ACCORDION (CD by Records Of Existence) *
RAFAEL TORAL – SPACE ELEMENTS VOL.II (CD by Staubgold)
SETH NEHIL – FURL (CD by Sonoris) *
YANNICK DAUBY – OVERFLOWS (CD by Sonoris) *
HASSLE HOUND – BORN IN A NIGHT (CD by Staubgold) *
PENJAGA INSAF – SAMA SADJA (CD by Loki Found) *
ARCTIC HOSPITAL – IN CHAOS (CD by Lantern Records)
MARTIN SCHULTE – ODYSSEIA (CD by Lantern Records)
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB – HAPPY HORSE (CD by Happy Prince) *
TAYLOR DEUPREE – SHOALS (CD by 12K) *
GIUSEPPE IELASI – TOOLS (CD by 12K) *
KEN IKEDA – KOSAME (CD by Spekk) *
FEDERICO DURAND – LA SIESTA DEL CIPRES (CD by Spekk) *
ARTURAS BUMSTEINAS – HEAP OF LANGUAGE (CD by B–lt) *
GEN KEN MONTGOMERY – BIRDS + MACHINES (CD by Pogus) *
MUU FOR EARS 2 (CD by MUU)
THE AMES ROOM – IN (CD by Monotype Records)
GREG MALCOLM & EUGENE CHADBOURNE – JAZZ SCHOOL (LP by Monotype Records)
ASTRALASIA – A COLOURED IN DREAM (LP by Tonefloat)
STANISLAV VDOVIN & OLGA SHAYDULLINA – ET_CETERA (CDR by Occasion) *
STANISLAV VDOVIN – SECOND VARIETY (CDR by Occasion)
MICHEAL PIERCEY – PARKING LOTS (CDR by Not On Label) *
GABRIEL PILLER – BATTERY (CDR by Not On Label) *
STASIS DUO (CDR by L’Inomable) *
FEVER SPOOR/GOVERNMENT ALPHA/THE HATERS/AN INNOCENT YOUNG THROAT-CUTTER – VERTIERTEN HORDEN (CDR by Suggestion Records)
FOR KINGS AND QUEENS – MARCHANTIOPYTA (CDR by Subterranean Sonic) *
HAMANN/MAURER/KINDERMANN – HONIGWAVE (CDR by Subterranean Sonic) *
ZERO CENTRIGRADE & FORMER_AIRLINE – SPIRITS AND VISIONARIES (CDR by Ripples Recordings) *
NICK HOFFMAN – ANIMA (cassette by Pilgrim Talk)
SATOSHI KANDA/NICK HOFFMAN (cassette by Pilgrim Talk)
ABORTION EVE – RAX (?) (cassette by Mrs (?) Tapes)
ACCORDION (CD by Records Of Existence)
Shy perhaps? Accordion’s self-titled debut release is announced as a EP, but its certainly a full length with nine tracks lasting some thirty-plus minutes. Accordion is Curt Seiss from Washington DC, who plays all the instruments himself. These include guitars, drums, marimba, accordion and home made instruments, along with vocals. All recorded by himself in his small home studio. Its great music, although hardly something we get a lot in Vital Weekly. Its dreamy, atmospheric popmusic. Sweet tinkling guitars, drums ticking away time, vocals are wordless singing/humming, the synthesizers finely woven below the surface. A bit post rock like, but shorter in approach, and also much sweeter in the way its worked out. Music that can serve as a soundtrack to a movie about vast landscapes, me thinks. Since I had not much else to play on a quiet day, I decided to keep this in rotation for a while. I played it front to back about four times before deciding I had enough. That probably says it all. Still, thinking this is hardly musical ground Vital Weekly covers, its a great CD of laidback sweet dreampop. Next time with real vocals and go out the full pop way. (FdW)
Address: http://accordionband.com
RAFAEL TORAL – SPACE ELEMENTS VOL.II (CD by Staubgold)
A new step in the Space Program of Rafael Toral. This program was launched in 2004, “questioning how to perform music in a post-free jazz mind-set, using strange sounds from electronic instruments.” In small line ups, ten musicians – one of them being Evan Parker – contribute by playing a diversity of acoustic instruments. Toral plays modified MS-2 portable amplifier feedback, modified MT-10 portable amplifier and delayed feedback resonance empty circuit and electrode oscillator with modular filters. The electronic sounds are very close in a way to the ones of acoustic origin. They make one fluid continuum. In most pieces acoustic sounds dominate. Track “II.VII” is an exception to this rule, this one seems of pure electronic origin. In eight very different pieces Toral and his collaborators explore their research on the borders of free jazz and ambient-like music. Resulting in a music that is very original and not to be reduced to free jazz, or any other known idiom. Because of the use of many instruments, a first thing that can be said is that it s is a very multicolored whole. The music is more about creating space then a lapse of time. It feels like being at strange, exotic places instead of being engaged in a dynamic process. For this reason the music lacks drama, pulse, groove, extraverted power. Which does not mean however that nothing is happening here. On the contrary. The pieces have clear musical structures full of subtleties. Toral shows a very personal style and power, and paints beautiful and unusual panoramas. (DM)
Address: http://www.staubgold.com/
SETH NEHIL – FURL (CD by Sonoris)
YANNICK DAUBY – OVERFLOWS (CD by Sonoris)
