Week 38

LAURI HYVÄRINEN & JUKKA KÄÄRIÄINEN – PULLED APART BY HORSES (CD by Bokashi Records) *
ZENO VAN DEN BROEK & HIIIT – RELATUM (CD by Moving Furniture Records/Contemporary Series) *
SPUR ON TO XS – INDULGE IN PRIMAL ECSTASY (CD by Dunkelheit Produktions) *
SORBD – WILD PEACOCK IN TRANSIT (CD by Relative Pitch Records) *
DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE VOLUME 9 (LP compilation by Drone Records)
COLIN RILEY & GARETH DAVIES & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT – SONGS OF COILED LIGHT (CDR by Squeaky Kate) *
MIE FIELDING – AVES ELEKTRON: DEATH OF THE NIGHTINGALE (CDR & book by Voert) *
CACTUS 12 (12 CDR set by Sono Sordo) part 1:
JANE & THE MAGICK BANANAS – AS MANY DOORS AS YOU LIKE *
PINK SALIVA – L’ENVERS WITH SAM *
PIERRE BASTIEN & MICHEL F CÔTE – MACHINATIONS CANTALOUPS *
KLAXON GUEULE – (+3) 2010 *
MICHEL F CÔTE – RIEN FAIT, ET HEUREUX DE N’AVOIR *
CHRISTOPHER CAULEY & MICHEL F CÔTE – EVERYTHING ENDS IN TWO DAYS *
STORMHAT – EVERYTHING WILL PASS (CDR by Inner Demons Records) *
MODELBAU – SCUM (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records) *
CLAUDE-MARIN HERBERT & ONCEIM – SONGES ÉGAUX / TANT QUE LA MONTAGNE #1 (miniCDR by Lenka Lente) *
ETERNAL CYNIC – EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY FOR TOMORROW WE SNUFF IT (Double 3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records) *
THE DEEP BLEED – ESCAPE THE SEVENTH CIRCLE (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records) *
CHARLES DUBOIS – IIINOX (cassette by Picot) *

LAURI HYVÄRINEN & JUKKA KÄÄRIÄINEN – PULLED APART BY HORSES (CD by Bokashi Records)

Here we have the debut dup album by Lauri Hyvärinen and Jukka Kääriäinen, two men, two electric guitars. Their background is within improvised and experimental music, and played with people like Seijiro Murayama, Axel Dörner, Ilia Belorukov and they also premiered composed pieces with the ensemle Sähkökitarakvertetti, which means the electric guiatr quartet. I don’t know how long they have been playing as a duo, but the press texts mentions this is the duo’s formative steps. How much time is covered with these steps, I don’t know. Their other work I have not heard, but reading they ‘premiere’ pieces, I, perhaps naively, think of quite modern classical pieces and as such the five pieces on ‘Pulled Apart By Horses’ is something of a response, a reaction or a relief. Here they go on a full on noise mission. Not going all noise wall, but furious noise guitar, bending strings, using objects and a lot of sound effects. The latter also include a sample and hold button, which this duo uses randomly, and most of the time quite briefly, resulting in some stuttering of sounds and noises. The music isn’t always that noisy, as the duo cleverly moves back and forth between something very lpud, and do that a lot, and something quieter and spacious. They do that is in selected instances, allowing the listener to take a deep breathe and continue. Feedback and distortion are an intergral part of their work, giving the music that neat noise rock edge, building on a long tradition of guitar slingers, in front of amplifiers and massive abuse of strings and effects. At 34 minutes this CD also has the right length for such an attack, as the music is jumpy and all over the place, leaving the listener behind with some fatigue. Longer would have been too much. (FdW)
––– Address: https://bokashirecords.bandcamp.com/album/pulled-apart-by-horses

ZENO VAN DEN BROEK & HIIIT – RELATUM (CD by Moving Furniture Records/Contemporary Series)

