The Sound Projector

A double LP by The Caretaker has been propped up by my sofa for days - it will probably turn out to be a beguiling spin, and not before time as I’m nearly at the end of playing my limited edition subscription-only 6 x CD set by The Caretaker (Theoretically Pure Anterograde Amnesia) which I bought last year. The Caretaker first came our way many years ago as one of the more musical and even somewhat ‘sensitive’ projects to be associated with the otherwise harsh, sarcastic and garish releases of V/Vm; he mostly reworked old 78 rpm records, but with judicious use of chamber-like echo effects, the better to transform his very English starting point (the original records were mostly corny old dances, foxtrots and what have you). The new double LP is called Deleted Scenes / Forgotten Dreams, a title I consider to be slightly unfortunate, and it’s number 009 on Wé/Mè Le Disque records out of Belgium. The cover art reproduces a painting on canvas, a large crimson-stained face with eyes shut and a general cadaverous appearance, with ‘distress’ marks making it look for all the world like a Protestant-defaced icon which may have survived on an English church wall painting, if you’re lucky. “The cut, as you would expect, has been done beautifully,” muses the creator from his stately home with a sherry at his elbow, “and has been set a little lower volume-wise than normal to allow for additional surface noise from vinyl playback over time to individualise your own experience.” Pre-order copies (ie before 30 April) were signed and numbered!

The closed eyes of ‘Mr Cadaver’ as above may prompt a revisit to those age-old questions about how we actually perceive sound. According to Ulrich Troyer, we see with our ears, and his new CD Sehen Mit Ohren (TRANSACOUSTIC RESEARCH tres006) may attempt to state the case for this unusual creed in a highly conceptual way. Booklet and press are all in German for this one, leaving me guessing for the time being, but I think it involves spoken-word contributions from a number of performers, and the cover is stamped in Braille. That’s the second Braille CD cover I’ve seen in two years! In earlier times, this would have been taken as an omen.

Coupla new hot ‘grapefruits’ have popped out from US label Public Guilt / Implied Sound around this time. The first is a solid seven-inch picture disc by Zu, called Observing The Armies in the Battlefield. This band purport to offer something new in the hotly-disputed field of jazz-rock, going several steps further than you might expect with their wild free jazz and metallic-funky influences. This may turn out to be a ghastly listen, and the grotesque drawing of a top-hatted leering skull with curled locks, pointy beard and moustaches does not bode well; I can already sense these sweaty Italians rolling up sleeves to brandish tattoos in a vulgar way. However, this label scored max points with their previous vinyl singles, so we mustn’t lose hope. Their other release is a 3 CD box set survey of contemporary noise and drone, simply called untitled (PG007) and so formidable that it took the help of two other indie labels to release it. Sealed in a nifty cardboard box (my copy remains unopened at time of writing) such as you might purchase at Paper Tiger or the like, the set promises much in the way of anti-social and intestinal-wrangling diversion from its 55 contributors. There appear to be some nice artworks inside too, and discs decorated by certain musicians (such as Christopher White of Magicicada) who also happen to double as eyeball-merchants. I can tell all this simply by gently rattling the box around in my hands. This red-and-gold timebomb hits the streets end of May 07.

erikm played at a French festival in 2005, where he was meant to be doing it with the venerable Luc Ferrari, one of the “old guard” of electro-acoustic music. Ferrari couldn’t make it, so Thomas Lehn stepped in, and the results are now released on Les Protorythmiques (ROOM 40 RM417). Luc’s absence has not prevented his name being used on the front cover, but he is here in more than just the spirit of the game. Erik had been working with the master and collected some samples from a project apparently called Les Archives Sauvees Des Eaux, said samples subsequently deployed in the live setting. This could turn out to be pretty good…erikm’s a pretty substantial fellow in the avant-festival scene these days, and he’s moved on from his cruder days of turntables and cassette tapes; and Lehn’s promised work on the Synthi A also has me twiddling my own jackplugs in anticipation.

Dear listeners,

No radio show tonight (20th April 2007), as astute listeners will have already noticed. The Resonance studios are off-limits for a while. Next Friday’s show will probably be a repeat. Next live show on 4th May 2007. Podcast of The Fall still available; Good Friday podcast now taken down, and Progressive Rock II podcast reinstated.

