KRISHNA — ASCEND TO NOTHING (CD by Silken Tofu) *
CONSTERDINE — ELECTRONIC ORGANISM (CD by Sunshine Heart Records) *
THE INTERNATIONAL NOTHING (… AND SOMETHING) — THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING
(CD by Monotype Records) *
PHILLIP PETIT — YOU ONLY LIVE ICE (CD by Glacial Movements) *
CIRCADIA — ADVANCES AND DELAYS (CD by Sofa) *
LINGUA LUSTRA — ESSENCE (2CD by Psychonavigation Records) *
THE LUNCHBOX SURRENDER — SILVER GLOVES & SPACES (CD by Psychonavigation Records)
FEET TEETH — BRUXUS (CD by HelloSquare Recordings) *
OTIOSE TRIO — CARTACOETHES: THE UNCONTROLLABLE COMPULSION TO SEE MAPS EVERYWHERE
(CD by HelloSquare Recordings) *
VELVETINE — CREMATORIAL DANCE (CD by Facthedral’s Hall)
DEADROW77 — DARK WAVES FOR LITTLE GREYS (2CD by Facthedral’s Hall) *
MINITEL — ABIMES (CD by Facthedral’s Hall) *
OFFTHESKY — SILENT WENT THE SEA (CDR/DVDR by Eilean Records) *
SCHPERRUNG — HOUSE OF HORIZONS (CDR by Shchyl) *
MIKHAIL PARAMZIN & IL’JA BILHA — STATEMENT QUESTION (CDR by Shchyl) *
VERTONEN — AN INTENDED ACCIDENT (CDR by Ballast) *
CHEMIEFASERWERK — IDATEC (cassette by Midnight Circles) *
CATALAN COAST (cassette by Midnight Circles) *
SINDRE BJERGA — MIDNIGHT CAMOUFLAGE (cassette by Midnight Circles) *
MODELBAU — JUDDER (cassette by Midnight Circles) *
DOHINCE — PUNK SWEAT (cassette by Put Your Hands Down)
-OTRON — DOZE ON (cassette, private) *
SOMNOROASE PASARELE — CO (cassette by Baba Vanga) *
KRISHNA — ASCEND TO NOTHING (CD by Silken Tofu)
The name Krishna may be new to you, in a musical context that is, but behind it we find Otto Kokke and Rene
Aquarius, who blow horns and bang drums as Dead Neanderthals, teaming up with Vincent Koreman, erstwhile
a member of The Travoltas, but perhaps better known in the electronic music scene as RA-X and Drvg Cvltvre
(and much more besides this). Exactly a year ago, in July, they were to be found in the Extrapool Studio
preparing a concert as part of a series called ‘Hausse’; two people from the world of dance music getting together
and prepare a concert. A bit like Extrapool’s former project Brombron but more like techno or house music;
hence the name. As such this particular collaboration is perhaps an odd ball as this has very little to do with
techno or house, and could as be part of the Brombron series (had it still existed). By choosing upon a band name,
rather than calling it Dead Neanderthals & Drvg Cvltvre (as announced on the poster a year ago), this implies that
there might be more joint work in the pipeline. I saw the concert, in the rain, outdoors and the forty-minute piece
was quite a blast, even when the sound could have been louder. Aquarius bangs the drums in one steady bang,
throughout the entire thirty-six minute version here, while Kokke’s saxophone produces one long foghorn sound.
It is Koreman who seems to be getting free play on his Korg MS-20 and other apparatus. It seems that Koreman
is picking up sound from the others to transform through whatever else he is using. All of this happens at a
thunderous volume, unrelentness and highly minimal. Kokke’s saxophone changes very slowly over the course of
this piece, Aquarius remains in steady tempo but here too something seems to be altering the colour of the sound
and all the time it is Koreman who is ‘allowed’ to do the biggest moves in changing the sounds (unless Kokke has
some effect pedals in use too). It doesn’t end with a massive fade out, as the title could suggest, but it keeps up
the volume to the bitter end. There is no ascend or descend, but in all its minimalism one could indeed say
‘nothing’ is the keyword here. It is an endless variation of a steady rhythm, a massive wave of saxophone sounds
and curious mixture of electronic sounds. I am not sure what Krishna could do next, but with this album under
their belt they could surely play a few concert versions of this. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.silkentofu.org
CONSTERDINE — ELECTRONIC ORGANISM (CD by Sunshine Heart Records)
This might not be a name that you are familiar with, but one that I know for quite some time; in fact ever since
Consterdine walked into our store and introduced himself as a member of Zion Train, a digital reggae band, and
requested to buy some Merzbow music. If that seems odd, then I agree. Getting to knowing him a bit later on, he
lit my fire for dub, digidub and reggae, although these days perhaps not as much anymore. I knew he left Zion Train
already quite some years ago, I didn’t know he was a member of Sendelica, which is ‘big on the small European
psychedelic scene’; in my defense, I never heard of them. With both bands he produced a number of albums,
but felt it was time to do something of his own, and use some of his love for the oldies, from Kraftwerk, Gary Numan,
The Human League, YMO, Visage, Depeche Mode — it is like reading a list of personal favourites from me as well.
