Week 41
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CONRAD SCHNITZLER – JOHN TYLER SELECTION (CD by Flip Flap/Fonodroom)
CONRAD SCHNITZLER – MAGIE (CD by Flip Flap/Fonodroom)
CORRADO MARIA DE SANTIS – CITY OF TETHERS (CD by Owl Totem)
ALEX CUNNINGHAM & ELI WALLACE – THE TERRIBLE HABIT OF THEATRE (LP by Storm Cellar)
ØY – LIVE (LP, private)
FLETINA – SEEN TO REMAIN (CDR by Kirigirisu Recordings)
7697 MILES – MELI (CDR by WD Records)
NIGEL SAMWAYS – FROM GODSHILL TO HELIGOLAND (CDR by Sounds Against Humanity)
UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS – RADIO TONKA LIVE CUT UP (CDR by Zwaar Verteerbaar)
WIL BOLTON – QUIET SUNLIGHT (miniCDR by Dronarivm/Fonodroom)
FAUX TAPES – DIVE (miniCDR by Dronarivm/Fonodroom)
IGNATZ & MARCIA BASSETT – DREAM OF AUTUMN ELECTRIFIED BLUES I & II (cassette by Yew Recordings)
THE STARLIGHT ELECTRIC (cassette by Tall House Recording Co)
NOŪM – CAN STONES EVADE TAXES? (cassette by Nen Records)
TREMORKIKIMOR – PUSTOSHI (cassette by Nen Records)
KRINGLOOP KASSETTES LABEL REVIEW Part 3:
COSMIC DREAM CLUB – TUNDRA (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
HAROLD SCHELLINX – SPLINTERS VAN EEUWIGHEID (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
STEFFAN DE TURCK – SIGNALSPIEL (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
EZDANITOFF – KRAEZICKEN (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
MODELBAU – FADING (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
CONRAD SCHNITZLER – JOHN TYLER SELECTION (CD by Flip Flap/Fonodroom)
CONRAD SCHNITZLER – MAGIE (CD by Flip Flap/Fonodroom)
In Vital Weekly 1427, I wrote about this label and what they are doing with the Schnitzler legacy: releasing a selection of works that was supposed to be a 100 CD box set for the Russian Waystyx label. With Dutch distributor Fonodroom’s help, the Russian Flip Flap can release these works, not as a box set, but as individual releases. Once again, I refer to the excellent website (not a great design, but so what) https://fancymoon.com/con_s/conjin2.shtml, where you can find details. John becomes Jon Tyler, and this person made some selections you will find in the archive as ’00/540′. Click a bit, and Tyler will describe the pieces for you. Schnitzler was a man of all things electronic, but within that also known for his varied approaches. Many works in this series are from the years before his passing in 2011, working a lot with sampling. There are differences between both releases. ‘Magie’ (maybe Schnitzler thought of the Dutch word for magic?) is one of the two most traditional electronic music pieces. The 29 tracks recorded in 2005 are short and flow from one to the next. Bubbling and oscillating away, without much structure, it seems, in the long haul, but each piece is a fine piece by itself. Not necessarily ambient or cosmic, but a fine mix of soundscapes, dark and light, a bit industrial and melancholy, alternating between the two.
