The Sound Projector

Saturday 25th April 2009: made my way to the DIVUS Gallery in Shoreditch to see a performance by my good friend Scott Foust, appearing with Frans de Waard as The Tobacconists. The duo take their name from their shared enthusiasm for nicotine consumption, and in the spirit of the event I myself was pleased to accept a thin Brazilian cigar from de Waard, whose personal preference is for pipe tobacco. As we puffed on the Divus Gallery balcony in the brisk April air, he told me that Holland is not immune from the smoking ban epidemic which appears to be determined (as I would see it) to make the entire world abide by the same rules of political correctness. In Holland, it seems you’re not allowed to smoke in your own home if visited by a non-smoking plumber, for example. The duo are just at the end of their European tour, where they’ve been playing venues in Germany and Belgium, apparently to general audience indifference and lack of money. Their six-tune set went down very well with the small but appreciative London audience however, and the duo have clearly had plenty of time to hone these instrumentals to perfection. Live performances using laptop, keyboard and mixing desk are underpinned by Foust’s backing tapes, and the pieces – some with very vivid titles, which Foust is careful to announce in each case – are exciting combinations of electro-acoustic music, with sound effects, samples, and even drumbox beats for ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’, and all is packed with drama and dynamics. The two performers couldn’t be more different in their approach; Dutch genius de Waard sits impassive, simultaneously manipulating a Powerbook and a small contact mic with studied concentration, while Foust – dressed in his characteristic bright yellow costume – busies himself with prepared cassette tapes, bobs up and down (even when there’s no rhythm involved), leans on keys, sups beer, lights a Dunhill, mutters a quip about Cecil Taylor, and warmly acknowledges audience response with an enthused raised hand and a smile. This was Foust’s first visit (from Amherst, MA) to the UK, and many old friends turned up to see him; in the audience were Darren Harris and Tim Goss from The Shadow Ring, Stefan Jaworzyn of Ascension, and Pete Johnstone from Second Layer Records. A tip of the hat to Allon Kaye of entr’acte for organising this event, although (as he disclosed to me) he rarely makes any money and the audiences are small, even when exhibiting a great show by Lionel Marchetti. See here for Allon’s photos of the two days (day two was a film show and performance art by Foust).

A very presentable and substantial double digipack reissue for Jim O’Rourke’s famous laptop record I’m Happy and I’m Singing and a 1, 2, 3, 4 (EDITIONS MEGO eMEGO 050 2 x CD). Originally released in 2001, this was one of many Mego releases to have slipped through my oily fingers at the time; it’s since come to acquire a certain status among records produced by digital means, some listeners even calling it a “milestone album”. Hearing it for the first time, I find it has a striking assurance and bravado, melding precision with chaos, melodies with noise, and sharp ideas with free-wheeling “jamming” across its brightly-coloured canvasses. That’s for the first half of the album at least; the second half, a 21-minute composition, proves to be somewhat more contemplative and even quite moving, without ever once falling into any of the numerous clichés we might tend to associate with chillout or ambient music from this period (the music was originally recorded 1997-1999). With new artwork and a bonus disc of contemporaneous material from the O’Rourke archive, this is a most excellent package which I cannot help but recommend.

The Hafler Trio is one of those marginal English avant-garde projects which I have personally found very difficult to approach; their techniques of alienation and distancing may work a little too successfully for this listener. That said, I know they’re widely regarded as important and influential and I’m hoping to fare better as I explore The Name of Someone (KORM PLASTICS PARAGRAPH 0.3 SUBSECTION 111 2 x CD), the final set in a series of reissue packages which have been emerging from Korm Plastics over the last few years. Like previous issues, this one is housed in a tactile wallet with a tracing-paper jacket overprinted with texts and symbols whose meanings are highly obscure. The booklet likewise does not yield its secrets easily, masking all with lines of faintly-printed type which you have to hold up to a very strong light to even discern a trace of anything. This double CD set reissues Brain Song (1986) and Kuklos (1988), originally issued by Touch; and another CD with a lengthy title about attaining immortality which originally came out as part of a book. Presumably these originals are quite rare, making this reissue welcome to many. So far there seems to be plenty of incident, event and substance to stimulate the aural receptors, but the editing and layering strategies make it exceedingly hard work to pull any sense or coherence from the drifting and interlacing paths of sound. “Consume as if it was soup,” is all the press release can tell us.

