Z’EV/JOHN DUNCAN/AIDAN BAKER/FEAR FALLS BURNING (2×7″, 2xCD by Die Stadt)
SMALL MELODIES (CD by Spekk)
FOVEA HEX – BLOOM (CDEP by Die Stadt) *
FRANCISCO LOPEZ/SCOTT ARFORD – SOLID STATE FLESH/SOLD STATE SEX (2CD by Low Impedance Recordings) *
THE WARDROBE – CUPS IN CUPBOARD (CD by Tursa) *
KOJI ASANO – RABBIT ROOM RESERVATION CENTER (CD by Solstice) *
OVR0 – GEGENDURCHGANGENZEIT (CD by Some Place Else) *
SRMEIXNER – THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE VIEWER (CD by Fin de Siecle) *
DIE CHRISTMASKAMERADEN (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
JOHN KANNENBERG – AUTUMN ENSO (CDR by Why Not LTD) *
TOMAS KORBER/DAN WARBURTON – CONSPIRACY THEORY (CDR by L’Innomable) *
ALKALOID DESPERADO – INDUSTRIAL AMBIENT SESSIONS VOL. 1 (CDR by Hidden) *
KOSMOBOT – TUNES FROM BEYOND THE SPACE-DUB CONTINUUM (CDR by Hidden)
AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF – GENMAICHA: AT THE OPAL SEASHORE (CDR by Mystery Sea) *
IO/I (CDR compilation by Indexof/)
MIKE BULLOCK – THIS WILL CHEER YOU UP (3″CDR by Kissy Records)
Z’EV/JOHN DUNCAN/AIDAN BAKER/FEAR FALLS BURNING (2×7″, 2xCD by Die Stadt)
Die Stadt is not just a label that brings great music, they also organize concerts, in their home town Bremen, and with that they have a long standing tradition of releasing 7″s to join the event, and even in recent times, these 7″s are accompanied by CDRs or CDs. In that respect this new release is their biggest achievement so far: two 7″s and two CDs (only with the first 300 copies), to celebrate the event held on October 2nd 2005, with John Duncan, Z’ev, Aidan Baker and Fear Falls Burning. Each of these artists deliver an original piece on the 7″ and on the CD they rework the piece by the other on their respective 7″. Sounds perhaps complicated, but such is the work of experimental music.
On the a-side of the 7″ is a piece by Z’ev, based on two live recordings from the early eighties, but pieced together in 2005. It resembles the old Z’ev very well (of which I am still a big fan) but it also updates his work. John Duncan has a piece based on ultra short sounds, but it didn’t do much for me. Aidan Baker’s piece on the other 7″ is a true beauty in terms of drone music: deep and mysterious. Fears Falls Burning also has a drone piece, but in the more mid to high frequencies but due to the length of the piece it cracks a little on vinyl.
