HUNTING LODGE – HARRINGTON BALLROOM – EXHUMED + REANIMATED (3CD by New Forces)
HANDS TO – BIO ELECTRIC (5CD by New Forces)
KRYLON HERTZ – DIE KOMPLETTE KOLLEKTION 1978-1981 (LP by Minimal Kombinat)
COLUMN ONE – W. TRANSMISSION 1-5 (5CD by Zoharum)
AOA IMPRO GROUP – LIVE AT PARISER PLATZ (CD by Evil Rabbit Records)
ENSAMBLE KAFKA (CD by Klanggalerie)
ANNIE LEWANDOWSKI & FRED FIRTH – LONG AS IN SHORT, WALK AS IN RUN (CD by Klanggalerie)
JAC BERROCAL & DAVID FENECH & VINCENT EPPLAY – TRANSCODEX (CD by Klanggalerie)
ASMUS TIETCHENS – PTOMAINE 2 (CD by Klanggalerie)
BOURBONESE QUALK – THE SPIKE (CD by Klanggalerie)
BOURBONESE QUALK – BOURBONESE QUALK (CD by Klanggalerie)
ERIC RANDOM – THE WORM TURNS (CD by Klanggalerie)
J.J. GREGG – RE-CYCLING (CD, private)
JARL – MIND ROTATION (CD by Zoharum)
LUGOLA – DEFORM (LIVE AT XX WROCŁAW INDUSTRIAL FESTIVAL) (CD by Zoharum)
VÖ – THE SOUNDS OF VÖ (2CD on Thanatosis Produktion)
ORCHESTRAMAXFIELDPARRISH – FOUR THOUSAND TREES (10″ lathe cut by Faith Strange)
RENT ROMUS’ ACTUAL/ACTUAL – BAPTISMAL (CDR on Edgetone)
ROSS BOLLETER – AVERAGE HUMAN HEART (book by Lenka Lente)
EUGÈNE DE GUILLAUME BELHOMME & HARUTAKA MOCHIZUKI – EUGENE (book and mini CD by Lenka Lente)
MEATHOOK SAINT – REMAINS OF A HIVE (cassette, self-released)
HUNTING LODGE – HARRINGTON BALLROOM – EXHUMED + REANIMATED (3CD by New Forces)
HANDS TO – BIO ELECTRIC (5CD by New Forces)
KRYLON HERTZ – DIE KOMPLETTE KOLLEKTION 1978-1981 (LP by Minimal Kombinat)
COLUMN ONE – W. TRANSMISSION 1-5 (5CD by Zoharum)
When I realised that cassettes were a sound carrier with some great music, I started digging in, and my local record store always had a few to sell (thanks to Ding Dong Records as the supplier). I purchased a compilation called ‘Endzeit’, mainly because it had tracks by Virgin Prunes and Section 25, and later on ‘Sinn & Form’, also a compilation. Both were released by Datenverarbeitung, a label and fanzine from Germany. In hindsight, I would like to think that this was one of the first cassette labels whose releases I considered a ‘must-have’. The first Esplendor Geometrico, a Bain Total compilation, Die Kloperbande and Hunting Lodge. All of these, I thought, were great releases. Some of these are classic industrial music releases, such as ‘EG1’ and ‘Exhumed’, the studio cassette by Hunting Lodge. This trio consisted of Lon C. Diehl, Richard Skott and Karl Nordstrom (now known as Carla Nordstrom) and were from Port Huron, Michigan. Their first concert, in September 1982, was their first release, ‘The Harrington Ballroom’. When Nordstrom left, percussionist Helmut Robison joined, which significantly changed the Hunting Lodge sound. After that, it all became much more rhythmic. Not bad at all, but different; maybe a story for another day. The first phase of Hunting Lodge used rhythm differently. Perhaps inspired by Einsturzende Neubauten and Test Dept, they too used metal objects, which they hammered on, but not necessarily in an all-strict tempo. Combined with solid synthesiser parts that sounded machine-like, one has the idea of standing in the middle of a large factory. Especially the Harrington Ballroom has this impression. Recorded straight to cassette (I assume) with a pair of microphones, space becomes an additional instrument. The studio recordings of ‘Exhume’ were made shortly after that and showed a maturing process. The rhythm machine now plays a more prominent role; with that, there is more organisation in the music. Around the stage centre of the rhythm machine are the piercing synth drones, bits of voice from the TV dropping, and the metal playing in tempo. And yet, these recordings still have some charming naivety, a band taking its first steps. Mistakes, you can call this, but I rather ‘blame’ the technology at the time, which meant leaving the ‘mistakes’ in the music. Hunting Lodge cleverly copied a few ideas, left and right, and they cooked up a stew. Maybe because I heard these tapes so much back then, but I would think they already have a distinct sound of their own in these earliest works.
