Sote - Sacred Horror In Design / Philippe Petit - Buzzing But Not Hung Up On Hip

Ata Ebtekar aka Sote with Arash Bolouri's santour (Persian hammered dulcimer) and Behrouz Pashaei on the long-necked, four-string setar. That's the technical information. What else? It's an astonishingly good electroacoustic album which perfectly fuses tradition with synthesised treatments expertly rendered so as to frequently blur the boundary between both. Yes, that good. Opal Tapes

Phillippe Petit is, as I'm sure you already know, an artist worth following. An artist, that is, in the deeper sense of the word. Few can rival his track record over the last few years and Buzzing But Not Hung Up On Hip simply strengthens his position. Clunky title aside (we hardly need reminding of the superficiality of modern 'hip') the album is a fine antidote to all that is fashionable and the sonic 'bearded' efforts (eh? hope you know what I mean, because I don't, not knowing what music 'hipsters' prefer).

Petit has no truck with fads, preferring to not only forge his own supremely talented compositions but bring on board collaborators. Mind you, I'm not happy with the 'rockin'' Second To Last Thoughts, but at least it confirms he's human (therefore, can make errors). It stands out like a sore thumb. Si Parla Italiano is much more like it, if 'it' exists in Petit's world since he is eclectic. It's an excellent hybrid of tape manipulation, 'free' sax and Jazz trumpet with an increasingly frantic electric bass rhythm. 

As with Sote, Petit conjures fantastic electroacoustic forms, but in a different fashion. Sounds and the shapes they form constantly shift and there are too many instruments featured to mention. Suffice to say it spreads out through dark space to the superb Cymbalomentums (imagine John Barry on a bad trip) and many other points.

Label: COMA †‡† KULTUR

COMA †‡† KULTUR is a label name but could also describe the net-induced state we find ourselves in when spending too much time gazing at this screen. In the process of seeking out good music it's easy to become consumed by the zombie death brain rays that are a by-product of this thing. Even supposedly pleasurable pursuits such as listening to music can turn our minds to mush as we first walk, then stumble before free-falling into the black hole.

Thanks to a network relationship I've been receiving COMA †‡† KULTUR information for some time but only got 'round to really investigating the label this afternoon. If this blog has any point other than to keep me occupied for a few hours it is to highlight good things and this is one. The latest release is below, which as you'll discover brilliantly adapts the musique concrète approach to it's own end. The roster of artists all represent a certain sound aesthetic of rough-hewn, sometimes brutal but always thoughtfully constructed composition and all works are 'name your price'. Go have a listen.

EMS SYNTHI AKS IMPROV by ALAN SUTCLIFFE

,,,,,,,,,,have you heard the news from Neptune? the Arkestra asking me this morning at Work as I climbed three floors to mine because two of the lifts are broken so the queue was massive me starting to pant but not wanting to display signs of exhaustion in front of those also climbing behind me - I should have been listening to some energising Techno-thump like people in gyms do but sod that & anyway,
what's that got to do with Buried Treasure's release of Alan Sutcliffe material? NOTHING!
other than......
Sutcliffe's synthitones could well be broadcasts from Neptunians - like - first off, LIKENESS (ACM conf. California) is very B-movie sci-fi cold war soundtrack & well, so is most of it & you may think 'Oh not another retro-sounding electronic album' but it was recorded in 1972-3, not quite so retro as all the planets Americans were forbidden from visiting but did anyway in the name of killing communists, I mean aliens.
this compilation is brief but brilliant
aside from raw pure synth experiments there's the 14minute SLIDESHOW of Cage/Schaeffer kaleidoscopic concrete components which really is (and I mean this) one of the best examples of the tradition you will hear.
top marks to Buried Treasure!

