PIMMON – THE OANSOME ORBIT (CD by Room40) *
HUM OF GNATS (CD by Strungaphone Records) *
PIERRE-YVES MARTEL & MARTIN TETREAULT & PHILIPPE LAUZIER – XYZ (CD by Et Records) *
FORTNER ANDERSON – SOLITARY PLEASURE (CD by Et Records) *
THOMAS BUCKNER & EDYTA FIL & ILIA BELORUKOV & ALEXEY LAPIN & JUHO LAITINEN – BEWITCHED CONCERT (CD by Intonema)
THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC & YUI ONODERA – NIGHT BLOSSOM (CD by Whereabouts Records) *
CHRISTOPH ERB – ERB ALONE (CD by Veto Records) *
MERZOUGA – MEKONG MORNING GLORY (CD by Gruenrekorder) *
LASSE-MARC RIEK – SAISON CONCRETE (CD by Semper Florens) *
HANSEN/WAERNES – BETWEEN NOTHINGNESS AND ENTERTAINMENT (CD by Go To Gate Records)
GIANLUCA BECUZZI – ETERNALLY NOW (CD by Lisca Records) *
RYU HANKIL & HONG CHULKI & CHOI JOONYONG – INFERIOR SOUNDS (CD by Balloon & Needle) *
ALPEN – INSIDE THE SKY (CD by Feral Media) *
WEIRD FAIRYTALES (LP by Noise Below)
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE – BOTO [ENCANTADO] (LP by ini.itu)
JOY AS A TOY / GERMANOTTA YOUTH (10″ by Cheap Satanism Records)
CHRIS IMLER – VORWARTS/TANZEN (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
ROTHKAMM – RENO (CDR by Flux Records) *
TOM FAZZINI – ARMS IN SEMAPHORE (CDR by Loophamystery Records) *
TOM HAMILTON & ID M THEFT ABLE & AL MARGOLIS – MEGAWHAT? (CDR by Ilse) *
JIM IVY & JOHN AJAC – THE FORTUNE (CDR by Ilse) *
DECIANOS – FABLES FOR ANOTHER TIME (CDR, private)
CHARNEL HOUSE – CONTAGION (CD by Sygil Records)
STRANGE ATTRACTOR – ANATOMY OF A TEAR (CD by Music For Speakers)
886VG & EYE – ABISMO (CDR by No Brain Productions)
ANDREA-JANE CORNELL & LOTY NEGARTI – MOUNT TUNNEL (VHS by Ihek)
PAINTS OF ANIMA – MOON WORSHIP (CDR by Dokuro) *
FEAR KONSTRUKTOR – USHABTI (CDR by Dokuro) *
MUSCULUS – NOT IN (CDR by Dokuro) *
MARK BRADLEY – SUSTAIN/RELEASE (CDR by Dokuro) *
PATRIZIA OLIVA – LIVE AT FLUC, WIEN (3″CDR by Dokuro) *
MGUEL A. GARCIA & TOMAS GRIS (cassette by Crustaves Tapes)
AKI ONDA – DIARY (cassette plus book by Unframed Recordings)
PIMMON – THE OANSOME ORBIT (CD by Room40)
There was a time when the name Pimmon was household, but it seems to be a long time ago. Maybe his previous release was ‘Smudge Another Yesterday’ (see Vital Weekly 675) – unless of course I missed out something in between. These recent years Pimmon is a lot of less active, that much is sure. That is perhaps a pity, but maybe its good to don’t have that many albums around, and maybe some people should take notice here. What I noticed about his previous, can also be said here: if you are looking for a radically changed Pimmon, this might not be the right place. Armed with guitar, analogue synths and a computer, Pimmon creates richly layered music. There is always something happening, on every layer of the music – be it in small, crackling loops used, or the thick textures that these loops seem to bath in. Pimmon does another job here. But there are two things that I think need to be said about this album. First is, and that might seem a repetition from the previous review, that Pimmon does exactly what he does he best. There is no room apparently (or perhaps no need) for chance in the world of Pimmon. You could wonder about that. The other thing is that some of these pieces are perhaps a bit too long. Now the whole album is an hour long and it seems to me when some of these pieces would have been a bit shorter it would have been a stronger release. Maybe you don’t care about such observations, and you want some people to never chance, especially when they produce so little work these days. If that is the case, the Pimmon is absolutely your man. (FdW)
Address: http://www.room40.org
HUM OF GNATS (CD by Strungaphone Records)
Its not easy to find information on this band, which I believe is just one guy Ezio Piermattei, who plays a whole range of instruments here such as guitars, bazouki, viola, piano, percussion, bass, accordion, synthesizer, samples, field recordings and voice, all put together on the multi-track to create dense layers of sound. Hard to place this anywhere in the musical spectrum, as it seems to be moving across many territories. Sound collage for sure, in which everything is mixed together in a close way, like amorphic masses of sound. Sometimes the wind instruments remind me of jazz, but there is also musique concrete elements, folk, tape collage, minimal music, cosmic, all balancing well on the digital and analogue side of things and if anything, I’d think this could be best compared to Biota and Mnemonist: that fine balance of experimenting with a lot of instruments (less rock here though) and shape it up in the studio – the studio as instrument. Of course hardly a new idea, but Hum Of Gnats produce four excellent pieces – all around ten-eleven minutes of highly cinematographic content, moving through fine textures, strange moods and throughout made up a very nice album. Captivating music – and a presentation that has room for improvement. (FdW)
Address: <strungaphone@gmail.com>
PIERRE-YVES MARTEL & MARTIN TETREAULT & PHILIPPE LAUZIER – XYZ (CD by Et Records)
FORTNER ANDERSON – SOLITARY PLEASURE (CD by Et Records)
