CLARA DE ASÍS – WITHOUT (CD by Elsewhere Music) *
STEFAN THUT – ABOUT (CD by Elsewhere Music) *
JÜRG FREY – 120 PIECES OF SOUND (CD by Elsewhere Music) *
LÖSCHEL & SKRAEPEK & ZROST – WALDORF HYSTERIA (CD by Loewenhertz) *
BEN LIND & ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE & BARBARA ROSE LANGE & PHILIP GAYLE – BERP
(CD by Yabyum) *
MMO-ENSEMBLE – ANY DAY NOW (CD by Ora Fonogram)
KLEISTWAHR – ACCEPTANCE IS NOT RESPECT (CD by Fourth Dimension) *
THEODOR BASTARD – BOSSANOVA_TRIP (CD by Fulldozer Records/Zhelezobeton) *
THE DOGMATICS – CHOP OFF THE TOPS (LP, private) *
PHILIP SCHAUFELBERGER – BONN (LP by Wide Ear Records) *
UNCLE JIM – MY NIECE’S PIERCED KNEES (postcard record by Ultra Eczema)
BIONULOR – A.S. (CDR by Oniron) *
T.R HAND & GLAUBER K.S. – SUBURBAN SOLITUDE (CDR by The Submarine Broadcasting Co.) *
LEIGH TORRO – THE ETERNAL NAVIGATION (CDR by Eilean Records) *
DRAMAVINILE – SILFRA (CDR by Eilean Records) *
RUDOLF DIMPLE – POLYMATH TENGU (CDR by Help For Zeros) *
KOMMISSAR HJULER UND FRAU/SASQUATCH QUICHE (split CDR by Help For Zeros) *
EDWARD SOL & STUART CHALMERS – SYNCOPATED SOUNDMIRROR (cassette by Ikuisuus)
ISABEL LATORRE/EDU COMELLES – FOR PAULINE (cassette by Cronica Electronica)
SARAH HENNIES & GREAG STUART – RUNDLE (cassette by Notice Recordings) *
MATT HANNAFIN – JOHN CAGE: FOUR REALIZATIONS FOR SOLO PERCUSSION (cassette by
Notice Recordings) *
OKKYUNG LEE – SPECKLED STONES AND DISSONANT GREEN DOTS (cassette by Notice
Recordings) *
LÄRMSCHUTZ – WOOD + TIN II (cassette by Faux Amis)
CLARA DE ASÍS – WITHOUT (CD by Elsewhere Music)
STEFAN THUT – ABOUT (CD by Elsewhere Music)
JÜRG FREY – 120 PIECES OF SOUND (CD by Elsewhere Music)
This is the second batch of releases by Elsewhere Music, a new label run by Yuko Zama, who has
been designing and producing for Erstwhile Records and Gravity Wave, and now has Jon Abby
from Erstwhile as his executive producer. I am not sure if it is all as serious as this sounds. The goal
is to release “mainly contemporary work which has classical music aesthetics at its roots, but it may
not have to strictly belong to the area of contemporary classical music”. Perhaps that explains why I
recognized some of the names involved, both from the composers as well as the performers.
I started with the piece ‘Without’ composed by Clara de Asís, and performed by Erik Carlson
on violin and Greg Stuart on percussion. Apparently the score gives a precise framework for the
position and the duration of each sound section and each silence, as well as a rough outline for
the texture and volume, the use of tone or noise and the materials for the percussion, “but a large
part of the score was open for the two performers’ freedom”. The whole piece lasts forty-three
minutes and in that time frame the two players move about with a variety of approaches and
materials. In her own solo music Clara de Asís is someone we know how loves a more drone like
approach (see the review of her release ‘Uno Todo Tres’ in Vital Weekly 1030) and that interest is
translated here by these two players There is throughout a slightly more sustaining approach to be
noted in several sections, save for the third and the last which is just based on single sounds. The
opening section is the loudest of all the section, and here the performers seem to be applying
electro-acoustic methods to the instruments, using the surfaces with objects and scan them. From
there on the sections become gradually more and more silent, but the music never dies or goes
below the threshold of hearing. There are silences between the various sections (and I admit I
have no idea if de Asís would call these sections, but I do), which add to the tranquillity of the
piece. It is, most of the time at least, a very quiet piece of music and as such it has a very Zen
like character.
Stefan Thut is no stranger to these pages (for instance Vital Weekly 1138, 1083 or 1076) and
he belongs to the Wandelweiser group of composers, which is, in case you don’t know, music that
is very quiet and usually with more open ended scores to interpret by the players. Here we have
‘About’, which was commissioned by Ryoko Akama, in her role as a curator for Ame. The piece was
performed by Akama (electronics), Stephen Chase (guitar), Eleanor Cully (piano), Patrick Farmer
(metal percussion), lo wie (tingsha), and Thut (cello) and recorded at the University of Huddersfield.
