Vital Weekly 31 Week 11 Number 31 HILMAR ORN HILMARSSON -CHILDREN OF NATURE (CD by Touch) Hilmar might be known, to those with an excellent memory, as a member of Psychic TV, or, more recent, the 12" bootleg with the first housy stuff by The Hafler Trio. The music on this CD is apparently some film sound track, to a film by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. I don't know this film, simply because I never watch any. The sound track has won two prices, the Felix Music Award and an Oscar for the best foreign film in 1992. The problem with sound track seperated from the film is that one is confronted with just some isolated music -or so we are led to believe. Like I said, I haven't seen the film, nor I do know anything about. So for me, this is just a CD with music. All 12 tracks are in modern classical territory, to be more precise, department: romanticism. Much of these tracks reminded me of recent work of Arvo Part. A lot of violins, cellos and some percussion. I can imagine that some will clasify this as kitsch, but I enjoyed the atmospheric music quite a bit. But, just as Parts music, I need a small dose of it. (FdW) Address: TRANCE -AUGURY (CD by Charnel Music) Trance's fourth CD already... Trance is the ongoing solo project of Mason Jones, boss of Charnel Music and collaborator with many other groups and one-off collaboration projects. His primary interest with Trance is to explore the use of guitars in a wide variety of music styles, sometimes harsh noise, sometimes textured and dark. This new CD falls in this category. Long stretched tones of what sounds like synths and sampled orchestral sounds, bring you thunderstorms of sound that get louder and louder, ultimately to disappear behind the horizon. The final piece is more improvised in character and uses also saxophone and drums. This music is hard to define, probably as hard judging it from the first listening session. After I played this a couple of times, I heard more and more, hidden beneath. I enjoyed this a lot. (FdW) Address: RAW -CITY (CD by Elfish) From Greece we got this CD, that seems to be fairly old (produced in 1994) and that is a cross-over of armchair techno and popmusic. Not really a new approach (see Underworld) but with some nice results. This CD works at its best in it's funky instrumental and up-tempo parts and don't work (at least for me) when there are some poor vocals involved and their attempt to write a 'real' pop song is involved. So half half a good CD. (FdW) Address: Elfish -Artotinis 69-71 -16231 Athens -Greece COSMIC CONNECTION -ZINCODE (CD by Double Space) More armchair techno stuff, but without the cross-over to pomusic. This Dutch duo open with a beatless track (obligatory, or so it seems) and then there are 5 long tracks which shift between several forms of techno stuff: dubby, ambient and straight forward stuff and scripting. I don't think this will fill many dance floors, as it is too strange and there are too many changes within one track. But at home this works quite well. Address: Double Space -Mechtildistr. 2-21 -5021 CN Tilburg - The Netherlands WHITEHOUSE -TOKYO HALOGEN (CD by Gift) ESPENDOR GEOMETRICO -TOKYO SIN FIN (CD by Gift) Two long time industrial legends were taped in Japan by this new Jap label who co-released them with Susan Lawly and Geometrik respectively. Whitehouse bring you live versions of their all time classics: My Cock's On Fire, Tit Pulp, Shitfun, Movement 1994, Dictator etc. Their live sound is, I think, less extreme (at least on disc) then their studio sound (which goes further in terms of sound processing), but at the same more rough and less defined. This live set in quite o.k. Esplendor Geometrico is more structured, but then again, they use a lot of digital stuff in their live set. Their sound is, like with most of their studio work, quite minimal. A rhythm is set and then sparse instruments are used. The rhythms on this work are rough (less house music based then their recent studio stuff) and much more 'old school' industrial. One may question the necessity of adding more CD's to the over loaded market if the material is 'just' live, but for the fans of these bands these are indispensable of course... Address: fax: + 81 3-3412-8450 LUCID DREAMS (CD by E:MT) You probably all know the idea of Lucid Dreaming: to dream consciously. Psychologist Celia Green has written extensively about this subject, and now she speaks on this CD. Her texts are set against a male voice telling about dreams. All of this spoken stuff is set against 'ambient' music. To make sure you can hear everything, the music is mixed in at a low volume. I'm not fond of this kind of releases, since the music is too far away and I don't think I need to hear all this text too many times. I would have preferred to hear the music and read the text in a booklet. So I pass on this... (FdW) Address: UNIT MOEBIUS -LIFE MOOD (CD by Silver Recordings) Unit Moebius is a mysterious duo from The Hague, The Netherlands (to some Detroit of the low lands). Until now they had their records on Bunker, an equally mysterious label. Last year's release on German Disko B brought them to a wider audience. Now they are presented on a new label, run by Starfish Pool (who promises to release more weird dance stuff in the future). There