PLEASE NOTE: NO VITAL WEEKLY IN WEEK 33! Announcements for that week should be on time!
CHRIS WATSON – IN ST. CUTHBERT’S TIME (CD by Touch) *
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – YUSUY (CD by Nature Bliss) *
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – OPSIGNO (CD by Nature Bliss) *
34423 – THOUGH AND TENDER (CD by Kaico) *
FREE BABYRONIA – MATRIX GROOVES (CD by Kaico) *
CRAWLING CHAOS – SPOOKHOUSE (CD by EE Tapes)
TATTERED KAYLOR – SELECTED REALITIES (CD/DVD by Moozak)
ELUDER – THROUGH HORIZON (CD by Infraction) *
JOSEPH MINADEO & CURT BROWN (CD by Infraction) *
DRAPE – AN IDEA AND ITS MAP (LP by Infraction) *
FAUSTEN – FAUSTEN (CD by Ad Noiseam)
BENNY LUKAS BOYSEN – GRAVITY (CD by Ad Noiseam)
WE DREW LIGHTNING – GLITCH (CD by High Mayhem) *
ANTOINE PASQUIER – ANT PAC BIN 1 (CDR by High Mayhem) *
INK ON PAPER – OFFICIAL DEMO (CDR by High Mayhem) *
LONDON SOUND SURVEY – THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES (LP by Vittelli)
ROOIE WAAS – JA DUS (7″ by Blowpipe)
ELEKTRA – CRAZY BABY (7″ by Blowpipe)
BE MY FRIEND IN EXILE – THE SILENCE, THE DARKNESS (CDR by Twice Removed) *
VÆLIUM – HK 1 + 2 (CDR by Vaelium)
VÆLIUM – SEPPUKU (DVD by Vaelium)
ARMALI LARI – MAMMARELLA DI MENSU METRU (CDR by Attenuation Circuit) *
… PLAYS UNTER DEN LINDEN (3″CDR Compilation by Vuz)
PAPER CUTS – FIRST DATE (cassette by Wounded Knife)
GUARDIANS OV GILDED PERADAM & ALL THE SPIRIT… – CACOPHONIC HYMNS AGAINST MISTRALS OV MOUNT ANALOGUE (cassette by Wounded Knife)
THE ETHER STAIRCASE – WINNING THE OLYMPICS (cassette by Cave Recordings)
INVISBLE PATH – CLOUD VARIATIONS (cassette by Cave Recordings)
DOZENS – BORN WAITING (cassette by Cave Recordings)
GJALLARHORNET – RAVEN MEMORIES (cassette by Cave Recordings)
CHRIS WATSON – IN ST. CUTHBERT’S TIME (CD by Touch)
Sometime in the 7th century, Eadfrith, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, was writing and illustrating the Lindisfarne Gospels on the island of that very name and maybe he heard what we hear now. No doubt his work was slow, all year round, and so the four pieces created here by Chris Watson, reflect the four seasons. The island is to be found two miles of the coast of Northumberland. If you already know Watson’s work, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t, then you know what to expect here. Lots of wind, birds, insects and water sounds. It’s a fine work, totally Watson’s standard, and it comes with a great informative booklet on the place and the historical information, but it’s not the same kind of work as ‘El Tren Fantasma’, which I believe to be one of the best works by Watson in recent years. Maybe because that piece was different from the works of Watson as we knew them, away from the nature recordings and working with mechanical sounds, whereas this one is back to nature recordings. Of course, I know, there is no reason to complain as this is of course the kind of thing he is best known for, and ‘In St. Cuthbert’s Time’ is a very refined work of such recordings, being put together into some great pieces of music. Let there be no mistake: this is great album. With doors open on this sunny afternoon, in my quiet neighborhood, this is a record that is truly an ambient record. Great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.touchmusic.org.uk
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – YUSUY (CD by Nature Bliss)
ALEJANDRO FRANOV – OPSIGNO (CD by Nature Bliss)
Already noted in Vital Weekly 863: Alejandro Franov is the most famous Argentinean musician in Japan. His previous album was also on Nature Bliss and there is now these two re-issues of albums released respectively in 2002 and 2004. For an earlier album, ‘Khali’, reviewed in Vital Weekly 589, I compared him with the now sadly deceased Jorge Reyes. he was a composer with a firm background in traditional music of his country (in his case Mexico), in combination with electronics. Franov’s music is perhaps less based on Argentinean music, I’d say, but has a similar relaxed feel to it. Some pieces on ‘Opsigno’ are based on South American rhythms. Franov plays synthesizers, guitar, flute, mbira, sitar, percussion and piano, and ‘Opsigno’ also a bit of vocals. I am say I enjoyed this relaxed music on a hot day for sure, but honesty dictates to say that I perhaps not hear the genius at work, i.e. I am wondering what it is that is so appealing to the Japanese. Like I noted with ‘Champaqui’, the previous album, released late last year, is that there a certain element of new age in here, which is not exactly something I like. Both of these older albums contain similar quite harmless music, without much edge to it. Which I guess is not bad necessarily, as it can be all cutting edge I guess, but maybe it’s also just a tad bit too harmless for me. (FdW)
