Week 42
REVERSE IMAGE – TOWARDS THE NOCTURNAL SUN (CD by Fourth Dimension Records)
TADASHI YONAGO & EISUKE YANAGISAWA & MASAMI BABA – ‘ALLEGORIES OF LISTENING’ AT LISTUDE ON 20 MAY 2023 (CD by Immeasurable)
YOUNGS NO – 蟄虫坏戸 | TIME: 17:12-18:12 DATE: 02 OCT 2023 (CD by Immeasurable)
NOISE FOREST (2LP/CD by Cold Spring Records)
DANIELA HUERTA – SOPLO (10″ by Elevator Bath)
RASMUS PERSSON & LEE NOYES – RATIOS (CDR by Idealstate Recordings)
APERUS – LOST TRIBE OF THE SHADOW (CD by Geophonic Records)
OXIA PALACE – KALENDIS (CDR by Geophonic Records / Solopsis Records)
+DOG+ – THE FAMILY MUSIC BOOK VOL 5 (2CDR by Love Earth Music)
MODELBAU – 1×33.3 (CDR by Love Earth Music)
FERGUS KELLY – VANISHING POINT (CDR by Room Temperature)
EXTRA/LIMINAL HAZE (split cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
VERTONEN – RECOVERY AND RETURN (cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
ERIC LUNDE – OCCULATIOMORBIT SUITES (cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
SAVVAS METAXAS – COMPOSING DRUMS (cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
MICROFISSURES – ELEMENTS (cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
ZHERBIN/JUNTA (split cassette by Hyster Tapes)
POOL PERVERT, PHARMAKUSTIK, ANLA COURTIS, PBK – WE PASS THROUGH EACH OTHER IN DREAMING (cassette by PBK sound)
STICHFLAMME BARNICK (cassette by Superpolar Taips)
LES DIVAGANTS – OUTRE PASSAGES (cassette by Ligne de Crête)
EMAD ARMOUSH’S RAYHAN – DISTILLED EXTRACTIONS (CD by Afterday)
REVERSE IMAGE – TOWARDS THE NOCTURNAL SUN (CD by Fourth Dimension Records)
Here’s the second release by Malaysian artist Y’ng-Yin Siew, who works as Reverse Image. I reviewed her debut, ‘The Silence That Does Not Exist’ in Vital Weekly 1397 and work with Thomas Bey William Bailey, more recently, in Vital Weekly 1445. This new album sees quite a chance compared to these two previous albums. As before, she works with modular electronics, and her nine tracks are between one and six minutes. Those are similarities, but the earlier works are a bit noisier and grittier without being a full-on noise festival; this new album is sometimes one of much gentler textures. There is a nice bounce in the music without getting too rhythmical, but she also aims for slightly more melodic touches in her music. ‘Haunted Firmament’ is an exception, with its fierce drone wall, but the four previous pieces were delicate, softer delights. Maybe a keyboard is also in play here, even when I am unsure of that. I mentioned such a thing for her previous solo release and the melodic touch, which was also featured, yet not to a similar extent. At 40 minutes, this is an album of classic length, and there isn’t a weak piece here, nor a particular stand-out piece. There is variation and also enough homogeneity in the music. All of this makes this solid stuff, and other than the surprise of some lighter material, a fine continuation, moving on from the previous. It’s great to see some change in her approach and building on what is already there. (FdW)
––– Address: https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/
TADASHI YONAGO & EISUKE YANAGISAWA & MASAMI BABA – ‘ALLEGORIES OF LISTENING’ AT LISTUDE ON 20 MAY 2023 (CD by Immeasurable)
YOUNGS NO – 蟄虫坏戸 | TIME: 17:12-18:12 DATE: 02 OCT 2023 (CD by Immeasurable)
The releases by the Japanese Immeasurable label are always highly conceptual, but these two beg the question about being listenable. The first is by a trio, Tadashi Yonago, Eisuke Yanagisawa and Masami Baba, with recordings made on May 23, 2023—an evening in three parts. First there was Yanagisawa, Baba and Manpei Tsurubayashi, of listude (the space of the event) talked about ‘listening’, followed by a lstening session in a mobile coffee shop, listening to music on listude speakers – no idea what this is. Finally, Tadashi Yonago performed music, using instruments (trombone, for instance) and “sounds produced by non-musical equipment and performances that translate rare phenomena in everyday spaces into sound”. Three pieces were recorded by Eisuke Yanagisawa, and the other three by Masami Baba; I hear very little difference in recording techniques. What does it all boil down to? “By comparing these tracks, we hope to encourage listeners to explore their own interpretations of the subject and object of recording art, as well as the differences between mediums”. But I have no listude speakers, so what remains for me is a CD of six pieces of music. I’ll be honest: I am not blown away by this. The trombone piece I found of little interest, not even as a piece of improvised music, which also goes for the other track, also called ‘Improv’, more trombone but also objects; maybe it’s the same piece from a different angle. The other pieces were more interesting, such as the two versions of ‘Gloaming’, which are delicate constructions of electronic sounds with an engaging, menacing undercurrent, especially the first one. ‘Swimming’ borders on the near inaudible, so it remains a bit lost.
