STEPHAN MATHIEU – THE SAD MAC (CD by Headz)
SHUTTLE 358 – CHESSA (CD by 12K)
JANEK SCHAEFER – COLD STORAGE (CD by DSP Recordings)
MARK FELL – TEN TYPES OF ELSEWHERE (CD by Line)
JON MUELLER – WHAT’S LOST IS SOMETHING IMPORTANT. WHAT’S FOUND IS
SOMETHING NOT REVEALED (CD by Crouton)
SETH CLUETT – MY OWN THOUSAND SHATTERINGS (CD by Sedimental)
IOVAE – QUATERVOIS (CD by Zangi Music)
ANDREA ERMKE – PIKE (miniCD by Zangi Music)
TAKASHI WADA – MEGURO (CD by Onitor)
HOP-FROG’S FATWA – THE SILK ROAD (CD by URCKam Recordings)
LUSMORD – HERESY (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
MUSLIMGAUZE – SYRINJIA (2CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – LIVE AT LA LUNA (DVD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
DDAMAGE – PRESSURE (12″ by Planet Mu)
HUM – ETHER RIDER/CRUCIBLE (7″ by Drone Records)
OPION SOMNIUM – FALLING INTO THE GAPING HOLE, DARK ABYSS/FALLING
ASLEEP ON THESE FEATHERS (7″ by Drone Records)
STABAT MORS – ICH BIN SO WILD NACH DEINEM ERDBEERMUND (7″ by Drone Records)
CIVYIU KKLIU – llllll (3″CDR by Banned Productions)
SCOTT TAYLOR – CASTAWAY (CDR by Con.V)
CHRISTÖPHILAX – GOLDENSMELL (CDR, self-released)
Y-TON-G – VAGE RITUALE DER INDUSTRIE ROMANTIK (CDR by Terminal Tape
Productions)
Y-TON-G & G-RET-@ – ST(R)ANDGUT (CDR by Terminal Tape Productions)
MACHINEFABRIEK – LIEF (3″CDR)
TBC – EILEITHYIA (CDR by AIC Disc)
STEPHAN MATHIEU – THE SAD MAC (CD by Headz)
If you paid attention the last few years, you know that I am big fan
of Stephan Mathieu. His soloworks usually end up in my top 10 and his
collaborations with people like Ekkehard Ehlers, John Hudak, Douglas
Benford and others are likewise great. But the mac is sad. Now that
Mathieu has two children, a garden and a job, the computer is not
used for sixteen hours a day anymore and hence the mac is sad. This
latest solo CD sees a change in Mathieu’s work: using the recordings
of people playing real instruments, such as lute, bagpipes, voices,
violins and harpischords (to name but a few), he goes away from the
‘simple’ computer treatments into a new world, but at the same time
keeping the Mathieu signature in the music, he succeeds more than
well to create yet another top 10 entry. There are eight full pieces
here aswell as an intro, outro, coda and interludes – an almost
classical approach that is also shown in using Händel’s Violin
Sonates or seperated voices of the work of Claudio Monteverdi.
Microsound goes baroque. Gentle flowing in ‘Theme For Oud
Amerlisweerd’ or the wind and field recordings of ‘Nibbio’. The short
interludes, like ‘Portrait Of The Composer As Turbonegro’ elude me a
bit, as I can’t see why they are enclosed, but especially that piece
sort of breaks the flow of the album, but that’s detail critique. The
combination of real instruments, old computers, waxcilinders, field
recordings and baroque music is truely daring one but one that
wonderfull works well. The first highlight of 2005 is a fact. (FdW)
Address: http://www.faderbyheadz.com
SHUTTLE 358 – CHESSA (CD by 12K)
This is the third release by Shuttle 358 for 12K, and continues where
he left off with ‘Frame’. Shuttle 358’s Dan Abrams is also a
photographer and for the eleven tracks he is inspired by his own
photography of ‘real life’: stills of cars, stairs or parts of
humans. Zooming in on a few aspects which is what he does for his
photo’s but also in his music. Each of the eleven tracks is carefully
built around a few sound elements, say a strumming of a guitar, which
are then carefully moved around via computer processing. A tiny bit
of clicks and cuts start to appear, but for 95% Shuttle 358 stays on
a very safe ambient side of things. The result is a very unified
sound, within each seperate track aswell as tracks relating to
eachother. This makes this into a very nice and elegant CD with a
particular gentle flow. Maybe in it’s genre not something that can be
regarded as something very new, but nevertheless one of great beauty.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
JANEK SCHAEFER – COLD STORAGE (CD by DSP Recordings)
Schaefer might be best known to the readers of Vital Weekly as a
composer of sound and a conceptualist of sound art, but he is also an
architect, and some of his work deals with spaces. ‘Cold Storage’ was
made for a cold storage room in Rome, Italy, mixing in a dark large
bricked vaulted cellar sounds that Schaefer recorded in Rome,
Switzerland, Portugal and Australia. These sounds were recorded with
the idea of ‘cold’ and ‘storage’ in mind. This CD is however not a
registration of the concert by a studio reconstruction of the
original source material, but without any additional manipulation. Of
course it’s mid-winter time, but my storage here is not very cold…
Apart from the first piece with metal bangings and motor sounds, I
didn’t think much of the used sounds were very ‘cold’. The forty-one
minutes are filled with a wide blend of field recordings (trains,
rain, some talk and other more obscure sources), mixed with great
care and eye for detail. A fascinating journey, even when it’s hard
to relate this the place it was composed for. Unlike many others in
the world of field recordings, Schaefer makes a vivid, almost
dramatic composition, with rapid changing moods and atmopsheres.
