VIDNA OBMANA – NOISE/DRONE ANTHOLOGY 1984-1989 (CD by Ikon/Project)
ANTOINE BERTHIAUME & QUENTIN SIRJACQ & NORMAN TEALE – LEAVES AND SNOWS (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
THE HAFLER TRIO – EXACTLY AS I DO (2CD by Important Records)
CONTRASTATE – SEVEN HANDS SEEK NINE FINGERS (CD by Fin de Siecle Media)
CONTRASTATE – FALSE FANGS FOR OLD WEREWOLVES (CD by Fin de Siecle Media)
OÖPHOI – HYMNS TO A SILENT SKY (CD by Nextera)
REPTILJAN – THE HELLBENDER SUITE (CD by Some Place Else)
JGRZINICH – INSULAR REGIONS (CD by Sirr-Ecords)
BRENDAN MURRAY – RESTING PLACES (CD by Sedimental)
UNTITLED SONGS (2CD by Sirr-Ecords)
CLAUDIO PARODI – LONELINESS (CDR, self-released)
EGK – NO SIGN (CD by Sedimental)
EVGENIY DROOMOFF/SOUND MECCANO/DELRAY – VOLOKNO (CD by Rx:Tx)
MARTIN KÜCHEN/DAVID STACKENMÄS – AGAPE (CD by Creative Sources)
FRANZ HAUTZINGER/MAREN KERBAJ – ABU TAREK (CD by Creative Sources)
LOS GLISSANDINOS – STAND CLEAR (CD by Creative Sources)
GILLES AUBRY/ANTOINE CHESSEX/TORSTEN PAPENHEIM – SWIFT MACHINE (CD by Creative Sources)
KAZUSHIGE KINOSHITA/MASAHIKO OKURA/MASAFUMI EZAKI – KENON (CD by Creative Sources)
QUENTIN DUBOST/WADE MATTEHWS/STEPHANE RIVERS/INGAR ZACH – DINING ROOM MUSIC (CD by Creative Sources)
BERTRAND DENZLER/AXEL DÖRNER/DANIEL ERDMANN/MICHAEL GRIENER/GÜNTER MÜLLER – STRALAU (CD by Creative Sources)
MICHAEL THIEKE – LEUCHTEN (CD by Creative Sources)
NATE WOOLEY – WRONG SHAPE TO BE A STORY TELLER (CD by Creative Sources)
ANDREAS MELAND – DEAF LEOPPARD (3″CD by Enlightment)
LUNT – FRAGMENTS OF FREE VOL. 1 (CDR by Hitomi Recordings)
IMAGHO – SOMEONE CONTROLS ELECTRIC GUITAR (CDR by Hitomi Recordings)
PYLON/MIELIMUSIIKKIA (CDR by Ultra Eczema)
CASSIS CORNUTA (2CDRs by Ultra Eczema)
Vital Weekly, the webcast: as an experiment for the time being, we offering a weekly webcast, freely to download. This can be regarded as the audio-supplement to Vital Weekly. Presented as a radioprogramm with excerpts of just some of the CDs (no vinyl or MP3) reviewed. It will remain on the site for a limited period (most likely 2-4 weeks). Download the file to your MP3 player and enjoy!
http://www.vitalweekly.net
VIDNA OBMANA – NOISE/DRONE ANTHOLOGY 1984-1989 (CD by Ikon/Project)
The career of Vidna Obmana started twenty one years ago, and to many of his more recent fans – say those who came to know his work in the last twelve or so years – the early works should be a real mystery. They probably knew that Vidna Obmana wasn’t playing the nice ambient music, but they also had no vivid imagination of what the ‘noise’ was that he apparently did back then. Many of the early works were released on cassette by labels long history, like Ladd Frith, V, Death Pact International, Therapie and so on. This fourteen track compilation does tell a story, but not the complete one of course and rightly so: it wouldn’t be of much interest to hear the entire ‘old’ works, since it also contains moments that aren’t worth keeping for the future (other than perhaps in Vidna’s archives). This compilation is already a lengthy experience with it’s almost seventy-four minutes of noise and drone. Rhythmic pulsation’s, screamy vocals, piercing feedback and synths pushed to a single, dark note. Including three collaborations with PBK, Kapotte Muziek and Big City Orchestra, because Vidna Obmana was already doing that in those days. Everything is there from the old days, lovingly re-mastered from hissy cassettes and thus adding another piercing layer of sound. It might raise an eyebrow or two with the new fans, but it made me happy: having known Vidna Obmana for such a long time and owning some of those hissy tapes, I am most happy to replace them with this anthology. (FdW)
Address: http://www.projekt.com
ANTOINE BERTHIAUME & QUENTIN SIRJACQ & NORMAN TEALE – LEAVES AND SNOWS (CD by Ambiances Magnetiques)
A surprising cd from a new trio. The name of Antoine Berthiaume may ring a bell, as I reviewed his debut on Ambiances Magnetiques for Vital Weekly some time ago. On this album guitarist Berthiaume played guitar duets with Fred Frith and Derek Bailey. Not bads for a debute! On his new album we do not find him sided by veterans but accompanied by two other young musicians. This should guarantee a fresh approach and it does. Quentin Sirjacq is a pianist and composer from Paris. He studied in Holland and more recently at Mills College. It,s here that he and Berthiaume met during an improvisation class led by Joëlle Léandre. In the collaboration that grew Norman Teale (mixing, engineering, electronics) later joined in. And so this unusual trio of guitar, piano and electronics was a fact.
