Week 40

FALTER BRAMNK – MUSIC FOR LUMINOUS BACKGROUND (CD by Sublime Retreat) *
JONATHAN DEASY – LE SACRE (CD by Sublime Retreat) *
COLIN ANDREW SHEFFIELD – MOMENTS LOST (CD by Sublime Retreat) *
ROBERT CURGENVEN – AGENESIS (CD by Cloud Chamber) *
ARTHUR SAUER – FLUID (CD by Asmz) *
ARTHUR SAUER – AIR (CD by Asmz) *
TRANSITION UNIT – FACE VALUE (CD by New Wave Of Jazz) *
LEMADI TRIO – CANONCAL DISCOURSE (CD by New Wave Of Jazz) *
TONUS – ANALOG DEVIATION (CD by New Wave Of Jazz) *
MARTINA VERHOEVEN QUINTET – INDICATOR LIGHT (CD by New Wave Of Jazz) *
ONTZIELING – ALL THESE MOMENTS WILL BE LOST (12″ by Esc.Rec) *
COSMIC DREAM CLUB – MOLECULAR CLOUDS (CDR by Cosmic Dream Records) *
PETER J WOODS – SUCKING STONES (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
STORMHAT – BROWN ACID (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
MADEMOISELLE MARCHAND – THREE COLD WINTERS (CDR by Inner Demons Records) *
DAVID VÉLEZ – COMFORT FOOD (CDR by Flaming Pines) *
ANDREA PENSADO – LIVE 2014-2018 (CDR by Cruel Symphonies) *
UNSUB – AMBITIOUS VICTIM (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
PAIN INJECTION/DEMONOLOGISTS (CDR by Love Earth Music) *
RUTGER ZUYDERVELT – MEANDER (MUSIC FOR A PERFORMANCE BY MARTA & KIM, KNOT ON HANDS, AND FELIX ZECH) (CDR by Machinefabriek) *

FALTER BRAMNK – MUSIC FOR LUMINOUS BACKGROUND (CD by Sublime Retreat)
JONATHAN DEASY – LE SACRE (CD by Sublime Retreat)
COLIN ANDREW SHEFFIELD – MOMENTS LOST (CD by Sublime Retreat)