“His score instructs three performers to make percussive, ringing, and electronic sounds while three
other performers play short high register pitches on their musical instruments according to written
scores, particularly paying attention to the decay of sound in the subsequent silence. It also
instructs parallel activities in between playing the sounds; walking around the space, and uttering
monosyllabic words quietly in their own languages”. It is a long quote but then you know what this
nearly one hour piece of music is about. This is indeed very much the kind of Wandelweiser music
you would expect from Thut. An endless stream of isolated sounds on all of these instruments in
what seems an endless amount of variations. By accident I had this on repeat and as I was lost
reading a book I didn’t notice that this was on repeat and somewhere after more than two hours I
realized I was still listening to the same release. I was then thinking if that was a good or bad thing.
I wasn’t paying full attention, which I guess is never a good thing, but then perhaps that was then a
sort of Zen like experience, which is maybe a good thing. Perhaps. I very much enjoyed the spatial
and spacious quality of the music, especially with those occasional bell like sounds, kinda like
short cut wind chime. Excellent release.
Jürg Frey is also a Wandelweiser composer and he has two pieces here. First there is ”60
Pieces Of Sound’, as performed by the Boston based ensemble Ordinary Affects (Laura Cetilia,
Morgan Evans-Weiler, J.P.A. Falzone, Luke Martin) on cello, violin, keyboard and electric guitar,
with Frey on clarinet. This piece deals “with two instruments that play the pitches as written in the
score forming a two-part melody, and an open instrumentation part for any instrument(s) or sound
maker(s) as ‘the third voice.’ Each of the 60 chords played by the ensemble is followed by a similar
duration of silence”. Here the cello and the clarinet play the pitches and it is a beautiful piece of
quite strumming and every time it sounds the same and different at the same time. Hard to tell
what the keyboard does here, though. As the piece progresses over its thirty-two minutes, the
music becomes a little more expansive and it keeps changing throughout. ‘L’âme Est Sans
Retenue II’ is the only piece on these three releases in which the composer performs himself solo
and Frey picks up a bass clarinet and has field recordings, the latter edited first and then the bass
clarinet to fit along the playing. Everything is quite low (as in bass, not necessarily in volume) and
makes up both a wonderful as well as most curious piece of music. This piece also has starts and
stops and count also to sixty, hence the title of the release. Both are quite different yet they fit
together very well. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.elsewheremusic.net
LÖSCHEL & SKRAEPEK & ZROST – WALDORF HYSTERIA (CD by Loewenhertz)
A trio of three Austrian musicians: Hannes Löschel, Paul Skrepek and Martin Zrost, playing sax,
trumpet, clarinets, mandoline, Fender Rhodes, Hammond piano, toys, voices, bass, berimbau and
percussion. This is a trio with a considerable history. They debuted in 1996 with ‘While You Wait’
on Extraplatte. In 2001 they released two albums for Löwenhertz. This same label – started in 2000
by Löschel himself and has many projects by him in its catalogue – now presents their fourth work.
Composer and musician Löschel is active in many different musical areas. As Antasten he had an
electro-acoustic ensemble with Thomas Lehn and Josef Novotny. With guitarist David Tronzo he
recorded three improvisations. But Löschel has also a love for accessible, entertaining music in
traditional forms. A highlight was ‘Herz Bruch Stück’ that concentrated on old Vienna music.
‘Waldorf Hysteria’ is a next step in this direction. Not so much referring to Austrian music this time,
but a collection of 24 short works that have a strong jazz flavour and themes that remind me of folk
music from East Europa. Catchy theatrical tunes some of them composed by on the three
participators. But most of the works came about from their collective interplay. Everything is played
with verve, full of vitality and charm. The final track is a ballad and has them singing. And in case
you didn’t picked up in the preceding tracks, this final tune makes clear irony is an important
ingredient as well. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.loewenhertz.at/
BEN LIND & ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE & BARBARA ROSE LANGE & PHILIP GAYLE – BERP
(CD by Yabyum)
Philip Gayle is an American guitarist who played in funk, rock, folk, blues, punk and country bands
for many years, and he is self-taught on guitar, piano and percussion. Since the mid 80s he
developed his own style of improvising on acoustic guitar. He runs his own small Yabyum label.
