OLIVIA BLOCK & KYLE BRUCKMANN – TEEM (CD by either/OAR) *
RAY BRASSIER, JEAN-LUC GUIONNET, SEIJIRO MURAYAMA, MATTIN IDIOMS AND IDIOTS (CD & Booklet by w.m.o/recordlabel)
LUGANO FELL – SLICE REPAIR (CD by Baskaru) *
TOBIAS REBER – BACKUP AURA (CD by Hyperfunction) *
MARC BARRECA – SUBTERRANE (CD by Palace Of Light) *
K. LEIMER – DEGRADED CERTAINTIES (CD by Palace Of Light) *
GREGORY TAYLOR – DUA_BELAS (CD by Palace Of Light) *
KONRAD BECKER – GRAND PIANO CLASSICS (2CD by Klanggalerie) *
ALEXANDER BERNE – COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY (3CD by Innova) *
HARLEY GABER – I SAW MY MOTHER ASCENDING MT. FUJI (CD by Innova) *
PSYCHOANGELO – PANAUROMNI (CD by Innova) *
STEVE BARSOTTI & ERIC LEONARDSON – RAREBIT (CD by Mimeomeme) *
STEVE BARSOTTI – ALONG THESE LINES (CDR by Mimeomeme) *
SEATTLE PHONOGRAPHERS UNION (CD by Mimeomeme) *
ORIANA CIVILE & MAURIZIO CURCIO – ARIE DI SICILIA (CD by On Air)
FLIMMER – SINGING (CD by A Tree In A Field)
UBEBOET – ARCHIVAL (LP by Moving Furniture Records) *
REGULAR RULES – JEEZ CLUSTERS JOYS (CD by Triple Bath)
MIKE JOHNSTON & MIKE GILMARE & MIKE KHOURY & KIRK LUCAS – IMPERMANENCE ( CD by Triple Bath)
$. 99 DREAMS – 2010 (DOWNLOAD by Ninetyninecentdreams)
$. 99 DREAMS- $. 99 DREAMS (LP by Ninetyninecentdreams)
WIREWALL< – TERMINAL MAN (CDR by Cohort Records) *
CALIKA – BLOOD EMBRACE (CDR by Audiobulb) *
O. MELBY – MARSIPAN (CDR by Amboltue Records)
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR – SOME MEN NEVER DIE (CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR – SOME MEN NEVER LIVE (CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR – WHERE IS EVERYONE? (CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
MARC NAMBLARD – GISEMENTS (1) (3″CDR by Kaon) *
CARLOS VILLENA – OSCIL.LACIONS EN LA PENOMBRA DES LES TAQUES SOLARS (3″CDR by Ephre Imprint) *
GNAWED/ICE VOLT – INSIDES MUSIC LESSON 69 (cassette by Spit & Cuss)
YOSHIHIRO KIKUCHI – TEXT’S ABSENCE OPTICAL GLOOM AUDIBLE LIGHTS (C40 cassette by Fragment)
OLIVIA BLOCK & KYLE BRUCKMANN – TEEM (CD by either/OAR)
From Chicago, both of them: Olivia Block (field
recordings, piano, reed organ, editing & mixing) and Kyle Bruckmann (oboe, English horn, suona, accordion, field recordings, editing & mixing) – the meeting of a serious composer (Block) and an improviser (Bruckmann being part of EGK, among other things). Its a combination that works well. Both ends are covered well. We hear Bruckmann’s wind instruments playing strange figures, while along we have the more rigid organization of Block’s field recordings and organ parts, as well as the rumble and tumble of acoustic objects. They bump and collide into eachother, attract eachother, and then move away from eachother. Four parts were recorded over a period of five years, from nervous hectic of part three to the quiet, introspective fourth part. Demanding music here, which requires your full attention. This is not music which allows you to go and do other things, but in these thirty seven something minutes you need to stay with it, and focus. Its only then when it unfolds its beauty. After that you may tired, but perhaps also, like me, utterly pleased. An excellent collaboration. (FdW)
Address: http://www.and-oar.org/either.htm
RAY BRASSIER, JEAN-LUC GUIONNET, SEIJIRO MURAYAMA, MATTIN IDIOMS AND IDIOTS (CD & Booklet by w.m.o/recordlabel)
Improvisation recorded at the NPAI festival Nirot in 2008 would be to begin to locate something in what we understand, however here is the difficultly, whether you like it or not if you’ve blithely accepted this “review” so far then I can immediately point to you and shout – “Kant”. And the shadow of FranÁois Laruelle crosses the landscape. (The full text can be downloaded @ the address) Non- philosophy, correlationism . and the subject of “improvisation” makes a review in any meaningful sense impossible- as impossible as “improvisation”. The best task of such artists where the ontologies are ripe is to ignore all of this and behave like suicide bombers, which is precisely what they might be doing metaphorically. It certainly at times seems both dangerous potentially to self or audience – self and audience and a criminal act, a crime against certain ideas, as fundamental as time and space, that’s your Kantian assumption. What is music, art, philosophy without time and space? As an idiots guide then, me being the idiot, a world view which is such is as holy as the Koran, there is a fundamentalism everywhere which this release not only documents but also attempts to overcome, in such a way as failure itself is like a