Week 28
FABIO PERLETTA & ASMUS TIETCHENS – INTEGRAL (CD by 901 Editions) *
RUTGER ZUYDERVELT – BANZO (CD by Machinefabriek) *
JOS SMOLDERS – TEXTUUR 1 (CD by Moving Furniture Records) *
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN – ALPHA (CD by Cold Spring Records) *
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN – OMEGA (CD by Cold Spring Records)
HERZ AUS G.R.O.S.S. LIVE AKT 2 (2CD by Ferns Recordings)
RAPED BY FOUR VALENTINES DAY (CD compilation by Staalplaat)
PETRA DUBACH & MARIO VAN HORRIK – WAVES (2CD, private) *
LEO OKAGAWA & BEAU BEAUMOJNT & MASATAKE ABE – UTOPIAN AIR (CD by Ftarri/Meena) *
FREDERIC TENTELIER – L’EGAREMENT (CD by Ftarri/Hitorri) *
MINAMI SAEKI – VACANCES (CD by Ftarri/Hitorri) *
OTOMO YOSHIHIDE – HUMMINGBIRD AND FOUR FLOWERS – TURNTABLE AND HARMONIUM SOLO LIVE (CD by Ftarri/Hitorri) *
DIRK SERRIES – DEFIANCE OF SELF (CD by 13/Silentes) *
BRUNO DE ANGELIS – FLUIDICS 21 (CD by ADN Records) *
NEURO… NO NEURO – MENTAL CASSETTE (cassette by Audiobulb)
MATT ATKINS & STUART CHALMERS – RANDOM ARCHITECTURE (cassette by More Mars) *
MARIOS MORAS – NON LIVING NATURE- COMPOSITIONS FOR DICTAPHONE (cassette by More Mars) *
X°=1 – THE ART OF K7 VOL.#2 (cassette by Coherent States)
FABIO PERLETTA & ASMUS TIETCHENS – INTEGRAL (CD by 901 Editions)
A considerable part of Asmus Tietchens’ catalogue is collaborations. David Lee Myers and Dirk Serries have done a substantial amount of work with him; others may be one-offs. With Fabio Perletta, he worked once before, one ‘Deflections’ (see Vital Weekly 1075). Besides the collaboration, I heard only one other work from him (Vital Weekly 849), and I don’t know anything about him. For whatever reason, I believe he’s a laptop artist, but I might be wrong. Tietchens isn’t a laptop musician, but the wonders of working software are familiar to him. Whatever the input is here, I have no idea. It all sounds erased or on the point of disappearing. Traces of sound, and if you play this superficially, doing your daily business, I am sure lots will be lost on you. The music on ‘Integral’ works best with undivided attention and the volume turned up a bit more. That’s with many of these more recent works by Asmus Tietchens (a fair portion of his post-2000-work). If you give it all your attention and with some volume, a whole new world unfolds. Bleeps, deep bass sounds, significantly transformed water dropping, that’s the kind that springs to mind. Each of the seven pieces is such an exercise in music; elements sometimes return, but there is a lot of variation here. My best guess is there are a lot of field recordings in the music here, but who knows? It’s all electronic sounds. There is no way of telling who did what on this release, but in general, Tietchens has a final shot at the mix, and I have no reason to believe things are different here. The end of this review should be no surprise: I love this CD. (FdW)
––– Address: https://901editions.bandcamp.com/
RUTGER ZUYDERVELT – BANZO (CD by Machinefabriek)
One of the most troublesome issues with writing reviews is the repetition of phrases, words and explanations. One such thing is about film soundtracks. Without the movie, is this music interesting enough to be reviewed by itself? The musician undoubtedly thinks the music stands by itself very well; otherwise, there’d be no release. I know very little about the world of art-house movies or ‘how to compose music for films’; all I know is ‘Banzo’ is a movie by Margarida Cardoso. IMDB provides this synopsis: “1907. Afonso starts life anew on a tropical island off the African coast as a plantation physician. He is tasked with treating servants “infected” by Banzo, profound homesickness fatal to many slaves who succumb to starvation or take their own lives. To prevent spreading, the group is sent to a secluded hill encircled by forest. Afonso tries to heal them, but understanding their spirits is a challenge stronger than any medical intervention.” On the CD, we find nine pieces, some relatively short, below the three-minute mark, which is something inherent in soundtrack releases, so, at least, is my experience. The overall tone of the music is introspective and dark, very sparse in the use of sounds and instruments. They might include a cello, wind instrument, electronics, or field recordings. I played this CD repeatedly, mainly because I was engaged in a few other tasks at the computer, but I also enjoyed the sparse presence of sound during my otherwise dull job. Additionally, the low volume, which I used to play this CD, helped me along with the appreciation. I would have preferred the shorter pieces to be a bit longer and had Zuydervelt explore them a bit more, as I believe there is some unused potential in them. This works much better in the longer ones, withones with the final piece, ‘At Sea II’, being the longest and most fully developed piece of music. As a standalone, this soundtrack works very well. (FdW)
––– Address: https://machinefabriek.bandcamp.com/
JOS SMOLDERS – TEXTUUR 1 (CD by Moving Furniture Records)
Some albums get your brain working. You’ll plant some conceptual seed in your mind, and you start thinking or even philosophizing. It depends on the planted seed, how your brain works, mental (dis)abilities, and, oh yeah, the amount of coffee you had that day. So when I started listening to this album after 6 cups, my brain went into overtime, and I just couldn’t stop having the weirdest thoughts.
Math is a language in which numbers are letters and equations are words with incorrect grammar. Longer sequences of numbers are difficult words with a specific meaning. Due to what we learned or know or our background different words have different meanings. The English ‘rust’ is oxidized metal, and the Dutch ‘rust’ is rest. But ‘rest’ in English and Dutch can mean ‘leftover’. But ‘666’ in any language will be directly connected to the Bible and the number of the beast, while it loses its strength when it’s used in an endless sequence where it deteriorates to sicksicksicksicks … Wasn’t it a Current 93 track with the lyrics ‘Sick Sick Sick of Six Six Six’?
This is all in my mind; probably, it has nothing to do with the conceptual approach of Jos Smolders on “Textuur 1”, but it emphasizes what music can do with someone. And THAT, my little droogies, THAT is the power of art and, in this case, sonic art. Jos works with ‘Objects Sonore’ being soundbites, samples, and grains, and he reworks them into something different. Four collections with basic manipulations and seven permutations where he continues exploring the trajectory given in the previous ‘collection’. Sounds extrapolated from the most basic sound objects going into rhythmic structures, drones, pads, ambience, minimal noise … All depending on that source and on a lower level then I mentioned before. The ‘t’ in two or three becomes the structured ‘t.t.t.t.t.t.t’ while the ‘s’ in seven creates ‘sssssssss’ … It’s a different language – a meta-language if you want -, where it’s not math that is the language but where it’s the letters that are used to form the words that are the language, are the basics to create art. With this in mind, the sequence of “Collection 1” is 1(2)234(8)7(2)55(6) … Does this have a meaning? Or is it as random as the aleatoric works of Brian Eno?