A spiky and exciting collaboration between the modular synth of Tom Hamilton and the electric guitar of Bruce Eisenbeil can be heard on Shadow Machine (POGUS PRODUCTIONS 21051-2). Eight examples of live recordings made last year in a New York studio, served up raw and without edits; I’m pleased to hear the duo sparking off each other in very disjunctive and angular ways, rather than settling into comfortable droning as some electronic duos find all too easy. But these players mean business; Hamilton is a veteran of late-1960s electronic composition (and is a fixture of the Robert Ashley opera ensemble), and Eisenbeil is coming in from a free jazz background. When their two sound-worlds collide and bounce off each other, these performances really catch fire.

Alan Courtis sends us another missive from Buenos Aires, his album unstringed guitar and cymbals (BLOSSOMING NOISE BN034CD) – a studio project recorded in 2007. With each of these three experiments (apparently named after certain consumables found in any household spice rack), he gradually accumulates very dense clouds of sounds which slowly increase in atomic weight, inviting us to observe the teeming life forms that dwell within these tiny systems. The guitar was an electric one and there has been some processing work, but for the most part this once again demonstrates Courtis’ skill in creating exciting echo and whine effects that could pass for synthesised electronic music, using methods that are fundamentally acoustic and performed in real time by human means.

Entertaining synth-based and percussion art-rock music from Now, a London-based combo; the core trio are supplemented by numerous players on Ooodipoomn (PICKLED EGG RECORDS EGG 74). Their overall instrumental sound is very convincing, and sometimes comes close to delivering some of the frissons promised by the much-vaunted list of claimed influences (lo-fi, synth pop, and Krautrock and all the usual post-Stereolab suspects), but I find my attention wandering when they open their mouths to sing. I can’t find enough engaging content in the lyrics, which often simply repeat their titles over and over like nursery rhymes, and the thin, breathy voices of the singers are very fey and English to my ears. However, they have forged collaborative links with Damo Suzuki, Charles Hayward and Mike Watts, so I would imagine their live performances must generate a deal more excitement.

Nice package of goodments received from The Slightly Off Kilter Label, a Brighton-based label doing everything possible to inject healthy amounts of amplified improvised guitar noise and such into our decaying realm. Adam Lygo collaborates with Euphonious Murmur Blend for a new release called Earth (sok024) – no relation to the American guitar band who have released many an album for Southern Lord. Instead Lygo and chums strive to recreate in sound the various physical atmospheres surrounding our Mother Globe as it spins in space. Long episodes of drifty and understated noise pour from their Roland amps, but overall this is no less deliciously turgid than the Liquid Metal Flesh two-CD sprawl (noted in TSP #16).

While we’re maintaining the links with our home planet, there’s The Surly Bonds of Earth (SOK016), a joint axe-noise project featuring Lygo, Paul Morgan (SOK label boss), with members of Yeborobo and Towering Breaker. Bravely issued as a single hour-long track, ‘Neon Tolex’, this growling monster was recorded direct to tape in a studio with three guitars and a drum kit; it’s an ungodly racket of sheer ugly delight which only slightly disappoints when the quartet attempt to do something slightly more “musical”. When it stays in the zones of the primitive and the brutish, it can do no wrong for me. Decorated with images of aerial warfare and limited to 50 copies, this is recommended to all readers who currently feel as though they should stick their heads in a boiling bucket of thick grease. This will save you the bother.

