ONE MAN NATION & MACHINEFABRIEK (CD by The Future Sounds Of Folk) *
CELER & MACHINEFABRIEK – NUMA PENARIE (7″ by Machinefabriek)
PIVOT QUARTET – EMISSIONS (CD by Chmafu)
ESTHER FERRER – ZAJ CONCERT FOR 30 OR 60 VOICES (CD by Cac Bretigny) *
NOT ERIC LUNDE – PARTICULATES (0-60) (CD by Trait Media Works) *
ERIC LUNDE – FORMERLY BLOOD, NOW MOURNING (CDR/DVDR by Trait Media Works) *
ERIC LUNDE – ATHENS RECORDING FIELD (3CDR/DVDR by Trait Media Works) *
FEAR DROP 16 (magazine and CD by Fear Drop)
DITTERICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG/THOMAS KONER/ASMUS TIETCHENS (CD by Die Stadt)
THE JOY OF NATURE – MY WORK WAS NOT YET DONE (CD by Ship of Fools Records)
KARINA ESP – DETACHMENT (CD by Morc Records) *
NOSTALGIE ETERNELLE – SANS FIN (LP by Hafenschlammer Rekords) *
ABSENT MUSIC – ABSENT EP (7″ by EE Tapes)
SUDDEN INFANT – THINGS THAT HAPPENED (LP by Reduktive Musiken)
FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM – VAGINAL ERBRECHEN (CDR by Reduktive Musiken)
THINGS THAT HAPPENED (2CDR by Reduktive Musiken)
OFER BYMEL & GREGORY BUTTNER – RIPSNORTER (CDR by Obs) *
NOT HALF – 2012RSD (CDR by Dimetrodon Recordings) *
MARGITT HOLZT – DER FUHRER DES FINGERS (CDR by Musik Im Selbstversuch) *
FUNGITONIC AND THE LOBERS – OSEA (CDR by Luscinia) *
MARK O’LEARY & SOREN KJAERGAARD & JEFF HERR – ANTARTICA (CDR by Tibprod Italy) *
HOLZKOPF – PAPA DON’T THINK NOTHIN’/MAMA DON’T SAY NOTHIN’ (CDR by Isolated Now Waves) *
BILL HORIST – THE SIGNAL BOX (cassette by Ultramarine Records)
KOMMISSAR HJULER & MAMA BAER & NINNI MORGIA & SILVIA KASTEL – LIVE AT MORDEN TOWER (cassette by Ultramarine Records)
FOUR CORNERS OF THE NIGHT (cassette by Staaltape)
RINUS VAN ALEBEEK – SHADOWS FROM THE BOOK OF CHAPTERS (cassette, private)
ONE MAN NATION & MACHINEFABRIEK (CD by The Future Sounds Of Folk)
CELER & MACHINEFABRIEK – NUMA PENARIE (7″ by Machinefabriek)
Two new releases by Machinefabriek and both are collaborations. The first is with One Man Nation, of whom I don’t know much, even when I think I saw him play live a couple of years ago. His duet with Machinefabriek was recorded at the temple of free improv in Amsterdam, Bimhuis in December last year, and its here, perhaps in its complete form and two remixes, by each artist one. I must admit I don’t know what to make of this. Its improvised for sure, with various loose sound events, small gear, contact microphones perhaps and some sounds that go on and on. Quite a haphazard event, and not the best moment of Machinefabriek. Why not do a proper release of his live work with Roel Meelkop I was thinking. His remix is much better and works around microtonal sounds, heavily processed but they make up a nice mysterious piece. In the One Man Nation remix the disperate sounds have their place again and for me didn’t add much. As said, not the best work in the Machinefabriek catalogue.
