OOOO Tune
0014 Calika - Headset
0313 Gregory Taylor - Natanael_yang_jujur
0607 Lugano Fell - Malpenza
0910 Marc Barreca - The Sadness Of Things
1211 K. Leimer - Allotropy
1513 Seattle Phonographers Union
1819 Ubeboet
2117 Steve Barsotti - Terraces
2421 Tobias Reber - Geisterer
2724 Olivia Block & Kyle Bruckmann - I
3026 Alexander Berne - Reaches
3247 Psychoangelo - Pipe Dream In Silver
3547 Harley Gaber - I Saw My Mother
3848 Marc Namblard - Gisements (1)
4152 Steve Barsotti & Eric Leonardson
4502 Konrad Becker
4802 Carlos Villena - Oscil.lacions En La Penombra Des Les Taques
Solars
5059 Wirewall - Memristor
5402 Tune
OLIVIA BLOCK & KYLE BRUCKMANN - TEEM (CD by either/OAR)
From Chicago, both of them: Olivia Block (field
recordings, piano, reed organ, editing & mixing) and Kyle Bruckmann
(oboe, English horn, suona, accordion, field recordings, editing &
mixing) - the meeting of a serious composer (Block) and an improviser
(Bruckmann being part of EGK, among other things). Its a combination
that works well. Both ends are covered well. We hear Bruckmann's wind
instruments playing strange figures, while along we have the more rigid
organization of Block's field recordings and organ parts, as well as the
rumble and tumble of acoustic objects. They bump and collide into
eachother, attract eachother, and then move away from eachother. Four
parts were recorded over a period of five years, from nervous hectic of
part three to the quiet, introspective fourth part. Demanding music
here, which requires your full attention. This is not music which allows
you to go and do other things, but in these thirty seven something
minutes you need to stay with it, and focus. Its only then when it
unfolds its beauty. After
that you may tired, but perhaps also, like me, utterly pleased. An
excellent collaboration. (FdW)
Address: http://www.and-oar.org/either.htm
RAY BRASSIER, JEAN-LUC GUIONNET, SEIJIRO MURAYAMA, MATTIN IDIOMS AND
IDIOTS (CD & Booklet by w.m.o/recordlabel)
Improvisation recorded at the NPAI festival Nirot in 2008 would be to
begin to locate something in what we understand, however here is the
difficultly, whether you like it or not if you've blithely accepted this
"review" so far then I can immediately point to you and shout - "Kant".
And the shadow of François Laruelle crosses the landscape. (The full
text can be downloaded @ the address) Non- philosophy, correlationism .
and the subject of "improvisation" makes a review in any meaningful
sense impossible- as impossible as "improvisation". The best task of
such artists where the ontologies are ripe is to ignore all of this and
behave like suicide bombers, which is precisely what they might be doing
metaphorically. It certainly at times seems both dangerous potentially
to self or audience - self and audience and a criminal act, a crime
against certain ideas, as fundamental as time and space, that's your
Kantian assumption. What is music, art, philosophy without time and
space? As
an
idiots guide then, me being the idiot, a world view which is such is as
holy as the Koran, there is a fundamentalism everywhere which this
release not only documents but also attempts to overcome, in such a way
as failure itself is like a failed suicide bombing, a success of sorts
to some, but only a success if dismissed not by ignorance, a primitive
ignorance is immediately at one with improvised performances, but the
shocking reality of only thinking at second hand through a dead german
philosophers head. OK in a "line" in a sentence, anyone interested in -
now I was going to say music, but I'm even afraid I'm unable to finish
this line - why? Deleuze - "With the Kantian transformation .. time
becomes straight .. " of .or.. in a more general problematic which
includes both Deleuze and Kant - doesn't "this kind of" improvisation
eschew or face up to "decision" which all previous (before Laruelle?)
