JORGE CASTRO – SIN TITULO #2 (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
JORGE CASTRO – THE JOYS AND REWARDS OF REPETITION (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
RICHARD LAINHART – TEN THOUSAND SHADES OF BLUE (CD by Experimental Intermedia)
DIE FRUCHT – SUPERSAD (7″ by Dhyana Records)
COMPILATION (7″ by Dhyana Records)
PANZERBOY 666 (7″ by Dhyana Records)
NIHIL EST EXCELLENCE (3″ CDR)
KNURL – PARAMECIUM (CDR by Panta Rhei)
TWINE – CIRCULATION (LP by Komplott)
AD’S (3″ CD by Re Echo Records)
CHRISTOF MIGONE – CRACKERS (CD by Locust Media)
ET SANS – L’AUTRE (CD by Locust Media)
UTAH KAWASAKI/TETUZI AKIYAMA/JASON KAHN – LUWA (CD by Rossbin)
JORGE CASTRO – SIN TITULO #2 (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
JORGE CASTRO – THE JOYS AND REWARDS OF REPETITION (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
Jorge Castro’s first ‘Sin Titulo’ (meaning ‘Without Title’) was a
self-released work in a plastic cover, with nothing else. Both music
and art very minimal. This new one looks much better, I’d say: a
carton sleeve with a color xerox stuck on to it. Castro is best
classified as an ambient guitarist. In about 45 minutes he strums his
guitar in an almost random way, maybe or so it seems, feeds in
through a delay box (or two, or three), which comes to us as a
self-generating system, a self feeding animal, but one of a very
relaxing nature. In some of his previous works there were harsher
undercurrents, but they have completely disappeared here. This is
ambient music in the best Eno/Fripp tradition.
I think the CDR ‘The Joys And Rewards Of Repetition’ is an older
release by Public Eyeshore, at least the recordings are from late
1999. Four pieces, all of course lengthy, which all deal with drones.
‘Hiss’ the opening piece sounds like a processed piece of E-bow
guitar. Here too a subtle play of delicate tones is used, but the
long sustained sounds might be a bit too experimental for some, but
not for me. Again, this one comes noise-free too, but is less easily
accessible then the second ‘Sin Titulo’. To hear the developments of
Jorge Castro as a guitarist, both are recommended. (FdW)
Address: www.sinkhole.net/pehome
RICHARD LAINHART – TEN THOUSAND SHADES OF BLUE (CD by Experimental Intermedia)
Experimental Intermedia keeps on surprising me with composers I have
never heard of. The booklets have extensive liner notes and articles
by friends. Richard Lainhart is one such composer, who is honored
here by two CD’s of more or less historical recordings. On the first
CD, the first three pieces are analog pieces of mid seventies
electronics. Well, electronics is a big word, I think. ‘Bronze Cloud
Disk’ is the oldest piece here, from 1975, and uses a tam tam played
with a bow, but the overdubbed eight times. ‘Two Mirrors Face One
Another’ and ‘Cities Of Light’ are more or less companion pieces
which use Japanese temple bells and voice respectively. By the
process of overdub and adding filtering and pitch-shifting, Lainhart
creates wonderful droning music. Especially ‘Cities Of Light’ (1980)
is a piece that could be of any Hypnos release or the latest Vidna
Obmana. My favorite is ‘Bronze Cloud Disk’, which is the darkest of
the three and shimmers around in the underworld. The fourth piece on
disc one is a computer piece of midi controlled micro sounds which is
less drony and more open ended. ‘Staring At The Moon’ is also a
software/computer piece but uses a single sound source and thus
sounds more like the first three pieces on disc one. Also a dark
piece of great beauty, but maybe also a little bit more metallic. The
last piece is a 40 minute solo piece for vibraphone (Lainhart
apparently plays vibes in a swing band too), which has, and I hardly
believe it, only slight sound processing. Overtones swirl in and out
here, most likely he plays the vibraphone with a bow… Excellent
minimal music that fits in many traditions mentioned in Vital
regularly (from Vidna Obmana to Mirror) and hopefully more heard now
that it is released on a bigger label. (FdW)
Address: www.xirecords.org
DIE FRUCHT – SUPERSAD (7″ by Dhyana Records)
COMPILATION (7″ by Dhyana Records)
PANZERBOY 666 (7″ by Dhyana Records)
A couple of new 7″s on Dhyana Records, mostly of bands I never heard
of. Die Frucht for instance. They play electronic music but in a pop
context. The side that is called ‘Supersad’ lives up to its title.
