JOHN BUTCHER & PHIL MINTON – Apples of Gomorrah (CD on GROB)
GIRLFRIENDS – FLORA
THE BEAUTIFUL GLASSBOTTOM BOAT – WILD GEESE FLY WITH THE MOON ON
THEIR WINGS b/w SNOWFLAKES THAT STAY ON MY EYELASHES
FREIBAND – SEE PLAY b/w AT NIGHT
(All 7 inches by Plinkity Plonk)
TRALPHAZ – FOR THE LEAK
SAWAKO – NANA
CAL CRAWFORD – COLORLESS IN SMALL AMOUNTS
(All 3″ CD-R’s by Throat)
60″ SOMWHERE / 60″ SOMEWHERE ELSE (MP3’s on throat.org)
Address: http://throat.org
MARCOS FERNANDES – HYBRID VIGOR (CD by Accretions)
WOBBLY – WILD WHY v3.44 (CD by Tigerbeat6)
DIMUZIO / OTANI / WOBBLY – LIVE KFJC 25 FEB 01 (MP3’s on Detritus/Wobbly)
BIOSPHERE – SHENZHOU (CD by Touch)
CONTINENTAL FRUIT – GENTLY CARVED INTO SOUND (CDR by Humbug)
PARTY 7 – MUSICA VENENO (3″CDR by Hazard Records)
AU – NON EXISTING INPUT (CD by Grond)
PAU TORRES – SONGS FOR NULA (3″ CD by Testing Ground)
ULTRA MILKMAIDS – 03/02/USA (3″ CDR by U Mohol)
LEE PATTERSON/BENJAMIN GWILLIAM – HEATWORKS (3″ CD by New Acoustical Pleasures)
THE EVOLUTION GARDEN – 050602 (CDR)
ORIGAMI ARKTIKA – VARDOGR (CD by Silber)
STIMILUS – A MOTION SIGNAL (CD/2LP by Beta Lactam)
STIMILUS – PROGRAMME MUSIC (10″ by Beta Lactam)
ARANOS – WHILST YOUR GAIETY MELTS (10″ by Beta Lactam)
JOHN DUNCAN – FRESH (CD by All Questions/XTRact)
CIRCUS OF THE SCARS – HOME IS WHERE THE HURT IS (CD by Beta Lactam)
THOMAS DIMUZIO – LIVE AT GENERATOR (CDR by Generator)
ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI – LIVE AT THE GENERATOR (3″ CDR by Generator)
PHAUSS – FOLKORE NO. 2 – LIVE AT THE GENERATOR (CDR by Generator)
CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE – MUSIC FOR BIG EARS (CD by Staalplaat)
JOHN BUTCHER & PHIL MINTON – Apples of Gomorrah (CD on GROB)
John Butcher and Phil Minton are two well known musicians from the
english improvised music scene. Both are playing already for many
years. Minton is vocalist and trumpet player. He played with the Mike
Westbrook Orchestra in his early years and with everybody else later:
Fred Frith, Roger Turner, Veryan Weston, Lindsay Cooper, Bob
Ostertag, etc.
Saxplayer John Butcher also played with numerous groups and musicians
like Spontaneous Music Ensemble, the Butcher/ Durrant/ Russell trio,
Chris Burn’s Ensemble, etc. Together with Phil Durrant and John
Russel, Butcher set up Acta Records, a small label for improvised
music.
So both Minton and Butcher have their history in the world of the
european improvised music. But it is not with ‘Apples of Gomorrah’
that their ways cross for the first time.
Together they play in a trio with german guitarist Erhard Hirt and in
Minton’s Quartet with Roger Turner and Veryan Weston. And now they
present themselves for the first time as a duo. Butcher plays tenor
and alto saxophone. Minton gives the best of his voice.
The cd offers 17 small pieces that were recorded over a period of
several years. What we hear is a carefully compiled collection, that
shows Minton and Butcher in a wide range of techniques. The music is
concentrated, expressive and very rich. In other words, it’s a very
nice cd from two experienced improvisors. Just eat this apple….
(DM).
