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VITAL WEEKLY
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number 719
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week 7
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Vital Weekly, the webcast: we offering
a weekly webcast, freely to download. This can be regarded as
the audio-supplement to Vital Weekly. Presented as a radioprogramm
with excerpts of just some of the CDs (no vinyl or MP3) reviewed.
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* noted are in this week's podcast. We
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Editorial news: we have decided to stop
reviewing MP3 releases. Please do not send any discs with MP3
releases. Just send me an e-mail with a link and a short description,
so people can download it. The amount of releases pile up every
week and I can no longer devote time to MP3s. Whatever you see
coming in the next few weeks are the last ones. Please do not
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the real thing, please contact us first. <vital@vitalweekly.net>
FENN O'BERG - IN STEREO (CD by Editions
Mego) *
FRANCISCO LOPEZ - AMAROK (CD by Glacial Movements) *
AARON MARTIN - WORRIED ABOUT THE FIRE (CD by Experimedia) *
AARKTICA - IN SEA REMIXES (CD by Silber Records)
CELER - IN ESCAPING LAKES (CD by Slow Flow Records) *
FABIO ORSI - WINTERREISE (CD by Slow Flow Records) *
[POST-FOETUS] - THE FABRIC (CD by Mü-Nest)
FRANCIS DHOMONT - ETUDES POUR KAFKA (CD by Empreintes Digitales)
*
DOMINIQUE BASSAL - UBIQUITE (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
BRENDAN MURRAY/PERISPIRIT (split LP by Semata Productions)
CAPE FEAR - WINDS OF THE DEAD AIR (LP by Sound On Probation)
ERIC LUNDE/KOMMISSAR HJULER (LP by Psych KG)
SONS OF ALPHA CENTAURI/A DEATH CINEMATIC (split CDR by Simple
Box Construction) *
GUTTA PERCHA - TUBE OVERTURE (CDR by The Land Of) *
NICK HENNIES - LINEAL (CDR by SRA Sounds) *
POST MORTEM/FEVER SPOOR - OFF COLOUR (CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
KASPER VAN HOEK - FRANK 1 (CDR by Heilskabaal Records) *
KASPER VAN HOEK - FRANK 2 (CDR by Heilskabaal Records)
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON - AMYGDALA MANDALA (CDR by Prime Cuts)
*
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON - PEOPLE IN SORROW (CDR by Prime Cuts)
BOTANICAL ISOTOPES: PHYLLOCEPHALA REFOLATED (CDR compilation
by Prime Cuts)
ANDREW PERRY & DEAD WOOD - THE SWEETEST MEAT (CDR by Striate
Cortex) *
NEW HORIZONS FROM THE DISTANT VOID (CDR compilation by Striate
Cortex)
FENN O'BERG - IN STEREO (CD by Editions
Mego)
Is there something that you really want? That one coming release
that excites you very much? In the world of reviewers: hardly.
There is tons of music coming out every week, and everything
is examined carefully (we do out best). But sometimes there is
a release coming which even excites the overloaded reviewer.
Say a new album by Christian Fennesz, Jim O'Rourke and Peter
Rehberg, who work as Fenn O'berg. They released two albums almost
a decade ago, classic works of computerized madness, culled from
live shows. Mayhem, plunderphonics, laptop a gogo (recently re-issued
as double CD - see Vital Weekly 685). Workload was also heavy
for these musicians, always touring, recording, touring and recording.
In October of last year they meet up again, for a week, in Tokyo,
to sit together and record their first studio album. Six tracks
and what a difference from the previous two. Its no longer laptop
madness, but a fine blend of that with analogue sound material,
guitar, piano, bass and percussion. I must admit its not easy
to spot these instruments in these pieces. The music has changed
though. Its not a wild and vivid collage of sound, but more concentrated
efforts of sound, more composed than improvised. I think they
laid down all the various sounds in an improvised form and then
mixed it together into quite dense music, which has partly an
ambient character (in a rather unique way) and also a strangely
psychedelic atmosphere. Sometimes the computer processed sounds
play a role, such as in 'Part VII', but by and large its not
easy to spot here. Its an excellent release, I must say. Especially
the first four tracks are great here, where they really go out
into their own form of psychedelic music. 'Part III', the opening
of the CD is perhaps the standout track of the CD. An excellent
release, as said, well worth waiting so long for, but let's hope
the next one will come sooner. (FdW)
Address: http://www.editionsmego.com
FRANCISCO LOPEZ - AMAROK (CD by Glacial
Movements)
Away now, it seems, from his 'Untitled' releases, Francisco Lopez
here has work which he created at Mobile Messor (no doubt the
name of his laptop) over a period of two years in a variety of
places: Madrid, Murcia, Riga, Belgrade, Tel Aviv and Amsterdam.