Euphonious Murmur Blend have also made a split CDR with Lygo, and it’s housed in a slab of jet-black card whose external proximities are harshly textured in some way. To get to the record is like peeling the skin from a charred giant lizard. The four tracks of Euphonious Murmur Blend, including ‘Myopia At The Point of Death’ and ‘Failing Respiration’, reveal them to be emerging talents in the field of a certain strain of brooding, claustrophobic synth-doom intensity for which I personally have a lot of time. Twelve minutes of ‘Engram’ puts them in the same league of some of the small group of disaffected American noise-brutes who issue their stern-faced analogue atrocities on the Phaserprone label. Lygo has two long tracks, the better to express the nature of his ‘Liquid Mirror’ in two parts. These guitar loops from 2007 do indeed suggest the very process of a mirror’s creation, as pure mercury is spilled across the awaiting vitrinous sheet. With his amps turned up to 11 (and his FX pedals issuing thin clouds of smoke as their circuits implode), not a single moment of play-time is left unclogged with thick, syrupy noise; these recordings show Lygo’s remorseless torture-meister side to great effect.

Also in the pack, the sixth issue of Honest Music for Dishonest Times magazine, a periodical issued under the Slightly Off Kilter imprint. As well as news and record reviews, there’s no small amount of attention directed towards the Manchester underground noise scene, including an interview with A Middle Sex. Purchase of the mag nets you a copy of Safe Isolation (sok028), a CDR comp with new music from The Vitamin B12, Ian Baxter, Adam Lygo, Bearhead, and Best Left Alone Ensemble.

From Frankfurt in Germany we have a curious duo trading under name of Kacheltisch, whose self-titled CDR (on BETONG TONTRÄGER 001) arrives packed in a nondescript corrugated card box stencilled with their name in a grotesque font. Their short experiments, made using controlled feedback via the no-input mixing board, are bizarre and unsettling episodes in abstract near-noise. They have a grey blankness which can be quite disquieting, and there’s a nice uneven rough-hewn quality mingled with dead-on precision, resulting in unusual effects you wouldn’t achieve through more conventional sound-generating methods. “Pushing noise near the boundaries of dance music”, is the claim of Lars Becker and Peter Pawlicki, pointing to their gently-throbbing rhythms with studied poise.

From Stavanger in Norway, here’s your man Pål Asle Pettersen who we’ve been following with interest since issue ten of TSP and his limited-run CDR days. Komposisjoner 2005-2008 (ZANG:RECORDS Z.021) is just as described, a compilation of his electro-acoustic compositions executed within that four year span. Each work is put together from processed field recordings and tapes of his home-made instruments, not that you’d know it when faced with this near-stony, unfathomable and slightly chaotic abstraction. More often than not I feel like a small pebble rolling down the side of a glacier as I listen. Some composers in this area can’t help but look for natural rhythms as they assemble their found materials, exploiting the natural warp and weft of the sounds like rings inside a tree trunk. Not Pettersen, who seems determined to refuse any sort of structural sense in favour of the “random” and the “organic”.

Got a couple of CDRs from Dizzy Records in Eastbourne UK. Bay Of Islands is pretty much one man, Chris Jones with his acoustic and electric guitars to which he adds certain unobtrusive electronic treatments and layers on Winter Vignettes (DIZZY CD016). By no means unlistenable and indeed highly melodic throughout, but this record (not far off from a fourth-division imitation of Ash Ra Tempel) meanders a little too much for me, declining to develop any ideas as it drifts downstream admiring the beautiful landscape. Label boss Andrew records as Fallen, and released the three-inch CDR Feathers (DIZZY CD015) comprised of “flutters, bumps and whispers” according to his description. Five short tracks and a long one, split between ambient music and introspective bedroom songs delivered in a tentative murmur with minimal electronic backdrops; not strikingly original, but the sparing use of slowed-down loops on ‘Iron Bark’ is not ineffective. Contact the label on dizzyrecords@tiscali.co.uk.

Strom Noir also produces a species of ambient music, but does it in an ultra-slow way on his new album luvyoo (AMBSINE RECORDS). While his dense layers of treated and processed sounds may not be anything wildly innovative, I find the cumulative effect quite charming – heavy, dreamy, unreal, and suffocating. This Slovakian musician works best, I find, when he disguises everything through overdubbing, re-recording, looping and filtering; when you can occasionally recognise an instrument, such as a languid guitar pluck, it somehow breaks the spell. Note the cover art, where he has cleverly manipulated a landscape so that the trees spell out the title of his album.

