TREVOR WISHART – JOURNEY INTO SPACE (CD by Paradigm)
ULTRASOUND – ENCOMIUM (CDR by Mystery Sea)
ANDRE DUCHESNE – PolaroÔde (CD on Ambiances MagnÈtiques)
JEAN DEROME – Le magasin de tissu (CD on Ambiances MagnÈtiques)
CHRIS DOOKS – TO LOOK NORTH (CD by Isis Arts)
JIM O’ROURKE – I’M HAPPY, I’M SINGING, AND A 1, 2, 3, 4 (CD by Mego)
V.A. – LEG DICH HIN UND WARTE BIS DIE BILDER KOMMEN (CD by Silke Arp-bricht)
FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER & TAYLOR DEUPREE – BALANCE (CD by Mille Plateaux)
YAGYA – THE RHYTHM OF SNOW (CD by Force Inc)
SIMMER – NEW ELECTRONIC MUSIC FROM CHICAGO (CD by Boxmedia)
FOLIE – MISSPASS (CD by Mitek)
SND – TENDER LOVE (CD by Mille Plateaux)
NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES – SCENES FROM THE NEXT MILLENIUM (Cd by Malignant)
MAIN/ANTENNA FARM – BROMBROM #1: AF-M (Cd by Staalplaat)
TREVOR WISHART – JOURNEY INTO SPACE (CD by Paradigm)
This CD is a re-issue of two self-released LPs by Trevor Wishart from the
early seventies, which were apperentely not very well-known. I think I may
have heard the odd piece by Wishart on the odd compilation in the early
80s, and associated his name with stacks on analogue synths. And looking at
a title like ‘Journey Into Space’ that might not be very wrong. I imagined
a very spacey CD with long synth patterns… the only thing wrong in this
picture is the re-issue on the Paradigm label, who are not really known for
releasing cosmic music. So it is. Wishart’s old recording is ‘the
allegorical journey of a man towards self-realisation’. He uses techniques
from musique concrete to built his lengthy pieces (this CD lasts over 78
minutes, mind you) and the sound input ranges from toys, bottles, metal
tubes and sounds from builder’s yards. These sounds are edited, mixed,
re-edited, re-mixed and treated (speed-change, filtering, reversing). The
piece operate in blocks. There is a block with toys, a block with metal
sounds, a block with environment sounds etc. Although this is all fun to
hear, the compositions themselves seem a bit randomly be put together.
Sounds here and there, changing sections to the next etc, but the real
structure, some sort of tension… it seems to be lacking a bit. More a
soundscape then a composition maybe. Wishart feels sort of similar, as he
writes on the cover: ‘as a whole In now find it over-long, many transitions
too pedestrian, and its treatment of ‘ideas’ too crude: it’s almost
embarrassingly late 60s!!’ Don’t worry Trevor, some people find this very
appealling (but they generally prefer the old vinyl over a new CD) and
me… I just thought of it as a very nice curiousty from the ancient days
which I enjoyed hearing. (FdW)
Address: www.stalk.net/paradigm
ULTRASOUND – ENCOMIUM (CDR by Mystery Sea)
Ultrasound may be known from their LP’s and CD’s, including their recent
blast in tribute of Popol Vuh (see Vital Weekly 299). That split LP was a
leap forward, but here, on this limited CDR release, they hark back to a
couple of recordings made between 1996 and 1998. The nine seperate pieces
are put together as one long track of some 45 minutes of sublime dark
atmospheric guitar music. Slowly, majestic evolving sound which sound
similar to their earlier work (the first three LPs). A rich tapestry of
sounds, that at times sound bare similarity with Stars Of The Lid (of which
band member Kirk Laktas was once a member), but has enough originality (and
beauty) of it’s own. Desolate soundings towards the end (sorry, I didn’t
bother to figure which is what here, I just let it go by) of a guitar
plinking solo against a giant wash of drones. Music as deserted as Texas is
(the state were these boys hail from). Endless road music. A perfect
soundtrack to watch the stars at night. (FdW)
Address: http://perso.infonie.be/mystery.sea
ANDRE DUCHESNE – PolaroÔde (CD on Ambiances MagnÈtiques)
JEAN DEROME – Le magasin de tissu (CD on Ambiances MagnÈtiques)
Two new cds from two reputated canadian musicians. Both are successfull in
adding new aspects to their already considerable volume of work. Andre
Duchesne surprises with a trio with Pierre Tanguay on drums and Jean RenÈ
on alto violin. Duchesne plays classical guitar as he did on his solo
effort ‘RÈflexions’ releasesed in 1999.
