Tony Dryer, Jacob Heule, Jacob Lindsay : Idea of West

The instrumentation comprises contrabass, drum set and clarinets. A personal favourite in this batch and, in general, CS’s recent output. A sort of dim-lit chamber music – described as “pragmatic applications of controlled improvisations and compositional structures” – thoroughly relying on the power of extremely low frequencies, contrapuntal answers often consisting of gritty secretions generated by the reeds’ overtones and by the bowing of cymbals and other parts of the percussive arsenal. A critical condition of suspension between the subtle rippling of silence by sparse elements, a “pinch-but-don’t-awake-me” maintenance of a semi-lethargic awareness that nevertheless lets us carefully consider any incident, minuscule or important, which manifests its weight one way or another. Apparently dispassionate, the interaction of the musicians is on the contrary revealing an utmost responsiveness to the slightest movement, a reciprocal will of listening actively which translates into numerous instances where auditory fulfilment becomes almost physical. Diversified approaches to a well-known palette that discard automatic actions in favour of a persistent fragrance of purposeful investigation, with more than a few sections worthy of admiration for the respect of the pure essence of instrumental connectivity. Massimo Ricci (Temporry Fault)

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Various Artists : +,-

+,- is a twelve-song album curated and compiled by the Yucatan area (southeast Mexico) net-label Autopoiesis. Its very first release, the wide range of pieces and tracks presented on it only confirms the label’s vocation for work with multiple individuals with whole different backgrounds and approachings to contemporary composition, sound art, improvisation, plunderphonics and pulse and texture-based sound phenomena.

Artists included (in order of appearance):

María Teresa Novelo
Nave Tierra
Augusto Palma
Dhialogue
Saravá
Satta
Lee Noyes
Elías Puc
Pronkers
Jonas Ruchenhever
Ghostly Rural Ensemble
gunaabeeuyaa

(August 17, 2009)

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V/A : VOL H

‘H’ opens with Halalachemists, of whom I never heard (this series also knows where to find interesting new names), who play a ‘live TNB tribute’ in Newcastle, recorded in 2006. Or perhaps its the New Blockaders in disguise? The piece is quite noise based, from a more low end perspective, with sounds banging around, and distortion pedals pushed through the stage. Hanatarash offer a very interesting piece of noise music, high end white static, being processed a bit, but quite minimal still. Its quite reduced, so not viciously loud, but nevertheless a great noise piece. The Haters are also present here with ‘Explosion 2009′ and its along the same line as ‘Explosion 2008′ – a conceptual joke. Howard Stelzer closes ‘H’, with what seems to be his current tools of trade: the densely layered manipulations of analogue cassette sounds. Field recordings are stapled onto eachother, and form a dense pattern. Half way through it seems to collapse a bit, but Stelzer gets his act back and makes a great finale. Intelligent noise all around. Two fine additions to this encyclopedia of noise. (FdW) Vital Weekly 688

2112

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Will Montgomery : Thames Water

The sounds in this piece were recorded with a pair of hydrophones between Festival Pier and Waterloo Bridge on the south bank of the Thames. The sounds include the Thames itself and water running from various outlet pipes set into the embankment. Recorded and edited April-July 2009.

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Sainkho Namchylak / Dickson Dee : Tea Opera

This CD is the result of Sainkho’s extensive travels and performances in China in the Autumn of 2008. She dedicates her album to the tea culture in China, to all the people who have been working for this culture for centuries. The amazing voice of Sainkho is accompanied by live electronics of Dickson Dee with whom she was performing in China. With every new CD Sainkho discovers new sounds from the highest possible notes to the lowest. She is the most astonishing voice on this planet indeed.

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V4W.ENKO : DI_REC

Sound project of Evgeniy Vaschenko. Started in 2007 as live electronics. Based in Kyiv, Ukrain. Sound and videostream is being realised in real time by manipulating of self programmed algorithms. Parts of algorithms have simple form and are correlated one with another by simple rules.

Fragments of different streams can be randomised. It can make new perception of structures character. Changes of orders of different fragments can lead to losing starting point. It can cause illusion of endlessness. Different passing fragments of one stream through one point of space can lead to losing of information about count of streams. It can cause illusion of multisteam.

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Bas van Huizen : Wegwerpwee

Bas van Huizen is a sound and visual artist (video/animation) from Nijmegen the Netherlands. You may know him from his “Ontgalman“-release on test tube or from his physical releases on Etherkreet records. A label focusing on electroacoustic and improvised music, which he runs together with Ezra Jacobs.

