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CONRAD SCHNITZLER – KLAVIERHELM (CD by Important Records)
CONRAD SCHNITZLER – TRIGGER TRILOGY (3CD by Important Records) *
TETUZI AKIYAMA & GREG MALCOLM – BROMBRON 12: SIX STRINGS (CD by Korm Plastics)
JON MUELLER & MARTIJN TELLINGA – BROMBRON 13: BOWL, HELICOPTER
(mCD by Korm Plastics)
ROBERTO OPALIO – THE LAST NIGHT OF THE ANGEL OF GLASS, VOL. 1 & 2 (CD by A Silent Place)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & TH26 – ARKAEO PLANUM (CD by Small Voices)
JENNIFER GENTLE – A NEW ASTRONOMY (CD by Small Voices)
ON – SECOND SOUFFLE (CD by Brocoli) *
ANDREAS BERTILSSON – PARAMOUNT (CD by Komplott) *
TIBETAN RED – FOUTA DJALON (CD by Gracia Territori) *
KOZO INADA – J[] (CD by Sonoris) *
MEM1 – ALEXIPHARMACA (CD by Interval Recordings)
OID – SYSTEMS OF MERCY (CD by Lagunamuch) *
OLOOLO – PAVILOSTA (CD by Lagunamuch)
ALEXEI BORISOV & ANTON NIKKILA – WHERE ARE THEY NOW (CD by NB Research
Digest) *
TWOCSINAC & DJ SARAH WILSON – PRESENT ‘JESUS IS A BRACE LITTLE TOASTER’ VOL.1 (CD by Wrong Music)
LISI – DAMN IT! (CD by Public Eyesore)
KEIICHIRO SHIBUYA – FILMACHINE (CD by Atak)
EVALA – INITIAL (CD by Port)
PORT DOC.1-5 (CD compilation by Port)
OTOMO YOSHIHIDE – PRISONER (CD by Headz)
GRAHAM HALLIWELL & TOMAS KORBER – THE LARGE GLASS (CD by Cathnor Recordings)
JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA – THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS (CD by Spekk)
SVYATOSLAV LUNYOV – PARA PACEM-PARA BELLUM (CD by Quasi Pop Records)
NAOKI ISHIDA – TONE REDUST (CD by Quasipop Records)
LASSE MARHAUG – IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD (CD by Quasipop Records)
SILK SAW – 8 REPORTS (CD by Ant-Zen Recordings)
ORATORY OF DIVINE LOVE – PURGATORIO (CD by Waystyx Records) *
SUKORA – SNOW DROP (CD by Waystyx Records)
SINCABEZA – EDIT SUR PASSAGE AVANT FIN OU MONTÉE D, INSTRUMENT (CD by Distile Records)
SWIMS – Swims (CD by Distile Records)
FRANK ROTHKAMM – MOERS WORKS (CD by Monochrome Vision)
DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE – COLLABORATIONS (2CD by Monochrome Vision)
LT. CARAMEL – EARLY TAPE WORKS (2CD by Monochrome Vision)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & SIEGMAR FRICKE – STROMA-KONKRET (CD by Monochrome Vision)
DAVID KRISTIAN – GHOST STOREYS (CD/DVD by Cocosolidciti)
LIMMAT – MUNICIPAL 44 (CD/DVD by Cocosolidciti)
JONATHAN COLECLOUGH & ANDREW LILES – TORCH SONGS (2LP/CD on Die Stadt)
JOHN WATERMANN – CALCUTTA GAS CHAMBER (LP by Die Stadt)
ELECTRIC WEST – DRAWIN PLANS FO DELICATE EVASION (CDR by Boltfish Recordings) *
JASPER LEYLAND – FIELDSTONE (CDR by Benbecula Records) *
Y-TON-G – ROSTFRESSER (CDR by Terminal Tape Production)
Y-TON-G – RAUEISEN (CDR by Terminal Tape Production)
Y-TON-G – WEITERE KLANGALCHYMISTISCHE EXPERIMENTE (CDR by Terminal Tape Production)
CROATAN ENSEMBLE (CDR by 1000+1 Tilt Recordings)
PS STAMPS BACK – OF LOSS AND THE SPIRALS OF TIME (CDR by 1000+1 Tilt Recordings)
GREG DAVIS & JEPH JERMAN & ALBERT CASAIS – 6X20 (2CDR by Winds Measure Recordings)
TING TING JAHE – 18 (16) (2CDR by Winds Measure Recordings)
MACHINEFABRIEK – ZINK (3″ CDR by Cut Hands)
PLAINS – UNDERGROUND (3″CDR by CLaudia)
ANLA COURTIS – H-PUNA (3″CDR by Generator Sound Art) *
SHINKEI – BINAURAL BEATS (3″CD by Shin)
HENNING LUNDKVIST – DOKUMENTATION01NOV06 (MP3 by Inaktiv)
LISBETH OG BENT/JENS ROBOT (Mp3 by Noisejihad Live)
WALDCHENGARTEN/RESPIRATOR (MP3 by Noisejihad Live)
NOISEJIHAD FESTIVAL (MP3 by Noisejihad Live)
ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI & DANNY KREUTZFELDT (MP3 by Noisejihad Live)
DANNY KREUTZFELDT – ABRUPTION (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
RUMFORSKNING – LIVSTEGN (CDR by Dataobscura)
CONRAD SCHNITZLER – KLAVIERHELM (CD by Important Records)
CONRAD SCHNITZLER – TRIGGER TRILOGY (3CD by Important Records)
Ever since I first found about Conrad Schnitzler and his music, I am a fan. But on a different level than a strict music fan. It’s a bit like my appreciation for the work of John Cage: great ideas about music (among many others), but I hardly play a Cage piece. I do play Conrad Schnizler’s music however. For those who do not know. Schnitzler was a student of Joseph Beuys, before starting to play music with Tangerine Dream with whom made their debut album and later Cluster (their first two Lps are played at least once a year), before starting his solo career in synthesizer music. Unlike his contemporary Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream the
experiment was always more important. Playing concerts for 16 or so hours a day, which were released on cassettes, each with differentportion of thirty minutes, releasing many highly rare Lps. Schnitzler hardly uses the keyboard of a synthesizer, but twiddles around with the knobs. Currently I believe he is in early seventies but still creating music, as a complete outsider to the world of electronic music. He’s not part of German cosmic music, nor microsound, but strictly goes his own way. Conrad Schnitzler produced an incredible amount of music, of which the likes of Merzbow and Muslimgauze could have ever dream off.
The piano is an instrument that he has been using before on a CD by Art Gallery years and years go, but here it is again. On his ‘Klavierhelm’ he returns the piano, but in a totally different fashion. He bangs the 88 keys in a totally free version. No introspection alike Satie nor the minimalism of Reich. Perhaps as free as say Cecil Taylor would play, but Schnitzler plays it really dry, almost without emotion. I could even believe he uses a computer program to create this music and have it play like Nancarrow’s player piano. It took me some time to get into this, but as the disc progressed, seemingly without much change or progress throughout the CD, but in the end it was quite captivating as a total, homogenous work.
