SKIF++ – NEXT (CD by Creative Sources Recordings) *
DOPLHINS INTO THE FUTURE – THE MUSIC OF BELIEF (CD by Release The Bats) *
BEN FLEURY-STEINER – KEEP A WEATHER EYE OPEN (CD by Infraction Records) *
PARKS – [HIDDEN] (CD by Infraction Records) *
CONCERT SILENCE – 9.22.07 (CD by Infraction Records) *
HALL OF MIRRORS – FORGOTTEN REALM (CD by Silentes) *
K11 – WAITING FOR THE DARKNESS (CDR by Afe Records) *
MATHIEU RUHLMANN – AS A LEAF OR A STONE (CDR by Afe Records) *
PAPER AND PLASTIC (2CD compilation by Suitcase Recordings)
TALVIHORROS – MUSIC IN FOUR MOVEMENTS (CD by Hibernate Recordings) *
RYONKT – NORTH SMALL TOWN (3″CDR by Hibernate Recordings) *
IGNATZ – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat) *
VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED PERFORMING AS VIOSAC – DAWING LUMINOSITY (CD by VioSac) *
DJ DELAY – BRASS, WIRES AND BASS (CD by Beaming Productions) *
MEIENBERG – RAPID CYCLING (LP by Everest Records)
KAPOTTE MUZIEK – ASSEMBLAGE (2CDR by Lunhare)
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – ANY DAY NOW SECRETS (CDR by The Terminal Kaleidoscope) *
EDWARD KA-SPEL & ALENA BOYKOVA – RED SKY AT NIGHT (CDR by The Terminal Kaleidoscope) *
THE SILVERMAN – ELEMENTAL (CDR by The Terminal Kaleidoscope) *
X-NAVI:ET & }E{NIGMAPLASME – SLOPE/THE EXPERIENCE OF LOSING CONTROL (CDR by Eter Productions) *
HET FUKKING LICHT – KUTPLANEET (CDR by Narrominded) *
GUNTER MULLER & FEDERICO BARABINO – MERGING LAYERS (CDR by Triple Bath) *
MIKE KHOURY & RYAN JEWELL – SQUALL LINE BOW ECHO (CDR by Triple Bath) *
THOMAS BEY WILLIAM BAILEY – U.U.U.U. (cassette by Belsonic Strategic) *
SKIF++ – NEXT (CD by Creative Sources Recordings)
A laptop trio, this Skif++, consisting of Robert Van Heumen on a laptop playing LiSa, Jeff Carey (whom you may know as 87 Central, who plays with Super Collidor on his laptop)) and Bas van Koolwijk who plays with Jitter and is responsible for the groups’ visual side. They already had a CD release on Fridgesound (see Vital Weekly 627) and now there is a new one, simply called ‘Next’. If the word laptop trio scares you, thinking of microsound, careful crackles and minor beeps, then this is something you should investigate as its nothing like that at all. The first piece, cut into five separate pieces, explodes loudly in your face. A bumping collision of collidors and LiSa, with heavy bass end and noisy top end. Think Merzbow running on a random generator. A blast of laptop burning. Great, heavy weight noise, and words like carefull simply don’t apply here. That happens in ‘[Thinner]’, in which Skif++ expand their horizon and show us that they also know how to play a piece that is quiet as well as unsettling. Maybe a bit long as a whole this piece (lasting well over twenty minutes this one), but then such is the nature of improvised music. Using computers means also that there are repeating blocks of sound, so that the average listener – say the type who is not used to improvised music – has some form to hold on to. The final two pieces are excursions again into distinctly louder music again. This is not an easy work to digest, but certainly with some great untamed power. Sadly no visuals here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.creativesourcesrec.com
DOPLHINS INTO THE FUTURE – THE MUSIC OF BELIEF (CD by Release The Bats)
It was a good idea of the Release The Bats label to add their ‘RTB Newsletter #1’ with their CD release they just send me. Is this cover a mis-print, or is there something seriously wrong with my sight? I think the first (its art probably). I can barely make out this is a CD by Doplhins Into The Future, the title and the two track titles, but the other liner notes are hard to read. Two long tracks here. The first is entirely synth based, it seems, with bubbling, water-like sounds, or is it bird like sounds?, which works actually quite well. Hypnotic, trance-like, spacious: meditation music for sure. Lieven Martens, the man behind Dolphins Into The Future, likes his theosophy, as it is based on Madame Blavatsky. The second piece, even two minutes longer is ‘a companion to the 7 stanzas of Dzyan’ (and this divided into seven pieces) and more spacious synth music. If cosmic music made a return, and surely to some it did, then it did so here. Minimal synth patterns, bits of rhythm (maybe from processed rain sounds, or so it seems). Its here that some tracks are a bit long (which seems strange after that thirty minute opening piece) and could be edited a bit more. But its surely music to float away by. Quite nice chill out music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.releasethebats.com
BEN FLEURY-STEINER – KEEP A WEATHER EYE OPEN (CD by Infraction Records)
PARKS – [HIDDEN] (CD by Infraction Records)
CONCERT SILENCE – 9.22.07 (CD by Infraction Records)
