Phoshor is searching for the edges of progressive, experimental and electronic music.


NUMBER 119

FOR 4 EARS Label Special

Tetuzi Akiyama Jason Kahn: Till we meet again CD
The constant flow of For 4 Ears releases brings us the co-operation of Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar) and Jason Kahn (percussion, analogue synthesizer). This duo presents some co-operations as well as five solo contributions.
The both of them play together in a minimal way; each sound is of individual importance, stands alone to be part of a bigger whole.
Especially Tetuzi Akiyama's tonal approach, in which each guitar sound creates a world in itself, adds to this.
Jason Kahn's electronics are minimal sine waves-like frequency pitches. His sound is of an excellent pureness and brightness. Tetuzi Akiyama's guitar is recorded in such a way that the listener seems to be right next to it, or even in the guitar itself.
A beautiful album, let's hope the both of them will meet again.
Tetuzi Akiyamas
Jason Kahn
gmueller at eblcom.ch
For 4 Ears


Samartzis Müller Voice Crack: Wireless_within CD
Four very well-known artists in the experimental scene came together to create three long improv soundscapes.
Melbourne-based Philip Samartzis, For 4 Ears-label boss Günter Müller and both Voice Crack members Robert Möslang and Andy Guhl visited a rain forrest in South Australia, before recording this album.
Wireless_within features three long tracks. Environmental recordings flow into harsh electronics. The music reminds of Francisco López with a touch of electricity and larded with natural sounds and undefinable electronics. The end result is three compositions in which abstract elements slowly evolve and develop as life in the wilderness does. New elements appear and disappear again. Leaving behind a road movie through a musical landscape.
Just excellent.
gmueller at eblcom.ch
For 4 Ears


Fredy Studer Ami Yoshida: Duos 21-27 CD
The Swiss drummer and percussionist Fredy Studer and the Japanese female singer Ami Yoshida create a new language without words. They improvise, without having known each other previously, in such a natural way one can hardly believe the circumstances. Ami Yoshide's howling voice and Fredy Studer's squeak percussion fitt each other in a great way.
Their album offers several improvisations in which tiny percussion sounds of everyday objects, strange peeping vocals and metallic scraping have been combined. The music returns to a primitism due to a primair emotional character. These improvisations are raw and pure, based upon an emotional drift.
info at wortundohr.ch
Fredy Studer
Ami Yoshida
gmueller at eblcom.ch
For 4 Ears


Coldspring Label Special

Deadwood: 8 19 CD
Noise can be pleasant at times. Power electronics are a good example of this. And presented by Deadwood this is even more true. Heavy distorted noise outbursts with screaming vocals on top of it are the main ingredient during the opening track by this Swedish formation. Mix The Haters, Brighter Death Now and MZ 412 and the outcome might be clear.
However, their general concept during the rest of the album varies between devastating feedback plus noise assaults and death ambient with occasional hypnotizing rhythm patterns. The six tracks presented on Deadwood's debut album are relatively long, but as long as the compositions contain structure, the music is strong and powerful. Unfortunately this is not always true during 8 19.
info at coldspring.co.uk
Coldspring


H.E.R.R.: The winter of Constantinople CD
The Dutch/English formation H.E.R.R. has taken the 1453 Byzantine victory as a starting point for their new album. A CD, devided in nine parts, featuring a mixture of neo-classical and bombastic atmospheres. The music varies from melancholic to almost cheerful militaristic anthems. Even part of a composition of Beethoven and one by Scarlatti fit in nicely. Delightful music with a constant quality. The vocal parts, performed by Troy Southgate as well as Miklós Hoffer, range from spoken words to dark and omnipresent. Cello and piano arrangements take care of the more romantic side of this project. Laibach might be proud of them.
H.E.R.R.
info at coldspring.co.uk
Coldspring


Kreuzweg Ost: Edelrost CD
The latest Kreuzweg Ost album ends after almost an hour of bombast, leaving the listener flabbergasted or even chattered. Early Laibach mixes with medieval war rhythms and clear rendering German vocals. Sometimes even dark ambient has been used as intro to create a certain tension. But danceabe perussion orchestrations can be found on this album as well. The Summoning and Pungent Stench members present an excellent side-project, which can be filed best as martial-industrial with a military touch to it. Recommended.
kreuzwegost at gmx.at
hidari at gmx.net
info at coldspring.co.uk
Coldspring


Kriegsfall-U: s/t CD
It's not so often one comes across an Hungarian industrial formation with a philosophical attitude. But Kriegsfall-U is such a band, merging the rhythmic parts of Les Joyaux de a Princesse with the harshness of Turband Sturmwerk, adding some bombast and strange folk influences at times. The result ranges from calm, grinding rhythms with Hungarian spoken words on top of it to heavy pounding sequences and distorted vocals. Very intruiging indeed!
lacroix at freemail.hu
info at coldspring.co.uk
Coldspring


