ALEJANDRO FRANOV – MELODIA (CD by Nature Bliss) *
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – SOLO PIANO (CD by Panai) *
TOMOTSUGU NAKAMURA – SOUNDIUM (CD by Kaico) *
EU 13 (CD by Motok)
KEIKO HIGUCHI & CRIS X – MELT (CD by Musik Atlach) *
MOBTHROW – UNFOLDED (CD by Ad Noiseam)
STEFAN FRAUNBERGER – QUELLGEISTER #1 (CD by Cmafu Records) *
AZEOTROP & FELIX PROFOS – BOCK (CD/LP by Deszpot) *
ENRICO MALATESTA – BENANDARE (CD by Weighter Recordings) *
PETER ORINS – EMPTY ORCHESTRAS (CD by CIircum Disc)
MECHA FIXES CLOCKS -. BEAU COMME UN AÉORPORT (CD by Tour de Bras)
PINK SALIVA’S – IL PARAIT QUE (CDR by Tour de Bras)
GRAND GROUPE RÉGIONAL D’IMPROVISATION LIBÉRÉE (GGRIL) – COMBINES (LP by Tour de Bras)
SPINIFEX QUINTET – HIPSTER GONE BALLISTIC (CD by Trytone)
ATSUSHI REIZEN – REIZEN (12″ by Fylkingen Records)
STAER/HORACIO POLLARD/DAVE 2000 (7″ by Le Petit Mignon)
FULLY BLOWN DENTAL REFORM (cassette by Le Petit Mignon)
HELAAS – THE SECOND TO LAST PLAGUE (cassette by Le Petit Mignon)
PROF. NEUTRINO & MILA LOMBARDO – THE CANAL TRANSATLANTIC PHONESESSION (CDR by Neutrino)
RAPA NUI – LUCHA TROGLODITA (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – MELODIA (CD by Nature Bliss)
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – SOLO PIANO (CD by Panai)
From what I understand, Argentinean born musician Alejandro Franov is very popular in Japan. Almost all of his works reviewed in Vital Weekly (893 and 863, and in 589 a release by Staubgold) were on Japanese labels; the latest batch, reviewed in Vital Weekly 893, consisted of re-issues for the Japanese market. As part of a campaign to promote his latest album, ‘Solo Piano’, the out of print album ‘Melodia’ from 2005 found it’s way to a repress. Franov plays here the Malsmjo, which is a Swedish piano and in the time span of one day, Franov recorded seventeen short pieces on the Swedish Church in Buenos Aires. It sounds great, but does it sound like a different piano? I must admit, I didn’t think so, but what do I know about the sound of different pianos? Nothing, really, to be honest. On the other, new, release Franov plays the piano in his home studio in the Andes of the Southern part of South America, but here it’s not specified into a type. The time-span between both recordings is about eight years. Is that a long time, I was thinking? Maybe, maybe not. Who can tell? I was asking myself this since both albums sound quite similar to my taste. Franov walks a very thin line between clichés outlined by Satie or Debussy, new age and shopping mall music. Given the right marketing, I can easily see his CDs piled high at the chain of drugstores for a few bucks and be very popular. Dutch chain store Kruidvat would have no problem with this, as they had a popular edition of Simeon ten Holt’s ‘Canto Ostinato’ a couple of years ago, next to the complete works of Chopin. On ‘Solo Piano’ more than on ‘Melodia’ the music is a bit, slightly, different, with some more odd harmonies, whereas ‘Melodia’ seemed more straight forward, melodic and intimate. As said Franov walks a fine line between kitsch and greatness, but so far I think he’s one of the good guys with his piano music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.naturebliss.jp
TOMOTSUGU NAKAMURA – SOUNDIUM (CD by Kaico)
‘Soundium’ is the follow up to ‘Slow Weather’, the debut album from Tokyo based composer Tomotsugu Nakamura, on the same label, Kaico, but somehow I think I didn’t get a review copy of that. ‘Soundium’ is not a real word, but made up from ‘sound’ and ‘ium’, the element of sound, if you will, but ‘also meant to sound like a miniature garden simulated by sounds’. There is no indication as to which instruments are played here; only in one (sub-) title we find an indication ‘Mimosa (Fluid Guitar)’, but me thinks the guitar is an overall important instrument here, perhaps as important as the use of the computer to treat these guitars. It’s sampled, sliced, chopped, treated and served as small repeating blocks of ovalesque pieces of music. Bouncing, but introspective most of the time, and with a nice melodic touch to it. Microsound, microwave (to use that long forgotten term from more than a decade ago), glitch, click ‘n cuts. In all its modernity – computers, processing, field recordings, and granular synthesis – this all sounds ‘old’ without being ‘old’. It has something fresh, these thirteen uplifting pieces of music, but it’s in fact all quite old. These days a popular Dutch pop-artist emulates Syd Barrett and I argued why that is necessary; there was already a Syd Barrett? But a fan learned me: but we, the young ones, didn’t see him (nor I actually) and we want to have something like that now, and not just the old record. Alright, I can understand that. It is not always about the forward movement, but sometimes – maybe most of the times – also about reworking old ideas that were successful. Maybe that’s what this Nakamura release is also about. Computers processing guitar sounds make up fine modernist music with a melodic touch. Surely very nice! (FdW)