Their music is of a typical kind of modern music. Their music keeps lots of memories of a wide diversity of influences: jazz, rock, free improvisation, noise, ambient, touches of eastern music, etc. But the result is nothing of it all, but a very open improvisation based music. Atmosphere and mood are important in their soundscaping exercises. Sometimes their music is almost sounding like filmmusic echoing Morricone (“Staring at a Western Time”) or Ry Cooder. This means that they do not intend to discomfort the listener. Although their music is of course of a experimental kind, it is on the easy listening section of the spectrum.
A track like “Freedom Fried” surprised me, as it was new for me to hear improvised music sounding so ‘romantic’ as it does here. A track like “40 Pills” shows their good taste for coloring. It sounds like some gamelan music played on toy instruments.
In most pieces the guitar of Berthiaume is in a prominent role. Tracks like “Leaves and Snows” and “Nuclear Times” are built around the piano playing of Sirjacq. The electronic treatments by Teale a harder to identify on the one hand, but that they are omnipresent is not to be missed. Quietly and slowly the three unfold their ideas in their poetic approach of improvised music. A nice one. (DM)
Address: http://www.actuellecd.com/
THE HAFLER TRIO – EXACTLY AS I DO (2CD by Important Records)
For a moment or two things looked grim for The Hafler Trio. He fell out with the label devoted just to releasing The Hafler Trio, meaning we would never see the next part of his work with the voice of Jonsi Birgisson, but luckily enough Important Records stepped in and just released ‘Exactely As I Do’, the second double pack of The Hafler Trio reworking the voice of Sigur Ros man Birgisson. These two discs are each others opposites: ‘Shaktipat’ is a work of contemplation and silence. Things move here is a rather slow way. The voice breaths out and in again with great pace, although it’s important to state that it is that we know this is a voice, otherwise we wouldn’t have recognized it. ‘Asis’ is a work – and like so many Hafler works, it’s one piece per disc – of shorter sounds, almost in granular synthesis, although The Hafler Trio would curse me for this, as no doubt everything is generated in the areas of analogue tape processing, as The Hafler Trio would like us to believe. Short stutter sounds form a dense pattern of sounds that slowly unfold as one long tapestry – densely woven, this is a much more ‘present’ work. Die hard fans of the Trio will enjoy this no doubt and those who are skeptical will dismiss it as ‘just another one’. Oh well, I belong to the die-hards anyway. (FdW)
Address: http://www.importantrecords.com
CONTRASTATE – SEVEN HANDS SEEK NINE FINGERS (CD by Fin de Siecle Media)
CONTRASTATE – FALSE FANGS FOR OLD WEREWOLVES (CD by Fin de Siecle Media)
“The atmosphere on this LP is one of a dark nature. The sound you can imagine to a film about life on earth before human beings trying to spoil it. The music (three tracks in all) is minimalistic with slowly evolving patterns. But it is, as far as I’m concerned, no depressive music. And it is not joyful or humorous on the other hand. It is just dark, moody and experimental music. And listening to it is a good experience” – not a quote from the press release, but a review of Contrastate’s debut LP, written by yours truly in Vital 15, that must have been 1990 or so, when Vital existed on paper. Contrastate started in 1987 and stopped five years ago, and with these two re-issues Fin de Siecle media offers some much needed re-issue, at least to some. I can’t remember playing any Contrastate in a long time, because somewhere in the mid-nineties I wasn’t too pleased with the sombre atmospheric music of Contrastate and their used theatrical voices in particular. It’s nice to hear this again, and even though the voices still don’t appeal to me, the instrumental part is quite alright. Dark electronica, some water recordings (we would now call that field recordings) being fed through synths. With such a length I wonder why they didn’t release the first two LPs on one compact disc – but maybe I am just too economical. As said, nice to hear again, and perhaps a re-issue some couldn’t live without, but I won’t have thought to do it.