Various Artists - Electroacoustic Music in Latin America / Coming Self-destruction of the U.S.A. by Alan Seymour

Electroacoustic music in Latin America is not something I've ever considered but such is the wonder of the inter-connectednetwerk headspace we find ourselves imprisoned in that I discovered a compilation of it this morning and through the medium of digitul trickery hereby pass it on because from what I've heard there are some very good examples of electroacoustic music being made in Latin America. Why shouldn't there be? Why should the French, Germans and, OK, the Americans and British etc etc dominate such things. They do not, of course, for as sure as Chelsea will win the league, someone will soon compile a collection of electroacoustic music from a country you only think you've heard of whilst skipping the outer reaches of the TV channels, passing through a documentary about the extraordinary wildlife of -----------------. The track below is as fine an example of locked-groovedustacoustica as I've ever heard. Elsewhere there is great diversity in approach to what is a vast genre in itself, the boundaries of which are blurred but this compilation is very worthwhile and demonstrates that fact admirably.

The best time to post this book would have been when Trump was elected, of course, but I didn't own it then. Besides, there are enough people prophesying 'the coming self-destruction of the U.S.A.' without me doing so and I'm not American, which doesn't prevent me from predicting doom, I know. When it was published (1969) the combination of the Vietnam war, student shootings, civil unrest and Ray Stevens' novelty hit Gitarzan were enough to make people feel the country was on the eve of (self) destruction, I imagine. No surprise then that Alan Seymour should fictionalise it. I looked for a photo of this edition on the internet but couldn't find it so here's my copy. 

Zeitkratzer performs songs from "Kraftwerk" and "Kraftwerk 2" / Christian Bouchard - Broken Ground

Reinhold Friedl's Zeitkratzer start their 20th anniversary celebrations by interpreting tracks from two Kraftwerk albums...but you can tell that from the title - I need more coffee -

No surprise that this is another impressive addition to their canon of covers which have previously featured John Cage and Stockhausen. Friedl's arrangements perfectly tease out the possibilities inherent in the originals, although I have to say that the opener, Ruckzuck, initially gave me cause for concern. It naturally lacks the bite, or edge or Kraftwerk's original rhythm and reminds me of common orchestras covering Rock (you know how awful that usually is). But they're only working, structurally, with what's there and you know that breakdown is coming; so how will they handle that? Brilliantly, with great great piano-smashing chords, before see-sawing off towards the end in fine style. The 'mood' pieces, such as Spule, work best, transforming the original 'ghosts' in the machinery into breathy tension accompanied by scraped strings, cymbal splashes and forceful bass notes. Atem is another treat; what sounds like an extended heavy breathing exercise coloured by minute sounds from other sources. I look forward to things to come this year from Zeitkratzer.

Commissioned by Derek Besant by accompany his 2012 exhibition, Broken Ground, Christian Bouchard's album of the same name features remixed versions of the original pieces and they're exquisite in the attention to detail he pays throughout. You might expect that from someone who studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and was awarded First Prize in electroacoustic composition. 

As I've said before and no doubt will again, to these ears, the technical aspect (the science of electroacoustic music) is but one (necessary) step towards realisation that transcends the study of sound to create sonic wonders. Hear Voids Patterns, for example, it's treated bell chimes (?), perfectly weighted against static crackle and electric whine. Throughout the works Bouchard shifts the emphasis from a relatively 'light' tonal palette towards occasionally stable rhythmic patterns along with bursts of guttural noise. The overall balance is towards weightiness but always there are counters, the kind which differentiate this music from, say, simplified Industrial electronics with which you could say this shares some common ground. I might call it 'Industrial music with a degree'...but that could sound stupid. Another superb release from empreintes DIGITALes. 

The Irony / Gone in 60 Sec Vol. 4

One great thing about these days is...Chelsea FC being top of the league, very top...another is the fact that you can choose to exist, or not, by which I mean that being on the social network of global info spillage is deemed a necessity yet should you wish you can be off it and therefore not actually exist you can...now this third thing I'm not sure about, initially believing it to be good but reconsidering at this very moment....the thing is...irony...

