GLÜCK (CD by Mikroton Recordings) *
CHAS SMITH – TWILIGHT OF THE DREAMBOATS (CD by Cold Blue Music) *
MICHAEL BYRON – IN THE VILLAGE OF HOPE (CD by Cold Blue Music) *
PETER GARLAND – AFTER THE WARS (CD by Cold Blue Music) *
K. LEIMER WITH BILL SEAMAN – THE PALE CATALOG (CD by Palace Of Lights) *
TOY BIZARRE – KDI DCTB 257 [A] (3″CD by Auf Abwegen) *
TOM JONES SCOTT & ANDREW CHALK – CALLUNA (LP by Skire Records)
JACEK SIENKIEWICZ – INSTYNKT (LP by Bocian Records/Recognition)
BRUTTER (LP by Hubro Music)
MASTERS – RUTGER HAUER/SCATMAN CROTHERS (7″ by Adaadat)
TRADE & DISTRIBUTION ALAMANAC VOL. 4 (CD compilation by Adaadat)
PLATFORM – FOLDED HORIZON (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation) *
MATTHEW ATKINS – GEOMETRIC DECAY (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation) *
IAN DOUGLAS-MOORE & PAUL N ROTH – MEDIUMLOUD NOISE MUSIC FOR SAXOPHONE/GUITAR (CDR by Earwash Records) *
IAN DOUGLAS-MOORE – THREE FATE TALES (CDR by Earwash Records) *
FAINT GLOW – DUST IN THE SUN (CDR by Chaosynod) *
REZ EPO – REPROREA (CDR by Chaosynod) *
WALLS OF BENIN (CDR by Chaosynod) *
PAUL ABBOTT – VAGUS (CDR plus booklet by Porta) *
JLIAT – POP GOES REASON (2CDR plus booklet by Jliat) *
HMS – PRIE (cassette by Small Scale Music)
NIGREDO – LUNAS NEGRAS (cassette by Small Scale Music)
PIGEON BREEDERS – CONCRESCENCE (cassette by Shaking Box Music)
D.F. W/ K.B.D & J.G. – A CHANCE HAPPENING 27/08/14 IN BRASSERUE BEAUBIEN (cassette by Shaking Box Music)
LO FLOPPER (cassette by Music A La Coque)
GLÜCK (CD by Mikroton Recordings)
Here we have a quintet of percussion players: Burkhard Beins, Enrico Malatesta, Michael Vorfeld, Christian Wolfarth and Ingar Zach. All five of them have an extensive background in improvised music and many of their releases can be found in these pages. They also work together in smaller configurations, such as as Vorwolf, Misiiki and Malatesta/Wolfarth. I bet it’s not easy to get them all together and so they spend three days at Ausland in Berlin in April 2014 to record the four pieces of this album. For each piece there is a composer mentioned, so perhaps there is some guidance in these pieces. Beins composed two of them, and Zach and Wolfarth each one. The latter composed the piece that is also named ‘Glück’ and it’s a fine, if not somewhat traditional piece of improvised music; although some of the players play repeating patterns, which might be unusual in the world of improvisation. But that’s only in parts of the composition, not throughout. The five players move around from place to place, using bows on cymbals (all five of them), hectic and chaotic playing and all of that together. The two parts of ‘Adapt/Oppose 14/1’ are actually quite mellow bits, save a few more chaotic bits here, in which the players explore resonating surfaces of drum skins and cymbals, with objects. It’s however ‘Floaters’ by Zach, which is the biggest surprise here. It falls apart in three separate sections and in each of them they explore the bass frequencies of the bass drums using objects on the skin. The result is a more than excellent piece of drone music; dark, moody, atmosphere and full of tension. It’s hard to think of this as percussion music as there is a complete absence of rhythm of any kind. It’s eighteen minutes of pure sonic bliss. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mikroton.net
CHAS SMITH – TWILIGHT OF THE DREAMBOATS (CD by Cold Blue Music)
MICHAEL BYRON – IN THE VILLAGE OF HOPE (CD by Cold Blue Music)
PETER GARLAND – AFTER THE WARS (CD by Cold Blue Music)
It was not a difficult choice when I opened this package: I knew I was going to start with the new release by Chas Smith. Ever since hearing his debut album, ‘Nakadai’, which I think I picked up at ‘for sale’ thing (and which was later re-released by Cold Blue Music, see Vital Weekly 663), I liked his music. Much of his work deals with overtones, using metal sculptures and home made steel guitars. This new work is another electro-acoustic work by him, and he uses the Bertoia 718, Que Lastas, lockheed, Mantis, Sceptre and DADO; all of these are metallic sculptures, and as for steel guitars he uses the Clinesmith, Emmons, Guitarzilla and Cadillac bass. That’s a lot of sounding objects for a twenty-four minute piece. It is also a piece that is perhaps quite far away from the regular Cold Blue Music, which is, in general, more about traditional instruments and modern classical/minimal music. Smith here plays something that is also very minimal, but much more abstract than whatever else is released (as we will see). Smith layers recordings from all of his instruments together, and he lets them sing and ring until it becomes a vast moving mass of slowly changing tones. In the first seven or so minutes it sounds like an orchestra playing clustered tones, in a crescendo, but after that, for the rest of the piece things tone down slowly and it becomes creepier and more abstract. You could think there is a massive amount of reverb used here (and maybe there is), but for all I know I would think Smith uses only naturally shaped tones and through elegant mixing he crafts a beautiful piece of drone music.
