This is the 19th issue of The Sound Projector Music Magazine. Published late 2010 for the year 2011. It’s 190 pages long and contains all your favourite record and CD review sections, plus the following features:

• Long interviews with Mattin, The Inecto School, and Blue Sausage Infant
• Short interviews with Ashley Paul, Burning Star Core, Ros Bobos, Franck Vigroux, Annalogue, Greg Headley, Hate-Male, Paul Baran, Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn
• Rotary Rogues – a round-up of new releases on cassette
• A free cover-mount CD from Sound On Probation records

Contributing writers: Jennifer Hor, Richard Rees Jones, Michael Tau, Andy Wilson, and Ed Pinsent
Contributing visual artists: Rachel Dano, Michael T. Bullock, guido huebner, Gayle Paul

Price: £10 plus postage and packing

• Hear some of the contents
• Hear some more of the contents

Table of Contents

Section I: International Surveys

• American Underground
• The Nordic Realms (Sweden, Norway, Denmark. Finland)
• All French Contemporary
• English Underground
• Chinese Experimental Music
• Indonesian Garage Rock

Section II: Evil Noise and Rock

• Atoms of Pure Noise
• Nightmares and Penumbra
• Stoner and Doom
• For Noise’s Sake
• Black Metal
• Primitive Electronix

Section III: Interviews and Mini-Interviews

• Mattin
• The Inecto School
• Blue Sausage Infant
• Ros Bobos
• Ashley Paul
• Franck Vigroux
• Greg Headley
• Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn
• Hate-Male
• D’Incise
• Annalogue
• Paul Baran
• Burning Star Core

Section IV: Art Music

• In The Art Gallery
• The Phantom of Liberty
• Tape Maschines Maken Klang
• Modern Minimalists
• Jazz
• Field Recordings
• The Utter Freakdom
• Sombre Patchworks by Richard Rees Jones

Section IVA: Formats

• Rotary Rogues!
• Three-inch CDs

Section V: Melodic

• The Crackling Esther
• Guitar Musics
• The Droning Ones
• Laptop Music
• Reboant Clamour by Michael Tau
• Avant Rock
• The Discurator’s Den
• Songs
• …and The Lamenting Octopus

Two variant editions

This is the first issue of the magazine to be produced via a print-on-demand service www.lulu.com. Because of the cover-mount CD, there are two editions available. They have slightly different cover designs. Otherwise there is no difference between the content. There will be 500 copies of the CD-version available, whereas the lulu edition will remain available for longer. Also, with lulu you have the option of downloading a (cheaper) digital copy rather than ordering a print copy.

To get the edition with the free CD, buy from The Sound Projector Shop.

To get the edition without the CD, buy it from lulu. Their postage may be a little pricier than mine, but they will deliver it in a fine corrugated card package, just like a book.

