 number 1156
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week 45 ---------------------
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M.A.L. - MY SIXTEEN LITTLE PLANETS (CD by Sub Rosa) * KOSMOSE - FIRST TIME OUT (2CD by Sub Rosa) * 4 IN 1 VOLUME 5 (LP/CD by EE Tapes) PSEUDO CODE - NEXT ONE'S CALLED (LP by Sub Rosa) * SAEKI & IKEDA & SUGIMOTO & IKEDA & THUT & WERDER - SEXTET (CD by Meenna) * COMMON OBJECTS - SKULLMARKS (CD by Meenna) * TAKU SUGIMOTO & MINAMI SAEKI - SONGS (2CD by Ftarri) * ANDERS VESTERGAARD & FINN LOXBO - I'M FINE WITH THE SWIRLING COLORS (CD by Gikt Records) AVIVA ENDEAN – (CD by Sofa) * FEE STRACKE – INSTRUMENTAL CHAIRS (CD by Unit Records) * ERIS 136199 (CD by Buster and Friends) MAZE & LINDHOLM - WHERE THE WOLF HAS BEEN SEEN (CD by Aurora Borealis) * THE VEGETABLE ORCHESTRA - ONIONOISE (CD by Transacoustic Research) * ZIMIAMVIAN NIGHT - 3 (2CD by Infraction Records) * JULIEN BAYLE - VIOLENT GRAINS OF SILENCE (CD by Elli Records) * ASMUS TIETCHENS - STENOGRAMME, ZWEITE FOLGE (CD by Entr'acte) * ASMUS TIETCHENS - STROPHEN (LP by Stencil Trash) WILHELM BRAS - LIVING TRUTHFULLY UNDER IMAGINARY CIRCUMSTANCES (LP by Attitudes) LÄRMSCHUTZ - WOOD + TIN (CDR by Baltos Rozes Tinklas) * VARROPAS - SAAT VAPAAT KÄDET (CDR by Magma Tones) * VARROPAS - RAKUUNA (cassette by Ikuisuus) BENJAMIN FLESSER - RESA (casssette by Cloudchamber Recordings) * BIRCHES - BIRCHES SESSIONS VOLUME 3 (cassette by Dropsongs) * M.A.L. - MY SIXTEEN LITTLE PLANETS (CD by Sub Rosa) KOSMOSE - FIRST TIME OUT (2CD by Sub Rosa) 4 IN 1 VOLUME 5 (LP/CD by EE Tapes) PSEUDO CODE - NEXT ONE'S CALLED (LP by Sub Rosa) This bunch didn't arrive on the same day, so in the past weeks I have been hearing these in various combinations. I was thinking where to start the review and decided to start with the closest outsider of the Insane Music family and that is M.A.L. Daniel Malempre, as his real name is, is one of the main musical collaborators of Alain Neffe, the man behind Insane Music, once a cassette label and a family of bands and projects, most of which are subject of this review. Malempre was the guitarist of Kosmose, more about that later, of Human Flesh and Subject. Very early on, somewhere in the mid 80s probably, I already heard the story of a demo he send in the mid 70s of his solo guitar and reel-to-reel compositions, which concept was 'stolen' by Manuel Göttsching on his 'Inventions For Electric Guitar' and since then I was always curious to hear M.A.L.'s own music. There has not been a lot of that, but EE Tapes released 'Eighties' (see Vital Weekly 585) which included pieces he recorded in those years, but this new CD contains his 1972 to 1976 recordings. The cover tells you the technical side of the story, about one guitar and a four-track recorder, bouncing of tracks and recording at higher/slower speeds. And of course I too went to the Göttsching 1975 record (look for it on YouTube) to compare both albums. It is not difficult to hear that both tap out of the same book of ideas; guitars, lots of delays and both are cosmic trip. I am not the sort of guy that can rightfully say if Göttsching stole the idea for this from Malempre, or simply was simultaneously developing his own brand of working with reel-to-reel recorders. As did Brian Eno and Robert Fripp at the same time; all building on working with reel-to-reel machines like musique concrete composers did since the fifties. M.A.L. has sixteen pieces here and range from a minute miniature to over fifteen minutes. There is indeed a lot of music on this release, seventy-seven minutes and not all tracks are equally great, but you get a very good idea of how M.A.L. worked. It works best if he keeps his drones and loops together, spice with some bass notes and a small, repeating melody or phrase, as in 'Cassiopee' or 'Betelgeuse'. Sometimes a song is merely an idea and that's it, but then it doesn't work that well, especially when it is a long piece, such as in 'Thor'. I am not deciding the fight over originality here. I enjoyed hearing these pieces after all the rumour for all these years and all Göttsching fans should hear this too and make up their own minds. Malempre was together with Alain Neffe part of Kosmose in the seventies and up until a few years ago I never knew that Neffe did any music before 1979/1980 when he surfaced with Pseudo Code. Back then, when I first heard his music, I knew that I Scream was a solo project with some older recordings, but I didn't think he would be part of a band. Sub Rosa released a double CD by them some years ago and that was the first time I heard about it. That one wasn't reviewed, but EE Tapes did one as well (see Vital Weekly 1111) and the archives of Kosmose are delved into further with this double release (and I happen to know there is more in case someone is interested). Here Kosmose is Neffe on monophonic synthesizer, flute, primitive rhythm box, cymbal, bell, clumpsy voice, tarang, Malempre on electric guitar, 112 string acoustic guitar and Francis Pourcel on bass, bass with violin bow, electric guitar. Kosmose went through various stages with differing line-ups and this is the first version and contains a recording of their only concert. The absence of a drummer makes them even more spacier, more kosmische than on the previous recordings I heard from them. Malempre's guitar sounds at times