philosophy was blind to? (jliat)
Address: www.mattin.org/recordings.html
LUGANO FELL - SLICE REPAIR (CD by Baskaru)
So far I reviewed three releases by James Taylor, better known as one
half of Swayzak (a tech house duo whose music I don't know), but in his
new, solo, guise Lugano Fell. I really liked his first two releases, but
then the 3" (reviewed in Vital Weekly 670) didn't do much for me. I
noted then that I hoped his Baskaru CD would be better. Still it some
water has passed under the bridge before that one was released but here
it is. The good thing is: its a great release. But that's hardly a
surprise since it was compiled from his two previous CDR releases. And
perhaps is the downside, well, at least for me, since I knew these
already. Imagine shoegaze music and imagine glitch music. Combine those
two, quite odd, ends and there you'll find Lugano Fell. He uses a whole
bunch of software and instruments, all listed on the cover, and creates
some great music. Lots of acoustic guitar, all heavily chopped up, with
lots of plug ins flying about. Its however not a soft album, with
careful
doodling, but most of the time quite loud and present. Very much along
the lines of his first release, rather than his second, me thinks. Like
said, this is not the real big surprise, for me that is but let's hope
Lugano Fell now reaches a bigger audience, and that it something he
deserves. (FdW)
Address: http://www.baskaru.com
TOBIAS REBER - BACKUP AURA (CD by Hyperfunction)
A most curious record, but one Tobias Reber, of whom I never heard. No
information on the press blurb, but from his website I learned that he
was born in 1983 and started as a guitar player, and now calls himself a
laptop musician. He is also a member of Centrozoon (of which I don't
have good memories). 'Backup Aura' is his debut album with six
compositions 'that have their conceptual home on the continuum of
intuitive vs algorithmic composition', which may mean that its partly
along the lines of improvisation and partly composed. I must admit I
have no idea what to make of this. There are lots of electronics to be
found on this record and also drum sounds. I may not sure wether these
are 'live' drums, or out of a box. The drum sounds are fed through a
bunch of computer music patches. That's what this album is about. Its
not bad by any means, but I must say it also left me a bit untouched. I
liked the pieces best that dealt with electronics and less those which
had a lot of rhythm
(more post rock then techno based, I should add, so you have some clue
about them), which perhaps sounded all a bit too easy for me. Not a bad
record, but not exactly something that I fell for either. (FdW)
Address: http://www.hyperfunction.org
MARC BARRECA - SUBTERRANE (CD by Palace Of Light)
K. LEIMER - DEGRADED CERTAINTIES (CD by Palace Of Light)
GREGORY TAYLOR - DUA_BELAS (CD by Palace Of Light)
Three new releases from the established label artists on Palace Of
Light. The first is Marc Barreca, which is perhaps the one who had the
longest gap in releases. His previous releases, at least the ones I
remember, are all from the early 80s. I am not sure if there were any
later on, but here he returns with new work. This sees him working with
computer rather than 'old fashioned' synthesizers. He uses large chunks
of field recordings, as well as accordion and electronic instruments,
which are all processed on the computer and transformed into some great,
refined ambient music. The fourth world ambient music which I seem to
recall as an overall interest of Barreca, seems no longer present here.
Its replaced in favor of more abstract ambient music, with its long
stretched sounds, vague rumbling of percussive sounds and such like.
Oddly enough it seems both fresh and new, while yet also a natural
progression of his older work. An excellent come back album. Let's hope
his older work
will be re-issued on CD also.
Labelowner K. Leimer already made his return some time ago (see Vital
Weekly 533) and here has his fourth album since then and his ninth since
he started in the late seventies. For his new album, Leimer takes
credit for 'digital synthesis and signal processing', while receiving
help from Gregory Taylor on 'additional processing' and Taylor Deupree
on 'additional voices, post production, edit, mix and mastering' (which
he also did for the Barecca album). This is an album of ambient music in
capital ambient letters, AMBIENT. Unlike Barreca whose multi layered
ambient music is the result of many different sounds, Leimer seeks
things in a multitude of similar sound sources, with minor differences
among them and makes various layers incorporating these sounds. Six
tracks, all around eleven/twelve minutes in length, which might be a bit
much if you take it all in like a normal person. However, I think, this
is music that is best enjoyed if you put it on repeat for a day or two
(I readily
admit that I didn't do this, if only I had the time!) at a considerable
low volume. Then I assume the ambient music will really start to
penetrate your environment in a really nice way. That's what ambient
music should do. This is classical ambient music, in the most purest
sense of the word.