Leverton Fox are a trio of improvisers from the UK, Alex Bonney, Tim Giles and Matt Groom, forming their trio in 2007 but with a history of playing in the London improv scene behind them. Their album Country Dances (GRAVID HANDS GRV001) is – to say the least – situated quite some way from “traditional” acoustic free improvisation, as the players work overtime to layer in unusual electronic and noise elements with their trumpet and percussion work. Initial impressions were of a confusing and messy over-egged pudding, but the warpoid sound of this one is slowly winning me round. In the album’s favour, it must be said that each piece remains recognisably “performed” in real time, in a way that much identikit laptop-assembled music does not; the Foxsters have not lost touch with the keystone of live playing and interaction, which underpins all of these oddities with their titles like ‘Spectre & Wagon’ or ‘Basking Sharks’. I usually run a mile from projects which claim to “fuse a multitude of contemporary influences”, but this release may turn out to be an exception. Digipack cover with nice psychedelic tree paintings by Celyn, this is due for release in early May 2009.

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With co-presenter Tim Abbott

1. Andrew Howes, ‘Lube’
   From Carrion hors d’oeuvres, FRANCE COLIN JOHN RECORDS JOHNC0032 CD (2009)
2. Benjamin Brunel, ‘Famous for Being Famous’
   From Famous for Being Famous, UK NO NUMBER CD (2008)
3. Miimo, ‘Sora Ni Tsuretette’
   From Miimo 2, JAPAN AMORFON MIIMO2-2209 CD (2009)
4. The Naked Future, ‘We Fly Beneath and Above The Flux’
   From Gigantomachia, USA ESP-DISK’ ESP 4053 CD (2009)
5. snd, (Track 9)
   From atavism, GERMANY RASTER-NOTON r-n 107 CD (2009)
6. Harappian Night Recordings, ‘Sarimanok’
   From The Glorious Gongs of Hainuwele, UK BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS WEAVIL37CD (2009)
7. Geese, ‘Kensington Terrace’
   From UK VANITY CASE VC-02 7″ SINGLE (2009)
8. Ilyas Ahmed, ‘Earn Your Blood’
   From Goner, USA ROOTSTRATA RS30 CD (2009)
9. John Watermann, ‘Did you see it?’ (1990)
   From Ram Slot, RUSSIA WAYSTYX 66 CD (2007)
10. Dredd Foole and Ed Yazijian, ‘Overcome’
    From The Lonesome Road Between Hurt and Soul, UK BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS WEAVIL36CD (2009)
11. John Butcher, ‘New Scapa Flow’
    From Resonant Spaces, UK CONFRONT 17 CD (2009)
12. Snake Figures Arkestra, extract from Cooks & Devils, GERMANY ZAREK 13 3″ CD (2008)
13. orfeo5, ‘Beyond The Surf’
    From A Year on the Ice, UK THE WORD HOARD whcd003 CD (2009)
14. Idea Fire Company, ‘Hydropeplynes’ (1999)
    From Live Archives Volume 1: WMVA, USA LESSONS ABOUT HISTORY LAH 001 CD (2009)

Some overlapping playback between 12 and 13.

One of Rhode Island’s finest solo acts, area c has surfaced with a new electronic record Charmed Birds Vs. Sorcery (STUDENTS OF DECAY SOD-18). First impressions are that he’s going for a more processed sound than I recall from his Last Visible Dog releases of a few years ago, but there’s plenty of complexity and layers in these sweet-sounding escapades. Crisply-recorded guitars vie for attention with digital glitches; on ‘Spell of Resistance’ the creator appears almost hypnotised by his own focussed efforts. The title track is an epic, over 21 minutes of languid drone and noise-lite.