The ‘Trigger Trilogy’ deals with his electronic work and is divided in three different aspects thereof – one per CD. On disc one these are ‘the solo pieces’, in which he uses mainly one set of rhythm per piece with a few lines on the synthesizer, but usually all in a random mode. Sometimes it’s the synthesizer which makes the rhythm, and some a drum computer. It’s a highly stripped down version of electronic music that perhaps is only vaguely related to techno music, but it’s not danceable at all. It’s cold and mechanic, but has certainly something highly attractive to it. On CD two we find the ‘free mix solo’s’. As we will see with disc three, in the past Schnitzler played concerts by using an amount of pre-recorded cassettes of synthesizer, now of course using CDRs. These are very different but on the ‘free mix solo’s’, he uses equal or parallel sounds per track. Perhaps it’s only a minor difference but it’s an important one. The music on disc two is divided in more than one track, but it sounds very much like one ongoing piece of music, that is alive and present, still in a clinical and mechanical mood, but slowly changing with the minimalism of disc one. Much more complex with more layers of slightly similar material, that move along eachother like plate tectonics. As said on the third a ‘con-cert’. Schnitzler uses for his concert Cdrs with all sorts of raw materials which he uses to create a live mix. Parts of the first and second Cds in this trilogy are used here, but also other portions of sounds from the past. Again, this is a more complex than disc one, but also more varied than the somewhat singleminded disc two. Complexity here stretches out over the use of rhythm and sound color, with moody textures and uplifting rhythmic passages. If the work of Schnitzler is unknown to you, this three CD might be good introduction to his sound world, whereas the piano disc may appeal to lovers of free jazz and those with an acquired Schnitzler taste. The work of Schnitzler doesn’t always appeal to me, but it’s always worth investigating and, in these two instances, one could say: the man is both outsider and genius. (FdW)
Address: http://www.importantrecords.com
TETUZI AKIYAMA & GREG MALCOLM – BROMBRON 12: SIX STRINGS (CD by Korm Plastics)
JON MUELLER & MARTIJN TELLINGA – BROMBRON 13: BOWL, HELICOPTER
(mCD by Korm Plastics)
Since 2000 the Brombron project offers small groups of musicians the opportunity to become artists in residence in Extrapool, an arts initiative in Nijmegen/The Netherlands, and realize a joint-project there. The 12th and 13th installment from the series come from Tetuzi Akiyama and Greg Malcolm and Jon Mueller and Martijn Tellinga respectively.
Akiyama and Malcolm go without any electronics, improvising on their guitars and almost literally weaving subtle acoustic meshes. Taking given as well as own themes and tunes as a basis, the duo creates music of a highly introspective character, utterly calm and filled with remarkable warmth and intimacy. They pluck their strings delicately, at times almost hesitatingly, gently entwining the individual notes, which seem to caress each other. According to its improvised nature, the music doesn’t follow a linear logic, but its focus is rather smoothly shifting back and forth from melodic and repetitive patterns to free playing with occasional far away blues-reminiscences woven in. Along with the warm, full sound of their guitars, the balance that Malcolm and Akiyama achieve between these various aspects of their music is the most fascinating point about this release. Without ever fully entering into the territories of structured songs or free-form improvisation, they interlace melody, repetition and fragmentation and arrive at a rich and intense result, with a low key, laid-back character, yet fully absorbing.
Percussionist Jon Mueller and electro-acoustic composer and sound artist Martijn Tellinga (aka Boca Raton), explore a set-up that consists of live-sampling and processing of Mueller’s playing, on top of a layer of pre-recorded material from a previous session. The triggering and processing of the pre-recorded samples is caused by the percussive input, which is at the same time providing new material. Tellinga manipulates these events in real-time, but can also bypass the triggering and play the computer as a stand-alone instrument, using the same set of sound material. This results in a stream of concise acoustic marks, arranged in a sort of non-hierarchic way, in which repetition is absent and structure appears only on a micro-level, thus putting a strong emphasis on the individual sounds or small groups of sounds. At times these sounds seem to stand erratically next to each other, while in other passages they engage in small ‘dialogues’ or form porous accumulations. The two distinct ‘voices’ remain present and clearly distinguishable throughout, with the percussive work ranging from familiar figures, like, say, a short drum roll, to nearly-electronic sounding abstractions and the electro-acoustic counterpart consisting of a palette of sharp and precise clicks, clatters and whirls. It was probably a very good choice to release this as a mini CD, since this format seems very appropriate for such an austere work, while it might have been difficult to sustain its quality over the length of a full CD. At three tracks and a playing time of about twenty minutes however, the controlled playing and the atmosphere of extreme concentration work well and are utterly convincing. (MSS)
Address: http://www.kormplastics.nl
ROBERTO OPALIO – THE LAST NIGHT OF THE ANGEL OF GLASS, VOL. 1 & 2 (CD by A Silent Place)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & TH26 – ARKAEO PLANUM (CD by Small Voices)
JENNIFER GENTLE – A NEW ASTRONOMY (CD by Small Voices)
This is my first encounter with the music of Roberto Opalio from Italy. I have no idea about this man. Volume 1 of this 2CD set was released on a CDR by Foxglove before. He plays vocals, electric astral guitar, space toys and alientronics – yes, this man is into the world outside earth. His vocals are processed to such an extend that it creates an angelic choir. To that he adds his likewise sampled to death guitar and toys. It creates a sense of space music, but it couldn’t quite capture me. A piece of similar length, around forty-five minutes can be found on the second CD. That hoovers around similar ingredients, but the somewhat improvised playing of the guitar sort of saves the piece. Still it’s not the best music I ever heard, but it’s better than what I found on disc one.
The current activities of Maurizio Bianchi aren’t easy to keep up, but it’s not always clear what he does. In some cases he just delivers some sounds and still gets the full credit. Does marketing still work like that, me wonders? The tracks on the CD he just made with TH26 (or perhaps TH26 made with MB) sound like a genuine Maurizio Bianchi work, but perhaps that is part of the input. I have no clue who TH26 is, and the Small Voices could use some updates in that area. My best guess is that Maurizio Bianchi delivered some his more abstract synthesizer playing to which TH26 may have added more percussive elements, and mixed the whole thing together. It’s work that doesn’t have the same quality as the recent collaboration between Bianchi and Sigmar Fricke (see Vital Weekly 562). There is a certain uneasiness in this work that doesn’t seem to be fitting together very well. It’s alien, sub-urban and highly abstract, it’s also something that may have had more potential than what now came out on this release.