At the other side of the ambient spectrum we find Gregory Taylor, with
his second album for Palace Of Light (see also Vital Weekly 573). He
works with pieces of software as developed by Cycling74. The title is
Indonesian for 'The Twelve', and somehow I think there is some
connecting thematic approach to this, using Indonesian instruments, but
that's not entirely clear from the press text, the cover or the music
(unlike that previous release on Palace Of Light). As said this is the
experimental end of ambient music, an electro-acoustic approach that is
woven throughout these pieces. The weather conditions are exactly the
same as when I wrote about 'Amalgan: Aluminium/Hydrogen': nice sunny
weather, doors open, early evening, bird calls, the occasional car
passing and the whole thing does remind me of being in an exotic place.
Related to his previous work, I can't say that there is a lot of
difference to be spotted, it has the same overall beauty and is more
linked to the current state
of microsound, with small, repeating glitches, deep bass hum, and gentle
lightness. A nice one, again, and, also again, nothing new under the
evening sun. (FdW)
Address: http://www.palaceoflights.com
KONRAD BECKER - GRAND PIANO CLASSICS (2CD by Klanggalerie)
If you don't know Konrad Becker, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Well, no, perhaps, not, but his Monoton records from the early 80s are
simply the best in the minimalist electronics. In recent years they have
all been re-issued by Canada's Oral label, and, as far as I know, still
in print. If you want Pan Sonic but then fifteen years earlier, this is
the place to be. I didn't know that Becker also recorded piano music,
let alone released any, but this omission is now taken care of by
Austria's Klanggalerie label. These pieces were recorded for various
performance pieces in 1982-1984 and are for four pianos, along with
three unpublished pieces from 2002, for digital grand pianos. Its hard
to believe wether these old pieces are played in real time, or through
some form of tapeloops - although the press text reads about eight
hands, so let's assume they were played in real time. It would be too
easy to make that very obvious reference to the work of Charlemagne
Palestine or early
Steve Reich. Although Becker's work is very minimal, with repeating
phrases at different intervals all the time, there is one difference:
the sustain pedal is hardly used. Especially the two long pieces,
'Parzival Overture' and 'Danse Diable', remind me of the work of Simeon
Ten Holt, the Dutch composer of piano works which are long (compared to
his work, these Becker pieces are ultra short). Especially 'Parzival
Overture' is a great piece, which comes across more clearer and more
refined than 'Danse Diable', which is clearly a spooky, haunted piece of
music. Then there are two shorter pieces from the 80s, of which
'Noctariations' sounds very spooky. In the lower region various clusters
are played, very fast, but very soft. Here Becker reaches a bit of
unique way of approaching the piano, me thinks. In 'Etude' (1982), its
hard to believe there are no electronics used, but its a fine piece,
along the lines of 'Noctariations'. The digital pieces I don't get. He
adds a rhythm machine to
the digital grand pianos, and they sound outright boring. As a bonus
they are nice, perhaps. You might be inclined to think, oh that's
possible too, but it doesn't necessarily lead to great music. So, in
short, there is about ten minutes here which can be ignored (I don't
understand why they aren't all on the second disc at the end), but the
works from 1982-1984 are great, perhaps just as great as his Monoton
records, although in an entirely different modus operandi. (FdW)
Address: http://www.klanggalerie.com
ALEXANDER BERNE - COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY (3CD by Innova)
HARLEY GABER - I SAW MY MOTHER ASCENDING MT. FUJI (CD by Innova)
PSYCHOANGELO - PANAUROMNI (CD by Innova)
Sometimes press blurbs (especially from the USA) have the remark 'file
under'. It means you can find this in your record store filed under a
particular genre, or, in my case, I can forward it to a reviewer known
to like such music. If it says 'file under new age', I scratch my head
and think, 'now what was the name of our reviewer of new age?", and then
realizing that Vital Weekly hates new age. So imagine my 'luck' when I
opened the package of three CDs by Alexander Berne, file under new age!