Partly male, partly female sung piece over a sad sounding rhythms and
melodies. The instrumental b-side is the rather up tempo instrumental
‘Tschakka’, with the rhythm sounding very up front and the keys more
in the back. On yellow vinyl.
More puzzling is a 7″ with four bands. Istari Lasterfahrer offer four
short tracks of gabber like techno with a political edge (‘I hate
hitler’ is the text of ‘hate track # 18) and the longest piece is
‘Commercial Rubbish’. Crude stuff. Slackism offer a more subdued
outing of droning ambient loops, but in a rather lo-fi mood. Deep is
a bit more known, from their previous releases on Dhyana, but who
offer a less dubby outing then before, but again also a sort of lo-fi
guitar rumble over a not so consistent rhythm. Nihism is the last
band and they are from Switzerland. More traditional rock like songs,
with guitars and drum machines and sound overall really lo-fi and a
bit outdated (and least produced here).
Panzerboy 666 is also a band I never heard of and the liner notes are
barely readable. I gave up on deciphering that. They too play
electronic music, but it’s kinda hard to pin them down to a style.
Strangely slowed down vocals over modern rhythms (read: techno-like,
but not really technoish…). Also lo-fi if you compare it to ‘real’
techno music, but of the three 7″s the one that was least attractive
for me. But with a good score of 2 outta 3 not bad at all. (FdW)
Address: www.dhyanarecords.com
NIHIL EST EXCELLENCE (3″ CDR)
Nihil Est Excellence might sound as a bandname maybe a bit too gothic
(but hey being from Russia, who can blame them), their limited 3″
CD-R operates in dark ambient territories. Three tracks, of which the
second is the longest and the others act at as appetizer and dessert,
of strangely processed electro-acoustic sound (let’s say the ripping
of paper? maybe? a screw being attached again? maybe?) against dark
walls of drones and suppressed feedback. Quite seductive stuff, which
only suffers from the fact that it’s such a short release, I guess.
Things might have worked even better when especially the two shorter
tracks would have had the same length as the long piece. (FdW)
Address: www.darkambient.net
KNURL – PARAMECIUM (CDR by Panta Rhei)
After releasing some softer, dark ambient releases as Pholde, Alan
Bloor returns as Knurl. Recorded without any overdubs it says on the
cover here, but we are left blank as to which instrumentation Knurl
uses. An oceanic storm of noise comes out of the speakers in all five
tracks. Heavily distorted sound, maybe the banging on a tea-cup,
furiously amplified and distorted, with fiddling around with high and
mid end equalization. It’s really a kind of mediocre stuff concerning
the depths of noise, and I must say I prefer Alan’s ambient side
better. (FdW)
Address: <movknurl@interlog.com>
TWINE – CIRCULATION (LP by Komplott)
Apart from their tracks a few weeks ago on the Bip Hop V.4
compilation this is my first real introduction to Twine, the ongoing
collaboration between Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder. I must admit,
I like this LP much better then the appetizer tracks from before. I
thought Twine would be some Autechre clone, but their seven tracks on
this LP are much more subdued and less techno inspired. It’s not say
that they don’t use any rhythm at all, but it remains on a level of
mere clicks and cracks. Besides that they use a lot more sounds and
their music is loaded with strange, small and microscopic sounds.
