![\"DARIUS](\"http:\/\/modisti.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/DARIUS-CIUTA.jpg\")
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AKIRA RABELAIS – THE LITTLE GLASS (2CD, private) *
\n MIDNIGHT DOCTORS \u2013 THROUGH A SCREEN AND INTO A HOLE (CD by Ourodisc)
\n TANDAAPUSHI \u2013 FIRE DISPOSAL (CD by JVTLand)
\n FRANTZ LORIOT \u2013 REFLECTIONS ON AN INTROSPECTIVE PATH (CD by Neither\/Nor)
\n SEKHMET \u2013 TE SHII ES TAH.. (CD by Veto Records)
\n JEREMIE MATHES – FALLOW MEMORY (CD by Unfathomless) *
\n 300 BASSES – TRIA ATOMA (CD by Moving Furniture Records) *
\n BERNARD GAL – ZWISCHENBR\u00dcCKEN (DVD\/book by Edition SP CE\/Gromoga Records)
\n CHRISTIAN R\u00d8NN – TIME CHARGED MANEUVRES (LP by Insula Music\/Flinc Music)
\n INGENTING KOLLEKTIVA – AN ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY (LP by Invisible Birds)
\n ASPHODEL – AOKIGABARA, THE BLACK SEA OF TREES (LP by Invisible Birds)
\n DEAD EDITS – PRESENT STEFAN WEISSER’S EDITEDITIONS & CONTEXTS: A FORGERY (7″ lathe cut & CDR by Ballast) *
\n MORGAN EVANS-WEILER – VIOLIN\/SINE (CDR by Individual Lines) *
\n DARIUS CIUTA & SLAVEK KWI – AIRBELL 21\/F-S1(2)A1T-02 (double CDR by Tentacles Of Perception) *
\n FERGUS KELLY & DAVID LACEY – QUIET FORAGE (CDR by Room Temperature) *
\n OGNI VIDENIY & SVETLO111 – SYNAPSE (CDR by Zhelezobeton) *
\n OGNI VIDENIY – SKELETON IN THE CLOSET FOR GOD (CDR by Zhelezobeton) *
\n SIX DEAD BULGARIANS – DISTRIBUTIVE FOR INSTALLATION (CDR by Zhelezobeton) *
\n T\u00c9L\u00c9PLASMISTE\/AAS – RADIOCLAST E.R.A. (112HZ)\/THE CULT OF SONIC AFFECT (cassette by Holoctics)
\n MAVEN CX – OVEBURNT AFTERDRIVE (cassette by Dream Fader)
\n ALEXANDRA ATNIF – SESSION 1 (cassette, private)
\n E.M.I.R.S. – END OF SPLICING THE PANNED AND RE-EMERGING (download) *<\/p>\n
[rssless]Vital Weekly 1010<\/a><\/p>\n tracklist for Vital Weekly 1010:<\/p>\n 0000 Tune [\/rssless]<\/p>\n AKIRA RABELAIS – THE LITTLE GLASS (2CD, private) <\/p>\n For no particular reason I think Akira Rabelais is one very eccentric MIDNIGHT DOCTORS \u2013 THROUGH A SCREEN AND INTO A HOLE (CD by Ourodisc)<\/p>\n Cosmic Impulse! Jazz, 60s baroque pop productions and decades of cop TANDAAPUSHI \u2013 FIRE DISPOSAL (CD by JVTLand)<\/p>\n Captivating grooves and drones by a new power trio from Belgium. Let me FRANTZ LORIOT \u2013 REFLECTIONS ON AN INTROSPECTIVE PATH (CD by Neither\/Nor)<\/p>\n Every now and then, I encounter a record that really stands out. This SEKHMET \u2013 TE SHII ES TAH.. (CD by Veto Records)<\/p>\n Sekhmet is a Swiss ensemble of three young musicians, named after JEREMIE MATHES – FALLOW MEMORY (CD by Unfathomless)<\/p>\n This is already the second release by Mathes for Unfathomless, following 300 BASSES – TRIA ATOMA (CD by Moving Furniture Records)<\/p>\n Slowly Dutch label Moving Furniture Records becomes the best place for BERNARD GAL – ZWISCHENBR\u00dcCKEN (DVD\/book by Edition SP CE\/Gromoga Records)<\/p>\n A good friend of mine always says: “get out of this silly business of CHRISTIAN R\u00d8NN – TIME CHARGED MANEUVRES (LP by Insula Music\/Flinc Music)<\/p>\n Already active in the Danish underground for about a decade or so, and INGENTING KOLLEKTIVA – AN ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY (LP by Invisible Birds) It’s been a while since I last heard of last heard of Ingenting Kollektiva, DEAD EDITS – PRESENT STEFAN WEISSER’S EDITEDITIONS & CONTEXTS: Another box filled with goodies by Ballast, the new imprint for small MORGAN EVANS-WEILER – VIOLIN\/SINE (CDR by Individual Lines)<\/p>\n From Boston hails Morgan Evans-Weiler, who plays violin as well as DARIUS CIUTA & SLAVEK KWI – AIRBELL 21\/F-S1(2)A1T-02 At the basis of most collaboration there is the exchange of sounds, FERGUS KELLY & DAVID LACEY – QUIET FORAGE (CDR by Room Temperature)<\/p>\n This is the second release that Fergus Kelly and David Lacey release; OGNI VIDENIY & SVETLO111 – SYNAPSE (CDR by Zhelezobeton) Both Ogni Videniy, a duo of Petr Abysov and Alexandr Chulkov and whose T\u00c9L\u00c9PLASMISTE\/AAS – RADIOCLAST E.R.A. (112HZ)\/THE CULT OF SONIC AFFECT In Vital Weekly 1006 I was first introduced to the music of Aas, which, MAVEN CX – OVEBURNT AFTERDRIVE (cassette by Dream Fader)<\/p>\n This tape comes with a great, pro-printed cover, full of cryptic texts ALEXANDRA ATNIF – SESSION 1 (cassette, private) This cassette I found in my mailbox without any stamps, so someone must http:\/\/www.vitalweekly.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AKIRA RABELAIS – THE LITTLE GLASS (2CD, private) * MIDNIGHT DOCTORS \u2013 THROUGH A SCREEN AND INTO A HOLE (CD by Ourodisc) TANDAAPUSHI \u2013 FIRE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":40272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n0014 Akira Rabelais – III. The Voice Quite Different from Below, Constantly Arrives, To Absorb, Increase the Colour, Whereby Lessons of Sense Out With Sentiment in the Hands to the Cultivation of Time
\n0318 Six Dead Bulgarians – Sliding
\n0624 Morgan Evans-Weiler – Chorus II
\n0933 300 Basses – Atoma Tria
\n1242 Ogni Videniy – Falling In An Ice Well
\n1551 Fergus Kelly & David Lacey – After The Matter Had Settled
\n1855 Jeremie Mathes
\n2203 Ogni Videniy & Svetlo11 – Interneuronall Express
\n2510 Dead Edits – Posedextensions
\n2814 E.M.I.R.S.