Also one piece, a bit shorter, is ‘In The Village Of Hope’ by Michael Byron. I am not sure if I heard his music before and his music seems to be about creating ‘maximalist effect out of minimalist means’. He worked with David Roosenboom, Rhys Chatham and others. ‘In The Village Of Hope’ is a piece for solo harp, performed by Tasha Smith Godinez, and it’s perhaps quite an uncommon instrument for these pages (with notable exception Rhodri Davies) and therefor not easy to judge for me. Godinez plays with great virtuoso and much of the time it sounds like I am hearing multiple harp sounds at the same time. It is however always to be recognized as a harp, and it doesn’t become a mass of intertwining sounds like Chas Smith has. This is indeed all very minimal since it hardly changes, but there is also a multitude of sounds to be heard – hence: maximalist. Somehow I always find the harp to be posses a particular sweet sound and this work seems to be not different. I quite enjoyed the mellow, sweet music a lot on this beautiful summer day.
Still a bit shorter, but with more pieces, is the release by Peter Garland (all three are to be understood as EPs), whose ‘After The Wars’ contains four pieces for piano, as performed by Sarah Cahill. Garland studied with Harold Budd and James Tenney, and has a strong love for the piano. His music might also not have been reviewed before in these pages even when he has five releases on Cold Blue Music. The four pieces are inspired by Chinese poems and Japanese Haikus, and follow spring, summer, autumn and winter. Oddly enough, ‘Spring View’ starts out quite dark, but perhaps that is winter coming to an end, and spring is coming. There is quite some sustain used on the pedals here, which adds extra dramatic effect to the music. The autumn and winter pieces are also very quiet and introspective and summer is the most joyful piece. There is however sadness in all of these pieces too. All of these pieces touch upon the subject of ‘war’ and ‘life after war’, with wounds unhealed. There is some excellent beauty in these sad sounds. Three great releases, albeit all of these too short! (FdW)
Address: http://www.coldbluemusic.com
K. LEIMER WITH BILL SEAMAN – THE PALE CATALOG (CD by Palace Of Lights)
It’s a bit odd, I thought, to say this a new K. Leimer release. “These 10 new pieces by K. Leimer derive from sources and sessions from his prior CD, ‘The Grey Catalog’. With an interest in restating existing materials while exploring new methods for reshaping audio, ‘The Pale Catalog’ uses completed stereo mixes of generative experiments in place of traditional or virtual instruments. These files were extensively reshaped by Bill Seaman using Abelton Live.” So I understand that the ten pieces on this release is Seaman’s work based on Leimer’s sounds, so why not grace him some honour on the front cover? ‘The Grey Catalog’ was reviewed in Vital Weekly 960. There are some differences to be noted, I think. Whereas Leimer is the composer of more or less fixed pieces, thinking about how to put in elements that is slightly disruptive, Seaman is more intuitive in playing around with these files and has them float about more. Nothing that disrupts the flow, and thus becoming more an audio environment; just as ambient music was intended. I played this in the middle of the day, and then again, and fell asleep (that happens sometimes in the middle of the day) and woke up somewhere in the middle of the CD and then played it again. Every time I discovered something new in this. A sound, an idea, a movement, and everything drifting by slowly, like everything would seem to be on a slow summers day. This is way more ambient than the sister album by Leimer himself and the best way to enjoy this, is to play the original first and then this one with further deconstructions (a term used by Seaman). (FdW)
Address: http://www.palaceoflights.com
MUU FOR EARS 13 (CD by Artists’Association MUU)