On ‘False Fangs For Old Werewolves’ we find a collection of material by Contrastate from the years 1989 – 1999, until the very last piece they recorded. Tracks from 7″s, compilations and some previously unreleased, all clearly explained in the booklet, in quite a funny way (and me thinking they had no humor). Of course a lot more pieces here, which adds to the fun and a lot less vocal pieces on it. Here the variety certainly adds to the proceedings and showcases clearly what Contrastate was about. Despite the funny liner notes, the music is dark and atmospheric throughout, lots of stuff in minor chords. The odd balls here, as the track they did for Ralf Wehowsky’s ‘Tulpas’ project, are certainly nice and break the somewhat solemnly atmosphere. This compilation is a good thing to start, before going to Ebay to bid for some original vinyl. (FdW)
Address: http://www.findesieclemedia.com
OÖPHOI – HYMNS TO A SILENT SKY (CD by Nextera)
There is a thin line between ambient and new age. For many of the releases reviewed in Vital Weekly are clearly inside ambient and not new age, for this new release by Oöphoi I am not too sure. The cover for a start looks a bit new agey (mountain, blue sky, cloud), the title too and then the music. Washes of synths, outdoor insect and bird calls, percussive sounds fed through a whole bunch of reverb units. All the ingredients for an ambient record, but in ‘Night Psalm’ Oöphoi crosses the line with his sampled voices and sets inside new age music – a kind of music which I really don’t like. Too distant, too easy, too much of cliche, the product of factory made music according to a very fixed recipe. But overall I think I should give this the benefit of doubt. The music is exactely what it is: one doesn’t note it too much, it’s fills your ambience, without being too much muzak. Oöphoi should be careful not to cross that line, unless he wants that of course. I hope not. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nextera.cz
REPTILJAN – THE HELLBENDER SUITE (CD by Some Place Else)
Niko Skorpio isn’t a newcomer to the pages of Vital Weekly, either under his own name, or releases on his Some Place Else label or as Reptiljan. Under the latter moniker Skorpio offers his breakcore styled beat cum grindcore stuff. Short tracks going on, eleven in about thirty minutes, of highly fucked up rhythm stuff, going at an incredible speed – sometimes the bpm is so high, the sound becomes a drone. Ultra vivid rapid cut ups, taking samples from grindcore bands, feeding them to computer’s plug ins, until mayhem arises. Although listed with eleven tracks, it rather hears as one long track. Music that leaves the listener quite tired after this intense thirty minutes. Think Doormouse and Venetian Snares, dressed in black and playing grindcore and you get the picture of this. Not my regular digest, but nevertheless quite alright on a weekly basis. (FdW)
Address: http://www.someplaceelse.net
JGRZINICH – INSULAR REGIONS (CD by Sirr-Ecords)
JGrzinich is a man who travels to gather his field recordings which he reworks into his music. He stayed from August 2003 to October 2004 in an Estonian village named Mooste, a small rural place, in which he performed various actions with people, all neatly recorded and put together in the two tracks that are on this CD. He could have fooled me: if he would have said it was all recorded in one straight action with a limited set of some sounds, then I would have believed it too. It doesn’t sound like various elements being put together. On the cover we find some notes he made during the recordings and it speaks for instance of large ventilators and rusted objects, and these notes were made over the course of some time, so therefore it can be assumed that the recordings were also made over a longer period of time. JGrzinich places various field recordings over eachother, repeats smaller elements (it seems) and creates a drone like music along the lines of Mirror, Ora and Monos but more spacious than those, and perhaps less ‘dark’. It’s hard for me to say wether this is a good or even an progressive JGrzinich work, for I heard only a few of them. However, ‘Insular Regions’ is a work that goes down well on me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sirr-ecords.com
BRENDAN MURRAY – RESTING PLACES (CD by Sedimental)
When Brendan Murray released ‘Not Now’ (reviewed in Vital Weekly 289) no-one ever heard of him, and due to the labels quick disappearance, also his debut disappeared and he was set back into obscurity, although playing some solo concerts in the North-west areas of the States, aswell as a short lived trio with Howard Stelzer and Jason talbot under the name of Twin. Since then he released a CDR for Naninani (Vital Weekly 414) and a 3″ CDR for Kissy Records (Vital Weekly 359). But now he’s back with, what I think, should be his second CD. Murray is a master of technology that is on the fringes of analogue and digital: using a sampler makes it digital, but he’s also persistent in pushing these sounds through analogue filtering, such as mixing boards. The five pieces on this CD continue his previous work, that is pretty strong and upfront drone related works. The sources of his samples are obscured by the clouds around them, but maybe he tapes events outside his house, like ventilators, motors or plainly puts the microphone in the earth and records the movements of the ground below his feet, in addition to which adds the tinkling of bells (in ‘Bed’) and all of this is served up as a hot steaming mix of mostly dark electronic music. Proceedings peak at ‘Tomb’, the final piece, with it’s immense walls of drones – upfront, loud and yet totally immersive. Great stuff, and hopefully putting more hands together as his work so far.