Z’ev treats the first two minutes of John Duncan. It starts out as a field recording of people walking in a shopping mall, but over the course of the next twenty minutes things start to develop in an organic way, but strictly inside the computer processing. A very dense piece. Duncan’s treatment of Z’ev sounds is a totally computer processed piece of again ultra short repeating loops. As an idea quite alright, but perhaps a bit too minimal to be interesting for the full twelve minutes. On the second CD Fears Falls Burning feeds the sounds of Aidan Baker into his equipment of shiny colored guitar effects, putting it directly to tape. Fear Falls Burning, the new name by Vidna Obmana for his guitar work, plays around with these sounds for almost thirty-seven minutes in a beautiful moving, deep ambient drone manner. His guitar playing is of course a piece of cake for Aidan Baker, who plays along similar lines ambient guitars. In his two reworkings he feeds the already full sounds of Fears Falls Burning into more sound effects to create an even thicker, even denser laid pattern of sounds, which however in the end work out more crude than the finer knitted work of Fear Falls Burning. Altogether a fine package of good, well-made experimental music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
SMALL MELODIES (CD by Spekk)
If they are things like small melodies, there should also be big melodies? ‘Small’ here is the same as ‘warm’, ‘intimate’ and ‘calm’. Spekk’s operator Mondii collected thirteen people from the world of laptops, and asked them to make a track around these notions of small melodies, and he added one himself. It reads like a whose who of laptopmusic, with Taylor Deupree, Sogar, Ultra Milkmaids, Herve Boghossian, Tape, Oren Ambarchi, Fenton, Anderegg and Stephan Mathieu, plus a few I never heard of such as RdL (with Mondii as a member), Mondii himself, Aen, Naph and Tomoyoshi Date. Even when the melodies are small there is some variation to be noted throughout: some use solely field recordings such as Naph and Aen, while others combine their subtle laptop doodling with real instruments, such as the likewise subtle guitar playing of Tape, Ambarchi or Fenton. The ‘real’ instruments play a bigger role in the second part of this CD. Did Mondii succeed with this CD, and are the ‘small’ tracks warm and calm? I think so. I played them at a softer volume (alright, I’ll admit that), but the overall relaxing atmosphere worked quite well. Warm, calm and intimate. A good mate for lonely and cold winter-nights. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spekk.net
FOVEA HEX – BLOOM (CDEP by Die Stadt)
Clodagh Simmons’ history in music goes back to the early seventies when she
recorded the song ‘Poet & The Witch’ and was last heard singing on Syd Barrett’s setting of the James Joyce poem ‘Golden Hair’ on the Russel Mills/Undark album in 1999. She returns as Fovea Hex, were she receives help from Brian and Roger Eno, Andrew McKenzie, Laura Sheeran, Lydia Sasse. The last two sing here, but Brian lends his voice too, besides playing fret-less bass. ‘Bloom’ is the first of three CDEPs called ‘Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent’ and has three tracks of heavenly voices with sparse instrumental playing. It’s absolutely beautiful, but luckily also short: I think such beautiful voices would get on my nerves, but this is the right length. The first 300 copies come with ‘The Explanation’ a remix by The Hafler Trio of the Fovea Hex material. The voices are processed into small choirs and the instruments are layered into trademark Hafler Trio drone pieces. Slowly evolving and moving around like weightless space, this is perhaps my cup of coffee. Fans should not miss out on this. It can easily meet the best Hafler Trio of this year (the second work with Autechre that is). (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
FRANCISCO LOPEZ/SCOTT ARFORD – SOLID STATE FLESH/SOLD STATE SEX (2CD by Low Impedance Recordings)
This is of course how these things go. Last week we reviewed a new Scott Arford and noted that he doesn’t have that many releases and now a week later, we can review a double CD of collaborative work he did with Francisco Lopez. It’s been a while since I last heard a studio recording by Senor Lopez, and was quite surprised to hear this. Apparently it deals with electricity, recordings thereof, me thinks. Lopez’ seventy-two minute piece ‘Solid State Flesh’ is quite different than much of other studio works, as most of the time it is quite presently there, even when the volume drops dramatically. That’s the second difference with much of his previous work: Lopez uses the form of sound collage here, cutting abruptly from one section into another. The music feels less organic than before, probably due to the nature of the recordings used. However, lesser organic or not, it’s very solid (pun intended) piece of music, of changing atmospheres and moods.
