NEWSLIST DRONE RECORDS 31. JANUARY 2009

DR-90: NOISE DREAMS MACHINA - IN / OUT (Spain; great electroacoustic drones of high complexity )
DR-91: MOLJEBKA PVLSE - lvde dings
(Sweden; mesmerizing
magneto-drones from Swedens drone-star, so dense and impervious)
DR-92: XABEC - Feuerstern
(Germany; long planned, finally out:
two wonderful new tracks by the prolific german artist, comes in
cardboard-box with golden print / lettering!)
DR-93: OVRO - Horizontal / Vertical (Finland; intense subconscious
landscapes & surrealistic schizophrenia-drones by this female Finnish
artist, the "wondergirl" of Finnish exp. music)
DR-94: ARTEFACTUM - Sub Rosa (Poland; alchemistic beautydrones, a record fill with sonic magic)
DR-95: INFANT CYCLE - Secret Hidden Message (Canada; long-time
active Canadian project with intelligently made hypnotic drone-circles)
MUSIC for the INNER
EXPANSION, EC-STASIS, ELEVATION !
SECOND EDITIONS (price € 6.00)
DR-10: TAM QUAM TABULA RASA - Cotidie morimur (Italy;
outerworlds brain-wave-music, monotonous and hypnotizing loops &
rhythms)
DR-29: AMON – Aura (Italy; haunting & shimmering magique as
coming from an ancient culture)
DR-34: TARKATAK - Skärva / Oroa (Germany; atmospheric drones
with a special touch from this newcomer from North-Germany)
DR-39: DUAL – Klanik / 4 tH (U.K.; mighty guitar drones & massive
sub bass undertones that evoke feelings of total transcendence and
grandeur)
DR-41: DRONAEMENT–Wassermond (Germany; debut vinyl of east
german Drone-Composer; wonderful drone-music based on
watersounds)
DR-42: REYNOLS – 10.000 Chickens Symphony (Argentina; this
obscure outfit from Buenos Aires works on the sound of – at least –
10.000 chickens – an amazing & mindblowing field recording experiment!)
DR-46: REUTOFF – Reutraum IV (Russia; vinyl-debut for this trio from
Moscow – a mixture of rhythmic industrial with dark & depressed
ambient tunes, made in the heart of the decay)
DR-50: ULTRASOUND – Death comes from the left
(Netherlands/USA; very emotional guitar drones at its best, this is pure
yearning transfered into sounds..)
DR-58: URE THRALL - Premonition 9/11
(USA; Californian artist creating the most impressive soundscapish
depth-drones with an incredible emotional depth)
Dear Droners!
This NEWSLIST offers you a SELECTION of our mailorder programme,
with a clear focus on droney, atmospheric, ambient music. With this list
you have the chance to know more about the highlights & interesting
newcomers. It's our wish to support this special kind of electronic and
experimental music, as we think its much more than "just music", the
"Drone"-genre is a way to work with your own mind, perception, and
(un)-consciousness-processes. Music for contemplation, meditation,
sophistication. Non-Entertaining Music!
NEWSLIST DRONE RECORDS
31. JANUARY 2009
- VINYLS – CASSETTES – CDRs – DVDs - CDs – PRINTMEDIA –
THIS NEWSLIST / SUPPLEMENT IS A SELECTION OF NEW
ENTRIES HAVING ARRIVED HERE IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS
SINCE THE LATEST NEWSLIST (DEC. 2007) .
THE FULL MAILORDER PROGRAMME WITH ALL TITLES IS LISTED
IN THE DATABASE on www.dronerecords.de
PLEASE STATE PRICES WITH YOUR ORDER TO AVOID DELAYS
BITTE IMMER PREISE MIT ANGEBEN !
ALL PRICES IN EURO !!
0.
SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA 10" VINYLS
( "EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN" ! )
(price € 12.00 each)
SUB-02: ASIA NOVA - Magnamnemonicon 10"
red-white / pink
vinyl, artwork by Ure Thrall
SUB-03: NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES - Zona Incerta 10" insect-sounds!
two different vinyl-colours, artwork by Mars Wellink (VANCE ORCH)
SUB-04: CISFINITUM – Devotio 10” sacral church-bell sounds,
white vinyl, artwork by TILMANN BENNINGHAUS
SUB-05: BIG CITY ORCHESTRA - Drone Gnomes 10" pure acoustic
impro-trance music from San Francisco's drone-magicians!
SUB-06: RLW - Contours Imaginaires 10" three mesmerizing hightension pieces by the legendary ex-P16.D4-member
SUB-07: OÖPHOI - Potala 10" first ever vinyl by the italian deep
ambient master, mirroring holy places
SUB-08: HUM - The Spectral Ship 10" most sensible & emotional
drone-ambience, sound like universal mantras
AVAILABLE LABEL–RELEASES DRONE
RECORDS / SUBSTANTIA INNOMINATA
The following DRONEs and SUBs are currently available:
DRONE RECORDS 7”-SERIES FIRST EDITIONS (price € 7.00 each)
DR-75: IN MEDITARIUM - Mare Internum (Ukraine; esoteric innercosmic / mother-womb drones, pre-symbolic surroundings attracting
your unconscious)
DR-77: LUNAR ABYSS QUARTET - Brusnika (Russia; ethno ambient
Industrial with a shamanistic & hallucinogenic aura from this rising star
from the St. Petersburg scene!)
DR-79: AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF - Fragment 36 (Germany:
experimental drone-ambience with high dynamics and philosophic
approach)
DR-80: RYN - Whistle and I'll Come to You (U.K.; power-drones
based on field recordings to flood you mind away)
DR-81: WÄLDCHENGARTEN – The Leech (Danmark; heavy-gravity
drones, raw & sluggish)
DR-82: PETER WRIGHT – Air Guitar (New Zealand / U.K.; guitarmantra-drones, obscure & lovely guitar explorations & field recordings)
DR-83: HELICE PIED – Conduit No. 2 (Greece; ex-NIXILX NIJILX –
processed field recording-drones with symbolic & conceptual interrelations)
DR-84: YUI ONODERA - Synergetics (Japan; oceanic contemplation
drones shimmering like light-reflections)
DR-85: MURMER - In their homes and in their heads (US/UK/FR;
captivating field recording compositions and a crazy handmade cover!)
DR-86: LICHT-UNG - kristall (Germany; feedback & high-tension
impro-drones from these new radical german artists)
DR-87: SEETYCA - The Lake (Germany; poetic acoustic landscapes,
organic drones)
DR-88: HATI- Recycled Magick Drones
(Poland; archaic trance
music played on gongs & ethnic instruments)
DR-89: SHRINE - Distorted Legends Pt.1 (Bulgaria; dream &
distortion drones to look behind the surface)
1
1. VINYLS
* AMBARCHI, OREN - In the Pendulum's Embrace do-LP
(Southern Lord SUNNLP78, 2008)
€ 15.00
Das 2007er TOUCH-Album erschien schon wenig später in edler
Aufmachung auf SOUTHERN LORD, dem SUNN O)))-Label!
"OREN AMBARCHIs In The Pendulum‘s Embrace (TO:78) kommt
daher mit wunderschönen Jon Wozencroft-Fotos als Touch-Touch. Und
mit nicht weniger schönen Titeln: ‚Fever, A Warm Poison‘, ‚Inamorata‘,
‚Trailing Moss In A Mystic Glow‘. Verschleppte, nachdenklichverträumte, einzelne Gitarrennoten, Cymbalsirren, Glasharmonikadrones, Atem beraubend! Ambarchi wagt sich auf Gefühlsebenen,
wie man sie sonst nur von Loren Mazzacane Connors oder Morton
Feldman kennt. Gebannt lauscht man, bis der letzte Nachhall verklingt.
Die Töne schweben wie Löwenzahnsamen, verwehen wie Rauchkringel. Fast leichter als Luft, und doch zu schwer für ein Herz allein.
Fast 18 Minuten geht das so, ein Knacken, ein Beben, ein Dahindriften,
sonor, rätselhaft. Wollte man danach greifen, gar festhalten, wäre da nichts, das man greifen könnte. Nur ein Vermissen, ein Phantomschmerz. Wenn er der ‚Geliebten‘ nachsinnt, pflückt Ambarchi von den
Saiten seiner E-Gitarre noch dunklere Noten, die dahin mäandern und
ein Echo wie einen Schatten, wie eine schwarze Schleppe hinter sich
her ziehen. Die Töne werden etwas dichter gesetzt und überlagern sich,
auf halber Strecke kommt Streicherklang (Veren Grigorov) als
Begleitung dazu. Es hört sich anfangs fast wie ein Akkordeon an, das
Trübsal bläst. Harmonie und Resonanz breiten sich aus wie die Farben
auf Rothkobildern. Beim Track ‚Mystic Glow‘ mit seinem sonoren, fast
stehenden Dröhnen und Wummern harft der australische Melancholiker
auch noch auf einer Akustikgitarre. Und stimmt in den letzten 2 Minuten
einen Singsang an, der rückwärts zu laufen scheint. An sich ist Touch
kein Hort für blaue Blumen. Ambarchis Tristesse ist jedoch so
mitternachtsblau, wie es blauer nicht geht." [Bad Alchemy]
"OREN AMBARCHI continues his otherworldly investigations with In
The Pendulum’s Embrace, a kind of dark twin to his landmark 2004
album Grapes From The Estate. Returning again to the hallowed halls
of BJB Studios in Sydney, Ambarchi expands the scope and range of
his unique musical language, incorporating an even broader palette of
instruments and sensibilities. Despite the use of glass harmonica,
strings, bells, piano, percussion and guitars, it’s startling that the world
created is still unmistakably his own, and that there is such a cohesion
of vision throughout the albums’ three lengthy pieces. With this record
there’s an even more tenuous coexistence of fragility and density;
sounds as light as air mingling with wall shaking low-end. The
converted already know the kind of trance inducing euphoria of
Ambarchi’s music. Newcomers will be scouting the back catalogue."
[label info]
* AER - Project 7" (Touch Seven TS03, 2007) [lim. 500] € 7.00
AER ist ein neuer Name und doch nicht wirklich ein neuer Name, denn
dahinter steckt JON WOZENCROFT, der seit Jahren für die TOUCHReleases die stilvolen Fotos macht & Covers designed. Sein Beitrag für
die neue TOUCH SEVEN 7"-Serie besteht aus sanfter aber volumiger
auraler Klang-Watte & versteckten Mikro-Klangobjekten, speziell
designed für Lautsprecher und Kopfhörer.
"Aer is the occasional recording name for Jon Wozencroft, art director
and editor for Touch. Project began as a film soundtrack for The
Overcoming of Hazard, by Brad Butler and Karen Mirza, a 3-monitor
installation piece presented in the crypt of St. Pancras Church in
London. It uses four atmosphere recordings, shortwave radio and an
organ stop -- an attempt to confuse inside and out. Mixed with Mathias
Gmachi using Digital Performer, one side is for headphone listening, the
other for speaker playback." [label notes]
"...AER concocts a darkly minimal soundscape of field recordings and
hushed melody. The sounds from the street outside, footstep, voices
talking, singing, sirens, thunder (or automobile backfires, or perhaps
firecrackers), interwoven with strange clicking, machine like chatter, like
a spinning bicycle wheel, random clanks and clatters, room noise and
other sonic detritus, while beneath it all, warm whirring melodies drift up
from below, adding nuance and mood to what might otherwise be a
straight field recording, a rhythm way off in the distance or buried way
down in the mix, is sometimes discernible, but only barely, and in fact,
could be a trick of the ears, random sounds falling into place, creating
not-really-there rhythms. But it hardly matters, we hear them, and they
offer a sort of ghostly structure to the proceedings. Quite nice, and we
can’t wait to hear more." [Aquarius Records review]
* AETHENOR - Betimes Black Cloudmasses LP (VHF Records
111, 2008) € 14.00
Zweites Album dieses Projektes mit ihrem instrumentell-improvisierten
"Psychedelic Noir", überwiegend ruhig & dronig & minimal,
durchbrochen von vielerlei konkreten Objekt- und InstrumentenGeräuschen, sowie ekstatisch-perkussiven Zwischenparts... hat was
verwunschenes, fabulöses, bannendes...
"Betimes Black Cloudmasses is the highly-anticipated second album
from Vincent De Roguin (Shora), Stephen O'Malley (SUNN0))), KTL),
and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo). Like their genre- and audienceconfounding debut Deep In Ocean Sunk the Lamp of Light, Betimes is
an atmospheric, constantly changing piece that encompasses a mindboggling array of different performance and processing techniques. The
deeply psychedelic and moving results present a soundstage that is
continually evolving, with new elements entering and leaving the fray
every couple of seconds.
Betimes includes significant contributions from free percussionists
Nicolas Field and Alex Babel, who sprinkle the sound field with an
almost FMP-style rush of splattering drum sound, raising the intensity of
the music (without resorting to bashing). The album also features a brief
but affecting vocal from Ulver mastermind Kristoffer Rygg, who made
his first live appearance in over a decade when Aethenor played the
Roadburn Festival in April 2008. Aethenor's third LP, featuring vocals
and lyrics by David Tibet, will be released in Autumn 2008.
'Musically, Aethenor summon the most somnolent examples of Bernard
Parmegiani, Organum, Nurse with Wound, Klaus Schulze, Igor
Wakhevitch, Coil, Iancu Dumitrescu, and Charlemagne Palestine.
Acousmatic drones ebb and flow into crackling and bubbling sonic
clusters. Lulling piano motifs and lamenting chants shimmer into distant
lunar horizons while oscillators spin and drove serenely into
unchartered audial regions. Sometimes as calm as a silvery sea, so that
every gentle cat's-paw and lapping wave is deafening. Sometimes as
tempestuous as a fuming lava beach, spitting and popping at the
surface.' -Daniel O'Sullivan " [label info]
* AMBARCHI, OREN - Destinationless Desire 7" (Touch Seven TS
05, 2008) [lim. 500]
€ 7.50
"Electric guitars, organ, samples, bells, percussion and motorised
cymbal recorded at BJB Studios, Sydney with additional overdubs
made at home 2005-2007. Gratitude to Fairport Convention and Boris D
Hegenbart. This is the 5th in the series of Touch Sevens - 7 vinyl only
releases. 7 vinyl was the quintessential format for popular music.
Today, it is an undervalued and mostly promotional medium, used as a
fetishistic signpost to a time of musical authenticity and a healthy
popular culture. It might seem like another retrograde step to launch a
vinyl series just as the download format threatens to dominate, and
indeed there is an element of the rear view mirror... the generation of
Touch artists who grew up with vinyl [and cassette] still feeling a strong
emotional attachment to it. This series is more than that... an overtly
critical, non-digital statement is supported by treatments of audio work
which cannot be applied to digital formats - the sonic texture, the use of
a locked groove, the A & the B and the additional dimension of the
visual counterpoint. As for the aspect of audience participation, we
choose not to specify the RPM on the label, encouraging the listener to
experiment with playback options and personal preferences. An attempt
to make music that works at both speeds. The front cover might actually
be the back cover..." [label info]
"...Using electric guitars, organ, bells, samples, percussion and
motorized cymbal (!), Ambarchi has created to dramatically different
pieces. The A side is a woozy, washed out underwater sounding
loopscape, peppered with record crackle (unless that’s coming from
the record player, either way, it sounds great!), like a slightly
jauntier, less melancholy Oval, major key melody, all softly sunshine- y,
a dreamily hypnotic stretch of soft swirl that could go on forever.
The B side is much darker, long streaks of shimmery low end
beneath haunting slowed down vocals, mournful and mysterious, the
vocals and the guitar drift and shift, all wound up in and around
each other, throughout, bits of electronic glitchery, smears of muted
buzz, snippets of conversation and dialogue, but all that stuff seems
to be woven into an undulating backdrop for Ambarchi’s ghostlike
disembodied blues.
As always, packaged in super striking thick matte sleeve with
* AMBARCHI, OREN / LASSE MARHAUG - Worried Friends 7"
nd
€ 8.00
(Pica Disk PICA002, 2007) [2 ed. 200 copies]
"october 2007 release; a pair of “piano music” pieces, acting as the
debut collaborative single from two of contemporary experimental
music’s most prolific/consistently rewarding practitioners; oren ambarchi
and lasse marhaug... those of you expecting something on par with
maurizio pollini’s reading of satie’s gnossiennes might be a little
shocked to find instead a fierce 12+ minute inside-piano scrape-fest,
hedged with bursts of live-electronic feedback & a “hot” fidelity familiar
from any number of david tudor recordings... yet at the same time not
too far removed from the new blockaders’ whole gesamtnichswerk; this
is anti-music at its finest... not something for strict followers of oren’s
friendly/subdued sine-guitar throb, nor lasse’s harsh wall of electronic
sound; but definitely one for those whose preferences fall in the noisier
end of the electro-acoustic composition/improv spectrum... "
[Mimaroglu]
2
gorgeous photos and layout from Touch head honcho Jon Wozencroft."
[Aquarius Records review]
mit "Another World" eine Fünf-Track-EP vor. Die teilweise surreal
anmutenden Songs thematisieren die Zerstörung der Welt und ihre
mögliche Errettung, das Cover von "Another World" zeigt die
japanische (Butoh-)Tanz-Legende Kazuo Ohno, fotografiert von PierreOlivier Deschamps." [Indigo]
* AMBARCHI, OREN - A final Kiss on poisoned Cheeks LP
(Table of the Elements Am95, 2008)
€ 16.50
OREN AMBARCHI's Beitrag für die neue "guitar series" auf TABLE OF
THE ELEMENTS: vielschichtige Poly-Drones, bestehend nicht nur aus
Gitarren-Tönen sondern auch aus elektronischen Kontakt- und
Störgeräuschen & sich windenden Feedbacks; ein sehr komplexes
Stück, lebendig und elektronisch ausstrahlend in 1000 verschiedene
Richtungen. Wunderbar auch, wie es dann allmählich mit glockenhellen
Klängen versetzt ausklingt.. AMBARCHI in Höchstform. Himmelblaues
Vinyl.
"There is a vivid breadth to the guitar deconstructions of Australian
Oren Ambarchi. Sometimes his work takes a delicate lilt; it can also dive
into dark and deep pools of sound when he joins cowl-core ensembles
Sunn O))) (with Stephen O'Malley) and Burial Chamber Trio (with Greg
Anderson). Whether with those bands, solo, or in collaboration with
luminaries ranging from Mike Patton and John Zorn to Christian
Fennesz, he consistently reroutes his instrument into zones of arch,
alien abstraction. A Final Kiss On Poisoned Cheeks offers a dizzying
gaze straight into a chasm of extreme frequencies -- paint-peelingly
high and bowel-churningly low -- all set atop a sub-strata of menace,
angst, and contemplative beauty." Pressed on light-blue marbled,
etched vinyl. B-side etching artwork by Savage Pencil." [label info]
"...Still essentially a dronescape, A Final Kiss is rife with sonic
activity, so much so that in lesser hands it would be more of a mess,
a sort of pretty-ish noise record, but Ambarchi, takes all manner of
buzz and glitch, of scrape and hum, and weaves it into a strangely
lyrical arrangement. The core of the piece is a thick, undulating low
end drone, a muted Niblockian shimmer, that seems not to change so
much as shift, reflecting different colors and sounds depending on the
angle. Over this nearly constant thrum, exist a veritable universe of
strange sounds, streaks of feedback, cricket like electronic chitter,
moaning throbbing swells of guitar rumble, brief blurs of warm soft
focus fuzz, layers of crumbling distortion, all of the various
elements constantly shifting and blossoming, collapsing and then
blooming again, creating a super organic flow, another instance of
leaving the instruments on the stage, guitars against amps. amps
cranked, although here it seems the instruments have come to life, and
we are glimpsing their secret lives, as the communicate musically,
telling some sort of story, exchanging mysterious messages, which
while indecipherable to human ears, still manage to sound magical.
Guitardrone freaks will, well, freak! Subtly heavy, darkly
drone-y, slightly noisy, rich and dense and textural. Really gorgeous.
And totally recommended.
Pressed on swirled turquoise vinyl. One sided, the other side
with a super bad ass etching, housed in a thick vinyl sleeve, and of
course, as always LIMITED!" [Aquarius Records review]
* AOSUKE - Monotone Spirits LP (Meudiademorte MDDM11 /
Audiolith Records AL019, 2006)
€ 12.00
"Die beiden Hamburger Ulf Schütte und Tobert Knopp (Turbostaat, ExEndmonster) mit ihrem anderen Projekt. So ungefähr klingt ein Blick mit
einer 100fach vergrößernden Hörlupe ins Reich der Insekten. Altes
elektronisches Equipment, geloopte Akustikgitarren, dazu im
Hintergrund kreuchelnde unruhestiftende Effekte. Psychedelischer
Ambient in der Tradition von Krautrockern wie Neu oder Faust oder
Epigonen wie Black Dice. 4 Tracks." [Flight 13]
"aosuke's new album "monotone spirits", which has been released as
collaborative work of the labels audiolith and meudiamorte, is highly
recommended to all lovers of classic ambient sounds as all four tracks
which are paving their way through a total running time of about 36
minutes feature floating, totally beat-less structures of organic ambience
influenced of what my be called a slightly post-postrock'ish attitude if the
simple use of processed guitar sounds can be regarded as rockreference. if not, it's just ambient at its best." [label info]
* A SILVER MT. ZION - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons do-LP
(Constellation Records CST 051-2, 2008)
€ 18.50
Die derzeitige Vorzeigeband des Montrealer Labels (da es GODSPEED
nicht mehr zu geben scheint) klingt auf "13 BLUES" noch weitaus
wütender, aggressiver, rockiger & lauter als man es gewohnt war.
Geblieben ist das verzweifelte Pathos und die ausschweifende bis
mitreissende Psychedelik, die immer wieder zu wunderschönen
Instrumental-Passagen führt, denn noch immer sind diverse Streicher
im Kollektiv dabei.
"Nachdem sich die komplette Band hinter Silver Mount Zion über die
letzten drei Jahre etwas rar gemacht hat, kommen sie nun umso
eindringlicher um die Ecke. Doch der Reihe nach; denn unsichbar
waren sie beileibe nicht. Als Silver Mountain Reveries oder The Silver
Maountain Elegies Play War Radio suchten sie diverse Clubs in
wecshelnden Bestzungen heim, zuweilen unterstützt durch Hangedup,
oder als abgespeckte "Kammer"-Version. Und dann natürlich nicht
zuletzt als Backing Band des famosen Vic Chesnutt auf seiner kürzlich
absolvierten Tour. Das alles jedoch konnte nicht den Hunger der Fans
nach einem neuen Album des Montrealer Künstlerkollektivs stillen. Und
hier ist es nun: das neue Album. Nie zuvor waren SMZ eindringlicher,
nie zorniger und nie mächtiger. Die Basis dieses Albums ist mehr als je
zuvor: DAS Riff! Vom Blues, den es im Titel trägt bis hin zu zornigem
Noise und wieder zurück zu ausufernden Klangkaskaden - zwei
Gitarren, zwei Violinen, Cello, Kontrabass und Drums können nicht
irren! "13 Blues..." ist Donnerhall und Sturmwarnung zugleich - es ist
laut und doch fein arrangiert. Kurz: es ist absolut zwingend!" [thee
unknown reviewer]
"The music of the full band (two guitars, two violins, cello, contrebasse
and drums) has grown louder, looser, full of spittle and tears. On 13
Blues For Thirteen Moons, riffs are the backbone more than ever.
Anchored by new drummer Eric Craven (ex-Hangedup), the band works
its slow build and burn with newfound patience, sinuousness and
ferocity. Whether methodically framing walls of sound over the four-onthe-floor punk dirge of "1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound" or
exploding in sheets of free noise and melody on "Black Waters
Blowed", the band has never rocked harder and has never sounded
more determined, desperate and driven. A stuttered blues riff is the
foundation for the album's title track, making its appearance after a
blisteringly minimalist intro. "Engine Broke Blues" features a gorgeous
set of chords that build inexorably from multiple guitar, string and organ
lines." [press release]
* ANTLERS MULM - Of Withered Sparks LP (LOKI Foundation
LOKI47, 2007)
[lim. 222 copies]
€ 15.00
"Our hopes, our flesh, our tears... are draped like dead birds in the
skies"... Different from most other LOKI-artists, ANTLERS MULM
appears to be much more song-oriented, doing a kind of dark electronic
pop-music, but very refined, minimal, deeply melancholic & quiet.
Reminds us a bit on TWICE A MAN or TOR LUNDVALL at times, but
with a much darker singing..
"The third album of ANTLERS MULM opts for deep resonating tones
that are harmonious and hypnotic with a greater emphasis on
percussion, and the massive foray into song based structures. Dark
Beats and phantasmagorial Melodies are melting into an intense
atmosphere guided by the outstanding voice of the father of shadows
Hans Johm. Throbbing samples enriches this compositions to a
homogenic masterpiece. These 10 songs are catching the mood of the
warm feeling of being at home and creating a landscape of a coruscant
kingdom that lies deep within the lyrical and musical expression. These
tracks building melancholy on the most song based LOKI release ever take a deep breath and get lost in this aural world of ANTLERS MULM.
Limited digipack and vinyl version (222 copies) released in January
2008." [label info]
* AUTECHRE - Quaristice do-LP (Warp Records 333LP, 2008)
€ 16.50
"....Ein weiteres ist, wie konsequent und unbeeindruckt Autechre seit
mehr als 15 Jahren ihren Weg gehen. Ihren Wurzeln treu bleibend und
dennoch extrem wandelbar ist die Musik der beiden Briten. "Quaristice"
führt mit seinen insgesamt 20 Tracks die experimentellen Klangspielereien, die seit ihrem Album "Confield" 2001 im Vordergrund
stehen, nun fort. Allerdings ist die ganz noisige Note wieder aus den
Tracks von Autechre verschwunden.
Zarte Melodiefragmente gehören wie bei "Altibzz" gleich zu Beginn und
den beiden letzten Tracks "Notwo" und "Outh9X" zwar durchaus zum
guten Ton auf "Quaristice". Dazwischen lassen Autechre ihre
Prozessoren aber gerne mal von der Leine und jagen ihre Sounds die
Gehörgänge der Zuhörer hoch und runter. Zunächst einmal
schmeicheln Autechre ihrem Publikum mit den oldschooligen
Breakbeats von "The Plc". Die einbrechenden Soundfetzen leiten
* ANTONY & THE JOHNSONS - Another World
12" (Rough
Trade, 2008)
€ 12.50
"Dramatische Texte, surrealschöne Töne: EP des New Yorker
Songwriters. Er brauchte nur zwei Alben, um zum Kultstar zu werden:
Antony Hegarty, kurz Antony. Dabei hat sich der New Yorker dem
anspruchsvollen Kunstlied verschrieben, singt neoromantische Balladen
zu leisen Pianoklängen, traurige Epen, in denen sein leicht nasaler
Tenor dominiert. Zu seinen musikalischen Freuden, mit denen er schon
Duette sang, gehören Lou Reed, Leonhard Cohen und Björk ebenso
wie Boy George, Hercules and Love Affair und Rufus Wainwright. Um
die Wartezeit bis zum dritten Album zu verkürzen legt uns Herr Hegarty
3
bestens über zum verstörenden "lo", das nur dank seiner schrägen
Vocals mühsam in Struktur gehalten wird.
Computermusik bedeutet bei Autechre, die Limitierung herkömmlicher
Instrumente in der Komposition hinter sich lassen zu können. Eine
Maxime, der sie auf "Quaristice" einmal mehr treu bleiben. Ein bisschen
mehr Commitment zum Dancefloor zeigt das Duo normalerweise bei
seinen seltenen Live-Shows. In diesen Tagen sich Autechre wieder
unterwegs. Die beste Gelegenheit sich einmal im Club die Sounds von
Sean Booth und Bob Brown durch den Körper fahren zu lassen."
[Daniel Straub / LAUT.DE]
"Autechre, one of Warp's best known artists, return with Quaristice, a
vast, sprawling masterpiece that will galvanize their dedicated and
sizable fanbase. With Design Republic back at the helm of art direction,
Quaristice will be an album that impresses sonically but also visually.
This warmer analog masterpiece recalls some of Autechre's most
classical material. Quaristice is an enveloping blanket of Autechre's
skewed sound science." [label info]
Edel Vinyl-Edition der amerikanischen Wiederauflage des quasi ersten
MARTYIN BATES Tapes DISSONANCE von 1981, zu der wir
bemerkten: "Völlig verschieden von dem späteren Songwriting, stehen
diese Sounds noch voll in der Spätsiebziger Post-Punk und IndustrialTradition, mit rauhem low-fi Noise und Instrumental-Sounds (v.a.
Gitarre & Synths), Gesangexperimenten, etc.. aber auch schon ruhigere
folkige Elemente die an den späteren MARTYN BATES erinnern, mit
seiner typischen Delay-Orgel und gezupfter Gitarre, sind vorhanden... "
"The more definitive American version was released as a cassette ASR
009 in the US in 1981 and dropped the Migraine Inducers moniker and
the "Antagonistic Music" title extension. It was now referred to as
Martyn Bates' "Dissonance" and released in an edition of 100 cassette
copies and became known as "Dissonance Americas"." [discogs info]
"Edition of 150 copies on 220 gram vinyl. Freed from layers of sand, the
ancient seal is cracked and the stone portal pried away. A hoary
blizzard of slowly settling dust and mold is finally sliced by the first
tantalizing glint of a mythological cache. At long last a lost experimental
classic from the earliest days of the UK DIY movement is delivered from
legendary obscurity. "Violent anti-music: I think this is a brilliant
tape...hauntingly beautiful and totally refreshing sound." So wrote Geoff
Rushton (aka Jhon Balance) in a 1980 issue his Stabmental magazine
about Martyn Bates' "Dissonance" cassette. Originally released as a
micro-edition in the UK in 1979, the more definitive American version
was released as a cassette in the US shortly afterwards. "Dissonance"
presaged Martyns solo career and his work as part of Eyeless In Gaza
in a most unusual way. Rather than directly suggesting what was to
come, the cassette, instead, suggested a composing and sound
AESTHETIC that exists to this day. That first cassette-only cri-de-coeur
would have you believe that Martyn would be the next Nurse With
Wound. Instead, rather like a more extreme Vice Versa or Human
League, with Bates literally finding his voice, the later music (solo and
with Eyeless In Gaza) evolved into a textural, fractured, DIY chamber
pop INFORMED by the avant-garde, occasionally straying back into
outright experimentalism (Pale Hands I Loved So Well, eg.). That
Eyeless In Gaza (and lets not forget Peter Becker) and post 70s Martyn
Bates manifested from "Dissonance" makes this bizarre and essential
release even more of a precious find. If Martyn had not recorded
another note, this would still stand as an extremely important early,
incredibly forward thinking moment of sonic exploration. Dynamic,
visceral and jagged but musical and deliberately constructed,
"Dissonance" captures, maybe even defines the zeitgeist of the DIY
attitude that was rising in the heady days of the late 70s and early 80s.
An undeniable antecedent and a true revolution." [label info]
* AUTOPSIA - Silently the Wolves are watching 7" (Illuminating
Technologies IT008, 2007)
[lim. 500]
€ 7.00
The Czech Industrial-pioneers are back with this 7" combining (neo)classic sounds with at times rhythmic & weird electronics, quite
idiosyncratic. The covers shows a Jesus on the cross with a wolf-head.
Some sources say this 7" is inspired by PASOLINIs film "Porcile", and
the "wolf man" case of FREUD. Numb. ed. 500.
* BÄCK, SVEN-ERIK - Electronic Music LP (Fylkingen Records
FYLP 1021, 1978) € 15.00
Original-Kopien dieses Klassikers der schwedischen elektronischen &
experimentellen Musik!
"Sven-Erik Bäck was in his versitality unique among Swedish
composers. Since his debut in the 1940´s, he was regarded as a radical
avantgardist and since Bäck was also a performer, the musical result
became most interesting. Since his first electronic work - In Principio
(1970) Bäck produced many electronic as well as instrumental and
vocal compositions. He also combined music with other media such as
dance and visual art." [label info]
* BARBED - Through the Barricades 10" (Auf Abwegen
travel_document # 6, 2008) [lim. 500]
€ 9.00
"Barbed are Alex Burrow and Alex McKechnie. They formed in London
in 1988, and spent the next six years working on their album". Thanks
to the amazing patience and encouragement of These Records (or
Recommended Records as they were known then) the album finally
appeared in 1994. Where it got reviews, it got great reviews, but
otherwise it fell on deaf ears. Shortly afterwards, the term
'plunderphonics' came into being and Barbed were taken in by this new
gang. Happy to be accepted somewhere (even though they had no
interest at all in the genre) Barbed tagged along and collaborated in
arduously long concerts with Negativland, People Like Us and the Tape
Beatles, resulting in a few live recordings and some subhuman contact.
Meanwhile, they continued producing low quantities of high quality
material, and generally wasting time on dead ends. Around 1998
disaster struck and Barbed joined the band Add N to X (it was
supposed to be just one concert but they ended up staying a year). No
recordings survive from this period. Another, more successful diversion
came in the form of a collaboration with Joram ten Brink. They spent
more than a year doing the soundtrack for his arthouse classic 'The
Man Who Couldn't Feel', which divided audiences at the Berlin Film
Festival in 1997. In the ten years between the album and now, they've
leaked their material out to various compilations, live records & remixes,
and in 2000 a single appeared on elevatorbath records. So here we are
in 2007. That upbeat 2nd record is finally out on LOaF, plus a collection
of eccentric short pieces on this pleasing ten inch on aufabwegen."
(label info) this is #6 in a series of travel documents issued by the
ministry of detours of the kingdom of elgaland-vargaland [krev], edition
of 500 copies." [label info]
* BEEQUEEN - Sanddancing Demos 10" (Important Records
IMPREC177, 2008) [lim. 300]
€ 13.50
Schwester-Release zur aktuellen CD, auf der 10' sind Demoversionen
& frühe Mixe enthalten, sowie ein unveröffentlichter Track!
"The Sandancing Demos 10-inch, as its title suggests, contains the
original ideas that birthed BEEQUEEN’s wonderful new album
Sandancing. Includes original versions, rough mixes and home demos,
plus an unreleased track. Limited edition of 300 copies packaged in
heavy duty screen printed jackets by MONOROID." [label info]
* BELONG - Same Places (slow version) LP (Table of the
Elements Cu96, 2008)
€ 16.50
Auch die Experimental Gitarren-Droner von BELONG sind in der neuen
"Table of the Elements"-Vinylserie vertreten! Man muss sofort an eine
rein instrumentale und weniger Song-basierende Version von MY
BLOODY VALENTINE denken wenn man sie hier hört, aber der
Rausch- und Dissoziationsfaktor ist noch grösser, die Klänge
verschwinden teilweise regelrecht hinter einer Nebelwand, lösen sich in
verbilbte Fragmente auf wie ein altes Foto. Die Atmosphäre die entsteht
ist unvergleichlich! Klares Vinyl, Etching, JIM PLOTKIN hat gemastert.
"With Same Places (Slow Version), Belong evinces a slow-motion
transformation -- plate tectonics, wired for sound. Aural mountains melt
into seas; yet icy barrens yield to breathing jungles of detail. The single,
sprawling track may evoke decay, dissolution and destruction, but
underfoot are tendrils of inexplicable joy. Belong sings a lullaby of
obliteration, and the paradox it embodies would make both Kevin
Shields and Tony Conrad proud: crushing melancholia and shuddering
euphoria, inexorably intertwined." Pressed on etched sea-foam green
vinyl, etching artwork by Savage Pencil, London 2008." [label info]
"... A warm, washed out, dreamy, delicate, gauzy blurred woozy drift of
pixilated sound. Jeck, Tim Hecker, Fennesz, all those guys have
nothing on Belong. If anything, Belong take those sorts of sound and
transform them into something more organic, more amorphous. "Same
Places" sounds almost like actual people playing actual guitars, instead
of something assembled on a computer. Layered and dense, the
melodies obscured by thick swells of fuzzy whir, the fact that this is the
"slow version" does explain how gorgeously glacial it sounds, and how
many of the tones do sound like someone with their finger on the vinyl
slowing the record player down to a crawl, but all that does is let the
* BASS COMMUNION - II do-LP (Tonefloat TF42, 2007) [lim.
500]
€ 32.50
Edle Edition des zweiten B.S.-Albums von 1999 mit Bonusmaterial, im
Gatefold-Cover & auf weissem Vinyl, lim. 500.
"a release both steven wilson and tonefloat were looking forward to was
a vinyl edition of bass communion's second album from 1999, if only for
the superb carl glover artwork. it is with pleasure that we now announce
a lavish double vinyl edition of bass communion ii, which collects the six
tracks from the original 1999 cd release plus wide open killingfeld part 2
and wide open killingfeld part 3, exclusive to this release. by tradition,
the album comes with a superb gatefold picture sleeve. the edition of
500 copies only comes on white vinyl." [label info]
* BATES, MARTYN - American Dissonance LP (Beta-lactam Ring
Records mt197lp, 2008)
[lim. 150]
€ 20.00
4
lowend sprawl, the melodies become even more abstract, pulled apart,
and slowed down to the point where their constituent parts almost
separate and drift away, almost. Instead, it’s an underwater whirl,
everything shimmery and indistinct, the sound as you sink deeper and
deeper into the abyss, but instead of getting darker, the sounds begin to
glow from within, bathing you in their unearthly light. So totally
gorgeous. Pressed on thick clear vinyl. One sided, the other side with
a super bad ass etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick vinyl
sleeve, and of course, as always LIMITED! " [Aquarius Records review]
pure and magic live action, divided in four long tracks taken from the
original live recordings. BLACK MAGIC DISCO's logo comes from the
pencil of Roberto Opalio; the gatefold jacket CD artwork, curated by
MCIAA contains some band photos taken during the live performances
included in the record." [label info]
"... This is a music that grows out of the faith each performer puts in
whatever they may come up with ? by the simple act of listening &
reacting to one another in the most profound and dedicated way. Again,
one of its greatest achievements lies in the fact that it is able to sustain
a body of sound that is as intense as it is delicate; something which, in
my opinion, is truly unique.
Accordingly, this is not just a testimony to the talents of the
aforementioned musicians, but also one of the most passionate love
letters MUSIC has received in quite some time. How can THIS not be
essential? 10/10" [Francois Hubert / Foxy Digitalis]
* BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & LAND USE - TSE-K LP (Small Voices
SVV011, 2007) [lim. 340 copies]
€ 14.50
Nach der schönen "Psychoneurose" schon die zweite Zusammenarbeit
von LAND USE mit BIANCHI. Zwei lange dark-drone Stücke, sanft
walllende sub-marine akustische Massen in denen sich alles verliert:
Stimmen, Sirentöne, Klackern, tauchen am Rande der Wahrnehmung
auf um in endlosen Weiten wieder zu verschwinden...
"Maurizio Bianchi is back on vinyl! A new special limited edition from
Small Voices and the father of Italian industrial music, together with
Land Use from Holland in this new chapter of his legendary career. An
oppressive meditative obscure early-industrial symphony based on two
monolithic pieces of thick throbbing stuff. A long deep trip into the
darker meanderings of the human mind... good luck!" [label notes]
* James BLACKSHAW - The Cloud of Unknowing LP (Tompkins
Square TSQ1974, 2007)
€ 13.00
Wunderbar gezupfte Gitarren-Ambience des Londoners JAMES
BLACKSHAW, sublim und hypnotisch, mit Begleitung von Viola,
Glockenspiel, Cymbals. Sein bereits sechstes Album.
"When UK-native James Blackshaw plays his 12-string guitar,
something spiritual takes place. Performing and recording since 2003,
his name is frequently mentioned as one of the foremost modern solo
acoustic guitarists. Now at the age of 25, Blackshaw, an untrained
musician born and still residing in the suburban environs of Greater
London, draws as much inspiration from early religious music, SouthAsian folk music and composers such as Arvo Part, Simeon Ten Holt,
Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine as he does from John Fahey,
Robbie Basho and the early Takoma Records roster, constantly
breaking boundaries in what could be conceived as a somewhat limited
medium. In his part improvised and part written songs, Blackshaw
makes expert use of Eastern and Western scales, chord changes
reminiscent of European classical music and incredibly intricate
fingerpicking patterns to make a sound that is both challengingly
minimalist, yet warm and approachable to anybody who might hear it,
with a rare sensitivity that conveys immense beauty, hope and
sadness." [label info]
* BIRDS BUILDS NESTS UNDERGROUND - Night Night LP (Love
Nest LN0001, 2007) [lim. 333 copies]
€ 13.50
This duo with the obscure name is a kind of turntable-ism project from
Prague, fans of PHILIPP JECK or ERIK M. should check this out!
"Prague-based turntablist duo BIRDS BUILD NESTS UNDERGROUND
(Petr Ferenc and Michal Brunclík) creates music based on putting the
sounds from crackling vinyl records into new situations. Prepared and
manipulated LPs are sources of fragments and soundscapes; their
future use is influenced only by aesthetic point of view. Birds Build
Nests Underground are not a post-modern project searching for popcultural references and quotes, thein aim is to write beautiful, somehow
mysteriously familiar songs. They call they approach MUSIC UNDER
MUSIC – exploring the detail through the microscope of repetition and
speed change.
BIRDS BUILD NESTS UNDERGROUND played their first concert in
2003, since then they have played in numerous festivals of industrial,
noise, contemporary music and urban electronics (Stimul, Alternativa,
Prague industrial festival, Art’s Birthday, Noise NoD etc…). They have
contributed to various compilations, written music for two films by
American director Joseph Cahill and for a theatre performance Silence
– No Technology. Since 2007 the duo has collaborated with a filmmaker Martin Ježek whose manipulation with 8mm film footage ön two
projectors is close to BBNU’s analogue aesthetic and searching for the
charm of found elements.
BBNU’s debut album Night Night was recorded in 2005 and is released
as a 12-inch vinyl in numbered edition of 333 on the band’s own label
Love Nest. Two of the four compositions are soundtracks for Joseph
Cahill’s silent films. Hospital section was created in collaboration with
Prague-based noise project Seismic Wave Factory." [press release}]
* BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS - Uncle Billy
7" (DANHUSER Org.
KIA DAN 001, 2007) [lim. 356 copies]
€ 10.00
"This, possibly sperm influenced, off-milky white seven inch is the latest
between album output from Massimo and Pierce of the Black Sun
Productions collective. Sex Magik seems to play a lesser part in these
two pieces, being noticeably shorter than their recent material on their
last few long-players.
Eschewing the melancholy of the double disc The Impossibility of
Silence release they have moved into an electronic semi-operatic
mode. Massimo’s voice is the main, and most enjoyable, ingredient
here, steadied now into a sonorous, deep vocal. His warm cavernous
wails at the climax of “Uncle Billy” merging with the very European
sounding violin’s reaching string fingers to provide what must be a
raging spectacle when performed live. The underwater pounding thump
is overwhelmed by his vocal, the siren strings exacerbating the
expressed loss. Apparently this Burroughs tribute track is the first fruit of
a collaboration with Bahntier (who sound like post-industrialists from the
little I’ve heard) and I look forward to hearng more. Both tracks here
have Massimo filling the songs with a human heart, mollifying the
sharpened edges of the music.
The addition of Roberto Budelo’s violin is an excellent counterpoint to
the mutating precision of Pierce’s electronics. This more organic work
following and filling the sound of the speeding clicking beats of “His
Secret Secretions”. It’s worth also noting that this is probably the best
bassline that the pair has created yet, a simple forward-moving piece
that’s fixed to the beats. They’ve come a long way from the ghost boys.
Their musical equivocation and ongoing evolution means that it’s
difficult to predict where this duo will come from next." [Scott McKeating,
Brainwashed]
* BLACK MAGIC DISCO - same do-LP (A Silent Place ASP27,
2007)
€ 19.50
"double LP couloured vinyls (vinyl 1solid RED / vinyl 2 solid WHITE);
comes in a luxury gatefold cover, including a huge 70x100 cm. poster
(by Roberto Opalio drawing); BLACK MAGIC DISCO ARE:
TOM GREENWOOD / psych-blues guitar, turntables.
ROBERTO OPALIO / electrogalactic guitar, space toys, astral toykeyboard, piano toy, percussions.
MAURIZIO OPALIO / electric alien guitar, cosmic rays effects, minixylophone, percussions.
RAMONA PONZINI / Japanese vocals & hypnotic chimes.
Black Magic Disco is the new all-star band featuring Tom Greenwood
(Jackie-O Motherfucker), Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An
Alien) and Ramona Ponzini (Painting Petals On Planet Ghost,
Praxinoscope). The project was born out of an idea from Tom
Greenwood, founder leader of the avant-folk-blues ensemble Jackie-O
Motherfucker, who invited Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka the Italian
improv duo My Cat Is An Alien (MCIAA), and their close collaborator
Ramona Ponzini (also involved with the two brothers in the projects
named Painting Petals On Planet Ghost and Praxinoscope, as well as
in the new collaboration with Z'ev) to perform with him for two months of
touring throughout all Europe in May/ June 2005. As one can imagine,
the result was killer. The music which came out of the live performances
was totally explosive, combining Ramona's Japanese vocals & hypnotic
chimes with Greenwood's psych-blues guitar attitude & wild turntablism,
over MCIAA's alien cosmic flux of electric guitars, space toys &
percussions, creating a still unheard mixture of sounds unifying archaic
& post-modern, western & eastern, sky & earth. This debut CD
represents a unique chance to experience almost 80 minutes of that
* BODIN, LARS-GUNNAR - Clouds LP (Fylkingen Records FYLP
1020, 1977) € 15.00
Letzte Original-Kopien dieses Klassikers der schwedischen
elektronischen Musik! "CLOUDS" wurde erst kürzlich auf CD
wiederveröffentlicht; eine Art multimediales Drama aus Musik, Gesang,
Tanz-Performance, Dia- und Filmprojektion. Eine komprimierte Fassung
(ca. 45 Minuten) wurde als LP veröffentlicht, mit auffallend schönen
Synth-Drones & vokalpoetischen Elementen & Gesängen, mit absolut
visionärer Qualität.
"Lars-Gunnar Bodin, Swedish composer and graphic artist, was one of
those who during the first half of the 60's tried to integrate elements of
different fields of art in his works: instrumental music, tapes, texts,
actions, projections etc.
In 'Clouds' (1972-76) he developed an advanced form of musical drama
5
involving electronic music in 8 channels, singers, dancers and slide and
film projections on five screens. The music on this record is a shortened
version of Clouds, especially created for this medium." [label info]
the cocking of a gun; but it doesn't seem like Burial is taking aim at his
audience. Rather, it's metaphor for the cold, inhumane existence in the
grimy parts of London, where violence is just another thing to shrug at
and move beyond. All of these sounds are clearly present in Burial's
debut album, but the "euphoric" part of Untrue's intention is found in
Burial's use of voice. Taking a cappella tunes sung by his friends
(sometimes, left as a voice mail on his cellphone), Burial has crafted an
eerie cast of disembodied vocals, twisted into cybernetic R&B croons,
all clipped and compressed in the same manner as his pistol-whipped
snare cracks. It's as if the human voice alone can transcend the dire
circumstances of our earthly confines, even when the songs reflected
broken dreams and a dwindling hope. Burial seeks out the fleeting
moments of beauty and raw emotion, codifying it through his
impeccable craft on this very impressive and soon to be iconic
recording. If you're not hearing it from us, you'll hear from somebody
else: Burial's Untrue is the best record of 2007." [Aquarius Records]
* BURIAL - Untrue do-LP (Hyperdub HDBLP2, 2007)
€ 16.00
Vinyl-Version, Erstpressung mit falscher Track-Reihenfolge auf
Backcover! ".... Mit Untrue liegt nun ein weiteres Meisterwerk des
jungen Südlondoners vor, der es vorzieht, anonym zu bleiben, statt sich
einem Medienhype um seine Person oder gar einem Personenkult
auszusetzen. Burial klang nicht zuletzt wegen dem Coverbild
futuristisch düster, erinnerte an Bladerunner, an eine durch ewige
Regenwolken verdunkelte Stadt, in der es keinen Unterschied zwischen
Tag und Nacht mehr gibt. Cover von CDs oder Platten prägen den
Klangeindruck immer mit, vor allem wenn es sich um eine sehr eigene
oder neue Musik handelt. Untrue arbeitet stärker mit Vokal-Samples
und schafft den Hyper-Soul, den ein paar Jahre zuvor Jamie Lidell um
Haaresbreite verpasst hat, weil er klassizistisch geworden ist und
plötzlich wie Al Green und andere Soul-Grössen klang. Hier definiert
einer den Soul auf einer neuen elektronischen Ebene. Die Vocals
bestehen aus Samples, deren Pitch (Geschwindigkeit und Tonhöhe)
verändert ist. Die Stimmen sind deshalb geschlechtlich nicht
zurechenbar und wirken vergeistigt wie Selbstgespräche, wie Mantras, I
envied you girl, I envied you girl, I envied you girl, I can take my eyes off
you, I can take my eyes off you, I can take my eyes off you (Near Dark)
oder nach dem Intro das erste Stück Archangel: Holding you, good at
being alone, good at being alone, good at being alone. Die Vocals sind
zudem in weite Echoräume gestellt, was den Eindruck von Gebeten
unterstützt. Die Beats sind fast immer etwas holprig, allerdings deutlich
weniger als auf dem Erstling. Ein drittes Element dieser Musik (neben
Vocals und Beats) sind die verwendeten Aufnahmen von
Umweltgeräuschen, die den Stücken ein abstraktes Setting geben.
Im Ganzen ist dieses Album eine Sammlung von einsamen Gebeten
eines Engels, der seine Klagen und Hoffnungen an andere einsame
Engel richtet, ohne zu wissen, ob diese ihn erhören. Ich glaube, er ahnt
die Unmöglichkeit dieses Versuchs, was sich in einem noch
vehementeren Rückzug aus der Kampfzone niederschlägt. Er gibt nicht
auf, sondern versucht es mit noch grösserer Innigkeit. Im The Wire
Interview bestätigt Burial, dass seine Tracks das Verlangen nach einem
Schutzengel zum Ausdruck bringen, der über einem wacht, wenn man
spät in der Nacht keinen Ort mehr hat, wo man hingehen kann, ausser
zu McDonalds, und wo man auch keinen Anruf mehr entgegennimmt
(siehe die Coverillustration). Eines der Alben dieses Jahres!" [Christian
Schorno]
"After the surprise success of his self-titled, low-key debut on Hyperdub,
Burial returns with an eagerly awaited follow up album, ‘Untrue’. The
new record is weird soul music, hypersoul, lovingly processing spectral
female voices into vaporised R&B and smudged 2step garage. Voices
are blurred, smeared, pitched up, pitched down and pitch bent until their
content becomes irrelevant and they whisper their saccharin sweet
nothings into the void.
UNTRUE continues with the first album’s crackle drenched yearning
and bustling syncopations haunted by the ghosts of rave, but also
reveals some new Burial treats with a more glowing, upbeat energy.
UNTRUE kicks off with the skittering 2step syncopations and vocal
science of ‘Archangel’, ‘Near Dark’ and ‘Ghost Hardware’, before
descending into a space of radiant divas and ambience. While Burial’s
first album was humid, suffocating and unrelentingly sad, UNTRUE is
less sunless. Many of the tracks are so sweet, they become toxic,
underscored by the almost geological rumbles of growling basslines.
Whereas the mood of Burial’s first album was overpoweringly
melancholy, its now better described as a downcast euphoria typified by
the epic, muted optimism of the album’s last track ‘Raver’. Forget
central heating. The radioactivity of this album is all that you’ll need to
keep you warm this winter." [label description]
"Record of the year, 2007. As far as some of us are concerned,
there's no question. Burial's first album was an eponymous release on
Kode 9's Hyperdub imprint and really came out of nowhere. Here was
this amalgamation of British dance tropes (e.g. dubstep, 2-step
garage, darkcore drum & bass, etc.) into a magnificent exercise in
mood engineering. Even though an urban malaise echoes through the
whollop bass-bin rattle of most dubstep, that first Burial record
mined a melancholy whose dramatic power has never been heard in
dubstep, and rarely matched even by such downbeat experts as
Massive Attack, Boards of Canada, Slowdive, or even Joy Division.
So with his second album Untrue, the aesthetic framework for
Burial remains intact; yet the anonymous figure behind Burial has
admitted that he was seeking a "downcast euphoria." You know what,
he fucking nailed it. All of the sounds retain the first album's urban
dourness reverberating through each electron and washed drone. The
hovering basslines which once stalked the darkest of jungle's rhythms
are ghostly presences flickering around Burial's atypical drum
programming, which by his own admission is done by hand without the
aid of a sequencer. The clipped, 2-step breakbeats always appear as
* BURIAL CHAMBER TRIO - same LP (Southern Lord SUNN 80,
2007) € 15.00
Der akustische Fahrstuhl zur Hölle, umgesetzt von diesem neuen Trio
mit dunklen Gitarrenwänden und gutturalem wie krächzendem
Gegröhle, eine Mischung von SUNN O))) und KHANATE könnte nicht
fieser klingen, und aus diesem Umfeld kommt die Band auch !
"A brand new collaborative project featuring Australian experimental
guitarist OREN AMBARCHI, legendary Hungarian vocalist ATILLA
CSIHAR (MAYHEM), and Southern Lord himself GREG ANDERSON
(SUNN O))), GOATSNAKE). An unholy alliance of massive subsonics
and rigor mortis-inducing doom destruction." [label info]
"Two sidelong tracks, vocals, guitars, bass, and electronics,
with Anderson trading in his axe for a bass guitar, Side A begins
with swirling clouds of FX, electronics, weird processed vocals,
before Ambarchi's guitars roll in, sounding not at all unlike
SUNNO))), huge and buzzing, left to drone and rumble and pulse, a
blackened mysterious slow motion riff, dripping and crumbling over
the black abyss. Speaking of black, this wouldn't have sounded at all
out of place on Black One, strangled vocals, the churning riffage,
the black ambience, near the end of the side, everything erupts into
a furious melee of processed guitarnoise, swooping electronics,
damaged voices, everything hissing and whirring and rumbling and
shrieking before fading out completely.
The B side is much more tranquil, almost no vocals, even more
SUNNO)))-like, the same basic ingredients as the first side, but more
spread out and blissed out, the guitar a slow motion wall of sound,
cutting a huge swath through a sea of buzz and drone, an endlessly
hypnotic ur-drone, that ends up sounding more spacey and psychedelic
but still plenty heavy...
LIMITED TO 2000 COPIES. Vinyl only. Amazing black gloss on
black matter artwork by Seldon Hunt. " [Aquarius Records review]
* BURIAL CHAMBER TRIO - Wvrm pic-10" (Southern Lord
SUNN 87, 2007)
€ 15.00
ONLY VINYL IS REAL! Erst einmal fällt die beeindruckende CoverArtwork von SELDON HUNT auf, zusätzlich zum SPLATTER-igen
picture-vinyl gibt es noch gold & schwarz bedruckte klare Inlays, sehr
passend zum dem unglaublichen tief-morastigen Sumpf-Bass-Drones
die hier erzeugt werden, man meint die hohe Lautstärke mit denen hier
die Verstärker in Schwingung versetzt wurden immer noch zu spüren,
alles steht kurz vor dem ZERBERSTEN, und irgendwo da drin in diesen
tiefen Feedbacks ist eine menschlichähnliche Gestalt die ächzt &
stöhnt, ein sterbendes Monster... DIE BESTIE IST LOS!
Selten einen so tiefgrunzend-abartigen Sound vernommen...
In der Tat, auf 33 klingts noch besser als auf 45, und es dröhnt
länger.... so LIEBLICH!
"The Burial Chamber Trio is: Oren Ambarchi (Guitar, Analog
Electronics), Greg Anderson (BASS/subsonics) & Attila Csihar (Vokills,
invokations). Live recordings from the groups performance in
Rotterdam, Holland in Jan. 2007 at club: Wurm.
10"Picture disc // with original art and packaging design by Seldon Hunt.
Two transparencies with gold ink/printing on them." [label info]
"....For this outing, Ambarchi and Anderson are credited with sub bass
death throb, while Attila is responsible for undead voices. And that's
pretty much what it sounds like, sub bass throbs with haunting undead
vocals woven into the heaving roiling mass. There seem to be some
guitars in there too, maybe some electronics, but it's hard to tell, it's all
smeared into a single swirling blackened mass. When we first listened
to it, we played it at 33 (which we're assuming now is NOT the right
speed, so hard to tell sometimes), and we thought, wow, this is even
slower and sludgier than ever, but once we figured out it was meant to
be 45, the sound reverted back, closer to the sound of SUNNO))) or the
older records of their forbears Earth. Slow motion riffage, glacial and
thick, massive and blown out and super distorted, muffled and murky, a
sluggish sprawl of caustic crumbling guitars, the vocals barely audible,
a haunting raspy growl way down in the mix, often just sounding like
6
another buzzing bassline, hum and fuzz, dense and intense, all melted
down into a viscous black crawl. Occasionally, the random bits of riffage
and low end rumble coalesce into truly gorgeous harmonies, lovely and
chordal, like some blackened church organ, but for the most part, this is
the sound of guitar tones allowed to ring out forever and beat against
each other, the air filled with oscillating overtones and strange tonal
colorations, all beneath a patina of thick black buzz.
Amazing cover art as well, a gross out gutted worm picture disc, with
a transparent skull and bugs insert on one side, and another sick
silkscreened artwork overlay on the thick plastic sleeve, all courtesy of
Mr. Seldon Hunt.
Recorded live, in January of this year, in Holland. And of course, you
had to know this part was coming: LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES!! And if
it's anything like the other Burial Chamber record, it will sell out FAST."
[Aquarius Records]
lend themselves readily to an electroacoustic composition incorporating
human utterance. Whether the composition is heard as a sacred work
or not depends very much on the ear of the listener. I chose to follow
the thought process of Chion where the 'intention was not to deliver a
message or a manifesto whether pro- or anti-religious. Rather, the piece
is a personal testimony, in which I invite the listener to project himself, if
he should like to dwell in this music of his experience and sensibility.'
[Paul Dibley]
* CHOPIN, HENRI - La Plaine des Respirs
LP (Tochnit Aleph
TA073, 2007) [lim. 491 copies]
€ 14.50
Recht neue Aufnahmen des französischen Sound-Poesie Helden, kurz
nach der Veröffentlichung dieser LP verstarb HENRI CHOPIN...
Organik, Stimme, Lunge, Bruitismus PUR!
"Latest works by legendary french sound-poetry pioneer Henri Chopin
(born 1922), produced and recorded november 2003 - january 2004.
Mastered and cut june 2006 by Rashad Becker / D&M. Edition of 491
Copies in glossy printed outer- and innersleeve, with text by Henri
Chopin (original french, plus english & german translations), and
photography by Florence Gonot-Yterce.
1. Prologue LES SOUFFLES (11’08)
2. LA PLAINE DES RESPIRS VIVACE COMME IL SE DOIT (28’40)
3. Finale LES RÉPRESSIONS CASSÈES (20’02)
"Henri Chopin (1922, Paris, France) is an avant-garde poet and
musician. Henri Chopin is a little-known but key figure of the French
avant-garde during the second half of the 20th century. Known primarily
as a concrete and sound poet, he created a large body of pioneering
recordings using early tape recorders, studio technologies and the
sounds of the manipulated human voice. His emphasis on sound is a
reminder that language stems as much from oral traditions as from
classic literature, of the relationship of balance between order and
chaos.
Chopin is significant above all for his diverse spread of creative
achievement, as well as for his position as a focal point of contact for
the international arts. As poet, painter, graphic artist and designer,
typographer, independent publisher, film-maker, broadcaster and arts
promoter, Chopin's work is a barometer of the shifts in European media
between the 1950s and the 1970s. His publication and design of the
classic audio-visual magazines Cinquième Saison and OU between
1958 and 1974, each issue containing recordings as well as texts,
images, screenprints and multiples, brought together international
contemporary writers and artists such as members of Lettrisme and
Fluxus, Jiri Kolar, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Tom Phillips, Brion Gysin,
William S. Burroughs and many others, as well as bringing the work of
survivors from earlier generations such as Raoul Hausmann and Marcel
Janco to a fresh audience." [label release notes]
* CARTER, TOM & VANESSA ARM - What is here for ? LP (A
Silent Place ASP05, 2007) [ed. 515 copies]
€ 14.00
Die CHARALAMBIDES-Hälfte in Zusammenarbeit mit VANESSA ARM > zwei lange flächige Improvisationen bestehend aus analogelektronischen Vibrato-Tönen & Carters "Lap Steel" Gitarren-DroneArbeit, genaustes Zuhören belohnt mit feinsten konkreten Details.
"Limited Edition of 515 copies. First 110 copies released as coloured
(brown) vinyl. Including a small insert. Contains two long and deep duo
cuts of univibe-era lap steel/ electronic tone generator improvisation,
one side recorded live and stamped w/ the indelible mark (ie, the #15
bus rumbling by) of Bullbabe Studios, Austin TX (the odor of sweat,
lone star, and barbeque is palpable). The sounds: monolithic serenity
infused with a deep breath from the void, as peaceful and violent as a
mountain range. A shame that this configuration is so underrepresented
in the discography, as the mesh of T&V's playing is so instantly
seismic... Tom Carter is best known for his work with Charalambides,
which he co-founded with longtime creative partner Christina Carter in
1991. Since 2002, Carter has also undertaken solo work and
collaborations. His 2003 solo tour, centered around the seminal
Brattleboro FreeFolk festival, featured unaccompanied solo shows and
musical excursions (on stage and tape) with Bardo Pond, Thurston
Moore, Dredd Foole, the MVEE Medicine Show, Ian Nagoski, Tower
Recordings, and Double Leopards, among others. Vanessa Arn
became a member of Boston/California/Texas group Primordial
Undermind soon after Tom's brief tenure in the group. The potential for
mountainous difference tones between the lap steel and the triwave
tone generator (a custom built synthesizer) was immediately apparent
to all parties, and Tom suggested a collaboration (which was greatly
assisted by the fact that Tom and Vanessa were at the time next door
neighbors). A sole performance and a handful of recordings ensued and
the results are here for your perusal." [label info]
* CINDYTALK - Camouflage Heart LP (Wheesht Scratch 702,
2007) € 15.00
"Camouflage Heart", das Debütalbum von CINDYTALK, erschien 1984
und verband Post-Punk mit frühem Industrial, elektronischer Musik und
dem düsteren Gesang von Gordon Sharp, einem Musiker aus
Edinburgh, der unter anderem auch mit THIS MORTAL COIL
zusammenarbeitete. David Clancy, John Byrne, und BIRTHDAY
PARTY Mitglied Mick Harvey sind auch auf dem Album dabei.
"Cindytalk don't deal in conventional forms. This is demanding music,
yet infinitely reachable and rewarding. (...) Cindytalk, really, sound
unlike anyone else I can imagine, offering real invention and ignoring
old, oft-trodden paths." [Robin Gibson, SOUNDS]
Re-issue of this outstanding & rather unique sounding album, available
as LP and CD !
* CASTRO, NICK & THE YOUNG ELDERS - A Day without Disaster
10" (A Silent Place ASP25, 2007)
[lim. 100]
€ 19.50
Romantischer Folk mit Harmonium & wunderbar gezupften
Akustikgitarrren & elfenhaftem Gesang - dies ist die limitierte Auflage
auf goldenem Vinyl, mit Goldpräge-Cover und goldfarbenen grossem
Inlay / Poster.
"A Day Without Disaster is the newest chapter in the musical
adventures of Nick Castro & The Young Elders. The group has spent
the last year recording and touring the world while honing their skills
both in the studio and on stage. This EP, on Italian label A Silent Place,
is a glimpse into the ever-evolving minds of NC & The Young Elders,
which are dwelling somewhere between the romantic male/female
duets of Richard & Linda Thompson and the exotic worldly
arrangements of the Incredible String Band. With their focused sensitive
touch, unusual acoustic textures, gentle wordplay and ensemble
interaction The Young Elders are traversing the folk world and leaving
large shoes to fill. Their latest efforts meet paths with psychedelic
sirens, Turkish rain calls, celtic ghost stories and realizations of the
natural world. They've created a sound where the harmonium and saz
coexist with blaring electric guitars and close vocal harmonies. The
Young Elders are currently comprised of members Wendy Watson,
Ryan Kirkpatrick, Christof Certik (member of Winter Flowers) and guest
Jeb Lipson. Though often lumped in with the "freak-folk" genre Nick
Castro has been transcending such labels since most of these new
folkies were still playing indie rock." [label info]
* CINDYTALK - In this World
do-LP (Wheesht Scratch 703,
2007) € 20.00
Nach "Camouflage Heart" von 1984 verschwanden CINDYTALK für vier
Jahre in der Versenkung, die sie allerdings damit verbrachten, das
epische Nachfolgewerk "In This World" zu schreiben und aufzunehmen.
"In This World" erschien als zwei separate Vinyl LPs, die beide "In This
World" betitelt, aber mit verschiedenem Cover Artwork ausgestattet
waren. Die Neuauflage erscheint als Doppel-Vinyl oder einfache CD.
""In This World" is a noble venture. It's every inaccessible racket you
could imagine but creeps gently in on the delectable title instrumental
before kicking you in the navel with a hybrid broth of Motorslug, Swans,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and generally alienating cacophonies." [Chris
Roberts (Melody Maker)]
* CHION, MICHEL - Requiem LP (Sub Rosa SRV251, 2007) € 13.00
Vinyl-Wiederveröffentlichung einer der besten Arbeiten des
französischen Komponisten: REQUIEM ist eine intensiv-dramatische
Tour de Force mit viel vokalem Material (meist auf griechisch oder
lateinisch), aufgenommen im März 1973 in den GRM-Studios in Paris.
Schöne Edition im Klappcover.
" Reissue of this mythic '70's release. The sacred connotations of a
requiem were obviously an important basis for the choice of the text.
Great power and strong emotions are suggested by the Latin text and
* CIRCULAR & INADE - Deep Space Illumination LP (Skogholt nr.
2 , 2008) [lim. 333]
€ 16.00
Cosmic deep drones & dark ambience at its best from these two
german outfits, CIRCULAR use more spacey synth drones for their
sound-explorations, whereas INADE build an as usually own dimension
of their own.
7
"Release in the SKOGHOLT special vinyl series is a fine document from
the live performances of Circular and Inade which took place in
December 2007. Four tracks by each project in superb quality. All
material was directly recorded from the mixing desk and is mastered by
Secretlab. Limited edition of 333 copies." [label info]
remixte Version des Songs "The Beautiful Dancing Dust" ist, veredelt
duch ANTHONY's (& The JOHNSONS) Stimme. Die EP is als auf 1000
Stück limitierte Vinyl-Edition erhältlich sowie auf DualDisc, deren DVDSeite zwei Videos des Künstlers CAM ARCHER enthält. //
Four tracks featuring two different remixes by JG Thirlwell of the track
"Black Ships Ate the Sky" and the Matmos remixes of "The Beautiful
Dancing Dust" and "Black Ships Ate The Sky." [press release]
* CLUSTER - Cluster '71 (Water) LP (4Men with Beards 4M140,
2007)
€ 17.50
"Nachdem Conrad Schnitzler (KRAFTWERK, TANGERINE DREAM)
1971 die Band verlassen hatte, die ursprünglich KLUSTER hieß,
machten Dieter Moebius und Hans-Joachim Roedelius als CLUSTER
weiter und veröffentlichten dieses Album. Am äußeren Rand dessen,
was als ,German Space Rock" bekannt werden sollte, steht ,Cluster'
71" als Manifest der ,kosmischen" Musik. // Dieter Moebius and HansJoachim Roedelius aka Cluster released this, their first album after
Conrad Schnitzler (Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream) left the group originally
known as Kluster, in 1971. On the outer edge of German space rock,
Cluster '71 stands as a testament to minimalist 'cosmische' music. The
three untitled tracks are exploratory, ever-changing pieces which focus
on guitar distortion and synthesizer wails. This album deserves the
many accolades it's been given, and holds up as an early landmark in
the history of beatless ambience." [label notes]
Comes in gatefold-cover !
* DATASHOCK - Untitled LP
(Qbico 74, 2008)
€ 17.00
Schöne LP dieses mehrköpfigen Drone-Kollektivs -> Aufnahmen aus
Darmstadt & Bratislava 2007 wo sie sonore Breitwand-Drones mit
perkussiven Elementen & archaisch wirkenden Gesängen verbinden.
Eine Mischung aus elektronischen & akustischen Soundquellen tönt
durch dichte Ur-Suppen-artige akustische Nebelwände, das ganze
erzeugt eine wunderbar rituell-trancig-ekstatische Atmosphäre..
Auf dem renommierten italienischen QBICO-Label, braunes Vinyl!
"German neo-hippie-spook-folk collective with no fixed line-up, a policy,
which suits their without-portfolio sound down to the ground.
Datashock strays away from the instrumental template towards a more
shamanic (and shambolic) conjuring of ancestral voices from an
array of junk electronics, effects pedals and DIY tape manipulation rigs.
With the label heads of Meudiademorte & Tape Tektoniks and Marcel
Türkowsky." [website self description]
* CLUSTER & ENO - same CD (4Men with Beards 4M141, 2007)
€ 17.50
" "Cluster & Eno" wurde 1977 als Pionier des Ambient aufgenommen
und vereinte gleich mehrere Legenden der progressiven Elektromusik:
BRIAN ENO, der zu der Zeit mit DAVID BOWIE, ROBERT FRIPP und
ROXY MUSIC arbeitete; Dieter Moebius und Hans-Joachim Roedelius
alias CLUSTER und Conny Plank, der mit allen von NEU! über ASH RA
TEMPEL bis zu DEVO aufgenommen hatte. ,Cluster & Eno" vereint die
Musiker, deren Einfluss noch heute bei solchen Acts wie APHEX TWIN,
BOARDS OF CANADA oder MOUSE ON MARS zu spüren ist. //
Originally recorded and released in 1977, this pioneering ambient
album brought together several legends of progressive electronic
music: Brian Eno, solo artist and collaborator with David Bowie, Robert
Fripp, and Roxy Music; Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius
aka Cluster, both of whom made dozens of ground-breaking recordings
throughout the '70s; and Conny Plank, who recorded everyone from
Neu! to Ash Ra Tempel to Devo. This album was the first of several
celebrated collaborations between these artists, whose influence looms
over such current bands as Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, and
Mouse On Mars." [label info]
* DATASHOCK & SHIVERS - Vol. IV 12" (Textile Records TVS11,
2008)
[lim. 300]
€ 12.50
"There is no constant line-up, as the group is joined by new members
every now and then. Their music is defined almost entirely by
psychedelic multidimensional live-improvisations stemming from 70ies
Kraut-rock influenced by contemporary electronic music and psychotic
dronescapes. As a result we find complex layers of sultry muffled
vibrations met by heavy waves of electronic sound experiments and
strangely disfigured images. Here and there reality-distorting bits of
whispers and cut-up voices are woven into the texture of these alien
patterns of sound. Every step here is like nervously stumbling through
the swampy ground of a jungle. Here every look is like a secret glimpse
at a hidden ghost-train world." [label info]
* DEADVERSE MASSIVE - Son of Concrete pic-LP (Public Guilt
PG010, 2007)
€ 15.00
Starke 4-track long-play EP einer Art Supergroup des USamerikanischen Experimental-Dub & Hip-Hop Undergrounds, mit
erstaunlichem Ergebnis zwischen melancholischer slow-Dub Ambience
und frei flottierenden Experimenten, viel vokales Material &
halluzinogene Atmo...und auch ruhig-harmonische parts tauchen auf.
Leute von DÄLEK, DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS, ODDATEE sind
beteiligt. Erschien auf dem wahrhaft grenzüberschreitendem Label
PUBLIC GUILT aus Baltimore, MD.
"The Deadverse Massive 12" picture disc brings together three intense
forces in music-- avant hip-hop unit, Dälek, ambient guitarist, Destructo
Swarmbots and hip-hop madman, Oddateee. Spontaneity, openmindedness to the recording process and a collective cohesiveness
sprung forth an album that none of them would have every created
alone and none of them would have imagined before the moment of
creation. Easily, the strangest record any of these artists have ever
touched. Artwork from the amazing Paul Romano rounds out the
release." [label info]
"When hip-hop gets weird, it gets "Deadverse Massive". Mescaline
dreams from the deep unconscious rise through psych-ambient guitar
drones to meet street socially-conscious poetry and spoken-word in a
no less than stellar collision... 8/10 "[Foxy Digitalis]
"A stunning mashup of heavy beatscapes, surrealist avant hip hop, and
spacey drones from beyond the wall of sleep... a surreal and drifting
collage of beats and psychedelic drones, powerful rhymes and voice
transmissions, as informed by classic krautrock and cassette
experiments as it is by actual hip hop." [Crucial Blast]
* CLUSTER -Sowieso LP (4 Men with Beards 4M162, 2008) € 17.50
"Moebius und Roedelius, a.k.a. CLUSTER veröffentlichten dieses
Album erstmals im Jahre 1976. Während manche Tracks erste
Elektronic-Percussion aufweisen, bleiben andere völlig ohne Rhythmus,
in beiden Fällen ist die Platte aber überaus melodisch. Elektronische
Musik der Frühzeit, quirlige Seifenblasen-Sounds, kombiniert mit Piano
und Gitarrenfetzen machen dieses Album zu einem echten Prachtstück.
// Moebius and Roedelius aka Cluster, released this, their fourth album
in 1976. Electronic rhythms combine with bubbling synths, piano and
guitar to create sonic landscapes of pure bliss. Some of the greatest
ambient electronic music ever, Cluster were on the cutting edge of
German space-rock, and pioneers whose influence can still be felt
today." [label info]
* CONTROLLED BLEEDING - Songs from a Sewer of Dreams
4 x LP-Box (Vinyl On Demand VOD47, 2007) [lim. 600] € 58.00
Wow, die einstmals härteste Industrial-Band der Welt aus New York
nun auch mit einer LP.Box auf VOD! Haufenweise rares Material, meist
aus der Frühphase der Band, es gibt wohl wenige Projekte die sich
stilistisch so häufig um 180 Grad gedreht haben in ihrer Geschichte!
"A box featuring unreleased music from CB's very early days to today.
One side from a long lost Knees and Bones session, one side of preindustrial music, live at CBGBs supporting Suicide 1979, one side a 25minute live piece of ancient, very good material from 1977 (sounds like
John Cage/Penderecki), one side of free jazz live improvisation with
Borbetomagus, one side new total noise, etc. This is one of those very
very extreme (if not most extreme) VOD releases and VOD rates it
'PG18.'" [label info]
* DIETER MÜH - Aakal / Nostrum / Earblind 7" (Harbinger Sound
031, 2008) [lim. 400] € 7.00
Still one of the best british acts of roaring post-industrial tunes, DIETER
MÜH excite the listeners with rough & machine-like alien ambient noise
on this new 7". Comes with postercover & colour-vinyl.
* DREAMCATCHER - Prom Night 12" (Angle Records A.R. 12.01,
2008) [lim. 300] € 12.00
Wiederveröffentlichung zweier vergriffener Tapes dieses Montrealer
Industrial-Projekts, ein rauhes & low-fi analoges Elektronik-Gebilde mit
verstörend fragmentarischer und zermürbender Ausrichtung und 60er
Jahre Sci-Fi Touch!
"Formed in Montreal in 2004, DREAMCATCHER, composed of
Katherine Kline and Blake Hargreaves, is one of the grandest and
loudest outfits in Montreal's explosive underground music scene.
DREAMCATCHER's hot-wiring, saturated and hypnotic sound layers,
* CURRENT 93 - Black Sheeps heat the Dancefloor 12" (remixes)
(Durtro Jnana EP12, 2008)
€ 9.50
Diese Remixe schliessen den BLACK SHEEP-Zirkel ab. Blaues Vinyl,
unglaubliches Cover ! "...die EP enthält jeweils zwei Remixe von J.G.
Thirlwell (aka FOETUS) und MATMOS. Track 1 und 2 sind zwei
verschiedene Versionen von Thirlwell, sich dem Song "Black Ships Ate
The Sky" auf Industrial- und Dance-Pfaden zu nähern. Track 3 basiert
auf einem House-Beat und ist eine Interpratation des gleichen Songs
von MATMOS während Track 4 eine ebenfalls von MATMOS ge-
8
as well as strings and splatters of sonic mess and powerelectronics/old-school/new school aesthetics, have earned them a
devoted following in Montreal and beyond throughout the years.
After a handful of limited releases, like 'HOLYSMOKES’ (a live
performance on CKUT 90.3 McGill) on ALIEN8 RECORDINGS, the
group finally gave birth to their first proper album, NIMBUS CD/LP in
2005 (OHNONO/FLUORESCENT FRIENDS), to great acclaim.
The present collaboration between DREAMCATCHER and
.ANGLE.REC., a project that was initially envisioned some time ago,
breathes a second life into a pair of past productions initially released
by two of today's most influential art-house labels, releases that until
now, only a handful of enthusiasts had the opportunity to hear.
Originally produced on cassette in very limited editions on the
AMERICAN TAPES label (run by WOLF EYES’ John Olson) and
NAUTICAL ALMANAC’s HERESEE label respectively, "PROM NIGHT"
and "EYES OF LEATHERFACE" are archived here on clear vinyl, side
by side, original label artwork provided, for an enlarged audience and
for posterity. These two outstanding DREAMCATCHER sessions
include material from their first recorded jam ever, and rank among the
favourites of the duo. They represent the furthest expanse and total
richness of DREAMCATCHER world-changing vision. And furthermore
this is without a doubt one of the sickest, most twisted and noisiest
releases from the .ANGLE.REC. camp so far, and with it, the sonic
territories covered by the label strech again. It also is the label’s first 12’’
release! This monstrous, tension filled and chunky plate of sound with
lots of unexpected eruptions and aural collisions is limited to 300
copies.
Blake's first record "The Waxathon" came out in 2003; he also co-runs
the FLUORESCENT FRIENDS label and plays in the psych-core bands
COUSINS OF REGGAE and THAMES. Katherine does solo work as
CELINE BEYOND and is a member of DEATH DRIVE and WONDER
YEARS. Thanks to John Olson for his great contribution to the center
label artwork." [label info]
"Enkidu is the mythical Japanese psychedelic noise project of legendary
performers Chie Mukai (Taj Mahal Travelers, Che-SHIZU, East Bionic
Symphonia, Dadnur), Eric Cordier & Seichi Yamamoto (the Boredoms,
Omoide Hatoba, Rashinban, Ontoko). Over four bruised side-long cuts,
Live in Kyoto faithfully captures the intensity of one particularly
eviscerating evening of ritualized self expression at Kyoto's Tanq space
in 2004. This is liminal ecstatic drone, clatter & relentless sound bursts
with a rough-around-the-edges vibe that maintains a loose kinetic debt
to everything from La Monte Young & the Theater of Eternal Music to
Keiji Haino, AMM & Fushitsusha. Hand-numbered edition of 525, 2 X
180 gram vinyl housed in a black silkscreened bottom-folded heavy
jacket. Chie Mukai (kokyu, electronics, voice, percussion & dance)
Seiichi Yamamoto (guitar & electronics & percussions) Eric Cordier
(hurdy-gurdy & electronics)." [label info]
* ERUPTION - Live Action 1972, Wuppertal do-LP (Qbico 76,
2008) € 26.50
Eine weitere kuriose Ausgrabung mit live-Aufnahmen des legendären
Experimental-Projekts um CONRAD SCHNITZLER, der zur jener Zeit
auch Mitglied bei KLUSTER war. Enthalten ist hier ein komplettes
Konzert in guter Soundqualität aus Wuppertal von 1972, welches sich
auf 3 LP-Seiten erstreckt; die geräuschhaften Improvisationen mit z.T.
stark verfremdeten & effektieren Instrumenten (Gitarre, Flöte,
Perkussion), Stimme & Elektronik erreichen mitunter IndustrialIntensität, bewegen sich zwischen sehr ruhigen & schwelenden Flächen
und dynamischeren Attacken... Das Herz des experimentellen Krauts &
prä-Industrials, es liegt hier vergraben! Wie immer auf QBICO
besonders farbenfroh & kunstvoll verpackt in einem Postercover, ein
Vinyl schwarz, das andere Orange.
"(music on three sides) with folder cover in heavy outer plastic sleeve,
black vinyl & orange vinyl (180gr), cover by qbico.
music by: Conrad Schnitzler / Klaus Freudigmann / Wolfgang Seidel
and friends. 3 side long tracks, the complete concert.
Here we go, after releasing a 1970 rec. of Eruption (as qbico #32), i'm
so honoured to make available for the 1st time ever, the complete 1972
live action recorded in Wuppertal by this Conrad Schnitzler's loose
collective. space is the stage." [label info]
* ELEH - Homage to the Square Wave LP (Taiga Records TAIGA
4, 2008) [lim. 500] € 18.00
Schon die vierte LP dieses radikalen Drone / Minimal Music PurismusProjekts, ihre Stücke bestehen stets aus rein analogen SinustonSchwingungen in verschiedenen Modifikationen und erinnern stark an
die Pionierzeit der 60er / 70er Jahre. Cover-Artwork und Musik ergeben
eine ansprechende Einheit.
"Following three sold out releases on Important Records, Eleh present
their fourth vinyl-only full-length, Homage to the Square Wave.
Featuring two sidelong tracks each clocking-in at over 20 minutes,
Homage is dedicated to the highly influential artist Josef Albers. Eleh
return with their battery of vintage modular analog gear to produce a
recording of pure tone, pure sound, pure volume and pure analog. Side
A features 'Black,' a slowly enveloping mass of intensely throbbing low
end, activating the flight response. Time passes rapidly in a
hallucinatory forest filled with suffocating bulbs of bass. 'Blue & White'
on the b-side provides the decompression of rocking on a calm ocean.
Soft peaks of warm tone rise and fall over the surface of concentrated
saline. Volume reveals detail. Homage was mastered by James Plotkin,
cut direct to metal and pressed on 200g virgin vinyl in a hand-numbered
edition of 500. The LP comes housed in a custom letterpressed jacket
that was designed by John Brien of Important Records and printed by
Studio on Fire in Minneapolis. The jackets were printed flat, die-cut,
folded and glued resulting in a letterpressed jacket with a printed spine.
Eleh was formed to pay tribute to the pioneers of audio minimalism
such as La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Eliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros
and Charlemagne Palestine. The tidal rumblings of Eleh will appeal to
fans of Sunn O))), Om, Oren Ambarchi, etc. This is drone with density.'"
[label info]
* ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO - 1980-1989: First Decade 3 x LPBox / 7" / T-Shirt (Vinyl-On-Demand VOD46T, 2007) € 67.50
Krass! Schon die zweite E.G.-Box auf V.O.D. ! Wieder frühes MC- und
rares LP-Compilation Material. Dies ist die special version mit bonus 7"
und T-Shirt! Second part of anthology: the double-tape "Dies Anos",
plus material from various compilations and the live-recording Madrid
1987 which appeared on the "Bruitiste" box (RRR) in 1988 !! Extra
edition. with bonus 7" AND T-Shirt. numbered ed. 600.
"Two LPs of the box with Diez Años double cassette (a collection of
unreleased tracks from the '80s with some tracks from compilations).
The third vinyl includes: 'Avance Rapido' (from La Zona Compilation LP
1988), 'Fungus Cerebri' (from Sinn und Form Tape 1982 ), 'Raskin'
(from 80s Tracks CD) 'Primera Tundra' (from '80s Tracks CD) 'Trans
Unmma' (from '80s Tracks CD) and the superb live performance from
1987 from the special Bruitiste box set. The 7" contains 3 superb tracks
including 'Moscú Está Helado.'" [label info]
* ETANT DONNES - Tapes 1977-1983
6 x LP-Box / DVD (VinylOn-Demand VOD53, 2008)
€ 95.00
Und wieder hat sich das Label aus Friedrichshafen selbst übertroffen:
Die frühen sechs Tapes des französischen Brüder-Duos (erschienen
auf dem DIE FORM-Label BAIN TOTAL), in einer mit Kunstleder
beschichteten Box. Dazu eine DVD mit live-Material!
Die Frühphase von ETANT DONNES war geprägt durch
Tapeexperimente und Klang-Collagen, z.T. sehr harsch & intensiv,
schon damals basierend auf Feldaufnahmen und found sounds. Eine
Art hochdynamische "industrielle" musique concrete, bruitistisch,
kathartisch, collagig.
"The box provides all of Etant Donnes' avant-garde tapes released
between 1977 and 1983 on the famous French BainTotal-Label
Recordings including: La Vue, L'opposition, L'etoile Au Front, Ceux
Qu'on Aime - Ce Que Je Hais, Cinq Portes Soudees, Les Cents Jours
Clairs. The release also contains a DVD with live performances of Etant
Donnes over the last three decades. The music of this Etant Donnés'
first period (1977-1983) boxset describes a rite of passage from
mortality to divinity, a powerful but hidden passion craving beauty and
burning love that can be conquered only by another form of secret pain,
that of losing yourself in the cosmos and becoming part of the muddy
streams of distant stars. Their soundworks are constructed through the
manipulation of natural sounds, using the variation of velocity and
intensity of the recordings, the cutting and splicing of tape. Etant
Donnes' compositions are passionate and brutally communicative, their
music and words are minimalist just like the writings and chants of the
religious mystics Sufi, trying to recover the virginity of the words and
sounds, they map new territories and establish their own personal rules.
* ELEKTRONAVN / EXQUISITE RUSSIAN BRIDES - Cosmic Depth
7" (A Beard of Snails Records BSBTAVINYL2, 2008) € 5.00
Great little 7" from Denmark, ELEKTRONAVN create choral polydrones, very organic & emotional clouds of waving sound with
harmonies going on underneath (created with Voice, Zurna, Bansuri
Flute). EXQUISITE RUSSIAN BRIDES work with Cello, Guitar, loops,
Bells & Xylophone and their track sounds a bit more ghostly, but also
massively droney... Very much recommended if you like organic /
transcendental drone muzak ! Comes in lino-cut printed white cover.
* ENKIDU - Live in Kyoto do-LP (Locust Music LOCUST91,
2007)
€ 22.00
Mitschnitt eines Konzertes dieses Projekts mit der TAJ MAHAL
TRAVELLERS-Legende CHIE MUKAI vom 12. Mai 2004, die in Kyoto
mit SEIICHI YAMAMOTO (Gitarre, Electronics, Percussion) und ERIC
CORDIER (Hurdy-Gurdy, Electronics) zusammentraf. Zu hören gibt
lebendige Drone-Improvisationen mit surrealem & expressivem Flair;
das ganze kommt im Siebdruck-Cover, limitiert auf 525 Exemplare.
9
These first tracks contains all the brutal collages of found sounds
investigating nuances of sounds that at times verges upon silence, the
inspired and enraptured meeting with earth's natural forces, an homage
to the shadow of night, to the vineyard and the golden door. In these
first six LPs Etant Donnés create their own brand of total audio
expression using belches and punches, their attention is concentrated
on the symphonic cacophonie organisation of disorganized found
sounds, using magical rhythms only directed by cosmic rules. A perfect
way of organizing natural sounds that obeys fundamental principles that
everyone wishes to convey, a music able to tear down walls and build a
universal comprehension, a cosmic law of beauty, a magical and
alchemical act of poetry." [label info]
per side, that are equally harmonic as powerful. fear falls burning's
approach to playing the guitar chords changed, the production is
different and the inclusion of guest musician dave vanderplas on subtle
cymbal percussion marks this new tonefloat release as the first gentle
step in fear falls burning's further exploration of the drone. when
mystery prevades the well, the promise sets fire (tf38) is out now and
can be ordered from our store." [label info]
"'When Mystery Prevades Well, The Promise Sets Fire' is a beautiful
gate-fold sleeve LP with two pieces, one per side. Glacier like music in
which it seems that the effects have a bigger role than the guitar. It's
quite hard to recognize the guitar in this music, with moves in a minimal
way. More Eno)) than Sunno)) I'd say, although there is a creepy
undercurrent in Fear Falls Burning's music. This record sees Dirk
moving away from the signature sound from before: the endless
crescendo wall of sound building up, suddenly collapsing and stays
more on the ambient side of things. Maybe a bit more Vidna Obmana
than Fear Falls Burning - but I'm sure that would not be his intention.
Very nice!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* FAUST / NURSE WITH WOUND - Disconnected do-LP (Dirter
Promotions DPROMLP61, 2008)
€ 26.50
Limitierte Vinyl-Version (1000 x) der verrückten Collaboration, mit
Bonus-Material auf Seiten 3 & 4 ( 3 Stücke von FAUST, ein langes von
NWW), auf gelbem und orangem Vinyl!
Der eh schon eigenwillige "Krautrock"-Sound von FAUST wird hier von
STEVE STAPLETON wunderbar durch die Mangel genommen,
krasse cut-ups und irrsinnige Arrangements sind hier Programm.
STAPLETONs Sinn für abseitigen Humor scheint immer wieder durch,
und natürlich gibt es auch Momente grosser TONKUNST.
"Disconnected" ist ein Hybrid aus dem dilettantisch-avantgardistischen
Krautrock von Faust, den markant holzige Basslinien Pérons, dessen
seltsamen Spracheinlagen und dem markanten Schlagzeugeholze,
dem metallisch-industriellen Geklapper und Gelärme und den
repetitiven Perkussioneinlagen Diermaiers, und den bizarren Geräuschund Tonkollagen, bzw., dem monotonalen Tonwabern- und dröhnen
von Nurse With Wound. Stapleton war schon immer stark vom
experimentellen Krautrock beeinflusst (siehe dazu auch die Nurse-WithWound-Liste), so dass man sagen kann, dass die akustischen
Jagdgründe beider Projekte im Grunde dieselben sind.
Gesang gibt es auf "Disconnected" kaum zu hören. Die dadaistischabsurden Liedchen, die Faust unter Pérons Führung sonst immer im
Programm haben (siehe z.B. "faust ... in autumn"), sind nur im ersten
Track "lass mich" zu hören. Die vier Nummern bilden im Grunde eine
durchgehende, komplexe Soundmasse, seltsame Gemenge an Klang
und Geräusch, mal schwebend, düster, elektronisch und klangvoll, mal
hektisch, perkussiv, in kantigem, monoton dahinrumpelndem
Krautrockgewand. Darin eingebettet sind oft weitere,
Mikroklangereignisse, Sprachfetzen, elektronisches Gezirpe, Zischen,
Fiepen, Schleifen und Dröhnen, diverses Geklapper und Gerumpel und
allerlei weitere, unerfindliche Töne und Sounds. Reichlich wirr und
schräg ist das Ganze dabei, entfaltet aber eine sehr eigene, durchaus
einheitliche Atmosphäre, wirkt trotz all des Durcheinanders nicht
zerhackstückt oder ziellos.
"Disconnected" bietet somit ein sehr eindrucksvolles Klangpuzzle,
mitunter aber auch mächtige, glaziale Tongebirge, die sich entweder
aus einem Dschungel an wirren Soundkonstrukten, oder aus
tiefgründigen, dunklen Klangseen erheben. Beeindruckend!
Reicht? Ne ... reicht noch lang nicht! Mehr davon!" [Babyblaue Seiten]
"Two legendary entities from the experimental hinterlands unite for this
challenging collaborative outing. Krautrock icons Faust team up with
ferocious British electronics experts Nurse With Wound resulting in a
line-up featuring Zappi Diermaier, Steven Stapleton, Jean-Herve Peron,
Colin Potter and Amaury Cambuzat. Although the initial psychedelic
benevolence of 'Lass Mich' is redolent of the Faust crew, it's not long
before the far-flung concrète machinations of NWW take a stranglehold
on the album's sonic make-up. The album's title track is an unsettling
drone piece, loaded with tension and a jarringly discordant
conglomeration of organic and synthetic tones. After eight and a half
minutes or so have expired you'll think you're listening to some sort of
unholy, monastic chanting, but soon the comparatively soothing sounds
of hand-played percussion establishes a welcoming rhythm, and the
disjointed electroacoustic weirdness of 'Tu M'entends?' fires up. Finally,
closing piece 'It Will Take Time' evokes the disorientating wave systems
of 'Disconnected' before gradually slipping into a kind of elongated gong
resonance at the end. Compelling stuff from two remarkable groups.
Highly recommended." [unknown reviewer]
* FEAR FALLS BURNING - Frenzy of the Absolute do-LP
(Conspiracy Records CORE061, 2008) [lim. 500] € 19.50
Viny-Version des 2008er Albums für das Projekt von DIRK SERRIES
(ex VIDNA OBMANA). Als neues Element taucht in den minimal
strukturierten gitarrigen Drone- & Oberton-Eskapaden nun Perkussion
auf, eine willkommene Weiterentwicklung!
"This highly-anticipated new studio album is the initiation of a change in
method and playing for FEAR FALLS BURNING. On this album he
blends his drone spectrum with slow repetitive drums (with drummers
such as Tim Bertilsson / Switchblade and Magnus Lindberg / Cult of
Luna), and additional guitar layers, manifesting a work of mysterious
landscapes of ghostly echoes and whispered guitars, long stretches of
blissy drift and dark washes of distorted hiss...
Over the past 2 years FEAR FALLS BURNING has manifested himself
as a wilful and unique statement admits the ever expanding drone
music genre with numerous limited and exclusive releases on both vinyl
and compact disc and a highlight in collaborating with the epic 'once we
all walk through solid objects' 5lp set.
The new cd/2lp 'frenzy of the absolute' is the summon of fear falls
burning's visionary in teaming up with kindred spirits and talented
musicians from the experimental and metal scene.
Digipak CD, Limited 180 gr vinyl, 150 copies on Clear with White vinyl,
350 on Black in Gatefold dbl LP cover. The vinyl version has one extra
track 'The Passage Of Wrath' and one extra hidden track." [label info]
"...At first we were worried that adding drums would just turn FFB’s
ethereal doomic drift into something much more generic and run of the
mill, but just the opposite is true. Serries and his guests subtly transform
the sound of FFB into something wholly different, the opening track
says it all. That sprawling simple, spread out drumming, continues on
throughout the first three quarters of the track, pounding away, not
pummeling, but pounding, almost delicately if that were even possible,
while Serries introduces soft shimmery delicate melodies, that drift
dreamily in the background, the whole thing underpinned by a thick,
gradually building Niblock like static guitar drone. But that little lullaby
like melody, keeps the track from becoming pure dirge. There’s way too
much space. It’s almost like a seriously metalicized and doomed up
slowcore band. This is Low covering Sunn 0))), a dreamy droney
soporific downtuned dreamlike creep..." [Aquarius Records]
* FENNESZ - Live in Japan LP (Autofact Records FACT09 / Touch
Tone 23, 2007)
€ 15.00
Wiederveröffentlichung der "Japan-only" CD von 2003 (Headz).
1000 Stück auf schwerem Vinyl, neue Artwork von Jon Wozencroft.
Enthält einen "one-tracker" mit wunderbaren Akustik-Gitarren Parts, die
ausufernd verfremdet werden - vom harmonischen Standpunkt aus
gesehen die vielleicht schönste FENNESZ bisher !
"The Autofact release of Live In Japan by Christian Fennesz marks the
album's debut on vinyl. Originally released in 2003 as a Japan-only CD
(Headz/Touch), Live In Japan is perhaps the definitive live document of
electronic-acoustic improvisation for our time. Hailed by many to be the
"greatest laptop live show in music history" and counted among the
albums of the year by The Wire in 2003, one would perhaps have to go
back as far as Kraftwerk to find a live electronic performance as
engaging, organic and inventive as Live In Japan. The LP consists of
one sublimely beautiful and haunting 43-minute long track, recorded live
at the Shibuya Nest, Tokyo in February of 2003. The performance takes
us from the bright codeine pop of Endless Summer to the grand &
stately melancholy of Venice, with familiar bits of coda and electronic
soul hooks catching us as we stream through the lush, nearly
symphonic drones and soundscapes which Fennesz has expertly
composed to guide us through his musical legacy. This is that rare
piece of music which affects both the ardent champion and the novice
alike, moving and original, with not a single note wasted and nothing out
of place. Guitar music? Laptop music? Post-modern electronic soul
* FEAR FALLS BURNING - When Mystery prevades the Well, the
Promise sets Fire LP (Tonefloat TF38, 2007) [lim. 500] € 21.50
Stilwechsel für das beliebte Guitar-Drone Projekt: WHEN MYSTERY
PREVADES.. droned weniger dunkel und verzerrt, eher obertontänzelnd, verschwimmend, mysteriös....
"... with its highlight being the full-length studio album 'frenzy of the
absolute' for the belgian conspiracy records, scheduled for release in
2008, this exclusive vinyl for tonefloat is the initiation of a change in
method and playing for fear falls burning. not only has he turned around
his studio in order to accommodate the new performances but the
subtle incorporation of new elements will bring out an extra dimension
in the vintage fear falls burning drone. this lp features two pieces, one
10
music? Fennesz music. Mastered directly to metal at Abbey Road
Studios, London. Limited edition of 1,000 copies pressed on
heavyweight black vinyl and housed in a deluxe spot printed sleeve.
Featuring exclusive new artwork designed by Jon Wozencroft." [press
release]
The flipside is more guitar oriented, a steel string acoustic,
the melodies branching out in simple softly strummed strands, a
skeletal framework for swirls of soft hiss and chunks of fragmented
melody drifting by like leaves on a forest stream. The sound is like
some simple folk music, broadcast via a staticky short wave radio,
but beneath the guitar, and the dreamy hiss, are lush, stately swells
melodic and cinematic, that infuse the track with a dark, but sweetly
sorrowful elegiac quality. Gorgeous." [Aquarius Records]
* FENNESZ / JECK / MATTHEWS - Amoroso 7" (Touch Seven TS
01, 2007) [lim. 500]
€ 7.50
Der Organist für das "SPIRE LIVE"-Projekt, CHARLES MATTHEWS,
eröffnet eine neue 7"-Reihe von TOUCH, eines seiner Stücke
(aufgenommen live am 20.01.2007 in York) wird von CHRISTIAN
FENNESZ und PHILIP JECK auf ihre unnachahmliche Art & Weise
bearbeitet... kommt im schönen matten Vollfarb-Cover, lim. 500.
"Charles Matthews plays the Grand Organ in York Minster, during Spire
Live on 20th January 2007. This release is a homage to Arvo Pärt...
Arvo Pärt is often identified with the school of minimalism and more
specifically, that of “mystic minimalism” or “sacred minimalism”. He is
considered a pioneer of this style, along with contemporaries Henryk
Górecki and John Tavener.
Charles Matthews: “I felt you were pure music, not human flesh, music
through time, music played from the Universe, without boundaries.”
Born in 1966, Charles Matthews studied at the Royal College of Music,
London, and was an organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. His
teachers have included Beryl Tichbon, Gwilym Isaac, David Pettit,
Patricia Carroll, Nicholas Danby, Charles Spinks and Dr Richard
Marlow. Charles pursues a varied career as pianist, organist, composer
and teacher, performing and broadcasting for radio and television within
the UK and internationally. He has won numerous awards, perhaps
most notably the first prize in the 1999 Franz Liszt Memorial
Competition in Budapest. His recordings have been issued by Olympia,
Priory, Guild and Touch; he is the organist for the Touch project, Spire,
which also includes Christian Fennesz and Philip Jeck.
Christian Fennesz: Fennesz uses guitar and computer to create
shimmering, swirling electronic sound of enormous range and complex
musicality. “Imagine the electric guitar severed from cliché and all of its
physical limitations, shaping a bold new musical language.” - (City
Newspaper, USA). His lush and luminant compositions are anything but
sterile computer experiments. They resemble sensitive, telescopic
recordings of rainforest insect life or natural atmospheric occurrences,
an inherent naturalism permeating each piece. He lives and works in
Vienna and Paris.
Philip Jeck: Philip Jeck studied visual art at Dartington College of Arts.
He started working with record players and electronics in the early 80’s
and has made soundtracks and toured with many dance and theatre
companies as we as well as his solo concert work. His best kown work
"Vinyl Requiem" (with Lol Sargent): a performance for 180 '50's '60's
record players won Time Out Performance Award for 1993. He has also
over the last few years returned to visual art making installations using
from 6 to 80 record players including "Off The Record" for Sonic Boom
at The Hayward Gallery, London [2000]. Philip Jeck works with old
records and record players salvaged from junk shops turning them to
his own purposes. He really does play them as musical instruments,
creating an intensely personal language that evolves with each added
part of a record. Philip Jeck makes geniunely moving and transfixing
music, where we hear the art not the gimmick." [label info]
"...Fennesz turns the sound of the organ into a minimal whir,
gentle washes of grit and whispery buzz, long tones subtly pulsing,
deep rich chords, soft swells, gently effected and transformed into
haunting alien drones. Those drones infused with melancholic melodies
and deep metallic reverberations. Truly mystical and minimal.
Jeck however is much less reverent. Choosing much like he did
on the original Spire recording to try something more aggressive,
more dark, more noisy, and much less soothing, his side is an almost
industrial soundscape or crunch and buzz, the organ’s notes
transformed into bell like tones, chopped up into jagged melodies,
almost like someone is flipping stations, the melody lurching
suddenly from note to note, jarring and uneasy, but at the same time
hauntingly compelling. The tones are dense and distorted, lots of
smeared feedback, thick clouds of pixilated grit and deep droning
walls of whir, a super intense and extraordinarily noisy approach
from Jeck, something we’re definitely interested in hearing much more
of in the future.
As always, comes houses in an immediately recognizable Touch
style sleeve, with gorgeous Jon Wozencroft photos and design."
[Aquarius Records review]
* 15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO - Between Checks and Artilley.
Between Work and Image 10" (Angle Records A.R.10.03, 2007)
€ 10.00
Exzellente 2-track 10" dieses US-Trios, die sich hier weniger
"industriell-elektronisch" als eher minimal Gitarren-dronig mit Hang zum
Monumentalen zeigen.... anschwellende Gitarren-Anschläge, tiefe
Drones, Rausch-Effekte, allmächtige Crescendi, erhabene Weiten
& wuchtige Pulses auf Seite auf Seite B..
"A trio from San Francisco composed of Daniel Blomquist, Mark Wilson
and Michael Addison Mersereau, 15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO, with
previous releases in CD or CDR format on the FORCE OF NATURE
and CRUNCH POD labels, brings us their first production in vinyl
format. It is comprised of 2 exclusive tracks, on 10’’ vinyl, released on
the Montreal based label .ANGLE.REC., still fond of the vinyl disc. 2
tracks which suggest an even more brilliant and exploded future for this
exploratory vehicle born on the ashes of the famous IMPERIAL
FLORAL ASSAULT UNIT project. The trio’s most recent CD, ‘’Under A
Morphine Sky’’, offered a well-balanced perspective between
improvisation and composition, a sound alchemy that is realized without
any pretension under a purple and…of course… morphined sky. PowerElectronics in symbiosis with Dark-ambient in symbiosis with GuitarNoise in symbiosis with various layered and shifting acoustic and
electronic elements …The result and the overall feel were stunning.
This 10incher is the log ical follow-up to the madness. 2 face(t)s, 2
slices of life. A side, ‘’KRONOS’’, proposes us a guitar-based canvas
with multiples effects and spacious microworlds, with an accelerating
insanity and intensity, an 8-9 minute segment which flies like the wind. It
can also be considered as an extrapolation on the last minutes of ‘’THE
RETURNING’’, found on B Side; ‘’THE RETURNING’’ begins with an
epic lo-fi martial/neoclassical/doom segment but rather soon, haunting
post-rock/shoegaze guitar-based structures come to occupy the main
stage, and the power electronics segment also turns up very quickly
following that, the whole being accomplished with a constant mastery
and concern for texture. It is chaotic, foggy buy damned melodic and
moving …and it does not stop gaining in intensity. Towards the final
segment, we have samples and then a melodic guitar-based motif with
a healthy dose of echo, which reverberates while consuming itself, till
the end … 15DBZ has crazy surprises in store for us. Discover why,
now. Many ambiences and textures on this 10’’ remind us of the
reasons why we got interested, in the first place, in various ‘’nocturnal’’
and/or ‘’subterranean’’ musical universes. The beauty of it all is that
here, everything is presented in condensed fashion. 2 tracks which fly
too fast despite their relative length. Another welcome add to the
.ANGLE.REC. vinyl series." [label info]
* FLOWER-CORSANO DUO - The undisputed Dimension 7" (NOFI Recordings NO-FI NEU003, 2007)
€ 8.00
Ecstatic Power-Drone & Free-Noise vom Edinburgher Perkussionisten
CHRIS CORSANO im Verbund mit MICK FLOWER
(VIBRACATHEDRAL ORCHESTRA, etc.), straigt & rumpelnd-wuchtig
auf der A, wild improvisiert auf der Flipside.. what a furious duo !
"The unholy alliance of Mick Flower and percussive everyman Chris
Corsano: Corsano has been widely hailed as the next chapter in the
story of out-there drumming - he's played with everyone worth
mentioning at the massive freenoisefolkpsych crossroads. Similarly,
Mick's renowned for his work with Vibracathedral Orchestra and
Sunburned Hand Of The Man, amongst many others. Together they
construct a devilishly beautiful psychedelic maelstrom, Chris like a
polyrhythmic octopus on the kit, Mick conjuring sublime lysergic ragas
from the shaahi baaja." [label info]
"... It's lodged somewhere inbetween Jimi Hendrix and Thurston Moore,
with a stop-off in outer Mongolia for posterity and has inhaled so much
Opium that it no longer knows the difference between old and new,
sound and silence. This is heady, involving music, breathtakingly
visceral and daring you to bust your speakers with. I challenge you to
find a more jaw-dropping 7" experience this year! Huge
recommendation." [Boomkat]
* FENNESZ - Transition 7" (Touch Seven TS 04, 2008) € 7.50
Nr. 4 in der neuen TOUCH-7" Serie, highly collectable already!
"...The A side finds the guitar completely transformed into muted
smears, the overall sound a shifting sea of corrosive crumbling
distortion, but rendered in breathless whispers and washed out hues.
The metallic thrum is spread out into soft shimmers, a murk that
would almost sound industrial if it wasn’t so pretty.
* FOVEA HEX + ANDREW LILES - Every Evening / Gone 7" (Die
Stadt DS106, 2008)
[lim. 500]
€ 12.50
"... Ihr bittersüßes Timbre, die fast mit Händen zu greifende
Melancholie, sind einzigartig. Die Musik dazu, nur dröhnendes
Harmonium und eine Handvoll schwarzer Pianoperlen, ist wie ein
Rabenflügel, ein samtiger Saum, wie der Schatten, den diese
11
Melancholie nicht abschütteln kann. In ‚Gone‘ verschwinden ein Baum,
ein Bild an der Wand, die geliebte Katze, sogar der alte Teppich unter
den Füßen und auch der Boden selbst. Eine Elegie des Verlustes, der
diebischen und mörderischen Zeit. Von Geisterpiano und
gespenstischen Stimmen umschallt, rezitiert Fabrizio Palumbo die
Strophen, Simonds und Laura Sheeran singen den Refrain: Well
well well Nobody can tell Why why o‘ why Nobody knows. Das ist schon
sehr tongue-incheek (wie Hitchcock das genannt hätte), purer Edward
Gorey." [Bad Alchemy]
"... The record features two collaborative pieces by ANDREW LILES &
FOVEA HEX, with Fabrizio Palumbo as special guest. Featuring
Andrew Liles, Clodagh Simonds, Laura Sheeran, Fabrizio Palumbo and
Michael Begg, these two strange songs will find the way swiftly to your
very core, quite by themselves, to simultaneously delight and only
faintly unsettle you. Needless to say that everyone who enjoyed the
'neither speak nor remain silent' trilogy by Fovea Hex will also love this.
It comes packaged in an attractive gatefold cover with printed inner
sleeve designed by Andrew Liles in an edition of 500 copies of which
only 250 copies will be available for wholesale." [label info]
"Gerechtigkeits Liga is the band/project which evolves around Till
Brüggemann. In the early 80's GL travelled to London to meet up with
Dominik Guerin of Twin Vision/SPK. Dominik introduced them to
Graeme Revell and Brian Williams of Lustmord, who were running Side
Effects Records and both of them decided to release an album by GL.
Two more GL tracks were also released on the seminal compilation
Vhutemas Archetypi, which also featured groups like Laibach, Lustmord
& SPK.The band is known for their mystical, almost martial and epic
sounds, which can easily upset the listener's emotions. Nothing for
weak nerves...VOD and Till Brüggemann compiled a perfect
supplement to the LP Hypnotischer Existenzialismus. The double LP
set is covering the very early musical period of the band. It includes
outtakes, tape-contributions, a live performance from LA, as well as a
Berlin Atonal-performance. Attached you will also find a DVD with
disturbing footage of early video clips, a short film as well as some other
rare live video clips from New York City. The release will come in a silkscreened Army-Boot-Bag." [label info]
* GODFLESH - Love and Hate in Dub LP (Kreation Records KR014, 2008)
€ 14.50
"The mighty GODFLESH sound remixed in a dark/ambient dubwise
style by JUSTIN BROADRICK. One of the only Godflesh albums not yet
available on vinyl, so here ya go! One of the first ever dub/metal
fusions. A historic release indeed. Pre JESU." [label info]
* GEERKEN, HARTMUT - Amanita do-LP (Qbico 75, 2008) € 26.50
LET'S DO THE DRONE-THING ! Eine höchst kuriose Platte auf QBICO
von dem Tausendsassa HARTMUT GEERKEN, der die Buchreihe
"Frühe Texte der Moderne" mitherausgegeben hat und über die wohl
umfangreichste SUN RA-Sammlung verfügen soll. Er war / ist zudem
als Hörspiel-Produzent tätig, als Poetik-Professor, Filmemacher, etc. die unglaubliche Biographie von ihm siehe www.hartmutgeerken.de!
Auf AMANITA hört man ihn unter Einfluss von heiligen Pilzen in
Ekstase geraten z.B. auf der sogenannten "Sun Harp", das sind wildbruitistische Instrumental-Geräusch- und Stimmen- Improvisationen,
vollkommen atonal und crazed out!
"Pratically impossible to make it brief here, HGeerken: author,
composer, musician, film-maker, performer, actor, mycologist, archivist,
stager of exhibitions, publisher of numerous authors from the circle of
literary expressionism and dada, lumberjack, bumble-bee-keeper.
during his six-year stay in Egypt in the 60's he is co-founder (together
with Salah Ragab and Edu Vizvari) of the Cairo Jazz Band as well as
founder and head of the Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble. played in various
music groups: Embryo, trio with John Tchicai and Don Moye (extensive
tour of Africa) and also with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. he worked
with Sunny Murray, Don Cherry, Okay Termiz, Peter Kowald, Takehisa
Kosugi, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Michael Ranta, ect... today Geerken
possesses one of the most comprehensive Sun Ra archives (waitawhile
sun ra archives). his book omniverse sun ra (1994) ,which contains a
first all-embracing discography of the musician, has meanwhile grown
to be a priceless cult book. together with James Wolf from the library of
congress in Washington DC, he's editor of the recently published
collected poems and philosophical works of Sun Ra (the immeasurable
equation 2005). better to read his bio to know more.
This is Geerken 1st ever solo release (a major event indeed !) and it
was recorded under the influence of magic mushrooms (dried amanita
muscaria). one of the instruments played here is Sun Ra's Sun harp (a
Bulgarian bandura), which Sun Ra gave him in 1971 in Egypt, were
Hartmut invited the Arkestra to play... they got no money to fly back to
the States, so Hartmut kindly borrow them some bread for the trip
back... in exchange Sun Ra gave him his Sun harp (which you'd hear
on several Saturn LP and which was one of the few instruments that
Sun Ra played besides keyboards) saying i'll buy it back from you one
day... which evidently never happened. the other string instrument
played here is a Swarmandal, which was given to him in 1976 in New
Delhi by the renowed Dhrupad singers: the Dagar brothers. probably
the wildest qbico ever, alien sounds!" [label info]
* G*PARK - Reuters LP (Tochnit Aleph 079, 2008) € 13.50
Das gloriose Comeback des Schweizer Ausnahmeprojekts musique concrete einer speziellen Art, Objekt & und Feldaufnahmen
werden stets sehr "nah" und direkt eingesetzt, aber auf besondere,
unnachahmliche Art zu Geräusch-Kompositionen verwebt.
Am ehesten vielleicht noch zu vergleichen mit der Tonkunst einer
HANNA HARTMANN, oder TOY BIZARRE.
"Latest work by swiss artist Marc Zeier presents 9 musique concrete
compositions based on ice, wind, plankton, a whip, a bow, a suitcase,
and other recordings made in the last few years, reminiscent of his 90's
albums 'Seismogramm' on Schimpfluch and 'Yack G*park' and 'Geopod'
on Zabriskie Point." [label info]
* GROWING - Disconfirm / Horizon Drift 7" (Social Registry / The
Social Club No. 8, 2007)
€ 7.00
"Marking their recent addition to THE SOCIAL REGISTRY'S roster,
Olympia-via- Brooklyn's GROWING present their first contribution to the
label with this installment in our ongoing 7" series. Consisting of
members Joe Denardo and Kevin Doria, Growing's already legendary
status among ambient and noise-rock circles has solidified their
reputation. The two songs found on this 7" represent the best of the
band, spotlighting their uncanny ability to extract alien and ethereal
sounds from the now-traditional format of the electric guitar." [label info]
* GROWING - Lateral 12" (Social Registry TSR064, 2008) € 12.00
Vinyl-Version der neusten EP dieses New Yorker Ambient/Drone-Duos,
deren Analog & Guitar-Sounds mal wieder höchst schwingend &
vibrato-schwanger klingen... full fuzzy guitars, extreme VibratoMelodien, analogue blurbs überall, leiernde Sounds wanken
umher...eine sehr eigene Version von psychedelischem Drone-Sound...
" Brooklyn-based ambient-drone duo Growing never fails to please
the devoted. It could also easily be said that the duo has failed to
truly diverge from their original starting point. Although, part of the
charm of this sort of music is indulging in a process of creation that
celebrates the difference and repetition within a given theme or
concept; expanding or investigating a specific idea over a length of
time. Thus, if you like Growing, you'll love this EP. All of the usual
landmarks are here: a Nadja on opium meets some sort of Windy &
Carl and Labradford hybrid, heavy filter manipulations, masked,
aquatic tremolo and chorus leads, and full-on auto-pan attacks that
completely embrace stereo dynamics. We've read that -- specifically
within the ambient-drone scene -- Growing has been particularly
reluctant to utilize computers, preferring to employ pedals and more
organic looping techniques. Still, a quick listen to this release unearths
enough digital-sounding distortion to make the listener wonder whether
or not these two dronesters have finally caved in or not. Fans of long,
drawn-out melodic landscapes or psychedelic explorations won't want
to miss out on this one. Definitely recommended." [Aquarius Rec]
* GERECHTIGKEITSLIGA - Per Ignem Ad Lucem do-LP (VinylOn-Demand VOD52, 2008)
€ 25.50
Rare Outtakes, Compilation-Material und unveröffentlichte Stücke (u.a.
vom BERLIN ATONAL-Festival 1985), zudem ein Mitschnitt von einem
Konzert aus L.A. 1985 und eine DVD mit Video-Clips von der aus
Bremen stammenden Industrial-Band, die v.a. Mitte der Achtziger sehr
aktiv war. Ihr Sound war sehr perkussiv (mitunter regelrecht tribal), oft
mit Ethno-Samples versehen und von neo-klassischer, martialischer
Stimmung, basierend auf dunklen Synth-Mustern und beschwörenden
Vocals. Anklänge an LAIBACH, TEST DEPARTMENT, SPK,
BOURBONESE QUALK, HULA, MUSLIMGAUZE, 23 SKIDOO, ein
recht "typischer" 80er Jahre Industrial Sound, aber mit sehr eigener
Stilprägung. Das ganze kommt als doppel-LP im Gatefold-Cover in
einer bedruckten Tasche! Ein sehr lohnenswerter Release für an
"historischen" Industrial und Experimental-Sound Interessierte...
ein äusserst interessantes Interview mit Till Brüggemann über die
Frühphase des Industrials in Deutschland findet sich übrigens unter:
http://icrn.blogspot.com/2007/06/gerechtigkeits-liga-interview-with.html.
* GUAPO - Black Oni LP
(Hlava-Temple, 2007)
€ 20.50
Edle Vinyl-Version des 2005er Albums, weisses Vinyl, Gatefold-Cover,
und das ganze in schwarzem Plastik kunstvoll verpackt !
Dunkler, experimenteller, sehr ausgefeilter, droniger Prog-Rock aus
London. Nummerierte Auflage 500 Stück.
"Here at last, Guapo´s "Black Oni" on handnumbered limited edition
180g white vinyl. Originally released on CD by Mike Patton´s Ipecac
Records in 2005, this record is the second in a recondite trilogy which
12
began with "Five Suns" and will be concluded by the release of "Elixirs"
on Neurot Recordings in February 2008: With this, their sixth album,
Guapo have conjured a harrowingly complex and unflinchingly epic
piece of work. Heady and hypnotic, driving and relentless, tumultuous
and visceral, sonic and serene, the odyssey that is Black Oni
encompasses many paradoxes in its massively dynamic scope. Picking
up where they left off from their previous Cuneiform Records release
Five Suns (2002), the band continue to expand on their palette of
dexterous chamber-rock anomalies, modal transcendence, and
apocalyptic death marches, and like it's predecessor, Black Oni is one
singular piece of music, making it the second record in a trilogy of largescale symphonic forms. Incorporating elements of prog, avant-garde
jazz, kraut-rock, minimalism and a range of folk mediums from Britain to
Indonesia, Guapo take their que from a disparate array of influences
including Magma, King Crimson, Boredoms, Goblin, Sun Ra,
Charlemagne Palestine, Univers Zero, This Heat, Olivier Messiaen and
Popol Vuh. The a! ssembly of Dave Smith's explosive drum assaults,
Matt Thompson's brazen and prowling bass throb, and Daniel
O'Sullivan's ethereal keyboard reveries telepathically collide in an
augury of rich and cinematic musical ceremony. Black Oni is Guapo's
most monumentally unreserved offering to date." [label info]
".... Like Japan's Ruins, the Guapo trio take a lot of inspiration from '70s
prog, in particular the "zeuhl" stylings of the amazing French band
Magma. But where the Ruins generally concentrate the Magma sound
into a hectic hyper-blast, Guapo tend to stretch things out, spreading
their prog-frenzy across (in this case) a forty-three minute, five part epic
composition, not unlike the five part, forty-six minute title suite of Five
Suns... that's their specialty it seems. Crazed drumming and complex
bass lines coexist with spaced-out keyboards (including '70s prog
stalwart the Mellotron), making Black Oni a combination of energetic
prog mayhem and droning electronic darkness. For fans of Yeti,
Tarantula Hawk, Circle and even The Necks... and of course anyone
already into Guapo will love this new one. Recommended! " [Aquarius
Records review]
into scraping and humming machinations. The artwork comes from two
corroded photographs, one of which was created especially for this LP.
Haynes has worked with this process for almost 15 years and, here, the
resulting images are as beautiful and mysterious as the audio is
nuanced and evocative." [label info]
"...and for Jim Haynes the follow up to his excellent CD 'Telegraphy By
The Sea' (see Vital Weekly 548). Haynes is foremost known as a writer,
but he has also played with Loren Chasse as Coelacanth, with Keith
Evans, Steve Stapleton and Matt Waldron, and especially with the work
of Waldron (sometimes better known as irr. app (ext.)) there are strong
ties. Two new pieces here on this LP, in a similar vein as the CD: field
recordings are treated around, looped, changed, altered, modified. On
one side (it's a bit hard to decipher which side is what here) this is a bit
more harsher than usually, while on the other side it seems we are
hearing ventilation systems, layered, to create a vast, rich pattern in
sound. Drone like this side, while the other is more 'chopped' up, more
a collage style, but not in a same free form, as everything flows nicely
into eachother. Music that ties him into the work of Matt Waldron or say
Nurse With Wound in a drone mood and certainly highly influenced by
The Hafler Trio. However with this record, the somewhat louder
approach course taken here, makes that Haynes finds more a voice of
his own. A small step perhaps, but an essential one." [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
* HECKER - Hecker, Höller, Tracks do-LP (Semishigure SEMI
010, 2007)
[lim. 500]
€ 16.00
Ein psycho-akustisches Experiment von FLORIAN HECKER und dem
SoundArt & Installationskünstler CARSTEN HÖLLER; flackernde Loops
mit speziellen Frequenz- & Phasenbearbeitungen. Der Raum wird zum
Instrument.
"....Once Florian mentioned to Carsten his fascination for psycho
acoustics, he soon found a CD of Diana Deutsch's famous Musical
Illusions in his mail box, followed by an invitation to conceive a sound
piece to accompany Carsten’s Light Wall, then planned as a
contribution to 2003's Nuit Blanche to be held at Gare de Lyon, Paris.
Florian wanted to second the persuasive notion of the flickering Alpha
Wave inducing Light Wall, with a sound piece at least as hypnotic as a
Dreamachine and as abrasive as a quality Acid House bassline. Not
interested in Musical Illusions per se, he aimed to break the psycho
acoustics down to the level of sound particles, not having to deal with
scale, octave or tritone illusions in the style of Diana Deutsch. The
result was a 4-minute long, intensively pulsating piece, a flickering
rhythm with a constant Precedence Effect and a phase inversion at a
frequency of 7,12 Hz to add even more spatial disorientation.
The Precedence Effect fascinated him as a beautiful example of spatiosonic confusion, exposing the very heart of many psycho acoustic
applications, where only some spare but carefully chosen modifications
of slight temporal ortonal shifts, time delays, loudness and pitch
differences are responsible for intense and unusual sonic phenomena.
As a classic example of French bureaucracy the planned combination
of the Light Wall and the Precedence Effect sound piece never
happened. 9 months later Carsten contacted him, having found an even
better occasion to present the work; his solo show at the Museum of
Contemporary Art, Marseille.
He made a series of tracks, all using a super abundance of Acid Phase
Inversion, intensively klickering hypnotic pulsars, crescendos of
Precedence Effects, and eventually titled them Höller Tracks. The
shifting pulsars opened in two microtonally different versions in two
identically empty rooms in the museum. The piece which actually was
on display at the museum can be found in its two different versions on a
DVD with the published book, and in again another slightly different
version on his album Recordings for Rephlex. This was the driest, most
sober take out of all the Höller Tracks.
The 9 pieces featured on this album don't lack any of the spatial
disorientation and temporal confusion, however they consist of the more
intense, eccentric versions, some from the first productions, some from
more recent ones. Note: These pieces should be played at maximum
volume via loudspeakers. The early reflections from your room are
essential. Headphone listening is NOT recommended." [label info]
* HANSON, STEN - Text-Sound Compositions LP (Fylkingen
Records FYLP 1022, 1978)
€ 15.00
We got original / new copies of this classic "Text-Sound Composition"or "Poesie Sonore"- record with five recordings made 1970-1973 ("The
Trilogy of Vocal Energy" as the main piece), where HANSON uses
mainly female voice-material & weird electronic sounds to create highly
original and obscure stuff. The compositions are seen as an art-form or
area of expressions between poetry and music, working with the taperecorder instead of the typewriter. Important for those compositions are
the three parameters "Use of non-semantic oral language information"
(which also means that linguistic micro-particles & pre-linguistic sounds
are used), "Time manipulation", and "Polyphony" (multilayering of
sounds). The vocal material here is processed heavily and full of
emotional content, very unusual blocks or patterns of sounds are build,
a beautiful LP which still doesn't sound old or outdated today.
* HARMONIA - Musik von Harmonia LP (Lilith Records LR119,
2006) € 16.50
Wiederveröffentlichung der ersten HARMONIA LP von 1974, mit neuen
Liner-Notes von ASMUS TIETCHENS!
"Once called 'the world's most important rock group' by Brian Eno,
legendary minimalist avant-garde band Harmonia was formed in the
early '70s by Michael Rother of Neu! and Hans-Joachim Roedelius and
Dieter Moebius of Cluster. Although this supergroup produced only two
studio albums -- 1974's Musik von Harmonia and 1975's De luxe -- they
were very influential and perfectly embodied the Krautrock ideal. While
leaning slightly towards Cluster's ambient sound, they were also entirely
their own entity -- a jet engine running clean and precise but also
spouting asphyxiating aural exhaust." [label info]
* Jim HAYNES - Eraldus / Eravaldus pic-LP (Elevator Bath
eeaoa026, 2008)
€ 17.50
Das Pendant zur RICK REED Picture-LP (ebenfalls auf Elevator Bath)
stellt diese Arbeit des emsigen COELACANTH-Mitglieds, HELEN
SCARSDALE-Labelbetreibers, WIRE-Rezensenten & AQUARIUS
RECORDS-Mitarbeiters dar. Ein feines Beispiel seiner Kunst,
kratzende, knirschende, granulare Objektklänge zu erzeugen, sehr
subtil und fein, die gut zu seinen "korrodierenden", verrostenden Bildern
passen... die betörenden Drones wirken irgendwie "steinig" und
"metallig", ohne dass man genau sagen könnte, was für
Originalklangquellen eingesetzt wurden...
"Beautiful picture disc LP featuring two full-color reproductions of visual
works by Jim Haynes and two new side-long solo compositions. The
ideal companion pieces to Jim Haynes' masterful album, Telegraphy by
the Sea, Eraldus and Eravaldus are both shadowy concoctions built
from agitated objects and amplified spaces (a lighthouse, some hightension wires driven by wind, a very large pile of sand, etc.). These are
subtly manipulated field recordings, rusted to perfection and fine-tuned
* HEMATIC SUNSETS & OKKO BEKKER - Weihnachten im Aroma
Club 2007
7" (Klang der Festung KdF5, 2007) € 6.50
Das Unfassbare erhält Kontinuität, wenn OKKO BEKKER & ASMUS
TIETCHENS neue Versionen OH TANNENBAUM und LEISE RIESELT
DER SCHNEE anstimmen..
"Some years ago, Asmus Tietchens promised us to bring every year
one new release as Hematic Sunsets, his project for 'real' music.
Following his christmas record for Meeuw Muzak of, I think, two years
ago, there is now another christmas record on his own Klang Der
Festung. 'Oh Tannebaum' as an instrumental version on the a-side
while Okko Bekker sings it on the flip, plus a most curious live piece
recorded on the market. A frivolous Tietchens record, which he permits
13
* ILLUSION OF SAFETY - Sedation & Quell 10" (Crippled
Intellect Prod. CIP 021, 2008) [lim. 500]
€ 13.00
Endlich neues Material von DAN BURKE aka ILLUSION OF SAFETY,
zwei schwelend-spannungsgeladenen ambient Industrial Stücke, die
ganz leise & bedächtig beginnen und sich unheimlich fortbewegen,
während zunehmend knirschende Kurzwellen- oder Digital-Sounds &
Effekte ins Hörfeld geraten... ein sehr sehr dichtes Klanggewebe,
kommt auf hellgelb / goldenem, klaren Vinyl.
"the first 10" by IOS, one of a handful of American icons of experimental
music. Dan Burke is entering his 25th year of developing challenging,
engaging audio, having performed nearly 200 times in the United
States, Canada, and Europe and releasing material on labels
worldwide. Side one is a pleasantly dense, yet not cluttered by any
means, assemblage of diverse elements including an old typewriter,
turntable pops/crackles, and what ~appears~ to be shortwave radio
interference topped by subtle frequency and oscillation tweaks.
