FLO STOFFNER – …AND SORRY (CD by Veto Records) *
JEAN-CLAUDE ELOY – AHATA-ANAHATA (3CD by Hors Territories) *
JEAN-CLAUDE ELOY – YO-IN (4CD by Hors Territories)
FLUE – VISTA (CD by Infrastition)
TETSUO FURUDATE & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI – WORLD AS WILL IV (CD by Ohm) *
AUTISTICI – AMPLIFIED PRESENCE (CD by Home Normal) *
HLADNA – MELTING WATER (CD by Aquarellist)
STORMLOOP – STORMBOUND (CD by Glacial Movements) *
NORD – LSD (LP by PCP Records)
KOMMISSAR HJULER & MAMA BAR – WIEDERAUFNAHMEVERARFAHREN 11/06 (LP by You Don’t Have To Call It Music)
ILYA MONOSOV – COLLECTED WORKS OF (LP by You Don’t Have To Call It Music)
NIKOLAUS EINHORN – ARBEITEN (LP by You Don’t Have To Call It Music)
MATTHEW DE GENNARO – ADVERSARIA (LP by TU-134)
HALLGRIMUR VILHJALMSSON – RUSSANDO. SERENADE FOR SIX GERMAN SIRENS (LP by TU-134)
GLASS OUT – NEVER FORCE A LEFT HANDED CHILD TO USE THEIR RIGHT HAND (12″ by Lumberton Trading Company)
NICK MOTT – ALMOST ENTIRELY OF NERVES AND BLOOD (7″ by Lumberton Trading Company)
AG DAVIS & JAMISON WILLIAMS – AUTO DE FE (“7” by Gilgongo Records)
FERRAN FAGES – LLAVI VELL (CD by L’Innomable) *
BLACK MAYONNAISE – WHEN YOU GET CAUGHT BETWEEN THE MOON AND BOSTON HARBOR (CDR by Placenta Records) *
ZHA – NOISE OF NATIVE ORDER (CDR by Bio Sonar Labyrint)
BOEVYE CYKADY – SCHTRIHI TREPETA (CDR by Bio Sonar Revers)
DAVID CINTRON – NO ON (CDR by Lighten Up Sounds) *
DAIN DALLER – TIREHOUSE TAPES VOL. 1 (cassette by Lighten Up Sounds)
MOLE HOLE – WEDGE (video by Lighten Up Sounds)
TIM COSTER – A PLACE IN THE SUN (cassette by Fictitious Sighs) *
FLO STOFFNER – …AND SORRY (CD by Veto Records)
This is the debut album of one Flo Stoffner, of whom I never heard. He was born in Zurich, but lives in Hamburg. One could know from his groups Stoffner/Mengis/Schramm, Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6, Lila, Flo Stoffner’s electric torture, Palkomuski, Kramer/Stoffner/Lavretto, Humair Quartett, Anna and Stofner, or his improvisations with Joe Lovano, Ellerly Eskelin, Michael Brecker, Dewey Redman, Erik Truffaz, Mathieu Michel, Chris Potter, Nils Petter-Molvaer, Michael Gassmann, Christoph Erb, Johannes Enders, Harald Haerter, Arthur Blythe, Hilaria Kramer, Flo Gotte, Daniel Humair, Paul Lovens, Martin Schutz and Joy Frempong – yes, I copied all the names from press release, simply because I vaguely recognized just one (Paul Lovens), which made me think there is probably a whole of music I have never heard of. Stoffner plays the guitar, solo here from an improvising point of view. It starts out with the longest and most noisy piece of the CD, which didn’t do much for me and made no promise for the rest, I thought. But I must admit I was wrong. Noise returns in ‘Low Punch’ and is still not his strong point. When Stoffner uses the guitar and objects to create sounds, things are much more interesting. Carefully constructing abstract patterns, such as in ‘Tingle’ and ‘Lurch’, or almost blues like in the title piece. His music works best when he keeps matters concise and to the point – the shorter pieces here. Maybe he should have chopped down the two noise pieces and added a few more introspective pieces. Throughout quite a varied CD showcasing the various talents this man has. (FdW)
Address: http://www.veto-records.ch
JEAN-CLAUDE ELOY – AHATA-ANAHATA (3CD by Hors Territories)
JEAN-CLAUDE ELOY – YO-IN (4CD by Hors Territories)
Today I spend a whole day with Jean-Claude Eloy. Not literally of course, but I listened to these 7 CDs with two works, and read all the material that came along with it. In the case of ‘Ahata-Anahata’ this is a CD sized book, of 80 pages but with mostly images but in the case of ‘Yo-In’ this is like a A5/B5 sized book of 150 pages. Now this is not my first encounter with the long works of Eloy, before I reviewed ‘Shanti’ (2CDs) and ‘Gaku-No-Michi’ (4CDs) – see Vital Weekly 752. This former student of Darius Milhaud likes to compose lengthy works, although primarily electronic, its not exclusively electronics and these works proof that. ‘Anahata’ is a work in three parts, the first spanning two discs and the second and third are on the third disc. The work started when Eloy composed a work for a Gagaku orchestra, made up of Japanese traditional court music and Buddhist singers (the first composer to do so other than traditional texts) and then went on to compose this new work, which incorporates electronics, traditional