‘Furl’ is already the follow-up to last years ‘Flock & Tumble’ (see Vital Weekly 684) and continues his shift away from the field of drone music. Like it says on the press release ‘these compositions whip, crash, swoop, glide and burble’. The music of Seth Nehil has moved into the field of acousmatica. More than on the previous it seems to me that Nehil is working with real instruments (played by himself or others), which are transformed, thanks to the computer no doubt, but he cleverly stays away from the regular type processing that the schooled composers use. Instead he creates quite vibrant pieces of music that bounces off into various directions and moods. Even a quiet piece like ‘Hiss’ has this vibrancy, with slow changes in sound and volume. As said its not easy to recognize the instruments he uses (piano? guitar? percussion?), but he works with them in a great way. He’s now entirely away from the field recordings and drones and works in a modern classical approach. A piece like ‘Swarm’ sounds a stage piece with various voices from behind and slaps and bangs on the piano and percussion, with the addition of electronics making glissandi. Yet he has sprinkled the thing with his own magic – the sort of obscuring the sounds and that gives his music something of its own. Its hard to say what that is exactly, but it doesn’t sound like anything else, which is the best compliment a composer can get, I guess. Its by far the best Nehil CD I heard and a fine career move.
Yannick Dauby is not very well-known I guess, but by now he has a nice body of work which deal with field recordings. He is originally from the Mediterranean Alps but lives these days in Taiwan. ‘Overflows’ is just one track, which was already composed in 2005 and extended in 2006. The field recordings were made in Taiwan and in the surroundings of Saint-Nazaire, and consist, if I am correct with the devastating powers of water and overflowing of water, plus a great deal of wind sounds and a minority of city sounds. Its a fine work I must say… while I also have to admit that its the kind of work I have heard more than once in my life. Think a lot of Lopez music, although Dauby is throughout the more audible person, and working less with treated sound, or much closer, Eric LaCasa. Especially his work comes close to that of Dauby. Its that same type of sounds that he uses, a story like approach in composing it and the execution is pretty similar. So while I think Dauby does something great actually – all the right sounds, a fine composition, and such like – its also something that is well explored, by Dauby himself as well as by others. If you are new and think ‘what is music made with field recordings’ than this might be an excellent place to start. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonoris.org
HASSLE HOUND – BORN IN A NIGHT (CD by Staubgold)
We know Mark Vernon as one half of Vernon & Burns, the plunderphonics who do wonderful radio plays, but he’s also a member of Hassle Hound, a trio with also Tony Swain and Ela Orleans. Their previous release was ‘Limelight Cordial’ (reviewed in Vital Weekly 518. The instruments at their disposal are vocals, violin, toy instruments, guitar, keyboards, guitar, bass, samples, loops, keyboards and computer. With this new album, Staubgold carve their reputation a little bit deeper as a label for good quality popmusic. The opening ‘Oropendula’ is straight away a killer song. Its not easy to beat that. Hassle Hound play popmusic, but one that is a curious mixture of styles. The singing is most of the times folk like, but there are elements of electronica and laptop doodling around here too, no doubt thanks to Vernon’s input. Based on samples as well as playing their instruments themselves makes a very strange version of popmusic, but also a very coherent one. An unity in diverseness, if you can imagine such a thing. Laidback poptunes with no aggressive angle, but with lots of strange angles that make your eyebrows raise. A true pleasure this one, excellent summer music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.staubgold.com
PENJAGA INSAF – SAMA SADJA (CD by Loki Found)