Again, a highly recommended work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dsprecs.com
MARK FELL – TEN TYPES OF ELSEWHERE (CD by Line)
The name Mark Fell may not ring a bell right away, but if you know
that he’s half of SND, and one half of Shirt Trax and that he
released that excellent ‘Reproduction’ CD for Bottrop-boy as Secular
Musics Of South Yorkshire, then you may know who we are talking of.
As far as I know this is his first work under his own and it deals
with topology: “Topology is a branch of mathematics concerning
possible spaces and spatial objects – curves, surfaces, knots,
manifolds, phase spaces, symmetrical groups, etc. The work explores a
link between objects and alterity through spatial and temporal
deformations, twistings, rotatings, reflections and stretchings. Here
spaces and objects are not self-evident and singular, but multiple,
irregular, anomalous.” Sorry for the long quote, but it explains it
quite well. Originally this CD was planned as a documentation of his
installation work, but because that is not easy for whatever reason,
the sounds material was reworked into the work on this CD. The ten
tracks are divided over forty-five index points on the CD, and it’s a
highly strange work to say the least. Up until now most Line releases
were the careful digital glitchy ambient, but this is a rather noisy
work. It sounds most of the time of objects being rubbed against the
microphone, but then fragmented into short, constant changing loops,
each short loop seems to be treated differently from the previous or
the next one. The sounds are quite dry, direct in your face, but have
a strange captivating feel to it. ‘Abjection’ sounds like a big empty
space being suddenly invaded by aliens, ‘Storage’ has a strange
techno feel it and ‘Incompleteness’ is quite noisy with
electro-acoustic treatments. It shifts into various places and is a
truely innovative work, one that takes the whole microsound thing
into a new direction. After Mathieu’s ‘The Sad Mac’ the second entry
in my top 10 for 2005. (FdW)
Address: http://www.12k.com
JON MUELLER – WHAT’S LOST IS SOMETHING IMPORTANT. WHAT’S FOUND IS
SOMETHING NOT REVEALED (CD by Crouton)
Let’s suppose I didn’t know who Jon Mueller is or what he does and I
am playing this CD, two tracks, thirty-three minutes long. What would
I think when it’s done playing? Would I know he’s a drummer by
profession? I don’t think so. Of course I recognized some percussive
moments in there, but it might very well be the result of some
extensive and elaborate sound processing of various electro-acoustic
objects, including by accident a drumkit. But of course I knew
already that Mueller is a drummer and that he has produced some
excellent work inside the field of improvisation, but that studio
treatments, or rather post-production plays an important role for his
work. In the first piece, Mueller builts a drone piece out of
sustained percussion, until breaking it up with drum fills that go
out of phase and rhythm. Playing around with small crackling sound,
this is an intense piece. The second, much shorter piece, is much
more noisy, almost in a Merzbowian sense. Likewise intense but
working on an entirely different level. Two particular strong pieces
of highly imaginative percussion music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.croutonmusic.com
SETH CLUETT – MY OWN THOUSAND SHATTERINGS (CD by Sedimental)
When I popped in Seth Cluett’s latest CD ‘My Own Thousand
Shatterings’ and sank deep inside his immersive drone pieces, that is
the first two on this CD, I thought I was merely listening to the hum
of some synthesizer with some slow changes throughout. The third
piece sounded like a field recordings of rain. After thinking ‘wow,
that was a nice CD of drone music’, I began reading the press text
for it, and learned that the third piece is indeed a field recording,
of rain to be precise, and that the second is a documentation of a
performance and the first is a mono piece recorded at home, but that
the first two are based on the field recordings of the third piece.