Address: http://www.naturebliss.jp
34423 – THOUGH AND TENDER (CD by Kaico)
FREE BABYRONIA – MATRIX GROOVES (CD by Kaico)
Two Japanese releases, one from Tokyo and one from Nagoya and along each other. 34423 is a somewhat mysterious name chosen by Fumi Miyoshi, whose name could be pronounced as 34423 in Japanese, or so we are led to believe. She has released a bunch of albums herself, but ‘Though And Tender’ is her official debut and a compilation of her earlier albums. Kaico sells this as ‘hard techno’, but maybe there is a different idea about the word ‘hard’, or perhaps ‘techno’ for that matter. It’s not easy to see people dancing around these tunes, no mater how hard they are driven by beats. She claims that Aphex Twin and Nine Inch Nails to be her earlier influences, and there is certainly a link to be seen with some of the Twin work. 34423 has a great sense of creating interesting, not too minimal, not too complicated set of beats, but she also a fine sense for a melodic touch to her music. It’s all not too dissimilar to IDM music: influenced by the world of techno, but all a bit too complicated to be full on dance music, but making a fine foot-tapping experience for home listening. Music while you work.
Behind Free Babyronia you’ll find Rodriguez Yukio, originally from Lima, but now in Nagoya, who co-released with Kacio this record on his Aun Mute label. He had two EPs before this debut album. His beats are a bit more minimal than those of 34423, which makes this altogether a bit more danceable than her album. This has perhaps also to do with the absence of melodies, or rather, not the to same extent as 34423 uses them in her music. The minimalism by Free Babyronia is not as minimal as the Kompakt a decade ago, or Basic Channel, but some of these pieces come quite close. It’s perhaps also a lot less inspired by straight forward 4/4 techno music, but more akin that of Pan Sonic or Goem, but Free Babyronia has carved out his own niche here and these twelve songs are highly enjoyable, mostly longer affairs revolving along those minimal beats and effects that ornament them. Now here I can probably see people moving along the beat in a small basement underground techno location. That is mostly due to the somewhat darker nature of the music that makes this quite firmly an underground affair. Very nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.naturebliss.jp
CRAWLING CHAOS – SPOOKHOUSE (CD by EE Tapes)
EE Tapes is a very interesting Belgian label that picks hidden gems from the experimental underground scene and present them for audience of today. Present album was originally released 25 years ago – in fact released by a label that also can celebrate its 25th anniversary. The album titled “Spookhouse” comes from the British band Crawling Chaos. The band is stylishly a hard one to pigeonhole. Many styles are emerged to create this cocktail of experimental rock. Throughout the runtime the listener are confronted with everything from sax-driven ska-music across punk rock to something that could have been born in the age of German Krautrock. Especially krautrock-band Amon Düül II crosses my mind as I listen to the “Spookhouse”-album. The sound production of the album is quite raw and unpolished giving a nice feel of authenticity and improvisation. Yet another pearl from the 80’s experimental scene picked by one of Belgium’s premium underground labels. Highly recommended. (NM)
Address: http://www.eetapes.be
TATTERED KAYLOR – SELECTED REALITIES (CD/DVD by Moozak)
Tessa Elieff is an Australian sound-artist and is fascinated to the sonic environment. In her performances she explores the relationship between sound, space, time and perception by for example field-recordings and multi-speaker systems. Selected Realities is a documentation of the exploration of a underground drainway, a six floor stairwell and the basement of a theatre. Mostly are recordings of performance weak and you cannot experience the meaning of the performance is your own living room. But these CD and DVD are masterpieces of sound art and when you close your eyes, you can experience what Tattered Kaylor wants to achieve with her art. The first track if the CD is been made by singing bowls and the deep resonances of these classic Tibetan instruments are beautiful. The bowls have been used or edited in another way than the classic way, which gives an extra dimension to this meditative sounds. I have heard many compositions with these bowls, but this one is amazing. It is a pity it lasts about 4 minutes, but there is an extended version later on this CD, but these composition starts more intense and powerful and becomes more and more minimalistic. The two pieces are mixed to stereo mix. The original was 5.1 composition, created