VIDNA OBMANA – LEGACY (CD by Relapse)
MARC BEHRENS – ANIMISTIC (FOR DONATELLA) (CD by Auf Abwegen)
JOHN HUDAK & STEPHAN MATHIEU – PIECES OF WINTER (CD by Sirr-ecords)
MONOS – LANDSCAPES (CD by Twenty Hertz)
DARREN TATE – DRONE WORKS #4 (CDR by Twenty Hertz)
METALYCÉE – ANOTHER WHITE ALBUM (CD by Mosz)
ALEXANDER RISHAUG – POSSIBLE LANDSCAPE (CD by Asphodel)
ED LAWES – 14 TRACKS/PIECES (CD by Planet Mu)
PANICSVILLE – PERVERSE (CD by Liquid Death/Hello Pussy Records)
NOLI ME LEGERE … TO MAURICE BLANCHOT (CD by Sirr-ecords)
INDIAN SOUNDSCAPES (2CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
EDWIN VAN DER HEIDE – TOUCH.2 (3″CDRom by Alku)
P. MILES BRYSON – 7 FRAGMENTS FROM THE HAUNTED MIRRORS OF THE AFTERNOON (CDR by 6 On The Dot)
HOMOGENIZED TERRESTRIALS – PATIENCE IS A FUSE (CDR by 6 On The Dot)
YAGIHASHI TSUKASA – AUTOMATIC (CDR by Public Eyesore)
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE & CHRIS FORSYTH & LARS SCHERZBERG – A BARREN PLACE OF OVERWHELMING SIMPLICITY (CDR by Public Eyesore)
ONID + ISIL (CDR by Public Eyesore)
ANGELS (CDR by Public Eyesore)
GINGER LEIGH – IF I SHOULD DIE TOMORROW (CDR by Masuno)
CHARLES GOFF III & TOM SUTTER – ANTS IN MY CABANA (2xCDR by Taped Rugs)
MINDLOBSTER – MINDLOBSTER IS GOD (CDR, selfreleased)
HENRIK OLSSON & ANDERS DAHL – SPLENDOR (MP3 by ConV)
Editorial note: Last saturday someone from Staalplaat used by accident the confidential e-mail list of Vital Weekly, stored at the Staalplaat website, to massmail their change of address. Due to the automated nature of the interface that was send out as Vital Weekly 442 and therefore today’s issue is 443. Once again, I’d like to point out that Vital Weekly is a totally independent platform and has nothing to do with Staalplaat. Please do NOT mail any questions of any kind related to Staalplaat business to this e-mail address. Sorry for any caused inconvience.
VIDNA OBMANA – LEGACY (CD by Relapse)
Vidna Obmana never ceases to amaze me! Although one could easily say that Vidna Obmana plays ambient music, he also explores the genre very well. Unlike so many others who stay within the strict areas of ambient music, Vidna Obmana changes his pallet every now and then and opts for various kinds of ambient music. A rhythmbox. Now that’s an unlike machine to use for Vidna Obmana but he does it. Singing? No problem, Vidna Obmana gets Steve Von Till of Neurosis to sign for him. Or Martine Verhoeven, or a blues musician. ‘Legacy’, the third album in the ‘Dante Trilogy’ marks new borders for Vidna Obmana, after his highly synthesized early days, his pseudo-ethnic phase and his many processings of other people playing church organs, saxophones or guitars, it seems as if he now bumps into a more heavy area, the direct in your face ambient music – mood music of an unsettling kind. Only towards the end the album collapses under its heavyweight with two lenghty prog-rock guitar pieces, one of them including the talents of Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame. A bit too lenghty prog-rock ebow excercise going on here. Otherwise: top CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.relapse.com
MARC BEHRENS – ANIMISTIC (FOR DONATELLA) (CD by Auf Abwegen)
Behrens latest CD arrives in a super jewel box, with photographs in very good full colour print on seperate cards. So it looks really good indeed! For the content I can simply say the same: it sounds really good! There are only two tracks on the disc: the first clocks in at just under half an hour, the second just under twelve minutes. A good duration for this music. Actually the first track is cut up in several parts, sometimes physically divided by silence. It is based on several field recordings done in the years 1998/1999 in several countries. The combination of field recordings, close recordings and their abstractions works very well (in some parts I was strongly reminded of Kapotte Muziek’s live concerts). The overall sound is very rich and satisfying and has plenty of space for the listener. Track two is more abstract in character, but one can still discern sounds from reality in the beginning. Later, things get more diffused and almost ambient. Stretched sounds are layered and create very rich overtones that are ultimately drowned in sub basses. A very rich and highly recommened work. (MR)
Address: http://www.aufabwegen.com
JOHN HUDAK & STEPHAN MATHIEU – PIECES OF WINTER (CD by Sirr-ecords)
