ROGER KLEIER – DEEP NIGHT, DEEP AUTUMN (CD by Starkland)
FRANCISCO LOPEZ & STEVE RODEN – LE CHEMIN DU PARADIS (CD by Fario)
THE HAFLER TRIO – CLEAVE: 9 GREAT OPENINGS (CD by Nextera)
RYOJI IKEDA – OP. (CD by Touch)
ROBERT POSS – CROSSING CASCO BAY (CD by Trace Elements)
ROBERT POSS – DISTORTION IS TRUTH (CD by Trace Elements)
KEVIN BLECHDOM – YOUR BUTT (CDEP by Dudini)
STASIS DUO – HAMMER & TONGS (CD by Impermanent Recordings)
PETER BLAMEY – SALTED FELT (CD by Impermanent Recordings)
V/VM (CDR by Piehead Recordings)
ANDREW DUKE – HIGHEST COMMON DENOMINATOR (CDR by Piehead Recordings)
RE-MIXS IN REMEMBRANCE OF MUSLIMGAUZE (MP3s download)
ROGER KLEIER – DEEP NIGHT, DEEP AUTUMN (CD by Starkland)
A new solowork by experimental guitarist and composer Roger Kleier. A
few years ago he released his first and well received solowork
‘KlangenBang’ on Rift Records. Other compositions of him are released
on Tzadik, CRI, Intakt, etc. All compostions on this new one date
from 1998 and one from 1996. They are performed by Kleier himself on
guitars and his partner Annie Gosfeld on keyboards. He leads his
guitar through various explorations and modifications with a variety
of devices and processing. At one time he treats his guitar in the
best Hendrix-tradition, another time sampling and soundprocessing
make it difficult to recognize the guitar. This diversity makes it an
interesting album.
But how up to date and varied his work may be in a technological
sense, the music itself is very nostalgic in my experience.
Reminiscences to the wall of guitar-sounds of Branca, the work of
Robert Musso and the albums by Fripp and Eno are obvious and
difficult to repress. Most compositions demonstrate great affinity
with the energy and emotionality of rock music.
All pieces are shaped from clear ideas. The are very enjoyable, but
we are not a the forefront of new music here.
Some information on the background of Kleier. He lives in New York
City, so it does not have to wonder us that he played with other
guitarsts like Elliott Sharp, Marc Ribot and Davey Williams and
musicians as John Zorn, Samm Bennett, David Moss, Carl Stone, a.o. He
comes from Los Angeles where he co-founded the Los Angeles
Improvisers Collective (1981). He studied composition at North Texas
State University and the University of Southern California. He
composed since for many new music ensembles and played in many
improvisation collectives (DM).
Address: www.starkland.com
FRANCISCO LOPEZ & STEVE RODEN – LE CHEMIN DU PARADIS (CD by Fario)
Another installment from the Fario label in their attempt to bring
together two artists. Usually these CDs consist of three tracks: one
collaborative track and one by each artist solo. For this fifth CD
two Vital Weekly household names show up: Francisco Lopez and Steve
Roden.
Let is discuss the solo pieces first. In Roden’s solo piece, the
rubbing and playing of everyday objects is the central point of
attention. It seems an extension to his work ‘Schindler House’, which
was released last year, at least the title refers to this. It starts
out with Lopezian silence, but over the course of sixteen minutes the
sound grows thicker and thicker, and Roden adds drone like sounds to
the acoustic sounds, thus creating a whole world, full of sound.
Francisco Lopez claims to have recorded his most quitest piece to
date with ‘Untitled #129’. The first fifteen or so minutes I didn’t
hear a thing. Then slowly and softly some sort of mechanical sound
comes in, which (volume still full open) subtly rubes away. After
that has disappeared, a very low end rumble comes in and one even has
to turn the volume down a bit. Silence again. Lopez once again
stretches the whole idea of music and how to present it, in a rather
extreme way.