“Wegwerpwee“ contains 8 tracks. According to Bas most of the material is older than “Ontgalman“, but he mixed and remastered everything for this release. And it is a wonderful piece of electroacoustic-experimental-ambient-music. “Wegwerpwee“ has a rough, down-to-earth, handmade touch. Very drony, with background-noises, hisses, crackles, melody layers, all mixed and set together very carefully and subtly.

Please also have a listen to “Ontgalman“ at test tube and his output on Etherkreet. And to maximise your pleasure: Make sure to listen with headphones.

All tracks written and recorded by Bas van Huizen

done by Bas van Huizen and Christian Roth, www.goyippi.net
Image by Bas van Huizen

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Scott Fields : drawings

What’s your framework? Every creative musician, even the freest, operates within one. Consider Scott Fields, for example. There’s a lot of spontaneity in the Chicago-born, German-based guitarist’s music, but it arises from carefully selected structures. In the case of Drawings, he has both internalized and responded to another artist’s process in order to stoke his own. Each of its 99 brief performances is an immediate response to an image by Swiss artist Thomas Hornung.

The album’s sleeve notes portray Hornung, who is apparently so obscure that he is virtually Google-proof, as a man of rigid habits. He spends each day following the same schedule, lives in two identically furnished rooms, and each night he spends an hour dashing off images on one piece of A4 paper every minute or so, with time out for cigarette breaks. Fields, in turn, took a sheaf of Hornung’s drawings (which are reproduced on the tray card) and tried to play for as long as Hornung had drawn; the denser the inking, the longer he played. But nothing lasts too long, and the whole CD runs just 46:20.

This brevity may be a formal triumph, but it makes for frustrating listening. There’s a fair bit of variety, from Nels Cline-like shredding to swelling feedback to elegantly plucked shapes to music box-like chimes. But none of it develops. Of course, these tracks weren’t supposed to, but the result is still a choppy and unsatisfying listen. Ironically the soundtrack to an accompanying video by Arno Oehri, which shows Hornung and Fields at work, is more engaging. It is comprised of raw material from the sessions, drastically slowed down and pitched so low that it doesn’t sound like guitar anymore. Since the video has no other sounds, one has plenty of time to savor Fields’ slow-mo gestures, and plenty of motivation; the video’s 55 minutes is way too long to watch Fields play divorced from anything you here.

By Bill Meyer
Dustedmagazine

Scott Fields – electric guitar

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Troddin : Troddin of troddins

troddin of troddins is the new album which are collected
as a playlist with 20 improvisations.

over the two years of life troddin have made multiple improvisations,
most of which we have recorded. This material now serves as a sound
source to work on to make the final troddin of troddins.

Troddin is a free improvisation of free sounds created by free people while the silence becomes the reference. All kind of ways are possible, find your own way. All you have to do is listen to the silence and begin to play! A wrapping atmosphere is necesary to have a good conception of ourselves and feel immersed in the spellbound of Troddin’s sounds.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

troddin de troddins es el nuevo álbum que contiene 20 improvisaciones como una lista de reproducción.

Durante los dos años de vida troddin han hecho múltiples improvisaciones,
la mayoría de los cuales se ha grabado. Este material sirve ahora como fuente de sonidos para hacer el troddin de los troddins.

troddin es una improvisación libre de sonidos libre creado por la gente libre, mientras que el silencio se convierte en la referencia. Todo tipo de formas son posibles, encuentra tu propio camino. Todo lo que tienes que hacer es escuchar el silencio y comenzar a jugar!

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Torsten Papenheim : Some Of The Things We Could Be

Papenheim is a guitarist and composer from Berlin. Besides his solo work he performs mainly as a member of Rant with Merle Bennett on drums. With “Some of the Things we could be” however Papenheim takes another direction. He presents 12 new compositions played by Dave Bennett (guitar, clarinet), Merle Bennett (drums), Christian Biegai (altosax, bassclarinet), Axel Haller (bass), Christian Marien (drums), Matthias Muller (trombone), Derek Shirley (bass), Roland Spieth (trumpet), Michael Thieke (altosax), Clayton Thomas (bass), Gerhard Uebele (piano) Ute Voelker (accordion) and Torsten Papenheim (guitar, banjo, piano). The musicians recorded in small subensembles. And they had no idea of the compositions they were contributing to. Later the recordings were assembled into complete pieces by Papenheim according to the ideas he had in mind. Through this procedure Papenheim realized this project, getting inspiration from very different corners: chambermusic, jazz and improvised music, non-musical approaches, soundcollage, etc. Dave Bennett is the right producer and partner Papenheim needed for this avant garde project. All pieces have the same charming simpleness and primitiveness that make up their identity. The pieces are very open with sparse instrumentation. Many pieces have an almost weird Residentslike strange atmosphere because the musicians are not playing in tune with the compositions as Papenheim had them in his mind, causing an alienating effect. Also because some instruments are out of tune from time to time (piano). All this is done deliberately by Papenheim. It seems he seeks for a musicality by including disturbing and non-musical elements. This makes “Some of the Things we could be” an interesting and satisfying release. (DM)

