AS11 – 5000M NEW WR (3″CD by Antifrost)
MINMAE FEAT. ONQ – BOUND TO THE WHIPS OF THE AERONAUTICAL FATWA (7″
by Dhyana Records)
INOX KAPELL – TOURDOKU (7″ by Dhyana Records)
ASMUS TIETCHENS/THOMAS KONER/ILLUSION OF SAFETY/DITTERICH VON
EULER-DONNERSPERG (2X7″ by Die Stadt)l
THE SOUND OF NATURE/THE NATURE OF SOUND (CD compilation by Kaon)
PAULINE OLIVEROS – NO MO (CD by Pogus Productions)
AS11 – 5000M NEW WR (3″CD by Antifrost)
This little disc could be one of the most conceptual releases I have
EVER stumbled upon. AS11 is a Barcelona-based sound-artist and 5000m
New WR is a sonic approximation of an attempt at a new World Record
for the 5000m race. It consists of three tracks: ‘Pre new WR’, ‘New
WR’ and ‘Post new WR’: here are the body’s internal rhythms and
arrhythmiae as music – literally. The make-up of this release is
nothing more than the digital pulse of the heart; the irregular dense
flow of the lungs in electroacoustic form. An unusual concept I’ll
grant you but also a highly listenable one; and tiring to listen to
at the same time. Notwithstanding its armchair physicality, I’ve
come back to this one often over the past few weeks, which surprises
me a great deal, as 5000m New WR is compelling for reasons I just
can’t fathom and it’s all over in seventeen gloriously minimal
minutes… (BL)
Address: http://www.antifrost.gr
MINMAE FEAT. ONQ – BOUND TO THE WHIPS OF THE AERONAUTICAL FATWA (7″
by Dhyana Records)
INOX KAPELL – TOURDOKU (7″ by Dhyana Records)
Dhyana Records usually releases the sort of music that is a bit
remotely away from what Vital Weekly reviews. But it’s also the sort
of music I have a weakness for. It’s a kinda weird popmusic that is
without doubt very German: naive and funny. Even when one of these
new 7″ is not all from Germany. Minmae are from Portland, Oregon and
Onq is a one man band from Italy. They have collaborated on this 7″
through mail and managed to cramp ten tracks on this 7″. They use
drums, voices, ebow, calimba, bass, keyboards and more. Lo-fi guitar
riffs, filled with drums and bass, adding an overall weirdness and
there you go. The A-side has four tracks and is overall more
structured – if I’m not mistaken this side is put together by Minmae
and the b-side is more chaotic. But nice overall weirdness.
I must admit that the first time I saw Inox Kapell live I had been
drinking too much, which may have added to the joy of liking them.
Last year I saw them again and I still liked it very much. They dress
up for each song, because each song tells a story. For this occassion
Inox Kapell was a trio, including Inox himself, Dr. Teznock and
Japanese singer Toshi. Side A contains the song ‘Arbeit’ (work) and
all three sing and add little dosis of synths, drum computer and
bass. Very much a Neue Deutsche Welle song. The b-side has two songs,
‘Wir Rufen Euch’ (We call you) and has a more recent inspired beat
track with German lyrics – also sung in old German fashion. ‘In
Ostfreesland’ is more a contemplating song. Bytheway hats off for the
cover on this one, which was printed at Extrapool on the full colour
stencil machines. (FdW)
Address: <dhyanarec@compuserve.de>
ASMUS TIETCHENS/THOMAS KONER/ILLUSION OF SAFETY/DITTERICH VON
EULER-DONNERSPERG (2X7″ by Die Stadt)l
Besides releasing great records, Die Stadt also puts up great
concerts. I think, because I never went there, but the names they
have are great. Even better is that Die Stadt releases 7″s for these
occasions. This is a double 7″ with the artists featured that night,
plus a 7″ which was only available that night. Asmus Tietchens opens
very softly, almost inaudible, his watertap in ‘Hydrophonie 19A’,
which drippens are almost similar to large objects falling in an
abonned factory site. Thomas Koner is on the other side (and no doubt
Koner and Tietchens recorded another fine installment in their
‘Kontakte der Junglinge project that night) with a fiercy dark
ambient piece. The second 7″ is more about sound collage. The
Illusion Of Safety piece hoovers between blocks of sound, drony and
contemplative but intercepted by noisy assaults. Culled from a live
performance, but entirely reworked in the studio to gather the IOS
fashion. On the other side Ditterich Von Euler-Donnersperg with a
collage of samples running, a sort of abstract Hafler Trio (if they
aren’t abstract enough for you). Nice and unexpected good stuff there.