When teaming up together for their collaboration piece, they combine
the sounds of rubbing objects with the sound material of Lopez (air
conditionors, machine hum, environment hiss), which is luckily more
present volume wise then his solo work. The two different elements
work quite well and take a beautiful shape in your shape when it
unfolds over these eighteen minutes. These two guys really are
likeminded people, each searching for their own unusual sound input,
but which as a result seem to be a good match. (FdW)
Address: <feardrop@wanadoo.fr>
THE HAFLER TRIO – CLEAVE: 9 GREAT OPENINGS (CD by Nextera)
After years and years of silence, in which only one CD was released
by Die Stadt, The Hafler Trio are back. Despite the serious illness
that Andrew McKenzie has, this new CD is only the first of a whole
new string of releases. ‘Cleave’ is going to be a trilogy, and before
the year is over there is also going to be a double CD on Fire Inc
and a 10″ on Raft Records. And there is more to come next year.
‘Cleave – 9 Great Openings’ as the first part of the trilogy is
called, took me by surprise. The Hafler Trio have evolved over the
years from a musique concrete group (no doubt a term Andrew McKenzie
despises) to more stretched out patterns and watch things happen as
they happen. ‘Inoutof’ with is processed airpipes is probably the
best example. But ‘Cleave – 9 Great Openings’ takes everything a bit
further. What I think is the sound of a cello is the basis of the
recording. The bow never leaves the strings and probably in a genious
way, the whole thing works like a one big drone piece. Several
shorter movements are cut into loops and played ad infinitum. The
only other composer I can compare it with is works by Phil Niblock,
something like ‘Four Full Flutes’ or his cello pieces. Movements fade
over and out and back in again, slow and majestically evolving and
rises like a major force in your space. Probably the most austere
Hafler Trio I know, but it is hauntingely beautiful. And despite the
barely readable font, the package is gorgeous too. (FdW)
Address: www.nextera.cz
RYOJI IKEDA – OP. (CD by Touch)
With the release of ‘Matrix’, the work of Ryoji Ikeda reached a
culmination point, the best refinement of his previous works, spread
over two discs of sound. One with his rhythmical material and one
with sound fields. As the conclusion of ‘+-‘ and ‘0 Degrees’ a
logical point, but also one that asked the question: what’s next for
Ikeda? To come up with another disc of his sinewave material, seemed
just not right. Two years after ‘Matrix’ he comes back with ‘Op’. You
could easily think that ‘Op’ is short for ‘Optical’ or maybe has a
relation with ‘Op Art’ (in reference to his previous cover art), but
op is short for ‘opus’ latin word for ‘work’. Serious composers
(mainly nineteenth century) used to make their own catalogue, giving
each new work a new opus number. Big jolly fun for musical
historians, because composers left out works that felt were not good
enough or youth works. The four works on this CD are all works for
strings. ‘No electronic sounds used’ the cover says. It has ‘op 1’,
‘op 2’ and ‘op 3’ and a prototype of ‘op 1’. Does this mean that
Ikeda now is a serious composer and that his previous works are youth
works to be forgotten? We don’t know.
The music on this CD is a distinct break from his past electronic
music. That was cold and chilly, highly rhythmical and in its
frequency use quite extreme. The three pieces for strings on this CD
are romantic, stretched, slightly atonal and are to be found in the
tradition of Feldman and Scelsi. Ever since I got this CD a week, I
played it nearly every day, and every time I hear it, I find it more
and more difficult to say anything about it. There is a place in my
heart for this kind of music, certainly when it comes from someone
for whom I have much respect, but it seems so hard to think that this
is the same Ikeda as the one that did ‘+-‘ or ‘Time & Space’. It’s so
radically different that it’s scary, maybe schizophrenic. Every time
I play this, I start to like it more and more and the less I
understand about it. Plus it raises so many more questions, like
what’s next? Will the format of string quartets be renewed, just like
Ikeda renewed electronic music, or will there more compositions like
this, but then for different instruments – or maybe a symphony? Time
will tell of course, but for now this has to be cherished. (FdW)
Address: www.touch.demon.co.uk
ROBERT POSS – CROSSING CASCO BAY (CD by Trace Elements)
ROBERT POSS – DISTORTION IS TRUTH (CD by Trace Elements)
Must be my education, but the name Band Of Susans is only something I
heard off, never heard what they do. They were at one point New
York’s more interesting guitar band, along with Sonic Youth, Live
Skull and Gutbank. But the ideas of leader Robert Poss went beyond
the rock idiom, and both before and after the Band Of Susans, he
experimented with the sound of guitars and from that, mostly the use
of feedback and overtones. Though principally working in the studio,
he also plays live. On these two new CDs one will find his more
recent works. Robert Poss works mainly with small clusters of densely
layered tones. The title piece of ‘Crossing Casco Bay’ is a twenty
minute pulsating piece in which a guitar is hardly to be recognized,
but it’s sheer aggressive drone like minimalism is overwhelming. It
is followed by ‘Drift’, recorded live, with people playing ebows and
the result is the downside of minimalism – contemplative and
introspective. The other three piece on this CD are very odd and also
very unrelated. There is short soundscape piece (bird call and jungle
sounds) and the other two tracks seem to be built around
rhythmsamples, of which ‘Throne Of Blood’ as a Muslimgauze like tabla
intro. They somehow don’t seem to fit the first two lenghty pieces
and this CD could have been good without their inclusion.
