Deaf Center - Pale Ravine

Reissue of Deaf Center's classic Pale Ravine from 2005, first on Type, now on Miasmah. There are 'ambient' albums, plenty of them, and there is this, which is in another league. Erik K Skodvin and Otto A Totland achieve the near-impossible (judging by the usual efforts) of creating beautiful orchestral pieces which feel like fully-formed compositions as opposed to pre-set 'strings' button contrivances designed to create instant 'class'. Deaf Center craft the perfect balance between Satie-esque melodic simplicity, choral grandeur, lush romanticism and cool menace. Worthy of reissue.

Collage, Julian Cope, Kreng & King Mob

Why Must I Be Cursed? Full picture over on the art blog here

***

...................................yeah, yeah.......what? Someone just asked for fiction recommendations but I couldn't help because I haven't read a great novel in ages and her asking made me realise the fact......'though I've just started Julian Cope's One Three One, only because I found it in a charity shop for £2....'One of the most brilliant, serious, funny, life-crammed novels any reader is likely to lay their mitts on' said The Guardian - I doubt it, but judging by the opening three chapters, it won't be dull...........................................................

***

.........as the cheery month of January gradually dies (perhaps we'll all wake up soon) I listen to the new album from Kreng, The Summoner, on Miasmah...it's not helping...shedding any light onto the cold slab of earth that is my life...but it suits this time of year perfectly for there are icy, deep, orchestral manoeuvres embedded into this very dark album - actually, most of it is just that, the Strings of Doom as soundtrack to the endgame in which we all sit in dustbins waiting to be fed crumbs of hope - "What time is it?" "Zero time", to quote, or paraphrase, Samuel Beckett. The first four tracks feel like a long build-up to one that lasts for over 15mins in which something like a melody from Hell (Pepijn Caudron exorcising every Horror soundtrack he's heard and more) culminating in a Death Metal finale complete with Satanic screaming before the final, peaceful piano refrain.........

***

'Rated slightly above the run-of-the-mill consumers of traditional culture is a sort of mass avant garde of consumers who wouldn't miss a single episode of the 'revolt' churned out by the spectacle: the latest solemn 80 minute flick of 360 variegated bare arses, the latest manual of how to freak out without tears, the latest napalm-twisted monsters of air-expressed to the local Theatre of Fact. One builds up resistance to the spectacle and, like any other drug, its continued effectiveness demands increasingly suicidal doses. Today, with everyone all but dead from boredom, the spectacle is essentially a spectacle of revolt. Its function is quite simply to distract attention from the only real revolt: revolt against the spectacle.' - King Mob, 1967

DNMF - DNMF (Moving Furniture Records)

Doom Jazz? Death Jazz? Dark Jazz? Jazz Noir? Gloom Jazz? Is Jazz dead? You tell me. Rutger Zuydervelt (electronics), Otto Kokke (saxophone/synthesizer) and Rene Aquarius (drums/noise) are DNMF. They reanimate Albert Ayler as a man-machine crackling with electricity, sparks flying from his beard as he howls at the moon.

The Thing On The Doorstep is pounding at your door and like Poe's raven it doesn't bode well. It lives! But only just, rattling chains and omitting an ominous drone that resonates through the house causing you to retch - but there is no escape! What hellish noise is this?

'The drum beat seemed to be that of some unholy beast, hammering at my heart, or worse, the very core of my soul! My heart began to beat faster as if trying to repel the evil force that had laid siege it. Yet for each beat it produced the pounding grew louder and I felt my resistance wither. Was that thunder? Or noise made by the thing? I dare not open my eyes to see if the room should be lit by lightening. That would be a relief. I began to think death would be a relief as a terrible wailing and screeching sound, like that of a saxophone played by the Devil himself, began to accompany the other sounds.

The sound diminished for a while. Was it gone? I waited. Then I thought I could hear a train, yet the station was five miles away. Besides, this did not sound like an ordinary train; no friendly clackety-clack but a metallic distortion of that familiar mechanical refrain. It followed no regular pattern of gradual increase before fading as it passed. No. It grated terribly in a fashion which no common train ever could.