A more radical music piece we find on ‘蟄虫坏戸 | TIME: 17:12-18:12 DATE: 02 OCT 2023’, of which the Japanese translates as ‘Insects hole up underground’, which is “one of the 72 micro-seasons in the traditional East Asian lunar calendar”. ” a sound recording was conducted at Sakuradani Rest Area on Minoh Mountain in Osaka, centered around sunset at 5:42 PM, spanning from 5:12 PM to 6:12 PM. At four points around the perimeter of the Sakuradani Rest Area, portable speakers were used to play sine waves approximating the sounds of the following insects.” Not just about insects and sine waves, No also writes, “This piece is not intended as a form of communication with nature. In addition to insects and birds, Minoh Mountain is known to be home to deer, wild boar, and Japanese macaques. How did the creatures inhabiting the area around the building perceive the uninterrupted playback of four sine waves from the aged concrete structure?” I know lengthy quotes equal lazy reviewing. Still, I find summarising impossible. Detached from location and time, at home, different part of the world, no (visible) insects, how do I perceive this ” uninterrupted playback of four sine waves from the aged concrete structure”? Listening is far from easy, as these sine waves are brutal. I am used to a bit of noise, but these unchanging sine waves are a bit too much. That’s about all I can say about this release. (FdW)
––– Address: https://immeasurable.bandcamp.com/
NOISE FOREST (2LP/CD by Cold Spring Records)
In 1992, there was a label/record store in Osaka called Les Disques Du Soleil. According to Discogs, there were only two releases ever: A 7″ by UK-based Organum (David Philip Jackman) and a various artist CD called ‘Noise Forest’. And well, as you might have guessed, Cold Spring has now rereleased that sampler on CD, black and a gorgeous (forest) green vinyl. In 1992, I was still expanding my horizons concerning listening to more extreme types of music, so I hadn’t found out about Japanese noise yet. I mean, this album is over 30 years old! But listening to this CD, I can imagine what drove CSR to release this album. But more on the content later.
In the late 80s and just about up to Y2K, many labels released and invested time and money in creating perfect sampler CDs. Producing a CD was still expensive as f***, so a GOOD sampler was the best promotion card you could invest in for your label. A few examples would be ‘Invisible Domains’ on Malignant Records, ‘Karmanik Collection’ on Cold Meat Industry, ‘Xerosma’ on Ant-zen, ‘Exploration One’ on Body And Blood Exploration, ‘Death Odors’ on Slaughter Productions … And that’s just from the top of my head. I love samplers from that era as they provided you with the needed information and a proper direction in what to expect from a label. Which was killed by file sharing and streaming services because of low sales, hence no income, no more samplers, no more labels … I think it’s a pity and samplers nowadays just aren’t those samplers anymore, except maybe for vinyl and tape samplers with a conceptual approach.