Like Duchesne (Conventum, Les 4 gutiaristes de l’Apocalypso Bar,
Locomotive) Pierre Tanguay is known from many other Ambiances MagnÈtiques
releases. In 2000 Tangauy delivered his first and very tasteful ‘La Musique
de mon Disque’. For Jean RenÈ it is his first appearance on this label. He
studied composition and conducting and became solo violist for the
Orchestre MÈtropolitain in 1991. He is active in a number of chamber music
groups and is interested in the new music, both written and improvised. So
this trio must be an interesting context for him, as the music is all about
modern chambermusic and improvisation. In the older work of Duchesne rock
was never far away. In this new work on the other hand he moves away from
music that is in one way or the other related to rock. With ‘PolaroÔde’ we
enter into the world of modern chambermusic. Concentrated and complex
music. Igor Stravisnky is somewhere in the neighboorhood. RenÈ is very
prominent on this cd. He is a very sensible violist and it is a joy to
listen to him.
Jean Derome tells us that he “always has been fascinated by catalogues,
lists and dictionaries. They are our somewhat naive attempts to conquer the
diversity and complexity of the world around us”. How shall I order my
collection of stamps? Land by land, birds by birds, etc.? This are
superficial but maybe relevant criteria to bring order into a diversity.
>From this fascination originated his new cd ‘Le magasin de tissu’ (The
Fabric Shop). He recorded 69 short improvised pieces. Each piece has one
instrument. He uses reeds, flutes and all kinds of percussive instruments
and objects. It is a catalogue – not exhaustive – of the instruments and
sounds Derome makes use of in his music. All pieces last about 69 seconds.
In between the pieces they are 13 seconds of silence. After compiling this
catalogue of 69 soundpieces he put them in some order in the following way.
The pieces were distributed on three different cds. So each one has 23
tracks. Derome played these three cds simultaneously in shuffle mode and
re-recorded the result. That is what we have in our hands. So it is one of
many possible worlds. Is it the best of all possible worlds…? Composed as
it is in a very extrinsic way. A naive attempt to compose music…? “This
project was designed to allow chance to show its beauty” Derome
concludes…(DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com
CHRIS DOOKS – TO LOOK NORTH (CD by Isis Arts)
Chris Dooks may be more known as Bovine Life (and his recent CD for Bip
Hop), but he was a filmmaker before an illness turned him back to music
again. In 2001 he was commissioned an artist project by Isis Arts. Chris
watched hundreds of movies of the last 100 years of life in North of
England and constructed this audio and video now on CD. He uses sounds from
the films to construct his sound pieces. Many, many of the 25 short tracks
deal with voice, either spoken word (many) and sung (not so many). Chris
either samples these voices or collages them on his computer, adding a tiny
bit of extra effects to them (reverb, delay) and then goes on to the next
track. It’s kinda hard for me (outsider, non UK, non specialist of the
regional differences inside the UK) to hear whether this shows me an
accurate picture of life in that area, whilst it is not focussing on
particular problems of the area (unemployment, strikes) in particular
times. So this outsider view is left with more then two handsful of short,
fragmented sound pieces, which are nice by itself but maybe lacks the
bigger idea.
It’s funny to see the enclosed Quicktime movies which have a much more
abstract sound. Here the time stretches of sound work nice along the films
and the films are abstract sort of collages of life up north. (FdW)
Address: www.isisarts.org.uk
JIM O’ROURKE – I’M HAPPY, I’M SINGING, AND A 1, 2, 3, 4 (CD by Mego)
Much has been said already about the new Jim O’Rourke (or better, one of
the two new Jim O’Rourke’s if you take ‘Insignificance’ in mind too), but
for reasons I don’t know, a promo arrived late. You know the story: this is
Jim’s powerbook album of pieces that culminated over the last few years.
You may also know that the first piece (‘I’m Happy’) is a minimal take,
Philip Glass on Max, the second (‘And I’m Singing’) contains the thumbling
sounds of concrete elements and the third (‘And A 1, 2, 3, 4’) is a long
melancholical piece that slowly drifts away in humms of controlled
feedback. For me the price winning piece, which harks back to his ancient
days of “Disengage” but updated with the latest technology. What can I say?