He plays saxophones, flute, the sadukini, the tridoulaphone and a reeded
slide trumpet. Luckily 'itunes' recognizes the music as
'unclassifiable'. The first CD is 'The Soprano Saxophone Choir', which,
as the title suggests, is for multiple soprano saxophones, so it
combines my least favorite music with my least favorite instrument, but
actually its not bad. Berne plays some darker tunes, which are quite
alright and there are even bits with some sort of computerized
processing, such as the short
'Reaches'. 'The Shaduk' is performed on a variety of world instruments,
'the simple open-holed flute/reed hybrid'. This one leans, as far as I'm
concerned, too much to the world of new age, with its sustained
overtone singing like sounds, and vaguely world/ethnic influences. That
returns on the third CD 'The Abandoned Orchestra', now with addition of
tribalesque percussion. Both of these CDs have their moments, but
throughout isn't well spend on me.
Composer Harley Gaber I never heard of, but he's been around since the
60s until 1978 when he stopped composing and started in visual arts.
This particular work is a new one, but it combines two older pieces,
'Michi' for solo violin and Chimyaku for solo alto flute. This new work
was made as a way of dealing with some untimely deaths in his family.
Its a work of great silence and peace. I don't know what the tape part
is in this work 'for tape, processed violin and alto flute', but it
seems he used a particular hissy recording from 1973 of 'Michi', and
now, through computer means, this hiss leads up to some very spooky and
ghostly sounds. On the surface we have the sustained notes of the violin
and flute. A very meditative piece of music, which works for me, much
better than any new age diaree. Its a modern classical work, with those
spontaneous eruptions that aren't my cup of tea, but they are embedded
in these gentle atmospheric, ghostly sounds, making an excellent work.
Something
for late at night.
Innova, being a serious label of serious composers as we have just seen
in the four previous releases, at times releases music that is
experimental and electronic, and even sometimes have links to popmusic.
Take Psychoangelo for instance, a duo of Dr. Glen Whitehead (trumpets,
computer, effects processing) and Dr. Michael Theodore (computer,
guitar, percussion) from Colorado Springs. Their music is along the
lines of improvisation, but with each a computer under their arm, its
also quite an electronic work. I understand they record large portions
of improvisations which are then edited, layered and combined together. I
have two problems with this release: each piece seems to be dominated
by the trumpet, which is fed through an awful lot of reverb and delay.
This blurs whatever else is going on and that's a pity. The best piece,
out of six, is the closing 'Phosphorus Mas Frio', which is fierce drone
piece, like processed church organ blearing their way. Now that isn't
enough to make a
great CD, I know. The other five surely have their moments, but a
radical remixing would be in place and see what it sounds like with a
slightly less dominant trumpet and its side effects. (FdW)
Address: http://www.innova.mu
STEVE BARSOTTI & ERIC LEONARDSON - RAREBIT (CD by Mimeomeme)
STEVE BARSOTTI - ALONG THESE LINES (CDR by Mimeomeme)
SEATTLE PHONOGRAPHERS UNION (CD by Mimeomeme)
Three new releases on Mimeomeme, who 'disseminates unusual sound art
made by an eclectic collective of artists involved in phonography, no-
and low fidelity recordings, raw digital data, plunderphonics' and more
such like. The first is by Steve Barsotti and Eric Leonardson. Barsotti
plays a 'roto rod, spring frame' and Leonardson a 'springboard', both
are home made instruments of wood and tires attached with springs,
rubber bands, combs, all of that being amplified. They play improvised
music with these instruments. Two pieces are multi track recordings, the
seven others straight forward live recordings. I like the idea behind
it more than the actual execution of the recordings. Th pieces are all
quite long and just seem unedited bits of playing these two instruments.
Perhaps of more interest then is a solo CD by Barsotti, aptly called
'Along These Lines', which I guess we should see as something along
these lines of 'Rarebit'. There is a lot more happening here than on his
release with Leonardson. There is the 'invented' instruments but also
field recordings and electronics. This makes the music quite lively. It
seems to me that the invented instruments are fed through electronics,
which makes a varied outcome: it bounces between the audible and
inaudible, music, sound, signal, noise, background and foreground (I am
quoting the cover!). It opens with the almost inaudible 'boundaries' and
closes with the short, noise outburst of 'bypass'. The best piece,
although at twenty four minutes also a bit long, would be 'Terraces',
with children pieces, looped acoustic sounds cooking up a lively piece. A
fourth pieces, 'Bridges' seems constructed from entirely electronic
sounds. What lacks in 'Rarebit', variation, is well made up here, as far
as I'm
concerned this should have been the major work.