Sirr-ecords Label Special

Pimmon: Secret sleeping birds CD
The releases of Pimmon were (and still are) difficult to obtain during several years. Paul Gough, the man behind this Australian project, released on numerous small labels and in small quantities. One of his releases from March 2002 on the Portuguese label Sirr reached us not so long ago and we are eager to review it.
The CD is dedicated to Zac and Ben, Paul Gough's two little sleeping birds. The glitch and hiss seems to be full of tiny thirps regularly, giving the dense layers of sound a cheerful touch. The music is full of details, all pointing in the same direction. Pimmon created a fluid microcosm with unusual trajectories. Recommended.
sirr-ecords at sirr-ecords.com
sirr-ecords


Jason Kahn: Sihl CD
One of the latest releases on Sirr-ecords is by no less than Jason Kahn, one of the main composers in minimal electronics. This Zürich-based composer again delivered a masterpiece, this time named after a river running through his home-town. That the slow-running Sihl was a source of inspiration for Jason Kahn can be heard. Long drawn-out electronic musical currents end abruptly. It's the detail that counts; the slight differentations in tone and pace. The tones are too differentiated to call them sine-waves and the music is too lineair to call it soundscapes.
Altough the structure remains the same, each track breaths a different atmosphere, ranging from high-pitched to robust. A lovely collection of meandering music expressions.
Jason Kahn
sirr-ecords at sirr-ecords.com
sirr-ecords


André Gonçalves and Kenneth Kirschner: Resonant objects CD
The Lisboa-based artist André Gonçalves creates micro-environments to explore physical phenomena related with the act of hearing. This time he worked with six objects, which resonated each in a different way , due to a range of frequencies, generated by means of computer and speakers. The sinewaves thus created slowly change their patterns. Minimal changes in the sound fluctuations are the main ingredients. The music reminds of the work of the Canadian composer Michael Gentreau. For those that have a lot of patience, this is a wonderful listening experience.
sirr-ecords at sirr-ecords.com
sirr-ecords


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Scott Arford: Radio Station CD
One of the leading figures of new media arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, Scott Arford, released a noise album on the label Antifrost. Radio station as it is called, contains no easy-listening music, but digitalized noise that seems to come in fast and resolute streams. The third track seems to offer some occasional voice samples (scanned space travel conversations) hidden in the background. All kind of static noise frequencies have been structured into turbulent streams. The listener has no clue what the origins of the sounds used are, but the overall impression is that of digitalized dust storms and outerworld sound combinations.
haze at antifrost.gr
isocool at antifrost.gr
Antifrost


Koji Asano: Spring estuary CD
One of the most productive composers Koji Asano has sent us his 39th album. This completely new material (in contrast to his two prevous releases) has been devided in four parts, all with the same title. Both first pieces, relatively short, exist of a calm looped Deathprod-like sequency. Whereas the third piece is an experimental classic recording in which slowed-down wind-instruments collaborate to create a melancholic atmosphere. The last and longest track (almost 34 minutes) is a slow evolving soundscape, combining piano and several layers of electronics moving in a slow current.
Koji Asano is known for his diversity in approach as well as end-result, something that can be heard on this CD too.
info at asanoproduction.com
Koji Asano


Koji Asano: Rabbit room reservation center CD
The Japanese composer celebrates the 40th release on his own label with a beautiful designed CD-box. This highly productive composer presents three long tracks with a total playing time of almost an hour, in which resounding and reverbing, heavy percussive bumps play an important role. Each bump seems to be reworked and slightly different from the previous one. And each track has a different timbre.
The last track is the most distorted and noisiest, and the first one featuring a relative high sound spectrum, reminding of praying buttho monks.
Interesting, but what remains is the question what is meant by the title.
info at asanoproduction.com
Koji Asano


Robert Ashley: Celestial excursions 2CD Box
Sometimes musicians deliver a project that is of such an originality that it deserves a spezial place in your music collection. Celestial excursions is such a work. Robert Ashley, together with colleague om Hamilton and singers Sam Asley, Thomas Buckner, Jacqueline Humbert and Joan La Barbara delivered a sort of crossover between radio-play, opera and vocal soundscape, that can be categorized with utmost difficulty.
The narrative character of the music goes along with piano arrangements or an electronic orchestra. The texts, nicely documented in a lovely 106 pages long booklet, are very important. A funny song about acters, followed by a piece about four types of alcoholics and a song about Raoul, who gets shot on the balcony. Each composition looks upon things from a fascinating angle. Excellent.
info atlovely.com
Lovely Records


Baghdassarians and Baltschun: 13:46 / 11:04 / 25:29 CD
Berlin-based Serge Baghdassarians and Boris Baltschun are two composers presenting Charhizma 032. This album, features 50 minutes of industrialized sounds, repetitive cracles (reminding of Andy Warhol's acoustic pop art, static hiss or undefinable instrument try-outs. Each track is completely different from the previous one, but focusses on a certain sound palette. This sound palette is devided in several approaches during each track. That makes this CD rather conceptual and schematic, but neverthess interesting and of a good quality. Both composers, who played in the electro-acoustic Quartett ilin-x, did a good job.
charhizma atcharhizma.com
Charizma