...as prompted by the I Heart Noise label, it's name and the t-shirt shown on its Bandcamp site which distances itself from the normal red graphic heart by featuring a diagram of a real one followed by 'Audible Disease' to make the point that if possible they would infect your essential organ via a sonic virus - the nasty people. Yet the very use of 'I Hear't is, of course, an ironic one. Being ironic is almost inescapable in this post-truth universe. After all, wear your heart on your sleeve and you're at risk of looking foolish. I can look foolish in other ways, thanks. Still, there's currently a push'n'pull fight between irony and sincerity; one side urging you to bear your soul (it will endear you to everyone!), the other scoffing...at everything - shrugging too because to shrug, scoff, sigh (in resignation) is to appear wiser than those who take everything (and themselves) so seriously. It's not worth it!

I wanted to tell a friend who said he had 'Trump worries' to do the exact opposite and not give a fuck (he's English, living in Scotland, by the way) but after some consideration didn't want to appear patronising. If old notions of Left and Right are disappearing, side-taking certainly isn't. You only have to whisper a brief political opinion these days to be branded as something. So it goes...

But what about Gone In 60 Sec Vol 4 on the I Heart Noise label? Music is one thing that can help, if not save us from the worries of the world - mind you, if you want a sonic representation of today's political chaos you should look no further than Wirephobia's 3,258,629. Thankfully, despite it being my kind of Noise, ie very brief, it's not representative of what's going on here. The noise isn't Noise as you might know it. The collective effect is more akin to plunderphonics, with more or less everything chopped into one-minute portions including skroky geetar, vocal samples, ambient drift, shortwave cut-n'paste, glitchiness and unclassifiables. A very good comp.

Splitter Orchester / Felix Kubin - Shine on you crazy diagram

Yes, Pink Floyd pun-tastic title but don't be fooled into thinking it's a comedic, lighthearted affair. Berlin-based Splitter Orchestra deliver again; it's good to see them getting into the recording studio more often. Right from Diagram 1 a tone is set, for a while, only to later be reworked by Felix Kubin - but what is the tone? The Orchestra mangle/craft/fuse all manner of things/noises into a whole, if not wholesome melange of low end theory bowed cello, high-pitched electronics, furniture-moving...continued on Diagram 2 (but a Diagram of what? The neural network of John Cage superimposed over one belonging to the AMM/Sun Ra - I give up). As unsetlling as the soundwaves are, such is the level of integral composition it feels like total sound, albeit improvisational in spirit and multi-faceted in substance. On The B-Side, Kubin first strips the sounds back to an altered, bleepy state before crunching, reducing, totally transforming the elements leading to a sonic hailstorm. The bonus Splitter Orchestra on the digital version consist of brilliantly downbeat, dark orchestral manoeuvres. Excellent release

Gagarin Records

Album: EUH! 1

Late entry for Best of 2016? Too late - who cares...Wayne Rex (drums, pipes ) and Kek-w (electronics, stuff) probably don't because they work in the spirit of disregard for lists, popularity and anything others might crave - they just make music for themselves and the lucky few who can get hold of it.

EUH! 1 is 'free' drumming and electronics, for which there are precedents, but don't expect me to recall them right now because I'm knackered after a hectic social week-end which entailed not just one but two late nights, in a row! Therefore, strangely, this combination of percussion and electronics somehow mirrors the state of my brain, ie skittering all over the shop yet not in an unpleasurable fashion. The art of the improvisers is a fine one, brilliantly displayed by this duo, who stitch all manner of sounds together in the spirit of joyful exploration. I particularly like the clockwork percussion of Alopecia, but to pick a highlight is impossible. There are so many, totally integrated. If you're quick you might get a copy from here.

George Lewis & Splitter Orchester - Creative Construction Set™

Occasionally an album comes along, the depths of which I can tell from the first few minutes will probably take me a lifetime to fathom -  Creative Construction Set is such an album...such an album...

