ALEJANDRA & AERON – TALE OF PIP (CD by Lucky Kitchen)
SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU – NOCTURNE IMPALPABLE (Cd by Les Disques Du Soleil Et De
L’Acier)
STIMBOX – LUPUS TUBERCULOSO (3″ CDR by Tabula Rasa – Centro De Ruido)
ROTTEN PIECE – ESPOROTRICOSIS GOMOSA (3″ CDR by Tabula Rasa – Centro De Ruido)
ZE’RO-SUM – XANTELASMA TUBEROSO (3″ CDR by Tabula Rasa – Centro De Ruido)
SAMPLE MINDS (2CD by Medienkunst Tirol)
V. – AWRKID (CDR by Zero Moon)
V./ULTRA MILKMAIDS – DRONE & UNEASE (CD by Zero Moon)
AGENCEMENT – BOXE CONSONANTIQUE (CD by Pico)
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE/BOB MARSH – RAGS AND STONES (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
ULTRA FUCKERS – BEYOND THE FUCKLESS (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
THOMAS KONER – UNERFROSCHTES GEBIET (LP by Die Stadt)
DANIEL ROZENHALL – MIASMASUN (LP by Firework Edition)
TOSHIYA TSUNODA – PIECES OF AIR (CD by Lucky Kitchen)
IO CASINO – MUNDO DAS FERRAMENTAS (CD by Gracia Territori Sonor)
WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF WEST (LP & CDR by Narrominded)
R.R. HABARC – TUKORORSZAG (CDR by Avult)
1=0 – 1=0 (CD by Gracia Territori Sonor)
MY EDUCATION – 5 POPES (self released CD)
(K-RAA-K)3 FESTIVAL SAMPLER 2002 (CD by Kraak)
ALEJANDRA & AERON – TALE OF PIP (CD by Lucky Kitchen)
Alejandra And Aeron have landed in Spain, moving from the Big Apple. But they
made a stop at Extrapool’s Knust printing place last year to print the booklet
for the “Tale Of Pip’ CD. A small handcrafted booklet, small but artisan. But
it’s probably not just the booklet that deserves our attention, the music also
does. “The Tale Of Pip” is a fairy tale. Not that I am any sort of expert on
fairy tales, but I do believe that in the real old fairy tales a certain
cruelty was present, which is flattened out by Walt Disney cs. Maybe “the Tale
Of Pip” brings it back…? I couldn’t say really. English is of course not my
native tongue, but the sweet voice that occassionally tells a few lines of the
tale is maybe too short to get in the story. I don’t think that is a problem.
The few lines which seem to start each track is a lead in to beautiful
electronic music. Processed children’s instruments, guitars or just
electronica, each of the piece moves beautifully around. “Tale Of Pip” is a
folk story and it’s hard to feel different about the music. In a certain sense
this is cottage folk music. I imagine a wooden shed where a laptop is set to
pick up these lovely small sounds, which are then gently processed. Maybe
Alejandra & Aeron are part of the micro/glitch scene. But for sure they are one
of the few who know how to create something truely original. (FdW)
Address: www.luckykitchen.com
SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU – NOCTURNE IMPALPABLE (Cd by Les Disques Du Soleil Et De
L’Acier)
Second solo album by Sylvain Chauveau, also known as a member of the
Ambient-based rock duo Micro:Mega, finds the French composer further oriented
towards Classical Music. Nocturne Impalpable is a unique piece of work that
beautifully blends elements of Glitch and Ambient into a melancholic acoustic
sound-sphere. An impressive number of acoustic instruments and practising
musicians have been used to create the overall classical music approach, that
apparently has been influenced by composers such as Erik Satie and Claude
Debussy in the piano-based pieces while the more cello-based reminds me of
earlier works of Michael Nyman. Behind the, sometimes orchestral, sometimes
solo-based instrument passages, Sylvain Chauveau has cleverly integrated
elements of crackling clicks’n’cuts and grandiose Ambient-scapes in a way that
makes the electronic and the acoustic parts rise into a beautiful form of
musical synthesis. In between the pieces of ‘electronic meets acoustic sounds’,