Jumping a few years forward, there’s Hands To. When I first came across Jeph Jerman’s project, I was fully immersed in the world of cassettes. Probably by then, I proclaimed that I would never buy CDs and maybe said the same thing about vinyl (until, of course, Hands To, Eric Lunde and Illusion Of Safety started to release vinyl). Hands To was one of those active forces that were on many cassette compilations and had releases on labels that I was in contact with; Sound Of Pig, Petri Supply and Jerman’s imprint Big Body Parts. As I am listening to these five CDs by Hands To, I realise that I find this music still fascinating, but I am no longer sure what attracted me to it back then. I can merely guess, but one reason might be that I had the impression that I could also create this kind of music. For me, this was the punk music I was looking for. The small and low-resolution samplers (Casio SK-1 and 5), coupled with one or two sound effects and a four-track cassette recorder, were all needed to get started. I don’t think I asked a lot about his working methods in all my letter-writing days with Jerman. Still, I noticed he was interested in body sounds, which ultimately culminated in a split 7″, of positive and negative body sounds. ‘Bio Electric’ contains five tapes that specifically use ‘body sounds’, which Jerman recorded using his body, using a cheap Radio Shack biofeedback monitor. A speaker is placed on the body, playing hands To sounds, going through the body. Much of this will not be clear if you play these tapes. Back then, there was not much of an explanation (at least, not that I can remember, not as it is now with what Jerman explains in the booklet), making it all the more mysterious. Maybe I linked this to The Hafler Trio and some of their obscure theories (or what I deemed obscure). Perhaps I thought of this as an exciting story that might not be true. Now, with the explanation, it sounds even more convincing. Hands To samples the hell out of sounds, sticks these on a bunch of cassettes and mixes these into industrial soundscapes. The lo-fi resolution shines through all of these, and the cassette manipulation guarantees there is some crudeness involved. I played this box set over Christmas in one long session, and as much as I would love to report some effects on this big body, I can’t. Come to think of it, it also has no effects on the mind. Besides that, I enjoyed both of these historical box sets; the only feeling I had was nostalgia; for past times. But I don’t think I would have to spend a whole Christmas day with music like this when I was young; my parents wouldn’t have allowed me.
Jumping a few years back from Hands To, there is Krylon Hertz. When I started to buy cassettes, I kept a list of which titles I had, but I lost that list years ago. Today, I am curious how early on it was. I do have an old diary, which shows me that on Monday, 22 February 1982, I bought both releases by Krylon Hertz, along with the first Die Form cassette (all three on Bain Total) and a c30 version of Van Kaye & Ignit’s ‘A Slight Delay’ (which is different from the more common sixty-minute version). It was the Carnival holiday, so perhaps I went somewhere with my parents? My dairy doesn’t mention it. Now, over forty years later, there is the LP with both cassettes. I played these cassettes early on all the time, as I didn’t have many others to play, but I sold the cassettes years later. No doubt I found a download, again much later, but I doubt I heard that a lot. As I listen to this LP, all of this sound strangely familiar, as if I heard this cassette also last week – which I haven’t. Krylon Hertz, I always envisaged as a duo, one person on a synthesizer and one on drums. There is something utterly naive about these recordings; the first experiments in the living room, perhaps. The monophonic synthesiser plays melodies rather than drones, and some pieces are mostly synth-based and become a bit more experimental. This is the music from a time, so I believe, when so much more possible. The cassette was the perfect medium to explore ideas that weren’t fixed when a release was a showcase of development, and as such, I believe Krylon Hertz, a precursor for Die Form, was short-lived and paved the way for something else.