instruments, such as the Sho, O-Sho, Shomyo, Hichiriki and the ryuteki and Japanese voices. The title is from the sanskrit and refers to ‘the idea of a fundamental frequency of the universe, an unstruck, unheard sound, a vibration cosmic by nature, translated as ‘primordial vibration” and is a work of great contemplation, certainly the almost 100 minutes of the first part. Here we have large parts of vocal singing, bells sounds and throughout its seems not a lot of electronic music, although in some parts there is some metallic rumble. An excellent part. In part two things start to get a bit louder, the flutes here play an important and electronica is more ‘awake’, which then culminates in the third part which is the most electronic one, blending vast electronic drones with the sound of the Sho, O-Sho and Alto-Sheng. The cerebral nature of the two other parts seems to be broken here, but the organ like sounds perhaps also make great sense. The first hundred minutes being very contemplative, the next hour there is a great sense of electronic music blending with instruments.
When ‘Yo-In’ was performed for the first time, it caused mixed reaction – to say the least. Eloy’s blending of Japanese (or Asian) music with electronics caused a ripple in the music scene. The extensive book details a lot of what went into producing this work, from his work at the institute of Sonology in Utrecht, the nature of the some 200 percussion instruments used as well as the field recordings, but also the reception of the work, make this an excellent read. For which you have time, while listening to the work: it lasts three hours and forty minutes. The title translates as ‘reverberations’. The background, if we may call it like that, is made up of electronic processes of percussions and field recordings, although perhaps a lot of the time not so recognizable. The foreground is filled with the shimmering tones of bells, percussion, toms, and who knows what else – there are a few pictures in the book, but apparently the various performances have never been properly filmed. This work too has a meditative character, but throughout to a lesser extent than ‘Ahata-Anahata’ – there is no doubt more action here. This too is a beautiful work, especially the longitude works very well. Sit back and listen: there is not much you can do. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hors-territoires.comhttp://www.metamkine.com
FLUE – VISTA (CD by Infrastition)
So after a full day of listening to Jean-Claude Eloy’s wonderful music, its time to chill out and listen to something completely different. Infrastition loves The Netherlands, and The Netherlands love Infrastition. This French label has a strong interest in music from the 1980s and has brought great re-issues. Not just of Dutch music, but also from say X Ray Pop, Die Bunker, DZ Lectric and Ptose. But for me personally the most interesting thing is the re-issues of Bazooka, Das Wesen, Coitus Int and now (the) Flue. Why you may ask, quite legitimate actually. The online encyclopedia for Dutch music is very brief: “an off-shoot from the band Mecano, producing great new wave with lots of instruments. The 12” “Sometimes (In Arabia)” is a modest hit in the clubs”. That’s all and that’s indeed brief. No year is mentioned, but does it justify a CD re-issue in 2011? Bloody yes, it does. ‘Vista’ is a great album. Flue started as a band in Vital’s home town Nijmegen, who had a bunch of songs and dared with improvisation, resulting in their first album ‘One And A Half’, produced by Mecano singer Dick Polack. Mecano member Cor Bolten, a highly gifted musician on many instruments, continued with singer Edward Gijsen, which then resulted in ‘Vista’ and said 12″. This album sounds like a starting point for became Mecano’s reunion album ‘Autoportrait’. A full sound with violins, mandolin, drums, keyboards and a doom laden voice (perhaps the only thing that makes this dated). Very melodic new wave, with a rich sound, not to be compared with a standard new wave set up (drums, bass, guitar, voice, keyboards), almost orchestral. An excellent album all around. Eight absolute great pop songs. Lost sometime, but now recovered. What a great album this is. A must have for all those lovers of ‘cold wave’, or just fans of great, alternative (old?) popmusic. The only downside is that the 12″ could have been part of this CD too – although the title track of that can be found on ‘Transmissions: The Netherlands’, released by the same label. The first LP was already re-issued in 2005 (on the Mecano label, with bonus material), so it would have been great to have it all on CD… But hell, what I am complaining? (FdW)