Since 2009 the Artists’ Association MUUfrom Finland releases compilation CDs of sound artists, mainly based in the Nothern part of Europe. This 13th edition is filled with work of young artists living and working in Sweden and Finland. Although the eight artists are working with different background and concepts, this CD has balanced presentation. The quality of the 16 tracks is high and the several musical worlds are completing each other. Jan Anderzen manipulates and mixes sounds from the internet and tapes and mixes them with his own sounds. For example he re-arranged an old meditation audio tape into a rough collage. Stefan Klaverdal from Sweden contributes five tracks. My favorite track is “Ser du människa,” which means “Behold the man.” The composition is a created by electro-acoustic sounds and voices. The voices are manipulated and sometimes the listener can follow what a man and woman are saying (if you understand Swedish). The texts are about the meaning of life. Klaverdal manipulates in more compositions with voice and sound. The tracks have a high intensity and crap the listener to his throat, because something has been said in this pieces of music. Anssi Laiho is inspired by musique concrete, electro acoustic music and sound art. The two tracks are fresh and have an open character. “Consider Menzies” is a requiem in memory of the science fiction writer Ian Banks created by an 8 mm concrete reinforcement bar, two white wine glasses and a piano. The music is a atmospheric spacy track which is suitable for a dark SF movie. Sana Ghobbeh is born in Iran and lives and works now in Sweden. The track “Dillema” is based on her search for a better future in a new country. Recorded voices of friends and family in different languages are the ingredients of this spoken word piecae. The message of her friends and family is clear…. “do not go back!” Olga Palomäki from Helsinki created two compositions based on field-recordings which are recorded in her hometown. The sounds are modified and deformed to drony noisy soundscapes. The world has changed to a dark place where everyone is lost. Jörgen Häll is also working with field-recordings and manipulates them to an ambient melancholic thrilling atmosphere. Marko Timlin from Helsinki built the Sound-Disk-Machine. The machine is a musical instrument that converts light into sound. The result is an ongoing sound which slowly getting stronger and stronger and at the end passes away into darkness. Great compilation, the curators of MUU know how to present sound art from Sweden and Finland. I am looking forward to the next episode. (JKH)
Address: http://www.muu.fi
TOY BIZARRE – KDI DCTB 257 [A] (3″CD by Auf Abwegen)
The format of 3″ for CD and CDRs never really caught on, didn’t it? Not as CD single, nor as independent format with about twenty minutes of music. I always think it’s a pity since I always found this the perfect format to present a smaller work, or simply to have a tour item of some kind. These days I don’t see them a lot, so all the more kudos to Auf Abwegen for pressing the music of Toy Bizarre into this format. Which might actually be less strange than it seems, as Toy Bizarre released a whole bunch of these (on CDR albeit) years ago, as well as having a label for treated river recordings by others, Kaon. I’d sincerely hope Auf Abwegen manages to sell a few. The music here is part of a workshop about field recordings in Saint-Herblain and La Roche-sur-Yon. Cedric Peyronnet (he who is Toy Bizarre) worked for some time with two groups of students and one of things they came up with was a recording made at the conservatorium: one would hear music through walls, which became the basis for ‘my first ever pop music piece’ as Peyronnet calls it. Don’t let that bit of information distract you, as the eighteen minutes and forty-three seconds have very little to do with the world of pop music. In contrast it’s probably more a piece of modern classical music with lots of wind instruments playing lengthy sustaining passages plus there is also a bit of percussion, which marks out sections, rather than measuring time. All of this comes with the usual Toy Bizarre techniques of creating sound collages. The swift editing element is never far away, creating, from time to time, an element of surprise. Some of these recordings are also mildly treated with electronics and/or cut into loops, but unlike much of Toy Bizarre’s previous work, which is much more abstract, this all sounds like a fine work of treated recordings of real instruments, so the aspect of ‘music’ (you don’t have to call it etc.) is never far away, and this might easily account for the most musical outing by Toy Bizarre so far. Quite a surprise and a most pleasant one at that. (FdW)