Address: http://www.sedimental.com
UNTITLED SONGS (2CD by Sirr-Ecords)
CLAUDIO PARODI – LONELINESS (CDR, self-released)
In case you didn’t notice this before, but this year marks the 49th birthday of ‘Gesang der Jünglinge’, one Karlheinz Stockhausen’s more famous pieces. This early electronic piece “combines sung sounds and electronically produced ones (vowel-type sounds, consonant voices; a scale of the intermediary forms of tone-mixtures” (quote from my Deutsche Grammophon version from 1969). Sometimes real text can be heard, which can be traced back to the biblical book of Daniel. Stockhausen is a man you choose to love or hate (although Jim O’Rourke is one of the few people to really hate him). The Beatles loved him, Sonic Youth might have derived their name from the piece and Asmus Tietchens and Thomas Köner celebrate him in their bandname Kontakte Der Jünglinge. The twenty-one pieces gathered on this double CD are not sampled from the original (that what it is says on the cover, maybe to keep the label out of trouble), and also not a plain homage, but ‘they are rather a survey of the current state of electronic/electroacoustic music that exists half outside the academic music life’ – so I’m not sure why exactely this piece, although many seem to be in some way using voices and electronics like the original. What can be said about this collection? That is a difficult question. Many of the pieces use sampling and computer software, or conceptual approaches, like Achim Wollscheid and CM von Hauswolff. Some pieces seem wholly unrelated to the original and just do their thing, such as the almost silent piece by Andre Goncalves. Besides well-known composers such as Asmus Tietchens, Marc Behrens, Steve Roden, Hauswolff, Janek Schaefer it also contains a fair bunch of Portugese composers such as @C, Paulo Raposo, Heitor Alvelos, Rui Costa and the mystery act yoko.lennon (which seems to be a collective of Portugese composers). Although the relationship with the Stockhausen piece is perhaps far fetched, it’s an interesting overview of current day composers, outside the academic field doing similar music, and in that respect it could easily fit Sub Rosa’s noise anthology compilations. A perfect thing to step in.