How it works exactely we are not told (certainly not on the cover of
the CD), but this is certainly a worthwhile thing for lovers of drone
music. Up until now, Cluett worked mostly with densely layered small
acoustic sounds, and this new CD sees him breaking away from that,
going into an even more minimal and microscopic level of sound.
Perhaps this is a much simpler approach, or maybe even more ‘easy’ to
produce work, but I’d say that doesn’t count. What counts is the
result and that is beautiful. The two drone pieces can easily meet
the best Niblock/Lucier works and the field recording piece is in all
it’s simpleness a great moving piece. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sedimental.com
IOVAE – QUATERVOIS (CD by Zangi Music)
ANDREA ERMKE – PIKE (miniCD by Zangi Music)
Apperentely the Iovae disc is a re-issue of a limited edition CDR on
Drone Disco (not to be confused with Drone Records), recorded in
2001. Iovae is one Ron Orovitz from Cincinnati and has been playing
around since 1988. First with turntables, later on tone generators
aswell as ‘procussion’ instruments, being fire-works. He records, as
the title implies on a four track machine, adding a harsh, lo-fi
sound to it. The five rather short pieces on this CD are indeed quite
raw but captivating. The sound is quite ‘thick’ and dense, but also
carry a sort of industrial music feel to it, but one that sounds much
more interesting than the usual industrial garbage. Raw but in all
it’s shortness an effective release.
Likewise I never heard of Andrea Ermke, who is from Berlin. She works
with field recordings and sampling of ‘hand-made sounds’. Her
improvisational work is different from the usual things coming out of
Berlin, as she isn’t exactely ‘onkyo’. The piece ‘Pike’ lasts almost
nineteen minutes and is very upfront, very present in your space.
Taking field recordings and feeding them through the sampler this is
also a raw work, even when it is made more refined than Iovae’s
release. Shifting through loud passages aswell as several softer
spots, but at the same time it is also a bit unfocussed in what she
wants with her music. It’s nice enough but moves around too much to
leave a fully satisfied impression. (FdW)
Address: http://www.zangimusic.de
TAKASHI WADA – MEGURO (CD by Onitor)
This is the first album by young artist Takashi Wada on Onitor
records. I thought that this release would be more rhythmical,
probably from the fact that this Stuttgart based label releases more
rhythm oriented music. But as it seems it is not like that. Not that
this release is not rhythmic, it is, but very sophisticatedly
produced with the rhythm in second plan. Meguro at first comes across
as a very ambiental album. Gentle, calm and peaceful. Rhythm, if
there is any, is pushed behind in the background in function of
making a calm and soft sound structure. Takashi plays various
instruments here, but of course in an electronic manner. Double bass,
piano, drums. music above all. In that context you will hear weird
jazzy moments that might remind you of melodic Nobukazu Takemura
songs. But most of the tracks here are ambiental quiet tracks with a
twinkling melody, slow beat and a really calm production. If you
want to hear this album as it is supposed to be heard, you will have
to be necessarily concentrated and just listen. Give up to the
relaxing atmosphere and flow down stream. Extremely slow and sleepy
atmosphere will carry you… somewhere… It depends on you. But in
case you do something else while listening to it, you will definetly
miss it ‘s point. (TD)
Address: http://www.onitor.de
HOP-FROG’S FATWA – THE SILK ROAD (CD by URCKam Recordings)
If understood correctely Hop-frog’s Fatwa is part of the Hop-frog
Kollectiv, a mix of over twenty participants, who have played also
with people like Not Breathing, DJ Cheb I Sabbah, David J and Dame
Darcy. ‘The Silk Road’ is their first album and they play on a wide
array of western instruments (clarinet, violin, guitar, drums) and
eastern ones, but also toys and non instrumental instruments. Titles
are reversed in a difficult font, so I didn’t bother to read them.
