UITTI/VITIELLO (3″CD by JdK)
BOURBONESE QUALK – ON UNCERTAINTY (Cd by Korm Plastics)
PHILIP CORNER – 40 Years and One; Philip Corner plays piano (CD on
Experimental Intermedia)
OBERON – ANTHEM (CDS by Incidental Music)
ECKANKORE – A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF NONISSUES (CDR)
RAFAEL TORAL – VIOLENCE OF DISCOVERY AND CALM OF ACCEPTANCE (CD by Touch)
REUBER – RUHIG BLUT (CD by Staubgold)
GRAVITAR – FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NEVER GETTING PAID (CD by
Enterruption)
NAKED AND ALONE ON THE CELEBRITY CIRCUIT (CompilationCD by Diskono)
UITTI/VITIELLO (3″CD by JdK)
The barren picture on the sleeve of this release – a bare,
hill-capped landscape with a sole camel in the foreground – offers no
clue to the towering recording event which is contained within.
Other than the distraction of the animal itself (not relevant, I’m
assuming…), there’s absolutely no information on the outside of the
disc. Some net searching reveals it to be a collaboration between
cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, famed for her radical two-bow technique,
and composer Stephen Vitiello, a release which has been out for over
a year now – so where have I been?! In any case, the result of the
meeting is one 20 minute composition of improvised concrete
electronics/guitar and acoustic strings which feels like it might be
a lifetime of burrowing underground, trying to reach a light that
continues to fade in the distance. Vitiello’s electronics and guitar
never overpower the extraordinary sound of the cello, offering a
sublime canvas for the slabs of colour and streaks of monochrome that
Uitti throws at it from a great height. An astonishing and exciting
piece of improvised music that reveals more on each listen – well
worth the trouble to track down. (BL)
Address: http://www.radiantslab.com/jdk
BOURBONESE QUALK – ON UNCERTAINTY (Cd by Korm Plastics)
It seems like a mystery to me how British Bourbonese Qualk have
flourished the European experimental scene in more than twenty years
without any greater attention. 1997’s album “The government is my
soul managed to catch some attention, but not on a scale that measure
up with what the originality of Bourbonese Qualk’s musical
explorations. Hopefully “On uncertainty” released on Korm Plastics,
will open the eyelids of the world a little further. Opening the
album with the track “Modified”, the listener is pulled into a Zoviet
France-kind of sonic disturbance. After that the album makes a
radical change into a much softer expression. Computer-attendant
Simon Crab turns the electronic equipment into a friendly soft sound
station, with only a few noisy outbursts occasionally while Miles
Miles gently treats various acoustic instruments. Thus the musical
trademark of Bourbonese Qualk is the strange mixture of electronic
sound with acoustical sounds, making it hard to mono-categorize their
style. While the acoustic part of the Qualks sounds like a crossover
between a Tortoise-kind of post-rock and futuristic chamber
orchestral manoeuvres, the electronic side mostly floats in
chill-out-spheres with a few visits into more threatening heights of
noise sounds. After two decades of sonic experimentation, Bourbonese
Qualk still remains true to their original sound. “On uncertainty”
could be the key to opening the treasure of Bourbonese
Qualk for the outside world. (NMP)
Address: <mailorder@staalplaat.com>
PHILIP CORNER – 40 Years and One; Philip Corner plays piano (CD on
Experimental Intermedia)
Modern piano music composed and played by New York born (1933) Philip Corner.
He is educated as a composer. He composed and recorded music for
voice, gamelan ensemble, metal objects, mechanical machines, tape
music. As a pianoplayer and tromonist he played works of many
contemporary and classical composers. He has been a member of Fluxus,
The Tone Road Concerts, Frog Peak Composers’ Collective and many
more. He also published poetry. There are many cds of him available.
Especially on the italian Alga Marghen label.
“40 Years and One” contains 9 pieces all recorded in 1998. The cd
captures compositions and musical ideas originating from different
moments of his career of more then 40 years. So it is obvious that
there are many differences between the compositions. On the other
hand, all compositions breath of a intelligent simplictiy and
clarity, reminding me of the musical universe of John Cage. Nice Work
(DM).
Address: <http://www.xirecords.org/>www.xirecords.org
OBERON – ANTHEM (CDS by Incidental Music)
An extremely earnest release by Oberon; overwhelmingly New Age/New
Ambient in style. The title track is the odd man out here and kicks
everything off with 1980s Tangerine Dream synthesizers and propelling
drum machines. From there we have ‘Love-Light’, ‘Byzantine’, ‘When
All Is Sorrow’, ‘Dreams Of The Sun’, ‘East’ and ‘Solaris’, all of
which are more sedate and oneiric in their pace. The synths are
overly cheesy (very, very analog indeed…), the melodies over-ripe;
the tone overarchingly solemn. It works best when the drift is left
to move unaided at its own pace, as on ‘Dreams Of The Sun’. You’ll
know already if you’ll like this: if you’re fond of the genre, then
you’ll enjoy Anthem. (BL)
Address: http://www.oberon-online.com
ECKANKORE – A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF NONISSUES (CDR)
I must say I have never heard of Eckankore and find it hard to see
why a bunch of live recordings from 1997 and 1998 should be made
available on CDR now. Eckankore are one E.J. Nervo and Ron K. who
offer here six lenghty cuts of noise, all recorded live in a concert
situation or in the rehearsal room. Slowly moving pieces of metalic
sounds, distorted guitars and interceptions from the radio. As much
as I like to something positive about this thing, it’s nothing I
haven’t heard before and better. Mildly decent noise cum feedback
stuff, that might work in a live context, but not on a home stereo.
