ANGST (Compilation CD by Spectre)
BETA ERKO – I’M OK, YOU’RE OK (CD by Quecksilber)
8ROLEK – UMPOMAT (CD by Mik Musik)
PASTACAS – TSACA TSAP (CD by Kohvirecords)
RONNIE SUNDIN – HAGRING (CD by Antifrost)
XABIER ERKIZIA – ENTRESOL (CD by Antifrost)
HIGH MAYHEM FESTIVAL 2003 (CD+ CDROM by High Mayhem)
SPIRE – LIVE IN GENEVA CATHEDRAL SAINT PIERRE (2CD by Touch)
PIRANDELO – PIRANDELO SUONA (CD by DSP Records)
KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF – ABSENCEN (CD by Staubgold)
THE AEOLIAN STRING ENSEMBLE – ECLIPSE (CD by Robot Records)
SOME PATHS LEAD BACK AGAIN (2CD compilation by Highpoint Lowlife)
INTRICATE MAXIMALS (CD compilation by Audiobulb Records)
JUNIOR BOYS – HIGH COME DOWN (LP by Kin)
ANDREW LILES – DRONE WORKS #7 (CDREP by Twenty Hertz)
MORMO – AMOUTH FULL OF SMALL BARKS (CDR by Papergoose)
AUBE – PÔLE NORD (3″CDR by Taalem)
KAR – SFRIGOR (3″CDR by Taalem)
MATHIEU RUHLMANN – SOMNE (3″CDR by Taalem)
DRONAEMENT – FUER MUR (3″CDR by Taalem)
CHEFKIRK – EXTRA FIRM (CDR by Simple Logic Records)
HELLOTHISISALEX – ACROSS THE RIVER TWIN (CDR, self-released)
MEGATONE – A JOURNEY TO THE CORE OF REALITY (CDR by Tib Prod)
SOUND 00 – SOUND666 (CDR by Tib Prod)
TZESNE – TIME OF BONFIRES (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
KARL BÖSMAN – DAS KIND IN DER KÜCHE (CDR by Tosom)
DAS RÜCKGRAT DER NACHT – SYNTHETISCHE DUNKELHEIT (CDR by Tosom)
SHIFTS – VERTONEN 9 (CD by Public Eyesore)
ANGST (Compilation CD by Spectre)
“Angst” is the title of this double Cd compilation from Belgium label
Spectre. Each artist on the album delivers his sonic exploration into
the subject “Angst”. Not surprisingly we end up with an album that
swirls in territories of sheer darkness and disturbing moments. There
is a quite varied musical approach to the subject, I must say! A
great part of the artists appearing on the compilation have earlier
releases on the German labels Ant-Zen Recordings and Hands
Productions. Thus we find quite a few musical similarities between
this compilation and the style of the two aforementioned labels. In
other words the distorted industrial rhythms of technoid Power Noise
are represented in several of the 26 tracks on “Angst”. The
compilation in some aspects is reminiscent of the fabulous second
part of Relapse/Release Entertainment’s compilation series “Release
your mind” (1997). Both compilations seem like working with an
interesting progression, opening with dark atmospheric contributions
slowly developing more and more brutal ending out with tracks of
almost pure Noise. Thus the opening CD first of all floats on
soundscapes of horrific atmospheres. The final disc on the contrary
reaches aggressive sound levels with a massive storm of
claustrophobic noise. One of the highlights on the album is the track
titled “Civilisation” built on processed voices and evil drones of
subtle noise created by Hypnoskull as an apocalyptic ode to the
global conflicts of mankind. Another great moment is the chilling
ambient piece “Deserted piece” by Codetripper functioning as a moment
of trippy relaxation in a period on the disc where the breathtaking
noise seems like the overriding sound factor. Greatest moment on the
album though is the short but very intense “Iraque freedom” by MS
Gentur. MS Gentur delivers an amazing blend of extreme aggressiveness
and beautiful atmospheres ending up with one of the most breathtaking
tracks of rhythmic Power Noise heard for quite a while. Overall the
musical quality throughout the 145 minutes of “Angst” is impressively
high. Thus this double CD compilation certainly proves that Spectre
is a label tokeep a close eye on. Highly recommended! (NMP)
Address: http://www.spectre.be
BETA ERKO – I’M OK, YOU’RE OK (CD by Quecksilber)
If I tell you that Beta Erko has people like Martin Ng (of gcttcatt),
Robin Fox (the computer guy of the Synaesthesia label), Anthony
Pateras (electronics/prepared piano) and MC Vulk Makedonski, then
you, like me, think: who is the last one and then slide the CD in
expecting some nice improvised music. And well, yeah maybe it’s
improvised music, but altogether of a different order then you might
expect. There turntable scratches, rhythms, musique concrete cut ups
and other improv crazyness, but what really makes the difference is
the vocal contributions of MC Vulk Makedonski. His singing and
rapping sound like David Moss on speed, or a heavily doped… a
heavily doped…. well, since I never get around to have even the
slightest interest in rapmusic, I can’t fill in a single name. I
might be wrong of course, but this seems to me the first time that
hip hop and rap ever meet up with electronic improvised music. I
played this CD a couple of times in a row, trying to figure out
wether I should laugh, fall over amazement, thinking: is this great?