No doubt I said this before, but for me Infraction Records is the true successor to Silent Records as the leading label for ambient music in the USA. Its not too strict with its definition of ambient – as these three new releases will proof – and the packaging is excellent (actually much better than the old Silent releases). The first release is by someone who also runs his own label, Gears Of Sand (say Infraction’s little brother of ambient music on CDR), with a release that deals with ‘water’, oceanic music. The music is a fine combination of long, sustaining sounds, experimental percussive sounds and some more angular sound debris, like deep sea undercurrents. The press text reads about Titanic and ongoing playing orchestra’s on that ship while sinking and perhaps the synthesizers here the role of the ‘sea’ and the percussive sounds all those objects sinking towards the surface of the sea. Maybe that’s all a bit too obvious? Then that is too bad. Fleury-Steiner delivers a mighty fine soundtrack to such as a scheme, and its nothing like that other work with the same subject. His lush, refined patterns are top of the line ambient music, chopped into fine slices. Not too much, not too small.
One Parks comes from a different end into the world of ambient music. I have no idea who he is, but his music seems to be more from the end of popmusic. Rhythms play an important role in his music, but they are not overtly complex. Just a few simple glitches, looped around. He adds the washes of synthesizers, like all good ambient composers but his main addition comes from the occasional use of ‘vocals’. They mumble , or perhaps whisper (depends on you wish yo perceive such matters) and feed through a vocoder plug in. It adds a nice, somewhat odd end to the music, which becomes effectively some kind of dream pop. At times long dream pop, such as in the seemingly never ending ‘Light On Mountain’. Great mood music for a rainy day. Lots of space, created through the use of reverb (sadly in some cases), but overall done in a great way. Quite a nice CD throughout.
Matthew Cooper, also known as Elevation, teams up with Charles Buckingham. Both are from Portland and they work with live sound manipulation, as sketched out in a diagram on the CD. The main instrument seems to be the piano here. The piano and its treatments have a long tradition in the world of ambient music, starting with Satie’s ‘Furniture Music’, Harold Budd’s work with Brian Eno and then since a couple of years all the people following in that tradition. No doubt the work as heard here was played on September 9th 2007 in one go. However the outcome here with Concert Silence is not as classical ambient as that by say Eno/Budd or Fennesz/Sakamoto, to mention two that more people will recognize. Concert Silence play some highly interesting pieces of music, in which sounds roll about, occasionally even in a noisy fashion, but also dream like and stretched out, as would be expected with things like this. Quite a daring release that stretches beyond the boundaries of ambient music, and in that respect the best out of three. The other two are great, but within what ambient music is. Concert Silence step out of the strict scene of ambient music and offer perhaps something bigger, something where ambient, improvisation and even a bit of noise find a place. Excellent. (FdW)
Address: http://www.infractionrecords.com
HALL OF MIRRORS – FORGOTTEN REALM (CD by Silentes)
K11 – WAITING FOR THE DARKNESS (CDR by Afe Records)
MATHIEU RUHLMANN – AS A LEAF OR A STONE (CDR by Afe Records)
Andrea Marutti is a busy man. Besides playing music as Amon and Never Known, he runs the Afe Records label, helps out people with mastering skills, and records various projects with other people. One such project is Hall Of Mirrors, which sees him teaming up with Giuseppe Verticchio – sometimes known as Nimh. For their first release they invited Giulio Biaggi and Daniela Gheradi, and for ‘Forgotten Realm’ they work with Andrea Freschi (Subinterior, Konau, Canaan) and Andrea Ferraris (Ur, Sil Muir, Airchamber 3). The cover lists a variety of instruments: samples, turntables, treatments, audio montage, guitar, samples, effects, field recordings and khlui (Thai flute). The recordings for this album were already finished in October 2007 and now finally see a home. If all of these names of all these projects mean something to you, and why shouldn’t it since they were all reviewed in Vital Weekly at one point or another, then you probably have an idea where to place this: in the world of drones. Dark, atmospheric drone music. Built around loops of sounds of which we not recognize any origins, heavily treated with lots of sound effects. Every now and then we hear a guitar coming in, which add to the ambient character of the music. Its music that I like quite a bit from a private point of view. Objectively speaking its however something I should admit that isn’t bringing much new to the world of drone music. Marutti and his friends have capable hands in producing such fine music, but if you were looking for the real shift in this music than its not here. Having said that I can finish of the review and play the CD again, not having to worry about a review anymore.