like it does sound like the work on his solo CD. I quite enjoyed those previous releases, but they reach for a sound here that I like even more. It is hippie trippy music of course, vast and spacious, free and wild, but it is very much away from the beat driven krautrock that was also part of the scene and of which Kosmose also had a bit. But these live recordings, recorded with two microphones and reel-to-reel deck ("recorded by Alain while playing" says the cover; bravo!), makes that this is also a bit of rough diamond and it exactly that roughness that I like very much. There is nothing polished about this music and we are witnessing an all out space jam. Close your eyes and float away; play loud and you could believe you are right there and then, present in the audience. No incense required but it could help (I wouldn't know; I dislike incense). One hundred minutes of pure bliss, The '4 in 1' series are a sort of progress report/archive of Insane Music bands, but also allowes outsiders into the family. The first one is a legendary cassette from the early 80s, followed by a LP a little later. Volume 3 (CD; see Vital Weekly 846) and 4 (cassette; see Vital Weekly 1043) are more recent and now there is a volume 5, again on LP, with three Alain Neffe projects and M.A.L. is also present. There is a CD version included with bonus tracks for all four projects, one for each. The archival function is for the pieces by I Scream (1975) and Human Flesh ("late 80s-early 90s") whereas from Bene Gesserit and M.A.L. the pieces were recorded in recent years. Those two projects are on the first side, with four Bene Gesserit pieces that display their Dadaist version of electronic music in a very fine way. The voices are fed through a vocoder in 'Ceci N'est Pas Une Chanson...', or with Benedict G singing mysteriously in 'Les Fourmis', or the all out fun (?) of 'Half Hyserical Mid Tempo Sort Of Rock', being a very classic and funny Bene Gesserit piece. M.A.L. has expanded his old style with drum machines and synthesizers and his music has a fuller flavour now. A bit orchestral in 'Trinity Will Kill Again', Middle Eastern inspired in 'Turkish Morning' or raga in 'Indian Song', all of which come with M.A.L.'s trademark guitar loops. Human Flesh here is in full collaborative modus here, with people supplying sounds on tape and Neffe adding his music and sounds to it. Some of these pieces are with M.A.L. or Xavier S of Pseudo Code but also words supplied by Lena Torgrimsen. Human Flesh is always a bit moody and atmospheric, with string like drones and loops of saxophones, flutes and guitars and with these pieces reach for a more poetic approach, not unlike Cortex, even if that was more minimal. I Scream remain one of the more obscure Neffe projects, his earliest solo music from the mid 70s. Here he experiments with old synthesizers and reel to reel machines, rhythm machines and "Elka strings" and the music is the most experimental of the whole record, with weird synthesizer sounds, especially on the CD bonus track '(Maybe) I'm Slowly Going Insane', but also cosmic in 'Saved By The Synth'. Hearing this I think it should be about time there is a double CD with all of these early I Scream pieces. Excellent compilation and with only four bands one has a clearer idea of what they are about should you be a novice to this music. And then Pseudo Code. I can't reveal my personal hierarchy in liking bands from Insane Music, but I can tell you that Pseudo Code is my favourite band. It is, perhaps, also the first I really heard and read about; no doubt in a fanzine called 'BoH' and a Dutch music magazine 'Vinyl'. Early on I picked up their second 7" 'Moon Effect' and it was a band that stood out on compilation cassettes, very much like The Legendary Pink Dots, but differently. I guess the voice of Xavier S plays an important role here, as it is very much a recognizable voice of what seems at times a very troubled singer. A voice of pain and anger maybe. Alain Neffe plays synthesizers, rhythm machine, strings organ and saxophone while Guy Marc Hinant plays pianet (also a very uncommon instrument in the world of 'industrial' music, and yes, I know they hated that word), percussion, or guitar. The rhythm machine keeps the music together, while everybody, singer included, more or less freely moves around that. Sometimes this may result in a proper song, certainly when Neffe plays a melody (or Hinant on guitar in the title piece), but it can also be a rather free form music piece of loosely connected sounds, such as the beautiful 'Lament', which seems to be more the result of improvisation, but around some guidelines. All of the pieces, save one, which now appears in a longer form, were previously unreleased. I have no idea how deep the Pseudo Code vaults are as we have seen quite a bit of recent archival releases. I am very happy with all this new/old music, as it expands the already rich history here with some further releases and none of these recent releases show any sign of weaker songs. There is most certainly not a scraping the barrel idea here. Is there more? Give it to us! Is this it? What a heritage! (FdW) ––– Address: https://www.subrosa.net ––– Address: http://www.eetapes.be SAEKI & IKEDA & SUGIMOTO & IKEDA & THUT & WERDER - SEXTET (CD by Meenna) COMMON OBJECTS - SKULLMARKS (CD by Meenna) TAKU SUGIMOTO & MINAMI