NURSE WITH WOUND – SHIPWRECK RADIO VOLUME TWO – EIGHT ENIGMATIC EPISODES FROM UTVAER (2CD by ICR) *
ASMUS TIETCHENS – SEUCHENGEBIETE (CD by Die Stadt) *
C.M. VON HAUSWOLFF – THERE ARE NO CROWS FLYING AROUND THE HANCOCK BUILDING (CD by Lampo) *
C.M. VON HAUSWOLFF – RED EMPTY (book by White Walls)
RENE UIJLENHOET – BATALLA (CD by Near/Donemus) *
STOTTER INST – LIVE ACT AT OBLO (CD by 1000+1 Tilt) *
URBAN FOLK SONGS (CD compilation by 1000+1 Tilt)
DROG-A-TEK – WHO HURT YOU? (CD by Quetempo) *
BIOMASS – MILEDROPS (CD by Quetempo)
ORGANUM – DIE HENNEN ZANHNE (miniCD by Die Stadt)
ANTENNE/CRYPTIC SCENERY (split 7″ by Bsbta)
SOUTIEN GORGE – L’ETOILES SOURIANTES (CDR by Bitlab Records) *
BOES SHOP (CDR compilation by Sqrt Label)
C. REIDER – AUGHTET (CDR by Vuzh Music)
C. REIDER – SOME THINGS I DID WHEN I LOST MY MIND (CDR by Vuzh Music) *
ROGALAND – ONE HOUR CLOSER TO DEATH (CDR by Absurd/Utan Titel) *
CHEFKIRK – COAX WAL PLATE (CDR by Audiobot)
PAUL DEVENS – GUNPOP (CDR by Moab Records)
MY FUN – THE QUALITY OF SOMETHING AUDIBLE (CDR by The Land Of) *
TIM COSTER – MORNINGS (3″CDR by Pseudo Arcana)
NURSE WITH WOUND – SHIPWRECK RADIO VOLUME TWO – EIGHT ENIGMATIC EPISODES FROM UTVAER (2CD by ICR)
This is the second, again massive volume of Nurse With Wound’s outing to the village of Utvaer, somewhere upper Norway. Steve Stapleton and Colin Potter, the current core members of Nurse With Wound spent three weeks there, back in summer 2004, to capture the spirit of the environment through the eyes of their microphones. In total they recorded twenty four pieces, of which seven where on ‘Shipwreck Radio Volume One: Seven Sonic Structures From Utvaer’ (see Vital Weekly 453) and eight more on the second volume. Both releases came with limited extra discs of material, so if you are lucky enough you to catch some six hours of music. Massive indeed. But it’s a good catch. In each of these pieces they work out a specific theme, usually some sounds that are treated in the zeroes and ones of the digital sound effects. This is, as you may have guessed, not a work of pure, untreated field recordings, but the recordings were treated beyond recognition in Potter’s studio. Spacious works, each about fifteen minutes, of slowly developing, minimalist textures. Metallic rumble, and wind playing with dirt. Very nice upfront drone/ambient music.
With a limited first edition you can get also a third CD called ‘Gulls Just Wanna Have Fun’, subtitled ‘various broadcasts and audio debris’, and is a CD with twelve shorter pieces of more raw sound material, like the first passing in a stream of processing. The raw sound material sips through the electronics. Sometimes pieces rely too much on a single sound and a single process, and therefore will probably be of more interest for the die-hard fans and those willing to find out how these things are made, but it tops a remarkable project. (FdW)
Address: http://www.icrdistribution.com
ASMUS TIETCHENS – SEUCHENGEBIETE (CD by Die Stadt)
By the late eighties I was a big, big Asmus Tietchens fan, having collected all of his records, but one. It wasn’t too difficult back then, even the Sky Records were commonly available. The most difficult to get was ‘Seuchengebiete’, released by the small UK label A-Mission in 1985, who also released a LP by Metgumnerbone (which I am told will also be released on CD one day). Shortly after the release the label disappeared, and the record also disappeared. In 1990 or there abouts I bumped into someone who had two copies and was willing to trade it for some rare Gerogerigegege LP I had. I never regretted that. But is a good record? Or was it just a rare one? ‘Seuchengebiete’ was and is simply a great record. It uses the sound of water dripping in the sink in the toilet of the studio, picked up by two microphones and one contact-microphone and being treated in the studio, using filtering and digital reverb. The original LP consisted of two lengthy pieces of these heavily processed water sounds, forming two big clusters of sounds. In ‘Hydrophonie 2’ in a rather dense but rhythmical way, but in ‘Hydrophonie 5’ in a more drone related, although the sound moves into very quiet passages here and there. As a bonus there is also ‘Hydrophonie 4’ from the same sessions, which is an even denser pieces than the other two, like a heavily processed rain forest monsoon season. It was supposed to go on ‘Seuchengebiete 2’ (CD from 1992), but then too much time had passed and new pieces were already made, but it makes a very fine addition on this re-issue. Since this is the first Tietchens work that also uses quieter passages, it’s good to see these finally available on CD. It would end up high in my top five of 2005’s re-issues. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