At cross-roads. That’s what comes to mind when listening the trio disc of Pierre Yves Martel, Philippe Lauzier and Martin Tetreault. No instruments are listed on the cover, but let’s assume its a turntable and an assorted range of acoustic instruments and electronic sound generators. They are used to play improvised music, and so far nothing new. But the end-result is quite interesting: its as if these three men are attempting at something that is more noise based than is common in these circles. At a cross-road of improvised music and noise. Obviously not a HNW release but in a true experimental fashion a disc of intelligent noise. It seems all recorded straight to tape, with microphones picking up very closely the sounds that are produced, which makes this pretty ‘in y’r face’ release, perhaps with the exception of ‘y = cZ + d’, which sounds a bit distant. Things work best when all sound sources are used on an equal level, acoustic and electronic sounds colliding together in an infinite mixture of possibilities. An excellent release of fine noise.
Some entirely different is the music of Fortner Anderson, although its better to say the poetry and a bit of music of the person in question. We have reviewed his work before (see Vital Weekly 521 and 560). Here a work of thirty-five short pieces, like a dairy. Each piece starts with a date introduction and something about that date, along with improvised music of Michel F Côté, Sam Shalabi and Alexandre St-Onge on drums, guitar and electronics. Unlike ‘Six Silk Purses: The Poems Of Fortner Anderson’, this has however less variation in the execution. The voice is the same throughout and the music is all highly freely improvised. Some of these poems are quite nice, or even funny and sometimes sad (about a friend on chemo) but I wonder if I rather read the book (which is apparently also available, but I didn’t see it) and hear the music separately, but perhaps I am just not that much of poetry kind of guy. Or a CD single would be more in place and not one that lasts forty-eight minutes. (FdW)
Address: http://etrecords.net/
THOMAS BUCKNER & EDYTA FIL & ILIA BELORUKOV & ALEXEY LAPIN & JUHO LAITINEN – BEWITCHED CONCERT (CD by Intonema)
If you want to know what happened on november 6, 2009 at the Experimental Sound Gallery in Saint Petersburg, Russia, listen to this one. An international ensemble of improvisors was on stage for an unique improvised concert. Let me introduce them. Ilia Belorukov (alto sax, objects) is a musician from Saint-Petersburg. Operating in the fields of free improvisation, noise and electroacoustic music. He is also owner of the new Intonema label that released this concert. Alexey Lapin (upright piano), a pianist, composer and sound engineer is also from Saint-Petersburg. He has some work released on Leo and Red Toucan. Edyta Fil (flute) is from Warsaw. Here and in Strasbourg she studied flue and chamber ensemble. Although educated in classical music she is also into improvised music. The same for Juho Laitinen (cello, voice) from Finland. He is a cellist, specialized in 20th century composed music, mainstream and avant garde jazz, fado, improviser, composer, writer and teacher. In fact we are talking of two different smaller collaborations, that decided impulsively to play together for this occasion. This was done from a right intuition, as this led to some very satisfying improvisations. The classical trained voice of veteran Buckner is patching the way in most improvisations. The gradually unfolding improvisations are dominated by modern classical esthetics, which is often the case when Buckner is part of the game. (DM)
Address: http://www.intonema.blogspot.com
THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC & YUI ONODERA – NIGHT BLOSSOM (CD by Whereabouts Records)
Somehow I must admit I like the work of Portuguese Jorge Mantas, also known as The Beautiful Schizophonic. His music very much rooted in the world of laptops with long sustaining sounds and may not something very new, but his moody electronics have unmistakably a romantic notion over it, and that’s something happen to like. Not because its good, per se, but because its different than his peers. Here he teams up with Yui Onodera who takes the credit for piano, electric guitars, environmental sounds and processing. In the opening piece ‘Dreaming In The Proximity Of Mars’ is a very kitschy piece of new age piano set against Mantas’ dark drones, so perhaps its too alien for real lovers of the real new age. It returns later in ‘Nubian Clouds Over Saskia’, but its not a lead for the entire album. In a piece like ‘Akathisia’ things become more experimental with field recordings, processed and clicky sounds. In pieces like ‘Washing In Slow Colours’ and ‘This Crying Age’ (with poetry reading by one Miko) the fat washes of synthesizer sounds (no doubt something that is processed on the laptop by Mantas, using a vocoder like plug-ins, think GAS), but come without the piano sounds, and perhaps more guitar from Onodera. In ‘Siamese Bloom’ we have cicadas singing. Its all together quite a nice album, varied in its five approaches, not always strong (the piano!) but the moody music works well. A pleasant album to wake with on a rainy day.
