\ / | ----- /\ | \ / |== |== | / | \ / Week 12 \ / | | / \ | \ /\ / | | |/ | \ / Number 267 \/ | | / \ |--- \/ \/ |__ |__ |\ |__ | content: ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI/KASPER TOEPLITZ - LE DEPEUPLEUR (Cd by Cross Fade OVIL BIANCA - GRAVITY = LOVE (CD by Kraak) DE PORTABLES - ROSEGARDEN (CD by Kraak) DAVID JACKMAN - VERHALTE DICH RUHIG (CD by Die Stadt) KONTAKT DER JUNGLINGE - 1: BREMEN LAGERHAUS 17.12.1999 (CD by Die Stadt) MANUAL - UNTIL TOMORROW (CD by Morr Music) RANDOM INC - JERUSALEM (CD by Ritornell) AKIRA RABELAIS - EISOPTROPHOBIA (CD by Ritornell) plus announcements ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI/KASPER TOEPLITZ - LE DEPEUPLEUR (Cd by Cross Fade Entertainment) Le Depeupleur is the offspring of a joint venture between two very interesting Polish sound-artists. Zbigniew Karkowski is first of all known as sensor-conductor of experimental trio Sensorband and for his close collaborations with Masami Akita (a.k.a. Merzbow) and other prominent artists of the Japanese noise-scene. Experimental bassist Kasper Toeplitz is both founder of French guitar-orchestra Sleaze Art, and a contributing composer to the French experimental music-centre IRCAM. Le Depeupleur is a seventy-four minutes long work of hissing aching electronics built up around high frequency sounds and masses of thick noisy buzz-drones. Sounding like Bernhard Günter meets Alp (a.k.a. Roger Horberry), Le Depeupleur is quite some listening challenge. None the less a pretty good album. (NMP) Address: www.cfet.com OVIL BIANCA - GRAVITY = LOVE (CD by Kraak) DE PORTABLES - ROSEGARDEN (CD by Kraak) On the ever more active, and ever more lovely label Kraak two new releases which are opposites of each other, and thus displays the character of the label very well. Releases on Kraak range from introvert guitar music to the more avant-garde releases (plus, if you do care to contact them, they have a great selection in mailorder). Ovil Bianca owns one cheap guitar and a minidisc. So he went out to dabble his music on various locations around the world, but mainly in Belgium, on various computer, using Cool Edit Pro. The ten tracks show us the naively world of Kraak music(which I believe is a keyword for Kraak) which can be a hit or miss. Take for instance "Gravity" which is based around some loop, filtering and effects - simply but effective, but it is preceded by "Full Endeavor", which is next to being just a plain orgy of sounds messed about. A track like "Casioland" is nice, but then maybe too simple. Plug ins run amok on a arpeggio casio sound. Nevertheless Ovil Bianca has made a CD with ten different tracks and doesn't stick to one idea. One thing he does better and the other is a terrain that is yet to be discovered. De Portables is something different. Mainly a rock band, with drums, bass, guitar, synth and such oddities as playstation and walky talky. They play mostly long tracks of rock tunes, with those mumbling voices that I usually don't like, but they remain on a minimal side. Kinda post rock thing from Belgium which I liked (apart from those vocal bits), with no particular favorite to mention. If you think that this is all interesting, but you wish to investigate further, then I'd recommend getting the Kraak labelsampler, which has tracks by both bands, as well as twelve others (Janek Schaeffer, Pimmon, Wio, Kohn, Vote Robot, Shifts and many more who have released their music on this label). It should sell for a low price. (FdW) Address: www.kraak.net DAVID JACKMAN - VERHALTE DICH RUHIG (CD by Die Stadt) David Jackman's work falls into separate categories. There is of course the David Jackman who is Organum, there is the David Jackman who dabbles with noise and machine guns and there is the David Jackman who loops the orchestra. This CD culminates various of his works, which were so far released as 7"s and expensively short CDR releases. By those standards this is a fairly long releases, but just under 30 minutes is short for a full length CD by my standards. David takes old orchestral recordings, loops parts of them and mixes those loops into his own music. The recordings are not by high brow classical music, but dance hall music of the 30s or 40s. If you think that this will end in a mere chaos, you are wrong. This is very pleasant music that brings forth images of black white movies, people sophisticate dancing. The war is over and after this the Andrew Sisters will song too. Now how does that relate to the cover (gothic writing on a factory wall), we don't know. Maybe