Address: http://kaicojapan.tumblr.com
EU 13 (CD by Motok)
EU13 is a compilation album of the electronic music, which is recorded or remixed in 2013. The album is compiled by Nico Selen, also the owner of the label Motok and musician under several names and also responsible for several compositions on this album. The CD starts with four open tracks with nice beats and melodies. The first three tracks are a bit poppy and easy to listen. Side A (the CD is divided in four sides, and suggests a double LP) ends with the track “Cardboard Birds” of LGM45, a nice mix of birds twitters and a minimal easy going melody. Side B starts more adventurous and is a nice introduction of the rest of this side. The track “Kemuy06” of Ooy from Japan starts as an abstract dark-ambient track, which develops to a less closed atmosphere. Peer Saer from the Netherlands start also with a dark melancholic atmosphere, which disappears sudden, to piece with an acoustic string-instrument. The track “Senses and Illusions” of Pythagora at side C is a beautiful minimal piece of music with an ongoing layer and up-level tones who are searching for the right strength, length and tone. The track is vulnerable by the melancholic tones and sounds that are not really completed. It is a kind of electronic sweetness. The sweetness is roughly disturbed by the clear analogue percussion-sounds of René Baptist Huysmans. Side D is completely filled with tracks of Nico Selen. O.R.D.U.C. started in the beginning of the seventies and although the project has been developed the psychedelic mood is still there. “Echoes” played by NoNotes is a nice track of echoing electronic sounds passing through one speaker to the other speaker. E.M.M. has a completely another approach of electronic music and is more minimal music orientated. The last track is a track that is created with Freiband, a project of Frans de Waard. The track is an extension of pieces released on the album “Bits of Pieces” which is also released at Motok. “Shut Down” is a worthy end of a beautiful compiled album with a high standard of Elektrik Underground music. (JKH)
Address: http://www.motok.org
KEIKO HIGUCHI & CRIS X – MELT (CD by Musik Atlach)
Italy’s Cris X has been reviewed before and his works are sometimes in collaboration with others, mainly Japanese, musicians such as Merzbow and KK Null and here with Keiko Higuchi. I never heard of her, but she’s a singer and piano player. They recorded this album together, already in 2010, in Rome. This is certainly not easy music. It’s orchestrated, but quite sparsely at that. It’s full on an empty space, if you know what I mean. Everything seems careful here. The piano playing, the singing, the electronics, field recordings or the rattling of a metallic percussion in the title piece. Everything is performed with care, with space between the music. It has a vague, modern classical feel to it. It is very spacious, yet not entirely in the world of cosmic music. The opening fire crackles of ‘Ceaseless/Do You Care?’ reminded me of Etant Donnes circa ‘Blue’ and makes this is all a bit more musique concrete like. At thirty-five minutes this may seem like a rather short album, but it’s an album that requires a lot from the listener. Probably this one of those albums if you listen only without much effort or concentration, one that will easily be dismissed; however if you open up and fully concentrate on this music, you will find there is much beauty in here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bajoeng.jp
MOBTHROW – UNFOLDED (CD by Ad Noiseam)
Three years ago I had the pleasure of reviewing the debut album of the artist called Mobthrow. Behind Mobthrow, you find the greek sound explorer Angelos Liaros, who is also known for being one of the core members behind the Athen-based underground label Spectraliquid. The self-titled album took its starting point in the drum’n’bass-scene, but it moved far beyond the breakbeat-style. The same can be said by this follow-up to the impressive debut. Latest shot from Mobthrow titled “Unfolded” takes the listener into dark territories of slow dub, cool dubstep and IDM-like textures. The atmosphere is dark and threatening with droning heavy-basslines adding the feeling of being trapped in a nightmare city of ghouls and monsters. Distant voices and other concrete sounds strengthen atmospheres of isolation as you listen to the album. What makes the compositions of Mobthrow so great is how each work takes its time to slowly build and constantly move into new unknown sound textures. Where the debut often moved into up-tempo aggression this new album mostly stick to the slow place but the result is just as dramatic in its expression. Tribal rhythm textures occur throughout the album, adding some great intensity. “Unfolded” is a great album that will appeal to everyone looking for intense moments of dark beat-driven electronics. (NM)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