Is it bad? I couldn’t figure it out. It might be easy to say: hearing
is believing, but in this case, that is the only true thing. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staubgold.com
8ROLEK – UMPOMAT (CD by Mik Musik)
This is the first real CD by Bartek Kujawski aka 8Rolek, following
two previous CDR releases for Mik Musik. Bartek builts his own
software and plays with them on two laptops. As noted before (in
Vital Weekly 353), one could say that 8Rolek operates in the fields
of clicks and cuts, but unmistakenly he derives his own version out
of it. Apperentely not interested in just a bunch of plug-ins or an
all to strict 4/4 beat, but he builts out of disjointed elements,
something that slowly builts an abstract rhythm, such as in
‘Po-chaus’. What is particular noteworthy is the fact that many of
his soundsource are really ‘dry’. Maybe derived from electro-acoustic
sources, sounds picked up by contact microphones or some such, this
is for sure another start then many other clicks and cuts musicians
would do. This sets 8Rolek aside from the rest and makes for sure an
interesting release. Eleven powerful pieces herein, full of energy.
Nice indeed.
Address: http://www.mikmusik.org
PASTACAS – TSACA TSAP (CD by Kohvirecords)
Ramo Teder, the man behind Pastacas, is originally from Estonia, but
now lives in a small village called Kirjakkala on Finland’s west
coast, where he made all these tracks. Apperentely mornings last
33.33 minutes longer than in the rest of the world, so that’s the
reason that this album lasts 44.44 minutes. Does that make sense? Not
here. Ramo plays all the instruments (guitar, flute, bass) himself
and uses no sampling. And he sings. As much as there is clarity in
the recorded instruments, the vocals seem to be heavily processed.
Layered, twisted, with hardly any normal line around. The short
pieces on this album sound relatively lighthearted, the music is
mildly jazzy and poppy, but at the same time there is also a strong
electronic feel to it. A singer-songwriter who doesn’t use just a
guitar and voice, but someone who is well aware of the latest thing
in glitch (say Fennesz), and this album could have easily fitted on
Häpna, alongside Hans Appelqvist. It has that same intimate tone,
another fresh look at popmusic. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kohvirecords.ee
RONNIE SUNDIN – HAGRING (CD by Antifrost)
XABIER ERKIZIA – ENTRESOL (CD by Antifrost)
From the microsound people with some name recognition, Ronnie Sundin
might be a known name, although there wasn’t a new release in some
time. His previous works were released by labels such as Fallt, Bake
Records, Hapna and Ground Fault. The latter two labels released the
previous parts of a trilogy of which ‘Hagring’ is the final part. A
lot of Sundin’s work hoovers below earrange, sometimes arising above
it. When I pressed ‘play’ I turned the volume up a bit, expecting
things to be soft again. Which by and large was a good thing, since
things are a bit soft here. According to the information, though not
mentioned on the cover, Sundin uses besides field recordings and
computer processed sound, vibrating piano and guitar strings. He
could have fooled me, because the covers says ‘all mirages by Ronnie
Sundin’. ‘Hagring’ is indexed as one long track, but clearly divided
in smaller parts, that is really small parts. Some of the fragmented
pieces don’t seem to last longer than one minute or so, while towards
the end they are much longer until it arrives in this beautiful
extended drone piece. They are divided by silence (or so it seems).
Thus an interesting play between audible music and silence occurs.
When one is listening to this and arrive during a silence, one never
knows how long it’s going to take. And during this contemplation, a
sudden outburst of sound takes you back into the CD. Sundin doesn’t
go the easy route, and it’s more difficult than say Francisco Lopez,
where it’s mostly silent throughout. Silence is juxtaposed through
sound, or vice versa. A complicated work, that however has quite
some beauty in it, certainly the final part with all it’s drones. It
may take a few rounds to discover that, however.