The Seattle Phonographers Union is a group of people who improvise live
with unprocessed field recordings. A floating membership, but we
recognize such names as Dale Lloyd (who co-released this on his and/OAR
label), Steve Peters, Christopher DeLaurenti, Steve Barsotti but also
people I never heard of, such as Perri Lnch, Rob Millis, Toby Paddock,
Heather Perkins and more. The deal is that people bring field recordings
to the concert venue and play them, from a laptop, mini disc or such
like, while listening what the others bring to the table, and make a
sonic construction out of that. I must say I really like the idea behind
that. There are five unedited bits from live concerts, between nine and
twenty minutes. The problem might be a bit with this, that it perhaps
all sounds a like. There is a steady stream of sounds of sounds fading
in and out and sometimes they are familiar (rain, wind, human labor,
birds, talking) and sometimes harder to pin down, but its all a bit too
much
presented as a flow. A sudden break, a swift change, or maybe some sort
of effects, even it be only a loop of a sound, would have a made a small
but interesting difference and make a more musical piece, but perhaps
that is not the intention of The Seattle Phonographers Union. Now, don't
get me wrong, if field recordings are your cup of tea, and its mine,
then this is a great work. You can tune into the world around you, lie
back and enjoy this continuous stream of sound. Quite nice. (FdW)
Address: http://www.mimeomeme.com
ORIANA CIVILE & MAURIZIO CURCIO - ARIE DI SICILIA (CD by On Air)
By now we are used to get music that absolutely doesn't fit these pages,
mostly from the world of popmusic. The Polish hard rock CDs never were
even considered for review, but found a good home with a young friend of
mine. The Norwegian classical music wait for a home. But then we get
this release by vocalist Oriana Civile and bass player/electronica
expert Maurizio Curcio. They have at their hands a songbook of Sicilian
folk songs which they perform with no doubt great care. Actually its not
bad, but very sweet for me. I think I prefer Berio's 'Folk Songs' (to
show I am not entirely impartial to this) over this CD, or the new folk
tunes of Static Caravan. Civile's voice is beautiful, and what these
songs are about I have no idea, no doubt love, death, war, and such life
experiences, but its nothing for me or Vital Weekly, me thinks. (FdW)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/ariedisicilia
FLIMMER - SINGING (CD by A Tree In A Field)
A Tree in a Field Records is a small independent label from Basel. This
is also the hometown of Flimmer. The 21 minutes of their mini-cd are
distributed over 16 very powerful tracks. With Flimmer we are in the
company of a hardcore, trashmetal band, or something like that. A trio
to be more precise of two basses plus drums and vocals. And that is it.
The band has a history of some 10 years playing punk, grindcore, new
wave, etc. The label compiled a dvd of the history of the band, but this
has not been send to me. So I concentrate on the musical explosions.
First I have to say that I am not very familiar with this kind of music.
So it is beyond my knowledge judging about their originality, etc. But
from what I know they use many of the stylistic aspects of this kind of
music. However, they have there own signature and ideas. In one of the
tracks they seem to interpret some classical music. Throughout they do
their job very convincing, with lots of 'Sturm und Drang'. (DM)
Address: http://www.atreeinafieldrecords.com
UBEBOET - ARCHIVAL (LP by Moving Furniture Records)
At first I thought Moving Furniture Records changed their presentation
for their CDR releases, but it turns out they switched format, for the
first time, but submitted a CDR for review. A brave decision to go to
LP, which I hope pays for them, in the form of a limited LP release, 200
copies of M.A. Tolosa's Ubeboet project. Tolosa, also known as the man
behind the Con-V label and a lover of all things field recordings and
electronics. Three from his archive (I assume at least). I can't read
the titles on the cover, but the long piece on side is mostly a dark
affair, in which it is hard to recognize any sort of field recording,
but things are quite dark and very drone based. Maybe some heavily
processed wind and rain sounds at work here? A highly minimal piece of
music that uses the longitude to fully unfold itself. On side B we find
two pieces. The first seems to me a musical piece, or a piece that uses
some musical instruments, maybe guitars and voices? Moving Furniture