Sometimes these are voices or an orchestra playing, or the phase
shifting of ambient like patterns. The pieces are all rather subdued,
hinting at times to Oval, but with a definite more musical context
then what Oval does these days. Very nice record. (FdW)
Address: www.komplott.com
AD’S (3″ CD by Re Echo Records)
The name Mark Blakebrough doesn’t sound very Swiss, but who knows, he
isn’t. From what I understand from his bio, he started producing
music a good year ago (and there is reference to previous activities)
and now he presents his first release, a 3″ CD with three pieces in
total. He describes his music as ‘electro-acoustic, meant in the way
that he uses some acoustic and electric elements and then
destructures them using digital tools’. Isn’t by that description
anything electro-acoustic? All music these days finds it’s end result
in the computer and is generated by acoustic and/or electric means…
What these acoustic and electric sounds are is hard to tell. In the
second piece we hear a piano (the first piece had nothing that was
recognizable as a musical instrument, or identifiable acoustic sound)
and in the third a guitar. Behind, above and beyond there are looped
segments which run wild through a bunch of plug ins and result in a
nagging droning character. Only the third piece has a more open
character and a nice interaction is played on the guitar with slowly
fading in drones and noises. For a starter not bad… A remix CD is
planned, so I’m curious to see what others do with these sounds. (FdW)
Address: reechorec@hotmail.com
CHRISTOF MIGONE – CRACKERS (CD by Locust Media)
ET SANS – L’AUTRE (CD by Locust Media)
Locust Media is a new label, who surprise us with two interesting
releases. And what’s even more surprising, is that this new USA label
chooses to release two acts from Canada.
Christof Migone might not be unknown to the readers of Vital Weekly
and here he presents a truly interesting work. ‘Crackers’ doesn’t
deal with crunchy bread or cracks from the laptop, but it deals with
the sound of cracking knuckles, knees, wrists, jaws, toes, ankles,
backs, necks, elbows and hips. I usually crack my fingers, but don’t
see that listed here. I know many people that don’t like that.
Christof executed this project partly to record the sound, but also
as an art-science project. The resultant sounds act here as the
music. Of course these sounds have been electronically treated to a
wide extent, so it’s a repeating field of crackling sound. Sometimes
high pitched sounds are added, sometimes they are left by themselves.
Microsound for sure, and this release wouldn’t have looked bad on
Mille Plateaux. An interesting idea to produce from these bodily
activities and maybe the future of clicks & cuts?
Et Sans is a duo consisting of Roger Tellier-Craig (who is a member
of Fly Pan Am and Godspeed You Black Emperor) and Alexandre St-Onge
(who is a member of Undo and Shalabi Effect). Playing their music on
an upright bass, guitars and pre-recorded sound collages of their own
voices, they offer just one track, 42 minutes in length. As you can
imagine this is an improvisation so it has some abrupt volume
changes. The music evolves in a drone like way, but goes through
various passages, which are announced by the tape-collages. The
second half of the piece is more intensely and more loudly played,
but it never goes over the top. An intense recording which combines
finely improvised music and musique concrete. (FdW)
Address: www.locustmusic.com
UTAH KAWASAKI/TETUZI AKIYAMA/JASON KAHN – LUWA (CD by Rossbin)
On the small Rossbin label another fine work of improvisation. Here
Jason Khan (known from his solo work, aswell as the duo Repeat) plays
with Utah Kawasaki and Tetuzi Akiyama. Jason plays electronics (I
assume this to be his laptop) and Utah synthesizer and Tetuzi
electric guitar and electronics. The recording here was made at the
Sonique Series, which is a series of concerts organized by Jason in
Zurich. As one can imagine looking at the instruments mentioned here
the results are of a highly electronic nature. Cracks, clicks, cable
hum form the main ingredients. The guitar acts here as the
fremdkoerper among the electronic violence. Occasionally these lead
to an intense interaction among them, but there are also moments were
the three are searching for the good moment to arrive. From the two
parts here, I think the second is the better one. It’s more worked
out, placing carefully the elements together and every voice gets a
fair share. (FdW)
Address: <rossbin@libero.it>