The Truth About Frank produce a species of dessicated, minimal electronica on which I find it hard to get a purchase. They’ve contributed to an ongoing series called 14 Versions of The Same EP, of which I hold Volume 11; those intrigued can download this music for free from the Long Division With Remainders netlabel. The description of this project, making reference to “basic electronic fumblings” apparently being reprocessed by anyone who turns up and shows an interest, doesn’t fill me with much confidence, although Leeds-based The Truth About Frank does offer some moments of urban bleakitude.

A very charming oddity from Benjamin Brunel, whose Famous For Being Famous (NO LABEL CD) is a collection of odd pop anthems, packed with dense and complex lyrics, and sung in Brunel’s winsome tenor voice against an orchestral backing. The fact that said orchestra probably only exists on a hard drive, comprised of multiple samples carefully put together alongside keyboard lines, matters not a jot; the work is immaculately crafted and blessed with a very polished production. The title track put me in mind instantly of Sparks, one of my all-time favourite recording acts, though Brunel does not attempt to emulate the studied histrionics of the great Russell Mael. (In fact his preferred model may be Joanna Newsom, to whom one song is dedicated). Mr Brunel kindly sent this item with an original hand-made collage pasted on the back of the envelope indicating his Louis Quatorze sunlike qualities, and a witty press release that fantasises about his international pin-up status. The front cover suggests, like the songs themselves, that darkly orgiastic feasts are imminent for the listener. Very mannered sound, but distinctive and original; this is a good one!

Another CDR from microlabel HYMNS in Gainesville, last heard from in March this year. New release is seed, fruit, thorn (HYMN 28) by dubbio nil; 16 minutes of music and sound it be, stitching together synth drones, acoustic guitar ripples, low-key noise and field recordings into a vague miniaturist ambient suite of philosophical ruminations. Loosely inserted inside the green card wallet is a small seed in a tiny plastic bag, along with a printed message of horticultural instructions; this nature-themed semi-conceptual release stops some way short of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s league, but it’s in the same ballpark area.

orfeo 5 would like to propose A Year On The Ice (THE WORD HOARD whcd003) on their excellent new release of live improvisations, sent from Halifax. The duo of Shaun Blezard and Keith Jafrate play saxophones with live electronics in winning combinations, restrained yet packed with information; they explore their own interior landscapes as much as they limn the craggy geography of West Yorkshire in sound. Bravely opening with the testing and lengthy title track, which sprawls across 21 glorious minutes of meandering parping and ambient sounds, this is a CD which will do much to slow down your body metabolism in sympathy and thus enable you to perceive exciting micro-events taking place in wintry situations. If Jafrate’s sax sometimes veers a little close to the “tasteful” in terms of implied chord structures, the stern minimal murmurings of Blezard keep such sentimentalism in check. The 4th cut, titled ‘Biography of a Bird’ discloses their Magritte-like surrealist tendencies towards gentle, lyrical poetry.

From another part of Yorkshire – Leeds – comes a split 7-incher, which I have received pressed as a promotional CDR. Geese performs ‘Kensington Terrace’, a moving song performed with piano, woodwinds, and the gorgeously nasal singing tones of an unknown Yorkshireman. This valedictory anthem is laced with lyrics of near-despair and fatal misery, yet is undercut by subliminal musical doodles that are almost comical; you won’t know where to put yourself. (I seem to recall getting an amazing full-length oddity from Geese some years ago, about which I still remain in the dark). Reg Pantal sings ‘Sweetpea and Suzanne’, a piece which in both name and tone is not far away from the early recordings of Leonard Cohen. This gentle song is reflective, speaking of memories, hopes and dreams; acoustic guitar with the piano backing of Tom Turner. Vanity Case Records sent this fine item, available in limited quantity on vinyl as VC-02; both songs have a timeless quality, and could have appeared on Vertigo or Harvest in the 1970s. Very good!