Henrik Nordvarg Bjorkk: Vitagen CD
Phosphor Magazine has reviewed the work of Henrik Nordvarg Björkk several times in the past. He is a man of many projects, such as MZ412, Folkstorm and Toroidh. This Nordic composer always knows how to offer dark and powerful music, though in all variations.
Peter Andersson (Raison D'Etre) took care of mastering. The result is a 6-panel digi-sleeve, featuring angelic, old-fashioned photos of little girls and containing a CD with dark ominous ambient soundtracks. The music drifts as a dark layer on a calm current. Unknown voices can be heard in a distance, making it mysterious and spooky. Deep drones and floating bass sequences add to this impression. An album full of Lustmord-like atmospheres, for those into dark mesmerizing ambient a recommendation.
info at essence-music.com
Essence Music


Paul Bradley Adam Sonderberg: Anoxia MCD
The labels Twenty Hertz and Longbox Recordings co-operated to release a hand-screened album the size of a videobox. Adam Sonderberg delivered the material for this CD, which was mixed by Paul Bradley. The music can be considered drone-like, though is not extremely dark, neither very depressive. It slowly progresses and develops into a trance-like current of moving bass-sequences. Multi-layered and larded with minimal snippets.
Listening to this album, one feels fascinated and transported to abstract dimensions. A lovely and 38-minute long track.
Longbox Recordings


Anthony Burr / Charles Curtis: Alvin Lucier 2CD
Cellist Charles Curtis and clarinetist Anthony Burr interpreted the works of one of the most innovative compsers of the 1960's and 1970's. The both of them took several of Alvin Lucier's more recent compositions (as of 1984), including a new one, and executed them in a minimal way.
Tones seem to be the central issue here. Alvin Lucier explored sound and sound perception for many years. The seven long pieces presented here are very academic, long drawn-out tones come and go with intervals.
The accompanying booklet (20 pages) explains a lot about sound, close tuning and pure tones. And this theoretical material is converted and can be heard on these two CDs, packaged in a lovely designed digipack.
Gardenvariety
Sigmaeditions
info atantiopic.com
Antiopic


Calika: Small talk kills me CD
The UK label Audiobulb has already surprised us positively with an excellent compilation album entitled Switches, released about two years ago. This album full of refined glitchy pearls reminding of Autechre, Apparat or Arovane, made clear which musical direction the label would be heading for.
Calika's new album is a logical step in the label's direction. Small talk kills me is an album full of tiny sounds and refined sound particles. Acoustic elements have been put in digital settings. Most tracks consist of broken beats, sometimes larded with returning African vocals and changing rhythm sections. The music consists of ultra short building stones, so called sound snippets, which can be recognized as piano and guitar chords. These elementary sounds create a high micro activity. But there are several exceptions; that is calm moments with filigrant guitars and dreamy beats, for instance during the 7th and 9th song.
contact at audiobulb.com
Audiobulb


Climax Golden Twins: s/t 3³ CD
The Barcelona-based label Testing Ground released another 3³ CD by a relative unknown formation. This time by Climax Golden Twins. The 3³ features two tracks. The opening track, about five minutes long, features some nice, repetitive guitar strings, creating a nostalgic atmosphere. The second track is about 15 minutes long and very minimalistic plus low-key. Occasional digital, long-drawn tunes appaer at the surface to disappear mysteriously again, creating a peaceful and timeless surrounding.
info at testinground.com
Testing Ground


Cornucopia: C.Works 2CD
After several 3³ CDs, the Bethesda, MD-Based label Zeromoon returns with a beautiful designed DVD case, containing a CD featuring the work of Cornucopia and a CD featuring 14 remixes of this material.
Claudio Chea and Jorge Castro are the ones behind the sound art project Cornucopia. This duo hailing from Puerto Rico incorporates field recordings from their island into dark electronic processed layers of sound.
Dark soundscapes slowly turn into layered jungle atmospheres. The changes are subtle and the soundscape undergoes a certain logic transformation, getting slowly harsher and building up tension during time, till a sudden calmness occurs after 28 minutes. The sea can be heard now and everthing is pieceful.
The remaing nine minutes are friendly, nature in it's modest form, probably during day-break.
CD2 offers the remixes of 14 other artists. Omei offers a more intense and harsher version, Needle and Sony Mao remind of ominous engine halls far beneath the earth surface, Lasse Marhaug's contribution is fibrating and rhythmic and Black Sand Desert have a hoovering noise approach.
What they all have in common ist that the high quality of the original composition is remained. RGV's track is very low-key, due to a soft rumbling in the distance, Ultra Milkmaids deliver a sensitive psychedelic soundscape and David Wells' track reminds of Michael Gendreau's early works.
Well-known artists in the experimental music scene like Kim Cascone and Francisco López also contributed an excellent piece, giving CD2 the necessary status.
.C. Works is a superb offering with lots of relatively unknown names (Zandstones, Critical, Andrew Duke, Duul-Drv and TV Pow) that offer a very high standard.
Cornucopia
sickness at juno.com
sony_mao at hotmail.com
Lasse Marhaug
chondritic at sinkhole.net
eozoon at hotmail.com
Ultra Milkmaids
hmg23 at freeuk.com
TV Pow
duul-drv at shaw.ca
Cognitio Audioworks
Kim Cascone
Critikal
Zandstones
Francisco Lopez
info at zeromoon.com
Zeromoon


