MARCHETTI/VOICE CRACK/NOETINGER – DOUBLE WASH (CD by Grob)
ROBERT RICH – SUNYATA (CD by Hypnos)
ROBERT RICH – SOMNIUM (DVD by Hypnos)
BAD SECTOR – THE HARROW (CD by AVA/ESI Reset)
ASMUS TIETCHENS – BETA MENGE (CD by Ritornell)
BIOSPHERE – SUBSTRATA/MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (2CD by Touch)
TV POW – MORT AUX VACHES : BEING NICE IS FUNNY (CD by Staalplaat)
MARCHETTI/VOICE CRACK/NOETINGER – DOUBLE WASH (CD by Grob)
Slowly marching, but steadily growing: Grob is a German label that
specializes in improvised music, and they know how to surprise us
with interesting combinations. This CD is one of them. Voice Crack is
a Swiss duo that have been kicking around for some 25 years now,
developping from free improv to cracked everyday electronics. After
some years of silence (only in terms of releases), they have returned
with a great LP for Entenpfuhl and a very noisy 7″ for Meeuw. If I
understand well the recordings on this CD were made during a concert
in 1998 between Voice Crack and a french duo, Lionel Marchetti and
Jerome Noetinger. These two arrive from a more serious musique
concrete background to improvising with electronics and acoustic
objects in a much more open style. They too are these days more and
more in the foreground with releases on Corpus Hermeticum and
Staalplaat. The concert(s) recordings are not presented as such here,
but in a studio/remix form by Marchetti and others by Moslang
(unfortunally the promo is without cover, so I am not sure which is
which). In each track they use many layers of sound, in which both
brutal noise outbursts sit next to more subtle elements. Sometimes
elements are cut into loops, and at other times longer excerpts are
layered and mixed to see what their relationship is. Much of this is,
even when it gets softer or more subtle, raw and untamed and carries
throughout the various skills of all four participating artists. (FdW)
Address: www.churchofgrob.com
ROBERT RICH – SUNYATA (CD by Hypnos)
ROBERT RICH – SOMNIUM (DVD by Hypnos)
It’s no coincidence that I review these two releases by Robert Rich
at once. Not just because of the fact that they are released at the
same time, but they also cover a historic insight in the old Robert
Rich. ‘Sunyata’ was Rich’s first release, in 1982, and has been out
of print for a long time. At that time he was performing his Sleep
Concerts and ‘Somniun’ is a seven hour DVD only release with one of
those sleep concerts.
‘Sunyata’ has two long pieces (the third one from the original
release was already released on ‘Trances/Drones’ in 1992), one of
just under 20 minutes and one of 43 minutes. Highly esoteric
soundscapes that float by as if time does not exist.
Of course it’s not an easy task to review the Somnium release. How on
earth do I do this? Listen to it while being asleep? That might be
the right thing but I’m afraid this might not lead to a very indepth
review; I am always in a deep sleep… So I put it on while going
about doing cleaning, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper,
other activities that require not much steadily attention to music.
In very very long curves the music evolves very very very slowly.
Sometimes it seems outdoor elements are added, like a tropical rain
shower. Also he adds here flute like sounds (I dare not say real
flutes, as they might be generated from the synths). The total
creates a nice atmosphere and the house never looked cleaner and
newspaper was never read more thoroughly. (FdW)
Address: www.hypnos.com
BAD SECTOR – THE HARROW (CD by AVA/ESI Reset)
Bad Sector is a long running project from Italy. They have gained a
certain reputation through releases on God*Factory and Old Europa
Cafe. Especially their release ‘Plasma’ on the latter was highly
appealling to me for it combined traditional industrial music with
experimental sounds (samples from longwaves for instance). I haven’t
kept up with all of their recent work, but ‘The Harrow’ seems one of
those albums that is more industrial then experimental. Bad Sector
uses a highly syntheteic approach; I imagine their studio full of
synthesizers. These synthesizers play semi rhythm music and they
sounds from the militairy industrial complex (air, naval and
militairy radio bands). This adds a lot of extras to the music. Bad
Sector is miles away from anything that is outright noisy or over the
top, and is closer by to early 80s industrial music, with slight
touches of a fucked up Klaus Schulze on the synths here and there. I
like it because this is something that is more thought out then many
others in this field. However I would like it more when it would be
less obvious synthetic and more abstract. (FdW)
Address: <baal7ava@aol.com>
ASMUS TIETCHENS – BETA MENGE (CD by Ritornell)
Last week I had the pleasure to visit an Asmus Tietchens concert. I
expected Asmus to be playing a CDR of some recent work, as this
seemed his standard procedure. Instead he mixed a couple of CDRs and
DATs with various of his half finished music into one long piece
introductionairy guide to Asmus Tietchens. There were touches of his
Aroma Club albums, musique concrete with reverb and some of his more
recent music. Two days after the concert I can welcome his latest CD
in the mailbox. It seems that Asmus got a couple of other Ritornell
CD’s to hear what kind of label Ritornell is, and Asmus thought: what
they can do, I can do better. To me this new album sounds like his
first to fully explore plug ins. I know Asmus has been working with
computers for a long time in the Audiplex studios, but that was
mainly for recording purposes. The sound effects were analog or
semi-digital. In these seven pieces one hears the emptiness of plug
in effects found in any editing programm and they run amok on Asmus’
recordings. The sources which Asmus is using are again not revealed.
