BLACK TO COMM – EARTH (CD by De Stijl) *
Z’EV & DAVID MARANHA – OBSIDIANA (CD by Sonoris) *
THE EBERTBROTHERS – SUSTEN PASS (CD by Mindwaves Music)
CHRISTY & EMILY – TIC-TAC-TOE (CD by Klangbad) *
DICK WOOD – NOT FAR FROM HERE (CD by PFmentum)
BONNIE BARNETT GROUP – IN BETWEEN DREAMS (CD by PFmentum)
MIRT – ARTIFICIAL FIELD RECORDINGS (CD by Catsun) *
LUZ AZUL – I TRENI INERTI (CD by Flexion Records) *
JOHN BARLEYCORN REBORN : REBIRTH (Compilation CD by Cold Spring)
LUIGI ARCHETTI – NULL II & NULL III (CD by Die Schachtel) *
YANNICK DAUBY – TAI-PAK THIA (CD by Kalerne) *
MIA ZABELKA – M (CD by Monotype Records) *
LHZ + H – SCOPE (CD by Monotype Records) *
DAN WARBURTON & IF BWANA – I’M SITTING IN PHILL NIBLOCK’S KITCHEN (CD by Monotype Records) *
SEWER ELECTION – VITTRA SONDER (LP by Throne Heap)
ISRAEL MARTINEZ – TWO ESPRESSOS IN SEPARATE CUPS (LP by Abolipop)
ATHANA & SCHANCHE – IN:PULSE (LP by West Audio Productions)
STANGL/ZARADNY (12″ by Bocian Records)
REMOTE CONTROL : A VIDEO ART PROJECT (2DVD by Moriremo Tutti Records/Paluste)
HERVE MOIRE – MIRAGE DE LOIRE (CDR by Aposiopese) *
ARVO ZYLO – SAINT STREET (CDR by No Part of It)
WRESTED THREAD (CDR by Must Die Records)
NARANJO, STANKOVA, YOUNG TRIO – VERDURE INTO ONYX (CDR by Peira) *
LONBERG-HOLM, STRID DUO – DISCUS AND PLUMBING (CDR by Peira) *
NOBUTO SUDA – TWILIGHT GARDEN (3″CDR by Taalem) *
HITOSHIRES – STELLA (3″CDR by Taalem) *
HAKOBUNE – BELIEVED REMAINS (3″CDR by Taalem) *
IEVA – LA CASCADE DE LA MONTAGNE DE L’AUBE (3″CDR by Taalem) *
BLUEFACED PEOPLE & KJETIL HANSSEN (cassette by Conrad Sound)
SERIOUS SAUCE VOL. 2 : SLYY (cassette by MJMJ)
BLACK TO COMM – EARTH (CD by De Stijl)
One of the dilemma’s as a reviewer is, certainly when you heard quite an amount of music by the same person or band, what do i want as a reviewer: something new or more of the same? What’s the progress? I sometimes note this in my reviews, along the lines of ‘this is great music, but nothing much new’. I may not have heard that many music by Black To Comm, the musical project of Marc Richter, also boss of Dekorder, is perhaps aware of the fact there should be progress. I believe the last thing I heard from him was ‘Alphabet 1968’ (see Vital Weekly 703) in which lets go of the long drone form music, in favor of shorter pieces, ‘songs’ even, made of old vinyl, including scratchy 78 rpms, going in all sorts of directions – techno, drone, world music et al. It was still massively stuck together, like much of his older work. On his new CD, ‘Earth’, are again a bit longer, but even more ‘songs’ like. There is, for instance, a voice, by one David Aird. Other people contributing to this CD are Renate Nikolaus, Rutger Zuydervelt and Christopher Kline, but Richter takes the bulk of instruments (vinyl, violin, saxonett, korg monotron, farfisa, mbira, autoharp, argeiphontes lyre (always good to see that mentioned), computer, microphones, bells, echoplex). This music for the silent film of the same name by one Ho Tzu Nyen, which I haven’t seen. The music I think is great. Very atmospheric in all its sparseness, melodic, slow and beautiful. The combination of samples from old vinyl, rusty and crackling, work very well with the acoustic instruments while all along there is always a hint of electronics. It is indeed song like, but that mainly due to the use of the voice of David Aird – and its exactly that I something I didn’t like very much. Its too ‘opera’ like, too ‘pathetic’, maybe too much like a serious rock singer singing slow stuff. For me this would have been a great instrumental CD, and I do like most of it, just not when Aird is singing. That’s a pity. Maybe it fits the music quite well, but next time, I hope Richter chooses another singer, as this new route is certainly one to explore more. (FdW)
Address: http://destijlrecs.com/
Z’EV & DAVID MARANHA – OBSIDIANA (CD by Sonoris)
A meeting of minimalists, I’d say, but minimalists with a maximum output. I saw David Maranha once in concert at his organ, loud and long, and minimal, like Terry Riley on speed. Z’EV is a man to play percussion on stainless steel discs, bass drum and maracas and most his playing is minimal, letting tones do the work in the space it is played in, leading to heavy bouncing sounds. These two heavy weights plays a concert at ZDB in Lisbon on June 24 2010 and the result is this thirty-five some piece. It starts out moody and slow, silent with Z’EV playing the stainless steel discs, waving the listeners into some kind of obscure magic ritual which is about to take place. Tones bend in various directions and slowly the hammond organ on Maranha comes in and from then on things evolve in quite a natural way, but once everything is in place it no longer carries that ritualist tag, but unfolds itself as a great psychedelic piece of music. Terry Riley meets the Velvet Underground. When Z’EV picks up the maracas to play the bass drum, Maranha starts adding some fine clusters in the lower region, and both knit a very dense pattern of closely linked tones. Maybe just a bit short with a bit too abrupt ending, and next to being at the real concert, I can imagine the CD is best substitute. (FdW)
Address: http://www.sonoris.org