Two new releases on Marutti’s Afe Records. Only two weeks ago I first heard the name Pietro Riparbelli, a.k.a. K11, with his excellent release recorded with Philippe Petit. K11 works exclusively with radio sounds, but also lots of sound effects. The work here started as an action ‘of instrumental transcommunication with short wave radio receivers. It was performed in a forest during the night.” The five tracks are divided over frequency ranges, 30Khz, 70 Khz, etc. The first two are great textured pieces of ambient industrial sounds. But then ‘300 Khz – 11:00 pm’ is a pretty noise based affair and I must say I didn’t like it that much. In the two pieces that follow the noisy elements slowly disappears, but never is really away, although in ’29 Mhz – 01:00 am’ the noise is just a nice strong wind sound. There is also a video on the disc, which doesn’t explain much more. I hoped to see some radio’s lines up in a nocturnal forest, but instead we see someone running with torch through the woods. Its probably with the intention to look spooky but it looks rather naive I think. That may be said of the entire release. Its not bad, but also not really good. K11 knows what he’s doing, he’s does this music with some consideration, but he also takes a bit too much time to get his message across, and that has room for some rethinking.
Mathieu Ruhlmann is of course someone whom we know from his releases on Mystery Sea, Spekk, Unfathomless, Taalem, Gears Of sand and many others. ‘As A Leaf Or A Stone’ is his second album for Afe Records. For this release Ruhlmann uses a lot of sound sources and per track he lists them. We see listed a coffee grinder, ukelin, e-bow, moss, denture cleaner, bubble wrap, dried plant, cactus, speaker and gate (and that’s just the opening track!). He plays these sources, records them and layers them together, at least that’s assuming he doesn’t play all these sources with two hands at the same time. He records them, I guess, with contact microphones and an open microphones. The gain is very much alive here, so there is occasionally some feedback leaking through here. That adds a strange component to the highly acoustic music. Ruhlmann plays his stuff with great care. His music is open, spacious, but also intimate. The quiet rumbling of objects, the leak of outside sound events on the recording (as opposed to pre recorded field recordings) reminds me of Jeph Jerman or Kapotte Muziek, although Ruhlmann’s plate is a bit more filled with sound than the latter. An excellent release of highly imaginative music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.aferecords.com
PAPER AND PLASTIC (2CD compilation by Suitcase Recordings)
The story of Paper and Plastic is just as interesting as the release itself. Suitcase started in 1982 with releasing music of a4 and from 1988 through 2000 they organized a numerous live events. After 12 years of silence Suitcase restarts as a CD label. Paper and Plastic is a two disc audio project that began in 1991 featuring rare and unreleased material by some of the most prolific and innovative sound/visual artists from the international experimental tape culture era of the eighties and nineties; Synthetische Mischgewebe, Yeast Culture, z.B.u.a., Achim Wollscheid, Small Cruel Party, Ios Smolders, Agog, Chop Shop, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Wash Your Brains, APPI, Kapotte Muziek, Emil Beaulieau, Inzekt, Native X, tac, Sudden Infant, Merzbow and All Fours.