The final box set around boxing day contains early works by Column One. Unlike the other re-issues I just reviewed, here’s one I have less of a personal relationship with. Over the years, I reviewed various works by the German group, and I am sure I said once or twice (or more) that I am never sure what they are about. Most of the time, I even have hardly an idea who is a member. The promo is incomplete; I am told there are 5 CDs in an eco pack with a slipcase, and each CD tells me more about the origins of the release, but I only have one of these and the other four in a plain white sleeve. I don’t know when I first heard music by Column One, another complication here. In this box set, you will find works that are part of the World Transmission series, which go back to 1992-1993, with recordings from those years, on the first disc. The group explains the idea behind ‘World Transmission’ as such; “World Transmission – the term for a species of contemporary trans-missions, produced and performed by COLUMN ONE in chronological order to document some of its phases: this work does not attempt to fulfil the form or function of an entire or commercial recording. It exists as a document, as a fragment- a tool for the work of the essential members.”. On the first disc, Column One deals heavily with sampling, effectively creating short loops from field recordings and mixing these with what seems untreated field recordings. On the other disc, we get more live recordings, showing the group’s more ritualistic side of their work. Percussive sounds, chants, voices, zither, harmonium and such, with some field recordings along the route, sounding at times pretty gothic. Or, when that is deemed too negative (or untrue, also possible), one could say that there is probably a visual element lacking from these transmissions that makes this material less easy to understand. If, of course, there is something to understand. But, then, some of these recordings were made in churches, so playing this in the days leading up to Christmas all makes some sort of festive logic. Ritual music for ritual days. (FdW)
––– Address: https://newforces.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2208128859484635/
––– Address: https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/
AOA IMPRO GROUP – LIVE AT PARISER PLATZ (CD by Evil Rabbit Records)
The AOA Impro Group was formed on the occasion of the founding of the European Alliance of Academies. They performed at the public opening on October 8th, 2020, at Akademie der Künste in Berlin. It may not be entirely coincidental that this group has different European nationalities on board. However, international lineups are often the case in collaborations of this kind of – by definition – border-breaking music. AOA Impro Group is Almut Kühne (voice), Elena Kakaliagou (french horn), Antonio Borghini (double bass), Dag Magnus Narvesen (drums) and Floros Floridis (soprano saxophone, bass clarinet). Kühne is a German singer of jazz and new music. Borghini is an Italian bassist. Narvesen is a drummer from Norway, whereas Kakaliagou is a Greek-Austrian French performer. Floris Floridis from Thessaloniki (Greece) is a crucial figure in the jazz history of Greece. In 1979 he released with Sakis Papadimitriou what is considered the first Greece album of modern jazz. In 1984 he founded the International Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and would be its director for eight years. Recently a collaboration with drummer Yorgos Dimitriadis came out also on Evil Rabbitt. I have no idea how the lineup of the AOA Impro Group came into place; who took the initiative? All of them are experienced players and give way to some cohesive improvisations. The cd opens with exuberant melodic playing by Floridis, followed by a delicate interplay and a solo section of Kakaliagou on French horn. Subsequently, bass and vocals join in. Especially the non-verbal singing by Kühne impresses. It is an open improvisation full of subtle and gentle movements. The second improvisation is a more dynamic one with a strong presence of the vocals of Kühne. Closing improvisation almost swings. Together they create a harmonious and balanced atmosphere where everybody can contribute in their free and abstract improvisations. A very positive and poetic work. (DM)
––– Address: https://evilrabbitrecords.eu/
ENSAMBLE KAFKA (CD by Klanggalerie)
ANNIE LEWANDOWSKI & FRED FIRTH – LONG AS IN SHORT, WALK AS IN RUN (CD by Klanggalerie)
JAC BERROCAL & DAVID FENECH & VINCENT EPPLAY – TRANSCODEX (CD by Klanggalerie)
ASMUS TIETCHENS – PTOMAINE 2 (CD by Klanggalerie)
BOURBONESE QUALK – THE SPIKE (CD by Klanggalerie)
BOURBONESE QUALK – BOURBONESE QUALK (CD by Klanggalerie)
ERIC RANDOM – THE WORM TURNS (CD by Klanggalerie)
A box of new releases by Klanggalerie always brightens my day, even when I know not all of these releases are strict to my taste. Four go straight to ‘me’ pile from this lot, and after hearing bits of the rest, one goes somewhere else; too jazzy for me. However, jazz is also the word used for some that stay on ‘alright, let’s give it a go pile’. Ensamble Kafka (and there’s no spelling mistake there), for instance, leaves upon first hearing a big question mark over my head. I am attracted to the fact that this is a project by Steven Brown, best known as a member of Tuxedomoon. I came rather late to their music and enjoy the works I have heard over the years, but I can’t say that I follow every move from them or each member. Brown composed music for the ‘El Informe Toledo’, by director Albino Alvarez, and performed the music live at the premiere. This concert resulted in Brown forming a band, which eventually became Ensamble Kafka. We should see the music as a combination of “contemporary music techniques with traditional Mexican music”; I know very little about both areas. This album was first released in 2013, only in Mexico, but now gets a re-issue with five additional pieces. The music is heavy on the use of wind instruments, along with some guitar, bandolon, violin, and even some electronics. I’d say, ‘nothing for Vital Weekly’ or me, and perhaps it isn’t something too much for Vital Weekly, but I enjoyed this a lot. It sounds like a soundtrack, indeed, it’s jazzy and contemporary, but, perhaps, so I believe, not always too serious. There is undoubtedly an element of joy in many of these pieces. The only thing I recognized from Mexican music are those shrill, spike trumpets, but sounding not too much like a mariachi band. It all eludes me, so I can’t say anything sensible about it. But the music is great, that much I know.
