Today on Scarlatti (ZEITKRATZER PRODUCTIONS zkr0028) Friedl takes on the music of Domenico Scarlatti, the Italian composer from the Baroque period, specifically a single piece – the piano sonata K.466 in F minor. Friedl did it for the Rubato dance troupe, not inappropriately as the original composer also borrowed from folk tunes and dance rhythms of Spain (according to some listeners, anyway, who detect a Moorish strain in some pieces and liken others to courtly dance music). However, Scarlatti was also pretty adventurous harmonically, was not averse to creating very busy works for the keyboard, and often broke compositional rules in favour of his own sense of spirit, or play, or simply because it sounded right to him. It’s that aspect that I suppose attracted Friedl to this composer, although you’d never know it from this lugubrious album. Apart from one piece of vaguely-unhinged noise of mixed chords and lower register buffets, the music on Scarlatti is as foreboding as a grey concrete block. When Michael Nyman created his unforgettable reworkings of Purcell for The Draughtsman’s Contract, the joy of the music remained intact, and was not sacrificed on the altar of modernism.

I want to like this record a lot more – Reinhold Friedl has produced impressive music of a superhuman complexity in previous projects, but here the “wild flowers” of Domenico Scarlatti have ended up pressed in the pages of a weighty book, where they will wither away. (01/08/2023)

The Sound Projector Radio Show
Friday 8th November 2024

1. Lenhart Tapes – Mejremo
   From Dens, GERMANY GLITTERBEAT RECORDS GBCD 145 CD (2023)
2. ZEA – Our Hearts in the Sun
   From We Are Still Each Other’s Only Hope, NETHERLANDS MAKKUM RECORDS MK39 CD (2023)
3. WSR – Thrust
   From Dicasmia, GERMANY STRAY SIGNALS STRAY011 VINYL LP (2023)
4. Leonardo Barbadoro – Terzo
   From Musica Automata, ITALY HELICAL HLC001 CD (2023)
5. Keiji Haino and Guro Moe – Flower which is orange and very strong willed
   From Drums & Octobass, NORWAY CONRAD SOUND CnRD334CD 2 x CD (2023)
6. The Knoedel – Wunderrad
   From Wunderrad, AUSTRIA COL LEGNO WWE1CD 20461 CD (2023)
7. DAAU – IIe Drieslagstelsel
   From Magisches Theater, BELGIUM SUB ROSA SRV550 CD (2023)
   Recorded in 1995.
8. Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga and Eli Gras – Agua Negra
   From Aridos, SPAIN LA OLLA EXPRESS LOECD034 CD (2023)
9. Klaus Ellerhusen Holm and Andreas Røysum – Dharani No. 4
   From Quantum Teleportation, NORWAY NAKAMA RECORDS NKM023CD CD (2023)
10. Mesmer – Teglholmen
    From Terrain Vague, DENMARK ARBITRARY 19 CD (2023)
11. Stefan Goldmann – Acustica XXII
    From Acustica, GERMANY MACRO M74 CD (20230
12. ZÖJ – Hearts Of Stone
    From Fil O Fenjoon, AUSTRALIA BLEEMO / BELGIUM PARENTHÉSES RECORDS PREC19 CD (2023)
13. Philippe Petit – A Reassuring Elsewhere Pt. 6
    From A Reassuring Elsewhere Chapter II, UK OSCILLATIONS OSC007 CDR (2023)
14. URUK – Radiating Rainbows
    From The Great Central Sun, FRANCE ICI D’AILLEURS MT17 CD (2023)

