KALLABRIS – SCHÖN GEHT ANDERS (CD by Auf Abwegen) *
MARGRIET KICKS-ASS – THE EQUATOR UPSIDE DOWN (CD, private) *
MARGRIET KICKS-ASS – DELAY OF THE BIG BANG (CDR, private) *
SLEAZE ART – INFRA-BLAST (CD by Sleaze Art) *
HOWARD STELZER – HOW TO (CD by Phage Tapes) *
MICHEL BANABILA – TAPU SAMPLER 2016 (2CD by Tapu Records) *
MARC BARON – CARNETS (LP by Glistening Examples)
BEN GWILLIAM – VESTIBÜL (CDR by Glistening Examples) *
RICHARD FRANCIS – COMBINATIONS 2 (CDR by Glistening Examples) *
BHAAVITAAH BHUUTASTHAH – REMEMBERING IN THE COSMIC MANIFESTATION (LP by Le Souffleur)
SAJJRA – THE SUN REMAINS THE SAME (LP by Aloardi)
JOE EVANS – ELEMENTAL STATES (CDR by Spectropol Records) *
TYLER DAMON – SOFTENED SKULL (CDR by Yoke) *
TYLER DAMON & DARIN GRAY – ONINBO (CDR by Yoke) *
TYLER DAMON & DARIN GRAY – FORFOUR (CDR by Yoke) *
ENZO MINARELLI – VOICE STUDIES 22 (cassette by My Dance The Skull)
ADAM BOHMAN – VOICE STUDIES 21 (cassette by My Dance The Skull)
ACCHIAPPASHPIRT – VOICE STUDIES 23 (cassette by My Dance The Skull)
ARVO ZYLO – SEQUENCER WORKS VOLUME TWO (cassette by Rainbow Bridge Recordings,
Forever Escpaing Boredom, C.I.P. and No Part Of It)
KALLABRIS – SCHÖN GEHT ANDERS (CD by Auf Abwegen)
Late 80s/early 90s I was a big fan of German’s Cranioclast. I really enjoyed their
electronic music, which was both ambient and industrial, but seemed to avoid many
clichés. But part of their appeal was also the mystery of it all; no band members
known by their real name, beautiful covers showing a love for design and photography.
It was, very German, a true Gesamtkunstwerk. In their slipstream there was also a
band named Kallabris, or maybe one-man project, but as well covered with a lot of
mystery. It seemed to be a band with an emphasis towards acoustic instruments, even
when they are treated with electronic means. Over the past thirty years they have
never released a lot of work, but on the plus side: Kallabris plays also live and
is perhaps less of an enigma (these days at least). They are always in for something
odd, such as the twenty-nine pieces on ‘Schön Geht Anders’, which shortest piece
is merely seven seconds and the longest close to six minutes. The press release is
lovingly obscure: “Reductionist on their acoustic surface, constructivist in their
compositional core, the tracks themselves and in their sequence point to a
sociological base: a sociology of sound or a sound sociology driven by the rough
necessities of political acoustics”, but it’s an album of ‘musical positivism’,
which I totally agree with. The sampler works overtime here, taking all sorts of
bits and pieces together, and Kallabris crafts together some might primitive pieces
of rhythmic music. A touch of melody is never far away. That is to say this is not
some happy-clappy music; this is some true Kallabris music; still a bit spooky and
dark from time to time, such as in ‘Flöz Mausegatt’ (I have no idea what some of
these titles mean, but maybe my knowledge of the German language is too limited).
Likewise we are kept in the dark about the nature of the way this was made. The
roots might very well somewhere in the use of acoustic sound sources (not necessarily
instruments, also objects), but these are sampled and played around with lots of
sound effects. In some cases, the every short pieces (those between ten and twenty
seconds) perhaps even just a bit of effects and not much else, but in the longer
pieces it balances out with melody, rhythm, compositions and atmospheres. Another
example of pure mystifying beauty! (FdW)
Address: http://www.aufabwegen.com
MARGRIET KICKS-ASS – THE EQUATOR UPSIDE DOWN (CD, private)
MARGRIET KICKS-ASS – DELAY OF THE BIG BANG (CDR, private)
For whatever reason I have Margriet Kicks-Ass lumped in with visual artists who
deal with ‘machine art’, maybe the likes of Survival Research Laboratories or the
Staalplaat SoundSystem. Take a look at her website and you what I mean. She creates
installations in which musical notions such as composition is perhaps less relevant.