This is Part #1 of a triptych, with Parts #2 and #3 recently being released on Cronica … I advise gettingI suggest getting all three of them (I still need #3) so you can finalize the circle. Amazingly beautiful in all its beautiful layers, those mentioned in the lines notes and those added by your mind. Eleven out of Ten stars. (BW)
––– Address: https://www.movingfurniturerecords.com/
––– Address: https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN – ALPHA (CD by Cold Spring Records)
TREPANERINGSRITUALEN – OMEGA (CD by Cold Spring Records)
If there is one project in the world that deserves to carry the phrase ‘rituals’ in its name, it’s the Dutch Swedish Trepaneringsritualen. For those who, strangely enough, have never heard of it up until now, from the opening sounds of “Alpha”, you feel a cold dead hand around your throat, which stops you from breathing. And with each minute of the track, you are limited more and more in your movement and thinking until that full hour has passed, and all you can think as of that moment is, “What the actual f*ck happened just now …”
Thomas Ekelund, I’ve known for many years, and with his first project, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, he already had some magic in the textures he created. Absolute great minimalist sounds worth checking out if you like your drone ultra minimal and creepy. ‘Back then already’ I am writing down with a big grin. And then the other guy in Trepaneringsritualen, none other than Peter Johan Nijland, known for a.o. Norn, and being a Blitzkrieg Baby, Distel, O Saala Sakraal and Volksweerbaarheid member. Peter knows his sounds, production and composition perfectly. And I don’t know how those two guys met, but when those first recordings were released in 2008, the impact was effin huge. A bearded guy with blood on his face shows what the inside of hell sounds like. And afterwards, you find out it’s a collective from another guy who keeps getting into your music collection somehow …
So Cold Spring releases two albums at the same time, “Alpha” and “Omega”, the beginning and the end. Rest assured, this has nothing to do with beginnings or endings; these two are very well-compiled albums of some hard-to-get-older material combined with a couple of unreleased tracks. So this one is a) for the completionists, b) for the fans and c) for fans-to-be to get an overview of the many faces of this project. Nowadays, you won’t buy a sampler CD anymore because there is one track you want to hear/have. And a double 7″ in a box set limited to 5 copies … One can only dream of owning objects like that, so it’s a good thing those tracks are now available on CD to play in the comfort of your environment. And don’t forget those gnarly cassette-only releases while you simply DO NOT HAVE a cassette deck. These albums are for all of you and I doubt you will find a ‘bad’ track on here.
There are some collaborations (special compliments for “Åkallan: Sunna” with Aether / Jonas Lindgren – deeeeep), a few covers, one from Coil and one from TMLHBAC, some CDR-only releases, some digital-only releases, that previously mentioned double 7″ in 5 copies and it’s total on 2 hours (and 1 minute). I’m looking forward to seeing them perform in August in Stockholm. (BW)
––– Address: https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/
VARIOUS – HERZ AUS G.R.O.S.S. LIVE AKT 2 (2CD by Ferns Recordings)
People who know me better also know I have a few weaknesses. I love a few artists, and even if they should release something that wouldn’t fulfil my expectations, there is a good chance I’ll buy it and put it in my collection. But some artists never failed me in any way, and everything I heard from them until now appeals to me in some form. Recently, I have told you that Christian Renou is one of those artists, and another is Akifumi Nakajima. For those who don’t know, that’s Aube, who very, very sadly passed away already over ten years ago. He was also behind the G.R.O.S.S. cassette label on which 1994 “Herz Aus G.R.O.S.S.” was released. And now, the 30th anniversary of that release is celebrated with “Herz Aus G.R.O.S.S. Live Akt 2”.
This release is a double CD with live recordings from December 11th and 13th, 1995. The titles suggest two concerts – one in Osaka on the 11th and the other in Okayama – where MSBR, Monde Bruits, Aube, Daniel Menche and Small Cruel Party performed. Those live shows were recorded to DAT by Akifumi and are now mastered by Paul Lavigne (who did a great job pushing all boundaries), resulting in the events being documented for you all to enjoy.
In thirty years, a lot can happen; yes, three artists have left us already. Monde Bruits, MSBR and, as said earlier, Aube. So, listening to the first CD with these three artists can be challenging. It brings back delightful memories of seeing MSBR perform in the Dutch ‘Museumnacht’ and sharing the stage with Aube in 2007. And Monde Bruits I had never heard of but he is fantastic… Great layering of sounds and use of feedback and reverb. You can feel the movement of stuff in the venue resonating with those sounds. MSBR is loud and in your face (by the way, he is the opening track) while Aube does what Aube does best. I would be curious about his chosen sound source here (which isn’t mentioned sadly).