The final new release by Small Voices is also a re-issue, of a CDR in an edition of 100 copies, originally on Sub Pop in 2005. Gentle’s work is dedicated to Giovanni Paneroni (1871-1950) who made his own astronomy, based on the fact that the earth is flat and planets don’t move: the official astronomy is a big lie. Gentle plays the guitar, and she made the recordings onto a four track in a bedroom, which I must say can be heard. Things sound pretty raw here, with lots of minimal strumming, but feeding off through the distortion pedals. Quite raw and intense this music, and even when not every moment is great, it’s the best of these three new releases on Small Voices. A bit drone related, heavy wall to wall post rock, but without the drums. Not really new but indeed a work that deserves to be heard by more people than just 100. (FdW)
Address: http://www.smallvoices.it
ON – SECOND SOUFFLE (CD by Brocoli)
The story behind ‘Second Souffle’ starts in July 2003 when drummer/percussion player Steven Hess recorded a session with guitarist and piano player Sylvain Chauveau. The recordings were mixed by Helge Sten of Deathprod, and released as ‘Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night’ by Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L’acier. Story closed? No, the same recordings are subject of ‘Second Souffle’, but are now entirely taken apart by Pierre-Yves Mace, whom we know from his release on Sub Rosa. Its a pity that I didn’t hear the first release by On, because know I have to go by the Mace mix and there is nothing to compare. Not really a big deal, since what we find here is some excellent rock glitch – if that term doesn’t exist, someone should invent it. There are influences of Pluramon, certainly when the drums bang a little bit more than usual, and there are many layers of crackling electronics, sine wave like guitar sounds, introspective xylophone sounds and there is a digital post rock cum microsound atmosphere around this album. Its excellent, well-crafted, well-thought out. It’s of course a bit hard for me to tell what amount of post production was done by Mace, but he produced a really excellent album. Both highly musical as well with the right amount of experimentalism in it. Perhaps the highlight of this week. (FdW)
Address: http://www.brocoli.org
ANDREAS BERTILSSON – PARAMOUNT (CD by Komplott)
The name Andreas Bertilsson didn’t set off any alarm bells here right away, but it turned out I know pretty much everything of his music. Before he was active under the name of Son Of Clay and as such produced three Cds. For whatever reason his fourth Cd is now released under his own name, and the work was started in 2005 ‘with the objective of describing society and the present while still trying to anchor it to something timeless and continuous that could be linked to any one period in time’. Too this end he made a list of events to record and went to a small house in the Swedish country side to finish it. But the house seemed haunted, with doors slamming, voices from ghosts and footsteps. It seemed to be a cursed album. In Malmoe, where he lives, he finished the album with no problem. Three tracks are to be found here, in total thirty minutes, of a strange but fascinating mixture of highly processed field recordings, including the aforementioned doors slamming, but also an acoustic bass and the result is far from being the usual careful glitch/microsound, as at times Bertilsson knows how to rock and things happen in a full blast. Of course the story about the haunted house is one that I have a hard time believing, but surely there is something frightening over this music. Some danger lurking around the corner, especially in the final track, when thing rock out, and the listener is still waiting something worse to happen. Maybe it’s the title, but it’s all quite cinematographic . (FdW)
Address: http://www.komplott.com
TIBETAN RED – FOUTA DJALON (CD by Gracia Territori)
The name Tibetan Red has been around since the mid eighties. I believe my first encounter with it was on a compilation LP by Freedom In A Vacuum. However almost twenty years later releases are still very few. But I do know a little bit more about the project. It’s one Salvador Franesch (born in 1945) from Catalan origin, who lived for some time in Canada, but now in the Pyrenees. He is also a painter. Much of his work deals with Gurdjieff, Sufism, Shamanism, Kabala and such like. This interest can clearly be heard on this release. It continues the sound as found on his ‘complete’ works release from 2000: Tibetan Red creates many loops of sound and let this ‘go’, until he starts playing around with them. On ‘Fouta Djalon’ the sources are ethnic recordings, people chanting, percussive sounds and such like. There are however a whole of bunch, so that there is a densely layered pattern of these sounds. The ethnic element can still be traced to single sources, but the overall sounds more electronic than ethnic. I kept wondering wether electronic treatments had been used here, but my best guess it’s not, although the highly reworked ‘Fire Pilgrimage’ might have some. The previous work of Tibetan Red dealt with more single minded electronic/short wave sounds, but this new direction is certainly as interesting. A great CD and I am told that the next one will be out quicker. (FdW)
Address: http://www.salvadorfrancesch.com
KOZO INADA – J[] (CD by Sonoris)
My sympathy and love for the work of Kozo Inada didn’t came straight away. His first few releases on Staalplaat were alright, but I didn’t think brilliant. Coins dropped at a concert I saw by him in Barcelona. It contained the same sounds, but played at this immense volume, the listener gets sucked in it, and when the sound is gone, very fine particles remain and tease the listener further, until the next wave comes. Coming back I listened to his music with totally different ears. For reasons I don’t know (it seems his private website needs updating) we don’t hear much of him in the recent years, which is a great pity. ‘J[]’ is a new (?) work, or at least just released (on a totally different I’d like to add that Sonoris just also re-released David Maranha’s ‘Piano Suspenso’, which we reviewed in Vital Weekly 175, so read that please). Moving away from the field recordings which Inada used in his previous releases, for this release he concentrates solely on classical music samples and loops. At first that sounded a bit cheap to me, clearly since they are not too difficult to recognize. Inada produces perfect loops that don’t skip or anything, but make a sustaining wave of sound. In each of the five pieces things move slowly but steadily and Inada continues his working methods: from soft to loud, although it seems to me this time on a less radical level than before. It’s again quite a powerful work, and opening up new worlds to explore for Inada. It would be great to see more of his work being available. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonoris.org
MEM1 – ALEXIPHARMACA (CD by Interval Recordings)
From Israel comes Mem1, which is a collaboration
between cello player Laura Thomas-Merino and laptop artist M. Cera. They don’t operate as two individual units, but the laptop solely treats the sounds coming from the cello. The title of this, their second CD, comes from a set of poems written by Nicander of Colophon from Greece, who wrote about plants and animal poisons and their antidotes. For Mem1 the relationship is clear: they want their music to be richly textured but with a certain menace. As such I may say they succeeded quite nicely. The cello is bowed, plucked and strummed, while the laptop gently weeps and sweeps the sound. Indeed richly textured, even when it’s played in a rather improvised fashion, it seems like there is a cloud hanging over these musics. Perhaps a cloud of plug ins waiting to rain down? Or perhaps it’s covered with earth? In any case, it’s a bit muffled but that adds to the drone like character of the songs. It’s all quite, but as with so many releases, for the limit amount of ideas put into this, it all sounds a bit too similar and things could have been shorter. (FdW)
Address: http://www.interval-recordings.com
OID – SYSTEMS OF MERCY (CD by Lagunamuch)
OLOOLO – PAVILOSTA (CD by Lagunamuch)
Between these two CDs there is some similarity, that of the cosmic, analogue synthesizer music. The Lagunamuch label is a community of bands existing since 2004 in Moscow, which has bands such Alexandroid, Lazyfish, Mewark, In A Nutshell, Selffish, Flexkiks and Oid. The latter is one Andrey Antonets, who is a member of Alexandroid, but solo creates his own ambient music. I think it’s played on analogue synthesizers, and it’s not the tapestry sounds of Hypnos but more the stripped down version of ambient house music. Things move a little bit, there is arpeggio’s on the piano, and even a bit of percussion. However the highlight of the CD is the fourth track, which started out with a voice going through a vocoder, later on forming a duet of voices and brings it close to space age popmusic. That is absolutely a great piece. Even with such a title for the CD things can’t go wrong.