The 7″ with Celer is more like one would expect to find from Rutger Zuydervelt, and perhaps Celer as well. Not exactly the kind of music one should put on the limited time frame of a 7″ I would think, as these delicate drone patterns need their time to develop. Now it seems to happen a bit fast, but both ‘Numa’ and ‘Penarie’ are fine examples of what atmospheric and drone music should be like. It comes with a postcard to download not just the music but also two films by Marco Douma with interesting light patterns. In ‘Numa’ very abstract and in ‘Penarie’ outside with electricity cables and bursting sunlight. Dreamy music and dreamy visuals. Excellent stuff. That’s the way we like them. (FdW)
Address: http://thefuturesoundsoffolk.com/
Address: http://machinefabriek.nu/
PIVOT QUARTET – EMISSIONS (CD by Chmafu)
This quartet from Austria came about on the occasion of the international improvised music festival ‘Alpenglow Styria meets Cologne’ in 2009. So I suppose this group unites German and Austrian musicians. Anyway, their names are Bettina Wenzel (vocals), Martin Zrost (reeds), Seppo Gruendler (guitar, electronics) and Josef Klammer (drums, electronics). Don’t know much about their backgrounds. I guess Wenzel has had most exposure of these four musicians. She worked with Thomas Lehn, Hans Koch, Michael Vorfeld, Simon Nabatov, and others. Besides her improvising work she is also involved in performing new music. All four musicians are listed as composer, so I suppose this is the result from group improvisation. It was recorded at the end of 2011 in Graz. Very far out improvisation is their business. Also very avant garde and beyond anything you can imagine. The vocal acrobatics by Wenzel are central in most pieces. But in a way everybody is soloing and equally contributing to this experimental music. At moments I felt very engaged and enjoying this music, but always to be followed by moments where I dropped out of their world, looking at it from distance unable to restore contact. This is music that only opens if you listen very concentrated. (DM)
Address: http://nocords.net
ESTHER FERRER – ZAJ CONCERT FOR 30 OR 60 VOICES (CD by Cac Bretigny)
A work in the best tradition of the old Fluxus movement. One person start to sign, speak or recite, in any language. After one minute somebody joins in, after two minutes a third person etc, until you have thirty to sixty voices. Here we have work for forty voices, each piece lasting one minute, so (think Residents’ ‘Commercial Album’), we have probably forty voices doing a kind of vocal poerty sound performance. Its composed by Esther Ferrer from Spain, who has been composing since 1966. A highly concpetual piece but it works well. Of course its not difficult to be reminded of Cardew’s ‘Great Learning’ piece which also has vocal parts performed by a large group of untrained players, but in this case it works a bit more chaotic. Erm, what else can one say about it? Its a fine piece for sure, and a fine example of such Fluxus like music, but I am not sure if I would likely play this a lot. Instead I’d rather play the Cardew piece on Deutsche Grammophon again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.cacbretigny.com
NOT ERIC LUNDE – PARTICULATES (0-60) (CD by Trait Media Works)
ERIC LUNDE – FORMERLY BLOOD, NOW MOURNING (CDR/DVDR by Trait Media Works)
ERIC LUNDE – ATHENS RECORDING FIELD (3CDR/DVDR by Trait Media Works)
Yes, this is three different releases indeed, but boy, what an amount of time is needed to digest all of this. Let’s start with the smallest particle in this package, a CD by Not Eric Lunde, as that is what the symbol seems to mean on the cover. We get no less than sixty-one pieces here, all more or less one minute, of ‘pure electronic ‘compositions’. Recorded using an Archer MK-1 analog drum machine, Dwarfcraft’s analog “thumping Double Squaresnakes, Roland SH-101, Roland MC-303, Moog SlimPhatty and other stuff. Sometimes alone, sometimes in combination with eachother. The interest Lunde has in rhythmic/electronic music is not entirely new to me, see also ‘Technot’ reviewed in Vital Weekly 795, which had longer pieces and somehow seemed to me more worked out into pieces. Here we have rather sketch like pieces, all of which seem to be staying within one sound. In the first few seconds of each piece you get what it is, ad beyond there is not a lot of change. I must admit the whole concept behind this kind of eludes me, which makes it not easy to enjoy seventy minutes of it. You get the point, I assume after say twenty pieces, and a selection of these sixty would have equally worked well. There is rhythmic, ticking bit in the style of Pan Sonic and also bit which work more noise wise. Nice, but way too much, and with a concept that kind of eludes me.