Address: http://www.infrastition.com
TETSUO FURUDATE & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI – WORLD AS WILL IV (CD by Ohm)
Somewhere along the lines I missed out on the third volume of ‘World As Will’, released in 2008 by Sub Rosa, following the first on Staalplaat (with a controversial cover) and the second on 23Five (see Vital Weekly 321). As far as I understand such matters, ‘World As Will’ is a work in which Zbigniew Karkowski and Tetsuo Furudate combine orchestral music with computer music – read: noise. At the basis here lie two performances, one for sax, trombone, flute and sine waves and the other for a small ensemble called Sonic Boom. These recordings are slaughtered by the composers during a concert in Tokyo and turned into a racket of noise. Another heavy weight release, with lots of cascading noise samples of orchestral origin spliced on the spot together, fed through the lions of granular synthesis – and who knows what else. Its however in the power of these hands that they know, somewhere in the middle how to pull back and go deeper and deeper into what seems to be the crackling of surfaces with contact microphones, before returning to the world of crashing noise and only to return once more to that somewhat dark underworld, going back up after for a cascading finale. Noise indeed and perhaps I should have left this in the capable hands of Jliat, but this is actually noise of the more intelligent kind. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ohmrecords.no
AUTISTICI – AMPLIFIED PRESENCE (CD by Home Normal)
Besides running Audiobulb Records, David Newman occupies the rest of his time with a music project called Autistici, and has so far released an album on 12K and on his own label, plus some CDRs of archive material. It would be all to easily to lump him with the ‘lot’ who use computer as the primary instrument, since the cover here lists so much more: piano, violin, acoustic guitar, cracklebox, vocal chord, harpsichord, mellotron, organ, harp, bass guitar, cutlery, homemade electronics bought, made and bent, field recordings of the world inside and out’. Ah, you would say, but do we have any real evidence that he uses all of that, or is it ‘all beyond recognition’ as usual? I am happy to report that in these ten pieces we actually recognize a piano, a bass guitar, a voice and such like. What Newman does is not to create ten similar pieces of music, of stretching the given material into ambient glitch, but to set himself out to compose small pieces with all of these instruments. Rounded off, finished compositions. These ten are also highly varied in approach, even using rhythm from time to time, a heavy one in “Tower Location”, but that’s a rarity. Autistici work a lot with small melodies, warm and delightful, almost in a poplike context at times, and at other times in a beautiful ambient or abstract manner. I should think that this is easily the best work by Autistici I heard so far. A matured sound, all thought out, and carefully executed. That is the way to do it! (FdW)
Address: http://www.homenormal.com
HLADNA – MELTING WATER (CD by Aquarellist)
Aquarellist is a label from Russia which pays a lot of attention to the artwork of their releases. Most of the images have a abstract psychedelic image. The label cooperates with Vetvei, another Russian label which is active in the psychedelic ritual music. Anyway. The reissue of early album “Melting Water” from Saint-Petersburg noise artist Nikolay Kalmykov’s project Hladna. The album is recorded in 1998-1999 and released as a very limited CDR. This album has a strong ritual ambient atmosphere which sometimes develops into noisy harsh experimental musical steps out of the dark mythical atmosphere. The album did not loose it power and is very suitable for lovers of music like Lustmord. The sound sources are based in electronics and in analog sounds like chanting, metallic percussion and playing long tones on a flute. The last track of the album I really do not understand, with uptempo beats, a screaming man and noisy sounds. Are the melancholic sounds too much for the musician and does he need to freak out his suppressed feelings?