Address: http://www.aufabwegen.com
TOM JONES SCOTT & ANDREW CHALK – CALLUNA (LP by Skire Records)
Following his album ‘Teal’ (see Vital Weekly 956) we now have a 12″ sized piece of vinyl, with nine pieces, which one is supposed to play at 45 rpm. Is that a LP, an EP or a 12″? On his previous release, Scott also received some help from Andrew Chalk, but here it seems to be a more equal pairing. Scott’s music seems to be influenced by the whole UK drone scene, Ora, Mirror, Monos and this new record brings it all home. The piano seems to be the major force for the music, being quite on top of things, there is also electronics, bass and keyboards to be spotted here. All of these pieces are rather short and to the point, even a bit sketch like from time to time. The cover doesn’t reveal much information, but it seems to me that Chalk plays the piano, and Scott is responsible for whatever else happens around here. In some way I am reminded of Robert Haigh’s piano work, following the Sema records he did, or perhaps some of Harold Budd’s solo piano music (especially his early ones), and in that way, perhaps Scott acts as a kind of Brian Eno here: creating an environment. Lots of silence is left between the notes and with the sparse setting created by Scott it is exactly the right desolate place for this music. There is refined sense of sadness in this music, the sadness of beauty even. An excellent work of ambient music; classic stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://skire-music.blogspot.co.uk/
JACEK SIENKIEWICZ – INSTYNKT (LP by Bocian Records/Recognition)
This record is a co-release by Bocian Records, whom of course are regular guests in this weekly rag, and Recognition, of Poland also, and apparently known for ‘state-of-the-art modern techno sound’. I never heard of Jacek Sienkiewicz before but listening to these four pieces I could say he works in the field of abstract techno. Not in a similar way as Platform (see elsewhere) but with music that is rhythmic in some way, but not restricted to a 4/4 beat. Sienkiewicz uses a lot of loops, mostly it seems from an electronic origin and with a slightly darker feel to it. If Platform’s music isn’t easy to dance to, then I’d say it’s impossible with Sienkiewicz’ music. It’s along the lines of modern electronic music but then more organized, maybe not unlike Mark Fell or Autechre exploring the outskirts of techno music. While I find such things quite interesting, I must admit I am not entirely convinced about Sienkiewicz music. It left me cold and uninterested. It seemed to me too much of playing around with a bunch of loops, sounds and effects but without getting towards a coherent composition; to hear or to dance to. Others have done this better I think. (FdW)
Addres: http://bocianrecords.comhttp://recognition.pl
BRUTTER (LP by Hubro Music)
This is the first time that I receive a bit of vinyl from Hubro Music, which we know best for their improvised music. This LP however sees Brutter, which might be Norwegian for brothers, as it consists of Christian Wallumrød (drum machines, synthesizers, electronics) and Frederik Wallumrød (drums and electronics). Maybe because of the electronic rather than improvised nature of the music this is released on vinyl? Fredrik has a background with rock and metal music and Christian with a group called Dans Les Arbes and his own group, both recording for ECM Records. He also had a solo record on Hubro earlier this year (see Vital Weekly 964), in which he explored the piano. Two long pieces on both sides, plus a shorter on the first. Hubro speaks of this as ‘its own distinctive, confusing and tenacious dance music’, which probably when musicians with not a lot experience in dancing think about dance music. Or as a non-techno-minded friend of mine said ‘that’s the kind of music that my hair-dresser plays’ and ‘look, this button on my synth is like trance music’. Or some people call ‘Rock N Roll Station’ by Nurse With Wound ambient house – yeah yeah. All of that aside, whether this is dance music or not (I am not the one to judge, even when I do the drunk dance best), let’s judge