FRANCISCO MEIRINO & BRUNO DUPLANT – DEDANS/DEHORS (CD by Moving Furniture Records) *
DREAM SEQUENCES VOL.1 ORPHAX REFRAMED (CD by Moving Furniture Records)
OH MENSCH – MICROTONAL MUSIC FOR 2 GUITARS (CD by Seminal Records) *
15-18 – BACK TO 14-18 (CD by DeDieux / \ SuccoAcido) *
KOTRA – FREIGEIST (CD by Kvitnu) *
SPACEHEADS – A NEW WORLD IN OUR HEARTS (CD by Electric Brass Records) *
RUTGER ZUYDERVELT (WITH ILIA BELORUKOV & RENE AQUARIUS) – THE RED SOUL (CD by
Sofa Music) *
JAAP BLONK & TERRIE EX – THIRSTY EARS (CD by Terp Records) *
LORENZO MASOTTO – WHITE MATERIALS (CD, private) *
BJ NILSEN – TERROIR (3”CD by Ferns Recordings) *
LJERKE (CDR/DVD by Eilean Records) *
KATJA INSTITUTE – +++ (CDR by Katja Institute) *
A LILY – TEN DRONES ON CASSETTE (CDR by Sound In Silence) *
SWEENY – MIDDLE AGES (CDR by Sound In Silence) *
DEAD EDITS – OPAQUE STAGGERIES (3”CDR and box by Ballast) *
CORE SHIFT – DIEPTE (3”CDR by CS Music) *
FRANCISCO MEIRINO & BRUNO DUPLANT – DEDANS/DEHORS (CD by Moving Furniture Records)
DREAM SEQUENCES VOL.1 ORPHAX REFRAMED (CD by Moving Furniture Records)
First we have here the collaboration between two active forces from the world of field recordings and
electronics. Francisco Meirino appears a little less active these days when it comes to releases, but he’s
still interested in everything that falls apart yet can still be captured on tape, from broken equipment
to background hiss and Bruno Duplant not only uses field recordings, but also instruments such as
double bass, percussion, organ and electronics. On their work together they use field recordings and
all sorts of on site captured electronics. In the press text they tell us about all things Luc Ferrari,
montage, superimposition but the bottom line is “in any case, it is the listener who has to construct
his own story based on his recognition of the sources, or according to his interpretation of these
sources.” I must admit that is not always the way I approach such things, thinking about recognition
of sources or constructing stories. I hear people talking in French (Meirino comes from Switzerland,
Duplant from France), there is a bunch of recordings which I find very hard to locate anyway, there
is a bit of piano, lots of faulty lines in the electrical department, and sudden, abrupt starts and stops,
the ever present montage techniques of layering unrelated sounds together. There is quite a radical
approach to some of this music, with some extreme frequencies filtered right up in the music, which
I think is very much Meirino’s interest. What this is about then for me? I have no idea, but as said that
is perhaps not how I approach music per se, as a narrative or not; for me music like this is more about
the quality and the beauty of the sound and how these are put together. Do I hear something of beauty?
Is it something that can hold my attention, or puts me otherwise in another mood (not necessarily
relaxed)? Those are the questions I (also) consider and in this case I must say I rather enjoy what I
hear. There is an excellent quality to the sounds and it is put together in a great way, very imaginative
and very much part of the French history of musique concrete and as such they are excellent
successors to the work of Luc Ferrari.