What’s the sound of snow falling? On a nice, relatively warm autumn day like today, maybe not a question to think about. But two more zen-like characters like Stephan Mathieu and John Hudak think about such subtle things all the time, I imagine. Two source recordings were made for this release: John Hudak buried a “contact microphone buried overnight in snow that turned into ice, then he recorded snow falling on this enveloping ice”. Mathieu’s source is of him playing a pump organ and Eva-Lucy Mathieu playing ocarina. Not of course that one would recognize any as such, since both Hudak and Mathieu are skillfull operates of their computer. They can, if they want, transform the sound of an earthquack into say a beautiful interplay of small, microscopic and minimally changing set of sounds. On ‘Pieces Of Winter’ they don’t do anything different: all of the generated sound is transformed into eleven of the sketch like pencil drawings of sound. Glacier like music is of course an all too easy made reference, but perhaps the only possible thing to say. It’s like watching snow that is fresh, without traces of man or animal, being covered with more snow. Small holes are made in an irregular pattern. For both Hudak and Mathieu it’s not something we haven’t heard before, but they both maintain their very high quality. Great CD! (FdW)
Address: http://www.sirr-ecords.com
MONOS – LANDSCAPES (CD by Twenty Hertz)
DARREN TATE – DRONE WORKS #4 (CDR by Twenty Hertz)
More Monos, we want more Monos. Monos is the ongoing group of Darren Tate (also of Ora and also of himself), Colin Potter (of Nurse With Wound and of himself) and Paul Bradley (mainly his self always) who play around with notions of dark ambient/drone music, made out of lots of processed synthesizer sounds, field recordings and on ‘Landscapes’ also the use of guitar is to be noted. Bands like Monos (and Ora and Mirror), built a wall of sound, usually hovering at the darker end of the soundspectrum, with crackles of people walking through leaves, wind and rain sounds against the autumn window pane or maybe rubbing small sheets of metal together. The second piece here. ‘Surface Form’ seems to me a pure electronic piece. A highly atmospheric disc of a darker nature.
Darren Tate’s submission to Twenty Hertz’ CDREP (22 minutes) comes as a bit of a surprise. It’s not like he is playing acoustic guitar, it’s still in the realms of ambient music, but it seems to me that this is in rather conventional realms. More lightheart than much of his work as Ora or with Monos, this finds itself in the rather higher spectrum of the keyboards and this comes much closer than to the works of say Vidna Obmana during some of his earlier works, when he just discovered ambient music. Maybe playing a bit too much on the kitschy new age/ambient key for me, but luckily he stays on the right side of the line. (FdW)
Address: http://www.twentyhertz.co.uk
METALYCÉE – ANOTHER WHITE ALBUM (CD by Mosz)
Never heard of Metalycée? Neither did I, but Armin Steiner and Nik Hummer are two-third of the ever so active Thilges3, bringing their electronic music to places such as museums, galleries and clubs, but with Metalycée they certainly aim for something different. Here they want to take the metal (as in heavy metal) music to the electronic world. Taking drum and guitar samples from the world of heavy metal into their modular synthesizer synthesizer. The cut up style of these samples remind me a bit of hip hop and breakbeat, and thus Metalycée circles the whole music spectrum – more or less. There are more introspective moments, such as in ’21h39′ (with John Norma of Radian on bass). But in general this is a forceful thing. I am not quite sure what to think of it. I am neither a lover of heavy metal, nor of hip hop, and there were moments on this CD in which started tapping my feet along the somewhat broken rhythms, but as a whole I thought it was somewhat remote and distant to fully enjoy the proceedings. But it’s a most daring album indeed, that might be still appealling more to the people who love electronica than those who love metal. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mosz.org
ALEXANDER RISHAUG – POSSIBLE LANDSCAPE (CD by Asphodel)