That's more information than usual with Lopez releases, I guess
(well, not all of course), but what's lacking is the nature of
his sound sources. No doubt field recordings, but which kind
of fields would that be? Wind seems to me an obvious choice,
since it seems to link to the name of the label. The music like
a cold wind over some glacial mass. Lopez' piece (always one
piece on a CD, unless its a compilation of shorter works) is
divided in various passages: some loud, some very quite, with
a long dramatic build up when it comes to the louder pieces,
seems to be getting a bit more electronic these days. Away from
the previous work where he used field recordings and equalization
taken to the extreme, he now treats the sounds with computer
plug ins (it seems so at least). A minor change, but an essential
one. Yet, I also believe that this work, which now lasts sixty
four minutes, could have been shorter. Especially the louder
bit which starts at forty minutes (to about fifty minutes) seems
a re-run of sound material which we came across in the earlier
parts of this piece. Lopez takes his time to tell his story and
he does a fine job, as always, but somehow I have the feeling
that there is a bit of overproduction on his side. A good, fine
work it is, but it doesn't necessarily stands out from the majority
of his recent work. That's something I think he should take in
consideration. (FdW)
Address: http://www.glacialmovements.com
AARON MARTIN - WORRIED ABOUT THE FIRE (CD
by Experimedia)
Last week I traveled a small bit with Rutger Zuydervelt of Machinefabriek
and I couldn't help noticing that he has collaborated with a
whole bunch of people which I never heard of, mainly from what
can loosely be called 'modern classical/improvisation'. The name
Aaron Martin was not mentioned in this connection, but its also
someone Zuydervelt worked for his 'Cello Recycling' (see Vital
Weekly 564). This new release, I believe the first pro-pressed
one for Experimedia, is my first proper introduction to the music
of Martin. He started out on guitar and drums, but at the age
of seventeen he switched to the cello. He has already had a bunch
of releases on various labels. 'Worried About The Fire' started
out a soundtrack to a short film, but here, on CD, he uses bits
of that to create new work, and adds along the road also cello,
banjo, harmonica and organ. Some of it is treated electronically
and appears in various layers throughout the twelve pieces. Martin's
pieces are rather short, which I thought was a pity. His minimal
approach is well-suited, I think, to play pieces of music that
is beyond the three minute mark. Often employing a few sounds
per track, which are all 'played' (as opposed to 'sampled'),
there is natural element in the music, which could be expanded,
perhaps into some more 'formal' minimal music approach. That
is a pity, as it seems now a bit too 'sketchy' in approach. That's
a pity, I think, as there is great potential in the music. Also
the recording sounds a bit hollow, like it was recorded in a
big open room with some natural reverberation, which add a bit
of unwanted treble to the music, and is not as warm as it could
have been. This especially is the case when the cello is heard,
and not in the various other instruments. However all of this
is minor stuff. The music throughout is very nice and thoughtful.
Modern classical in approach, recorded through the methods of
improvisation, carefully constructed (I assume) on a computer.
Nice one. (FdW)
Address: http://www.experimedia.net
AARKTICA - IN SEA REMIXES (CD by Silber
Records)
Back in Vital Weekly 703 I discussed 'In Sea' by Aarktica and
was not blown away by it. It lacked variation mostly, in my opinion.