Also Stockhausen related is ‘Loneliness’ by Claudio Parodi. Here the composition ‘Kurzwellen’ is the source of inspiration. Parodi uses cheap electronics play a central, aswell as radio sounds stored on cassettes. Originally this piece was used along side piano and reed sounds, but now leads a life of it’s own. It doesn’t share the length of ‘Kurzwellen’ as this piece is only ten minutes long. It builds up slowly by adding more and more sounds to the play and ‘real’ music taped from the radio drops in. It’s a nice piece, but in all its conciseness it makes no big impression. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sirr-ecords.com
Address: <cla.parodi@libero.it>
EGK – NO SIGN (CD by Sedimental)
It’s been a while since my first introduction to EGK, aka Ernst Karel on trumpet and electronics and Kyle Bruckmann on oboe, english horn and analog electronics. Their previous CD was ‘Object 2’ in the Locust series of improvised music (see Vital Weekly 366). EGK are a strange affair. Despite the three wind instruments, one rarely hears them in this music. What I think is that they make recordings of them playing these instruments, but then feed the recordings, either raw or mixed, through a bunch of analogue electronics (be it sound effects or old synthesizers) and then combine the results with only a shadow of the original recordings. Of course I might be all wrong. The thing that landed on this CD is a hard to describe mixture of free improvisation and darkened, atmospherical drones in combination with microsounding crackles. Like before EGK take their inspirations from anything between Voice Crack and a much more fragmented and silent Merzbow to Morton Feldman and a whole string of microsounding composers, from Bernard Günther to Roel Meelkop. Strangely captivating music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sedimental.com
EVGENIY DROOMOFF/SOUND MECCANO/DELRAY – VOLOKNO (CD by Rx:Tx)
This CD is not just an audio CD but rather a multi-media package, containing four songs, a short film and some software. ‘Volokno’ means fibre and this is the guiding theme for all the components. The musical parts consists of four rather dark techno-like pieces, none of which are really danceable. The rest of the package contains images based on paintings which look like textures of some kind, but none of this really made a big impression on me. I am sure all the artists involved are quite skilled at what they do, but somehow it doesn’t leave any big impression on me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.rx-tx.org
MARTIN KÜCHEN/DAVID STACKENMÄS – AGAPE (CD by Creative Sources)
FRANZ HAUTZINGER/MAREN KERBAJ – ABU TAREK (CD by Creative Sources)
LOS GLISSANDINOS – STAND CLEAR (CD by Creative Sources)
GILLES AUBRY/ANTOINE CHESSEX/TORSTEN PAPENHEIM – SWIFT MACHINE (CD by Creative Sources)
KAZUSHIGE KINOSHITA/MASAHIKO OKURA/MASAFUMI EZAKI – KENON (CD by Creative Sources)
QUENTIN DUBOST/WADE MATTEHWS/STEPHANE RIVERS/INGAR ZACH – DINING ROOM MUSIC (CD by Creative Sources)
BERTRAND DENZLER/AXEL DÖRNER/DANIEL ERDMANN/MICHAEL GRIENER/GÜNTER MÜLLER – STRALAU (CD by Creative Sources)
MICHAEL THIEKE – LEUCHTEN (CD by Creative Sources)
NATE WOOLEY – WRONG SHAPE TO BE A STORY TELLER (CD by Creative Sources)
Creative Sources is an artist run label, that is: artists co-fund their own releases, which makes it possible for the label to release so many CDs at the same time. Eight new releases here, plus one from the last batch which was forgotten. With their music, Creative Sources hoover in the areas of improvised music, both more traditional and current day. Occasionally they release solo works, but their main focus lies on collaborative works.
Martin Küchen plays prepared and non prepared altosax and David Stackenäs plays guitar and low-budget electronics and the recordings were made in Fylkingen, Stockholm about a year ago. Stackenäs provides mostly drone related, sustained sounds by using the e-bow, violin bow and motorized objects to play the strings. Küchen plays his instrument also in sustained mood, with occasionally with some sense of rhythm. It’s hard to recognize either the guitar and the saxophone in this work, but the playing is a quite intense, and this is particular fruitful combination.
Also on the duofront, but with the same instruments is the duo of Franz Hautzinger and Mazen Kerbaj – the latter who is completely new to me. On a hot day in August 2003, they went into a studio in Lebanon to record this work with no overdubs and no cuts. In ‘Sahel Of Bekaa’ things start out in a pretty modern improvised fashion of wind blowing and rubbing and it looks like it sets the tone of the work, but in ‘Hermel’, the second track, one of the two players play the trumpet like a trumpet and from then things move between these two parameters of improvisation. Sometimes quite silent and intense, but also moments that are not that well-spend on me, such as the more regular playing, but throughout things are quite alright.
Although listed as a bandname, Los Glissandinos is also a duo: Kai Fagaschinski on clarinet and Klaus Filip on sine waves, a combination that was already explored by Alvin Lucier, and that works well for long sustained sounds. Los Glissandinos understand this very well, and their disc is mainly excursion along slow and quiet moving lines, with in the long middle piece ‘History Of The Animals’, some occasional outbursts of noise, which add up to almost digital distortion. Especially the softer moments work really well, almost in an Alvin Lucier like way.