‘Formerly Blood, Now Mourning’ comes as a CDR and a DVDR, plus two extensive booklets, and card in a printed envelope. This work was started in 2001 as ‘text performance’ and then 9/11 happened, which needed some reworking of the piece. Now its revised in 2011 and Lunde ties in the 2001 event with an earlier, similar attack, Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bomber and wonders why the reaction is some much different in 1995 and 2001. There is a lot of reading of text going on, in the usual Lunde manner, with his great commanding voice. The text is also printed in a 83 page booklet, so maybe its a bit double. On the DVDR we seem him in his basement recording and rehearsing his piece, which has an interesting naive aspect to it, despite the serious text he is reciting. Also we see out of focus images – all of this is a serious overload already, but its an interesting point of view Lunde puts forward here. A bit too text heavy for me.
The most interesting new item is also the biggest item in here: three CDRs of music, a DVDR and an extensive booklet describing the project. It continues the work Lunde carried out in 80s, when he first worked with ‘sonic cartography’, along with Jeph Jerman, resulted in a double 7″ for RRRecords: recording and playing back those recordings in the same environment, re-recording them, ad infinitum. Here its field recording from the city of Athens, Georgia. Its not your standard sort of field recordings material that is going on here. No lenghty pieces of wind, rain, water (although in some cases they are there) but its altogether quite noisy rumble that we have on the first disc. Amplification of events make up a noise based sound, including breaking of wood, metal and other debris left behind, some of it recorded with malfunctioning machines and microphones. The second and third disc contain material that was released last year by Psych KG as a three cassette item, of ‘digital and digitized audio events’ (disc two) and live recordings of a solo performance and a collaboration using circuit bending and metal by others (disc 3). Here we have longer pieces of more noise based sounds (disc two, track one) or in some form of collage or another of the original field material, which works quite well within the treatments usually applied by Lunde. The live recordings take the material a bit further, but due to the fact that these are microphone recordings the sound quality lacks a bit. The video I watched last and although at ninety some minutes its quite long its quite interesting to watch. We see Lunde and his associates around abandoned sites with rather lo-fi equipment carrying out their experiments, by walking around these sites, carrying small boom boxes which play the field recordings in these sites, and various footage of the concerts held afterwards, as well as a presentation by Lunde explaining what goes on. Quite an interesting package loaded with great ideas, so if ever you run out of ideas what to do next: you can try to do this too. (FdW)
Address: http://www.traitcentral.com
FEAR DROP 16 (magazine and CD by Fear Drop)
Some weeks ago I was in what I what I would call a classic European cultural capital, Brussels that is, and some people were speaking French. I could figure out what they were saying and I thought ‘my french ain’t that bad’, but then of course a magazine like Fear Drop falls on my doorstep and lo and behold: reading french is a bit more difficult. We have here lenghty pieces on synethesia and music, field recordings (with a lengthy review of Kaon’s 3″ CDR series dealing with river sounds), Coil and the ANS synthesizer as well as interviews with Human Greed, Steve Roden, Bernhard Gunter and an overview of the releases on Substantia Innominata). Reading goes slow, but I’ll manage. Still, even if you don’t read french, the CD that comes with is quite good also. Obviously a compilation, and all thirteen pieces are previously unreleased. ‘Aux Lisieres’ is the thematic approach, at the edge (I think) and we find here lots of drone/ambient/atmospherics. Gunter’s new ‘band’ Reflection And Resonance is a bit outside of it with their improvised playing, but otherwise things hum and buzz in the lower region of the sound spectrum, with such bands and musicians as Enrico Coniglio, Human Greed, Aidan Baker, Cisfinitum, Troum, Relapxych.0, Materia Aurora, Steve Roden and Anla Courtis being a bit louder than the rest. Only Lionel Marchetti uses electronics to create a more collage/acousmatic piece of music. Its perhaps all a bit too much of similar approaches, but if you are unfamiliar with such names, then this is the perfect guide to get to know more. (FdW)
Address: http://www.feardrop.net
DITTERICH VON EULER-DONNERSPERG/THOMAS KONER/ASMUS TIETCHENS (CD by Die Stadt)