Vital Weekly 689

Dave Bennett – guitar, clarinet
Merle Bennett – drums
Christian Biegai – altosax, bassclarinet
Axel Haller – bass
Christian Marien – drums
Matthias Müller – trombone
Torsten Papenheim – guitar, banjo, piano
Derek Shirley – bass
Roland Spieth – trumpet
Michael Thieke – altosax
Clayton Thomas – bass
Gerhard Uebele – piano
Ute Voelker – accordion

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eventless plot : good luck mr. gorsky.

Perhaps a granny left some money behind so there could be a label called Granny Records? Their second release, following a compilation ‘Bits Of Quartz Glitter’ is a split release between two new bands, for me new that is. Three pieces by Eventless Plot and three by Good Luck Mr. Gorsky, who open the proceedings here. Also both bands have three members. Stylewise the two bands are related but there are minor differences. They operate both in a corner where rock meets electronic meets improvisation. There is the use of real instruments, guitar, drums, harmonium with the additional use of laptops to create an expanded rock sound. A bit like Fessenden or Haptic does, but in say ‘Olchmin’ by Good Luck Mr. Gorsky things are much more musical. They also use a voice in one track, but the soft mumbling is not really my cup of beer. With differences so small, it’s hard to believe that these are two different bands. I must admit I didn’t notice it until after playing it for the second time and taking a closer look at the cover. The musical quality however is very high for both bands. Great playing, moody music, enough sense of experimentalism, make this a great CD that can easily meet the best in this otherwise not very crowded field. (FdW) Vital Weekly 618

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dnp x-citer : algorrithmic chaos

When Tiago Morgado idealized Algorrithmic Chaos for his DNP X-Citer alter ego he thought of a way to break, in a certain way, with the IDM tradition, following some of the guidelines defined by Scanner the german musician (in the sense of not confining IDM to reductionist formulas). The background for this DNP X-Citer ep is Tiago’s influences and reverence to artists such as Aphex Twin, Autechre (warp records), Alva Noto, Ryochi Ikeda and Byetone (raster noton) but also Nine Inch Nails and his approach to industrial rock that Einsturzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle and etc… brought to music. All this influences can be identified in the electronic part of the DNP X-Citer ep which serves as the basis for an improvised “free/structured” with alto viola. Again in this improvisation several references can be found, such as, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sunders, Frank Zappa, John Zorn, Otomo Yoshihide, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, among others.

The electronic part of the ep was worked with the use of algorithmic composition techniques, where instruments in the DAW (digital audio workstation/sequenciador) were triggered by MIDI, according to simple theoretical and systematized assumptions from the AC Toolbox (designed by Paul Berg from the Sound Institute of Haia). tiago morgado as been working with these tool because he believes that it can be helpful in his work with algorithmic composition (this software can be also used to make realtime music for live acts).

Algorrithmic Chaos is a technical work, without an a priori conceptual background, but when Tiago Morgado analyzed it a posteriori an organized chaos appeared. And based on that, using contemplation maybe you the listener can identify a theme for this ep.

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paura: the construction of fear

Dennis González has spent time touring and recording in Portugal in recent years, and The Construction of Fear marks his first effort for Lisbon’s Creative Sources label. It’s nice to hear the trumpeter playing with violist Ernesto Rodrigues and his son Guilherme (cello and radio). Along with tenor/soprano saxophonist Alípio C. Neto and percussionist Mark Sanders, they make up Paura. They play music that is a bracing amalgam of scratchy Euro improv and bright lyrical declamations. Unlike a lot of music in this area, Paura doesn’t play with the kind of obsessive detail-driven retreat from expressionism that often creates tedium. Rather, they combine a feel for the meaningfully small with a feisty energy (a winning fusion that characterizes the opening piece). González can really show his range in such a setting: his soft wheezing and overtones on the spacious opening minutes of “Fear 2” make for a tasty synthesis of AACM genre-gestures and London insect music. Neto and G. Rodrigues provide fine contrast with a series of gutturalisms and insistent groans that glue things together. The album as a whole has a nice suite-like structure, with sweet’n’sour tutti passages that suggest chamber compositions, and lots of sub-groupings (the father/son strings are especially tight in the middle sections), all culminating in the slashing, thudding conclusion. Jason Bivins (Signal to Noise)

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ANNE LAPLANTINE : A LITTLE MAY TIME BE

Since Anne Laplantine has not released a new record for a few years, Ahornfelder is proud to announce the release of a new album by this outstanding French artist.