Which can also be said of the album of Oloolo, who are from Riga, Latvia. This is a duo of Kriipis Tulo and Rodion Zolotarew, who play their music on a whole bunch of analogue synthesizers from the Soviet area, such as a Polyvox, Yunost, Formanta and such like). They do play ambient music that is partly based in ambient house and partly in german cosmic music of the seventies. They don’t vocals, not even through vocoders, which makes the music perhaps a bit more single minded, but both albums are good headtrip music. Overall, it seemed that Oloolo was a bit more joyful than Oid, but both albums, although containing nothing new on the front of development of music, are certainly great late night music to relax albums. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lagunamuch.com
ALEXEI BORISOV & ANTON NIKKILA – WHERE ARE THEY NOW (CD by NB Research
Digest)
In 1993 Alexei Borisov, a long term experimental musician from Russia was interviewed for TV in Finland by one Anton Nikkila, who was starting out as a musician then. They liked each other and started to work on music together a year later and since 1998 they also play live. Might not be easy to record this, but they meet up in Helsinki to do their recordings or meet on the road. From the eleven tracks on this new CD, three are recorded live (among which was the ever so nice Garage festival in Strahslsund). Borisov and Nikkila play whatever is in their hands, but it’s mainly synthesizers, drumcomputers, but also guitars. Voices play a big role. It’s the voice of Borisov and he recites his texts rather than singing them. The texts deal with the life in the former Soviet Union in its various aspects. The stutter beats play a big role, and it doesn’t serve the album very well I think. Most of the times the tracks sound very chaotic and alienated, also with the voice of Borisov who recites rather emotionless and without much color. Musicwise the album is somewhat crude and rude, perhaps a bit like old and somewhat bad music that was produced on cassettes fifteen years ago. Some of the pieces are ok in approach, but throughout the album could not really bother me very much. Too crude, too sketchy and perhaps a bit too hastily made. Some more effort in post-production could have surely saved something but now misses a point. (FdW)
Address: http://www.nbresearchdigest.com
TWOCSINAC & DJ SARAH WILSON – PRESENT ‘JESUS IS A BRACE LITTLE TOASTER’ VOL.1 (CD by Wrong Music)
Everything can be re-invented at what ever time, I think. I have no clue who Twocsinac and DJ Sarah Wilson are, nor can I read the ‘text’ on the cover, not even with glasses, but they just re-invented plunderphonics. Sampling by now almost sixty years of popmusic, adding the impossible to read lyrics and the mashes this up with some beats, some acoustic guitars or more plundered sounds from obscure sources. Like People Like Us or Negativland never existed, even when Twocsinac and DJ Sarah Wilson are much more in the area of lo-fidelity and ‘perhaps’ (I must say this with some caution) played a bit more themselves. I kept thinking: why am I hearing this? What is the point? (FdW)
Address: http://www.wrongmusic.co.uk
LISI – DAMN IT! (CD by Public Eyesore)
‘Have you ever fucked in an elavator’ boom boom ‘have you fucked in your ass’ boom boom. I had to check this twice, but it’s by Lisi, not Peaches. She had a release before on Public Eyesore, together with Onid (see Vital Weekly 443), but now has a six track album of her. Rather simple keyboard/sequencer lines and naughty lyrics. Oh dear. Maybe I miss out on the radical feminist tag here, and perhaps live it’s all great, but it sounded quite boring on CD. (FdW)
http://www.publiceyesore.com
KEIICHIRO SHIBUYA – FILMACHINE (CD by Atak)
EVALA – INITIAL (CD by Port)
PORT DOC.1-5 (CD compilation by Port)
My Japanese is still not up to speed to read any of the liner notes on this CD, but in conversation I picked up some of the ideas behind. ‘Filmachine’ is an installation piece for 24 speakers that surround the listener and on this CD there is the soundtrack to this. Of course it’s not easy to capture something that is played on twenty four speakers and reduce that to two speakers, but when played on headphones you can get a sense of the spatial work. Shibuya uses field recordings which are heavily processed through max/msp patches and creates partly a dense layered sound scape, with something that sounds like airplanes and partly a more rhythm based piece (although the latter only on a small level). On these headphones those parts work best in terms of spatial division. On speakers however the more grainy ‘airplane’ sound work quite nice. When released now as a CD, it is cut off from the installation, and we have to enjoy it from the perspective of a CD release, and no longer as a 24 speaker installation. As this is perhaps a bit short, but it’s altogether a very fine release.
Along similar lines is the release by Japanese musician Evala. He plays deep bass bumps, along with processed like sine wave sounds. In each of the ten tracks he presents a different view on the material, from disjointed beats to more straight forward ones and with different shapes and colors of the sine waves. The influence of Ryoji Ikeda seems clear to me and ‘Initial’ can easily meet up with Ikeda’s ‘Dataplex’ release. Quite powerful material.
On Evala’s Port label there is also a compilation with just Japanese artists such as, obviously, Evala himself, but also Kozo Inada, PsysEx, Numb, Slipped Disk (which has Keiichiro Shibuya as one of the members), Com.a, Aoki Takamasa, Taeji Sawai and others. It offers a fine overview of the clicks and cuts and beats material that now sweeps the Japanese hard drives. None of these pieces stand out, but they all operate on an equally good level. (FdW)
Address: http://www.atak.jp
Address: http://port-label.jp
OTOMO YOSHIHIDE – PRISONER (CD by Headz)
Over here Otomo Yoshihide is mostly known because of Ground-Zero and his guitar/turntable work both solo and with many collaborators, but in Japan he has also scored loads of films over the years, this one being the most recent. I don’t know anything about the film itself, which probably is a Japanese affair and won’t reach these cinematic shores, but the cast of musical characters he has invited is pretty impressive: Jim O’Rourke, Tetuzi Akiyama, Sachiko M, Yasunao Tone, the master himself and various other musicians. The film must be a seriously diverse happening because these tracks go all over the Otomian spectrum, ranging from lush acoustic guitar picking (courtesy of O’Rourke) to full-on noise assault. Occasionally samples from the film come up, but they sound like just another sound source and are not used to decode any possible parallel affinities to the visuals. Also, where most soundtracks follow repeating threads and paths shown in the film, here it makes me wonder what sort of film ‘Prisoner’ is, as the music here seems to follow no internal structure or narrative, apart from instruments resurfacing. Where most of Yoshihide’s soundtracks are only interesting for the die-hard fans or to people acquainted with the movies, this one certainly is the exception, and is up there with his best work. (RM)
Address: http://www.faderbyheadz.com
GRAHAM HALLIWELL & TOMAS KORBER – THE LARGE GLASS (CD by Cathnor Recordings)
Although I can’t find it on the CD or in the press text, I wonder what Marcel Duchamp’s The Large Glass piece has to do with this. Perhaps nothing. In the hot summer of last year, Tomas Korber, along with his guitar, electronics and prerecorded material to the Norfolk countryside to record with Graham Halliwell, who sat there with his prepared saxophone feedback, samples and loops. The three tracks now released on ‘The Large Glass’ were captured in a day. It’s foremost an album of silent music, with apparently, on a superficial level with not much happening. Crackles, hiss, static sound: it all happens on soft level, careful, as not to make too much of a big wave. It’s peaceful music if the right volume is used. If you play this at a more present volume, small details will unfold and the feedback saxophone can be real menace. There is a lot happening on this CD but still it is peaceful. Concentration is required. It fits the vast catalogue of especially Korber quite well. Nice, very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cathnor.com
JEFRE CANTU-LEDESMA – THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS (CD by Spekk)
To be honest: I lost Tarantel a bit out of sight in recent years, after some years which I followed their work. Perhaps the last thing I heard by them is their En/Of LP which saw them moving into the world of computer processing their post-rock sound. So losing touch, also meant that I didn’t hear the solo work by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, so ‘The Garden Of Forking Paths’ is my first introduction. Cantu-Ledesma plays guitars, gong, harmonium, singing bowl, sound booster, ride cymbal but also ‘cassette, microcassette, reel to reel tape machine’, but nowhere a computer is mentioned. The opening piece sounds indeed like it could have been recorded on cassette, as it has that pleasant lo-fi sound. But for the other pieces I’m not sure. Cantu-Ledesma plays twelve highly atmospheric tracks which seem to go beyond any categorization. Perhaps one could link it to post rock, but without any use of drums or rhythms, ambient textures or even microsound, but the lo-fi quality is a bit in the way. That gives the album certainly a color of itself, but the only problem is that many tracks sound a bit alike and there could have been a little bit more variation in it, or perhaps a bit shorter. But throughout it was a most enjoyable, moody and atmospheric album. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spekk.net
SVYATOSLAV LUNYOV – PARA PACEM-PARA BELLUM (CD by Quasi Pop Records)
NAOKI ISHIDA – TONE REDUST (CD by Quasipop Records)
LASSE MARHAUG – IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD (CD by Quasipop Records)
Three diverse releases on the Ukrainian Quasi Pop label. I never heard of Svyatoslav Lunyov, but he studied composition in Kiev and composed works for orchestras but also smaller ensembles and single instruments. ‘Para Pacem – Para Bellum’ however is partly an electronic work, and partly a work for piano, organ, violin, viola and cello. These are merged together in a work that seems to me a call for peace, but also about death and sorrow. The work is divided into sixteen parts, but belong to eachother. I must admit I wasn’t blown away by it. There are introspective, textured pieces which work quite well, such as ‘Anno Domini’, but some of the electronics sounded a bit muddy. The overall sound is, perhaps by purpose, not very clear. Then there are some stomping rhythm pieces which seem to be out of place. It sounds like Lunyov couldn’t make up his mind with what he wanted to do. It has its moments, but also it failures.