Scott Arford’s disc is called ‘Solid State Sex’ and sort of sounds similar to Lopez’s work (I guess this depends on which disc ones plays first), except that Arford has clearly divided his tracks into tracks. In each of them he searches for a specific idea or sound, and works that out into a specific track, before moving on to the next track. Another difference is that Arford never leaps into the really soft territory (although Lopez doesn’t either that much) and in general sounds a bit meaner than Lopez. But he does a very fine job, much along similar lines as ‘Radio Station’, reviewed last week. A very match these two. (FdW)
Address: http://www.loz-recordings.net
THE WARDROBE – CUPS IN CUPBOARD (CD by Tursa)
Music by Andrew Liles was called here ‘a more electronic version of Nurse With Wound’, and him being english it may be no surprise that he knows musicians such as Nurse With Wound (of whom he was a member during a recent concert in Vienna), Colin Potter and Tony Wakeford. I will readily admit I am no fan of Wakeford’s previous musical encounters, such as being a member of Current 93 and Sol Invictus – that particular alley in music (dark, folky music) was always closed to me. So, I must say that with a little reservation that I started playing The Wardrobe, a collaboration between Wakeford and Liles. My fear it would be Liles’ kind of music mixed with Wakeford’s music and singing. Luckily I was wrong, since it’s much more along the lines of Liles than Wakeford’s (admitting again, that I am not aware of his entire catalogue in music). Sampled music plays a big role here, sampled bassoons and baroque music, sampled electro-acoustic sounds and sampled orchestrations are all mixed into a fine blend cinematographic musics. Small delicate sketches of bittersweet melodies that may or may not provide the soundtrack for a haunted house movie. The cupboard in the dining room which has all the answers and mysteries, is at the same the metaphor for the music: every drawer seem to have it’s own music, something similar to others and sometimes entirely different. More Liles than Wakeford, but fans of both can be pleased, or like me, pleasantly surprised. (FdW)
Address: http://www.tursa.com
KOJI ASANO – RABBIT ROOM RESERVATION CENTER (CD by Solstice)
A little celebration here: ‘Rabbit Room Reservation Center’ is Koji Asano’s 40th production. He announces this as a work of electro-acoustic music. Whatever the acoustics are that he puts into this, is unclear. Resonating pipes of whatever kind is my best guess. Sounds of these pipes striking are used, and the sustain is being worked on, again my guess is as good as yours. Maybe the sound is a bit slowed down, using a deeper pitch. Sometimes these strikes are slow, but over the course the piece, there are three in total here, the speed may go up again. A sombre tone, not harsh, no noise, but also too experimental to be classified as ambient. It’s also too dark for that. Minimal changes are used throughout these three pieces and everything seems to be taking a slow course. Sometimes a bit too slow for my taste and especially the second and third piece could have been a bit shorter. Despite the celebration it’s not the strongest Asano moment here, but it’s a relatively good quality work. Nothing special or spectacular, but just a reasonable OK release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kojiasano.com
OVR0 – GEGENDURCHGANGENZEIT (CD by Some Place Else)
This is the third Ovro release, following ‘Malice In Wonderland’ (see Vital Weekly 395) and ‘Live In Placard #7’ (see Vital Weekly 448) and originally it wasn’t intended to be released. Ovro made the music as a gift, in an edition of one copy, and gave that Niko Skorpio, aka Some Place Else’s main man. He liked the music so much, that he convinced Ovro to release it on CD. It’s moves sideways from the two previous albums, in that sense that this is an entire instrumental album, and nothing of her voice. Ovro plays music here that can best be qualified as dark ambient. The music was recorded live ‘to an audience of none’ and the seven tracks flow into each-other. It’s hard to tell what it is that Ovro does, but it seems that she uses extended sampling of field recordings and that in the process of making music she treats these with all sorts of sound effects and filters. A dark, unworldly journey – maybe a space trip but than one that has an uncertain outcome. Everything is sucked into a black hole. Ambient music with a strong twist for the darker undercurrents in life. Not music that one can easily dream by, but certainly one that reveal some of your darker thoughts. (FdW)
Address: http://www.someplaceelse.net
SRMEIXNER – THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE VIEWER (CD by Fin de Siecle)
