The Sound Projector

Jacob Kirkegaard offers a concept CD of sorts with Labyrinthitis (TOUCH TONE 35). Inside the crisp card wallet cover lurks booklet with dense explanatory notes regarding the workings of the human inner ear, and the symptoms of the disorder which has given the CD its name. From here it’s but a short step to John Cage, feedback, frequencies, and ‘the normally accepted direction of information streams’, as Anthony Moore dubs it. Although the cover art may remind regular Touch listeners of Spire, an ongoing church organ project to which Kirkegaard has contributed, this piece was commissioned for a Danish medical institution. This label has also been home to a CD themed on varying types of tinnitus, created by Z’EV and David Jackman. Play the CD to experience 38 minutes of a troubling and very complex shifting drone, whose high frequencies may cause unexpected effects if played back over strong loudspeakers (which is correct strategy, as it is an ‘interactive’ piece). The production of the record itself, apparently made from sounds created within Kirkegaard’s own eardrums, is also sufficiently intriguing.

Jana Winderen also has a new release on Touch. Heated (TOUCH TONE 36) is a 26-minute work of treated source materials recorded with hydrophones, devices for recording sounds beneath the sea. The fact that said oceanic sounds were sourced from Greenland, Iceland and Norway will not be lost on the attentive listener, as you seem to immerse yourself in an impossibly-abstracted ocean that appears to be ten times as deep, wide and bitterly cold as the real thing. Most fitting addition to a label that has regularly showcased similar endeavours by Chris Watson and Hazard. From a live performance in Tokyo.

Nice to see that the Japanese “Onkyo” school from 9-10 years ago is still generating amazingly minimal records, even if the very term Onkyo is disputed and quite possibly deprecated. Presquile Records have just put out two handsome digipacks of material: Santa (PSQ001) features the trio work of Mitsuhiro Yoshimura, Taku Sugimoto and Toshiya Tsunoda, playing microphones, headphones, brass sticks and generally using tiny tools to create tiny sounds within a sea of near-constant high-pitched monotone. The event was recorded at a book fair and has something to do with a private press venture called Santa, which the three Japanese artistes edit and issue themselves. Gotta love the classic “girls in the ear” cover art to this, a nifty update on Pink Floyd’s Meddle. Mitsuhiro Yoshimura teams up with Masahiko Okura for Trio (PSQ002), an even more stripped-down document created with just mics, headphones and one alto sax. I’ve heard English improvisers try to do similar things with the saxophone (which is essentially not a very quiet instrument to begin with), yet few come close to the icy precision and deathly calm of the Japanese method. As to why a duo performance is called Trio, I must direct you to the brilliantly elusive and paradoxical statement by Yoshimura printed inside. What a cover; three Zombie-like 1950s receptionists wander over a desert with a massive exposed human brain lurking like a mountain in the background! Julien Pacaud is the collagist responsible for this visual sizzling platter, and the ear-themed masterpiece mentioned above.

The team of Lavinia Blackwall and Alex Neilson first came our way with the LP What Put The Blood on Dancing Wayang records; now here they are again, performing as Black Flowers with the help of Mic Flower and the excellent Scots singer Alasdair Roberts. I Grew From A Statue to a Stone (BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS WEAVIL 34CD) arrives in a lush gatefold digipack decorated with artworks by Blackwall herself, and is not a million miles away from resembling a Shirley Collins LP in look and feel. I remain impressed by the combination of Lavinia’s classically-trained voice with that of Neilson with his slightly less tutored approach, and the album has a very full sound instrumental-wise. If I tell you that they do a version of ‘Polly On The Shore’ (memorably recorded by Trees in 1970) and that the opening cut is a rousing version of Richard Thompson’s ‘Calvary Cross’, then fans of a certain vintage of UK folk-rock of the 1970s will count this a mandatory purchase.