come four tracks that is exclusively based on crackling electronic sounds…
Four minimal, almost inaudible tracks that could have been released on labels
like Ash International (R.I.P) or Touch. Nocturne Impalpable is a great work
that, in its gentle and cinematographic approach, could be enjoyed by any
adventurous listener, who will be prepared for the ultimate nocturnal sound
experience. (NMP)
Address: www.dsa-wave.com
STIMBOX – LUPUS TUBERCULOSO (3″ CDR by Tabula Rasa – Centro De Ruido)
ROTTEN PIECE – ESPOROTRICOSIS GOMOSA (3″ CDR by Tabula Rasa – Centro De Ruido)
ZE’RO-SUM – XANTELASMA TUBEROSO (3″ CDR by Tabula Rasa – Centro De Ruido)
Three 3″ releases in what probably will be a whole series of 3″s, each limited
to 100 copies and they all seem to be called diseases ]. Tabula Rasa is known
to release noise and these are no different. Stimbox and Rotten Piece are
slightly more known then Ze’Ro-Sum. Stimbox offer us 21 trcaks in just over 21
minutes, although they very much sound as one thing altogether. Crude noise
riding the waves of various guitar effect boxes. It’s sort of sounds explored
extensively by Merzbow a few years back, even when Stimbox still sounds sort of
ok (save the bad ending!).
Rotten Piece are less noisy (as in less brutal noise that is of course). They
too use distorted sounds, but feed them through less effects (mainly echo) and
have probably thought about their pieces (13 in total, again in one flow)
better. Distorted guitars is my best guess for the sound input, but it’s all
less scratchy and feedback like.
Descending down in harshness with Ze’Ro-Sum, who work mainly with recognizable
synth patterns and can even be described as ambient, albeit of a more darker
and experimental nature of course. Recorded with a fresh sense of naivety and
in turn the best of the three, I think. (FdW)
Address: <tabularasabar@hotmail.com>
SAMPLE MINDS (2CD by Medienkunst Tirol)
Sample Minds is a huge collection of works that were featured at the Kunstraum
in Innsbruck from March 1999 to November 2000. All of the 41 tracks on this
compilation use sampling in one way or the other. Just towards the end of CD 2,
you’ll find recognizable sampled popmusic – all of which the originals eludes
me, but they hark back to the days of 70s disco. Before that you’ll find all
sorts of music that deal with sampled sounds. From glitchy techno to electro
acoustic sound to ambient and even poetry. It’s the massive amount of people
contributing to this CD, which makes it hard to spot the great track. Most of
them are best described as nice, with the occassional leap into boredom.
included are: Fon, Vicky Bennet, H. Platzgummer, Randomiz/Werner, Voice Crack,
Baumeiser H., Hoec, M. Hentz, Moritz, L. Elggren and many more. The range goes
from total unknown to known ones, which makes this probably into something that
is worth checking out anyway. (FdW)
Address: www.myzel.net/sample-minds
V. – AWRKID (CDR by Zero Moon)
V./ULTRA MILKMAIDS – DRONE & UNEASE (CD by Zero Moon)
Two related project by V. This was a US improv group, but recentely shifted
towards the more electronic realm. I believe (without being certain) that it’s
now an one person project, re-investing the remains of the recordings made
earlier by V. Their latest offering is a CDR on their own Zero Moon label, with
six tracks. V. offer a pretty varied palette of sounds. It goes easily from
softer drone textures to looped acoustic sounds, all presented in a collage
form. The former instruments used by V. (drums, guitars, violins to mention
some) are at times recognizable present, but at others pretty much transformed
on the computer. The prize winning piece is the second track which ends in a
nice laptop hum piece that easily meets Stephan Mathieu’s recent work. The more
noisy bits came off less convincely.