But, back to the forest: This is a proper Japnoise sampler if you were ever looking for one! The spirit of the sampler albums from the beginning of the 90s is here; it has some big names, some – for that time – unknown ones and sadly also one who has left this earth (Monde Bruits). What you will hear: Merzbow, CCCC, Solmania, Dislocation, Monde Bruits, Masonna, Violent Onsen Geisha and finally, Incapacitants. Two bands per side on the vinyl, so yes, the tracks are all reasonably lengthy (5 to 12 minutes), and there are no ambient ones among them. Excellent choice for a rerelease! (BW)
––– Address: https://coldspring.co.uk/
DANIELA HUERTA – SOPLO (10″ by Elevator Bath)
Not having heard any music by Mexican-born, Berlin-based multimedia artist Daniela Huerta is not strange as ‘Soplo’ is her debut album. Before this, or perhaps parallel to this, she worked as a DJ at Baby Vulture and played at various venues and festivals. She is also a sound designer, and on this 10″ that is used to significant effect. The title translates as ‘breath’ and Huerta has “an interest in mythology at the centre of her practice, using it as a springboard to explore the origins of consciousness, archetypes, rituals, and collective memory”, which lead her to work with the “‘ Colombian artist and filmmaker Iván Argote, who invited her to score two of his poetic, politically charged short films”. Films not seen, of course, and not being from Mexico it’s also never easy to know how this work, with “the origins of consciousness, archetypes, rituals, and collective memory”; it’s not my memory. I can only approach the music on this record as music is presented from whatever background and film. Within 30 minutes, she offers nine pieces of music with interesting variations and approaches. Perhaps I wrongly assume that she uses field recordings and electronics and maybe granular synthesis and computer manipulation. Her work fits the world of musique concrète but not in a very academic way, which, in my book, is always a good thing. There are also traces of industrial music, such as the rhythm loop in ‘Fondo’, mildly distorted synthesisers, and the sound of running water. Water also features in the dreamy opener, ‘Seqvana’, which is almost like a pop song. In other pieces, she uses a more traditional approach to processing and applying the collage technique to tell her story. None of this is very long, which is something many academics should take notice of, and with the amount of variation, it is a pretty mixed bag, but it works great as a mini album. The only downside is the length: I would have loved this more and LP-sized. (FdW)
––– Address: https://elevatorbath.bandcamp.com/music
RASMUS PERSSON & LEE NOYES – RATIOS (CDR by Idealstate Recordings)
Here, we have two musicians living in Göteborg, Sweden and both an artist-in-residence at the Elementstudion, “home of Geiger Göteborg”. Persson is the younger of the two, working “at the intersection of art and technology, creating atmospheres through light, sound and spatial interventions”. In contrast, Noyes is from Canada and is “an improvising musician who has long navigated the realms of feedback-electronics, percussion and alternate tuning systems” and following time in New Zealand, he’s now in Sweden. Persson plays the Nord model and Noyes the InputLoop Sampler; I had not heard of this instrument before.
“From the start, our goal was to explore balance, restraint and precision as well as to employ a level of discipline and focus within our playing that shows respect, not just for each other but for our audience too. Given the unstable and inherently unpredictable nature of our respective instruments, this is no easy task. Feedback systems seldom work as you want them to.” They tried “to create works that sound considered and composed, despite always being an improvisational journey of discovery.” This release has five pieces, four precisely ten minutes and one precisely five. Because this is electronic music, the improvisation element isn’t present in this release. I instead see and hear this as electronic music, and whereas at times it is unstable or chaotic, I attribute that to applying cut-up techniques to the music. I have no idea who’s responsible for what sound; it’s not easy to say something about the interaction between the players. I like what I hear, so let’s assume things are all right in the communication department. It’s far from easy music, as there are some nasty high pitched frequencies, noisy bits and near-inaudible movements. Through the collage form, I found this album best enjoyed as a continuous work and a collection of five pieces. At times very glitchy, ambient and noisy, and yet a most coherent album of blurred lines of improvisation and composition. (FdW)
––– Address: https://idealstaterecordings.bandcamp.com/
APERUS – LOST TRIBE OF THE SHADOW (CD by Geophonic Records)
