Week 36

ZONA INDUSTRIALE – IZ (CD by Zona Industriale)
SURY-TANUKI – L’INDEX LÉCHEUR (CD by Bisou Records)
PAUL COLLINS & PATRICK MÜLLER & THIERRY MÜLLER & QUENTIN ROLLET – CORRESPONDANT A UNE LETTRE (CD by Bisou Records)
JÉRÔME LORICHON & THIERRY MÜLLER & QUENTIN ROLLET – NIGHT IN RED SATIN (CD by Bisou Records)
AIR – VOL. 2 (3CD by Creative Works Records)
ELBRUS (CD, private)
MARTINA VERHOEVEN – INVITES (CD by A New Wave Of Jazz)
GONÇALO ALMEIDA – STATES OF RESTRAINTS (CD by Clean Feed Records)
DYSMORIFC FEAT CRISTIANO ROVERSI – TO DEFY THE LAWS OF GRINDCORE (CDR by Love Earth Music)
ELKA BONG – WITHOUT EALLS (CDR by Love Earth Music)
MONEY – 2 (2CDR by Love Earth Music)
FERGUS KELLY – NATURAL HISTORY (CDR by Room Temparature)
MARKATAMEA – AXIS NON PARALELL (CDR, private)
DAVID LEE MYERS – KRONOS (CDR by Pulsewidth)
SUBSERVIENTDOMINANCE – PUBLIC DOMINANCE (CDR by Love Earth Music)
PHILIPPE PETIT – PASSING THRU (2CDR by Eternal Music Projects)
BLUE SPECTRUM / ZEBRA MU – SPLIT (3″ CDR by Quagga Curious Sounds)

ZONA INDUSTRIALE – IZ (CD by Zona Industriale)

Italy’s Menstrual Recordings likes to delve deep into the history of noise music and, over the years, re-released music by Merzbow, Maurizio Bianchi (more of those soon), The New Blockaders, Atrax Morgue, but much to their credit, also lesser known industrial projects Produktion, Dadarotator and the short-lived Italian duo Zona Industriale. They were Michele Pingitore and Pino Iannelli, and they released five cassettes in the 1980s, two self-released and one on ADN Tapes, Discipline Produzioni and Bloedvlag Produkt. I was in steady contact with the latter label then, but I don’t think I heard this. For sure I listened to the one on ADN, as I was a collector of their releases at the time. It’s also something I haven’t heard in a long time. ‘IZ’ was their cassette release, and since 1983 re-issued twice as a cassette and once as a CDR, a feat that none of their other releases share; only the ADN one was re-issued twice, and Bloedvlag once. The new CD comes with a replica of the original booklet and Xeroxed, almost like ‘back then’. Two pieces on the CD, like the cassette, one could think, but the booklet indicates eight separate titles, and that’s how the music sounds. Piz and Miz, as their nicknames go, play the lowest form of instruments: radio sounds (and a lot of those, both white noise and spoken word), tape cut-ups, some effects and a Casio SK-1. These are put together rather amateurishly, but that’s what I love about this. It lacks the density of MB’s work or the harsh noise of Ramleh, but it has a more collage-like approach; indeed, when boundaries between songs disappear and within pieces, there are also some abrupt changes. I think all of this has a rather lo-fi approach, straight to two-track tape, and some of this is picked up with a cheap microphone. It is very much a bedroom approach, and that alone brings back a lot of memories; that’s how a lot of us did music back then, and that’s why this is something I love. Like last week’s Die Sonne Satans, with such a small output, why not a complete box set? (FdW)
––– Address: http://www.menstrualrecordings.org/

SURY-TANUKI – L’INDEX LÉCHEUR (CD by Bisou Records)
PAUL COLLINS & PATRICK MÜLLER & THIERRY MÜLLER & QUENTIN ROLLET – CORRESPONDANT A UNE LETTRE (CD by Bisou Records)
JÉRÔME LORICHON & THIERRY MÜLLER & QUENTIN ROLLET – NIGHT IN RED SATIN (CD by Bisou Records)