Then there was a respite from this sonic torture but it did not last long for another kind of drumming began, a thrashing of skins more frenzied than any voodoo ritual could produce! With it came a chorus from Satan's own choir. But were they voices? Or the sound of Him calling? I could not tell, of course, not having had the privilege of meeting Him, yet. I feared that experience was soon to come as I lay paralysed in my bed. The sound was reaching a peak with the beating of that damned drum and such a noise as I has never heard before. I can only describe it as something akin to a cello being scraped in one's ear whilst a mighty ocean liner announces it arrival before crushing you beneath the waves. I was drowning, that is for certain.

I had long since lost my sense of time and place. I imagined myself being sucked deep into a vortex created by the night and there were no stars, only the blackness as I travelled deep into the centre of this terrible cosmic tornado. Astronomers ponder the mysteries of the heavens as I have done occasionally. Now I was no longer earth-bound but enshrouded in dark alien matter. It was as if evil governed the stars and had extinguished every one of them for The Colour Out Of Space is black! When silence came at last it was not the relief it should have been. I felt nothing. I was nothing.'

Moving Furniture Records

Shivers - Shivers (Miasmah)

It's fitting that the excellent cover suggests film noir and the title's taken from David Cronenberg's first film because the atmosphere reeks of mean otherworldly streets where parasitic evil monsters lurk. Track titles such as Rabid, Brood and Replicant give the influence away but don't prepare you for the sound brewed up by the trio of Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek), Gareth Davis and Leo Fabriek. Despite Davis's bass clarinet and Fabriek's drum kit mixed with Fabriek's electronics the term 'electro-acoustic' doesn't quite apply. Davis' playing in 'free' mode is mood-enhancing rather than dominant and upfront Improv, as demonstrated on the opener, Ash. Whilst at times it threatens to lurch into heavy metallic-electro, thankfully it refrains due to Fabriek not maintaining a regular beat but adding thunderous punctuation instead.

Davis is more prominent on Otomo during the first half but is consumed by an avalanche of electronic mire as the piece evolves. Here and elsewhere the heaviness is reminiscent of Last Exit's bassy weight compounded by Peter Brötzmann's sax playing. But whilst Rabid kicks off like Otomo Yoshihide a swift edit slides it into far more restrained territory with Davis almost playing melodically whilst Fabriek kicks things along and Zuydervelt adds a subtle keyboard. Replicant similarly begins all bluster and noise but moves into moody ambient mode halfway before increasing the pressure again.

The ghost of Howard Shore, who originally scored Shivers and The Brood, may lurk as a reference, but there's something of John Carpenter on Brood, which acknowledges his trademark synth sound without, as so many have done, simply imitating, since the track definitely has it's own identity. Double bass and drum keep the momentum going on Spacek, which rumbles along in fine style. It's soaked in the kind of brooding (ha-ha) menace that permeates most of what is a very satisfying, dark fusion of genres on an album that virtually creates a new one, which I'm not about to try and name.

2013 Releases of the Year

Cue fanfare.

Here's what the music world's been waiting for.

Autechre seem to be missing from a few lists by those who supposedly know their electronic music, which proves they don't. Familiarity breeds...ignorance? 

I've included all three of Morphine's Charles Cohen albums, even though they may not see a 2013 release; call me crazy. 

Some included didn't get reviewed on the blog because it slipped my mind to do so, or they went unnoticed. One such album is the Cacophonic release of Tape Recorder Music, an absolutely essential record. As are the rest, of course.

Soldier’s Requiem - Gabriel Saloman (Miasmah)

Oh such melancholic beauty. It has no place in the modern musical world, does it?

What is the function of this album?

To express the sorrow of all who have known dead soldiers? 

To reflect the sorrow of the world every time a war is fought?

Mine Field builds to such a level of intensity that it seems to contain all the blood-soaked fields and deserts that have ever been created. And all the crosses around the world which mark the places where victims of war lay buried.

With a sound akin to fighter planes swooping in for the kill.

Even the piano sounds as if it's gasping for breath in the final moments...

