CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI – THE WORK CALLED KITANO (CD by Bar La Muerte)
YITUEY – SONADORES (3″CDR by The Locus Of Assemblage)
DE FABRIEK/DE HONDENKOEKJESFABRIEK – DOG MINIS (CDR by De Hondenkoekjesfabriek)
TOTAL 5 (CD compilation by Kompakt)
SATORU WONO – SONATA FOR SINE WAVES AND WHITE NOISE (CD by Sonore Records)
RECHENZENTRUM – DIRECTOR’S CUT (CD/DVD by Mille Plateaux)
KRILL.MINIMA – ZWISCHEN ZWEI UND EINER SEKUNDE (CDR by Thinner)
SILENT SEASON DUB (compilationCDR by Thinner)
LOREN CONNORS & DAVID GRUBBS – ARBORVITAE (CD by Hapna)
SAGOR & SWING – ALLT HANGER SAMMAN (CD by Hapna)
JANEK SCHAEFFER – WEATHER REPORT (miniCD by Alluvial)
MEM – IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR (CD by Alluvial)
2/TAU – SOMETHINGMOVINGINSIDEPLASTICBOX (CD by Quecksilber)
ARCH ECHO – MUSIC IN NINE (9) PARTS (CDR by Clever Prince)
ROBOKONEKO – ANEMBO (CD on Couchblip!)
J.FREDE – UNPREPARED PIANO (FEATURING DAVID NERESON) (CD by Current Recordings)
OMNID – LIVE@AKOSM (CDR by SPRC)
OMNID – THERMO (CDR by SPRC)
DOMENICO SCIAJNO & GERT-JAN PRINS – THE D & B ALBUM (CD by Bowindo)
VALERIO TRICOLI – DID THEY? DID I? (CD by Bowindo)
ELIO MARTUSCIELLO – AESTETHICS OF THE MACHINE (CD by Bowindo)
ALESSANDRO BOSETTI & ANTJE VOWINCKEL- CHARLEMAGNE, LA VUE ATTACHEE (CD by Bowindo)
VARIOUS ARTISTS – JUKEBOX MUTATIONS (2x 3″CDR by XOX Magazine/Matsumura Fishworks)
MONOLAKE – MOMENTUM (CD on Monolake/Imbalance Computer Music)
CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI – THE WORK CALLED KITANO (CD by Bar La Muerte)
The press text delivered with this CD isn’t a very clear one, but what I gathered from it is that Claudio Rocchetti has a punk hardcore background and that he organises concerts in the electro-acoustic area. His previous release, on S’Agita, was reviewed only two weeks ago and it left a too short impression, but it was a good start. Musicwise he’s also in the area of the concerts he puts on with his own work ‘The Work Called Kitaro’. The opening piece ‘Existenz’ may put some people out, since this is a fairly long (the longest piece on the CD) of improvised music, and maybe a though thing to bite through. The other pieces are more coherent, and smaller, pieces of music, in which Claudio samples together electro-acoustic elements aswell as ‘real’ instruments (violins). Computer treatments play an important role here in tracks like ‘Eleven AM’. Apart from the long opening pieces tracks are relatively short and jump back and forth over the place, in microsound, in electro-acoustic, plunderphonics and in some cases in minimal music. Claudio is not interested in operating in just one thing, but rather in various kinds of electronic music. This makes this into quite a vivid and energtic CD, in which some tracks are start up ideas and others worked out much better, but that’s ok. The good spirit is there. Very nice work indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.barlamuerte.com
YITUEY – SONADORES (3″CDR by The Locus Of Assemblage)
The text with this mini CD states that the composer, one Claudi Chea (who calls himself Yituey) went back to the place where he was born, the Dominican Republic. On the very first morning he made this recording of both nature and civilization. This is a very very good work of soundscaping. It’s not just a pure recording (or at least so it seems), but a processed work. We hear the vague rumbling of street noise, bell like sounds, insect calls. All of these seem, as said, being fed through some filter and over the course of twenty minutes, things grow in intensity and density. The amount of activity grows and grows until towards the end (maybe the end of the morning, the beginning of siesta?) things become more quiet again. An ordinary busy day in the Dominican Republic, depicted in just sound. Topped with a nicely printed cover, this is an excellent work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.assemblage.freeuk.com
DE FABRIEK/DE HONDENKOEKJESFABRIEK – DOG MINIS (CDR by De Hondenkoekjesfabriek)