From Japan comes Naoki Ishida. From 2000 to 2003
he played in a rock band, after which he started to play at home on his acoustic guitar, adding a blend of field recordings and minimal electronics. ‘Tone Redust’ is his debut album. Although Quasipop rave about ‘own unique music style’, I must disagree. Ishida fits the current wave of ‘melodic pop/microsound’ very well, a trend that is very popular in Japan, where we find such releases on labels as Noble and Spekk, or in Europe with the likes of Flim and in the USA the recent Moskitoo CD on 12K. Not a problem, as Ishida surely plays a fine tune. His guitar playing is rather ‘free’: not strumming chords or strict finger picking, but playing whatever is necessary. The field recordings are cars passing or the sound of lighter. Unlike some of the mentioned counter parts, Ishida doesn’t play ‘songs’, a fixed composition, but rather improvises his way through moody textures. He does a nice job at that, and that surely places him outside the rest, although it’s the form and not so much the content. Perhaps some of the pieces are bit too long and the field recordings could have used a bit more variety, throughout it’s a charming disc.
From Japan to Norway is a long flight, but if you
arrive at Lasse Marhaug, but what Merzbow is to the land of rising sun, is Marhaug to the land of fjords. He doesn’t disappoint the listener with his usual blend of noise. Although it must be said that it seems to me that Marhaug this time works more with field recordings, nicely covered up inside a barrage of noise elements. Not always easy to recognize, but if one pays close attention there is the sound of streets, airports and such like: noisy places to make more noisy music. Feedback and distortion are as always loud and clear present, but in the hands of Marhaug it makes good company. Merzbow is king, Marhaug is the heir to his throne. (FdW)
Address: http://www.quasipop.org
SILK SAW – 8 REPORTS (CD by Ant-Zen Recordings)
11th shot from this Belgian project called Silk Saw, is a pretty unusual work, – and a very fascinating work indeed! Silk Saw, consisting of the two composers Marc Medea and Gabriel Severin, has been active as Silk Saw since 1996. On this latest album, the sound equipment counts synthesizers, drum-computers and six-string guitars. This combination ends up with a result that is best described as spacey jazz meeting weird breakbeats and subtle noises reminding of a mixture between the intelligent breakbeat-textures of breakbeat-specialist Squarepusher and some freaked-out psychedelia expressions memorizing the golden days of krautrocking Faust. The eight works is very exaggerating mixtures of subtle noise layers operating underneath nocturnal sounds of guitar-artistry, sometimes deep drones of the strings other times melancholic jazzy riffs added some waving organ sounds and complex rhythm textures. Imagine how an avantgarde jazz band of space invaders gigging in some smoky Jazz club on planet Mars would sound like. Does that sound strange? It certainly is strange and highly original! (NMP)
Address: http://www.ant-zen.com
ORATORY OF DIVINE LOVE – PURGATORIO (CD by Waystyx Records)
SUKORA – SNOW DROP (CD by Waystyx Records)
Much what comes out of Russia are bootlegs with shaby covers. It’s a good thing to report that Waystyx Records aren’t bootleggers, but they have a great way of presenting their releases. Small editions (somewhere between 100-250 copies) but they are all real CDs, not CDRs. We got a whole bunch and only review the most recent ones, but worth mentioning are also the re-issue of PBK ‘Retro’, a former 3LP set on RRRecords and now as a four CD box, in a nice handmade (although it’s hard to tell) black box with a black print. The fourth CD has no music. Also worth mentioning are a double CD with re-releases of Brume’s old tapes and a 2004 CD by Christian Renou, formerly known as Brume, but in his new, more drone oriented style. Dutch veterans Vance Orchestra found their last release before dissolving on Waystyx too.
The most recent release is by Oratory Of Divine Love, which is a side project of Kirchenkampf’s John Gore. I remember from the previous release (see Vital Weekly 439) that all tracks were recorded in real time to DAT using radio as it’s source. I am not sure if that is also the case with this new one, but if so, Gore must have a mighty big set up to feed these radio sounds into. Perhaps he uses some analogue synthesizers to trigger the sounds, and then feeds them also through a whole bunch of sound effects. ‘Purgatorio’ (perhaps to celebrate the fact that the vatican no longer believes in it’s existence?) is one long piece of true deep drone music of a highly atmospherical kind. Very controlled, very dark. Not really cinematographic, this is more to played in the very dark and let your darkest thoughts come out. In terms of musical innovation nothing new under the sun, but it’s surely a great work, perhaps even the best that came out of the Gore residency.
Perhaps an odd ball in the catalogue of Waystyx, who in general deal with the more darker and noisier side of things, is the release by Sukora. This highly obscure sound project has released some very silent things in the past, such as a CD on Meme, and here present ‘Snowdrop’. As with all good things conceptual, my mind immediately goes out and thinks: ok, so Sukora recorded the falling of snow. In real time, edited, slowed down or sped up? Well, that is of course something we don’t know. As the information is of course nil as usual. I cranked up the volume all the way up and heard a highly obscure field recording. That might be the falling of snow indeed – at least if I remember that from years past when winter was a cold season. Twenty-six minutes of fascinating emptiness. Certainly not to be put away as easy listening. Conceptual art in optima forma and even enjoyable, although not something one puts on for random pleasure. (FdW)
Address: http://www.waystyx.com/releases.html
SINCABEZA – EDIT SUR PASSAGE AVANT FIN OU MONTÉE D, INSTRUMENT (CD by Distile Records)
SWIMS – Swims (CD by Distile Records)
Distile Records is an obscure french label, specialized in post-rock if these two releases are representative for their catalogue. Sincabeza is a trio of Eric Camara (bass), David Loquier (drums) and Philippe Ney (guitars). They have their roots in Bordeaux and got together around 2002. After their first CD released in 2005, they are now ready for their second one. Sincabeza is an all instrumental indie rock band closely related to the postrock-idiom.
I have to admit that the postrock fever never really catched me. It brings nightmares of endlessly long instrumental tracks to my mind. Music that is always surrounded by some dullness and the same minor chords. Sincabeza is however an positive exception. I must say they sound very fresh and convincing. They concentrate their ideas in short and compact tracks, that are intelligently structured and full of surprises. Melodious and fluid music that is played with great finesse. To conclude in french: chapeau!
