LETHE – DRY ICE ON STEEL TABLES (CD by either/OAR) *
HECKER – SPECULATIVE SOLUTION (CD/book by Editions Mego) *
NOISEPOETNOBODY & VANCE GALLOWAY – URANIUM 238 (CD by Lens Records) *
LUCIA MENSE – ELECTRONIC COUNTERPOINT (CD by Satelita) *
HUBBUB – WHOBUB (2CD by Matchless Recordings) *
WOZZECK – ACT III: COMICS (CD by Intonema) *
SLEW52 – CATALOG (CD by Hymen)
KARSTEN PFLUM – NO NOIA MY LOVE (CD by Hymen Records)
NECRO DEATHMORT – MUSIC OF BLEAK ORIGIN (CD by Distraction Records) *
RUTMAN’S STEEL CELLO ENSEMBLE – FEAT. GINSBERG, HENTZ & IRMLER (CD by Klangbad) *
BARBARA LUNEBURG – WEAPONS OF CHOICE (DVD by Ahornfelder)
BURKHARD FRIEDRICH – CITTA UTOPICA (CD by Ahornfelder) *
RAASKALBOMFUKKERZ – ZEEKOE VALUTA (CD by Toztizok)
HELSINGIN VALITUSKUORO – ON SE NIIN VAARIN (CD single by Muu)
ANNE-JAMES CHATON & ANDY MOOR – PRINCESS IN A CAR (7″ by Unsounds)
DOMA ENSEMBLE (CDR by Poli5) *
POSTIZENA OBLAST – EP (CD by Poli5) *
ASSTMA (CDR by Poli5) *
ALEX WHITE – GENUINE INSTABILITY (CDR by Avant Whatever) *
MOLJEBKA PVLSE & CRIA CUERVOS – VIS VAGS ANDE (ROAD’S END) (CDR by Cohort Records) *
JAY KREIMER – PETER AND THE MOON TRIP (CDR by Friends & Relatives) *
SKYTHING – HOWDY CLOUD (CDR by Friends & Relatives) *
ERIC OSTROWSKI – ALPACA (DVD-R by Friends & Relatives) *
JLIAT – ALL POSSIBLE SILENCES (CDROM by Jliat)
LETHE – DRY ICE ON STEEL TABLES (CD by either/OAR)
Its interesting to note that whenever some music by Lethe, nom de plume for Japanese Kuwayama Kiyoharu, is released it is always years old, or so it seems. I have no idea why that is, but surely its like whiskey: it gets better when its older. This particular recording is made at the No. 20 warehouse, Nagoya Port, Japan on September 11th 2003. The cover tells us that the sound materials are steel tables, dry ice and candles. I saw Lethe doing this, not this concert, but at a visit at his studio, but that was before 2003, so I am no longer able to tell you how that works, soundwise. The backside of the cover shows us also sixteen small photographs of the concert: a small table in the middle, surrounded by three other small tables with the candles. It looks like a ritual being performed. No doubt the warehouse space was empty and the large hall is used to reverb the music. Its like scraping metal sheets, like Organum did in his early days, but then much, much more slower, with more time between each attack of the sheets, making the piece more ‘silent’, although each scrape of metal is quite intense. Both as an attack and intensified. Probably a DVD of the concert would have been more appropriate, so you could see the action, and judge for yourself if this a performed ritual, but instead, by putting it on CD, one is forced to consider this in pure musical terms, which I guess is the whole notion of it. It has an odd orchestral feel to it, like a Xenakis piece, scraping, reverberating and intense. An excellent piece of music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.and-oar.org/either_oar1.html
HECKER – SPECULATIVE SOLUTION (CD/book by Editions Mego)
A neat box, containing a CD, a book of 160 pages on thin paper and five metal balls (3,96 mm). The booklet has a text in English and a translation in French and deals with ‘Hecker’s sonic practice and and psychoacoustic experimentation with philosopher Quentin Meillassoux’s concept of ‘hyperchaos’ – the absolute contingency of the laws of nature’ and the booklet state that Hecker’s music ‘participates in a circuit in which it, the accompanying texts, and diverse other objects, enter into a perpetual catalysis that must annihilate all priority, representation, reference, and even entity’. Hecker proposes ‘that the concepts of absolute contingency and hyperchaos offer a rigorous new alternative to the empolyment of chance and randomness in avant-garde composition’. I am quoting from the press releases, as my intellectual ability to understand the text in the booklet is somewhat limited. I really tried, but reading philosophical texts is perhaps something I am no longer used to, since leaving the university. Perhaps that makes it hard(er) to understand the music also, but I’ll try (and hopefully not fail). Hecker fans (and they are many!) will not be disappointed by the music, as this is the Hecker we know, perhaps in a somewhat more random mode. The crystal clear computer sounds are still there, piercing at times, rhythmic at other, even when it seems to derail and makes a strong clear presence. Play loud is being recommended. Its all highly chaotic, but it certainly knew how to capture me: not by playing this as just any other CD, but by sitting down and paying attention. Reading the enclosed booklet is not an option as one might by highly distracted by the chaotic nature of the music. Do nothing, listen and marvel by the apparent chaos. Read the booklet – try to and play again. Total entertainment package – of some kind. (FdW)