failed suicide bombing, a success of sorts to some, but only a success if dismissed not by ignorance, a primitive ignorance is immediately at one with improvised performances, but the shocking reality of only thinking at second hand through a dead german philosophers head. OK in a “line” in a sentence, anyone interested in – now I was going to say music, but I’m even afraid I’m unable to finish this line – why? Deleuze – “With the Kantian transformation .. time becomes straight .. ” of .or.. in a more general problematic which includes both Deleuze and Kant – doesn’t “this kind of” improvisation eschew or face up to “decision” which all previous (before Laruelle?) philosophy was blind to? (jliat)
Address: www.mattin.org/recordings.html
LUGANO FELL – SLICE REPAIR (CD by Baskaru)
So far I reviewed three releases by James Taylor, better known as one half of Swayzak (a tech house duo whose music I don’t know), but in his new, solo, guise Lugano Fell. I really liked his first two releases, but then the 3″ (reviewed in Vital Weekly 670) didn’t do much for me. I noted then that I hoped his Baskaru CD would be better. Still it some water has passed under the bridge before that one was released but here it is. The good thing is: its a great release. But that’s hardly a surprise since it was compiled from his two previous CDR releases. And perhaps is the downside, well, at least for me, since I knew these already. Imagine shoegaze music and imagine glitch music. Combine those two, quite odd, ends and there you’ll find Lugano Fell. He uses a whole bunch of software and instruments, all listed on the cover, and creates some great music. Lots of acoustic guitar, all heavily chopped up, with lots of plug ins flying about. Its however not a soft album, with careful doodling, but most of the time quite loud and present. Very much along the lines of his first release, rather than his second, me thinks. Like said, this is not the real big surprise, for me that is but let’s hope Lugano Fell now reaches a bigger audience, and that it something he deserves. (FdW)
Address: http://www.baskaru.com
TOBIAS REBER – BACKUP AURA (CD by Hyperfunction)
A most curious record, but one Tobias Reber, of whom I never heard. No information on the press blurb, but from his website I learned that he was born in 1983 and started as a guitar player, and now calls himself a laptop musician. He is also a member of Centrozoon (of which I don’t have good memories). ‘Backup Aura’ is his debut album with six compositions ‘that have their conceptual home on the continuum of intuitive vs algorithmic composition’, which may mean that its partly along the lines of improvisation and partly composed. I must admit I have no idea what to make of this. There are lots of electronics to be found on this record and also drum sounds. I may not sure wether these are ‘live’ drums, or out of a box. The drum sounds are fed through a bunch of computer music patches. That’s what this album is about. Its not bad by any means, but I must say it also left me a bit untouched. I liked the pieces best that dealt with electronics and less those which had a lot of rhythm (more post rock then techno based, I should add, so you have some clue about them), which perhaps sounded all a bit too easy for me. Not a bad record, but not exactly something that I fell for either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hyperfunction.org
MARC BARRECA – SUBTERRANE (CD by Palace Of Light)
K. LEIMER – DEGRADED CERTAINTIES (CD by Palace Of Light)
GREGORY TAYLOR – DUA_BELAS (CD by Palace Of Light)
Three new releases from the established label artists on Palace Of Light. The first is Marc Barreca, which is perhaps the one who had the longest gap in releases. His previous releases, at least the ones I remember, are all from the early 80s. I am not sure if there were any later on, but here he returns with new work. This sees him working with computer rather than ‘old fashioned’ synthesizers. He uses large chunks of field recordings, as well as accordion and electronic instruments, which are all processed on the computer and transformed into some great, refined ambient music. The fourth world ambient music which I seem to recall as an overall interest of Barreca, seems no longer present here. Its replaced in favor of more abstract ambient music, with its long stretched sounds, vague rumbling of percussive sounds and such like. Oddly enough it seems both fresh and new, while yet also a natural progression of his older work. An excellent come back album. Let’s hope his older work will be re-issued on CD also.