A4 (All Fours) selected of all the audio and visual material and created the packaging design in collaboration with Incubator and Petri Supply. Abo of Yeast Culture silkscreened each individual. The original art includes 2 CDs inside a clear silkscreened dvd case, handmade inserts, a folio of original color silkscreened postcards and a 16 page booklet. The booklet looks like a catalogue of an exhibition/art event with a properly lay-out. The artworks are well created by a dada-action group, but the relation between the artwork and the booklet is far. Both kind of artworks are well done a more artistic design of the booklet makes the release more interesting. Back to the music…. In 1998 Suitcase organized an event at the Redlight Cafe in Atalanta and only 15 copies were available for sale during that evening. Unfortunately the copies were mastered at the wrong speed, so now it is time for a reset. The contributions at Plastic are interrupted by short noise cuts of about 6 seconds and Plastic gives a great summary of noise-musicians during that period. The building of the CD is well considered and tracks blend together. Only the track of Native X is a stranger between the others. The track is played on distorted guitars and recorded with low-profile equipment. Paper has more diversity and the “Rustle” of A4 is one of the most intimate tracks I have ever heard. The breaking and cracking of material, a dark soundlayer, the sound of crickets and the breathing through the nose of the musician are beautiful ingredients of this piece of music. The compilation is really a gain for the collectors and lovers of music during that period. (JKH)
Address: http://www.a4suitcase.com/
TALVIHORROS – MUSIC IN FOUR MOVEMENTS (CD by Hibernate Recordings)
RYONKT – NORTH SMALL TOWN (3″CDR by Hibernate Recordings)
Ben Chatwin is the man behind Talvihorros and the guitar, acoustic and electric, are his primary sources for music, but also adds organ, synthesizers, mandolin, radio frequencies and percussion. The cover looks like a design by Andrew Chalk, which might give you also a clue about the kind of music that is presented here – of course the label might drop the same hint. Ambient music with a big A and a big D of drone. Four long pieces of highly melancholiac guitar playing, feeding through loop devices and dark thoughts. The album is inspired by people drowning in water, which is perhaps not the most joyful thing to start a new day with. But Chatwin’s music is quite nice. Think a very mellow Fear Falls Burning, but then with lots of dark colors, predominantly grey and black. Its not the biggest surprise in the world of this kind of music, but Chatwin does his version with great consideration. Quite nice indeed.
Ryonkt is Ryo Nakata and has had already a couple of releases on various labels. He too is a man of ambient music. Its not clear, from the cover, what it is that he uses, instrument wise. It might very well be a guitar too, actually. Ryonkt’s music is not as dark as that of Talvihorros, in fact a bit more open and light but also with a metallic touch to it. Its not bad this one, but these four tracks sound a bit too ordinary for my taste, maybe like it was all put together a bit too much in haste, and lacks the refined that some of this and his music must have. Like said, not bad, but a bit too standard, and that’s no good in a crowded territory like this music is. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hibernate-recs.co.uk
IGNATZ – MORT AUX VACHES (CD by Staalplaat)
About five years ago, in Vital Weekly 490 I reviewed a CD by Bram Devens from Belgium, who works as Ignatz. A little bit later the recordings were made (December 2005) which are now being released on CD. I will stop speculating why this is. Devens plays the guitar, has a few pedals, including the loop station device, which allows him to repeat certain phrases. On top he adds a play on the guitar, by playing it with a bow, slide of simply more chords. Quite lo-fi, very (post-post) rock like and not something that made me thrill with excitement. Not really unpleasant to hear, but it didn’t much either. It didn’t grab me as a listener with some urgency to hear it. Its, I guess, just what it is. Somebody playing guitar, improvising his way and maybe that’s nice enough. Though I must say I like the lo-fi character of the cover! (FdW)
Address: http://www.staalplaat.com
VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED PERFORMING AS VIOSAC – DAWING LUMINOSITY (CD by VioSac)
