PAUL PANHUYSEN – PARTITAS FOR LONG STRINGS (CD by Experimental Intermedia)
JEFF GREINKE – LOST TERRAIN (CD by Hypnos)
MARTIN TETREAULT AND OTOMO YOSHIHIDE – 21 SITUATIONS (Ambiances Magnetiques)
MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN, JOHN HEWARD AND RAINER WIENS – CHANTS CACHES (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
JEAN DEROME – STRAND, UNDER THE DARK CLOTH (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
ERWIN STACHE – HARMONIE DER NICHT GANZ REELLEN TOENE (CD by Rund um den Watzmann
FRANÇOIS TETAZ – THE MOTIONLESS WORLD or THE DRUNKEN TAXICAB OF ABSOLUTE REALITY (CD on Dorobo Records)
ALEXANDER KORSMIT & IOS SMOLDERS – MAYBE ONE THOUSAND BUDDHAS FOR ONE DREAM WITH HIDDEN NOISE (CD on unknown label)
STILLUPSTEYPA – REDUCE BY REDUCING (CD on FIRE.inc/SOME)
FANTASTIC PLASTIC MACHINE – INTERNATIONAL STANDARD LUXURY REMIXES
(CD-Single on Bungalow Records)
REHBERG & BAUER – BALLT (CD ON Touch)
PAUL PANHUYSEN – PARTITAS FOR LONG STRINGS (CD by Experimental Intermedia)
I must admit that I have very good memories of Panhuysen and the story is nice yet unrelated to this CD. Paul did concerts with his canarie big band: five canaries in cages and the singing and movements were amplified. I attended one such concert and Dutch television was also present (their topic was, I recall, is government money again spend on silly art events?) and I made sure I was interviewed. So I told them it was better then the concert for 48 vacuum cleaners I once saw. My remark made it into the programm and for 2 weeks I encountered people saying: you were on TV! Never knew art programms were watched by so many.
However the main part of the work of Paul Panhuysen is dealing with long strings – unamplified and always site specific. He hangs wires in doks, galleries and outside. The strings are then played by hand. The result is simply beautiful: one long tone, resonating and vibrating in air. Like a hugh car alarm going off. This CD, the first to document this kind of work (a 3LP from the mid eighties is now sold out), has three extended pieces. The first one is a simple monochrome work, that in all it’s static is a moving piece. The second piece is a total contrast: chaotic with random sounds swirling in and out of the mix. A combination of the first and the second part seems to be the result of the third part. Building around a central theme, there are blocks of tones that seems to appear randomly and disappear again. This third piece lacks the chaos of the second and is the best on the CD.
For anyone that has arrived here though the music of LaMonte Young, Phill Niblock or Eliane Radigue, the name of Paul Panhuysen should be familiar (his organisation, Het Apollohuis, published a great book with texts by Tom Johnson on the New York new music scene of the eary 70s and is a great source for those who love minimal music). Those who like Jim O’Rourke, Rafael Toral or Alan Licht: this guy is twice their age but works similar, if ot better! (FdW)
Address: <xirecords@compuserve.com>
JEFF GREINKE – LOST TERRAIN (CD by Hypnos)
Good music will never disappear. It’s just unavailable for some time. Here is an example of proto ambient work, releasedon the peak of ambient music (1991), on a label that was a leader in that music (Silent Records). Now that Silent is gone (I mean, maybe not, but at least I don’t hear much lately), this album by Greinke was gone for several years, but due to the good work of Hypnos it is now re-issued. There is the highly reverberated piano’s (Brian Eno is never far away), kinda ethno like percussion (O Yuki Conjugate’s trademark) and the washes of synths and guitars. If you get this now, then you have it before the next ambient revival (scheduled for 2004) or you can imagine what it all ws about before. (FdW)
Address: <mgriffin@hypnos.com>
MARTIN TETREAULT AND OTOMO YOSHIHIDE – 21 SITUATIONS (Ambiances Magnetiques)
MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN, JOHN HEWARD AND RAINER WIENS – CHANTS CACHES (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
JEAN DEROME – STRAND, UNDER THE DARK CLOTH (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
Three new releases from the never resting Ambiances Magn tiques label (Quebec, Canada). The first one is a meeting between two turntable wizzards. It’ s the first meeting between Martin T treault and Otomo Yoshihide. On 3 days in december 1997 they recorded 21 situations in a studio in Montreal. Through scratching records, manupaliting turntables and associated techniques they work out their ideas in pieces that only in two cases takes more than 3 minutes. Well done.
