L’ECLIPSE NUE – LIFEBLOOD (CD by Aussaat) *
MOSTER & EDWARDS & KNEDAL ANDERSEN – DIFFERENT SHAPES/IMMERSION (CD by
Va Fongool) *
TRONDHEIM VOICES & ASLE KARSTAD – :ROOMS & RITUALS (CD by Grapp)
DANNY MCCARTHY – THE RAUSCHENBERG SCORES (CD by Far Point Recordings) *
BOB BELLERUE – MUSIC OF LIBERATION (2LP by Elevator Bath)
MICHEL BANABILA – VOIZNOIZ (2LP on Steamin’ Soundworks)
VENTA PROTESIX – ENDLESS INCAPACITATING DISCOMFORT (CDR by Urb Sounds)
DOC WÖR MIRRAN FEAT PAUL LEMOS – LIMERENCE (CDR by Miss Management) *
JOSEPH B. RAIMOND – THE CUNNILINGUIST (book by Mirran Thought)
LÄRMSCHUTZ TAFELMUSIK SEPTET – VIERTE TAFELMUSIK (cassette by Faux Amis)
DAVID BREMER – PARADISE REFUTED (cassette by Fang Bomb)
CHEMIEFASERWERK – PLAY/STOP (cassette by Econore)
BRGS – FREE DBEAT (cassette by Zvocniprepihi) *
STAŠ VRENKO – KLIMA (cassette by Zvocniprepihi) *
SSMKOSK – PRIJATELJI SO ME DVIGNILI K SONCU, KO SEM IZDAL POLETJE (cassette by
Zvocniprepihi) *
FUA – SAME (cassette by Fancyyyyy) *
JULIAN ABRAHAM ‘TOGAR’ – ACOUSTIC ANALOG DIGITALLY COMPOSED (cassette by Hasana
Editions) *
NURSALIM YADI ANUGERAHSELECTED PIECES FROM HNNUNG (cassette by Hasana Editions) *
SUBESPAI – A DEAFENING SILENCE (cassette by Chemical Imbalance) *
SUBESPAI – VESPERTINE WORKS (cassette by No-Fi Hideout) *
SUBESPAI & DOXYLAMINE – BASE (cassette by Eupcaccia Records) *
L’ECLIPSE NUE – LIFEBLOOD (CD by Aussaat)
It has been quiet for some time for Daniel Sine, the man behind L’eclipse Nue. The last album I
heard from him was ‘Zayin’ (see Vital Weekly 1044). It was the last album he recorded in Tokyo,
before moving to Harford in Connecticut. There, in his apartment, he recorded ‘Lifeblood’, his tenth
album. Important for Sine is that the place where a recording is made has an imprint on the music,
and from what I understand he doesn’t live in the best of neighbourhoods. L’eclipse Nue plays
noise music, using synthesizers, samplers, vocals and effects. It is what we once called power
electronics and it’s not difficult to see influence from early Ramleh or Con-Dom. However L’eclipse
Nue’s music is not a full on blast, which is something I enjoy quite a bit. ‘The Reflection Bleeds’
opens here with a classic take on power electronics. Screaming voices through reverb and delay
pedals. But moving on to ‘Mechanical Priest’, the second piece, you realize that Sine has a broader
musical perspective. He plays around with sampled sounds of metallic objects, loops of his own
voice, circulating feedback modules and who knows what else. These aren’t necessarily the
loudest bits, thus allowing for something that subdued but at the same time he remains for his
music to be intense, which is something he controls to a great extent. L’eclipse Nue easily handles
his noise in a great way, loud and dirty as the manual of the genre dictates, but he also knows his
way around with slightly more subtle sound approaches and all of this leads to some highly
varied bunch of pieces that make quite a heavy trip altogether. While noise for the sake of noise
is not really my daily routine anymore, I quite enjoy this kind of noise; the kind of noise that needs
more thought and concept and isn’t some mindless sixty minute headache. (FdW)
––– Address: ernten@aol.com
MOSTER & EDWARDS & KNEDAL ANDERSEN – DIFFERENT SHAPES/IMMERSION (CD by
Va Fongool)
This is a new release from the Oslo-based Va Fongool-label. The label specialised in experimental
and improvised music, started in 2012 and built up a small catalogue of adventurous improvised
music and it is a release by Kjetil Møster (saxophone, clarinet), John Edwards (double bass) and
Dag Erik Knedal Andersen (drums). Kjetil Møster is a Norwegian saxophone player. Since 2000
one can find him participating in numerous projects and groups, ranging from jazz and improve to
pop and hip-hop. John Edwards is an extraordinary bass player from London starting as member
of God and B Shopps for the Poor, with an endless list of jazz and improve musicians to follow.