But a few weeks ago I saw one of her concerts, in a concert space, with a machine
of her own making, which involved a bunch of synthesizers, both fancy shiny new ones,
but also something that resembled circuit bending. She called this instrument the
‘soundcase’, as everything was inside a box. I was quite surprised by her more musique
concrete approach to sound, with sounds bouncing around. It worked really well, save
for the tacky synth sounds. So with that in mind I listened to these two released.
‘The Equator Upside Down’ is part of a soundsculpture, which was called “Druppel Op
een Gloeiende Plaat” – hard to translate this Dutch expression, which literally means
‘Drops on a hot plate’, so it involves water drops falling on boiling hot metal plates,
which give the idea of small explosions. These drops sound longer, and held up in
some sort of granulating process, come in a different speeds, reversed and all those
tricks you find in the musique concrete manual. Not entirely unlike Asmus Tietchens
and his ‘Hydrophonie’ works, but with Margriet Kicks-Ass the whole fluid character of
the music is more present; not a small river, but at times a mighty stream (steam might
be a better word); like said, this owes a lot to the world of musique concrete, but
Kicks-Ass cleverly side-steps anything that makes this tedious or pretentious. She
keeps everything highly vibrant and with certain refined naivety. That’s how we like
these things best!
‘Delay Of The Big Bang’ is slightly older and this is the release, which Margriet
Kicks-Ass did with the ‘soundcase’, consisting of two live recordings she did earlier
this year in France. Here we find fifty-six minutes of some heavy noise. It doesn’t
resemble the ‘soundcase’ I experienced three weeks ago, which was quite diverse and
ranged from ambient to noise, while the two pieces on this release show very much an
interest in working with pure noise. The circuits are bend beyond believe, and fed
through a closed system of feedback. It is all a bit on the heavy side and lacks the
recent refinement she did with the soundcase. I guess if noise is your prime moving
music scene in life than you’ll find this of great pleasure, but I must admit that
maybe I felt a bit spoilt after the concert, but then this wasn’t the concert souvenir
I expected.
Address: http://margrietkicks-ass.bandcamp.com/releases
SLEAZE ART – INFRA-BLAST (CD by Sleaze Art)
Hold on. Didn’t I already review something called ‘Infra’ by Sleaze Art, the quartet of
bass-players under the guidance of Kasper T. Toeplitz, along with Eryck Abecassis,
Frederick Galiay and Jb Hanak? Yes, I did, in Vital Weekly 995. This is however another
version, called ‘Infra-blast’. Back then I wrote: “at seventy minutes this is also quite
a long work and not one that one easily digests. Heavy bass drones, loud bass noise,
sounding almost like the sound of plane engine from time to time, the work takes quite
some time to develop. Perhaps a bit too much time I would think”. This new work is along
similar lines; very much in the low end of the sound spectrum (what else would you expect
from four bass players?), but it is only twenty-nine minutes long. That is, compared to
the first recorded version of ‘Infra’ quite a blast. Much of this piece, about two thirds
this is quite low rumbling, but slowly works its way in noise land, with all sorts of bass
treatments, creating a varied myriad of noise elements. It then cuts out for about eight
minutes and becomes much softer, but stays dramatic. There are a few thumps on the bass
and crackles (maybe electronic residue when the basses are shut down). In the last
five minutes everything works up into a might crescendo, of the well-known Merzbowian
proportions. Yes, this is something I prefer over a seventy-minute version indeed. Short
and very much to the point. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sleazeart.com/sleazeart
HOWARD STELZER – HOW TO (CD by Phage Tapes)
By now you should know that Howard Stelzer is a man who loves cassettes. Not necessarily
those used for the dissemination of his music, as I believe he prefers CDs; but in the
process of acquiring sounds, making field recordings, and for playing back these sounds
in unusual places, taping them again and whatever other possibilities the medium has to
offer. These days there seems, thank god, more interest in his work, with a previous CD
by Dokuro and a forthcoming one by Monotype Records. On this new album he kicks off with
‘Probably Not’, in which we find ourselves inside a turbine hall and there is a full-on
overload on the cassettes of noise. Ah noise. Is Howard Stelzer a noise artist? Yes,
he surely is. But he’s not the kind of noise musician whose primary interest it is to
let the noise rattle on and on. Stelzer uses lot of loud sounds, noisy textures but it
is always about the composition that he wants to create, and not about having some sound
rattle about. Its never easy to say what he recorded (not that it really matters either),
walking about in large empty spaces, dogs barking in a park or indeed motors in turbine
halls. Stelzer knows how to play around with these sounds and create something that is
challenging to hear, full of dynamics, with great care taking of the very high end and
the very low end of the sounds, which is also something others never seem to do right.
