BANKS BAILEY – THE POOL (CD by Unfathomless) *
ALESSIO SANTINI – KENTER (EP by Elli Records)
ADAM HOPKINS – PARTY PACK ICE (CD by Pfmentum)
KOSMOSE – SOME LITTLE TRIPS TO OUR FLUORESCENT LAND (2CD by EE Tapes) *
DISTORTED NUDE – THE SPRAWL (CD by Moving Furniture Records) *
GAGI PETROVIC – DP[A] + HSH (CD by Moving Furniture Records) *
BEAM SPLITTER – ROUGH TONGUE (CD by Corvo Records) *
SILVAN JEGER – THIS DIFFICULT TREE (LP by Wide Ear Records)
COLIN POTTER – THE ABOMINABLE SLOWMAN (LP by Abstrakce Records)
80S UNDERGROUND CASSETTE CULTURE VOLUME 1 (2LP compilation by Contort Yourself)
X-MAS CARD FROM OUTER SPACE (OSCAR’S X-MAS CAROLS 1984-1987) (LP compilation by
Domestica) *
O RATEL RATEL – ONTMANTELING (LP by Audio Visuals Atmosphere)
OLLI AARNI – NIELU (LP by Florabelle Records) *
NED MILLIGAN – NATURE ALWAYS NEEDS IMPROVING (LP by Florabelle Records) *
KOTRA VS EDWARD SOL – SOKYRA (LP by Kvitnu)
GX JUPITTER-LARSEN / ZEBRA MU (1” by Quagga Curious)
MARGARETHA HESSE & SOPHIE TASSIGNON – LICHT – RAUM – ERKUNDUNGEN
(CDR by Sophie Tassignon)
GUSEV/HOOGEBOOM/MIMLITSCH – TRAPPED (CDR by Thirsty Leaves Music)
JAMES WORSE – TESTUARY TO LULLUBA (CDR By Atemwerft)
ACID DISCHARGE – MARODE (CDR by Ralmic Records) *
ACID DISCHARGE – INDUSTRIAL LEGACY (CDR by Ralmic Records) *
CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE – STTT THOMASSS “”””DINGGGDONGGGDINGGGzzzzzzz ferrrr
TONYYY”””” (cassette by Blank Forms Editions)
INTIGUE TALUURE & PLUS INSTRUMENTS – NEWTONS FLAT FIDELITY VOL. 2 (cassette by
Bananafishing Records)
GRAEAE – BLACK RED (cassette by Faux Amis)
BANKS BAILEY – THE POOL (CD by Unfathomless)
It seems it has been a while since I last reviewed something by Banks Bailey from Arizona and even
then it was usually in collaboration with others, such Adrien Shenton or Ian Holloway. As far back as
Vital Weekly 834 is when I last heard him solo. Bailey uses in his music Tibetan bowls, flutes and field
recordings, although of course for Unfathomless it is all about field recordings and nothing else. These
were captured in the Madrona Canyon in the Rincon Mountains of Arizona. This place is connected to
Bailey via a poem by Baudelaire, “Correspondences”, about nature being both common and alien to us.
It is, apparently, near a metropolitan area, but there is no evidence of that captured in these five pieces.
Everything here seems to be a quietness; a bit of birds, insects and the rustic sound of a mountain
stream. I believe there are very little tricks applied by Bailey in this music. There is no electronic
process applied in changing these sounds. The only thing that happens, so I believe, is that Bailey uses
various events that might not be entirely related next to each other, and thus creates a collage out of
the field recordings; it is a painting of the place with various elements and not a photo documenting it,
if you catch my drift. It is not easy to think how this place looks like, but it seems all very quiet and not
a very rough area. Maybe it just is a place to go, walk up and sit in quiet contemplation thinking about
nature and how it is both common and alien to us. A very quiet CD but it captures a lot of beauty. (FdW)
––– Address: https://unfathomless.bandcamp.com
ALESSIO SANTINI – KENTER (EP by Elli Records)
Alessio Santini is from Bologna, Italy where he studied musicology. In the 90s he played the guitar in
several black and doom metal bands. Later the developing of digital tools and applications became his
main activity, what turned him into an audio-visual artist. With this debut album ‘Kenter’ both interests
melt together. It is an EP containing four instrumental tracks. Released by Santini himself on his label
Elli Records, that is focused on electro-acoustical music, composed as well as improvised. He started
this label together with his mate Emanuele Battisti, who did the mixing of this album. Santini is
responsible for composing, performing and recording the project. The opening track ‘Ffar’ has the only
guest appearance: vocals by Dario Francalacci. This dark ambient track stays most close to the original
instruments. Drums and guitar are recognizable in a structure that stays close to the rock scheme. This
is also the case for the second track ‘Sul mare nero’. After a fantastic and very abstract first part, the
music turns into a dark, doomy song. Strange how Santini combines echoes of rock with radical abstract
sound-oriented manipulations, that is far beyond rock and anything else. The sonic qualities of the
sounds he created are beautiful. And it is evident Santini was focused on this aspect. Fine textured
sounds that are a world on their own. He is not afraid of crossing borders in his radical processing
work. Hope he continues on this path and leaves allusions to rock behind him. An excellent work! (DM)
––– Address: https://ellirecords.bandcamp.com/
ADAM HOPKINS – PARTY PACK ICE (CD by Pfmentum)
A CD of EP-length, rather than a full length. Seven short pieces taking about 24 minutes. Performers
are: Patrick Breiner and Eric Trudel both on tenor sax, Dustin Carlson (guitar), Nathan Ellman-Bell
(drums) and Hopkins, who also provided the compositions, on bass. Everything was recorded live at
iBeam Brooklyn, March 18, 2015. Hopkins is a bassist, composer, and educator from Baltimore,
currently living in Brooklyn, NY. He has a background in performing jazz and improvised music as a
member of numerous orchestras and ensembles. He takes part in numerous groups in New York and
Baltimore as a leader and sideman. He started Party Pack ICE as a guitar trio, but after a concert with
Breiner and Trudel, Hopkins decided to continue as a quintet. Considering the limited time span of this
release, Hopkins creates some very different compositions and atmospheres. Showing many faces of his
musical, compositional talent. The cd opens with a very spacey and open sound improvisation. The
closing piece, sounds like a long deep drone, with tiny little illustrations by guitarist Carlson. ‘Hobart’s