Oslo-based Dag Erik Knedal Andersen is drummer and improviser, who studied jazz Conservatory
of Music in Trondheim. I´m not sure they have a history as a trio. In any case this is their first
release as a trio. Offering two extensive improvisations ´Different Shapes´ and ´Immersion´ both
recorded live at Cafe Oto on September 7th 2014. Both improvisations start quiet and searching.
Gradually they develop an intense interaction, with subtle phrasing and playing by Møster.
Andersen proves to be a very creative drummer with many figures and gestures to his disposal.
Edwards is very effective with his interventions. Halfway they get involved in a high-energy
cacophonic battle, followed by a more subdued third part. A very captivating set with expressive
and intense improvisations of three very capable players who were optimally tuned in for their
collective improvisation. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.vafongool.no/
TRONDHEIM VOICES & ASLE KARSTAD – :ROOMS & RITUALS (CD by Grapp)
The Trondheim Voices are a pool of up to twelve singers, performing in group of seven to nine.
The choir started through a concert initiated by the Mid-Norway Centre of Jazz in 2001, bringing
together a diversity of singers active in the Trondheim jazz scene. All singers had experience in
different types of improvisation and jazz. Over the years they developed into a profiled vocal
ensemble with their own working methods and concepts of performance. Often their performances
are specific for site and space where they place, using unique technological tools. Over the years
they worked with numerous composers, as well doing improvised music with sound designer Asle
Karstad, an essential partner since their start in 2001. Except for ‘Hymn’, a traditional hymn from
Renebu, the choir improvises all songs with live electronic processing by Karstad. It is a live
recording with no overdubs and an interesting and unique concept for sure. That’s to say
personally I don’t know of similar projects. The CD has twelve short improvisations: all between
one and six minutes. In each improvisation they create a very spacious, electronically treated
vocal environment. Long screams, yells, etc embedded in spooky electronic textures. Resulting
in ethereal otherworldly evocations, that make you feel dwelling in the underworld. There is much
beauty in their sound, but in the end the improvisations remain not too prolific and amorphous for
my ears. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.grappa.no
DANNY MCCARTHY – THE RAUSCHENBERG SCORES (CD by Far Point Recordings)
Playing paintings and screens as if they were musical scores is of course not really something
new. Here we have Cork based Danny McCarthy who was invited by the Rauschenberg
Foundation in Florida and worked in the studio in which Rauschenberg created his prints to play
the piano; keys of which have been played before by John Cage and David Tudor, among others.
