![\"SCHROEDER:CAMPELLO:GODOY\"](\"http:\/\/modisti.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SCHROEDERCAMPELLOGODOY.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
DIKEMAN\/PARKER\/DRAKE \u2013 LIVE AT LA RESISTENZA (CD by El Negotico Records)
\nSCHROEDER\/CAMPELLO\/GODOY – BARELY COOL (CD by PFmentum)
\nSPLASHGIRL \u2013 HIBERNATION (CD by Hubro Music)
\nGEIR SUNDSTOL – FUR U LUND (CD by Hubro Music)
\nMINDVOID – THUNDERNOISESPELL (CD by Frozen Light) *
\nSAD PARADE – TAPES ANALOGUE (CD by Frozen Light) *
\nARSENNE & CISAK & OLEKSINSKI (CD by Frozen Light) *
\nASTROWIND – SEMIKARAKORY (CD by Frozen Light) *
\nASTROWIND – KEDR (CD by Frozen Light) *
\nLOW CAVE SOUNDS – VOICES IN THE GROUND (2CD by Frozen Light) *
\nMOLOCH – ABSTRAKTER WALD (CD by Frozen Light) *
\nOLD MAN OF THE DESERT – UNTITLED COMPILATION (CDR by Frozen Light) *
\nMARC BARRECA – TAPE RECORDINGS 1977-1983 (LP by Vinyl On Demand)
\nK. LEIMER –\u00a0 – TAPE RECORDINGS 1977-1980 (LP by Vinyl On Demand)
\nTOY BIZARRE – KDI DCTB 180 (10″ by Substantia Innominata)
\nHIGHWAY ISSUE 2 (book by Ademas)
\nWRITING AROUND SOUND (magazine by The Auricle)<\/p>\n
\n[rssless]<\/p>\n
Vital Weekly 1013<\/a><\/p>\n \ntracklist for Vital Weekly 1012:<\/p>\n 0000 Tune DIKEMAN\/PARKER\/DRAKE \u2013 LIVE AT LA RESISTENZA (CD by El Negotico Records)<\/p>\n This CD documents what happened one night at La Resistanza, Ghent, Belgium, released by the\u00a0 SCHROEDER\/CAMPELLO\/GODOY – BARELY COOL (CD by PFmentum)<\/p>\n This project came into being from an ‘ethnographic research project on free improvisation\u00a0 \nSPLASHGIRL \u2013 HIBERNATION (CD by Hubro Music) Splashgirl is the playground of three Norvegian musicians: Andreas Stensland L\u00f8we (piano\/ MINDVOID – THUNDERNOISESPELL (CD by Frozen Light) With Christmas in The Netherlands being two days followed by a Sunday there is three days\u00a0 MARC BARRECA – TAPE RECORDINGS 1977-1983 (LP by Vinyl On Demand) A few weeks ago I reviewed the latest release by Marc Barreca, ‘Beneath The Mirrored\u00a0 TOY BIZARRE – KDI DCTB 180 (10″ by Substantia Innominata)<\/p>\n If that is anything to go by, in the world of classical music, composers use ‘opus’ (Latin\u00a0 DSORDNE – CARCERI (CDR by Klappstuh)<\/p>\n \nThe ending of the year tends to make one (or is it just me?) nostalgic. So I decided to\u00a0 HIGHWAY ISSUE 2 (book by Ademas) Vital Weekly is a most time consuming enterprise and before writing comes listening,\u00a0 \nhttp:\/\/www.vitalweekly.net\/<\/p>\n [\/rssless]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DIKEMAN\/PARKER\/DRAKE \u2013 LIVE AT LA RESISTENZA (CD by El Negotico Records) SCHROEDER\/CAMPELLO\/GODOY – BARELY COOL (CD by PFmentum) SPLASHGIRL \u2013 HIBERNATION (CD by Hubro Music)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":40717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40716","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\/40716","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=40716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modisti.com\/15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n0014 Sad Parade – Playground
\n0314 Astrowind – Kerosene Seller
\n0621 Moloch – Abstrakter Wald 7
\n0929 Arsene & Cisak & Oleksinski – (3)
\n1239 Astrowind – Kedr
\n1555 Mindvoid – Yikilmayan Adam
\n1900 Old Man Of The Desert – A Wolf
\n2207 Low Cave Sounds
\n2514 Tune<\/p>\n
\nEl Negocito label also from Ghent. John Dikeman was invited by the Amsterdam Doek-festival\u00a0
\nto start a new project. He chooses for Hamid Drake and William Parker, both well-known\u00a0
\nimprovisers from New York who have played together a lot in the past. Both are around since\u00a0
\nthe 70s and were part of Brotzmann\u00b4s Die Like A Dog Quartet, to give an example. And,\u00a0
\nrelevant here, both are admired by Dikeman, an improviser of a younger generation. Like\u00a0
\nParker and Drake, Dikeman is from the States. However he lives and works in Holland since\u00a0
\n2007 and worked with Blast, Cactus Truck. If you are acquainted with the hardcore jazz of\u00a0
\nCactus Truck you already have experienced the overwhelming power in his playing. If not,\u00a0
\ntry this one. Here Dikeman again profiles himself as a high energy blower, but shows he\u00a0
\nis also at home in more lyrical and subtle passages that seem initiated by Parker. In this\u00a0