Maybe those pieces would have fitted better on ‘Distortion Is Truth’.
With it’s sixteen pieces, this is a scattered collection anyway. Some
pieces could have been moved the other CD, like the opening piece
‘Brakhage’, but in general this collection of shorter pieces is a too
varied party to really mingle well. In general the more heavy and
droney pieces worked best for me and the pieces which are loaded with
samples ain’t just my thing. One could combine the best of both CD’s
(regardless what your interest is) into a great one CD… (FdW)
Address: <DistortionTruth@aol.com>
KEVIN BLECHDOM – YOUR BUTT (CDEP by Dudini)
Of course you know Kevin Blechdom as one half of Blectom From
Blechdom, but in her own right she (!) also does her own thing. Armed
with such contemporary instruments as a laptop, but also using her
voice and a banjo, she creates her own version of popmusic. She
started her own label to release a CDEP of 25 minute of length,
including some collaborative works with unlikely participants as
Wobbly, Fred Frith, Blevin Blectum and Dan Griffin. The CD opens with
‘Speeding Up’ and closes with ‘Slowing Down’ – similar pieces of
electronical either speeding up or slowing down. They form the
logical beginning and ending of the CD. The best piece of the CD
comes right after the opening. ‘Binaca’ is a piece with banjo and
laptop and a funny lyric about ‘hygenic responsibility’. The other
five tracks explore this too (banjo, electronics, vocals and sampled
madness), but ‘Binaca’ is a hilarious piece, with a strong pop
sensibility. Hilarious, but then more just the lyric part is
‘Boob-A-Q’ . The other tracks are more experimental, with the
highlight being a piece with Fred Frith, with howling vocals and
distorted guitars. If this is your first encounter with Kevin’s
music, I’d say this is a fine display of what she can do, from the
more serious composing to the downright ‘dirty’ popmusic. It’s all
there and has a perfect match together. (FdW)
Address: www.dudini.com
STASIS DUO – HAMMER & TONGS (CD by Impermanent Recordings)
PETER BLAMEY – SALTED FELT (CD by Impermanent Recordings)
A new label from down under promoting local experimental artists.
Artists, I must say, I never heard of or do not have much relevant
information about. The Stasis Duo are Adam Sussman and Matthew Earle
and together they use ’emptied samplers’ (that sounds nice along no
input mixers and Sachiko M’s work for empty sampler). The works
captured on this CD were recorded during an improvisation at the
Royal Derby in Melbourne opn april 2nd 2002. If you couldn’t get
enough of Ryoji Ikeda’s old work but then less structured, more
chopped up sine waves which range the entire frequency spectrum then
this is the place you have been looking for. Cold, chilly tones with
an occassional thum of bass in the belly. Music that is very remote
and distant and not much warmth, but played with great care.
Emotionless music at that, which is just sometimes my cup of tea.