SAEKI - SONGS (2CD by Ftarri) Two of three new releases by Ftarri contain music performed by a group of six people. Five of the six players on 'Sextet' delivered each a composition, which is then performed by the group. These six musicians are Mirami Saeki (voice), Wakana Ikeda (flute), Yoko Ikeda (viola), Taku Sugimoto (guitar), Stefan Thut (cello) and Manfred Werder (glockenspiel, typewriter). Only Seaki didn't bring a composition to play. It is very easy to see why these people work together and what bonds them; all of this comes out of the Wandelweiser playbook of music. Things are very silent and careful on this disc and seventy-five minutes also something that isn't all that easy to take in at once, and yes, I am very well aware that is not necessary at all, but as a reviewer I guess that's how things go from time to time, playing releases front to back. As said with all the quietness on this disc this is not very easy, as if one approaches this silence in a very Zen way, perhaps taking it all in in an easier, it will be a wealth to enjoy it all at once If you concentrate very hard on the music, then it becomes very demanding and it is possible to hear two in a row and then get a different kind of distraction. Everybody here plays sparsely, with occasional tones, strums, notes being carefully placed around, like little dots in the sky. This is all very refined music, not easy to access but once it unfolds, it works really well. Also six players are to be found with the group Common Objects, which Rhodri Davies started in 2006. He plays the electric harp, John Butcher on soprano and tenor saxophones, Angharad Davies and Lina Lapelyte on violin, Lee Patterson on amplified devices and processes and Pat Thomas on electronics. They improvise as well as play graphic scores and semi-structured pieces. Here they have a recording from the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford (you know, where the have the shrunken heads form the Harry Potter movie) and Butcher choose four objects made of wood, bone and clay, "evoking consideration of water, air, earth, spirit, ritual and utility", plus the building as the fifth object. In the score Butcher made there are different combinations of players and that results in a very vibrant recording. There is not a lot of quietness on this disc that much is sure. This is a fine piece of music in which there may be not a lot of common objects used, but at the same time the instruments used also don't always sound like they are supposed to be. Blending odd techniques and objects to play their instruments in combination with the electronics and processing approaches by Patterson and Thomas make this a great release. Sometimes, all of a sudden, one recognizes the violin, or the saxophone (in the middle for instance), along with shortwave radio, slowly transforming into an altogether more abstract rattle of sounds. There are quite some dynamics in play here, going from subtle and quiet (not as quiet as the previous release by Meenna I just heard) to loud yet controlled and detailed. There is some fine movement in this piece, with players stopping and starting with excellent interaction among them. You can hear the excitement they had while playing this concert and there is much experience at work here. The third release is a double disc by Taku Sugimoto on guitar and Minami Saeki's voice and words. We should see this as a documentation of concerts they did in europe in October 2017 and March/April of this year. There are some guests on some of these songs, such as Leo Dupleix (computer, objects, sine-tones), Lauri Hyvärinen (guitar), Takashi Masubuchi (guitar) and Wakana Ikeda (flute). 'Songs' is the right word for this music, as all the pieces are quite short; easily around one to three minutes with a handful being a bit longer an one over twelve minutes. With this music we return to the quiet approach, but of course that is something we know Sugimoto for, and we know this since many years. Saeki's style here is more speaking than singing I would think and she does that in a sort of staccato style. It is all in Japanese, so I assume. Sugimoto adds his minimal guitar playing, which is perhaps in a similar staccato style. A note, silence, another note. The guest players play accordingly; quiet and minimal. Close to two hours of music, which i can easily admit is also quite a stretch to go through in one run, and it is perhaps best to play one disc a day. This too has a Zen like approach and the listener can decide his ideal position to take it all in; that is either with full attention or let it all wash over you. (FdW) ––– Address: http://www.ftarri.com ANDERS VESTERGAARD & FINN LOXBO - I'M FINE WITH THE SWIRLING COLORS (CD by Gikt Records) Swedish guitarist Loxbo was part of Mats Gustafsson’s Fire Orchestra for a while. In 2012 he released his first solo album as a singer-songwriter. He made a drastic turn on his second album, released on his newly established Gikt label. Here he investigates the sound aspects of steel- stringed acoustic guitar, using extended techniques. Danish drummer Anders Vestergaard is interested in working with feedback and other ways of extending sound world of percussive instruments. He is an active force in the Danish music scene, leading his own band Yes Deer, etc. They started their collaboration in 2014, using