Now here’s a name that has been lurking around for more than twenty five years, but who rarely appears in Vital Weekly: De Fabriek. They still release music, although much of it so down in the underground, that I rarely get to hear or see it. To both releases De Fabriek is connected, and it ties them in that part of the Dutch noise scene which I have rarely contact with either: that of the Fucking Bastards and likeminded noise bands. The first release is by de Fabriek and De Hondenkoekjesfabriek (the dogs cookies factory), more precise a guy who calls himself Monobrain. The CDR is packed with a small comic booklet about dogs and a doggy bag containing a cassette which is unplayable. The first three tracks are by De Fabriek and is a weird noisy combination of analogue tape-loops, radio transmissions, vinyl crackle and toys. De Fabriek was never a band for just one type of sound, and it’s good to see them again in the realms of more noisy work. Monobrain seems to work along similar lines of collaging sounds, but in a more electronic way – almost like they are remixing De Fabriek here. Very nice work, both visually and musically from the Dutch underground. (FdW)
Address: P.O.box 68 – 7700 AB Dedemsvaart – The Netherlands
TOTAL 5 (CD compilation by Kompakt)
Phew! I am in a heavy sweat, breakdown, oh yeah. And so goes the new release from Germany’s Kompakt imprint. Once again offering a sterling release of funkified electronic splendor. The playful Duran Duran addendum “All She Wants Is” by SCSI-9 (Anton Kubikov and Maxim Milutenko) just uses up every opportunity to make the listener get physical and dance. And this collection is just brighter than the sun including tracks like Superpitcher’s buzzworthy 80s meets electro “Mushroom” and M. Mayer’s tech-bent “Speaker” creation that brings back only the most filtered and worthy aspects of say Front 242 and Bigod20. This speaker’s speaking to you! Elsewhere here you will find the exalted state of aural extacy as the Burger/Voight team mixes up Phong Sui’s “Wintermute” which is a sort of temporal zone with guitars and that sorta thing. The celebrated T. Raumschmiere (Marco Haas) puts the “Total” into the title by fortifying his track with enough percussive bass riffs than you could shake a rump at (did I say that?). Before I go I care to mention that the smart track here is Thomas Fehlmann’s venture into staccato static. His layering of vinyl and itchy beats is non-toxic so dive into this pool of “Radeln” and swim upstream with its second cousin “Nepal” by newcomer Mikkel Metal. “Normandie 2” takes this full experience to a fine close and shows off the numbing bass of Jonas Bering. Anyhow, I am just abducted by this late summer release, which should have been released at the height of July· though it will keep the heat flowing through the holidaze. (TJN)
Address: http://www.kompakt-net.de/
SATORU WONO – SONATA FOR SINE WAVES AND WHITE NOISE (CD by Sonore Records)
Essentially, this is a four track longplayer, with the actual “Sonata” separated into four parts itself (Sonata, Scherzo, Adagio and Divertimento). Satoru Wono warms us up with an “Overture” that sounds at first like a grocery checkout cash machine, and suddenly its repetitiveness has a beat, a presence, a mechanized mind of its own. The “Sonata” sets pitch free and wide, frequencies so bright that you may find pleasure in their resonance with the many devices that surround us in hospitals, offices, airports and everywhere in between. This is like a disembodied pathway to the edge of the future. Like Pita and Carsten Nicolai, Wono uses sinewaves and other mechanics to speak his universal language. He doesn’t treat his audience like dogs or seals, anticipating a higher sense of aural perception, rather he uses the entire spectrum of sound in a compartmentalized way, sort of like a series of finite vignettes. By using pacing and punctuation the sound is uniquely alien. Perhaps this is a wi-fi, online live recording from Pluto? One thing is for sure, this may encourage some to set their mobile phone not to chirp “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy”. “Sonata for Sine Waves and White Noise” does for electronic music what Jeff Koons did for the visual arts, to subvert the audience’s perception of the immediate exterior with a sense of street smart satire.(TJN)