Over the last years Anne moved between Vienna, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and Paris where she currently lives. This journey reflects her artistic personality – like an explorer she is constantly searching for the ideal solution and the right thing to say artistically. She uncomprimisingly follows her artistic intuition and each step of this ongoing search is never well prepared or calculated. The destination of her journey is not a safe spot somewhere in the music world. She is not interested in finding her musical home or in marking her territory, rather she seems to be most interested in the promising struggle of a new start.

Maybe that’s why Anne confused her audience by releasing records on different labels under many different guises: As “Michiko Kusaki” she had a release on the label Angelika Kšhlermann (Vienna), for Tomlab (Cologne) she recorded as “Angelika Kšhlermann” and “Anne Hamburg”, and on Emphase Records (Berlin) she released a wonderful album under her given name. Besides her musical projects, which also involve a variety of impressive collaborations, she is also involved in an all sorts of art projects in the cities she lives in.

On her latest releases Anne developed her very own way of composing electronic pop music. Concerning structure and harmony her music owes more to baroque polyphony than to the standard track format. Little lo-fi sound samples of flute, guitar, etc. are arranged to create fragile polyphonic minature-masterpieces. This fascinating and friendly way of composing is further developed on her album for Ahornfelder. But this record offers much more to discover: Concentrated experiments with structure and sound, beautiful songs which are sparsely orchestrated with guitars and an old school drum computer, and additionally an incorporated art project. The album contains 58 tracks, 34 of which are nothing but ãsilencesÒ in between 4 to 20 seconds. But these ãsilencesÒ are not totally silent. In these short passages you can either hear the first few seconds after a recording is finished, or you can listen to the the stage setting of the next recording to come. You do not hear the recorded music itself. Anne again seems more interested in the promising struggles of new beginnings Ð where so far nothing is said, but everything could be said ÂÐ than in fixed results or answers.
It speaks in favour of AnneÕs focused musical sensibility that this ãsilencesÒ experiment does not dissipate her album into incoherent pieces. The dramaturgy of the album is conclusive and each little piece of silence helps to bundle the attention of the listener all over again.
I love this record and so will you.
Jochen Briesen

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ennio mazzon : in an undertone at a loose end

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AORTHA : Was sleeping

was sleeping
intermingling with the wind in a line
sometimes straightening herself up to warm puffs
was running in tiny waves
dissolving in the night air
coming back in cool drops in the morning

was sleeping
intermingling with the wind in a line
sometimes straightening herself up to warm puffs
was running in tiny waves
dissolving in the night air
coming back in cool drops in the morning

sometimes+runnnin+dissolving (buben mix)
was sleeping+intermin (buben mix)

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Nadia Ratimandresy & Matteo Ramon Arevalos : Messiaen et autour de Messiaen

A signature collection of exquisite works for onde Martenot and piano by Olivier Messiaen, N’Guyen Thien Dao, Jacques Charpentier and Tristan Murail, exploring the many voices of this extraordinary instrument. The onde (or ondes musicales or le Martenot) was first demonstrated at the Paris Conservatoire in 1928 and immediately attracted the attention of Varese, Milhaud, Koechlin, Jolivet, Honegger and Messiaen, who all wrote for it – cumulatively ensuring its survival. Seven years younger than the theremin, the onde is a far more sophisticated, complex and versatile instrument, not least because of the combination it offers of pitched and glissando tones, and the wide range of filters and different resonating media through which it can sound: loudspeakers, gongs, sympathetic resonating strings and reverberant enclosures. The compositions here exploit every unearthly aspect of the instrument and are beautifully performed: a remarkable and exquisite collection.

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Various : The Synthi Group Vol. 1

Formed in 1969, Electronic Music Studios (EMS) quickly became innovators for the recording, production and advancement of electronic music. The ideas and designs that bubbled forth out of the ingenuitive minds of Peter Zinovieff, Tristram Cary, David Cockerell and others, led to the creation of some of the most wildly original musical/sound design equipment ever conceived. The VCS3, Synthi A + AKS, Synthi 100, Synthi E, Synthi Logik and the Soundbeam are among these, almost unworldly, devices.