what we hear. The music is surely confusing; that part is spot on. It offers a very dry sound, no delay, no reverb, just a thump-thump sound of the drum machines, filtered down to leave with barest essence of the sound, along with whatever percussion bits they have to offer. Rather than being all-electronic I believe they play this all acoustic (which could have been a great tag to sell the music: acoustic techno!), but it remains also very minimal and not always engaging to hear. It’s not bad but a bit long and seems not having too much variation. The concept seems interesting enough and the execution offers something that could be good, but just isn’t extending beyond the nice idea. Somehow I don’t see ecstatic crowds dancing their socks off. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hubromusic.com
MASTERS – RUTGER HAUER/SCATMAN CROTHERS (7″ by Adaadat)
TRADE & DISTRIBUTION ALAMANAC VOL. 4 (CD by Adaadat)
A duo of Christof Fanaras and M.K. Hauser, also known as Masters, and with this 7″ they explore the ‘imaginary film music’, ‘this time channelling the spirits of the titular actors into a pair of fantasy/sci-fi tinged neo-kraut instrumentals’. On ‘Rutger Hauer’ Shenggy Shen, a former member of China’s first all-female punk band provides drums. I started of course with this side, not because of the drummer, but because I like Hauer for his role’s in various Verhoeven movies – a personal favourite when it comes to directors. The acoustic drums bang along some wild synthesizer motifs and has that great seventies kraut feel. ‘Scatman Crothers’ (“How’d you like some ice cream, Doc?”) deals more with lots and lots of synthesizers in a fine arpeggio mode, with the drum machine buried underneath. More Klaus Schulze than Neu! if you get my drift. I very much enjoyed both of these pieces. They are rounded off very well and fit the format of 7″ very well. Raw, spacious and very much to the ‘pop’ point. Crothers is no longer around, but hopefully Hauer will get a copy in honour of lending his name to this. Or do Masters think he’s deceased by stating about the ‘channelling the spirits’?
Masters are not present on ‘Trade & Distribution Alamanac Vol.4’ a compilation – hurrah – by Adaadat. In here we find people that have had releases on this label before as well others whose music we reviewed. Lots of electronics in here, wacky, poppy, weird, conventional, noisy, lo-fi, hi-fi and tedious. You want it all, you get it all. Here we have: EKS, Jang MP, Kayaka, Cortex Accelera, Josh Booth. DJ Tendraw, Horacio Pollard, Sid Viscous, Mike Orban, Venta Protesix, CDR, Hypercube, Qetzal Dasein, Konakon, Elephant House, Punsuca, Memero, DJ Topgear, Dreieck and Failings. Lots to enjoy and discover. If you have a radio program you can put this on, have a varied show and have lunch in sixty-three minutes. (FdW)
Address: http://www.adaadat.co.uk
PLATFORM – FOLDED HORIZON (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation)
MATTHEW ATKINS – GEOMETRIC DECAY (CDR by Minimal Resource Manipulation)
Things have been quiet, it seems, for Matthew Atkins and his Platform project. But then, it seems, he kept on releasing since the last time I reviewed his music in Vital Weekly 738, but all of these in the digital domain only. Here he returns with two new CDRs, both as Platform and under his own name, and each with a significant different sound. As Platform he switches on his drum machines, synthesizers and sound effects, although maybe all of these carefully syncing up in Ableton Live and the outcome is six pieces, twenty-five minutes of rhythm driven music. I must admit I am never really that person who is very much into knowing the ins and outs of dance music, so I can’t place Platform in any particular genre. His music has a minimalist groove, which is good, aiming at the dance floor, but also seem to have a variety of sounds buried in here that makes it all a bit more experimental. But me being not a DJ (never was, never will), I am not sure how Platform would do in the greater plan of DJ sets. My least favourite was the title piece, with its jungle beat but the more straightforward ‘Soft Top’ was certainly a winner. I wonder how Platform would do in the world of vinyl, DJs and such like; maybe he would do well for himself.