law of Kinetics’ is built around a repeated pattern by the blowers, who knock consequently on the door
with more and power, accompanied a great solo by the drummer. Also ‘Little Mathletes’ continues in a
hammering way, with the saxophones making their unison dance above this consequent beat. ‘Duckpin’
is a short intense improvisation that has all participators playing their own solo in Ornette Coleman
way. A very varied and surprising little gem! (DM)
––– Address: http://pfmentum.com/
KOSMOSE – SOME LITTLE TRIPS TO OUR FLUORESCENT LAND (2CD by EE Tapes)
Over the past years I wrote a lot about the various musical projects of Alain Neffe, who once ran his
own Insane Music label but whose musical groups, such as Bene Gesserit, Human Flesh and Pseudo
Code found homes on EE Tapes (a lot) and Plinkity Plonk (a bit). In the case of the first two mainly new
music they released, but of the latter archival material. Despite the fact that I know Neffe and his music
for thirty plus years I never knew, until a few years ago he had a musical life before Insane Music with
a group called Kosmose. The previous double CD on Sub Rosa, released in 2014, was not reviewed in
these pages, but there is a new archival one coming up for them as well, plus this one on EE Tapes and
there is much more in the vaults in case you have a label. In Kosmose Neffe was already working with
Guy Marc Hinant, who later also joined ranks in Pseudo Code, playing the drums in Kosmose, along with
Francis Pourcel (bass, guitar) and Paul Kutzner (guitar), with some other occasional guests, including
Daniel Malempré, who would record later as M.A.L. as well as a member of Human Flesh and Subject.
The music was recorded in March and April 1976, straight to tape, without the use of a mixing desk,
onto an open reel tape machine. In case you would think otherwise, this is psychedelic music and
nothing else. I bet they all had long hair as well. It is music that we don’t often review in Vital Weekly.
The word ‘psychedelic’ is used quite a bit in the pages, but hardly for this sort of free-form rock group
jams. The first CD has twelve mainly short(er) pieces and the second disc has three long ones. There is
some difference between the two. The first CD is conventional in improvised rock approach, and anyone
who lends an ear to the music of seventies kraut rock, say Faust, Guru Guru or Amon Düül II or the UK
counter parts of Gong or Pink Floyd spacing it all out will find this of interest as well. Kosmose doesn’t
necessarily play a perfect tune, and with their non-studio technology the recording suffers, but that, at
least for me, adds to the quality of the music and brings out other qualities about. Kosmose experiments
freely with ‘other’ sounds, mainly from synthesizers so it seems, while the traditional instruments do
their all space out jams, with long guitar solos and wild drumming, crashing cymbals. It is the kind of
music that can take a couple of minutes or as easily last half an hour.
The second CD forecasts some the later interests of Neffe, especially Human Flesh. Be it through
the use of string keyboards or spacious looping on what is called an ‘electro magnetic tape looper’, with
long guitar solos on top (especially ‘The Twenty-Eight Untitled Track’, and ’The twenty-Ninth Untitled
Track’) with a more experimental backdrop to the music, but also in some of the shorter pieces this is
the case. This is a great release in which Insane Music lovers, and I am surely one of those, will recognize
some of the later sound and in which old hippies will find much fun (although they may not read Vital
Weekly). It is not easy for me, short hair/no hippy, to point out the finer differences between Kosmose
and those names you know, and I won’t even try. I quite enjoyed this ancient trip, which shed another
light on the weird and wonderful world of Alain Neffe. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.eetapes.be
DISTORTED NUDE – THE SPRAWL (CD by Moving Furniture Records)
GAGI PETROVIC – DP[A] + HSH (CD by Moving Furniture Records)
Great! That was what I was thinking when mister Furniture Mover gave him the next two releases of
his label. The package is non-standard (A5 sized sleeves) and both names didn’t immediately ring a
bell, so it looks like Moving Furniture Records is taking more risks in the promotion of new (young?)
musicians by releasing them on CD, and as such they belong at the top of independent Dutch labels for
weird music these days and there is no one else. Full stop.
While the name Distorted Nude didn’t mean anything to me, I learned that behind is one Glenn
Dick, who worked before as Find Hope In Darkness and is part of Klangdal; Of the first I reviewed
‘Locked So Tightly In Our Dreams (Vital Weekly 961), which Moving Furniture Records released in
2014, when Dick was 15 years old. Of the latter I reviewed two releases in Vital Weekly 1092. I am
told that as Find Hope In Darkness, Dick worked with computer treatments and field recordings, but
for Distorted Nude he picked up the guitar again and composed this forty minute piece of drone music,
which in his short life is quite a career move, I guess, but maybe he wants to put a different hat for
each new style. While I will straight away admit I didn’t hear anything here that was different from
the vast world of guitar players, effect and loop abusers that we already know, I will also, in the same
breath, say that I very much enjoyed this one long piece. There is a slow thud of a percussion in there
half way through the piece and that might be seen as odd, it works pretty well. In the beginning the
guitar is all strictly about deep drones, in the second half things open up a bit and we recognize some
strumming and snare plucking, still embedded in a sea of drones. It all ends on a swirl of e-bow notes,
drifting away in endless sustain. Like I said there is nothing in here that I didn’t hear before, but Glenn
Dick does it all with great care and style, with a keen ear for detail and production.