Alphabetical List of Artists Reviewed

AAN, 12
Abdelnour, Christine Sehnaoui, 16
Abortion Eve, 141
Abrams, Muhal Richard, 119
Acre, 116
Actress, 58
Age Of Disinformation, 6
Akiyama, Tetuzi, 104, 105, 115
Ala Muerte, 147
Allbee, Liz, 130
Alva Noto, 151
Amaranthine Trampler, 42
Ametsub, 158
An Anthology of Chinese Experimental Music 1992-2008, 25
Ancestors, 175
André, Thomas, 127
Annalogue, 84
Anonymeye, 168
Arcana Coelestia, 50
Armpit, 178
Art Giraffefungal, 58
Ash Pool, 50
Aubry, Gilles, 123
Audiokonstrukte, 158
Aumgn, 160
Aun, 166
Aus, 184
Author & Punisher, 35
Bailey, Banks, 166
Baktruppen, 134
Balestrazzi, Simon, 99
Baran, Paul, 86
Barrikad, 142, 148
Barsotti, Steve, 184
Bass Communion, 147
Battus, Pascal, 16
Behrens, Marc, 124
Beins, Burkhard, 113
Belfi, Andrea, 107
Bergman, Borah, 119
Bettis, Chuck, 152
Bible, Jeremy, 128
Bigot, Fred, 57
Bisio, Michael, 120
Blessure Grave, 41
Blue Sausage Infant, 72
Body, The, 41
Bolaños, César, 93
Bondi, Max, 147
Borghi, Andrea, 37
Borisov, Alexei, 156
Brassier, Ray, 102
Breschand, Hélène, 17
Brophy, Philip, 154
Buckner, Thomas, 118
Bullock, Michael T. , 113
Burning Star Core, 88
Burzum, 48
Butcher, John, 101, 104
Büttner, Gregory, 147
Byrne, Andrew, 100
Cadaver Eyes, 45
Cardinal, 138
Carey, Jeff, 156
Cascone, Kim, 128
Cau-Cational Betreet, 23
Celestiial, 43
Chabala, Barry, 143
Chartier, Richard, 127
Chatham, Rhys, 176
Chen, Audrey, 104
Chugga, 140
Cindytalk, 170
City Surgical, 154
Clicks And Cuts Five, 158
Clutter, 147
Cold Cave, 8
ColdWorld, 49
Collins, Nicolas, 90
Connelly, Chris, 136
Cooper, Mike, 174
Cosi, Valerio, 174
Cosmic Serpent, The, 140
Cousins Of Reggae, 46
Cranc, 107
Cremaster, 103
Creshevsky, Noah, 94
Crothers, Connie, 120
Crowned In Earth, 49
D’Incise, 82
Dara Puspita, 27
Dauby, Yannick, 125
Davies, Rhodri, 101
Dead Gum, 142
Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, 144
Deadnotes, The,183
Decimation Blvd, 148
Decoy, 103
Delplanque, Mathias, 157
Denis, Javier, 108
Desmarchlier, Nicolas, 17
Diatribes, 82
Dirac, 170
Dodge, Charles, 98
Dokaka, 130
Dolphins Into The Future, 165
Doneda, Michel, 15, 17
Donzel-Garagand, Bernard, 109
dsic, 59
Duchesses, 43
Ducktails, 160
Ea, 44
Eagle Twin, 41
Eastley, Max, 93, 99
Eckhardt, Julie, 114
Eleh, 165
Emeralds, 153
Equus, 110
Ergo, 119
eRikm, 15, 155
Evol, 170
Eyes Like Saucers, 12
Family Elan, The, 22
Far Out, 177
Fast ‘N’ Bulbous, 163
Fenn O’Berg, 167
Filthy Smear, 141
Filthy Turd, 139, 143
Floyd, JB, 118
Forsyth, Chris, 159
Foust!, 153
Franchini, Enzo, 174
Frawley, Joe, 111
Freiband, 147
Fröberg, Dan, 11
Frozen Geese, 141
Fundamental Form, 106
Fvrtvr, 35
Gainsbourg, Charlotte, 185
García, Miguel A., 148
Gauguet, Bertrand, 103
Gersh, Geoff, 171
Gibson, Laura, 173
Giffoni, Carlos, 29
Gilbert, Bruce, 151
Girouard, Olivier, 137
Gnaw Their Tongues, 50
Golden Serenades,12
Gough, Helena, 98
Government Alpha, 148
Graveland, 52
Green Monster Big Band, The, 117
Grenager, Lene, 107
Grody, Danny-Paul, 173
Grüsel, Hans, 104
Guionnet, Jean-Luc, 16, 102
Gutbucket, 179
Guy, Barry, 82
Hamilton Yarns, 20
Hamilton, Paul, 144
Hamilton, Tom, 121
Hari Hardman, 60, 142
Harps of Fuchsia Kalmia, 172
Hate-Male, 81
Hautzinger, Franz, 103, 104
Havohej, 53
Headley, Greg, 79
Hearts Of Palm, 4
Heavy Winged, 4
Henry, Jason, 128
Hewick, Kevin, 136
Hideki, Kato, 105
Higashi, Yôko, 111, 112
Ho, Fred, 117
Holloway, Ian, 166, 168
Holterbach, Manu, 114
Horist, Bill, 159
Houle, Viviane, 138
Human Quena Orchestra, The, 37
Hybernation, 148
If, Bwana, 110
Illusion Of Safety, 33
Inclusion Principle, 112
Inhabitants, 175
Iron Fist Of The Sun, 37
irr.app. (ext.), 111
Ischio Romantico, 129
Islaja, 9
Jabladav, 54
Jaumet, Etienne, 182
Joe Frawley Ensemble, 111
Johnson, Tom, 121
Joinedbywire, 22
Joynes, C, 19
Julius, Rolf, 95
Jute Gyte, 55
K11, 36
Kabelbrand, 150
Kassap, Sylvain, 17
Khamsa Khala, 183
King, Dean, 116
Kiva, 106
KK / KK, 139
Knispel, Joel, 108
Knott, Dave, 160
Kocher, Jonas, 182
Koes Plus, 27
Kommissar Hjuler, 129
Kosemura, Akira, 172
Kuwayama, Kiyoharu, 128
Kwang, Goh Lee, 96
Kyriakides, Yannis, 97
La Casa, Eric, 126
Lafkas, Andrew, 113
Lateef, Yusef, 118
Lauten, Elodie, 92
Lawson, Robert, 109
Lehn, Thomas, 103
Leonardson, Eric, 184
Lesson Lesson Lessen Relearn, 80
Lethe, 171
Lovely Little Girls, 133
Machinefabriek, 107
Maeder, Marcus, 148
Maiden Voyage, 42
Mama Bär, 129
Many Arms, 147
Marchetti, Lionel, 109, 111, 112
Marhaug, Lasse, 10, 140
Marsh, George, 118
Marshall, Ingram, 96
Masaoka, Miya, 104
Mastodon, 44
Mattin, 102
Mays, The, 58
McHugh, Jonathan, 172
McHugh, Mike, 141
Meat Sweats, 142
Meelkop, Roel, 174
Mem1, 154
Menche, Daniel, 125, 140
Mendoza, Ava, 162
Mister Fuckhead, 142
Mitchell, Roscoe, 119
Mitsuru, Tabata, 161
Mizutani, Kiyoshi, 128
Monarch, 55
MONE¥I$GOD, 45
Montgomery, Gen Ken, 91, 98, 144
Moreland, Mark, 144
Mount Fuji Doom Jazz Corporation,
The, 38
mudboy, 7
Müller, Günter, 105
Mushi Mushi, 20
Musiikkivyöry, 14
Myo, 156
Nagai, Kenta, 104
Nakamura, Toshimaru, 105, 115
Nalle, 186
Naphtali, Dafna, 152
Nasehi, Roshi, 186
NDE, 51
Necks, The, 106
Nehil, Seth, 125
Nels Cline Singers, 120
Niblock, Phill, 95
Nickname: Rebel, 172
Nihilist Assault Group, 144
Nilsen, BJ, 123
Nitowksi, 22
Noetinger, Jérôme, 15
Noish, 60
Nosova, Olga, 156
Noveller, 5
Null, KK, 32
Ó Ceallaigh, Duncan, 147
O Yuki Conjugate, 157
Obst, Marcus. 126
Oceans Of Silver & Blood, 166
Offset Needle Radius, 172
Okura, Masahiro, 104
Olekranon, 177, 178
Olive, Tim, 102
Olla, Alessandro, 99
Oneohtrix Point Never, 151, 156
Onodera, Yui, 116
Oranssi Pazuzu, 51
Pain Jerk, 31
Pandiscordian Necrogenesis, 51
Pantha du Prince, 152
Pars Radio, 186
parvo art, 147
Pastor, Stefano, 119
Paul, Ashley, 77
Peeesseye, 3
Pekler, Andrew, 97
People Like Us, 21
Perrier, Laurent, 18
Phillips, Dave, 131
Phillips, Tomas, 116
Physical Demon, 32
Pickle Factory, The, 5
Pier, 46
Pisaro, Michael, 143
Pivixki, 176
Plonk, 46
Poldr, 139
Pollard, Hoarcio, 23
Positive Catastrophe, 120
Pylône, 17
Pynn, Nick, 20
RaM, 141
Ramirez, Richard, 31
Ramleh, 30
Rashomon, 182
Rational Academy, The, 137
Ratkje, Maja S.K., 10
Ratti, Nicola, 137
Rdeca Raketa, 173
Reber, Tobias, 126
Renderers, The, 185
Ritualistic School of Errors, 133
RM74, 35
Robert Lawson Unit, 108
Rollerball, 179
Ros Bobos, 176
Rose, Ethan, 173
Rosenfeld, Marina, 100
Rostad, Nils, 10
Rothkamm, 155
ROVA, 120
Rudolph, Adam, 118
Rushford, James, 171
Schnitzler, Conrad, 91
Sciajno, Domenico, 115
Scissor Lock, 184
Seattle Phonographers Union, 125
Sehnsucht, 33
Seijiro, Murayama, 102
September Collective, 184
Servile Sect, 145
Sharp, Elliott, 107
Shield Your Eyes, 21
Shift, 31
Shimada, Hideaki, 128
Shoemaker, Matt, 168
Sister Iodine, 15
Six Idealists for Ideal Ten, 143
Skif++, 169
SLW, 105
Solstafir, 53
Spiracle, 115
Sprenger, Konrad, 36
Squim, 128
St Just Vigilantes, The, 185
St-Onge, Alexandre, 97
Storm of Light, A, 42
Sujo, 148, 166
Syndicat, Le, 57
Talia, Joe, 171
Talibam!, 3
Tamaru, 116
Tea & Toast Band, 21
Team Sports, 144
Tenney, James, 99
Terminal Lovers, 5
Terminals, The, 178
Thaw, 144
Tietchens, Asmus, 171
TL0741, 155
Toral, Rafael, 95
Torturing Nurse, 32
Toulemonde, Olivier, 17
Truth About Frank, The, 60
Tsukimono, 11
Ulaan Khol, 161
Ulher, Birgit, 147
Unami, Taku, 169
Unfolk, 136
UnicaZürn, 34
Uns, 39
Upsilon Acrux, 179
Ural Umbo, 34
Urbanfailure Gross, The, 59
Utarm, 54
Vázquez, Durán, 127
Velvet Cacoon, 49
Vertonen, 38
Vigroux, Franck, 18, 78
Vipcancro, 23
ViV, 22
Viva Negativa! A Tribute to The New Blockaders Vol 1, 32
Vomm, 143
Vowinckel, Antje, 170
Wastell, Mark, 172
Wesseltoft, John, 139
Wet Hair, 6
When Bitter Spring Sleeps, 52
Whitman, Keith Fullerton, 145
Whourkr, 44
Wicked King Wicker, 48
Wicked Rot, 46
Wiese, John, 31, 32
Winderen, Jana, 124
Wobbly, 21
Wodensthrone, 53
Wooden Veil, 164
Wounded Kings, The, 180
Wretched Worst, 46
Xasthur, 54
Xedh, 60
xNoBBQx, 46
Xulsigiae, 140
XXXXX, 169
Yanagisawa, Eisuke, 127
Yellow Swans, 4, 7
Young, Roland P., 164
Z’EV, 99
Zanési, Christian, 174
Zanzibar Snails, 6
Zoo, 180
Zu, 177