Excellent album, landmark in powerbook technology… on of the best of
2001. (FdW)
Address: www.mego.at
V.A. – LEG DICH HIN UND WARTE BIS DIE BILDER KOMMEN (CD by Silke Arp-bricht)
Silke Arp-bricht is a small club in Hannover in Germany, organising many
concerts and other events. This is already their ninth compilation and this
time the ‘themes’ are radioplay and film music. Having read this one the
cover, I hardly knew what to expect, so I innocently put the disc in the
player and was pretty much caught off guard upon discovering the contents:
weird text pieces, broken vocals, cut ups, kitschy music and so on. With no
less than 23 contributions from people like Ilse Lau, m.gke, Harald “Sack”
Ziegler, Hildeguard, Dr. Proll, Krite, Rebresch & Blumm, MuMo – Das
Werkstattgesprch, Venus, Nico Walser, Isle of voices, Johannes Przygodda,
7. Orchester zur See, Stefan Roigk, SV Atemgold 09, Hula (not the ones from
England, I believe), Milford T. and Echa Deha, this compilation brings
forth an ironic and mostly funny side of German experimentalism and humor.
What about “Deustch f¸r Erwachsene: Gabi & Rolf” for example. A cut up
piece from some German course leading to sexual acts after tea. Or the
story of Tom Sawyer told by as many different people as there are sentences
in the the first chapter? Or a short piece in which some words have been
replaced by the sounds repesenting them? I could go on like this for some
time, but I’ll keep it simple: you will like or you won’t. There’s nothing
inbetween. And by the way: understanding German may come in handy! (MR)
Adress: www.silke-arp-bricht.de
FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER & TAYLOR DEUPREE – BALANCE (CD by Mille Plateaux)
Nowadays you don’t have to meet anyone in person to do some music together.
I am sure though Taylor Deupree and Frank Bretschneider have met in person,
but that the music on this CD was made through the use of postal system,
either e-mail or snail mail. Both composers are masters of minimalism.
Frank with his nord modular synth being triggered by ultra clean beats and
Taylor with his computer. Upon hearing the nine pieces, it seems to be more
a Frank thing, then a Taylor affair, but who knows… I am merely judging
upon their respective latest work. Taylor has been at the forefront of new
rhythmical music for a long time, that it might easy for him to return to
those days when it comes to producing music with Frank. Clinical beats in a
slow to mid tempo range, with sounds arising from the bottom of the ocean,
making small ripples when you can finally see them. These nine tracks make
one long flow, towards the end of each track new elements are added and
make the beginning of a new piece. A very lively piece of music. (FdW)
Address: www.force-inc.com
YAGYA – THE RHYTHM OF SNOW (CD by Force Inc)
>From the very few liner notes on this, we learn that Yagya may be from
Iceland, or at least that’s were in the frozen summer of 2001 this CD was
recorded. Each of the pieces is called ‘Snowflake’ with a subsequent
number. The, of course I hasten to say, lengthy pieces on this release show
an interest in ambient meeting techno music. Slow to mid tempo rhythms
sleep in a bed of warm synth sounds. Probably this would be been big on
Silent in 1993 when ambient house was at it’s peak, but why a label at the
forefront of electronic dance music is releasing it now is a bit beyond me.
I mean it’s not a bad release, it’s really great work music to work by, but
any Heavenly Music Corporation CD is, any From Here To Tranquility or any
Horizon 222. The good thing is that lacks any spoken word samples of T.
Leary or J.C. Lilly. But if that was all the progression we waited for…
Either way too late or way too early for the next revival… (FdW)
Address: www.force-inc.com
SIMMER – NEW ELECTRONIC MUSIC FROM CHICAGO (CD by Boxmedia)
Chicago is of course one of the bigger cities of the USA, but the amount of
new music coming out of that city is overwhelming. Boxmedia, a fine label
devoted to the more cutting edge experimental and improvised music, managed
to find another thirteen artists from their home city, of which very few
are known. Some of these are solo projects of bands. Aerospace Soundwise
and Wheaton Research are solo projects of TV Pow (who is not on this CD).