On the same label is also the debut album of Basque composer Xabier
Erkizia, who has collaborated with people like fellow Basque Mattin,
Eddie Prevost, Ilios, TV Pow and many more. Like the title suggests –
Entresol meaning between two floors – this is music that is in
between something, not focussing on one thing, but rather moves in
between musics. This results into quite vague music, I think.
Sometimes largely inaudible, but at other occassions it can burst out
in quite a vicious way. These outbursts however are quite short.
‘Entresol III’ is the piece that is troughout audible with vague
rumblings. Even after a couple of times listening to this, I don’t
know wether I should think this music is just unfocussed and dull or
that, on the other hand, it’s captivating. I haven’t made my mind up
yet, and that in itself is rather an effort too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.antifrost.gr
HIGH MAYHEM FESTIVAL 2003 (CD+ CDROM by High Mayhem)
Here we have an extraordinary document from a extraordinary festival.
High Mayhem is the name of a multimedia art collective that has it’s
hometown in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2003 they organized their Second
Annual Experimental Multimedia Festival. The festival was documented
extensively by a crew who filmed, recorded, etc. the entire festival!
Through this release this documentation comes available. And even
more is available from their site. The doubledisc documents this
festival in an excellent way. Disc1 is an audio compilation
presenting all 19 musical acts that were featured at this festival.
Disc 2 offers videos, photos, graphics and mp3 recordings (10 hours!)
of each bands performance.
I must admit that it opened a complete new world for me as most acts
were unknown to me. Let me mention first all 19 actst: My Country of
Illusion, Zimbabwe Nkenya Contrabas Quartet, Doublespeak, Claudia
Quinet, D Numbers, Ava Mendoza Quartet, Iot, Molly Sturges’ mJane
Ensemble, Derail, Menage a Un, The Late Severa Wives, Birth, Things
of that Nature, Ben Wright Rumble Trio, Out of Context, Stefan Dill’
Love Unfold the Sun, Chris Jonas’ ARC Ensemble, Invisible Plane, Lid
13.
Alas line-up information is lacking. But a little research learns
that several acts have personal connections. It’s one big family. The
mJane Ensemble of Molly Sturgess is a good starting point. Vital
readers with a good memory may remember that a few weeks ago I wrote
a few lines on the cd “Prayers from the Underbelly” by this ensemble,
containing a live recording from the High Mayhem festival. Member of
this ensemble is DJ Ultraviolet who compiled the cd of this release.
With his band Invisible plane he contributed also musically to the
festival with unsatisfying soundimprovisations and sound collages.
More focus is needed here, in my view.
Member is also Stefan Dill who appears also with his own act Love
Unfold the Sun. He tries to link free improvisation with the sound of
the oud and the eastern music that is usually played on a instrument
like this. He playing is acompanied by drums, bass, drums, etc. Also
Dill returns in a piece to the guitar, the instrument he used to play
in earlier days.
If I’m not mistaken Dill also participates in Out of Context , an
ensemble of J.A.Deane (remember Indoor Life?). mJane members
Jefferson Voorhees, CK Barlow and Sturgess herself participate also
in this project. With this ensemble Deane experiments with conducted
improvisation. We hear violin, cello, guitar, oud (or something like
that), voices, percussion, etc. Must be quite a big ensemble. Very
engaging music. Molly Sturges’ husband Chris Jonas played also on the
festival with his ARC Ensemble. Saxplayer Jonas may be known for his
work with Anthony Braxton and William Parker. For his ARC Ensemble he
composes a music that is somewherre between jazz and new music.
Jonas is also connected with Birth. This Ohio-based group around
saxplayer Joshua Smith. Completed with bass and drums this group
received good reviews. But their set on High Mayhem didn’t work for
me. The set starts with a long noisy electronic intro that changes
into a unsignificant jazzy kind of music with drums, bass and sax in
the center. The music has its interesting moments when electronic
devices lift up the jazz in more abstract regions.
My Country of Illusion and D Numbers both work with slow electronic
beats with a role for guitars in the forefront. In the case of D
Numbers it results in a very funky ambient music. Very nice.