\ntrio format they did a small tour, and this CD has a registration of one these concerts.\u00a0
\nThere is never a dull moment here, as all three have a big vocabulary at their disposal.\u00a0
\nThe extravert and concentrated conversations they built, are truly convincing and a joy.\u00a0
\nVery pure! (DM)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.elnegocito.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\nin Brazil’ by saxophonist and theorist Franziska Schroeder. She lectures at the School of\u00a0
\nCreative Arts in Edinburgh. Played with musicians like Joan La barbara, Pauline Oliveros\u00a0
\nand Evan Parker. She has a few records out on Creative Source and Slam. For her research\u00a0
\nin Brazil she came into contact with guitarist Marco Campello and drummer Renato Godoy.\u00a0
\nTogether they decided to do some recordings in a studio in Rio de Janeiro that are now\u00a0
\nreleased by PfMentum. All recordings were done on one day in May 2014. Couldn\u00b4t find much\u00a0
\ninformation on both Brazilian players. Godoy grew up playing in several rock bands in Rio,\u00a0
\nbut gradually changed to music dominated by free improvisation. Self-educated Marcos\u00a0
\nCampello has a duo with J.-P.Caron (untuned piano, objects). They released to albums for\u00a0
\nSeminal Records. That is about everything I could trace about their backgrounds. What\u00a0
\nthis album proves is that they are accomplished players in the field of improvised music.\u00a0
\nCampello has a lovely style and approach. Between the three, there is real chemistry and\u00a0
\nfine interaction in the improvisations. Really hot at moments! Although Schroeder is\u00a0
\noften in a prominent role, Campello and Godoy also make their marks in these communicative\u00a0
\nimprovisations. A very successful meeting, that makes one wonder how this is possible\u00a0
\nfrom a meeting of musicians that just met. (DM)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.pfmentum.com
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGEIR SUNDSTOL – FUR U LUND (CD by Hubro Music)<\/p>\n
\nelectronics), Jo Berger Myhre (doublebass\/tone generator) and Andreas L\u00f8nmo Knudsr\u00f8d\u00a0
\n(drums\/percussion\/sounds). They started in 2003, and with \u00b4Hibernation\u00b4, the home band of\u00a0
\nHubro Music, delivered their fifth album. Again we find Randall Dunn (Earth, Sunn O))),\u00a0
\nMarissa Nadler) involved as technician and producer. The nine compositions are all carefully\u00a0
\nconstructed and painted with a fine balance of electronics and acoustical instruments.\u00a0
\nOverall the music is very laid back and melancholic. Sometimes this was too much for me,\u00a0
\nto be pulled again and again in the same dark and shady moods. On the other hand their\u00a0
\ncraftsmanship has a lot to offer. Their accessible music is more close to jazz then it is\u00a0
\nto rock. But above all these three musicians developed their very own Splashgirl-stamp.\u00a0
\nGeir Sundst\u00f8l contributed to literally hundreds of records during the last 25 years. But\u00a0
\nthere is good chance you have never heard of him before. Well, I didn\u00b4t. He was pursued\u00a0
\nby Hubro to make a solo album. And so he did, making \u00b4Fur U Lund\u00b4 his first solo outing\u00a0
\nafter so many years of being in business. We find eight instrumentals, all composed by\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nSundst\u00f8l, except two that he co composed with David Wallumr\u00f8d. Wallumr\u00f8d (keyboards)\u00a0
\nis also one of the four performers, together with Erland Dahlen (drums, percussion)\u00a0
\nand Michael Blair (drums, percussion). Blair is an American drummer living in Stockholm\u00a0
\nnowadays, who worked with Mark Ribot, John Zorn, Lou Reed, etc. His instrumental music\u00a0
\nis rooted in all kinds of Americana (jazz, blues, country, etc.)\u2019 The pieces are coloured\u00a0
\nby the many different guitars Sundst\u00f8l uses, as well as a wide range of percussive and\u00a0
\nother instruments. The music is very atmospheric and evocative. Served very well as a\u00a0
\nsoundtrack for a movie that I made instantly in my mind. (DM)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.hubromusic.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSAD PARADE – TAPES ANALOGUE (CD by Frozen Light)
\nARSENNE & CISAK & OLEKSINSKI (CD by Frozen Light)
\nASTROWIND – SEMIKARAKORY (CD by Frozen Light)