Marching Time consists only of military percussion, cut as if to signal the relentless march of a badly-drilled army whose men have been programmed but refuse to obey, crashing into each other at every turn.

Finally, the Cold Haunt of the fallen and it's relentless melody folding in on itself, replayed again and again just like the terrible game of war.

Warning: this album will not make you:

                                                         happy

                                                         want to dance

                                                         thrill to the (non-existent) bass

                                                         or bask in the post-New Age ambient calming of your nerves.                                                         

Album Round-Up: If, Bwana, These Hidden Hands and Emptyset

The world's population, excluding roughly 7,183,485,360 of them (that figure's already out of date...I mean, have you been here and watched the counter? It's frightening) are intrigued to know what I think of the latest music releases. So I thought I'd round a few up...and say what I...think...

This, for starters, They Call Me "Bwana" by If, Bwana is outstanding. Originally released as cassette in 1987 on Sound Of Pig (SOP100), it proves what a genius of tapeological collage Al Margolis is, or was in '87, at least. I'm not familiar with his work but will be checking it all out for sure.

I'm not familiar with Franz Ferdinand's work either, but since seeing them on Jools Holland's Later this week, I'm determined to remain ignorant. They weren't awful, just mediocre, and as we watched, I couldn't help wondering why people still listen to the archaic sound of blokes strumming guitars and singing.

I'd say 'Al Margolis should be on Later', but what the hell's the point? His artistry in tape manipulation and creation of moods akin to Pierre Schaeffer on a downer is too sophisticated for the average Later viewer. He combines many instruments (concrete and played?) with synths and vocal samples at a heightened level of creativity. If you're overwhelmed by the glut of fashionable Industrial DIY tapes revived and blogged, If, Bwana deserves your attention. You can listen over here. Top Marks to Forced Nostalgia.

I'm generally underwhelmed by the school of post-Industrial Hardcore Techno Klang (to give the genre it's full title), but These Hidden Hands by These Hidden Hands is impressive, not because it's a stunningly original take on the sound, but because...er...well, it works, for me. It should work for you if you like your brains caved in by hammers to the pounding rhythms of hydraulic pistons. Yes. Amazingly, there's a vocal on When Told that I find most agreeable, and that's rare because vocals on techno albums frequently feature some bird warbling meaninglessly in an effort to create an elegiac mood aimed at past-it ravers, or something. Blame Burial. All the chap here does is repeat the title, or something like the title. And shackled to a first-rate rhythm, it works. If Regis was actually Jimi Hendrix reincarnated, he'd make music like Diesel. Fact. But he isn't, sadly. Lots of These Hidden Hands will make you think your earplugs have blown and that's a good thing.

Emptyset (James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas) are back to scare the horses with Recur on Raster-Noton. So lock up your horses, and your daughters whilst your at it. Which is not to suggest that the duo are like some heavy metal band relishing in the image of hotel-wrecking and womanising but, come to think of it, they are kind of heavy metal...the kind forged in outer space by robomechanics hell-bent on enslaving humans by demolishing them with bass. Public Enemy once asked 'Bass, How Low Can You Go?' and Emptyset have made it their mission to find out. Yes, bass is the place and the spaces these boys create around it once again provide aural thrills. How much longer they can continue in this fashion is another matter. They've been reducing bass 'n' space for some time now and it could finally dissolve to nothing. Meanwhile, they're a joy to behold.

Forthcoming: Gabriel Saloman's Soldier’s Requiem on Miasmah is every bit as good as the preview track here suggests and I'll be saying what I think of that in more detail soon. If I can summon the words. Trust me, it's one of the Albums of the Year. Likewise, on PAN, Dalglish's Niaiw Ot Vile beggars belief in it's complex qualities and if I can find words to describe that you'll read those too. TTFN

Kaboom Karavan - Hokus Fokus (Miasmah)

Imagine music by René Magritte, arranged by Max Ernst and played at a carnival of lost souls...heard on the wind...from a distance...

...a kind of mystical masterpiece...a mirage flickering on the far horizon of an imaginary land...or in the case of Sardonis, an island dreamt up by Les Baxter... 