Labelowner K. Leimer already made his return some time ago (see Vital Weekly 533) and here has his fourth album since then and his ninth since he started in the late seventies. For his new album, Leimer takes credit for ‘digital synthesis and signal processing’, while receiving help from Gregory Taylor on ‘additional processing’ and Taylor Deupree on ‘additional voices, post production, edit, mix and mastering’ (which he also did for the Barecca album). This is an album of ambient music in capital ambient letters, AMBIENT. Unlike Barreca whose multi layered ambient music is the result of many different sounds, Leimer seeks things in a multitude of similar sound sources, with minor differences among them and makes various layers incorporating these sounds. Six tracks, all around eleven/twelve minutes in length, which might be a bit much if you take it all in like a normal person. However, I think, this is music that is best enjoyed if you put it on repeat for a day or two (I readily admit that I didn’t do this, if only I had the time!) at a considerable low volume. Then I assume the ambient music will really start to penetrate your environment in a really nice way. That’s what ambient music should do. This is classical ambient music, in the most purest sense of the word.
At the other side of the ambient spectrum we find Gregory Taylor, with his second album for Palace Of Light (see also Vital Weekly 573). He works with pieces of software as developed by Cycling74. The title is Indonesian for ‘The Twelve’, and somehow I think there is some connecting thematic approach to this, using Indonesian instruments, but that’s not entirely clear from the press text, the cover or the music (unlike that previous release on Palace Of Light). As said this is the experimental end of ambient music, an electro-acoustic approach that is woven throughout these pieces. The weather conditions are exactly the same as when I wrote about ‘Amalgan: Aluminium/Hydrogen’: nice sunny weather, doors open, early evening, bird calls, the occasional car passing and the whole thing does remind me of being in an exotic place. Related to his previous work, I can’t say that there is a lot of difference to be spotted, it has the same overall beauty and is more linked to the current state of microsound, with small, repeating glitches, deep bass hum, and gentle lightness. A nice one, again, and, also again, nothing new under the evening sun. (FdW)
Address: http://www.palaceoflights.com
KONRAD BECKER – GRAND PIANO CLASSICS (2CD by Klanggalerie)
If you don’t know Konrad Becker, you should be ashamed of yourself. Well, no, perhaps, not, but his Monoton records from the early 80s are simply the best in the minimalist electronics. In recent years they have all been re-issued by Canada’s Oral label, and, as far as I know, still in print. If you want Pan Sonic but then fifteen years earlier, this is the place to be. I didn’t know that Becker also recorded piano music, let alone released any, but this omission is now taken care of by Austria’s Klanggalerie label. These pieces were recorded for various performance pieces in 1982-1984 and are for four pianos, along with three unpublished pieces from 2002, for digital grand pianos. Its hard to believe wether these old pieces are played in real time, or through some form of tapeloops – although the press text reads about eight hands, so let’s assume they were played in real time. It would be too easy to make that very obvious reference to the work of Charlemagne Palestine or early Steve Reich. Although Becker’s work is very minimal, with repeating phrases at different intervals all the time, there is one difference: the sustain pedal is hardly used. Especially the two long pieces, ‘Parzival Overture’ and ‘Danse Diable’, remind me of the work of Simeon Ten Holt, the Dutch composer of piano works which are long (compared to his work, these Becker pieces are ultra short). Especially ‘Parzival Overture’ is a great piece, which comes across more clearer and more refined than ‘Danse Diable’, which is clearly a spooky, haunted piece of music. Then there are two shorter pieces from the 80s, of which ‘Noctariations’ sounds very spooky. In the lower region various clusters are played, very fast, but very soft. Here Becker reaches a bit of unique way of approaching the piano, me thinks. In ‘Etude’ (1982), its hard to believe there are no electronics used, but its a fine piece, along the lines of ‘Noctariations’. The digital pieces I don’t get. He adds a rhythm machine to the digital grand pianos, and they sound outright boring. As a bonus they are nice, perhaps. You might be inclined to think, oh that’s possible too, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to great music. So, in short, there is about ten minutes here which can be ignored (I don’t understand why they aren’t all on the second disc at the end), but the works from 1982-1984 are great, perhaps just as great as his Monoton records, although in an entirely different modus operandi. (FdW)