OXIA PALACE – KALENDIS (CDR by Geophonic Records / Solopsis Records)
It’s been three years since reviewing ‘Weather Anomalies’, says Brain McWilliams, the man behind Aperus. I looked it up, VitalWeekly 1310, so he might be right. Given the number of releases I hear, I no longer attach times to reviews nor check up on what musicians are doing. I wait and see if something new arrives. From his other project, Remanance, I reviewed something in VitalWeekly 1382, so he’s around somewhere. There are now two latest releases, and the first one, McWilliams writes, “It’s probably the darkest Aperus album to date and the strangest”, whereby strange is a subjective thing (maybe dark too!). Aperus is a dark ambient project and the ten pieces on this CD are perfect examples. Armed with a set of synthesisers, but also shortwave radio, ocean drum, percussion and field recordings, McWilliams creates his moody soundtracks. Robin Storey of Rapoon fame mastered the album, and it’s easy to see his musical influence here, and perhaps also of Storey’s previous musical project, Zoviet*France, especially from when he was a member. The drums and flutes of ‘A Debt To Our Ancestors’ are classic mid-1980s Zoviet*France music. In his music, McWilliams isn’t just a drone meister. Sure, drones play a significant role in his music, but it’s not exclusive to drones. There are bits with rhythm, subliminal noise (the guitar in ‘Graffiti Ghosts’ with its mild distortion), crumbled shortwave conversation and good ol’ loops. All of this makes this a highly varied album; the one thing going through this is the darkness. Not all pitch black, but varying degrees of black and grey. Lovely stuff for the shorter days is best enjoyed at the twilight hour.
Brian McWilliams also appears on the release by Oxia Palace, as this is a collaboration with Jan Roos, a Dutch-sounding name but someone from Norway. He also works as Super Fata, and I assume the eight pieces on this disc were recorded and mixed through the internet. Their inspiration came from “the grainy NASA images from the Cassini mission, which orbited and measured Saturn, its moons and seven rings”. Space music that is best served through the extensive use of synthesisers, analogue, digital, modular and what else is available., but also junk percussion, field recording, processed guitar, water harp and djembe, perhaps not instruments that come to mind when thinking about space music. Yet, the listener isn’t made things easy when playing this, considering you may hear junk percussion or a djembe. Whatever the start of the music, there is a lot in there to make it sound very differently, or rather, to elevate these sounds to the stars and beyond. On this release, the average length of the pieces is a bit longer, as Oxia Palace takes its time to explore the universe, and there is more
homogeneity in the music here. Each of the eight pieces can be seen as a variation of a theme, and that’s exploring dark ambient. If there are loops, they are well-hidden in the drone-like tapestries of sound. Concerning darkness, this too is as dark as Aperus and maybe darker, thanks to the absence of rhythms or noisy guitars, not marking that kind of difference. If the Aperus album is a twilight listening session, Oxia Palace is best heard at night, watching the stars (or Saturn, if you can). (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.geophonicrecords.com/
+DOG+ – THE FAMILY MUSIC BOOK VOL 5 (2CDR by Love Earth Music)
It’s no secret anymore that I really appreciate a lot (though not all) of the output on Love Earth Music. The releases by +DOG+, a collective around label boss Steve Davis, are plenty; every time, something triggers me. And with “Family Music Book Vol 5”, catalogue number LEM 368, something must be repeated. It’s a double CDR with 90 minutes of live recordings this time. And because of the reverb and atmosphere, I suspect most of them are done with well-placed microphones and stereo recording devices.
The first CDR opens with “More Grief”, a harsh noise piece with a slight tendency to power electronics, combined with angry vocals at the right places. This makes me long for being there and having witnessed the performance. But after this track, something changes. From “Pine Needles”, all the tracks have live drums with shitloads of rhythmic improv and angry voices. Yet none of the tracks are the same. It’s not a repeated composition that has been played and is crystallized over the different performances. For example, ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ continues in the same style, but it’s more going towards a feedback party.
Then, at track four—’ Garden’—something changes, and a deep synth sound opens the track. Maybe the fifth and final track of this CDR (“The Long Road”) is from that same performance, but again, here is the chaos, very intrusive again.