...strings plucked, bowed and strummed form somnolent rhythms and waves of sound...sending the listener into a waking dream state where what is barely heard exerts a mesmerising kind of power...

...musique liquide...fantastical, morose, whimsical...wherein a lone trumpet or saxophone may meander...and the spirit of old-time finger-clicking Jazz and 'boom-ba-doom' vocals almost collapse, disappearing into the ether...

...electro-acoustic alchemy awash with submerged voices, strange strings and unnameable things that creak and groan in the night...

...like folk forms from a bygone future...

...playful & plaintive...

...a soundtrack for the film in your head that's filled with fantasmagorical sights and sounds...disturbing and delightful...

Gabriel Saloman - Adhere (Miasmah)

By chance this came along as I was in the process of making pieces of paper adhere to one another, and has been a constant in the soundtrack to making the booklet. It suits the mood of the texts and images perfectly. I don't suppose that kind of adherence is what Gabriel Salomon had in mind, though.

I got moody after all that book-making and collared some street urchins who, for the price of a cup of tea and crusts of bread, set about cutting and pasting for me. It's like Warhol's factory here, minus the glamour. OK, it's more like a Victorian workhouse as I patrol the floor, swishing my cane, barking orders, and generally seeing to it that the work gets done properly. After all, it's my concept, the making of which should be left to the lower orders, one of whom cried 'What's that noise, mister?' whilst this album was playing loudly. I struck him a swift blow about the ear and he soon shut up.

What is this noise? I don't know how to describe it other than as a moody, mesmerising collection of militaristic percussion, piano, electronics and guitar, all melding into what feels like one long cyclical trance-inducing trip of epic proportions, epic in feel, that is, rather than sonic overload. Little melodies on a large canvas; deceptive simplicity masking more content than is apparent at first. This album wormed its way into my brain  after several plays and is still doing so.

Interview With Kreng

I sent Pepijn Caudron 10 questions. Having posted one answer separately due to it's length, here are the remaining 9.

Do you make a living from music, or have a 'proper' job?

Yes and no... I don't think I could ever manage a 'proper' job. I have been working as an actor since 1994, that's how I got involved in theatre. When I saw a performance by Abattoir Ferme I solicited for them. Strangely not as an actor, but as a composer. That is 10 years and 35 performances ago. I cannot make a living from the records or the live performances. But scoring a performance gives me 2 months pay. We make 3 performances a year, so that's 6 months of income. For the rest I try to get by doing random stuff as an actor or composer. Short films, dance-performances, voice-acting for radio, etc... I also do dubbing for cartoons. Yes: Kreng's voice is in various Disney-movies.... oh my God... the irony...

If you could invite five actors (past or contemporary) to dinner, who would you choose?

I don't know if I want to be at a table with 5 actors. Usually they are very loud people. I don't really like actors.... and trust me, I've seen some... I'm more into directors, they tend to be a lot more intelligent... But OK, some of them are very talented: Daniel Day Lewis, Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Vincent Price, the list goes on and on ...

Your favourite contemporary music-makers?

That would be a whole list of soundtrack-composers. I truly think that a lot innovation is being done in that field. Some of it really gets better on repeated listenings. Last year I saw Hans Zimmer perform his Inception-suite with a 75-piece orchestra. Those were the most intense 20 minutes of live-music I ever experienced. What I like so much about soundtracks is that the music is often incredibly complex, almost avant-garde, but it serves a very commercial product. It is the perfect way to bring strange sounds to the masses. Alexandre Desplat's works is downright beautiful. Roque Banos, Christopher Young, Javier Navarette & Angelo Badalamenti can be pretty creepy. The way Marco Beltrami, Alan Silvestri, Elliot Goldenthal & Brian Tyler can use the different textures of an orchestra is as astounding. Abel Korzeniowski & Jospeh Bishara are two new names to keep an eye on. Thomas Newman, Zbigniew Preisner, Wojciech Kilar, Jon Brion & Cliff Martinez are simply amazing... I also like the fact that soundtracks work within a certain tradition. The older scores by people like Bernard Herrmann (probably my favourite), Ennio Morricone (his 70's period is stunning!), John Barry, Lalo Schifrin, Miklos Rozsa (the score for Spellbound!!), Les Baxter, Max Steiner, etc... were very innovative & sometimes very out-there, yet they laid down the foundation upon which a whole new way of writing music was built.