Address: http://whereabouts-records.com/
CHRISTOPH ERB – ERB ALONE (CD by Veto Records)
File under jazz, improvised… a disc of somebody playing tenor saxophone and bass clarinet. Is that something for me? Or rather our man in the field, Dolf Mulder? Christoph Erb has his own group, Erb_gut, runs his own label Veto Records and has played with people like Fred Lonberg-Holm, Urs Leimgruber, Christian Weber, Christian Wolfarth and many others. His travels brought him to Chicago where he recorded a ten track solo album, that only lasts twenty-six minutes. When he reaches for the pure saxophone play, such as in ‘Kasimir’, I am not that much interested, but as soon as he hits another technique, when things become noisy (in ‘S#!T’), more meditative (‘Bschme’), percussive (‘Rauber’ and ‘Kirch’) or an electro-acoustic piece like ‘Dear Old Reeds’ (going through a box of reeds, I think) I am surely interested. Here he gets a ground of his own, moving away from that somewhat rigid free jazz play in the other pieces. Perhaps its a pity that these interesting pieces are the shorter ones on this release. Throughout however, and perhaps the somewhat short length of the entire album, makes that I am overall quite positive about it. But then, years ago, I also liked Lol Coxhill every now and then, so perhaps me and free jazz will like each other one day. (FdW)
Address: http://www.veto-records.ch
MERZOUGA – MEKONG MORNING GLORY (CD by Gruenrekorder)
LASSE-MARC RIEK – SAISON CONCRETE (CD by Semper Florens)
The Mekong is the one of the world’s largest rivers, about 4350 kilometers long, from Tibet to South Vietnam. Along the river water spinach is grown, also known as Morning Glory. Recordings have been made by Eva Popplein and Jano Hanushevsky, also known as Merzouga. This is not a work of pure field recordings as Hanushevsky plays prepared bass guitar, I am not entirely sure how these two (Mekong river recordings and prepared bass guitar) are connected. The booklet tells us about how both are treated equally as source material, but its not an entirely satisfactory explanation. Its perhaps a symptom for the album. Sometimes they hit upon something nice, a fine interaction between the field recordings and the improvisations on the bass, but perhaps I keep on wondering: what is the relation between these two? I don’t know. I don’t think its a bad album, but somewhere it doesn’t match up entirely. Its an album that surely has some fine moments (its one piece, and I didn’t take notes on timing of those moments), but as a whole wasn’t convincing. Nice field recordings!
Gruenrekorder boss Lasse Marc Riek also has new album out, on Russia’s Semper Florens label. Riek’s main interest is in field recordings, as of course he proofs with his own label. Yet in his own work he doesn’t always rely on pure field recordings, but rather processes these sounds. In this work he uses sounds which German radio broadcasted every month for a year and Riek composed his ‘four seasons’ of it. An acousmatic work. I think the work starts in the winter, with what sounds like sticks on ice, and then we get the whole year, birds arriving in spring, the summer breeze, cows in the alps, birds migrating again, and then slowly getting dark and darker, autumn has arrived. All pretty straight forward in what it is, but I guess that’s fine enough, its about how its made. Riek does a fine job here. There is a certain amount of sound processing going on, maybe a bit too much reverb in the early minutes of the work, which is in fine balance with the various bits that come to us unprocessed. A very nice work – if there be points it would be 8 out of 10. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gruenrekorder.de
Address: http://semperflorens.net/
HANSEN/WAERNES – BETWEEN NOTHINGNESS AND ENTERTAINMENT (CD by Go To Gate Records)
Ronny Waernes is back at Go To Gate Records. In Vital 777 I reviewed the great album Tendentious D. This album is totally different and for now he searched and found the collaboration with Kjetil Hanssen. Hanssen has been very active in the noise scene from Oslo. The two Norwegian musicians did their first live performance in 2009, which resulted in the album Sound of Mu, which released immediately after the show. Now two years later they created their first studio work and it is massive. Fifty minutes full of guitar and electronic driven soundscapes with a lot of feedback, distorted guitar and acoustic and electronic generated sounds. The combination of guitar sounds and electronics fits really well. Sometimes it is just noise and feedback and at the other hand long layers of distorted sounds create a wall of sound with deeper layers and subtile rhythms far away hidden. The titles of the tracks are serious and have a lot of to do with eastern philosophy. I do not know if you can find ‘the Inner Silence of Empty Space’ because this album is overwhelming. Anyhow – if you like noise in a creative way, than this album is worth listening! (JKH)
Address: http://gotogaterecords.com/
GIANLUCA BECUZZI – ETERNALLY NOW (CD by Lisca Records)