Address: http://www.klanggalerie.com
ALEXANDER BERNE – COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY (3CD by Innova)
HARLEY GABER – I SAW MY MOTHER ASCENDING MT. FUJI (CD by Innova)
PSYCHOANGELO – PANAUROMNI (CD by Innova)
Sometimes press blurbs (especially from the USA) have the remark ‘file under’. It means you can find this in your record store filed under a particular genre, or, in my case, I can forward it to a reviewer known to like such music. If it says ‘file under new age’, I scratch my head and think, ‘now what was the name of our reviewer of new age?”, and then realizing that Vital Weekly hates new age. So imagine my ‘luck’ when I opened the package of three CDs by Alexander Berne, file under new age! He plays saxophones, flute, the sadukini, the tridoulaphone and a reeded slide trumpet. Luckily ‘itunes’ recognizes the music as ‘unclassifiable’. The first CD is ‘The Soprano Saxophone Choir’, which, as the title suggests, is for multiple soprano saxophones, so it combines my least favorite music with my least favorite instrument, but actually its not bad. Berne plays some darker tunes, which are quite alright and there are even bits with some sort of computerized processing, such as the short ‘Reaches’. ‘The Shaduk’ is performed on a variety of world instruments, ‘the simple open-holed flute/reed hybrid’. This one leans, as far as I’m concerned, too much to the world of new age, with its sustained overtone singing like sounds, and vaguely world/ethnic influences. That returns on the third CD ‘The Abandoned Orchestra’, now with addition of tribalesque percussion. Both of these CDs have their moments, but throughout isn’t well spend on me.
Composer Harley Gaber I never heard of, but he’s been around since the 60s until 1978 when he stopped composing and started in visual arts. This particular work is a new one, but it combines two older pieces, ‘Michi’ for solo violin and Chimyaku for solo alto flute. This new work was made as a way of dealing with some untimely deaths in his family. Its a work of great silence and peace. I don’t know what the tape part is in this work ‘for tape, processed violin and alto flute’, but it seems he used a particular hissy recording from 1973 of ‘Michi’, and now, through computer means, this hiss leads up to some very spooky and ghostly sounds. On the surface we have the sustained notes of the violin and flute. A very meditative piece of music, which works for me, much better than any new age diaree. Its a modern classical work, with those spontaneous eruptions that aren’t my cup of tea, but they are embedded in these gentle atmospheric, ghostly sounds, making an excellent work. Something for late at night.
Innova, being a serious label of serious composers as we have just seen in the four previous releases, at times releases music that is experimental and electronic, and even sometimes have links to popmusic. Take Psychoangelo for instance, a duo of Dr. Glen Whitehead (trumpets, computer, effects processing) and Dr. Michael Theodore (computer, guitar, percussion) from Colorado Springs. Their music is along the lines of improvisation, but with each a computer under their arm, its also quite an electronic work. I understand they record large portions of improvisations which are then edited, layered and combined together. I have two problems with this release: each piece seems to be dominated by the trumpet, which is fed through an awful lot of reverb and delay. This blurs whatever else is going on and that’s a pity. The best piece, out of six, is the closing ‘Phosphorus Mas Frio’, which is fierce drone piece, like processed church organ blearing their way. Now that isn’t enough to make a great CD, I know. The other five surely have their moments, but a radical remixing would be in place and see what it sounds like with a slightly less dominant trumpet and its side effects. (FdW)
Address: http://www.innova.mu
STEVE BARSOTTI & ERIC LEONARDSON – RAREBIT (CD by Mimeomeme)
STEVE BARSOTTI – ALONG THESE LINES (CDR by Mimeomeme)
SEATTLE PHONOGRAPHERS UNION (CD by Mimeomeme)
Three new releases on Mimeomeme, who ‘disseminates unusual sound art made by an eclectic collective of artists involved in phonography, no- and low fidelity recordings, raw digital data, plunderphonics’ and more such like. The first is by Steve Barsotti and Eric Leonardson. Barsotti plays a ‘roto rod, spring frame’ and Leonardson a ‘springboard’, both are home made instruments of wood and tires attached with springs, rubber bands, combs, all of that being amplified. They play improvised music with these instruments. Two pieces are multi track recordings, the seven others straight forward live recordings. I like the idea behind it more than the actual execution of the recordings. Th pieces are all quite long and just seem unedited bits of playing these two instruments.