Ethan Rose has sampled an old Wurlitzer Organ for Oaks (BASKARU KARU:14), and manages to extend this single idea across eight slow-moving and quite charmingly beautiful creations. The organ is of the sort that used to appear at skating rinks, as confirmed by the very nostalgic cover art, and the whole of Oaks is suffused with the same wistful longing for departed times. The artist feels compelled to provide an inventory of all the pipes and sound effects found on the original instrument, but their distinctive voices have all melted into one pool of richly-burnished dronery. Aye, it’s a slightly process-heavy work, and there are moments where the phase effect threatens to win out, but Oaks remains a success.

The team-up of Australian electronic experts Anthony Pateras and Robin Fox works to great effect on End of Daze (DE MEGO 006), their newie for Editions Mego. Their first venture for same label was a bit lost on me, but here their deployment of computers, synths, revoxes and programming is having quite a devastating near-violent effect, as they tear wholesale into old-fashioned concepts like melody, rhythmic patterns, and restraint. These illogical dynamics and wild leaps of energetic noise are finally starting to have a life outside of the computer; the Mego master-plan is really paying off!

1. Zucanikan, ‘Penny Dance Test’
   From The Stumbling Block, UK PICKLED EGG EGG73 CD (2008)
2. Hearts of Palm, ‘Lotus Motion’
   From Trance Nipple Manifestation, USA NO LABEL CDR (2008)
3. Anthony Pateras / Robin Fox, ‘Whipped Silk’
   From End of Daze, AUSTRIA EDITIONS MEGO DEMEGO 006 CD (2008)
4. dsic, ‘Close Your Eyes (and you will burst into flame)’
   From Ambiences 1, UK LF RECORDS 007 CDR (2008)
5. Black Flowers, ‘Polly on the Shore’
   From I Grew From a Stone to a Statue, UK BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS WEAVIL 34CD (2008)
6. Sum of R, ‘Requiem for a Liar’
   From Sum of R, USA UTECH RECORDS URCD025 (2008)
7. Atom ™, (Track 12)
   From Liedgut, GERMANY RASTER-NOTON r-n99 CD (2009)
8. Levitts, ‘Springtime’ (1968)
   From We Are The Levitts, USA ESP-DISK’ ESP 1095 CD (2008)
9. Gen Ken Montgomery, ‘Don’t Bring Those Things – Excerpt’ (1986)
   From Drilling Holes in the Wall, RUSSIA MONOCHROME VISION mv17 CD (2007)
10. The Guilty C and Tabata, ‘Shamrashamra’
    From The Guilty C and Tabata, JAPAN EVEN STILTE ES106 CD (2008)
11. Ethan Rose, ‘Grand Marcher’
    From Oaks, FRANCE BASKARU KARU 14 CD (2009)
12. Alva Noto, ‘Xerrox Teion Acat’
    From Xerrox Vol 2, GERMANY RASTER-NOTON R-N 103 CD (2008)
13. Lars Myrvoll, ‘The Storm’
    From The Island, NORWAY SAFE AS MILK SAMCD011 CD (2008)
14. Pierre Yves Macé, ‘Il principe e il Ranocchio, 1′
    From Passagenweg, FRANCE BROCOLI 004 CD (2008)
15. Seth Josel, ‘Strum City I’
    From The Stroke That Kills, USA NEW WORLD RECORDS 80661-2 CD (2008)
16. Zanzibar Snails, extract from ‘Om Isotope’
    From Vanadium Dream, USA PHANTOM LIMB RECORDINGS ARM 025 CDR (2008)

Guitarist Seth Josel whips out his ‘axe’ to perform a number of 20th-century modern compositions on The Stroke That Kills (NEW WORLD RECORDS 80661-2), making sparing use of the delay unit and occasional overdubs to help strengthen the overall attack of his sound. While the album gets off to a slow start with Eve Beglarian’s piece, the remainder is packed with excitement, including most notably three short pieces by the great Alvin Curran. Josel’s rendering of ‘Slapback’ by Michael Fiday is likewise a mesmerising exercise in complex cross-rhythms and rotating patterns of clustered notes. Tom Johnson, notable NYC minimalist composer and critic, is also represented. Some years ago, Sonic Youth came a bit of a cropper when they tried to reinterpret avant-garde compositions through the prism of their rock four-piece setup (Goodbye 20th Century), in spite of their Glenn Branca connections, but Josel’s electric guitar experiments are much more considered, and more successful.