Side two offers a beautiful counterbalance: after an initial punch
announcing the track, we waver through numerous delicate swimming
tones that are eventually subdued by a listing rhythmic faction suffused
with other surprises... Those familiar with Dan's work will not be
disappointed, and for folks who may not be familiar with it, if you enjoy
artists such as Joe Colley or the Hafler Trio, or enjoy musique concrete
this will be of interest to you." [label info]
"... These days Illusion Of Safety celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary
and it's mainly Dan Burke solo. Still on the road, still on top of things,
but music is no longer his main thing, diversing with other activities in
life and away from the endless pressure of having to deliver music. So
the releases have become sparse, but are still great. Two pieces on this
10" 'Sedation' and 'Quell'. Both pieces are concentrated works of
densely knitted web of sounds. Apparently Burke uses an old
typewriter, turntable pops/crackles, shortwave and oscillations. The two
pieces could be brothers in arms. Slow development, taking time to take
shape. Dense but not blurred. This is the Illusion Of Safety side of
ambient - not comforting quiet, but discomforting beautiful. 'Sedation' is
a humming low end piece with tension lurking underneath. Two great
pieces of someone who should have his name writing large in the
annals of music history (but of course won't, since there is no such thing
as justification)." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"...This milestone has not softened the psychologically dark currents of
one of America's finest producers of post-industrial abstraction and
silence-plus-noise sound construction. Sedation & Quell is the first
of many releases slated for 2008, being a vinyl-only release pressed
on translucent gold vinyl.
Sedation bristles with low end frequencies capable of
delivering catatonic states. Vinyl crackling and warm swathes of
radio hiss billow out of the deep deep deep dronings, and huge
oceanic swells of growling frequencies offer a lethargic rhythm to
this dark ambient opus. On Quell, a brusque crunch of electronic
malfunction is followed by a steady hypnosis of rumbling drones which
in turn are engulfed by a wash of hiss and white noise. While it's
not the aggressiveness of Prurient or Merzbow that Illusion Of Safety
is going for, there is a malevolent strain to this production, as if
Machinefabriek were to gingerly steer towards power electronics ever
so slightly. Very well done!" [Aquarius Records review]
himself to do once every year. This record will play nicely along the
Meeuw 7"s on Boxing Day." [Fdw / Vital Weekly]
* HIVE MIND / HOTOTOGISU - split 7" (Not Not Fun Records
NNF071, 2007) [lim. 500]
€ 6.50
Zweimal Noise-Muzak pur! Die HOTOTOGISU-Seite "Full Prince
Charles" (live in Copenhagen, 12.2005) kracht low-fi und hochfrequent
und kontrastiert so aufs beste mit dem analog rauschig-dronig
wallenden Studio-Stück "Collapsed Shroud" von HIVE MIND, bei dem
flirrende Effekte regelrecht abheben...
"Legendary Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!) and Marcia Bassett
(Double Leopards/GHQ) duo unleash a brain-scouring blast of white
light/heat. Hive Mind head Greh Holger creeps out a negative graveyard
of tonal droning. Limited edition release with very few copies available-act fast!" [label notes]
* HIVE - Cast through shallow Earth LP (No Fun Productions
NFP-19, 2007) [lim. 400]
€ 15.00
"Synth music for the exploration of desolated lands, slow and detailed
side long movements of pure tonal sound. After millions of years when
everything has withered away and nothing survives what will remain in
this earth? Minerals, boiling lava, smoke, and corrosion in a shallow
earth.Limited to 400 copies." [label info]
* HRSTA - Ghosts will come and kiss your Eyes LP
(Constellation Records CST048-1, 2007)
€ 15.50
Noch ein Projekt aus dem GODSPEED- & SET FIRE TO FLAMES Umfeld (gegründet von Mike Moya), HRSTA klingen als habe man hier
die melancholisch-sehnsuchtsvolle Seite von GODSPEED kondensiert
und verdichtet, mit Frauengesang & sehr melodisch emotional. This
music breaks our heart!
"...Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes ist erneut ein herrliches Album
geworden, ein Zeuge von Musik, die aus einer anderen Welt zu
kommen scheint.... Ein flächiger, sehnsüchtiger, melancholischer
Psychedelic Folk Sound, der wie dazu geschaffen ist einem das Herz
direkt aus der Brust zu reißen. Geradezu blind scheint er sich mit seiner
neuen Partnerin zu verstehen, die mit ihrer Orgel, Mundorgel und
Harmonica grandios harmonisch seinen Sound ergänzt. Die
resultierenden Kompositionen strotzen nur so vor Schönheit. Sei es der
herrliche Opener mit seiner verträumten Melodie von ihr, ergänzt durch
eine unter die Haut gehende, sehnsüchtige E-Bow Gitarre Moyas. Dann
diese leisen, melancholischen Nummern, sein sanfter, urtypischer
Gitarrensound, untermalt von ihrer Orgel und Harmonica, hinfort
getragen von seinem einzigartigem Gesang. Wundervolle Songs wie
The Orchard, die sich wie Watte um den Kopf wickeln. Da gibt es
dieses Tomorrow Winter Comes, ein schwer melancholischer Ambient
Drone, gefolgt vom ebenso grandiosem Haunted Pluckley Akustikgitarre und eine warme E-Gitarre ergänzen sich mit seinem
Stimmchen zu einem wunderschönen Lullaby, dazu eine Harmonica.
Auch die dynamischen Höhepunkte werden nicht vermisst. Hechicero
Del Bosque ist wieder so ein Blick in die Vergangenheit Moyas, ein
lockerer Schlagzeugbeat, eine tolle Gitarre, die sich immer mehr
emporschwingt, unterbrochen von tollen Gesangsparts, ehe es zum
unvermeintlichem Ausbruch kommt - es geht eben auch laut. Und es
fällt mal wieder auf was für unheimlich harmonische stimmende
Arrangements diese beiden da fabrizieren.....Ein kleines Meisterwerk
famoser, sehnsüchtiger Musikkunst eines großen Künstlers, der hier
einen wirklich formidablen Partner gefunden hat. Musik kann so schön
sein." [Haiko Nahm / Tinnitus Music Webzine]
"The third full-length album from Montreal's HRSTA. Founded by MIKE
MOYA of GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR and featuring
BROOKE CROUSER of JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER. Ghosts Will
Come and Kiss Our Eyes is a collection of gently foreboding psych-folk
gems, anchored by Moya's unique guitar sound and otherworldly,
cracked vocals, and prominent use of Hammond and pump organ.
Includes a killer version of the Bee Gees' "Holiday" [label info]
* IRM - Indications of Nigredo 12" (Segerhuva SEGER 23, 2008)
[lim. 500] € 13.00
"... IRM hat sich für Indications of Nigredo (Seger 23, 12“) mit dem
Bassisten Mikael Oretoft verstärkt, der Jarls Knurschelektronik mit
dunklen Twangs durchsetzt. Vor dieser sich langsam aufbauenden Wall
of Sound wirken Bladhs Einwürfe seltsam dünn und wie kastriert. Der
grusig harsche Noise kommt als gnadenloses Mahlwerk ins Rollen, die
Stimme klingt immer gequälter und panischer. Wieder gefasst, stellt
sich Bladh einem zweiten Härtetest und verliest die Versuchsanordnung. Dann überdröhnt und umflattert ihn ‚Indicator 2‘, ein Sturm
aus Noise und Eis, unter dessen Pfeilhagel er sich als Hl. Sebastian
windet. Beatkaskaden und zeitlupiges Bassgedröhn geben der
Inszenierung einen rituellen Anstrich. Bladh schreit wie am Spieß
Parolen, um anschließend seine Wunden zu lecken. Ist der wirkliche
Name des jungen Mannes Narziss? Oder Marsyas?" [Bad Alchemy]
"On the theme of alchemy and the topics of shame vs. bodily self
infliction, IRM makes way for a new start after the inspired “Virgin Mind”
double-disc set from 2005. These are new recordings with the new
member Mikael Oretoft joining on bass. Two long tracks - the first being
an intense up-building, deep pulsating number with both spoken and
rough vocals, volcanic exaggerated bass noise and doom-laden
atmosphere. The second more of an aftermath with its downspiralling,
almost dreamy character of echoing tones, ripping clangs and chilling
audio-schmerz. In total over 23 minutes of music in a glossy colour
sleeve with gross artwork and a small insert. Edition of 500 copies."
[label info]
"... What fascinates with IRM's approach to power electronics is the
intelligent construction of the works. Apparently it is not the question of
* HUM - The Spectral Ship
10" (Substantia Innominata SUB08, 2008) [lim. 500]
€ 12.00
Eine Huldigung an den "Klang an sich", der nicht erzeugt wird, sondern
seit Anbeginn da ist. HUMs Beitrag für unsere 10" Reihe über das
Nicht-Erkennbare.
"Two great new pieces by this russian artist from the Moscow-area,
most sensible & emotional drone-ambience, a graceful dance of
acoustic reflections & resonances. "Spectral Ship" and "Tidal Fire"
appear like universal mantras, revealing the basic HUM of the universe.
These works seem to represent perfectly the concept of the
SUBSTANTIA-series: Sound that exists but which is not originating from
the impact of two subjects in contact. Sound that is simply "there", with
no beginning or ending. Edition of 500 copies on silver-coloured vinyl,
with a full colour sleeve design by DANIEL CROKAERT / MYSTERY
SEA." [press release]
14
shocking the listener with the sounds of collapsing electronics. More
likely the trio invites you into dark territories of electronic sound, territories that in the first moments seems harmless, but soon after turns
out to be a true noise monster. A noise monster, where the emotional
impact remains and thus makes the storm of crushing electronics even
more overwhelming as they attack the listener. A true masterpiece of
apocalyptic art."[NM / Vital Weekly]
Hegre, best known for their ‘Metal Machine Music’ death metal concept
album but also for the searing blasts of electricity that typify their more
noise-oriented work. For this release, they also recruit fellow Norwegian
and multi-tasking guitar-mangling prodigy Anders Hana (Noxagt,
MoHa!) - as if they needed any help to kick out the jams on this
jawdroppingly raucous live recording. In contrast, the flip side is
significantly more serene from Mark Durgan (who you may also know
as Putrefier and who is rumoured to have been part of the mystery lineup of The New Blockaders at Thurston Moore’s All Tomorrows Parties).
Subsonic rumbles and birdsong dominate the surface of this track, but
the devil’s in the detail – poke your attention through the thin surface ice
and you’ll easily fall through to hidden depths." [label notes]
* IRR.APP.(EXT.) / PANICSVILLE - split LP (Nihilist Records
NIHIL 54, 2008) [lim. 500] € 19.50
Rare Split-LP des kalifornischen Kult-Projekts mit dem Chicagoer
PANICSVILLE, auf farbigem Vinyl, soon to be rare !!
"Irr. App. (Ext.) crafts some of the most bizarre and beautiful sound
pieces around. Based in California, Matt Waldron is also one half of the
current Nurse With Wound live shows. Panicsville, headed by Andy
Ortmann, delves in the deeper regions of the subconscious forging
sonic scenarios to undreamt nightmares. Limited to 500 copies on 140
gram marbled vinyl. Packaged in pro-pressed jackets with artwork by
Waldron & Ortmann." [label info]
"For those of you who have had the opportunity to witness the
live reincarnation of Nurse With Wound over the past couple of years,
there are two bald men making funny noises usually on either side of
Steven Stapleton. One is Andrew Liles, who had run the table in terms
of a release schedule in 2007 releasing 14 full albums of eccentric
drones and abstracted collages, some of which were pretty darn good,
but could maybe have used some editing. The other bald man is M.S.
Waldron, whose slowly trickled releases are impeccable constructions
of modern day Surrealism through audio sorcery, clearly not in any
need of an editor whatsoever. Outside of NWW, he's been toiling away
in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California under the unwieldy moniker
irr. app. (ext.).
This split release with Chicago's Panicsville has been in the works
for many years now, finally seeing the light of day in early 2008. The irr.
app. (ext.) half of the equation slowly spirals from one assemblage of
discombobulated field recordings, agitated ether, and curious
atmospherics into another set of equally malformed sounds, much like a
black-acid kaleidoscope. Yes, it makes perfect sense that Stapleton
would want Waldron to assist in Nurse performances, as he clearly has
talent at taking weird noise making to a sublime level of abstraction.
With a name like Panicsville, the expectations were of an obstinant
noise project; but instead, this splatter of mechanoid gestures pocking
sea-sick drones is a worthy companion to irr. app. (ext.)'s sidereal
brilliance. So good in fact, that we may seek out further recordings. So
good in fact, that you too should pick this thing up. Limited to 500
copies." [Aquarius Records review]
* JESU - Lifeline 12" (Hydrahead HHH-127, 2007) € 16.00
Manche nennen es "Shoegazer-Metal"! Schwebend- & seelig
machende 4-track EP mit Gastauftritt von JARBOE. Die Vinyl-Version
mit unglaublich schönem Hochglanz-Cover & Innencover, auf goldschwarzem Vinyl, und das auch noch in verschiedenen Designs.
".... Jesu is all about texture, and Broadrick does some amazing
thing with his guitar and laptop, whipping up orchestral chordal
swells, lush soundscapes, wrapping billowy spaced out FX and warm
sun dappled reverb around everything, making every note sound like
big glorious snow flakes of sound." [Aquarius Rec.]
* JOSEFSON, MATHIAS - Suihkulähde LP (Isoramara Records
I0010, 2007)
[lim. 300]
€ 14.00
Erster Solo-Release von JOSEFSON aka MOLJEBKA PVLSE, auf
seinem eigenen Label in schöner "letter-press"-Hülle. Ganz
verschieden vom typischen M.P. Drone- und Geräuschsound wurde
hier auf Seite A ein "ready-made" verewigt, der konkrete Klang einer
mechanisch dröhnenden, röhrend-gurgelnden Maschine, ohne weitere
Overdubs! Alltagsgeräusche in voller Aufmerksamkeit, auch das kann
ein Erlebnis sein. "ALTE WEGE DIE WIR WANDERN WERDE NEUE
SEIN". Auf Seite B dasselbe nach leichter Bearbeitung... Ein obskurer
"Klangkunst"-Release, der zunächst verwirrt, dann begeistert!
"Side A of this album is a ready-made, a found sound. Except for
adjusting the volume, the recorded source material is not processed
with effects in any way. Side B is a processed version of the same
track." [label info]
* KALLABRIS - Hund vor die Tür LP (Entr'acte E49 / Jazztone
JZ119, 2008) [lim. 200]
€ 15.50
KALLABRIS has developed quite a unique style & approach towards
sounds, and this new LP is no exception! HUND VOR DIE TÜR is a
composition using strange voice-material, synth- & guitar-loops...
“The significance of dogs is something which struck me a long time ago.
If one compares Mark Twain’s A Dog’s Tale with Willard Van Orman
Quine’s Two Dogmas of Empiricism, for example, one finds that Twain’s
account of the narrator’s mother (who is a collie) is much more knowing
than Quine’s account of the meaning of a tail.
Experience tells us that it might be best to acknowledge that certain
tails don’t have a meaning at all. This is especially true if one thinks of
certain dogs and their resemblance to applied mathematics. One does
not have to consult Crelle’s Journal to understand that their tails —
whether pure or slightly grubby — can’t possibly move them. It’s always
the dog that moves the tail — never the other way round.”
Kallabris is the project of Michael Anacker. Active since 1986, Kallabris’
work has been described as ‘electro-acoustic chamber music’ — a
description which should be taken literally. Anacker’s main interest is a
reflection on the electro-mechanical conditions of sound recording
presented in everyday recording devices such as cheap home
computers, dictaphones and answering machines. Thus, he is not
interested in the limits of musical styles but in the limitations of sound
(re)production." [label info]
"Through the many years of their existence, Kallabris is one of my
favorite groups, but as I was listening to this new LP 'Hund Vor Die Tür'
('dog standing for the door'), I am never to sure what it is that I like
about them. Perhaps the whole mythical surrounding of the group. Is it
a group? One man? We don't know. Let alone what they do. However
text seems to be important with their releases, even when it's not easy
to figure about what they are about. Apparently the piece started in April
2005 with a live concert in Dortmund and has expanded over time into
this record. And it's in a way about dogs (pity, as I am not a lover of
anything canine), although 'a piece of music is not a tale', the cover
informs us. Perhaps so, but this record has tale like qualities. There is a
vocoder voice that recites some lines every now and then - making this
record one piece rather than a collection of pieces) - and on side one
this is embedded in a warm bath of computerized drones and the on the
b-side with plucked acoustic guitar and even a hot steamy rhythm. The
b-side is my favorite, since it moves through all these nice textures,
while on the first side it's all rather single-minded. But once again, this is
a great record of a mythical band with great sound, hovering the
* JARBOE - Seeress / The Sweat Meat Love and Holy Cult 7"
(Paradigms Recordings 008, 2007) [lim. 600] € 6.00
"Paradigms is very proud to issue an exclusive, vinyl only release by the
legendary Swans vocalist Jarboe. Two brand new recordings for
Paradigms on a very limited 7" vinyl format. Beautifully packaged with
full colour, heavy board sleeve and limited to 600 copies (of which only
500 will be available for sale through us). The A-side is a beautiful piano
and vocal piece by Jarboe, with accompanying guitar from collabroator
Nic Le Ban. The B-side introduces her new free-collective, The Sweet
Meat Love And Holy Cult. The result being a 10-piece mantric improv
freak-out. Fantastic. We're sure Jarboe needs no introduction to most
after her heritage with Swans and her acclaimed solo works, the
staggering collaborations with Neurosis and last year's highly praised
"The Men Album". [label info]
* JAZKAMER / SANDBLEISTIFT - split 10" (Licht-Ung, 2007)
[lim. 290]
€ 12.50
The fourth volume in the LICHT-UNG 10" series presents JAZKAMER,
the project (written in different ways) by LASSE MARHAUG & JOHN
HEGRE, who have a nice repetitive power-noise track on Side A of this
split which develops in many direction and carrys you away like an
acoustic storm. The second side is by MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT aka
LICHT-UNG, a furios whining & feedbackin' noise-track full of roaring &
droning details, we love it! Very recommended 10" for "advanced"
noise-listeners!
"....Hier klingt ihr Nor Noise nach einem Ventilator, der von einem Metal
Music Machine-Motor getrieben flatternd rotiert und mit wüstem
Brausen und Gesirr staubgepeitscht an der Verankerung zerrt. Das
knurschige Pulsieren kommt ins Schleudern, das überlastete Material
schrillt diskant auf. LICHTUNG kontert mit kongenialem Jaulen, eher
lustvoll als panisch." [Bad Alchemy]
* JAZKAMER / MARK DURGAN - split 7" (NO-FI Recordings
NEU006, 2008) [lim. 500]
€ 8.50
"Another instalment in NO-FI’s vinyl catalogue, this 7” sees the head-on
collision of two major acts in the European noise circuit. Norway’s
Jazkamer is the electronics and guitar duo of Lasse Marhaug and John
15
experiment and the pop notion of folktronics. Kallabris remains a
favorite." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
Collector's item! A beautiful pigment print by C. KUBISCH (out of 5
different ones for this ed. - size 12 x 12", signed, numbered, dated),
plus one 12" (31 min) by BORIS HEGENBART & SASCHA DEMAND,
on which they create 20 minimalistic tracks with guitar & computer,
short sketches consisting of drones, little feedbacks & metallic
overtunes... lim. 250, comes in gatefold-cover.
* KARL BÖSMANN - Eskalation LP (You don't have to call it
music 03, 2007) [lim. 500]
€ 20.50
Ein Schmuckstück auf Stefan Bremer's neuem Label, dieses Album von
KARL BÖSMANN, das ist das Projekt des Bildhauers MARKUS
THORN. ESKALATION berauscht mit spannungsreichem IndustrialDrone unter Einsatz von ausschliesslich akustischen Soundquellen &
Stimme & field recordings. Abgründig, ausserweltlich & erhaben!
"...die 5 Stücke vertiefen zwei ... Ansätze. Einmal die Stimme als
Dröhnquelle: ‚Voice 23’ orientiert sich an Tuvanischem Throatgesang,
verstärkt den Effekt jedoch zum verzerrten Röhren eines Dämons aus
der Interzone, einer Halluzination des Verfolgungswahns, die sich mit
ihrem säurehaltigen Gesang ins Diesseits zu fräsen droht. Und
daneben das bebende Vibrato von ‚RRRRR’, das einen mit einer
Reibeisenzunge voller Raspeln und Widerhäkchen in Ultrazeitlupe
ablutscht, sowie, besonders eindrücklich, der pulsierende, nur ganz
allmählich, aber unaufhaltsam Raum greifende Schwel- und
Schwellklang des 20-minütigen Titelstückes, die den sonoren
Niblock’schen Brumm-Minimalismus und das eigene ‚For 200 Violins’
variieren. ‚Ricochet’ wäre die perfekte Single-Auskopplung, als kurze
Quintessenz der Eskalation- Ästhetik, dem kehligen Röhren und
vibrierenden Brummen, mit schnarrenden Riffs einer akustischen
Gitarre durchsetzt, quasi als Querschläger von ‚finnischem’ Freak-Folk.
Neben Geige, E-Bass und gestrichenem Bass kommen eine
Klangschale und Akkordeons zum Einsatz, nur bis zur Unkenntlichkeit
eingedickt. ‚Medan Market-Place’ simuliert mit den Sägezahnfrequenzen zuckender Vokalisation das Stimmengewirr auf einem
Marktplatz in Nordsumatra, klingt aber bei verbundenen Augen auch ein
wenig wie eine schnatternde Vogelkolonie auf einem Tape mit
Bandlaufstörungen. Und abschließend hört man, per Telefon, die
sarkastische Katastrophenstandsmeldung eines MS-kranken Freundes
(‚Sgt. Collapse’). Durch dieses „Es ist wie es ist und es ist fürchterlich“
wird jede Ausschweifung der Phantasie gleichzeitig geerdet und
legitimiert. Was Vorsicht Musik (BA 52) versprach, wird auf eine Weise
eingelöst, die auch hohen Ansprüchen genügen dürfte." [Bad Alchemy]
"Escalating drone sounds like a mixture of Cluster/Kluster and KTL or
Sunn O))) with vocal parts in the style of Tazartes or tibetan monks.
The 20 minutes long title track sounds like a swelling version
of Nurse With Wound's "Soliloqui for Lilith". Soundclips at:
www.karlboesmann.com. Comes in deluxe silver foil cover, with silver
foil insert and label stickers. Printed inner sleeve and additional inserts
are also included." [label info]
" Never heard the name Karl Bosmann before, but he seems to be
sonically aligned with the doomdreamdeathdrone crowd. And that's
precisely what this is, although a bit more varied than usual, this one's
definitely for the SUNNO)))-set, a huge old chunk of low end drone.
Multiple variations on the glacial near static crawl, some glimmering and
effervescent, others grinding and thick, crumbling and abrasive, at least
one seems to be all processed vocals, looped and smeared into some
weird Steve Reich-ian drone and coupled with a wash of minimal low
end shimmer, and one is all detuned guitar strum and disembodied
buzz. Easy to hear some Wolf Eyes and definitely some Vulture Club.
All of side 2 is a single slow burning sidelong epic, very Fear Falls
Burning sounding, beginning as a whispery shimmer, building to a
massive clamorous Sunroof! style din. And let's not forget the
packaging. Holy shit, it would be worth it even if the record sucked.
Embossed metallic silver on matte black jacket, inside a metallic silver
on black insert, a metallic silver on black sleeve, even the record labels
are reflective silver, super striking and SO worth the extra scratch."
[Aquarius Records review]
* LEGENDARY PINK DOTS - Early Recordings 5 x LP-Box (Vinyl
On Demand VOD48, 2007) [lim. 600]
€ 67.50
Die frühen LPD - Tapes zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl - V.O.D. machts
möglich! Alle LPs in extra-Cover, massiv !
"This 5LP box features the very early '80s tape recordings by The
Legendary Pink Dots ('80-'82) including Kleine Krieg, Chemical
Playschool 2 - edition 2 which is Chemical Playschool Vol.1 and 2 plus
outtakes and Live in Cologne 1983." [label info]
* Jason LESCALLEET'S DUE PROCESS - Combine XXI / Combine
XXII 10" [lim. 300] (We Break More, 2008)
€ 17.00
Ein Low-Noise-Maelstrom voller Rauschen & tiefen Feedbacks &
Wummern mit einigen konkreten Elementen, die sich herausschälen.
Nicht wirklich harsch, eher dumpf krachig und vielschichtig. JASON
LESCALLEET im Zusammenwirken mit DUE PROCESS.
"Combine xxi, Combine xxii' is the second vinyl album documenting the
ongoing collaboration between tape loop composer destroyer Jason
Lescalleet and ron lessard, aka noise legend emil beaulieau and head
of the pioneering rrrecords label. while due process has been lessard's
longtime umbrella for collaborations (which previously have featured
like-minded outsiders tom dimuzio and john wiggins), this current
iteration of due process is an altogether different beast. using severely
manipulated recordings of the duo's ear-splitting live concerts,
Lescalleet creates a dense sound world, abstract and visceral.
Consisting of two sidelong pieces, by turns both brutal and beautiful,
this latest record is a testament to Lescalleet's ability to recast rough
sounds in his blurry, tape-distorted image. lavishly printed on
heavyweight lennox paper and lovingly letter-pressed by smudge ink in
Boston, this 10' record is limited to 300 copies." [label notes]
* LILES, ANDREW - Ourda do-LP (Dirter Promotions DPROM 68,
2008) [lim. 600]
€ 25.00
"Es hat drei Jahre gedauert, bis das neueste Werk 'Ouarda (The Subtle
Art Of Phyllorhodomancy)' von ANDREW LILES endlich in den Läden
landete, wobei der Entstehungsprozess fast genauso lang dauerte.
Aufgenommen in Studios in Paris, London und Sizilien ist ,Ouarda." ein
Reisetagebuch, das sich schlicht und einfach weigert, für längere Zeit
an einem einzigen Ort zu verharren. Die Musik, die LILES hier
versammelt, ist genau so unterschiedlich, wie die musikalischen Gäste,
die sich auf ,Ouarda." versammeln. Mit dabei: Danielle Dax, Maja Elliott,
Rose McDowall, Karl Blake, Edward Ka-Spel und Daniel Padden von
VOLCANO THE BEAR, die alle einzigartige und absolut
atemberaubende Beiträge liefern. Düster, eingängig, unerklärlich und
außergewöhnlich ist ,Ouarda..' ein Manifest des Produktionstalents von
ANDREW LILES, der ohne Zweifel ein einmaliger Soundzauberer ist.//
Limited edition (600 copies) double LP pressed on colored vinyl. UKbased Andrew Liles' (Current 93, Nurse With Wound) latest offering has
taken nearly three years to hit the shelves and almost as long to create.
Recorded in London, Paris, and Sicily, Ouarda (The Subtle Art Of
Phyllorhodomancy) is a travelogue that refuses to stay stuck in any one
place for any extended period. The music herein is as diverse as the
array of guests involved: Danielle Dax, Maja Elliott, Rose McDowall,
Karl Blake, The Legendary Pink Dots' Edward Ka-Spel and Volcano
The Bear's Daniel Padden all bestow unique and stunning contributions
that soar along with Liles' unique brand of minimal surrealism. Obscure,
accessible, incomprehensible and exceptional, Ouarda (The Subtle Art
Of Phyllorhodomancy) is testament to the breathtaking production
talents of Andrew Liles -- arguably the most vital and original
soundsmith of recent years." [press release / Cargo translation]
* KTL - 3 LP (OR rather16, 2007)
€ 16.00
"KTL are Stephen O'Malley [Sunn O))), Khanate] & Peter Rehberg [Pita,
eMego, mimeo]. The third part of accompaniments created for the
theatre piece 'Kindertotenlieder' by Gisele Vienne and Dennis Cooper,
which was premiered in Brest, France, March 2007. Limited Edition
Vinyl only. One-sided heavyweight vinyl + etching by Savage Pencil
[SAVX]. Packaged in a tip-on style outer sleeve, heavyweight inner
sleeve and sticker. Two tracks : 'Loud Game' and 'Sunday'. Perhaps the
broadest bulletin from the duo of Stephen O'Malley and Peter Rehberg
featuring 2 contrasting tracks. The layered dementia bliss of 'Loud
Game' counterbalances the fried dub of 'Sunday'. Produced by Stephen
O'Malley & Peter Rehberg on location at Vienne Wintergarden,
Grenoble & Manoir Kéroual, Guilers, July 2006 & February 2007. Cut by
Rashad at D&M, Berlin, July 2007. Photos & Doll: Gisèle Vienne. Bird:
Jean-Luc Verna. Text: Dennis Cooper. Narration: Jonathan Capdeville.
Design: SOMA." [label info]
* MACHINEFABRIEK / BLACK TO COMM - Stofstuk / Stickstoff 7"
(Dekorder, 2007)
[lim. 100]
€ 8.00
" ....So consider this a best case scenario, two AQ faves, both masters
of abstract drone and beautiful ambience, each given a side to do what
they do, and it sounds like the two ‘groups’ worked off each others
sounds. That’s how great these two tracks sound together.
Machinefabriek goes way minimal, a super abstract, nearly static
tone poem, each note stretched out into long barely pulsing streaks,
rich luxuriant tones allowed to ring out and slowly subside, crystalline
and gorgeously minimal, the lows deep and fluid, the highs soft and
shimmery, a subtle sound that dissipates softly, as if it was designed to
be a constant fade out from the very first note.
Black To Comm unfurl clouds of reverberating tones, thick billows of
metallic shimmer, deftly (and VERY subtly) crafted into muted melodies,
sounding like a louder, more dense reinterpretation of the
* KUBISCH, CHRISTINA / 9KHZ HEGENBART / DEMAND -Ohne
Titel (Lichtbilder I-V/2001) 12" & ART (EN/OF DELUXE II, 2005)
[lim. 250]
€ 59.50
16
Machinefabriek track. Chimes and bells, smeared into blurs of warm
melodic drone, distant percussive twinkles, all wrapped up in BTC’s
gorgeous dreamlike sprawl.
Pressed on beautiful swirled grey vinyl, and packed with an
original full color, hand painted collaged insert/cover, every one is
different. LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!!!" [Aquarius Records
review]
boundaries further than ever. "I feel closest to the dubstep trend," says
Dangers. "I feel like dub has always been part of my sound."
On Autoimmune, guest vocalist Daddy Sandy makes an appearance on
"I Hold the Mic!" and the techno-tinged "Spanish Vocoder" touches on
Dangers' early techno roots. "Every record is different," he explains,
"and in this record I focused on what I like to do versus what other
people like me to do: beats, bass and distortion."
Meat Beat Manifesto's musical inventions have generated a long string
of influential, futuristic classics, including tracks such as "God OD,"
"Psyche-Out," "Helter Skelter," "Radio Babylon," "Edge of No Control,"
and "It's The Music." The single "Prime Audio Soup" (from the album
Actual Sounds and Voices) was featured in the sci-fi fantasy
blockbuster The Matrix and on its platinum-selling soundtrack." [label
info]
* MARTIN, AARON & MACHINEFABRIEK - Cello Recycling 10"
(Type Records TYPE029V, 2007) [lim. 500]
€ 10.00
MACHINEFABRIEK hat Cello-Klänge von AARON MARTIN recycled,
dabei entstand diese prächtig raumfüllend klingende 10" mit
subliminalen harmonischen Drones, field recordings (Wasser),
mechanischen & loopigen Sounds vom Cello... Anklänge an TROUM
(v.a. A-Seite), TIM HECKER, etc.
"10" vinyl version. The Netherlands' Rutger Zuydervelt Machinefabriek)
and American multi-instrumentalist Aaron Martin present their first-ever
collaboration. Zuydervelt is somewhat prolific; his steady flow of superlimited edition 3" CD-Rs seem to slip out relentlessly month after month,
and Martin has one full-length album to his name so far. Between them,
the duo has come up with a project that is far more than the sum of its
parts. The Cello Recycling project was originally commissioned for use
in an art gallery; Zuydervelt took cello improvisations from Aaron Martin
and built them into the slow-burning post-ambient monster that is "Cello
Recycling." The second track takes Martin's original piece, morphed by
Rutger, and then once again distorted, where the original piece is
drowned in a bath of murky water, submerging it in all different
directions it has never before drifted. The two pieces together are
perfectly complimentary, showing two sides of a tarnished coin -- one
giving us pent-up emotion, fizzing and shuffling awkwardly until it
explodes majestically, the other giving us a peaceful reflection as seen
through the eyes of a serial killer who has just completed his final gift to
the world. An inventive and incredibly beautiful look at the cello as an
instrument and noise-making tool; this is an absolute must for fans of
post-classical music, the droning beauty of Stars of the Lid or even the
moody post-rock of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Moody, kinetic and
hugely enjoyable stuff, this needs to be played loud and absorbed
totally." [label info]
"...The first track, "Cello Recycling", finds Zuydervelt taking the various
cello pieces and stretching them out, layering them, smearing them,
blurring them, creating a warm, thick, humid slow burning landscape of
droning sound. It begins as a minimal crawl, but as the track
progresses, the sound takes on an epic quality, with submerged
melodies coming to the surface, strange bits of rhythms and melodic
fragments, creating a glacial wall of cinematic ambience, dark minor key
swells, that undulate and pulse, always building and building, into a
thick wash of metallic overtones, and crumbling distorted low end
eventually becoming so buzzy and intense, it begins to sound like a
much more mellow minimal SUNNO))), before quickly slipping back into
more tranquil Stars Of The Lid like territory.
The second track, "Cello Drowning", takes the already manipulated
piece, the epic Godspeed-filtered-through-doomdrone-low-end of "Cello
Recycling", and literally drowns it in more sound, layers of noise and
texture, thick swaths of FX, the sound of (appropriately) running water
or rain, the rumbling low end reverberating and shimmering, but instead
of making it louder and heavier, more noisy and brutal, it actually gets
even more subdued, more washed out and indistinct, A very Tim
Hecker-ish blurry smear of sound. Soft focus, gentle, tranquil and
dreamy, until at the very end, the original sounds of the cello can just be
barely glimpsed through the druggy sonic haze, unfurling into a slowly
fading, sweetly melancholy coda. As always, absolutely lovely."
[Aquarius Records]
* MENCHE, DANIEL - Body Melt LP (Important Records IMPREC
175, 2008) [lim. 500] € 15.50
Schwester-Release zur GLASS FOREST-CD, wieder werden
Hammond-Orgel und indianische Drums eingesetzt, was aber nicht
unbedingt weiter auffällt, denn auf BODY MELT regieren Meditation,
Repetition, Kontemplation und Pulsation in einem Ausmass, dass
Originalsounds kaum noch auszumachen sind. Mit das ruhigste was wir
von MENCHE können, transcendental drones at its best !
"Body Melt is limited to 500 copies only on LP. This is the companion
release to the Glass Forest CD being released on Important
simultaneously. Both releases are housed in staggeringly unique
artwork by Emily Recorded in the Summer of 2007. Body Melt is a
molting and simmering display of furious Hammond Organs & Native
American Drums. Daniel Menche manages to merge together the
powerfully fuzzed out organ drones along with hypnotically crushing and
frenzied drums in a manor that is distinctly the graceful music style of
Daniel Menche. Call it trance music for carnivores or ambient music for
cannibals. Body Melt sits perfectly throned on this limited vinyl LP
release." [label info]
* MERZBOW / BAND OF PAIN - Reptile / Insect pic-LP (Dirter
Promotions DPROMLP60, 2008)
€ 17.50
Fein gestaltete Split Picture-LP die sich wieder auf die Tierwelt bezieht MERZBOWs Seite heisst "Reptile Side" und klingt hier eher "linear", mit
einigen überraschenden "flachen" fast Sinuston-artigen Feedback- &
Distortion-Parts die weniger krachig sind; das orchestrale dark ambient
Projekt von Dirter Labelbetreiber STEVE PITTIS setzt auf der "Insect
Side" auf rückwärtige dark drones und verfremdete Piano-Klänge, das
erinnert an BASS COMMUNION und ANDREW LILES..
"I don't know whether Merzbow's been following David Attenborough's
Life In Cold Blood series for the BBC, but he's certainly set to capture
the hearts of the programme's noise-loving demographic. This split
picture disc features the Merzbow piece 'The Celebration Of The
Lizard', as signposted by the underside of some undisclosed reptile leg
printed across the playing surface. It almost goes without saying, but
there's no more reliable a source of noise music, even after all these
years and all those album releases. Masami Akita is till at the apex of
noise music. The side begins with some Hecker-like cleanliness and
precision only to slowly complicate itself with a polyphony of creamy
distortion tones and a thickening of the bandwidth. The tone shifts
slightly to incorporate a more physical, industrial edge at times, but the
searing purity of the synthetic sounds used throughout should be
considered exemplary to all electronic racket merchants. On the other
side, Band Of Pain run with an insect theme. Fear not though: the
image on the playing side isn't really clear enough to give you buggy
nightmares. Instead, you can focus on the Lustmord-style swathes of
quiet, dark ambience that swell and drift across the side. Excellent work
from both parties." [Boomkat]
* MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO - Autoimmune do-LP (Planet Mu
ZIQ222, 2008)
€ 16.00
"Wohl kein Wunder, dass Meat Beat Manifesto gerade jetzt wieder aus
der Versenkung auftauchen. Waren sie mit ihrer Mischung aus DubEffekten, harten elektronischen Beats und verzerrten Bässen doch
schon vor fast zwanzig Jahren so etwas wie die Vorreiter heutigen
Dubsteps. Entsprechend nah an diesem Genre klingt denn auch das
neue Album, ohne jedoch anbiedernd zu wirken, schließlich ist es Meat
Beat Manifestos genuiner Stil – und der klingt eben nicht wie KlischeeDubstep, sondern eine ganze Ecke electroider, ausgefuchster,
irrsinniger. Gleich der erste Track lässt einen mit seinem wohlig
rollenden Bass in Erinnerungen schwelgen. Danach geht es durch alle
Tiefen, die dieses Instrument auszuloten imstande ist. Auch
Electronica-artiges Soundgezwirbel und Geschnippsel wird nicht
ausgelassen – womit dieses hervorragende Comeback-Album bei dem
Label Planet Mu genau richtig aufgehoben ist." [Groove.de]
"Autoimmune is the new full-length from seminal electronic band Meat
Beat Manifesto. Led by sound sculptor and producer extraordinaire
Jack Dangers, the band continues to evolve, with their their tenth
album, a masterpiece of dubstep and electronica, pushing musical
* M.G.R. (MUSTARD GAS AND ROSES) - Wavering on the Cresting
Heft LP (Conspiracy Records CORE 056, 2008) [lim.500] € 13.00
Nach "Impromptu" und "Nova Lux" das dritte Album mit den einsamen
und melancholischen Gitarren-tunes von MIKE GALLAGHER aka
M.G.R. Die traurig-impressionistische, emotionale Tiefe der so
minimalen und "klaren" Instrumentierung stellt eine Klasse für sich dar
und kann einen ganz gefangen nehmen...
"With MGR guitarist Mike Gallagher -of renowned dirge architects ISISunveils a compendium of sparse ruminations culled from years of
underground musical experience. Gallagher has developed a style
characterized by dense, sustained textures coupled with a penchant for
the subtle melodicism associated with the post-Sabbath riff. MGR's
effectiveness stems from how fluidly Gallagher is able to gradually add
texture upon texture, building up the intensity of the tracks until they
reach a tragic momentum. Imagine Isis with much of the bombast
stripped away, leaving only dark, moody and melancholic
soundscapes… MGR (the acronym for Mustard Gas and Roses, which
Gallagher has borrowed from a line of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse
17
* MOUTHUS & YELLOW SWANS - Live on Conan Island LP (NO-FI
Recordings NO-FI NEU 010, 2008) [lim. 500]
€ 17.00
Live-Collaboration Dokument dieser beiden US Guitar-Drone /
Electronic / Free Form Noise-Duos, die zu viert ein furioses Klangfeuer
entfachen, low-fi feedbackend rauschend ekstatisch, verzerrter als
verzerrt.. irgendwo im Noise-Brei sind sowas wie Vocals, Percussion,
und langsame elektronische Pulses auszumachen.
"An inevitable match made in Hades. Four titans workin' it out in the
primordial mulch & all the gods are cowering in their presence. The dual
intertwining guitarattack impacts & fragments into the dense concrete
percussion forest surrounded by a shroud of pulsing caterwauling
skree. A harum-scarum locomotive ride of thick, bombastic & heavy
proportions." [unknown reviewer]
"The ultimate East coast/West coast soundclash as Oregon’s Yellow
Swans and Brooklyn’s Mouthus present a smouldering document from
their onstage interactions on their Fall 2006 US tour.
The sound of Mouthus’s splat&clatter percussion and sheets of severely
altered guitar and voice noise paired with Yellow Swans’ raucous axemangling and sublime noise processing make for a gargantuan oil
tanker of sound that can’t avoid enveloping the listener.
‘Live On Conan Island’ is a range of monstrous caverns of free electro
skronk, alt-percussion and wailing guitars from live collaboration
between two of Load's hottest noisemongers. Gigantic!" [label info]
Five), is an emotionally charged amalgamation of sounds that, much to
its credit, refuses to fit neatly into any particular category." [label info]
* MICO NONET - Maloja Pass 7" (Micro Nonet Records MN1002,
2007) € 7.00
Rare 7" auf clear vinyl von dem "neo-classic" ambient Ensemble, mit
Auskopplungen aus dem aktuellen Album "The Marmelade Ballon". Als
"taster" oder für die 7"-Vinyl-Sammerherzen..
"two tracks pressed on clear vinyl from Mico Nonet's The Marmalade
Balloon. Blends an ambient minimalist layer of vintage analog
synthesizers with cello, viola, oboe and french horn, played by
members of The Philadelphia Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic. 45
rpm, sounds good at 33 rpm too" [ear-rational]
* MLEHST - Notes of obscure origin LP (Nihilist Records nihil43,
2006)
[lim. 200]
€ 15.00
Exzellentes Material von 1996, 2 lange Stücke mit der MLEHSTtypischen unheimlichen Collagen-Drone-Musik; meist langsam
treibende reduzierte elektronische Geräusche aller Art (oft feedbacks &
backward-sounds) & field recordings, die viel Raum lassen für
Stimmungen und Phantasie, wobei eine gewisse "harshness" immer
wieder präsent ist! Akustische Nadelstiche aus dem Unbewussten!
"Nihilist is extremely proud to present "Notes of Obscure Origin" by
MLEHST. From a history shrouded in mystery, and a back catalog of
recordings treading dark and strange territories, Mlehst delivers their
finest work here with "Notes of Obscure Origin". Recorded in 1996, and
now 10 years later this ominously eerie album has been unleashed from
some dark pit! For those of you unfamiliar with the work of MLEHST,
(similiar to early Whitehouse & Nurse With Wound) this is most certainly
a definitive example of their greatness. This LP will be a limited edition
of 200 copies on 140 gram black vinyl with cover artwork by Andy
Ortmann." [label info]
* MUELLER, JON - Strung LP (Table of the Elements Pu94,
2008) € 16.50
JON MUELLER auf Abwegen: Für seinen Beitrag in der Guitar-Series
von TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS muss der Perkussionist auch an die
Gitarre - und begeistert mit einem kraftvollen, loopig-hypnotischen
Track... klares Vinyl !
"Peripatetic composer, performer, improviser, and designer Jon Mueller
is a busy guy, and both the rock and experimental music scenes are the
richer for it. As a drummer, he propels the ecstatic whorl of Collections
of Colonies of Bees and the occasional guitar army of Rhys Chatham;
alternately his solo project, Metals, is the most harrowingly intense
percussive barrage you'll ever encounter. He also finds time to
collaborate with artists ranging from Wilco's Glenn Kotche to Swans'
Jarboe. Whether it's minimalist bombast, free-improv interplay, or
electro-acoustic finesse, Mueller's got it covered. But what can he do
with a guitar? In Strung, Mueller doesn't play the guitar; he scrambles
its molecules. Laying down a photon-blast of sound, he initiates a
relentless, rapid-pulse attack signal that summons wave upon wave of
white noise. Think inexorable alien invasion -- The Day The Earth Stood
Still, with Lou Reed as Klaatu and Metal Machine Music as the
message. Earth doesn't stand a chance." Pressed on clear vinyl with
great Savage Pencil etching on the b-side." [label info]
"Already noted before: Table Of The Elements love Jon Mueller, and
who doesn't? Here he leaves the drum kit for what it is and plays guitar,
as an addition to the labels Guitar Series Vol. 3, an one-sided LP (the
other side has an etching, which is a bit hard to see in transparent vinyl)
of Mueller playing the guitar as if it was a mechanical beast. Perhaps
with rotating blades? A ventilator? Mueller cuts out, in a rhythmical
manner, sounds and thus one strum arises, repeated, until the full guitar
orchestra falls in, with full blown drones. A very consistent idea that is
worked out well, and makes this sound like a great album, coming from
a great tradition: from Lou Reed to Glenn Branca to Earth. At the same
time it also sounds like a Mueller record, with amplified hums. Perhaps
a bit too short, as this seems over before it has properly started, it
seems. The built-up takes some time because it keeps shifting back
and forth, adding a strange movement to the piece. This is a great
record, showing a new side for Mueller I think." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* MLEHST - The Error of dispensationalist Thought LP (Belief
Recordings AHEODT1, 2008) [lim. 100]
€ 15.00
New recordings with very abstract & piercing drone-electronics, creating
a quite unsettling atmosphere. Very pure & direct minimal & highpitched, with little breaks & cut-up all over the place. Two side-long
tracks with very strong material again, very "advanced" and definitely
not an easy listening experience!
* MLEHST/ MUTANT APE - Pilgrimage / Intolerable 7" (Belief
Recordings TA185 / BR7001, 2008) [lim. 200] € 7.00
Strong split 7" of daring experimental music: MLEHST uses highpitched feedbackin' & sinus / synth-tones & builds up great internal
waves & patterns... whereas MUTANT APE creates great dark droning
noise, eerie and slowly climaxing, massive & rough wallowing...
Please note that due to a printing error the labels are on the wrong way
round !
* MLEHST / HEOGHANAIN - The good news 7" (The good news
TGN11, 2008)
[lim. 200] € 7.00
Another MLEHST split 7", this time with HEOGHANAIN, though we're
not sure if its a side-project of MLEHST or not... both sides present
somehow distorted digital / glitch / sinus-tones, which seems to overlap
& interfere... quite strange and idiosyncratic, but it also reveals some
beauty, the soundworld of MLEHST.
* MOLJEBKA PVLSE - lode lvx 7" (Drone Records DR-91, 2008)
[lim. 300]
€ 7.00
" Hinter MOLJEBKA PVLSE steckt Mathias Josefson in Stockholm.
Lodelvx (DR-91, 7“ EP, schwarzes Vinyl) mischt dröhnende mit
klackernden und dongenden Klängen zu ‚atmenden‘ Schwingungen.
Mein Traumauge sieht bei ‚lode‘ die sonore Welle als sich in Zeitlupe
windenden Körper und die perkussiven Tupfen als Zeichnungen im
Schuppenkleid einer Riesenschlange. ‚lvx‘ summt sich einfach nur
selbst, eine Noir-Schönheit, die sich auf schwarzem Samt räkelt." [Bad
Alchemy]
"For some years now Stockholm based artist MATHIAS JOSEFSON
has delighted the drone scene with his highly minimal excursions into
drone territory. From harsh noise to soft & gentle ambience the aim is to
reach a basic level of sound conscience. In doing so the "human mind"
and the "sound mind" interact to build a symbiotic entity. MOLJEBKA
PVLSE is Josefson’s sound art project where he often collaborates with
KARIN JACOBSON. The two pieces "lode" and "lvx" are great
examples of breathing drone structures which seem to be derived from
real string or wind instruments. Harmonic & mysterious, dense &
aspiring.... this is indeed music like a lode of illuminations...
Filed under: BREATHING DRONES
more info: www.moljebka.com
BLACK VINYL, BLACK SILKSCREENED BLACK COVER" [label info]
* MURCOF - Cosmos 3 x 12" (Leaflabel BAY59F, 2007) € 22.00
Das dritte Album des Mexikaners mit Bezug zu Himmelskörpern &
Astronomie; das ist dramatischer, cinematoskopischer BreitwandAmbient in Perfektion, weniger rythmisch als zuvor, beeindruckend
"auskomponiert" und mit Einsatz vieler original-Instrumente. Rein
instrumental, dunkel, mit neo-klassischen Elementen.
Erinnert uns an XABEC, JOHANN JOHANNSSON, COIL...
Diese limitierte Vinyl-Version teilt sich auf 45er 12"es auf!
"Unermessliche Weite: drittes Album des mexikanischen Elektronikers:
Hinter dem Alias Murcof verbirgt sich Fernando Corona. Im
Spannungsfeld zwischen Elektronik, Klassik und experimenteller
Minimal Music folgt der Mexikaner seit 2001 seiner Vision, digitale
Präzision mit akustischer Wärme zu vereinen. Sein drittes Album
markiert dabei eine Abkehr von seinen vorherigen Arbeiten. Denn
"Cosmos" entstand fast ausschließlich aus Aufnahmen klassischer
Instrumente, deren Klang er mit elektronischer Hilfe zu völlig neuen
Ausdrucksformen erweiterte. Inspiriert von einem langen Blick hoch zu
den Sternen reflektiert "Cosmos" die Nichtigkeit der menschlichen Welt
im Vergleich zur Größe des Universums. Die unermessliche Weite von
Tracks wie "Cosmos I" und "Cosmos II" erinnert dabei sowohl an die
Arbeiten deutscher Elektronikpioniere wie an die des ungarischen
18
Komponisten György Ligeti. Aber auch das durchdringende Grollen von
Gruppen wie SunnO))) und Coil ist hier spürbar. Seit dem letzten Album
"Remembranza" (2005) arbeitete Corona zusammen mit u. a.
Francesco Tristano, Erik Truffaz und Talvin Singh, mit dem er 2006 auf
dem Montreux Jazz Festival auftrat." [press release / Indigo]
"Fernando Corona’s long-awaited third album as Murcof marks a
dramatic departure from previous works. Truly monumental in scale,
Cosmos is composed almost entirely of recordings of classical
instruments, a process which Corona describes as “expanding the
possibilities of acoustic instruments through electronics.” It’s a move
away from the micro-programmed sound he helped to pioneer, and his
seamless integration of these apparently opposed forms is almost
unprecedented. These new recordings were inspired by a very simple
motion, the act of tilting the head towards the skies, or as Corona puts
it: “Cosmos basically comes from that state of wonder and mystery and
joy and humbling that you get when you let your mind wander freely on
a starry night, away from the contamination of city lights. From the
realization that there's an infinite universe outside the man-made world
and how silly this latter one seems in comparison.”
Originally intended as an EP, the early Cosmos tracks were so
mesmerizing that those around Corona encouraged him to make it a
full-length. His past approach involved mixing disembodied orchestral
passages amidst microbeats, letting a song shift and mutate in a
minimal environment. With Cosmos, he has progressed towards a more
sophisticated compositional mode. The immensity of tracks like the
monolithic twins ‘Cosmos I’ and ‘Cosmos II’ draw to mind the work of
the German electronic pioneers of the ‘70s or the Hungarian composer
György Ligeti as much as the visceral, low-end rumblings of SunnO)))
or Coil. Murcof’s compositions have always been as much about the
absence of sound as what you actually hear, and these techniques are
further refined here. “This album took me one and a half years to finish,”
the quietly-spoken Corona says. “I like to leave the tracks there to stand
the test of time before I put them out, and I generally don't like rushed
jobs.” Corona’s care and precision is very evident on Cosmos, a
brilliant, powerful recording that charts his musical destinations
completely off the map." [press release]
into crushing riffs... " [label info]
* NADJA - Radiance of Shadows
do-LP (Conspiracy Records
CORE064, 2008) [lim. 750]
€ 19.50
Vinyl Re-issue der ALIEN8 CD in nobler Ausstattung: Prägecover,
Vollfarb-Innenhüllen von SELDON HUNT, und eine "etched" D-Seite!
"Wenn man Aidan Bakers Hinweisen folgt, in welchem Kontext er seine
Stichworte ‚fire‘ und ‚radiance‘ verstanden wissen möchte - Shelley
Jacksons Half Life, Lydia Millers Oh Pure & Radiant Heart und
American Prometheus von Kai Bird & Martin Sherwin - dann stößt man
auf J. Robert Oppenheimer, drei weitere wiedergängerische ‚Väter der
Atombombe‘ und eine postatomare Zukunft, die von Siamesischen
Zwillingen als Strahlungsmutanten bevölkert wird. Musikalisch
tritt Bakers Duo mit Leah Buckareff drei Soundlawinen los, mit
Gitarrendonner und Basswolkenbruch, die wie von einem
Vulkanschlund ausgekotzt auf einen nieder krachen. Für den
obligatorischen Vergleich mit Swans fehlt das rhythmische Element,
Nadjas Welt ist eine Dunkelwolke aus dark ambienten Drones,
brachialen Riffs und Drummachinegehämmer, die eher in der
Tradition von Earth und Godflesh bis SunnO))) stehen, wobei die
elementaren und archaischen Assoziationen einen Dreh ins
Dystopische erfahren. Zermalmende Kräfte werfen sich über Land,
ihnen mythische Namen zu geben wie Vishnu oder Godzilla, sie
Blitz zu nennen oder Schatten, ist müßig. Baker nimmt die ultimative
Transformation als Folie für die Vision einer endlosen Kette
präultimativer Verwandlungen - each time a cell splits off we become a
new flesh - a new self into infinity. Also sprach der KalenderblattGuru. Der Sound spricht eine andere Sprache. Zu seiner Suggestivität
gehört auch, dass er vom Übergang von ‚i have tasted the fire inside
your mouth‘ zum Titelstück ausdünnt auf eine Keyboardlinie,
Drummachine- Leerlauf und stagnierende Rhythmusgitarre
- bis mit VOLLER WUCHT wieder Vishnu zu tanzen beginnt, innehält --(Baker murmelt seine ‚Radiance Of Shadows‘-Poesie) --- ERNEUT
AUFSTAMPFT --- UND NUN UNBÄNDIG PLATT TRAMPELT, WAS
IMMER DA SEIN MAG, lustvoll grollend wie Cthulhu selbst." [Bad
Alchemy]
* NADJA - Truth becomes Death
do-LP (Conspiracy Records
CORE065, 2008) [lim. 750]
€ 19.50
Der dritte Re-Release in der CONSPIRACY-Trilogie, TRUTH
BECOMES DEATH war 2005 das erste "fabrikgepresste" NADJAAlbum und erschien auch auf ALIEN8 in Kanada.
"Nach einigen CDRs nun die erste “echte” CD des Projekts von LEAH
BUCKAREFF und AIDAN BAKER. Drei lange Stücke mit
majestätischen Klängen zwischen ultra-slo-mo metal und droneambience, zäh und dickflüssige Riffs & Soundeffekte, durch den Einsatz
von verzerrter drum-machine & vocals bekommt das ganze eine
abgründige, emotionale Struktur. Wer auf tiefe Sumpfgitarren und
dunkle noise-ambience steht, muss hier einfach zugreifen!" [Drone Rec.
info 2005]
"Finally a full-fledged metal release on Alien8 Recordings. Alright,
perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration but the music of Nadja comes
pretty damn close. Nadja is an ambient doom metal monster fronted by
multi-talented Toronto musician and writer Aidan Baker. The music of
Nadja will certainly be name-checked with current rulers of the genre
Sunn O))) and with good reason. Having said this, Nadja is different
than the bulk of bands operating in the outsider metal movement these
days as they employ a much heavier use of ambient aesthetics and
influences that help forge their sound." [press release ALIEN 8]
"All 3 releases have similar special packaging, including embossed, diecut outersleeves and full colour innersleeves. Artwork for each release
contains a series of pictures by SELDON HUNT, and all D-Sides have
an etched picture on them." [Conspiracy blog]
* NADJA - Guilted by the Sun
12" (Roadburn Records rbr004,
2007) € 13.00
4-track EP mit ihrem süchtigmachenden Avant-Drone-Metal, manche
nennen das inzwischen auch DOOM GAZER oder AMBIENT DOOM,
tief-bassig & dronig, mal näher zum Songformat (dann sogar mit
geflüsterten / verzerrten Vocals), mal näher zu experimentellen
Soundscapes hin, wobei sich zwischen diesen Polen eine
unnachahmliche Spannung und Ausserweltlichkeit breit macht....
dies die Version als limitiertes 12" Vinyl (schwarz).
"....A brand new 28 minute ep, from one of the originators of this
new bred of blissful brutality, Canadian duo, Nadja, featuring AQ
favorite, the crazy prolific Aidan Baker. While this ep starts off
tranquil and drifty, it doesn't take long for things to get down to
business, with a sudden onslaught of super corrosive downtuned
sludge guitar and simple doomic plod. Now Nadja have always been
heavy, but it's always been sort of shimmery and blown out, heavy in a
drifting soft focus sort of way, but the opening track here sounds almost
black metal, still with a sort of slow core pop heart, but wrapped in
blackened buzz and super damaged crumbling distortion, seriously
intense and ominous. Pretty amazing actually. The song fades out into
a glimmering pool of distant buzz laced with dreamlike melodies, only
to be clobbered by the second track, the most straight up riffy song
Nadja has ever recorded wethinks, some wierd sort of slow motion
stoner doom metal, but being Nadja, still wrapped in fuzzy sparkles
and warm whir. All four tracks, minus brief interludes of whispery
tranquility, are massive lumbering distorted dreamdoom beasts, that
could definitely hold their own in a room full of hellboun heavies
and devastating doomlords. While somehow managing to also sound
pretty the whole damn time..." [Aquarius Records]
* NEPTUNE - Gong Lake LP (Table of the Elements / Radium
TOE-LP-811, 2008)
€ 16.00
Kraftvoller und mit experimentellen Überflügen ausgestattete NoiseRock einer Combo die an THE EX, alte SONIC YOUTH oder COP
SHOOT COP erinnern, nur ist alles noch irgendwie verdrehter und
verrückter, ohne dass sie jemals den Drive verlieren oder ins totale
Chaos abdriften..
"Behold: Neptune, the most harrowingly original band on this planet -or the next. Its three members are, in turn, musicians, sculptors,
scientists, blacksmiths, electricians, and industrial machinists;
relentlessly inventive, possibly sane. Together, they construct all of their
instruments, forging guitars and drums out of circular saw blades, gas
tanks, oil drums, bike parts, VCR casings, and miscellany from the
trash. Electronics, and even cords, are homemade as well. The
combined effect is a bizarre, post-apocalyptic mélange of steel, iron,
wire, rust, rivet, knob and cable; it's lunacy, arc-welded for maximum
destruction. Concerts are seizures of motion. Wearing 40-pound guitars
assembled entirely from scrap metal, the members don't play their
instruments -- they battle them, like mechanized Golems. But make no
* NADJA - Touched do-LP (Conspiracy Records CORE063,
2008) [lim. 750]
€ 19.50
"Originally released by Alien8 Recordings in 2007, this is the first
Double LP release in a small series of 3, the two following releases
being the NADJA ‘Radiance Of Shadows’ 2xLP and NADJA ‘Truth
Becomes Death’ 2xLP. All 3 will be released as a limited edition of 750
copies, 250 on coloured (Silver vinyl for Touched) and 500 on black.
All 3 releases have similar special 'deluxe' packaging, including
embossment, die-cut sleeves and heavy full colour innersleeves with
pictures by SELDON HUNT. As if this isn't enough, all LP's will have an
ETCH on side D.
With "Touched", NADJA have hit the perfect meld of punishing
doom/sludge six-string fuzz, endless militant drum machine bludgeon,
and chest-swelling shoegaze/post-rock/ambient-influenced catharsis.
NADJA's brand of doomy ambient metal incorporates beautiful melody
19
mistake, this is not simply art with sharp edges and serious customs
issues. Neptune rocks. Hard. Recalling the slapdash angularity of The
Fall, the rhythmic ack-ack blasts of This Heat, and the sheer protoclangor of Einstürzende Neubauten, they count as one of the best
experimental rock bands of any era. Their dynamic, expertly wrought
songs and skilled improvisations don't start; they explode. Gong Lake is
the band's first unlimited CD release, and with it the world will discover
what fans of their live shows have known for years: Neptune is
otherworldly." [label info]
record is housed in a gloss-laminated sleeve, with a printed inner card
and full-color labels. Players include: Steven Stapleton, Andrew Liles,
Freida Abtan, Suzi Firenza, Taundewei L. Hodge and Jay Jay." [label
info]
"... The two non-album pieces are both of a high quality. “Bei Mir Bist
Du Schön” takes the slow, jazzy romance song and turns it on its head.
The pulsing noise (out of time with the vocals) and the shimmering
Lilith-esque drones make for quite an unsettling experience. “The
Bottom Feeder” is more like old school Nurse than any of the other
pieces here. It is a chaotic mess of sound, switching between destroyed
rhythms and aural abstractions that make Nurse With Wound the
constantly rewarding beast that it is.
The old time rock’n roll and surf influences along with the sheer
strangeness of Stapleton’s arrangements bring to mind David Lynch’s
appropriation and warping of '50s and '60s American pop music in his
movies to make the surreal situations seem more familiar than they
should be (such as the prostitutes dancing to “The Locomotion” in
Inland Empire or the jitterbug scene at the start of Mullholland Dr.).
Maybe because Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti have done this sort of
thing so well for so long that Nurse With Wound’s move in this direction
does not sound so fresh. I know Stapleton has tried something similar
before with Sylvie and Babs but to my mind, this is a Lynchian approach
to those rock’n roll and lounge standards. The Bacteria Magnet and
Huffin’ Rag Blues are a great experiment but I wonder if this is a
temporary digression by Stapleton or whether he will be working with
similar sources for a long time (and if so, does this style have the
longevity to warrant another album)?" [Brainwashed]
* NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS - Lest we forget 4 x LP-Box & 7"
(Vinyl-On-Demand VOD56, 2008)
€ 62.00
"Lest We Forget is a collection compiled from the earliest recordings by
Nocturnal Emissions, a group founded by Nigel Ayers, his brother
Daniel Ayers and Caroline K in 1980. It is comprised of material
previously only available on cassettes as well as tracks recorded under
their earlier name, The Pump. The Nocturnal Emissions were active in
what has been known as 'cassette culture' and explored the medium of
underground cassette exchange in parallel with their better known vinyl
releases and live performances. They used the available technology of
the day in a spirit which seems to have anticipated modern social
networking through the Internet. This series of documents offers a rare
glimpse at audio sketchbooks; raw, unfinished works-in-progress and
live performances by the group. It covers a wide range of musical style
by a group who were committed to radical experimentation in both form
and content. The box set also contains some previously unreleased
tracks from the early '80s which sound surprisingly contemporary and
fresh. The group has undergone several mutations since these early
recordings and continued into 21st century as a solo project by Nigel
Ayers. Caroline K left the group in 1984 and produced one solo album
before adopting a more private life. She remained a good friend and
lived in England, Sri Lanka, and finally in Italy. She married Danny
Ayers in 2001. While the edit of this collection was being assembled,
she took ill with leukemia and died during hospital treatment a few days
later. Caroline's distinctively moody electronics, vocals and bass guitar
feature strongly on these albums. We offer this box set as a tribute to
her life and work." Includes Dyskinesia, The Fight Goes On/Duty
Experiment, Deathday/Outtakes, Whisky/Recordings By The Pump,
plus booklet.
* NURSE WITH WOUND - The musty Odour of Pierced Rectums
LP (Beta-lactam Ring Records mt056b, 2008) [lim. 600] € 17.00
Vinyl-Version einer raren CDR die 2003 in 300er Auflage auf BetaLactam erschien. Braunes Vinyl und wunderbar dickes Kunstcover.
Musikalisch liegt der Fokus auf der Dekonstruktion von vokalem und
Objekt-Klang Material, in teils spannenden, teils absonderlichen
surrealistischen & dadaistischen Arrangementsentstehen viele kleine
Klangfigurationen..
"A dirty brown vinyl and a book bound LP sleeve. In the terpsichorean
tradition of traumatizing and titillating treacalese collector geeks the
world over, Beta-lactam presents a limited LP release by Nurse With
Wound. This is a full fledged, full length, full bodied album of previously
unreleased material, and just when you thought it couldn't get any
weirder... It would seem that the musty odour exuded by pierced
rectums is exhilarating; even scintillating. With rounds of disembodied
voices, arias of crackle and rumble, jets of ascendant and descendant
sound, bursts of silent, nurse wounding flak worthy of The Great Cage,
well, if my thermometer reads correctly, "Rectums" is not unlike
"Gyllensköld" in its sonic attacks and rectal decays. I find it especially
enlightening with Ann-Margaret singing in the background on the
television, but you will realise hours of listening pleasure even without
the random Ann-Margaret caveat. Honestly though, Volks, if'n I heard
this record and did not know who it was, I would buy it on the spot
because it just happens to be AWESOME, dude. All I'm saying is that
thy ear drum is worth piercing with the "Musty Odour Of Pierced
Rectums," possibly whilst driving around in a Pierce-Arrow reading
Pears Anthony with, of course, a butt plug firmly and resolutely
installed." [label info]
"... All 13 tracks are untitled, and sometimes it is hard to tell where one
ends and the next begins, a distinction made even more difficult on
vinyl. Voices play a big role on this album, often muted or wildly echoing
often at the expense of intelligibility, almost as if they were
announcements in a foreign country in which the traveler doesn’t know
the language. When they are clear, they’re saying ordinary things like,
"Right, yeah, check, we're all ready/We're all ready/Right, here we go,"
but they are more often at the edge of comprehension, like something
uttered in a dream but forgotten upon waking. Feedback frequently
erupts yet quickly fades, with mechanical objects frequently cycling from
ear to ear to keep the listener from gaining any solid ground. Whimsical
textures like silly laughter or the repeated clearing of a throat keeps
things playful without sacrificing the menace generated by the other
elements. The first side ends with loops and an increasingly loud drone
that threatens to grow unbearable before it becomes fuzzy low-end
oscillations. The second side starts with sliding metallic echoes and a
damp alarm that swells in volume over time before a quieter bass tone
grows in its place. Clanging metal dominates from there, joined by
rattling jars, chains dragged over pots for strange harmonic effect, more
scraping metal, and even some brief liquid splashes. Even though many
of these textures appear seemingly at random, in the background is a
deep bass presence that returns intermittently to suggest some sort of
meaning even if it doesn’t point to anything specific. Added to this is the
non sequitur of someone of chewing an apple, which again lightens the
tone. The album ends with a heavily processed voice that never
manages to communicate its message despite whatever importance it
may serve. While mutated voices and metallic sounds have showed up
* NOISE DREAMS MACHINA - IN/OUT 7" (Drone Records DR-90,
2008) [lim. 300]
€ 7.00
Für OSCAR MARTIN aka NOISEDREAMSMACHINA eröffnen sich
durch digitales Soundprocessing von Umwelt- und Objektaufnahmen
neue Wege, die peripheren Zonen von Klang zu erkunden. Seine
kraftvoll geräuschhafte 7" für Drone Records verbindet Elektro-Akustik
und Power-Drone in beeindruckender Weise.
"NOISE DREAMS MACHINA is the project of Spanish artist OSCAR
MARTIN. Now living & studying in Berlin & Barcelona, he is currently
exploring the possibilities of homemade software with free tools for
sound deconstrucion and realtime performance. IN & OUT is his first
vinyl release and uses a wide range of environmental recordings which
are processed digitally in more "electro-acoustic" ways. This leads to a
balance between "Drone" and "Electro-Acoustic" where the acoustic
potential of conventional reality is enlarged via digital processing. In his
own words: "It brings attention to the peripheral zones of the sound
phenomenon". Through intense mutation & deconstruction of acoustic
materials a new or previously hidden meaning can be revealed for the
blind spot of our perception.
Filed under: ADVANCED ELECTROACOUSTIC DRONES. more info:
www.noisedreamsmachina.blogspot.com. MILK-COLOURED VINYL,
WHITE COVER WITH BLACK SILK-SCREENED PRINT" [press
release]
* NURSE WITH WOUND - The Bacteria Magnet 12" (United Dirter
DPROMEP66, 2008; 2nd edition!)
€ 13.50
Quasi die Begleit-Platte zum Album HUFFIN RAG BLUES, mit 2
Exklusiv-Remixen davon und 2 neuen Tracks! Kommt im fantastischen
"glossy" Vollfarbcover, inzwischen schon Zweitauflage in weissem
Vinyl, aber OHNE das schöne Innencover.
"NURSE WITH WOUND stehen niemals richtig still. "The Bacteria
Magnet" wurde im Bear Den Studio im südenglischen Brighton
geschrieben, aufgenommen und bekam direkt im Anschluss die Remix
Behandlung. Die Songs "Cruisin' For A Bruisin" und "Thrill Of
Romance.?" erscheinen in abgewandelter Version auf der ebenfalls
aktuellen NURSE WITH WOUND CD "Huffin' Rag Blues", während "Bei
Mir Bist Du Schön" und "The Bottom Feeder" hier auf "The Bacteria
Magnet" exklusiv erscheinen. "The Bacteria Magnet" ist nur auf Vinyl zu
haben, kommt in einem glänzenden Sleeve und vollfarbigen Labels.
The Bacteria Magnet was written, recorded and remixed at the Bear
Den, Brighton, UK. "Cruisin' For A Bruisin" and "Thrill Of Romance...?"
appear in an alternative guise on the CD Huffin Rag Blues. "Bei Mir Bist
Du Schoen" and "The Bottom Feeder" are exclusive to this record. This
20
on previous Nurse albums, they have never sounded quite like this
before. Always amusing even as it confounds, Pierced Rectums has a
distinct vibe all its own." [Matthew Amundson / Brainwashed]
or mentally), opening endless spaces with low humming & reverberating
meditation-drones! Edition of 500 copies pressed on luminous green
vinyl, full-colour artwork by 1000SCHOEN aka ex-MAEROR TRImember HELGE SIEHL !" [label info]
* OM - Pilgrimage LP (Southern Lord SUNN86, 2007) € 14.00
"Three songs featuring OM’s (AL CISNEROS and CHRIS HAKIUS of
the legendary SLEEP) unique use of riff, cadence and chant comprise
the duo’s new album Pilgrimage. Lyrical themes address the processes
of mind, psychic reality, astral and casual planes of being, and the
nature of the soul. Engineered by STEVE ALBINI and produced by the
band, the motifs that were initiated on their previous two album are
continued here unabated." [label info]
"The mighty return of the transcendental RIFF! The third Om
record! By now the methods and purpose of their ultra heavy music of
the spheres is clear. The music on this album, much like the first
two, is stripped to its essence. Bass and drums churning out super
hypnotic heaviness and repetitive chant-like vocals creating a
cyclical whorl of trance-rock divinity.
With a lot of new releases from bands we love, change in sound
and development of style is important, Om seem to operate with
different principles than the average rock and roll outfit. The
consistency of their sound lends itself to the eternal nature of the
music, as if all three of their records are really just movements in
some expansive, cosmic symphony. Within Om's canon, change is felt
like the passing of time without the aid of a clock or calendar,
existing in the infinite void. And what an ass kicking void it is!.... "
[Aquarius Records]
* PADDEN, DANIEL - Pause for the Jet LP (Dekorder 026, 2008)
€ 12.00
"DANIEL PADDEN kannte ich bisher als einen der Volcano-The-BearBären. Nach Glasgow umgezogen, ging er auf Solopfade, erst als The
One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden und mit Pause for the Jet (Dekorder
026) zum zweiten Mal unter dem bloßen Familiennamen. Seine
Vorlieben für schräge Sounds aus fernen Ländern, für seltsamen Krautund wagemutigen Artrock sind darauf collagiert zu Songs und
Instrumentals mit surrealen Haupt- und Nebenwirkungen. ‚Crow Crow
Growth‘ mischt das Timbre von Charles Hayward mit Saitengezupfe
und Ethnopercussion zu einem wehmütigen Folksong. ‚Sponge
Shipwreck‘ lässt 33 Sekunden lang den Geist von Harry Partch
erscheinen, ‚The Ghostly Whole‘ nur den Geist einer alten
Kirchturmuhr, während Ratten pizzikato Kontrabass knabbern. Die
Residents und Nurse With Wound haben ähnliche Seancen abgehalten,
ähnlich von Recording Angels behütete Träume geträumt. ‚Three
Farewells‘ mischt Posaune, Bassklarinette und Cello und loopt dazu
einen elegischen Gesangsfetzen, bevor mit ‚The Liar Inbetween‘ wieder
ein fast straighter Song erklingt, auch wenn die Begleitung erst nur
seltsam verzupft und verschrappelt daher kommt und sich dann doch
elektrisch verdichtet. Auf ‚The Shadow Of Lunch‘ tutet eine
asthmatische Harmonika, die Kopfstimme dazu wackelt auf hölzernen
Stelzen. Auf rostig schnarrenden Twangs schwimmt ‚Narwhal‘ dahin,
um auf morbiden Trommelschlägen zu stranden. Katzenjämmerliche
Salonmusik quietscht in allen Scharnieren, bevor Padden nach ‚Arc
Fankle‘ mit seiner stotternder Percussion und ‚Bustle‘ mit seinem
Bassklarinettengebrummel a capella ‚English Again‘ anstimmt.
Seltsam, aber seltsam schön." [Bad Alchemy]
"Since 1995 Daniel Padden has been a member of Volcano The Bear,
with several highly regarded album releases on Nurse With Wound's
United Diaries label, Textile and Beta-Lactam Ring Records. After his
move to Glasgow he started The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden as
an outlet for his solo recordings with releases on Catsup Plate, Secret
Eye and Textile. When The One Ensemble slowly metamorphosed into
a band of its own, Padden started to record his solo output under his
birth name, with last year's "The Isaac Storm" on the Ultra Exzema label
being the first seminal result.
Over the years Padden has developed a strong fascination for obscure
musics from all over the world (re his recent "Epiphanies" article for The
Wire magazine): mouth organ love-songs from Thailand, The
Ramayana Monkey Chant from Bali, Khene pieces from Laos; so-called
world music from Burundi to Bulgaria. Combining these interests with
his love for British Folk and Art Rock (This Heat, Robert Wyatt), Kraut
Rock (Faust), Free Jazz, the surreal collage techniques of Nurse With
Wound and the odd humour of The Residents, he has developed a
totally unique and highly personal musical vision without ever sounding
overambitious or directionless. Gorgeous song-writing is seamlessly
transformed into pure fuzz or string drones, suddenly interrupted by
some improvised reeds or collapsing percussion, all within the blink of
an eye, and never losing its natural flow, "Pause for the Jet" is already
an auspicious aspirant for our "Record of the Year"."[label info]
Please note: This album is also available as CD, but not listed again in
the CD-section of this catalogue.
* ONDE - One LP (Ondemusic 001, 2007) [lim. 400]
€ 18.50
Vielversprechendes Debut dieses neuen Projektes mit ex NOISEMAKER'S FIFES-Mitstreitern - minimal, dronig, instrumentell, kraftvoll,
improvisiert!
"Van Luijk is also present in Onde, a new trio of himself, Marc
Wroblewski and former Noise Makers Fifes member Greg Jacobs. The
first record is called 'One', how appropriate, and is dedicated to Geert
Feytons, the main man of Noise Makers Fifes who took his own life last
year. On the back of the cover we see an image of them: one guy on an
upright bass, one of the drums and one playing a saxophone. A jazz
band? Four pieces on this record and it's certainly not really jazz. On
side one we find the pieces 'Four' and 'One' and 'Three and 'Two' on the
other. There is a strong difference between both sides. Side One is a
wild, psychedelic noise affair, in which it seems that all three players
have an endless variety of sound effects at their disposal, whereas on
side two there is also improvised music, but without the wealth of sound
effects but with the inclusion of electronic tape manipulations.
Instruments can be recognized as such and there is much more detail
to be heard. I thought this was a great record, both sides of the big
black coin. The noise brings them to the common day rock noise improv
drone of say Sunn 0))), whereas the other side is more traditional
electro-acoustic improvisation. Here the adventure that could have been
the Luijk/Vanderstraeten LP is present and makes a most promising
debut." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"With a press release that simply declares this as "sinister
psych, semi-acoustic noise" and a photograph on the back of the LP
with the band posturing with instruments in a crumpled shack out in
the forest, this record was pretty much made for Aquarius. Onde is a
project that has come out of Noise Maker's Fifes, a theatrically NeoDada ensemble in the same orbit as Nurse With Wound and HNAS.
The best known member of these groups is Timo Von Luijk, who had
recorded briefly in Mirror with Andrew Chalk & Christoph Heemann and
more recently has continued on with Heemann as In Camera. Onde
delivers with the sinister psych and semi-acoustic noise with four long
form slabs of drone murk with one side being more of the dark, gloomy
drone strategy, the other belonging to a monstrous heaviosity for
sheer noise. The mellower shadowy half recalls Taj Mahal Travellers
meandering through electronics and instrumental flutter with bits of
the impressionist atmospheres of Mirror and In Camera coming
through. On the flip, Onde crash head forward into the acoustic noise
compaction of bowed metals, screeched steel strings, and growling
amplifiers somewhere between Birchville Cat Motel, Organum, and
Sunroof! It's pretty awesome." [Aquarius Records]
* PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE - Voice Studies LP (Alga Marghen
plana-P 19VocSon072, 2008) [lim. 385]
€ 20.00
Sehr frühe Experimente (von Anfang der 60er!) mit Stimme & primitiven
Tape-Loops ("Surrealistic Studies"), zwei "Voice & Piano-Studies" von
1971, ebenfalls mit verfremdeten Gesang, und weitere Experimente mit
mehreren Gesangstimmen von Mitte der Sechziger (ein "KopfstimmenDuo mit sich selbst") inspiriert von jüdischem Sakral-Gesang). Obskur &
schön, der ganz frühe PALESTINE. Dunkelgrünes Vinyl.
"The VocSon series presents on limited editions LP records the most
advanced international vocal experiments and is mainly dedicated to
the documentation of sound poetry. This series includes now the new
LP record by Charlemagne Palestine titled 'Voice Studies'. This LP
record includes the very early 'Surrealistic Studies', recorded in
Brooklyn in the beginning of the 1960s using a Webcor reel to reel tape
recorder and discovering a technique of shouting into the microphone of
the recorder and immediately pulling the microphone out creating an
interior echo chamber where the sound would turn around on itself,
changing and distorting. No other electronic sound manipulation
techniques were used. 'Voice + Piano Study I & II' are short and
beautiful piano improvisation with tape superimposition of accelerated
voice pieces. Recorded at Cal Arts, on September 29th, 1971. 'Voice
Study' was recorded in Manhattan in the mid-1960s. In this Study
Charlemagne sing in a falsetto duet with himself on two separate tracks.
Sung in a resonant space reminiscent of a Synagogue in the falsetto
* OÖPHOI - Potala 10" (Substantia Innominata SUB-07, 2008)
[lim. 500] € 12.00
Die Nr. 7 in unserer 10"-Vinyl Reihe ist auch gleichzeitig das allererste
Vinyl für Gianluigi Gasparetti aka OÖPHOI, der auf seinem eigenen
Label UMBRA schon unzählige CDRs herausgegeben hat und in der
"meditativen" Ambient-Szene längt kein Unbekannter mehr ist. POTALA
ist heiligen Plätzen in Tibet gewidmet, mit seinen tief summenden &
hallenden Drone-Mandalas öffnet OÖPHOI unendlich weite Räume der
Imagination...
"First ever vinyl by the italian deep ambient master! Two long
contemplative tracks into the center of holy places (may it be physically
21
voice that he began to develop from Jewish male sacred chant
falsettos. He searches for intervals that resonate together and respond
like electronic sound wave oscilators played against eachother. Finally
the fantastic 6 minutes 'Beauty Chord + Voice' with Charlemagne
playing piano and singing." [label info]
dazzling shronk, reminiscent of early SY, the soaring drone of John
Cale, and even the looping orientalia of Dream Syndicate-era La Monte
Young. So duck and cover, as Lee fires an impeccably aimed fusillade
across the screaming fields of sonic love. Pressed on sea-foam green
marbled, etched vinyl. Etched artwork on the b-side by Savage Pencil."
[label info]
".... Noisy crashing chords, chaotic and off kilter, over a super high
pitched sonar like beep, weirdly hypnotic until it explodes into a
full on psychedelic skreekout. The second track begins with an amazing
tripped out, warbly warped guitar groove, which gives way to a weird
high end drone doused in fucked up effects, so woozy it almost makes
you dizzy just listening, and reminds us a bit of a fucked up set of
bagpipes.
The final track begins with an echo-y almost-industrial space-y
surfy riff, that shifts suddenly in pitch, creating mysterious melodies,
super haunting and hypnotic, but this track too soon gives way to a
massive amp blowing, speaker melting chunk of freaked out
Japanese style noise-psych. Whew.
Pressed on opaque swirled turquoise vinyl. One sided, the other
side with a super bad ass etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick
vinyl sleeve, and of course, as always LIMITED! " [Aquarius Records
review]
* PENJAGA INSAF / VESTIGIAL - Of Earth and of Fire 12"
(Power and Steel PAS 22, 2008)
€ 10.00
Zwei neuere Projekte aus dem Ethno / Ritual / Ambient-Bereich in der
LOKI / POWER & STEEL - split 12"-Reihe! Ein Muss für Freunde des
rituellen dark ambients !!
"With the second part of the split MLP series two upcoming projects
known from previously limited CD-R release are now introduced to a
wider audience. The German Penjaga Insaf delivers enigmatic,
ritualistic soundscapes built from layers of percussive, deeply
meditative patterns, interwoven with original field recordings made by
the artist during extensive travels through Indonesia. Italy's
Vestigial presents an immense stream of pitch black ambience infused
with dark tectonic upheavals and voice fragments that boil
forth from a seething flood of magma before sinking back into the
molten stew. The ancient sounds of the Earth as scorched
by devastating waves of brooding Fire." [label info]
* Duane PITRE / PILOTRAM ENSEMBLE - Organized Pitches
occuring in Time LP [Trome Records, 2007]
€ 14.50
Klassischer Instrumental- & "Tone Generator"-Drone, minimal und zart,
wenig abgründig oder dark ambientig, hat eher etwas "chamber-music"artiges, mit vielen tonal gleichschwingenden Mitspielern auf Klarinette,
Saxophon und Violine, die Stücke sind durchkomponiert.
Vinyl-Version eines Albums, welches IMPORTANT RECORDS als CD
herausgebracht hat.
"Organized Pitches Occurring in Time consists of two 25 minute pieces
of music, both spawned from the same conceptual composition/score
by Duane Pitre, titled Ensemble Drones. With their form reminiscent of
works by La Monte Young’s Theater of Eternal Music and their tonality
touching on the floating works of Terry Riley, 'The Ensemble Chord in
Eb with a Minor 7th and a Pump Organ Base' & 'The Ensemble Chord
in C with a Major 7th and a Guitar Base' are aural tapestries based on a
minimal tonal palette with their instrumentation consisting of guitars, alto
saxophones, bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, tone generator, and pump
organ. The Ensemble Drones composition varies from the traditional
sort as it is rule-based with the score consisting of a set tonic, set pitch
classes, playing methods, technique restrictions, and spontaneous
conduction. The score is a structure for the performing ensemble to
improvise on - order spawning chaos producing order that is different on
each occasion of a performance or recording. Ensemble Drones is
discipline and freedom, both within each other, the first major focus of
the work. Variance is the second major focus of the composition; with
instrumentation, ensemble performers, tonic, pitch classes, and the
physical space varying from performance to performance, the results
can never be the same.
One way to view Ensemble Drones is like a compositional "body", as in
the composition taking human form. The score is the skeletal structure
that gives the "body" its general shape and feel. The pump organ, for
instance, could serve as the circulatory system, the bass clarinet as the
muscles, cello and saxophones as the internal organs, the electrically
generated tones as the nervous system, guitars as the flesh, viola as
the skin, violin as strands of hair, and the listener—the listener acts as
the eyes. Not in the sense of vision, though—each listener will "view"
the same compositional body differently, and, in return, the body will
view itself differently with each new set of eyes. This helps to analogize
the last major focus of the Ensemble Drones score/composition, which
is perception." [label notes]
"crystalline aural beauty...splendidly conceived and executed
material...richness of overtones and s-l-o-w-l-y shifting
modulations...gorgeously entrancing...the strength of the recording
(Organized Pitches Occurring in Time), catapults Pitre just a split hair
below the upper echelon of contemporary minimalism"
[Touching Extremes]
* Rick REED - Dreamz / Blue Polz pic-LP (Elevator Bath
eeeaoa027, 2008)
[lim. 260] € 17.50
Rauschig-repetitive Analog- & Mechano-drones, füllig & dicht auf Seite
1, ruhiger & ätherischer auf Seite 2, kreiert mit Analog-Synth,
Sinustone-Generator und Kurzwellen-Radio. Das sind quasi die
Soundtracks für 2 von RICK REEDS abstrakten Gemälden, die auf
dieser picture-disc abgebildet sind. Schöne Arbeit des Texaners mit
starkem 70er Jahre Drone & Minimalismus-Touch.
"Beautiful picture disc LP featuring two full-color reproductions of visual
works by Rick Reed and two new side-long solo compositions.
Reed's fascinating, highly evolved world is represented well by these
two new pieces, each of which offers up the kind of droning intensity
and unsettling beauty that this veteran noisemaker has come to be
known for. Reed's work is very obviously that of an experienced
craftsman - one whose sound is a reverent nod to early electronic music
underscored by an enduring sensibility for atmosphere and ethereality.
Dreamz began life as the soundtrack for a live visual display by
filmmaker Ken Jacobs, which was performed live by Jacobs and Reed
at the 2007 New York Film Festival. The record’s flipside, Blue Polz,
was also inspired by the work of a filmmaker (originally conceived as a
kind of alternate soundtrack to a piece by Fred Worden). All of the
music was created using an EMS Synthi A, plus 2 sine wave generators
and a shortwave radio. The artwork comes from two original paintings.
Reed has been active in the visual arts for more than 20 years; his work
is utterly abstract, beautifully enigmatic. These images are the perfect
accompaniment to Reed’s otherworldly audio counterparts.
In addition to his solo work, Rick Reed has participated in a number of
productive collaborations over the years with Keith Rowe, Jgrzinich (in
Frequency Curtain), the Abrasion Ensemble, and SIRSIT. He currently
resides in Austin. This picture disc LP has been released in an edition
of 260 copies." [label info]
"From the improvisation world of Texas comes Rick Reed, who has
been around for quite some time, playing with Keith Rowe (it's this Rick
from that AMM title), the Abrasion Ensemble and Sirsit, of whom I never
heard. He has had various solo releases on Elevator Bath before.
These two pieces here were part of something bigger: one as a 'live
visual display by filmmaker Ken Jacobs', and the other one could be an
alternative soundtrack to a piece by one Fred Worden. Reed uses a
EMS Synthi A, two sine wave generators and a shortwave radio. The
first side, if I detected that alright, is a very minimal piece of soft flowing,
high pitched tones. Like far away insects chirping whilst the dawn sets
in. Over the course of the side dawn gets dark and insects quiet out.
The other side start out in the middle of the dark night but it stays night:
dark humming organ like drones, which are filtered out over the course
of the piece, until some chorus like sounds drop. Of these four sides,
this is the most single minded, and for me the least interesting, even
when it's not bad either. Two fine to great records, lovely picture disc
and highly limited. Yummy." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* RANALDO, LEE - Countless Centries fled into the Distance LP
(Table of the Elements Bek97, 2008)
€ 16.50
Niemand kann aus seiner Gitarrre so irre Sirenenhafte Sounds
herausholen wie LEE RANALDO! Sein Beitrag zur neuen TABLE OF
THE ELEMENTS Vinyl-Serie (immer mit etching auf einer Seite und auf
farbigem Vinyl) besteht aus 4 variantenreichen Stücken mit lauten
Distortion- & Feedback-Drones, wie ein Konzentrat der frühen SONIC
YOUTH. Türkises Vinyl.
"...Like So Many Storms. "Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo was part of the
original Table of the Elements 'Guitar Series' in 1993; now he returns
with Countless Centuries Fled into the Distance Like So Many Storms.
It's an epic earful, replete with shimmering textures and an inimitable
charging clangor. With ecstatic, rocking squalor, he summons some
* ROCCHETTI, CLAUDIO - These are the days LP (Small Voices
SVV009, 2007)
[ed. of 300]
€ 14.00
CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI (von 3/4HADBEENELIMINATED) benutzt auf
dieser LP sein MC- & Vinyl-Archiv als eine Art Gedächtnisspeicher in
Verbindung zur Welt; die hier gespeicherten Informationen sind auf
vielfältige Weise verbunden mit den Vorbesitzern & ihrer Aura. Auf
"These are the days" werden Teile davon collagenhaft neu
zusammengesetzt und ganz neue Geschichten "erzählt", es wirkt wie
kurze Schnappschüsse des Unterbewussten ins Verborgene der
Alltagsgeräusche, kaum fassbar und doch nicht chaotisch, mit viel
22
Raum für Pausen und Rauschen, Knirschen, Crackles... eine
besondere Scheibe, die mit mehrmaligem Hören an Schönheit gewinnt!
"These are the days" is a collection of short pieces all around of
memory concept... a sort of back-up of experiences on Claudio's
preferred media (tapes and vinyls). Tapes and vinyls are here used in a
double way: in their common way, the Universal recognized one. As
sound reproducers, as technological element of our day-life with their
own personal story linked to all the people who owned them... they are
full of memory, they are part of our World. But if you change the rules
and use the machines in an unusual way, the story change and also the
result. Driving them over the limits we can discover unexpected
borders... "...I'm attracted by places where the human presence is
denied or cancelled, but where you can still hear their vibes.
Abandoned flats, tube stations in disuse, spaces in which Nature grows
between asfalt and cement, resuming what men has stolen..." CR.
Limited to 300 copies." [label info]
hasn't already made a similar work, he has certainly already planted a
similar flag in the territory this piece occupies." [Steve Roden]
* RODEN, STEVE - Lines and Spaces do-LP (New Plastic Music
npse 001, 2008) [lim. 125]
€ 31.00
Sehr ruhige / minimale Piano & Drone-Installationsmusik mit speziellem
Konzept, nummerierte Auflage.
"Lines and Spaces is a portable version of a recent installation. two one
sided LPs that are intended to be played alone as well as together. I
began with two recordings, one of the line notes on a piano (EGBDF)
and one of the space notes on a piano (FACE). I then cut up the
recordings and created two piano compositions - one with the line notes
and one with the space notes. I also added some quiet ebow drones.
The piece was originally created as an installation with two turntables at
the lora reynolds gallery in Austin Texas, where gallery visitors would
activate the work by playing one or both records, together or apart...'
2006. Limited to 125 copies." [label info]
* RODEN, STEVE - One Stone and Arcs and Ears 7" (Disques
Ades/ New Plastic Music npib10, 2007) [lim. 300]
€ 15.50
Neben der LINES AND SPACES do-LP noch ein teures, aber äusserst
delikates Vinyl-Sammlerstück des kalifornischen Klang- und
Konzeptkünstlers: Die 7" wurde zu einer Ausstellung in Portland, OR,
herausgegeben, basierend auf dem Film "Der Prozess der Jeanne
d'Arc" von ROBERT BRESSON (1962), bei dem RODEN sämtliche
Sprachpassagen der Hauptcharaktere herausschnitt... so entsteht ein
neuer Kontext, eine neue "Geschichte", aus dem 'Unsichtbaren'
heraus... fragmentierte Musik- & Geräuschpassagen & das
Vinylknistern der Originalplatte schaffen atmosphärische Dichte..
'The 7' was originally made for the exhibition 'invisible other' at the new
american art union in Portland Oregon. In the original installation the 7
sat on a turntable that could be activated by viewers. here are some
notes that accompanied the work... I began with the soundtrack LP of
Robert Bresson's film 'Proces de Jeanne d'Arc', and edited out all of the
talking of the main characters. In many cases my edits were not
perfectly clean so whispered beginnings or endings of words can still be
heard. i wanted the trajectory to lose its sense of narrative - to shake all
of the specificity out of something. I wanted to turn it into a path of
ambivalence, fragmentation, pauses, and abstraction. Here is no music
on the original soundtrack, only talking and incidental sounds. on side
one of the LP, a single musical instrument is heard for a few seconds (a
horn playing a kind of fanfare in the middle of side one). Through
sampling, i extended the horn sounds, and used them to create a tonal
field for the existing edited sounds from the original soundtrack to rest
upon. The title of side one (one stone.) was made from taking some of
the letters in Robert Bresson's name and using them to generate new
words (Robert has the letters to make words such as 'robe', 'bore',
'robot', 'tree', etc. ). One stone also refers to the rock thrown through
Jeanne's window in the film. The title of side two (and Arcs and Ears.)
was made from taking some of the letters in the film title 'Proces de
Jeanne d'Arc' and using them to generate new words. and Arcs and
Ears. Also refers to the circular motion of the spinning record and the
activity of listening... These titles, as well as the images-design on this
record cover, came from a kind of visual sampling of the original cover
of the Bresson LP. Simlar to the sound, the images were mainly created
by editing and subtraction, rather than addition. I had been thinking
about this kind of erasure, absence, and invisibility for a long time;
wondering if a new story without the presence of the main characters,
could be born of the pauses found within an existing story. I wanted to
wait for the idea to be less fresh for me; so that instead of being
enamored of the conceptual part of the project; i could use it to fuel
something that could grow into it's final form more organically. My
relationship to conceptual art and the kind of purity of production that
comes from making objects in the service of an idea is awkward, and
sometimes in conflict with the unknown potentials the concepts might
otherwise be able to generate... I'm interested in the creation of works
that do not have to refer to the ideas that generated them for their
meanings. I am interested in a place where things fit together
uncomfortably. For me, purity doesn't necessarily come from a minimal
aesthetic, nor from an idea simply realized. it comes from a kind of
honesty that allows things that might not fit together perfectly to remain
connected, even if the connective tissue is thin, frayed, and somewhat
invisible. I like very much how the crackling sounds of the original vinyl
sometimes sound like the crackling of a very small fire. I hope the
activity of the audience physically activating the piece will suggest one
stand and listen for the duration of the work. since i used a somewhat
worn LP to generate the piece, I am also interested in the idea that
repeated listenings and handlings will generate more noise, more
history, and perhaps more sound images within the work; so that the
whole thing might change over the duration of the show. perhaps just as
the actors in the film became less visible in my own work, my own
composition will become less visible as the piece is changed by the
handling of others through their physical experience with this small
record. and Arcs and Ears. Is humbly dedicated to Pavel Buchler. If he
* R.O.T. - Ceci n'est plus avioth LP (Morc Tapes Morc47, 2008)
[lim. 175 copies] € 12.00
Eine one-sided LP dieser merkwürdigen belgischen Combo,
die sowohl ihr Instrumentarium als auch ihren Proberaum auf vielfältige
Weise für geräuschhaft-dronige (& absolut disharmonische)
Improvisationen nutzen zu scheinen, ein knarziger Analog-Drone &
Obertöne halten diese low-fi Geräuschmusik zusammen...
"Since the start of this free-music collective in 1998, R.O.T. rogressively
took the shape of a mainly acoustic big band introducing a lot of
different analog sound sources (guitars, organs, wind instruments,
percussion, objects, modified electronics, etc...). This new record is
perhaps R.O.T. at its most minimal. 'Ceci n'est plus avioth' is their first
vinyl release since their well acclaimed LP on (k-raa-k)3 in 2006, which
brought them to the attention of The Wire and Thurston Moore. The
one-sided LP comes in a jacket silkscreened by Jelle Crama and is
limited to 175 copies, so order fast!" [label info]
* ROZENHALL, DANIEL - Eyeland LP (Firework Edition Records
FER1042, 2003)
€ 15.00
Zweites Album für den schwedischen Komponisten DANIEL
ROZENHALL auf FIREWORK! Advanced Electro-Acoustic, to discover!
"Beginning with a classic static-noise musique concrète piece, “Eyeland
Part” hooks up seamlessly with layer after layer of EMS overtones
blowing like a harsh wind. The backdrop recedes to a carillon of bells
ringing and occultish voices singing. The web of sounds crawl up tight
and good, getting ever denser, while growling and springing vocal-like
audio turns and whirls in turmoil, shredded and spat around the
perimeter of what feels like the enclosure the size of a cement mixer.”
[Sonoloco]
* SATORI - Kanashibari
LP (Dogma Chase DOGMA 005, 2008)
[lim. 300[ € 20.00
Tiefsumpfiger und grottiger drone & doom ambient, wuchtig & mit im
Mix pulsierenden Pulses, mal ekstatisch-überwältigend, mal fast von
fast kriechender Langsamkeit, Vocals sind hier irgendwo vorhanden
aber klingen eher nach fremdartiger atmender Organik....
Anklänge an INADE und HALO MANASH, Japan-Import, nummerierte
Auflage von 300 Stück in einem wunderschönen Cover !
"First ever vinyl release from UK act SATORI, formed by new member
Neil Chaney known as legendary & obscure project PESSARY and
Justin Mitchell (owner of Cold Spring Records). "Kanashibari" is the
Japanese term for sleep paralysis (literally "bound or fastened in
metal"). The album explores this phenomena, manipulating Fortean
sounds, dark & cold electronics and foggy ambience like a hallucination.
Dynamic but tense atmosphere let us leave in a deep spiral.
Hand-numbered limited edition 300 copies, coming in a full-colour inner
sleeve with original silk-screened and spot varnishing die-cut sleeve."
[label info]
* SCORN - Stealth do-LP (Ad Noiseam adn88 / Jarring Effects
fx0607, 2007)
€ 15.00
Nach langer Zeit etwas neues von SCORN, dem Projekt von MICK
HARRIS, der hier weiter an seiner Version von Industrial-Dub arbeitet,
der sich so langsam, zäh und schwer durch den Äther walzt dass einem
das Atmen schwer fällt... besonders im Bass-Bereich scheinen sich auf
STEALTH dabei ungeahnte Tiefen aufzutun, körperliche zu spürende
Vibrationen verbinden sich mit psychischer Schockstarre ...
BAD CHILL MUSIC !
"15 years since his début and 5 since his last studio album: Mick Harris
breaks the silence and delivers with "Stealth" one of his most massive
works so far. Staying faithful to his trademark sound, this corner-stone
of a musician, constantly redefining the boundaries of electronic music,
delivers here 8 salvoes of monumental bass, sparse dry beats and
deep drones. Let it be heard: Scorn is back.
23
Few musician can boast such a prolific and influential catalog as Mick
Harris. Not only has his main project, Scorn, been re-defining and
expanding the scope of electronic music and dub, but Harris's
discography, featuring literally hundreds of releases, spawns from his
début as the original drummer of Napalm Death to a founding member
of Painkiller (with Bill Laswell and John Zorn) as well as such seminal
projects as the ambient Lull, the drum'n'bass of Quoit or his
participation to Extreme Noise Terror. To cut a long story short,
(electronic) music wouldn't be the same if this Birmingham-based
musician wasn't there.
Fifteen years after Scorn's début, and five whole years after his latest
studio album, it is a transformed Mick Harris (noticeably by his comeback to his drum set) that deliver "Stealth", Scorn's 13th full length
studio album. And while music has evolved a lot since 1992's "Vae
Solis", Scorn has stayed true to his trademark sound. Downtempo,
illbient, dubstep have come and gone, but Scorn remains the epitome of
minimal, dry beats, wall-of-sound unequalled basses and deep,
mesmerizing drones.
Not only a massive, bodily experience, Scorn's monumental tracks
(which have proved over the years to provide for unforgettable live sets)
impress by their focus and efficiency. Keeping only the bare minimum of
what defines dub, Scorn drives these few elements (sparse beats,
echoes, and most of all, bass) to their extreme. A godfather of the
current come-back of slow, heavy basses in club music, Scorn's method
still stand out with its towering, dark and minimal approach. "Stealth" is
no exception. Spacious in its execution, oppressive, humongous in its
outcome; let it be heard: Scorn is back." [label notes]
death & ambient Industrial und abenteuerlichen eher am Song-format
orientierten Stücken mit Vocals & Gitarreinsatz und gar dubbigen
Einflüssen.... ein mächtiger Bastard, hervorragend produziert!
Das Vinyl hat z.T. andere Tracks als die CD-Version!
"More than ever, fringe culture methods and cutting edge acoustic
science mate for the generations of endless layers and bursts of sonic
pleasure - voices and drones clans across plans and peaks, fishing for
universal tremors and sensorial catastrophes. iconic translations of lost
symbols flow like pathogenic lava into temporal sequence and weather
forecasts become performances for alien audiences.\
The 20th anniversary album from post-industrial noise alchemists
SIGILLUM S, \ 23/20\ , features (together with the original line up of
Eraldo Bernocchi, P.NG5361.Bandera and Luca Di Giorgio) sound
contributions from long time collaborators and friends, such as Bill
Laswell, Toshinori Kondo, Professor Shebab, SH Fernando /
WordSound, Martino Nicoletti, Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari, ZU, Xabier
Iriondo, Ephel Duath, Karyn Crisis and various members of the same
band , Mark Solotroff, Thomas Fehlmann, Gudrun Gut, Andrea
Marutti, Claudio Agostoni and many others.\
23/20\ is available as two radically different and complementary
formats, a digipack CD and a limited edition gatefold double vinyl, with
different track lists and sequences for each format - nine tracks are on
both formats, while others (seven per format) can only be found either
on CD or vinyl (sixteen tracks per format, twenty three in total)." [label
press release]
* SIR RICHARD BISHOP - Plays the Sun City Girls 7" (NO-FI
Archive Series NARC001, 2006)
€ 8.00
"First release in NO-FI's Archive Series recorded live at Morden Tower,
July 2005, and featuring SCG classics from Torch Of The Mystics:
'Space Prophet Dogon', 'Esoterica Of Abyssynnia" and a touch of 'The
Vinegar Strokes'. Live recording by Andrew Hodson." [label notes]
"more radical rethinks than acoustic tributes. As one third of Sun City
Girls, its Bishop’s obvious right to explore his own material, but these
beautifully energetic takes seem utterly revitalised by anyone’s
standards." [Scott McKeating, brainwashed.com]
* SEVERED HEADS - Adenoids 5 x LP-Box (Vinyl-On-Demand
VOD49T, 2008) € 84.50
Die Australier gehörten in den 80ern zu einer Gruppe von Bands
(ähnlich wie z.B. HULA), die experimentelle und Industrial-Elemente mit
tanzbarer Elektronik & Popmusik verbanden... und so eine Art
Industrial-Pop erschufen, wie es ihn später nicht mehr gab!
Hier in der VOD-Box ist rares und ganz frühes Material von TapeReleases verewigt !
"Contains earliest tracks from '77-'81 plus tracks from the Terse
releases Ear Bitten & Clean, the long lost side 3 tape, Blubberknife,
Cheesecake and various other tracks from '83-'85. To describe this
treasure it is best to state what Tom Ellard had to say: 'And here we
have it - the ultimate produce of the new millennium. A box of vinyl
discs with music from as much as thirty years ago. Could something
express any less faith in the future? My guess is that we seek to
capture some "purity" that has since been encrusted with quibbles. It's a
hopeless fetish that leads in an ever contracting spiral -- music is born
continuously and defies attempts to capture it in decorative tombs.
Nevertheless. We have here a very decorative tomb. Music made from
1977 onwards by people who would be identified for a time as "Severed
Heads." Much is by Richard Fielding who left in 1982. Some by Andrew
Wright, gone in 1980. Some by Bradbury, left in 1985, Deering also. In
each case, the music has been taken from the best copy, cleaned only
as much as needed and organized to fit onto long-playing vinyl. It is
ancient, funny, half-arsed, crinkly, clever and juvenile. It was compiled
by a prick. All proceeds will be spent by Fielding on horse races. Buy
two because they will wear out.'" [label info]
* SKULL DEFEKTS - Storm Skull Dub 7" (Meudiamorte MDDM32,
2007)
[lim. 200]
€ 8.50
Somehow "rough atmospherics" from this swedish group, analog
humming waves, subtle feedbacks & air recordings, comes in clear
sleeve with screenprinting, marbled vinyl, last copies.
* SMALLEY, DENIS / BETARIZ FERREYRA / PHILIPPE MENARD Fylkingen Electronic Music Competition 1975: Prizewinners LP
(Fylkingen Records FYLP1012, 1976) € 15.00
Original-Kopien dieser alten FYLKINGEN-Platte! Prämierte Arbeiten
aus dem Bereich "elektronische Neue Musik" von DENIS SMALLEY
(Neuseeland, mit Klarinetten & Trombaphon-Begleitung), BETARIZ
FERREYRA (Kanada; tolles Stück dieser Komponistin mit
dröhnminimalistischen Elementen und Tango (!)-Einspielungen) und
PHILIPPE MENARD (Argentinien). Ausführliche Liner-Notes auf der
Rückseite des Covers.
"Tapes realized at the GRM studio, Paris and GMEB studio, Bourges,
France. Smalley recorded at Fylkingen, December 16, 1976. Recording
engineer Sten Hanson. Cover design by Carsten Regild." [credits]
* SHRINE - Distorted Legends, Pt. 1 7" (Drone Records DR-89,
2008) [lim. 300]
€ 7.00
Ein neuer Drone-Senkrechtstarter ist für uns SHRINE aus Bulgarien.
Der Drone-Beitrag kombiniert rauhe verzerrte Synths mit versteckten
Melodien und allerlei Effekt-Geräuschen, Vergleiche mit z.B. BAD
SECTOR sind möglich... die Verzerrung der alltäglichen "Realität" (mit
Hilfe von Kunst & Musik) als ein Weg das dahinterliegende
"Wahrhaftige" zu erkennen?
"Behind SHRINE we find a fresh experimental drone project from
Bulgaria (currently residing in England) combining the melancholia of
distorted synths with odd micro noises & effects. The fusion of rough
and thunderous drones with hidden melodies evokes a strong emotional
impact, like the feeling of being stuck in a confusing dream. SHRINE's
philosophy shows a way to realize that what we call “reality” is to be
mistrusted based upon our usual perceptions. The distortion of this
reality opens up a chance to better understand its true essence and
confront the things that lie behind the surface. Filed under: DREAM &
DISTORTION DRONES. more info: www.shrine.me.uk. BLACK VINYL.
OVERSIZED FULL-COLOUR GATEFOLD SLEEVE." [press release]
* SPK - Dokument III0 1979-1983 6 x LP-Box (Vinyl-On-Demand
VOD50, 2008)
[lim. 800]
€ 110.00
VINYL-ON-DEMAND hat sich selbst nochmal getoppt mit dieser SPKHOLZBOX, die der wohl wichtigsten Industrial-Band neben TG ein
beeindruckendes Denkmal setzt!Schwarz lackiert und mit
Metallverschluss, enthält sie 6 LPs mit Material von frühen live-Tapes &
bisher Unveröffentlichtes, ein 36 Seiten 12 x 12" inch Booklet, und ein
T-Shirt! War sofort nach Erscheinen beim Label ausverkauft!
"SPK, Industrial legends. This over the top, already out of
print box set is a doozy. Compiling recordings that document the
band’s first 5 years, the box includes 6 lps, all housed in printed
numbered sleeves, collecting several long gone tape only releases as
well as a handful of live performance. Also included is a shirt, with
the same image as the box, size XL, a 36 page booklet, all housed in
a gorgeous hinged wooden box." [Aquarius Rec.]
* SRMEIXNER / BAND OF PAIN - Texture. Montage. Sequence /
Tripping in Q 7" (Black Rose Rec. BRV 04-1006)
€ 6.50
Filigrane Split-Single des ex-CONTRASTATE (der summende Drones
& subliminale Harmonien mit einer Reihe von feinen Natur field
recordings verbindet), und BAND OF PAIN (ruhige Synths werden
behutsam bearbeitet) auf weissem Vinyl.
"A split single release on white vinyl, limited to 250, with black and white
artwork printed on 120 gram tracing paper from these two well known
and respected projects. This is a cinematic and inspiring musical
* SIGILLUM S - 23/20 do-LP (Verba Corrige Production
VCPV009, 2007)
[lim. 500]
€ 28.00
Seit über 20 Jahren gibt es das italienische Industrial- & Elektronik-Trio
SIGILLUM S, um die es in den letzten Jahren sehr ruhig wurde. Diese
do-LP ist eine Kollektion mit vielen Remixen und Kollaborationen in
fantastischer Aufmachung und deckt eine unglaubliche Bandbreite ab
zwischen pumpenden "old school" rhythmic Industrial Sounds, dunklem
24
journey which combines beautiful ambience interspersed with haunting
atmospheres with each artist creating a distinctive, yet complimentary,
electro-acoustic soundscape." [label info]
"This little beast I played at least ten times before even starting to think
about the review. Was it that great? Well, no, not because of that, but
rather the format of a 7" with 'difficult' music is hard to capture. Both
SRMeixner and Band Of Pain are known for a long time inside the world
of experimental music. On side A we fin Meixner, former member of
Contrastate, with a piece that involves sea washes and processed
bird/insect/frog sounds, along with sparse music (piano? guitar?),
heavily layered. Quite an intimate piece of music.
Steve Pittis, also known as Band Of Pain, on the other side, has a
likewise intimate piece of music. Sparse, drone like sounds and
tape/vinyl-manipulation interjecting the music. Quite a musique concrete
like piece, one that we haven't seen him doing before. More peaceful
than before. For both of these pieces goes, that they are too short to
give a solid opinion about, and both cry for more. Great, but way too
short." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
Groovy, brilliant and transcendent. One time pressing of 1,000 copies."
[label info]
* SUTCLIFFE JUGEND / PRURIENT - End of Autumn do-LP
(Troublemanunlimited TMU 194, 2008) € 15.00
"Sutcliffe Jugend were among the earliest pioneers of
Industrial/Noise/Power Electronic noise music, started in the early 80s.
SJ consists of Kevin Tomkins & Paul Taylor. Prurient is noise musician
Dominick Fernow, who primarily uses just a microphone and an amp.
This live 2006 collaboration between the two features lyrics from death
poems by Japanese monks. Side 1, 2 & 4 are harsh, distorted,
feedbacking, electronic noise tracks. Severe metal blades scraping at
the back of your brain, causing bloody eyes. White noise on the TV.
Side 3 is way different from the rest. It plays more on the dark, spooky,
horror filled torturous nightmares. The ones where you’re bleeding from
the head and trying to run in the fog filled woods, with a dagger stabbed
in your thigh. Low deep grumbling electronic pulses, fucking killer! Play
this when feeling anxious & murderous. Tracks range from 12-15
minutes long." [Cinder]
* STAPLERFAHRER - Treetops LP (Heilskabaal Records HK006,
2007) € 12.00
First LP of this dutch project - experimental compositions using drones,
field recordings & electronic elements in a very idiosyncratic way. To
discover !
"... ‘Treetops’, the first track, quietly seeps into the consciousness,
shimmering and subtle atonality wafting gently in like the almost
imperceptible gateway between dimensions, as the listener passes from
the world of light and free-flowing air and into the unfamiliar
strangeness of the realm of living wood and claustrophobic closeness.
Slowly over time the fifteen minute track metamorphoses, the atonality
and menace becoming more marked and sinister, creating a sense of
edginess and unease; one can readily imagine a thickly treed wood
atop a silent hill somewhere, a place where dusk has permanent
residence, even in the height of summer, a place where the sun fights it
way forcefully through the canopy only to fall palely onto the threadbare
carpet of undergrowth. This is the domain of creatures and denizens of
folklore and myth, a kingdom perhaps where those beings shunned by
science have their last and most secure abode. At the last, strange blips
like Morse code pierce the veil between the worlds, the last message of
the unwary and trapped traveller before leaving this world forever...
‘Lullaby (for my Dad)’ starts off with a pulse beckoning us into restful
sleep, eventually being overlaid by a quiet screeching and howling,
maybe reminiscent of the night-‘mare’ of fable, visiting us in order to
disturb our nightly wanderings and imaginings. This is like standing in
pitch black darkness, strangely disquieting and disembodied noises
placelessly marching inexorably around us, the noises becoming ever
more disjointed, sinister, oppressive and insistent. Eventually we are
called back to wakefulness by the blissful sound of coruscating bells,
luring us away from the dark regions and into light, the soothing light of
day that dispels all ghosts and ghoulies and denizens of night.
Finally we have ‘Lover’s Breath’, a series of disjointed field recordings,
of the mournful cries of seagulls, water bubbling and flowing, a kettle
coming to the boil, atmospheric noises recorded in an echoey hallway
somewhere, a shimmering bell from a timepiece perhaps and waves
lapping upon a shore – perhaps all redolent of leavings and meetings,
of sorrowful farewells between lovers, of separations over long
distances, where the only connections are the psychic feelings between
two hearts and late night whispered phone-calls.
This is cerebral music, no doubt about that, but I have to admit that on
this occasion I failed to connect with this – perhaps part of the blame for
that lies simply in the fact that being disconnected from the film it was
created to accompany I failed to completely empathise and ‘get into it’;
in some sense then I felt as if I was missing half the package and
consequently not receiving the complete picture. Of its kind I would say
that it’s a good example, well recorded and expertly constructed, and
well packaged. I think, however, despite my lack of empathy while
reviewing this on this particular occasion I deem that it would bear a few
more listens in order for me to explore its subtleties and textures more
deeply. Also, I think it would be nice to listen to whilst watching the
visual component – maybe then it would make even more sense."
[Simon Marshall-Jones, Heathen Harvest]
* TAMING POWER - Three Pieces 10" (Early Morning Records
EMR10"-015, 2005)
[lim. 111 copies]
€ 12.00
Drei Stücke des norwegischen Drone-Geheimtips, die ohne Titel oder
Erklärungen einfach für sich stehen. Nur ein Bezug zu majestätischen
Natur-Landschaften ist auf den zwei aufgeklebten Cover-Fotos
auszumachen. Purer Drone also. Die statisch und doch "innerlich"
wirbelnden Drone-Wellen erinnern an alte JLIAT oder NIBLOCK, dazu
werden dunkel rauschende "fields" gemischt...
three pieces of this norwegian drone-artist, very nice contemplative
"pure drone"-spheres in the way of old JLIAT or PHILL NIBLOCK,
mixed with field recordings. Handmade sleeves with photo-cover.
Still to discover !
* TAMING POWER - Six Pieces 10" (Early Morning Records
EMR10"-016, 2006)
[lim. 110 copies]
€ 12.00
"Still being a man on his own, somewhere in Norway, away from the
usual noise crowd is Askild Haugland. Since some years he works as
Taming Power, and has released a whole bunch of vinyl, of which 10" is
his favorite. His tools include anything but a computer. Strictly using
cassette recorders and reel to reel tapes, he crafts with the use of
singing bowls, voice, metallophone, dingsha and harmonica, a kind of
drone music. Before his music sounded some crude, perhaps due to his
more lo-fi techniques, but on this new record I must say the music
sounds much better. There is a clear diversification of sounds within
each piece, a finer tuned mix of the music, but it's still clearly drone
music. Much along the lines of the old Maeror Tri, with a slight touch of
mystickal influences (but luckily well covered), this is perhaps the finest
moment of Taming Power I have encountered. Only 110 copies were
made, so act fast to grab this beauty." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* TAMING POWER - Twelve Pieces 10" (Early Morning Records
EMR10"-017, 2007)
[lim. 525 copies]
€ 10.00
Der wohl auflagenstärkste Release bisher von dem norwegischen
Geheimtip TAMING POWER - und wieder eine 10" ! Der Nachfolger
von THREE PIECES und SIX PIECES beginnt mit kleinen
Minimalismen jeweils für eine Solostimme, in Form von Gitarre, CasioSynth & Zither... Auf Seite B aber finden sich weitaus komplexere &
dronigere Stücke, wo Instrumentalflächen-Sounds übereinander
geschichtet werden - das erinnert dann mehr an die schönen "three
pieces" und "six pieces"- 10"es...
Die Coverartwork (handgeschriebene Labels & Credits, etc.), die Musik
- all das strahlt einen sehr persönlichen DO IT YOURSELF - Geist aus,
abseits von jeglichen Trends kreiert hier jemand sein eigenen kleinen
Kosmos.
"Until now releases by Taming Power, and there has been quite a few,
were highly limited editions of around 150 copies, but this new one is
released in an edition of 525 copies: the pressing plant don't do any
less anymore. A pity since Taming Power has to 'sell out' before
making anything new, so this might be one of the last before some time.
Taming Power, the musical project of Askild Haugland from Oslo,
Norway, is a man who loves drones, but as you can tell by the title
these don't have to be long. Twelve pieces on a 10". The seven pieces
on side one are short, sketch like pieces, played on the guitar, zither
and keyboards. Haugland feeds the sound through a little bit of reverb,
fortunate not enough to drown the sound, but to make the whole thing a
bit 'rounder'. The pieces are simple melodies, effective and work best
when played on the guitar. The keyboard pieces are bit less in quality I
thought. The five pieces here are more complex, layered sounds, more
sound effects, and effectively more drone related in the way people
associate this with drones. Layered sounds, with the usual analogue
means of Taming Power (who works with tape recorders rather than
computers), these pieces are more along the lines of his recent works.
Complex, drone based, this is some damn fine music going on. It would
* STARS OF THE LID - Avec Laudenum LP (Kranky Records
krank059, 2008) € 13.00
Nachpressung des Albums von 1999 - eine höchst spacige,
transzendentale & meditative Aufnahme von Gitarren-Drones die kaum
nach Gitarren klingen... einfach wunderschön!
"BACK IN PRINT ON VINYL!!! The Avec Laudenum originally released
on the Belgian Sub Rosa label in 2000 (and again by Kranky in 2002)
from cosmic sound explorers ADAM WILTZIE and BRIAN McBRIDE.
Recorded via mail between the home ports of Chicago and Austin, the
record is a hypnotic foray into the realm of drones, drifts and dreams.
25
be a pity not see any new thing from him in a while, but maybe he
should consider doing CDs? So I recommend any serious lover of
drone music to get a copy (or two) and keep Early Morning Records
alive." [FdW, Vital Weekly]
* TRANSITIONAL - Nothing Real Nothing Absent CD (Soultheft
Records STRV-005, 2007)
€ 12.00
Erinnert sich noch jemand an die begnadeten HEAD OF DAVID? Das
lief damals unter "britischem Noise-Rock", war aber weitaus
abgründiger und experimenteller als viele andere Bands mit derselben
Stilrichtung aus dieser Zeit, von der Innovationskraft & rabenschwarzen
Radikalität ehesten vielleicht noch mit der New Yorker Band LIVE
SKULL vergleichbar. DAVE COCHRANE gehörte zur Urbesetzung von
HEAD OF DAVID, war später bei GOD, SWEET TOOTH und JESU,
und brilliert nun in diesem neuen Duo TRANSITIONAL, das irgendwo
zwischen JESU-Rock und elektronischen Power-Trance & Drone
angesiedelt ist, mitreissend wie hier rohe Kraft in betörende Bahnen
gelenkt wird....trancige Beats, Weite, rauhe Sounds wie Wellen &
Wind...
"Transitional is the new project of musician producer Kevin Laska
(Novatron) and long time Justin K Broadrick and Kevin Martin
collaborator Dave Cochrane (Jesu, Grey Machine,). The debut 'Nothing
real Nothing Absent' offers a rich variety in their approach to sound
combining crushing atmospheres through a mixture of electronic
ambience, mangling bass lines and distorted epic layers of textured
guitar. Injected with driving rhythms and effected vocal phrasing Laska
and Cochrane build discordant worlds on an immense scale which pull
you down to another level of fear and ethereal bliss before kicking off
with some more soul dismantling sonic dysfunction.
This is a band which can deliver both sonic tranquility and extremely
heavy slabs of dense music and just about everything in between;
Heavy electronic machinery, juggernaut bass lines and hypnotic guitars
go from passive relaxation to an unstoppable machine within a single
surge. Kevin Laska's woven creations of bleak electronic/organic
mesmerizing mayhem and bliss has found a new level. Now joined by
legendary bassist Dave Cochrane who played with the likes of Kevin
Martin in God, Ice and The Bug and Justin Broadrick in Jesu and Head
of David. Born September 2006 Laska's found himself in another quality
up with Cochrane, following his last collaboration with a.o. Russel Smith
and Anthony Difranco (Ramleh, ex Skullflower) as Novatron.
Transitional; a solid, textured and dynamic sonic journey through a
world that is both self deprecating and enlightening, but either way
leaves you wanting more." [label info]
* 3/4HADBEENELIMINATED - The Religious Experience LP
(Soleilmoon SOL147, 2007)
[lim. 225]
€ 25.00
Schwester-Release zur "Theology"-CD Box, kommt im wunderbaren
Zuckerrohrtextil-Cover, mit parfürmierten Siebdruck Innenhüllen !
"... The LP is more singleminded, evolving around rhythmic drone loops
and vocals. The start is almost in Goem-like tradition, but with vocals.
From then on, things stay more easy, with less complex moves, and
more in the rhythm area, although of course you could never move your
feet to this. It sounds like this is less edited and, perhaps, perhaps,
captures their live sound. Both releases are different from eachother,
but complement eachother quite well. Great releases." " [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
"Soleilmoon Recordings is proud to announce the simultaneous release
of 3/4HadBeenEliminated’s new CD and LP, titled “Theology” and “The
Religious Experience”, respectively. 3/4HadBeenEliminated was
founded in 2002 in Bologna, Italy as a trio, with Stefano Pilia, Claudio
Rocchetti and Valerio Tricoli. An eponymous album was released in
2003 by Bowindo. In 2004 the group welcomed Tony Arrabito and
became a quartet. The next year Hapna put out their second album “A
Year of the Aural Gauge Operation”, and in 2006 the band self-released
a 7 inch single “DimethylAtonalCalcine”. The group straddles the line
between live improvisation and studio experimentation, blending and
shaping raw sounds into living pieces, then gently dissecting the
delicately structured songs into disruptive sonic excursions more
evocative of moving shadows and swirling leaves than recognizable
tunes. Stasis and stability are nowhere to be found here. Instead, an
ever-changing dialogue between structure and chaos shifts from one
performer to the next, never resting long before launching again into
shuddering flight. Accoustic instruments and vocals form a familiar
reference point, but studio treatments take the music into psychedelic
and cinematic realms. In their words, “Improvisation is a way to
experiment without thinking. When our improvisations ‘work’, the music
just happens on its own. It reveals itself as if guided by its own logic, its
own desire. In fact we don’t even feel like we are actually playing the
music. It’s more like a stream that moves and changes autonomously.
With composition (editing, overdubs, etc. etc.) we then remodel this
stream, trying to make it more complex, ‘forever lasting, forever
changing’, in the sense that every hearing will reveal a new perspective
of the music. As a live band, we improvise 100%, and it's really risky,
but when it ‘happens’, it’s the greatest satisfaction.” “The Religious
Experience” is a riotously colored vinyl LP, presented in a deluxe handmade sugarcane fiber cover, with a delicately perfumed inner sleeve
and silkscreened insert, and is limited to 225 copies.
The companion CD “Theology” contains the source recordings used for
the LP, and is limited to 450 copies. The two albums – and their music –
should be considered as mirror opposites. Where theology is a
completely artificial system of belief, a religious experience is the
immediate experience of the thing itself. Likewise, the music on
“Theology” is complex and elaborate, while “The Religious Experience”
is much simpler, going directly to the heart of the material comprising
“Theology”. Thus, the two works are independent, yet relate to each
other as mother and daughter." [press release]
* VAN HOEK, KASPER - Minerva LP (KVH001, 2006) [lim. 300
silk-screen cover]
€ 12.00
Raw experiments and rather un-elegant energetic noise-snaphots,
synth-loop-lowfi bruitism, mechanic industrial structures... it seems all is
based here on sounds made with help of old record-players and tapedecks. If you like rough & direct into the face low-fi noise, this is the
right record for you!
* VAN LUIJK, TIMO & KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN - Costa del Luna
LP (La Scie Doree SCIE507, 2007) [lim. 400]
€ 18.50
Schon das zweite Album von TIMO VAN LUIJK (AF URSIN, ASRA, IN
CAMERA) im Verbund mit KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN, psychedelischdroney-improvisiert, für Freunde des Genres ein Schmuckstück!
"Second album. Lunar psychedelic improvisations." Features Timo van
Luijk (zither, flute, keys, tape) and Kirs Vanderstraeten (percussion)."
[label info]
* VON EULER DONNERSPERG, DITTERICH - Oh Du Fröhliche / Oh
Tannenbaum Dub 7" (Meeuw Muzak MM034, 2007)
€ 6.00
"Die neue Musik lebt von diesen genialen Dilettanten, exzentrischen
Einzelgängern und besessenen Außenseitern. Die Klangkunst ist
absichtslose Antimusik. Sie klingt so wunderbar unfertig und sperrig.
Geräuschimprovisationen treffen auf schiefen Gesang, schrilles Pfeifen
und wiederkehrende Melodieschnipsel. Schade nur, dass die
Klangkunst heute ein solches Schattendasein fristet. Die Kunst braucht
diese Experimentierfreude." [ART-Das Kunstmagazin]
* TIETCHENS, ASMUS - Teils Teils LP (Swill Radio 027, 2008)
[lim. 500]
€ 16.50
Eine LP mit (scheinbar) NEUEM Material, so subtil wie leise, loopiges
elektro-magnetisches Knirschen & Sirren, seltsame Zwischentöne... vier
Stücke insgesamt von delikatester "anorganischer" Ambience, wie sie
nur TIETCHENS hinbekommen kann..
"...Although it seems, we are not entirely certain here, Asmus' music
works in a sort of digital environment these days, which makes it more
delicate than before, this LP is crisp and clear. Still derived from his
'Menge' series, resulting in a whole bunch of CDs and some off shoot to
vinyl (called 'Teilmenge'), here are three more examples, plus a piece
that is called 'Ein Weiteres Leben Geht Zu Ende', which refers to a title
on 'Notturno' if I'm not mistaken. 'Teilmenge 20' is on the entire first
side, and has a crackle rhythm throughout, and underneath there are
various blocks of sound which are moved around, softly. It's like objects
being pushed around through the room and it makes a pretty unsettling
atmosphere. Quite mathematical in a way, but it has great warmth. On
the other side there are three tracks of which are two more pieces of
'Teilmenge', which have the same high pitched sound as we know from
the other pieces, the ring modulator working over time. In the middle
there is the 'Ein Weiteres Leben Geht Zu Ende' which could be a
heavily treated piano piece (if it is at all linked to 'Notturno'), slow and
peaceful. Excellent pressing this record, great minimal cover, fine
music. What more do you want? Something special. And be sure to turn
up the volume for this LP!" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* WATSON, CHRIS - Oceanus Pacificus 7" (Touch Seven TS02,
2007) € 6.50
TOUCH fördert die 7"-Kultur mit einer wunderbar gestalteten Reihe das Material dieser Kleinode gibt es nur auf Vinyl und nicht als digitalen
Download zu kaufen! Nr. 2 in der Serie kommt von CHRIS WATSON,
der wieder unglaublich plastische Feldaufnahmen unter Wasser
gemacht hat, und zwar vom Humbold-Strom in der Nähe der
Galapagos-Inseln (eine Seite 3 Meter tief, die andere 10 Meter)!
" Brand new two track 7" from sound recordist extraordinaire
Chris Watson. Having done time in both the Hafler Trio and Cabaret
Voltaire, Watson deals now almost exclusively in unadulterated field
recordings, mostly of nature and wildlife. Past full lengths have
been huge hits around here, and this single is just as compelling.
Demonstrating that, it takes much more than a tape recorder and a
microphone to capture magical field recordings. It takes an amazing
ear, and a bit of technical savvy, one listen to these two tracks,
26
recorded underwater around the Galapagos Islands, make that
abundantly clear.
Two tracks, each recorded at a different depth, both dense and
deep, rife with all manner of unexpected sonic subtleties. The first
at 3 meters, is gorgeous and clear, it sounds nearly the same
underwater as above, the sounds of the boat, and the water lapping
against it, sea gulls, what sound like stones knocking against one
another, all of these sounds wrapped in that haunting undersea
shimmer, and captured perfectly, crystal clear and so vibrant.
The flipside finds us dipping down to 10 meters and the sound
changes dramatically, deeper and more resonant, all the sounds more
warbly and indistinct, burbling and languid, muted and softly
glimmering, all naturally smeared into a warm soft focus soundscape
of underwater drones, and muted sonic events. So lovely. And both
sides end with gorgeously hypnotic locked grooves, which were so
nice, we ended up letting both play for a long time before realizing
they were looping...