Something entirely different is the music of Gagi Petrovic, who is a teacher, composer and performer
and this is his debut album. His work is more used in performances and contemporary dance and as far
I can see Petrovic is a man to use the computer extensively. His music is quite different than that of
Distorted Nude, and seems to me is more connected to the world of modern classical/electronic music.
There are two pieces here; four parts of ‘Dp[a] and two of ‘hsh’. The first is about “Dysprosody”, which
“is a very rare speech disorder that can manifest itself in several ways, such as unconventional changes
in pitch, volume and rhythm while talking. This could be seen as a nuisance and unwanted deviation
on established ways of communication, or as a new opportunity for truly expressing oneself” as Petrovic
writes. I would think that recordings of voices are the source material for these compositions, but just
as easily I will admit I am wrong. Whatever sources are, they are heavily transformed and mutated,
time stretched, filtered, looped and whatever else tricks the computer has. Mostly quite abstract but
in ‘Dp[A] 3_V3.38’ it almost sounds like a beat of some kind. The pure digital processing is perhaps not
something one hears a lot these days, and in ‘Dp[A]4_V2.71’ instruments and voice are used as well,
which adds human element to the music, but surely sounds quite fascinating. It certainly had
radiophonic qualities to it.
His other piece is ‘hsh’, which stands for the Moroccan term ‘shame on you’, which is when “when
someone’s behaviour is inappropriate – especially if that someone is a woman. This single word
expresses an understanding, a feeling and a certain tension” and the music was made for choreographer
Mouna Laroussi from Dansmakers Amsterdam and Petrovic’ assignment was ‘capture oppression’. In
these two pieces silence reigns more than in the other four pieces and there are minimalist strokes of
sounds going on, rather than filling it all up with sound. A sound comes in and disappears/silence and
then a new sound. It is all very minimal but it has a beautiful tension, in the second part all a bit more
continuous, layering sound event upon sound event. These two pieces are quite different from each
other and they both sound great, even when I have a slight preference for ‘hsh’. This album made me
curious about his other work. (FdW)
––– Address: https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com
BEAM SPLITTER – ROUGH TONGUE (CD by Corvo Records)
The 5 inches round disc in front of me is surely a CD and not a LP, not a CDR of the LP. Everywhere it
says that this is released on red vinyl, and not ‘also released on red vinyl’. So I am bit confused. Should
you not like LPs then ask for the CD I’d say. Beam Splitter is the duo of the amplified voice of Audrey
Chen and the amplified trombone of Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø. Both of these players are well-known
players in the field of improvised music and their work, though not together, has been reviewed in
these pages before. I had the pleasure of seeing Chen earlier this year in duet with IDM Theft Able,
which was certainly one of the best concerts I saw this year; both on voice. Originally she played the
cello but I have no idea if she still does. Beam Splitter has been going since 2015 and they toured the
world. The first ten pieces on ‘Rough Tongue’ are pretty short, from forty second to three minutes,
while the last piece takes up half the CD with twenty-two minutes. All of these pieces were recorded
in concert and it is all quite a tour de force. The music is very direct and in your face. Everything sounds
very close by. There is throughout lots of introspective playing, placing sounds carefully about; it’s
about interaction between two instruments and the control of these instruments. Very rarely Nørstebø
plays long form tones, perhaps as opposed as to what you would expect. Chen sounds at times like Jaap
Blonk. With this amplification every detail is made audible, which in a way I thought added to the level
of getting tired. This wasn’t the easiest music this week, but most rewarding nevertheless. (FDW)
––– Address: https://www.corvorecords.de
SILVAN JEGER – THIS DIFFICULT TREE (LP by Wide Ear Records)
With ‘This Difficult Tree’ Silvan Jeger presents his quartet of Silvan Schmidt (trumpet), Frantz Loriot
(viola), Vincent Glanzmann (drums) and Jeger himself (bass, vocals, shrutibox, composition). Jeger is a
Zürich-based musician investigating connections between song-format and world music on the one
hand, with jazz and improvisation on the other. It reflects his wide interest in music: jazz, country,
folklore, film and theatre music, postrock and ambient, etc. He is one of those young musicians who
make up the lively improv scene in Switzerland at the moment. With Tobias Meier (sax) he has a duo
(Cold Voodoo). Besides he participates in Day & Taxi, Reto Suhner Quartett, etc. The album is made up
of ten very different compositions, all by Jeger. It is a very mixed bag. But how different the compositions
may be, and make a fragmented impression at times, they are all united a concentrated playing by all
four musicians and breath a similar peaceful atmosphere. This is due also to the sober arrangements.