Many thanks,

EP

The Brighton-based label The Slightly Off Kilter Label is owned by Paul Khimasia Morgan, who sent a couple of seven-inches and two CDRs. At least one of them (I’m Magic - Gimme a Fiver, sok010) by Yeborobo somehow exudes the kind of absurdist zanery that Volcano The Bear would like to think they’ve cornered the market in. Yeborobo seem to be a musical theatre spin-off from something called The Mentalist Association, and the sleeve art to this vinyl monstrosity is electrically charged with intense garish fibre-tip doodles and collage actions that provide a rough-edged window into the inner workings of mental dementia. Expecting an improvement on Trumans Water-styled gibberish from these grooves. Also of likely interest is a CDR by A Middle Sex called Look! (sok017), a perplexing artefact yielding nine cuts by a mystery duo from Manchester; they use live electronics, amplified vocals and a drum kit, hopefully delivering a much-downgraded and distorted version of Silver Apples. The cover art combines crude collage with primary-school painting and promises much in the area of simplistic yet sophisticated joyful noise. Also from this label: the Scythe EP (sok009) by Bela Emerson who saws on her cello and enhances the results with electronic processing; a stark drawing of a dandelion on the cover probably expresses her sense of fragility and aloneness in the cruel world. Liquid Metal Flesh is a generous 2-disc collection of guitar and amplified FX duo improvisations by Adam Lygo and Paul Morgan. The CDs are stencilled and spray-painted silver, and there are pseudo-poetic statements printed on colour photographs as inserts. These visual diversions give me some cause for hope, but a superficial spin suggests mostly aimless and slow noise-plodding on the grooves.

Chris Forsyth is one third of Peeesseye, whose Evolving Ear releases emanating from Brooklyn in NYC often receive a sympathetic audience in the TSP house, even though one never knows quite what to expect. Here he is teamed up with trumpeter Nate Wooley, on The Duchess of Oysterville (CS087 CD), released on Portuguese label Creative Sources. The cover art isn’t giving anything away with its immaculate but opaque photographs of domestic interiors, very carefully framed and rendered by Maria Dumlac from her Interrogation Marks series. I’m expecting some fairly restrained and quiet guitar-and-brass explorations on the 25-minutes of music hereon.

If it’s restraint and focus you’re after though, I guess we need look no further than the new release from Rhodri Davies, the superb Welsh harpist, composer and improviser, in his latest team-up with Ko Ishikawa. Compositions for Harp and Sho (HIBARI-09) is released on Taku Unami’s Hibari Music label in Japan. On it, the duo play compositions by Taku Sugimoto, Masahiko Okura, Antoine Beuger and Toshiya Tsunoda. Tsunoda is a remarkable composer whose approach to making compositions out of field recordings I find to be unique; the results always full of clarity and purpose. The notes to his ‘strings and pipes’ piece allude to very precise tunings for both the instruments, and a deep understanding of sine waves. Sugimoto of course has been noted for his increasingly reductive approach towards minimalist improvisation and composition, two activities which in his world are so closely bound that there appears to be little difference between them. The CD comes as a modest card folder, the disc mounted on a plastic prong, and a simple drawing of a black leather belt on the front cover. But there’s something about the way it curves around the page, and the fact that the inside of the belt is white, that (in my hallucinatory mind) somehow elevate this simple artwork to the status of a philosophical statement; it seems like a belt that could contain the entire universe. Rhodri is an abstemious and thoughtful performer, and has never allowed a single “unnecessary” release to add to the welter of noise pollution in today’s overcrowded musical world; of how many artists can that be said? Expecting great things from this little gem!

Got a couple of new releases from Oral Records in Canada; AUN’s mule (ORAL CD15) may prove to be little more than ordinary droning ambient electronica, a dreary genre which after more than ten years is still blighting the four corners of the musical globe. However, 01ek’s Suicide Prevention (ORAL CD17) seems darker and edgier. Its creator Alexander Wilson is an electro-acoustic composer and musical theorist from Montreal, who also works in theatre. With tracks like ‘furniture for the dead’, and the disquieting cover images of old anatomical illustrations, looks like we’ve got another contender anxious to assume the mantle and slip into the gaps left by Coil and NWW.