Can’t help to think about John Cage’s ‘Imaginary Landscape’, which were several pieces for instruments such as radio, percussion and grammaphone. Alexander Rishaug (also of the trio Arm and a improviser with John Hegre, Toshimaru Nakamura, Pal Asle Pettersen etc.) does, maybe in a strange way, the same thing. He has made a number of recordings of instruments played by himself and of course the usual inclusion of field recordings which he then edits and processes on his computer. A bit like with Cage using the radio and records to play the music ‘again’ as it were. But of course the outcome is totally different for Rishaug. On even of these seven pieces he plays around with ambient textures, clicks and cuts and even a bit of beats. Even when I liked the album a lot, I must also say that the presented works do not sound very innovative: this kind of music is a very commonplace in the world of microsound. Oval’s latter day ambient phase seemed to be a great influence on Rishaug. But as said, that is not a big deal, it’s a nice album anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://www.asphodel.com
ED LAWES – 14 TRACKS/PIECES (CD by Planet Mu)
Ed who?, you may very well ask, just like I did. Planet Mu doesn’t reveal much more than that Lawes is a ‘Birmingham-based musician & contemporary composer’ and ‘he divides the works between ‘pieces’ (generally scored for or improvised on more traditional instruments) and ‘tracks’ (which can be generalised as more computer-based or electroacoustic works)’. The pieces include studies for violin, double bass & tenor saxophone and mixed ensembles. All that is performed with this, is later in the studio being edited down by Lawes into ‘pieces’ and ‘tracks’ (I’d say a ‘track’ by his definition is a ‘piece’ too). Despite being on Planet Mu this is not really a work of dance, rhythm, techno or anything some such, even despite the press blurb mentioning Autechre. It also mentions Ligeti, Stockhausen and Anthony Braxton, and that is more like it. Lawes plays in his fourteen pieces modern classical music, sometimes, such as in ‘Tone’ a bit jazz-influenced, but most of the time, in a serious serial way of Ligeti, or with slow movements such as Morton Feldmann. As much as I played this CD with interest, and no matter how hard I tried to like it, I found that the music was a bit alien and remote. It didn’t grab me as much as some modern classical can do. It wasn’t unpleasent to hear, but maybe too distant like. And I certainly didn’t see the difference in ‘Pieces’ and ‘Tracks’… (FdW)
Address: http://www.planet-mu.com
PANICSVILLE – PERVERSE (CD by Liquid Death/Hello Pussy Records)
‘Perverse’ is the 24th official release of Panicsville, and although I haven’t heard them all, I have encountered many of them. Panicsville is one Andy Ortman and as noted before one of the more interesting people of the US noise scene. Playing around with a wild bunch of electronics, magnetic tape, voices and metal scraps he has a much richer sound than many others who dabble around in the world of noise. For ‘Perverse’, Panicsville is helped by Thymme Jones of Cheer Accident, Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers), Kevin Drumm, MV Carbon (of Metalux), Ben Capps, Jeremy Fischer and John Coker. Kevin, Weasel and Thymme all play on the same track, which now sounds like a very fucked up rock group. But the addition of Capps trumplet playing on ‘Strange Connection’ adds a totally alien and distant atmosphere to the track and makes this sound like anything but noise. Panicsville seem to mature all the time, bringing their noise music into new territories, expanding it with musique concrete in a harsher way, but also bringing out some of the softer edges in their music. This is probably his best and most diverse release to date. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ldr-hpr.com
NOLI ME LEGERE … TO MAURICE BLANCHOT (CD by Sirr-ecords)
This is the second compilation by Sirr-ecords, dedicated to someone. The first one was ‘Sul – Dedicated to Chris Marker’, a french director. Here the dedication goes out to Maurice Blanchot (1907-2003) a French writer, about whom nothing much is known since he didn’t give interviews, lectures or even photo’s. It’s hard for me to tell what his writings are about, since I didn’t read any of it. The title ‘Noli Me Legere’ means ‘Do Not Read Me’ and that ‘problematizes the border between writer and reader, and between writing and reading, and beyond its enigmatical interdiction, it forces one to take a hermeneutic shift and abandon all traditional exegesis’. Seven different musicians pay hommage this writer and his