Then we move on to the first trio in this lot: Gilles Aubry (computer), Antoine Chessex (saxophone) and Torsten Papenheim (guitar). The latter two also play together in Kainkwartet, see also Vital Weekly 447. The recordings were made in 2003. Electronics seem to be playing a big part, and the guitar and saxophone seem to follow: it’s not a meeting of equals but of someone taking the leading part and the others to fill in. Occasionally alright, but somehow the intensity wasn’t that great. A bit unfocussed in places, when not much seems to be happening.
The second trio is all Japanese affair: Kazushige Kinoshita (violin), Masahiko Okura (alto saxophone and tubes) and Masafumi Ezaki (trumpet and metals). These tracks were recorded a year in a place called Tanker, without any reference to city or country, but I assume Japan. All three improvisers are unknown to me, but their two pieces are most definitely very Japanese: on the edge of silence and sound, there is an occasional tick, a scraping or a blow here and there. Maybe unfair, because there is more happening here than on say the average Taku Sugimoto disc, but this is all delicate and careful playing. Listening to these thirty-two minutes is an intense affair, and leaves the listener quite tired behind. Certainly not easy going music.
Only one quartet here this time: Quentin Dubost (electric guitar), Wade Matthews (bass clarinet, alto flute), Stephane Rives (soprano saxophone) and Ingar Zach (percussion), ‘recorded in the dining room of the Maison Bustros, Beirut, Lebanon on 21 August 2004’. It’s one of the few Creative Sources releases were we get liner notes, about recording in a dining room, where these four people meet for the first time, at the Irtijial Festival in Lebanon, where they around in a circle. Three pieces in total some forty minutes of some highly intense microscopic playing. It’s really tight and closed with the sounds being very closely together, like a very fine knitted pattern. The feedback in the second part seems to be coming from all four and make this into some nice group playing. More a group than the sum of four musicians. A highlight.
One person more is on the disc by Bertrand Denzel (tenor saxophone), Axel Dörner (trumpet, computer), Daniel Erdmann (baritone and soprano saxophone), Michael Griener (drums) and Günter Müller (ipod, minidisc, selected percussion, electronics). These five persons move along silent lines in their music, but unlike the previous CD it isn’t to hold ones attention very much. The music is a long drift of sound, but none of the players seems to be focussing very much on what he is doing. Quite regular modern improvisation that somehow lacks the intensity. Alright, but not great.
The final two CDs are solo works, and can be seen as showcases for particular musicians. On the first one Michael Thieke plays alto clarinet, and the pieces were all straight recorded to DAT in 2002. And as a showcase this works really fine: Thieke plays the instrument in such a way that is these days required for improvisers. The instrument as an object. There isn’t a single, regular note escaping his instrument. Very fine playing going on here, but due to singularity of the instrument, this might be a bit of a long CD.
Something similar can be said about the release by Nate Wooley, who plays trumpet, recorded live on what happens to my birthday, one year ago. Here too the instrument is played like an object, and even sounds at times like an electronic work, which made me think that he might have added some sort of electronica but perhaps not. His playing is alike that of Thieke, the instrument as an object, although occasionally some of the original trumpet sounds sip through. The same problem I had with Thieke is also valid for Wooley: the disc is somewhat too long to hold my interest throughout, but I can imagine that both will join the improvisation circus based on these showcases. (FdW)
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
ANDREAS MELAND – DEAF LEOPPARD (3″CD by Enlightment)
One busy bee this Andreas Meland. He runs the Melektronikk label, plays as Düplo, Sort Mel and Bokfink and solo. Perhaps the pun is missed by some of the electronica lovers among you lot, but ‘Deaf Leoppard’ is of course a take on Def Leppard, the heavy metal band of the eighties (and probably in the same suits still around somewhere – I wouldn’t know or care). It’s hard to say wether Andreas uses sound material from Def Leppard, or that he is merely taking the name to poke fun with. I wouldn’t be surprised to know that he using the heavy metal material and completely reworks it with computer processing, as some of this material is a bit harsh, amidst a bath of warm, glitchy drones, small rhythm clicks and the other usual ingredients for such a microsounding dish, although it must be noted that Meland is a bit louder and a bit more upfront than some of his colleagues. Small and delicate: among my favorite Norwegians. (FdW)
Address: http://www.enlightment.no
LUNT – FRAGMENTS OF FREE VOL. 1 (CDR by Hitomi Recordings)