STEFAN FRAUNBERGER – QUELLGEISTER #1 (CD by Cmafu Records)
The title of this is ‘source spirits’, and these sources are to be found in the church organ. I have no idea who this Stefan Fraunberger is, but he’s on the look out for old church organs through Transylvania, to take away the dust and record music with them. In 2009 already he recorded this work in the Romanian village of Christian – apt name I was thinking – and apparently both church and organ are in a bad state. I don’t think he’s done anything in a post-production, but he spend two weeks to play this thing, so it might very well be that this is a collage of various stages of organ playing cut into a thirty-one minute piece of music. The press text also talks about the surrounding of the village, but that’s not something we hear on this release – no field recordings were harmed in making this work. But the recording is actually quite nice I must say that. It moves around from the very introspective and silent playing to something that is very upfront and loud. Me thinks that much of this was recorded in an improvised way and later cut together from various recordings; I might be entirely wrong of course, just as my assumption that moving and placing of microphones is of importance here. I think it plays an important role, maybe it doesn’t. I thought these thirty-ones minutes made up an excellent piece of music; some very intense music at that actually; physically present and very moving. Not in any sort of religious context, but a certain level of horror movie I could surely detect in here. I mean: recordings made in Transylvania? What else would you expect? On to the next ‘quellsgeister’! (FdW)
Address: http://www.nocords.net
AZEOTROP & FELIX PROFOS – BOCK (CD/LP by Deszpot)
Here have a duo by the name of Azeotrop, being Dominik Blum on Hammond organ and Peter Conradin Zumthor on drums and percussion, founded in 2006. They have a previous release on Grob, when they were a trio, but since 2011 they are a duo again. This particular new release is an odd collaboration, for Felix Profos is not a musician per se, but a composer and he composes for Ensemble MAE, Steamboat Switzerland, The Barton Workshop, De Ereprijs and now for Azeotrop, in ‘which composition and improvisation are juxtaposed’. These compositions are 10 in total and last forty minutes, so you could almost be fooled into thinking that these are ‘songs’ rather than ‘pieces’. Actually if I understood this well, than ‘Bock’ is a six part composition and the other four are ‘conceptual improvisations’; I must admit I didn’t hear much difference. The music is quite loud, quite raw and a bit oriented towards noise rock. Heavy stomping on the drums and sustained hammering down the keys of the organ – fists rather than fingers I’d say. This is not your usual careful playing, this is nothing like say Sogar & Swing from a couple of years ago. There is a certain aggression in this music that works very well, even in it’s more quiet moments. I never have the idea that I was listening to something that involved an outside composer, or that this was in some way connected to the world of ‘serious’ music. I was more thinking along the lines of underground noise rock, more like Suicide (less any vocals) than erm… let me think… nothing that I heard in the modern classical field in ages. A high-energy release, and excellent one at that. (FdW)
Address: http://www.deszpot.ch
ENRICO MALATESTA – BENANDARE (CD by Weighter Recordings)
There is never a lot of information on the releases by Weighter (so far, as this is only the third release), and so we learn that on the release by percussionist Enrico Malatesta we have three pieces, recorded by him in Augustus 2013 and that it uses ‘skin instruments and metal objects’. I assume these skin instruments and metal objects are used to rub against each other, surface to surface and the result, thirty one minutes for these three pieces, is one that is quite alienating but also quite fascinating at the same time. I have no idea where this was recorded but it sounds like a tunnel (all three pieces) with the microphone at the opposite end of the tunnel. A slightly hollow and remote sound, which adds to the somewhat mysterious nature of these recordings. It seems to me that this has very little to do with improvised music as such and it’s more in the field of sound art. It’s about how to use sound and let it do its work in a space. That sort of thing? The three pieces sound very similar and are surely somehow connected to each other. It is very much one piece, divided in three parts. It’s music that is not unlike the minimal percussive excursions of label boss Nick Hennies, but taken a step further, in a n even more conceptual realm. A mighty fine release and no doubt one of the weirder releases in the field of improvised music meeting sound art. (FdW)