(JKH)
Address: http://www.aquarellist.ru
STORMLOOP – STORMBOUND (CD by Glacial Movements)
In Dutch, the word Stormloop can be translated as a charge, in the military sense of the word. Perhaps Kevin Spence knows this? He calls himself Stormloop and I couldn’t find any information on the label’s website. Its good to see the label calls itself ‘glacial and isolationist ambient’ – so that I am not the only one who still uses the word Isolationist when it comes to these dark ambient tones. I recently played the ‘famous’ “Isolationist” double CD again, the one where Virgin thought to have struck gold with a new movement, and in particular works like that of Thomas Koner there, or earlier (on ‘Nunatak Gongamur’), were particularly influential to a lot of musicians. I assume Kevin Spence uses here a lot of sound effects, probably all computer, to apply to the world of field recordings. He brings exactly, almost textbook like, what dark ambient is about: thick clouds of sound, slowly moving, with a small bit of melody, in ten slightly different variations, one a bit lighter, the other a bit darker. Although I don’t think its bad, nor particular good either, the lack of originality is somewhat bothers me. I really couldn’t find anything about Stormloop that I haven’t heard with so many others in this field. I know fans of the genre who like that and welcome anybody who does the same, but I, unfortunately, am not among them. (FdW)
Address: http://www.glacialmovements.com
NORD – LSD (LP by PCP Records)
There is, on discogs, quite a funny description of the Japanese band Nord, which I will quote more or less in its entire form: “Band Formed In 1979,by Satoshi Katayama And Hiroshi Oikawa. In 1983, Ktayama Parted From Oikawa.
Oikawa Had Named His Solo Unit “Nord”. And Katayama Had His Unit Named “Nord” Too. So 2 Bands Named “Nord” Was Born. Oikawa’s “Nord” Released “L.S.D.”,”Ego Trip”,”N.G. Tapes”, But Had No Live Shows. From The Latter Period Of 80’s, He Had Kept Silence. Katayama’s “Nord” Had Joied New Member, Makoto Ito.They Had Many Activity In Works. In 2003,Ito Left The Band. After That,Hiroshi Hasegaw (a.k.a. Astro) Joined The Band. In 2006,Hasegawa Left The Band. So Nord got Katayama’s Solo Unit.” I am sure at one point in my life I had the LP “Ego Trip”, which I believe was already worth a few pennies, but now probably a bit more. I may have sold it earlier, but I remember it as a nice record. I don’t think I ever heard ‘L.S.D.’ before, but surely, vaguely, I remember what Nord sounded like. Synthesizer like with a few sound effects, and a somewhat improvised sounding guitar. The b-side starts with ‘Somebody To Love’ from Jefferson Airplane and that gave me the romantic notion of somebody playing the radio and then thinking to create his own music. If anything, Nord is probably highly inspired by Maurizio Bianchi in his more early ambient phase, non directional, just moving and pushing sound around, using a synthesizer, sound effects and klingklang on the guitar. The third piece takes of like quiet cosmic ship. Highly psychedelic music – one could as easily argue this to be the missing link between early seventies cosmic music from Germany, ambient of Bianchi and the current trade of cosmic music. Excellent stuff from the old days – now I wish I hadn’t parted from that other Nord LP. (FdW)
Address: http://youdonthavetocallitmusic.de/
KOMMISSAR HJULER & MAMA BAR – WIEDERAUFNAHMEVERARFAHREN 11/06 (LP by You Don’t Have To Call It Music)
ILYA MONOSOV – COLLECTED WORKS OF (LP by You Don’t Have To Call It Music)
NIKOLAUS EINHORN – ARBEITEN (LP by You Don’t Have To Call It Music)