In the vinyl corner this week, two LPs from our American cousins…The SB have a new LP on Italian label QBICO called Who Will Feed Them (QBICO 54). This seven-piece combo of bright-eyed American idealists meet on a regular basis to play, rehearse and perform in NYC, yet their release schedule is far from prolific - perhaps only the choicest cuts survive! After one spin I can indicate that the two sides here certainly tend to reveal the current Moog-dominated nature of their sound, although many subtle percussion, guitar and voice elements are also discernible…overall they blend so tightly that, in places, you could mistake this for any given solo CD of mid-1990s ambient synth music, except The SB are much warmer; the humanity of seven souls foregathered in the room somehow shows up on the tape. Russ W of the band was interviewed in TSP 15. Qbico have a redoubtable release history and include many examples of interesting free jazz and contemporary underground noise in their catalogue, many of the LPs pressed in coloured vinyl and with hand-made sleeves. They also sell out very quickly. It so happens that Who Will Feed Them is pressed in black vinyl, but I’m not one to complain about that. Curious listeners may wish to know they can download some free audio materials by The SB.

Then again if you can’t live without a regular dose of coloured vinyl (some collectors I know use them like boiled sweets, letting them dissolve slowly in their mouths), then purchase ye a copy of Undercover (CIRCUIT 004) by The New Humans. Also from NYC, The New Humans are that notorious art-noise duo Mika Tajima and Howie Chen who brought us the Disassociate LP in 2006, with its glow-in-the-dark screenprinted cover and plenty of perplexing bass-heavy abstractions on the album. Here, they occupy one side of the bright orange plastic with about 12 ½ minutes of music concocted as the soundtrack to a film made by the Swiss artist Philippe Decrauzat, who also helped Mika with the grid-design front cover and insert artworks, and the platter is released by a Swiss contemporary arts organisation. The music seems to feature lotsa guitar work, percussion, and beatbox programming - in fact the whole of side two is a ‘fibonacci beat track’, whatever that may be. I seem to recall that Disassociate also invited similar conceptual overlap with hip-hop music in some way, although The New Humans radiate no ‘street’ vibe that I am able to discern. Rather, judging by the foreboding artworks, this one will turn out to be quite an exercise in desolation and grimness. Even the label is decorated with nails, a more potent symbol of industrial capability than which you can’t get.

Guest co-presenter Harley Richardson

1. Mark E. Smith, title unknown
   From Pander! Panda! Panzer!, UK ACTION RECORDS TAKE19CD CD (2002)
2. The Fall, ‘Mollusc in Tyrol’
   From Seminal Live, UK BEGGARS BANQUET BEGA 102 (1989)
3. ‘Paintwork’
   From This Nation’s Saving Grace, UK BEGGARS BANQUET BEGA 67 LP (1985)
4. ‘Bonkers in Phoenix’
   From Cerebral Caustic, UK CASTLE MUSIC CMQDD1299 2xCD (Expanded Edition 2006; original release 1995)
5. ‘Dog is Life / Jerusalem’ (excerpt)
   From I am Kurious Oranj, UK BEGGARS BANQUET BEGA 96 LP (1988)
6. ‘Hurricane Edward’
   From Levitate, UK ARTFUL RECORDS CD ARTFUL CDX9 2XCD (1997)
7. ‘Bug Day’
   From The Wonderful and Frightening World of… The Fall, USA PVC RECORDS PVC 8932 LP (1984)
8. ‘Light / Fireworks’ (excerpt)
   From The Infotainment Scan, UK CASTLE MUSIC CMQDD1227 2xCD (Expanded Edition 2006; original release 1993)
9. Title unknown
   From Pander! Panda! Panzer!, op cit.
10. ‘Haf Found Bormann’
    From There’s a Ghost in My House, UK BEGGARS BANQUET BEG 187T 12″ single (1987)
11. Mark E. Smith, ‘The Horror in Clay’
    From The Post Nearly Man, UK ARTFUL RECORDS ARTFULCD14 CD (1998)
12. The Fall, ‘Distilled Mug Art’
    From 2G+2, UK ACTION RECORDS TAKE18CD CD (2002)
13. Mark E. Smith, ‘I’m Bobby pt. 1′ (excerpt)
    From The Post Nearly Man, op cit.
14. The Fall, ‘Das Boat’ (excerpt)
    From Reformation Post TLC, UK SLOGAN RECORDS SLOCD007 CD (2007)
15. Mark E. Smith, ‘Lucifer Over Lancashire’ (excerpt)
    From Pander! Panda! Panzer!, op cit.
16. The Fall, ‘Early Life of Crying Marshall’
    From The Marshall Suite, UK ARTFUL RECORDS ARTFULCD17 CD (1999)
17. Mark E. Smith, title unknown
    From Pander! Panda! Panzer!, op cit.
18. The Fall, ‘Papal Visit’ (excerpt)
    From Room to Live, UK COG SINISTER COGVP139CD CD (reissue 2002; original release 1982)
19. ‘Medical Acceptance Gate’
    From The Collection, EEC CASTLE COMMUNICATIONS CCSCD 365 CD (1993 compilation)
20. ‘Noel’s Chemical Effluence’
    From The Twenty-Seven Points, UK PERMANENT RECORDS PERM LP 36 2XLP (1995)
21. ‘Symbol of Mordgan’ (excerpt)
    From Middle Class Revolt, UK PERMANENT RECORDS PERM CD16 CD (1994)