The first piece opens with tabla sounds and electronic processing but
it takes too much time to develop anything nice out of it. This turns
out to be the problem of this CD. Tracks are too long to hold ones
attention for very long. The nine tracks, which all last between
eight and ten minutes, have little ideas and simply revolve around a
rhythm, that hardly seems to be changing throughout this release. It
sounds like a long spacey jam in the studio, after which no extensive
mixing took place. With twenty people at instruments, I expected a
little more to happen. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hop-frog.com
LUSMORD – HERESY (CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
MUSLIMGAUZE – SYRINJIA (2CD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
A long long time ago, before Vital was a weekly, it was a small
fanzine printed on paper and in number 18 (1991) I wrote the
following lines: “an early 80s name which most people had forgotten
by now. I never had a clear of their music. This new work is supposed
to feature recordings made in caverns, crypts, mines, deep shelters
and also takes advantage of of psycho-acoustic phenomena.
“Reproduction will benefit if the playbacksystem had a low frequency
response of 20hz”, we are told. Also some professors are being
thanked: it all sounds a bit like The Hafler Trio, except for the
music! The sounds on this CD are much layered and reverberated: large
spaces are suggested. As a background the music/noise stimulates the
listener to work or sleep, but I fear that individually the
compositions are a bit poor. There is not enough variation. But maybe
the music is supposed to be utilitarian rather than entertaining?”
Having re-read this review now, fourteen years, and playing the CD
again, I must say I still agree to it, although I am slightly more
positive right now. Lustmord’s come-back album ‘Heresy’ is a fine
blend of early nineties ambient-industrial music and is in that
respect a true landmark and an example of many followers which came
afterwards. Being out of print for a while, but now lucikly available
again.
Also on the re-issue front is ‘Syrinjia’ by Muslimgauze. Originally a
LP with nine tracks in 1998 and in 2004 a limited edition double CD,
but now getting a proper release. It may come as a surprise (or
perhaps a shock) but I was never a really big Muslimgauze fan, more a
mildly interested listener. I think Bryn Jones, who died this week
six years ago, was a gifted musician, but not very critical as to
what should be released, handing in new full length works every week
with his recordlabels Staalplaat and Soleilmoon, who dully put out a
whole lot. Muslimgauze didn’t seem to keep an archive, just
everything he did was good enough for release, he reasoned. I didn’t
agree. With a double pack like this we stumble on the usual
Muslimgauze problem: a couple of tracks are awesome, some a good,
some mediocre and some should just be erased. A reggae-dub track like
‘Detrimental’ is great, and could have been better when worked on a
little bit more. The dance-side of the muslimgauze music prevails
here, which is always a good thing, but the best tracks could have
easily fitted on one CD. (FdW)
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – LIVE AT LA LUNA (DVD by Soleilmoon Recordings)
This is a straight re-release of the 1998 video on the digital
format, featuring 60 minutes of the Legendary Pink Dots live in
Portland touring on the back of their 1997 Hallway Of The Gods album.
The performance was captured from various angles by 3 cameramen and
professionally mixed, making the audio (despite some minor sound
glitches) and visual quality excellent. Since the show was taped in
1997 we get an older line-up of the band with Ryan Moore (now a
respected solo artist in his own right) on bass/drums and Edwin van
Trippenhof (now lost in the woods) on guitar.
One of the major strengths of The Legendary Pink Dots is the magic of
their live performance, which gives vocalist Edward Kaspel a platform
for his theatrics and the band the opportunity to expand the music.
Unfortunately, Hallway Of The Gods is not the Dots’ strongest album
and much of the music on this DVD appears to lack depth. The
musicianship is fine throughout and band members and audience enjoy
themselves, but some songs are expanded too long, exposing their
weaker side. The sheer magic of the Dots returns with Love In A Plain
Brown Envelope, where the band manages to capture the essence and the
intensity of the music.
Visual material of the Dots is rare and this release does obviously
fill a gap. The DVD contains no extras nor does it feature a menu, so
you cannot skip between songs, which is annoying. Fans will be
delighted by its release, but you’re probably better off catching the
Dots on one of their tours to truly experience their essence.
Address: http://www.soleilmoon.com
DDAMAGE – PRESSURE (12″ by Planet Mu)
DDamage are two brothers from Paris and they like their ‘ip-‘op, also
known as hip hop. But it’s instrumental hip hop, sauced up with a lot
of extra noises feeding through the mix, and making this into a very
vibrant piece of music. The analogue synths sound mean, samples of
what seems to be riot and this is quite an aggressive record. The
up-tempo ‘Uzi’ is for sure a floor-killer. Nice one indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.planet-mu.com
HUM – ETHER RIDER/CRUCIBLE (7″ by Drone Records)
OPION SOMNIUM – FALLING INTO THE GAPING HOLE, DARK ABYSS/FALLING
ASLEEP ON THESE FEATHERS (7″ by Drone Records)
STABAT MORS – ICH BIN SO WILD NACH DEINEM ERDBEERMUND (7″ by Drone Records)
I was looking at these three new releases and thinking: wow, they are
up to catalogue number 70, that is amazing. Drone Records have
managed to release 70 7″ singles and they are still going strong.