Perhaps of more interest then is a solo CD by Barsotti, aptly called ‘Along These Lines’, which I guess we should see as something along these lines of ‘Rarebit’. There is a lot more happening here than on his release with Leonardson. There is the ‘invented’ instruments but also field recordings and electronics. This makes the music quite lively. It seems to me that the invented instruments are fed through electronics, which makes a varied outcome: it bounces between the audible and inaudible, music, sound, signal, noise, background and foreground (I am quoting the cover!). It opens with the almost inaudible ‘boundaries’ and closes with the short, noise outburst of ‘bypass’. The best piece, although at twenty four minutes also a bit long, would be ‘Terraces’, with children pieces, looped acoustic sounds cooking up a lively piece. A fourth pieces, ‘Bridges’ seems constructed from entirely electronic sounds. What lacks in ‘Rarebit’, variation, is well made up here, as far as I’m concerned this should have been the major work.
The Seattle Phonographers Union is a group of people who improvise live with unprocessed field recordings. A floating membership, but we recognize such names as Dale Lloyd (who co-released this on his and/OAR label), Steve Peters, Christopher DeLaurenti, Steve Barsotti but also people I never heard of, such as Perri Lnch, Rob Millis, Toby Paddock, Heather Perkins and more. The deal is that people bring field recordings to the concert venue and play them, from a laptop, mini disc or such like, while listening what the others bring to the table, and make a sonic construction out of that. I must say I really like the idea behind that. There are five unedited bits from live concerts, between nine and twenty minutes. The problem might be a bit with this, that it perhaps all sounds a like. There is a steady stream of sounds of sounds fading in and out and sometimes they are familiar (rain, wind, human labor, birds, talking) and sometimes harder to pin down, but its all a bit too much presented as a flow. A sudden break, a swift change, or maybe some sort of effects, even it be only a loop of a sound, would have a made a small but interesting difference and make a more musical piece, but perhaps that is not the intention of The Seattle Phonographers Union. Now, don’t get me wrong, if field recordings are your cup of tea, and its mine, then this is a great work. You can tune into the world around you, lie back and enjoy this continuous stream of sound. Quite nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mimeomeme.com
ORIANA CIVILE & MAURIZIO CURCIO – ARIE DI SICILIA (CD by On Air)
By now we are used to get music that absolutely doesn’t fit these pages, mostly from the world of popmusic. The Polish hard rock CDs never were even considered for review, but found a good home with a young friend of mine. The Norwegian classical music wait for a home. But then we get this release by vocalist Oriana Civile and bass player/electronica expert Maurizio Curcio. They have at their hands a songbook of Sicilian folk songs which they perform with no doubt great care. Actually its not bad, but very sweet for me. I think I prefer Berio’s ‘Folk Songs’ (to show I am not entirely impartial to this) over this CD, or the new folk tunes of Static Caravan. Civile’s voice is beautiful, and what these songs are about I have no idea, no doubt love, death, war, and such life experiences, but its nothing for me or Vital Weekly, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/ariedisicilia
FLIMMER – SINGING (CD by A Tree In A Field)
A Tree in a Field Records is a small independent label from Basel. This is also the hometown of Flimmer. The 21 minutes of their mini-cd are distributed over 16 very powerful tracks. With Flimmer we are in the company of a hardcore, trashmetal band, or something like that. A trio to be more precise of two basses plus drums and vocals. And that is it. The band has a history of some 10 years playing punk, grindcore, new wave, etc. The label compiled a dvd of the history of the band, but this has not been send to me. So I concentrate on the musical explosions. First I have to say that I am not very familiar with this kind of music. So it is beyond my knowledge judging about their originality, etc. But from what I know they use many of the stylistic aspects of this kind of music. However, they have there own signature and ideas. In one of the tracks they seem to interpret some classical music. Throughout they do their job very convincing, with lots of ‘Sturm und Drang’. (DM)
Address: http://www.atreeinafieldrecords.com
UBEBOET – ARCHIVAL (LP by Moving Furniture Records)