American composer Larry Polansky first came our way on a Pogus CD some 2-3 years ago called DIY Canons, where his Voice Canons compositions were interpreted under the aegis of Simon Wickham-Smith – a record full of overlapping voices and shifting time signatures. Here he is well represented on The Theory of Impossible Melody (NEW WORLD RECORDS 80684-2), a CD which arrives packed with explanatory notes by David Dunn, a glance at which convinces me it’ll take me more than a few moments to comprehend the richness of Polansky’s methods and ideas. On this CD we do hear, along with three further examples of what can be done with the Voice Canons, some fascinating interactions between the voices of Chris Mann and Jody Diamond with the ‘live’ computer-generated computer music of Polansky. The apparently disjunctive effects thus created are pretty startling, but I’m also sure this disjuncture will resolve itself into perfectly-structured musical statements after repeated plays.

Mark Vernon and Barry Burns won my heart years ago with a brilliant, entertaining and humourous LP called The Tune the Old Cow Died Of, a tape-edit masterwork on which they almost reincarnated themselves as many-tentacled mad BBC Radio producers from the fifth dimension. Here’s their welcome return on Sing it Softly to the Pebbles (MEAGRE RESOURCE PRODUCTIONS MERE 024), a complex assemblage of field recordings, sound effects, music and story-telling which they put together with the help of various collaborators, including a writer, an animator, a painter and an inventor of musical instruments. These 26 mostly-short tracks are almost like tiny episodes from a non-existent radio soap opera, a sort of avant-garde version of The Archers. As such, they lend themselves to radio broadcast, and indeed the piece – originally commissioned for a contemporary arts event in Glasgow – was played on Resonance FM last Boxing Day. There is a restrained and very pastoral charm to Sing it Softly, and while I personally found the narrative elements (and the overly-precise speaking voices) a bit cloying, that’s my problem entirely. I do sense that Vernon and Burns have had to rein in their more experimental methods slightly, in order to help the collaborative process succeed. That said, it’s still a work full of much originality, economy, and ellipsis.

I have here the new release from Zanzibar Snails, that off-kilter improvising combo from Texas, which may be called Vanadium Dream (PHANTOM LIMB RECORDINGS ARM 025) – the psychedelic twisty gold-printed lettering is extremely hard to decipher! Here the trio quartet comprise main man Michael Chamy with Mike Maxwell on electronics, Nevada Hill on guitar and bowed cymbals, and Seth Sherman on guitar and vocals. ‘We are presenting a different aspect of the Zanzibar Sound’, explains a note from Chamy. Too true; their last release was a glorious ball of evil, noisy fuzz that was a delicious affront to “good taste” in music everywhere, and of course I enjoyed it immensely. Here the Zanzsters are pulling themselves in and aiming for a much slower, quieter and focused effect; I can practically see them holding and playing their instruments in a rigid, near-paralysed posture, claws frozen around the guitar neck, as they seek the intense concentration required for this iron-willed restraint. Interestingly, the results seem to owe nothing whatsoever to the modernist ultra-minimal school of reduced improv or ‘Onkyo’ as it is sometimes called in Japan; and, if you listen, there is still the sense of implied violence and nihilism lurking in every note of these sullen, depressive scrapes and drones, evidence of the musical personality which the Snails have made all their own. 100 copies only of this CDR; I have unfolded the package in photo above to disclose the inner richness of Nevada Hill’s screen-printed verso.

Lastly here is a Japanese delight from Stéphane Perrin’s Even Stilte Records label in Tokyo. Guilty Connector has been a leading proponent in the international harsh-noise conspiracy, but his latest team-up (ES106) with Tabata Mitsuru – guitarist and bass player in Acid Mothers Temple and many other projects – has resulted in a diverse collection of very pleasing (however wayward) sounds and meticulously composed studio pieces, veering from prog-influenced melodic instrumental workouts, slightly depressing soundscapes, religious drone pieces and complex explorations in textured electronic noise. This is their second collaboration for the label and comes decorated in a lurid sleeve drawing by Dav Guédin, whose hybrid winged sea-serpent was deemed so effective an image that a detail of its many-toothed maw has been used to adorn the disc. All in all an irresistible combination!