for a six floor stairwell. Drainbirds is beautiful composition of sounds of several birds. The sounds are so natural and clear. It is like that the birds are flying into your head and fly from one part to the other part of your brains. Originally it is composed to playback and to record in a underground drainway. The DVD contains three tracks recorded for a 5.1 surround sound system. Two tracks are only an audio format. “Stairwell 2007 is a live recordings with Lennart Katwzwinkel. A singing voice fills the room by reflecting the walls. The voice is supported by a low frequency tone and some clashes on metal. The atmosphere in the stairwell is sinister. The live recording of Drainbirds is recorded beneath the suburban tramline. The last track on the DVD is a short movie shot in the basement of a theatre, in which the sounds is well-combined with the images. It starts with a steady shot of a corridor, almost nothing is happening, just some shadows on the wall and different kind of lightning. The music is abstract and has no direction. The camera starts to move and the images as well the soundtrack change more and more. The movie shows us a impressive massive scissor lift. The soundtrack refers to the sounds of the machine or is it something else. That doesn’t matter, the movie is like a homage to technic. The technic of industrial possibilities, the technic of the manipulation of sound, the technic of mankind. “Selected Realities” is a highly recommended document of sound-art. (JKH)
Address: http://www.moozak.org
ELUDER – THROUGH HORIZON (CD by Infraction)
JOSEPH MINADEO & CURT BROWN (CD by Infraction)
DRAPE – AN IDEA AND ITS MAP (LP by Infraction)
There is not yet a lot of information on the label’s website on Eluder, but we do know it’s Pat Benolkin, who back in Vital Weekly 566 had a release reviewed as Electric West. Back then I wrote “As Eluder he plays ‘lush, melodic ambient music’, but I must say that Electric West already sounds pretty ambient to me. A hotbed of synthesizers lay down a carpet of thick warm sounds, and on top the rhythm ticks away in loneliness the bars.” Now that I heard his music as Eluder, I know the difference. Here we have a hot bed of synthesizers too, but a total absence of any sort of rhythmic particles – maybe save for a faint click like sound in ‘Violet Suns’. But otherwise these nine pieces are strong excursions of the darker realms of atmospheric sounds, music is slow motion to a near stand still. Hard to tell wether this is made with guitars, or perhaps synthesizers, or perhaps a heavily processed set of field recordings. Whatever the case, whatever it is that he does, he does a pretty neat job, I’d say. Obviously it’s not easy to break out the ground of ambient music, and Eluder doesn’t do this at all, but somehow I don’t think that’s the objective that Eluder is about. His objective might be to depict a few great moves, a fine sense of beauty into this world and he succeeds wonderfully well.
Something different is the release by one Joseph Minadeo and Curt Brown. Minadei is from Akron, Ohio but now based in Los Angeles, where he runs the Patternbased label. He is a member of the ‘post-rock’ outfit Low In The Sky. Also from Akron is Curt Brown, co-founder of Rubber City Noise, a collective that runs a record label and arts space in Akron. This collaboration is about words and music. Music comes courtesy of Minadeo and Brown for the words in the nicely printed booklet. “Wood Land is a story of a nameless worker caught in the mundanity of placid bureaucracy. Wood Land is a story of buried towers and subtle rebellion. Wood Land is a story of unsubtle rebellion and totalitarian overthrow. Wood Land is a story of deep space awakening and astronaut spiders. Wood Land is a story of return and reconciliation. Wood Land is a story.” It’s of course not a story that would have been clear if you would just hear the music and nothing else. The piano is here the main instrument, and with some processed sounds there of. Furthermore there is quite an amount of guitars to be noted, a bit of drums and other instruments. But the piano tinkles away mostly and within reach of reverb and calm processing, it’s never far off the way Brian Eno did those things with Harold Budd and Daniel Lanois. That spacious feel, wide open space, here on land, or up with the apollos. The main difference is with Eluder is the open character of the music and the more sketch like approach of the music. Pieces are short and to the point, almost like rounded off ‘songs’. Very filmic this music (and it has already been used in the ‘global collaborative documentary film ‘One Day on Earth’, along w/ Sigur Ros, Beirut, Cut Chemist and Mum.’). Ambient, nothing new, but of an entirely different nature than Eluder.