Address: http://www.churchofgrob.com/
GIRLFRIENDS – FLORA
THE BEAUTIFUL GLASSBOTTOM BOAT – WILD GEESE FLY WITH THE MOON ON
THEIR WINGS b/w SNOWFLAKES THAT STAY ON MY EYELASHES
FREIBAND – SEE PLAY b/w AT NIGHT
(All 7 inches by Plinkity Plonk)
Three new summer releases by Beequeen’s Plinkity Plonk label and
they’re all seven inches.
Girlfriends is a band from Nijmegen playing two guitars, a bass and
drums. Sounds like rock and in a sense it is. ide A is a cut up of
several recordings, but defenitely sounds like one track. Sparse
sounds from all intruments, the suggestion of melodies, of rhythms
and quite a lot of silences. Not your everyday rock, more like an
extension of the format into unknown realms. Open and suggestive and
therefore much more interesting than everyday rock. Side B is a
track-at-once and does sound a little more like a standard rock song
(without vocals, that is), but escapes from that defenition because
of the changes in tempo, mood and space. For all post rock fans!
The Beautiful Glassbottom Boat is Freek Kinkelaar’s new moniker after
Brunnen. The essence is pretty much the same though: slow melodic
tracks on organ, one accompanied by bells and the other by field
recordings and a ringing sound. Atmospheric and warm, something to
dream away on. Again suggestive and even contemplative, this is a
good method of escaping everyday hassles.
Freiband’s latest is remix stuff of course, the only guessing is to
what the original material might have been. The blurb states that the
A side is a remix of a well known dinosaur rock group, but actually
sounds like Tangerine Dream has made it to this day and age. with a
dark melodic sequence and FX on top of that, togeher with some
rhythmic loops, this could well be the dawning of a new electronic
kraut rock age. Well done! Side B is a remix of Beequeen/Girlfriends
rehearsal recordings, but everyone could have fooled me. There is no
evidence whatsoever of any guitar or drum sounds. What is more: this
should have been released on Chain Reaction! Slow drony rhythmic
pulses with several FX seem to be on the wrong label here. I wonder
if Freiband will ever make it to the dance floor? I wouldn’t be
surprised…….(MR)
Adress: plinkity@hotmail.com
TRALPHAZ – FOR THE LEAK
SAWAKO – NANA
CAL CRAWFORD – COLORLESS IN SMALL AMOUNTS
(All 3″ CD-R’s by Throat)
60″ SOMWHERE / 60″ SOMEWHERE ELSE (MP3’s on throat.org)
Throat is a relatively new label, run by Ven Voisey, himself being a
musician as well. With these releases, he introduces three artists,
that I have not heard of before.
Tralphaz is David Lim, a film and sound artist from San Francisco.
His nine tracks are as different as can be: harsh walls of sound,
subtle drony work, cuts and here and there an accordeon popping up.
Some of them sound distinctly digital, whereas others could be
completely analogue. This mini CD debut shows a lot of potential in
many different directions and it would be pure guessing as to what
direction Lim will take. And it may be questioned if that would be
necessary: this CD is very rich and surprising, so why go one way or
the other? I’ll be on the lookout for the next release.
Sawako’s ‘Nana’ is a collection of tracks, based on field recordings,
glitches and small sounds, some of them very short. They are very
small events, requiring attention from the listener, with a lot of
silences. Some things just seem to happen, others are completely
controlled. This tension between ‘wanted’ and ‘unwanted’ events is
very strong and keeps the listener on the right edge. Very well done.
Cal Crawford is a sound artist from Montreal, also known as
speech.fake. This work is a single track of almost twentyone minutes.
It starts with low rumbling sounds, slowly falling apart into dark
crackles, before a high pitched whine is introduced. With some sudden
silences, the piece is divided into several smaller parts, all
connected by the use of similar sound material. The build up is very
slow and subtle, as are the sounds themselves. With ample space for
everything to sound in, small sounds become very distinct and create
even more space. At around sixteen minutes, when static suddenly
fades into the foreground, combined with a dark drone, it is as if
the sound actually comes into the space, only to withdraw again into
a space beyond the speakers. Excellent stuff.