Where to begin? How about the fact that I've spent the last couple of hours painting...not the walls, but the paper designed for painting images onto, any images, abstract, representational, figurative...you know, art things. Which tells you nothing about this album...although it does, in a way, because it tells you that by mentioning my act of painting I don't know how to begin to describe Creative Construction Set...so how about a comparison between sound and images? Maybe. This is abstract art of the highest degree. Perhaps I even paint in a similar fashion to the way the Orchester and George Lewis make music...improvisational...no fixed idea of what will emerge but...an approach in mind, in place, the bare bones or foundation of what will take shape...

George Lewis has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, in case you were wondering. Now you know. Knowing nothing of the artists is no bad thing...no preconceptions. That knowledge didn't prepare me for this album. Not much can...

Amid the multi-instrumental fragmentary (pointillist?) sonic marks Lewis' trombone will intermittently rise up, leviathan-like...to ride, or cut through, a sea of bowed, plucked, snatched, blown, tapped instruments...sometimes a clatter in unison, brief punctuation...breaks in which the brass throws a mournful blanket over/under everything...the crackle of static, a stylus stuck...fluttering breath through a trumpet? scraping toward climactic crescendos then nanosecond silence, tape delay, loop, computer clicks, bubbles, squeaks, little wooshes, piano chords, miniscule melodic runs, brushes on drums...

If the underlying tone is somewhat mournful, the tapestry of sounds constantly crackle with life, sometimes joining to form dense matter during what feels like free falling through time and space, each star emitting points of light to form a cosmic display which, as I suggested at the start, cannot be comprehended in a single trip. A stunning album. 

Mikroton Recordings

Iancu Dumitrescu & Ana-Maria Avram at Cafe Oto

Iancu Dumitrescu is talking to me, but thankfully not about phenomenology (which he's studied) because it would kill the conversation right there. No, we're having a chat in Cafe Oto just like a couple of mates, over a beer, because I found out he's that kind of fellow; amiable, friendly and unpretentious.  

"Life is long, art is short," he said, confounding me for a few seconds because I thought he was starting to get deep. Turns out he was subverting an old saying but I'd never heard the original. Then he chuckled. It wasn't the first joke we would share. "Excuse me," he said. "But French is my first language, not English", which confused me even more because he's Romanian. His main language, however, must be music, although it's not one many would understand. 

The compositions of Dumitrescu and his wife, Ana-Maria Avram, may confound those unaccustomed to what is known as 'spectral music' but I doubt it would leave them unresponsive. The theoretical side apart, when the Hyperion Ensemble act according to the composers' dramatic gestures you must listen, either straining to catch the minute detail of breaths through brass and fingers scuttling lightly across strings, or the wall-demolishing eruption of everyone going full throttle.

He didn't mind that I was a relative newcomer to his music. Why would he? Still, I felt ashamed at confessing as much, but relieved when he expressed delight at hearing from a recent convert. He was genuinely pleased. Perhaps, despite having composed and performed for decades, it still surprises him that he should be so welcomed. He has, after all, come in from the 'cold' of a communist regime which has surely left its mark, to the warmth of loving arms (albeit those of a minority) around the world. I bought the book of their scores...

...he gladly signed my copy...

...it's available now from ReR Megacorp.

You may be wondering what the performances were like but there's little point me describing anything because many are available on YouTube; suffice to say both Iancu and Ana-Maria are compelling performers in their own right as they conjure sounds from the ensemble with dramatic gestures, expressions and wiggling fingers. They seem to communicate in codes only known to the orchestra but the breadth of sounds they create and their impact in the room can be understood and appreciated by anyone fortunate enough to be there.

 

MICHEL REDOLFI - Desert Tracks

Now here's something. An album. Electroacoustic music. Don't go away. This really is special and showcases what can be done with the right equipment, that being ears as finely tuned as Michel Redolfi's and the ability to organise sound the way he does. All you need is a pair of ears. Do you have a pair? One isn't as good, but might suffice.

