MASSIMO (CD-R by Microwave Recordings)
V.A. – Madrid, a soundscape collective (CD by Zwerg Productions)
VHF – EXTRACTS
HAUNTED HOUSE – UP IN FLAMES
EARL HOWARD/DENMAN MARONEY – FIRE SONG
THOMAS LEHN & GERRY HEMNGWAY – TOM & GERRY
(all by Erstwhile Records)
“WE SING A SONG OF SADNESS”
I:WOUND – EIGHTY PERCENT OF NOTHING
I:WOUND
TIEN AN’MEN/MEMOIRE NOMADE – SQUEEZING SPEECH INTO A DEAF EAR
(CDRs and 10″)
NOISE FACTORY ’97
NOISE FACTORY ’98
(both CDRs by Terminal Tape Prod)
MIXED BAND PHILANTHROPIST – THE IMPOSSIBLE HUMANE (CD by Siren Records)
KID606 AND FRIENDS VOL. 1 (CD by Tigerbeat6)
MARK POYSDEN & MARTYN VALKEMA – THALASSA (CDR by Bake Records)
MASSIMO (CD-R by Microwave Recordings)
At first glance this may seem like just another ‘click ‘n beep’ record, but
looking at the titles and listening to the tracks after the first one, it
becomes clear that Massimo must have had a lot of fun making this music.
And the nice thing is: we can hear it. The first track is a somewhat
standard microwave piece, but the second one begins to rock after a short
intro. The beat is there and it’s funny. With very nifty additions to the
basic beat, Massimo creates a very nice track indeed. The third track goes
on from there. There are some excellent samples used to create a dynamic
whole. The fourth one is a combination of sines and pulses, something that
every real microwaver has done once in his life. Track five is almost a
dancer (for the more daring dj’s) and not unlike Pentax, but certainly with
an original twist. Number six is a very light track with all kinds of
ringing and chirping sounds. Very nice! Seven is a darker piece, but with a
humorous side. Track eight is for sines again and probably the least
interesting of the lot. The CD closes with a quiet piece, that sometimes
made me think of the work of Richard Chartier. In all a good CD from
someone who deserves attention. (MR)
Adress: www.staalplaat.com
V.A. – Madrid, a soundscape collective (CD by Zwerg Productions)
Six composers present their personal view of the city of Madrid on this CD.
First one up is Pedro Elías Mamou with a track starting with voices and a
sqeaking sound. The piece evolves in time and space and takes the listener
through narrow streets and large halls, and there are people everywhere.
This is a very nice piece, made of unedited recordings, but suddenly cut
off at the end. The second track is by Michael Rüsenberg and it took me
while to understand that it was the second one, because the beginning
sounds very much like the fisrt one. Not for long though, because Rüsenberg
has cut up and edited recordings and creates a collage image of the city
with very different recordings. There are a lot of musical snippets in his
track and in general his piece is fuller than the first one. Also a pretty
good one. The third track is by Hans Ulrich Werner and is quite different
in it’s sound atmosphere. Dense and rich, with edited sounds to complete
the texture. He seems to have recorded more industrial sounds and processed
them accordingly, although there are also very quiet breaks. Track four is
by old aquaintance Francisco López and has a very specific spatial quality:
lots of differently filtered layers create a dense, yet open sound. For
López’s standards this piece develops very rapidly and changes almost all
the time. A very well done piece. Track five is a collaboration between the
first four composers and seems to work from the priciple of “you start and
I’ll follow”. It’s the shortest track and I’m not sure that it really adds
to the CD as a whole. The last track is by Jóse Luis Carles and Isabel
López Barrio. It sounds almost as if one is walking very quickly through
the city. The scenery is changing all the time, but in very subtle way.
This CD is defenitely a good one for those interested in the phenomenon of
soundscaping.(MR)
Adress: Zwerg Productions, Postfach 451368, D-50888 Köln, Germany
VHF – EXTRACTS
HAUNTED HOUSE – UP IN FLAMES
EARL HOWARD/DENMAN MARONEY – FIRE SONG
THOMAS LEHN & GERRY HEMNGWAY – TOM & GERRY
(all by Erstwhile Records)
Erstwhile is a new label for improvised music, and I can’t tell more about
their intentions. They have four CD’s out in packages that stand apart (in
a positive sense) from the usual improv artwork. Music should speak for
itself I guess…
The first release is by VHF, which are Simon Vincent, Simon Fell and Graham
Halliwell. Their instruments are alto saxophone, percussion, double bass,
drums and tone generator. This last instrument is a bit beyond me, or it
produces sounds which I don’t recognize as a tone generator. The seven
pieces are indeed extracts and sound highly acoustical. The trio uses most
of the time ‘short’ sounds, sitting next to acoustic drone sounds. Each
extract holds the attention well and is played with skill.