Brussels’ label Ini.itu specializes in music that deals one way or the other with Indonesia, the land, the people, the nature. They should be paying attention to this release by Ingo Sauerbrey, who plays music as Penjaga Insaf. For years now he has been traveling to Indonesia armed with a recorder to tape original Indonesian music from puppet theatres, gamelan and such like, but also from countries such as Vietnam which he uses in his compositions. I didn’t study the booklet very hard when I started to play this and I thought at the beginning this was some kind of ambient act using lots of digital synthesizers and a bit of percussion and some heavily processed voices, but as the album progresses the field recordings become clearer and clearer. Sauerbrey reworks the recordings pretty neatly, not beyond recognition, so you always have a clear picture of what is going on. He mixes these together with a fine blend of digital synthesizers, borrowed from the world of ambient dance music. The whole thing is pretty densely layered and it seems like is something going on all levels at the same time. Probably just as colorful as traditional puppet play. An excellent release of highly imaginative music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.loki-found.de
ARCTIC HOSPITAL – IN CHAOS (CD by Lantern Records)
MARTIN SCHULTE – ODYSSEIA (CD by Lantern Records)
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB – HAPPY HORSE (CD by Happy Prince)
This bundle of three came in the same envelope with no descriptions or press texts. They are on different Japanese labels (it seems) but there are some slight similarities to be spotted. Eric Bray is Arctic Hospital and he plays the most accessible release of this lot. I am one to admit not to know too much about dance music – area commercial techno music. I find that scene very fragmented with all different tags with not enough variations to hold up these differences (deep house techno dub step and bass is now soooo hot, anyone?), but I guess the same might be said from any other musical genre. But I did like Arctic Hospital. Uplifting, minimal dance music, which carried me around the house while mopping up the floor. No doubt any DJ will complain its not on vinyl (oh, they don’t spin any vinyl any more these days? I am really out of the loop).
Then we have one Martin Schulte, who goes down and down. His form of dance music I sort of vaguely recognize from the time I was listening to music like this more than I do these days, I guess. Maybe Schulte hails from Cologne, and moves in Kompakt circles, or maybe half way a Chain Reaction with Berlin? His minimalist beats reminded me of some of the work of Wolfgang Voigt, say mixed spacious sounds found on old Chain Reaction releases (Monolake for instance). Following the mopping of the floor, this is the perfect release to drink a bit of coffee, read the morning paper and such like. Maybe eleven tracks in seventy minutes is all a bit long for coffee, newspaper, but you can always decide to stare out of the window for a while.
And just what is Neil Campbell doing in this lot? It was in the same parcel, but on a different label, Happy Prince, but musically speaking this is perhaps not far away from the previous two, except Campbell arrives at a different angle. He samples a drum loop from the classic techno song book, might even be just a bass thumb and then starts decorating this with a weird brand of psychedelic electronics. I imagine Campbell and friends (here John Clyde-Evans, Philip Smith, Paul Walsh and Stewart Keith) with a whole bunch of kaos-pads, analogue synthesizers and such like and go wild on that single bass thumb. An almost shamanistic approach, perhaps just like the original raves could/would/should have been. Maybe the experimental background of the reviewer but this is obviously the one I like most. Its highly psychedelic, trip-like music, a bit noisy and very rhythmic, although always revolving simple beats. A spaced jam, that leaves the listener no less than utterly tired. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspacerecords.com/lanternrecords
Address: http://happyprince.jp
TAYLOR DEUPREE – SHOALS (CD by 12K)
GIUSEPPE IELASI – TOOLS (CD by 12K)
In late 2009 Taylor Deupree was invited to do an artist residency program at the University of York, in The UK, where they apparently have an extensive collection of Javanese and Balinese instruments. Deupree wasn’t interested in playing them the way it should be, but instead played them by scraping, tapping, an e-bow and then feed them as loops through his Kyma bit of software. In one way Deupree moves away from what he does normally, using instruments instead of synthesizers, but he manages to make sound the music ‘at home’: this is clearly music by Taylor Deupree. Four long tracks of densely layered sound rumble. Percussive indeed, but also meditative and hypnotic. While doing lots of things this afternoon I had this on repeat for a couple of times, each time noting something different, from this gentle mass of sound. An excellent work of ambient music, that is not the biggest sea change in this kind of music, but easily is among the top of its genre. Along with ‘Northern’ one of the best releases in the vast output of this composer.