Jon DeRosa, the behind behind Aarktica played guitar, lots of
echo and reverb and a bit of singing. I'm not sure why this album
needed a remix treatment, perhaps because 'the material on the
original lent itself well to reworking', and surely its a nice
passtime to create remixes. Perhaps it will boast the sales of
the original too. Lots of names here of which I never heard,
like Planar, Al Qaeda (well, I heard of the other one), Pan,
Landing, Ramses II, as well as some I recognized such as Mason
Jones, Slicnaton, Remora and Yellow6. Up until the eleventh piece
its all fairly ok in terms of remixing. Everybody seems to be
emphasizing the ambient structures set forward on the original,
sometimes with a bigger role for a guitar, or for effects or
for the vocals, but it all makes a pretty decent listening. Not
great, not bad, not highly original. The James Duncan remix then
takes everything into a whole new territory, with a house based
remixed. Totally out of place, but perhaps therefore quite alright.
Declining Water, an off-shoot of Hood, has a nice piece for strings,
following that, Pan brings in drum machines again. Those three,
all at the end, make the right sort of wrong moves: they take
the original into a whole new area, which I believe to be the
best thing for a remix album. Attract a new audience to your
music. Throughout quite an alright compilation, quite pleasant
to listen. (FdW)
Address: http://www.silbermedia.com
CELER - IN ESCAPING LAKES (CD by Slow Flow
Records)
FABIO ORSI - WINTERREISE (CD by Slow Flow Records)
A new Japanese label, Slow Flow, gets ready to be part of the
already crowded field of ambient music, by choosing two non-Japanese
musicians to open the release schedule. The first is by Celer.
Only two weeks ago I Iearned that Danielle Baquet-Long died last
year and that basically all works that are released these days
under the name Celer are made by her and her husband Will Long.
Apparently its quite an archive as there seems to be lots of
things coming according to the myspace page. All of these works
were completed before she died and now are being released. According
to the press release "'In Escaping Lakes' is the sequel
to 'Cursory Asperses', previously released on Slow Flow"
- and a quick look at the website learns that there have been
a couple of CDR releases before these two 'real' CDs (although
the website is in need of an update). For their music Celer use
piano, strings, gong, tingshas, voice, electronics, hydrophone,
flute and while the cover mentions four different parts with
some great titles ("Australis A Buoyant Object, That Rests
And Moves In Such A Way When Recounting Futures, Don't Fail To
Mention Me"), there is only one track on the CD, that lasts
almost forty minutes (although there are clearly marks to make
them into separate tracks). Its hard to believe that they used
all these instruments - something I wondered about before. Its
a beautiful release - once again. Very spacious music, with long
sustaining sounds of (processed?) instruments. They glide majestically
along eachother, and over the course of this work, it seems that
is turning 'inside' towards itself. From nicely flowing at the
start to a more moody ending. This is the first time I discover
such as story like approach in their music (might of course be
my problem). An excellent release.
The second release is by Fabio Orsi, from Italy, of whom we encountered
music before on labels as Small Voices and Digitales Industries
(as well as some more, which I believe weren't all reviewed in
Vital Weekly), and here Orsi has 'Winterreise' (without a connection
to Schubert I think). Playing guitar, effects and old keyboards
on this six part work that lasts almost fifty minutes. Not mentioned
on the cover is the use of field recordings, which I think there
are several of them (people talking in a restaurant in the third
piece for instance). The press text (by Will Banquet of Celer)
mentions 'mythical symbolism' and 'impression' and surely there
is something to say to link it to the older art movements, but
perhaps the safest thing to say is that it sounds like ambient
music. Great ambient that is actually. Orsi does a really fine
job. The guitar never sounds like a guitar, but flows freely
among the hot bed of sound effects, and so do the old keyboards.
Music that transports the listener to a dream world of its/his
own. The six pieces do not necessarily go into eachother, but
each is a specific entity of its own; Part V for instance is
a much darker than the rest. Orsi's ambient music is something
that moves in traditional circles of what is called ambient music
but adds darker undercurrents to add something to the material
that is also his own. Not the biggest surprise, on both accounts
but both are quite nice. (FdW)
Address: http://slowflowrec.web.fc2.com/index.html
[POST-FOETUS] - THE FABRIC (CD by Mü-Nest)
Behind the quite strange name [Post-Foetus], you find L.A.-based
sound artist Will Wiesenfeld. The 20-year old composer already
has a background in classical music, a background he cleverly
uses on this present debut album titled "The fabric".
