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Vital Weekly 606

  Tobias

MURMER - WE SHARE A SHADOW (CD by Helen Scarsdale)
Releases on the Helen Scarsdale label are usually nicely packed and this new one is not different. As far as I recall this is the second CD for Murmer, also known as Patrick McGinley from America. However, he's a traveller, living in various parts of this world for some time, and then moves. In each of these locations he is present with his recorder and tapes the environment. This has brought him to England, Portugal, France, Estonia and Germany. In the development of his work he has moved from using a simple four track machine and external sound effects to the computer. McGinley is however not 'just' a field recordist. It's part of what he does. He also uses environments to play sounds using objects, like metal rods and balls. This variety of recordings is the foundation of his work: recordings of the environment and sounds played in it. In the third stage he treats his work on the computer and creates stylish pieces of drone music. This is what ties him to the Helen Scarsdale family, the dark drone relatives. Two long tracks of heavy rain fall that grow over the course of time into heavily computerized pieces of music, which work well on the atmospheric level. Perhaps as such he is not the one of the original players on the crowded scene, but his work can meet the best of his English counterparts, in particular Jonathan Coleclough and Colin Potter. (FdW) ddress: http://www.helenscarsdale.com

SAM SHALABI - EID (CD by Alien8 Recordings)
The man behind the band Shalabi Effect also produced various solo released but it's been a while. Following 'Osama' and 'On Hashish', there is now 'Eid', his third solo CD. In 2006 Sam Shalabi found himself living in Cairo, Egypt and worked on two separate interests: working with singers he liked and creating 'modern Arabic pop'. It's hard to say if he succeeded in that. Simply because there are not points of reference for me in this area of modern Arab pop. The opening tune' Hawaga' brings us straight to arab sounding textures with his playing on the Oud. Did Shalabi go out there and will he stay there? No, he doesn't. 'Jessica Simpson', the second track has a psychedelic almost Beatle like opening riff, but great vocals by Radwon Moumneh. rom then you realize this album bounces easily ll over the place and things turn out to be great. Seldom I heard such crazy mixture of music as here. From endless guitar solo's, arab percussion and vocals, post rock textures, improvisation, jazz, field recordings and much more thrown into a blender to create an exotic cocktail that tastes great. Some of the tracks are a bit too long and go down in a bath of being too freaky, but throughout I thought this crazy amalgam of music is a great trip - around the world, and all of that in sixty-six minutes. That is great. (FdW)
Address: http://www.alien8recordings.com

PHILIP DAVENPORT - CONSTELLATION OF LUMINOUS IDEAS (CD, private)
When I read this was about 'poetry' and 'sound treatments', I thought it would be about poetry reading and some sound, which is, generally speaking, not my tea. Philip Davenport is an experimental poet of the new wave of experimental poets and he has handwritten notebooks, which are read by a variety of readers. In many cases he uses the first take, thus leaving mistakes. At one point one of the readers is interrupted by nurses talking next to his hospital bed. Great idea. In some cases the words are 'erased' and breathing, sighing and traces of voices remain. Davenport uses a variety of people to transform his sounds, by people such as Ben Gwilliam, Lee Patterson, Laurence Lane, Dave Clarkson, Christine Johnson and Gareth Bibby. I must admit the whole things sounds much better than is suggested on the cover or press text. Dreamy sequences of sound, voices mumble rather than recite a text. When you can understand them, they appear to be a loop. A very fine mixture of sound and poetry, or perhaps poetry and sound. Or perhaps there is no hierarchy at all in this. The curiosity of sound and poetry recorded in various places make this a wealth to hear. I should never judge a book by it's cover. (FdW)
Address: http://www.lotta-continua.co.uk

TIMO VAN LUIJK & KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN - COSTA DEL LUNA (LP by La Scie Doree)
ONDE - ONE (LP by Ondemusic)
Over the many years Timo van Luijk showed his interest in vinyl and nothing else. There is perhaps an odd CDR release by him, but in general he likes vinyl. Wether releasing music as Af Ursin, Asra (with Raymond Dijkstra - see also elsewhere), In Camera (with Christoph Heeman), it's on vinyl. Here he releases two new records, the first being a work with the for me unknown Kris Vanderstraeten. He plays percussion on this record, whereas Van Luijk gets credit for zither, flute, keys and tape. It's a record of improvisation, but certainly a bit of an odd one. They play carefully, but without silence. Things are being hit, strummed, blown in an endless stream, rather than in small blocks, as is perhaps more usual in the field of improvisation. But in the endless stream nothing jumps above it, it stays on the same dynamic level. That I found a bit dull. Certainly this record has some nice moments, but perhaps also a bit too psychedelic for me. Without the right substances it seems to hard to enter the world of Van Luijk/Vanderstraeten. The cover certainly hints at this psychedelic element. Like said, it's surely a nice record, but the mixing could have been more adventurous.
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)
Address: <tivalu@telenet.be>
Address: http://www.ondemusic.be

RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - DAS SCHONE (LP by Le Souffleur)
RAYMOND DIJKSTRA - SCHIJNHEILIGE VISSEN (LP by Le Souffleur)
Just like his buddy Timo van Luijk, Raymond Dijkstra loves thirty centimeter pieces of vinyl. And thirty centimeters of plastic, as these two latest releases by him were pressed by Peter King in New Zealand as so-called lathe cut records. Basically the same plastic as they use to produce CDs but cut with grooves, a record. The great thing is one can do really small editions, which is another thing Dijkstra likes. Both of these records come in an edition of 50 copies only. He continues where left us ('Die Wille', 'Die Sonne') and now there 'Das Schöne' ('the beautiful') and 'Schijnheilige Vissen' (sanctimonious fish'). No other information. Dijkstra is the true outsider in music. He doesn't care about style, scenes, groups or such like but does he what he does. For the superficial listener (for whom this is certainly not produced) what Dijkstra does may sound the same. Like say a guitarist he uses his instrument: on 'Das Schöne' a table played with glass and an echo unit. A reduction that is in various way. Before he used an organ too, more electronics. That's one difference. But here he also plays with silence. He plays for maybe twenty second shrieking sounds, fed through echo and then there is silence, in which nothing happens. Sometimes these silences are longer than the actual music. It leaves the listener in nothing less but a state of confusion. To the annoyed, who think: is this it? Is the record over? But to the more careful listeners, he builds great tension - the strongest line between silence and sound.
The other new LP is more along the lines of the previous ones, the glass sounds, organ/harmonium and echo unit at work. There are strong similarities between all of these works, but it's the smaller details that these works do differ from each other. 'Schijnheilige Vissen' seems to be using the element of silence and also a bit more distortion, but that might very well be the King pressing at work. Dijkstra builds a consistent piece work - an oeuvre as you will. A highly personal world of sound. (FdW)
Address: http://www.le-souffleur.nl

TAMING POWER - TWELVE PIECES (10" by Early Morning Records)
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 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)
Address: <earlymrecords@yahoo.com>

ROBIN SAVILLE/DOLLBOY (7" by Static Caravan)
INCH TIME - THOUGHT OBJECTS (3"CDR by Static Caravan)
It's hard to believe in these scattered days of so many labels, releases, formats and what have you, but when I was young one loved labels and sought out whatever they released. For me Factory Records was one of them, and Les Disques Du Crepuscule another. The latter' sheer intelligent combination of popmusic and modern classical, in combination with stylish covers made all (almost all) of the releases on that label. Why this nostalgic ramble? I was thinking about those old days when playing the latest two releases by Static Caravan. They seem to becoming the Crepuscule of the new millennium. More and more their releases consist of the same pop meets modern classic quality, while their covers get more and more stylish. Robin Saville has a nice sweet tune for player piano and rhythm machine that has a strong christmas sound to it. Dollboy is even more classical in approach with his 'Prelude no. 1', adapted from Johan Sebastian Bach, but is more pop than Saville, with lovely bouncing rhythm and lush keyboard textures, but is more timeless, i.e. less for the season only. Just a lovely little item, this one.
Also lovely and little is the 3"CDR by Inch Time, which is the project by Stefan Panczak. He too seems to have a love for the 88 keys of the piano, but unlike the 7", his music is much ambient related. The first part opens with piano sounds which slowly get transformed into lush textured ambient music. A single key stroke is transformed in a light hearted rhythm with a dark undercurrent. Things get even more sparse in the second piece, with very loose end piano tones and equally sparse gamelan percussive sounds at the beginning and chirping birds at the end. Comes in a small enveloppe with a nice printed insert. Classy indeed. Maybe it's too late to start collecting this label now, but you better start now because later is not good enough. (FdW) ddress: http://www.staticcaravan.org