refers to
the
influence of Popol Vuh and it might be that they had this track in mind
when thinking of that reference. The ghostly, whispering, layered voices
move weightlessly through space. Rain is what we recognize in the third
piece, again embedded in some choir of heavenly voices. Here too things
are relatively more musical than on your average release with field
recordings, and that's great, since it sets Ubeboet apart from his
peers, and he does something really beautiful on this release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.movingfurniturerecords.com
REGULAR RULES - JEEZ CLUSTERS JOYS (CD by Triple Bath)
MIKE JOHNSTON & MIKE GILMARE & MIKE KHOURY & KIRK LUCAS -
IMPERMANENCE ( CD by Triple Bath)
Regular Rules is a duo of Gilles Mortiaux from Brussels, Belgium and
Ilan Manouach from Athens, Greece. The are a free-jazz hardcore unit,
assisted on stage by numerous others. Loud and noisy improvisations is
their business. Mortiaux provides thick layers of guitar noise and
Manouach plays saxophones. Both add effects and samples. Their thick and
massive sound improvisations worked well for me. Their agressive
playing on guitar and saxes is combined very effectively with extreme
noisy sound effects or contrasting samples like in the beginning of the
opening track (pieces have no titles).Both musicians give all of their
unbound power and creativity in these six improvisations. In track 5
both players take their own route in the first part of the
improvisation. Later on they start to built something together. The
highlight of the album for me is track 4. It is almost a song. But very
bizarre. Yes, Mortiaux and Manouach make a strong statement of maniacal
over the top soundsculpting.
Resulting in some very powerful collages. 'Impermanence' is the second
release of Mike Johnston (double bass, inanga, sho, shakuhachi, wood
flutes, african bells, shenhai), Mike Gilmore (vibraphone, cheng, saz,
bone guitar, kalimba, bowed percussion, steel drums, marimba), Mike
Khoury (violin, percussion) and Kirk Lucas (violoncello, guitar, banjo,
zither, tamboura, gong, kalimba). In 2007 Triple Bath released the debut
of this quartet 'The Hidden'. The instruments these musicians play may
give you a hint of what to expect here. Improvised music first all, but
very eastern-flavoured. Not only because of the exotic instruments. But
also because of the lines along which the music develops. They even do
their best to play them an eastern touch. The closing piece 'Still Life'
for example, sounds very chinese in the beginning. Gradually it turns
into free impovised music, still using however chinese motives.
'Maghrebi' by Ahmed Abdul Malik has a nice 'swinging' arabic groove.
With 'When
there is no sun', composed by Sun Ra, this are the only two pieces not
composed by themselves. All in all, this quartet makes a very thoughtful
and respectful blend of world music and western improvisation. In a
very pure and authentic way. The music dwells and meanders like a
majestic river through a diversity of landscape. It definitely fills
your mind and body with good spirits. (DM)
Address: http://www.triplebath.gr/
$. 99 DREAMS - 2010 (DOWNLOAD by Ninetyninecentdreams)
$. 99 DREAMS- $. 99 DREAMS (LP by Ninetyninecentdreams)
Some time ago we discussed on earlier work of this remarkable duo,
'Winning on all fronts'. They are in business since 2007. Formed in
Brooklyn by drummer Matt Crane and saxophonist and synth player Adam
Diller. They created there own little musical corner by combining hip
hop, free jazz and electronics, as they explain in their bio. But there
is happening more if you ask me. Just listen to their new releases. '99
Dreams' is released on vinyl. '2010' is available as a download. The
opening track of '2010', 'W2xxic' is a dark, brewing sound work. Other
pieces like 'int/aadfg' are jazzy pieces of saxophone and electronics.
'Wpint' belongs to another category of pieces. It is dominated by Sun
Ra-like percussion supplemented by sparse electronics. 'Qn/ot' has a
strong melodic line that is repeated endlessly, spreading around an
archaic and exotic feel. All pieces carry strange titles that seem
nothing more then random combinations of vocals. The 16 tracks on '2010'
were recorded on
several occasions in the last three years, in studios, bedrooms, etc.
With minimal means they realize a maximum of possibilities. There is
some strange magic in this music. This because of the carefully designed
sounds from analog synths, saxes, etc. Maybe it is because of the
analog synths that the music often recalls new wave music from the 80s.