The album is a sonically warm experience combining sounds acoustic
instruments with gentle electronic explorations, neither getting
too mainstream or too demanding. Some track puts special weight
on the classical tradition with inclusions of cello in the case
of opening track "Migration" drawing associations towards
chamber music-traditions but with clicking beats added. Other
tracks put more strength in the contemporary electronic expressions
with IDM-rhythm textures and ambient-electronic soundscapes,
sometimes with funky samples as on the piece "All of the
world". Favorite moments comes with the beautiful clicks'n'cuts-tune
"Kiki", a piece so gentle that it could be used as
the lullaby for your new-born and the final non-rhythmic loop-based
closing title "Haruka" - a truly fascinating work balancing
between abstract sound-art and electronic pop. Highly recommended
debut! (NM)
Address: http://www.mu-nest.com/
FRANCIS DHOMONT - ETUDES POUR KAFKA (CD
by Empreintes Digitales)
DOMINIQUE BASSAL - UBIQUITE (DVD by Empreintes Digitales)
Its a bit unclear when Empreintes Digitales releases something
on CD and when on DVD (24 bit audiofiles, surround sound etc.)?
Why Dominique Bassal on DVD and Dhomont on CD? Two weeks ago
we came across Dhomont on a compilation (on DVD!) by the same
label and that works dealt with the work of Franz Kafka, just
like the works on 'Etudes Pour Kafka'. These three works predate
a longer work on Kafka. Dhomont already started in the late 1940s,
and since 1963 his works deals only with tapes, and no longer
scored music for instruments. He has won tons of awards. Ok that's
the history. On the CD we find 'Brief An Den Vater', which was
also on the 'ZKM: Trans_Canada' compilation (see Vital Weekly
717), so just two new pieces. All deal with the texts of Kafka,
although they are not always easily understood. The troubled
life however of Kafka is represented well in the music. The pieces
are well versed in the tradition of acousmatic music. Sounds
are processed through all sorts of computer techniques, which
we find en masse on albums by Empreintes Digitales - the rumble
and tumbling of sounds, that somehow always seem to remain distant.
Its never music that really grabs you, despite all the quality
this music no doubt has. Very academic and that always seems
to be a bit in the way of pure appreciation.
The music of Dominique Bassal is alike, yet also, at the same
time, a bit different. Apparently he has worked in the field
of popmusic, as an arranger, producer, studio manager 'where
he applied avant-garde techniques to the world of pop music'
(names please!), and later on returned to electro-acoustic music.
His four pieces are between ten and twenty minutes - which seems
to be the average length in this field of music. It seems to
me that his music is a bit more electronic, and that he uses
longer sustaining sounds at various time, and not the rumble/tumble
that is common in this music, except perhaps in 'Mont Des Borgnes'.
That makes this into a release that I actually seemed to enjoy
more than some (many perhaps?) of the releases of Empreintes
Digitales. Still, not entirely grabbing the listener as much
as I would love too, but , surely nice enough. Maybe I'm just
lacking the right speaker set up to fully enjoy the music, I
sometimes wonder. (FdW)
Address: http://www.empreintesdigitales.com
BRENDAN MURRAY/PERISPIRIT (split LP by
Semata Productions)
Its hardly a secret that I am a big fan of the work of Brendan
Murray, the US drone meister. Here he shares a record with Perispirit,
a duo of Ricardo Donoso and Luke Moldof. Their cassette 'Cynical
Overlaps' was reviewed in Vital Weekly 710. They use synths,
electronics and guitar. Like on that tape, Perispirit move along
lines of noise, ambient, electronically composed and experimental
music. At times loud and vicious, at other times leaving room
for improvised sounds on the guitar and sophisticated electronic
music. It reminded me of music from the 80s, when people from
the industrial scene moved towards the more academic music, while
maintaining the own fresh, unique sound. Some of those bands
had a free-jazz/rock background, such as P16.D4, P Children and
Illusion Of Safety. Perispirit continues that particular line
of interest, and bring us a fine piece of music. Brendan Murray
piece is called 'Birches And Marksman's Graves (voice and computer
#1)', and he uses the voice of Noell Dorsey. Unlike much of his
previous work his work here seems to be taken apart into separate
smaller pieces, all of which seems to be based around processed
voice material and sometimes the pure voice. These smaller pieces
flow into eachother, so perhaps its still to be seen as one long
piece. I must admit: this is not the strongest piece I ever from
Murray. Maybe it has to do with the source material? I am reminded
of some of the recent voice work of Komissar Hjuler/Mama Baer,
but Murray's music is certainly more complex than of the Germans.