Address: http://editionsmego.com
NOISEPOETNOBODY & VANCE GALLOWAY – URANIUM 238 (CD by Lens Records)
For one reason or another I think I heard before of Vance Galloway, but other than a track on a compilation back in Vital Weekly 454, it seems I didn’t. Together with noisepoetnobody, whom he met in 1998 when he mastered an album for them, they hail from the northwest of the US of A. “Uranium 238” is their second album together. Together they use string board, analog modular synthesis, loopers, custom electric guitar and audio processing software. This is results in a curious hybrid of music that is somewhere in between improvisation and ambient. The guitar and string board obviously are used to create the elements of improvisation, but from there on the sound is fed through a bunch of sound effects, in which it gets stuck like insects in a jar: crawling, busy and seemingly getting more and more. Its very nice, but not always worked out to a perfect state. A piece like ‘Glimmering Endless Possibilities’ has a quick fade out at the end, which suggests something horribly went wrong during the recording and things had to end here quickly. That is a pity. It suggests that not much overdubbing took place, but it would have perhaps been a bit more. But as said a most curious hybrid of styles that on paper may not be the easiest partners, but which leads to quite satisfying results. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lensrecords.com
LUCIA MENSE – ELECTRONIC COUNTERPOINT (CD by Satelita)
The recorder is a wooden flute, besides of course a machine to document sounds on. Lucia Mense plays the recorder and studied this Cologne, Milan and Amsterdam. Its an instrument to drive people crazy. Here however it doesn’t, at least not me. The recordings were made between 2006 and 2009 and involve electronics as well, controlled by the composers of the various pieces, in three of these pieces. The other two I assume are for recorder without electronics. At times it’s hard to hear a recorder at all in this music, which of course adds to the strength of the release. Very introspective pieces of music here, especially in the beautiful ‘Black Smoker’ by Ulrich Krieger. It sounds almost like the flute is recorded and then slowed/pitched down. In other pieces, such as ‘Erbsen’ (composed by Marc Sabat) recorder and electronics are almost like dueling banjos, spreading out in each new section. Throughout these pieces are heavily based in the world of modern classical music, which is surely something that you must like, but to all recorder-haters I’d say, have a concentrated listen to this release, as it covers a fine line of modern classical music, electronics and what seems improvisation. Compositions by Manfred Stahnle, Sascha Lino Lemke and Georg Hajdu, besides the two aforementioned. (FdW)
Address: http://www.satelita.de
HUBBUB – WHOBUB (2CD by Matchless Recordings)
WOZZECK – ACT III: COMICS (CD by Intonema)
UK’s Matchless Recordings is perhaps best known for the releases they out out by AMM, or solo projects by the various members. This double CD by French Hubbub is not the first on Matchless Recordings, so perhaps its save to say that Hubbub is the French version of AMM. Hubbub consists five members: Frederic Blondy, Bertrand Denzler, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Jean Sebastien Mariage and Edward Perraud. No instruments are mentioned on the cover, or the label’s website. Two discs, with eighty-six minutes of music, obviously from the world of improvised music of a highly careful nature. Two recordings from two different concerts, both of the same careful nature. Maybe the first piece on the second disc ‘Bub 1’ works a bit more with overtones/feedback like sounds (saxophones no doubt), but by and large these are the same sides of the coin. Bowed guitars, sparse percussion, a note on the piano, saxophones… Indeed very much like AMM in a somewhat larger setting. Thoughtful, meditative improvisation, that no doubt works better in an auditorium than on CD. Which is not say that I didn’t like this: as much as I every now and then play AMM, I think Hubbub are on an equally great level. One thing though: when I finished CD one, I wasn’t up for playing CD two straight away.