Swims is an american duo by Paul Slack (bass) and Mark Rocha (drums) from Sacramento. Since 2004 they climb the stage and are developing themselves into an energetic live act. So as a duo they do not chose the easy way, as it is quite a job to create something really musically interesting and fulfilling with bass and drum only. I guess they do not completely succeed in this on their 6 track ep. Although the musicianship is respectable – especially the bassplayer is very capable – in the end it their music is not a satisfying experience, lacking more bandmembers and interesting material. (DM)
Address: http://www.distilerecords.com/
FRANK ROTHKAMM – MOERS WORKS (CD by Monochrome Vision)
DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE – COLLABORATIONS (2CD by Monochrome Vision)
LT. CARAMEL – EARLY TAPE WORKS (2CD by Monochrome Vision)
MAURIZIO BIANCHI & SIEGMAR FRICKE – STROMA-KONKRET (CD by Monochrome Vision)
More from Russia on the Monochrome Vision label, who is specialized in bringing old masters from the 80s and 90s experimental music. Sometimes new work by them, but also old work. Frank Rothkamm is these days known for his synth based popmusic, but he started working with a reel to reel tape machine, radio, a phaser an EQ and started with overdubbing, looping, tape delay and thus created his first compositions at the age of sixteen. These are now to be found on ‘Moers Works’, named after the German city where he was then living. Known elements from classical and pop music leak through these collages of sound, giving it a highly plunderphonic feel. Despite his limit methods of sound production this sound remarkable good. Short and witty pieces of music, which made the ‘Rauschmittel’ remix from 1997, the longest track but also the one with his later synthesizer sounds, a bit superfluous. Very nice CD from somebody who I wouldn’t have thought of thinking about the past.
Somebody who has never bee away is G.do Hübner, who works since 1982 (or there about) as Das Synthetische Mischgewebe. Doing performance related works in the 80s and these is purely concerned with composing with sound. The musical collaboration is a really 80s thing, when people traded back and forth cassettes and others would rework them. However the collaborations on this double disc aren’t from the 80s but from the last decade and some of them were made ‘face to face’. Here the likeminded are people like ERG, Jörg Thomasius, Artificial Memory Trace, The Oval Language and TBC (a.k.a Thomas Beck). Throughout the years the music of Das Synthetische Mischgewebe evolved from industrial (although never really totally harsh) to sound collage along the lines of the serious musique concrete composers. ‘Merzbow meets Pierre Henry’ was once said, and that may sort of cover the ground for the work. Pretty stark sound collages is what is being produced here, although listening to this in one go is perhaps a bit much.
Also Lt. Caramel has been around for a long time, but I sincerely do not recall when we last saw a release by them. Them I say, although Lt. Caramel is the work of one person, Philippe Blanchard. He uses a lot of voices so it’s valid to state Lt. Caramel is a band. The music of Lt. Caramel are best described as ‘movies for the ears’. The microphone tells us a story. Blanchard uses the techniques of musique concrete – manipulation of tape through looping, slowing down, speed up, backwards playing – but on the works captured on ‘Early Tape Works’ things are much more crude and raw than it would be later when much of the work was done in ‘real’ studios. Some of the voices reminded me of Nurse With Wound with Crystal Belle Scrodd, and throughout there is a strong element of Nurse With Wound, HNAS or Brume to be noted. Like said, this doesn’t have the same subtleness of the works that would come later, but it surely still has its charm. Not a collection to play in one go, but surely a fine overview of the early works.
The last new release on Monochrome Vision is indeed a new release. It’s the second work by Maurizio Bianchi and Siegmar Fricke, following ‘Muitnelis’ (see Vital Weekly 562. Here Fricke gets the full credit. The work here is dedicated to Pierre Schaeffer, the founder of musique concrete, but it’s a bit hard to understand why. Fricke and Bianchi use many electronic sounds, although in the subtitles things are mentioned such as ‘sensotisches Klavier’ and ‘piano edematosa’, which both probably (!) refer to the piano. They use loops of all kinds of electronic sounds, set against a longer wash of synthesizer sounds. It is not as collage like as some of the Schaeffer works, but also it seems to me a bit unfocussed. Things carry on a bit too long, without much sense of direction. Vaguely ambient, but it doesn’t lull the listener to sleep. Things keep uptight and desolate. It’s ok, but not really great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monochromevision.ru
DAVID KRISTIAN – GHOST STOREYS (CD/DVD by Cocosolidciti)
LIMMAT – MUNICIPAL 44 (CD/DVD by Cocosolidciti)
On the Cocosolidciti label two new combinations of film and music, spread out of a CD and a DVD. The first is by David Kristian, who as of now will only do soundtracks for films (a nice introduction card this release), who is responsible for the music and Ryosuke Aoike who did the DVD part. Kristian is perhaps best known for his more beat oriented music, but also some more deeper ambient outings. ‘Ghost Storeys’ clearly falls music wise in this latter category, perhaps no doubt with such a title. Many deep ambient washes, and highly obscured objects falling to the floor and other deep end bass thumps, this is indeed highly creepy music. I’d use the word ambient with some caution, since it’s not music to put the listener in a nice, relaxed state, but this is indeed soundtrack music that works well by just itself. But the animations made by Aoike surely fit the music quite well. Girls in hospitals, buildings with bats or animals, and other creep filled desolation. Haunting stuff, both in visual and in audio content.
Unlike Kristian and Aoike, Limmat are the musician and the filmmaker working together. The musician is Ian Heywood and the filmmaker is Graham Clayton-Chance. This is more straight forward stuff than the previous Kristian release. Heywood plays intelligent techno music, and Clayton-Chance produce exactly the kind of image that would fit such music. Abstract patterns, dealing with architecture mostly, but to me, the uninitiated, it all looked a bit too regular. The music was also ok, but Limmat didn’t have the same impact as Kristian. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cocosolidciti.com
JONATHAN COLECLOUGH & ANDREW LILES – TORCH SONGS (2LP/CD on Die Stadt)
JOHN WATERMANN – CALCUTTA GAS CHAMBER (LP by Die Stadt)
Silence, please: drone meisters at work. Not the most unknown, or maybe even the superstars of the lot. Jonathan Coleclough has built a fine oeuvre of work, in which the collaborations with others plays an important role. Andrew Liles is these days a member of Nurse With Wound and travels around now that the Nurses are a live act. Still he finds time to create many, many solo works, such as a twelve CD series for Beta Lactam-ring. And to work with Jonathan Coleclough. The cover suggests that the works were recorded in concert, but perhaps not. Liles’ characteristic synthesizer and reverb are present, and Coleclough brings in the use of contact microphones, field recordings and computer manipulation. Careful drone material, that doesn’t just swell on a bunch of deep end bass drones (listening to the sea again, as a friend of mine once called this), but there is more happening than just that. Water sounds, clay pots and such like are being used, which especially on side D gives a surprising piece. It was perhaps only last week when I wrote: “drone, where to now?” and perhaps as such this is not the way out, but it’s surely a great work. And like with so many of Die Stadt releases, the first few copies come with a CD, here a solo one by Coleclough. It starts out not unlike the collaboration with a few isolated sounds, which feed of eventually through some sounds effects or computer programming. A bit more austere and less dense than the 2LP set, but certainly a great concert. Clocking at twenty-six minutes, this also has the perfect length for a good concert.