Its ben a while since I last from Drape, the duo of Ryan Gracey and Spencer Williams – see Vital Weekly 722 – but I believe they didn’t release much beyond that point, other than a split cassette with Odd Nosdam. With this release we return to the more introspective ambience which we also encountered with Eluder. Yet there are differences also. Whereas Eluder is certainly grey towards black, Drape is more grey towards white. It would seem to me that all of this music is created with guitars, and it’s not difficult to see a strong influence from Stars Of The Lid. The long form, sustaining guitars, cascading slowly, like majestic waves, rolling ashore, has a strong orchestral to it. Ringing string music, on an endless, perpetual slow motion roller coaster. If that is at all possible. Its been a while since we last heard something from Stars Of The Lid, and for all I know they might no longer exist, but Drape, on this particular record, would win easily the chance of successor to their throne. A fine example, textbook drone music. Forty years of mood music pass by, from the German cosmos, Eno’s living room and a bit of neo-classical music – Arvo for my part. Highly refined journey on the wings of musical history. (FdW)
Address: http://infractionrecords.com/
FAUSTEN – FAUSTEN (CD by Ad Noiseam)
BENNY LUKAS BOYSEN – GRAVITY (CD by Ad Noiseam)
Two new albums from German label Ad Noiseam has seen the light of the day. First album is from British project Fausten. Fausten is a collaborative offspring from the members behind Monster X and Stormfield. The self titled debut is a heavy, dense and quite evil experience. Consisting of seven pieces the album is a big step away from the usually more dance floor and upfront based expressions of the Monster X and Stormfield. In opposition to the uptempo expressions, the album titled “Fausten” is built on slow and crushing rhythm-textures and first of all belongs to the industrial-based power noise-scene. The album ends up with three awesome remixes from Oyaarss, Dadub and Ontal. As the three remixes stylishly differs from the rest of the album, it gives a great overall variation throughout the runtime. Especially the remix by Ontal is amazing with its up-tempo techno-based remix. For those who have appreciated Hecq for his compositional talents from within the atmospheric idm-albums it probably won’t come as a surprise that Benny Lukas Boysen alias Hecq has the ability to create a full-filled work of exclusive drifting ambience. As Hecq, Benny Lukas Boysen creates an alluring combination of rhythmic textures and cinematic soundscapes. On this album titled “Gravity” the composer concentrates on beatless textures. The ambient style of the album puts strong emphasis in the soothing piano lines not far away from Brian Eno’s “Ambient #1 : Music for airports” and the earlier works of New Age legend George Winston, but always kept in the very own compositional universe of mr. Boysen. A few moments around the album, rhythm-textures occurs as on the piece “Nocturne 2” – a piece that despite its title is one of the noisier works on the album with its use of distorted sound passages. A deep album that should appeal to anyone interested in ambient. (NM)
Address: http://www.adnoiseam.net
WE DREW LIGHTNING – GLITCH (CD by High Mayhem)
ANTOINE PASQUIER – ANT PAC BIN 1 (CDR by High Mayhem)
INK ON PAPER – OFFICIAL DEMO (CDR by High Mayhem)
With some caution, I think I never heard of this label, and thus perhaps not of many of these musicians. The first is a duo turning into a trio, of Roland Ostheim on vocals, guitars and electronics and Michael Smith on drums, electronics, saw, piano and vocals and newest band member 9on four tracks), Aaron Jenks on keyboards. ‘Glitch’ is their second album, and I can be relative short about this, as it’s not really my cup of tea. The play a sort of not-so refined post rock, less smooth and more loud than their mid-90 peers would sound like, and they add vocals. This makes it all pretty standard alternative rock, at least to these not-so trained ears for the world of alternative rock, I guess and I can assume this would be the most popular band of this week, when it would come to playing live. I would like some experimentation in this kind of music, or perhaps I am just way past that whole post-rock for some time now?