Very much along similar lines is the CD by Wozzeck, a duo of Ilia Belorukov (alto and baritone saxophones) and Mikhail Ershov (bass guitar) with the help of four others on electric guitar, trombone, voice and violin. Apparently it has forty-seven small tracks cut together as one track, and one remix by Piotr Kurek and Arturas Bumsteinas. Most of the time Wozzeck also careful styled improvisations, with a strong focus on instrument use, sometimes sounding as objects. There is more happening here in twenty-three minutes than in the same amount of time of Hubbub, but it all comes from the very same source: AMM. playing rather moody, thoughtful improvisation music. Wozzeck seem younger and less focussed on a long duration. Instead they opt for quicker, small events, without losing their focus on ‘mood’ and ‘texture’. Nice, entirely different package: a comic! The remix is a more concentrated effort of loop based sounds from the original, adding a like drone like character to the original. Bits and pieces from the original seem to leak through, which makes it all the more orchestral. Very nice remix. (FdW)
Address: http://www.matchlessrecordings.com
Address: http://www.intonema.blogspot.com
SLEW52 – CATALOG (CD by Hymen)
KARSTEN PFLUM – NO NOIA MY LOVE (CD by Hymen Records)
Traditionally Denmark is not the first country mentioned when talking about forefront electronic music, however present two artists shows supports the fact that something is happening on the Danish electronic music scene at the moment. Where Karsten Pflum has become quite a internationally well-known name, first album reviewed here comes from an artist that might be quite unknown to many readers. Slew52 is the alias of Daniel Kosenko, an interesting sound artist based in Danish town, Aarhus. Present album titled “Catalog” consists of two discs with very different expressions: First disc is a fucked-up rhythmic experience that blends dubstep, breakcore and even downbeat into an abstract mash-up resulting in a very unique sound experience. It is hard to describe the style here, but everyone interested in dubstep or wacko breakcore will be glued to this very addictive first disc divided into 11 intersection and running 60+ minutes. As you leave first part of the “Catalog” and enter the second, expressions turns completely upside down. The combination of furious rhythm textures and sampling mash-up has disappeared and what we find is 70 minutes of deep tripping ambience. Despite the fact that first part addicted me, this second part is the time where Slew52 seriously attracts me. His ability to create hypnotic soundscapes is impressive. As you enter the disc time stops and you drift into spheres of psychedelic drone ambient. The psychedelic part of the expression reminds me of early ambient from 70’s krautrock-names such as Edgar Froese or early Tangerine Dream. But the expressions also turns towards contemporary drone-maestro’s such as Thomas K–ner. Excellent album that will satisfy adventurous listeners of both abstract rhythm-textures and deep trippy ambient. Next album comes from Danish artist Karsten Pflum who has been quite an active artist both on the Danish electronic scene but also internationally. His track titled “Capstone switch” included on present new album “No noia my love” was my favorite track on the awesome double disc Hymen-compilation “Miwak twelve” from 2009, and I still enjoy this track thanks to it’s mixture between rhythmic complexity and extreme catchiness. I was excited to see if the whole “No noia my love”-album could actually live up to the majestic quality of the “Capstone switch”. The stylish span on the album is very wide though with the common denominator of being based on textures of breakbeats. Some tracks especially early on the album first of all points towards early drum’n’bass with expressions sometimes reminiscent of LTJ Bukem and early British jungle. Other moments the album moves into wacko spheres with expressions of abstract electronics with elements of freaking breakcore, just like aforementioned “Capstone switch” and “Nud mining” just to mention a few. Also dubstep elements penetrate the sound world of the album as on the excellent album closer “Mimer”. Thus there are much expressional variation on “No noia my love” and the answer to my personal question: Did “No noia my love” love to my expectations? Yes, absolutely! (NM)