\nASTROWIND – KEDR (CD by Frozen Light)
\nLOW CAVE SOUNDS – VOICES IN THE GROUND (2CD by Frozen Light)
\nMOLOCH – ABSTRAKTER WALD (CD by Frozen Light)
\nOLD MAN OF THE DESERT – UNTITLED COMPILATION (CDR by Frozen Light)<\/p>\n
\nof no mail, and nothing on the TV than the usual circus and being home alone, one could\u00a0
\nthink that the Frozen Light made a smart move by sending this whole bundle – with the\u00a0
\ncasual note: ‘please don’t review all’. Yeah, right, I am sure that was not the intention\u00a0
\nwhen this mailed this lot. So it’s more than three things and a lot is surely older than\u00a0
\nsix months. Let’s pretend we didn’t see that. A quick inspection learned that none of\u00a0
\nthese names mean much to me, so over the course of three lazy Sundays I went randomly\u00a0
\nthrough this pile. First there was Mindvoid from the Ukraine with ‘Thundernoisespell’,\u00a0
\nwhich has seven pieces, three of which are live, and five further bonus pieces from the\u00a0
\npreviously released ‘Chi L’ha Vista Morire’ CDR, released by Bosnian Human Cross Records.\u00a0
\nThis is some strange music that easily defies description. There is no indication towards\u00a0
\ninstruments, but at best we could say there is a sampler working overtime. Taping industrial\u00a0
\nrhythms, heavy metal guitars, rock drums, a children choir, and music from advertisements\u00a0
\nand as such it is sometimes very pop based, but also noisy and industrial at other times.\u00a0
\nMaybe this could go down as ‘plunderphonics’, even when there is no overtly concept or\u00a0
\nsocio-political message to get across. I was thinking this was all just about having a\u00a0
\nlaugh about sounds and musical notions? It took some time before I got into this, but then\u00a0
\nI actually quite enjoyed this factory churning out industrial music in various shapes and\u00a0
\ncolours. Good start.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 On the cover of ‘Tapes Analogue’ by Sad Parade I found a bunch of names, presumably\u00a0
\nbands of influence: Kraftwerk, Sisters of Mercy, Soft Cell, Visage, Joy Division and some\u00a0
\nof these I like too, so that was surely an easy target to play next. Sad Parade, also\u00a0
\nno name to guarantee a lot of fun, was from Finland, and this is a bunch of historical\u00a0
\nrecordings. They existed in the early nineties, when I was firmly out of touch with\u00a0
\nanything darkwave, so this is my introduction to their music. Four songs are from a demo\u00a0
\nfrom 1992, six from a tape from 1993 and eight songs recorded in concert in 1994. In the\u00a0
\nearliest material they sound a bit like a sub-standard Joy Division post-punk doom band,\u00a0
\nwith a bit of synths thrown in. Think De Brassers, but not as well. On their official\u00a0
\ntape release the drum sound is more prominent in the mix, a mixture of programmed beats\u00a0
\nand perhaps real drums, with a strong feature of the bass also. The voice is as expected\u00a0
\nfrom beyond the grave as this is what this music is all about. It is a bit gothic, too\u00a0
\ngothic perhaps for my taste, but I quite enjoyed these six songs. The live material\u00a0
\nprovides a fine look in how this sounded live, with more drums than programming, but\u00a0
\nis just not as great as the original official tape release. Nevertheless this is all\u00a0
\nquite good doomy music. Short days and long nights: Sad Parade provides an excellent\u00a0
\nmusique noir soundtrack.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Recently I saw the documentary ‘Beware Of Mr Baker’, about Ginger Baker, so I hummed\u00a0
\n‘White Room’ when I saw that the disc by Arthur Arsenne (guitar, loops, fuzz microphone,\u00a0
\njoystic oscillator), Piotr Cisak (bass, vocals, effects) and Pawel Oleksinski (guitar,\u00a0
\nvocals, effects) was recorded in The White Room (Nice, France; yeah I could have hummed\u00a0
\n‘Nice In Nice’ too), in March 2015. Their music is described as ‘doom-driven drone\u00a0
\nambient with noise and abstract sounds’, which sounds like an almost correct description,\u00a0
\nalthough the ‘noise’ is not something I necessarily agreed with. Here we have four long\u00a0
\npieces of slow developing guitar sounds, a bit ambient metal, a bit of humming voices and\u00a0
\na very dark sound. I am sure lights were off that night in Nice. I can imagine that this\u00a0