I am sure that much of this music is completed using a computer, allowing Stelzer to
make all sorts of considerations for his compositions but leaving the quality of the
cassettes as they are: raw. ‘How To’ is another damn fine work of refined brutal
beauty. (FdW)
Address: http://phagetapes.blogspot.com
MICHEL BANABILA – TAPU SAMPLER 2016 (2CD by Tapu Records)
It is a bit unclear I got this because Michel Banabila wanted me to write a review of
this, or just to hear it. In these economic hard times it becomes increasingly difficult
to run a proper label, one that actually gets stuff pressed on black plates or shiny
discs (and yes, I don’t think vinyl is the hot seller either, but I might be the ever
pessimist). This means that Banabila has to put an end to his Tapu Records label and
will only exist in the digital domain (see also the announcement at the end of this week’s
issue for a great, new and ‘pay as you want’ download). As a farewell there is this double
CD, a kind of best of from Tapu Records, showcasing Banabila’s many musical interests.
Ever since he released his first LP, ‘Marilli’, in 1983, he is a on a constant exploration
of musical textures: ambient, ethnic, electronic, noise. To call him a ‘fourth world’
musician, as I did on more than a few occasions is not correct. I have reviewed some of
his work, but by far not all. So maybe I am the intended target audience of this ‘Tapu
Sampler’, a double CD compilation of works from 2005 to 2015, which were already released
by Tapu Records, Michel’s own label, named after his cat. I reviewed some of these,
such as his works with Machinefabriek and Oene van Geel. Everything that Banabila does
is part of this; there is wild drumming, beautiful serene and intimate textures, modular
synthesizers, the trumpet of Eric Vloeimans, film soundtrack like music and all of that;
it is all part of this 140-minute collection. All right, one could argue that a double
CD with all new music would also have been a fitting end but for all those people, who
are to discover Banabila’s music later, this is a treasure trove of Banabila’s musical
development in the last ten years. (FdW)
Address: http://banabila.bandcamp.com/
MARC BARON – CARNETS (LP by Glistening Examples)
BEN GWILLIAM – VESTIBÜL (CDR by Glistening Examples)
RICHARD FRANCIS – COMBINATIONS 2 (CDR by Glistening Examples)
Three new releases by Jason Lescalleet’s Glistening Labs label, and the first one is by
Marc Baron. I reviewed music of his before, ‘Une Fois, Chaque Fois’ in Vital Weekly 692,
and a release by his duo Narthex (with Loic Blairon, Vital Weekly 684). Seeing that his
releases as by labels such as Potlatch and Cathnor, and that he played saxophone on these,
that Baron is from the world of improvised music. However if one doesn’t know this, and
one plays his ‘Carnets’ record, one could get an entirely different impression. Both
sides may have one piece, but also it might be more than one; the cover is not clear
about that (and looking at the transparent vinyl it is not easy). The music is, me thinks
(again: nothing on the cover about that), all about using old, analogue recording
techniques, a pair of scissors cutting up tapes and treating acoustic sound sources with
these techniques: musique concrete to be precise. On the first side this may, from time
to time, the slowed down rustling of paper, loudly amplified but never noisy, whereas
on the other side the music has a more electronic feel. These might be ancient sound
generators; oscillators and what have you, turned (and tuned!) into music. Both of
these pieces (or maybe: all of these pieces; by the time I played the record for the
fourth time I was convinced there are various pieces per side) have quite a crude
character, which I enjoyed very much. It’s never brutal for the sake of being brutal,
but just to present something that is great to hear. This is one totally captivating
record. It combines all those things that I think is great: electro-acoustic sound
treatments, musique concrete, noise, composition and throughout enjoyable experiments.
This has nothing to do with whatever else I may have heard from him before. Record of
the week, should I have such a thing.
On CDR we find a name we don’t see a lot in these pages (anymore?): Ben Gwilliam.
