PAUL DUTTON – Mouth Pieces (Solo Soundsinging) (CD on Ohm/Avatar)
SOLENOID – REVERSESENDER (CD by Outward)
THOMAS LILJENBERG – EXPERIMENT WITH TIME (CD by Firework)
MONSTRE – SUCRE (CD by Alien8)
PIMMON – ORQUESTA DEL ARRURRUZ (CD by Staalplaat)
ENCOMIAST – WINTER’S END (CD by Lens Records)
ISAN – SALLE D’ISAN (miniCD by Morr Music)
LASSE MARHAUG – NOTHING BUT SOUND FROM NOW ON (CD on Smalltown Supersound)
VARIOUS – AO3 (Compilation CD + Book on Durian Records)
PAUL DUTTON – Mouth Pieces (Solo Soundsinging) (CD on Ohm/Avatar)
Dutton is an improvising singer from Canada and belonging to the select
international elite of singers like Phil Minton and Jaap Blonk. His newest
cd contains 21 tracks. No overdubs, feedback of any kind of processing are
used. Just 21 naked acoustic oral solo explorations. Exploring and
expanding the borders of singing is what is Dutton up to. He uses various
manual manipulations in and around the mouth. He shows his technical
virtuosity and wide expressive scope. Dutton uses the term ‘soundsinging’
as the most fitting one to characterize what he is doing. “My exploration
of the limits of human sonic expression began within a literary framework,
but I gradually came to follow it just as much within the field of music,
specifially free improvisation. For years, I was content to call what I did
‘sound poetry’, but with increased interest in such musical effects as
isolated overtones and the univocal production of chords, I found myself
favouring the term ‘soundsinging’. Truth be told, I make less and less
distinction between langugage and music, and my work is centred on a fusion
of the two. I’m chasing elusice visceral and spriritual game, and don’t
have time to cavil over categories.”
Dutton was a member of the Four Horsemen, a quartet that existed from 1971
to 1989. This quartet gave soundpoetry a consideralble popularity in
Canada. After 1989 only Dutton continued to work in this field. In the same
year Dutton became member of another famous canadian group CCMC (John
Oswald a.o.). He also publishes his poetry from time to time.
For the magazine Musicworks (no.54, autumn 1992) Dutton wrote an extensive
article on free-voice singing (DM).
p.s. The title of this article is also a title one of the tracks on this cd:
‘Beyond Doo-Wop or how I came to realize that Hank Williams is avant
garde'(DM)
SOLENOID – REVERSESENDER (CD by Outward)
Most striking part of the new Solenoid is the outside! On the digipack
parts of a dutch ten guilder note is displayed. I wonder if the designer
knows…
Solenoid is the nom de plume for one David Chandler, who after various
split releases (and under various other names, like Emanate and Hiao Hiao
Hiao), presents his first full length CD. Thirteen tracks of nicely
produced techno minded music. Gentle and merry melodies on keyboards, a
bass that jumps like a frog, and at times easy and at times more
complicated beats. In general I can only describe this in terms of happy
music. Solenoid doesn’t like difficult music, or difficult life. Not
necessiraly stuff that would do well on dance floors, because it’s a tad
bit too complicated, but certainly something that floats well on a sunny
afternoon. (FdW)
Address: www.outwardmusic.com
THOMAS LILJENBERG – EXPERIMENT WITH TIME (CD by Firework)
Back to concept art with Thomas Liljenberg. This CD is a document of the
final hour of an 48 hour performance. Every hour was recorded and played
back while recording the next hour with new things happening. A whole
complex of layers is being formed with a lot of eroded sounds. Because this
is recorded in 1982, we are speaking of the cassette tapes, so a lot more
hiss, fuzz and noise appears. Apperentely there is also a book documenting
this performance, which I haven’t seen, so what actually happened, I can’t
tell. This sort of process music (music that is part of a process) isn’t
new, not even in 1982. It reminded me very much of Alvin Lucier’s ‘Im
Sitting In A Room’, but then over the length of an hour. The sound on the
other hand was kinda similar to some of Eric Lunde’s old work (of a later
date then this). The CD cover recommends us to play this at a low volume
level, which I did. It worked extremely well reading the newspaper (which I
did), but somehow I find this strange. I can’t imagine the idea of this
work, when presented in 1982, was a sort of ambient music… I mean, I like
the idea, I like the sound, but somehow this low volume thing seems
something that was dragged in afterwards… Oh well, not that it is really
important of course. Process can eventually lead to results, and this
result is rather good. (FdW)
Address: http://www.algonet.se/~tankred/fer.html
MONSTRE – SUCRE (CD by Alien8)
Philippe Lambert is Monstre, and his first release is Sucre 3 (no idea wha
happen with Sucre 1 and Sucre 2 tho). Apperentely Philippe uses mainly his
own voice to create eleven, relatively short pieces – total length of this
release is under 34 minutes. This voice is being sampled and treated
electronically in various ways. To which are added various toys (as in
‘toys’) and drum machines, but voice remains the main thing. The influences
range from Henri Chopin to Demetrio Stratos to Boredoms. But Monstre keeps
it short and that is the great power of this CD. The shortness of the
pieces and the great variety that he displays give this a great power.