Yet it also sounds a bit too easy in the field of computer processing,
like some simple studies made into a drone like piece. The nicest
thing is the fact that processed material and the raw sound material
flow very gently into eachother. But there was room, I think,
for some more in-depth rework. (FdW)
Address: http://www.semataproductions.com
CAPE FEAR - WINDS OF THE DEAD AIR (LP by
Sound On Probation)
Laurent Perrier has already quite a career behind his name. Under
a plethora of disguises, such as Zonk't, Pylone, Heal, his own
name, and in the past Eleve Model and a membership of Nox. That
latter band was a combination of industrial music and rock, and
somehow I must admit I never liked it that much. Following that
band, Perrier started a new project Cape Fear and as such he
released one record in 1998, which I am not sure I heard. Now
twelve years he's back with that name, which turns out to be
sampling, guitars and breakbeat rhythms. The guitars play riffs
that owe much to the world of metal. Odd record, I must say.
An unlikely marriage of breakbeat like rhythms, these metal riffs
and some nice cosmic lines on the synthesizer and sequencer.
Perrier mentions various links to old bands, like King Crimson,
Neurosis, This Heat, which I all don't really see, but I see
that it indeed shares the music of Chrome. Banging rhythms and
nasty guitars. Perhaps not entirely my cup of tea, this music,
but as I sometimes like Chrome too, this record is not bad. Its
one of those things that I enjoy on a very loose basis, but not
the kind of music to hear all day (well, is there an music you
would want all day then?). Not my most favorite Perrier project,
not a bad record either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soundonprobation.com
ERIC LUNDE/KOMMISSAR HJULER (LP by Psych
KG)
When Vital Weekly was called Vital, and printed on paper (1986-1995)
the name Eric Lunde appeared with some regular intervals, simply
because he was quite active releasing records and tapes. His
performance like approach to noise music, his elaborate packaging
which always raised more questions than it would give answers
made a big impact. And then he seemed gone and now he has returned.
I have no idea what he did in the years in between. His music
doesn't seem to have changed very much (I am still thinking wether
that's good or bad) and its still his trademark sound we find
here: eroded sound. Lunde uses cassettes, memo recorders and
cheap microhones to tape sounds and mix these. Played back into
a space - re-record, played back, re-record until quite a crude
sound appears. That's what he does here in his three tracks,
including a 'live site recording of two air 'separtion' tanks'.
Crude, very crude ambient music. Lunde takes the ideas of Alvin
Lucier's 'I'm Sitting In A Room' to the extreme, with very low
grade equipment and builds from the dirty sounds beautiful music.
Time to dig out the old stuff and play that again.
On the other side we find Kommissar Hjuler, without Mama Baer
this time. I tried to translate the liner notes from German in
Dutch, but I failed. It has something to do with scooter? We
hear some sort of (toy?) car sound, lots of rumble and a voice.
Much alike last week's tape of Hjuler, this seems to be another
example of highly personal audio poetry. Twenty minutes of this.
It certainly has a great charm indeed, but its significance somehow
eludes me here. Truely outsider music, that's for sure. (FdW)
Address: http://www.psych-kg.de
SONS OF ALPHA CENTAURI/A DEATH CINEMATIC
(split CDR by Simple Box Construction)
Too young to have bought 'Alpha Centauri' by Tangerine Dream,
I got it much later on from the sales bin - no doubt when all
the true fans bought it on CD and replaced the LP. I quite liked
some of those early Tangerine Dream albums, at one point that
is, but these days I don't play them too often. Sons Of Alpha
Centauri is, as far as I understood, a side project of Ambient
Visions, or rather the alter ego 'representing their experimental
synthesized work'. Its a four piece band with synthesizers, textures,
bass, samples, keyboards, atmospherics, percussion and noise.