There can be much said about nostalgia, ripe old age, and how we always seem to return to the oldies. Something
that seems inevitable to all of us at one point in our (later) life. Consterdine found himself working with synthesizers,
sequencers and rhythm machines; perhaps because a lot of this is now much easier to get, especially in the digital
domain?
So how does such a retro trip work then? I guess a lot depends on how one is prepared to listen to music. Do we
want something entirely new or something entertaining and perhaps sounding like something we already heard before?
The opening ‘Hundertwasser Nebula’ brings back the sound of Kraftwerk circa ‘Autobahn’ and ‘Men Machine’, with
a similar driving krautrock rhythm and a lovely melody underneath. That said, it’s not that all of these pieces sound
like something else, but all of Consterdine’s songs have elements of those glorious synth pop times. I best enjoyed
it when Consterdine used a slightly slower rhythm, some arpeggios and one or two great melodies shimmering away.
A faster piece like ‘Time Traveller’ just doesn’t cut it for me, same as ‘Dance Of The Shrouded Lunatic’, with its easy
tune organ. This I thought sounded all too much like drum & bass/breakbeat for me. When Consterdine stays away
from overtly techno and house influences and more in the vein 70s cosmos versus 80s synth pop, such as the
aforementioned ‘Hundertwasser Nebula’, ‘Ancient Futures’, ‘Space Firebird’, ‘Ashera Dish Ta’, ‘Knowledge Bass’ or
even ‘Asteroid Felt’, where the rhythm is a more dominating force. I was thinking about hearing something new,
innovative music and how that isn’t part of this, and then about just how much I liked this music; in a way it is all
very much from the world of pop music and yet with enough attachments to the world of Vital Weekly. Best CD of
this week! (FdW)
––– Address: http://consterdine.bandcamp.com
THE INTERNATIONAL NOTHING (… AND SOMETHING) — THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING
(CD by Monotype Records)
It’s been a while since I last heard music from The International Nothing, a duo of two clarinet players, Michael
Thieke and Kai Fagaschinski, called ‘The Dark Side Of Success’, no doubt an ironic title. Their music is improvised
and has a great quality to it, an excellent dialogue. Now they extended their line up, and so they changed the name
of the band a bit. Added are the talents of Christian Weber (double bass) and Eric Schaefer (drums & percussion),
both of whom I think I didn’t hear before. The expanded line-up means also an expansion of their sound and it
works out in different ways. At first I must admit I didn’t think much was added in some of these pieces, with all
of them playing that is very close cut, but one quickly realizes that the two clarinets make up half the sound
anyway, but with the addition of drums and bass it expands into something… jazzy is surely a word that comes
to mind, as the drums and bass play that path quite a bit. But there is also more than that I would think. The drone/
sine wave approach this duo usually has is never far away, and then bass and drum becomes suddenly all a bit
sparse, placing an accent here or a touch there. There is quite a bit of tension among these players, seasoned
improvisers as they are, and it’s easily music that defies categorization. It is improvised, surely, but likewise some
parts are composed, or thought out before hand (or created as such in the mix). It is at times quite noise based but
it can space out as well. ‘Something Went Wrong’, and I am not sure how appropriate that title is, is a piece of almost
pop like proportions. One expects a great melody to be played but it doesn’t happen, thus staying in line with the rest
of the pieces, and at the same time it is quite different. All of this makes this an intense, varied and versatile
release. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com
PHILLIP PETIT — YOU ONLY LIVE ICE (CD by Glacial Movements)
To say there is a lot of information available for this release is not possible. There is none really. Also the website
tells us not much, other than some of things we already know from Petit, which includes an impressive list of
collaborators, such as Edwarc Ka-spel, Simon Fischer Turner, Machinefabriek, Mira Calix or Lydia Lunch. Monotype,
Alrealon Musique, Sub Rosa, helloSquare, Staubgold and others have released his work. Petit’s interest lies in
soundtracks, and while the title of this new release could suggest a soundtrack for a James Bond movie (or a spoof
there of), I believe it is rather the soundtrack to the North Pole (or South Pole, in any case somewhere with a low
temperature). There is a seventy-minute opening, which then dies out and the rest of the piece is played out, another
thirty or so minutes of glacial drone music. Petit long moved beyond using turntables and has expanded his sound
sources to electronics, field recordings, synthesizers and, who knows, maybe even guitars. His music has quite
a rich sound, with lots of small elements happening and each playing their own part in this massive drone piece.