Address: http://www.weighterrecordings.com/
PETER ORINS – EMPTY ORCHESTRAS (CD by CIircum Disc)
Peter Orins is from Lille, France. In this city he did his studies at the conservatory. After playing rock and afro-cuban music, jazz became the place to be in the mid 90s. Started playing with musicians with whom he created the Circum Collective in 2000. Since that date we meet Orins on a regular base on releases by the label that is run by this collective: Flu(o), Stefan Orins Trio, Kaze, etc. Last year he released the ambitious ‘La Pieuvre et Circum Grand Orchestra – Feldspath’, a meeting between two ensembles. This time he decided to make a solo statement. He cd contains four works, all based on drums and electronics. But in a special way. Orins designed an electronic device that acts more or less autonomous, forcing Orins to respond. Call it a dialogue. It is hard to detect this dialogue. So one better stops this exercise, and starts to listen to the music as a whole and as it comes to your ears. For one part drums remain drums, and for another part drums are transformed and manipulated ‘autonomously’ by electronic means. This results in very unusual, seemingly accessible percussive constructions. However when you start to listen very close to every single movement, the music starts to reveal its complexity and well-constructed ‘dialogical’ identity. (DM)
Address: http://www.circum-disc.com
MECHA FIXES CLOCKS -. BEAU COMME UN AÉORPORT (CD by Tour de Bras)
PINK SALIVA’S – IL PARAIT QUE (CDR by Tour de Bras)
GRAND GROUPE RÉGIONAL D’IMPROVISATION LIBÉRÉE (GGRIL) – COMBINES (LP by Tour de Bras)
Three new releases from Eric Normand’s label Tour de Bras. Two of them have the trumpet of Elwood Epps and the drums of Michel F. Coté in common. Both are reputed players in the Montreal scene. Pink Saliva is an improvising trio completed by Alexandre St.-Onge on bass and laptop. They present three improvised pieces recorded live in November 2010. Unpolished improvisations, with fine playing by Elwood Epps. In a more sophisticated context we hear Epps again in Coté’s project Mecha Fixes Clocks, together with: Philippe Lauzier (alto sax, bass clarinet), Epps (trumpet), Jean René (alto violin), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba, feedback), Bernard Falaise (guitar), Guillaume Dostaler (piano) and Côté (drums, feedback, and microphones). Again a typical Coté-release. Music of a dream-like nature . Open soundscapes in the background, with jazz-inspired instruments in the forefront, although there is no real forefront and background. The music evokes a sense of space. The music drips in your ears along unpredictable patterns and at the same time it all seems to fit. Tour de Bras is also the driving force behind the festival Rencontres de Musiques Spontanées, with the large improvisational collective ensemble called GGRIL (Grand groupe régional d’improvisation libérée ) as a returning act. Earlier they released an album with Evan Parker as a guest. This ensemble of 14 musicians under direction of Eric Normand, creates fine textures, that move seemingly independent from each other. Their interactions make you wonder what is happening here, and that is a good sign. The improvisations, pressed on red vinyl, are also surprisingly coloured due to an unusual line-up. I hear accordeon, electric guitars, percussion, strings, etc. (DM)
Address: http://www.tourdebras.com
SPINIFEX QUINTET – HIPSTER GONE BALLISTIC (CD by Trytone)
A Dutch ensemble consisting of Gijs Levelt (trumpet) Tobias Klein (alto saxophone,clarinets), Jasper Stadhouders (guitar), Goncalo Almeida (bass), Philipp Moser (drums). Central force is Gijs Levelt who has a history in klezmer, balkan, gypsy music as well as jazz and improvisation. We are talking of an offshoot of the Spinifex Ensemble. Their music has all ingredients to make it something I really appreciate. But I didn’t. I feel confronted with a paradox with this release. On the one hand this music has a lot to offer but at the same I experience the music as a dull exercise that never surprises. Shifting rhythms, the drive and energy of a rock band, but something is lacking. It reminded me a bit of X-Legged Sally and related projects. A solid mix of grooving rhythms, many twists and other escapades, plus intense and dynamic playing, tight and with verve, that’s for sure. But at the same it is all a bit outdated and done before. They surely make a strong first impression on many listeners I guess. So again I have to conclude that their aesthetics remind me too much of music of the past, and offers no new sights, and expresses no new sense of urgency. Well, all this in relation to my ears of course. (DM)