More music by Gianluca Becuzzi (see Vital Weekly 810 for his previous release), and another one that doesn’t reveal much in terms of information. Just a titles and the year it was produced. Its however some kind of concept album. The opening and closing tracks are 2:33 each, while the three tracks in the middle last 12:48. Also from the titles there are similarities: ‘Culture vs Nature’, ‘Nature vs Culture’, two parts of ‘The Essential Nowhere’ and ‘Rings Of Time’. Probably that should give the listener enough clues – although I am not entirely sure. Becuzzi uses again quite an amount of field recordings and electronic processing thereof. We hear walking in a room, rain – with loops of percussive sound in ‘The Essential Nowhere [a]’, and lots of electronics coming into the scenery. Sometimes resulting in a full on electronic sound, but at other times quite sparse, such in the opening minutes of ‘Rings Of Time’, but it seems always that force takes over. For one reason or another I think this album has also a bit more instruments in play, although I couldn’t figure which they are, since they too seem to be covered with sound effects, but taken from a multitude of improvisations. Most likely they are guitars, bass and other things with strings. It makes a crowded scene at times, but this CD is even better than that previous one. One that easily grows and one gets attached too. Great textured music, growing away from the known field of processed field recordings into a more psychedelic field of… well, why not… popmusic even (glockenspiel in ‘The Essential Nature [b]’!). Excellent CD! (FdW)
Address: http://www.liscarecords.com/
RYU HANKIL & HONG CHULKI & CHOI JOONYONG – INFERIOR SOUNDS (CD by Balloon & Needle)
In the early days of 2011Korean musicians were busy working in Amsterdam, in Steim to be precise: Ryu Hankil (typewriter, snare drum), Hong Chulki (turntable) and Choi Joonyong (CD player). The latter wrote about inferior and superior sounds as ‘not all sounds equal to us’ and ‘every person must have a criterion but a particular standard seems to have become universal and fixed’. This is a work of improvisation and if you remember, I pretty much like all of their previous work. At times a bit noisy, usually with a conceptual edge to it and freely improvising with the limitations of an instrument they choose. The two pieces here seem two straight forward documentations of a session in which they improvise on their instruments. The downside is that there are not many differences in approach here. They play in both pieces more or less a similar way. Scratching objects, plucking the typerwriter or the surface of the snare drum, manipulating the turntable and the CD player, occasionally typing a real letter. All of it is quite nice, but one piece of thirty minutes would have proven as much as two tracks. I think with some more rigorous editing both pieces could have been combined into one, simply by superimposing them and then mixing them together. I think it would have an equally strong point. Not to be played in one go, but one at a time is quite nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.balloonnneedle.com
ALPEN – INSIDE THE SKY (CD by Feral Media)
Originally from Melbourne is Danny Jumpertz who recorded, as Alpen, his album ‘Inside The Sky’ already in 2007, but shelved due to the fact he got a child and his move to New York City. Then it was time to release ‘Inside The Sky’. The primary instrument of this record is the guitar. Plus of course electronics and bits of drums. He gets help from various people, although its not clear what they provide, instrument wise. Its all played well, recorded well, and mixed well, but somehow I found it an album which wasn’t easy to like. Thirteen instrumental pieces, in which guitars are played with an e-bow, plucked melodically, strummed nicely, a bit too much rock like at times, using dub like techniques (which I thought was the nicest thing about the album – all these nice little dub effects) but the guitars sounded also a bit too old fashioned in my ears. The music was entertaining enough but it didn’t have many pieces that really stood out from the flock, making things sound pretty much the same throughout the album. Maybe finding a singer would help, maybe expanding with radically different instruments, say a saxophone, or keyboards. I am not entirely sure about it. (FdW)
Address: http://feralmedia.com.au
WEIRD FAIRYTALES (LP by Noise Below)
Its great that the label forwarded some information on this beforehand so I know more about it, because if I would have to by the package I would be entirely in the dark. Stories are printed in Greek and English from Leif Elggren and Spyros Fengos and with an eagle’s eye you may find some more relevant information. So apparently this is the second issue in weird fairytales (the first one was the 7″ by Howard Stelzer/Frans de Waard – see Vital Weekly 764). There is one side of just music and one just of spoken word. Maybe you have to get two copies and play them at the same time, I wondered. So we have, in one form or another, “michel doneda (france), leif elggren (sweden), sonic catering band (uk), if,bwana (usa), geoff dugan (usa), vague (switzerland) & from greece, sokrates martinis, spyros fengos, dimitri karageorgos, nikos kyriazopoulos, adam_is”. This is a most strange record. The stories are not always easy to understand and sometimes create more atmosphere than information. The music side seems to be dealing with field recordings of bird sounds, perhaps slightly processed, maybe not. As said this is quite a strange LP, one of those things that will probably disappear over time and then return as a weirdo classic from the early years of the new millenium. Although these fairytales are for children, I doubt it will go down well with children. But who knows? Some say they are more open-minded than adults. (FdW)