There are elements of melody somewhere around the fifteen minute break but as the piece evolves it all becomes all
a bit more abstract and even industrial, with large sheets of metallic sounds replacing that of ice; or is that vice versa,
I wondered. The thickness of large sheets of ice (hence rather North than South Pole) getting thicker and thicker and
it all becomes more and more immobilized. The piece ends rather abrupt, with a quick fade out. I wouldn’t have minded
to last a bit longer, as I was in this total flow of sounds bouncing around. Hard to say how it was made, but I thought
all of this was quite vibrant and moving. And never once I thought the music was ‘cold’ per se. Excellent work! (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.glacialmovements.com/
CIRCADIA — ADVANCES AND DELAYS (CD by Sofa)
This is a new band, a quartet to be precise, with two guitar players, David Stackenäs (of whom we reviewed a bunch of
solo releases) and Kim Myhr, along with bass player Joe Williamson and Necks drummer Tony buck. All four of them
play their instruments acoustically. The two pieces (thirty-four minutes) were recorded in concert in 2014 at the lovely
Fylkingen in Stockholm. It is hard to believe that this music is acoustic, but maybe the acoustic instruments are being
amplified. The first piece is ‘The Animal Enters And Traverses The Light’, which has an interesting hectic and
nervousness in the execution. An orchestral sound, of one that is starting up and getting ready to play, testing the
sounds of the instruments but upon closer inspection one realizes that phrases are repeated and that it is a more
minimalist piece than one realizes; there is just happening an awful lot in this piece, and Circadia moves from phase
to phase, with Tony Buck finally adding a sense of rhythm in there and then the piece slowly dies out, rather peacefully.
The second piece ‘The Human Volunteers Were Kept In Isolation’ starts out way mellower, almost like contemplation,
drifting wildly about with lots of sparse notes, leaving space for the music to drift away. Only towards the end, acting
as a mirror image of the first piece, things begin to pick up speed and it becomes hectic and nervous again, but all
tighter and condensed. I found it hard to believe there are no electronics in this piece, but if it is so, I have even more
respect for the way these players handle their instruments. (FdW)
––– Address: http://sofamusic.no
LINGUA LUSTRA — ESSENCE (2CD by Psychonavigation Records)
THE LUNCHBOX SURRENDER — SILVER GLOVES & SPACES (CD by Psychonavigation Records/Offshoot)
It’s been quite a while since I last heard a release by Irish ambient label Psychonavigation and I don’t know the reason.
In two separate mailers these two releases arrive, and the first one is a double release by one Albert Borkent, who hails
from The Netherlands and who goes by the moniker Lingua Lustra. He’s active for about a decade now, and he sculpts
long pieces, up to fifty-two minutes on the second disc. There is no detailed list of synthesizers used, perhaps unlike
the big days of cosmic music, but no doubt they are in abundance on this one. I couldn’t say whether these are digital,
analogue, modular, monophonic or polyphonic but I do know he mixes in a bit of bird and sea sounds as well as a
snippet of spoken word in ‘Meditation’ and very occasionally, such as in ‘Road Of Light’, there is all of a sudden the
heartbeat of a drum machine. Lingua Lustra very cleverly uses a deep, repeating bass line in some of these pieces
and without making it too rhythmic, one feels the sweeping dub like undercurrent in these pieces, such as in the long
title piece. That makes it perhaps a bit less ambient than what some people would regard as ‘normal’, but Lingua Lustra
surely adds a whole bunch of the more usual ingredients. It all ends with ‘Azimuth’, a piece with a rolling arpeggio and
straight of the Tangerine Dream handbook. Today was a hot summer’s day with very little action, and music like this is
for me the perfect soundtrack. This is not the most innovative of releases but it is excellently made.