writings. One would assume a lot of spoken word on this disc, but that’s not the case. Only in the Brandon Labelle/Maria Nilsson piece there is spoken word (Stephen Vitiello uses field recordings of a demonstration). Other pieces have faint typewriter sounds or use the eyes (!) as source material (Christof Migone’s beautiful perceptive piece). Steve Roden’s piece is the most musical one, using a guitar and humming and Toshiya Tsunoda recorded a cicada chorus resonating a bottle inside a bottle. A lot of these pieces deal with how things are perceived, but each from a radical different point of view. This varied disc makes it altogether interesting, also if Maurice Blanchot doesn’t belong to your daily literature. (FdW)
Address: www.sirr-ecords.com
INDIAN SOUNDSCAPES (2CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
Iyou signed the text on the double CD ‘Indian Soundscapes’. Iyou is responsible for all the sound material, photographs and text on this pack. Iyou is Charles Powne, the headhoncho of the Soleilmoon label, and more importantly a lover of India. He has travelled that vast country a couple of times and during these trips he has made a great number of audio recordings and photographs. A small number of the audio recordings were previously released on the ‘Indian Soundscapes’ LP, but now it’s extended into a 110 minute audio journey. For a journey it is. From insect sounds, bicycles, dusk, loudspeaker to a lot of human activity: selling stuff at the market, children or in transport. I have never been India, and doubt wether I will ever do so (too hot for a viking), but I like recordings of this kind very much, even without having to go there. These recordings are crisp clear, and even when they are ‘snapshots’ (according to the cover), they are very nice snapshots at that. This CD comes in a nice handmade wooden box – product of India – and is just simply great! (FdW)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
EDWIN VAN DER HEIDE – TOUCH.2 (3″CDRom by Alku)
I went to some length in trying to hear this. It didn’t play on my CD player, nor on my mac. For some reason, this CDR contains a .wav file, which I could play on my PC. Edwin van der Heide is a Dutch composer, previous member of the Sensorband and collaborator with Zbigniew Karkowski. He has only one solo release before this one, as releasing music is not so much his thing. Playing live, either solo or with others, or producing sound installations is much more his thing. In ‘Touch.2’, Van Der Heide deals with two hydrophones touching eachother (it almost sound at times that they are kissing eachother). Despite the fact that hydrophones are used, they were not placed in water. It’s a very raw work, certainly the first 7 or so minutes with it’s scratching and bouncing a long. After that it seems that there is some sort of electronic process going on and the material takes a new shape. That was the part I must admit that I liked better, because it seemed more than just scratching the surface. Received with mixed feelings. (FdW)
Address: http://personal.ilimit.es/principio
P. MILES BRYSON – 7 FRAGMENTS FROM THE HAUNTED MIRRORS OF THE AFTERNOON (CDR by 6 On The Dot)
HOMOGENIZED TERRESTRIALS – PATIENCE IS A FUSE (CDR by 6 On The Dot)
The fourth release I encounter with the music of P. Miles Bryson (see also Vital Weekly 245 and 408). Unlike what I am told, I have never heard his classical composed music, as all four releases so far deal with electronic sounds. His two previous releases were both inspired by films and filmscores, but such a thematic approach doesn’t seem to be apparent here. If there is anything film related in here, than it’s the filmic qualities of the music, rather than any obvious reference. Bryson is particularly strong here in his collage approach. Hoovering on the usual edges of silence, he occassionally works his way out in a brutal scenery of music. Usually an outburst, as most of the parts are rather soft. The dynamic range of this release is therefore enormous. When I half way through crancked up the volume to get the picture better, I found my bass bin almost exploding under the heavy sound. But to return to the film aspects: I think each of these pieces could well serve as a soundtrack by it self. As I am not a filmer myself, it would be hard to say what kind of film that would be, but I think some abstract animation about the life of insects would be the right thing.