They share a release here with A Death Cinematic, 'one man with
a single guitar, an amp and some effects'. Sons Of Alpha Centauri
have long track on offer, which is split into four different
sections. A Death Cinematic has two tracks. Although musically
they are not alike, there is one thing that seems to tie them
together. Both bands use a short of improvised means to produce
their music. Nothing wrong with that, but all three, lengthy,
pieces suffer from the same problem: they are without much direction.
The music is as is. Put down to tape, perhaps mixed a bit (in
the case of the Sons), but that's minor stuff. A Death Cinematic
doesn't do that, and plays his pieces on end, without any editing.
The music for him is mild noise, I'd say, a bit of heavy post
rock at times, and suggests atmosphere which it's not. The Sons
are in that respect more atmospheric, but also quite dark at
the same time. Their part was the one I enjoyed best. (FdW)
Address: http://www.simpleboxconstruction.com
GUTTA PERCHA - TUBE OVERTURE (CDR by The
Land Of)
The two brothers Brent and Ryan Hibbett, out of Illinois, are
behind Gutta Percha and 'Tube Overtures' is their debut - lovingly
packed in a wooden box. Apparently it all started with a series
'of voicemail messages containing pocket trumpet improvisations
on eighties-era television themes' (of which none sound familiar
to me). They added a whole bunch of sounds to that, found in
the immediate surrounding of their home: the ventilator, backyard
insect choirs, traffic sounds, television hum and all such like.
All of this is, I guess, taken to the computer and put together
into music. The release is with seventy minutes very long. I
was doing a lot of other small things at the same time, all along
enjoying the music. When it was over, I played it again, now
listening more closely and thinking what to write. Perhaps I
am a little less convinced now. The music is quite sparsely made,
with just a few sounds per track. Distant trumpet sounds - that
could be whistling any television tune as far as I'm concerned
- and drone like sounds in the background, some quite static,
sometimes more in a melodic vein. Bits of guitar I thought were
also part of it. True and well ambient music, and in that respect
this was all more interesting than some of the ambient music
that is build from a bunch of analogue/digital synthesizers,
but maybe in all its sparseness also a bit too sparse. Sometimes
the pieces could have been a bit shorter according to my feeling
and it would make the same story. Still quite a nice release
I think, that only has one problem: its all a bit long. (FdW)
Address: http://www.thelandof.org
NICK HENNIES - LINEAL (CDR by SRA Sounds)
The background of this release is pretty interesting: Nick Hennies
grandfather used to recite poems and stories and at the age of
15 he recorded them, purely for private family use. The cassette
was recently found by Hennies and transferred to the computer.
He uses them on this release, and adds snare drum, no-input mixer,
wine glass, ice cubes, guitar and piano. The first piece is all
instrumental and may act like an overture. It sounds the ice
cubes being computer-wise manipulated. The second, long, piece
has the stories and poems, with a beautiful 'old' American voice
and music. The music is sparse, but highly effective. The rumbling
of the snare drum, the singing of the wine glass (which sounds
like a train passing), the crackling of sounds, mild drones from
the no-input mixer and such like create a perfect backdrop for
these poems (of which I never heard, but then perhaps I am not
much of a literary guy anyway). Normally such spoken word releases
are not my cup of tea, but in the thirty minute piece, they are
presented with some distance, leaving room for some great music.
Excellent release, very intimate. (FdW)
Address: http://www.srasounds.com
POST MORTEM/FEVER SPOOR - OFF COLOUR (CDR
by Anima Mal Nata)
Jan-Kees Helms, in the late 80s/early 90s working as Post Mortem
(and a plethora of other names) and his own Lor Teeps, re-appeared
on the music scene early last year and since then has released
a couple of new music releases, under his own name. Expanding
now, he also resurrected his more noise based Post Mortem project
and hooks up with Marcel Herms, best known (in The Netherlands
perhaps) as a visual artist, but also as noise artist Fever Spoor.