Deflag Haemorrhage / Haien Kontra: Luxury CD
Behind those strange artist names hide Goldie and Mattin. Those two composers present something one would not expect from them, if one is familiar with their previous material or after opening the beautiful package.
Timothy Goldie and Mattin Artiach come up with a collection of robust and raw improvisations. Mattin's heavy guitar feedback and Goldie's intensive percussion make that the listener is confronted with a primitive musical struggle. It's like creating with a punk or Fluxus attitude and pushing things to the edge by means of screaming and terrorizing the audience with high volume and deteriorating outbursts. It's emotional, full of energy, but not mentioned to leave a long-term impression. The first shock might be sufficient enough though!
sarcomajoist at yahoo.com
mattin at mattin.org


(the) Dropp Ensemble: The empire builders CD
A collective of artists came together to record the music for a play by Boris Vian, produced by Sense of Urgency Theatre. These eight composers come up with a slow menacing soundscape in which occasional percussion takes care of the action. Rumbling and muffled thuds are other elements that have been added to the sad soundscapes. Three long and constant dark sonic drone spaces. This music doesn't express any elements of time, neither any form of positivism. Nevertheless (or due to this) a nice release for the introvert listeners among us.
Sense of Urgency
Lonbox Recordings


Kai Fagaschinski and Barnard Gál: Going round in serpentines CD
The booklet of this album released by Charhizma states: done in Berlin-Friedenau. Two of Berlin's improv. musicians came together to release a lovely album. ^
Kai Fagaschinski plays clarinet, whereas Barnard Gál makes use of a computer. The soundscape they produce together is a wonderful journey in which concrete sounds and the experimental use of the clarinet make up for a rich and detailed scenery. The music follows a certain route, leading the listener in imagineable worlds where each single sound is of utmost importance.
Minimalism with a realistic touch, also due to the breathing during Kai Fagaschinski's clarinet play.
Playing pool goes along with the hiss of a wind instrument, strange little activities are mixed with abstract electronic noises.
“Shut up and listen, dumb ass!³ is written in the booklet as well, and that's what the music is all about, concentrate and let the music lead you to unknown worlds never heard before.
charhizma atcharhizma.com
Charizma


Fear Falls Burning: He spoke in dead tongues 2CD
The Belgian composer Vidna Obmana has created an alter ego to head for a new musical direction.
His new project is called Fear Falls Burning and features the tonalities of the electric guitar. Nevertheless the music still has enough in common with the beautiful, mesmerizing ambient soundscapes released under the banner Vidna Obmana.
The double-CD He spoke in dead tongues can be considered as two warm blankets built upon soft droning guitar cords. The music is friendly, peaceful and trance-inducing, slowly meandering through pitoresque, pretty landscapes. This music will make you forget all worries, calm you down and offer you a view in your inner life. Projekt released another pearl.
vintage at fearfallsburning.be
Fear Falls Burning
Projekt


Los Glissandinos: Stand clear CD
The debut album by Los Glissandinos combines the sound of a clarinet with computer generated sine waves. Klaus Filip, an artist living in Vienna, uses a laptop to come up with those fine-tuned sine waves and his colleague Kai Fagaschinski from Berlin plays the clarinet.
The sound both musicians generate fitt each other perfectly, resulting in a rich spectrum of minimal tones and low-key frequencies. The music is refined and improvised. Tiny details have been put in dreamy constellations, reminding of Dieb13, Christof Kurzmann, Burkhard Stangl or SSSD.
Harmonic chords, sophisticated noise collages, lovely peeps, tiny crackles and droning clusters make up for most of the abstract material. A great combination of academic level and independent improvisations. Three great tracks that promise a great future for this duo.
losglissandinos at klingt.org
Los Glissandinos
creative at creativesourcesrec.com Creative Source


Ryoji Ikeda: Dataplex CD
Dataplex is Ryoji Ikeda's seventh solo album since the mid 1990's. This Japanese composer has built his reputation around an excellent minimalistic approach.
His latest album can be devided in several parts. The first eight consist of ultra-fast high-pitched linear tracks, interrupted by an occasional data crash. It's like on long piece in which ultra digitalized morse-signs communicate with deep hums.
As of track nine pulsating rhythmic particularities have been adapted to repetitive structures falling into compositional attitudes. A nice variety of rhythmic noise comes up.
Track 18 is an interdimensional space escorte in which galactic missiles are fired repetetively to clear the way, to end up in an african state of trance.
A great album that hardly can be put into words.
Ryoji Ikeda
office at raster-noton.de
Raster-Noton