\nsounded great that night in that place, but I am not entirely convinced it works as well\u00a0
\nas on disc. It is all a bit long and without too much variation. After about thirty\u00a0
\nminutes I knew what they were about, and then there was another thirty to go. It wasn’t\u00a0
\nbad at all, don’t get me wrong, but my attention started to wane after some time, and I\u00a0
\nwasn’t down under in this swamp to fully enjoy it.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Astrowind is the project of Latvian composer Kirils Lomunovs, who recorded all the\u00a0
\nsounds on ‘Semikarakory’ on an ‘open-reel tape recorder during live improvisations on\u00a0
\nanalogue synthesizer and analogue desktop effects processors’ which were later re-edited\u00a0
\nand mixed down. The album is dedicated to the work of actor and director Alexander L.\u00a0
\nKaidanovsky, and especially to his work \u201cZhena kerosinshchika\u201d (engl. “Kerosene seller\u2019s\u00a0
\nWife”) [1988] about which the label says ‘this is an imagined walk in the dreary\u00a0
\nterritory, where every being dwells in the anxious suspense, in an unquenchable thirst\u00a0
\nof freedom, haunted by the whing of the broken glass’. What I missed on the previous disc\u00a0
\n(ambient music that worked throughout, keep attention and tension alive all the time)
\nworks very well here: the ambient music from Astrowind is textbook cosmic music from the\u00a0
\nseventies right up until the present day. Long sustaining sounds, bits of field recording,
\nheavily processed or rather not and in the title piece also some dark undercurrent thrown\u00a0
\nin. Sometimes a bit of spoken word, not necessary as far as I’m concerned, but it also
\ndoesn’t break the flow, so it is all right (and it’s in Russian anyway, so it acts as a\u00a0
\ntexture more than as something that needs to be understood). This is quite a bright and\u00a0
\ndark release, sparkling fine moody ambient music with some excellent synthesizer music.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Fired by this, looking at whatever was left, I picked up the one that was a bit harder\u00a0
\nto read but which turned out was another disc by Astrowind. I am not sure which of the two\u00a0
\nis more recent. I am not sure why ‘Kedr’ is very limited. Here too we have four long pieces\u00a0
\nand the cover lists per piece what kind of synthesizers were used, such as the “Vermona\u00a0
\nsynthesizer, Roland RE-201 Space Echo, multiple artefacts of Formanta Radio Factory in\u00a0
\nKachkanar, USSR, including Polivoks itself, as well as other exciting and legendary tools.\u00a0
\nA virtual-analogue synthesizer Oberheim OB 12 \u2013 “crazy mathematician” \u2013 plays a special\u00a0
\nrole in this record”, as the label announces. Somehow it seems to me that Astrowind’s music\u00a0
\nhere is a little rougher at the edges, a tad more experimental and in each or the four\u00a0
\npieces there a bits and bobs of rhythm mixed in. There is nothing wrong with any of that\u00a0
\nof course as it makes up an album of ambient music, albeit from the experimental end of\u00a0
\nthings. Unlike ‘Semikarakory’, which bright and dark mixed together in a great way, ‘Kedr’\u00a0
\nis mostly dark in its outcome. Just look at the covers and one knows the difference\u00a0
\nbetween both. I enjoyed this one just as well, but it seemed also safer and risk free;\u00a0
\nmaybe this is just the kind of music that I hear a lot when reviewing for Vital Weekly?\u00a0
\nHaving said that, this is one of the better in it’s kind.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Also very limited (103 copies) is the release by Voices In The Ground, the project of\u00a0
\none Hangsvart, who is also in such projects as “Abysmal Growls of Despair (Funeral Doom\u00a0
\nMetal), Catacombed (Drone Doom), Caelum Natus Ex Mortuus (Dark Ambient), Plagueprayer\u00a0
\n(Horror Doom Metal)”. As Low Cave Sounds he produces something that is “very deep and\u00a0
\nclaustrophobic, absolutely dark and totally uneasy to listen and to understand”. No\u00a0
\ninstruments are mentioned on the cover. In the third piece of the first disc I learn\u00a0
\nthese are voices, but in the two previous pieces it was mostly distortion. Not in a\u00a0
\nfeedback kind of way, but just a lot of overload. Drones but then rather mean, low and\u00a0
\nloud; that would be the best description of Low Cave Sounds. Voices that howl, grunt and\u00a0