Competing for your attention this week: four new releases winged off to the sanctuary of the TSP box by Mattin. Long skilled as a wreaker of the most malevolent synth and laptop growls you could wish for, Mattin caught my eye last year with a stark, minimalist release issued jointly under his name and Radu Malfatti, the veteran trombone improviser. That package arrived with an abrasive printed polemic, asking some very pointed questions about the nature of modern music and its audience. I discern further chips on shoulders with this new batch, the most obvious candidate being Keith Rowe Serves Imperialism (w.m.o/r 29), a release credited to Michel Henritzi with guests Mattin, Bruce Russell, Taku Unami and Shin’ichi Isohata. Henritzi, late of the excellent A Bruit Secret label, incorporates what might be an inflammatory text in the booklet, the exact meaning of which I have yet to decode; smart avant hipsters with any sense of history will immediately recognise the title’s dig as a quote of Cornelius Cardew’s famed 1974 tract about his former mentor Stockhausen, made doubly ironic in this instance by its reference to fellow AMM performer Rowe. The record itself appears to consist of guitar and turntable improv, with some live electronics and items swiped from the toolbox; and it’s dedicated to guitar greats Derek Bailey and Masayuki Takayanagi.

Josetxo Grieta is here with Euskal Semea (w.m.o/r 28), which on the face of it comprises two lengthy cover versions of ‘European Son’ by The Velvet Underground, and printed texts in the package intellectualising and contextualising the decision (even filling in some historical background on Delmore Schwartz, the poet and English teacher at Lou Reed’s University). Josetxo’s text asks pointed questions about national identity, particularly as it obtains in 21st century Europe. Mattin forms part of this deconstructionist trio, adding guitar and voice to the radio work of Josetxo Anitua, and the drums of Inigo Eguillor. Actually this record could turn out to be a very rewarding slab of noise, and more than just ‘cover versions’, perhaps an interesting commentary of sorts on the music of The VU and their status in musical history. The high-impact cover art is a witty pastiche of the first VU LP, except this Basque banana is peeled, bitten, and dipped in some vile red sauce; the strands of banana peel fall in odd patterns and make it resemble a yellow and black stick insect.

NMM, or No More Music at The Service of Capital, are a duo featuring Lucio Capece and Mattin; Mattin does computer feedback, Lucio does saxophone feedback and plays the mixing desk. The CD is called Universal Prostitution and comes decked in a sleeve resembling a 1930s Marxist tract, printed with trenchant texts about consumerism, products, alienation, power, and belief systems; the sort of accusatory and critical messages I haven’t seen printed on a record sleeve since the days of Crass or The Pop Group. This particular product is proudly marked ‘Anti-Copyright’, and it’s a joint release by Ideal recordings (iDEAL041), Absurd (#63) and 8 mm Records (012).

Zaïmph’s Emblem (w.m.o/r 31) finally, comes with no hectoring messages (and indeed no other information whatsoever), but simply a nifty silver-on-black postcard sleeve with a wild snake leaping up the trunk of a tree on the back cover and an eerie Beardsley-esque landscape on the front, where coils of smoke turn into the unkempt grass of the heath. The CD has a scrawled image of a skull surrounded by Aboriginal stripes (which could translate as additional snakes, or a river), and two long tracks of electronic darkness lie within.