Address: http://www.hymen-records.com/
NECRO DEATHMORT – MUSIC OF BLEAK ORIGIN (CD by Distraction Records)
According to a small note that came with this I liked the previous one and it is said I would maybe like this one. But honestly: I don’t remember the previous one, and I knew I would remember such a thing. Simply because when you call your band Necro Deathmort, I am sure I would remember it for two reasons: its a silly name and one unlikely to appear on Distraction Records, who deal with more pop-sensitive material. So this is their second album for the label, and, despite their odd name, I quite like the music. Its loud, dirty and heavy, evolving around heavy banging drums, bass/guitar and electronics, and occasional drum machines. Experimental dub metal. That may sound like a joke if you are don’t know this kind of music, but that’s what it is. It reminded me of some of the old Scorn records, which I haven’t heard in years I must admit, but which brings back good memories. Necro Deathmort seem even louder and dirtier than Scorn, ripping apart bass speakers. A sort of drone meets doom meets dubstep: more headbanging than feet-moving I’d say. Solid as a rock, noh diamond. Not for the weak of hearth, and probably a must see when they hit town. Massive stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.distractionrecords.com
RUTMAN’S STEEL CELLO ENSEMBLE – FEAT. GINSBERG, HENTZ & IRMLER (CD by Klangbad)
This year Robert (Bob for friends) will be 80 years old, but still going strong. He build a stringed instrument of metal which he plays with bows. As such he supported Einsturzende Neubauten in the past. He’s more into playing concerts than into releasing CDs, as there haven’t been that many. He he teams up with three players: Hans Joachim Irmler, best known as the organ player of Faust, but here mainly on guitar, Kersten Ginsberg on drums and Mike Hentz on jew harp and voice. An odd choice of instruments, especially the jew harp, I’d say, but it works well. A full on sound, moving away from the strict drone like qualities of Rutman’s own, older works, but which provides still a heavy tableau of sound here, over which the drums play the second role: lots of banging in krautrock manner. Guitar and jew harp are less easy to be noted in this volume heavy mix, but provide interesting counterpoints when needed. A great mixture of psychedelic, almost rock like structures, with the singing overtones of Rutman’s steel cello and bow chime. When they pull back, such as in ‘Oyo’, they loose it a bit, but maybe I don’t like the imitation of overtone singing. Best when driven fast, this music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.klangbad.de
BARBARA LUNEBURG – WEAPONS OF CHOICE (DVD by Ahornfelder)
BURKHARD FRIEDRICH – CITTA UTOPICA (CD by Ahornfelder)
Now that CDs don’t sell so well, DVD might be its savior – or so some people think. This might be interesting example indeed: violin player Barbara Luneburg invited a couple of composers and visual artists to work with her. They provide pieces for her to play and then to be interpreted for video. In its most simple form we have ‘Fluid Calligraphy’ in which the violin playing is depicted by some lines, going up and down, making apparently the same waves as the bending of the strings. An excellent piece of musical calligraphy. Other pieces are more complex, like Alexander Schubert who has a piece (the title piece of the release actually), in which we see Luneburg playing the violin with a motion sensor and the video behind her following her movements along with sampler for processed sounds. A fine interaction. Something else is the more narrative piece by Yannis Kyriakides who not only composed the music, but also did the video, based on a film by Jean Rouch about a Hauka ritual from Ghana in the fifties, along with texts from the original documentary. In ‘Alias’, composed by Marko Ciciliani we see the violin player playing furiously, along with occasional sampled sounds. I am not sure what else I should see (except for lights flashing) or hear (samples from Japan). A fine piece of music though, which can also be said of ‘Stream Machines and The Black Arts’, which is a more contemplative piece. All five pieces have a distinct modern classical feel to it, some more than others, but throughout I liked it a lot. An excellent display of music and visuals.