Apparently there was some necessity to do promotion, as You Don’t Have To Call It Music send me six labels – fair enough: three were friends’ labels. Ilya Monosov was just released, but ‘Wiederaufnahmeverfahren 11/06’ was already released in 2007 and the Nikolaus Einhorn LP was already released in 2008 – so a bit older than six months. The Hjuler/Bar LP in an edition of 100, which I think means that a) vinyl doesn’t always sell (otherwise: why bother with a promo now) and b) limited editions are not a guarantee for quick turnover. Ah, but this is a second edition, only re-released a few months ago, with misprinted labels. Maybe this has to do with recent wave of interest in the work of Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Bar. To the new fans this musical project this album will be most welcome. Its a collection of pieces that were released on CDR or cassette by the group themselves and give a nice insight in the early work. Pretty noisy, with feedback manipulation, but also lo-fi loops cut crudely on a reel-to-reel machine, vocal stuff/sound poetry like and bits of electronics. I am not a real fan, old or otherwise, but I think this is all quite nice. I have a weak spot I guess for this sort of manipulation of sound, using the lowest possible means. Its not always spot-on, but quite nice altogether.
The real new thing however is the LP by Ilya Monosov. One of those people who I can never pin down, clouded with mystery. This LP is called ‘The Collected Works’, which is odd, since that wouldn’t fit on a LP – the man has released more LPs than this. There is a CDR enclosed with lots of other works by Monosov, so maybe its a farewell record? You see, mystery all around. Monosov is, I believe at least, a more or less conceptual composer with a strong interest in the minimal aspect of things. The pieces here are collected from 2000 to 2007 and are self-explanatory: ‘For Two Glitching Organs’, ‘Autonomous Guitar Music’, ‘Music For Broken Music Box and Drum Machine’ and such like. Some of them are recorded with one Preston A. Swirnoff, and throughout these pieces are spacious. Not really in an ambient sense of the word, but sparse orchestrated, even when it sometimes is a bit louder than what you would expect. It gives a pretty over view of Monosov’s work for those who missed out on his previous work (I think there are few overlaps with previous releases). Clouded with mystery indeed, but this record might serve (again?) as a nice introduction into the world of this fine composer.
And oh: that Nikolaus Einhorn record is an interesting piece from 1973 of sound poetry. A loop like Steve Reich’s ‘Come Out’ phasing in and out on the word ‘arbeiten’ (working). The other side is also from 1973 and not released before. It applies the same working method but then for chimes in the wind – or perhaps its just chimes in the wind. Get a copy while they last. (FdW)
Address: http://youdonthavetocallitmusic.de/
MATTHEW DE GENNARO – ADVERSARIA (LP by TU-134)
HALLGRIMUR VILHJALMSSON – RUSSANDO. SERENADE FOR SIX GERMAN SIRENS (LP by TU-134)
New names all around here: a label of which I never heard, and two composers of whom I never heard – I think. Matthew de Gennaro’s LP comes with a booklet, but not this particular copy, which is a pity, since it could have shedded some light on the man and his music. So I believe that De Gennaro plays violin, or cello (or both perhaps) and guitar, plus maybe a few sound effects. He plays quite desolate music – lost in time and lost in space. Imagine a wide open desert, a high way that stretches in a straight line, beyond the horizon and the music of De Genaro as the soundtrack for this road movie. At the same time this has something particular folk like, but in a curious sort of avant-garde way, like a mediaeval song. But some of the studio techniques applied, like reversing the tape, makes it again, at the same time quite modern.