Thick vinyl and a super striking Jon Wozencroft sleeve" [Aquarius
Records]
Drone, wo sich vielerlei elektronische und instrumentelle Quellen zu
rauschenden Soundformen vermählen.
"The second full-length from Baltimore’s WZT HEARTS (pronounced
“wet hearts”). Threads Rope Spell Making Your Bones is an album of
improvised electronic psych-rock action at times reminiscent of sound
sculptors like Fennesz, but with a nice krautrock touch throughout. A
blend of the organic and synthetic, digital and analog, difficult and
easy." [label info]
* XABEC - Feuerstern
7" (Drone Records DR-92, 2008) [lim.
300]
€ 7.00
"Feuerstern (DR-92, 7“ EP in Kartonschachtel, dunkelrotes Vinyl) bringt
zuerst das erhaben dröhnende Zentralmotiv des Auftritts von XABEC
beim Audioframes Sonic Art Festival in Herne 2006 zu Gehör. Der
Musiktherapeut Manuel G. Richter, der sich mit dem The Electric
Mandala-Quartett (Hands, 2003-05) als Zengärtner profiliert hat, lässt
meine blühende Phantasie wie Münchhausen auf einer dröhnenden
Klangkugel zu den Sternen sausen, und macht dazu klackende
Gaumenlaute. Für die B-Seite rahmt das von MNortham in Herne
eingefangene Feuerwerk zur Performance und weiterer O-Ton Xabecs
Dröhnen und Klacken ein und verortet es im Hier und Jetzt." [Bad
Alchemy]
"DRONE RECORDS is very proud to finally issue this long planned
Drone by this prolific German artist! FEUERSTERN (which translates as
"Firestar") captures two tracks of luminous tones & magnetic
resonances which create a warm and floating aural flux. With mellow
concrete material setting the counterpoint, very subtle hisses, smacking
& clicking sounds can be distinguished. These are enriched further on
Side B with field recordings by MICHAEL NORTHAM made in
September 2006 at the Audioframes Sonic Art Festival in Herne. This
was where FEUERSTERN was also performed in a choreographed way
using fireworks! Very delicate tone colours and a perfectly balanced
sound pattern allow for contemplative listening sessions...
The 7" comes in a golden lettered & embossed grey cardboard box with
golden printed grey inlay.
Filed under: GLOWING DRONE-AMBIENCE
more info:
www.xabec.com. DARK RED VINYL. COMES IN CARDBOARD-BOX
WITH GOLDEN EMBOSSING." [label info]
* WHITEHOUSE - Birthdeath Experience LP (Very Friendly
VFSL01, 2007) € 17.50
"Official reissue of the 1st Whitehouse album, originally released on the
Come Organisation in 1980. Includes William Bennett's original LP
design. Includes the warning: "Extreme electronic music: please acquire
with due caution." "The place it all began: the seminal first album by
Whitehouse. Even to this day, it is a remarkable piece of work created
entirely with tone generators and EDP Wasps, and lyrically full of what
would be their uncompromising trademark irony. It would prove
instrumental in dragging avant garde electronic music a long way from
its initially limited boundaries." [label info]
* WHITEHOUSE - Total Sex do-LP (Very Friendly VFSL02, 2008)
€ 21.50
Auch das zweite Album der ehemals bösesten Industrial-Band wurde
wiederveröffentlicht, inkl. Bonus-tracks.
"Hard to believe the equally extraordinary second album from
Whitehouse was recorded back in 1980 -- a development and
expansion of the pioneering electronic techniques which were
demonstrated on the debut Birthdeath Experience; also included on this
double vinyl set are the 2 rare songs from United Dairies' Hoisting The
Black Flag compilation." [label info]
* YELDHAM, JUSTICE & THE DYNAMIC RIBBON DEVICE Birthdays LP (Anarchymoon Recordings anok22, 2008)
[lim. 600] € 14.50
Dokumentation zweier live-Gigs vom Mai 2007 (Marseille und Porto)
von diesem extrem freakigen Body-Performer, der sich eine (mit
Kontaktmikros abgenommene) Glasscheibe ins Gesicht presst und
durch diese hindurch orales / vokales Lautmaterial hindurchgibt,
während er mit den Füssen Effekte bedient. Der Sound der dabei
entsteht ist höchst abartig, am Ende zerschlägt er die Glasplatte aus
einem Kopf was stets in einem kleinen Blutbad endet. Die starke Physis
dieser Performance wirkt natürlich am besten "live", aber auch der
Mitschnitt sorgt bestimmt für einigen Eindruck !
"Birthdays consists of two live sets by maverick amplified-glass player
Justice Yeldham recorded during his & Keg's recent tour of Europe. If
you've never heard of the guy you are in for a bloody treat. Using
concert-grade piano contact mics, he amplifies a sheet of glass and
plays it with his mouth and face, processing it with pedals attached to
his belt, usually barefooted. The results are unworldly, and hearing it
you would never imagine what created it, something an Aussie could
especially achieve. Like careening assaults of insect spaceships, he
transports the listener to other worlds of sound, ending most often in a
crash of the glass upon his head. He survives, bloody but alive, never
worse for wear in the morning. Side A was captured in Marseille on the
eve of Justice's 35th birthday while side B was recorded on Kegs
birthday in Porto (for a preview listen at myspace.com/justiceyeldham).
And to top off the birthday cheer Keg also did the cover illustration as a
gift for Justice's Birthday. Mastered by the god-like Rasheed of
Dubplates (Berlin), the record has been collaboratively released in an
edition of 600 copies across the world by Anarchymoon Recordings
(North America), Turgid Animal (Europe) & All Thumbs Press
(Australia). Black vinyl, B-on-W labels, 2-sided glue-on cover art (lim
600)." [label notes]
* WILSON, STEVEN - Unreleased Electronic Music do-LP
(Tonefloat TF22, 2005)
[ed. of 500]
€ 29.00
Für die "die-hard" Fans von BASS COMMUNION und PORCUPINE
TREE: Eine Kollektion von sehr elektronisch angehauchten SoloStücken, überraschend rhythmisch & songorientiert zum Teil, hier zeigt
STEVEN WILSON seine ganze Vielseitigkeit!
500 Stück in der für TONEFLOAT typischen Luxus-Edition (GatefoldCover, schweres Vinyl). Das ganze ist ein re-issue einer von WILSON
herausgegebenen raren CD-R.
"Originally a rapidly sold out CD-R on Headphone Dust. The vinyl
edition includes material which was omitted on the CD. Released in a
full colour gatefold sleeve designed by Lasse Hoile." [label note]
* WOLF EYES - Dog Jaw LP
(Heresee, 2007)
€ 14.00
Not many bands can do a more bulky & sluggish Industrial-sound,
too easy to get lost & mind-crushed in these swampy noises, and lots of
screams & aggressive noises on Side B...
"An LP reissue of the limited CDR release of WOLF EYES’ Dog Jaw.
Recorded before AARON DILLOWAY left the band and mixed by TWIG
HARPER at the WE studio. One side plays at 33.3 rpm, the other at 45.
Packaged in screen printed sleeves and pressed in an edition of 600
copies." [label info]
* WOLF EYES / SICKNESS - There is a part of me that you will
never know LP (Hospital Productions HOS-209, 2008) € 15.50
"Hospital Productions is proud to release the first-ever collaboration
between these two legends, Wolf Eyes and Sickness. This is not
haphazard but a symbiotic collaboration bridging distant roads. This full
length LP is a dark casket of scorched earth sounds, the remains of the
cracks at the after shock of discovery. Reminding us of the peaks in
either artists' catalog, There Is A Part Of Me That You Will Never Know
processes the deepest sounds of these four masters in a haze of lone
atmosphere and true noise. This is not a terror shock, this is the end."
[label info]
* YELLOW SWANS - At all Ends LP (Weird Forest Records
WEIRD 10, 2007)
€ 17.00
Sehr schöne LP des Monumental-Drone Duos! Wuchtige GitarrenSphären-Sounds & Harmonien in Verschränkung, laut & verzerrt aber
trotzdem ätherisch genug um zu bannen!
"At All Ends is the is an assured record of chiming drone and heady
pelvic sky fuckery. New sounds emerge from the YELLOW SWANS
camp that are more hushed, and whisper with the logic of deep space.
Whereas the last record was a laser beam guided minimal transmission
with a dark overtone, this new release injects sonic clouds full of pink
OxyContin. Guitar lines sketch out a melodic vision that stupefies in a
* WZT HEARTS - Threads rope spell making your bone LP (Hoss
Records 012, 2007) € 14.50
Bemerkenswertes Album einer Combo aus Baltimore, läuft lt. pressrelease unter "psych-rock", ist aber vielmehr eine Art komplexer Impro-
27
hypnotic repetition. Elements of lush drone stretch the proceedings in
vast strokes. Yellow Swans veer towards krautrock territory with this
new record, and it will go down in the big books as their most beautiful
and lush record thus far. The band will be touring with MOUTHUS in
October 2007, bring bean bags, food stuffs and prepare for sounds to
summon spacecraft." [label info]
quiet, dense & melancholic pieces. Comes in a handmade cardboardcover with inserts, lim. 301 copies.
* MANIFESTO RUMORARMONICO POST FUTURISTA. TRIBUTO A
LUIGI RUSSOLO do-LP (Old Europa Cafe OELP009, 2008) € 22.00
Vier altgediente Noise-Heroen treffen sich auf dieser Compilation zu
Ehren des italienischen Futuristen LUIGI RUSSOLO, dessen
legendäres Manifest "Die Kunst der Geräusche" (1913) den Startschuss
für den Einsatz von Maschinenlärm in moderner Komposition darstellte.
Die Compilation zeigt gut, auf welche unterschiedliche Art und Weise
"Geräusch" eingesetzt werden kann, von agitierendem Power-EffektLärm (MERZBOW), mechanisch-maschinellem Rausch-Noise (GX
JUPITTER-LARSEN) über seelenlos-statisches Elektro-Geknirsche &
Gekrache (SACHER PELZ) bis hin zu mysteriösem Dröhnklang
(RAPOON)..
"Vinyl compilation devoted to “Luigi Russolo” the father of Futurist music
and the first man theorizing that music has to be composed mainly by
rumors And not by harmonic sounds ! His music was played with an
instrument “l’Intonarumori” or “Rumorarmonio” which was invented by
himself ! Russolo is the forefather and theorizer of the “Electronic
music” concept and for sure we can say today that he was the first man
playing “Industrial” muzak ! For this project we found four artists which
are known for being since their first approaches to music as “NeoFuturists” and uncompromising “Industrial”. Involved artists :
- GX Jupitter-Larsen from USA, also known for being the mind behind
The Haters and for all his very “Futurist” performances where a click
becomes the main sound !
- Merzbow from Japan, the father of Japanese noise ! this is the sound
Russolo was playing if alive today
- Rapoon from UK, with his first project “Zoviet France” Robin Storey
was one of the very first artists using toy instruments !
- Sacher Pelz from Italy, Sacher Pelz was the very first project by
Maurizio Bianchi also known as MB, he was one of the very first artist
theorising electronic noise !
Each artists gives his contribution to this tribute playing long tracks on a
full LP side ! White Vinyl. Discs are packed in hand-numbered folding
cover showing Luigi Russolo and his Rumorarmonio." [label info]
1.1. VINYL COMPILATIONS
AN UNCOMMON NATURE LP (Anomalous Records, NOM 6, 2001)
€ 15.00
"Edle neue Compilation auf dem Seattler Label Anomalous Recordsvereint einige interessante Acts aus dem konkreten wie sphärischen
Minimalismus-Bereich, die auf Anomalous aktiv sind... (s.u.). Kommt mit
4 ästhetischen Fotopostkarten zum Thema...
Great compilation presenting nearly all acts from the Seattle-based
label. From concrete to spheric minimalism. Exclusive tracks by JEPH
JERMAN, MIRROR, AGOG, CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS, JONATHAN
COLECLOUGH, MIKE SHANNON, MONOS, RICHARD LERMAN,
DAVE KNOTT. Comes with 4 postcards with b/w prints of photographs
by Rachael Jackson." [Drone Rec. info 2001]
“ While unified by a common theme, the tracks are quite varied
including desert contact mic recordings of rain and wind on a tree [Jeph
Jerman], processed sounds of a gate [Jonathan Coleclough],
erhu played on a beach [Mike Shannon], mysterious singing 'water
babies' [Agog], a mixture of wild celery stalks, tundra grass, a cord
made from sinew, a whalebone roof support and the seals [Richard
Lerman], and the straight recording of an approaching thunderstorm
[Dave Knott]. This attention to detail in audio is matched by the close up
photographs of fungi, dripping sap, and trees which surrounds it.” [from
the press-release]
BACK IN STOCK LAST COPIES!
* ARYAN ASSHOLE RECORDS COMPILATION VOLUME 2 LP (AA
Records 092177, 2008)
€ 16.50
"This LP features the next 13 lathes since the first comp = Isis &
Werewolves, Ex-Cocaine, Mirror/Dash, Pengo, Christina Kubisch, Birds
of Delay, Sick Llama, Jackie Stewart, Evil Moisture, Prurient, Rusted
Shut, Carlos Giffoni, 16 Bitch Pile-Up, Demons. All the messy
atmosphere of lathes on freshly pressed vinyl, weird! Banned in Canada
due to the jacket (guess why)." [label info]
* SPIRE LIVE FUNDAMENTALIS do-LP (Autofact FACT12 / Touch
Tone 28, 2008) € 18.50
Der dritte Teil in der SPIRE LIVE-Serie, lange Stücke mit "modernem"
Orgelbezug & -einsatz von PHILIP JECK, CHARLES MATTHEWS,
MARCUS DAVIDSON, BJ NILSEN und FENNESZ, - Aufnahmen von
den zwei SPIRE - Konzerten auas Göteborg und Brüssel. Ganz
wunderbar tönen wieder BJ NILSEN und FENNESZ, der eine löst die
Orgel-Töne in rostig-rauhen Resonanzen auf, der andere klingt ("rein
ORGANisch") höchst melancholisch und polyphon... aber auch die
anderen Stücke (u.a. eine Version eines SCELSI-Stückes) sind die
Anschaffung wert.
"Spire Live - Fundamentalis is a double LP-only collection of exclusive
live tracks recorded at various Spire events held throughout 2005 and
2006. Released in association with U.S. label, Autofact, Touch presents
a selection of tracks performed by the main performers of Spire:
Fennesz, Philip Jeck, BJNilsen, Charles Matthews and Marcus
Davidson. Improvised pieces from Fennesz, BJNilsen and Philip Jeck
contrast with a performance by Charles Matthews of a scored
composition by Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi, "In Nomine Lucis," and
Marcus Davidson's self-penned "Standing Wave," which ends side two
with a locked groove. Cut to preserve and enhance the bottom end
frequencies, Fundamentalis is not merely a document; the tension
between and within the individual pieces is palpable. As the Touch label
places it, Fennesz's set "...evokes the rolling centuries in all their pain
and beauty, leaving us at once becalmed and energized, but never
oppressed under the weight of time." Electronics breathe new life not
only into the organ, but also into the setting. But a new technological
successor does not mean replacement. Ultimately, it's the majestic
sound of the organ, so steeped in centuries of tradition that one
remembers above all else. Spire is one of the most innovative projects
around, drawing on the full canon of organ works, from the very first
annotation in the Robertsbridge Codex from the 14th century, to Max
MSP patches and software sampling. With two CD releases and nine
performances in cathedrals and churches throughout Europe, Spire
remains a potent live force in harnessing the sounds of the ages. Art
direction and design by Jon Wozencroft." [label info]
".... Jeck's side is everything we could hope for, long lazy loops,
slathered in record static, hiss, crack and pop, dreamy melodies
skipped into haunting rhythms, everything washed out and blurred, a
worn weary sonic drift, organs and voices, soaring and whirring, very
mechanical and machinelike, but simultaneously, warm and emotional.
Serene, hypnotic, mesmerizing, what else can we say about the magic
of Jeck's music that we haven't said before??
Matthews' half of side two is super minimal and hushed, mostly
organs, allowed to wheeze and whir, slightly dissonant, but dense and
* AUDIOSCOOP COMPILATION Vol.1
do-LP (Audioscoop /
Intro in Situ IS 01, 2008)
[lim. 444 copies]
€ 25.00
Ein sehr breitgefächerter Rundumschlag durch den "experimentellen &
elektronischen Untergrund" bietet diese schön aufgemachte
Compilation, vereinigt sie doch Stücke von 20 internationalen Acts die
im "Intro in Situ" in Maastricht zu Gast waren, von "schwieriger"
Geräuschmusik bis hin zu recht gefälliger rhythmischer Elektronik. Es
handelt sich dabei überwiegend um exklusives Studiomaterial, und
neben bekannten Acts gibt es eine Reihe von neuen Namen. Für
Einsteiger und Sammler gleichermaßen geeignet !
"Since 2005, "Audioscoop" is an ongoing series of musical events, held
in the lovely soundworkplace "Intro In Situ", in Maastricht, the
Netherlands. Kim Laugs, member of Feedback Society and who I
suspect to be the brainchild behind Audioscoop, invites artists to
"explore the boundaries in sound and music". This double LP contains a
selection of artists who where part of these events, between 2005 and
2007. They were asked to deliver exclusive material or edits from their
live performances at Intro In Situ. Quite some pioneer explorers are to
be found here: Asmus Tietchens, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe,
Aube, Kapotte Muziek, Sudden Infant and the late MSBR (sadly, one of
his last concerts was the one in Maastricht). They are placed, fittingly
well, together with some new kids on the block: Arnoud Rivière, Meta
Orcha, incite/, Thuth, Ex.Zero and (of course) Feedback Society. I
should also mention the fieldrecording composition made by Rinus van
Alebeek: it deals with chocolate and is really funny (with an odd erotic
twist). In conclusion: highly enjoyable record that gives a nice overview
of what has been so far, and makes you look forward to the events to
come." [SDT, Vital Weekly]
* IN MEMORIAM OF... do-7" (Multi National Disaster Records
MNDR 2018, 2008) [lim. 301]
€ 14.00
MEMORIAM-Compilation for the brother of the label-owner, who died
on cancer in 2003 being only 33 years old; as he was a fan of the here
featured artists this is a last farewell. With BARADELAN,
BLACKHOUSE, VIDNA OBMANA and MATHIAS GRASSOW this is
quite an unusual collection of electronic music, all artists doing rather
28
layered, the tones hovering in a suspension of rumbles and shimmers,
very dramatic and cinematic, understated and reverent, almost like
some strange religious musical ritual. The second half, ostensibly
Davidson's, although he is credited with a locked groove, is a dark
drone-y flow, keyboards blurred into warm streaks, also slightly atonal,
ominous, intense, the muted rumble builds to an almost cacophonous
organ-ic frenzy, that heard at full volume must have stirred the soul for
sure.
The second disc is split evenly between Nilsen and Fennesz.
Nilsen's side, recorded in a church in Sweden, is a dark, harrowing,
rumbling, post industrial dronescape, the tones rough around the
edges, the melodies lugubrious and caustic, building up into a serious
din, metallic washes of sound, thick shards of pulsing buzz, very brittle
and sharp, before slipping into something a little more serene, but no
less intense, more muted metallic tones, drifting in a churning sea of
hissing static and electronic grit, a barely noticeable rhythm, more of a
pulse or swell, finishing off in a deep grinding low end blur, like a much
more minimal 20th century SUNNO))).
The Fennesz track is all organ, the root of all of these pieces, but
here, the organ is unaltered, barely unadulterated, allowed to warmly
wheeze, strange tangled melodies, glistening and glimmering, the tones
beginning to change shape, the melodies allowed to elongate and blur
slightly until they're swallowed up by a warm cloud of static and hiss
before fading out completely. The second half of Fennesz' side is a
more murky underwater reading of the first half, not as much grit and
gristle as we usually expect, instead, the sound is whirling and muted,
reminding us of Oval, but with the glitching skips smoother out, leaving
just warm shimmering sonic swells, sun dappled melodies, and rich
layered high end drones, drifting serenely, pastorally.
Gorgeously packaged, super thick full color gatefold sleeve,
super striking Wozencroft photos, pressed on thick vinyl. And as if
you even need to be told, quite limited indeed." [Aquarius Records
review]
noise attack, but rather a low volume drone affair. A heavy long
sustaining wall of sound, from sources unknown, work on the brain.
I was wondering if they had the cassette format in mind when they were
recording this. I am listening to the CDR, but I can imagine that the
sound will be a bit muffled when played on a cassette and that the hiss
will create an additional texture of sound. Quite a pleasing work of
ambient industrial music." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* URUS MARTAN / ALEX TSITSIGIAS - Rare Animals and Fruits
MC (Someone Else's Tapes 01, 2008) € 5.00
First release on a new tape-label from Hamburg! This tape (C-20)
features quite droney & atmospheric x-scapes with a raw edge,
bubbling analogue-synths, pulses, harsh breaks, concrete outlets... (by
URUS MARTAN); more intense & advanced dronescapes with metallic /
machine like sounds within on Side B by label-owner ALEX
TSITISGIAS, really powerful. A damn good tape for people who like
challenging atmospheric sound collages! Comes in paper envelope with
inlay, all handmade.
2.1 CASSETTE-COMPILATIONS
* HOISTING THE BLACK FLAG MC (United Dairies UDT02 /
RRRecords, 1987) € 6.50
RRRversion, originally released in 1980 as LP and 1987 re-issued as
MC on United Dairies; feat. NURSE WITH WOUND, WHITEHOUSE,
MENTAL AARVARKS, TRUTH CLUB, etc.
The first compilation on U.D. !!
-------------
3. CDRs
* TZOTZILES. PSALMS, STORIES AND MUSIC LP (Sub Rosa
SR17, 1988)
€ 13.00
Great ethno / field recording record, back in print on vinyl !
"Continuing Sub Rosa's exploration of the undiscovered regions of
world music, 'Tzotziles' concentrates on a community in Mexico of the
same name and works as a study of this group of people. The disc is
almost like a historical aural document, something we can listen to and
get a real look into a community and how it works, whether it's the day
of the dead (which is here in full) to prayers and folk music. The music
itself ranges from Celtic-sounding folk to unusual tribal drumming, flute
bleats and trumpet squelches - at times sounding like a lost Rune
Grammofon album! It's not going to be for everyone but if you're
interested in the outer reaches of world music, music that really is alien,
then look no further." [Boomkat]
* AARDVARK - Born CD-R (Final Muzik FMSS06, 2007) [lim.
140] € 10.00
Neues (?), jedenfalls uns bisher nicht bekanntes Drone / Doom /
Industrial-Projekt aus Italien; zu hören gibt es monumentale GitarrenDrones, verzerrt und harmonisch, alles handgespielt, mächtig verhallte
slow-beats, aber auch wunderbar harmonische, ruhige Parts... gefällt
uns ausgezeichnet! Für Gitarren-Drone / Ambient Fans ein Muss !
"140 numbered copies. Aardvark is an Italian project of pure,
apocalyptic dark industrial ambient, an amazing listening experience if
you're into Sunn O))), Troum, Final and / or CMI best industrial ambient
acts. "Born" is an outstanding album, recommended to anyone into
deep, obscure electronic music." [label info]
* ADRIVA - Cold Sea Week CD-R (Abgurd AB-43, 2007) [lim.
100]
€ 9.00
New dark drone-matter from Russia - ADRIVA represents on "Cold Sea
Week" the hyper-minimal, subtle loopy, moody variant... very soft
resonance-waves and slow echo-patterns.. Sound ghosts!
"Project of Denis from formations of SUNCHARIOT, ENMERKAR and
MATTER shows a little more experimental Drone Ambient than the one
he performs in his main project, SUNCHARIOT.
The album is dedicated to the author's sojourn on the shores of Black
Sea in winter. Slack, congealed soundwaves crystallize in the air and
gently descend on eyelids and shoulders, immersing one in eternal
slumber of Suspense. Floating spectres of drowned fishermen, callsigns of ultramundane submarines, icefloes that ram Eternity, chasm of
scalding coldness and pitch-darkness." [label notes]
2. CASSETTES / K7
* DIE SEE BAND - untitled MC (SEE AG 01, 2008) € 5.50
First MC from obscure new impro-noise group from northern Germany
(near BREMERHAVEN), lim. 15 copies, handmade covers!
* MARHAUG, LASSE & ANLA COURTIS - Jordslev Hojaldre MC
(Quasi-Pop QPOP MC046, 2007)
[lim. 100]
€ 7.00
Altes, erstklassiges Collab-Material von (ex-REYNOLS) Anla Courtis
und LASSE MARHAUG, dronig, low-fi, wellend, rauh & geräuschig..
Sechs Stücke entstanden gemeinsam 1987 & 1988, dazu gibt es
jeweils eine Solo-Zugabe von beiden auf jeder Seite.
Professionelle Vollfarb-Hülle, mehr davon !
"This is the old-fashioned a bit, but lovely a lot tape-release.
It based mostly on recordings made by Lasse Marhaug and Anla
Courtis together in 1998, but remains unreleased for now. Two
additional solo pieces (last tracks on each side of the cassette) were
recorded in 2007 to complete the entire project. As a result, now
we have plenty of taped dark fluctuations of the low drones, some
heavy processed location recordings & minimal organic noises.
'Jordslev Hojaldre' released on chrome tape and each cassette
recorded on hi-quality cassette deck using Dolby B noise reduction
system." [label notes]
"Perhaps Quasipop assume that a cassette player is no longer part of
the Vital HQ, but it still is, albeit unconnected to the amplifier. They send
a CDR version of a cassette only release by Lasse Marhaug and Anla
Courtis. To release it in that format is a brave thing to do, I think. They
did some recording together in 1998, which was shelved until now.
Together with two new solo pieces it comes in the old form of a
cassette. The interesting thing about this is that its not the full blown
* ARTHUUR EN ENNO - From Antwerp to Asbidi mCD-R (Gewalt
am Objekt, 2007) € 8.00
Wer sich schon immer mal gefragt hat, was eigentlich aus MOHR
geworden ist (dem Bochumer Projekt mit ganz früher Drone-EP auf
Drone Rec (DR-02), der findet mit diesem Mikro-Release eine (Teil)Antwort: ARTHUUR EN ENNO ist das neue 2-Mann-Projekt mit
Beteiligung von ANDREAZ VOGEL, enthalten sind 3 exquisite
loopige Stücke zwischen Drone und Post-Industrial, mit einer
gelungenen Cover-Version von TGs "Discipline" !
* ARTHUUR EN ENNO - Music for Headphoneheads mCD-R
(Gewalt am Objekt, 2007)
€ 8.00
Noch besser als "From Antwerp to Asbidi" gefällt uns "Music for
Headphoneheads", da die präsentierten Klänge noch mysteriöser &
spannender wirken, rückwärtige Klangwellen & repetitive Muster
erinnern an ZOVIET FRANCE oder HAFLER TRIO
* ASIA NOVA - Tripped Itch
2006) € 10.00
29
CD-R (Discorporeality Rec.,
Material compiled by URE THRALL 2002-2003; part three in the
"Turning the Black Skies Blue again" . Features PAMELA PASSMORE
and VOICE OF EYE.
ein überraschendes kollaborations-release im schicken digipack mit
naturinspirations-makrozoom-coverbild, angeraut durch
kontrastkorrosion. + übrigens: auch am ende keine fade-out gnade..."
[Hellmut Neidhardt, www.unruhr.de]
"A Bout De Souffle is a 54 min Collaboration between Aidan Baker (who
is also known as Nadja together with Leah Buckareff) and Percussionist
Jakob Thiesen (who recently joined baker live on stage to play live
drums). Aidan baker is famous for his experimental guitar music. This
time things are a bit different. You wont find the typical aidan baker
drone stuff here, but instead both men created an incredible journey
through the fields of krautrock, Psychedelic and drone music. The
Percussion of Jakob Thiesen adds a certain deepness to Bakers guitar
explorations were he also uses bass and acoustic guitar to build an
mind blowing album full of surprises and wonderful melodies." [label
info]
"Waterscape is a new label, owned by Martin Fuhs, whom we also
know as Seconds In Formaldehyde and it's mission is to release
ambient music made by guitars. The first release is by Aidan Baker, our
highly productive guitarist, who teams up here with Jakob Thiesen, who
plays percussion, like he did on 'Desire In Uneasiness' by Nadja.
Despite his many releases, Baker is a man to find new forms and
shapes. On this release things are more experimental and improvised
as opposed to being the more ambient player he is on some of his
earlier solo releases. Baker tinkles away, sending his guitar through his
many devices while Thiesen supplements nicely with percussive
sounds, but it's more a supportive role than an active one or playing a
'solo' himself. The ambient element is not entirely gone, as much of it
stays on an equal dynamic level and could perhaps pass on as a sort of
rough shaped mood music. Nice stuff." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* ASIA NOVA - Suite Dreams CD-R (Discorporeality Rec., 2006)
€ 10.00
For the whole series "Turning the black skies into blue again" you could
say: this is music of the spheres.. of the very dark spheres.. music full of
yearning and floating energy. Music full of melancholy and despair.
Music that seems to stand in a kind of eternal chaos with one part..
Music spreading into endless spaces with the use of elegic synthdrones, female singing, guitar & flute & other instruments...
this is part 4 (out of six) of this epic series, with material rec. 2002-2003.
* BAKER, AIDAN - Exoskeleton Heart CD-R (Crucial Bliss 23,
2007)
[lim. 300]
€ 10.00
"Following up his amazing Periodic disc that was issued through Crucial
Bliss two years ago, acclaimed Toronto drone-guitarist Aidan Baker is
back with Exoskeleton Heart, his newest entry into our ongoing Crucial
Bliss series. And this 2-track, hour long excursion into deep feedback
bliss is stunningly beautiful. Split into two halves, "Interior" and
"Anterior", Baker once again taps into his visions of the bodycage using
only his electric guitar, performed and recorded live; the result is an
evocative feedback-heavy dronescape drifting with the gritty hum of the
amplifier, layers of shimmering, chiming feedback, crushing distorted
ambient dirge that borders on Sunn O)))-levels of sonic weight, and
shafts of elegiac melody breaking through the stormclouds of Baker's
cavernous rumbling like rays of sunlight. Aidan Baker is without
question the North American counterpart to the Teutonic guitar drones
of Troum, and Exoskeleton Heart delivers some of his most massive,
meditative, crushing, and beautiful subterranean drift yet. Hell, the final
10 minutes of "Anterior" is without questions one of the most beautiful
things we have ever presented through this label, an angelic glacial
melody that builds inexorably into a wall of blissed out fuzz a la
something you'd expect from Aidan's dronesludge band Nadja.
Essential. The disc comes in a full-color signature Crucial Bliss foldover
sleeve with the disc affixed to a plastic hub on the interior of the sleeve,
and has been pressed in a limited edition of 300 copies" [label info]
* BARDOSENETICCUBE - Aquadoor
CD-R (Rape Art Prod.
RAP#030, 2008)
[lim.50]
€ 9.00
Great little release on South-Americas RAPE ART-label, intense
visionary drone-monuments, 4 tracks, 57 minutes, recordings from
2007. The St. Petersburg act as we love them most!
"Bardoseneticcube old russian act send us this amazing recording
called AQUADDOR. It has four new dark ambient pieces, sometimes
hypnotic and deep recommended for Lustmord fans. Previous titles
from this artist were produced on Steinklang, Blade Records and
others. Full color art works and limited to 50 copies." [label info]
* BAKER, AIDAN & JAKOB THIESEN - A Bout de Souffle CD-R
(Waterscape Records WS10, 2008) [lim. 150]
€ 9.50
"keine intros, keine outros, kein einfaden, dito raus. mit schöner
brutalität mitten ins geschehen: das platten manchmal unvermittelt
anfangen ist so manchmal ja nicht unbedingt; bei einzelstücken sogar
noch mehr; eine ganze platte, bei der jedes stück sich darstellt, als
bekäme hörer und -in immer nur einen (besonders interessanten?)
ausschnitt eines (unbekannten?) gesamtwerks präsentiert, ist dagegen
alles andere als die regel. vielleicht habe ich das in dieser konsequenz
das letzte mal allen ernstes auf der "guitar" von frank zappa gehört
(auch eine gute platte, übrigens), die mal eben lässig nur die
gitarrensoli zusammencuttete. hier also aidan baker mit jakob thiesen
(drumkit, percussion, processing; auch in kanada tätig, auch ambientping-posse) und ausschnitten (zwischen 4.33 und 10.39 min) aus
"sporadic sessions", die, live aufgenommen, von aidan baker gemixt
und, ganz offensichtlich, gelayert wurden, so wie er es beispielsweise
bereits bei der "at the base of the mind is coiled a serpent" getan hatte.
mit einem entscheidenden unterschied: das, was aidan baker und jakob
thiesen hier vorlegen, verlässt die reine drone oder ambient schiene
oder zumindest deren engere definition und geht durchaus in richtung
"arc", einer weiteren (gruppen)aktivität von aidan baker: #1 + #7 mit
rollendem, (nicht nur fast) groovingem bass, sehr deep im untergrund
schiebend, die percussion tief eingebettet, die darüber liegenden
gitarren oft (!) akustisch und bei ausschnitt #2 z.b. in einem laid-back
bluesfeel (nicht erschrecken, vertrauen in aidan baker hat sich doch
bisher fast immer ausgezahlt) mit archaisch marschierender
rudimentär-percussion und x-ebenen darüber und dahinter. der elektroakustische eindruck und die verwebung einer vielzahl von ebenen,
innerhalb derer mal nicht ausnahmslos flächen generiert werden, um
diese dann gegeneinander laufen zu lassen, sondern wo eine diktatur
der mikroereignisse herrscht (listen to #5, "the end of breathe 2", dann
weist du was ich meine), die sich zu einem 3D kosmos ergänzen und,
egal wie hibbelig das einzelne sein mag, im zusammenhang dann eben
doch einen grossen, fast meta-zusammenklang schaffen, dieser
eindruck bleibt auf voller lauflänge erhalten und lässt zumindest
assoziationen in richtung oren ambarchi's "sun" zu, deren ebenfalls
mysteriöse elektro-akustische melange eine sehr ähnliche stimmung
evoziert wie eben "a bout de souffle". und noch mal die #5: lang
vorbereitet, dieses kippen um die 10.00 und perfekt in die #6, "take a
breath". keine ahnung, ob die familienzugehörigkeit der titelgebungen
genau dieses phänomen unterstützen soll oder ob zufall: weite teile der
7 tracks nehmen mit ihrem ende bzw. anfang bezug aufeinander; eine
weitere rätselhaftigkeit dieses releases, werden doch die abstände
zwischen den tracks auch dann eindeutig als pause markiert...
* BASS COMMUNION & FREIBAND -Haze Shrapnel mCD-R (My
Own Little Label MOLL 022, 2008)
€ 5.50
An exclusive BASS COMMUNION track has been released on Frans de
Waards little mCD-R label, along with a nice remix by him aka
FREIBAND. Floating drones with a mysterious touch, quite delicate...
"I have been in contact with Steven Wilson off and on for quite a while.
Recentely he wrote me, we traded some CDs and he liked my little
enterprise. He had a spare track of 12 minutes and 'if I want to release
it'. 'Sorry, and why not do a remix then', as Freiband. Next time roles will
be reversed." [label info]
* BEEQUEEN - Long Stones and Circles mCD-R (My Own Little
Label MOLL 018, 2008)
€ 5.50
"Sehr ungewöhnliche, ältere BQ-Aufnahmen - ein 18minütiges Stück,
welches v.a. konkrete Soundquellen einsetzt, z.B. Steine, Metall,
Metronom...dazu obligatorische Drones, Sounds von JOHN HUDAK,
und ein Text von RICHARD LONG." [old Drone Rec. info]
"Re-issue of a long out of print classic Beequeen work, based around
various text by land artist Richard Long." [label info]
"This work, although not made for radio, is very much like a radioplay. It
introduces the listener to the work of land artist Richard Long in sound
and words. Many natural sounds are used, such crickets, stones, wind,
salt, branches along with instruments such as guitars, metronome. Two
voices, one male and one female recite texts by Richard Long. One is
the '100 Tors' text and the other 'Long Stones' - adapted by Freek
Kinkelaar.“ [from the old press release ]
* BORGA, ASCIANO - Peripheral Vision CD-R (Asciano Borga,
2007) € 8.00
Supersoft guitarambience in the way of MIRROR, STARS OF THE LID,
endlessly floating dreamscapes; a new work by this italian artist.
"Entirely improvised live in studio on a treated guitar, this album is very
quiet and introspective, there is no rhythm at all, no structure, nor even
struck notes, everything is distant, reverberated, stratified, smooth and
slowly evolving: peripheral vision is a personal exploration of hidden
psychological textures of harmony and sound." [label info]
* BRADLEY, PAUL - Sirens CD-R (Twenty Hertz TH019, 2008)
€ 10.00
SIRENS fasst die vergriffenen mCDRs "Cede" (Waterscape Rec.) und
"Searching for the way" (Locus of Assemblage) zusammen, sowie
das bisher nur als digitalen Download erhältliche Stücke "Horizon".
30
Das sind warme, melancholische Dronescapes wie sie für BRADLEY
typisch sind, hochsensibel & verzaubernd..
‘sirens’collects together the out of print releases ‘cede’ and ‘searching
for the way’ along with the download release ‘horizon’. ‘cede’ was
originally released as a 3 inch cdr on the German label Waterscape
Records in an edition of 50. ‘searching for the way’ was issued through
the UK label ‘The Locus Of’ in an edition of 100 3 inch cdr’s. ‘horizon’ is
also available as a download from Twenty Hertz Digital.
‘sirens’ comes in a plastic sleeve with full colour 4 panel insert and the
first 50 copies also include two photograph inserts (the ‘sirens’ and
‘searching for the way’ covers) and a numbered and signed obi. Tracks
one and three were lightly re-touched in February 2008 at IC Studio."
[label info]
clearing, the emergence of life: cars driving by, chiming birds, and
something squeaking in the distance. It's just another sublime puzzle
piece to Coster's immersive, quietly grand design." [Aaron Yapp - REAL
GROOVE MAGAZINE]
* CRIA CUERVOS - Ilauna
mCD-R (Locus of mini-assemblage
series mass21, 2007) [lim. 100]
€ 7.00
"You know that scene in a movie where the orchestra is getting ready to
play and they're sitting there warming up by scraping, plucking, tuning
and generally being all discordant and noisy. Yes? Well, in the case of
Cria Cuervos that scene is the starting point, the ending point and
indeed the whole point although instead of a orchestra you should
maybe picture the backline from Einsturzende Neubauten and the dayshift from your local ironworks. You're intrigued, I can tell. You should
be, it's very good." [Wonderfulwoodenreasons]
"Cria Cuervos also just released a solo 3"CDR, so its interesting to
compare it with his work with Bradley. The music here is more
experimental, more loud and, dare we say it, more industrial. Cuervos
scrapes the barrel of metal and picks up the sound to give it some
additional treatment, by adding a bit of reverb here and there. Over the
course of the piece things develop in a rather minimal manner - it
seems as if sounds are stretched out and more space is added
between them. Later on these empty spaces are filled with what could
be field recordings. Quite interesting, since this piece moves out of the
known drone field and crosses the field of noise and industrial on one
hand and microsound on the other - certainly in the second part of the
piece." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* BÜTTNER, GREGORY - Nil.: Audio mCD-R (A.I.C. AICdisc009,
2007) [lim. 75]
€ 7.00
"GREGORY BÜTTNER schickte für nil:.audio (AICdisc009, 3“ cd-r)
Daten in den Softwarehimmel, in dem sie gelöscht werden und alle
Sorgen enden. Vorher jedoch hört man in vier Varianten mehrfach
komprimierte Sequenzen aus CDRom-Werbungen (heute auch nur
noch prähistorische Kuriosität). Nach der ersten Überformung sind noch
die Werbestimmen vernehmbar, wenn auch schon vermulmt,
verzischelt und überwummert. Mit jedem Prozess nimmt die Information
ab und die Entropie zu. Sirrend, bitzelnd, schmurgelnd verteilen sich die
Klangmoleküle und nähern sich über eine Phase, die vielleicht den
sprichwörtlichen Traumweiden von Androiden ähnelt, mehr und mehr
dem anderen Ende der Bewusstseinsund Verstehensskala, um in den
elysischen Gefilden zu verlöschen." [Bad Alchemy]
"Gregory Büttner, known as member of the duo Für diesen Abend , and
also for running the fine small label 1000füssler, is giving honour to AIC
by this impressive concept of subversive appropriation. Quicktime
movies, taken from various internet providers’ advertisement CDRoms,
were used as source material for the audiovisual work “nil”. The images
as well as the sound tracks of those flics from the late 1990s / early
2000s ( so, from medieval times of digital technology ) have been
compressed again and again by Buettner, using different Codecs –
followed by some precise compositional arrangement. “nil:.audio”
documents the most prolific audio pieces of the series – dense and
idiosyncratic electroacoustics." [label info]
* D.D.A.A. - Dans la nuit du souterrain scientifique mCDR
(Illusion Production IP 035, 2007) € 7.00
Aufnahmen von 1990 von der französischen Kult-Gruppe !
"This obscure group of radical experimental noise makers used
improvisation and collage to craft strange sounds and deconstructed
songs for highly creative music that is as far off the path of conventions
as that of similar but more known visionaries like the Residents and
Nurse With Wound. In fact, DDAA are three visual artists, Sylvie
Martineau, Jean-Philippe Fée, and Jean-Luc André in Lion sur Mer,
France." [label info]
* DEAD BLACK ARMS / MY LOVE WE FOUND THE SKYS - Black
Visions White Versions do-CDR (A Beard of Snails Records
ABOS123, 2007) [lim. 40]
€ 10.00
Two projects by the same artist (CLAUS HAXHOLM), one black
coloured CDR with black inlay (DEAD BLACK ARMS) with dark &
oppressive electronic ambience, the other is white coloured w. white
inlay and features more soft & peaceful drones, still sounding quite
otherworldy. Nice concept, worth to discover!
"A massive double dose of oscillating drones, ear-tickling tones and,
most of all, minimalist meditative synthetics, from the multi-faceted
Claus Haxholm. Limited edition of 40, in hand stamped Stumpdown
jackets." [label info]
* CALARCO, JUAN JOSE - Raiz de Invierno mCD-R (the Locus
of mini-Assemblage series mass20, 2007) [lim. 100] € 7.00
We haven't heard of JUAN JOSE CALARO before, but with this onetracker in the mini-assemblage series he (coming from Argentina)
makes a real strong impression, with deep sub bass drones and at
times massive field recordings of rain & thunder, highly dynamic &
slowly oscillating between the very near and the very far away..
exceptional stuff for field-recording droners...
* CHEAPMACHINES - Transit mCD-R (the Locus of miniAssemblage series mass18, 2007) [lim. 100] € 7.00
"Cheapmachines' version of the drone eschews the almost stereotypical
mellowness that many think characterises such music and instead opts
for a far more insistent and muscular variety. The 16 (and change)
minute rolling organ tone that makes up the bulk of the sound on offer
here is a frontal lobe squeezing, third-eye squeegeeing, perspective
contorting hallelujah of otherworldly bliss. Far too short to be fully
satisfying and exactly the right length to leave you desperately craving
for more." [Wonderfulwoodenreasons]
* DEAD LETTERS SPELL OUT DEAD WORDS - A Line : Align CD-R
(Mystery Sea MS 42, 2007) [lim. 100]
€ 12.00
Das bisher noch weitgehend unentdeckte "Experimental Drone"-Projekt
aus Göteborg mit einem Beitrag für die MYSTERY SEA - Reihe.
3 lange Stücke, dunkel dronig effektiert, rauschende field recordings die
ins Unendliche & Unkenntliche schreiten, mit leicht mechanischrepetitiven Untertönen... hat sehr schöne Parts, die absolut mysteriös
und undurchdringlich tönen .... Tip für "archaic drone"-Fans !
"Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words is the emanation of Thomas
Ekelund's dim imaginary, a sensitive music box giving tangible outline to
the ghost songs hummed by his immediate environment... Dead Letters
Spell Out Dead Words reproduces the in-between & shadowy sounds,
moulding in each work, a journey of deep intimate emotional resonance,
nurtured with a sharp conscience of a multitude of past & present aural
forms... Thomas Ekelund has a lengthy Curriculum Vitae with music
released under various guises since 1999 (Dead Violets with Jeff Surak
- Winquist/Virtanen with R. Abrahamsson...)... Dead Letters Spell Out
Dead Words counts numerous releases either on Thomas Ekelund's
own imprint WHEN THE SKIES ARE GREY, or on CONV,
ZEROMOON, KALLIGRAMMOFON, and his main home IDEAL
RECORDINGS... He's also a designer and used to be the curator of the
specialized FUKK GOD LET'S CREATE netlabel...
From walks in Gothenburg (SWEDEN), his place of residence, he has
collected a string of everyday fertile sounds, and mounted them for
Mystery Sea into a flow of magnified details inducing an intense
transformative experience...
Within lost recesses, in the folds of silence
hidden under dust & half-remembered memories
A faint heartbeat slowly pulses in your veins...
like an echo of broken days,
* COSTER, TIM - Star Mill CD-R (Claudia CLaudi_015, 2007)
€ 10.00
Neben FABIO ORSI ein weiterer Geheimtip des Jahres in Sachen
"sensible Drones", TIM COSTER benutzt hier Feld-, Instrumental- und
Objektaufnahmen, das ganze wirkt sehr "organisch", schwer zu
beschreiben aber es hat eine eigene "Handschrift"... magic daylight
ambience... to discover !
"New solo recordings, three long drone pieces over 37 minutes. Made
from layered instrument, object, & field recordings. Recorded March July 2007, using bass guitar, ocarina, accordian, bells, harmonica,
mbira, cloves, bottles, bowls, alarm clock, wood and string." [label info]
"Coster also recently released the stunning Star Mill, a 37-minute threetrack (or one-track-in-three-parts) EP that's probably the best work he's
done yet. As with past releases Landing and Rowboat/Blackberry,
Coster uses the laptop to manipulate and layer his field recordings into
langurous stretches of humid, trance-inducing ambient tones. The
imperceptibility of his sources infuses these untitled pieces with delicate
ambiguity, which in turn allows them to develop very visual qualities.
The first track begins its epic 20-minute voyage with some faint clicking
and tapping, then a sustained hum, then what sounds like an incoming
ship's horn. 5 minutes in, glass harp-like slivers seep into the web, with
Coster continually shifting and tweaking things to create an intensely
warm, womb-like shroud of sound. It eventually ends with a bright
31
the amplified presence of invisible micro-energies
a view through a clouded glass...
You're on the trail of scintillations,
through the subliminal tales of rustles, clickings, & object world...
Erase yourself, fade a little bit, tune in,
And side murmurs will show unexpected tones..." [label description]
that this is a nice soundtrack to a b-movie. I was playing this a couple of
times in a row, and each time I turned it back on and discovered new
themes in this crazy road movie. It has a strange appeal, this madness,
this hotchpotch of music. A strange kind of radio play even when words
aren't really used here to any extent. Not even a real story actually now
I come to think of it. Turntablism without turntables. A story of no words,
but the perfect soundtrack to out and make your own crazy roadmovie."
[FdW /Vital Weekly]
"I managed to create a film score sensation giving the dynamic as if it
were done strictly following a script. Includes one mash up in between
Bernard Herrmann & Silvestre Revueltas." [Christian Dergarabedian]
* DELPLANQUE, MATHIAS - L'inondation CD-R (Mystery Sea
MS45, 2008) [lim. 100]
€ 12.00
“L’inondation is the stereo version of a multichannel sound installation
presented at the VKS gallery (Toulouse) in june 2005. All sounds are
drifted from the basement of my apartment building in Nantes”.
[M.Delplanque]. Burkinabese/French sound artist Mathias Delplanque is
an accomplished musician who has classical music studies in his rich
pedigree, as well as a grade at the Ecole Nationale d'Arts de Cergy
Pontoise & a master's degree in aesthetics (Paris I university)...
Multifaceted, Mathias has many strings on his bow, using different
identities to explore different paths... LENA sees him deal with
contemporary dub forms, while in BIDLO, he navigates at the fringes of
electronica... He has also done numerous collaborations with various
musicians (Black Sifichi, Ghislain Poirier, Charlélie Couture, etc...) and
released 2 albums (Zeropolis, Hidden Doors) with THE MISSING
ENSEMBLE (John Sellekaers, Daniel De Los Santos) where he took
part into the conception of hallucinogenic hybrid pieces mainly dealing
with the dark corners of our derelicted cities...Under his own name,
Mathias composes soundscapes of a more concrete, or experimentalambient nature (“Ma chambre Quand je N'y Suis Pas [Montréal] on
Mondes Elliptiques, “La Plinthe” imminent on Optical Sound) or
conceives works meant for galleries or art centers (specific
installations)... so far, he has collected many rewards, and has made
some artist residencies in France, Canada, and India...
His MS contribution, is a piece aptly named “L'inondation” which was
first presented at the VKS gallery in Toulouse during 2005...all sounds
are drifted from the basement of his apartment building in Nantes...
In an enclosed space where all lights are low
we skip over a dark surface seeping into the walls
brushed by their reverberations
We learn to listen to new nocturnal chants,
the constant flickering of lamps, the tiny deflagrations,
the microfluxes of electricity, the surrounding moistness,
and memories drip, dragging us back to their inception...
“L'inondation” is about letting ourselves overcome with,
a submersion of the senses, celebration of the underlying..."
[full label press release]
"If my reading of the press statement is correct then at least the bare
bones (if not the entirety) of this remarkable album consists of a
recording (or recordings) made from sounds filtering up from the lower
floors of Delplanque's apartment building. L'inondation consists of all
those sounds that are so exotic and disturbing in a 'silent' house - drips,
hisses, clangs & taps. Sounds that are both amorphous and mundane.
For Delplanque they are the building blocks from which he creates his
soundworld. As you'd expect from that premise there isn't huge scope
of material to be had but those sounds that are available are used to
their utmost and to spellbinding effect. "
[Wonderfulwoodenreasons.com]
* EXIT IN GREY - Twilight Waters CD-R (Abgurd AB41, 2007) € 9.00
Das Guitar / Analog -Drone Duo aus der Moskau-Region weiter auf
"Versenkungs-Kurs" , TWILIGHT WATERS enthält 4 Stücke mit
ozeanisch-glühenden Mind-scapes, still & meditativ & dunkel, deep
droning under-water flows, sowohl leise auch als lauter gehört ein
Genuss, da es viele Details zu entdecken gibt. TIP !
"[S] and (S), who live in Pushkino city in Moscow suburbs, created their
project EXIT IN GREY four years ago. During the last couple of years
they worked with their solo-projects as well. Those are ABANDONED
HEAD of (S) and SISTER LOOLOMIE and FIVE ELEMENTS MUSIC of
[S]. EXIT IN GREY is 100% example of Drone Ambient: hypnotizing
field-recordings of city and nature, their own unique methods of
musicianship, harmonizing guitar, synths and singing bowls helps the
musicians to follow their chosen path of Archaic and Emotional.
«Twilight Waters» was recorded in the year 2005 and was released by
the musicians own label Daphnia Records in ultra-limited edition «for
friends-only». Gloomy and cold, streaming through underground caves
sound collages. Transformed droning streams of ever-water and noises
of oceanic spaces co-work with guitar-based drones and singing bowls.
Calm and introvert recording for dilution and absorption." [pressrelease]
* FEU FOLLET - Fogbank CD-R (Triple Bath trb.010, 2007) [lim.
96] € 7.00
"Fogbank, German artist Tobias Fischer's second solo full length album,
is coupling two long pieces based on sound material provided by the
famous (Sindre) Bjerga / (Jan-M.) Iversen duet. These works comply to
the Norwegian duet's aesthetics while Feu Follet spices these drones
up with grandiosity in an unlikely - to his previous (toi et le son &
souvenir d'ermitage - full length & ep respectively) releases - way.
Drone substrata that hold and somewhat, if not completely, make up the
base of both included pieces, underlie the effervescent infusion of
harmonic mirages that carry iridescent hues of Charlemagne Palestine,
Klaus Schulze and even of Aidan Baker, Pole and Mirror." [label info]
* FLEURY-STEINER, BEN - He dreams in Rivers mCDR (Taalem
alm48, 2007) € 5.00
"Head of the gears of sand label, also known under the paradin and
light of shipwreck aliases and for collaborations with aidan baker or
oophoi, ben fleury-steiner proposes here two highly evocative droney
pieces, as its title suggests it... full-colour printed 3" cd-r with artwork by
delphine ancelle-b." [label info]
* FOR KINGS AND QUEENS - Merz CD-R (Subterranean Sonic
No. 001/008, 2008) [lim. 200] € 7.00
Interesting experimental / ambient / drone debut-CDR by a german
project on a new label from Berlin. To discover.
"Man tut For Kings And Queens womöglich Unrecht, wenn man
behauptet, diese Musik klänge wie ein Tribut an den charakteristischen
englischen Sound, dem David Keenan mit »England’s Hidden Reverse«
ein ganzes Buch gewidmet hat. Und doch ist die Liebe zu Nurse With
Wound und die typische Stimmung der verwandten Projekte schon in
den ersten Minuten vollkommen unüberhörbar. Das Projekt-Debüt
»Merz« (Subterranean Sonic) profitiert nun von der Sorgfalt, mit der
diese vertraute Atmosphäre nicht nur eingefangen, sondern weiter
fortgeführt und interpretiert wurde: In seinen besonders ›musikalischen‹
Momenten schleppt sich das Album dahin, so scheinbar lethargisch,
wie man es von den zähesten Dokumenten der aktuellen Free-FolkBewegung kennt (etwa von Jackie-O Motherfuckers
Schaffenshöhepunkten »Wow!« und »The Magick Fire Music«). In
dieser entspannten, von spannenden Geräuschen bereicherten
Umgebung können sich die inspirierten Improvisationen stimmig und
lebhaft entfalten." [Spex]
* DERGARABEDIAN, CHRISTIAN y MILAN SANDBLEISTIFT Lamentamos informar al universo CD-R
€ 10.00
"der stuhl an der wand ist leer ich
lebe"
/ "nadien ocupa la silla delante de la pared yo
vivo"
/ " the chair next to the wall is empty I
am living "
[from the credits]
Lovely collaboration of these two Drone Records-artists (MILAN
SANDBLEISTIFT being a part of LICHT-UNG). Mysterious drones &
ominous sounds all over the place, rumbling & resonancing in
polymorph ways, arrays of highly effected stuff...quite rough but
beautiful, recommended! Exists in two editions of 28 / 27 copies, of both
we got few copies..
* EARZUMBA - Real Ruido Pastizo CD-R (Editions Zero #13,
2007) € 8.00
Embrace the unexpected! Again C.D. manages it to create very
unexpected and uncommon soundscapes made up out of found sounds
& samples. This has at times even a jazzy & funny feel, but its like
being in a totally deranged & transformed reality-system. Collagemusic, Loops, all arranged very nicely. Check it out!
"Christian Dergarabedian is by now more known through his Earzumba
than his previous engagement with Reynols, and releases a great
bunch of great CDRs. More and more he relies on the sampler to be the
crazy melting pot of sounds and here he seems to be taking matters a
bit further. From the field recordings of 'Intro' to a heavily cut up reggae
collage madness in 'Descuidado'. Spinning vinyl by hand and picking up
crazy fragments, and not by strange coincidence Editions_zero remarks
* FREIBAND - 298 CD-R (Tosom 029, 2007) [lim. 150] € 11.00
"CDR. 3 TRACKS, 41 MINUTES. LIMITED AND NUMBERED EDITION
OF 150 COPIES. DVD BOX IN CD SIZE WITH 3 INSERTS.
TOSOM is very proud to present a new work by FREIBAND. This is one
of the many projects by FRANS DE WAARD, he has been since many
years active. Founding member of KAPOTTE MUZIEK, BEEQUEEN,
GOEM aswell as solo projects like SHIFTS, FREIBAND or QUEST
32
(only to name a few). Projects that are classics in the wide world of
contemporary experimental music. So "298" by FREIBAND is one the
most experimental releases on TOSOM. Three compositions , all made
with the sound of saxophones. FREIBAND use the material played by
Bo van de Graaf to create some nice hypnotic minimal sound drones."
[label info]
DRONAEMENT begeistert wieder mit seiner Mischung aus field
recordings und sublimen Melodien, die Stücke sickern allmählich ins
Unterbewusste wo sie sich verzaubernd auszubreiten scheinen...
".. pairing the German sound artist Dronaement who uses a
combination of field recordings and electronics, and the droney
abstractionist Canadian artist The Infant Cycle." [label info]
* FREIBAND & COLIN TUDOR - Pantones mCD-R (My Own Little
Label MOLL 008, 2008) € 5.50
"Colin was one of the founding members of Zion Train and a regular
visit to the Amsteram shop I was once at. He liked experimental music
and one day mailed me a bunch of sound material from his solo project
Pantonal. I reworked them, but didn't mix it, which I left for Colin to do.
He did it, quite nicely, and it has been several years with some label,
who didn't go about to release, for whatever reason I don't know. But
here it is, missing one mixed track, but hey, I'm only doing 3"s and
business cards. Rhythm glitch music, or some such." [label info]
* INNERISE - Western Sky Music
CD-R (Make Mine Music
MMM026, 2007) € 8.00
"Tarl Broad-Ashman has been using the name Innerise for his music
since 1998. The music ranges from beatless ambient to vocal-led
electronica, with two vocalists, Annie Rolph and Katherine Cobley,
appearing on Innerise recordings to date. Having previously remixed
fellow Make Mine Music artists Portal, Schengen and Yellow6, Innerise
released their debut album “Western Sky Music” on Make Mine Music in
2007." [label info]
* JGRZINICH - Ferric mCD-R (Taalem alm46, 2007) € 5.00
"One 20min long piece created by this eminent american (but living in
estonia) sound artist and based upon field recordings, a wind harp and
various improvised wire and metal constructions. b&w printed 3" cd-r
with artwork by john grzinich." [label info]
"The vastly growing empire of Taalem: an endless line of 3" CDR, a bit
like the other endless line of 7"s on Drone, and covering many similar
names and music. The first new one is by Jgrzinich, who has been
active in the field of recordings for more than a decade now. These
days he is in southeast Estonia, where collects his field recordings,
along with rusty metal wires, a wind harp and such like. 'Ferric' is one
piece of alternating drone music and back in the shack rusty metal
shields, carefully swung together. Highly atmospheric, slowly in decay
towards the end." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* FREIBAND - Capture
mCD-R (My Own Little Label MOLL 017,
2008) € 5.50
Auf MOLL, dem neuen mini-CDR Label von Frans de Waard, gibt es
rares und besonderes Material von ihm in seinen verschiedenen
Projekten. CAPTURE ist ein 18+ Minuten one-tracker mit einem Remix
(das läuft dann unter FREIBAND) zur Präsentation der AUDIOSCOOP
doLP. Frans verwendete verschiedenstes Original- Klangmaterial der
Compilation und orientierte sich am Konzept der legendären
CAPTURED MUSIC LP, um dieses schöne Poly-Schichten & DroneLoop Stück zu erstellen, welches einen tollen Spannungsbogen
aufweist...
"On March 14th 2008 the 2LP 'Audioscoop' was released, with a.o. a
track by KapotteMuziek. At the presentation I did a remix in the style of
'Captured Music' (on Selektion), using a lot of the sound material from
the 2LP. This has become 'Capture' "[label info]
* KASSEL JAEGER - ee[nd]
CD-R (Mystery Sea MS44, 2007)
€ 12.00
Wieder ein neuer / uns bisher unbekannter Name auf MYSTERY SEA,
dem Explorer-Label für ambiente & dronige "ozeanische" Klänge,
verbunden mit Wasser- und Tiefsee-Metaphorik.
JAEGERs 5 Stücke tauchen ein ins grosse unbestimmte Rauschen,
wenn field recordings bis zur Unkenntlichkeit verfremdet und effektiert
werden, alles geschieht hier in anderen Zeitdimensionen, langsam &
schwer; konkreteres Material wird mitunter "sichtbar", unglaubliche
Sounds kommen ans Tageslicht, aber alles bleibt immer recht
undurchdringlich & fremd... KASSEL JAEGER ist das Pseudonym eines
französischen Komponisten aus dem INA GRM-Umfeld,
dementsprechend neue Impulse gibt es hier für das "Oceanic Drone"Genre...
".... I must keep on guessing, as to the sound input, which seems to me
field recordings, which are heavily processed. None of the sounds in
any of the five tracks can be easily traced back to it's original form. The
end result is what counts of course and the endresult may be heard! In
trying to change the underworld of deep sea life, Jaeger has something
new on offer that sets him apart from his peers. His music is somewhat
louder and grittier than others. A bit more noise based, although this is
still far away from Merzbow. At the same time it's not ambient industrial,
but rather more academic in approach, even when the compositions
themselves are not like serious computer avant-garde. You get my
drift? Jaeger's music moves between the lines, off side microsound (too
loud), off side noise (too soft) and off side musique concrete (the pieces
are too minimal). This all makes this a highly interesting release. Rough
and not entirely refined, this is certainly also an odd ball for this label!"
" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Kassel Jaeger is an elusive shadow, a password, a catalytic entity, not
a real name anyway... Behind this cover hides a French sound engineer
largely involved in the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales)...
this rather enigmatic self-effacement serves the purpose of an equally
impenetrable aural art... One thing is sure, Kassel Jaeger is assuredly a
fine soundsmith, and he presents here his debut which should definitely
intrigue and draw you into a multifoliated sonorous world...
Passengers on a rough shore, we listen to the wind moanings &
faraway voices under the swaying sky... Still stones turn to sand,
to tiny grains rolling down our dreams... Pools warp our image,
reducing it to a volatile emanation... This is the sound of within, skin
deep... the sound from turmoil, as a sign of another life,
a new creeping language into the folds... Faded forms under the melting sun, blurred silhouettes inhaling a
golden mist... "ee[nd]" draws an intricate layout of disturbances,
a corrosive sea of transmutation... " [label info]
* GYDJA - Machina Mundi CD-R (Gears of Sand [GOS36], 2008)
€ 10.00
New (?) project from New Zealand, doing a kind digital / glitchambience with lots of tiny & high pitched microsounds, creating a
ghostly world of its own...
* HATI - Prehistory of HATI: Vol. 2 CD-R (Eter etcdr07, 2007)
[lim. 111 copies]
€ 9.00
Amazing live-recordings made in September 1994, much different from
today's drone-scapes, this is typically "polish" wave-influenced
electronic / experimental music, made with bass, guitar, drum machine,
keyboard & without vocals, showing their early musical abilities...
* HORCHATA vs. SIL MUIR - same mCD-R (Taalem alm52, 2008)
€ 5.00
Zwei wunderbar dichte & "volle" Dronedreamscapes, hyperminimal,
vielschichtig & obertontänzelnd; für diese mCDR in der kultigen
Taalem-Reihe fanden sich AMON, HORCHATA und ANDREA
FERRARIS zusammen....
"latest project featuring andrea marutti (afe records, amon, never
known, hall of mirrors with giuseppe verticchio/nimh), sil muir also
features andrea ferraris, an italian musician coming from the hardcore
and experimental scenes. together, they create some beautiful guitarbased ambient/drone soundscapes... add horchata's refined deep
ambient layers and here you are!" [label info]
* HUM - Caldron of Winds mCD-R (Taalem alm47, 2007) € 5.00
"Three beautiful tracks mixing dones and natural sounds from this
talented & prolific russian artist (previous releases include a 7" on drone
records and a cd-r on mystery sea). full-colour printed 3" cd-r with
artwork by cyril herry." [label info]
"..More field recordings can be found on the release by Hum, also
known as Dmitry Christov from Russia, or perhaps his other aliases,
such Sphogha, Maw, Mikosterion or Small Town Zombie, all of which I
never heard. Hum had releases on Mysery Sea and Drone. There you
are. Here he has three untitled piece of slow enveloping ambient/drone
music. A bit of field recordings is set against some obscure electronics,
which are hard to pin down. Synths? Computer process? Can't tell
really. It's a nice lo-fi affair this one, not high and mighty on the
recording side, but full of raw intent." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* INFANT CYCLE / DRONAEMENT - split CD-R (Cohort Records
CRCD 127, 2008) [lim. 100]
€ 9.00
Sehr gute 9-track CDR (3 Stücke von INFANT CYCLE, 6 von
DRONAEMENT) auf dem KIRCHENKAMPF-Label COHORT !
INFANT CYCLEs Stücke sind intensiv-atmosphärische IndustrialDroners mit mechanisch-wuchtiger Variante, welche hypnotische
Strukturen mit bemerkenswerten Sounds & Effekten verbinden und eine
pulsierende Spannung aufbauen, intensiv & schön !
* JETZMANN - Unter die Deutschen mCD-R (A.I.C. AICdisc010,
2007) [lim. 75]
€ 7.00
"On his first solo release in some years, Hamburg based Jetzmann
presents an exceptional, unclassifiable piece on AIC. In this
combination of spoken word and abstract minimal electroacoustics, the
33
considerable german poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) enters the
stage with a ( prose ) text taken from his Hyperion. Hölderlin is often
mistaken for Romanticism and has been ideologically misused for most
miserable occasions. Totally opposed to that, Unter die Deutschen
supports the continuously valid notion that the Germans are not
necessarily to be trusted..... Jetzmann has published numerous records
as member of various band projects, most notably with the duo
Jetzmann & Liquidsky on Soleilmoon, The Bog and Cashbeat /
ZickZack." [label info]
Very first LICHT-UNG release, the most "anti" & weird you can go: a 5"
vinyl & mCDR fixed together in a cardboard-folder with no real info, a
weird german inlay "Verehrter Tanzfreund" copied from the 50's maybe,
all placed in a used german "Schlager" 7"-cover together with the
original record (all different). The music: cut up & feedbacks! Great
unwieldy release, more an object for itself, edition of 489 copies.
* LICHT-UNG - Gieb Fahrt! mCD-R (Tosom XS-003, 2008) € 7.50
3" CDR, 1 TRACK, 1 VIDEOFILE, 12 MINUTES. LIMITED AND
NUMBERED EDITION OF 150 COPIES. MINI DVD BOX WITH 2
INLAYS. licht-ung, a art (lyrics, pictures, etc.) and sound project from
Germany. The name stands always for his very own art. Strange,
peculiar, dadaistic. licht-ung have several releases on his own label,
some are splits with artists like Government Alpha, Stilluppsteypa,
Aube. There is also a 7" on Drone Records, that shows the lower side.
This TOSOM release contains a 12 minute piece, in the best japanese
Noise tradition. Very harsh, very intensive, very loud. The second track
is a short video file for your PC.
lichtlaterne. wenn der regen nebens cafe faellt. und jemand spaziert.
einen brief schreibt, und geburtstag hat. endlich, finalmente, sind wir
drin. wir koennen tanzen, klettern, sehen den fluß. seine schiffe.
auch fuer sie scheint eine ampel. die post spart hilfe die ganze nacht
lang auf. waere sie nicht gewesen, haette viel dort bleiben muessen,
denn wir koennen nicht alles behalten. wir konnten nie alles loslassen.
nur alles haben wir verloren. die maserung bleibt wie eine spur in der
tuer. in einem anderen land. Du lebst." [label info]
"... So Johannes is to contemporary noise what Da Vinci was to the
renaissance? The 3inch has a strange short video of 6 seconds and a
12 or so minute harsh noise work which mixes harsh rumble with high
pitched feedback. The noise piece is competent to the point of a total
refinement of what harsh noise should be, and that's praise not
criticism, it winds and weaves through a sonic landscape at times
quixotically so much so that the piece IMO could have been longer - but
it pays to leave your audience wanting more - which I do (though not
sprouts!)." [Jliat / Vital Weekly]
* KAPOTTE MUZIEK - N° 103: Tilburg mCD-R (My Own Little
Label MOLL011, 2008)
€ 5.50
KAPOTTE MUZIEK, wohl Frans de Waards frühestes Projekt, ist weiter
aktiv - im September 2007 probierten sie etwas neues und spielten rein
akustisch draussen quasi als Strassenmusiker in Tilburg!!
"On Sunday afternoon the 23rd of September 2007 Kapotte Muziek
played their very first all acoustic concert on the streets of Tilburg as
part of Acoustic Noise which was again part of ZXZW. Highly curious 15
minute concert, and the recordings are likewise curious, with people
talking, bikes passing and us playing." [label info]
* KREBS, K.M. - Alchymy CD-R (CON-V net-lab CNVR14, 2007)
[lim. 60]
€ 9.50
th
Already the 14 CDR release in this nice drone / experimental ambient/
field-recording-series (who also offer a big amount of online-release on
their website) with extraordinaire packaging. KEVIN KREBS convinces
with 9 pieces (55 minutes) of electro-acoustic drone-soundscapes,
using field recordings and more "played" concrete elements from
instruments or objects at the same time, for a stunning result where one
can focus the attention totally. Sometimes the compositions seem to
float and stream, at times they appear to be more collaged.....
Great album, which really should have more than just 60 listeners..
"The voiceless heart of alchemy is a deepening into metaphor. The
resplendent and complex array of colours, animals, and techniques that
initiate transformational processes. A quickening of the leaden world of
quotidian experience, unearthing a 'participation mystique' and
deconcretizing the symbolic face of the world. 'Alchymy' is an ear
placed on the imaginal heart, a dialogue of field recordings, musical
fragments, noise and silence: focused yet expansive, complex, subtle
and shimmering. A work of archetypal listening. "Even sleepers are
workers and collaborators on what goes on in the universe." -Heraclitus. liner notes by Kevin M. Krebs." [label info]
* LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK - From the Idle Cylinders CD-R (Crucial
Bliss BLISS 20, 2007) [lim. 200]
€ 10.00
Kraftvoller Guitar-Drone mit wummernder & stampfender Drummachine und heftigen Gitarren-Loops, ekstatisch, geisterhaft, nicht von
dieser Welt... erinnert an NADJA, klingt für unsere Ohren aber zum Teil
auch wie eine Metal-Version von RAPOON !
LIGHT OF SHIPWRECK ist das Solo-Projekt von BEN FLEURYSTEINER, der auch hinter PARADIN und dem GEARS OF SAND-Label
steckt, eine echte Überrraschung!
"Light Of Shipwreck is a one-man band operated by Ben Fleury-Steiner,
a Deleware-based drone artist and owner of the excellent Gears of
Sand Recordings imprint, which has released discs from some of our
favorite ambient/drone/drift artists including Encomiast, Cordell Klier,
and Aidan Baker. It was actually through Aidan Baker that we found out
about Ben's Light Of Shipwreck project; knowing that we're fanatics for
"heavy ambient" sound, Light Of Shipwreck was recommended as
something we should check out. At first expecting something more
along the lines of the kind of floating ambient rumble that marks so
much of my favorite Baker solo stuff, I was pleasantly surprised by how
percussive the tracks I heard online from LOS were, the dense,
ominous feedback drones and heavy rumbling ur-riffs floating freely
over a mechanistic tribal-rhythm freakout. We ended up getting in touch
with Ben from Light Of Shipwreck and it turned out that he had a nearly
hour-long disc that he wanted to have released through our Crucial
Bliss imprint, and here we are: a three-track full length of rich, crushing
power-ambient, titled From The Idle Cylinders, a reference to the
American Objectivist poet George Oppen whose work is a consistent
influence on Light Of Shipwreck's imagery, with huge slabs of resonant
sheet metal shimmering in an ocean of heavenly feedback and
reverberating guitar drone, and surges of droning tribal Krautrock
percussion floating along with distorted ambient doom powerchords and
washed out vocal cord bliss, each track running upwards of 20 minutes
in length. A totally breathtaking piece of music, like Steve Reich, Brian
Eno, Can, and Earth swirled together into an austere, hypnotizing
heavy-trance masterpiece. This limited edition CD-R of From The Idle
Cylinders comes packaged in the signature Crucial Bliss foldover card
sleeve with the disc itself attached to the sleeve on a plastic hub and
featuring striking photo design, in a print run of 200 copies." [label info]
"Haunting super rhythmic industrial soundscapes laced with a
propulsive locomotive shuffle of programmed percussion, keening high
end and hissing whirs of smeared almost jazziness, looped and
cyclical, some sort of disembodied krautrock/spacerock like a more
mechanical Necks jamming in a thick cloud of Birchville Cat Motel
fug. A groaning creaking percussive framework beneath a sky full of
shimmering black clouds.
* LAVELLE, BRIAN - The petrified Forest mCD-R (Taalem alm51,
2008) € 5.00
"Following his recent "fallen are the domes of green amber" cd on
diophantine discs and released just before "supernaturalist" on ee
tapes, scottish sound artist brian lavelle delivers here two highly
evocative ambient/experimental tracks full of melancholy..." [label info]
"Brian Lavelle recently surprised us 'Supernaturalist', and the two
pieces here were recorded just before that and show the best side of
his: manipulating field recordings and very much altering them into
microscopic detailed pieces of ambient drones. Slowly changing
patterns of what seems to be rain fall, deep bass sounds in 'The Wood
Turned Dark And Silent' and more synthetic in 'This Twisting Glade',
which sounds like a church organ being dissected. Very nice." [FdW /
Vital Weekly]
* LECANORA - Immunity CD-R (Kokeshidisk kodi10, 2007)
€ 9.00
Der französische Musiker & Filmemacher CYRIL HERRY war früher als
EXOTOENDO aktiv, inzwischen nennt er sich NINTH DESERT. Als
Zwischenstufe kann man diese Aufnahmen (entstanden 2001-2003) als
LECANORA bezeichnen, zwischen der eher okkult-dark ambienten
frühen Phase und den stärker ethno-ambient geprägten neuen Stücken
fügt sich "Immunity" perfekt ein: feine Synth-Drones, lange EchoKlänge, konkreter Einsatz von Instrumenten & Gegenständen & Metall
& Gongs & Glöckchen, schleppende Rhythmik, leicht rituelle
Atmosphäre, "es" atmet... "es" bewegt sich...
"lecanora was cyril herry's alias in 2001-2003, between the end of
exotoendo (he was one of the founding members) and the birth of ninth
desert (his latest solo project). four albums were recorded during that
time but for various reasons were never released. we have compiled
"immunity" from these unreleased works, a kind of best of lecanora!
expect ambient/ritual atmospheres, percussion, drones, treatments &
effects... please note that people who purchase the "immunity" disc can
download an exclusive bonus album (featuring seven more tracks) from
the Kokeshidisk website." [label info]
* LICHT-UNG - anfangsrusiwuthsnull / zweiwenigerdreizehnb
mCD-R / object (Licht-Ung, 2002) € 7.00
34
All three tracks begin all abstract and drifty, the first "I Rode And Am
Riding On An Ocean Of Violent Lights", quickly explodes into a fog of
jagged edges and swirling squalls of chaotic percussion and
overlapping drones, while the second, "I Watched And Am Watching
A Cold Dead Sun Rise Then Explode" coalesces into a serious chunk
of glorious Ur-kraut, a simple stripped down rhythm spread out over a
massive expanse of low end whir and phantom drone drift, gorgeous
and mesmerizing, with a dark dreamy melody, both ominous and
lovely, think a super mellow druggy Circle, or a slightly more noise rock
Necks...
The final track begins with subtle Eastern sounding percussion,
before giving way to some Fear Falls Burning massive glacial guitar
drone, eventually splintering into glimmering harmonics, the rest of the
twenty minute track, a tangle of the two, shuffling skittering rhythms
wrapped around slow burning solar flare guitar. So good.
As with all Crucial Bliss releases, the packaging is gorgeous,
a dvd sized fold over thick cardstock sleeve, full color inside and
out, the cd attached to a plastic hub affixed to the sleeve... and
LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES!!" [{Aquarius ]
"Millimetrik is Québec City resident Pascal Asselin. Pascal’s music
unites his love of hip-hop, electronica and ambient music, but takes
these influences to somewhere entirely his own. Over the course of four
albums, Millimetrik’s music has evolved, becoming less concerned with
ambient textures and atmospheres, and more richly layered, warm and
melodic. 2008’s “Northwest Passage’s New Era”, his first full-length
release for Make Mine Music featured contributions from Ulrich
Schnauss and Port-Royal. Pascal also records as half of Le Chat Blanc
Orchestra." [label notes]
* MOLJEKBA PVLSE - Fall in Woodland Cemetary mCD-R
(Taalem alm 49, 2008) € 5.00
"With his first works released on well-known labels like cold meat
industry, eibon records or fin de siècle media, mathias josefson's
moljebka pvlse has fastly gained a strong reputation in the dark
ambient/industrial world. including more & more field recordings in his
sound, josefson soon departed from his typicial "swedish roots" to more
droney sounds like his more recent productions on mystery sea, gears
of sand, drone records or this very 3". minimal yet captivating droney
field recordings!" [label info]
* LUASA RAELON - Into the Void CD-R (Crucial Bliss BLISS24,
2007)
[lim. 200]
€ 10.00
Endlos kalte Sphären-Sounds, maschinell & elektronisch-rauschend,
ein klaustrophobisch-kosmischer Industrial-Trip in die eisige
Unendlichkeit...
"Finally, after a pronounced delay, we're presenting the latest in grim,
Cthulhian ambient death from David Reed, the man behind the SnipSnip CD-R label and the ice-drones of Envenomist. With Luasa Raelon,
Reed uses deep-frozen synthesizers and electronics to construct pitchblack sonic sculptures that evoke lost cities carved from obsidian whose
masterless machines have been left to grind on into eternity, or
descents into stygian pits whose bottoms cannot be gauged. Into The
Void is the newest masterwork from Reed, recorded in 2006 and
presented here as a five-chapter narrative that chronicles a doomed
space exploration, where all that is left are the faint transmissions of
apocalyptic dread drifting back at us through time. Beyond ominous,
and gorgeously eerie, Reed continues to craft some of the blackest,
heaviest drift this side of Gruntsplatter, Troum, Lull, Yen Pox, MelekTha, Lustmord, and Megaptera. Into The Void has been released in an
edition of 200 copies, packaged in the signature Crucial Bliss foldover
sleeve with the disc attached to the interior on a plastic hub, and
featuring some of our best Bliss artwork yet, which David described as
looking like 70's science-fiction art. " [label info]
" A concept record about a lost expedition left to die in space,
the sound is appropriately spacious and massive, buzzing and grim,
black and foreboding. Massive swells of billowing buzz, wrapped
around slow shifting expanses of near static whir, over the top,
thunderous industrial crashes and sputtering shortwave transmissions,
distant keening melodies, muted klaxons sending sonic ripples out in
the emptiness of space, long stretches of downtuned brutality draped
over epic minimal smears of barely there blur. Mournful melodies
pulled apart and tangled up with grinding distorted crumbling
decaying riffage, everything lumbering and drifting into the
bottomless depths of some sonic black hole.
Like Wolf Eyes doing the score for the remake of 2001 A Space
Odyssey, a bleak wasteland of tones that grind and buzz and rumble,
stretching out into infinity, an epic sonic blackness, from
coruscating doomdronedirge to soft shimmery black ambience, the
soundtrack to your cold corpse floating through the great black void.
And as with all Crucial Bliss releases, the packaging is super
striking, an oversized fold over thick cardstock sleeve, full color
inside and out, creepy alien tendril artwork, the cd attached to a
plastic hub affixed to the sleeve...
LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES!!" [Aquarius ]
* MONOS - Promotion CD-R (Twenty Hertz TH 020, 2008) € 14.00
Edel aufgemachter CDR-Release, die Wiederveröffentlichung des
allerersten MONOS-Albums von 2000!
"Promotion was originally released in 2000 by Nil Records in a total of
three editions of fifty in four sleeve designs. The first edition depicted a
dark orange fern, the second a yellow cactus and the third either a red
or green texture. It marked the debut release of Monos, the project of ex
Ora member Darren Tate. From this beginning Monos went on to
produce a number of releases for labels such as Anomalous Records
and Die Stadt gaining an extra member along the way in the shape of
Colin Potter. Out of print and unavailable since it's initial release,
Promotion is now issued on Twenty Hertz in a slim jewelcase with obi,
postcard and photograph insert. Promotion was recorded and mixed in
Hull, 1999. Mixed by Darren Tate with additional sounds contributed by
Daisuke Suzuki." [label info]
"Darren Tate has quietly been producing drone-based
compositions out of smeared field recordings and electronics for
almost two decades now, but the bulk of his productions have been
tiny self-released editions. In the early '90s, he and Andrew Chalk
released a handful of cassettes under the moniker Ora, often with
help from Colin Potter, Jonathan Coleclough, Michael Northam, and
Daisuke Suzuki. Around the turn of the millennium, Tate and Chalk
parted ways under amicable circumstances from what we can
ascertain, with Chalk focusing on the equally impressive Mirror with
Christoph Heemann, and Tate beginning to record as Monos with
continuing production support from Colin Potter. Promotion was the first
Monos album. While many of the ensuing Monos records had the same
dappled deep ambience and impressionist use of field recordings as
Ora, Promotion was an entirely different beast. Here, Tate works with a
comparatively caustic recording of him dragging a heavy metal object
across a concrete surface with all of the abraded textures and rusted
growls that one might expect from such an action. Against this, Tate
interweaves several long-form electronic drones with off-set
oscillation sweeps, recalling more of the bunker electronics of early
'60s computer music. Originally, Promotion was released in three tiny
editions of 50 copies each back in 2000. Of course, those are long
gone; but Paul Bradley has rescued this gem from the dustbin,
although this current edition numbers only 200 copies. And, no these
won't be long for this world either!" [Aquarius Records review]
* NAKAJIMA, AKIFUMI - Water do-CDR (Kokeshidisk kodi11,
2008) € 14.00
Wiederveröffentlichung einer raren do-MC aus der Frühphase von
AUBE aka AKIFUMI NAKAJIMA von 1991, auf dem TAALEM Sublabel
KOKESHIDISK!
"With "water 1991", Kokeshidisk continues the re-release of pre-AUBE
releases. like "water 1990" we released in 2005, this is the soundtrack
to an exhibition by arichi+sasaoka in 1991 and is a two-disc set (to
respect the format of the original release) designed to be played at the
same time. don't worry they can perfectly be played separately, though!
nakajima-san follows the same path started on "water 1991": using
mainly water as sound source, he composed an almost peaceful
soundtrack with a (not so) surprising noisy finale, announcing the first
AUBE works..." [label info]
* MIGHTY ACTS OF GOD - Joy of the Mountain CD-R (Ruralfaune
Rur023, 2007) [lim. 87]
€ 8.00
Obscure & haunted Drone-Folk? No problem! If you like VERY weird &
improvised somehow "folky" music then this is a perfect album for you,
with strings & stringed instruments, female singing, organ-like drones,
flutes, scratchings & whatever, this project or band (we have no info
who or what it is) creates their own specific sound-universe, a beautiful
low fi chaos at times...
Comes in a handmade wallpaper-cover with organic plant-material
included, and a full-colour mini-poster with 6 drawings.
"Goddess of a lost art, Niwi's painted 11 musical and organic stories.
that joy links together the images of creation of a narrative path where
fragility is the ground. Celebrate the divinity that descends from the
mount, burn your offerings, praise the secret beauty, crown her.....
An imperial work" [Tomentosa]
* NAHVALUR - Aboideau CD-R (Mystery Sea MS46, 2008) [lim.
100]
€ 12.00
Neuentdeckung / Newcomer auf MYSTERY SEA! NAHVALUR ist ein
französisch-britisches Duo die einen hier in allerdickste Sound-Watte
einhüllen, 4 Sücke mit rauhem, rauschenden, dunklen Schwall-Drones,
lässt kaum Dfferenzierungen zu, man ist "sucked in"... we love it !
* MILLIMETRIK - Northwest Passage's New Era CD (Make Mine
Music MMM039, 2008)
€ 12.00
35
"Alexandre Rito, the single French man & dronologist with projects
under the names of Oh, Birds! (and cd-r releases for Dust Apparition,
Palustre, and Cook An Egg) and more recently Xalaxsxaq (whose debut
on MS is already scheduled) & UK delicate soundscaper Matthew Ellis
(operating also under the Parhelion moniker with Emily from Sorrel, and
under Openverge, his own solo experimental-ambient folk vehicle) have
teamed up to form the arcane náhvalur...
náhvalur navigates clearly into the unspeakable, conveying a force and
a prodigious sense of Mystery...
At the edge of what could be an ageless dim wood
long belts of humus sigh
spreading as erratic evaporations
floating nonchalantly...
The soil flutters seeming to murmur... "aboideau" fans out, flirting
furtively with the opaque shadows
sounding the depths, and all things invisible
to extirpate its core... a world of vast meaningful echoes & sibylline
activity a metaphysical immersion..." [press release]
Clouds seem to pass in unison... a pure flow made of multiple streams
all running to the same destination, a delicate place of ultimate
awareness..." [label info]
* ONODERA, YUI - Rhizome
CD-R (Gears of Sand GOS33,
2008)
€ 10.00
Endless subtle loops of piano & guitar tunes, soft improvisations & field
recordings are added, totally mesmerizing & fragile ambience.. very
beautiful & atmospheric, 7 tracks. Another nice CDR of this Japanese
artist, Ambient with a big "A", executed with great care.
* OPIUM - Etere mCD-R (Taalem alm 50, 2008)
€ 5.00
"Known for his solo albums on respected ambient labels like hic sunt
leones or silentes, as well as numerous collaborations with stefano
musso/alio die (sola translatio) or francesco paladino (nosesoul), italian
ambient master teo zini describes opium sound as "a river of different
frequencies". a perfect definition of "etere": luxurious ambient with
multiple layers & samples, ethnic percussion and field recordings... "
[label info]
* NEZNAMO - Seme)Zemlja maxi-CDR (Moonsun Prod., ms001,
2007) [lim. 111]
€ 8.00
Two pieces of whispering drone-ambience similar to the "british school"
(BRADLEY, CHALK, COLECLOUGH, etc) from this newcomer from
Russia. "I've released this one-man project as UNKNOWN on STRELY
PERUNA (it also opens V/A "ZVUKOLAN"). Beautiful a little bit "light'
ambient. He changed it's name on more Slavic NEZNAMO and
released it on his own label MoonSun Productions. Style: beautiful
veda-ambient." [label info]
* ORPHAX - Drowning in a Pool of Trees mCD-R (Orphax, 2008)
€ 6.00
The dutch experimental drone project is back with this little release,
containing one lang track which begins rather peaceful with subtle fields
& a humming drone, but moves forwards with siren-like tones and more
rough expanses of sound, all bathed in rather heavy overtunes, when
concrete scratchings & rumblings are added...
Quite strong piece from a project still to discover !
"Self-Released. First edition of 44, second edition of 80. 3"cdr release
with a 24 minutes long track recorded live in Augsburg, Germany at the
Lab30 festival and reworked at home. This contains vocal drones, field
recordings and ambient rumblings." [website info]
* N.STRAHL.N - Wahrnehmungshygiene CD-R (Tosom 030,
2007) [ed. of 150]
€ 11.00
"CDR. 12 TRACKS, 75 MINUTES. LIMITED AND NUMBERED
EDITION OF 150 COPIES. COMES IN DVD BOX WITH 4 INLAYS.
After the debut "Eingang" and "Brot und Lügen" (that shows the noisy
side), "Wahrnehmungshygiene" is the third TOSOM release by
N.STRAH.N, a fantastic and very busy project from Germany.
In the past N.Strahl.N released also some works on different labels (like
Apocalyptic Radio or Krakilsk) and some very limited self-releases. All
the stuff by N.Strahl.N is very worth to check. "Wahrnehmungshygiene"
was recorded between February and May 2006, mostly using field
recordings. And this time the project also used, for some compositions,
acoustic instruments (like flute and melodica). The music is more than
normal and usual soundscapes, this are sounds for a head cinema.
Listen to N.Strahl.N.s world and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy..." [label info]
* ORSI, FABIO - Picture myself in a Cloud (speaking through
Thought) CD-R (Ruralfaune rur046, 2008) [lim. 83]
€ 8.00
FABIO ORSI ist der neue italienische Meister trancig-verträumter
Ambient - & Dronesphären, auf dieser limitierten RURALFAUNE CDR
finden sich zwei lange Stücke voller dichter Drone-Layers und
Gitarrenloops, das zweite Stück kreszendiert in einen absoluten LICHTDRONE hinein! Anklänge an FEAR FALLS BURNING, EXIT IN GREY,
AIDAN BAKER, aber insgesamt noch sanfter & subtiler, und stärker
Electronica-verwandt.... TIP for dream-droners !
"Another journey over Italy in a sky full of drone meditations and floating
melodies. An impressive work by one of the new master of drone music
- psych butterflies artwork by George Parsons of Dream Magazine - "
[label info]
* NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES - Legnica CD-R (Impulsy Stetoskopu
003, 2008)
[lim. 120] € 12.00
A nice live document of the (through the death of GEERT FEYTONS)
disbanded project from Belgium, showing them in their best form live in
Legnica, Poland, on 5. October 1997, during their second Poland-tour.
A one-tracker of about 46 minutes with their trademark of mysterious
drone- & object-noises made on self-made instruments, with rumbling &
squeaking sounds all over the place, but this also has electronic sounds
& shortwave or tape-sounds in the mix..
This comes in an amazing handmade Cover with alu-paper sleeve,
on a new label from Zielona Gora.
* ORSI, FABIO - Birds are smart but they cannot speak mCD-R
(Locus of mini-assemblage series mass15, 2007) [lim. 150]
€ 7.00
Wunderbar verträumter, loopiger ambient der mit eigener "vorbewusster
Sprache" spricht, field recordings & lichte Instrumental- & Synthklänge
werden behutsam eingesetzt. Wieder sehr gut!
"Release by the Italian artist. A fantastic 18 minute piece of shifting
textures and drones. Limited to 150 copies. Full colour cover, insert and
label in our customary thick mini pvc sleeves. Pre-Order now and we'll
email invoice on the day of release for immediate shipping if using
paypal! Audio excerpts and streams uploaded to the locus of site and
myspace page soon!" [label info]
* ONODERA, YUI - Substrate CD-R (Mystery Sea MS43, 2008)
[lim. 100]
€ 12.00
Unendlich impressionistischer & versunkener Drone / Microsound,
SUBSTRATE strahlt eine herrliche Ruhe aus und wirft wunderschöne
knisternde Soundblasen, perfekt für Meditation & Trance und die
Fokussierung der Aufmerksamkeit.
"Young Japanese artist Yui Onodera officiates in the sphere of
(ec)static ambient soundscapes where the ingredients mainly drift from
environmental sound & field recordings, digitally treated & combined
afterwards with the use of more traditional instruments which remain
nevertheless largely unrecognizable, and melted with finesse in the final
assemblage... Like many artists with a vision, he launched his own
label CRITICAL PATH in 2003 as a platform for releasing his initial
works and asserting his own style, but also to sustain experimental
music in his own country by organizing events... Yui has also his hands
into scores for experimental films, and contemporary dance & Butoh...
He has just released his first official extraordinary CD "Suisei" on the
ever excellent and/OAR, and will very soon have another one out on the
gripping GEARS OF SAND label...
On "Substrate", Yui Onodera is definitely on a quest to unlock the
fundamental vibe underneath things, pushing further the limits of
perception... and it's as if he succeeded in capturing the silent auras
gliding through our bodies, the night hum, the flickering of low lights
above the trembling river... "Substrate" goes through the membrane,
leaving inner organic structure open & bare to see... From aural bruises
& drowned resonances, ascend mental pools like slow breaths...
* PICK-UP - From here to anywhere mCD-R (My Own Little Label
MOLL 020, 2008) € 5.50
"Pick-up is a new duo of Martin Luiten (Girlfriends, Uw Hypotheek
Advies) on guitar and Frans de Waard on laptop. Two gorgeous pieces
of digital blues? Well, whatever. Forthcoming is a LP on Important
Records and one on Plinkity Plonk." [label notes]
* PORTAL - Waves & Echoes CD (Make Mine Music MMM012,
2005) € 12.00
"Portal is the project of multi-instrumentalist Scott Sinfield, occasionally
featuring guest vocalists and other musicians. Since their inception in
1996, Portal have had numerous CD, vinyl and other format releases on
several British, European and American independent labels. Portal's
music won early support from legendary DJ John Peel, for whom a BBC
Radio 1 session was recorded in 2000, and received acclaim from
diverse sources including The Guardian, the NME and DJ Magazine.
The music of Portal has shifted in style over the years, from lo-fi guitarbased ambient pop, to a more stripped back sample-based sound, to
more recent material, released after a four-year hiatus, which saw Scott
nod towards his early musical influences of classic 1980’s 4AD, Factory
and Mute artists. Scott co-founded Make Mine Music with Jon Attwood
of Yellow6 in 2002, and he oversees much of the day-to-day running of
the label." [label info]
36
acoustic concrete blocks of energy. Recommended for lovers of
monumental drones! Comes in nice little photo-cover design.
* PORTAL & YELLOW SIX - Split maxi-CD (Make Mine Music
MMM001, 2002) € 8.00
"Yellow6 has at times been described as post-rock, space-rock,
electronica, shoegaze, ambient… The reality is that the music has
some similarity with each of those genres but is not so easily definable,
using aspects of drone, repetition, melody, harmony, noise and silence
to create absorbing soundscapes to drift off into. Jon Attwood is a
guitarist who grew up with punk in the London suburbs. Playing in a
number of punk bands in the early 80s. Landing in the mid 90’s with no
band, Jon started to experiment with guitar sounds, drones,
programmed beats and loops, resulting in a debut Yellow6 single
released in 1998 on Enraptured Records. This was followed by a
number of single, EP and compilation releases on many labels, with a
debut album “Overtone” released in 2000. Over the following years,
Yellow6 has amassed over 50 releases on nearly as many labels
across the globe, and played live shows in the UK, Europe and North
America with the likes of Tarentel, ISAN, Jessica Bailiff and Charles
Atlas. Jon established Make Mine Music with Scott Sinfield of Portal in
2002." [label info]
* RIPARBELLI, PIETRO / K11 - Radiodrama do-CDR (Radical
Matters RM-ED/L/ RML.E.011, 2008)
[lim. 211]
€ 18.00
Wer sich für die geheimnisvolle Welt der Äther- & und Radiowellensounds interessiert sollte hier hellhörig werden ! Diverses Basismaterial
wird hier vom Klangkünstler PIETRO RIPARBELLI (aka K11) auf
kunstvolle Weise bearbeitet, es entstehen schwindelig machende,
fauchende, zischende, röhrende Geräuschtracks. Auf der Bonus CDR
befinden sich die uneditierten Basistracks von z.B. BAD SECTOR,
GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ, A.M.K., PROJECT D.A.R.K., etc.
Alles handgemacht /verpackt in Pappbox mit Booklet und extraVideotrack, 211 Stück gibts davon in dieser Edition.
"A SPECIAL CONCEPT ALBUM WITH INCREDIBLE AND ORIGINAL
RADIO SIGNALS AS SOURCE MATERIALS, RECORDED IN
DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD BY: BAD SECTOR, STRANGE
ATTRACTOR, CLAUSTHOME, GALERIE SCHALLSCHUTZ, SIMM-EL,
GRUPPO PSICOFONICO DI GROSSETO; RECOMPOSED BY
PITERO RIPARBELLI. A CONCEPT ALBUM CREATED FOCUSED
ON THE ESOTERIC SIDE OF ELECTROMAGNETIC ACTIVITIES
(ITC, EVP, AND TRANS-DIMENSIONAL PHENOMENAS) ALL
AROUND US... Listen this sounds in your hands...
3 DIFFERENT KIND OF CONCEPTUAL EDITIONS ARE REALIZED
FOR THIS GREAT WORK OF RADIONOISE,
INCLUDING AN ENHANCED CD-R (AUDIO + VIDEO AND EXTRAS) +
A XEROGRAPHIC BOOK EDITED IN A SPECIAL HANDMADE
DIGIPACK, BASED ON THE AUDIO INSTALLATION "CAMERA
SONORA", REALIZED BY PIETRO RIPARBELLI/K11 DURING
PIOMBINO EXPERIMENTA 3 - INTERNATIONAL SOUND ART
FESTIVAL, WITH UNEDIT PIECES REALIZED BY:
MASSIMO MAGRINI/BAD SECTOR, GIANLUCA BECUZZI,
ALEKSANDER KOLKOWSKI, A.M.K., GLOBSTER, VITTORE
BARONI/L.T. MURNAU, PROJECT D.A.R.K.
Full lenght audio: 45:00 min.
"RADIODRAMA - CAMERA SONOR"A
track list:
1 PIETRO RIPARBELLI/K11 - COLLAPSE#01
2 GIANLUCA BECUZZI - RADIO TANS_IT
3 BAD SECTOR - PROPAGAZIONE
4 RM-ED/L - LISTEN REVERSE: A CONCEPTUAL VINYL
MANIPULATION - DOCU-DRAMA, WITH:
ALEKSANDER KOLKOWSKI
A.M.K.
GLOBSTER
VITTORE BARONI/L.T. MURNAU
PROJECT D.A.R.K.
Full lenght audio: 40:00 min.
INCLUDING A SMALL DOCUMENTAL VIDEO + INSERTS."
* POTTER, COLIN - The sights of the drowned fable CD-R (ICR
67, 2007) [lim. 100] € 12.00
Jessas! Ungewöhnlich noisig-rhythmische Klänge am Anfang dieses
Mitschnitts (eines Konzertes vom July 2007 in Preston UK), dessen
Klangstrom dann immer droniger & geisterhafter wird, wo tiefergestellte
Stimmen durch den Äther zischeln, Frequenzmodulationen aus dem
Nichts erscheinen, meditative Gongs auftauchen auf und field
recordings von Regen & Donner....
"The first couple of minutes of this live recording seemed to have been
designed to get the blood boiling and the heart pumping. Colin Potter
(the technical foil to Steve Stapleton's macabre psychedelia in Nurse
With Wound) opens with an agitated set of electro-bleep rhythms which
double upon each other into a squiggling dervish. After these few
minutes though, the sidereal ambience and barren dronescapes which
Potter has brought to the recent NWW productions slip into focus.
Ghostly fragments of echo and reverberation glide around chiming
drones from harmonium, gongs, field recordings, and bowed strings, all
displaying Potter's polychromatic, oil-slick production which has such a
peculiar, funhouse warble modulating each and every sound, ever so
slightly. Some 15 minutes into the piece, there are a series of metallic
bangs and ominous metallic clicks, puncturing a bed of low-end
frequencies. One of these repeating bangs is quite similar to the ones
used on John Duncan's River In Flames. Along with the signposts of
Duncan and the NWW Shipwrecked Radio series, Potter's live set from
the 2007 Resonator Festival in Preston, England also resembles the
late period Zoviet France albums InVersion and Digilogue. Limited to
just 100 copies, and certainly will not last for very long!" [Aquarius]
* PROTOPLASMIC REVERSION - Sunken Temples CD-R (Reverse
Alignment RA-2, 2007) [lim. 200]
€ 7.50
Quite nice transcendental ambience on this new label from Sweden.
PROTOPLASMIC REVERSION play with endless waves of light choirs
& melancholic synths with some rougher drones underneath at times,
this has more in common with OÖPHOI or the lighter side of MAEROR
TRI (minus the guitars) in our opinion, but with a very "mystic" flair...
and it becomes darker and darker towards the end..
very well done, definitely recommended!
"Taking inspiration from the dark ambient greats such as Lustmord
(aswell as the name) and Thomas Köner, the purpose of this project is
to create compelling, and slightly unsettling soundscapes, using normal
electronic strings, "found" sounds and layer upon layer of effects.
The perfect soundtrack for rereading your favourite collection of H.P.
Lovecraft or Algernon Blackwoods stories. This is the debut album from
swedishbased Protoplasmic reversion. Professionally made CDr in a
limited edition of 200 copies in plastic sleeve (handnumbered)." [label
info]
* RIPARBELLI, PIETRO / K11 - Radiodrama CD-R & object
(Radical Matters RM-ED/L/ RML.E.011*, 2008) [lim. 80] € 18.00
For the collectors: Special edition with 2 small speakers enclosed!
* RUMFORSKNING - Himmelhvaelv CD-R (Gears of Sand
[GOS34], 2008)
€ 10.00
Drone-newcomer from Denmark, very subtle, dense, with hidden
harmonies, a one-tracker of 53 minutes! To discover!
"We are extremely proud to release this brand new work by one of our
favorite groups out there, Rumforskning. Danny and Mads create the
kind of sound of impermanence that strike to the core of the GoS
aesthetic: minimal, haunting, but always evolving, however
subtly....Check the news for more details and an interview with
Rumforskning.... [Gos website]
* PSYCHEDELIC DESERT - Keshiki CD-R (Pharmafabrik, 2007)
€ 8.00
"Japanese noise ambient group Psychedelic Desert bring you the
dessert of electronica —blip-less, atmospheric, and eerie soundscapes.
Noises collapse upon one another with minimalism well in mind.
“Keshiki” displays elements of discordant chaos armed with a
cacophony of noise, dreamscapes, pitch-shifting tones, and drones.
Weird two tracks of 79 minutes or so but well worth the journey."
[label info]
* SONATA REC- ... und wir waren nicht die ersten Utopisten mCDR (A.I.C. AICdisc011, 2007)
€ 7.00
"Heidrun Schramm aka. Sonata Rec continues her selfcontained path
on her second 3” release on AIC, with associative and ambiguous
sampling collages, sparse yet of high intenseness. this music is rare in
its density (comprised of few elements), in its broken narrative aspects
and in its pure sound sensitivity. and, even more special, it offers some
unintrusive, sarcastic hints on prevalent ideologies of our society.
The work “...und wir waren nicht die ersten Utopisten” (...and we hadn’t
been the first of all utopians) has been presented in different versions in
2007, within various concert and exhibition projects – for instance at
Ballhaus Naunyn (Berlin), and at Kulturfestival Preetz." [label info]
* RECHE, PABLO - Paredes mCD-R (Locus of mini-assemblage
series mass16, 2007) [lim. 100] € 7.00
Two pieces of very massive, otherworldy drones from this Argentinian
artist. PAREDES means "walls" and these sounds appear indeed
* SCHUMACHER, MICHAEL J. / STEPHEN VITIELLO - Untitled /
Exchange CD-R (A Question of Re Entry 3, 2007) € 9.00
Looking for strange stoff ? Here you are ! Incredible sounds derived
from field recordings & objects, very concrete but it all has rather a
37
"small sounds"- feel to it... some sounds also seem to be based on
electronic devices, its hard to say, quite weird at times, but also lovely...
"It's unclear wether they did each a track, or that both tracks are the
result of a collaborative work. Both Schumacher and Vitiello are known
for the love of minimal music, that is music with not many changes,
usually made with computers. As such this collaborative work is a bit
different. Although they still play around with longer, repeating textures,
almost in a drone like manner, there are also sounds that swirl in and
out of the mix. Sometimes it seems to be a synthesizer, sometimes a
guitar, sometimes perhaps the processed version of acoustic objects.
Not always this comes across as super structured music, but more like
a free flow. Nothing leaps out of the mix, and things move all the time
on the same level. This gives the whole release a nice and relaxed
ambient feel, even when as such the music has not much to do with
ambient music. Not really a big surprise, but throughout very nice."
[Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly]
"it starts out with abuzz and then goes straight into a scratchy sound of
giant bells clanging, it disintegrates into a murky soup of hissy cassette
sounds, sometimes recognizable, but always possessing a dark
ambience. it ends up sounding like a funeral procession through jelly."
[label info]
* STIMULUS - Untitled Landscapes One CD-R (ICR 64, 2007)
€ 12.00
STIMULUS sind weiter auf Drone-Kurs, sie erfinden nicht unbedingt das
"Drone-RAD" neu, aber beeindrucken mit sehr kräftigen und
monumental-archaischen Poly-drones, die genug trancige Ekstase
besitzen ohne ausufernd noisy zu werden. Die verschiedenen (6)
Stücke zeigen auch heller schimmernde Sphärenklänge auf, stets tönt
es "organisch" und handgemacht... super!... für uns einer der DroneHighlights des Jahres 2008 !! [Anklänge: alte ORGANUM z.B.]
"Drones with an edge. Organic with a synthetic envelope of
hypertension. On this release that dates from 2006, originally only
available as self released, micro edition handmade CDRs, the band
utilize a variety of live instruments including Cello, Accordion,
Trombone, Drums, Cymbal, Electric Guitar, Bass and Organ and layer
them along with studio equipment such as Samplers, Drum machines
and Computer software plus field recordings, short wave radio and lots
of effects pedals to produce some very interesting and unique sounding
music Stimulus have been active since 1995 recording a variety of
different styles of music ranging from highly programmed Electronica
and Drum n Bass to live improvised experimental music." [label info]
* SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE - Construct m-CDR
(Waterscape WS01, 2007)
[lim. 50]
€ 7.00
"Construct offers a 22 min journey through nice shimmering drones that
have a quiet romantic glitch appeal. Euphoric but at the same time
fragile. This release marks the highlight of SiF's quiet young career"
[label info]
* SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE - Suddenly Silence burst my Ear
CD-R (Tosom 031, 2007)
[lim. 150]
€ 11.00
"Die Noise Culture hatte immer sensible Sensoren für die Sphären, in
denen wir leben. Und reagierte entsprechend allergisch auf die
Vergiftungen und Verhässlichungen, die dem Environment und
lebensweltlichen Ambiente zugefügt wurden. Neben der Terror-againstTerror-Strategie gab es dabei immer auch eine therapeutische - Balsam
für die Ohren, aphrosphärische Schäume für die wunde Seele.
SECONDS IN FORMALDEHYDE scheint mit Suddenly Silence Burst
My Ear (TOSOM 031, CDR) ganz darauf zu setzen, dass Wellen und
Wellness korrelieren. Per Gitarre schichtet er, ähnlich etwa wie Fear
Falls Burning, dröhnminimalistischen Wohlklang, lange harmonische
Schwingungen mit sanften Delayeffekten. Martin Fuhs illustrierte seine
Klangwelt mit dezentfarbener Abstraktgrafik, die jedem Esoverdacht
gegensteuert. Ebenso wie er mit Übersteuerungen, euphorischem
Flirren oder erruptiv aufrauschenden Wogenkämmen dumpfes
Cocooning durchkreuzt." [Bad Alchemy]
"CDR, 5 TRACKS, 45 MINUTES.
LIMITED AND NUMBERED EDITION OF 150 COPIES.
DVD BOX IN CD SIZE WITH 3 INSERTS.
The fourth release by a young german drone project, after releases on
Umbra, Verato Project and Gears Of Sand. Seconds In Formaldehyde
is a one person project playing guitar through a few effects and creating
moods and atmospheres across time and space. "Suddenly Silence
Burst My Ear" contains 5 drone pieces recorded without studio
overdubs or post productive effects. What you hear is totally live and
improvised." [label info]
* SUBINTERIOR / SELAXON LUTBERG - Summer Meeting mCD-R
(Cold Current Prod., 2008) [lim. 50]
€ 6.50
Noch so ein "geheimster Geheimtip" aus Italy, ganz ruhige guitar
drones, aber so abgehoben und erhaben, perfekt gerade am frühen
morgen, bringt die Seele zum schwingen... field recordings sind auch
enthalten, backwards-sounds-effekte, alles so subtil und verträumt..
* SUMMANEN, HENRIK - The Great Attractor CD-R (Ahasverus
Records AHH004, 2006) [lim. 50]
€ 7.00
This is nautic, submarine dark ambient, very minimal & condensed,
slowly sluggish masses of sound are build, siren-like noises appear like
ghosts, with slow pulses originating underneath... HENRIK
SUMMANEN is the man behind AHASVERUS and also runs
ELEKTRON RECORDS, a swedish label for electro-acoustic music.
* SUNCHARIOT - Fictio CD-R (Abgurd AB-42, 2007) [lim. 100]
€ 9.00
Another new project from Russia, creepy drones and slow-motion
pulses, mechanic & cold sounds, little harmonies appear in the acoustic
dust... intense dark & visionary stuff, on Moscow's ABGURD-Label.
"A project of a sculptor and an ethnographer Denis Shapovalov from the
city of Rostov-on-Don, who is also the one and the only member of
ADRIVA, ENMERKAR and MATTER. "Fictio" calls to self-dependent
comprehension of forms by sublimation of clods of clay and granite
monoliths with alchemy of archaic Drone Ambient, giving birth to
resonances and fluctuations of Time. As deep stone strata that move by
one millimetre in a thousand years, humming and drifting drones spread
over the body, moving away all the vanity and fuss.
The release consists of two 35+ minutes parts, one of which was
released as the same-named CDr on Observatory recordsin an edition
of 40 copies." [label info]
* SLEEPING BABIES - Arrow in the Earth CD-R (Ruralfaune
Rur026, 2007) [lim. 86]
€ 8.00
Another real undergroundish act on the french label: SLEEPING
BABIES create ecstatic low fi drone-noise/folk, as "primitive" as
inspiring. Handmade cover with little coloured wood-pieces.
"Buried under the hills of Love, the Sleeping Babies' music is
transpierced by an arrow of emotions. This patchwork of drones, carried
by ethereal voices, dances among bells, flutes and percussions. It is a
wonderful and shamanic trip to the holy Mantra. Featuring member of
Quilts, Grateful Dregs, and head of American Grizzly. More Info :
www.myspace.com/sleepingbabies." [label notes]
* TAPEPHOBIA - Anomie CD-R (Reverse Alignment RA-3, 2007)
[lim. 200]
€ 8.50
Melancholisch-minimale Dronescapes basierend auf Synths, Gitarre,
Stimme. Sehnsuchtsvolle Klänge breiten sich in langen Wellen
erhabend aus, hallend-metallische Wolken erfüllen den Raum...
klasese Debut-CDR eines Projektes aus Norwegen mit deutlichen
Anklängen an z.B. MAEROR TRI oder STARUHA MHA.
Sehr zu empfehlen !
"This productive Norweigan act released it´s debut album "House of
memories" this spring on Belgian label Nothingness records and have
now signed to Reverse alignment. On Anomie Taphephobia steps
forward in the progress of it´s guitardrone based dark ambient and
evolving into it´s own path building soundscapes upon soundscapes in
a meditative/hypnotic way. Professionally made CDr in a limited edition
of 200 copies in jewelcase (handnumbered)." [label info]
* SOL, EDWARD - Wrong Action mCD-R (Quasi-Pop QPOP
MC046, 2007) [lim. 100]
€ 6.00
EDWARD SOL ist der Betreiber des emsigen ukrainischen Labels
QUASI POP aus Kiev. Seine "Wrong Action" mCDR ist eine ziemlich
absurde & durchaus witzige Klangcollage über eine Pop-Diva in vier
Teilen (z.B. "inside Kylie"), basierend auf Analog-Synths, Loops,
Plunderphonics, Tapes, Objektklängen, Noise-Feedbacks, etc.. sehr
schön verpackt in ein handgemachtes Digipack..
"Tape collages, audio-objects and wild psychonoise in surrealistic
cinematic mood. This is the tragic (and funny at the same time) story
of Pop Diva working and partying hard. Audio tabloid in some sort,
inspired by the early works of Pierre Henry, but Inland Empire and The
Hafler Trio as well." [label notes]
* TATE, DARREN - Black Beauty mCD-R (The Locus of
Assemblage mass22, 2007) [lim. 100]
€ 7.00
New release in this nice mCDR series by the ex ORA & MONOS member with swirling analogue electronics & suspended droneexpanses going in circles.. very nice..
"Available Monday 10th December. Strictly limited to 100 copies. New
work from Darren in colour sleeve, insert and label. Darrens Bio
"English experimental/drone musician, born 8 May 1966 and well-
* STELZER, HOWARD - Go on CD-R (Banned Production BP-131,
2007) € 9.50
Quite amazing weird archaic & droning low-fi sounds on this one, raw &
undefinable. Really a suprise. Comes in a great handmade "cardboardmap" cover.
38
known for his solo works and his work in Ora and Monos. Tate started
in music around 1983, in early recordings with Andrew Chalk. He also
runs the Fungal label." [label info]
label and other like minded dronelords, should absolutely consider
every Mystery Sea release required listening.
From the Basque region of Spain comes the one man soundscaper
known as Tzesne, with previous releases on Drone, Antifrost and a
handful of other small labels, this is his first for Mystery Sea, and
it's a perfect match. A deft blend of deep billowing blackness, and
subtly processed field recordings. Of whispery ambience, and soft
focus atmosphere. Three long tracks, that sprawl and drift, dense and
ominous, pulsing clouds of muted black buzz, a sonic black cloth
draped over a slowly undulating sea of dreamlike murk, and mysterious
indistinct sonic activities. It's like laying on the ocean floor, observing life
and movement above, all filtered through the dim prism of the
constantly shifting waters, everything rendered in smeared streaks, and
softly wavering shapes. All three tracks are ultra minimal, near static
stretches of deep layered drone. The most musical moment being the
second half of the second track, where the various layers coalesce into
one thick ribbon of sound, a very Niblockian drone, huge layers all
tangled and interwoven, rife with microscopic overtones that transform
static shimmer into an intensely (yet still subtly) active sonic swirl. Then
it's straight back into the gauzy blurred abyss, underwater,
underground, a sleepy staticky world of whir and hum wrapped around
the ghostly traces of barely perceptible melodies. So gorgeous. Another
disc of perfect late night drift. Beautiful packaging as always, and again,
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES." " [Aquarius Records review]
"... For his MS excursion, Tzesne permeated himself with the
surroundings of an old marine bottom located in the region of Salas de
los Infantes (Burgos), next to the Basque country... A panorama of
eroded cliffs standing there in a belt in a rather wild nature, a sort of
paleontological museum in the open air, gave the impulse to the
project... On "Cliffs under the mist", you can feel the fallen night veil on
the stone crests reshaped by the wind...
An hidden land lying behind the dew,
a long opaque flow...
rain has laminated the fields
and tones of earth come to the surface
through past fissures...
A language of veins,
& exhaled fossilized memories
petrified by time...
"Cliffs under the mist" is another invitation to see through
and caress that interior sea which is our true spine..." [label notes]
* TATE, DARREN & BANKS BAILEY / IAN HOLLOWAY Summerland CD-R (Fungal 30, 2008) [lim. 150]
€ 11.00
"We're not all that sure who Banks Bailey or Ian Holloway are,
but Darren Tate has long proved to be a reliable source for long-form
dronemusik thanks to his previous collaboration with Andrew Chalk as
Ora and his ongoing work with Colin Potter in Monos. Not to mention
the multitude of self-released cd-rs under his own name. Tate's
aesthetic for sculpted drones through field recordings, pedal
manipulation, and occluded processing is central to Summerland, as it
has been noted that Tate proved the treated guitar drones with Bailey
contributing some of the field recordings and Holloway reconfiguring
everything at the end. Thick shadowy tones hover ominously alongside
fluctuations of tactile crackle, sounding more like some of the
earlier Ora recordings than anything that Tate has produced recently.
Elsewhere, tinstrung guitars splutter with atonal resonance, which
stretch, elongate, and blur into drifting dark ambience.
Summerland is a limited production. There are only 150 copies
of these in existence, and Summerland is already out of print at the
two labels who released this." [Aquarius Records review]
* TOTSTELLEN - Tunnel / Brücke CD-R (Reduktive Musiken
REDUKT012, 2007) € 9.00
"Eine der Hamburger Elbebrücken diente als Klangquelle für eine
akustische Studie über das architektonische Phänomen Tunnel und
Brücke. Raumzeitliche Aspekte wie Hall oder Dopplereffekt bestimmen
das dröhnminimalistische Klangbild. Pathetische Zeilen wie 'Die
Sehnsucht kehrt sich um Eine neue Hoffnung keimt Der Kreis schließt
sich' machen aber deutlich, dass es nicht bloß darum geht, wie es sich
anhört, wenn Autos hin und her fahren. Obwohl sich manchmal sogar
die Illusion landender Jumbojets einstellt. Rhythmische und
peitschend-klackernde Momente, eine Fata Morgana von Meeresbrandung, die Stakkatos von Maschinengewehrsalven, Funkgejaule,
rituelle oder martialische Paukenschläge auf Metall summieren sich zu
Bunkerbesatzungsparanoia. Im Dunkeln treibt die Einbildungskraft
Blüten. Der Totsteller schreibt Tunnel und Brücke einen totalitären
Charakter zu - es geht nur von A nach B, keine Abzweigung, keine
Auswege, nur vorwärts. Die Alternativlosigkeit würgt. Der Ausweg
wäre, von der Brücke zu springen oder sich an der Tunnelwand den
Schädel einzuschlagen. Für weniger morbide Assoziationen wie
‚Fluchttunnel‘ oder ‚überbrücken statt ersaufen‘ verlangt Totstellen
Eigeninitiative." [Bad Alchemy]
"A study of architecture and the perspectives it implies. An acoustic
reflection of so called civilisation. Entirely recorded inside the structure
of a motorwaybridge, wich is also a tunnel or even a labyrith underneath
the droning traffic. A collaboration between Reduktive Musiken and
Totes Format. First edition of 100 copies! Comes with colour-cover and
inlaycard." [label info]
* UBEBOET - Albada
mCD-R (Locus of mini-assemblage
series mass19, 2007) [lim. 100]
€ 7.00
"Miguel Tolosa once more emerges from behind the Con-V label to
adopt his Ubeboet persona for his contribution to Locus Of's miniassemblage series. Each teeny-weeny CDR in this series is a treasure
trove of delight for drone enthusiasts and this is no exception. Tolosa
takes the listener on a diving sleigh ride of sound, pulling and nudging
the sounds into a bewildering array of shapes and puzzles that he then
forces us to negotiate. His primordial roar cossets and buffets and
pounds and submerges sounding very much like the soundtrack to all
the documentaries about volcanoes I watched as a kid. You can feel the
power and the ferocity contained within these sounds but the simple
and organic way in which Tolosa handles his material allows it to
maintain a naturalistic cohesion that is often lost in recordings of this
type. Hugely recommended." [Wonderfulwoodenreasons]
* TRUE COLOUR OF BLOOD - All of the true things I'm about to tell
you are lies CD-R (Gears of Sand [GOS35], 2008) € 10.00
New work with a cryptic title by the italian project, static & ultra-spheric
guitar-drones meet more experimental cut-up passages, strange nearsilence atmospheres, more harmonic arrangements, 10 tracks from the
very far away & other-dimensional...
"Guitar drone with a decidedly subversive edge (i.e., what we love.): It's
time to take your musical pre- (and mis-) conceptions and check them
at the door. Form, melody, rhythm, chords: these words represent
nothing but rules, barriers and walls which only serve to limit the places
where "music" can exist or reach towards." [label notes]
* UHLIG, MIRKO - The Rabbit's Logbook mCD-R (Field Muzick
fm.m04, 2007) € 6.00
Fantastic one-tracker in different parts, long string-drones and fieldrecordings. Tiny edition.
" [fm.m04] red 3" mini CDr with a recording between reality and dream
True traum muzick - concret sounds embedded in drones and tones
point to the real world, but it's too clear - that is a dream. The lady saw
the rabbit planting melons on the fence." [label info]
* URE THRALL - The Great Zoviet-French Kiss-Off CD-R
(Discorporeality Recordings UT-16, 2008)
€ 10.00
Really "new" recordings from what must be the darkest Californian
Hippie existing! The album with the weird title builds visionary music so
far from this word that it develops a strong undertow & sucks you in; a
very dark and elegant, superp eerie ambience, an atmosphere of decay
& fin de siecle is created. Field recordings of playing children arise,
endless echo-spaces & effects and melancholic drones are in the mix,
and it still has the "typical" URE THRALL elements like e-bow guitars
and percussion or drum-machine... one of our favourite URE THRALL
albums definitely!
* TSARAAS - Agrimony mCD-R (Linija Shuma, SHUM 0004,
2006) [lim. 31]
€ 7.00
TSARAAS is a side-project of one member of the russian neo-folk band
MAJDANEK WALTZ, on "Agrimony" we listen to a great one-tracker full
of mysterious drones & hidden harmonies. Comes in a very handmade
little paper-package. "TSARAAS "Agrimony" 3" CD-r LINIJA SHUMA
lim. ed. 31 copies. Side project of MAJDANEK WALTZ member.
Wonderful mystic/dark/ambient." [label info9
* TZESNE - Cliffs under the Mist CD-R (Mystery Sea MS41, 2007)
[lim. 100]
€ 12.00
"Latest in the ever expanding sonic microverse that is the Mystery Sea
label's super limited, gorgeously curated and meticulously assembled
series of night-ocean dronemusic cd-r's. Each limited to 100 copies, and
presented in beautiful full color packaging, and every one, a
breathtaking disc of dark and meditative minimalism. Fans and
obsessive collectors of releases from folks like Jonathan Coleclough,
Andrew Chalk, Mirror, Ora, Organum, anything on the Drone Records
* URE THRALL - Comes Apart CD-R (Discorporeality
Recordings, 2008)
€ 10.00
This release documents the legendary performance of URE THRALL on
the Tesco-Festival in Antwerp, Belgium, on 29. Sept. 2007, with help
39
of JIM WILSON & BONNIE MCNAIRN (VOICE OF EYE). Contains two
bonus-tracks rec. 1999 at Burning Man, and "PREMONITION 10/11"
recorded in Trieste, Italy, Oct. 2007.
krautrockish jam from The Stumps, some whispered crystalline
shimmer from Fursaxa and we could go on and on. Varied and
expansive, from folk to drone to noise to pound to swirl to buzz to
twang...
As with all RuralFaune stuff, meticulously packaged, each one
hand assembled, three spray painted discs, rouge, blanc and bleu (the
colors of the French flag), housed in a cool textured red and orange
wallpaper cover, in a thick vinyl sleeve, with a sticker on the front. Inside
is a huge fold out, 2 sided poster insert, with liner notes on one side and
a painting on the other, as well as a bunch of other inserts, stickers, a
tiny square of paper hand numbered and a "piece of blotting paper
impregnated with red wine"!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. We will
NOT be able to get more..." [Aquarius Records]
* URNA - Liber Lelle CD-R (Abgurd AB-46, 2008) [lim. 100]
€ 10.00
Quite a special release from this italian project, creating a kind of
hyperspheric folk with tons of real instruments, but also very droneypathetic pieces with his vocals (which sounds quite near to some
TROUM stuff) - very spiritual & sacral stuff, worth to discover !
"Obscure art of Gianluca Martucci makes a big step towards shining
eternity with every new recording. He started in early 90s with raw, dirty,
blasphemous and fetid Black Ambient. Two of his recent albums that
were released by Slaughter productions turned to acoustic sacral
rituality.
The new album is devoted to the life and death of Angela da Foligno
who was a Christian author, nun, and mystic. Voice, heart, breath,
blood, bells, cymbals, percussion, mandolin, balalaika, zither, accordion
and flutes weave of superfine ether strings a smooth covering canvas of
acoustic music." [label info]
* LANDSCAPE I / THE FOREST CD-R (Centre of Wood
C.O.W.004, 2007) [lim. 100] € 10.00
CENTRE OF WOOD ist das neue Label von COLD CURRENT
PRODUCTION mit dem Fokus auf "Folk" in verschiedensten Varianten,
diese Compilation gibt einen Label-Überblick mit 15 Stücken von
Geräuschmusik & Akustik-Drone bis free form / Impro & Neo Folk, mit
schönen Stücken von TIM COSTER, NEBELUNG, THROUROOF,
PRAGUE, ES, WE WAIT FOR THE SNOW, und vielen uns
unbekannten Acts.. Nummerierte Auflage & handgemachtes Cover,
kunstvoll verschlossen mit einem Stück Ast!
"[Forestes, the most important influence for "Centre of Wood" label, of
every kind and in every part of the world, are a magic place where to
get lost and then find our deep relation with the nature. 14 bands from
the acoustic, drone, lo-fi and free folk underground called to rappresent
through music their relation with these places. The Result is this CD-R
that contains more than 60 minutes of weird music. The projects and
the bands involved are : Tim Coster; Donato Epiro; Nebelung; Vapaa;
Chora; Aalto; throuRoof; Eyes like Saucers; The Katie Winter; Belly
Boat; Prague; Es; Las Vegas Club; We Wait for the Snow. Listening to
this compilation is like getting lost in a immense green forest, walking
through its trees, meet the eyes of its creatures...]
PACKAGING : The packaging is composed of a brown and green
heavy cardboard, closed with a small branch and a brown cotton
thread, with an insert in perfect d.i.y. old style. limited to 120 numbered
copies." [label info]
* VELEHENTOR - Zona Otchuzhdeniya (Zone of Alienation) CD-R
(Abgurd AB-53, 2008) [lim. 100]
€ 10.00
"The album is tributed to the Russian «ghost-towns» Kadykchan,
Kursha-2 and Halmer-U. Kadykchan («Death Valley» in Evenk) is a
miners urban village in Susuman district of Magadan region, which was
left by the inhabitants after the mine detonation in 1996. Nowadays only
a few native people live in this dead town without central heating and
water and power supply in half-destroyed apartments.
Kursha-2 was build shortly after the Russian Revolution as a workers
village for mastering vast forests of the Central Meshera. In the year
1936, during hot and windy summer, 1200 humans were burnt out alive
because of the forest fire that surrounded Kursha and outskirts.
Halmer-U («Death Valley» in Nenets) is situated in the area that was
used by natives as a burial place for centuries. In the end of 20th
century it became another «not wanted» miners town. People were
evicted to Vorkuta city by riot squads.
Three tracks of disturbing static oppression. All-dead Drone Ambient
and sizzling Drone Noise dressing you alive. VELEHENTOR is wellknown for its skill in creating the proper atmosphere using only facts,
and here it is reproducted as by a direct witness." [label description]
* MANDALA Volume 1 mCD-R (Ex Ovo EXO003, 2007) € 5.50
"The concept for this new series by Ex Ovo is simple: Four artists are
selected for a musical session of Chinese Whispers. The first starts with
five minutes of his music and passes it on to his successor, until there is
a complete track of about twenty minutes’ length. Starting things off are
labelfounders Mirko Uhlig and Tobias Fischer (aka Feu Follet), as well
as two guests for this edition: Zen Drone master Keith Berry and
German guitarist Jörg Eger. From Uhlig’s deep and multilayered
opening, the piece crosses into a space of enigmatic listening with Feu
Follet’s spacious and touching contribution and Berry’s dark majesty,
before culminating in a triumphant and otherworldly slide solo." [label
info]
"Chinese whispers are when someone tells you a line of a story, you
make up the second line, a third person the next one etc. Ex Ovo
started a series of musical works based upon this notion, where a
musician makes up five minutes and then someone else takes over,
until four are done. This is 'Mandala Volume 1', starting out with Mirko
Uhlig, Tobias Fischer (both of them behind the label), Keith Berry and
Jörg Eger. Almost without noting the first two pieces slide into
eachother, in a very weightless space sort of way. The music is highly
(in every sense of the word) atmospheric. When Keith Berry takes over,
things move from heaven right into the ocean, deep down, but here to
the cross into guitarist Jörg Eger works really well, he comes in later on
with his slide guitar and not from the very moment as he is supposed to
play. A project like this could be a real miss, but these four are spot on.
One excellent piece of ambient music, in not too clear four parts, but it
surely makes sense." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* WOMEN IN TRAGEDY - The Shame CD-R (Ruralfaune Rur023,
2007) [lim. 81]
€ 8.00
Experimental one-man project from Canada with limited CDR release
on the french Underground-Label RURALFAUNE, comes in handmade
cover and reminds on typical 80's / 90's cassette-scene style..
"From the North came the plague... Drifted noises, distorted voices &
murky electronics in the land of the spectral moose. The ghost of the
beast whistles in the tunnel of dark forest. You are lost in the woods ? it
will find you, it will come to teach you the music of the damned souls..
No shame, no tragedy, just another obscure and brilliant tale.
- Hidden behind a granulous veined green paper cover - " [label info]
3.1. CDR-COMPILATIONS
* FRANNCE 3 x CD-R (Ruralfaune rur024, 2007) [ed. of 300]
€ 21.00
Ausufernde Compilation auf dem DIY-Label aus Frankreich, wohl etwas
ironisch als "Ode an France" untertitelt. 45 Projekte zwischen kraftvoller
Drone-Psychedelia, wirbelnden Analog-Electronics & InstrumentalMadness, so ziemlich alles aus dem Bereich "Experimenteller / Impro
Folk-Drone" was man sich nur vorstellen kann...