That too can be said of The Lunchbox Surrender, who appear on Psychonavigation Records’ subdivision Offshoot,
except that this is everything about electronic music that I happen not to like. Vocal house/techno is just not my cup
of tea. It sounds very cheesy and tacky with meaningless lyrics. I am sure there is a dance floor hit in this music, but
I can’t tell which, not even to save my life. Eurohouse? Vacuumcleaning techno? EDM? I have no idea. I do like electronic pop music, even with vocals (thinking of Depeche Mode right now, or OMD in their early days, Gary Numan (ditto), or even bit of silly gabber music from the 90s), but this lot? Expertly made and I really, really hope it will do Psychonavigation Records a lot of good! It would mean they would be able to release more along the lines of Lingua Lustra, or perhaps explore a bit of more experimental pop. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.pscyhonavigationrecords.com
FEET TEETH — BRUXUS (CD by HelloSquare Recordings)
OTIOSE TRIO — CARTACOETHES: THE UNCONTROLLABLE COMPULSION TO SEE MAPS EVERYWHERE
(CD by HelloSquare Recordings)
By now one could say that HelloSquare Recording from Australia is an established home for new jazz music, and their
releases are always a delight to hear. Feet Teeth is a trio with Kate Thomas (commodore64, vibraphone), Joel Saunders
(trumpet, electronics) and Paul Young (drum kit), along with various guests; Kahl Monticone (electric guitar on all tracks),
Erik Griswold (of Clocked Out and Daughter’s Fever, piano on the ‘Eighteen Minutes And Fifty-Six Seconds’ piece) and
Timothy Tate (of Ensemble Fabrique, tape, electronics on the ‘Eighteen Minutes And Fifty-Six Seconds’ piece). That is
perhaps quite an unusual set up. The four pieces are named, more or less, after the duration of each piece and the thirty-
three minutes here were recorded in 2014, during two sessions, which are individually released. Unlike some of the earlier
releases on HelloSquare (and looking at the label’s website I missed out on a quite number of releases by this label) the
jazz here isn’t as smooth as before, but it touches upon a more angular playing, which makes it rougher around the edges.
But that longest piece, ‘Eighteen Minutes And Fifty-Six Seconds’ is one that starts out in a forceful way, almost like a
piece of unrelentness free jazz, but dies out with a beautiful role for vibraphone and piano. All of this being totally free
music, with some harsh excursions but also spacious meanderings. Certain influences of the world of free rock music
can easily be detected here as well; making this is a very fine crossover.
I am not sure how a band of four persons can be called Otiose Trio, unless we take their instruments and count those.
Thys Butler plays alto saxophone, Stephen Roach plays tenor saxophone and there are two players using pure data (a
software application which one can build yourself) played by Paul Heslin and Reuben Ingall. The latter is also responsible
for recording and mixing. This is their debut album and I would think it is the result of a few recording sessions, mixed
together and not so much of a straightforward live recording. They have four lengthy pieces of music here and this one
sounds far from jazz. This is perhaps an oddball in the catalogue of HelloSquare Recordings. The two wind instruments
are surely easy to be recognized, even when they play longer sustaining sounds. The real experiment comes courtesy
of the two laptops, adding a varying diet of sine waves, crackles, hiss, static sounds along with what could processed
sounds of the two wind instruments and/or other sounds, which have a reached a state beyond recognition. These four
pieces are quite intense, with lots of small things happening, while retaining an overall state of non-quietness; there is
always something going on, and usually it is very atmospheric and spooky. This I thought was a great release and
maybe an oddball in the label’s catalogue, but it is definitely a beauty. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.hellosquarerecordings.com/
VELVETINE — CREMATORIAL DANCE (CD by Facthedral’s Hall)
DEADROW77 — DARK WAVES FOR LITTLE GREYS (2CD by Facthedral’s Hall)
MINITEL — ABIMES (CD by Facthedral’s Hall)
While quickly scanning the information for these releases, I saw that Velvetine is on stage mixing raw guitars and
electronic sounds ‘sometimes industrial, electronica, or ethnic; digital lights and videos, a vintage rock mixed with
technology’. Ah vintage rock; yes, Vital Weekly is certainly hardly a place for that. I must say it sounds as boring as
the description. Maybe there is raw power on stage, but these ten doomy rock pieces fail to impress me. Yes, surely
elsewhere I applaud something that is very retro sounding, but it harks back to something I also liked back then, but
doomy rock music is just something I also not cared too much about beyond the Factory Records bands from the early
days; plus that Velvetine has no Martin Hannett to produce them. Tedious music, that’s all I could think off, but surely
there is much bigger market for all of those things that deal with the big E of emotion. Not me.