The name Loren MazzaCane Connors can’t be missed if you read the press on
alternative music. Currentely he releases a new CD every month or so,
sometimes solo, or with the vocals of Suzanne Langille. Haunted House has
both as a member, and also Andrew Burnes on guitar and Neel Murgai on
persian daf. Three very long tracks (total time of the CD is over 56
minutes) of a very spacy aswell as distorted nature. Notes next to chords
are played over a bunch of reverb and the good ol’ distortion pedal, which
gives this album a very desolated feel. Much pain, much blues involved I
guess. More rock, but with enough improv elements to be on this label. Even
when it sounds kinda dark, depressive, its definetly very good.
Denman Maroney (Steinway piano) and Earl Howard (alto saxophone and synth)
have been playing together for a lot of years and did a record as the
Negative Band. I have problems with their CD. The first two pieces are for
synthesizer and piano and are very nice. Sparse melodies and sounds from
within the piano nicely mix into powerful pieces. The other two pieces are
for saxophone and piano. But here the saxophone playing is rather ‘normal’
and gets irritating for my taste.
The most recent release by Erstwhile is a double set by Thomas Lehn and
Gerry Hemingway. The first plays analogue synthesizer and the latter drums
and percussion. Lehn was also involved in the Music In Movement Electronic
Orchestra project (with Peter Rehberg, Keith Rowe etc.), but has played
with many others from the world of improv, without being documented. Gerry
played with virtually anyone of the improv scene. Their CD is documentation
of three concerts in Germany. With MIMEO’s noisy doodlings in the back of
my head, I sort of expected this to be noisy to (or maybe it’s just because
it involves an analogue synth?). I was surprised and delighted. There are
noisy bits, like the opening track of disc 1, but also beautiful soft
parts, with sparse sounds from the duo and much room for emptyness. This
one was my particular favourite of the three. (FdW)
Address: <erstrecs@aol.com>
“WE SING A SONG OF SADNESS”
I:WOUND – EIGHTY PERCENT OF NOTHING
I:WOUND
TIEN AN’MEN/MEMOIRE NOMADE – SQUEEZING SPEECH INTO A DEAF EAR
(CDRs and 10″ by
All of these releases smell like politics, ideas, freedom and ideology. The
shortest CD is a fifteen minute affair of Tibetan Nuns singing in prison.
Maybe nice, maybe not, but for sure relevant stuff if you do care about
this sort of thing.
I:Wound present a CDR with partly live recordings and part studio
recordings. I:Wound progressed from his previous ambient ethno industrial
sound tapestries towards a more plundered beat style, lifting his material
from drum & bass areas and cuts up voices. Quite dark stuff, but nicely
executed.
In the same areas we find an I:Wound CDR that has the sound of an
installation in Bremen, Germany and a live concert. The latter is like the
‘Eighty Percent’ release, and seems to dwell even more on DJ material. The
sound installation part is even better: a dark, intense piece of
electronica, mixed with outdoor sounds. Curious to know what the rest of
the installation was about.
The 10″ has Memoire Nomade on one side. Doomy punky rock, with a dash of
Joy Division darkness. Tien An’Men, with I:Wound as a member, also look
back with sadness when Factory Records, dark clothes and ditto dark music
were hip. Not my thing.
Address: Sascha Karminski – Stau 117a – 26122 Oldenburg – Germany
NOISE FACTORY ’97
NOISE FACTORY ’98
(both CDRs by Terminal Tape Prod)
Noise Factory is an ongoing affair. The idea is very nice: a group of
musicians who know eachother (sometimes just vaguely) lock themselves up in
a farm house and start working on music. No TV, no newspaper, just
eachother. I just received the issues from the 1997 and 1998 edition. It’s
mainly Germans present here. I recognize names as I:Wound, YTonG or Para
Noise Terminal. But there are more involved. Every year around 8-11 people.