Reviewing three new releases doesn’t mean they are all released simultaneously, but more likely, because it’s cheaper to post them simultaneously. The first one is by Falter Bramnk, of whom I wrote last week, “I think I only heard music from Bramnk before, but I forgot the context”. He’s a percussionist, and the cover of his ‘Music For Luminous Background’ says, “all music made exclusively with struck, rubbed, blown, shaken glass & crystal material”, which may mean he uses various objects of glass. Further explanation can be found on Bandcamp: “his new solo project on glass as a material follows on from ‘Glassical music’ (in which the sounds of water vapor were captured inside glass). Originally, it was a composition project written for six musicians from the Muzzix collective, performed several times in public. Later, I gathered enough material to work on the new compositions presented here”. As I know the releases of the Polish label Sublime Retreat to be atmospheric, dark and primarily electronic, it’s perhaps a bit of a surprise to see a musician with a background in improvised music. And sure enough, the music may be generated through improvisations, edited later on, the result is quite interesting. Maybe a bunch of shorter pieces is not what you expect from this label, but it works well in terms of variation. The music has a moody character, especially when Bramnk bowes his glass, and it gets a rather unsettling feeling. Sometimes, he plays slow and thoughtful, and on other occasions, a bit more chaotic and random, but nothing sounds all too traditional improvised percussion music. I prefer Bramnk when he slowly explores the objects and the surfaces to create textured music. Some of this reminded me of a cassette from the early 1980s, ‘Het Winnifred Komplex’, still a favourite here, and even when created slightly differently, I love the aleatoric approach of the music. While different, it still fits the label’s catalogue very well.
Jonathan Deasy is no stranger to the readers (I should hope), even when not all of his work is reviewed. From his previous work, we know him as a composer who loves to work with digital technology, which we may call a laptop artist, yet his results are pretty warm and beautiful. On ‘Le Sacre’, he works with “sine waves and SuperCollider”; maybe this means he works in real-time. With this kind of drone music, it’s always curious to know how these things are made. I am inclined to think the sine waves are from the lower end of the spectrum, but maybe they are not. I may have glanced at SuperCollider once or twice in my life, but the higher mathematics of this software eludes me. However it works, it works very well in the hands of Deasy. There is an orchestral aspect to the music; I wondered if I was listening to processed cello or trombone sounds at various times, and I realised it wasn’t. The slowly ascending and descending notes sometimes give the music a dramatic feeling. It’s movement too slow to fit a soundtrack (unless the film is of similar slowness), but it’s music to sit back and enjoy. Best enjoyed, at least here in these surroundings, on an average volume, and let this roll about slowly in my environment. Not as a full-on immersive listening, because it’s too massive and dark for that, but forming a lovely backdrop for whatever I’m doing, usually various things simultaneously and sometimes nothing at all. That’s the sort of thing I like, and clocking at one hour, it’s excellent value!
The last one is by Colin Andrew Sheffield, who has run the Elevator Bath label since the mid-1990s, which is also when he started to play music. His music rarely sees a European release (an LP for Auf Abwegen springs to mind). Much of his music deals with sounds Sheffield freely plunders from what is only known as “various commercially available recordings”, and I believe these are from vinyl. Yet to call him a turntablist doesn’t do his music much justice. There’s none of that revolving, looping, and scratching sound here, as Sheffield samples and treated his sources extensively. ‘Moments Lost’ is a 20-minute piece on a minimax CD. I haven’t seen one in ages; minimax is a mini CD of 20 minutes, and the rest of the 5-inch disc is transparent plastic. Some 25 years ago, there was all the rage. Sheffield used this piece as part of his short film, comprising recontextualised scenes from old movies, some of which grace the cover. While the music is very abstract, there is always a trace of a melody here, no matter how deeply buried in the music. There is the overall drone, though not long and never static, and there are smaller events below the current. None of the source material, described as “assorted vintage soundtrack LPs”, can be recognised because the treatments are that wide. And yet there is an orchestral feeling to the music, the soundtrack aspect shining through occasionally. With all the grainy and dark processing going on, this is very much the sort of thing one expects Sublime Retreat to release, and the only downside is the length: I wished for it to be longer. (FdW)
––– Address: https://sublimeretreat.bandcamp.com/

ROBERT CURGENVEN – AGENESIS (CD by Cloud Chamber)

Here’s a name I hadn’t heard in a long time: Robert Curgenven. I reviewed some of his work; if I’m not mistaken, the last one was ‘Go Outside’, a miniCDR (Vital Weekly 838). Maybe I saw a concert of his after this… before this? I am trying to remember. He’s from Australia but frequently travels Europe with his setup of electronics, no-input mixing desk, dubplates and acetates. When I saw him live, maybe 15 years ago, he also used a microphone and ventilator to significant effect, along with his dubplates. I do rember his music to be drone-like in a rather pleasant way. His latest CD is a combination of recordings made between 2006 and 2024 in various places worldwide, and maybe we should see this CD as a renewed introduction to his music, for me at least. With its multiple sources and electronics, the album has a collage-like aspect, with the title shifting throughout its eight pieces, meaning they belong to each other; at least, that’s how I see this. The title ‘Agenesis is a “(noun) – a partial or complete absence.” Not sure what is absent and the explanation (“is a statement where you don’t have all the information – somehow both complete and incomplete – its totality remains obscured and if it is a statement it remains unstated, a statement about incompleteness, withholding”) isn’t all too clear because to know what is absent we need to know what it is when it’s complete. The information tells us about Robert’s influences, “90s grindcore, bass-heavy electronics and techno, 20th Century orchestral works”, and to a certain extent, there is indeed a bit of it all in this music. Maybe not always as obvious, but it certainly shows from time to time. The music came out of a music and light show but as none of that is part of the CD, there is nothing to write about. It’s interesting to hear this album shifting from deep-end drones to the noisy electronics of the final piece, ‘AGENESI_’, and while at times it sounds like odd choices he makes, creating a slightly unhinged album, shooting all over the place, but also showing the many sides of this musician. (FdW)
––– Address: https://cloud-chamber.bandcamp.com/