a great many of instruments and installations. Over the years they reduced their set of instruments. For this release, the second release by the Stockholm-based Gikt label, they play acoustic guitar and percussion and analogue feedback. The cd consists of two improvisations both taking 15 minutes. They are not afraid of silence and this is absolutely part of their concept. Loxbo plays in a style reminiscent of Derek Bailey. Vestergaard introduces sparse sounds of various origins. They have a very disciplined and less- is-more attitude. Short interactions vanish in silence in order to emerge again from silence a few seconds later. And this works. There is an undeniable essence in their Zen-like improvisations; an intriguing dialogue with silence. (DM) ––– Address: https://giktrecords.bandcamp.com/ AVIVA ENDEAN – (CD by Sofa) Aviva Endean is a Melbourne-based clarinet player, improviser and composer. Her interest for sound led to projects in very different contexts: improvised, new chamber music, performance, and sound-installation and much cross-disciplinary collaboration. Also she plays in several bands. For example Crush Crush a duo with Evelyn Ida Morris, and Sludge Party, a bass wind and drums trio with Justin Marshall and Anna Gordon. Now we are speaking of her first solo album that consists of composed as well as improvised material. Partly she took inspiration from “the musicologist Andrew Killicks’ concept of ‘holicipation’— a term he coined to describe solo musical practices that are not rehearsals, not practicing for something, but are playing for oneself. The playing is ‘holistic’ in the sense that it constitutes audience, composer and performer, and has no investment in a musical future, but instead finds nourishment in the present. “ By consequence this work is of a contemplative and intimate nature. A very personal work. For each piece she plays a different clarinet combined with a tool or application for special resonance and colouring. Like the skin of the timpani in ‘Apparition: above’. On the central track she sings combined with whistles, sounding almost like a song somewhere from the African continent. On ´Undulations: behind´ she plays the umthsingo, a harmonic flute combined with effect pedals. The applications don´t lead away from the characteristics of the wind instruments, but enforces and enriches aspects of timbre and sound. By using long notes and melodic patterns the music remains very accessible and sometimes trance-inducing. (DM) ––– Address: http://www.sofamusic.no FEE STRACKE – INSTRUMENTAL CHAIRS (CD by Unit Records) Stracke is a pianist, improviser and composer from Berlin. She has a duo with saxophonist Alexander Beierbach and a trio HalbSechs with Berit Jung and Hampus Melin, to mention a few of her activities. Both Jung (bass) and Melin (drums) are long time collaborators of Stracke and are also involved on this new project called ‘Instrumental chairs’. Daniel Meyer completes them on guitar. On her way back from a workshop in Canada, she had to spend so time in the waiting room of the airport. Bored she began to study the shapes and forms of the furniture that surrounded here. And so a new fascination was born. Back home she started to study furniture in all its aspects and she became acquainted with Satie’s ‘Musique d'Ameublement’. Ideas and intuitions became musical ideas, musical ideas led to the music as it is now presented on the cd. Must have been an interesting process, if that is the adequate term. Because each title is named after a piece of furniture, one asks how can properties of these functional objects lead to musical constructions? How does this ‘translation’ work? Anyway, whatever the genesis may be, in the end what counts for me as a listener is if the music has its own identity and power. The opening track ‘Teetisch’ starts like a piece of piano music by Florian Fricke but during its six minutes length the piece changes more than once of style and idiom, evoking the very different objects on the tea table as it were, or the very different aspects of this object. Halfway ‘Kaffeehausstuhl’ a ‘Schlager’-like melody breaks through leading us close to the borders of kitsch. In other tracks we can trace influences of jazz, improvisation, chamber music and more. The music is intelligently constructed and transparent; accessible as well as experimental. Each track is like a comfortable chair with a unique shape, created through the relaxed interplay between the four musicians. (DM) ––– Address: http://unitrecords.com/artist/ ERIS 136199 (CD by Buster and Friends) It is a long time ago I came across the name of Nick Didkovsky, a name I recall for several fantastic concerts by his band Doctor Nerve, many years ago... I didn’t follow his movements in the last few years. So I´m exited to have this one now. We meet him here in the Eris 136199-trio, named after a small planet in our solar system. The trio was formed in 2012 and debuted in 2015 with ‘Anomic Aphasia’ for Slam Records (with Josh Sinton as a fourth participator). Besides Didkovsky the trio consists of Han-Earl Park (guitar) and Catherine Sikora (saxophones). Both are new to me. Irish- born Catherine Sikora moved in 2000 to New York where she lives and works as part of ensembles led by Elliott Sharp, Ross Hammond, Ursel Schlicht, a.o. Also she has a long-standing duo-collaboration