(FdW)
Address: <eckankore@excite.com>
RAFAEL TORAL – VIOLENCE OF DISCOVERY AND CALM OF ACCEPTANCE (CD by Touch)
For a number of years I have been enjoying the work of this Portugese
guitarist Rafael Toral and found his work better and better with
every new release. Highlight was the ‘Aeriola Frequency’ CD for
Perdition Plastics, with it’s two slowly evolving pieces of feedback,
guitar and electronics. Sounds captured inside electrical systems,
and automatically transformed. This new CD has ten tracks which sort
of use the same ideas as developed on his previous CD’s, but then in
the context of a shorter piece. The power so far lies for me in the
slow changes of his music, which of course is served best in a longer
piece. Each piece uses just an electric guitar (except for one that
also uses “the recording of silence during a Space Shuttle mission
real time webcast”), but god knows how many effect box. Toral paints
little pictures in sound, and if his previous releases were oil on
canvas, this is sketches with pencil and paper. Usually fragile drone
like music, that sets a certain atmosphere for a while and then moves
on to the next one. ‘Optical flow’, the sixth track, is the first in
which the guitar tinkles as a guitar. Delicate pieces and Toral
succeeds well in doing his great things in a short context too.
Beautiful stuff. (FdW)
Address: www.touch.demon.co.uk
REUBER – RUHIG BLUT (CD by Staubgold)
Reuber played last week here locally and I picked up this release and
found out that the concert was exactely what was on this CD (or vice
versa). I saw a guy behind a mixing board changing CD’s and fidling
with the EQ’s on the mixing board, so had I known this, I would
probably not go. Not that the music was bad, but in a concert
situation I am not looking for an exact reproduction of a CD, or
listening to a CD. The first track is a 22 minute drone piece in
which slowly arpeggio’s are opened and closed. A very cosmic music
affair that goes on for the last thirty years in Germany. Quite
relaxing, but nothing spectactular new. The second track is of equal
length, but that the only common thing. It opens with a rhythm piece
that is slowly being fed through echoes and other filters with a
simple touch of keyboards to go along. Again like a cosmic trip, but
ran with more energy. It hits the groove from the start and it stays
there. Other then the first piece, this drags on too much. The final
piece ‘Schalf Gut’ (sleep well) is more along the cosmic lines of the
first piece. All in all to be honest, I like 2/3 of this CD, but have
my doubts about Reuber as an artist presenting his work in a live
context. (FdW)
Address: www.staubgold.com
GRAVITAR – FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NEVER GETTING PAID (CD by
Enterruption)
Like the Eckankore CDR reviewed elsewhere, I don’t understand why it
took four years to release this. Recorded in 1997 by the Gravitar
trio which exists since 1992 and who had a couple of previous
releases on label as Charnel Music. Gravitar plays lenghty pieces of
free noise impro space rock (I hope I got the order right here).
Three of the five pieces clock in at over 15 minutes, whilst the
other two are at 8 and 6 minutes resp. Two guitars and a drummer, and
someone who plays horns at times. I must admit I didn’t hear much of
their previous releases (or maybe I don’t remember them), but I quite
enjoy their space rock chants. Much reminded me of the sadly missed
F/i and Vocokesh (although I believe they still exist?) with a wall
of sound, howling guitar solo’s and drums that sound either like a
thunderous storm or a train at constant speed. Being no dope head, I
must say I was very pleased with this, which seems a contradiction.
(FdW)
Address: www.enterruption.com
NAKED AND ALONE ON THE CELEBRITY CIRCUIT (CompilationCD by Diskono)
I find Diskono one of the more interesting small labels around, but
at the same time they are hard to pin down. Much of what they do is a
comment on the state of popular music (just like V/VM does), but
there is more to it. I imagine people that release music on Diskono
either DJ’s with mini discs, laptop boys and microphone lovers
picking up conversartions from the neighbours. Cultural terrorits so
to speak with, people for which the end result is less important then
the means to achieve it. Here is a whole collection of bands that
exchange their music on self burnt CD’s, internet sound files and the
aforementioned minidiscs. The collection contains names you heard
before like Felix Kubin, Jane Dowe, Kid 606, Pimmon but also people
like Ruth Random, CK Dexter Haven and Gunther Saxonhammer. The whole
thing spans over 26 tracks which makes it into quite a fragmentaric
adventure. I lost track after some twenty minutes of who did what.
There a beeps of techno, lulls of drones, spoken word (inc. Kubin
telling a joke), and environmental sounds being processed through the
good ol’ laptop. There aren’t any particular stand out tracks or
suprises here, but it’s an interesting peep into the real do it
yourself underground of today. (FdW)
Address: http://website.lineone.net/~diskono