Back in Vital Weekly 656 we were re-introduced to Violence And The Sacred performing as Viosac, the new name of what was once known as just Violence And The Sacred. Still I have no idea why they hold on to the addition ‘Performing As Viosac’, and not just simply return to the old name. ‘Rusty Pile’ wasn’t a convincing come-back album I thought. Perhaps a bit too much of an unedited jam-session. The CD after that ‘You Are PLanning To Enjoy The Apocalypse’ wasn’t received here. The new work ‘Dawing Luminosity’ is however a great work. Viosac move into a more ambient territory here, which not necessarily adds much to the world of ambient and drones, but the quality is great. Its one piece in three parts and I’m told its all analogue synthesizers and analogue processing. Very slow moves around here, this an almost perfect piece of surround sound, ambient in the very most true sense of the word. An excellent disc of some heavenly music. As said, it doesn’t add much, if anything at all, to what we already know about this kind of music, but its very rare that it unfolds into such a beauty. (FdW)
Address: http://www.viosec.net
DJ DELAY – BRASS, WIRES AND BASS (CD by Beaming Productions)
We live in rather confusing times, at least if you have reached my age. Being somewhat conservative, I would think that the physical object is the real thing, but here we have a reverse tactic. A real pro-pressed CD to promote a digital release. DJ Delay is one Brian May (not the guitarist who watches the stars) who mixes Balkan Beats together. Balkan Beats you may ask. Think lots of brass instruments and a dance beat. Gypses with a house. Think that well-known tune from the Borat movie (actually I hate that movie, but love that tune). DJ Delay mixes these together. We live in rather confusing times, I’d said it before. My exactly this should be ‘released’ simply eludes me, wether this is on Itunes or on a physical CD. Unless of course the intention is to get more work for DJ Delay. In that case, I, hardly a judge of DJ qualities, would say, go ahead and hire this guy. In his suitcase he has some nice Balkan tunes packed up and mixes them nicely. It gave me a pleasant hour. Wish it was Saturday night again, and could go to a club again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.beamingproductions.com/label
MEIENBERG – RAPID CYCLING (LP by Everest Records)
‘After many years Meienberg decided to go solo again’, it says on the press release. I have no idea where Meienberg was active, or why he decided to go solo again, but he did. Meienberg plays electronic music, and one that isn’t easy to put in a box. Technoish, 8-bit, melancholy, IDM, disco, great keyboards and all such like come by, seemingly all very easily. Ten tracks in total, so its indeed a LP and not a DJ tool to be mixed along with something else. Meienberg bounces all over the particular musical spectrum that has something to do with rhythm, which is present in one form or another in every track on this record. I must say I quite enjoyed this record, even though it seemed a bit out of place for Vital Weekly. Its I guess one of those pleasant records in a world usually filled with drones, microsound and field recordings. Nothing wrong with that. Meienberg sure knows how to entertain the listener. (FdW)
Address: http://www.everestrecords.ch
KAPOTTE MUZIEK – ASSEMBLAGE (2CDR by Lunhare)
In 1991 I started the Interpretation Serial released by Lor Teeps. The meaning of this series was that musicians make composition based on a theme like the characters E and O or based on a soundtrack. I was not the only one who was interested in this subject. Recycling music is one of the interests of Frans de Waard, member of Kapotte Muziek. In 1990 he started the Assemblage project.. The complete project with recordings of Kapotte Muziek is re-released by Lunhare. The Assemblage project started as a 7‰ as a compilation with SBOTHI, Yeast Culture, Ios Smolders and Kapotte Muziek. The meaning was that anyone can use the music and images for new material. Kapotte Muziek produced in this manner three cassettes. The C46 cassette ‘Ages Be Alms’ is based on the first 7″. The 26 short compositions show us the great variety how to deal with this basic music and to a enormous amount of interpretations. The compositions are very basic, not many layers and development in the composition, just pure sound in short tracks of about 1.30 minutes. A pleasant moment for the ears! The C30 tape ‘As Smega Bel‚ is based on the second 7″, a split by Amk 1990 and Gum.
The third tape “Clysisert‚ was released by Old Europa Cafe and is based on both 7” in 1993. During that period I was less active in the cassette-subculture and I remember Kapotte Muziek as a harsh noisy project and with the old Kapotte Muziek in my mind I was really surprised by this music. Especially the long tracks reminds me to music like Beequeen during that period, with atmospheric sounds, trancy loops and deep long soundwaves.