Your thoughts on file-sharing.

Tough one... I'm 37 years old.... meaning I come from a generation that used to pay for their records. Having the actual artefact in your hands and having paid for it creates a connection to the music that cannot be obtained with downloads. However I do download music myself... a lot...I see (illegal) downloading as a way to check music. If I really like it I will buy it. But even then... There is simply too much stuff out there... 

My relationship with recorded sound is pretty bizarre: My record-collection is my instrument. I need sounds to compose. The good thing about file-sharing is that it gave me access to a lot of sound that simply doesn't exist on vinyl. A lot of the sound out there is not for sale anymore, anywhere... 
I realize that my work is being downloaded too and there's nothing I can do to stop that. However, I try to make the actual records as beautiful as possible so that people will actually will want buy them. Erik Skodvin (head-honcho of Miasmah Records) is a big help in this. But we have to face the fact that there's not much money to be made in 2012 with selling records. I think you have to look at them as a way of advertising: hopefully they can get you gigs and commissions. And off course they are the perfect medium to communicate your work with your audience and colleagues.

Is Jazz dead, or does it just smell funny?

I think it's alive somewhere... but it sure knows how to hide!

The last vinyl LP you bought was?

Caspar Brotzmann Massaker - Black Axis (finally found a second-hand copy)

Does an act of creation keep you sane?

Like John Cage once said: That is such a perfect question.. I don't want to ruin it with an answer'

The idea that an album made over the last 20 years can be heralded as a ‘classic’ to stand alongside works by Sun Ra, Kraftwerk or Stockhausen is true, or a case of misguided optimism?

Hmm... another good question. Interesting when you start to think about it. According to me the last 'classic' album was Endtroducing by DJ Shadow. But this was 1996, so I'm afraid you're almost right. The reason why it's no longer possible to release a 'defining' album has a lot to do with how subcultures keep dividing themselves into smaller and smaller sections. Which isn't bad.... Feed the specialists... Internet has a large part in this globalisation of music.... and strangely enough it doesn't get bigger, but smaller.

Do you have a new album in the pipeline?

I have so much material lying around that a new album is not really an issue. It's about sitting down, finding a focus, compiling, reworking and finalizing. So yes... I always have a new album in the pipeline. But first up is a retrospective compilation of the scores I did for Abbatoir Ferme on Miasmah. A lavishly designed four LP + 10" Box set, including download codes & - I must say - pretty stunning artwork.

Kreng - Works For Abattoir Ferme 2007-2011 (Miasmah)

Elevator music - but this lift's only going one way, and it's not up towards  the eternal sunlit heavenly blues skies filled with angelic song, as you probably guessed if you know Pepijn Caudron's music. Instead, we plummet down, into the realm of unnameable horror, a theatre of cruelty scripted by Poe and Lovecraft.

Severed from their original theatrical context, Caudron's soundtracks allow us to imagine our own scenarios, such as a long steel corridor bathed in blood red light and a door marked 'Exit' which we never reach since each step takes us no closer. We hear a funeral marching band...our own breath exhaled in terrified gasps...the constant pounding of a drum like the footsteps of Satan himself on our trail...Poe's pendulum swinging ever closer...strings so sharp as to slice your throat, or sweepingly melancholic, draining you of tears as you dread what lurks in the twilight zone...even a much-loved (by samplers) exorcist makes an appearance. And whatever the original visual source of inspiration, I can't help frequently picturing Friedrich's traveller looking over the Sea of Fog when Caudron brings fearsome orchestration into play.

Fans of Kreng will not be surprised that Caudron once again demonstrates his ability to evoke morbidly theatrical moods through tension and release. These lengthy pieces extend the atmosphere he is renowned for, creating what feel like endless journeys into the long dark night of the soul. Whether you invest in the vinyl or download version, there's a feast of finely-tuned sonic terror on offer here.