After many years of writing reviews, and thus reading lots of information, I tend to be somewhat sceptical about press
releases; especially if I read “Deadrow77 (Fabien Della Roma) is a former who grows organic saffron in the Oriental
Pyrenees Mountains. He recorded his second album alone in his caravan on his computer, playing exclusively on
a Minilab25 Arturia synthesizer”. Oh. Someone named Le K. “recovered the 29 instrumentals for intuitive mixing, that
highlights his work”. Facthedral’s Hall released the debut album in 2005 on CDR and this new package contains the
second and third album. So after I read such information I tend to think: why didn’t Deadrow77 mix his own music,
whether or not in his caravan. Despite the fact that the music was recorded in two different years for both CDs there
is not much difference between them. Many of these twenty-nine pieces sound like someone is playing a bunch of
melodies on a synth, plus a few lines for longer sustaining sounds and/or very short ones that make up a bit of rhythm.
Moody, poppy, textured, silly: all of these notions passed by when I was playing this. All of this around three to four
minutes and one could get easily lost in here, as many sound quite similar. The name Deadrow77 suggested something
completely different than what it turned out to be. I enjoyed some of the more moody tunes, and disliked some of the
sillier ones. A process of selection would not have been a bad idea.
The music by Minitel, a project by Iconoclast (I’m sure that is a pseudonym), was already recorded in 2006, but for
unclear reasons was shelved until now. That, plus the fact there are only 300 copies, is all we know. The cover also
doesn’t reveal much more than that. Something that happens of course more often and which is no problem. Whereas
Velvetine was something I didn’t like, Deadrow77 had a bunch of pieces that were okay; this one is actually something
I enjoyed from beginning to end, even when the opening piece ‘Vitriol’ is drenched with reverb. The other four (and
much longer) pieces are all in the realm of moody drone music. Mucho atmospherics floating around. It’s hard to say
what it is used here, but my best guess would be synthesizers or guitars, lots of effects, and maybe something in
terms of field recordings, but I have no idea what that should be really here. This is the kind of dark ambient music
that one usually find on such labels as Malignant Records; it is not the most refined kind of ambient, but projects like
Minitel explore the all the low end frequencies to their maximum use, and cutting out all those sounds that shed even
the smallest bit of light in this music. This is not a release with music you never heard before, but I thought it was
very well made, with great care for deep, hidden sonic details. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.facthedral.com
OFFTHESKY — SILENT WENT THE SEA (CDR/DVDR by Eilean Records)
Jason Corder works under various names, such as Color Cassette and Juxta Phone, but is perhaps best known under
the guise of Offtheksy. By now he produces a mighty catalogue of works for such labels as dataObscure, Databloem,
The Land of, Dronarivm, Tokyo Droning, Rural Colours, Home Normal and many more. Here he offers a double pack of
works, a CDR with just the music and a DVDR with films to the music. The cover lists a bunch of players on such
instruments as cello, violin, vocals and water instruments but it is Corder who is inside the oven to bake all of this into
some highly atmospheric music. At various instances those instruments pop up in the mix quite clearly, but they are
also heavily transformed through computer processing and together they make up some warm, glitchy music. Before
I noticed the influence of Arvo Part in Corder’s music but that seems less apparent in this work, even when ‘mood’ is
all important here, it also seems to be a bit more abstract at times, and post-rock like at other times.