International Peoples Gang: 3395 CD
Ten years after it's release, International People Gang's debut album is available again. It's still fresh, as if both members Martyn Watson and Ric Peet produced it recently. The rich variety of trance-techno styles and influences is one of the strong points of the album. But the uptempo, driving beats and original (vocal) samples during the first part of the album are another positive aspect of 3395. The third track is mysterious, the fourth track can be considered sweet. It's like each track has been built from different parts, and then glued together with trance melodies. The sudden change of musical direction and positive atmosphere do well. And don't forget the excellent production. For those that missed it ten years ago a must!
Emit Records


www.jliat.com www.jameswhitehead.org www.sysyphus.org : 2CD
The cover of this double-CD offers nothing more than three website addresses and a colourful bar code. Both identical designed CDs, with a sort of Jesus figure on it, offer a cacaphonic approach. Several layers have been compiled to create a multi-dimensional soundtrack. Hearing several soundsorces at the same time, all played too fast, is rather confusing. It's difficult to lock in. It's like hearing several radio-stations at the same time. Voices and noises fly over, pass by as if watching the landscape out of a fast train.
James Whitehead , one of the artists claims the following: “There can no longer be defined a manifesto - only Spam. There is no longer art, culture, philosophy, political thought or thought itself. Our culture is no longer a culture, it is unable to reflect coherence and meaning, it only broadcasts sensation and noise which is arbitrary, we find the arbitrary meaningful.³ This text might make that some of the the listeners understand the music better, for others this conjoined sound might be energy consuming!
Jamest at jliat.com
Jliat
james Whitehead
info at sysyphus.org
Sysyphus


Kobe: Economy of movement CD
Japan is known for it's Taiko/Kodo drumming, which can even be enjoyed by a mainstream audience. Kobe's music is based upon these drumming formations, but takes the music one step further.
The man who created this concept is Kevin Dunn, also known from his involvement in the New York-based formation Loretta's Doll as well as label manager of Middle Pillar Presents ltd. The concept is rather original, combining rhythmic industrial with Japanese percussion. Only the music of industrial pioneer Z'ev comes close to it. It's harsh and upwhiping at the same time.
label at middlepillar.com
Middle Pillar


Kotra and Zavoloka: Untitled live CD
The Ukrainian musician Dimytro Fedorenko invites international artists to play live in the Ukraine. One of his projects ist he Detali Zvuku festival, another one is the (sub)label Live Reports, which he just grounded. Live Reports releases and distributes live sessions of Nexsound artists.
The first release in these new series is by the label manager himself under the banner Kotra and Zavoloka, a Kiev-based musician and graphic designer. The result of this co-operation is interesting and out of the ordinary. Experimental electronics have been combined with traditional Ukrainian vocals and melodies. Folk rhythms have been incorporated in digitalized sound patterns. Stressful noise particles à la Farmers Manual are followed by futuristic high peeps. This can be considered an original and impressive live recording. Let's hope more of such releases will follow.
Kotra
Zavoloka
Nexsound


Larry Kucharz: Ambient green washes CD
Music can be seen as colours. The New York-based composer Lawrence Kucharz released the ambient blue washes and ambient red washes in the past. Now it's time for the ambient green washes, a collection of tracks ranging from 1995 to 2005.
His music, created in whatever year (and whatever colours) is harmonic and seems to be in balance with the elements.
Listening to it, is returning to our inner-selves, letting go off thoughts and forgetting the existance of physical elements
. Can music present spirituality? Can music be more than vibrations of air and is there mental material between the notes?
Larry Kucharz let those questions pop up with his music. By means of electronic sound textures, or put in another way floating synth sequences, this composer created pieceful dream worlds full of harmony. Pure relaxation!
intaudiocr ataol.com
Larry Kurcharz


Kyron: Fin de estapa CD
Juan Carlos Mendizzabal aka Kyron released a new album through his own label called Black Note Music. Nice Spanish vocal samples have been combined with lush accompaniment. Several people, even some from the old neighbourhood, have contributed their vocal abilities. These have been re-worked and larded with electronic sound snippets or guitar + drums. This results in filmic impressions or, driving rock songs (like for instance the sixth track La Verga Soy Yo) or sensible minimal low-fi (Sigo mi Camino).
Nice and very typical.
Blacknote


Kyron: Morpho genex CD
Not long after we received Fin de estapa, the label Black Note has sent us another CD by Kyron.
This new output by Juan Carlos Mendizabal is completely different and both CDs can hardly be compared with each other. Morpho genex opens with a powerful trance song, where the didgeridoo by Rick Perko adds an aboriginal touch to the music.
Kyron continues to explore several dance styles, adding occasional vocals. The general style of this rhythmic music is hard to pinpoint, because each track contains different ingredients and rhythm structures. Some are electronic, other piece like for instance Winter contain a more rock-orientated structure.
This California-based artist knows how to surprise the listener by using what comes in handy. This keeps Morpho genex playful and enertaining.
jc atdeconstructionist.com
Kyron


The Lappetites: Before the libretto CD
Four women from different countries, but all with an experimental music background came together to form The Lappetites, a meeting place and forum where new music is exchanged.
Eliane Radigue, Kaffe Matthews, AGF and Ryoko Kuwajima are the first team to release a CD under this name, on Staubgold's side-label Quecksilber.
The booklet states that they researched the opera, but the overall impression is different due to noise collages and avant-garde approaches.
AGF's sound poetry goes along with multi-layered sound clashes à la Eliane Radigue, the refiness of Kaffe Matthews and Ryoko Kuwajima's Japanese influences. It's sophisticated, explores territories not often heard before, and combines styles not done too often. Hopefully, The Lappetites will produce a series of such releases.
The Lappetites
Eliane Radigue
kaffe Matthews
AGF
Ryoko Kuwajima
promotion at staubgold.com
Staubgold
info at quecksilber-music.com
Quecksilber


