A further four releases from Room40 which arrived 31 October 2023.
Italian artist Fabio Perletta outlines his plan for Nessun Legama Con La Polvere (RM4208) with a short lecture whose scientific ambitions are quite beyond my ken, but it seems to have something to do with physical objects and how our perceptions have been altered since the unstoppable rise of quantum mechanic theory. Nothing really exists, is the claim, it’s just a question of relationships between things. To put it another way perhaps, “things ain’t what they used to be”. To illustrate the drift of his argument, he offers these episodes of rattling and scraping and plucking sounds, which may or may not relate to a sculpture series of his (presented in wooden boxes). The title comes from a Zen riddle asking why we should consider having an attachment to “dust”, and the record attempts to weave further paradoxes as it muses on lost friends and loss of life. Too deep for me, and it certainly doesn’t “generate some light while listening” as the artist hopes; rather it presents an inscrutable face, utterly failing to enlighten the listener as to these profound mysteries.
Circle Drum Music (RM4217) is a kind of mashup of minimal electronics with added drumming overdubbed at a later date…it’s as though someone built an experimental techno record from spare parts, working in three different rooms at the same time. It began life with Eugene Carchesio’s electronic music, which when passed into the hands of English, L., sparked the idea to overdub the drumming of UK player Adam Betts. 21 short anemic tracks emerged from this relay race, some of them burning out like a used match in less than 30 seconds. Unlike many of the records in this list so far, at least this one has more of a lively performance feel to it; “restrained energy and rhythmic ferocity” according to the press blurb. Lots of restraint, for sure; ferocity, not so much.
Yuko Araki’s IV (RM4162) is finally inspiring a bit of passion in this writer; at last a decent bit of noise music in amongst a crop of otherwise inoffensive releases. I find this talented lady has been making records since 2018 and is also a member of Concierto de la Familia, Kuunatic, and Yobkiss. This one is a “voice and body” item, by which we understand she is exploring “gestural” actions with her limbs to generate wild noises on her synths and electronic boxes, plus a very imaginative use of the old larynx. 99% of table top noise types have been happy to bellow and shout into a microphone, but Araki says she would like her voice to “haunt” the music. Strikingly original notion – and now the esoteric symbols on her Bandcamp page start to make sense. Keep alongside Himukalt and She Spreads Sorrow, and other non-male practitioners who have harnessed the power of the supernatural and likewise distribute terror from the cauldron by using the voice. With guest vox from Taichi Nagura of Endon on one track, and mixing skills of Nobuki Nishiyama, this one is a lean and taut, highly disciplined item – the artiste explains her goal of making it “free from unnecessary noise” – and it’s a concentrated dose of goodly menace. How did I miss her End Of Trilogy album for this label? Now looking for her back catalogue on Commando Vanessa, Obskyr Records, and Brain Ticket Death. Super.
Lastly we have UFO Forest + (RM4210) by the musique concrète composer Beatriz Ferreyra. Equally inspiring as the above and also created by a female musician. This Argentinean genius has the pedigree – worked at Groupe De Recherches Musicales from 1963 to 1970, assisted the big Kahuna Pierre Schaeffer, studied under Edgardo Canton, and lectured at the Paris Conservatoire – but she’s also a visionary with about 18 third-eye faculties to spare and the creative skills to construct her audio worlds in a highly convincing manner. Any given moment of her powerful music here should convince the unconverted. This particular selection presents both the more “conventional” tape-based music alongside those works realised using the computer desk. Sadly no annotation to guide the listener, but I find Cercles des Rondes is an early-ish tape piece from 1982, revised in 2004, and originally some eight minutes longer than the version published here. This piece is a supremely abstract near-black canvas in sound with more than a hint of apocalypse curling at the edges. ‘Vivencias Def’ with its dizzying sense of scale and forward movement is from 2001; the sumptuous title track, a true vivarium in sound, is from 1986; and the shorter Vuelo de signos y remolinos is from 2010. Essential set.