Giuseppe Ielasi is also a highly prolific composer. In his recent work, a series of 12″ for Schoolmap Records and the previous release for 12K, ‘Aix’, he has moved himself into the world of short, looped sounds, with some rhythmic structure. Especially the 12″s have been particular strong in that respect. On ‘Tools’ he takes things a bit further. Ielasi uses objects and creates a musical piece of that. Each object, one piece and they are named after the object. So, we have ‘Cooking Pan’, ‘Rubber Band’, ‘Polystrine Box’, ‘Metal Rod’ etc. These seven tracks are short and to the point – this is a mini album of twenty minutes in length. He plays them by tapping on them, cutting small loops and present them as dance pieces, including breaks. Like ‘Aix’ it has a strong groove to it, although I can hardly imagine people dancing to this. Each piece is simple straight forward, and could easily be used in a DJ set, although BPM’s are missing on the cover. The impact is perhaps not as great anymore as it was with ‘Aix’, but Ielasi delivers a very strong mini album, once again. Again, like SND did in their time, Ielasi uses the idea of dance music and redefines it. Excellent, once more. Two great releases on 12K.
Address: http://www.12k.com
KEN IKEDA – KOSAME (CD by Spekk)
FEDERICO DURAND – LA SIESTA DEL CIPRES (CD by Spekk)
For his latest release, Ken Ikeda lists a bunch of instruments on the cover which elude me: SD404, SD405, SD407, SD408, prepared toy piano, quena, charango, shamisen, DX7, SEM, Juno 106. In each of the seven pieces a personal memory plays an important role. One piece reads: ‘a peru-sih flute was bought at the open marker of 3rd Ave. An instrument for the travellers’ or ‘99.97 celsius grade boiled water sounds different depending on the season, the state of mind and the condition’. With this he creates highly personal music, that is not easy to classify. At times one could think this is all improvised on a bunch of objects and then fed through some computer programm. Think Oval, but then much more chaotic. These improvisations are then partly structured. I must admit I had some trouble with this release. The chaotic, random aspect may work for a piece of two, but perhaps not for the entire length of the CD. One wished for some pieces that used the same sounds, but with some more organization. Now its chaos all around, but in a gentle manner. Ikeda doesn’t play noise music, but it seems there is something missing.
I don’t think I ever heard of Federico Durand, whose album ‘La Siesta Del Ciphers’ says “in melodies made for dozy listening, children cover the garden with wreaths. Stars were taken from the network of smooth silver webs, as firewood of the cherry tree crackles. While half asleep, a herd of deer passed in silence next to the emerald pond; this is the slumber of the cypress’. An album of ‘small melodies – analogue and digital craftwork’. Intimate music of sweet tinkling (digital) piano, synthesizers and all of that with some reverb for that necessary atmosphere. Sometimes a bit too angular to be really sweet, such as in ‘Luna’, and of course I wasn’t in a state of half-sleep when I heard this. Throughout a pretty decent album, but not that real big surprise either. Perhaps one of many good, fine albums around. Music that fits well, more then Ikeda I guess, on Spekk, who have a solid reputation for this kind of music. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spekk.net
ARTURAS BUMSTEINAS – HEAP OF LANGUAGE (CD by B–lt)
To judge the music of Arturas Bumsteinas I don’t feel I am always qualified. When he produces music using computers its easy, but he’s also a composer in a the more classical sense of the word. On previous CD, ‘Uniforms’ (see Vital Weekly 679) he already had some of those pieces involving real instruments, but on this new release this goes even further. All of these pieces are chamber music like settings (string quartet, vocal ensemble, voice, saxophone) and even an opera. Modern classical music is perhaps not my territory, not to write about and perhaps also I rarely listen to. I know Bumsteinas a bit and that’s what made me more curious about this release than I would be with someone else’s release. I played it with interest, even liked it quite a bit, but also realized that this is not my kind of music. Modern classical music is perhaps too high brew art for my taste. But I was contemplating that this kind of music is also perhaps best enjoyed in a concert situation. This is where I have to pass on the review and simply would recommend this to anyone remotely interested in ‘new music from the overground’. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com/bolt
GEN KEN MONTGOMERY – BIRDS + MACHINES (CD by Pogus)
Although never really ‘away’ from the scene, Gen Ken Montgomery’s career has been up and off the radar quite a bit, but these days he feels like a born again composer. He has been around since 1980 and recently reviewed the first decade of his career, and compiled this overview from these years and released it on Pogus, a label he was one of the founding fathers of (a fact I was unaware of). Heavily under the influence of electronic music, from all sorts of directions.