IMAGHO – SOMEONE CONTROLS ELECTRIC GUITAR (CDR by Hitomi Recordings)
The first release, at least which I encountered, by Lunt was ‘Broken Words And Lost Answers’, also on Hitomi Recordings, reviewed in Vital Weekly 422. Lunt is still Gilles Deles, and here he is playing guitar, feeding it through an overdrive pedal and infinite delay, much alike his previous release. The somewhat vaguely tinkling of the guitar and the likewise rudimentary use of effects, make this into quite undirected music, despite the steelguitar on ‘You Soft The Rubble And The Dust Come To Me’. Vaguely and undirected may not seem nice words, but there is a certain charming aspect about these recordings which is hard to pin down. Music for a hot day, on the veranda (providing you have one), and stare out on desert (providing there is one near by), waiting for that one car to pass by on this hot day. That may sum the qualities of this up…
More ‘infinite delays’ are to be found on Imagho’s ‘Someone Controls Electric Guitar’, the follow up to the non-reviewed ‘Image Des Mondes Flottants’. The seven pieces here are all improvised on an electric guitar with the addition of delay, ‘loopers’ and ‘most recently a laptop’, as it says on the cover. Imagho, aka Jean-Louis Prades, plays seven tunes that are varied by the everything but the playing itself. His sound is a bit like Oren Ambarchi (with the sound effects being audible), but the hectic of free improvisation combined with the laptop techniques of say Fennesz (or so many others from this field). It’s nice stuff, especially the more ambient pieces, but the uniform sound of the guitar is probably something working against the release, especially at the length of some tracks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hitomirecordings.com
PYLON/MIELIMUSIIKKIA (CDR by Ultra Eczema)
CASSIS CORNUTA (2CDRs by Ultra Eczema)
Belgium’s Ultra Eczema deals mostly with CDRs but they are always packed in full color print (thanks my local printer Knust), which make them standout from the rest in this kind. Musicwise they deal with ‘outsider’ music. Mostly individuals who don’t follow any trend or fashion, do not care about the best sound quality, but mainly want to do their ‘own’ thing. Pylon and Mielimusiikkia are Tero Niskanen and Roope Erdnen from Tampere, Finland, a country that has a wide scene for lo-fi noise and likewise lo-fi other musics. Originally the material here was released on two CDRs in an edition of twenty copies in 2000, and now joined on one CDR (leaving out one song by Mielimusiikkia. Pylon plays electronic music on cheap keyboards, using low resolution sampling, simple melodies and feeding the sound through some analogue synthesizer. All instrumental. The tracks sound downright simple, but have nevertheless a captivating feel to them. Mielimusiikkia are a bit harder to define, even when their music is largely instrumental too. They add guitars fed through too many delay lines and other obscure electronics. This makes their sound a little bit less defined and the result a bit unfocussed.
The man behind Cassis Cornuta, aka Daniel Renders, of whom I never heard, but apparently has been producing experimental music since 1974, when he was ten years old. Daniel considers his music ‘dull’ or the result of ‘miserable attempts’, at least that’s what he says on the cover. I only agree partly here: some of the pieces are indeed poor attempts and some are really nice, not ‘dull’ at all. For the main part Daniel uses very cheap technology, such as old record players, reel-to-reel recorders, guitars, microphones and field recordings. Also on the edge of minimalism, some of the tracks don’t have that much variation, but this collection of lo-fi weirdness certainly appealed to me. Maybe a bit long at two CDRs, but most likely the most definite collection. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ultraeczema.com
STASIS DUO – WHITENOISE & BURNOUTS (CDR by Breakdance The Dawn)
It took me a while to decipher this. Stasis Duo is the bandname and ‘whitenoise & burnouts’ is the title, Breakdance The Dawn the label. Very difficult with such obscure writing. This is one of those things that give CDRs a bad name I guess. Stasis Duo’s first CD ‘Hammer & Tongs’ was reviewed in Vital Weekly 352 and they use ’emptied samplers’. Although here I am sure they use something else. In the first track it’s probably some kind of low resolution sampling with tons of hiss, which sounds like recorded to a cassette (hear the click when the track is over), whilst the second track is a field recording piece of motor-driven lawnmowers and chain saws – again not too well recorded. Also a lengthy piece there, and both are sort of ok as a backdrop hum, but opening the window might probably give the same satisfaction. (FdW)
Address: none found
corrections: the correct URL for Cadeceus music is http://www.caduceusmusic.net
and I am also informed that Dieb13 and Takeshi Fumimoto are one and the same person. Dieb13 uses the name Takeshi Fumimoto when playing with Japanese people…