Even a close listen won't tell you what you're hearing, exactly, but such is the joy of acousmatic sound. For instance, I think a voice interjects during the first track, Opening. You also hear what sounds like ball bearings trickling through your speakers along with a chain being rattled...and the voice become more distorted, alien, whilst the calm foundation continues. It's both relaxing and unsettling. 

One might expect a desert-themed album to be New Age-style peaceful, yet Redolfi's creation is more akin to a trip across the sands with Brion Gysin in The Process. The sonic landscape is hallucinatory, disorientating; a place of clanging bells, ominous rumbles and sudden interruptions. Too Much Sky can be awe-inspiring or intimidating (we feel so small) and as with nature, Redolfi's music evokes wonder along with a sense of disquiet. A classy reissue from Sub Rosa.   

Collage / Boris Hauf - Clark / Iancu Dumitrescu

Commodities, RTomens, 198-

More art here

***

New speakers for the new PC - thing is, playing Boris Hauf's Corona from the Clark album, I don't know if he's built distortion into the sound or the speakers are rubbish - 'DUFF!-DUFF! DUFF!-DUFF!' If you read this, Boris, let me know. Really, they cost a whole £25. And as this track goes through nuclear meltdown towards the end I'm slightly worried as to which it is, the speakers or him.

Well, whatever, at first I thought 'OK, clean Techno generic, fairly good' but playing it over the last few days my opinion is changing towards 'Techno generic but twisted just enough to make it interesting'. I like the clean minimalism, which is the overriding impression, but that's ignoring the distortion mentioned above...and the storm of electro-static washing over Mind Tapes, which really takes it to another level and, as it progresses, creates the impression of being whipped up in a sonic tornado. Non-Stop Flight's crackle and persistent brain-phasing texture, which barely allows the subdued beat to take hold, is also nicely done. Clark is rising in my estimation with every play. It's reissued by Shameless.  

***

I'm going to see Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana Maria Avram at Cafe Oto on the 27th - yes, I'm actually having my slippers surgically removed in order to traverse the mean streets of London, at night, which is quite some effort on my behalf I can tell you. The book, Cosmic Orgasm, is highly recommended if you want one about him. I don't think there are others to choose from. I bought it on a mad whim whilst browsing in Housmans a few months ago, based on nothing more than faint recollections of what his music is about and no idea whether any resided on my hard drive...you know what it's like, these days, the plasticity of our brains being what it is, our minds are constantly being re-shaped by multitudinous input from The Screen....that's my excuse anyway.

Turns out Dumitrascu is a brilliant composer - you may already know, but since buying the book I've been catching up. He is also deeply into philosophy and theory but finds that attempts to expand on ideas by talking to musicians about them doesn't work, they 'simply stiffen up'. He tells them to forget what he was talking about and gets better results. The same could be said for listening to his music. One may know, or learn about, phenomenology or the Pythagorean monochord (!) but my total ignorance of either does not hinder my appreciation of his music. Like the players, I find it more helpful to relax, be open-minded and free from intellectual baggage. This approach suits my basic inability to grasp anything much beyond the bare facts of life, such as having to get up every morning, sleep at night and maybe do a few things in between.

Still, I'm looking forward to hearing them both, as Avram puts it, 'solicit the maximum force of the performer' at Cafe Oto.

Shifting Vinyl: Luciano Berio, Donald Erb & A Jump-Up Classic...and moths.

I eject a woodlouse from The Cave just as it's making it's way across the tiled floor of the hallway into this room. We had an 'infestation' of sorts, if that's possible. Whatever, they have been appearing throughout the year in various rooms. I'm not concerned and rather like them in their prehistoric fashion, although I don't fancy one crawling over me whilst in bed.

Moths are another matter. We've been plagued by them too. For what feels like years we've been pulling items of clothing from the wardrobe only to discover they've been chomped on by the little bastards. I'm afraid I've encouraged them, as we discovered the other day when I found an old pair of trousers at the back of the wardrobe. There were more holes than fabric - oops. LJ was not best pleased. Well I didn't know they were there!