Jon Tyler is described as a critic/listener, and the release named after him is called a collaboration. Unlike ‘Magie’, the 13 pieces on this release are independent, not flowing into the next. This music is from 2008, and in these pieces, Schnitzler works with many samples: orchestral ones, field recordings, and rhythms, and it’s a highly varied bunch of pieces. Some of these have the typical dramatic Schnitzler sound, such as ‘4’ or more proto-techno, ‘5’ and ‘8’. It is a varied album, and as such, perhaps not always coherent, but it fits the diverse music of Schnitzler. If you heard the name and not the music, or only his old music, then this one is the perfect album to get familiar with his music. (FdW)
––– Address: https://flip-flap.bandcamp.com/
CORRADO MARIA DE SANTIS – CITY OF TETHERS (CD by Owl Totem)
Here, we have a new label on the axis of Dronarivm and Dutch distributor Fonodroom, and the inaugural release is by Corrado Maria de Santis. I had already heard the CD before I even thought about writing the review, and I was surprised that he’s called an “Italian guitarist” on Discogs. Had I not seen this, I’d probably gone for laptop artist. He has two previous releases on Midira Records, and I haven’t heard these. I looked online, and the man handles a guitar and effects, so what do I know? I am told this new label is the darker side of Dronarivm, which I found curious, as in my book, the music on the mothership is already pretty dark, so how much darker do you want things to be? De Santis’s music is a languid drift, with long sustaining tones and crackles on the effects. I saw an online video of him playing the guitar with a bow, which is the go-to technique for extracting these sounds, and it sounds lovely. There is a warm glow over this music, which goes to say in the event it was a laptop and glitch music that too can be of great warmth, which I always maintained. But a guitar it is, and the five pieces, spanning 40 minutes of music, are elegantly played. Slow and majestic music that is indeed dark but darker than usual? That’s more a question of taste and semantics, I guess. Very ambient, very drone-like, that’s the main thing here, and while you will not find anything you haven’t heard before, simply because De Santis is from a crowded field of musicians with guitars and effects, I think his results are excellent. It’s a well-produced, highly detailed release that fits the darkening season ahead of us, so with some regular playing ahead. (FdW)
––– Address: https://owltotem.bandcamp.com/
ALEX CUNNINGHAM & ELI WALLACE – THE TERRIBLE HABIT OF THEATRE (LP by Storm Cellar)
Of these two musicians, I only heard of Eli Wallace. I reviewed his music in Vital Weekly 1396 from the trio MAW. DM, once our go-to man for all matters of improvisation, who spends his time writing a book these days, reviewed his older work. This means improvised music is a divided duty here at VW and not always something I can do. I wrote about this before, but again, it comes to not knowing too much about free improvisation. Wallace plays piano and objects and Alex Cunningham violin and objects. He, too, is an improviser, and ‘The Terrible Habit of Theatre’ is their debut duo recording. They approach their instruments partly as piano and violin, but by using objects, they manage to make them sound differently. There’s a lot of nervousness and hectic in their playing, lots of small sounds. Not to be missed in this fragmented playing is a certain kind of rhythm, not consecutive beats but broken up into small bits. This is very present in ‘I-94’. Their interaction is excellent, responding to each other, having another conversation, leaving room for the other, sometimes not listening, and playing like a lost soul on a desert island. I have no idea what the tradition is here, if they are rule breakers or followers. It all sounds quite well and entertaining; for me, one or two every week is enough. (FdW)
––– Address: https://personalarchives.bandcamp.com/
ØY – LIVE (LP, private)
Cinamtic panavision ultradense soundscapes are what we are plunged in from the start of Live, the album by Øy. Beats drift in and out of focus, synth ebb and flow between Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre with a hint of a shoegaze-aesthetic not unlike Trentemøller’s earlier efforts. Also in terms of sound production a maestro like Xabec comes to mind.
Øy is by no means your standard email-checking laptop duo. Kristoffer Lislegaard is responsible for the electronics, but – suprise! – there’s a tap dancer here too: Janne Eraker. You might remember her from the brilliant record Movements for Listening, out on esc.rec. And – another surprise! – while these works exude an air of deeply thought out composition, all material is improvised!
One could say Øy adds a reality to the practice of electronic music ánd of tap dancing; surely this would be an act to build an evening around at iii in The Hague where instrument inventors collide with totally new and radical approaches to what music or concerts can be, think: beyond installation, hyper-performative, low-sensory or even olfactory.
Live was – nomen est omen – recorded at five live shows: one in Deventer, The Netherlands, the others in the Nordics. And – though it would be interesting to hear what these two can come up with in the studio at this stage of their development – the live aspect comes through brilliantly in a free flowing living stream of interactions. Live sounds and feels like an intensely tuned dialog of like-minded, highly skilled makers daring to step way beyond pre-conceived notions of what music or musical performance is, can or should be.
