NICOLAS PERRILLAT – VEILLÀ D’HIVÉ
PATRICK RUTGÉ – EAUX FORTES (both CD’s by Collectif & Cie)
DUMMY RUN – PINK POCKET (cd by Hot Air)
DUMMY RUN – ICE CREAM HEADACHE (cd by Hot Air)
v/a – HALLWAYS: ELEVEN MUSICANS AND HMSL (cd by Frog Peak)
ELPH – ZWOELF (20′ to 2000) (Minicd by Noton)
MUSLIMGAUZE – REMIXES VOL. 2 (cd by Soleilmoon)
DIMETRODON COLLECTIVE – Volume One (cd by schmememtone)
E-RAX – LIVE AT THE BIMHUIS (CD by X-or)
GJ PRINS – SUB 8/9 (12″ by Sieben)
REUBER – ANNA (LP by Staubgold)
MARCUS MAEDER – SOLIPSISTIC MOTION (LP by Domizil)
UBSB – TRACEROUTE (LP by Ash[RIP] International)
NICOLAS PERRILLAT – VEILLÀ D’HIVÉ
PATRICK RUTGÉ – EAUX FORTES (both CD’s by Collectif & Cie)
These are two new CD’s in the series ‘Musiques Tracées de Savoie’, started
last year by the aforementioned label. The series deals with ‘oral
tradition and the handing down of the sensitive memory of a place’, the
place in this case being the Savoie, a french region in the Alps. Again in
the case of the first CD there is quite some spoken word present in the
work, which is a bit of a trouble for me, because my french is not so well
(I can order something to eat & drink, which is mostly enough). So some of
the parts are lost on me, but I am happy to say that there is a lot more to
be heard. Actually, Perrillat’s CD carries the subtitle ‘paysages
sonores'(sonic landscapes) of the region, thus also reflecting some of the
language, folk music and folk songs. Besides these ingredients we hear a
lot of activities going on: scraping, grinding, banging and so on. These
sounds probably originate from the handiwork, being carried out by the
regionals. These sounds are then processed in several ways to accompany the
folk songs, which gives some pretty funny results. The CD has been divided
in twelve relatively short tracks, one of them featuring a duet by two Alp
horns. In general, processing is kept to a minimum. Which is sometimes a
shame, when hearing track six: cow (or sheep) bells are manipulated and
constitute a very nice piece. In all I have the impression that too many
different choices have been made on this CD, which makes it a little
incoherent. But it is nice to hear someone concentrate on the region’s folk
music so strongly.
‘Eaux Fortes’ translates as ‘strong waters’ and is a single piece of
twenty-one minutes and forty-one seconds. As one would expect, there’s a
lot of water sounds in the piece, but without any strong emphasis. This is
a true and uncompromising soundscape: no processing has taken place, just
editing the raw recordings together into a film for the ears. It’s like
opening the window and finding oneself in another city, the town of Annecy
to be precise (there seem to be canals there). The piece is a quiet one on
and tends to let on dream off to almost forgotten moments in almost
forgotten places. A delicate work, very well done. (MR)
Adress: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/collectif.et.cie/
DUMMY RUN – Pink Pocket – cd by Hot Air
DUMMY RUN – Ice Cream Headache – cd by Hot Air
I am unabashed and ecstatic when I say that these two recordings are now
among my favourite records EVER. Well, up to this point, at least. Of
course, there was the 7″ of tracks from the “Pink Pocket” (possibly not its
actual title but a smasher anyway by proxy, courtesy of the receipt from
Aron’s Records in Los Angeles) – a money-grab of sorts, but happily
residing in the collection of 7″s. Another album on another label is
promised – where is this one?
And why are they favourites of mine? They remind me of not only being a
big goof but also not caring what anyone thinks – just spouting out odd
bits (like the R2D2 sample just then on “Pink Pocket”) and onomatopoeia and
non sequiturs and feeling no sting when others stare at you so strangely.
They remind me of the way I think – things leading into ideas segueing into
free associations merging into other times which remind me of something
else, something else, something that wends its way to another idea I had
about that last time keeps on slipping into the fuschia and it is not for
nothing that a celebrity gets Parkinson’s because he got a certain frank
ratio of soft drink for the rest of his life.
I can listen to these recordings for hours, and I have, and I do. I hear
something new each time I listen to them. Jesus fuck. I like them more
and more. They grow on me like the mange. (DC)
v/a – HALLWAYS: ELEVEN MUSICANS AND HMSL – cd by Frog Peak
Larry Polansky creates piano strains, looking for something. Up and down –
but is it a scale? If so, which one? Phil Burk creates an oscillation.
Hollow and echoed, warbling in tight and when a mirror is put in front of a
mirror, what does it see? It seems to be swallowing its own tail. David
Fuqua creates a guitar – from the inside out, and it stops and starts in
odd spaces that fall in on themselves – and is it self-examination? Larry
Polansky returns to the fore with piano styled of early rocknroll, which is
the say, that it comes at both ears from different places and stays
relatively stolid. John Bischoff creates a storm of frazzled static
hassling each of the speakers. But it is complex than metaphorical
alignment – just as the weather itself is. Now it is something, again, it’s
something entirely other.