\nspit are used rather sparsely. Yes, this is indeed some uneasy listening, I think. It\u00a0
\nis not really text book noise music, which makes this a little bit different than much\u00a0
\nelse what is available in the noise scene, and listening to one CD was quite all right,\u00a0
\nbut I must admit I found the second disc a bit too much of the same thing.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 From Sergiy Fjodsson, who works as Moloch we receive the longest release, close to\u00a0
\neighty minutes of music, and it is entirely based on field recordings made “in Winter\u00a0
\n2010 at close live ritual in Carpathian Mountains” and the label also tells us that\u00a0
\n“all sounds represent a real-time-recording, along with background sounds of the open\u00a0
\nspace and atmosphere of the natural acoustics. No PC programs were used here”. That\u00a0
\nis of course hard to believe if one hears the music, which seems very much like something\u00a0
\nthat is played on a synthesizer, which is set to ‘orchestral string sound’ and which is\u00a0
\nused throughout these eleven pieces. Usually this is deep and dark, but here it isn’t as\u00a0
\ndeep as one would expect, but obviously this is also not cheery music. All of these melodic\u00a0
\nlines are played in slow arpeggio modus and apparently sounds like ‘Mortiis (era 1), Vond\u00a0
\nand old Burzum’, which are references that not necessarily means a lot to me. I thought\u00a0
\nthis was a most strange record. It could be very annoyed that much of this sounds the same;\u00a0
\nit’s essentially the same song over and over again, in the same mood, tempo and the same\u00a0
\nkeyboards settings. But oddly enough I didn’t feel annoyed; more so I quite enjoyed this.\u00a0
\nOne sits back, reads a book, and watches the grey Christmas sky outside and there is this\u00a0
\nmusic dropping by in eleven minor variations. So, yes, I quite enjoyed this.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 We close with the only CDR release in this bundle with music by The Old Man In The\u00a0
\nDesert (maybe related to the old man of the mountain?), a group of one person who is just\u00a0
\ncalled A.S. and who plays all of this music himself. Frozen Light refers to this as ‘sub-
\nMoscow Black\/Shoegaze\/Post-folk project’ and it compiles pieces from 2013 to 2015 and these\u00a0
\nsongs were scattered over demos as well as some previously unreleased bits. A man armed\u00a0
\nwith his guitar, (loop) effects and a drum machine. He hammers away on all of his\u00a0
\ninstruments, and everything is captured with quite some reverb, to create more atmospheres;\u00a0
\nalmost as if The Old Man In The Desert is afraid we would think his music isn’t atmospheric.\u00a0
\nSome of compositional methods are a bit similar (and we just learned that should be no\u00a0
\nproblem), with heavy intro and built-up, followed by softer passage and a mighty crescendo.\u00a0
\nWhen the sound isn’t ‘rehearsal-room hollow’ and the drums and guitars tuned down, there\u00a0
\nis actually something else going such as the synth based ‘A Moonlight’. But that is hardly\u00a0
\nrepresentative of the music. That’s a pity because after a while I was more or less done\u00a0
\nwith the hollow sounding production of this. Let’s safely say this old man ain’t buying\u00a0
\nthis. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.frzl.ru<\/a><\/p>\n
\nK. LEIMER –\u00a0 – TAPE RECORDINGS 1977-1980 (LP by Vinyl On Demand)<\/p>\n
\nSurface’, which is his ninth album. I noted that number included an unheard yet recent album\u00a0
\nof his earliest tape works; unheard by me, but lo and behold these two just arrived before\u00a0
\nChristmas. There is a connection between K. Leimer and Marc Barreca; I believe both are from\u00a0
\nSeattle, and both release their music on Palace Of Lights, Leimer’s label. Both were also a\u00a0
\nmember of Savant, a group playing electronic music with a more ‘pop’ angle. That was all in\u00a0
\nthe early 80s. These re-issues for both artists deal with their earliest works. There are\u00a0
\nsome differences to be noted. While both use a bunch of synthesizers (interestingly enough\u00a0
\ndifferent ones, so they weren’t using each others equipment), Leimer plays mostly alone,\u00a0
\nand has one piece with female vocals. Barreca uses on three tracks a cast of guest musicians,\u00a0