Most releases date from several years ago. ‘Berp’ is a very new release, however with recordings
that again dates from many years ago: 2001. So I am not sure if he has been very active in the last
few years Maybe we are talking here of a document from the past, that doesn´t reflect any on going
collaborations. Whatever be the case, listening to these recordings it is evident that they deserve a
release. Very well recorded, but above all lovely free and wild improvised music. The CD opens
with a duo performance by Diaz-Infante and Gayle, both using ping pong balls, toys, toy guitars,
acoustic guitar, baritone ukulele, percussion, stringed instruments, kitchen. On ´Bunt´ they are
assisted by Domokos Benczedi playing a broken hurdy-gurdy and Ben Lind who plays vocals
and baseball bat. On the three “Quartet’- improvisations Benszedi isn’t participating. But here
Barbara Rose Lange joins in on violin. For all improvisations goes they are loosely structured
improvisations, coming from very open-minded interactions between the players. Recordings
took place at RBI Recording Houston. The closing ‘Quartet Live’ was recorded at Rudyard’s Pub,
Houston. If you are familiar with the work of Diaz-Infante you may have a good idea of what to
expect here: Charming abstract music from an anarchistic spirit, that really works and fascinates.
(DM)
––– Address: http://www.philipgayle.com/
MMO-ENSEMBLE – ANY DAY NOW (CD by Ora Fonogram)
MMO are the initials of leader Martin Myhre Olsen, saxophonist and composer. He worked with
Chick Corea and worked with the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, Megalodon Collective, Wako and
Hegge, etc. His work with the MMO ensemble however is his most ambitious work, I learn from the
included information. ‘Any Day Now’ is the third project he completed with this ensemble, following
‘Western Mystery’ (2016-2017) and ‘Lonely Creatures’(2014-2016). It is a suite in twelve parts,
performed by the ensemble that is extended to twelve musicians: Martin Myhre Olsen (alt & soprano
sax), André Roligheten (tenor & baritone sax, bass clarinet), Øyvind Brække (trombone). Erik
Kimestad Pedersen (trumpet), Siril Malmedal Hauge (vocals), Karl Bjorå (guitar), Ayumi Tanaka
(piano), Håkon Aase (violin), Adrian Løseth Waade (violin), Kaja Fjellberg Pettersen (cello),
Christian Meaas Svendsen (contrabass, voice), Simon Olderskog Albertsen (drums, vibraphone).
Texts by James Baldwin, Emily Dickinson and E.E.Cummings are the starting point for this project.
They are delivered by the clear voice of Siril Malmedal Haug who sings and declaims them. The
structures and drama of these poems are reflected in the music that is partly composed partly
improvised, with a prominent role for melody. The suite is built up from very different episodes.
Some have the ensemble in a grooving modus operandi. In other parts strings dominate and give
colour to a sensitive ballad. Swing dominates but at times we are close to chamber music
atmospheres. Throughout the suite turns around a solid nucleus, that sounds fresh and powerful at
any moment. With nice contrasts and changes in dynamic. The performance is very much okay. The
recording is very transparent, and it make possible to give attention to any movement of the players.
The suite was recorded live, on its first performance in Oslo at the beginning of this year. (DM)
––– Address: https://www.orafonogram.no/
KLEISTWAHR – ACCEPTANCE IS NOT RESPECT (CD by Fourth Dimension)
Ramleh’s first tapes were some of the most psychotically ugly artifacts of the early 1980s cassette
scene. If main instigator Gary Mundy was lazy (which emphatically is not), he might easily have
churned out oodles of similar crowd-pleasing mammoth fuh over and over again and coasted
along for decades. Instead, he led his band through fascinatingly disparate albums of cosmic
psychedelia, rock sludge, intense electronic noise, and free-skree clatter. He also backed up new
wave poet Anne Clark with the synth-pop duo A Cruel Memory, embraced ethereal indie-rock with
the group Breathless and gothic machine chug with Toll. And yet, even with so many outlets for all
the myriad directions he’s felt compelled to explore, Mundy has had Kleistwahr in his back pocket
to serve as a solo vehicle for whatever urge moves him at whatever moment. The latest Kleistwahr
album, “Acceptance is Not Respect” (a provocative and ambiguous title, for sure), is a yet another
confident leap sideways, a solo album of deep beauty that doesn’t let up from its core of
languorous sadness even/especially during its most aggressive passages.