THE EBERTBROTHERS – SUSTEN PASS (CD by Mindwaves Music)
Not surprisingly, The Ebertbrothers is a collaboration between two brothers carrying the second name being Ebert. Axel and Michael Ebert resides in Berlin, having collaborated since 2006, in the first place working with video art and then later with more focus on a combination between visual and sound performances. A number of self-released live recordings plus one full-length and an EP is the result of the sound explorations up until this present album released on German label Mindwaves Music. The cover of “Susten pass” shows a circus artist standing on top of a strange creature looking like a mixture between an elephant and a sea lion. The circus culture associates with something nostalgic from the childhood. With the strange creature added to the cover, the aesthetical front picture gives a good sign of what to expect from the inside of “Susten pass”. The music from the two brothers is an interesting combination of modern contemporary electronics and sounds from earlier sound cultures. Ambient textures have been added complex idm-based rhythm structures in the main part of the works of the album, giving an excellent chill out atmosphere with quite some compositional edge. There is a pleasant cinematic feel on the album that also uses sounds, reminiscent of an earlier era of electronic music absorbed into the sounds of the contemporary scene. A very interesting and catchy experimental album from The Ebertbrothers. (NM)
Address: http://www.mindwaves-music.com
CHRISTY & EMILY – TIC-TAC-TOE (CD by Klangbad)
This is one of those those in which you hear too much of one kind of music and you start longing for something else. In my case it was improvised music for most of the day, so by the end of the day it was time for something else. Christy & Emily are surely part of the band of the same name: Christy Edwards is a guitarist and Emily Manzo is a trained pianist, and the rest of the band is made up by Kristen Mueller on drums and Peter Kerlin on bass. Recorded in the studio of Faust, that might be the only true Vital reference, as nothing on these pieces shows any weirdness. Which is, given the workload of improvised doodling, actually something I needed. This CD has twelve songs of indie rock like tunes, with great vocals, speedy music (yet not ‘fast’) sometimes if you know what I mean, but most of the time a more ballad type of song structure is applied = the sort of mid tempo paced stuff. Is this music for Vital Weekly? I wouldn’t think so. Even if the Faust studio may have room for pop tunes, it’s nothing ‘new’. But unlike so much other music which also lands here which is definitely out of place, this is something I thoroughly liked a lot, as someone who likes ‘honest’ ‘real’ ‘pop music’ of some kind of alternative kind. Christy & Emily is great band, elegant tune-smiths as they say in the real rock press. Very out of place and very welcome. (FdW)
Address: http://www.klangbad.de
DICK WOOD – NOT FAR FROM HERE (CD by PFmentum)
BONNIE BARNETT GROUP – IN BETWEEN DREAMS (CD by PFmentum)
What a joy! The vibrant jazz on Wood’s ‘Not far from here’ is just delicious. Dick Wood is a musician from Los Angeles, founding member of The And Now Ensemble. For this project he is assisted by Dan Clucas (cornet, flute, octokoto, other sounds) , Hal Onserud (bass), Mark Trayle (live electronics) and Marty Mansour (drums, percussion), plus guest appearances by Dan Ostermann and Chuck Manning. Wood himself plays alto sax, flute, whistle and boom box. Also he composed all six titles. But it is in all aspects a jazz recording, so improvisation plays a big role of course. The music immediately struck me because it is so fresh and alive, energetic, musical and inspired. Seemingly nonchalant it moves on. But is very together and focussed. Wood is inspired by blues, Bach, Sun Ra, Ornette, Partch, to name a few. But he is very far from any cliche or copying. Special attention deseve the electronic intervals provided by Trayle like in the closing piece ‘And Now’. Throughout he delivers to the point bleeps and blops. Wood and Onserud return on the album of Bonnie Barnett. Added by Garth Powell (percussion) and Bonnie Barnett (vocals). Barnett is a vocalist, composer, improvisor from Los Angeles. She has some work out on Nine Winds, including a duo with bassist Ken Filiano. She has been exploring texts of Gertrude Stein and Jean-Paul Sartre and other writers. Of both writers she reads a text on this new release. I miss the point concerning these two pieces that have the musicians improvising and Barnett reading. But I don’t know how both activities are supposed to be interconnected. This is different for the pieces where Barnett changes for non-verbal vocal exercises like in ‘In between Dreams’ and ‘Primordial’. Again the fine work by Wood is to be enjoyed ont his one, like in the inspired opening track ‘Badinage’. (DM)
Address: http://www.pfmentum.com
MIRT – ARTIFICIAL FIELD RECORDINGS (CD by Catsun)