For that reason it is best called ‘chamber music’. In several of the tracks Jeger sings a melody combined
with an abstract instrumental background, like in ‘Winter’ or in ‘Momoko’. The opening of ‘Skulldull’
recalls Tom Waits-like arrangements, but turns into an improvisation by trumpet and viola over a
rhythmic structure. The themes composed by Jeger didn’t always convince me, but in track like ‘Double
Sun’ the beauty of the simple lines, interpreted so well is a great pleasure. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.wideearrecords.ch
COLIN POTTER – THE ABOMINABLE SLOWMAN (LP by Abstrakce Records)
By now it is very well likely that you saw a concert by Nurse With Wound at one of those bigger festivals
for ‘new’ music. You probably noticed that the central place, the nerve system, the core of the group is
not founder Steven Stapleton but Colin Potter, who brings all the sounds produced by others together
in a fine mix. Potter knows his way around sound effects very well, and in his solo music that shows as
well. I was playing this oddly titled record, (with odd pictures on the insert of a man in a hairy suit in
the studio, presumably mister Potter himself) and I was thinking ‘is there a specific sound/genre that
captures the world of Potter in a way?’ I realized that I couldn’t think of one, but perhaps it is because
the five pieces on this record weren’t what I was expecting from what I heard from Potter in recent
years. As Potter explains on the insert, some of these sounds are rather old, and somehow never found
a place in his work. In recent years the solo works of Potter were dark, mostly ambient and highly
atmospheric, yet not always from the most quietest sides of things. The earliest works I heard from
Potter, back in the day on cassette (many of which were re-issued later on) also saw him playing drum
machines and guitars. ‘The Abominable Slowman’ returns to that sound as in these pieces guitars play
an important, and so do drum machines. It makes for quite a change. Potter plays some quite forceful
tunes on this record in which the guitar howls around like in them good old hippie days (see also
Kosmose, but with Potter’s twenty-first century wizardry more violent), while the machines hammer
time away. Only ‘The Knights Are Drawing In’ is a bit more subdued piece of music, but also not entirely
free of looped sounds; just like the more orchestral ‘Unstable Tennis’. Potter opens up the whole box of
tricks in the studio to re-animate those early 80s and enlarge them into something new and he does he
great and rather surprising job, opening up a new road in his otherwise already wide palette of sounds
and has his tools working for him in a great way. An excellent reviving of his oldest sounds in a new
bright, shining context. (FdW)
––– Address: https://abstrakce.bandcamp.com/
80S UNDERGROUND CASSETTE CULTURE VOLUME 1 (2LP compilation by Contort Yourself)
X-MAS CARD FROM OUTER SPACE (OSCAR’S X-MAS CAROLS 1984-1987) (LP compilation by
Domestica)
A few weeks ago someone asked me how I could keep up writing about so much music every week and
I answered that, perhaps, for me it is some kind of large conceptual artwork. The music remains the
same, and I try to find new configurations of the same words to describe them, but essentially it
remains the same review. That of course isn’t true, but there are certainly some things I wrote about
a lot; microsound, ambient, drones for instance, but also ‘re-issues’, especially that deal with my own
past, releases from the 80s cassette culture, when a young FdW was knee deep in the ‘scene’. With
nothing less than amazement I look at all these re-issues, sometimes being surprised ‘oh my god, why
on earth this one? Who out there remembers this?’ So the often repeated story is that since the
disappearance of Napster, Soulseek and whatever else peer to peer network, replaced by the more
publicly open blogs in 2007-2010 a flood of ancient releases came back in the public mind and back
on the release list of labels, especially on LP. I am not sure if there is a relationship there, but me thinks
that much of the music deals with ‘rhythm machines and synthesizers’, so it’s easier to find distribution
in the vast world of dance music, which always have a small section for ‘historical weirdness’. As such, I
think we should regard these two releases.
First there is Contort Yourself from the UK who were in these pages before (see Vital Weekly 1074),
with 12” releases that combined the best of ancient heavy rhythm music with current dance music,
sometimes via re-edits but here present a double LP of classic, non-re-edit songs from bands and
projects that were once (heck, still) household names chez FdW; I am think of Doxa Sinistra, Menko,
Jackinthebox, Ende Shneafliet and Muziekkamer (not by coincidence I choose all the Dutch ones first!),
Die Klopferbande (with a track from ‘Endzeit’! ‘Endzeit’! Why isn’t that on LP?), ALU, Human Flesh,
DDV, Merzbow, Blackhouse or Nocturnal Emissions but also bringing me names that were stored in
the back of my head, Urbain Autopsy, PCR, Dead Tech, Missing Persons or Magthea and even a few ones
that I never heard of, such as Felix Menker, Cripture S.A., East End Butchers or Software. Captured here
are some great electronic songs, yes, songs is the right word I would think, and not the more serious
‘pieces’, but armed with one synth, one drum machine and sometimes a microphone these people
played a song. The four sides reminded me of classic double LPs as ‘The Elephant Table Album’ or
‘Three Minute Symphonie’ and it is to be hoped that thirty years from now this 2LP will rank among
these from thirty years ago as great places to step in and find out about the great musical underground
of the 80s. Perhaps the only thing that fails is the inclusion of The Legendary Pink Dots who were back
then on nearly every compilation.