V. is currentely on tour (or maybe it’s just over when you read this) this with
the French duo Ultra Milkmaids and for this occassion they released a joint CD
(which seems a funny world upside down to me, as one would have expected a tour
CDR). The three have recorded the CD as a collaborative effort through the use
of the postal system. Overall the sound here is a little bit more gloomy, with
at times dreamy (or dreary?) vocals mumbling their time over darker ambient
textures. Occassionally drums pop in, probably sampled from the good old V.
archives. Much of the sounds are treated by time strecthing, thus giving that
modern ambient laptopfeel to it. Besides the fact that some tracks are a tad
bit too long, me thinks, the overall quality of this CD is very nice. (FdW)
Address: www.zeromoon.com
AGENCEMENT – BOXE CONSONANTIQUE (CD by Pico)
In the late eighties, early nineties Agencement was The coming man on the
Japanese new music/noise scene. Having released two LP’s and one CD back then,
which have vanished in obscurity, the name was forgotten. Curious to see how
sudden activity gets as suddenly into disapperance. But very much to my
surprise, Agencement is back, like nothing has changed (well, maybe nothing
changed!). Agencement’s main instrument is the violin, but played in
combination with magentic tape, pico strings, electronics (oscillator, ring
modulator). The music has been stored on multi-track and was mixed afterwards
(I mean so many different violin sounds at the same time… not even Jon Rose
can play that). Agencement deals with small sounds, ultra hectic played with
small electronic sounds added to the mix. Fascinating stuff. If you like dry
improvised music, with electronics just rounding off the textures, in the vein
of stuff released on Grob, then this is right up your alley. However, for the
trained listener (but then: where are they?), Agencement produces nothing that
I haven’t heard, even though I have no idea when that was… (FdW)
Address: <hspico@sr.incl.ne.jp>
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE/BOB MARSH – RAGS AND STONES (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
A few weeks ago I discussed a CDR release by Ernesto Diaz-Infante, a duet with
Anders Ostberg. I was not very positive about it. Here is the revanche of Diaz
Infante. Another duet, this time with Bob Marsh, an unknown guy for me who
plays violin and cello. Ernesto plays prepared guitar. Together they work they
way through nine pieces of improvised music. Plucking their strings on their
instruments, this is quite a more traditional disc of improvised music, but an
altogether more pleasent work then his other duet. All of the sounds come to us
untreated with electronic effects, which adds a more natural feel to it. Sturdy
improvised music here. (FdW)
Address: www.sinkhole.net/pehome
ULTRA FUCKERS – BEYOND THE FUCKLESS (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
The Ultra Fuckers are Japanese rock trio (Kawai Kazuki Langley, Izumi Headache,
Tom Nagata) who produces thirteen tracks here in just over 26 minutes. Although
the name suggests something different, it’s not really the sort of extreme Jap
noise or noise by rock standards indeed. It sounds to me, but I must admit I am
not really the expert of rock music in these pages (but who is), as naively
played, and likewise naively recorded in their rehearsal room, mostly slow punk
rock or even new wave (the added keyboards help here). At times a sought heavy
sound, but again due to the lack of a good recording, it sounds a bit dull.
Using a bit more microphones, or multitrack would have helped a lot. A remix by
one Droppen Gonzo as a bonus doesn’t really help… (FdW)
Address: www.sinkhole.net/pehome
THOMAS KONER – UNERFROSCHTES GEBIET (LP by Die Stadt)
Maybe Thomas Koner’s new record, in fact his first vinyl under his own name
ever!, is a tribute to Asmus Tietchens? The title can be translated as
‘undiscovered areas’, and this is exactely to what Tietchens refers to when it
comes to making to music: to discover the new areas of sound. Of course these
discoveries take shape via two side long pieces, in which luckily enough
happens. Unlike Tietchens, Thomas stays in for him common grounds. When working
under his own name, his work is best described as darker then dark ambient.
Using the smallest particles of sound, he creates a rich tapestry of music.
Here I thought it be less flowing and more experimental then we are used of
him. The areas he discovers this time are that of an uneven terrain, a bit
bumpy when you ride it with a bicycle. Also the vinyl pressing (I am judging
from what seems to be not a very good one, which will be redone) may not just
be the sort of thing Thomas should do for this kind of music. Even when this
picture disc looks great! The digital format serves his music much better. I
hope it will come on this format too. (FdW)
Address: www.diestadtmusik.de
DANIEL ROZENHALL – MIASMASUN (LP by Firework Edition)
Daniel Rozenhall is somebody whom I never heard of. The LP cover looks a bit
outdated industrial to me, with it’s duo tone black and red. But somehow you
thinks it’s not. It’s on Firework Edition and was recorded at EMS.