In various combinations they start improvising on all sorts of instruments
(mainly synths and effects), acoustic objects and even an odd guitar. The
experiments are quite alright, with of course the occasional hit or more,
but in general is less noisy then one would expect. There is on the other
hand no particular stand out piece. It remains a bit on a flat surface.
Keeping in mind that these are the results of just a few days of getting to
know eachother, it’s certainly not a bad job they’ve done. (FdW)
Address: Y Ton G – Karolinenstr. 24/2 – 20357 Hamburg – Germany
MIXED BAND PHILANTHROPIST – THE IMPOSSIBLE HUMANE (CD by Siren Records)
Presentely I can’t remember the order: did I first hear Sylvie & Babs Hifi
Companion by Nurse With Wound and then the Impossibe Humane by Mixed Band
Philanthropist or vicce versa? Both records are similar: they use the
wildest tape cut up possible, made with simple magnetic tape and a pair (of
demagnetized) siccors. Both records use source material sent by others.
Everybody now legendary (or forgotten!) is present with sound on this
record: Etant Donnes, P16.D4, Asmus Tietchens, Merzbow, Nurse With Wound
along side with Manon, Sperm Culture or AOT. This record represent a period
when everybody was putting out music as a result of a collaboration through
mail: I send you raw sound material, you rework it, send it back, I add
something and this repeated x-times. The MBP work was released as a LP by
Selektion, in an edition of 300 and I wonder what an original is now worth?
It fits the Selektion catalogue very well, since their other records delt
with extensive collaborations (P16.D4’s ‘Distruct’ or P16.D4/SBOTHI
‘Niemand Nichts Nirgends Nie’) and this is a very extensive form.
I remember when Sylvie & Babs made it to CD, I was a bit disapointed, as it
sounded all rather flat and less exciting as a decade before. Maybe
techniques improved over the years, but this sound surprisingly fresh. The
montage is superfast and superstereo. There isn’t a single moment of peace
and quietness here. Elements of noise (the tape-contributions) go togther
with quotes from pop and jazz, and snippets of radio announcements. It’s
totally crazy stuff, which is much better than a lot of today’s
lounge/plunderphonica/cocktail/b-movie DJ’s, who can only dream to do
things like this. And this is all pre-laptop stuff and might have taken
hours of tape-splicing. Again the CD is limited… (FdW)
Address: Daisuke Suzuki – 4-37-9 Saginomiya – Nakano-Ku – Tokyo, 165-0032 –
Japan
KID606 AND FRIENDS VOL. 1 (CD by Tigerbeat6)
Kid 606 is the fast rising star of crazy dance music. Making fame through
almost gabber like beats for Vinyl Communications, his sound is now more
techno, more drum & bass and more worked out. Time to get the remixers to
work. As far as I can judge mostly a Nothern America affair (no good
remixers in Europe?), plus some Japanese. My favourites include Hrvatski
who has a lovely song with a computer singing about computerprogramms and
catsounds set against drum & bass. The ambient inspired mix by Chessie, the
all noise boy Aube or the collage cut ups by Twisted Science. Drum &
bass however play the main part here, so it’s a mixed listening pleasure
here and a bit unclear what it’s aiming at. Having said that, I hasten to
say it’s not a bad CD at all. It’s like listening to the radio: there are
good tracks and there are tracks you don’t like.
MARK POYSDEN & MARTYN VALKEMA – THALASSA (CDR by Bake Records)
This recording was actually first released as a cassette release in 1987
and has been re-worked for a re-issue on the digital format. Mark Poysden,
who is also known as The Square Root of Sub (and some misterious DJ-ing),
teams up here with Martyn Valkema, who I have no knowledge of beforehand,
for this rather mellow relaxing disc. Actually this sounds quite 80’s at
times wich gives the overall appearance a nice layer of old values, a lotof
reverb is used, even a lot for the 80’s. Some parts even sound a little bit
symphonic for me, not a bad thing at all to mix with the synthetic sounds.
Some obvious tricks are very dominating in the overall compostition like
fading in and out, the use of left and right etc… but they are done with
a very strong feeling for them. I really get the feeling at somepoints that
I am listening to a soundtrack. Each of the eight tracks is telling a
different story, one of it’s own yet like a different scene in the same
movie. A very nice, emotional and frightening piece of film that is. (HB)
Address: www.staalplaat.com
correction:
this is the right e-mail address to order the Asmus Tietchens book:
info@aufabwegen.de