is one track on this CD, Life Mood, that runs in 8 versions, plus there are two remixes from an old Bunker release, remixed by Starfish Pool. This is some cool and weird techno stuff that is minimal, trancy and obscure. Presented in an equally low budget cover, which rounds this off as just a great release! Get this! Address: Silver -Vrijwilligersstraat 7 2650 Edegem -Belgium BERNARD FORT -FRACTALS ( CD by Metamkine ) I am used to being sonically seduced by the work I have so far heard by Bernard Fort. For some reason or another I always associate his music with gardens -this latest work, a miniCD, on the carefully curated Metamkine "Cinema Pour L'oreille" series is no exception. Excepting (of course) that Bernard is giving us a glimpse of the grazed, moist and dangerously unfamiliar underbelly of one of these gardens; where bugs wait with the patience of a dripping tap behind a locked door, earnest in their motionless wait for oblivious wandering prey. This CD offers little of the comfort (but retains all the intensity) of works like 'Le jardin de la reine' (off the compilation 'Histoires Invisible') or '12 Haiku' another delicate web of interwoven sounds. Both of these are available on GMVL - Group de Musiques Vivantes de Lyon of which Mr. Fort is the musical director. Back to 'Fractals' loads of high wide pitches, alien conversations, analogue grinds ever on upwards, stuff straining at the edge of somewhere. Sirens and snipping shears split gaps in the sky. Something is under pressure... stretched and threatening to collapse. Tok-tok beetles tap out frantic percussion as they sense the reduction of space. There are five fractal components in this suite. Bernards own description of the work is as follows: "musiques amorphes et infinies dont le centre est pert out et la circonference nulle part...". Don't ask me what it means. I can't read French. Thought you'd like to know anyway. Lyrical cover as always by Chris Auger. (MP) Address: Metamkine - 13 Rue De La Drague - 38600 Fontaine - France CEREMONIAL SILENCE -CEREMONIAL SILENCE (CD by Korm Plastics) Here's a mighty moody and mostly great atmospheric release on Korm. (The almost hideous typeface hinted at Gothic trifle, and 10, I was a teeny bit afraid. This dessert tasted different, tho') Ceremonial Silence was founded by a certain DIQ in 1992 and according to the blurb, came out of 'vis Produkten' a group engaged in unique tape/musical and performance art. Interestingly enough, it appears that people are actually playing instruments here! In a very big place. The first track spreads like opening doors. While they open, they move closer. Rapidly like in dreams, both real and celluloid. Noises from beyond these doors shuffle about. A tuxedomoon floats past... same sort of sense of ritual perhaps? Large objects are thrown to the floor. Great concentrations of sound crash down like waves. Softness of hiss and suss twist and wind off in drifting trails. Further in a musical gate screeches politely (memories of Keeler here). Deep endless corridors. Tiny sounds from dark corners. Get the picture ? Definitely one of the better releases on Korm. Hope to hear more soon. (HP) Address: COIL PRESENTS THE BLACK LIGHT DISTRICT -A THOUSAND LIGHTS IN A DARKENED ROOM (CD by Eskhaton) At last a real and proper new release from the masters of murk and lurk. The (mostly) recycled material which followed in the wake of LSD contained very little which impressed me. This, their latest release (which they worked on with several and a half members of the World Serpent crew) is undeniable evidence that the Sinister Twins are back. Their intentions are clear: Bend minds. Blur borders. Disorientate. Foncuse (as Spev. Rooner would say). The CD starts with 'Unprepared Piano' a brief, deceptively effective noodle on Joanna before it plunges into the oily pool of their disturbed imaginations. Scanner is thanked, perhaps for the telephone conversations (most obviously) used on the second track against a dodging shadowlandworld backdrop. Having confronted us with the terrain, Coil now lead us into the Black Light District. An endlessly passing train provides accompaniment to synthetic sludge which softens the ground still further. The fourth track is one of three (?) sung songs on this release. It's typically Coil, reminiscent of 'Horse Rotovator' f'rinstance. The second of these sungsongs is titled 'blue rats' and it's a silly thing. The third ends the CD and is a pseudo religious adventure with lush keybored orchestration and distant angelic (hmm...) vocals. Pete 'n John conjure up various apparently familiar places using sound fx and location recordings which all too soon degenerate and offer no comfort. It is almost like being hunted! And Coil have the only map of this territory I am sure. Most certainly the strangest thing I have heard so far in 1996. Beside all that I have not seen such weird artwork as on the cover of this CD. Fragile souls beware. (MP) Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to anybody with an e-mail address. If you don't wish to receive this, then let us know. Any feedback is welcome . Forward to your allies. Snail mail: Frans de Waard -P.O.Box 11453 -1001 GL Amsterdam - The Netherlands All written by Frans de Waard (FdW) and The Square Root Of Sub (HP)