Great to hear from Ryoji Ikeda again, whose ultra-minimal electronic abstractions were such a feature of the 1990s for me. He doesn’t appear to have varied his practice much on Test Pattern (RASTER NOTON R-N 093), which so far exhibits the usual enjoyable features I know and love so well – grids, patterns, sharply-defined electronic bursts of energy, high-definition contrasts and dynamics, and the clarity of a diamond razor blade behind those pulsing digital throbs. You could set your watch by Ikeda’s high-precision excursions…he’s the builder of virtual sculpture-installations made of stainless steel, 5000 feet high.
Guitar trio Virak from Denmark provide many mournful and introspective blasts of avant-rock on Threads (MIRROR MIRROR MUSIC mimi01), and their titles and symbolist lyrics are packed with tons of information to feed your clue-hungry paranoia and melancholic tendencies. Their cover features an attenuated sketched-out version of a moose or elk, whose nervous system is made visible through the spidery linework. This may happen to you if you listen to this crisp, edgy music for too long.
English player C Joynes reached us a few weeks ago with his great guitar CD for Bo’Weavil Recordings. Here he is with a mysterious mini-CD Pianer Magick (PR07) for the Cambridge-based CDR label Palimpsest Recordings. Eleven short pieces for the piano appear at first to be inconclusive, abrupt and inscrutable, yet I am persuaded there is much hidden meaning locked in these haiku-like statements. The cover art seems to depict a flock of wild birds, seen through the overlaid rough-hewn mandala with a square cut out of it. Very good.
Maja S.K. Ratkje is well-known as one half of Norwegian duo Fe-Mail, whose imaginative and powerful noise recordings are always well-received at Sound Projector mansions – indeed the very term ‘noise’ is something I have always found inadequate to express the richness of her music. This is now confirmed once again as I spin the mighty River Mouth Echoes CD (TZADIK TZ 8051), which is a collection of modernist-avant compositions she’s been working on for the last ten years and have now come to fruition thanks to John Zorn’s label (it’s part of the Composer Series). Herein, some staggeringly powerful electro-acoustic experiments on which she processes the guesting musical instruments of the talented external contributors, rendering them into strange and other-worldly shapes. The title piece is 20 minutes of atonal composition scored for four viols, and it holds a convincing candle to any given piece of sheet music loosed from the Darmstadt school.
There seems to be a general movement towards the canonisation of John Fahey and all those associated with that maverick and unique acoustic guitar player. The recent discovery of these 1980 live recordings of Robbie Basho is no exception…the presentation of Bonn Ist Supreme (WEAVIL29CD) stops short of depicting the man as a saint, what with the effusive tributes written by James Blackshaw, Richard Osborn and Steffen Basho-Junghans, and the powerful image (used twice) which elevates Basho’s guitar to the status of a holy relic mounted in a shrine. However, Basho’s music and singing on these live recordings from the Bonn Kulturforum will not disappoint, and the spiritual energies with which he is credited by his acolytes shine forth on every minute of this pure-silver music. The title ‘Rocky Mountain Raga’ sums up perfectly his dual interests in eastern and western musical forms, and his genius in combining them so seamlessly through the sheer magic of his strings and his quicksilver fingering. May I suggest a mandatory purchase for this one.
Yoshi Wada‘s release is another CD which requires compulsory deployment of Visa, Switch or other major credit card. The Appointed Cloud (EM RECORDS EM1076CD / OMEGA POINT OP-0005) is a single hour-long recording of a 1987 piece which he realised in the New York Hall of Science; it’s mostly a large-scale sound installation involving a gigantic hand-built pipe organ and computer interfacing. Plus there’s bagpipes galore and huge clashing sheets of metallic percussion and tympani drums. The titanic, awesome forces unleashed from these sonic combinations and the visionary imagination of the composer-performer Wada defy any rational understanding…if you’ve ever witnessed a mighty thunderstorm during a summer night and thought you were hearing the voice of God, then this incredible record is for you. With a great fold-out sheet of photos and explanatory notes, score another crucial release for Koki Emura’s fine label.