From industrial music to Conrad Schnitzler and
the serious sixties avant-garde, but also working, early, with field recordings (bird sounds return in various pieces). This collection spans all of these interests and makes up a highly varied disc of experimental, electronic music. The free spirit of these pieces, mostly made through improvisation with synthesizers, electric violin, found sounds, is partly crude, inherent to the period it was recorded I guess, is great. Not every track is great, ‘Crema Di Roma’ just gets on and on a bit too much for my liking, but there is enough great music here in this package to enjoy. If you missed out his own early tapes and records, and 80s styled electronic music was just discovered, then this is a must have. All others already made a note to fill in the gap in history. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pogus.com
MUU FOR EARS 2 (CD by MUU)
This compilation is the second part of series of MUU?s Sound Art Publications. The 16 tracks are made by 11 sound artists from Faeroe Islands, Finland, Norway, Lithuania and Sweden. The aims of Muu are to develop the collaboration and interchange of artists working within different fields. Lots of the soundartists on this CD are also artists in other artistic fields, like video, sculpture, installations and fashion. The sound-artists are Gintas K, Siri Austeen , Jimi Tenor, Pekka Sassi, Olle Essvik, Goodiepal, Marja-Leena Sillanp””, Child of Klang, ‰sa Maria Bengtsson and Ida LundÈn & Lise-Lotte Norelius.
The CD gives a great overview of the nordic sound art, but in my view some contributions do not fit in sound art, but more in experimental music. The music of Jimi Tenor is played with an organ or old synthesizer, drums and guitar. The music is well-played, but doesn’t fit in the concept. The songs of Pekka Sassi are played with guitar and the vocals are false and with minimal texts.
But, enough about the failures in this compilation. Some tracks are surrealistic, like a poetic text of Olle Essvik about how to dry flowers in a microwave. What strikes me about this compilation is that the compilers have chosen for artists who work a with words in their music. Siri Aasteen for example uses songs and mix them with concrete sounds and a Jew?s harp. Over more than 20 years Gintas K is working with minimal sounds and his two compositions are very fragile and exclusive. The two tracks of Marja-Leena Sillanp”” have an pure, almost childish atmosphere, created by the nice flowing tones or the funny voices who tell me that she is a little willow sparrow. Child of Klang has the only contribution which has a dark sphere in a drony mood. Asa Maria Bengtsson has invited people from different places all over the world to contribute a sound file connected with water. All the soundtracks were used in a composition and a except has been published on this CD. Water is a global subject and it is nice concept to make a compilation of these worldwide sounds. A new introduction into the Nordic sound-artists, but the compilation would be much stronger if the selection was more restricted to the sound of art. (JKH)
Address: http://muu.fi/sound
THE AMES ROOM – IN (CD by Monotype Records)
GREG MALCOLM & EUGENE CHADBOURNE – JAZZ SCHOOL (LP by Monotype Records)
The Ames Room is a trio of Jean-Luc Guionnet (alto saxophone), Will Guthrie (drums) and Clayton Thomas (double bass). Guionnet is a french multitalent, working within a wide range of experimental and improvised music. With The Ames Room he joint forces with two Australian players who both live in Europe. Thomas settled down in Berlin. He is interested especially in power play, complex sound and extreme dynamic control. No wonder he worked with Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustaffson and lots of other musicians. Guthrie is best known for his home built instruments, and all other kinds of objects and amplifications he extended his drumset with.
So the three have many musical faces. As The Ames Room this is the face of power-improvisation as we know it from originator Peter Brotzmann. The Ames Room maintain a constant high level of energy, drive and speed. The record contains two 20 minute improvisations, “Niort” and “Poznan”, both recorded in 2009. They succeed in creating an intense atmosphere from beginning to the end. I enjoy the phrasing in Guionnet‚s playing, and the way he is able to tell something of interest in each second of his playing.
“Jazz School” was recorded at Polytech Jazz School, Christchurch, New Zealand on January 28, 2009. Guitarists Chadbourne and Malcolm interpret four compositions by Eric Dolphy and two from Steve Lacy. Chadbourne‚s open and anarchistic way of doing things, is omnipresent as always. The sound is a bit muddy. Other instruments – why not a band? – are missed. All this counts up to the low-fi approach that we know so well from Chadbourne. This makes that I enjoy this one with all ambiguities that I always experience with many other Chadbourne releases.