ARTHUR SAUER – FLUID (CD by Asmz)
ARTHUR SAUER – AIR (CD by Asmz)

It’s been a long time since I heard music by Arthur Sauer. He was part of a concert/installation sort of thing, transporting sound in various ways, that I helped organise in the late 1980s. How he became involved in this project, I no longer recall, lost in the midst of time, and I very occasionally saw his name popping up, but somehow, I never got a clear picture of what he does. If I remember well, he got his training at Sonology in The Hague but had some punk image. When he mailed me these two CDs, he sent me some information about the surroundings he lives in. Being from Rotterdam, one (if not the) largest harbour in the world, he lived for a long time in the harbour, on a place called Quarantine Island, along with many other musicians and artists, all squatted until 2014, following which they had a 10-year right to use it. A private company owns the island these days, and Sauer and a few neighbours hold their fort. Because it’s all ending, he decided to document the area he called his home for 32 years, resulting in ‘Air’ and ‘Fluid’; Earth is already on Bandcamp (the digital-only album ‘Quarantine’), and fire will follow.
‘Air’ is a much longer work, 65 minutes. Here he made recordings from large trees in his garden and processing these sounds with again software of his making. There is also a drone kind of sound lingering below, but there is also a lot of transition in these sounds, like objects flowing in the wind, with some massive around them. It sounds, at times, like slowed-down wind chimes. Of course, there is also the far away activity from the harbour, a round-the-clock affair, not using the ships and the loading and unloading, but also the activity of new buildings being put up and general ‘noise’. However, none of this seems very noisy. If you are unaware of all of this information, you might think this is the sound of some very remote and quiet place with minor events in the background. None of the software processing is too much in the piece, in the way of the music, but something that works in the background, or, maybe, used in such a way we don’t hear it—an excellent work.
‘Fluid’ contains recordings from the Maas River made with hydrophones and microphones on the beach of the terrain. Later on he processed the recordings with software he wrote. Rotterdam may be a bustling harbour, but something needs to be evident in these recordings. In these 12-minute pieces there is a lot happening, which is quite odd. One wrongly expects sound from the deep end of the water to be quiet, but maybe it’s the software working overtime, or there is a lot of activity down the docks; in any case, a lot is happening here. It’s an entirely different work than ‘Air’ (and I checked ‘Quarantine’, which is an altogether different proposition than these two with more synthesiser tones), almost a work of industrial music, but not as harsh and more as if controlled by robotics. The music bursts and is on the brink of collapse, but it never gets that far. I have a preference for ‘Air’, in its longer form an album working better than the apocalyptic nightmares of ‘Fluid’, but it’s also the diversity that counts. I am still trying to figure out why it took Sauer so long to release his music, but let’s hope there’s more soon. (FdW)
––– Address: https://arthursauer.bandcamp.com/

TRANSITION UNIT – FACE VALUE (CD by New Wave Of Jazz)
LEMADI TRIO – CANONCAL DISCOURSE (CD by New Wave Of Jazz)
TONUS – ANALOG DEVIATION (CD by New Wave Of Jazz)
MARTINA VERHOEVEN QUINTET – INDICATOR LIGHT (CD by New Wave Of Jazz)