C.M. VON HAUSWOLFF – THERE ARE NO CROWS FLYING AROUND THE HANCOCK BUILDING (CD by Lampo)
C.M. VON HAUSWOLFF – RED EMPTY (book by White Walls)
Through the years Carl Micheal von Hauswolff has manifested himself as a visual and sound artist, with a strong interest in architecture, electricity, frequency and paranormal electronic interference. His latest CD ‘There Are No Crows Flying Around The Hancock Building’ features a work that he first presented in Chicago in March 2005. All the source material was recorded at the empty Hancock building in 2003 and treated in the studio, back in Stockholm in 2004. In the studio he added ‘a series of feedback rotations to suggest crows (guardians or enemies?) encircling the conceptual tower. If one is familiar with his previous work, one knows what to expect: de-charging electricity sparking over the empty of a large building, with the reverb adding a kind of violent drone to it. In a strict minimal way this music moves slowly forward, with changes whenever necessary. It’s a pretty dense, hermetically closed field of music, and despite the fact that is was recorded at the open-air observation deck, it sounds like claustrophobic music. Which is not to say I dislike the music, but due to the rather raw nature, it’s not something to be played for greater pleasure late at night. But playing it while looking at his ‘Red Empty’ book, which is released at the same time (and related to the CD), it gives an idea what this work is about. In the book, you’ll find photographs by Hauswolff of empty buildings set in 1000 watt red spotlights. Water-houses, gas stations and a church for instance, sometimes shown in their entirety or in detail, give a very alienated idea of these empty places. And the CD then acts as a very fine soundtrack to the book. Quite a disturbing affair altogether. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lampo.org
Address: http://www.whitewalls.org
RENE UIJLENHOET – BATALLA (CD by Near/Donemus)
Although I read the newspaper every once in a while, and thoroughly the section culture, with high brow arts, I never came across the name Rene Uijlenhoet (1961), a Dutch composer of ‘serious’ avant-garde music. He studied with Ton Bruynel and was a winner in Bourges in 1994. His music are pieces for tape, and sometimes for tape plus instruments. Both kinds of pieces are represented on this CD. The oldest piece is from 1994 (the Bourges prize winner) and the most recent from 2003, a piece for organ and quadraphonic live electronics. That piece, ‘Dialogo Sopra I Due Sistemi’, is also the longest and couldn’t really keep my interest for the full eighteen and half minute. It sounded like an exercise of possibilities. Together with ‘Vorst Aan De Grond’, a piece for two carillons, ringing bells and two audio tracks, the meeting of real instruments and tapes meet up, and both cases are not well spend on me. The other four pieces are pure tape of which I though ‘Lichtgewicht’ was the best. Sounds appear out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere. Also the piece after that ‘Red Junction’ solely built from the sounds of an ARP 2500 synthesizer is very good. Intense, powerful, with good dramatic changes. ‘Wedge’ and the title piece sounded alright, but also were too short to made a solid impression. If Dutch serious electronic music is your thing (and with people like Dick Raaijmakers and Jan Boerman, you should be), then this is certainly worth checking out. Uijlenhoet stands firm in the tradition started by two elderly statesmen here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.donemus.nl
STOTTER INST – LIVE ACT AT OBLO (CD by 1000+1 Tilt)
URBAN FOLK SONGS (CD compilation by 1000+1 Tilt)
Greek label 1000+1 Tilt is mostly known from their releases on CDR and their strict political views on ownership, like ‘you have the right to copy’ or ‘intelectual property is prison. Free the music. Copy and reproduce at will’. Although I assume he would not mind getting some money back from the two latest productions, which are real Cds. Stotter Inst is Christoph Hess from Switzerland who plays turntables, but usually without vinyl (although the picture on the inside shows a platter on the table). So what does he play then on his turntable? I assume things like paper, wood or metal. On this CD, captured in concert at Oblo Cinema in Lausanne in May of this year, we find one track (most likely the entire concert), which starts out quite soft, but after some minutes the rhythm kicks in and things are present. It’s not a techno sort of rhythm, but rather a more tribal one, and lots of little frequencies to support the composition. It all seems to rotate at 33 rpm. It’s a nicely played, densely layered piece of fairly dark, ambient sound. Well executed. Nice.
