Cassette tape credited to Llanerch The Trees was probably sent to us by Dafyyd Roberts of Listen To The Voice Of Fire, who released it; it’s several years old now, was printed in a tiny edition, and I think there was a booklet too. Dafyyd used to be Our Glassie Azoth and was at one time preoccupied with alchemy as the underpinning theme for his noisy drones. Now his label is all about Welsh folklore, nature, and the supernatural. Indeed this tape is presented as an “Anglo Welsh supranatural field research project”, and the label has no qualms about identifying its creators, itdreamedtome and blodeuedd, as “two spectral entities”. The release is part of something called the “unland/annwfn project”, and purports to be more than just music, or sound art; it’s an “enquiry”, probably some sort of psychic research thing, and further information is provided in the booklet which I lack. Extremely gentle sounds and understated gestures, as if the two creators sensed that doing anything more emphatic than this would break the mood or destroy the spell. Music may emerge in broken, windswept fragments; more like a memory of music than a performance of it. Itdreamedtome is Johann Wlight, whose fleeting presence is noted in a 2018 post; while blodeuedd made a record Song For Gwydion for the Oggum label (also run by Roberts) in 2005. This tape was released in August 2021.
Got this triple-CD set by the great Thomas Dimuzio, probably sent in October 2020 when we got a copy of the Slew Tew compilation. Balance (GENCH TD234 CDX3) brings together 28 instances of collaborations, live performances and such like, mostly dated around 2014 onwards (although the earliest is from 2009), between Dimuzio and a host of international experimental star names. He’s arranged it under headings, so that’s Duos on disc one, Trios on disc two, and Combos of three or more on disc three. Among the names I recognise: David Lee Myers, Jon Leidecker, Rick Reed, Dan Burke, Alan Courtis, Joseph Hammer and Rick Potts, Chuck Bettis, Moe Staiano, Gino Robair, Ava Mendoza…and there are plenty more besides, amounting to a unique “sweep” of the experimental underground insofar as these entities met up with this ingenious electro-acoustic performer. Useful as this is, it’s quite a sprawl at three CDs, and I haven’t yet found any real stand-out tracks or amazing events; indeed the prevailing mood is almost one of anonymity, as one inexplicable episode follows another, creating an abiding impression of strangeness and unpredictability. Maybe this is the best way to let the Dimuzio culture spread itself into your life, like its own “ecosystem” with particular manners, language, protocols, and customs. I kept hoping for more wild noise, but I’ll settle for these sinister drones and creeping ambiguities.
En Souvenir De L’Horreur (RONDA rnd09) by the crazy French experimental band Sun Plexus 2 is very old (released in 2008) and may have been sent by Sébastien Borgo as a catalogue item in one of his many packages. Laurent Berger and Rémy Bux may be the other two members; we have heard Berger in various other projects, such as Suboko and Le Cable Du Feu, plus there was the unforgettable event when Sun Plexus teamed up with Nihilist Spasm Band. Crazy avant-rock with a punky edge and perhaps some tape experiments too; weird titles, and lyrics are growled and snarled rather than sung. I’m consistently perplexed by the very peculiar music of Sun Plexus, with its odd stop-start rhythms and the musicians’ general refusal of everything, their stubborn compulsion to avoid fitting into any known genre of recorded music. On that account I suppose they’re no more bewildering than Boredoms, but at least the Japanese band managed to be entertaining as well as shocking in their colourful try-anything antics. Conversely Sun Plexus come across as slightly nasty, as if carrying a grudge against the audience, and unwilling to explain anything as they strum and thump away with stern expressions. I’m hoping one day that this will all click into place for me, and we can see them as carrying on the achievements of Faust or other greats.