Zimbabwe Nkenya premiered with his Contrabas Quartet. They play a
piece by Anthony Braxton, so you know what kind of jazz/modern music
they play. Things of that Nature from Los Angeles works with indie
pop melodies in a style that is so close to the new wave of the 80s
that it is probably meant so. Doublespeak and Ava Mendoza Quartet
play a kind of impro-rock. Both groups center around guitarist Ava
Mendoza. Especially Doublespeak plays an intense free-rock for
electric guitar, drums and electronics. Great unit and Ava Mendoza
surely is a name to watch.
One of the highlights of the festival – in my view – is the Claudia
Quintet. This group has two albums out ont the Cuneiform label, which
is some indication for the music the make. Composer and drummer John
Hollenbeck is the frontman here. The line up includes accordion,
vibraphone, bass and saxes. Like most acts from this festival their
music is an example of jazz and ‘beyond’. In the case of the Claudia
Quintet the result is comparable with groups like Curlew, Samla,
Hamster Theatre, etc., but with more room for improvisation.
Are you still there dear reader? I will not go into the other acts on
this compilation. By now you may have an impression of the music that
is covered by this festival. A very interesting mix of improvisation,
rock, jazz, beats, influences of worldmusic, etc. I hope there will
be future editions of this festival, because it is important to have
these platforms!
Most acts meet considerable musical standards and have an original
approach. So if you are into this kind of music this is an very
interesting release. The release of this cd and cd-rom itself is a
true labor of love of some very dedicated people. Chapeau! (DM)
Address: http://www.highmayhem.com/
SPIRE – LIVE IN GENEVA CATHEDRAL SAINT PIERRE (2CD by Touch)
Last year Touch finally realized their first double CD with works
dealing with the king of instruments: the church organ. The only
organ to show the right love of God, perhaps, but for some others
also the instrument that brings on a massive drone, that perhaps can
take the listener to different levels – in anyway. Many of the works
on the first Spire CD were treatments in some way of organ like
sounds, not just church organs, but also for instance a hammond
organ. For the second Spire CD, again a lenghty double one, the
church organ plays the central role. And an organ in one place, being
the Saint Pierre Cathedral in Geneva, where all these pieces were
recorded. Three groups were performed here. The first group of five
pieces are by contemporary composers, such as Andre Jolivet, Liana
Alexandra, Marcus Davidson and, perhaps, best known Henryk Gorecki.
Here the massive density of the organ collides strongely on walls the
of the church, but at the same time can move the listener to a more
contemplative moment. Best this works in the piece by Gorecki, who
works with both contrasts very well. The second group of works, being
two in fact, is were the organ meets itself or other instruments. It
meets itself in the piece by BJ Nilsen, who is playing around with
sounds from the organ (such as the mechanism that sucks air into it)
and electronical treatments thereof, in quite a shimmering and moody
piece. In Philip Jeck’s ‘The Crypt’, the organ meets the king of
sound recording – that is what vinyl is to some – but the marriage is
not always a fruitful one. The king of instruments is like a monarch,
and doesn’t allow rock records in it’s kingdom. In the final piece
the church organ is no longer touched, but forms the basic of perhaps
Fennesz’s most ambient moment. His computer treatments are very
subtle, the soundmaterial c an still be recognized but is also
unmistakenly in the digital domain. Despite the fact that there are
three different groups of works on this double CD, it is a
well-succeeded compilation and the best is kept to the end – the
twenty-five minute shimmer by Fennesz. (FdW)
Address: http:///www.touchmusic.org.uk
PIRANDELO – PIRANDELO SUONA (CD by DSP Records)
Pirandelo is a new Italian group around Andrea Gabriele of Tu’M,
writer and photographer Marita Cosma and filmmaker Claudio Sinatti.
Together they use software, guitars, bass, vocals and field
recordings and the music should be seen as ‘the medium of a journey
that start from an organic and tangible astraction to a cinematic and
synaesthetic narration’. Quite a mouthful for something that in my
book sounds a glitch music. The traditional instruments are all
warped, twisted, reconfigured and what else have you in the digital
domain and it is served again in the form of slightly chaotic tunes,
but of which an influence of pop, or even jazz can be noted. The nine
tracks are indeed quite nice to hear, especially when some sort of
vocal sip through the electronica, but on the other hand the paths
taken by Pirandelo aren’t exactely new. Influences of Fennesz, Oval
or somesuch, albeit with maybe a little bit more poppy result, are
clear traces here. No big deal, since Pirandelo has a nice debut
album with this anyway. And I believe they take this on the road,
adding live visual elements, so who knows: maybe soon in your area
too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.dsprecords.com
KAMMERFLIMMER KOLLEKTIEF – ABSENCEN (CD by Staubgold)
I think I mentioned before that a while ago I saw Germany’s
Kammerflimmer Kollektief live, but that I wasn’t blown away by them.