Sometimes there would be mysterious ‘other’ sounds happening at night, but if they are captured
on tape, they are surely not easy to hear. You could glance at the package or look up
Rauschenberg on the Internet, or you could, as I did, sit back and don’t do anything at all, and just
take the music in. There is no accurate playing of scores like this; it is more like a response to what
the player sees and how he interpreters the works he sees, translated into some very sparse piano
music. There is quite a bit of silence between the notes and McCarthy uses, as far as I can judge
these things (not being a piano player myself), the entire instrument and extended techniques to
play it. The strings and the body are as much part of the musical piece as the hammers and the
keys. I have no idea how this was captured on tape, but sometimes it seems quite far away and
over the course of these fifty minutes it seems as if the distance is only growing. As I was mourning
over the loss of a friend this week (like I’m sure many others did who have some connection with
the world that Vital Weekly is part of), this is the sort of contemplative music that goes down well at
such moments, even when it is perhaps not something that McCarthy intended as such. Between
the notes, there is the white space, the emptiness and there is much to contemplate, both in dark
times, and perhaps also in less dark time. This is a wonderfully fine release. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.farpointrecordings.com
BOB BELLERUE – MUSIC OF LIBERATION (2LP by Elevator Bath)
Over the years the name Bob Bellerue was more visible in the announcement section of Vital
Weekly, then in the reviews. Only a solo 7″ and a cassette by Kilt were reviewed, but both some
time ago (Vital Weekly 616 and 892), so this double LP can make up for some serious gap in my
knowledge. On his Bandcamp page, Bellerue calls himself “a noise composer, experimental
musician, and creative technician based in Brooklyn NY”, but without mentioning any specific
instrument. The cover here however surely mentions some specific things. This record was
recorded on 3 April 2016 at Sonoscopia in Porto (Portugal), using bass, shruti box, gong,
harmonica, voice, supercollider, nova drone, guitar pedals, contact mic, microphone, mixer,
guitar and and bass amp and I assume he doesn’t play it all at once. In these sessions he was
working with drone feedback and these instruments and later on played them at the “old marble
and plaster cavern of Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, to harness the resonant acoustics”. This is
a record of some powerful drone music, cracking under a heavy weight. Bellerue plays these
instruments not at the same time, even when on various occasions they sound together. Everything
seems to be dealing with moving around objects, microphones and amplifiers, generating a fair
amount of feedback like proportions, all with a tendency for some loving distortion. This is noise,
indeed, but not some mind dumbing orgy of feedback; it is more like a careful examination of
space and the way sound moves around in this space. This results mostly in dark, massive yet
atmospheric pieces of music, but in the opening of the third side also with some piercing, high-end
cymbal exploration. None of the pieces has a title and they aren’t sidelong observations. Some
sides seem to have been split in a few pieces, sometimes merging slowly into each other. This is
quite a varied record, with Bellerue exploring every possibility the material seems to be offering
here, which makes the range quite far. From the Shruti drones to distorted drone, open cymbal
playing and what seems to be a saxophone on the first side (which it surely isn’t), it is all very
delightful to hear, although given the somewhat louder nature of this, one could consider to take
their time in delving into this. But for the more daring listener this might very well the aural
challenge needed. An all-ear cleansing exercises if you will. Play loud, but I assume you got
that already. (FdW)
––– Address: https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/merch
MICHEL BANABILA – VOIZNOIZ (2LP on Steamin’ Soundworks)
A lot of time has passed since Dolf Mulder reviewed Michel Banabila’s ‘VoizNoiz’ CD back in Vital
Weekly 189. Also various things happened. Back then I used to leave much of Banabila’s music to
Mulder, wrongly assuming it was all more about world music along the lines of Jon Hassell, calling
it wrongly ‘fourth world music’, until Banabila slapped me, quite rightfully and politely, on the wrist,
basically saying I was wrong and should listen better. I did, and much to my surprise much of
Banabila’s music covers a wider territory, both ambient, world music, experiment and even noise,
as his for instance his work with Machinefabriek testify. So when this 2LP re-issue of the original
1999 ‘VoizNoiz’ arrived I didn’t forward this to Mulder, but decided to go for it myself, with the
recently (last decade or so) acquired knowledge of Banabila’s music. As the title indicates, voices
play quite an important role in the music and while I have no idea where these voices come from
(samples? radio? own recordings in the field? own singing?), they very much remind the listener
of ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ by Eno/Byrne. There are a whole bunch of musicians thanked
for their contribution, Tanar Catalpinar [East Meets West], Hanyo van Oosterom [Byzantium, Flying
Dutchman], Chris Grem [Cobraz], Hans Greeve [Banabila/Saka, Rick de Vito] and Remko Deyl
[Omar Ka], but they might as well contribute some musical notes. The music is perhaps also a
reminder of that Eno/Byrne collaboration, as it dwells heavily on the use of rhythm, but at times
is quite light and cheery, if not also much more fragmented. Here too Banabila works extensively
sampling, lifting his sources wide and far. From old records, TV tunes, obscure documentaries
and with all of this he creates some excellent, mostly short, pieces of music. Only once it connects
with a dance music scene, when it becomes drum ‘n bass like, but in none of the other pieces there
is this connection, which makes the music actually very much out of any time, really. Throughout
the music has a very filmic character, even when the shortness pieces make it sounds a bit
fragmented. Lots of these pieces could easily be edited onto a movie or a documentary (you may
not be surprised to learn that Banabila does quite a bit of that for Dutch TV and film). These pieces
are short, sweet, dark, funny, strange and to the point and yet this variation is never strange; it all
works very well together.