First of all, the text on all three new releases by the French Bisou releases is a challenging read. For two, the font is just too small, and for the one I start with, ‘L’index Lécheur’, by the duo Sury-Tanuki, it’s all in French. It’s also the only one that deserves written information and a separate sheet with a photo of them – I have to figure out what to do with that (or, let’s stop wasting paper like this). The duo is Caroline Sury, text and voice and Tanuki, also known as erikM on electronics. We know him as experimenting with found media sounds, like a cross-over between a DJ and a musique concrète composer. Sury is an illustrator known from the Le Dernier Cri scene and established a “trashy girl-power universe”. In this duo, erikM also employs rhythm and keyboard sounds, next to scratching records and loops from CDs and such, which gives the 18 pieces a bit of pop music aspect. It is not something the kids will love, but maybe their parents. I wish I could say something about the lyrical content in relation to the music, but you won’t be surprised all is French and that’s a language beyond my knowledge. At times it all sounded very 1980s, being part of the cassette network, say Human Flesh and Cortex, to mention both also using French language words from those years. A few pieces are short, which adds speed and urgency to the album. Still, at 51 minutes, this is quite a long album, but I blame the language barrier. If I could have understood more, I would know more.
The lettering on the following covers is small, and all three releases have yet to appear on Bandcamp or the label’s website, so I hope I copied all the right stuff. I understand the quartet of Paul Collins (Moog Grandmother, Moog Sub 37) & Patrick Müller (Lyra 8, electro sonic, mix) & Thierry Müller (guitar, microphonic soundbox M2) & Quentin Rollet (alto and soprano saxophones, Korg monotron and Smart Faust apps) recorded the five pieces on a single day in December 2023. That’s about all I know. The album is almost an hour long and consists primarily of spacious electronics, drones from the synthesiser players and the guitarist, and the saxophone playing the solo instrument part; at least, it’s one instrument that stands out the most, so easily recognised as a solo instrument. Rollet is here in a particular jazzy element and plays mostly atmospheric lines. Only in the short piece ‘Faire Revenir’ and the longer ‘Une Bouteille Entamée’, he plays a more experimental approach with some extended techniques in the short one. This breaks the album into two parts, I think. The spacious, slow drifts of the first three pieces versus the more experimental yet still atmospheric last two. I imagine these pieces to be improvised, on multi track and mixed, adding balance to the music. The improvisation element keeps the music from becoming static, with small events (as in small sounds) happening a lot in the background and longer, massive sounds being more on top of that. It also prevents the listener from drifting away too much, as the music always has an edge. The short piece could have been skipped and strengthened the album.
Thierry Müller (guitar, iPad) and Quentin Rollet (saxophones) return for the final new Bisou release with Jérôme Lorichon (Buchla, electronics) and a recording of a concert they did in Paris in 2016, which makes you wonder what musicians have in their archives and when they intent to release it. Much like the release I just heard, this too is about improvised spacious music, and again, the saxophone is the instrument standing out the most, but it’s also leaning more on the improvisation side of things. They played two sets or cut their set into two separate parts (maybe they have been trying to get a vinyl out for years, as both pieces are 15 minutes each). Rollet is still on the jazzy atmospheric side; there is a bass somewhere (I don’t know who plays the bass here), adding more jazz feeling at times. The spaciousness of the music is also a thing, especially in the electronic side of the music, but Lorichon lets his machine also rip and burn. I think it doesn’t always work; the combination of styles and interests does not always match up. The melodic side of the saxophone versus the something more angular synth and guitar sounds is such a thing. Overall, not bad, but from this trio of releases, the one that isn’t for me. (FdW)
––– Address: https://bisourecords.bandcamp.com/

AIR – VOL. 2 (3CD by Creative Works Records)

On many occasions, I wrote about the love/hate relationship with free jazz, free improvisation, jazz and modern music I have and how they got in via the back door and, these days, take up a vast section every week. And the more we write about it, the more we receive, as labels tend to skim the header, seeing names they recognise, so hence they send their music, never reading such lines as these. Topped with the fact that the saxophone is my least favourite wind instrument, one understands that a 3CD I which Urs Leimgruber’s soprano saxophone is the lead in three duos is received with some scepsis. Maybe it’s a bit of a spoiler, but the first duet, with double bass player Joélle Léandre, made me think I better forward this to MDS, the last of our more improv-minded reviewers. It remains unclear why it is presented as a group, named Air, but in reality might be three different recordings, all at the same location.
With Léandre, there seems to be a strong adherence to tradition in their approaches, with slapping bass, bowing, and the saxophone meandering about. However, there are moments of unexpectedness, where the chaos is reined in, making it less jazzy and more intriguing, at least from my limited knowledge of such things.
The next disc is with Dorothea Schürch, of whom I had not heard before, who plays singing saw and voice. I am not a fan of vocalisations either, where the mouth is used to make guttural sounds, but what I liked about this disc is the singing saw playing of high-frequency pitches with the saxophone following the lead. This brings a noisy element to the music; at times, and in other instances, it becomes tranquil. This dynamic approach works quite well here.
Lastly, there is the clavinet of Magda Mayas. It’s the second CD in the package, but I take a different approach in my review. From what I consider the weakest brother to the strongest sister. Here, too, Leimgruber sometimes leaps into that traditional improvised playing, but with Mayas on the clavinet, the music has a distinctly different tone, especially when she plays it with non-traditional techniques, using the instrument’s electrical output. Here, too, dynamics play an essential role. It seemed to me this was the most intense of the three discs, but I realise this is a personal preference. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.creativeworks.ch/