The otherwise highly organized Catsun label, a division of Monototype, has a Polish text as a pdf on the website, which is a pity since it doesn’t say much to me. Mirt, I believe, also has had a few releases before on this label and is a member Brasil And The Gallowbrothers, a more rock like band with a strong 80s feel. The instruments used by his band are also the ones listed here Yamaha CS5, modular synthesizer, trumpet, guitar, wurzlitzer piano, wavedrum, slit drum, ude drum, shakers and field recordings. The latter leads us obviously to the title of the release, which is a most curious one: just what are ‘artificial field recordings’? Maybe its that sort of pseudo tribal quality that this music has, which is the sixth (untitled) track reminded me of O Yuki Conjugate. With Mirt too, like his band, there is a great sense of of the past around it. But whereas Mirt goes back to the rock of post-punk experimentalism, Mirt himself takes ambient from Brian Eno as a starting point and puts all the various incarnations of ambient together. The quiet Eno like playing, the tribalism of Steve Roach and O Yuki Conjugate and some of the more recent microsound work – the glitch ambient. I think this is a great CD. Not because its so highly original, but its put together in a great way, with great bass end depth to it, but also very melodic and musical. Mirt knows exactly what he’s doing and created an absolutely fine disc of ambient music. Maybe a bit too early for a revival of ambient and ethno yet, but when its that far, this Mirt release will be a great one from the space between. (FdW)
Address: http://catsun.monotyperecords.com/
LUZ AZUL – I TRENI INERTI (CD by Flexion Records)
Originally Luz Azul started in 2001 as a trio with Ruth Barberan, Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Matt Davis, but the latter left in 2003. ‘I Treni Inerti proposes a music without ornaments, where silence is essential, as part of an ongoing process of bringing vacuum necessary in order to achieve both minimal and ephemeral sound worlds, in an approach that focuses on harmony, vibration and acoustic resonance’, they say about their new CD. There is only one track, which is, oddly enough, called ‘Ser Res’ and recorded on the night of the 29th September 2010, in an olive orchard near Dant Vicens de Calders station, where two train lines meet. They played from 3 to 5 am, and freight trains pass. With microphones set up in the orchard, they also capture occasionally these trains passing. Ruth Barberan is playing trumpet and objects and Alfredo Costa Monteiro plays accordion and objects. From the description they gave us it not difficult to see that they are a duo of improvised music. In these forty-eight minutes they play a work that indeed deals heavily with silence, although its not silent per se, but it deals vastly with playing their instruments as objects, with objects and sometimes as they are. When trains pass, there is of course no more silence, but improvisation and field recordings meet up in a great way. There is a totally acoustic feel to this and the two deliver some very strong improvisations. Packed in flint paper, which may damage the CD. That’s a pity and already done before. Other wise: great work. (FdW)
Address: http://www.flexionrecords.net
JOHN BARLEYCORN REBORN : REBIRTH (Compilation CD by Cold Spring)
In 2007, British label Cold Spring released a double disc-compilation “John Barleycorn reborn”. An astonishing compilation that took its focus on the interesting English folk scene and the general contemporary Folk music scene. A follow-up came back in 2010 under the title “We Bring You A King With A Head Of Gold” and now five years later after the first chapter, a third chapter has seen the light of the day. As was the case with the two previous chapters it is a great pleasure, listening to the wide selection of stylish folk-inspired contributions. First of all the expressions seems generally authentic and true to the sound of the ancient folk style, but also quite a few contributors takes the ancient folk sound and integrate in more contemporary expressions of electronic sounds and manipulations. The compilation contains a very nice atmosphere of authenticity thanks to the deep acoustic impressions and folklore inspirations. Do yourself the favor and pick all three chapters in this amazing series of modern folk music. (NM)
Address: http://www.coldspring.co.uk
LUIGI ARCHETTI – NULL II & NULL III (CD by Die Schachtel)
The follow-up of ‘Null’, which I reviewed back in Vital Weekly 722. That review ended with “Its not a bad CD, but also something that couldn’t interest me for its entire length. After a while I was a bit fed up and decided I listen to something else”, which might not be the best start to listen the new release, ‘Null II & Null III’, now a double CD of some 140 minutes. Archetti is a guitarist and has already ready a bunch of releases under his belt. ‘Null’ is a series of works that explore the world of drones. On the previous he also used ‘white noise of blank video tape and hum from generators’; I am not sure if this is the case here too, as there is no such thing mentioned on the cover or the press release. It does however mentions that it is ‘music which borders on tonal standstill; it is musical research about the the interior of sound’. At a certain point in time