Josh Ronsen of Austin sent his brekekekexkoaxkoax CD last year; further evidence of the Texan improv scene has arrived in the shape of The Zanzibar Snails, whose CD Introdewcing The Zanzibar Snails (MYH01, first release on the MAYYRH RECORDS label) is a collection of ‘live improvised abstractions’. The core gastropods are Nevada Hill and Michael Chamy, who do live electronics and guitar work, joined by sax player and fellow mollusk Mike Forbes. Unlike Ronsen, these fellows (from visual arts and journalism backgrounds) may be based in McKinney or Denton, although the label’s in Hurst and they recorded this live in a shopping mall in Dallas, before a clutch of bemused shoppers. Arrives in a card wallet printed with some fairly nauseating visceral shapes, poised midway between psychedelic lettering and medical photographs; Nevada Hill, the visual half of the act, also included one of his mini-comics in the envelope, filled with dense imagery which mixes urban features (pavements, hydrants, drains) with more of these oozing intestinal shapes. The music, once heard, may follow similar paths of slow-crawling exploration of these internal realms.

I see Pogus have issued the work of another little-known electronic music ‘veteran’ of sorts; Felix Werder, whose The Tempest (POGUS P21044-2) contains three works originally composed and recorded between 1971 and 1974. Werder was a Berlin-born fellow whose life was uprooted by Nazi occupation, and lived in various places before settling in Australia around the 1950s. This accounts for the Melbourne-based performers on the recordings. Although the presence of the EMS VCS3 and Synthi equipment (noted in press release) does light up a few of my printed circuits, the early signs aren’t looking too good for this one - the music seems rather cold, academic and conservatoire-based on preliminary spins, but things may improve.

Got another three releases from Winds Measure Recordings in NY State, which (based on available evidence) deals in focussed, minimal, electronic sound art. Ben Owen has realised radio>in (wm 02), which seems to be minimalist process-based work using signals from FM radios and a mixing desk. ea are an electro-acoustic sextet who have put out balancing act with controlled dynamics (wm 05). I seem to recall hearing them (or a group with same name) on a Polish label years ago; turns out they have an international membership and they’re all interested in field recordings which they transform with computer manipulation. For this one, they appear to be working to a score that guides improvisations - the enclosed chart refers to permitted dynamic ranges. Andy Graydon is another process fellow, working with sound and video. He too favours field recordings, electronics, and processing, and I see he also plays the ukulele on his at bay (wm 06), but my guess is he won’t be turning in a George Formby impression. These CDRs are all immaculately packaged items in letterpress sleeves and very limited quantities, reminding me of the tiny artists’ books you used to get at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

Also from New York state (Bedford Hills in fact), comes Ron Crowcroft with two soundwork collections he’s been working on since 2001. Flux (moronmusic 01) and Reflux (moronmusic 02) contain bewildering snippets and suites, using samples layered and edited perhaps inside a computer. Flux, mainly doodling electronica, seems a little pointless on early spins, but Reflux is a lot livelier - at least it gives the listener several things to digest at once. Crowcroft is not averse to using ‘house’ beats, but the alienating melanges he spins around these rhythmical structures are avowedly anti-entertainment. He has a cute line in absurdist titles too, like ‘My electric chair’, ‘Lotion Switch’ and ‘She’s In Pain’. If you have any trouble finding these at your local branch of Virgin Records, the curious among you may wanna drop an email to Ron (crowcroft [at] fsmail.net) and enquire politely about their availability.