The videos created by Coder himself, as well as Guillaume Baycheliet, Roland Quelven, Mioke and labelboss Mathias
van Eecloo are all textbook videos of slow moving images. Stir up some tea in a cup, add a drop of paint and film that;
playback in slow motion. It may seem that I am making fun of this, but that’s not the case. I like to watch this kind of
slow motion films with a few objects and repeating motifs and movements, as I think they fit the music quite well. It’s
nothing we haven’t seen before but apparently it is still the most obvious visual representation of this kind of music;
music that can be enjoyed very well by itself too. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.eilean-records.com/
SCHPERRUNG — HOUSE OF HORIZONS (CDR by Shchyl)
MIKHAIL PARAMZIN & IL’JA BILHA — STATEMENT QUESTION (CDR by Shchyl)
The combining factor in these two releases is the presence of Il’ja Bilha, who plays electric guitar in duo with Mikhail
Paramzin on semi-acoustic guitar and, maybe, a more permanent duo with A. Subbotin on drums and voice, as
Schperrung. Bilha also uses his voice there. This is were I started and found sixty-one minutes of rock music of the
more demented (or tormented) kind. The first two minutes of the first song may suggest something entirely different,
but then opens up with some wordless chant, the guitar going through the distortion pedal, creating a sustaining hissing
sound and sparse drum sounds. Over the course of nearly ten minutes this becomes more and more a ‘rock’ song.
This is the set-up for all eleven pieces on this release, with a varying degree of rock-mindedness. Nothing here is very
conventional, and Schperrung isn’t interested in playing anything that is even remotely conventional. They don’t keep
time, use no words (not as far as I can see) and the guitar doesn’t play many chords, and hums away in feedback.
The recording quality is that of a microphone is a space, and may have some room for improvement, I guess, but then
this is no doubt part of the aesthetics of this kind of music.
As is perhaps less of surprise the other release with Bilha is along similar lines, meaning total freedom when it comes
to playing the two times guitar, and in the seven pieces it always sounds like a guitar and never they seem to use any
other techniques or approaches, nor do they use objects (it seems) to play the guitar. There is however quite a raw
energy in their playing, which one could see along similar lines as the Schperrung release. These might be ‘songs’, rather
than pieces I would think, as the two of them repeat phrases and segments within the confinements of a piece, keeping
things like something one recognizes and then slowly expand on those themes. It has the same tormented sound as
Schperrung but then less any of the ‘sick’ singing/grunting of whatever that is called. I quite enjoyed these, even when
it did not necessarily sound like something very strange or new, and the approach to improvising was a bit conventional.
I think I liked the Schperrung release a bit better, but perhaps that’s because I hear that kind of music a lot less than
the more regular improvised music of the other duo. (FdW)
––– Address: http://schperrung.com/SHCHYL/
VERTONEN — AN INTENDED ACCIDENT (CDR by Ballast)
As promised in Vital Weekly 1038 the third instalment of a trilogy based on the Book of Lamentations was to be released
shortly, and here ‘An Intended Accident’ (again sixty-six minutes) is released in a similar package as the two previous
ones, but also with a small envelope supplying the keys to the artcards found in every package in which Blake Edwards
has efforts ‘at translating/transcribing related texts into three different ancient alphabets’. In the accompanying letter
Edwards asks me not to reveal these keys and as much as I don’t care about spoiler alerts (really don’t), but all right I won’t,
but I thought these ‘keys’ were great! It’s a bit like the mousetrap, the Agatha Christie play, in which the audience is
asked not reveal whodidit. It makes reviewing the music perhaps a bit more complicated, since I now have insider
knowledge. ‘An Intended Accident’ is six parts, of which two at the end are a bit shorter. Music wise however Vertonen
is still in the musical area I like to see him best, and that is of drone music. The single-source processing takes on many
shapes but sounds like a near stasis of acoustic debris, with emphasis on the lower end of the sound spectrum. Quite
spooky at that and very atmospheric, but also quite ‘low’ in volume. It reveals Vertonen’s love for the Hafler Trio and
Roland Kayn, but I think one should add Eliane Radigue to that list as well. The odd element here is the three sighs that
audible in the music at various parts in the piece, but then singled out, to add more spookiness, perhaps. Maybe it’s
coincidence but when I reviewed the previous one is was a dark day in June and that is the same thing here today;
maybe it is a sign? This release concludes a rather beautiful trilogy of works, and with a great ‘secret’. (FdW)
––– Address: http://ballastnvp.blogspot.com
CHEMIEFASERWERK — IDATEC (cassette by Midnight Circles)
CATALAN COAST (cassette by Midnight Circles)
SINDRE BJERGA — MIDNIGHT CAMOUFLAGE (cassette by Midnight Circles)
MODELBAU — JUDDER (cassette by Midnight Circles)
Xerox label Midnight Circles return with four new releases, this on blue paper. The little bit of information is stamped on
the cover, but more on the music can be found on the label’s bandcamp. I kicked off with Chemiefaserwerk, of whom I
reviewed some music before, under various names, such as this one, but also CFW, Smitten and 18QM (see Vital Weekly
953, 992 and 1030). Here we have more sound collages, all melted together to form a single piece per side on this cassette,
but within a piece moving through different shapes and forms. I believe Chemiefaserwerk uses found sound, some field
recordings and a bit of synthesizer drones; all of this probably captured on a multi-track cassette and mixed to a master
cassette, none of this involving anything digital, but then of course I might entirely wrong. Chemiefaserwerk, I must admit
I have no idea what that name means, creates some twenty-seven minutes of fine lo-fi listening music, a bit intense, a bit
dramatic and all of this highly atmospheric, moving from fine texture to deeper mood. Like I noted with his previous release,
all of this sounds very 80s like, and that’s the great thing about it. Chemiefaswerk does not necessarily aim at something
entirely new in terms of sound production, but uses the best of the old days and creates his own very refined version of it.