\nproviding guitar, bass, saxophone, drums and voices.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Barreca’s LP is a best of from four cassette releases, from 1977 to 1983 and sound like\u00a0
\nambient should sound like from those days. Barreca took notes from the early ambient work of\u00a0
\nBrian Eno. Repeating fragments, sustaining sounds just like on ‘Music For Films’, Barreca\u00a0
\nkeeps his pieces short and to the point. Each of these pieces is well rounded off piece of\u00a0
\nmusic, which creates the right atmosphere, straight away. Sometimes it is moody and spooky,\u00a0
\nbut most of the times it is melancholic and introspective. Throughout there is quite a lo-
\nfi feeling about this music: the production side is kept ‘small’, maybe due to technical\u00a0
\nlimitations, rather than ideological decisions. There always seems to be just a few sounds\u00a0
\nplaying but always in a fine configuration to each other. The three pieces with the guest\u00a0
\nmusicians sound quite different, as here Barreca starts using rhythms, sequences and sampled\u00a0
\nvoices, thus coming close to his work with Savant. Maybe a bit out of place these pieces,\u00a0
\nbut strategically located at the end, and, perhaps forecasting something else? However a\u00a0
\nre-issue by Savant could be in order also, I would think.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 K. Leimer always the seemed the more active composer: the four sides here are from 1977\u00a0
\nto 1980 and also span four cassette releases. He also uses other instruments than synthesizers,\u00a0
\nsuch as piano, pianet, guitars, bass and rhythm box. The ambient music of K. Leimer (K. stands\u00a0
\nfor Kerry, if you must know) is always a bit more expanded, certainly on the second record\u00a0
\nwith works from 1979 and a bit from 1980. Here we have the expanded sound with drum machines,\u00a0
\nbass and guitars and Leimer’s music is more ambient with a nod to pop than with Barreca. On\u00a0
\nthe first record in this package, with music from 1977 and 1978, Leimer works with piano,\u00a0
\nsynthesizer and a sustaining guitar. Here we find the piece with the female vocalist Nancy\u00a0
\nEstle and it sounds rather tacky, but it works well. In his earliest works Leimer plays\u00a0
\nrather naively his music, taking inspiration from Robert Fripp as well as Brian Eno, and\u00a0
\nisn’t as stylistically set to one thing or another. He tries out many ideas within the\u00a0
\nboundaries of ambient music and just like Barreca he manages to keep his pieces short and\u00a0
\nto the point.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Both of these records contain some great historical pieces of music, unheard by me before\u00a0
\nat that time (I think I first discovered K. Leimer’s music in the mid to late 80s), but\u00a0
\nmaking perfect sense. Both of these musicians remain true ambient artists to this very day\u00a0
\nand both of them are never on a repeat mission, always seeking out new ways to work with\u00a0
\nsound in ambient music. These sets show where their journey started and it is indeed quite\u00a0
\na wonderful insight. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.vinyl-on-demand.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nfor work) to indicate what they composed, ‘Opus 25: Symphony number 2’, that kind of thing\u00a0
\n(unless of course you’re Mozart, you have someone else listing your works, mister Ludwig\u00a0
\nAlois Ferdinand Ritter von K\u00f6chel, so it says ‘KV’ and not ‘op’). Something similar is\u00a0
\ndone by Toy Bizarre, also known as Cedric Peyronnet, except that he just numbers his works,\u00a0
\n‘kdi dctb’ – whatever that acronym stands for I never figured out, and it’s not followed by\u00a0
\n‘symphonic poem’ or ‘piano concerto’. I am not sure where he’s up these days with numbering\u00a0
\nhis works, but surely well over 200. So to get ‘kdi dctb 180’, spread out over two sides\u00a0
\nof the record, made me think this might be a somewhat older work. It source material was\u00a0
\nrecorded at an unknown bridge in Bazine Valley, 2003-2007 and composed from 2013-2015, so\u00a0
\nit took some time before completing this. It completes a trilogy to which also ‘kdi dctb\u00a0
\n039′ and ‘kdi dtcb 151’ belong, which I am not sure I reviewed. It is a secret location,\u00a0
\nconnected to Peyronnet’s childhood; a creepy place apparently.