ELBRUS (CD, private)

Writing reviews is learning something new every day. Elbrus is the highest mountain in Europe and Swedish for ‘electrical noise’. I always thought Mount Blanc was the highest one in Europe, but I must have forgotten Russia is part of Europe – debatable, I think, but what do I know? It is also the name of a duo, David Linnros (Serge modular synthesiser, no input mixer, Lepidoptera Benjolin and contact mic) and Jan Nygard (keyboards, guitar, banjo, kantele, pedals, record players, voice, objects and contact mics). Together, they cram inside a small apartment bedroom in Stockholm”, assuming not to sleep but record. Their work has “no planning or premeditation, no overdubs or post-production”. The seven pieces were recorded in 2023 and, perhaps, count as the duo’s best bits, not necessarily resulting in a very long CD, 33 minutes. The results can best be described as electro-acoustic improvisation. Let’s set it all up, start playing and see what happens. I am unaware of their previous work (if any) or their history as a duo. Is this the first result or something with much experience behind it? The music provides no answer to these questions. There is something intimate about the music. The shuffling of objects in the opening piece ‘Eke’ along with some buzzing synthesiser, sounds like there is an open microphone in this bedroom, and that’s something that is in most of these pieces; the feeling one sits with them in this small room, on top of the action happening. There is a lot of buzzing of electronics along with staunch rubbing of objects and surfaces, using objects and hands. In that way, the music becomes a very physical thing; it’s not a matter of knob twiddling. It reminded me of Noise Makers Fifes, Morphogenesis, Kapotte Muziek or Kontakta. Still, with that small room/intimacy thing, Elbrus has something of their style going, making it not a copy of any of those I compare it with. If you get my drift, it’s all from the same tree but not the same branch. The interaction between both is excellent, and the music sounds very concentrated. At this length, it’s also long enough, like the perfect length of a concert for this kind of music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://elbrussthlm.bandcamp.com/album/elbrus

MARTINA VERHOEVEN – INVITES (CD by A New Wave Of Jazz)