Three electronic ‘tolchoks’ arrived from Russia’s excellent Monochrome Vision label, all released last year in their customary black-and-white covers. From Bardoseneticcube we have the hour-long Noosphere (MV24), a piece deriving from digital reprocessing of information received from outer-space satellites – replete with all the desirable errors of mistranslation that such a process implies. ‘The universe is full of endless and omnipresent information fields,’ declares Igor Potsukailo, and decorates the sleeve of this intensive droner CD with fractal-like images to prove the point. Meanwhile Frans de Waard turns in Replicas (MV19) working under his Freiband alias, and it’s an ultra-minimal collection of tiny bleeping patterns and emptied-out drones derived from the grooves of an old Asmus Tietchens LP. Almost inhuman in its steely purity, yet de Waard is proud to state this is an analogue work. New York artist Gen Ken Montgomery offers a great compilation of process-art soundworks on Drilling Holes in The Wall (MV17), including the long title track which was inspired by the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Casio keyboards, cassettes, and speaker setups are the main ingredients of these ‘hand-made’ vintage electro-acoustic compositions from 1988-1990, some of them realised in Conrad Schnitzler’s studio in Berlin. Many thanks to Dmitry for sending these.

In the world of handmade small-run CDRs, LF RECORDS sent us a couple items…one of ‘em is a new release from the estimable dsic, the Bristol-based electronica fellow who made quite a dent in my listening apparatus with some of his edgy releases of last year. His Ambiences 1 (LF RECORDS 007) was intended to be a quiet and possibly tranquil piece, but wound up the exact opposite – noisy and filled with distressing textures, and fully-armed with track titles that manifest the sort of extreme urban nightmares I’ve somehow come to expect from dsic – ‘Close your eyes (and you will burst into flame)’ being my fave. ‘Probably an excellent soundtrack for paramedics’, admits the press release, in defeat. Micro-edition of 20 copies of this abrasive gem! Garnett James also appears to be from Bristol, leastwise that’s where Protect & Survive (LF RECORDS 006) was recorded in 2003. James is a laptop-merchant enamoured of his Max/MSP software and turns in two long pieces of minimal needling and noodling that might’ve appeared on Mego once in the day. While lacking the immediate punch of the no-prisoners dsic, James has an insistent nagginess in his quiet repetitions that gets under your skin in short order. Handmade edition of 50.

In contrast to above urban grit, we have The Island (SAFE AS MILK SAMCD011), a solo record from Norwegian Lars Myrvoll, whose languid sounds were captured inside his bedroom in 2002-2008. The 12 tracks are intended as some form of concept album, perhaps bolstered by the charming monochrome watercolour pictures in the enclosed booklet, but the underlying story or meaning of it remains delightfully opaque; a sensation that is not dispelled through hearing the music, which is a collection of disconnected acoustic bedroom guitar sessions, recorded in deliberately smeared and slightly distant lo-fi. Some cuts are enhanced with uncertain vocals, flutes, and a little bit of ‘kitchen table experimentalism’, as the label calls it. In places, Lars manages to realise all the fleeting insubstantialness of a dream. To be released in February this year.