On 1000+1 Tilt’s latest compilation ‘Urban Folk Songs’ we find some names that we are familiar with, like Mecha/orga, B*tong, Anal Vissi, PS Stamps Back, Andre Borgen and Sunday Noise Peace. Not just a plain Greek affair but it has the main focus in that country. Despite carrying the word ‘folk’ in the title of this compilation, the music is usually not really folk like, except maybe for the piece by F.N.S. which is carried by an acoustic guitar. Many of the pieces are carried by rhythm elements held together with sticky tape of noise, field recordings and sound effects, alone or all together. Exceptions are the aforementioned F.N.S., Mecha/orga and Andre Borgen, who presents an otherwise noisy piece, Sunday Noise Peace and P.S. Stamps Back. But even these pieces might be a bit louder, and more abrasive. It’s a very nice compilation of new names to discover, rather than discovering too many new musical directions. (FdW)
Address: http://www.via.org.gr/1000+1tilt
DROG-A-TEK – WHO HURT YOU? (CD by Quetempo)
BIOMASS – MILEDROPS (CD by Quetempo)
When I saw Drog-A-Tek playing live they were with four members, if I am not mistaken. But they have a floating membership which can go up to nine persons. It’s hard to tell what kind of music they will play when you book them, or to put them into any sort of category. This CD, nice as it is doesn’t help to set the fact straight. A typical Drog-A-Tek piece starts with a rhythm, which has a nice groove to it, sometimes even a bit techno like, to which a bass guitar is added. Then the icing on the cake is the somewhat free playing of the other instruments. These include accordion, melodica, trumpet or guitars (among others) and that’s where some of the problems come in which I have with this CD. It starts out nice, each track, but some of them are simply a bit too long and too freaky to hold my attention for the entire length of the track. Given the fact that there are eleven tracks on this somewhat lengthy CD, you could wonder if this is all bit too much. I think it is. With some editing in the pieces, making them a bit shorter and bit more selective, I think it would have been a great say thirty-five minute/eight track CD or some-such. Now it’s rather just nice, and not great.
Biomass sound like four piece band along the lines of Rage Against The Machine, but it’s a one-man band from Italy, who started out in 1996, playing ‘Skeletrical dub, minimal ambient, political ideas and alchemy, in simple ways’. He has a ‘loop machine’, field recordings and a guitar effect and some videotapes to produce his music when playing live. His music on CD combines various types of rhythm-music (techno, dub, jazz, lounge) to which he improvises along with his limited set-up. Having said, it’s indeed a minimal set of music, but it’s at the same time quite nice. The tracks have a hypnotic feel to it, and one that works that better than some of the Drog-A-Tek stuff, which, oddly enough might be interested in doing the same thing, but Biomass, just does it with a better result. It’s not music that should be played a soft volume at home, but rather loud in your underground club. Nice stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quetempo.gr
ORGANUM – DIE HENNEN ZANHNE (miniCD by Die Stadt)
Despite the fact that I love Organum, I must admit, I didn’t miss out on two 10″ releases not being released. The four tracks on this new mini CD were supposed to be released by Die Stadt as two different 10″s. When put together they shed four times a different light upon Organum. The first piece is ‘Die Kralle’ is a very old Organum track from the early eighties (or rather an old David Jackman piece, as it pre-dates the Organum releases), with some distorted loop of violin playing and some lo-fi percussive sounds. Indeed an ancient sounding piece. Also ancient sounding is the title piece, but it’s newly (newlier?) recorded, but sounds like a piece that was left over from the Organum sessions with The New Blockaders. ‘Maus’ sounds like a track from the first release by Jackman as Organum, ‘In Extremis’, with a beautiful up present slowed down cymbal sounds and far away falling of objects, whereas the closing ‘Kazi’, a live improvisation by Jackman with Micheal Prime and Emma O’Bong, is more along the lines of ‘Vacant Lights’. All the various aspects of Organum’s work appear on this small CD. It makes a very coherent bunch, these pieces, even when they sounds different from each-other. ‘Die Hennen Zähne’ doesn’t translate as ‘A Young Person’s Guide To Organum’, but it could have. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
ANTENNE/CRYPTIC SCENERY (split 7″ by Bsbta)
Sadly, most sadly, Antenne didn’t become a household name in the trip-hop scene, despite their two more than excellent CDs, that were carried by the beautiful voice of Marie-Louise Munck. Antenne, the group of Kim G. Hansen from Denmark (previously member of Grind and Amstrong), play melodic music that drifts on a fine line between pop, trip-hop and ambient music. ‘Long To Kiss’ is a signature track of Antenne’s fine music, with a nice slow rhythm and the dreamy voice of Munck. Antenne has been in the number one in the Danish charts with a previous song, and this could be there as-well. On the b-side we find Cryptic Scenery, of which I never heard as such, but it’s the band around Christian Sötemann, whom we know from several solo releases. Here too a dreamy pop-song, but with a darker undercurrent and male vocals. A bit too dark and regular indie-pop for me, along the lines of Low or some such, and never was a big fan of them. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bsbta.com