Not for the first or last time, there is a lot of free improvisation coming our way. If we stop at Vital Weekly 1500, which is still very possible, that is no doubt one of the reasons. It can be sooner if I come across ‘Vital Weekly – leading publication for all things jazz’. What was never our primary interest, seems to have become one. There’s a label whose releases I like very much, and I started a modern composition division, which is not my thing and who asked me: ‘Why don’t you review all my releases?’. Suppose they’d open a country & western division. Would they expect me to move along? Would the readership of Vital Weekly expect this?
For a long time, Dirk Serries’ music was very much Vital Weekly music, with the likes of Vidna Obmana and Fears Falls Burning, but also some recent solo releases. However, for about ten years, Serries is also heavily into free improvisation and free jazz, and I reviewed many of his releases, if not all. This recent bunch sees him further down that road with many musicians he works with. I don’t think I heard his trio Transition Unit before, with Serries on archtop guitar, Jose Lencastre on alto, tenor saxophone, and Rodrigo Pinheiro on a grand piano. This is a conventional release in terms of instrument approach; each instrument sounds as it should be, especially the saxophone and the piano. The guitar is the oddball here, with Serries going all wild on the strings and the other two’s hecticness and nervousness. The saxophone takes the lead, and that’s not for the first time. Maybe it’s the way this instrument or the player’s personality (I don’t know Lencastre, so I am taking a wild guess here), but his playing is dominant all around, with Serries sometimes being a bit lost. Very free jazz, as much as I can make (the traditional liner notes by Guy Peeters no longer grace the covers of these releases) of this, and sound at 51 minutes enough for one day – I am taking these, as the doctor ordered, one a day. Each of the six pieces has an individual title, but they were challenging to tell apart.
Because Lencastre is also on another CD with Serries, it’s time for the Lemadi Trio on the second day. Lencastre only brought his alto saxophone to the Serries’ home studio on Match 9, 2024, with Serries on guitar and his partner Martina Verhoeven on crumar piano. The saxophone is also the leading instrument, but the music is a bit different. Sure, there is a lot of improvisation here, too, but it’s sometimes with a different amount of chaos than with the Transition Unit. Especially Serries and Verhoeven do some spooky stuff on their instruments and what that is, I am not sure of, but it sounds good. The domineering saxophone is sometimes in the way of their playing, too loud, too much foreground. I say there isn’t the same amount of chaos, but that doesn’t mean it’s absent, it still is very much part of the fabric of the music. It’s the difference with Transition Unit, which I enjoyed most, mainly with the playing of Verhoeven and Serries.
Verhoeven and Serries, this time on grand piano and archtop guitar, play with various people in an ad hoc ensemble called Tonus, incidentally, also the only one I saw live. On ‘Analog Deviation’, they play with Benedict Taylor on viola and broken fiddle. Spoiler alert: it is also the only CD without a saxophone. Also, a home recording from 2023, and they recorded two pieces, in total, 52 minutes of music. The concert I heard (in 2019) was an enjoyable, quiet affair, which might be what Tonus is about. After the at times violent chaotic moves of the previous two releases the silence of Tonus is a wealth to hear. Also, the non-domineering role of any instrument is interesting. This release has more of a conversation between three equal players. And, like any good conversation or discussion, there are moments in which things get heated, and people don’t listen, which leads to inevitable chaos. But with this trio, such a discussion works quite and there and they return to a safer ground of instrument exploration. There is little free jazz going on here and more free improvisation, with the instruments not always sounding as they are supposed to, which I always enjoy.
The most extensive lineup (or the only non-trio release) is the Martina Verhoeven Quintet, with Verhoeven on grand piano, Serries on guitar, Colin Webster on alto sax, Goncalo Almeida on double bass and Onno Govaert on drums. They played in Paradox, Tilburg, on 12 February 2023. Scratch what I said earlier about chaos, as this quintet takes chaos to the next level. Each of the instruments is played as it is supposed to be, and some of the players use other techniques – inside piano is something I may have heard here. They played 43 minutes, or perhaps that’s what is left after editing, and occasionally, they leave some room for the listener (present in concert and at home, listening to the CD) to grasp for breath before kicking off again with some more mayhem and destruction. I am sure jazz musicians don’t use these words, but that’s how it comes across. It is not my cup of tea, but once every now and month, this is something suitable and nice, offering another perspective on noise music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://newwaveofjazz.bandcamp.com/

ONTZIELING – ALL THESE MOMENTS WILL BE LOST (12″ by Esc.Rec)