"A quick look at the listing of groups on this super limited triple cd-r
collection of songs from France, or about France, or with some sort of
French angle, should have most weird music fans freaking out bigtime.
All exclusive tracks from tons of AQ faves, including: The Shitty
Listener, Quetzolcoatl, Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood, Silvester
Anfang, Heavy Winged, Tom Carter, The North Sea, Taiga Remains,
Ashtray Navigations, Uton, The Futurians, Mike Tamburo, Tanakh,
Black Forest Black Sea, Ben Reynolds, Volcano The Bear, 6majik9,
CJA, The Stumps, Gregg Kowalsky, Fursaxa, Seht, Valerio Cosi, Fabi
Orsi, Birds Of Delay, Bjerga / Iverson, Robert Horton and more more
more. 3+ hours of strange and magical sounds from all over the world,
but all centered around France. From the ultra lo-fi barely audible pop
genius of The Shitty Listener, the gorgeous mournful steel string
Appalachian folk of The North Sea, the washed out murky drift of
Quetzolcoatl, some super spare solo electric guitar drift from Tom
Carter, a bit of haunting high end tribal buzz from Brothers Of The
Occult Sisterhood, some gorgeous shuffle and twang, slither and creep
from Silvester Anfang, an epic druggy slowburning NZ-style
3.2. VISUALS & SOUND-ART: DVDs / VideoCDRs / VHS
* BRAINWAVES 1 (Z'EV - NADJA - TROUM) DVD-R
(Brainwashed BFD101, 2008)
€ 16.00
Professional video-film recordings from the first night of the
BRAINWAVES-Festival that happened from Nov. 17-19, 2006, in
Boston USA. By buying this DVD you directly support "Brainwashed" to
get funds for organizing the next Festival. TROUM is performing the
SHUTUN-set here which features NINA KERNICKE / ALL SIDES! As
bonus-material you'll find many "stills" and backstage material !
40
* ECKLOFF, JÜRGEN - Instruction 37/57 DVD (Tochnit Aleph
TA086, 2008)
€ 13.00
"Instruction 37/57 is a surrealistic b/w animation film by COLUMN ONEmember JÜRGEN ECKLOFF with a cryptic & dreamlike quality. Being
set into a nostalgic, gloomy ambience you can follow a story about a
mysterious message, a strange voyage and the big machine, full of
symbols and miracles. About 27 minutes long and very professionally
made, absolutely strange & wonderful!
"a column one film by jürgen eckloff produced 2005-2008. "one
morning: in front of the door a slip of paper, in the radio receiver an
ambiguous message. a telephone call dispels any remaing doubts. and
i make my way...." region free dvd features german & english version
plus bonus. printed artwork, booklet and disc in dvd-case." [label info]
4. CDs
* ABTAN, FREIDA - Subtle Movements CD (Durtro Jnana UJ111,
2007)
€ 14.00
Debut-Album von FREIDA ABTAN, die zuletzt als NURSE WITH
WOUND-Bandmitglied & Collaborateurin auffiel. Auf "Subtle
Movements" bewegt sie sich zwischen experimentellem Abstrakt-Drone
und Elektro-Akustik und setzt dabei oft & gekonnt ihre Stimme ein, um
z.T. sehr schöne harmonische, repetitive & sich überlagernde Texturen
zu bilden. Auf zwei Stücken ist STEVEN STAPLETON vertreten.
Ein sehr vielversprechender Erstling !
"Freida Abtan loves sound. Her music falls somewhere in between
musique concrete and more modern noise and experimental audio.
Concentrating on the visceral and inspired by dreams, she has created
visual shows for and played with Nurse with Wound, and also as
presented her own sound and visual work at festivals across Canada.
Subtle Movements was completed over four years from the sidelines of
Abtan's other projects and during her schooling in Montreal. It's a
collection of her favorite pieces, combining her love of electro-acoustic
music with her love of found melody. Two of the songs that appear on
the album are collaborations with Steven Stapleton of Nurse with
Wound, recorded in Colin Potter's studio in Preston, England, when
Abtan traveled there to play a show as part of Scribble Seven in March
2006 alongside Stapleton, Potter, Andrew Liles, Matt Waldron, Joolie
Wood, and Maja Elliott." [label info]
* PAN SONIC - Kuvaputki DVD (Blast First Petite PTYT 009DVD,
2008) € 15.00
"Die erste DVD von PANSONIC, gefilmt von Edward Quist, dem
Bildhauer des Digitalen. Eine Liveperformance, die aus nächster Nähe
gefilmt wird. Ein digitaler Film, der sich um die New Yorker Show von
PANSONIC dreht, als sie dort 1999 während ihrer abenteuerlichen
Round The World Tour anhielten. Der Film ist eine hyperreale,
abstrakte Reflexion des Duos im letzten Jahr des letzten Jahrtausends.
Während im Kern noch immer der Ton der Dokumentation vorherrscht,
wurde das Material von Quist jedoch in eine neue Form gegossen, die
sich glatt an das improvisierte Set von Vaino und Vaisanen anlegt. Das
Duo scheint tief verbunden mit dem Bildhaften der Kathode, die zu
atmen scheint und sich mit ihren Körpern über drei einzelne Filme
hinweg verbindet, um im eigenen Sound und den Bildern Quists zu
verschmelzen. Das SXSW Festival beschrieb "Kavaputki" als "eine
Verkörperung. Der wahrscheinlich gelungenste elektronische Musikfilm,
den es jemals gab". Vierzig Minuten volle intensivstem Sound und
ebenso intensiven Bildern.// Region 0 (free)/NTSC format DVD. The
first-ever Pan Sonic DVD release, directed by Edward Quist, an
American digital visual artist. A live performance, close-filmed. A redux
digital film based around a Pan Sonic performance from a New York
stop on their adventurous 1999 "Round The World" tour. The film is a
hyper-real abstract reflection of the duo, in the final year of the last
century. While the documentary core remains, the footage is twisted
and shaped by Quist into a new form in conjunction with Pan Sonic's
improvised set. Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen are immersed in the
imagery of the cathode which seems to live and infect their physicality
over the course of the three parallel films, until they merge with their
own sound and Quist's mesmerizing visuals. Sonar Electronic Festival
described the film as "a beautiful and unique film capturing the very
essence of a Pan Sonic live performance... which really is quite an
achievement." SXSW Music Festival calls it "...an embodiment.
Probably the most perfect electronic music film yet." ICA Film London
says it's "...surprisingly watchable. Forty minutes of unswervingly
modern, super intense sound & visuals." Duration 38:05 mins.; digipack
packaging; Dolby digital 5.1 Upmix." [press release]
* AESTHETIC MEAT FRONT - Temple of Flesh CD (Old Europa
Cafe OECD087, 2006)
€ 14.00
Das "eigene Fleisch" als einzig reine Wahrheit? "Temple of Flesh" ist
eine Sammlung von live-Aufnahmen, man sollte eher sagen
"öffentlichen Ritualen" der US-Band, die seit 10 Jahren ihre rituellekstatischen Blut & Fetisch-Performances zelebrieren, irgendwo
zwischen HERMANN NITSCH, BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS,
HYBRYDS oder SLEEP CHAMBER, musikalisch beschwörend und
höchst esoterisch und in dieser Konsequenz durchgezogen trotzdem
gesellschaftskritisch: "Spürst Du Deine Sehnsucht brennen, hast du
Angst vor Deinem Tempel, Deinem Fleisch? Fürchtest Du Dich im
Abgrund der Ekstase zu verlieren? Schau Dich um, bist Du befriedigt
mit dieser Realität?" Kommt in DVD-Box mit 6 doppelseitig bedruckten
Vollfarb-Postkarten, mit Fotos & Texten in diversen Sprachen.
Ein Muss für Fetisch-, Okkult- & Ritual-Freunde!
"Aesthetic Meat Front celebrates 10 years of Public Deprogramming
Rituals with a new Release. to be released on Old Europa Cafe / AMF
Records. "Temple of Flesh" is based on an Invocation of Rapture from
A-M-F's "Blood Sun Rising" Rituals (2003-004). The text of this
invocation has been translated into 12 languages, and sculpted into a
dark electronic abyss. Ritual drones are the framework for haunting
invocations and chants, which are supported by the seductive mantras
of Zaskia Morgan. Bombastic drums and instruments connected with
hooks into the skin of the ritual participants are also sound sources for
this release.
Elegantly packaged in a DVD case, Temple of Flesh comes with 6
double-sided cards reflecting the essence of an A-M-F ritual.
Italian invocation featuring vocals by OEC master : Rodolfo Protti ...
Sounds remixed by R|A|A|N" [press release]
* SPK - Despair (digitally extracted) DVD (Twin Vision / CAT TV1,
2007)
€ 19.50
"After being hidden in time for more than 20 years this industrial
st
milestone of the infamous 1 generation got renovated extended and
digitally overworked. A true statement and monument for the
outstanding band S.P.K. who gathered together under so many names
like: SoliPsiK, Selektiv Pornography Kontrol, Sozialistisches Patienten
Kollektiv, System Planning Korporation just to name a few.
Twin Vision, Cat TV and Tesco Germany proudly bring you a band
about nothing could be said, the only group in industrial musics history
that stands on the same level as Throbbing Gristle, for some even
above. Influence to so many followers. The project ideal is to express
the content of various psycho - pathalogical conditions, especially
schizophrenia, manic - depressive psychosis, mental retardation and
paranoia. Information Overload supersedes normal, rational thought
structures, forcing deviation into less restrictive mental procedures of
so-called 'mental illness'. SPK is trying to be a voice for those
individuals condemned to the slow decay of mental hospitals and
chemical / electro / surgical therapy, without fetishising them into blatant
entertainment product. 'SONIC FOR MANICS' aims to be a vehicle for
sharing mental experiences through sound.
This DVD compiles material that marked the genesis of the group
<SPK>. The members at that time were known as Operator, Ne(H)il
and Tone Generator. Like rare live moments of the bands, energetic
performances covering music from “Leichenschrei” to “Information
Overload”, Live rehearsal footage from “ Auto Dafe”, slide shows,
documentary and a filmed interview with Tone Generator aka Domink
Guerin founding member and man behind Twin Vision." [label info]
* AKERLUND, LARS - Rivers of Mercury / Via Styx CD (Firework
Edition Records FER1025, 2000)
€ 13.00
Quasi der erste Teil von Tanztheater-Stücken von diesem interessanten
Stockholmer Komponisten! Exquisite Geräusch-Klangkunst & ElektroAkustik, sehr perkussiv geprägt..
“The rumble and quake of one tone leads to a ringing bell and voices
out of a sea of confusion. Many different kind of bells speak to each
other in misunderstood introspection. Do tones have secret lives of their
own? A more measured cadence bridges backward voice to backwards
voice - it's easy to see where this could be rampantly applied in modern
dance. Tones vault, frightened flocks of birds in the seas of unease and
the rumble and shine reverberates (which incidentally is the longest
word one can type using solely the left hand). Mass acceleration hits
like a bell that was struck and beats wash effulgently across the
speakers and what's being called out by the ringing tone? The end?
Drone emerges against the wind and the heavy engine incarnates,
pulsing with its own secret heart. Telegraph signals wave in its path and
it grows, planet on the prowl. The living thing - the recording that can be
turned on, just below the level of hearing, increasing a certain amount
of emotion or tension - moves onward, second by inexorable second.
How long can the manta ray live? No one knows, not even the sudden
voice that appears, gesticulating urgently. A gentle test tone inculcates.
A sweeping wave of the sound from hands drinks in the remaining
waters from Styx, possibly moving on to Lethe...” [label info]
41
* AKERLUND, LARS - UR VOLT CD (Fylkingen Records FYCD
1028, 2007)
€ 14.00
Zwei lange Stücke minimale Elektro-Akustik und elektronische
Geräuschmusik für Tanzperformances von dem schwedischen
Komponisten (* 1953), auf den renommierten schwedischen Label
FYLKINGEN. "UR" laviert zwischen sehr ruhigen Passagen und
anschwellenden Phrasen, mit vielen dumpf perkussiven Parts, fast
maschinell wirkenden Geräuschloops, pulsierenden Elementen, immer
spannend, subtil, verhalten, archaisch-rituell.. und ohne jemals in
endlos verschwurbelte Digital-Effekt-Sounds abzugleiten...
Bei VOLT geht es um Elektrizität & Radioaktivität, Rauschen &
elektronisches Sirren & grollende Kraftströme von Klang werden
hier eindrucksvoll in Szene gesetzt...
AKERLUND ist beeinflusst vonMinimalismus & afrikanischer Musik ,
das ist Hörgenuss pur für den anspruchsvollen Hörer.
drones, tinkling bells, and wordless vocals with Middle Eastern,
medieval and folk touches, as well as sophisticated and evocative
neoclassical vocals that are used as more of a focus of the track rather
than the other styles that put in briefer appearances. Less songoriented than many Projekt releases, but its ethereal nature, coupled
with the slightly dark take on folk/world/classical music, fits right in with
much of the label's other output. Combining elements familiar from the
ambient/drone/experimental genre with creative, intellectual ideas of
their own, the album is relaxing yet slightly unsettling at times, and goes
beyond music and into the realms of aural art." [Bliss / Aquamarine]
* ALIO DIE - Aura Seminalis CD (Hic Sunt Leones HSL045, 2008)
Auf AURA SEMINALIS verwendet ALIO DIE vokales und chorales
Material, welches elektronisch verfremdet oder mit elektronischen
Effekten angereichert wird. Dabei entstehen zwei lange Stücke von
unglaublicher Emotionalität und Tiefe, frei fliessend & sanft wirbelnd um
imaginäre Zentren....Die sakralen Choräle verschmelzen auf eine
einmalige Art und Weise mit akustisch-elektronischen Sound,
vielleicht das beste ALIO DIE -Album bisher, auf jeden Fall aufregend
anders als vorherige Arbeiten !
"The new work by Alio Die it is part of the Castle's sonorisation series,
titled AURA SEMINALIS. The first track 'Sine Tempore part I-III' it's an
epicentre of mystic music carachterized by a gold cathedral's
atmosphere, while 'Aura Seminalis part I-II' displays an ascensional
soundworld of arcane purity and rare beauty.
One of the best works by Alio die so far.
CD packaged in an elegant three sides digipack!! HSL 045" [label info]
* ALEXANDERSON, MAGNUS - Stretched in the Dark CD
(Elektron Rec., EM1010, 2005)
€ 13.00
Drei Stücke von dieser Neuentdeckung für uns, dem schwedischen
Elektro-Akustiker MAGNUS ALEXANDERSON; seinen Stil könnte man
als "dark & droney electro-acoustic" bezeichnen, v.a. das Titelstück
begeistert mit schneidenden, sehr kraftvoll-intensiven Dronescapes...
"Elektron is the record company of SEAMS, the Society of ElectroAcoustic Music in Sweden. Their tenth release is by Magnus
Alexanderson (1961). He studied guitar, bassoon and musical theory in
his youth and later on computer music. Nowadays he works mainly in
the electro-acoustic field. There are three pieces here on this release,
one from 1991, one from 1997 and the most recent is from 2000, the
opening piece. It's called Stretched In Dark (the word the mentioned in
the title is missing here) and is listed as musique concrete, but it's wall
of the sound drone could easily be listed as 'amplified electric guitar
plays with a chain saw', as it has the heavy saw sounds of an amplified
agricultural tool. The midiguitar is part of the second piece, Melting
Points (1997) together with a sampler. Similar chainsaw effects are
reached here, but it's a much more serious piece of slowly gliding
sounds, occasionally interrupted by smaller sounds. The oldest piece is
Fu (1991), and it's also the longest piece. It's for computer-controlled
synthesizer and of a much more quieter nature. Bell like sounds open
the piece, and over the course of almost thirty minutes these get
stretched out and are sometimes visited by the bell sounds. A deeply
atmospherical piece that is the highlight of the CD, even when the other
tracks are also quite good." [Vital Weekly 525]
"This latest release in a recent outpouring of creativity from Italy's
master of organic drones is possibly the most unique in this artist's long
career as a sound sculptor. While most of his recent releases on his
own Hic Sunt Leones label have been collaborations, this is his first
solo effort since the release of the 10 inch vinyl Aurea Hora. As the
elaborate Renaissance style artwork on the cover suggests, this music
points in the direction of a more "classical" sound insofar as the
utilization of Gregorian style chants. These are successfully
incorporated into Musso's customary drones comprised of field
recordings, acoustic instruments, and electronic processing, giving this
disc a particularly reverent ambience. Don't think Enigma or Delerium,
because as one listens to this they may be inclined to bow their head
and meditate or pray rather than nod or chill. I imagine that if today's
sound recording abilities were available during those times evoked by
the artwork or chants, they too would have then added the organic
elements that Alio Die does, creating a balance of both the heavenly
and the earthbound. Fans of his music may or may not find this
approach a departure from what they are accustomed to, but it is
certain that this artist is going beyond his previous huge body of work to
encompass a broader sonic pallette." [Pauldient / Discogs.com]
* ALIO DIE & MARTINA GALVAGNI - Eleusian Lullaby CD (Projekt
Records 208, 2007)
€ 14.50
"Oasen-Ambient" auf dieser Zusammenarbeit von ALIO DIE mit der
italienischen Sängerin MARTINA GALVAGNI, hell klingend & klar, eine
paradiesische Schönheit und Geborgenheit heraufbeschwörend,
zärtlich, warm & sinnlich. ALIO DIE benutzt wieder diverse Instrumente
wie Zither & Sitar und field recordings, die er auf seine typische Art und
Weise verwebt...
"Eleusian Lullaby is a sensual ethereal-ambient collaboration between
Italian soundsculptor Stefano Musso (aka Alio Die) and Italian singer
Martina Galvagni. It is the third release in Projekt's series of Alio Die's
vocal collaborations following 2001's Apsaras (with Amelia Cuni) and
2005's Mei-Jyu (with Jack or Jive). Eleusian Lullaby blends the natural,
warm and earthy ambient compositions of Alio Die with the elegant,
neo-classical voice of Martina, merging notes and silence into an
expanded dreamscape. This is lullaby music like an aural caress from
darkness into the light. The combination of the vocal melodies with the
abstract qualities of the loops and instruments creates a suspended
near-dream space, intimate and sensual at the same time.
The opening track, 'The Oniroid Sleep,' displays a foggy atmosphere
where the voices wash beneath the acoustic layers of the cithara, sitar,
kalimba and field recordings. On the second track, 'A Drone Song for
Alienor,' the voice is clearer and more upfront with all its powerful
beauty apparent creating an intense and fragile song with a neoclassical approach. The third song, 'Eleusian Lullaby,' was created as a
totally free improvisation of psaltery and voice; the text is sung in a
dialect of the Engadina language (Switzerland). Drones and loops were
added later from the original recordings.
60 minutes of music, composed by acoustical improvisations with voice,
psaltery, zither, cithara, bells, metals and field recordings. The original
recordings were made in locations in the woods and in ancient medieval
places then processed and layered by Alio Die at Temple Studio in
2005-2006.
Listen to this trance music in the dark and be lead to a tranquil earthly
garden. Like in the best lullabies, you are caressed as you are
transported to a mysterious parallel soundworld of peace and harmony."
[label notes]
"Three elongated tracks making up a full length album of arty, filmic
experimental soundscaping. Delicate and subtle, yet slightly discordant,
melodies from archaic stringed instruments interweave with ambient
* ALL SIDES - Dedalus CD (Make Mine Music MMM036, 2007)
[ed. of 500]
€ 13.00
Erste full-length CD für das Bremer Projekt! Die Mischung aus
elektronischen Beats & Sounds und den organisch-melancholischen
und auch sehr dunklen Flächen und Harmonien (die per Gitarre & Bass
beigesteuert werden) schafft einen sehr eigenen Stil... das ganze ist
vielleicht nicht immer "auf den Punkt" gespielt, aber das macht auch
den Charme vieler Kompositionen aus, denn sie sind erfüllt von rauher
Kraft, Lebendigkeit & Intensität. Nur 500 Stück wurden gepresst, auf
dem unkommerziellen Label-Projekt MAKE MINE MUSIC aus UK !
"Nina Kernicke is not a composer concerned with bombast. Her already
developed (and superb) atmospheres and sinuous melodies are joined
on her first full-length by a newly acquired sense of patience and
interconnectedness. One song at a time, Kernicke assembles a thriller
of a record that triumphs because of its unhurried development and
thickly amassed tension.
It isn't until "Dedalus," the album's fourth track, that Kernicke really lets
her explosive side loose. The previous three tracks are something of a
primer for the pseudo-dystopian aura for which All Sides is known. With
a minimum of sources, dirty city-scapes and seedy, back-alley
transactions are manifested and situated among a fast-moving and
impersonal population of greedy businessmen, cautious detectives, and
dirty street punks looking for a kick. All Sides' music is far from
impersonal, however. On the contrary, the music brings characters,
locations, fears, and even suspicions to life with a great deal of ease.
Before the title track's explosive guitars and extended synthesizers
slither their way among Kernicke's populated rhythms, both "The Idea"
and "Luv" establish an imposing and mournful background that radiates
throughout the rest of the album. When "Dedalus" finally breaks the
album open with an organic melody and seemingly endless guitar
meditation, relief comes as a tangible and wonderful sensation.
Yet it is interrupted; the conspiratorial tone of a German speaker finds
42
its way into the calm heart of the song and Kernicke includes the
sounds of seagulls chattering away in the background to increase the
sensation that whatever is happening in this album's dark world, it's just
as real as the world in which we live. At this point Dedalus begins to feel
like a narrative. The narrative was there when "The Idea" first started to
play, but as in many good books and movies, Kernicke doesn't
immediately give away how all the various puzzle pieces fit together.
"The Unfinished End of H.W." is where Kernicke begins to draw her
disparate ends together. The intrigue of spy novels and detective
stories quickly solidify in the rush of its pattering rhythms and swelling
strings, each movement in the song conjuring up the lightning-quick
reflexes required of a man on the lamb or an investigator caught in a
plot much bigger than he could possibly know. Each following track
feels like a well-placed edit or narrative switch wherein the plot is
moved along by an unexpected twist or omniscient switch in
perspective. "Mistake" exhibits Kernicke's ability to build believable and
threatening environments out of sound whereas "Against the Sun"
shows off her ability to write a sensuous tune that is equal parts
sexuality and nervous suspicion.
Like many great dystopian fictions, Kernicke does not end her work on
the most positive of notes. "Into the Sea" is a drone of resignation;
imagining a hero at the center of Dedalus' story, this particular track is
the main character's tragic failure to rise above the dark and constantly
twisting machinations of the world Kernicke so expertly constructed in
the opening songs. Both the title of this particular song and its overall
mood remind me of Kate Chopin's The Awakening, a book that ends
with the female protagonist committing suicide by swimming too far out
to sea. "Stay" concludes the album with the beating of an evil heart and
the metallic echoes of cold indifference. Upon repeated listens, Dedalus
emerges most firmly as an account of someone's downfall. Drawn into a
web too thick to escape, the imagined hero reaches for safety, but falls
short and is hopelessly lost. But the fall isn't the only attraction in this
story as each song is ripe with minute and involving details. All Sides'
previous recordings were all fine examples of beat-driven electronic
music, but Dedalus is an exceptional record that succeeds on many
more fronts. It is one example of how vivid and intense a record can be
without taking recourse to ostentatious measures. It is also a record
with great hooks and a definite sense of direction and purpose." [Lucas
Schleicher / Brainwashed]
in the normal sense, but VERY funky in some sort of fucked up futuristic
minimal robot dancefloor way. A few of the tracks feature vocals, but
they're in German, and spoken quickly and rhythmically, making them
less like lyrics and more like another overlaid rhythm (especially when
the voice is just reciting numbers).
Imagine a huge white glass cube filled with robots, all hunkered
over computers and drum machines, and synthesizers and equalizers,
everything totally automated, huge gears turning, machines pulsing, the
robots locked into the same motion over and over, a strange assembly
line. At the end, a tiny speaker, facing a huge empty grassy field, a blue
sky, nothing in the sky but a single white cloud. Perfectly ovoid. Out of
the speaker comes this. That's what we imagine when we listen to
Unitxt. Stripped down, cool and clinical outer space future robot antifunk, laced with plenty of sculpted buzz and crackle, and shaped from
bits of hiss and crunch. Tacked on to the end of the record, are a whole
series of fragments and sound sources, each created from
transforming an image or information into sound. These are 'Source
Code Solos' to be played over the other tracks, or might assume, that
with these sounds, and your own giant robot manned glass cube sound
factory, you could make your very own Unitxt! " [Aquarius Records
review]
* AMBARCHI, OREN & Z'EV - Spirit Transform Me CD (Tzadik
TZ8123, 2008)
€ 14.00
"Raise Praise on drum, in dance - Raise Praise on strings and pipes.
Raise Praise on singing cymbals - Raise Praise on shattering cymbals".
Wie schon auf den vorangegangenen Collaborationen scheint Z'EV auf
neueren Aufnahmen zu versuchen, seine Metal-Perkussion zu
verfeinern, zu verfremden und zu transformieren - das passt hier ganz
hervorragend zu AMBARCHIs Digital-Drone Gitarren und Sirr-Sounds,
ergibt ganz wunderbare Klang-Bewegungen und Verformungen.
Drei lange Stücke sind enthalten, betitelt ALEF, BET und GIMEL.
"Oren Ambarchi is a composer and multi-instrumentalist experimenting
in the dark trance-inducing worlds of ambient, industrial and electronic
music. His newest collaborative project features the legendary
percussionist/composer and mystic Z'ev in a hypnotic series of pieces
exploring the inner meanings of the Hebrew Alef-beit. A remarkable
vision from beginning to end, with sounds both fragile and powerfully
intense, Oren and Z'ev take the sonic investigation of guitar and
percussion to startling new heights. Qabalhistic euphoria from two
masters of trance!" [label info]
* ALVA NOTO - Unitxt CD
(Raster-Noton R~N 095, 2008)
€ 14.00
"Carsten Nicolai aka ALVA NOTO, der sich inzwischen auch mit der
Feder eines Björk-Timbaland-Remixes schmücken kann, verfährt hier
einmal mehr nach dem Motto: Nothing beats Beatz. Strenge und doch
animierend mobile Raster von Ton und Nichtton bestimmen Unitxt
(R-N 95). Die ständig pixelnden Plops in eifrigem 120 bpm-Tempo
wirken gleichzeitig aleatorisch komplex, unendlich variabel, beruhigend
selbstähnlich und unfehlbar automatisch. Kaum etwas könnte den
Zeitgeist aus der Maschine, der Aufregung und Beruhigung zur
Deckung bringt, besser transportieren als dieser Minimal Techno. Die
Hälfte der Synapsen wird auf Touren gebracht, durch beständigen
Beschuss aktiviert und angeregt, die andere Hälfte durch eine
Art Monotonie zweiter Ordnung hypnotisch eingelullt. Sinnesreiz und
Desensibilisierung werden ununterscheidbar, ich möchte zugleich
mitzucken in diesem Stakkatobeschuss, diesem eckigen
Swingprogramm, diesem steppenden Automatenballett, und wohlig
wegdösen unter dieser übersinnlichen Massage, die sich jeden
Quadratmillimeter der Hirnrinde einzeln vornimmt. Zwei Tracks ragen
heraus durch den txt-Faktor, den Anne-James Chaton, Soundpoet aus
Montpellier, beisteuert. Er liest automatenhaft banale Infos über Nicolai
und eine Zahlenreihe. Dazu gibt es dann noch 15 weitere Kurz- und
Kürzesttracks, prasselndes Zischen, weißes Rauschen, krätzigstachlige Attacken, allesamt hörbar gemachte Nichtaudiodateien." [Bad
Alchemy]
"We love Alva Noto. His minimal rhythmic soundscapes are just so
fantastic, dense and complex but at the same time impossibly simple
and spare. And everything he does is so high concept. But in a way,
that's not obvious just listening to the music. This may be art, high
concept art, but the resulting sounds transcend art, and become music,
and grooves, pleasing to the ear, not only the mind.
Unitxt is Alva Noto's (aka Carsten Nicolai) return to 'the rhythm' after
a handful of releases (in several different series) that were much more
esoteric and ambient. Unitxt is still pretty ridiculously high concept, with
the songs developed through various methods: one song is a portrait of
Nicolai converted into sound, another is based on the golden ratio, a
recitation of an endless row of numbers, another is based on a reading
of the various items in Nicolai's wallet, credit cards, business cards,
notes, just reading the words and numbers and converting the resulting
information into sound. Endlessly amusing for sure, but it wouldn't mean
shit if the music was bad. Thankfully, this is exactly the stuff we love
from Nicolai, super clinical machine like soundscapes of skitter and
glitch. everything sharp and clipped, the grooves far from funky, at least
* AMBER ASYLUM - Garden of Love maxi-CD (Paradigms
Recordings 001, 2006) [lim. 750]
€ 10.00
Nach langer Pause fünf neue Stücke von KRIS FORCEs Band;
melodramatische, Kammermusik-artige Elegien wo ein klares SongGerüst aber immer zu erkennen ist, eingespielt mit Bass, Piano, Violine
& Cello, Bläsern, Percussion, und dazu KRIS eindringliche Stimme;
zurückhaltend, slow, so einsam & verloren.....bisher ihre ergreifenste,
weil ausgereifste Veröffentlichung !
"San Francisco's Amber Asylum return with their first new recordings in
nearly five years . Five dark, brooding chamber works of misanthropic
resonance and chilling emotional beauty. A blackened neo-classical
masterpiece following their previous recordings on Relapse and Neurot
as well as their acclaimed collaborations with Neurosis, Swans and
Jarboe amongst others. Just under half an hour of new recordings,
featuring the bonus soundtrack recording, "Serenade"." [label notes]
* AMP - All of Yesterday Tomorrow 3 x CD (RROOPP RR02PP,
2007) € 18.50
Schöne Zusammenstellung von raren Stücken, Outtakes, Compilationstracks und Unveröffentlichtem dieser britischen Band aus dem Umfeld
der 90er Jahre "Guitar-Drone-Psychedelia", in einem Atemzug zu
nennen mit SLOWDIVE, MY BLOODY VALENTINE & FLYING
SAUCER ATTACK. Gerade die experimentelleren, Soundscape-artigen
Stücke hier machen "All of Yesterday Tomorrow" auch für Hörer
interessant die sonst weniger mit "Shoegazer"-Sound anfangen
können...
"Well over a decade ago, Bristol was the birthplace of a community of
psychedelically inclined art-rockers. At first, there seemed to be an
open door policy to the projects that emerged, with members rotating
between Flying Saucer Attack, Third Eye Foundation, Crescent, and
AMP. Eventually, all of these projects settled into their own particular
aesthetic with Flying Saucer Attack continuing an overblown 'rural
psychedelia,' Third Eye Foundation completing the project that Kevin
Shields never finished of bridging darkcore drum'n' bass with snarling
guitar distortion, and Crescent sinking into an abject grit of narcolepsy.
AMP had been the most elusive of the four, shifting between luminously
smeared space rock and ungrounded electronics-plus-guitar noodling.
When AMP were focused on their somber tunes, the smoldering
washes of distortion and fuzz worked very well (i.e. their debut album
Sirenes and their two proper albums on Kranky); but the exploration of
guitar drone and post-Eno ambience proved to be less successful for
43
AMP. This triple cd collection of singles, compilation tracks, and rare
material from AMP showcases the highs and lows of their career.
Fortunately, the less than inspired ambient noodling merely drifts into
the background of this collection. It's never offensive, but just lulls and
drifts, waiting for one of AMP's exceptional, slow burning crescendos
balancing between Bardo Pond at their druggiest and the early '90s
shoegazing contingent." [Aquarius Records]
your parents, then you’ll want to get in on the Anakrid craze before it’s
too late. They’ve got a whole new way of kickin’ it old school. With
electronics AND home-made instruments, Anakrid CREATES an
exploratory atmosphere WITHOUT all those boring, go-nowhere
improvisational hang-ups. Everything sounds fresh, progressive and
weird!!! It’s just that good. Let’s face it; outsider music has gotten plain
boring. Anakrid is just the electrodes to the testicles that left field music
has been weeping for since, like, forever. Ex-punks hang up their
Mohawks and make good mayhem." [press release]
* ANAKRID - UnoDos
do-CD (Beta-lactam Ring Records
mt154 / Black Series negro 31, 2007)
[lim. 400]
€ 15.00
".... 'Father', the first CD is a nineteen track affair, which brings out the
collage man. Bicker has all sorts of sounds (percussion, cheap old
tapes, microphones) which he throws together in what seems to be an
audio-blender (no, don't look on the internet for this lovely device, I
made up the word): sampling his stuff together, adding more electronics
in what becomes a wild, hot brew of sound. The influence of Nurse With
Wound is never far away in this work. It's wild, even industrial at times,
but the musical element is never lost. The second CD in this package
is 'Rapture Of The Deep', which takes the material into a different
direction. Things happen here in a much more peaceful manner. No
wild collages, longer tracks and in general a more electronic approach.
It seems as if sound is captured inside an electronic system, locked in
rather and from there on things start to live their own life, in that closed
system. Here no real Nurse With Wound influence, but rather that of the
academics of the fifties and sixties, the era of serious composed
electronic music, although Anakrid is not as rigid as the old masters. His
form is more free, aiming for dark effects and sounding like a good
horror soundtrack. Two different sides of the music of Anakrid, now
that's what I call a successful double CD package." " [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
"UnoDos (Father/Rapture of the Deep) Edition of 400 numbered and
signed copies each with an original piece of art by Anakrid. A 2CD set
compiling the self released LPs. "Anakrid is the experimental outlet of
Chris Bickel (the raconteur behind In/Humanity, one of the greatest
groups of hardcore agitators of the 90s, and its follow-up, Guyana
Punch Line). Here he applies the smashist manifesto against atavistic
darkness of the pre-laptop variety, evoking an affected take on Nurse
With Wound and their contemporaries aether in more than a few ways.
This comparison is particularly apt on "Father", recorded with what
sounds like a home full of disused instruments, second-hand sound
sculpture, and the ideas found on countless cassette-only xpr releases
of the 80s, returning to roost on the mostly empty temple of No Fun
style extremity. Its balanced, rhythmically primal, fairly engaging head
music that leverages the occasional reheating of landmark ideas with a
refreshing purity of craft wholly missing from the current noise
landscape. Rapture of the Deep subtracts the percussive elements,
leaving the listener floating in a sea of blue-black death ambience,
without any pre-determined boundaries. Song titles and the cover
painting of a woman drowning all but spell it out for you, so Ill spare any
further nautical/asphyxiatory metaphors and just inform you that this
work leans toward the sedimentary, eternal evil type of drone once
practiced by Coil than that airy, Stars of the Lid style; its more granular
and by side two becomes quite terrifying. Its eerie, tribal, almost
polyrhythmic yet not improvisational in the least. Bickel doesnt view his
music as an excuse to wank off. It is deliberately composed. He
eschews the use of conventional instrumentation, preferring found
sounds, home-made instruments and pretty much anything that "makes
a sound that can be sculpted and manipulated". I hear the abstract
surrealism of Nurse with Wound or Current 93 in the creepy, industrial
soundscapes, but theres certainly a thread of Stockhausens electronic
period, though its not nearly as mathematical." [press release]
* ANGELI, PAOLO - Tessuti CD (ReR Megacorp ReR PA3, 2007)
€ 14.00
"Es ist wirklich kaum zu glauben, dass PAOLO ANGELI Tessuti (ReR
PA3) ohne Overdubs eingespielt hat. Dabei ist seine verblüffend
polyphone Virtuosität auf der präparierten und elektrisch verstärkten
sardischen Gitarre noch der geringere Anlass zur Verwunderung. Was
ist schon Virtuosität? Noch erstaunlicher sind das Material und die
Arrangierkunst, die Richtung, in die Angeli strebt. Neben Eigenkompositionen spielt er Björk und Fred Frith. Dem dabei der Geist von
Tom Cora über die Schulter blickt. Nicht nur bei Skeleton Crews ‚The
Hand That Bites‘, auch bei ‚Ahead in the Sand‘ und ‚Navajo‘ von
Speechless oder dem miniaturisierten ‚Lelekovice‘, Friths String Quartet
#1 (auf Quartets, RecRec, 1994, und, neu interpretiert vom Arditti String
Quartet, auf Eleventh Hour, W & W, 2005). Der Cora-Touch rührt wohl
daher, dass Angeli seine Gitarre zwischen den Knien hauptsächlich
arco wie ein Cello spielt. Bei seinen Interpretationen hebt Angeli neben
dem experimentellen Aspekt der trickreichen Mehrstimmigkeit auch das
Frith-typische Substrat der Imaginären Folklore hervor bis hin zu
Anklängen an Spielformen der Renaissance. Von Björk erklingen
‚Unravel‘ (von Homogenic), ‚Desired Constellation‘ (von Medúlla),‚One
day‘ (von Debut) und ‚Hyper-ballad‘ (von Post). Dabei gelingen Angeli
ebenfalls erstaunliche Rückbindungen des Pathos und der verstiegenen
Poesie der Isländerin an die manieristische Tradition (minus des
‚Angeschossenes Reh‘-Timbres, das mir Björk verleidet). Die zart
angeraute Sanglichkeit der sardischen Gitarre ist durchwegs
bestechend schön. Wie Angeli dazu die perkussiven Spuren zaubert,
sirrende Vibrationen und geklopfte Beats, das ist der alte SkeletonCrew-Zauber." [Bad Alchemy]
"The latest from Paolo on which he plays compositions by Fred Frith
and Bjork - solo (though when you hear it, you definitely won’t believe it)
on his highly customised and extended, electrified, giant Sardinian
guitar. A tour de force of technique and a musical pleasure. There is so
much subtlety and so much attention to the minutiae of sound, and so
much going on at any given time that it is difficult to relate what you
hear to just one person playing. Very concentrated, it rewards listening
to a few songs at a time. Though strangely, you could probably also
dance to it." [label info]
* ANTENNE - # 3 CD (Helmet Room Recordings HR0020, 2008)
€ 13.00
Überraschung! Diverse Jahre nach dem letzten Werk " # 2 " sind
ANTENNE zurück, und zwar auf dem Sub-Label von BETA-LACTAM
RING RECORDS. Der besondere Stil, die magisch-zarten &
zerbrechlichen Songs, Akustikgitarren & sanfte Elektronik,
zurückhaltende trip-hop Beats, der unfassbar sanfte & wundervolle
Gesang, all das wurde weiterentwicklelt und perfektioniert. Extrem subtil
& gefangennehmend melancholisch, ohne pathetisch zu sein. Ein leicht
geräuschhafter & experimenteller Einschlag rundet das ganze ab,
wahrhaft dunkler Ambient-Pop!
"Antenne is the critically acclaimed solo project of Copenhagen’s Kim
G. Hansen, who formerly recorded as half of the Danish industrial duo
Institute for the Criminally Insane. Kim G. Hansen was also one of the
founding members of Danish experimental noise-rock band Grind, who
later became Amstrong - a project focused on trip-hop aesthetics but
still influenced by the origins of the band. In 1999, Kim left Amstrong to
form a solo project - Antenne. The female vocalist of Amstrong, MarieLouise Munck, also participates at the project as vocalist on most of the
songs. Antenne is known for a minimal and profound style of
experimental and dark trip-hop. This is their third full length release and
their first release on BlRR/helmet room recordings." [label info]
* ANAKRID - Banishment Rituals of the Disenlightened CD
(Beta-lactam Ring Records mt199a, 2008)
[lim. 500]
€ 13.00
Tolles Album dieser Neuentdeckung auf Beta-Lactam: sehr dichte,
dunkle, geräuschhäft-mysteriöse Klänge, elektronisch unterfüttert &
stets in dynamischer Bewegung, ein weites Spektrum auf den 11
Stücken austestend... sehr eigener Stil!
"..A very dark, often unsettling and intense album of electronic
experimentation." [Side-Line]
"First ed. of 500 copies in a book bound CD case. Anakrid a day keeps
the doctor slurred in a trove of fish-tallowed sling slong. This is what it
sounds like when doves cry because the mother ship crashes into their
nest in the 6th dimension. With this symphony of sickness comprised of
scraped palpitations, pitched whooshes, roaring cathodes and
syncopated metallics, Anakrid have another breakthrough chart topper
on their bruised hands! These avant-garde hit-makers have real
crossover potential, combining the best, most dynamic experimental
noise with the very latest drones. This exciting NOW sound is OUT OF
THIS WORLD! The long awaited fusion of ritualistic tribalism with the
tweaked electro-tech of ancient alien cultures is finally here. Hey kids! If
you love Nurse With Wound, Genocide Organ, Hafler Trio,
Muslimgauze, Pierre Henry, Nadja and Harry Bertoia and confusing
* ANTLERS MULM - Of Withered Sparks CD (LOKI Foundation
LOKI47, 2007)
[lim. 222 copies]
€ 13.00
"Our hopes, our flesh, our tears... are draped like dead birds in the
skies"... Different from most other LOKI-artists, ANTLERS MULM
appears to be much more song-oriented, doing a kind of dark electronic
pop-music, but very refined, minimal, deeply melancholic & quiet.
Reminds us a bit on TWICE A MAN or TOR LUNDVALL at times, but
with a much darker singing...
"The third album of ANTLERS MULM opts for deep resonating tones
that are harmonious and hypnotic with a greater emphasis on
percussion, and the massive foray into song based structures. Dark
Beats and phantasmagorial Melodies are melting into an intense
44
* ARC - Glassine 1 CD (A Silent Place ASP22, 2008) € 12.00
"Glassine I was recorded live at the Ambient Ping in Toronto on
03/07/2006; and can be easily described as an organic space ambient,
with very strong references to Pink Floyd (Ummagumma), Popol Vuh,
Ashra Temple, Jackie-O Motherfucker, O Yuki Conjugate, AMP and
Flying Saucer Attack or "Fourth World" ambient music! Four tracks of
pure vibrant multi-layered psychedelic drone music! Now, close your
eyes, listening to "Glassine I" and start for your trip even without the
intake of any substances… waiting for “Glassine II (coming soon on A
Silent Place)." [label info]
atmosphere guided by the outstanding voice of the father of shadows
Hans Johm. Throbbing samples enriches this compositions to a
homogenic masterpiece. These 10 songs are catching the mood of the
warm feeling of being at home and creating a landscape of a coruscant
kingdom that lies deep within the lyrical and musical expression. These
tracks building melancholy on the most song based LOKI release ever take a deep breath and get lost in this aural world of ANTLERS MULM.
Limited digipack and vinyl version (222 copies) released in January
2008." [label info]
* ARANOS - Mother of Moons Bathing CD
(Soleilmoon Rec.
SOL 145 CD, 2007) [lim. 400]
€ 14.50
Für den Hirn-zerschabenden Stil-Mix alleine hätte ARANOS bereits
einen Preis verdient - von klickender Sinuston-Elektronik über free-form
Noise bis hin zu swingenden Songs mit Gesang ["MAMA GOT A NEW
BOYFRIEND"], von Drone-Loops und Gongflächen über obskurste
Geräuschtracks bis hin zu XXX kann hier einfach alles passieren....
für den Wiedererkennungseffekt aber sorgen die immer wieder
präsente Violine & seine rauhe, markante Stimme, verbunden mit den
verschroben-ironischen Texten. Das ganze ist auch noch verpackt in
ein edelstes, Filz-artiges Cover... immer wieder, so scheint es, geht es
ARANOS darum, Grenzen jedweder Art zu überschreiten, aber mit
STIL... ARANOS bildet sich sein ur-eigenstes Genre.
"Aranos (pronounced Aranyosh) is a prolific composer and storied multiinstrument performer from the Czech part of Bohemia, by way of
Ireland, where he lives near his friend and frequent collaborator Steve
Stapleton of Nurse With Wound. “Mother of Moons Bathing” is his first
release for Soleilmoon, but his lengthy discography includes releases
issued by Beta-lactam Ring Records, Brainwashed, Crouton,
Klanggalerie, Noise Museum and United Daries as well as his own label
Pieros. The album covers a lot of ground, and refuses to be
categorized, unless “Aranos” can be its own category. It opens with
“Awaking Horns”, a minimalist piece built around a simple repeating
click track containing absolutely no horns whatsoever. “New Boyfriend”
begins as a jaunty ode to new-found love, but the conversation between
mother and daughter turns dark as it’s revealed that the new boyfriend
has a dodgy past with little girls. “Some Clowns Are Not Funny” and
“Almost Pulled Through” are a pair of scary electro-acoustic roller
coaster rides that sound like they might have escaped from Steve
Stapleton’s little shop of horrors. The fifth song, “Legs Thighs Splits”
returns to the gently fun whimsy started with “New Boyfriend”, but
trades literal meaning for delicious texture and experimentation. “I saw
Women’s Rising Fry” is a song of fearlessly eccentric lyrics married to
complex, brain-tingling instrumental arrangements. “Ta-taa-ta, Taah
merged” is a side dish of looped, sampled vocal minimalism leading into
the the longest track on the CD, “Towards Glittering Warm Dumplings”,
a rolling trance-dance weighing in at more than 21 minutes. “Invisibility
Cloak of Time”, another minimalist electro-acoustic instrumental, closes
the album. The total length of “Mother of Moons Bathing” is 71 minutes
41 seconds, and it’s sheer bliss from start to finish. In the face of a
market dominated by increasingly bland visuals and dire throw-away
packaging, this album stands apart. In the tradition of other Soleilmoon
releases, the presentation for “Mother of Moons Bathing” is second to
none. This time the CD comes in a hand-made silk-screened softtextured folder with a pair a sparkly screen-printed inserts backing up
the disc inside. The costly and stunning materials have work together to
produce a pleasingly harmonious package that will appeal to music fans
and serious collectors alike. “Mother of Moons Bathing” is limited to 400
copies. After his child was taken away and sent to slavery Carlos
resigned himself to becoming low to medium quality moon fodder.
Spending his days in rearranging surface molecules with his broken
arms and dislocated shoulders while filling his eyes and lungs with
yellow dust. All the while pondering impermanence of the unpredictable
his reward was flow of hill magic and stunning sunsets. Too much
knowledge gathered over the years was proving to be a mixed blessing.
Change of timbre in his diabetic movement master’s voice clearly
indicated a forthcoming constriction of coronary arteries, but there was
nothing Carlos could do. Certainly not over the distance of four and a
half thousand miles. The only thing was to accept all. Child slavery,
master’s coronary, yellow dust, beautiful sunsets, flow of magic…"
[press release]
* ARCANA - Raspail CD (Kalinkaland Records KAL32, 2008)
€ 14.50
"Die CD kommt in einem hochwertigen Artwork, das sowohl ein 8seitiges Leporello, als auch ein 12-seitiges Booklet enthält!
Arcana sind seit Jahren über alle Grenzen hinweg stilprägend und
eines der großen Aushängeschilde der weltweiten Gothic Wave Szene.
Ihre Musik umfasst eine einzigartige, kraftvolle und verzauberte
Anmutung, der sich kaum jemand entziehen kann. Mit ihrem neuen
Werk Raspail schlagen Arcana nun das nächste Kapitel ihrer
einzigartigen Karriere auf und verschmelzen die filigrane Romantik ihrer
früheren Werke, um ihr erfolgreiches Album Inner Pale Sun, mit
bahnbrechendem Gothicwave der Neuzeit. Raspail begeistert durch die
außergewöhnliche Mischung aus orchestralen, mächtigen
Soundcollagen, natürlich instrumentierten Arrangements, und den
himmlisch klaren Stimmen des Baritons Peter Bjärgö und der
Sopranistin Ann-Mari Thim, die das Album in einen mystischen
Klangzauber verwandeln der alles bisherige in den Schatten stellt.
Die inzwischen sechste Veröffentlichung des schwedische Quintetts ist
ein magisch, geniales Glanzstück, getragen von zarten Pianotupfern
und intensiven Klangwelten aus Streichern und Hörnern. Klassisch,
melodramatisch und kaum zu überbieten!" [label info]
"Arcana has turned another page in the book and the next chapter will
be a meeting between the old and the new. As before, we hear the
many instruments that vary the music, but this time the vocals parts
have taken more room. The medieval sound from Dark age of Reason
and Cantar de Procella is there, the majestic sound from... The Last
Embrace appear along with the serene notes from Inner Pale Sun and
the oriental instruments from Le Serpent Rouge. Blend this with the new
sound once again created by Peter Bjärgö, and you will have Raspail,
the next chapter in the book of Arcana." [label info]
* ARCANE DEVICE - Devices 1987-2007 do-CD (Monochrome
Vision (mv18), 2007)
[lim. 500]
€ 17.00
Texturen aus Sirenen-Klängen und Sinuston-Feedbacks, repetitive
Patterns aus Extrem-Frequenzen, Effektgerät-Übersteuerungen bilden
seltsame Klangkegel aus, elektronische Cut-Ups formen Kaskaden aus
befremdlicher Rhythmik. Und alles basiert nur auf einer Soundquelle:
Feeback! Auf dieser russischen Kollektion des emsigen
MONOCHROME VISION-Labels findet sich älteres rares Material von
längst vergessenen Compilations, aber auch neue Stücke von 2007,
welche nahtlos an die Vergangenheit anknüpfen, insgesamt aber
weniger noisig & offensiv klingen. Very special stuff!
"Anthology of rare and previously unreleased tracks by Arcane Device,
recorded within the 20 years. It is divided into two parts. The first one
consists of tracks from compilations issued by Subterranean Records,
Tragic Figures, SFCR Tapes, and Generations Unlimited, but also
unreleased material remastered and/or remixed in 2007. The second
one is subtitled as "Feedback symphony" and based on various
recordings, presented in four movements and finished in 2007. One
more chance to approve the exceptional skills and compositional/
technical talent of David Myers who can control the electrons by will,
creating fantastic soundscapes. Arcane Device is the unique project of
american graphic designer and musician David Myers, active between
1987 and 1995. His creative output is going beyond any
categorization, because it’s possible to re-arrange and demonstrate
such many styles of modern music with only one thing that is feedback.
This effect usually happens when you shortcut the input and output of
any electric device. It’s hard to believe but this almost uncontrolable
beast became the driving force for Arcane Device music, armed by selfmade bank of delays and filters. Looking like inward sound research,
decorated with finest web of random processes and microvariations, it
becames the peculiar feature. Endless circulation of electrons, never
repeating routes and always having some chance for individual life
inside of any macrostructure." [label notes / credits]
"....I might be wrong, but the oldest guy here is David Lee Myers, also
known in the mid eighties as Arcane Device and one of my heroes of
the time. Myers created his own feedback machines long before
someone thought of 'no input mixers'. Myers controlled his feedback
with all sorts of sound effects, which made him sound differently than
say the average industrial musician. No wonder his first release was on
Recommended/ReR records, known for improvisation rather than noise.
In the time span of less than eight years Arcane Device released a
* ARC - Arkhangelsk CD (Epidemie Records EPR064, 2008) [lim.
600] € 13.50
Bei ARC werden die typischen BAKERschen Grundelemente (endlos
lange Gitarren-Loops / Delays mit vielen Mikrodetails, die jedoch klar
strukturiert sind) mit zum Teil kraftvoller Perkussion und elektronischen
Effekten umhüllt....psychedelisch, improvisiert, dronig, eigenwillig..
Anklänge an TARENTEL und andere Post-Rock & Ambient-GuitarDrone Projekte...
45
bunch of CDs, a LP, a double 7" pack and some cassettes (many of
them these days available from http://www.pulsewidth.com). For
Monochrome Vision, Myers went to his archive to pick some rare (from
various compilations on Subterranean Records, Tragic Figures, SFCR
and Generations Unlimited) and unreleased for his double CD. I admit
straight away that it has been a while since I last played a CD by
Arcane Device, but hearing this feast of recognition, prompts me to pull
them all out and play them again in the next weeks, when time allows
me. The strength of Arcane Device, to work with such unmusical
sounds in such a musical form, hasn't lost any of his magic to me.
Unlike say the current wave of no input mixers, who like to be
microsound, minimal or overtly harsh, but nothing musical, I only know
of one equivalent to Myers and that's Marco Ciciliani, who I once saw
play a no input mixer in such a musical manner. Great stuff!" [FdW /
Vital Weekly]
set of chords that build inexorably from multiple guitar, string and organ
lines." [press release]
* ATRIUM CARCERI - Ptahil CD (Cold Meat Industry CMI.168,
2007) € 14.00
ATRIUM CARCERI gehört sicher inzwischen zu den besten der COLD
MEAT-Acts, seine Kompositionen weisen eine kompositorische Schärfe
auf, die einen leicht in den Bann zieht. Sein viertes Album heisst
PTAHIL: Sehr elektronisch, fast orchestral breitwandig, oft mit
langsamem halligen Pulses versehen, von cinematoskopischen
Charakter; und immer wieder tauchen unheimliche, rumpelnde,
elektronisch sirrende oder organische Geräuscheffekte auf, wie in einer
von fremden Wesen bevölkerten Unterwelt. Trotzdem sind die Stücke
perfekt durchstruktiert, jeder Sound wirkt gewollt platziert, stilistisch
irgendwo im Kreuzungsbereich von post-Industrial, dark ambient &
Neo-Klassik. Erstklassig!
"The fourth album from composer Simon Heath (Sweden) ventures
beyond the vestiges of your mortality, granting a fleeting glance at the
world beyond the veil. As ever, Simon has reinvented the genre as well
as himself with a unique ambience created from his ever-increasingly
complex and obscure techniques of mental dissolution and musical
innovation. Atrium Carceri emerges from the vapours with yet another
stunning release entitled Ptahil (fetahil). The obsidian citadel stands
stoic, its forceful gaze forever over streets running rampant with the
councils bidders, while the citadel of glass attracts the mindless
reincarnates grasping at anything physical while their memories slowly
burn away in the womb of their eternal home. The comforts of quiet
lives forever washed away by a miasmic tidal wave of necrotic flesh,
sagging, protean forms and the chill of the grave.This is a place where
steel rusts and is forgotten, where flesh and the fleeting forms it inhabits
are forever changed. Ptahil sees all, and forgets naught. Let your mind
be stripped to the pulpy, undulating core with this darkened voyage into
domains both dreadful and serenely beautiful." [press release]
* ARTEMIEV, ARTEMIY - Five mystery tales of Asia CD
(Electroshock Records ELCD007, 1998) € 13.00
"Neues Werk (die 4.te CD) des Moskauer Komponisten ARTEMIY
ARTEMIEV (der Sohn von Edward Artemiev, der für viele
TARKOWSKI-Filme die Soundtracks schrieb), auf seinem eigenen
Label veröffentlicht, ein dichter ambientartiger Soundtrack mit Ethno-,
Worldmusic- und orientalisch anmutenden Einflüssen (Flöten,
Gesänge). Manchmal wie eine Mischung aus RAPOON und
DESACCORD MAJEUR. ARTEMIEV benutzt hier Instrumente aus
Japan, China und der Mongolei, und erzählt dabei Geschichten aus
Asien..[Drone Rec. info 1999]
Back in stock this nice CD from the russian composer (and son of
EDWARD ARTEMIEV who wrote most film-soundtracks for the
TARKOWSKI films. Dense ethno-ambient with oriental touch, still worth
to discover!
* ART OF PRIMITIVE SOUND - Musical Instruments from Prehistory
CD (Hic Sunt Leones HSL003, 1993)
€ 13.50
Einer der allerersten (und leider lange vergessenen) Veröffentlichungen
auf dem ALIO DIE-Label HIC SUNT LEONES war diese CD mit
obskuren Aufnahmen, die ausschliesslich auf prähistorischen
Instrumenten eingespielt wurde.. alte Hörner, Hölzer, Bögen, Steine,
Muscheln, etc.. klang so die Musik der Ur-Menschen?
"As the title suggests, this peculiar project commit to disk recreation of
'music' from the Paleolithic period. Involved in the project is Stefano
Musso, of Alio Die, and Walter Maioli, a researcher of the Archaeology
of Music." [Equilibrium]
* AUBE - Imagery Resonance CD (Aquarel 05-07, 2007) € 13.50
"Resonanz" ist ein gutes Stichwort für dieses Album des japanischen
Projekts, enthält es doch 4 lange, pumpende, fräsend-elektronische
Dronescapes und knarzend-sirrend Analog-Electronics, die
Resonanzen-Blasen zu werfen scheinen in imaginären Mikro- und
Makrowelten... dabei entstehen langsame Bewegungen von sich
ergebenden Strukturen, die einen hinfortreissen in diesem Kangstrom..
Definitiv einer der besten AUBE CDs der letzten Zeit!
"This album has been specially recorded by Akifumi Nakajima for
presentation at his Moscow concert in November 2007. This time he
found the sound source in a small analogue percussion synthesizer
Amdek PCK-100. Mostly calm album showing roughness and asperity
of sound only in the first track. The rest material sounds more like
lingering psychedelic soundscapes created from stratifications of looped
and freely running electronic signals." [label info]
* A SILVER MT. ZION - 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons CD
(Constellation Records CST 051-2, 2008) € 14.50
Die derzeitige Vorzeigeband des Montrealer Labels (da es GODSPEED
nicht mehr zu geben scheint) klingt auf "13 BLUES" noch weitaus
wütender, aggressiver, rockiger & lauter als man es gewohnt war.
Geblieben ist das verzweifelte Pathos und die ausschweifende bis
mitreissende Psychedelik, die immer wieder zu wunderschönen
Instrumental-Passagen führt, denn noch immer sind diverse Streicher
im Kollektiv dabei.
"Nachdem sich die komplette Band hinter Silver Mount Zion über die
letzten drei Jahre etwas rar gemacht hat, kommen sie nun umso
eindringlicher um die Ecke. Doch der Reihe nach; denn unsichbar
waren sie beileibe nicht. Als Silver Mountain Reveries oder The Silver
Maountain Elegies Play War Radio suchten sie diverse Clubs in
wecshelnden Bestzungen heim, zuweilen unterstützt durch Hangedup,
oder als abgespeckte "Kammer"-Version. Und dann natürlich nicht
zuletzt als Backing Band des famosen Vic Chesnutt auf seiner kürzlich
absolvierten Tour. Das alles jedoch konnte nicht den Hunger der Fans
nach einem neuen Album des Montrealer Künstlerkollektivs stillen. Und
hier ist es nun: das neue Album. Nie zuvor waren SMZ eindringlicher,
nie zorniger und nie mächtiger. Die Basis dieses Albums ist mehr als je
zuvor: DAS Riff! Vom Blues, den es im Titel trägt bis hin zu zornigem
Noise und wieder zurück zu ausufernden Klangkaskaden - zwei
Gitarren, zwei Violinen, Cello, Kontrabass und Drums können nicht
irren! "13 Blues..." ist Donnerhall und Sturmwarnung zugleich - es ist
laut und doch fein arrangiert. Kurz: es ist absolut zwingend!" [thee
unknown reviewer]
"The music of the full band (two guitars, two violins, cello, contrebasse
and drums) has grown louder, looser, full of spittle and tears. On 13
Blues For Thirteen Moons, riffs are the backbone more than ever.
Anchored by new drummer Eric Craven (ex-Hangedup), the band works
its slow build and burn with newfound patience, sinuousness and
ferocity. Whether methodically framing walls of sound over the four-onthe-floor punk dirge of "1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound" or
exploding in sheets of free noise and melody on "Black Waters
Blowed", the band has never rocked harder and has never sounded
more determined, desperate and driven. A stuttered blues riff is the
foundation for the album's title track, making its appearance after a
blisteringly minimalist intro. "Engine Broke Blues" features a gorgeous
* AUBE - Ambera Planeta Wawar CD (Autarkeia acd 025
bootlegged 001, 2008)
€ 13.00
5 tracks recorded in Latvia, thats the only thing we know about this
strange release, which was at one point a bootleg but now its not?
This is the typical AUBE-sound, endless loops & samples in rows,
spheric drone-fields and more disturbing noise-mantras....
"AUBE Ambera Planeta Wawar goldenCD was the first bootleg issued
by AUTARKEIA label. However, after the author Akifumi Nakajima
apologised to us for his "negligence“, the misunderstandings between
AUTARKEIA and Akifumi were cleared out. In the meantime after the
author recognised the bootleg, AUBE Ambera Planeta Wawar
goldenCD has acquired a new status. This publication has become an
official release of the project, while its previous concept (that of a
bootleg) became meaningless. The exclusive record by the Japanese
genius is based on excellent psychedelic ambient and the collages of
extreme, structural noise music. The release is sold in an elegant
digipack, which is probably the first in AUBE history." [label info]
* AUBE - Reworks Stefano Gentile II CD (Silentes minimal
editions sme 0720, 2008)
€ 13.00
Second part of the Collaboration between AUBE and the SILENTES &
(ex-AMPLEXUS)-runner STEFANO GENTILE, with 4 long movements
(almost 70 minutes). Let us describe only the first track in detail, a long
movement of beautiful waving drones which change their tone & colour
from time to time, the waves begin to overlap more and more and
slowly from new textures and overtunes appear out of nothing, also in
waves... the other 3 movements use different sounds and textures, but
have the similar hypnotic character of pure drone-streaming shimmers.
One of the most meditative AUBE-works we know, highly
recommended !
46
* AUBE - Le Syndrome Aquatique do-CD (Silentes minimal
editions sme 0721, 2008)
€ 18.00
"This is the long awaited reissue of one of the best Aube's work
originally titled AQUA SYNDROME, published about 10 years ago by
MANIFOLD records. The new reissue included the original album with a
bonus track and a bonus live CD.
LE SYNDROME AQUATIQUE is an impressive job of deconstruction
and resetting of sonorous material to work of Aube, this particularly
extended in the duration, treaty and expanded time, much to be
proposed in a rich edition in double CD. Through sophisticated and very
tested technical of sonorous rework assembled in years of untiring
activity in a searching experience, Aube puts molding on and models
fragments of concrete sounds of "aquatic" derivation transforming them
in unknown drones, noises, pads, loops rhythms -mechanics,
constructing a fantastic sonorous tapestry of valuable invoice and
incredible impact, and unavoidably bringing back to the memory the first
three CD constructed with single water sounds of the monumental one
box of 12 CD " proudly published from Amplexus more than 10 years
ago. One new unforgettable work for all those who love, and has loved,
the avant-guard-istic sonorous experimentations of large the great
Japanese master." [label info]
drums complete the picture. Shocked awake by a heavy pound on a
barrel and a cracking door. Where am I at this point? The gruesome
sounds I heard before are overtaken by heavenly sounds, birds and
some vocals. But it was a short victory, the dark sounds kick in again
and the beat starts to get back at me. I am stunned, this is not music,
this is straight on sound-engineering! The second track “Scared datas”
goes like the first track, but gets more of a triphop sound. Dark triphop,
that could become a trend. Count me in for that genre, because what
Babylone Chaos is doing here is new, refreshing and awesome. The
third track “Blood on thorns” gets a lot noisier than the previous tracks
and is suddenly petrifying when circus music starts. (I always had
something against the circus and clowns, don’t ask why.)
Listening to the CD I found that Babylone Chaos can be compared, in a
strange way, with Aphex Twin. You can hear beats, but they never last
longer than a few measures. That is one of the reasons why this CD
sounds so great. Babylone Chaos doesn’t care about being tagged with
a genre; the artist just does what he wants. The CD isn’t one you listen
to on a regular occasion. Listening to “les machines exerlates” is a trip.
A trip to the beautiful, the ugly, the frightening the heaven and the hell.
As I continued my exploration, I found even more interesting material.
The piano pieces in the fifth track “Death crusade” are so strange. It
doesn’t fit with the music, but in some way it jet [i]does[/i] fit. The tender
background sounds are divided and shattered to pieces by deep noisy
scrapes, pounds and scratches. This is music which can be compared
with using acid. But please dear reader; don’t use it at the same time!
The tracks go well into each other, although that isn’t hard with such
experimental music. Track eight, “Paranoiac morons”, made me think of
a scene in the Kubrick movie “Full metal jacket”, where Joker tries to
find the sniper who turns out to be a woman. I’ve always found that
scene and especially, the music, incredible. But I think “Paranoiac
morons” would be even better as a soundtrack to that scene.
As an overall thought I must say that this release surprised me muchly.
The packaging is awesome, although I can’t stand it when a CD doesn’t
fit between the regular jewel cases and digipacks. The music is
refreshing and “les machines ecarlates” is more like a piece of art then
a CD filled with songs. “Les machines ecarlates” brings you to the verge
of your life, a leap of faith, a trip to hell and back and leaves the
unprepared to wonder. This isn’t my regular “sing along in the shower”
CD, this is something I admire, treasure for the special moments and
certainly use in tiny portions. All those experimental fans out there,
beware! “Les machines ecarlates” gives you the journey of a lifetime."
[Heathen Harvest]
* AUBE - Metal on Metal do-CD (Silentes minimal editions sme
0722, 2008)
€ 18.00
"Another long awaited reissue from Aube. METAL ON METAL (as for
AQUA SYNDROME) was published by MANIFOLD records. Also for
this work, over the original album, you'll can hear a bonus track and a
full live CD. To the discovery of the alchemical secrets and the magic of
the metallic materials, of their acoustic characters, and the possible
technological manipulations on the sounds that are possible to pull
out... It arches of it resonances, mantric vibrations, hypnotics bells
rings... That features of sounds of cymbals, plates, rings... that tubular
elements are used or more ordinary and simple metallic objects of
common use... that they are bowed or scraped..., Aube acquires the
sounds and of it transforming its essence... decomposing and
recomposing the shape... Fragmenting, expanding, stratifying and
elaborating the sonorous matter, constructs complexwafts, resounding
weaves carpets, interlaces thin threads of metallic tensions, crumbles
and agglomerates acoustic particles, leaves to flowlong, reverberating,
harmonic drones... "Metal on Metal", two only, fantastic CD for and a
matchless release." [label notes]
* AVSKY - Silent Decay CD (Reverse Alignment RA-1, 2007)
€ 13.00
A new label from Sweden presents this newcomer from Norway with
synth-loops and huge reverberations...
an act with potential to delevop, worth to check out !
"The Norweigan dark ambient scene is growing with acts that defines
the sound to be. Avsky is one of the upcoming stars at the dark
heavens of isolationism/ambient. The eminent debut Silent decay takes
the listener into eight passages of distorted and vast soundscapes,
giving the opportunity to fall into relaxing infinite.
Edition of 500 copies comes in standard jewelcase." [label notes]
"... So Avsky is from Norway, judging by his e-mail, and he likes his
tunes to be dark. As far as I can tell he plays guitar through 863
different kinds of effect processing devices, foot and hand controlled.
Alright, now that sounded not very nice of me. Perhaps I just don't
know. No, I really don't know. The eight sonic landscapes sound
actually very nice. Dark, controlled and haunted, atmospheric. Fans of
Moljebka Pvlse, Troum and such like should take notice. Fine dark
ambience all around. Maybe this is one of those obscure things that
float around on blogs in ten years as the long forgotten classic."
" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* BAD SECTOR - Storage Disk 2 CD (Waystyx WR43, 2008) [lim.
500]
€ 13.00
Zweiter Teil der Anthologie mit raren Tracks vom italienischen KultProjekt, die beweisen dass Massimo Magrini auch auf Compilations und
"kleinen" Releases nur hochwertiges veröffentlicht hat; inklusive 4
unveröffentlichen Stücke von 2002, und wieder im besonderen
WAYSTYX-Design!
"2nd part of rare tracks anthology. Contains material from: "Planar
Energy" picture 7" (Smallvoices), "Scrignum Vitae" box with CD and
objects (Old Europa Cafe), "Ten Years Of Madness" 2 CD (Achtung
Baby!), "Land:[Schaft]" 2x10" (Cold Lands), "Hover" CDr (Bastet Rec.),
"L'Ame Electrique Presents Old Europa Cafe" (Ame Electrique) + 4
previously unreleased tracks recorded in 2002." [Zhelezobeton]
"...The Waystyx label focuses on Industrial based music, drones and
field recordings. Behind the Bad Sector-project you find the Tuscannyborn artist Massimo Maggrini who has been active under the Bad
Sector flag since 1994 with the debut cassette release "Ze" on the
Slaughter Productions label followed by the CD-release "Ampos" on
Dutch label God Factory in 1995. Since then it has resulted in an
extensive number of releases on various labels with quite a few on the
Waystyx label. Present album titled "Storage disk 2" is a compilation of
later materials of Bad Sector from the period 2002-2005. The overall
expression is quite dramatic combining industrial sound spheres with
more downbeat ambient. Despite the downbeat expression approaching
the tranquilizing sound of melancholic ambient, there are masses of
industrial elements combined with interesting noisy and state of the art
electronics added elements of manipulated guitars and processed
human voices. The music of Bad Sector is intense and very
atmospheric. Thus a pleasant overview of earlier materials from a
talented Italian artist calling himself Bad Sector. Intense!" [NM, Vital
Weekly]
* BABYLONE CHAOS - Les Machines ecarlates CD (OPN
Records OPNCD007, 2007)
€ 14.00
The project of BOTCHAN KARISEN (Belgium) with a new work, a deep
tour de force into a electronic / technological chaos-music, with
influences from Industrial, Collage-Sounds and even Electro-Acoustic,
dark & ecstatic & dangerous !
"A man with a fish eye stared at me when I satisfied my computer with
this CD. The artwork on this release is awesome, something which is
thoughtful to do when you release your CD in a DVD case. On the front
of “les machines ecarlates” stands a man pierced through his forehead
with a huge piece of piping. On the back a man with a fish eye gives me
a look, which keeps me away from the track listing underneath it. I must
say, it pleases me to receive such artwork, I could write a good review
about the artwork alone.
Babylone Chaos is new to me, not only as an artist, but the music is
very new to me too. Listening to the first track “Dissect me” I got very
enthusiastic. This artist knows how to frighten someone with sounds.
Electronic heavy sounds flow back and forth while strange ‘ahhh’s and
‘oohh’s can be heard. A shivering breath, winds and strange electronic
* BAKER, AIDAN / LEAH BUCKAREFF / NADJA - Trinity CD (Die
Stadt DS107, 2008)
[lim. 500]
€ 13.00
Als NADJA zusammen mit ALLSEITS in der "Friese" in Bremen
auftraten, gab DIE STADT diese CD heraus, mit dem wohl ersten
veröffentlichten Solo-Track von der weiblichen NADJA-Hälfte LEAH
BUCKAREFF! Dieser erscheint tatsächlich wie ein Gegenpart zu
AIDAN BAKERS Musik-Kunst, ist aber bassiger & abgründiger,
47
pulsierend & gefährlich ... allein dieses Stück "Socorro" wäre das Geld
wert! Ansonsten gewohnte Klasse !
"A special NADJA CD also feat. one solo track by both members Aidan
Baker & Leah Buckareff. Released in conjunction with a live
performance on 20. April 2008 in Bremen. Limited edition of 500
numbered copies in full color sleeve. Total playing time: 38:35 min.
Track listing:
1. Aidan Baker 'Carrizozo' 10'31
2. Leah Buckareff 'Socorro' 10'42
3. Nadja 'Jornada del Muerto' 17'22 " [label info]
"Die Stadt always takes great care of their artists. Once you belong to
the label, the label will carry all your releases, and when in Bremen,
Stadt of Die Stadt, the artists will play and there is a CD for the
occasion. This trinity of a matter of one plus one is three. Nadja is the
duo of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, so they can do three things on
the same night. On April 20th (a day with historic significance... Bebe
Barron died that day this year for instance) they visited Bremen and on
'Trinity' there are two solo pieces and one duo piece. It's interesting to
see how things add up, or perhaps don't. Nadja is in full form here, with
a loud rocking piece: the drum machine hammers time away, while
guitar and bass play distorted, meanwhile looping their sound. A strong
'hole' in the sound adds an odd angle to the piece. A far cry away from
Baker's solo piece, made of carefully strummed guitars which are
looped around. Drones are faded in over the course of ten minutes and
things remain subtle. In the middle, literally, is Buckareff solo for bass.
Also starting out quiet things are unmistakably but the distortion pedal is
already lurking underneath and adds a more noisy tone to the music. If
these names don't mean anything to you, but see their music all around,
then this is absolutely a fine place to start. Trademark pieces
everywhere." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
combined a familiar ambiance within his body of work with folk music for
something that is loosely being dubbed as his “folk/drone” album. I
really didn’t know what to make of that at first. I suppose a description
like that shouldn’t be too hard to really figure out, but still it was
intriguing.
The album opens with the track “K” and greets the listener with the
simple plucking of an acoustic guitar that as the song moves forward
begins to merge into a dreamy backdrop of sound. Everything seems so
incredibly delicate, which is only enhanced by the overall sparseness
throughout the recording. One of the many things that I really enjoy
about Scalpel however is the increased focus on Baker’s vocals, which
have gradually become a part of Baker’s sound but not so much to the
amount of attention that they receive here. Granted, his vocals are still
very subdued, and like the music are softly spoken amongst the
strumming of his guitar. The last three tracks on the album are where it
really begins to take shape however, in the form of otherworldly drones,
strings, and shimmering backdrops that gradually consume Baker’s
vocals and guitar into many layers of beautiful sounds. And while
drifting and sparse as it may be, there is still a certain feeling of warmth
within it all that for me is what makes Scalpel worth many repeated
listens. It couldn’t come at a better time either as winter begins to settle
itself in here in the Midwest." [Built on a weak spot]
* BAKER, AIDAN - Green & Cold CD (Beta-Lactam Ring Records
mt164, 2008) [lim. 400]
€ 13.00
BLACK SERIES NEGRO 41. Re-issue der CDR auf GEARS OF SAND.
Eine tolle Mischung aus eher song-orientierten Stücken und dem
dronig-experimentellen "typischen" Baker! 10 Stücke, vielleicht das
bisher ausgearbeiteste Album.
"Edition of 400 numbered copies. A kind of different album from A.
Baker (Nadja) as it leans more into shoegazery and drone-pop songs.
“Green & Cold” is the strength of strings proved by A. Baker. His soft
lyrics suffuse weightlessly into a humming cloud of perfumed guitar
scour. Yes, when gazed upon, these patent leather shoes really do
reflect up. However, “G&C” is accomplishes much more than throwing
Loveless lights back up to Heaven. An ass-load or so of previous avantgarde releases has developed in Baker a skill-set to be able to tweak
normality. His 6 strings ring out like Echoes in a Shallow Bay in the year
4 A.D., but vox and drone are couched in subtly weird production. Overemphasized Esses and Tees cross pollinate with the squeaking
between-chord transitions, inventing a sort of clacking secondary dialog
underneath the quieter songs. While other pieces play out into long,
hyper-transcendent, cosmic vibes that end up in left field (see also Jim
O’Rourke, Ben Chasney and Michael Gira). And, of course, there is
other odd fragments sneaking around behind the curtain of each tune.
Baker’s voice is calmly pleasing, and like Vini Reilly or Henry Frayne
(Lanterna), his vocals often seem more like another frequency/rhythm
than specific words. “G&C” is total radiance and not quite as
heartbreaking as, say, Red House Painters, which is why it is still safe
to listen with knives around. So, it turns out “Green & Cold” is neither. It
is experienced and warm and suitable for disappearing into midnight
to." [label info]
"...Essential for fans of all things Jeck and Tim Hecker and Jasper
TX and Machinefabriek and Grouper and Troum and Main and the like,
but also worth a listen for more adventurous fans of Iron & Wine,
Spacemen 3, Galaxie 500, Low and other slowcore drugrock
dreaminess..." [Aquarius Records review]
* BAKER, AIDAN - The Book of Nods CD (Beta-lactam Ring
Records mt163 / Black Series NEGRO 40, 2008) € 13.00
"First ed. Of 500 numbered copies available late May, 2008. A new
landscape is painted out of darkness by progressive strokes of the
dawn. The finished piece is neither night nor day, but the transformation
itself. Aidan Baker's (Nadja) "Book Of Nods" crests experimental peaks
in similarly paced sonic transmigrations. His lustrous chimera blooms
open in shifting onion layers built out of slow-moaning guitar, flute,
organ and drums. The resonant frequencies of quietly crashing nodes
vibrate the ozone with a sub-textural beating of multi-pianic feathers.
Baker's prior metallic inclinations lend in heaviness, adding a certain
stylistic thud to Terry Riley-like territories, and colouring portions almost
as if they were middle passages in some sprawling prog excursion. A
soft eruption of synchronous sweet airs." [label info]
"...Book Of Nods begins with a 8 minute drift that sounds remarkable
like a more subdued Necks jam. Simple piano figure repeated over and
over, slowly shifting and changing, but looped and hypnotic and
dreamily repetitive. Almost like a much more mellow and muted
Lubomyr Melnyk, soft flurries of piano blurred into indistinct streaks,
quite lovely. The 18 minute follow up is another sort-of- jazz sprawl,
slow smoldering drones, super spare abstract percussion, warm and
languid and laid waaaaay back, before the original slow motion drift is
subsumed by some Pop Ambient washed out whir, giving the track a
strange alien ethereal sheen. Track 3, “Obsession”, is like a dubbed
out hybrid of Low and Bohren, jazzy slowcore, allowed to slither and
crawl, the drums a bit more skittery, some of the melodies effected, and
flipped backwards, allowed to swoop and thhhhwp, there are even
some fluttering flutes, again, bringing to mind a Necks style jazz jam,
but give a bit of an electronic tweaking. The 15 minute closer, is yet
another slow burning jazzy slowcore crawl, but here the drums are a bit
harder, the mood is much more ominous and foreboding, everything
wreathed in deep shimmering drones and distant rumbles, peppered
with still more swooping backward beats, steaks of feedback, building to
an intense, skittery, skipping coda, sounding a bit like Oval remixing the
Necks. Nice.
And thus somehow, yet another Baker disc well worth owning!
And not a bad place to start for the newbie, although the sounds here
are unlike most of Baker’s output. Beautifully packaged in an oversized
fold over textured paper digisleeve, with a dearth of information, just
various Asian calligraphic characters. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!"
[Aquarius Records review]
* BAKER, AIDAN - I fall into you CD (Basses Frequences 0.1.4,
2008) [ed. of 500]
€ 13.00
Re-issue of an early CDR from 2002 (in fact this is maybe his second or
third ever solo-release), which was recorded on analogue 4-track at that
time. Five pieces mix heavenly ocean guitars with rhythm-box and
(sometimes weird) tape-loops, whisphered vocal material by AIDAN and
NAOMI OKABE, and beautiful violin-drones by LISA ROSSITERTHORNTON. Between pure drone-spheres and more poetic & vocalbased song-oriented material, this shows already nowadays fully
developed skills. Highly recommended (as almost everything AIDAN
touches) !
* BARDOSENETICCUBE + NOISES OF RUSSIA - New Orthodox
Line CD (Some Place Else SPECD07043, 2007) € 12.00
Rauhe, trancige Dronescapes mit sakralem Touch & intensiv
ansteigendem Spannungsbogen zum Ende hin. Vielleicht lässt sich
dieses feine Album der beiden in St. Petersburg beheimateten Projekte
so mit einem Satz charakterisieren. Letztere sind zuletzt durch eine
Reihe von ekstatisch-rituellen Konzerten aufgefallen, die sie in
Russland und im angrenzenden skandinavischen Raum gaben...
"New Orthodox Line brings together two of the most notable Russian
post-industrial / experimental groups: Bardoseneticcube and Noises of
Russia. This unique collaboration stirs the best of both artists to
surface, and results in an extremely powerful and intense emotional
experience. The opus travels from sacral soundscapes of orthodox
* BAKER, AIDAN - Scalpel CD (The Kora Records TKR008, 2007)
€ 12.00
SCALPEL beinhaltet vier Stücke, auf denen sich AIDAN BAKER neben
seinen beliebten Endloos-Loop-Drones dem Songformat (mit sehr
zurückhaltendem Gesang) annähert... das ist höchst feingliedrig,
introspektiv, ausgefeilt: Akustische Magie zwischen Drone & Folk.
" ... Baker has tried his hand in many different areas of music and it’s
always amazing to here the outcome, as more often than not the results
are excellent. There have been records that dabble more in psych,
kraut, ambient, drone, and so on. However here on Scalpel, Baker has
48
choirs and church bells to a more punishing end of the sonic spectrum
provided by pounding rhythms and howling feedback. Here, the
opposites unite with passion and compliment each other for the sake of
the greater good, the synergetic New Orthodox Line.
Bardoseneticcube, having released dozens of albums on various labels
worldwide, has gained recognition in the international experimental /
electronic scene. Bardoseneticcube self-describes their music as
“surrealism”, using A. Breton’s description: "pure psychic automatism
willing to express the real functioning of the reflection either orally or
written, or in any other form. Dictation of mind without any control from
the intellect, outside of any aesthetic of moral considerations".
More info » bsc.radionoise.ru
Noises of Russia is a highly active Russian experimental music act, with
practically countless live performances and a number of albums and
videos under their belt. This four member group uses styles and
imagery from dark ambient to drone, all the while never forgetting
traditional noise music. Their unique mixture of influences, along with
their extremely powerful use of vocals, create an unforgettable
experience in modern music. More info » www.noises.ru " [label notes]
"... a joint venture between two of Russia's interesting projects from the
Noise-related scene. Noises Of Russia is a quartet known for its high
activity of live performances plus a large number of albums and videos
released. The other project is called Bardosenetticcube also being in
the forefront on the Russian scene. This album titled "New orthodox
line" is a strange beast even in the noise scene with the inclusion of
sacral soundscapes consisting of church bells and orthodox choirs
swirling in the storm of abrasive noise drones. Consisting of one lengthy
track of 47 minutes the expression is impressive with a nice emotional
approach to sonic aggression. Intense." [NM, Vital weekly]
Spekk, the original edition of 1300 sold out within 2 months. This new
version Untitled 1-3 includes two new works 'Untitled 3' and 'Untitled 3
(reprise)' and has been remastered with care by Taylor Deupree.
'Untitled 1' contains Chartier elements from 1991-1992 and Basinski
elements from 2003 using the Voyetra 8. Untitled 2 contains Chartier
elements from 2003 and Basinski tape loops from 1981 and 2001 using
the Voyetra 8. 'Untitled 3-3(reprise)' contain Chartier elements from
1993 and the 2006 sound installation Mixing Desk commissioned for the
Bleeding Edge Festival at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga,
California and Basinski elements from 1997 using the Voyetra 8.
'Untitled 3' mixed by Basinski. 'Untitled 3(reprise)' mixed by Chartier.
'Richard and I became friends after meeting at Tonic in NY when he
and Taylor Deupree did a show with Carsten Nicolai. He contacted me
about a possible collaboration and sent me a track which I thought was
very rich and harmonically similar to something I had recently been
working on, a very swampy, dark piece I was calling 'The Garden of
Brokenness' after a very beautiful new installation by James Elaine. I
popped it into pro tools with my piece and something really special was
happening, so I spent a few weeks weeding my track, trying different
things...eventually I stripped it way down and we were both quite happy
with the result. Richard came up to NY and we fine tuned it a bit
together and it was done. Since the piece had changed quite a bit we
decided not to use that title for this piece. He then sent me another one
and again, it just worked with something else I had been working
on...the second track came together very quickly, and there you have it!
I love Richard's work...very elegant, like the man!' " [label info]
"...William Basinski, of course, has explored temporal phenomenology
before, most notably through his breathtaking documentation of tape
decay on the Disintegration Loops series. While Chartier's ultraminimalism tend towards stasis, his under appreciated Archival 1991
album imparts a similar slow-motion effect upon the listener. Working
together, Basinksi and Chartier add a considerable amount to each
other's work; and hopefully, they will be working together again as
Basinksi provides an emotional center to Chartier's rationalism, and
Chartier offers a reductivist edginess to Basinski's ghostly romanticism.
For this album, Basinksi and Chartier present glacially slow shifts
between extended passages of synthetic drones, occasionally haunted
by shadowy whisps and windswept details. There's very little drama and
very little activity, just an incredible piece of minimalism that has the
ability to stop time.
The repress also features two bonus tracks that enjoy a similar
time-stopping quality, centered upon the sounds that Chartier
employed for his installation at the 2006 Bleeding Edge festival, and
Basinski's work with the antique Voyetra 8 synthesizer. Each produced
a different mix of this source material. Still just as recommended "
[Aquarius Records review]
* BARRETT, NATASHA - Isostasie CD (Empreintes Digitales
IMED 0262, 2002 )
€ 13.00
Die britische Elektro-Akustikerin NATASHA BARRETT (die inzwischen
in Oslo lebt) mit Kompositionen die im Zeitraum 1998-2001 entstanden
sind. Immer wieder geht es um die Wirkmächtigkeit von Natur- und
Wetterphänomenen, die Faszination von Modifikationen des
Naturzustands, die sie zu einprägsamen und dynamischen, aber oft
auch undurchdringlich-geheimnisvollen Stücken verwebt.
Das klingt schon mitunter recht "typisch" elektro-akustisch, aber
auffällig ist die z.T. sehr grosse Dynamik und der hohe Anteil an
"environmental" recordings, die sie einsetzt.
Wahrnehmungsprozesse werden klanglich in ganz anderer zeitlicher
Auflösung "dargestellt", z.B. das Fallen von Regentropfen auf den Kopf
während man im Grass liegt, das Erfahren der Mitternachtssonne am
Polarkreis, etc..
Thema ist auch die die Wirkung von meteorologischen Phänomenen
auf die natürliche Umgebung (Nebel, Wind, Sturm, Nässe),
oder die räumliche Wahrnehmung in einem Dschungel / Wald in
Abhängigkeit der Tageszeiten. Anspieltip: das fantastische RED
SNOW!
* BASS COMMUNION - Dronework maxi-CD (Headphone Dust
hdbccd14x, 2008)
€ 8.00
Wiederveröffentlichung der schönen CDR jetzt "fabrikgepresst" im mini
LP-Cover!
"Damn, this is a drone ! Mysteriously cracking sounds on the surface,
deep space-waves below, absolutely stunning, the only criticism point is
its shortness, as this could go on forever..... very much
recommended!" [Drone Rec. 2005]
“Reissue of the Bass Communion entry in the Droneworks series of
CDRs issued by UK label Twenty Hertz (this edition was withdrawn).
The piece is unavailable elsewhere.” [label info]
* BARRETT, NATASHA - Kraftfelt CD & DVD-Audio (Aurora ACD
5037, 2005)
€ 19.50
Drei wieder faszinierende Stücke von NATHASHA BARRETT, die
regelrecht von dynamischen Entwicklungen und akustischen Effekten &
Ereignissen zerbesten.
"...fetters..."-> über Molekülbewegungen in einem festgesetzten
Rahmen, wobei die Vorstellung dahinter steckt, dass weiterer
Energieinput den "Rahmen" zerbersten lassen wird. Aber "dahinter"
stehen immer weitere neue Rahmen....
"Prince Prospero's Party", ein sehr narrativ geprägtes Stück, basierend
auf einer Kurzgeschichte von Edgar Allen Poe... und
"Exploratio Invisibilis", ein Stück über das Suchen (im "Suchen" reisen
wir, und manchmal ist das Gesuchte die ganze Zeit schon bei uns, wir
erkennen es nur nicht). "The great explorers travelled to the "unknown"
, looking for treasures and new lands". Eine 30minütige "Energie gefüllt
mit Landschaften von Verwicklungen, Klang und Stille". Wer auf
aufregende "komponierte" Neue Musik steht, der muss hier einfach
zugreifen!
* BASS COMMUNION - Pacific Codex CD & DVD-A BOX
(Equation Records E=mc16, 2008)
€ 30.00
B.C.-Sammlerstück mit Buch auf EQUATION - war dort sofort nach
Erscheinen ausverkauft ! "An extended work of majestic beauty and
submerged low-end vibrations. Deluxe box set includes stereo CD and
5.1 surround sound DVD-Audio, 36-page perfect-bound book,
casebound (aka tip-on) gatefold sleeve, hand-numbered insert and
heavy-gauge box-slipcase -all designed by CARL GLOVER at Aleph
Studios. This work was originally destined for a vinyl release but-sad to
say-even the best mastering engineers could not capture the deep
tones present in this gorgeous musical work. Only the CD+DVD-A
formats were able to do the bass and subtle sonic textures justice."
[press release]
* BASINSKI, WILLIAM & RICHARD CHARTIER - 1-3 CD (Line
line_034, 2008) € 13.00
Re-issue der vergriffenen SPEKK-CD (KK:002), re-mastered und mit
Bonus-Material versehen! Unser damaliger Kommentar: "Zwei lange
Collaborations-Stücke der beiden Minimalisten, ultra-meditativ & ruhig &
mysteriös verzaubernd, glitzernd feedbackend... Anklänge an
TIETCHENS, VIDNA OBMANA, ARCANE DEVICE..
Two very long collaboration pieces, very meditative, quiet, mysterious
encharming, glittering feedbacking..... on a new japanese label in a
nicely designed cardboard cover.." [Drone Rec.]
"LINE is proud to release this new updated and remastered version of
William Basinski and Richard Chartier's universally acclaimed work
Untitled 1-2. Originally released in 2004 on the noted Japanese label
* BASS COMMUNION - Molotov and Haze CD (Important Records
IMPREC 193, 2008)
€ 13.00
Vier neue (rec. Feb. 2008) lange B.C.-Stücke, z.B. "sphärische Klänge,
die von unter Drogen stehenden, Harfen zupfenden Engeln stammen"
[Volker W. Stephan], die sich zwischen rauhen & röhrenden guitar &
synth-drones und betörend herüberwehenden Melodien & Klangwolken
bewegen... wie so oft absolut hypnotisch!
"Molotov and Haze is packaged in a deluxe, tip-on style heavy-duty
gatefold jacket with the CD slipped into a Japanese inner bag. Design
by Carl Glover. Bass Communion is a project dedicated to Steven
49
per Du gewesen sind, imprägniert den Dreamscape der beiden
Niederländer mit einer Tristesse, die jenseits von Gesten der
Auflehnung um eine poetische Einstellung zum Unvermeidlichen
bemüht scheint. Das rituelle Getrommel von ‚Fafagg‘ sagt wohl: Nach
uns die Steinzeit. Bei ‚V-Time‘ ist das Getrommel industrial geworden,
ein monoton rotierender Morlock-Beat auf vollen Touren, der bei
‚Illusions‘ schon wieder archaisch ausdünnt zum Toktoktok, neben dem
einer zu versuchen scheint, aus Feuerstein Funken zu schlagen.
‚Perhaps...‘ lässt dann wie von einer Klangschale einen ‚singenden‘
Oberton dahin schweifen, bevor das 21-min. ‚Six Notes on a blank
Tape‘ mit nachhallenden Dongs einsetzt und dunkles Gewummer - wie
von einem Bombengeschwader? - die Luft erfüllt. Eine Geige
kratzt diskant und kaputt. So klingen die ersten Notizen. Weitere,
ähnlich düstere, und ein Ritornell des Getrommels, aufs Äußerste
alarmiert, folgen. Der Zahn der Zeit hat dem bisher nichts anhaben
können. Und Schönheit liegt im Auge des Betrachters." [Bad Alchemy]
Wilson's recordings in an ambient, drone, and/or electronic vein. Most
of the pieces are experiments in texture made from processing
recordings of real instruments and field recordings. The atmosphere of
the music has tended towards the dark and melancholic, but expressed
with an almost zen-like beauty. More recently, Wilson has also started
working with a guitar and laptop configuration -- the first material in this
style is contained on this album." [label info]
* BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC - Musicamorosa CD (Cronica 029,
2007) € 15.00
"Im Schatten blühen junge Mädchen pink? Jorge Mantas jedenfalls ließ
sich durch Proust inspirieren, untermischt mit von Tristesse und
Abschied geprägten Liebesgeschichten von Poe bis Wong Kar-Wai,
Mädchenbildern von Waterhouse und Rosetti bis Rohmer und Deville,
aber auch den Erotika-Ikonen der Fotografen Guido Argentini und
Roy Stuart. Mein erster Eindruck - Bilitis - war also gar nicht so
abwegig. Ein Computermönch träumt von Sensuality & Sadness und
schon treibt Sublimation delikate Blüten. Gefühlskitsch bekommt im
Halbschatten einer künstlerischen Sensibilität gleich etwas Sublimes.
Musik als Geliebte, umsponnen von einer Delectatio morosa, der Lust
an sündigen Vorstellungen? Fast alle Titel stammen aus Prousts Die
Gefangene. Colleen spielt dazu La Lectrice und alles wird gleich
‚Pariserisch‘. Nicht Lukas, der Hl. Antonius ist der Schutzpatron der
Künstler. Das ist nicht halb so sarkastisch, wie Dionysius als Nothelfer
gegen Kopfschmerzen. Ich schwanke, während Mantas mollige Drones
mich umschweifen und verführerisch ihre Gestalt wechseln, zwischen
Kopfzerbrechen und Gedankenverbrechen - wie denn auch anders,
wenn eine Musik gleichzeitig so schön, fatal und schizophon daher
kommt. Ach wie so schwelgerisch öffnet der Laptop seine Speicher, auf
deren Grund man auf Wagners Liebestod und Debussy stoßen würde.
Was gerade noch knirschte wie Sand oder schäumte wie die
Brandung um Aphrodites Knöchel, ist nun blinkende Gitarre, dann
wieder eingedampftes orchestrales Rauschen. Als Encore folgt ein
ausführlicher Remix durch @c, schnüffelnd wie eine Maus, die rosige
Nackedeis wittert." [Bad Alchemy]
"Marcel Proust has been one of the main sources of inspiration to me in
the last years. His ideas devoted to the affections of the human heart,
his approach deeply rooted on the long literary French tradition in which
love can only be lived in sadness, is something that goes much beyond
pure aesthetic. So it came only natural that somehow I would try to
convey this literary and philosophic interest with the sound aesthetic I
pursue. The image of a sleepless solitary writer confined to a Parisian
soundproof room, has everything to do with the experience of a modern
laptop composer, alone in the dark of a room, in a sort of headphone
ecstasy with his acoustic fragments of reality. Both experience
loneliness. Both are melancholic dreamers creating from an imaginary
memory of the world. Whether this music is truly related with some of
the delicate emotions depicted in A la recherche du temps perdu or not,
it's up to the listener to decide. Could this be a possible sound
equivalent to the literary images of affection written by Proust in the
early 20th century? Is the sound atmosphere of each piece loaded with
some kind of sensual aura? Would ever be possible to express a
sadness full of joy in the same moment of music? Probably we'll never
know. But perhaps we think about it next time we'll listen to
musicamorosa." [Jorge Mantas]
* BEEQUEEN - Sanddancing CD (Important Records IMPREC
177C, 2008)
€ 13.00
BEEQUEEN sind mit "Sanddancing" ganz im "Song" angekommen,
einer Art elektronischer "Ambient Pop" der ein Spektrum von kitschigen
Kindermelodei-Stücken bis hin zu verschrobenen Instrumentals
umfasst, mit weiblichem Gesang, irgendwo zwischen alten BRUNNEN,
PIANO MAGIC und LPD, charmant, verträumt & luftig leicht, ohne
experimentelle & geräuschhafte Elemente ganz zu verbannen...
"After the by now usual gap of some two years, Beequeen is ready to
present their latest album, further maturing their sound from The
Bodyshop (also on Important Records). More song-based, this album
features new vocals by Olga Wallis solely (with some backing by Freek
Kinkelaar). Well rounded pop songs in some places, but Beequeen
never forgets to put in some strange element, without leaping in the
dark alley of pointless experiment. Orchestral in 'The Illogical Song,'
collage like in 'The Edie Three Step' or a simple rhythm machine in 'The
Honeythief.' Beequeen does all, and with great care and seemingly
ease. This album features also the help of Barry Gray, former (and first)
guitarist of The Legendary Pink Dots, and would not have been the
album that is without the invaluable productional skills of Erik Drost."
[press release]
"Beequeen is the long running collaboration between Dutch music
veterans Frans de Waard and Freek Kinkelaar. The duo mainly focused
on ambient and industrial music during the nineties, until their album
'Ownliness', back in 2002, which marked a more or less radical break
with Beequeen's past. Since 'Ownliness' the music of Beequeen has
shifted to well crafted electronic pop songs. 'Sandancing' is no
exception. It's an atmospheric and dreamy album due to the beautiful
(female) vocals of Olga Wallis.
The songs are built on electronics, guitar and keyboard, combined with
fine microsonic details, pulsing drum machines and subtle field
recordings. It can easily be seen as a rather accessible record,
especially considering Beequeens past, but 'Sandancing' hides enough
surprises to keep it exciting. It somehow reminds me of the early works
of Piano Magic, the project of Glen Johnson, who also used to work
with different vocalists to transform his electronic instrumentals into
songs. Being aware of the adventurous approach of these experimental
wizards, you immediately wonder what Beequeens next record will be
like. But you certainly hope that Olga Wallis will be involved again as
'Sandancing' is definitely their best record to date." [MW, Vital Weekly]
* BEEQUEEN - Time waits for no one CD (Herbal Int. CD0801,
2008) € 13.00
Re-issue of their great second CD from 1994!
"Taking their name from a work by Joseph Beuys, the Dutch duo
Beequeen have taken it to heart to createa sonic experience that Is like
a living organism, a melange of oozing textures, rhythmical structures,
cyclical pumping surges of sound, arranged as if In an ambient
visionary landscape, a painting for the ears. The experience naturally
recalls earlier works by Zoviet France and The Hafler Trio, with much
use of processed and degraded sounds. As strange and enigmatic as
Its minimal four-fold diglpak cover." [Alan Freeman - from Audion
Summer/Autumn 1994]
"BEEQUEENs Time Waits For No One (Herbal (International) CD0801),
das mit seinem Titel die Rolling Stones zitiert, hatte 1994 noch Marilyn
Monroe auf dem Cover, jetzt bei dieser Wiederveröffentlichung eine
völlig zerbombte WW II-Stadtmondlandschaft. I really think it matches
the original Monroe-cover when it comes to beauty, gibt sich Freek
Kinkelaar dazu hartgesotten. Er & Frans de Waard schienen aber
bereits in Marilyn ein Vanitas-Motiv zu umkreisen, das deuten
zumindest Titel wie ‚The Shore of Leaves‘, ‚Illusions‘ und ‚Perhaps
perhaps perhaps‘ an. Da könnten ihnen durchaus Mick Jaggers Zeilen
Drink in your summer, gather your corn; The dreams of the night time
will vanish by dawn durch den Kopf gegangen sein. Aber wo fände man
keinen Anlass für Melancholie und dystopische Ahnungen? Die ‚Furie
des Verschwindens‘, mit der schon Hegel und H.M. Enzensberger
* BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & SIEGMAR FRICKE - Stroma-Konkret CD
(Monochrome Vision (mv07), 2006) [lim. 500]
€ 13.00
"...eine Kollaboration des italienischen Kult-Noisers MAURIZIO
BIANCHI (*1955, Pomponesco) mit SIEGMAR FRICKE (*1968,
Wilhelmshaven). Letzterer, frühreifer Klangtüftler bereits in den 80ern
mit Releases bei Irre Tapes oder Old Europe Cafe und anfänglich
bekannt als Bestattungsinstitut, hat bereits durch Projekte zusammen
mit Giancarlo Toniutti, Mathias Grassow und mit Miguel A. Ruiz als
Efficient Refineries seine ‚Pharmakustik‘ in der internationalen Sound
Art vernetzt. Eines seiner Tapes hatte er mal ‚Unsophisticated‘ getauft,
aber wer Tracks ‚Keratoplastie (für transversale
Magnetbandakzeleration, sensorisches Klavier und konkrete
Mechanik)‘, ‚Distrofia Atonale (for paralysed aritmia, nuclear ambience
and anamorph tone-pigments)‘ und ‚Dissonanza Sclerotica (for
polineuropathic surface, piano edematosa and opaque microsections)‘
nennt und als „the sphaerialic polymetamorphose of stromatic
plastocyanin“ beschreibt, der hat offenbar nicht nur bei Dr. House sein
Praktisches Jahr gemacht, der ist auch ein mit allen trüben Wassern
gewaschener Pillendreher, der Russolo und Marinetti, Jary und Henry
in nicht nur homöopathischen Dosen verschreibt. Immerhin erspart er
mir so alle näheren Beschreibungsversuche. Wer Stroma-Konkret
einwirft, der darf sich jedenfalls über psychedelische Nebenwirkungen
nicht wundern, vulgo, wo Rosa war, stellen sich Nekrorealismus und
Sarkasmus ein. Vermutlich hätte zwar eine 42-Stundenwoche in einem
50
chinesischen Stahlwerk einen ähnlichen Effekt, aber Scheiß doch auf
China." [Bad Alchemy]
"Extra heavy fusion of industrial noise and musique concrète, this
exclusive collaboration unites forces of two legendary musicians who
were witnessed the roots of industrial music movement. It consists of
three long tracks of mechanical aggression, clinical obsession and
uncompromizing psychic attack. Dedicated to the memory of Pierre
Schaeffer, this is the second part of ongoing series, started by Tibprod
label CDR-release. Release date is 30th December 2006. Limited
edition of 500 copies in jewelcase." [label info]
Fragments of music, short fragments of sonorous material of varied
extraction, now short, now long, placed in sequence one behind the
other, in a "dry" way, following absolutely unforeseeable times and
dynamics.
Continuous loops, raw unexpected cuts, noise alternated to musical
parts, single sounds, drones, notes of piano, buzzes, soft pads, electric
current workers... Two long traces, 75 minutes, a listening experience
over any edge and reliable definition. A old work for the first time on
CD." [label notes]
* BIANCHI, MAURIZO - Dead Colours
CD (Silentes minimal
editions SME0717, 2008)
€ 13.00
Amazing & rather peaceful synth-based work about colours which was
created between 1997 and 1999. 10 pieces, over 70 minutes of music.
"This is the reissue of a CDR published by SILENTES a couple of years
ago in only 120 copies. Now finally available on CD with restored
artwork. DEAD COLOURS shows the more quite side of MB... with an
incredible dark melancholic tough in vein of David Lynch's
atmospheres... Fantastic!" [label notes]
* BIANCHI, MAURIZIO & SPARKLE IN GREY - Nefelodhis CD
(Cold Current Production CC-CD006, 2007) € 12.00
Das Schwester-Album zu "Erimos" verknüpft melodische und mitunter
fast andächtige Instrumentalklänge der italienischen Post-Rock Band
SPARKLE IN GREY mit den z.T. obskuren Geräuschsounds von M.B. das klingt manchmal dann fast nach GODSPEED oder anderen PostRock / Psychedelikern, sehr introvertiert und ruhig mit viel ViolinEinsatz... Namensgeber für die 8 Stücke sind Bezeichnungen
verschiedener Wolkenformationen, sehr passend !!
"Nefelodhis album was then recorded in few days in a totally improvised
session where Sparkle in Grey, the ensemble of Alberto Carozzi (guitar,
bass), Cristiano Lupo (piano, guitar, drums), Franz Krostopovic (violin)
and Hue (laptop, objects), played melancholic melodies on the
mysterious analogical and a-rhythmical soundscapes provided by MB.
The results of these sessions, recorded into the factory where Sparkle
in Grey are used to have their rehearsal, was assembled and mixed by
Hue himself. As the sounds coming from MB were mainly analogical
(treated guitars, DVD players, tapes and other unknown instruments),
and as the laptop was used only in the mixing phase, the result is a dirty
but very analogical mixture of sounds, where the concrete drony noises
and the textures of violins and guitars melt in a quite uncommon way.
Nefelodhis is a desperate but dreamy picture in sounds of the concept
of clouds (in Greek 'Nefelodhis' means 'cloudiness') and, after the
careful mastering of Giuseppe Ielasi, sounds like a trip through the wet
lands made of vapor. Being part of a complex quadrilogy about the
spaces Between the Elements, this records inaugurate a series of CDs
of various experimental sounds, where Erimos (in Greek “Desert” is the
second chapter, already available on the American label Digitalis
Industries." [label info]
* BIANCHI, MAURIZO & ATRAX MORGUE - M. PLUS T. CD
(Silentes minimal editions SME0825, 2008)
€ 13.00
Last work of ATRAX MORGUE before his death in May 2007, low-fi
piano drones drenched in endless delay-effects & speed-changes,
fragmented and cut into many pieces...
"Just before leaving this world in 2007, Marco Corbelli (Atrax Morgue)
made a series of recordings in collaboration with the old Italian master
of pre-industrial culture Maurizio Bianchi (MB). The end result is this
devastating album, centred around morbid themes of 'mord' and 'tot'.
"Germinal murders... A betulinic bath of hydrocloric acid... Coprological
Isomorphism... It is with deep grief that... Terminal death!" [label notes]
* BIANCHI, MAURIZO - An Absurd Trilogy 3 x CD & T-Shirt
(Silentes minimal editions SME0715-17, 2008)
€ 50.00
Collector's item! Special "trilogy"-edition with T-Shirt, only 60 made,
contains the three new BIANCHI CDs on Silentes ("Selfportrait",
"Menstruum Regles" and "Dead Colours") plus a black T-shirt with white
print and a badge! Only very few in stock, sizes M, L, or XL !
* BIOTA - Half a True Day CD (ReR Megacorp ReR BCD6, 2007)
€ 14.00
BIOTA, das ist "Neo-Folk" der ganz anderen Art, surrealistisch &
fremdartig, mit unglaublichem Sound- & Effekt-Reichtum, ohne Pathos
und von feinster Klangsprache. HALF A TRUE DAY lässt einen
wunderbar verwirrt & emotionalisiert zugleich zurück, irgendwie
belustigt und trotzdem tief verzaubert. Es gibt wohl keine andere Band
der Welt die auch nur annähernd so tönt.
"Kaum ein anderes Projekt steht derart für kollektive Kreativität und
Kontinuität, für elektroakustische und audiovisuelle
Gesamtkunstwerklichkeit wie die seit 1979 (anfänglich als
Mnemonists) in Colorado operierenden BIOTA. Sechs Jahre scheint
eine natürliche Biota-Schwangerschaft zu dauern, denn solange
liegt Invisible Map (2001) zurück und davor Object Holder (1995). Dass
Bad Alchemy Records 1989 die Biota-10“ Awry herausbrachte,
lässt mir noch heute jedes Loblied auf die Gruppe wie Schleichwerbung
erscheinen. Doch schon die Tragfähigkeit des Konzeptes verdient
Bewunderung, ebenso wie das kollektive Artwork, das nun Half A True
Day (ReRB6) wie jeden Biota-Release zuvor visuell einzigartig macht.
William Sharp, Steve Scholpe, Randy Yeates, Mark Piersel, Tom
Katsimpalis, Gordon Whitlow, Charles O'Meara (aka Vrtacek) und all
die andern zauberten zudem wieder eine unverwechselbare Melange
aus den Klängen von Akkordeon, akustischer Gitarre, Rubab,
Flügelhorn, Keyboards, Piano, Percussion und mehr, in minutiöser
Kleinarbeit verwebt durch Tapework, Mix, Processing und Editing zu 17
von einem zum anderen fließenden Aspekten eines träumerischen,
surrealen Ambientes, in dem die Zeit manchmal rückwärts läuft oder
sich verzweigt. Diese Exotica vom andern Stern entführt in ein
akustisches Spiegelkabinett, in dem sich Klänge in Ketten
vervielfältigen oder wie in Echokammern brechen oder überlagern.
Soeben noch transparente Folklorismen krümmen sich zu
Loops, zarte Vokalisen von Kristianne Gale, Gitarren- und Rubabzupfer
und Akkordeonsound zerfließen zu Musique concrète, zersplittern
als rockiger Widerhall aus dem Cyberspace, kollidieren als
mittelalterliche Fantasies mit Sonic Fiction. Die Musik zerläuft
stagnierend und doch stetig, erschafft ihre eigene Traumzeit,
unablässig morphend, äußerst seltsam. Einzig die Sun City Girls
kommen als halbwegs vergleichbar in Frage" [Bad Alchemy]
"Six years in the making, the visual/sonic art group Biota have finally
completed their Sixth CD for ReR. Unique in their history and method,
Biota painstakingly construct complex, organic structures that mix
extensive studio processing and musique concréte techniques with a
highly eclectic orchestra of acoustic and electronic resources - from kit
drums, through mediaeval winds, strings and barrel organs to early
* BIANCHI, MAURIZIO - Elisionem CD [lim. 500] (Klanggalerie
gg115, 2007) € 14.00
Fünf neue Stücke von BIANCHI zu Ehren der "experimentellen Periode"
des deutschen Komponisten GISELHER KLEBE; der Begriff
"Elisionem" bezeichnet das Verbinden von kleinen Klangeinheiten und
elektro-akustischen Partikeln. Dronige Wellen und rauschige Anteile
halten sich hier die Waage, ohne das es jemals wirklich "noisig" wird,
eher driften die Stücke mysteriös wallend vor sich hin, in sanften
elektronischen & mechanisch ratternden Loop-Schichten, Equalizerund Phasenverschiebungen verstärken die geheimnisvolle Aura.
Definitiv eines seiner besten Drone-Alben!
"We are very honoured to offer you a new album by Italian composer
Maurizio Bianchi a.k.a M.B. 'Elisionem' is a fantastic continuation of
M.B.'s work from the 1980s, dark and droney, and can be seen as a
true sister album to classics such as 'Neuro-Habitat' or 'Symphony For
A Genocide'. A definite highlight in the Klanggalerie catalogue and not
to be missed!" [label info]
* BIANCHI, MAURIZO - The Selfportrait of M.B. CD (Silentes
minimal editions SME0715, 2008)
€ 13.00
"An unusual self-portrait of Maurizio Bianchi in a minimal and
introspective version, "a discreet" sonic self-portrait, elaborated with soft
and nearly abstract electronic sketches, cyclical waves, tangles of
intersected sounds, stratified, continuously chancing, manipulated and
molded through uses of effects, filters, reverbs, choruses, delay...
Expanded places, rarefied and "apparently quiet" atmospheres, but at
the same time always full of a constant sense of gravity and heaviness,
of vulnerability, always on the extreme border of the abyss that leads
towards the unknown, the dark, the not to be defined and the mystery...
a new and definitive "manifesto". This is simply MB... no other word is
necessary. A MUST!!!" [label notes]
* BIANCHI, MAURIZO - Menstruum Regles CD (Silentes minimal
editions SME0716, 2008)
€ 13.00
"This album is decomposition instead of composition. De-structured
music instead structured music. Not to complex and articulated
technologies for recording, mixing of the parts and mastering; not to one
sophisticated production and maniacal and defined participations
correct in post-production... This the new "challenge" capacity to the
extreme limit from Maurizio Bianchi, a new musical effort, "directed",
"raw", immediate, absolutely uncompromising new, to outside of
every law and from every pre-constituted rule...
51
experimental electronic instruments. Their works are always
performance driven and interleaved with successive stages of
lamination, imbrication, and radical pre- and post-processing, Quietly
ploughing their own furrow for decades, Biota resemble no one, follow
no one and, if the sonic arts were like the visual arts, would by now be a
national treasure." [label notes]
einst ein anderes, tatsächlich ungewohntes Gesicht verpasste, kreiert
Kneale in diesem Spektrum auf »Seventh Ruined Hex« (Important
Records) eine weitere hörenswerte Variation auf ein Themas, das
zuletzt vielleicht etwas oft beackert wurde, um dauerhaft spannend zu
bleiben. Mann muss ihm allerdings zu Gute halten, dass seine Layer
aus Noise, angedeuteter Harmonie und purer Klangwand jederzeit
überzeugend, durchdacht und manchmal sogar recht originell
erscheinen." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"A further step out in Birchville Cat Motel's ruminations on time/space
distortion featuring the additional mystikal talents of fellow gravity
destroyer, Matthew Bower (Hototogisu/Sunroof!). Seventh Ruined Hex
presents like a lonesome planet, occasionally struck with super-sized
fragments of space detritus, but for the most part, just hangs around,
spinning on its axis and doing fuck-all. Strangely emotive for 'a buncha
noise.' Like the deepest love, it's warm yet tenuous, and filled with the
ever-present potential for loss and brutality. More in line with the
estranged love tangle of the Birchville classic Chi Vampires than the
most recent befuddling hyperspace rock overload of recent albums like
Our Love Will Destroy the World and Birds Call Home their Dead.
Features Matthew Bower, who has been known to put out a good album
or two on a regular basis. Powerful." [label notes]
* BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL - same CD (Insample # 1, 1997)
€ 15.00
"Guitar - Cymbal - Electrics" prangt auf dem Innencover (7"-Hülle) der
allerersten BCM-CD von 1997! Hier begann der Siegeszug von
CAMPBELL KNEALEs rauhen und furiosen neuseeländischen DroneSounds, unglaubliche Feedback-Skulpturen entstehen hier, aber auch
ruhige Dronismen... wenige Kopien dieser CD (Auflage etwa 550 Stück)
sind wieder aufgetaucht, das Label ist seit Jahren nicht mehr aktiv!!
* BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL - Birds call home their dead CD
(Celebrate Psi Phenomenon CPP19, 2007)
€ 16.00
Da sind Gitarren drin, da ist Stimme / Gesang drin, Orgel und
perkussive Elemente, aber alles versinkt hier in einen allmächtigen
Gesamtsound, pulsierend & vibrierend, schwebend & noisig schön,
endlos kreisend im Feedback-Nirvana... CAMPBEL KNEALE jammed
psychedelisierend wie kein Zweiter....
"All instrument played by Campbell Kneale with the additional
assistance of Neil Campbell: flanging, flutter, and wow. Bex Coogan:
screaming wings of vengeance. Diana Thomson-Kneale: electric
sander. Gigantic. White-hot stars suddenly huff off their outer layers of
gas and debris and collapse into their own gaping void of everlasting
density and nothingness. Hammered into shape in the glowing furnace
of their most recent European tour, these monolithic tracks are the
closest Birchville Cat Motel has come to capturing the gargantuan
shoegazing nirvana of their monsterous current live assault. A ritualistic,
full frequency, bulldozing of superheated twitter and swirl, swimming in
a turbulent undercurrent of molten, sub-metallized, dream-rock. A
hurricane of sound singing the everlasting lullaby of the universe." [label
info]
* BLACKSHAW, JAMES - Litany of Echoes CD (Tompkins
Square TSQ1783, 2008)
€ 13.00
"Initially inspired by the guitarists of the '60s Takoma label to teach
himself fingerpicking, London-based musician James Blackshaw writes
pieces primarily for solo 12-string guitar that share more in common
with the minimalist works of composers such as Philip Glass, Steve
Reich and Charlemagne Palestine, as well as French composers
Claude Debussy and Erik Satie, than the blues/raga influence of his
peers. Using drones, overtones and repeating patterns alongside a
strong inclination for melody, Blackshaw creates instrumental music
that is both intelligent, hypnotic and unashamedly sentimental. Litany of
Echoes, Blackshaw's sixth studio album in five years, shows a more
mature, focused and, on the whole, accessible approach to
composition. While the album often feels darker and more introspective
in nature than on previous releases, many of the songs have a hugesounding, classical quality to them. With Blackshaw adding some
glistening piano work for the first time and Fran Bury returning to play
swarms of sweeping string parts for violin and viola, Litany of Echoes is
a truly original, affecting and timeless album from a guitarist/composer
coming into his own." [press release]
"With each new James Blackshaw release, we're always amazed at
how someone who works within such a small musical framework can
continuously exceed our expectations. Definitely a favorite among
favorites of solo guitarists, Blackshaw has bulked up his arsenal of
compositional approaches by introducing for the first time the use
of piano as a key element. Bookending the album are two long form
pieces of solo piano in a minimalist style that remind us of Charlemagne
Palestine or Lubomyr Melnyk. When the twelve string is first heard on
the second track, it's not before we're set up with a foundation of
resonant timbres of violin and viola (played by Fran Bury) that give
weight to the airy modal improvisations of the guitar. Adding subtle
layers of richness and dynamics, the strings ground and support the
ringing overtones of the 12 string creating complex harmonies to the
pulsating melodies. We can't imagine we'll ever tire of hearing
Blackshaw's shimmering textural pieces. Amazing how sound so deep,
dark, damp and resonant can be so transcendentally uplifting."
[Aquarius Records review]
* BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL - Gunpowder Temple of Heaven CD
(Pica Disk PICA004, 2008) € 13.00
Absoluter Überflieger, diese BCM-CD; ein One-Tracker Poly-Drone der
in 1000 Farben schillert & mäandert, wunderbar raumfüllend und mit
harmonischen & atonalen Sounds & Orgel-Flächen darin, die mehr und
mehr zu einer sich himmelwärts bewegenden Harmonie entwickeln, die
einfach unwiderstehlich ist ! Wunderschön und fast schon "elegant", mit
das beste was wir von BCM kennen!
Das ganze im schönen Papp-Klappcover mit Filzeinlage und Booklet
mit dem Text "Silver machines and stone henges: pumping the pipe
organ of psycho-social mind control" von BRUCE RUSSELL.
"Birchville Cat Motel is the project of New Zealander Campbell Kneale,
who has from his base in Lower Hutt since the mid 90-ies established
himself as the leading voice of this generation of NZ sound artists.
Gunpowder Temple of Heaven is a new highlight in his extensive
discography. A single 40 minute long-form piece that keeps building
and unfolding; heaven for drone-noise enthustiasts.
The CD comes with a booklet with a complete Birchville discography as
well as liner-notes by Bruce Russell." [label info]
"....One long meditative ur-drone, shimmering, glistening layers of
reverberating sound, like Spacemen 3 played Phill Niblock. The sort of
dense dronemusic, that becomes alive when listened to closely. The
various sounds sprawling and twisting, changing shapes, timbres
shifting, overtones beating, subtle rhythms, ghostly melodies, all this
going on just below the surface. The surface being long thick, rich
tones, each drifting subtly, tonal colors gradually changing.
What begins as soft and shimmery, soon builds to something
more gritty and dense, glistening sonic flares smeared into roiling
swirls of blinding sound. Eventually, the rough edges are worn away,
and the tone becomes more and more pure, smoother and more rich,
the sound of organs, and lilting melodies surfacing, the sounds gentler,
their interactions with each other more complimentary, soothing,
dreamlike, mesmerizing, various notes and tones gradually sloughing
off, leaving less and less sound, the drone becoming more fine, more
simple, until finally, a single note wavers and then blinks out. Divine!
Super deluxe gorgeous packaging. Gatefold digipak, with thick
velvet backing for the cd, and a booklet with an awesome BCM essay
from the Dead C's Bruce Russell." [Aquarius Records review]
* BLACK SUN PRODUCTIONS - Astral Walk CD (Finalmuzik
FM01, 2004)
€ 13.00
First real album by the Swiss duo, very electronic, sludgy, hypnotic,
trancy & creepy industrial-grooves!
"Musick originally created as a soundtrack for the performance of
Plastic Spider Thing Part XXII. Performed by legendary COIL
collaborators and performance artists Massimo & Pierce. Energetic,
breathtaking ritual music for mind and body. Includes a cover of Soft
Cell's "Macabre (Meet Murder By Angel)". Definitely one for COIL fans.
Ltd x 1000 copies with beautiful artwork by Lukas Lux and layout by
BSP." [label info]
* BOWLINE - same CD (Sonoris sns-04, 2007) [lim. 500] € 10.00
Neues Projekt von DAVID MARANHA (OSSO EXOTICO) und einem
FRANCISCO DILLON am Cello - oszillierende Streicher-Drones in
dynamischer Veränderung kontrastieren mit den eigentlich hochminimalen Arrangements. Subtil & sparsam, aber von ungeheurer
Wirkung.
"Behind Bowline we find the more and more present musician David
Maranha, who was once best known as Osso Exotico, and these days
also works as a solo musician and one Francesco Dillon. He is from
Italy and studied the cello. These days he is a member of Alter-Ego
(see Vital Weekly 602 for their work with Gavin Bryars) as well as
* BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL - Seventh Ruined Hex CD (Important
Records IMPREC 169, 2007)
€ 13.00
"... Die Grundästhetik seiner Arbeit als Birchville Cat Motel speist sich
dann auch aus einem starken, deutlich hörbaren Black Flag-Einfluss,
der auffällig gut mit einigen Querverweisen an Drone Music und Power
Electronics harmoniert. Unter der willkommenen Mitwirkung von
Matthew Bower, der dem Rock unter anderem bereits mit Skullflower
52
playing with people like Matmos, Pan Sonic and Scanner. A man of
many talents. Here too Dillon plays cello, whereas Maranha gets credit
for 'hammond organ, violin, vox amplifier (with Francesco cello signal),
glass harmonica, tremolo and distortion pedals'. Of the four tracks, the
first is the most silent one, taking several minutes to get started. Like
with so many other projects of David Maranha, in which ever form it
takes, this is a work of minimalism. Of sheer, utter minimalism and what
beauty, once again. The careful strumming of various string
instruments, the drones added, sparsely of course, from the other
instruments. Three short tracks which eventually culminate in the fourth
track, which takes up about two-third of the CD and in which the three
previous excursions return but glorified. Everything comes together
here. If you love Osso Exotico or any of the works Maranha did after
that, this is will be a most welcome addition. Also fans of traditional
minimal music, especially Lamonte Young will find this a great release,
I'm sure of that." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
at one point the rhythms of a marching band arrive out of a mass of
sound and sounded like an odd counterpoint in this music. On other
spots we hear the crowd cheering or talking in a reverbing hallway. This
'revealing' of sources is a quite nice new feature in this music. It doesn't
add a whole new perspective, nor does it break the good flow in this
work, but at the same time, you feel that Bradley is slowly shifting
interest towards new paths. I wouldn't be surprised if he switches over
one day and reduces the electronic processing in favor of the pure field
recording. But that's all for later. For now, Bradley added another fine
work of drone music to his already nice discography." [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
BRUME / NOMUZIK – Transports CD (Cheeses International CI09,
1997) € 13.00
"Auf fast 70 Minuten breitet sich die wundersame Musik BRUME's in
Zusammenarbeit mit NOMUZIK (New York) hier aus, sehr elektronisch
und von unglaublicher Komplexität, viele akustische Ereignisse treten
nahezu gleichzeitig auf. Sehr guter Film für die Ohren, hochgradig
atmosphärisch, aber unentwirrbar und fordernd, an elektroakustische
Komponisten erinnernd." [old Drone Rec. 1997]
Back in stock few last copies of this mail-collaboration recorded
1992/1993 !
* BOY DIRT CAR - Spoken Answer CD (Aftermusic 001CD, 2008)
€ 13.00
"In one of the most unlikely reunions of recent years, seminal
Milwaukee noise group Boy Dirt Car announces the release of its first
new recordings since 1988. Spoken Answer To A Silent Question
brings together several original members -- co-founder Darren Brown,
Keith Brammer and Dan Kubinski (Die Kreuzen), T.S. Wahlen and Dave
Szolwinski -- and, consistent with Boy Dirt Car's classic revolving-door
lineup, brings in several newcomers, including longtime Milwaukee
mainstays Peder Hedman, Karl Paloucek and Jeff Hamilton. For much
of the 1980s, Milwaukee was home to Boy Dirt Car's brooding sound.
Influenced as much by Wisconsin's brutal winters and the dark tales of
its North Woods as by any of their avant garde contemporaries, the
group forged a sound different from other so-called 'industrial' bands of
the day. As one reviewer once put it, 'Boy Dirt Car creates a sound not
like being in a car crash, but of being under one.' Just as it cadged its
industrial instrumentation from scrapyards and roadsides, BDC culled
its members from across Milwaukee's vibrant music scene of the time,
building up an intense following and a reputation as one of the city's
most potentially hazardous acts. At the same time, the group recorded
numerous (now-legendary) cassettes and LPs which, while escaping
the ears of Rolling Stone, garnered them coverage in The Wall Street
Journal, and -- even more unlikely -- from late advice columnist Ann
Landers." [label notes]
* BRUME - Re-issue / Anthology series on
WAYSTYX RECORDS!
Part 3-13 of this amazing re-issue series on Moscows WAYSTYS
RECORDS have appeared! As before, we can only praise &
recommend almost everything BRUME did, his style was absolutely
unique! There's a nice limited numbered box existing containing all 13
CDs, see below! If the lim. ed. box is sold out you can still get an unnumbered box for the single CDs from us for free! Just ask !
* BRUME - Schiluuk
CD (Waystyx Records WR53, 2008)
[lim. 375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 3rd CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology, originally recorded in
1991 and released on cassette in 1991 by Corrosive Tapes. Digitally
remastered at Brume Rec. in winter 2006. C. Renou - all instruments,
home-made instruments, tape, pseudo ethnic voices, electronics, mix..."
[label info]
* BRUME - Stable
CD (Waystyx Records WR54, 2008) [lim.
375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 4th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. C. Renou electronics, tapes, voices, mix. Track #1 was recorded in real time in
the studio: programming, 3-string guitar + effects. Track #6 is alien stuff
called "Erection in Church" from Nihilistic Recordings compilation
cassette. Because of the destruction of the original master, this
recording was revisited and remastered from a bad quality cassette
copy. Produced in 1995 by Bandaged Hand Produce. Reworked and
digitally remastered at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
* BRUME - Electrocoagulation Tapes
CD (Waystyx Records
WR55, 2008) [lim. 375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 5th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. Tracks 1-9 basically
recorded live in the studio. C. Renou - electronics, metal, tapes, loops,
horn, trump, voice, mix. Pat' Blanch - trump, voice, tapes. G. Guiggia percussion, flutes. Reprocessed at Brume Rec. in winter 2006.
Originally produced on cassette by Irre-Tapes in 1991. Tracks 10-12
were extracted from the split tape Brume / Telepherique, produced by
Drahtfunk Products in 1991." [label info]
* BRUME - Les Victimes sons dangereuses
CD (Waystyx
Records WR56, 2008) [lim. 375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 6th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. C. Renou - all
instruments. Compiled, recorded and mixed at Brume Rec. in 1996-97.
Ultrasonic mastering by Richard Johnson / Atmoject. Originally
produced by Atmoject as a limited edition CD-R in 1998. Digitally
remastered at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
* BRUME - Moll
CD (Waystyx Records WR57, 2008) [lim.
375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 7th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. C. Renou - all
instruments, tapes, mix, Marie-France - voice. Compiled, recorded and
mixed at Brume Rec. in 1999. Originally produced by Prion Tapes as a
limited edition CD-R in 1999. Remastered from the DAT-master at
Brume Rec. in winter 2006. Dedicated to Philip K. Dick." [label info]
* BRUME - Lost in Karrack CD (Waystyx Records WR58, 2008)
[lim. 375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 8th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. A compilation of
rare/unedited tracks. C. Renou - all instruments, tapes, voice.
Remastered from the DAT-master at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label
info]
* BRUME - Early Tracks CD (Waystyx Records WR59, 2008)
[lim. 375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 9th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. A compilation of the
very first recordings from 1981-1986. C. Renou - all instruments, tapes,
* BRADLEY, PAUL & CRIA CUERVOS - Moraines II CD (Small
Voices SVR07025, 2007)
€ 13.00
Auf dem langen one-tracker "Moraines II" verschmilzt die feinsinnige
Ambient-Kunst des Briten PAUL BRADLEY mit den eher rauhen &
archaischen Feldaufnahmen-Drones von CRIA CUERVOS ein wunderbares Stück voller mysteriöser Sounds und mit sehr
einnehmender, dichter Atmosphäre; es gibt Brüche und sehr "konkrete"
Passagen, Wind- & Äther-artige Klangflüsse, und zusätzlich zum fast
einstündigen Stück noch einen 16+ min. Remix von ANDREW LILES,
welches verwunschene Piano-Klänge & Sphären-wabern verbindet...
