CHARLEMANGE PALESTINE – 6X9 (CD-R by Galerie Piltzer)
ACHIM WOLLSCHEID – ACTS (CD by Selektion)
HOLON – THE TOTAL FUCKIN REVOLUTION EDITS (CD by Silver)
EKTROVERDE – MUSIC FROM THE FILM FUTURO (CD by Ektro)
CHRIS HALLIWELL – BLIND HANDS READ THE WRITTEN BODY (CD-R by Sous Rature)
RALF WEHOWSKY – VIER VORSPIELE / LIONEL MARCHETTI – L’OEIL RETOURNÉ (CD by
Selektion)
SCALA – TO YOU IN ALPHA (CD by Too Pure Records)
RADBOUD MENS – ALR00N8.. (CD-R by Bake Records)
CHARLEMANGE PALESTINE – 6X9 (CD-R by Galerie Piltzer)
Oh some days… some days you have all the luck. At least I have. Knowing
the recording engineer of this recording, I got handed a copy of this item,
which is limited to 207 copies, in a beautiful printed sleeve. Six pieces
of each one octave played on the Rolls Royce under the grand piano’s, the
Bosendorfer. The number nine plays an important role in the work of
Palestine on a mystical and erotic level. Basically he is playing in each
of the six pieces one octave and he repeats the tones. The overtones start
‘singing’ as it were (hence the Bosendorfer for its overtone quality) and
there is a vibrating quality. What else can I add? I played this about 6 or
9 times in the last two weeks and I am amazed by the quality of both
recordings (by Radboud Mens mind you!) and the content. And I realize that
hearing beautiful music is just luck. (FdW)
Address: sorry, nope, no address on this cover, but Galerie Piltzer might
be in the phonebook…
ACHIM WOLLSCHEID – ACTS (CD by Selektion)
Meister concept is back. Wollscheid (the artist formerly known as SBOTHI).
For one reason or another, each of the five pieces is introduced by a
speaker, whose voice is being transformed. The first track is a recording
of 1026 pupils of a school reading each one page of ‘Ulysses’, but the
result is not more then ‘nice’. ‘4×2’ is more interesting, soundwise. Even
without seeing it, or understanding fully the description, it makes a nice
intense of floating sine waves. The ‘Careful Inquiry’ piece is the sound of
an audience having a break and a choir that moves through the space and
having a break too, but remaining ‘humming’. ‘Eye-Witness’ is also a piece
that involves audience participation, and has handclaps as sound source.
Each time a certain member of the audience blinks with his or her eyes, the
performer claps… The result is a very strange piece of what, in case you
didn’t know what it was about, could be the breaking of wood. The last
piece transforms the sound of a piano, through some transformer that
immediately changes the sounds around. This hardware will be also released
by Selektion in the future. I can’t wait to get one.
This CD is not at all about music, it is an audio catalogue into the ideas
of Achim Wollscheid. For pure listening fun, I would like to suggest to
programm the CD and skip the talking. But that would ruin the concept of
it. Life ain’t that easy. (FdW)
Address: fax: + 49 69 74 10073
HOLON – THE TOTAL FUCKIN REVOLUTION EDITS (CD by Silver)
This release marks the return of one of the more exciting labels in the
area’s of minimal techno music and the debut of Holon. This is one of those
collaborations through mail, by labelboss and Starfish Pool’s Koen Lybaert
and Riou Tomita (who released before on KK Records). Although on the cover
it says there are nine tracks, the CD displays 23… some are real tracks
and some are short and above all weird intermissions. Koen and Riou mark
themselves as ‘sample terrorists’ and this is true (I guess, since I didn’t
recognize any of the samples – but alas). It seems as may of the beats are
plundered and thus, at times, a bit ‘bumpy’ (not running very fine). But
sometimes Holon hits a good groove as in Checkpoint Noumea, which is a damm
fine minimalist piece. The main part of this CD can be classified as
‘minimal’, but with a maximum soundhit. Very nice album indeed – and of
course one that can be sampled to death… (FdW)
Address: <silver@net4all.be>
EKTROVERDE – MUSIC FROM THE FILM FUTURO (CD by Ektro)
“The film is a journey back in time to the dramatic phases of the
futuristic plastic house and to a Space Age utopia that almost came true” –
these are the only lines that we get about the film. I am not a particular
lover of the cinema per se, so I can’t share with you what it is about. In
this 29 minute film, about 15 minutes of music is composed by Ektroverde.