Øy’s Live baffles in ways that for example Fenn O’Berg live release can. Or works by Stine Janvin. Or Klara Lewis. Or Lolina, even. There’s a quicksilvery edge to these works, an uncanny slippery shiny surface, beckoning the listener to come close and investigate, only to slither out of focus into a foggy darkness, rumbling and rustling from nooks and crannies in the upper top most regions of forward pushing electronic music. And the future is still open, for Øy could present these works for a sit down concert hall audience as deep ambient-ish long form pieces, but I can also image the beat being pushed up and this work ending up in a night club setting on an evening hosted by P.A.N. or in the vein of Editions MEGO. (SSK)
––– Address: https://oyduo.bandcamp.com/album/live
FLETINA – SEEN TO REMAIN (CDR by Kirigirisu Recordings)
More music by Scottish sound artist Fletina, of whom I still don’t know the pronoun. Fletina creates music with field recordings from found objects, room sounds, environmental noises, household items, mechanical devices and various electronic manipulation techniques. This new release is the fourth one I reviewed (see also Vital Weekly 1449, 1416 and 1396), and I immensely enjoyed Fletina’s work. These pieces have excellent roughness, some of which I attribute to pure recordings rather than heavy processing. I might be all wrong, of course. I like the idea of Fletina setting up microphones in noisy places and recording that environment. Machine rooms, ventilation shafts, and other areas of uncontrolled humming textures and selecting fragments in which there is some action, but not always a lot. The titles of the pieces provide no clues for the listener about the locations visited. Sometimes, there is processing, and it works similarly to minimalism and brutalism. ‘Seen To Remain’ (lovely title!) contains seven pieces, meaning in Fletina’s world, shorter pieces, and offering some variations on the theme. The pieces aren’t too short, however, taking the proper amount of time to let a piece live and develop before dying out. Maybe it’s because I am a sucker for mechanical sounds or my background in noise music, which makes me love this kind of stuff perhaps more than a cautious one or one that involves a lot of laptop technology. I am not sure, but I love it. (FdW)
––– Address: https://kirigirisurecordings.bandcamp.com/
7697 MILES – MELI (CDR by WD Records)
When can one assume people ‘know’ stuff, or must we keep explaining? One more time: 9767 Miles is a duo of Cristobal Rawlins on electronics, theremin, mix, and Dieter Mauson on electronics, guitar, and field recordings, and the group name indicates the distance between them, one in Chile and one in Germany. I already reviewed some of their releases. Great stuff in the realm of spacious synthesiser music, along the lines of the old-school cosmic music and old-school ambient house music from the mid-1990s. There are neat bouncing rhythms; none used as dance beats, reflective arpeggio work and some melodic synthesiser lines. Sometimes, such as in ‘Allinyakuy’, the music is all reflective, swirling with a few synthesiser lines and isolated bass notes, and not many rhythms or arpeggios; it’s clearly a delicate balancing act they worked out. Listening to the music, I think about how this was made, this distance and yet also this organisation I hear in the music. Each of the six tracks is highly composed and organised, sounding like two people in a room. ‘Choicque Purrun (reantü mix)’ sounds like Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Slugging For Jesus’, without voices and with likewise dub elements on the drum machine. Here, 7697 Miles adds a krautrock element to the music. Combining these elements creates some excellent music diversity but also maintains a coherent approach to all things atmospheric and, synthesiser and sequencer driven. It’s a wonderful addition to an already great catalogue. (FdW)
––– Address: https://wdrecords.com/
NIGEL SAMWAYS – FROM GODSHILL TO HELIGOLAND (CDR by Sounds Against Humanity)
Occasionally, I receive a new release by UK composer Nigel Samways. I don’t know much about him, how he produces his music, nor if there’s a lot of music I haven’t heard. The works I heard, I enjoyed, that much I know. I see he has various works on this Italian label, which you don’t see often (musicians committed to one label, that is). He recorded his music in 2022, and he sent me some cryptic messages in a note to me. “Passage from Godshill Model Village to eventual sandwiches on the sea wall, looking to windward 54.192322, 7.862002. This selection features a recording of a church service in a miniature English village and a sightseer noticing the amusingly cloaked clown. The Sea Dog Whistling Choir recorded en-route, in the Stiklestad cargo bay”. There are some extra musicians: Daniel Dickel Synthesizer on Track 4; Foss Moigne Electrica PV3 Violin