Address: http://noise-below.org/
ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE – BOTO [ENCANTADO] (LP by ini.itu)
On the backside of this LP you can read: ‘you have the choice to consult or not some extra information on the insert. This information would influence they way you are experiencing the sounds. No comprehension whatsoever is required to access this work’. Which is actually something I like. You can choose to take in the information, or not. The information on the insert is printed in mirrored writing, so I am sure if its not really necessary to read it anyway. For the reviewer there is of course a small summary on the press text, and I learn that the sound sources are from the Boto, the Amazon River Dolphin or Pink Dolphin (making it one of the first records on ini.itu to move away from the Indonesian context that the previous records have). This record is another fascinating look in the world of Slawek Kwi, the man behind Artificial Memory Trace. Much of his work sounds like a collage of sounds, long moves and some abrupt changes. None of that on this record. The sounds are just in long moves, and it seems a bit silent – of course that is intentional. I have no idea how the Boto sounds in the natural environment, nor any clue of the kind of processing applied by Kwi here, and oddly enough the music here sounds like insects, cicadas, chirping at night. A very meditative work, ambient if you will, slowly moving around, revealing some of its beauty only if you turn up the volume a bit more. Maybe also a strange record, for both Artificial Memory Trace and maybe also for the label. In a way I am reminded of the excellent record by Francisco Lopez for the same label. Quite mysterious, but a very good one. One of things were you keep wondering. (FdW)
Address: http://www.iniitu.net
JOY AS A TOY / GERMANOTTA YOUTH (10″ by Cheap Satanism Records)
Two bands will release in 2012 their second release on the Belgium label Cheap Satanism Records. This 10″ is just a small preview of these upcoming releases. Joy as a Toy is a band from Belgium with Gil Mortio on keyboards, bass and voice, Clement Nourry on guitars and voice and Jp De Gheest on drums and voice. Joy as a Toy starts with a keyboard based track called Profondo Rosso and fits well as a soundtrack of a James Bond movie. The second track has a complete other atmosphere and is more like a fucked up band with fast beats and some crazy screams and curious harmonic choir vocals of all the bandmembers. Great track which is nice teaser for the album “Dead As A Dodo” which will be released in April. The Italian trio Germanotta Youth describe their music as ‘Cybergrind Techno Fast and Furious’ and indeed, it is fast and raw, like a electronic based punk hardcore band with uptempo beats and hysteric synthesizer melodies like a screaming woman. The band consists of Andrea Basili on drums, Massimo Pupillo on bass and Reeks on synth, sampler and drum machine and is founded in 2008. Members of the band collaborated with Han Bennink, The Ex and many more. Prelude starts as a noisy industrial song which develops in a looping smash in the face with ongoing sounds. The 10? inch ends with a massive beat and strong chords and is a cover of the famous Halloween theme of John Carpenter. (JKH)
Address: http://www.cheapsatanism.com/
CHRIS IMLER – VORWARTS/TANZEN (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
Last year I saw Chris Imler play live an outdoor concert and was told that the next day he would be recording with producer Martin Luiten (who recently did the Julie Mittens record also), but it took some time to release it. Imler is a member of Spankings, Golden Showers, Driver & Driver (a duo with Patric Catani) and plays drums on bunch of other people’s records. In his solo music he is an electro-punk pur sang. Banging motorik rhythms, trigging sequencers at the same time, he’s a one man Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft. Banging a marching rhythm in ‘Vorwarts’ or taking on Chris Montez’ ‘Let’s Dance’ on the other side – which I remember best for the version by The Silicon Teens. Imler doesn’t have the best of voices, but the energy of the music makes well up for it. Very much a record of Neue Deutsche Welle. This year no christmas 7″ for Meeuw Muzak, but this one is certainly an excellent Meeuw 7″, that one doesn’t need to miss out on the christmas 7″ at all. (FdW)
Address: http://www.meeuw.net
ROTHKAMM – RENO (CDR by Flux Records)