As a bonus there is a new sixteen-minute suite, which is a remix of sounds used on the original
and its crafted together by Banabila and Oene van Geel, with whom he regularly collaborates. Van
Geel plays viola and crackle box and adds voice. This too evolves around rhythm, but over the
course of the piece changes the station quite a bit, while sounds fly in and out, yet none of which
are easily recognized from the original pieces. Only towards the end, when things become
sufficiently more abstract the viola of Van Geel gets a dominant position in the piece, making a
soaring a beautiful end to the album. The subtitle of this album is ‘urban sound scapes’ and that is
surely a true thing; sounds from all of the urban landscape are used here, think of the inner city of
Banabila’s hometown Rotterdam on a hut summer’s day, and it is most lovely, weird, pleasant
album. The mood here is certainly as diverse as the city. (FdW)
––– Address: http://steamsounds.com
VENTA PROTESIX – ENDLESS INCAPACITATING DISCOMFORT (CDR by Urb Sounds)
That is one helluva strange guy, Venta Protesix, also known as Italo Belladonna, from Italy, with
his sexual obsessions and loud noise. Noise that he produces, so I would think, in a very digital
manner. Most of the times it is a screaming harsh wall of cold noise, of sounds stuck in a washing
machine, the shortest, tiniest sound particles on loop, but spinning around through an endless line
of software packages running amok and into each other. Sometimes, such as in ‘Post-Masturbatory
Suicide’ it seems like there is a truly fucked up rhythm at work, dancing at 500 bpm if not more.
However, and that is probably the most curious thing, there is long, almost ambient intro of ‘Her
Keyboard Drowned In Tears’, which continues once the noise kicks in. Unlike the composers of
harsh noise wall music, Venta Protesix knows how to add a bit of variation to the proceedings.
Chaos is something he seems to be enjoying to quite an extent, which is something that is also
different from the wall noise brigade. There are nine tracks here and it lasts thirty-six minutes.
After that you’d want some peace and quiet. I know I did. (FdW)
––– Address: https://label.urbsounds.sk/
DOC WÖR MIRRAN FEAT PAUL LEMOS – LIMERENCE (CDR by Miss Management)
JOSEPH B. RAIMOND – THE CUNNILINGUIST (book by Mirran Thought)
Since the name Paul Lemos isn’t a very regular feature in these pages, a short reminder. Lemos
is the main man behind long going ‘industrialists’ Controlled Bleeding, which both involved the
now deceased Chris Moriarty and Joe Papa. I use that parenthesis for a good reason. To call
Controlled Bleeding an industrial group isn’t doing them justice as in their almost forty years of
existence they did all out noise music, dance music, byzantine singing and metal. It is perhaps not
really very odd to see them working with another group of musical omnivores, Doc Wör Mirran.
They too can be all over the musical place, even when I have yet to see an all out dance record
by them. By they took can rock, do noise and ambient, so it’s interesting to see where a musical
collaboration would lead them. Expectations nil, anticipation full on, therefore. As always I have
very little notion of how these things were made; I assume there is a tape of some kind of musical
material by Lemos, which is used by Ralf Lexis, .mario. and über Doc Joseph B. Raimond, to add
along, play along and not use the tape and extract new sound material from it. Likewise I have very
little idea if there was any sort of planning; ‘send us some drones’, ‘do some noise’, that sort of thing.
The first two pieces are both around the seven and a half minute in duration and display
everybody’s love for cosmic electronics, ambience and drones via some analogue synthesizers,
bubbling and sustaining and soundwise they are very much ‘part a’ and ‘part b’ of the same thing.