‘Grigailment’ is a very unsettling piece of what seems random sounds that go in
loopmode every once in a while. Then ‘Armistice’ which sounds like metal
falling on metal. The closing piece on side A is more garbled noise with people
screaming towards the end. Nothing here that made me overtly enthusiastic. The
one piece that fills up side B moves from swirling electronics to deep ambient
and as suddenly is more noise, but it seems to me that this is at least a more
coherent thing that the pieces on side A. In all this is not a record that I
enjoyed very much, the despite the OK b-side. (FdW)
Address: http://www.algonet.se/~tankred/fer.html
TOSHIYA TSUNODA – PIECES OF AIR (CD by Lucky Kitchen)
Toshiya Tsunoda is, with a bunch of other people, part of the WrK collective,
who investigate sound and space. They release CD’s but also do installations. I
have seen several ones by Tsunoda and they are almost poetic. Nice in design,
but overall silent and which one finds himself contemplating. From the various
WrK members, Tsunoda is the one that deals with environmental sounds. He’s
Vertov’s ‘Man with the microphone’. Going outside armed with nothing more then
a microphone and a machine to record the sounds upon. Sometimes he uses pipes
of various lengths to record his sounds with, thus transforming the sound. For
all of these pieces on this CD, there is no electronic processing going on.
Tsunoda cuts these sounds out of the larger recording, and thus his role as a
composer is limited to selecting the sounds out of a bigger part. This
collection of fifteen tracks collect the outdoor sounds (mainly Japanese,
fields, forests and harbors) with a few exceptions. ‘Echo Of A Room’ for
instance is a piece in which he uses a sine wave test signal and switcher which
activites the microphone when the signal is off. This is almost a Pan Sonic
piece and operates like an odd ball in this collection, but doesn’t seem to be
out of place. This is a fine example of sound scaping of a more radical nature.
Great stuff (and I dare add: as usual). (FdW)
Address: www.luckykitchen.com
IO CASINO – MUNDO DAS FERRAMENTAS (CD by Gracia Territori Sonor)
Behind IO Casino we find an unnamed woman playing the bass. Six out of the
seven pieces are her solo tracks. The seventh piece is the longest, but is an
improvised piece by IO Casino, Tibetan Red, Francisco Lopez, Kasper T. Toeplitz
and Josep Gimenez. Her playing of the bass leads from the obvious bowed playing
of the instrument to more radical improvised pieces (such as ‘Influenza’).
However some of the pieces are drenched a bit of too much reverb and other
effects, which give me the feel that the bass is not the real source, but could
have been any source. The improvised group piece is the stand out piece here,
because it’s a more complex sound, using other sources too, like Lopez’ field
recordings, feedback and bass rumblings. In all not a brilliant CD, but not the
worst thing ever. It’s sort of mediocre thing that is alright to hear, but
where one wonders if one would played it again. (FdW)
Address: www.gracia-territori.com
WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF WEST (LP & CDR by Narrominded)
Narrominded are a new label from The Netherlands, and let’s hope they don’t
live up to their name. Their first release is a LP and CDR in one package. Most
of the artists appear on it, save for a few. In their selection, Narrominded
have been anything but narrow minded. All of the music can be classified as
electronic, and most of them with a rhythm twitch, but the differences are in
the details. From technoid rhythms, to the more breatbeak styled ones and
various slow rhythm/ambient works (Oprphax for instance operates without
rhythms on his piece ‘Then’). The artists included here are unknown ones,
probably the guys that run the label (or at least share the e-mail address from
the label), such as Sencha, Larz, Living Ornaments and Psychon Troopers. The
most known names, at least for me, were Bedouin Ascent and Pete Namlook
(incidentely also not on the CDR part). It’s probably these names that will
attract a few buyers to get this, but you’ll find also great music by others
that are not yet well-known. Great new electronica label from The Netherlands
and hopefully bringing more goodies in the future. (FdW)
Address: www.narrominded.com
R.R. HABARC – TUKORORSZAG (CDR by Avult)
Last December I saw a concert by a Hungarian composer called R.R. Habarc.