The second CD contains recordings of Daniel Menche and Small Cruel Party. Daniel seems to work with contact mics and heavily manipulates those sounds. The build-up in 34 minutes is massive, and you feel overwhelmed by the spacious character of the recording: Starting, building, dissecting, rebuilding. Again wishing I had seen this set live. Small Cruel Party is a name I’ve seen loads and loads of times before but have yet to really explore. But rest assured that starting with this release I will. This live set is a beautifully crafted soundscape where the sounds are given enough space and time to develop, and still, enough space is left open to explore those sounds that are not recorded but heard, as said before, Two beautifully documented events that everyone can now enjoy. (BW)
––– Address: https://fernsrecordings.bandcamp.com/
RAPED BY FOUR VALENTINES DAY (CD compilation by Staalplaat)
RETURN TO ACAPULCO – MUSIC FOR HOTELS VOL. 1 (CD compilation by 13/Silentes)
Ah, compilation time again and undoubtedly another confusing review. The confusing part is that reviewing compilations is not my favourite pastime, and many of the current ones (and I am speaking of the last 25 years) are so-so affairs. I’ll get to that. The first compilation is a re-issue of a cassette compilation from 1985, and when I opened the mailer, I said ‘oh wow’ to myself. I didn’t expect this to be re-issued ever on CD, and my second thought was, ‘What did they leave out so it would fit on a CD?’ I loved the original cassette a lot; it quickly became one of my favourites from those years. One thinks that spotting what was left out is an easy job, but honesty dictates that I hadn’t heard the cassette in many years so that I may have missed it. The next surprise was the length of the CD, 86 minutes, which is more than I ever expected on a CD, meaning the entire cassette is on this CD—many cheers and hurries (also for the hand-sewn cover, a Staalplaat regularity). I am surprised this found its way to Staalplaat as the original label, Watergate Tapes, may not have been very well represented in 1985, but maybe I am all wrong. The catch on this compilation is Controlled Bleeding, opening up with ‘Lung Suite’, a collage of jazzy guitars in their mid-1980 sound, the ‘Headcrack’ era, backed with industrial noises, loops and rhythm. At the time quite a surprise track as I was used to the harsh noise thing, but eventually, I found it all quite interesting, these constant changes of styles.
The other well-known on this compilation is F/i, well-known as in ‘having other releases, including vinyl’. They were (or perhaps are?) a guitar-based space rock group, but with much of their earlier material, there are many industrial and noise-based sounds. Every piece on this CD is cut as one track, even when both Controlled Bleeding and F/i have various parts, even when it’s not always clear when they start and stop, but in both cases, this adds to the free-flow, psychedelic approach of both bands.
This is also the case for this compilation’s two more unknown projects. First, there’s -1348-, which was at the time the solo project of Jeff Surak, these days working under his name, but in good ol’ cassette fashion, having a moniker. He was also responsible for the label, Watergate Tapes, an appropriate name for a label from DC. I never gave it much thought at the time, thinking he used a lot of very early samples, but on ‘In The City, ‘ it seems he uses a lot of reel-to-reel tape manipulation, taking cues from Nurse With Wound. All a bit more primitive and expanded, but still a great job. Maybe he transforms some metallic percussion from his New Carrollton project. The most unknown quantity on this compilation is 37 Pink, which had a few releases but disappeared early on. Their piece starts with a looped disco rhythm and explores a similar psychedelic, multi-layered and multi-coloured miasma of tones and sounds.
A recent compilation is ‘Return To Acapulco – Music For Hotels Vol.1’. My problem as a reviewer with compilations is that there is usually a need for a thematic approach or results not being too diverse. At first, I thought ‘Music For Hotels’ was a lame idea for a compilation, even when curated by Vittore Baroni, one of the operators behind the legendary Trax cassette label (I know that doesn’t cover it). A bit of lounge music. I then read the story in the booklet about Baroni’s childhood and his parents running a hotel on the Versilia Riviera (at the Tuscan seaside), and, if I understood correctly, how he now runs the family business until this day. That sounded more like it. The hotel’s name is Hotel Acapulco, after the Elvis Presley movie, ‘Fun in Acapulco’. With his background in Italian (and worldwide) musical underground, it was easy to find musicians to record a soundtrack for a specific zone of the hotel, the bar, the elevator, the kitchen, and so on. If I am correct all musicians are from Italy, and a combination of old and new names. People we know