Address: http://www.sonore.com/
RECHENZENTRUM – DIRECTOR’S CUT (CD/DVD by Mille Plateaux)
OK – so here I sit in the dark in literal surround sound. I am haunted by the palest yellow flicker and clap track, click percussion of “gaujaq totale” (I knew that one day this wireless keyboard would come in handy). This “Director’s Cut” set comes with both an audio cd and a 2 sided dvd (PAL/NTSC) for your total a/v pleasure. Like other recordings from the venerable Mille Plateaux imprint, this is almost monolithic and once the visuals are added, albeit blurry, austere and conceptually minimal, the picture is painstakingly painted. The creeping repetitive image of an aircraft landing, layered with television static/interference/white noise breeds an iconic patterning in its implied sense of imminent danger and importation of short term memory testing. “Slate” is an electronic river, fountain or other source of liquid pleasure. The color striations play with deconstructed CRTs to the quiver of a young caterpillar. “bleichbaduberbruckung” uses sepia toned viscosities to contextualize patterned distortions. The video here is a bit generic and blatantly amateurish-looking, with a bit of an “evening news” graphic look to it. “projectktor” appeals to all those who appreciate the artist’s hand in the artmaking process, one film frame lingers until the tonal shift in the track moves and then there are overtures of Fritz Lang and Kraftwerkian radioactivity. “paramount” blends monotone shapes in thick layers, with a bellow-full, percussive sense of containment. In “happy end” a fragile, agile, gawky and choppy beat superimposes itself in a short, sweet conclusion. The audio disc goes a bit further by offering you a “secret ending” as well. Overall the visuals are pretty trippy, lending to the live experience by adding a new colorful dimension of shapes, images and other randomness to the music mix. This threesome’s video maker, Lillevän has scratched and distorted “35MM” is a way which recalls early Cabaret Voltaire reels. The latent obscurity and repetitive imaging plays well in a live setting, but here on my 13″ my eyes are popping a bit. So, with a complete video soundtrack, the tracks have a seamless immediacy associating a multimedia rethinking of how a collective can better market their creative process. The wash of flexible tones meets in the middle for “Director’s Cut” – a feast your ears and eyes. (TJN)
Address: http://www.rechenzentrum.org/
KRILL.MINIMA – ZWISCHEN ZWEI UND EINER SEKUNDE (CDR by Thinner)
SILENT SEASON DUB (compilationCDR by Thinner)
Krill Minima is an ambient project of Martin Juhls from Dortmund (Germany). He worked himself into the musicworld by singing and playing guitar in numerous lokal bands. He interests moved into the direction of electronics. Nowadays he has several porjects going on. like Falter and Marsen Jules. As Krill Minima Juhls builds minimalistic ambient constructions with warm sounds of electronic origin. Slowly moving and echoing music. More exotic then experimental.
Juhls defined his style very clearly. He is not afraid to be very sparse with sounds in order reach his goal. I must say his approach is very effective and successfull. Because he is also very consequent, the six pieces on this cd form a very coherent whole. A negative effect is that it makes the music a little uniform and monotonous.
Track 4 (‘Die Reflexion des Projektors auf der Leinwand’) has several moments with some very Ashra-New age of Earth-like flauvour. So continuity with older german electronic music is guaranteed. The music is very romantic and melancholic or teutonic as we used to say of german electronic music in earlier years. It brings you inevitable in a quiet and pensive mood.
After a single on Genesungswerk Krill Minima does a good job with this cdr-debut.