1. Washington Phillips, ‘Denomination Blues parts 1 and 2′ (1927)
   From Denomination Blues, HOLLAND AGRAM BLUES AB 2006 LP (ND)
2. Terry Riley, extract from ‘Performance Two (24 May 1972, Paris)’
   From Persian Surgery Dervishes, FRANCE SHANTI 83.501-83.502 2 x LP (1972)
3. Eddie Head and his Family, ‘Down On Me’ (1930)
   From American Primitive Vol 1: Raw Pre-War Gospel (1926-36), USA REVENANT 206 CD (1997)
4. Olivier Messiaen, ‘Séquence du Verbe, Cantique Divin’
   From Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine, FRANCE ERATO STU 70200 LP (ND)
5. Ralph Lundsten, ‘Tillkomme Ditt Rike’
6. Ralph Lundsten, ‘Ske Din Vilja’
   From Fadervar, original issue EMI E 061-34608 LP (1972)
7. Alan Watts, ‘Umdagumsubudu’ (fade) (1962)
   From This is IT, USA LOCUST MUSIC L 48 CD (2004)
8. William and Versey Smith, ‘Sinner You’ll Need King Jesus’
   From American Primitive Vol 1, op cit.
9. Alan Watts, ‘Fingernail Poem’
   From This is IT, op cit.
10. Robert Ashley, extract from In Sara, Mencken, Christ and Beethoven there were men and women (1972)
    ITALY GET BACK GET 413 LP (2002)
    Original issue Nova Musicha No-3, ITALY CRAMPS RECORDS 5206 103 (1974)
11. Alan Watts, ‘Gagaku-Ku’
    From This is IT, op cit.
12. Charles Ives, ‘Chorale and Finale’
    From The Celestial Country, USA CRI SD 314 LP (1973)
13. Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Avenaim, ‘Atzilut’ (fade)
    From The Alter Rebbe’s Nigun, USA TZADIK TZ 7131 CD (1999)
14. Rapoon, ‘Awi’
    From Raising Earthly Spirits, THE NETHERLANDS STAALPLAAT STCD 063 CD (1993)
15. Dennis Crumpton and Robert Summers, ‘Everybody Ought to Pray Sometime’
    From American Primitive Vol 1, op cit.
16. Olivier Messiaen, ‘Majesté du Christ demandant sa gloire À son Père’
    From L’Ascension, FRANCE ERATO STU 70673 LP (1975)
17. Ralph Lundsten, ‘Amen’
    From Fadervar, op cit.

The Sound Projector radio show,
originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM

People Like Us and Ergo Phizmiz arrive with a new collaborative CD, called Perpetuum Mobile (SOL156CD) and released by Soleilmoon Records in the US. This label has been home to many a PLU masterpiece, some as vinyl epics with garish, acidic sleeves. Matter of fact, Perpetuum may just be the cake of the week in the TSP box, on account of its sumptuous silk-screened cover, whose images of 19th-century engravings are printed in a tasteful deep crimson on cream paper and wrapped around a ‘six-panel folderpack’. This handmade artefact is presumably quite limited, and I know both of these distinctive talents have their collector fanbase, so it might be wise to place your orders now. Both artistes, as if you didn’t know, are accomplished composers in the collage mode, sourcing private libraries packed with unbelievable records and other sonic oddities, to create humourous, witty, and ambiguous tapestries of wonderment. I’ve been a fan of Vicki’s work for about 8 years, Phizmiz for slightly less; both have generously made portions of their back catalogues available online, and are also firm favourites at the avant-radio houses WFMU and Resonance FM.

Ben Reynolds continues his relentless ascent up from the UK underground, appearing here as one half of a new project called Motor Ghost with drummer Alex Neilson. Reynolds is only known to me as a constructor of dense solo drone overdub miniatures, but on A Gold Chain Round Her Breast (DANCING WAYANG RECORDS) we can count on him to belt out some angular and feedback-enriched freenoise guitar shapes. Early signs are looking pretty good for this one, particularly with regard to the hand-made silkscreened cover to this limited-press vinyl LP. The striking painterly artwork and lettering (the latter influenced by the Book of Kells) was created by Anna Tjan, who also recorded the sessions and released the LP on her own label. A strong package that restores your faith in home-made records.

Anechoic is another guitar and drums duo, comprising Peter Scartabello and John Lima, although (in distinction to the above) I sense that their Leng Jin CD (YUGGOTH RECORDS 009) may veer more towards windy and spacey avant-rock with a vaguely dark vibe, as suggested by titles like ‘Deathstar Gamma Burst’. However, they’re from the ultra-hip Rhode Island (home of Lightning Bolt) and their record label name is something H P Lovecraft would savour as he mouthed it with his thin, pale lips.