Two pieces on this release on Moving Furniture Records by Rotterdam-born raised and based composer Zeno van den Broek. The first one is called Ma(n)chine. Divided into three movements: System, Mimicry and Sync. The first one is performed using only three drum robots. Each robot has an aluminium (or ceramic ?) piece that is struck by a piece of hard rubber or plastic; the result is a thing. But because robotics is involved, things can be timed in a swift rhythm, resulting in a rattling sound. At some points, a low-frequency rumble joins the festivities. The system (or stage) is set. In the second movement, four players join the
system. They mimic the system, hence the name of the movement. They hide in the system by mimicking the system. They use bass drums to produce sound. So now we have three sound layers: very low (the rumble with changing frequencies and feedback from the bass drum skins), low (the bass drum) and high (the aluminium pieces). In ‘Sync’, the musicians slowly go from playing in sync with the system into a more human way of expression with an implied shift in time signature. It’s exciting music, far from being minimal music. There’s only a minimum of sound levels (very low, low and high). Still, there’s a maximum of movement, and expertly played by members of HIIIT, formerly known as Slagwerk Den Haag, with robotic precision, I must say. On the website of Zeno van den Broek you can see a small excerpt of the piece. The last piece involves percussion, played by robots and AI-generated text. The input was Species of Spaces by Georges Perec and various Wikipedia pages on spatial perception. This one is equally impressive, although on a more intellectual level. I’m a sucker for percussive music, and the first piece is one long percussive piece. The second piece is more subtle, less primitive and adds language. Nevertheless, the piece is thought-provoking, and in the second half of the piece, a hypnotic irregular rhythmic pulse appears. Coupled with this piece is a short film. You can find a teaser on the website of Zeno. Oh last but not least, Jos Smolders expertly mastered this. Every single little detail can be heard.
This release must be heard in a quiet environment or as loud as possible (sorry, neighbours). It’s highly engaging music. (MDS)
––– Address: https://contemporaryseries.bandcamp.com/

SPUR ON TO XS – INDULGE IN PRIMAL ECSTASY (CD by Dunkelheit Produktions)

You may never have heard of Super On To XS. ‘Indulge In Primal Ecstacy’ is the debut album, and you may know the man behind the name, Glenn Peeters. Here we have some excellent power electronics and industrial music; at least, that’s how I would label this. The finer and more delicate points to alternate in these genres elude me. Spur On To XS uses a lot of electronics, a bit of metal percussion, voices and lots of distortion to generate the sounds for his compositions. Quite interestingly, this doesn’t result in an endless barrage of noise pieces that are just too long. It’s instead the opposite, some of these pieces are too short. For instance, ‘Tenderness Amd Perversion’ is under three minutes, with a massive howl or two, and over before it starts. Seven pieces, of which two exceed five minutes with a total playing time of 28 – that’s relatively short indeed. Still, it works very well, and that’s great. Leaving them hungry and unsatisfied is perhaps the idea here. Spur On To XS also offers quite some variation here; these aren’t seven times the same song. A song like ‘To Transcend Nihilism’ is a slow, meandering ballad-style industrial piece, whereas ‘My Mouth Is Crowned’ is a massive drone noise attack, and ‘Nocturnal Pearl’ sounds like recorded in a factory, next to the conveyorbelt (James Bond-style, slowly eating away the villain). At the same time, I have to admit it’s not something I haven’t heard before, perhaps not always as concise and varied (sadly, that’s twice a plus for Spur On To XS), but not a prize-winning original. Fair enough, as one could say this about a lot of the music I review, maybe originality should never be something to look for. Spur On To XS also plays live, and I wonder what that’s like. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.dunkelheit-produktionen.de/

SORBD – WILD PEACOCK IN TRANSIT (CD by Relative Pitch Records)

Debut recording by this quintet. Five musicians: Edith Steyer (Bb clarinet), Mia Dyberg (alto saxophone), Rieko Okuda (piano), Isabel Rößler (bass) and Sofia Borges (drums, percussion). French double bass player Marion Ruault fills in for Isabel when playing live. It might be a coincidence that she shares the same letter of her last name; the band name consists of each first letter of their last name. The musicians come from Germany, Denmark, Japan and Portugal. Nine pieces, five penned by each member and the rest are group improvisations. The latter are three of the shortest pieces, each less than a minute long and with a fierce energy. The other group impro is the second piece on the release: Good Morning. It’s a fun release with lots of ideas, combinations and textures. Sometimes all wild as in the shorter pieces, and often atmospheric and moody. And all the time, there’s an exciting group dynamic, not in terms of dynamics (loudness) but in the interplay. Each musician contributes a part that makes the whole seem bigger. In other words, it all fits. There’s room for solos, but not in the sense of looking at me being all technical; no, it fits the piece’s mood. I listened to this a lot, and each time, there were different details to discover. Well done!
––– Address: https://relativepitchrecords.bandcamp.com/

