AEROSPACE SOUNDWISE – MONOLOGUE WITH ACCOMPANIMENT (CD by Lucky Kitchen)
I LOVE FANTASY (CD compilation by Lucky Kitchen)
INTERFERENCE SARDINES – Zucchini (CD on Ambiances MagnÈtiques)
ROUGE CIEL – Rouge Ciel (CD on Monsieur Fauteux)
L’HOTEL DU BOUT DE LA TERRE – Chant des adieux, chant de la solitude
(CD on Monsieur Fauteux)
MANUAL – ASCEND (CD by Morr Music)
ROB DENUNZIO – WINDOW MUSIC (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
I:WOUND – THE LIBYAN TAPES/TO LOOP A LOOP (CDR)
I:WOUND – WORMINSIDE (CDR)
I:WOUND – ‘–‘ (CDR)
I:WOUND – PRISONBLOOD (3″ CDR)
ARC/AIDAN BAKER – REPERCUSSION (CDR by Piehead)
AARON LEVY & ANDREW ZITCER – .AURAL & .AURAL 2 (CD by Slought Networds)
NATURALISTE – A CLAMOR HALF HEARD (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
LAWRENCE ENGLISH – MAP51F9 (3″CD by Room 40)
JOSHUA ABRAMS – BUSRIDE INTERVIEW (CD by Lucky Kitchen)
:1 (CDR compilation by Re:mote Core Records)
KIYOSHI MIZUTANI – YOKOSAWA-IRI (CD by CMR)
ASMUS TIETCHENS/VIDNAOBMANA – THE SHIFTS RECYCLINGS (Double CD by
Soleilmoon Recordings)
ONNYK – PRIVATE PARTS (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
WOBBLY – LIVE 99-00 (CD by Phthalo)
SKALPELL – IN BETWEEN (CD by Deafborn)
STEINBRUCHEL – ZWISCHEN.RAUM (3″CD by Domizil)
YU NISHIBORI & LANDON THORPE – MUNO RADIATION (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
HENRIK ANDERSSON & HENRIK RYLANDER (10″ by Firework Edition)
360 DEGREES (CD compilation by The Foundry)
plus annoucements
AEROSPACE SOUNDWISE – MONOLOGUE WITH ACCOMPANIMENT (CD by Lucky Kitchen)
I LOVE FANTASY (CD compilation by Lucky Kitchen)
The boys from TV Pow are prolific, either with their own band or with
solo projects and various combinations. Member Todd Carter has his
own Aerospace Soundwise and this is, I believe, his first major solo
release. There are certain similarities between the work of TV Pow
and Aerospace Soundwise. These similarities of course go for the
musical elements such as collage, cut up and the use of other
people’s sound fragments. Aerospace Soundwise uses a very dynamic
range: sometimes things are very low in volume and then all of a
sudden very high and sounds seem to be all over the place. But
another similarity is the apperentely great ease by which he makes
this, plus the sense of humour which both Aerospace Soundwise and TV
Pow have. In all their seriousness, there is always a funny element
in there, like they are saying: don’t take things too serious. I have
been playing this CD a lot these last weeks and every time I come
across new things. Many things happen on many levels.
More Aerospace Soundwise on the ‘I Love Fantasy’ compilation.
Collected here are four differents bands/projects dealing with the
theme ‘fantasy’. The Aerospace Soundwise piece consists of a dark
rumble which goes on until it has almost disappeared. No abrupt cut
ups, no collage, just a finely layered piece of darkness. Evol are
from Barcelona and their piece starts out with what could be called
musique concrete or saxophone or a howling dog (the story which goes
with their track hints at the last). The majority of the piece
consists, me thinks, of processed sounds thereof and waves together
these electronic sounds nicely. The piece by Felix
Kubin/Klangkrieg/Reznick deals with Juri Gagarin’s first travel into
space of which he didn’t return. The alienated synths and loops of
sound give indeed a space travel idea to the piece, but as a whole
couldn’t convince me very much. Whatever the fantasies are of Sachiko
M I don’t know. There is just a title (‘11122000’) and no text in the
booklet. She does whatever she does best. A sine wave piece that
slowly changes and add pitches, but all of which goes unnoticed until
they are really there. Beautiful headspace music. (FdW)
Address: www.luckykitchen.com
INTERFERENCE SARDINES – Zucchini (CD on Ambiances MagnÈtiques)
ROUGE CIEL – Rouge Ciel (CD on Monsieur Fauteux)
L’HOTEL DU BOUT DE LA TERRE – Chant des adieux, chant de la solitude
(CD on Monsieur Fauteux)
Three new cd’s on Ambiances MagnÈtiques and new sublabel Monsieur
Fauteux. Most of the time releases on this label have the newest
output from well known artists like Derome, Lussier, Duchesne and
others. Although this are often releases of considerable quality, I’m
happy that this time we have three new cds from groups of the ‘next
generation’.What new talents do we have here? In general the most
striking difference with the first generation is that these bands are
more rock-orientated. This is also the the case for Papa Boa (1999).