from the Trax days, such as Francesco Paolo Paladino of The Doubling Raiders, Daniele Ciulilini, Arlo Bigazzi (Naif Orchestra) and Bi Nostalgia. Baroni is part of Le Forbici di Manitu in the final track (I wonder why this is listed as a bonus). The music is a diverse bag of musical styles. None of this is your typical lounge music, even when ambient music plays an important role. People like Deison and Gabriele Gasparotti play the dark drone/ambient card quite well. Still, there are also some gentler forms of ambient, with piano and guitar, such as Rifrazione and Stefano Gianotti. Paladino offers some chamber orchestral music, downright electro/guitar pop by The Garden Of Love, and psychedelic music by Vittorio Nistri & The Dead Freaks Society. The music is as diverse as it was on the old Trax compilations, but with a much better sound quality. It may sometimes be unclear what the link is with a specific place in the hotel, certainly when the booklet (which explains it all) is out of reach while relaxing in a comfy chair and cocktail. Would I remember this in forty years, hopefully around to live a celebration of its release? As the summer of 2024 doesn’t kick in, here in The Netherlands, it’s the closest thing to a hotel experience. (FdW)
––– Address: https://staalplaatlabel.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://store.silentes.it/
PETRA DUBACH & MARIO VAN HORRIK – WAVES (2CD, private)
These two musicians from Eindhoven are masters of various trades. Musicians work with sculpting sound, quite literally with objects and spaces. Mostly strings, set in motion in some ways and have the sound resonate through space. They are also a bit of scientists, or, rather, inventors. What if I connect this to that? What happens if I place a shaker on this guitar? They also perform in their kinetic installations, playing acoustic guitars (among many other things), amplifying them and working with feedback. Using many objects (long strings, guitars, cymbals, small objects) also becomes music to see and hear rather than just listening. As such, a DVD would be most welcome, but we have two CDs with recordings at home instead. Dubach and Van Horrik have been active for a long time, working with overtones, installations and music, and since 2010, they have a project called ‘Waves’. It started with the purchase of a shaker. You connect it to the output of an amplifier and reproduce the sound frequencies as vibrations, the thing that makes your chair rock in the 4DX cinema when James Bond is driving recklessly. In the extensive booklet, the two describe their work in detail, and it’s too much repeated in the context of a review, but from what I understand, there is always that curious ‘what if’ approach in their work. Starting with long strings but applying them to, for instance, acoustic guitars and cymbals. These recordings are from their studio, a document of a work in progress and lack the spatial quality of their presentations. Churches, with their big acoustics, seem a favourite for them. But there is plenty to enjoy in the department of resonating sounds, feedback, and minimalism. Keep the booklet to read what you hear, and you’ll be amazed. If you don’t do that, you’ll be immersed in the minimalist world of sounds, in which ‘change’ happens slowly and, at times, somewhat random, and without the specific knowledge of each track’s background, it is still most enjoyable. There is a meditative aspect to the music, most of the time with the occasional brutish approach, maybe when the experiment fails. That is also part of the project; a failed experiment is also successful. (FdW)
––– Address: https://vimeo.com/petraenmario
LEO OKAGAWA & BEAU BEAUMOJNT & MASATAKE ABE – UTOPIAN AIR (CD by Ftarri/Meena)
FREDERIC TENTELIER – L’EGAREMENT (CD by Ftarri/Hitorri)
MINAMI SAEKI – VACANCES (CD by Ftarri/Hitorri)
OTOMO YOSHIHIDE – HUMMINGBIRD AND FOUR FLOWERS – TURNTABLE AND HARMONIUM SOLO LIVE (CD by Ftarri/Hitorri)
By now, I have learned that Ftarri is not only a label for some extremely quiet music but goes beyond that. The trio disc by two electronic operators, Leo Okagawa and Beau Beaumont, and electric bass player Masatake Abe, is altogether next level: noise. In August 2023, they came together in Beaumont’s studio in Matsudo and recorded this one-hour-long improvisation. I call this noise, but rest assured, this is not like Merzbow Vomir or any other HNW artist. This trio’s noise is one of pleasant loudness. There is lots of noise cascading, and it’s hard to say what ‘electronics’ are in this story, but these are modular. The bass needs help keeping up with the electronics and sometimes seems lost in the barrage of sound. Unless, of course, it’s moving and shaking with all the noise generators. And yet, sometimes the bass rises out of the swamp and becomes this massive resonating bass box, resonating deep sounds and, surprisingly, some very acoustic sounds: quite a powerful release and a great surprise for this label.