Weirdness can be found on the 7″ that was available at the concert
(and no doubt the remainder is sold through mailorder). Illusion Of
Safety plays around with ‘I’m Not In Love’ by 10CC, by opening the
entire plug ins. Very noisy but not as a lovely as the version by
Stol (Stephan Mathieu’s former band). Dittel & Tuttel reads from a
series of texts ‘In der Wuste Ist Der Sand Billig’ (Sand is cheap in
the desert), a series of newspaper like reports, all featuring one
Asmus T. Funny, but the knowledge of German is required.
Address: <jschwarz@diestadtmusik.de>
THE SOUND OF NATURE/THE NATURE OF SOUND (CD compilation by Kaon)
Kaon is a small label from France, having previously released music
by mainly Toy Bizarre. Now after a silence of nearly two years they
are back with a compilation of sounds from nature, soundscaping or
whatever you wish to call this. It opens with a lengthy piece by
Francisco Lopez, who rumbles at the far end of silence. Giancarlo
Toniutti, not a frequent participant in compilations, has piece that
involves cowbells but no cow sounds. They might be tapeloops, but
they might not be, it’s hard to tell. Next up is Jeph Jerman, who
seems to be letting go of the name Hands To when it comes to doing
music dealing with environmental sounds, with a piece of heavily
EQ-ed wind sounds and scrapings upon rocks. The only collaborative
piece is by US composer Seth Nehil and French Toy Bizarre, with a
beautiful piece of drones (I am not really sure if they were made
with the use of electronics), rain and wind sounds. This is also one
of the few pieces on this CD which has progress in sound throughout.
Kiyoshi Mizutani offers water sounds from a mountain stream and a
reed – a most curious piece, which in all it’s simplicity is quite
nice. Mnortham is also a name lurking around in the world of
environment music and he too offers drones and soft crackling of
wood, or maybe it’s a small fire outside. Like the Nehil/Toy Bizarre
also one with a real composition and not the presentation of things
how they are. Same can be said of Eric La Casa (‘s entire work) who
stands strong in the tradition of French electro-acoustic music, but
applied to just environment sounds. All of these pieces are lenghty
excursions (around 12 minutes for most of them), but for the most
part they are minimal too. It’s all very strong material for this
kind of music, so most welcomed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kaon.org
PAULINE OLIVEROS – NO MO (CD by Pogus Productions)
Hopefully I am right when assuming that Pauline Oliveros is a
household name among the most of you out there. With her Deep
Listening band she is on tour a lot. I kinda have a love/hate
relationship with the music: sometimes I seem to like it, and
sometimes it gives me a hard time. But lets not forget that Oliveros
produced music since the sixties and luckily some of that is being
released finally on CD. There was an excellent CD on Paradigm and now
Pogus fills in more historical gaps with three pieces. The first two
were recorded at the Classical Electronic Music Studio in Toronto.
‘No Mo’ is a wild rocking piece of Layfette tone generators, noise
source and tape delay and turns out to be an excentric noisy piece
that predates a lot of the (early) Merzbow. By total contrast is
‘Something Else’, which is a more contemplative, drone like piece.
‘Bog Road’ was recorded at the Mills Tape Music Center, of which
Oliveros became the director and is from a series of ‘Bog’ pieces
which were all inspired by singings frogs at a pond. The pure
electronics of the Buchla Series 100 sound more like a swarm of
insects rather then singing frogs, but it captures the idea of frogs
very well. I must say I like this old stuff without any problem. It’s
raw and fresh and doesn’t sound like antique… (FdW)
Address: www.pogus.com