A DVD might have been a good idea also for Burkhard Friedrich, a composer from Germany, of whom I think I never heard. He composes electronic music as well as pop-electro avant-garde. A DVD might have been in place for this ‘concertinstallation’, unless there was nothing to see? The promo cover however lists somebody for the video. Furthermore than is someone playing electric guitar and contrabass, while I think Friedrich is responsible for the electronic music. I am not sure what to make of this as music by itself. It seems like rather improvised piece of electronics, with prepared guitar bits and processed bass bits, in a large amorphous mass of sounds. I can see images of cities at night, industrial parks and other nocturnal sites being part of this, but in the end it all stayed a bit too alien to me. It never seemed to really grabbed me. It stayed too much a matter of improvised electronics with some instruments in a large cloud of sound. Indeed: sometimes you are left in the dark without a video. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ahornfelder.de
RAASKALBOMFUKKERZ – ZEEKOE VALUTA (CD by Toztizok)
Six years ago the first release of RaaskalBOMfukkerZ, a duo which was living in the big squathouse De Verloren Hond in Amersfoort. The music was raw and mixed several rap-styles to their own style. Now six years later the music sounds more grown-up, without loosing their free-minded view to the world. The album has 10 tracks and is released by the independent label Toztizok. Dr. Snoodaard is responsible for beats, guitar-patterns, sounds and more, like field-recordings of noise-demonstrations in front of a police station. He uses rhythms all over the world and mixed them in harmony. Formulator is the artistic name of poet Sieger Baljon. He is well-known to mix rap, traditional poetry and stories and pure left-wing political critics. His voice has become full-grown and strong. Although he didn’t loose his delirious chatting. His texts are like a maniac, but if you cannot follow it, you can read them on a paper stenciled. The last track is called “Doodsmis” (Dutch for Death Mass) and started with a short interpretation of Wilhelmus, the national anthem of The Netherlands. The song deals about the immigration / deportation politics of the Dutch government. Wilhelmus has been used many many times to criticize nationalism. The RaaskalBOMfukkerZ does not need this to tell their story. Anyway… I am happily surprised by the development of the music of this artistic rap-duo? so buy this DIY CD. (JKH)
Address: http://www.toztizok.com/
HELSINGIN VALITUSKUORO – ON SE NIIN VAARIN (CD single by Muu)
Apparently a million people watched this on Youtube, so now there is the CD single. Since we reviewed more from this label, we get a copy. People sing in finnish their complaints – translation provided on the cover. The idea of the Helsinki Complaint Choir Is from two artists, obviously, encouraging people around the world to form choirs about complaints. How interesting and how boring. How ‘arty’. I wasn’t bothered to be the next viewer on Youtube. (FdW)
Address: http://www.muu.fi
ANNE-JAMES CHATON & ANDY MOOR – PRINCESS IN A CAR (7″ by Unsounds)
The press text is all in French. Maybe a mistake from this Dutch label, or perhaps the fun starts here? This is the second 7″ in a series of four about ‘transition and transportation’ (see also Vital Weekly 773) and the princess in a car referred to here is of course Lady Di and Grace Kelly, both of them meeting death in a car crash, although under different circumstances. Poet Anne-James Chaton and guitarist Andy Moor have two songs about these princesses and their lives and their cars, a Mercedes Class S 280 and a Rover P6 3500S V8, in case you are a boy and interested. Both pieces are similar: the french voice, a bit of english from a woman’s voice (the princess no doubt), looped guitar sounds and rhythms. Yet where the first might be a more click ‘n cut rhythm in the style of Alva Noto (of gets a thank you on the cover), has the other side a more rock song like structure to it. Hardly a matter of improvised music, I’d say, but taking elements from that and build two great songs. The second great 7″ from this series. (FdW)
Address: http://www.unsounds.com
DOMA ENSEMBLE (CDR by Poli5)
POSTIZENA OBLAST – EP (CD by Poli5)
ASSTMA (CDR by Poli5)
Behind the DoMa Ensemble we find Dorota Barova (violincello, voice and line6, whatever that might be) and Marcel Barta (saxophones and bassclarinet). An ensemble of two, why not? They play music from the world of improvised music and jazz. Not thoroughly free stuff, not ‘instrument as object’, but partly easy jazz inspired music, partly modern classical, such as in the excellent opening piece ‘Letavice’: very quiet, intense, orchestral and beautiful. In other pieces the violincello does a bit of weird things while the saxophone blows a gentle theme on top, and sometimes the charges are reversed. Some pieces have text reciting and/or wordless singing, but the latter made things a bit too slick for me. Things work best for me when they are instrumental and melancholic sounding. They have that mid-european folky feel to it, but are played a bit more free and a bit more jazz like. Maybe eleven tracks at fifty-five minutes was all a bit much and not every track was equally strong (especially the most jazzy pieces were not for me), but quite a nice, friendly CD.
Postizena Oblast is a rock band, with rock instruments, such guitar, bass, drums, but also violin, ‘booster klarinet’ and lots of effects (listed per instrument). Their ‘EP’ has four tracks, which are indeed like an EP: twenty minutes. I have never heard their music before, and to me they seem to come from a post rock background. Pieces meander about, widely but then also tinkering, slow, nearby, with a whispering voice. Track titles are long with all those weird signs that the Czech language has, so retyping them, putting them in google translate is probably not a good option. The voice here is alike the poetry reciting on the DoMa Ensemble CD: thoughtful, perhaps full of those things poets are full about. Atmospheric rock music, with less emphasis on the drums than with some others in this field, spacious, new wave like in the third piece (I won’t even try to retype the title). Excellent produced although not entirely my cup of tea.