Another project initiated by Ven Voisey is 60″ Somewhere / 60″
Somewhere Else, a web project that involves the manipulation of sound
files. Twenty artists were asked to submit a one minute field
recording. These files were then distributed among twenty other
artists (some of them the same as the former twenty) for reworking.
The original files are very different in character: some of them are
simple environmental recordings, other are almost small musical
works. On the whole the material is very appealing and just waits to
be used. The ‘remixes’ are all one minute tracks as well, so it’s
almost like a game, trying to find out which of the original files
was used for them. In the end it’s not about the game, of course, but
about how people deal with sound. The result is surprisingly varied:
some just filter or distort the original, others cut them up and
rearrange them, and some add their own sounds or at least, that’s
what it sounds like to me). A successful project as far as I can
tell. And by the way: a very limited edition is available on a double
mini-CD-R release……….(MR)
Address: http://throat.org
MARCOS FERNANDES – HYBRID VIGOR (CD by Accretions)
Fernandes was raised in a Portugese/Japanese household and “Hybrid
Vigor offers a glimpse into (his) ethnic and cultural identity”. The
first track is a tape work, made of recordings of people in the
streets playing music and having a good time. Then there are six
tracks of Fernandes playing with quite a lot of other musicians and a
last track of tapes and shortwave with some ukelele. A lot of
different electronic and acoustic intruments are used, in combination
with tapes. Some tracks are strongly based on rhythm, others are much
freer in nature. In general, this sounds like contemporary improv
with many different influences. The overall atmosphere is pretty
gentle and open, without too much emphasis on single instruments.
Most attention is paid to the whole structure and ambience of the
tracks. And that is good. (MR)
Address: www.accretions.com
WOBBLY – WILD WHY v3.44 (CD by Tigerbeat6)
Okay, so try to imagine 27 tracks, entirely made up of hiphop
samples, stolen from commercial radio broadcasts, cut up, strecthed,
abused and pasted to form these new tracks. No easy listening,
obviously, but highly entertaining to say the least. This is not a
record to listen to all the way in one go, because that simply takes
too much effort, but there is a lot to be heard and laughed here. And
most hilarious of all: the (new) lyrics are on the inside of the
cover! This is culture jamming in its purest form and as such just as
much a political statement as a musical one. (MR)
Address: www.tigerbeat6.com
DIMUZIO / OTANI / WOBBLY – LIVE KFJC 25 FEB 01 (MP3’s on Detritus/Wobbly)
As far as I can understand these tracks are edits by Wobbly of a live
radio performance by Dimuzio, Otani and Wobbly. Again this is collage
music in its purest form. The big advantage in comparison with
Wobbly’s ‘Wild Why’ is the use of a far wider range of samples and
sounds. The sound palette is very rich and full of surprises and
there’s a lot more time for pieces to build up and develop fully.
There are very funny samples and cuts, but they are embedded in a
strong atmosphere most of the time. Sounds as if it must have been
great fun doing the show and the post-editing! (MR)
Address: www.detritus.net/wobbly/mp3s/dow
BIOSPHERE – SHENZHOU (CD by Touch)
Transmissions from another time and another place. That would be the
shortest description of Biosphere’s music. Geir Jenssen’s sonic
explorations lead him this time to Claude Debussy’s orchestral works
in the first ten pieces. It seems to me, he even uses orchestral
sounds lifted from old records. Jenssen’s music is rather simple:
multi-layered static sounds (loops, samples, synths) above which he
adds a small rhythmic sound sources. He lets his sources go loose and
everything spins for a while. Slowly he twists a few knobs, changing
the colouring of the music a little bit and the moves on to the next
piece. It’s minimal music indeed, so simple and yet so beautifully
done. With great care these elements are placed next to eachother and
they interfere with each other and slowly beautiful tapestries of
sound enroll before your eyes. ‘Shenzhou’ is a beautiful follow up
to ‘Cirque’, however we should carefully ask Geir: “what’s next?”.