There is sheer noise in ‘Sound/Silence’ to childlike chanting as
‘Sugarrainbow’ or ‘Twinkle’ or drones in ‘Littlestars’. Everything fits
well, and although it seems a hothcpotch it is remarkable coherent. (FdW)
Address: www.alien8recordings.com
PIMMON – ORQUESTA DEL ARRURRUZ (CD by Staalplaat)
Another one in the material series from Staalplaat… with it’s nicely
bizarre cover as usual, although I miss the engraving in the jewel case on
this one. Anyway quite sporty with a fake gras carpet like material in a
green jewel box. And the music… brilliant! Nice to see Pimmon
contributing to this series. As the title suggests it is quite orchestrated
(or maybe that’s just me misunderstanding the word orquesta?), very nice
sweeps up and down. A little softer than last years ‘Assembler’ was on the
new interesting Fallt label, but still deriving from the same direction
more or less. I could go on describing the material to be heard on this CD
but I will spare you the bullshit talk, there’s not much to say except for
brilliance here, Pimmon sure knows what he’s up to. Let me just say highly
recommended in the end!!! Play loud too! (HB)
Address: www.staalplaat.com
ENCOMIAST – WINTER’S END (CD by Lens Records)
Encomiast are new to me andstarted out with the three of them about 3 years
ago. Besides several postings on MP3.com, this is the first proper release.
The trio play on a wide array of synthesizers, samplers and sound effects,
but the end up with a very warm sound. Harmonies drift by like washes of
the sea, like clouds in a spring-time morning. The solitairy playing of the
violin in ‘If I Dream I Have You’, against the echo of itself. Eerie music
of a darker ambient nature. Stuff that could easily fit on a label like
Hypnos, even when it’s esoterica goes out of control (in ‘Fear Of Wind Or
Vertigo’), which becomes close to Ennya. But that aside a strong ambient
CD. (FdW)
Address: www.lensrecords.com
ISAN – SALLE D’ISAN (miniCD by Morr Music)
Isan, a brit duo, get more and more prolific and this new minilp, maxi cd
will surely help. It has four longer tracks and two short interlude tracks.
The opener ‘Days & Later’ remind me every time I play of Pan Sonic,
especially the opening synth and drum pattern. It gets Isan as soon as the
keys are playing a melody. ‘Disruptive Elephant’ has an even more childlike
character, like Walt Disney’s marching elephants in the Jungle Book. In
‘Fullen Brimm’ autumn echoes and the insects die. And in ‘Serene Driver’ we
get a nocturnal ride in a car through desolated streets. The two interlude
tracks are nice but redundant… Great EP. (FdW)
Address: <info@morrmusic.com>
LASSE MARHAUG – NOTHING BUT SOUND FROM NOW ON (CD on Smalltown Supersound)
With a long history in music and releasing it, Lasse Marhaug is probably
becoming quite a household name by now. His latest release on this label
from Oslo sets off in the good old noisy cut up style and certainly wakes
the listener up. This track is followed by a much softer one with crackles
and hisses. And after that the volume drops even more in track three. A
short click introduces a dark drone that is later layered with other clicks
and samples. Volume rises again. The sample rates are pretty low, creating
a pretty ‘cheap’ sound, that slowly froms patterns and leaves them again.
Track four gets into the higher frequency ranges with layered feedback
tones and samples cutting in every now and then. Until now the sampler is
defenitely Marhaug’s favorite instrument. The cuts and loops are mostly
quite short as track five proves. Again there is an avalanche of cuts of
all sample rates, most of them originating from ‘real’ music (recorded from
radio?). And it’s always nice to hear such music treated in a way like
this. Track six seems to take us in a slightly more ambient direction,
although it still uses the same kind of sound sources. Track seven
continues in this vein even more so and is the most spatial on this disc.
It is actually a remix of one of his own tracks, released on a CD-R by
Bonbonrecords. A quiet piece that closes the CD, with a total time of just
under half an hour, which is a good length for works like this, methinks. A
good CD, that can be considered as one work. (MR)
Adress: www.smalltownsupersound.com
VARIOUS – AO3 (Compilation CD + Book on Durian Records)
AO3 stands for Among Others version 3, a project organised by Daniela
Swarowsky in Vienna in 1999. The idea was to bring together 16 artists with
a background in audio or visual arts or both, to collaborate on
experimental projects. The group was divided into 4 smaller groups, that
worked in one space during eleven days, with an overlap of 4 days for
working with the new arrivals. The book explains about the initial concept
for AO3 and is divided into four parts, corresponding with the groups that
participated. Before each part there is a short introduction describing the
group’s intentions, followed by lots of full color photographs and other
short texts. Reading the book while playing the CD is obviously the best
way to percieve the project (in case you didn’t visit), and for once, I can
only encourage everybody to do so. The project is more about transformation
and process than about fixed results, and dealing with text, visuals and
sound at the same time, this notion is supported very well. So I can only
say that this is a very strong document for something so difficult to
document. For the record, here’s a list of participating artists: Werner
Dafeldecker, Erin McGonigle, N.I.C.J.O.B., Axel Stockburger, Cristoph
Bangert, Jens Brand, Manuel Mota, An Seebach, Shinichi Yanai, Richard Crow,
Clive Graham, Kaffe Matthews, Heimo Lattner, Jérôme Noetinger, Lionel
Marchetti, Peter Morrens. (MR)
Adress: www.durian.at