we would have called this ‘isolationist’ music, a term which is not used a lot anymore, but still valid. Its where we have a few instruments, sound effects and the studio (be it in the classical sense a studio, or the home computer) as the prime movers and shakers of sound. Like with his previous release, this is a fine exploration of possibilities. Have a single sound, feed it on end through boxes, use time stretching and all sorts of other computer treatments which results in an x-amount of sound files and mix those together. Like before Archetti does a fine job. On ‘Null II’ it seems all a bit more ambient in its drone scapes whereas in ‘Null III’ the element of noise is at times brought in some more angular pieces. You could wonder – at least, I did – if its absolutely necessary to have two discs of this, or wether it would have been a good idea to combine the best pieces of both discs into one. Is the next one then going to be a 3CD set? Then you know what the start of that review will be. (FdW)
Address: http://www.die-schachtel.com
YANNICK DAUBY – TAI-PAK THIA (CD by Kalerne)
Its not easy to write something about a disc like this. Yannick Dauby lives since four years in Taipei, which he both loves and hates. Like any good composer would do is to tame the noise of the city by recording it and that’s what he does here. In these years he received three commissions dealing with the environment of Taipei, from Belgium, the UK and France. These three commissions are now collected on this CD. Taipei is not a city I have been too, or in fact any far East city, except for some Japanese cities, which are perhaps more western oriented – I am merely assuming here. So without ever sensing the noisiness of Taipei, I think these three compositions give me a very accurate impression of what that city is like. Lots of traffic noise, public transport system, people talking on the market and the electricity that sometimes comes with it. Towards the end of ‘Taipei 2030’ there is also quietness and tranquility with just a few sparse sounds. Maybe Dauby envisages himself as the mayor of Taipei banning all noise? Maybe not. The final piece ‘Ketagalan’ is also not very noisy and loud but seems to be concentrating on the more ethnic sounds of the city, like a search for some original Eastern ethnicity in the country. It deals less with the modern city bursting with noise than with background of the country itself. This makes that these three pieces differ quite a lot from eachother, each bringing out a certain aspect of city sounds and make this a highly varied work. Excellent work of composed field recordings. (FdW)
Address: http://kalerne.net/joomla/
MIA ZABELKA – M (CD by Monotype Records)
LHZ + H – SCOPE (CD by Monotype Records)
DAN WARBURTON & IF BWANA – I’M SITTING IN PHILL NIBLOCK’S KITCHEN (CD by Monotype Records)
Somewhere I know I heard the name Mia Zabelka before, but I just don’t seem to know when and where. Maybe one of those downsides of reviewing and hearing so many music. She plays primarily the electric violin but also voice, contact microphones and live electronics. She also uses her body in her performances. ‘M’ stands for ‘mensch’ – the human being – but also machine and music, and stands for water. She hails from a more classical background, which I think shows on ‘M’. She is one of the better known modern violin players, using a free play, just like Jon Rose and to a lesser extent Laurie Anderson. The seven pieces here are anywhere in the land where we would find improvisation, modern classical music and electronic music. There is an extensive of echo, which doesn’t always work fine, and some use of reverb is also a bit over the top. When Zabelka keeps things ‘close’, with a density of small sounds, with long sustaining sounds on the violin, a multitude of voice material, bringing quite an amount of tension to the piece, such as in ‘Adil’Iu’. In other pieces things are much hectic, nervous even, in “Malstrom” or “Tenebrae”, which are not really my cup of tea. When Zabelka creates a system of some kind, I’m there for sure. Although not completely my kind of thing, I heard it all with interest.
Throughout all about improvisation is the disc by Thomas Lehn (analogue synthesizer), Carl Ludwig Hubsch (tuba). Philip Zoubek (piano), and Franz Hauzinger (quartertone trumpet). The first three have a regular trio (LHZ), so now its LHZ+H. All of these players are pretty well-known in the world of improvisation and highly talented players. The recordings here are already from 2008, made in concert with some post editing and mixing stage later on. The piano plays the role of the old man: it usually sounds like a piano, in between we sometimes hear the trumpet and tuba, but they alternate also into playing the instruments as objects. Lehn on the very other end of the spectrum of course has an instrument that can always sounds as anything, and makes the most crazy sounds. These four players however are skilled in improvising and keen listeners and responders. They listen and act accordingly which results in four finely crafted pieces of sheer silence and sheer action. Perhaps no big surprise, but throughout a great disc.
