Number 33


DAVID TOOP -SCREEN CEREMONIES ( CD on WIRE EDITIONS )

If hype could be considered foreplay, then the veritable
deluge of superlatives surrounding this release could
perhaps be considered a release in themselves. Months of
prolonged anticipation for this, the first release on
Wire Editions, and the first full-length solo CD project
by David Toop have finally been rewarded ( for some) by
the physical manifestation of the thing itself. If held
up to the light alongside Buried Dreams ( his
collaboration with Max Easterly ), then Screen
Ceremonies is certainly the more transparent of the two.
If thrown into a pond, it will probably also float.
Buried Dreams could be used as a ticket to the
underworld, Screen Ceremonies could not. It is much
lighter, less fearful and will not induce nightmares or
similar strange nocturnal beasts as Buried Dreams is
reported to have done. All the care and attention to
detail is still there, but some of the intensity is not.
Menacing shapes do not loom out of the speakers
articulating ancient secrets in forgotten tongues
through dry, decaying throats. Birds and insects have
not mutated here and the territory remains somewhat
familiar throughout. Parallels could be drawn to the
Fourth World projects of (mostly) Jon Hassell. Not a bad
CD, not a totally brilliant one either. (MP)

ARCANE DEVICE/ASMUS TIETCHENS -SPEISELEITUNG (CD on Raum
312)

Another interesting product from this relatively new
German Label which already has several interesting
releases to it’s credit. The title is German for ‘power
lines’, although the music did not really suggest this
image to me. It is a collaboration from two well
experienced composers and well worth the effort. David
Myers edited rough material in his NY studio which was
then sent to Asmus in Hamburg where he deconstructed,
treated and composed the same. To bloody good
effect…the three disappointments are David Myers solo.
The rest of the record is like a journey through
asteroid belts in warped universes, where the asteroids
are bells and the universes are thin stretched wires.
The music threatens to break through into other
dimensions at times…pushing outwards but never quite
fracturing the shell that encloses it. Total control is
sometimes a beautiful thing. The press blurb hints that
this is the last recorded work to be released by David
Myers as he feels that music can do little to change the
ways of this wicked world and is now going to devote his
time to what he considers more effective methods,
Strongly recommended. (MP)

BRION GYSIN (CD by Perdition Plastics)

Brion Gysin is probably lesser known then William
Burroughs, but both were the inventors of the cut-up.
Both applied that technique to words on paper, but also
to words and sounds on magnetic tape. Gysin died 10
years ago, but his work lives on. As far as I know this
CD is the first anthology of Gysin’s spoken word stuff.
This CD includes 22 pieces, either spoke poems
(including ‘Kick That Habit Man’ and ‘I am That Am’ ),
lectures excerpts and some interview stuff (some of
which were previously released on cassette). Though not
an exhaustive document, this very well sums up the
importance of this man. Address: Perdition -4216 N.Damen
-Chicago, IL 60618 -USA

THYMME JONES -WHILE (CD by Perdition Plastics)

Who outer remembers the CD ‘Cancer’ by Illusion Of
Safety, and specially the closing track? That very last
piece of some 2 minutes piano tinkling in a minimal way?
That piece struck me, as a lover of Steve Reichanian
minimal music. Later on I found that this piece was
recorded by IOS member Thymme Jones, who also plays
drums with Brise Glace, as well as a host of other bands
from Chicago. Now, after all these years, he released a
solo CD, his very first one, with just these piano
melodies. There are five tracks, played on ‘four’
piano’s (probably referring to the 4 track machine on
which this was recorded). The first piece is the best
piece for me. The tempo is not very high, and changes
are slow, the volume is set to one pitch. I am reminded
of a Simeon Ten Holt piece (hey, but who knows him?),
but then lasting 10 minutes instead of 3 hours. The
second piece ‘Find’ is more romantic in a simple but
effective way, with one staccato melody. Those staccato
lines are also in ‘Taken’ , making it into a spaghetti
western. The fourth one is again into similar style as
the first piece. The closing track is played on a not so
well-tuned piano, and I don’t like it sound-wise. My
suggestion: skip track 5, and you have sublime CD of
well crafted minimal piano music from a true talent.
Address: see above

LEIF ELGGREN & THOMAS LILJJENBERG -ZZZ (CD + book by
Firework)

Art with the big A.R.T. capitals. This is the result of
a project around the question whether dreams can playa
role in ‘real’ life. These two guys wrote some 200
letters to well known people, saying, for instance to
Mick Jagger: ‘we dreamt ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ before
you wrote it, so it ours. You are now rich, so make us
rich too’ .Each letter has more or less this subject. As
the book evolves the letters get weirder and weirder.
Unfortunately no responses are included, so one wonders
if there were any…? The CD I can be short about: the
sound of two men sleeping in their studio. Luckily they
snore, so there is some sound. You wait for something to
happen, but nothing happens. I wonder what they dreamt
during this sleep? (FdW)
Address: Firework -Sverkersgatan 5 12651 Hagersten –
Sweden