Larry Polansky, again with the piano that follows in its own footsteps –
this time, tentative and is the instrument a mood-ring of sorts? It would
be interesting to know the time span in which his respective pieces were
recorded for this compilation. David Rosenboom creates a woodland of
sound, with curls and caverns from which extrude the soft and grotty calls
of several instruments in conversation. Phil Burk creates the glinting of
stars fading in and out of sight – some brown dwarfs; others – black holes.
But, again, sounds that are neither here nor there – and that is meant in
the cosmological sense. Larry Polansky creates a piano atmosphere that is
not to be mist – it crawls like mustard gas, eventually to catch up. Let
us now praise all sustain-pedals!
Nick Didkovsky creates a curving slice of guitar and drums, harrowing in
its narrowing individuality arrowing along. Straight. And. Carter Scholz
creates the sound that moves on water slowly around an airplane crash.
Larry Polansky returns again, creating a piece that seems much like what
has come before but is this to emphasize how little my ears have been
trained as yet? Jeanne Parson creates a piano piece that sounds lovely yet
which I cannot notate worth beans. Robert Marsanyi creates a descendant
drone, low and gliding in just beneath radar. And UP comes the high pitch!
Pink noise, white noise, black noise? Very faintly reminiscent of the
stereo test records that are yet to be unearthed from this world’s yard
sales. And it’s Larry Polansky, again, creating the piano. (DC)
Address: <fp@frogpeak.org>
ELPH – ZWOELF (20′ to 2000) – (Minicd by Noton)
Is the express inclusion of the element of time in a recording – a way to
destroy the sound by human meddling? Is the perception of that time
element damaging to a fuller listening to the recording itself? Another
perception – fading gently but still present – is the scent of maple syrup
that wafts from the disc itself. Getting closer, boys… A movement of
winds passes through and around and diagonally gone – filtering through the
philtrum of the clock’s face. Is the idea to conquer time through
measuring, and then to approach from behind with the soul of the artist?
Perhaps it isn’t as strategic as all that – but there is a sense of
winding-down, of nostalghia, of winding-up nostalghia and moving on,
recuperating by returning. Re cycling.
A slightly human keening pops up, here and there – but only just; perhaps
it was hiding in the space between the “t” and the “h” in “there.” The
chattering natters on, and there is… something moving – a rodentia? Does
time keep its eggs like animals? The sounds grow, afflicted with giantism,
expanding sand in/out the hourglass. Each grain falls with the beat of a
groovy guru, hypnotising and pushing that slow motion into measured
treasures. One. After. An. Other. Is waiting a music in itself? Not
on the street or in public, but…the tapping of the foot, and the
looking-out for something. The keening returns, and a song from earlier in
the century is slown, shambled and sharded… (DC)
Address: <noto@gmx.net>
MUSLIMGAUZE – Remixes vol. 2 – cd by Soleilmoon
A young Chicano alpha-male at my former place of work responded quite well
to these recordings. The titles meant nothing to him, nor did the
political theses behind these pieses. The events surrounding Bryn Jones’
death – and a certain mesmerising quality to the music – did, however.
What was more captivating? I don’t work there anymore – beats me.
And yet the question of “response” is something yet-to-be-examined when it
comes to MUSLIMGAUZE, and the attendant world he built for himself. What
are people responding to, concerning MUSLIMGAUZE? Is it the numerous
releases? The unusual packaging? Is it the voices from worlds away; the
overriding rhythms? Open forums for such things amongst his peers are
lacking – fuck, most forums amongst people creating experimental music are
few and far-between the cracks. And yes, that’s an obscenity you see.
Qualifying the sounds of a MUSLIMGAUZE album is a done deal. A bag of
adjectives is rife and rifled through; parallell criticisms ensue. But what
of the political agenda of Bryn Jones? What do his sounds represent? What
do they re-present? There was a time when much was made about the money
from these releases going towards pro-Arab organisations – Hamas,
Hezbollah, PLO, etc.. Have these claims been substantiated? To what
extent was the aid accepted, and was the source of that aid revealed to the
recipients? Was there a will, bequeathing subsequent monies accured from
releases to those pro-Arab insurgencies?
It is rare for music in this field to carry such an openly political slant
– and not have those politics openly questioned. Was Bryn Jones’ final
re-mix that of expectations? (DC)
<Address: info@soleilmoon.com>
DIMETRODON COLLECTIVE – Volume One – cd by schmememtone
Hiss and ululating guitars mirror the shaking language of fire. It is a
mystery as to what instruments could approximate such natural events – and
is it a natural event, to try to pin the sounds down to one source?
Another call for order in the court? As suddenly as a fire extinguishes –
so do the sounds evaporate – and how sudden can an ending truly be? How
many effects are left behind? One raft of trees floats by as the lowing of
a machine urges speed on, on, onward into a gravel-field of moving stones
and whatever else rhymes with drones. Flayed by the flange, the sizzling
fades and again, and again. Now into a fuckworthy soundscape. When will
come the cd to exude scents while it’s playing? Subetage indicates that
the long-term olfactory memory cannot be erased, and they should know.