Then from the southern parts of Germany we have someone who calls himself Catalan Coast; I never heard of this before,
but the three pieces he has here sound excellent. This is minimal synth music, but devoid of any 80s pop style. No rhythms,
no sequencers, just a few layers of synthesizer sounds. These are extended, sustaining and a few layers going at the same
time. Slow arpeggios, captured in a rather lo-fi yet heavily (and heavenly) mood enhancing four track cassette, adding quite
a bit of hiss to the proceedings, especially in ‘Felt 2’. Somehow I was reminded of that very obscure 80s cassette ‘De
Muziekkamer’, with a similar tranquil mood, especially the sidelong piece with the same as the band. Catalan Coast is a bit
louder than that old tape, but captures the same maritime mood of slow waves at sea. This is an excellent tape.
The music by Sindre Bjerga is perhaps also to be called lo-fi, a recurring approach for all of these new releases. Many of
his releases are documentations of live concerts and these are no different. The first side was recorded in 2014 in Leiden
(The Netherlands) and the other side in Stavanger (Norway) in 2015. As I noted before (Vital Weekly 1027) Bjerga essentially
plays the same thing over and over again, with his set-up of microphone, some cassette recordings, Dictaphones, small
cymbals and a metal spring object, but the execution of the piece changes every night. In Leiden that night he was in a
more introspective mood, starting out with his voice but then a soaring melody from one of his cassettes drops in and from
there becomes a even moodier, until the end when he flings around his small cymbals. The other is by total contrast all about
some way noisier. Much louder, more chaotic, we have the crackling of objects, captured field recordings on Dictaphones,
and more mayhem; this is the brutal side of Bjerga’s highly personal sound poetry. This perhaps works better in a concert
situation, I thought, seeing the action as it is played out in front of you. But all of this is highly personal sound poetry; with
or without words. (FdW)
Recently Frans de Waard joined Sindre Bjerga on tour. Each night on the road they played their respective solo sets and
joined forces in a duet performance. The sometimes jarring and chaotic noises by Bjerga found counterpoint in the more
subdued and slowly building long drones courtesy of De Waard playing as Modelbau. For this release De Waard has reached
the letter J in the alphabet as step by step he works his way from A to Z in the dictionary of long form noise drone. Presented
here are two tracks of fifteen minutes each. And for the first time in the Modelbau series the cover art doesn’t follow the strict
regimen of grey art and orange text fields. The music here however does fit neatly into the mould De Waard has carved out
for the Modelbau project. Noises from synthesizers and from the streets and nature blend into slow sweeping sequences.
On ‘Judder’ the mood is slightly ominous and brooding like a first warning signs before stahlgewitter. At the crossroads
piercing high tones are interjected to create a positive empty space between rustling bass and gently squealing highs and
nothing in between – in a benevolent way. ‘Juxtaposition’ opens more melodic with an 8-bit like pattern up front and centre.