Senyawa I never heard before, but already I’m intrigued by this Indonesian duo who apparently mix up Indonesian folk traditions with experimental music and lace their work with punk-like stance and avant-garde techniques…duo of Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi have already been courted by Stephen O’Malley and Arrington de Dionyso and performed with Keiji Haino, David Shea, and many others since inception in 2010. Could be that they modernise and adapt traditional instruments to get that vibe others describe as “neo-tribal”. Now here on The Prey and The Ruler (ROOM40 RM4196) with added interventions from Lawrence English and Peter Knight, with additional instrumentation from Helen Svobodam, Joe Talia, and Aviva Endean. This is yet another “lockdown” record, so not sure if any of these musicians met up in real time anyplace, but English organised the contributions based on his own musings with Knight about how bad things were getting in Australia, and wondering how it was going northwards in Indonesia. Contacts made and contributions marshalled and mixed by English; starting point, apart from the “how’s it going” type conversations, appears to have been video grabs sent over by Wukir Suryadi. Thankfully not as depressing as other lockdown records received from this label, nor is there much in the way of processed ambient drone; instead, real instruments, tricky rhythms, long stretches of puzzling activity. (24/10/2022)

We have a lot of time for Marteau Rouge, the French experimental trio where the VCS3 synthi of Jean-Marc Foussat wrestles with the guitar of Jean-Francois Pauvros and the drumming of Makoto Sato…even though they haven’t actually made that many records. We really enjoyed Un Jour Se Lève from 1998 and the Noir record from 2012, but there haven’t been that many other discs to collect outside of the 2009 team-up with Evan Parker. The group (active since 1992) have performed live dozens of times in France, often appearing with many greats of free improv, free jazz, and modern guitar noise. I think since 2016 they’re not even a going concern any longer, but of course Jean-Marc continues his great work with the Fou Records label.

As to the powerful music hereon, expect an hour of fairly remorseless attack and very rich, saturated noise – enhanced by the mad vocal outpourings from Foussat, Pauvros, and Haino himself – which only occasionally subsides into quieter and more reflective moments. The image of the red-hot lava flow on the cover was presumably not chosen by accident. A colour photograph of the group in action on stage, lit in shades of purple, turquoise and black, somehow conveys the image of an alien invasion rather than a conventional music concert. Joel Pagier, the writer from ImproJazz, contributes liner notes, and even he is thrown back onto reaching for metaphors such as “pushing each other towards abrupt cliffs” and “a chime was heard from beyond the grave”. He does however make us aware of the exciting in-the-moment thrill of playing improv music live, referring to “Haino’s demented proposal” as but one instance of their interactive strategy. Well, they may be demented proposals, but they certainly lead to great outcomes, and as Pagier concludes we are left with “an image of the world as it should be”.

I suppose the guitar playing (two guitarists) does dominate the record to some extent, and the manic free-rock drumming tends to make this release a kind of Fushitsusha-manque – melodramatic, full of black shadows, heightened emotions, everyone going off the deep end at once. I personally would have liked to hear more from Foussat’s synth – as I’m continually reminding everyone, he does things with that instrument that nobody else seems capable of. From 11 May 2022.

Stream it here

The Sound Projector Radio Show
Friday 9th December 2022

1. Marteau Rouge and Keiji Haino, Track04
   From Concert À Luz, 2009, FRANCE FOU RECORDS FR-CD 45 CD (2022)
2. Martin Weinreich, ’93TG (concrete)’
   From Points Of Entry, GERMANY HAUCH RECORDS HR025 CD (2022)
3. Richard Scott, ‘The Elephant Room’
   From Everything Is Always At Once, UK DISCUS MUSIC DISCUS 133CD (2022)
4. Lawson and Merrill, ‘Dark Angel’
   From Signals, USA NEUMA RECORDS Neuma 157 CD (2022)
5. David Tudor and Composers Inside Electronics, excerpt from Rainforest IV, USA NEUMA RECORDS Neuma 158 CDR (2022)
6. Martin Weinreich, ‘Steady Diet’
   From Points Of Entry, op. cit.
7. Marteau Rouge and Keiji Haino, Track10
   From Concert À Luz, 2009, op. cit.
8. Paul Dunmall Quintet, ‘Cosmic Communion’
   From Yes Tomorrow, UK DISCUS MUSIC DISCUS 134CD (2022)

Originally released back in 1982, the only album from Japanese new wave / punk band NON baNd has been through two or three reissues since then and German label TAL has seen fit to reissue the album again in time for its 40th anniversary. (At the time of review, the reissue date was set for 18 November 2022.) Founded by bassist / vocalist Non, NON baNd had a very brief life as a trio and then a quintet in the early 1980s but broke up in 1982, six months after the album’s release, and Non retired from the music scene. She began singing and performing again in 1999, doing live dates in her home prefecture Aomori (in Japan’s far north), some with Keiji Haino and Tatsuya Yoshida, and in Tokyo. Non reformed NON baNd (or Non Band as it’s usually written now) in the early 2000s and the band continues to perform, releasing three live albums and a studio album over the past two decades.