From Reykjavik comes one Hallgrimur Vilhjalmsson
who was born in 1976. He met Stockhausen, took a master calls with Maurizio Kagel and is influenced “y modern popular music, especially punk”. His album is released in an edition of 40 copies, so I got a copy with no cover, but its, like the title says, a serenade for six german sirens and dedicated to Stockhausen. I am not sure what to think of this record. This sounds like a bunch of loops of siren sounds, cut into three movements, which one has to play loud to enjoy the full effect I guess – the full annoying effect of police sirens that is. All is well in the world of concept music and art, but this one didn’t do much for me. An interesting concept, perhaps a nice take on the notion of minimal music but that’s it. Interesting to play at your next Occupy riot, I assume. (FdW)
Address: http://youdonthavetocallitmusic.de/
GLASS OUT – NEVER FORCE A LEFT HANDED CHILD TO USE THEIR RIGHT HAND (12″ by Lumberton Trading Company)
NICK MOTT – ALMOST ENTIRELY OF NERVES AND BLOOD (7″ by Lumberton Trading Company)
Its all semantics of course, but this is announced as 12″, mini LP, with three tracks, still spanning around thirty minutes and its the first in a series of six (which is going to include Philippe Petit/Cindytalk, Brian Conniffe, Human Greed, Main and Theme), although I am not sure what ties these together. I never heard of Glass Out, being the project of Andrew Dewar Ainslie. Main sales point here is the reading of the Coil manifesto by Jhonn Balance (from a rarely heard session by VPRO Radio) on the piece ‘Manifesto’. Electronic music this is, with slow oscillating beats, melodies and spoken word. Quite gentle music here, slowly evolving and highly atmospheric. I am not sure if this is all done with a bunch of synthesizers (analog or digital), or if there was perhaps some other instrument in play here. But the thoughtful atmospheric pieces of music work pretty well here. Its a pity that its only three pieces since it would be interesting to see what other tricks this guy has up his sleeve.
Nick Mott I may not have heard before but I heard the band he was in, Volcano & The Bear, plus he was also a member of Spectral Armies and Skeleton Birds And The Number Of God). His one sided 7″ was planned in 2007 but only is released, in an edition of 100 and comes with a special A4 print on cardboard. Like with the 12″ its a pity there is only one side here, which never gives a clear view of what this music is really about. A rumble of percussive sounds and some strange voice material, actually played by others, make up a short but intense piece of music, with a subtle ending. Here too, I ask: give us more to be fully objective. But this certainly tastes like more. Great package too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lumberton-trading.com
AG DAVIS & JAMISON WILLIAMS – AUTO DE FE (“7” by Gilgongo Records)
“AG Davis (voice) and Jamison Williams (Alto-Saxophone… pushing the boundaries … in a display of free-improvisation… the most left-field Zorn or Boredoms off-shoot…” Well I don’t know. The sax honks and shrieks, the vocals consist of screams and cave-man grunts that you might hear in a Han a Barbera cartoon of the late 50s. And I guess the whole “left field” boundary pushing thing, idiom is of this date also. Hush Puppy shoes and space satellites, bowling alleys and drive in movies, electric toasters and I love Lucy. Its meant to be amusing as well as boundary pushing, but without the threat of global nuclear war and Yogi Bear its neither nostalgic or naïve in its belief in boundaries and Top Cat. But then this is “good”. The scare quotes are needed- because the text like the sounds no longer have *any* boundaries – i.e. “guard rails”. Vocalizations and improvisations (here in this – and now in this) are neither determined or stochastic… but are both (present and transparent) at one and