The third release on Monotype is something of an odd-ball here. A curious mixture between a taped composition and improvisation. The taped composition is a piece of music that Dan Warburton created using all the CDs he had from Al Margolis, stretching everything out to last 45 minutes – the duration of the concert. This lead to about 100 tracks, which played together, made a ‘sludge’ (Warburton’s words, not mine), which Al Margolis then mixed, while sitting in the Kitchen of Phill Niblock (hence the title, also a nod to Alvin Lucier’s piece, but that otherwise has nothing to do with this). Margolis also slowed down a minute piano piece by Warburton. That’s the basis of this recording and if the ‘sludge’ is not enough, during the concert, Margolis played clarinet and live electronics, while Warburton played violin. So you see, like Zabelka, a cross-over between improvisation, composed music and electronics. But I must admit I liked this one more than the Zabelka disc. The sheer, closed density of the recordings, in which he hear lots of sound action, blurry and sound debris like, along with the scraping of violin and occasional clarinet sounds make up a surprising fine disc. A rarity in the world of improvised music to have something that has a similar density. Excellent stuff. (FdW)
Address: http://www.monotyperecords.com
SEWER ELECTION – VITTRA SONDER (LP by Throne Heap)
Back in Vital Weekly I reviewed Sewer Election’s ‘Kassettmusik’. I thought I was going to deal with noise on that one, but it wasn’t, or at least not the kind of noise I don’t like – which is the heavy ‘let’s put all distortion boxes together type of noise and let that run for an hour’. Sewer Election created a work of density using electronics captured on cassettes, letting hiss and scratches be on an equal level with the rest of the music. Now there is another work, my second encounter with Sewer Election, on LP, packed in a black/white 80s like noise cover. ‘Att Falla’ on side A starts out with a ‘mellow’ kind of low humming organ tones, while the second part of the piece is an amalgam of percussive sounds falling and tumbling down the stairs. I imagine many loops of similar sounds of metallic percussion. Quite loud, highly minimal and seemingly with no distortion box in clear sight. ‘Bilder Av Dig’ on the other side also has two parts. In the first half we have more organ like tones, now even playing a crippled melody along with sparse metal loops, while the second part seems to be made of loops of voice material. Slowly there seems to be something like field recordings coming about, which sounds like water sounds. This is of the two sides the better one, I think. While the noise half of the other side is nice, the overall moody texture of this side is much nicer. A kind of grainy analogue, lo-fi textured noise, like the demented nephew of musique concrete. That is indeed the kind of musique concrete disguised as noise (or should that be vice versa?) I like. Excellent record. (FdW)
Address: http://www.throneheap.com/
ISRAEL MARTINEZ – TWO ESPRESSOS IN SEPARATE CUPS (LP by Abolipop)
Following his ‘Exorcizos’ release in Vital Weekly 630, here is a new work by Israel Martinez, this one being a stereo edit of 16.2 surround sound installation in Mexico. The original piece lasted 56 minutes but here it is trimmed down to forty and as its sound sources it uses silent bits from movies of recent decades and field recordings which are both fed through an array of analog and digital synths to create the final piece of music. The title of the work relates to the fact that within film we have vision and sound, but that sound in this case has cinematographic qualities – like two espressos in a separate cup and as coffee drinker I like that a lot. In fact I had two espressos while listening to this record. The music very much follows his previous release. Had I not known about the installation piece and the sound sources from films, I would not have made the connection. I would have assumed it would be some kind of story or narrative of some kind on its own and not part of a something else. The music still has that somewhat massive industrial feel to it, with occasional heavy blocks of sustaining sound, cracking rhythms and sometimes taking things into a more careful territory. Now that’s what I call noise: loud, but not too loud, intelligent, carefully constructed, finding the right balance between ‘noise’ and ‘sound material’, all with a fair bit of humor. Well made, but unfortunately the pressing of the vinyl is not the best I heard. (FdW)
Address: http://www.abolipop.com
ATHANA & SCHANCHE – IN:PULSE (LP by West Audio Productions)