If you have been reading my reviews religiously (and there’s no reason for not doing so), you know I am a sucker for music with a dystopian character. Sometimes, it’s because I believe to hear this in the music, and sometimes because the musician or label latches this word on the music. Of course, it’s one of those catch-all phrases, and what I hear doesn’t mean something you hear. For me, it’s not just about a darker tone, which can easily be captured with an even more vague dark ambient. Still, it’s also about a certain graininess in the music, coupled with field recordings of abandoned industrial parks, faulty electric wiring and nuclear facilities. None of this is present in the music of Michael Paap, from Rotterdam, going by the name Ontzieling, ‘denouement’ in English and with the coming All Souls Day, right on time. He uses a Eurorack modular synthesiser, and each of the four pieces “is an unfiltered glimpse into a moment, a live creation captured in one continuous take”. And when there may be no field recordings present in the recordings, there is a graininess in the music that makes this very dystopian. And what’s more, in the rusty pipes of Ontzieling, there is still room for the faint trace of melody, the dying breath of civilization perhaps, best exemplified in the opening piece ‘Tonder Zon’. But don’t let this melodic touch deceive you; it’s a small component in the soundtrack of urban mystery – Rotterdam, perhaps? I am curious to know how he feels about the state of his home turf, with quite a few explosions in recent times. Darkly meandering about this is some great, maybe some grey stuff. It is a great record, with only one downside: at 20 minutes, this is also a concise record. Why not 40? Why not a CD of 50 minutes? I was into this and it was over, and I went back in, and then again. Some powerful, and I would love to learn more about his music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://escrec.bandcamp.com/

COSMIC DREAM CLUB – MOLECULAR CLOUDS (CDR by Cosmic Dream Records)

More music by Cosmic Dream Club, the Nijmegen-based one-man army of techno meeting ambient music. I reviewed some of his previous releases (Vital Weekly 1381 and 1411), and this new release completes ” the triptych on space exploration” and once again comes in an “ultra limited to 25 physical copies” and is otherwise widely available on Bandcamp. Cosmic Dream Club covers the music well if we take the name apart. In the classic sense of the word, the music is very cosmic, going for those spacey synthesisers, those bouncing arpeggios and psychedelic pads. The dream part of the name is the ambient side of the music, the spacious, beatless drifts, tying dream and cosmic together, whereas the club element is represented with rhythm pieces. Are they club pieces? I don’t know; I have not been to a club in a long time, but I don’t think they would go down as easy floor fillers. There is something homegrown about the music, which makes this more of a soundtrack for your next journey to the moon. You want something to relax, move, and cross between that. Before I made connections to The Orb (but without any spoken word samples) and Pete Namlook (but with tracks within some kind of reasonable limit), both representatives of all things techno and ambient. At seventy minutes, this is a lengthy trip, but, like its two predecessors, a most enjoyable pleasure cruise from the dance floor to the chill-out room and back again. If this is the end of this space triptych, I wonder what Cosmic Dream Club will do next. Will the route go all ambient or all techno, or will he find another hybrid form? Time will tell. (FdW)
––– Address: https://cosmicdreamclub.bandcamp.com/

PETER J WOODS – SUCKING STONES (CDR by Love Earth Music)

In seven tracks and precisely one hour Peter J Woods – of whom I had never heard before – is “Sucking Stones”. And as the name and the title triggered many things in my mind, I started exploring the web to see if I could find out why. First, the name: I went over everything but mistook the PJW acronym for another project I had reviewed once. This was not the same person, but I did find out about Peter having a split release with my dear friend Andy, a.k.a. The Vomit Arsonist (Phage Tapes, 2009). So maybe it was something that got stuck somewhere? I don’t know… It’s a release I don’t have, so maybe, who knows…
As for the title, I was drawn towards artists working with stones as source material. Rubbing, throwing, clicking and ticking… But no one I ever knew of ever sucked them. It meant I had to dive in and see where it came from. Turns out there is a Samuel Beckett book entitled ‘Molloy’ which holds a highly conceptual phrase about sucking stones. And within that phrase a mathematical problem is being posed. I think Peter worked with this phrase – recognizable as spoken word on this release – as a guide for the sound creation, but I’m not going to take all the fun for you guys, and I’ll try to leave as much mystery as possible for you to find out for yourself.
The seven tracks are “Overture” and “The Problem” in three parts and “The Answer” also in three parts. Soundwise a mixture of scarcely spoken words, ambience, harsh noise and drone-like buildups. It was very well executed, had excellent dynamics and was a pleasure to listen to. At moments, a bit on the harsh side to be catalogued as ‘easy listening’ and, for the hardcore HNW adepts, probably too relaxed at the other moments. It makes it an intriguing release that is definitely worth listening to more than once. On his website, we find what might be the reason: “Pulling equally from the worlds of harsh noise and absurdist theatre, [Peter’s] performances build a sense of terror from simple imagery, muted text and an unpredictable barrage of silence and sound.”
There’s a lot of information to be found directed towards the writings of Beckett and the posed mathematical problem. I lost an evening reading and exploring. And well, as I’ve mentioned in earlier occasions, some noise can be considered an easy form of expressive art, but at the same time, there is noise that makes you think and wonder and enrich yourself. “Sucking Stones” is definitely the latter category. (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/
––– Address: https://peterjwoods.bandcamp.com/