The album showcases a distinct skronky post-punk / new wave style with a touch of ska or jazz influence, topped by the icing on the cake that is Non’s apparently whimsical vocals, child-like and playful yet insistent and intense. Starting with the minimal funky “Duncan Dancin’ “, the album skips through Non’s eccentric, often bratty rants on tracks like “Ghetto” and “Wild Child (Can’t Stand It)” with only percussion, sax and quivering violin for company. Even a comparatively normal and serene song like “Solar” veers close to madness as Non’s voice wanders up hill and down dale over the trilling music which sometimes has an odd Middle Eastern or East Asian slant in its acoustic string tremors. “Dance Song” is as close as Non comes to rapping or toasting over a soundtrack owing as much to jazz improv and ska in parts. The album goes out on a jaunty folksy note with “Bap Pang” where at last the violin finds its natural home in extended solo melodies – at first, anyway, as the song takes a surprising turn halfway through and turns into a quirky stomp.

The music seems raw and improvised at first but the more you hear it, the more you realise it was very cunningly thought out and crafted in such a way as to seem wide-eyed and innocent. The unusual instrument selection and the music’s minimal presentation contribute to its unique style. Non’s own breathy singing certainly puts the Björk Gudmundsdottir school of singing in the shade as she skips through chanting, gabbling and near-rapping. This album is certainly overdue for a reissue and its time to shine in the limelight.

The Sound Projector Radio Show
Friday 22nd July 2022

1. Giöbia, ‘Introducing Night Sound’
   From Introducing Night Sound, GERMANY SULATRON RECORDS ST1302-CD (2013)
2. Mika Vainio & Joachim Nordwall, ‘Midas in Reverse’
   From Monstrance, UK TOUCH TO:88 CD (2013)
3. Guillaume Loizillon with Thierry Madot, ‘Double Sens part 1’
   From Intermix, FRANCE TRACE LABEL trAce 030 CD (2010)
4. Mario De Vega, ‘Track03 untitled’
   From Live At Next Festival, USA ACHEULIAN HANDAXE aha 1001 CD (2010)
5. Jack O’ The Clock, ‘Bethlehem Watcher’
   From Night Loops, USA NO LABEL CD (2014)
6. Michelle Cross / Joe Frawley, ‘March of the Dolls’
   From Dolls Come To Life, USA NO LABEL CDR (2013)
7. Daniel Spicer, ‘Afternoon Duet with 8-year old’
   From YLVMLVY, UK SLIGHTLY OFF KILTRE sok045 CDR (2012)
8. VipCancro, ‘VI’
   From Tropico, ITALY LISCA RECORDS LISCA007 CD (2010)
9. Zeitkratzer + Keiji Haino, ‘Ghosts’
   From Zeitkratzer + Keiji Haino, GERMNAY ZEITKRATZER RECORDS zkr0018 CD (2014)
10. Neil Jendon, ‘Staggers And Folds’
    From Corporate Laughter, USA CIP CIPCD026 CD (2012)
11. George Christian / Mehata Sentimental Legend, ‘Muito Mais Longe Do Que O Bastante’
    From La Géographie Sans Regret, USA SPECTROPOL RECORDS SpecT 15  CDR (2015)
12. Bear Bertucci Duo, ‘Please’
    From Controlled Burn, USA PEIRA PM12 CDR (2012)
13. Kristus Kut, ‘The Inbetween Sleep’
    From Butterfly King, USA MIND FLARE MEDIA MFM004 CD (2010)
14. Michel Henritzi / Fukuoka Rinji, ‘Falling Angels’
    From Outside Darkness, JAPAN PSF RECORDS PSFD-198 CD (2011)