Post Mortem's three tracks on this split release deal with traveling
over land, snow and sea. No information has been given on the
origins of the three Fever Spoor tracks. Its not really the noise
that is purely based on getting as many distortion as possible,
but surely has links to the noise world. Things crack under the
feet, in the snow, on water and inside the computer. Post Mortem's
pieces seem to be owing more to computers than Fever Spoor. There
are bits of time stretching, and throughout it has multiple layers
of sound, all equally mildly distorted and grainy. Fever Spoor's
'Green' and 'Red' the heaviest track of the lot, with the strongest
noise ties. For all six pieces I must say that they deal with
being radical manifestations of noise, rather than heavily based
in actually composing with the material at hand. That comes,
quite naturally I'd say, with the territory. Not a great release,
but surely ear damaging enough for the true noise heads. I'd
prefer if Helms would stick to his own name and game. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/animamalnata
KASPER VAN HOEK - FRANK 1 (CDR by Heilskabaal
Records)
KASPER VAN HOEK - FRANK 2 (CDR by Heilskabaal Records)
Things have been quiet from Kasper van Hoek for a while, both
his own music and his Heilskabaal Records label. It turns out
he is now doing his masters degree at the Frank Mohr Institute
for interactive media and environments in Groningen, The Netherlands.
On five separate CDR we will know what he's doing there. 'Frank
1' has four pieces, and three of them uses also source material
from one Micheal Dotolo and two with Hideki Kanno. One piece
is a pure solo piece. The first two pieces are based on live
recordings, the other two on field recordings. I think these
are the more interesting ones of the two. The opening piece (live)
starts out nice, but then stays a bit too much in the field of
improvisation, without too much tension. The second does have
that tension, mainly a noisy character. The pieces based on field
recordings have some extensive manipulation on the computer and
can meet with the best he did in this field, which is his 'Den
Haag/Groningen/Froombosch' (see Vital Weekly 615) release.
On 'Frank 2' we find two solo live recordings, both of them made
with a self-built instrument: a suitcase with guitar strings,
connected with screw terminals on one side and on the other side
some potentiometers and switches, which control a sampler in
Max/msp. The Groningen variation opens up and is shorter than
the Maastricht version. Both of these pieces are of course improvised.
In the first piece Van Hoek keeps things well under control and
offers a strong interplay with the sounds at hand. In Maastricht
(some twenty-five minutes) things went a bit out of hand and
the piece glides off in a pool of rough sound treatments and
a somewhat muddy sound. When Van Hoek has released all five 'Frank'
releases, there will be a best off release. From these two, I'd
say three and four of the first release, and the first one from
the second (that almost sounds like poetry). For the time being
available in an edition of 20 copies with silkscreened covers.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.heilskabaal.net
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON - AMYGDALA MANDALA
(CDR by Prime Cuts)
MICHEAL THOMAS JACKSON - PEOPLE IN SORROW (CDR by Prime Cuts)
BOTANICAL ISOTOPES: PHYLLOCEPHALA REFOLATED (CDR compilation
by Prime Cuts)
Upon hearing these releases by Micheal Thomas Jackson I was thinking
that it would be too easy to say its noise. Its music that is
indeed noise, such as the long 'Amygdala Mandala' on the release
with the same name, which is all about 'analog/digital feedback
generated loop and analog feedback processing', and which is
indeed quite a heavy and (too) long beast. But as it is made
clear in the other two pieces, Jackson does other things too,
which are much softer, but in each of these three pieces the
process is important. Jackson takes his time to alter in a highly
minimal way his music, making the slightest changes in his sound
and develop them, thus making the process in his music audible.
Like said the long title piece is too long for my taste, but
it isn't helped that I am not the biggest lover of noise music.
The people in sorrow mentioned in the title of his other new
release are first the people who suffered from the Tsunami in
2005 and those from the hurricane Katrina, also in 2005. In both
works Jackson uses the guitar. Once along with tapes and electronics
and once with objects, damaged CD and electronics. The guitar
plays some multi-toned/multi-layered hectic nervous play on all
the strings and on top effects are used to add more hurricane
like effects. An endless cascading of sounds, capturing the mood
of the tragic events quite well. The Katrina piece, called 'Gulf
Ghosts' is with forty-five minutes the longest but not the best.
It has a rather improvised mood and bounces off the rails. 'From
The Legend Of Kao Kao' is more concise and the better of the
two. In both pieces Jackson uses his notion of process music
quite well, but some editing would be necessary.