“Greetings from Osaka, influenza capital of Japan”, writes Tim Olive in jocular mood as he sends me a copy of Difference and Repetition (TEST TONE MUSIC TTMR-001), a collaboration with Kikuchi Yukinori who (like the label) is based in Nagoya. An inscrutable record on which it’s not clear who is playing what across seven anonymous tracks with titles like ‘Small room’, ‘Shining’ and ‘Ontology’ which don’t give much away, but the music is fascinating and varied electronic emissions, full of invention and great deliberation – sometimes vaguely noisy, sometimes sternly implacable deep drones, their monotonal surfaces roughed up with skittery details. Olive’s distinctive playing is usually characterised by a very extreme form of disconnectedness, but many of these pieces exhibit a more continuous full-bodied roaring, the sort of activity you would expect from a team of gigantic beetles if they were ten times as large and refitted to produce electronic signals through their antennae. Natch, I gladly welcome such outsize coleoptera into my lair any day of the week.

Fires Were Shot is the duo of Clay Walton and John Wilkins, using acoustic guitars with effects to create some not unpleasant melodic moments on Awakened By A Lonely Feud (QUIET DESIGN ALAS013). They stay mainly in melodic major keys, and their approach to sound processing is not radically transformative; overall this isn’t an especially experimental work, but it does deliver some of the moments of Terry Riley mesmerism the duo are hoping for.

800 000 Seconds in Harar (TOUCH TO:82) is the new massively-droning work from CM Von Hausswolff, a unique creator whose minimalistic results often belie a complex and labour-intensive working method. This release is no exception; commissioned to write the background music for a play about the life of Arthur Rimbaud, this questing Swede flew off to Ethiopia and stayed there for ten days, taught himself to play a stringed instrument called a krar that he bought there in a shop, made some location recordings in selected areas, and thusly gathered the raw material for ‘Day And Night’, a tripartite piece which takes up a goodly chunk of this release. All this because Rimbaud spent the end of his life in Harar, a small town apparently some ten hours away from Addis Adaba, and the final scenes of the play are set there; von Hausswolff’s thoroughness, and the need to ensure he gathered materials that were totally sympathetic to the commission, apparently knows no bounds. The remainder of the album makes use of his familiar analogue oscillators to produce the sort of intense and powerful drone that he has, over some 30 years, made into his signature; ‘The Sleeper In The Valley’ is strong enough to act as a lodestone for recalcitrant meteorites, and also makes use of an early Rimbaud poem. The playwright in question was Ulrich Hillebrand, Carl-Michael’s old partner when they ran the seminal label Radium 226.05 between 1983 and 1993; and it so happens this is his first release for Touch, although he did make an LP for Ash International in 1997.