Poli5 is a label that made it into these pages before and their covers are usually covered with words in Czech, their native language. I don’t speak that, but sometimes can guess a bit. Those worlds I translate, the others not.
The last one is released on CDR. I don’t know what decisions are made to differentiate between one and the other. I think Asstma is one guy who plays bass guitar, ‘blas’, ‘beaty’, text. The latter is quite important, it seems to me. Asstma’s text are recited rather than sung. Its of course very unclear what these texts are about. Even if I would speak his language. I assume he has a beat creating machine and perhaps its all doom/gloom/teenage angst or perhaps politically inspired (police sirens in . The music is not great however. It dwells a bit too heavy on the groove box/sample machine and the some boring, angry voice. Obviously there is a point or two to be missed for non-Czechs, but even then… (FdW)
Address: http://www.poli5.cz
ALEX WHITE – GENUINE INSTABILITY (CDR by Avant Whatever)
From Sydney, Australia hails Alex White, a laptop
musician who works with Reaktor and who ‘seeks to create music that teeters on the brink of complete whilst retaining barely discernible fragments of form or melody utilizing computer based feedback systems including frequency and playback head modulation of digital files. These complex systems produce chaotic and noisy material that Alex then manipulates into a semblance of form and order’. I may not entirely grasp what this means, but it sounds good. The music however is not always great. Its largely very deep bass computerized noise, in which it is not easy to recognize any order. No disorder either, since it seems largely based on loop like material. Distorted, gritty, dirty sounds that, when played loud, will shred your speaker to bits. I can imagine that in a concert situation (with hardly any light), this can all be an overwhelming experience, but in a home situation I am afraid it works less well. (FdW)
Address: http://www.avantwhatever.com
MOLJEBKA PVLSE & CRIA CUERVOS – VIS VAGS ANDE (ROAD’S END) (CDR by Cohort Records)
Not a split CDR which Cohort releases every now and then, but a collaborative effort between Cria Cuervos (Italy) and Moljebka Pvlse from Sweden. The work was already recorded in 2007 through lines that aren’t clear, but I guess its save to say through file exchange and the use of internet. Both Cria Cuervos and Moljebka Pvlse are known masters of drone music and obviously this is their direction for the music on this disc. Two pieces of what seems to me field recordings, lots of sound effects (analogue? digital?) and even instruments: it seems like bass guitar in ‘Pa Vandrande Fot (Traveling by foot)’, all along with what seems a harmonium. This piece is slow builder, building to a great crescendo and slow dramatic fade out. In ‘Det Ar Aldrig For Sent Att Vanda Om (It’s never too late to turn back)’, field recordings play a more dominant role (along with a big too much reverb) and guitars played with bows. No crescendo here, but slowly revolving piece with minimalist changes, gradually being locked into a web of sound effects, slowly alienating the music. I wonder which ‘road’s end’ here: that of their personal development in drone music, or wether its just another poetic title. Maybe it would be good to change the scenery of the music, and develop something that extends beyond the traditional drone music. This release would be a great ending to that phase. (FdW)
Address: http://cohortrecords.0catch.com
JAY KREIMER – PETER AND THE MOON TRIP (CDR by Friends & Relatives)
SKYTHING – HOWDY CLOUD (CDR by Friends & Relatives)
ERIC OSTROWSKI – ALPACA (DVD-R by Friends & Relatives)
One half of Seeded Plain and Shelf Life is Bryan Day, the other half is Jay Kreimer. He builds his own instruments, I guess of a percussive nature, which he plays in an improvised manner with the addition of a bit of sound effects. His latest solo release is a ‘score set to the children’s book ‘Peter And The Moon Trip’, which I haven’t read. Its a bit of odd music. Things are indeed percussive, but the use of sound effects is quite nice. Not reverb like, but it almost like feeding through some sort of analogue synthesizer, while maintaining sounds from the original into the mix. I assume books with the word ‘moon trip’ deal with some sort of outer space theme, and this curious mixture of improvisation and electronics works quite well, in a sort of space context.