the same time. And the rationale for this is not singular, it too is non deterministic – and also has a teleology! it is as if both the elaboration of writing – as escaping the metaphysics of a final presence – ignoring the guard rails, and the underlying identification of power with writing – or music here – its violence and capitalization is true and present- and constituent of it and its value, its understanding, its aesthetic, and also the parody of writing as meaning as music as organization, motivation, idea, value, humanity found in “The Writing Lesson”, the ‘lie’ of music, its un-natural deception of meaning – in a primitive meaningless universe is also simultaneously present with both the logics and illogic – which justify the “work” being called ‘good’, ‘significant’, ‘relevant’, ‘important’, which in the end and before the beginning justify justification itself. (Jliat)
Address: http://www.gilgongorecords.com
FERRAN FAGES – LLAVI VELL (CD by L’Innomable)
Over the years we have reviewed quite a few releases by Spanish guitar player Ferran Fages, either solo or in collaboration with others, such as Alfredo Costa Monteiro. Here is a work which was ‘recorded and edited from July to October 2010’, which sounds odd, since it more or less sounds like something that was recorded in one take. Fages plays here acoustic guitar, contact mics and speakers and does that for the entire forty three minutes and fifty one seconds. But then perhaps its recorded in multiple takes, come to think of it: by applying the same working method a few times and then overlaying the various results. A highly drone like piece of music here of singing, swirling overtones, singing loudly. A gorgeous piece of music I’d say, but then its because I am sucker for this kind of stuff I guess. Objectively speaking I am inclined to report that this kind of music has been done before, by Fages, by others, and as such its probably not the most original kind of drone music. A massive wall of sound for sure, and when played loud, forming a loud menacing piece of music. (FdW)
Address: http://linnomable.wordpress.com/
BLACK MAYONNAISE – WHEN YOU GET CAUGHT BETWEEN THE MOON AND BOSTON HARBOR (CDR by Placenta Records)
A compilation of pieces recorded by Black Mayonnaise in the period 1991-2008. Started out inspired by Godflesh, Carcass, Butthole Surfers – not really bands that ever inspired me, although not bad either. There is also an interest in extreme music, noise, rituals etc. Each of the track gets a write up on the insert which is always nice to read. That’s about it, really. The voice is heavily distorted, slowed down, rhythm machines run amok and/or heavily and there are some heavily distorted guitars. Dark doom metal perhaps? Its not really the cup of tea I like, I must admit. Its great to create music, but there is not always a necessity to release it. (FdW)
Address: http://www.placentarecordings.blogspot.com
ZHA – NOISE OF NATIVE ORDER (CDR by Bio Sonar Labyrint)
BOEVYE CYKADY – SCHTRIHI TREPETA (CDR by Bio Sonar Revers)
When I got the album “Noise of Native Order” in my hands, it reminds me to a piece of children art. Simple paintings with felt-tipped pen and some dots of aquarel ink. Not really impressive, but when I listened to the music I could not find the match between the artwork and the sublime played music. Abysov Piotr and Zhigalov Sergej recorded in May 2010 an ambient album with a lot of sound-sources like metal pipes cuts, paper, wood, voice, singing bowls, digeridoo, oshen drum, bells and ocarina. The 14 tracks are built up carefully and takes the listener to the deeper parts of his consciousness. Singing bowls disturb the meditative moment, to keep the attention as high as possible. The ambient atmosphere is pure by the intense play of both musicians. It is a pity that this album has a limited edition of 52, because this album deserves more than this.