17 Years later Freiband, another project of Frans de Waard, remixed all the material. A cracky noisy distorted soundlayer is the base of this composition and deep in the background sounds where added and develop to high pitched noise and at the end faded away in fragments. Which composer will recycle this? (JKH)
Address: http://www.lunhare.net
THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – ANY DAY NOW SECRETS (CDR by The Terminal Kaleidoscope)
EDWARD KA-SPEL & ALENA BOYKOVA – RED SKY AT NIGHT (CDR by The Terminal Kaleidoscope)
THE SILVERMAN – ELEMENTAL (CDR by The Terminal Kaleidoscope)
Another release from the archives of The Legendary Pink Dots, harking back to 1987. A cross road year for the Dots. They already released a bunch of cassettes an vinyl and decided to go professional. They moved to Amsterdam and then later to Nijmegen. The recordings on ‘Any Day Now Secrets’ were the last they made in on UK soil. It was, I must admit, a time I didn’t hear much Pink Dots. I got stuck with cassette releases and my financial limitations prevented me to get all the vinyl. I got ‘Any Day Now’ later on CD, but its not a record that I know that well as say ‘The Lovers’ or, later ‘The Maria Dimension’. I dug it out again to play, along with these unearthed pieces from the sessions. The music is largely instrumental here and show the great craftmanship of the Pink Dots. These nine pieces have a great drive to them. Psychedelic of course and electronic for sure, but its also light of tone, with a bumping piano in ‘Adrenalin’, great arpeggio’s in the opening piece, or that great rhythmic and melancholia in ‘Shiver Me Timbres’, or just melancholic in ‘Engeltje’ (which Dutch title forecasts their future in the Netherlands?). Some pieces are mere ideas but this is another fine look in the working methods of a great band. Hopefully with more to come!
More recent are the two releases from the two main protagonists of The Legendary Pink Dots. Edward Ka-spel works with the missus here, Alena Boykova on a variety of pieces recorded over the last two years in Finland (where Boykova was living then) and The Netherlands (home of Ka-spel still). If you are aware of Ka-spel’s solo releases recently (‘Trapped In Amber’, ‘Devascapes’ for instance) you know that his solo work is quite far removed from the psychedelic popmusic of the Pink Dots. More experimental, mostly ambient, but at times also full of tension and anger (especially ‘Devascapes’). On ‘Red Sky At Night’ we find three long pieces, one quite short and one that is somewhere in between. Again the music here is more experimental but not as noisy as on that cassette release. Moody, build around field recordings of rain, analogue synthesizers, small percussion and some taped church organ. ‘Spook Mist’ is a very minimal track, very spooky as the title implies and simply an excellent piece of music. ‘Burning Church 2’, before that, seems a bit long and out of focus here and there. ‘The Nursery’ uses a few childrens toys and is nice counterpoint in this release. ‘Karis In The Fall’ is a mood music piece again and ‘Open’ the only one to use vocals. Great release, highly varied and not just for die-hard fans only.
The Silverman on the other hand has one long piece of music. It starts out with some sparsely orchestrated layers of synthesizer sounds, but then over the course of the piece, more and more elements come in. Either from more synthesizers, but more likely that of obscured field recordings and what seems to be analogue tape manipulations. ‘Elemental’ might not be a title that appeals to me (too Mike Oldfield I guess), but this work is a great one. Hypnotic, slow in development and minimal. There are three parts to be distinguished here, of which the second is the ‘loudest’ and the third is a real spooky closing piece. It could have cut into three different tracks, I think, perhaps for the sake of convenience. Its a beautiful piece of gorgeous drone music and like with Ka-spel’s solo work all miles apart from the work carried out with The Legendary Pink Dots. (FdW)
Address: http://www.terminalkaleidoscope.com/
X-NAVI:ET & }E{NIGMAPLASME – SLOPE/THE EXPERIENCE OF LOSING CONTROL (CDR by Eter Productions)
Behind the two extremely difficult names we find Jeff Gburek (electric guitar, effects) and Rafal Iwanski (analog filtermachine, sampler, effects, microphone and zanza). Iwanski calls himself X-naVI:et and is the co-founder of Hati and has recorded with various people such as Z’EV. Gburek calls himself }e{nigmaplasme (I mean what’s in a name, in either case?) and has played with Keith Rowe, Tetuzi Akiyama and a whole bunch of others from the field of improvised music. The two have been playing and improvising together for a few months which resulted in this disc. I must say I don’t like very much what I hear. Especially Gburek’s guitar playing is something I have great difficulty with. It seems as if he is showing off his many ways to play guitar solo’s, especially in the overlong ‘Overdrive The Moon’. When he brings his guitar into a more abstract territory, in ‘The Eaten And The Eliminated’ it becomes much more interesting. Quite psychedelic. Unfortunately this track is a lone rider in this journey. The final ‘Make A Solid Butter From The Batter’ tries to save it a bit, but sadly doesn’t work too well either. Not every improvisation should be released, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspaxce.com/xnaviet