For the next one of course the whole notion of ‘compilations’ and ‘remixes’ come into play, and I
could leap into why I think remixes that sound very similar to the original are not my cup of tea and
that remixes should perhaps promote the music to an entirely new audience. And of course that
reviewing compilations is not really my thing. That might all be true and very much so in this
particular case, but this is 2018 and a bit of favouritism (or nepotism, but I am not related to any of
these guys) is a common place now, so what the hell anyway? Well, that is because not all of this is a
remix in the strict sense of the word. The three people on this release interpret the way Orphax works
or are inspired by him, and most especially by the (so far) four volumes of ‘Dream Sequence’ (see Vital
Weekly 1096, 1072, 1015 and 1001), and one of these three is a remix in the traditional sense of the
word. Over the years I have reviewed a lot of music by Orphax, maybe even pretty much everything
Sietse van Erve ever did, so this CD with three interpretations/remixes is a common ground for me in
the world of drone music. It is quite interesting to see what are people think Orphax is about and how
different the interpretations are. For instance Haarvöl from Portugal, who open up with a twenty-four
minute piece made out of a field recording, in this case a modified bagpipe, which they in one way or
another process into quite a gritty and rough drone piece in which, so it seems, the acoustic quality of
the space it is played is of quite some importance. Jos Smolders uses modular synthesizers and find
the darker qualities of Orphax music of particular interest and in quite a linear way he unfolds a few
drone sounds and on top waves more isolated sounds, albeit with some reverb and delay and they die
out like black holes. Rutger Zuydervelt, also known as Machinefabriek, is the one that does a strict
remix and takes ‘Dream Sequence #3’ apart in a even darker place than Smolders just did and nothing
much seems to happen but it is a piece of very delicate beauty. This is an excellent start of a new series,
I think and I am curious to see what the next will bring. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.movingfurniturerecords.com
OH MENSCH – MICROTONAL MUSIC FOR 2 GUITARS (CD by Seminal Records)
Behind Oh Mensch we find two guitar players, Matthias Koole and Kobe van Cauwenberghe. I don’t
think I heard of them before, but apparently they both have “a broad experience in multiple formats
in which contemporary/experimental music takes place.” They play usually electric guitars and often
in a very extrovert way. However on ‘Microtonal Music For 2 Guitars’ they explore the acoustic guitar
and perform pieces by composers, “recent classics of the repertoire and rarely played pieces by
established composers”. So we have here pieces by Arthur Kampela, Larry Polansky, Brian
Ferneyhough, Christopher Trapani, and Turgut Ercetin; names that vaguely sound familiar, but I
easily admit I am not well versed in the repertoire, classic, rare or otherwise. All of these pieces deal
with micro tonality and this time that doesn’t mean a bunch of electronics to generate some feedback
with acoustic guitars being amplified, but playing notes that are very close together. This is all about
different tunings of the guitar than say Keith Richards would do when writing a new Rolling Stones
song. Would you perhaps not know all of this, one could mistake this music for a duet of improvisations
for acoustic guitars, rather than compositions (which no doubt leave much freedom in how to play
them). This is most certainly not easy music to sit down, play and read a book in the meantime. This
is music that requires quite a bit of attention on your part before unfolding some of its beauty. And
even then I found the music not easy, as these pieces are rather soft played and when using full
concentration something that I found particular tiring. Best would be to sit down and play a
composition a day; at least that worked best for me. There is something oddly beautiful in these
duets, which I found hard to put my finger. The more I played it, the more I liked it, without being
able to tell exactly why that is. Maybe it has to do with the whole modern classical music thing that
is beyond my usual vocabulary? That must be it, I guess, so my best guess is to check it out for
yourself. (FdW)
––– Address: http://seminalrecords.bandcamp.com
15-18 – BACK TO 14-18 (CD by DeDieux / \ SuccoAcido)
Everyday you learn something: “In Italy until the late twentieth century it was quite common among
older men and women to use expressions such as: “that person is from 15/18, you are from 15/18, a
thing from 15/18”, to define or indicate something or someone as old-fashioned, belonging to another
era. Originally the epithet referred – with abundant clarity – to completely unsuccessful people or
businesses.” 15-18 is an Italian group with Nicola Greco, Pietro Palazzo, Domenico Salamone, Federico
Cardaci and Marc De Dieux, or keyboard, Brazilian percussions, objects, guitars, mandolins, guitar, iPad
and traditional percussion and in the space of one day in 2015 they recorded the fifteen pieces on this
CD. The band refers to this as ‘primitive chamber music’ and indeed it sounds like a few people locked
in a room with a microphone set up, taped these improvisations. A bit of no wave like, but very much
coming a more rock group background. It has a very intimate sound, nothing extreme or distortion,
but at the same also not very quiet either. They doodle about which is always a good way to pass your
time, but I must admit that 69 minutes is a bit too much of this. One wishes for a good bit of noise to
drop by, a loud drum solo or someone singing a traditional blues song along with this. But that doesn’t
happen and they drag on with mild dissonant guitar bits, obscured drum sounds and free form song
structures. I was reminded of DDAA here and there. I think a recording of this on a multi-track machine,
with someone mixing this together would certainly have been an option, as it would, perhaps, have
brought some variation in the music, emphasizing certain elements or leaving out others for a while.
