PER SVENSSON – ENERGY LOOP/ELEMENT 2 (CD by Firework)
SIGMA EDITIONS:
ROSY PARLANE – #1-4 (CD)
PARMENTIER – LUXSOUND (CD)
MINIT – MUSIC (CD)
D. HAINES – BLITHER (CD)
VLADISLAV DELAY – ELE (CD)
OSSO EXOTICO – VII (7″ by Drone Records)
SPEAR – NOT TWO (7″ by Drone Records)
MANDIBLE CHATTER – THE DRONE EP (7″ by Drone Records)
PER SVENSSON – ENERGY LOOP/ELEMENT 2 (CD by Firework)
Puzzling… highly puzzling. Suppose I was like you, and bought this CD at
my favourite music outlet, thus having as much information as you have
(being the CD), we could equally not say very much about it. A few video
stills, a list of the used instruments, some thank-you’s, but what’s it
about? Clueless. Maybe, just maybe, Per is a multimedia artist, who does
performances andvideo and plays electronic music to it. Much of the 21
tracks here have places and dates, so what we may have here, is an overview
of some/all of the music Per did, including collaborations with a group
called Audio Laboratory (whose photographs look like punk band snapshots).
The only thing that can be clearly received from his work, is that some
pieces are results from actions against environmental polution.
So much is not revealed, but upon listening to the CD, we find out that
much of the music is of an electronic nature, in the best Swedish tradition
of people like Rune Lindblad, C.M. von Hauswolff and Leif Elggren. But
unlike for instance Leif, Per presents lots of small works. The first few
are over before you realize it. Then there are longer pieces of droning
material, rumble of environmental recordings and other sounds from making
installations. Normally variety is a good thing, but the result here comes
to fragmentation, and as a whole it’s a not an altogether very coherent
release. Having said that, there are very good pieces to be found here,
such as the last two (total time is 28 minutes, so there you go) which are
excirses in drone, industrial and cut-ups. (FdW)
Address: Firework – Sverkersgatan 5 – 12651 Hagersten – Sweden
SIGMA EDITIONS:
ROSY PARLANE – #1-4 (CD)
PARMENTIER – LUXSOUND (CD)
MINIT – MUSIC (CD)
D. HAINES – BLITHER (CD)
VLADISLAV DELAY – ELE (CD)
is a small label from Australia, who are part of the growing family of
minimal labels. Their releases, and today we are discussing five of them,
are packed in plain white paper sleeves, with not much information to go
by. I am quoting from their press messages.
001 is Rosy Parlane, once a member of Thelia (of which Dean Roberts/White
Winged Moth was also part), with whose work I never got acquinted with. The
first six tracks on this CD are relatively short (they come from three 7″s
released in 1997), but they all consist of drones, built from guitars and
piano’s. The constant cycling of the loops create a trancy atmosphere, that
slowly change. I was reminded here of old zoviet*france material (before
getting into beat stuff).
002 is Rosy Parlane teaming up with another member of Thelia (Dion Workman)
under the bandname Parmentier. The press blurb is actually quite funny
here, because it clearly states that they use lowtech sampling, drawing
inspiration from drone music aswell as Scandinavian techno and that it may
sound as standing outside a techno club. Well, this is all true (for
once!). Stylistically this is not far away from the Rosy Parlane CD, with
that difference it is more creepy, more subdued. Because the tracks are
longer, it is less fragmentaric and more coherent.
003 is by Minit who are Torben Tilly and Jasmine Guffond. They continue
again on the above outlines, but operate in an even more techno area, but
again they keep it in lowfi fashion. Their sounds slowly evolve around a
basic theme and over a long time path, they add small sounds to mix, which
stay there. There is an overall organic growth to this material. This is a
very good CD, because it’s so clearly dance music inspired, yet never gets
there. It might be the forecast of something new.
004 by D. Haines is something else altogether. He took samples from the
good ol’ Bosendorfer grandpiano and went toying around with the material.
Much driving minimalism to be found here. Steve Reich springs to mind here,
because of the layers that Haines uses which comes close to the phase
shifting techniques of Reich. The material itself, the grandpiano, reminds
us of course of Charlemagne Palestine. This is highly trance inducing
material throughout and should be heard on headphones
005 is by Vladislav Delay, and the first non-australian one. Coming from
Helsinki, you simply can’t avoid thinking of Pan Sonic. But it’s too easy
to think that. Three long tracks which are built through stacks of delays,
sounds are fed through, repeated, filtered and they disappear again. The
title track is almost a dub-like track.
These five releases are equally good, the all move between the lo-fi
territory of drony guitar music, but at the same time hint at ambient and
techno (yet, it avoids to be called microwave). It’s austere packaging
helps setting their name among the more hip labels. As some of the people
will be in Europe this year for a longer period, I am sure we will hear and
see more of them.
Address: <sigmaed@ibm.net>
OSSO EXOTICO – VII (7″ by Drone Records)
SPEAR – NOT TWO (7″ by Drone Records)
MANDIBLE CHATTER – THE DRONE EP (7″ by Drone Records)
And Drone? They just continue releasing 7″s with known and unknown bands
with their ideas of drone music. They nowadays come in series of three.
Osso Exotico I may rank among my favourite ‘bands’. The Portugese trio,
around their main composer David Maranha (except a great solo CD on Sonoris
soon), come with off-shoot tracks of their CD on Sonoris. All church organ
sounds, in long sustained tones. Even with my roman catholic background,
but no longer a traditional religious person, I like to play this at a loud
volume (without burning incense). Beautiful, and true drone music.
Mandible Chatter I also highly appreciate, and maybe the only sorta gothic
band I like. Their a-side has a long industrial banging rhythm track with
sounds that are like horny elephant and synths washing in and out of the
mix. The other track on side A is more subdued drony. The b-sideis not very
representative for their style (however I don’t think have any style), a
sort of toy rhythm and distorted voice – mind you it’s not noisy, but more
Residents like. Altogether a nice EP, but one that maybe doesn’t fit the
concept of Drone Records (unless of course they changed their policy)
Spear is the unknown one of the lot. They have two CD’s and one cassette on
Polish label Obuh, their home country. Their release is more along the
lines which were set out before by Drone. Dark and long tones, metallic
percussive samples and tons of reverb. But here it is well conceived and
recorded.
Address: <dronetroum@aol.com>