The compilation ‘Silent Season Dub’ offers more of the same. Martin Juhl is present here as Krill Minima and Falter. Other artists (Lufth, Selffish, Off the sky, and more) offer pieces that are very much in the same vein: dreamy and languid music. As if the music comes from one and the same artist.
Both albums are available as free mp3 download in 192 kbps quality at their website! (DM)
Address: http://www.thinnerism.com/
LOREN CONNORS & DAVID GRUBBS – ARBORVITAE (CD by Hapna)
SAGOR & SWING – ALLT HANGER SAMMAN (CD by Hapna)
I never agreed more with a label, especially a label like Hapna, when they state: “the most surprising part is that it hadn’t happened before” – and come to think of it, they are right. David Grubbs knows about Loren Connors since 1990 and his introduction was the LP ‘In Pittsburgh’, which David eventually re-issued on Dexter’s Cigar years later. David’s duo band with Jim O’Rourke Gastr Del Sol played on several festivals with Loren, and yet David and Loren never played together until May of this year, when they played a concert in Brooklyn. A month later they went to the studio and there they captured these five hauntingely beautiful and desolate pieces of music. Loren plays electric guitar and David electric guitar and piano. This is music which is about ‘sounding out’: you play one note and wait the next one, until the first one has died out. Thus they create small gaps of silence, filled with just the resonating sound of two guitars or a guitar and a piano. In general I am not very fond of the use of reverb on any instrument, but here, on Loren’s guitar mainly, it adds the sort of depth that makes the principles of sounding out work even better. Recorded via means of improvisation, this is still a work of great care and skill.
Sagor & Swing are two Swedish musicians who come up with already their third album. They are Eric Malmberg on organ and Ulf Moller on drums. Their previous CDs (both on Hapna) are best described as easy listening music, jazzy influenced, lighthearted and gentle excursions of very nice music. It seems that with this album they departure a bit from the lightness of their music and move into a darker area. Folky melodies pop up here and there, such as in the fifth track (sorry, have difficulties with the handwritten swedish on the cover) but melodies are played on the lower end of the hammond organ. One would suspect that with such a limited set up and already two previous CDs the sounds would be known by now, but still this CD captures from beginning to end and is as good as the previous two. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hapna.com
JANEK SCHAEFFER – WEATHER REPORT (miniCD by Alluvial)
Our most beloved three arm turntablist Janek Schaefer is besides also a composer. He was invited by the McKnight Center as a composer in residence. While staying in Minneapolis he decided upon doing a project with sound recordings made from the hostile weather conditions in that particular state. The sounds were recorded using weather balloons, adding also recording equipment to them, which included a mobile telephone. Furthermore he uses tornado detecting equipment, snow flakes landing on a microphone and radio and tv announcements of weather changes. All of this is cut and collaged together in this twenty one minute work, and Schaeffer hastens to say that no post-processing of sounds was used here. The result is simply a fascinating journey of weather sounds. Sounds that we are all familiar with, as weather is always there, and no doubt many people are fascinated by it’s sound: rain, thunder, wind – it’s usually the conditions we don’t like that produce the sound, strangely enough. Therefore a lot of the sounds you hear on this piece are very familiar sounds – but placed out of context, or rather in a new context, it becomes a fascinating piece of music. Plus the package holds an extensive full colour booklet, which documents the project. This project is by far the best Schaeffer project I have encountered. Strong in it’s concept and strong in its execution. (FdW)
Address: <alluvial@hotmail.com>
MEM – IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR (CD by Alluvial)