Also, a re-issue is the record by Fred Frith and Annie Lewandowski. She played with bands such as Emma Zunz, Xiu Xiu, The Curtains, Former Ghosts, Yarn/Wire and her group Powerdov. We know Frith as the man behind Henry Cow, Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, Cosa Brava and many other projects. The first eight pieces were already released in 2011 by Danish Ninth World Music and contain recordings made in concert on 4 May 2010. The ninth piece is a bonus track recorded a year later. Frith plays the guitar and has his usual preparations, and Lewandowski is at the piano, also with preparations. While firmly based in the world of improvised music, and as such not so much for me, this kept me listening. The music never gets too freakish or chaotic, but this duo exercises great control in their respective approaches to the instruments. I assume both use a few electronics here and there, sometimes providing a lingering, sustaining sound. On top of that, both instruments are approached with an investigative mind. The guitar and the piano do not always sound like one but rather like objects. And these objects are played with other objects, surface upon a surface, resulting in a dialogue between both instruments and players, together and alone, if you get my drift. The music is reflective, most of the time, with an occasional dip on the keyboard or strings, adding a melodic touch to the proceedings, such as in ‘Strandsee Marble’. Somewhere between electro-acoustic and improvisation, this disc contains some wonderfully intense music, which took me a couple of rounds to get into.
From Asmus Tietchens, who has various re-issues on Klanggalerie, comes the second part of ‘Ptomaine’. In Vital Weekly 1323, I reviewed the first one, so let me copy some basics. Originally this was a 3LP set by RRRecords, in which Tietchens uses one sound source, ‘RRR100’, a 7″ with 100 lock grooves. I remember the invitation and the excitement to have your music, even when it was only 1,3 (or so!) seconds, on vinyl, and, more importantly, one could use the grooves as source material. Of course, I never did, well, I am not sure anymore, and I had some trouble figuring out where my two loops were. I also remembered the ‘Ptomaine’ release and was quite annoyed by it. Tietchens processes 48 (I think) grooves, and each piece ends in a new groove; maybe my love for lock grooves ended there? The second part contains the other half of the original 3LP set, another twenty-four pieces. It should hardly be a surprise that the music on ‘Ptomaine 2’ is in a similar vein as the first one, and we find Tietchens in a more industrial, hammering looping phase. I wondered why this wasn’t a double CD, but since this isn’t exactly easy-listening music, it leans heavily on small repetitions. With the original 3LP set, one had to get up and change from lock groove to a new track, which is something that is now no longer necessary, but it’s still quite tiring music, mainly because these pieces are short; before you realize it, there is another piece going on. Very few works by Tietchens are still conceptual, which, I guess, is a great thing. Consider ‘Ptomaine’ as oddballs in his vast discography. For die-hards such as myself indispensable works.
It seems as if Klanggalerie is going to re-issue all the old LPs by Bourbonese Qualk on CD (vinyl versions are available from Germany’s Mannequin Records). The latest two are ‘The Spike’ and ‘Bourbonese Qualk’. from 1984 and 1986-87, respectively. The first BQ is still a trio, and following the release of ‘Bourbonese Qualk’, founding member Steven Tanza left. The group had by then five LP releases and a clearly defined sound. The sound of schizophrenia, as I like to call it. On the one hand, there are heavy, pounding rhythms, the drums of the big city drummed into existence (a city for people, not businesses), and on the other hand, there are these dreamy guitar pieces. But these two releases show the group in transition. The music is getting more electronic and punchier on’ The Spike’. The music has little guitar on the eponymous album, so it seems more electronics and samples are used in this album. The shouting of political slogans, a strong point of the band, is more present on ‘The Spike’ than on the other album. It is attractive to see the development this group shows in a relatively short period and the excitement of continuous experimentation—still one of my favourite groups of all time.