Boevye Cykady released several albums at Extremal Psychonauts and did some cooperation CDRs at Bio Sonar Labyrint. Schtrihi Trepeta is a re-release. First release is at Extremal Psychonauts in 2004 in a limited edition of 34. All labels are connected with 8th Moon Art which has different sub-labels. So, you can keep yourself busy with releasing and re-releasing. But let’s get back to the music. The eight untitled electronic compositions are completed with sounds of insects and water. The third track has a long extending sound wave which is hardly to hear. You need a good audio device to hear this subtile sounds. The compositions are well edited and I really like the created rhythms and loops by natural sounds which gives the CDR an open soundscape. Although again a limited edition? So which other label will come up with the next re-re-release? (JKH)
Address: biosonar@narod.ru
DAVID CINTRON – NO ON (CDR by Lighten Up Sounds)
DAIN DALLER – TIREHOUSE TAPES VOL. 1 (cassette by Lighten Up Sounds)
MOLE HOLE – WEDGE (video by Lighten Up Sounds)
Three releases on three different formats here, brought to me by one label, Lighten Up Sounds. The CDR comes from Cleveland musician David Cintron, who played with ‘avant rock’ bands such Terminal Lovers and Scarcity Of Tanks. His two pieces on ‘No On’ have nothing to with ‘avant’ or ‘rock’. Apparently he uses here synthesizer and guitar and a whole lot of electronics to create two twenty-two minutes of deep, isolationist music. Think Lull, think Mirror, think Ora – but I think Cintron certainly has his style in picking up the drone thread from there. Shimmering metallic sounds shine through in the mix. This particular end of drone music is in that dark alley – the underworld of ambient music, isolationist as we used to call this in the mid nineties. Topped with a nice professional digipack, this is easily the best release I heard from this label.
On cassette we have the music from one Dain Daller, once a member of Tiny Music (see Vital Weekly 796), and now building a house out of recycled automobile tires. On ‘Tirehouse Tapes Vol. 1’ he uses no instruments – maybe there was no room for them in his new house – but cracked vinyl, magnetic tape, radio static, air compressors and whatever else he has in his shed. It doesn’t start out to good with the crackles of vinyl – oh, one of those, I thought. But what happens next makes this actually into a much more interesting release. The vans in the shed produce an interesting drone like experience, along with the rattling of objects. Its here where the tape is the most interesting I think. The crackles of vinyl don’t bother me that much, but the hissing of tape and rumbling of objects much more. A lo-fi, degraded noise tape, which has some really fine moments, and some lesser ones. Quite alright, actually.
Maybe someone had the clever idea that if the cassette can do a revival, then so perhaps can the self-released video tape. Except of course self-released video discs never really made, mainly due to the fact that American video’s don’t play here in Europe, and vice versa. Maybe mister Mole Hole isn’t aware of that, perhaps just because the whole notion of releasing video tapes is so much from the past. On his seventeen minute video he uses blurry layer of 8mm and 16mm films which are over-layed with each other along with music made with a wavetek waveform signal generator, tape-recorders, tape-loops, contact microphone, delay and mixer. I think it might look great, but not only is my videorecorder kaput in the corner, nor do I know anyone who has a working one. Sometimes people me a cassette and a CDR of the same thing, in case I can’t play it; it would have been a great idea if a DVD-R was added here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lightenupsounds.blogspot.com
TIM COSTER – A PLACE IN THE SUN (cassette by Fictitious Sighs)
There have been a number of releases by Tim Coster over the years, mostly on his own label CLaudia, but also Gest and Pseudo Arcana, most of them solo, but also as a member of Plains. On this new cassette there are five tracks of what is no doubt laptop music, as that is what he preaches. These five pieces are quite similar, even when they have different titles (so not part 1, 2, 3 etc.). Short loops of sine wave like sounds, or perhaps an organ of some kind, which are played in a slow, but seemingly random fashion, going in and out of phase, but as said, slowly meandering about, although not necessarily very ambient. More like modern electronic music, such as we find on a label like Experimental Intermedia. Quite a nice little release, this one. (FdW)
Address: http://fictitioussighs.blogspot.com/ or http://timcoster.bandcamp.com/