\n3122 Tune<\/p>\n
\n artist. Artist, not just musician. His work stretches out from the
\n creation of music, visual art, poetry and the creation of software.
\n In the past I used his Argeiphontes Lyre software, which basically
\n filters sound, quite a bit. Normally software developers think about
\n whether their product is easy to handle or learn, but with Argeiphontes
\n Lyre that is not the case. I still have a vague notion of how it works;
\n you click on a few buttons, load a sound, and then you wait. Sometimes
\n this waiting takes a long time and the result sounds almost the same
\n as the original, which can be frustrating, but no doubt that’s part of
\n the fun. Likewise his website doesn’t easily ooze accessibility, but on
\n the contrary there is lots to explore, and there are lots of ways inside.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 His new solo double CD has one long, seventy-minute piece on the
\n second disc, and four pieces on the first. The shortest is twenty seconds,
\n while the second is forty-two minutes. The first disc has four pieces
\n for piano, played by Rabelais himself and Harold Budd. Some months ago
\n I played pretty much all the work by Harold Budd as early morning music
\n (in an attempt to start the day with non-Vital Weekly related ambient
\n music), so I am now well-versed in his music and this new work with
\n Rabelais, the beauty continues. I would think this is a composed work,
\n with notes written down on a piece of paper and then played. According
\n to Rabelais he recorded Budd playing the piano and ‘retuned’ it a bit.
\n In the long “II. Every Tone Is the Prism as Words, Any Unexpected Corners
\n Must Be Slipped Away” there is lots of space between the notes; these
\n notes are like stars at night: you can see them in this black space
\n and you look for another, somewhere else. This is a very quiet work,
\n most likely one of the quietest works, which involve the work of Budd,
\n I should think (even I believe it’s mostly Rabelais who plays on this
\n piece. In the other two long(er) pieces the space between the notes
\n is not as radical, and in ‘IV. Your Effort to Be Entirely Among Sense,
\n Distance, From Under the Most Difficult Value of This Grace, Which
\n On Each Has Much Depends’ (yeah, a bit of long titles!) even going on
\n continuously, but all of the four pieces are beautiful haunting pieces
\n for two pianos. No software in use here (I think, perhaps not for the
\n creation of music), two men, two times 88 keys and simply gorgeous
\n beauty.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 On the second disc, I would think (but in Rabelais’ world nothing is
\n really a certainty), he uses his piano recordings from disc one, feeds
\n them to his own software (which obviously is something he should know how
\n to work) and gives it mild treatments; stretching everything out just a
\n little bit, adding just a little bit of delay, giving it this excellent
\n ambient feel. It may seem that this is one long file, being processed as
\n it, dropping at from thirty to forty minutes a bit in volume and picking
\n up the piano sound later on, adding a bit more low end in the rest of the
\n piece, but throughout I had the idea all of this was put together with
\n great care. It has a poetic, dream-like feel to it, which works very well.
\n It reminded me of the work by William Basinski, but perhaps a bit sweeter.
\n Stay at home music; sip a bit of wine and great a book while listening to
\n both of these discs on repeat. Excellent release. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/akirarabelais.bandcamp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\n themes are said to be the influences that Begg used for his new production.
\n Compliments first for completing this job that has the involvement of
\n eleven musicians. We are talking of the Midnight Doctors, an ambitious
\n project by New Castle-based multi-instrumentalist Phil Begg. In 2013
\n Midnight Doctors debuted. This CD is the follow up. Released on Ourodisc,
\n a label that was started in 2008 by Phil Begg to self-release music he
\n is involved with (Hapsburg Braganza, a.o.). A big ensemble, with Begg
\n himself being one of the performers, playing piano, harmonium, guitar,
\n percussion, tubular bells, eurorack modular and electroacoustics, plays
\n the compositions by Begg himself. Other instruments involved are tenor
\n sax, double bass, violin, tape, voice, clarinet and trombone. His music
\n is difficult to classify, but not because it is not outside all
\n conventions. On the contrary the music is in a way very conventional.