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Toy Bizarre manipulates field recordings, but then you may say: like so many others.\u00a0
\nThat might be right, but along with Artificial Memory Trace, Toy Bizarre belongs to the\u00a0
\nabsolute top of their trade. The original field recording is never easily recognized\u00a0
\nthrough the many treatments this music receives along the way. Surely these are mostly\u00a0
\nmade with the use of computers, but I like to believe that there is also a fair amount\u00a0
\nof analogue treatments, such as playing the material on small speakers and recording\u00a0
\nthese in odd locations. All of this results in a bulk of sound material, which is cut\u00a0
\nand pasted together into some excellent sound compositions. Opening here with some strong\u00a0
\ndrone material, flying about and then crossing over to some layers of water recordings,\u00a0
\nwhich sound as recorded from an odd angle, giving it a most curious sound color. The\u00a0
\nother side opens up with what seems to be the crackling of leaves, but somehow recorded\u00a0
\nwith digital distortion. The middle part is drone-like again, but now a bit more static,\u00a0
\nwhereas the ending provides us with some sort of acoustic sound that is quite in your\u00a0
\nface. This could be some acoustic object but it’s more likely these are the sounds of\u00a0
\ninsects or birds, recorded up close. This is some fascinating music all around, one\u00a0
\nToy Bizarre’s many great records. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/www.dronerecords.de<\/a><\/p>\n
\nclear out my paper correspondence, which has been building up since the early 80s. This\u00a0
\n\u2018archive\u2019 of letters, catalogues, drawings, flyers and whatnot fills up more than twelve\u00a0
\ndossiers, which in a few days, I managed to cut down to half its size. Much of the\u00a0
\ncatalogues and flyers went into the bin, much of the correspondence was kept – including\u00a0
\nthe letters I exchanged with Marco Milanesio from (contradictory) Turin in Italy. He was\u00a0
\nand is the main man of the experimental\/ambient project DsorDNE. Marco was (and perhaps\u00a0
\nstill is), like me, a major fan of the Legendary Pink Dots resulting in 1987 in a split\u00a0
\nsingle of the Dots and DsorDNE. The single was released with the Snowdonia fanzine,\u00a0
\nwhich, if you could read Italian, was great fun and very informative \u2013 with some copies\u00a0
\nluckily including an English translation. Snowdonia was run by Marco Pustianaz of whom\u00a0
\nalso letters were kept in my archive. But I digress. In 1992 DsorDNE released their\u00a0
\ncassette album Carceri (\u2018prisons\u2019), which echoes much of the sound of their great and\u00a0
\nsole vinyl LP E Un Sole (Hax 1990). The German label Klappstuhl can be heralded for\u00a0
\nre-releasing DsorDNE\u2019s this now quite rare cassette on CDR. Recorded between 1989 and\u00a0
\n1991 the seven tracks on Carceri are de facto solo recordings by Milanesio, who in the\u00a0
\nliner notes displays his fascination for Franz Kafka. The great German author, who is\u00a0
\nwell quoted but not that well read, is certainly all over the introduction of the album;\u00a0
\na doomy, post-apocalypse soundscape with electronic sounding like insects thrown in.\u00a0
\nIt proves to be a fine introduction to No Time, which surprises (me) with its sequenced\u00a0
\npost-punk drums and funky bass line, which continue in Giorni E Luoghi – adding ambient\u00a0
\nsynthesizer lines. Starting with out the rather in-your-face and the \u2018of its time\u2019\u00a0
\nsounding drum patterns of the previous tracks Scimmie gains some well-deserved space\u00a0
\nin return. Adding spaced vocals and ambience the drums kick in during the second half\u00a0
\nof the song, giving it a post-punk feel. A lovely piano melody (a bit like Wim Mertens)\u00a0