With all of these re-issues, you would think that is what Klanggalerie does, but there is also room for new music, albeit usually from artists they also have in their re-issue program. Jac Berrocal, the saxophone player and vocalist, already teamed up with guitarist David Fenech and synthesizer player Vincent Epplay (see Vital Weekly 1227). That was a strange record, and this new one is less strange, as it continues what I heard then. The background of the musicians in improvised music is never far away, even when the resulting music has little to do with improvisation. The rhythm machine, for one, provides a continuous sound unheard in most improvised music. Along with the synthesizer being in sync, there is the idea of a song. Considering that most tracks are three to four minutes, you know that we are dealing with more song-like structures. Voices are from Berrocal but just as easily lifted from a radio. The guitar plays lovely little motifs, and when Berrocal plays the trumpet, it is something far away, perhaps the one element of improvisation that still remains. These ingredients I heard on the previous album made a remarkably different kind of pop music (for the lack of a better word), and they continue in this new record. This trio even leans towards dub and world music in ‘Chapelle Ganache’, which is no doubt helped by the presence of Jah Wobble’s bass, flexible and dubby. The songs are spikey and alive, bursting with youthful energy. Pop-like, jazz-like (hard to avoid with how the trumpet is played here), dubby and, at times, wonderfully introspective. I understand this is the fourth release as a trio (well, with Wobble, Jean-Herve Peron and Lisa Gunstone as guests), which made me all the more curious about the ones I didn’t hear.
I explained my love for Eric Random before (Vital Weekly 1270), which started forty years ago. In recent years, Random changed his music radically. No longer playing the guitar, sound effects and a drum machine, he is now a full-on electronic musician. Quite different from the Cabaret Voltaire-inspired music from his earliest years, one could say that his current sounds perhaps fit a later phase of the Cabs. This is not a very strict inspiration, as Random takes his inspiration from all things dance music. His tempo is never too fast, which may not work all too well on the dance floor, along which he plays synthesizers and feeds his vocals to the vocoder. So, while probably, not a dance album per se, this is the kind of music I like to hear when fully immersed in other work. And other work is not at the computer, but doing some activities; walking or biking, doing the dishes, vacuum cleaning and such mundane activities. Looking back at my previous review, I said the same thing. And, I’ll be damned, I am writing this too on a Thursday afternoon, but in December. This is not music that needs to get a lot of words or go into individual pieces. It is at forty-two minutes, the classic album length, one hell of pop-perfection, even when Random might not perceive this album as such. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.klanggalerie.com/
J.J. GREGG – RE-CYCLING (CD, private)
Sometimes music washes ashore here, which makes me scratch my head. Music, so I believe, which may not be strictly for me, but which I certainly heard with interest. J.J. Gregg’s ‘Re-Cycling’ is such an album. I hadn’t heard of Gregg before. He calls himself a “dynamic yet meditative sitar player” and performs improvised and pre-composed music. I have an entirely different idea about the word ‘re-cycling’ in music. Still, in this case, it is the life-death cycle, water cycle, rock cycle, and repetition in playing the sitar when trying to re-order and re-compose “something transcendent in each musical moment”. Gregg takes inspiration from Raag Todi, and on some of these pieces, he receives help from tabla player Pavan Kanekal. It may be no surprise, but the world of sitar music and tabla playing is worlds apart from my musical world. I admit that I like an old George Harrison produced by The Radha Krishna Temple, which I accidentally heard when I was reading about Apple Records; a record I still play now and then. But that’s where my knowledge ends. And, while playing this CD, I thought that it was odd that I don’t know much about this or have heard more of it in my life, as I like all things minimal. And raga music is all about minimal, as far as I know. Gregg’s music isn’t that minimal, as he is sometimes pretty wild, bending his strings and not always playing exact repeats. The metallic resonance creates a fine set of overtones; I think this is lovely music. Music that I find hard to write about, I admit that. It is also music that, at some point, I found a bit too much. There is a particular sonic overload in this music that, at one point, I felt was a bit tiring for me. (FdW)
––– Address: https://jjgregg.bandcamp.com/
JARL – MIND ROTATION (CD by Zoharum)
LUGOLA – DEFORM (LIVE AT XX WROCŁAW INDUSTRIAL FESTIVAL) (CD by Zoharum)
Erik Jarl has been active for quite some time already. The first time I was introduced to the inside of his head was when he was still an active member of Skin Area. Calculating back, that must have been the first half of the ’00s. Around that time, he also started releasing his solo works, and several of those early works seem to form the base of my Jarl collection. Unfortunately, there is a gap in the middle, so for me, “Mind Rotation” is a renewal of some sort. The CD has five pieces and about an hour of compositions. It’s also available on cassette, which is a fun gimmick but having said that, I prefer this to be on CD because of the sound quality.