It may seem a bit odd to review ‘Calcutta Gas Chamber’ again, as it was already reviewed by Niels Mark in issue 559, which was already a re-issue of a CD from 1993. The sheer fact that this is the picture disc edition of the Cold Spring CD may serve a short review from my part. Watermann, who passed away in 2002, at the age of 67, didn’t produce a large body of work during his lifetime, but was always keen to explore new methods. Sampling was his big love, either rhythmically in his early work or densely layered in his later work (although the work he had planned when he died showed an interest in rhythm again). The unsettling nature of ‘Calcutta Gas Chamber’, which uses field recordings made from gas chambers in Calcutta, which were active until the 1980s, makes this work a particular standout in his oeuvre. It’s not a surprise that it is now re-issued on CD and vinyl. There is no much to add to the previous review, as I very much agree with the opinion that this is a highly black and bleak ambience record that depicts the horrors of the site. Beautiful cruelty on a picture disc. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadt.de
ELECTRIC WEST – DRAWIN PLANS FO DELICATE EVASION (CDR by Boltfish Recordings)
The man behind Electric West is one Pat Benolkin from Idaho, USA. He has been playing music since 1997, first as a DJ and since 2001 as a musician. As Eluder he plays ‘lush, melodic ambient music’, but I must say that Electric West already sounds pretty ambient to me. A hotbed of synthesizers lay down a carpet of thick warm sounds, and on top the rhythm ticks away in loneliness the bars. Between those two ends, there is a likewise lonely bass that thumps and stumps, but everything goes in a very laidback mode. Hurry doesn’t exactly exist in the Electric West. His music is like driving to a large but empty town, late at night, with lights flickering everywhere but all of this at a very slow speed. Still no hurry to get anywhere. Even when it’s all relaxing, Electric West doesn’t put the listener to sleep, he puts the listener in a trance like state – one of never wanting to sleep or wake up again. It’s very nice music, but at the same it’s of course not something that has been entirely new or fresh. But it’s quite alright, altogether. (FdW)
Address: http://www.boltfish.co.uk
JASPER LEYLAND – FIELDSTONE (CDR by Benbecula Records)
‘Fieldstone’ is the second release by Jonathan Brewster, who choose the name Jasper Leyland to go by. Just as on ‘Margin’ (see Vital Weekly 529) Leyland plays zither, acoustic guitar, melodica, field recordings all of which go straight into the computer where he transforms them into the finished pieces that he releases. To perhaps a bit lesser extent than before he uses now more real acoustic elements and less glitch elements, but otherwise it’s not easy to state the difference between ‘Fieldstone’ and ‘Margin’. Throughout it’s still warm, gentle music that doesn’t have any sudden changes or surprise elements, but stays on one level. Glitch ambient in optima forma. Like one can find on labels such as 12K and Apestaartje and tons of weblabels. Leyland may not do something drastically new but he delivers another fine work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.benbecula.com/
Y-TON-G – ROSTFRESSER (CDR by Terminal Tape Production)
Y-TON-G – RAUEISEN (CDR by Terminal Tape Production)
Y-TON-G – WEITERE KLANGALCHYMISTISCHE EXPERIMENTE (CDR by Terminal Tape Production)
Over the years, the name Y-Yon-G, named after a blend of concrete, popped up in Vital Weekly but on a very irregular schedule. Some ten or so years he seemed to make the leap towards ‘real’ CDs, but it didn’t really happen. I have may have an idea why. Pieces by Y-Ton-G are long, very long. On the three CDRs here, none of the pieces clock in under twenty minutes and since much of the material is generated through improvisation, it’s not always strong. In some ways Y-Ton-G is alike Kapotte Muziek: scraping the dirt to generate sound and pick them up with contact microphones, but whereas Kapotte Muziek by now switched off all electronic devices to further process, they play a big role in the music of Y-Ton-G. Delay and reverb are his favorites. Since it’s usually the work of one man, with two hands, it might be a necessary thing to do. But since he can’t touch many more objects that is about it. Metal on metal, stones, wood and such like are being carefully scraped and played. There are small differences between these CDRs. The most complete Y-Ton-G sound can be found on ‘Rostfresser’, which is alike a complete concert by him, with scraping and rotating sounds. ‘Raueisen’ is more fragmented and scattering through the pieces. ‘Weitere Klangalchymistische Experimente’ seems to be including field recordings of a highly obscure kind, alongside the contact microphone stuff. This last one is certainly the most quiet sounding, but all three aren’t really loud.
Worth mentioning also is the activities as Noise Factory, in which Y-Ton-G invites a whole bunch of musicians to stay for a week in a farm and create music together. It’s a yearly activity somewhere around Hamburg. A pity though that the documentation arrives late (I just received the one from 2002!). (FdW)
Address: http://www.y-ton-g.de
CROATAN ENSEMBLE (CDR by 1000+1 Tilt Recordings)
PS STAMPS BACK – OF LOSS AND THE SPIRALS OF TIME (CDR by 1000+1 Tilt Recordings)
Behind the Croatan Ensemble with find Bill Kouligas of Family Battle Snake and Iason of PS Stamps Back. They sat down far a day to record this, which was later edited into the five tracks now on the release. Its a kind of work which have heard by Ianos before, with others or solo. Playing around with computer technology he sorts of hits upon something that is a very nice cross over between noise, microsound and even vaguely bits of minimal rhythm music. However things never get out of hand in the noise field, and never drops below -20 db in the microsound section nor does it get danceable. The appearance of Kouligas makes this at times a bit more noisy, but throughout the pieces develop in a strict linear way, and the pieces can hold the attention throughout. Quite nice.
Before rushing out on a new tour through Europe, Iason recorded another solo CDR to be sold on the road (and afterwards of course), using his beloved audio mulch software, as well as guitar, bass, contact microphones and such like. It has become a lengthy release, and to be honest perhaps a little too rushed to be good. Pieces are highly psychedelic, thunder ahead, but do not always have enough variation to hold the attention throughout. A pair of scissors to edit the material would have been handy. Much of the material is along the work he records with Cities In Desolation – ambient industrial sound fields of a more desolate kind. Nice, but it could have been better. (FdW)
Address: http://www.titlrecordings.org
GREG DAVIS & JEPH JERMAN & ALBERT CASAIS – 6X20 (2CDR by Winds Measure Recordings)
TING TING JAHE – 18 (16) (2CDR by Winds Measure Recordings)
Just as before, the covers are again great for these Winds Measure Recordings (see Vital Weekly 559), and in one case we get a recurring cast, but now expanded. Jeph Jerman and Albert Casaid (formerly the latter worked as Omnid) here present a new work of six pieces of twenty minutes. In each piece on disc one one specific sound source is used. There is water, leaves and bamboo. On second disc each of the players choses their own sound sources and and none knew what the other did, until it was mixed. Jeph and Albert worked together, and send their tapes to Greg who added his parts. If one is aware of the work by Jerman in the last ten or so years, you know you are treated with silent music. Rubbing, pushing and scraping his objects, he never makes big waves, but rather wants the listener to listen. In concerts he uses no amplification and can only play for a small group of people. In these trio recordings the same thing is done: careful and silent music, of touching the sound sources delicately. It’s hard to believe that some parts were not recorded together, since it all sounds very united, a homogenous thing, almost like a direct live recording of an event. Perhaps not be played in one go, these two hours, but it’s certainly a great CD.