The title piece is the third and final piece here and it lasts twenty minutes, which sees these men
bouncing a bit over the musical spectrum, with occasional distorted guitars, some voice/delay
material, a krautrock drum beat, field recordings, more space synths, some sparse percussion,
some Controlled Bleeding inspired/delivered synthesizer sounds, all cut ‘n pasted into a lovely
collage that takes the listener on a fine, almost psychedelic trip, ending with a furious slab of
noise/voice. At thirty-six minutes perhaps a bit short, as I wouldn’t have minded some more of
these explorations between these old ‘n wise gentlemen of experimental music.
Joseph B. Raimond also publishes books of his own poetry, and ‘The Cunnilinguist’ is
subtitled ‘Western Haiku, Volume 8’. This is a book to leave lying around, pick it up, flip a random
page, read a few of these haikus and then put it aside again. These are not your ‘standard’ (??)
haikus of birds flying, misty pond, the duck quacks, but sometimes fierce comments on western
civilization, which is a very loosely used term in this book. “America, yes, I’ve deserted you / For I
prefer real hippos / And beer that doesn’t taste of piss’ to more introspective ‘Put your pen away /
You’ve fulfilled your duty / For today’ to funny (and relatable) ones as ‘The caffeine and alcohol /
Battled fiercely in his bloodstream / He just sat and enjoyed the show’. Written in various cities,
always with reflections on his immediate surroundings, some of these seem to me very accurate
observations. Great stuff. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.dwmirran.de
LÄRMSCHUTZ TAFELMUSIK SEPTET – VIERTE TAFELMUSIK (cassette by Faux Amis)
Maybe the three members of Lärmschutz went quiet during the heat wave that pestered the
lowlands, or maybe they were on holiday, but it sure was quiet for some time for them. Now Stef
(guitar), Rutger (trombone) and Thanos (prepared piano; not on percussion this time) return and
added four extra players; Ab (bass), Jan (electronics, keys), Simon (saxophone) and Daniel
(trumpet) to recorded ‘Vierte Tafelmusik’. I read on their Bandcamp site “Tafelmusik is a Barok-era
term used since the mid-16th century for music played at feasts and banquets, often employing
basso continuo. Lärmschutz takes these bass lines, designed as a start point of bass improvisation
in the classical piece, and makes their own improvisations around these themes, reshaping them
into entirely new free music.” They do this in six pieces, each somewhere between twelve and
fourteen minutes. It is quite something else again for Lärmschutz. While it is obviously rooted in
improvisation, the music is surely chaotic at times; it is also much less noisy than some of their
other work. At times it becomes quite spacious, perhaps due to the addition of the electronics and
keyboard, but also the guitar sometimes meanders about. There is not much use for electronic
effects, if any at all, which leaves more room for acoustic sounds captured in the space it is played
in. Sometimes the music becomes orchestral and filmic, such as in ‘Bone Jesu’, or free jazz,
especially when the saxophone takes the lead. It is perhaps a bit long all together but it works very
well. It is always good to hear Lärmschutz, it’s great to hear them exploring new roads within the
concept of what they do, and that is improvisation. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fauxamisrecords.bandcamp.com/
DAVID BREMER – PARADISE REFUTED (cassette by Fang Bomb)
Sometimes one just gets a cryptic text. Something like this: “This year, David Bremer has made his
second comeback to Planet Earth. This release marks the 23rd anniversary of his first (solo works)
cassette. It tells a story about another journey, one that never was made. The sommarplåga of this
year’s unconscious episodes.” It might very well be that that first (solo works) cassette is not on
Discogs, which lists a release from 2006 as a solo release. We also learn that he worked as
Chemical Co-Operation, releasing a LP in 1998, as DBHG (with Henrik Grevesmühl) and as
Kadaver with Kristian Olsson. All of these side projects have one or two releases, so Bremer is
perhaps not the most active musician we know. There are ten abstract electronic compositions on
this cassette and it’s hard to say what Bremer does sound wise or uses equipment wise; if of
course such is a question people would like to know. I for one am usually curious about such
things, certainly when it is not easy to guess, something which is surely the case here. The music
composed by Bremer is quite dark and it could have been made with slowed down reel-to-reel
tapes, heavily processed feedback captured on tape, a few keys on synthesizer pressed down or
still some sort of device that plays the guitar? It could be any of this or even a combination of this.