Playing a large metal plate with a bicycle wheel and a drill, one expected some
disturbing wall of noise. But it turned out that R.R. Habarc played some nicely
woven overtones of resonating metal, which reminded me of the best moments of
the old Organum. The same guy also releases CDRs of his own music, using in
handwritten covers in small editions. This new one has three pieces, which have
nothing to do with noise or metal sheets being rubbed. All of these pieces deal
with synthesizer sounds, or maybe just oscillators. Of the tracks, the second
(untitled) one is the longest. It’s about 34 minutes long of high pitched
sustained tones that move in and out of the mix in a gentle way. This is a
highly minimal piece of music along the lines of Alvin Lucier. The two pieces
before and after are more based around loose tones, and especially the third
piece was too noisy. Both of these pieces kinda destroy the beauty of the
second piece and could have been, as far as I’m concerned been ommited. But
luckily the main piece is great by itself. (FdW)
Address: r.r.habarc@axelero.hu
1=0 – 1=0 (CD by Gracia Territori Sonor)
Apperentely this record is the result of a prize winning, the Freestyle
Festival 2000. Behind 1=0 there is a musician from Barcelona called Gerard
Roma. He offers us seven tracks which last from somewhere 4 minutes to 22
minutes. Clearly inspired by techno and dance music, Roma produces pretty
straight forward dance music, with lots of melodies and synths playing ambient
doodlings. Pretty relaxing music that goes by easily if you don’t pay enough
attention. Maybe music while you work. Nothing big or truely innovative around
here, but one of those where you think, well yeah alright, not bad. (FdW)
Address: www.gracia-territori.com
MY EDUCATION – 5 POPES (self released CD)
Admist all the click ‘n electronica normally reviewed in these pages, it’s a
delight to hear good ol’ distorted guitars and pounding drums in a heavy space
rock mode. My Education hail from Texas and has former and current members of
Stars Of The Lid, Ultrasound and Cinders. I don’t know Cinders, but being very
familiar with the other two, I can assure you that My Education has nothing in
common with Stars of The Lid and Ultrasound, other then maybe, though not
important, trance inducing music. But whereas the other two bands evoke music
by layering dense drone textures, My Education have a continous rhythm and a
wall of guitars, occassionally coloured by keyboards. My Education have no less
then seven members of which three play guitar, two violin, one drummer and one
for the keys. At times a pompous sound that is in vein of Godspeed You Black
Emperor, sometimes like F/i and sometimes prog rock/symphonic rock (which is
ok, I never disliked Electric Light Orchestra). I don’t think My Education does
anything that I haven’t heard before in any of the genres but to slag them down
as mere copyists, may not justify the quality and enjoyment I had of playing
their CD. (FdW)
Address: <my_education@hotmail.com>
(K-RAA-K)3 FESTIVAL SAMPLER 2002 (CD by Kraak)
Besides running one of the nicest small labels and mailorder, Kraak (or
(k-raa-k)3 as the official spelling is) also organises a yearly festival of
music, which usually last 10 to 12 hours and which are programmed with the very
same eclectic taste as with their releases. Since last year they also have a CD
release as a souvenir from this festival. Hosted are the ambient talents of
Main and Oren Ambarchi, but also the more poppy outings from Wio or Benjamin
Franklin. David Grubbs’ piece is an entire mystery to me. It’s apperentely a
live piece, but he sounds here like Durutti Column, both in his playing and his
vocals, could be like Vinni… but then all 15 years ago. Very odd pieces. Also
there are little bits of electronic pieces, by Twine, Alog and It & My
Computer. Finally lo-fi improvised experimentalism is delivered by the ever
getting better Vibracathedral Orchestra and Toss. From a styllistic point of
view of course a hotchpotch, but it proofs for me the cross culture trip that
(K-raa-K) is… A true independent to be supported. (FdW)
Address: www.kraak.net