\n However \u2018My Forsyth\u2019 is a strange experimental collage-work that
\n fascinates. \u2018Death of the Similaun Man\u2019 is a dark percussive piece.
\n The other pieces however are very accessible instrumentals that remind
\n more of the past than a future to come. A better production would have
\n helped. The arrangements would be more pronounced, also the diversity
\n of sounds that are added. On the other hand it must be said that Begg
\n surely follows his own path. (DM)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/www.ourodisc.com<\/a>
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n present you the crew. Leo Dupleix (keyboards) studied at the Brussels
\n Royal Conservatory, and has his base in Tokyo. Mainly working as an
\n electronic musician in the contact of improvised and experimental music.\u00a0
\n Laurens Smet (bass) comes from Antwerp where he visited the conservatory,
\n and works in jazz and improvised combinations like Bambi Pang Pang. Louis
\n Evrard (drums), influenced by contemporary music, hip-hop and everything
\n in between, operates in many different contexts. They met in Brussels
\n and discovered they had a common interest that is now demonstrated on
\n their well-balanced debut album as Tandaapushi. Drone rock with a well-
\n chosen, coherent outlook. In their pulsating structures they move very
\n convincingly towards their goal. Minimalistic on the one hand, they do
\n their thing with fantasy.\u00a0 The bass playing of Smet effectively
\n complements the beats and rhythms by Evrard. Both supply a solid floor
\n for the fine sound textures by Dupleix.\u00a0 This results in truly
\n hypnotizing, trance-inducing music, that somehow picks up where kraut
\n rock bands like Can, Neu and Faust stopped. Released on the Danish
\n Jvtland label of Martin Vognsen. (DM)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/www.jvtlandt.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\n first solo album by the French-Japanese violist Frantz Loriot is one of
\n them. Exceptional and intriguing in many aspects. From a very young age
\n Loriot played the violin. Later he studied musical sciences in Paris,
\n and changed the violin for the viola. Under the influence of Jo\u00eblle
\n L\u00e9andre, Barre Philips and others he turned to improvisation. And this
\n CD with the descriptive title \u2018Reflections on an Introspective Path\u2019
\n is his first solo statement. He is involved in many different projects.
\n Also he leads two large ensembles. One in Europe, the 10-piece European
\n Notebook Large Ensemble, and another one in New York, the 12-piece
\n Systematic Distortion Orchestra. New York is also the place where he
\n did his recordings for his solo cd. Everything was recorded on December
\n 20th, 2014 at Bunker Studios. The recording is crystal clear. It is like
\n being inside the instrument. All sounds and every nuance evoked by his
\n playing, using extended techniques, are registered and can be enjoyed
\n at an almost microscopic level. The playing by Loriot is intense and
\n lively. Impressive is the range of sounds he is able to extract from
\n this instrument. But above all he manages to make very engaging and
\n emotional music, that I experienced as very organic and physical.
\n A true tribute to the viola! (DM)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/www.neithernorrecords.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\n Sehkmet an Egyptian goddess. The trio is made up of Sara K\u00e4ser (cello),
\n Raphael Loher (piano) and Vincent Glanzmann (drums). \u2018Te Shii Es Tah\u2019
\n is the mysterious title of their debut, released on Veto Records of
\n Christoph Erb. Also the titles of tracks have strange names, and I guess
\n are taken also from old Egypt for some unclear reason. A few words about
\n their backgrounds. K\u00e4ser plays improvised as well as modern composed music.
\n Loher started with the blues but nowadays travels between improvisation,
\n modern music and rock music. Glanzmann works as a composer and improviser.
\n Profiles that are common these days. Musicians operating in the context of
\n improvised as well composed music. As a trio they are into improvisation,
\n as is demonstrated here in ten tracks, recorded at the Jazzkantine in
\n Luzern. I associate their improvisations more with chamber music, than
\n with jazz. The improvisations are very pointed and concentrated. All
\n three take equal part in their musical communication. The pieces have
\n drama and are structured along very different ideas. Sometimes they are
\n more into sound and textures like in \u201cAf\u2019tah\u201d. Pieces like \u201cSo Osun\u201d is
\n a captivating interplay of patterns, with drummer Glanzmann in the lead.
\n Closing piece \u201cClerte O Gun\u201d has jazzy touches in the beginning, and also
\n demonstrates their sense for humour and wit. All in all, this is some
\n spirited and manoeuvrable improvisation of a trio that has a considerable
\n vocabulary at their disposal and lot of ideas. (DM)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/www.veto-records.ch<\/a><\/p>\n
\n ‘Efequen’, which was reviewed in Vital Weekly 872. On the Unfathomless
\n mothership Mystery Sea he also released a work and likewise on Basses
\n Frequencies. For this new work he recorded sound material in a rusty metal
\n tank as well as the local environment of Port Saint-Louis du Rhone in
\n the South of France. That results in one long piece of close to forty-
\n three minutes. As you can imagine from reading the word ‘metal tank’,
\n the other oft-used word, ‘reverb’, is never far away. Just as with last
\n week’s release by Osvaldo Coluccino, also on Unfathomless, which was
\n recorded in a monastery, the natural reverb plays an important role in
\n this piece. But where Coluccino had a variety of recordings from various
\n spaces, everything here sounds pretty hollow. It seems, and I might
\n entirely be wrong of course, that inside this rusty tank Mathes explores
\n the space with metal objects, thrown about from afar, but also carefully
\n playing the surface of the tank with the same objects, and then it
\n happens closer to the microphone, i.e. with a less amount of reverb.