With the cd by Goldstein, Heward and Wiens three new names appear on Ambiances Magnetiques. This happens not that often, as most releases carry the names of Lussier, Duchesne, Hetu, Derome and their many friends. This trio is also from Canada and as they included information tells they already exist a long time. Goldstein is known as a performer of new music since the 60s. John Cage and Ornette Coleman composed for him. Heward is also active in painting and sculpture. Wiens works a lot in theatre. Wiens, Heward and Goldstein on guitar, drums and violin respectively present their first album here. Its the result of playing together several years now. Their type of improvisation reminds me a lot of the european way of improvising as this came up since the mid sixties, when european jazzmusicians started to develop their own idiom of jazz and impro music.It is hard to judge whether new territory is discovered here. Everybody who is into this kind of music and is curious to what new names make of it, should check this one out, as it is an example of good collective playing.
Derome who composed for dance and theatre in he past, here presents his first soundtrack. A first soundtrack by known musician makes me always curious. Will it show the artist from a totally other side or not, as making filmmusic has its own possibilities and restrictions? The following quote gives a little insight into how Derome copes with this: “To compose music for a film is to translate a film into music. [..] When I compose a soundtrack, I start by listening closely to the sounds that are already there. I listen to the texture of the voices, ambient noises, extraneous sounds, snatches of music that are already there, I observe how the actors move, how they dance on the screen; I ask myself if they really mean what they say.” Orchestrated for a large ensemble of strings, winds, percussion and voice, this cd presents 18 compositions that show the the range of Derome’s compositional work. It’ s a soundtrack to the film ‘Strand under the Dark Cloth’ by John Walker. It’s a film on the work of the famous photographrer Paul Strand. The film has many and long sequences of photographs. The included booklet gives some info on this photographer and some of his photos’ are printed here. (DM)
ERWIN STACHE – HARMONIE DER NICHT GANZ REELLEN TOENE (CD by Rund um den Watzmann
This cd is a very good example of what happenly happens from time to time: an artist totally unknown, a release on a small lable, and some music that makes you say WOW! In other words: a big surprise. Here we have one. A very interesting cd released by Rund um den Watzmann (Arnhem, Holland). The cd contains a very rich and varied music for piano, voice and diverse selfÑbuilt instruments. Composer and player Erwin Stache is from former East Germany. He studied physics and mathematics. Also he studied piano. This explains the very fruitful combination of musical and technological invention. Stache also played in several jazz and blues groups. These roots may explain the dramatic quality of his work that struck me immediately. It reminded me of some of the work of Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth. A quality that shows affinity with playing improvised music. This quality combines very well with the experimental and electronic environment that Stache creates. It gives the music a liveliness that electronic music etc. often lacks Rund um den Watzman is not just releasing cds and records, but carries a well defined eyemark, namely ‘to fully explore the wide range of possibilities of records and its productpackaging’. A relation between package and the music is intended in such a way that the package is more than just package. The cd is packaged in a black hardÑpaper box. Opening it some noise is heard produced by a sensor that reacts to light. So we have a musical instrument in our hands . An invitation to do more than just to pick out the cd. Also an informative booklet is included. Nice work. I hope to hear more from Stache and Watzmann. (DM)
FRANÇOIS TETAZ – THE MOTIONLESS WORLD or THE DRUNKEN TAXICAB OF ABSOLUTE REALITY (CD on Dorobo Records)
This CD actually dates from novenmber 1997, but I happened on it only a couple of weeks ago, which is a shame, because it is a wonderful record indeed. There are four tracks on it and they appear to be a remix of music used at some kind of performance in a gallery in Melbourne. The first track is some mix of environmental recordings with a melodic texture of what sounds as guitar strings being played very gently (but I could be absolutely mistaken here!). The environmental recording sounds like some kind of machine humming in a very large space and gives a very spacious feel to the piece. Later high pitched frequencies are added and played with. And guess what: we’re in track two now. The machine is dying out and pops and crackles take over. And then all of a sudden with an electric burst we’re in track three. A deep bass is covered with reverberating glissandos and the pitch is still there as well. Small creatures scurry along and leave us with the bass and the whine, that becomes gradually louder and is cut off by the crackles again. And then it becomes really spacy. I think you will have to check the rest of the record out for yourself, because it is certainly worth the effort. This is a very fine work of electro acoustic music and I’m looking forward to hearing more of Tetaz’s work. (MR)
Adress: Dorobo, P.O. Box 22, Glen Waverly, Victoria 3150, Australia
http://werple.net.au/~dorobo/dorobo.html
email is now probably: dorobo@werple.net.au