Belgian pianist, photographer and bass player (electric and double) Martina Verhoeven had carte blanche at Café Oto in London last year. Two hours of free improvisation by like-minded musicians invited by Martina. The members of this ad hoc ensemble: Andrew Lisle (drums), Benedict Taylor (viola), Cath Roberts (baritone saxophone), Charlotte Keefe (trumpet), Colin Webster (alto saxophone), Daniel Thompson (acoustic guitar), Dirk Serries (electric guitar & spouse of Martina), Tom Jackson (clarinet) & Tom Ward (bass clarinet & flute) and of course Martina Verhoeven (grand piano). I could introduce all the ensemble members by copy-pasting their introductions on the cafe OTO page. But that would be lazy. Andrew Lisle is a drummer based in London and is a member of several ensembles: Alex Ward Item 10, Alex Ward Item 4, Alex Ward Item 6, Alex Ward Item 7, Colin Webster Large Ensemble, Dikeman Lisle Serries Webster Quartet, Dikeman Lisle Serries Webster Wilkinson Quintet, Kodian Trio, Shatner’s Bassoon and The Spring Trio. The Alex Ward Item, each number is the number of players in the item, share several members in this ad hoc ensemble. Dirk Serries is not a new name at Vital Weekly and doesn’t need any introduction. Martina herself switched from electric bass to double bass and on to solely piano, although occasionally she plays the double bass. She began her recorded musical journey with 3 seconds of air. A bass and two guitars trio with Dirk Serries and Paul van den Berg. Her quintet played in front of an enthusiastic audience at Roadburn 2022. Not an audience known to enjoy free impro. That performance is captured on Driven – Live at Roadburn 2022. Benedict Taylor is a member of Alex Ward Item 10, ARCO, Impetus Group, Alex Ward Item 6, London Improvisers Orchestra, Orchestra Entropy, & SETT. Cath Roberts is member of Alex Ward Item 10, Alex Ward Item 7, Article XI, Colin Webster Large Ensemble, Quadraceratops, cr-ow-tr-io, Favourite Animals, Impetus Group, London Improvisers Orchestra, Madwort Saxophone Quartet, Moonmot, Olie Brice Octet, Ripsaw Catfish, Saxoctopus, Sloth Racket & Word Of Moth. Colin Webster is member of Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band, Dikeman Lisle Serries Webster Quartet, Dikeman Lisle Serries Webster Wilkinson Quintet, DunningWebsterUnderwood, Impetus Group, Colin Webster Large Ensemble, Kodian Trio, KTHXBYE, Martina Verhoeven Quintet, Saxoctopus, Serries Verhoeven Webster Trio, Sex Swing, The Uniteam All Stars &Wart Biter. He also has a label, Raw Tonk. Daniel Thompson is a member of Impetus Group, SETT, The Bellowing Earwigs, The Runcible Quintet, The Seen & The Spring Trio. Charlotte Keefe is a member of Alex Ward Item 10, Alex Ward Item 4, Alex Ward Item 6, Charlotte Keeffe Quartet, Colin Webster Large Ensemble, Alex Ward Item 7, Impetus Group, London Improvisers Orchestra, Mopomoso Workshop Group & Paul Dunmall Ensemble. On to the two Tom’s: Tom Jackson is a member of Alex Ward Quintet, Alex Ward Sextet, Alex Ward Trio, ARCO & Sugarstick & Xerox. And Tow Ward. He’s a member of AKW, Beats And Pieces Big Band, Favourite Animals, Impetus Group, London Improvisers Orchestra, Cotovelo, Madwort Saxophone Quartet, Orchestra Entropy, Porpoise Corpus, Quadraceratops & Saxoctopus. All membership info comes from Discogs. So, it may not be accurate anymore. Anyhow, all musicians assembled here have joined the stage in one way or another and/or have music released on Raw Tonk and/or New Wave of Jazz. So this night at Café OTO was a great opportunity to get all these musicians together in one room. This release has two long pieces: aptly named ‘Set One’ and ‘Set Two’. The first is almost half an hour long, and the second is nearly three-quarters of an hour. And what music this is. This is not music for lazy listeners. With ten musicians on stage, this could easily have gotten into a frenzy of loud sounds, building a wall of sound. Something like Luna Surface by Alan Silva and his Celestrial Communication Orchestra. But no: we get an entity of ten people who play eleven instruments (Tom Ward doubles on flute and bass clarinet) that weave an intricate tapestry of sound with different textures and tonal colours. Each individual excels at his or her instrument and is no stranger to playing in bigger ensembles. It’s not about ego, as I wrote many times before, but about creating an experience for the musicians. The audience is a bonus. Although an attentive audience helps, of course. As a listener we take a journey in time. Music can only exist in time. Let us get into the philosophical discussion: does music or a sound exist even without a listener? And yes, music is about communication. And these ten musiciancs have created two pieces of music that reward many repeated listening rounds. There are solos, duos, trios, and many more constellations within the ten musicians that occupy different layers (low, middle, high, highest) of the musical range of the instruments. Terrific stuff on this release. The cover is the painting that Gina Southgate made of the ten musicians while they were performing. It captures the spirit and mood of the evening very well. (MDS)
––– Address: https://dirkserries.bandcamp.com/album/martina-verhoeven-invites

GONÇALO ALMEIDA – STATES OF RESTRAINTS (CD by Clean Feed Records)