Their new CD ‘Absencen’ however has been spinning around for days and
I still have trouble finding out what I think about it. The
collective is a group of six persons, playing drums, harmonium,
double bass, cello, violin and varioous windinstruments. I think many
of their works are generated through improvisation, maybe along some
fixed points. A typical point of departure is some sort of drone
related sound that sets thing on or maybe a drum pattern, over which
the other instruments improvise their sound, mainly the wind
instruments and the strings. The result is quite diverse. Sometimes
they manage to sound like a jazz band, sometimes they play a
spaghetti western tune including a slide guitar and sometimes field
recordings are used to make additional sounds. But the main feature
seems to be the total free role of the wind instruments, which sound
to my ears always a bit traditional in their improvisations. The
music of the Kammerflimmer Kollektief works best when they play a
longer tune. As some of the pieces on ‘Absencen’ are a bit short, the
album as a whole doesn’t work that well for me. I think it would have
been better to pick lesser tracks and work them out a little more.
But having said all of this, I took out quite some pleasure of this
too. It formed a nice backdrop to some of my daily acitivities, such
as reading the newspaper… (FdW)
Address: http://www.staubgold.com
THE AEOLIAN STRING ENSEMBLE – ECLIPSE (CD by Robot Records)
The first time I got across the name of Aeolian String Ensemble was
perhaps twenty years ago. Despite all the hiss on a tape it was nice
ambient guitar tracks that was on one of the ‘Rising From The Red
Sand’ compilation cassettes. I liked it, and wished I could hear
more, but the information was sparse and in none of the fanzines they
were ever mentioned. A couple of years ago, Robot Records released,
rather out of the blue, a full length CD by them, which I heard in
passing. Not bad, but not something I needed to add to my collection.
Still we are left clueless as to the ensemble is, but somewhere along
the lines there is some involvement of Steve Stapleton and Christoph
Heemann (who drawn some of images on the cover). The three pieces on
the new release were made over a couple of years, the oldest is from
1981 and the most recent was completed in 2003. The Aeolian String
Ensemble sound like their name, like wind. I believe the ancient
greeks used wind instruments (aeolian is greek for wind), strings
that were blown and resonated by the wind. Probably one of the more
purer forms of ambient music. The oldest piece here ‘K1’ sound quite
similar to the ‘Rising From The Red Sand’ track: processed guitar
sounds (or any kind of strings really). It’s stretched out, slow and
peaceful. That can also be said of the other two pieces, of which one
was recorded during the eclipse of the sun on August 11, 1999, using
Air Harps and Wind Vanes, all fed through a whole bunch of sound
effects. The music of the Aeolian String Ensemble is close to that is
populair right now from bands like Mirror, Ora and Monos. Sonically
deep ambient music, made in a rather unconventional way, avoiding the
cliches that sometime lurk around the corner of this kind of music.
(FdW)
Address: http://www.robotrecords.com
SOME PATHS LEAD BACK AGAIN (2CD compilation by Highpoint Lowlife)
To me the Marcia Blaine School For Girls is just a band, of whom I
reviewed a nice 7″ before (in Vital Weekly 371), but I would never
expect that they would curate a double CD cmpilation for Highpoint
Lowlife. But hey, what do I know? Maybe they are famous? This
compilation deals with Scottish electronica artists, who are all but
two, unknown to me. But they play quite diverse stuff here. From the
dreamy ambientesque guitar doodlings by Daigoro in ‘Sleepy Fish’ to
the uptempo, aggressive Izu, or low bit Tersh Jetterax. On disc one
the highlights are by The Marcia Blaine School For Girls themselves,
the a-cappella song about fear of flying by Chris Dooks (quite nice
on an electronica compilation) and the track by Daigoro. On disc two
Feld is quite nice and the Pan Sonic sounding Daigoro (again). Also
enclosed is are three quicktime movies, which are all highly abstract
VJ like material, of which Somniscope was the nicest one, up to the
point when it got too new agey for me. This electronica scene from
Scotland is probably not as big as the Franz Ferdinand scene, but
nevertheless one that with all his side acts and collaborations, is
one that is vibrant enough to stay around longer than the hype of
Franz. (FdW)
Address: http://www.highpointlowlife.com
INTRICATE MAXIMALS (CD compilation by Audiobulb Records)
The young Audiobulb label is both active on the front of releasing
CDs aswell as offering their releases for download, sometimes even
for free. Following ‘Switches’, their first compilation (see Vital
Weekly 422), they now offer another compilation under the banner of
‘Intricate Maximals’. Musically they move away from the ambient chill
out music of the previous compilation, and the eightteen pieces on
this new one are all in the areas of intelligent techno music. All of
these bands (probably, rather, all of these one-man bands) are new to
me, even when some of them have releases on other labels, such as
Ochre for Toytronic or Another Electronic Musician for n5md. There is
a great sense of homogenity on this CD, which is nice, but there are
also some disadvantages to it. Firstly many of the tracks sound
alike, and with nineteen in just under eighty minutes, this is a bit
long. Then some of the tracks are also a bit long, and after a while
you may be fed up with melancholic piano chords and stuttery beats.
