Next we have Sindre Bjerga’s Attractive Amplification (TUTORE BURLATO #06). One recurring feature across many of these Tutore Burlato tapes is the strong interest in tape manipulation, and Norwegian Bjerga who has been doing live on-stage cassette tape mangling for some years is clearly a natural choice for the label. This release contains two suites, ‘Flicker and Burst’ and ‘Reverse Energy’, taken from live recordings in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. We find Bjerga on fine form in both escapades, and this is an improvement on the last thing we heard, For The Automatic People on LF Records, which misfired in places. You can expect a riotous and confusing explosion of colours, sparks, and chaos; much like a firework display, except the Roman candles are laced with mild hallucinogens. Sindre Bjerga knows how to have fun and entertain an audience (in an extremely offbeat way, of course), but he also carries himself and us down uncertain and darkened pathways, where the outcome of the journey is not clear and perils may lay in store at any turn. It’s achieved through a combination of voice elements, noises, and very extreme interventions in the natural running of a tape machine; the retardation effect, caused by slowing the capstans, is something he is determined to make into his own signature sound. Like Lovely Honkey, he also shares a similar interest in changing old pop music cassettes for fun and profit, creating his own warpoid brand of off-the-cuff karaoke singing right there in the room. The total effect of all these strategies is almost certain to affect your brain in strange ways, and derail logical thought processes.
One of nine cassettes received 4th July 2016 from Ezio Piermattei.