DRONE-MIND // MIND-DRONE VOLUME 9 (LP compilation by Drone Records)

Germany’s Drone Records are known for the 100 7″ releases, their series of 10″ records called Substantia Innominata, the recent SYM Records label and the Drone-Mind // Mind-Drone series of LPs. Did I review all the previous eight releases in this series? I don’t know. What Drone Records does with this series is introduce four artists per LP, so there are roughly 11 minutes per artist for a display of talent and with the kind of music they deal with, it’s also the right length to get a solid idea about the artists, all of whom operate within the field of atmospheric music, and all of them with different strategies and sounds. New and unknown artists, but that’s not to say I never heard of them. Two of the latest artists are new; two were previously reviewed in Vital Weekly. We welcome the newcomers on side A, and Daia Dieva has two pieces. Dieva uses voice, text, field recordings, guitar and digital instruments, and the results show voice and words pushed away in a hotbed of drones, which creates a kind of shoegazing feeling—a slightly different kind of approach in the more extensive drone spectrum, which is always a good thing.
Augustinas Naslenas plays voice, synthesisers and archaic shamanic instruments, and his piece celebrates the Spring equinox 2023. That’s the added value that some people find particularly meaningful; I don’t belong to that group. This music has a particular animalistic feeling (the sound of horses and other animals helps), combined with the rhythm, making it a ceremonial piece; even I can hear this. Luckily, he keeps it all under control, and it never becomes a ritualist event or a well-trodden cliche. That saved this piece for me. It has some very excellent production value, which also helped.
The two known quantaties we find on the second side. Adriano Zanni has two pieces, and Are Mundal has one. From Zanni, I know he likes to work with field recordings, which he treats extensively, so there are only faint traces left. I gather insects are the most likely candidate, and in ‘Melissophobia Hypnotherapy’ his processing, Zanni likes to reach towards a more digital approach, creating a dark ambient with a slightly more melodic edge. It’s not as distant and abstract as many of his compadres. On the other track, ‘Excercise In Listening,’ this changes, and he’s dark as can be with his guitar ripping and some boat sounds.
Mundal’s ‘Rustic Movement For An Accordion’ is the album’s most collage-like piece of music. Let’s assume he has an accordion, which he treats with electronics, but may also use contact microphones upon the surface in ways that are not traditionally used. His piece is of refined dark nature, and various elements drift about, including what seems to be field recordings, making this a very multi-layered piece with excellent spooky quality. Undoubtedly, the addition of processed piano, MS-10, electric violin and fishing gear helps expand these layers. The highlight, among other great pieces, is at the end.
As always, the LP cover contains geometric paintings by Pete Greening, further enhancing the series idea. (FdW)
––– Address: https://dronerecords.de/

COLIN RILEY & GARETH DAVIES & RUTGER ZUYDERVELT – SONGS OF COILED LIGHT (CDR by Squeaky Kate)

I had not heard of Colin Riley before. He’s the composer of the pieces here, six in total, performed by Gareth Davies on bass clarinet and Rutger Zuydervelt on processing and electronics. How that works with the improvisation and composition remains a slight mystery here. Riley was inspired by the poem ‘When Grandmother Died’ by Michael Rattee. The cover mentions the recording of the bass clarinet in London, which made me think this is a work of music making via the Internet, and the music was already premiered in 2016 at Sound Scotland. If we take the music more face value, then we have a six-track, 35-minute release with Davies playing more improvised tones than we usually find in Zuydervelt’s companions. Which also means his playing moves along with the free improvising clarinet. Sure, Zuydervelt spins his usual atmospheric magic via sustaining drones but also follows the bends and shapes of the clarinet. I also believe he uses some of the additional sounds a clarinet produces. The result is an oddball for Zuydervelt, but we also know him from diverting into musical terra incognita (for him), so maybe not that much of a surprise. It’s pretty clever, especially when using clicks that sound like skipping CDs, which made me inspect my machines. At times, perhaps too much work of improvisation with atmospheric electronics, but overall a most enjoyable release. I’d be most interested to see the piece’s score and wonder if that changes how I hear the music unless it’s all about the mystery of the creation. (FdW)
––– Address: https://squeakykate.bandcamp.com/