with Eric Mingus. In 2016 Relative Pitch Records released her solo-debut ‘Jersey’. Han-earl Park is also from Ireland and works as an improviser, guitarist and constructor, played with Charles Hayward, Richard Barrett, Wadada Leo Smith and many others. Together as three individuals with a very different history and voice they produce a radical kind of music. The improvisations are as complex as their names: “Therianthropy I-IV”, “Adaptive Radiation I-III”, “Universal Greebly” and “Hypnagogia I-II”. The sax of Sikora is often at the centre of their live interactions. She blows her way through and seems undisturbed by the interventions of her mates. A solo voice with a fine phraseology. Of all three her playing is most conventional. Second comes the guitar playing by Didkovsky who remains close to rock how far out his playing may sound. Han-Earl Park plays much in a way as we know from the English school of guitar improvisers. Together they create intriguing and complex puzzles of sound and textures. (DM) ––– Address: http://www.busterandfriends.com MAZE & LINDHOLM - WHERE THE WOLF HAS BEEN SEEN (CD by Aurora Borealis) Behind this duo we find P. Maze, who is also known as one half of "noise/techno duo" Orphan Swords and Otto Lindholm, from Brussels. I never heard of either of these. Lindholm is somebody who plays double bass and produces "a range of rich and voluptuous tones, emotions, and elongated melodies". There is not a lot to go by how and where this was recorded, or what kind of instruments is used by Maze. I think it is safe to say this is a work of two people playing together and not a work of two people exchanging sound files through the net (I might be wrong of course). There are four pieces here, in total some forty minutes (there is also a LP version) and within that timeframe and these instruments, Maze and Lindholm erect some mighty walls of drone music. The bass is bowed in a very slow manner, reaching for some very deep tones, with a sweet portion of distortion on top, along with some rusty and crusty electronics by Maze in a similar slow and pleasantly menacing modus. While there is no such recommendation on the cover I think it is best to play this CD with some considerable volume at home and let the sound be immersive. Play this as loud as humanly is possible (or so that the neighbours won't complain). I would like to think this is recorded in big space, like a church, the two are depicted on the inside). This massive space adds a fine natural reverb to the music, which throughout has a slightly ambient post rock drone sort of feeling with a fine pinch of noise added to the flavour. This is certainly a heavy trip but a most lovely massive journey indeed. (FdW) ––– Address: http://auroraborealisrecordings.bandcamp.com THE VEGETABLE ORCHESTRA - ONIONOISE (CD by Transacoustic Research) A very long time The Vegetable Orchestra played in town and due to a short bit on Dutch TV the venue sold out, which was a rare thing for said venue. I couldn't get in, even if I was a volunteer. The second time the audience response was a bit less and I saw the group performing their music on carrots, pumpkins, pickles and eggplants. Meanwhile water was boiled and several of the instruments ended in the soup we ate afterwards. A lovely evening indeed. I recounted the same story, more or less, when I reviewed the orchestra's previous release (well, release I encountered by them) in Vital Weekly 799. Like before it is sad that the visual element is missing (and the smell no doubt of a greengrocer) and we have to take their word for the fact that this is all played on vegetables and yes, me being a bit sceptical, find it at times hard to below. There is a lot of rhythm to be found on this CD, as apparently vegetables make sources for percussion instruments, but also flutes out of carrots are much used. There is a whole list on the cover. What isn't mentioned is any electronic effects used, such as delay and reverb, which I think surely makes up a bit of sound of the orchestra. Delay plays for instance a prominent role in the first piece and reverb throughout this CD. As said, rhythm plays an important role and the orchestra (ten players in total) play these pieces in a very minimal way. There is always a melodic component to these pieces, played on whatever instrument, usually a more or less flute like or xylophone like. Throughout there is a lot of variation in approaches and with the pieces being brief and to the point this is a release with a considerable amount of speed. Throughout this is a most lovely release indeed. (FdW) ––– Address: http://vegetableorchestra.bandcamp.com ZIMIAMVIAN NIGHT - 3 (2CD by Infraction Records) Somewhere along the lines I missed out on the second release by Mike Bennett's project Zimiamvian Night, which was released in 2007. The first one I did hear and was reviewed in Vital Weekly 462. So much time has passed for this project from the member of Carnival Of Souls. Now there is a lovely designed double CD reminding me of a 4AD package and if I understand well the first disc is something that is also available online and the second disc is just available as a physical object, which is a good thing, supporting the physical objects. Oddly, perhaps, enough the first CD is quite short, being twenty seven minutes and two pieces based around piano improvisations