Lithuanian composer Arturas Bumšteinas sent a copy of My Own Private Bayreuth (HOTELMARIAKAPEL), which contains some intriguing electro-acoustic reworkings of music by Richard Wagner, sampling various string and vocal sections into intricate new compositions of impossible complexity and density. It’s impressive how he departs so radically from the original source material, switching modes from dissonant to melodic and back again, gently offering the listener far more than appears to be happening on the surface. His treatment of singing voices is especially noteworthy, creating mutant-angel choirs which murmur in invented alien languages, against the backdrop of exquisite woodwind layerings and loops. The project is his personal response to the fact he received an unhelpful letter from the box office staff of the 2010 Bayreuth Festival (apparently the cultural highlight of the year for Wagner fans); Bumšteinas was told that not only could he not have a ticket, but there was a nine year waiting list. In exasperation, he composed this. It’s an interesting way of dealing with frustration and bureaucratic inefficiency, and if I did the same every time I encountered institutionalised incompetence and unhelpfulness in this country, I’d have released more records than Sun Ra and Stockhausen put together. I should stress that Bumšteinas means no ill will to the Festival or any of its staff and musicians, or indeed to Wagner himself; he’s making a comment on what he calls “hierarchical manifestations of culture”. It’s a private affair, as the title suggests. There he is on the cover looking rather chopfallen as he stands alone in a near-empty city square, all dressed up in his tuxedo with nowhere to go.

MEV once shared an LP with AMM on the Mainstream label in 1968. Collectors of this rare LP sometimes swap stories about how the sides were mispressed and gave some unsuspecting listeners quite the wrong impression of the music of these respective founders of group improvisation. This is by way of introducing Cornelius Cardew Works 1960-70 (+3DB 012), which is a set of six pieces of 20th century chamber music by this unclassifiable English maverick, who at one stage of his career was an enthused apologist for all that was avant-garde and cutting-edge in music composition. Played here by John Tilbury, the AMM pianist who is also acknowledged as a supremo interpreter of Morton Feldman; Michael Duch on the double bass; and the Welsh harpist, Rhodri Davies. An inspired choice of personnel for this trio, a real dream team; and the selection of music is likewise ingenious. True, the famous ‘Treatise’ is excerpted here, but so are less familiar works such as the somewhat untypical ‘Unintended Piano Music’ (by Duch’s account, this one stands alone among Cardew’s works), and ‘Autumn 60′ which is an early piece of indeterminism from a time when John Cage was the name in the mouths of all the international cognoscenti. Improvising whizz Duch (also a member of Lemur, among other things) is drawn to the selections on this album as they represent a time when Cardew was moving away from his Cage/Stockhausen influences and entering the orbit of AMM and free improvisation. Not an “eventful” record this, but the quiet acoustic passages, played at all times with the utmost precision and deliberation, exert a delicate magnetic force.

Whole essays have been written, or will be written, on that grey area between improvised music and those fields of indeterminism which Cage didn’t so much set in motion like hares over the hill as point them out to everyone as being under our noses all along, before he resumed counting the grains of turmeric in his spice rack with a knowing smirk. Exhibit A in the folios of such essayists is usually the Stockhausen non-scored experiments released as the box set From The Seven Days. None of this is necessarily connected to Subtle Lip Can (DRIP AUDIO DA00646), but it is a groovy record of some of the scrapiest and full-bodied noise-drone improv to have leaped onto our table like some gigantic cicada. Isaiah Ceccarelli, Bernard Falaise and Joshua Zubot use strings, guitar, percussion and piano on these urgent and impolite eruptions of creakiness and crankoid utterances, passing on the impression at all times that the house is falling down, or is about to; I can see the cracks forming across the ceiling as I listen. Impressive to learn that this is the debut record from these three Canadians (at least, in this group incarnation), which came about after one successful grind-fest in Montreal that has bonded them together for keeps. My nights should be so exciting. Nice tuft of excited wiry hair on the cover there too.

Green Desert (Z6 RECORDS Z6999333) is a crackling dose of assured and enjoyable electronic music from Dutch composer Huib Emmer, a man whose forearms are as greasy with the analogue swathes as surely as if he were a car mechanic immersed all day in the synthi-pit. 11 studio pieces produced by Lukas Simonis and recorded in Rotterdam, and Emmer sets about his work with a strong determination to invent, reinvent, and polish each blackened surface as he passes by, like a very conscientious minimal sculptor. Noise, melody, samples, beats, abstractions; all is ladled thickly into the Emmer barrels like good rich treacle. I can cheerfully recommend this record to you if you enjoy the music of Cluster, Peter Rehberg, Kraftwerk, the Radiophonic Workshop, or (fellow Dutch composer) Tom Dissevelt. Emmer is a 1970s graduate of the Hague music school and this fine disc, kindly sent to me by the man himself, was released in November 2010.