But it serves as a good introduction to a lot of new names (even when
it’s hard to pick out that one sublime track), so maybe this is not
one of those compilations that should be played back to back, but
rather a small portion here and there. It’s music that holds no
surprises, but brings nice music on a boring sunday afternoon. (FdW)
Address: http://www.audiobulb.com
JUNIOR BOYS – HIGH COME DOWN (LP by Kin)
I’ve been listening (again) this EP on repeat and thinking: damn,
this is so fine music and a great EP, the whole release. Starting
with the amazing single-track ‘High come down’, which is also a part
of Junior Boys’ album ‘Last exit’. It’s a wonderful track, with kinda
transparent beats and a perfect electro flow. Then comes the Manitoba
remix of ‘Birthday’, more upbeat, but quite chilled again. At first
it was difficult for me to get into it, but even when I’m not the
greatest fan of this indie-electronic master, I think he’s done an
amazing thing remixing this tune. It’s even dance-floor friendly to
some extend. ‘Under the sun’ is seemingly monotonous at first and a
bit longer, great electro-romantic landscape. At the end is the
shortest atmospheric excursion ‘A certain association’, as a fading
out off this impressionistic world. Junior Boys have made some of the
most amusing pop music with this EP and previous year’s album ‘Last
exit’ (see Vital 426). Why they are not on Wire’s front-page yet? (BR)
Address: http://www.electrokin.com
ANDREW LILES – DRONE WORKS #7 (CDREP by Twenty Hertz)
Unfortunally the name Andrew Liles is not very well-known, despite
his albums for Nextera and Infraction. Maybe things will change with
this release on the Twenty Hertz series, home of many nice names and
certainly something to collect. The twenty some minute piece by Liles
is among the most minimal work I have encountered from him in quite
some time. Two or three gliding tones, maybe synths but it might also
be feedback gently collide on eachother throughout this piece,
although half way through some nastier sounds bump in (making me
think this is a live recording of sorts). One of Liles’ trademarks,
the extensive use of reverb, only appears at the end, with some
highly reverbed cymbals kicking in. It’s good to see that kept to a
minimum. The last four minutes of this release have more musical
action that the previous eightteen, but it’s a suitable ending. Liles
comes close to Eliane Radigue here and is a major step forward. (FdW)
Address: http://www.twentyhertz.co.uk
MORMO – AMOUTH FULL OF SMALL BARKS (CDR by Papergoose)
I got this release a while ago and among lots of other releases I’ve
received, it’s been lying by my laptop for some time with the other
cds waiting to be listened. Now I finally found time and space to
listen to it concentrated enough to write a review about it. It is
the first time I meet this label which seems to be interesting. As
you can see from their qute site its a small cdr label that has three
artists in its roster and three releases so far. This debut ep is one
of them. It’s made by Tomasz Kaye aka Mormo who is doing interesting
music that is a combination of glitch, broken rhythms connected with
subtle melodies. Generally, some kind of melodic electronic music
bordering IDM, but of course more interesting than both. The glitchy
aspects dominate, and that gives the release even more dynamics and
contemporary aspects. Darker and ambiental parts, as track three, are
combined and connected with female speech. Then in the next track a
delicate glitchy and noisy machine rhythm continues. Likewise in the
following tracks· A short but really interesting release, whose
combination of styles still sounds fresh and not boring at all, which
is not case if they stand alone. (TD)
Address: http://www.papergoose.net
AUBE – PÔLE NORD (3″CDR by Taalem)
KAR – SFRIGOR (3″CDR by Taalem)
MATHIEU RUHLMANN – SOMNE (3″CDR by Taalem)
DRONAEMENT – FUER MUR (3″CDR by Taalem)
The Taalem label, subdivison of Harmonie, is by now bigger than the
mothership and more and more they attract well-known names. There was
a time when Aube circulated in these pieces almost every week (the
press release talks about more than 160 releases in fourteen years),
but I can’t remember when was the last time. Maybe about a decade or
so ago, Aube released a lot of singular works, all dealing with one
sound source (say a lightbulb, metal, glass etc) but in retrospect
many of his compositions sounded singular too. Somewhere along the
lines I lost interest, but I was keen to hear what he is up to these
days. Still he uses one single soundsource, feedback in this case,
but not, as one could expect, a loud one. In the four pieces, Aube
shows his usual minimalist interests, but his compositional
structures have changed a bit. These four pieces are less based on
rhythms and layers, but rather layers of sound. Quite an interesting
come-back (don’t know if he was away, but at least for me it’s a
come-back).