HET FUKKING LICHT – KUTPLANEET (CDR by Narrominded)
Two unnamed musicians are behind Het Fukking Licht and represent the interest of Narrominded into improvised music. The two musicians don’t know what the other will bring to a recording session. Its also not mentioned on the cover of this highly limited (29 copies!) CDR and unlimited download release. To me it sounds a like a whole bunch of acoustic objects, contact microphones and sound effects. The three tracks go as one flow here. The start playing their objects and then slowly start adding various sound effects to the sound material. Sometimes perhaps a bit too much reverb is used, but throughout its alright. I am reminded at times of the old zoviet*france sound, with its (pseudo) ritualist meandering. Things bubble below the surface with some great underpinning tension. This is not the average improvisation music, mainly since its hard to recognize any of the instruments, but more like an interesting cross-over between improvisation, electronics and drone like music. Maybe here and there a bit too long, but throughout an excellent release. Should have been a bigger edition, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.narrominded.com
GUNTER MULLER & FEDERICO BARABINO – MERGING LAYERS (CDR by Triple Bath)
MIKE KHOURY & RYAN JEWELL – SQUALL LINE BOW ECHO (CDR by Triple Bath)
The two previous releases by Triple Bath have not been reviewed yet. The improvised nature of those I left in the capable hands of Dolf Mulder. It seems to me that, upon hearing these two new releases on Triple Bath, the label is more and more moving towards the direction of improvised music. First we have a release by the omni present Gunter Muller and his electronics and ipods and Argentinian guitar player Federico Barabino. Unlike many other releases by Muller this is not a recording from a concert situation, but in an exchange of sound files. In this case Barabino mailed Muller a bunch of sounds from his guitar playing and Muller played around with that, keeping in mind the improvised nature of the music. I must admit I am not blown away by the music. It sounds all a bit too randomly put together for my taste. There is a bunch of sound material on the table and that gets mixed up. A bit hard to keep one’s attention to it, I think. A bit more effort, please.
From Michigan hails Mike Khoury, who plays violin
and Ryan Jewell (from Ohio), a percussionist. Jewell has a background in noise, whereas Khoury comes from the free improvisation world. They have five pieces here, lasting just over twenty-four minutes. Now this is the sort of improvisation that goes down well here. Its a direct, in your face recording, of an adventurous conversation between two musicians. Khoury uses a bit of reverb on his violin, making this a bit more angular than the usual. Think C. Spencer Yeh like playing. Jewell works the metal ends of his percussion (metal, cymbals) to bring out high pitched sounds, occasionally augmented by the lower bass sound from the bassdrum or toms. Dissonant but captivating material going on here, and very lively, energetic music. Cut at exactly the right length: too short to be entirely satisfying, but long enough for the amount of energy it requires. (FdW)
Address: http://www.triplebath.gr
FRANK ROTHKAMM – BIRTH OF PRIMARY CINEMA FROM THE SPIRIT OF SOUND (DVD-R by Flux Records)
The third part in Rothkamm trilogy is a DVD release. Its looks a real film thing, and there are images on the thing. Which, knowing the conceptual odds and ends of Rothkamm, is perhaps a bit of a surprise. But its hardly a movie, I’d say. Each track contains a static image of life in the big city. Maybe Los Angeles, where Rothkamm lives? It comes with a ‘press text’, which hardly says more than I can understand, which, in this case, is not a lot. Its juts very hard to understand this particular release.
THOMAS BEY WILLIAM BAILEY – U.U.U.U. (cassette by Belsonic Strategic)
The ‘globalitarian’ war is a term invented by Paul Virilio and this cassette is the first ‘in a series of threnodies built’ from sounds of that war. Bailey gets his inspiration from the likes of Ake Hodell, Iannis Xenakis and ‘numerous accounts of post-traumatic stress from anonymous combatants’. It all sounds more heavy than it is, I guess. Bailey constructs an fine piece of classic electronic music, in the best sixties electronic studios tradition, along with some fine radiophonic tape montage of screams and gun shots, especially in the beginning and the end of the piece (its one piece only, repeated on the second side). A heavy montage of sound that works wonderfully well, even if you would choose to neglect the story given by Bailey. Noisy at times, but this is the kind of noise, intelligently put together, that I like. Bailey continues to deliver fine works in this field of music. (FdW)
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