It all is heavily atmospheric in a sort of post-nuclear landscape sort of way. The barrels are leaking
with toxic waste and Bremer has the soundtrack for such a scenario. It is that kind of industrial
music that is not unlike that of Sewer Election; rusty cassette music. Capturing field recordings on
Ferro cassettes, which have been re-used a couple of times, fed through some sound effects and
some dirty yet mysterious sound emerges. That’s David Bremer’s music and he does a great job
at that. But obviously I am a sucker for such techniques! Lovely tape. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.fangbomb.com/
CHEMIEFASERWERK – PLAY/STOP (cassette by Econore)
Following a first edition of 11 copies, “housed in hand-sewn bags made of recycled tissue”, there is
now a regular edition of 17 copies in a normal cassette case. In the early days of Chemiefaserwerk’s
career I reviewed some of his releases, but looking at Discogs I surely missed a few. Before he
worked with electronics and cassettes, this new work is ‘field recordings and prepared cassettes’.
Two pieces here and they are both recorded live; they last ten minutes each and sound at times
pretty hissy. None of the field recordings captured here can be traced back to anything you may
recognize out there, in the fields as it were. The end of the second side for instance sounds more
like a bunch of instruments, playing at different speeds; the opening of Side A is a hissy bunch and
some loop in reverse. Whatever these preparations are, the development in both pieces is quite
minimal. There is throughout a very lo-fi feeling to these pieces, which isn’t something odd as this
is the sound of Chemiefaserwerk. The sound of oxidation brought to live by sticking a microphone
in a pool of chemic, toxic waste. The second side has a bit more action, where the first stretches it’s
ideas out a bit too slow, I would think. (FdW)
––– Address: https://econore.bandcamp.com/
BRGS – FREE DBEAT (cassette by Zvocniprepihi)
STAŠ VRENKO – KLIMA (cassette by Zvocniprepihi)
SSMKOSK – PRIJATELJI SO ME DVIGNILI K SONCU, KO SEM IZDAL POLETJE (cassette by
Zvocniprepihi)
If I am not mistaken these cassettes are very limited; maybe even as limited as 10 copies. I think I
only recognized the name of Jaka Berger, also known as Brgs. From him I reviewed a bunch of
works dealing with percussion, mostly with improvised music. His ‘Free DBeat’ is not really
different, except that he now feeds his drums through something that is called the ‘Veznik modular
synthesizer’. In this ‘Free DBeat’ Brgs is ignoring the “foundation of groove, which is in drummers
case, the Holy Grail, the metronome. The means of expression to find the recipe that would allow
me to play open within strict tempo were found in layering dirty modular synthesis and bunch of
punk attitude to overcome the militant metronome ruling our perception of groove and time”, which
I must admit did not all together make much sense to me, as some of this sounds pretty much within
the rules of the beat; as far as I know about such things really. I understand that punk attitude in as
much these pieces were rather short and to the point, with that modular synth piercing the eardrum
to some extent. Not your standard punk obviously, but I can understand some of the chaos and
energy used in playing this music. The radio fragment at the start of each track is a nice gimmick,
saying ‘a new track starts’, but wears out after a couple of them. All in all a fine and furious release.
I did not hear of Staš Vrenko before, who studied fine arts and design in Ljubljana, Slovenia,
and works within sound, sound design, sculpture, performing arts and kinetics. He also does
workshops on the construction of DIY synthesizers and here has a cassette with four pieces of
which the fourth spans the entire, nineteen-minute, B-side. There us a long text about the how’s
and why’s of this, which is not entirely clear to me. From what I hear I can deduct Staš Vrenko is
someone who loves working with sounds in a collage-like form. Where these sounds come from
doesn’t really matter, but he surely has plenty of them. There seems to me quite a bit of field
recordings at play here, along with some crudely taped improvised music bits and bobs, but what
sets this aside from most other releases that do this sort of thing is the fact that Vrenko also uses
freely stuff taped from radio and records, the plunderphonic part of it all, and that is something that
doesn’t happen a lot. Vrenko cuts, pastes, layers and creates somewhat dense collages out of this,
which not always go somewhere and seems could use a bit more structuring here and there, and
not be a somewhat endless trail of sounds.