Address: http://www.trytone.org
ATSUSHI REIZEN – REIZEN (12″ by Fylkingen Records)
In 2007 Atsushi Reizen started the group Nerae, of which I didn’t hear before, and now he’s left that group to pursue a solo career. He plays electric guitar with ‘drone, noise and minimalist techniques’ Fylkingen tells us, and on this 12″ (3 pieces at 45 rpm) he has two new studio pieces and a live recording from February last year, made at Fylkingen. The two studio pieces are based on the concept of ‘different speeds’, which is something I can dig when hearing them. It’s indeed highly minimal – just a sound, which hardly reminded me of the guitar of any kind, really, repeated and repeated. Played rather than looped mechanically I would think. The two pieces that I presume to be studio pieces are much a like, and very silent. Just an obscured bang, repeated and that’s it. Yet I must say it sounds also quite fascinating, like something big is going to happen – and it’s not going to (perhaps a spoiler?). The seventeen-minute live cut shows a bit more variation and also more of a linear building up of the piece. Maybe it’s because it’s played live, I was thinking. Maybe it’s because it’s longer; that might also be a possibility. Here too, things sounds highly fascinated. All three of these pieces are actually quite dark; all lingering at the lower region of the sound spectrum. A very consistent record and perhaps a fine introduction to this new drone meister; I was reminded in all this consistent minimalism of the early work of Oren Ambrachi, so maybe Reizen is on a similar course to recognition. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fylkingen.se
STAER/HORACIO POLLARD/DAVE 2000 (7″ by Le Petit Mignon)
FULLY BLOWN DENTAL REFORM (cassette by Le Petit Mignon)
HELAAS – THE SECOND TO LAST PLAGUE (cassette by Le Petit Mignon)
Le Petit Mignon is somehow connected to Staalplaat, but perhaps not really a sub-division of some sort but an entirely separate entity together, even when the bandcamp page may suggest something different. So far their releases have been very noise based and well received by Jliat, but he deemed these to be ‘too musical’. I can see what he means, even when this is not necessarily musical in a conventional sense. On 7″ we find on one side Norwegian band Staer and on the other side Horacia Pollard, from Berlin. Staer’s music, which I don’t think I heard before, is one heavy blast of rock music. Complex rock music, heavily layered, but without the prog-rock undercurrent that is sometimes part and parcel of this music. It’s leaning towards noise, but from a heavy rock context. One furious blast – and is it really a coincidence that this lasts four minutes and thirty-three seconds? Must not be, I should think. Excellent blast. Horacio Pollard offers three short pieces. He’s playing guitar, sings and has drum machine. Sometimes he’s a member of Clifford Torus, but also his solo music we heard before (see Vital Weekly 900, but also 739 for an earlier band, Cau_Cational Betreet). Weird music, quite abstract but not without a funny side to it too. Captain Beefheart meets the Residents on a LSD trip. I wouldn’t have minded each of these three pieces to be a bit longer. And Dave 2000, you wonder? He designed the lovely cover, connecting this, but also previous releases by this label to the world of comics. A particular French thing, I mused.
Pollard is also a member of Fully Blown Dental Reform, together with Danny O’Really and Marc Fantini, whom we know as the drummer of Monno. They have four tracks spanning fifty minutes in total of noise rock. Le Petit Mignon names Bunny Brains, Sonic Youth and The Dramatics as their influence. I can see that, and while I was banging my head against the computer screen while trying to type a decent review, I was thinking this is indeed the kind of music that is, despite all it’s aggressive noise, it’s longitude, it’s minimal, still ‘music’. The banging of drums, the feedback guitar, the stomping of it all: it’s hardly the kind of noise Jliat likes, or perhaps the more avant-garde tunes that we normally deal with. That does not mean that I didn’t enjoy this. Hell, I loved it! Very consistent music, something different than what normally plays and reminding me of days past. What more do you want?
