Vital Weekly 33 Week 14 Number 33 DAVID TOOP -SCREEN CEREMONIES ( CD on WIRE EDITIONS ) If hype could be considered foreplay, then the veritable deluge of superlatives surrounding this release could perhaps be considered a release in themselves. Months of prolonged anticipation for this, the first release on Wire Editions, and the first full-length solo CD project by David Toop have finally been rewarded ( for some) by the physical manifestation of the thing itself. If held up to the light alongside Buried Dreams ( his collaboration with Max Easterly ), then Screen Ceremonies is certainly the more transparent of the two. If thrown into a pond, it will probably also float. Buried Dreams could be used as a ticket to the underworld, Screen Ceremonies could not. It is much lighter, less fearful and will not induce nightmares or similar strange nocturnal beasts as Buried Dreams is reported to have done. All the care and attention to detail is still there, but some of the intensity is not. Menacing shapes do not loom out of the speakers articulating ancient secrets in forgotten tongues through dry, decaying throats. Birds and insects have not mutated here and the territory remains somewhat familiar throughout. Parallels could be drawn to the Fourth World projects of (mostly) Jon Hassell. Not a bad CD, not a totally brilliant one either. (MP) ARCANE DEVICE/ASMUS TIETCHENS -SPEISELEITUNG (CD on Raum 312) Another interesting product from this relatively new German Label which already has several interesting releases to it's credit. The title is German for 'power lines', although the music did not really suggest this image to me. It is a collaboration from two well experienced composers and well worth the effort. David Myers edited rough material in his NY studio which was then sent to Asmus in Hamburg where he deconstructed, treated and composed the same. To bloody good effect...the three disappointments are David Myers solo. The rest of the record is like a journey through asteroid belts in warped universes, where the asteroids are bells and the universes are thin stretched wires. The music threatens to break through into other dimensions at times...pushing outwards but never quite fracturing the shell that encloses it. Total control is sometimes a beautiful thing. The press blurb hints that this is the last recorded work to be released by David Myers as he feels that music can do little to change the ways of this wicked world and is now going to devote his time to what he considers more effective methods, Strongly recommended. (MP) BRION GYSIN (CD by Perdition Plastics) Brion Gysin is probably lesser known then William Burroughs, but both were the inventors of the cut-up. Both applied that technique to words on paper, but also to words and sounds on magnetic tape. Gysin died 10 years ago, but his work lives on. As far as I know this CD is the first anthology of Gysin's spoken word stuff. This CD includes 22 pieces, either spoke poems (including 'Kick That Habit Man' and 'I am That Am' ), lectures excerpts and some interview stuff (some of which were previously released on cassette). Though not an exhaustive document, this very well sums up the importance of this man. Address: Perdition -4216 N.Damen -Chicago, IL 60618 -USA THYMME JONES -WHILE (CD by Perdition Plastics) Who outer remembers the CD 'Cancer' by Illusion Of Safety, and specially the closing track? That very last piece of some 2 minutes piano tinkling in a minimal way? That piece struck me, as a lover of Steve Reichanian minimal music. Later on I found that this piece was recorded by IOS member Thymme Jones, who also plays drums with Brise Glace, as well as a host of other bands from Chicago. Now, after all these years, he released a solo CD, his very first one, with just these piano melodies. There are five tracks, played on 'four' piano's (probably referring to the 4 track machine on which this was recorded). The first piece is the best piece for me. The tempo is not very high, and changes are slow, the volume is set to one pitch. I am reminded of a Simeon Ten Holt piece (hey, but who knows him?), but then lasting 10 minutes instead of 3 hours. The second piece 'Find' is more romantic in a simple but effective way, with one staccato melody. Those staccato lines are also in 'Taken' , making it into a spaghetti western. The fourth one is again into similar style as the first piece. The closing track is played on a not so well-tuned piano, and I don't like it sound-wise. My suggestion: skip track 5, and you have sublime CD of well crafted minimal piano music from a true talent. Address: see above LEIF ELGGREN & THOMAS LILJJENBERG -ZZZ (CD + book by Firework) Art with the big A.R.T. capitals. This is the result of a project around the question whether dreams can playa role in 'real' life. These two guys wrote some 200 letters to well known people, saying, for instance to Mick Jagger: 'we dreamt 'Sympathy For The Devil' before you wrote it, so it ours. You are now rich, so make us rich too' .Each letter has more or less this subject. As the book evolves the letters get weirder and weirder. Unfortunately no responses are included, so one wonders if there were any...? The CD I can be short about: the sound of two men sleeping in their studio. Luckily they snore, so there is some sound. You wait for something to happen, but nothing happens. I wonder what they dreamt during this sleep? (FdW) Address: Firework -Sverkersgatan 5 12651 Hagersten - Sweden 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 (MP)