One thing you know for sure when you open a package with a new release by Frank Rothkamm: you never know what to expect. It can be literally anything: electronic music, ambient, classical piano, or techno music. ‘Reno’ is however an older work – music for a ballet, but all with modern music, techno/house like, as played on a bunch of ancient synthesizers, connected with Cubase and an Atari computer. ‘The music [he] now composed was for a utopian ballet surmoderne in which the separation between dancer and spectator no longer exist, where every movement and in time with the rational clock of the universe’. This work was to be presented in New York, but Rothkamm failed to generate any interest in it, and in 1998 he moved to Los Angeles, and shelved ‘Reno’. Now he releases it and strange it is – once again. Very slick house/techno music, produced excellently, which is a bit odd to play early morning, around christmas time, as its more sweaty, late night dancing music – music to be played loud and with lots’a bass, which is hardly the appropriate thing for a christmas day. Fat cliche’s pass along here, reminding me of the German Toxictraxx/House Natives, but I’m sure it will have other connections for those who like mid 90s dance music. I simply thought this was a very fine release. If only I knew of a good retro party for the year’s end, and I could bring this as a lost work of the time. (FdW)
Address: http://fluxrecords.com
TOM FAZZINI – ARMS IN SEMAPHORE (CDR by Loophamystery Records)
Two weeks ago I reviewed a very short 7″ by Tom Fazzini, and due to the briefness it was hard to get a clear picture of what the man does. My question was heard and Fazzini mailed his recently released CDR ‘Arms In Sempahore’. This album was already recorded in 2007-2008 with a possible release on Locust Music looming, but the label apparently no longer exists, so now it found its way to CDR format. Fazzini was once a member of A Small Good Thing, that nice ambient off-shoot of O Yuki Conjugate with slide guitar as a main attraction, but in his solo work none such is heard and the music has shifted to singer songwriter like material. Fazzini sings (‘layrinx’), plays guitar, keyboards, xylophone, melodica and adds a little bit of effects, plus there is a whole bunch of guest players on violin, bagpipes, cello, snare and bass. Intimate music at work here and less ‘complex’ than the more recent 7″; these are all pretty much straight popsongs. Fazzini doesn’t quite have the voice of say Nick Drake, but it shares the same sense of intimacy and folk like ness – that is until things explode a bit in ‘O4’. There are more of these small weird moments of small voice manipulations, such as in ‘Spirit Takes A Walk’, or the dictaphone in ‘Creaky’. Avant folk perhaps? This is a release that would have not been out of place on Static Caravan, I should think. Very gentle music for the time of the year. (FdW)
Address: <loophamystery@gmail.com>
TOM HAMILTON & ID M THEFT ABLE & AL MARGOLIS – MEGAWHAT? (CDR by Ilse)
JIM IVY & JOHN AJAC – THE FORTUNE (CDR by Ilse)
Two discs of improvisation and both, to one extend or another, with the use of voice. On the trio disc this is done by Id M Theft Able, who gets credit for voice and ‘unknown electracousmatics’. Furthermore we have Tom Hamilton on ‘electronicatrons’ and Al Margolis, our own If, Bwana, on violin, clarinet, voice, Korg guitar and synth. This trio played a concert at The Stone in New York, on August 17, 2010 and that was chopped up into four pieces for this release. Welcome to the hardcore world of improvisation. Things buzz, scrap, howl and get stuck or hit along the bumpy road. This is, despite all its craziness and weirdness, a somewhat conventional disc of improvised music. Very much a work of ‘let’s all produce together a lot of sound, listen to each other, let’s interact or decide not to do so, and we’ll have a great forty minutes’. Afterwards we’ll do a bit of edits and release it. And maybe that’s a problem. I think this sort of things, especially with all the hectic and instrument abuse it would be nice to do a film release, so we can see what the hell is going on and now, just audio, its a bit more difficult to digest.
Also improvised but then of a different nature is a duo disc by John Ajac who wrote a bunch of texts and speaks them along with music by Jim Ivy, who plays alto and soprano saxophone, feedback mixer, dual oscillators, real and sampled piano, sampler, mouthpieces and gamecalls. If I’m correct – which I usually am not – the story is about the goldrush. I am not too fond of spoken word CDs see also Fortner Anderson’s work last week), even Ajac tells it with quite a nice voice. The music however is very nice. It is improvised but doesn’t rely on one instrument at a time. Ivy’s playing is at times loud, pure sinewave like with noisy outbursts. Maybe some of the machines are on auto-play, while Ivy plays on top. He makes some interesting music that fits very well the story. He plays the saxophone in a more traditional way, but the electronic parts make up for a more experimental play in the total picture of music and text. I think this is a great release, but not one that I would play very often. That’s not due to the music, but more of the spoken word, which, again, is not bad, but not something I’d like to hear a lot. (FdW)
Address: http://ilsemusic.info/
DECIANOS – FABLES FOR ANOTHER TIME (CDR, private)
CHARNEL HOUSE – CONTAGION (CD by Sygil Records)
STRANGE ATTRACTOR – ANATOMY OF A TEAR (CD by Music For Speakers)
One of those cases, where I really wonder if the people who send you stuff like this actually read Vital Weekly. Dacianos is a band from Norway with an Irish singer. They play some of the worst popmusic I ever heard. Mediocre middle of the road popmusic with some terrible singing. I have no idea why I just wasted thrity minutes.