"About two years ago we reviewed 'Morainos', a collaboration between
Paul Bradley and Eugenio Maggi, aka Cria Cuervos from Italy (see Vital
516). Since they have been working on 'Moraines II', or rather reworking the first one. Such can be the world of drone music. One drone
- endless possibilities. The original recordings have been used, highly
processed field recordings that is, and together they created quite a
dark album of drone music. Rather than moving about in one single
drone, this new piece moves along various paths, clearly divided into
separate parts, each with it's own build up and changes, before moving
to the next piece. Some clear field recordings punctuate the music,
such as rain sounds, birds and footsteps. Perhaps nothing new, but the
minor changes, such as the various parts approach, make this however
quite a nice disc. Plus more treatments arrive through the work of
Andrew Liles, who was given all the material and made a remix (a
phrase we should not use for the first track). Liles has a distinct sound
(well, as far as I know, as his output is vast and incomplete here) that is
somewhat close to the more eerie Nurse With Wound sound. Here via
the reverse sound approach, like a single wave washing ashore and a
metallic drone rumble make up a creepy soundtrack to a perfect
nightmare. Sounds arise from previous, and make this a more
singleminded piece. Quite a nice one at that." [Vital Weekly]
* BRADLEY, PAUL - Memorias Extranjeras (2) CD (Alluvial
Recordings A30, 2008) € 12.00
"...At the basis of all Paul Bradley music is the field recording. After that
Bradley manipulates the material until is a stretched out piece of drone
music and the original source recordings have disappeared. That's why
in the early days we thought it was a bunch of synthesizers. However
for 'Memories Extranjeras' he has these recordings made in Spain, and
he by and large does the thing he always does best but there is a slight
difference. The original field recordings are here and there to be heard:
53
mix; Antoine Faure - guitar; Eric Erfurth - guitar, voice; Phil - guitar;
Thierry Febvre - sequencer. Remastered from the cassette and DATmasters at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
* BRUME - Live with or without Audience CD (Waystyx Records
WR60, 2008) [lim. 375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 10th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. Live recordings
from 4 performances held in 1985-1988. Remastered from the cassette
and reel-to-reel masters at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
* BRUME - In Death we trust / Programm T4 CD (Waystyx
Records WR61, 2008) [lim. 375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 11th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. Tracks 1-8
recorded in 1987 and produced by Underground Prods in 1998. Track 9
recorded in 1986. Remastered from original cassette masters at Brume
Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
* BRUME - Drug CD (Waystyx Records WR62, 2008) [lim. 375
copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 12th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. "Drug" (parts 1-7)
was basically recorded in 1999 and released as a limited edition CD-R
by Blade Rec. in 1999. Track 8 was basically recorded in 1986 and
released as a limited edition cassette by Brume Rec. in 1998. Tracks 910 were the very last stuff recorded in 1999 under the name of Brume.
Digitally remastered at Brume Rec. in winter 2006." [label info]
* BRUME - Prehistoric Tapes CD (Waystyx Records WR63, 2008)
[lim. 375 copies]
€ 13.00
"This is the 13th CD in the 13 CD Brume anthology. "These recordings
were the very first electronic experiments I made, just after I gace up
Uria, and just before I create Brume. The main stuff was inspired by
music like Heldon, Suicide... but also progressive music and German
kraut-rock." Recorded from 1979 to 1983 at Primitive Studio and Brume
Rec. Remastered from "dusty tapes", reprocessed at Brume Rec.,
winter 2006." [label info]
reflections, full of quiet, whispering drones, cosmic flutterings, arching
climatic tones and textures that ascend and descend in a delicate
interplay between beauty and bleak desolation. You know their work as
separate entities, find out what they do when brought together. Limited
to 888 copies with speciality eco-wallet packaging designed by :::
eye.lyft ::: (www.eyelyft.com)" [label info]
* C.C.C.C. - Chaos is the Cosmos CD (Cold Spring Records
CSR79CD, 2007)
€ 13.00
"We are very proud to announce the return of C.C.C.C. to Cold Spring
(after their outstanding album 'Flash' in 1996).This is also the first album
from C.C.C.C. in 10 years! This cult Japanese Noise group is made up
of Hiroshi Hasegawa (Astro, YBO2, South Saturn Delta), Mayuko Hino,
Fumio Kosakai (Hijokaidan, Incapacitants), and Ryuichi Nagakubo
(Tangerine Dream Syndicate). An absolutely essential album for those
with a penchant for extreme Japanoise. Just under 45 minutes of
music." [label info]
"A few weeks back, I had the pleasure of reviewing two folk-based
albums from British label Cold Spring Records. It was Von Thronstahl's
latest effort "Sacrificare" and the excellent compilation "John Barleycorn
Reborn". Now it's time for a radical change in stylish expression from
the impressively musically wide spanning Cold Spring label. As you
probably know Japan is the place to be if you're searching for earshattering symphonies of noise. Two new albums from Cold Spring
present some of the Japanese noise-legends. First album is by Mayuko
Hino and husband Hiroshi Hasegawa operating under the project
C.C.C.C. (shortage of "Cosmic Coincidence Control Center") with
contributions from Fumio Kosakai (Hijokaidan & Incapacitants) and
Ryuichi Nagakubo (Tangerine Dream Syndicate). Having been active
since 1991, this album is their first release in more than ten years.
Previous effort was the "Flash"-album released back in 1996. The
C.C.C.C.-project is first of known (or rather notorious) by the shocking
live performances that earlier included onstage striptease and the
throwing of urine-filled plastic bags into the audience. "Chaos Is The
Cosmos" consists of one single track running 40+ minutes. Despite its
length there is a great development in the piece. Main part of the noise
creation consists of guitar distortion and keyboard generated noise with
the addition of vocals from Mayuko's peaking with some hellish screams
of fright. A great album that definitely has been worth the long wait!"
[NM, Vital Weekly]
* BRUME - Anthology 13 x CD-BOX (Waystyx Records WR50,
2008)
[lim. 100]
€ 130.00
"13 CD Brume anthology, consisting of releases from WR51 to WR63 in
special box with red silkscreen, limited edition 100 copies. For people
who bought all 13 CDs separately an empty box with black silkscreen is
available for free." [label info]
* BURROUGHS, WILLIAM S. - The Instrument of Control CD
(Archivio Letterario, 2006)
€ 14.00
Tja, mehr als die Recordings gibt es hier nicht! Aber das reicht voll und
ganz! Lesungen mit Publikum (ziemlich witzig!), Radio-Features, ein
Interview, sogar ein bischen Musik ist drauf.... Material aus den 70 oder
80er Jahren, leider keine weiteren infos im Cover.. 17 Indexe, 55+
Minuten.
"Collection of rare recordings of William Burroughs in conversation and
readings from the 1970s/80s. This is an essential insight into the mind
and writings of arguably the most influential writer from the Beat
generation. "Through his mordant satire of cultural aspirations,
homosexual eroticism and political power, Burroughs focuses our gaze
into the abyss. His cold, surgical language creates beauty through a
terror that we are just able to bear". A great collectors' item!
[label info]
* Andrew CHALK - The River that flows into the Sands II CD
(Faraway Press FP07, 2007)
€ 17.50
Wie immer auf Faraway Press, exquisite Artwork und sensible Drones
formen ein Gesamtkunstwerk erster Güte... dies hier ist eine
Wiederveröffentlichung des bisher nur auf MC erschienenen zweiten
Teils von THE RIVER THAT FLOWs....
"....As on the first part of The River, Chalk picks up the guitar for his
minimalist explorations tightroping between the ghostly impressionism
of Keiji Haino's Nijiumu project from many moons ago, the narcoleptic
atmospheres of Maeror Tri / Troum, the oceanic ambience of Boris'
Flood, and the time-reversal qualities of Eliane Radigue, all the while
putting to shame every upstart drone artist with a cd burner and an
Echoplex.
Just as the first River cd meanders through five variations of
the cascade sound, Chalk produces another five tracks of rippling
drones on this disc. Similarly, he has packaged the disc in the
dotted decalcomania which graced the first cd. The major differences
can be found in the gritty, growling distortion which exists just
beneath the surface of these glassine drones. Beautiful, beautiful,
beautiful!" [Aquarius Records]
* CANTU-LEDESMA, JEFRE - The Garden of forking Paths CD
(SPEKK KK:009, 2007)
€ 15.50
"The Garden Of Forking Paths is the first full length solo CD by San
Francisco based musician Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Eschewing the laptop
processing of his earlier work as Colophon, the album was created with
an assortment of tape recording mediums (Cassette, Micro-Cassette,
Reel to Reel tape machine) and a small arsenal of guitar stop boxes
used on wide variety of instruments from electric guitar to bowed gong.
In addition to recording at his home studio, various sites found in the
near by Marin Headlands just north of San Francisco were used for live
outdoor site specific recording.
With its title taken from a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, the album is
overtly concerned with dreams, memory, death, birth, infinity and the
possibility of a labyrinth like approach to music making, where songs
are not written as much as they slowly emerge out of the process of
music making." [label info]
* CHOP SHOP - Oxide CD (23five Incorporated 23FIVE012, 2007)
[lim. 500]
€ 13.00
Neben den HATERS ist CHOP SHOP der US-amerikanische Spezialist
für den "Klang des Zerfalls" und Konzept-Noise; bei diesem neuen onetracker (49 Minuten Länge) benutzt er alte & sich auflösende
(oxidierende) Tapes und Tonbänder aus seinem Archiv und präsentiert
als Ergebnis dissoziierte Geräusch-Drones und "kaputten" MaschinenLärm, wie man ihn konsequenter kaum zu hören bekommt... viele cutups, verschiedene Noise-Schichten; innere Veränderungen des Klangs,
Übersteuerungen & Knacksen & Störgeräusche werden hörbar
gemacht, vieles davon unglaublich "low-fi" & rauschig... das ist
"recycled sound" par excellence!
"This filled me with much pleasure, as I never expected this. Towards
the end of the 80s and in the early 90s, when we were still firm
industrial music lovers, Chop Shop was one of our heroes. Not because
he was so incredible loud, but his loudspeaker installations looked raw
and sounded good. No, actually they sounded 'rusty', as well as a rusty
look. Through his speaker installations Chop Shop, the one man band
of Scott Konzelmann fed a blend of decayed sounds, taken from all
sorts of machinery, sonic residue taped on cheap cassette tape or reel
* CAUL vs. KIRCHENKAMPF - Sleep - Night - Death CD
(Malignant Records tumorcd31, 2008)
€ 13.00
Zwei langjährige aktive US-amerikanische Ambient-Projekte in
Zusammenarbeit: Ein 65minütiger Trip ins Dunkle, Formlose,
Amorphe... sehr fliessend und düster-melancholisch, aber eher
geräuschhaft, unendlich einsam und verloren ... insgesamt sehr ruhig,
aber immer wieder aufwallend... vergleichbar mit YEN POX, AMON,
HALO MANASH.. Schöne Artwork von Alan Mc.Clelland der auch
einige TROUM-Covers gemacht hat..
"Two artists return to the Malignant roster, having teamed up to create
over 60 minutes of dark ambient solitude. A soundscape for late night
54
to reel tape machines. Much more serious in his approach than the
average noise maker, Konzelmann was already more a visual artist
than a musician. I have no idea why he 'left' the scene, or why we didn't
hear his name that much in the last ten years, but it's good to hear
'Oxide'. Salvaged from old, damaged tapes, which caused 'flaking,
static, dropouts and print through'. If you never saw or heard a cassette
or a reel tape - and in these digital days that is probably a lot of people it's hard to understand what static or dropouts are. Listening to 'Oxide' is
a like being transported back in time, to the era of cassettes, hiss, when
the music dropped a bit due to an imperfection of the cassette tape.
Konzelmann takes all of these sounds, of pure hiss, of loud machine
noise, of decay, of erosion and creates his 'Oxide' piece with it. He
deliberately leaves in the 'unwanted' breaks, the mistakes and the
faults, but his piece is, at least for me who heard pretty much everything
of his 'old' music, a true delight. Great to see this on CD and becoming
more easy to access, but surely its time to out some of the older
releases and have a nostalgic evening of humming noise." [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
"Akita. Menche. Blankenship. Dilloway. These are the men of noise with
discographies the size of small town phone books, proving their might in
the international noise community by the sheer audaciousness of their
output. But then again, you might really only need a single testament to
stake your claim as one of the greatest noise musicians. Chop Shop
has chosen the latter tactic, with Oxide being that sole document, after
a relatively tiny back catalogue of cassette only releases, a couple of
cdrs, and two infamous 10"s. Both released through RRR, the first was
the Steel Plate 2x10" that was literally bound to a steel plate; and the
second was a split 10" with Small Cruel Party that was literally cut in
half, making playback a dangerous proposition for the needle on your
record player. Both of those releases have long been out of print; and
despite the hushed respect that those 10"s demand, Chop Shop has
kept a low profile. A very low profile. Hence, after a career that has
spanned nearly two decades, Oxide is his first proper CD. And it's
stunning.
The sole proprietor of Chop Shop is New York based noise technician
Scott Konzelmann, whose audio demolition revolves around speaker
constructions forged out of hammered plate metal and disfigured
commercial grade pipes, which focus particular frequencies and
resonant overtones into swarming orchestras of rust, noise, drone, and
static. Tape has long been Konzelmann's medium of choice for
recording; and like William Basinski before him, Konzelmann endures
the self-disintegration of the medium whilst transcribing the sounds of
Oxide digitally. Where Basinski's vocabulary of decay is all romance
and melancholy, Konzelmann's is muscular and urgently present. Oxide
offers a metallurgist's din where compressed air strikes hard steel and
machine vibrations generate noxious resonant frequencies in
neighboring vents. Konzelmann composes the old school way, with a
razor blade and pieces of tape, generating jump cut edits alongside the
self-generated debris from the magnetic literally falling apart. These
grey, dead-tech drones thus rupture and explode along the faultlines of
those edits, and Oxide emerges as a forceful, dynamic album without
resorting to purile shock tactics. This is a seriously great noise album
for anybody with a passing interest in Broken Flag, Hansen Records, or
early Hafler Trio."" [Aquarius Records review]
Personal Top 25 albums of all time, this is certainly one of those
records you can keep returning to and find new things buried in all
those layers of ZOUND." --Julian Cope" [label info]
* CHROME - Alien Soundtracks CD (Noiseville #77, 2007) € 16.00
Die frühen CHROME-Alben werden von NOISEVILLE wieder aufgelegt,
ihre rauhe Science Fiction / Industrial / Psych / Post-Punk Mischung
war damals (und ist es heute) ziemlich einmalig! ALIEN
SOUNDTRACKS war das erste Album auf dem sich der so typische
CHROME-Sound in voller Gänze entfaltete..
"This is Chrome's second album, released in 1978, and comprised of
members Gary Spain (bass, guitar, vocals), Damon Edge (drums,
synthesizer), and Helios Creed. Alien Soundtracks is the first of their
releases that would later mark them as early innovators of post-punk
industrial experimentalism. This release is raw punk heavy on the
Stoogeian vibe, featuring Creed's flanging, scrawling guitar sounds
backed up by Edge's use of tape manipulation and samples. " [label
notes]
* CLEAR FRAME - same CD (Continuity... Records TINU001,
2007)
€ 14.00
"Continuity... Records, ein neuer Trabant, der RéR umkreist, wurde
initiiert von Charles Hayward & Lesley Evans, um sich speziell um die
Musik von Hayward zu kümmern, aber auch Leckerbissen aus dem
britischen Underground der 60s & 70s auszugraben, und bringt gleich
als Erstes ein besonderes Meeting of the Spirits. CLEAR FRAME (TINU
001) ist nichts weniger als ein All-Star-Gipfel - Hayward (Quiet Sun,
This Heat, Camberwell Now) an den Drums, Hugh Hopper (Soft
Machine, Soft Works, Brainville 3) am Bass, Lol Coxhill (Delivery, Kevin
Ayers, The Melody Four, The Recedents, Burt / MacDonald + Coxhill)
am Soprano, dazu Orphy Robinson (Courtney Pine, The Jazz Warriors)
an Vibraphon, Steel Pan & FX, der zuletzt auf Robert Wyatts
Comicopera zu hören war. Wyatt selbst spielt auf Gegenbesuch hier
Kornett. Zusammen kreieren sie eine post-canterburyeske,
neo-fusioneske Ästhetik, mit agil-dynamischem Drumming und
dem E-Bass als gewaltigem Soundelement und zweiter Leadstimme
neben Coxhills einzigartigem, schnörkelig-näselndem Knören. Diese
Bitches Brew bekommt durch Robinsons karibisches Steelgedengel
und das tönerne, gläserne Perlen des Vibraphons eine exotische
Würze, das tagträumerische Ambiente eines neuen Horizontes und
fremder Küsten. Wyatts dunkler Kornettklang, schnarrend oder mit
kaskadierendem Nachhall, mäandert dazwischen wie ein weiterer Duft
von weither. Hoppers fuzzige Klangwolken sind der Stoff, aus dem
Cloud 9 geballt ist. Coxhills Swing kann einen entführen in das New
Orleans eines Paralleluniversums, nichts ist hier wie man es kennt.
* CISFINITUM - Tactio CD (Mechanoise Labs MN033, 2008)
€ 13.00
Mitschnitt des denkwürdigen CISFINITUM-Konzerts im Bremer St.
Petri-Dom vom 24. November 2005, welches v.a. durch die
Verwendung monumentaler Kirchenglocken-Drones besticht
(Aufnahmen einer russischen Kirche basieren); es fand statt im
Rahmen der REIHE ELEKTRONISCHER MUSIK ("Rapid Ear
Movement"), kuratiert von CHRISTOPH OGIERMANN.
"CISFINITUM ist eines der am längsten bestehenden Moskauer
Industrial / Experimental/ Elektronik - Projekte (Gründung 1989) und
steht für die russische Variante des sogenannten „ambient Industrial“,
„drone“ oder „dark ambient“. Als „dark ambient“ bezeichnet man in der
neueren elektronischen Musik seit einigen Jahren die „dunkle“ Seite der
atmosphärisch-experimentellen Musik, bei der es oft weniger um den
explizit Ablauf der Komposition geht, als vielmehr um die Schaffung
„bewusstseinsverändernder“ Atmosphären mit Hilfe von Klang.
Hinter CISFINITUM steckt Evgueny Voronovsky, ein ausgebildeter
Violinist, der neben konkreten und instrumentellen Klangquellen auch
alte sowjetische Synthesizer in neuem Kontext benutzt (wie auf der
letzten CD-Veröffentlichung „BEZDNA“ [Monochrome Vision]), z.B. den
legendären ANS. CISFINITUM (=„Jenseits des Endlichen“) ist ein Text
& Begriff des russischen Dichters Daniil Charms, der für die „Logik der
unendlichen Nicht-Existenz“steht: das was hinter dem
Verstandesmässigem liegt. Die Endlichkeit der logischen Welt wird
durch die Logik selbst nachgewiesen." [Konzertankündigungs-Info
Drone Records]
"With a parsimonious discography mostly released on seasoned
Russian labels such as Waystyx, Ewers Tonkunst and Monochrome
Vision, Evgeny Voronovsky has established himself as an uniquely
engaging artist in the country's current ambient scene. Under the name
of Cisfinitum, he has taken a syncretic approach to an often codified
genre, uniting his formal training as a violinist at the Moscow State
University with his affinity for concrete sounds and experimental
structures. Past releases have shown a capacity to synthesize these
factors at times while emphasizing the contrasts between them at
others, sometimes over the course of a single track. In this aspect, this
album follows the tradition faithfully.
Tactio is the live recording of a Cisfinitum concert at the St. Petri Dom
(St. Peter's Cathedral) in Bremen, on November 24, 2005. The
particular (and as expected highly favorable) acoustics of this
environment were consistently used not only as an enhancing effect but
as an integral foundation for the performance, making it unmistakeably
tied to its context. Presented in the form of six continuous tracks, the
album is a contemplative composition of vibrant drones, reverberating
bells and synthesized resonance, gracefully evolving from the celestial
tones of its start to the tellurian pulses of its climax. This is a piece of
work that is elaborate in its simplicity, and it's with much appreciation
that it is presented here today. The beautiful iconic artwork by Evgeny
Kuprienko further emphasizes the relic-like qualities of this recording."
[label description]
* CHROME - Half Machine Lip Moves CD (Noiseville #78, 2007)
€ 16.00
"Originally released in 1979 on Siren/Beggars Banquet, Half Machine
Lip Moves is Chrome's third album and is considered an absolute
classic of raw punk/experimental genius, authored by the duo of Helios
Creed and Damon Edge. "Half Machine Lip Moves was a curious and
powerful hybrid, which fused a Stooges-styles aggression with a sci-fi
and LSD-inspired otherworldliness, reflected in titles that evidenced
their interest in aliens and contemporary technology. This album was
arguably their finest moment ... Creed's searing, heavily FX-laden guitar
and Edge's eerie Moog and vocals, underpinned by metallic drums,
came together to create what could have become a radical new
departure point for a nascent form of post-rock." --The Wire; "One of my
55
‚Figure Eight‘ hat ganz klar Jon Hassells Possible Worlds vor dem
inneren Auge. Diese Exotica lässt durch ‚noise‘ und ‚void‘ hindurch
etwas Höheres und Besseres durchschimmern. Dass Rock
+ Improvisation weniger ist als die Summe seiner Teile, ist übrigens nur
Smalltalk, an dem man einen Schmock erkennt." [Bad Alchemy]
"An all-star line-up convened and recorded for a BBC radio project,
subsequently radically reworked by Hugh Hopper. These are clear,
defined and shapely improvisations, music rather than noise based,
invoking the best of the ‘70s rock- improvisational approaches; genrefree and structurally-minded. Robert appears in an unfamiliar role,
playing trumpet throughout, and everyone is on top form. A rarity in
these times, this is deep rooted music that grows with listening." [label
info]
und Fffffuck It! befiehlt, wird wohl so mancher feuchte Traum wahr."
[Bad Alchemy]
"Coh Plays Cosey CD is the first part of an ongoing collaborative project
between Ivan Pavlov-COH and Cosey Fanni Tutti known for her solo
performances and work with Chris Carter-CTI as well as for being a part
of the radical cultural phenomena COUM Transmissions and Throbbing
Gristle. Very much a statement rather than just a musical venture, Coh
Plays Cosey deals with concepts of honesty, trust, privacy,
communication as well as (perception of) sexuality. The work
represents a very close, if an intimate, contact between the two, where
one (Ivan) was to interpret voice recordings made for him by the other
(Cosey) - recordings made in intensely emotional states to establish a
dialogue that extends beyond words, beyond intellect. A most private
emotional diary of one (Cosey) pronounced to the general public by the
other (Ivan). The work has been kept hermetic by Ivan voluntarily
restricting his choice of sound exclusively to that originating from the
voice recordings, thus preserving the raw quality of his source material.
In this explicit sonic adventure Coh Plays Cosey without inhibitions,
without fear and without questioning the content submitted. Coh Plays
Cosey like an actor - becoming her through his elaborate
transformations of the voice. Coh Plays Cosey like a computer game making his way though the infinite combinations and variety of human
expression with ease and sense of fun. Coh Plays Cosey like in sex fully controlling the process and manifesting the eventual outcome. Coh
Plays Cosey is a world of the embarrassingly unspoken made audible,
Coh Plays Cosey is the place where there is nothing left to hide." [label
info]
* CLOAMA + BLUTLEUCHTE - From Wasteland Mausoleums CD
(New Old Sentinel SENTINEL-CD-06, 2007)
€ 12.00
Finnish Industrial-Noise in the way of TG or other noise pioneers - raw,
analogue & authentic power!
"Cloama and Blutleuchte rise anew From Wasteland Mausoleums with
desolate, cryptic and evocative soundscapes of the world beyond
perception. Further removed from the noise and power electronics
beginnings of both projects, here one is to find experiments in candlelit
rituals, analogicism inspired by early German electronic pioneers,
voices and hauntings and crushing guitar. Melodies and raw noise
interlap as the twin phases of existence or the primal creations of
deities both wrathful and dreaming. The CD is comprised of 12 tracks
with a total duration of almost an hour of parapsychological exploits.
Comes in a jewelcase with an 8-page UV coated booklet containing
lyrics and exclusive art." [label info]
* CONTINUUM - Volume 2 CD (Soleilmoon Rec. SOL 159, 2007)
€ 14.50
Second album of this collaborative effort between FEAR FALLS
BURNING & BASS COMMUNION.
"These three new pieces certainly break away from the previous CD in
a major way, which is of course a great thing. In an odd way, Serries
and Wilson combine ambient music with metal music, which if you read
this sounds like the most illogical possible (next to metal reggae), but
hearing is believing. A major leap forward and making me curious to the
third installment." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* COH - Strings do-CD (Raster-Noton R-N 85, 2007) € 16.50
"Recht aufwendig verpackt in einem speziell gefertigten Kartonfolder
präsentiert COH aka Ivan Pavlov auf Strings (R-N 085, CD + CDep) in 3
Teilen und in abstrahierter Form einen chronologischen Rückblick auf
seinen musikalischen Werdegang. Part I ‚Sidereal As If Not‘ verwendet
als Basis Piano-Aufnahmen, die bereits für die Doppel-12“ Seasons von
2001 hergehalten haben, Part II ‚No Monsters No Rock‘ basiert auf den
Tönen, die er seiner ersten Gitarre (rot, Moskau, 1988) entlockte, und
Part III ‚Euphrates‘ sowie das 17-min. ‚SU-U‘ auf der Extra-EP auf den
Klängen einer Saz bzw. eines Oud. Letzteres Bonus-Stück wurde
zuerst für die Raster-Noton-Installation "Essential Room" (Sonar
Festival 2006) aufgenommen. D.h. von der frühen Pianostunde über die
Heavy-Metal-Phase hinterm Eisernen Vorhang bis hin zur aktuellen
experimentiellen Ambient-Minimal-Elektronik erzählt dieses Album eine
persönliche Geschichte und wirkt dadurch emotionaler und offener als
viele seiner Werke, die formal ausgereift sind, aber kaum noch den
Geist in der Maschine spüren lassen." [ [cs] / Bad Alchemy]
"Strings is primarily an attempt to reconcile the aesthetics of digital
sound with that of the more traditional music instruments and to enrich
the respective domains with the qualities of each other. In a larger
scale, the album targets the stereotypes in today's perception of music,
trying to smooth out the borders between academic and popular,
traditional and contemporary, serious and amusing - all in favour of
music. The choice of instruments follows COH's own experience in
music: from years of piano lessons as a child, through playing in a
heavy metal band during teenage, further to the recent years of work in
the area of digital sound and composition. Composed and recorded in
2006 by Ivan Pavlov-COH." [label notes]
* CONTRASTATE - A live Coal under the Ashes CD (Tesco 010,
2008) € 15.00
Wiederveröffentlichung des wohl bekanntesten CONTRASTATEAlbums von 1992, welches damals auch wegen der besonderen
Verpackung für Furore sorgte in der Szene! Inkl. 1 Bonus-track!
"1992 saw the release of "A live coal under the ashes" which was
inspired by the events leading up to the changes across Eastern and
Central Europe during 1989. This release marked the change
conceptually in which the group's ideas became more specific and more
focused on contemporary political issues. "A live coal…" was critically
acclaimed not just for the music, but also for the artwork and packaging:
- a CD placed in the middle of a 12 inch clear vinyl record. After many
years of unavailabity Tesco can finally present a rerelease with
remastered tracks and a new yet unreleased track called: "Death
follows the one eyed cow." An album full of ambient atmospheres,
drones, percussion, suitable dark narrations and some steady muted
rhythms. These are intense, highly charged recordings with a powerful
mystic and ritual feeling. A masterpiece of sound poetry. Comes in nice
Digipak. Total Playing time 50:30. Contrastate were formed in 1987 and
disbanded in 2000. Ever since the demise of Contrastate there has
been a void in the experimental music scene that no other act has
managed to fill. Their diverse creative output, manifested as sweeping
electronics and sound manipulation together with theatrical spoken
word, was nothing less than mind blowing in its complexity and
originality." [press release]
* COH - Plays Cosey CD (Raster-Noton R-N 091, 2008) € 14.00
"If I Ever sit and think about what all these things are about I‘d go
absolutely crazy, lautet einer der intimen Gedanken von COSEY FANNI
TUTTI, die sie mit COH / IVAN PAVLOV austauschte. Der machte auf
COH Plays Cosey (R-N 091) daraus Musik, Musik, ausschließlich aus
Lauten, die aus Cosey Mund stammen, meist gesprochen, teils
gesungen, manchmal nur geseufzt, geraunt, dann wieder geschrieen.
Er transformiert die Throbbing-Gristle- und Chris & Cosey-Legende Chris Carter wirkte als Toningenieur und Fotograf mit - in eine Human
Beatbox. Einige der Laute werden zu Beats, andere stotternd
verhackstückt, verzerrt, verfremdet, wieder andere scheint Cosey in
ihrem erstaunlich jungen Tonfall einem unter vier Augen zuzuflüstern,
poetische Zeilen wie I am a fish in your soup I am a crow on your roof I
am a star from above I am the love... I am the water... I am the fire... I
am the mud... the mad... I am not (‚Mad‘), träumerische Gedanken wie
Thinking over and over So quietly alone Sinking quietly alone... Sinking
Sinking Sinking Never Never Never (‚Sin-king‘) und Alone Quiet Inside
Safe and quiet Behind these walls Caressed by silence (‚Inside‘), oder
ein philosophisches Fazit wie The lie that surrounds life is as inevitable
as it‘s endless And the sadness of that is not sweet (‚Lying‘). Der
Sound-Poetry-Ton ist dabei ein mindestens ebenso großer Reiz wie
Coseys Worte selbst. ‚Lying‘ lässt COH sie im Eskimo-Stil zu
Schamanenbeat und Trompetengetute und dann als Lalalala-Litanei
singen. Und wenn sie mit Technobeatstilettos auf einem herum steppt
* CORDIER, ERIC - Osorezan CD (Herbal Records cd0701, 2007)
€ 13.00
Eine faszinierende Welt der Vulkangasgeräusche und -ausströmungen
betritt man im ersten Stück auf ERIC CORDIERS "Osorezan", der hier
"reine" Feldaufnahmen aus Japan verwendet hat. Daneben finden sich
auf dieser Kollektion auch Aufnahmen aus einem (französischen?)
Bergdorf, pure field recordings mit Maschinen- Tier - MenschenNaturgeräuschen.....
dazu sehr schöne Farbaufnahmen auf dem 6-teiligen Digipack.
"Selected field recording 1993 - 2006. Recorded in Niseko, southwest of
Hokaïdo and in Osorezan, northern of Honshu in August 2006. Gas
emanation of volcano in Japan. The sound recordings were carried out
in the depths and then re-organised. We listen to gas bubbling in water,
gas mouths, gas that creates rhythms while escaping from under a
dead leaf down in the clay, whistling. All panoramic movements,
repetitions, effects of phasing have been carried out during the time of
the recording, travelling at the mouth to gather the sound of sulphur gas
as a sound pallette." [label info]
56
* DEATH AMBIENT - Drunken Forest CD (Tzadik TZ 7264, 2007)
€ 14.50
Orchestraler, instrumentaler Ambient & Ethno-Folk & Noise mit
ausufernden Experimental-Ausflügen, "musikalischer" und weniger
düster & eruptiv als die beiden Vorgänger. Drittes Album des Projekts
von FRED FRITH, IKUE MORI und KATO HIDEKI.
"Es hat geregnet. Der ganze Wald ist mit Feuchtigkeit gesättigt. Moose
und Flechten sind mit Wasser voll gesogen. Kleine Rinnsale winden
sich die Stämme hinab. Es tropft. Von Blättern, Ästen, Lianen, Blüten
und Früchten perlt das Wasser herab. Es ist heiß. Der Boden atmet
dass Nass wieder aus, welches als dampfender Nebel zwischen den
Bäumen treibt. Mittendrin sitze ich, völlig durchnässt und schwitzend,
und lausche den Klängen des betrunkenen Waldes.
Death Ambient sind Kato Hideki, Ikue Mori und Fred Frith. Das Trio gibt
es seit 1995, als man sich die drei in New York zusammenfanden.
Death Ambient sind eigentlich keine richtige Band. Konzerte gibt es
selten und jeder der drei Musiker ist meist mit anderen Dingen
beschäftigt. Ab und zu trifft man sich jedoch um ein Album
aufzunehmen. Das 2007 erschienen "Drunken Forest" ist bisher das
dritte und - nach Meinung des Rezensenten - das dichteste,
ausgewogenste und gleichzeitig abwechslungsreichste Album von
Death Ambient.
Avantgardistische Ambientmusik, RIO-Elektronik, Krach, Geräusche, EGitarren, Rock-, Jazz- und japanische Folkrudimente, diverse
akustische Instrumentalklänge und allerlei Samples vermischen Death
Ambient zu einer beeindruckenden Klangsauna, einem schwebenden,
wabernden, dröhnenden und hallenden Gemenge aus intensiven,
homogen dahinfliessenden Klängen. Wasser ist immer präsent. Es
gluckert und plätschert, rauscht und wogt, und die Musik scheint von
riesigen, flechtenverhangenen, im Dunst halb verborgenen
Urwaldbäumen herabzutropfen, mal delikat und zerstäubt, mal heftiger,
tropisch-warm und in schweren großen Tropfen herabstürzend. Was
Death Ambient hier bieten ist ein subtiler elektroakustischer
Impressionismus, sind beeindruckende Klanggemälde, die
geheimnisvoll und düster aus den Boxen quellen. Frith erzeugt
Myriaden von möglichen und unmöglichen Klängen mit seiner EGitarre, Hideki bedient gleich ein gutes Dutzend verschiedene
akustischer und elektronisch verstärkter Instrumente, Gast Pugliese
steuert allerlei Perkussives bei und Mori verwebt das alles mit
unzähligen elektronischen Sounds zu einem dichten Klangnetz. Das
Ergebnis schwankt zwischen zerbrechlichen, zarten Tongeweben und
heftigeren, fast industriellen Klangskulpturen. Ausgesprochen intensiv
und mächtig ist diese Musik, wenn man sich auf sie einlässt,
schweißtreibend, schwül und stellenweise ungemein gewaltig und
beängstigend, stellenweise zart und feingliedrig.
Wer ein offenes Ohr für kantiges Klanggewölk hat, für avantgardistische
Elektronik und freiformatige Tongebilde, der sollte in "Drunken Forest"
dringend einmal reinhören. Grandios!" [Babyblaue Seiten]
"This best selling trio from Tzadik’s New Japan Series returns with
special guest percussionist Jim Pugliese for a spiritual exploration of
sound and color. Beautifully orchestrated ambient music blending the
acoustic world of violin, mandolin, ukulele, banjo and percussion with
the electronic soundscapes of computer and guitar, this is their most
evocative and mysterious creation to date. Six years in the making,
Drunken Forest opens your ears to a striking new world." [label info]
* CORPOPARASSITA - Inesorabile CD (Finalzmuzik FM06,
2007) [ed. of 500]
€ 13.00
Kind of low-fi ambient & drone industrial from this italian project,
melancholic and dark & worth to check out !
"Italian project Corpoparassita is known in the industrial underground
scene for a few outstanding limited edition CDr releases. "Inesorabile"
is their first full length CD, including - trust us! - the most obscure and
colder stuff around! Just imagine a modern version of Italian 70's horror
movies' soundtrack meeting thrilling dark ambient and morbid black
noise. "Inesorabile" is a must for industrial / dark ambient fans, and it is
available in a beautiful poster sleeve akin to some Crass and hc /
crustcore releases. Limited to 500." [label info]
CRANIOCLAST - Iconclastar (Icon <I-VI>)
CD (Musica Maxima
Magnetica eee09, 1992)
€ 14.00
Wir konnten ein paar NEUE Kopien dieses ambient IndustrialKlassikers ergattern, CRANIOCLAST wurden lange Zeit in einem
Atemzug mit ZOVIET FRANCE oder HAFLER TRIO genannt!
"Great surrealistic soundscapes! Das Meisterwerk der westdetschen
Gruppe erstreckt sich auf zwei CDs, die auf zwei verschiedenen Labels
veröffentlicht wurden. Der erste Teil beinhaltet die ICONS I – VI. (66
min). Wer dieses geniale Werk noch nicht kennt: allerwärmste
Empfehlung!" [old Drone Rec info]
* CURRENT 93 - Of Ruine or some blazing Stars CD (Durtro
Jnana DJ1961, 2007)
€ 14.50
"Was ursprünglich 1994 veröffentlicht wurde, gilt nicht umsonst als
Klassiker: Durtro Jnana machen sich 13 Jahre später an die
Wiederveröffentlichungen des CURRENT 93 Opus "Of Ruine Or Some
Blazing Starre". "Of Ruine." folgte den fast schon legendären "Thunder
Perfect Mind" Album und katapultierte den Sound von CURRENT 93
auf die nächste Ebene. Die wunderschön zerbrechlichen
Gitarrensounds von MICHAEL CASHMORE, die sich durch Drones,
Glocken und Soundexperimente weben, machen "Of Ruine." zu einem
der hypnotischsten Alben, dessen Kraft DAVID TIBET mit seinem
Gesang kontrolliert. Neu gemastert mit brandneuem Artwork im Digipak
mit 20-seitigem Booklet
// Originally released in 1994, Current 93's
masterpiece Of Ruine Or Some Blazing Starre followed the classic
Thunder Perfect Mind album and marked another leap forward for the
band. Michael Cashmore's gorgeously delicate guitar, augmented by
drones, bells, and sound manipulations, help to make this one of C93's
most musically hypnotic albums, with David Tibet's vocals and text
adding a quietly controlled power and drama virtually unsurpassed in
the Current 93 canon. This reissue has been completely remastered
and features newly designed artwork in a full-color Digipak with a 20page booklet." [label info]
* CURRENT 93 - Black Ships heat the Dancefloor (remixes &
videos) CD/DVD (dualdisc) (Durtro Jnana 12, 2008)
€ 9.00
Four remixes from the "Black Ships" album by JG THIRLWELL
(FOETUS) & MATMOS, with additional vocals by ANTONY, PLUS 2
videoclips made by CAM ARCHER on the DVD-side!
* DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE - Collaborations do-CD
(Monochrome Vision (mv09), 2006) [lim. 500]
€ 16.50
Collection of collab-works with: ERG, ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE,
JÖRG THOMASIUS, THE OVAL LANGUAGE, TBC. lim. 500
"DSM's music world appears as the intricate but finest tapestry of
microscopic sounds, sophisticated packing of voids with sonic
hallucinations, textural interactions and layering effects. Mostly sourced
from the ordinary life, sounds changed beyond any recognition, the
endless flow of electroacoustic treatments and studio engineering. This
album includes collaborations with some finest sound-artists over there,
and must be attended as the most diversified one.
Release date is 30th December 2006. Limited edition of 500 copies in
jewelcase." [label info]
* D.D.A.A. - Action and Japanese Demonstration CD (Fractal
Records 333, 2008)
€ 16.50
Endlich, die CD-Wiederveröffentlichung ihres ersten Albums von 1982,
dazu 2 Bonus-Tracks von denselben Sessions, und das 1985
erschienene rare Tapes "Musique et Bruits du Bas Pa-Tat"!
".... Deficit des Annees Anterieures or, in abbreviated form, DDAA; are
one of the biggest names in experimental/industrial music. Formed by
three artschool students (Jean-Luc André, Sylvie Martineau-Fée, JeanPhilippe Fée) in 1975, they are (amazingly enough) still active today,
which I guess makes them the Rolling Stones of experimental music.
However, in direct contrast with the Stones, DDAA have managed to
remain a highly original sound unit over all these years. As new albums
by DDAA are far and between (their last album was released a couple
of years ago), this reissue of their first album from 1982 is most
welcome. Originally privately released on their own Illusion label (who
were also responsible for a plethora of vinyl and cassettes often in
amazing complex handmade packaging), reading the sleeve notes to
this can be slightly confusing. There is a lot of semi-intellectual talk of
the Japanese Nebule, which is interesting and fun, but it isn't always
clear how this relates to the music. Leaning heavily on traditional
theorism (hence the title) and DDAA's imaginary travels to Japan, the
music could best be described as somewhere between the Residents
and a traditional Japanese band. Semi-acoustic string instruments are
plucked and treated, there are trebly guitar intermissions and vocal
chants with lots of room for improvisation and collages. This leads to
naïve-sounding structures, but listening to the music is still strangely
entertaining and rewarding. The full original LP is reproduced here with
* DAUBY, YANNICK - TW04-05
CD (Kalerne / Editions Ere
ere01, 2007)
€ 12.00
Auf 20 Abschnitten breiten sich die reichhaltigen field recordings aus
TAIWAN aus, die YANNICK DAUBY dort 2004-2005 machte - pur &
unbearbeitet - Natur & Zivilisation, Menschen & Tiere, U-Bahn &
Stadtgeräusche... man bekommt hier eine psycho-geographische
akustische Fernreise vom feinsten serviert...
"Soundscapes from Taïwan, from the subway to the smalll streets of
Taipei, from the Fu-Shan forests to the swamp areas of Dao-Mi, some
acoustic traces of urban activities, human and animal crowds,
atmospheric mouvements ansd sonic ambiences, field recordings made
during the summers 2004 and 2005." [label info]
57
the original Musique et Bruits du Bas Pa-Tat tape (7 tracks dating from
1985 and much in the same vein as AAJD) as a welcome bonus. There
are two further bonus tracks from the original sessions. Despite the fact
that the cover is printed on somewhat flimsy material and my CD came
without any protective inner sleeve, this is, for once, truly an essential
reissue by one of the most original bands in the experimental/industrial
DIY genre. If you don't have the original vinyl, there is no longer an
excuse for not having the music in your collection." [Freek Kinkelaar,
Vital Weekly]
"Electric and acustic guitars, voices, ambient and noises, piano,
keyboards and violin by Rubén d'Hers. Clarinet on track 05 and 08 by
Gorgias Sánchez. All tracks composed, recorded, mixed and mastered
by Rubén d'Hers in la maleta estudios. Caracas, Venezuela 2006.
Original photography by Rubén d'Hers. www.dhersmuzik.com
Art direction and design by Marius Schillak. www.graffixyz.de
Published by Jeans Records. www.jeansrecords.com " [label info]
* DIALING IN - Cows in Lye CD (Pseudo-Arcana 083, 2006) € 13.00
Sehr interessantes Drone-Projekt aus Seattle, absolut
undurchdringliche low-fi drones, die aber voller verdeckter Harmonien
stecken, die kaum noch erahnbar sind. Basierend auf v.a. indische field
recordings, wird hier mit der klassischen LUCIER-Methode immer
weiter verfremdet...
"DIALING IN is the ecstatic roaring psychedelic drone project of Seattle
based sound artist REITA PIECUCH. Utilizing the natural acoustics of a
series of reverberant spaces she weaves together super saturated
soundscapes by recording in one environment, playing back in another,
and then re-recording this recording playing back in yet another
environment (etc.). On Cows in Lye, the original sound sources range
from loops of field recordings from a trip to India, piano, and the shifting
drones of a "Shruti Box" (electronic Tamboura). One track also features
a long stream of consciousness vocal performance from avant-crooner
HERB DIAMANTE! After a trek with recording gear through the caves,
cathedrals and bunkers of Seattle these ingredients are transformed
into huge and sublimely distorted quasi-melodic dreamscapes. The
album lifts off with an ecstatic roar and the intensity doesn't let up until
one is released exultant in the green flash of a setting sun." [label info]
* DEAF MACHINE - Found Noises CD (Raubbau RAUB-002,
2008)
€ 13.00
Das Berliner RAUBBAU-Label (früher auch als FORMOSAN aktiv) hat
das längst vergriffene, verstreute Material dieses Solo-Projektes eines
MEGAPTERA-Mitglieds zusammengestellt. Low-fi droning & death
industrial stuff mit obskuren Samples & found sounds...
"The groups in the Nyköping/Oxelösund region of Sweden (Megaptera,
The Protagonist, Morthound) have been pretty thoroughly documented
in the past. But one crucial missing link of this micro-scene has been
overlooked, and not given the deserved recognition. Until now, that is.
Mikael Svensson, founding member of Megaptera, also did his own
project Deaf Machine for a while, though it vanished without leaving
many traces behind. Besides a couple of wildly obscure self-released
tapes, the only other marks were contributions to seminal compilations
such as "In the Butcher's Backyard" (CMI) and "Death Odors"
(Slaughter Prod.).
Not content to rest on the laurels after the successful inaugural
release by Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio, the fresh German label Raubbau
has decided to treat Deaf Machine with an ambitious rerelease program
covering two separate CD albums. This first one, "Found Noises",
contains one of the tapes, two tracks culled from compilations, and
one previously unreleased track. The similarity with Megaptera lies in
the frequent use of voice samples from movies and news broadcasts.
But whereas Megaptera relies on a method with upfront pounding
machine rhythms, Deaf Machine opted for a subtler approach more
based on textures and moods. The mix of muffled voice fragments,
disjointed rhythm loops, and crude, bass-heavy synth-noises sound
unlike anything else that came out of Sweden at the time. A unique
sound by a neglected artist that thankfully no longer will remain a secret
within small circles of cognoscenti." [label info]
* DIRAC - same CD (Dirac d00001, 2006)
€ 13.00
Debut-album of this austrian trio (PETER KUTIN, DANIEL LERCHER,
FLORIAN KINDLINGER), working with various instruments to create a
very deep & melancholic drone-ambience. Quite nice, to discover!
* DOYLE, ROGER - The Ninth Set CD (Die Stadt DS103, 2007)
[ed. of 500]
€ 15.00
Noch aus UNITED DAIRIES-Anfängen bekannt ist ROGER DOYLE sein 66 minütiges prämiertes Werk "The Ninth Set" überzeugt mit
raumfüllenden atonalen Sphären-Drones, so rauh und symphonisch wie
einige KAYN-Stücke! Durchsetzt von elektro-akustischer Spannung
schaffen "stehende" Wellen von Klang tiefe suggestive Räume,
harmonische Wechsel geschehen unerwartet und zirkulär,
Lautstärkelevel verändern sich dynamisch. Mitreissend!
"Irish composer Roger Doyle's first release on Die Stadt is his prizewinning work The Ninth Set, a 67 minute masterpiece in 5 parts. He
was awarded the Magisterium Prize at this years's Bourges
International Electro-acoustic Music Competition in France for parts 4
and 5. The award, which is one of the most important prizes in the world
for electronic music, is open to composers having at least 25 years of
professional experience in the field, and its objective is 'the promotion
and diffusion of works that might become milestones in the history of
electroacoustic music'. Previous works of Doyle include a 5-CD set
Babel which took ten years to compose, where each track corresponds
to a room or place within an imagined tower city; and the 3 hour
Passades, music made from software that freezes sounds like a freezeframe in DVD. He's also known for his project OPERATING THEATRE
which released the classic "Rapid Eye Movements' album - consisting
of 4 works composed between 1968 - 1980 - on Steven Stapleton's
(Nurse With Wound) own United Dairies label in 1980. Furthermore he
guested on Fovea Hex's 'neither speak nor remain silent' EP number 2
'Huge', alongside among others Clodagh Simonds, Brian Eno, Percy
Jones and Colin Potter. More at http://www.rogerdoyle.com
The CD comes in a color digipack in a first edition of 600 copies.
Total playing time: 66:29 min." [press -release]
"...Through the five lengthy pieces of The Ninth Set, Roger Doyle
cycles through rumbling episodes of recontextualized tumult and
industrial heft, with every sound recorded and presented with
impeccable digital clarity. At times, his work mangles Ligetti-esque
vocal chorale through timestretching DSP tricks and thick digitally
swabbed crescendos of grey noise; at others plucked cords, wires, and
strings congregate into an unsettled mass with opaque rumblings and
seasick swells. Throughout each movement, there's plenty of pregnant
interludes of relative quiet with punctations of rapidly approaching
noise that halt at its peak with a razor cut to silence. Uncool, it
may be; but The Ninth Set is a brilliant record." [Aquarius Records
review]
* DE FABRIEK GOES THE HITMACHINE - Het Terrein II CD (EE
Tapes EE08, 2007)
[lim. 300]
€ 13.00
"After years of inactivity, De Fabriek teams up with The Hitmachine (Olé
Records), a Dutch combo rising from a new generation of electronic
freaks! Don't expect easy listening tunes, folks, this one/off collaboration
is the fruit of 5 audio artists chasing their ghosts in a rather bizarre way:
free impro, noise, chaos, dada or simply avantgarde?" [label info]
* DESTRUCTO SWARMBOTS - Clear Light CD (Public Guilt
PG011, 2007)
€ 13.00
Nebelhafte Rausch-Ambience mit vitalen & psychedelischen Elementen
im "Innern", nach der "Mountain" EP ist CLEAR LIGHT das erste volle
Album für das US-Duo, die sich einen besonderen Stil erspielt haben...
worth to discover !
"Destructo Swarmbots has carved a unique niche for themselves over
the past 4 years. Their live shows consist of chaotic walls of white
noise, improvised textures and battered instruments. Their recordings
are delicate, at times meditative, washes of ambience constructed from
countless piles of tortured sounds. Influenced heavily by 200+ needledropped, out of print psyche records, "Clear Light" is their strongest
effort yet and the next step on their journey to artistic isolation." [label
info]
“A wild ride on the dark side of Psychedelia.” - [Rock Sound]
"Noise comes in all textures and tones, but there's something truly
unique about Destructo Swarmbots' experimentation. Somewhere
between the creaking ambiance of Larsen and the incessantly clipping
Xela, Destructo Swarmbots will ruin your life." [XLR8R]
* D'HERS, RUBEN - El Reflejo en las Hojas CD (Jeans Records
05, 2007)
€ 13.00
We have no info at all about this artist which seems to come from
Venezuela, his album on our beloved weirdo-label JEANS RECORDS
(run by FRANK ROWENTA) is a hybrid of all kinds of instrumental,
electronic, sampled and environmental sounds, sometimes more
introspective & nice in a folky, droney or electronica-way, sometimes
quite obscure & "difficult", electro-acoustic collages or even free-jazzy
improvised with wild samples..... hard to pin down what it is really, but
the 9 tracks offer a very broad cross-over of styles, from "serious" to
"weird", a kind of mixture of minimal short sketches and longer tracks,
most stays in the more silent areas.. very idiosyncratic, there's
definitely something to discover here. For adventurers.
* DRUMM, KEVIN & DANIEL MENCHE - Gauntlet CD (Editions
Mego 88, 2007)
€ 12.50
"Gitarre, Orgel, Fuzz Boxes und die Liebe zu Noise, Noise, Noise. Ein
großes Dröhnen und mittendrin ein Gitarrenloop oder pumpender Puls.
Konsonanz, die im Obertonbereich verklumpt zu einem Hornissen- oder
schwirrenden Heuschreckenschwarm, groß genug, um den Himmel zu
58
verdunkeln. Zu einem Geläut, das alles erbeben lässt. Die Hornissen
schwellen an zu Bombern, des Schwirren zu Hubschrauberrotoren, die
Gitarren entzündet sich selbst in Hendrix‘scher Pyromanie. Ich liege
längst wimmernd auf den Knien, als noch nicht einmal die Hälfte dieses
Spießrutenlaufes vorüber ist. Zwei sarkastische Ritter spielen mit
eisernen Fingern Metal Machine Music. Nach 21 Min. wird das
Dröhnen heller, sirrender, die Rotoren schrappen aber weiter und
gegen Ende zu immer schneller. Den Schlusspunkt dieser
Herausforderung für die Höre-mit- Schmerzen-Fraktion setzen grobe
Störimpulse." [Bad Alchemy]
"Kevin Drumm (guitar and noise) and Daniel Menche (organ and noise)
recorded Fall of 2006 in Chicago at Uggae's Porta-toilet studio. Mixed
and mastered at Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, Oregon. One
organ, one guitar, several fuzz boxes and two highly regarded
purveyors of american extreme sonics are the savuory ingredients that
created Gauntlet. Building on Menche's aural low end physicality and
Drumm's exacting attention to high frequency detail - the aptly titled
'Gauntlet' is sizzling, scorching slab of essential audio. Heavy in iron
and protein. A lean cut indeed, no fat included." [label info]
used in making The Jewels. Frontman Blixa Bargeld devised a series
of arot-like cards which represented the vast collection of materials
which are at Neubauten's disposal - steel, tin, zinc, wood, plastic,
glass, ceramics. The entire band would then draw cards, and the
compositional process would begin. The tracks tend be a bit shorter
than the typical Neubauten opus, and the songs follow the recent
aesthetic shifts towards quieter, controlled orchestration for their
unusual materials. On a few tracks, there are hints of their formerly
infernal selves, glancing back to one of the last true masterpieces
Funf Auf Der Nach Oben Offenen Richterskala. Originally released as
a subscription only download through their website; now available with
a 40 minute film as a Quicktime movie and large book with lyrics and
Blixa's insight into the process." [Aquarius Records review]
* ERIK M - Steme CD (Room 40 RM426, 2007)
€ 13.00
"Steme" ist eine Arbeit über "Fragmentierung, Genese und
Erneuerung", basierend auf einer Auswahl von zehn 1minütigen
Klangstücken von einer defekten CD. ERIK M ist ein Meister im
improvisierten Konstruieren und Dekonstruieren von Klangschnipseln;
hier klingt das unfassbar abstrakt, zerschnipselt & geräuschhaft,
von Gekräusel & Rauschen durchsetzt, aber es gibt auch schillerndelektrisierte Drone-Parts....muss man gehört haben...
"Between his reputation as swift shifting improviser, concréte composer
and turntable deconstructionist, Marseilles based artist ERIKM has
earned himself an enviable position in the European music community.
With Stéme, his most ambitious and fully realised compositional work to
date, he devolves and recontextualises the boundaries between sound
source and sound media. In essence, Stème originates from a selection
of ten one minute long sound pieces burned on a CD which was
deliberately damaged. These media (music on modified media or field
recording) formed the basis of multiple improvised session including
multiple stages of construction and destruction of these acoustic
matters using my different electronic real time live music systems (3kpad system & MD or CD-dj and electronics). The resulting sounds are
truly distinctive – filigree like sonic details are brought into sharp focus,
tuning the ears with their paced spatial movements. Occasional grabs
of the source sound material appear and are erased equally as quickly.
A genuinely powerful statement of compositional intent." [label info]
"...Unlike say Oval, ErikM is not interested in creating some new (old?)
form of popmusic out of it, but rather tries to use all these blocks in a
large composition of a highly delicate, electro-acoustic nature. With the
exception of 'White Out' which operates more from the drone end, and
there for seems a bit out of place here, all the seven other pieces are of
a collage like nature, which adds a great vibrancy to the material,
bouncing all over the place while the listener only can submit to this with
full attention. That 'White Out' piece could have been easily left of from
this, and it would have been a perfect CD, now it's near perfection."
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
* DUNCAN, JOHN / KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE / C.M. VON
HAUSSWOLFF - untitled CD (Die Stadt DS104, 2007) [lim. 500]
€ 12.50
Übriggebliebene Kopien einer CD die anlässlich eines DIE STADTKonzertabends in Brüssel (18.10.2007) veröffentlicht worden ist: Ein
langes live-Stück von JOHN DUNCAN (San Francisco July 2007) ->
wieder spürt man man hier die rohe & archaische Kraft von reinem
Klang und die grossen Dynamikeffekte von eingesetzer "fliessender"
Stille (24+ Minuten). Überraschenderweise dann ein älterer liveMitschnitt von KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE, und zwar vom Mai 2003
aus Montreal, der sie sehr rauh und ausserweltlich dronig zeigt, auf
verschiedenen Klangleveln (gefällt uns natürlich ausgezeichnet).
Bei CM VON HAUSSWOLFF geht es wie gewöhnlich noch 'ne Ecke
verschrobener zu, wenn beim "All Tomorrows Parties"-Festival (?)
rhythmisch wiederkehrende Quietsch- oder Sinustöne zu vernehmen
sind.... diese CD funktioniert sowohl als rares Bonus-Material für die
Fans, aber ist auch für Drone-Novizen geeignet, die sich in die Materie
hineinzoomen wollen.
"To be on Die Stadt as an artist seems to me a great thing. Besides
great looking releases, they organize events for you, and for such an
occasion they usually release a CD or a 7", which can be bought on the
night, but there is always a left-over for the unlucky who didn't make it.
Last month there was an event in Brussels with three stable mates:
John Duncan, CM von Hauswolff and Kontakt Der Junglinge. Perhaps
Die Stadt asks too much of their artists, and none did a new studio
recording, but you could also think it's interesting to capture a live track
by them. So three live tracks here. Duncan's piece was recorded at the
Compound, earlier this year, and although it's a while since I last heard
studio recording by John Duncan, it sounds like a trademark piece for
him: micro tones, composed from heavily processed shortwave sounds,
make up a fine piece shifting from intense loudness to careful and
delicate. Very nice. Kontakt Der Jünglinge, being Asmus Tietchens and
Thomas Köner, present a recording from 2003, at the Mutek festival.
They too present a characteristic piece for them with computer
processing of acoustic sounds. Loads of dark rumble and high pitched
processed sounds. Hauswolff's piece seems to be made with bird
sounds, looped around and with a crescendo of noise coming in and
more insect like sounds. Nice but not his best. Three good introductions
of three great artists (well, four), in case you ever would need that."
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
* ESPLENDOR GEOMETRICO - Mekano Turbo CD (Geometrik
GR24, 2001)
€ 13.00
Wiederveröffentlichung dieses Klassikers von 1988 - als sich E.G.
immer mehr vom Industrial-Noise früher Tage lösten und den Prototyp
des "rhythmic & machine-like Industrials" schafften. Inkl. zweier Bonustracks die nicht auf der LP drauf waren.....
"Includes the Original Mekano Turbo LP (1988) + two extra tracks
originally included in the cassette Sinn & Form (1983). Finally, the fury
is unleashed in all its splendour. The superb three initial tracks are pure
rhythmic adrenaline on which is supported the totally runaway voice of
Arturo Lanz. "Rotor" would be even considered as a shy not intentioned
approximation to the electronic body music. In the same wave are also
located "Belew" and "Mekano-Turbo". On the other hand, it seems to be
that the residence of Gabriel in Melilla and the consequent proximity of
the arabic culture it influences on some of the most sedating tracks
("Sheikh"). Considered by the media as their masterpiece, in my opinion
some next works have obtained to surpass it. The CD includes two
great extra tracks originally included in the cassette Sinn & Form
(1983). The wonderful cover continues the customary line of showing
strange machines or decadent ruinous buildings." [label description]
* EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN - The Jewels CD (Potomak, 2008)
€ 17.50
Kartenspiel als Navigationssystem: 15 Miniaturen der
Experimentalband; + Film. "Jewels" ist ein Konzeptalbum mit 15 zweibis dreiminütigen Songs, die ursprünglich nur als monatliche DownloadGeschenke an die Supporter der dritten Phase des Neubauten.orgUnterstützerprojektes gedacht waren. Die Zeit, die auf den Schliff der
Juwelen verwendet werden konnte, war begrenzt: Zwei Tage mussten
reichen, um von einer ersten Idee zum fertigen Song zu gelangen. Die
Band um Blixa Bargeld suchte also nach einem Verfahren, das die
dafür nötige Dynamik entwickeln konnte. Man erfand ein Kartenspiel als
Navigationssystem. Jede Karte gab einen kryptischen Hinweis auf
Elemente des Neubautenschaffens seit 1980: Instrumente, Materialien
und Strukturen, mit Bezug auf Strophe oder Refrain, Intro und Outro,
soziale Beziehungen und Bündnisse: Wer mit wem? Wer womit und mit
welcher Geschwindigkeit und Haltung? So entstand eine Art Musik des
Zufalls, die einige der egofreisten Kompositionen der Band beinhaltet.
Die CD erscheint in Ecolbook-Verpackung mit 40-seitigem Booklet,
Liedtexten in Deutsch und Englisch sowie dem 40-minütigen Film "Acht
Lösungen". [press release]
"Much will be made of the strategies that Einsturzende Neubauten
* ESSEIVA, KIKO C. - Sous les Etoiles CD (Hinterzimmer Records
HINT 04, 2008) € 13.00
Für Klang-Abenteurer genau das richtige, das zweite Album dieses uns
bisher unbekannten Soundtüftlers auf dem Schweizer Label. ESSEIVA
kreiert hochdynamische Geräuschmusik mit vielen breaks & cut-ups
und meist instrumentellen & konkreten Klängen, en detail quasi
unbeschreibbar da zu komplex (zum Glück aber gibt es Rigobert
Dittmann), von der Machart an alte NWW oder spannende ElektroAkustik erinnernd. Empfehlung !
"Sous Les Etoiles (HINT04) ist nach Musiques pour haut-parleurs
(Music For Loudspeakers) und Improvisations / Bricolages I-IV im Split
mit Eric Boros (1000+1 Tilt) eine weitere Manifestation der Kreativität
59
von KIKO C. ESSEIVA in Lausanne. Es ist ein komplexes Werk, in
Szene gesetzt als experimentelles Cinema pour l‘oreille, mit einem
‚Prélude‘, 8 Episoden und einer ‚Fanfare de fin‘. Hervorstechend ist
dabei die Plastizität der Klänge, ob knackiger Apfelbiss, knurrige
Drones oder windspielerisches Klimpern. Das erinnert an Hanna
Hartmanns Bildprägnanz, geht aber eigene, geräuschhaftere Wege. Ein
weiteres auffälliges Ingredienz sind Stimmen, als gutturale Vokalisation,
dann ein Frauenmund, der den Titel ansagt. Aber auch andere Klänge
scheinen per Mund erzeugt zu sein, wenn auch verfremdet bis zur
Unkenntlichkeit zu perkussivem Rippeln, zu Knarren oder Fauchen. ‚En
rêve‘ wirkt wie alte Streichmusik, wobei der Geigenbogen jede Rauheit
der Saite übertrieben ausreizt. Aus vielen Fugen flattert, knarrt und
knarzt es, ein Metalldeckel eiert, Wasser gluckert, Dulcimersaiten
flickern. Keine Landschaft tut sich auf, alles ist hier konkreter,
detaillierter, informeller, in plastischer Nahsicht vor das Tagtraumauge
gerückt. ‚Sous les étoiles toujours‘ überrascht mit einem Piano,
dumpfen Glockendongs, wooshenden Drones, fragilem Klingklang.
Zum Finale erklingt keine Fanfare, sondern kaskadierendes Tamtam,
Cymbalschläge, Scherenschnippen, eine quäkende Hupe,
Posaunengeblubber, alles Teil eines surrealen Orchesters der Dinge.
Ich drücke gleich mal auf repeat." [Bad Alchemy]
"We are proud to release - four years after his first longplayer on
Canadian imprint 'Manufracture' - Kiko C. Esseiva's second album
'Sous les étoiles'. The electro-acoustic-musique conrète compositions
he has constructed during the past years are brilliant soundpieces that
remind sometimes on Luc Ferraris electro-acoustic works but also the
very narrative nature of some older Nurse With Wound albums. The
way he mixes (almost) melodic elements into a complex structure of
well arranged sounds and noises is simply beautiful. 'Sous Les Etoiles'
goes even a step further than Esseiva's debut 'Musiques pour hautparleurs', the tracks being audibly held together by leitmotifs, making it
one big opus instead of being just a collection of tracks." [label info]
grail? Either way, this is dope! The familiar old chunking guitar and
baleful organ-synth are there as well as the swelling minor chord
miasma of texture and noise that no human could possibly evoke. Oh
wait, that’s right, humans ARE doing it! Care to go on sublime, longform instrumental excursions through the centre of the Green Man’s
bindu? EIG got it! Been itching to rock out to well written, post punk pop
tunes? EIG got it!! Have you and your family been craving that astrally
projected experimental fondue pot of swirling beauty and skewed
rhythm that makes you feel like you’ve crawled back to the womb and
the best chill room ever was there? EIG got it!!! Have you ever
wondered if anyone can combine virtuoso musicianship and studio
effects in a truly magical way that doesn’t make it seem like everything
has been CGI’d in? EIG GOT IT!!!! Ebb and flow; high and low; cooked
and raw. See Martyn. See Peter. See Eyeless. GO!!! Pulchritudinous all
the way…as in ravishing…as in splendorous…as in metal pipes rattled
in a driveway while someone is playing the piano. So many soft little
things. So much perfectly appointed emptiness. Such sweetly crafted,
quiet headbangers. Prosetry in words and music. Songs and un-songs.
Some cadences and atmospheres even smell a bit like cosmic third
stream jazz. This must be the 4th stream. Float down it. For once 2
CD’s isn’t even enough. How can it be that 2 people have made their
umpteenth truly sublime album? Rumour has it they bought the
stratosphere." [label info]
* FAR BLACK FURLONG - same
CD & CD-R (ICR 65, 2007)
[lim. 150 with bonus CDR]
€ 17.50
Sehr poetischer Impro-Drone eines uns bisher unbekannten Kollektivs
aus England, das meiste Material wurde im Freien auf akustischen
Instrumenten eingespielt; einer limitierten Auflage von 150 Stück liegt
das erste Album der Band ("HAIDD 2") in remixter Form bei, ein onetracker Kleinod mit subtilen endlos entfernten Drones, melancholisch
schimmernd...
"Far Black Furlong' is a rapturous, symphonic work in six movements.
The music describes tides - from the summer breeze through barley, to
the shimmering stretch of a vast ocean extending to the shifting birth
pangs of stars. Much of the music was recorded at outdoor locations such as the barley fields of the Clun Forest - and is performed on
acoustic instruments. FBF comprise of baroque oboist Mark Baigent,
composer Richard Moult, dulcimer player John Letcher, the Candian
flautist Amanda Votta (of the group The Floating World), Shropshire
poet Bryony Lees, guitarist Ian Tengwall & Andy Cotterill on
electronics. ’Haidd 2’ a beautiful 34 minute remix/reworking of their
previous album." [label info]
"... They are a band of oboist Mark Baigent, dulcimer player John
Letcher, flautist Amanda Votta, guitarist Ian Tengwall, Andy Cotterill on
electronics, along with composer Richard Moult and poet Bryony Lees.
Outside in Clun Forest - and I mean outside - they performed much of
this work, thus adding the outside world as part of the music. The six
pieces, I am told, describes 'tides from the summer breeze through
barley, to the shimmering stretch of a vast ocean extending to the
shifting birth pages of stars'. It seems to me that the music is largely
improvised but in a quiet and peaceful manner. Perhaps a little less
modern classical than the Mouldycliff piece, although they get close.
And in a good ICR (and Die Stadt) mode there is a limited CDR of
music from the CD that is remix/reworked by Cotterill. Perhaps because
he doesn't seem to be very present on the CD (or the electronics are
save for some delay that is used), he gets his way in a full out treatment
of the material, adding spooky electronics to the material, or perhaps
feeding the material through electronics. Long sustaining sounds that
sound a bit creepy like a wait for something veil and nasty to happen,
which of course (spoiler coming up) doesn't happen. However the drone
like character of this piece brings us back to the start of this review. ICR
does drone music of an outstanding kind, but it's not at all exclusively to
that, and offer various fresh views on the subject at hand." (FdW)
* EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH (E.A.R.) - Beyond the Pale
CD (Space Age ORBITCD 31, 2008)
€ 14.50
Wiederveröffentlichung von wahrhaft psychedelischen DroneAufnahmen von 1992, die SONIC BOOM (SPACEMEN 3) hier im
Verbund mit namhaften Leuten zeigt, die extrem effektierte & verhallte
Saxophon, Percussion, Beckendrones & Gitarre beisteuern zu seinen
rein elektronischen, sirrenden Drone-Teppichen.....sehr wavend, frei
fliessend, endlos weit..... sechs "Movements"....
"Originally recorded way back in 1992 - Beyond The Pale was E.A.R.'s
first album, although it remained unreleased until 1996. Pete Kember,
working with Eddie Prevost (AMM), Kevin Shields (My Bloody
Valentine) and Kevin Martin (God) recorded six tracks at Far Heath
Studios, Northampton and mixed the resulting audio at MBV Studios,
London. This release for 2008 features artwork from the highly
collectable artist Kozick, with design overseen by Pete Kember." [label
info]
* EYELESS IN GAZA - Summer Salt & Subway Sun do-CD
(Beta-lactam Ring Records mt210/mt121, 2008) € 19.00
Erweiterte Neu-Auflage des letzten EIG-Albums, kommt mit einer
kompletten Bonus-CD in einer dickwandigen / überformatigen Box mit
16 Seiten Booklet! 600 Stück.
"Martyn Bates offers the following commentary on this huge set of
recordings. "For me, one of the key impulses at work behind this set
of recordings is an understanding of "The City", where individuals
are clearly a microcosm within the macrocosm -- a distinct sense of a
'person' as a player on a stage with activity going on below them,
around them, above them and also within them. The feeling is of
something at work that is always subterranean … a sense of the
invisible machinations of men and Gods. This is evidently something
material -- namely, work being done in the here and now. It is an
expression of something non-corporeal, however … of something
bigger than 'spiritual', you might say. And yet it is holistic, and 'of the
body' somehow. For me, this is a 'big picture' that makes perfect
sense: this context of living, as a body and a sprit -- where the THE
CITY is resolutely an outward manifestation of the human psyche. This
warming and awe inspiring thought was with me during the writing,
arranging and recording of this mammoth set of recordings." [EIG
mailing list]
"Standard 2CD edition. Standard edition of 600 copies are packaged in
a deluxe full color book bound box, 16 page lyric booklet , full color
book bound cd cases. Eyeless are an earful. Messrs Bates et Becker
have miraculously come trembling through the decades musically
unscathed. And yay though it is within the office of many bands to have
precedents in other bands, EIG really only sound like Scriabin saw. Or
like Stonehenge weeps. Or like cumulus clouds unite to make bunny
shapes. Caught in flux, as usual, EIG are absolutely in top form. Martyn
is in brilliant voice and sounds like an angel, and the harmonic house in
which Peter and Martyn domicile this angel is the Taj Mahal. Or is it as
simple and small as a poor carpenter’s cup, which some would call a
* FEAR FALLS BURNING & BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL - same CD
(Conspiracy Records core055, 2007)
€ 13.00
Ein intensives und ausuferndes Machwerk des monumentalen low-fi
Gitarren-Drone (ein One-Tracker von 49 Minuten Länge): rumbles,
drones, surreale Atmo, metallisch sirrend, und weitaus weniger loopig
als man FFB bisher kannte.. am Ende wandern ominöse sub-Bass
drones durch den Raum, wunderbar! Absolut ekstatischer Dronecore !
"A collaboration between the two experimental artists that meant to
happen. Belgium's Fear Falls Burning teams up with New Zealand's
Birchville Cat Motel for 1 single long track displaying their fascination for
the metallic and slow expanding drone. Made with guitars, amps,
processing and subtle percussion, this album brought out the best in
each other and is a lively, pulsating, moody and intense drone
manifest." [label info]
"... The sound is intense, humid, and very cinematic. Eventually the
sounds build, layers upon layers, erupting into a blinding heart-of-thesun nearly static raga, what sounds like a million guitars all left to drone
endlessly amidst a cloud of tinkling glimmering sparkles.
60
The last twenty minutes or so, finds all the high end
swallowed by the low, the guitars begin to grind and rumble, pulse
and throb, until the sound becomes a dark viscous river of crumbling
distortion, growing less and less distorted, until finally, all
that's left is a warm, minimal whir, that gently shifts and drifts
until it fades out completely.
Most folks (like us) see FFB and BCM and already know this is
a must buy, but this is indeed pretty fantastic, even amidst the
seemingly neverending (let's hope!) avalanche of amazing releases by
both of these prolific noisemakers." [Aquarius Records]
"....It seems that Kneale takes the Fear Falls Burning guitar music into
his own territory, that of 'cheap-o effect pedals' and '8 bit mono field'
while on the job with his own electric guitars and motorised acoustic
guitars (and drums it says on the cover, where are they?) and create a
monster of drone music, metallic ringing and distorted. Working in
straight lines this one, building, climbing, working towards that large
crescendo, and then leaving the proceedings in an equally slow pace
(well, not entirely equal, but you get my drift). The original from Fear
Falls Burning seems to be swamped away here, but no doubt he did his
bit too add to the distorted mayhem (looking at his recent work with
Nadja, this might not be a surprise). One hell of a work, moving away
from the more 'usual' burnings, and certainly something to look forward
to in the future, if more of these collaborations will unfold." [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
voices are inspired by slave songs, hence the title, which means
'forbidden song', although the texts do not relate directly to slavery. The
instrumental part is a nice mixture of orchestral passages and field
recordings, mainly street sounds. Lt. Caramel's music is poetic in
approach, even when it's not always to grasp what his poetry is about
and perhaps this is what makes the music so fascinating. It stands
completely in the tradition of concrete music, but has a true and strong
voice of his own" [FdW/ Vital Weekly]
* FHIEVEL / LUCA SIGURTA - The Wheel CD (Creative Sources
Rec. cs113cd, 2008) € 13.50
"The Wheel (cs 113) nutzte als Klangquelle die durch Wasserkraft
teledynamisch angetriebene Wollfabrik (heute ein Industriedenkmal) in
Pray in der piemontesischen Provinz Biella. Luca Bergero aka FHIEVEL
und LUCA SIGURTÀ stammen beide aus der gleichnamigen
Provinzhauptstadt und wecken mit ihrer hauntologischen Musique
concrète Geister eines vergangenen Industriezeitalters. Das ist
Industrial Music im wörtlichen Sinn." [Bad Alchemy]
"fhievel (fields recordings and electronics)- Luca Sigurtà (fields
recordings and electronics). Recorded in Italy. The factory and its voice,
sound textures of the textile industry." [label info]
* 15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO - Under a Morphine Sky CD (Force
of Nature FON07, 2004)
€ 12.00
15 DEGREES BELOW ZERO is a trio from the US, working somewhere
between experimental ambience and noise, using all kinds of sources
from concrete instrumental sources (percussions, guitars) to more
unrecognizable stuff; 7 tracks that reveal quite a variety of approaches
& styles, quite strange & idiosyncratic & worth to check out!
"15 Degrees Below Zero brings you the companion to 'Morhine Dawn'
(2004 Crunch Pod Media), a further journey into the experimental
ambience of 15 degrees below zero, who were formerly known as
"Imperial Flower Unit". Mastered By Tomas Garrison At Misanthrope
studios. "15 Degrees Below Zero's sound ranges from subdued, drifting
ambience, featuring skewed, conventional instrumentation and tatters of
rhythm, to more insistent, grittier electronic flourishes." [label info]
* FEAR FALLS BURNING - Frenzy of the Absolute CD
(Conspiracy Records CORE061CD, 2008)
€ 13.00
"This highly-anticipated new studio album is the initiation of a change in
method and playing for FEAR FALLS BURNING. On this album he
blends his drone spectrum with slow repetitive drums (with drummers
such as Tim Bertilsson / Switchblade and Magnus Lindberg / Cult of
Luna), and additional guitar layers, manifesting a work of mysterious
landscapes of ghostly echoes and whispered guitars, long stretches of
blissy drift and dark washes of distorted hiss...
Over the past 2 years FEAR FALLS BURNING has manifested himself
as a wilful and unique statement admits the ever expanding drone
music genre with numerous limited and exclusive releases on both vinyl
and compact disc and a highlight in collaborating with the epic 'once we
all walk through solid objects' 5lp set.
The new cd/2lp 'frenzy of the absolute' is the summon of fear falls
burning's visionary in teaming up with kindred spirits and talented
musicians from the experimental and metal scene.
Digipak CD, Limited 180 gr vinyl, 150 copies on Clear with White vinyl,
350 on Black in Gatefold dbl LP cover. The vinyl version has one extra
track 'The Passage Of Wrath' and one extra hidden track." [label info]
"...At first we were worried that adding drums would just turn FFB’s
ethereal doomic drift into something much more generic and run of the
mill, but just the opposite is true. Serries and his guests subtly transform
the sound of FFB into something wholly different, the opening track
says it all. That sprawling simple, spread out drumming, continues on
throughout the first three quarters of the track, pounding away, not
pummeling, but pounding, almost delicately if that were even possible,
while Serries introduces soft shimmery delicate melodies, that drift
dreamily in the background, the whole thing underpinned by a thick,
gradually building Niblock like static guitar drone. But that little lullaby
like melody, keeps the track from becoming pure dirge. There’s way too
much space. It’s almost like a seriously metalicized and doomed up
slowcore band. This is Low covering Sunn 0))), a dreamy droney
soporific downtuned dreamlike creep..." [Aquarius Records]
* FRANCIS, RICHARD - Together Alone, Together Apart CD
(CMR21, 2007) [ed. of 300]
€ 12.00
Tief wummernder microwave / field recording-drone des Neuseeländers
RICHARD FRANCIS (aka ESO STEEL), der hier herrlich rauschig &
undurchdringbar tönt, v.a. in den mittleren Frequenzbereichen
offenbaren sich feinste Details, ein Genuss! Filed under: mysterious
drones opening mysterious ways!
"Tracks 1 and 2 recorded 2006-2007, track 3 recorded 2003 and
previously released on V-A "Audible New Frontiers" CD (Physics RoomRadio NZ). Sound sources: field recordings of indoor and outdoor
spaces; handling of fabric, wood and plastic; self noise of home stereo
amplifiers, loudspeakers and record players." [label info]
"Sound artists like Matt Shoemaker, Loren Chasse, and Steve Roden
are some of the very few who are successful in turning found objects
and field recordings into thoroughly engaging compositions that don't
rely upon the flashiness of techniques to make their work successful.
Add New Zealand's Richard Francis to that gaggle as well.
It's been a while since any solo work has been available from Francis,
who has previously recorded under the moniker Eso Steel; and more
recently, he's been entertaining many a collaboration with his fellow NZ
noiseniks such as Campbell Kneale and Michael Morley.
On Together Alone, Together Apart, Francis turns to the miniscule
events of daily life whose peculiar sounds capture his imagination. It
could be a crackle from rain falling or the distant surf of the Pacific
Ocean or a creaking electric radiator or the hissing static from television
snow. It's these small sounds which Francis has recorded and stretched
into relatively longer compositions. These rattling, crackling streams of
softened white noise move in a synchronous fashion, much like the way
that a huge flock of starlings can gracefully circle in the sky without
bumping into each other, all moving organically in three dimensions.
Think Loren Chasse, as if he were reworking any of Bernhard Gunter's
compositions, making them rougher, in line with Chasse's Hedge Of
Nerves disc. Headphones are certainly recommended for this album, as
the last track is awfully quiet... at least, it is when there's a record store
full of people. Very well done!" [Aquarius Records review]
* FELIPE CARAMELOS (LT. CARAMEL) - Se Prohibe Cantar domaxiCD (Waystyx Records WR31, 2007) [lim. 423 - special
object-cover]
€ 18.00
Neues Material von LT. CARAMEL aka PHILIPPE BLANCHARD, der
auf ungewöhnliche Weise Sprachzitate (meist auf französisch) mit
elektronischen & Kammermusik-artigen Kompositionen sowie
experimenteller musique concrete mischt, so dass immer wieder
neuartige "Situationen", seltsame loops & Sound-Poesie entstehen;
ein Schwanken zwischen fast Hörspiel-artigen Skizzen und
Geräuschmusik. Einiges erinnert an BRUME oder INA GRMsche
Elektro-Akustik, aber CARAMELS Montagen-Stil ist recht einzigartig.
Spezielles Coverdesign mit 2 Vollfarb-Booklets & Banderole mit
Metallverschluss. Zwei Maxi-CDs.
"423 numbered copies, complete time duration is 36 min(18 x 2). This
release consists of 2 CDs, each with booklet, in cover, made of "ethnic"
paper, also with real silver decorative thing. It is brand new never before
released musical material" [label info]
"...The music is not far away from the original Lt. Caramel sound, which
hardcore fans immediately recognize: many voices. Eleven different
people's voices are used, many of them are French and English but
also some are Russian - probably from the people of Waystyx Records.
It adds that poetic feel to the music that is such a common (but nice and
unique) place in the musique concrete of Lt. Caramel. I am told that the
* FREIBAND - Replicas CD (Monochrome Vision (mv19), 2008)
€ 13.00
"Wenn ich das recht verstehe, dann entstand FREIBAND, eines der
Soloprojekte des umtriebigen Frans de Waard, aus einem per Scrollrad
erzeugten Geräusch, das ihn an Asmus Tietchens‘ Daseinsverfehlung
(Stille Andacht, 1993) erinnerte. Der Hamburger hatte dieses Album
aus den kratzenden Klängen fabriziert, die entstehen, wenn man eine
Tonbandspule über den Tonkopf zieht, und die 13 Tracks allesamt
‚Freiband‘ getauft. De Waard wollte als einmaliges Projekt etwas
Ähnliches probieren, woraus dann Microbes (Ritornell, 2001) entstand.
61
Wie das bei FdW so ist, wurde daraus ein Fass ohne Boden, in das nun
nach dem Gesetz der Unvermeidlichkeit auch Replicas (Monochrome
Vision, mv19) eintaucht, das tatsächlich den Ausgangspunkt, nämlich
Tietchens‘ ‚Freiband‘-Tracks, als 13-faches ‚Re‘ remixt. Selbst das
Cover ist eine Revision des Originals, jenem Haus mit Fenstern wie
zwei aufgerissenene Augen und ein großes Maul. Inzwischen ist es
eine Ruine mit eingeworfenen Fensterscheiben, herbstlich gesäumt von
Ahorn. Wenn hier etwas einschlägig ist, dann A.C. Dantos Begriff
‚Aboutness‘ - Kunst ist immer ein Über-Etwas - , gesteigert, aber
gleichzeitig auch implodiert, zu: Kunst ist Über-Kunst. But what is it all
about? Schleifende, knisternde, pulsierende, blasende, kristallin
funklende Geräusche, dazu - mit etwas Phantasie - aber auch
paranormal, d.h. verhuscht und verzerrt ‚singende‘ oder ‚sprechende‘.
Das leerstehende Haus wird da zum Geisterhaus, auch wenn de
Waards nüchterne und spröde Akribie diesen hauntologischen Schluss
selbst nicht nahelegt." [Bad Alchemy]
"Highly conceptual project that combines features of remix, recycling
and plagiarism - the re-interpretation of classic album by Asmus
Tietchens “Daseinsverfehlung”. All what can be heard on this CD, as
always in case of Frans de Waard framework, is made from music that
already existed: every sound, word in titles and even the cover picture all is just processing and manipulation techniques. Freiband is one of
solo projects by Frans de Waard. Besides Kapotte Muziek, Frans
currently also plays in Beequeen duo with Freek Kinkelaar, runs Plinkity
Plonk and other small labels, writes tons of reviews for the Vital Weekly
newsletter. When just get some free time, he becomes active with
various side-projects like Goem (minimal techno), Quest (ambient),
Shifts (post-rock), Captain Black (remixes) etc." [label notes ]
"... Without getting too trippy or spacey, I would like to propose that this
is the kind of music that alters your state of mind and being. Not the
kind of album that you'll play in the background, 'cause it wants your full
attention. It freezes your body and at same time makes you experience
it from head to toe. In this way it has the same effect as most of
Francisco Lopez' work has on me: it grabs you by the ears and sucks
you right in." [SdT, Vital Weekly]
Intensität, dieses Solo-Album der Performin und Instrumentenbauerin
LIMPE FUCHS, bekannt auch von ANIMA.
"German sound artist Limpe Fuchs is not the kind of name that one
sees popping out in trendy festivals and hip "avant" magazines. This is
confirmed by the wholly spartan black and white cover lodging this CD:
no modernist graphics, no liner or biographical notes (her website, as
far as I could see, doesn't feature an English version), no explanations
whatsoever. But, once the disc starts, it dawns on us that no words are
necessary when music speaks for itself; and speak it does, with Fuchs
using the few means at her disposal to translate them into first-rate
instant compositions and impromptu (or less) installations.
"Odessa" pairs the instrument with a ring modulator and "metal discs
rolling in a tube" to stretch the sounds until different kinds of resonance
moisten the furrows of our old listening habits. "Pavolding" exploits the
overtones deriving from the uncertain tunings and the preparations of
an old piano, filling the air with infinite dissonances that sound celestial
to these ears. "Erlangen" is a curious duet between an escalator and
Fuchs' harmonium, a "machine-rhythm versus airy clusters" tolerance
that Pierre Schaeffer would have applauded and early Kraftwerk could
have been willing to steal. "Orplid" sees the author accompanying
herself with dissonant touches while vocalizing in a style not too distant
from early Meredith Monk's, while "Karpathos" juxtaposes more
prepared piano with the ambience of a sea cave, water sounds
enhancing the artist's expressive freedom.
But my soft spot is for the two versions of "Berlin", ironically the only
piano-less tracks of the album, being performed on an harpsichord
which sounds more like a koto or a harp; Fuchs reaches for perfect
chords and gentle arpeggios managing to level any residual thorn in our
spirit, which receives this timeless music like some sort of gift from a
delicate-looking, sad-smiled creature. It's almost like a soundtrack for a
fairy tale, the most evident example of sensitiveness by an often
overlooked artist who, in this particular instance, has given birth to
what's likely to become an obscure masterpiece."
[Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes]
* FUHLER, COR - Stengam CD (Potlach P206, 2006) € 15.00
Wenig ist uns bekannt über COR FUHLER, aber durch die
untenstehende Vital Weekly Review führt kein Weg an ihm vorbei. Auf
STENGAM benutzt er ein Klavier, welches er mit elektrischem
Geigenbogen und Magneten bespielt. Nach einem konkretgeräuschhaftem Beginn werden die Stücke immer welliger,
schwingungsreicher und obertoniger, oder die Drones bekommen einen
"metallophonen" und Gong-artigen Charakter. Herausragende DroneMuzak die ohne Effektierungen auskommt, Anklänge an OREN
AMBARCHI, RAFAEL TORAL oder ELLEN FULLMAN. Tip !
"Music by Cor Fuhler has been reviewed before in these pages, but one
has to know where to look. Fuhler has been a duo with Gert-Jan Prins
under the name of The Flirts, of whom I once saw a brilliant concert, but
also improvising with anybody in the Dutch improvisation scene, and
beyond, such as with Mimeo. His main instrument is the piano, but "he
seeks to take it musically beyond usual perceptions, specializing in
sustained sounds with use of various string stimulators: 12 ebows,
rotating threads, spinning disks". In addition Fuhler also plays an EMS
synthi AKS, as well as building his own instruments, such as a violin
with keys: the keyolin. On his new solo CD, he plays an 'acoustic grand
piano, using ebows and super magnets. No overdubs, no electronics,
no electronic treatment'. Which is something I read on the cover after I
heard the CD. Fuhler could have fooled me. I recognized indeed the
piano, and yes, there are long sustained overtones, but just as easily I
could have thought there was electronic treatment in these subtle walls
of droning and sustaining sounds, with sparse interception by the piano
itself. So there are none. Wow! Along the lines of Alvin Lucier, but in a
much more musical context. Whereas much of Lucier's work stays on
the somewhat clinical and conceptual sides of things, Fuhler expands
beyond it, and makes great, careful music. It hardly sounds like a disc
of improvisation music, as one may expect from this label, but more a
disc of composed music. Great stuff." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* FRIA KONSTELLATIONEN - Musik om Fria Konstellationen CD
(Rev/Vega Records RVR004, 2008)
€ 10.00
Geräuschhafte free from Drone-Psychedelia aus Schweden, mit fast
"konventioneller" Besetzung werden Soundscapes erreicht die auch an
z.B. MORPHOGENESIS und NOISE-MAKER'S FIFES erinnern..
"the debut cd from FRIA KONSTELLATIONEN are a unique blend of
freeform drones and avantgarde/ three songs that sprawls and point
your eyes out, but in the same time are great beauty.." [label info]
"From Sweden hail Fria Konstellationen, who describe themselves as
being on 'the outskirts of psychedelic folk, drone and free form sound
experimentation'. Not much further information is given here, but we
hear guitars, drums, vocals, bass and electronics. So far they release
three CDRs, and this is their first real CD. They say they play long
tracks, but that's not entirely true: three pieces that in total last just
under thirty minutes, but it's the perfect length I think to catch what this
Swedish answer to the No Neck Blues Band does. They improvise
around a given set of sounds, wether that is the repetition of the guitar
or a drone. Everybody else improvises around that, by using smaller
repetitive sounds. Just like the No-necks do. Which means I quite like it,
since I like the Neck's, without keeping up with everything they release.
This is a very nice alternative." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* FROZEN FACES - Broken Sounds of a dying Culture CD
(Wrotycz Records WRT 005, 2007) € 13.00
Re-issue of self-released first LP from 1997, plus tracks from the 7" "Religion
of Hate". Project of Lina / DEUTSCH NEPAL. large cardboard cover.
"The year is 1996 I was surfing on cold waves through the very heart of
Linkopia, night after night it was all the same. Sleeping in the Karmanik
basement seduced by delerium echoing between white concretwalls. I
could hear the equiptment slowly disintegrating as I put out the light,
broken sounds of a dying culture. This might be the erosion of history
eternally scraping on the crown of mankind...or was it just the decline of
my personal belongings after years of abuse... and was there any
difference between the two theories? I streched out my limb and
pressed the record-button." - Lina Baby Doll.
Originally released by Entartete Musikk in 1996 as a limited edition LP.
Now available in cd format with totally remastered sound, new
artwork and bonus tracks from the Religion of Hate 7" in original
extended versions. A must for all the fans of Lina's works who somehow
missed the vinyl version! Fomat: CD, A5 folding cover" [label info]
* FULLMAN, ELLEN & MONIQUE BUZZARTE - Fluctuations CD
(Deep Listening DL38, 2008)
€ 13.00
"Monique Buzzarté and Ellen Fullman began working together in June
2005. These collaborative compositions are rooted in tonalities that
unfold with unexpected possibilities. Buzzarté's trombone navigates and
merges through an infinite array of distinct overtones from Fullman's
Long String Instrument. With slight timbral variations and pitch
juxtapositions, sympathetic resonances articulate overtone colorations
and threads of resultant melodic fragments emerge and intertwine."
[label info]
"Four female composers, two collaborations and one label, Deep
Listening. But the outcome is quite different. First the good news. Ellen
Fullman is perhaps, hopefully, best known for her work with metal string
music, ever since discovering it in 1981. Here she works with
* FUCHS, LIMPE - Pianobody 2002 CD (Seven Legged Spiders
& Co. SLS01, 2006)
€ 13.00
Wildes Piano, Cembalo, Gesang, elektronisch effektiert, improvisiert,
atonal - irgendwie betörend obskur und von archaischer Kraft &
62
trombonist Monique Buzzarte, of whom I never heard before.
Apparently she works with trombone, sometimes in combination with
electronics. The results are simply great. Long sustaining tones are
produced by the strings and Buzzarte's trombone plays like sustained
tones on her trombone. Slow and solemn; that's the way this music
moves forward. Majestically. Minimal and melodic. Sombre yet full of
light. Six tracks that work best however as one track. If you like Phill
Niblock than you like this too. Great work." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"Carlos Giffoni knows no mercy. Of all the noise terrorists on the loose
today, Giffoni causes the most upheaval. We know he specialises in
brutal and invincible noise collages, but there is so much more to it than
that. There is always a glimmer of hope that shines through the dense
clouds of noise. His noise lives, broods and swings. His latest album for
Bottrop-Boy is a true revelation in this respect, not just for the listener,
but also for the artist himself. After all, the Venezuelan artist, who is
based in New York, has conceded that this is a new style for him. With
Eternal Noise Carlos Giffoni enters the holiest of holies, his noise
nirvana. Even though Giffoni’s earlier works already sounded
impressively organic, with Eternal Noise he is heading for new heights.
His customary thick layers of noise sound more subtle than ever before.
The four-part suite maintains physical impact, but all faces are turned to
heaven, towards eternity. Rather than a noise exercise that sounds like
a wrestling match in the dirt, this recording represents ascension
towards the sun and open heavens. At times you will find yourself
almost drowning in the feedback splashing against you, at other times
you will find yourself breathlessly captivated by the peregrinations,
whirls and swells of sinus tones. Giffoni is genuinely inspired by the
th
avant-garde music of the 20 century and the results are miraculous.
How Giffoni creates his compositions is of no importance. This is all
about their effect on your mood, the spectacle of your ravished soul.
You find yourself asking how it is possible that such loud and intense
music can be so tranquil and meditative at the same time.
Eternal Noise reconfirms Giffoni’s status as the uncrowned king of
contemporary noise. Bottrop-Boy is proud to release this key work in
Giffoni’s oeuvre." [label info]
".... The eternal is the easier word to parse. Giffoni here deals
exclusively with shape-shifting drones, mostly around the lower partials
of the overtone series. Each of the four tracks doesn’t evolve so much
as amorphously change emphasis at a geologic or tectonic pace,
almost a history of the Earth heard from the inside or the sound of
individual molecules vibrating, a kind of nano-counterpoint. Even where
there is a pulse within the drone, it serves not as a driving teleological
force but rather as a mere marker of the passing time, alluding to the
stasis of the most ambient of krautrock tracks. On top of that, Giffoni
seems to be evoking a kind of throat singing where the vocal chords
have been replaced by charged wires that crackle, buzz, and distort as
they vibrate. Each overtone has its own individual color of noise, so the
composite is like the gradual color shifts of oil on water or of a
dissolving Gobstopper.
Were those flavors of noise not so harsh around the edges, this album
could almost be meditative. It is fitting that the liner notes are mostly
pictures of Japanese temples, since their serenity is clearly behind
almost every sound here, even the harsh ones. And when each track
cuts off suddenly, it feels as if you're being unwillingly wrested back into
reality." [Dan Rucchia / Dusted Mag]
* GELSOMINA & NO XIVIC - Furnace CD (Some Place Else
SPECD07044, 2007)
€ 12.00
Das Titelstück ist ein furioses 25minütiges Power-Drone Monument,
welches beide finnischen Projekte im Oktober 2006 live einspielten;
eine harmonische delay- Bass Grundlage wird mit harsch-noisigem
Brett garniert, danach folgen noch 2 lange einzelne Stücke von beiden
Acts, pulsierend-beschwörender harsh-core Industrial von
GELSOMINA, fantastischer "mysterious noise" von NO XIVIC.
" 'Furnace' is an unlikely yet strangely natural union of no Xivic,
renowned sculptor of dark electro-acoustic soundscapes, and
Gelsomina, Finland's most prolific harsh noise artist. The title track, also
the main piece on the album, is a live collaboration recorded in late
2006, a grand opus of psychedelic noise with a peculiar 'kraut' flavour!
In addition to this, both artists created exclusive tracks on their own to
complete the album. In total, Furnace is a 44-minute blast of fire,
brimstone and hazardous electric currents, and thus a fine completion
of Some Place Else's tenth year of activity. CD in square DVD-box with
full colour artwork and insert. Edition of 500 copies." [label info]
* GENOCIDE ORGAN - Remember do-CD (Tesco Org. 067,
2007)
€ 18.50
"The 10th birthday of "Remember" sees the re-release, containing an
extra of 50 minutes live material. Total Time: 139min.! All material was
remastered for this release by Propergol and the artwork is completely
overworked. It gives an oversight on G.O. performances from the
beginning until the year 2000. Powerful, provocative and subversive,
just different!" [label info]
* GERONIMO - same CD (Three One G , 2008) € 14.50
Heftige Noise-Rock / Industrial-Melange, dunkel & grinding,
minimal & trancy, manchmal fast groovy, Anklänge an WOLF EYES,
uralte SWANS, JESUS LIZARD, etc.. Schlagzeug, Synths, Bass &
Vocals, meist instrumentell, sehr eigenständig & spannend arrangiert, &
experimentell genug um kein Abklatsch zu sein; immer wieder ruhige
Passagen, aber auch rasende Ausbrüche...
"From East Los Angeles, California, GERONIMO members have played
with bands as diverse as Man Is The Bastard, Sleestak and Beck.
These reference points have nothing to do with Geronimo's self-titled
album or the minimalist tribal pounding it provides but it does hint at the
quality of music the band produces." [label info]
* GLORY FCKN SUN - Vision scorched CD & BOOK (Pseudo
Arcana PA099, 2007) [lim. 200]
€ 16.00
"Formed in 2003 as a conduit for intense ritualistic sonic exploration
Glory Fckn Sun is the ecstatic psyche-noise trio of Antony Milton
(guitar/electronics), Ben Spiers (guitar/violin/electronic) and improv
percussionist Simon O'Rorke (gongs/percussion).
'Vision Scorched' collects together one studio track and two live pieces.
These range through long form rumbling distorted deep space
explorations (complete with supernova and the odd blackhole), intense
yet ethereal harsh noise to close with a droning metaphysical ragaesque paean to the great cosmic inevitable of the collapse of the sun,
And of light itself. Glory Fckn Sun have been described as having a
sound that is like a cross between Flies Inside the Sun and Keiji Haino.
Nearly 2 years in the making and continuing in the PseudoArcana
tradition of fantastical over-the-top packaging (...) 'Vision Scorched' is
presented in a professionally bound 72 page picture book of sun related
imagery with hand printed covers. This is a limited numbered edition CD
of 200 copies." [label info]
* GERRIT + JOHN WIESE - The Disappearing Act EP maxi-CD
(Misantrophic Agenda MAR014, 2006) € 8.00
Drei tracks zweier US Noise-Acts, häufige dynamische
Verschiebungen, Triebwerk-artige Drones und irre Sinus-elektronische
Wallungen machen dies zu einer aufregenden und lohnenswerten
Hörerfahrung.
"Berkeley noise terrorist GERRITT (Misanthropic Agenda boss) and his
prolific Los Angeles counterpart JOHN WIESE--both have been
freelance members of SUNN O)))--hook up to scorch down. Here they
display their expertise in pulling transmissions from an elusive
dimension utilizing elements of dynamics, noise, rhythm, silence, and
tone." [label info]
* GHOST ON WATER - Senshu CD (Faraway Press FP 04, 2008)
€ 19.00
"Ghosts on Water is Andrew Chalk and Daisuke Suzuki and together
the produce some of the finest quiet music around. On his solo
recordings Andrew treats sound as a sort of misting or blurring of the
senses. He blends the individual sounds into a multi-coloured
expressionist colour-field. Daisuke's presence adds an extra dimension
to the sound. There are sketches of melody in the slowly tumbling
strings that, in places, give the work a vaguely eastern exoticism.
Indeed it is the presence of what could, admittedly with a little stretching
of the definition, be classed as melody that makes this album so
impressive. It has an inherent lyricism that flows along and even across
the broad, washing tones upon which everything is built.
As ever, heartily recommended." [Wonderfulwoodenreasons.com]
* GOEM - Robbed CD (Small Voices SVR07023, 2007) € 13.00
"In the hectic year 2001, Goem played around the world: at Mutek, in
Japan, England, Austria, the UK, Spain, France and in between they
worked on their 'Abri' CD, which was released later in 2001. Also they
organised the 'Gast' CD, with various people (Matmos, Taylor Deupree,
Richard Chartier etc.) at the controls of Goem equipment. For the
constant changing minds of Goem these activities were also marking
the end of an era. The working methods of Goem had been well
explored and nothing needed to be added. In the year 2002 they
produced a three minute sound piece for an installation and after that:
silence. With Peter Duimelinks and Roel Meelkop in Rotterdam and
Frans de Waard in Nijmegen it was not very easy to meet up, also due
to their personal busy schedules. Still, in early 2004 Roel Meelkop and
Frans de Waard recorded a remix of Esplendor Geometrico and Peter
Duimelinks and Frans de Waard a 10" record for Auf Abwegen. Frans
de Waard also recorded eleven new tracks as Goem for the Japanese
* GIFFONI, CARLOS - Eternal Noise CD (Bottrop Boy B-BOY 032,
2008) € 13.00
Vier Stücke mit hyper-minimalen Analog-Drones, zwischen rauhknarzigen Texturen und sanften Wellen a la ELEH.
63
* GREY, NICK & THE RANDOM ORCHESTRA - Spin Vows under
Arch CD (Beta-lactam Ring Records mt184, 2008) € 13.00
Eine Art "magischer" ambient / drone Folk & Pop, dunkel, dramatisch,
schleppend, instrumental, wunderbar emotional... irgendwo noch folkig
aber reduziert auf das nötigste, mitunter mit jazzigen Einflüssen...man
stelle sich ultra-düstere EYELESS IN GAZA vor, vermischt mit
langsamen TUXEDOMOON, und der Stimmung eines TOR
LUNDVALL, so einsam, traurig und verloren... diverse hochklassige
Gastmusiker wirken im RANDOM ORCHESTRA mit und machen
dieses Album zu einer besonderen Veröffentlichung.
"First ed. of 500 numbered copies in a full color book bound CD case
and full color booklet. The opening growl is so like a stomache churn
that an immediate restart was needed to ensure that the noise was not
physiological. And thus unfolds the bizarre tonal kerchief of Nick Grey.
A great host of talent was enlisted to complete this project including:
Charlemagne Palestine, Martyn Bates, Jean Marie Mathoul, Jessica
Constable et al. Fortunately, Nick sidesteps the pitfalls of a multivocalist endeavor by sewing the various excursions together to form a
united whole. The low spark of fuzzed guitars, married with ecumenical
drones, navigates haloed ports, each guarded by its own siren song.
Beautiful, subdued vocal performances (some spoken) add colour to
the clouds, as do the well drawn-out spaces in between the voices. This
method of carving space has a relative in Cindytalk, vis a vis the patient
accumulation of sound traveling like a carefully paced brooding force;
un-tethered and given emotional exclamation at cardinal points
throughout the album. By the mid section when Martyn Bates’ soulful
charms are brought to the breach, Spin Vow’s quiet momentum is
unstoppable and seeps in like rain water to hungry soil. There is also a
playful Derek Jarman-ness when the recordings intentionally seem a
little raw (and with the slight tug at the curtain offered by some well
placed drops of studio banter). Sometimes voices really DO carry."
[label info]
Atak label. Expanding on the known concept, he now incorporated
breaks in the music and some tracks do not rely on samples but on
pure synthesizer tones. This record breaks away from the old Goem
and walks new paths. Now it's Roel Meelkop who recorded 10 new
Goem tracks, shedding light on his view of the way to go for Goem. All
tracks are entirely based on stolen samples (the source should remain
a mystery, but they can all be traced back to one CD...). With these
samples Meelkop shows that Goem could walk other paths as well.
Sometimes really minimal, sometimes almost poppy, all of the tracks
share the same Goem style. Yet more possibilities for this Dutch trio...
Goem as a trio will continue to exist and might record new material in
the future." [label info]
"... The overall sound is of remarkable digital warmth and fullness, and
far away from the standard vocabulary of clicks cum sine waves.
Cleverly switching between up- and down-tempo passages, Roel
Meelkop achieves a nice balance between various moods. Some of the
tracks evoke a relaxed, at times even dub-like feeling, while others
include odd contrasting elements, which give them an insistent, driving
character. Goem's music is well structured and demands repeated
listening to discover the complex micro-variations within the rhythmic
patterns; but what makes 'Robbed' truly likeable is that it succeeds in
blending these characteristics with a swinging, thoroughly pleasant
overall atmosphere." [MSS / Vital Weekly]
* GOLYSHEV, NIKITA - Solaris CD (Monochrome Vision (mv20),
2008) € 13.00
Auf dem Moskauer Label MONOCHROME VISION erscheinen nicht
nur Fundstücke aus der Experimental-Historie, sondern auch
Newcomer der russischen Szene. NIKITA GLOYSHEV spinnt feinste
microwave-drones, die sich sachte verwandeln, mit leicht
mechanischem Touch und untergründigem Brodeln versehen.
Ultra-minimal & wahrnehmungsverändernd...
"The debut CD album of one of the most promising russian
underground musician, presenting his own unique vision of ambient
music. Combining the deep layers of machine-like hum and minimal
melodic keys, Nikita creates highly emotional and dramatic journey to
the netherworld. Two parts of this one hour long suite are the partly
presented in the program of Add Noise II festival on May 15th, 2007.
Beginning in 2003 as the part of duo aptly titled CD-R, Nikita Golyshev
quickly became the one of the most promising electronic musicians on
the russian underground scene. His output progressed from rhythmic
noise mayhem to diverse and heterogeneous experiments, ranging
from machine improvisation through bleak drones to pure processed
acoustic minimalism. He released some CD-Rs and published many
works online, as well as on his own Musica Excentrica, Electrosound
and Share My Wings imprints. He finally recorded the debut CD album
under his real name." [label notes]
".... 'Solaris' is his debut solo CD and it's hard not to see this as a
soundtrack to the Tarkovsky movie, even when there is no such
reference on the cover. The music spread out over two pieces of
around thirty minutes could have been alternative soundtracks to that
movie. Golyshev's plays some interesting under water and under world
like drone music of a great kind. Golyshev keeps things minimal but too
such an extent that changes appear at the right moment - the true
power of drone music, I guess. Don't be a bore, don't let changes come
to quickly, everything on the right moment. This version of 'Solaris' is
great and surely the name Golyshev is worth keeping an ear open for.
" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* GRIMM, JOE - Brain Cloud CD (SPEKK KK:015, 2008) € 15.50
Oberton-Musik. JOE GRIMMs Hang für monumentale & erhabene
Drone-Wolken wird schon deutlich durch seine Teilname am GLENN
BRANCA-Orchester. Auf "Brain Cloud" hören wir 5 lange Stücke
basierend auf Piano, Cembalo und Obertongesang, die verschiedene
Facetten seiner Kunst aufzeigen. Mitunter überlagern sich komplexe
Soundnebel in langen auf- und abschwellenden Wellen, absolut
erhebend (wie auf "Brain Cloud IV")! Der Bezug zu C. PALESTINE ist
eindeutig, aber JOE GRIMM spricht mit einer klaren und deutlichen
eigenen Klangsprache..
"Spekk is still on my favorite labels, and with these two new ones they
prove once again their style. Even when there is no information
supplied on Joe Grimm, from his personal notes to his CD we still learn
something, such as the fact that he participated in Branca's 100-guitar
symphonies and that he's a keen admirer of Charlemagne Palestine.
On 'Brain Cloud' there are five of his own personal investigation into the
world of overtones, not through electronic manipulation but through
actual, physical playing of two instruments: three pieces for the piano
and two with harpsichord. In the piano pieces, called 'Brain Cloud',
there is also the addition of voices, violins and horns, but the piano is
the main player. In these pieces the Palestine influence is most clear.
With a rapid attack and the sustain pedal down, Grimm creates a dense
web of swirling sounds, not quite unlike Palestine, but with some
expanded sounds that go beyond Palestine. The two harpsichord
pieces are improvisations of fast playing and the high pitched sound
which is so recognizable for the harpsichord. The grande finale is
reached with 'Brain Cloud III', which is a piece for three piano's played
the eighteen hands in total, yet they manage to work the dynamics very
well...." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* GRASSOW, MATHIAS & THOMAS WEISS - Conscience CD
(Nextera ERA 2041-2, 2006)
€ 13.50
"An authority between the human made ego and his creator.
The conscience is a regulator and gives always precisely feedback
about our emotional actions. Everyone has the free will to accept this.
Many people have forgotten to follow their inner voice. Instead their
decisions are depended on status symbols and social standards.
This music doesn't want to entertain you, but give you a view inside
your "self". As soon as we have spirit, mind and body together we are
practising the truth." [label notes]
* GRISEY, GERALD - Vortex Temprorum - Talea CD (Accord 464
292-2, 1997)
€ 18.50
Zwei Stücke mit "mysteriöser Kammermusik" von dem französischen
Komponisten, der 1998 nur 52jährig verstarb. Markenzeichen seiner
Kompositionen ist die Verwendung der "Spektralharmonik", weshalb er
auch als einer der Haupt- "Spektralisten" bezeichnet wird. Diese
Fokussierung auf die Obertöne & Rückkehr zu "reinem Klang" und
Klangfarben macht die Spektralisten auch gerade für Geräuschmusik- &
Drone-Hörer interessant. Enthalten hier: "Vortex Temporum" (1995),
"Talea" (1986). Sogenannte Spektralharmonik, Zyklus-Denken und das
Konzept der "klanglichen Erosion" sind die Hauptcharakteristiken der
Klangsprache GRISEYS. Für Explorer !
* GRASSOW, MATHIAS & JIRI MAZANEK - Inner Path CD
(Nextera ERA 2051-2, 2008)
Great meditative recordings using deep synth-drones as a basis,
overtone-voice-circles and subtle instrumental recordings (zither,
kantele, guitar). Creates vast spaces & a stunning atmosphere..
„Inner Path – the idea of combining pure handplayed acoustic
instruments with modern electronics, samples and nature-sounds.
With a spiritual sight behind, Inner path is open for free direction and
interpretation nevertheless with a strong focus inside ourselves by
considering the existence here on earth as ONE of many journeys back
into the inner light. This work is a remembrance...“ [label info]
* GROULT, CHRISTINE - Etincelles
CD (Motus >Acousma
M306012, 2006)
€ 13.00
Collection of stunning works from this french composer, very far away
from "classic" electro-acoustic music this reminds more on dramatic
dark & drone ambient at times, but with an intense cinematoscopic
atmosphere and full of concrete sound-details.
64
"Christine Groult studied at the GRM, at the Experimental Conservatory
of Pantin, directed by Michel Decoust, at the Sorbonne in the
department of musicology. From 1976 to 1986, she was an assistant in
the department of pedagogy at IRCAM under the direction of Pierre
Boulez. From 1985 to 1990 she was responsible for the
electroacoustical studio of the National Music School in Chalon-surSaône. In 1989, she passed her CA (Certificat d'Aptitude) in
electroacoustical music. Since 1990 she teaches electroacoustical
composition at the National Music School of Pantin. In 2002 she
founded the association Music in situ, the mission of which is the
proposition of scenographies. 'Les frontières de l'autre' (2001),
'Étincelles' (2005), 'L'Heure alors s'incline' (1991), 'Canal instantané'
(2004), 'Le Temps du ciel : entropie' (2000), 'Passagers imminents'
(1993)." [label info]
feverishly burst through a vista of golden chrysoberyls. Let the
ceremony commence." [label info]
* HAFLER TRIO - Dislocation CD (Korm Plastics paragraph 23,
subsection 81, 2008)
€ 14.00
Das frühe Staalplaat-Werk in edler Verpackung wiederveröffentlicht,
kommt mit sehr kunstvollem Posterkarten-Booklet. Weitflächige field
recording drones und seltsamste konkrete Sounds (die aber alle
"natürlichen" Ursprungs zu sein scheinen) prägen das Album,
insgesamt eher "collagig", orakelhaft, verwirrend. Wer sich für die erste
"experimentellere" Phase von H30 interessiert, findet hier einen idealen
Einstiegspunkt in das ominöse Multiversum des Andrew McKenzie.
"Wer dachte, mit der Staalplaat-Edition von 1990 ein Schmuckstück
sein Eigen nennen zu können, dem wird die Neuauflage der 86er
H3O-Kassette einen Stich versetzen. Das Artwork ist nicht nur
opulenter, es ist stupend. Die Landkarten sind nun farbig und statt eines
simplen Booklets gibt es ein raffiniert gefaltetes Kartonleporello mit den
Texten über die gnostischen Nag-Hammadi-Rollen (‚Trimorphic
Protennoia‘ wird wörtlich zitiert) und über das Ptolemäische Weltbild
und erneut mit dem ungelösten Rätsel der Route From Lonely Island in
the Arctic Circle to Shiant Island near Lewis, to the tip of the gulf of
Policastro, to Cranbourne in Dorset, to St. David in the East
Archipelago. To complete the sequence and make the ‚circle‘ possible,
travel from Jabbok in Perea, to the Great Salt Lake, to the foothills of
the Pyrenees. (Eine 9. Karte zeigt Istrien und die Kroatischen Inseln)
There is a hidden point. Als Inspiration ist wieder der Archäologe und
Okkultist T.C. Lethbridge (1901-1971) genannt, Autor von z. B. The
Legend of the Sons of God: A Fantasy? (1972) und The Power of the
Pendulum (1978), dessen Erbe inzwischen von The Sons of TCLethbridge, d. s. Welbourn Tekh (ex-Sinking Ships), Doggen Foster &
Kevin Bales (Spiritualized), und, wem sonst, Julian Cope ebenfalls
musikalisch umschwurbelt wurde, wenn auch auf andere Weise als
durch Andrew McKenzie. Dessen ‚Tourist with Pendulum‘, das neben
‚Chronos Destroyed‘ Dislocation füllt, spielt direkt auf Lethbridge an.
Der Sound - meist irritierende Fieldrecordings - ist freilich Mindfuck
genug. Ein Klassiker." [Bad Alchemy]
"Travel! It's the drug of the common man! Why, it keeps the wheels of
industry flowing to make sure that he has a home to come to, earned
and paid for by his labours! Why don't you, the rich, privileged, indulge
in a journey that (trust me) money can't buy! And send a postcard to
your friends! X marks the spot!" Originally released by Staalplaat as a
cassette in 1986 then as a CD in 1990. Revised now, with the proper
package." [label info]
* GROWING - Lateral EP maxi-CD (Social Registry TSR064, 2008)
€ 9.50
"Lateral'" finds the band reflecting on their past two (may we add highly
underrated) albums while gazing to the future with newfound rhythmic
motifs and otherworldly heights to their sound sculptures. The textures
are warm and inviting, tempting the listener to focus on stunning
minimalist changes within GROWING'S dense aural fog." [label info]
CD-Version der neusten EP dieses New Yorker Ambient/Drone-Duos,
deren Analog & Guitar-Sounds mal wieder höchst schwingend &
vibrato-schwanger klingen... full fuzzy guitars, extreme VibratoMelodien, analogue blurbs überall, leiernde Sounds wanken
umher...eine sehr eigene Version von psychedelischem Drone-Sound...
" Brooklyn-based ambient-drone duo Growing never fails to please
the devoted. It could also easily be said that the duo has failed to
truly diverge from their original starting point. Although, part of the
charm of this sort of music is indulging in a process of creation that
celebrates the difference and repetition within a given theme or
concept; expanding or investigating a specific idea over a length of
time. Thus, if you like Growing, you'll love this EP. All of the usual
landmarks are here: a Nadja on opium meets some sort of Windy &
Carl and Labradford hybrid, heavy filter manipulations, masked,
aquatic tremolo and chorus leads, and full-on auto-pan attacks that
completely embrace stereo dynamics. We've read that -- specifically
within the ambient-drone scene -- Growing has been particularly
reluctant to utilize computers, preferring to employ pedals and more
organic looping techniques. Still, a quick listen to this release unearths
enough digital-sounding distortion to make the listener wonder whether
or not these two dronesters have finally caved in or not. Fans of long,
drawn-out melodic landscapes or psychedelic explorations won't want
to miss out on this one. Definitely recommended." [Aquarius Rec]
* HALO MANASH - Language of Red Goats CD (Aural Hypnox
[AH09], 2008)
€ 13.00
Die wohl dronigste und kontemplativste CD des finnischen Projekts,
eingespielt mit gigantisch grossen Gongs, beschwörenden Vocals,
archaischen Blasinstrumenten, ultratief und meditativ, schleppend &
zeitlupenmässig, glocken / metall- artiges wird eingesetzt, simple
Melodien erstrecken sich in dieser "Nicht-Zeit", seltsame Geräusche
aus der Zwischenwelt begegnen einem.. sehr dicht, einnehmend,
authentisch.....man kann sich nur wundern wie schnell die CD vorbei ist,
obwohl sie über 50 Minuten lang ist - erzeugt einen absoluter
Zeitdehnungseffekt! Musik aus der "Andernwelt", ritualistisch &
hypnotisch, alles "live" eingespielt, ihr bestes Album bisher!
This is the real otherworld-drone!
"Guided by nether nectars and dream herbs, oneiric visions and the
light of lunar tides, Halo Manash Language of Red Goats aims to be a
cartography of cavernous elemental realms and regions, sources and
springs that run deep and thick with the fluids of life, death and
dream. What was seeded at the Thin Veils has been gathered at
Harvest time, and is offered to the seeker as a libation and guide into
the ever-liminal, shrouded spaces, for dream-vigils and awakenings.
Language of Red Goats is a complete work in itself, but can also be
viewed as the first facet of a tripartite series of works that are part
of one holistic creation three faces of the same being. More akin to a
primitive fieldrecording in the realm of oneirotropic exploration, than
an actual album, the work consists of one lengthy tripartite soundscape.
Utilizing only gongs, bells, metal bowls and wind instruments, as well
as flocks of birds, the work is in contrast to earlier more refined
works that feature a wide multiplicity of instruments and soundsources.
Language of Red Goats is a bare, primitive and sometimes raw aural
landscape, and yet nonetheless achieves a rare subliminal intensity and
an edge of otherwordly luminosity.
Comes in a hand finished cardboard booklet, in an edition of 920
copies." [label info]
"...Long wailing blasts of a distant horn punctuated by shimmering
gongs, the sounds seemingly welling up preternaturally from the very
bowels of the earth – deep sonics from the deep places of the world.
This is a summoning, an invocation for the Elder Gods to return as
rightful overlords of this realm, with small bell-like sounds echoing and
reverberating, chasing each other into the gloom of subterranean
* GUAPO - Elixirs CD (Neurot Rec. NR052, 2008) € 14.50
Das dritte Album, dunkler 70er Jahre Psych & Prog ins neue
Jahrtausend transformiert, Stimmungsmässig irgendwo zwischen
BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE und ART ZOYD...
"Dunkel, drückend, depressiv bis zur Ohnmacht - GUAPOS Sound
kreist um diese Emotionen und sie untermauern auch mit ihrem
mittlerweile dritten Album wieder eindrucksvoll, dass niemand
Misantrophie so in Sound giessen kann, wie das Londener DreierKollektiv um Matt Thompson und Daniel O'Sullivan." [Cargo]
"Three years have passed since Black Oni (Ipecac). Four years since
Five Suns (Cuneiform). The new album by Guapo is finally here and
thus concludes the recondite triptych. Each record has taken on new
musical hues and offered disparate ideas and perspectives. However,
an upheaval in the line-up, which has been anchored most recently by
Daniel O'Sullivan, Matthew Thompson, and David Smith, triggered a
change in course when Thompson left the band just prior to the release
of Black Oni in 2005. In the interim O'Sullivan and Smith have been
active with an abundance of other projects. Both members perform in
the antique-prog band Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses
(Mimicry). O'Sullivan's work with AEthenor (VHF), Mothlite (Southern),
Grumbling Fur (Aurora Borealis) as well as moonlighting in the live lineup of Sunn O))) has been keeping him extremely busy. Smith created a
large-scale multi-media installation for which he made a soundtrack with
O'Sullivan and Antti Uusimaki under The Stargazers Assistant moniker.
Smith also plays with members of Coil, Cyclobe and Shockheaded
Peters in the Amal Gamal Ensemble. Despite these distractions, Guapo
has maintained their focus, and Elixirs has been three years in the
making. It is unequivocally their most poignant and powerful work to
date.
The album transcends any musical antecedents for which Guapo have
been acknowledged in the past. Instead, the music here explores the
outermost regions of psychedelic composition. Flickers of Popol Vuh,
This Heat, Magma, Third Ear Band, Moondog, and early-'70s Miles
Davis are present, as the dense orchestration and finespun virtuosity
create a richness previously hinted at but until now never fully realized.
On Elixirs, Guapo have opened a secret vault of treasures where jewels
of sulphurous green and ashen blue blossom dwell, and springs of fire
65
kingdoms unknown to human eye and knowledge. Time here is an
irrelevance, a meaningless concept to those who have always existed
and will always do so – endlessly languorous reverberations hang lazily
in the air, little murmurs circulating eternally, and eventually becoming
part of the very fabric of the subterranean stone itself..." [Heathen
Harvest]
Who effortlessly produces the primary orb and stimulates it?
The winds rise in the north and blow to the east and west.
Others move upward uncertainly.
Whose breath moves them?
Who effortlessly causes them to blow?
What is the cause?
[Chuang Tzu] "
[from the label info]
* HALO MANASH - Language of Red Goats [special ed] CD (Aural
Hypnox [AH09], 2008) [lim. 71 copies]
€ 22.00
We could grab few copies of the special edition of the new HALO
MANASH-album, coming in a bound 7"-cardboardbox with exclusive
artwork, organic material & drawings. Lim to 71 copies. Rare &
beautiful!
* HARMONIA - Live 1974 CD (Grönland GRON78, 2007) € 13.00
"A dusted-down recording of hypnotic machine music from a gig on
March 23rd 1974. It was recorded at the Penny Station Club (a former
railway station in Griessem) in front of about fifty people, according to
Neu! mainman Rother, who played the same venue in 1971 when he
was still a member of Kraftwerk. It might be a live record but it won't
satisfy anybody in search of a rowdy, feel-like-youre-there gig
atmosphere; there's no whooping, applause or even heckling. It's simply
the sound of a band locked into a groove, backs to the audience (as
you'll see on the album sleeve) and concentrating hard in an effort to
blow minds and take their industrial space music to the further reaches.
Rother suggests that the lack of applause and noise wasn't because of
audience indifference but because every member of the crowd is either
stoned (no incense sticks though, reassures Rother) or because they
couldn't decipher when one ten-minute epic started and another
finished. Amazingly, it still sounds as experimental as it must have done
in that former railway station thirty-three years ago. It certainly shows
the kids a thing or two about losing themselves in music. The album
contains just one track under nine-minutes, featuring the wiggy,
industrial chug (it was recorded in a former railway station) of
Schaumburg; the pulsing, seventeen-minute opus that is Veteranissimo;
the almost pop song-short Arabesque; the dark and dubby, proto-trip
hop of Holta Polta and ambient template Ueber Ottenstein." [label info]
"Record covers like this one just aren’t fair. Michael Rother,
Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius hiply dressed on a
platform in an abandoned train station with their backs turned to the
audience playing all manner of amazing looking analog electrical
equipment: synths, farfisas, banks of tone generators, oscillators, patch
bays, stacks of amps, leaning guitars, and cords everywhere, amongst
racks of machines with all sorts of knobs and levels. It just makes us
soooo jealous. Not only for such beautiful equipment, but also nostalgic
for this period of time in Germany in the early seventies when so much
thoughtful and incredibly inventive music was being produced. First
Amon Duul II, Can and Faust then Kraftwerk, Cluster, and, Neu!, with
Harmonia being the perfect synthesis of the latter three bands both in
sound and personnel. Especially when you see the back cover and you
get a closer look at the band and you can tell the trio just have this
alchemical connection with each other and the sounds they make. Each
member is focused but self-assuredly calm. Not exactly what you would
expect from a band whom Brian Eno once called “the world’s most
important rock band”. Not that much of the world had ever heard of
them. Nor is it what most folks consider rock music to be.
So this is it! We’ve been reading about this for months, and it’s finally
here: a live document of a now legendary show on March 23rd, 1974 at
Penny Station in Griessem, Germany. Not that it really matters that this
is live, as their is no applause or chatter to clue you in, just bits of
mumbled talking as the songs wind down at the very end. Harmonia
members attribute this to there being only 50 or so people in the
audience most of which were either too stoned to clap or too unsure at
what points the songs begin and end. Doesn't seem to matter to the
band anyway as we've already seen their backs were to the audience
the entire time. But for a live document the sound quality is impeccable
and what's even better all of the tracks performed weren't on any of
their recordings, giving us, thirty-three years later, 5 new vintage
Harmonia tracks to pore over. Most of which are over 9 minutes long.
Recorded between Harmonia's woozy debut, Musik Von Harmonia,
and its more rock-leaning follow-up, Deluxe, Live 1974 is the logical
conglomeration of both sounds, sort of like the merging of Terry
Riley-ish repetitions with Robert Fripp's or Heldon's spacey and
searing guitar extrapolations. But unlike conventional rock bands,
Harmonia's music doesn't climax or necessarily change all that much,
making their deceptively simple musical structures more akin to
trance, electronica and slow disco. Beginning with the slow burn of
"Schaumberg", an 11 minute epic of Rother's sinewy guitar lines that
build and loop over gentle pulses of Moebius's programmed percussion
and Roedelius' repetitive tonal keyboard patterns merging into a
more sped-up and hypnotic version with bass rhythms on
"Veteranissimo", an extended 17 minute meditation on "Veterano" from
Musik Von Harmonia that breaks down to quiet heartbeats before slowly
building again. "Arabesque", the shortest track at five minutes, does
away with the percussive elements altogether, instead focussing on
overlapping patterns of melodic synth and guitar before slamming into
the loping quarter-hour stoner lurch of "Holta-Polta", then finally
culminating in the blissful pastoralism of "Ueber Ottenstein".
* Harley GABER - The Winds rise in the North do-CD (Edition RZ
4008-9, 2008) € 21.50
One long multi-layer drone-minimalism piece (more than 100 minutes,
in 4 movements) played on five strings, which reveals lots of inner
micro-movements and developments (kind of intense micro(dis)harmonics) with almost dramatic effects, a great piece by this
modern US-composer. Originally released on Titanic Records in 1976
as do-LP.
" "Natürlich verstehe ich" - so räumte Harley Gaber, der Komponist, ein
- "dass dies nicht jedermanns Sache ist". Er meinte sein 1973/74
entstandenes und über hundert Minuten dauerndes Streichquintett "The
Wind Rise in the North", dessen magische, rau schimmernde Klangwelt
sich in vier Abschnitten nur extrem langsam wandelt - ohne erkennbare
temporale Textur, ohne Eindeutigkeit und ohne Ziel. Man könnte beim
Hören an das Lied einer verstimmten Äolsharfe denken, die, bespielt
vom schroffen Wind an den Klippen Irlands, von den Unendlichkeiten
des Meeres singt. Doch wer es versteht, konzentriert lauschend die
subtilen energetischen Wandlungsprozesse wahrzunehmen, von denen
diese Musik getragen wird, der schult nicht nur sein Ohr, dem fließen
vor allem Heiß und Kalt zusammen. Es hat schon seine Richtigkeit,
dass vom CD-Cover der geschmackvoll ausgestatteten Produktion
flammenden Blickes, mit drittem Auge auf der Stirn, eine Gottheit die
Dämonen im Zaum hält. Das gold-braune Thanka-Bild aus dem Umfeld
des tibetischen Buddhismus öffnet den Assoziations-Raum, dem die
Musik sich verdankt. Gaber selbst erlebte sein Werk als einen "Spiegel,
in dem man sich selbst und dann auch dahinter schauen kann". (Kein
Geringerer als Pierre Boulez hat übrigens mit Musikern der New Yorker
Philharmoniker Teile daraus aufgeführt.)
Die 1976 dezidiert nicht in einem Studio entstandene Aufnahme des
einzigartigen Quintetts für drei Violinen, Viola und Violoncello erschien
nun digital remastered auf einer Doppel-CD bei der Berliner Edition RZ
- bei einem Label mithin, das immer wieder für Glanzlichter der
besonderen Art zu sorgen weiß. Bewundernswert sind die
Konzentration und der Musiziergeist der fünf Interpreten. (Malcolm
Goldstein spielt mit, ein Geiger und Komponist, für den John Cage oder
Christian Wolff geschrieben haben und dessen Affinitäten zur New York
School und der Kunst des Abstrakten Expressionismus evident
erscheinen.)
Harley Gaber selbst wurde 1943 in Chicago geboren. Er gehört zur
bunten Gilde amerikanischer Künstler, die prägende Eindrücke in
Europa empfangen haben (in den 60ern u.a. bei Aldo Clementi, Franco
Evangelisti, Darius Milhaud) um dann im Zeichen jenes spezifischen
Freiheitsgeistes ihrer Heimat neue Wege zu beschreiten. Im New York
der siebziger Jahre schien seine Kunstproduktion zunächst zu
versiegen, um dann in Kalifornien in den Bereichen Photographie,
Malerei, Klanginstallation und Mixed-Media erfolgreich und nachhaltig
wieder aufzublühen. Zu seinem Quintett meinte Gaber, man möge es
als Ganzes anhören wollen/können oder auch nicht. Ein verkrampftes
Durchhalten würde dem Geist des Stückes jedoch nicht entsprechen.
Und er gab der Musik einen Text des Dschuang Dsi mit auf den Weg, in
dem es fragend heißt: "Die Wolken bewirken den Regen, der Regen
bildet Wolken. Wer ist's, der sie hernieder sendet? Wer ist es, der weilt
und uns diesen Segensfluss schickt? Der Wind entsteht im Norden. Er
weht bald nach Westen, bald nach Osten; bald steigt er auf als
Wirbelwind. Wer ist's, der ihn blasen lässt?" [Helmut Rohm, BR-online]
" Questions
How endlessly the heavens turn.