Ding ding of bells, measuredly, and synthsounds. Drumming. Four four.
The final piece wends into the distance – not stopping, but staring to
consider the blur of earth as it slides gradually past… (DC)
Address: <mlev@earthlink.net>
E-RAX – LIVE AT THE BIMHUIS (CD by X-or)
GJ PRINS – SUB 8/9 (12″ by Sieben)
And so you see particular names everywhere… names like Thomas Lehn (whom
we featured before in the last weeks) and Gert-Jan Prins, who is never
tired of mailing us his concert info. Prins’ background is in (free-) jazz
and rock, so playing concerts is for him like breathing. Countless are the
duets and group improvisations they are involved in. Here they team up with
a Dutch guy, Peter van Bergen, who plays a curiously called instruments
Electronic Wind Controller, my imagination goes wild here. Lehn is of
course at the analogue synth and former percussionist Prins at electronics
and radio. Much of this music consist of three seperate layers: crackles
(Prins), synth bleeps (Lehn) and percussive sounds of some kind (I pressume
played by Van Bergen). Quite a noisy outing, which might have upset the
crowd at the Bim huis, who are not really known to be lovers of free
electronic music. This more in the Mego areas of laptopimpov, but then less
the laptop. Nevertheless a fascination journey in sound.
And when said noisy, it’s not as noisy as Prins’ solo 12″ which is released
on A-Musik Sieben imprint, home of the noise workers that inspire noise
DJ’s. It seems as though Prins takes the piss out of some DJ’s, as it
appears to be that he uses skipping vinyl to produce side A. Despite the
noise there is even a groove to be noted down there, but noise rules here.
However, the B-side is much more my thing: highly rhythmic, highly noisy
and sounds like train that refuses to take off. A noisy variation to Pan
Sonic, Goem or Ikeda. Great side b, mediocre side A. (FdW)
Address: <xorgj@xs4all.nl>
Address: <godijk@a-musik.com>
REUBER – ANNA (LP by Staubgold)
Klangwart have been presenting them in concerts a lot in the last year or
so and their records, even when varied in content, are well received.
Probably not the foreboding of a split, here is a solo LP by one of the two
members. Even when indexed at 2 tracks per side, there are seperate tracks
to be noted. Reuber, which is the last name of the guy who did this music,
takes off where the Klangwart LP ‘Koln/Olpe’ ended: a mixture of krautrock
and minimal music. Mostly played at arpeggio synths, Reuber also uses
voice, percussion, bass and trombone. The result is a cosmic trip with
sounds moving everywhere, very vivid. With some of the overtones I was
reminded of Steve Reich on acid with electricity up his you know what. It’s
very pleasant music to sit through, read the newspaper and enjoy life.
The only thing I am not sure about, is that if this LP is called ‘Anna’, we
may also get the rest of the alphabet. That has been done by Thomas
Brinkmann, and should not be done again. Even when this ‘Anna’ turned out
to be a beautiful baby! (FdW)
Address: <markus@staubgold.com>
MARCUS MAEDER – SOLIPSISTIC MOTION (LP by Domizil)
Of course I have no clue who this Marcus Maeder is, other then being a
swiss guy releasing music on a new swiss label Domizil (who will soon
release a CD by the guy from Das Erdwerk). It turns out to be a most
curious record: sounds from daily life (which are hard to trace back to
their origin) are sampled and distorted, keyboards are playing almost
childish melodies (as in ‘Kleinigkeiten’) and rhythms are built from
mistakes. In all, a modern record, which excentely displays the qualities
of modern technology and still maintains, important for us, an experimental
character. Maeder is definetly redefining both popmusic and
electro-acoustic music. Strange easyness or easy weirdness… (FdW)
Address: <info@domizil.ch>
UBSB – TRACEROUTE (LP by Ash[RIP] International)
UBSB are Ulf Bilting, Edwin van der Heide, Zbigniew Karkowski and Atau
Tanaka (or Sensorband featuring Ulf Bilting?). The Sensorband people, and
more special Zbigniew and Edwin, are conceptualists: they think of a way to
generate sound, perform it and then the release is ready. Onwards to the
next one. “You open a computer, connect the wires to a mixing boards and
then you mix it” is one of them. Here they get data from the internet and
translate it with audio software into music. No wonder this ends up on
AshRip, who brought us more obscure aswell as challenging audio
information. How does the internet sound when translated in audio software?
Harsh noise and I am not surprised, because most of the concepts performed
by Zbigniew and Edwin end in a noise orgy. Side A spins at 45 rpm (although
33 is nice too) and is rhythmical (it could go well with the GJ Prins
record mentioned elsewhere), but at full volume. Side B is at 33 rpm
(although 45 is nice too) and is more a continous noise affair. Not a bad
record at all, but I wonder why such different concepts as ‘Voltage’ (the
previous release by Zbigniew and Edwin) and ‘Traceroute’ end up sounding so
similar? However with such great stories they are allowed to present their
thing over and over again.
The only thing I haven’t figured out, but hey I am an internet nerd so
pardon me, is what UBSB means…?
Address: <ashrip@touch.demon.co.uk>