Yet this CD contains the complete three sessions with the material they
recorded.
The music is not really futuristic, but hey what would be classified as
‘futuristic music’ anyway? Mostly it is a backdrop of rhythms and washes of
synths and bits of talk by the guy who built the house of the future. Not
really as in dance music but in a more hard to define field that might be a
crossover of industrial, ambient and post rock. This CD touches many
grounds, none of which could be easily categorized as ‘futuristic’. Never
theless it’s nice music, even if you didn’t go out to see the movie. (FdW)
Address:
CHRIS HALLIWELL – BLIND HANDS READ THE WRITTEN BODY (CD-R by Sous Rature)
Another new enterprise in releasing small scale CDR’s, kicking off with the
release of Chris Halliwell – a name I am unfamiliar with and of whom I got
no information. His 5 track/60 minute CD is filled with the sampled sounds
of electro-acoustic nature and microtonal changes. Quite dense, aswell as
minimal (such as in “An unexploded dream”, in which a motor driven guitar
plays the main part), but more rough edged, not as in harsh, then say the
average Lopez, Meelkop, Guenther work. Sounds are more recognizable, as
such the aforementioned guitar, but also the scraping of a violin, and
pulses coming from the old ol’ synth. Well worth checking out. (FdW)
Address: <sousrature@angelfire.com>
RALF WEHOWSKY – VIER VORSPIELE / LIONEL MARCHETTI – L’OEIL RETOURNÉ (CD by
Selektion)
This CD contains two pieces; the first one is a 17 minute piece by Ralf
Wehowsky (for the first time under his own name, i believe), divided in
four parts. The piece is based on the second piece on the CD, by Lionel
Marchetti, which lasts 24 minutes and 28 seconds and contains samples from
RLW’s Eyes and Pullover. OK, so much for the facts; what about the music?
Wehowsky’s piece starts with radio sounds and crackling and quickly a lot
of other sounds are added. It’s very rich in texture and has strong spatial
qualities. Things move fast and you really have to keep your attention with
the music. Then there’s a break and a long drony piece takes over. Weird
sounds interrupt the flow and keep things exciting. The last part is very
subtle, has a lot of sneaky sounds and good breaks. A very fine finale
which blends almost perfectly into Marchetti’s piece, which starts with
beeps and crackles and a very soft glissando. Then voice sounds (or should
i say mouth sounds?) are added and in the distance some rhythmic part
starts and fades away again. This material is used for the first 7-8
minutes, after which we hear some radio sounds take over. What follows is a
subtle collage of radio sounds (music), which slowly blends into dark
drones. On top of these drones there is room for a lot of other sounds:
beeps, voices, thuds and the likes. This part is very tense and gets better
and better towards the end.
Both pieces have several things in common: there are lots of layers, lots
of shifting sounds and it is pretty complicated stuff. Yes, it’s difficult
music and at first it is difficult to listen to. But the pieces have one
other thing in common: they get better and more exciting after you’re half
way through, which is quite a rarity, because more often than not it’s the
other way ’round. So please take your time to listen to this CD and play it
twice at least before you start judging it; it needs some time. (MR)
SCALA – TO YOU IN ALPHA (CD by Too Pure Records)
This might be the first full-length release by Scala on another label –
their previous two CD’s were on Touch. The first thing I noticed about this
CD was that it was a rougher production, with more acoustic guitars than
before. The palette of sounds ranged, as usual from Cocteau punk to lilting
medieval whimsy. Loads of heavy compression on some of the tracks places
the music at the very front of the speakers, while Sarah Peacock’s voice
drifts from flat-space to angle-space in the background. As usual the
clarity of her singing cuts like glass even when it’s been weirded out with
monster effects. And as before, her beautiful poetic songs remain
intensely personal, observational and confrontational – her lyrics flash in
the dark like swift, sharp blades wielded by scientific executioners
performing their duty in the shadowlands of the soul. (Shame there’s no
lyric sheet !)
The often merciless drums and thickly webbed, futuristic guitars provide a
curious counterpoint to the vocals – and this particular CD reminded me of
some of the Cocteau Twins’ best songs. (For some reason I kept thinking of
the book ‘We’ by Zecharia Sitchkin – or Sitchin – people in glass houses,
walled-in cities, regulated pleasure, lights-out time.)
Love songs from the edge. (MP)