Now the whole stick a microphone in the air approach and document all that is happening certainly a
tiring feel to it. (FdW)
––– Address: https://15-18music.com/
KOTRA – FREIGEIST (CD by Kvitnu)
It seems as if Dmytro Fedorenko is more active as Kotra than before. Following his solo release ‘Cicada’,
reviewed in Vital Weekly 1104 and his collaboration with Edward Sol (Vital Weekly 1111) there is yet
another new solo release called ‘Freigeist’. Quite a short release, lasting just under thirty minutes, but
maybe that is because it is also available on vinyl? In his ‘mission statement’ Kotra writes that he wants
to “explore his own and audiences perception limits, how music can affect body and mind at the most
extreme points” and it was “always a way of radical transformation through the sound, as one of the
most powerful abstract tools of communication. Pushing extremely loud waves to audience Kotra offers
another look into irritating and disturbing physical face of music, next to it’s aesthetics side”, and on
‘Freigeist’ we find five examples of this of this radical approach, but one has to keep in mind that playing
this at home is something different than hearing this in a concert situation, assuming, at least, that one
doesn’t has such a set-up at home. Usually the music of Kotra is a combination of harsh rhythm, minimal
but not without a groove of one kind or another, and harsh synthesizer sound. This time it seems that to
me that there is a slight shift towards the use of more harsh synthesizers, while the Pan Sonic inspired
minimalism of beats is pushed a bit to the background. It is there, for instance in ‘Inhaling A Black Frog’,
but more as cycles of electronic sound and not via the use of a rhythm machine. The synthesizers (and I
really couldn’t say if these are modular or perhaps a bunch of machines like a Korg MS20) make the
record here and in that sense this seems to me one further radical step down the line, one move further
away from what could still be seen as ‘dance music’. With ‘Freigeist’ this is all a bit harder to see that
sort of happening. I can imagine that at all full volume force (and you bet I don’t have that home!) you
can barely move around but you are pressed against the wall because of use of extreme frequencies. At
home that may work a bit differently but the impact is no less forceful, I think. Explosive stuff, play
loud. (FdW)
––– Address: http://kotra.org.ua
SPACEHEADS – A NEW WORLD IN OUR HEARTS (CD by Electric Brass Records)
RUTGER ZUYDERVELT (WITH ILIA BELORUKOV & RENE AQUARIUS) – THE RED SOUL (CD by
Sofa Music)
JAAP BLONK & TERRIE EX – THIRSTY EARS (CD by Terp Records)
All of these three CDs came in one parcel, send by a German promotional agency and I wouldn’t treat
them as one thing but there is something that links all three together, I think, which justifies a
collective review and that shared thing lies perhaps in the term ‘collective’. First off are UK’s long
standing duo of Andy Diagram on trumpet and loop pedal and Richard Harrison on percussion who
are called Spaceheads. They celebrate 100 years of Russian Revolution (so we are a bit late I guess
with this review, even if you think about the Julian calendar which was in use at the time of the
revolution; official release date was November 7; obviously) which they announce as “the 13 melodic,
bright and positive new tracks celebrate ‘the people’s struggle’ throughout the ages to achieve a
better world”, which I am not sure if is meant to be ironic or not. From my point of view the Russian
Revolution was nothing but the start of a bloody civil war, culminating in one of the biggest mass
murders of the 20th century, along with that of the communist regime in China and Nazi Germany.