The five pieces are entitled “Mind Variation”, “Mind Dimension”, “Mind Symptoms”, “Mind Isolation”, and “Mind Disorder”. And reading those, My suspicion is – as we’ve seen more often from kindred musical minds – that the album is a journey through emotions of states of the human mind. And that those states of emotions are not always comfortable ones. The promotional sheet that came with the CD agrees with me there, so yeah, that part is already well done by Jarl.
So, where does the album stand music-wise? Because I have only the old releases to compare it to, I must say the chosen palette of sounds is much clearer and more synthetic than Jarl’s earlier work. Pads, arpeggiators and a very definitely compositional background elevate this release towards compositions in contradiction to his really early works that I would call sound-based entities. Please note that it’s not a validation of them; there is absolutely nothing wrong with either of them. But instead of getting drowned in a specific sound, here you are drowning in the hypnotic layers of the composition. The final and longest track of “Mind Rotation” still has a bit of both, and maybe that is because I like that one the best. It combines the wisdom and knowledge Jarl gained over the years, yet still has that ‘early years’ vibe where he was searching for the language he wanted to speak to share the insides of his mind.
Lugola is a new name for me. Michał Kiełbasa hails from Poland, and he is behind it; this is his Power Electronics outlet. Next to that, he is active and has various metal-related bands, of which I know none. After seeing Mercyful Fate and Slayer early 80’s, it couldn’t get any better IMHO, so with the black, death, grind, doom and all variations there are – I dare you to mention them all – I just quit with it and became a drone- and noise head. So of his many monikers, it’s also safe to say this one fits me the best sonically.
The eight tracks clock in under 40 minutes which is good if you consider it a recording from a live show (2021 Wrocław Industrial Festival). Except for one (“Tightening The Noose”), all tracks can also be found on the CD ‘You Are Not Special’ released about a year ago on Steinklang Industries. I should be listening to the Steinklang Release to hear the studio version and how the versions differ from each other. (* insert listening session *)
Well, the Steinklang release is already in its second pressing, and the atmosphere on both is quite different. Vocal processing is significantly different, and the studio recordings are less noisy than the live recordings. The studio version I’d label as Power Electronics, but the live is much more symbiosis between P.E and (harsh) noise. I don’t know which one I like better, but that might also be a matter of the moment it’s being played. But for me, the question I asked myself was if the tracks were worth being released twice – a little more than a year apart – and well, yes, they are. Yes, you can hear similarities, but the processing is different, and in a live perspective, the emotional drive of a performer is entirely different. So owning and liking the SK album is no reason not to get this one. (BW)
––– Address: https://zoharum.bandcamp.com/
VÖ – THE SOUNDS OF VÖ (2CD on Thanatosis Produktion)
Have you never heard of VÖ? Well, me neither. This is a one-off or new project of a free improvisation sextet from Sweden. They assembled for a day in Stockholm in March 2021 to record the music now available on a double CD, taking advantage of guitarist Giannis Arapis being in town and having saxophone player Anna Hoegberg drop by for an hour in the afternoon.