MIE FIELDING – AVES ELEKTRON: DEATH OF THE NIGHTINGALE (CDR & book by Voert)

Damn, something went wrong here. The end of the press text suggests reading the book first and listening to the music with headphones “in order to fully appreciate its immersive, spiritual intention”. I was already halfway through the disc when I read the latter and only glanced superficially at the book. MiE, which stands for Mike, Fielding is a “lifelong naturalist, avant-garde sound artist, ornithologist and author”, and the work is about birds’ slow and steady extinction. “The UK has lost some 73 million birds since 1970”. The booklet (hardcover, 13×13 cm, 118 pages, full colour and black ‘n white pictures, so hardly a booklet) is about this, explaining it in clear terms but also taking a more poetic approach, with a child narrating the text. The text is also in the booklet, with cue points, perhaps too much. As always, I like my music and text separate (and I am sure many people wouldn’t want such a separation). In the music, we hear bird sounds, twittering away, set against a backdrop of ugly unnatural sounds: the sound of distant and far away human words, like a constant hum in the distance. I am sure Fielding didn’t take a field recording of a distant motorway but processed whatever field recordings with some electronics, like lots of delay and reverb, which turns out something ugly. At times, it just became this formless mass of sound, not just distant but close enough to hear the variations. Is this something to enjoy? Or is it merely fitting the purpose of the soundtrack? So, we become aware of the birds and their imminent extinction. If so, Fielding succeeded very well. To hear the beauty of decay, and I, for one, love to hear that, in this work, is a bit hard. As such, the music didn’t convince me that much as a standalone soundtrack. It is not the greatest of electronic backdrops, but it has some great bird recordings, and the voice becomes a distraction.
The booklet contains some excellent photography. I wish I could say more about that, but I am not an expert in that particular area. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.voert.digital/aves-elektron

CACTUS 12 (12 CDR set by Sono Sordo) part 1:

JANE & THE MAGICK BANANAS – AS MANY DOORS AS YOU LIKE
PINK SALIVA – L’ENVERS WITH SAM
PIERRE BASTIEN & MICHEL F CÔTE – MACHINATIONS CANTALOUPS
KLAXON GUEULE – (+3) 2010
MICHEL F CÔTE – RIEN FAIT, ET HEUREUX DE N’AVOIR
CHRISTOPHER CAULEY & MICHEL F CÔTE – EVERYTHING ENDS IN TWO DAYS