You may have guessed that I am not necessarily a big fan of communism as I don’t believe in
collectivism (even when this review proofs otherwise) as I very much like to be my own man and
think for myself, so I’d never call myself left or right wing. And perhaps there is also something to be
said about ‘music with a message’; I firmly believe music has no message. Words, covers, context may
have, the actual music doesn’t. Now of course I am looking at this cover (the music being largely
instrumental) with all these slogans and it would be nice to conduct a little experiment and play
these indeed quite cheery songs to people who have no clue what this is, of course not show the cover
and ask them: “what you reckon’ this is about?” And I bet none of them will say: “well, blimey, ain’t
that the lovely Russian Revolution, workers of the world unite and all that!” Should this record bring
us a better tomorrow, to formulate your own thought, freedom to believe what you want, a world that
cleaner and safer, no more oppression, then let us march for that with these tunes. The music
Spaceheads play is cheery, march like, militant (not militaristic) and while I will still not join their
(or anyone else’s ranks) I am all for it.
Which brings us to the soundtrack for the film ‘The Red Soul’ by Jessica Gorter, which is about the
fact that no body has ever been convicted for the crimes committed under the Stalin regime, and that,
according to the film maker (I haven’t seen the movie) lays “bare the Russian psyche of today and
exposes a world full of contradictions. Stories of pride and pain follow one another in a mosaic of
portraits of ordinary Russians, both young and old”, which sounds an interesting movie to view one
day. For the soundtrack she wanted something that sounded very subtle and not cliché-driven or
overdramatic and handed a bunch of “old Bakelite record with a speech from Stalin and a few LPs of
old Soviet songs” to Rutger Zuydervelt to compose the soundtrack for which he also uses new sound
recorded by sax player Ilia Belorukov and percussion by Rene Aquarius of Dead Neanderthals fame
(and earlier this week tried to smash my ear drums when he played with Vincent Koreman locally)
and Zuydervelt created indeed something subtle; fourteen pieces in thirty-five minutes. Some of these
pieces sound very sketch like with what seems Zuydervelt first grinding the vinyl almost clean and
then playing a 78 at 16 rpm to tape some audio residue; not Stalin, it seems to me, but a choir pops up
every now and then, which may account for some of the nostalgia still felt by some people today for the
old regime. Without the proper context of the movie it is hard to say how it works together (very much
like Spaceheads and their call for revolution), but as a standalone work it fits very much the previous
(many) works by Zuydervelt; careful, stylish, crackling, droning and simply beautiful. The contributions
by Belorukov and Aquarius are not easily recognized I think, be it that they are heavily transformed or
otherwise played with a technique that renders it beyond recognition. As a standalone work this is a
most enjoyable work, but it also made curious about the film and the full picture, as it were.