Moths don't attack records, thankfully, otherwise I have a few that would be in pieces. Surprisingly, nothing flew from the record tower as I began shifting the vinyl in preparation for paintwork. Yes, I do play vinyl, but not so often as to know the collection well. Besides, it's not much of a collection nowadays. Bringing them back into the room today the album pictured above caught my eye so I gave the Luciano Berio side a spin. Visage really struck me as an incredible piece whilst Cathy Berberian's voice bounced around the room accompanied/altered by Berio's electronic treatment...

...reminiscent, I thought, of Dada verse, or Edda Dell'Orso's work with Ennio Morricone, although she was a lot more 'musical'. Well, any excuse...

There's nothing like having to move all your records to prompt rediscoveries so I've spent most of the morning playing vinyl, ranging from Bartok to Donald Erb...

...which really is a superb fusion of the electro and acoustic, one of the best, in fact (since all my opinions are facts - ha-ha)...

Several times I considered getting rid of half the books/CD/vinyl/DVDs as I looked at them all piled up. Like that they seemed to be no more than clutter, stuff, inanimate objects, which they are until brought to life by the stylus/eyes/player. Removed from their normal orderly position it's as if they were robbed of any power they may have. "Not much here really," I thought. "Considering I've been buying for four-and-a-half decades...is this it? Is this what I have to show for all those years of dedication to culture upon which I place so much importance?" Looked at it that way, I consider myself quite ruthless in what I keep. It's makes me feel less like a hoarder.

So, to liven myself up as my energy/enthusiasm waned I grabbed this from the small Drum & Bass selection....

...that did the trick - a jump up classic and a tune that lives on as one of my all-time favourites to play to a dance floor back when it was released. You can tell why...that 'hip-hop' opening break before the big, wobbly b-line - it was always a winner. As a physical/aural reminder of those nights, I could never sell that one. TTFN

James O’Callaghan - Espaces tautologiques

You don't need a degree in audio science to appreciate the works presented here by empreintes DIGITALes and I doubt that it would help - just a set of ears (open ones) - now saying that, I remind myself of when I'd say a similar thing about Jazz in the 90s whilst trying to convince those who's taste was pretty indie that ornette Coleman was worth a listen - well, that battle's been won (he says, sarcastically), so how about this electroacoustic thing?

There comes a time to hang up your dancing shoes (what do you mean you never had a pair?) and stick with home listening, which for most will mean either listening to what they danced to before they got fat/tired/old or Country & Western, or Classical or, god forbid, Ambient and so on. I still love a good beat but also music like this by James O'Callaghan - if it can be called 'music' - it is, after all, in defiance of recognised characteristics which constitute that thing. It is sound, yes. Sounds...but what those sounds are remains a mystery and it is this unknowable element that makes it all so intriguing.

We might sense objects being moved, the sound manipulated...a stretching, not only of sound waves, but time, somehow, even the tautening of a rope to breaking point on Empties-Impetus, then the release and the rolling groan of an electroacoustic ship, perhaps. You see, this is not easy to describe. I'm a fool for attempting to do so...but there are detonations, a bowed instrument, scraping strings, the patter of objects and tension akin to Bernard Herrmann's psycho-tic orchestration.

Espaces tautologiques can be bought at electrocd 

And now I find this 'live' performance and see how some of these sounds are being made...a chair is being 'played'...a balloon popped on the strings of a piano...this really is a magnificent performance...

Art Book: Too Much To Bear / EP: Revbjelde - For Albion

.............er...what? Oh, hello, I've been busy over the last few months with the above product, a book of my art called Too Much To Bear. 24 full-colour collages which have not been seen anywhere before, not even on this thing called the intern-et. You can buy it here. Not that people buy things any more...things like art or music anyway. Buying is so-o-o last century, isn't it? Well, you'll never be able to download Too Much To Bear and with only 100 copies made if you want a thing you can hold, feel, flick through etc, go ahead!"