At first I thought Moving Furniture Records changed their presentation for their CDR releases, but it turns out they switched format, for the first time, but submitted a CDR for review. A brave decision to go to LP, which I hope pays for them, in the form of a limited LP release, 200 copies of M.A. Tolosa’s Ubeboet project. Tolosa, also known as the man behind the Con-V label and a lover of all things field recordings and electronics. Three from his archive (I assume at least). I can’t read the titles on the cover, but the long piece on side is mostly a dark affair, in which it is hard to recognize any sort of field recording, but things are quite dark and very drone based. Maybe some heavily processed wind and rain sounds at work here? A highly minimal piece of music that uses the longitude to fully unfold itself. On side B we find two pieces. The first seems to me a musical piece, or a piece that uses some musical instruments, maybe guitars and voices? Moving Furniture refers to the influence of Popol Vuh and it might be that they had this track in mind when thinking of that reference. The ghostly, whispering, layered voices move weightlessly through space. Rain is what we recognize in the third piece, again embedded in some choir of heavenly voices. Here too things are relatively more musical than on your average release with field recordings, and that’s great, since it sets Ubeboet apart from his peers, and he does something really beautiful on this release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.movingfurniturerecords.com
REGULAR RULES – JEEZ CLUSTERS JOYS (CD by Triple Bath)
MIKE JOHNSTON & MIKE GILMARE & MIKE KHOURY & KIRK LUCAS – IMPERMANENCE ( CD by Triple Bath)
Regular Rules is a duo of Gilles Mortiaux from Brussels, Belgium and Ilan Manouach from Athens, Greece. The are a free-jazz hardcore unit, assisted on stage by numerous others. Loud and noisy improvisations is their business. Mortiaux provides thick layers of guitar noise and Manouach plays saxophones. Both add effects and samples. Their thick and massive sound improvisations worked well for me. Their agressive playing on guitar and saxes is combined very effectively with extreme noisy sound effects or contrasting samples like in the beginning of the opening track (pieces have no titles).Both musicians give all of their unbound power and creativity in these six improvisations. In track 5 both players take their own route in the first part of the improvisation. Later on they start to built something together. The highlight of the album for me is track 4. It is almost a song. But very bizarre. Yes, Mortiaux and Manouach make a strong statement of maniacal over the top soundsculpting. Resulting in some very powerful collages. ‘Impermanence’ is the second release of Mike Johnston (double bass, inanga, sho, shakuhachi, wood flutes, african bells, shenhai), Mike Gilmore (vibraphone, cheng, saz, bone guitar, kalimba, bowed percussion, steel drums, marimba), Mike Khoury (violin, percussion) and Kirk Lucas (violoncello, guitar, banjo, zither, tamboura, gong, kalimba). In 2007 Triple Bath released the debut of this quartet ‘The Hidden’. The instruments these musicians play may give you a hint of what to expect here. Improvised music first all, but very eastern-flavoured. Not only because of the exotic instruments. But also because of the lines along which the music develops. They even do their best to play them an eastern touch. The closing piece ‘Still Life’ for example, sounds very chinese in the beginning. Gradually it turns into free impovised music, still using however chinese motives. ‘Maghrebi’ by Ahmed Abdul Malik has a nice ‘swinging’ arabic groove. With ‘When there is no sun’, composed by Sun Ra, this are the only two pieces not composed by themselves. All in all, this quartet makes a very thoughtful and respectful blend of world music and western improvisation. In a very pure and authentic way. The music dwells and meanders like a majestic river through a diversity of landscape. It definitely fills your mind and body with good spirits. (DM)
Address: http://www.triplebath.gr/
$. 99 DREAMS – 2010 (DOWNLOAD by Ninetyninecentdreams)
$. 99 DREAMS- $. 99 DREAMS (LP by Ninetyninecentdreams)
Some time ago we discussed on earlier work of this remarkable duo, ‘Winning on all fronts’. They are in business since 2007. Formed in Brooklyn by drummer Matt Crane and saxophonist and synth player Adam Diller. They created there own little musical corner by combining hip hop, free jazz and electronics, as they explain in their bio. But there is happening more if you ask me. Just listen to their new releases. ’99 Dreams’ is released on vinyl. ‘2010’ is available as a download. The opening track of ‘2010’, ‘W2xxic’ is a dark, brewing sound work. Other pieces like ‘int/aadfg’ are jazzy pieces of saxophone and electronics. ‘Wpint’ belongs to another category of pieces. It is dominated by Sun Ra-like percussion supplemented by sparse electronics. ‘Qn/ot’ has a strong melodic line that is repeated endlessly, spreading around