More vinyl, but with somewhat more restrained packaging, is sliding in from the Danish BSBTA Label. It’s a split seven-inch by Elektronavn and Exquisite Russian Brides; the very talented Marc Kellaway is the latter, and the former is electro-acoustic genius Magnus Olsen Majmon. Both have impressed me in recent years with their CDR efforts, and this endeavour promises further satisfaction in the shape of deep, mysterious drone-works. The plain white cover is embellished with a hand stamped lino-cut. The artistes also advise playing the sides at either 45 or 33 rpm, an open-ended approach of which I heartily approve. At least it’s slightly less annoying than omitting this important information altogether.

The Slovenian label L’Innomable emerged recently to pretty much corner the market in ‘quiet improv’ music, and some of their excellent releases were reviewed in TSP 15. Here are four more in similar vein: Axel Dörner, the German trumpeter, playing with Lucio Capece on sax and clarinet; Matthieu Saladin, another woodwind hombre, with his Intervalles; Sabine Ercklentz, with Steinschlag, on which he manipulates trumpet sounds (he calls them ‘signals’) on his computer; and the duo of Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec with Tomaz Grom, whose Tilt was made with live electronics and double bass. Each of these arrive in utterly cryptic and low-key packaging and the distinctive flapped-envelope card covers which this label deploys; each CD looks like a packet of strange and exotic cigars, for you to smoke. Who knows what visions you’ll enjoy as you inhale one of these gaspers, although if you’re a regular listener in this area of music you’ll know not to expect much in the way of wild, noisy thrills - just quiet, studied, and careful musical improvisations.

Nice surprise here from Ex Ovo, the ‘new label for drone music and dulcet atmospheres’ as they style themselves. Although an epithet like that comes close to a description you might find printed on a pack of Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Jersey double cream with a hint of brandy, I was very taken with one of these on initial spin. The Icicle Lectures Vol 1 by Feu Follet and Miina Virtanen contains a 34:00 title track which carries some overtones of Popol Vuh - quiet, simple piano figures and delicate, spectral dronework. Most absorbing. Also in Ex Ovo’s package was I, Mute Hummings, a compilation of nine drone pieces from contributors Keith Berry, Fear Falls Burning, Troum, Jeffrey Roden, Paul Bradley, Richard Lainhart, Column One, and others - Berry’s is the only name familiar to me. As the world knows I love a good drone, and it’s interesting for me after ten years of swimming in drone music to perceive the range of different approaches that people find to this apparently ‘simple’ way of working. Ex Ovo seem to favour the wispy and ethereal mode, with slightly mystical overtones; I suppose for the full effect you need to reach for your Herman Hesse novel with one hand and a glass of chilled Chardonnay with the other.

San Franciscan Loren Chasse, half man half goat, is at it again - this time as one half of Ov, a duo formed with his recent bride Christine Boepple, dressed in a twin-set made of rabbit fur. On Noctilucent Valleys (SAB 018 CD), they rub their antlers together to produce what Minneapolis-based label Soft Abuse term ‘Abstract Folk-Drone / Womb-Pop’. The letter neologism is not one often applied in the realm of music, whereas the sense arising from Chasse and Boepple’s song titles is one rooted in more familiar pastoral imagery - swans, bones, clouds, moons, mountains and canals, and the occasional hint of supernatural / mythological overtones, such as centaurs, ghosts, and souls. Bound to be a rewarding aural treat or two in store from this gentle acoustic duo of free folksters.

Handful of goodies winged in from that arty-folky label Bo’Weavil Recordings, which for years I assumed was American when in fact they’re based in North London. Their vinyl issues of records by Henry Flynt and Shirley Collins have been astounding the crowned heads of Soho for many a moon. Rob Mullender’s album Human Resources (WEAVIL 21) is a set of 12 no-frills recordings of him on acoustic guitar, improvising and melodising for all he’s worth. Wooden Spoon has an album called The Folk Blues Guitar of Wooden Spoon (WEAVIL 18), again mostly acoustic guitar but with additional instruments and tape loops. He performs in ‘the now widely known Takoma guitar tradition’, apparently. I’d better not get started on this, but I would like to point out that Takoma was a record label like Vertigo, Neon or Chess, and not a musical tradition like Flamenco, Blues or Country. Regardless of my rising gorge, have to admit these are sturdy artefacts described as ‘hard card mini LP gatefold sleeve’ packages; they imitate, quite successfully, the look and feel of an early 1960s LP on Folkways or Origin Jazz Library, with their monochrome artworks pasted over a canvas textured sleeve. Tactile!