***

 

For Albion by Revbjelde is a thing you can buy and download. I suggest you do because it's very good. They make thrilling sounds for modern swingers....hold on, that's not right...they do make a thrillingly new thing out of the haunting genre (is that what it's called?) on Agrona Wuhhung, for starters; the spectral voice, chopping (?), creaking, groaning thing of beauty that it is. Faran Ofost is a splendid fusion of post-Disco bass with other noises and...oh, just listen and get it.

Iannis Xenakis - La Légende D'Eer

I'm all for 'preserving spatial movements', aren't you? Thankfully then, that's what Martin Wurmnest has done for this, his 'remix' of Iannis Xenakis' La Legende d'Eer. It certainly sounds better than the crappy version I've had on file for years...all the better for showering my noodle with a million splinters of sound (!?) It's not pleasant, but you must take your medicine like a good girl/boy, minus the spoonful of sugar. Rumour has it Wurmnest did sweeten the pill with another remix, pushing back the electroacoustic complexities in favour of upfront EDM beats, for The Kids. I don't believe it. 

Possibly influential for certain Noiseniks (although I won't blame Xenakis for spawning monsters), La Legende d'Eer starts with very highly-pitched sounds. At this point I should warn you, they may result in your collie dog running amok, possibly rounding up sheep in a random fashion, driving them out into the road, even. Do any farmers listen to this kind of music? I wonder. Someone should do a survey. I'd be interested in the results.

Halfway through the second part things become more noisy but that's just the beginning of our descent/ascent, although as the complexities and layers increase, being as smart as he was, Xenakis threatens to destroy you before reigning in a little and maintaining a level of rumbling, bubbling, banging an' clanging before the intense rush to the end. By part 7, should you still be capable of withstanding the treatment, the tortured machinery creates, in part, what sounds like late-Coltrane, mangled by technology. Before the final part we're taken down with a low-end fighter-plane-strafing-your-head zoomy, buzzing drone towards the vapour trail off into silence. 

It's on Karlrecords ...if you think you can handle it.

DAVID TOOP - ENTITIES INERTIAS FAINT BEINGS

So David Toop asked Lawrence English why would anybody release music in the 21st century - a fair question. Why do any of us bother producing anything? Are we witnessing The End of Music, David? is that what you thought? But there's so much of it, these days; more, I would guess, than ever before.

Thankfully David Toop's Entities Inertias Faint Beings was worth releasing - it's more than just more mediocre music and you probably guessed that if you know anything about him. it must be tricky, knowing so much about all kinds of music and finding the will to still make your own. He must have a way of silencing the internal critic that's always berating him for making music that's not quite as extraordinary as ______________ (insert any avant-garde pioneer you like). 

This album is extraordinary, though, not because it leaps from the speakers and swipes your ears; it does the opposite, quietly creeps out but still seeps into your mind. Stealth is a healthy approach today. It must be tempting to shout loud and strike hard in an effort to get noticed, but you've probably noticed that all that shouting loses it's impact after a while.

What's played on Entities Inertias Faint Beings? This I wonder as it happens right in front of my ears just now. A drum is banged...something is rustled...guitar strummed...an oriental instrument?...computer fiddled with...as if improvising in his studio, much happens that doesn't feel planned, exactly, although Ancestral Beings, Sightless By Their Own Dust is of a cohesive mood, the kind of ominous atmosphere with a bass pulse that reminds me of Willard in the jungle about to meet Cpt Kurtz. Intriguing and very worthwhile.

Released on Room40

Jonty Harrison - Voyages

Since the UK bought a one-way ticket on the trans-euro (political) express (but has yet to punch the ticket and actually make the journey) the country's in a state of psycho-political chaos and music hardly seems important - and yet - where else can we gain a sense of beauty/truth/escape/relief but in that which gives us pleasure? So the train as metaphor for escape from immediate reality is obvious, excuse me...