It is often said EMS gear has attained cult status, reaching a fervor of near worship among its users. The Synthi Group is an example and collection of such users. United through the Synthi blog and forum (www.thesynthi.de) and located throughout the world, the group’s members have come together for a planned series of compilation volume releases where the individuality and approach of each member towards their EMS instrument is showcased and broadcasted for all to experience. The listener will hear wildly different examples of styles and sounds that this original, and oft times, vintage equipment can create.

EMS were true pioneers from the very beginning, always looking beyond the culture and times they were surrounded and seemingly trapped in. Still around today, thanks to Robin Wood and Ludwig Rehberg, they are one of the few companies involved with electronic instrument production that have had a continued run since their inception. The Synthi Group have honed the original pioneering spirit and DIY ethic of EMS with their Volume series, a collection of sounds encompassing beautiful dreamscapes, synaesthetic visions, dark ambience, aural abstractions, sonic absurdities, pulsating analog, glitch, ring modulators, and envelope shapers generating trapezoidal geometry. Beginning with Volume 1, the Synthi Group compilations aim to ensure the story of EMS continues well into the future of electronic music production.
[Synopsis by Alka]

tracklist:

Track 1
Artist: Don Hassler
Title: No Subsequent Interaction Synthi Recording No. 1
Time: 2:04
Device: EMS Synthi A MK1
Genre: irritating
Contact: http://www.donhassler.com
Location: USA

Track 2
Artist: The Vegan Surgeons
Title : VCS3ImprovC
Time: 6:53
Device: EMS VCS3 Mark I, recorded and processed
digitally through Audiomulch
Genre: 50-60’s electroacoustic music
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/thevegansurgeons
Location: Scotland

Track 3
Artist : Trap & Zoid
Title : Gnomes evasion
Time: 5:26
Device : EMS Synthi A + Aria AD10 analog delay,
recorded live in one take with Edirol R-09HR, unprocessed.
Genre : live electronics / psychedelic / experimental
Contact : http://www.myspace.com/trapandzoid
Location : Brussels, Belgium

Track 4
Artist: Cray
Title: 29days laterrr
Time: 6:15
Device: EMS Synthi AKS, Pencils,
live improvising into Audiomulch.
Genre: Avant Electronics
Contact: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Cray
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Track 5
Artist: Sam Samshuijzen
Title: Simple
Time: 2:55
Device: Modified EMS Synthi AKS
Randrum pulse generator/divider for the returned ES
triggering of the synthi 4 track analog tape recorder
Remixed with a digital system into a 4 channel composition (4C).
This is the stereo mix of those 4 (2C).
Done in Studio Denkraam, Ede NL, 1980.
It’s called simple, because it makes basic use of a
sequence voltage for one oscillator, while playing
the realtime voltage to another oscillator simultaneously.
Genre: Electronic
Contact: http://www.xs4all.nl/~samzen/
Location: Netherlands

Track 6
Artist: Pin
Title: Can the sound change
Time: 6:40
Device: EMS Synthi AKS, multilayering of sounds, recorded and processed
digitally through ProTools.
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://www.thesynthi.de
Location: Germany

Track 7
Artist: Mono-Poly
Title: Do you observe?
Time: 6:01
Device: EMS Synthi AKS cv-ed by Blippoo Box witch processes
audio + Delay and Reverb
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://mono-poly.blogspot.com
Location: Netherlands

Track 8
Artist: Werd
Title: Smirk
Time: 1:44
Device: EMS Synthi A & Roland Space Echo 201
Genre: Exp.,broadcasted in 1979 by radio KRO Hilversum 4
“Collage van Alledaags en Zeldzaam”
Contact: http://werdav.tripod.com/index.html
Location: Netherlands

Track 9
Artist: Johan Schurer
Title: FrogWaltz
Time: 2:05
Device: EMS Synthi AKS
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/johanschurer
Location: The Netherlands

Track 10
Artist: Impulsantwort
Title: Ich kann den Strom in der Wand hören.
Time: 7:00
Device: EMS Synthi AKS 80 treated by EMS Soundbeam recorded via RME
Fireface,
processed digitally through ProTools.
Genre: Drone
Contact: http://www.impulsantwort.com
Location: Germany

Track 11
Artist: THM
Title: Setting Sun
Time: 6:45
Device: EMS Synthi AKS (London UK model from 1975), only some Roland
RE-301
Chorus Echo and SRV-330 Reverb added; recorded and processed digitally
via Cubase 4
Genre: Space Music / Ambient Drone
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/thmsynthfreak
thm[at]pandora.be
Location: Belgium