“Acceptance…” starts with “The Revolution of Defiance”, a 23-minute pastoral wash of
processed guitars, with sparse drums and faraway organ striking an Eastern tone with their
passing resemblance to tablas and sitar. The piece drifts through lush devotional territory, sublime
and psychedelic bliss that reminds me of Stars of the Lid or Dead Texan, the hushed atmosphere
disturbed only by Mundy’s mangled yelling-from-inside-a-hurricane voice buried way down in the
mix. The emotion is legible, the words are not. It’s wonderful. This is followed by “Three Martyrs:
Press, Stoning and Saltire”, a suite of three (duh) 7-minute pieces that continue where “Defiance”
left off. The first section, dedicated to St. Stephen, has a stately cinematic tone, suggesting an
orchestral string section recorded just after being thrown off the side of a deep-sea fishing vessel
and drifting farther into icy darkness until they vanish beneath the waves. The second section,
dedicated to St. Andrew, is a roar of guitar scorch with an organ solo clawing from within it’s
white-hot core. The album comes to a sober end with the final section, dedicated to St. Margaret,
again sonically (not only titularly) evoking prayer and inward reflection as Mundy’s guitar squall
is subsumed by contemplative strings and organ set slightly off-balance by a ground-floor layer
of busted-robot rubble. A fantastic album, one of the best so far in Mundy’s dependably
unpredictable canon. (HS)
––– Address: https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/
THEODOR BASTARD – BOSSANOVA_TRIP (CD by Fulldozer Records/Zhelezobeton)
As I had not heard of Theodor Bastard before, I checked the information on the website and that
did not altogether clarify it for me. It says that this is a “non-vocal electronic album recorded by
Fedor Svolotch (Alexander Starostin) in 2002 several years before the formation of the band’s key
line-up”. So what is it, Svolotch or Starostin? Or is it a band? Looking on Discogs I’d say they are a
band these days but when this was recorded they were a one-person band by Fedor Svolotch,
whose real name is Alexander Starostin. From what I gather also from the information is that the
band is quite popular these days and maybe popular Russian bands is not where my knowledge
lies. The music is all instrumental and all electronic, yet has very little to do with bossnova, which
given the slight confusion over names may not be a real surprise. As I found myself having some
time to investigate what Theodor Bastard is all about these days I played first this CD, then some
YouTube clips and went back to the CD. Hard to believe that the fairy tale music of ‘now’ (think
Dead Can Dance, 4AD in general, folk, medieval instruments and campfire songs) bears any
relation with these minimalist rhythmic pieces, of deep bass pulses, click ticks and obscured
synthesizer washes. Sometimes it is all a bit more radical such as the high piercing opening of
‘Ter(DM) Jzz’, which slowly transforms into a jazzy rhythm. In a piece like that you could easily
think this is some very experimental form of trip hop, but in other pieces it is more Pan Sonic like
(“[K]VA.drt’ (and yes that’s all quite obscure titles). Sometimes these pieces are short and merely
snippets or ideas, ‘Se`~Ko/2’, for instance. However it grew from this to the fairytale music I have
no idea; it could have as easily been something else, I would think, and knowing what came after
this is fine but not really a cause for further inspection for me; yet this album was in all its abstract
rhythm, synth and noise way quite a lovely one. Something that Kvitnu would have found also
interesting I would think. (FdW)
––– Address: http://zhb.radionoise.ru/http://fulldozer.org/
THE DOGMATICS – CHOP OFF THE TOPS (LP, private)
Picture this: some sort of metal gothic font with the band name and skulls and crosses as a
drawing; track titles that ‘I Am Now Wearing Surgical Gloves’ and ‘Death Is Now Your Friend’.
Pretty grim, ain’t it? Never trust a record by its cover and band by its titles, as The Dogmatics is a
duo of Chris Abrahams on piano and Kai Fagschinski on clarinet. Actually we knew this from
before, when Monotype Records released their debut (vital Weekly 850). “File under: experimental
music/Echtzeitmusik/improvisation” and in this case you can trust a press release. Abrahams stays
with Fagaschinski when he’s in Europe and since 2007 they started playing together in
Fagaschinski’s kitchen in 2007 and since then toured in England, France, Germany, The
Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland and now have their second LP out. Like before this is all
very quiet music, nothing even remotely close to the world of metal music I’d say. This is much
more a Zen like experience, with much space between the notes. Abrahams’ piano has a light
tone, throughout, pensive and spacious, both in a sense of space between notes as well as floating
in space, whereas the clarinet has the role of melody maker and drone machine. Sometimes
Fagaschinki plays a few notes, sometimes one sustaining tone, like a drone, like a sine wave and
very now and then it all becomes a bit nastier from him, angular, and in ‘Death Is Not Your Friend’
it almost becomes a bit of noise towards the end. Abrahams only uses the body of the piano as a
percussion instrument in ‘Nobody Knew Their Reasons’ and this is the both the shortest as well
as the most experimental piece on this record. (FdW)
––– Address: http://thedogmatics.bandcamp.com
PHILIP SCHAUFELBERGER – BONN (LP by Wide Ear Records)
Title of this work refers to the city where it was recorded: Bonn, the former capital city of West-
Germany. Recorded live at St. Helena church on September 15th 2017. With this album Philip
Schaufelberger presents his first solo work, playing acoustic guitar. He is a German musician –
based in Zürich – playing and touring since the 90s with people like Pierre Favre and Lucas Niggli.