Lepenik: Music with words - rhythms for dancing CD
The cover shows an old photo of a mother with two children sitting at a table. The youngest of the children celebrates his second birthday. The CD featuers 18 short tracks by Robert Lepenek, who looks a little like Joseph Beuys. His music is more difficult to interpret or categorize, also due to the rich variation in style and atmospheres. The innocent filmic piece entitled Auf dem Fahrrad mit Doris, the fast fibrating aelectronics in 10 Chords of Eric Satie, the mysterious soundtrack entitled Detektiv, the strange crackles in Didaktik 2 and the lush piano in the track ... and dancing and dancing.
Listening to this album is like attending a short film festival, afterwards one goes home with a colourful palette of eotions, which fitt each other very well. The wide range of impressions makes one feel much richer emotionally afterwards. Experimental pop music breaking through all musical genres and breaking with a lot of rules.
mal at genesungswerk.de
Genesungswek


Dale LLoyd and Various Artists: Amalgam CDR
Each time the Spanish label CON-V releases a CDR, one gets amazed all over. The quality of their material is so high, the label can already be considered among the top three labels in the world of experimental sound. What the releases have in common is an astonishing refineness and clearness of sound, due to a minimal approach and great production.
The label's fourth CDR, by Dale Lloyd is no exception. This Seattle-based composer collected sound material by artists such as Robert Horton, Nathan McNinch, Omnid, Ben Owen, Josh Russell, Stuart Dodman, Ubeboet, Scott Taylor, Heribert Friedl, K.M. Krebs and Jon Tulchin.
He processed and edited the source material, to create a rich collection of distinctive fine-tuned sonic perspectives.
The CDR heads-off with the sound of water and the low-key tunes of a sitar, hardly to be recognized as such.
This is followed by a track in which glass plays the major part, crystal clear and soft tingling. It's as if the darkness sets in slowly.
Several tracks are even relatively darker, like the ones with electronics by Omnid, Jon Tulchin, Ubeboet and K.M. Krebs. Nevertheless, the music remains sparkling and detailed.
Several artists contributed field recordings, with which soft crispy atmospheres are generated.
CON-V from Madrid again delivers an excellent output, their fourth in this series.
info at con-v.org
Con-V


Matsutake: Nine and seventeen CD
Nine and seventeen, two figures that do not seem to have anything in common at first sight. Matsutake is a project from Evgeniy Gorbunov. Living in Khabarovsk, a city in the Russian Far East.
He recorded lots of sounds with his microphone, to arrange and process them afterwards. This rich collection of sounds have been ordered and put together in such a way that one never knows what to expect next, nine folows seventeen. Nevertheless there remains enough structure and repetition to keep the feeling comfortable. Some moments, one thinks there is a machine-object orchestra playing, other moments, re-worked vocal and string samples take care of the main content. This structure builts around sound particles forms a natural communication. Each track has an own theme, like for instance accordeon, which is explored by Matsutake in a funny and entertaining way.
ak at nexsound.org
Nexsound


Alberto Morelli / Xabier Iriondo: Earenow CD
An air of the westŠ stage coach robberys to deep dungeon tunnels and the sound of a banshee´s scouring wail by way of guest Roberto Mazza´s oboe. Captured from the beginning, the foot steps you hear are not your own and still she screamsŠ
Between them Alberto Morelli and Xabier Iriondo work their way through piano, harmonium, fender rhodes, melodica, piffero, sea shells, voice and guitar loops layer upon layer of them create dark cavernus passages, rock and rollŠ jazz. Moments remind me of Wayne Shorter favouritesŠyou hear a wireles, beautiful raga´s from far of lands, selecting sections for future music making purposes, thenŠ the voice of an angel. Farfisa organ and oh so hard guitar licks stab at you but not to much, the banshee will not give in.
One piece asssists another perfectly, right to its quick disjointed endŠ you are left wondering.
(WW)
Wallace Records


Morphoex: Travel CD
The press text states that “Morphoex pays tribute to urban tones and suggest a trip in the post-world - a walkway through a corridor of unsettled sounds³.
To be concretisized, one could say that this French electronic project combines harsh dance elements with powerful (sometimes even Noisex-like) rhythms and occasional noises. Elements of Mentallo & the Fixer-like electro and Prodigy-like breakbeat have been put into a raw, dark almost industrial setting. Unfortunately the sound quality is not perfect, a slight distortion withholds the music from bying crystal-clear and pure. Nevertheless for those that are into powerful instrumental and abstract dance pieces, this rather unknown band might be a good change to discover something new and energetic.
viola.stephane at wanadoo.fr
unerecords at wanadoo.fr
Morphoex