Another common thing is here the use of noise in combination with laptops
or computers. Some of these stay on the more industrial edge of things, but
somebody like A-D Relay crosses to some nasty sort of drum & bass and Petra
Klusmeyer stays on the very quiet side of things. All the others seem to
move inbetween. You’ll find music by Black Dot, Nautical Almanac, Koura,
Ernst Karel, Coeurl, Fashion Will Guide Me, Gunshop, Seafoam and Doug
Lussenshop besides the others already mentioned. Not every track is top
playing, but as for the intention as a guide to new music by those not yet
hyped this is something to investigate, before they are. (FdW)
Address: www.boxmedia.com
FOLIE – MISSPASS (CD by Mitek)
Behind Folie we find one Stefan Thor, who hails from Hasslehim, south of
Sweden), also the home town of Andreas Tilliander, aka Mokira, aka the guy
who mastered this CD. Stefan uses computer technology to create his own
version of broken beats (which are sometimes called break beats, I guess),
to which he adds very little melody lines. At the times he comes close to
the music on Morr Music, but overall his sound is fuller and the melodies
sparser then those on Morr. A track like ‘Rippit’ or ‘Cikada’ comes close
to a Morr sound meeting clickhouse and are among the more favourites on
this CD. When it gets more distorted, like in the first three pieces that
open this CD, it all doesn’t do much for me. When simplicity rules, it’s
ok. As you can imagine I am not overtly enthusiast about this CD, though
the nice tracks are in balance with the less nice tracks. (FdW)
Address: www.mitek-web.net
SND – TENDER LOVE (CD by Mille Plateaux)
Whatever you can say of SND, they are not types that do over production. In
many ways. They don’t flood the market with tons of releases as this is
their third album in what… 5 years or so? Also their stripped down
version of techno is not over produced either. Sparse beats, broken chords
and plug ins that guide the beats through a landscape. Although their
previous was less a landmark then their first CD, I think SND hit the right
groove with this one again. The tracks are relatively short, based around
one idea/rhythm loop, things take a progress and then they move on to the
next piece. More like the ‘Makesnd Cassette’, then ‘Stdiosnd Types’ I’d
say, but the novelty is of course gone. No problem however. With an output
so small as SND every new outing is a diamant to cherish. Like tender love,
yes. (FdW)
Address: www.force-inc.com
NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES – SCENES FROM THE NEXT MILLENIUM (Cd by Malignant)
When listening to noise music, I sometimes think about how musical
expressions during the last half a century has taken a giant step towards
sonic extremeties. Imagine how young people in the 1960^”s tried to convince
their parents, that The Beatles actually did play music and not just
sounded like somebody, pulling a cat^”s tail. And then imagine how these
same parents would react if they were confronted with some of present day^”s
extreme Noise. What in our modern society attract us towards such extreme
sonic expressions…an interesting but also a little frightening…!
^”Scenes from the next millenium^’ from Navicon Torture Technologies is one
of these albums that lead me into these trains of thoughts, simply because
of its extreme expressional nature. Being a member of the NYPE-group,
Leech, the man bahind Navicon Torture Technologies, is one of the forefront
artists from the New York Power Electronics-scene. After quite a few CD-R^”s
and tapes, ^”Scenes fron the next millenium^’ is the first full-length from
NTT. The tracks of the album are based on aggressive power electronics,
with loads of distorted feedback and mind-blowing walls of noise. Despite
the violent approach to electronic sound, Navicon Torture Technologies also
focus a lot on atmosphere in his work. An atmosphere first of all built
around samples of choir and not-tuned pianos, just to name a few. Also the
appearances of dark ambient-drones make a great emotional atmosphere on an
otherwise dramatically harsh piece of work that explodes in cathartic
aggressions brought on by suppressed deoms and hellish sounds. Navicon
Torture Technologies will without any doubt appeal to listeners
appreciating sonic exppressions that seriously approximate the outer limits
of what today, could be termed ^”music^’. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: www.malignantrecords.com
MAIN/ANTENNA FARM – BROMBROM #1: AF-M (Cd by Staalplaat)
The Brombrom project was introduced by Staalplaat together with Extrapool
back in the year 2000. The aim of the project was to invite sound artists
into the residence of Extrapool to fulfill projects that otherwise could
have remained somewhere in never-neverland. The first result coming out of
the Brombrom-idea came on the streets earlier in 2001, though it was
actually the second recording being made during the project. The first
actual recording under the Brombrom-project has finally been released. The
album titled AF-M, was the result of a collaboration between Main alias
Robert Hampson (also known as member of both post-punk-act Loop and
Industrial/Death metal-band Godflesh) and David Howell and Alastair Leslie,
together known as Antenna Farm. The result of this collaboration is a
rather dramatic piece of art that is very much based on field recordings
gathered around Nijmegen in Holland. With plenty of editing the found
sounds have been put into a world of sonic experimentalism created on
guitars and powerbooks. And thus the trio have ended up with a remarkable
drone-based piece of work. Definitely worth checking out! (NMP)
Address: www.staalplaat.com