Track 12
Artist: Delia (Leo Learchi – Luca Isabella – Daniele De Rossi)
Title: Trilogia per Delia (live excerpt)
Device: EMS Synthi A, AKS, E, Digisound 80 modular synthesizer,
field recordings, PC.
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/leomodular
Location: Italy

Track 13
Artist: Alka
Title: Interrupt Structure
Time: 3:57
Device: EMS Synthi Mk1 AKS partially processed through the Elektron
Machinedrum
SPS1 UW Mk2. Further processing and recording through Apple Logic Pro.
Genre: Electronic / Glitch / Experimental
Contact: http://www.reverbnation.com/buryn
Location: USA

Track 14
Artist: Tunnel
Title: Descent
Time: 6:08
Device: EMS VCS3 Mk II, Boss DD-3 Delay
Genre: Improv / Experimental
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/tunnelx
Location: Australia

Track 15
Artist: D. Skevington
Title: Block I
Time: 5.10
Device: Layers of direct and amplified Synthi A.
Genre: Psychedelic/Rock
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/danielskevington
Location: UK

Track 16
Artist: Synthiaks
Title: Bump
Time: 3:30
Device: EMS Synthi AKS, live recording.
Genre: Experimental
Contact: baby_tog[at]hotmail.com
Location: UK

Track 17
Artist: Maelem
Title: Dripping party
Time: 6:59
Device: EMS Synthi A
Genre: Noise
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/maelem
Location: France

Track 18
Artist: Splitradix
Title: Harmony Suitcase
Time: 4:37
Devices: EMS Synthi A, Roland TR808, Sequential Circuits Pro One,
Roland System 100 101, Roland SH101, Roland MKS80, Roland RE301
Genre: Electro
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/splitradix
Location: Berlin, Germany

Track 19
Artist: Level-Repeat
Title: Syncophant
Time: 5:32
Device: Live Performance using a modified EMS Synthi AKS.
Making heavy use of oscillator sync.
Genre: Experimental
Contact: http://www.myspace.com/levelrepeat
Location: United Kingdom

***

Contacts:
http://www.thesynthi.de
http://thesynthigroup.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/thesynthigroup

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Davies / Rives / Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Santos : Twrf Neus Ciglau

I usually shift colds really quickly. I get them bad but they don’t last long. This one is still here and it is still really getting me down. I feel like one big snotty tissue right now, and am getting fed up that they only make one flavour of Lemsip. Ah well. If you’ve got swine flu what are the first symptoms? Are these trotters I’ve grown normal? So anyway, music. Despite having very blocked up ears and a headache for most of the day that gets worse when I stare at a computer screen your valiant blogger has still managed to listen to one CD a couple of times today and here I am writing about it. I returned to the pile of Creative Sources discs today, feeling a little guilty that I hadn’t played anything from it in a while. I picked out a disc I really wanted to hear from the recent batch anyway, the quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues, (viola) Guilherme Rodrigues, (cello) Carlos Santos, (electronics) Rhodri Davies, (harp and electtronics) and Stéphane Rives (soprano sax). The album title is Twrf Neus Ciglau. (no prizes for guessing which of the group came up with that little gem!) When run through an online translation programme the title translates from Welsh to read Noise Conquer Ciglau, which helps a little, but not much. Rhodri if you read this let me know? Anyway the music…. The disc contains a single thirty-four minute live recording made a year ago this Sunday at a festival in Lisbon. The music actually follows a similar pattern to one or two other releases involving Rhodri Davies of late, not quite drone-based but certainly music involving layers of shifting sounds that slip and slide over each other, transparent in places, opaque in others and all very beautiful. A little like the recent Midhopestones release on Another Timbre there is a nice blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation here that is combined into one delicate mass of sound that travels along at a slow pace with little change in dynamic but plenty of diversity in colour The beauty comes then from the constantly changing textures and tones that are placed over one another, kind of the aural equivalent to a kaleidoscopic being turned very slowly. This shouldn’t suggest that the music is all pastel shades however. It isn’t always easy to tell which sound is coming from where, but certainly Rives’ sax can be heard sending out shrill blasts that set your teeth on edge, and the two Rodrigues scratch and scrape a gritty belly to the music throughout. Things never really break into any real to-and-fro interplay though, with the quintet happy to work their individual sounds over and through those of their colleagues rather than respond directly. So as a nice, detailed example of laminal improvised music Twrf Neus Ciglau works really well for me, containing some really beautiful moments. (the part thirteen minutes in when all sounds coalesce into a high pitched stream for a few moments is gorgeous) Certainly there is nothing groundbreaking here and, given the quality of the musicians on show no real surprises, but despite a throbbing headache I found it easy to lose myself in the Twrf Neus Ciglau’s drifting layers. Maybe this won’t be one I will come back to as often as I should, but as a document of a nice concert one summer’s day in Portugal I like this CD quite a bit and I’m pleased someone thought to share it with those that weren’t there on the night. Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)