Around the 6-minute mark overtones are joined by faint whispering lines in the background, threatening to overcome the
nagging game like innocent melody. Complex layering and expert use of quite subtle touches make this release a highly
recommended addition to the Modelbau alphabet. (SSK)
––– Address: http://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com
DOHINCE — PUNK SWEAT (cassette by Put Your Hands Down)
Armed with a rhythm sampler and noise synth and nothing else, is what Dohince needs to create the eight pieces on this
cassette. Long pieces at that as this is a fifty-minute tape, so each track is easily five to six minutes. The music is all
instrumental and from the world of good ol’ school industrial music. It is a machine, perhaps; once everything is put into
motion, which is a dark rhythm heavy on the bass, it will be fed through the synthesizer and then that will create minutiae
variations through the otherwise very minimal piece of music. It sometimes reminded me of Esplendor Geometrico but also
a name like Porter Ricks at their grittiest came to mind, or perhaps the darkest moments from a totally obscure act on
Bunker Records. Maybe it’s the fact that this is released on a cassette that makes that all of this sounds a bit darker than
it perhaps really is. Maybe that much needed bit of light is now stripped away? Or perhaps all of this is intended to be like
this? I found that hard to say. A tad more variation would have been not a bad idea, I think. Now it is a very consistent
release that much we know for sure. (FdW)
––– Address: http://putyourhandsdown.bandcamp.com/
-OTRON — DOZE ON (cassette, private)
The information here says that if you take Calexio’s ‘No Doze’ (the sonic underpinnings thereof), Portishead-style trip-hop,
Autechre’s ‘Amber’ and think of DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’, then you have the sound of UK’s -Otron. All of these being of
course classic electronic music pieces and excellent sources of inspiration. Seven pieces here, of which two are under two
minutes, which are more or less transitional pieces, but the other five show a great love for a slower rhythm, an upbeat
synth (very 90s in this case) and slowed down voices buried below in the mix. The trip-hop element is never far away in
these pieces, broken up, slowed down, a firm dash of reverb added for the necessary mood enhancing and it all works very
well. Very much, I would think, along the lines of Portishead and DJ Shadow, but not necessarily with all the darkness that
one perhaps also thinks when hearing these names. -Otron adds a firm amount of daylight to the music — but maybe the
sun outside helped me here. In the closing piece ‘-Ision’ there is no rhythm (and it’s also not one of the shorter pieces)
but without that it suddenly seems to be lacking tension and a rather average ambient piece is what is left. Effectively we
are left with four excellent pieces, say twenty minutes of music, which is rather on the short side, I would think. I wouldn’t
have minded the shorter, transitional piece coupled with six to eight rhythm pieces, telling me a great story. This is a great
start, that much is sure, but next time a bit more pieces. (FDW)
––– Address: http://otron.bandcamp.com/
SOMNOROASE PASARELE — CO (cassette by Baba Vanga)
From this duo I already reviewed their release, ‘Gama’, back in Vital Weekly 1036 and I complained about the lack of
information and that what I found was part of their second album, ‘CO’, which I now also receive. It was released earlier
this year, so perhaps we can assume none of this is worlds apart. This duo is from Bucharest and consist of Gili Mocanu
and Elena Album, and ‘CO’ is the follow-up to their 2013 debut album ‘Abecd’ and their music defies categorisation –
techno, post-punk, experimental electronics or noise would be too restrictive and inadequate as labels. Their music is an
enigma, and it doesn’t strive for understanding’ — I know I said this last time, but that too was copied from this release.
There are no instruments mentioned on either the cover or the website, but I think much of this has to do with rhythms,
sequencers and synthesizers. Like with their third release I hardly would think we are dealing here with the world of techno
music, or post-punk but yes, experimental electronics and noise are indeed two musical sources/genres/qualifications that
fit well what Somnoroase Pasarele is up to. Sometimes this works out in a very abstract way, such as in ‘Foto Doi Noros’,
with a rhythm lurking very well beneath surface, but otherwise consist of lots of warped electronics, which makes the next
piece, ‘Sept Trei’ by comparison almost ambient in approach. In ‘Gome Vara’ the rhythm is a bit more upfront and it is
played out in a very minimal way. The ghost of Pan Sonic is probably never far away with music like this, but with
Somnoroase Pasarele this is less apparent, but not completely without. Only in very few instances one could say they
aim for something that is part of the dance floor, but I don’t believe that’s what this band is aiming for. Throughout their
music is too abstract for that particular aim, but they offer an interesting amount of variation in their music that works
into various directions but not so diverse as to alienate from each other. This is a very fine release of some daring
electronics. (FdW)
––– Address: http://babavan.ga/