Jackson, in case you don't know, has been active in the world
of experimental music since the 80s with his own label and his
own music, but also actively involved with 'the network'. For
his compilation he send out a work he did in 2005 to twelve different
artists, all in a separate pieces, to be remixed. Its maybe 'just'
a remix project, as he says on the cover (which on all three
accounts have room for improvement), but it was he wish that
the individual sounds would be used by the others. I don't believe
I heard the original, which was made with analog synthesizers,
a five heart monitor, a turntable, acoustic feedback, q bugle,
digital processing and sundry field recordings. Lots of new names
are to be discovered in this lot (just how many experimental
musicians are there in this world, I sometimes wonder?), such
as Jabberwocky, Aaron Bachelder, The Syntax Of Things, Thee Embroynic
Crusader, Sambson, The Days Of Perky Pat but also Cheapmachines,
Mental Anguish (another long time collaborator from the 80s)
and Thomas Dimuzio. As said, I don't know the original, so its
not easy to judge the remixes. For all I know this could also
be a compilation of electronic music. Lots of analogue synthesizers,
digital processing, cut ups and such like. Some sounds seem to
return, which may count for a remix project indeed, but each
one seems to be taking a different approach to a limited set
of sounds. The results are quite good, and some really good,
such as the speeding sounds of Dimuzio, the suppressed silence
of Cheapmachines and The Days Of Perky Pat or the psychedelics
of Mental Anguish. A nice set of music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.microearth.com/jackson
ANDREW PERRY & DEAD WOOD - THE SWEETEST
MEAT (CDR by Striate Cortex)
NEW HORIZONS FROM THE DISTANT VOID (CDR compilation by Striate
Cortex)
Adam Baker is best known as the man behind Dead Wood and his
Dirty Demos label who teams up here with Andrew Perry, who is
also a member of Gish. No information is given as to what and
why for this release, but let's assume they spend some time together
recording this release in a room. I imagine there are guitars,
one for each player, a whole bunch of electronic devices to feed
those sounds through. These boys play drone music, like so many
others. A bit dirty and lo-fi, but not too much, so it stays
on the nice side. E-bowed tones mostly, a low grade effects.
In 'The Shove' things are the most noisiest and as far as I'm
concerned could have been much shorter. Not a great release,
but decent enough.
The other new release on Striate Cortex is a compilation of various
artists. Of course Sindre Bjerga, main stay of the label, is
present, either with his duo with Iversen, as part of Dictaphonic
Youth and a collaboration with No Context. Nine tracks here in
total, including The Good Time Guys (inc Andrew Perry once more,
in a horrible block of noise), Culver (with a lo-fi drone piece).
Very Rich Lexicon (with obscured objects thrown around), an interesting
acoustic improvisation by Nils Rostad, the somewhat obscured
improvisations of Dictaphonic Youth and noise drones of Gish.
The best tracks are by Bjerga/Iversen, Dead Wood and No Context
with Sindre Bjerga. These three use drone like sounds, but gentle
and in improvised music territory. Quite a mixed bunch here and
sadly not the greatest selection of pieces. (FdW)
Address: http://www.striatecortex.co.uk
New MP3 releases
1. From: michaela <michaela.treffil@patpongrecords.com>
qbik - ROBOTS CRY TOO (digital album by
patpong records)
A typical 'qbik' production: disturbing, not from this world
and absolutely electrical. The Romanian artist 'qbik' presents
on his 5th album one more time a part of his electric universe.
With his extravagantly sound and his spirit, he will at last
create a new genre of music. You got the impression, that these
tracks are not composed by a man, but more likely by an android
or a robot. The source of inspiration of his unusually compositions
are, on his own words, his deep-rooted believing in God, conciliates
very special emotions in his universe of music. That sounds abstract
like his music rather you got the impression to listen to a Perry
Rhodan roman set to music. 'qbik' lives in a small village near
Resita in the west of Romania, far away of any metropolis with
its performances, concerts and clubs. At this point of view it's
astonishing or better: evident why his tracks sounded so extraordinary.
On the one side peaceful and melancholic, but on the other side
extraterrestrial and bleak. All in all this is a very exciting
production from a very special artist. Address:< http://patpongrecords.com/qbik_robots_cry_too_prm.html"
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