As this is a 12 CDR set, I have to do this in two parts and apply a different reviewing technique. Should I inspect every release in this box in-depth? This would cost me a week to review. I have no spare weeks to sit down with a 12CDR box set, as much as I would love to. These 12 releases were released from every first Friday of the month from April 2021 to March 2022, and while not mentioned, I assume because of Bandcamp Friday. Now they become available in one box, in an edition of 50 copies. Many musicians return on various discs, and it’s all rooted in the world of improvisation. The one constant player is Michel F. Côte, who plays drums and electronics on many of these releases. I will only list another instrument when he plays one.
The first is by Jane & the magick bananas (no capitals required), a trio of Sam Shalabi (electric guitar), Alexandre St-onge (electric bass, electronics/synth) and Michel F. Côte. They recorded the music in November 2018 at the Chopping Center, and, not mentioned, I assume in one go. There is mixing, but nevertheless, the music sounds pretty straightforward. While the label says these are mini albums, this one is 47 minutes s what’s a full length with this label? In their playing, these musicians stay close together, with a hermetically closed sound, nobody bursting out and with much control over their instruments. Nothing bursts out, not very dynamic and very chaotic. The electronics play their role as oddballs, moving around this closed unit, nervous and hectic, and not steering too much away from the ‘real’ instruments. They add a layer of abstraction, yet these ten pieces are all about four to five minutes and taking the “band name” into account, this might be their twisted idea of a pop band. Maybe.
Pink Saliva is also a trio: Ellwood Epps (trumpet, amp), Alexandre St-onge (electric bass, laptop), and Michel F. Côte (lap steel, microphones, amp). They have an encounter with Sam Shalabi (electric guitar), as indicated by the title, ‘L’Envers With Sam’. With six pieces clocking at 30 minutes, I’d call this an EP. Except for the trumpet, this sounds like a continuation of the previous release, which, knowing two players are the same, maybe no surprise. Shalabi fits right in here. The addition of the trumpet makes this a slightly different release. While also leaning heavily on the hectic and chaotic improvisations, the trumpet brings out an element of free jazz in most of these pieces. ‘Spanish poem’ is an exception, more rock than jazz improvisation. This also brings a slightly more aggressive approach to these pieces, more force, perhaps. These six pieces aren’t very long either, but I don’t think the twisted pop band is the idea here. It’s just mildly forceful chaos.
More trumpets can be found on ‘Machinations Cantaloups’ by Pierre Bastien, the trumpet player here, and Michel F. Côte. Bastien also plays his mecano-built instrument, a stereo trumpet and something the cover calls ‘god’ (all covers contain information in French). There is a whole cast of other players here, mostly on one or a few pieces, adding voices, electric guitar, flute or turntable; the latter by Martin Tétreault (also one of the few names I recognised. This cast of other players created an exciting variation of approaches here, and with pieces even a bit briefer than on two previous discs, the whole disc gets a bit more urgency and sketch-like approach. I’m not sure if that works really well, as it remains a bit too sketch-like at times, hinting towards ideas and the start of a piece, but falls by the wayside before the machine rolls. And sometimes it works pretty well, such as in ‘conciliable autour d’éventuels traffics véniels’, with what seems to be the sound of a windshield wiper, adding a lovely electro-acoustic element to the music. This release covers various grounds, from the electro-acoustic mentioned above to jazz noir and die-hard free improvisation; it’s almost like a radio program about improvisation and its multiple forms.
Klaxon Gueule has been reviewed before, but not by me (Vital Weekly 1271)—the duo of St-Onge and Côte in trio formation with Bernard Falaise on electric guitar. Here, too, we have a few guest players: Jean Derome (alto sax, flute, small instruments), Ellwood Epps (trumpet), and Philippe Lauzier (bass clarinet and alto sax), all guesting on more or less the same tracks. The first three are by the trio, the next two with all six and the last three by a combination. The extra players form a shift in the way the music sounds. The first three pieces are dense improvisations, more closely knit work like we encountered before. The other pieces open up and become a wilder party of free improvisation and jazz. The music bounces and leaps all over the place and it’s all in quite a contrast from the first three pieces. I’d almost think they could be two different groups of players, which is both exciting and alienating.
The fifth lists Michel F. Côte as the sole player of the music, but the fine print reveals an extensive cast of guest players, of which I will mention only the most famous one, Lol Coxhill, with a few extracts from his ‘Ear Of Beholder, his 1971 debut double LP. For Côte, no other instruments are mentioned except leading the musical direction and the overall ambience, but his guests play electric guitar, banjo, alto sax, flute, piano, Wurlitzer, trumpet, drums and much more. After four discs of relatively chaotic and nerve-racking music, it’s time for something quieter. At least, that could have been Côte’s reasoning. Imagine a nightclub atmosphere, smoke-filled (I know, I am stretching imaginations here) and a big band on stage—lots of bass-slapping, muted trumpets, brushwork, that kind of film noir thing. I am honest: I am not a fan, not of the original 1950s sound, nor any use these days in movies (‘Motherless Brooklyn’ being a prime example), as I find it a cliche beyond belief. I understand its popularity, but no thanks.
The last one for this week is by Côte and alto saxophone player Christopher Cauley. They recorded the eight pieces between September 1995 and May 1997. I don’t know why this was never released before (assuming here) or on hold for that time. Maybe the recording was considered lost? Bandcamp doesn’t tell us anything that’s not on the cover anyway. We return to a more free improvisation/free jazz playing here, which isn’t my strong suit. The music signalled for me a moment to work on a few things that I had to do but was unwilling to do. The drive of the music made me feel I’d go through these shores (all on the computer, not vacuuming my workspace) faster, which is probably an illusion. The drum rolls, the saxophone blearing, speeding me up as they speed up playing (and slowing down, but I try to ignore that), and I am trying to work out my computer routines, for which their somewhat chaotic playing certainly helps – odd, but true. As I said, it’s not the kind of music I know a lot about, and I would call it reasonably traditional free jazz, and it’s the kind of thing I enjoy only very occasionally. (FdW)
––– Address: https://michelfct.bandcamp.com/