an archaic and exotic feel. All pieces carry strange titles that seem nothing more then random combinations of vocals. The 16 tracks on ‘2010’ were recorded on several occasions in the last three years, in studios, bedrooms, etc. With minimal means they realize a maximum of possibilities. There is some strange magic in this music. This because of the carefully designed sounds from analog synths, saxes, etc. Maybe it is because of the analog synths that the music often recalls new wave music from the 80s. Remember Jeff and Jane Hudson? Also there is an element that binds Silver Apples, Suicide and this duo together. The music has a certain roughness. They use no unnecessary make up. The drum style remains very simple and stripped down. This self-conscious duo excels in a fascinating ‘primitivism’. (DM)
Address: http://www.ninetyninecentdreams.com
WIREWALL< – TERMINAL MAN (CDR by Cohort Records)
One of the project of John Gore, head cohort of Cohort Records, is >wirewall<, which was mentioned in Vital Weekly when discussing some of his other work, as Kirchenkampf or The Oratory Of Divine Love. I think we should regard >wirewall< as his noise project, although on the other hand we could also see this as the extended, extra part of his other work. It seems to me that here too Gore works with radio waves, also feeds them through a bunch of synthesizers, adds a few sound effects, but whereas in his other works the outcome would be droney, atmospheric music, the outcome for >wirewall< is noise. Piercing sounds, but not in an unpleasant way and Gore allows the listener to hear details and mixes together several layers in a clever way. It has a sort of vibrant, improvised feel to it. Maybe as a whole, its all a bit much, but throughout I thought this was quite alright, when served in a smaller dose. (FdW)
Address: http://cohortrecords.0catch.com/
CALIKA – BLOOD EMBRACE (CDR by Audiobulb)
The third album by Simon Kealoha, also known as Calika comes as a CDR, unlike its two predecessors. What hasn’t changed is his love of “jazz, hip hop, post rock, found sounds, degraded loops and twisted beats”, which he seems to be using all to create his music. What’s different, I suppose, is the fact that things sound a bit more raw, unfinished than before. Calika creates some great IDM music, but isn’t too shy to move into more ambient textures, and have a piece with some guitar sounds, modest computer processing and simply watch what is happening. Calika makes a pretty varied disc of bouncing rhythm pieces, melodic ambient pieces and lovely sunny pieces. This release, along with a cold soft drink, reading a book in a sunny garden, is just the perfect way to spend afternoon (if only I had a garden!). (FdW)
Address: http://www.audiobulb.com
O. MELBY – MARSIPAN (CDR by Amboltue Records)
Old fresh music of an unknown musician. I have never heard about O. Melby and at the world wide web I couldn’t find any information about this interesting musician. Two old concerts are released at the Norwegian label Ambolthue Records. The first concert is called “Sinus Input” is recorded in 2005 and concert is a long slowly developing composition of electronic sounds. Dark sounds in an ambient sphere are the beginning. High pitched soundwaves crack the quiet drones alternating with more similar sounds. He leads the listener in different moods with his music. I think the track is too long or more variety in deeper breaks is needed to keep the attention. Completely different is the second concert on this CD-R. ” LA3 (#1-4) is recorded live at Lavfidelisk Aften 3 in 2001 and is previously released at Brumm as a limited edition of 14. The track starts with electronic industrial-like rhythms and stops suddenly with a sound of a toy. O. Melby adds samples to this break and continues with funny breaks, sounds, noises and I guess live played beats. After a while the industrial beats starts again and the crowd can get loose in his pulsing beats, noises and breaks. Great track! (JKH)
Address: http://www.ambulthue.com
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR – SOME MEN NEVER DIE
(CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR – SOME MEN NEVER LIVE (CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR – WHERE IS EVERYONE? (CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
Marcel Herms produces a lot of music, drawings and paintings for a long long time. Now his label Anima Mal Nata releases a trilogy with Not Half and The Therapist. Not Half is a project of the Canadian musician Allen Conroy started in 1983 and since 1986 he releases music created with all kind of stuff, like garbage, toys, tapes, samplers, computer and more. Fever Spoor (Marcel Herms) and Not Half send recordings to Bob ter Hofte (The Therapist). With a lot of material on 5 CDRs he created three albums and added also sounds of his own.