Especially with InterfÈrence Sardines and Rouge Ciel we enter a new
chapter in the kind of art-rock that Henry Cow developed in the 70s.
This kind of rock music flourished in the first half of the 80s with
bands like Univers Zero, Samla, Debile Menthol, and many others. But
creativity came to end and boring music like that of Art Zoyd was
what was left. Since then I have been waiting for new bands to pick
up were many ended in the 80s. But listening to InterfÈrence Sardines
it became clear to me that we have a new creative outburst here. Let
me present the bands in more detail.
InterfÈrence Sardines is a quintet: AndrÈe Bilodeau (violin, alto,
voice), SÈbastien DorÈ (electric bass, clap, voice), Marc Gagnon
(violin, electric violin, voice), FrÈderic Lebrasseur (drums,
percussion, piano, voice) and Philippe Venne (guitar, piano, voice).
Assisted by four guests. Most pieces are composed by Philippe Venne.
Their second cd ‘Zucchini’ is a very nice piece of work. Their music
can be compared in a way with that of Debile Menthol, a famous swiss
group from the 80s. Complex art-rock mixing rock, jazz and
contemporary in a nice blend of composition and improvisation. The
music is full of surprises. The playing is very tight and convincing.
Rouge Ciel is a quartet: Guido del Fabbro (violin, mandoline, pick
ups), Simon Lapointe (piano, claviers, melodica), Antonin Provost
(acustic and electric guitar) and Nemo Venda (trumpet, drums,
percussion). They debute here with a fresh mix of rock and
improvisation. They do not reach the creative level of InterfÈrence
Sardines, but it still is very good music.
Both bands I can recommend to anyone who like – I don’t know a better
name – art-rock bands like Curlew, 5uu’s, etc.
L’hotel du Bout de la Terre is the more conventional one of these
three bands. No new territories here. This group was started in 1995
by Lou Babin (accordeon, voice ), Marie-HÈlËne Montpetit (voice),
Pierre St-Jak (piano), and Norman Guilbeault. On this cd they are
assisted by guests like Claude Fradette (guitar) and Pierre Tanguay
(drums, perc.). They present a collection of 12 songs composed by
St.Jak and Montpetit. Melancholic and impressionistic songs. Texts
written and sung by Montpetit. Although this may be a relatively new
group someone like pianist Pierre St.Jak is a veteran of the MontrÈal
jazz scene. Personally I never liked his piano playing very much
which can also be heard on this one (DM).
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com
MANUAL – ASCEND (CD by Morr Music)
Manual’s second CD for Morr Music (see Vital Weekly 267) deals again
with downtempo music in which guitars play an important role. With
Munk Jensen’s background in rock music, this may not be a surprise.
It seems to me, even, that the guitar parts on this new record come
even further to the foreground then on ‘Until Tomorrow’ and fits the
idea that Morr Music is slowly expanding in indie rock territories.
‘A.M.’ for instance is a tinkling guitar piece with a deep wash of
synths somewhere, and has no drum computers et al. The overal Morr
Melancholy is of course present in this tracks and make it the
perfect music for what is depicted on the front cover: a sunset in
the tropics. Manual’s music is like a perfect soundtrack for
springtime coming. Atmopsheric, ambient, downtempo: very nice. (FdW)
Address: www.morrmusic.com
ROB DENUNZIO – WINDOW MUSIC (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
Rob Denunzio is a guitarist whom I never heard of, probably my
mistake. Upon starting the disc, you think you come across some
soundscape artist who drops a microphone out of the window (keeping
the title in mind), but it turns out that Rob plays solo guitar. No
overdubs, no sound effects. It’s just electric guitar, that has
country & western influences, bluegrass, hillbilly. It’s not the kind
of music that often finds it way to my CD player (save for some Jim
O’Rourke or John Fahey). Maybe in some way it’s infuenced by Fahey,
but I’m not the expert here. Just as I fancy Jim and John every once
in a while, I enjoyed playing this one. It’s not the kind of music I
wish to hear all day, everyday, but a small dose every now and then
is great. (FdW)
Address: www.sinkhole.net/pehome
I:WOUND – THE LIBYAN TAPES/TO LOOP A LOOP (CDR)
I:WOUND – WORMINSIDE (CDR)
I:WOUND – ‘–‘ (CDR)
I:WOUND – PRISONBLOOD (3″ CDR)
A whole bunch of lo-fi CDRs, both in packaging and in music. ‘The
Libyan Tapes’ and ‘Wormsinside’ are packed without info (save on the
CDR itself) in piece of cloth (or Libyan and Indian origin). I:Wound
has been around the scene of German underground music for a long
time, releasing his music in small editions on CDR and sometimes on
vinyl. For ‘Worminside’ and ‘The Libyan Tapes’ he relies heavily on
location sounds, maybe in Libya or Bomaby’s red light district.