STORMHAT – EVERYTHING WILL PASS (CDR by Inner Demons Records)

As some of you might know, Inner Demons stopped with their dedicated release of 3″s and 5″ CDRs, which are now also in their catalogue. With the recent batch of some 30+ new titles, there are also a few of them, and Stormhat’s “Everything Will Pass” is the first to be reviewed. And yes, I plan on reviewing all 30+ over the coming weeks.
Behind Stormhat is Peter Bach Nicolaisen, a new name to me, though not to experimental music. He has been releasing music since around Y2K (in 2000, in case you didn’t know). In the promo sheet, it is mentioned that Stormhat makes ‘dark New Age music’; I’m a bit puzzled by that. I always understood the New Age was about striving towards a better future through spiritual growth, the Shedding of the past, and creating a ‘new age’ where we DID learn from our mistakes. So the addition of the ‘dark’ makes me think … Is this a New Age where dystopia is preferred over utopia? On the other hand, in every theory, a dystopia has always been proven to be closer to the truth than a utopia, so why now strive towards what will become reality anyway? But enough of these Sunday afternoon philosophies.
In 10 tracks equalling 47 minutes, Stormhat – named after the Aconitum napellus and not after British band Foghat – delivers many experiments to enjoy. Too intense to meditate imho, but now and then surprising in either minimalism or complexity. Rumbling basses, bursts of sharp frequencies or white noise, fully clean sine oscillators ‘dancing’ with each other through extensive modulation patterns – or chaos. This album has a bit of everything, and because of that, it’s an enjoyable listen. On the other hand, I miss a bit of a story if I look at the whole release. In what way does “Everything Will Pass” relate to “Royal Dust”, “Brother Jones”, or “Far Out Suit”? Or is this my overconceptualization speaking, and should I just shut up and listen again and let everybody’s mind talk for their own?
We’ll let the promo text say the final words: ‘Stormhat’s sound intends to instil in the listener a mixed state of mind that both contain unpleasantness and bits of bliss.’ (BW)
––– Address: https://www.innerdemonsrecords.com/
––– Address: https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

MODELBAU – SCUM (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)

We know Modelbau. And we know Howard Stelzer. And we know they know each other. But did you know they do stuff together? Well, they do. Not often, but, well, sometimes. For a project a few years ago, Frans created sounds for Howard for one of his projects, and several sounds remained unused from those sessions. So after a somewhat prolonged stay on the hard drive when Frans heard of the call for artists by Inner Demons’ Dan Fox, he thought it would be the perfect moment to revisit this unused material.
As we know, in the meantime, Inner Demon is a small label with small releases (mostly 3″ CD-r) in small editions (42 each). Because, yes, they are the ultimate answer to any question. Next to that, the label has a solid political view for which I happily point you to their website. So when Frans heard of the call for artists, he put 1 and one together. Where Merzbow released SCUM (Scissors for Cutting Up Merzbow), Frans found the title ‘SCUM’ fitting for a release with the subtitle Stelzer being Cut Up by Modelbau. The perfect match!
People who have heard more music by Modelbau will be surprised because this release shows a side of Modelbau you might have never heard before. This is noisy as hell. It might well be the noisiest you’ve ever heard from him. Meticulously cut, pasted, melted, faded, compressed, manipulated and mastered into a 20+ minutes exercise of getting out all of the emotions. It’s probably not the message of this release, but it’s as if someone’s hate towards inequality from a whole lifetime has been channelled into these 20 minutes. It’s beautiful, it’s honest, it’s in your face, it’s loud, and yet … It STILL has dynamics, a build-up and variation … I definitely wouldn’t mind hearing more of this side of Modelbau. It might well slide into my personal ‘most-appreciated-output-by-modelbau’ list. (BW)
––– Address: https://www.innerdemonsrecords.com/
––– Address: https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