The second CDR has three a bit longer tracks. The longest on the first CD was 10 minutes; on the second, they’re roughly 11, 13 and 21 minutes. “A Swaying Tree” is the opener, and the drums are pretty mixed to the front here (or the noise has more significant moments of being in the back). It shows the musicians’ capability and the collective dynamics very well. On ‘Empty Fields’, the drums, as we just heard so powerful, are absent, and the result is an angry noise track with moments of drones and minimal rhythmic structures created otherwise. And finally ‘Our Place’, 21 minutes of the most intrusive sounds you’ve heard on this +DOG+-tour. Again without drums, but with the harsh noise and feedback clusters you’ve tried not to hear before. Brilliant. After attending a concert like this, you can respectfully say, ‘your mind has been blown’. Either way, clear a small tube with some dust or vice versa, like nuclear bombs and stuff.
The whole release might have been recorded during various shows, but it is one massive session of Steve, with or without family, getting together and creating the most intense improv noise you’ve heard in a long time. Sharing a stage, relentless, nothing to make or keep anybody happy, no sweet spots, no recognition, no rest for the wicked. Harsh, in-your-face, shocking sounds create a sonic, chaotic universe to lose yourself. Oh, and the digital download has a free extra 20-minute track. And I won’t write about that; you have to find out yourself. (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/
––– Address: https://dognoise.bandcamp.com/
MODELBAU – 1×33.3 (CDR by Love Earth Music)
Thirty-three minutes and thirty-three seconds. That is how long this track is. Again, some Frans de Waard, not too long after the beautiful vinyl “Blackout” on the same label (reviewed in VW 1426). No introductions are needed here, so we’re diving headfirst into the material.
The composition is built the way we are used from Modelbau. It is a slow, generative ambience piece with a loopy character of sound after sound after sound. And whether it’s done through huge tape loops or digitally, these sounds might or might not return after some time. That is something you will never know from Modelbau. The origin of the sounds is always unknown unless you see him live. Then you can see if it’s from a digital device, some ancient electronic toy, or a guitar with (e)bow.
The beauty of Modelbau lies in the atmospheric patterns. In this case, it’s all about the space between the tones/notes (yes, there is a difference here, too, but that’s for another time). Because of the sonic artefacts between the tones at the end of the composition (if you play it really loud in between the sounds), my suspicion is that this is not a digitally recorded piece, but it’s done with tape loops or tape delays. Those artefacts signify that the moment between the sounds is never wholly silent but is riddled with small, inaudible noises which create a ‘living’ space. It’s not all within the purity of an anechoic chamber or if you prefer a ‘sterile’ environment. It’s alive. Even the emptiness is alive. Not filled up with layers of drones of sounds, yet also not filled up with complete silence.
Looking at it this way, I can imagine that this piece is too minimal for some of you, but for others – like me – it’s a treat in how minimalism, ambience and the true beauty of analogue recording meet. (BW)
––– Address: http://www.loveearthmusic.com/
––– Address: https://modelbau.bandcamp.com/
FERGUS KELLY – VANISHING POINT (CDR by Room Temperature)
Didn’t we review a new album by Fergus Kelly only eight weeks ago? Isn’t he the guy who does an album every year? What’s wrong? Nothing, as it happens, as this new release is the sister album to ‘Natural History’, using the same sources and not the field recordings. He started with recording metals (saw blades, alarm bells, coiled springs, steel stands, etc.) in a large resonant concrete interior – this line is from the sister review. Still, in the current text, he describes more processes, locations, and materials. Lots of metal and wood, but also a plastic tube. Kelly also uses the Forester 2022 software, developed by Leafcutter John. He uses this as a “kind of blender to throw random selections of edited recordings into and digitally whisk into new forms and textures”. Kelly is a percussion player and yet that’s not something that is all too obvious; not on many of his previous releases, but even more on this new one. In what I think of as a musique concrète-like tradition, the editing process and the processing with software bring Kelly’s music into a different territory from traditional solo percussion music. It’s not live music anyway, allowing him to act as a composer more than a performer, but snippets of him performing in situ as scattered around the 11 compositions on this album. As with ‘Natural History’, Kelly is on the firm abstract ground here, with lots of drone-like sounds, broken-up metallic textures, and objects smashing. It is a vivacious feeling, very organic, and none of this feels forced or rushed. As before, there isn’t a weaker brother (or sister) in sight, and it’s indeed a lovely companion to ‘Natural History’. A different kind of drumming! (FdW)