‘Some Men Never Die’ starts and ends with harsh noise created by electronics and pulsing waves. The compositions are associative, fast, rough and restless. Not special and innovative, but I like this album, because of unity between the eight compositions.
The second part of the trilogy ‘Some Men Never Live’, concrete electronic and synthesizer sounds and noise are intended to be integrated. Noisy compositions with many layers, structures, rhythm and a-rhythm and sound of smashing metal. The base of the noise is really strong, but the clear synthesizer disturbs the dirty sound. Jasmijn adds in tracks five and seven acoustic pianoplay. In this compositions the mix between noise and this concrete sound of the piano fit really well, because the sound of the piano is a layer as well.
The last part ‘Where Is Everyone?’ starts really great, with samples of a toy-guitar and talking words and mix nice into harsh noise. The last CDR is filled with five long tracks, so the sounds have more time and possibility to blend into each other. The variety of sounds is great: ranging from an old printer, to chanting of monks and radio sounds. The compositions are considered and therefore strong.
The concept of three musicians creating a trilogy is interesting and could be more powerful, if there was more concentration to the compositions and structure of the trilogy. (JKH)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/animamalnata
MARC NAMBLARD – GISEMENTS (1) (3″CDR by Kaon)
Just what ‘prises de sons’ means I don’t know, but my best guess would be that that it means gathering of sounds, which was done by Cedric Peyronnet and Marc Namblard. He has a CD ‘Chants Of Frozen Lakes’ (reviewed in Vital Weekly 624), and then was never heard of again, by me that is. Here the two men recorded sounds from Vallee du Taurion, and Namblard is responsible for editing the sounds into a piece of music. He does that with great care and lots of help from the computer. The frequencies are all pushed up to the limit, and all sorts of plug-ins are used to make a lively piece of soundscaping. Namblard uses the tactic of collage, which is means there are sudden shifts and changes in the material, which add a great vibrant thing to the music. At times we recognize the field recordings, water, insects, rain, and at other times there is a lot to guess about it. A great, refined piece of music, highly dramatic and very lively. Excellent. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kaon.org
CARLOS VILLENA – OSCIL.LACIONS EN LA PENOMBRA DES LES TAQUES SOLARS (3″CDR by Ephre Imprint)
More music by Carlos Villena (see also Vital Weekly 730 and 733), who works under his own name and runs the Mantricum label. This is the first time we hear his music solo. The field recordings he has captured have a solar origin, although I’m not sure how they were captured. But they are fed into the audio mixer and mixed together. Its all pretty noise oriented but in a sort of fine way. Villena uses the collage form, rather than the endless noise attack, to create various sections that fade into eachother. For all we know this could be any sort of field recording, even street sounds. An effective work however of drone/noise/collage sound which stays away from the careful crackling work of microsound. Nature is noise enough, as someone once remarked, and Villena knows how to twist that into a fine piece of noise of nature. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ephreimprint.eu
GNAWED/ICE VOLT – INSIDES MUSIC LESSON 69 (cassette by Spit & Cuss)
YOSHIHIRO KIKUCHI – TEXT’S ABSENCE OPTICAL GLOOM AUDIBLE LIGHTS (C40 cassette by Fragment)
Gnawed (Grant Richardson) drawn out static and electronic artefacts – Ice Volt (Bryce Beverlin II ) electronic organic gremlin sounds & processed vocals – clanking harsh noise which morphs in to drone didgeridoo – and back again – both pieces narrate a journey of some sorts – even in the latter of just movement accompanied by musical trolls – more a goth than gothic masterpiece, and in the former a long and slow destructive crash. Both share an unreality which is not to my taste, if you can get an ‘inkling’ about my difficulty here, ‘boom boom’… Yoshihiro Kikuchi utilizes electronic cut ups and processed percussion, alarms and samples – the beauty of this work is that the micro cut up electronics works wonderfully well with this medium, the sounds appear out of the tape like fragments of broken glass, again working within and with the constraints of the medium, without recourse to Tolkienography a work which resembles analytic cubism, yet to encompass the readymade reality of the synthetic. (jliat)
Address: http://spitandcuss.blogspot.com
Address: http://fragmentfactory.blogspot.com/