\n That is what creates the variations in this release. All of this clearly
\n divided into various sections, which are connected using cross-fades,
\n so the work flows naturally from section to section. These variations
\n in approaching the rusty tank – far away, close by, makes that this
\n is more interesting than the average musical approach to such places
\n (rusty tanks, bunkers and other hollow spaces with lots of natural
\n reverb). While I quite enjoyed this piece, I must say I found it not
\n so surprising. I suppose this is the kind of things people do when they
\n are in rusty tanks. But as I said, this is well enjoyable, though no
\n masterpiece. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/www.unfathomless.net<\/a><\/p>\n
\n new music releases in this country. Lots of their artists are Dutch,
\n which I always think is a great thing (unlike the situation for festivals
\n for new music in The Netherlands, where it is hard to perform if you are
\n Dutch; they rather rehash the same thing over and over again), but there
\n are also foreign artists to be found in their catalogue. Obviously the
\n label boss decides what to release and with his own musical project
\n being Orphax it’s perhaps not a surprise he likes a lot of drone music.
\n In that respect you think that a trio of accordion players might be a
\n bit out of place, but what these three do fits very much the ideas of
\n the label. I reviewed their debut CD ‘Sei Ritornelli’ in Vital Weekly
\n 839 and here they have a new release, recorded over a few days in Athens
\n last year. I am not sure if that means these recordings are ‘live’ or
\n in any way the result of studio tricks, such as multi-tracking. Not that
\n it all really matters, I should think. We have here three pieces, played
\n by Luca Venitucci, Jonas Kocher and Alfredo Costa Monteiro, of which the
\n latter also plays objects on his accordion. These three pieces last in
\n total thirty-five minutes and have some of the best acoustic drone music
\n around. They press keys down and play very slowly to create a wonderfully
\n rich field of overtones. 300 Basses’ music sound sometimes like bows
\n playing cymbals; perhaps they use cymbals to play accordion? The music
\n is the not, so it seems, the result of improvisation, but of playing
\n carefully constructed pieces, in which silence plays a big role from time
\n to time. The changes within each of these pieces are quite minimal, but
\n they work very well. All of these are wonderfully paced and placed. It
\n makes that this album fits perfectly in the world of Moving Furniture
\n Records, partly because it contains the well-known drone music by this
\n label, and on the other hand while all of this sounds so differently,
\n coming from an acoustic end. I would love to see them play in concert
\n one day! (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\n records nobody wants to buy and get into art installations; that’s where
\n the money is”. Maybe that’s what Bernard Gal thought? He’s been into the
\n creation of multi-media installations for a long time now and with
\n ‘Zwischenbr\u00fccken’ he releases his second book about his work in this
\n directions. First time it came with a CD, this time it is a DVD, with
\n close to two hours of music and two hours of films. This is (only?)
\n his eleventh release, so he’s not really into the silly business of CD
\n releases I should think. His installations are presented all over the
\n world, not just Western countries but also in Oman and Tunisia. Some
\n of these installations are site-specific, while others can be shown in
\n various places. In other pieces it’s all about theatrical aspects of his
\n work, and he uses players of instruments in his pieces. Light plays a
\n big role in many of his pieces. In ‘Solo’ for instance he has four old
\n telephone boots with various lights, which have music and one notices
\n the city from a different colour. Shadow play with real musicians is
\n also a common place. In this document we find snapshots of all of these
\n from the last ten years. Most of them are represented by both audio and
\n video and usually last somewhere between five and ten minutes. That
\n perhaps has a bit of a snapshot idea to it, which is a pity. For some
\n of these pieces I wouldn’t mind to hear a longer version, whereas others
\n didn’t interest me that much, such as ‘Klangschatten’, but as I’m not a
\n child so I am also not the intended audience. The book itself (144 pages,
\n 200 photos, hardcover) contains for every installation a description
\n (which looks like it might not have been made by Gal, but by a third
\n party), whereas Gal himself writes more personal observations about his
\n pieces. It all looks great, if not a bit highbrow art like, but I guess
\n that comes with the territory. As a pure music man I can look at this
\n and be a bit envious: simple ideas are turned, apparently, easy into
\n great visual and musical pieces that work well – judging by the
\n documentation. But for some of the music pieces I also had the idea
\n that Gal is perhaps relying a bit too much on the use of laptop
\n techniques and it seemed sometimes a bit too much time stretching and
\n plug-ins making this into warm glitch-like music. Perhaps that is where
\n the pure music man comes in, stripping away the rest and listening to
\n the music? As a gesamtkunstwerk however I would say Bernard Gal’s work
\n is all top-notch. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/www.sp-ce.net<\/a> http:\/\/www.gromoga.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\n having worked with f.ex., Peter Peter (Sort Sol, Iceage), Bj\u00f8rn Svin,
\n J\u00f8rgen Teller and Lotte Anker, as well as performing with Ingrid Chavez,
\n Rhys Chatham, Fast Forward and others, this is Christian R\u00f8nn’s debut
\n album. For this he plays W\u00fcrlitzer piano, Yamaha CS5, MFB Dominion X-sed,
\n Casio, FX devices, Ehlert Acoustic Church Organ and Real-Lyd – for some
\n of this I have no idea what it is. The press information refers to Neu,
\n Cluster, Brian Eno and Steve Reich, but all of this very strictly kept
\n in the realms of electronic music. There is throughout shimmering melodic
\n lines here, which keeps this out of the very abstract work. Seven pieces
\n here, all about lines playing on the keyboards and filled up extra sounds
\n from the synthesizers. This music exists within some middle ground of
\n dark ambient, electronic pop, psychedelic music, a bit of drone and is
\n made with delicate touch of improvisation. It works very well, but more
\n or less only as something that plays rarely nicely in the background.