Following such overload one needs a place of rest, something to relax with, perhaps. I am convinced Frederic Tentelier doesn’t set out to compose relaxing music. He recorded in France, which is a rarity for this label, and I believe he plays all instruments himself. These include Fender Rhodes, prepared glockenspiels, pitch pipes, harmonium and field recordings, using multitrack recordings, not believing he plays all these simultaneously. On the other hand, perhaps he does. I don’t know much about the man and his intentions and methods, but he likes to keep his music small. Not too much outgoing, no chaos or hectic, but also quiet and quiet. At any point in these 49 minutes, there is something to hear. With his instruments, Tentelier can create both long-form, sustaining drone sounds, and smaller sounds, like snowflakes, coming at irregular intervals. Sometimes, one prevails, then another; sometimes, he creates a very fine balance, and both work together on a beautiful, equal level. In ‘Aller Vers’, he has a more collage-like approach with abrupt silences, whereas in ‘Revenir Par’, it all blends into one ongoing affair. No doubt there is a conceptual edge here, with two pieces precisely 21 minutes and in the middle one that is seven (three pieces, 3×7 = 21), even when the music does not necessarily give strong indications of overlaps, recurring elements and such like. Tentelier is in place on the Ftarri label with his quiet and introspective soundscapes.
Also quiet is the double CD featuring six versions of the same composition, ‘Vacances’ by Minami Saeki; she’s not performing on any of these. “This score is a simple alphabetical arrangement of the letters A to Z according to a certain system. Each performer must pre-set their favourite notes for A to Z before the performance”. She also hopes the interpretations will sound completely different. Three are played on an electric guitar, one acoustic guitar, one acoustic 12-string guitar and one on a domra, a Russian folk lute. The players in the same order are Taku Sugimoto, Lauri Hyvärinen, Cristian Alvear, Takashi Masubuchi, Frederic Rasten and Denis Sorokin. The differences are wild and unrecognizable; each of the six pieces uses single notes played in a particular order. Should I be a real musician with a trained ear and not tone deaf, I could, perhaps, mention the differences between these pieces, but I can’t. The main difference is the length, from 15 to almost 33 minutes. With the electric guitar variations, there is a little bit of sustaining, ringing sound, less so in the three for acoustic instruments. The music has a very Zen-like character, with all of these individual guitar tones, and I don’t know (again) if relaxing is what the composer wants us to do, but it had that very relaxing effect on me; I even fell asleep the first time.
Back in the Ftarri space, on 3 October 2022, Otomo Yoshihide played two sets; in the first, he used a turntable and a harmonium, and in the second, just the turntable. With this release we return to the more noisy approach of the first disc from Ftarri reviewed earlier. Especially in the solo turntable piece, Yoshihide knows how to move and shake the styles over surfaces, and it has that brutalist attack of short, sustaining, and rhythmic bits. He remains the master of this trade, even when pure turntablism isn’t something that I am interested in that much. In the opening piece, for both instruments, Yoshihide blends the two instruments into some very intense music. There are some high, piercing frequencies in the earlier part of the piece, maybe the amplification of the harmonium or some other kind of feedback, but also later in the piece, there are some nasty frequencies, and only in the last few minutes one notices the presence of the turntable. This piece is an excellent combination of both instruments, using the qualities of each in a highly varied and dynamic way. Maybe because the turntable sounded less like a rotating machine for repeating sounds made it all the more appealing for me. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.ftarri.com/
DIRK SERRIES – DEFIANCE OF SELF (CD by 13/Silentes)
You can’t say Dirk Serries is a one-trick pony. I am one, though, because I used that same line only some weeks ago when discussing his ‘At Future Dawn’ release (see Vital Weekly 1439). He started dabbling with noise in his very early days as Vidna Obmana, explored the world of ambient and electronics with that project, picked up the guitar to play a more rock-like version of ambient music as Fear Falls Burning, and about ten years he added pure improvisation to that. I always assumed entering a new phase ended the old one, but that’s not the case again, as we saw last time. This new disc sees a continuation of the previous one because if Serries has an approach, he shares it plenty. The information mentions Serries uses his motherboard of pedals and an electric guitar, which one easily assumes brings a mix of Fears Falls Burning and Vidna Obmana, or perhaps a different take on improvisation, but instead, Serries manages to make the guitar sound unlike the guitar. I do not know if he bought a new load of effects, as they give the music a more organ-like quality, almost as if he uses some granular synthesis and pitch-shifting harmonics. It is atmospheric music, and the last track, ‘Vigil’, is the most ambient, whereas the others have an excellent atmospheric unrest feeling. The music is both intense and relaxing, which may depend on the volume you use for playback. I prefer a more moderate volume, so the space I am in, my living room, fills up beautifully with sound without being too immersive (that kind of thing is not something I like to experience at home, but rather in a bigger space, different sound system, etc.). As with the last review, I like to end with the same line, ‘I don’t know why he no longer wishes to use his Fear Falls Burning moniker for this, as this could have morphed into something that Dirk Serris does on this CD”. (FdW)