Last month Die Stadt organised a concert on the Stubnitz, probably the only floating music stage in the world of alternative music. There were concerts by Konktakt Der Junglinge, Dittel & Tuttel, Asmus Tietchens, Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg and Thomas Koner. The last three are present on this CD, in fine Die Stadt tradition, who almost always seem to release an item to be given away on the night itself to ticketholders and the remainder is for sale for those who didn’t make it to this night, in Bremen. Euler-Donnersperg opens up here with a piece for what seems to be toys and electronics, crafting together a nice piece of mechanical music, which somehow seem to go wrong along the lines. Tietchens has the longest piece here, eleven minutes (its rather a mini CD than a long play CD), which is very austere in approach. Quiet, electronic and working with small yet dramatic climaxes. Slow building with a very low sound, and then small climax and working again. Maybe there is some use of real instruments in here, but perhaps not. An excellent Tietchens piece. It almost flows in a natural way into the Thomas Koner piece, with the difference being a soft spoken voice in Russian (I think), and which has a nice spooky atmosphere. A pity there is no piece by Kontakt Der Junglinge, being Tietchens and Koner, as its been a while since we last heard something by them. A pity, I should think, I missed that event. (FdW)
Address: http://www.diestadtmusik.de
THE JOY OF NATURE – MY WORK WAS NOT YET DONE (CD by Ship of Fools Records)
The Joy of Nature is a musical project of Luis Couto, who was born at The Azores, close to Portugal. He started this project in 1999 as The Joy of Nature and Discipline and reduced the name in 2006. This album is more based on the structure of a song. 16 compositions will pass by with a beautiful mix of classical music, folk, post-rock, lullaby’s, experimental music and ambient. Luis Couto combines all these musical elements into a melting pot and the result is a balanced album and less dark than the albums before. Couto is supported by collaborations of Rui Almeida, on electic guitar, GrMateo on vocals and theremin, Mara Neves, Helena Ferreira on vocals and Ricardo Farias on drums. The album is inspired by the experience that life is a dream within a dream and how everything flows and passes away. And indeed the songs are coming up and are passing away, just like the wind of the waves at the sea. The music reminds me to psychedelic albums from the sixties and beginning of the seventies. Not only because of the use of the instruments, but also the relaxed mood in which the musicians are playing and singing their songs. Luis Couto is an all-round musician and he is growing more and more. This album is a very nice follow-up of the trilogy The Empty Circle and I am looking forward to his new album. (JKH)
Address: http://thejoyofnature.co.cc/
KARINA ESP – DETACHMENT (CD by Morc Records)
Chris Gowers is the man behind Karina ESP and once the owner of Evelyn Records and Trome Records, as well as a member of Signals and Rome Pays Off, and a frequent collaborator of Isnaj Dui, Circle Bros and Caught In The Wake Forever. As Karina ESP he has already recorded a whole bunch of CDRs, cassettes, 10″ records since 1998. ‘Detachment’ was recorded in a matter of a few days following a short tour in Benelux late 2011, when Gowers went to Scotland and recorded this album with the help of Fraser McGowan (of Caught In The Wake Forever and Small Town Boredom). Five pieces here of what is best called ‘guitar drone’ music with a melodic touch. Its not his idea to play just a drone, but to add melodic touch to the music, with shimmering bass lines and small chords. There is the crackling of the guitar pick up as an additional instrument, sustaining of e-bow playing and finger picking string matter. Atmospheric music of the highest order. I was reminded of Windy & Carl and Yellow6, but there are of course countless others who did similar music over the years. That perhaps is the only thing one could have against it: it sounds very much like so many other things we know and its nothing new under the sun. Don’t let that put you off if you like this sort of melodic, atmospheric drone music. Gowers does it with great care and style. (FdW)
Address: http://www.morctapes.com
NOSTALGIE ETERNELLE – SANS FIN (LP by Hafenschlammer Rekords)
ABSENT MUSIC – ABSENT EP (7″ by EE Tapes)
In the whole revival of 80s synth based music names pop up that were back then not well-known or in some cases quite unknown. Here are two of them. Nostalgie Eternelle was Inox Kapell (who later on would be more well-known under his own name) and Dieter Mauson. They released a bunch of cassettes in the later part of the 80s, and then in 2011 they seemed to be back with a 7″ on EE Tapes, but in fact with older pieces. ‘Sans Fin’ contains however really new music, all recorded in the period 2009-2011. Thirteen pieces from the time machine, as it seems to me it sounds very much like they did twenty years ago. That might a deliberate choice – continue like nothing happened – or perhaps they assume that sort of music is’popular’ these days. I don’t know, I forgot to ask. The rhythm machine, the bass, the synthesizer, occassional sax and that voice, which is not really cut to sing, more like parlando, give the whole thing quite a retro sound. The electronic pop music of the 80s underground. Compositions are quite alright, never too long, nice retro (read: direct) production of the instruments and perhaps the only thing that I didn’t like that much and that is the voice, wether its Inox or Dieter singing, as they both share duties here.