Remember Jeff and Jane Hudson? Also there is an element that binds
Silver Apples, Suicide and this duo together. The music has a certain
roughness. They use no unnecessary make up. The drum style remains very
simple and stripped down. This self-conscious duo excels in a
fascinating 'primitivism'. (DM)
Address: http://www.ninetyninecentdreams.com
WIREWALL< - TERMINAL MAN (CDR by Cohort Records)
One of the project of John Gore, head cohort of Cohort Records, is
>wirewall<, which was mentioned in Vital Weekly when discussing
some of his other work, as Kirchenkampf or The Oratory Of Divine Love. I
think we should regard >wirewall< as his noise project, although
on the other hand we could also see this as the extended, extra part of
his other work. It seems to me that here too Gore works with radio
waves, also feeds them through a bunch of synthesizers, adds a few sound
effects, but whereas in his other works the outcome would be droney,
atmospheric music, the outcome for >wirewall< is noise. Piercing
sounds, but not in an unpleasant way and Gore allows the listener to
hear details and mixes together several layers in a clever way. It has a
sort of vibrant, improvised feel to it. Maybe as a whole, its all a bit
much, but throughout I thought this was quite alright, when served in a
smaller dose. (FdW)
Address: http://cohortrecords.0catch.com/
CALIKA - BLOOD EMBRACE (CDR by Audiobulb)
The third album by Simon Kealoha, also known as Calika comes as a CDR,
unlike its two predecessors. What hasn't changed is his love of "jazz,
hip hop, post rock, found sounds, degraded loops and twisted beats",
which he seems to be using all to create his music. What's different, I
suppose, is the fact that things sound a bit more raw, unfinished than
before. Calika creates some great IDM music, but isn't too shy to move
into more ambient textures, and have a piece with some guitar sounds,
modest computer processing and simply watch what is happening. Calika
makes a pretty varied disc of bouncing rhythm pieces, melodic ambient
pieces and lovely sunny pieces. This release, along with a cold soft
drink, reading a book in a sunny garden, is just the perfect way to
spend afternoon (if only I had a garden!). (FdW)
Address: http://www.audiobulb.com
O. MELBY - MARSIPAN (CDR by Amboltue Records)
Old fresh music of an unknown musician. I have never heard about O.
Melby and at the world wide web I couldn't find any information about
this interesting musician. Two old concerts are released at the
Norwegian label Ambolthue Records. The first concert is called "Sinus
Input" is recorded in 2005 and concert is a long slowly developing
composition of electronic sounds. Dark sounds in an ambient sphere are
the beginning. High pitched soundwaves crack the quiet drones
alternating with more similar sounds. He leads the listener in different
moods with his music. I think the track is too long or more variety in
deeper breaks is needed to keep the attention. Completely different is
the second concert on this CD-R. " LA3 (#1-4) is recorded live at
Lavfidelisk Aften 3 in 2001 and is previously released at Brumm as a
limited edition of 14. The track starts with electronic industrial-like
rhythms and stops suddenly with a sound of a toy. O. Melby adds samples
to this break and continues
with
funny breaks, sounds, noises and I guess live played beats. After a
while the industrial beats starts again and the crowd can get loose in
his pulsing beats, noises and breaks. Great track! (JKH)
Address: http://www.ambulthue.com
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR - SOME MEN NEVER DIE
(CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR - SOME MEN NEVER LIVE
(CDR by Anima Mal Nata)
NOT HALF & THE THERAPIST & FEVER SPOOR - WHERE IS EVERYONE? (CDR
by Anima Mal Nata)
Marcel Herms produces a lot of music, drawings and paintings for a long
long time. Now his label Anima Mal Nata releases a trilogy with Not
Half and The Therapist. Not Half is a project of the Canadian musician
Allen Conroy started in 1983 and since 1986 he releases music created
with all kind of stuff, like garbage, toys, tapes, samplers, computer
and more. Fever Spoor (Marcel Herms) and Not Half send recordings to Bob
ter Hofte (The Therapist). With a lot of material on 5 CDRs he created
three albums and added also sounds of his own.
'Some Men Never Die' starts and ends with harsh noise created by
electronics and pulsing waves. The compositions are associative, fast,
rough and restless. Not special and innovative, but I like this album,
because of unity between the eight compositions.