A few years I dared to challenge the punk credentials of The Ex, or rather one of its members
because a CD was released of pieces that were also released as four 7” records shortly before that and
apparently one is not allowed to discuss that. I was pointing out that I am a reviewer, not a journalist
and I base my judgements of music and releases on what I hear on the actual disc and as for background
I sometimes take what I read in other media and official media (mainstream media by the parlance of
our times) always claim that The Ex is a punk band. Following our chinwag I never received any more
promo’s from The Ex camp, which I find a great pity as ever since as a 14 year old buying their first
7” (“All Corpses Smell The Same”) I kept following them and believe they are the only free minded
punksters that for whom no musical rules exist. Right up my alley. As far as I know guitarist Terrie
Ex is the only original 1979 member and someone who has an impressive resume when it comes to
playing improvised music. Jaap Blonk has a similar resume without being part of any group and has
played with The Ex when they existed 25 years. Terp Records is the solo enterprise by Terrie Ex for
his collaborative releases and on October 4th, 2017 he and Jaap Blonk met up to release the nine
pieces on this CD (LP is also available) with Ex on his guitar (the same one as almost forty years ago)
and harmonium and Blonk on voice and electronics (laptop maybe, Kaospad might also be possible)
and together they created some interesting pieces of music that aren’t exclusively be titled ‘improvised’,
I would think. Take for instance the opening piece ’Sound’, which holds between a song and a poem,
with Blonk reciting and Ex improvising about the subject of the song (something that also happens in
‘Let’s Go Out’); in other pieces this also happens next to pieces that could be labelled as down right
pure improvisation. Ex in his playing is a more traditional player; with him the guitar sounds like a
guitar, whatever way he bends his strings. As far as I could see there was only one piece with
harmonium. Blonk divides his interest between voice and electronics better I think, and combines
both at times, and as stand alones on other times. Some of Blonk voice pieces reminded me of the
earliest work I know of him, more than twenty years ago (the cartoon like voice he sometimes uses)
and in his use of electronics he is pretty extreme. All of this, traditional versus new, song versus
improvisation, instruments versus electronics, make this a very highly varied disc that won’t shock
fans of The Ex (but surely that wasn’t the point anyway) and has a most pleasant anarchistic streak
about it, just the way I love them. (FdW)
––– Address: http://spaceheads.co.uk
––– Address: http://sofamusic.no
––– Address: http://terprecords.nl
LORENZO MASOTTO – WHITE MATERIALS (CD, private)
The word ‘curious’ is in more than one way quite appropriate here. First of all the cover, which is a
cardboard one that you can buy without any print on 4 panels are glued to it, which in an edition of
200 copies seem like a lot of work. ‘Curious’ also applies to the music as made by Lorenzo Masotto. I
heard of him before, when I reviewed his ‘Aeolian Processes’ (Vital Weekly 1078), which I partly
enjoyed for it’s modern classical references (Wim Mertens in particular) but was also a bit too sweet
for my taste. Masotto’s main instrument is the piano and he has a very melodic touch, you can tell he
knows how to play a melody. There is a bit of electronics in play also, to colour the sound of the whole
thing and there is a bit of violin here and there, as well as some wordless singing in a few pieces. Those
pieces certainly didn’t win me over; all of that sounded too new agey for my taste but through that
classification is something that I find a lot on this album. There is also a bit ‘other’ interests such as the
pots and pans percussion of ‘Return’, along with (more) sweet tinkering on the piano, and again Budd/
Emo, Mertens and Roedelius are the main sources of inspiration here, be it or not willingly. Masotto’s
jazz background comes up in ‘Fragile’ with a drum machine (lots of rides and cymbals here). I guess it
is all quite good and very well made but perhaps more suited for a different kind of publication. (FdW)
––– Address: https://lorenzomasotto.bandcamp.com/
BJ NILSEN – TERROIR (3”CD by Ferns Recordings)
The commercially pressed 3”CD is something that seems very much a thing from the past it seems.
The home printed CDR version is something that we see a lot (see elsewhere for instance) as it’s a fine
way of quick promoting a limited idea or one-off project. The factory pressed version seems very much
out of favour, which might also because it is harder and harder to play them now that computers and
laptops don’t have slots to place them in and the one adapter you thought couldn’t be found. That’s a
pity because I always enjoyed them, and luckily so does French label Ferns Recordings, who have been
around for twenty years but so far released only 12 CDs and mini CDs. BJ Nilsen is a man who doesn’t
need much introduction as he released a whole bunch of work on Touch and Editions Mego with his
works containing processed field recordings and here he went to Austria to record the ’terroir, harvest
and fermentation during vinifaction’ which recordings were then processed and collaged into a piece
of music that was originally a four-channel installation and now reduced to stereo for release on CD.