High Mayhem founder Antoine Pasquier plays guitar in a band called The Late Severa Wires, but here plays solo acoustic guitar and sings. Many of these songs were written early morning over the past couple years. I don’t know any of his other work, so it’s a bit hard to relate to that, and what complicates that is the fact that this is not the kind of music I hear a lot. Fifteen folky songs recorded in the garage/attic/basement which adds a raw character to the music. That rawness adds a certain energy to the music. Nothing refined, no studio trickery, just the condensed space of aforementioned (possible) locations. Even when this too wasn’t really a cup of joe for me, I liked this better than the We Drew Lightning. Maybe the whole rock aspect of that one wasn’t appealing to me, or perhaps I liked the more direct energy here better? Who knows. Either way, both fine to hear but not too often.
Something different is the duo Ink On Paper, a duo of the bass of Carlos Santistevan and the drums of Milton Villarrubia III. Both use electronics and/or laptop. The laptop is used to trigger samples via drumming and the electronics are loop devices and sound effects. Five pieces here, of which the last one, ‘Kepler Lens’ is with fourteen minutes the longest. This release is the result of a live, no overdub recording, and it sounds great. It’s a bit of a lot: improvisation obviously, electronics, free jazz and maybe even a bit of musique concrete. Sometimes they operate in a very free form and on other occasions you might think there is a math rock band being chopped to pieces. One of the things that it is not, is a noise band. This certainly has a lot of energy, but can’t be compared to MoHa! or something similar in the world of improvisation and electronics. Having said that, it’s also not always carefully improvised, or bordering on the lines of inaudibility. The music is always present and demands full attention, in order to unfold some of it’s beauty. This one is surely the most difficult release of this High Mayhem trio, but certainly one to play again and again. (FdW)
Address: http://www.highmayhem.org
LONDON SOUND SURVEY – THESE ARE THE GOOD TIMES (LP by Vittelli)
Not the first thing to do after finishing this week’s issue of Vital Weekly, but surely something to do is pack up and go on a holiday. To Oxford, United Kingdom and one day we go to London to do something over there. That’s about the extend of this week’s personal interference in reviews, but it allows a different start to a review of a record that has pure untreated field recordings from that city. I don’t like London very much, but I guess more and more I am not very fond of big cities anyway. Too noisy, too dirty, too crowded and, in the case of London, an expensive city also. Big cities attract lots and lots of people for the wrong reason: to find richness and only to receive poorly paid jobs. ‘But of course there is always the action, the new music in abundance’; which prevents you from working. I’d rather be in a small town and have a concert every forth-night, take a walk in the woods etc. Anyway, by day Ian Rawes works for the British Library’s National Sound Archive. By night he is the London Sound Survey. I have no idea what he does by day, but maybe a fair assumption is that he is recording sound, which by night, he cuts and pastes together. Maybe he just uses the sounds not used by his day job. Maybe it all seems rather confusing, and perhaps it isn’t. I have been to London only on a few occasions and while playing this record, I was thinking of those times (five, six times?), and also I was thinking about records like this. If you play this record to someone who is from London and you don’t tell him this is recordings from London, who he be able to recognize it as sounds from his city? That seems to me a difficulty with records that depict specific places, unless of course someone speaks in a very strong dialect. The ‘Caribbean Sunday Service’ could very well be, erm…, Caribbean? Does this mean I don’t like this record? Don’t get me wrong, I love such records, wether or not these were places I visited before. I love the pure, untreated field recordings approach, I can sit back listen – perhaps more dear than going on and hear them myself. If I was a DJ, which I am not, I can imagine using records like this and spin them at parties, along with similar recordings. It’s great to have this, and real DJs are surely happy with having this on vinyl. (FdW)
Address: http://vittelli.com
ROOIE WAAS – JA DUS (7″ by Blowpipe)
ELEKTRA – CRAZY BABY (7″ by Blowpipe)
Dutch label Blowpipe is somehow connected to Moskwood, producer of excellent DVDs such as a great Tarkovsky collection, and have been around to push mainly a catalogue of Dutch artists, such as Smalts, Plus Instruments (more on both of them in two weeks), Minny Pops, and here Rooie Waas and Elektra. Blowpipe just released a LP version of ‘It’s Maar Een Contstatering’ by Rooie Waas (the CD version was reviewed in Vital Weekly 847) and a 7″ with a nice punky cover of two new songs, ‘Ja Dus’ and ‘Doe Het Dan’. Rooie Waas (‘red glow’) is a duo of Gijs Borstlap and Mikael Szafrowski, who play cacophonator, weird sound generator, monotron, vocals and guitar, which boils down to a heavy, almost hip hop like rhythm here, but with vocals in Dutch and lots of weird sounds, which provides them not to be easily liked by those who digest hop hop. Weird lyrics, which are funny, and this is music that is best played very loud, or, even better, be seen in concert, which I still haven’t, I am afraid to say. These two new songs confirm that they have an excellent unique sound, combining noise, improv and hip hop beats with crazy lyrics. Excellent stuff.