On the same label, also a CD by Homogenized Terrestrials, who run the 6 On The Dot label, and who are responsible for at least half the label’s releases. Inside the jewel case we find a 5″ CDR and behind the tray there is also a 3″ CDR. Despite their many releases, this my first encounter with the Homogenized Terrestrials. It seems to me that they are playing the card of atmospheric music through minimal means. Each track is quite lengthy, but not too long and each seems to be swirling around a fixed set of instruments. One track has the guitar leading, or such in ‘Tropes’ it’s the deeper edges of synth music but with also traces of ethnic percussion. Each track carefully researches the mood possibilities, sets a darker atmosphere and then moves into the next one. Although not every track seems to be convincing, and some overlap occurs in the approaches, it’s a nice moody disc anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://www.homogenizedterrestrials.com/
YAGIHASHI TSUKASA – AUTOMATIC (CDR by Public Eyesore)
ERNESTO DIAZ-INFANTE & CHRIS FORSYTH & LARS SCHERZBERG – A BARREN PLACE OF OVERWHELMING SIMPLICITY (CDR by Public Eyesore)
ONID + ISIL (CDR by Public Eyesore)
ANGELS (CDR by Public Eyesore)
Although the career of Yagihashi Tsukasa spans thirty years, I never heard of him. One ‘Magical Power Mako’ wrote the liner notes of his CDR release for Public Eyesore, but after reading the line ‘I believe that noise, more than pop rock, is the truly revolutionary music of 2004’ – I stopped reading further. I can’t take these liner notes too serious. Luckily the music is of much more interest. Tsukasa offers twelve pieces of ‘pen on paper, effectors’. A kind of fluxus performance work I image. Writing or drawing on paper, with the amplified sound being fed through a bunch of sound effects, is a particular interesting idea. The only thing to wonder about is that maybe twelve of these pieces (ranging between two and nine minutes) is maybe a long sit. Half the pieces and the point would have been clear too.
Our man Ernesto Diaz-Infante is a main player of the US west-coast improv scene. He plays acoustic guitar on this new release, which was recorded in Berlin, with Chris Forsyth on electric guitar and Lars Scherzberg on alto saxophone. The five pieces on this release all seem to be influenced by the Japanese onkyo music, playing on the edge of silence, although this trio stays firmly on the audible side of things and this throughout the entire length of all five pieces. They explore the sound posibilities of their instruments by turning them inside and outside, by using them as percussion instruments, by rubbing them and a conventional technique is nowhere insight. Quite an intense but joyful set of improvisations.
Behind Onid + Isil is Lisi & Dino – not that is of any help of course. The eleven short pieces are called ‘Jam 0’, ‘Jam 1’ up to ‘Jam 10’. Madnass strikes here at full force. Distorted rhythms and casio synths, filled up with some distorted singing. I was reminded by some of the stuff by XBXRX or their many off-shoots. Quite raw and punk, but quite nice. Short and sweetly raw. Quite nice.