If it’s a concept record you want, you can do no better than Séance Vocibus Avium, a collection put together for the Fangbomb label by Wolfgang Müller which intends to ‘recreate the calls of extinct bird species’. The work takes the form of a book with beautiful line drawings of certain extinct birds (made by Müller himself), and a record of sounds created by selected European artists who were assigned the task of reincarnating one bird each. Sounds incredibly fanciful, but the record is beautiful – short and mysterious clips of sound, perhaps concocted through a mixture of field recordings, actual bird calls, and lots of imagination – each one prefaced with a short spoken introduction. As you read the short paragraphs about each vanished member of the avian kingdom, look at the simple drawings and hear the sounds, I guarantee that a teardrop will be glistening in your eye within seconds, as a terrible sense of loss descends on your shoulders. Müller was a founding member of Die Tödliche Doris, whose Fallersleben (VINYL ON DEMAND VOD 7) was an attempt to somehow recreate a lost live performance of theirs through using some sort of time-travel séance-based methods, and struck me as completely preposterous at the time. Yet with this record we do indeed seem to have a method of retrieving lost information from the past, arriving through a time machine a few seconds at a time. Uncanny! Two editions of this – book with a vinyl single (300 copies) or a CD (100 copies).

Fangbomb also sent Sub Gothenburg 08 (FB007), a cassette release (100 copies only) which is a supplement to last year’s excellent Gothenburg 08 compilation which we reviewed with no small enthusiasm in issue 17. Any listeners who were adventurous enough to purchase that terrifying comp are advised to get their hands on this little slab of darkness with despatch – it features names and acts that are so far underground, you need a pick and shovel to loosen their sonic diamonds from the hard Swedish earth. Only had time for a brief delve into this tape, but so far these tape-based experiments in dark, evil drone-noise are every bit as nightmarish and relentless as you could wish for. Featuring Frozen Faces, Smea, Stesolid, Härksen, Thugee, Trepaneringsritualen and more, and track titles like ‘Hungry for Poison’, ‘The End of Science’ and ‘Genital Altruism’ should give you some indication of just how bad things are getting. As the label puts it, ‘you need this to obtain full knowledge’, and there is indeed the suggestion of hidden knowledge and forbidden information buried somewhere within these insistent tape loops and jet-black brews of diabolical sound.

1. La Société des Timides à la Parade des Oiseaux, ‘Lorsque’
   From Tranches de Temps Jeté, USA BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS mt074b CD (2006)
2. Explosions in the Sky, ‘Look into the Air’
   From How Strange Innocence, USA TEMPORARY RESIDENCE LTD TRR85 (2005)
3. Volcano The Bear, ‘The Last Song of Norway’
   From Classic Erasmus Fusion, USA BETA-LACTAM RING RECORDS mt092a 2 x CD (2006)
4. London Electric Guitar Orchestra, ‘iii’
   From Sticks and Stones, UK 2:13 MUSIC 2:13CD018 CD (2005)
5. Marina Rosenfeld, ‘Three’
   From Joy of Fear, GERMANY SOFTLMUSIC SOM 501 CD (2005)
6. Simon H. Fell, ‘Harrison’s Blocks 1′
   From Composition No. 62, UK BRUCE’S FINGERS BF 57 CD (2005)
7. The Wind-Up Bird, ‘Violin and Trumpet’
   From Conduction Convection Radiation, USA THE MUSIC FELLOWSHIP MF014 CD (2004)
8. Dion Workman and Mattin, extract from S3, USA FORMED MUSIC #101 CD (2005)
9. Mattin, ‘Simpatia’
   From Song Book, JAPAN HIBARI MUSIC HMCDR-16
10. Hession / Wharf / Fell, ‘Self portrait with burning cigarette’
    From Improvabilly, UK BRUCE’S FINGERS BF 44 CD (2000)
11. The Franciscan Hobbies, ‘Asmodeus’
    From Walls are Stuck, USA THE MUSIC FELLOWSHIP MF013CD (2004)
12. Agnès Palier and Olivier Toulemonde, ‘#2′
    From Rocca, PORTUGAL CREATIVE SOURCES RECORDINGS CS 051 CD (2005)