On the other hand, one always feels the joy and freedom Chadbourne puts in his freaky playing. Like in “Straight up and down” (Dolphy), where he plays a great solo. “Serene” sounds as it is titled, and is a nice moody jazz tune. Other pieces however like “Out to Lunch: have nothing special to offer and can be missed easily. (DM)
Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com/
ASTRALASIA – A COLOURED IN DREAM (LP by Tonefloat)
I recently saw The Use Of Ashes play at a monastery in Ottersum near Nijmegen. and bumped into Tonefloat head-poncho Charles Beterams was also present in his role of Use Of Ashes labelboss. After the show he came up to me and gave me a copy of the Astralasia album stating “I might like it”. Much to my glee (and hopefully his), I actually did. To me, the name Astralasia was new, but it turns out they have been around since 1990 and they have quite a number of releases. The idea for Astralasia was to start an ambient-dub project as an aside to the Magic Mushroom Band, who were more like a psychedelic rock band. Astralasia (Marc Hunt, Wayne Buaka, Melanie Taylor and Samantha Turner) have luckily shredded the rock part of the Magic Mushroom Band (what a horrible name by the way), but kept the psychedelica. Packed in a colorful gatefold cover and pressed on gorgeous blue vinyl, A Coloured In Dream consists of 3 long tracks. Side one hits off with the title track. Here we get drums, simple key-guitar playing and and near-silence with seagulls at the end (I love seagulls). To me, this is a bit too “groooovy rock-out”, even though I liked the long’s ending. Lambslide, the second track, fares much better with Leslie-like chords and more abstract ambience. The second side is possibly the best one with the side-filling Room 7. Here Astralasia manages to sound like an experimental Pink Floyd with long stretches of ambience. It opens with a drone after which gentle guitar tones and synthesizer patterns set in. The result is at times almost like Brainticket ý la 1980 (for those readers too young to know what or who Brainticket is; please go to your local record store and buy either Celestial Ocean, Adventure of Voyage – or better, all of them – and be amazed). The rhythm that sets in completes this picture. Very nice indeed. In all, a very warm sounding and friendly record. Not earth-shattering, but good enough for repeated enjoyment. (FK)
Address: http://www.tonefloat.nl
STANISLAV VDOVIN & OLGA SHAYDULLINA – ET_CETERA (CDR by Occasion)
STANISLAV VDOVIN – SECOND VARIETY (CDR by Occasion)
The no cover approach made me first think that these were some MP3 releases burned to CDR, but the little card with the label and the number made clear this was indeed a CDR release, in an edition of 100. The label was founded by Stanislav Vdovin, on January 1st 2010 and he did the first two releases. Back in Vital Weekly 579 he was already reviewed with his project Unit 21 and more recently, under his own name in Vital Weekly 706. As such he presented music that was not too dissimilar to Gas, slow techno music with lots of bass end. On the first release he probably goes back to his training days, in classical music and jazz piano. Olga Shydullina plays piano here in a very soft relaxing mood,while Vdovin is responsible for composition and mastering. There is a bit of electronic processing going on in the background, but not a lot, but as the pieces (the two pieces seem to flow into eachother) progresses they take over the piano almost completely. It reminded me a lot of Kenneth Kirschner and Taylor Deupree, especially when they both work together. A very relaxing work with a nice dark undercurrent.
The second release is by Vdovin solo and just over ten minutes. This is basically just one piece of one drone, which is slowly being filtered. A nice piece for sure, but somehow I am thinking: why this piece? Why not longer? Why not more pieces? Now it seems to me as a bit short and somehow eludes why this should be released as such. Which is a pity since its a nice piece indeed, if nothing new under the you know what. (FdW)
Address: http://www.occasionlabel.org
MICHEAL PIERCEY – PARKING LOTS (CDR by Not On Label)
GABRIEL PILLER – BATTERY (CDR by Not On Label)
Micheal Piercey is behind various labels, such as Smoke Filled Casket, Ketchup Cavern and start a new enterprise called Not On Label. It deals with just field recordings. His own release is called ‘Parking Lots’ and that says it all. Four straight forward pieces recorded in parking lots. Even when I am known to drive cars, I have been to parking lots before and yes, these pieces are from parking lots. The atmosphere, the ventilation, big metal doors opening and closing, the reverberation of the slightest movement: its all there. Each piece lasts exactly ten minutes. You could wonder why four of them, which I did when I started to play this, but once I finished this I understood why. There is a great variety in these recordings, capturing various moods and types of parking lots. One could also wonder if this needed to be released, but I must say it all sounded wonderfully well.