Sliding in the first CD, the music sounds strangely familiar. A kind of circular, meditative, quasi-ritual music, a harmonium (pump organ) laying the base over which the other instruments hover. The violin plays a sort of fiddling style with an ostinato note as a fast series of bow strokes. It reminds me of some of David Tibet’s work, or Pantaleimon, but weirdly also conjures up memories of Organum recordings (I would be hard-pressed to name which ones, though… I think it is the ostinato element that does it) and other early industrial music that used the harmonium. Six pieces are collected on this CD, mostly clocking in at around 7 minutes. Plenty of time to develop ideas, interact with each other, build tension and release it again. Titles such as ‘Epiphanies’, and ‘Let whatever is sounded be returned to the ground’ remind us of ritual music. Still, the fifth track, ‘Moebius’, describes the structure of a revolving, ever-changing, but cyclic music. Only the last track, ‘Landsort 1916’, was based on a precomposed harmonium part the others improvised too. You would not be able to tell, though.
The second CD is entirely different. Here are 13 ‘miniatures’ of free improvisation, much more located around exploring acoustic instrument sound – very restrained and cautious, all around 2 to 3 minutes long. And then it begins to click – Johan Berthling (not Andreas), a renowned jazz bassist, has a list of 142 recordings he contributed to listed on Discogs and several releases he worked on with Oren Ambarchi and many others. Alex Zethson, the label owner of Thanatosis, a member of Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, and an active pianist across many Swedish jazz groups. Anna Hoegberg, Swedish saxophone player (the one with only an hour to spend) across many groupings etc. Aha. This is not a mystical Norsk tribal gathering (re-)creating early industrial music, but a tight pack of young Swedish musicians (all born between the early 1970ies and end of 1980ies, only the violinist Eva Lindal is my age) that have intentionally or inadvertently created a beautiful and reflective body of music. Unfortunately, the miniatures of disc two do not shape up to the moody and broody atmosphere of disc 1. Nevertheless, they show some promise and are still worth listening to. I wonder whether releasing both together was a good idea – or maybe it is the other way round – only the combination brings out the best of both sides to the listener. I also wonder whether there will be more and what that might sound like. (RSW)
––– Address: https://thanatosis.org/
ORCHESTRAMAXFIELDPARRISH – FOUR THOUSAND TREES (10″ lathe cut by Faith Strange)
From the many names used by Mike Fazio comes a new record; limited to fifty copies. The title comes from a story aboyt 83-year olf Ziya Abay, who lost his wife in a traffic accident. Years later he started planting fruit trees on a island at Turkey’s Keban Dam Lake. There are now 4000 trees on the island. Quite a sad story, but also a beautful one and the music reflects that sadness and hope. I heard various works of Fazio before, and I think with orchestramaxfieldparrish (no capitals required) he has a slightly more experimental touch to his music. The main instruments on the two pieces on this 10″ record are the piano and the guitar. A third one could be the computer, which he uses to stretch and alter his sounds. Not a lot, not masively, as the original instruments are still easily recognized in the music here. There is throughout these two pieces a strong melodic touch to the music, building on ‘Island Of Memories’, toward a dramatic build up, and, towards the end, slowly abandonning the listener. The sense of loss is felt here. On the other side we find the title piece, which is a more a computerized affair, this time adding cello/string sounds to the equation. These are fed through a bunch of resonators, shortish and spikish, but below there is the orchestral long-from drone lingering about. Starting out in full force, slowly elements are removed the piece and it becomes more and more about the individual sounds. Here too, a sense of loss, is being made audible, but now from a more abstract point of view. Two great pieces of music, which made me crave a bit more. That’s the downside of this format. There is never enough space if things are really good. (FdW)
––– Address: https://faithstrange.bandcamp.com/
RENT ROMUS’ ACTUAL/ACTUAL – BAPTISMAL (CDR on Edgetone)
Rent Romus is not an unknown. And we do tend not to discuss ‘pure’ jazz releases here, just so the primary intention of VITAL is not watered down too much. However, Romus is slightly different as he is not a typical jazz musician. Well, he does play jazz, but once you start looking into his body of work, you will find activities within Instagon (frequently reviewed here), connections to Sun Ra, and a plethora of work with his groups (Lords of Outland), in collaborations, or contributing to recordings that are not always typically ‘jazz’.
