M. STAVOSTRAND – ILLUMINENCE (CD by Firework)
PETER UHR – FIRE SYMPHONY (CD-R by Firework)
EGNEKN MONTGOMERY – THE SOUND OF LAMINATION (CD-R by Firework)
ETANT DONNES – RE-UP (CD by Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L’Acier)
VERTONEN – TRIGGER FIELD (CD-R by Solipsism)
DAVID GRUBBS & MATS GUSTAFSON – APERTURA (CD by Blue Chopsticks)
STEWART WALKER – STABILES (CD by Force Inc)
PRINCESS DRAGONMOM – FEAR OF EVIL (CD-R on Time Stereo)
NOSEI SAKATA (*0) + RICHARD CHARTIER (CD on 12K)
M. STAVOSTRAND – ILLUMINENCE (CD by Firework)
PETER UHR – FIRE SYMPHONY (CD-R by Firework)
EGNEKN MONTGOMERY – THE SOUND OF LAMINATION (CD-R by Firework)
The name of Stavostrand might not be altogether familiar, but if you learn that this is also the responsible guy for Inanna and Archon Satani, you may give in. That guy. Why do people change a winning team for a new name? Most likely of course because their music changes. Mikeal Stavostrand has put aside his other group names and records under his own name. There was a sort of distinctive break, as he though wanted to really break away from the past. He succeeded. Inanna and Archon Satani stemmed both from the cold Swedish school of industrialists, harsh noise, dark undertones etc. For what it was and the time it was made, certainly not bad, but for my taste a bit off-date since a couple of years. Armed with a powerbook, sound synthesis programms, Mikeal started again and he finds himself Ikeda territories. Pops and clicks, stretched tones (that sometimes sound like the buzzing of insects and sometimes like a couple of testtones) but certainly less influenced by techno here then, say again, Ikeda. ‘Illuminence’ is more the 90s version of electro-acoustic music, an 11 part collage work in which the Ikeda like sounds have a different role. They appear, do their thing and disappear, or re-appear in a slightly different form. At times quiet, and at others loud and filthy noisy as hell.
Firework uncompromising catalogue is probably not the hottest selling thing in town, so they too decided to move over to releasing recordable CD’s. The 2 CD set by one Peter Uhr is a collection of various musical and non-musical pieces he recorded over the past few years. On each CD one finds a core piece, a long ambient piece and this time in the stricest ambient sense: the microphone placed outside and just recording the ambience. One is on an island and the other near the sea. These pieces do not ‘move’ – they remain what they are. The shorter pieces that surroud both are studies into both musical and non-musical worlds: sounds of a marimba made of drift wood, recordings of fire. Probably not a very coherent release, since it floats in various directions, but certainly that has it’s moments.
Behind ‘Egnekn’ we find Gen Ken Montgomery. Certainly one of those underrated key-figures in experimental music. He used to run his own sound gallery Generator in New York, released many cassettes and conducted cassette works by Conrad Schnitzler. Since some years he is involved in lamination. To laminate is to preserve, to keep, to hold what you cherish. People all over the world come to Montgomery and his lamination set up to laminate flat objects. The machine is amplified, so people hear what they see being laminated. And this is what you hear if you play this CD-R. A rudimentary form of noise music. A bit Chop Shop like minus the noise. A sort of contemplating background drone. Strange indeed…
Address: <http://www.algonet.se/~tankred/fer.html>
ETANT DONNES – RE-UP (CD by Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L’Acier)
Etant Donnes are back, and they use different roads now. Their background (documented on cassettes for Bain Total and CD’s for Touch and Staalplaat) showed a shift from the down right noisy work, tape-collages and screaming voices to a more balanced work using environmental sound and whispering poetics. The ultimate work was the last: ‘Blue’ is perhaps their finest, old work.
The two brothers Hurtado went to New York, invited a bunch of friends and recorded this CD, which falls in three parts. The first part (four tracks) are Etant Donnes with Alan Vega. Much much better in my humble opinion as Vega with Pan Sonic. These are four strong, pulsating (not as Pan Sonic does) pieces, with Vega doing his vocals. Vega wrote the lyrics. Also funny to see Etant Donnes doing a cover version of ‘Ghost Rider’, from Vega’s old band Suicide.