Maybe because he is not so much into releasing material, or, and that’s more likely,
because much of his work deals with installations, film and video. In his discography
we find an excellent collaborative work with Jason Zeh, as well as works with Helmut
Lemke and Lee Patterson. Gwilliam, very much like, Zeh, is someone who likes to work
with old and analogue techniques, mostly from the work of tape; either cassette or
reel-to-reel, whatever is available. Early 2011 he worked right around the corner of
Vital Weekly, but across the border, at the studios of NurNichtNur in Kleve on what
has now become ‘Vestibül’, which is the German word for ‘lobby’. This piece was
originally intended as a series of short works, and Gwilliam uses a lot of old tape
machines; it was mixed in parts, but in the end this is just one long piece, of forty-
five minutes. If you listen closely you see that this is indeed various pieces. Gwilliam
uses loops of sound and throughout there is a strange, mechanical feel to the music;
like if we are listening to not just some loops of sound, but also to the motors of the
machines playing these tape loops. Gwilliam’s music is very minimal when it comes to
development, mainly finding changes with the equalization of the sounds used. Around
the thirty-minute break a piece with the sound of old vinyl skipping is started, which
I must admit didn’t work that well for me. That was however the only weak link in this
forty-five minute piece of work. For the rest the somewhat dark textures of motorized
sound, amplified hum and crackle work really well. Gwilliam created some intense sound
textures.
Just like Gwilliam, Richard Francis was also once part of the residency projects
Brombron, in which people work together. In those days Francis was much more into the
world of laptops and digital sound processing, but when I met him again in 2012 he
was already (early I guess) into using a small modular synthesizer set-up. He was
traveling from place to place and recording with his mobile set-up, perhaps adding
instruments and sounds as he found them; one of these places is Worm, in Rotterdam,
these days the guest of the CEM studios, with a beautiful ancient synth set-up. So
all of that in combination with each other. Richard Francis might not be someone whose
name is easily recognized these days, but before working under his own name he worked
as Eso Steel and ran the CMR and 20city labels. These eight pieces here have little
to do with the old Eso Steel sound, but very delicate modular poems. All of these
relatively short, which is a pity. The album clocks in at twenty-seven minutes,
which prompted me to play the whole album again, straight away. Francis’ pieces are
lovingly minimal. He sets a few sounds in motion and just let’s these intertwine with
each other. Sometimes it cuts out quite abruptly, but that adds to the surprise of
this all. When you play this softly there is an excellent ambient to feel it, and if
you decide to turn up the volume a bit more, things start to pleasantly buzz and ring,
becoming perhaps all a bit vaguely more industrial. This is an excellent release with
only one shortcoming: it’s way too short. I really wouldn’t have minded to have fifty
minutes of this!
It is interesting to see the similarities between all three of these releases,
sharing a similar aesthetic to the use of hiss, white noise and crackling sound,
and both of these composers doing so with their own means. (FdW)
Address: http://glisteningexamples.bandcamp.com/
BHAAVITAAH BHUUTASTHAH – REMEMBERING IN THE COSMIC MANIFESTATION (LP by Le Souffleur)
It has been quiet around Raymond Dijkstra, although most likely he was active but
much of what he does moves outside of our scope, being highly limited releases on vinyl,
between two and five copies (this seems an usual intro these days when I write about
him; I used something similar in Vital Weekly 972 when I reviewed his previous record).