Nanko: s/t CD
It's not often we receive a CD featuring a futuristic race-car on the cover. Well, the debut-album by Rotterdam-based electronicus Nanko (Huisman) offers this image, which does not tell much about the music itself. It's mainly electronic, clear and bright. (Almost Japanese) synths have been used. Calm, floating rhythm sequences and lush melodies are followed by forceful beats and noisier details (reminding of distant aeroplanes). Jochem Paap, better known as Speedy J, took care of the mastering, which can be heard at moments. A nice, difersified album, although a general coherence is slightly missing. info at laterax.com
Nanko
Laterax


Yuko Nexus6: Nexus6 song book CD
Two years ago we reviewed Yoko Nexus6's third solo experiment in sound collage. Nexus6' Song book is the fifth solo album by this Japanese sound artist, also known as Yuko Kitamura.
This song book features 14 electronic compositions in which a rich variety of subjects is offered. A few tracks feature piano, a children's song has been taken as point of departure, one song is traditional (He's a jolly good fellow) an one piece is dedicated to her cat.
The voice plays an important role, even forms the leitmotiv of the album. It has been treated, re-worked and cut-up, nevertheless the general impression is not as extreme as the work of Anne Homler.
Yuko Nexus6 uses a lot of repitition, explores the possibilities of digital equipment (cut ’n' paste effects) in which whispery vocal bits and spoken passages take care of an adventurous attitude.
A great experiment with enough pop appeal!
Yuko Nexus6
info at sonore.com
Yule Festival


Frank Niehusmann: Day tracks 1 CD
The German composer Frank Niehusmann decided to go in the studio last summer to record one track on a daily basis. He did this in a srt of live session, without overdubs or multitracking.
By means of eleven samples, collected during field recordings and experiments in his studio, Frank Niehusmann created pieces built upon amazing combinations of sounds.
During each track (most of them with a length between two and four minutes), lots of things happens. For instance sounds of water go together with heavy bangs, to be followed by a bypassing train and feedback noise. Each track offers plenty of action, due to a constant flow of new sound combinations. Twenty tracks in total, which leave the listener behind in a state of positive exhaustement.
info atniehusmann.org
www.niehusmann.org">Frank Niehusmann
info atnurnichtnur.com
NURNICHTNUR


Lise-Lotte Norelius: In the sea CD
The Swedish composer and performer of live-electronics Lise-Lotte Norelius presents an hour of relatively dark electronic music, devided in seven tracks with various lengths. Irregular percussion elements and numerous static noises interchange during the second track entitled Bjupp-Bjupp (which says something about the music). The sounds that have been used are abstract and their originin hardly recognizable. Mechanic rhythm structures play an important part in the next track, whereas the fourth composition offers vibrating feedback and noise “pollution³.
Each tracks breaths it's own, dark atmosphere with an original and hard to pinpoint musical spectrum.
leif.elggren at mbox300.swipnet.se
Firework Edition Records


O: Numero O CD
A small label called Antenna has been set up by Telescopes' Stephen Lawrie. This label from the north of England released an album by O, a duo, known through regular contributions to the “French no-audience underground³. Thier first release has a sort of anarchic approach, due to out-of-tune instruments, a lack of straight melody and concrete noises. Nevetheless, the music contains enough structure and recognizable instruments (double bass, guitar) to keep the listener's attention. Most of the time the atmosphere is intimate and calm, lovely plucking, soft rattling and mysterious, unrecognizable noises. A nice improv album, never boring.
Noirade at hotmail.com
transmission at antenna.wanadoo.co.uk
Antenna Records


Andrew Pekler: Strings + feedback CD
Andrew Pekler already saw a lot of the world, born in Uzbekistan, he moved to California at the age of eight, to study in Heidelberg several years later.
He now lives in Berlin and already released two albums on Scape, located in the same city.
Strings + feedback is a minimalistic album, much different from his previous releases. The music is based upon Morton Feldman's work in the 1950's, but breaths a different atmosphere.
Connecting small tonal samples, repetive strings that have been brought together in groups (with certain similarities). Andrew Pekler composes strong atmospheric pieces, featuring only a few essential elements. Most tracks are melancholic, start and stop abruptly and without reason. Elementary structures come and go as soundtracks for psychological thrillers. Very nice!
promotion at staubgold.com
Staubgold


PXP: Nada CD
PXP is a Farmers Manual side-project, offering the sounds of computer networks and digital systems. It's their second release after while(p){print³.³,'³x$p++} which also produced strange algorhythms.
Listening to this album is being placed in a room where computers, faxmachines, robots and electronics communicate, to produce an energetic exchange of abstract patterns. Digital wars are created, minimal pulses and loops fight over dominance. Everchanging rhythmic approaches and harsh walls of digitalized noise create arrays of fantastic dissonance.
The music is original and intense, the opposite of easy-listening.
Decoder
wavetrap at post-pop.org
WRZK
Barely Alive
plop at inpartmaint.com
info at lowlands.be
godijk at a-musik.com
info at metamkine.com
info at targetexport.net
dense at dense.de


randomNumber: Golden acre sleeps CD
Although Matt Robson played as a drummer in the band Hood, his solo-project under the banner randomNumber is a project based upon rhythms against the grain, sometimes almost drum ’n' bass-like. The music is energy-loaded, though still entertaining a calm undercurrent. Floating melodies meet with hyperactive beat mechanisms, without turning into chaos.
This structured going together of opposites gives the music a certain tension. The refined crackles and occasional vocal snippets (by Kate Lou Moore) on two tracks serve as highlights.
The press-release calls it Northern Wrongbeat, but whatever it is, it sounds refreshing and highly entertaining.
discontents athotmail.com
randomNumber
tonytemplar atgmail.com
lisatemplar atgmail.com
Info atHighpoint Lowlife.com
Highpointlowlife