And yet the earth remains at rest.
Do the sun and the moon quarrel as to their positions?
Who rules over and orders all these things?
By whom are they in harmony?
Who effortlessly causes and maintains them?
Is there, perhaps, some hidden tension
that prevents them from being other than as they are?
Must the heavenly bodies move as they do, powerless to do
otherwise?
Look how the clouds drop the rain!
And how the rain rises again to form the clouds!
Who moves them to this abundance?
66
It's been a stellar year or two for krautrock reissues as most of the
Klaus Schulze, Cluster, Harmonia, Popol Vuh and Michael Rother
catalogs have been reissued, re-introducing to the world the proto- new
age realms of seventies German kosmiche music at a time when we
can easily see its influence weaving through so many new bands like
Arp, The Alps, White Rainbow, Lichens and Sylvain Chaveau. Always
timeless, and never dated, Harmonia, like most of their German
contemporaries mentioned above, were the most important rock band in
the world simply because they cared about what they did, kept it simple,
never indulged, and always left us wanting more."
[Aquarius Records review]
where the waters break upon the shore. This is like an endlessly
crashing wave of drones and rumbles, the sound swirling around one’s
ears, initially breaking into myriads of liquid cut-diamond arpeggios
glinting in the pure sunlight and submerging the body in womb-like
warmth; and then slowly and infinitesimally receding, the music clinging
longingly, almost reluctant to let go. Paradoxically, one doesn’t feel
stifled or as if grasping for breath; instead, there’s a feeling of
timelessness and limitless freedom, as if one could be absorbed by the
waters and somehow find oneself a part of every single drop of water in
the oceans and seas. Also paradoxically, even though the drones drape
one in the velvet of the deepest ocean depths there is contradictorily a
fragile beauty, airiness and lightness evident throughout." [S:M:J63,
Heathen Harvest]
"Recorded at the Norberg Festival (Sweden) amidst the mineshafts and
cluttered buildings strewn throughout parts the city, this 21 minute live
piece summarises much of what makes Tim Hecker’s music so vital and
compelling. Adept at counter-pointing the most ferocious of distorted
platters with smooth beds of ambient sound and potent melodic
overtones, Tim Hecker creates music with a vast depth. On Norberg,
this depth seems almost endless, as layer upon layer of sound are
compiled into a swelling and all together visceral oceanic sound wave.
Recently touring Australia and New Zealand and performing at
ROOM40’S annual festival Open Frame, this CD comes on the back of
some incredible live performances in the Southern Hemisphere." [label
info]
* HARTMAN, HANNA - Ailanthus CD (Komplott escudre 09, 2007)
€ 16.00
Vier neue Stücke des schwedischen Geräuschmusikwunderkinds, so
intensiv dynamisch und konkret & nah wie irgendwas prasseln hier
bannende Klänge aus den Lautsprechern; vor allem das Quietschen,
Knirschen & Knarzen der Dingwelt scheint es ihr angetan zu haben,
aber auch auf menschliche & tierische vokale Aktivitäten wird ein Fokus
gesetzt, wobei sich als quasi Zeitlupen-Collage ständig neuartige
Kontexte ergeben. Manchmal ergeben sich ruckartige Klangmuster, die
jedoch auch immer wieder aufgebrochen werden ... eine eigenartige,
neuartige, aufregende Klangsprache ist das!
"Von HANNA HARTMAN, Karl-Sczuka-Preisträgerin 2005 aus Uppsala,
die zuerst von BAs Radar erfasst wurde mit dem Elektron-Release ihrer
Arbeiten von 2000-2002 und dann mit dem Komplott-Vorgänger
Longitude/Cratere, liegt nun mit Ailanthus (escudre09) ihre
Elektroakustik der Jahre 2003-2006 vor. Als erstes erklingen mit ‚Att
Fälla Grova Träd Är Förknippat Med Risker‘ gleich die 8:35, die die Jury
des SWR so beeindruckt hatten. Nachvollziehbar, denn ‚Das Fällen
hoher Bäume ist mit Risiken verbunden‘ umknarrt und umfetzt die
Ohren so plastisch, dass man wie ein aufgeschreckter Vogel zur Seite
flattert. Mittendrin, statt bloß dabei, dieser Werbespruch trifft hier Punkt
und Nerv. Jede reißende Faser und jeden krachenden Ast glaubt man
am eigenen Körper zu spüren. ‚Wespen Vesper‘ (2005) wechselt kaum
den Schauplatz, wir sind noch in Wald und Wiese, aber mehr bei Fauna
statt Flora, unter summenden Insekten und ‚Schmetterlingen der
Sprache‘. Fragmentarische Sprachsamples, kürzeste Haspel- und
Lippenlaute, mischen sich unter muhende Kühe, größer als Elefanten,
und unter geflügelte Sechsbeiner, die wie Mopeds vorbei surren. Mit
der Sopranstimme, die den Schlusssegen einer Abendandacht
anstimmt, erklärt sich, wortspielerisch, dann auch noch die zweite
Hälfte des Titels. ‚Plåtmås‘ mischt einen herzhaften Apfelbiss, einen
schrillen Falkenschrei und ungrad gebrochene Rhythmik zu prallen 3
Minuten. Die ‚Musik För Dansstycket Jag Glömmer Bort‘ entstand 2006
für eine Choreographie von Gunilla Heilborn. Simmfetzen, Apfelbiss
und knarzige Percussion kehren hier wieder und fungieren wie
Leitmotive, die dem Stück Struktur geben. Der noisig-perkussive Akzent
ist stärker ausgeprägt, ein Hühnergackern macht komischen Effekt und
überhaupt ist die vierdimensionale Plastizität der Sounds
atemberaubend. Schwedische Elektroakustik wird hier ihrem Ruf als
Markenartikel voll gerecht." [Bad Alchemy]
"Having developed her very own language, the Swedish sound artist
Hanna Hartman creates compositions that are exclusively made up
from authentic sounds which she has recorded around the world.
Sounds are taken out of their original context and thus perceived in their
purity. Hanna Hartman seeks to reveal hidden correspondences
between the most diverse auditive impressions, and in new
constellations she creates extraordinary worlds of sound. The album is
built out of four shorter pieces composed during 2003-2006. Compared
to the large compositions of her earlier albums this music shows
another side of Hanna Hartman's work. The album opens with 'Att flla
grova trd r förkippat med risker' that was commissioned by
Rikskonserter and which received several prizes, first and foremost the
prestigious Karl Sczuka Prize in 2005. Hanna Hartman is also working
with installations and sound performances and is currently Composer in
Residence at Sveriges Radio 2007-2008." [label info ]
"... Hartman is a pure concrete composer. She hardly uses electronic
sound processing, but almost entirely on focussing on concrete sound
collages to craft her pieces of music. All around the world she has
captured sounds of human doing something. Like a fence being
strummed, voices, eating, but of course also birds in the harbor. Unlike
some of the older garde in the musique concrete scene, she uses
repetition to quite some extent, which connects her music to the world
of 'pop' music, but the actual result has nothing to do with it. No doubt
many hours of editing went into these four pieces, which are very
soundtrack like. Perhaps a bit of short release, but the four pieces are
great. Very impressive stuff here, once again." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* HELVACIOGLU, ERDEM - Altered Realities CD (New Albion
Records NA 131, 2006)
€ 14.00
"Meine erste Post aus Istanbul macht mich bekannt mit einem mehrfach
preisgekrönten Elektroakustiker mit weltweiten Performance- und
Installationserfahrungen, mit einem breiten Fächer an Sounddesigns für
Film, Theater, Tanz, an Produktions- und Sessionjobs, an Auftragskompositionen, Kollaborationen (etwa mit Kazuya Ishigami von Neus318) und Kompilationbeiträgen. Bei seinem Beitrag Kicking Memories
zum Projekt Audio Elf beim ScoreCologne-Festival zur letzten FußballWM zeigte er polyglotte Fußballerinnerungen als global gemeinsamen
Nenner. In seiner Performance Living in Istanbul zur Ausstellung BLUT
& HONIG - Zukunft ist am Balkan (2003) operierte er u.a. mit
Soundtracks populärer türkischer B-Movies und, ähnlich wie bei seinem
CDDebut A Walk Through The Bazaar 2003, mit Straßenmusik und
dem Alltagslärm von Istanbul, den er zusätzlich elektronisch abwandelt.
Trash und Mischmasch ist das einzig ‚Folkloristische’ und ‚Balkanspezifische’ dabei. Abwandeln, to alter, scheint Helvacioglus Leitmotiv
zu sein - wo Blut [türkisch kan] war, soll Honig [türkisch bal] werden.
Seinen neuen Arbeiten gab er Namen wie ‘bridge to horizon’, ‘sliding on
a glacier’, ‘dreaming on a blind saddle’ oder ‘pearl border’. Sie
entsprechen vollkommen dem impressionistischen, träumerischen,
eskapistischen Charakter der Klänge, die er mit einer akustischen
Ovation Custom Legend 1869-Gitarre erzeugte und gleichzeitig
liveelektronisch mit Multieffektprozessor, Midi foot controller und
Audiomulch-Software so modulierte, dass Wohlklang betont schwerelos
und frei veränderlich sich entfaltet. Der folkloristische, mehr kosmopolitische als rein orientalische Aspekt des Saitenspiels wird transferiert
durch ein Hightechmorphing, das ungeniert Wohlfühlsignale ausstrahlt,
Entspannung jenseits so erdenschwerer Trivialitäten wie EU-Beitrittsverhandlungen, unbewältigtem ‚Armenierproblem’ und ‚Beleidigung des
Türkentums’. Ohne Scheu vor Kitschverdacht lässt Helvacioglu seine
Gitarre harmonieverliebt und zart blinken und all seine virtuosen
elektronischen Manipulationen scheinen das Ziel zu haben,
zuckersüßen Tee zur Entspannung zu servieren und spielerisch
Veränderlichkeit zu realisieren. Einfacher sagte es Ishigami: "Ich fliehe
in den Klang, es ist die Flucht aus einer kleinen Welt in eine große." "
[Bad Alchemy]
"Altered Realities is an album of solo acoustic guitar and live
electronics. All of the compositions were recorded in real-time, directly
to DAT (Digital Audio Tape) without any overdubs, mixing, editing, postprocessing, or the use of previously recorded material. All of the
textures were created based only on the acoustic guitar signal with no
other sound source used during the recording. Within these textures,
there are long sustaining single notes, beautiful shimmering chords and
rhythmic clusters. During the making of this album, Ovation Custom
Legend 1869 acoustic guitar, TC Electronic Fireworx multi effects
processor, Behringer FCB1010 midi foot controller and the software
Audiomulch were used. With no post-processing, no editing and no use
of previously recorded material, the moment that is recorded is the
moment that we hear on the cd." [label info]
* HLADNA - Melting Water CD (Aquarellist 04-07, 2007) [lim.
300] € 13.50
Lobenswerte Re-issue dieses frühen HLADNA-Albums, mehrschichtige
Schwälle von metallisch-fliessenden Lava-Klang, heruntergetunte
Gesänge, alles verliert sich in unendlich grossen Hallräumen... auch
* HECKER, TIM - Norberg maxi-CD (ROOM40 EDRM414, 2007)
€ 8.50
"....Imagine if you will sitting on the sand of some enchanted beach
somewhere, precisely at the intersection between land and ocean,
67
wild ekstatisch-krachige Parts kommen vor... frühe MAEROR TRI sind
hier auch nicht weit..
"The reissue of early album from Saint-Petersburg noise artist Nikolay
Kalmykov's project Hladna. Recorded in 1998-1999 and released as a
very limited CDR, it is still one of the best records ever made by
Russian industrial scene and the CD edition was long overdue. This is
ritual ambient with some additions of noise and metal percussion,
reminding of some classic Lustmord, Cranioclast or early Hybryds
tracks, but the sound is more raw and harsh. The overall atmosphere of
industrial decay is rather brutal and rusty than profound and mystical
here, but there are obvious strong primordial currents in this music that
wake up your archaic patterns. The release comes as a beautiful paper
folder limited to 300 numbered copies." [label info]
through some of the noise seems to coalesce into sort-of-riffs, and
suddenly it a strangely propulsive slab of white hot white noise,
albeit with a bit of groove to it. The next track is the most melodic, a
gothy, doomy sort of glacial dirge, almost like an ultra lo-fi Hawkwind,
crushing drums and more of that noisy blown out squall jammed into
every crevice. The drums drop out almost entirely for the next number,
the guitars and synths and violins and vocals spread out into long
effulgent streaks, super noisy, but strangely hypnotic and dreamy.
The final track is a sort of throwaway, a brief sputter of creaks and
clatter, scrape and grind, angular and atonal, a blown out noise coda,
but it's the loooooong tracks that make up the rest of the record that
really hit the drone-dirge-noise spot.
Packaged in a cool, black plastic case with a black and white
cover, black and white insert, and each copy includes a button, one
of 5 different designs chosen at random." [Aquarius Rec.]
* HOROLOGIUM & K.MEIZTER - Eight Studies in Transition CD &
mCDR (Old Europa Cafe OECD095SE, 2007) [lim. 150] € 18.00
K. MEIZTER ist der Mann hinter BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE
(B.S.E.), diesen OEC-release teilt er sich mit dem polnischen Projekt
HOROLOGIUM. Dieser geisterhaft dunkle Release bewegt sich
zwischen dark ambient und martial folk ambience bzw. Neo-Klassik. Wir
konnten einige Exemplare der limitierten Version mit bonus mCDR
ergattern!
"On Eight Studies in Transition the Polish industrial nostalgic
Horologium and the Swedish BSE sound scientist K. Meizter
examine human’s impossible fight against time. From birth to death,
from playfulness to bitterness, from serenity to mental awe, this tale is
transposed into music ranging from calm dark ambient to orchestral
delirium, making it a fascinating exploration that will appeal to most
industrial and dark ambient tastes. Presented in a special 6-panel digifile + inserts .
Special edition, limited & numbered to 150 copies, including bonus 3"
CDR with two exclusive tracks !" [press release]
* HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA - Means without ends CD (Daft
Alliance DA015, 2007)
€ 13.00
Für Fans des ultra-langsamen Noise-Rocks a la SWANS, GODFLESH,
etc. kommen HUMAN QUENA ORCHESTRA genau richtig! Ihr SlowDrone-Noise aus herrlich verzerrten & scheppernden Snare-Drums,
entmenschlichtem Schreigesang & dunkel Noise-Flächen klingt
unfassbar abgründig & visionär, wie ein letzter Aufschrei vor dem
Untergang.
"Various permutations of this disc have been floating around
for a while, each in various states of completeness, but every one
we'd heard sounded even better than the last. But this is the one,
the final, finished product. The long in the works Human Quena
Orchestra, the work of Ryan Unks, formerly of techgrind combo
Creation Is Crucifixion, but don't be expecting grind, or even
technicality, this all the way on the other side of the spectrum.
Abject, filthy, pummeling, slow motion noise drenched doom. A
plodding sonic monster, guitars, not just distorted, but treated and
twisted into harsh, skin scraping, caustic slabs of sinister sound, a
low end so thick, it's like dunking your head in a cement mixer,
insane sounding drums, each snare crack like the recording of a
million breaking windows, each kick drum the sound of a slowed down
car wreck. And beneath it all, thick swells of black ambience,
drifting and slithering, pulsing and swelling. A lurching, stumbling
blackened doom dirge behemoth.
Think Swans, Godflesh, Pitchshifter, that sort of machinelike
apocalyptic industrial pound, mixed with some funereal ultra doom a
la Moss, Bunkur, etc., but filtered through a druggy psychedelia,
with a minimal shimmery drone bent, that ends up sounding like a way
more brutal, way more harsh, tripped out, psychedelic, industrial
version of Jesu, that sort of blissed out sun baked vibe, but as if
played by some misanthropic black metal horde, harsh blackened
vocals, shrieking hysterically and growling demonically over the
relentless amp melting metallic trudge. Every track is rife with
layer after layer of undulating low end. Like being tossed about on a
stormy sea, but instead of water, it's an endless expanse of roiling
black sound waves, rumbling drones, and thick snarled streaks of
throbbing bass.
The magic Of Unks' Human Quena Orchestra though is that this
hellish harshness is balanced with a nearly equal amount of
meditative ambience, long stretches of deep shimmer, and even some
of the harshest tracks are tempered by the swirling low end drift
lurking beneath. So brutally gorgeous. Definitely essential listening
for fans of all the above mentioned outfits, as well as Monarch,
Nadja, the Angelic Process, Fear Falls Burning, Skullflower,
Abruptum, Monument Of Urns, Trollmann, Khanate, The Body and all
our favorite purveyors of crumbling downtuned beauty and dreamy
damaged doom.
Packaged in a gorgeous hand screened multiple panel fold over
sleeve with super striking ADD style microscopic super detailed
artwork." [Aquarius Records]
* HOROLOGIUM & MOLJEBKA PVLSE - Penfield Mood Organ CD
(Divine Comedy DC056, 2008)
€ 13.00
"Back in 2005, Divine Comedy Records released the first ever
Horologium full-length. Three years later the discography is impressive :
DCR, Steinklang, O.E.C, Neuropa, Cynfeirdd, Blade, BOP... For the
third time, DCR is working with Horologium (just remember the abyssal
and beautiful "Père-Lachaise" compilation) on a split release with
Moljebka Pvlse. This new opus entitled "Penfield Mood Organ" is about
a device from P.K. Dick's book "Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep?"... A box destinated to induce emotions and feelings to people.
This release is definitely the coldest to date for Horologium. Divided into
three evolutive parts and quickly diving into lurking sadness, "Penfield
Mood Organ" initiate the feeling of something tragic soon to be
unleashed...' So I left the TV sound off and I sat down at my mood
organ and I experimented. And I finally found a setting for despair. So I
put it on my schedule for twice a month; I think that's a reasonable
amount of time to feel hopeless about everything...' Philip K. Dick "Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" [label notes]
* HOTOTOGISU & BURNING STAR CORE - Volume 1 CD
(DroneDisco FIG.87, 2006)
€ 13.00
"Five tracks, totaling approximately fifty minutes by the time-defying duo
of MATTHEW BOWER (SKULLFLOWER, RAMLEH, SUNROOF!,
TOTAL) and MARCIA BASSETT (DOUBLE LEOPARDS, GHQ,
ZAIMPH) collaborating with C. SPENCER YEH, ROBERT BEATTY,
and TREVOR TREMAINE (the latter two of HAIR POLICE, EYES AND
ARMS OF SMOKE, SICK HOUR). Originally released as a tour merch
CDR, this edited and re-sequenced edition begins with an appropriate
invocation and from there punches blindly through one stone cloud after
another, coughs and gasps from exhaustion, stumbles and lies
motionless. The ritual concludes with a moment of naked
acoustic/instinctual spasm. Packaged in a black polycase with blackand-white inserts and a special randomly-selected one-inch button (five
button variations in all). All different material from the companion
volume HG/BxC II released by the Heavy Blossom label." [label info]
".... And what in fact happens, is a big sprawling chaotic blown out
spaced out free rock noise jam. The addition of drums makes a huge
difference, grounding the sound in 'rock', but said drumming is free
and abstract enough to let the music breath and expand and spread
out like a black fog. The opener is a static Dead C style jam, a simple
plodding beat, cymbals and kick drum mostly, while all around, dizzying
swirls of guitar fuzz and thick swaths of distorted synth, and in there to
some damaged electronics and of course some of Yeh's FX drenched
violin. The backdrop is a constantly shifting swirl of noise and sound,
but the simple plodding rhythm makes it sound like some ultra gritty lost
krautrock rehearsal tape.
The second track is a bit more unhinged, the background of the
first song, brought to the fore and allowed to swallow everything up.
The drums this time are just an incessant clanging buried in the mix,
like a railroad crossing bell heard from within a tornado. Part way
* [HYPH] - Alter.Tenacio CD (Tourette 004, 2008) [lim. 300]
€ 13.50
Vier höchst spannende und eigenwillige elektro-akustische
Geräuschkompositionen vom inzwischen in Berlin ansässigen Projekt
[HYPH], hoch-dynamisch & klaustrophobisch werden hier zermürbende
& zersetzende Klangcluster in Szene gesetzt, die wenig mit den
"klassischen" elektro-akustischen Sounds gemein haben, aber es gibt
auch mikrosound-artige Gebilde die klanglich an A. TIETCHENS
gemahnen... sehr sorgfältig und mit viel Liebe fürs Detail
zusammengesetzt...
* IKEDA, RYOJI - Test Pattern CD (Raster-Noton R-N 093, 2008)
€ 14.00
Kaskaden von Morsezeichen, dynamische Klangpatterns von Rauschen
& Sinustönen, alle Frequenzen abdeckend, anstrengend &
68
wahrnehmungsüberfordernd; Klänge wie ratternde Punkte die ins Hirn
& den Körper eindringen, Mikrointervalle & akustische Zeitfresser,
eine Klangsprache die fremd und durchdringend ist, wirklich fordernd..
die Sinne verwirrende Anordnungen von Sinustönen, Clicks, zudem
ein Belastungstest für Lautsprecher und Organismus. Die neue IKEDACD. "Anorganisch" to say the very least..
" Ryoji Ikeda hat mit »Test Pattern« auf Raster-Noton soeben ein Album
herausgegeben, das aufgrund der Tatsache, dass es ab einer
bestimmten Lautstärke die Unversehrtheit von Lautsprecher und
Trommelfell gefährdet, vielleicht viel eher diskutiert als gehört werden
wird. Das aber wäre in der Tat bedauerlich. Ihm ist es gelungen, eine
Musik zu schaffen, die tatsächlich gefährlich ist, und er erreicht diesen
Punkt erstaunlicherweise, ohne deutliche Bilder oder einen
offensichtlich bedrohlichen Klang zu gebrauchen. Im Gegenteil: der
Klang ist so sachlich, wie man sich einen Klang überhaupt nur
vorstellen kann. Dieser Umstand freilich ist ein bedeutender Teil der
Konzeption, denn es geht Ikeda in seiner hiermit fortgeführten
»Datamatics«-Reihe darum, Hörbares aus einer umgewandelten
Auswahl blanker Daten aus dem tagtäglichen Informations- und
Unterhaltungsstrom zu gewinnen. Vergleichbar ist dieser Ansatz zu
Teilen mit einem etwas weniger abstrakten Projekt, das in einer
früheren Episode dieser Kolumne Erwähnung fand: Christina Kubisch
hat im Rahmen ihrer »Five Electrical Walks« Magnetfelder, die den
Menschen permanent umgeben, in eine nicht nur interessante, sondern
zumeist auch sehr wohlklingende Musik verwandelt. Hatte man bei
Kubisch allerdings jederzeit eine menschliche Note durch die wichtige
Rolle des Spaziergängers vor Augen, bleibt der Prozess hinter »Test
Pattern« für den Laien überaus unpersönlich und wenig greifbar. Oder?
Nicht ganz: Immer öfter findet sich in dem Getummel aus
vornehmlich schrillen und zischenden Geräuschen bei fortschreitender
Spieldauer eine Folge von Tönen, die an Rhythmus oder jedenfalls an
ein eiliges Andeuten einer musikalischen Idee erinnert. Gerade hier
wird es spannend: Wird der Empfänger mit seinem natürlichen
Verlangen, Struktur in das Gehörte zu bringen, zum individuellen
Architekten einer eigentlich doch weitreichend subjektlosen Musik?
Zugegeben, das klingt hochtrabend. In Wirklichkeit aber hat es etwas
Spielerisches, das einen immer wieder dazu bewegen könnte, doch
noch das Risiko anzutreiben und »Test Pattern« ein bisschen, nur ein
kleines bisschen lauter zu stellen. Ikeda zwingt den Hörer in die
Aktivität und wird dadurch zu einem äußerlich fast stillen Unruhestifter,
der es seinem Publikum scheinbar noch ein ganzes Stückchen
ungemütlicher macht als sich selbst." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"Following 2005's Dataplex CD on Raster-Noton, Test Pattern is the
second audio release in Ryoji Ikeda's multimedia project, Datamatics,
an ongoing exploration of the potential to perceive the invisible multisubstance of data that permeates our world. Test Pattern acts as a
system that converts any type of data (text, sounds, photos and movies)
into barcode patterns and binary patterns of 0s and 1s. Through the
conversion of raw data into digital audio files, Ikeda enables us to listen
to the flow of data, creating an extraordinary and unexpected
soundtrack. These sequences of data reveal a rich variety of
microscopic structures which form Ikeda's raw material; working with
these micro-structures, they sometimes form the basis of chronological
sequences, and sometimes he focuses on their rhythmic qualities. All
sounds are the result of Ikeda's manipulation of this raw data. Test
Pattern aims to examine the relationship between critical points of
device performance and the threshold of human perception, pushing
both to their absolute limits. Almost all tracks on this release are
unsuitable for conversion into high-quality mp3 files. The velocity of the
audio files is ultra-fast, some hundreds of frames per second, so that
the album provides a performance test for the audio equipment, as well
as a response test for the audience's perceptions. A sticker on the CD
jacket warns of high volume listening as this may cause damage to
equipment and eardrums." [label info]
"Been waiting for this for a while, the new Raster-Noton disc
from Japanese electronic artist Ryoji Ikeda! There's a bunch of other
new Raster titles that we're excited about too (Coh, Alva Noto,
Byetone, etc.) but this is the one we were anticipating the most.
Sure, lots of folks make electronic music of the experimental glitchy,
clicky variety - like many of Ikeda's just-mentioned labelmates - but
in our book, Ikeda is the KING. His precision architect(r)onic
computerized clicks and cuts are on a whole 'nother level, totally
hallucinatory and 3-D spatial. An immersive environment you enter at
your own risk (of epileptic seizure, perhaps). But if you pass the
test (of his relentless electronic pitter patter patterns) you'll be
entranced and entangled.
And we're pleased to report that Test Pattern is yet another
strobing, brutally stereo display of his skills. 16 binaryily named
tracks, "Test Pattern #0001" to "Test Pattern #0000", that provide
prickly pleasure with rapid, stuttery nano-beats, like a frantic
Geiger counter on the fritz, or some sort of Morse code madness.
Ikeda's techniques include both minimalist repetition, and sudden
shifts; his skittering, synthetic slices of sound arranged in complex,
rhythmic patterns, an omnidirectional aural assault of high pitched,
panicked, hissing sine tones, and deeper bass hums n' buzzing
drones... it's a pretty incredible collection of constructions,
vibrant and varied within Ikeda's self-imposed electronic boundaries
and specific sets of data-based building materials. As ever with
Ikeda's output, recommended." [Aquarius Records review]
* ILLUSION OF SAFETY - In Session CD (Waystyx WR40, 2008)
[lim. 500] € 13.00
Neues Material des Projektes von DAN BURKE - als eher elektronisch
arbeitende Industrial-Band fing man an, aber die verschiedenen
Metamorphosen in der nunmehr 25jährigen Geschichte führten über
Geräuschobjekt-Improvisationen und eher collagigen musique concrete
Werken bis hin zum dark ambient und drone-basierender Musik.
IN SESSION führt einiges davon zusammen, besitzt Anteile von
verschiedenen Stilen, spannungeladen & sirrend, wellig, dronig, dicht,
wieder ein kleines Meisterwerk.
Geräuschmusik wie sie intensiver kaum vorstellbar ist.
"Illusion Of Safety is one of the oldest post-industrial acts in the
Americal musical underground, and in my opinion, of the most
interesting projects ever. During 25 years of existence IOS have
recorded a lot of various albums and their music has been changing a
lot. Having passed through all the circles of industrial hell, Dan Burke
has lost almost all his companions and remained alone. He hasn't
released too many albums recently, and "In Session" released in 2008
has become a real surprise for me. I mean of course the fact of the
release, because the highest quality of musical material and huge
amount of pleasure while listening to it is guaranteed by any of IOS
albums. "In Session" was recorded in 2007, the mastering was made by
Thomas Dimuzio at Gench Music Studio. This is a very thorough and
delicate work, an abstract performance in which synthetic and natural
sounds mix in the most unusual combinations, when you really hold
your breath to wait what's gonna be further. In 6 tracks of the album
there are a lot of quiet microscopic sounds which whirl in front of the
eyes like thoughts without rational content. They change into the
smooth waves of melodic ambient, then to insane sampled collages
which don't make you feeling relaxed keeping the constant tension. This
shortening of the distance between contemplativeness and neural
spasms has always been the trademark of IOS - it's interesting to watch
how the musical structure transforms under the emotional passion
hiding after each second of the track time, but not always going out.
Separate compliments should be given to the artwork designer - you
can observe the cover for a really long time being astounded by it's
beauty. [Dmitry Vasilyev, Monochrome Vision]
"One of my favorite post industrial bands ever. Period. Since more than
twenty years I am a fan and every new release is awaited with eager
anticipation. This highly limited release from Russia, in a gorgeous
package, is no different. These days, since many years actually, Illusion
Of Safety is reduced one person, following a free floating membership
that included Thyme Jones and Jim O'Rourke to mention just two,
which is Dan Burke. He plays 'sound generating devices and random
objects that deliberately provoke, mesmerize and even affront listeners'.
I deliberately use the term 'post industrial' and not say 'electro-acoustic'
or 'musique concrete', which could also easily be applied to the music of
Illusion Of Safety. When they started they were firmly rooted in the
world of industrial music, and later on elements of musique concrete
came along, but if you listen to 'In Session' the elements of industrial
music are still there. Heavy, steel walls of drone music pierce your ears
and are as easily replaced by soft drones, crackling sounds of hand
held objects and contact microphones. I wouldn't be surprised if Burke
plays all of this 'in session', live at home so to speak. I saw him a lot of
times playing concerts which capture the equal beauty that is captured
here. Ranging from sheer noise to near silence and there is always an
element of surprise lurking around the corner. An abrupt, full stop or
start and it bring the piece in a new territory. Illusion Of Safety's music
can be compared with the likes of Roel Meelkop or Toy Bizarre, but is
less bound to rules of composition and more free and joyous (well,
that's probably not the right away) than those of the
microsound/musique concrete posse that inhabits the world of Vital
Weekly so frequently. That alone makes a great band and another great
CD. Very fine concentrated bursts of sound." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* IRM - The Cult of Young Men CD (Annihilvs apex005, 2007)
€ 13.00
Sounds der Ohnmacht und der fast schon surrealen Verzweiflung!
Musikalisch entfernen sich IRM vom puren Noise und kreieren z.T.
rauschhaft-schöne Pulsations- und Drone-Räume, geblieben ist der
harte Schrei-Gesang, der sich aber perfekt einfügt. Ihr bestes Album
bisher, meinen wir, mit einer Mischung aus Studio- und Livematerial,
und einer unglaublichen Noise Cover-Version von einem JOY
DIVISION-Stück !
"ANNIHILVS proudly presents our first proper CD release from IRM:
THE CULT OF THE YOUNG MEN. Returning with a singularly cold,
69
desolate and lonely release, IRM continues to fervently espous
irreligious, body-obsessed abstractions of the highest order. Departing
from the aggressive PE outbursts of the past, the duo of Erik Jarl and
Martin Bladh sculpt pulsating drones and powerfully dark sounds, as the
bleeding wound of IRM continues to flower. THE CULT OF THE
YOUNG MEN contains 'live' tracks recorded in the studio, selections
from live performances (including the APEX Fest), and a cover of JOY
DIVISION's 'Here are the Young Men." [label notes]
YURI KALENDAREV arbeitet mit grossen Metallplatten &
selbstgebastelten Gongs und erzeugt so tiefe Oberton-Frequenzen &
perkussive Muster, alles uneffektiert und konkret, auf der Suche nach
der "reinen Akustik"... 3 Stücke mit seinen archaischen Klangskulpturstücken sind hier dokumentiert. Kommt in DIE SCHACHTEL-typischer,
grossartiger Verpackung!
"Belonging to the generation of underground “non-conformist” artists,
the dissidents of the 70s, Yuri Kalendarev has employed various media
to develop the outcome of his research that explore the intersection of
sculpture and sound vibrations. He came upon the sonic possibilities of
his work after 30 years of working with granite, land art and light
projects.
His Sound Plates are forged out of acoustic bronze compounds using
hammers and fire, in order to generate a large range of frequency
oscillations that allow multiple interactions with the listener’s inner
being. Yuri’s bronze “Sound Plates” are designed to create massive
low-frequency drones and midrange howls, capable of creating a wide
variety of deep percussive sounds. In redefining the concept of
sculpture in pure sound terms, the work of Yuri Kalendarev extends an
explores a new aural experience beyond the sound itself, an
investigation into the realm of “pure acoustics”.
The performances captured on this CD represent the crystallization of
the physicality of Kalendarev’s sound sculpture - a set of ten resonating
sound plates - his attitude to rhythm, to the persistence of sound itself,
and his ability to create an atmosphere of deep concentration, silent
communion, and mystery." [label info]
* JARL - Akatisi / Somnolens Part I-IV CD (Tantric Harmonies
X21, 2005) [lim. 499]
€ 13.00
"Advanced Experimental Drone"-Musik von ERIK JARL (eine Hälfte von
IRM), das grossartige TANTRIC-Album (aufgenommen bereits 2003);
schwelende Geräuschfelder, wummernde Klangflächen, elektromagnetische Mikrodetail-statik, zwischen Ent- und Anspannung, voller
interessanter Sounds & kontemplativer Kraft !
"Solo material from soundartist Erik Jarl known by his works with power
electronics monster IRM. Sustained static fields and repetitive patterns
construct expressive layers of sound in contrasting colours. Delicately
and ambitiously put together to a transcendental cycle - this is music for
occidental meditation. Limited to 499 copies." [label info]
"....Over the 6 tracks and 45+ minutes Erik has taken the concept of
drone music and revitalised and buffed this sometimes staid and boring
music into a shimmering gossamer sheen. Drifting pastoral passages
are continually looped into hypnotic rippling waves of sound that appear
almost ethereal in structure. Slight faint jarring effects are carefully
layered into the mix along with flecks of faint Industrial and ritualistic
bias that reaches out towards black malevolent ambience before being
drawn back clutching despondently at the air. "Akatisi / Somnolens" is
music to meditate to. To dream sweet dreams to. To fully immerse
yourself and lose all track of time to. Time becomes totally irrelevant, a
non event, when listening to music that bathes and cloaks the senses in
full spectrum of a rainbow. Erik and his amazing Technicolor drone
overcoat.
Around this part of a review I suppose I’ve got to try and mention like
minded recording artists in case the words I’ve written haven’t conveyed
the musical style adequately enough. Fair enough…though it will be a
difficult task…so having had a quick trawl through my record collection I
offer up the following: MRSA-16, Troum and Elektro Nova. Elements of
each can be found ever so partially on "Akatisi / Somnolens" but Erik
has retained a unique individuality and foresight which has been
stamped firmly across this recording. If his earlier works were his
evolution then "Akatisi / Somnolens" marks his re-birth as a genuine
musical maestro. Artist and label in a marriage made just for each
other." [Aural Pressure]
* KALMA, ARIEL - Le Temps des Moissons CD (Beta-Lactam
Ring Records mt189, 2008)
€ 15.00
Wiederveröffentlichung des ersten Albums von ARIEL KALMA von
1975! Saxophon, Tape-Delays, minimale Drones, ethnische
Blasinstrumente, Perkussion, elektronische Bearbeitungen....
scheinbar war es die erste LP mit Endlos-Loop am Ende einer Seite,
der hier auch reproduziert wurde.
"First ed. of 500 copies packaged in a book bound CD . First time on
CD for this classic prog album! This has been the first solo recording LP
from Ariel Kalma, recorded in 1975. After a long journey to India where
he learnt the basics of modal music and singing, Ariel was inspired by
the fusion of ancient and modern ways of playing music in the 70s with
saxophone, ethnic instruments, effects, electric instruments and
electronic filters. As making a record was expensive at that time, when
the first thousand records were pressed Ariel run out of money so he
bought blank sleeves and one by one, he drew the shape of his hand
and numbered each LP. This first pressing is now rare and sought after!
Another detail made this LP memorable because it had not been done
before: Ariel convinced the pressing engineer to loop the groove at the
end of side 2 - thus creating an endless loop - and although it was
casually mentioned on the cover, it caused surprises sometimes by
sending listeners into trance. or on some occasions burning the motor
of their turntable after endless hours! On this CD, Ariel included a loop
of several minutes only, because the LP loop had an audio advantage:
as time passed the sound of the loop changed because the diamond
eroded the groove. To the 3 compositions originally on the LP have
been added 2 other ones from that period of time. Note from Ariel :
Saxophone is powerful. It has raw sounds that are often filtered,
polished for easier listening. I like to let my saxophone sing and when I
play, I hear high-pitched, teasing sounds that I like so much. they titillate
my senses. If it is too sharp for your ears, adjust your EQ till you are
comfortable. " [label info]
" We raved over the earlier reissue of minimalist composer Ariel
Kalma's 1978 epic Osmose. So much so we made it a Record of the
Week! Now Beta-Lactam Ring has reissued Kalma's 1975 debut Les
Temps des Moissons (Time of The Harvest), a foray into electronic
ragas using saxophone (lots of sax), ethnic instruments, effects and all
manners of electronic filters. Less proto-new age sounding than
Osmose, Les Temps takes cues from Terry Riley's Poppy NoGood
explorations with saxophone and time delay and expands on them with
krautier influences using kalimbas, flutes and wah-wah effects into a
metaphysical tapestry of free music. Fans of Riley, early Kraftwerk and
Joakim Skogsberg will find lots to love here! As long as you don't mind
sax..." [Aquarius Records review]
* JESU - Lifeline maxi-CD (Hydra Head Industries HH666-127,
2007) € 8.50
Manche nennen es "Shoegazer-Metal"! Schwebend- & seelig
machende 4-track EP mit Gastauftritt von JARBOE.
"Lifeline" contains four of Justin K. Broadrick's most refined tracks of
shoegazed metallic abandon, one of which features Swans diva of
doom, Jarboe. Broadrick's music comes over the stereo like its own
weather pattern, an experience with more layers and detail than even
10 or 20 listens can trace out." [label info]
".... Jesu is all about texture, and Broadrick does some amazing
thing with his guitar and laptop, whipping up orchestral chordal
swells, lush soundscapes, wrapping billowy spaced out FX and warm
sun dappled reverb around everything, making every note sound like
big glorious snow flakes of sound." [Aquarius Rec.]
* JOAQUIM, VITOR - Flow CD (Cronica 025, 2006) € 15.00
"Crónica is delighted to present an endless existential dive, the latest
release from Vitor Joaquim, Flow. In the artist's own words, Flow is an
exercice of confrontation, a placing in context between voice and
computer, all the idiosyncrasies of bare-naked human expression,
altered, expanded and processed beyond its own flesh and blood. It
also stages the possibilities and the impossibilities of relationships, or at
least tries to pose some questions about the construction of our identity
as a permanent conversation with others, through emotions that flow
from rational collaborations in this record, with the beautiful and
unsettling voice of Filipa Hora and the guitars of João Hora and Emídio
Buchinho. Its a 'go with the flow', a journey with people, through light
and darkness, together in an endless existential dive.
The voice of Filipa Hora is heard saying... "I think this is so dangerous,
this intimacy, i think... i think you’re getting so close, I think I’m gonna
have to stop you from getting closer. I think I cannot get so close and
then… not be close, I think I’m close… I think I don’t want not to be
close...” [label info]
* KAPOTTE MUZIEK vs. GOEM - KGM maxi-CD (Hushush HSH17CD, 2008) € 9.50
Zwei Gruppen mit denselben Mitgliedern, die sich quasi selbst remixen
und dabei doch nicht ganz dieselben sind?
Ein KM-Mitschnitt vom GARAGE-Festival in Stralsund vom August
2004 wurde auf GOEMatischer Art und Weise remixed, das ist ziemlich
kurios, wie die knochentrockenen, knarzenden & rieselnden ObjektGeräusche und Field Recordings sich in loopig-repetitive Muster
verwandeln und durch Filter gejagt werden, wobei etablierte Texturen
sich immer wieder verändern und neu abgelöst werden durch weitere
neue... ein One-Tracker von 21 Minuten Länge.
* KALENDAREV, YURI - Sound Sculptures CD (Die Schachtel
DSART04, 2007)
[lim. 300]
€ 18.50
Das russische Gegenstück zu BERTOIA, Z'EV & HATI ?
70
"The challenge of asking two bands evolving in two different sonic
universe to collaborate is not quite one, but asking two bands consisting
of the same members to collaborate with each other is a real one!
When asked by Hushush to confront Kapotte Muziek’s sound - made
from instruments consisting of discarded objects, discovered by the trio
on locations and played in combination with prerecorded found sounds with Goem’s pulses and shifting layers of rhythm, the three Dutch
minimalists were enthusiastic and dived into the studio, only to discover
that trying to combine the two trio’s was near to impossible. So a
different course was decided on. A Kapotte Muziek live recording was
edited and subsequently used to create Goem tracks, which were then
mixed back into the live recording. Complicated you ask? "Well, in a
way it is, but the result is definitely worth the trouble!" are saying the
three brains from this double trio collaboration. Kapotte Muziek’s sound
is an electroacoustic experience with many subtleties and almost
cinematic qualities. Frans de Waard’s interest in Roel Meelkop’s
Student Stimulator, a device discovered in a thrift shop and made
audible by Roel led to the creation of Goem. Their minimal sound
consist of simple pulses used by Frans to create dense layers to which
on Roel’s suggestion they added analog synthesizers and filtering.
Goem makes electronic music in its purest form (very dutch, really). The
confrontation of both universes bring this release a crispy, dense, well
defined and minimal sound. A very "boeiend" experience. Never before
you heard Goem nor Kapotte Muziek sound that way! Short and sweet."
[label info]
schlussendlich zu einem kleinen Highlight abrundet, ist vor allen Dingen
das hörbare emotionale Engagement, das hier selbst die
unscheinbareren Töne mit großer Sorgfalt begleitet. (Nicht nur) in
dieser Hinsicht erinnert das Album in der Tat an einen ganz großen
Avantgarde-Cellisten, nämlich an Arthur Russell." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"Julia Kent left Rasputina in 1999, after releasing two albums on
Columbia Records, and shortly thereafter became a member of Antony
and the Johnsons. She played on and contributed string arrangements
to the group's Mercury Prize-winning record I Am a Bird Now. Her debut
solo effort, Delay, is a CD of multitracked cello and found sounds. It was
inspired by airports, by transitoriness, and by the private emotional
worlds that we create amid the disorientations and disjunctions of travel.
Delay was recorded over the course of a year (or so) at home in
between touring and traveling. After so many years of playing with other
people, Julia felt that it was time to do something entirely on her own.
As a result, she is the sole composer/performer on all tracks. The title
refers to both the effect, to traveling and to the fact that it took so long to
record. It is also an homage to Arthur Russell's World Of Echo -- a
masterpiece of (among other things) externalizing the intimate." [label
info]
* KLUSTER - Kluster: 1970-1971 3xCD (Water 194, 2008) € 28.00
"Founded in 1969, German ambient space-rock pioneers Kluster were
originally a trio featuring Conrad Schnitzler, Hans-Joachim Roedelius,
and Dieter Moebius. During their brief lifespan (before Schnitzler left in
1971 and the duo renamed themselves Cluster) they recorded three
LPs, all of which are available here. The first two records, Klopfzeichen
and Zwei-Osterei, recorded in 1969 and 1970 respectively, were
sponsored and released by a church-run record label (Schwann) and as
a result of contractual obligation, featured religious-themed text on the
first side of each. The trio's third album Eruption was a live recording of
the band's last concert together in 1971. All three are amazing
examples of pioneering ambient music featuring guitar, percussion,
keys, and cello heavily processed with echo, filters, and tape machines
to create an effect unlike anything else that was being made at the time.
Absolutely essential and seminal progressive music. Contains liner
notes." [label notes]
* KARKOWSKI, ZBIGNIEW & DAMION ROMERO - 9 before 9 CD
(Blossoming Noise BN035CD, 2008)
€ 13.00
VERY low sub-bass drones, waving analogue sounds, hisses... Pure
vibrations arising from the low end world, really dense & dull !
"Collaborative work from Damion Romero (Speculum Fight, Astromero,
Ptapes) and Zbigniew Karkowski (MAZK, Cosmic Trigger). Low
frequency speaker disruption." [label info]
* KARKOWSKI & ZEITKRATZER - World as Will III CD (Sub Rosa
SR282, 2008) € 13.00
Dritter Teil des WORLD AS WILL-Projekts, diesmal von Berliner
Geräuschmusik-Kammerensemble ZEITKRATZER eingespielt. Wieder
ist ein Meisterwerk dunkel-dynamischer Drone-Musik entstanden, subbassig wummernd, mächtig, gefangennehmend, gefährlich,
anschwellend bis ins Chaos hinein..
"... Mergence, Below the demarcation and Mix white conclude the World
As Will project, started ten years ago, the result of a collaboration
between Zbigniew Karkowski and Tetsuo Furudate. The first piece
arises from an infrabass ocean to crudely develop through a series of
distant explosions, percussive energy, and short open cuts. As a whole,
the structure is reminiscent of a slow crawling process. Tremors follow
(with Karkowski, something always ends up shaking). For me, the
second piece is both the imprint and the development of the first one.
Furudate's contribution to this joint venture is also easier to grasp. A
menace passes by, and we are glad to remain hidden in our hole,
letting the beast move along in short bursts (it must be rusty, metallic,
torn, scorched). Commissioned and performed by the Berlin-based
ensemble Zeitkratzer, the third piece provides a cathartic and tragic
conclusion, achieving what could be called a sketch of Chaos." [label
notes]
"This release, performed by Zeitkratzer, is the third part of a series of
compositions by composer Zbigniew Karkowski and noise artist Tetsuo
Furudate. Zeitkratzer are an ensemble with the reputation for tackling
the “new music” repertoire that’s challenging to the point of impossible.
Their acoustic transcription of Lou Reed’s feedback opus Metal
Machine Music stands in testament to an almost perverse fearlessness.
The music contained in World As Will III is a dark and menacing mix
that blurs electronics with acoustic instruments, blowing clouds of grey
and black dust flecked with bits of glass and crystal. “Mergence,” cocomposed by Karkowski and Furudate, starts it off with an almost
indistinct bass rumble populated by shapes that enter and leave like
characters in a Clive Barker flick. Furudate’s “Below the Demarcation”
continues in the same vein, exploring the bass atmosphere, but infusing
that bed with more industrial machine drones and breath interventions.
The CD closes with Karkowski’s “Mix White,” which takes us further into
the autopsy of a factory, travelling through the recesses and pulsing
organs of metal and dust." [Exclaim.Ca]
* KOMMANDO - Nekroinvasiv CD (L.White LW-050, 2007) [lim.
300]
€ 13.00
THOROFON-fans aufgepasst! KOMMANDO war das prä-THOROFONProjekt, enthalten sind hier Aufnahmen von 1993-1999. "...Wie man
bereits dem blutigen Cover entnehmen kann, ist dabei ein Sound
erstanden bzw. erhalten geblieben, der doch etwas roher und gröber ist
als das, was man von THOROFON oder THE MUSICK WRECKERS
kennt, wobei „Necroinvasiv“ nicht nur von musikhistorischem Interesse
ist, sondern als eigenständige Veröffentlichung zu sehen ist. Dreizehn
Tracks lang werden einem noisige Klänge um die Ohren gehauen, die
immer mal wieder die Schmerzgrenze des Hörers ausloten, ohne diese
dabei gar zu lange zu übertreten. Abwechslungsreiche und so weit ich
das erkennen konnte, klischeefreie Samples, kräftige, krachige
Rhythmusloops und einiges an Feedback lassen hierbei keine
Langweile aufkommen, allerdings sind auch keine tanzflächenfüllenden
’Hits’ à la THOROFON zu erwarten. Kaum gezähmte oder stilisierte,
sondern noch ziemlich brutal und ursprüngliche musikalische Energie
und Wut ist es, was KOMMANDO einem entgegenschleudert und das
ist, auch wenn es keine Musik für alle Stimmungen ist, gut so." [BLACK
Magazin]
"They digged very deep in the UMB-archive, and finally brought some
really rotten, dirty, sticky "audio-corpses", dated from mid of the 90`s,to
the surface. The material had been digitally cleaned and partly
restructured for being presented for the very first time on cd. Well
arranged power-electronics with distorted screams and aggressiv
vocals, leads to the roots of this pre-THOROFON project." [label info]
* KUBISCH, CHRISTINA - Five Electrical Walks CD (Important
Records IMPREC 167, 2007) € 13.00
"Christina Kubisch präsentiert mit »Five Electrical Walks« (Important
Records) eine Musik, welche aus einem Fundus an Bestandteilen
komponiert wurde, die sich zum einen praktisch selbst generieren.
Abhängig sind sie zum anderen jedoch um so stärker vom neugierigen
Empfinden der Menschen, die hier im Prozess der Klanggewinnung
jeweils als Medium fungieren. Um elektromagnetische Felder hörbar zu
machen, hat Kubisch bereits 1981 einen speziellen Kopfhörer
entworfen, der hörbar macht, was sich den Sinneseindrücken
üblicherweise vollkommen verschließt: Wer ihn auf den Ohren trägt,
hört, was zweifellos da ist, aber was augenblicklich kein anderer mit
seinen Sinnen erfasst.
Das Artwork zu den fünf Spaziergängen dieser Sorte wurde nun zum
einen recht sachlich bis ansehnlich gehalten und zum anderen an
manchen Rändern unscheinbar verziert von einigen der
bemerkenswerten Zeichnungen, die Kubisch ebenfalls aus den
elektromagnetischen Feldern gewinnt. Diesen haftet stets etwas
* KENT, JULIA - Delay CD (Important Records IMPREC149,
2007) € 13.00
"Ein gutes Beispiel für Zurückhaltung und Maßhaftigkeit ist dagegen
»Delay« (Important Records), ein feines, melancholisches Stück Musik
von Julia Kent, die sich ansonsten etwa als Teil von Antony And The
Johnsons verdient. Hier nun widmet sie sich einem sanft mitreißenden
Mix aus Field Recordings und geistreichen Cello-Kompositionen,
zuweilen erinnert dies an die sehr musikalischen Momente der letzten
Mira Calix-LP »Eyes Set Against The Sun«. Was »Delay«
71
sonderbar Geordnetes an, das sich in Reih und Glied auftürmt, um
letztendlich doch nur eine vage, kantige Ahnung zu hinterlassen von
dem, was sich in dieser durchdringenden Musik so geisterhaft und doch
auch so förmig manifestiert. Die Klangskulpturen, die ihrerseits mal
schlängeln, mal pulsieren, sind hierbei zu einigen Anteilen strikt
ortsgebunden und beflügeln durch diesen individuellen Charakter die
Sehnsucht nach einer eigenen Begegnung mit diesen Räumen und
Plätzen, auf den Punkt gebracht durch die eigenen Worte von Kubisch
zur Beschreibung von »Night Shift«, einer wunderbar finsteren Collage,
die in verschiedenen Bahnhöfen und Flughäfen aufgenommen wurde:
»What you see and what you hear seems to create a new, unknown
reality.«
Man mag dieses Album als eine Dokumentation einer durch und
durch künstlichen Addition zum menschlichen Wahrnehmungsinstrumentarium betrachten. Erfassen aber lässt es sich beispielhaft
leicht und intuitiv: »Five Electrical Walks« ist ein wahrhaft inspirierendes
Projekt, das den kindlich ungetrübten Synästheten in seiner Hörerschaft
anspricht. Überhäuft wird man mit einer Vorstellungsverknüpfung nach
der anderen, ohne jemals Kontrolle über das bunte, in einen
zeitgemäßen Elektronik-Sound gekleidete Treiben zu erlangen: Die
musikalischen Resultate, die sich durch einen sauber ausgearbeiteten
Filter manifestieren, sind von einer zuweilen recht spröden,
aufwühlenden Qualität, die dem Effekt der angesprochenen Grafiken
recht deutlich entgegensteht. Ein noch größerer Kontrast im Rahmen
einer Präsentation, die beide Ausdrucksweisen zu gleichen Teilen
berücksichtigt, könnte die eindrucksvollsten Aspekte dieser Arbeit
womöglich deutlich vertiefen." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"Christina Kubisch is a first generation sound artist of the highest order.
Kubisch has been working with electrical induction since the late
seventies and in 2003 she began her Electrical Walk installations.
Listeners wear specially built headphones that reveal electro-magnetic
radiation emanating from the technological world around us. Five
Electrical Walks is her first collection of compositions utilizing material
recorded during Electrical Walks." [label info]
pulse of his bass drum and electronic sruti box. This is improvisational
music replete with sounds branching in unpredictable directions and
slowly smouldering drones. An aural rite of passage fit for these modern
times." [label info]
"....The 24 minute opener “Gin” is built around the sustained presence
of Zachs sruti and saranghi boxes – electronic facsimiles of Indian
harmonium and fiddle, respectively. With these blissed out vibrations,
augmented by bells and the sparse isolated booms of a bass drum, it
has the feel of a slowly unfolding devotional ritual, but it’s saved from
descending into ersatz spiritual tourism by Stäckenas’s jarring
embellishments. Even without seeing him at work, it’s probably safe to
assume Stäckenas is operating out of the Keith Rowe school of
unconventionally manipulated tabletop electric guitar, producing grating
textures resembling the hum and drill of an overworked air conditioning
unit or the piercing whine of a wineglass rim.
For “Rin”, he switches to acoustic, with simple strumming phasing in
and out of sync in left and right channels and a three note melody
picked out on slide guitar – creating a satisfying mash of Country, raga
and contemporary music that recalls Zach’s other trio, Huntsville. But,
with the throbbing, sruti-drenched “Showa”, the album returns to its core
mission to explore the bottomless reaches of drone, discovering dark,
euphoric realms along the way." [Daniel Spicer / THE WIRE]
"... On the risk of being accused (again) that I heard this only once, I
must say that the work he produced as LabField with Stackenäs is
great. Absolutely great. Zach plays bass drum, percussion, electronic
scruti-box and electronic saranghi-box and Stackenäs plays acoustic
guitars, resonator guitar, preparations and low budget electronics. With
a background in improvisation you would expect careful, quiet, intimate
playing - and in a way they do that. But it's not tender, soft or hardly
outspoken. I suggest putting the volume up and get immersed by their
wall of machine sounds. They play their instruments using all sorts of
motors, fans or other mechanized instruments to create a natural
resonating yet acoustic sound. Especially in 'Gin', the opening track
which spans two-third of the entire CD this works wonderfully well.
Dense to bone (mm, that's no expression)... dense like clouds, like
being in a factory and one hears all the machines humming at once. Not
deafening loud, but well constructed, balanced, varied, not from one
point of the factory, but one has the feeling of walking about, hearing
new aspects of the machines or new combination of the machines. By
contrast 'Gin', the shortest piece, is a like bridge between that and
'Showa', soft tinkling guitars and percussive sounds, until things start to
heat up again for the final piece. Hardly improvised sounding at all, this
is sophisticated drone music of an outstanding order." " [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
* KUBISCH, CHRISTINA - Night Flights
CD (Important Records
IMPREC 168, 2007)
€ 13.00
"Reissue of this 1987 album, originally issued on Auf Dem Nil. "Night
Flights is a groundbreaking work from one of the most influential of the
first generation sound artists. For some reason, this staggering work
has been left out of print for over 20 years. Night Flights has been
remastered and includes updated liner notes from Christina Kubisch.
Night Flights is being released in conjunction with Kubisch's release of
new work for Important Records titled Invisible/Inaudible: Five Electrical
Walks." [label info]
* LA COMUNIDAD - Bastion 23 CD (L.White LW-032, 2007) [lim.
300] € 13.00
"second release of LC / german power electronics meets ambient noise
parts in a mixture of noise / strength by political provokation" [label info]
"Control, Slogun, Sickness, MZ412 they all have something in common
with La Comunidad . the pure fucking brutality and angry that these
units can project. There is nothing happy or hopeful about this release.
This German force are not a happy lot. This is about the disgust of ones
world and surrounding and how a single source submits it to anyone
that will listen. Not all of La Comunidad is full on noise sometimes there
is a very suffocating Death Ambient assault going on here. You need to
listen to the speeches and spoken word movements as much as the
backdrop of the music to get the full picture.
La Comunidad likes the thought of War, Pain and Dispair. That much is
very simple. Its not this vision alone that makes La Comunidad any
more interesting then the bands listed above. What makes them a bit
more out there is the distance and isolationist feel you get when
listening to this. La Comunidad aren't to make this recording for your.
Your here so someone can hear the deconstruction of a human soul on
the bring of either greatness or insanity. Your never really sure and I
hope to never find out. Just let the extremity of it all take you and
change for ever.
L White has presented La Comunidad in a wonderful A5 full color 4
panel card package. The only thing is limiting it to 300 copies after all
this hard work. L white is the Harsh Industrial/ Noise/ Power Electronic
fans best friend as they give an outlet to very amazing projects such as
there were others would never even look at them. Thank you for this L
White and keep up the pain inducing release as I know I will keep on
listening." [Clint Listing]
* LABFIELD - Fishforms CD (Bottrop Boy B-BOY031, 2008) € 13.00
Ein neuer Name für die Drone-Szene, dieses skandinavische Duo, die
mit indischen "Sruti" und "Saranghi"-Boxen wunderbar füllige Drones
erzeugen (klingt nach Harmonium oder endlosen Sitar-Loops), die sich
in endlosen Wellen und Obertönen fortbewegen, dabei aber sehr nah
und konkret erscheinen. Subtile Bass-Dumm Percussion wird
eingesetzt, (was meist auch einen low-freq Drone ergibt, der aber
unruhiger schwingt ) und in Stück 2 ist eine Folk-artige Akustikgitarre zu
hören, ... sehr schönes Debut!
" 'Phanta Rhei’ - everything flows. Whatever else might happen, life
hurtles on and everything follows its natural course. Music is also
subject to these ineluctable laws. While often breaking the mould, when
everything is in its right place, the music follows its own course. As it
does in the little experimental cabins of Laboratory Field, or LabField for
short. This Scandinavian monster collective consisting of David
Stackenäs (guitars, electronics) and Ingar Zach (percussion) knows
exactly how to manipulate sound. At the same time, Ingar Zach is also
creating a big stir with three-piece kindred spirits Huntsville.
Not fussed about getting their hands dirty, Stackenäs and Zach dig for
sounds of gold with successful results. Sound waves emanate from
their instruments slowly. This unstoppable flood of sound is not
distinguished by brute force but rather by its boundless subtlety and
inventiveness. The listener will completely find themselves submerged
by an overwhelming stream. Bottrop-Boy is proud to release LabField’s
first sound experiments onto the world.
Swedish guitarist Stackenäs and Norwegian percussionist Zach are
known names in the European improvisation scene. They previously
worked together in three-piece TRI DIM, together with saxophonist
Håkon Kornstad. Two years later, Stackenäs and Zach decided to work
as a duo, deciding on a radically different course. Improvisation, sound
art, minimal music and drones are fused to form a completely unique
style of performing. Zach plays, among other instruments, the unique
electronic sruti and saranghi boxes. This is music that evolves quietly
and often refers to the dronescapes of free improv pioneers such as
AMM. The sounds which Stackenäs manages to conjure up from his
guitars are unprecedented: softly humming, viciously rattling and
intensely meditative. Zach answers these sounds with the hypnotic
* LAINHART, RICHARD - White Night CD (Ex Ovo EXO1974,
2007) € 11.00
Ein wunderschön schimmernder, fast 30minütiger Drone von 1974
offenbart sich auf WHITE NIGHT, der aus vier sich umtänzelnden,
schwingenden Tönen besteht. Obwohl hierzu Sinus-Töne auf einem
MOOG-Synthesizer kreiert wurden, ergeben sich Obertöne und eine
"wavende" Räumlichkeit, die das ganze eher nach Gitarrendrones
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klingen lassen, wie ihn heutzutage STARS OF THE LID oder
ULTRASOUND machen...
Erschienen auf dem Label von TOBIAS FISCHER (FEU FOLLET) und
MIRKO UHLIG (ex AALFANG MIT PFERDEKOPF).
"Back in 1974, one year before Brian Eno’s first landmark in Ambientmusic, some young musician from New York wrote down a fragment of
beauty’s hidden story with the minimal vocabulary of sine waves on the
young black skin of a Moog synthesizer. The first release on CD
features Richard Lainhart’s masterpiece in its original 29-minutesversion. There’s no single second to add, after this time everything is
told though nothing has been said. Richard Lainhart about the work’s
origin: "White Night" was composed and recorded in the late fall of 1974
at the State University of New York at Albany in the Coordinated
Electronic Music Studio (CEMS). CEMS was created by my
composition teacher Joel Chadabe with design and custom fabrication
by Robert Moog and was, at the time, the largest integrated Moog
modular synthesizer studio in the world. The piece consists of a dense,
continuous four-note chord, each note in the chord recorded in a
separate pass to one track on a Scully 4-track studio recorder. Each
track consists of a single sine wave oscillator which is frequency
modulated by a group of eight additional sine wave oscillators. Those
oscillators are all tuned to different tones, each harmonically related to
the fundamental chord tone. The amplitude of each harmonic oscillator
is continuously varied under the control of an individual sequencer, and
each sequencer is free-running - that is, the sequencers are not
synchronized to each other, but rather running in their own independent
timebases.The result is a continuously-changing complex harmonic
waveform which modulates the frequency of the chord tone oscillator,
generating a continuously-changing complex timbre based on the
fundamental pitch of the note.
The center tone of "White Night" is 212 Hz, slightly higher than the G
below Middle C. The other notes create a chord consisting of a perfect
fifth below the center tone, a major seventh just below the center tone,
and a major second above the center tone. "White Night" was
composed without reference to the standard A-440 tuning system, as
we had no such pitch reference in the studio; I just picked a center tone
that felt right, and went from there. As such, "White Night" lives in its
own pitch world.
The title "White Night" came about so: it was late December in upstate
New York when I was finishing the piece, and a blizzard passed through
town the night of the final mix. As I sat in the glow of the sequencers
and tape decks in the University studio listening to the final version, I
looked out the window and saw a security light on a building opposite
the studio illuminating the blowing snow as it drifted off the roof. All I
could see was the snow swirling in the light against the blackness; a
moving painting continually drawn, erased, and redrawn, always
changing, but always the same. It may sound bleak, but it wasn't - it
was beautiful. It seemed to me that the image of the dancing whiteness
perfectly matched the sound of the piece, and so I called it "White
Night" to commemorate that evening of wind and snow." [label info]
reveals a name in the ethereal infinity: Les Fragments de la Nuit." [label
info]
"Michel Villar (piano) and Ombeline Chardes (violin) both hailing from
France are the talented musicians who set up this project. They’ve been
joined by a few more musicians and guest vocalists. While releasing
their debut-cd on Equilibrium Music they have already been involved in
various soundtrack compositions for independent cinema, animations
and documentaries. The soundtrack-influence is easily recognizable
while the piano and violin parts also bring us to make a link with neo
classical music. Les Fragments De La Nuit sounds like a journey
through darkness and the name of the project perfectly fits to this goal.
Most of the songs remain instrumental version filled with low piano keys
and sad feelings emerging from this melancholia. Mysterious chants
emerge to the surface on one of the pieces, but the music remains like
encaged in an atmosphere of endless darkness or should I say an
endless night. The different fragments of this night have been
expressed with a gift for melancholia coming from musicians with
talent!" [Side-Line]
* LE SYNDICAT - Corrumpate CD (RRRecords / PURE series #30
1995)
€ 12.00
* LE SYNDICAT - Relikat & Schlaguemusik CD (RRRecords /
PURE series #31, 1995)
€ 12.00
* LE SYNDICAT - Rectitude CD (RRRecords / PURE series #32,
1995)
€ 12.00
In the mid 80's the french cassette-scene project LE SYNDICAT was
one of the most famous industrial noise acts, comparable with
MERZBOW. These are 3 re-issues of MCs they released in 1983, 1985,
1986. Pure Bruitism!
* Andrew LILES - Black Pool CD (Beta-Lactam Ring Records
mt135/ Black Series negro15, 2007)
€ 16.00
The Vortex Vault part 11, black cover lim/numb/signed 300 copies.
Featuring COLIN POTTER & FREEK KINKELAAR and others
* Andrew LILES - Black End CD (Beta-Lactam Ring Records
mt136/ Black Series negro16, 2007)
€ 16.00
The Vortex Vault part 12 (final album in the series), black cover
lim/numb/signed 300 copies. Featuring STEVEN STAPLETON (NURSE
WITH WOUND), MATT WALDRON (IRR.APP(EXT)), and others!
Die letzten beide Teile der VORTEX VAULT-Serie sind nun auch
erhältlich !!
* LILES, ANDRES & DANIEL MENCHE - The Progeny of Flies CD
(Beta-lactam Ring Records mt206, 2008)
€ 14.00
Untertitel: "TRES MUSCAE CONSUMMUNT CADAVER EQUI AEQUE
CITO AC LEO" - "Die Nachkommen dreier Fliegen können ein totes
Pferd schneller konsumieren als ein Löwe". Was das Label hier
aufgeregt und ziemlich passend "brutal kosmisch" tituliert, entpuppt sich
als eine dicke Drone-Suppe mit (wahrscheinlich) LILESschen Synthund Piano-Sprengseln, man kann sich kaum auf diese nebligen Sounds
konzentrieren, immer wieder wird das Bewusstsein eingelullt und quasi
ausgeschaltet... vier lange Stücke. Minimal, dronig, und wie immer bei
LILES mit einem dunklen surrealistischen Flair...
"Ed. of 500 copies in a book bound CD case.. Kold Krush Groove, y’all.
Literally! Individually Liles and Menche have torn the experimental world
many new ones, but as a unit they achieve a critical mass so
monumental that they deserve their own Hollywood-style canoodling
name. That name: Linch-Me-Eels. The graceful ferocity that oozes out
within the first few seconds is such that…well, let’s just say that if you
called friends and told them you were on the moon, they would believe
you. A vicious, celestial-cathedral rumble gapes its maw and spews
forth into a sluggish river of electro-magma, reshaping landscapes once
carved out by Cremaster Cycles and the gravitational forces of the
planet Solaris. While Menche’s test-tones defying low-end slowly
compresses the woofers into diamond earrings, an emerging theme for
tack piano cautiously stabs at the din. And just before cowboy-robotgone-mad Yul Brynner shows up to kill all humans, the piano slinks
away to make room for the buzzing progeny of the flies, whose
crescendo of wing-beats quietly, subtly rises and rises the swarm to
Jupiter and beyond the infinite. After multiple listens a Xen(akis)–like
state is realized and there should be a giant Star Fly-Child in your living
room. Brutally cosmic!!!" [label info]
"I have been a fan of the works of Mr. Liles and Mr. Menche for a while
now, so this CD of their first ever collaboration is most welcome. And it
looks great; packed in a hard carton slightly oversized CD sleeve with
typical Liles-artwork. The 65+ minutes that form The progeny Of Flies
are divided into 4 parts. Opener Eggs (signifying the first stage of the fly
life cycle) features the now typical Liles-sounds augmented by
Menche's higher and harsher frequencies. In one word beautiful. The
second track 1st To 3rd Instar features low frequency pulses before
subtle piano chords (and reverbed pedals) set in. Again full marks to
Liles and Menche. "Pupar" (the third track) starts off with a horse's
neigh. After that surprising intro we're in a world filled with bass tones
* LAVELLE, BRIAN - Supernaturalist CD (EE Tapes EE12, 2008)
[lim. 300] € 13.00
Der Ambient-Geheimtip BRIAN LAVELLE schafft behutsame
Klangfigurationen, die wie Schatten im Raum liegen; verträumt bis
mysteriös schimmern seine akustischen Gebilde aus "electronics, field
recordings, synth, piano & bass guitar", alles driftet wie in Trance
dahin...
"Exclusive new output from this ambient/electronic artist from Scotland,
UK. On ‘Supernaturalist’, Brian Lavelle presents 4 long brilliant
compositions (70 minutes), minimal at first hearing, but with full
maximum impact: bare to multi-layered drones, gentle to
hallucinogating field recordings with natural elements, ambient noises
and real instruments (piano, bass…). A classic album with style,
hauntingly beautiful!! Full metallised CD housed in the usual 7” folder
cover, ‘pâle bleu’ (pale blue), in an edition of 300 copies only.
Mastering, photography and design by Brian Lavelle." [label info]
* LES FRAGMENTS DE LA NUIT - Musique du Crepuscule CD
(Equilibrium Music EQM 022, 2008)
€ 15.00
Dramatic & expressive neoclassic / chamber music from this quintett
using mainly strings, lots of minimal & repetitive string-structures are
build, all instrumental. Their music has been compared with ARVÖ
PÄRT, STEVE REICH, PHILIPP GLASS and GODSPEED YOU BLACK
EMPOROR, but we also think of WIM MERTENS and RACHELS.
"Musique du Crépuscule" is a vision of night wrapped in mystery: a
night haunted by spectral chants, under the spell of epic, poignant
strings and sustained by hypnotic piano pulsations. Its nocturnal
universe oozes with hybrid ink, enveloping hidden emotions tainted with
melancholy and voluptuousness. A neo-classical or post-nocturnal
piece, "Musique du Crépuscule" has many different faces. It alternates
between violin riffs, dark cello projections and the complaints of a lone
piano, highlighted by enigmatic echoing voices. The moonlight slowly
73
with plucked strings and percussive elements. Closing track
Metamorphoses (to end the fly theme) features a low, almost prehistoric
growl and Menche's more noisy elements which builds up to a climax.
The track ends with piano and the buzzing sound of a fly. This CD,
subtitled "tres muscae conummunt cadaver equi aeque cito ac leo",
which loosely and very cryptically translates into "three muscular
complete corpses indeed quick justice and lion" is a gorgeous piece of
work; beautiful, restrained and highly recommended!" [FK / Vital
Weekly]
* LOPEZ, FRANCISCO - Lopez Island CD (Elevator Bath eeaoa011,
2008) [lim. 500] € 13.00
"Absolute konkrete Musik", hier basierend auf field recordings die
LOPEZ im Winter auf einer kleinen Insel machte, wir vermeinen Feuer
& Tierlaute zu hören im Mix, aber es kann auch täuschen; ultratiefe
Drones wummern und Wind-artige Klangstrahlen zischen vorbei, wie so
oft schwerlich zu beschreiben aber die Stimmung ist absolut
einnehmend!
"Elevator Bath is immensely proud to present this exquisite new work
from one of the major figures of contemporary experimental music.
"Lopez Island" was crafted from original environmental sound matter
recorded in Lopez Island during the Winter of 1999-2000. The
resulting composition is 51 minutes of both delicate minutiae as well
as startling power - crackling, howling, and haunting. The small
island in Washington state provided the beautiful, isolated terrain
for Lopez' gathering of raw sounds and, as a personal audio document
(though clearly beyond mere documentary), the landscape has been
expertly translated. A quintessentially chilling interpretation of the winter
beach, "Lopez Island" is a worthy addition to Lopez' exemplary body of
absolute concrete music and, indeed, one of his finest works to date.
Packaged inside two elegant printed sleeves of 100% recycled paper,
this compact disc has been issued in an edition of 500 copies." [label
info]
* LILES, ANDREW & JEAN-HERVE PERON - Fini! CD (Dirter
Promotions DPROM 62, 2008) € 14.50
"Introducing the debut collaborative release from sometime Nurse With
Wound/Current 93 member, Andrew Liles and Jean Hervé Peron of
Faust. Neither of these artists needs any introduction and all
expectations are overtaken with this incredible album. Here is
something that sounds like both a Krautrock album and also like nothing
else you can imagine. Its twists and turns keep surprising and thrilling
you several listens on from the first. The words "classic" and
"masterpiece" would not be out of place here. Both Faust and NWW are
touring all over the world in 2008, and the profile for both of these
legendary acts has never been higher. This release is packaged in a
gloss-laminated digipack, with beautiful artwork by Liles." [label info]
"When mayhem artists like Nurse With Wound's Andrew Liles and
Faust's Jean-Hervé Peron conspire, the result might be described as
acousmaniac. Fini! is an arsenal of fun that comes on like a vibra-gun
blast to the pineal gland. The glorious studio tomfuckery of "The
Drummer is on Valium," Fini!'s opening cut, let's us know in no
uncertain terms that Krautrock hasn't stopped mutating after all these
decades, nor has it been successfully recycled by the archons of
mainstream airwaves. That's one thing that makes Fini! delightful. It
comes on like an artifact from an alien culture excavated by reanimated
Dadaists from five feet of moon-dust. Touch not the obelisk lest
centuries of Germanic gnosis light up your central nervous system like
Meister Eckhart's pinball machine. This wanton little orgone-grinder is
enhanced with blasts of blago-bung plus multi-lingual spoken word.
"Congo Bongo La La La," coming in shy of two minutes, stands out with
brilliant eccentricity, teasing us with a slow build up of La La La before
the Congo Bongo briefly shakes the bachelor tree house until it
disgorges all the monkeys. While most cuts are incredibly brief, leaving
the listener a little hungry for more, much more, and seeming to be the
disc's connective tissue, "Shake Your Hooves" rises up like a delirious
five-minute ethno-pagan evocation of Pan.
A sweet release like this demands its own context, maybe a dainty teaparty of genteel aristocrats at which you, stripped naked with cabalistic
signs emblazoned on your shaved body, spin Fini! at maximum earbleeding intensity before setting fire to the curtains and riding off on a
white ass. You can claim that you did this at the behest of "It's Too
Loud," which sounds like it was recorded on a Messerschmitt. If this
impromptu circus doesn't result in the New Aeon of Amon Düül IV, all is
lost. Out of this world!" [Steve Aydt / Weirdomusic.com]
* LOPEZ, FRANCISCO - Wind [Patagonia]
CD (And/Oar
and/27, 2007)
€ 13.00
Nur selten entscheidet sich FRANCISCO LOPEZ, seine
Feldaufnahmen "pur" und unverfremdet zu veröffentlichen. WIND ist die
dritte CD einer Trilogie, die mit den fantastischen DschungelAufnahmen von LA SELVA begann (und v.a. Tiergeräusche enthielt),
danach kam BUILDINGS (die materielle Dingwelt), und nun die
"unerbittliche Umgebung von akustischer Kraft", wie er dies selbst
nennt, die NATUR. Die Windaufnahmen aus Patagonien zeigen den
Geräuschstrom, der durch natürliche Prozesse entstehen kann, in all
seiner Vielfältigkeit, aber vor allem als archaisches anmutendes
Kraftfeld.
"An immersion into the sonic matter from micro- and macroenvironments dominated by wind in Patagonia. A vast barren space
shaped and inhabited by the ever-changing forces of unmuted plants,
rocks, sand, snow, and ice. An irregular broad-band environment of
relentless strength and richness. And above all, a tour de force of
profound listening." [label notes]
"... So we learn that this piece of fifty-six minutes is an 'non-processed,
not mixed environmental sound matter from a certain 'reality'' and in this
case the reality is the wind the empty spaces of Patagonia, in the
southern part of Argentina. During the 'austral winters' of 2000 and
2003, Lopez recorded a whole bunch of wind. The empty space, usually
referred as a quiet one in the world of musical reviews (certainly by Vital
Weekly) is of course a misconception. Silence as such doesn't exist and
the wind can be harsh player. The wind blows here heavily in the
microphone - varies types are used - and the membrane shakes along.
It's not a straight forward, almost one hour piece of win blowing. In his
piece he uses various segments of wind sound, both the 'quiet' and the
'loud' and thus depicts a beautifully cruel world. As a biker I learned to
dislike the wind, as much as I like it; it depends on which way you are
going. This new work fits along very, very well along the two previous
mentioned releases and for those who care to know: this isn't the all out
silent Lopez, as it's audible through the end, although the sound is in a
long fade out. A great conclusion to a great trilogy." [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
* LINIJA MASS - Trud CD (Der Angriff No. 13, 2007) € 13.00
* LINIJA MASS - Mechano-Faktura CD (Der Angriff No. 14, 2007)
€ 13.00
* LINIJA MASS - Proletkult CD (Der Angriff No. 15, 2007) € 13.00
"Der Angriff is proud to present the reissue of all three early albums
from the famous russian old-school analogue industrial noise project by
Alexander Lebedev-Frontov (also involved in Stalnoy Pakt and
Vetrophonia). Having been previously available only on tapes and long
deleted vinyl, those records now are the ones of the most sought after
collectibles of russian industrial culture heritage. Each CD is packed
into the cardboard black&white package with a poster, which is different
to each album. "Trud" (1997) has an exclusive previously unreleased
bonus track, "Proletkult" (1999) has a track which has been missed on
vinyl edition and appeared only on a tape and CDR, and "MekanoFaktura" (1999) offers as bonus a track from a rare 7". All the sound
material have been remastered from the original source tapes. Each
title is limited to 400 copies only. A must for all fans of pure and true
industrial art!" [label info]
"Great 'mechanical industrial' from St. Petersburg. Real metallic
machine-sounds mixed with russian voices. Retro-Futurism at its best!"
[original Drone Rec. info, about "Mechano-Faktura"]
* LOPEZ, FRANCISCO - Untitled # 188 CD (CON-V cnvcd001,
2008) [ed. of 400]
€ 14.50
"Back in Vital Weekly 537 I reviewed 'Montreal Sound Matter', a
compilation CD, which was made up using sounds from that lovely
Canadian city (I hope I now apply for a free plane ticket after all this
promotion), put together by Francisco Lopez as part of a workshop
organized under his guidance. Lopez lived in that city at that time, and
had been there on numerous occasions. On 'Untitled #188' he goes
back to all the sound material from that city he recorded over the years,
as well as the sounds recorded for 'Montreal Sound Matter' and built a
new seventy-one minute piece out of that. Perhaps as a goodbye to the
city, since rumor has he is going to live in Amsterdam (which in my
book is a big leap backwards, but alas). It's a very Lopezian work,
divided in various sections of sounds from the environment, yet it's hard
to recognize these sounds. I won't even try to make an assumption
here. It moves from block to block, divided by silence, or near silence. It
makes you aware of your environment, even in the silent street I live in.
Highly 'processed' sounds, although perhaps (perhaps!) it's just a
matter of making all the right equalization or even adding loops to the
proceedings. Quite a dark piece that requires full attention. You should
adjust the volume in the opening sequence. Put that up there, quite
* LINIJA MASS - Industrealism mCD (ALF Produkt No.9, 2008)
[lim. 500]
€ 9.00
Strong 3-track EP from this legendary russian industrial project around
th
ALEXANDER LEBEDEV-FRONTOV, celebrating the 20 anniverserary
of this project. An atmosphere of construction-working & machinecircling is created: pounding cold steel, the banging of metals, found
sounds & vocal material combined with mechanized humming, all put
together very carefully; the soundtrack for the marching working-class!
Comes in oversized silver-print cover in a total edition of 500 copies.
74
loud, and you'll be find for the rest of the CD. It moves away from the
old Lopez and his side steps with heavy metal samples, but it's so much
better: a thoughtful collage of sounds, never near silence when the
music actually plays and can easily meet his best releases, 'La Selva',
'Buildings [New York]' or his recent 'Pantagonia Wind'. Great first real
CD for Con-V - way to go, boys." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
der Dadaisten, zitiert Debord, wenn er Russisches Roulette den
Spektakeln des Kapitalismus vorzieht, und wenn er auf die unheilbare
Freiheit ohne Gott pocht, schwingt darin das Ni Dieu ni maître sowohl
des Anarchisten Auguste Blanqui wie auch des Chansoniers Leo Ferrer
mit. Bereits in den 80ern inszenierte er als Ministrant der unheiligen
Dreifaltigkeit Lautreamont - Jary - Breton sein Cinema pour l‘oreille als
Theater der Seltsamkeit, aus Lärm- und Stimmfetzen surreal collagiert
und geloopt. Hier bietet es sich dem Zahn der Zeit als harte Nuss." [Bad
Alchemy]
"Lieutenant Caramel is the musician and film director at the same time,
he shoot movies for ears with microphone. The continuous search for
poetic images, frantic interchange of subjects, twisted and broken
mosaic of fuzzy elements, the breathtaking incoherence of perception,
the mark of primitive life, the total absence of organization and rational
thoughts. All this breathes, moves, obtains the voice and gradually
becomes meaningful. Theatrical view of musique concrète, humorous
and surrealistic collection of masterpieces recorded in the ten years.
Release date is 30th December 2006. Limited edition of 500 copies in
jewelcase" [label info]
* LOPEZ, FRANCISCO - Technocalyps CD (Alien8 Recordings
ALIEN CD 77, 2008) € 13.00
Intensiver Film-Soundtrack zum Dokumentarfilm von FRANK THEYS
über "Transhumanismus" (2006) - eine Theorie, die annimmt, dass die
Menschheit nicht mehr länger die antreibende Kraft der Zivilisation ist,
sondern dass die fortschreitende Technisierung auf ein Ziel hinausläuft:
etwas "Über-Menschliches" zu erschaffen, die Begrenzungen des
Mensch-Seins zu überwinden, quasi als nächsten Evolutions-Schritt.
In Genetik, künstlicher Intelligenz, Robotertechnik, Bionik &
Nanotechnologie sieht der Autor die beginnende Umwälzung für
die kommende Herrschaft des Technischen, und beleuchtet die
wissenschaftlichen, ethischen & metaphysischen Dimensionen des
Phänomens über verschiedene Interviews (z.B. mit R.A. WILSON,
TERENCE MC KENNA, MARVIN MINSKY..).
Der Soundtrack schafft zu einzelnen Themenbereichen des Films
insgesamt 15 Stücke, die eine mechanisch-kalte Atmosphäre schaffen,
selten hat man FRANCISCO LOPEZ so "industriell" gehört..
"Continuing his 'exploration of the universe of broad-band noise from
the real world,' Francisco López delivers his latest tour de force, the
original soundtrack to the film TechnoCalyps by Frank Theys.
TechnoCalyps is a documentary in three parts on 'Transhumanism,'
which deals with the subject of human beings no longer being the
driving force of civilization. Director Frank Theys raises the question of
whether we are prepared to accept the prospect that humanity is not the
end of evolution. Francisco López' soundtrack compliments the film
wonderfully. Anybody familiar with the sound art of the composer will
understand why this is a sensible pairing. Francisco's ability to utilize
everyday sounds that most people barely even notice, and transform
them into sound art is quite astonishing. The original soundtrack opens
with an intro that is based on repetitious industrial sounds that bring to
mind heavy machinery heard from a distance. It is much more difficult to
discern Lopez's source material on this release than on many of his
previous works. While the recording features his trademark ebb and
flow of quiet passages leading through crescendo to louder climaxes,
the industrial nature of TechnoCalyps, makes it more difficult to absorb
than many of his recordings centered on environmental recordings. The
sound experience found on this latest recording can be compared
somewhat to Lopez's highly-regarded Buildings (New York) which
features recordings of the actual sounds of the buildings themselves.
This is our sixth release with Francisco López and is packaged in a full
color digipak featuring stills of the film TechnoCalyps." [label info]
"... Certainly something to watch one day, as the documentary sounds
interesting, but the music itself is also quite interesting. Its a Lopez that
we don't know. There are fifteen tracks here, short and long alike, and
while probably having the original sound sources in field recordings,
Lopez went to a great length to transform them into a mechanical, post
industrial music. The sound of what the world may sound like after the
apocalypse. Metallic rumble, sonic debris, stale wind over empty
industrial sites, flickering lights. All the cliche images one could have
while thinking of this pass in front of your very eyes. Cliche's, but Lopez
does a fine job here. With lots of imaginative sounds depicting this new
world of transhumans, and its certainly not something to watch out for.
Music that is hardly comforting, but more a warning. An alien release."
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
* LULL - Like a slow River CD (Glacia Movements GM004, 2008)
€ 13.00
"Fünf sich ewig in die Länge ziehende Ambient-Tracks des ehemaligen
Napalm Death Drummers Mick Harris. Die Drums sind hier schon lange
verschwunden, keinerlei Spur normaler Trackstruktur ist auszumachen.
Die Elektronik strömt eisig und mindestens 6000 Meter tief, da wo
Wasser ungesehen furchterregenden Stillstand zelebriert. Die Eisblöcke
oben rauschen und singen, uns Hörern bleibt einzig ein betäubender
Tiefenrausch." [Ed Benndorf / DE BUG]
"After a long period of silence, Glacial Movements Records is glad to
announce you the return of the most important representative of
ambient isolationist music ever: the wonderful English artist Mick J.
Harris aka LULL (Scorn, Painkiller, Napalm Death).Unquestionable
genius of the last century's second half European music and point of
reference about the rising isolationist aesthetics, being on the same
wavelength as post-rock last scenaries. "Like a slow river" it's a work
characterized by sharp and minimal atmospheres but also dark, cold
and huge such as big bodies of ice which slowly move carried by an
endless river. The five compositions of "Like a slow river" reach the high
expectations of the previous works such as "Cold Summer", "Continue"
and the "Murder Ballads" trilogy with Martin Bates. With no doubt, this is
the coldest and darkest work ever composed by this pioneer of
industrial-ambient music. You all will be led to the oblivion of your
existence....the freezing darkness of these glacial night is going to come
down on your bodies and minds....you'll fall in your deepest sleep with
the far echo of glacial runnings....the way to eternity is in front of you.....
LULL is Back!!" [label info]
* LULLABYE ARKESTRA - Ampgrave CD (Constellation CST0442, 2006)
€ 14.00
Band-Projekt aus dem GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPOROR-Umfeld,
sehr psychedelisch / progig und rockend !
"Seems there's been another spate of outcroppings from the Godspeed
You Black Emperor musical empire recently -- notably the Fly Pan Am
offshoot Feu Therese and this duo of drummer Justin Small (also of Do
Make Say Think) and bass player Katia Taylor. Hmmm, we suspect that
this Lullabye Arkestra will fail oh so miserably at the task of sleep
inducing, but it will succeed formidably at kicking the thermometer up a
degree or ten. Their aggressive sound is markedly different from the
rest of the GYBE clan. It might be the most trashy, garage rawky,
angstful, swampy blues boy'n'grrrl punk edged thing we've ever heard
from the Constellation Records label (home to Godspeed, Fly Pan Am,
Silver Mt. Zion, et al). The fury churned up by the two core members is
further fueled by horns, Hammond organ and violin contributed by their
skilled musical brethren including other members of DMST. A fevered
good time!" [Aquarius Records]
* LT. CARAMEL - Early Tape Works CD (Monochrome Vision
(mv08), 2006)
[lim. 500]
€ 16.50
"Pierre Blanchard aka Felipe Caramelos, der 1961 geborene
Bäckersohn aus Annecy, und sein Projekt LIEUTENANT CARAMEL ist
ein schönes Beispiel für einen Elektroakustiker, der trotz der
Anerkennung, die er auch im Establishment der Geräuschkunst fand,
seinen Reiz und seine Glaubwürdigkeit als Artiste maudit im Patchwork
der Minderheiten nicht verlor. Early Tape Works (mv08, 2 x CD) greift
zurück in seine Kassettentäterjahre und versammelt als ‚Après les
horreurs...‘ und ‚Suit naturellement la beauté‘ Stoff, der ursprünglich bei
den Tapelabels Audiofile (L‘Odyssee Du Lieutenant Caramel, 1985),
SPH (Et Ca Vole!, 1993), Acteon (Du Plomp plein les siles, 1985, Je ne
veux plus voir le ciel, 1988) und Old Europe Cafe (Les Bonnes archives
du Dimanche, 1986) erschienen war. Die beiden Halbzeilen des Titels
scheinen eine direkte Umkehrung von Rilkes Zeilen aus der Ersten
Duineser Elegie zu sein: Denn das Schöne ist nichts / als des
Schrecklichen Anfang, [den wir noch grade ertragen, / und wir
bewundern es so, weil es gelassen verschmäht, / uns zu zerstören. Ein
jeder Engel ist schrecklich.] Überhaupt scheut Blanchard nicht vor
literarischen und philosophischen Bezügen zurück, stellte sich schon
als Kurator des Festivals Bruit de la Neige in die Tradition Russolos und
* LUMINOUS - Links CD (Tara Records TARA004, 2008) € 12.50
Neues Drone-Projekt aus UK - amorphe & transzendentale KlangFigurationen, fliessend & zeitlos..... to discover !
"After a decade of activity, the first official CD by Tim Chaplin's
electronic/experimental project Luminous. Links consists of two thirty
minute pieces. For fans of drone, dark ambience and experimentalism.
All CDs are housed in red clam shell cases and feature on body artwork
by Thumbprint Press's WT Nelson." [myspace]
"Time for some sub-aquatic bubbling abstract electronics and dark
ambient sound worlds from Links. 'Luminous' Two 30 minute tracks take
you on a sonic journey and really give you the sense that your lost in a
different space and time, like floating around in some liquid metal
dreamscape. With the sound of drones creating a feeling of amnesia.
Very absorbing stuff. I'd like to listen to this whilst locked in a cupboard
and become a total void. Housed in a red clamshell case on Tara
Records." [Norman Records review]
75
* MACHINEFABRIEK & STEPHEN VITIELLO - Box Music CD (12K
12K1048, 2008)
€ 13.00
Subtile atmosphärische Experimental- & Geräuschmusik auf dieser
Split & Collaboration-CD (je 2 Solo-Stücke, die aber mit dem Fundus
des anderen eingespielt wurden; und ein "echtes" Collab-Stück am
Ende) - das aufstrebende Experimental Ambient / Drone-Projekt aus
den Niederlanden, und der lange aktive VITIELLO aus den Staaten. Für
BOX MUSIC haben sie sich in der Tat Boxen mit Klangobjekten und
Alltagsgegenständen zugeschickt, die der andere dann benutzt hat.
Kurioses Konzept und ansprechendes Ergebnis, zwischen Drone und
digitaler Musique Concrete.
"Rutger and Stephen sort of accidentally met through e-mail. A simple
note regarding an ordering question for a CD led to an enthusiastic email conversation and climaxed in a musical collaboration. This all
happened in a very short period, both musicians being very inspired by
the concept of 'exchange,' as a means to cross space and time -Rutger living in the Netherlands and Stephen in Virginia. Most of the
time, when (electronic) musicians work together, it's a matter of
swapping digital files. In this case they decided to do something
different and sent each other a box full of (mostly non-musical, or
musically non-functional) objects and recordings, with the 'assignment'
to make music with those objects and all as source materials. As the
titles tell, we're talking about an egg cutter, thumb piano, a broken
Kraakle box, rice, chocolate sprinkles, old cassette tapes, a broken 7"
record, etc . Both musicians made two of their own solo tracks with the
box they received, and the last track was done together by Rutger
adding sounds and processing to a piece started by Stephen. For
Rutger/Machinefabriek, this is part of his most delicate work. For
Stephen, it was a new and extremely enjoyable form of long-distance
collaboration." [label info]
"....Its not easy to recognize these sounds in the music presented here.
The treatments are wide and extensive. There are two solo piece by
Rutger, two by Stephen and one collaborative, started by Rutger,
finished by Stephen. I haven't kept up with Vitiello's work, so it's a bit
hard to say wether his pieces are like his other music, but this is a great
collaboration. Very delicate sound processing going on here, subtle
crackling of sound, the best of ambient glitch music. Machinefabriek has
found a sound of his own, but that he did for more than a year ago, and
now it's time to deepen that sound. This is certainly a highlight in his
career." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* LUNDVALL, TOR - Yule CD (Strange Fortune SF4, 2006) [lim.
333] € 13.00
Rare extended maxi-CD (47 minutes, 10 tracks) with his his typcial and
unique electronic late-night songwriter-ambience... last copies !
"Electronic music artist Tor Lundvall is enjoying something of a
breakthrough year in 2006, his Empty City album of evocative "ghost
ambient" tracks generating his highest critical attention and fastest
sales to date. Tor's music was heard recently on NPR radio stations by
200,000 listeners, on the famous "Hearts of Space" radio program.
Announced November '06 is Tor Lundvall's next release, a limited
edition EP called Yule, described as "snowy soundscapes and
celebratory songs for the season." Tor explains with his Yule EP he has
attempted to capture "another side" of the holiday season than the
typical Christmas album, offering all original compositions in a "blurred
and distant," slightly melancholic form. Release date for Tor Lundvall's
Yule EP is set as Thanksgiving 2006. It is to be a numbered limited
edition of 333 copies, and will be available only directly from the label at
strangefortune.com." [label info]
* LUSTMORD - Other CD (Hydra Head Records HH666-157, 2008)
€ 13.50
"Seit 1980 sind Lustmord auf der musikalischen Welt. Das Projekt des
Walisers Brian Williams bewegte sich zunächst in den IndustrialKreisen um Throbbing Gristle, Current 93 sowie SPK, deren Mitglied er
zeitweise war. In den 90ern machte sich Williams durch Filmmusiken
(u. a. "The Crow", 1994) einen Namen. Das Lustmord-Album "Other" ist
nach "Juggernaut" (2007) das zweite für das Label Hydra Head - eine
Sammlung albtraumhafter Songs, die gekonnt die Atmosphäre von
David-Lynch-Filmen heraufbeschwören. Mit dabei: Adam Jones (Tool),
Aaron Turner (Isis) und Buzz Osborne (Melvins); das Artwork stammt
von Adam Jones." [Indigo]
"Lustmord has been specializing in creepily atmospheric ambient music
since the early 1980s. Having worked on several solo albums and
provided his own dark drama to other artists (including Tool, Graeme
Revell, and Puscifer), Lustmord's deranged sense of reality comes full
circle with OTHER. The music contained in this album could easily
double as a horror film score; the compositions are foreboding, and
eerily mesmerizing. Lustmord's artistic ability to tap into primordial fear
is also heightened here by the guest appearances of Adam Jones
(Tool), Aaron Turner (Isis), and Buzz Osborne (Melvins)." [press
release]
* MACHINEFABRIEK - Dauw CD (Dekorder 029, 2008) € 13.00
"Rutger Zuydervelt nennt sich zwar weiterhin MACHINEFABRIEK,
entwirft aber zunehmend Szenerien mit einem pastoralen Ambiente.
Auch Dauw (Dekorder 029) suggeriert mit zartem Gitarrengepicke oder
nostalgisch knisternden und dröhnenden Vinylrillen stadtflüchtige
Soundscapes. Zuydervelt ist mehr Fotograf als Ingenieur. Wenn bei
‚Engineer‘ Drähte harfen und Metall schleift, dann klingt das als würde
der Wind auf dem Schrottplatz spielen. Das Titelstück träumen
Gitarrenpicking und Pianotupfer gemeinsam. ‚Singel‘, mit 25 Min. der
Schwerpunkt dieser von Giuseppe Ielasi gemasterten Dreiviertelstunde,
spielt alle Tugenden des Niederländers noch einmal besonders
geduldig und zart aus. Eine stillgelegte ‚Fabrik‘ dröhnt in leichtem
Nieselregen, bis sich aus melodiös schwingenden, dann auch knarrig
verzerrten Gitarrensounds und flirrendem Cymbal eine Klangglocke
aufwölbt zu einem Mausoleum des Industriezeitalters. Wenn es das
Wort ‚Dreamscape‘ nicht schon gäbe, müsste ich es genau dafür
erfinden." [Bad Alchemy]
"Machinefabriek is the alias for Rutger Zuydervelt currently residing in
Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Since 2004 Zuydervelt has unleashed an
uncountable number of self-released 3"CD's (his format of choice) in
lovingly designed sleeves (all made by himself). In the past years some
of these releases have been compiled into amazing albums such as
"Slaapzucht" on the Root Strata label, "Weleer" on Lampse, the "Cello
Recycling" 10"/CD on Type Records and "Bijeen" on Kning Disk.
Recent collaborations with Stephen Vietiello (on the 12K label),
Freiband, Steinbrüchel and other likeminded artists have expanded the
horizon veritably. Machinefabriek's music has been remixed by the likes
of Xela, Lesser, Svarte Greiner, Alva Noto, Pita, Kim Cascone, Ben
Frost, Black To Comm and others.
Only few Machinefabriek material has been recorded specifically for an
album release but these have always been stand-outs in the vast
catalogue. Both "Marijn" on Lampse and "Ranonkel" on Burning World
Records were classic recordings, squeezing a large amount of what
people love about Zuydervelt's music into one album, at the same time
giving him the space to expand on new ideas. Likewise "Dauw" is one
of Zuydervelt's most subtle & quiet yet refined works. Mainly built
around small but gorgeous melodies of piano and guitar playing and the
crackling sound of dusty vinyl samples, these songs slowly build into
intensive hymn-like angel choirs of sheer heavenly beauty.
Zuydervelt's output often has drawn comparisons to the likes of
Fennesz, Godspeed, Arvo Pärt, Basinski, Tim Hecker, Phillip Jeck,
Mogwai and Earth, which is certainly not all wrong and some of these
* MACHIDA, YOSHIO - Hypernatural # 3 CD (Baskaru karu:10,
2008) € 13.00
Lange angekündigt, endlich erschienen: der dritte Teil in der
HYPERNATURAL-Trilogie! MACHIDA verwebt field recordings und
Instrumentalklänge auf so geschickte Weise, dass zwar "irgendwie
konkrete", aber doch höchst ungewöhnliche Atmosphären & Sounds
entstehen.....bei seinen ständig wechselnde Klangwelten vermag
jedes Stück neuerlich zu überraschen, teils eigenartig harmonisch,
manchmal sind ganz "pure" field recordings zu hören...MACHIDA
bewahrt mit diesem Release seinen ur-eigensten Klang-KOSMOS vor
dem Vergessen....
"Finally, the conclusion of the Hypernatural electroacoustic trilogy...
Six years after the release of "Hypernatural #2", Yoshio Machida is
rounding up his magnificent trilogy of electroacoustic collages with
"Hypernatural #3". A unique and highly personal work, the Hypernatural
series has made of Machida a world-class sound artist. Assemblages of
field recordings and treated instrumental sounds, the music on
"Hypernatural #3" evokes simultaneously the universal and the intimate,
Mankind and Nature.
Yoshio Machida has been working on this series since 1997. The first
volume was self-released in 1999 and had for theme memory in
Eastern Asia ; Volume 2, released by Softl Music in 2001, focused on
transparency, unconsciousness and invisible existence. "Hypernatural
#3", the last instalment in this triptych, is about oblivion. Machida
explains: "Oblivion is characteristic of the correlation between matter
and time. Oblivion has a positive aspect: it appears as a natural
phenomenon in the passage of time and becomes a factor in creating
new worlds. Nature consists of a myriad of different memory-oblivion
cycles".
Born in 1967, Japanese artist Yoshio Machida studied minimalist art.
While working for international cooperation, he had the opportunity to
travel and make field recordings. Since then, he has been using these
field recordings, combining them to the treated sounds of real
instruments, including gongs and steel drums (the latter instrument
playing a non-negligeable role on "Hypernatural #3"). Machida has
performed at music festivals, including ISEA2004 and Maerz Musik.
David Toop has introduced his music in his book "Haunted Weather",
and a track from "Hypernatural #2" was featured in a commercial on
French television. He also runs his own Amorfon label." [press release]
76
have been influences in the early stages of his career but he has since
developed a strong and individual language all of his own.
Mastered by Guiseppe Ielasi with elegant artwork by Zuydervelt himself;
metallic print on grey cardboard stock." [label notes]
or are inter-related to the original vocal track, recorded by Lisa Barnard,
which is no longer present. The text/voice part has been multi-tracked
and now represents five "separate entities". The electronic parts have
been extracted and processed from the original vocal track. The five
flute parts were performed by Jane Rigler and Jacqueline Martelle, and
was be improvised by them. They recorded to the separate voice
tracks. None of the performers heard the entire piece that they worked
on. Lisa Barnard is a vocalist and performance artist. Most noted work
is her interpretations of her dreams into original performances for Deep
Listening Institute's annual Dream Festivals. Jacqueline Martelle is a
flutist and arts administrator, living in New York City since 1996. She
performs new music and has recorded on the Mode and Centaur record
labels. Jane Rigler, flutist, composer, educator and producer is an
active featured performer in contemporary music festivals throughout
the U.S. and Europe as a soloist as well as within chamber ensembles
Al Margolis was one of the prime movers in the cassette underground
scene of the 1980s (between 1984 and 1991 his Sound Of Pig label
released over 300 cassettes of music by the likes of Merzbow, Costes,
Amy Denio, John Hudak and Jim O'Rourke) and is the éminence grise
behind twenty-three years of music under the name If, Bwana. He is the
man behind the Pogus label, as well as label manager for Deep
Listening, XI Records, and Mutable Music." [label info]
"The resulting texture sounds more like a Horatiu Radulescu piece
performed by Morphogenesis." [DW]
* MARANHA, DAVID - Marches of the new World CD (Grain of
Sound GOS21, 2007)
€ 15.00
Ein höchst überraschendes Album von DAVID MARANHA, der hier
quasi im Band-Kontext mit Hammond-Orgel, Violine & einer DobroResonatorgitarre sehr rauhe und kraftvollen psychedelischen Drone
produziert hat... unterstützt wurde er von HELENA ESPVALL (Cello),
JOAO MILAGRE (Bass) und ANTONIO FORTE (Drums). Zusammen
erschaffen sie treibende, röhrende, endlos mäandernde & langsam
perkussive Improvisationen mit starkem 60 & 70's Minimal MusicBezug!
"Marches of the new World', new record by legendary Portuguese
underground figure David Maranha, who has also been putting out
music with the mythical Osso Exótico unit for almost 20 years (his
previous release was with Patrícia Machás and drone duo Minit as
Organ Eye, who put out a self-titled album on the Staubgold label), is
his more recent study & advancement in exploring, witnessing and
generating new slices of blissful, savaged drone music." [label info]
"...The drone music played by this group is one that stands in a long
tradition: from Yves Klein, Tony Conrad, LaMonte Young and Velvet
Underground. Ongoing, banging rhythm features, with a dominant role
for organ and cello, but, certainly in 'Infinity March' also for the rhythm
section, which placed at the end makes a beautiful grand finale. The
four preceding tracks are quieter, certainly 'Virgins Visions' (which is the
only solo piece by Maranha here), but in the other three tracks things
already rock like hell or drone like heaven. It moves away from the
previous works by Maranha, which was the more classical overtone
pieces of resonating strings and beautiful humming wave fields. The
music is harsher, grittier, more angular, and I must admit very nice,
because it goes back to a tradition which is not copied these days very
much, and certainly not as nice. Its a great thing to see this done here,
moving away from his earlier work, but still re-inventing drone music.
Great stuff." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* MARTINEZ, ISRAEL - Exorcizos CD (Abolipop Records AR009,
2008)
€ 10.00
Ein neuer Komponist / Klangkünstler aus Mexiko, der sich zwischen
bizarren musique-concrete Passagen & spannungsgeladener ElektroAkustik bewegt... to explore & discover, special priced !
"Israel Martínez (Guadalajara, Mexico. 1979) is sound artist, empirical
composer and he has a degree in communications. He works for
different fields: composition of experimental - electroacoustic music,
installation and sonic intervention as well as video and analysis of the
impact of sound in society.
He has participated in diverse sound art, electroacoustic and
experimental music festivals in Mexico in the last years as Visiones
Sonoras, Mutek, Muestra Internacional de Arte Sonoro, Instrumenta,
Interface and SONOM. He has also performed and his works have
been played at different festivals and concerts in England, Spain,
France, Austria and Colombia. Recently Israel won the Award of
Distinction of Ars Electronica 2007 in the Digital Musics category for his
work "Mi vida". Israel is also co-founder of the Mexican electronic
alternative music label Abolipop and producer of "pop" project Nebula
3." [Virb-info]
* MARCHETTI, LIONEL & SEIJIRO MURAYAMA - Hatali Atsalei
(l'echange des yeux) CD (Intransitive Rec. INT031, 2007) € 12.00
"For his second album on Intransitive, Lionel Marchetti returns to his
favorite subject: music as an essential element of ritual and ecstatic
trance states. Unlike his Knud un Nom du Serpent cd (to be reissued in
Spring 2008), which offered a critique of avant-garde and popular music
as an extension of the transcendental impulse, Hatali Atsalei is more
literally an experience of ritual. Using percussion, wind instruments,
field recordings of natural sounds, and most importantly the voice of
collaborator Seijiro Murayama, Marchetti once again gives us a multileveled engagement with the elemental urge to converse with nature
and to use sound as a means to achieve altered states of
consciousness. Referencing narrative radio art, musique concrete and
acoustic ecology, Hatali Atsali is a fascinating work that reveals more
layers with each listen." [label info]
"....Marchetti uses fire, water, wind instruments and percussion along
with the voice of Seijiro Murayama, the percussion of ANP. It's a work
that is not like many around in the fields of musique concrete. Usually
it's a strictly composed piece of music from daily sounds and field
recording, heavily processed, but Marchetti and Murayama take it into a
theatrical field and makes things very visual by using sound only. The
crackling of fire, the far away drum sound, the splashes of water and
the voice make you feel almost part of the ritual, but you remain an
outsider. It's hard to tell what the ritual is about, but you can watch/listen
with full fascination. It's a work that grows in the listener. It's brief at
thirty-three minutes, but as soon as it was over, I played it again and it
started to grow on me further. It's highly captivating visual music, very
much along the lines of Etant Donnes' 'Bleu' CD - and that's possibly
the only thing I can compared it with. A true beauty, fascinating and
captivating." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* MARUTTI, ANDREA - The Subliminal Relation between Planets
CD (Nextera ERA 2049-2, 2008)
€ 13.50
"Also live but of a somewhat different kind is the release by Andrea
Marutti, whom we sometimes know as Amon and Never Known and
also as the labelboss of Afe Records, releasing many Italian artists. He
too operates in the area that we could loosely identify as drone music,
or ambient, but unlike his German counterparts on the other CD this is
of a much darker nature altogether. It's hard to tell what it is that he
does; be it synthesizers, samplers, computer processing or just tons of
sound effects, in the end the effect is a seventy-minute opus of dark,
utter dark electronic music. The planets mentioned in the title may give
away some of some of the darkness, and perhaps its all too easy to say
that its pitch black as the stars by night, but on christmas eve, with stars
bright and almost full moon, these sort of references may count. Think
Lustmord meeting Mirror, the darkest fantasy of Klaus Schulze or such
cosmic hero from yesteryear, and Andrea Marutti is your man. The
ambient/drone posse might be a dead end, and as such none of these
three offer any real innovation of the genre, but they all do a great job,
producing some excellent music, the best you can get these days. That
alone justifies the release of their music on CD and before you know,
we have our own new stars." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* MARHAUG, LASSE - Tapes 1990-1999 4 x CD-Box (Pica Disk
PICA001, 2007)
€ 26.00
"Deluxe 4 CD box-set containing almost five hours-43 tracks of material
selected from Lasse Marhaug's cassette releases in the 90's. From cutup voice and turntable thrashing to harsh wall-of-sound power noise
and scum sounds. Solo work and collaborations with Bad Kharma,
Grunt, Macronympha and others. Packaged in a handsome custommade solid box with a 24 page booklet, cover reproductions and linernotes by Tommy Carlsson and Tore H. Boe. Remastered by Tommi
Keranen. Limited edition of 500 copies." [label notes]
"Norway and “extreme” music. I know what you’re thinking: black metal.
Well, this isn’t Lasse Marhaug’s lost “metal” archive. But the Norwegian
noise architect – who’s been called the Nordic Merzbow – makes music
as frosty, intense, and relentless as Burzum or Darkthrone. There’s
something about the temporary, almost fragile form of magnetic tape
* MARGOLIS, AL / IF, BWANA - An Innocent, Abroad CD [Pogus
Prod. 21046-2, 2007)
€ 13.00
Zwei grossartige neue Stücke von IF BWANA aka AL MARGOLIS, der
im Frühjahr 2008 auch endlich mal in Euopa live zu sehen war (z.B. im
Hamburger B-MOVIE). AN INNOCENT ABROAD lässt sich als höchst
strange & surreale Geräuschmusik charakterisieren, basierend auf der
Stimme von LISA BARNARD und Flöteneinspielungen, in einer NURSE
WITH WOUND-ähnlichen Machart bearbeitet und collagiert.
"The new Al Margolis/If, Bwana cd is comprised of Issue, for electronics
and multi-tracked voice, and An Innocent, Abroad, a 40 plus minute
work for electronics, vocals, and flutes. An Innocent, Abroad can be
best described as a Sonic Oratorio: an assemblage, a construction of
an event that never happened or will happen. A live installation for
radio, perhaps. There is no "meaning" to the text. All parts were drawn
77
that’s quite appealing. Everyone reading this can remember the
simultaneous horror of a beloved recording being mangled by spools,
even as we marvel at the fantastic, otherworldly sound the destruction
created. (And yes, the metaphoric possibilities here are endless.)
Marhaug – who has received more notice of late, due to his involvement
in ensembles like Ken Vandermark’s Territory Band – is a specialist in
such experiments with loss and damage. This four-disc set (mostly solo
Marhaug, though there are several tracks where he collaborates with
folks like Bad Kharma) is no mere nostalgia trip, no exercise in wistful
remembrance of some “good old days.” It’s fresh, disturbing, and very,
very fun. Some tracks are cavernous, groaning, and sound like the end
of all things. Others are more dense, playful, and referential, crammed
with multiple sound sources piling into each other like highway wrecks.
Muffled or blaring, percussive or spacious, hellish or more hellish. Some
of it, like “Untitled #1,” is just unbelievably caustic and teeth-rattling –
like Sheer Hellish Miasma but years earlier.
This is the kind of richly imagined music that powers up language, a
sound so alien and so completely itself that its violence and unfamiliarity
convey very direct and coherent, if improbable imagery. This is most
true on the longer pieces, which sound to me like extended field
recordings assembled in a land of angry machines – they shriek and
drone in rapid shifts like two mechanized boxers. On tracks like “Noise
Ninja,” Marhaug layers these effects and creates a towering edifice of
noise.
But just as you start to appreciate the craft and the detail… POW! This
stuff is just relentless, like a revenant howling to break free of its
mechanized confines. “Untitled #4” sounds like mutant horns – shofars,
a tag team of Albert Aylers, and a wheezing beer hall band – run
through beat up analog processors. You almost feel sorry for the
mutated source materials, so distorted and transformed that they sound
like the aural equivalent of a disfigured corpse (for a quick study in
effaced identity, listen to the old timey voices buried beneath “The Girl
Who Always Eats Chocolate”). Listening to each of these hour-plus
discs leaves you dizzy, but somehow energized by precisely the
harshest moments: the huge chorus of struck metal on “Wish You a
Merry Christmas,” locked into a construction-site drill riff, repeating
endlessly in your skull; “More Guts Than Brains,” which is like a blast of
glaring, harsh light after being entombed for a while; or the mutant
industrial music, deconstructed and reassembled, of “Miss Plastic
Murgatroid’s Red Metal Wet Dream” (all amplified metal, like rusty
screwdrivers contact mic’d and used on excited strings and space
fossils). How, then, to make sense of five hours of noise that at times
beggars description? The power, depth, craft, and vision of these
pieces are impressive. Nothing about this music sounds dated, in fact. I
guess if you wanted to sum it up, you could look to “Kommer og Gar,”
which features a stilted voice quoting Baudelaire: “There is no
forgiveness without bloodshed.” Then again, maybe it’s as simple as
the brief spasm on the final disc, aptly entitled “I Like Violence.”
[Jason Bivins / DUSTED mag]
close to each other as possible. Sound engineer Thomas Hukkelberg
used two custom-built condenser mics for the organ, two Shure KSM 44
for the electronics and two Neumann U87 by the altar for the ambience.
He used a Millennia Media HV-3 preamp and an Apogee AD-16X
converter. The recordings were made at night to avoid unwanted
ambient city sounds. The final mix was made by Marhaug in January
2007." [press release]
* M.B. (MAURIZIO BIANCHI) - Regel CD (Finalmuzik FM08, 2007)
€ 13.00
"We're proud to inform you that Final Muzik official reissue of one of
MAURIZIO BIANCHI's best works is out now!
M.B. “Regel” CD (FM08). 1982 recordings. Official reissue, jewel box
edition, limited to 1.200 copies.
Track-list:
Regel
1- [23.31]
2- [23.20]
plus
3- Acido Prussico [08.39] - first issue on "Neuengamme" Lp (Broken
Flag, 1982)" [label info]
* M.B. / HUE / FHIEVEL - Erimos CD (Digitalis Recordings
DIGI048, 2007) € 12.00
Sehr schöner "organic drone" one-tracker, eine italienische
Zusammenarbeit von Ur-Gestein MAURIZIO BIANCHI mit den
"Nachkommen" FHIEVEL und HUE (MATTEO UGGERI).
"This release is quite special as it has given us the opportunity to work
with one of our all-time favorite artists (and one of the true all-time
greats), Maurizio Bianchi. Erimos is the first in a series of works about
the spaces 'between the elements.' This album contains a single, 40+
minute exploration. Heavy on electronics, the amazing thing is how
warm the whole piece feels. Bianchi is joined by two of the next
generation of Italian sound sculptors, Hue (aka Matteo Uggeri) and
Fhievel (aka Luca Bergero). The two have breathed new life into
Bianchi's music, showing that the future of the Italian underground is
brighter than ever. Bianchi began producing music almost 30 years ago
in 1979, and since 1980 has used electronic equipment with the
avowed goal 'to produce technological sounds and in such a way to
work on complete realizing of the modern decadence.' His best known
work, Symphony for a Genocide was recently reissued by New Yorkbased Hospital Productions. This seminal work proved what a pioneer
in electronic music he was. On Erimos, we find Bianchi stretching time
and manipulating sound as ever. Over the course of this monster
performance, the trio weaves intricate circles around one another,
nearly colliding at every point. But the success comes from their abilities
to play off each other, resulting in original and captivating sounds and
textures. It is electronic drones unlike any other. Erimos is captivating
and beautiful, even if its main inspiration comes from something as
desolate and isolated as the deserts on its cover." [label info]
* MARHAUG, LASSE & NILS HENRIK ASHEIM - Grand Mutation CD
(Touch Tone 30, 2007)
€ 15.00
"Orgelspiel trifft Laptop-Electronica - spannende Ambientkompositionen
im Stil von Johann Johannsson. Hat sich das britische Touch Label mit
der Spire"-Serie schon absolute Kompetenz in zeitgenössischer
Orgelmusik erworben, so setzen sie mit "Grand Mutation" einen
vorläufigen Höhepunkt. Die beiden Schweden Lasse Marhaug und
Henrik Assheim nutzen zwei konträre Klangquellen zur Umsetzung ihrer
Kunst: Henrik Assheim spielt auf einer großen Kirchenorgel, während
Lasse Marhaug mit elektronischen Equipment diese Sounds
manipuliert. Das Resultat ist mehr als die Summe der einzelenen Teile.
Eine Mischung aus erhabener Ambientmusik, Neo-Klassik und
Soundtrack arbeiten die fünf langen Stücke mit dem Raumklang und
dem Volumen der Töne. Ein spannendes Hörerlebnis der modernen
Avantgarde und Electronica!" [Cargo]
"Lasse Marhaug and Nils Henrik Asheim started their collaboration in
2004 at the All Ears festival in Oslo, Norway. This turned out as a fruitful
meeting between two musicians of very different backgrounds.
Marhaug's feedback to Asheim's organ sounds in the Oslo concert
started to reflect how the work was to develop. Asheim is working with
half-stops and subtle playing techniques that create multiple layers of
sound with a vibrating or fluctuating character, as well as with the power
of the full organ. Marhaug's tools belong to the world of sine wave
oscillators and noise generators. The aim was to set a sonic frame into
which they could both gradually tune. The two musicians met again in
June 2006 just before Oslo Cathedral (which contains Asheim's
favourite instrument) closed down for a few years of renovation work.
One day of soundcheck and musical work and one night of recording
produced an improvised flow of one hour, afterwards structured into five
tracks. The recording was made in a live setup on the organ loft. Nils
Henrik Asheim was sitting at the organ console and Lasse Marhaug
right behind, playing his electronics through a loudspeaker system in
order to make the electronics and the acoustic organ sound blend as
* M.B. (Maurizio Bianchi) + E.D.A (Emanuela De Angelis) Regolelettroniche CD [Baskaru karu:8, 2008)
€ 13.00
"Maurizio Bianchi kommt aus der Industrial-Bewegung der frühen
Achtziger, als einige wahrhaft verstörende Alben aufgenommen
wurden, die die vorangegangenen Arbeiten von Throbbing Gristle in
Konzept und Ausführung noch weit übertrafen. Bianchi verband damals
immer wieder ganz deutliche Anspielungen auf die Greuel des Dritten
Reiches mit seinen jederzeit trostlosen Kompositionen, und diese
Mixtur kann einem bis heute Bauchschmerzen bereiten. Heute freilich
weiß man, dass der notorische Einzelgänger seinerzeit unter
lähmenden Depressionen litt, was das künstlerische Schaffen als
Spiegel von inneren Zuständen begreifbarer macht. Nach einem
längeren Rückzug aus der Öffentlichkeit ist Bianchi zuletzt als stark
engagierter Anhänger der Zeugen Jehovas in Erscheinung getreten und
veröffentlicht neuerdings Musik, der nicht selten arg vorschnell der
vernichtende »New Age«-Stempel aufgezwungen wurde. Dabei ist etwa
»Regolelettroniche« – Anfang diesen Jahres bei Baskaru erschienen
und gemeinsam mit Emanuela de Angelis erarbeitet – nach
eingehender Auseinandersetzung ein karges und doch faszinierendes
Stück nebelig verzerrter Loopmusik, deren potenzielle Halbwertszeit
schon heute größer scheint als die der früheren Alben. Manch ein Titel
darauf klingt, als hätte man der Musik eines Christian Fennesz gänzlich
das Sonnenlicht entzogen." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"Twenty years of silence is made up in a few years via an endless
stream of releases from our beloved Maurizio Bianchi, also known as
M.B. who teams up here with his twenty year colleague Emanuela de
Angelis, who was the lead singer and guitarist of Joyce Whore Not and
who founded later Mou, Lips!.Since 2004 she works solo. Like with a lot
of collaborations that Bianchi undertook in recent times, it's pretty
unclear how things were made, who did what. Bianchi gets credit for
'rulelectronics', loops and waves and De Angelis for drones, reechoings and also 'rulelectronics'. 'Electronic rules for reflecting
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disciples' it says on the cover. The four pieces are pretty minimal affairs
of shifting layers of drones of similar yet detailed differences. The whole
things hums, vibrates and shakes on all sides. Ambient industrial at it's
very best, steady moving, slowly changing. Very cleverly things get
stretched throughout a piece, to make more space, which works best in
the opening piece 'Earthly Principle'. This is a pretty strong collaborative
disc, of highly unsettling ambient drone music. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"... This live set finds Baker handling guitar duties, but you’d never know
it from the sound, augmented by short wave radios, electronics, and
various bits of processing, the sound here is deep and dark, a
crumbling and epic expanse of rumbling shimmering low end. Roiling
clouds of murky melodic fragments, distant swells, throbbing low end
pulses, barely audible bits of static and washed out glitch. Very
cinematic, if you were watching a film that was almost entirely dark, with
just barely visible shifts in the various shades of black and grey. Lovely
though, minimal and haunting. Think Coleclough, Chalk, Lustmord, that
sort of ambient darkness.
But the second track is an entirely different beast. Simple guitar strums,
minimal melodies, the strings struck softly, the metallic buzz and clang
ringing out into the ether, some sort of underwater slow motion Fahey,
smeared and soft and dark and dreamy.
The final half of the track, the guitar disappears completely, leaving
streaks of feedback that sound like the cries of gulls, grinding slow
motion slabs of shifting low end, whirling windlike whirs, almost like a
manufactured nature recording.
The guitar returns for the third track, drifting gently, while the
background noise builds into a slow motion wash of sound, the track
culminating in a cloud of chimes and reverbed percussion, seasick
swirls and struck steel strings, before slipping languidly into the final
track, a lugubrious underwater crawl, all of the sounds muddy and
indistinct, a sonar like ping buried way down in the mix, underneath it all
a thick blanket of constant whirring drones, quite lovely.
Packaged in one of those cool, 6 panel, gatefold aRCHIVE
sleeves, glossy paper, super striking image of forest and clouds,
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES!!" [Aquarius Records]
* MENCHE, DANIEL - Glass Forest CD (Important Records
IMPREC 176, 2008) € 13.00
"....Scoping out those titles might give you the sense that Menche is sort
of the noise equivalent of David Cronenberg, and he’s definitely
interested in the relationship between the organic and mechanical.
Glass Forest evokes that idea perfectly: as the title suggests, crystalclear tones are combined, refracted and cut-up to create something
rough and dense. Likewise, the rawest static and distortion is often
pushed back in the mix, as if the music was shedding its tattered skin to
reveal something pure and silken. Menche seems to take the most
piercing, visceral sounds and then chisels them into something more
subtle, yet immediate—a clanking wall of industrial noise rendered into
chirping crickets and perhaps vice-versa—while amplifying micro-tones
into unrelenting drones that seem like they’re right inside your head.
Much of the three compositions on Glass Forest center around the use
of high-pitched chimes or clusters of tones that play hypnotic patterns
over the murkier, fractured sounds. This would be the “glass” part of the
album; the presence of an odd sense of iridescence amid a million
shades of black and grey. On the first track, this takes the form of
shapeless tones way up in the high register that are barely audible,
growing over some of the scariest drones this side of Sunn O))) (and to
Menche’s credit, he creates this effect with only a fraction of the volume
and intensity), and a sound like something rattling against the bars of a
cage, which will prove to be another motif.
The second track is probably the best example of Menche’s collision
between organic and industrial sounds: characterized by long, slightlybuzzy high-pitched sounds like fireflies, and a blaze of rumbling,
crackling static, he slowly introduces more mechanical percussion and
low bass tones like an idyllic summer camp-out in the woods suddenly
intruded upon by a willfully destructive force. The development over the
course of its 24 minutes is staggering, as if the whole forest had been
paved over into a techno-battleground. On the third track, chimes play
like warning bells, subsuming halfway through to furious punching-bag
percussion; by the end of the album this percussion seems to be
coming from all corners, with erratic rhythms that recall Supersilent’s
most recent masterpiece. At the very end, these rhythms coalesce into
a brutal death march, only to be suddenly lifted as the album fades out
with a persistent, ominous rattling.
Needless to say this isn’t even remotely an ambient album, despite the
degree of precision that Menche brings to his music. This is bleak,
foreboding, harsh music that’s even more visceral for the way in which it
transforms familiar sounds into alien landscapes. The violence is in the
way you can sense, as a listener, the physical relationship Menche
seems to forge with his sounds. Perhaps his outlandish descriptions
predetermine the effect of his music, but “bleeding” his equipment
seems pretty apt to me." [Joel Elliott, Cokemachineglow]
"Glass Forest is a highly listenable starting point for any newcomers
curious about Daniel Menche's vast discography. It is also, according to
Menche, the last CD he will release. From now on he'll be releasing his
music on LP only or on DVD to accompany films he's been working on.
Glass Forest is also the companion release to Body Melt which is being
released simultaneously on Important on LP only. Recorded in the
winter of 2005, Daniel Menche's Glass Forest displays a glistening
sound world that is finely textured with the most delicate of raw organic
sound and chaotic electronic noise. Not at all extreme as with Menche's
previous work, but rather a more subtle presence can be heard here on
Glass Forest. Subsonic bass drums crawling underneath massive
sheets of glass-like sound layering infinitely into a thick and dense
forest of delicate noise. For fans of Daniel Menche's ambient work and
also his loud violent work, Glass Forest fits exactly right in the middle of
these two polarities." [label info]
* MERZBOW - Merzbuddha CD (Important Records IMPREC052,
2005) € 13.00
Wie auch DANIEL MENCHE hat sich MERZBOW in letzter Zeit
verschiedenen "Klangkategorien" oder Genres zugewandt, aus deren
Fundus er sich bedient um sie durch seinen eigenen NOISE oder
HARSHDRONE Fleischwolf zu drehen - in der MERZBEAT-Trilogie
sind es Beats, die untergründig wummern, langsam und wallend, die
Stücke heissen "Mantra 1- 3" und überzeugen durch die
hinzugewonnene Stringenz !
"..Merzbow is essentially a psychedelic artist, attempting to create shifts
in consciousness through extreme sound." [Pitchfork Media]
"What did you listen to last summer? Masami Akita, otherwise know as
Merzbow, spent most of his summer listening to Horace Andy, Dennis
Bovel, Keith Hudson and a whole pipe full of other dub mavericks.
That's probably why this brand new full length, with cover art by Jenny
Akita, is dripping with deep bass riffage and a whole lot of electronic
dub vibes and beats. Merzbuddha is third in the series of Merz-titled
releases following in the audio footsteps of the flagship release
Merzbeat. With the same reverence for crushing analog beats, weaving
noise textures and a compositional complexity Masami Akita switches
direction and dubs it up. Imagine The New Blockaders in an audio
blender with King Tubby and you're not even halfway there." [press
release]
* MERZBOW - Peace for Animals CD (Quasi-Pop QPOP CD049,
2007)
€ 13.00
Lim. to 500 copies and already gone at the label!
"....But next you find yourself listening to some of Akita’s super-heavy
slab of pure noise and once again wonder and wonder how he does
that? Merzbow still is the most energetic, the most dynamic and the
most complex of all musicians and experimentators going for pure
intense noise. Where other artists are mono-causal in their auditive
attack – and honored for that like Masonna or Aube - his tracks are
multilayered pieces of shrieking piercing and burning noise
interferences. Where others go for slowly evolving dynamics or chaotic
bursts or shock-elements, he builds and destroys and re-erects them
masterfully over and over again without once losing the force of the
overall wall of noise." [Monochrom.at]
"Here's 3 long pieces on “Peace For Animals” full of ice-breaking
analogue feedbacks over dense overdrived textures, some beasty,
pulsing rhythmic elements on the background and rollercoaster's LFO
spazmes of analogue synth. This is the bright example of modern “postanalogue-post-laptop era” sound of Merzbow: these compositions are
wild at heart as the wild nature is, but they're certainly could be friendly
to whom who wants to be friendly to beasts. As many others
Merzbow's records, this CD is dedicated to wildlife and it's calling
to fight for the animals rights. Don't send animals to war! Meat
is murder! Fur is murder! Peace for Animals! Noise for the rest of us!"
[label notes]
* MERRELL, TODD / AIDAN BAKER / PATRICK JORDAN - Nagual
CD (Archive CD 41, 2007) [ed. of 600]
€ 13.50
Verzaubernde Rausch-Drones und subtile Gitarren-Loops und Tupfer,
ganz zart & betörend sensibel ist dieses Trio bei einer Aufnahme in
HARTFORD, CT vorgegangen, die Teilnahme AIDAN BAKERs
(NADJA) ist unüberhörbar. 600 Stück wurden aufgelegt und mit dem
besonderen ARCHIVE-Artwork von SELDON HUNT ausgestattet.
"long playing ambient dronescape focusing the combined efforts of
Todd Merrell on shortwave radio and electronics, Patrick Jordan on
shortwave radio and processing and Aidan Baker (Nadja) on guitar.
Recorded live in 04 in Hartford. Comes packed in heavy stock center
open sleeve with environmental mirror image landscape artwork
courtesy of Seldon Hunt. Pressing of 600 copies." [label info]
* MERZBOW - Higanbana CD (Vivo Records vivo2007032cd,
2007) € 14.00
"Drei Tracks, die zeigen, wie wichtig es ist, dass Merzbow wieder
analoges Equipment in seine Musik einbringt. Nicht dass die reinen
79
Laptop-Arbeiten der letzten Jahre irgendwelche Schwächen zugelassen
hätten, es mangelte aber hier und da an Farbe, Abwechslung und
Schwere. Vorbei damit, hier thront wie erwartet Masami Akita über all
den weltweit gleichbescheurten Noise-Affen und Wolf Eyes-Epigonen
und konfrontiert mit im Grunde unüberschauberen geschweige denn
fassbaren Gebirgen, Quatsch: Universen an Geräuschmasse.