Unlike many other who do the same sort of stuff, Asmus knows how to
build an interesting piece of music, one that is a joy to listen to,
one that isn’t going completely lost of the effects. Foremost he is a
composer with sound, and not an explorer of effects. I think this is
another groundbreaking album of Asmus, going into new territory for
himself. If you are keen enough to find out where Asmus is next, then
this should not be left unheard. (FdW)
Address: www.force-inc.com
BIOSPHERE – SUBSTRATA/MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (2CD by Touch)
I found the presence of Biospehere on Tocuh a bit odd. The
ambientesque sound next to Rehberg & Bauer, Mika Vainio or John
Duncan? The covers of Touch usually reflect the difference between
technology (music) and landscape (cover photos), but with Biosphere
this difference is no longer apperent. As a follow up to Cirque, and
on the coincidence of the Touch series of concerts happening right
now. This 2CD sees older works in print again.
‘Substrata’ is the follow up to Patashnik, which I thought was a
brilliant album (it still is a landmark of ambient techno bytheway).
I never heard ‘Substrata’ the first time it was around, maybe I lost
interest in ambient? Because both ‘Microgravity’ and ‘Patashnik’ were
landmarks of techno meeting ambient, well or vice versa, ‘Substrata’
is a downright ambient album, using field recordings, stretched waves
of synthetic sound, next to sampled acoustic instruments, such as
guitars and piano’s. Mellow stuff throughout, no beats here. I could
not say if this is really taking a new stand on the throdden paths of
ambient, but it’s very nice work indeed. Maybe, after all, I didn’t
loose my interest in ambient…
As I argumented a few weeks back, I have nothing with film, so I
rarely see one, so I just know about the Dziga Vertov film ‘Man With
A Movie Camera’, but I have never seen it. Vertov left instructions
for the music to his silent film and Geir interpreted these for his
soundtrack. This is the Biosphere that the adventurous listener in me
likes to see. Intercepting with radio transmissions, or maybe even
ghostly messages, who knows, sitting next to very minimal bass beats.
The remaining two tracks on this CD were originally on the Japanese
edition of Substrata and could be right of Patashnik. Full beat
stuff, nice keyboard tunes and more radio.
Address: www.touch.demon.co.uk
TV POW – MORT AUX VACHES : BEING NICE IS FUNNY (CD by Staalplaat)
The microscopic laptop trio from Chicago bring us an (un)easy listening
pleasure in the Mort Aux Vaches series. This is recorded during the TV
Pow’s european tour in late 1999. Loads of high and low frequencies, pulses
and clicks popping in and out in a sort of an organized chaos. Sometimes
the atmosphere completely breaks up by a playback of different things, like
recording of a crowd or an old television advertisement. Even a melodic
loop comes in. Full of details, a pretty intense live recording therefor. A
great add to the ever expanding Mort Aux Vaches series, yeah it is
microscopic for sure but not sterile at all. And the titles are quite
interesting, like “thinking + learning” and “got any jokes about
sandwiches?”. And my favorite… “ostriches never learn”. Shall I say
twisted(?), or maybe they are just memories from being on the road in
europe, or maybe they are twisted memories. Who knows, who cares. The CD is
recommended anyway!
(HB)