Adding electronics of a rather lo-fi kind, I:Wound creates on both
these discs a dense layered sound of speaking voices, music and
environment humm. Altogether an alien form of
soundscaping, me thinks, that tells you not much upon hearing them of
the locations involved.
The release ‘–‘ deals with news broadcasts of September 11th attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It’s one lengthy stream
of spoken voices, in which one occassionally recognizes George Bush.
But listening to this, there is no angst, agony, alienation and any
sense of the mayhem of that day. If you listen without really taking
care of the words, it’s sounds like someone recording the dial of the
radio, looking for a nice radio broadcast.
The most interesting, because maybe the most frightening, is the
‘Prisonblood’, which is basically a collage of spoken words
(testimony of violence) and a broadcast of an execution, in
combination with a testtone record, which Hz tones drive you crazy.
But one keeps on listening because the spoken word part is
interesting. Like I said, all a very lo-fi affair but all are
essential underground… (FdW)
Address: www.iwound.freeservers.com
ARC/AIDAN BAKER – REPERCUSSION (CDR by Piehead)
Piehead is a new label out of Toronto, whose first project is a
series of 11 CDRs and a subsequent 12th one with the same artists on
one compilation. Each CDR will be limited to 311 copies.The list of
forthcoming releases looks nice with new and known artists (like
David Kristian, I8U, Multiplex, Your Favourite Horse, Matmos (under
some disguise) etc). The first one is by ARC/Aidan Baker. ARC is the
same Aidan Baker (guitarist, percussion etc.) with Richard Baker
(drums, percussion, no family of) and Christopher Kukiel
(percussion). They meet late 1999 during a concert and started
jamming around with percussion and on the release here, you’ll find
live material from various ARC concerts, which are overdubbed by
Aidan Baker with his guitar textures. The four very lenghty pieces
here sound like a lot of other things, raging from Steve Roach to
Vidna Obmana, from Jorge Reyes to O Yuki Conjugate. So if you are
looking for something in terms of ‘fresh’, ‘unheard’, ‘new’ then this
might be the wrong alley. If you are looking on the other hand for
ethno inspired ambience percussive atmopsheric music, then you’ll
find a lot of pleasure playing this. I must admit like to hear new
things all the time, but I don’t mind grabbing music like this, when
I am reading the newspaper or drinking coffee with a friends. (FdW)
Address: www.pieheadrecords.com
AARON LEVY & ANDREW ZITCER – .AURAL & .AURAL 2 (CD by Slought Networds)
A collection addressing anonymity, deep, dark pasts, and the idea of
language as sound, using sound generated off the printed page. This
is the first in a projected series by Aaron Levy and Andrew Zitcer,
who have sampled some 130 excerpts from John Cage’s eight-part spoken
diaries, manipulating the full range of sound values in the
composer’s clipped, meaty assertions, then saving the product as
digitalized soundfiles. Sometimes I can hear Cage’s voice, as
sometimes the words are audible as they are fitted to a grooved
ambiance. At other times, strange melody and rhythm seem to be simple
released from the very cage of human voice. Instructions for
listening to this recording should be the following: 1. go to blank
room; 2. ensure windows are open to traffic; 3. breathe. With .aural,
your are the one mixing in with the voices of repetitive intonements,
highpitched peels and wide yawps. A good ear can only catch some of
the words incessantly renewing, at random, the order and the flow of
culled language.On .aural.2, the addition of a piano, the limitations
paradoxically freed me to listen: the piano removed my restrictions
on my ability to collaborate, subtracting me out, making this second
in the series the most outright agressive. These recordings are
welcomed sonic disturbances, a real mammoth bargain hunt for our
ghostings of vatic chordal pronoucements of our times.(GS)
Address: <info@slought.net>
NATURALISTE – A CLAMOR HALF HEARD (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
Naturaliste has a kind of fluctuating band membership. On these five
tracks, the bands has between four and six members. It’s difficult to
discuss the instruments of Naturaliste. Although guitars and bass may
be it, I would be too suprised if they all have shortwave, home made
circuits, tape loops and walkie talkies to generate feedback. All of