About the same length and with more joy I played the CD by Charnel House – not to be confused with label of the same name which was changed to Charnel Music later on – which is a duo from Bloomington, Indiana. They have a studio and label and released a record, some tapes and now a CD. They consider themselves to ‘be doom metal, however, our influences are many’, but not named. I don’t know that much, if anything at all, of doom metal, and I believe Vital Weekly is hardly the place to discuss such things as doom metal, or in fact any metal at all. Just one day we’ll simply stop reviewing anything we don’t see fit, until then we do our best or as in Decianos case, not at all, but we’d still mention it. There is something that I like about Charnel House, although its hard to say what it is. Not the doomy, spooky vocals, or the perhaps the wall of sound guitars that much, but the sheer minimalism of these pieces works actually quite nicely. When the train is rolling, its rolling fast and steady. Quite a nice recording of drums, bass and guitars and the somewhat think voice is then something you have to live with. Not bad, but not my cup of tea, either.
Now also not my cup of tea either, but the best is the latest album by Strange Attractor, a duo of Richard van Kruysdijk (Phallus Dei) and Niels van Hoorn (former saxophone player for The Legendary Pink Dots). I am pretty sure I heard their work before, but it slipped out of memory. I came across this on a sunday afternoon watching live music and in between I heard this piece of music with a familiar voice. It sounded like a piece by Wire, which I never heard before. So it turns out Strange Attractor got Graham Lewis to sing on a track, on an album that also has David J (Bauhaus), Blaine L. Reininger (Tuxedo Moon), Jarboe and Marie-Claudine. I must admit trip-hop is not something that I hear a lot (or heard a lot), but these pieces here sound very much like a smokey jazzy nightclub and its excellently produced. Lots of great detail in the rhythms and samples used of various drum kits used and Van Hoorn’s playing fits the jazz like atmosphere quite well. His prominent role here suits him quite well – better than, I’d say, his role in The Legendary Pink Dots. Maybe the one track that seems a bit out of place is that Graham Lewis one, which sounds almost a techno piece – a remix of ‘The Drill’ almost. Certainly an album to play again, which for me is a lot, since its also not my coffee either. (FdW)
Address: http://dacianos.bandcamp.com
Address: http://www.sygilrecords.org
Address: http://www.strangeattractor.eu/
886VG & EYE – ABISMO (CDR by No Brain Productions)
886VG is a harsh noise project of Iganacio Ruz from Chili. This musician has a few projects and releases his work with his own DIY projects. Guido Flichman of EYE from Argentina visited him in 2010 and they created a composition of 42 minutes. The music starts drony with some cracking noisy layers. Slowly synthesizers drones inter fade and make the track more quiet and quiet to almost silence. But the noises and harsh sound come back and destruct the silence atmosphere and built up a classic blast of sound with high frequencies bleeps and suddenly it stopped. Sounds like a machine will take it over. But not for long. The noise will come back with more rage than ever. My head explodes by the heavy pure sounds and I cannot think about nothing than how to deal with these sounds. This CD is really amazing. Noise, silence, drones and pure sounds will come without mercy and surprise the listener. One of the best noise CDs of this year, because of it purity and creative use of sound and atmosphere. (JKH)
Address: http://pro-death.com/
ANDREA-JANE CORNELL & LOTY NEGARTI – MOUNT TUNNEL (VHS by Ihek)
Long time ago I have seen the movie Blue of Derek Jarman. A blue screen fills the movie theater and did not change. The only thing what changed was the soundtrack, which tells about how Derek Jarman deals with HIV and AIDS. The movie made a great impact of me, because blue was the last color the moviemaker has seen. Mount Tunnel is a dark movie for the inner eye. The only thing what I have seen is a grey screen, nothing dark at all. I do not know if something has gone wrong with the VHS tape. If the soundtrack has to lead me to the inner eye, that is really difficult, because the soundtrack has so many feedback tones in different shapes that is hardly to fade away into the inner self. Loty Negarti and Andrea-Jane Cornell improvised at CKUT in Montreal at 1 September 2011. The improvisation starts with some tones and micro-electronic sounds and the musicians flow from one sound to another. They develop the sounds slowly, what creates an intense atmosphere as well an annoying atmosphere. The feedback tones and frequencies are sometimes very harsh and straight in the head that it is hardly to bear. If you like experiments like this, this VHS tape is really something for you. Anyhow – the venue where the improvisation had been played is very interesting. CKUT is a non-profit, member owned and operated licensed FM radio station. You can find CKUT 90.3FM at www.ckut.ca. The aim of the station is to provide a voice for the voiceless and give spaces to lots of musicians with different backgrounds. This kind of free spaces, make this world much nicer. (JKH)
Address: http://gabone.info/audio/rec/mount-tunnel.html
PAINTS OF ANIMA – MOON WORSHIP (CDR by Dokuro)
FEAR KONSTRUKTOR – USHABTI (CDR by Dokuro)
MUSCULUS – NOT IN (CDR by Dokuro)
MARK BRADLEY – SUSTAIN/RELEASE (CDR by Dokuro)
PATRIZIA OLIVA – LIVE AT FLUC, WIEN (3″CDR by Dokuro)
Obviously a label not very good at counting, as Dokura send me 4 CDRs and one miniCDR, instead of the maximum of three as outlines on our frequently given answers (see above), but perhaps its the enthusiasm that counts. Most of these people in these new releases are from what the label calls ‘deep underground/basement/bedroom artists’, maybe for once I should start with something that didn’t mean much to me: Paints Of Anima, a project by one Pearson Wallace-Hoyt, whose music is ‘moon-worshiping, esoteric noise’ and who is also a member of Is Root along with Nur Greene, Elizabeth Chamberlin. The two pieces here were created with processing and manipulations of female voices, which I found hard to believe. If you had distortion ad infinitum, then what use is the sound source anyway? Two long howls of distorted, feedback like sounds, that didn’t made me pick up any moon vibrations, nor caused esoteric movements.