On EE Tapes a 7″ have been released from an 80s band I never heard of before, Absent Music. They have released music on Mad Tapes and their own Absent Music, as well as being on some compilations (Insane Music, Mad Tapes, 3Rio Tapes and ZNS tapes). A small discography. I have no idea why EE Tapes think this is the thing to release right now, other than reasons of nostalgia. Rhythm machines, keyboards and weak vocals. It reminded me of ORDUC, but then not as good, especially the compositions don’t strike me as particular strong. Less worked out, a typical recording techniqe of the 80s underground – voice on top in the mix, but never really singing). It fits EE Tapes re-issues of bands like Pseudo Code, Human Flesh and Nostalgie Eternelle, but Absent Music seems to me the weaker (weakest brother?) of the lot. Yet there are so many others to be discovered I think. Work to do! (FdW)
Address: <nostalgie.eternelle@arcor.de>
Address: http://www.eetapes.be
SUDDEN INFANT – THINGS THAT HAPPENED (LP by Reduktive Musiken)
FEINE TRINKERS BEI PINKELS DAHEIM – VAGINAL ERBRECHEN (CDR by Reduktive Musiken)
THINGS THAT HAPPENED (2CDR by Reduktive Musiken)
‘Things That Happened’ seems to be a documentation series of live recordings, sometimes dealing with the city of Hamburg, where the label hails from. On the Sudden Infant record we have a recording from 2004 from Leeds and from 2007 from Hamburg. Sudden Infant is the project of Joke Lanz since many years a mainstay in the noise scene. Working with distortion, feedback and loops he creates vast sonic textures that may work best when played live. The shattering of glass is looped, along with a rhythmic sound in Leeds, and distortion keeps on creeping in. Three years later in Hamburg, Lanz developed his music a bit more. Here he is using his voice, along with what sems to be a metronome and looped sighs. After some time the noise comes in and it comes in tidal waves: there is also room for more silent parts. Still I would call this noise music and not as refined as some of the current noise makers which I admire (Francisco Meirino for instance). The noise of Sudden Infant is too brutal full on and doesn’t balance that well between noise and silence that much, in a way some of the others do. But perhaps that’s the nature of a live recording I was thinking. In any case, quite a nice document of ongoing investigations in the world of noise music.
Cover and title makes you wonder wether we are dealing with a noise product, but over the years we have learned that Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Daheim is not really a noise band, but rather operate from a more drone/ambient/industrial background. The Trinkers, a duo of Oswin Cerwinski and Jurgen Eberhard, have been around for quite some time now, motsly releasing CDRs and occassionally vinyl. Their six pieces here span fifty minutes, so we are dealing here with lengthy pieces of music, in which we hear lots of slow development in ringing, sustaining sounds, a bit of voice matter, taped from films (I assume), lots of electronics, of which the reverb makes serious overtime here – give that machine some rest! The reverb is of course also the device that provides with the most mysterious sound effects here, so it all sounds oh-so spooky. You could wonder what is left if there is no reverb? I don’t know. What they do is music wise however quite nice. In each piece they put forward a nice soundscape and within each piece they have a certain amount of development, along minimal lines of evolution. In ‘Tiefer Scham’, the closing piece, they also add a continious rhythm of some percussion and a looped guitar/voice, before going into the undercurrent again. I was thinking that this might be an interesting new direction, should Feine Trinkers ever think of changing their direction. With the amount of fine ambient industrial music they already have, it might be time for a small change.