Being not much of an oenophile (you look that up) I had not idea what the word ’terroir’ meant but it is
apparently to do with ground upon which the grapes grow. Actually I came to realize that I don’t much
about the whole process of wine making and listening to this nineteen and half minute work doesn’t
become much clearer, which I think is okay. I very much enjoy the combination of what seems to me
natural recordings (rain drops on leaves), hand controlled apparatus and more mechanical ones that
Nilsen taped and works out in drone passages, such as in the final five or minutes, but also shorter
which blend (pun intended) with other in what seems abrupt ways, all along the rules of musique
concrete. By ways of filtering the sound changes and stuck together in the overall composition, which
by BJ Nilsen’s standard I would think is a fine one, but not his finest moment. It would rank among the
better ones in his vast catalogue of works though. (FdW)
––– Address: fernsrecordings@free.fr
LJERKE (CDR/DVD by Eilean Records)
While this looked ‘new’ to me it turned out, upon closer inspection, that this is actually something I saw
played in concert. Ljerke is quite a big band, involving not just musicians but also video artists. It is a
collaboration between Dutch artists, musicians Romke Kleefstra, Jan Kleefstra (who also wrote the
lyrics and recites them), Sytze Pruiksma and video artist Marco Douma (you might recognize his name
from work with Roel Meelkop and Rutger Zuydervelt; see Vital Weekly 852) and Norwegian musicians
Alexander Rishaug, Hilde Marie Holsen and Michael Duch plus video artist Haraldur Karlsson from
Iceland. Instruments wise it is quite heavy on the use of guitars, contrabass, effects, but also trumpet,
electronics and dulcimer. If you know previous work by the brothers Kleefstra than you may have an
inkling where this music is at; deeply atmospheric, with long sustaining sounds on the guitar, that
vaguely post rock sound, never complete without a cello and Jan Kleefstra deep voice intoning his
poetry in the Frisian language. Yet this time I would say it is a bit more than just that ambient post
rock feel; the music this time is expanded a bit further and comes with stranger textures, odd sounds
and something that is in general a bit more experimental, a bit noisier even. I must say the overall
sound surely benefits from that. The chirping of electronics versus the long sustaining sounds of guitars
and contrabass, along with what could perhaps be some processed field recordings and sometimes a
more improvised music approach (in ‘Muure’ for instance) opens up a whole new spectrum of
possibilities. It expands the atmospheric approach from the Kleefstra brothers and it works
wonderfully well. I think they should consider this experimental approach in the future with other
musicians as well, as the possibilities expand quite widely.
And the video? You know I am not the sort of man who knows much about that, but I have seen
quite a bit of Douma’s work, as well as Ljerke performing all of this locally (so including Karlsson’s
video work, but as far as I remember this too was a collaborative effort) and I very much enjoy his
approach in video art. Many shots of nature, reflections of trees in water, plants in the wind, the
changing of day and night, and the layering of this, along with the addition of abstract symbols works
very well here. These are the images that fit the somewhat more experimental nature of the
atmospheric music very well. Overall this is an excellent release! (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.eilean-records.com/
KATJA INSTITUTE – +++ (CDR by Katja Institute)
On the last day of 2017 Katja Institute released the last release of 2017, a three track CDR (twenty-
eight minutes) and the ever so mysterious Institute delivers no information on the cover (and I mean