Couple of new devils roaring in from the Soleilmoon empire of strangely dark noises…Legendary Pink Dots released Alchemical Playschool (CAD 32) in October last year, an enterprise which we are told largely arose from a meeting between main Dot Edward Ka-Spel and Charles Powne, the Soleilmoon head cheese. Powne passed on a copy of his aural diary from India (also released on this label as Indian Soundscapes), and some of the sonic effulgences issuing from that continent did inspire Edward – and the other main Dot of Pinkness, Phil Knight – sufficiently to be poured into this colourful acid-fried studio concoction. Unlike many of the more user-friendly travelogue records of eastern realms, however, Legendary Pink Dots cannot help but transform all they touch into a gnarled array of mystical dreams, eerie poetry and slightly indigestible gut-wrenching drones. Yet there is also uncanny beauty in their very distinctive and well-crafted electronic work, even making the fragile and mannered vocal recits of Edward Ka-Spel (something which has always been a stumbling block for me personally with this long-standing kult band, I must admit) much more palatable. While owning up, I’ll also confess that I do find their work much more substantial and content-rich than that of the more well-known Nurse With Wound. If you missed the 2006 issue of this record (packaged in a soapstone box) or the 2007 incarnation as a double 10-inch vinyl slab, then this fine gatefold CD is for you. Buy it while you may!

Merzbow’s Eucalypse (SOL 154 CD) comes packed in a wooden ‘engine’ or ‘device’, a circular box with a swivelling hinge making it resemble the sort of consumer product you used to see advertised in The Sunday Times in the 1970s, on offer from Habitat or some such. Of course Merzbow is as anti-consumerism as a man can be. With this box, he is not only continuing his notorious trend for eye-catching conceptual packages for his releases, he is also bolstering the geo-physical and political points he is making about the continuing destruction of forest life. Having dealt thoroughly with marine, bird and mammal life on recent releases, he turns now to the vegetable kingdom…the box is packed with circular cards printed in colour which inform us further about the rare species of Eucalyptus trees currently under threat, along with data about their place in the grand structure of ecoystems, thus making many a poignant observation on the delicacy of life itself. Even the word Eucalypse conflates tree’s name with word ‘apocalypse’, confirming Merzbow’s urgent view that this is, as always, an ‘all-or-nothing’ global issue with enormous consequences that we must face up to immediately. The complex and overpowering noise music was made with a combination of digital computer processing and rich analogue electronics and keyboards, producing one of the most intense sets I’ve yet heard from this ultra-prolific Japanese titan of extreme sound. Out since July 2008…1000 copies only!

Added at 19:21: correction…in fact the message of Eucalypse is not, as I suggest above, along the lines of saving the amazonian rainforests. On the contrary, the eucalyptus tree itself is the thing causing the damage to the ecosystem, due to its deep roots and ability to suck all the available water from the water table in order to survive. Seems these trees, much like the Giant Hogweed menace which Genesis warned us about, are pestilent weeds with no appreciable value to be harvested from their spindly vines. All that said, Merzbow’s musical statement is still worth hearing!

We noted an obscure but highly excellent CDR by Hearts Of Palm in issue 17; now this mysterious three-piece from Cincinnati in Ohio have returned with a new release called – wait for it – Trance Nipple Manifestation (NO LABEL CD). The American improvising avant-rock players have rethought their edgy, lo-fi approach for this outing and delivered noisy and intense versions of free-form psychedelic drone-outs that, on early spins, are matching any piece of unknown Krautrock or European doom-prog you might care to bring to my attention. Every other band these days can’t wait to namecheck records by everyone from Pink Floyd to Silver Apples, but Hearts Of Palm – without apparently even trying very hard – manage to deliver something much more credible in this area, and quite unselfconsciously. Quaintly naming themselves Spring Bass, Univox and Boss Taskam for this release, the trio insist they are an ‘organic, energistic, improvisatory entity’ yet also manage not to take themselves too seriously. No website; email heartsofpalm [at] earthlink [dot] net.

In not dissimilar vein, the Chicago improvising collective Male inform us that All Are Welcome (OTHER ELECTRICITIES OE016) on new release of this title. Photographs of the cosmos on sleeve indicate a possible interest in kosmische music or what used to be called ‘Space Rock’ in the 1990s, and may be meant as a reference to Sun Ra’s numerous dates and residencies in this famous American city. The core duo of Male (Jonathan Krohm and Ben Mjolsness) are supplemented for these one-take recordings with a large line-up of players, who use a combination of rock instruments (two electric guitars), tapework and jazz instrumentation such as vibes and cornet, to produce these cloud-cluster drones and ambitiously sprawling explorations. The results are mostly lacking in any tonal centre, yet over time they produce a pleasing effect. The combo includes members of Pan American, Joan Of Arc and Exploding Star Orchestra.