I believe I recounted this before, maybe not in these pages but surely in whatever interview there
was with me as an ‘expert’ on the world of cassettes, but my one true hero back then was Oscar Smit,
who wrote for my favourite music magazine, Vinyl, about cassettes. His word was gospel and library in
one. With his short ties to the (cottage) industry it was easy for him to compile his own compilations,
centred on the theme of Christmas songs. Back then I assumed it was more a parody or a joke, but later
I learned that mister Smit is a genuine lover and collector of Christmas songs. It is no surprise that a
‘best of’ of his three Christmas cassettes is now released on LP by Spanish Domestica label. Spoiler
alert: one of my all-time favourite electronic Christmas songs is included, Ende Shneafliet ’s ‘X-mas
Card From Outer Space’ (I even use it in this week’s podcast, whereas normally I never put anything
from a compilation in). Meeuw Muzak should have done this on 7” ages ago as part of their annual
Christmas 7”s. Between 1984 and 1987 Smit compiled three cassettes and I am pretty sure I heard
them all, thanks to blogoland as I remember I only had the first, ‘Oscar’s X-Mas Carols’ and Santa didn’t
bring me the other two in the years after that. Some of these songs sound genuinely new to me, but of
course I didn’t play this cassette very often, come mid July in the sunny backyard. The mastering
sounds great, and there is an overall freshness to these pieces. The Legendary Pink Dots are here, as
well as a solo piece by Edward Ka-spel, Doxa Sinistra, Van Kaye & Ignit, Genetic Factor, Geluidshouwerij
(who will have their own retrospective LP out soon), Jacques van Erven (again, the Dutch comes first;
Grandmaster O of course opens up. Smit behind the turntables), plus Ptose, Atom Cristal, Pascal
Comelade from Smit’s second homeland, France, as well as Mark Lane, Bene Gesserit and Atrox &
F.P. & Doubling Riders makes this a wonderfully weird record for the season. Seeing no Meeuw Muzak
Christmas 7” this year, this retrospective LP will do as well to overcome those days (for those who don’t
like them; I am one). (FdW)
––– Address: http://contortyourself-cy.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://domestica.bandcamp.com/
O RATEL RATEL – ONTMANTELING (LP by Audio Visuals Atmosphere)
Following more than forty cassettes, Belgium’s Audio Visuals Atmosphere decided to make the next
big step, which is moving towards the release of it’s first LP. It is also the first LP by O Ratel Ratel,
following five cassettes for this label, but also Sill Anders, Mazurka Editions and Several Minor Promises.
I didn’t hear O Ratel Ratel before, but judging by his titles and band name one could easily say he’s
Flemish or Dutch. Listening to these eight pieces it is not easy to say what O Ratel Ratel does, but there
is certainly a background to be found in the world of power electronics, noise, heavy synthesizer music
and cassette abuse. There is a sonic richness in this cold sound that works very well. One can almost
hear the magnetic particles come off like dust onto the playback heads of the tape machine. Hiss is an
overall part of this music, which is great. The synthesizers are no less in any clean state either; there
is rust and dirt in the knobs, obscuring the sounds even further. There are a few pedals at work as well,
but I don’t think they do a great deal; I might be wrong. The sound is dirty as it is. All of this obscure
sound works out in a mild/loud manner, but not necessarily for the sake of noise. Yes, true, O Ratel
Ratel sound pretty noisy from time to time, in true power electronics/industrial fashion. Perhaps, but
he (?) also knows how to pull back gear and give the music some needed space and quietness. It never
gets super quiet as in ‘very ambient’, but it works all very well. As I was busy with other things and
didn’t want to change the tune for a while, I kept on playing this a few times around, back to front,
back to front, and every time I heard something new and every time I enjoyed it more. (FdW)
––– Address: https://audiovisualsatmosphere.bandcamp.com/
OLLI AARNI – NIELU (LP by Florabelle Records)
NED MILLIGAN – NATURE ALWAYS NEEDS IMPROVING (LP by Florabelle Records)
Despite Olli Aarni’s earlier releases Preservation, Dauw, Avant Archive, and Desire Path, I only heard
a previous work he did with Night Shift (see Vital Weekly 851). Many of his previous releases were
cassettes but now also on a LP, of which the title translates as ‘Vortex’. There is no information on the
otherwise lovely cover and insert that reveals what Aarni is doing here. It might be that he finds this
something of no importance to know for the listener, or maybe he is deliberately trying secretive. Two
sidelong pieces here, and ‘Hehkuva Tuuli’ starts out very abruptly, like it is cut out of an even bigger
thing. Quite the unusual thing I’d say to start a work of drone music. More commonly, but very much
not a requirement, is some kind of long fade in. Aarni clearly wanted something different. ’Sumuhuntu’
on the other side has a short fade in. From there on both pieces explore quite a sonically rich pattern. I
was thinking of heavily processed field recordings, fed in real time through a bunch of analogue sound
effects, and maybe there are some guitar (sounds) thrown in as well. I am not sure of either of that. The
music, so I am told, is inspired by the harsh winters in Finland and seeing a bit of first snow here, I am
more than happy to stay inside, enjoy winter inspired music, rather than enjoying winter outside (even
when winter here doesn’t match up with the one in Finland, I suppose. The sound is quite ‘thick’, like a
blizzard perhaps, but not noisy at all. Everything is stuck together, but it comes with some definition
within in the sound, and not an abstract amorphous mass of sound stuck together. If you isolate certain
elements you recognize rain, wind, guitar sounds, heavy use of warm delay and reverb for that
necessary space. Not necessarily very ‘new’ in terms of ‘this you’d never heard before in the world of
drone music’, but Aarni did a great job in creating a damn fine album.
Labelboss Ned Milligan presents his latest album, following ‘Continental Burns’, the first release
on his label, and his third album overall. That was my first introduction to his music back in Vital
Weekly 1024. Here too no instruments are mentioned but that’s more or less the only thing that is
shared between these two new releases on Florabelle. Milligan has five pieces on one side and one
long one on the other. When he before seemed (!) to have been working with guitars and electronics,
Milligan this time works with percussive instruments, along with field recordings and electronics.