no information at all, just an image) and on the Bandcamp site there isn’t anything either. The Katja
Institute dabble heavily in the world of digital processing of acoustic sounds and whatever those
sounds are they are no longer recognized due to many transformations used. The result is a very
minimal pattern of sound that goes on for quite some time. In the first long piece there is a strong
using of ‘phasing’ effect, which is something that we don’t hear a lot of these days anymore. In the
second long piece there is a similar phasing effect, just a bit slower really and it seems like it’s the
first piece is reverse, which, given the conceptual nature of the Institute may not be a surprise. In
the third and shortest piece the phasing effects are used in a very quick (hence: shorter?) and it
sounds very looped based. This is again some very puzzling music, radical as well as minimal. I love
it! (FdW)
––– Address: https://katjainstitute.bandcamp.com
A LILY – TEN DRONES ON CASSETTE (CDR by Sound In Silence)
SWEENY – MIDDLE AGES (CDR by Sound In Silence)
Here we have two new names for me, and I started with James Vella, who works as A Lily and who is
a member of “instrumental post-rock band Yndi Halda” and he is from Brighton. Since 2006 he also
works solo as A Lily and has had releases on Dynamophone, Pxdis, Fierce Panda, Love Thy Neighbour
and Aagoo Records and ‘Ten Drones Ob Cassette’ is his third full-length record. As the title says we
have here drones that were taped on cassettes, and first released on a cassette, each piece on a single
cassette in an edition of one copy. It is not easy to say what means Vella uses to do his music; either a
guitar I would think with a ton of effects or perhaps a synth but with the same amount of effects. I
would however think it’s the first but I have no good reason to think so. It is music on a slow drift;
waves formed by strumming a bunch of strings and via a delayed sustain they die out on a slow
course. It is like standing on the beach and watching waves wash ashore in slow motion. In each of
these pieces there isn’t an awful lot of changes and yet it plays out the dark mood very well. Music
that fits easily to sepia toned movie of slow images moving about, music that has very little action,
which could fit a movie with likewise little action. Mostly the music is at the lower end of the sound
spectrum, but sometimes also a bit on the mid/high end, but it never gets anywhere to the world of
noise, distortion or such things, but a piece like ‘Layla’ comes close to the world of shoegazing. It is, by
and large, a collection of ten very solid pieces of drone music and as such these pieces don’t sound like
something that is very new or innovative but I am surely that is not the thing that A Lily is interested.
Playing a solid bit of drones surely is.
Sweeny might seem like a new name, the man behind it is Jason Sweeny, whom we otherwise
reviewed as Panoptique Electrical (see Vital Weekly 1049 and 1112), but who also has projects as
Other People’s Children and Simpatico, or with other people under names as Sweet William, School
Of Two, Luxury Gap and Par Avion and many more. To all of that he now adds the name Sweeny, and
with the help of Jed palmer and Zoë Barry on cello, accordion, strings, guitars and bass, Jason plays
the piano (just as he does with Panoptique Electrical, the only other project of his that I heard) and
sings. Ten pieces here as well, but all a bit shorter and quite different than what is usual in the world
of Sound In Silence. This is not really pop, of course it isn’t, but if you are familiar with Talk Talk then
you surely could see a pop like reference. And of course I mean ’Spirit In Eden’ and ‘Laughing Stock’.
Music with a sense of drama and perhaps, if one was to approach this in a more negative way, pathos.