\n There are no shock elements here, nothing angular, weird or biting. That
\n is perhaps a bit of a downer, I guess. This is harmless music. I didn’t
\n mind; I wasn’t drawn into this, but doing a variety of things at the same
\n time, turning the record over and over, until I was done with my small
\n household activities. This record provided an excellent backdrop for
\n doing such tasks. A bit dark, a bit melodic, a bit abstract and quite
\n free in choosing the right sound material to set such moods. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/insulamusic.dk<\/a> http:\/\/flincmusic.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\n ASPHODEL – AOKIGABARA, THE BLACK SEA OF TREES (LP by Invisible Birds)<\/p>\n
\n which had two releases shortly after one another (Vital Weekly 820 and 855).
\n The recordings from this new LP took about five years and are inspired by
\n ‘the atmosphere of melancholia summoned by Georg B\u00fcchner’s novella fragment
\n ‘Lenz’ and researched by Robert Buron in his book ‘The Anatomy Of Melancholy’
\n we read on the information. The group, which may or may not consist of
\n Matthew Swiezynski, Johannes d’\u00e9glise, Arthur de Eriom\u00e9m and Tarrl Lightowler,
\n take their musical inspiration from the idea of ‘Lontano’, which means ‘from
\n a distance’ (as explored by such composers as Ligeti and Penderecki), and it
\n was recorded in the Arthur de Eriom\u00e9m rural library Casa di Memoria. There
\n are instruments mentioned on the cover, but no who plays what: jazzmaster,
\n telecaster, acoustic (all of these guitars), strings, harmonium, bells, field
\n recordings, found melodies, percussion and twin reverb. With all the cultural
\n references they mention, one should probably first do a study of all of these
\n and then play the record. Which reviewer has such time available, I wondered?
\n The group plays some very refined form of improvised music, indeed sounding
\n a bit from a distance, but perhaps some excellent microphones just captured
\n quite a bit of atmosphere in this library. It sounds gorgeous; there are
\n elements of psychedelic music, folk music, drone, free music and at times
\n I was reminded of Nurse With Wound, with the studio manipulation being an
\n extra instrument. It is all heavy on the moods and with dark atmosphere;
\n it’s never grim or black. The music by Ingenting Kollektiva is mistier,
\n small raindrops from grey skies over barren land; exactly the kind of image
\n Ingmar Bergman projected in his movies. Not exclusively about desolation,
\n as there seems always to be a bit of hope.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 The other new record by Invisible Birds is by Asphodel, the musical
\n and visual project of Atay Ilg\u00fcn and Alper Yildirim, who both also run
\n the Wounded Wolf Press label in Turkey. Their record is about the a forest
\n located in Mount Fuji, Japan, called Aokigahara, where thousands of people
\n committed suicide, so the whole forest is covered with photographs, letters
\n and instruments, all untouched out of respect of the death. I never heard
\n of this place and it surely sounds like grim one. There are no instruments
\n mentioned on the cover, but the result is about ambient music with a strong
\n tendency towards drones. I believe to hear flutes, guitars, and percussion
\n and of course there are lots of sound effects; especially the reverb is
\n working overtime here. In these six pieces moods and textures play a big
\n role, not unlike on the record by Ingenting Kollektiva, where instruments
\n sound clearer, with Asphodel the textures are more abstract; it could be
\n about a forest in Japan, but just as easily it could fit any forest,
\n lonesome island, misty lake, desert (although it doesn’t feel ‘hot’),
\n or any other mind expanding experience for which you don’t need to leave
\n the house. It is a well-made record, somewhat unsurprising but maybe we
\n are lacking the correct movies\/books or whatever other cultural ephemera
\n there is to be had for this. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/www.invisiblebirds.org<\/a><\/p>\n
\n A FORGERY (7″ lathe cut & CDR by Ballast)<\/p>\n
\n beauties by Blake Edwards, also known as Vertonen and Dead Edits. It’s
\n in the latter capacity, a duo of Edwards and Eric Lunde that he presents
\n this box, and they go along Lautreamont’s ‘plagiarism is necessary,
\n progress implies it – and a sense of humour doesn’t hurt’. Dead Edits
\n took a copy of Stefan Weisser’s ‘Editeditions & Contexts’ 7″ and used
\n that as the source material for their release, all with the blessing
\n of Weisser, which may also be known as Z’EV. The 7″ came, back in 1983
\n when it was released, with visual poems printed on cards. All of this
\n became the source for Dead Edits, who received a bunch of extra prints
\n from Z’EV to use. This box has lovely items, such as hand drawn covers
\n by Lunde of the original, a card to cut ‘n paste your Weissermobile,
\n lots of Xeroxed arts with poems based on the original set, a 7″ lathe
\n cut and a CDR. All of this in an edition of twenty copies: a true art
\n object. Before I started to play this, I took out the original 7″
\n (which as a true Z’EV fan I have!) and played that again, albeit only
\n at 33 rpm (one can play this at any speed). Voices rotate in loops
\n along with sounds of bottles being smashed and other sounds. Quite
\n hypnotic music but it is not without variation. A fine record, but not
\n something I would easily pick out to rework. Dead Edits, however, did.