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1. This Heat, ‘Sleep’ (1981)
   From Deceit, UK THESE RECORDS THIS 2 CD (2001)
2. Sleep, ‘Evil Gypsy / Solomon’s Theme’
   From Sleep’s Holy Mountain, UK EARACHE MOSH 79CD (1992)
3. Ornette Coleman, ‘Sleep Talk’
   From Of Human Feelings, UK ANTILLES RECORDS AN-2001 LP (1982)
4. Raymond Scott, ‘Sleepy Time’
   From Soothing Sounds for Baby Volume 1, HOLLAND BASTA 30-9064-2 CD
5. Merzbow / Christoph Heemann, ‘Eagle’
   From Sleeper Awakes on the Edge of Abyss, GERMANY STREAMLINE 1003 CD (1993)
6. Bongwater, ‘Too Much Sleep’
   From Too Much Sleep, SHIMMY DISC EUROPE SDE 9017 LP (1990)
7. Number None, ‘Dream’
   From Ways of Sleepers, Ways of Wakers, USA REBIS 004 CD (2004)
8. Suzanne Vega, ‘Stay Awake’
   From Stay Awake: Various interpretations of music from vintage Disney films, UK A&M AMA 3918 LP (1988)
9. rsundin, Tracks 5, 6, 41 from Sleepwalk, USA GROUND FAULT GF014 CD (2001)
   With
   rsundin, extract from Morphei, SWEDEN HÄPNA H.7 CD (2002)
10. Climax Golden Twins, ‘Untitled’ (track 3)
    From Dream Cut Short in the Mysterious Clouds, JAPAN MEME 18 CD (2000)
11. Pimmon, ‘Voice of Sleeping Bird’
    From Secret Sleeping Birds, PORTUGAL SIRR.ecords SIRR 2005 CD (2001)
12. The Caretaker, (live mix from two sides)
    From Deleted Scenes / Forgotten Dreams, BELGIUM WE/ME LE DISQUE 009 2 x LP (2007)
13. John Cale with Tony Conrad, ‘Dream Interpretation’ (fade) (1969)
    From Dream Interpretation, USA TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS TOE-CD-79 CD (2000)
14. Dion McGregor, ‘The Collection’ (1964)
    From Dion McGregor Dreams Again, USA TZADIK TZ7404 CD (1999)
15. Climax Golden Twins, ‘Untitled’ (track 5) (fade)
    From Dream Cut Short in the Mysterious Clouds, op cit.
16. Elvis Costello, ‘Weird Nightmare’
    From Hal Willner Presents Weird Nightmare. Meditations on Mingus, USA COLUMBIA 472467 2 CD (1992)
17. My Cat Is An Alien, ‘Into the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy’ (extract)
    From The Cosmological Eye Trilogy, USA LAST VISIBLE DOG LVD 072 CD (2005)
18. Spirit, ‘Morning Will Come’ (1970)
    From Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicous, SONY MUSIC EPIC/LEGACY 505476 2 CD (2001)
19. Essential Logic, ‘Wake Up’
    From UK VIRGIN RECORDS VS 261-12 12” SINGLE (1979)
20. Frank Zappa, ‘Sleep Dirt’ (1979)
    From Sleep Dirt, UK ZAPPA RECORDS CDZAP 43 CD (1991)
21. Dyad Yellow Swans, (Track 2)
    From Against Sleep and Nightmare, USA JYRK 019 CDR (2004)