So far I didn’t hear of Elektra Dekker, who shortens her name to Elektra. She is from Estonia, moved about 36 times and I believe now lives in The Netherlands. She has a couple of releases on Blowpipe and two version of ‘Crazy Baby’ on this 7″. On the a-side she sings with a voice that comes from the world of trip-hop (think Portishead), but with a more upfront electronic backing, but which sounds sufficiently creepy and mysterious. Maybe a bit gothic even, but it’s an effective, nice song. ‘Ybab Yzarc’ is of course the title song in reverse, but not just that. Sounds are in reverse too, but she some sounds, all doom and gloom from the world of synthesizers and the overall texture of this side of the record is even more creepy and alien. Creepy, but also very accessible and beautiful, as Elektra Dekker has a great voice. I am certainly curious about her other efforts based on the two sides of the same coin here. (FdW)
Address: http://www.blowpipe.org
BE MY FRIEND IN EXILE – THE SILENCE, THE DARKNESS (CDR by Twice Removed)
Australia’s Twice Removed turns out to be a rapidly expanding into a home for all things drone like, and they are able to find some people I never heard of. People like Be My Friend In Exile, of whom I never heard. He had a debut on Somehow Recordings and a previous release on Twice Removed. Miguel Gomes, who is Be My Friend In Exile, plays mostly guitar, I should think. Add to that a bit of vocals, wordless and very occasional, and a fair amount of sound effects. The production of the music is however a bit muffled, a bit lo-fi perhaps. It seems that Be My Friend In Exile is more about jamming around with his guitar and see what happens in the realm of drone/ambient, rather than playing very fixed ideas that result in the same. This somewhat more loose approach is something which you don’t hear a lot, I think, in this kind of music, which is very nice. It doesn’t always work too well, I must honestly say, and the music bumps off course, when it becomes a bit too long, without enough variation, but throughout I think this was all quite pleasantly different from what we usually get served in this area. Nice! (FdW)
Address: http://www.twiceremoved.storenvy.com
VÆLIUM – HK 1 + 2 (CDR by Vaelium)
VÆLIUM – SEPPUKU (DVD by Vaelium)
Ross S. Fury lived for several years in Hongkong and was part of the drone/doom project Black Reign. He returned to London and started VÆLIUM with guitarist Timothy C. Holehouse and Andrew Page. Andrew Page plays in the solo-project Raxil4 and created his sounds with a bunch of second hand effects and sound sources like tape-recorders, game-boys, detuned radio’s and anything else what creates sound. Timothy C. Holehouse aka TCH is a blues-musician and plays blues on an authentic way. The self-released CD-R was released just before their Belgian tour in June. The CD-R consists two long tracks and the music develops from abstract drones to a groovy and noisy guitar riff. The first track starts smooth with some strumming guitar chords and minimal electronics in the background. Some clear tunes of a piano create an open atmosphere in the covered moments. The diversity of sound and intensity makes this track beautiful. The second track has a basic drone created by Andrew Page with a horrific sound, like a monster or an upcoming storm which comes up and fades away, but which one will never leave and is always there. The guitar improvisations of Timothy C. Holehouse try to influence these threats, but the dark atmosphere continues. Ross S. Fury picks up these guitar-sounds and deform them by several effects. The music becomes stronger when the guitar-sounds are more in the back-ground. The synergy between the drones and strumming guitar-sounds is sometimes far away. It is like two worlds which try to come together an sometimes they find each other and sometimes they go their own way. During the final parts the worlds come together. The rhythm of the guitar of Timothy C. Holehouse melt together with the delays of R.S. Fury and the ongoing drones of Andrew Page. I think this composition will be stronger when it was shorter or when there was more diversity in intensity like in the first track. The DVD “Seppuku” deals about the ritual suicide (Seppuku) of Yukio Mishima. Yukio Mishima was a Japanese writer, political activist and movie maker. In 1966 he created the movie Yükoku about the rite of love and death. The movie is based on his novel Patriotism. The original movie was shot in one room and deals about the passionate love and suicide of a Japanese lieutenant and his wife. Ross. S Fury created a beautiful interpretation of some scenes of the movie and with some filters the movie of VÆLIUM is more thrilling than the original. The soundtrack of VÆLIUM fits well to the music and makes the movie more intense. (JKH)