The name Ting Ting Jahe is new to me, and I have absolutely no idea what he does on his release. There are eight tracks, lasting just over half an hour. It could be that he plays a wind instrument in a true onkyo style, but then I also think there are either shortwave sounds or field recordings. It’s all a bit difficult to tell. It’s not silent per se. Some of the pieces are quite loud, but of course not really noise like. It’s a strange release, defying categories, but it’s surely a fascinating disc, one that leaves room for interpretation. What is it that he does? Does he improvise? Does he play an electro-acoustic composition? A strange but captivating release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.windsmeasurerecordings.net
MACHINEFABRIEK – ZINK (3″ CDR by Cut Hands)
More and more Machinefabriek music. The cover is of course out of sink and it’s something a bit new for Machinefabriek. Until now his releases were either studio recordings or live recordings, but ‘Zink’ is ‘based on a live performance […] edited and processed at home. It’s also the first CDR release by him on another label than his own (well, in his vast amount, I think so!). The music is a common place by now for Machinefabriek: slowly building up this piece with the extensive use of the guitar and effects, creating a dense patterns of sound. Highly moody in approach, but that is these days the thing for Machinefabriek. And now it sort of breaks to release so many works: there is a tendency that they all sound the same a little bit. The differences between the last five or so releases by Machinefabriek are only marginal. Which is a pity. Maybe Machinefabriek should be a little more critical as to how and what is released. But with a nice cover, that is true. (FdW)
Address: http://www.freewebs.com/cuthands
PLAINS – UNDERGROUND (3″CDR by CLaudia)
The big band is popular: Mimeo or Freq_out are well-known and much bigger than New Zealand’s Plains, which is band with Tim Coster (field recordings, computer), Richard Francis (computer), Rosy Parlane (computer), Mark Sadgrove (feedback, linux csound), Clinton Watkins (samples) and Paul Winstanley (feedback). As far as I know, they come together to play live music, and ‘Underground’ is such a concert, from june last year. It’s a highly atmospheric piece of music. One could all too easily think things would be rather noise related, but these gentleman know how to be in control of their sounds. Things hiss and crack, and float by, even when two are created with feedback it’s still an achievement to be so quiet and controlled. Somehow I don’t think they will be on tour pretty soon, which is a pity, since I wouldn’t mind seeing this live once. (FdW)
Address: http://www.halftheory.com/claudia/
ANLA COURTIS – H-PUNA (3″CDR by Generator Sound Art)
Not really the most recent recorded work, this three part suite by Anla Courtis. It was recorded in 1998 and ‘processed and mixed’ in 1998-1999, but only just released by Generator Sound Art. The solo work of Courtis is heavy, not exactly in the noise sense of the word, but just heavy. What it is that he does, the cover doesn’t give any information, could perhaps just be something very simple, like recording a dish washed and process that sound. Or stick a microphone outside a driving car, and record the wind. That sort of heaviness. A strong but highly minimal sound. Moving slowly. Hard to say wether the changes are accidents or incidents. But surely fascinating enough. It’s short and powerful, not a second too long or too short. Very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.generatorsoundart.org
SHINKEI – BINAURAL BEATS (3″CD by Shin)
Shin is a new label, connected to the Italian mailorder Microsuoni. Shinkei is their first artist and for ‘Binaural Beats’ he downloaded brainwave software from the net. ‘Such signals are said to obtain brainwave synchronization, to connect one’s brainwaves to a desired frequency by means of a periodic stimulus. The stimulus can be aural as in the case of binaural beats, or visual (dreamachines)’. In these compositions beta and alpha frequencies were used, ‘commonly associated with cerebral states of active concentration, alertness and superlearning’. I am not sure why this is all so terribly soft. Is that something that is also connected to this whole brainwave thing? Or is Shinkei afraid of speaker damage? If you turn up the volume all the way, a very low bass unfolds and very high end peeps. It is quite nice, but it is required a lot of attention. Not just because it’s not ‘easy’ to hear, but also due to its softness. However I think the pieces were a bit unfocussed, like they were part of a learning/trying out process. (FdW)
Address: http://www.microsuoni.com
HENNING LUNDKVIST – DOKUMENTATION01NOV06 (MP3 by Inaktiv)
Hailing from Sweden, Henning Lundkvist is a text sound artist. Although there is a lot of text on his website, it’s a bit hard to tell what it is that he does. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that the CDR release (which is now sold out but it can be downloaded from the website below) which is a bit of an odd affair. It was recorded in Malmö, Cluji, Dublin and Gotheburg and contains large portions of street sounds and other field recordings (which were not always recorded too well). But also there is a funny text about vacuum cleaners. In the second half there could be something that sounds like vacuum cleaners. But I thought it was not easy to know what the relationship is between all these sounds. Is there one? Is there no connection. Should it be seen as separate pieces or is there an overall story? It’s nice to have something to puzzle, but it leaves a big questionmark here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.inaktiv.net/
LISBETH OG BENT/JENS ROBOT (Mp3 by Noisejihad Live)
WALDCHENGARTEN/RESPIRATOR (MP3 by Noisejihad Live)
NOISEJIHAD FESTIVAL (MP3 by Noisejihad Live)
ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI & DANNY KREUTZFELDT (MP3 by Noisejihad Live)
DANNY KREUTZFELDT – ABRUPTION (3″CDR by Tib Prod)
RUMFORSKNING – LIVSTEGN (CDR by Dataobscura)
Music by Danny Kreutzfeldt has been reviewed before, mainly his various releases through Data Obscura and Databloem. He is also an active member of Noisejihad from Denmark, a community of musicians who put on concerts, not just by themselves but also others. Since 2005 they also release recordings of these concerts on their website under the banner of Noisejihad Live. This bunch is just a selection. There is the music by Lisbeth Og Bent (whereas ‘og’ means ‘and’) who played on the night of the 4th of October a set of heavy breakcore beats. Thunderous loud drum & bass rolling on the floor. They are on the same label as Jens Robot, being Illphabetik, and Robot plays similar music to that of Lisbeth Og Bent.
Similarly loud and heavy, although he uses a bit more samples from voices. In a totally different corner, and perhaps a bit more interesting was the night of September 23rd when Waldchengarten played. They have been featured in Vital Weekly before and now they are a laptop duo playing some of their ‘Distractions’ album live. That is pretty strong dark and moody ambient, which is not unlike their very fine Cds. Also here is a short, and again a bit a similar to the other, piece by Respirator, for ‘laptop, trumpet and mineral water’. This is a more worked out live event than the previous one.
In November 2006 there was another evening of which only some was recorded, with some parts only filmed (check out the website, I’d say), but one Christian S. (feat Tone) played a nice, very relaxingly calm concert. Ambient glitch with lots of static crackles and gliding, vague sound tapestries. Quite a relief after some of the violence, which is being picked up again by Eske Norholm on his laptop, but unfortunately not of the better kind. That night there was also the first solo concert by Dennis H, one half of Waldchengarten, with a subtle and quiet piece for guitar, pedals and laptop. Also Interzone were quite nice that night.
Another night, a month before that Zbigniew Karkowski rocked his laptop together with Danny Kreutzfeldt, and in the first piece it certainly rocks, although it makes nice bumps here and there. According to Danny in the second piece ‘the laptop generating sound on its own’ and much to my surprise that was a rather mellow piece for Karkowski standards.
Danny still has to time to create music at home, and ‘Abruption’ is the third part in a series and finds him in rather harsh territories, with a twenty minute howl of wall to wall noise. But it was a rather good blast, with enough variation and odd changes to make an eyebrow raise (or perhaps it was the thunder). Nothing new under the noise sun, but done rather o.k.
Lastly there is Rumforskning, an ongoing collaboration between Kreutzfeldt and Mads Weitling. No noise here, but atmospheric ambient from the world of digital music. Software synthesizers, mechanical banging and perhaps at times too much reverb to be good, this is a sort of Werkbund going digital and with much shorter tracks. It’s o.k, though not really great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.noisejihad.dk
Address: http://www.tibprod.com
Address: http://www.databloem.com
Correction: The Korber/Schurer release on Balloon & Needle reviewed last week, is not the first release on that label. In fact it’s number 17, and the first 16 always contain musicians from Korea.