Helaas is a Dutch word, meaning ‘sadly’, but I have no idea if this Berlin quartet knows this. Here we have Ratbag (electric guitar), Bex (electroacoustic bass guitar, vocals), Niedowierzanie (cello) and Yvan Volochine (computer) and I believe they are ‘contemporary defunct’. They offer some dark music, within the boundaries of rock music but unlike the previous band more from a psychedelic perspective. This is perhaps the most quiet of these three releases, maybe the one that one digest after being wrecked from the other two releases, or, vice versa, the best thing to hear before unwinding the noise. Either way. These two side long pieces (around fourteen minutes each) have a slower build up, slowly unfolding sounds, adding instruments, with a tormented sort of voice buried below – or perhaps from the burial site below? The noise here is not gone, but also buried a bit more in the mix, especially on side A, and the ending is quite long without any noise. The B-side is more tormented sound and voice. Bleak and isolated, perhaps, but I thought it was all quite nice. Both tapes come with folded A3 posters with collages and no information – more comics styled packaging, and very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://staalplaat.bandcamp.com/
PROF. NEUTRINO & MILA LOMBARDO – THE CANAL TRANSATLANTIC PHONESESSION (CDR by Neutrino)
It is not the first cooperation between two musicians by exchanging material by Internet, but this one is hopeful. Prof- Neutrino from Czech Republic and Mila Lombardo from Panama became online friends seven years ago. Both are fascinated by electronic music and poetry and after some years they decided to record an album. Prof. Neutrino is responsible for the music that is inspired by several styles like hip-hop, trip hop, abstract sound art and more. The music is well composed with the structure of song. There is a lot of diversity in one track, but the sounds flow organically in one to the other. The duo used poetry of well-known poets like Edgar Allen Poe, Pablo Neruda, Charles Baudelaire, Jorge Luis Borges and William Blake. The CD starts with the poem “Close your mind” of an unknown poet. It is the only poem with short sentences and not with a tradition poem structure. The track is adventurous and experimental. “A dream within a dream” written by Edgar Allan Poe is a open catchy track with ongoing string-synths, a minimal beat and reversed sounds. The atmosphere is not scary, but like a light dreamy night in which the dreams are repeating all the time. Pablo Neruda is one the most well known Latin American poet. His poem “Solo La Muerte” about death that is everywhere and is waiting for us for the time has come has also an open atmosphere. Uptempo beats and tones support the declaiming voice. “The death of lovers” is a beautiful track in which both voices of the musicians are flooding together and repeating the words supported by a melancholic minimal piano patterns and some electronic sounds. The poem of Borges starts like a piece of spoken word, in which the poem is cut into many pieces. The samples of the voice of Lombardo are integrated into the hip-hop beat of Prof. Neutrino. The short album ends with a dreamy track about an angel. This album is an inspiring start for a collaboration. The next album will be with poem of Lautremont, Crowley and more. That sounds as beautiful follow-up (JKH)
Address: http://neutrino.bandcamp.com/
RAPA NUI – LUCHA TROGLODITA (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
Probably the very first time I hear improvised music from Peru! Rapa Nui is a duo of Israel Tenor (drums) and Arturo Quispe (alto sax, Midi controller, effects). They named themselves after the people of the Polynesian Easter Islands, the Rapa Nui. I couldn’t find any substantial information on these musicians. For this release, by the way, they are guested by Ale Borea (djembe, bongos), another unknown musician to me. Their record is released by the German Attenuation Circuit label, run by Emerge (Sascha Stadlmeier). The CDR contains one extensive improvisation ‘Australopithecus africanus’(29:03), and two shorter ones: ‘Kenyanthropus platyops’ (8:25) and ‘Homo sapiens’ (8:43). The first track makes the impression of a loosely improvised set, starting with furious sax playing by Quispe, halfway changing into a percussion dominated slower section with the sax-player improvising sober lines over the percussive textures, ending in a ambient-like soundscape, if not the screaming sax was not popping up again. Curious instrumentation and combination of musical styles. And that’s what makes this one an interesting release. (DM)
Address: http://www.attenuanationcircuit.de