STORMHAT – BROWN ACID (CDR by Love Earth Music)

Just a few weeks ago, I reviewed a Stormhat release on Inner Demons, and now it’s another one on Love Earth Music. As written in Vital 1454, Stormhat is Peter Bach Nicolaisen, who has been releasing music since the turn of the century. The ‘dark New Age music’ mentioned in the previous promo is further clarified in the text on the CD. ‘Stormhat enjoys the clash of incompatible words’. It indeed explains the combination of Dark and New Age. But it also explains a bit of how he makes music. Field recordings, in combination with simple synths, explore the balance between organic and synthesized territories. And that is the point where the title kicks in. We all (ok, all of us older ones) know the stories of the brown acid that hit Woodstock and caused terrible trips. The title “Brown Acid” of this album may not cause a bad trip, but it’s probably more meant to explore what you hear with an open mind.
‘Brown Acid’ has 11 tracks and a total of 50 minutes of sounds. It is between two and seven minutes, and I think this album is quite in sync with the Inner Demons one. There are a lot of experiments happening. A lot of microbiotopes, a.k.a. self-contained tracks. It’s not a larger story or concept covering the whole album, but looking at moments and seeing what the experiment brings—exploratorive sounds to see if you can get your brain activity on a different level. My favourite track on this one is ‘Gear Generator’.
So yeah, it’s fun to hear different releases by the same artist and try to get into his mind or conceptual approach. And honestly, I think I kinda see where Peter comes from and what he’s trying to do with his art. And I like it. Not for everyday use, but as with mind-altering substances, all in reasonable doses. It would be fun to see his work be dedicated a BIT more towards a conceptual approach of a whole album, though. Visiting the carnival on X, walking through medieval cellars, talking to ghosts, or something like that. I’d be curious how that would develop. (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

MADEMOISELLE MARCHAND – THREE COLD WINTERS (CDR by Inner Demons Records)

I’m reviewing the second release by Mademoiselle Marchand on Inner Demons, and utterly different from the previous one (as reviewed in Vital 1434). First, we’re talking 5 inches here, so there’s a lot more music to be heard. Three long drones, all 20+ minutes, so let’s see what the mysterious Miss Marchand did this time. And yes, she’s still a mystery because there is absolutely nothing to be found on this project. Although she now has a personal Bandcamp page dedicated to her released and a button to contact her. Who knows, maybe she’ll release stuff outside of Inner Demons at some point.
The three drones aren’t directly related to each other, and according to the promo text, they were created with quite some time in between. They all got poetic titles so let’s just go through them. The first one is called ‘If I Sing Please Don’t Cry, It’s Just Poetry’ has a chrystal-like / ringing / singing bowl kind of basic and is because of the choice of sounds quite soothing. The second track has the paradox title ‘Last Year I Died, but This Year I Promise I Won’t Die’ and it’s a track … Well, you love it or you hate it. The promo text here says it all, and as I couldn’t have written this any better: ‘Track two, aka “Your House is Being Invaded by Thousands of Mosquitoes and You’re Trying to Sleep”, I know it sounds like the track is going to sound horrible, and it probably is for most of you, but it’s an experience I think is worth a shot, it’ll be annoying, and you’ll want to stop listening, that’s kind of the point of track 2.’ True fact: My wife came into my office while I was listening asking which insects where being abused … Final track is in my opinion the most beautiful. “And if I Die please Don’t Cry, It’s Just the Moon” is the most dynamic, has a few great phrases in the composition and is less irritating then the previous track. Minimalist, slow changes, enough variation and modulation to remain interesting at all moments. And with it’s 30 minutes the longest of the three.
As of writing this review, Mademoiselle Marchand has four releases out, and as all of them are quite different, I’m curious how she will develop as an artist. Until now, her releases are all about exploration and following direct emotions. So this might be interesting for the future. (BW)
––– Address: https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com/
––– Address: https://mademoisellemarchand.bandcamp.com/