Although I am pretty sure I don’t have them all, it’s by now a fairly
extensive overview of what underground drone musicians have to offer.
And the good thing is that Drone Records have such a strong
reputation that they can afford to release people that at least I
have never heard of, people like Hum. They/he/she comes from Russia
and works with tapes, tapeloops and analogue synths. On ‘Ether Rider’
Hum provides a nice dark atmospheric drone cloud, maybe a bit lo-fi,
but nevertheless quite nice. On ‘Crucible’ a low resolution sample
provides the rhythm (a object falling to the floor), whilst the
background builts a slow crescendo. Sounds pretty much like an
orchestra heating up.
Opion Somium are from the USA and have a couple of CDRs available on
Zenapolae Records and Kolorform, but this is really my first
encounter. ‘Falling Into The Gaping Hole, Dark Abyss’ on the a-side
evolves around sustained violin, cello and bowed guitar sounds,
played in a slow and peaceful way. ‘Falling Asleep On These Feathers’
is along similar lines, though maybe a bit more esoteric.
I am so hungry for your strawberrymouth is the translation of the
Stabat Mors 7″, based on Klaus Kinski’s autobiography. Although the
name Stabat Mors is around for awhile, I never quite heard their
music, and they are classified as ‘gothic noise’ in my book. Their
7″, made with sampler, accordeon, feedback, metal and voice, is a
rather un-drone like record, with forceful feedback on accordeon
playing and some rather lo-fi electronical part. I wasn’t too pleased
with this as it sounded outdated and rather badly produced. But with
a two out three score not a bad catch. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dronerecords.de
CIVYIU KKLIU – llllll (3″CDR by Banned Productions)
This is the third release by Civyiu Kkliu, following his Bake Records
release in 2001 and his double release with Toshiya Tsunoda (see
Vital Weekly 393 for a review on the latter). For a CDR release this
is simply a beautiful package: a silver plated box (like they use for
jewels), with circled inserts (lithographic film and an essay) with
engravings. If more CDRs would be packed like this, I am sure the
market for them would be bigger. As noted before, the music by Civyiu
Kkliu gets louder and louder. His first release on Bake Records was
very soft, almost inaudible, but on this new work ‘llllll’ things are
unmistakenly louder. It’s hard to say what it is that Civyiu Kkliu is
doing here, but I imagine this to be some sort of machine hum drone,
that half way through gets even more warmed up and more bass-end
sounds thumb in. I know I have to be careful with saying things about
references, but if I was to compare this with something else, I’d say
it comes close to Scott Konzelman’s Chop Shop project (but I doubt
wether many people could relate to that). The rough edged
industrialized sound that nevertheless sounds warm. A highly minimal
and conceptual composition of course, but it’s one that is certainly
fascinating. One that makes sense on this label too of course. In
every aspect a great release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bannedproduction.com/ or <civyiu_kkliu@ipa.net>
SCOTT TAYLOR – CASTAWAY (CDR by Con.V)
The name Scott Taylor is slowly getting around, through his various
releases on Sijis Recordings and Con.V. They have just released a CDR
by him. Taylor is a man running around, armed with a microphone… or
rather standing still with his microphone. With great care recording
the rain pouring down on a reverberating surface. Upon returning home
he puts these recordings on his computer and starts to built a
collage out of them. Adding a little bit of computer treatments, just
a little bit time stretching on a few occassions or the addition of
some extra echo and reverb, otherwise he likes to stick the pureness
of his recordings. It’s not always easy to identify what the sources
are, but my best guess is that there are rain, cars passing,
restaurant muzak and even an old record spinning somewhere. Just as
before Taylor plays the ambient soundscape card, and he does that
with great care. Inspired by people like Francisco Lopez (for his
obscured soundsources) and Daniel Menche (for his processing), Scott
Taylor finds his own little niche in the market.
