The Russian modernist Alexei Borisov is establishing himself as a firm favourite here at TSP with each new release, but it’s almost impossible to characterise his work which always seem to branch out in unexpected new directions. Elektrokooperativ (INDUSTRIAL CULTURE RECORDS ICR 025) is a collaborative work with Olga Nosova, and it’s a conceptual...
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We nearly overlooked this fine sound-art item from Scott Foust, who sent us Jungle Fever (SWILL RADIO 030), his first ever solo record which he published under his Foust! alias some months ago. It’s a single 77-minute piece which may have derived from field recordings in his home area of Amherst. but its origins...
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Boy, am I feeling scaly tonight. What I need is a good body scour with these new releases of electronic ambient noise from the Russian Monochrome Vision label. Gambetta (MV27) is not a bad place to start, with its five lengthy examples of abrasive improvised noise from three Japanese ginks, the redoubtable team of...
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Nicolas Collins is an American composer-performer who made his own unique brand of dangerous and menacing sample-based music in the 1980s, and is the latest to receive the luxurious archival rescue treatment from the Japanese label Em Records. Devil’s Music (EM RECORDS EM1086DCD) reissues in its entirety a 1986 LP of this name originally...
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Great LP by TANKJ, a lively French group led by veteran drummer Jean-Noël Cognard; the combo play brass, upright bass and live electronics in an inventive set-up, producing much energetic noisy jazz. Indeed “Free jazz meets Junk Noise” is how they accurately describe their work. I find it very much in the great tradition...
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Second Layer Records of North London, already one of the smartest record shops on the planet, has launched a new record label, first release being a collaboration between Evan Parker and John Wiese. C-Section (SLR001) dishes up four live improvisations recorded in the studio by Anna Tjan, packed in a handsome digipack and wrapped...
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Kai Mikalsen of Norway has spent three years assembling acousticks (EndofhuM-04), working under his Kobi alias, and he has invited many fellow musicians to collaborate and help shape the results. These include Michael Duch, Rie Qiao Li, Anla Courtis and the mysterious Tore Honoré Bøe – the latter a member of the Origami Arktika...
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Pianist Tonino Miano sent a copy of Ulysses (IMPRESSUS RECORDS NO NUMBER), a record of improvised music he made with viola player Frantz Loriot; the two of them met in cyberspace and from there proceeded to develop their own brand of musical communication. Both of these conservatoire players come from an extensive academic background,...
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Strotter Inst. is Christoph Hess, the Swiss experimentalist whose turntable work I have heard before in 2006 on a fine 7-inch slab courtesy of US label Public Guilt. Come to that, Minenhund (HINTERZIMMER HINT 05 / PUBLIC GUILT PG017) is a joint release with said label, and it is packed with obsessional, looping noises...
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Polish avant-electronicist Bartek Kujawski sent me his rather strange Murlull Movies CD (WARSZTAT8R w8r00) direct from his home in sunny Gostynin. Bartek exhibits a very peculiar approach to the art of making records inside a computer (if that is indeed how this oddity has been assembled); he seems interested in ‘melting’ sounds together rather...
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