COLIN POTTER - THE SIGHTS OF THE DROWNED FABLE (CDR by ICR)
A man of very british humor, our Colin Potter. He advertises his release 'The Sights Of The Drowned Fable' as: "The next in the 'haven't got enough time to make a studio album' series". And if you don't have time to record a proper studio album, you go back in the archives and pick that live recording which you think is great, special or different. The work here was recorded at the Resonator Festival in Preston in July of this year. It starts out in a loud and rhythm way, that we don't connect to Potter (or at least not with his work of late), but its a welcome shot, an alarm going off. We start. From then on the work rolls out in what is a typical Potter sound: partly drone based electro acoustic music. Vibrant music, feeding through lots and lots of sound effects. Music that bounces up and down, through reverb and delay and no doubt loads of other effects. Potter sets a sound forward and then starts playing around with it, until a hybrid of sound occurs, hard to decipher or trace back to it's origin. He never looses sight of the atmospheric aspect - that's where he reputation as a drone master comes in. The psychedelic element, working on elevating the mind, playing a moody card: it's all done well in the more than capable hands of Potter. I don't know if this recording is great, special or different for Colin Potter, or wether it's just one great live recording of the shelf, simply because we haven't heard them all, but I think it's surely a very nice one and that's good enough for me to see a release on CDR. (FdW) ddress: http://www.icrdistribution.com

BIEN VICTOR - SORE DAKE JA: MIZUNOKUCHI SESSIONS JAN-FEB 2006 (CDR by Belsonic Strategic)
Thomas Transparent, the man behind The Domestic Front, returns here with something a little bit more different. A group of himself on computer and bass, Jason Funk on drums, computer and flute and Brandon Hocura on guitar and electronics. They hail from Portland, Tokyo and Montreal, but they met up in Tokyo in the first months of 2006 and recorded six hours straight to mini disc. Like I said, mister Transparent moves away from his recent interest in collage, industrial and musique concrete and with this trio he goes into the area of cosmic music - the free form float music. Think anything krautrock and you are already almost there. Slow pieces, slow drumming, endless fuzz and sustain on the guitars, electronics flicker around in a slow and peaceful manner. I never know wether this should be heard taking a lot of substances of any kind and one can enjoy it better; who knows. But I did something else: I played this first thing when I got out of bed on a very cold morning, clean as a whistle, and also enjoyed the content of this disc. The floating, spacious character of the music, sort of extended the process of not being entirely awake, but not fully asleep. A most pleasant feeling. If you love Aidan Baker, then this trio should be up you alley too. (FdW) ddress: http://www.belsona-strategic.com

DECONSTRUCTIVE MUSIC (3xCDR compilation by More Mars)
FERVENT - CONJESTION (CDR by More Mars)
To review compilations is never a task I enjoy. Not because of the music, but simply it's not an easy task. Mention each track? The overall feeling? Concept? Selected highlights? Certainly when it comes to 29 track, three CDR set like 'Deconstructive Music' on the new Greek More Mars label. If there is a common theme or approach to be detected among this lot, I think, it's the factor where improvisation meets noise meets silence. A lot of the contributors are 'famous' in that scene, mainly due to a slew of releases - we have here Bill Horist, Mattin, Omnid, Xavier Erkizia, as11, Carlos Giffoni, Ilios, Anthony Guerra and Stasis Duo - to mention a few names that pop up in Vital Weekly and of people who are most active in releasing CDRs. But this compilation can also serve as an introduction to new names, to mention say TMP, Threnody Ensemble, Sinistri vs Dimcoast and David Daniell. So far the facts - the music is as varied as possible. There is a lot of interesting noise things to be found among the lot, but throughout most people take a much finer line between noise and silence, and anything in between. The more experienced players in the field have the more interesting pieces, I thought (Guerra, Hood & Rodgers, Manuel Mota) and the cup for the strangest contribution goes to Sean Meehan, whose piece is almost silent, save for a digital glitch or two in about five minutes. The package comes with separate cards, for each track one, which the label required to be part of it. Most surprising name to find here is Zeitkratzer.
On the same label, second release there is Fervent, perhaps the man behind the label? He likes noise, so it seems. There are seven tracks on this disc, but three are very short, interludes almost and have no title. 'Ferver' and 'Scarecrows Against Reasoning' are quite noise based, rhythmic, loud but not the best around. Of much more interest is 'Music Box Reconstructed' which is a collage/musiqe concrete piece of music box sounds and 'Organ Piece For Anna/[comm]', which are two pieces in one, or so it seems. It's also the longest piece on the release and has noise bits but throughout there is also lots of quiet, crackling glitch stuff which makes this into quite a fine, thoughtful piece of music. These two interesting pieces, along with three vague field recordings would have already made a nice release. (FdW)
Address: http://www.moremars.tk

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