\n For the lathe cut version, Edwards recorded the music from unamplified
\n copy by placing a microcassette close to the needle; just that, but
\n also picking up any other sound from the room, motors, and assorted other
\n noise. All of this remains very quiet and one cannot recognize the
\n original easily.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 The CDR has much more audible pieces and here Dead Edits apply their
\n more ‘usual’ process of playing their music in all sorts of strange
\n manners, picking the sound from small speakers, lo-fi Dictaphones,
\n cutting up mixes, adding their own voices and a constant cut-up. Unlike
\n the original, which is very looping based, the music here is not
\n entirely loop based. It’s of course there, but the voice of Lunde plays
\n an important role and effectively creates more poetry, in new contexts.
\n There is some excellent variation in these nine pieces, ranging from
\n pure sound poetry to industrial loops and all of that in the best lo-fi
\n musique concrete tradition – just as one would expect from Dead Edits.
\n An excellent release: much food for thought. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/ballastnvp.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\n electronics and who runs the Individual Lines label, releasing music
\n by Taps (Chris Strunk & Brendan Murray), Jesse Kenas-Collins, Deleuzer
\n and others. He has performed with Vic Rawlings, Sarah Hennies, Dave
\n Gross, Keith Rowe and many others. On his solo release ‘Violin\/Sine’
\n he uses a violin (obviously) and sine waves. ‘The works featured
\n juxtapose the very slow change of static fields with iterations of
\n material that aim to alter the field. These events give new insight
\n into the nature of the static field; they reveal the infinite
\n possibilities held within a stasis’. Just today I was reading Alvin
\n Lucier’s excellent book ‘Music 109’ (highly recommended if you are
\n into ‘new’ music and want something that is easy to read and understand),
\n and he himself is a composer who extensively researched this field of
\n sound proportions with sine waves and instruments. I am not sure where
\n Evans-Weiler sees himself in this particular field, but I must say he
\n learned his lessons from Lucier and is a fine composer\/improviser when
\n it comes to sine waves and violin. In these three pieces he explores
\n all of this very well. His violin playing doesn’t always follow the
\n same pitch(es) as the sine waves, but plays along in his one way;
\n sometimes neither are constantly present (unlike most of Lucier’s work
\n in this field), such as in ‘Permutations’. In the two parts of ‘Chorus’
\n both seem to be present most of the time, but in varying degrees of
\n intensity. In ‘Chorus II’ that worked best, with that continuous sine
\n wave and sparse violin. All of this is best played at a medium to low
\n volume. Quite a refined release. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/morganevansweiler.bandcamp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\n (double CDR by Tentacles Of Perception)<\/p>\n
\n which should hardly be a surprise, but in this case Ciuta from Lithuania
\n and Kwi from Ireland (and who is better known as Artificial Memory Trace)
\n exchanged objects that create sound. I believe Kwi mailed an airbell,
\n while Ciuta mailed two balloons, with air from his room and his street.
\n Kwi attached little microphones to these balloons and recorded his own
\n environment (house, garden, his car) and uses those recordings to create
\n his nearly eighty minutes composition. I am not sure if it is entirely
\n accurate to say that there is such as thing as the Artificial Memory
\n Trace sound, and whether or not as Slavek Kwi it would be something
\n similar, but in these eighty minutes we find all his trademarks:
\n crackling sounds of field recordings (wind, water, street), some with
\n extreme filtering, bringing out very low or high end sounds, although
\n maybe a bit less extreme in this piece; and there is that seemingly
\n flowing sound, going from section to section. Excellent piece.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Of similar length are the three pieces by Darius Ciuta, who is
\n perhaps a little less active as Slavek Kwi, but who has had releases
\n on Triple Bath, Mystery Sea, Unfathomless, Con-V and even a 24-hour
\n piece on a Raspberry-Pi device. Much of his music exists only in the
\n form of downloads. His nearly 80 minutes piece works very much with
\n the same sounds but Ciuta takes on some more radical filtering than
\n Kwi does. Very low end sounds, but more usually very high end sounds,
\n just clicks and somewhere in the distance you can recognize the
\n original sound sources: people singing, talking, water and wind.
\n This is quite some radical music. It is perhaps at 160 minutes all
\n a bit too much of radicalism, certainly when you play the Ciuta CD
\n second, but of course you are free to play them wide apart and enjoy
\n what it is in there.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 As a bonus, when you go for the download of this album, you can
\n also get a folder of sound material used in all of this and mix your
\n own version. Now there’s a challenge! (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/artificialmemorytrace.bandcamp.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\n the first was ‘Bevel’ in 2006. I am not sure if I heard that one;
\n somehow I don’t think so. In this duo recording Kelly plays ‘invented
\n instruments’, electronics and percussion, while David Lacey on
\n percussion and electronics. Lacey is an improviser, who has played
\n with a group called Chip Shop Music, but he also played with Paul
\n Vogel and others. It was recorded during various sessions between
\n 2011 and 2014. That’s about the extent we learned about the creation
\n of this release. Throughout these five pieces (fifty minutes of
\n music), it is all very quiet what these men do. Sometimes I had the
\n impression it was recorded from afar, but maybe there are creative
\n reasons for this to be at such a low volume. It made me wander off
\n that times and at one point I even switched off the CD to start again
\n from the beginning at a considerable louder volume. But even then
\n it stays quiet, with events spreads out wide apart. There is surely
\n always something to be heard here, continuous sounds, the rumbling
\n of objects, the exploration of surfaces and such like, but only very
\n occasionally it seems to break out of the low volume and become
\n something louder. This happens for instance in ‘Old Minutes’, which
\n in the middle suddenly bursts out. I wished that would happen a bit
\n more than just this once. I believe this would all be a delight to
\n see, especially a more action oriented piece like ‘After The Matter
\n Had Settled’, but somehow I seem to miss out on something here, and
\n it’s hard to say what it is. Maybe this is all a bit too delicate
\n for me? Too wide apart or perhaps too loose in organisation? I am
\n not sure yet; maybe I should play this more often and find out why.