by Jason Bryant, the head of Infraction, along with Bennett's blend of field recordings from airport, flights, McKinley Monument, the Connequot State Park and "various noises" and "additional sounds, remix, editing and mastering by Wolf". It results in some very non dynamic music, of some far away piano sounds and a multitude of layers of recordings in large empty spaces and in the second piece just outside, wide open fields of cars passing. The second disc also has two pieces and these last eighty minutes; there is some value for your physical money! I could see both of these tracks as extended versions of 'The Murmer Of Fountain', the long piece from the first disc. In both of the pieces the piano improvisations play some role. Imagine a piano in an airport space (or a railway station; common feature in various stations in the Netherlands these days), with someone strumming a bit of notes without much coherency, yet also without pause and a microphone picking this up at quite some distance, but then obviously also picking up whatever else goes on in this space. Obscured traffic noises mostly, a rare bird and all of this receives a mild electronic treatment, but none of this gets to the foreground. It all stays far away and only if you open the volume a bit more, you will notice a bit more detail. Play this in a lower volume and it will remain pure ambient music; music from a space for another space. The non-linear approach worked quite nicely, and also the duration worked quite well. This is not something to be trimmed down to a few minutes; or twenty. It is best with a super long duration, during which the listener can engage in whatever he feels works best; reading, sleeping, check social media, the kind of stuff that may not require a lot of attention. Or simply just sit back and do nothing, longing for a holiday with all of these airport sounds. Excellent stuff all around. I was reminded of Ora; just so you know, in case you were looking for a reference. (FdW) ––– Address: http://www.infractionrecords.com JULIEN BAYLE - VIOLENT GRAINS OF SILENCE (CD by Elli Records) While his name sounds like a familiar one, I think I was easily confused with the other Bayle, also composing electronic music. I am not sure if there is a relation between the two. Julien Bayle calls himself an "independent artists based in France, merging visual art & design, music composition, and physical approach of sound art by designing installations and audio/visual live performances". He uses field recording, modular synthesizers. max/msp, granular synthesis and something he calls 'continuum disruptions'. The music on this rather short (twenty-three minutes) release are the result of a residency in the 'Mechanical & Acoustic Research Lab LMA-CNRS' anechoic room', "during some deep personal difficult times". He recorded two hours of silence in this 17db room, and the music on this release, as far as I understand were from "tiny random variations of physical electronic noises coming from the recording system itself, as uncontrolled spectres haunting the wires, have been captured and amplified, cut into tiny slices and grains", which are the sound sources used here. Of course there is some more text about how silence is impossible (the name of Cage is missing, is ghost is very much present). The music is nine relatively short pieces of heavy sound treatments, no silence to be spotted. There is lots of deep bass rumble, high end piercing sounds, and computer based treatments. Had I not known this deals in any way with recordings made in silent rooms I would probably not thought about it. I know now, but somehow fail to see its relevance. Bayle's music is surely quite good in an early sort of laptop way with many crackles, hissing and droning in a fine 'up there' way. Nothing is particularly careful, which is quite nice and at twenty-three minutes this is perhaps a rather short album but I think it's also it's just enough to get a solid impression and leave room for a bit more, but then next time. (FdW) ––– Address: https://www.elli.media/ ASMUS TIETCHENS - STENOGRAMME, ZWEITE FOLGE (CD by Entr'acte) ASMUS TIETCHENS - STROPHEN (LP by Stencil Trash) Twice Asmus is twice a big treat. For some, not all, I know, but I am among some. The biggest surprise is the CD here, for the simple fact that it has no less then twenty-eight pieces. The shortest being 1 minute and 26 seconds and the longest two minutes and forty-six seconds. With my limited knowledge of the German language, and a bit of the Tietchens love for wordplay, 'Stenogramme' is not really a word, but rather one he made up. I am not sure what it means, and while 'Zweite Folge' may indicate there is also an 'Erste Folge', I am not sure if that one is already released. In each of the this little pieces Tietchens explores a few electronic sounds, going round in a few variations with sound treatments and that's it. This is quite a bit removed from his longer and quieter pieces and we hear Tietchens in a rather playful mood. Not necessarily cheery in any way, as there are surely some finer, darker moments here, but his musique concrete treatments of acoustic sounds, of electronic sounds and who knows what else, show a great love for the sound itself. It is by all means the 'concise' Tietchens. It sums up the way he's been working now for some time, with delicate