SOUTIEN GORGE – L’ETOILES SOURIANTES (CDR by Bitlab Records)
On the small Hungarian label Bitlab Records comes a second release, by Soutien Gorge, a duo of Andras ‘Banyek’ Hargitai and Robert Potys. I have no idea how long they are together or wether they have more releases available. It might be so, since ‘L’Etoiles Souriantes’ (meaning ‘smiling stars’) sound quite nice, and it would be hard to believe that this is their first release. The eleven tracks operate in fields where also labels as Static Caravan, Expanding Records or Highpoint Lowlife operate: melodic electronics, with (semi-) melancholic keyboards, a bit of acoustic guitars , which are processed a little and IDM rhythms. Although it’s all well played, carefully constructed and with enough variation in the pieces throughout, there is no particular stand out track and everything sounds a bit like so many of the artists mentioned on those labels earlier. But perhaps you want to find it from a more exotic place, and this might be it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bitlabrecords.com
BOES SHOP (CDR compilation by Sqrt Label)
As a follow-up to their previous releases (see Vital Weekly 478), Sqrt Label from Poland releases a compilation under the banner of ‘Boes Shop’, whatever that may mean. Only the name Antmanuv and Oddjob rang bells, although Lukasz Ciszak (label-owner and part of the previous batch) is also included. The bands aren’t just polish, Antmanuv comes from Canada, Finaldoll, Planetaldol, Oddjob and Due.di are from France and Tirridiliu from Italy. Despite the fact that I never heard of any of these bands, I must admit I was quite surprised by the quality of the pieces. Many of the bands/projects/artists operate in what can be loosely described as ‘experimental’ music. It has ties into the world of micro-sound, ambient and improvisation, and the computer seems to be medium to either record or manipulate the music on. It’s not that every track is by itself really super good, but the overall quality of the pieces is really nice and as a whole this is a pretty varied compilation. I guess for the truly adventurous listeners who want to seek out some new names. There is something nice to pick from. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sqrt-label.org
C. REIDER – AUGHTET (CDR by Vuzh Music)
C. REIDER – SOME THINGS I DID WHEN I LOST MY MIND (CDR by Vuzh Music)
A while ago I reviewed a CDR by GoreHallReider (see Vital Weekly 489) and noted that I didn’t know much about the work of C. Reider, the man behind the label Vuzh Music (not to be confused with the German Vuz Music, but perhaps they no longer exist?). C. Reider has been making music for the last fifteen years, mainly releasing his music on cassettes and collaborating with people such as PBK, Tarkatak, Implicit Order and Kirchenkampf. These days he’s of course releasing CDRs on his own label and ‘Aughtet’ and ‘Some Things I Did When I lost My Mind’ are fine examples of his work. It’s not easy to describe the work of Reider, as it falls into various categories ranging from ambient to industrial music (but most likely a combination of the two categories), but also the cosmic music of the seventies, with traces of Conrad Schnitzler and his ‘non-keyboard electronics’, making things a bit more psychedelic and cosmic. ‘Some Things’ is entirely instrumental, but ‘Aughtet’ uses the voices of eleven different people, which are treated by the use of synthesizers into densely woven masses of sounds, in which voices rise up and disappear again, like vanishing into black holes. Sometimes things may go on for a little bit too long, and the non-narrative part doesn’t make life easier to understand what this particular poetry is about, but throughout both releases are quite enjoyable discs of fine experimental music, hovering the lesser noise related side of things, and playing the mood card. (FdW)
Address: http://www.vuzhmusic.com
ROGALAND – ONE HOUR CLOSER TO DEATH (CDR by Absurd/Utan Titel)
By far the weirdest cover I have seen in some time. You might easily mistake this for a bit of waste: a recycled envelop stuck into a bigger white envelop, with a big, blurry black & white xerox and a small card with the ‘information’. Rogaland Hot Club are Bjerga, Egeland, Gjerde, Pettersen and Toft from Norway, and the work was recorded straight to minidisc in Stavanger, with a little bit of editing by Bjerga and Pettersen afterwards. Like some many from the ever so active Norwegian scene, this is very much in the realms of improvisation. Playing percussive like sounds, amplification through contact-microphones, field recordings and whistling down empty bottles, this is actually quite nice. If they Bjerga/Iversen collaborations mean anything to you by now, then this is surely something to look out for. Mildly noise related, very free playing, but throughout the tracks are shorter than on the average Bjerga/Iversen work, thus adding to the variety of the material they offer here. Usually slow and contemplative, lo-fi but yet full of air and vibe. Very nice indeed. (FdW)