The previous work of Athana could not always interest me, dwelling too much on a mixture of techno, ambient, psychedelics and ethnic music. On this new record, we find guitarists Alf Tjere Hana and Vidar K. Schanche working together, and basically reduces Athana to an one man band. The music here is a duet for two guitars and lots of effects. They decided to capture the music as a performance, so microphones are placed not only to pick up the music, but also the ‘action’: the switching on the pedals, the acoustic sound of the strings. Some of this was recorded live in concert, but these recordings are melted into the studio context. This is a clear break with the previous work Athana, now only dealing with the subject of ambient music, but in an extended context. It has an improvised feel, these duets, which sets a bit about of say Dirk Serries guitar pieces; its not that kind of ambient music here. They also play the guitar in more melodic way, such as in ‘Alaska Beach’, which is almost a dueling acoustic guitar piece. They explore noise a bit in the title piece, but that’s rather short. Its quite a varied album of atmospheres and textures, packed together in shorter pieces than is usual in this kind of music and makes up the best work I heard so far from Athana. (FdW)
Address: http://www.westaudio.no
STANGL/ZARADNY (12″ by Bocian Records)
Ah, a classic 12″. Now all LPs are 12″s but not all 12″s are LPs. You obviously know this. This 12″ spins at 45 rpm, which, incidentally was something I saw after the first time I played it on 33rpm. A split record that coincides with a concert (see announcement section), each displaying what they do. Anna Zaradny’s piece is ‘Octopus’ and continues her search for sine wave like sounds from modular synthesizers. Divided in long sustaining ones and shorter ones that form a kind of phasing rhythm pattern, going in and out phase, until they seem to be falling into a phase and make up an analogue version of Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda. Sturdy music, solid as a rock, sustaining and piercing. Refined piece. Burkhard Stangl on the other side is a man to play various things, from guitars to laptops, which seems to be exactly what he is doing here. Static hiss from the laptop (well, perhaps) with him playing guitar on top, with bits of field recording. A totally different piece, not like Zaradny at all. Whereas her piece is mildly piercing the ear drums, Stangl plays a much more moody tune, with open ended guitar strumming in a sparse setting of electronics. Full of excellent tension between the cracks – great music for an as yet to be made film. This all sounds promising for that concert. I wish I could attend. (FdW)
Address: http://www.bocianrecords.com
REMOTE CONTROL : A VIDEO ART PROJECT (2DVD by Moriremo Tutti Records/Paluste)
The idea of Remote Control sounds good and the music of Remote Control sounds good as well. The project was started in 2008 and the concept is to design and create TV-based artifacts like releases and live performances. The project is meant as a sarcastic attack on TV, especially the Italian broadcast channels. The first release is a double VVHS release with recordings of Italian TV, with several programs which are broadcasted in several times and days, like prime-time TV (whatever that may be), Sunday afternoon, late night, morning etc.. The project is released on used VHS tapes, also as a political and artistic statement against the ruling digital world. The music on the tapes is a great compilation of noise and experimental musicians, like Harshcore, Controlled Bleeding, Goh Lee Kwang, Freudi and lot’s more. The artwork is fine and the forewords with the backgrounds of the project are interesting to read. All ingredients are well chosen to make a very interesting art project. But… the editing of the broadcast recordings is like a slow TV zapper. The rhythm of the music does not correspond to the rhythm of the images. For some reason I can understand that the artists Matteo Uggeri as director and Manuele Cecconello as zapper will show the dullness of the Italian television programs. Sometimes is works, the distorted pop songs of Wooden Veil support the a show program with happy dancing people. The composition Black Heart is a compilation of models with sexy dresses walking on a catwalk combined with close-ups of men who are looking very interested to… It would be interesting that the video artists has done this more. Yes… they combined several parts of different programs and trying to create a surreal political statement against the dullness and sexism of Italian TV, but if they made the edit just as raw or artistic as the musicians have done, this project would be very interesting for video-arts festivals. (JKH)
Address: http://www.moriremotutti.com
HERVE MOIRE – MIRAGE DE LOIRE (CDR by Aposiopese)
Nice cover for this release: printed on semi-transparant paper folding over hard cardboard stock. The images might give away what the music will be like. Clouds from an airplane me thinks. I don’t think I heard of Herve Moire before. The sound sources he uses in this twenty-three minute soundscape were taped at the Loire in 2008-2009 and ‘then transformed and mixed on computer’. Its surely a fine work. The river sounds which we hear at the start, slowly transform and get a whole new shape as the piece evolves, but throughout it maintains a ‘fluid’ flowing character. Towards the end the electronics seem to have taken over and even something like a small melody leaks through the shimmering ambiance, along with vaguely humming glitches. Moire has studied various books carefully: microsound, field recordings, glitch and how to create your own music along these lines. I think this is a nice and refined work. But I also think that there is not a lot originally in play here. Not a lot of what we hear is something we haven’t heard before by so many others. That perhaps is the only downside of this. Let’s ignore we heard them before and just like Moire for now. (FdW)