I already had the release by Skything, on cassette, which turned out to be blank, which wasn’t the conceptual idea behind it. Skything are a duo from Ft. Wayne, Indiana and they are Megan Mirro on samples, piano and guitar and John McCormick on drums ‘etc’. Improvisation is the key-word here too, but albeit a bit different than with Kreimer. Skything works from a more traditional view: a bit rock like due to the usage of guitar and drums, which play rather ‘freely structured’ music. So not really rock, but not really total improv either. The samples add a nice vibe to the music, especially in the opening piece ‘Acoustic Door’, with its loose strumming quality and psychedelic influences. Alike No Neck-Blues Band, but in a smaller ensemble. The difference is recording quality between tracks is something that doesn’t add to the coherence of the release. ‘Snake Charm’ is very loud, compared to the track before ‘Portion’. When Skything play long, again in ‘Snake Charm’, they seem to loose focus. Trim down those pieces, do a bit on the mastering job, and the release gains a lot of strength.
Eric Ostrowski was once best known as one half of Noggin, but now works solo, using and abusing his violin. His ‘Alpaca’ is a film and music thing. Visual wise it has multiple layers of images, film in the basement it seems, along with slides. Maybe the music was done on the spot, and consists of a long howl of violin abuse along with feedback and loud microphone pick up. Due to the briefness of this and attack on the hearing and seeing senses, I thought this was all a rather nice. The bonus ‘Bratty Kid’ was even funny. No music, but one hell of a story! (FdW)
Address: <friendsandrelativesrecords@yahoo.com>
JLIAT – ALL POSSIBLE SILENCES (CDROM by Jliat)
Why try to summarize something that one doesn’t understand? Why not copy->paste from the website, but read on, there might be a conclusion: “The audio on CDs is recorded as discrete numbers, therefore there are a finite number of ALL POSSIBLE CDs… Roughly 10 to the power 2 billion… (precisely 2 ^ 6265728000) This is a virtual totality of which what we have (in HMV etc.) are very small actualizations of this totality. I’m intrigued that the digital domain renders finite such infinities as monkeys on typewriters, though the physical universe isn’t sufficient to actualize this finite total, in theory it exists, all music as CD is delimited exactly. This poses the thought that any recording could be created by artistic talent, ingenuity, skill, sensitivity… or by brute force or accident. In which case the “Art” must be in the listening? It poses some interesting problematics … for music … and artists.. Even to actualize 1 second of this totality would take 10 to the 2 billion seconds, however there is another subset of the totality which is the set of silent disks. There is not just one such silent disk, containing all zeros, but any disk which contains only one fixed set of digits, e.g. 999999… or 444444….etc. (its only changing numbers which render sound..) And there is a fixed number of these, 65536. So though realization of the total virtual isn’t possible, the full range of silences is. Rather than issue 65536 disks its possible using a simple algorithm and software to compact data in a lossless manner (zip) and so to create a compacted file with 10 second examples of all 65536 possible silences. Technically this was achieved by writing custom software to create and compress the data. To make handling these large volumes for certain operating systems the 65536 files are split into 4 zip files. Any one of the 65536 wave files produces 10 seconds of silence, yet each is different from the others in the data it contains. This in itself appears somewhat paradoxical… as is the fact that the total virtuality of all possible audio CDs can be made by selective playing of selective parts of these 65536 files.. I like to think the problematic of where meaning (truth and beauty…) lies, where it arises, is raised by this work. That ‘the event’ in reality – in a totality – is never special or privileged, is perhaps only made so by ‘outside’ intervention? In which case where does that leave “Il n’y a pas de hors-texte” (There is nothing outside the text) ? PLAYING NOTES: ITS BEST TO KEEP THE FILES IN THE ZIP FOLDER* AND LOAD EACH AS REQUIRED TO YOUR PLAYER. TAKE CARE WITH PLAYING AT HIGH VOLUMES, THOUGH SILENT THE DC OFFSETS MAY CAUSE DAMAGE: TO ‘HEAR’ ALL 65536 CDS (74 MINUTES) WOULD TAKE APPROX 9 YEARS, THE 10 SECOND SAMPLES HERE WILL TAKE APPROX 7.5 DAYS. *UNPACKED DATA IS 107 GIGABYTES”. Ouch, I opened one zip which ate away some 30 gigabyte of my hard drive. Some sixteen-thousand soundfiles of indeed 10 seconds. I decided to open a few. There seemed all the same, but probably aren’t. You’ll have to excuse me that I didn’t hear the entire disc, simply because I don’t have 7,5 spare days. I am sure Jliat wouldn’t mind. This is alike ‘4’33’ but then to a new (digital) level. (FdW)
Address: http://www.jliat.com/silence