on Track 2; Rebecca Melody Oboe on Track 3; Arthur Eames Panasonic Vision Mixer on Track 3. What Samways plays is not listed. I believe he uses a lot of field recordings in his work, processed and otherwise. And I always think (and might not be correct) that his processing also includes lof-i techniques, such as using cassettes and Dictaphones. His mastery lies in combining various unrelated sound elements into a surrealist soundscape. Collage music but without quick edits. It’s a long-form he uses, and maybe it’s one of the reasons why these estranged elements work well together because of the time he takes. His music is also beautiful, spacious, and drone-like without sounding like prominent drone music. Maybe we could call the music pastoral, but I admit I am guided by the slightly surreal words he wrote. I hear nothing of what he writes well in the music, but sure, some of that cavernous church is part of the music, certainly in ‘Jelicoe Bight and Oil Terminal’ (titles provide no clues either). I was doing something requiring manual action, and I played the album thrice before I even thought about the review. This release is easily among his best work in a catalogue already filled with excellent work. (FdW)
––– Address: https://soundsagainsthumanity.bandcamp.com/
UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS – RADIO TONKA LIVE CUT UP (CDR by Zwaar Verteerbaar)
This CDR was in the mailbox the other day without any stamp, hand-delivered. With it came a note that I couldn’t read. The CDR says Staalplaat, the cover says ‘CDR sponsored by Staalplaat’, and I learned that said Berlin record label donated blank CDRs to someone, but they no longer know who it was. Other than the title mentioned, it says ‘transmission 04052024’. I have no idea who the Undocumented Aliens are (or is), but on May 4, 2024, they transmitted from Radio Tonka a piece of in-studio jamming. Radio Tonka hails from The Hague and was once one of the illegal radio stations from the squatters movement, but I am not sure if their status is still illegal or maybe moved to the internet. I am not much of a radio man. It’s all channels open, play various bits of vinyl, CDs and cassettes simultanously, add, perhaps, a bit of spoken word, funny voices and such and drink a beer and smoke one. If you have access to the means to do this, why not do it? It’s been a while since I had access to a similar illegal radio station (Radio Rataplan), and the only restriction was the time slot we were given, but otherwise, we could do what we wanted. The station hated it, even to the point of the previous program announcing, ‘Coming up these guys, so time to switch your radio off’; we were usually at the end of the day. I digress. The Undocumented Aliens indeed had a great time and went wild in their collage of sounds, music (nothing all too recognisable) and words, but I am a reviewer these days, and this release begs the question: why release this on a CDR? Why is this session better than (perhaps) any other they did, or why we may be dealing with a very unique one-off situation? I understand CDRs, along with cassettes and downloads, are among the easiest ways to distribute quick ideas, and maybe that’s why. I am not complaining, merely noting things while I enjoy this little obscurity for what it is: a most enjoyable set of weird DJ-ing on the airwaves. (FdW)
––– Address: https://zwaarverteerbaar.bandcamp.com/
WIL BOLTON – QUIET SUNLIGHT (miniCDR by Dronarivm/Fonodroom)
FAUX TAPES – DIVE (miniCDR by Dronarivm/Fonodroom)
Somehow, I missed the Dronarivm CD EPs, of which ‘Quiet Sunlight’ by Wil Bolton is the latest and final for this year. Bolton composes ambient music, and I wonder if a mini CDR is a suitable format for this kind of music. Isn’t a regular CDR more suited for the spacious tones? This particular release is 23 minutes, and then what? Play it again, or pick up another ambient release, for instance, by Bolton? Those are options, indeed. But I wished for a more extended-release. That’s a bit of a spoiler for the review, but so it sometimes goes. Bolton plays the baby grand piano a lot in these three pieces, along with the Mellotron and the Moog Grandmother, some modular electronics and pedals, and the promise of field recordings. The promise means I, initially, may not pick up on those. The music isn’t very quiet or static. There is much life in these pieces: piano tones embedded in a warm bed of electronics, big pads, small crackles, and bird sounds (oh wait, there they are). But the piano is not played sparsely and that marks the difference here. This is the perfect medicine to feel better on a grey and cold November day. Atmospheric: sure, but dark? No, rather not. It has that spring pastoral feeling of breezy sea wind and that expansive open feeling. There is no need to wait until springtime to enjoy this. It works equally fine as a remedy against winter depression.