––– Address: https://roomtemperature.bandcamp.com/
EXTRA/LIMINAL HAZE (split cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
VERTONEN – RECOVERY AND RETURN (cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
ERIC LUNDE – OCCULATIOMORBIT SUITES (cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
SAVVAS METAXAS – COMPOSING DRUMS (cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
MICROFISSURES – ELEMENTS (cassette by Grisaille Tapes)
The most exciting new release in the recent batch from Grisaille Tapes is the split release by Extra and Liminal Haze. This is a very personal opinion, obviously. Two duos, and as far as I know, I have heard all the music they have released so far. Extra is Brian Grainger and Howard Stelzer, and a reasonably recent collaboration. Grainger has hundreds of releases to his name, which is very ambient. I have known Stelzer for almost 30 years now, and he’s the undisputed master of cassette manipulation, and whoever gets the credit for it. In their collaboration, it’s difficult to find Stelzer’s work, buried on the surface and maybe just below a bit. However, it’s also very likely his manipulations lead to Grainger’s textured processes, which gives the music that grainy ambient textured quality, which is something that lasts 25 minutes in two separate parts, but both of which could have lasted 25 each, as far as I am concerned. It’s still early morning, very grey and dark, so a suitable soundtrack.
Liminal Haze is Craig Johnson and Ross Scott-Buccleuch, the latter working as Diurnal Burdens and the first as Rovellasca. Their collaboration is both more of the same and something extra. ‘XXXII’ consists of three parts recorded in “preparation for and during the Liminal Haze tour of the UK in June 2023. Their performance on this tour was in collaboration with dancer Toi Guy, whose movements are integral to the piece’s dynamics.” Here, we have three distinct pieces. The first section has what seems to be field recordings and careful contact microphone manipulation, followed by their trademark low and lo-fi darkness of grainy reel-to-reel loops with excellent slow movement. The final section is one that slowly builds towards a dramatic point, which is quite rare in Liminal Haze’s catalogue. Following the mighty crescendo, there is a gentle fade out. Sound sources are unknown, but more acoustic object manipulation with ancient tapes. Two excellent sides!
And I’m lucky this time, as Grisaille also releases ‘Recovery And Return’ by Blake Edwards’ Vertonen project, another massive favourite here. Both sides contain multiple pieces, each flowing right into the next, which being released on cassette is something you don’t notice. All we ever know about Vertonen is that it is Blake Edward and devices; as always, these devices are not specified. I always like to think his devices are a mix of digital and analogue processes, lots of sampling, granular synthesis and using synths with external input. And on the input side, there are field recordings, again one of which is specified. The result is what Vertonen does best: playing very dark, atmospheric music. Which is what he does most of the time, save for an occasional noisy outing. Deeply drone-like, very intense and not without changes. Vertonen is a master who uses the amount of time a piece needs, nothing more or less, and when the time has come, he will elegantly move over to the next section. It’s not pure drone music, as there’s always something in there, some rough edge. Towards the end of the first side there is even a sort of melodica playing a repeated tone, which gives the piece a surprising musical touch. Forty minutes of enduring sonic bliss – that’s what I like best.
Also, a surprise is to see an Eric Lunde release on this label because he primarily puts his own releases out or on Blake Edwards’ Ballast imprint. ‘OCCULATIOMORBIT SUITES’ apparently needs capital letters. It contains four pieces, which are all very much alike. There is Lunde reciting the text in his characteristic voice, and there is a pulse/ticking clock kind of beat and electronics. The whole music part is mixed to be background noise/music, forcing you to listen to the text. What these texts are about, I don’t know, which is a recurring thing with Lunde’s work. I admit this is not for me. As always with spoken word releases, with the voice on top of music, is never well-spend on me. I am too much of a lover of instrumental music, never caring too much about words.