Almeida, Lisbon-born and after graduating from the Rotterdam Conservatorium/Codarts, now based in Rotterdam, is a bass player (electric & double) who also can restore double basses. He is prolific in several genres and ensembles and has no strange name here at Vital Weekly. For example, Spinifex, Albatre and the Martina Verhoeven Quintet, to name a few. Susana Santos Silva joins him on the trumpet. She’s also Portuguese and is now based in Stockholm. She is a member or has been a member of Adam Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra, Child Of Illusion, Coreto, Elsa Bergman Playon Crayon, Anthony Braxton Trio, European Movement Jazz Orchestra, Fire! Orchestra, Fish Wool, Hearth), Here’s To Us, João Guimarães Octeto, Lama, Lina Nyberg Tentet, Nu-Ensemblen, Orchestre National De Jazz, Orquestra Jazz De Matosinhos, SSS-Q, Susana Santos Silva Impermanence, Susana Santos Silva Quintet and Torbjörn Zetterberg & Den Stora Frågan. Gustavo Costa joins the festivities on percussion. He is or has been a member of Derrame Sanguineo, Fanfarra Recreativa Improvisada Colher De Sopa, Genocide (2), Ikizukuri, Klank Ensemble, Lost Gorbachevs, Lubok, Malevolence (2), Mécanosphère, Missing Dog Head (2), Most People Have Been Trained To Be Bored, Motornoise, Radial Chao Opera, Red Albinos, Shattered (8), Stealing Orchestra, Variable Geometry Orchestra, Máquina Magnética.
He is the curator of Sonoscopia: a venue, experimental music collective and association in Porto. The venue where this release was recorded. Five pieces: three are about ten minutes long, and two are slightly shorter. It’s beautiful, moody music played with restraint. Not in impact, but the playing is restrained, held back: single notes in the trumpet, repeated bell-like percussion sounds. The overall impression is one of tension with no release. The release is in the silence after you listen to a piece. Again, this is no background music. I was drawn into this magical sound world. It’s like an entity where the three musicians create something more than the sum of its parts. And in a way this reminds me of the music by Modelbau. It’s excellent music to dive into and get lost in and issued by Clean Feed. They have a fantastic catalogue to dive into. (MDS)
––– Address: https://cleanfeedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/states-of-restraint

DYSMORIFC FEAT CRISTIANO ROVERSI – TO DEFY THE LAWS OF GRINDCORE (CDR by Love Earth Music)
ELKA BONG – WITHOUT EALLS (CDR by Love Earth Music)
MONEY – 2 (2CDR by Love Earth Music)

Of these four new releases by Love Earth Music, one is proper noise, and the other three see the label expanding further. Dysmorfic is the duo of Buccia (drums) and Thomas (fretless bass), who have a guest player, Cristiano Roversi, on keyboards, organ and programming. Wrongly, I expected something to do with grindcore, but maybe this is about defying the laws of grindcore, so it doesn’t have to sound like grindcore. That musical genre remains a slight mystery for me, except it is gore and fast. The music is here sometimes high-speed but not very distorted. It’s melodic, almost hardcore jazz, drum ‘n bass, prog rock, or… take your pick from a wide spectrum of musical genres, which have a common factor: you hardly find them in Vital Weekly. There are four pieces, with a total playing time of nine minutes, so maybe a 7″ would have been the better format. While not my kind of music, I must say that these four songs sound very nice, but what it saves me is the length. I think I understand the point they want to make: some kind of mistake in the grindcore genre, using elements of musical proficiency and finding similarities and differences. Still, after four songs, that’s clear. I am satisfied and moving on.
Elka Bong is a duo of Al Margolis (transformation, trumpet, guitar with objects and alto clarinets; one instrument used per track) and Walter Wright (IFM synth). They had an LP on Love Earth Music before (Vital Weekly 1385) with guest players, and on this new CD, they have Sara Bouchard as a guest. She plays live-coded media on all four pieces: voice (tracks one to three), field recordings (track three) and aluminium foil (track four). The cover has a small biography of her, but what live coding means is not explained. The music is best described as electro-acoustic improvisation, with the IFM synth (and frankly, another mystery there) and the live coding of media providing the most electronic sounds, buzzing and whirring, like connections being made, or just about, leading to drones, bleeps, oscillations and sines and waves, with on top of that the scratching and scraping of Margolis and his objects of choice. The field recordings of ‘The Scent Of Time’ aren’t easily detected, but in all pieces with a voice, that one is unmistakable. It’s a lonesome voice amidst very abstract tones and sounds, even when Bouchard doesn’t use any words, making it all more sound poetry, perhaps like Jaap Blonk. Each piece is ten minutes and some seconds, indicating this may have been another LP release. Maybe some of the electronics used linger on a bit too much from track to track, creating a sameness throughout, but the voice and the sounds by Margolis save the disc.
In Vital Weekly 1435 I reviewed ‘Money’ by Money, a word repeated a lot on the cover. I had no idea who or what, but I now know the ‘who’ part. Money is Steve Davies, also behind the Love Earth Music label and the +DOG+ music project—the what part is still a mystery. The first release had two tracks, of which the second was the first played backwards. ‘Money 2’ is a double CDR (so ‘Money 3’, a triple? And so on?), and maybe he’s doing similar tricks here, but the lengths of the pieces, six in total, aren’t the same. I am raking my brain, thinking about what kind of conceptual edge is behind the music, but just like last time, I am clueless. Last time, I wrote, “The group, project or whatever dabble with some very bassy sounds, and it’s impossible to figure out what they are doing here. From flipping coins to stretching indeed Abba and Pink Floyd simultaneously and filtering out any frequency over 50 hz or something like that”, and that’s still the case here, except, and this a significant difference, the six pieces sound pretty different, within the whole concept. Samey, but different, best examplified by the second piece on the second disc, which seems to be a sound rolling through some delay effect, adding an almost human element to the music. The third one here seems to have a bit of sound above the 50hz cut-off, which makes the track nearly audible and not just a speaker cone shaker. I admit I find these pieces taking the original concept further down the road, adding a bit of musical/noise quality to the idea, and entering a world of music. Concepts are great, but please don’t forget the music aspect. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.loveearthmusic.com/
––– Address: https://elkabong2.bandcamp.com/