Very noise based is the double CDR compilation with live recordings made at two primary locations of live experimental music in Hamburg, Germany, Rote Flora and Horbar. On the first disc eight songs by Audible Pain and a collaboration between Notstandskomitee and TBC. The latter is all out noise onslaught of twety-two minutes, loud and without much point I’d say. Audible Pain is however more interesting. They (?) too use feedback and noise, but also a fair amount of distorted rhythm, which shows them not far away from the early Esplendor Geometrico, and its quite nice as such. The longest cut is on the second disc, by Waldchengarten, who start out quite nice with dark ambient music and end as such, but somewhere 2/3 down the line it all evolves into the world of noise and that’s a bit too much or out of place. Government Alpha do whatever he does best, I think: play loud electronic music, which moves all over dynamic spectrum, and that makes it quite nice. Praying For Oblivion closes the party with screamy Whitehouse like noise, and I am sure I heard that well enough before. Nice package though with a silkscreened LP cover and a limited edition of just 100 copies. (FdW)
Address: http://www.reduktivemusiken.de
OFER BYMEL & GREGORY BUTTNER – RIPSNORTER (CDR by Obs)
A duet of Ofer Bymel on drums (of whom I never heard) and Gregory Buttner (known as an improviser and the 1000Fussler label) on laptop, speaker and objects. The two pieces were recorded on two different dates in 2010. Obviously this is improvised music, but somehow sounds a bit different than what we usually hear in this area. It all seems to me heavily object based, electro-acoustic by nature, in which the drums are treated like an object too. The rattling of objects on the drum skin, along with whatever objects Buttners using in combination with the crackling, hissy, sustaining sounds produced by the laptop of Buttner make up two excellent pieces of music. Both play very careful with a strong emphasis on ‘hearing’, rather than an overload of sounds. A minimal approach which seems isolated to few sounds, or sometimes even a single sound each time, with that curious electronic processing going on, along with the spatial nature of using a variety of small speakers. Quite intense music, simply because there is not always a lot happening. Quiet music for a refined nature. (FdW)
Address: http://abser1.narod2.ru/
NOT HALF – 2012RSD (CDR by Dimetrodon Recordings)
Record Store Day is something I always miss out on, but perhaps its because I never visit record stores any time during the year anyway. Allan Conroy doesn’t miss out, and for the occasion of this years record day he releases ‘2012RSD’ with two lenghty pieces, using samplers, effects, synth and signal processing. I wonder how many record stores actually stock CDRs in their stores, but I guess that’s another question. Music by Not Half can go in many directions: from noise to rhythmic, even pop like structures (within a noise context) to more ambient, introspective music. Such is the case with this new release. In the first piece, ‘… Buts Cats Don’t Care’, we have an ongoing zooming sound, looped to repeat itself ad infintum, on top of which longer loops of field recordings play their own play. In ‘Can A Duck Duck?’, the other piece here, which lasts about thirty-two minutes, there is more organ like sounds at its core, but similar use of field recordings (water, birds, perhaps) dropping in and out of the mix. Both pieces have a slow development, which works quite well in the first piece (twenty four minutes), but in the second its a bit too long, I think. Here some editing would have been in place I think. Music that one needs to go undergo rather than actively listen to. Ambient music that has a certain presence. Very nice. (FdW)
Address: <not_half@gmail.com>
MARGITT HOLZT – DER FUHRER DES FINGERS (CDR by Musik Im Selbstversuch)
The name Margitt Holzt is a new one for me, and I believe its the project of one Holger Neuwerk from Hamburg. Otherwise I don’t know anything from him. There are three pieces on this release, all around nineteen minutes. Its sample-heavy music. Hard to say however what it is that is sampled here, or what it means, or what it wants, but it seems that a lot of soundsources are thrown into the sampler and played around with from there. The skipping of the CD at the title track is perhaps something we heard well enough before, but that piece develops into a nice piece of ambient electronics, with its stretched out fields of sound. The other two pieces are bit more rhythmic, and have some obscured rhythm at its core and lots of other obscured sounds (radio? electro-acoustic sounds) that swirl in and out of the somewhat psychedelic mix. Maybe it all is a bit long and some more editing could have been applied in this, overall its quite nice. At times reminded me of the old Lilith works on Sub Rosa, yet less dark. Nice one. (FdW)
Address: none given
FUNGITONIC AND THE LOBERS – OSEA (CDR by Luscinia)