\n If quiet improvisation is your business than I am sure you’ll be
\n delighted to hear this. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/asullenrelapse.blogspot.ie\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\n OGNI VIDENIY – SKELETON IN THE CLOSET FOR GOD (CDR by Zhelezobeton)
\n SIX DEAD BULGARIANS – DISTRIBUTIVE FOR INSTALLATION
\n (CDR by Zhelezobeton)<\/p>\n
\n music we reviewed before (Vital Weekly 772 and 971) and Svetlo111,
\n of whom I never heard before are now all based in St. Petersburg and
\n often play together ‘at city gigs and forest festivals’ (the latter
\n surely have a curious feel) and together they recorded three tracks
\n of electronic music. Music that is quite ambient in approach but it
\n is not exclusively or necessarily quiet. It has that long sustaining
\n character but is much more vibrant. It seems as if sounds are locked
\n inside a system, and swing back and forth between parameters; music
\n like a pendulum. It has a rather crispy feeling, music with sharp edges.
\n I imagine all three players to use analogue synthesizers and a variety
\n of sound effects to create this very rich music; almost psychedelic
\n music. Effects such as reverb, delay, chorus, flanging are used crudely
\n but that works very well. At forty-three minutes I still thought this
\n was a bit on the short side and I wished this had been longer. This is
\n some mighty fine ambient-industrial music; music to play loud and get
\n lost in. Where are those forest festivals, I wondered?
\n \u00a0\u00a0 After this great start we continue our trip with Ogni Videniy, just
\n on their own, and they continue their exploration of Buddhist themes,
\n and more especially Buddhist cosmology. ‘Every track is dedicated
\n to a certain state of mind and its corresponding plane of existence
\n of sentient beings, from material worlds to the realms of pure
\n consciousness’. Here we find this band in a more contemplative mood,
\n and also more minimal in their approach; maybe more ambient than
\n industrial would be the thing to say in this case. Their sound is
\n essentially made out of the same apparatus as the ‘Synapse’ release;
\n lots of synthesizer sounds and effects, but also a bit more rhythm
\n thrown in, via machines, plug-ins or sequencers. Occasionally one
\n has the idea of ambient house music, with the word ‘house’ not in
\n big lettering. There is a psychedelic element in this music too,
\n but it works on a much more subtle level I think. Ogni Videniy has
\n a somewhat more melodically touch to the music. After the wild ride
\n of their collaborative effort, this perhaps the chill-out album,
\n complete with bird calls in ‘Beautiful Devas’. There is an excellent
\n mid-nineties ambient feel about this album, which is something I
\n totally dig!
\n \u00a0\u00a0 All the way from Arkhangelsk hails the band Six Dead Bulgarians,
\n who have been around for twenty years now. The core of this band
\n is Alexander Chulkov, who gets credit for ‘analysis and problem
\n examination’ and on the new album there is also Mikhails (‘preparation
\n of psycho-acoustic modules’), Pyotr Abysov (‘preparation of elektro-
\n acoustic modules’; we just met him as a member of Ogni Videniy) and
\n Pasha Uhushuhu (‘quality control’). The title refers to a ‘concept
\n according to which consciousness is seen as software of a human being
\n subject to accumulation of errors and demanding for adjustments and
\n updating’. Oh. I didn’t hear much psycho acoustic modules (which are
\n in fact acoustic instruments, as the press text explains) as most
\n this seems to be made with the use of synthesizers and sound effects,
\n and the result is not unlike that of Ogni Videniy, but even sparser
\n and minimal, if that is possible, but essentially it is from a similar
\n source: lots of ambient, a bit of rhythm. Six Dead Bulgarians go just
\n a bit deeper and darker than Ogni Videniy, who allow more light and
\n air in their music. The Six Dead Bulgarians sound hovers closely to
\n the underworld of sound, such as in the entire beatless ‘Anonymizing’,
\n and ending in an underground techno club, playing ‘Stoping’, but that
\n too is a bit clouded with a dark, smokey ambience.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Three excellent releases, which are probably best enjoyed in this
\n order. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/zhb.radionoise.ru<\/a><\/p>\n
\n (cassette by Holoctics)<\/p>\n
\n by the look of their website, are quite active in performing music, doing
\n video and photography. The music was quite a loud piece of drone music,
\n played on a guitar and drums. Here they have a new release, a split one.
\n Side A starts with T\u00e9l\u00e9plasmiste, as Aas also a duo, of Mark O Pilkington
\n (Strange Attractor, Raagnarok, Urthona – I believe I don’t know these
\n bands) and Michael J. York (Coil, Cyclobe, and yes, I did hear of them
\n before). They both play an extremely rare Fenix II semi-modular synthesizer.