Dijkstra has released a lot of LPs in the past years, solo as well as with Astra, a
duo with Timo van Luijk and with La Poupee Vivante with Timo van Luijk, together with
Arlette Aubin and Frederique Bruyas or with the latter as Nivriti Marga. Now it’s
time for yet another new alter ego, Bhaavitaah Bhuutasthah – and I have no idea how
to pronounce that. Dijkstra, who calls himself Le Ray here (so really two alter-egos
really), plays Moog IIIp, mellotron and ‘percüs’ and with one side called ‘Remembering
In The Cosmic Manifestation’ and the other ‘Kosmische Vernichtung’, one could,
actually quite rightly, think, mister Dijkstra has gone down the hippie trail. While
I haven’t cracked the complete cosmic egg, I think especially the music of Popol Vuh
is of particular inspiration here. I could wait with writing about this album, until
our in-house expert on Popol Vuh (our very own Dolf Mulder), drops by and ask for his
expert opinion, but over the years I heard a bit myself, and the percussive sounds of
Bhaavitaah Bhuutasthah (mainly bongos or congas) are coupled with some very interesting
synthesizer music come quite close in terms of inspiration. In the second part of
‘Kosmische Vernichtung’ there is no percussion, but clusters of synthesized sounds
stabbed together. In the other three pieces (each title has two parts), Dijkstra has
a more cosmic approach with his part abstract synthesizer parts and part melodic bits,
along with the rolling percussion. In the first part of ‘Kosmische Vernichtung’, this
is all quite orchestral, while ‘Remembering In The Cosmic Manifestation’ is a somewhat
more open piece of music with Dijkstra spacing notes on his synthesizer, set against
a drone on another synth and rolling around percussion. All of this is actually quite
rough in terms of recording and production. No easy bouncing arpeggios in this cosmos,
but rusty space ships on a dark psychedelic trip. More like Popol Vuh indeed in the
early years than Tangerine Dream, if you get my drift. I enjoyed this shift in musical
direction a lot. I have no idea if Dijkstra is planning to keep this going for a
while; maybe a film maker should jump in and use this as a soundtrack and maybe we
see Dijkstra’s career take off in a similar was mister Fricke’s? That would be
awesome. (FdW)
Address: http://www.le-souffleur.nl/
SAJJRA – THE SUN REMAINS THE SAME (LP by Aloardi)
Maybe there is a Led Zeppelin connection in here that somehow eludes me; I am not a
Zep fan at all. Behind Sajjar hails Chrs Galarreta, who is from Peru, but these days
lives in The Hague in The Netherlands. He occasionally works with Janneke van der
Putten. Depending on whom he works with and as which guise he offers quite a different
set of musical interests. Back in Vital Weekly 955 I reviewed his self-titled release
as Sajjra, which might be what we could call his ‘pop’ project. He plays here guitar,
effects, voice, sampler and sequences. There are three songs on the first side, while
the other side has one long piece. There is quite some difference in these pieces.
The three on the first side range from orchestral loops in the second half ‘Inocento
Tortura’ at the end and demented noise pop in ‘Aurora’ of the first half of the
‘Inocento Tortura’. In ‘Metamorfosis’, the opening piece we are introduced properly,
via some fast metal-like rhythm. It’s quite all right this music, but that second half
of ‘Inocento Tortura’ I really enjoyed; on the other side we have the very minimalist
‘The Sound Remains The Same’ (small difference of course), which is alike those
orchestral loops, but now entirely played on a guitar, which sustains quite endlessly
along with some loops pushed towards the back. This is some form, perhaps, of ambient/
drone metal, heavily influenced by late 19th century classical music slowed down to
16rpm. This side has some excellent slow building tension span over the course of
these twenty or so minutes. It crawls under your skin, especially if you turn up the
volume quite a bit. Metal might not be part of my daily digest but when it comes
like this I am all ears. (FdW)
Address: http://sajjra.net
JOE EVANS – ELEMENTAL STATES (CDR by Spectropol Records)
You may know Joe Evans from his previous releases (see Vital Weekly 750, 837 and 940)
or his own label Runningonair. He is what we consider to be a computer musician,
thinking about microtonalism, intervals based on prime numbers and such things, which,
to be honest, is always a little over my head. Here he combines these interests with
the four classical elements (water, fire, earth, air) with the four states of matter
(solid, liquid, gas and plasma), but also combines ether with virtual, so five pieces
in total, all around ten and half minute. In each of these pieces Evans explores these
intervals and prime numbers, and in four of these, the conventional elements and
states of matter, this is all done with percussive sounds. The sound, very vaguely
sounding like gamelan instruments or wind chimes and in both cases one could easily
think they are recorded somewhere outside. There is the far away sound of what seems
to be fire crackling or cars passing at quite some distance from the microphone.
The difference in these four pieces lie within the pitches used; for instance in
‘Earth 2 Gold’ it is all quite low, whereas in ‘Water 5 Liquid’ it has this somewhat
watery effect. Maybe it’s the nature of the field recordings added to these
percussive sounds, but they seem to give away some of the piece. The mystery is
explained a bit too much I think. In ‘Ether 11 Virtual’ it is not about percussive
sounds (or perhaps it is, but then we no longer recognize it), but a heavily processed
kind of music, in which no original sound is to be traced back to its roots. It’s
dark, drone like and ambient – but that can also be said about the four other pieces.