\nintroduces Solo (E) In Movimento, which strongly contrasts with the previous tracks.\u00a0
\nLiquidi Silenzio, on the other hand, proves a return to the drum beat-driven sound of\u00a0
\nCarceri, which would do well at an ambient dance party. Closing track Carceri leads us\u00a0
\nback to the atmosphere of the opening track: all doom and gloom with a nice trumpet\u00a0
\nthrown in. In all, and even though I personally prefer the more subdued earlier ambient\u00a0
\nrecordings by DsorDNE, this is a particularly strong and professionally recorded album\u00a0
\nwhich should appeal to anyone with an interest in Italian post-punk ambient music. (FK)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/klappstuhl.bandcamp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWRITING AROUND SOUND (magazine by The Auricle)<\/p>\n
\nwhich is something that takes many guises. Sometimes one is full attention, taking note
\nof detail changes, but sometimes music invites the listener to do something else. For\u00a0
\nme reading is something I love to do, especially when there is something to read about\u00a0
\nmusic. Books and e-books (illegally obtained or otherwise) are favourites, but music\u00a0
\nmagazines are always something I enjoy too. In the ‘old’ days Vital Weekly reviewed\u00a0
\nmore magazines and fanzines than it does these days, unfortunately I should say, but\u00a0
\nI enjoyed the first issue of ‘Highway’ a lot (see Vital Weekly 968). Here’s the second\u00a0
\nissue, still sized roughly 10,5 x 16 centimetres, and 220 pages. A fanzine\/book that\u00a0
\nfits in your pocket; easy to read on the train. Like the previous issue, ‘Highway’ is\u00a0
\nnot just about music. There is for instance an interview with Mark Fisher, who makes\u00a0
\nsome interesting comments on music scenes then and now and photographer Sebastian Mayer\u00a0
\nabout his work on shooting musicians. Israel Martinez explains his installation about\u00a0
\nthe drug wars in Mexico, a piece on Dadabots, which if I understood correctly do\u00a0
\nautomated remixes of music, a piece on ‘Decorder’, the early 80s movie about muzak\u00a0
\n(which I recently saw again after thirty or so years), plus five pieces on music scenes,\u00a0
\nincluding an older piece by Kim Gordon. Topped with a bunch of photos by Hundebiss.\u00a0
\nThe only bit I didn’t understand was ‘An Anthology Of Recorded Music, Volume 1’, in\u00a0
\nwhich non-related artists tell about how a certain piece was made, but perhaps it\u00a0
\ndidn’t help that I didn’t know these pieces. But it’s perhaps a learning curve? I\u00a0
\nreally enjoyed reading all of this; I wished I were a commuter again (well, not really\u00a0
\nof course, but to read a pocket sized book on music on a train is most enjoyable).
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Of a somewhat different nature is the publication ‘Writing Around Sound’, from New\u00a0
\nZealand. A5 sized and printed on glossy paper this is all about ‘hearing’, ‘listening’\u00a0
\nand ‘sound’. It comes through the Auricle Sonic arts Gallery, which is also a place\u00a0
\nfor concerts and installations. Inside the publication we find articles on Antonin\u00a0
\nArtaud and Cruel Noises, about ‘mishearings’, ‘universal vibration’, a piece on the\u00a0
\ncreation of spatial and temporal atmospheres (by Dani Cunningham), photo collages by\u00a0
\nMarine Aubert but also pieces on ‘online publishing and creative commons’ and more\u00a0
\nspecially Nat Grant’s ‘Momentum project’ plus a piece called ‘The Tyranny Of The\u00a0
\nPreset’. Maybe for some of this stuff it would have helped to see what it was about,\u00a0
\nespecially when it comes to the installation works described, but it’s an interesting\u00a0
\nread all the way through. (FdW)
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/highwaymagazine.info<\/a>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Address:\u00a0http:\/\/auricle.org.nz<\/a><\/p>\n