Address: http://www.vaelium.org
ARMALI LARI – MAMMARELLA DI MENSU METRU (CDR by Attenuation Circuit)
A duo which describe themselves as ‘impro-soft-electronic-free-ethno-noise’ with on alto clarinet and bombard chanter one Francesco Calandrino and one Nicola Giunta on guitar, turntable, percussions). The record much music together and for this album, they send out one of these recordings, chopped to five bits, to various friends and colleagues to add along their own improvisations. So we have here the talents of Pimmon, Pierre Bastien, Amy Denio, Bob Marsh, Gino Ronair, and many others. Some pieces have more than one guest player, so I assume all of this can be found in a more Cageian approach to creating music, that of the random nature of sound production. Despite some popular belief I must admit I am not really the Cage fan people sometimes think I am. Maybe the whole nature of random music is no longer my cup? It was once nice to splice random bits of tape together, but the aleoteric approaches here could only marginally impress me. A bit chaotic, with bits of chaotic, random radio, sounds of trombones, marimba or double bass dropping in and out. I am not sure what to make of it, but every time I play this, I don’t seem to be getting into this very much. It just won’t work with me and this release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.attenuationcircuit.de
… PLAYS UNTER DEN LINDEN (3″CDR Compilation by Vuz)
German Vuz Records is the label behind this short but very intense 3” inch disc titled “… plays Unter Den Linden. An interpretation in five parts”. This has nothing to do with the famous concert place of Berlin as was my first thought. Unter den Linden was a rhythmic noise / industrial project from northern Bohemia driven by the sound artist Bořek Podlipný. Five stylishly different acts interpret works of Unter Den Linden and the result is excellent. Dutch sound explorist Frans de Waard is the brain behind the first interpretation. Under his alias Freiband, mr. Waard transforms the harsh soundscapes of UDL into 4 minutes of chilling subdued ambient based on repetitive loops of microsounds and drones. Next in line is the French concrete sound composer Nouvelles Lectures Cosmopolites who stays in the subtle approach in his interpretation. Repetitive voice samples combined with dark ambient reminds of the ambient-works of Swedish extremist Deutsch Nepal. As next artist enters the stage the expression moves into more aggressive and upfront textures. Monolith (aka Klinik aka Sonar) pushes the boundaries to the extremes with his power noise interpretation that combines heavy beat blasts with tribal elements. Intense! Berlin duo Column One stays in the rhythmic territories with their technoid tribal piece that also includes Kraftwerk-like reminiscent computerized vocals. Last artist is one of the true legends of German industrial label Ant-Zen recordings. P.A.L. closes the heavy show with a atmospheric brutal work. An excellent compilation running approx. 20 minutes but deserves many repetitive listens. (NM)
Address: http://www.vuzrecords.de
PAPER CUTS – FIRST DATE (cassette by Wounded Knife)
GUARDIANS OV GILDED PERADAM & ALL THE SPIRIT… – CACOPHONIC HYMNS AGAINST MISTRALS OV MOUNT ANALOGUE (cassette by Wounded Knife)
Information the cover of Papercuts is hand written and not easy to read, but it’s on the website of the label. “Two side-long improvisations documenting the clash of synths and percussion. Modular synthesizer versus drums, electronics versus acoustics.” With Wojtek Kurek on drums and Lukasz Kacperczyk on modular synthesizer and karimba. Improvisations were recorded, on their first meeting perhaps, in May 2013. That’s the basic information. I was wondering if I had the right tape, since it’s not easy to recognize these drums as drums. But surely it’s some form of using surface to surface instruments, scraping, bending or bowing that some drummers use, so perhaps that’s what we have here too. It bursts in any case nicely along with the material that is played on the modular synth and whatever the karimba may be, judging by the sound on side two perhaps a kalimba. That side is very low in volume for quite some time and it makes it hard to hear it. I am not sure here, but perhaps it sounds alright, for a first date, but maybe some more playing together before moving towards a release wasn’t a bad idea.