Here be this season’s fresh cargo of booty from ESP-Disk’. For Sun Ra aficionados, this new edition of Sun Ra Featuring Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold (ESP 4054) should be esteemed a total must. It’s a document of the 1964 date at Judson Hall in New York, of which six tracks have been previously outed as EL SATURN 165, but this remastered CD brings us a further five substantial cuts, including 20 ever-lovin’ minutes of ‘The Other World’. The date was part of a four-day festival organised by The Jazz Composers Guild, showcasing the talents of important players such as Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Archie Shepp and Paul Bley; Russ Musto’s sleeve notes give a tantalising glimpse of this fascinating historical piece of the New York free jazz jigsaw. I’ll personally value this record for the cuts which display the eerie, other-worldly side of Ra’s jet-black omniverse (might I add that one of my favourite records in this vein is 1963’s Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy), whose indefinable genius might be characterised by the presence of melancholy flutes and bowed bass, and a general slow yet assured confidence among the players as they undertake, with ginger steps, their exploration of completely alien musical territory. Bend an ear to ‘The Now Tomorrow’ here as a prime example…aided by superb players such as Alan Silva, Ronnie Boykins and Art Jenkins with his ’space voice’, Ra’s stark and skeletal piano themes work like the strong medicine of a surgical witch-doctor and you feel he could knit broken bones together with his skills on the ivories. Plenty of free tenor blowing too, such as on the high energy ‘The World Shadow’, one of many places where Pharoah (filling in for an absent John Gilmore) had a chance to make good on his debut with the Arkestra. The story of it is that Sanders, newly-arrived in the Apple, was sleeping on the streets at the time, looking for work; some of that edginess, that amazement and wonder at new surroundings, has found its way into the tone of his instrument.

Above-noted Ronnie Boykins was a regular bass player with the Arkestra. In 1964 he was invited to make a solo record as leader for ESP-Disk’; the project didn’t in fact materialise until 1975, and The Will Come, Is Now (ESP 3026) was the result. Carrying three sax players, a trombonist and two percussionists under his arm, Boykins recruited Marzette Watts to record the session. Not unlike sections of the Ra live album above, this LP has its moments of near-lugubrious wailing on side one, such as the poignant ‘Starlight at the Wonder Inn’, while side two livens the pace with ‘Dawn is Evening, Afternoon’ which reveals a strong Ornette influence in its open-ended construction, while ‘The Third I’ is reminiscent of Don Cherry’s interests in non-Western rhythms and modes. Let’s hope this one hastens the reissue of Marzette’s 1971 date for ESP.

From the non-jazz wing, we’ve got a reissue of the completely bonkers record You Used To Think by Erica Pomerance. The story is that parts of this late-1968 LP were recorded while the players were tripping, but only the penultimate cut ‘Anything Goes’ conveys the paranoid sensations induced by bad acid, with its disconnected voices howling and whispering nonsense phrases out of dark interior shadows. For the rest, we’ve got a fairly decent album of poetry and songs delivered with acoustic guitar, where Erica’s shrill and rather wearying voice is sometimes assisted by tambourines, flutes, and low-key piano work. Her lyrical themes of revolution and destruction aren’t far away from those of her more mainstream counterpart of the time, Grace Slick; Pomerance however clearly has little interest in the disciplines of song form or verse construction, and her words just tumble out in an unwashed heap. Yet this free-form approach can work well on the longer pieces, such as ‘We Came Via’. A very unusual psychedelic underground LP from the NY outsider freak scene.

Gigantomachia (ESP 4053) is by The Naked Future, a showcase for the ungodly talents of Arrington de Dionyso, whose solo CD of mighty drones I See Beyond the Black Sun was an eye-opener from late last year. Performing here on clarinets with a bass-piano-drum trio of sidemen, de Dionyso truly blasts forth with shafts of gold; it would not be incorrect to state that he wails like an incensed demon, wrenching unheard growly and burbling noises from the bells of his woodwinds. Thollem McDonas, Greggo Skloff and John Niekrasz between them manage to reincarnate the spirit of The Cecil Taylor Unit, Skloff whipping his amplified bass to make it grunt like a magic hog in sympathy with Arrington’s animalistic bleats. Each of these five blastermaroos is entitled with a quasi-mystical phrase, suggestive of alchemy, pagan sacrificial rites, and primitive animal-robing cults. Recorded in Oregon last year (something of a first for the NY-centric ESP label), this is a lovely record of masterful, uninhibited free jazz-noise of sympathetic magic.