Let’s take a moment to correct the previous issue of Vital Weekly. I wrote that I never heard of Mem, but that was not entirely true. Behind Men is Kamil Antosiewicz, who was at one point a member of EA, a Polish trio, whose releases were discussed in Vital Weekly before. EA does no longer exist and now Kamil works on his own. For this new CD he took as a sound source, the 1961 song “It Was A Very Good Year” by Elvin Drake, best known though for the interpretation by Frank Sinatra. His version is a like standard for romantic songs, about love, life and death. It’s not Mem’s idea to pay hommage to old blue eyes, but about the very essence of the piece. Strange to think that only this song is all he uses but maybe the possibilities of the computer sound processing are indeed endless. But still, upon closely listening to this disc, I assume, Mem just a very long time stretch of the entire song and processes those extremely long processing into an one hour sound event. Like with his EA days, Mem still loves to work with drone related material. What happens with a time stretch is that the sounds are much longer and by adding the right filter one moves into the area of drone and ambient music. While listening, I was thinking, well, that’s a rather simple thing to do. But does it matter? Do I really care how this was made? Not really. The disc is just a very nice ambient record, quietly humming music, vibrant yet minimal. Maybe not the most fascinating innovative recording, but still a good ambient headphone music. (FdW)
Address: <alluvial@hotmail.com>
2/TAU – SOMETHINGMOVINGINSIDEPLASTICBOX (CD by Quecksilber)
When it comes to his solo work, Boris Hegenbart is not a person to speed up things. His first CD as /Tau, called ‘Hikuioto’ was released in 1998 (see Vital Weekly 110) and besides that things were silent until his contribution to ‘Sampling Rage’ (Vital Weekly 305). Now he releases his second CD, as 2/Tau and this CD is much a continuation to his contribution on ‘Sampling Rage’ then the true follow up to ‘Hikuioto’, although there are similarities to be noted in his approach to sound, which is a kinda of laptop approach to ambient music. All of this CD’s tracks have spoken word and they seem to be dealing with ‘encounters’ as a subject (it’s hard to tell which language they speak, I think I heard German, English and Russian for sure). These narrations have been recorded in cafe’s, back rooms and in streets. This is mixed with a cut and paste sound of processed field recordings and electronica. In ‘Rosin’ we hear a clear English voice and the sound of a plastic lid against some glass. Some of the spoken word stuff and the intimate character of both sound and music, reminds me of the work of Dominique Petitgand or the recent miniCD by Hans Appelqist (see Vital Weekly 379). It’s almost like one is invited to a very private session. In some cases, again like ‘Rosin’ or ‘Ginger’ it seems we are hearing somebody giving instructions to somebody who produces then a certain sound (this is also to which the title refers), which are in return placed in a larger body of sound. For fans of both aforementioned artists aswell as lovers of Oval this is surely a great CD. I at least enjoyed it very much! (FdW)
Address: http://www.quecksilber-music.com
ARCH ECHO – MUSIC IN NINE (9) PARTS (CDR by Clever Prince)
Arch Echo are a three piece imoprovisation group, with Marc Gilman, Tom Kelley and Christopher Bavitz. It’s hard to tell who plays what. I think I heard guitars, voices, drums but also ‘out door sounds’ (street sounds) and maybe a synth or maybe even a computer. These nine tracks were recorded during various rehearsals. The sound of Arch Echo is rather lo-fi – recordings were made in a simple and direct manner and the selections here seem to be cut straight out of various sessions. A kind of best of so to say. Some of these pieces start out nicely, but end in mere mayhem, like the seventh track. Although this was not an uninteresting listening experience, the whole thing seemed a bit unfocussed, like if Arch Echo are still searching for the right thing to do. The shorter pieces, which are the more rock pieces, worked best for their psychedelic power. (FdW)
Address: <marc_gilman@yahoo.com>
ROBOKONEKO – ANEMBO (CD on Couchblip!)