The second part of the trilogy 'Some Men Never Live', concrete
electronic and synthesizer sounds and noise are intended to be
integrated. Noisy compositions with many layers, structures, rhythm and
a-rhythm and sound of smashing metal. The base of the noise is really
strong, but the clear synthesizer disturbs the dirty sound. Jasmijn adds
in tracks five and seven acoustic pianoplay. In this compositions the
mix between noise and this concrete sound of the piano fit really well,
because the sound of the piano is a layer as well.
The last part 'Where Is Everyone?' starts really great, with samples of a
toy-guitar and talking words and mix nice into harsh noise. The last
CDR is filled with five long tracks, so the sounds have more time and
possibility to blend into each other. The variety of sounds is great:
ranging from an old printer, to chanting of monks and radio sounds. The
compositions are considered and therefore strong.
The concept of three musicians creating a trilogy is interesting and
could be more powerful, if there was more concentration to the
compositions and structure of the trilogy. (JKH)
Address: http://www.myspace.com/animamalnata
MARC NAMBLARD - GISEMENTS (1) (3"CDR by Kaon)
Just what 'prises de sons' means I don't know, but my best guess would
be that that it means gathering of sounds, which was done by Cedric
Peyronnet and Marc Namblard. He has a CD 'Chants Of Frozen Lakes'
(reviewed in Vital Weekly 624), and then was never heard of again, by me
that is. Here the two men recorded sounds from Vallee du Taurion, and
Namblard is responsible for editing the sounds into a piece of music. He
does that with great care and lots of help from the computer. The
frequencies are all pushed up to the limit, and all sorts of plug-ins
are used to make a lively piece of soundscaping. Namblard uses the
tactic of collage, which is means there are sudden shifts and changes in
the material, which add a great vibrant thing to the music. At times we
recognize the field recordings, water, insects, rain, and at other
times there is a lot to guess about it. A great, refined piece of music,
highly dramatic and very lively. Excellent. (FdW)
Address: http://www.kaon.org
CARLOS VILLENA - OSCIL.LACIONS EN LA PENOMBRA DES LES TAQUES SOLARS
(3"CDR by Ephre Imprint)
More music by Carlos Villena (see also Vital Weekly 730 and 733), who
works under his own name and runs the Mantricum label. This is the first
time we hear his music solo. The field recordings he has captured have a
solar origin, although I'm not sure how they were captured. But they
are fed into the audio mixer and mixed together. Its all pretty noise
oriented but in a sort of fine way. Villena uses the collage form,
rather than the endless noise attack, to create various sections that
fade into eachother. For all we know this could be any sort of field
recording, even street sounds. An effective work however of
drone/noise/collage sound which stays away from the careful crackling
work of microsound. Nature is noise enough, as someone once remarked,
and Villena knows how to twist that into a fine piece of noise of
nature. (FdW)
Address: http://www.ephreimprint.eu
GNAWED/ICE VOLT - INSIDES MUSIC LESSON 69 (cassette by Spit & Cuss)
YOSHIHIRO KIKUCHI - TEXT'S ABSENCE OPTICAL GLOOM AUDIBLE LIGHTS (C40
cassette by Fragment)
Gnawed (Grant Richardson) drawn out static and electronic artefacts -
Ice Volt (Bryce Beverlin II ) electronic organic gremlin sounds &
processed vocals - clanking harsh noise which morphs in to drone
didgeridoo - and back again - both pieces narrate a journey of some
sorts - even in the latter of just movement accompanied by musical
trolls - more a goth than gothic masterpiece, and in the former a long
and slow destructive crash. Both share an unreality which is not to my
taste, if you can get an 'inkling' about my difficulty here, 'boom
boom'... Yoshihiro Kikuchi utilizes electronic cut ups and processed
percussion, alarms and samples - the beauty of this work is that the
micro cut up electronics works wonderfully well with this medium, the
sounds appear out of the tape like fragments of broken glass, again
working within and with the constraints of the medium, without recourse
to Tolkienography a work which resembles analytic cubism, yet to
encompass the readymade reality of
the synthetic. (jliat)
Address: http://spitandcuss.blogspot.com
Address: http://fragmentfactory.blogspot.com/