Address: http://www.aposiopese.com
ARVO ZYLO – SAINT STREET (CDR by No Part of It)
I have had long discussions with Arvo about Australian Sheep rolling over cattle grids. That is the ‘new’ way of wearing scarves which seems to have taken the UK (and probably the world) by storm – folded in half and then ends put through the loop – and they mentioned ‘morphic resonance’ to explain the fact that the behavior had spread so rapidly – here perhaps in relation to noise? Or the Jackson Pollock Formica tables of the 1950s. Just in case anyone thinks this is a performative review, the calculus was either invented or discovered allegedly simultaneously by Leibniz and Newton. Zylo claims no prior knowledge of noise before creating these works, “but from a reckless abandon that resulted from an absolute failure at making electronic music”, which is one of the most precise definitions of noise I’ve read recently. Though the signification of the calculus was
fairly definitive, noise is not, so arriving at it, like the blank canvas can be via a dead logic, or sublime mysticism. Good noise – which escapes “goodness” can be so regarded, as a mystical sublimity or a dead logic, as both philosophic and non-philosophics, as a chain of difference, and repetition of not the same in the same as a signifier without a signified. Some might find these works (Saint Street) as sublime metaphysics or music physics, as a logic of abandonment of music into a Kierkegaardean sickness unto death or a Nietzschean overcoming (of music), or failure of communication, or a nihil, similar to but not IMO noise, in these protoforms which collide and collapse. The ten tracks are of shear non-musical invention, no matter their origin they claim and demand to be listened to, as a destruction of music, more an imaginative and authentic act of existenz than the cooler essence less existence of existential noise. Remarkable works. (jliat)
Address: http://nopartofit.blogspot.com/
WRESTED THREAD (CDR by Must Die Records)
Eight tracks of a total 30 minutes?, heavy drone didgeridoo sounds, clanking metal loops and rumbles all in very deep reverb and echo, looped almost techno jabberings, I can find very little information about this work, and to save further poor descriptions samples can be found at the address below, and the comment “pure aural abuse – certainly not one for the faint hearted” – which I must take issue with. The over production is a kind of avant-garde lite, and though I’ve played this now several times I can find nothing there? Reminiscent of alcohol free lager perhaps? A simple fact is that reverb and echo as electronic effects give the illusion of depth and space, they give a picture a meaning a signified, even if and as a cave or cathedral!, just as distortion effects might be an illusion, the illusion of some deterioration in the production of sound, although it could be argued in the latter case the deterioration is “real”, as opposed to a Papier-mâché cave. One qualification for noise is its reality, and that might be an insight for those who think that anything and everything is OK – in noise, which if it was would mean that a Tallis choir of angels would be OK despite its overarching religiosity, meaning and metaphysics, of a male god etc. A stream of consciousness might read like an Enid Blyton book. But all these excuses, apart from being immediately self destructive are misunderstandings. Its possible to misunderstand senselessness – as nonsense or meta-rationality as irrationality. Groups might spend time and effort in creating such works, as music, as noise they are like a night out with the lads drinking alcohol free lager or with the girls drinking “mocktails” and no doubt having safe sex. So the criticism here, as I’m sure there is one is the very “goodness” the “smoothness” of the piece, which might validate “my” idea of indifference after difference. (jliat)
Address: http://mustdierecords.co.uk/
NARANJO, STANKOVA, YOUNG TRIO – VERDURE INTO ONYX (CDR by Peira)
LONBERG-HOLM, STRID DUO – DISCUS AND PLUMBING (CDR by Peira)
A bassoon is not an instrument we hear a lot here (except when we play an old Dutch new wave band called Mo, who had a bassoon, and a track ‘A Band With A Bassoon’). Here its played by Katherine Young along with electronics. There is also Ivan Naranjo (electronics) and Maria Stankova (electronics, voice). It seems we have five pieces by them as a trio, and in the middle three pieces called ‘Reconstruction’ by each of them. With such a line up you could easily assume this would be more noise like improvisation and yes, occasionally things are pretty sharp edged, but there are also lots of moments in which they hold back and go for a more quieter sound, letting things evolve in a nice and quiet manner. I am a bit lost as to what these ‘reconstructions’ do, since they essentially don’t seem to break away from what we already heard in the three pieces before and two after that. Whatever may be the case, overall I thought this was a pretty fine disc of electronically improvised music, with the bassoon perhaps not being the most clear instrument in here, but it is a fine disc anyway. Good to have improvised music like this.