1. Blue Sausage Infant, ‘Radiant Arc’
   From Flight of the Solstice Queen, USA ZEROMOON ZERO 010 CD (2010)
2. The Family Elan, ‘The Black Planets Of Her Eyes’
   From Bow Low Bright Glow, UK ALTVINYL AV018CD (2010)
3. People Like Us & Wobbly, ‘Pick Up’
   From Music For The Fire, USA ILLEGAL ART IA121 CD (2010)
4. Ava Mendoza, ‘Penumbra: The Age Of Almost Living’
   From Shadow Stories, USA RESIPISCENT RSPT037 CD (2010)
5. Gen Ken Montgomery, ‘Shoot Me Down’
   From Birds + Machines, USA POGUS PRODUCTIONS P21055-2 CD (2010)
6. Lasse Marhaug and Maja S.K. Ratkje, ‘Complaints Won’t Help’
   From Music For Gardening, NORWAY PICA DISK PICA009 CD (2009)
7. Wooden Veil, ‘Church Scream’
   From Wooden Veil, GERMANY DEKORDER 035 CD (2009)
8. Noah Creshevsky, ‘Omaggio’
   From The Twilight of the Gods, USA TZADIK TZ 8069 CD (2010)
9. Clemens Hausch, ‘Cell Pilot’
   From Kabelbrand: Sounds From The Max Brand Synthesizer, AUSTRIA MOOZAK MZ#002 CD (2009)
10. Baktruppen, ‘Gitar Underlag’
    From Baktruppen 1986-2008, NORWAY +3DB RECORDS 004 CD (2010)
11. John Butcher / Rhodri Davies, ‘Distant Leazes’
    From Carliol, JAPAN FTARRI-220 CD (2010)
12. Greg Headley, ‘Eye of Silence’
    From Fragments of the Dream Machine, USA 28ANGLES CDR
13. Pascal Battus / Christine Sehnaoul Abdelnour, ‘Reliefs De Repas’
    From Ichnites, FRANCE POTLATCH P110 CD (2010)
14. Noetinger / Doneda / eRikm, ‘Il Fait Nuit Dans La Tête’
    From Dos D’D'Ânes, FRANCE RONDA rnd12 CD (2009)
15. Dolphins into the Future, ‘Observations Through The Halocline Of The Worlds Part 1′
    From The Music Of Belief, SWEDEN RELEASE THE BATS RTB#49 CD (2010)

Scots “Industrial” musician Chris Connelly (ex Ministry) has produced a singular item for Lens Records called How This Ends (LENS0117). Exploring his songwriting and poetry skills to the nth degree, the CD consists of two long tracks (the first is over 30 minutes) which amount to extended quasi-operatic song-suites, performed with an ensemble of singers, narrators, poets and musicians. A baffling and constantly-changing sequence of events unfolds, including abstracted grey droning and hissing sounds, melodic piano fugues, harrowed voices wailing in nightmarish ways, and calm actresses narrating dreadful scenes with all the detached calm of a Greek chorus. How cathartic! The theme of this work is a very timely one, commenting in oblique fashion on torture, genocide, fascism and displaced victims attempting to escape global evils. While pessimistic in tone, ultimately this is supposed to be an uplifting statement, and a testament to the indomitable spirit of humanity. A real curio and strangely affecting. Will be released in July this year.

From Vomm, a strong piece of Black Metal-inflected noise released as Black Catharsis (HELL LIES IN OTHERS HLIO02), a C30 tape of grim and growling grindery, recorded using experimental field recordings and whispered narrations to supplement the solid forcefield of amplified evil which pours from his guitar, bass and drums set-up. Vomm (known only by his initials W.E. here) played everything on this introverted, shapeless, self-hating cesspool of nihilism, and wishes it to be known that he has chosen the path of the political pariah due to his personal disgust with “modern life”. Instead, he finds release in occult ritual, an activity perhaps embodied by the striking cover art which depicts a man caught halfway in the act of turning into a tree even as he’s reduced (perhaps by self-mutilation) into an armless and legless trunk. Shades of the Odin myth that lies behind the Hanged Man Tarot card. Stephen Wilson of Black Uroborus produced the luxury foldout artworks, of which there are two variant states using black inks on black card, for an edition of 100 tapes. Prepare for Inner Hell!

I get the sense that K11 also dabbles with some form of personal ritual, although free from occult associations, on Waiting For The Darkness (AFE RECORDS AFE126LCD), an installation art piece which is described as “an action of instrumental transcommunication”. Produced entirely with short wave radios and recorded in a lonely forest in the night, this is a disturbing and troubling record of powerful shuffling, hissing and pounding noise that recalls Disinformation when he was at his most powerful manifestation, harnessing the sonic possibilities of pylons and solar emissions. K11 (Pietro Riparbelli) however is interested in something more psychological and wants to “investigate the dimension of fear”, and I must admit this atmospheric beauty delivers much more effectively in these areas than any recent Stephen O’Malley project. The CD arrives with a QuickTime movie burned in, a component which I’m unable to access as a PC user.

From same label, As A Leaf Or A Stone (AFE123LCD), another example of the recondite work of Mathieu Ruhlmann, the Vancouver-based sound artist who uses some highly unlikely found objects (both natural and man-made) to produce his strange and distant meditations on the overlooked and unseen sides of life. His work sits somewhere between field recording and performance (with some traces of sculpture thrown in, believe it or not) and in its quiet, unassuming way his work is always very involving. If you look at the cover long enough (perhaps a canvas stained through being buried in a forest or singed in a campfire) you’ll start to see faces and other recognisable shapes.

Continuing in the vein of experimental musicians who attempt to “deconstruct” their instrument by finding unusual ways to play it and change its voicings completely, we have the Swiss accordion player Jonas Kocher with his Materials (CREATIVE SOURCES RECORDINGS CS 164 CD) album. It’s made completely with an accordion with some added percussive and bowed objects, and sparing use of electronics. As if bound by a sacred vow that no single recognisable wheeze or squeal shall ever emerge from his hands, Kocher proceeds to concentrate on manipulating the separate components of his squeezebox (bellows, buttons, etc) to produce very abstracted and alien effects. Gotta give him full marks for innovation, but I still don’t feel the same degree of concentration in the playing that we get with say Robin Hayward and his tuba or Axel Dörner and his trumpet; it’s a bitty album made up of bitty tracks that start and stop vaguely, with no apparent intention. I’d like to hear him really climb “inside” his instrument and turn those concertina folds into the workings of a gigantic, menacing machine.