Perhaps of more interest to the readers of Vital is when Atkins puts on the hat with his own name and shuts down all those rhythm machines and synths, walks outside with a microphone and tapes the environment; then he goes back to his computer and starts treating these recordings heavily using all sorts of techniques. Sometimes we hear the original sounds of the field recordings, but just as ‘easily’ they become an abstract mass of sound; bird chatter become drones, a walk on a bunch of leaves some sort of rhythm and then all of sudden there is a shimmering melody. If you shape and re-shape field recordings long enough they become a melody. Machine hum is something that is also put to great use here, towards the end of ‘Paper’. In ‘Untitled’ there seems to be some electronic sound, maybe a synthesizer of some kind. Some of these pieces I thought were a bit long and a bit too amorphous, wandering about but not really going somewhere, but throughout this was a fine release for all those listeners who like microsound, ambient, drones and field recordings. Not necessarily always very quiet but Atkins works quite cleverly with dynamics and that’s something that sets him apart, I think. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mrmrecordings.bandcamp.com
IAN DOUGLAS-MOORE & PAUL N ROTH – MEDIUMLOUD NOISE MUSIC FOR SAXOPHONE/GUITAR (CDR by Earwash Records)
IAN DOUGLAS-MOORE – THREE FATE TALES (CDR by Earwash Records)
To start a new label in these difficult times: much respect! I am not entirely sure, but I think Ian Douglas-Moore is behind Earwash Records, ‘a micro-label for alt-improvised, experimental, and otherwise intriguing sounds, crafting handmade, self-printed releases, based in Berlin since 2015’, as the first two releases have his name attached to the music. I don’t think I heard of Douglas-Moore before, nor of his compatriot Paul N Roth. I think the latter plays alto-saxophone and Douglas-Moore plays guitar, according by the information attached; the cover is not clear in that respect (it doesn’t list the title, which I list here, but then, that’s something I found on the same information enclosed). Surely this is improvised music, but not of a very traditional variety. The two pieces here deal with micro-tonality, in which both instruments produce electronic tones, feedback and sine waves, which work together in a great way. One could think this would all too easily lead to a bunch of noise, and indeed this is never anywhere super quiet, but these two players keep their instruments very well under control and guide the listener from wave to wave. Slowly moving and changing there is a beautiful yet brutal quality to this. Imagine Alvin Lucier as recorded through a guitar amplifier in a space. Highly controlled, never out of shape these two pieces (lasting thirty-five minutes) is among the best-improvised noise/rock I heard in some time.
On his solo release ‘Three Fate Tales’ Ian Douglas-Moore further expands on the notion of micro-tonality by bringing in field recordings and acoustic objects; the space in which the music is created starts to play an important role. Electronic sounds, feedback and/or sine waves move through space and start to change; maybe the position of the recorder changes? In ‘He Did Not Loiter In Stamford’ it starts out with virtually inaudible electronic sounds and then slowly grows and street sounds are added – someone opened a window perhaps? This is quite an interesting piece of drone music. ‘Plain Pleasures’ follows a similar course, but seems to be a bit more austere in approach, i.e. there is less sounds and more poignant. Here too at one point more acoustic sound in the space. The longest piece is the third one, ‘An Indication Of The Cause’, which is the first one in which the guitar sounds more clearly, resonating, vibrating and moving in a steady, sustaining way, and ultimately combining interests from the previous two pieces into a more complex myriad of sounds, although perhaps a bit long, I would think. Towards the end it slips a bit, and the improvised element makes that the flow is interrupted. But throughout this was a great piece too and all in all an excellent release of radical improvisation. (FdW)
Address: http://earwash.bandcamp.com/
FAINT GLOW – DUST IN THE SUN (CDR by Chaosynod)
REZ EPO – REPROREA (CDR by Chaosynod)
WALLS OF BENIN (CDR by Chaosynod)
We have here three releases of noise music but of a varying degree. I went in from the quieter side, via the music of Faint Glow, also known as Jeff Winter from Lawrence, Kansas. His release is the most varied one of this trio. I might be wrong but I would think that his primary instrument is the guitar and electronics. In some of these pieces, the guitar is clearly audible, such in ‘Gravity Well’, loudly recorded and strummed slowly, feeding through a bunch of pedals. Of more interest I find some of the other pieces, in which he shows his love for all things minimal such as ‘Interference’, ‘Nebulous’ or ‘Orbit Decay’. He plays around with feedback, electronics and crafts hardly changing patterns of sound, which are dark, mysterious and intense. A further third group of pieces here play around with the notion of harsh noise, which was all right in as far it didn’t last eighty minutes, which is always good. It added variation to the release, which I guess was not absolutely necessary; there was already enough variation in two groups of guitar noise and more pure tone experiments, so he could have dispensed with the harsh noise wall pieces. Not entirely satisfying but not bad either.