Tibetan Red (i.e. Salvador Francesch) has long dropped hints in his work about his associations with Tibet, and aspects of the Buddhist religion; on this occasion he now puts this spiritual aspect to the forefront, to address the death of a particular person who was very close to him. The record states that is dedicated to his wife Angels Tebé, who died in 2020. The notes, written by Salvador and Tomaso, describe how the music is an attempt to express “the unfoldment of the different bardo thodol states” that the beloved Angels would pass through. This is the renowned ancient Buddhist text more popularly known as “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”, and as such it made an appearance in rock music culture in the 1960s (e.g. through the witterings of Timothy Leary who claims he got it from Aldous Huxley, and thence to John Lennon for ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’). The bardo thodol attempts to describe the state of human consciousness after death, and also serves as a kind of “spirit guide” to help the soul find its way through the assumed stages of the afterlife.

Brave the man who attempts to translate this collection of nebulous and unknown matters into sound art, but this is precisely the task which Tibetan Red and Corbetta have set for themselves. For them, the time after death is “a set of adventures of unknown characteristics and unlimited situations,” which is putting it mildly. In these three suites, titled ‘Bardo’, ‘Crossing’, and ‘Vanishing’, they speak of visions, sound spectres, phantom profiles, and over the course of the record they hope to describe a very ceremonial journey towards “exalted states of clarity and golden perceptions”. At all times, they wish to stress that death is a “transition”, and that’s just one of the important messages they hope to convey. As to the music / sound itself, I sense that it represents a departure from the assemblage of field recordings that we have previously heard on Tibetan Red projects, although it’s possible field recordings were used; but what’s ended up on the disc is something so gently burnished, and carefully curated, that it feels almost like something perfectly formed, like a force of nature. Subtly and slowly, the music gathers pace until it does indeed suggest the passage of a soul floating along corridors of the unknown.

If we consider other musical versions of the afterlife, Keiji Haino’s would probably be dark and silver and filled with many chattering dead ancestors, while that of Pierre Henry would be very worthy and text-laden, full of sonorous verbalising. Transition is neither; a distinctly minimal, uncluttered, almost tentative sketch of things metaphysical, a zone where words have no place. At the same time, it’s beautiful to listen to. Also at the same time, there is no sense of threat or menace in this exploration of the unknown, and although there are many things we don’t understand, it’s clearly a very good place to be. I suggest that it’s the depth of feeling for a real person, and her death, that has successfully fuelled this long piece of music from its start to its finish; and this has also lent it an unbearable poignancy, yet without once descending into something sentimental or false. The ‘Crossing’ mid-section is especially moving. It may or may not be true to the structure and progress of the “spirit guide” proposed by the original ancient text (I am not an expert in this field), but I believe the creators are being very true to themselves, and they exhibit a tremendous restraint and sensitivity throughout this understated work. Even by the high standards Tibetan Red has set for himself, Transition is a unique and remarkable piece of work. From 12th August 2021.

RIP Salvador Francesch 1945-2022

Andy Mellwig and Thomas Köner are now reckoned to be pioneers of this brand of avant-garde beat music, embracing the aesthetic of pared-down minimalism and introducing a certain indefinable “ambient” strain to the overall sound, and also flirting with dub mixing in a highly inventive manner. Most of the tracks here were originally issued that same year as 12-inch remixes, original vinyl copies of which are now fairly sought-after. The exact nuances in the sound variations and techniques they came up with are not something I’m able to comment on – experts refer to the way Porter Ricks departed from the strictures of Detroit Techno (which was more hard-edged) and strived to develop some sort of fuzzy-edged, “underwater” sound, adding faint layers of miasmic treatment to slightly blunt the force of their mysterious beats. What I’m digging on today’s spin is how they manage to sidestep such musical conventions as melody, and form, deliberately turning in an unvarying track for 5 or 8 minutes at a time, with only the barest of “tunes” to keep the listener hooked and interested. Mesmerising without feeling the need to numb the ears. At the same time, the diffuse and denatured sound is quite some way from the ultra-sharp textures we tend to associate with others in the German school, especially Raster-Noton. There’s a kind of cloaked anonymity to all the tracks which I enjoy enormously, and picking up on the “maritime” themes expressed in many of the titles, the album can create the impression of diving to the depths in a black submarine.