It’s likely possible he could craft another ten or so of these works,
but were will it move in terms of development. (FdW)
Address: www.touch.demon.co.uk
CONTINENTAL FRUIT – GENTLY CARVED INTO SOUND (CDR by Humbug)
Behind Continental Fruit we find one Jon Oyvind Leerum from Norway, I
guess. This is a kinda of overview from his work from 1995 to 2002.
Continental Fruit plays keyboards, electronics and uses vocals, not
that I could directly detect any lyrics or that the are sing-alongs.
It’s the usual sort of lo-fi singer songwriter stuff, but then one of
the more experimental kind. Claustrofobic music, mostly unsettling
and not very appealling. Maybe I am ruining an entire career here,
but I found not of particular great interest. (FdW)
Address: <tchartan@yahoo.com>
PARTY 7 – MUSICA VENENO (3″CDR by Hazard Records)
On this 3″ CDR release on the Spanish Hazard label, Party 7 is the
work of one Jesus Brotons. He works his way on the computer, using
sounds from testrecords, radio and other mixed media sources and
compiles his own version of plunderphonics with it. Very much along
the lines of the current plunderphonics style (around Tigerbeat6),
but also with a firm roots in the old Tape-beatles, Negativland or
People Like Us posse. Party 7 dwells less on spoken word and is more
about stolen sounds from popmusic. The thirteen tracks within these
twenty minutes are short, accurate and never leap into boredom.
Overall a nice release. (FdW)
Address: www.hazardrecords.org
AU – NON EXISTING INPUT (CD by Grond)
AU is a Dutch band, from Den Haag, one of the Dutch cities with a
busy scene for all sorts of musicians. AU are Paul Klaui and Jan
Borchers. They played their music at various festivals, such as
Transmediale, State X and New Forms. For some reason, I thought they
were playing techno, but they aren’t. Recorded in various living
rooms, they improvised these pieces, and hence they have no titles. I
don’t know if the title of the CD is programmatic for the music, but
it seems to me they use existing input, and I think they are guitars,
synths and computers. Their music is most of the time a fine blend of
ambient music of a more disturbing kind (not as in a noisy kind, but
less in a new age kind of way), unsettling harmonies and an
occassional beat kicking in. It’s more headspace music, a new form of
psychedelica then actually techno inspired, although I do believe
they take their inspiration from say Robert Rich to Pan Sonic and
then the more subdued moments of Plastikman. Quite an interesting CD,
probably their debut, which gives more to look out to in the future.
(FdW)
Address: www.grond.org
PAU TORRES – SONGS FOR NULA (3″ CD by Testing Ground)
Even after reading the press message that comes with this mini CD,
it’s not clear wether Pau Torres is a band or an one man band.
They/he studied guitar and played around with Jazz, apperentely for
quite some time. On this mini CD he plays electronics. Sampling jazzy
fragments from old vinyl, he creates his own world of jazz, in a
strangely sampled setting. Vaguely lounge and big band like, this is
easy listening music. Music that pleases as you listen, and probably
disappears from your mind once it’s over. That isn’t a bad thing per
se. Music that requires not much concentration or effort to hear can
be a joy every once in a while. (FdW)
Address: www.testinground.com
ULTRA MILKMAIDS – 03/02/USA (3″ CDR by U Mohol)
A heavily limited item, this one. The Ultra Milkmaids (milkies for
friends) toured the USA in March and compiled this release from
moments of their various concerts. The Milkmaids have grown over the
years; from an ambient industrial tour de force to a microsound
laptop duo. Parts of their previous sound can still be detected in
their current music, such as the heavy guitar pieces floating around
in the first part, but for the bigger part of this, the music dwells
on carefully crafted small sounds, with these microscopic changes.