ALEXANDER KORSMIT & IOS SMOLDERS – MAYBE ONE THOUSAND BUDDHAS FOR ONE DREAM WITH HIDDEN NOISE (CD on unknown label)
This is a release of the soundtrack for an installation by visual artist Alexander Korsmit. The soundscape was made by Ios Smolders on the basis of texts provided by Korsmit. So of course there are a lot of voices to be heard. The CD features three tracks. The first one starts with cutups of people’s voices before or after they speak, mixed with what seems to be feedback or very heavily filtered voices. Gradually text takes over, but mostly in flashes. After a while other sounds are added as well, but it is difficult to determine their origin; they could be samples from a gamelan and other otherwordly recordings. Different languages are used: english, dutch and indonesian. As with most installation recordings it is quite difficult to regard this work in a purely auditory sense and one keeps missing the additional visual stimuli, present in the installation. This CD doesn’t escape this problem. It’s difficult to relate the texts to the content of the complete work and musically speaking I feel that there is a little too much emphasis on the text. Nevertheless it is a good production and for those interested in the work of Smolders it will be an addition to their collection. (MR)
Adress: try Staalplaat or else: dubzap@earlabs.org
STILLUPSTEYPA – REDUCE BY REDUCING (CD on FIRE.inc/SOME)
If my long-term memory serves me right, this first appeared on vinyl a year
or more ago, and I, having an even more dodgy record player then than I do
now, was unable to appreciate the full density of the melodies in their
basic forms, so to speak. This CD appeared slightly more than several
months ago and has been reposing patiently on my stack of review material.
A few subtle kicks in the arse by one of the composers induced me to place
the silver slice in my machine and lo, what a creamy item it is.
It clocks in at just over 40 minutes, contains five tracks and has,
together with the new Rehberg/Bauer CD on Touch (see below) and the even
newer Bass Communion CD (see next week), been one of the main occupants of
my sound-space for about a week now.
One of the things inherent to the world of creativity is the skill some
have to innovate, while the only aptitude most others possess is an ability
to emulate. This appears to be an unavoidable characteristic that has
probably been a part of human expression since Org thumped two different
sized rocks with a tusk — an example that was no doubt immediately copied
by his close cousin/brother/son (or all three simultaneously) Tharg. I’m
sure the world’s first percussion ensemble all sought out the same
substances to beat and beat with. And Org’s first paradiddle was no doubt
repeated for at least several thousand decades, until a cross-eyed,
slightly a-rhythmic individual lost the count and, whilst perhaps being
shunned by the rest of the ensemble, was later hailed (after being
thoroughly stoned to death) as the inventor of counterpoint and
syncopation. While I can appreciate the endeavour to try to better what is
often a good thing (by accident, or by design)
, I am somewhat disturbed by the enormous amount of the world’s resources
that get wasted (and I’m no confessed ecologist, I assure you) on very poor
imitations of the genuine article. Once, not so long ago, there was a
(good) Finnish group called Panasonic, who startled the inhabitants of the
sound garden to such a degree with their minimal rhythmic constructions,
that they caused an audible rift between those who were able to expand
their concept of music, and incorporate these efforts into their
definition, and those who could not. Of course Panasonic is only one
example, and I chose them because, of late, I have heard so many CRAP
spin-offs of their (once) unique idea that I am almost convinced that they
cannot be bettered. The more shite there is to wade through, the tougher
the boots have to be.
Why this tirade, I hear you shriek. Well, it’s because I like to be
surprised by what I hear, and not be obliged to don my whale skin wellies
each time I put a CD in the player. Fortunately, this release by
Stillupsteypa meant that they could rest their rubberised soles for a time,
while I basked in the masterful sonic manipulation that oozes from this
music. It’s an exceptionally cool and unique work from the mirthful
Icelandic collective who avoid the prevailing inclination to make poor
quality carbon copies of someone else’s’ work, and manage to take the very
best of many different compositional styles and mutate them into a language
all of their own. An audible travelogue about the continent of sound, full
of mysterious, low valleys and dynamic, high gleaming peaks. (MP)
(mailorder@staalplaat.com)
FANTASTIC PLASTIC MACHINE – INTERNATIONAL STANDARD LUXURY REMIXES
(CD-Single on Bungalow Records)
Several issues ago I wrote a short review of the latest CD/2×12″ ‘Luxury’
by a large Japanese bloke who goes by the name of Fantastic Plastic
Machine, but whose real name is Tomoyuki Tanaka. He’s an extremely jolly
gent, if his musical output is anything to go by, and is also responsible
for the amazing debut CD/LP Fantastic Plastic Machine, also released in
Europe by Bungalow Records from Chermanny in 1998. I have just closely
perused the CD-Single package to see if it mentioned his real name, and to
my chagrin have unearthed the ghastly fact that this is only the European
release of remixes from ‘Luxury’, which came out earlier this year. There
are also remixes compiled and only released in his home-town, Japan, and
another set only destined for American consumers. Help me, somebody.