The music is produced very well, with a lot of heavy low side, which makes this even
at a low volume quite a release that is very much ‘present’. Not really a surprising
release in terms of something new, but of a consistent high quality. (FdW)
Address: http://spectropol.com
TYLER DAMON – SOFTENED SKULL (CDR by Yoke)
TYLER DAMON & DARIN GRAY – ONINBO (CDR by Yoke)
TYLER DAMON & DARIN GRAY – FORFOUR (CDR by Yoke)
It’s safe to say that Yoke is the label run by Tyler Damon, as he is present on all
three of these recordings. Damon is a drummer/percussionist lives in Bloomington,
Indiana and has two duo’s, one with Tashi Dorji and with Darin Gray (more on that
one later) and has played with bands as Open Sex and Lech, but also made his marks
within the world of improvisation, with the Mars Williams Quartet, Ken Vandermark
and others. Auris Apothecary and Magnetic South, at which latter headquarters this
was recorded at April 6th, 2014, previously released the first disc as a cassette.
Quite a short one, clocking in at eighteen minutes, but it is a fine showcase of
what Tyler Damon does when playing the drums and percussion. Using bows and objects
to scrape cymbals and drum heads, Damon also uses more conventional sticks to play
the drums. He likes to play these in a very repetitive way, or rather: minimally.
In ‘To The Evening Star’ he plays the skins with sticks and the variation is in the
gradual shift over the skins of his various instruments. This is a short but powerful
introduction, creating enough buzz to get to the next one.
The other two are discs of works he recorded with Darin Gray, who plays electric
bass and percussion on both of these recordings. You might know him from bands like
Dazzling Killmen and Brise-Glace, Yona-Kit, You Fantastic!, Sad Lewis, Grand Ulena,
and On Fillmore or improvisation music with Jim O’Rourke, KK Null, Cheer-Accident,
Loren Mazzacane Connors and others. There are not a lot of differences between both
discs. ‘Oninbo’ is shorter, clocking in at less than thirty minutes and has six
pieces, while ‘Forfour’ is just one piece, just over thirty-eight minutes. The latter
is a slow builder, as within the first ten minutes there is not a lot happening.
Beyond that there are a few concentrated blocks of events, which occasionally bang
on for quite some time. Maybe the emphasis here lies more on the percussion side,
and less on the bass? Especially when the volume goes up, as does the intensity of
it all, it becomes more percussion heavy, whereas if the volume goes down, Gray
picks up a bow and plays the strings of his bass with that. On ‘Oninbo’ the balance
between percussion/drums and bass is more in balance it seems, with Gray playing
more free jazz material on his bass from time to time. Maybe it’s because these
pieces are shorter that it all sounds lesser of a free improvisation blast as the
‘Fourfour’ occasionally does. Maybe there is more concentration into the shorter
span of a piece? They sure know how to rock in these pieces, whereas the meander
freely over a wide rocky plain in ‘Forfour’. I am not sure if I like one over the
other. They both sounds actually pretty much like exciting improvised music.
Shorter or longer: it really doesn’t seem to make a difference. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tylerdamon.com/yoke/
ENZO MINARELLI – VOICE STUDIES 22 (cassette by My Dance The Skull)
ADAM BOHMAN – VOICE STUDIES 21 (cassette by My Dance The Skull)
ACCHIAPPASHPIRT – VOICE STUDIES 23 (cassette by My Dance The Skull)
While I am hardly the expert on the subject of sound poetry, I do recognize the
name Enzo Minarelli from my formative years in the world of cassettes. Somehow
his work seemed to exist in a sort of parallel universe, that of sound art,
voice poetry and mail art, which was for the noise head that I was at that time,
perhaps not always accessible. Did I hear his music? Probably I did, when it
crossed roads with my world, most likely via such labels as Trax. Minarelli,
already active since the early 70s, didn’t release many records, but nevertheless
an earlier release was reviewed in these pages: ‘Fame’ was reviewed in Vital
Weekly 850. That was a recent work, whereas on ‘Voice Studies 22’ he has eleven
pieces from his earliest work, 1974 to 1984. It starts out with a piece from
1979, ‘Communicazione Telefonica’, in which Minarelli keeps repeating his name
and a few other things, down a telephone line, and which seem to have been
recorded at the other end with a cheap microphone against the receiver. It
has a very crude sound, but it says a few things about Minarelli’s work. The
repeating of phrases and words; sometimes just sounds or vocalizations. The
recording quality is not always great. When he works at the Italian radio
studios the sound is better, and he uses multi track equipment as well as
some extra sounds from radio and vinyl. I prefer here the shorter pieces on
the second side, as they had a bit more variation to it. Here Minarelli plays
around with reel-to-reel recorders, slowing down his voice as well as allowing
other sounds next to his voice, but which may ‘body generated’ (rubbing the
microphone up and down his body for instance), along with his usual voice work,
minimal as it is. The longer pieces on the first side are in that respect
perhaps a bit too long. There is however a fascinating quality within this.