‘On a fairy tale high’ is the premise of the latest release from Aussie-based Couchblip! by Robokoneko (Melinda Taylor). Filled with airy passages of slow dance melodies and washes of ambient fun this reminisces with some of the early 80s synth bands sans vocal. Though its edge is smoother and less monochromatic. ‘Anembo’ reminds me of junior high. Maybe it’s a sense of undaunted commitments and choices, maybe its just sheer levity. Vague similarities to works by Steve Roach and even vidnaObmana reveal themselves here, but taken more to a street level especially on ‘Miyu Saga’ with a sweet vocal sample that speaks in its own curvy language. There seems to be a new sound movement afoot that includes lighter, happier, more care-free feeling but controlled harmonies in electronics. Heard here and in other places by Cute Theory, Lullatone, Soft Pink Truth, and elsewhere this generation of wired folks has a new saavy when it comes to deconstructing pop music. Though where the concept and the energy lies the output here drags a bit on the lackluster ‘System Experiment’. As this ‘music for a quiet place’ comes to an end the ‘Interlude’ chills the whole house down while veering into the dangerous waters of lilting new age, but dare I say it is still ‘pretty’. (TJN)
Address: http://www.couchblip.com/
J.FREDE – UNPREPARED PIANO (FEATURING DAVID NERESON) (CD by Current Recordings)
New ventures usually take time to warm up to and j.frede’s latest ‘Unprepared Piano’ is one of them. At first, this sounded like a piano being tuned, and the liner notes confirmed this to be a true professional tune-up of a 1902 Hardman Upright. However, this being the first recording on the newly founded Current Recordings, also acts as the inaugural issue in their Crest Series which will include hand-made, recycled packaging designed to resemble old fashioned mail. Attention to detail is part of frede’s overall concentration and this LA resident blatantly mocks his immediate sunshine-filled, heavy gloss external environment to bring a sense of the intimacy lost in the crevices of what some would call nowhere. ‘Low Pres Non’ moves like a snail creeping toward finality. To know this is an old piano being tinkered with and compositionally deconstructed is an aside to its embedded cinema verité. ‘Unpre N’ is a great post-Dadaist expression that will puzzle the casual listener. And so goes throughout, as a universal tension is faintly implied. ‘Treated 1 (revised)’ is a gauzy experiment in perfect timing or a dead man walking so to speak. Frede paints a gray canvas, over and over until the layers change color and the density becomes its base value. ‘Random Movements in A Minor’ sounds like drunken keys, tripping and skipping and still landing back in a row. Ending with ‘Uncut (revised)’ the cyclical nature of this recording is complete. Things shift and sway as the piano appears more faded and hollow, like the end of a real long day of practice. (TJN)
Address: http://www.current-recordings.com/
OMNID – LIVE@AKOSM (CDR by SPRC)
OMNID – THERMO (CDR by SPRC)
The best things in life are free, so one of the best things to do is to give away your music for free. Omnid is the sound project from Albert Casais, and those who browse the internet for free music might have come across his music on such servers as Tiln, 8bitrecs, Centibel, Everything, Nishi, FukkGod, CEC-Sonus project, Retinascan and SlapArt. Besides he has various CDR releases too. Albert started already in 1977 by fooling around with a cassette recorder and in the late 80s he played all sorts of music, from free jazz to no wave and electronic music until receiving a degree in audio engineering in 1996. Since then he works with mainly computer based field recordings and on one of these new CDR releases also guitar.
I assume Thermo is the studio CD – it doesn’t say live, so I assume it’s studio. Omnid works with loop based material. All of the loops made, he places in some multi-track sound programm and starts mixing the material. In the first three tracks, the loops selected are all close together in the sound spectrum, but they are not clearly defined sound material, ie it’s hard to guess what it is. In ‘White Shadow’, the material is also looped but here they are guitar sounds – culled from some improvised playing. The track after that ‘White Shadow 2’ has probably the same material, but it’s all being sped up. For several reasons I found this to be the best track of the whole CDR. The material is clearly defined and it’s the shortest track. All of the other tracks clock in ten to fifteen minutes, but there isn’t enough variation in them to make it a fascinating thing through out. The fact that the sounds seem rather blurry, doesn’t help either. It would have been good if Omnid would have been more selective towards the composition and selection of the sounds.