Ernesto Rodrigues – viola
Rhodri Davies – harp, electronics
Stéphane Rives – soprano saxophone
Guilherme Rodrigues – cello
Carlos Santos – electronics

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Various Artists : Field Notes

We are very proud to present to you our new compilation album Field Notes, featuring some exceptional sound artists from accross the globe.

All the artists were asked to submit work that incorporated field recordings and we have 24 of the best for you for free download.

Artists featured on Field Notes are:

La Donation – www.myspace.com/ladonation
Silo Portem – www.myspace.com/siloportm
Clutter – www.cluttermusic.com :: www.myspace.com/clutterearthmp
Gurdonark – www.negativesoundinstitute.com/gurdonark2.php
Antisocial Services – www.myspace.com/antisocialservices
Simon Whetham – www.simonwhetham.co.uk :: www.myspace.com/simonwhetham
Internal External – www.myspace.com/internalexternal
Swaying Smoke – swayingsmoke.com
Bacillus – www.myspace.com/thebacillus
Marco Lucchi – www.musichevirtuali.org :: www.myspace.com/marcolucchi :: www.myspace.com/orchestraecletticaesincretista
Susan Matthews with Hoel Le Quenven – www.myspace.com/susanmatthews :: www.sirenwire.com
Chris Lynn – www.marblevenus.net/Chris Lynn Film Video/ChrisLynnhomepage.htm
Beed & Fascia – www.myspace.com/bandf1ms
Pythagora – www.myspace.com/pythagorasspace
Dansette Curtsey – www.myspace.com/dansettecurtseymusic
Cedar Lines – www.myspace.com/cedarlines
Luís Antero – www.luisantero.yolasite.com www.myspace.com/luisantero
Pandacetamol – www.myspace.com/pandacetamol
Adrian Carter with Scott D Buchanan – www.myspace.com/adriancarter
Radio Scotvoid – www.radioscotvoid.com
Andrew Deakin –
Orfeo 5 – www.myspace.com/orfeo5
Drey Grade – www.myspace.com/dreygrade www.feterecordings.co.uk
Cousin Silas – www.myspace.com/cousinsilas

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Hughes/ Scherzberg/ Wiese: discard hidden layers?

Quivering and clanging massed signals vie for space along with squeaking reed bites and tongue slaps plus sul ponticello slices and string pumps throughout discard’s nine tracks. Yet while some timbres are obvious from first, others are so opaque that solos must develop for instrumental attribution to be made. Upfront grainy pulsing and popping textures swell to meet cumulative arco bass strokes or warbling reed bites. Meanwhile – without disrupting the foreground – shards of Morse code-like intimations plus blurry, signal-processed swirls pulse as the backdrop.
Prominent among these eruptions of corkscrewed, processed and modulated tones are the tracks “choke chameleon choke” and “discard”. On the later, processed sound curlicues resemble both a computer rebooting and outer-space tracking signals. All the while however, Hughes is sounding traditional string slaps and Scherzberg repetitive reed tones expose the underlying sonic grain. By the climax, Scherzberg’s jagged expression is figuratively poking a hole in the fabric of computer-generated processed tones.
“choke chameleon choke” is another brainteaser where the initial timbres could be created by a ring modular but are soon revealed as smacked double bass strings. Soon the saxophonist’s renal cries and growls squall above Hughes’ subterranean-pitched sul tasto movements, in anticipation of Wiese’s fiddly and fuzzy oscillated wave forms finally creating a three-way dialogue. Mutating his electronic pulses to pipe-organ-like accelerations and irregular clangs, further textures arise from the bassist’s tremolo and the saxman’s trills, both of which reflect back onto the root sounds.
Although studio-bound, discard’s sonic coloration is wide enough to encompass not only waveforms from the cosmos, but synthetic landscaping that suggests both the ocean and solid land. (…)

Ken Waxman in JazzWord (USA)

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David Vélez : 20:51

’20:51′ is the first release in a new series here at test tube. David challenged me several months ago in doing some kind of book release, and then I though to myself: ‘why not starting a new mixed-media series of work?’. The idea started to materialize slowly and now we proudly present this new work from David Vélez.
In the future, expect a different kind of mixed-media works: text and audio, video and text, audio and video, audio and photo, etc. We want that artists feel completely free in aesthetics and form. This is their naked canvas here at test tube.» – Pedro Leitão

«’20:51′ is a publication composed of 1) a series of photographs I took and put together as a PDF publication, and 2) a sound piece titled ‘Polvo’. This is the first sound work I finish and publish in almost 9 months, a period where I looked around for inspiration and slowed down.
The word ‘Polvo’ in spanish means ‘Dust’ but also refers to the sexual act of reproduction: the origin of this meaning is unclear.