I missed an earlier miniCDR from the same series by João Pedro Nogueira, who works as Faux Tapes. In 2019, he released his debut, mixing ambient, electronic and post-rock, but decided to go to all ambient and electronics. Not sure how he got the music, 29 minutes, onto the mini CDR, but let’s save that question for another day. It’s still November, grey and cold (for all you know, I am writing this on the same day), and Faux Tapes’ music fits the season more so than Bolton’s. Faux Tapes’ music is a classic take on ambient music. Here, we have sustaining notes and chords on the synthesisers, slowly moving from one field to the next, with some isolated tones forming the melodic side of things. He uses “for most of the sounds vintage analogue synths”, resulting in a lovely set of moody pieces of electronic music. Quiet and spacious, with a hint of cosmic music. It’s all very textured, and none of the pieces contain a big mystery. A cliche, perhaps? Maybe it is, but it’s a cliche that works very well. Possibly best exemplified in Dive Pt. 5′, in which he manages the create slide guitar sounds out of his synthesisers, creating a pleasing open space, almost ‘Chill Out’ like.
Both releases are minimal and may not be available anymore, but they are unlimited as downloads. (FdW)
––– Address: https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/
IGNATZ & MARCIA BASSETT – DREAM OF AUTUMN ELECTRIFIED BLUES I & II (cassette by Yew Recordings)
Bram Devens, the man with the guitar, calling his music project Ignatz, has been around for close to 20 years, and yet I only reviewed a little of his work. The only work I reviewed may have been his debut album from 2005 in Vital Weekly 490. I reviewed more work by Marcia Bassett in recent years, for instance, her ‘Undulating Akrasboning’ in Vital Weekly 1351. Sometimes, she works as Zaïmph, and from the guitar, she moved to use the Buchla Music Easel, a modular synthesiser. They toured together but played solo in Europe last year, and in Mechelen, Belgium, they played together. The results are on this cassette, released on Bassett’s Yew Recordings label. She also uses her voice, but this is done sparsely, and on the second side only (I think). Don’t let the word blues guide you too much here, as the 26 minutes on this cassette have very little to do with blues; as far as I know, blues, of course. Devens uses sound effects on his guitar and quite a bit of those, so the music becomes drone-like and dense. The Buchla produces small tones but has a likewise denseness, so it all becomes rather crowded and nervous. Maybe if you consider blues music mood music, this cassette can qualify as blues music. Still, I see it as a somewhat looser take on the world of drone music, coming in through the door of improvisation rather than playing a more formal set of drone pieces. They create music with a different sound, making this an exciting release. (FdW)
––– Address: https://yewrecordings.bandcamp.com/
THE STARLIGHT ELECTRIC (cassette by Tall House Recording Co)
Here we have a recording from The Starlight Electric, a quartet of players: David Parker (voice, guitar, percussion), Chantal Thompson (voice, percussion), Stefan Christoff (piano), and Jonas Bonnetta (synthesisers, processing). Parker and Christoff are names I have heard of before. “All the material was completely improvised”, so it says on Bandcamp, which is, however, means a different kind of improvisation than the Cunningham & Wallace LP reviewed elsewhere. The Starlight Electric plays moody music in which atmospheric and melodic piano notes play a significant role, next to percussion, playing actual rhythms and occassional a bit of guitar. The synthesiser plays an ornamental role and isn’t always heard (or not perceived). The percussion also unfolds as rattles and shakes, so the music has a relatively free rock character like the No Neck Blues Band meets Town & Country. It all sounds melodic and atmospheric. The reader will ask: what with the voices? You haven’t mentioned it. Indeed, I haven’t, and that is because I am not very fond of the voices here. It’s one of those worldless chants, like a ritual, a cleansing, healing or who knows whatever it is used for. I can see why they think it’s a good idea to do it like this, and it fits the atmosphere of the music, but for me, it doesn’t work. I find it distracts me too much from the music, and the music part I love much. I played it all the way but with some hesitation. (FdW)
––– Address: https://tallhouserecordingco.bandcamp.com/
NOŪM – CAN STONES EVADE TAXES? (cassette by Nen Records)
TREMORKIKIMOR – PUSTOSHI (cassette by Nen Records)
As much as I tried to understand the small printed text on the cover of the cassette and the ‘promo’ text from the label, I have no idea what it means. Something to someone, I’m sure. I keep returning to the title, ‘Can Stones Evade Taxes?’ I am sure it’s not about the Rolling Stones dodging UK taxes by being officially located in The Netherlands (like U2), but who knows, maybe it is. I prefer ‘hard’ information. Recorded here, instruments used and band member history, but I am old fashioned, I guess. So, I’m guessing then… in these six pieces, I hear much use of modular synthesisers, hissing and bumping away in a slightly noisy way. Delicacy is not on the menu as such, but simultaneously, it’s also not as loud as it could have been. It avoids the noise cliches, which is a good thing. Modern electronics feel not to be missed, maybe from using acoustic objects to stir up controlled (or not) modulations, and it all has a pleasantly disturbing feeling. Think of a post-apocalyptic nightmare and the soundtrack thereof—lots of raw granulations.