Sometimes they add high pitched feedback and a low end drone, which
add a nice extra layer to this music. The music is full of tension
and show them at their best. It’s a pity that this lasts only 20
minutes, as it would be nice to get more of this. Invite them for
your next micro party. (FdW)
Address: <y@ultra-milkmaids.com>
LEE PATTERSON/BENJAMIN GWILLIAM – HEATWORKS (3″ CD by New Acoustical Pleasures)
Two pieces of a more conceptual kind. Lee Patterson’s piece is for
‘indoor and outdoor sparklers. Processing has been kept to a minimum
in order to retian textures inherent in the sound source’. Very
unclear how he did it, but it’s almost the sound of somebody
breathing in the microphone. It has an ambient like texture as one
feels sucked in to the sound. It sounds like a pretty much
straightforward recording, but it’s probably multilayered and
gracefully mixed. The other piece is by Benjamin Gwilliam and ‘was
constructred of sounds from three lamps simultaneously burning
facsmile paper. When one lamp was turned off after reaching its peak,
the next lamp was turned on, and this cycles the process’. An even
more obscure low end recording of bumps and drones that is equally
fascinating to hear. Both of these pieces reminded me of the best WrK
works: strict in conceptual approach and executed with great
precision. I hope this newly founded label will present us more of
these delights. (FdW)
Address: <info@newacousticalpleasures.com
THE EVOLUTION GARDEN – 050602 (CDR)
Another one by The Evolution Garden, is their semi-live rehearsal
series. Semi, because it contains all improvisations from their
rehearsal space, recorded without audience. The Evolution Garden
started as a solo project of Mike Kramer (who plays backing tapes,
bass and guitars), but now also has two guitarists, Roger Kengen and
Alfons Houben. It means that The Evolution Garden grew from a more
synthesizer oriented band to a psychedelic group, with loads of
spacey guitars. Indeed their music is highly improvised here, with a
strong emphasizes on the drum computer and the guitars. The
atmospheric elements come from washes of synths that hail around in
the background. Recordingwise this is not the strongest of things: it
seems a recording with a microphone upon the ceiling. That is a pity,
because with the simplest of techniques one could do it better. But
alas, lets not complain, this is an audio snapshot of a work in
progress. (FdW)
Address: <sounddesigner@zonnet.nl>
ORIGAMI ARKTIKA – VARDOGR (CD by Silber)
The Origami’s strike back. In one of their incarnations of five
persons they toured through the USA, Canada, Poland and their home
country Norway. All of these concerts were recorded and in the studio
they added some more layers. It is to understood that Origami Arktika
is an all acoustic band (why not called Origami Acoustika?), playing
guitars, bells, percussion, vocals and sheets of metal. They
improvise around fixed themes I guess. I must admit, I am not blown
away by every piece of this. Certainly when they add vocals, the
atmosphere tends to be medieval and is just not my cup of tea. But a
guitar piece like ‘Ny Stein’ is great. Slowly building up tension,
you await a big blow which never comes. That song is followed by a
very peaceful ‘Eltavaag’, which is a dreamy song. Origami Arktika are
an original, unconventional band who have their roots equally in
folk, rock and experimental music, and blend it together very nicely,
with the occassional miss out. So be it. (FdW)
Address: www.silbermedia.com
STIMILUS – A MOTION SIGNAL (CD/2LP by Beta Lactam)
STIMILUS – PROGRAMME MUSIC (10″ by Beta Lactam)
As far as I know Stimulus is a three piece band from the UK, and they
have a bunch of CDRs, CDs and vinyl available. I don’t believe this
CD is particulary recent, but it’s worth mentioning. Stimulus are
happy plunderphonics, and I don’t mean this as with them in that
particular field, but they take the best of various musical styles
and built into their own thing. The seven lengthy cuts on this CD
show us their interest in rhythmical music (such as in ‘Sporadic
Irregularity’) and ambient like music (in most of the other pieces).
Their instruments are basically anything from a drummachine to radio
to piano and guitar and it seems to dwell less on samplers and
synthesizers. This way of playing their instruments connects Stimulus
more to the world of rock music and much lesser to the world ambient
electronics, but there they don’t fall in the well walked paths of
psychedelica. Stimulus succeded in creating a world of their own.
The 10″, part of Beta Lactam’s Lactamase series, has on one side more
upbeat pieces, of which especially ‘Initiate Commands’ hints at
minimalist techno, but in a very slow mood and inspired by dub.