these tracks were recorded live in concert. Naturaliste plays
extensively with the use of feedback in a rather lo-fi mood (the
concert recordings were made with a microphone and through the mixing
board) which enhances this further of course. It works best when it’s
gets nice and moody such as in the third track (which will be the
only one I write here: “Fischer, the only one not inebriated,
stammered in disbelief “But I’m sober!” as the sadistic bartender cut
him off early in the evening” – and they are all like that, except
“Static Beauty” – Naturaliste do like their cartoons I guess) and
works less if it’s a more frentic wall of noise. This free improv
music fits nicely the ranks of Blowhole and Borbetomagus but operates
from their own perspective. (FdW)
Address: www.sinkhole.net/pehome
LAWRENCE ENGLISH – MAP51F9 (3″CD by Room 40)
Too much is not enough. Packed in one of those large DVD boxes comes
this 17 minute 3″ CD release by Lawrence English. “A treated edit of
the installation Map51F9 featured in the waves of change exhibibition
at the Inala Art Gallery”. Lawrence English is from Australia and got
some funding for this release. Starting with some insect like buzzing
which gradually move over into a sort slow start for an ambient (inc.
far away voices) to switch to the buzzing of native instruments of
Australia. From there the piece sort of stays the same until the
party is over. Although it sounds nice, I have no idea what this
installation must have looked like; maybe some sort of native
aboriginal art in three dimensions? Well, pointless to guess, since I
don’t know. The music is a kinda entertaining though and that’s good
enough. (FdW)
Address: www.room40.org
JOSHUA ABRAMS – BUSRIDE INTERVIEW (CD by Lucky Kitchen)
Sometimes one expects so much, and then the result is not kinda what
you think it would be. Town & Country is for me an ensemble, more
then a group, playing modern classical music, more then pop. Joshua
Abrams is the cello player from Town & Country, so a solo disc under
his own name is something I looked forward to. But the eight tracks
couldn’t entirely convince and the problem is more the whole then the
seperate parts. The seperate parts, be it a solo cello piece as in
‘Departure’, the water sound in ‘After Fire’ (very nice title), or
electro acoustic treatments on ‘Plums’, are actually quite alright,
but as a whole it seems almost like listening to a compilation which
was put together without much selection. A very loose collection of
sound pieces. Maybe like a ‘busride’: you see snapshots of the
landscape passing by and then there are new and different ones. Like
I said, as individual pieces very nice, but as a whole not so
coherent. (FdW)
Address: www.luckykitchen.com
:1 (CDR compilation by Re:mote Core Records)
A compilation from the underground world of electronica. Only a
handfull of names are recognized by me (Zipper Spy, Ovum, Source
Research, Delphium) and the rest is new to me. These are the people
that play electronic music, inspired by techno or house music, but
present us a much more abstract, naive or noisy form. Just a few can
compete with the upperworld of techno (like the heavy playing of
Delphium), but the majority finds themselves safe with the lo-fi
electronics or laptops. Take for instance the piece by Jeye: washing
ambient synths, a simple rhythmbox and some old analogue synth to
process the sound. Rather badly mixed but it has it charmm. And this
is the case with many of the tracks included here. For me the best
tracks were at the beginning of the CDR, where we find most of the
more experimental and abstract ones. Others included here are CK
Dexter Haven, Object, Goose, Wilt, Baradelan, Geroyche and Lars
Pellarin. It’s a pity that there’s not much more information
available on these people. (FdW)
Address: www.remoteinduction.co.uk
KIYOSHI MIZUTANI – YOKOSAWA-IRI (CD by CMR)
CMR is a new label from New Zealand, run by Richard Francis, who also
runs 20city.
This first release by Mizutani (known for his work with Merzbow) is
very strongly based on
field recordings made in Tokyo. However, there are hardly any cars,
trains or other standard
city sounds to be heard. Yokosawa-iri is one the scarce green spots
in Tokyo, a place with
wind, water, birds and other animals and, a long way off, some signs
of human acticity. The
CD contains twelve tracks of varying lengths and it is not until
track four that editing
becomes apparent. Before this, all sounds could be single recordings.