the music is meant to keep you calm, under the circumstances of war? Jackman's general theme, running through all his work, is leaving you puzzled. (FdW) Address: KONTAKT DER JUNGLINGE - 1: BREMEN LAGERHAUS 17.12.1999 (CD by Die Stadt) This is not the first time Asmus Tietchens and Thomas Koner collaborate. The first time was when Thomas did a workshop at The Netherlands CEM studio with Asmus. Thomas was the only participant and a small portion ended up on the CD 'Sinkende Swimmer'. That was in 1988. A decade later they are equal partners and they call themselves 'Kontakt Der Junglinge', which is of course poking fun at the other famous German composer, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen. Rumors are going around for some time that Asmus and Thomas were working together, but that it would be a series of live CDs is quite a surprise. Thomas plays live with his powerbooks we know, but Asmus usually plays a DAT only (which, I should say in his defense, is always specially made for the occasion). I wasn't there at the Lagerhaus, late 1999, when this was recorded, so I am clueless. But here's my guess. Asmus brought in a DAT of his water sounds, slightly processed but not too much, and Thomas runs it through his powerbook et voila. One piece at 45 minutes of water like sounds, like a journey (crickets ashore welcome you at the end), which fits nicely next to Asmus' Hydrophonie pieces. Sorry for Thomas, but this sounds much more like Asmus Tietchens, with his always more present sound and lesser then Thomas' ambient pieces which are more inaudible. Great stuff and there is more to come. Can't wait. (FdW) Address: MANUAL - UNTIL TOMORROW (CD by Morr Music) Behind Manual, we find a Danish musician called Jonas Munk Jensen, who before had a release on Hobby Industries. With his second release, for Morr Music, he puts his boots more firmly in downtempo electronic music. Jensen, who has a background in post rock music, plays wonderful melancholic tunes on the guitar and the piano, set against a background of drones and crackles. Nine wonderful pieces announcing that spring is coming (even when it snows today), and the sun will return. Music that is perfect for the time of year. What else can I say? Great stuff. (FdW) Address: RANDOM INC - JERUSALEM (CD by Ritornell) AKIRA RABELAIS - EISOPTROPHOBIA (CD by Ritornell) Ritornell is back on track. Thank god for that. There were plans to stop this division of Mille Plateaux, because of the costs involved in producing the package. Now the standard package is gone, we are served with two totally different packages, two different musics and concepts. The first in line of the new series is by Random Inc. aka Sebastian Meissner. Meissner was originally part of Autopoieses, but after leaving that, he works as Random Inc. As far as I understand this album started out as a CD by Autopoieses, but the raw material is entirely reworked and brought to a new conceptual phase. Jerusalem is city with two groups of people who life next to each other, which is sometimes problematic as we all know from reading the newspaper. Meissner takes recordings from Jewish and Arabic archives and put it through his powerbook production. The result is blender like. He mixes both and it's hard to recognize what is Jewish and what is Arabic. On the CD they can live together... I was reminded of zoviet*france and Muslimgauze at times for the ethno part of some of the sounds. There are 28 tracks which are kept, mostly, short, dealing with one idea or one sound per track. The result is very nice, a middle eastern journey. Akira Rabelais is a Californian who is by day a programmer for Silicon Valley and by night a musician. His new CD has twenty pieces of piano music from the twentieth century, by three composers, Eric Satie, Bela Bartok and one V. Carte. I haven't heard from that one before. I fail to see the point between Satie and Bartok, but the press text raves about 'the most important piano music from our time', but why not Debussy, Rachmaninov or John Cage? Unfortunately the great Bartok connoisseur in my family died almost two years ago, but I wonder what he had to say about the digital interpretations of Rabelais. What he does, is take the original piece (played by himself? The cover is not clear about this) and feeds it through the world digital plug ins and powerbooks and presents it back. Sometimes you are able to hear which piece is playing, like in the various Satie pieces (by which I am more familiar then the rest), but they all get their