Despite all of these features, Biokinetics is not a “cold” record, and you can see why it’s now regarded as a benchmark release. Reissued in 2012 on the American Type label, this CD and double-LP edition marks the 25th anniversary of this fine album. Thomas Köner provided the photo for the cover artworks.

Thomas Köner’s solo album Nuuk (MP27) is of the same vintage, originally issued in 1997, but quite a different beast – it’s a cold and minimal set of glacial electronic drones, directly inspired by the creator’s travels to the Arctic zones. This was first issued as part of a four-CD box set, which I happen to own – I recall it was a time when “ambient” was an exciting new genre (unlike today, when many composers appear to be thoroughly disgusted with both the term and the music within the genre), and featured four specially-commissioned discs by Paul Schütze, Pauline Oliveros, and even Keiji Haino under his Nijiumu guise. Köner realises his vision of these desolate regions through very slow and carefully-constructed episodes, where the changes are subtle and the mood is subdued, yet still manages to create an immersive, all-encompassing sensation.

This kind of cold ambient minimalism has grown to be a lot more commonplace since 1997, but it’s evident that Köner was not only an influential pioneer, he also did it in a way that remains unsurpassed. I say this in the light of the Glacial Movements Records label operated in Rome by Alessandro Tedeschi, a label which since 2006 has focused exclusively on recreating the arctic in music and image; every album cover features the ice and the snow, and every title references it in some way. As to Nuuk, I think it was made by digital means, which I mention since at one time Thomas Köner seemed to be fixated on creating music by means of brushed gongs. If you enjoy this freezing blast, you’ll want to start lobbying for reissues of the other related titles from this period, such as Permafrost and Teimo. There’s also a video art rendition made by the artist, I think available as part of CD and DVD package from 2004.

Both the above from 21 June 2021.

Over the past several years Turkish freeform jazz quartet Konstrukt has been releasing live collaborations with various musicians on the KarlRecords label – previous collaborators include Keiji Haino, Yoshihide Otomo and Ken Vandermark – and “Turkish Belly” is the fifth and most recent collaboration, this time featuring Thurston Moore, best known of course as the former leader of US rockers Sonic Youth. Seeing Moore’s name up in lights with these noisy electronics / jazz improvisers, you might think this live instalment, recorded at the Salon IKSV concert hall in Istanbul in February 2021, should be a cacophonous noise rock / jazz affair, and to some extent that is true when you first start listening to this recording. If you hang about long enough, you’ll find this beast’s belly quite a joyous and melodious work, busy and light on the ear, and not really all that jarring.

Sure, there are tracks like “Sis” (“Fog” in English) which are raucous with blasting sax screams over enthusiastic percussion and electric guitar runs but even in these pieces the music doesn’t seem especially dense and following it is very straightforward. At times you’re waiting for something to happen, the inevitable explosion of barking-mad sax and runaway lead guitar solo, but instead the musicians just power away as if waiting for someone to break away from the pack and lead everyone, musicians and audience alike, on a merry path up hill and down dale. Later on the album, “Zor” (“Hard”) presents a more hard-rocking aspect to the jamming, with a fair amount of gritty noise-lite electronics added into the mix. The closing track “Ugultular” (“They hum”) presents as a sombre droning piece dominated by a squealing, questing sax solo, with the rest of the instruments gradually escalating to a shrill, keening climax. After the sax exhausts itself, the music continues its steady sinuous path into depths dark and misty.

A lot better behaved than what I expected – maybe the production makes the music less brisk, sharp and crackly than it should be – but still a lively work. If you’re expecting “Turkish Belly” to set parties on fire, well, I have to say you need to seek something much more electrifying. I’m not really sure what Moore uniquely brings to this collaboration as his guitar playing, while busy and clear enough on the record, is far more rhythm than lead.