CLAUDE-MARIN HERBERT & ONCEIM – SONGES ÉGAUX / TANT QUE LA MONTAGNE #1 (miniCDR by Lenka Lente)

What we have here is a book containing thirteen poems or chansons without music written by Herbert. He has released a collection of seventeen pieces under the same name (Songes égaux). You can find it at Bandcamp on his label: rares sont les nomades (wanderers are a rare breed). With the book comes a CD with a live registration of a performance by ONCEIM and live music accompanying the video presentation of Tant que la Montagne (As Long as the Mountain). The latter is a collection of moving images or videos Herbert captured and manipulated heavily. An excerpt of the live performance can be found on YouTube. There’s a description (in French) talking about the decline of the mountains, specifically the Alps. It ends with the namegiver of the piece : “Tant que la montagne, tant que le vent, tant que les hommes, mais en aucun cas, sans changer, on ne peut dire qu’il est encore temps.” This translates as “As long as the mountain, as long as the wind, as long as men, no way, without changing, we can say that there is still time.” The piece on the CD lasts 20 minutes, and you can listen to the music while reading the book. Herbert being French there’s no translation available of the poems/chansons. Here’s a hack translation of a poem: “If we are stupid, deep down it is not enough. We should, as beasts, straighten up and tighten up, vultures grim, burst the silence, scrupulous Quiet (quiet omen), idiotic beaks useful to the landscape Disorderly lambs, black beasts of the abyss, answer beasts against wounded beasts. The YouTube video shows crows against a mountain backdrop, maybe the black beasts mentioned in the poem. Anyway, on to the music. ONCEIM is a French new music ensemble founded by Frederique Blondy in 2011 and has been featured on Vital Weekly a few times. Given that there are 30 musicians, this performance’s amount of space or rather spaciousness is extraordinary. The music starts quite menacing, not in volume but in quality or, better yet, atmosphere and is slowly evolving, not unlike a melting mountain top. Rhythmic figures come and go in multiple sections of the ensemble. With this kind of music, twenty minutes isn’t twenty minutes. It feels much longer than that and in a good way. The music doesn’t drag along. Not all is just texture and spectral music; there’s room for melody and a twisted sense of a groove (plucking in the strings coupled with percussion). There is so much going on, without sounding crowded, that repeated listening rounds are highly recommended. This is exquisite, delicate, menacing, beautiful and fearsome music, just as the Alps can be. (MDS)
––– Address: https://www.lenkalente.com/

ETERNAL CYNIC – EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY FOR TOMORROW WE SNUFF IT (double 3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)