And worked with Michael Brecker, Paul Motion, Kenny Wheeler, etc. A musician with a solid
background in jazz. He also composes for ensembles of contemporary music like Ensemble Tzara.
As a performer of modern music he often works with the Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich. Turning
to ‘Bonn’, each side of the LP has four works: a short improvisation, a guitar arrangement of an
original composition by Schaufelberger, a contemporary piece by Michael Heisch (a Swiss
composer and journalist, who as a bassist worked for example with Luigi Archetti) and a jazz
classic by Monk (‘Misterioso’) respectively Ellington (‘African Flower’). Although the material
comes from different corners and angles, there is a strong unity between them, brought about by
the direct and intimate recording, and above all by Schaufelbergers’ consequent style and
treatment. Both standards are in an original way deconstructed by Schaufelberger but remain
recognizable. This is characteristic for the other works as well. Abstract on the one hand, but
interwoven with melodic elements on the other. A coherent and interesting work. (DM)
––– Address: http://www.wideearrecords.ch/
UNCLE JIM – MY NIECE’S PIERCED KNEES (postcard record by Ultra Eczema)
Luckily this doesn’t happen but every now then Vital Weekly’s physical address lands on a mailing
list and we get invitations on postcards, mainly for art exhibitions. You may not be surprised to learn
I throw these away. So when I opened this particular envelop I saw the text first, about the very first
big museum exposition by Dennis Tyfus, the man behind Ultra Eczema, visual artist, musician and
sadly not much to be found in these pages (I don’t know why, the label is quite active) in the
Middelheimmuseum in Antwerpen. Opens on the 27th. So you know now. Okay, good luck and
thanks, bye. But hold on where is there a hole in the middle? Flipping the postcard over we see
this one of those postcard record thingy’s, and that the audio is by one Uncle Jim (also known as
Alvarius B) with a ‘rant’, as it says on the website. I played it a couple of times, but I couldn’t figure
what this rant was about, but there is something captivating about the voice of Uncle Jim. More like
a piece of sound poetry, without repetition, as uncle Jim sounded like a singer of protest song. I am
not heading out to Antwerpen, but I am sure if you do, you could ask Dennis Tyfus about what it
means or even get a copy of this postcard record of him. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.ultraeczema.com/
BIONULOR – A.S. (CDR by Oniron)
Sebastian Banaszczyk is an actor and educationist as well as a musician by the name Bionulor. As
such he works exclusively with “100% sound recycling”. In the past he took music from Erik Satie,
the Middle Ages and the human voice apart to construct his own music. This time around it is the
music of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. I must admit I never heard much of Scriabin’s
music and all I knew about him is that he was slightly bonkers. But I learned today he was also an
innovator when it comes to working with harmony. Bionulor takes recordings of the music by
Scriabin and transforms these into gentle pieces of classical music. At times, when you are listening
in a superficial way, you could easily believe this is some sort of chamber orchestral music. Dig a
bit deeper (or use a bit more attention of course) and the computer treatments will become a bit
more apparent. The occasional stutter, the cutting of transients, the sustaining of certain sounds or
the repetition of certain elements make this something that is indeed much more electronic. As
before Bionulor’s treatments are most gentle and spacious. It is not necessarily about radical
transformation or a show off about computer technology, but rather something that aims for some
pleasant modern electronic music that one can stick on and not always note that well. The ghost of
Stephan Mathieu, present on some of Bionulor’s previous releases, is here too but without much of
Mathieu’s lengthy abstract dark drone rumbling. This is a beautiful, quiet release with the occasional
odd treatment thrown in and that is something all I need. (FdW)
––– Address: http://bionulor.com
T.R HAND & GLAUBER K.S. – SUBURBAN SOLITUDE (CDR by The Submarine Broadcasting Co.)
Here we have two musicians I never heard of before, and there isn’t much information, nor could I
say where they are from. The credits are like this. “t. r. hand – Concept & reverie, field recordings,
the playful exploration of digital applications, guru. Glauber Kiss de Souza – Concept, electric
guitar & stage piano (grand piano, Rhodes piano, vibraphone and acoustic bass), field recordings
(Interludes), audio processing, some photographs for artwork and mixing”. Together they recorded
five pieces, spanning seventy-four minutes and three of those pieces are very long, sixty-five
minutes in total, with the two shorter pieces in between. The music is not easy to describe, but the
word ‘improvisation’ surely fits the bill. In the opening piece, ‘Traffic Ritual’, these improvisations are
close together, dark and moody, whereas in the closing piece ‘Commercial Meditation’ things
become jazzier, even with an occasional melody thrown in. Such are the dimensions of the music
here. The duties seem to me divided as such; Hand provides the drone based backbone of the
music whereas De Souza provides the more musical element of the music, via melodies and
inserts the occasional instrumental passage. In one track one player does more than the other
and the next time roles seem to be reversed. All is good so far, but there is one thing that would
have made a major improvement here and that is there is quite some room for editing the material.