Apparently Rez Epo has a comeback to celebrate with his ‘Reprorea’; I wasn’t aware of him being gone. He uses ‘no-input oscillations, flanged, phased and warped into a suffocating amalgam’ to create drone music that is very loud, very present but also, perhaps oddly enough, is quite ambient like. Of course not in the Brian Eno sense of ambient, as this is hard to ignore. Imagine this to be psychedelic music, which goes right into any halve of your brain like a needle, causing an explosion and this wonderfully strange world opens up. It’s gritty, dirty, somewhat static and very consistent in execution. ‘Traccr Helix’ is the noisiest track and interestingly enough also the one with the most variation, but it was the other two I enjoyed more. They were going less all over the place and more developing from within, which I enjoyed a lot.
J.E. Ozolua is behind Walls Of Benin, and he’s from that city, in Nigeria. The walls are “he largest man-made structure, a chain of fortifications spanning over 16.000 kilometers length. Once majestic, the structure is now scattered in pieces, almost entirely consumed and disintegrated by the developing urban architecture”. This is his debut and save for the first few minutes of the first piece, this is all very much in the harsh noise wall territory, but no doubt Jliat would correct me, as there changes to be noted in this noise, which makes this technically not really harsh noise wall. But the monolithic approach is something that is surely a feature here, and which made it least appealing to me, I must admit. Not bad, especially just because of the fact that it’s not strict harsh noise wall, but also not entirely I would something play all day. (FdW)
Address: http://chaosynod.bandcamp.com/
PAUL ABBOTT – VAGUS (CDR plus booklet by Porta)
JLIAT – POP GOES REASON (2CDR plus booklet by Jliat)
The name Paul Abbott seems new to me and he’s a drummer. Sometimes he also uses his voice and he wrote the text in the 20-page booklet and did the programming. The booklet looks great, with pictures, diagrams and text, of a highly scientific/philosophical nature, which, I must shamefully, I didn’t understand a word of. For me it reads like poetry. It’s not easy to say what it is he’s doing, and then I am not just referring to the booklet. Each piece is close to twenty-five minutes, and ‘Part 1: Welcome’ is perhaps the most improvised piece, all played on the drum kit, plus a bit of electronics. Vivid and hectic playing is what’s going on here until it dies out after the eighteen minute break and there is hardly any sound. It then is picked up by playing drums but with the addition of voice, reciting fast sound poetry. In ‘Part 2: Hsiovidhe’ Abbott starts out with a lot of electronic sounds, treating his voice and drum sounds, quite noisy at times. Further down the line in this piece, the drums start playing a bigger role again and pick up the traditional improvised music again; more hectic and nervous playing. It ends noisily. ‘Part 3: Mung Pool’ continues along similar lines. I was thinking by then I knew what Abbott was about and in all the hectic and nervous playing that went on in the last fifty minutes, this final piece of equal length, seemed a bit superfluous to me. There was throughout much to enjoy here and music and booklet (well printed, inside a protective bag) is a true art package. Lots of mystery is to be found in here.
A thirty-four page booklet and 2CDRs about ‘Pop Goes Reason’ by Jliat, which was presented at The University Of Falmouth in April 2015. Obviously you are aware of Jliat and his writing about noise through the pages of your beloved weekly, and sometimes these writings are clouds of mystery. Sometimes these reviews can be understood as a work of noise too, but sadly many of the noise musicians want an in-depth review of their music and not a tract on something that they can’t relate to. In this booklet Jliat is easier to understand, and his topic is that harsh noise music is a sub genre of populair music but that it has no meaning, no message (no dynamics, change, development, ideas either as Vomir would say). He explores that through the works of Greek philosophers, Nietzsche and such like, and sometimes he looses me, but altogether this was a pleasant read. Along we find two CDRs. One is filled with pop music recorded very loud and totally distorted, while the other has a text-to-speech software reading wikipedia lemma on tuning. For the podcast I made a mix of both of them. I must admit that in this thing Jliat lost me in the music rather than the words, which it is usually the other way around. (FdW)
Address: http://www.portaaaa.com
Address: http://www.jliat.com
HMS – PRIE (cassette by Small Scale Music)
NIGREDO – LUNAS NEGRAS (cassette by Small Scale Music)
Well, it’s not ‘Prie’ but ‘Pi’ plus ‘rie’, I think. HMS is a quartet of Joe Houpert, Nathan McLaughlin (who’s solo music I quite enjoyed), Steve Perrucci and Erich Steiger, and for none of these any instruments is mentioned. The recordings were already made in June, 2011, and ‘Prie’ is the ‘third documentation of the live improvisations from the collaborative project known as HMS. The performance process was born out of an earlier sound check… no structures or arrangements, improv in high volumes’. That’s not how it sounds on this tape; HMS sound like a rock band with drums, bass, guitar and electronics and with this set-up they explore the outer limits of free rock music in some very careful experimentation. The four pieces have minimal changes and explore quiet sounds. In ‘Feower’, the final track on the second side, it seems to be mostly electronic, but in the other pieces the balance between all instruments is better. While I enjoyed these lengthy pieces I thought HMS is also a bit too careful in the way they work. You wish things would burst out, even if only once or twice, but that’s not happening. A bit more spunk, boys!