In the department of free rock we find Japanese Angels, a band with Hiromi Unakomi on guitar and sometimes guitar, Yukio Hasegawa on Bass and Yoshiro Yamauchi on drums. I am not sure if they still exist, as the recordings on this disc date from 1981 and 1982. I remember bands like Angels quite well, not Angels but rather their Dutch versions. Free rock playing, inspired by the No Wave from New York, sometimes with a James White like saxophone, all with a healthy dose of punk spirit. Some of the stuff here, reminded me of the recent re-issues by PD, but with a sound quality that is not as good. These recordings still sound covered with a bit of dust. But bringing back lots of nice memories and another evening in the vaults, searching for more of this. (FdW)
Address: http://www.publiceyesore.com
GINGER LEIGH – IF I SHOULD DIE TOMORROW (CDR by Masuno)
Without much luck I tried accessing the website of Ginger Leigh to get some more information, but my webbrowser kept crashing, so instead I have to rely on the sheet that comes with this, but it’s all filled with favourable quotes. I know ‘If I Should Die Tomorrow’ is not Ginger Leigh’s first album, and many of the quotes read about industrial music and how good Ginger Leigh is. No doubt, Leigh’s music is indeed quite nice, but I didn’t think this be very industrial by traditional standards. Ginger Leigh’s music is indeed dark, atmospheric but at the same time also rhythmic, sometimes even bombastic and all derived from sampling together a whole bunch of classical music, but there is a lot more happening here than on many other albums from the world of industrial music, by whatever standards. This is a richly varied bunch of songs, with darker undertones that are usually not well spend on me, but it’s the variation that makes this into a nice work of whatever you would call this kind of music. Ranging from dark and introspective to more uptempo and aggressive sounding material, this is quite an extensive journey. A nice one too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.gingerleigh.com
CHARLES GOFF III & TOM SUTTER – ANTS IN MY CABANA (2xCDR by Taped Rugs)
This double disc has two radically different mixes based on the same material, which is a bunch of improvisations recorded early August by Charles Goff III and one Tom Sutter, who is apperentely working since a long time with ‘unusual sounds’, with guest contributions by one Michael Paull). The three hours worth of materials were stripped down, re-organised, re-edited and what have you to re/de/compose the originals. The cover doesn’t state any instruments used, but I think the Charles Goff III disc is the closest to the original sound. Cascading waves of synthesized sound, but with the additions of treated vocals, feeding through a bunch of sound effects. Occassionally there is a bass sound, either a real bass guitar or a bass synth, radio snippets and piano tinkles. If that isn’t spacey enough for you, the Tom Sutter mix of the material seems to be entirely focussing on the synth aspects of the material. Here space becomes the place. A highly cosmic journey through the life and wires of the synths – alien monsters taking over the modulations. Quite a nice double CD, with probably not entirely different materials, but none the less an interesting set of various mix possibilities. (FdW)
Address: http://www.geocities.com/padukem
MINDLOBSTER – MINDLOBSTER IS GOD (CDR, selfreleased)
Another new name, Mindlobster from London. On his self-released CDR (although maybe soon picked up by a ‘real’ label), he plays thirteen relatively short pieces of electronica. Mainly on his laptop, but also with some extra instruments such as keyboards. Unlike so many others, Mindlobster is not your usual microsound laptop guy, as he rather puts on a nice electronic song. Despite his use of modern day techniques, his sound is rather retro. Without cashing on ‘electro-clash’, it’s safely to say that Mindlobster finds their inspiration in early 80s electronic music. Very early Portion Control (before their aggressive punk sound), Human League in their Future guise and other pioneers of electronic popmusic lurk in every corner of this release. Not vastly uptempo, not techno inspired, this is some nice poppy bunch of tunes. Easy tunes, that could fit on a label such as Tomlab. Pleasent late afternoon music, to give yourself another adrenaline shot. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mindlobster.com
HENRIK OLSSON & ANDERS DAHL – SPLENDOR (MP3 by ConV)
The Spanish net label ConV offer a nice deal on their releases, including a nice cover to download and make this into a nice release for your shelf. Their latest release is by Anders dahl, who has apperentely some releases on Komplott and Underhund) and Henrik Olsson, who is the percussion player in Hapna band Sheriff and Gul 3. Their five improvised pieces reveal everything about what they do in the titles. The first track for instance is called ‘Toy Piano, Crotales, Wind Chime, Pot Lid’ and the last one is ‘Metal Bows, Crotales, Sine Wave’. And in between they also improvise on drums, cymbals, feedback and clay cuckoo. They do this in a rather gentle and austere way. The pieces are set off, things tickle, rumble and shake but always in a nice, almost zen-like way. I was reminded by some of Richard Youngs more experimental music, such as in his CD ‘House Music’. Relaxing music, with no big bang or major crescendo happening, even the when the undertones of ‘Drums, Cymbal, Feedback’ is slightly menacing… (FdW)
Address: http://www.con-v.org
Correction: the correct URL for the label Doc Recordings is: http://doc.test.at. And a correction for Vital Weekly 437: it’s Michael Graeve and not Micheal. His CD can be ordered at:
<michaelgraeve@hotmail.com>