Much louder is the release by Guardians Ov Gilded Peradam & All The Spirit…, which is not one name but two bands working together. Wounded Knife calls this ‘tampura-based noisy mantras. Trio collaboration between Guardians Ov Gilded Peradam and All The Spirit Deeply Dawning In The Dark Of Hazel Eyes hailing from Dallas, TX.” Two side long drone rock pieces for a multiple orchestra of guitars and stomp boxes. Let’s all find that sonorous, intertwining hum and let’s explore that for fifteen minutes. Times two. Both buzz and ring, but if I have to appoint a favorite, I’d say ‘Wayward Wraith’ is the winner for me. Here the ringing goes on and on, but the general atmosphere seems a bit more open than on the hermetically closed other side. Surely nicely massive layers of drone music. (fDW)
Address: http://woundedknife.com/
THE ETHER STAIRCASE – WINNING THE OLYMPICS (cassette by Cave Recordings)
INVISBLE PATH – CLOUD VARIATIONS (cassette by Cave Recordings)
DOZENS – BORN WAITING (cassette by Cave Recordings)
GJALLARHORNET – RAVEN MEMORIES (cassette by Cave Recordings)
For information I am directed towards the website, but not always we find necessarily more over there. For instance, on The Ether Staircase release we read “It has been four years. The ever evolving ether is an ever expanding nothing. Let the games begin…”, while the cover says ‘all tracks by ben and rob 2012’. There are in the course of these thirty minutes maybe ten tracks, if I counted right and it fits with what I wrote last week about the Turmeric Magnitudes releases: a whole new scene of very lo-fi, rudimentary use of reel to reel loops and likewise lo-fi use of instruments. Maybe a guitar, maybe a bit, electronics, the sk-1 sampler maybe. All of this used without putting too much attention towards production values. It sounds all quite fragmented which adds to the mystery of it all. Nice kick off.
The music by Michael Bailey is more thought out, more ambient perhaps also. He plays gong, Gibson Les Paul, Yamaha DX 7, DSI Tetr 4, violin and tape loops with analogue processing. In these forty minutes he plays four pieces – maybe all ten minutes each – and they are dark and highly atmospheric. ‘Voices From The Tombs’ has a slow thumb to start with, which is kinda unusual for ambient music, but the drones are never far away. The two pieces on the b-side are quieter than those on the a-side, and seem to sink away in the hiss of the medium, but that’s just deception. This is some really nice floating ambience, nothing new under this moon surely, but Bailey’s music fits with the best of say Brian Eno or William Basinski. A similar approach to let sound do some work and let it all just flow.
Behind Dozens we find a duo of Frank Ouellette and Ryan Connolly, of whom I never heard. There might be one or more untitled pieces here, that is not clear, but it is along the lines of Invisible Path. Ambient like, spacious and perhaps created with the use of guitars, much electronic gear and who knows what else. Similar but within the details there are differences. Dozens is a bit darker, a bit more ‘industrial’ perhaps – like in that 80s sense of ambient industrial – and less rigidly composed, but without the rudimentary sounds of say The Ether Staircase. If they use loops they are cleaned up and do not necessarily hover in the netherworld of tape hiss. This is the repaired sound of the reel world. In a particular branch of the ambient world, this would be the more experimental type of ambient music. Long, sustaining but also sounding a bit weirder and more abstract then is usual, I guess. Nice one!
“Collaborative tectonics by Thomas Gerendás (Skullorian Sound Sculptures) and Russ Alderson (Xanthocephalus)… columns of smoke rise from the fissured ground… desolate vistas obscured by sulfurous fumes.” That’s how the release by Gjallarhornet is announced. I am not sure (like always), but it seems to me a new name. No instruments specified on the cover and the cover hints towards a collaboration via e-mail. Guitars is my best guess as towards which sound sources were used, and to that they added tape-loops of sounds, and feed it through some distortion pedals. Maybe I hadn’t the volume all the way up, but I think this thing is all a bit more noise based then it seems, and perhaps its due to the format of the cassette that this is somewhat hidden, covered with dirt. Somehow a bit without structure, and in a free run mode of sound, but I guess that’s the whole idea of this. Of these four this is the most noisy excursion. (FdW)
Address: http://caverecordings.blogspot.com