In complete contrast, his soundtrack for the TV show, Monster (a 10" bonus with the vinyl box), is B-movie plunderphonics. Here samples (including Captain Scarlet, if I'm not mistaken, and Art Blakey) fly thick and fast, providing a bundle of gory loungecore fun. Since this will not be available as a download, I thought I'd supply an exclusive track for you to enjoy, with permission from Miasmah.

Also, coming soon, an interview with Pepijn Caudron. Watch this space.

63 Film Soundtracks Chosen by Kreng

As part of a Q&A I'm conducting with Pepijn Caudron (Kreng) I asked him to name his Top 5 film soundtracks. Understandably, he found that impossible, saying 'I can't do this'. Instead, he offered 63 from what I suspect would be a much larger list. He also added: 'and there is so much great Ennio Morricone. Too much to list here. check his wild 70's period on 'Crime & Dissonance' - a great double-compilation on Mike Patton's Ipecac label!'. I wholeheartedly support that recommendation; it's a good way of cheating if the list is short and like him I'm a big fan of Ennio's 70s work. 

The full Q&A session will be posted soon, along with a review of the forthcoming box set on Miasmah, Works For Abattoir Ferme 2007-2011 which, trust me, is an absolutely essential purchase.

Aliens - James Horner
John Corigliano - Altered States
Assault On Precinct 13 - John Carpenter
Basic Instinct - Jerry Goldsmith
Blanc / Blue / Rouge - Zbigniew Preisner
Bram Stoker's Dracula - Wojciech Kilar
Bug - Brian Tyler
The Cell - Howard Shore
Crank: High Voltage - Mike Patton
The Dark Knight - Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
Dark Of The Sun - Jacques Loussier
The Day The Earth Stood Still - Bernard Herrmann
Derek Jarman's The Last Of England - Simon Fisher Turner
Dirty Harry - Lalo Schifrin
Drive - Cliff Martinez
Ed Wood - Howard Shore
Edward Scissorhands - Danny Elfman
The Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat

The Fearless Vampire Killers - Krzysztof Komeda
The Hurt Locker - Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders
In The Bedroom - Thomas Newman
In The Mood For Love - Michael Galasso & Various
Inception - Hans Zimmer
Insidious - Jospeh Bishara
The King's Speech - Alexandre Desplat
The Lost Weekend - Miklos Rozsa
Lust, Caution - Alexandre Desplat
The Machinist - Roque Banos
Marnie - Bernard Herrmann
Mirrors - Javier Navarette
Moon - Clint Mansell
Mullholland Drive - Angelo Badalamenti
Music From Twin Peaks - Angelo Badalamenti
The Ninth Gate - Wojciech Kilar
North By Northwest - Bernard Herrmann
Obsession - Bernard Herrmann
The Omen - Jerry Goldsmith
The Painted Veil - Alexandre Desplat
Pan's Labyrinth - Javier Navarette

Paris, Texas - Ry Cooder
A Perfect Place - Mike Patton
Planet Of The Apes - Jerry Goldsmith
Psycho - Bernard Herrmann
Punch-Drunk-Love - Jon Brion
Pursued - Max Steiner
Rosemary's Baby - Krzysztof Komeda
Seven Samurai - Fumio Hayasaka
She - Max Steiner
A Single Man - Abel Kozeniowski
Sisters - Bernard Herrmann
The Social Network - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Solaris - Cliff Martinez
Spellbound - Miklos Rozsa
The Straight Story - Angelo Badalamenti
There Will Be Blood - Jonny Greenwood
The Thing - Ennio Morricone
Tron Legacy- Daft Punk
Twisted Nerve - Bernard Herrmann
Up - Michael Giacchino
Vertigo - Bernard Herrmann
White Oleander - Thomas Newmann

30 Days Of Night - Brian Reitzell
2046 - Shigeru Umebayashi





Miasmah label

Abtu Anet - Gultskra Artikler (Miasmah)

Music of Gultskra Artikler is a chaos, some village with dusty forgotten things. It’s like a mosaic, fanciful designs on an old trunk. You examine it, draw something and add new elements. They shimmer in the sunlight, you feel its rough edges and specks. - Alexey Devyanin 

Alexey describes his music so well that I don't need to say another word. But I will. I'll say a few more words, although the line 'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture' never felt more appropriate. Only a musician with a grudge about music criticism would come up with that line anyway. And what do musicians know about writing anything other than music? John Cage knew about writing - he knew it could be abstract and make more sense than 'proper' writing. 