Its not everyday we receive music from South America, but Fungitonic And The Lobers are from Bogota and is the musical work of one Mauricio Alvarez, who also worked as Cero39, La Blanquita Farm, Fungitonic, Smetenan, Keyboard and Mauricio Álvarez y Loopito. ‘Osea’ is his second album as Fungitonic And The Lobers and its quite an interesting album of melodic music that is computer made. It seems to me he uses a variety of real instruments which he recorded and then transforms using computer technology. But unlike many other who would stretch it out and make it warm and glitchy, Alvarez uses a nice cut-up technique and he creates fifteen relatively short songs, all somewhere between the three and five minute mark. You could wonder if fifteen of these sketch like, intimate pieces is not a bit too much, but it works well. Sometimes he uses drums, which give the whole thing a trippy, dubby character, such as in ‘Candlelight’. I think piano and guitar are the instruments he uses most here, but also marimba, glockenspiel and voices. This too is warm and glitchy but then of an entirely different nature. It owes much more to popmusic I guess than to the world of avant-garde and that’s perhaps the best thing about it. Another surprising release on that Spanish label – check ‘m out! (FdW)
Address: http://luscinia.ruidemos.org
MARK O’LEARY & SOREN KJAERGAARD & JEFF HERR – ANTARTICA (CDR by Tibprod Italy)
Not really what I expected from someone who released music on Leo Records, FMR, Ayler, Creative Sources and Aucourant but guitar player Mark O’Leary switched in 2008 to playing ambient music and this is what he does here. He plays ‘guitar, processed guitar, bowed guitar and laptop’ in a trio with Soren Kjaergaard on church organ and Jeff Herr on drums and percussion, although I found it pretty hard to figure out what exactly his part was. Unless of course there has been a lot of post-editing and post processing. Its recorded in a church and that’s something that certainly enhances the atmospheric quality of the music. Maybe the drums/percussion parts are played with just using their resonant qualities by softly stroking the skins and cymbals? The title says it all, and its dedicated to those who discovered that continent. Program music, I’d say, or perhaps textbook example of ambient industrial/isolationist music (I must be the only one to keep that name alive), very much along the lines of the early Thomas Koner albums, which also dealt with the similar trip of Amundsen to the same continent and other cold places. This is one of those cases where I didn’t hear anything spectacular new going on here, but that’s not always necessary. This is quite well played, well produced and very fine ambient music – what more do you want? (FdW)
Address: http://www.tibprod.com/italy
HOLZKOPF – PAPA DON’T THINK NOTHIN’/MAMA DON’T SAY NOTHIN’ (CDR by Isolated Now Waves)
From a series of no less than five releases, ‘Papa Don’t Think Nothin/Mama Don’t Say Nothin’ is the most recent release by Holszkopf, nom de plume for Jacob Hardy from Canada. We reviewed his music before, when it was released by Attenuation Circuit (see Vital Weekly 786), which had a kind of drill ‘ bass styled noise/dance music. What I learned from the five releases is that Hardy makes different kinds of music. In some rhythm forms a great part of it, and in others pure noise is the main theme. In ‘Sober Materials #4’ that is the case and its the one that I digested not very well, but the beat material on ‘Sober Materials #5’ are actually in a slower mode than before and as such work much, much better. Its all better worked out, but still quite raw and no doubt very much underground. Now, here I can imagine someone dancing. Quite a nice progression.
So for the current release I expected either one or the other, but its neither rhythm nor (and) noise. Ambient might be the right word for this music of a rather lo-fi nature. Its quite hiss based, like taped on cassette of some highly obscure sound sources – which after a few repeated listening sessions still didn’t reveal their true nature. What I learned during that repeated listening, is that its all pretty good. Two lengthy tracks of slow, minimal developmentsQuite cleverly made, obscured and mysterious music. Its easily the best release I heard from Holzkopf so far – although I readily admit that I didn’t hear all of this 10+ year career so far. I am not sure if this is a new direction for him or something that he does on the side, but it seems to me a road to explore further. (FdW)
Address: http://holzkopf.googlepages.com
BILL HORIST – THE SIGNAL BOX (cassette by Ultramarine Records)
KOMMISSAR HJULER & MAMA BAER & NINNI MORGIA & SILVIA KASTEL – LIVE AT MORDEN TOWER (cassette by Ultramarine Records)
Two tapes of improvisation. The first one is solo by Bill Horist, who has been around for a long time, quite active, yet not always present in Vital Weekly. On this solo tape he just takes credit for prepared guitar, which is quite interesting. At first I believed he also used some small synthesizers, like the these days so popular monotron, but then upon closer inspection, it indeed seems all to be guitar. Horist plays his guitar with quite some imagination. Not in a careful, soft manner, but in a more direct, ongoing way. Electrical music, recorded quite raw and untamed, including a variety of sound effects. Some of these pieces are quite loud and upfront, such as ‘Like A Fire In The Slate Season’, including the crackling sounds that come like a small campfire, but before that we have ‘&The Thing With Threadwire’, which is an interesting mellow improvisation for pure strings and hardly sound effects. Six pieces and an excellent showcase of what Horist can do. Great tape I thought.