I also never heard of Gabriel Piller. His release ‘Battery’ was recorded at ‘The Battery’, in St. John’s in Newfoundland. These are bunkers from World War Two and Piller put condenser microphones through holes in the ceiling to record the empty space. At least that’s what I think. Three pieces here. It leaves some more imagination for the listener than the somewhat straight forward ‘Parking Lots’. Whatever happens in the bunker is unclear. In the first piece there is some sort of dripping sound going on, whereas the second seems just silence of the space. The final track has the most information, still highly obscured, but it sounds the best of the three. Like locked in ghosts trying to break out, seagulls above, wind blowing hard. Both are conceptually strong releases, whereas the Piercey one is musical a bit stronger. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ketchupcavern.com/notonlabel
STASIS DUO (CDR by L’Inomable)
Adam Sussmann and Matt Earle are Stasis Duo. They have had several releases before and here is their latest offering. They are a laptop duo, but work pretty much inside the field of improvisation. At their plate we find the usual wave of glitches, sines, hum and drum (well, not drums, but bass end sounds). The latter being a minority here, as most of the time the sounds are very high pitched. I have no dog (thank god), but I wonder how they would respond to these sounds. Things start out in a pretty heavy manner in the first track, almost in a noise like manner, but soon after that they return their more usual approach of careful sine wave constructions. I thought this release was pretty ok, but not more than just that actually. The area of working on sine waves is well explored by many people, Ryoji Ikeda being the most established composer of the lot, and Stasis Duo is one who do a pretty fine job, but perhaps also one that not necessarily adds something to what we know about the music made with sine waves. A pretty standard affair I guess. Not bad, but also not earthshakingly good either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.linnomable.com
FEVER SPOOR/GOVERNMENT ALPHA/THE HATERS/AN INNOCENT YOUNG THROAT-CUTTER – VERTIERTEN HORDEN (CDR by Suggestion Records)
Verato Project is an ongoing series, of CD-R releases, from Suggestion Records from Germany. Each release features some special handmade artwork, limited to only 50-60 hand numbered individually crafted units, each piece features exclusive material by the artist. For the 77th release artist Marcel Herms made the artwork with his well-known colorful brutal images. The CD-R is full with harsh noise created by Government Alpha, the project of Yasutoshi Yoshida from Japan. It is really noisy, strong and powerful. The track of Fever Spoor, the musical project of Marcel Herms from the Netherlands is also a heavy wall of sound. Harsh sounds come and go and alternate each other. An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter is a group of Richard Ramirez is an American noise music artist from Houston. The track develops slowly with noisy soundlines. The last track of The Haters was really a surprise for me. An acoustic rhythm like Sicktone of Coil with an intense brainwashing sound burns into my head. Noisy, smashing and musique concrete sounds come over. A great track what makes this noisy compilation more than complete. Recommended for everyone who wants to fill his head with real pure noise. (JKH)
Address: www.verato.project.de
FOR KINGS AND QUEENS – MARCHANTIOPYTA (CDR by Subterranean Sonic)
HAMANN/MAURER/KINDERMANN – HONIGWAVE (CDR by Subterranean Sonic)
The first CD I play on a new day happens to be ‘Marchantiopyta’ by For Kings And Queens. I open the doors of the balcony, made a coffee and after a while I got confused. Are the birds I hear outside my house or on the disc? Both it turns out. The birds on the disc are more like seagulls, and those are not around here. For Kings And Queens is the project of Jens Kindermann and he uses a variety of sound sources, such as the rain forest, coffeemaker, a glass of water, little tubes, contactmics, guitar, various synthesizers and effects. The title of the release is some secret land and the music a travel to that land. The first piece ‘The Begin’ (If I read that well, I am never sure with these artsy handwritten covers) has a lot of rain forest sounds, and slurping of water, and coffee machines. Its with forty three minutes a bit long, lets say fifteen to twenty minutes too long. I know a journey can be boring, but why put that on a CDR? In principle the musical content is quite alright. In a sort of improvised manner sounds are mixed together, but because of the length of the piece it loses quite a bit of his strength. The other pieces which is called ‘Encounter’, uses more outdoor field recordings, is around twenty minutes and has all the power that the other piece lacks. Also mixed in an improvised way, but with a constant change of sounds. Quite a nice piece, making altogether a fine release, except that the second half of the first piece seems a bit superfluous.