––– Address: http://store.silentes.it/
BRUNO DE ANGELIS – FLUIDICS 21 (CD by ADN Records)
The name Bruno de Angelis sounded familiar, but I may not have heard from him before or from his groups, Flu, Influenza Prods, Mana Erg and Lham. There is no biographical information on the label’s website. Discogs says, “Bruno De Angelis is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and former sound engineer who gained invaluable experience by recording, producing and collaborating with many artists in various styles. As a direct consequence, his music spans many genres without really taking more than a hint from anyone in particular, and always retaining a distinctive sound that seems to defy fashions” his solo work is sometimes like a cross between electroacoustic music and “what could best be described as some kind of ambient techno nightmare”. He recorded his album in his studio in Tenerife. There was already a self-released online album called ‘Fluidics’ in 2012, with the same 14 titles but slightly different lengths. The cover says this was recorded in 2022, so let’s assume this is an updated version. Sampling plays a significant role in De Aneglis’ music, giving the music a rhythmic quality. I wouldn’t call this an “ambient techno nightmare” because very little here says ‘techno’ or ‘ambient’. There is a percussive element to the music. I am still determining what De Aneglis samples; it could be anything, from acoustic sources, instruments or electronic tones. The remains mechanic and somewhat distant. The ideas are exciting but only sometimes result in great compositions. It could also be the lack of dynamics; the music remains on one level. While only some pieces are vital, I also can’t say that anyone stood out particularly, but ‘Tiny Drops Of Liquer’ was my favourite. Everything works together in this song and becomes a song, not a mix of percussive elements. There is some unused potential in this release. (FdW)
––– Address: https://adnrecords.com/
NEURO… NO NEURO – MENTAL CASSETTE (cassette by Audiobulb)
There have been various releases by Kirk Markarian’s project Neuro… For instance, there is No Neuro on Audiobulb and Mille Plateaux, which I heard about (see Vital Weekly 1418). That one didn’t blow me away, with a bit of click ‘n cuts, glitch and broken techno beats, with too much variation. This new cassette is, in that respect, a more coherent thing. There is still that slightly broken-up sound from the world of glitch music from so many years ago, but stylistically, Markarian keeps his things together. It all has an exquisite ambient touch of one keyboard, one or two sound effects, and some editing on the computer, the latter to give the material a more cut-up-like feeling. Sometimes, he adds a few additional sounds, a glitchy rhythm, vinyl crackling or a robot-like voice. Throughout this cassette, the music remains quite sparse and to the point. Ambient and yet not too ambient with those ‘other’ elements scattered throughout this release, the music sticks with the more gentle side of music. Because of what seems to be the weird cutting of sounds (or maybe Markarian plays his keyboard that way), it all stays away from the world of new-age music. I liked this cassette way more than his CD. I can hear similar approaches, but in the more coherent on cassette, this works much better. (FdW)
––– Address: https://ab-nnn.bandcamp.com/
MATT ATKINS & STUART CHALMERS – RANDOM ARCHITECTURE (cassette by More Mars)
MARIOS MORAS – NON LIVING NATURE- COMPOSITIONS FOR DICTAPHONE (cassette by More Mars)
The first of these two new cassettes by More Mars contains a duo, and both are no strangers to Vital Weekly. I didn’t count, but I am sure I reviewed more music by Matt Atkins than from Stuart Chalmers, but it’s also that the first releases much more music. Atkins is also the one who does a lot more collaborations. Both artists work with cassettes and a more lo-fi approach to sound, so working together seemed only a matter of time. Chalmers uses gongs, various percussion, bass drum, field rec, tape and fx while Atkins plays percussion, Shruti box, tapes, and editing. I assume ‘editing’ in this case means finalising the mix. At 26 minutes, this is a short cassette. Still, in each of the six pieces, they find enough time and space to explore their acoustic approaches, rumbling through objects and at the same time carefully placing a gong stroke here, or a shruti tone, to alternate the shorter sounds with a few more sustaining ones. The gong always has that element of meditation, but in this case it is effectively all instruments sounding a tad reflective. They repeat sounds, adding a mechanical feeling to the music, and at the same time, there is a human touch to all of this; it’s not a bunch of loops on endless repeat, and four hands are rocking and shaking instruments and objects to set it all in motion. Sadly, it’s on the short side, as I wouldn’t mind some more of this. I am unsure if Atkins does a lot of collaborations again; if not, I hope he reconsiders and does another with Chalmers.