The thing that is striking about the other tape is of course the location where it was recorded. The Morden Tower in Newcastle-upon-Tyne is best known as a location where legendary concerts took place in the early 80s by such legendary acts as Ramleh and The New Blockaders. I assumed it no longer existed as a venue since we never had any other concert releases out of that place. But apparently it still does exist and last year saw this quartet playing of Mama Baer (voice), Kommissar Hjuler (tapes, voice)m Ninni Morgia (guitar) and Silvia Kastel (synth). From the latter we heard some fine improvisation which tends towards more rock/noise structures and the first two we best know for the weird music, spoken word, tape collage and insanities. This could be indeed a daring set-up for all four and it turns out that to be quite a nice collaboration. Probably exactly the one you’d have in mind if you know some of the music by those involved. Quite noise based, like good ol’ industrial music: ongoing bursts of noise, distorted guitar, screaming voices, synth bubbles, all in a rather free mode, which ties in improvised music with noise music. Maybe its all a bit long in the unedited form, but that too might be part of the deal: to make sound like before. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ultramarinerecords.com
FOUR CORNERS OF THE NIGHT (cassette by Staaltape)
RINUS VAN ALEBEEK – SHADOWS FROM THE BOOK OF CHAPTERS (cassette, private)
Staaltape, the label that was originally part of Staalplaat, the shop, is best known for their cassette releases of say Laibach, Chris & Cosey and Zoviet*France, effectivly stopped when the label started to release CDs and the name Staalplaat was the common place for shop and label. But with the return of the cassette as a medium a few years ago, and the arrival of a somewhat older man with a strong interest in that medium, Staalplaat decided to grant him, Rinus van Alebeek that is, permission to start up Staaltape again. No longer releasing the works of the high and mighty, but firmly underground, with handmade packages. Its hard to say what the tape is, but the website provides us with some information: “All compositions come from original recordings made on 20/21 June during the shortest night of the year 2011. Recordings were made by Konrad Korabiewski in Eydistjorgur in Iceland, Pierce Warnecke in a barn in Montagny les Lanches, France, Anton Mobin on a walk in Belleville, Paris, Christoph Limbach on a bicycle ride in Berlin and Rinus van Alebeek on the Museuminsel in Berlin.” Somehow these pieces seem to flow into eachother with seperate tracks by Mobin, Limbach and Alebeek on the a-side, all made out of these field recordings, which come to us rather ‘clean’ and ‘untreated’. I think. Lots of street sounds, perhaps. Maybe the original sounds have been played back in a new environment? The b-side seems a collaborative piece by Warnece and Limbach, called ‘A Sparse Topography’ and like the title suggests, this too deals with pure field recordings, but they are put together in a collage form, which works very well. Lots of tension, mysterious rumbling (microphones in shopping bags), and sounds from the big city. The handmade presentation is not so much my liking, but the music here is great.
The other tape is solo by Rinus van Alebeek, and you can only get a copy by sending mister Van Alebeek a tape in return. The very foundation of the world of cassettes. You will also receive a small plastic bag with rubbish, which you can throw away and save Van Alebeek in doing so. Maybe the nature of recycling is what this is about. Snippets of field recordings are used, along with a collage of disco records, dictaphone stuff and such like. The sort of sounds we use or throw away, but Van Alebeek decided to keep them, stick them together in a rather random order and call it music. The music is copied on a recycled cassette – Irena Seda in my case – and looks strikingly familiar to the ones released by RRR as part of the ‘Recycled’ series. Not entirely my cup of tea, this whole ethos of ‘I can do it, you can do it’ which doesn’t necessarily give cassettes a fine name for great music. (FdW)
Address: http://staaltape.wordpress.com/