Ghastly jet-black noise continues to gush out of Vomir, the French lone wolf of harsh noise, on his new limited release Proanomie (AT WAR WITH FALSE NOISE NO NUMBER CD). The press release, like the music, speaks volumes when it refers to ’sheer brutality’, ‘an ugly listen’ and ‘feeling of loss and depression afterwards’. Yes, it’s that last statement that incautious listeners should take note of, since wallowing for too long in the zones of nihilism can often-times lead to unexpected mental side-effects. The cover artworks appear to be all-black this time, until you look more closely to behold a shapeless silver blob on the front cover which is likely to be Vomir himself in his on-stage garb, which involves draping his head in a black plastic bin liner. How suffocating that must be for him…no less suffocating for us listeners, enduring his inhuman electric growls. Inside the tray is a picture of room left desolated by the destructive blastage wrought by Vomir, and a victim’s body (possibly that of Vomir himself) sprawled lifeless on the floor. The regular jewel case edition is 500 copies, but if you hasten to buy the ’special edition’ of 100 copies, you get a bonus CDR of an additional hour of unacceptable ear-pummelling. All in all, it’s just another brick in the ‘mur bruitiste’!

1. Panasonic, ‘Murto Neste’
   From Kulma, UK BLAST FIRST BFFP132CD (1996)
2. Voltolux, ‘Baden’
   From Voltolux, GERMANY MAMBO NO NUMBER LP (1997)
3. Oval, ‘Standard Audio Frontend’
   From dok, USA THRILL JOCKEY thrill 046 CD (1997)
4. Farmers Manual, ‘Untitled’ (Track 15)
   From fsck, UK TRAY 1 CD (1997)
5. Mouse On Mars, ‘Merge Merched#07.1′
   From Modulation and Transformation 3, GERMANY MILLE PLATEAUX MP CD 43 3 x CD (1998)
6. noto, ‘Kern.Gap’
   From kerne, GERMANY PLATE LUNCH PL 04 CD (1998)
7. Schlammpeitziger, ‘Wobblerblobstock’
   From freundlichbaracudamelodieliedgut, GERMANY A-MUSIK A2 LP (1996)
8. Beautyon, ‘0, Number, Successor’
   From Or Some Computer Music, UK ISSUE 1 CD (1999)
9. L@N, ‘Untitled’ (Side A track 2)
   From L@N, GERMANY A-MUSIK A4 LP (1996)
10. Ryoji Ikeda, ‘06:: 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0′
    From matrix, UK TOUCH TO:44 CD (2001)
11. Pluramon, ‘Scendro’
    From Modulation and Transformation 3, op cit.
12. rsundin, ‘2ftt’
    From Lorez Plaza / Limp, SWEDEN BONBON RECORDS BBCD07 2 x CD (1999)
13. Microstoria and FX Randomiz, ‘yaun twais oy’
    From Reprovisers, GERMANY MILLE PLATEAUX MPCD37 CD (1997)
14. marc behrens, ‘fringe 1′
    From integração, PORTUGAL SIRR.ecords sirr 2004 CD (2001)
15. Kerosene, ‘Arrival in dark valley’
    From Modulation and Transformation 3, op cit.
16. pulsinger-tunakan, ‘max brennt’
    From In Memoriam Max Brand, AUSTRIA RHIZ CD 006 CD (1999)

Previous show in this series

Sum of R is a side project of RM74, for which he is joined by two members of Herpes Ö DeLuxe – both of these are Swiss noise, drone and electro-acoustic projects which have managed to summon up and portray vast fields of unknowable, metaphysical murk in their slow-moving scapes of sludge. On their eponymous CD (UTECH RECORDS URCD025), Reto Mäder, Roger Ziegler and Christoph Hess use some conventional instrumentation (bass guitar, piano) alongside a turntable, a harmonium and lots of electronic studio effects to create ten substantial episodes of vaguely morbid, doomy and perplexing musics. Well not always doomy maybe, but always strange and compelling. Their ideas about layering and slowly-shifting dynamics could teach a few lessons to many of our American stoner-rock brethren! A fine record whose black digipack and grainy photographs printed with silver ink enhance the flinty atmosphere.