FERGUS KELLY – NATURAL HISTORY (CDR by Room Temparature)

In one of my previous encounters with Fergus Kelly’s music, I may have written about getting one release a year (or was it because I got 2 in one year – I no longer remember), but now the time between the last one and this seemed longer. Maybe time moves too fast for me, and I can’t keep up. Kelly is a percussionist from Ireland, but not a traditional one. His work with multiple tracks (or, instead, studio technology) is the main difference from many of his peers. He started with recording metals (saw blades, alarm bells, coiled springs, steel stands, etc) in a large resonant concrete interior. His playing isn’t about rhythm but texture, resonancies and other sounds one extracts from throwing, bouncing, bowing and scraping. He then made recordings in wooden floored interiors, using plastic chairs and trestle tables; more sounds were sourced from building sites, and a deep dive into the archive for older field recordings (fireworks, church bells, or rain). The final step is creating a dialogue with this material. Along with my copy is a piece of additional information, which describes per track what Kelly put into each track, which makes a fascinating read (and I suggest putting this on Bandcamp!). The combination of droning sounds, using bow upon metal or gong, versus the more freely thrown about percussion, complete with the natural reverb of some of the spaces used to record this in, set against some very ‘dry’ tones, works very well. Kelly picks whatever bits that works very well. Sometimes, his music reminded me of Z’EV. While his previous release (see Vital Weekly 1390) had a distinctly more ‘song’/’melody’ based character, this new one is a return to his more abstract older works. This, too, is, of course, music, but not as traditional. Carefully placed rhythmic sections are added as landmarks for the listener. I have no preferences, and there are no weaker links. Ten tracks, 49 minutes of highly textured percussive bliss from a drummer with a different imagination. (FdW)
––– Address: https://roomtemperature.bandcamp.com/

MARKATAMEA – AXIS NON PARALELL (CDR, private)

It’s been a while since I last heard from Mark Tamea, who released his latest work as Markatemea. Even when he’s located in the same beautiful city as the Vital Weekly HQ, I somehow forgot about him; despite the town’s smallness, we don’t bump into each other. The last one I heard was ‘Five Augmented Locations’, reviewed in Vital Weekly 948 about ten years ago. Much has changed since then in his personal life, which is a private thing, but also his music. From the few releases I heard, I considered him interested in modern composition, sampling, plunderphonics and computer arrangements. The pieces on ‘Axis Non Parallel’ are different. Sampling, electronics, and even plunderphonics all stay, but no longer as modern composed music, but as a form of ambient and techno music. The basis of the pieces on this release stems from a two-hour improvisation at the ambient space at Radion in Amsterdam, with loops and sequences going into synths and a sampler with various other sounds. Tamea added spoken words from Tess Afanasyeva & Yanna Chess on a piece, which further enhances the idea of classic ambient house music. If you have no idea what ‘ambient house’ is, don’t let the word house misguide you, as it has little to do with straightforward pounding 4/4/ beats. Think of it as ambient music spiced up with percussive elements, sometimes even an actual rhythm. Still, not the kind of thing to move your feet to. As someone once said, head-nod music. What remains are Tamea’s sounds of violins, cello, and such, thrown around sparsely, adding a more abstract sound to the pieces, making this even better fit for home consumption. ‘About Two Squares’ is a strange abstraction with a refined melodic twist and bass bumble. The result is atmospheric and, at the same time, also quite light, going back and forth between the dark mood and light passages. A trip that is a chill-out one (the first time I played this, I fell asleep, which, as John Cage would say, is a good thing), and it works great at home, so I also suspect at a chill-out room when dancing requires a break. I forgot to ask if this is an entirely new direction for him or a one-off, but time will tell. (FdW)
––– Address: https://marktamea.bandcamp.com/