The full-length ‘Luxury’ release (plus the album single) contained a bossa
nova version of ‘There Must Be An Angel’ originally by The Eurythmics,
which is the opener on this remix project. This version by Paolo Scotti is
smart and throbby and clears the way for what follows. ‘Lotto’ by the
(probably) rather strange Andreas Dorau is his own interpretation of a
track that he provided vocals for on the original CD. More of his
strangeness is to be found on the Bungalow Compilation CD Ro3003 (1997). I
hesitated a day too long when I encountered one of his CD’s in a bargain
bin at my local dealer. Somebody with as misplaced taste as myself
schnapped it up immediately, and I cannot remember any of the details so I
can trace it. Help me one more time here, boyz ‘n gurlz. Dauerfisch, who’s
excellent full-length CD ‘Crime Of The Century’ (yes, there are a few
discreet samples included from the original rekkid with the same name) I
wrote about a week or two ago kick butt with a tung-between-the-cheeks
rendition of one of the best tracks on ‘Luxury’ titled ‘You Must Learn All
Night Long’. The computer voice they used on the credit track that ends
‘Crime Of The Century’ chants silly rhymes over an irresistible groove that
goes on and on and on and on…. Maxwell Implosion, who has a bunch of
music out on Bungalow brings this small but perfectly formed item to a
close with a crunchy <Loop De Loop Mix> of Mezzo Pianoforte, with probably
the most catchy vocal line ever, with the exception perhaps of Serge
Gainsbourg’s ‘J’taime Moi Non Plus’.
If you’re someone who likes to twist and froog to the best of what the
twentieth century has to offer, sacrifice the contents of your wallet and
get a firm grip on this music. Bring on the Japanese and American projects,
now. Goddammit !£%&*?”)(*@ }!!
Not for the serious or downcast.
Check out their cool website, too ! (MP)
(http://www.bungalow.de)
REHBERG & BAUER – BALLT (CD ON Touch)
Of late I have been encountering CD’s of contemporary music that seem to be
almost symphonic in content. Whether this is because of the repetition of
motifs, either as melodies, or in the actual arrangements, or because of
the processors used I’m not sure. (Somebody, who shall remain nameless,
unless I see wodges of loot, noted that this might make a good demo-CD for
the LISA software. I have no idea – I don’t know what LISA does at the best
of times , and when she’s in the company of the Twins of Digihurt, it’s
perhaps best left a mystery. Who gives a fuck anyway…it’s what you hear
what counts, innit ?).
Back to the top…this new release by Rehberg und Bauer is a perfect
example of just such a ‘symphonic’ composition. It’s the second part of a
trilogy that started with ‘Fasst’ in 1997, and it’s an excellent example of
how creativity can mature if given time. While this CD is divided into
separate tracks (all with names that sound as if they were constructed from
letters pulled out of a hat), it makes no difference if I listen to this
sequentially or in shuffle mode – it continues to make perfect sense, and
there is a graceful flow to it that now pours, then snaps and snarls as it
escapes from the confines of the speaker-boxes.
It is amazingly organic – there are extremely granular textures that are
eroded by fine, persistent spray into endless escarpments. Boulders are
rolled around on the sea-bed by thick, menacing, inky seas. Wind buffets
and whistles around resistant crags. Intoxicated, unidentified creatures
attempt to converse as thick Orkney fog tightens around their throats. Rock
melts, crystals form. The gods of ketamine stagger blindly. Shapeless
things stammer-stutter. New life strains against the resistant crust,
pushes harder and, breaking through into ochre light, luxuriates and starts
to glow…
What an exceptionally cool CD this is; something I am sure I will never
tire of. It’s already in my top-ten for 1999, along with several others
released by this innovative and quite superb label in London. May the Twins
prevail ! (MP)
(http://www.touch.demon.co.uk/ballt.htm)
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