From Russia hails Fear Konstruktor. I didn’t understand much of what was said on the website: “inspired by brightness and vibrance of modern world. However it contains retro-futuristic touch as seen through the prism of ultramodern devices. All that chik-chik and wao-wao are just words of the significant phrase… Listening to FK is being inside yourself and outside our Universe at the same time. Because those billions of living sounds are caught for you by daring one.” Am I listening to the same disc I wondered. This sounds like ultra slow, ultra heavy distorted guitar music with a bit of drum sounds here and there. Quite noisy, but somehow quite alright in all its consistency. And perhaps not too long which also adds to the fun. To the point!
Musculus is a trio of Ruomu Guo, Alex Obal and Michael Tau, who get credit for ‘keys, tapes, electronics and miscellany’. In the opening piece they apparently use tapes that were buried under the ground and which they discovered with a metal detector to which they play some keyboards in a rather free and lo-fi fashion. This sort of continues in the second piece of deformed voices and synthesizer like sounds. Perhaps one could say this is a bit cosmic music like, but rather from a lo-fi point of view.
Mark Bradley is apparently fruitful, with releases on Rural Faune, Reverb Worship, Hooker Visions and Hobo Cult, but I never heard of him (nor these labels). His music, twelve pieces in just under forty minutes, is hard to place. Sometimes it has a bit of cosmic touch, sometimes a bit more noise based, then a bit of ambient, drums, plundered (?) voices and all such like, without him knowing how to make up his mind of what he really wants. Its not bad, but for my taste shifts a bit like roller coaster through various styles and ideas.
Patrizia Oliva we knew until now as Madame P, armed with loop stations and microphones, singing, moaning, humming, speaking and creating real-time layered compositions. Not always that much to my liking I must admit, but in a live concert it usually works best. Here we have a recording from 2009 at Fluc in Vienna, but I am afraid I am not that excited about it. The translation from concert to release is not a good one. Seeing is liking I guess. Just hearing might not be enough. Oliva looses a bit of grip on the material and then it falls apart, before picking up and going into a more noise end of matters, which didn’t do much for me either. A pity. (FdW)
Address: http://dokuro.it/
MIGUEL A. GARCIA & TOMAS GRIS (cassette by Crustaves Tapes)
Some weeks ago I did some research on the ancient history of independent cassette releases in The Netherlands and stumbled on Frietes Records who had an ‘exchange’ cassette project. Send me one of your tapes and you’ll get one from me. Crustaces Tapes from from Montreal works along similar lines: ‘to receive a tape send a postcard or gift’. There has been a release by John Brennan and Ann-F Jacques, and the second is by one Tomas Gris and Miguel A. Garcia. A short tape, maybe ten minutes of improvised music, which sounds all acoustic to my ears. Maybe a bit short to leave a solid impression, I thought, but hey: the idea behind such a release is quite nice. Now we may need for some concentrated effort in the music, which I doubt will be easy since the ‘free’ nature of the project. Unless that’s the idea of course. (FdW)
Address: http://crustaces.bandcamp.com/
AKI ONDA – DIARY (cassette plus book by Unframed Recordings)
For somebody who works extensively with cassettes as his primary instrument, its perhaps a bit of surprise that he doesn’t release his results on the same medium. Aki Onda more or less by accident stumbled on the cassette as an instrument in 1988 and since then tapes whatever sounds he hears and finds interesting. In a concert situation he opens up his case of tapes and selects a few which he mixes on the spot, using a bit of electronics and an old fashioned guitar and bass amplifier. That results in a fascinating sound field. A look on his table will open your eyes for the old fashioned way of working with tapes and the small book that comes with this cassette here, shows them, with Onda’s handwriting on it. A fine picture book. The cassette is along similar lines. Not a composed work, a mix or live recording, but two plain recordings as made by Aki Onda. One side recorded at day in Celestun and one at night in Trouville – both seems to be sea-shores. Calm relaxing field recordings, in which not a lot is happening, but it has a nice atmosphere – maybe of sunshine and holiday; much needed in the time of the year. A fine small art edition. (FdW)
Address: http://www.unframedrecordings.net