DAVID LEE MYERS – KRONOS (CDR by Pulsewidth)

For his latest release, David Lee Myers is very much to the point on Bandcamp: “In praise of pre-synthesiser electronic music, 1920s Italian Futurists invade Cologne’s WDR electronic studio circa 1956”. If you are familiar with that kind of historical thing, it’s easy to see the link with the eleven compositions by Myers. It is something I told, perhaps, before, but I believe Myers extended his musical instruments. From the pure feedback machines, which he never called ‘no input mixers’, essentially that kind of thing, using various ‘machines’ in between to alter the sound, to a more complex set up of modular synthesisers. And, maybe, that’s a different name for which is on the basis also no-input music. Electronic sounds are rooted in various ways to alter other electronic sounds and, along the way, change the sources also. A system can also be as simple as it can be complex. It’s the kind of music you don’t know if it contains any acoustic sounds or field recordings, and in that respect, I can say Myers remains within that tradition, that mystery, if you will. His music cracks and bursts, has a tremendous collage-like feeling, bouncing around, and is, when needed, the most quiet and introspective thing around. In these pieces, he is very much to the point, each being a rounded composition and different from the others, yet it is also a very coherent album. Bar one, all pieces are between three and five-plus minutes, adding great urgency to the music. Myers doesn’t like to extend compositions for the sake of it, which is what I have against some of the historical examples he’s referencing here. In ‘Kronos VII’, I even believe to hear a reference to his old feedback music, now expanded with a different approach. A strong album, this one and a bit different from some of his others, and yet throughout something that is very much David Lee Myers. (FdW)
––– Address: https://davidleemyers.bandcamp.com/

SUBSERVIENTDOMINANCE – PUBLIC DOMINANCE (CDR by Love Earth Music)

For Vital Weekly 1437, I wrote a review about a split album between Subservientdominance and Peasant Farm, also on Love Earth Music. So it’s four months later, and here is a CDR by Doug Dewalt doing his harsh noise/power electronics/drone sounds. First of all, I like this album for several reasons, so if I don’t stop talking about things … It’s probably the six cups of coffee I had earlier today. Which is my preferred drug, by the way, and which is a perfect mood setting for listening to this album.
Ok, To start thymus of: This is a four-track album with four live recordings in four days of four sets performed live during a small tour in the northeast of the US. Flemington NJ, Laconia, NH, Worcester, MS and Providence RI on respectively the 10th till 13th of August 2023. The setlist of the four shows differs a bit from each other, but some parts are the same. If you read my notes from reviews, you know that I like to find out what an artist is about To see how someone develops over time or what an inevitable change of surroundings does to someone. And because of that, I liked listening to this album and seeing what four different days do to a track or an artist. And Subservientdominance proves in these four recordings that what he does might have the same elements, but there is no given fact on what you’re getting at a live show, except very harsh noise and an excellent live show, that is.
The first track is the clearest of the four. Vocals are the most pronounced, and the dynamics are simply outstanding. The second track seems to be recorded from ‘a distance,’ making it less harsh and more like a power drone wall kinda thing. Probably massive when you were there, but that massiveness doesn’t really show in the recording. The third recording is the most badass in lower frequencies as if your sticking your head into the bass bin just to experiment if it’s possible to blow your eardrums or relive the feeling you had with the Swans or Godflesh shows back in the day. The fourth recording is the most HNW-like, and it’s loud as fuck. Let’s stick to that because anything else I can say about it will not matter at all.
A few months ago I wrote about Subservientdominance doing some kind of higher-order complexity harsh noise. “Public Dominance” documents how it is done. (BW)
––– Address: https://www.loveearthmusic.com/

PHILIPPE PETIT – PASSING THRU (2CDR by Eternal Music Projects)