All of the information on Nigredo is in Spanish I think, and I didn’t bother to translate that. If you can’t bothered to put it up there on Bandcamp in English, so that perhaps more people understand this, then why bother at all. If I understand well this is a live recording from this band from 2013 and there is a female voice, and guitars, violin, violincello, alto violin and contrabass. Some of these (maybe all) are poems by Federico Garcia Lorca. This is probably weird folk music, outsider music or whatever. It’s absolutely something I don’t like. I don’t like the voice, the way the music is played, the serious reciting of poetry and such like. I am sure I miss out on something, but frankly: I don’t care. (FdW)
Address: http://smallscalemusic.bandcamp.com/
PIGEON BREEDERS – CONCRESCENCE (cassette by Shaking Box Music)
D.F. W/ K.B.D & J.G. – A CHANCE HAPPENING 27/08/14 IN BRASSERUE BEAUBIEN (cassette by Shaking Box Music)
From Edmonton hails a trio who call themselves Pigeon Breeders and ‘Concrescence’ is their fourth album, but their first cassette. Will Scott, Tyler Harland and Myles Bartel are the players and no instruments are mentioned, but no doubt this line-up consists of guitar, bass and drums, aided by sound effects in the form of colour full boxes on the floor. The music is a mixture of all things ‘free’, rock, jazz, improvisation, which sometimes works out to be more drone like, then a bit more ambient and very rarely bursts out into something more heavy or noisy. That I thought was a pity. It stayed overall too much on a similar vein, volume wise, and music wise. That was a pity but I guess for a cassette it shows the development of the band pretty well.
The other cassette is a live recording (although I think Pigeon Breeders too, but unmentioned on the cover) and is a trio of players Kyle Bobby Dunn (piano), Devin Friesen (guitar, pedals, tape composition) and James Goddard (sax, pedals). Friesen we know as Bitter Fictions and when he was in Montreal he was supposed to play at Brasserie Beaubien, but other than show organiser James Goddard one only guest showed up, Kyle Bobby Dunn. After Friesen played solo, they all three played together for an unplanned session. A recorder was set up in the middle to capture the proceedings and the result is on this cassette. Here too we have a form of free music, but I must admit I like this much better. Shimmering tones, a bit remote, like ships at sea, in ‘Steamroller Deux’ or the random sounds from the interaction between the players. There has been some editing later on by Friesen, and that perhaps accounts for the music being much more interesting to hear. Friesen uses different tape speeds and overlays recordings and makes a widespread, psychedelic sound picture that unfolds for the listener. Mysterious, dark and intense: an excellent release. (FdW)
Address: http://shakingboxmusic.bandcamp.com
LO FLOPPER (cassette by Music A La Coque)
This is the first time the music of Lo Flopper is released on a physical format. There is not a lot of information, except they have a floating membership. On the first side we have seven players, playing alto sax, trumpet, cymbals, objects, trombone, tubes, balloon and bass clarinet. None of the names meant a lot to me. According to the bandcamp page this side was recorded at Teatro Kismet and consists of ‘quasi orchestra free form in a structured live performance’. It’s a kind of free jazz that I must admit is not too well spend on me. Four members are responsible for the other side and here we have synth, toys, trombone, percussions, guitar, ukulele and indeed: less is more. The short pieces are a delight of naive playing. It’s like a bunch of kids playing these for the first time, but keeping a fine rhythm and all of this had a great adventurous post-punk feel to it, like one would expect from this label. It’s a pity that the b-side is much shorter than the a-side! I wish it had more of these songs on both sides. Waaay too short! (FdW)
Address: http://musicalacoque.it/