The addition of strings, cello and minimal beat make all of this perhaps also very chamber music like,
whether or not you attach the word ‘pop’ or ‘orchestral’ before or after that word. Sweeny’s voice is
dark, reminding me at times more of Dave Gahan than of Mark Hollis, at least as far as I can judge this
with my limited knowledge of such pop matters. This is surely not music that cheers you up, I think
and maybe a few days late for a full mode of depression regarding blue Monday, and certainly not
something for all seasons but the winter isn’t over yet, so there is something to enjoy here. Not
entirely my thing but I can tell it is made with great care. (FdW)
––– Address: https://soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com
DEAD EDITS – OPAQUE STAGGERIES (3”CDR and box by Ballast)
Somewhere in 1979 I began reading a Dutch music magazine, ‘Oor’ to be precise, and pretty early on I
realized that there was always something to mention about Brian Eno, so it must have been then that I
read as a part of his CV that he made something called “Oblique Strategies”, subtitled ‘Over One
Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas’, and it took me some time to actually know what it was. It is a deck of
cards, basically, with thoughts that could help artists with the creative work. Years ago I bought a box
myself, mainly as a birthday gift plus it seemed nice to have in my ‘studio’. A friend dropped by one day
and I read a few to which he responded “what is that? A game for the family, like Pictionary?” When I
explained he was still nonplussed about it. Eric Lunde and Blake Edwards, also known as Dead Edits
came up with their own version and they have 112 cards divided in two small jewellery boxes (7×9 cm,
making it smaller than the original, but then there is a card in there that reads “measure once cut
twice”). The title may imply that they may take the piss out of the original, but that is not the case, I
think. Some of these may read as ‘silly’, such as “Watch paint dry” or “BUT”, or “That Doesn’t Sound
Anything Like A Train”, others I could seriously consider, such as “Delete 12 files”, “Link Disparate
Elements” or “Ask For Feedback From Someone Well Outside The Field”. This is an excellent read! It is
very well designed and with those boxes it looks lovely. The fact that the audio CDR is something that
doesn’t fit in the box, not even at 3” size is a pity (a business card CDR would have fitted though!). On
the disc we find this (and I have to use this long quote as I am not sure what it means, but maybe you
is more clever than me): “the audio upon which is a tri-layered recording of me [Blake Edward]
typesetting the Opaque Staggeries in Quark 4.0 on an iBook G3 while one of Eric’s “opycay” devices
recorded and played back intermittently, a microcassette recorder recorded and played back
intermittently, and a microcassette with audio from Eric played back intermittently; the 60-ish
minute process was captured on a zoom recorder (non-intermittently) and then layered to create
the final product.” So whatever happens here (and intermittently is a word often used!), there is
some odd real time feeling to this recording but with some real-time delay going on, like stuff
happening a bit later. It is surely a strange recording of some action performed (the typesetting
of cards as it happens) and it sound both curious as well as just damn fine, especially when one is
reading these cards.
There are only 22 copies of this beauty, which is a lot less than the Eno/Schultz box of which
various editions were made, which of course has been around for forty years now. Let’s hope for a
similar long future for this; I think it deserves it. (FdW)
––– Address: https://ballastnvp.blogspot.com
CORE SHIFT – DIEPTE (3”CDR by CS Music)
Mike Kramer, also known as Core Shift, assures me it is purely coincidental that this is released very
hot on the heels of ‘Ontdekkingen’, which I reviewed only last week. I wrote then that Core Shift “after
a short flurry of releases (Vital Weekly 988, 940 and 931) became silent again”. In his older work he
showed a love for the classic 90s ambient with a firm dash of minimal rhythm and that was also the
case last week, albeit with the addition of poet. No poet here on this twenty-minute piece that is called
‘Diepte’, also the name of the painting by Martijn Lucas van Erp that inspired the music. ‘Diepte’
means ‘depth’, and depth is surely something the music of Kramer has. Deep washes on a bunch of
synthesizers and slowly adding a bunch of slow drum patterns along with this, at least in the first
half of the piece. Not at all a strict 4/4 patterns hammering some house beat away, but a bit more
down-tempo and like an on-going bang. In the second half of the beats there synths are still washing,
but sound differently of course and along there are loops added of what could be animal sounds with
some mild processing. Otherwise there is not much rhythm. It is an interesting choice to first have ten-
minute part with rhythm, followed by one with without. I think many other composers would do this
the other way round. It is a great piece and easily something that the current incarnation of Silent
Records could (and should release). It is dark, cinematic, and highly atmospheric and comes with a
fine dash of non-dance rhythms. Years ago I predicted the return of ambient house, but that never
happened I think (and so it goes with my psychic abilities), but if it comes than Core Shift was an
early player of the next wave. This is an excellent release with only one problem: it could have been
longer as far I am concerned. (FdW)
––– Address: https://coreshift.bandcamp.com/