Philippe Petit is a busy bee. He promotes modular artists through his modulisme and still has time to make music of his own. This year alone, two double CDs, of which this is the latest. “Passing Thru” is a release by the Australian label Eternal Music Projects, and while reading up on both artist and label and everything to write this review, I was caught by these beautiful words on the label’s website. “Eternal Music Projects acknowledges the Woi Wurrung (Wurundjeri) and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nations where we live and work. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their land, water and community connections. We pay respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.” What does this have to do with music? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. But I just think it’s beautiful to read words like these once in a while. I’ve always had a weak spot for cultural influences like this in experimental music. Jorge Reyes, Stephen Kent, O Yuki Conjugate, Burundi Black … So when a label opens their website with a quote like that, I have high hopes.
The two CDR’s Philippe presents here are created with various machines and attributes. A prepared piano, a fully (contact)mic’ed soundboard of a piano, a Buchla 200 system, a Serge 73-75, an EMS Synthi A, a Hordijk Benjamin, field recordings, Buchla Easel, bowls and cymbals … And more. The first CD has nine tracks and is just under an hour; the second is a 5 track 45-minute one. So you’re getting more than enough music for your money. So, what to expect musically? On the Bandcamp page of the release there is a lot of information on what is used on which track and about the whole concept of the album. From a listener’s perspective, this entire album is about the symbiosis between concrete sounds and synthetic sounds, as well as the use of concrete sounds manipulated through electronics. In most tracks, for example, the piano is not used as an instrument for harmonic sounds but more in a rhythmic or acoustic matter. Ticking, rattling, scratching and yes, here and there a note.
There are a lot of staccato sounds all over this release, and without validating those as ‘good’ or ‘no good’, there are moments where I miss a bit of the coherence in the compositions. With more stretched sounds like pads or drones – each track has some synthetic layers or basics – the staccato noises could have formed more of a unity. Instead of sometimes feeling like a collection of staccato sounds without a real story. A bit like the difference between ‘loads of words’ and ‘a story’. For me, the track “Elegiacallity” is an example where there is a story, a lovely one for that matter.
This 2CDR is a well thought of release showing many aspects of modular sound generation and composition. Because of this, I think this is an album worth listening to. Face it: many modular artists use their often very elaborate systems to make 4/4 techno that might as well come from a computer and Philippe is NOT one of them. For that, I applaud this release. As for the cultural aspects I didn’t find, maybe I expected something different, but in that case, I’m the one to blame. Not Philippe. (BW)
––– Address: https://eternalmusicprojects.bandcamp.com/

BLUE SPECTRUM / ZEBRA MU – SPLIT (3″ CDR by Quagga Curious Sounds)

This was the first I had heard of a label that had already been active since 2008. That is not something that happens all too often. So, it’s time to open the browser while listening to sounds and investigate. Quagga Curious Sounds is a heavily DIY label from Norwich in the UK run by Michael Ridge (also known as Zebra Mu). Their discography has many known and unknown names, and editions/releases vary between 1 and 50. Two exceptions, one K2 cassette of 51 copies and the legendary 1″ lathe from Zebra Mu / GX … DAMN !!! I HAVE heard of this label before! Eff me, this was a legendary release when it came out in 2017 (look at Vital 1111). Who in his sane brain would release something as silly as a 1″ lathe cut …
Man, memories are coming back. And I have just read the book about RRRecords – written by Vital’s own FdW – and suddenly, many things seem to melt together flawlessly, or pieces of puzzles fall in place. Back then, I already wondered why people would release unplayable records or sell items as audio objects when there was no sound. Still, we’re talking about a whole different aspect of art here than what – THEN – was part of my knowledge about things. Art, anti-art, dadaism, noise beyond noise (not in the literal form of ‘noise’, but as the art form) … it Seems like I’ve learned a lot in the last seven years. And well, if the RRRecords book interests you, have a look and listen at the link at the bottom, and you might as well spend some time reading about Michael Ridge’s activities.
The 3″ split CDR was released at the end of 2023, and it’s already sold out. Which is good and bad. Bad because you can’t get a copy through normal ways, but good because Blue Spectrum and Zebra Mu made something people wanted. And music-wise, that’s understandable. Blue Spectrum created a nice ambient drone with lots of crackling while Zebra Mu does what Zebra Mu does. Noises of all kinds, distorted sounds, and cut-ups;… I had reviewed his work earlier (Vital Weekly 1337), and because of the recording here, it’s a much better piece, imho. There is no room ambience but a straight-in-your-face wake-up call. The way this kind of noise should be. (BW)
––– Address: https://mridge.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://quaggacurious.wordpress.com/