processes, longer sustaining sounds set against shorter treatments, quiet yet never silent, vulnerable and yet never broken up in short blocks of sounds. Effectively one could say this sums it all up. It's not the Tietchens work, that is radically different, which he also has in him (check 'Fast Ohne Title, Korrosion', reviewed in Vital Weekly 907) but he chooses to continue exploring this line of work further and this time around in shorter sketch like pieces, and that works wonderfully well. On vinyl, and apparently the first LP since ten years for Tietchens (the last one might be 'Teils Teils' for Swill Radio, probably, see Vital Weekly 610), so it might be time for the vinyl hipsters to have a new one on vinyl. At the same time you could wonder if vinyl is the best format for Tietchens' delicate approach to music. The cover looks great with a die-cut sleeve on recycled paper, and it is super limited (collectors beware) to 120 copies. The six pieces here are best qualified as examples of the current Tietchens style, as outlined on 'Stenogramme', but here on a much longer course, easily somewhere around five to seven minutes per piece. Tietchens probably has the same or similar sound material at his disposal, and the same techniques he always uses, which I believe mainly analogue filtering of sounds, and feeding the results again into the machine; then layering the various results together in order to find an interaction between these layers that would work as a composition. Curious this record contains some quiet music but the pressing of the record is very good and every detail seems to be audible. Tietchens uses prolonged sounds set against shorter, brittle sounds, that return from time to time, but I'm not always sure they are a loop; most of the times I assume they are not. The background provides a delicate bed in which these sounds wander around like stars at night. The musique concrete that Tietchens presents on this record is very precious; it never gets loud, never mean or distorted and is best enjoyed in a dimly lit environment with a fine glass of wine at, a rather normal volume. Perhaps the kind of surroundings in which Tietchens performs his tape concerts these days, which is music for attentive people willing to take the effort to listen. A diminishing group of people, sadly, but Tietchens labours bravely onwards. Twice Tietchens, twice different and yet both can also be seen as extension of the other. (FdW) ––– Address: http://www.entracte.co.uk ––– Address: http://www.stenciltrash.de WILHELM BRAS - LIVING TRUTHFULLY UNDER IMAGINARY CIRCUMSTANCES (LP by Attitudes) From Poland hails Wilhelm Bras, who calls himself sometimes Lautbild, and whose real name is Paweł Kulczyński. I reviewed some of his work before (Vital Weekly 878 and 976), but this is the first time his music is on vinyl and surely it is the format he likes for his mutated dance music. Rhythm plays an important role in this music, yet I doubt if it is the sort of rhythm that goes down well on the dance floor. It's not just the slightly distorted rhythm that sound a bit odd with their crazy timings, but also the synthesizers at times produce some surely wacky sounds that no doubt will be raise a few eyebrows on the floor. But that's just me thinking that Wilhelm Bras wants to play music for a dance floor and perhaps that is not at all the case? It is the rhythm that guides to having these thoughts and perhaps that is all wrong. Maybe Bras wants to offer something of an experiment within the realm of rhythm machines, samplers and synthesizers? Maybe he is just shaking up the foundations or notions of techno music with these six abstract pieces of mad electronic sound scapes. In a future, close by or distant, who knows, this could be dance music? Or just in a weird science fiction movie? On the Bandcamp it says that all of these sounds are "of analogue origin by self-made synthesizers", so I'm imagining some modular set-up that looks like the Tardis, with lights flashing and knobs blinking on the console and Bras being the Doctor offering a time machine dance for a small crowd. It is all quite layered, another reason to think it is less suited for the floor, and makes a fascinating listen, at home, in a chair, occasional head nod and foot tap. This is lovely stuff; for whom ever is the intended audience. If you are a modular freak then surely check this out. (FdW) ––– Address: https://attitudes.bandcamp.com/releases LÄRMSCHUTZ - WOOD + TIN (CDR by Baltos Rozes Tinklas) Some seriously thinking was required if Lärmschutz ever did a CDR release, and Discogs said yes. I assumed, based on their many releases (of which I think some are not listed on Discogs), that their preferred format is the cassette and the digital release. I am not sure what prompted them to release 'Wood & Tin' on CDR. I actually reviewed 'Wood & Tin II' two weeks ago. This too was an all-acoustic release, but here on the first incarnation the instruments are prepared guitar, played by Stef Brans and trombone by Rutger van Driel. Here we find Lärmschutz is a surprisingly quieter and introspective mood. While the elements of chaos are not gone here, it also seems reduced a bit. Maybe the acoustic approach engages them in a slightly more structured approach or the occasional melody, especially on the trombone. This acoustic approach also made