Track four starts with
coins falling, a sequence that is repeated throughout the piece,
together with a distant
motor saw. From then on it is guess work really. Track five, for
example, starts with rain
sounds, but a little later birds start singing their heads off,
giving the impression of
a beautiful clear and sunny day. These subtleties extend the album
beyond a mere collection
of field recordings and give it its extra layering. Very well done. (MR)
Adress: www.cmr.co.nz
ASMUS TIETCHENS/VIDNAOBMANA – THE SHIFTS RECYCLINGS (Double CD by
Soleilmoon Recordings)
It may be known that Shifts is one of Frans de Waard’s many musical
projects, this one
concentrating on working with strings and all the ways one can treat
them. This recycling project is based on several studio recordings
that he did and sent out to these two well known colleagues of his,
after they had both (seperately and independantly) asked him to do a
studio collaboration. So they decided to do it like this: Frans sent
both exactly the same mateial and the idea behind all of this is to
see (hear) what the results would sound like and what the possible
differences would be.
The first disc is by Asmus Tietchens and is probably one of the best
pieces of work I have heard recently. Dark and moist, from the
corners of the earth, drenched in blankets of distant drones, but at
the same time time clear and crisp, he offers us a pallette of sounds
so intriguing and evocative that it is simply impossible to not be
touched by them. Some of the sounds can be traced back without doubt
to the original material, but most seem to come from another planet.
And for all of this he takes a lot of time, without boring me for one
single second. A masterpiece by a great musician.
Disc two is by vidnaObmana and after my initial enthusiasm faded away
during the lengthy
first track, it never quite captured my attention as it did in the
first fifteen minutes. Waves
of sounds, reverberated endlessly, combined with showers of synths
(?) and some of the
original material, appear uncapable of keeping me interested. The
main difference between
the two discs is that Tietchens works with and on the sounds, whereas
vidnaObmana seems
to add to the sounds. But of course you’ll have to check and hear for
yourself. (MR)
Adress: www.soleilmoon.com
ONNYK – PRIVATE PARTS (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
A bit clueless here as to Onnyk is, except that his real name is
Kinno Yoshiaki is and that plays improvisations on the guitar. The
two lenghty pieces on this release are from 1995 and 1997. Also a bit
clueless why they are released now. It’s not that they are not nice
or anything, but it seems a bit long overdue. Onnyk scratches, plucks
and prepares his way on the guitar in a free playing mood. Unlike
many other Japanese musicians, Onnyk doesn’t go all the noise way,
but on the other hand it’s also not the same sort of silence as Taku
Sagimoto. Wonderful free music, played with great pace. (FdW)
Address: www.sinkhole.net/pehome
WOBBLY – LIVE 99-00 (CD by Phthalo)
The sampler as the blender of music, in Wobbly’s case hip hop. We
know Wobbly from his various CDR releases, which contain music –
plunderphonica if you want – from his radio programm. Pthalo release
here a best of live music, recorded on two occassions in 2000 and one
from 1999. The procedure by which Wobbly goes is to lift a (hip hop)
rhythm from a record (CD) and start playing around with it by adding
samples of all kinds – noise, spoken word, other music – in the mix.
I must admit I am not known with hip hop, r&b or whatsyama callit, so
much of the fun is really beyond. Although some of this is really ok
stuff, I think that some 55 minutes without interruption or point of
relax is a bit too much. The head is dazzling of all the cut up and
collage which go by in highspeed. But if Negativland, People Like Us
and Public Works are still high in your books and the frenzyness of
Kid 606 is something for you too, then here you go. A complete list
of samples is available on his website (www.detritus.net/wobbly) in
case you want to try and create the same thing. (FdW)
Address:<phthalo@@phthalo.com>
SKALPELL – IN BETWEEN (CD by Deafborn)
Noise noise noise, here by one Harry W., Henry I/O and Bruno R, three
boys from Switzerland. “Harsh noise scultpures symbolizing the
suffering and disease of the mentally over-evoluted huma race”. I
think these boys have more a sense of technology then most other
noise makers (at least this CD sounds produced), but there isn’t a
single second in here which made my eye brow go up. Been there, heard
that. At least a couple of times. It has hints of old SPK,
Whitehouse, Throbbing Gristle, Ramleh and Esplendor Geometrico. Maybe
Skalpell is not the worst example of noise, but it didn’t do anything
for me. (FdW)
Address: www.deafborn.de
STEINBRUCHEL – ZWISCHEN.RAUM (3″CD by Domizil)
More from Switzerland and by somebody who has been around for some
time, releasing mostly obscure vinyl and hard to find CDRs. From what
I heard of his previous work, I know Steinbruchel is mostly
interested in minimal sounds to play. Somehow usually in a rhythmic
context. This new mini CD, although indexed in 19 different tracks,
should be regarded as one piece. The first thirteen tracks last eachs
about 10 seconds to one minute and the various elements he works with
in the entire piece are introduced. From track 14 onwards, the piece
starts to be alive. The rhythmical aspect of his previous work is
gone (or maybe I should say the beats, as this deals with repeating
sounds anyway) and replaced by stretched out, almost ambient like
sounds. Steinbruchel waves the various sounds – maybe one and the
same sound, but in various guises – together in a beautiful way.