Pierre Schaeffer famously recorded a train for the first example of musique concrète (Cinq études de bruits) in 1948 and Jonty Harrison must surely have had that in mind when making his own extended version of that pioneering work. He does, however, travel much further along the track, sometimes to the point of simply allowing train horns to 'speak' for themselves, which on paper sounds dull but proves strangely captivating. A master of sound manipulation, he treats concrète recordings so as to blur the lines between what we think of as 'real' and 'created'. 

These are not just train recordings, but sounds captured from all over the place, one example that leaps from the speakers being part 11 of Going Places, made from 'Floating quays strain at their moorings near Sydney Opera House (Australia)'. Bagpipes, frogs, a street demonstration and other recorded events are woven into this magical journey. Espaces cachés is a separate 14min piece which fully explores the wonders of acousmatic sound composition. Escapism may not be freedom but in these times Jonty Harrison's captivating sound world does, at least, offer blessed relief. Info, samples and shop here.

Raime - Tooth / Satoshi Takeishi – Dew Drops

The Ragga Twins swore reggae owed them money but do Slint feel the same about Raime? 

No matter...except I wonder if all the guitar 'licks' (how Rock of me!) on Tooth are sampled or played; I've not read the truth anywhere. Still, Joe Andrews and Tom Halstead have made a proper mood music album. That's one mood throughout, which is what most people do, I know. It's a good mood, not something to put you in a good mood, of course, but their trademark is to be sombre. Thinking about this guitar sound, someone must have played it. I'm being stupid. Or they're being cheeky. I don't know. I do know that the b-line belongs to Dead Heat. Repeat. Repetition is big for Raime. Repeat moods, repeat methodology, repeat riffs. Add things such as strings, clipped vocal yells and what sounds like a bird squawking. Attention to detail, that's the thing, details amid the repetition. Unless you find them, the whole thing starts to sound samey to the point where I can hardly differentiate between what's ended and what's begun. I am, it must be said, the only person in the world who does not shower praise upon Tooth, it seems. Not that I think it's bad and it is above mediocre, but...

Dew Drops by Satoshi Takeishi offers great detail too, this time in the playing. It's OK to be all modern in repeat mode-plus-bass but this is something else. It's old-fashioned musicianship! Professional musicianship which, as you know, can (frequently does) result in muso-induced boredom. It does for me anyway because the only examples of great playing I listen to are collectively known as Jazz, but not the kind made by sterile perfectionists. Satoshi Takeishi plays Jazz, but not here. Instead, he plays broken Autoharp with contact mic, Kanjira, Slit Drum, Shells and Bells, Waterphone but also Computer and iPad along with Handheld Cassette recorder/player, all of which are put to excellent use - the chimes, pitter-patter of percussion, subtle electronics all blended for a proper sound experience. With delicacy and strength, a perfect awareness of space, acoustics, the sonic reverberations of his kit and a true feeling of what constitutes dynamics, Takeishi's Dew Drops is a masterclass in electro-percussive elegance.

Giulio Aldinucci / Moon Ra - Mutus Liber

They were playing Fela Kuti in the coffee shop this morning - that livened me up, as did the caffeine, of course, but both 'ups' were then altered by listening to Mutus Liber, which didn't bring me down, but rather channelled my mood in another direction which I'll call 'sideways' since I'm reducing mood direction to simplistic alternatives when, actually, we know moods can go off in all tangents and at different degrees....

...how the MP3 player has enhanced our listening - hasn't it? I've spoken of that before so I won't here - but Giulio Aldinucci's Vocal Prism sounded special today, shot straight into my brain, before the builders on the big site nearby starting making their contribution to the location's soundtrack and rendering appreciation of this music impossible - this music being artfully textured, ever-evolving, part classic space-age, part offworld drone and, I might add, not dissimilar in places to sounds made by some of the building site machinery...

...two sides here, each unique in character but unified in their careful appliance of science, from serenity to shrieking strings contrasted with bowed cello, wavering drones too, offset by bubbling mechanics - and ecstatic strings (Cloud After Cloud) ascending orchestral euphoria...lots to tune in to so have a listen...