The second CD by former Contrastate frontman Stephen Meixner is based on the 2003 Venice Biennale. ‘The Show was composed of different projects, each with it’s own identity and autonomy highlighting various contemporary social and political global concerns. Each project was supposed to reveal a cross section of the world’s realities which could be used as an open map by the viewer to create their own individual experience, giving the viewer control over how and when they visited each project’. As SRMeixner (which is not just Stephen, but could involve anyone he wishes to work with) he composed the basic piece with Adrian Morris as a live piece in early 2004, but over the course of time, the piece got more and more extended. On this CD you’ll find nineteen relatively short tracks, based out of electronics and field recordings. SRMeixner’s world view has never been a bright one, despite some of the humorous undertones in the work of Contrastate, and here things are no different. A pretty dark and alienated world view is sketched before us, even when the music is totally instrumental. It’s a pretty varied bunch of music too, with even an arpeggio synth piece (number thirteen) that is a bit out of place. It’s hard to pin this music down, as not every piece is strong in itself. But stay alongside of the idea behind it, you can reprogram the CD and make it sound the way you want to. (FdW)
Address: http://www.findesieclemedia.com
DIE CHRISTMASKAMERADEN (7″ by Meeuw Muzak)
The label with the strongest tradition in releasing christmas 7″s is no doubt Meeuw Muzak. Not because he likes Christmas very much, but he likes to sit at home and playing his releases during that day. Die Christmaskameraden is probably an one-off project by Jonathan Meese and Tim Berresheim, both well-known visual artists from Germany. Meese has a wide fascination for anything from Wagner to Stalin, and Ezra Pound to Rasputin. On this 7″ they play synth, glockenspiel and sign about father christmas and even have a sort of disco rhythm on the second side, which could be seen as the extended dance remix. ‘We are father Christmas, you are father Christmas’ they sing. After the RLW and Tietchens, this is certainly much more weirder and way-out than those and is a most curious record indeed. Play this for your family on boxing day and disapproval will be your share. (FdW)
Address: http://www.meeuw.net
JOHN KANNENBERG – AUTUMN ENSO (CDR by Why Not LTD)
The enso is a stark black circle of ink, known from Japanese calligraphy and one of the important symbols of zen. John Kannenberg saw examples in an exhibition and was inspired to make enso using autumn leaves. These leaves were then put in a circle around instruments that are circles: a snare drum, hi-hat and crash cymbal. The snare drum was covered with rice paper. That’s the basic set-up by which Kannenberg plays his music. Drum sounds as such are not in there, except maybe for the percussive opening sounds of ‘Prelude’. Each of the six pieces are low humming beauties of drone music. It’s hard to tell what it that he does exactly, by what means of processing, but he slabs out some truly beautiful pieces of overtones sounds, ringing and buzzing around, like a continuous semishigure. As pieces of music that are inside drone music, even when the entire process seems to be made with computer. Microsound with a capital M (I’m sure the lowercase posse will be offended by this). Some great stuff on there. (FdW)
Address: http://www.geocities.com/whynotltd/
TOMAS KORBER/DAN WARBURTON – CONSPIRACY THEORY (CDR by L’Innomable)
The busy bee Korber (Switzerland, guitarplayer, electronics) is these days everywhere. Here he teams up with Dan Warburton, an American in Paris, whose main interest lies in working with sound (piano’s, violins) and computers. As to what Korber and Warburton brought together, we are not clear. Sound file exchange over the net, a real person-to-person meeting or that this is the documentation of a concert. I would think the first, but I’m not sure why. Tomas sending recordings of guitar cum electronics to Warburton who then treats them on the computer. Might be something else, actually. It’s not really important either. The result is what counts here. Two pieces, each around twenty minutes, of crackling sounds, some sort of sound synthesis on a computer, repeating sounds in the form of loops, at times pretty loud and mean and at other times pretty soft and gentle, even going down to the inaudible side of things. A pretty varied disc of events so to say. Drone like material marches hand in hand with onkyo improvisations, disjointed crackles sit along with more or less repeating blocks of sound. In all, a disc of good experimental music, stringing improvisation and composition together. (FdW)
Address: http://www.linnomable.com
ALKALOID DESPERADO – INDUSTRIAL AMBIENT SESSIONS VOL. 1 (CDR by Hidden)
KOSMOBOT – TUNES FROM BEYOND THE SPACE-DUB CONTINUUM (CDR by Hidden)
Hidden is a new Belgium CDR label, which carry names I never heard before, but their packaging is surely nice enough to attract one’s attention. So whoever Alkaloid Desperado is or are, I couldn’t tell, but their release ‘Industrial Ambient Sessions Vol. 1’ surely lives up to it’s title. Six lengthy cuts of synth music. Sounds feeding from one synth to another in a sort of closed system, but by switching a few knobs here and there, things will alter. Reverb and echo, added in the process of mixing the music, add to the more spacious character of the music. The whole thing is a bit too crude to be called downright ambient, but no doubt Alkaloid Desperado is also aware of that, by adding the word ‘industrial’ to it. Alienated and isolated, the view of abandoned spaceships or empty industrial sites spring to mind. Spacious music for the lone at heart, a post-nuclear chill out music.