Likewise, I had not heard of tremorkikimor, “a non-human fem ensemble from the nearest swamp”, as they are described. They are also from Russia but are living in different countries now. Six members get credit for hum, noise, voices, crows, effects, field recordings, Grach, effects, drones, whistle, bow, ringing and harp (some play more than one). The cassette has three pieces, in total, 60 minutes of music. Maybe those instruments give you the idea of gothic and ritual music, and maybe it is. All titles are in Russian, and the first piece is the most ritualistic and gothic, with scraping violins, whispering voices and crow sounds, along with some massive drones. The second piece is an extension but more on the drone side, whereas the side long piece on the other side is all drone and soft, rattling percussion. This is an excellent piece of music, ending in a cascade of rain and crow sounds. It’s all quite creepy and also beautiful. In the download, there are also four bonus tracks with pure field recordings without any treatments. Simplistic beauty used for a nightmarish soundtrack – excellent stuff. (FdW)
––– Address: https://nenrecs.bandcamp.com/
KRINGLOOP KASSETTES LABEL REVIEW Part 3
I can see you wondering, Part 3? Yes, my fellow droogs, this is the third part because, well, this is the second batch of Kringloop Kassettes. We split the first batch of six releases into two parts and reviewed them in Vital 1431 and 1433, precisely in April of this year. And as long as Frans de Waard, who is behind this project, hasn’t run out of old tapes that are simply screaming to be reused, I suppose we will see a new addition to the catalogue every once in a while.
Here is a recap of the concept in case you don’t feel like rereading those first parts: Kringloop Cassettes is a limited-edition cassette label. Everything in editions of 26, lettered from A to Z. All cassettes originated from a thrift shop and have been reused as much as possible in their original form. So, stickers and labels are left intentionally to make it all look used. Because why? Well, Kringloop is Dutch for recycling. Get it? The artwork is fully in sync with the recycling idea. Recycled paper and rubber stamps are used, so no cover looks alike. Let’s dive into this new batch of 5! (BW)
––– Address: https://kringloopkassettes.bandcamp.com/
COSMIC DREAM CLUB – TUNDRA (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
Two tracks of around 30 minutes can be found on “Tundra” by Cosmic Dream Club. It’s a project I have read about but never actually did some dedicated listening. They’ve been mentioned three times before in Vital Weekly and were all reviewed by Frans. Those reviews show Cosmic Dream Club is a Nijmegen-based one-man army of techno-meeting ambient music. The three earlier reviews (Vital Weekly 1381, 1411 and 1458) covered his triptych on space exploration, and their comparisons with Pete Namlook and The Orb were mentioned. The three reviews ended with Frans saying, ‘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?’ And with “Tundra”, we have the answer to that question.