SsmKOSK was born in 1991 in Ljubljana and completed a study of ancient Greek language,
literature and comparative linguistics. Besides that he is a guitarist, saxophonist and DIY electronic
instrument builder. As SsmKOSK he works with “cutip poems, bumper breaks, depleted turbofolk
and other sound blisters”. While SsmKOSK shares some of the punk attitude that is also captured
by Brgs just now he works it out in a different way, which is one filled with samplers and assorted
lo-fi mechanics to come with some breakcore, gabber inspired beats, in which it is not easy to
recognize any poetry, even when a few voices have been sampled, but at the rate of 0,001 second
combined with some heavy stuttering beats it is not easy to make out anything sensible. It is surely
all-nice, but at the same time not something that I would play a lot. I can hear this with interest, but
it’s just not my cup of coffee and I sure am ready for one. (FdW)
––– Address: https://zvocniprepihi.bandcamp.com/
FUA – SAME (cassette by Fancyyyyy)
Fua is a trio of Adam Campbell (guitar, electronics), Tristan Clutterbuck (electronics) and Tina
Krekels (alto saxophone) operating mainly in Scotland. Their debut release offers a collection of
sessions recorded in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast over the last few years. Campbell plays
regularly with Fritz Welch (Lambs Gamble, FvRTvR, Peeeesseye) an Ego depletion. Clutterbuck
recently released a duo with Aonghus McEvoy (Woven Skull). Krekels researches feminist techno
science and improvisation. As a trio they aim for a free improvised music of a very radical kind.
Most of what we hear are extreme loud and noisy improvisations. Others however are on the
other side of the spectrum. But in both cases they combine pure noise with improvisation. And
they do that extremely well. There is a fine balance between pure noise and improvisation.
Throughout their interactions are very exciting and on the edge. Sax playing by Krekels is
great: very urgent and intense. Also sax and electronics make a perfect pair in the hands of
these musicians. Their abstract noise-oriented improvisations are not just a lot of noise, but very
focused and inspired improvisations, yet very radical and outspoken. This is an absolutely
worthwhile and urgent stuff. Released by Fancyyyyy, a new label for “radical electronic music
& chaotic synthesis”. (DM)
––– Address: https://www.fancyyyyy.com
JULIAN ABRAHAM ‘TOGAR’ – ACOUSTIC ANALOG DIGITALLY COMPOSED (cassette by Hasana
Editions)
NURSALIM YADI ANUGERAHSELECTED PIECES FROM HNNUNG (cassette by Hasana Editions)
The Indonesian label Hasana Editions nurses young talent from their country and here they have
two new artists. First from Medan, Indonesia, is Julian Abraham, who is described as “a
multidiscipline artist and pseudo-scientist”, even when the latter seems to me no recommendation.
For his music he adds ‘Togar’ to his name, like that with parenthesis. These days he lives in
Yogyakarta and creates his kinetic installations. Both sides of this cassette contain pieces that
comes his recent installations, and one side contains thirteen pieces that are called (percussions)
and the same amount is on the other side, called (solenoids), even it is not easy to point out the
differences. Both sides sounds like percussion music; the first side perhaps in some kinetic,
mechanical way banging on percussive surfaces, and the other more like re-assembled inner
working of a clock, which are “magnetic solenoids”. I understand that both sides are played by
some kind of device that involves little to no interaction with the musician, but I might be wrong
there. It is most enjoyable music but at the same time I must also that I thought it was all a bit long
and in the end came with not enough variation for me. Twenty minutes would have meant the
exact same excursion as the full sixty minutes it is now.