Kosmobot (again, no names or history) is something different. The title ‘space-dub’ should also be taken literally, because they play around with spacious, dub-like techno music, set against deep washes of likewise spacious synthesizer music. At times a little bit too straightforward for my taste, without being a real dance floor killer. At times too doomy and with a little bit too much emphasizing the synthesizers make this into a rather odd-beat release, and harder to dance too. But maybe in a true underground disco this may work quite well. At home it’s nice spacious techno music, quite well-made, despite some lack of true original ideas. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hidden.be
AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF – GENMAICHA: AT THE OPAL SEASHORE (CDR by Mystery Sea)
The oddly named Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf was mentioned before, in Vital Weekly 488, when they supplied all sounds used by Emerge on their Verato Project release. Now we know it’s one Mirko Uhlig from Germany behind this name, and he plays himself some dark ambient music, at least on this release for Mystery Sea. Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf applies no strict rules to his music, he does whatever seems necessary, using ‘different’ instruments and field recordings. The two cuts on this release show this quite well. Dark and mysterious music of a highly obscured nature. Computer manipulations me thinks of field recordings, slowly moving and slowly unfolding, majestically wandering around. Deep, ambient and drone-like music. Nice as such, and no doubt something that fits well on the catalogue of Mystery Sea, but also without many surprises (as is the current trend in drone music, I believe). But nice indeed. Well made. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mysterysea.net
IO/I (CDR compilation by Indexof/)
About a year ago Indexof/ started as a netlabel with a core of four sound artists from Berlin, Mszweig, Kirsten_, Warten and Chaldni. All four (I only the work of Kirsten_ before) operate in minimalist microsound territory. To celebrate their first year, the label now releases a CDR of the best works so far. Of themselves, but also from like-minded artists, such as Plumb & Plumber, Kelly Davis, Kmh and Mark Schreiber. Over the course of one hour twelve more or less nice tracks of microsound pass before our ears. More or less nice, since some are ok, some aren’t that good and there isn’t a particular standout piece, although the final piece, ‘Sonntag’ by Warten, is the most rhythmic, in a Pan Sonic kind of way and stands out because it’s different than the rest. But there are no real weak tracks either here. Best is to judge yourself and download some. (FdW)
Address: http://www.indexof.org
MIKE BULLOCK – THIS WILL CHEER YOU UP (3″CDR by Kissy Records)
It’s been a long, long time since we last heard from Kissy Records, and especially their lovely 3″CDR releases. In a short time span they released quite a few from the more interesting composers from America, such as label-boss Jason Talbot, Brendan Murray, Tom Cox, Jason Soliday, Chris Cooper and Howard Stelzer and now it’s time for Mike Bullock. For those who paid attention, Bullock is a known improviser on the contrabass, playing around everywhere in his home area. The material on this disc, four tracks in total, sees him playing the contrabass live on three tracks and the toy piano on the last piece. Using amplification (and the resulting feedback) he creates some very fine, improvised overtone playing on his instrument, which moves along the lines of Alvin Lucier, yet without the conceptual edge. Hard to imagine what it looks like, but it seems like moving through space to generate the various sounds. From sustained sounds towards the more loosely organized sounds of contact microphones. The toy piano piece serves as a small souvenir, a moment of rest at the end. A very fine small treasure. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kissyrecords.com http://www.chloechloe.cc