These percussive instruments are most chimes and kalimba (says the website) and Milligan’s sound
is that of great sparseness and open sound, unlike Aarni’s closed off wall of ambient approach. Milligan
says Federico Durand, Chihei Hatakeyama, and Philip Corner inspire him but also by country life
around the farmyard. If Aarni’s record is about winter, than this seems to me about summer. Chimes
are hanging in the wind and via a microphone on a very long cable the sound goes inside, through a
tape-delay and spring reverb, which give these sounds their drone body, it becomes a beautifully
sparse ringing record. Of course it sometimes rains in summer (in ‘Rose Bench’), but throughout it’s
not. Incidentally I now notice that the record was recorded in “York, Maine and Sunnyside, New York”,
so there you go with that summer reference. Maybe subliminally work, sometimes? The sparseness
disappears a bit on ‘Handwashing Delicates (once more)’, the last piece on the first side, in which
Milligen experiments with field recordings and treatments there of, often it seems taping a bit of
thunder from afar. This is quite a different cake, and it breaks with delicate approach of the other
pieces, but maybe it’s also good to have such a break with that delicacy. It’s quite a different record I
think from the previous one I heard and it filled my heart with joy on a cold day; longing for summer
warmth I guess (or a holiday break). (FdW)
––– Address: http://florabellerecords.com/
KOTRA VS EDWARD SOL – SOKYRA (LP by Kvitnu)
Here we have two active forces from Ukraine’s experimental music areas. In the left corner Edward Sol,
working with lo-fi, rudimentary equipment, analogue synthesizers and cassette. He has his own Quasi
Pop and Sentimental Productions labels, whereas in the right corner we find Kotra, also known as
Dmytro Fedorenko, whose music is rhythmic and made with digital means. He has the Kvitnu label.
The record, according to the press text, was made in January 2014 when the streets of Kyiv were full
riots and Federenko was about deliver bottles, gasoline, gas masks and the usual ingredients for a riot,
when he got a call from Sol asking to pick him up as his car was broken. They discussed what was in
the car, and then the story gets a bit blurry, about a sharp axe and that it was left behind. Or some such.
On this 12” there are four pieces they recorded together, some twenty-five minutes of music that
sounds neither like Kotra nor like Sol. It happens that with collaborations like this that one player has
more say in the final mix than the other, but this time we truly have the best of both worlds. The rhythm
of Kotra is sampled together, I would think, from the lo-fi machines of Sol and it’s transformations are
played out by Kotra and also fed back to Sol, who takes matters a bit further. It is music that is almost
like a living organism, feeding on each other’s input; one can’t exist without. No sounds from Sol to
start with means no rhythms from Kotra, means to further transformations by Sol and Kotra and
ultimately, perhaps, no starting point from Sol. Maybe this is not how this record was made but that’s
how I hear the four resulting pieces. It is not like many of Kvitnu’s releases based on a heavier thud
for the dance floor, but something that is raw, loud and noisy, with an industrial riotous beat going
on below. Maybe it is music for a good old-fashioned riot indeed. A call to arms! (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.kvitnu.com
GX JUPITTER-LARSEN / ZEBRA MU (1” by Quagga Curious)
Over the years some strange things landed on my desk, and I don’t mean books or VHS tapes, but those
that were labelled ‘records’. There was a time that ‘anti-records’ was the big thing. For once you didn’t
need to do music as long as the record was a record, in some conceptual way. Due Process’ ‘Do Nothing’
was a blank piece of vinyl in tribute to Cage’s ‘4’33’ and ‘Do Damage’ by the same outfit, contained hand-
carved grooves; cut with scissors. GX Jupitter-Larsen of The Haters took things a bit further with a LP
with sand, which you had to pour over the vinyl (or CD, as it was also available as a CD version). Or a
shoebox with paper to be torn up; a piece of cotton in a small box to be squeezed. A piece of plastic over
which the listener had to pour water. I worked in a record store back then and surely some Haters fans
were very upset by what they clearly saw as fraud. Those were the days and they are not likely to
return, one should think, perhaps assuming all has been said in that department.
Everything? Well, almost. The smallest record I ever saw for a turntable was a 5”; actually several
of those (LOSD, Merzbow, Roel Meelkop), which is about the size of a CD. Here’s a 1 inch record, a split
between master conceptualist GX Jupitter-Larsen on one side and on the other Zebra Mu, ‘the band
behind the label’. According to the label each side is about 8 seconds long and I am told that the Zebra
Mu is a ‘drone piece’ and GX handed in a text piece. I am told, as no matter how I try, my record players
refuses to play this beauty. And quite rightfully there is no Bandcamp to check out the goods; because:
who would buy this record then if you could hear it easily online? Exactly, probably still everyone. Very
much like with anti-records in the late 80s, I would think that every one wants to own a copy of a 1-inch
record just for the sake of showing it to everyone else (a few weeks ago exactly this happened when I
visited a musician; “Look what I got!”) and have a great art object. Maybe there is no music on this at
all! Let’s wait for the 0-inch record and nothing else needs to be said. This is a beauty! (FdW)
––– Address: https://quaggacurious.wordpress.com/
MARGARETHA HESSE & SOPHIE TASSIGNON – LICHT – RAUM – ERKUNDUNGEN
(CDR by Sophie Tassignon)
At first sight a multi-media project by Margareta Hesse (lightinstallation) and Sophie Tassignon
(sound performance). Of course the CDR documents only half of it: the sound performance by
Tassignon. She composed this work for the vernissage on invitation by Margareta Hesse who built
a structure of red laser lights at Galerie Historischer Keller. So chronologically Hesse’s work was
ready when Tassignon shaped her performance that ook place on September 15th this year. She
used 15 pre-recorded samples, 3 live loops and live vocals for her live performance. The Gallery
insisted on having this recording repeated during the exhibition. So probably audio and visuals
made a good combination. The performance is very well recorded and very worthwhile to have it
available on cdr. But a few words on Tassignon first. She is of Belgian origin and debuted in 2006
with her jazz group Zoshia. Several collaborations followed, all within the context of jazz and
improvisation. In the last few years she developed a solo concept using electronic equipment and
vocals, entering the world of electro-acoustic music. As Charlotte and Mr.Stone Tassignon (loops,
voice) she released two albums with – also Berlin-based – Simon Vincent (electronics), for his Visions
of Sound label: ‘Trees & Birds & Beautiful Things’ (2011) and ‘Live At Café Du Burgaud’ (2014).