From Savvas Metaxas I reviewed various releases, the last one also a Grisaille Tapes release. As before, I am clueless about how he creates his music, and Grisaille is not a label with a lot of information on Bandcamp. ‘Composing Drums’ might provide a clue: sounds recorded from dum materials used to compose music, and if that’s the case, then it’s not always easily heard. Or, maybe there is so much processing and other sounds here. The drums used (and they are used!) are one of the many ingredients. In the opening piece, the percussion might be some rusty fence along with low-level electronics, all put together in a collage. Later on, he also uses some bells. Lasting 11 minutes, the opening piece is the longest and the most complex. In the other four pieces, Metaxas shows his sound material more clearly, and here, we hear some of the drum parts. Sometimes, these drums are fed into a modular synthesiser, but they keep a delicate balance. These shorter pieces have something of a concert feeling, but I might be all wrong—a lovely cassette, only way too short, clocking it at under thirty minutes.
The last one is the unknown quantity. I have no idea who is behind the name Microfissures, who has one previous cassette release, according to Discogs, ‘Plants’ on the Green Fairy label. Microfissures offers nine pieces, named after the elements Kr, Xe and so on, and each comes with a number, but the world of chemistry has been a mystery ever since I was in high school a long time ago. Judging by the music, I believe modular electronics are the primary instrument, also an area I don’t know much about, so is it a big or small setup? I don’t know. I think some other sounds are used; acoustic objects and field recordings are strong contenders, feeding into the machines, and the result is some neat-sounding electronic music. It’s not necessarily ambient, but with a bit of rhythm, mood, and noise. Abstract but also relatively easy on the ear, not pop music-like because it’s too abstract for that, but each piece is a well-rounded composition. Moving and shifting, sparsely using the elements but with some significant effect. Music from a curious intersection, a meeting of many musical interests, creatively blended into Fissures’ own sound. (FdW)
––– Address: https://grisaille.bandcamp.com/
ZHERBIN/JUNTA (split cassette by Hyster Tapes)
I believe there are quite a few releases by Zherbin, whose first name is Dmitry and who lives in Finland. As far as I remember, I only reviewed one of his cassettes (in Vital Weekly 1126), which sounded different than this one. It’s a sort of darkish noise that’s not noise. On this cassette, a c30 (but on a recycled and shortened c60 cassette), he works with a different kind of tape manipulation. Lots of metal junk is being smashed about, some of this going through pedals, some recorded onto cassette loops and through creative editing and layering a brutal attack on the notion of musique concrète. It’s much more noise-based than I remember from the previous release, but it’s not the sort of long-form attack and distortion festival. We have to flip the cassette and listen to a project named Junta. I had not heard of Junta before, a group or a single person, I don’t know. ‘The Great Fun’ is the title of this 15-minute onslaught of the sense, now in a continuous line, pedals open, crashing sounds together, resulting in not your typical noise wall but all the same, a barrage of noise. I hadn’t had my noise fill this week so this is a welcome noise pill. A short yet powerful cassette. (FdW)
––– Address: https://www.pcuf.fi/~plaa/hyster.html
POOL PERVERT, PHARMAKUSTIK, ANLA COURTIS, PBK – WE PASS THROUGH EACH OTHER IN DREAMING (cassette by PBK sound)
This cassette was released some time ago, but it wasn’t until last week when Egbert van der Vliet, Mister Pool pervert, came around and dropped a copy, so a somewhat belated review. I am unsure if I reviewed any of the previous instalments in this series, but here’s the idea: it is an audio version of the chain letter, kinda like the Exquisite Corpse, but without the last artist continuing where the previous one left off. Instead, “in the “chain”, each artist listens to and decides how to integrate with or subvert the entire structure at their whim. There are no set rules. The process is dictated by each participant, there could be close collaboration between participants, discussions of direction and methodology, or there might be none of that. The personality stamp of the individual may be strong, or might be closer to anonymity.” The cassette contains ‘the final’ mix, which in this fifth instalment is by Pool pervert, but in the download, you also find the 30-minute mix by Pharmakustik, and various previous stages by PBK (the instigator of all of this) and Anla Courtis, who is the only not present with any kind of mix. They are all ‘old’ men from the cassette network; some, like PBK, were already active with similar mail music