‘Spear’ on the same side is a shorter piece, more uptempo and noiser
and of lesser interest. The side long ‘Transference’ on the other
side finds Stimilus in an entirely different mood: bowed guitars,
bells and heavily processed vocals take you into their underworld. A
drone laden piece, held together by the pathetic sustained organ
chords, which don’t leap into cliche’s. Blending together two
different approaches, this is a nice introduction to the world of
Stimulus. (FdW)
Address: www.blrrecords.com
ARANOS – WHILST YOUR GAIETY MELTS (10″ by Beta Lactam)
To be very honest: I was never a big fan of Aranos, the Czech violin
player, either in his solo work or those in collaboration with Nurse
With Wound. It’s hard to pin down why this is, but maybe it has to do
with my lack of interest in folk music. ‘Sunset Beaches Crumble’,
which fills the entire a-side of this record, consists of repeating
violin patterns after a short introduction on the piano, violin and
voice. The violins are stuck inside the echo delay, which adds a very
blurry layer to the music. Probably ment as an interpretation of Tony
Conrad or Steve Reich’s ‘Violin Phase’, but the added electronics
just don’t work. The second half of this piece contains singing again
with metallic sounding violins.
‘Octopus Field’ is of much more interest. A deep organic ambient
sound, probably the result of layering thousands of violin sounds. A
deep drone piece that fills the space you’re in really nicely. If
Aranos has more of this, I’m all for it. (FdW)
Address: www.blrrecords.com
JOHN DUNCAN – FRESH (CD by All Questions/XTRact)
This CD contains works composed by John Duncan which are performed by
Zeitkratzer Ensemble from Berlin. For roughly 99% of all music
covered in Vital Weekly, the composer is at the same time the
performer of the music. With all those people working computers or
home studios it seems logical that they know best how to realize
their own music. Zeitkratzer Ensemble however take electronic
compositions (by people like Merzbow, B. Gunther, Terre Thaemlitz to
name but a few) and perform their electronic works on acoustic
instruments. Among their instruments we find the saxophone, trumpet,
tuba, violin, cello, double bass, piano, accordion, percussion and
one Marcus Waibel for sound and electronics. After playing this CD
with two works by John Duncan, I wonder what the role of this Marcus
Waibel is. This music, especially Nav-Flex sounds so electronic, that
it’s hard to realize that this an acoustic ensemble playing, except
for the ‘crash’ opening at the beginning. A beautiful ambient like
work, that for me is remotely away from the original (which was
released last year, see Vital Weekly 287). In ‘Trinity’, which was
originally on A Fault In The Nothing (a 2CD compilation from Ash
International), the acoustic sounds are much clearer to be
recognized, but Duncan’s interest in the machine humm is an apperent
feature here too. The Zeitkratzer Ensemble certainly adds a whole new
layer to the works of these reknowned electronic composers, and it’s
a delight to hear their works played on acoustic instruments. And as
far the performance quality of the music: Duncan sat in on the mixing
of this, so I am sure it has his 100% permission as a good
performance of his work. (FdW)
Address: www.allquestions.net or www.podewil.de
CIRCUS OF THE SCARS – HOME IS WHERE THE HURT IS (CD by Beta Lactam)
The label describes this as This Mortal Coil produced by The Hafler
Trio. I have high respect for The Halfer Trio and about a decade ago
maybe some respect for This Mortal Coil, who knows, but from the
Circus Of The Scars I am not certain about either of the two
references. First of all the Circus is way to normal music sounding,
maybe, in some respect even more musical then much of the other
releases on Beta Lactam, played on real instruments, even when they
include sampling. Their gothic laden sound, with ditto voices that do
not recall the subtle ones of This Mortal Coil, but rather Coil or
Current 93 on an off day. Whereever this music goes ‘experimental’,
they sound like The Legendary Pink Dots on a likewise off day. It’s
all misery in the lyrics, and the music. No fun. (FdW)
Address: www.blrrecords.com
THOMAS DIMUZIO – LIVE AT GENERATOR (CDR by Generator)
ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI – LIVE AT THE GENERATOR (3″ CDR by Generator)
PHAUSS – FOLKORE NO. 2 – LIVE AT THE GENERATOR (CDR by Generator)
Thomas Dimuzio must be a household name, at least by those who dive
into the real ambient industrial thing. His ‘Headlock’ LP (later CD)
is a classic, and his various collaborations include those with Dan
Burke. He’s been around since the early 80s creating some densely
layered electronic music in his home studio. It may seem he’s been
around for ever, but only in 1990 he gave his first concert. This was
at the then legendary, now mythic, Generator Experimental Music
Gallery, ran by Gen Ken Montgomery. Dimuzio’s debut concert is just
released, digitally cleaned, as a CDR on Generator, Gen Ken’s recent
label (on his previous label, Headlock was released as a LP). In six
pieces, spanning just under 40 minutes, Dimuzio creates his dense
layers, built on sampling, feedback, electronics and shortwave.