Peter Blamey operates in a likewise territory. Using two mixers and
an oscillator he plays his way through nine tracks. More Ikeda
inspired work, but unlike Stasis Duo, more structured and less
improvised. In ‘Sugar Of Milk’ Blamey even throws in a drone
excercise. This CD moves over the entire frequency spectrum, just
like Stasis Duo, but it seems to me that the lower end is more of his
interest then the high end. Likewise this is cold and chilly music,
but also performed with great care for detail.
Both of these releases hoover around in what some call microsound and
at that they are good, but not spectacular. (FdW)
Address: http://laudible.net/impermanent
V/VM (CDR by Piehead Recordings)
ANDREW DUKE – HIGHEST COMMON DENOMINATOR (CDR by Piehead Recordings)
Two more installments in the Piehead series. I saw pranksters V/Vm a
while ago in concert, which ended in a near riot – beer and fists
flying around, either by an upset audience or by inside agitators. On
the cover of this release, V/Vm complains that musicians seem to have
no fun. “This release is dedicated in every part to those people who
enable me to have fun and to all those people in the future I will
have fun with. You give me the strength to carry on, you’re the
inspiration”. Including a piece dedicated to Elton John and one to
George (no last name). It’s good to find V/Vm here in a terrain that
he is not often in, that of his sinister ambient music. Stretched
sounds, plug ins and software is used to create dense music, that is
indeed ambient, but also has a dark, sinister element to it. I am
reminded of his release “The Stranger” (on Phthalo), which is one of
the best works from him I know. Even a beat piece like the sixth
track – no titles here – isn’t an odd ball. Nice one here.
Andrew Duke has been around since 1987, but it seems that he gets
more and more attention (and releases!) since this year on such fine
labels as Bip Hop, Dial, Tsunami Addiction and Bake. Here he works on
six tracks together with like minded artists and he remixes six other
people (no doubt without their permission), like Aaliyah and Pink
Floyd. In the remixes he dwells around samples taken (stolen!) from
the original and they are set in a bunch of rhythm stuff from Duke.
Nice short tracks of up and down tempo techno music. The
collborational tracks (with Monolake, Kim Cascone, Building Castles
Out Of Matchsticks, IU8) are in general more of an experimental
nature, with microscopic loops, drones and beats. For me this is the
side of Andrew Duke I like better, but maybe that’s because I am a
sucker for the experiment in music. As a display of the various
qualities of Andrew Duke’s music, I think this is a fine release.
(FdW)
Address: www.pieheadrecords.com
RE-MIXS IN REMEMBRANCE OF MUSLIMGAUZE (MP3s download)
The death of Bryn Jones, aka Muslimgauze, now almost four years ago,
is still hard to understand, certainly for those who cherish his
music so much. On the internet discussion group devoted to
Muslimgauze, likeminded musicians decided to start a
‘dedication/remix’ project, which is up for download at the URL
below. Unlike the ‘official’ remix projects (by Staalplaat –
‘Occupied Territories’ and D.O.R. ‘Abu Dis’) many of the people on
this package (which lasts about 2 CDs, complete with cover to
download, plus an additional CD length of remixes) are musicians from
the real underground, who release their music either through
cassettes, CDrs or as MP3s. Therefore the quality of sound and ideas
may vary. However with the use of technology available, many succeed
well in taking a good sample from the original work, and rework them
in what mostly sounds like ‘more muslimgauze’. A tribute project like
this is, unlike a remix project, not bound to the unwritten rules of
never sounding quite like the original. Some of these people sounds
exactely like the great master, which is not a bad thing per se. Even
with such an extensive discography as the one Bryn left us, there is
always need for more, I guess. There are no particular stand outs
here, but maybe that has to do with the fact that Muslimgauze
themselves were allover the place – from techno, to drum & bass to
ambient, loaded with ethnic samples. So it’s hard to cover an area
that wasn’t already explored before. Remarkable is also that not
many ‘famous’ people are involved (although it’s good to see PBK
return!), but it stays among the fans. Record companies who like to
discover a new Muslimgauze should dive into downloading this and see
for the perfect copy. A work of true love. (FdW)
Address: http://sublevel9.net/muslimgauze