Unbändige Kraft entspringt den Maschinen, nie ausgelutscht, frisch wie
kein Sommer und planlos weil allumfassend. Kein Bär hält dieser Musik
stand, Wölfe flüchten und Hühner bersten - Mahlzeit." [http://www.debug.de/ ed *****]
"Higanbana is the Japanese name of Red Spider Lily, a red and fatally
poisonous flower associated with death in Japan. It belongs to the
species Cluster Amaryllis, which in turn is the title of Track 1: a red-hot
inferno of screaming feedback sounding like scorched crickets, with
low-fi bass growling in the urgent undertow. The 30-minute work of art
feels like an unsettling journey into the toxic medulla of Higanbana,
eye(ear)-opening and dangerous. Like a fuse burning itself out, track 2
is an unstoppable roar of fuzz, white noise and psychedelic pulsations
that explore dynamics and sound channelling to its hushed end. The
album features Ukons (Silky Feather) which appears to be a chook; and
the 'courtesy' extended 'by Hell' hints at the macabre manner by which
Ukons may have contributed to the uncredited sounds on track 3. Like a
sick metronome, the mutilated clucks of Ukons count down as different
frequencies of static, sirens, and squelches explode in disjointed
phrases, on and on, without resolution. Indeed, none of the three tracks
find peace in themselves as none ends resolutely. In this the last album
of 2007, Merzbow once again makes a statement by defying complete
comprehension." [FLuViRuS]
Gesangselemente, das erinnert gar an alte 4AD-Bands oder
sphärischen Neo-Folk, mit einem Schuss NADJA...
"METHADRONE is a solo project from American musician Craig Pillard,
who in the 90’s was a member of extreme metal band INCANTATION
and currently plays bass in one of the best doom metal bands from
USA, EVOKEN. Under the moniker of METHADRONE, Craig dives into
murky waters of impenetrable sonic depth created by heavy and
torturous guitar sounds. From the very first tunes of the title track
“Sterility” you are taken down to witness the perfect musical desolation
and dryness entrapped in eight inches of the silver plate. After a
successful debut full-length album “Retrogression” on Craig’s own label
Subdrone Recordings and a split release with NADJA on Nothingness
Records, METHADRONE’s sound evolved into more organic and
original entity, which definitely can be heard on “Sterility”. Being a
natural continuation of previous offerings, the new album defines
Craig’s style and maturity as an independent musician. The guest
vocals appearance by the incredible artist David Galas, who also
mastered the whole album, added even darker and gloomier flavour to
these doomy sounds. With lights out and headphones on enter into the
world of sound where no life dwells…" [label info]
"Methadrone is New Jersey-based Craig Pillard, and Sterility is his third
album recorded under that name. Sterility brings us eight exquisite
examples of the grungy and oppressive bass-heavy dronescapes,
augmented by acoustic guitar and vocal elements, that Pillard has
made the trademark of Methadrone. Never has doom and darkess been
encapsulated so appealingly..." [S. Marshall-Jones, Brainwashed]
* MGR vs. SIRDSS - Impromptu CD (Neurot Recordings NR049,
2007)
€ 14.50
"MGR, short for Mustard Gas and Roses, is ISIS guitarist Mike
Gallagher's solo vehicle for ambient instrumental experimentation. His
2006 debut, Nova Lux, a critical success that drew comparisons to K.K.
Null and Robert Fripp, featured contributions by members of the Red
Sparrows and Dalek. MGR has recently shared the stage with the likes
of Pelican, Mono, and Destructo Swarmbots.
David Scott Stone, who adopted the moniker SirDSS after doing time in
the '90s with Slug and Get Hustle, has recently recorded with Big
Business and the Melvins. A musician not afraid to take a long, hard
step outside of how music is normally created and interpreted, Stone
uses both conventional (modular synthesizers) and unconventional
(micro-phoned sheet metal and bowed cymbals) to create unique and
disturbing sounds. Impromptu, previously only available on a limitededition CD-R, is a beautiful, compelling collage of instrumental
improvisation and flowing soundscapes." [label notes]
"Long slowly unfurling whorls of abstract steel string tangle, huge slow
burning electric guitar shimmers, drifting amidst glistening sonic
cobwebs, silver streaks of minimal feedback, while in the distance some
sort of industrial apparition grinds and clangs, creaks and keens,
beneath an outerspace world of dreamlike ambient guitarscapes,
radiant sine waves and thick luminous layers of crumbling melody. So
nice." [Aquarius Records]
* MERZBOW / SUTCLIFFE JÜGEND / SATORI - split CD (Cold
Spring Records CSR102Cd, 2008)
€ 13.00
Speziell aufgelegte CD für ein Konzert der drei Bands vom April 2008
welches in London stattfand. MERZBOW zeigt auf dem pumpenddrängenden "-feedyellow mix.1" (14+ min.) seine ganze Klasse,
SUTCLIFFE JÜGEND geben auf "Pigmother" den Power Noise Blues,
und die COLD SPRING-Hausband SATORI schafft mit dem "Paralysis
[Hypnopompic Mix]" Musik wie einen Lovecraft'schen Organismus,
monumental-noisig atmend, perkussiv & wuchtig & unheimlich.
Die etwas kurze Spielzeit der CD wird durch diese drei heftigen
Adrenalin-Ausschütter, die hervorragend zusammen passen, mehr als
wettgemacht.
"Released on the occasion of Merzbow, Sutcliffe Jügend and Satori at
ULU, London, 19th April 2008. Japanese Noise, Power Electronics and
Fortean Electronics from these 3 giants of the Noise / Industrial scene,
with one exclusive studio track from each act. This CD is presented in a
full colour card slip and is shrinkwrapped. Limited to 1000 copies only act fast!" [label info]
"Three exercises in ear-crushing symphony on this one! Japanese
noise-legend Masami Akita alias Merzbow opens the show with the
astonishing work "Feedyellow mix"; a repetitive piece of aural
machismo clocking 14 minutes runtime. With an excellent hypnotic
atmosphere of blasting noise this is Merzbow at his very best. Second
on stage is Sutcliffe Jügend with the utterly bizarre track "Pigmother"
containing probably some of the sickest vocals ever recorded. Together
with noises from something sounding like a distorted chamber orchestra
the listener will feel anything but comfortable throughout the five
minutes in company Sutcliffe Jugend. Last sound destructors are owner
of Cold Spring, Justin Mitchell, in joint venture with Neil Chaney of
Pessary. Operating under the name "Satori", the two sound pilots crush
the hell out of the listener with a multi-layered noise-inferno. The work is
a so-called "Hypnopompic" mix of the Paralysis-track originally from the
"Kanashibari"-album released on the Dogma Chase-label in april
month. Crushing drones of high frequency noise creates the ground
layer meanwhile ritual rhythm textures of acoustic drumming add a
great structure to harsh sound symphony. The result is hypnotizing and
brutally intense. If you're looking for the art of contemporary noise music
this split-album is a very good opportunity to destroy silence. Highly
recommended." [NM / Vital Weekly]
* MICO NONET - The Marmalade Balloon CD (Micro Nonet
Records MN1001, 2007) € 12.00
Das fünfköpfige Ensemble um JOSHUA LEE KRAMER verbindet
Kammer-Musik-artigen Wohlklang (Viola, Cello, Horn, Oboe) mit
vorsichtig eingesetzten elektronischen Sounds - rein instrumental,
Filmmusik-mäßig, athmosphärisch, luftig, melancholisch, aber nicht
düster oder aufdringlich. Auf den 13 Stücken bewegen sich vor allen
Dingen Streicher im Vordergrund, es sind nicht die "grossen" Melodien
die hier im Zentrum stehen, sondern eher die allgemeine Stimmung die
erzeugt wird, zeitlos und irgendwie "zwischen den Welten"....
Anklänge an JOHANN JOHANNSSON, RACHELS, OPION SOMNIUM.
"The five musicians at work here all have day jobs with symphony
orchestra's, all over the world: from Berlin, Richmond, Baltimore to
Philadelphia. Only their leader, one Joshua Lee Kramer (who is a
member of Matt Pond PA) is not, and he's also the only one who plays
synthesizer. He describes Mico Nonet as 'ambient chamber music' and
quite right it seems to me. French horn, oboe, cello and viola are the
other instruments and they play quiet chamber music that you could
easily define as ambient. 'The Marmalade Balloon' is their debut album
with thirteen relatively short pieces that glide by like a cold winter, suncovered day. It's cold outside, warm inside, and this music is the perfect
soundtrack for such a day. Sustained tones, glissando and pianissimo
with the synthesizer very much pushed to the background, producing an
overall color, rather than adding sound. Highly atmospheric music that
could come straight out of the Cold Blue Music catalogue. Peaceful
music, without being a cliche or new age...[FdW, Vital Weekly]
"The Marmalade Balloon is the year's ultimate flirtation with subtlety and
seductiveness. Existing somewhere between the neo-classical and the
ambient, Mico Nonet fashion a world that is hazy and succinct, at times
dark and haunting and others playful and inspiring, but always open to
personal interpretation. The balance between musicians is gracefully
* MERZBOW - Here CD (L.White Records LW-048, 2008) [lim.
500] € 13.00
"The undeniably premier Japanoise artist Masami Akita with 54 minutes
brand new noise manipulations and audio deconstructions.
3 lengthy tracks blistering walls of relentless noise from the heat of last
summer - ultra heavy and brutal electronic assaults!" [lablel info]
* METHADRONE - Sterility
CD (Foreshadow FSHCD006, 2008)
€ 13.00
Solo-Projekt eines US doom-Metallers (INCANTATION, EVOKEN), der
mit METHADRONE auf dunkel-ambienten, fast romantisch zu
nennenden Pfaden wandelt; Akustigitarren, Synths, hallende Drummachine, amorph wavender Bass und mitunter elegischer
80
maintained, where neither the electronics nor the strings are ever overly
pronounced as to withdraw the listener from the intoxicating,
spellbinding trance which The Marmalade Balloon invokes. The future
will certainly take this musical act on a variety of different presentations,
but with their strong understanding of musical space and development,
we're confident that they'll be a favorite for years to come. " [Jordan
Volz, The Silent Ballet]
instrumentation to perform certain plays before moving on to not just
new locale, but new tools for performance sculpting. This retrospective
of work is a troupe of electronic pulses, glitches, groans, explosions,
susurrations, and endless other sonic perturbations.
Suppurating at first, “Drilling Holes in the Wall” bloats with unhealthy
ichors pressing the sores with throbbing ululations that are lanced with
synaptic lacerations of noise, using sound to sonically cut and carve
away tumorous flesh. Every digital strike is never the same with each
collop dissected bringing new electronic whimpers unexpected; the
infinitesimal filigree of surgical strikes of sound is like the marginalia of
some robotic surgeon. Sound fuses, splatters, roars, and blazes
contorted shapes in a linear-spatial sculpture. There is no empathy
here, nothing to relate to human experience. Gen Ken Montgomery’s
first track is more Opus No. 1, a matrix of half an hour of disassembly,
reassembly and alien interdiction upon frequencies we recognise. It
comes as great surprise to find the liner notes disclose a recording date
of 1990 as it could easily sit in this milieu.
Two years prior to that and the next two tracks – the latter of which and
its two succeeding ones being unreleased - divulge more montage of
digitally modelled scintilla, though here in more unified form, if only by
sinewy electrical strands of frazzled computer nightmares of the surreal
kind. Unidentifiable and humanly unpronounceable vespers are strobed
and shuffled to the pulpit for recitation but there is no quantifiable bourn
to address, only to witness and wonder.
The last two tracks are the shortest but of the familiar distortive and
displacing concurrence sound forms previously expressed. They scurry
and quiver across the mottled surface of Gen Ken Montgomery’s odd
musical conglomerate. The incision of human vocals in the last track is
a bizarre feeding of radio station into tesla coils that seems a poor
accompaniment to the unearthly welding going about it, and before it.
Nonetheless, if you enjoy chewed electronics unlike anything you have
previously heard, Gen Ken Montgomery is for you." [Heathen Harvest]
MIMIR - Mimyriad CD (Streamline 1001, 1993)
€ 13.50
Wieder erhältlich, das zweite MIMIR-Album von 1993, mit Aufnahmen
von 1991-1993 (damals auch der Startschuss für CHRISTOPH
HEEMANNs STREAMLINE-Label!)
Re-issue of the second MIMIR-album (1993), a project by EDWARD
KA-SPEL & CHRISTOPH HEEMANN, here also featuring JIM
O'ROURKE & SILVERMAN....
* MOLJEBKA PVLSE / SEVENTEEN MIGS OF SPRING - Ravha /
Electricity Gardens CD (Tophet Prophet TPO015, 2007) € 13.50
Split & Collaboration vom beliebten schwedischen "Experimental
Drone"-Projekt mit den uns bisher unbekannten 17 MIGS OF SPRING
aus Tel Aviv. Eröffnet wird das Album durch ein sehr langes,
ungewöhnliches Stück von M.P. mit vielen eher konkreten field
recordings, welches wieder dessen grosse Variabilität aufzeigt; es
folgen ein echtes Collaboration-Stück beider Projekte und 5 Stücke von
17 MIGS OF SPRING, die sich zwischen dunklem drone-ambient und
aggressiven Analog-Industrial bewegen.
"It is not every day you find reviews of albums released by Israeli labels
in Vital Weekly. Topheth Prophet is an independent Israeli label formed
in summer 2002 whose aim is to spread the knowledge of the Israeli
noise scene to the outside world. The label focuses on styles ranging
from harsh noise across power electronics to dark ambient. This 13th
release from the label deals with drone-based ambient music. On this
particular release one of the presented projects has its origin in
Sweden. It is a split album between Israeli project SEVENTEEN MIGS
OF SPRING and Swedish project MOLJEBKA PULSE. The album
opens with the 27 minute long track titled "Ravha" from the latter
mentioned project. The brain behind Moljebka Pvlse is the Swedish
sound artist Mathias Josefson who explores the sounds of both acoustic
and electronic origins, quite often with the starting point taken in found
sounds and field recordings. The "Ravha"-track is a nice example of Mr.
Josefson's ability to transform the sounds of reality into a world of
drone-based minimalism. Opening with a mixture of concrete natural
sounds and buzzing drones the expression slowly turns more and more
harsh as the field recordings develops into noisy drones including
spoken words. At a point the concrete sounds fades away or turns into
sonic abstraction. The track moves into pure drone ambient minimalism.
Nice work.
Seventeen Migs Of Spring is an Israeli project consisting of three
members, Gurfa, K-76 and B-74. As was the case with aforementioned
Swedish project the conceptual approach of this Israeli project is sonic
drones based on concrete sounds. Compared to the Swedish project
the Israeli projects goes further to the extremes with sounds of a rather
noisy kind. Especially four or the five tracks get quite harsh with the use
of an on-going mixture of static noise and radio-based shortwave
frequencies. Inbetween the two projects comes a collaborative track
that successfully combines the style of the two projects. Everyone
interested in drone based ambient with focus on concrete sounds
should definitely check out this album. " [NM, Vital Weekly]
* MOOR, ANDY - Marker CD (Unsounds U14, 2007)
€ 13.00
"Der Londoner The Ex-Gitarrist als Fotokünstler mit Blick für chaotische
Muster und komplexe Strukturen und als Meister seines Instrumentes,
solo, mit Overdubs und einmal multitrack. Einige der 15 Tracks
entstanden zwar für Theater- oder Filmsoundtracks, aber ohne die
Fesseln des Funktionalen, das meiste ist spontan aus dem
Handgelenk geschüttelt, gespeist von Erfahrung und Einbildungskraft,
nur Augen, Ohren, Hände. Es gehört etwas dazu, das wohl meistgespielte Instrument im Weltall so zu entstauben, dass es nach dem
Anfang des Buches Genesis klingt - ein Ding, auf das man einschlägt
und dissonante Geräusche entlockt, das aber noch nicht mal einen
Namen hat. Das mehrspurige ‚Naming the animals‘ kehrt an diese noch
undefinierten Anfänge zurück. Schon ab dem zweiten Track ist Marker
aber mit Gitarrenkultur aufgeladen, meist repetitiv und mit logisch
strukturierter Harmonik oder simplen, aber effektvollen Rezepten (‚From
e to f‘, ‚Repeat suite‘). Zwischen diesen Polen zieht Moor seine Saiten
stramm. Repetitiv, drängend, und gleichzeitig dissonant, so präpariert,
dass es rau, roh, stumpf klingt (‚Uganda fly‘, ‚Stop/pause‘). Dann
ausgedünnt, reduktiv, nur einzeln blinkende Lichtpunkte am
Nachthimmel, 3 Uhr nachts. Oder flirrendes Gekrabbel und Surren, das
zu Gamelandingdong aufklart (‚Weather‘). ‚About face‘ hört sich an, als
ob ein Alien sein extraterrestrisches Motorrad zu kickstarten versucht.
‚Truth in numbers‘ und ‚Small things under glass‘ erzielen mit einfachen
Zahlenreihen rührende Wirkung, während ‚Myrka‘ mit schmutzigen
Fingernägeln an der Schallmauer stöchert. Gitarrenfreund, was willst
Du mehr? Spandexhosen?" [Bad Alchemy]
"On this his debut solo Cd, andy moor explores a wide spectrum of his
unusual guitar style, resulting in an exciting, varied and challenging
collection, ranging from melodic solo guitar pieces to atmospheric
soundscapes, and wild outbursts of radical sound." [label info]
".... Andy Moor is in the pages of Vital Weekly known as an improviser
with the likes of Kaffe Matthews, but in the real world he is of course the
guitarist of The Ex, my all time favorite dutch punkers. Favorite just for
the fact that they don't stay inside that little closet called punk, but get
out and do so many other things, playing with musicians from Africa and
from the world of improvisers. Moor might very well be responsible for
the latter move of The Ex, so a solo CD by him is perhaps more than
welcome. He plays electric guitar with objects and hardly any effects.
Over the past five years he off and on recorded his pieces, and this
collection shows a wide variation of moods and textures. Some in punk
fashion, but mostly in a melodic style, uptempo, downtempo,
melancholic and distorted. Fifteen tracks, spanning over fifty-four
minutes, that might sound a bit much, but Moor effectively holds your
attention, when moving through all these pieces. Mostly solo guitar, but
also overdubbed and layered, there is a lot to discover here. Not
masturbation but a great card. Less is Moor." " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* MONTGOMERY, GEN KEN - Drilling Holes in the Wall CD
(Monochrome Vision (mv17), 2007)
€ 13.00
"Archive materials from one of the most mysterious musicians in
electronic underground, dating from 1988 to 1991. Each piece
composed by Gen Ken Montgomery is the result of domestic alchemy,
transforming some ugliest environmental sounds into artistic images
of impressive beauty. His instruments are just prepared toy synth, but
also from time to time laminator, icebreaker, radiator, film projector and
so on. These recordings were made in Conrad Schnizler studio in West
Berlin, and also live on stage there, in time of Germany reunion.
Gen Ken Montgomery has been active in the experimental, electronic
and noise scenes since the early 80s. Montgomery was the founder of
Generations Unlimited and an original co-founder of Pogus Productions,
respected experimental music labels. In 1989, he founded Generator,
the first sound art gallery in New York City, where he created a home
for sound artists and noise makers who were part of the thriving
international cassette culture of the 80s. Since 1996 he has published
recordings by sound artists in collaboration with Scott Konzelmann
(Chop Shop) releasing them through Generator Sound Art." [label info]
"Gen Ken Montgomery’s ‘Drilling Holes in the Wall’ is less an ambient
record than it is an opus among the work of an experimental sound
artist – being two divergent concepts – the latter more among artists of
the ilk of Daniel Menche, who choose to create using a circus of
* MUELLER, JON - Metals CD (Table of the Elements TOE-CD108, 2007)
€ 14.50
81
We Share A Shadow continues where Murmer left off with the
exceptional Husk album (in collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough), in
spiraling his manipulated field recordings as a slow revelation of the
environmental sonorities that undeservedly go unnoticed each and
every day. Singing frequencies of a bowed piece of metal undulate
against a grey tapestry of rain and rasping insects. Golden overtones
from shimmering drones quell what agitated textures reside in
McGinley's active field recordings, rendering the aggregate sound a
nocturnal opiate with considerable potency.
As Murmer, Patrick McGinley has produced a handful of releases on
ICR, Ground Fault, Drone Records, and Absurd; and he has performed
in venues both large and small across North America and Europe. He is
also the host the Framework radio show on Resonance FM, dedicated
to the consecration of field recordings and their use in composition.
We Share A Shadow is strictly limited to 300 copies, featuring hand
water-coloured artwork and letterpress printing." [label description]
Beeindruckendes Album desPerkussionisten JON MUELLER, der das
Spektrum der gängigen Drum-Sounds erweitert und auch die
Vibrationen und Drones von grossen Gongs & Bass-Trommeln einsetzt.
Von der Intensität und Herangehensweise erinnert "Metals" an DANIEL
MENCHE, nur dass hier alles "handgespielt" ist , v.a. Dingen geprägt
durch Trommelwirbel-artige Wellen, die sich mit Obertönen vermählen;
genial minimal & trancig, von grosser Kraft & Intensität...
"Percussionist Jon Mueller works with rhythms that come from gong
frequencies, from vibrations of the bodies of bass drums, and the
surprising sonorities that occur with the combination of these elements.
Now he applies these techniques to his latest solo effort, to stunning
effect: Metals is, as its name suggests, a bold, all-percussion foray into
heavy metal. No theatrical silliness here; just sheer exhilaration; the
fundamental power of loud, organized, precise rhythms; ringing, heavy
anti-melodies. It's this sound, in the many forms it has taken over the
years that continually inspires new philosophies, drives independent
thinking, and causes hundreds of thousands of people to bang their
heads. Jon Mueller takes it, shapes it and makes it his own." [label info]
* MURRAY, BRENDAN & SETH NEHIL - Sillage CD (Sedimental
sedcd049, 2007)
€ 13.00
Ein reichhaltiges Album das zwischen wunderbaren Drone-Sphären
und konkreten Mikrosounds oszilliert, und mit jedem neuen Hören
weitere Facetten offenbart.
" Certainly amongst our most challenging releases, Sillage is the mindblowing collaboration of Brendan Murray and Seth Nehil and is the
result of a first meeting in a live setting from 2004, a performance that
was loud, powerful, and very successful. This event combined with
knowing these electronic sound artists previous work as generally
maximalist and full makes Sillage both curious and nearly shocking in
this light, as here the material is continually turning inward, trying to
push out but always being submerged. This document takes many,
many listens and can remain baffling and impenetrable. Yet with
patience one does get underneath it, and once this happens the sonic
rewards are otherworldly and deep. Followers of either or both artists
work should recognize his particular contributions but this venture has
provoked new and uncharted territory from both." [label description]
“There’s a shapeliness that’s unusual in abstract music of this kind, and
no matter how fractured, layered or collage-like the sounds become,
they always seem to fit the immediate purpose, the requirements of the
composition, and the trajectory of the CD as a whole. Sillage, is a
hugely satidfying piece of work.” [Brian Marley / THE WIRE]
* MURCOF - Cosmos CD (Leaf Records BAY59CD, 2007)
€ 14.00
Das dritte Album des Mexikaners mit Bezug zu Himmelskörpern &
Astronomie, das ist dramatischer, cinematoskopischer BreitwandAmbient in Perfektion, weniger rythmisch als zuvor, beeindruckend
"auskomponiert" und mit Einsatz vieler Original-Instrumente. Rein
instrumental, dunkel, mit neo-klassischen Elementen.
Erinnert uns an XABEC, JOHANN JOHANNSSON, COIL..
"Fernando Corona’s long-awaited third album as Murcof marks a
dramatic departure from previous works. Truly monumental in scale,
Cosmos is composed almost entirely of recordings of classical
instruments, a process which Corona describes as “expanding the
possibilities of acoustic instruments through electronics.” It’s a move
away from the micro-programmed sound he helped to pioneer, and his
seamless integration of these apparently opposed forms is almost
unprecedented. These new recordings were inspired by a very simple
motion, the act of tilting the head towards the skies, or as Corona puts
it: “Cosmos basically comes from that state of wonder and mystery and
joy and humbling that you get when you let your mind wander freely on
a starry night, away from the contamination of city lights. From the
realization that there's an infinite universe outside the man-made world
and how silly this latter one seems in comparison.”
Originally intended as an EP, the early Cosmos tracks were so
mesmerizing that those around Corona encouraged him to make it a
full-length. His past approach involved mixing disembodied orchestral
passages amidst microbeats, letting a song shift and mutate in a
minimal environment. With Cosmos, he has progressed towards a more
sophisticated compositional mode. The immensity of tracks like the
monolithic twins ‘Cosmos I’ and ‘Cosmos II’ draw to mind the work of
the German electronic pioneers of the ‘70s or the Hungarian composer
György Ligeti as much as the visceral, low-end rumblings of SunnO)))
or Coil. Murcof’s compositions have always been as much about the
absence of sound as what you actually hear, and these techniques are
further refined here.
“This album took me one and a half years to finish,” the quietly-spoken
Corona says. “I like to leave the tracks there to stand the test of time
before I put them out, and I generally don't like rushed jobs.” Corona’s
care and precision is very evident on Cosmos, a brilliant, powerful
recording that charts his musical destinations completely off the map."
[label info]
* MURRAY, BRENDAN - Commonwealth CD (23five Inc.
23FIVE013, 2008) [lim. 500]
€ 13.00
Dröhnminimalismus pur! Poly-Drones die sich in endlosen Wellen
umeinander legen, regelrecht anfangen zu schlingern. Aufs "erste
Hören": Statik. Beim genaueren Hinhören: Eine unendliche Klangfülle,
tänzelnde Obertöne, schwingende Frequenzen in multiplen Schichten,
stetige Veränderungen und Verschiebungen. Der Drone-Gott steckt in
den Details! Eine sehr feine Aufnahme des Bostoner Klangkünstlers
BRENDAN MURRAY!
"Nie wurden Sehnen mehr gedehnt als über Murrays 49 Minuten
Commonwealth. Nur Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue oder Jean-Francois
Laporte erzeugen solch sture Dronegebilde, in denen schüchterne
Obertöne zu gigantischen Kolossen mutieren und Langatmigkeit den
klaren Ton angibt. Harmonieansätze tauchen in diesem Wall aus
Gitarre und analogen/digitalen Soundmanipulationen nur ganz spärlich
auf und entblößen sich rasch als hilflose Wegweiser vergangener
Genres. Nostalgie spielt allerdings keine Rolle, Commonnwealth schabt
nach vorne, dezentriert Zeit und vermag sogar den Bewegungsapparat
zu blockieren. Liest sich eventuell zu statisch, wirkt unter der
Oberfläche aber äußerst drastisch. " [Ed Benndorf / DE BUG]
"Brendan Murray has become a central figure in Boston’s sound art
vanguard through a reputation of exceptional live performances and a
growing catalogue of slow-shifting compositions for rarified drones. A
single crescendo terminating at the end of 49 minutes, Commonwealth
is an epic investigation into subtle harmonics and overtones expressed
through layered slippages of pure sound. Conceived through guitar,
analog synthesis, and plenty of digital manipulation, Commonwealth
expresses a rare confidence in Murray's finely tuned detailing of sinewy
tonalities and sculpted megalithic surfaces. Murray himself has qualified
this album as a "sincere bow to 'classic' minimalism," and
Commonwealth is a worthy parallel to the work of Phill Niblock, Eliane
Radigue, and Iannis Xenakis." [label info]
"We've ballyhooed Brendan Murray's exceptional, yet perennially
overlooked drone & din work in the past; but nothing could have
prepared us for Commonwealth. Damn, this guy is good. No, wait; he's
fucking great! After a handful of cd-r productions, a Twonicorn cassette,
and a fine cd release on Intransitive of processed shimmer, shifting
frequencies, and some low-end girth rumblings for our bligatory
SUNNO))) reference, Brendan Murray has produced his best work to
date with Commonwealth. Compositionally, it's incredibly simple: a
drone goes up, and it goes down. It lasts a little under 50 minutes. But
buried with this single minded composition, there are thick spun
* MURMER - We share a Shadow CD (Helen Scarsdale Agency
hms011, 2008) [lim. 300]
€ 14.00
MURMER gehört zu jener neuen Generation von Field RecordingSpezialisten, die mit Hilfe von Computerprogrammen eine ungeahnte
Detailfülle & Klangdichte in ihren Kompositionen erreichen. Auf "We
share a Shadow" (2 Stücke, 46 Minuten) erklingen z.B. wunderbar
vielschichtige Metall-Drones, Vibrationen von langgezogene Sirenenartigen Tönen, rückwärtige akustisch glitzernde Resonanzen,
krispelndes Rauschen (Regen?)... etc. - ein einziger Genuss, diese
neuartige Drone-Musik in Perfektion, das Selbst scheint sich aufzulösen
in diesen Sounds! Die Auflage beträgt leider nur 300 Exemplare, kommt
im handgetönen Wasserfarben-Cover.
"Murmer is the pseudonym for Patrick McGinley, a man with several
passports which have taken him to many a foreign land in search of
found sounds of the unsettled, the forgotten, the mysterious, and the
beautiful. His field recordings of activated environments (e.g. resonant
industrial spaces, windswept telephone lines, bowed branches, gasping
ventilator systems, etc.) originate from all of the locations where he has
traveled; yet, the documentation of these sounds is the not the terminus
of McGinley's work. He is far more interested in extracting a particular
emotional, transcendent, or metaphysical kernel from those sounds,
and then recontextualizing that germinated sound into sympathetic
compositions of magnificent dronemusik.
82
rumbles, reflective vibrations, sympathetic sub-harmonics, and rich
tonal frequencies. Out of the constant tectonic whir that introduces
Commonwealth, shimmering clusters sound like a battery of reed
organs or hurdy-gurdies, slowly modulating into heavier, deeper drones.
We've been told that the source material for these sounds is guitar,
although you'd be hard pressed to hear anything guitar-shaped
anywhere on the disc. It's far more like the hallowed minimalist sound of
Charlemagne Palestine and La Monte Young. Dare we say, it's better?
Yes, Murray's drone hums like a perfectly tuned machine, with multiple
pistons purring in a steady progress along Commonwealth's
compositional arc. When Murray shifts the focus of the album
downward, which begins not even halfway through the piece,
the descent is noticeable; but it actually becomes Murray's most fertile
work within Commonwealth. Here, low rhythmic thrumbs crawl beneath
the surface of the slowly collapsing drone, precluding its inevitable
terminus. Perfect trance-enducing dronemuzik. Fans of Aidan Baker,
Andrew Chalk, and Phill Niblock should definitely take note!" [Aquarius
Records ]
"... Much louder and less subtle, this is loud drone music, one of the
kind that Niblock plays live. Although playing music on headphones is
not something I usually recommend, this piece sounds pretty fine on
headphones, pressing air against your ears, making a thunderous
storm, which shoots right in your brain. Towards the end the volume
drops a bit in favor of more heavy weight bass sounds, forming the
natural ending to a heavy work. Murray delivers, once again, a mighty
fine album that will be another step forward in recognizing him as a true
master of the genre. Fans of classical drone music be aware - this is the
classic of the future." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
dense recordings favoured by the likes of Fennesz and Tim Hecker but
with the bite of metal. Radiance of Shadows opens rather gently taking
its time to give birth to an amazing Isis-like riff which becomes
completely washed out with Nadja's trademark wall of ambient noise.
Just when you think it cannot get any louder or more saturated it begins
to subside into another more subdued section of ambience and
occasional riffing. This eventually gives way to a brutal tandem of guitar
and drums that recalls early Swans. Nadja has an unique ability to
make their long recordings seem like they are a few tracks blending into
one as oppose to the grandiose epics that they are." [label info]
"...Three 20+ minute tracks, each perfectly balanced between
suffocating crush and hazy dreamy bliss. Most folks obviously focus
on the heavy crushing riffage, but the magic of Nadja happens just as
much if not moreso during the quiet parts, the rhythmic parts leading
up to the bombastic climaxes. The build up is just as satisfying
sonically as the pay off, the musical version of the whole journey /
destination thing. But that said, the pay off is a massive and
gloriously impossibly heavy crush, like being beaten to death with
rays of sunshine or being suffocated under layer after layer of soft
fuzzy concrete slabs...
The sound is so much more epic and massive, but warm and
'live' sounding. For the first time, it actually sounds like A BAND,
more than a record constructed in a room by a guy (and a girl). Not
sure if it's the songs, or the arrangements, the recording or all
three, but whatever it is, made a sound we already thought perfect,
even more perfect." [Aquarius Records]
* NADJA - Bliss torn from Emptiness CD (Profound Lore
Records PFL-031, 2008)
€ 13.00
Re-issue der CDR von 2005, zu der wir damals bekundeten:
'Unglaublicher one-tracker, der recht konventionell beginnt (metalligrockig-rhythmisch), sich aber allmählich in einen extremem DroneStrudel verwandelt, der alles halluzinogen in sich hinabzuziehen zu
scheint & wo vielerlei Sounds spiralenförmig verwirbelt werden....
extrem hypnotisch-energetisch und sub-bassig.... was DANIEL
MENCHE in Sachen „power-drone“ ist, scheint hier NADJA im Bereich
„guitar-doom-drone“ zu erschaffen.. genius stuff !!'
Diese neue Version wurde von JAMES PLOTKIN re-mastered und ist
etwas länger... eines unser absoluten Lieblings-NADJA-Stücke!
"Profound Lore's second collaboration with NADJA comes in the form of
the revamped, augmented, and altered Bliss Torn From Emptiness.
Given the ultimate facelift from its original CDR release, and now
expanded into a massive three-track plunge (with a mastering job via
JAMES PLOTKIN), Bliss Torn From Emptiness is a sprawling and
meticulously crafted epic where controlled ambience and static crawls
through a murk of claustrophobic cerebral chaos. Yet through the
sprawling mass of overbearing feedback and noise, Bliss Torn From
Emptiness, just like Bodycage (and what has been a characteristic
within Nadja's music) also employs a character of pure celestial grace
through an elegantly deposited sound picture that brings the cinematic
vibe of Nadja to new heights." [label info]
"....Unlike the more fluid washed out shimmer of later Nadja, Bliss
finds the band lurching and pounding, almost industrial, with plenty
of Godflesh going on. The drums, a staggering stuttering staccato,
the guitars long streaks of blistering psych blur, gauzy clouds of
whir and buzz, the whole song like some massive sonic beast,
lumbering into the twilit night. The melody and mood intense and
emotional, very cinematic, and very darkly dramatic.
As the record progresses (it's a three part suite), the rhythms
smooth out a bit, slow down, lurch less and groove more, the
atmospherics growing more shimmery and soft focus, with more
stretches of tranquility, softly processed vocals, glimmering minimal
drones, gauzy glitchery, while remaining really really heavy, the
final part, after a looooong stretch of fuzzy warble and sun dappled
drift, finishes off with a deafening supernova of sound, the guitars
so white hot that they almost drown out the drums completely, a
swirling chaotic soundscape, all end of the world psych blow out and
bleary eyed solar eclipse shoegaze, a bit like playing ALL your M83
records at the same time and blasting them through loudspeakers
mounted on satellites, showering the planet with brilliant blinding
shards of glorious buzz." [Aquarius Records review]
* MUSLIMGAUZE vs. SPECIES OF FISHES - same CD (Tourette
003, 2007)
€ 13.00
"More than a simple remix album, this is a beautiful and haunting
addition to the catalogue. Instantly appealing to those seeking a
mellower sound, there is enough complexity and edge to keep everyone
happy. Includes four new tracks."
* MUSLIMGAUZE - Nadir of Purdah CD (Aquarellist 06-07, 2006)
€ 13.50
"The CD reissue of the very old Muslimgauze material never been
released on CD before. Tracks 1-3 are taken from the "Nile Quartra" 7"
(originally released by Jara, 1994), tracks 4-7 from the "Nadir Of
Purdah" 12" (originally released by Jara, 1995), track 8 taken from the
"Impulse #4" (Impulse Magazine Tape Compilation)." [label info]
* MY CAT IS AN ALIEN / STEVE RODEN - Comis Debris Volume 2
CD (A Silent Place ASP23, 2007)
€ 13.00
Interesting collab of two artists / projects that work in totally differents
fields of sound-art creation...
"CD re-issue of the second installment in the "Cosmic Debris" split ARTLP series set up by Maurizio and Roberto Opalio, aka My Cat Is An
Alien, on their own Opax Records. The Vol.II sees the two space
brothers from Torino, Italy, alongside Californian visual and sound artist
Steve Roden. What makes this collaborative release so peculiar is the
natural interactive exchange occurred between the artists, and that
came out from the concept behind the experience itself. Roden's
contribution thus represents the unique experience of hearing him
literally 'playing' guitar chords. His first track, "E-bows and Rainbows",
developes through the minimal and reiterated sound architecture of
Roden's so-called 'possible landscapes', where singular source
materials such as objects and field recordings are abstracted through
electronic processes to generate new audio spaces, characterizing the
artist's aesthetic in sound works; the following "My dog is a Yufo" is so
far a pretty unheard aspect of Roden's ability to shape a fascinating
intimate piece only with an old electric guitar and his own fingers, and it
also demonstrates how a true artist can re-create his own personal
universe, no matter what kind of source utilized. On their side, MCIAA
deliver another piece of 'cosmic debris', centered on multilayered
echoes of voice, toy piano, space drones raising from a distant horizon,
and their own physical gestures performed during the recording, which
reproduce themselves through the air, re-play and give birth to echoes
of real time that overcomes its own essence, becoming field recording
itself, mirror and spectre of its immutability. Their track entitled
"Everything waves like cosmic debris" also features Ramona Ponzini's
Japanese bells contribution." [label info]
* NADJA - Skin Turns to Glass CD (The End Records TE101,
2008)
€ 12.00
So ziemlich alles was NADJA in ihre Frühphase jemals herausgebracht
haben, wird dieser Tage wiederveröffentlicht, so auch SKIN TURNS TO
GLASS; die drei Stücke erschienen 2003 als CDR auf Nothingness
Records und präsentiere NADJAs unnachahmlichen "Ambient Metal"Sound, vom emotionalen Charakter her betrachtet sind das DroneStücke mit Hang zum Unendlichen und Dunkel-Kosmischen, als
stilistische Mittel werden Metal-Elemente benutzt..
Als besonderes Schmankerl gibt es hier noch einen wunderbaren
vierten, unbetitelten Track (fast 30 min lang), der NADJA von ihrer
* NADJA - Radiance of Shadows CD (Alien8 Recordings
ALIENCD72, 2007)
€ 13.50
"The Canadian ambient doom band Nadja returns with the follow-up to
their critically acclaimed Touched release. Radiance of Shadows is a
mammoth monster of a record, spanning well over an hour with three
tracks that are more epic and heavier than ever. Nadja's constantly
increasing fan base will not be disappointed with this outing; it's classic
Nadja. Radiance of Shadows has the feel of the super-saturated and
83
ambient-experimentellen Seite zeigt, mit endlosen Wellen von an- und
abschwellenden Soundflächen......
"Dirge-like metal riffs & heavy, minimal percussion w/ ethereal
melodicism & something of a shoegazer asthetic, creating a swirling
amorphous wall of sound that strives to be both obliterating & uplifting.
3 tracks with a running time of 80 minutes." [label info]
Ausser einer zeitlichen "Komprimierung" des Sound-Materials wurden
aber keine Effektierungen der Originalaufnahmen vorgenommen.
Außergewöhnlich & von unwirklicher Schönheit!
"...The sounds here, like many of the other field recordings we are so
fond of, sound NOTHING like what you would imagine ice would sound
like. Apparently, the layer of ice on the lake, acts like the head of a
drum, transmitting the various cracks and crackles and vibrations
across the expansive sheet of ice, producing strange tones, some very
electronic sounding, all of them mysterious.
This record was woven together the sounds of the ice covered lake on
a single day. Hours of recordings edited into one hour, but no other
work has been done on these sounds, this is the actual sound of the
ice. It begins with the sound of birds, the ice producing tiny little streaks
of sound, that do sound like synthesizers, strange space-y FX,
suspended in an expanse of murky murmur. The intensity and the
frequency of those space-y streaks increases as the day warms up and
the ice begins to fracture and melt, the barrage of bleeps and bloops
begin to sound like a Star Wars laser battle, and sound like it couldn't
possibly be the sound of ice. Eventually, the laser like streaks get
deeper, and more resonant, as if someone was adding reverb or delay,
until it's just a cloud of fuzzy bleeps and warbly tweets, underpinned by
the actual staticky crackle of the ice cracking.
It's hard to explain much better than that, try listening to the sound
samples, you will be amazed. It truly is a rare glimpse of some
impossible and mysterious soundworld. A peek into how nature works,
or at the very least, a chance to overhear the magic of nature, the
sounds the exist in the wild, even if most of the time we're unable to
hear them. Magical."" [Aquarius Records review]
* NADJA / NETHERWORLD - Magma to Ice CD (Fario CD 10,
2008)
€ 13.00
10. Ausgabe in der FEAR DROP / FARIO - Split & Collaboration-Serie,
diesmal sind die kanadischen Drone-Metal Überflieger NADJA und der
italienische POLAR-AMBIENT Act NETHERWORLD in interessanter
Kombination zu hören - 3 Stücke von NETHERWORLD, ein langes von
NADJA welches eine einzige gigantische Drone-Blase darstellt, und
eine fast 10minütige Zusammenarbeit). Kommt im überdimensionierten
Vollfarb / Aufklapp-Cover! Eine Verbindung von "heissem" und "kaltem"
Ambient wie man sie nur selten auf einer CD finden wird.
"Talented Italian ambient composer Alessandro Tedeschi runs the
Glacial Movements record label and plays music as Netherworld. His
fascination for polar landscapes and soundscapes makes him close to
industrial ambient pioneers such as Thomas Köner, Rapoon, Biosphere
and Lull. Icy, windy, droning and deeply "protomelodic" at once, his
music is a poetic translation of the ice floe. For this record, he used
processed fragments of classical music. Nadja is the drone / doom /
ambient duo of Canadian musicians Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff.
Their behemoth of sound is a construction of heat, weight, loop and
vapour. Here, they had to break Netherworld¹s ice and find a way to the
red core of Earth. The common track brings heat onto ice, which warms
up, crackles and soon melts. As a conclusion, the long piece by Nadja
is total heat. This is Nadja "unrhythmed", which means pure lava. This
CD features exclusive graphic concepts and artwork by Alan
McClelland (www.eyelyft.com) " [label info]
"French label Fario is not very active: this is their tenth release in about
as many years. The label is an off shoot of the excellent (but en
Francais) magazine Fear Drop, whose only goal seems to release a CD
with the meeting of two artists. They present each a couple of solo
pieces and one collaborative piece. Lopez & Roden, Troum & Christian
Renou, Rapoon & Desaccord Majeur and Vromb & Telepherique went
ahead (among others) and here it's the turn for Alessandro Tedeschi,
also known as Netherworld, and owner of the Glacial Movements label
and Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, from Canada and best known as
Nadja. Netherworld's three pieces are an excellent sound example of
his own label: glacial movements. A very apt description. Still music of
slow moving, utter deep movements. A turtle moves faster I think. A
deep bass rumble in 'Closing To A Glacial Dawn'. Sounds like
Biosphere or early Thomas Köner, but surely with a fine twist of his
own, apparently all made with snippets of classical music. I skipped the
collaboration to save that until the end and first heard the piece by
Nadja, which spans nineteen minutes. A giant explosion takes place,
and it sounds like a 180 degrees turn around from the Netherworld
tracks. Yet that is only deceiving the listener. Yes, Nadja is much
louder, but it's the same side of the ambient at work here: long
sustaining sounds, feeding through effects, creating a ringing effect in
your ear. Absense of rhythm is noted. How exactly their collaborative
effort was recorded is a bit unclear but both ends meet up well here.
There is the glacier like sounds of Netherworld, amplified of course to
compete with the harsher sounds of Nadja, who mix in their own blend
of guitars and electronics. Placed as the fourth track on the CD it makes
perfect sense, forming a perfect bridge between the trio of silence of
Netherworld and the solo outburst of Nadja. A perfect collaboration."
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
* NAVICON TORTURE TECHNOLOGIES - VTERUS CD (NCC
Records NCC012, 2008) € 13.00
So wie es aussieht das letzte Album des US-amerikanischen "manicdepressive noise"- Projekts von LEE BARTOW, der wieder tief die
eigenen dunkelsten Obsessionen & Traumatisierungen auslotet..
"From within the darkest regions of the heart, insane exultations to soft
skin are screamed out through barriers of clotted blood and white noise,
as once more, the thin line between obsession and devotion is crossed.
Originally conceived as a companion to "Pure Skin", this collection of 14
feverishly-deranged love songs heralding the coming end of an era.
Where "Pure Skin" was in large part a collection of previously released
rare tracks, "VTERVS" is the first all-new full-length album from Power
Electronics / Industrial Noise act NTT in three years, and the first of the
final four releases by the project. "VTERVS" features collaborative input
from Cloama, SKM-ETR, STROM.ec and Silent_Command, as well as
stalwart NTT personnel Mark Kammerbauer (Fragment King), Matt
Slagle, and recent addition to the NTT war machine, Fallon Nieves
(Covet). Ltd x 1000 copies in a stunning digipak with pictures of naked
ladies. Please include an 18+ statement when purchasing." [label notes]
".... A real reminder what NTT is all about - heartbreak and loss, and
showcasing it. The album wraps up with a twelve minute epic (I Am My
Own Worse Enemy.) of numb ambient music, where the final word
uttered is a sample "romance." If this is the end of NTT, so be it. Letting
the project die can only be a good thing is such brilliant albums like this
come out of it. This exceeded my expectations, and only makes me
even more excited than what I already was for the next releases.
Essential for anyone interested in a diverse style of power electronics
and industrial music that focuses on personal issues - without being
afraid to say it. Loud." [Blood Ties Web]
* NEBRIS - Bleak Angels CD (Dystonia EK D.40, 2007) € 13.50
Promising Dark Ambient act from Canada with spheric earthquakedrones, sirenesque sounds & more concrete crunchings & grindings,
derived from "amplified organic and geologic materials, kora and
Tibetan thighbone trumpet". Quite refined & special, to discover!
"Dystonia EK is a label from Montreal and already exists since 1989.
For ten years they released cassettes and a few CDRs, but with the
release of the Nebris CD they start up their activities again. Before
being Nebris, they (he? she?) were called Column, with various
releases as Dystonia EK and 'Bleak Angels' is the second release as
Nebris, following 'Krone' from 1999. They use 'amplified organic
materials (bones, gut strings) and minerals (fossils, meteorite
fragments, stones)' and produce three lengthy tracks. First I thought
they were spinning empty grooves of a record, extremely amplified,
alongside long wave recordings, but knowing what they do make it all
sound even more fascinating. There is a backdrop in all three pieces of
rotating sounds, crackles, highly processed and multi-layered voices,
especially in 'V' this latter feature, and it sounded very much like
Tibetan Red. Probably they throw in lots of electronics to get this
swirling mass of sound. Bleak indeed. There is a great sense of
desolation around this music, the usual ambient industrial post nuclear
emptiness. The empty industrial lot at night. For those who love Tibetan
Red, old zoviet*france, or the more softer edges of releases on Old
Europa Cafe and Cold Meat Industry will surely find this quite
* NADJA - Thaumoradiance CD (aRCHIVE Recordings
aRCHIVE44, 2008)
[lim. 600]
€ 14.00
Wieder im herrlich designten SELDON HUNT-Cover, zwei lange livetracks die die urgewaltige Monumentalität von NADJA verdeutlichen
(aufgenommen October 2007 in ihrer Heimatstadt Toronto).
"...two track live release from Nadja which functions as a companion
release for the studio archive CD. Radiance of Shadows preludes into
the cliffnotes 20’ish min. version of Thaumogenesis. Similar graphic
themes and sleeve design all once again from Mr Seldon Hunt.
Pressing of 600 copies." [label info]
* NAMBLARD, MARC - Chants of Frozen Lakes CD (Kalerne
Editions KAL01 / Atelier Hui-Kan, 2008)
€ 14.50
In eine faszinierende Klangwelt taucht man auf diesem One-tracker von
MARC NAMBLARD ein, der die irgendwie zwitschernden, fast
peitschend-perkussiven Sounds eines gefrorenen Sees aufgenommen
hat, die wahrscheinlich durch Luftdruck- und Wärmeveränderungen im
Eis und in der Atmosphäre entstehen. Auf dem Stück werden
verschiedene Phasen dieses Phänomens deutlich, bis hin zum
Auseinanderbrechen des Eises, so dass mitunter wirklich der Eindruck
eines "singenden Sees" entsteht...
84
interesting. Executed with great care and skill, with a keen eye for
details and variation, this is an excellent work in the genre." [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
gefrierendem Atem, diesen ganz gewissen kalten Farben des
Winterhimmels. Die auf- und abschwellenden Flächen sind teilweise
überlagert von einem hellen, hochfrequenten Sirren und stellenweise
begleitet von so etwas wie langsamen, dumpfen Herztönen, ganz, als
höre man, neben dem Wind und den Geräuschen des Eises, nur den
eigenen Herzschlag in der Weite. Wie aus der Ferne hallen zuweilen
gedämpfte Gesprächsfetzen über das Eis. Diese sind teilweise aus
Dokumentationen des NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC über die Arktis
entnommen, andere stammen aus aufgezeichneten Unterhaltungen
über den Norden und seine Phänomene. Allerdings sind sie – auch,
wenn manche Stimmen durchaus den Charakter eines
Dokumentationssprechers haben – kaum verständlich, kaum mehr als
Echos des Menschlichen in der weißen Einsamkeit.... "
[Caillean K. für nonpop.de]
"MORKETID is a Norwegian term that indicates a certain period in the
year when the Arctic winter cold encases everything and the sun
doesn’t rise over the horizon. It’s a cold and dark period that
distinguishes regions and people living in the Artic. Music is composed
using short fragments of sounds found in the Artic area, these are
documented and subsequently sampled and then completely
transformed into new forms and therefore a new vision of the Artic."
[label info]
* NECROPHORUS - Drifting in Motion CD (Old Europa Cafe OEC
104, 2008) € 13.00
"Emotional ganz großes Kino offenbart uns hier Peter Andersson mit
der Neuauflage des Albums "Drifting In Motion", welches original im
Jahr 2000 erschien und wohl eines der besten Werke von Necrophorus
präsentiert. Über 70 Minuten dauert die Achterbahn der Gefühle an,
welche sich in 9 fantastischen Klangflächen unaufhaltsam ausbreitet
und den Hörer in ferne Ebenen trägt. Tracks wie "Partial Melt" oder
"Drifting" sind ganz einfach wunderschöne Tondokumente geworden,
denen jedoch die restlichen Stücke keinesfalls nachstehen - schon
allein der Zweiteiler "Lost Land" ist hier sein Geld wert, während "Ice
Shifting" glatt aus der Feder von Raison D'être stammen könnte.
"Drifting In Motion" sollte man am Besten als Gesamtwerk betrachten
und am Stück konsumieren, so entfaltet das Werk seine emotionalen
Ergüsse am Feinsten. Da stören auch nicht die teils recht langen
Songs, im Gegenteil – viel zu schnell ist diese einfühlsame Reise
beendet, welche sich wunderbar in den Gehörgängen festsetzt.
Um diesen Silberling möglichst reizvoll zu gestalten, hat sich Peter
Andersson nicht lumpen lassen und noch 3 Bonus-Tracks beigefügt,
wovon "After The Silence" bislang unveröffentlicht war. Die beiden
anderen Titel sind hingegen schon bekannt und auf den Samplern
"Tribute To Beksinski" bzw. "Perception Multiplied" vertreten. Auf
"Drifting In Motion" mangelt es wahrlich nicht an gefühlvollen
Klangwelten, hier gibt es wirklich keinen Ausfall zu benennen. Wer sich
diesem Klangwerk in ruhigen Momenten hingibt, dem ist grandioses
Kopfkino zugesichert.
Mit diesem gelungenen Tonträger legt uns Old Europa Cafe eine wahre
Perle der absolut überzeugenden Ambientkunst vor, welche den Hörer
zum Träumen und Abheben verleitet. Da gibt es nichts zu überlegen,
hier gilt unbedingte Kaufpflicht!" [Necroweb]
" 'Arctic ambience, melting with imagination, leads the listener to the
frozen tundra at the top of the world. This rarely explored land, resonant
with a shimmering radiance that is bleak, barren and mysterious, is
distinguished by slivers of fantastical nuances that twinkle like crystals
under the midnight sun.' The above quotation was taken from a review
of the original CD release of ’Drifting in Motion’ (2000 on Crowd Control
Activities). Now, 8 years later it is time for an enhanced re-release for
even more refined sound and experience of ’Drifting in Motion’. The
entire album has been carefully re-mixed in 2007 and has been spiced
with 3 more nuances. Peter Andersson is a multi-talented man most
famous for his RAISON D'ETRE project on the notorious label Cold
Meat Industry LABEL but he is also are responisble for music projetcs
like Stratvm Terror, Bocksholm, Atomine Elektrine, Panzar and many
more. For this new release, two artists, Maria Gullqvist (Sweden) and
Eva Verholen (Holland) has been asked to contribute with their own
impressions of experiencing ’Drifting in Motion’. Their amazing works
are presented on the completely new designed CD artwork in a six
panels digipak." [label info]
* NETHERWORLD - Kall. The Abyss where Dreams fall CD
(Mondes Elliptiques E.Q.05.03, 2008)
€ 13.00
".... In a tradition that is anchored, at the same time, in avant-garde,
ritual soundz and dark-ambient, with a typically Italian touch,
NETHERWORLD gives a peculiarly and elegantly organic and palpable
feel to sounds that, in the hands of others, would maybe fall flat …and it
is as if the sound universe conjured by the magic of NETHERWORLD
was strangely…how could one say? OCCUPIED. Each moment, each
twist and turn of this sound adventure bears infinite richness and
elasticity, at all times …those are rather ‘busy’ sound layers but each of
the elements has sufficient breathing space and can differentiate itself
from the other surrounding components. This antagonism represents
one of NETHERWORLD’s greatest strengths. Another noteworthy
antagonism: this tendency to propose us ambiences that are
excessively introspective, subdued, withdrawn into themselves, but
which, at the same time, expand, subtly dilate to occupy an
incommensurable space. Upon the first notes (or pulses??) of the
opening track, ‘’KALL’’, this infinite abyss, envelops us and our dreams
sink, dissolve, reinvent themselves…The sound propositions found
on’’KALL’’ have enough movement and density to please the ones fond
of depth in their music, but the overall ‘purified’ feel will please the most
discerning purist. For the occasion, MONDES ELLIPTIQUES once
again used the mastering talents of JOHN SELLEKAERS @ METARC
and it is CHRISTIAN SA LETTE who put his savoir-faire in our service
for the design of the sleeve and images. Limited to 441 copies! Deluxe
cardboard sleeve." [label description]
"Netherworld is Alessandro Tedeschi and on the album 'Kall - the abyss
where dreams fall' he shows his interest in cool ambient and drone
related kind of music, that slowly and patiently unfolds in the space. The
music is presented in four tracks that are called 'Kall', from part one to
part four. What's most present in the 14 minutes of the first piece is the
pulsating drone atmosphere, that sounds very gentle and is put in the
front, while from time to time there are other sounds too that are
appearing in the background and are adding a specific and slightly tribal
sounding sense to the track. The sense of tribal ambient music is even
more present in the second piece, while in the third longer piece of 21
minutes, there are motives similar to those in the first track - slowly
unfolding layers of sounds that are coming from the cooler corners of
the ambient spectrum, a kind of atmosphere that is present through the
whole album. 'Kall - part 4' is no exception in the sounds that
Netherworld uses in the music on this album. The fourth part is as
smooth ambient music as the previous parts, it is the smoothest track,
with almost 8 minutes of few slowly shifting layers of a kind of
sustained, unusual, calm and sometimes linear sounding and spreading
ambient music, a kind of aesthetic and approach to the music that is
mostly present on the whole album, that is not a typical ambient
aesthetic, but it crossovers the border-lines between the ambient and
drone kinds of music." [BR / Vital Weekly]
* NETHERWORLD - Morketid CD (Glacial Movements GM002,
2008) [lim. 500]
€ 13.00
"Landschaften unter ewigem Eis, kollidierende und kollabierende
Eisberge, Polarlichter, der Wechsel zwischen Mitternachtssonne und
anhaltender Polarnacht, Eisdrift und Schneestürme: Mit GLACIAL
MOVEMENTS RECORDS ist ein neues Label geboren, das es sich zur
Aufgabe macht, speziell Klangbilder dieser eisigen Gefilde zu
verbreiten. Glacial and isolationist ambient nennt der Italiener
ALESSANDRO TEDESCHI das, und bringt, als zweites, mit „Mørketid“
ein Album seines eigenen Projekts NETHERWORLD heraus. Nachdem
auf der ersten Veröffentlichung, einem Sampler namens „Cryosphere“,
sich mit Ambient-Protagonisten wie THO-SO-AA, TUU, TROUM,
AIDAN BAKER und OOPHOI keine Unbekannten dem glazialen Thema
gewidmet haben, geht TEDESCHI mit „Mørketid“, ganz gemäß des
Label-Credos, diesen Weg weiter, indem er Geräuschfragmente, die er
im Bereich der Arktis aufgenommen hat, zu kristallkühlen Klangflächen
zusammenfügt. Der Name der gut sechzig Minuten langen Polarreise
kommt aus dem Norwegischen und steht für jene Zeit des Jahres,
wenn der arktische Winter das Land erstarren lässt und die Sonne
kaum über den Horizont steigt; eine kalte, dunkle Zeit für die Menschen
im hohen Norden. NETHERWOLRD ist kein gänzlich neues Projekt:
Bereits 2004 brachte TEDESCHI auf dem OOPHOI-Label UMBRA mit
„Eternal Frost“ eine CDr heraus; es folgten weitere auf UMBRA, dessen
Sub-Label PENUMBRA und, noch Anfang des Jahres, auf TAÂLEM.
Nach dem ersten kehrt jedoch erst das aktuelle Album, endlich auf
„richtiger“ CD und in einer gelungen schlichten und farblich kühlen
Aufmachung, wieder zum ewigen Eis zurück.
Diese Polarnacht hört sich allerdings nicht dunkel an. Kühl und
kristallklar ist sie, durchsichtig wie reines Eis und von eisiger Helle. Sie
erzählt von überstrahlten Eislandschaften, von klirrendem Frost,
* NIELLERADE FALLIBILISTHORSTAR - Skrankverk CD
(Dystonia D.41, 2007) € 13.50
Schwedische Gruppe aus dem Experimental / Impro / Drone-Bereich,
die sich zum musizieren an verlassenen Plätzen treffen und eine
geheimnisvolle Aura erschaffen; field recordings, Electronics und
konkrete Geräusche treffen aufeinander, Anklänge an NOISE MAKER's
FIFES, ORGANUM oder die AURAL HYPNOX-Releases.
"Niellerade Fallibilsthorstar (henceforth referred to as NFH) is a quintet
of sound artists that formed in Umea, Sweden, in 2001 and 'Skrankverk'
is their fifth release to date. The group engages in site-specific
improvisations in abandoned buildings, swamps and forrests using
85
materials found in each locale. The recordings are then brought home
and 'arranged, edited, collaged and added to in the studio.' The results
share a certain kinship with the late 80s work of Zoviet France and
Nurse With Wound without sounding like either. This sounds right up
my alley, so my expectations are rather high and were subsequently
met much to my delight.
The opening track is an organic excursion into a world unknown. Water
drips sporadically in a cavernous space amongst metallic clatter. The
way in which such disparate sounds are montaged creates an
imaginary landscape of sorts. In the visual art world, I'm reminded of
Tanguy's landscapes, Ernst's frottages and even some of Salvador
Dali's early work. Whether coincidental or not, there's a very structured
feel as opposed to a random juxtapositioning of varied source
recordings. Activity peaks around the fourteen minute mark and sounds
more like raw group interplay before settling down again for the final two
minutes. It's all time well spent at any rate. 'Ohagn' begins like a
wounded jet taking flight into some perilous night sky. Once the
optimum altitude is achieved, it remains a bumpy ride with obtuse
clouds full of chunks of foreign particles and space debris. Rather than
fight any adversarial circumstances or atmospheric turbulence, this one
rolls with the punches with the aid of some plate reverb. The third piece
hits its stride straight out of the box with some choice percussive action
and high frequencies riding over some nondescript drone-work and
bass rumbles. It's an eight minute-plus odyssey that exemplifies what
NFH is capable of here. It's both abstract and concrete and has a sense
of drama, however perverse.
'Ral' presents some spastic industrial percussion music that has a
character all its own. It builds up and breaks down in both momentum
and rhythmic sensibility to varying degrees before disintegrating into a
more ambient and squealing metal (the substance, not the musical
style) territory.This is not a bad thing; balance is an asset that pervades
this record. The reverb-laden loopy coda is just icing on the cake. The
next number is mysterious in its sources and dark demeanor, which is
further enhanced by the heavy processing throughout. Fans of early
Hafler Trio should not be disappointed. The final eight-and-a-half
minutes are given over to 'Spjallmotor' which is a tour-de-force of metal
percussion and other electronically treated sounds. Clanging, grinding
and full-on pounding are the order of the day with a structural conceit
that would make Einsturzende Neubauten proud. After a brief silence,
there are two final minutes of sonic blowout that is sure to tease any
noisehead that made it this far.
Fine music, here issued in an edition of 500 copies housed in a foldout
digipak with some beautiful photography. NFH manages to strike a nice
balance between the organic and the synthetic, the real and altered
reality, with great creativity and very little trouble. 'Skrankverk' manages
to incorporate noisy source recordings into compositions that are
anything but noise and likewise presents a concrete music that avoids
the stuffy confines of academia. What more do you want?" [Heathen
Harvest]
equipment, using up to 50 year-old tapemachines, filters and generators
that end up being the soft cushion in these cold location recordings.
Location recordings from Mälaren, Stockholm, Sweden, Coombe
Gibbet, Berkshire, England and Landakot, Vatnsleysuströnd, Iceland.”
[label info]
"... True, if you were to compare this album to the lilting work of
Colleen or even to fellow label mate Biosphere, The Short Night would
appear quite dark; but in the context of Nilsen's entire discography,
The Short Night is a dramatically colorful piece of work. Sure, Nilsen's
sustained low frequencies and a few moments of growling noise do
have their devilish undertones; but throughout the album, Nilsen
punctures these impressionist clouds with elegant electronic chorales of
ethereal melodies that are surprisingly beautiful for BJ Nilsen. There is
a melancholy to Nilsen's work, but melancholy isn't always synonymous
with dark, as is the case here. In many ways, Nilsen has found himself
trekking into the territories previously ventured by Fennesz and
Machinefabriek, creating a transcendent sound through the tension
between shoegazing / drone-based driftwork and subtle discordant
agitation. This record is highly, highly recommended!" [Aquarius
Records]
* NILSEN, BJ & ZEV - 22'22 CD (Ideal Recordings IDEAL045,
2007) € 13.00
Split-Album des inzwischen in Berlin ansässigen und auf TOUCH
veröffentlichenden Schweden BENNY NILSEN mit Z'EV, die hier beide
auf ihre unnachahmliche Art wunderbare Drone-Stücke abgeliefert
haben, die genau 22:22 Minuten lang sind! Wobei uns Z'EV mit seinen
metallischen Verfremdungen im Drone-Geäst innerlich wieder extremst
illuminiert... das dritte Stück (ebenfalls 22:22 Minuten) ist dann eine
Zusammenarbeit von beiden, die grösstenteils aus [
] besteht,
aber nicht nur....
"... About 22'22: Key words: Drone | Trance | Meditation On Power.
The atmospheric impact of the collaboration of B.J. Nilsen and Z'EV is
massive. Their genius is the power of drone and the beauty of trance.
They build atmospheres that are at the same time disturbing, meditative
and enjoyable. The atmosphere I am talking about is of course deep
and dark, and its hitting the spine hard. Its hard not to listen to the
album in its full bloom. Were hearing killer drone music here. In 22'22,
we see something natural happening. I want it to continue. I dont want it
to stop here. Its too intense and beautiful to stop here. Maybe it is that
feeling that makes this album so great to me. The fear of this is it."
[label info]
"Three tracks, each of exactly twenty-two minutes and twenty-two
seconds. This is not a work of collaboration, but two sides of the coin
called drone music. Each of the players is a renowned player in this
field, yet the outcome is quite different. BJNilsen, best known for his
releases on Touch, presents an eerie, quiet piece solely based on
treated field recordings. Where others in this week's issue fail to
succeed in using field recordings into their music, BJ Nilsen succeeds
wonderfully well. Highly atmospheric, without letting the transformations
take over, nor keeping the field recordings too recognizable. A very fine
piece. Drone music also comes from Z'EV, who these days may seem
to be more into creating electronic music, but here returns to using
metallic percussion alongside electronic treatments. Rumble from the
below surface form the basis of the material, but slight treatments
create a long sustain, at times, on the sounds, which add up to a mighty
powerful piece of trance inducing drone music. A good combination of
various types of drone music. However I don't understand why there is
a third track of equal length, but with seventeen minutes of silence and
five minutes of Z'EV like music. I thought that gimmick of silence on
CDs was more than explored by now." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* NILSEN, BJ - The Short Night CD (Touch TO:75, 2007) € 15.00
"Auch für The Short Night (TO:75) hat der sturmerprobte Landschaftsmaler BJ NILSEN seine Staffelei an Ecken und Enden der Welt
aufgestellt, wo sie für Menschen unwirtlich ist - ‚Finisterre‘, ‚Pole of
Inaccessibility‘, ‚Icing Station‘, ‚Viking North‘. In der frostig dröhnenden
Luft sind nur noch Vögel in ihrem Element. Die Brandung nagt an den
mageren Felsen der schwedischen oder isländischen Küste und von
oben prasselt Regen herab. Als Pinsel und Leinwand freilich fungieren
Mikrophone, alte Tonbandmaschinen, Filter und Generatoren, Wetterphänomene und eine finstere Imagination führen die Hand. Weitere
Schauplätze, genauer, Klangfundstellen waren nämlich Triest, ein
Ortname mit unwillkürlich tristen Assoziationen, und der Coombe
Gibbet in Berkshire, 1676 errichtet, um ein Ehebrecherpärchen
aufzuhängen und zur Abschreckung stehen gelassen. ‚Black Light‘
bringt die Stimmung dieses Dark Ambient oxymoronisch zum Ausdruck.
Nilsen malt urige Seelenlandschaften. Er bespielt mit seinen Fieldrecordings eine große Naturorgel, die wallende Düsterwellen aussendet
und dröhnende Gischt aufschäumt. Ein Grundton in modulierten
Varianten, aber immer getragen, immer erhaben, ein schweres und
langsames Sich-Dahin-Wälzen von bleierner Zeit, von Luftströmungen,
die Wettervorhersagen wie Orakelsprüche aus der Megalithkultur
mitführen." [Bad Alchemy]
“BJNilsen (b,1975 Sweden) is a sound and recording artist, has since
the early 90’s been putting out work in various constellations. Primarily
focused on the sound of nature and its effect on humans, field
recordings and the perception of time and space as experienced
through sound, often electronically treated. Using location recordings,
weather, birdsong and radio, BJNilsen continues to map and explore
uncharted territory. A follower to 2005’s Fade to White [Touch # TO:65],
BJNilsen develops his work further, based on field recordings and
electronics. This time he adds harsher yet clearer harmonies with
musical elements to the compositions, creating a beautifully complex
and detailed study. Recorded in 2006-7 with mostly analogue
* NILSEN, BJ & STILLUPPSTEYPA - Passing Out CD (Helen
Scarsdale HMS013, 2008) € 13.00
Dritter Teil der nordischen "Drone & Alkohol-Intoxikation"-Trilogie, die
den Zustand des Wegtretens zwischen Wachheit und Dämmerzustand
klanglich adäquat wiederspiegelt; im tiefen Drone-Morast erscheinen
Traumbilder, -gedanken & akustische Sequenzen der Realität auf. In
paradoxer Weise ist man dann in der Lage, sowohl unbewusste wie
bewusste Geistes-Inhalte zur gleichen Zeit wahrzunehmen...(sagen die
Erzeuger dieses Albums). PASSING OUT ist ein One-Tracker von fast
70 Minuten, tiefgrummelnd-bassig und sonor und von mysteriösen,
atmend-ächzenden Sounds durchzogen....
"The first chapter found the drink. The second came after a night of
intoxicated shouting. The third chapter is inevitable: Passing Out.
The Nordic sound artists BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa have authored
the last component to a trilogy of isolationist compositions for barren
field recordings and lumbering electric drones, thematically linked in the
psychotropic effects of alcohol. In doing so, they have issued a brief
statement in defense of their research: "It's been four years and three
studies, Passing Out being the final. Even in its most general, colloquial
usage, Passing Out indicates the occurrence of a state that is
incompatible with active behavior. It is possible that the individual could
86
experience both consciousness and unconsciousness at the same time
while encountering Passing Out."
Yes, Passing Out is a crepuscular recording, with the flickering of
twilight further dimmed by the distant Arctic sun in wintertime and the
blackened numbness of too much drink. With one singular track that
spans 60 minutes, a nearly constant thrum and rumble of
monochromatic low frequencies casts a grim pall upon the precisely
dialed-in modulations and vibrations. Spectral guitars, maudlin tunes
from haunted radios, angrily growling voices, and field recordings of
wind-whipped snow and ice bury themselves deep amidst these
subharmonic drones. All of these tease at the edge of perception,
sculpting the narrative of the drone into a vehicle for unhinged
expressionism of varying degrees of horror, melancholy, beauty, and
oblivion.
The Swedish born BJ Nilsen defines his work as "focused upon the
sound of nature and its effects on humans, and the perception of time
and space as experienced through sound." He has numerous
recordings on Touch and has collaborated with the likes of Chris
Watson, Christian Fennesz, and Z'ev. The Icelandic citizens Sigtryggur
Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson are Stilluppsteypa, whose
electronic abstractions engage absurd theatrics that mar the pristine
surface of minimalism..." [label info]
"....The complete and total isolation of the music, the long passages of
seemingly no action (there is just one piece, clocking it at 68 minutes),
with then a sudden break, a melody filters in, the radio starts humming
and field recordings - that backbone of so much in Vital Weekly and
certainly here - make this an album of not just pure drones or just
processed field recordings, but the strange elements thrown in, give this
album a stranger, almost alien feel to it. If it's the equivalent of passing
out is a bit hard to say: the act of passing out on alcohol prevents you
from remembering anything. This is however their best album to date
and makes a strong trilogy." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"...Deep resonant vibrations abound, with some creepy breathing in
your ear whisperings that may be those Leif Elggren vocals that Benny
was talking about. Gradually, all of these deep drones and shadowy
overtures glide into a slumbering descent. But the Icelandic weirdoes
in Stilluppsteypa couldn't just let the album drift away without their
absurdism forcing through the door, as they blurt with a clinical
repetition of blooping electronics smashed and grabbed from Raymond
Scott circa Manhattan Research. It's an unsettling climax to the album,
but one that works brilliantly through Stilluppsteypa's expert use of
electro-acoustic black humor. But it's drone that dominates the album,
as angelic wash and devilish rumble collude to end this magnificent
album. Oblivion never sounded so good. Passing Out is beautifully
packaged with letterpressed and silkscreened artwork. Very nice."
[Aquarius Records review]
dirges, classic old school funereal doom, frenzied of buzzguitar, and
lengthy, meditative guitarscapes. An intense and overwhelming sonic
journey, as heavy and brutal as it is delicate and beautiful. Doomy and
blackened, drifty and drone-y, soft focus and hazy, dense and
devastating... and of course, so so recommended." [label info]
* NORDVARGR (HENRIK BJÖRKK) & BEYOND SENSORY
EXPERIENCE vs. KENJI SIRATORI - Hypergenome 666 do-CD
Box / BOOK
(Old Europa Cafe OECD 088, 2007)
€ 24.00
Aufwendig gestaltete Box inkl. 80-Seiten Buch mit den skurril
anmutenden "Cyber Cut-Up" Texten von KENJI SIRATORI; die Lyrics
ergeben keinen rational erfassbaren "Sinn", trotzdem lösen sie etwas
aus im Leser, vereinigen Paradoxien und Gegensätze und lösen sich
widersprechende Emotionen aus. SIRATORI's Stimme wird mit allen
erdenklichen Methoden verfremdet, und mit den dunkel-schleppenden
Soundscapes von HENRIK "NORDVARGR" BJÖRKK aka B.S.E.
versehen... HYPGENOME ist die Cyper-Kreuzung, wo sich
BURROUGHS & J.G. BALLARD-Phantasmen in post-industrieller
Ästhetik vereinigen. Ein höchst bemerkenswerter Release.
"Subtitles : NORDVARGR vs. KENJI SIRATORI - Antimaterial: Tragedy
Rom Creature. BSE vs. KENJI SIRATORI - Substance : Sympathy Cell
Waves. This 2 great scandiniavian dark-industrial projects leaded by
MZ.412 members are here making an excursion in KENJI SIRATORI
acid world made of encrusted blood & samen, made by all the
information in the universe plus several bits from other dimensions !
KENJI is surely a madman, but if you scan his hallucinatory textual
mashups in the right frame of mind, they all begin to make sense !!!
Kenji gave birth to a virulent amalgam of modern technology & illnes
like a mix of Tetsuo the Iron Man & a modern version of William
Burrougs cut-ups ! & his "Blood Electric" book was aclaimed by DAVID
BOWIE ! On the 2 albums NORDVARGR & BSE are creating best dark
ambients, for which both projects are very well reknown, to support
Kenji vocals frames ! Japanese words disgorged by Kenji Siratori are
here strongly entwined in the chaotic calmness of BSE's audio universe
& in the deepest sounds born in the surgery of Nordavrgr's Villa Bohult
.... All songs are based upon the spoken prose by the uncompromising
Japanese writer, creating a new fascinating depth in the musical
experience! The CD's come with an 80 pages exclusive book by Kenji
Siratori, the whole inside a very special box ! Art-work designed by the
super-designer & artist Paul McCarroll ! If you don't know his Art &
works you really lost something!" [press releases]
* NU & APA NEAGRA - Omag CD (Lollipoppe Shoppe LSCD 08,
2008)
€ 13.00
Rumänische Underground-Psychedelia auf dem Berliner Label
LOLLIPOPPE SHOPPE (die auch schon VOLGA und KARPATY
MAGICZNE herausgebracht haben)! Ethno- & Folk-Einflüsse, field
recordings, dichte & dunkle Atmosphäre; das Spektrum reicht von
ruhigen, sehr anmutigen Passagen bis hin zum ekstatischen free-impro
Chaos und elektronischen Bearbeitungen, immer weird & eigen, was
ist das nur für Musik? Aber lassen wir jetzt noch den staunenden
Rigobert Dittmann sprechen:
"Ähnlich wie The Magic Carpathians Projekt lässt mich der Sazspieler
und multiinstrumentale Alleskönner Sasa-Liviu Stoianovici im
rumänischen Timisoara bedauern, dass ich so wenig Musik aus den
östlichen Nachbarländern kenne. Omag (The Lollipoppe Shoppe, LSCD
08) ist nämlich wieder ein stellenweise beklemmend schöner und
durchwegs spannender Beitrag zur ‚Imaginären Folklore‘, mit dem
selbstverständlichen Einsatz von Loopsampler, Mikrokorg und
Fieldrecordings neben der Saz und der Kurzhalslaute Cobza, von Vlad
Sturdzas E-Gitarre neben Maultrommel und Szilander Farks Sitar, von
Calin Torsancs Reeds & Klarinette neben Alexandru Hegyesis
bundloser akustischer Bassgitarre. In den Lauten und dem näselnden
Gebläse scheinen Wurzelfäden bis hinab zu prototürkischen, ja sogar
thrakischdionysischen und panischen Zeiten zu flattern. Aber in der
elektroakustischen Verschwurbelung wird diese Aura von altem Balkan
und mythischer Zeit ganz eingemischt in ein psychedelisches und
surreal-kosmisches Tripping. Dass Alan Holmes, der walisische
Produzent von Gorky's Zygotic Mynci und Gitarrist der Faust
verehrenden Ankstmusik-Band Ectogram, einen Mix von ‚Peste munte‘
anfertigte, deutet auf ein Raumzeitnetz hin, in dem sich Nu & Apa
Neagra, was übrigens Nein & Schwarzes Wasser heißt, ideell bewegen.
Beim Titelstück ertönt arabesker Gesang zu Sazgeschrammel und dem
Zwitschern und Gurren von Vögeln inmitten polymorphender, von einer
Furzelwelle angekurbelter Mixadelic. Mit ihrem Balkantouch setzen Nu
& Apa Neaga aber einen eigenen Akzent, den ich mit ‚schwerst
halluzinatorisch‘ nur andeuten kann. Die Wirkung entspricht einer
ziemlich kräftigen Dosis Mutterkorn, die Uhr läuft rückwärts, der Duft
von Ziegenbock ist stellenweise schwindelerregend, es wachsen einem
Flügel, die einen auf Wolken aus Fuzz und Klingklang schweben
lassen, während ‚over the mountain‘ eine Flöte schallt, die nichts davon
weiß, dass der Große Pan tot ist. Eine Gitarre auf Speed (‚Galop in
2/4‘), eine Orgel im Opiumrausch (‚Plinsul lui V.‘), dann ein
* NIYAZ - Nine Heavens do-CD (Six Degrees, 2008)
€ 19.50
"Weltmusik für das 21. Jahrhundert: zweites Album des hochgelobten
Trios. Bereits mit ihrem von der Kritik gefeierten Debütalbum aus dem
Jahre 2005 erwiesen sich Niyaz als Brückenbauer zwischen
traditioneller und moderner Weltmusik. Auf seinem zweiten Album
gelingt dem Trio erneut die Balance zwischen alten Sounds und neuer
Elektronik. Wobei sich hinter "Nine Heavens" ein wesentlich
komplexeres Werk verbirgt: neun aufwändig geschnitzte
Originalarrangements und Kompositionen traditioneller Folksongs und
mystischer Sufi-Gedichte aus Iran, Türkei und dem indischen
Subkontinent. Mit der Betonung des Kompositorischen verweist die
Gruppe um Sängerin Azam Ali auf die strukturelle Ähnlichkeit der Musik
der erwähnten Länder und Regionen. Gleichzeitig vertieft sie sich in die
dort jeweils überlieferten Melodien, teils mit Unterstützung von
hochklassigen Musikern aus den entsprechenden Ländern. Das Album
"Nine Heavens" besteht aus zwei CDs: Eine präsentiert das akustischelektronische Originalkonzept der Band, die andere die rein akustischen
Versionen der Lieder." [label info]
* NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS - Viral Shedding CD (Klanggalerie
gg110, 2008)
€ 14.00
"A personal favourite and one of the band's strongest albums, "Viral
Shedding" has never before been released on CD in its original form.
We have re-worked the original cover and inner sleeve, mastered it
from a vinyl copy, and added four rare bonus tracks to make this a very
attractive release. Soundwise, the album stands somewhere between
the synth pop of "Songs of Love and Revolution" and the early harsher
stuff like "Fruiting Body" or "Tissue of Lies". It features the classic "No
separation", possibly one of Nocturnal Emissions' most important songs
alongside "Never give up"." [label info]
* NORDVARGR / DRAKH - The Betrayal of Light CD (Tumult
Records TM373, 2007)
€ 13.00
"The latest collaboration between these ambient powerhouses and
former MZ412 partners. Betrayal Of Light is one massive sonic event, a
black cloud of sound, separated into movements. Massive mournful
87
Musically, Homotopy is a brilliant example of Stapleton's tape editing
and manipulation, producing a disturbing avant-garde collage that
remains a stunning listen! Homotopy has been out of print for a few
years and appears now with newly designed artwork in a six-panel
digipack. This issue has also corrected the misplaced track index points
which marred previous CD reissues." [label info]
"FINALLY REISSUED!!! Of all of the Nurse With Wound records
(and we like a bunch of them!), this is our favorite. Perhaps because
this makes the least 'sense,' with a textbook definition of how
Surrealism can be accurately applied in an aural context. Within
Homotopy To Marie, Steven Stapleton (the proprietor of Nurse With
Wound) addresses most of Andre Breton's qualifications of Surrealism
as "pure psychic automatism, by which an attempt is made to express,
either verbally, in writing or in any other manner, the true functioning of
thought. The dictation of thought, in the absence of all control by the
reason, excluding any aesthetic or moral preoccupation." In many
respects, John Cage took Breton's theories to one possible logical end;
but Stapleton wanted to bridge contemporary musical production
techniques (musique concrete informed by Industrial culture) with the
original Surrealist fascination with Victorian imagery applied to Freudian
definitions of fetishism, thus offering a version of Surrealism that fits
better with how Breton may have thought Surrealism would sound.
References to culture and the world as we know it abound in this
record, but in such a convoluted way as to appear perfectly normal next
to something that would normally be aurally incongruous. The title itself
certainly refers to this. Often utilized within the highly specialized
vocabularies of genetics and chemical engineering (you think that *we*
get verbose!), a homotopy (as best as I could determine) is the
relationship between a specific object and the fundamental
characteristics that define the family in which that object belongs. Who
Marie could be is perhaps best left between Stapleton and Marie.
Homotopy To Marie is Stapleton's finest audio collage, culled from
various studio sessions, found sounds, and unknown media samples.
Proceeding along at a stately pace, this album is certainly not a quiet
affair, yet each sound within the album is given plenty to hold its unique
place with the collage at large. It opens with "I Cannot Feel You as the
Dogs are Laughing and I am Blind" -- a close investigation of shards of
glass with a gated volume filter on it to accentuate the brittleness and
fragmentation of the sound, followed by a period of snoring (presumably
from Stapleton) which shifts to various screams, maniacal laughs, and
hysterical utterances as if from an asylum. The title track is an amazing
collage of a multiple gongs with the tonal rings augmented by
occasional backwards masking and manipulated attack. Stapleton's use
of the vocal sample is at it's best here with two characters (a shy little
girl and a confident woman) intermittently reciting ambiguous phrases
"When I woke up I didn't know where I was" answered by "Don't be
naive, darling!". The rest of the album is a clutter of non-descript
distortion, feedback from guitar buzz, microphones overloaded by
megaphones screaming into them, broken by backwards dialogues in
Spanish, rag time pianos, and clattering horns finally explode into a
whimsical polka but have a weird aura surrounding them like when
Hermann Nitsch uses polkas as punctuations to his orchestral drones.
Homotopy To Marie is a confounding album that matches its
psychological instability with its dexterity in its composition, that
leaves you not with a recognition of sound within an organized
context, but the feeling of unidentifiable unease. An absolute
masterpiece." [Aquarius Records]
reedgetrillertes Loopdelirium, in dem ein Wortfetzen mitkreist (‚Cobzar
pneumatic‘). Der Geist von Muslimgauze hetzt vorbei - ‘Oh dear! Oh
dear! I shall be late!’ (‚Seara‘), Stimmen kaskadieren auf einem
Orgeldrone (‚Umbra si copacul de fier‘). Man durchquert eine
Bahnhofshalle, in der die elektrisierte und maultrommelbetwangte Luft
Turbulenzen bildet (‚Tambal ruginit‘), und taucht dann ganz tief ein in
plunderphonischen, von Stimmen durchraunten und dunkel beflöteten
Tapesalat mit Sitardressing (‚Cinci suprapuneripareri‘). Zuletzt jamt
Greatful Dead, grillenbezirpt, ungeachtet ständiger Lautsprecherdurchsagen, gefangen zwischen Gestern und Übermorgen (‚13,
pentru caracter‘). Vielleicht ist ja das der große Reiz unserer neuen
alten Miteuropäer, dass sie noch nicht so durchrenoviert sind, noch
nicht so up-todate, dass ihre Kunst des Erbens statt völliger Amnesie
doch noch Träume und Räusche mit einschließt, die unserem SpeedWay of Life spotten." [Bad Alchemy]
"Formed in Timisoara, Romania, by Sasha-Liviu Stoianovici (self taught
saz player and visual artist) & Alexandru Hegyesi. The NU & APA
NEAGRA sound project deals with a mix between traditional tunes,
improvised vocals and spacy electronics. It started in 2001, as NU,
being at the time more of a folk/free form music project.
Representing Romanian underground psychedelia, the group toured
Germany twice in 2006, presenting their cdr 'At Gardina', which, in the
meantime, received some great revues. Played club gigs and also
festivals. NU's music has been airplayed at radio statoins like WFMU or
Freies Radio Kassel, among others... After some changes and studio
work in 2007, NU 'reincarnated' as NU & APA NEAGRA and released
the OMAG album at the German indie label Lollipoppe Shoppe in June
2008. The tracks have been recorded both in Berlin, Germany and
Timisoara, Romania. The sound became darker, being influenced by
various trips in the mountains and forests of Romania. Field recordings,
ancient instruments, strange overdubbing techniques, they all create a
rough ethno-psychedelic sound, definately a trademark of NU & APA
NEAGRA. The title of the album is inspired by the very poisonous plant
Omag, found in the traditional pharmaceutical universe of Romanians.
There are 13 original tracks, the 14th one being a deep and strange mix
done by Alan Holmes (Ectogram, Parking Non-Stop). Live shows in
central Europe are planed for autumn 2008." [label info]
* NULL, KK - BaryoGenesis CD (Vivo Records vivo0312007cd,
2007)
€ 14.00
"the album opens up with the sound of insects & birds which i recorded
live at wetland in Kakadu National park in Australia, that symbolizes
organic life/organism (including our human bodies) composed of
baryons. then, abstruct electronic noise overlaps them and takes you
into a journey through deep inner and far outer spaces at any scales.
however, you don't have to care about what i say here, just i hope this
music inspires you as much as it does myself, and enjoy with your open
mind and free imagination!!
technical note : all the music on this album was basically composed and
created in my home studio and it was performed live along with some
improvized processing, playing a synthesizer and my voice on top of
that." [KK Null]
"KK Null would have been king of noise if Merzbow wouldn't be on the
throne. Ever since his work with ANP and Zeni Geva he loves to work
with the raw end of music and sound, which has become increasingly
more abstract and less rock based than say in his Zeni Geva days.
Unlike Merzbow there is a stronger rhythmic component in his music
which forms the backbone of his music. It's however not a rhythm of
stomping kind, techno like or any such like, but more the repeated
action of highly splintered sound fragments, which are looped. On top
KK Null plays a brand of harsher noise textures of freaked out
psychedelic electronics. Other than Merzbow - again - KK Null's sound
is much more detailed and clearer, even in the endless stream of
information that his music is. Four strong heavy blasts of noise, and the
tracks are pretty long, but in order to get this music working right, it only
seems natural to give it such a length. Here too we can wonder about
the progress of the music, since it's certainly not Null's first CD, but with
a discography that is considerable smaller than Merzbow's that is hardly
a problem." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* NURSE WITH WOUND - Gyllenskold, Geijerstam and I at
Rydberg's CD (United Jnana 399, 2007) € 14.00
"...At Rydberg's". This early NURSE WITH WOUND album, remastered
and packaged in a digipack, contains all three tracks from the original
vinyl version ("Several Odd Moments Prior to Lunch," "Phenomenon of
Aquarium and Bearded Lady," "Dirty Fingernails"), as well as their reworkings ("Odd," "Aquarium," "Dirty Fingernails") which later appeared
on the CD Large Ladies with Cake in the Oven. The record, first
released in 1983, features one of Nurse With Wound's earliest
collaborations with DAVID TIBET of CURRENT 93. The album title is a
reference to Swedish authors Vilhelm Carlheim-Gyllenskoeld, Gustaf af
Geijerstam, and Viktor Rydberg." [label info]
"Another mighty reissue of audio irritation (meant in the best possible
way of course!) from Nurse With Wound. This CD with its guttural yet
slippery title has been through the reissue campaign more times than
we really need to mention, but we will say that the original 12" was
released back in 1984 through L.A.Y.L.A.H. At that time, Steven
Stapleton had just begun working with David Tibet in Current 93, and
thus Stapleton invited Tibet to contribute some of his vocal growling to
the Nurse cause, although the Tibet material on Gyllenskold could
simply be out-take material from the Current 93 material of the day
(Nature Unveilled); and it's vintage Tibet snarling through a series of
devilish words which Stapleton twists even more so with his inimitable
talents in the studio. Splattered throughout the phlegmatic collage are
volatile transmissions of piercing noise, rhythmic metallic scrapes
* NURSE WITH WOUND - Homotopy to Marie CD (United Jnana
366, 2007)
€ 14.00
Das surrealistische NURSE-Meisterwerk von 1982, ein aurales
Irrenhaus oder: die bestmögliche Annäherung ans Irrationale,
Unbewusste, tabuisierte Triebhafte.. wie ein Logbuch von verdrängten
Gedächtnisinhalten, unheimlich fremd und unheimlich faszinierend
zugleich... endlich wieder erhältlich!
"Homotopy to Marie, originally released in 1982, was the fifth Nurse
With Wound album. Steven Stapleton considers it to be the first "real"
Nurse record as it was the first record he'd made without any
intervention from his early partners. Its release also marked the point
where Stapleton assumed the mantle of Nurse for all future releases.
88
amassing into a seasick chorale of polyphonic alarm sires, banged
gongs which rippled with varispeed warble, and blurting horns that
could be sampled from some bloodcurdling Morricone soundtrack and
mangled into something even more uncomfortable. As with much of the
Nurse material from the early '80s, there's plenty of sounds that had
become recurring elements for Stapleton, and this album is no
exception. Stapleton's exceptional hand with a razor and a piece of tape
certainly makes this, like many of his recordings, seminal avant-garde
listening." [Aquarius Records review]
sounds all treated with effects. Stapleton is here aided by Colin Potter.
Ranging from dynamic to more drone-like, this is the kind of album that
NWW-fans will love..." [FK, Vital Weekly]
* NURSE WITH WOUND - Man with a woman face do-CD (ICR
69/70, 2008) € 18.50
Re-issue dieses Albums welches bisher nur als LP erhältlich war (2002,
United Dairies), jetzt mit Bonus-CD welche 3 Stücke (38 Min) enthält.
Die CDs sind auch einzeln erhältlich.
"A welcome re-issue of this classic Nurse With Wound album.
Originally this was only available for a short period of time before World
Serpent went bust and is often thought of as a ‘lost’ NWW work. There
is also an extra CD with 3 tracks from the same sessions. The first is a
remix of ‘African Mosquito’, the second an unreleased out-take and the
third is a home demo of ‘White Light'." [label info]
* NURSE WITH WOUND - Huffin' Rag Blues CD (United Dirter
DPROMCD63, 2008)
€ 14.50
"Nach Plattentiteln wie »Funeral Music For Perez Prado« oder »Livin’
Fear Of James Last« zieht es Steven Stapleton nun auch musikalisch in
Gebiete, die von Drone und Industrial so weit entfernt scheinen, wie es
überhaupt nur geht: »Huffin’ Rag Blues« (Jnana) nämlich präsentiert
Nurse With Wound mit unerwarteter Schlagseite Richtung Lounge. Es
handelt sich dabei um eine überaus humorvolle Angelegenheit, für die
die dargebotenen Stilmittel recht ordentlich durch den Wolf gedreht
wurden und nur selten die typische Verschrobenheit anderer NWWReleases vermissen lassen. Der Umgang mit Funk und Exotica erfolgt
so, dass die Musik wie ein schwülheißer Fiebertraum erscheinen kann
– komplett mit Schmachtgesang und Tiergeräuschen. Gegenüber
Stapletons besten Projekten der vergangenen Jahre – etwa dem
hypnotisch monotonen »Salt Marie Celeste« (2003) – ist »Huffin’ Rag
Blues« freilich ein ganzes Stück luftiger und letztendlich auch weniger
gewichtig geraten: Zuweilen ist der Spaßanteil der vorliegenden Platte
recht gewöhnungsbedürftig, erneuert zum anderen aber den Glauben
an eine vordergründig unverbissene Kunstmusik." [Kai Ginkel / SPEX]
"Nurse With Wound is the main recording vehicle for British musician
Steven Stapleton. Since 1978, with collaborators such as David Tibet
(Current 93), John Balance (Coil), Colin Potter and Matt Waldron (Irr.
App [Ext]), Nurse With Wound has released dozens of albums that draw
on nearly every genre of music. The only constant is that one never
knows what the next album will sound like. Stapleton and Andrew Liles
form the core of the band on Huffin' Rag Blues, and the direction to
which they are heading is the lounge! Huffin' Rag Blues is unlike any
Nurse With Wound album in recent memory as they veer into the
space-age bachelor pad. Guest vocalists Lynn Jackson and Freida
Abtan channel Peggy Lee, while Matt Waldron also lends his golden
pipes to one song. This is truly exotica as imagined by the twisted
genius that is Nurse With Wound." [label info]
* OLHON - Underwater Passage CD (Eibon Records OHL75,
2008) € 13.00
Unterwasser-Drone-Elektromagnetismus! OLHON haben sich wieder
aufgemacht, Feldaufnahmen von wirklich abgelegenen Orten zu
machen - für dieses Projekt nahmen sie 40 Meter unter Wasser
Sounds an einem alten Telefonkabel auf, und transferierten das ganze
durch spezielle technische Bearbeitung schliesslich ins Hörbare.
Wieder entsteht hier eine fremdartige Klangwelt, mit faszinierenden
spiralartigen Sounds & sirrend-körnigen Überbau. "Natural Drone" der
besonderen Art, absolut herausragend !
"Field-recordings maestros OLHON are back with a new stunning
album. "Underwater passage" is based upon underwater recordings
taken in 2006 by Zairo (WHERE), then treated by Massimo Magrini (of
BAD SECTOR fame). These recordings were taken using special
sensing microphones attached to an abandoned telephone cable
running on the sea bottom at -40 m.; they were then processed with
particular demodulating treatments, resulting in a complex and rich
ambiental monument. Strange clicks, impulses, a load of movements.
Definitely far from the usual concept of dark ambient = low-rumbling
drones only, "Underwater passage" shimmers with cutting mid/high
frequencies bursts. A very challenging listening, trust me." [label info]
* OLIVEROS, PAULINE & MIYA MASAOKA - Accordion Koto CD
(Deep Listening Institute DL36, 2007)
€ 13.00
" 'Listening to this recording session I am lifted to a world both
evanescent and yet somehow connected to a distinct culture of music
making in the 21st century (Miya Masaoka) 'Though an unlikely
combination - accordion and koto - it is not so much about the
instruments as about the energies of the music that comes from the
intensity of listening - listening as close to now as possible. We know
that our consciousness is delayed by a fraction of a second that the
brain interprets as now - however the body is instantaneous in its
perception. Thus the phenomena of playing and becoming conscious of
what has played - been played - is a continually surprising experience in
such improvisation'. (Pauline Oliveros)
Miya Masaoka, musician, composer, performance artist, has created
works for koto, laser interfaces, laptop and video and written scores for
ensembles, chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. In her performance
pieces she has investigated the sound and movement of insects, as
well as the physiological responses of plants, the human brain, and her
own body. Within these varied contexts of sound, music and nature, her
performance work emphasizes the interactive, live nature of
improvisation, and reflects an individual, contemporary expression of
Japanese gagaku aural gesturalism. Masaoka's work has been
presented in Japan, Canada, Europe, Eastern Europe and she has
toured to India six times. Pauline Oliveros's life as a composer,
performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others'
sensibilities it the many facets of sound. Since the 1960's she has
influenced American Music profoundly through her work with
improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many credit
her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of
Oliveros' work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and
improvisational skills. She has been celebrated worldwide. During the
1960's John Rockwell named her work Bye Bye Butterfly as one of the
most significant of that decade. In the 70's she represented the U.S. at
the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan; during the 80's she was honored with
a retrospective at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington D.C.: the 1990's began with a letter of distinction from the
American Music Center presented at Lincoln Center in New York: In
2000 the 50th anniversary of her work was celebrated with the
commissioning and performance of her Lunar Opera: Deep Listening
For_tunes. Oliveros work is available on numerous recordings produced
by companies internationally." [label info]
* NURSE WITH WOUND - Images / Zero BOOK / CD (Beta-lactam
Ring Records mt103 / mt201, 2008)
€ 26.00
Dickes Hardcover-Buch im CD-Format mit Hochglanz / VollfarbReproduktionen der 200 Cover-Bilder, die STAPLETON für das ANGRY
EELECTRIC FINGER-Projekt malte (ausgestellt in Galway, Irland, und
Portland, USA) malte. Dazu gibt es die rare "vierte" Bonus-LP auf CD.
Wer die Artwork- & Design-Kunst von STEVEN STAPLETON mag,
erhält hier einen reichhaltigen & farbenprächtigen Einblick in sein
Genie.
"Hardbound book featuring paintings created to celebrate the release of
the albums "Angry Eelectric Finger". The book also contains the album
"Zero Mix" packaged in a book bound cd case. Released in an edition
of 1500 copies featuring full color images and a matte and gloss spot
coating, plus full color dust jacket. Thou had best be ready when the
angry eelectric finger points to YOU! THUS SPAKE NURSE (& Xhol):
The recipe began with our fearless leader, Steve Stapleton, cooking up
some recordings & mixing in a few tablespoons of Xhol Caravan. Betalactam Ring now serves up this piping hot dish to you, the hungriest of
hungry, hungry hippos. In addition, Chef Steve painted 100 individually
hand painted discs to celebrate the release of the three album set
“Angry Eelectric Finger”. The paint and vinyl was salvaged from the
local landfill site at Inagh, County Clare, Ireland and recycled here in
Cooloorta during September and November 2004. The paintings were
displayed in Galway, Ireland and Portland, Oregon before being offered
for sale. All the paintings are now presented here in a deluxe
hardbound book with full color images and a spot gloss coating.
Released in an edition of 1500 copies with the album “Zero Mix”." [label
info]
"A few years ago Stapleton put a lot of time and energy in his Angry
Electric Finger project. Original NWW-recordings were remixed and
reworked by Irr. App. Ext, Cyclobe and Jim O'Rourke and released on
three vinyl albums. I remember the Jim O'Rourke LP being particularly
effective. This boxset celebrates the original AEF-music as created by
NWW. The book features images of the 100 discs that were
handpainted by Stapleton for the AEF-project. They were put on display
at the Burren School of Art in November 2004 and later auctioned off.
The small-sized book is brilliant in its gorgeous colors and deluxe paper
quality. The Zero Mix is a NWW-album featuring three tracks that make
up its 40+ minutes of music. Zero Mix features stereophonic rattles,
strings being wound up and down, saxophones and various other
* ONDO - Mahavisnu CD (Paradigm Rec. 022, 2008)
€ 12.00
Geheimtip aus Schweden aus dem Doom-Drone-Metal Bereich: ONDO
89
* OÖPHOI - An Aerial View CD (Glacial Movements WSGM001,
2008)
€ 13.00
Erste Veröffentlichung in der neuen Serie von GLACIAL MOVEMENTS,
in der es um musikalisch-atmosphärische Umsetzungen des Themas
"Eiszeit" geht. Auf "AERIAL VIEW" soll weniger das Klischee von Kälte,
Tod & Isolationismus transportiert werden, als vielmehr eine Darstellung
der erhabenen Stille majestätischer Eis-Landschaften, der Licht- und
Wetter-Phänomene erfolgen... die Umsetzung ist gut gelungen mit
diesem one-tracker von 65 Minuten, ein "luftiger" Drone mit minimalen
Harmonien; ruhig, gelassen & unaufdringlich...
"When I’ve been asked to describe the Ice Age with an uninterrupted
drone, I knew I wanted to avoid the cliches of the genre: dark rumblings,
massive low frequencies, cold atmospheres. I had to describe with
sounds the white landscape, the blinding light reflected by the frozen
oceans, the abyssal silence. I have imagined myself in flight over this
Sleeping Earth, a solitary winged-being surrounded by winds, air, water
and ice. This led me to compose an airy drone with minimal variations
and delicate tones, an hommage to a pure, incontaminated and remote
land." [credits by Gianluigi Gasparetti / OÖPHOI]
erschaffen den absoluten Katakomben & Gruft-Sound, auf tiefsten
Höllenschlünden scheint ihr frei-flottierender Angst-Metal-Drone zu
stammen, das ganze klingt sehr eigenständig und authenthisch & tief
melancholisch....
"The majestic debut full length album from Sweden's Ondo. Intricate,
textured doomed drone, blackened ambience and lush nocturnal
electronica, delicately crafted into a dark cinematic vision. A shadow
dreamscape of overpowering density, akin to an intoxicating fusion of
early Earth, Raison D'Etre and a touch of the shimmering haze of
Fennesz, perhaps? Presented as a limited edition of 500 copies only, in
dvd presentation box with full colour art." [label info]
".... Whereas that cd-r was a single looooong song, this disc is split into
distinct movements, each a bleak and caustic chunk of truly ominous
ambience. Actually, there is so much stuff going on, and this is so dark
and heavy, it’s almost disingenuous to call it ambient music. This is
cinematic abstract free noise drone music. Heavy enough to worm its
way inside the ears of drone inclined metalheads, but dark and blissed
out enough to keep the drone obsessed in downtuned druggy nirvana.
The label mentions early Earth, Raison D’Etre and Fennesz, and damn
if all three of those don’t definitely apply. Pretty melodies are buried
under slabs of grinding buzz, chords are woven into undulating sheets
of fuzzy sound, everything is hissy and glitchy, with a gauzy sheen.
Imagine Earth 2 as reimagined by Christian Fennesz and you might be
getting close. Chords and notes, churn and throb, blackened sounds
pulse ominously enveloping crystalline shimmers and music box like
melodies, voices and samples are chopped up and distorted, riffs are
pulled apart into washed out smears of sound. Some of the tracks
definitely border on serious doom territory, while others are blurred
distorted dreamscapes, all skittery and smeared, dark pianos, radio
distortion and amp buzz, distant melodic whir, all tangled into something
creepy and beautiful, strings draped over crumbling industrial crunch, all
woven around heaving heaviness, rendered in slow moving swells.
Way recommended for fans of things slow and low, dark and doomy,
murky and mysterious.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Packaged in a white dvd style case,
with a full color cover and printed black and white insert." [Aquarius
Records review]
* ORGANUM - Omega CD (Die Stadt DS101, 2008)
€ 15.00
"...Sitardrones evozieren buddhistische Untertöne, Dröhncluster
schlagen die Stunden, die Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 wie eine Litanei aufzählt:
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to
dance; eine Zeit zu suchen und eine Zeit zu verlieren; A time to love,
and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. Omega ist selbst
in sich wieder dreigeteilt und erfüllt in der finalen von drei nahezu
gleichen Viertelstunden den ganzen Raum mit pantheistischer
Erhabenheit. Jackman nannte (im Interview mit Kevin Spencer) für das,
was ihm vorschwebte, big slow shape in time, Kegelschnitte und
die minimalistischen Lichtinstallationen von Dan Flavin. Kühle,
symmetrische Struktur, warmer Klang, keine Psychologie, keine
höhere Bedeutung. A piece of time, a time of peace." [Bad Alchemy]
Third part of this great ORGANUM comeback trilogy, more floating
again, endless repetitions of the same sounds lead to an experience of
timelessness... brilliant sounds & a highly contemplative effect...
* ORSI, FABIO - Find Electronica CD (A Silent Place ASP21,
2007) € 13.00
FABIO ORSI is another artist using long endless-delays / loops, like
AIDAN BAKER or FEAR FALLS BURNING, but his drones are "lighter",
more electronica-like so to say, the atmosphere evoked is less dark,
more peaceful and calming. FIND ELECTRONICA presents 3 pieces
that are maybe his most meditative & and sweet ones, perfect as
background-ambience in the truest sense, using much more synthelements as before..
"In only two years of work Fabio Orsi has achieved critique and fans,
imposing his name as one of the most promising and representative of
the entire Italian independent scene. A drift began with the excellent
vinyl LP "Osci" (SmallVoices 2005), followed by the famous split CD
"For Alan Lomax" (A Silent Place, 2006) together with Italian My Cat is
an Alien and a couple of cooperations with Gianluca Becuzzi: "Muddy
Speaking Ghosts Through My Machines" (A Silent Place 2006) e "The
Stones Know Everything" (Digitalis Industries 2007). Today, as final
confirmation of his talent, A Silent Place is proud to present this new
Fabio Orsi solo. "Find Electronica" is a wonderful album finely full of
lyric, structured as a long drone/ambient suite divided in two portions
which are the frames of the articulated central track. A strictly personal
exercise on the "Weird Folk" theme, hypnotic and seductive. The
"found" electronica meets the humoral sonorities made by the six
chords, projecting enchanted landscapes on a vibrant horizon, with an
intimate sensibility. Abstract and emotional, deep and dreamy, "Find
Electronica" is a great album: an essential step in the ascending Fabio's
career. Another great/small gem from that "silent place" in the deep
Italian South." [label info]
* ONODERA, YUI - Susei CD (and/OAR and/28, 2007) € 13.00
Wunderbare Drone-Wallungen mit sehr soften konkreten Tupfern,
Wassersounds, etc.. ein wahrer Hauch an aromatisiertem, magischem
Wohlklang, definitiv eines der Highlights des Jahres in Sachen
"meditative / minimale" Drones... TIP !
"Suisei is a work composed from field recordings and pump organ.
Edited and re-mastered by Dale Lloyd. With Suisei, each listener's inner
cinema will find its camera lens slowly panning and cross-fading from
one enigmatic location to another, as if unveiling ambiguous visual
clues pertaining to some wondrous culminating event that many might
not fully understand, yet it will still manage to leave an indelible
impression upon the subconscious mind and a very subtle pull on the
emotions. A mystery drone soundscape journey along the shores of an
unfathomable glistening sea. Packaged in four-color digipak. Very
limited at 300 copies."
".... as Suisei is a gorgeous album of darkly textured drones with
parallels to Thomas Koner's isolationist compositions or Keith Berry's
precious deconstructions. Wind, rain, and water all make themselves
known in the collection of field recordings, as does the pump organ,
which reveals itself in harmonic sustained tones with a spectral timbre
(e.g. Niblock, Radigue, Chalk, etc.). During a particular enigmatic
episode, wooden creaks and sodden groans duet with a motorized
persistant soft-grind, giving the impression that some unscrupulous
machine is quietly compacting sinews, meat, and bone. Strangely, it
never sounds macabre or unsettlingly grotesque; rather, these
crunching textures situate humbly next to a hypnotic wash of
compressed static and melancholic shadowy drone, which sublimely
shift into a slippery crescendo of grey massed sound. Very, very well
done!" [Aquarius Records review]
* OSSASERPIA - Mvsic for Solve et Coagvla
BOOK & CD
(Horus HCD08, 2006) [lim. 500] 26.00
"Vladimir Igoshin (Ossaserpia) has created Opus alchymicum,
spectacular account of the »work« of the musickal alchemists
who developed a symbolic kind of psychochemistry, aimed at producing
the gold of mystical illumination through celestial musick. See theories
by Robert Fludd (Robertus Fluctibus) and Rosicrucian theories of the
monochord. Very unique drone chamber musick with some strange
industrial elements. Vladimir Igoshin is known for his contributions to
HCD compilations such as Lust From The Underworld and/or AL: 100th
Anniversary. Special art-work for an oversized hard-bound book (A5)
designed by fantastic Madeline von Foerster! Special limited edition
consists of 500 hand-numbered copies in hand-made box covered with
rustish top-notch embossed Quilt 120g paper. The oversized embossed
hard-bound book (A5) printed on Gmund Kaschmir cream 170g and
embossed CD sleeve-jacket again on Quilt 120g paper. Very rare print
for all fans of occult & alchemy! Special limited box on request only!"
* OPIUM - Algorithms CD (Silentes cd 200615, 2007) € 13.00
Very nice work again from Italian's OPIUM, quite dense & almost
"cosmic" ambient, but with enough variation and a slight experimental
edge, using concrete sounds that are perfectly arranged in the mix, but
also slow & more "ethnic " percussion & pulses... somewhere between
STEVE ROACH, OÖPHOI, ALIO DIE and darker stuff like HERBST9...
"Classically elegant and extremely refined ambient music. Multidimensional sounds that are warm and enveloping. An emotional
travelogue, starting dramatically, then taking the listener down a slower
path, comfortably easing you into a long and fascinating sonic trip,
where the sounds grow wide and large, and finally crumble inward, then
regenerate, returning for another phase. A new sonic alchemy, and an
entirely new world of soothing sounds for the adventurous listener to
visit." [label info]
90
label notes]
"Genre: Dark Ambient / Drone / Neo-Classical (Chamber) / Industrial.
In today’s climate where record labels seem intent on cheaply mass
produced releases to make a few quick bucks it comes as a relief to find
a record label that actually cares about the presentation to match the
music they release. Stepping into the, highly deserved, limelight is the
Czech HORUS CyclicDaemon record label founded by Martin Mrskos.
All their releases, well the ones I’ve been lucky enough to track down,
have been impeccable in every respect. What went before though has
been overshadowed by this latest release by the artist Vladimir Igoshin
recording as Ossaserpia. I doubt many labels would have the balls to
put out a recording housed in an actual hard bound book, A5 sized, in
quality 120g paper and beautifully illustrated by the artwork of Madeline
von Foerster. My eyes still can’t take it all in. I’m not by any means up
on Art by any stretch of the imagination but I knows what I like and I like
what I see set before me. The illustrations saying more than any
amount of words can possibly describe. Which they need to as there
are no words to accompany the pictures. A wise decision as it leaves
the listener to use their own creative imaginations to make of it what
they will as they listen to the music. For this book is best used in
conjunction with the recording. Which I suspect was the way it was
meant to be. Separated both are superb stand alone products. Together
they open up undiscovered realms that feeds the senses. The touch,
smell and sights of the book complimented by the aural grandeur that
Vladimir has composed.
Based on the theories of Robert Fludd (Robertus Fluctibus), 1574-1637,
a Kentish Anglican alchemist, mathematician, astronomer, cosmologist
who wrote thirteen published works in his lifetime and the Rosicrucian
theories of the monochord. Please Google these for I have not the time,
nor the intellect required, to go into great detail here, the music expands
on the theory that alchemists developed a symbolic kind of chemistry
aimed at producing the gold of mystical illumination through celestial
music. Clear as muck then. The concept may well be shrouded in
unintelligible mystery to a Neanderthal knuckle scraper like myself but
even I could see what the artist has tried to envision through his music.
Featuring, what I can only call, a Medieval vibe mixed in with modern
Industrial noise and drone sensibilities the twelve tracks are a treat for
the ears. Though you will need to give it a couple of spins to really get
inside every nuance that Vladimir has created.
From the off perceptions are challenged by the dirge drones and
assorted muted ‘noise’ effects that spread like wildfire from the
speakers. The bass tones are heavy duty and tinted with a dark
apparel. Move past this introduction and the speckles of Neo-Classical /
Chamber music begins to shine forth and suddenly the music takes the
semblance of form as Vladimir throws all manner of different black
musical combinations into the cauldron that bubbles with an intensity
you never realised possible. You are treated to a music born of fire and
brimstone from an age past brought to life in the present day. As your
eyes scan and feast on the pictures of storm clouds, dragons and
entwined couples the music conjures them in the minds eye. At its heart
the music is surprisingly downbeat and steeped in dark oppressive
moods where tranquillity appears smashed to a pulp. For all the
unsettling swings the music takes, and it takes a lot, it ends on a note of
triumph. A glimpse of fortitude winning against all odds.
Unlike many recordings that have tried to re-create the whole ‘magical’
dark ambient experience ‘Mvsic For Solve Et Coagvla’ is the only one
I’ve encountered that has actually got under the skin of its subject
matter. I’ll not pretend that it is by any means an easy recording to get
into and many of you may be put off by the way Vladimir has tackled the
subject in such an uncompromising way. This might have been the
Achilles heal for a lesser experienced musician but Vladimir’s music is
created in such a way that through repeated plays you become more
accustomed to the sounds until finally the clouds break and the full
visionary aspects opens up before your ears. If there was such a thing
as a perfect 10 for both presentation and music working in harmony and
tandem with each other then ‘Mvsic For Solve Et Coagvla’ would be it. I
tell you now that it will be one of the most sought after recordings for
music lovers and collectors alike this year. With only 500 numbered
copies you’ll need to act fast…or live to regret it." [Alan Milne / Heathen
Harvest]
matched by large bass drum patterns that culminate in an expansive
psychedelic pool of sound. This isn’t glassine drone music. It spews the
grit of Tony Conrad and the trance of Terry Riley, while radiating the
experience of a sweat lodge in a behemoth explosion of tribal
minimalism; only digressing for a segment of spatial hums and large
frequencies rubbed from the surfaces of metal, before it dives back into
oblivion. With no sound processing, the result is a highly natural,
grossly enigmatic, and deeply energized recording. The power is yours
for the taking." [label info]
"Curious. Just curious. A collaboration between Z'EV, legendary player
of percussion and tape-manipulator (among many qualities) and the
Portuguese trio of Osso Exotico (Andre Maranha, David Maranha and
Patricia Machas), the little chamber orchestra of all things minimalist?
Maybe it's less of a mystery than it seems. This release lacks any
information besides artist names and label's website (unless some
insert is missing), so we have to be guessing (again). Unlike some of
his previous collaborations I think it's not the result of some postal
exchange of sound material, but the actual playing together of these
four musicians. When you hear it than the unlikeliness of the recording
seems to vanish - this is music that actually sounds like it belongs
together. The drones of Osso Exotico, tight, layered, minimalist fits
actually very well with Z'EV tribalesque percussion work here. It's a jam,
that seems a sure thing. No editing or overdubbing has been used here,
which is a pity, since as a whole thing it is somewhat too loosely played.
Certainly when the four players are 'searching' for a sound. Once the
ball gets rolling, it rolls, it makes ripples becoming waves, waves
becoming thunder storm. It's in these moments when the true power of
the music comes alive. A tribal version of LaMonte Young, the grittiness
of Tony Conrad on a multiple instruments and the psychedelic power
that is found in more of the recent Osso Exotico recordings. Despite a
few flaws in the recording, and the fact that it sounds a bit muffled, this
is a very nice work. Get them in a proper studio and let them work on it
more extensively. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* PACIFIC 231 & VOX POPULI - Cthulhu Revisitation CD
[Monochrome Vision (mv16), 2007]
€ 13.00
Material der lange vergriffenen CTHULHU RECORDS - Tapes "Ebats
Spirtuels" und "Half Dead Ganja Music", sowie einige unveröffentlichte
Stücke aus der gleichen Periode, als die bemerkenswerten VOX
POPULI mit P.231 zusammenarbeiteten... ein ganz neues Stück
schliesst diese Compilation ab.
Was VOX POPULI so besonders gemacht hat, war die gelugenen
Mischung aus Elektronik und Ethno-Instrumentarium, sowie der
betörende Gesang von MITRA KYROU KHALATBARI!
"Extra-ordinary, mystic journey into musical world of these two longrunning, legendary french projects. This album was composed from the
old, but also completely new material (1986-2007), it includes both
studio and live recordings, re-arranged and reworked for your listening
pleasure. The first ever Vox Populi! CD after many vinyls and tapes
produced in 80-90s. Acoustics and electronics, lyricism and dramatics,
traditions and avantgarde. Pacific 231 is the project of Pierre Jolivet, a
French musician now residing in Ireland. It came into existence in the
early 80s and belonged to the first wave of industrial groups. Recently
Pierre got interested in ethnic music finds its extension in the most
recent album"Palestine" recorded for Old Europa Cafe in collaboration
with Rapoon. Vox Populi! was founded in 1981 by Axel Kyrou and
released some remarkable LPs in the 80s, including the collaborations
with HNAS and Pacific 231. Also interested in experiments with
ethnic and industrial instrumentation, improvising and collages, Vox
Populi! creates very rich pieces, drawing on psychedelic and traditional
music, but avantgarde and mystical approach as well." [label info]
* PACIFIC231 & RAPOON - Palestine CD (Old Europa Cafe
OECD096, 2007)
€ 14.00
Surprising collaboration between the french Industrial pioneer and
RAPOON, very hypnotic beats & strange sounds with an "oriental" feel,
this is the electronic dervish-trance !
"Palestine is a face-2-face in memoriam between Pacific 231 & Rapoon
to the late Bryn Jones 1961-1999 a.k.a. Muslimgauze. The production
also support the justified struggle for a truly free Palestinian nation, a
key issue for a middle-east liberated from foreign ingerance.
Music was the modus operandi Muslimgauze wanted to carry the
message and music is the medium we want to continue to convey the
legacy. This regular edition is in-fact also a special edition due to the
special screen printed Protex-Box / Lever Kick-out box and for the black
coloured playing side of the CD! " [label info]
* OSSO EXOTICO & Z'EV - same CD (Crouton Music
CROU039CD, 2007) [ed. of 500]
€ 14.50
"Since 1989, the Portugal avant garde ensemble Osso Exótico have
created a stunning body of work. Current members are André Maranha,
David Maranha and Patricia Machás, but besides the recordings, very
little historical information can be found about the group. Rather, the
music speaks for itself. Percussionist Z’EV, who has spent the better
part of 40 years finding ways to coax sound out of material, and then
creating a mystic cacaphony out of it, also uses sound as
communication. Together, this grouping produces quite a statement, as
sound becomes something unexplained by words, yet shared as an
experience. Here, long stretches of rhythmic and bubbling organ are
* PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE - From Etudes to Cataclysm for the
Doppio Borgato do-CD (Sub Rosa SR272, 2008)
€ 16.00
"After the epiphany of An Aural Symbiotic Mystery by Charlemagne
Palestine and Tony Conrad (SR204) this is the first solo work by
Charlemagne on Sub Rosa - the first but probably not the last - because
we would like not only to release some new important material like this
91
one - but re-release too a series of his classic works (most of them,
unfortunately, are unavailable). From Etudes to a Cataclysms is one of
the most important work 'till this day. An impressive composition of
more than 140 minutes based on an unique instrument - a double piano
on which one keyboard is played by the feet." [label info]
"Several years ago Martin Kaufmann of Kaufmann Pianos in Brussels
told me he had seen and heard an amazing and unique instrument in
Italy A piano with 2 separate bodies ! One with a normal grand piano
body having 88 notes to be played with the fingers, and below this
piano was a second piano also with a grand piano body which could
play simultaneously the lower 37 notes of a grand piano with pedals for
the feet. Having known my music for years and that i had been a
carilloneur where one plays with both fists and feet simultaneously
Martin Kaufmann thought that the Borgato would be perfect for my
music. The inventor of this unique instrument was Luigi Borgato from
Padua who developed this instrument with his wife Paola I was
intriqued and through an intermediary, the Italian pianist Roberto
Posseda visited the Borgatos in Lonigo where they have their workshop
and found that their instrument was perfect for my body and my music.
We immediately decided to organise recording sessions in a local
church for one week and "From Etudes to Cataclysms" is the result !"
[Charlemagne Palestine, October 2007]
why don't you ask a couple of other pals to do remixes?', it gave me the
idea for this album. It is not simply a remix album, but a collaborative
project. I chose friends I admired as artists and who inhabit creative
spaces that are connected in some way and on some level to me and to
each other. I gave away my 'babies' to go out to play with the likes of
Andrew W.K., Stephen O'Malley, Lilium, Carter Tutti, Colin Potter,
Andrew Liles, The Bricoleur, Plinth, Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo
(Larsen), and, of course, Fovea Hex. Even though I had an inkling that
the mixes would fit together as one coherent whole, I had no idea just
how much they would complement one another. There are also some
previously unreleased tracks including a cover of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's
'Even If Love,' which didn't quite make it on Mercy Oceans for aural
reasons. However, this cover version has been gently manipulated and
star-mangled by Susan Stenger (Band of Susans)."
[label info / credits]
".... The sparse, delicate hazy folk of Pantaleimon remixed? Don't
worry there are no cheesy beats, awkward turntables or sloppy hands
on any of these songs. In fact the first time we listened we had no idea
that any of these songs were in fact remixes. Maybe it's because we
hadn't heard any of these songs in their first incarnation. But wow,
we were drawn in immediately. Andria Degens is making such beautiful
and haunting music as Pantalimon that we almost hesitate to mention
that she's married to David Tibet of Current 93, as her own music more
then stands on its own. But if folks who haven't heard her before and
are C93 fans check this out then the more ears that hear Pantaleimon
the better!
While the sound is similar to the music of folks like Fursaxa,
Grouper and Christina Carter, there is much more immediacy, focus
and a connection to folk history in the songs of Pantaleimon. While less
hazy then some of her peers there is a seemingly sonic mist hanging
over her songs which stops you in your tracks. There is also a rustic
quality in these stripped down songs that makes us think of Bridget
St. John and Hala Strana recording a record together. Plenty of folks
help out by adding sounds and ambience but all do so with much subtly
and respect. Who knew Andrew W.K. could be so subtle, his tasteful
keyboards are heard on the record's opener, and the list of other
contributors/remixers reads like a who's who of the musical
underground (Colin Potter, Andrew Lilies, Stephen O'Malley, Fovea
Hex, Lilium, etc). Heart Of The Sun is becoming the record we listen to
both early in the morning and then late at night as we surrender to
sleep. So beautiful!" [Aquarius Records review]
* PALESTINE, CHARLEMAGNE - Sharing a Sonority CD (Alga
Marghen plana-P 28NMN.068, 2008)
€ 15.00
Diese CD dokumentiert den ersten & einzigen Auftritt der
FUNDAMENTAL D FLAT GROUP - bestehend aus C. PALESTINE,
TONY CONRAD und RHYS CHATHAM, die mit Gesang & einigen
Instrumenten ein langes, kraftvolles & urwüchsiges Drone-Stück
improvisieren (ein 32 minütiger Mitschnitt vom April 1974 aus New
York). Daneben finden sich hier noch zwei sehr ruhige & feine Stücke
von PALESTINE im Zusammenspiel mit TERRY JENNINGS (1974) und
ROBERT FELDMAN (1967).
"This CD of previously unavailable recordings not only presents you
Charlemagne Palestine activities in 1974, collaborating with some of
most important experimental artists and composers from either the New
York loft scene and Cal Arts, but also features world premiere
recordings of Terry Jennings and The Fundamental D Flat Group. 'Short
& Sweet' is the title of a breathtaking duo for piano and sax performed
on April 24th by Charlemagne Palestine and Terry Jennings. This CD
featured a very special duo by Palestine and Feldman playing
electronics and flute. The last track on this CD is the first 30 minutes of
a recording from April 22, 1974 by The Fundamental D Flat Group
performing in Db. During one trip back to NYC from Cal Arts,
Charlemagne Palestine was invited by Tony Conrad (together with
Rhys Chatham) to Albright College in New Jersey for a Sunday
afternoon concert. That was the first and last time The Fundamental D
Flat Group played in public (Tony Conrad: violin, horn, string drone;
Rhys Chatham: flute, organ, string drone; Charlemagne Palestine:
voice, pipes, snifter)." [label info]
PARKIN, NICK – Descent CD (Hic Sunt Leones HSL013, 1997)
€ 13.00
"Wie fast immer auf HIC SUNT LEONES, dem ALIO DIE-Label, gibt es
auch hier wieder feinste "magical ambience". Der Engländer NICK
PARKIN benutzt "Strings, Keyboards, Electronics, Flutes, Gongs,
Percussions and Manipulated Stones" um seine ganz eigene Version
von Ambient einzuspielen. Auf 62 Minuten Länge kreiert er einen
abwechslungsreichen akusmatischen Genuß, ist nicht einseitig
monoton, produziert aber auch keine atmosphärischen "Brüche", ...alles
fließt, ist geheimnisvoll, spannend und lebendig." [old Drone info]
Back in stock the first NICK PARKIN-album from 1997 !!
"A meditative obscure travel with acoustic and electronic treated
sounds. First solo album from a member of Tuu and Stillpoint project."
[label info]
* PANTALEIMON - Mercy Oceans CD (Durtro Jnana 007, 2007)
€ 14.00
"Mercy Oceans is the long-anticipated second full-length from Andria
Degens. The album follows the critically acclaimed Cloudburst EP
released earlier this year, and features Baby Dee, Isobel Campbell,
Keith Wood (Hush Arbors), and John Contreras.
Mercy Oceans is an album of exceptional beauty and depth. All ten
tracks are stunningly captivating. The CD comes packaged in a
beautiful digipak with a full-color booklet containing lyrics, along with
artwork by Beth Carter and photography by Cam Archer.
"Andria Degens is based in Hastings, southern England, but the sparse
clarity of her music as Pantaleimon seems to exist in its own unique,
indefinable space.... Its vivid simplicity is, in its own quiet way, quite
stunning." --Tom Ridge, The Wire
"... Degens makes music which is so effortlessly gorgeous it almost
defies belief. There is an icy simplicity to her compositions, a fragility or
frailty maybe, and this gives them a soft, melancholy feel, which makes
them almost impossible to forget. For some reason I am reminded of
Jewelled Antler Collective man Steven R. Smith or possibly Ben
Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), but what Degens has done is bring
a feminine touch to the masses of male-dominated free folk." --Boomkat
* PARMEGIANI, BERNARD - L'Oeuvre Musicale 12 xCD-Box (INA
GRM 6000/11, 2008) € 49.50
Das (vermutlich) gesamte Werk von BERNARD PARMEGIANI in einer
12er CD Box zum unfassbaren Preis, inkl ein 92seitiges Booklet. In
Box. Wahrscheinlich nur für kurze Zeit erhältlich!
"33 compositions from 1964 to 2007 with a 92 pages booklet in French
and English. The best way to enter into the world of Bernard
Parmegiani, French composer of musique concrete, member of the
GRM group. CD1 : Violostries. Jazzex. L'instant mobile. Capture
éphémère. CD2 : Bidule en ré. Pop'eclectic. Du pop à l'âne.
Ponomatopées. Musico Picassa. Et après… CD3 : L'œil écoute. Pour
en finir avec le pouvoir d'Orphée. La roue ferris. CD4 : Enfer. CD5 : De
natura sonorum. CD6 : Dedans-dehors. La table des matières. Des
mots et des sons. CD7 : La création du monde. CD8 : Exercismes. CD9
: Litaniques. Rouge mort : Thanatos. E pericoloso sporgersi. CD10 :
Trilogie plain temps. CD11 : Sonare. Sons - Jeux. La mémoire des
sons. CD12 : Immer/Sounds. Espèces d'espaces. Au gré du souffle, le
son s'envole. Rêveries." [label info]
* PANTALEIMON - Heart of the Sun CD (Durtro Jnana DJ008CD,
2008) € 12.00
Eine gar illustre Schar von Musikern & Projekten remixten für dieses
Album Songs von ANDRIA DEGENS aka PANTALEIMON, daneben
gibt es einige "echte" Kollaborationen und vorher unveröffentlichte
Stücke von ihr. Folkiger, "magischer" Ambient in wunderbaren &
wundersamen Variationen, kein Stück ist doppelt vorhanden...
"The whole thing started when Clodagh Simonds (Fovea Hex) asked if
she could remix 'Under The Water.' Of course, I said yes. When she
came back with such remarkable music, and casually mentioned, 'Oh,
* PÄRT, ARVO - Tabula Rasa CD (Audiophile Classics APC
101.058) € 13.00
Diese Kollektion zeigt mit 4 Werken den "frühen" ARVO PÄRT, der
anfangs noch dem Serialismus und der Collagen-Technik verhaftet war,
bevor er sich Ende der 60er wieder "romantischer" klassischer Musik
zuwandtet.. Enthält: "Tabula Rasa" (1977), "Symphony No.1" (1964),
92
"Collage on the Thema B-A-C-H" (1964), "Pro et Contra" (1966), with
booklet and liner-notes (english). Recorded by Congress Orchestra, St.
Petersburg, 1995.
British newcomer with a nice one-tracker of ghostly ambience, dark and
transcendental noises from another reverberating dimension, develops
some real suction to the end.. quite subtle stuff, worth to check out !