The Sound Projector Radio Show 28th May 2010

1. Brown Wing Overdrive, ‘Diamond Road’
   From L Phantasm, USA KAVE KAVITY KKR 004 CDR (2010)
2. Stefanie Ressin and Dany Apelt, ’3 Wishes’
   NETHERLANDS MEEUW MUZAK MM037 7″ SINGLE (2009)
3. Manathol, ‘BAKETO (C&C Cut)
   From Clicks and Cuts Volume 5, GERMANY MILLE PLATEAUX MP300 CD (2010)
4. Music From The Film, ‘Crushface’
   USA, NO LABEL 7″ SINGLE
5. Skif++, ’1.02′
   From .next, PORTUGAL CREATIVE SOURCES RECORDINGS CS 175 CD (2010)
6. Mark Boombastik, ‘Plastik Lieb’
   NETHERLANDS MEEUW MUZAK MM031 7″ SINGLE (2010)
7. Amy Denio (with Die Knödel), ‘Finalala’
   From Tutto Bene, USA SPOOT MUSIC AD1OTB CD (2010)
8. Andrea Borghi, ‘Medulla’
   From Multiplicazioni, ITALY LISCA RECORDS LISCA006 CD (2010)
9. Music From The Film, ‘Bit’
   USA, NO LABEL 7″ SINGLE
10. People Like Us & Wobbly, ‘Naked Little Girl’
    From Music For The Fire, USA ILLEGAL ART IA121 CD (2010)
11. Norbert Möslang / Ralf Wehowsky, ‘Einschlagskrater’
    NETHERLANDS MEEUW MUZAK MM036 7″ SINGLE (2008)
12. Ohneotrix Point Never, ‘Returnal’
    From Returnal, AUSTRIA EDITIONS MEGO eMEGO 104 CD (2010)
13. Tabata Mitsuru, ‘Hip Dead’
    From Mankind Spree, UK FOURTH DIMENSION FDCD75 CD (2010)
14. Vipcancro, ‘III’
    From Tropico, ITALY LISCA RECORDS LISCA007 CD (2010)
15. John Butcher / Rhodri Davies, ‘Distant Leazes’
    From Carliol, JAPAN FTARRI 200 CD (2010)
16. Hearts Of Palm (with C Spencer Yeh), extract from Earth Headed Heart, USA FOR NOISES SAKE FNS 017 CDR (2010)

American enthusiast from Maryland Gary Young sent us a coupla copies of his nifty single recorded under his alias Music From The Film and pressed in clear orange vinyl which spins at 45rpm but could also be heard at 33 and comes with a home-made adapter to generate eccentric revolutions. For Bit c/w Crushface, he recorded layers of instrumentation and electronics to produce some seven minutes of cheery looping and lolloping insanity, clearly having an enormous amount of fun while doing so (a spirit of playfulness is often lacking I find from many of the sober and serious records that are sent to this magazine). His use of the banjo is particularly frolicsome. Using the adapter to play the record produces a rather queasy and slightly idiotic effect (he calls it the “Swimmier” mix) and sends the record players tone-arm out for a long and bizarre walk, and less adventurous music fans may just enjoy playing this record “straight”. This was first broadcast on The Garden Of Earthly Delights radio show in Milton Keynes; Young is an active supporter of “free form” radio and his press kit comes with a huge list of international radio stations (mostly American it must be said) providing the sort of unique aural creativity that satisfies him. I am honoured to find that TSP Radio is on his list. 500 numbered copies only.

Mark Wastell has sent a sumptuous white vinyl 12-incher by Oceans Of Silver & Blood (NOSORDO NSRD010), his tam-tam duo project which features the great Joachim Nordwall with his Roland Modular synth. Moody, atmospheric low-frequency monotony pours off this sullen beast as you rotate it in the darkened dungeon of your mind, yet the overall shape has much density and detail, packed into each fretful moment by these skilled players who resemble 19th-century craftsmen working with Portland cement to produce the heaviest building bricks the world has ever known. Much as I like my old Thomas Köner CDs, Wastell’s powerful use of the gong’s surface makes him look pretty pallid in comparison. Also from Wastell, some new items from his Confront Collectors Series imprint, two of them packed in these new ReSleeve recycled card wallets instead of his usual clamshell cases. Keith Rowe & Mark Wastell were recorded in 2006 in Dublin for live at i-and-e (CCS 12), producing nine and twenty minutes of low-key rustling and snorey buzzes on what comes across as a slightly muffled and cramped recording. On Hydriotaphia (CCS 11), Wastell does the tam tam and synth thing again, this time partnering up with Jonathan McHugh setting the controls for the heart of the sun on his ARP 2600 to produce an intense 45 minutes of absolute minimal zero-ness. McHugh’s ultra-subtle use of the mixing desk really saves the day on these 2009 studio recordings. The Sealed Knot is a trio with Rhodri Davies, Wastell and Burkhard Beins, and on the repress of 2004′s Unwanted Object (CCS1) we have four tracks of charged explorations made with strings, percussion and various small resonant sounds, which for all its deliberate ambiguity in the sound exhibits the clarity and precision of performance we have come to associate with this great group.

From Release The Bats in Sweden we received three excellent slices of vinyl which can be used to weigh the chill hand of oppression on your enemies, while simultaneously uplifting the spirits of the pure and the good. Källarbarnen (NATTMARAN 01) is not actually on the RTB label, but this self-titled 12-incher is a harrowing episode of ramshackle, wasted, rock noise made with a drum kit of biscuit tins and some screaming noise-production device which could be a heroin-addicted guitar or a strung-out feedback heavy synth, or both. The shadow-faced and gaunt duo who made this powerful recording of withdrawal can rest easy on their rusty camp-beds tonight, secure in the knowledge they have made a lasting and unforgettable contribution to underground culture. I played this at the wrong speed on the radio, but Mr Bats emailed me to point out my crass mistake, and I find now that played at 45 the record makes total sense to me. 275 copies only. Very high recommendation for this distraught howler of a disc!