Something entirely different is the music by Nursalim Yadi Anugerah, is from Pontianak. He
is “often inspired by the cosmology, sonology, and culture of indigenous people from Borneo” and
‘HNNUNG’ is a chamber opera that “amplifies the cosmic dramaturgy of Kayaan culture—in which
the narrative of matriarchy is essential”. The music is performed by the “Balaan Tumaan Ensemble
and Kerubim Choir using various instruments ranging from kaldii’ and sape’ to tenor saxophone
and contrabass”. This cassette contains a selection of these pieces. As you probably you know by
know, I have a very limited knowledge of all things modern classic music and this is something
that very much fits that ‘tag’. The words elude me, as I have no idea what this is about. I couldn’t
say if this is all very much along the lines of what people call modern classical music these days.
It seems to me that there isn’t much traditional Indonesian music influences here, and at the same
time I admit also not knowing too much about that. I heard all of this with much interest and
certainly enjoyed it for what it is was, but in all honesty it also eluded me quite a bit. Surely
something of interest from for these pages an unusual part of the world, and also unusual in a
music sense for these pages. (FdW)
––– Address: http://hasanaeditions.org/
SUBESPAI – A DEAFENING SILENCE (cassette by Chemical Imbalance)
SUBESPAI – VESPERTINE WORKS (cassette by No-Fi Hideout)
SUBESPAI & DOXYLAMINE – BASE (cassette by Eupcaccia Records)
Mauri Edo is the man behind Subespai. He was born in Barcelona and now lives in Sydney. He
loves short albums and EPs, to get a point across in a quick way and perhaps also to get many
releases out in a short amount of time. He likes his ambient, noise and drone, just as we all
probably do. ‘A Deafening Silence’ is such an example of a short cassette, fifteen minutes in total,
and it is his second release. Both sides deal with the ambient side of noise events. There is a bit
of hiss, there is a lot of deep drone sounds and there is a slow development of the sounds within
the time frame of seven and half minutes. The deafening aspect of the music somewhat seems
not there that much, but then I wasn’t playing this very loud. Great music, yet perhaps not the
most ‘new’ ones.
‘Vespertine Works’ is a twenty-minute tape, released on a label from the UK, and continues
the ambient approach, but it also shows development. Whereas the two pieces on ‘A Deafening
Silence’ are quite abstract in their hiss/drone/ambient approach, on ‘Vespertine Works’ he works
with a wider palette of sounds, which now incorporates field recordings of a church choir being
short-sampled (first side) and rain (second side), along with a more melodic approach. A bit
shoegazing alike on the first side, with a soaring slow melodic lines, while perhaps a guitar of
some kind plays a likewise soaring tune and there a few coins rattling in loop modus for some
additional percussion. These pieces one might think aren’t also the most ‘new’ in terms of lo-fi
ambient music but the musicality here is a leap forward and something I enjoyed very much.
Together with Mark Hall, who works as Doxylamine, Edo recorded a collaboration, which is
about something secret that is not really revealed (therefore maybe not of interest?). The work
was recorded last year with Hall providing guitar feedback and percussion and Edo noise and
electronics. This is surely something quite different than the two solo releases by Subespai. Here
it is all about noise, in one way or another. Not your usual harsh noise walls, but a rather interesting
free play of distorted sounds, guitars and electronics alike, with freeform percussion. One could
say some kind of free rock experience but albeit of a heavier form and at times a more electronic
approach than what is common in the work of free rock ‘n noise. This is quite removed from the
other two releases, which seem more considerate and controlled, whereas this one is chaotic
and wild. Here is some noise that is familiar and fine, with that rough edge we all love some
much. It is not the work of madmen going wild and wilder, but something done with some care
and consideration. That’s how we love them best. (FdW)
––– Address: http://chemical-imbalance.bandcamp.com
––– Address: https://no-fihideout.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://www.facebook.com/eupcacciarecords/
Correction: in last week’s issue it said this “Alfred 23 Harth, a saxophonist from Germany, most
known from his work by Heiner Goebbels”. It should be “Alfred 23 Harth, a saxophonist from
Germany, most known from his work with Heiner Goebbels”