"Like listening to sounds from inside a shell or the wind in the trees,
Transitions The latest album from Psychic Space Invasions is an epic
40 minute drone, that becomes part of the space it inhabits, the faraway
bells and distant vocals merely shadows and spectres. Deeply
introspective and filled with melancholy beauty, this album is easy to get
lost in, everything ceasing as the final chords drift away." [Terrascope]
* PETERS, STEVE - Three Rooms CD (SIRR Ecords sirr0029,
2007)
€ 15.00
Exquisites Soundscape-Album mit drei Stücken, die völlig verschiedene
Ansatzpunkte haben; ob field recordings, Objekt-Geräusche, der eigene
Atem, PETERS entwirft stets sehr subtile und langsam dahingleitende
Stücke mit faszinierender Aura...
"We are very proud to present the music of Steve Peters, which Alvin
Curran once described as "pure, restrained, and rigorously beautiful."
Originally composed as sound installations, these three delicate pieces
- or rooms, as the title states - are the result of very personal
investigation regarding the interaction between physical spaces and the
experience of listening. The selected compositions on the disc seem to
emanate themselves from these spaces to continuously create room(s)
for the listener, intensifying quietly and subtly our awareness.
In "Delicate Abrasions," all of the sounds are derived from tactile
interaction with the interior surfaces and materials of an old warehouse
building in Santa Fé, New Mexico: nails, dust, sliding door, concrete,
metal, glass, and wood. These seemingly inert materials yield a
beautiful music hidden within the walls (and ceiling, and floor) of this
otherwise mute and neglected space.
"Center of Gravity" was composed for an installation with artist Susan
York of one of her "graphite rooms," which evoke the contemplative
space of a Japanese rock garden. The sound was made entirely with
Steve's own breath and real-time electronic processing. Each individual
breath was treated as its own miniature composition. These short
pieces are then layered and punctuated by silences of random length.
The final piece, "Mountains Hidden in Mountains," is made entirely from
one strike of the densho (meditation bell) at a Zen Buddhist temple in
New Mexico. The sound of the bell never quite dies away, instead
revealing the complex dance of overtones in the air and ever-deepening
pure waves. It was adapted as a participatory sound installation in a
faux bell tower at the Santa Fé Art Institute in 2004." [label info]
* QUELLET, ISRAEL - Oppressum CD (Sub Rosa SR244, 2007)
€ 13.00
"Quellet's music is not really outsider sound art, but it shares strong
similarities with it. It explores a debarred universe almost impossible to
escape. A minute - albeit extreme - exploration of sound (particularly
through saturation), mystical discourse and excesses. However, the
composer is also pictured as a regular guy living in a Swiss town, a guy
who likes to toy with the local church's organ, accompanied by his wifeŠ
Sound materials come from a number of sources: the local church's
organ, rented or borrowed percussion instruments (bass drum,
timbales, gong, djembe), various objects being struck (his oil tank at
home struck with hammers and iron rods), pipes, faucets, telephone
touch pads, power tools, sound-producing toys, voice, mouth sounds,
throat sounds, and wheelbarrows." [label info]
* RADIGUE, ELIANE - CHRY-PTUS do-CD (Schoolmap
SCHOOL2, 2007)
€ 16.50
Minimal / Drone-Werk von 1971 in neueren Versionen: Zwei Tapes mit
Drones werden simultan abgespielt, es entstehen je nach Phasenverschiebung verschiedene Obertöne und subtile Harmonien.
Man muss sich viel Zeit lassen, um die sich allmählich verändernden
Strukturen wahrzunehmen innerhalb des sanften mechanischen
Summen, in dem leicht klopfende Soundtropfen entstehen. Die
Wahrnehmung folgt dem ganzen nach einer Weile in scheinbar
unendlicher Rückkopplung, es entstehen Bewusstseins-Bereiche der
Zeitlosigkeit.... Hier enthalten sind zwei Versionen des Stückes, eine mit
GIUSEPPE IELASI. Faszinierend!
" 'Chry-ptus' (1971). Originally two tapes which are to be played
simultaneously, with or without synchronisation, which does not affect
the structure of the work, but creates changes in the game of subharmonics and overtones. Three variations on this piece were
performed at the New York Cultural Center in 1971, with variations of
amplitude and location modulation as well as synchronisation. Realised
on the Buchla Synthesizer at the New York University. The booklet
contains a text by painter Paul Jenkins, who also realised the
watercolor on the front cover, written on occasion of Radigue's first
concert in New York, April 6th, 1971. CD 1 : 'Chry-ptus I' (1971). 'Chryptus', version 2001, realised by Eliane Radigue with the assistance of
Stefano Bassanese at CCMIX, Paris. CD 2 : 'Chry-ptus II' (1971). 'Chryptus', version 2006, realised by Giuseppe Ielasi, Milano." [label info]
* PILIA, STEFANO - The Suncrows Fall and Tree CD (Sedimental
sedcd045, 2006) € 13.00
Promising album by this italian artist (who is a member of the fabulous
3/4HADBEENELIMINATED), who interweaves drones & interesting field
recordings in a skillful way...to discover !
"The Suncrows Fall and Tree bolsters Stefano Pilia's small but
substantial and well received body of solo work (LVD, Time-Lag) along
with his participation in the highly lauded 3/4HadBeenEliminated project
with Valerio Tricoli and Claudio Rocchetti. The new document contains
two 20-minute long sound arcs that are sweeping and focused,
essentially drone pieces. They are beautiful in their restraint but not
'pretty' and are grounded in the subtle use of acoustic and natural
sound elements. The work was composed and recorded between 2003
and 2005 in Bologna, Milano, Codroipo and Arbatax using the following
sound sources and devices: electric guitar, field recordings,
microphones, piano, tape noise, instruments played by wind, sine
waves, PVC tubes, filters with an additional contribution from Andrea
Belfi of high frequency synth. Besides the above mentioned projects,
Pilia is also a member of the Medves project and a collaborator with
Black Forest/Black Sea and has contributed to numerous installation
and film sound works." [label info]
* RAPOON - Time Frost CD
(Glacial Movements GM003, 2007)
€ 13.00
"Eine neue Eiszeit breitet sich aus; ihr Zentrum liegt (Vielleicht ist auch
hier der Klimawandel am Werk, der für paradoxe Effekte sorgt.) im
sonnigen Italien, genauer gesagt beim kürzlich vorgestellten Label
GLACIAL MOVEMENTS RECORDS, ins Leben gerufen von
ALESSANDRO TEDESCHI mit dem Ziel, sich speziell den Klängen
eisiger Welten zu widmen. Nach dem Sampler „Cryosphere“ und einer
Silberscheibe von TEDESCHIs eigenem Projekt NETHERWORLD hat
unlängst die dritte Veröffentlichung des jungen Labels das kalte Licht
der Polarsonne erblickt. Waren bereits auf dem Sampler keine
Unbekannten vertreten, so ist mit Klangtüftler ROBIN STOREY von
RAPOON, seines Zeichens Mitbegründer des Musikkollektivs ZOVIET
FRANCE, weitere Prominenz an Bord gekommen. Und STOREY
schafft es mit „Time Frost“, dem eisigen Thema inhaltlich einen neuen
Aspekt abzugewinnen, indem er ein aktuelles (manche möchten
vielleicht sagen strapaziertes) Thema aufgreift: den Klimawandel.
Während über die wahren Ausmaße dieses Phänomens (Ja, nein,
vielleicht - und wenn ja mit welchen Auswirkungen?) diskutiert wird,
spielt STOREY ein Szenario durch, in dem die Folgen der
Erderwärmung paradoxerweise zu einer neuen Eiszeit in Europa
geführt haben, unter deren Gletschermassen die Ruinen der
menschlichen Zivilisation begraben liegen und auf ihre Entdeckung
durch zukünftige Archäologen warten. Stellvertretend für die im Eis
begrabenen Überreste dieser untergegangenen Kultur stehen bei
STOREY Soundfragmente aus der berühmten „Schönen blauen Donau“
von JOHANN STRAUß, deren Aufnahme er passenderweise aus einer
anderen Zukunftsvision entnommen hat: dem Soundtrack des
KUBRICK-Films „2001: Odyssee im Weltraum“, der gänzlich aus bereits
vorhandenen Werken aus Klassik und Moderne besteht. Bei STOREY
indes bilden die Fragmente von „An der schönen Blauen Donau“ so
etwas wie die Ausgangspunkte der fünf Stücke, in denen dann die
* PROPERGOL - Ground Proximity Warning System CD
(Annihilvs APEX004, 2006)
[lim. 500]
€ 13.00
"ANNIHILVS is proud to present, in association with STRIDULUM
RECORDINGS, the newest epic addition to French electronic sound
terrorist PROPERGOL's impressive discography, GROUND
PROXIMITY WARNING SYSTEM. More than two years in the making,
GROUND PROXIMITY WARNING SYSTEM represents a mammoth
undertaking of research and sampling. Focussing solely on the theme
of airline disasters. and featuring a more densely somber, ultra-dark
ambience than prior albums, this is a recording which will chill the
listener to the bone. The fear is palpable, the panic is imminent, and the
ground is rushing up all too quickly. Brace yourselves for impact, this is
by far PROPERGOL's finest release to date." [label info]
"....This album is more ‘ambient’ than the other power electronics
albums, but still ‘very Propergol’. Tons of samples (this time of airplanes
in distress), extremely dark and threatening in sound, but this time just
not with the extreme noise outbursts. But… you will not be entirely
devoid of noise! This album may be a good introduction to Propergol for
people who are not familiar with this French project, but who are not
sure about power electronics. For Propergol addicts I can only say that
this album won’t let you down for sure!" [Gangleri]
* PSYCHIC SPACE INVASION - Transitions CD (Persepolis
Records, 2008)
€ 13.00
93
ursprüngliche klassische Komposition bis zur Unkenntlichkeit
verfremdet und verzerrt wird – die akustische Wiedergabe einer
Vorstellung von Musik, die über Jahrtausende im Eis eingeschlossen
und in ihrem kalten Gefängnis der Eisdrift, den Bewegungen und
Verwerfungen der treibenden Gletscher, ausgeliefert ist. So wie das Eis
sich in diesem Prozess immer wieder verformt, gestaucht und gestreckt
wird, sich übereinanderstapelt, bricht und wieder neu verschmilzt, so
verformt und verändert sich auch die darin eingeschlossene Music:
„Like ghosts of music trapped in the evershifting permafrost“.
Eine eigenartig berührende Zukunftsvision, und wenn man das Ganze
unter diesem Oberbegriff noch etwas weiter denkt, könnte man sich
neben „2001: Odyssee im Weltraum“ noch ein weiteres Mal an
KUBRICK, beziehungsweise an SPIELBERG erinnern. Das Ende der
Science-Fiction Parabel „A.I. – Künstliche Intelligenz“, die KUBRICK
aufgrund fehlender technischer Möglichkeiten immer wieder
aufgeschoben und schließlich STEVEN SPIELBERG zur Umsetzung
„vererbt“ hat, führt den Zuschauer in eine ferne, eiszeitliche Zukunft, in
der die Überreste der Zivilisation von Eismassen und gefrorenen
Ozeanen bedeckt sind; und wer die entsprechenden Szenen vor Auge
hat, dem fällt es leicht, sich bei „Time Frost“ ähnliches vorzustellen.
Spannend ist die Idee, ein Musikstück vor einem elektronisch-eiskalten
Hintergrund die Verformungen und Transformationen des ewigen Eises
mitmachen zu lassen. An der Umsetzung ist nicht zu meckern; was
schließlich herauskommt ist angemessen eisig, bekommt für die Idee
einen Novitätsbonus – und ein Hauch von Knistermusik ist auch dabei.
Europa ohne uns. Und wenn man schon einmal in dieser herrlichen
Untergangsstimmung ist, dann sollte man gleich die Lektüre von ALAN
WEISMANs „Die Welt ohne uns“ anschließen, in dem die Menschheit
gleich gänzlich verschwindet (inklusive der Archäologen), so dass man
alle Hoffnung auf die Entdeckung ihrer Ruinen auf außerirdische
Forscher setzen müsste. " [Caillean K. für nonpop.de]
"One of the predicted swings in the weather due to global warming is
paradoxically a new ice age which could envelope Europe. Time Frost
is music based upon this concept and uses tiny fragments of music
from an iconic European composition, Johann Strauss's Blue Danube. I
imagined that tiny pieces of former cultures survived locked in the ice
and waiting for future archaeologists to discover and interpret them.I
used vinyl lock grooves of the Blue Danube (from the 1968 MGM
recording for the film soundtrack 2001 ) These formed the starting
points for the five compositions in Time Frost which were then
manipulated and added to and re-arranged into new compositions.
Time Frost is an imaginary recording of the mutational process of sound
locked into ice and transformed over millenia. Like ghosts of music
trapped in an evershifting permafrost." [Robin Storey, August 2007]
Bedeutungs- & Erfahrungsebenen, für mehrmaliges Hören wie
geschaffen..
Wie auch für viele der BRUME-Alben gilt: unsere wärmste Empfehlung !
"Ex-Voto - a votive offering to a saint or divinity. ‘I see words’
With ‘ex-voto’, Christian Renou has forsaken his analogue machines to
encourage a fresh approach via digital technology. As Renou states in
his liner notes – he cannot escape narrative structures in his music –
his sounds are so evocative of soundtracks without an actual film –
encouraging the listener to conjure their own accompanying images.
Yes, it is incredibly melodic, hauntingly so, though at times this is
broken by shards of noise and implacable clicks. Midway through ‘exvoto’, alien beats provide a base for further evocative outpourings of
human vs. machine visions. The introduction of strings brings an
elegiac quality to the composition. Renou, when creating this narrative,
did not deny the ghosts of history in the name of progress…
The disintegration and contamination of a guitar motif appears
alongside chopped rhythms and often indistinguishable words. These
distant, half-remembered voices babble incoherent noise which battle
against the sweet, sweet cracked melodies which pitter-patter and
dance around your head. An underlying, delicate metallic whirring plays
against a near indecipherable reverie, before the initial guitar melody
rears its head for a final time. Layer upon layer of hubble, bubble, toil,
but no trouble, ensures this body of work to be Renou’s masterpiece
[Frans de Waard / Vital claimed that this more melodic route was
something that he’d like to hear more of, whereas Barry G. Nichols /
Whiteline blog / Spekk recording artist, extolled the virtues of Renou’s
‘genius’ with this recording] 'I see death'. The cd is packaged in the
usual high standard expected of elsieandjack. spot varnish and silver
ink over beautiful photography and simple layout, printed on thick
cardstock - plus Renou’s liner notes printed on a vellum overlay.
Remember, there is a hand-numbered edition of 100 with laser-etched
jewelcases only available direct from Christian Renou and
elsieandjack." [label info]
* REUTOFF - Deprivatio CD (Ewers Tonkunst HHE 017 CD,
2008)
€ 12.00
Ganze fünf Jahre nach "Gute Nacht, Berlin" endlich das neue Album
der Moskauer Ambient Industrial / Elektronik Band, die es wie wenig
andere verstehen eine wirklich hoffnungslose Atmosphäre zwischen
Misantrophie und trister Melancholie aufzubauen...
"... Reutov ist eine von Moskaus kleinen Satellitenstädten, die hauptsächlich aus Industrieanlagen besteht. Ihr wird von den Bandmitgliedern, die alle in der Nähe leben, eine ganz besondere
Atmosphäre zugeschrieben, die man beim Hören der Musik als trübe
Industriemelancholie zwischen Zerfall und Science Fiction begreifen
könnte; eine Stimmung, wie sie in Deutschland manche alte Häfen oder
Güterbahnhöfe ausstrahlen. Ein Faible für den Klang der deutschen
Sprache, das sich auch in vielen deutschen Songtiteln ausdrückt, hat
aus dem 'v' am Ende der Stadt das doppelte 'f' für den Bandnamen
werden lassen.
Wie immer ist auch dieses REUTOFF-Album eine Antwort auf die
Frage, wozu eigentlich Dark Ambient erfunden wurde. Die fantastischdüstere Stimmung erwächst stets aus der Musik der Russen selbst, und
nicht – wie bei vielen Genrekollegen – aus den großen Worten, die
begleitend zur Musik gemacht werden. Aber – endlich eine
Veränderung – "Deprivatio" ist nicht mehr so durchweg archaisch wie
noch die ersten Arbeiten, es ist ebenfalls nicht mehr so homogen
industriell wie die beiden letzten Alben "Unseen Rituals" (2002) und
"Gute Nacht, Berlin!" (2003). Die neue CD ist die bislang dynamischste,
abwechslungsreichste, aufregendste und futuristischste
Veröffentlichung von REUTOFF.
Hypnotisch ist der Beginn. Zum Dauerloop eines Kindersummens gibt
eine rauchige, weibliche Sprechstimme auf Englisch Anweisungen, was
zu tun ist: "Stellen Sie Sich vor, Sie sitzen in einem riesigen Theater mit
schwarzen Sitzen und können nur eine einzige Sache sehen..." So
düster und geheimnisvoll die ersten Sounds, so beruhigend sind die
Worte. Später passt sich die Musik an und entspannt sich Richtung
Downbeat, garniert mit verhuschten Männerstimmen und noisigen
Geräuschen. Der Opener bereitet die futuristische Atmosphäre, die das
ganze Album durchzieht. Noch häufiger im Verlauf der knapp 73
Minuten kommt sich der Hörer vor, als würde er durch einen von
STANISLAW LEM entworfenen Park lebender Maschinen wandern.
Auch das intelligente Songwriting – wenn man bei einem zehnminütigen
Dark Ambient-Track davon überhaupt sprechen kann – offenbart sich
gleich zu Beginn. Überraschungen wie eine eingeflochtene und beinahe
folkige Akustikgitarre sowie versteckte und vertrackte Melodien und
Rhythmen machen aus einem langen auch einen sehr abwechslungsreichen Soundteppich. Es folgt ein eher klassisches Dark
Ambient/Noise-Stück, dessen Drones in Verwandtschaft zu SAL
SOLARIS gleißen und schimmern wie Sonnen im Weltall. Großes Kino,
im wahrsten Sinn des Wortes, denn REUTOFF-Alben werden immer
gerne mit der Stimmung von Filmmusiken oder Filmen – unter anderem
"Stalker" von TARKOWSKIJ – verglichen. Und selten traf dieser
* RAPOON - The Library of the Dead CD (Ewers Tonkunst HHE
018CD, 2008)
[lim. 500]
€ 13.00
"The second CD from Robin Storey on Ewers Tonkunst after the
“Mental Traveller” collaboration with Cisfinitum released in 2006. This
time Russian artist is also involved and it is a folk singer Tatyana
“Toloka” Stepchenko who has also took part in one track on the above
mentioned album. Tatyana kindly recorded some songs for Rapoon a
capella and allowed him to pull apart, re-arrange, cut-up and re-sample
her voice into the sounds and arrangements on this album. The result is
a very delicate and enlightened work, it is a kind of a sonic travel
through clean and vast spaces of Russian North to find some ancient
and ancestral recollections, made using typical Rapoon sound tools,
great and unique voice of Toloka and some very fresh and clear
ambient tunes. The release limited to 500 copies comes in a stylish
digisleeve with artwork by Robin Storey." [label info]
* RENOU, CHRISTIAN - Ex-Voto CD (Elsie & Jack Recordings #
016, 2007)
€ 13.00
In den Liner-Notes zu EX-VOTO erklärt CHRISTIAN RENOU das
Scheitern seines Anspruchs, mit Beendigung von BRUME alle
narrativen & lyrischen Elemente hinter sich zu lassen und die reine
"Struktur von Klang als Molekular-Zustand" zu erforschen (seitdem
benutzt er Computer zur Sounderzeugung & Aufnahme). Alles
Nachdenken und Philosophieren über Musik half ihm nicht, den
"wahren" Kern zu finden, denn "Mikro"- und "Makro"-Struktur sind
letztlich ein und dasselbe, selbst die abstrakteste Form von Klang
erzeugt Narration sobald sie ertönt. Diese frustrierende Erkenntnis führt
aber zu einer neuen Freiheit in der Komposition, letztlich ist all seine
Musik einfach "Seelen-Musik" und nichts anderes.
Auf EX-VOTO geht RENOU neue Wege und benutzt geräuschhafte
Feldaufnahmen aus einer Kirche (dort gespielte Violinenklänge &
Gesang). Es gibt wunderbare melodische Parts und elektro-akustische
Noise-Elemente, Wasser- und Strömungsklänge, irgendwo taucht
pathetischer Frauengesang auf, Verfremdung und ReKontextualisierung setzt RENOU wieder in sagenhafter Art und Weise
ein. So viele verschiedene Ebenen & Stimmungen hier sind zu erfahren
, kurz: EX-VOTO ist ein beeindruckendes Werk mit mehreren
94
Vergleich so zu wie bei "Deprivatio", auch bedingt durch die technisch
hervorragende, satte Produktion.
"American Whores" geht dann wieder einen gänzlich anderen Weg. Die
Collage bringt zu einem Bass, der auch MASSIVE ATTACK oder
MOBY alle Ehre machen würde, ganz unterschiedliche Samples
zusammen. Musik der 1920er-Jahre, fast eine Minute lang solo. Dazu
verdichten sich die Trainerin eines Fitnesskurses und ein
Kirchenprediger mit Chor – in Kombination mit dem Namen des Songs
– zu einer infernalischen Amerikakritik. Nie wirken solche Samples
belanglos, sie unterstützen bei REUTOFF immer die Atmosphäre des
Tracks.
Auch der einzige deutsch betitelte Song, "In Die Leere Gehen", ist eines
der Highlights: Hier ein strahlendes Universum mit synthetischen
Engelschören, dort düstere Gewittercluster, die glauben machen, dass
sich die Hölle öffnet – fehlt nur noch ein Sample von Luzifer persönlich.
"Sun Of Sleepless" ist mit seinen knallenden und knirschenden Beats
eine weitere Empfehlung für die Macher des nächsten EndzeitStreifens; mit laut wehenden Fahnen geht die Welt unter. Und zum
Abspann verglüht "25-th Hour" wie die letzte Moll-Hoffnung eines im
futuristischen Kerker eingesperrten VANGELIS. Für so viele
Höhepunkte übersieht man gerne die wenigen schwächeren Momente,
etwa die Mischung aus Ethno und Dark Ambient mit piepsigen Loops
menschlicher Geräusche ("Nemesis").
Alles an "Deprivatio" atmet russische "Metropolis"-Atmosphäre. Das
Individuum zwischen Experiment, größenwahnsinniger Industrie,
Verlassenheit und Zerfall. Damit ist die neue REUTOFFVeröffentlichung längst nicht mehr nur ein Stimmungsbericht aus
Reutov, sondern ein Abbild des neuen, modernen Russlands.
Genreuntypische Experimente, die gekonnte Verknüpfung diverser
Samples und Abwechslung in Tempo und Klangbild sorgen dafür, dass
"Deprivatio" eines der besten und ausdrucksstärksten Dark AmbientAlben der vergangenen Jahre ist. Es macht außerdem sehr neugierig
auf die angekündigten Kollaborationen im Herbst."
[Michael We. für nonpop.de]
"Finally, since five years after their 2003 “Gute Nacht Berlin” on Albin
Julius HauRuck!, here is the long-awaited full-length solo CD from this
most well-known Russian industrial project worldwide. “Deprivatio” is a
sad story of a person surrender to the enemy environment, it’s about
idle struggle with time and fatigue, about constant withering of passions
and imminent vitality deprivation. Being maybe the most hopeless and
sad work for the band, this album is paradoxically their most rhythmic
and dynamic. There are more noisy drum loops and electro sounds
here than martial drum patterns and old school noise, but their unique
deep and profound melodic main themes are still remain as the
basement for the brilliant new tracks of despair and downfall. The
ascetic b&w artwork was done by Murad Ibatullin known for the recent
“Iznutri” compilation. The release comes as a jewel box with 6 panel
booklet, the first 100 copies come with 33x21 two sided poster." [label
info]
Even without referring to the word of Buddha, this interdependence
between all beings is easy to understand". [label info]
* RILEY, TERRY - Music for the Gift CD (Elision Fields EF 105,
2007) € 14.00
Die wohl allerfrühesten Aufnahmen von TERRY RILEY in der Rerelease Serie sind hier zu finden! MUSIC FOR THE GIFT enthält das
legendäre Titelstück von 1963, wo Jazz-Klänge von CHET BAKER &
Band mit Tape-Delays versehen werden (fängt noch recht gewöhnlich
an wird aber immer ausufernder und experimenteller), daneben auch
das unglaubliche MESCALIN MIX (1960-1962) (inspiriert von MeskalinExperimenten & via obskurer Bandschleifen-Installation von ihm zu
Hause aufgenommen, voller runtergezogener Stimmen, Piano-Klängen,
Echos, dumpf & dröhnig, backward-Effekte...)
Zusätzlich gibt es noch einen Mitschnitt eines Konzertes vom 11. Mai
1960 (Berkelely) mit LA MONTE YOUNG zu hören, wo beide mit 2
Pianos & 5 Bandmaschinen aufführten (Radiomitschnitt mit
Kommentar).
"This CD brings together four seminal tape works of Terry Riley.
The Gift music was performed in Paris 1963 by Chet Baker, with tape
manipulations by Riley-- the first use of tape delay to fragment,
attenuate, and return time, looping tape through twin-tape recorders.
The Gift recordings, referred to often by Soft Machine members, is the
precursor to the landmark that launched the minimalist movement In C.
"Bird of Paradise" is a radical tape-manipulation work, the earliset
known plundering that inspired Steve Reich's "It's Gonna Rain"-era
phase recordings. "Mescalin Mix" is a tape-loop recording from 196062, partly inspired by Riley's experience with mescalin and the work he
did with Richard Maxfield. For this recording, the tape-loops extended
out Riley's window to a wine-bottle spindle in the yard; it was composed
for choreographer Anna Halprin's The Three-Legged Stool.
Concert for Two Pianos and Five Tape Recorders was recorded live at
Hertz Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in 1960 with a humorous
broadcast narrative/play-by-play by Glenn Glasow. It was performed by
Riley and La Monte Young." [label info]
* RLW + TITO - Mahlzeit CD (Hinterzimmer Records HINT03,
2008) € 13.00
Really weird album with 12 tracks about the theme "meal" and "eating",
solo- & collab-tracks using field recordings & body function-noises, oral
throw-offs, singing, toys & kitchen tools, combined with various
instruments & electronics. At times this reminds on RUNZELSTIRN &
GURGELSTOCK, at others on a free impro chaos group, and it also
has some real roaring low concrete drone stuff, you haven't heard
something that crazy for a long time we're sure!
"For his new ambitious project 'Mahlzeit' (german for 'meal') Ralf
Wehowsky teamed up with Hamburgs Transindustrial Toy Orchestra
(TITO), a loose collective of people working in music and other art
forms. Current members Peter Kastner, Ine Ophof and Jan Van Wissen
created their part of the conceptual work with their vast collection of
toys and kitchen tools, using electronic devices to transform them into
bizarre acoustic situations while Wehowsky contributes another strange
mix of electronics, instruments, voice and body functions. All in all
'Mahlzeit' is a collaborative release, but in a special way as some tracks
were created by Ralf Wehowsky using sounds by Tito and vice versa,
but some were just done by one part of the project, assimilalting
suggestions from the other part. It mixes electroacoustic composition,
early electronic music and bizarre Kraut-era avantgarde. The
heterogeneous but totally coherent and self-contained 'Mahlzeit' is not
just a great experience and expansion of the musical activity of all
involved, but also an album of fine music that is not easy to label." [label
notes]
* RIMPOCHE, BOKAR - Sacred Chants and Tibetan Rituals from
the Monastery of Mirik CD (Sub Rosa SR264, 2007) € 13.00
Die mantrischen Gebets-Gesänge des indischen Mönchs BOKAR
RIMPOCHE, solo oder in der Gruppe, aufgenommen im Himalaya.
Anmutig & sakral & wunderschön!
"Recorded in Mirik Monastery (in the northeastern India) with the total
collaboration of Bokar Rimpoche - all the pieces were edited by the
filmmaker Guy Maezelle (Bokar Rimpoché : Meditation Master).
Bokar Rimpoche: Acknowledged as a Great Master of Tibetan
Buddhism, Bokar Rimpoche (1940-2004) devoted his whole life to
meditation. Having fled Tibet in 1959, he lived in exile, isolated in a little
monastery in the mountains. The spiritual son of Kalou Rimpoché, a
close relation of the Dalai Lama and Meditation Master of the 17th
Karmapa, Bokar Rimpoche was the heir and representative of an
ancestral knowledge (of the Kagyü line) passed along from generation
to generation and holding wisdom that still enlightens us today. These
recordings match Guy Maezelle's film Bokar Rimpoche: Maître de
méditation and feature sacred chants recorded by Bokar Rimpoche
himself and ritual music from the Mirik Monastery (Himalayan
Mountains in Northern India, between Bhutan and Nepal).
A message from Bokar Rimpoche: "We, practising Buddhists, must
understand that all that we accomplish in this life results originally from
our mothers goodness. For it is first thanks to her that we are able to
survive. It is her that fed us, clothed us, and who took care of our
education. But in reality, our whole life depends on all the other beings
and their activities. For example, meat, milk and butter are given to us
by the animals. Our food, our clothes, our home depend on the work
and effort of many other beings. In other words, on this earth, every day
of our lives is lived depending on an infinite number of other beings for
no one, since their birth, can survive alone. They would have no food
and no clothes. So we must be aware that our life depends on the
contribution of many other beings who show goodness towards us .
Therefore it is all beings, without exception, that we should hold dear !
* ROCCHETTI, CLAUDIO - Another Piece of Teenage Wildlife CD
(Die Schachtel ZEIT09, 2008)
€ 14.00
"Taking plaintive tones of drone music and early electronic and tape
experiments, 3/4hadbeeneliminated former member Claudio Rocchetti
has defined his personal sound signature, building a subtle, at time
majestic landscape. Using a wide variety of instruments (synthesizer,
tone generators, organs, guitar, tape machines) he creates an
absorbing sound that is mainly composed by layers of loops fading into
each other, ethereal vocals, repetition, melody, noise. An emotional
resonance with a tinge of melancholia that permeates every moment
and creates a sense of longing and nostalgia. Tri-fold digipak. " [press
release]
"... Rocchetti's solo music is less complex than the band, more intimate,
more drone like but likewise beautiful. His guitar playing sounds like
Ambarchi versus Ielasi, while his ominous drone music is more like
Mirror or Monos. Nice intimate improvisation/drone music." [FdW / Vital
Weekly]
95
* RUHLMANN, MATHIEU & CELER - Mesoscaphe CD (SPEKK
KK:014, 2008)
€ 15.50
Die Ko-operation von MATHIEU RUHLMANN und CELER führt
(sub)marine & ozeanische field recordings und melancholische
Instrumentalklänge zusammen, deep drones & deep emotions. Absolut
verzaubernder Transzendental-Ambient, der aber auch klanglich
überzeugt mit vielen klaren Details. Auf dem japanischen SPEKK-Label
wie immer exquisit designed & verpackt!
"The album 'Mesoscaphe' is a sound work dedicated to the 1969
voyage of the Ben Franklin, the naturally-propelled submarine created
to explore the currents of the Gulf Stream, and the nature of the sea.
Half of the sound is composed of original pieces of music, meant to
symbolize a deepening human element culled from memory, from
strings, pianos, and electronics. The other half of the sound is
composed of natural field recordings, of the Ben Franklin itself, as well
as the surrounding oceans and habitats, with the intention of providing
realism through sound, just as if it were an actual document from the
voyage, of the surrounding ocean. The artists exchanged their own
original sounds with each other, allowing each artist to experiment and
remix outside of their own sound sources, with the potential to apply our
own sound methods to each others' sound sources, and develop the
concept even further. Titles were made to coordinate with the
movement of the voyage, creating their own story, in relation to the
progressing sounds. The final result is a documented literary and audio
interpretation of the voyage, from the perspective of 3 sound and visual
artists, of the experiences and surroundings of the crew of the Ben
Franklin, traveling for 30 days by the gentle glide of the Gulf Stream.
We hope to bring attention to an important event in history,
overshadowed by the moon landings, and for people to know the story
of the revolutionary submarine that explored the nature of the ocean,
challenged scientific development, and ended up in a salvage yard."
[Mathieu Ruhlmann & Celer]
"Of a different kind, more the Spekk kind perhaps, is the work by
Mathieu Ruhlmann which he recorded with Celer, a duo of Danielle
Baquet-Long (pianosm words, custom electronics, tape-loops,
theremin) and Will Long (pianos, custom electronics, tape-loops,
arrangement diagrams and splicing). I never heard of them. Ruhlmann,
which we know from his previous releases in the field of microsound,
field recording and ambient, gets credit for field recordings, bowed
ukelin and cymbal, violin, kettel and contact microphone recordings of
the Mesocaphe. The latter is a work by Jacques Piccard, and is a
naturally-propelled submarine, also known as the Ben Franklin. It has
been in the water for thirty days back in 1969, but it's not as well-known
as the moon-landing which happened shortly after that. The music here,
in three parts and each with distinctive different parts, is build from both
the field recordings of water and the submarine as well as the
instruments, which make a great combination.
The sub-aquatic thematic approach here recalls the many albums
released by Mystery Sea, but I must say this is something that is just a
bit better. There is more detail in the music, due to better (more
extended) mixing of the diverse sounds, and attention to smaller parts
are brought in. Though it's not easy to differentiate between the various
sounds used, the boat rumbling, water splashing and the drones
produced by the various instruments, there is throughout a gentle flow
(pun intended) in this music. Maybe less surprising than the Grimm
disc, this stands out well in the Spekk catalogue. " [FdW / Vital Weekly]
[label info]
* SAVAGE REPUBLIC - Siam CD-EP (Independent Project
Records, 2007)
€ 8.50
For the collectors: SIAM marked the comeback of SR, includes material
not available anywhere else ! Numbered edition.
"The first studio release by Savage Republic since 1989. This is a
limited edition EP produced for the 2007 "Siam" tour. Features handletterpressed covers by Bruce Licher at Independent Project Press.
More information and samples available at the Savage Republic
MySpace site." [label info]
* SAVAGE REPUBLIC - 1938
CD (Neurot Rec. NR-053, 2007)
€ 13.50
Eine DER Überraschungen des Jahres 2007 war das neue Album der
"Art-Punk" Band aus L.A.!
"Eigentlich könnte die kalifornische Band Savage Republic heutzutage
auch eine große Legende in Sachen Art-Punk und experimenteller
Indie-Musik sein, so wie Sonic Youth, Minuteman oder die
Einstürzenden Neubauten. Warum man diese Band normalerweise
nicht in einem Satz mit diesen Genre-Größen nennt, ist wohl eine
ungerechte Laune der Musik-Geschichte, standen Savage Republic
doch in den 80er Jahren eben mit diesen Bands zusammen auf einer
Bühne. Savage Republic sind deshalb auch so etwas wie Art-PunkPioniere, die auch nicht vor den schrägsten musikalischen Einflüssen
zurückschreckten. Da wurde der frühe West-Coast Hardcore-Punk
genau so angesehen wie 60’s Psychedelic oder Ethno-Folk. Dick Dale
gehörte genau so zu den Vorbildern wie Ennio Morricone oder Mikis
Theodorakis. Vielleicht war es diese Verschrobenheit und Kreativität,
weshalb der Band aus Los Angeles ein größeres Publikum verwehrt
blieb. Nun nach 18 Jahren Pause gibt es endlich mit „1938“ ein neues
Savage Republic Album. Und zu welchem Label würde dieses Album
besser passen, als zum Neurosis-Label Neurot Recordings? Eben.
Trotz seiner enormen Spielzeit von ca. 70 Minuten treten beim Hören
von „1938“ an keiner Stelle Ermüdungserscheinungen oder Langeweile
auf. Da finden sich auf dem fast instrumental eingespielten Album
Industrial-Sounds, mittelalterliche Klänge, Folk-Elemente, Psychedelic,
Kraut-Rock, Impro-Musik oder auch mal jazziges. Ein besonderer
Fokus wird dabei auf die Percussion- und Schlagzeugarbeit gelegt,
sodass Savage Republic trotz seiner Ausgefallenheit ein sehr
rhythmisches Album ist. Freunde von Bands wie Pere Ubu, Can oder
den Butthole Surfers könnten bei „1938“ ihre helle Freude haben. Die
Betonung liegt dabei auf „könnte“, denn Savage Republic sind einfach
zu Eigenständig und als Solitär im Musikgeschäft anzusehen, dass man
diese Band nur mit Vorsicht in gewisse Schubladen stecken sollte."
[Independentkicks.de]
"Los Angeles art-punk pioneers Savage Republic have come roaring
out of obscurity with 1938, their first full-length album of new material in
18 years-- hot on the heels of this spring's powerful Siam EP-- both on
Neurot Records. Throughout the '80s Savage Republic was a deepunderground phenomenon, playing highly unorthodox shows in remote
desert locations, abandoned factories, skid-row parking lots, and grimy
bars across the US and Europe with such luminaries as Einstuerzende
Neubaten, Minutemen, Sonic Youth, and Live Skull as well as hardcorepunk slugfests with the likes of Bad Religion, Angry Samoans, and Final
Conflict. Known for their oddly tuned guitars, tribal beats, shouted
vocals, metal percussion (typically 55-gallon oil drums and items
gleaned from dumpsters and junkyards), and Morricone-meets-Dick
Dale melodies, their performances were at times ritualistic and
occassionally involved fire and explosives.
In their current incarnation, Savage Republic core members Thom
Fuhmann, Ethan Port and Greg Grunke are joined by UK punk-rock
veteran Val Haller, whose resume includes stints with Wayne County,
Flying Lizards, Lords of The New Church, and X-Ray Spex, and noted
drummer and percussionist Alan Waddington, known for his tenure with
The Unforgiven as well as live and studio work with everyone from
Willie Nelson to Gwen Stefani. The album also features contributions by
guest artists including multi-instrumentalist Tara T. Tavi, classical
violinist Julia Zuker, and drummer Bryan Taylor.
While staying true to their roots, Savage Republic have updated and
expanded their singular Mediterranean-surf-soundtrack-folk-noise blend
into a musical hybrid both contemporary and timeless. Trademark
scrap-metal percussion and layers of guitar drone are now joined by
spooky ambient textures evoking sonic landscapes exotic, dreamy and
sinister. An undercurrent of dread is never too far away. In keeping with
their tradition of graphic excellence, the album is packaged in a tri-fold
cover designed by and featuring the photography of Ramona ClarkeFuhrmann. " [press release]
* RYN - Astral Death CD
(UNPRCD02, 2008)
€ 13.00
Das erste long-play Album des Duos aus England die kürzlich eine 7"
auf Drone Rec. präsentierten! ASTRAL DEATH ist ein massiver
monolithischer Trip ins pulsierende Herz der Auflösung, wenn sich
wahre Drone-Fluten ergiessen, schallend, vibrierend, Obertöne
abgebend, es gibt hier nichts zum festhalten, der Geist wird einfach
mitgerissen.... Dunkel-Ozeanische Drones !
"Finally the first real long-play album of this UK drone-duo presenting 6
long tracks of waving & slowly shifting massive drones, based on
"guitar, bass, metal & effects". The sounds here are just flooding
immensely, there's nothing "concrete" you can hold on to; the mind &
body seem to be washed out slowly by these rustling, feedbacking &
deeply reverberating overtune-waves. "Astral Death" is a journey into
the pulsating, meandering heart of disintegration. Filed under: dark
oceanic." [Barakah / label info]
* SAVAGE REPUBLIC - Jamahiriya Democratique et populaire de
sauvage CD (Mobilization Recordings MOB103, 2002) € 14.00
Re-issue of album from 1988. nice letter-press design, ed. of 1000
"The third in SAVAGE REPUBLIC's new reissue series, originally
released in 1988 on Fundamental Music. The band's patented tribal
psychedelia mixed with some Krautrock influences. Includes covers of
Alternative TV's "Viva La Rock 'n' Roll" and Mikis theodorakis' "Pios
Den Mila Yia Ti Lambri," three bonus instrumental mixes, and a radio
spot. Packaged in an Independent Project Press-constructed, handletterpress card sleeve with inserts. Limited edition of 1,000 copies."
* SCALA, STEFANO - Impermanence CD (Hic Sunt Leones HSL
044, 2008) € 13.00
Field Recordings aus Tibet (Gewitter, Regen, Wind, Kuhglocken,
Gebete, Ritualmusik, etc.) vermählen sich hier in höchst sakraler &
96
spiritueller Atmosphäre perfekt mit Obertongesängen, leichter
Perkussion und weiterem subtilen Einsatz von diversen EthnoInstrumenten. Das atmet Weite und meditative Versenkung. Starkes
Album des Musiktherapeuten und Ethno-Musik Forschers STEFANO
SCALA, auf dem ALIO DIE-Label.
"The new CD by STEFANO SCALA , 'IMPERMANENCE' havs its focus
on Tibet, where Stefano Scala went for musical researches and
recordings some years ago. The magic of the cult and traditions of the
country with hightest peaks in the world accompany us in this journey,
on a mountain pass, walking along the pathways of the rarefied
Himalayan atmosphere, escorted by a convoy of mules or yaks. Sounds
can be heard of the wind and rain, voices, songs and steps of nomads
of Impermanence. An album that displays different acoustic
instruments, harmonic chant, percussions, flutes, rattles and bells, and
field recordings..this cd is more close to the Hic Sunt Leones releases
then the previously 'Il Tempo del Sogno'."[label info]
STEALTH dabei ungeahnte Tiefen aufzutun, körperliche zu spürende
Vibrationen verbinden sich mit psychischer Schockstarre ...
BAD CHILL MUSIC !
"15 years since his début and 5 since his last studio album: Mick Harris
breaks the silence and delivers with "Stealth" one of his most massive
works so far. Staying faithful to his trademark sound, this corner-stone
of a musician, constantly redefining the boundaries of electronic music,
delivers here 8 salvoes of monumental bass, sparse dry beats and
deep drones. Let it be heard: Scorn is back.
Few musician can boast such a prolific and influential catalog as Mick
Harris. Not only has his main project, Scorn, been re-defining and
expanding the scope of electronic music and dub, but Harris's
discography, featuring literally hundreds of releases, spawns from his
début as the original drummer of Napalm Death to a founding member
of Painkiller (with Bill Laswell and John Zorn) as well as such seminal
projects as the ambient Lull, the drum'n'bass of Quoit or his
participation to Extreme Noise Terror. To cut a long story short,
(electronic) music wouldn't be the same if this Birmingham-based
musician wasn't there.
Fifteen years after Scorn's début, and five whole years after his latest
studio album, it is a transformed Mick Harris (noticeably by his comeback to his drum set) that deliver "Stealth", Scorn's 13th full length
studio album. And while music has evolved a lot since 1992's "Vae
Solis", Scorn has stayed true to his trademark sound. Downtempo,
illbient, dubstep have come and gone, but Scorn remains the epitome of
minimal, dry beats, wall-of-sound unequalled basses and deep,
mesmerizing drones.
Not only a massive, bodily experience, Scorn's monumental tracks
(which have proved over the years to provide for unforgettable live sets)
impress by their focus and efficiency. Keeping only the bare minimum of
what defines dub, Scorn drives these few elements (sparse beats,
echoes, and most of all, bass) to their extreme. A godfather of the
current come-back of slow, heavy basses in club music, Scorn's method
still stand out with its towering, dark and minimal approach. "Stealth" is
no exception. Spacious in its execution, oppressive, humongous in its
outcome; let it be heard: Scorn is back." [label notes]
* SCHÄFER, HELMUT & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI - Eminent Risk
Factor CD (ALKU 65, 2008)
€ 14.00
Sound? Geräusch? Klang? Nein, Energie umgewandelt in Klang!
Transformationsmusik, eigentlich Genre-frei. Ein einziges Wummern,
Strahlen, Zerreiben von akustischen Informationen. Leider das letzte
Projekt von HELMUT SCHÄFER, der im April 2007 verstarb.
"Internationally acclaimed sound artists Helmut Schäfer and Zbigniew
Karkowski met for the first time in 1997. From then on, they maintained
a close friendship and worked together on several collaborations,
performances and music projects. Then years later, in April 2007,
Helmut passed away. 'Eminent Risk Factor' gathers recordings from the
last 2 concerts and studio session they ever made together. The master
was finished on the last day they ever saw each other. In memory of
Helmut Schäfer (1969 - 2007)." [label info]
* SCHAEFER, JANEK - Alone at last CD (Sirr Ecords SIRR 0031,
2008) € 15.50
Acht "Auftragsarbeiten" für Installationen oder Compilations sind hier
zusammengestellt, die SCHAEFERs Fähigkeiten aufzeigt,
Alltagsaufnahmen (hier z.B. spanische Unterhaltungen, FlamencoKlänge) mit orchestralen und Orgel-artig wallenden Drones zu
verbinden. Sehr schöne Klangflächen sind hier dabei, aber man sollte
auch einen Sinn für konkrete & vokale Materialien haben...
"Alone at last is a studio album, written over the first decade of Janek's
career as a composer, sound artist, and musician. Each piece is a
response to an invitation to write a piece of music for a compilation cd
or installation. The source sounds are produced using location
recordings and manipulated vinyl, which are simply processed through
his collection of foot pedals & mixing desk, and then assembled on
screen. Anamnesis - refers to the ability of sound to trigger mental
images in our minds eye. Each new image is unique to each of us - and
they are all uniquely framed within the evocative music. The cd is
housed in a 100% black jewelcase with an eight page black white
booklet of Janek's photography." [label info]
"....That is: until now. 'Alone At Last' compiles eighth of these pieces,
composed between 1997 and 2007. Unfortunately that's all the
information that is given on the cover. Not the where, how, when or any
other relevant information. That is a pity of course, but you could also
think that it is of no more importance. That was that, this is now. The
positive attitude: be glad what you have and not what you don't have.
Each piece has a picture in the booklet (especially the one for 'Scarlett
Arrives' is very funny - but hey I like children) that also not always gives
us a clue. 'Alone At Last' may serve as an introduction to the work of
Schaefer to those who need one (the die hard fans surely have this
already). Schaefer takes every day sound - field recordings - of
whatever nature and transforms them into pieces of music. He does
that to such an extent that the 'original' field recordings have
disappeared and what remains is, quite curious in these eighth pieces,
a highly 'drone' and 'ambient' piece of work. Schaefer works the mood
here. I couldn't help, while hearing this, thinking of Main - with whom
Schaefer recorded a CD as Comae along time ago. The same subtle
processing, taking the musique concrete into an entirely new realm - at
least for musique concrete that is - the form of ambient music. Four of
the pieces are long, perhaps a bit long altogether, for the diversity the
disc has to offer. With six of them the picture would have been equally
clear, even when the final piece 'Never Ending Story' is short and
should be included. That moaning aside, Schaefer delivered a great
disc, I think, of highly subtle music that should win him new fans and
pleasantly surprise the old." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* SEHT - Dead Bees CD (Pseudo Arcana PACD097, 2008) € 13.00
Aus Drone-Perspektive eines der Highlights des Pseudo ArcanaKatalogs, diese CD von SEHT. Zwei lange Stücke mit melancholischerhabenen Dronescapes und seltsamen Patterns, irgendwo zwischen
MAEROR TRI und ASMUS TIETCHENS, wobei auch wunderbare
Oceanwaves Fieldrecordings zum Einsatz kommen und Vergleiche hier
letztlich nur hinken können, so eigenständig und gut ist "Dead Bees"
gelungen..
"Campbell Kneale once explained that to describe Wellingtons Seht as
drone music is much the same as describing Antarctica as white.
Where as many of us utilise the drone as an ingredient, a point of
departure, Stephen Clover's Seht project distils drones to craft
something very like a fine liquor. ‘One Moment’, the 35 minute first track
on ‘Dead Bees’ is Clovers somnambulant ambient drone masterpiece.
A famous insomniacs grand fantasy of sleep. Setting sail with the gentle
sound of submerged bells one sinks deeper as lush rich tones gradually
merge into a swell of dreamscape waves. Deeper still and one finds
oneself glowing in a deep warm golden molasses that shimmers and
sways until time somehow folds in upon itself and loses all meaning as
ones consciousness shifts into angel gear for the lonnnng coast out.
But Clover is also agent provocateur- a wry and acerbic wit. To say that
there are surprises to follow is an understatement…" [label info]
* SELAXON LUTBERG - Cold House of Love CD (Eibon Records
SEL067, 2006 ) € 13.00
Very emotional & melancholic dronescapes from this italian project slow & sad, many instruments are used, a bit mysterioius & strange...
this is quite a revelation for us !! Definitely worth to discover!!
"Pages of a diary under the form of ten minimal soundscapes based
upon emotional sounds made with guitars, piano and heavily processed
field recordings. Hard to say if this is dark ambient or minimal postrock… "Cold house of love" is all of this and a lot more. Subtly
disquieting ambience music - a journey through the cold rooms of the
house of love....." [label info]
"....Based primarily within the ambient genre Andrea mixes dynamic
electronic soundscapes with the occasional use of samples and simple
piano refrains. For the most part though the electronics dominate
creating this phenomenal piece of work. You could rightly call this dark
ambient music in many ways. There is a dense creepy edge to the
sonics that would match that description. That though is open purely to
the individuals interpretation. You hear dark. I hear glorious light. You
say full of remorse. I say full of hope. You say barren. I say lush and full
of life. What we hear and how we build associations with that
information is what makes us each unique in our own little ways [...] A
remarkable recording that dreamers the world over should get hold of
immediately." [Alan Milne / Heathen Harvest]
* SCORN -Stealth CD (Ad Noiseam adn88, 2007) € 14.50
Nach langer Zeit etwas neues von SCORN, dem Projekt von MICK
HARRIS, der hier weiter an seiner Version von Industrial-Dub arbeitet,
der sich so langsam, zäh und schwer durch den Äther walzt dass einem
das Atmen schwer fällt... besonders im Bass-Bereich scheinen sich auf
97
über-poppy 'Blue Sunshine' (track 4), featuring a beautiful guest
appearance from Charles Spearin of Broken Social Scene and Do
Make Say Think on trumpet. This track recalls the over-the-top
sensibility that seems to have informed many seventies TV show theme
songs or the hits of Burt Bacharach. The closing piece, 'The Kinder
Surprise,' has a very gentle, ambient feel and could blend in on a
release from the Boards of Canada or Mogwai." [press release]
* SEVEN THAT SPELLS - The Men from Dystopia CD (Beta-lactam
Ring Records mt207a, 2007) [lim. 500]
€ 14.00
SEVEN THAT SPELLS beweisen, dass ost-europäischer "Drone / Folk /
whatever-Psych" was ganz besonderes ist. Wild, ekstatisch, droney,
nur was für hartgesottene Psychedelic-Freaks! Aus Kroatien.
"CD edition of 500 numbered copies in a full color book bound case.
Simply amazing Croatian psych with special assistance from Makoto
Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple, ...) If the metallic mettle of these men
represents Dystopia, then forget Utopia, I wanna bang on Dystopia’s
drum all day! The sweet ‘n’ sour smell of Kraut explodes in carefully
paced salvos, and then goes completely off the rails. And then gets
crazier. And crazier. And crazier. And crazier. Until it reaches an
insane, almost unbearably heavy sonic crescendo, and then gets even
crazier. And crazier. And crazier. A thick, unending firestorm of napalm
psychedelia PUMMELS while its orbit decays into the swirling sounds of
slowly going mad. An audio illustration of a mescaline trip that gets too
close too enlightenment. Amon Duul II times ten to the fifth of
Beethoven! A truly massive attack!" [label info]
* SIGILLUM S - Terror Auto-Obstetrics maxi-CD (BloodLust!
B108, 2008)
€ 9.00
Re-Issue einer alten 7" von 1990 und zwei Compilation-Tracks anno
1991, re-mastered.
"Released to coincide with the very first USA Sigillum S show in the
Italian post-industrial audio project's 20+ year history, this EP pulls
together four songs originally released on AWB Recordings: "Terror
Auto-Obstetrics" and "Transkathartick Endoscopy" (7-inch, 1990), "Suck
Inside Thee Ov Bulb" (Effete compilation cassette, 1988), and
"Purulence Peaks, Hairy Knobs, And Death Disturbances" (Private
Thoughts compilation cassette, 1991). The tracks were re-mastered by
band member Eraldo Bernocchi. Sigillum S's ongoing explorations of
forbidden areas of the subconscious yields alien electronic mutations
that merge concrete noise research with acoustic transmigration, while
visuals and other media achieve maximum interaction intensity." [label
info]
* SHALABI EFFECT - Pink Abyss CD (Alien8 Recordings
ALIENCD42, 2004)
€ 14.00
Drittes Album von der kanadischen Band mit ALEXANDRE ST.ONGE,
SAM SHALABI und als Gästen Mitglieder von GODSPEED YOU
BLACK EMPOROR, die sich zwischen Experiment, ungewöhnlichem
Post-Rock und psychedelischen, aber auch orientalisch-osteuropäisch
folkigen anmutenden Wurzeln bewegen, mit viel Violinen-Einsatz und
Gesang von ELIZABETH ANKA VAJAGIC.. immer wieder
überraschend, kaum wirklich einzuordnen und deshalb soo gut.
Wurde mit AMM, ORGANUM und PINK FLOYD verglichen, aber auch
mit ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE und AMON DÜÜL, ist aber auch in
einem Atemzug zu nennen mit anderen nordamerikanischen Projekten
wie TANAKH und SET FIRE TO FLAMES.
"Der Orient ist in dieser Musik ähnlich präsent wie etwa im Agitation
Free-Klassiker Malesch, als psychedelischer Horizont, dem die
Imagination zustrebt. Elektronische Wolken oder ein Teppich aus
Streicherklängen sorgen für einen Flirreffekt, der die Alltagsprosaik
halluzinatorisch verflüssigt und die Seele trägt wie Salz im Toten Meer.
Schon der kurze Auftakt, ‘Message from the Pink Abyss‘, mit einer
Klarinette auf Evan Parker-Trip und immer neuen Schüben diffuser
Geräusche, stiftet wohlig-wehe Verwirrung, die einen hinein taumeln
lässt in die ‘Bright Guilty World‘, die Elizabeth Anka Vajagic mit
Louise Petts-Stimme zeichnet. Und ohne es zu merken gleitet man
hinüber in die dunklen Flötenklänge von ‘Shivapria‘, konstant ummantelt
vom dichten Schimmer mikrochromatischer Saitenschwingungen.
Und wiederum nahtlos driftet man weiter in ‘Blue Sunshine‘ mit seinem
elektronischen Gebrodel und einer von 4/4-Takten getragenen
Trompetenmelodie, die im Noisestrudel ertrinkt. Hier kann man erstmals
Luft holen, bevor die Oud und sandig knirschende Beats ein rituellmonotones, mit ‘Iron and Blood‘ reichlich seltsam betiteltes LaLa
anstimmen, das dann aber der auf einem Tablagroove erhaben dahin
schreitenden Gitarre weicht. Noch markanter dann das gezupfte und
geklopfte Webmuster von ‘Imps‘ in seinem Marschduktus mit rollenden
Drumsbeats und Steicherintensität, die im Schlund von ‘Deep Throat‘
verschwindet, einer ganz unpornografisch gegurrten Miniatur mit Flöte,
Violine und verstimmten Pianodreiklängen. In sonnverbrannter
Stoik schaukelt danach ‘We‘ll Never Make It Out Of Here Alive‘ durch
die Sanddünen. Alle Sinne beugen sich der orientalischen Fatalität,
deren intensive Glut einen Klangsturm entfacht, in dem das
Hirn wie Zunder aufflammt. Wenn sich die teleportierten Sinne wieder
öffnen, treiben sie - ‘Kinder Surprise‘ - in einem sanften Ambiente aus
Orgel- und weichen Gitarrensounds in einem Park mit Kinderstimmen
im Hintergrund. Doch das Sirren des Projektors markiert das Als-ob
dieser Vision. Eden ist nur ein Film, die Welt ein rauchender Vulkan,
das Leben ein Schauermärchenwald, durchstreift von Wesen
mit langen Schlachtermessern, denen weiß das Mondlicht auf den
Hintern scheint." [Bad Alchemy]
"Shalabi Effect refer their latest effort, Pink Abyss, as their 'pop record' - an apt description in comparison to their two previous releases. While
Pink Abyss retains elements of those efforts, there is decidedly more
emphasis placed on melody on this release, with more use of vocals
and more prominence given to the guitar. Without a doubt, it is Shalabi
Effect's most rocking effort thus far, featuring impeccable musicianship
and a brilliant and powerful recording quality that will blow away the
band's loyal following. Some highlights on Pink Abyss include 'Bright
Guilty World' (track 2), which features beautifully seductive vocal work
of Elizabeth Anka Vajagic who will be releasing a long-awaited solo
record on Constellation early next year. This piece moves along gently
at a slow patter, with an unusual combination of cracked electronics,
guitar and jazz-styled percussion giving it a very cinematic feel. The
somber chanting on 'I Believe in Love' (track 5) lends a deep eeriness
to the piece, also bearing a certain resemblance to the outsider folk that
is booming in the United States of late. Another absolute gem is the
* SIGUR ROS - Von CD (Smekkleysa SM 67 CD, 1997) € 14.00
Wieder lieferbar, die erste SIGUR ROS von 1997, damals noch weitaus
experimenteller und droniger als heutzutage...in einer hypersphärischen, frei fliessenden Art und Weise verbinden sich auf vielen
Stücken dunkles Grummeln, field recordings, Instrumentalklänge und
z.T. mehrstimmige Elfen-Gesänge zu geräuschhaften Dronescapes...
daneben gibt es Stücke die schon typische Song-Strukturen und
klassische SIGUR ROS Harmonien andeuten ... aber vieles klingt noch
reichlich anders, rauher, z.T. auch heftiger rockend, mit extremen
Studioeffekten & Cut-Ups versehen, wunderschön das folkige Titelstück
"VON".
"I remember the feeling that enveloped me the first time that I heard
Sigur Ros - a copy of Agaetis Byrjun played over the loudspeakers at
Vintage Vinyl in Fords, New Jersey (bless 'em) - my knees quivered, my
jaw dropped, and I had one of those all too rare musical epiphanies.
Subsequently, I worried that once acquainted with their lovely and
idiosyncratic music, it would never elicit quite the same genuine and
fresh response again. The reissue of the group's elusive debut, Von, on
One Little Indian, puts those misgivings to rest. It may be Sigur Ros's
debut, but it is as ambitious as albums come.
Yes, Von is a sprawling work - 72 minutes of sprawl - reveling in sonic
experiment, diverse in texture, and somewhat ambling in formal design:
so what? When layers of choir-boy vocals are added to the group's
singing ("Hun Joro"), when feeble, naturalistic sounds are used in
questing improvisations ("Sigur Ros"), or when acoustic instruments
coalesce with a swath of electronics ("Dogun"), you'll find your jaw on
the floor, too, stunned as ever." [Christian Carey / Junkmedia]
* SILVERMAN - State of the Union CD (Beta-lactam Ring
Records mt142/ Black Series negro18, 2007) [lim. 500] € 15.00
Wiederveröffentlichung der CDR die 2001 auf dem LPD eigenen
"Terminal Kaleidoscope"-Label erschien, jetzt mit 21minütigen BonusTrack, in der schönen "Black Series" von Beta-Lactam.
"The Silverman is one of the two remaining founding fathers of The
Legendary Pink Dots and this release serves partly as a sketch book of
ideas and stuff he did on a solo tour with the addition of a new 20
minute bonus track. The music by The Silverman only has a far away
resemblance of the Legendary Pink Dots, like just one layer is distilled
and used as the backbone of an entire new world. It could be described
by that dreaded term ambient, but it doesn't justify it. The sounds inside
this release are at times far too alien to be filled under ambient. It
moves along many different territories, ambient, cosmic, but it takes out
the best elements and it is presented in a rather own way. Music that is
like a disturbing dream, not a nightmare but a surrealistic dream."
[FdW / Vital Weekly]
* SILVERMAN - Blank for your own Message CD (Beta-lactam
Ring Records mt208, 2008) [lim. 500]
€ 15.00
"Available late Feb. 2008. First ed. of 500 copies in a full color book
bound case. Silverman should be given a degree in bio-melodics. This
most recent body of collaged constructions pulsates with aspects of a
living system. Slurred drones rush sonic corpuscles through electronic
capillaries, imparting breath to each track. An obscured, parenthetical
heart beat occasionally comes through as an unexpectedly metallic
panging in the background, mostly drowned out by the fluid dynamics of
localized subsystems playing out their various vital functions. Perhaps
each one of us DOES sound a little like a Javanese gamelan orchestra
inside if you hit the right spot. Cutting to find out is not advocated.
98
Silverman’s fantastic voyage sounds like a spiritual dissertation on
degrees of scale. The musical camera obscura sometimes finds
purchase on an atomic level, aurally zooming into the humming orbits of
individual atoms and even creeping up on the sounds of the electrons,
protons and neutrons themselves. With this beautifully ambient series of
orchestral maneuvers in the dark, Silverman may have found a tonal
replacement for Gray’s Anatomy." [label info]
"The Silverman aka Phil Knight is one of my favorite musicians in the
experimental ambient/drone scene. Over the past decennium he has
been responsible for some of the most beautiful ambient/meditative
music I've ever heard. His previous LP/CD for BLRR Nature Of Illusion
is one of the best albums in this genre I have heard in many-a-year.
The Silverman's solo albums have always been slightly overshadowed
by his work for the Legendary Pink Dots. This is a shame, as his solo
work deserves a place of its own. Perhaps this new CD Blank For Your
Own Message will do the trick. Starting off life as a "zen-opera" in seven
parts, the music here is more varied than Nature Of Illusion. BLRR
drops the term "bio-melodics". For once I have to agree. This actually
fits the music and the world of The Silverman. Although the music has
seven parts, the 43 minutes that make up this album are programmed
into one track. It is hard to tell the origin of some of the sounds; there
are traffic tapes and acoustic sounds (percussion, cow bells) of a more
ethnical nature, all mixed up with synthetic sounds. These combined
make up a very strong album. Packed in one of those typical BLRR
deluxe hard-carton sleeves, this is a great addition to the already great
discography of The Silverman." [FK / Vital Weekly]
gain better knowledge of oneself through this self-revisionistic ambient
journey filled with ethereally lush passages that give way to a truly
visionary and immersive experience. The album also features a special
collaboration with Par Bostrom of KAMMARHEIT. In fold out gatefold
cardboard sleeve. 7 Tracks. Running Time: 45:50." [label info]
* SION ORGON - The Zsigmondy Experience CD (Lumberton
Trading Company LUMBCD009, 2008)
€ 13.50
Zweites Album dieses Walisers aus dem COIL & THIGHPAULSANDRA
-Umfeld, der hier eine unglaubliche Stilvielfalt präsentiert. DroneSphären, wütender Post-Punk, freie elektronische GeräuschExperimente, deep melancholic Song-writing, verstörender Sci-FiSequenzer Noise... jedwede Erwartungshaltung oder einsetzendes
Schubladendenken wird nach jedem Stück gleich wieder zerstört. Dabei
spielt SION ORGON die meisten Instrumente selbst ein, bis zu 10
Leute helfen ihm aber bei den Stücken aus (wie bei dem epischen
dritten Stück "PAPER WINGS"). Ein absolut bemerkenswertes Album,
dessen riesige Bandbreite sich nach mehrmaligem Hören als grosser
Pluspunkt darstellt.
"The second album by Thighpaulsandra and Coil affiliate, once more
gushing splendidly with so many universe-mulching ideas that it's
difficult not to wonder what's floating around the air in his native Wales
these days. From menacing near-ambience and the massive, punk 'n'
Prog-bloated 'I'm in Blackout' to vocoded passages over the very same
electronic insanity that's spewed out Stockhausen and Xenakis, there's
much to wrestle with your mind's deepest and darkest corners here.
Collaborators include Coil's Sleazy, Mike Edwards (Jesus Jones'
singer), Frank Naughton (Rocketgoldstar and ex-Uziq) Gaz Williams
(Rocketgoldstar), The Grangetown String Ensemble, The Chung
Chinese Ensemble and many others." [label info]
* SILVESTER ANFANG - Kosmies Slachtafval CD (Aurora
Borealis ABX016, 2007) € 14.00
"Silvester Anfang hail from Flanders, channeling an ancient spirit of
blasphemous anarchy, transposing the nameless fiends of yore as freeflowing ritual psych occultic Flemish rock. Kosmies Slachtafval
(translation: "cosmic slaughterhouse sweepings/debris") sees Silvester
Anfang in dark, post-krautrock, heavy jam mode: guitars, bass, keys,
flute and percussion combine with vocals to create a doomy funeral
psych rich in the textures of ritual and worship. Through a series of
cassette tapes and CD-r's released in micro editions, the arcane
Belgians have garnered a fearsome and mysterious reputation for dark
intense musical outpouring and idolatry. We are very proud to foist their
first ever full length compact disc release onto an unsuspecting public.
Deluxe digipack with 12 page poster booklet." [label info]
* SITAAR-TAH! - Semimimimimin CD (aRCHIVE Recordings 32,
2008)
[ed. of 700]
€ 14.00
Ungewöhnliche Ethno-Sounds auf ARCHIVE, dem Label aus New
Jersey. SITAAR-TAH! ist ein asiatisches 22köpfiges "Orchester"
welches mit Sitar-, Tabla- und rauhen Obertongesangklängen in den
Hyper-Trance & Ekstasen-Raum vorstösst...
"Orchestra that provided the amazing musical backdrop for Keiji Haino
on the double disc archive release Animamima. The 22 piece unit is
back with this swarm of locus gem of a release. Graphic and design
work on the release by Stephen O’Malley features an outer cover that is
a four color silkscreen, beautifully executed by Alan Sherry of Siwa
records. Inside is a gorgeous photographic collage. Pressing of 700
copies." [label info]
"...a single 43 minute ascension this time featuring featuring a
khoomei/Tuvan throat singer, and hoo boy, it does not disappoint. The
group's sound swells gently to locust-swarm proportions, all the while
featuring pulsating percussion and recurring raga-esque motifs while
holding down more of a modern groove. Despite the sheer magnitude of
the group and its sound, the piece never really gets aggressive; rather,
its insistence continually rises, ebbs, and spirals upward to a liftoff
which begins about two-thirds into the piece, when the throat singing
begins and slowly but surely pushes things both upward AND forward."
[Downtownmusicgallery]
th
* SINKE DUS - Akrasia CD (Cyclic Law 19 Cycle, 2008) € 14.00
"Aus dem Land der Elche erreicht uns dieser Tage das Erstlingswerk
von Sinke Dûs. Marcus Lönebrink ist der Urheber hinter diesem
Projekts und wer jetzt den Namen mit Kammarheit verbindet liegt hier
auch nicht ganz falsch, hat selbiger doch schon bei deren Werk "The
Starwheel" ausgeholfen. Zeit also für dessen Künstler Pär Boström sich
mal zu revanchieren und bei "Akrasia" seinerseits seine
kompositorischen Fähigkeiten unter Beweis zu stellen, wenn auch nur
bei dem Track "Fortitude“. Das heißt nun aber auch nicht, dass Marcus
Lönebrink dies nötig hätte. Der Titel "Akrasia“ selbst steht für
Willensschwäche, bei diesem Werk kann man aber beileibe nicht von
Schwäche sprechen. Warme, gefühlvolle Melodien schleichen sich da
unter die Kompositionen, welche wunderbar anzuhören sind und den
einzelnen Stücken so etwas wie Wiedererkennungswert geben. Speziell
im Opener "The Premonition“ schimmern recht prägend Raison D'être
durch, ansonsten regieren hier Klangsphären welche in ihrer Stilistik
denen von Svartsinn und Kammarheit nicht unähnlich sind. Die Mittel,
mit welchen Sinke Dûs hier die Aufmerksamkeit des Hörers auf sich
ziehen sind zwar nicht neu, aber dennoch überzeugende
Kaufargumente. Der unspektakuläre Songaufbau mag zwar anfangs
erstmal etwas ernüchternd wirken, beinhaltet aber trotzdem
melancholische Elemente und nach wenigen Durchläufen offenbart sich
die musikalische Welt des Komponisten dem Hörer und sorgt für
gelungenen Atmosphäre im trauten Heim.
"Akrasia“ ist kein Werk zum 'nebenbei hören’ geworden, man sollte
diesem Teil schon das Gehör schenken, welches es auch benötigt. Ob
sich Sinke Dûs mit diesem Werk im mittlerweile recht überschwemmten
Dark Ambient Sektor jedoch ganz oben behaupten können bleibt
abzuwarten, zählen aber mit ihrem Erstlingswerk definitiv zu den
besseren Vertretern ihres Metiers." [Necroweb]
"Akrasia is an old question dealing with the weakness of the will. To
behave "akratically" is when one acts against his better judgement,
committing acts that are known to be wrong but yet still going through
with the motion. Markus Lonebrink wanted to explore not so much the
philosophical issues at hand, but rather the subjective experience of
akrasia itself. To learn of the underlying motives of when one acts
akratically. Certain events in the akratic process felt natural to him and it
was those he tried to integrate into these soundscapes. There are no
conclusions described in the music, but there might be a glimmer of
light at the end of the tunnel and perhaps the shadow of a hint of why
we humans sometimes act as irrationally as we do. A shared quest to
* SKITLIV - Amfetamin CD (Cold Spring Records CSR90CD,
2008) € 13.00
"...das norwegisch-schwedische Projekt Skitliv, hinter dem sich der
ehemalige Mayhem-Frontmann Maniac sowie Schwedens SuizidExport Nummer Eins, Kvarforth von Shining, verbergen. Mit
Unterstützung diverser hilfreicher Kumpanen haben die beiden ihr
Debut-Scheibchen "Amfetamin" realisiert und nehmen damit direkten
Einfluss auf das zentrale Nervensystem eines jeden Konsumenten.
Wahrhaft kranke Kost bekommt man nämlich geboten, was angesichts
der beiden Bandleader nicht weiter verwundert. Black Noise, Doom
oder etwas derartiges zelebrieren Maniac und Kvarforth mit Skitliv und
können sich vieler Sympathien besonders aus dem Lager der ShiningAnhänger sicher sein. Zäh und klebrig zeigt sich das Songwriting, mal
psychedelisch, mal geisteskrank und chaotisch. Samples und
Synthesizer beherrschen die Szenerie, die nur ein Ziel verfolgen: Die
Nerven der Hörerschaft zu zerfetzen und schaudernde Klangbilder von
Schmerz, Verzweiflung und Tod auf deren Unterbewusstsein zu
projezieren. Nach dem eigentlichen "Amfetamin"-Tonmaterial folgt noch
die Aufnahme eines Londoner Live-Konzertes aus dem Jahre 2007,
welche instrumental eine weniger gekünstelte und wesentlich
authentischere Atmosphäre vermittelt und eine für Live-Aufnahmen
erstaunlich hochwertige Tonqualität aufweist. Nur schwerlich ist die an
den Tag gelegte Stilistik zu beschreiben - am besten wirft man Shining,
Bethlehem und Sunn O))) in einen Topf, kocht das ganze gut auf und
rührt kräftig um - fertig.
An Skitliv bedienen sollten sich demnach wirklich ausschliesslich
Gemüter, die schwerstverdauliche Kost gewöhnt sind und
strapazierbare Trommelfelle, Nervenstränge und Magenschleimhäute
99
ihr Eigen nennen. Alle Anhänger satanischer Schrammelorgien und
paganer Erhabenheit lassen besser die Finger von "Amfetamin" - das
ist einfach die falsche Baustelle. An sich jedoch ein faszinierendes
Werk, welches gewaltig zünden wird, sofern es denn auf die passenden
Konsumenten stösst." [Schwermetall.ch]
"Exclusive release from the Doom / Noise project of Maniac (exMAYHEM), featuring Kvarforth (SHINING), and with special guest
vocals by Attila (SUNN O))), MAYHEM). From Black Metal through
Funeral Doom and Demonic Noise, Skitliv cover all the bases in modern
extreme sonics. The CD version includes bonus tracks from Skitliv's live
performance at the Camden Underworld, London, 13th December
2007, with a special intro from CURRENT 93 (David Tibet & Andrew
Liles)." [label info]
"... Abusive storms of harsh noise add a quite interesting supplement to
the spheres of metallic steel. A quite interesting album that shows that
the mixture of metal and electronic expression can end up with a very
interesting result. Thus recommended for listeners of both electronic
and metal music." [NM/ Vital Weekly]
* SKORPIO, NIKO - Half Born in Half Light CD (Some Place Else
SPECD08049, 2008)
€ 12.00
Music like an occult electro-acoustic nightmare-earplay ! Really sinister!
Welcome to NIKO SKORPIOS theatre!
"Half Born in Half Light" is based on the foundations of psychedelic
ambient soundscapes and darkly majestic bass drone, over which tribal
rhythms and magickal vocal invocations build grotesque alien monoliths
whose angles mock the euclidean mathematics of conventional
composition. Niko Skorpio is not restricted to one particular genre, but
draws on many sources. This makes the music colourful and diverse,
yet it remains coherent and has the artist’s unique fingerprints all over
(this time literally in the cover as well). If we are to give it a label, let’s
call it 'Hermetic Fusion Musick'. CD comes with gorgeously designed
12-panel leaflet with art, photos, liner notes etc. Edition of 1000 copies."
[label info]
“Visionary, experimental, magickal and evocative, the new work by Niko
Skorpio Half Born in Half Light is a blend of ritualistic scenarios and
music experimentations. … What impressed me most is the balanced
sound mix and the crispness of sounds. This ability into giving the right
space to sounds help a lot the creation of a functioning audio world
where the listener is surrounded by hypnotic a semi psychedelic
atmospheres.” [Chain D.L.K.]
rd
* SKULLFLOWER - 3 Gatekeeper CD (Crucial Blast CBR63,
2008) € 13.00
Vielleicht das beste Album der "frühen" SKULLFLOWER,
wiederaufgelegt ! "Noise-Rock" im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes !
"Nachdem Crucial Blast 2005 und 2006 die aktuellen Alben der
reanimierten SKULLFLOWER veröffentlichten, legen sie jetzt das
ursprünglich 1992 auf Justin Broadricks (GODFLESH, JESU) Label
HeadDirt erschienene Album "IIIrd Gatekeeper" neu auf, das für viele
als das unübertroffene Meisterwerk der Band gilt. Die 1987 aus TOTAL
und PURE hervorgegangenen SKULLFLOWER entstammen zwar der
englischen Power-Electronics-Szene, benutzten aber im Gegensatz zu
Bands wie WHITEHOUSE oder CONSUMER ELECTRONICS keine
(oder kaum) Elektronik, sondern behielten wie ihre Bruderband
RAMLEH eine klassische Rock-Instrumentierung bei und entfernten
sich beim Songwriting nicht allzu sehr von gängigen Rock-Strukturen.
Bis 1996 veröffentlichten SKULLFLOWER in wechselndem Line-up (nur
Gitarrist Mathew Bower und Schlagzeuger Stuart Dennison waren
Konstanten, zudem fand ein ständiger Austausch mit RAMLEH statt)
diverse Alben und EPs auf Labels wie Broken Flag, Shock, VHF,
HeadDirt und sogar SFTRI, danach machte Bower wieder mit TOTAL
sowie seinem neuen Projekt SUNROOF! weiter. Seit 2005 betreibt
Bower SKULLFLOWER im Alleingang und die Noise-Drones, die er auf
den beiden Alben seit der "Reunion" erschaffen hat, sind mit dem, was
man 1992 noch als Trio einspielte, nicht zu vergleichen. Zwar war auch
"IIIrd Gatekeeper" in erster Linie ein schwer zu verdauender Brocken
größtenteils instrumentaler Monotonie, aber statt Soundscapes gab es
hier noch tiefe Bassläufe, ein echtes Schlagzeug und brutale, krachige
Gitarren, statt Kakophonie zwar noisige und teils psychedelische, aber
immer nachvollziehbare Songs, die sich eher in der Nähe von Bands
wie GODFLESH und SWANS bewegten als in der des Industrials. Und
so faszinierend die aktuellen Platten Bowers auch sein mögen, so
fantastisch hypnotisch und brachial wie hier gefallen mir
SKULLFLOWER wesentlich besser. "IIIrd Gatekeeper" gilt zu Recht als
Genre-Klassiker." [Andre Bohnensack / OX-Fanzine]
"A reissue of Skullflower's acclaimed 1992 album IIIrd Gatekeeper,
featuring the lineup of Matthew Bower (guitar), Stuart Dennison (drums
and vocals), and Anthony DiFranco (bass). IIIrd Gatekeeper is an
immensely heavy album that was originally released on HeadDirt, the
label run by Justin Broadrick of Godflesh/Jesu/Final fame back in the
early 90's, and featured Skullflower at their heaviest, grinding out slow,
sludgy riffs and crushing, almost industrial rhythms amid a tempest of
psychedelic guitar noise and dense sheets of feedback - easily the most
crushing, rock-based music that Skullflower ever produced. IIIrd
Gatekeeper served up a skulldozing dose of post-industrial dirge rock
that sat comfortably next to Godflesh, Swans, and Ramleh in terms of
dark, druggy, hypnotic lumbering heaviness. This is one of our favorite
albums ever at Crucial Blast, and we are presenting this reissue with
new liner notes, a new package design that retains all of the original
artwork from the HeadDirt release, and a remastering job courtesy of
Scott Hull at Visceral Sound." [label info]
* SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY - Nostromo CD (Cold Spring
Records CSR34CD, 2001) € 13.00
Wiederveröffentlichung des S.R.F. Debut-Albums, die später auch CDs
auf MANIFOLD hatten...
"Ultra deep ambience, based on the first 8 minutes of the movie 'Alien'
which depicts the deep space haulage vessel slowly moving through
the void. The disc takes you through a slow trip into the ship via tracks
DECK A - E, deeper and deeper into the bowels of the 'Nostromo'.
Colossal dark ambience from the abyss, with beautiful artwork that
evokes the sinister atmosphere of the ship. Reissue with bonus track
'Narcissus'." [label notes]
* SMEGMA - Glamour Girl 1941 + Pigface Chant CD (Japan
Overseas J097-28, 1997) € 13.00
"This 1997 CD reissue of vintage gorked-out wahoo originally released
by Los Angeles Free Music Society in the late '70s includes four bonus
tracks (the Pigface Chant 7-inch). A bizarre combo of the tape-loopsand-nonsense later perfected by Negativland, the meandering skronk of
Jandek or Gate, and the nightmarish hippie meltdowns of the No-Neck
Blues Band and their offshoots. Past collaborations include Wild Man
Fischer, Merzbow, Blue Oyster Cult lyricist and rock critic Richard
Meltzer and Stooges sax-man Steve Mackay." [label info]
* STROM.EC - Divine Legions beyond Psyche CD (Malignant
Records TUMORCD32, 2008) € 13.00
"Anschnallen lautet die Devise, denn die wahnsinnigen Finnen von
Strom.ec sind wieder los! "Divine Legions Beyond Psyche" lautet der
aktuelle Anschlag, welcher zart besaiteten Seelen das Leben schwer
machen und Anhänger derber Power Electronics dagegen in
Verzückung versetzen dürfte. Jasse Tuukki und Toni Myöhänen sind
mit ihrem Projekt in der Welt der deftigen Klänge längst keine
Unbekannten mehr, existieren doch bereits mehrere Tonträger dieser
talentierten Lärmbrüder. Eingeleitet wird dieser heftige Bastard mit
"Helvetin Esikartano", einem Titel, welcher aufgrund seiner räudigen
und verzerrten Artikulierung - die übrigens das komplette Album füllt sofort begeistern kann. Sehr gekonnt wirkt dabei auch der ruhige
Mittelteil, welcher jedoch keine längere Atempause zulässt. Der
musikalische Terror findet nämlich seine Fortsetzung im folgenden
"Security Council", dass im fortgeschrittenen Stadium enorm prägenden
Charakter erhält. "Pulsating Cranium" ist ein weiteres Beispiel, wie
wuchtig da angestaute Energie hervorbrechen und Eindruck
hinterlassen kann. Überaus bedrohlich wirkende Elemente beherbergt
"Divine Legions Beyond Psyche Part 1", bevor im anschließenden Teil
das Klanggewitter ausgeweitet wird (dieses dürfte jedoch mehr ein
Experiment als Song darstellen). Wie hart man wirklich ist, kann mit
"Vitaalinen Olomuoto" getestet werden, das mit seiner langen Spielzeit
doch einiges an Ausdauer erfordert. "Divine Legions Beyond Psyche"
sollte unbedingt laut konsumiert werden, so hinterlassen die teils
ungestümen und dennoch kontrollierten Klangflächen immense
Wirkung beim Hörer. Strom.ec stehen somit auch 2008 für brachiale
Power Electronics - ebenso begeisternd wie auch zerstörerisch.
Verehrer von IRM sowie Institut dürfen nicht zögern!" [Necroweb]
"With their fifth full length CD, Finlands Strom.ec continue to
further explore the far regions of power electronics, challenging the
confines and stretching the boundary of the genre, sculpting new
and innovative creations that are uniquely their own. Having been
under construction for over seven years, Divine Legions shows
Strom.ec with a majestic control of their craft, offering 8 tracks
(including one 21 minute epic to close the CD out!) of powerful and
explosive industrial music, full of volatile frequencies, brain bending,
enigmatic atmospheres, hallucinatory noise, and the trademark vocal
assault that few acts can rival. Presented in a luxurious 8-panel
DVDigipak, designed by Jerome Nougaillon, Divine Legions Beyond
Psyche represents Strom.ec at their finest, most creative form, having
reached a pinnacle in an already illustrious." [label info]
* SUDDEN INFANT - Psychotic Einzelkind CD (Blossoming Noise
BN036CD, 2008) € 13.00
"Founder Joke Lanz has paired up with Bill Kouligas & Christian Weber
to create the most musical & realized Sudden Infant studio recording to
date. Psychotic Einzelkind clocks just over 71 minutes & features three
remixes by Z'EV, Lasse Marhaug, & Thurston Moore." [label info]
100
* SUN OF THE SEVENTH SISTER - Farben Raum CD (Head
Worse Records HW-04, 2007)
€ 13.00
Das totale Freak-Orchester aus Australien, bis zu 25 Mitspieler! Diese
Aufnahme stammt vom Februar 2007, ein vielschichtiges Impro-Chaos,
welches aber recht gemächlich und "slow" bis düster daher kommt (und
teils mit deutschen (!) Sprechgesang in FAUSTischer Manier. Für
Freunde von NIHILIST SPASM BAND, BORBETOMAGUS, AMM,...
auf dem RATS WITH WINGS-Label!
"Following on from their 2007 New Zealand tour triple lathe cut LP, and
6 cassette boxset on Breakdance The Dawn, comes Farben Raum, the
debut CD by Sun of the Seventh Sister. This floating line-up, mushroom
fuelled free-psych woolly mammoth often consists of a phalanx of
between 10 and 25 players: multiple drummers, multiple electrified
chordophones, horns, vocals, oscillators etc. Imagine half a dozen
freak-folk ensembles congealing into a psychedelic din of Borbetomagian proportions. On this occasion SSS comprised members of
xNoBBQx, UnAustralians, Arse Lunch, Cock Up Shitting Whore, Rats
With Wings, Stasis Duo and others. The CD consists of 3 immense
tracks, taken from a 3 hour straight session, lovingly recorded by the
Pulled Out mobile unit, with mastering analysis for Heard Worse
Records by DJ Beefcurtains." [label notes]
* SUNS OF ARQA - Re-mixs MUSLIMGAUZE
CD (Soleilmoon
Recordings SOL 158, 2007)
[lim. 500]
€ 14.50
Volle Version (21 tracks) der SUNS OR ARQA-Remixe von
MUSLIMGAUZE (rec. 1996), ein süchtigmachender und ausufernder
"Oriental-Dub" Trance-Dance Hybrid in vielen Variationen. Wieder im
speziellen Cover!
"IMPORTANT NOTE: Some of the material on this CD was previously
released with different mixes on on the SPV Poland CD "Muslim Gauze
the Suns of Arqa Mixes" (Arka CD 22120). This new Soleilmoon release
has six previously unreleased songs..... When Satoshi Morita
introduced Muslimgauze to Suns of Arqa he had a good hunch the two
musicians would form a connection. Bryn Jones (Muslimgauze) and
Michael Wadada (Suns of Arqa) were already deeply immersed in the
kinds of rhythmic music made far from England’s rainy shores. Jones’
fascination with the cause of Palestine found an outlet through his
prolific musical output, and Wadada’s interest in Jamaican reggae and
Eastern mysticism was likewise reflected in his own recordings. But
they moved in different circles and had never crossed paths, despite
living relatively close to one another. Bryn Jones in particular was well
known for his reclusiveness and lack of curiosity about other music (and
musicians), so it’s no surprise that it took a Japanese label owner to
bring them together. Morita knew both men individually, liked their
music enough to release it on his label Gift, and intuitively saw the
potential in a collaboration between the two. He arranged an
introduction in 1996, and like a spark landing on dry tinder, a musical
firestorm blew up that summer. Several collaborations-by-mail were
produced in the two-and-a-half years preceding Jones’ sudden and
unexpected death in January 1999 from a fungal infection of the blood.
The final sessions are presented today on this CD. “Suns of Arqa ReMixs Muslimgauze” tips the scales at nearly 74 minutes , with 21 songs
forming an unmistakable hybrid of the two bands’ styles. Wadada’s
Carribean beats pulse and flow alongside Jones’ staccacto gunshot
rhythms in a true blending of the two artists’ music. While it’s true that
Bryn Jones is gone, we take comfort knowing that Muslimgauze lives on
in the creative expression of the multitude of musicians who’s lives he
touched. For Wadada, this album will stand as a lasting tribute to a
friend and creative collaborator. At Soleilmoon, packaging and
presentation are never overlooked. This CD is presented in a square
black folder made of sugar cane fibers, and the whole thing is covered
with a translucent vellum over-wrap. Only 500 copies of this handsome
CD have been made." [label info]
* SUPERSILENT - 8 CD (Rune Grammofon RCD2067, 2007)
€ 15.00
"Inzwischen sind wir bei Supersilent 8 (RCD 2067), Dazwischen liegt
ein beständig sich verändernder Klangfluss von harschem Free Noise
(1-3) über Electrojazz (4) zu ambienten Soundscapes (5 & 6). 8
entstand, wie schon die Rune-Grammofon-Klassiker 1-3, Luggumt oder
Raus Aus Stavanger, im Athletic-Sound-Studio in Halden. Alles ist
improvisiert, aus 5 Stunden wurden 66 Minuten ausgewählt und von 1
bis 8 durchnummeriert, es gibt keine Overdubs. Abstraktion, oder
nennen wir es besser Absolutheit, und Kollektivität sind Trumpf. Als
Klangquellen dienen Audio Virus & Gitarre, Keyboards & Synthesizers,
Drums, Trumpet, Voice & Electronics. Neologismen wie
FutuRhythMachine (K. Eshun) oder SonicFriction (T. Berne) sind
notwendig, um der Nowness von Supersilents Trips halbwegs gerecht
zu werden. Mit Supersilent unterwegs sein, heißt Niemandsland
durchstreifen. Das Neuland hat gemeinsame musikalische Grenzen
allenfalls mit Ektroland und Neuseeland. Fremdartig monotone, oder
krumme Sun-Ra-Takte (8.3!), raues, rockfernes Gitarrengedröhn,
Gebrabbel und Singsang, als ob der Geist von Leif Elggren unter einem
Bett hervor kröche (8.5). Der Hall einer Possible-Worlds- Trompete von
weit draußen, der Hauch einer ‚Flöte‘, immer wieder ‚psychedelische‘
und ‚spaceige‘ Raumzeitverformungen durch Keyboards und
Electronics. 8 ist wie eine Prellung, die schillernd aufblüht,
gleichzeitig zeitlupig und gerafft auf eine Stunde, vielleicht weil der
Bluterguss einen ganzen Raumquadranten verfärbt. Manchmal
bleibt nur ein Zwitschern und aleatorisches Zucken wie von
einschlagendem Sternenstaub, dazu Kopfstimmengesang
(8.6). Plötzlich ein Freerock-Blitzgewitter, ein donnerndes,
schneidendes Inferno (8.7)! Mit einem finalen Gerumpel. Als Epilog
dann wieder Getröpfel. Und enigmatische Spaceharmonik. Die pure
Alienpoesie." [Bad Alchemy]
"Helge Sten, Ståle Storløkken, Arve Henriksen and Jarle Vespestad
celebrate 10 years as a groundbreaking quartet with their first studio
album in almost 5 years. Their music lives in a no-man's-land between
the genres, somewhere between rock, electronica, jazz and modern
composition. Yes, we say composition because when listening it´s not
far fetched to think it could have been, although everything here is
improvised, as it has always been with Supersilent. With ”8” they have
yet again re-invented themselves, exploring more abstract and
mysterious pathways and ending up even further away from traditional
categories. The album is produced by Deathprod and mastered by US
mastering guru Bob Katz." [press release]
".... Another excellent, original Supersilent effort, with the use/abuse of
vocals opening up some new dimensions to their sound. Parts of
Supersilent 8 give us the idea we're listening to some sort of really
strange field recording, the documentation of the fracturing of an
iceberg, the swarmings of bugs, or the language of birds or bats, when
in fact this is a very human-activated, machine- mediated, far-fromnatural audio document. Of course at other times on this album that fact
is quite evident! Indeed, Supersilent 8 also is the closest these "deathjazzers" have come to making rock album, especially when the super
distorted, hazy murk of psychedelic howling almost garage-rock-improv
pummel of track 7 is taken into account." [Aquarius Records]
* SVASTI-AYANAM - Sanklesa CD (Eternal Pride Productions
EPP010, 2007)
€ 13.00
Wer sich schon immer eine Melange aus tibetischer Ritual-Musik und
perkussiver ambient Industrial-Trance und dunklen Maschinen-Drones
gewünscht hat, liegt bei SVASTI-AYANAM genau richtig ! Dies ist die
Wiederveröffentlichung eines lange vergriffenen Albums von 1998 vom
RAISON D'ETRE-Seitenprojekt, enthält 2 Bonus-Tracks!
"Svasti-ayanam is Peter Andersson's foray into dark, Tibetan-Nepalese
ambience. Andersson is well known for his work as Raison D'etre,
Atomine Elektrine etc. In this incarnation, his signature Raison D'etre
sound has been modified in an incredibly pronounced, and effective
way. Sanklesa is marked by strong tribal rhythms that draw the listener
into distant, foreign, ritual soundscapes. Andersson has released a
prolific catalogue of music, that includes many CD's, limited vinyl and
countless compilation appearances. Album incl. 2 exlusive bonustracks." [label info]
* SZKIEVE - Chants et Danses Folkoriques des Hauts Plateaux
CD (Rape Art Prod. RAP-CD #031, 2008) € 12.00
Nach der "Ekranoplanes" mCD auf Ant-Zen was neues vom BelgoKanadier SZKIEVE, er verwendet auf den neun Stücken analog-synth
sounds, schillernde organ drones & haufenweise field recordings, die
mit bestimmten Plätzen & Geschichten Ekuadors verbunden sind.
Abwechslungsreiche Soundgemälde...
"Experimental sound composer from Belgium, actually he is living in
Canada. Dimitri Della Faille the man behind Szkieve started with his
project at 1998 also, he founded on this year Hushush label. Szkieve
has performed some concerts in Europe, America, Japan & China,
previous records were released at Hushush label, Ant-Zen, Ad
Noiseman and others. This new record enclose an amazing mixture of
deep sounds with some short ambient parts on 9 tracks. Each track title
has a reference about old Ecuadorian stories of different places. Limited
edition of 300 copies, full color art works & packaged in PVC sleeve."
[label info]
* TAFJORD, HILD SOFIE - Kama CD (Pica Disk PICA003, 2007)
€ 13.00
Erstes Solo-Album von HILD SOFIE TAFJORD, die sich in den letzten
Jahren in der free Impro & Industrial-Noise-Szene (v.a. als eine Hälfte
von FE-MAIL) einen Namen gemacht hat. "KAMA" beginnt wunderbar
ruhig und dicht, bevor sich das Stück immer mehr aufbläht und sich
langsam ein Tor zu einer anderen Welt auftut... gefüllt mit
Maschinennoises, wellenden Feedbacks, verzerrten & gequälten
Sound-Objekten... aber sie kommt zurück zur Stille, wo sich weitere
"Wege" und Überraschungen ergeben... eine hervorragende
Geräusch-Komposition mit bruitistischen Anteilen, durchdacht &
spannend arrangiert; das schöne Cover rundet diesen Release ab, den
wir nur uneingeschränkt empfehlen können.
101
"Hild Sofie Tafjord has been known to the public for over a decade as
part of projects like SPUNK, Fe-Mail (her duo with Maja Ratkje), Agrare
(Fe-Mail with dancer Lotta Melin), Trinacria (Fe-Mail with black
metallers Enslaved) and collaborations with Birchville Cat Motel, Wolf
Eyes, Matmos, Ikue Mori, Otomo Yoshihide, Carlos Giffoni, Zeena
Parkins, Fred Frith and countless others. She has released albums on
labels like Asphodel, Rune Grammofon, ECM and Gameboy Records.
Her main instrument is the horn, but other acoustic instruments as well
as metal objects and noise electronics has always been an intregral
part of her pallet. Hild Sofie Tafjord is, quite simply, an amazing
performer, composer and improvisor with a broad musical range. After
consistent touring and performing around the world for years she has
built a big fan-base of people who all ask themself:
When the hell is Hild Sofie going to record her solo album?
Finally, the wait is over. KAMA is here. A monumental 41 minute
colossal single-track of an album recorded in the period from summer
2006 to february 2007 during dark nights in her studio in Oslo.
KAMA is mostly made from the sound of her french-horn; although if
you didn't know it you probably wouldn't have guessed. Layers upon
layers of distorted, processed and mangled pieces of sound form a
consistent stream of sonic bliss. Within this massive sound-construction
slowly shapes build into an epic climax. The title KAMA hits at few
interpretations. A quick wikipedia search tells us that KAMA could be a
number of things; a double edged dagger, iron pots used in tea
ceremonies, and indian for lust (as in kama sutra). Well, who cares
what it means when it feels and sounds this good?! Hild Sofie Tafjord's
debut album is here, and it has been worth the wait." [label info]
"You could wonder if an active improviser as Hild Sofie Tafjord needs a
solo record? She is a member of Spunk, Fe-Mail, Agrare, Trinacria as
well as an improviser with Wolf Eyes, Matmos, Birchville Cat Motel, Ikue
Mori, Fred Frith and many more. I wonder: when does she have the
time to record anything solo? At night, it seems, from the summer of
2006 to the winter of 2007, in her studio in Oslo, we find her with a
French horn. It says so on the cover, as it's not easy to believe. There
are traces of a French horn in the opening bits of this work, but sooner
than later things explode into quite a noise blast of distortion, grunting
tones. It might be a French horn. It might. However don't expect this to
be a work that is a full on blast throughout towards the very end of the
disk. It's much more than that. Tafjord knows how to pull back the
brutality and you can find here producing raw, loud, but sparse tones,
somewhere around the fifteen minute mark, before building up again.
Fifteen minutes and through another cascade of noise, the work finds
itself in a rather heavy rhythmic mood - deep pulsating, almost like early
industrial music. 'Kama' is a noisy beast, but it's more than just being a
noisy beast. Tafjord uses the right amount of computerized doodling in
combination with shifting textures to deliver a great release. Great noise
this is." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* TAZARTES, GHEDALIA - Hysterie Off Music CD (Jardin ou fou
FOUCD002, 2007) € 14.00
Der "neue" TAZARTES anno 2007 klingt nicht weniger sperrig,
anstrengend & expressiv wie der "alte", aber er benutzt ganz andere
klangliche Mittel, z.B. wilde Gitarrensamples, Synthesizer, Chansonartiges - wie ein wildgewordener ARANOS klingt es mitunter, stets
durchzogen von TAZARTES unverwechselbaren Gesang...pathetisch,
melancholisch, aber auch total manisch und "ver-rückt" !
"2007. In the beginning, Hystérie off Music was conceived as a
catalogue-record, playing with musical genres. It evolved quickly to
unveil new landscapes of Ghédalia Tazartès' universe. Tender, funny,
but also scary, infernal, this new album is, according to its author, his
most accomplished to date, a true movie for the ear." [label info]
* TENHORNEDBEAST / MARZURAAN - split CD (Aurora Borealis
ABX021, 2008)
€ 13.00
Zwei lange Stücke auf dieser Split der Bands aus UK. Unfassbar weiten
& mächtigen, fast halbstündigen DOOM-DRONE produzieren
TENHORNEDBEAST, die früher als ENDVRA aktiv waren.
MARZURAAN ist die zweite Inkarnation von RYN, und sie rocken hier
weniger metallisch-krachig, sondern in wunderbarer ultra-minimaler
JESU-Manier... Spezielles ausgestanztes Cover.
"Aurora Borealis is proud to present this split CD by two of the lesser
known greats from the Northeast of England. TENHORNEDBEAST is
the dark vision of Christopher Walton, part of the much feted ENDVRA,
masters of 90s dark and occult ambient. 'Law of the needle', clocking in
at over 28 minutes, is an oppressive opus of doomed drone, both
monolithic and multifaceted. Pure power. "elongated, sinister drone,
...distant, echoing string resonance from bowed guitars and cold, steely
walls of distortion" think the good folks at Boomkat, as well they may.
MARZURAAN contribute 'Into countless battles', 13 minutes of narcotic
guitar haze. I think this is my favourite of anything they have done to
date. So good, you never want it to end. The gruff metal grunts of the
'Solid Wood' LP have been replaced by a subdued, almost crushed
vocal, totally stands out. "acres of textured guitar, low end pressure and
brooding drums" say Boomnkat. Can't wait to hear more from
MARZURAAN - this is epic, like a bassier, looser, Mogadon dosed
JESU with a man past caring roped in to give his thoughts on where its
all gone wrong. Pete from MARZURAAN did the artwork and layout.
Printed on heavy textured card and with 2 diecut runes. Comes in a pvc
bag." [label info]
" Every once in a while, someone will release a record, and we can't
help but feel like it was made specifically for us. And for you. Some
records just perfectly speak to the aQ aesthetic, as undefinable as that
seems to be. This is another one of those cases. Someone thought it
would be a perfect combination to match up UK one man ambient drone
outfit Tenhornedbeast, with UK slow motion doomlords Marzuraan. And
it is perfect. And a fantastic idea, but just because something is a great
idea, doesn't always mean someone thinks of it. And we're not saying
we had been thinking someone should get these two bands together
specifically, we're just glad they did, and we sort of wish we HAD
thought of it. But that's neither here nor there. The important thing is
that it happened, and now we can all luxuriate in the deep dark
heaviness both of these bands explore. And while the bands are indeed
different, their aesthetics are not all that far removed. The both exist in
some blackened nether region, haunting sonic realms, where heaviness
can be expressed in both utter darkness and extreme force, sometimes
both, and once in awhile neither.
Tenhornedbeast offer up a nearly 30 minute long sonic ritual, beginning
as a bit of swirling black minimalism, but slowly building to a truly
intense wall of doomdrone, the sound thick and textured, a churning
cauldron of low end buzz and downtuned disembodied riffs, all brought
to a boil and poured out in a viscous black torrent, left to flow like some
subterranean river. But these deep drones are laced with melodies, and
keening high end shards, allowed to shine forth occasionally, but often
swallowed up before they can fill those caves with their unnatural light.
The track continually changes shape, sound and timbre, various shades
of grey and black, lightening and darkening as the landscape changes,
a haunting journey through some lost world, where sound replaces
sight, allowing us to navigate ever deeper.
Marzuraan counter with what must be one of their prettiest tracks ever.
It's still sludgey and doomy, but the notes ring out, the melodies almost
soar, the sound fuzzy and glimmering, almost like these guys have
caught the shoegaze bug as well. Washed out and blissy, super
melodic and melancholy, but the coolest part is that the track seems to
warble and waver, almost like someone is manually adjusting the tape
speed, so the notes sound drunken and drugged, the track lurches and
weaves drunkenly, only adding to the haunting and off kilter beauty.
Part way through, the riffs get a little more riffy, and then the vocals
come in, a moaning distant croon, and we're most definitely in serious
Jesu territory, but that weird speed shifting hitch, keeps it from sounding
too pretty, or two blissy. But if these guys keep heading in this direction,
they could definitely give Jesu, and Nadja and other metallic
shoegazers a run for their money.
The packaging is super swank, a three panel gatefold, each of
the front panels diecut with each band's symbol, printed inside and
out, housed in a thick plastic sleeve with a sticker affixed to the
front." [Aquarius Records review]
* TENHORNEDBEAST - The Sacred Truth CD (Cold Spring
Records CSR77CD, 2007)
€ 13.00
"From the ashes of Dark Ambient legends Endvra the TenHornedBeast
is rising. Cryptic, menacing atmospheres erupt from droning chasms of
feedback. On an altar of horn and fire "The Sacred Truth" is revealed.
An ultra doom / drone epic! Presented in a matt-laminate, spotvarnished digipak. TenHornedBeast is Christopher Walton." [label info]
"With a past in the British dark ambient-project Endura in joint venture
with Stephen Pennick, Christopher Walton knows exactly how to create
atmospheres of the disturbingly black kind. His solo-project
"Tenhornedbeast" is like a trip back to the early days of death industrial.
The expression on the five intersections of the album is repetitive and
slowly moving, though the approach to dark minimalism varies on the
overall album. With drones based on orchestration of the dark kind the
associations from beginning of the album stylishly turns towards the
Cold Meat Industry-scene, more precisely towards the lesser harsh
moments of Brighter Death Now around the "Necrose Evangelicum"period. From fourth intersection titled "In the teeth of the wolf", the
drones becomes more guitar-based in the gloomy drone-rock style
characterizing the expression of Sunn O))), with a dark ambient-based
touch reminding of Lustmord and early british industrial/metal-ambientproject Saw Throat (aka SoreThoat ). The true power of this album is
Christopher Walton ability to create cinematic atmospheres of trancelike hypnotism with this great mixture of acoustic and synthetic.
Impressive album." [NM / Vital Weekly]
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* THIGHPAULSANDRA - The Clisto mCD (Klanggalerie gg116,
2007) [lim.500]
€ 10.00
"Next to being a fantastic solo artist, Thighpaulsandra is also known for
his great work with groups such as Spiritualized, Coil and Cyclobe. On
this limited edition EP, we bring your four exclusive compositions that
range from rock to avant garde. Originally intended as a 7" vinyl, we
have now expanded the running time and bring you 21 minutes of new
music by this brilliant UK composer." [label info]
* THISQUIETARMY - Unconquered CD (Foreshadow FSHCD007,
2008) € 13.00
Debut-CD dieses Montreal Gitarren-Drone Projekts von ERIC QUACHwie auch bei NADJA werden z.T. heftige Gitarren, Loops & Beat-Box
benutzt, aber trotzdem klingt THISQUIETARMY ganz anders, weniger
"metallig", introvertierter, mit abgefahrenen Gitarren-Effekten, gipfelnd
in dem Song "THE GREAT ESCAPIST" mit "richtigen" Lyrics, gesungen
von MERYEM YILDIZ.... auf dem ersten Stück ist übrigens AIDAN
BAKER als Gast mit von der Partie... to discover!
"THISQUIETARMY is a solo project from a young talented Canadabased artist Eric Quach. He is also known for being a guitarist in a
renowned shoe-gaze band DESTROYALLDREAMERS. As
THISQUIETARMY, he explores never-ending spectrum of guitar
ambience and loop drone sounds. From the mellow opening of
“Immobilization”, through grandiose “Battlefield Arkestrah” and “The
Sun Destroyers”, gloomy “Death of a Sailor”, to closing notes of
“Empire”, Eric Quach manages to capture the essence of contemporary
alternative guitar experimentation while maintaining disturbing but also
captivating aural atmosphere. “Unconquered” presents this musical
project as consciously standing among the best artists of this genre,
which is symbolized by the guest appearance of Aidan Baker. On the
other hand, THISQUIETARMY, already on his debut album, looks far
into the future and crosses the boundaries, the best sign of which are
the clean female vocals of Meryem Yildiz in one of the tracks –
something not common in the field of ambient drone guitar music. Eric’s
experience in DESTROYALLDREAMERS, numerous live erformances,
brave open mind and genuine artistic freedom allowed him to deliver his
first official debut full-length album in a flawless and extraordinary way."
[press release]
* THOLEN - Sternklang CD (Cyclic Law 20th Cycle, 2007) € 14.00
Kosmische Sehnsucht ("if I could reach the stars") und ein abgeklärtes
"aus der Welt treten" scheinen die Grundmotivation für das DebutAlbum (?) dieses deutschen dark ambient Newcomers auf dem
renommierten kanadischen Cyclic Law-Label darzustellen.
Minimal effektiert & "instrumentiert", erhält die Musik hier die Spannung
gerade aus der Reduziertheit der Mittel. Mitunter tauchen zeitlupenhafte
perkussive "Schläge" und Pulsationen auf, die sich bis hin zu tranceambienter Rhythmik steigern, ansonsten schwebt "es" düster flächig
durch die Sphären, durchbrochen von elektronischen Effektwirbeln die
fast dramatisch wirken... das ist "cosmic dark ambient" in Reinform!
"...Das gesamte Tonwerk ist von recht ruhiger Natur und trägt den
Hörer somit behutsam durch die klanglichen Dimensionen, welche
durchaus als angenehm zu bezeichnen sind. Dennoch ist "Sternklang"
im Gesamtbild recht düster ausgefallen, beherbergt aber ebenso auch
träumerische Elemente. Das Ganze kommt in typischer Cyclic Law
Manier im gelungenen A5 Digi Format. Wer also in die Weiten des
Universums eintauchen und sich tragen lassen will, wird an
"Sternklang" nicht vorbei kommen." [Necroweb]
"Sternklang is the expression of the intimate encounter with the whole,
the direct connection with the stars and the vast universe, the sense of
complete union with all the overdimensional attributes of what
sourrounds us. With THOLEN, Eisen, the man behind this project has
given us an aurally materialized glimpse of his numerous stargazing
evenings...where the soundscapes are revealed while the stars seemed
to gather and sing out of their primordial and powerful environment. The
darkest hour is always the one before sunrise... In fold out gatefold
cardboard sleeve." [label info]
* 3/4 HADBEENELIMINATED - Theology CD (Soleilmoon
Recordings SOL 148, 2007) [lim. 450 in wood-box]
€ 19.50
Die Band mit STEFANO PILIA & CLAUDIO ROCCHETTI, filed under:
seltsame atmosphärisch-melancholische Improvisationen im
(entfernten) Post-Rock-Gewand [mit späterer effektvoller
Nachbearbeitung im Studio ohne das improvisatorische Feeling zu
zerstören]; zwei lange Stücke füllen THEOLOGY, schwebend und
unfokussiert aber stets im Wandel, unter Einsatz von vielen "echten"
Instrumenten (Gesang, Drums, Gitarren, Piano), mitunter blitzen
Ähnlichkeiten gar mit A SILVER MT. ZION auf... die ist der "SchwesterRelease" zur LP "Religious Experience".
"Soleilmoon Recordings is proud to announce the simultaneous release
of 3/4HadBeenEliminated’s new CD and LP, titled “Theology” and “The
Religious Experience”, respectively. 3/4HadBeenEliminated was
founded in 2002 in Bologna, Italy as a trio, with Stefano Pilia, Claudio
Rocchetti and Valerio Tricoli. An eponymous album was released in
2003 by Bowindo. In 2004 the group welcomed Tony Arrabito and
became a quartet. The next year Hapna put out their second album “A
Year of the Aural Gauge Operation”, and in 2006 the band self-released
a 7 inch single “DimethylAtonalCalcine”. The group straddles the line
between live improvisation and studio experimentation, blending and
shaping raw sounds into living pieces, then gently dissecting the
delicately structured songs into disruptive sonic excursions more
evocative of moving shadows and swirling leaves than recognizable
tunes. Stasis and stability are nowhere to be found here. Instead, an
ever-changing dialogue between structure and chaos shifts from one
performer to the next, never resting long before launching again into
shuddering flight. Accoustic instruments and vocals form a familiar
reference point, but studio treatments take the music into psychedelic
and cinematic realms. In their words , “Improvisation is a way to
experiment without thinking. When our improvisations ‘work’, the music
just happens on its own. It reveals itself as if guided by its own logic, its
own desire. In fact we don’t even feel like we are actually playing the
music. It’s more like a stream that moves and changes autonomously.
With composition (editing, overdubs, etc. etc.) we then remodel this
stream, trying to make it more complex, ‘forever lasting, forever
changing’, in the sense that every hearing will reveal a new perspective
of the music. As a live band, we improvise 100%, and it's really risky,
but when it ‘happens’, it’s the greatest satisfaction.” “Theology” is
presented in a wooden box with a hinged cover decorated with layers of
hand-painted tracing paper, and is limited to 450 copies on CD. The
companion vinyl LP “The Religious Experience” is a reinterpretation of
the recordings made for the CD. The LP is limited to 225 copies. The
two albums – and their music – should be considered as mirror
opposites. Where theology is a completely artificial system of belief, a
religious experience is the immediate experience of the thing itself.
Likewise, the music on “Theology” is complex and elaborate, while “The
Religious Experience” is much simpler, going directly to the heart of the
material comprising “Theology”. Thus, the two works are independent,
yet relate to each other as mother and daughter." [press release]
"....and with some imagination you could say that they are a rock band.
Well, an expanded rock band that crosses many lines: post rock, singer
songwriter, improvisation and above all musique concrete collage
techniques. Maybe the stage isn't their place but they should be safely
stuck in the studio, where they can freely experiment with sound. Each
member plays a wide variety of instruments, except Arrabito, who is just
credited for drums. Inside the studio they find a safe place to improvise
their music, but not as an end, but as a start. Recordings are separated,
deconstructed and rebuilt into something. These two new releases, both
lavishly packed with all sorts of nice paper, are best heard together, as
mirrors of each other. The CD (limited to 450 copies) and the LP
(limited to 225 copies) have however their differences, but the provide a
nice view in the kitchen of 3/4HadBeenEliminated. The CD is perhaps
more complex in approach. We hear lots of processed guitars,
percussive sounds, organ like drones but also contact microphones
scratching the surface alongside humming vocals. Not really rock by
any rock standard, even when things seems to hint that way. Seemingly
things move from atmosphere to atmosphere, gradually, slow, but
without doubt moving.." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
"...you'll know to expect fractured and mysterious soundscapes, a
densely textured drone-zone constructed from field recordings, record
crackle, improvised acoustic instruments, radio static, fragments of
piano melody, electronic treatments, whispered Italian voices, turntable
scratchings, reel-to-reel tape manipulation, synthesizer sinewaves,
scattered percussion, and more. That's a zone we LOVE to visit.
There's two long tracks, lots to explore, all manner of curious creakings
and cracklings, shifting rhythms and rumblings abounding within
3/4hadbeeneliminated's carefully crafted and/or improvised music. At
times quiet and meditative, at others noisier and distorted, but always
(to our ears) utterly gorgeous and compelling. Aligns quite nicely with
the likes of the Jewelled Antler collective, the Finnish forest foraging of
Kemialliset Ystavat, and of course others in the experimental
underground Italian scene of which the members of
3/4hadbeeneliminated are a part." [Aquarius Records review]
* THU20 - Live in Groningen CD (Stichting Mixer mxcd2, 2000)
€ 10.00
Mitschnitt eines fantastischen Konzerts (August 2000) der fast schon
legendären THU20 - ein Projekt von JOS SMOLDERS, PETER
DUIMELINKS, ROEL MEELKOP. Sehr subtile Geräuschmusik,
zwischen sehr direkter & konkreter Collage & eher sanften Drone- &
Microsounds, immer spannend und in höchster Konzentration vollendet.
Letzte Kopien dieses Releases zum Sonderpreis !
"Dutch electro-acoustic ensemble THU20 is the co-operation between
Roel Meelkop, Peter Duimelinks, Sjac van Bussel and Ios Smolders.
The strength varies, their releases are limited and live shows rare. Not a
steady thing this THU to say the least.. Despite all of this, all four have
firm ideas about music and performances. THU has a unique sound,
103
established through numerous experiments in recording and several
collaborations (they've worked on hearplays, spoken word projects,
highly conceptual music-making and so on), but still is not a defined
thing.. and that's good. The THU20 philosophy is one which fits
perfectly with our own and obviously Mixer is very proud to release this
cd. "Live in Groningen" is an edited version of a performance they did
during the CASA ELECTRONICA festival high up north in the
Netherlands. The hearplay-like character of their set/ music is very
much imaginative and holds a lot of anekdotal, but still fairly abstract
elements. The sound of THU20 is a multi-layered object, compiled of
numerous sonic happenings, going through the complete range of
audible sound and certainly not in a lineair way. From highly digital to
dusty acoustics, from pleasantly calm to disturbingly hectic. It is exactly
this tension and variation which keeps you tuned and fascinated. The
way basic elements like repetition, tonal differences and time-elapse
are used is truly original and surprising. Things move around completely
free, accessible for one's own thoughts and interpetation, adding to the
constantly changing texture. THU20 dashes around sound, though all is
embedded in a very gentle stream of subtle tones and little soundevents, which makes this work perfectly suitable for extended and
intense listening... THU20 has released previously on Staalplaat, Flenix
and Midas Music." [label info]
* TIETCHENS, ASMUS - Das Vieh und sein Vater CD (Realization
Recordings RZD020, 1996)
€ 13.00
Irgendwie sind uns nochmal einige Kopien dieser "rare tracks"Zusammenstellung von 1996 in die Hände gefallen, erschienen auf
einem Label das schon längst nicht mehr existiert. 18 Stücke sind hier
enthalten, die von 1981 bis 1995 (bis auf 3 Stücken aber alles aus den
80ern) auf MC und LP-Compilations erschienen, das meiste davon ist
rar & jetzt nirgendwo anders erhältlich. Einige Beispiele: "TINA, ICH
LIEBE SIE!" von "Sex & Bestiality" 4 x MC (Bain Total, 1984, das DIE
FORM-Label); "TRIUMPH DES WILDEN" von "Alternative Funk 1" MC
(Audiologie 2, 1995), "KRYPTO-PHONOPHONIE" von "Captured
Music" (Selektion 1987), etc. etc.
* TIETCHENS, ASMUS & JON MUELLER - 8 Stücke CD (Auf
Abwegen AATP20, 2007) [lim. 500]
€ 13.00
"Second collaborative effort between german sound manipulation
pioneer Asmus Tietchens and american improv-drummer Jon Mueller.
The CD features 8 tracks that run up to 53 minutes. Jon Mueller on the
second collaboration: “The previous collaboration between Asmus and I
involved me using only sounds derived from drum heads. For Acht
Stuecke, I've used only Chinese gongs and cymbals, so a completely
different range of sound occurs. The performance of the percussion
material was from various non-mechanical techniques (striking,
swinging gongs, extended techniques, etc.) to create a palette of
mostly textural sound with a large frequency range that Asmus could
work with.” And indeed, work he did! The completeness that is Acht
Stuecke is of breathtaking beauty and simplicity and complexity at the
same time. The album is definately more homogenous and ‘together’
than the first meeting of the two musicians. It emanates a warm and
deep sound evolving ou t of total soundless blankness as it seems.
Jon Mueller has been active for several years in the us improv scene
playing in various ensembles and doing solo work. he runs the excellent
web mag/label/mailorder croutonmusic.com. Asmus Tietchens has
been producing electronic music since the 1960ies and is one of the
most renowned sound artists today in Germany. In the last five
years he was awarded twice the SWR state radio prize “Karl Sczuka
Preis” for radio art. He has released more than 80 records and CDs on
labels all around the world." [label info]
"...There are occasions in which one doesn’t need to speak too much to
establish a truth, and the truth here lies inside the repeated bends and
turns of a gorgeous album, among the best of both artists’ career. The
original materials furnished by the Milwaukee percussionist - sounds of
Chinese gongs and cymbals - were studio-treated by the German
manipulator through his usual masterful methods, this time maintaining
the qualities of the harmonic resonance of the metal rather evident
amidst the choked gulps, the modified waves and the fractured hiccups
that we’re used to receive from the Hamburg-based sonic transformer.
There’s this splendid three-way cross between the real essence of
Mueller’s stricken parts and swinging gongs, the instant mutated jargon
developed by Tietchens over that, the final elemental amalgam bringing
the whole to sound like a hidden microcosm where a hypnotically
undulating presence is blemished by sparse singular voices of unknown
entities. It’s really difficult to describe the overall feel in sheer words, but
those who are gifted with the ability of picking disguised frequencies
from the core of the more superficial ones are in for several special
moments, aware of phenomena that not everybody can actually
penetrate." [Massimo Ricci / Touching Extremes]
* TIETCHENS, ASMUS - η- (ETA)-Menge CD (Line _033, 2008)
[lim. 500] € 13.00
Letzter Teil in der MENGEN-Serie! Ruhige, metallische, "röhrende"
Sounds aus einem nicht-organischen Multiversum.
"Line is proud to present η-Menge (Eta-Menge), the final installment of
the critically acclaimed Mengen series from influential German
electronic music pioneer Asmus Tietchens. Eta-Menge means eta
quantity. Based strictly on sine tones and white noise, the Mengen
series was released by Ritornell/Mille Plateaux as the CDs Alpha, Beta,
Delta, and Gamma-Menge and then continued on LINE as the CDs
Epsilon, Zeta, and Eta-Menge. Asmus Tietchens' first released his
unique electronic music in 1980, but created works since the late
1960s. Since then, he has produced over 37 full length solo works and
more cutting edge recordings on numerous international labels dealing
with electronic sound and concrete music. Some of his over 20 full
length collaborative projects include works with Merzbow, Achim
Wollscheid, Vidna Obmana, Richard Chartier, and Kontakt der
Junglinge with Thomas Koner. Tietchens' focus is the manipulation of
found sound in ways suggested by the material itself. German label Die
Stadt has begun to reissue his ground-breaking early works on CD in
limited edition. In both 2003 and 2006, Tietchens was awarded the KarlSczuka-Preis für Akustische Kunst by Südwestrundfunk (SWR)."
"... In many of his works, Tietchens explores something, say the sound
of paper or voice or here sine tones and white noise, until things are
fully explored. It gives us a whole body of works, like his 'Hydrophonien'
or his 'Teilmenge', going here from number 43 to number 50. Tietchens
feeds his sine waves and white noise through bunches of ring
modulators and sound effects, scrapes off the sound of the tape and
amplifies the silence. That is at least how I imagine this. 'Eta-Menge' is
a beautiful, silent work that works great, again. Perhaps perhaps
perhaps there is a bit of fatigue in this series, and we know what it is all
about. It's good, it's great but it's also good that this comes to a
conclusion. Those who are superficially interested in Tietchens may not
need any other portion of 'Menge' (pun intended), but the die hard
Tietchens inside this reviewer loves it of course immensely."
" [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* TIETCHENS, ASMUS - Aus Freude am Elend CD (Die Stadt
DS105, 2008)
€ 15.00
Wohl eine der ungewöhnlichsten & schönsten Tietchens-Alben, die
augenzwinkernde Verwendung von vokalem Material war hier der
Fokus, found sounds & field-recordings werden eigentümlichst
verfremdelt, aus Schlager- oder Volksliedern die abartigsten Töne
rausgekitzelt, absolut unkategorisierbare Klänge entstehen... ein
wunderbares-wundersames Re-Kontextualisierungs-Projekt!
JA WIR LIEBEN ES! 2 Bonus Tracks!
"11th part in the ongoing re-release series of all early Tietchens albums
between 1980-1991. AUS FREUDE AM ELEND is based on the human
voice as a primary sound source and was originally released in edition
of 500 copies on Dom America in 1988. The CD includes two previously
unreleased tracks and comes in a jewel case with full color artwork and
poster booklet also feat. the original front and back cover. First edition
of 600 copies.
Asmus Tietchens AUS FREUDE AM ELEND (Dom America Dom US
LP 02) 1988 "Following my research of piano and water sounds
(DS102, DS88) it didn't come as a surprise that my next project was
about the human voice as a sound source. The great masters of
Plunderphonics already showed the way in the early 80's, when they
plundered the gigantic junk-shops packed full of already recorded
material, which was stolen by them to use it for their own aesthetic
targets. This album only consists of such stolen goods. Each track (with
the exception of 'In memoriam P.F.') was based on voices of people
who I naturally didn't ask their permission to use these recordings in the
first place. So you can hear the voices of ecstatic religious people as
well as other people making love. You'll also hear someone singing to
Annette and Peggy out of the trash bin of a publishing company. Even
the screams of furious teachers came in handy while I made loops from
them. Especially loops: Rarely before this album and only once after it
(on Stupor Mundi) did I made use of the structural means of loops to
such an extent. I was fascinated by the rhythmical and harmonic
permanence, in the same way as many of my musical colleagues at the
time. The aspect of the 'Ritual' was a self-evident common formulation
in difficult music during the 80s, so loops and tape voices, monotonous
rhythms and LoFi became obvious means to shape the music. AUS
FREUDE AM ELEND too was strongly spiced with these ingredients
and therefore can be seen as a prototype album of this specific view of
music during the time. This tendency was supported - even partly
inspired - by a new generation of sound machines, which also made it
possible for new aesthetic goals to appear at the horizon. The 90s were
near at hand and sound art music would develop drastically in many
ways in the years to follow. Samplers, digital editing, hard-disc
recording and the first PC's opened new doorways. Half of the material
on AUS FREUDE AM ELEND was already created with these digital
tools. I never quite understood how the labels Dom America (run by
Jon Carlson) and Dom here in Germany were connected. Did Carlson
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used to be a fan of Dom which was founded by Christoph Heemann
and Achim Flaam. Did he simply liked the release politics of this label.
And what became of Dom America ? Actually I don't know. I guess it
was one of the small enthusiastic independent labels which released a
handful of titles and which disappeared after being active for a couple of
years during the 80s. However AUS FREUDE AM ELEND had
vanished shortly after its release. I only used 'stolen' voices twice again
('Stupor Mundi', 1990 and 'Das Fest ist zu Ende. Aus', 1993) after this
album by the way." [label info / credits]
"... Much like some his previous records, most notably 'Formen Letzer
Hausmusik' and 'Seuchengebiete', its foremost a work of electro
acoustic or musique concrete. There is an element of repetition that one
wouldn't easily spot with the original 'masters' of the genre, but
Tietchens uses them in his own, highly personal, way, adding his own
fine blend of electronics and in order to make a creepy sound, a sinister
play of vocals. The people whose voices are used sound like they are
singing in a far away cage, in isolation, a cry to get out. After all these
years this record hasn't aged at all, and is a highlight in Tietchens
career." [FdW / Vital Weekly]
* TONIUTTI, GIANCARLO - Ure Itam Taala' Momjmuj Lowajamuj
Cooconaja mCD (Ferns Rec. rhizome_04, 2007) € 6.50
Faszinierende Veröffentlichung von Klang-Morphologiker GIANCARLO
TONIUTTI, der auf dem Gipfel eines Berges in Italien (Monte le Zuffine)
ein drei Meter hohes Kreuz fand (mit einer kleinen Glocke) - Klänge
dieser Objekte und die psychogeographische atmosphärische "Aura"
des Ortes dienten als Grundlage für diesen wunderbar mysteriös
wummernden one-tracker, der zischelnde & leiernde Blasen wirft....
this is really CRYPTIC Ambience...
"This work could be seen as a process of sonic magnification.
A couple of years ago I made a field-recording on a mountain top. It
was meant to go on a project I had in mind. I needed a pure fieldrecording, almost silent. On this mountain I also found a small bell and
decided to vaguely use it to generate a faint tonal presence. But in the
end the recording was spoiled by the recorded presence of many tiny
natural noises.
The project as process: Recently I took this recording back to life, and
decided to mainly work with the sounds coming from the short bell
performances, trying to generate the whole sound morphology from a
mesostructural derived process, through analogic treatments of these
acoustic fragments.
The epiphenomenal world: Somehow intended as a magnifying
process of the internal structural features of the sounds from a bell and
its mechanics, the work took advantage also of the fact that all these
sounds were strongly embodied in the acoustic micro-activity of the
natural environment. The selected sources were basically dirty, from
interferences of insects and other small sounds. While magnifying and
isolating the bell sounds, it was impossible (and not meant in the end)
to remove these accidental environmental noises surrounding each
sound particle. Thus, as they became part of the timbral quality of each
single sound, they also shaped the evolutionary process of the work.
This work could be seen as a process of inflow moistening
(title in Hopi language) " [label info / credits]
"No one will ever accuse Giancarlo Toniutti of releasing too
much music into the world. It has literally been ten years since
Toniutti has released any recordings outside of a very rare
compilation track here or there. That said, Toniutti is an undeniably
intriguing sound artist, who has deeply immersed himself into obscure
forms of ethnomusicology and linguistic study, all the while keeping
a finely tuned ear to the habits of vangarde composition. His
earliest recordings emerged out of the Italian power electronics
community of the early '80s whose most well known practitioner was
Maurizio Bianchi. Like Bianchi, Toniutti put out a handful of
recordings on the seminal British noise label Broken Flag. While
bracing, complex, and adventurous in its crunched tape manipulations
and sinister synthesis, Toniutti's work stood apart from the
signature Broken Flag arc of transgressive noise, due to Toniutti's
intellectual rigor. It was this rigor that brought Toniutti to pursue
his collaborations with Andrew Chalk and Conrad Schnitzler, and it
was probably this rigor that caused the prolonged length between
recordings over the past decade.
So, the 20 minute composition that Toniutti produced for Ferns
impressive series of 3" discs has been granted a Hopi Indian title based
on an ancient song dealing with cunnilingus and bedbugs. I'm sure that
Giancarlo has a very particular reason for placing such a text alongside
this warbling set of mutated field recordings; but as of yet, it remains
something of a mystery. This composition does enjoy a hermetic
quality, in spite of Toniutti's explanation that he derived all of the sounds
from a field recording he made in Italy involving a mountain, a 10ft tall
cross, a metal pylon, and a temple bell. Out of that environment and
those objects, Toniutti arrives at a record that might appear somewhat
meditative at first, with its constant wash of low frequencies; but upon
deeper investigations into the piece, he reveals queasy, off-kilter
tonalities which gently vibrate against each other, bristling with quiet
textures. His is a pretty unique sound, somewhat like the early
electronic work of Xenakis with the diminutive sensibilities of early
Bernhard Gunter. Highly recommended!" [Aquarius]
* TOY BIZARRE - kdi dctb039 mCD (Ferns Rec. rhizome_05,
2007) € 6.50
"Der Code kdi dctb ist bei Cédric Peyronnets Fieldrecordings so
obligatorisch wie in gewissen Parallelwelten das BWV oder dergl. ‚kdi
dctb 039‘ speziell ist der Mittelteil einer Trilogie, die mit ’kdi dctb 151’
auf dem Split mit Dale Lloyd auf Bremsstrahlung in San Diego begann.
Dass Peyronnet auf puren Naturklang (keine Synthesizer, Sampler etc.)
pocht, wurde schon als bewusste Abkehr aufgefasst von der
erzfranzösischen Pariser Musique- Concrète-Schule. Aber die
Lauschangriffe auf die akustische Umwelt, hier nur deklariert mit ‚made
in various places from 1994 to 2007‘, sind nicht weniger ‚typisch
französisch‘. Oben propellert ein Flieger, unten knistern Laub und
Ästchen, dazwischen ein Hüsteln, Klackern und Knurschen, ein
Zwitschern, Bitzeln und Zirpen, wie ein Glas prall gefüllt mit ‚Wald &
Wiese‘. Duchamp hat 1919 in einer Apothekenambulle ‚Pariser Luft‘ als
Readymade-Gastgeschenk mit in die USA genommen. Peyronnet
könnte entsprechend 20 Minuten ‚Heimatklang‘ verschenken, so
komprimiert, dass er explosiv verpufft, dass es wie ein
Percussionorchester aufrauscht und dann minutenlang nachbebt, als
synästhetisches Konzentrat von ‚Natur‘, über die hinweg erneut
Flug