\n Their piece is a wonderful piece of synthesized drone music. It is perhaps
\n a bit on the soft side for a cassette release, but it sounds great. Tones
\n glide by, easy and full of harmony. Maybe there is a ritualistic element
\n to this music, which passed me by, but that’s all right. I can easily
\n enjoy this without thinking of any kind of ritual.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 And if I thought T\u00e9l\u00e9plasmiste was quiet, then I wasn’t prepared for
\n Aas, who take it all to threshold of hearing here, certainly in maybe
\n the first half of the piece. Very much like their first release they
\n choose for a very linear build-up. Starting out quiet and then keep
\n building the piece by adding layers of sound to the palette, making it
\n denser and, obviously, louder. Here too we could think there is some
\n kind of ritual in play, but I doubt that. Once the ball is rolling the
\n piece becomes rhythmic, bouncing back and forth. Hard to say if this
\n is again drums and guitars; it could be, but then both of these seem
\n heavily treated with the use of sound effects, certainly in the first
\n half. Both of these sides have a psychedelic feel to them, bringing
\n to different states of consciousness.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 T\u00e9l\u00e9plasmiste might be for dream states, but Aas definitely works
\n best in wakeful state, but in full trance mode. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/holectics.bandcamp.com\/releases<\/a><\/p>\n
\n about escalators, also showing one or two, in images. Maybe it’s about
\n going underground? I don’t think I heard of Maven CX before, which seems
\n to be a duo out of Canada, being Kevin Moeng and Steven Scherrelies. Not
\n a lot of information on the band themselves, but based on what I hear
\n I believe they have a bunch of synthesizers and rhythm machines at their
\n disposal and throughout this (debut?) release the mood is a bit dark.
\n This is not music to dance too, but Maven CX also isn\u2019t all about
\n abstract musical textures. There are elements of ‘pop’, however dark
\n they are, to be found in this release, with shimmering melodies. Their
\n songs are most of the time on the brief side, which works best for what
\n they do. Per song there is not a lot variation inside the piece; a bit
\n of rhythm, some drone-like sound, a hint towards melody and that’s it.
\n To do this for a longer time would not work very well, but within two
\n or three minutes there is no problem. Especially because there is some
\n variation as towards samples they use, such as a kalimba. I thought
\n that all of this was enjoyable; pleasant to hear but it is also without
\n grandiose new ideas. There is certainly room for improvement in terms
\n of song writing but this is a promising start. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/mavencx.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\n E.M.I.R.S. – END OF SPLICING THE PANNED AND RE-EMERGING (download)<\/p>\n
\n have made a drop-off. I am sure it was Quinten\/Belch\/E.M.I.R.S. as the
\n note that comes with this says that there is a new E.M.I.R.S. album to
\n be downloaded. Alexandra Atnif is from Bulgaria, apparently, lives in
\n the USA and somehow Quinten\/Belch\/E.M.I.R.S. ended up with a copy to
\n spare. I read on the bandcamp part of this that this was ‘a continuous
\n session recorded in my bedroom’ and essentially both sides are the same,
\n but one is a ‘Dirty Lash Mix’ and other one is a ‘Filthy Violence Mix’.
\n The cover has not really much information, other than the name of the
\n pieces and some website links. I have also no idea if Atnif did music
\n before, but ‘Session 1’ might be her first work. I am less pleased with
\n this than Quinten\/Belch\/E.M.I.R.S., who apparently likes this a lot.
\n The B-side sees all of the material played with a lot of extra sound
\n effects, to aim for that full-on sound blast. The A-side however is all
\n a bit clearer, with some fine hammering rhythm machine in a good old-
\n fashioned industrial music style. It’s all quite simple and direct; it
\n is also quite minimal, without much variation. That is a pity. I’d love
\n to say, most promising start, but I am not sure yet.
\n \u00a0\u00a0 As I witnessed the first concert by E.M.I.R.S and I enjoyed that very
\n much, I am always keen to gear what he is up next, even when I have
\n download that. I also very much enjoyed his previous release, ‘The Reel
\n Estate’, a collage of found sound (see Vital Weekly 970). Quinten, the
\n man behind E.M.I.R.S, once called himself Belch, or Belchsingersonggrinder,
\n an one-man punk band playing drums and guitars at the same, but now older
\n (wiser?) his music is a big softer than before. As E.M.I.R.S he uses lots
\n of sounds taped on cassette, old reel-to-reel tapes, contact microphones
\n and field recordings. His new release was recorded in his recently
\n completed new studio. Quinten says that E.M.I.R.S. ‘in contrast to the
\n Belchsingersonggrinderstuff, all this is pretty quiet and balanced work,
\n no heavily distorted noise or screams, pretty arty material’, but in the
\n opening piece ‘Uncle Walked Through Glass On Airport Pt. 2’ (part 1 is
\n the closing piece), he dabbles in the world of feedback and heavily
\n processed vocals, which doesn’t make this exactly easy music. In the
\n other pieces this is also the case, but to some extent not the full
\n force noise. E.M.I.R.S. always employ quite some rhythm, via tape-loops
\n and synthesizers and in ‘Roler’ sounds like a good ol’ 80s industrial
\n band, including that garage\/rehearsal space sound. In ‘Uncle Walked
\n Through Glass On Airport Pt. 1’ he returns to the world of noise again;
\n though not a bad release I enjoyed the previous release and that debut
\n concert better. (FdW)
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/alexandraatnif.bandcamp.com<\/a>
\n \u00a0\u00a0 Address: http:\/\/belchsingersonggrinder.bandcamp.com<\/a><\/p>\n