Two man in a room, one microphone. Recorded in Sweden we have Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello and Raymond Strid on drums. They play together and we have eight pieces of acoustic improvised music. Probably recorded in the same hour as it takes to listen to this. Now this is the sort of improvised music I perhaps like least. Very traditional free play on their instruments, and throughout these instruments sound exactly like they when they are played in a traditional improvised manner. You hear a cello, you hear drums. I believe both men are highly skilled improvisers and as such they do a great job, and no doubt there will be many people who like this kind of music, but for me its all a bit too old hat. Totally decent stuff, but I think I rather see this in concert than hear it on a CDR. (FdW)
Address: http://www.peira.net
NOBUTO SUDA – TWILIGHT GARDEN (3″CDR by Taalem)
HITOSHIRES – STELLA (3″CDR by Taalem)
HAKOBUNE – BELIEVED REMAINS (3″CDR by Taalem)
IEVA – LA CASCADE DE LA MONTAGNE DE L’AUBE (3″CDR by Taalem)
There are some similarities to be drawn from this new quartet of releases on Taalem. They all have one piece only and all are recorded in Japan. Ieva is the only French musician of this lot, but he lives in Kyoto. Hakubone is the only musician who has some ‘fame’, for he has had releases on U-Cover, Waterscape and Hibernate. The rest is all new to me.
Nobuto Suda just had a release on High Linear Music, a net label, and recently started, with Hakubone his own Tobira Records. His twenty-four minute piece is called ‘Twilight Garden’ and its basically a simple tune of humming sounds. Maybe time stretched field recordings, I was thinking, completed with a bunch of sound processing devices. Its a nice piece but perhaps also a bit on the easy side, especially since there doesn’t seem to be a lot of developments in this piece. One that you create in half sleep-state.
Sasagu Ota is the musician from Kyoto behind Hitoshires. His piece is much softer than Nobuto’s, and works much more effectively as a drone piece. Here too one can easily think its some form of time stretching, but altogether this might be also the work of guitar playing and sound effects. Nicely gliding glacier like sounds are being produced here, with minimal developments which are more below than above the surface. Very nice.
Hakubone’s piece is ‘Believed Remains’ and is on the darker side of drone music. Maybe we are dealing here with sounds derived from an organ with some sound effects. Over the course of twenty-three minutes Hakubone changes very gentle the color of the sound – more darker it seems – and adds very carefully a bunch sound effects to it. Here too we have the impression that whatever development takes place it rather below the surface of the drone, but even then less apparent than on the Hitoshires disc. I think there could have been a bit more to this one.
Ieva is Samuel Andre, and his piece is made from field recordings in Japan, which include water sounds, a matsuri and old women singing traditional songs. This is the most varied disc of this quartet and also the most musical one. Starting out with simple water sounds, it drifts along processed drums (no doubt of some religious kind), chanting and all along this trail there is also the use of long form drone sounds that occasionally burst out (a guitar maybe?). This is indeed all highly musical and expands from the simple drone plan into a more cinematographic experience. The best of this new bunch, with Hitoshires being a fine second and the other sharing the third place. (FdW)
Address: http://www.taalem.com
BLUEFACED PEOPLE & KJETIL HANSSEN (cassette by Conrad Sound)
Bluefaced People is a duo from Norway the bassist played Moe and The Skaset on guitar. Both musicians are also playing in Moe. Bluefaced People is less structured as Moe and is experimental noisy. The duo is playing fast, loud and vary harsh distorted guitar crashes with fast playing bass tones. No easy listening at all, but short explosions of maniacal playing musicians without any borders or limits. The duo plays together with Kjetil Hanssen, also living and working in Oslo, Norway. He starts to make music in 2004 and plays in many projects and bands and starts several labels like Kjetil Productions, Ambolthue Records and Tape Rape Records. Anyway… The other side is filled with more long tracks with electronics, bass and guitar. Of course it is noisy, but also experimental search for a good combination of these three ingredients. The listener will be taken into their search and sometimes there are beautiful combinations and than it will change immediately to another atmosphere. And that’s the goal of the musicians to seek the imperfect, the broken and the barbaric and for sure I can guarantee you… they have found what they are looking for. (JKH)
Address: http://www.conradsound.com
SERIOUS SAUCE VOL. 2 : SLYY (cassette by MJMJ)
SLYY is Jake (Bug Eyes, DPOPA and Psychedelic Family) and Miles (Milochondria and Psychedelic Family) from Boston. The duo is making beats together since 2009 and making music individually since 2004. MJMJ is a label of Charlie who is listening and Andy who plays in Vacation Dad. It is a small cassette label from Los Angeles and they want to help their friends to putting out their tapes. The tape starts with an abstract drony compositions, but then… 16 songs full of uptempo or easy beats, wicked sounds, happy melodies and fine cut ups of different voices. SLYY knows how to create easy listening songs in combination with surreal songs. Different atmospheres are melt together into short tracks. Optimistic beats and sounds are combined with melancholic melodies and tones. The music is edited well and in balance. A nice combination of several elements of electronic music. If you are in the mood to touch different layers of your emotions, please listen to this beautiful tape and fade away in their endless dreams. (JKH)
Address: http://www.mjmjrecords.com