Actual/Actual is a new group with a rather unusual instrumentation and apparently with young musicians. You don’t get the keyboarder playing the drums often, a saxophone playing over a keyboard, a vibraphone, and percussion. But once you hear the music, you forget about these peculiarities. All tracks are kind of generically named and, for some strange reason, start with ‘V-V.’ to then continue with ‘VI-V.’ and so forth – don’t ask me what happened to I-V. to IV-V. … The first kicks off with some fast piano arpeggios, to be accompanied quickly by a just-as-fast saxophone – and a whistle. As the tempo slacks a little, the vibraphone and drums cut in (not sure which one did the whistle). This is free jazz – you might think, well yeah, 70ies style Milt Jackson – but somehow these chaps keep an edge to things. There is a continuous presence of free improvisation lurking around the corner, as well as a more ‘rock’ style approach to playing and melody lines (bringing in Instagon again). Track two builds on some freestyle percussion overlayered with a muted trumpet line, a restrained saxophone and a keyboard, all playing at the other end of the room. Until the piano gives the piece a more ‘front’ and pressing character, other pieces start with a single or duo of instruments (cautiously) developing a line until the others join in and the whole track veers into a completely new direction. With seven tracks averaging around five to six minutes, there is plenty of space to change things on the way; even several times, the mood swings accordingly. You could call this a kind of eclecticism, but I believe the approach is so ingrained in Romus’ work that it is inseparable from his music and not an intentional gimmick. Indeed a release I enjoyed listening to. (RSW)
––– Address: https://edgetonerecords.bandcamp.com/
ROSS BOLLETER – AVERAGE HUMAN HEART (book by Lenka Lente)
EUGÈNE DE GUILLAUME BELHOMME & HARUTAKA MOCHIZUKI – EUGENE (book and mini CD by Lenka Lente)
The next bit of reviewing is full-on first-world problems. Lenka Lente is a French publishing house that now publishes a neat series of small books (10×15,5 cm), and sometimes they come with a mini CD. The books contain short stories from older writers whose work, I assume, is in the public domain. Lenka Lente also has non-fiction books about music, usually about improvisation (Eric Dolphy or John Corbet). In various ways, the book by Ross Bolleter is a bit different. The same size as the previous books I saw but with 232 pages, a much bigger one. Also, his book is in English, au contraire to many of the titles from this house. Although the name sounded familiar, I don’t think I had come across his name before. As a musician, he works with old pianos subjected to decay, time, and climate conditions. But there is no CD with his book, so I don’t know how that sounds. Not knowing his musical output makes reading his 100 stories, primarily on “music and musical experience”, difficult to read. Granted, they are exciting and fun to read, but I am not a literary critic. If I read “inspired by “Eduardo Galeano’s The Book of Embraces and Jorge Luis Borges’s Ficciones”, then I know very little. I should read more, but that doesn’t make a book critic. The stories are personal, about experiences with the piano, music in general, listening and playing. Interesting! (notes: should explore further).
The other new booklet is only thirty-six pages and contains images by Eugène Carrière (1849-1906), of whom Larousse aid, “above all he paints maternity wards and portraits, reducing the colours to a sort of fluid shades of brown, from which the essential forms emerge by luminous contrast”. Guillaume Belhomme wrote texts in French, so there is something lost there for me. On the mini CD is music from the Japanese saxophonist Harutaka Mochizuki, a new name for me. He’s from the world of improvisation, another area in which I have no expertise. I found it hard to relate the music to the images and the text that I gave me a hard time, but as a stand-alone, I liked the concentrated short bursts of sound versus short bits of silence.
So, to conclude, a book that I can read but feel not qualified for, a book I can’t read because of a language barrier and CD, that is a bit outside my usual domain. It’s never easy, I guess, but, as said, very much a first-world problem. (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.lenkalente.com/
MEATHOOK SAINT – REMAINS OF A HIVE (cassette, self-released)
So, here we have a cassette with a total playing time of under 10 minutes. Yes, 5 minutes per side. Meathook Saint is a band/project. I can’t find anything about it other than him being active on Reddit. Yes, they/he is German. And except for one, most cassette & digital-only releases have the same layout/branding. As well as it’s harsh noise, as harsh noise should be, and yes, I know the difference between harsh noise and HNW.
The first side is called “On Oak Leaves” and has a powerful bass layer coming in halfway through the track. It kinda pushes away the high frequencies that seem to be created by distortion on field recordings – not white noise from a sound generator of all kinds.
The reverse side is entitled “Decomposing”, and that one COULD be considered HNW. There is less modulation in the layers; it’s a more massive approach in contradiction to side A. To be considered HNW, I also think it should be a longer track. For now, it’s more of a Harsh Noise First Brick.
To make a short story long: Next time, please make sure I’ve got some more material to review and include a little bit of info because, in its roughness, I think I like to know more. (BW)
––– Address: https://meathooksaint.bandcamp.com/