Mysteriously lo-fi. Perfect cassette music.
Adam Bohman, once a member of Morphogenesis and still part of the Bohman
Brothers, is, besides a gifted improviser, also someone who is always recording
cassettes with his spoken word. Maybe it has something to with his slight
speech impediment (stutter), which makes this easily recognizable. Here has
two spoken word pieces, in which on one side he recites a bit from ‘Junky’
(the Burroughs book), a text from Hornby model railways and a text on Dvorak’s
‘Dumky Trio’ – the liner notes to the music, but he also bits of the music.
On the other side more from ‘Junky’, as well as novels by John LeCarre, Clifford
D. Simak, Frederick Pohl and an Alpine garden society magazine. This side also
has three homemade prepared stringed instruments. The stutter is not very present;
maybe it is a way of controlling it: just record it! This is not something you
should hear while listening closely to it; the text is not here to be understood,
I think, but rather serves as textures, intertwining with each other. And sometimes
there is context, a reference or a cut-up. You hear an endless stream of words,
sometimes solo and sometimes layered together, three or four voices at the same
time. It is all perhaps on the long side, in terms of duration. Ten minutes of
each piece would have made the idea perfectly clear.
Voices stretched out to the world of improvised music are what we get on the
release by Acchiapoashpirt, a duo of Jonida Prifti (vocals, vocoders, piano) and
SDT (kaosspads, some vocals, human beatbox). I never heard of this duo. Their
music seems to be generated most freely. A pair of microphones are stuck up, and
there are two people making sounds into those microphone, and sometimes there is
a bang on the piano, or some notes being played. Also sometimes these voice are
fed through a vocoder or kaoss pad – but it doesn’t get the same captivating
sound as Minarelli has with his lo-fi methods or Bohman with his simple, direct
way of cutting up sound. This all sounded like outsider music, or perhaps poesie-
brut (you don’t have to call it …. if the term shocks you), but it is somehow
all a bit lost on me. Most of the times it sounded like starts of songs, ideas
for songs, try-out of equipment and such like, and sometimes there was indeed
(perhaps!) a sort of poetic content to be detected around this. I can hear
what they want, but I guess this is not so much my cup of tea. File under:
electronic free-freak folk? (FdW)
Address: http://www.mydancetheskull.com/
ARVO ZYLO – SEQUENCER WORKS VOLUME TWO (cassette by Rainbow Bridge Recordings,
Forever Escpaing Boredom, C.I.P. and No Part Of It)
More music by Arvo Zylo, following earlier releases (Vital Weekly 819 and 965),
and this time is a venture of four labels working together. The recordings were
already made between 2000 and 2003, using a Yamaha RM1X sequencer in a period of
extreme insomnia, while living in a closet or crawl space. Much of the material
was recorded to a four-track machine, or simply direct to tape, and each of the
pieces is called ‘Fuck’, 01, 02 etc. His earlier releases, the ones that made
it to these pages, showed an interest in the world loud noise, but that is not
something we have on this tape. Whatever is sampled or sequenced here is from
the world of orchestras; not really my kind of world and half the time I have
no idea if I am hearing a bunch of pre-set samples, or something that Arvo Zyla
actually plays. It’s a full-on sound, with lots of instrumental parts, but
nothing much that makes sense in terms of composition. It seems as if Arvo Zyla
wanted to record a bunch of keyboard sounds together with bombastic percussive
sounds, and at that he succeeded pretty well. I have no idea what to make of
this really. Is it good? Or is it bad? That is very hard to tell I think. Some
of this I thought was quite all right, especially when it is all a bit more
coherent, such as… hold on… well, one of those pieces on side B, and some of
this is really tedious and boring. It is quite an endurance test to sit this
all the way through in one go. It is perhaps either too much outsider for me,
or the idea is this is all a test anyway. It left me a bit clueless.
I am just giving the address of the label that mailed this to me. (FdW)
Address: http://nopartofit.blogspot.com