Vincent you may know from his album ‘Real-time sound sculpture vol.1’ (2017) with Tom Arthurs
as well as other releases on Visions of Sound that were reviewed here. ‘Light – Raum – Erkundungen’
is the first solo statement by Tassignon. For sure this music deserves a life on its own. The music
evokes a strong sense of space, ethereal and poetic space. It is of a fragile and delicate nature. Almost
completely constructed from manipulated vocals by Tassignon. Although manipulated, her voice is
always recognizable. Luckily, as she has a beautiful voice and a lot of technique. The release counts
three fine, satisfying compositions that all have her angelic, melodic singing, contrasted with abstract
sounds and looped sounds of her vocals. A real intelligent and tasty job! (DM)
––– Address: http://www.sophietassignon.com/
GUSEV/HOOGEBOOM/MIMLITSCH – TRAPPED (CDR by Thirsty Leaves Music)
With ‘Trapped’ we are in the company of a trio of Gusev K.P. (electronics, treatments, mixing), Martin
Hoogeboom (noise, guitar) and Paul Mimlitsch (clarinet). Hoogeboom is a Dutch experimental artist
and musician operating since the early 80s when he was member of the Dier-collective in those days,
etc. Clarinettist Mimlitsch is involved in the local scene of Denver on the one hand, and participating
in internet-based collaborative projects on the other hand. Mimlitsch and Hoogeboom worked together
in recent years in Hoogeboom’s project Stoomkamer. There are several EPs out of their free improvised
music. Of Moscow-based Gusev K.P. I don’t know much, except that earlier this year, Hoogeboom
worked with Gusev K.P. for his release ‘Pap’s O’ for MAV Records. So Hoogeboom probably is the linking
pin for this combination. Their release gives room to nine delicate improvisations that are difficult to
describe. Their minimalist music is open and poetic. Each sound is given room and space. Clarinet and
the electronic sounds accommodate well with another. Their music is well-balanced and focused. A
tasty job by this intercontinental trio! The CDR comes in a limited edition of 50 copies, in hand-made,
numbered paper gatefolds. (DM)
––– Address: https://thirstyleavesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/trapped
JAMES WORSE – TESTUARY TO LULLUBA (CDR By Atemwerft)
Atemwerft is a label specialized in vocals arts in all its variations and manifestations. A netlabel, but
they make their releases also available in carefully designed cdr-format. This debut recording by
James Worse is the latest example of this. Worse is an artist originating from Australia, who began
writing and performing in 2010. He plays percussion in Hand of Stabs, a trio with Jocelyn von
Bergdorff and Kevin Younger. They create sound works on locations of all kinds. Also he collaborated
with Nurse with Wound doing a live performance. Quietus classified him as ‘Master of the surreal
Word’. The term surreal is well chosen. Worse dreamed up his sound-language of so-called ‘worsicles’,
a very idiosyncratic and personal language. His intonation and dramatic performance gives one the
impression he tells a story or proclaims a poem. The title-track is a work in five parts, supplemented
by the bonustrack ‘These Jutterin Sharbs’. All we hear is Worse proclaiming his poems. No instruments
or sounds are companying him, just his voice. His convincing vocal performance is sensual, using
rhythm, intonation, and all aspects that we normally use to transmit meaning and to establish
communication. However there exists no dictionary of his ‘worsicles’ although they seem deeply
rooted in the English language. The CDR is released in limited edition 99 copies in white origami
cardboard cover. (DM)
––– Address: https://atemwerft.bandcamp.com/
ACID DISCHARGE – MARODE (CDR by Ralmic Records)
ACID DISCHARGE – INDUSTRIAL LEGACY (CDR by Ralmic Records)
These two releases were handed to me recently in Augsburg where the musician who calls himself
Acid Discharge lives. The first one is a short release, twenty minutes and the soundtrack to a movie,
which can be found on YouTube, as made by Brezenstudio in Munich. We see the dust covered ancient
and empty factory floor, but also rusty objects moving in the mill. I am not sure by current technology
or ancient cogwheels, but it gradually becomes more and more abstract. Acid Discharge’s music is a
most fitting soundtrack to all of this. There is a slight industrial rumble going on, which could also be
the sound of decay in the very same place, like scraping the old metal floor and doing a further once
over with some more electronic devices. It is forceful, surely, but not necessarily loud for the very sake
of doing something loud. It is the industrial music soundtrack of the post capitalist society; one of a full
decay in action. Decay is okay!
‘Industrial Legacy’ is a full-length album from 2017, not the only one he did this year, looking at his
Bandcamp, which contains the struggle against consumerism, the industrial world if you want, with
slightly different means. There are ten pieces here, somewhere between one and eight minutes, so
shorter and each with his distinctive voice, of computer manipulated electronic sounds, field recordings
if you want from inside the factory. I am merely guessing, I hope you understand this? Acid is discharged
over the machines and the melting process is recorded and controlled, decomposed for your pleasure.