On his live release he plays guitar, electronics and laptop. Here too he seems to be working with loops, but the guitar sounds (played in prepared mode) are clearly there. The sounds generated on the guitar are fed into the computer and processed on the spot. Although this material is of a more improvised nature, I must say that in general I enjoyed this more then the studio CD. Tension is built up through the use of computer sounds, with small sounds on a microscopic level. Here, structure may not be as apparent because of the improvisation but it’s throughout the more enjoyable release of the two. (FdW)
Address: <omnid@optonline.net
DOMENICO SCIAJNO & GERT-JAN PRINS – THE D & B ALBUM (CD by Bowindo)
VALERIO TRICOLI – DID THEY? DID I? (CD by Bowindo)
ELIO MARTUSCIELLO – AESTETHICS OF THE MACHINE (CD by Bowindo)
ALESSANDRO BOSETTI & ANTJE VOWINCKEL- CHARLEMAGNE, LA VUE ATTACHEE (CD by Bowindo)
Improvisation musicians do listen to popmusic, techno and drum & bass, and some of them adopt a music style and pretend that they are doing the same thing. The Vacuum Boys for instance is such a band, pretenting to be a real rock group, but in return just use powerbooks, guitars and electronics. Maybe it’s there that Gert-Jan Prins, electronic specialist for the Vacuum Boys, got the idea to do a drum & bass album, with Domenico Sciajno. Sciajno plays real time computer processing and Prins the electronics and fm/am modulations (it’s always a pleasure to see him with his circuits and electronics). Despite the title, this music has nothing to do with drum and bass. It’s an album filled with rhythms, cracklings, modulations, which indeed move over the entire sound spectrum – much low end and much high end -, just like drum & bass does, but this is high improvisation at work here. Prins sets the sounds, by twitching, turning and hitting his circuits and dailing his radio knobs, while Sciajno receives the sounds and twits the computer knobs up and distorts the whole thing a bit further. Well made improvised music that fits along the lines of labels such as Erstwhile and Grob, for those who take improvised music a bit futher.
Not much is known about Valerio Tricoli, other than that he ‘had an unobteinable tape on Freedom From’ – but that’s hardly a surprise. I tried understanding the text I got with the CD, but I really don’t. The music runs for 19 minutes and 19 seconds (the cover says, but the CD lasts thirty eight minutes) and is maybe (!) based on recordings made in a room of a motel. Maybe not. The music, so it seems to me, is based on computer processings of sounds recorded elsewhere, ie the field recordings. Regardless of this input, Tricoli builts a nice, but maybe not entirely new, sound collage, which hoovers between unprocessed acoustic sounds and computer plug ins running amok. It’s a nice but nothing special piece.
More known is of course Elio Martusciello. Together with his brother he formed the duo Martusciello (who had an CD on Staalplaat) and with Fabrizio Spera and Luca Venitucci the trio Ossatura, who released CDs for Recommended Records. For his new solo CD he turns to sine waves. They appear here in all their loudness, ranging the entire spectrum (from 16Hz to 20kHz). Depending on your sound system and space you play them in, they will change character. As far as I understand the extensive press text the work was made in a rather random way. Sound buttons are pushed. Sound resounds. Feedback like sinewaves and deep bass drones. Maybe for the true lover of noise a great thing. Maybe for the true lover of conceptual art a great thing. But I pass.