I couldn’t help but thinking that the music here is the complete recording session. It is of course an
artistic decision to give ‘everything’, but the music would benefit quite a bit I think if there was some
editing in the music and come up with a more structured form of their music, one that would attract
the listener a bit more. These moments are certainly there and I would think it could easily be a
great release at, say, forty minutes. (FdW)
––– Address: https://submarinebroadcastingco.bandcamp.com
LEIGH TORRO – THE ETERNAL NAVIGATION (CDR by Eilean Records)
DRAMAVINILE – SILFRA (CDR by Eilean Records)
Again and again does Eilean Records surprise me with new names, even when in the case of
Leigh Toro the previous incarnation Flotel vague rang a bell. He’s also one half of Bamboo Stilts
with Orla Wren. This is his second solo CD for Eilean Records and I think I missed out on the first
one. His studio overlooks the river Derwent and field recordings were made on trips to Lindisfarne
and Northumberland during the Perseid Meteor Showers of 2016, although I am sure you can’t
hear that on these recordings. Back home Toro added some instruments, piano, electronics,
maybe a guitar and then the proceedings were moved to the computer where a further set of
transformations took place. All of this results in eight pieces of carefully constructed pieces of mood
music, exactly (perhaps) as one would expect from a release by Eilean Records. There are the
reflective piano tones, a bit of crackle, some drone like sounds and some contact microphone
manipulation of stones and wood. Sometimes this is a bit fuzzy and mildly distorted, such as in
‘Harvest’ or ‘Seven Rays’, but it never ever becomes ‘noise’ as you might know it. All of this is
pretty solid music, surely, but perhaps also something that one heard before. Leigh Toro does a
very fine job, of that I am absolutely sure, and has a fine production under his belt, but it’s not
one of the most original voices in this field of music.
Vincenzo Nava is the man behind Dramavinile and ‘Silfra’ is his fourth album since 2016. His
previous releases were on Manyfeetunder and No Problema Tapes. This album is named after the
“fissure between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in Thingvellir National Park. The
rift was formed in 1789 by earthquakes and Silfra is said to have the clearest water in the world”.
Dramavinile has two more pieces and taps out of the same source of mood music as Toro, but it
sounds all a bit more experimental. The guitar is processed a bit further and more alien “using the
cut-up method” (says the cover), and in his playing Dramavinile is also freer in his movements,
which might very well these cut-up methods. The field recordings and acoustic rumbling take up
more space than in the work of Toro. There is much rumbling of pots and pans, to say it a bit crude,
of surface upon surface and the wind having free reign over the fields. As I was writing the
previous words, and after some break thinking about it, I thought I could very well be wrong with
this assessment of field recordings. It was that ‘guitar cut-up’ thing that got me thinking that maybe
all of this was a guitar being manipulated (“on a four-track tape recorder”) in all sorts of ways that
Dramavinile could think of, strumming, plucking but also extracting sounds in many different ways.
He has a voice of his own and I very much enjoy what he’s doing. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.eilean-records.com/
RUDOLF DIMPLE – POLYMATH TENGU (CDR by Help For Zeros)
KOMMISSAR HJULER UND FRAU/SASQUATCH QUICHE (split CDR by Help For Zeros)
Here we have two new releases by UK’s Help For Zeros, a rather lo-fi enterprise with it’s own
aesthetics of comic covers. The first one is the debut of Rudolf Dimple, ‘though partially sighted,
he is a sculptor who uses a small set-up of production tools to work with sound collage”, says the
label, without getting any specific about what these production tools might be. Upon listening, I’m
afraid, things weren’t necessarily any clearer. There is quite some use of loops here, either from
cassettes or loop pedals, or on these loops Dimple stored a few acoustic sounds, of tossing around
some objects, but there is also voices and samples from media sources. All of this is fed through a
bunch of other pedals of another kind; mostly delay pedals are used, for further manipulation.
Voices seem to play an important role here and one could say this is some kind of sound poetry,
maybe mixed together with some lo-fi form of electro-acoustic music. At four pieces that span
twenty minutes this is perhaps all a bit too short to form an all-too in depth opinion but so far my
first impression is good. I was reminded me of the work of Stuart Chalmers.