Tibetan Red is Salvador Francesch, who sent two new projects along with a very charming hand-written letter from his home in Spain. On Ritual Breathing (ANTAHKARANA RECORDS 108SFR408), his new solo record, he combines recordings of certain blown acoustic instruments (shenai, shakuhachi flutes) with field recordings of extraneous objects, such as an industrial blow torch and a blast furnace. Unlike his previous releases which have provided next-to-zero contextual information, this time he wanted to ‘make it easier with the liner notes’ which ‘explain the nature of the intent’. At 35 minutes, the title track is a monumental construct of slow, breathy droning that will have the cumulative effect of slowing your body’s metabolic rate in sympathy. ‘It was a sort of exorcism for me personally,’ reveals Salvador. Also sent: Tao Point (HRÖNIR NO NUMBER), a recent collaboration with Victor Nubla, whose solo exploits have always intrigued and delighted this listener. Tao Point is five tracks recorded in 2000, recorded in one week with a mobile portable studio; it’s a real exercise in subtle, understated power, and these stern and solemn drones will appeal to listeners who enjoy Mirror or Zoviet France, although they have much more weight and substance, and their multifarious layers unfold as though we’re exploring a jungle of the mind, discovering strange new species at every turn.

Low Budget Orchestra is Mikko Murangen, who sent a copy of The Second Best from his Helsinki home. An accomplished tour de force, this CD shows Mikko playing everything in sight and overdubbing himself into a guitar and synth orchestra across eight raucous and rocking tracks. Unlike a lot of ‘quirky’ music which often arrives here from Finland, the Low Budget Orchestra’s approach is extremely conventional and melodic – most of what he plays could have been recorded thirty years ago by any given late-prog rock instrumental combo. Even the cover looks like a lost Camel LP. Airless, hyperactive and slightly pompous – may appeal to fans of Zappa’s 1988 touring band.

Another fine burst of radical and powerful electronics from Gert-Jan Prins, one of Holland’s finest exports in that field. For Cavity (CAVITY CD 01), he’s gone back to his first solo release from 10 years ago, and reinvestigated how some of his home-made electronic instruments might sound and behave in today’s arena of toxic investment packages. The resultant blips were combined with his recent work with – wait for it – vacuum tubes. Oh, and some some timpani drums as well. In keeping with the intimate scale of the project, and the microscopic flickering sounds on the record, Cavity is a small-run hand-made release with covers hand painted and signed by the doughty Dutch denizen of DIY himself. A number of nonsensical text streams, which stand in for track titles, complete this package of ultra-minimal cleansing salts, which he describes as ‘a more cooled-down work in a niche of my own domain’. Hmm…a niche within a domain? You can’t get more hermetic than that!

To keep yourself focused on the unbearably cold weather we’re having, you might try listening to Andrea Polli’s Sonic Antarctica (GRUENREKORDER GRUEN064). This quiet yet eventful CD of restrained digital ambience uses a combination of field recordings from that inhospitable realm of ice and frozen air, along with scientific data which has somehow been subjected to ’sonification and audification’. I think these are fancy terms for retranslating digital information from one format into an audio format, but the results are disciplined and this piece of chilling sound art is not without interest. Also layered in are snippets of interviews with soft-spoken and well-meaning American scientists who presumably work in these barren wastes collecting the data in the first place. To complete the overall effect, may I suggest you read the short story ‘Old Papa Johnson’ by Robert Graves. Not a bad CD which is reminiscent of the wind recordings made by BJ Nilsen, except he’s more interested in disguising and transforming the results.