Celebrities like Woddy Allen, God, John Lennon, David Bowie and even Pablo Picasso have used the word ‘Polvo’/'Dust’ on their creations and/or on their quotes and titles.

“…quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris… “.

(“…for dust you are, and to dust shall you return…”).

…is a quote taken from Genesis 3:19 in the Bible. Some intellectuals claim that this Bible quote is the origin of the use of the word ‘Polvo’ to refer to the sexual act.
The cyclic and finite/infinite notion that are found on the use of the word ‘Polvo’ are quite inspiring and probably influenced the way the piece sounds and feels, since the title ‘Polvo’ was assigned to the piece before I composed it.
Dust was here before us, dust will remain here after us. That fact makes everything else simple, ephemeral and harmless.

There is not a manifest connection between the piece and the photos.»
- David Vélez

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Powertrio : what we see while we walk and what we walk while thinking

Powertrio are Eduardo Raon (harp, electronics), Joana Sá (piano, toy piano) and Luís Martins (classical guitar). In the 33 minutes of this CD they reveal themselves to be a very interesting ensemble, working in serious commitment at the margins of a somewhat disturbed quietness, even if not exactly in a “reductionist” sense (on the contrary, occasionally erupting in full-exhilaration mode in pieces such as “Improvisation II” and “Hart Auf Hart”). The notes played and the noise made are always clearly exposed, perhaps slightly modified by the electronic treatments while maintaining a degree of palpability which generates a welcome tension in the music. Their structures are often scraggy and ill-coloured yet possess an evident definition and show personality to spare. The resonance factor is in great evidence, and the ability of letting every event manifest visibly before fading to grey is worth of praise. And, what’s more, the record is greatly functional also in the habitual “open-window” test which I systematically run with this kind of stuff: it meshes gorgeously with the environment, but the presence remains commanding due to its bigger body of sound. Excellent, sober, intelligent work at times surrounded by a late XIX century classic aura. Recommended. Massimo Ricci (Temporry Fault)

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irr. app. (ext.) : kreiselwelle

irr. app. (ext.) is the sound-engineering project of Californian M.S. Waldron, whose liminal slippages and detourned croons have been spotted recently on stage in Nurse With Wound. Yet for all of the antics that are required for the NWW spectacle, Mr. Waldron still dedicates himself in the parallel pursuits of irr. app. (ext.) with a discography that reads more like a wunderkammer of uncanny investigations into futility declared as its reverse.
Kreiselwelle is the third and final installment to a body of works that irr. app. (ext.) has composed under the influence of Wilhelm Reich, the unorthodox 20th Century psychologist who proposed amongst many hypotheses, an interconnectivity between energy, organisms, and the entire cosmos. The title to this album translates as ‘spiral wave,’ a structuralist form which Reich had observed throughout nature within numerous systems, whether that be the grand arcs of galaxies down to the radial symmetries of micro-organisms. For Kreiselwelle, Mr. Waldron returns to the same collection of field recordings which began this trilogy that includes Ozeanische Gefühle and Cosmic Superimposition; however, he restricted himself to those sounds with spiralling origins: resonating springs, the sounds of the ocean cyclically churning over pebbles on the beach, the wafting of air around various objects, or simply a lamp-shade spinning in place.
The resulting recording develops as an organic sublimation of one sound transforming from one state into another and then another. Motorized sounds of mechanical toys set askew settle into a tremolo phase pattern of electrical vibrations. These in turn morph into a cauldron of slow locomotive rumbling, which beget one of many glassine drones that float throughout Kreiselwelle. Many of the sounds seem to have origins in objects that are broken, obsolete, or just plain wrong; but through Waldron’s deft alchemy, these sounds are allowed to flourish in this richly dark and oddly serene amalgamation

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restive : generative index

30 short generative pieces from the restivesonic audio labs, utilizing software developed by Victor Khashchanskiy
www.webcenter.ru/~vsoft/
And based on original material by Simon Ho
http://cdbaby.com/cd/simonho2
http://cdbaby.com/cd/simonho

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