Kar, from Italy, had a few self-released CDRs and a few on S’Agita (a
label that recentely stopped their acitivities), have just one piece,
circa twenty minutes. The opening sounds made me think of Organum,
but then some sort of trumpet sound kicked in and things sounded a
bit more free form improv, but half way through the piece, things
gradually changed electronic – I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that
this is the same piece but then fed through a couple of max/msp
patches.
The other two new Taalem releases are by artists who had recent
releases on Mystery Sea. Mathieu Ruhlmann continues in his own style:
processing field recordings (here of an unknown source) and by adding
layers of processings, he creates his own deep listening ambient. The
rumblings of the original sounds leak through these dense clouds of
sounds, but altogether it’s a well-crafted piece of dark ambient
music.
Dronaement has a lot of previous releases (Drone Records, Dachstuhl,
Mystery Sea or on his own Field Muzick) and here has two pieces
showcasing his two different approaches to ambient music. ‘Fuer Mur’
is a soft and subtle one of shimmering sounds, birdcall-like piano
notes and much delay and reverb. Very lighthearted ambient of a
pastorale nature. ‘Immer Da’ on the other hand is much noiser and
less subtle (to say the least), with similar sound sources sounding
much more distorted. It’s nice to hear both approaches, but I rather
had a full twenty minute version of ‘Fuer Mur’… (FdW)
Address: http://taalem.free.fr
CHEFKIRK – EXTRA FIRM (CDR by Simple Logic Records)
If the title of a CD should mean something, than I am not sure what
‘Extra Firm’ means in the case of this new CDR by Chefkirk. Chefkirk,
aka Roger H Smith, is a man who has come a long way from his earliest
noise doodlings, which didn’t really impress me, to his recent
somewhat more balanced style of rhythm and noise, in that order. So I
feared ‘Extra Firm’ would see his return to his old noise style, but
this is not the case. His continues his recent route of exploring
short, repeated sounds and takes his sources, I think from field
recordings. Rumbling in the basement on a stack of metal or wood, and
upstairs the computer is waiting to treat these into smaller blocks
of sound. Occassionally leaping into a Pan Sonic like rhythm. Less
refined than our Finnish friends, Chefkirk never comes close to any
sort of techno rhythm, but at least he manages to sound like
something of his own. The progress forward and upward continues. (FdW)
Address: http://www.simlog.tk
HELLOTHISISALEX – ACROSS THE RIVER TWIN (CDR, self-released)
Hellothisisalex is a young electronic duo from Canada, consisting of
Mark Prier and Melissa Creasey, who both share a strong love of
analogue synthesizers, aswell as ‘pots, pans, plates, voices, guitar,
melodica, saxophone and clock radio. Not that’s easy to hear all of
this, but I’m sure it’s somewhere in there. Hellothisisalex like
their pop to be electro. The album is inspired by fires that raged in
the early 20th century across the river from Hull, Quebec to Ottawa,
Ontaria. This may explain just a little bit the somewhat darker tone
that hoovers around in the nine tracks on this release. A somewhat
somber tone on this album, which has mid-tempo electro songs, fuzzy
analogue sounds coming from likewise buzzing synthesizers. Nicely
executed, Hellothisisalex could have been released by Suction Records
or maybe some of the older Morr Music releases. Despite their young
history, Hellothisisalex managed to deliver a nice album of mildly
somber tracks, without getting too gloom and doom, but inventive
enough. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hellothisisalex.com
MEGATONE – A JOURNEY TO THE CORE OF REALITY (CDR by Tib Prod)
SOUND 00 – SOUND666 (CDR by Tib Prod)
TZESNE – TIME OF BONFIRES (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
More and more releases by Tib Prod, but they will slow down a little
bit for the next few months, in order to work on some changes for the
label. Marel Gherman is the man behind Megatone. He works as a radio
DJ and did a lot of music, which he never released. But for his first
release, he starts right away with almost seventy-eight minutes of
music, and we could wonder wether this is a bit overlong. Some of
these tracks (even when there are seventeen in total) are really just
too long, such as the twelve or so minutes of ‘Universe’. Overall,
Megatone uses a hard rhythmic sound, over which he puts his plug ins,
or maybe even real instruments. It would have been a better idea to
trim this release with at least half its length and to make some of
the longer pieces much shorter. I doubt wether that will be a good,
strong release, but certainly somewhat better.