The other release has also music by Jens Kindermann, together with sound sculptor Steffen Maurer and poet Marco Hamann. He recites his ‘neo expressionist texts and poems’ and the other use his voice as the source for music. The texts are in German, but somehow it seems to me that its not always important to understand what these texts are about. The eight tracks on this CD suffer from the same problem as the first track by For Kings And Queens. After a while you know the drill, and the time stretched voices and splices become a well-known territory. Here too about twenty five minutes would have been more than enough. (FdW)
Address: http://subterraneansonic.blogspot.com
ZERO CENTRIGRADE & FORMER_AIRLINE – SPIRITS AND VISIONARIES (CDR by Ripples Recordings)
A collaboration through the internet between the Japanese Masaki Kubo (Former Airline) on tape-loops and computer and Zero Centrigrade from Italy, a duo of Tonino Taiuti (acoustic guitar) and Vincenzo De Luce (trumpet). I have no idea how to create improvised music through the use of the internet, but then, these boys don’t either, it seems. So one party improvises a bit and the other one improvises another bit on top? That might be the idea I guess, but in these four lengthy pieces it was very hard to find something of interest. ‘The shape is constantly changing’ it says on the insert, but I have no idea to what that should relate. The title seems also highly inappropriate. Maybe there was a good spirit while recording this – how would I know – but its hardly the work of visionaries. Its all quite dull and boring. Hardly engaging to hear it all, which I did, hoping there would be something to amaze me, but it never happened, sadly enough. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ripplesrecordings.webs.com
NICK HOFFMAN – ANIMA (cassette by Pilgrim Talk)
SATOSHI KANDA/NICK HOFFMAN (cassette by Pilgrim Talk)
A while ago we received some CDRs by Nick Hoffman, usually under the guise of Katchmere, but somehow things seem to have slowed down for him. In the apartment of his great grandfather he found an ancient tape machine, which is used to record two improvisations, one for voice and one for trumpet. The tape machine also generates sound by itself. It slows down or speeds up, had sudden volumes changes and other peculiar changes in sound, which Hoffman uses to his advantage. He cleverly uses the buzz of the machine to interfere with the sounds he produces. Its not easy to recognize a voice on the a-side, whereas the trumpet on the other side is more present. Hoffman produces sound in a minimalist manner, with slow changes, along while the buzz continues, especially on the trumpet side. On that side he uses the trumpet as a wind instrument, but also in a percussive manner. Although I thought this was a nice release, its also a highly obscure release. This kind of music, in which the experiment is the main objective, is highly suitable for a release on cassette, me thinks.
The second cassette is a split release with one Satoshi Kanda who plays milk bottles on this recording. His piece is called ‘Two Tracks Recorded Simultaneously’ and is a split stereo affair. The left channel is very noisy whereas the more interesting things seem to be happening on the right channel. It eludes me why this is all so short, to be followed by a long silence, following which the music continues in a different mood. Very soft end drone/sine wave like sounds, which actually sounds quite good. Hoffman on the other side ‘plays computer programming’, whatever that may mean and works entirely inside the realm of noise. Highly distorted computer noise, which just isn’t my cup of tea. I heard him to better than this. (FdW)
Address: http://www.pilgrimtalk.com
ABORTION EVE – RAX (?) (cassette by Mrs (?) Tapes)
Low-fi… No, this release is XXX-Low-fi. The information on the cassette is hard to read, because characters are too small. No info-sheet was included with any contactaddress. The cassette of the unknown project Abortion Eve is recorded in February and March in Melbourne. All songs are pedalless and recorded with a dictaphone. The tape starts with one composition with guitarchords with a clear basic guitarsound, just some playing, searching for the feed-back and play again. The other side of the cassette is much more interesting. More diversity in the adjustment of guitar. Great experiments with the guitar, high and low tones create a beautiful sound palette. Another composition is played very laid back, drony and has a good atmosphere. The last tracks reminds to the old Zoviet France; ongoing rounded sounds like a loops, but played live, what makes the groove more lively and a-static. This musical project deserves a better presentation. (JKH)
Address: ??
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