Unsurprisingly, this was the first I had heard of Marios Moras; ‘Non-Living Nature’ is his first solo album. He’s also a member of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA) and one of the people behind the Moremars label. In 2020, he bought a Dictaphone from the Internet, and it came with a cassette with spoken words from the previous owner. “He was testing the recorder to see if it was functional, but at some point, he recorded the words “… Less to be, not to be”. This “messege” from this old man stood out to me like he wanted me to listen his advice or his existential fears”, writes Moras, who dedicated this release to this man. Moras uses field recordings, cassette manipulation, objects, sampling, Korg Ms20, and melodica. He also mentions analogue and digital recorders, which makes the sub-title strange. His cassette is a little shorter too, also around 27 minutes. More than the duo release just heard, this is a work of electroacoustic composition but with rather lo-fi means. The result is also lo-fi but different from the grainy, lo-fi ambient music popular today. Moras uses rusty magnetic tapes to create sound collages in which the shaky quality of tapes plays a significant role. He overlays various events from unrelated fields with electronic and acoustic sounds (rainpipes in ‘Desperate Man’, maybe?). All of these results are strong pieces. Only the final piece, ‘One Loop’, a basic Dictaphone tape piece, didn’t cut it for me; the other four did with the densely orchestrated approach, some through drones, some through wildly acoustic action and it works well. Here, too, I would have loved some more. (FdW)
––– Address: https://moremars.bandcamp.com/
X°=1 – THE ART OF K7 VOL.#2 (cassette by Coherent States)
“According to the general rule of exponents, any number raised to the power of 0 equals 1, with the exception of 0 raised to the power of 0, which is an indeterminate form. The expression 0 raised to the power of 0 arises when we have no quantity to multiply by itself zero times. In simpler terms, it represents the empty product.” I was never good at maths; probably no one explained why I should take notice. X°=1 is a group of four people, Harold Schellinx, Emmanuel Rébus, Blenno Die Wurstbrücke and Anton Mobin, who love cassettes. The compact cassette is a Dutch invention, by Lou Ottens, working at Philips (also the inventor of the compact disc, for the same company; notice the word ‘compact’ twice!), and this cassette is dedicated to him. He passed away in 2021. I once heard him speak, and he said, “Why do you people care about cassettes? I invented something better, the CD”. Don’t tell Harold Schellinx, who loves the cassettes and the sounds stored on them dearly. The four men sit behind a table and can hardly see each other. They have a ton of cassettes, found cassettes (although you don’t see many of those lying in the gutter anymore. Sadly! Not from an environmental point of view, but because of what it could contain), spoken word, music or sounds. All of this they play in concert, and in their hands, it becomes an instrument to play improvised music. It’s hard to imagine they know whatever sound is on which cassette, but maybe they do. Some of the results are pretty chaotic, but like all improvised music, it is a bit of a hit-and-miss and of interaction between the players. However, it works pretty well throughout. These pieces are closely knit collages of found sound, each with a strong individual character. The interaction works here very well, and I have no idea to what extent things were edited here, but I can imagine that with material like this, there are many options to cut, paste and mix and take the material a step further. If they didn’t do this, and these pieces result from unedited live playing cassettes, the result is even better. (FdW)
––– Address: https://coherentstates.bandcamp.com/