A regular guest for Tib Prod is Sound 00, aka Every Kid On Speed (or
Acid), the noise side of Toni Dimitrov. His two previous releases
were 3″CDRs but here he goes for the full blast. Although the
Merzbowian influence is never far away, more than the Japanese master
of noise, Sound 00 operates entirely in the field of laptop and an
enormous amount of plug ins, which he plays in real time, as
something tells me that this release was generated live. A full forty
minute blast here, which should appeal to more adventurous noise
heads.
I never heard of Tzesne, from Spain, but he did a release before on
the Series Negras label. The cover doesn’t tell much about how and
what, so we are left in the dark here as to what is done, but Tzesne
makes drone music. There is a little bit of distortion in this work,
which makes this not entirely a strict ambient work. It’s hard to
tell wether this is all computer manipulation of whatever kind (field
recordings? synths?), but after the sheer violence of Sound 00 this
is surely a much more relaxing release. Quite promising and
intelligent drone music here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
KARL BÖSMAN – DAS KIND IN DER KÜCHE (CDR by Tosom)
DAS RÜCKGRAT DER NACHT – SYNTHETISCHE DUNKELHEIT (CDR by Tosom)
Two debuts on the Tosom label, the German label dealing with the more
experimental things in ambient music. ‘Das Kind In Der Küche’,
meaning the kid in the kitchen, by Karl Bösmann has three lenghty
pieces and the basic material are atmospheric soundscapes, but by
adding sound effects, other sounds and more electronica, Bösmann
moves away from the usual dark ambient music and goes into a slightly
more rhythmic mood. His use of percussive sounds are minimal, but
also a bit ethnical. In ‘Begegnung Mit Verachtetem’ things are a bit
more ‘normal’ again, but in the title piece, we hear a somewhat
distorted organ and far away child cry. Although this is fairly
interesting stuff, the pieces are a bit overlong with not always
enough variation to keep up the tension of a piece. But it’s a
promising start.
I don’t know how to translate Das Rückgrat Der Nacht (didn’t learn
that in school), which is mainly the project of Martin Besig,
although other people play on ‘Heaven’, the final track of this
release. The music here is fairly rhythmic, made with drumcomputers
and samples, set against a wall of droney synthesizer sounds.
Although this is another lenghty release, there are eleven tracks,
like eleven different variations on a theme. Much more than the Karl
Bösmann release this is entirely synthetic release, entirely made
with machines. It’s nice that the tracks are somewhat shorter and
more focussed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tosom.de
SHIFTS – VERTONEN 9 (CD by Public Eyesore)
The new release by Shifts, a sideproject of Frans de Waard takes us
on a 70-minute journey. From beginning to the end we hear a fast
pulsating sound in the forefront. In the background slower cylces of
atmospheric sounds come and go. In fact ‘journey’ is not a correct
metaphor. It suggests development, starting a point A and slowly
progressing towards a climax. But that’s not where ‘Vertonen 9’ is
about. As other Shifts releases this one showes de Waards love for
pure sound. And it’s on this aspect that he built his music. If you
share this love, you will enjoy this one, because de Waard has a good
taste for sounds. The sounds he creates are carefully chosen and
contain an intrincic richness that is revealed when you listen
attentively. Its because of this quality that I have no problem in
listening to it from start to finish, and even enjoying it. The work
as a whole impresses because of its consistent sticking to one idea
for some 70 minutes. He is not afraid to give the sounds time to
last. He creates an immense space for a limited set of sounds that
are simply there (DM).
Address: http://www.publiceyesore.com/