One thing I must get rid off: I hope the title of this CDR was not
inspired by the horrible film of the same name. (FdW)
Address: http://www.con-v.org
CHRISTÖPHILAX – GOLDENSMELL (CDR, self-released)
A visit to Christöphilax’ site doesn’t necessarily learn you more
about who he is. It lists his releases and they have rather vague
descriptions. ‘Goldensmell’ deals with the ability to smell, and
apperentely Christöphilax has lost this ability. The eight tracks on
this CDR deal with that. So far so good, I’d say. But how exactely
this relation works, is a bit unclear for me. If I understood
correctely, “goldensmell recreates, in the aural medium, the
olfactory experience of some of the defining popular music events of
the common era — some originally attended by christöphilax, others
imagined.” – In other words, sampling the shit out of popular music.
Not that it is easy to recognize any of it, since the stretched out
fields of sounds, bare not much in common with anything easy to
recognize, except for ‘Goldensmellfour’ which revolves around the
intro of Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Hot On The Heels Of Love’ (the smell of
sweat on the disco floor I imagine). Especially strong I thought was
the Stephan Mathieu alike opening ‘Goldensmellone’ – high end drones
and small shifting layers, with a vague melody underpinning
somewhere. The digital ambient notion is all around this release,
except maybe in the somewhat more forceful ‘Goldensmellone (second
wind)’, making this is into a very pleasent, if somewhat regular,
microsound ambient glitch release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.geocities.com/christophilax
Y-TON-G – VAGE RITUALE DER INDUSTRIE ROMANTIK (CDR by Terminal Tape
Productions)
Y-TON-G & G-RET-@ – ST(R)ANDGUT (CDR by Terminal Tape Productions)
The name Y-Ton-G (named a blend of concrete) may not float around
Vital Weekly very often, but it’s name that has been around for ages,
maybe the late eighties or early nineties. His catalogue consists of
several real CDs, 7″s and a whole bunch of cassettes and CDR
releases. Although I didn’t hear much of his music recentely, this
new release, on his own Terminal Tape Productions, brings back good
memories. Y-Ton-G (an one man enterprise) plays his strict linear
compositions on a bunch of objects, such as metal plates, stones and
such like, but he has added a bit more of electronic processing, like
an analogue delay and some reverb. Plus a small number of electrical
charges in the background. Each of the nine pieces start out in a
similar way: without some fade in, multiple layers of sounds are
started and in minimalist fashion, small changes are brought alive,
bringing back to memory the work of Giancarlo Toniutti. One could
wonder if nine tracks and a playing time of over an hour is not a bit
much, but nevertheless a few tracks in a row sound certainly nice
enough.
The other new release is by Y-Ton-G and someone mysterious called
G-Ret-@, the first credits ‘loops and objects’ and the latter
‘loop-processing’. Three very very lenghty tracks, over seventy-two
minutes, of loops being played. This is defintely a more electronic
project. There are loops swirling in and out of the tracks, which do
not seem to have a relation to eachother, just an endless swirl of
sound. Such things as ‘composition’ is not well spend on them, things
here seem to be dealing with just a bunch of nice sounds floating
around. Rather put together by nature of improvisation and not
carefull planning. Not bad for that, but here too some editing in the
material would not have been a bad idea. (FdW)
Address: http://www.y-ton-g.de
MACHINEFABRIEK – LIEF (3″CDR)
More Machinefabriek (see also last week) of really fresh material.
This twenty-two minute was recorded between December 31st 2004 and
January 5th 2005 and released right away. Here Machinefabriek uses
laptop, guitar, effects, minidisc, radio, synth and someone playing a
violin. As we noted last week, Machinefabriek’s music is all over the
place and here he goes into the world of drone music. Thickly
layered, swirling masses of sound that slowly builts into a noisy
crescendo, when the dream is over and the sound turns into a
nightmare of sorts. After that there is no more sound – just silence.
The noisy ending wasn’t so my thing, but the rest was certainly nice
enough indeed. (FdW)
Address: <machinefabriek@chello.nl>
TBC – EILEITHYIA (CDR by AIC Disc)
Thomas Beck is the man behind TBC and he has a long standing
reputation for producing music aswell as releases on his own
Wachsender Prozess label. If I understand correctly his piece
‘Eileithyia’ was recorded at a performance on Trojan boat – safely
assuming a replica here – and at home he worked some more on the
recordings. In two more or less thirty minutes TBC offers the
processed sound of water – at least that’s what I think. In long
washes of minimalist changes, TBC slowly transforms the water sounds
into vastly droning sound clouds, especially in the second piece,
which I found the best one. It’s a tad bit more varied with various
sounds swirling in and out. (FdW)
Address: <thomas@fsk-hh.org>