The final new release on Bowindo contains two pieces by Alessandro Bosetti and one by Antje Vowinckel. It’s not clear why these three should be on one CD. The two pieces by Bosetti already would make a nice CD of forty minutes. But it must be said that all three pieces fit along quite well on this CD. These are musique concrete pieces with a modern touch. There are rhythmical, repeating elements and extensive use of sine waves. Silence plays an important role, certainly in Bosetti’s ‘Kitchen Piece’ (which is for me also the lesser brother of the pieces on this CD: the sinewaves used here are not very original and the silence doesn’t necessarily add a good thing to the piece). But in all a fine CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.fringesrecordings.com
VARIOUS ARTISTS – JUKEBOX MUTATIONS (2x 3″CDR by XOX Magazine/Matsumura Fishworks)
This new limited edition (125 copies) collection of ten tracks comes from the online mind of Ted Laderas’ XOX Magazine. Including many emerging newcomers including disc opener Peon’s downtempo ‘Metastatic’ – filled with voice samples polarizing a view of the ‘public mind’. ‘4AM in 4 Parts’ by edIT (Ed Ma) reminds me of a car commercial wannabe. Its junked up quick rivet, Asian theme is wrinkled and fun – but there is no real soul. Professor Krupky’s thematic ‘Nasty’ plays in the genre of My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult without as much melodrama, and a highly attuned sense of post jungle beats. This itches to be mixed further. Now things start to get much more effective for a slide on to the last call dancefloor with Mike Garringer’s ‘X-Jazz’. This hybrid of electro and basic techno hause a generous house flavor and doesn’t rely on a central diva – the sound is pretty damn sensual. Part one concludes with Merit’s indi-electronic permeated ‘Not Sorry’ which never quite takes flight, the flat bassline stays shallow and just lies there waiting to be noticed. As the ‘green’ disc is popped in a refreshing and playful lightness eminates in the form of Matt Wright’s quirky ‘I Was A Lesbian Sperm Bank’. The title kind of hints at the hijinks here – it’s a mischievous hike down the techno road bound for pleasure. Wright seems to have a free-thinking, youthful approach to the material, pretty poppy. Roshi (Laderas) brings atmosphere and a sense of solace into this house with his ‘Denny’ – a latenite chilled out headtrip. The tempo is leisurely and the mood is all there. Adventure Time offers ‘My Petite’ playing on cocktail themes of the 60s complete with fun vocal cut ups and rock riffs. Definitely the most out track in this set, even if it uses techniques previously laid out by sound collagists People Like Us – these guys have a great flavor for their craft and use material made for this kind of formula. Closing with Ainu’s ‘Free Space’ the listener will be pleased to be treated to sounds evocative of such epic imprints like EM:T or even some 12K releases. Ted and Carlo make for one dreamy track filled with beveled bass and brain massage. (TJN)
Address: http://www.xoxmag.com/jukebox
MONOLAKE – MOMENTUM (CD on Monolake/Imbalance Computer Music)
Robert Henke was the smashing success of this year’s live performances at Montreal’s Mutek Festival alongside heavyweights like Coil, Atom Heart and Pole. His new ‘Momentum’ really plays a lively adjunct role to his very focused, yet playful live persona. Even the new promo pics show his multiplicity (literally) in a way that makes you wonder, how did I miss this guy for so long. Leave it to say that Monolake is embarking on this new recording with an attitude, so tempered, so smoothly developed it could be spread evenly on toast and you will have a sudden penchant to devour the whole loaf. ‘Cern’ starts this epic recording with the ultimate playfulness of an Olympic ping pong match, but this has something sinister up its sleeve. Things get sparse and ‘Linear’ as track two feeds us low-flying funky percussion. The mix is garbled and tight, crunchy and formed. Part founder of popular Ableton software, Henke along with Gerhard Behles developed this music mixing software to use in the recording process and as an added live concert device. What appears in the creases are wild birds speaking in foreign tongues and other psychodelia. This self-produced effort runs rings around similar in contemporary electronica, with much in common with those on Kompakt and Warp. However, there is a personal, warmer tone to this material unlike others on the German scene. On ‘White II’ the rhythm slows to a purr but keeps the percussion attentive with a layered drone to keep it company. The hazy, lurking ‘Tetris’ was made for the movies – it has sharp-turning thriller written all over its backside. Preened in Herculean style, this is haute coutre for after party trippers. The space hopping, luminescent ‘Stratosphere (edit)’ is an intimate take on friendly domination of the cosmos. This just gets inside your head and takes its turns to alter the axis of your level mind. ‘Credit’ draws the curtains, slowly in an atonal shift towards a gray atmosphere. The drone is calming, like some kind of sleepwalking ether released to alter and immobilize the once lit characters built on this planet. The versatility of Monolake makes its landing. ‘Momentum’ is monumental! (TJN)
Address: http://www.monolake.de/