The second part is a 10 minute with Lydia Lunch doing vocals and Mark Cunningham (ex Mars) doing trumpet. In a way bit like the good ol’ Throbbing Gristle with a trumpet that drags on and one, drenched in echo. Lunch’ half spoken/half sung text is typical of her – although I must admit I never listen to the content…
The third part is with Bachir Attar (Joujouka chief) and Genesis P-Orridge (her majesty himself). Over the years I have developped a strong antipathy against his voice and even though when the musical backdrop is nice, I still have problems with it. But knowing some people who are devoted to Genesis, this might be the key-selling point for this CD. However, 2/3 out of a CD is not a bad score, I’d say… (FdW)
Address: <dsa@wanadoo.fr>
VERTONEN – TRIGGER FIELD (CD-R by Solipsism)
Vertonen is one Blake Edwards, also running his own label (he dug up the Z’ev – Ans Un Momento release). Here he releases his music on CD-R through Self Abuse’s CDR imprint Solipsism. An edition of 100 copies, but Edwards pokes fun at the collector scum world by saying three tracks come from a 7″ that had an edition of 10,000 copies, but that’s worth 275 dollar a piece… oh well. Nine tracks in total, three very long pieces and six short. There is only a vague hint about the soundsources Vertonen uses. It’s said about one track that ‘severe damage was done to a guitar’ – it sounds like an explosion in a gas station to me. Clearly inspired throughout by Merzbow and the like, Vertonen’s studies in noise are not innovative or conceptually strong, but well-craftedfor what it is. (FdW)
Address: <selfabuse@selfabuse.mv.com>
DAVID GRUBBS & MATS GUSTAFSON – APERTURA (CD by Blue Chopsticks)
I read a slag down of this CD somewhere, so I feel obliged to say something nice (even when it’s not a very recent CD). David Grubbs (Gastr Del Sol fame) has a new label, and besides releasing an old Luc Ferrari CD, he also released this beautiful CD, probably recorded in an afternoon. But hey, let’s call it improv and nobody cares. Gustafsson plays his own invention, the fluteophone and Grubbs is on the harmonium. For an hour we just hear light hearted drones, careful placings of the fluteophone and tenor saxophone (well if it wasn’t mentioned on the cover, I couldn’t tell) – all stretched out, slowly moving, slowly changing, slowly going back, slowly going forth. This goes among the best Niblock work I know. Never mind what you read elsewhere. (FdW)
Address: <bluesea@dragcity.com>
STEWART WALKER – STABILES (CD by Force Inc)
On the insert of the booklet there is some words about being inspired by sculptures, which are not photographed or in any way documented in the booklet. So it could have been writing, paintings or whatever (or nothing for that matter). Who cares? Certainly not me. Stewart Walker from Texas produces very nice, ten tracks of utter minimal techno. Taking his inspiration from the people in the Cologne/Kompakt scene (the geist of Mike Ink is all over), he manages to hold my attention throughout this fine CD. Just ‘float by music’, a nice passage of time. Nuf said. (FdW)
Address: <AC@force-inc.com>
PRINCESS DRAGONMOM – FEAR OF EVIL (CD-R on Time Stereo)
Beware of this record: it features the Impaler! Or at least it says so on the inside of the sleeve. Not knowing who this fiend may be, I wonder if he’s the one who made the cut-ups in the beginning of track 1. This is not (yet) the drony noise that I’m familiar with from PDM. In fact, this is notso much of a cut-up but more like a sweep from some kind of effect or looped lo-fi samples. The sounds are pretty familiar though: distorted drones, sometimes a guitar can be recognised. The stereo spectrum has been used to the max: sounds are seperated severely, but still interfere with each other. Very nice touch indeed. The break is maybe a little late, but good. Track two is more a series of cut-ups, which alternate between sheer noise and pieces of music (played live mosty it seems). Track three starts off with a ‘song’, suddenly turns into a very nice noise piece with a lot of dynamics, then goes back to the ‘song’ again, which is topped off by more noise. Track four continues in the same vain, but is probably even noisier, except for some really dark and beautiful drones. Each track is exactly fifteen minutes, by the way. I cannot help but imagine PDM’s live shows to go with this music, and that always manages to curl my mouth upwards.(MR)
Adress: <TIME-STEREO@prodigy.net>
NOSEI SAKATA (*0) + RICHARD CHARTIER (CD on 12K)
It may not come as a surprise that these two composers decided to do a collaboration. This CD (which I believe has a Japanese title that I cannot reproduce with my keyboard) contains 13 tracks, but can be considered as one work. There are breaks, but not necessarily on (or should I say before) the start codes. It is impossible to tell who’s done what on this disc; we hear all the sounds we know from both musicians, but blended together so well, that it could have been one person. From this point of view the project seems to have been very successful. The minimalism of Chartier is complemented wonderfully by the rawer appraoch of Sakata (and vice versa, of course). Sound sources are pulses, sine waves and noises and once again, this stuff works best on headphones, because of the stereo spectrum involved. On speakers some of the (very important) stereophonic qualities of the music get lost. In general this is a quiet work, but not really of a relaxing nature, which is a nice paradox of course. Some of the stuff really gets into the head, which can be pretty unnerving, but also very satisfying (yet another paradox!). This is microwave at its best. And a note about the cover: excellent artwork!(MR)
Adress: <taylor@12k.com>