The two tracks of “Tundra” go deep into the ambient territory, or soundscapes if you prefer and if you’re still someone who uses the term ambient for slow beat based techno. There are a few moments where the composition has rhythmical structures, but it’s never more than a bit of growth on the vast, endless tundra. Yes, you’ve read it right. The soundscapes perfectly describe the sonic equivalent of what a tundra is. A big space of nothingness with mostly low growth, sparse bushes, no trees, hard and solid ground… Only the sky above where sometimes happens more than on the surface: A beautiful atmosphere is created in the latter part of the first track with aeroplane sounds.
Vocal samples are used also and it’s as if a few people are exploring the area or doing dedicated research. It’s like a never-ending intro of a track by Clock Dva from the Buried Dreams album. And in the second part ultra minimal melody lines with scattered 3 or 4 notes only emphasize the emptiness. Up to the point where you come across a few houses depicted by ‘typical’ synthetic sounds. This must mean people, a village, a few structures. Because when you live there, well, you have to eat too. You can’t do everything by yourself and need some kind of social structure, too. Otherwise, humanity wouldn’t even be able to write music like this. (BW)
––– Address: https://kringloopkassettes.bandcamp.com/
HAROLD SCHELLINX – SPLINTERS VAN EEUWIGHEID (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
This is the first time I heard of this artist, so I looked around for information about him. Turns out he’s been active in experimental and otherwise ‘different’ or even ‘difficult’ music since the early 80’s. He was co-founder, editor and correspondent to the Dutch legendary Vinyl magazine and studied Sonology in Utrecht. And even though the rest of his history might be as attractive to write an article about, the part of his Sonology studies is where this project started.
Eeuwigheid translates to eternity, and with a simple algorithm, he has generated “Splinters van Eeuwigheid” (Slivers of Eternity) since 1983. This algorithm needs to be included here:
— Make a sound;
— Wait some time (it may be zero);
-Repeat
A well-chosen randomized pattern will result in a random sound being played—in this case sinewaves with a random frequency—with certain lengths and with a certain pause until the next one is played. Harold created this eternal method on a small device, and ever since this summer, it’s been playing in his living room.
The sequence was recorded 54 times in blocks of 45 minutes, and each of the 26 cassettes has two of these 45-minute pieces. These are the two seemingly random numbers mentioned on the cover. Two remaining 45-minute pieces have found their way to the digital version of this release. Not only are the recordings mere slivers of this project, but the complete release is a sliver as well. Therefore this release will end very high in the ‘Best of 2024’-list of Georg Cantor and others alike who have been active in the fields of math, physics and/or art.
John Cage might even well be envious of the concept, as ASLSP only lengthens the time over which it is performed. Okay, it will end around the year 2640, but hey, this piece is meant to be played forever. Let’s hope that eternity will bring the current world past 2640, but that is a whole different discussion altogether. (BW)
––– Address: https://kringloopkassettes.bandcamp.com/
STEFFAN DE TURCK – SIGNALSPIEL (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
The total playing time of ‘Signalspiel’ by Stefan de Turck is an hour. Steffan, who we know as a.o. Staplerfahrer, aMP and with his wife Leilani HEXENEICHE and, of course, as mastermind behind the Dutch label Vatican Analog, present some older recordings here. I do not know how Steffan worked here, so forgive me if I mix up words like composition, field recordings, or registration. You’ll understand it soon.
The first track is entitled “A61 (Wanderwellen)”, and its existence was sparked by one of the many road trips to Stuttgart. Instead of listening to a CD or to a radio station, Steffan chose to put the dial in between stations and see what random sounds or stations would be pushed through the layers of white noise. All of us happy Vital readers have done this at some point on various waves on various radios, so the basics of what you will hear on this track is no secret. But you all also know that the ‘happy accidents’ make it so much fun to do it. What is being broadcasted when, by whom, is there enough information to extrapolate the date of recording, the location of the stations, maybe the band which was recorded … In my opinion, that is what this track is about. A bit different than ‘Surfing the waves’, this is more like ‘Wave Hiking’ (which, as I think is the meaning of the subtitle, with A61 being the highway’s designation).
