of recordings dating from 2013, but first released now by Dadge.
Samantha Savage Smith, a singer and songwriter from Calgary join him here. In her work, she
incorporates influences of jazz, blues and indie rock, influences that cannot be identified in this
duo effort. The album contains four titles all-moving between seven and ten minutes. The titles of
these improvisations sum up the instruments used. For example ‘acoustic guitar, bass drum, tymp
tom, snare’ is the title of the opening track and it is a very cyclic work, quasi evoking the inside of
clockwork and very meditative in effect. And this counts for all tracks. They are all built following
the same principles. They don’t play simultaneously, but make short movements and attacks one
after another, creating short sequences that are repeated and slightly changed. It works very
refreshing and without pretending. Almost Zen. As if they were trying to eliminate intentionality
and expression (which again is an intention of course). There are just cyclic patterns that are
repeated for their own sake, a soundtrack for some unknown ritual. A lovely work. (DM)
––– Address: https://chrisdadge.bandcamp.com/
CHEAP IMITATION – NO MORE WEEKEND (cassette by Oma333)
The first time, in Vital Weekly 1096, I got it all wrong. I thought the band was called Zeon Light
and the cassette was titled ‘Cheap Imitation’, but that was actually the band name and the band
name turned out to be the name of the label. Now Cheap Imitation is back, with a cassette called
‘No More Weekend’, released by Oma333. This is a Swedish duo, of Anders Olofson and Ann-
Charlotte Rugfelt Ferm, fourteen new ones. They play synths, vocals, drum machine, piano,
harmonica, percussions, melodica, electric bass, field recordings and cello. The labels hear
Throbbing Gristle, Germain Hubert Ales, The Flying Lizards (!), U.S Girls early stuff, Inca Ore
and Myttys, the latter I don’t know but they are on the same label here. I used the term dream
pop before to describe their music, but this time around I am inclined thinking about early to mid-
80s electronic pop music that was released on cassette. I was thinking of Ding Dong Records
and Insane Music, and especially Bene Gesserit from the latter label’s roster. Ferm’s voice might
not be as flexible or twenties cabaretesque as Nadine Bal from Bene Gesserit, but more dreamy,
meandering with or without words. It has that charming naivety of the early 80s, shining from the
not so great production, which has its charm to the not always great composition, which is
loveable also. It captures the free spirit that so very much belongs to the music that goes to a
cassette. Capture the moment, the spirit and the speedy energy, even when its dreamy and
electronic and pop. It is an approach that is hard not to love. (FdW)
––– Address: http://oma333.com/