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1. Jean-Luc Guionnet, ‘Unda Maris’
   From Pentes, FRANCE A BRUIT SECRET 07 CD (2002)
2. Alfred Schnittke, ‘Two Small Pieces for Organ, #1′
   From RUSSIA MELODIYA SUCD 10-00066 CD (1990)
3. Charlemagne Palestine, ‘Strumming Music’ (1987)
   From Godbear, NETHERLANDS BAROONI BAR019 CD (1997)
4. Morton Feldman, ‘Principal Sound’ (1980)
   From Organ Music of the USA, SWEDEN BIS BIS-CD-510 (1992)
5. William Basinksi, Untitled (Track 2)
   From Melancholia, USA 2062 0301 CDR (2003)
6. Henry Flynt, Celestial Power (1981)
   From USA RECORDED NO NUMBER 2 x CD (2001)

No announcements. All selections segue.

Take a gander at these…they all come from the Brooklyn-based Unframed Recordings label. As soon as I opened this box I felt we were in for some great examples from the thinner end of the sound-art wedge…what struck me was there appears to be some overlap with the Winds Measure Recordings label – some of the same names appear on the roster, and the sleeves are embossed and printed by letterpress, resembling art-gallery multiples. “Perhaps a similar aesthetic might be found in the sonic blankets that will emit from these rarefied slabs,” thought I, as I focused my mental telescope. That prediction was only about half-right, since Unframed generally tend towards a more “maximal” approach than the ultra-minimal WMR.

The CD by Richard Garet and Brendan Murray is called Of Distance (UFCD2) and arrives packed in a wallet that unfolds into a long frieze, with strange red markings that might be an approximation of a printout from a spectroscope, the device used by astronomers to analyse the constituent elements of comets and stars. Perhaps the “distance” our intrepid explorers are measuring is inter-galactic in its reach. The noise they make certainly is…a very compelling low-key rumbling, but by no means “silent” assemblage of recorded layers, which may at times included heavily-disguised speaking voices uttering the secrets of the universe. Guaranteed to keep you listening, as you wait with bated breath for a revelatory conclusion. Garet had a solo release on afore-mentioned Winds Measure, an item which provided much subtle stimulation to both ear and brain in its cerebral concept-art way.

Phantom Limb & Earth’s Hypnagogia have recorded In Celebration of Knowing All The Blues of the Evening (UFCD1), a record which will test the endurance of many men as surely as it shreds their nerves like a swordfish. The act turns out to be a duo of American players, Jaime Fennelly and Shawn Hansen, both members of Phantom Limb, and Jaime is also part of Pee-Ess-Eye, whose avant-ish rock-noise exploits have been enjoyed in these quarters courtesy of the Evolving Ear label. Using Farfisa organ and sine-waves, the duo turn in an impressive suite of heavy-duty drones which start out sinister and subtle, gradually reaching a hysterical pitch of whiney intensity and murderous buzz as the album ends. Every creak and flutter of the performance has been captured in sharp detail, and Scott Colburn’s mastering enhances the deathly audio experience of this killer. The white sleeve here has been die-cut to create a grid of small windows, revealing small details of the very minimalist blue-grey cover within. Two postcards (stills from Hansen’s films) are inserted, and the CD is printed with an impenetrable mystical text.

The two seven-inch records I/D/V 01 and I/D/V 02 (could be a case of titles doubling as catalogue numbers) are both highly pleasing artefacts. Each perplexing vinylette features contributions from six accomplished sound artists, each of them allotted three compositions; everything is ultra-short, tiny little fragments of minimalist noise, and some of the cuts turn out to be locked grooves or loops. It’s impossible to know where one thing ends and another begins, and nothing audible provides the least little clue as to what we might be hearing, even. These close-lipped mo-fos are among the most enigmatic, hermetically-sealed records I’ve come across, and in no time at all they have succeeded in planting seeds of ontological doubt in my juddering brain. Equally enigmatic are the abstract cover designs, devised by Gill Arno and executed by Ben Owen; concentric and converging circles, embossed in blind on cream-coloured card. Among those contributing their sound we have Joe Colley (natch!), Lary 7, dieb13, Tommy Birchett, Ian Epps, Annette Krebs, Chris Forsyth, Giuseppe Ielasi and Koen Holtkamp.