“Punk Haus Piano” is another registration/field recording. About 10 to 15 years ago Steffan visited Frankfurt am Main and in a venue he found an old piano (here and there slightly out of tune) and after he put his microcassette dictaphone on top he started playing until he was out of tape. This track is those recordings and I can’t say much more about it. Maybe these recordings found their way onto other releases as sound sources; maybe they will in the future; who knows? This is, however, part of Steffan’s history; it made him who he is now as an artist, and therefore, it’s interesting. But just not too often … 😉 (BW)
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EZDANITOFF – KRAEZICKEN (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
What do you get when you put together Frans de Waard en Wouter (von) Jaspers? Yes, you get Ezdanitoff. And in the case of “Kraezicken”, you get 60 minutes of aural bliss. I’m not gonna go into details of these two superheroes, and I can’t say anything that hasn’t been said already. Working together since 2010 this is only their fourth release!
Side A of this cassette is reserved for one long track entitled “Culture-Art-Leisures”. This originated on May 13th 2017 when Ezdanitoff made these recordings during a performance at Les Dominicains, Guebwiller, France. Later that year, Wouter processed and pre-mastered those recordings, and it was a matter of time before they would be released somehow. And that time is now. And those recordings are mesmerizing. It’s not a half-hour drone without anything happening. There are several recognizable parts, and the atmosphere shifts during the piece. And a lot is happening: From organic sounds to crystal clear synthetic sounds, of course, very well-placed and timed delays in the setup … A track to play and replay.
The reverse side is split into six parts, recorded at the end of February 2023 in Berlin in Wouter’s studio. The opening “Ortophonics” is playing for a few seconds and already you know you’re in for a treat. Where do the sounds come from? What is the origin? It’s almost non-human. The style can best be described as a combination of experimental music, minimal noise, drone and even a bit of soundscape because of the storytelling within each composition. “Planet Debate Dinners” has a lovely sci-fi feeling, and the following “Beyond Belief” is an example of a music piece that will make you feel uncomfortable in the dark. It feels like walking around at an empty old factory area in what once was a prosperous economic land, it’s raining, and you’re not sure you heard people.
The final track, “Floating Hyphen,” I will not say too much about, other than that those are my favourites of “Kraezicken”. They’re spacious, a lot is happening, and even then, the calm remains. It’s droney ambience, slightly hurtful at moments through the choice of sounds, and they have a story. But it’s up to everyone to decide what that story is. Which is the beauty of it. (BW)
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MODELBAU – FADING (cassette by Kringloop Kassettes)
The title “Fading” is well depicted on the cover with a stamp used several times without refreshing the ink. It’s simple yet effective and – here it comes – utterly contradictory to the music here. I don’t know if you could consider me a fanboy because, well, I’m not. But About this release, there are a few things I should tell you. First of all, back in the day (old grey dude talking), you had cassettes of 120 minutes, 60 minutes per side and for this release, Frans chose those tapes. Yes, you are looking at two 60-minute ultra-minimal drones here, entitled “The Fading Time” and “The Fading Light”. They were created/recorded in March 2020 so it has the ‘old and minimal’ Modelbau sound. It was initially to be released on the Spanish imprint Important Drone Records but faded away because the label couldn’t get any c120 cassettes and ceased operations (not because of that).
The second thing I should tell you is that if you want to make a drone enjoyable, you should be on top of the movement within the composition. Simply putting a brick on the keys of a synth and modulating it a bit, well, that might be fun for you to do, but that’s not what makes a drone interesting. The more complexity is put within the actual sounds being used, how modulation affects the sounds and how different modulation and interpolation influence each other, that makes a drone interesting. Or the composition that makes the drone, I should say.
On these two tracks, Modelbau does exactly what a composer should do. He leaves out what creates unnecessary sonic movements, yet he enables the possibility for sonic movements to influence each other and the separate layers. Changes within the composition are there, but they’re so slow that, as a listener, you focus on the layers and find out about those slow movements after they are executed. So, if you are going through the composition digitally and you listen to slivers of what seems to be an eternity (60 minutes per piece, after all), you will hear those changes clearly and ask yourself why you hadn’t heard them before.
I think I’m gonna get the Bandcamp release, download the WAV files, and burn them to CDr so I can listen to them on different systems and places. This is some gorgeous material. (BW)
––– Address: https://kringloopkassettes.bandcamp.com/