You’ll also receive quite a lasting sensation of wintry desolation and deathritude from Altar Of Flies, currently emerging as quite a righteous talent in the area of chill-zone ambient horror noise, and whose work for me just gets better with each release. This Förruttnelsen (RELEASE THE BATS #57) album is his first full-length after various anthologised tracks and split releases, and it’s got a punchy precision and starkness that you may have missed on his earlier, noised-out affairs. Paying close attention to dynamics and evolving ideas, he lays out one ghastly buffet and blast after another, doing so with a stately slowness and icy calm, exhibiting a restraint which some of your hotly-pumping promiscuous table noise crowd could learn from, as they rush to ejaculate their slippery discharges of electronic jiz. What’s impressive is that most of this material was recorded direct to tape. Since the UK has been undergoing one of the coldest May months on record, this particular helping of stern, cold gravy fits in perfectly with our mood of grey and deathly oppression. Only 270 copies were pressed.

Blessure Grave arrive with what I suppose is an attempt at an entertaining “rock” record, by which I mean the Californian duo of Graves and Kay perform short and discernible songs in the Royal Trux mode instead of lengthy abstract noise bursts which melt into each other on the vinyl. On Judged By 12, Carried By 6 (RELEASE THE BATS #53), the Blessure-Graveniks perform tremendous instrumental bedroom-styled backdrops heavily in debt to all the great post-punk records of the 1970s and 1980s, using all the trademarks we love so well – skeletal drumming, chilly electronics, muffled bass guitars and jangly, shrill lead guitars that can shred a cabbage at twenty pages. On top of this, they intone haunted lyrics in voices so emptied-out and wracked by pain that you’ll be looking up their address so you can send them a relief Red Cross parcel full of vitamins and fresh fruit, just to cheer them up a little. The title of the album (and many of their song titles) indicate something of their morbid and fatalistic outlook on life, strongly suggesting that all of us must face judgement for our deeds and then everything ends in the grave. Despite the occasional whiff of the “gothic” which we find from this duo, this is a fine example of cathartic music to help you exorcise those alienated sensations of being buried alive and overwhelmed by the crushing forces of everyday life. This album also exists in CD form on Alien8 Recordings with some extra tracks, but this vinyl edition is limited and has a better cover too.

From same label, another minimal delight in the form of Do-Undo (In G Maze) (HELEN SCARSDALE AGENCY HMS 018). The droning viola work of Julia Ackhardt, one of whose peculiarities is that she often plays and records exclusively in the key of G, has been reworked and cross-fertilised with strange spatial field recordings by the sound artist Manu Holterbach. Julia actively encourages others to make whatever secondary use they see fit of her recordings, and Holterbach has certainly picked up that gauntlet with dispatch and zeal. While one has encountered the delirious effects of live music mixed with urban sound-events before (for example, an excellent if hard-to-find LP by Tamio Shiraishi and Sean Meehan on the GD Stereo label), this single-minded release is one of the most successful endeavours we’ve yet encountered in that area. It is also somewhat reminiscent of the mysterious records of Coelacanth, also represented on this label, although of course it’s more obtrusive and more explicitly “musical”. Quite gorgeous, whichever ear you bend towards it first. As ever from this Californian label, a very limited pressing with fine hand-made cover art inserts.

Premier UK sax improviser John Butcher is making radical leaps forward with his remarkable music. I was highly impressed with his Resonant Spaces work where he took part in a rural-psychogeographic event, wholeheartedly throwing himself and his brassy lung into remote caves and bunkers in unknown parts of Scotland. On Invisible Ear (WEIGHT OF WAX WOW 03) he’s created a dozen short pieces alternating between solo and multi-tracked saxophone playing, using amplification, feedback, and very close microphone placement. The results are fit to be regarded as modernist compositions (much in the same way that Rhodri Davies has taken his harp beyond improvisation and into a serene realm of minimalist composing). The consummate skill in his playing and the astonishingly unusual sounds wrought from Butcher’s sax are one attraction of this release, but I also like the compactness of it; most of these crystal-sharp gems are packed into taut 3 or 4 minute episodes, acting like a dose of pure vitamin C for your brain. I’m also pleased to report that Butcher doesn’t appear to be succumbing to the temptations of “Onkyo” music or reduced improv. Issued in a handsome gatefold package with inner sleeve and notes by David Toop. An excellent piece of work which I recommend.

Music For The Ears (WESTERN VINYL WV075) is another superb minimal statement by the creator Rolf Julius, an important German sound creator and gallery installation artist who has been active since the late 1970s. This item, No 1 in the Small Music series, was recorded in 1979 and offers two sumptuous and beautiful long pieces ‘Song from the Past’ and ‘Music on Two High Poles’. From what I can gather he’s the sort of gifted genius who can make small interventions in any indoor or outdoor space (a room, a gallery, a forest) and transform everything by creating – or revealing – a small and wonderful sound which is so compelling you’ll want to stop and contemplate it for days. I see the Fringes Archives label in Italy has also released a set of his early works, but it seems if you start collecting these versions now (nice sturdy card wallets) they will build up into a handsome boxed set which you can treasure. Totally marvellous.

Got the third release (CDR #3) in a series by the Finnish mystery project Chemins, which you can only procure from their website. One twenty minute track called ‘The Ovary Of Future’ is simple droning music perhaps created by layering acoustic instruments and pouring the results through various digital filters; not un-nice, but not particularly memorable either.

We’re certainly having a very minimal morning here. Richard Chartier‘s A Field For Mixing (ROOM 40 RM439) is a release that continues this artist’s apparent penchant for creating lengthy ultra-quiet and wispy grey field recordings that barely exist on the edge of everyone’s hearing. The two long pieces here pay homage to his friends and collaborators Steve Roden and William Basinski, namechecks which may help orient the listener as they attempt to navigate through these misty stretches of nothingness. The first (48 minute) piece was assembled from field recordings made in America, Europe, Japan and Australia. It always puzzles me how it is possible to find such near-desolate stillness and zones of supreme silence in our bustling and overcrowded globe. Perhaps we should find some solace in that fact, as we nurse our fears of global warming and overpopulation.