Collage...mosaic is as good a word for Devyanin's music. Acoustic guitar, piano, samples, unnameable sounds, folkloric melodies from 78s in an old trunk in the attic...the dusty cosmic drift of time...particles of sound arranged in such a way as to evoke Tarkovsky's Zone, perhaps...the artist as stalker, bringing back alien artefacts. In the locked groove crackle of this music, anything is possible...

He doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry...he's off the map in the modern sense...

This music is unstoppable, by which I mean I literally cannot bring myself to turn it off...because it is not instantly knowable...each track is a Russian doll containing seemingly infinite pieces...all of which can only be extracted by repeated plays. So I play it again. In this age of restless clicking, it's miraculous that this music  not only demands sustained attention but gets it from me. I am, as much as anyone else, a restless listener...playing parts of tracks, skipping some, almost listening to whole pieces before the thought of something else draws me away.

Time seems to change in Devyanin's world, just as it does in Tarkovsky's, and whilst he created visual poetry in 'Stalker', Devyanin achieves something like the sonic equivalent here.

You can listen here. 

Grimoire - Kreng (Miasmah)

Pepijn Caudron’s second album for Miasmah cracks your skull wide open and casts a spell, especially if you listen with plugs in – a spell so devilishly seductive, so dark, it makes Demdike Stare sound like...Pop – yes, it’s that good. If Pop Sounds and Happy Music in general are godly gifts to lift the hearts of listeners, this extraordinary album is the work of the anti-Christ, and as you know, the Devil has all the best tunes. Not to suggest that Pepijn is a wicked person (I’m sure he’s a nice fellow), but that this record absolutely represents the very best in sinister, mysterious modes of music-making, without resorting to brutalism, ie Noise. There is a remarkable passage in the 9-minute ‘Wrak’, however, in which a skronking sax and electronic maelstrom combine to blow your brain. It’s all the more effective for being sandwiched between plaintive piano, and strings reminiscent of Herrmann’s work for Hitch. ‘Ballet Van de Bloedhoeren’ demonstrates another side of the multi-faceted Caudron in a beautifully melancholic chamber (of horrors) quartet mode made more grisly by a low-end electronic undertow. ‘Satyriasis’ is one of the most intriguing pieces, a subtle exercise in creeping horror sketched out by jazzy brushwork, strings, piano and restrained electro-ambience. This is not an album you can skip through and hope to understand what’s going on, so don’t bother. It demands, and requires close attention because, as in all great horror or Film Noir flicks, the substance and true meaning lurks deep in the shadows. Amazing work.

L'Autopsie Phénoménale De Dieu - Kreng (Miasmah Records)

This album won’t fill you with Xmas cheer but Belgian Pepijn Caudron has produced an exceptional piece of work. It’s a virtuoso studio performance that interweaves samples from movies and music to create an aura of menace and melancholy that doesn’t let up. Like a doomed film noir character for whom there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, hopes of anything lifting your spirits are futile. Yet I find this recording gratifying for that very reason. There are passages of great poignancy (a woman sobs to the sound of Chopin on ‘Meisje In Auto’) as well as brooding menace (‘Transmutation Device’). Subtle rhythms arise with brush strokes on cymbals or minimal drum beats...a bell tolls...piano melodies come and go, as does an operatic vocal...all serving to suggest tragedy and loss. Some of it is reminiscent of Morricone, and Hermann’s soundtrack for ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ towards the end of on one of the most powerful pieces, ‘Kolossus’. The last word goes to someone saying ‘Thank you ladies and gentlemen for your boundless enthusiasm’, which sounds to me like a sample from a ‘live’ jazz recording, but I could be wrong. Either way, it’s perhaps an ironic inclusion for a ‘performance’ that deserves applause even though it won't elevate you the way an Art Blakey gig would.