collaborations in the 1980s, which was really mail and not file transfers back then. It’s a long ride but quite a journey. The four long pieces use drones extensively and creatively, but not exclusively. There is a lot of additional sound material, usually from grainy field recordings, down at the nuclear plant (of course, speaking metaphorically), and subtly placed sound effects. If I didn’t know any better, I could easily mistake this for a Pool pervert album (which went quiet for some time due to massive disappointment in postal charges for cassettes and CDRs, but, so Van der Vliet, a lot is waiting to be released); there is the long and minimal flow of subdued drones and small sound events, all resulting in that fine psychedelic darkness. It’s impossible to tell individual sound sources apart, but that’s the beauty of it. I don’t know if any more editions are made in this series, but it would be great to see this continued. (FdW)
––– Address: https://pbksound.bandcamp.com/album/we-pass-through-each-other-in-dreaming
STICHFLAMME BARNICK (cassette by Superpolar Taips)
Behind Stichflamme Barnick, we find a collaboration between Robin Barnick and Rudi Baumgärtner, who works as Stichflamme Dormagen. From both, I reviewed music; from Baumgärtner, only a cassette single (Vital Weekly 1294), and from Barnick, also a cassette single (Vital Weekly 1289) and a more extended album (Vital Weekly 1272). The music is more abstract for Stichflamme Dormagen, but it fits the sound world of Barnick. Their collaboration is, sadly, a rather short release of electronics in a collision. What these electronics are, I don’t know. They might be a couple of old-fashioned synthesisers or a jam session with modular electronics. Moody music, atmopsheric tones, not rhythmic, not necessarily without melodic touches, and yet far removed from popular music. In ‘Montabaur 8’, a sample of someone blowing a bottle is a rare occasion of something non-electronic, a last resort of human life. There is something science fiction about this, old science fiction, like the soundtrack from a 1980’s movie. I don’t know why I am thinking of this; maybe I saw a few too many recently. ‘Verboden Te Roken’ is the opening track, and that has nothing to do with space, as it’s Dutch, smoking is prohibited. It was a curious little release, which I played a couple of times but didn’t get my head fully turned, too. I like the music very much, but I also find the 26 minutes all too concise to get a fully formed opinion about the music. I wished there would be more than this. (FdW)
––– Address: https://superpolar.bandcamp.com/
LES DIVAGANTS – OUTRE PASSAGES (cassette by Ligne de Crête)
Behind this name we find Charles Dubois on percussion and Lucas Pizzini playing wind instruments. I had not heard of the latter, but from the first, I recently reviewed a solo cassette (Vital Weekly 1454). I called that one a fine calling card, and I have no doubt Les Divagants was already going, and not something thought because some Dutch reviewer wrote Dubois should play with others. Pizzini’s wind instruments include flutes, reeds, bagpipes and repurposed pipes, and Dubois has an extensive collection of bells, drums and metal. Both sides contain one piece of music (also on Bandcamp), consisting of bits and pieces recorded in various locations, such as a chapel, a viaduct, a living room and an underground car park. It almost makes these two musicians buskers, but they did great as these locations add excellent spatial quality to the music. Especially the chapel and car park have a pleasing natural reverb. Things resonate beautifully with the minimalist playing in which they work with overtones. The wind instruments have a shimmering exotic quality without becoming too much ‘world music’. Each section is a minimalist exploration of a few sounds and instruments; sometimes, outside sounds make it to the tape. This means there, at times, the music sounds less improvised but more like an electro-acoustic work, and with the various reverbs also quite ambient. At various points, even modern music with some dramatic bursts it’s far away from free improvisation and hectic nervousness. Now, if more improvised music was like this… (FdW)
––– Address: https://lignedecrete.bandcamp.com/
EMAD ARMOUSH’S RAYHAN – DISTILLED EXTRACTIONS (CD by Afterday)
The press text: “Drawing from the great tradition of Arabic songs and some original compositions, with the new album ‘Distilled extractions’, the ensemble Rayhan creates innovative interpretations filled with intensity, sonic colouring, thematic and far reaching improvisations. Artistically the Arabic repertoire is being disseminated through modern improvising and electronically experimental musicians creating a new model of expression for this music. All without losing the delicate beauty and authenticity of these time tested compositional masterpieces.” Nothing for Vital Weekly.
––– Address: https://emadarmoush.bandcamp.com/