DAVID VÉLEZ – COMFORT FOOD (CDR by Flaming Pines)

Yesterday, Monday, I played all the albums, waiting for a review just to get an idea of what is ahead of me. For whatever reason, I thought Flaming Pines was a label for improvised music, but maybe I mixed them up with some other label, as looking at their Bandcamp today, I realise it’s not. My first thought yesterday was when I superficially heard this: David Vélez does an ambient glitch album. Today I study the information closer on Bandcamp, as none of this is on the cover, and I read about Vélez growing vegetables and recording that, along with the soil, the earthworms and such. He uses his music to simulate the growth of tomatoes, rhubarbs and beets and he uses sine waves in the process. Also used is the sound of cooking oil and water boiling, which makes for some interesting standalone music. If you play the music, you may not notice any of this, but with a stretch of imagination, you hear the organic processes in the music, along with the sine waves. Unlike Deasy, reviewed elsewhere, Vélez’s sine waves are on a different level, higher in the frequency range, and yet still quite pleasurable. It mixes pretty well with the very organic sounds, and it all becomes a very lively affair. The thought of a laptop isn’t strange, with all things whizzing and purring, but there is very much a warmth to the music. The creepy-crawley underworld of insects is made audible, and providing you aren’t too itchy about such matters is a great release. (FdW)
––– Address: https://flamingpines.bandcamp.com/

ANDREA PENSADO – LIVE 2014-2018 (CDR by Cruel Symphonies)

Originally from Argentina, but since 2002 living in the USA, it’s only recently I hear some of Andrea Pensado’s music. She graduated in her home country, then studied in Poland with Boguslaw Schaeffer in composition, among other things, and had an interdisciplinary duo (Qfwfq) along with Gregory Kowalski (in charge of the images). On her website, I read she uses max/MSP as her primary programming tool, and it made me think one all too easily thinks about max/MSP as a tool for laptop music, which is not what Pensado does. I forgot what I wrote about her music and what instruments she uses. This new release contains two live pieces from 2014, one from 2017 and one from 2018. I don’t know why Pensado decided to release these now, but maybe they are good concert recordings, reflecting the music she plays. Other than max/MSP, she uses a lot of voice. I assume the voice goes into the laptop and, along with perhaps other forms of processing, comes out in a rather noisy way. Noisy and improvised, I think; at least, that’s how it sounds. The noise isn’t one of straightforward distortion but chaotic and nervously bouncing back and forth, up and down. Uneasy sound poetry, which in its noisiness reminded me of Henri Chopin, but with some additional sounds from other sources, I believe to have heard a piano. It’s pretty heavy to play all of this in one go. I am sure Pensado’s concerts aren’t one-hour-long events, and with everything going on all the time, this is not something to digest easily. It does provide an exciting look at her work and, as such, a great introduction if you don’t know her work or a fine souvenir if you ever saw her play live. (FdW)
––– Address: https://cruelsymphonies.bandcamp.com/

UNSUB – AMBITIOUS VICTIM (CDR by Love Earth Music)
PAIN INJECTION/DEMONOLOGISTS (CDR by Love Earth Music)