I couldn’t find anything about this project other than it was from Southend On Sea, UK. If that’s true at all because well, how much cynicism can one show if your project is called Eternal Cynic? So I can’t tell you anything other than two earlier releases on Inner Demons, of which one split with the equally eloquent but alliterating Belligerent Bastard (more on this one in a later Vital). So, regarding reviews, I’ll have to focus on the content.
“Eat, Drink And Be Merry For Tomorrow We Snuff It” is a double 3″ with four tracks around the 10/11 minute mark. There are a couple of recurrent methods on the different tracks, but I must say that the general consensus is that the tracks are an amalgamation of brutal ambient drone noise with a tendency to ‘wall’. There is loads of static noise, but still enough variation to make it interesting. The promo text (check Bandcamp for this) tells a lot about the thoughts and concepts behind the tracks.
“Ephemeral” is a combination of a digital/orchestral background drone with heavy static in the front, slowly becoming more saturated. “Perchance to Dream” has the same kind of static in the front, but in the back, another sort of static drone is treated with loads of reverb with an analogue-sounding pulse drone filling up possible gaps. “Memento Mori” is also built from that static sound in the front, but a lot happens in the back with voices. It’s like complete conversations that can’t be followed because of the mixing. The atmosphere is very lovely here even when you might have thought at the beginning, ‘What, more static noise?’
The closing track, “Totentanz”, might well be my favourite on this one. A very lovely build-up, vocals you don’t know and you can’t follow, that backing drone from the ‘dream’-track in a completely different perspective, and some less static and more pronounced (I’m afraid to call them melodic – let’s stick to ‘recognizable) sounds in an extra layer. Let tomorrow come !!! (BW)
––– Address: https://www.innerdemonsrecords.com/
––– Address: https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

THE DEEP BLEED – ESCAPE THE SEVENTH CIRCLE (3″ CDR by Inner Demons Records)

Inner Demons Records is not only a label with a strong anti-fascist policy; a few other things bring at least some artists together. It is the fight against inner demons. Some of us struggle with everyday life, so we are ‘different’. We listen to weird music, have (sometimes extreme) thoughts, and fight our personal battles. And those battles are a breeding ground for emotions and experiments. I have worked on this theme often to work things out for myself.
The Deep Bleed – previously reviewed in Vital Weekly 1431 with a previous release on IDR – is Mark Hjorthoy from Vancouver. In “Escaping The Seventh Circle”, he draws inspiration from his journey through mental illness. The single track covering 20 minutes 3″ can handle various states of darkness, incorporating external influences and layering them into a beautiful piece, which can only be described as a mixture of drone, ambience and minimalist experiments.
While re-reading the things I wrote earlier this year about that previous release, my eye sticks to the words ‘Cinematic isolationism’. I usually try to be original each time I write about an artist I’ve written about before, but those simple words must be mentioned here again. Cinematic isolationism. This is the kind of music you play in your head when you’re not watching a movie, but hearing the sounds is so descriptive in an atmosphere that you almost wish there would be imagery to support the sound. Or not, because that’s what the strength of sound is. Watching a movie will dictate your mind what images to combine with the sounds; While the art or proper Cinematic isolationism is that you don’t need those images to play the movie in your head. It’s your head, after all.
In this case, I see the movie as quite dark, with a constant drone/pad/ambience creating a threatening atmosphere: Lost causes, deterioration, despair, nihilism. But in those last two minutes of the track, there is hope … A branch above the water you can grab at just the right moment before you’re drowning … And you grab the branch, and the subsequent struggle begins to get out of the water. But at least you’ve escaped that seventh circle. Really very nice! (BW)
––– Address: https://www.innerdemonsrecords.com/
––– Address: https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/

CHARLES DUBOIS – IIINOX (cassette by Picot)

‘IIInox’ is the first music I hear from French percussionist Charles Dubois. He’s a member of such groups as Kristallroll, Humbros, Will Guthrie & the Ensemble Nist-Nah and has worked with musicians such as Lise Barkas, Roxane Metayer and Matthieu Donarier. All of which are new names for me. ‘IIInox’ is his debut solo release and also the inaugural release for Picot. Dubois uses “percussion, blending wood, skins, bells, scrap metal and other found objects”, all of which are acoustic. While the music is very much improvised, there is most certainly a strong interest in the world of minimalism. With many of his drum parts made of metal, it’s easy for the sound to resonate and sustain, creating, at times, dense clouds of metallic rain. It’s, however, not exclusively that; Dubois also plays more open-ended, slightly chaotic pieces and thus adds variation to his playing. Some of the longer pieces were too long for what was on offer, but overall, ‘IIInox’ was a nice release. Dubois’ approaches are all about rhythm, and not as much an exploration of surfaces. He is rhythmically using all sorts of mallets to get the most out of the percussion parts. But here, too, there is some variation, as he has many pieces to play on. A fine calling card, this solo release. (FdW)
––– Address: https://picot.bandcamp.com/