Impressive as Chartier’s music be, it feels like he’s trying to build something enormous and “monumental” with his over-stretched works. At some times I prefer a scaled-down approach such as that of English player Michael Rodgers, who on his Twilight, Birds (LOST LIGHTS LL01) mini CDR is making much more intimate and modest observations on the beauty of nature. The release is packed in a printed envelope with colour photographs. Using camera, field recordings and very simple guitar music, Rodgers concentrates on documenting a single phenomenon – birds in the trees singing at twilight – and with his straightforward, clear statements offers a very attractive alternative to the conceptual grandiosity of of Chartier with his “notions of space and sound density” and “newly defined acoustic spaces”. An appealing and integrated handmade package (150 copies only) of visuals and music from this former co-owner of the micro label TwoThousandAnd.

CJ: Properly speaking, I only really play guitar and mandolin. When I say ‘properly’, I guess I mean an instrument that I would be prepared go up on stage with all on my own. However, like many other musicians, I also tamper with varying degrees of knowhow with a number of other instruments. These I’ll experiment with more as sound-making devices, objects that can add tone or colour to pieces.

I am mostly self-taught. I had music lessons as a child – piano because it’s the standard, trombone because as a young ‘un I really liked Dexy’s Midnight Runners and The Specials and trad jazz. Still do, actually. I guess these gave me a reasonable musical grounding at the time, but I can’t read sheet music anymore. It also made me recognise that, for me at least, there was greater satisfaction in pursuing one’s own musical daydreams than in acquiring the uniform set of skills and attributes expected of formal musicians, useful though they are. I suspect that many children get put off music because the lessons commonly involve labouring away at music that holds little emotional appeal for your average 12-year old. I was fortunate because, before giving up the piano completely, I was introduced to a new teacher, a joyful Canadian woman called Connie, who had a real love both of music and of teaching it and could coax that same enthusiasm out of her pupils. It was that which saw me through to my mid-teens, when I suddenly wanted to play guitar.

EP: How big a part does intuition / improvisation play in what you do?

CJ: I am massively interested in improvised music of all sorts, and without realising it, I guess I’ve always liked it. But I was introduced to free improv a few years ago by a friend of a friend who’d been sending through cassettes of Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Antony Braxton and all, folks I’d never heard of at the time. Turned out the friend of a friend was Rhodri Davies the harpist, who’s now one of the leading free improvisers in that European school.

But in terms of my own music improvising is something I approach with great wariness…

Remainder of interview published in The Sound Projector 18th issue.

Speaking of supergroups but in a quite different vein, here’s a release by SLW. Four of our favourite minimal-improv creators (Burkhard Beins, Lucio Capece, Rhodri Davies and Toshimaru Nakamura) bump their heads together in non-obtrusive and subtly disarming ways for 45 minutes on Fifteen Point Nine Grams (ORGANISED MUSIC FROM THESSALONIKI #07), which was recorded at a French music festival in 2007. The album is largely an unbroken chain of extended textures which gradually evolve and change positions, revealing details of metal, string and plastic from the various instruments (percussion, harp, saxophones, electronics), with the four players getting quite rowdy around the midway point. It’s a form of subdued noise, full of presence and purpose, and much constrained emotion. A performance of this quality ought to have appeared on the Erstwhile label. Many thanks to Kostis for sending this.

From Australia, Shane Fahey is doing some quite nice things by combining analogue synths with field recordings, some of which have been taken from forest environs. Heavy on atmosphere, The Slated Pines (ENDGAME RECORDS END022) does something to reveal the darker side of nature, as though the Old Man of the Forest is bearing a blank unblinking countenance, which could be interpreted in many ways. Fahey comes to us with a credible lineage, as leader of the experimental 1980s band The Makers of the Dead Travel Fast.

Four lively bursts of digital energised splintery silver birdseed is scattered liberally by Spruit, using a turntable and mixing desk crossed with live electronics. This Dutch experimenter performs as though his trousers were under attack by an entire colony of angry soldier ants. On / Off contains only four short tracks, but true to his method he packs an excess of digital data into each second, an approach which he was been honing for some years now in an effort to comes to terms with the ‘information overload’ which appears to be the lot of modern man. Those who saw him play live in Amsterdam and Nijmegen last year were presumably quite overwhelmed by his streamed onslaught of densely collaged and layered abstract noise. The cover artworks here give you some impression of the mental strain which might be induced from struggling to absorb Spruit’s abundance of ideas.

When they first buy a laptop and sampler set-up and start manipulating sounds, some players are like children with a new box of crayons – they can’t wait to use every colour in the box. Not so Bionulor, a Polish player named Sebastian Banasczyk who sent in his solo CDR (ETA-CD 017). His method is to work with only one sample per track, exploring it through extensive processing in a process he describes as ’100% sound recycling’, while characterising his work as ‘experimental electroacoustic ambient’. I have to admire the discipline of his working approach, which does impose quite strict limitations on the results, and at its best this considered album is full of a sad, mysterious and echoey space which leaves a lot of room for the listener. Elsewhere, it’s impressive the rich variety he wrings from a few seconds of sampled music, and he is never afraid of stating and restating one particular sound event or musical micro-phrase which pleases him. A very strong alternative to much of the careless patchwork-music one hears in this genre. Admittedly, using old alchemical engravings on the cover to say something about musique concrète is a bit of a gaffe, but it’s one I too am guilty of.

A rum ‘un sent from Spain on the Berlin Tochnit Aleph label, which appears to be Mattin perhaps with Tim [sic] Goldie. It’s called Deflag Haemorrhage / Haien Kontra (TOCHNIT ALEPH 088) and is credited to Humiliated, and if you can open the silver bag you’re greeted with two printed cards full of information and images that make no sense, apart from a dense printed text which begins ‘I am only horror to myself’ and continues down a path of self-loathing and imagery of deathly decay using stark writing in the style of Michael Gira. Spin the 20-minute CD to hear a grotesque parody of experimental techno noise of some sort, packed with overlaid and shattered beats and sprawling electric hateful noise, over which we hear an agonised, painful multi-tracked groaning and yelping vocal from someone who sounds like they’re being flayed alive.

These above arrived around early September 2009 in the Sproj-Box.