The other new release is by the well known Kommissar Hjuler and his wife, ‘Frau’ in German,
sometimes called Mama Baer. They have two pieces here spanning nineteen minutes, almost half
the release. They are here in their usual outsider modus of working. Distorted sounds from guitar
or vinyl abuse coupled with a bunch of singing. Frau does the duties in that respect, and this time
around they are layered as well. The label informs me that this duo “experiments with methods that
pay homage to artists they admire” and without being specific I would guess Nurse With Wound is
certainly on the admiration list. I was thinking of NWW’s ‘The Strange Play Of The Mouth’ for the first
piece and some more Dada inspired sound poetry for the second piece. Sasquatch Quiche is the
duo of Kirk and Clarissa Smeaton, also operators behind Help For Zeros, who take the liberty of
plundering some Hjuler and Baer recordings and remould them with the tools at their disposal.
That brings us six shortish pieces of vinyl and cassette manipulation with the obvious use of loops
thrown about. There is a nice twist to the use sounds. Dada is a word that applies easily to this kind
of stuff as well, but then with a most charming naivety about it. There is a wide interest in the use of
voices here, be it from the original creators or the re- interpreters; most likely to be both actually,
judging by the multitude of manipulated voices. Neat tribute! (FdW)
––– Address: <kirksmeaton@yahoo.com>
EDWARD SOL & STUART CHALMERS – SYNCOPATED SOUNDMIRROR (cassette by Ikuisuus)
Many of the artists covered by Vital Weekly know each other and many of them are into
‘collaboration’, meaning, these days, the exchange of sound files through file sharing sites,
bouncing back and forth sub mixes, processed versions and in the end a mix waiting to be
released. I am not the sort of guy who looks strangely at these things and seldom surprised which
people work together. In fact in the case of Edward Sol and Stuart Chalmers I could easily think
‘why didn’t they work together before?’ They surely share a similar interest in loops (analogue,
digital and from sound effects) and lo-fi sounds stored on cassettes. On top of that there are ‘other’
electronic sounds, Dictaphone abuse and maybe some vinyl sources. On this release we find four
pieces, all about eight minutes long and in each of them there is sufficient amount of atmospherics
to be noted, that much needed drone infested sound that is part and parcel of this kind of music,
and together with field recordings captured in and outdoors, the electronics wave together some
neatly spooky tunes, a gentle haunted house soundtrack of rusty metallic doors clanging, mad
monks chanting and the rattling of broken toys. Nothing is too complex here, as it all sounds pretty
straightforward but given the listening a great head trip. I would not have minded a few more of
these lovely lo-fi pieces as after thirty minutes I was merely settled in, waiting for the (un-)rest. (FdW)
––– Address: https://ikuisuus.bandcamp.com/
ISABEL LATORRE/EDU COMELLES – FOR PAULINE (cassette by Cronica Electronica)
When I started to play this tape, I first assumed it was blank; it took quite some time before there
was any music to hear, even when the volume was turned up quite a bit. This is a split cassette
but there is also something that makes that both sides belong together. Latorre and Comelles
worked together on a project in 2016 and Comelles did some recordings of Latorre’s accordion.
Comelles asked Latorre to play a piece by Pauline Oliveros for a festival he was curating and
during the preparation Oliveros passed away (November 2016) and so the concert became a
tribute. That recording is on the first side here, as said, starting out very quiet. But slowly the
sound becomes audible and we arrive at something that indeed sounds very Pauline Oliveros.
The music is meandering about, the accordion expanded by electronics, creating richly textured
music but also with a firm foothold in the world of improvised music, sometimes hectic bouncing
all over the places and in the end section Latorre also adds her voice. On the other side we find
Edu Comelles with a piece that is a combination of shruti box and samples from Latorre’s
accordion. This piece is a more controlled environment in which computer generated sampled
play drones along with those with a more manual touch. These drones have a slightly eastern
feel to it, I think, and despite the fact that some of these sound perhaps digital, there is overall a
warm feel to this piece. A mournful tone in what is surely an excellent threnody. Spacious,
endless, sustaining and yet also seemingly always with minor changes. (FdW)
––– Address: https://cronica.bandcamp.com/
SARAH HENNIES & GREAG STUART – RUNDLE (cassette by Notice Recordings)
MATT HANNAFIN – JOHN CAGE: FOUR REALIZATIONS FOR SOLO PERCUSSION (cassette by
Notice Recordings)
OKKYUNG LEE – SPECKLED STONES AND DISSONANT GREEN DOTS (cassette by Notice
Recordings)
On the first of these three new cassettes by Chicago’s Notice Recordings we meet Sarah Hennies
again, following her recent LP for Mappa only two weeks ago and Greg Stuart who is also to be
found elsewhere in this issue. Both of them are percussionists, performing composed pieces
(usually with more open ended scores) and improvisation. Electronics might also be a part of
their work. They have two pieces here, each on a side of this tape and I believe this is all made
through the use of improvisation, on what the cover lists as ‘percussion, piano and objects’. They
recorded this at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. Listening to this
cassette I would think these are various recordings they made on various days but then pasted
together on a side for the cassette release. It is all very dry and very direct when it comes to
recording techniques here; a microphone in the middle of the space and two players around it
doing their ‘thing’. It is not so much ‘action/interaction’ here, in which two players respond to each
other. This it is not really that sort of thing but it’s more like present at an action. Stuff is moved
about in this space, there is a fire burning, there is a bang on the piano for a while and instruments
are being played in a slightly fragmented manner. And then, suddenly, it can become a bit more
coherent, with some ringing overtones of bows on cymbal and strings or a piano and percussion
interaction that works out wonderfully well (towards the end of ‘Tunnel’). This is music that is
somewhere on the cross road of performance art, improvisation and a ritual.