Music that slowly but steadily fills your room with sound. The only
pity is that the ending is quite abrupt and that the work is too
short. A nice slowed down ending would have rounded this of nicely.
Otherwise: great work. (FdW)
Address: www.domizil.ch
YU NISHIBORI & LANDON THORPE – MUNO RADIATION (CDR by Public Eyeshore)
More new musicians! I never heard of Yu Nishibori or of Landon
Thorpe. Together they play computer, guitar, bass, drums, various
percussion and delay. These seven pieces were recorded between
November 1999 and August 2000, with one piece from 2001. It’s a bit
of a strange CD. The opening pieces are improvisations on everything
but the computer, but then ‘A Crystalline Disturbance’ is a hell of
lot of computer noise. But then the two tracks after that turn out to
be quiet improvisations, ending in a more noisy coda at the end. In
the five improvising pieces, things turn out quietly with each
instrument having the possibility to grow. This is for me the most
interesting part of the release. The large noise piece is not really
for me and seems out of place. Even as a counterpoint, it is seems
overlong. Which is a pity because it could have easily been left off.
(FdW)
Address: www.sinkhole.net/pehome
HENRIK ANDERSSON & HENRIK RYLANDER (10″ by Firework Edition)
Primarily Henrik Andersson and Henrik Rylander are educated film and
photomakers, with Rylander having some background as a drummer in
Union Carbide Productions. Here they have one collaborative side and
each a solo piece on the other side. For the collaborative side they
created a piece which has 8 identical CD players playing 8 identical
CD’s. Each CD consists of 7 three second tracks with three tones (C,
D, E, F, G, A and H). These CD players are played in a random way and
develop by chance. The input sounds are sine waves, but they develop
a strange organ like sound, which constantly changes – after each 3
seconds. But even when you use 8 identical players, it happens that
the speed is a little bit different so phase shiftings occur. Even if
we leave out the ramble about the religious aspects of the organ like
sounds, it’s a very nice piece. On the other side there is first the
Rylander piece. Working in probably similar vein, but here the sound
input is a beat loop. Very much an old Noto piece, which unfortunally
drags on too much. Andersson’s piece is based on guitar loops, which
is maybe too short to show what the possibilities could have been.
Maybe a more conceptual and collaborative work like on the other side
would have been a better idea. (FdW)
Address: www.algonet.se/~tankred/fer.html
360 DEGREES (CD compilation by The Foundry)
This is a compilation that is based upon a story, or rather a story
fragment, which is divided in various episodes. Each episode gets a
piece of music by eight different musicians and also there are six
interpolations between the pieces. The musical styles covered here
are ambient in its various forms. Be it from straight down washes of
synths to more rhythmical work and glitches. In the first area we
find labelbands such as Rhomb, eM and Jonathan Hughes, who both proof
not be any different from any of the best works on Hypnos (who are
co-releasing this CD). High Skies (aka Mat Jarvis, who worked as Gas
on the Em:t label, who remembers them??) and Mark van Hoen’s
collaboration with Seofon are both in the more beat oriented areas,
but both stay firmly (and luckily) away from techno music. Sketch and
Kim Cascone operate more in the glitch areas, but that’s of course
just a term. They too operate very much from an ambient background,
they just seem to be using a different thing to come to the same
conclusion.
The interpolations cross fade tracks in and out, which give this
album a really nice flow. Up to track six I thought I was still
listening to the first track. It didn’t seem to me that I was playing
a compilation. Nice ambient compilation, even when you don’t pay any
attention to the story, like I did. Nothing new or spectacular, but
really a nice listen. (FdW)
Address: www.foundrysite.com