Marina Rosenfeld: Joy of fear CD
Andrés Krause and Tom Stainle founded the label Softl Music in April 2001. The fifth release in a series, featuring releases that are situated between field-recordings, new electro-acoustics and sound-art, comes by the New York-based musician and turntablist Marina Rosenfeld.
She combines disharmonic piano-tunes with minimal computer manipulations, fuses lovely cello tones with snippets of dub-plates or bell-like sounds. The music creeps slowly, twingles friendly and twists with a smile. It's like a minimal improv. session. Very well done!
promo at softlmusic.com
Softl Music


Josh Russell: For LP CDR
One of our favorite labels, CON-V, (we already mentioned this a few times in the past) released a lovely album by Josh Russell, who lives in Austin, Texas.
Josh Russell presents four tracks, displaying not unsurprisingly a minimal approach. The value lies in the detail, the richness of the music can be found in it's precise methology. Such refined sounds demand another way of listening; more concentrated and intense. The pureness of air vibrations and moving neutrons can almost be detected by that microscopic release. The label manager of Bremsstrahlung Recordings did an excellent job.
info at con-v.org
CON-V


Bruce Russell and Ralf Wehowsky: Midnight crossroads tape recorder blues CD
The New Zealish composer Bruce Russell used a 7/8th Chinese acoustic steel stringed instrument belonging to his ten-year-old son, to come up with two seperately edited monophonic tracks. His colleague Ralf Wehowsky from Germany improvised a sitar track against each one and performed digital treatments. This can be considered the basic material for the album, using analogue recording technology to evoke the “sound world³ of the old blues.
In general the music consists of an improvised and calm texture of guitar and sitar sounds, built in a very tonal way.
Stretching time and making the day feel as long as a week, this album can be played to loose track of everything happening to one's surroundings.
A Bruit Secret
metamkine


Spherical Disrupted: Null CD
The Spherical Disrupted discography started back in 1995, when the first tape was released. Several CDRs followed, which remained relatively unnoticed by lots of people. Null, released through Carsten Stiller's Audiophob marks the beginning of a new epoch for Spherical Disrupted.
This album features six tracks which can be described as dark sound structures and two silent pieces. The tracks have song titles such as Grau (grey), Leer (empty) and Lakonisch (laconic), which already indicates that a certain subject/entity is transformed musically in abstract vibriting tone walls or harmonic rhythmic approaches (beat frequencies).
Each track has it's own unique atmosphere. Starting with a harsh, ominous layered soundscape, to be followed by a slowly building mixture of machine noises, pulsating electronics and warm synths. This last combination of elements returns more often in Spherical Disrupted's industrial music, giving it a dreamy character with factory-like noises added to it.
Let's hope the band can evolve even further, so this new epoch is indeed worth mentioning and discovering.
Spherical Disrupted
info at audiophob.de
Audiophob


Srmeixner: The dictatorship of the viewers CD
The Swedish purveyor of experimental electronics Fin du Siècle Media released an album by Stephen Meixner (ex Contrastate) and Adrian Morris, both from the U.K. This duo used a live recording of a gig performed February 04 in London as point of departure for this album. The inspiration came from a show at the 2003 Venice Biennale, in which autonomy and control of the audience where a central issue.
This album, Srmeixner's second CD, consists of a series of apocalyptic soundscapes. Some of them are rather harsh, whereas others are calm and floating. The atmosphere is filmic and one can imagine this music as soundtrack to obscure and abstract video/art images.
magnus at findesieclemedia.com
Fin du Siecle Media


Steamboat Switzerland: Wertmüller CD
The Zürich-based trio Steamboat Switzerland, consisting of Dominik Blum, Marino Pliakas and Lucas Niggli already released five CDs since the band was formed in 1998, of which several through Grob.
Steamboat Switzerland combines hammond organ, guitars and percussion in such a way that an energetic improv jazz hardcore comes to existance.
Their sixth CD features guest vocalist Lieder of Alboth! This immediately gives an association to the work of the other Swiss band, releasing the same kind of material about 12 years ago.
Steamboat Switzerland sounds like a real live trio in general. The music is fast and brutal at times, with the rawness of a metal/hardcore formation. Nevertheless the jazz and improv character never gets lost. This will do well live, and therefore one of their live gigs is recommended.
Wertmueller
mpliakas at smile.ch
Marino Plialas


The Unquiet Void: Poisened dreams CD
Those that know The Unquiet Void from previous releases, can imagine that the new album is dark and apocalyptic again. Jason Wallach, the p