Somewhere, sometimes there is a voice to be heard; the voice of reason or a cry for help? I don’t know.
There is quite some variation brought to the table by Acid Discharge and along with the thought that
went into these pieces makes all of this another excellent noise plus release. (FdW)
––– Address: https://acidd.bandcamp.com/
CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE – STTT THOMASSS “”””DINGGGDONGGGDINGGGzzzzzzz ferrrr
TONYYY”””” (cassette by Blank Forms Editions)
When Charlemagne Palestine came out of hibernation in the mid 90s I saw him, professionally and
privately, quite a bit, but in more recent years he went ‘more art’, ‘more official’, highbrow even, and
I moved out of the business and remained, well more or less, underground. His recent releases don’t
seem reach these shores that much anymore, but here’s something. Earlier this year, March 17th,
Palestine climbed the stairs of the Saint Thomas Church’s bell tower, where he played between 1963
and 9170 every day between 5:00 and 5:30 the carillon. This time he played a concert in memory of
Tony Conrad, who died last year and who is also a New York minimalist, and admitted to be a fan of
Palestine’s carillon performances in those early days. This is the piece (repeated on the second side)
as it was played that day, including a short sung intro by Palestine, recorded at a Conrad memorial a
bit later. There is the sound of cars passing and a bit of spoken word, but both remain at a distance.
There is a strange audio quality to the recording, almost like it is in some way processed, or captured
on an ancient tape that adds a curious form of ‘wobble’ to the music; it is not easy to explain, but it
surely makes a great sound. It’s strange and mysterious, almost like a very raw field recording (actually,
of course, it is a field recording, but you know what I mean), with those occasional car (horns), voices
and Palestine in some distance hammering away his minimalist tones that intertwine and expand.
The fact that they sound like church bells and is in memory of a deceased person add perhaps a bit of
religious context/flavour to the music, even when this may not be intended. It is, all in all, a very
loving tribute to a great minimalist composer by a likewise great colleague. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.discogs.com/seller/blankforms/profile
INTIGUE TALUURE & PLUS INSTRUMENTS – NEWTONS FLAT FIDELITY VOL. 2 (cassette by
Bananafishing Records)
Quite rightly you could ask what Volume 1 if this is Volume 2. That one saw Intige Taluure working
with Rudy Trouve and now with Geertruda de Groot, best known as Plus Instruments (see also Vital
Weekly 1034, 894 and 814). This is my first introduction with Intige Taluure, a duo of Phlitman and
Kang, from Belgium. Their cassettes are about working with other people. So in this case we have songs
that are started by Plus Instruments and finished by Intige Taluure and vice versa. With eleven pieces
the balance is in favour of Intige Taluure when it comes to starting them. As I haven’t heard of them
before, I cannot judge easily who’s doing what. Surely the voice of De Groot is a clear presence in most
of these pieces. Throughout I think the sound owes quite a bit to De Groot’s work as Plus Instruments
(but also her work outside that context), especially her singing. The music is all-electronic and the one
thing that Plus Instruments didn’t bring to the table, it seems, is the sequencer, motorik beats that she
is also known for. The mood is more atmospheric here, more poetic, and songs as poetry, such as in
‘Curtain Call’ or even the funnier ’Sjeik El Pfff’. It is perhaps also a bit more surrealistic, nightclub
atmospheric, intimate than wholly extravert. A nice game can be played by closing your eyes and
think which one was started and which was finished by either one (in my case, knowing De Groot’s
music better, of course I was thinking of her contribution), but in reality (and honesty) I should say
that this is almost an impossible job. These eleven pieces sound very coherent as they are, and it’s not
that one influence prevails over the other, but in reality they all sound as the result of three people in
a room writing these songs together. I heard lesser music from people that actually were together
when recording, so all the greater the achievement here. (FdW)
––– Address: kim.kangman@gmail.com
GRAEAE – BLACK RED (cassette by Faux Amis)
The music on this cassette left me rather puzzled. Graeae “[pronounciation grey-ee]” is a quartet of
players, Niko Markanovic (voice, guitar), Rutger van Driel (bass, electronics), Serpentine (accordion)
and Spelonk (violin, electronics), of which we recognized the last two as guest players from anarcho-
punk-impro’s Lärmschutz of which Van Driel is a member. Two pieces on this cassette, each almost
thirty-five minutes, culled from studio recordings and live-improvisations, which are edited together.
What’s there to puzzle, mister weekly? Well, this: sometimes the music is lovely with mild
improvisations, piercing softly with electronics, the accordion playing a melancholic and melodic tune
(and not the drone beast it sometimes also is) and the guitar and bass fill in lovely; there can be
contact microphones on these instruments for a more ‘object based’ approach to the music, all of this
is left for exploration for some time; Graeae take their time for this, and slowly develop their pieces,
sometimes venturing out into a noisier modus. And all of that I quite enjoy. The thing I didn’t get is
that they can launch into a more song based, rock based sound, including vocals, which didn’t cut it
for me. Maybe in concert this makes more sense (well, for me that is), but the melancholic alto-pop
tune that would fit a David Lynch movie (or as Graeae sell their music: “Engage yourself in the
soundtracks of the movies David Lynch isn’t going to make anymore!”) is perhaps not so well spend
on me. I guess it didn’t help that they were in Dutch. Luckily there wasn’t a lot of this stuff among the
more refined improvisations. Not bad, I thought, but not entirely, throughout great either. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fauxamisrecords.bandcamp.com/