Especially in ‘Phraxis’ these shortwaves can be heard, and he plays
them in a true Nicolas Collins style. In this ancient recording,
Dimuzio sounds raw and fresh and the refined sound textures that he
currentely creates are only present at very few occassions. Maybe
this lack of subtle music is something that is hard to understand or
even enjoy these days, but the fact that this was a debut concert of
many moons ago, made a good impression on me. Nice stuff.
A very young looking Zbigniew Karkowski fronts the 3″ with an ancient
live recording, also made at the Generator, on September 2nd 1989. It
was his first and only concert in America back then. The sound is
loud but muddy. I bet it was a real rackett going on, and we are
talking pre-laptop days here, boys and girls. I assume Karkowski
brought in a bunch of pre-recorded tapes which he mixed on a small
mixer. Maybe he even added some turntable sounds (the photo on the
cover indicates that, but maybe he’s just sitting behind the
Generator counter, which was a shop also), we don’t know. It’s hard
to say that I really enjoyed this recording on an artistic level. It
all drags on, in its own muddyness of lesser sound quality. From a
historical perspective however, this is quite an interesting item and
may give you some insight in the old and probably unknown Karkowski.
The oldest of these recent releases of ancient live musics from The
Generator is from july 15 1989 and is by Phauss, aka Eric Pauser and
C.M. von Hauswolff. Their concert was a performance including the
deliverance of wodka, chickens (alive!) and sound – most likely on
tape. An oscillating tone goes through the room, added with sounds
from the various travels around the world that Phauss undertook. The
sound is like with Karkowski a kind of blurry and muddy, but it
somehow adds to the strange and alienated atmopshere. It has the
party sounds (people talking) in the machine room of a submarine at
the bottom of the sea. Nice obscure material to DJ with, rather then
a brilliant soundwork that stands by itself. Or of course a nice
souvenir to a remarkable event. (FdW)
Address: www.generatorsoundart.org
CHARLEMAGNE PALESTINE – MUSIC FOR BIG EARS (CD by Staalplaat)
In more than four decades Charlemagne Palestine has managed to keep
himself at the forefront of the experimental music scene. Back in the
1960’s and 1970’s he was one of the true minimalists together with
pioneers such as La Monte Young, Steve Reich and Terry Reilly. Today
he continues his journeys through the sound of minimalism either on
his own or with the assistance of some of present time’s important
profiles on the experimental scene. Worth mentioning was his “Mort
aux vaches”-collaboration project with Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen
of Pan Sonic at the VPRO studios in 1999. “Music for big ears”
belongs to some of his latter projects, though the conceptual idea
already came when Charlemagne Palestine as a fifteen year old were
doing the bells at a church somewhere in New York City. His
fascination to the sound of bells shines clearly through an album
where the only sound source is church bells. At the first moments of
listening the ongoing sounds of ringing bells seems quite abrasive
almost comparable to harsh Japanese Noise. But after some time though
the continuous wall of sound slowly opens, and you realise how
astonishing the richness of this sound matter actually is.
Charlemagne Palestine is using the minimal expression of bell ringing
to create some quite efficient trance inducing sound experiences. An
interesting idea by Charlemagne Palestine and the result is nothing
less than excellent. Listen with caution though! (NMP)
Address: www.staalplaat.com