Also for percussion are the four pieces recorded by Matt Hannafin, of whom I never heard I
think. He studied with La Monte Young, Pandit Pran Nath, Kavous Shirzadian and Glen Velez
among others. He performs here four pieces by John Cage, two of which are from the early 60s
and two from 1990. The latter two were written specifically for percussion. The ‘Variations’ series
by Cage involve transparent sheets with lines and dots, which the performer could freely overlay
and interpret, where as the other two pieces are more guided improvisation. Hannafin was asked
by Notice Recordings to play these pieces and they are a great bundle of joy, as they sound very
different. From the one sided drums of ‘cComposed Improvisation for One-Sided Drums with or
without Jangles’, with its dark tones to the sparse silence of ‘Variations II’ to the gong like sounds
of ‘One4’, slowly drifting about, with ‘Variations III’ perhaps being the most traditional improvised
piece here of various bits of percussion, mainly consisting, I would think of wood, but also in this
piece Hannafin shows some very varied approaches, playing a nifty game with loud versus quiet.
Included in the package is a small booklet with a text on Cage by Greg Stuart and all packages
are the usual fine standard with Notice Recordings.
The third and final new release by Notice Recordings is from Okkyung Lee of whom we
recently reviewed a new work (Vital Weekly 1136). We as not in me. I don’t know much of her solo
work, in which she combines improvisation, jazz, modern classical and popular music from her
homeland South Korea. Her main instrument is the cello, but I would think that on both pieces on
this cassette there is a lot more happening. The credits note, “computer generated sound, analogue
synth and cello” but neither piece sound like that. The cello bit is somehow lost on me. On the B-
side she has a piece called ‘Dissonant Green Dots’ and I could see some sort analogue synth and
computer generated sounds at work in a piece with repeating notes and tones, short most of the
times, creating odd shifts within patterns. It surely is minimal, but due to some random approach in
the computer it keeps shifting back and forth in this mid range frequency sounds. Something surely
captivating is going on here. On the other side we find ‘Speckled Stones’ which according to the
information is “chaotic computer-generated and analogue synthesizer sounds”, but to me sounds
like a someone threw some acid on a drum machine and we listen to the machine as it comes
more and more chaotic but with some stops build in when it’s trying to think if it should continue
the course of self-destruction. Of course it does continue. It is a fine piece but a bit too one
dimensional for my taste. (FdW)
––– Address: https://noticerecordings.bandcamp.com/
LÄRMSCHUTZ – WOOD + TIN II (cassette by Faux Amis)
It certainly was quiet for Lärmschutz in the past few weeks, not keeping up with the busy usual self.
Here they return as a duo with something that we could call a ‘acoustic release’. They are not
allowed to play with amplification after 22:00 from the café next door, and they did an acoustic
piece on ‘Fruits’ (see Vital Weekly 1138) and they enjoyed the experience quite a bit that there is
now this cassette with only acoustic pieces. Guitar and ukulele are played by Stef Brans and
Rutger van Driel plays the trombone; instruments made up of wood and tin, gettit? Lärmschutz,
so we learned by now, is a group who loves freedom in sound. Not just the freedom to play what
they want but very much also the kind of freedom to diversify their own music. It can be loud, it can
be quiet, it can be jazz like, or punk like, or both, very distorted or it can sound very much like these
instruments should sound, as they do on this tape; it can be totally free or slightly more structured.
This is particular outing sees them doing something very much from the world of free improvisation
and even a bit of free jazz thrown in for good measure. This tape shows many of these aspects
Lärmschutz can have; it is perhaps not always distorted but free improvisation versus a bit more
structured approaches (‘Tin’ for instance) and it never looses that aggression that these men
seem to bring to every release. It’s not as punky as some of their other music, but perhaps that’s
because this is all acoustic (and yes, I would easily subscribe to the notion of such a thing as
acoustic punk). Great stuff, once again. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fauxamisrecords.bandcamp.com