As I mentioned before, Love Earth Music isn’t a strict noise label. Here are two (or three, as one is a split release) examples to further prove my point, involving many guitar sounds. First, there is the duo of Unsub, with Fetusk on guitars, drones, beats and vocals and Steven D on synth – further down the credits, it says Kevin Fetus. I had not heard of them. I believe, going by their choice of studio location, they come from Los Angeles. They have six lengthy pieces on ‘Ambitious Victim’, ranging from seven to 14 minutes. The opening piece, ‘The Cleansing’, is a dark and moody drone-like piece, with quite an abstract use of the guitar. This piece doesn’t set the tone for the album, as ‘Ritual Tribulation’ follows, with a lot of beats from the drum machines, the guitar being plucked and strummed, and it’s almost like a post-rock piece. Perhaps I was wrongly reminded of Bowery Electric since I last heard their music a long time ago. This is the template of the album. The pieces veer between the all-too-present beats, the tinkling of strings, and more beatless drone pieces. The sense of post-rock runs through all six pieces, even when the guitars are more droney and melodic in a different way. A fine reminder of music I don’t hear as often as I did but which I immensely enjoy.
The other release is a split CDR by Pain Injection and Demonologists. The first is a trio of SN (guitars, four-string fretless bass, drums), ZC (sampler, synth, noise) and A. Nostalgie (voice, lyrics). Demonologists are a duo, of which only the names are known, Cory Rowell and Evan Price. I hadn’t heard of either, but Jliat reviewed Demonologists twice (Vital Weekly 669 and 776). We are in a different land of guitars here. Here, we find a lot of noise guitars, hard rock, heavy metal or whatever metal one chooses, but both have more to offer. It’s not my area of expertise, and, perhaps, also not the sort of thing Vital Weekly reviews. Pain Injection has three tracks to offer, and noisy guitars are not always part of their deal, as they combine them with moody electronics and scary samples and generally leave a great impression. These three are about 18 minutes, and it all sounds most promising, and I wish there was more.
Demonologists sample the hell of guitars and have a grunting voice. Death metal samplemania? There is also a bit of power electronics (‘Phantom Lamia ft. Obi’). Very much the same sort of mixed bag as Pain Injection, and it’s easy to see why they are on a split CDR (never something I enjoy). I am reminded of In Slaughter Natives, also something I haven’t heard in ages, so maybe I am wrong, and it’s music I enjoy to an extent. It’s not something to play all day, but this sort of over-the-top theatrics occasionally goes down well.(FdW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/

RUTGER ZUYDERVELT – MEANDER (MUSIC FOR A PERFORMANCE BY MARTA & KIM, KNOT ON HANDS, AND FELIX ZECH) (CDR by Machinefabriek)

As noted before, much of Rutger Zuydervelt composes many works for film, dance, theatre and circus. The latter he did for the duo Marta and Kim (productions called ‘Engel’ and ‘Our Arms Grew Together’), and now it’s time for a third one, ‘Meander’, for which they also invited Felix Zech and the trio Knot on Hands, both of which are new for me. The visual component is, as always, lacking with sort of release, so I am quoting from Bandcamp; “In ‘Meander’ five circus and dance artists weave a visual landscape. They slide and climb over and under each other, soar into the heights or intertwine into one body. Like a new river finding its course, or like a flock of birds migrating as one body, this is how Meander was created. In this continuum of movement and rhythm, the performers highlight their mutual trust despite the frictions and fractures between each other. ‘Meander’ is an ode to the process, to our constantly changing view of how we experience each other and our surroundings. By breaking free from traditional lines of hierarchy and positions of power, the five performers create a space where every moment can bring a new discovery, a new question, or a new insight”. That may not mean much either, if you are a visually oriented person. I couldn’t tell from the music. I have very little idea what is required music-wise for a dance and circus piece. I am sure some movement in the music would be handy. In the seven pieces, Zuydervelt displays the all-round composer he became. Shifting easily from moody drone-like pieces that got him the recognition he has (in ‘Kim & Tijs / Lightbulb Creature’), to pieces with rhythm, such as ‘Rafting’, which also has rafting sounds at the very beginning, complete with sequencing, drops and a melodic line. These various approaches work very well on this CD, and I assume also in the performance piece. Not staying with one musical direction but having various will no doubt open lots of possibilities to change moving around on stage. This ‘thing’ is going on tour, so check out if it’s anyway near you (well, you have to be in The Netherlands). (FdW)
––– Address: https://machinefabriek.bandcamp.com/