it slightly more difficult to hear I think; there is surely a lot more concentration required on the listener's side. It's however good to see Lärmschutz reaching to this end of the improvised spectrum as well, with certainly one of their more difficult releases. (FdW) ––– Address: http://white-rose.net/ VARROPAS - SAAT VAPAAT KÄDET (CDR by Magma Tones) VARROPAS - RAKUUNA (cassette by Ikuisuus) The CDR is a re-issue, in an edition of 20 copies, of a release that already came out in 2009 and the cassette contains all new material from 2017. Varropas is a duo of Juuso Paaso and Samuli Kytö. The latter plays synth and the first guitar, and they have been going since 2009. The CDR was their first release and has two long pieces, eighteen minutes and one short one. I can imagine they toyed with the idea of putting this out as a LP. These two men love their free improvisations to spin out for quite some time, with that free form psychedelic/industrial touch to it. Especially the second piece of the CDR is a template for that kind of free psych sound in a lo-fi way. Varropas studied the New Zealand music in that respect quite well, I think. It has a very fine synth driven rhythm with the guitar producing some more krautrock inspired tones, before going all introspective and denser mood of shimmering tones. Fast-forward to 'now' and there's 'Rakuuna' and while the cover isn't clear about it, I could/ should assume they are still playing guitar and synth. I might very well be wrong, so I realized as this music sounded more like something out of modular synth jam session. It is very hard to believe that there are a lot of guitars used in these cosmic jams. For all I know they could have been switched to all synthesizers for everyone. It could effectively be two different groups for all I know. The thing with not having heard anything else by them, produced in the last ten years makes it complicated to know how they got from 'then' to 'now'. Maybe their development has been perfectly logical. Maybe they switched recently? In their cosmic approach they don't have the same lo-fi approach as before, which might also be a mark of progress of course, but it sounds altogether also a bit like a fine yet regular space jam. It is all quite decent, but nothing out of the ordinary. This is some pleasant head-trip music and you should leave it on repeat for some time to meet the right headspace; a different thing! (FdW) ––– Address: https://magmatones.bandcamp.com/ ––– Address: https://ikuisuus.bandcamp.com BENJAMIN FLESSER - RESA (cassette by Cloudchamber Recordings) BIRCHES - BIRCHES SESSIONS VOLUME 3 (cassette by Dropsongs) So far Benjamin Flesser from Berlin has four releases; two of his own doing online and two on Slovenia's Cloudchamber of which 'Resa' is the second. One piece of twelve minutes per sides and based "loosely on the concept of 'ascension' and 'descent' but taking putting those ideas and placing them into a sound piece", although I am not sure what that means. There is some more text that equally is hard to understand. In the first piece, 'Descensus Ad Inferos' he works in a rather linear way with a fine returning sounds towards what we could call a mighty ascent. From the simple repeating sound it starts building until it reaches one final climax where the sounds gets stuck until it brutally cuts out. On the other side there is 'Ascensio Domini', which is not really ascending or descending in a similar dramatic way, but rather a culmination of tones becoming slowly a denser mass of heavily treated acoustic sounds, so it seems to me as an outsider. It strips it down and at the same time becomes more massive with more of the same sounds; curious indeed. Quite an enjoyable release indeed, of which the only criticism is that it is a bit short. I wouldn't have minded hearing some more of this. Birches is the project by the Cloudchamber boss but released on a separate label, Dropsongs, and released in an edition of merely twenty copies, but with a nice full colour printed cover. He writes "most of it is live recordings, straight from the mixer, using modular synth, xøxbøx, effects, tape loops and OP1". This one-hour release contains seven lengthy pieces of music, easily between seven and fifteen minutes, although the majority around seven to eight minutes, and it is not difficult to perceive these recordings as live recordings. Birches use quite a bit of rhythm, dark and menacing at that, plus an abundance of synthesizers and sequencers all with that firm dose of reverb, to top it off and arrive at some highly atmospherically, post nuclear dance scene. It's wild, at times even quite noisy, but also veers towards the whole cosmic music scene, but then unmistakeably much rawer and wilder, but it adds to the overall atmospheric content of the release, and perhaps to that rougher scenery from a B-movie about apocalyptic nightmares. I have no idea if Birches would agree to such an interpretation of his music; take a look at the cover and we see nocturnal sceneries in the forest on display. Download the music from Bandcamp and get a movie as a bonus and we see flickering lights; roadblocks, perhaps, around a contaminated area? See, all of this is neatly obscure music, best enjoyed in an almost darkened room. (FdW) ––– Address: https://cloudchamber.net/ ––– Address: https://prms.bandcamp.com/music |