Address: http://www.anet.gr/absurd
CHEFKIRK – COAX WAL PLATE (CDR by Audiobot)
It’s perhaps no easy task to review the extended works of herr Chefkirk. I lost count already some time ago, and sometimes do I like his work, and sometimes I don’t. ‘Coax Wal Plate’ sounds to me like a fine Chefkirk work, he explores his self-chosen style of rhythm and noise more and more, scraping the last bits of the ground. Two weeks ago, I reviewed a MP3 release by him, which sounds different from the recent and old lot, and suggested that he should explore that more. This release doesn’t do this yet, so it goes down as another fairly ok release in his expanded universe. If you do dig rhythm and noise, all generated in the digital world of binary processing and you don’t mind that y’r artist is ADHD, then Chefkirk is the perfect artist to follow. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freaksendfuture.com
PAUL DEVENS – GUNPOP (CDR by Moab Records)
From the southern part of The Netherlands comes
Paul Devens, a sound and visual artist, who has performed and shown his work around the world, and who is the curator of the Crtl-Alt-Del festival. He has various releases of which ‘Gunpop’ is his most recent. In this work he questions his own position in the world of popculture and contemporary music, using musical figures from pop-music in his compositions. If I hadn’t been told, I wouldn’t have recognized them. Paul Devens likes to play noise and he does this in a most convincing way. He uses home-made electronics, effects, toys and field recordings, but none of which are easy to recognize, as it’s quite a violent thing that he puts on. Much of the material here was generated in live performance. Merzbow comes to mind, but Devens plays usually shorter tracks. Also he takes back the aggression at times and moves along some ‘quieter’ lines, but that is of course a relative thing. But ‘Relix’ for instance is a piece of nerve wrecking ambient music. Rhythm plays a bigger role than with Merzbow. In all, the ten tracks on this CD are indeed filled noise, but it’s definitely a pretty varied bunch. Also included are two films, one short and static and one of mister Devens playing live behind his laptop with a slab of noise related techno music. If noise is your thing and want something else than the next Merzbow, then Paul Devens is perhaps the good alternative. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pauldevens.nl
MY FUN – THE QUALITY OF SOMETHING AUDIBLE (CDR by The Land Of)
Following his ‘Sunday Best’, My Fun, aka Justin Hardison, now releases a full length CDR on The Land Of, which took him two years to record. Like before, he uses field recordings and computer processing of acoustic instruments. It moves away from the previous techno related into a highly dynamic form of micro-sound, with traces of good ol’ Fennesz, but without being a strict copy-cat. A track like ‘Dun Laoghaire’ is with it’s minimalist violin playing almost a glitch copy of Steve Reich. The use of classical music (wether or not sampled from records or recorded by My Fun himself) is a nice feature that is present in more tracks. It works nicely along the processed field recordings and the digital glitches that all of these produce. Perhaps in the current day and age, not the most surprising work available (it would have fitted the microwave catalogue nicely, five or so years ago), but I played this a couple of times in a row, and thought it was quite nice, growing with every time I heard it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.thelandof.org
TIM COSTER – MORNINGS (3″CDR by Pseudo Arcana)
From my remote view New Zealand looks like a very
active place, with lots of music- as in, our kind of music – happening. Tim Coster runs the Claudia label, which specializes in music that deals with field recordings but here on ‘Mornings”, following a 7″ on CMR (which didn’t make it to these pages), he works with various musicians, who play instruments, such as cello, santur and bamboo flute. Coster is not so much interested in just processing the sounds at hand, he adds his own part to it, that may consist of field recordings, harmonica, walkman, cups, speaker, melodica, piano, ukelele and glockenspiel. A wide array of sound possibilities, but Coster likes to play around with drone music. In each of the four pieces the earth hum, the ground sound of drone music is present, with on top sparsely orchestrated field recordings- although that might very well be all of the instruments mentioned on the cover. It’s however beautiful drone music. Nothing new or exciting in that area with this work by Tim Coster, but it’s a very nice affair. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pseudoarcana.com
Correction: In the review last week of Paul Bradley and David Wells, the tracks are switched. The more collage one is by Bradley, which sheds a new light upon the whole release and the entire review!
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