twist. It's an entertaining CD, music for a Sunday morning in the new millennium. It's hard for me to review this an interesting concept. There is a straight line from Emerson Lake & Palmer, Wendy Carlos to Curd Duca to Rabelais. Means have changed, ideas remain. Address: www.mille-plateaux.com 1. From: Dan Burke Illusion Of Safety tour April 2001: Friday April 20th 2001 c.u.b.a. muenster germany Sunday 22.04.01 Worm Rotterdam Tuesday 24.04.01 RHIZ Wien Austria Wed 25 / 04 / 01 venue: papirna Prague, Czech Republic Thur 26.04.01 ms Stubnitz Rostock Germany Fri 27.04.01 Hörbar Hamburg, geramany Sat 28.04.2001 Venue: 'LAGERHAUS' Bremen, Germany Lineup: ILLUSION OF SAFETY KONTAKT DER JÜNGLINGE (Asmus Tietchens & Thomas Köner) DITTEL UND TÜTTEL IN KLOPSTOCKLAND (Ditterich von Euler-Donnersperg & Asmus Tietchens) SUN 29.04.01 w/Sudden Infant AZ CONNI Dresden Germany Illusion Of Safety tour//June Dan Burke & Kevin Drumm laptop dou/ dates tba check website // illusionofsafety.com 2. From: Vitiello64@aol.com Stephen Vitiello (vitiello64@aol.com) March 22 @ Engine 27, 173 Franklin Street, NYC, 8pm, duet with Frances-Marie Uitti. Info: 212 431-7466 March 28 @CBGB Gallery, 313 Bowery. 8pm with Jody Elff April 5 @ The Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, 120 Park Avenue at 42nd Street, 8pm. Solo and duo with Yasunao Toné. Entrance is free! 3. From: "sony mao" Thursday, March 22, 2001 . 6 pm Miami Beach Botanical Garden 2000 Convention Center Dr, Miami Beach $15-$10 SUBTROPICS MARATHON, Thirteenth Edition Featuring: Julio Roloff, David Font, Kristine Burns, Sony Mao, Needle, Armando Rodriguez, Ileana Perez Velazquez, Francis Schwatz, George Tegzes, Alfredo Triff, Robert Constable & other members of Tampa based BONK... Highlights include . Short Wave Fantasy - an audio/video collage by David Font. . Spectrum - a performance for Galician Bag Pipes by Armando Rodriguez . The randomly patterned electronic microsounds of Needle and Sony Mao. . Yoruba, Celia - two new works from Ileana Perez Velazquez . And much much more. Despite the superstition surrounding the number thirteen our local composers are defiant - an indefatigable and steadfast lot. At the Subtropics Marathon the atmosphere is relaxed. One can listen, go out and get a snack and come back in. About the artists Needle and Sony Mao Needle and Sony Mao are two shadowy figures operating out of Miami. Needle composes randomly patterned, electronic music, based upon the spectral analysis of microscopic fissures residing in the grooves and on the surfaces of closely examined, vinyl phonographic recordings. It is not altogether clear what Sony Mao's role is but we do know that in the past twelve months both Sony Mao and Needle have performed together at various underground clubs throughout Europe and in North America, including an event in September 2000 at New York's -The Knitting Factory. http://www.subtropics.org/# 4. From: Electro-Acoustic Music Soon to come: additional news about Carl Stone's Spring Europe tour, appearance at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival in May, and six-month residency at the International Academy of Media Arts and Science in Japan. But meanwhile........ Fri Mar 23 - Saturday April 7 SAN FRANCISCO CA THE LAB [2948 16th St tel: 415.864.8855] Carl joins up with British artist Kathleen Rogers for DNA.CORN, an installation that utilizes the sound and image of popcorn as an anthropological and biological microsystem. A darkly lit ambient space with table top dioramas is used to produce an emotionally arresting and starkly contrasting landscape. The hybrid poetics of a thousand cardboard butterflies inhabit the space in immobile opposition to the stochastic sounds of popping corn. Presented by The Lab as part of The Gateway Projec, an artist exchange program between London and San Francisco.. For gallery hours and more information about this event, check http://www.thelab.org, call or send email to info@thelab.org Sun Mar 25 DELAND FLORIDA 7:30 PM ELIZABETH HALL CHAPEL [Stetson University tel: 904.822.8983] Carl Stone solo performance at Stetson University. His Deland debut! For more information about this event, call or send email to mdemurga@stetson.edu Thu Apr 12 INNSBRUCK AUSTRIA 9 PM KAISER-LEOPOLD-SAAL [Karl-Rahner-Platz 3 tel: +43 5223-45 222-15] Carl performs a new 90 minute work, YONGSUSAN, as part of OSTERFESTIVAL 01, which takes place from April 1 to 20. First performance in the Tirol since 1996! For more information about this event, call or send email to info@osterfestival.at 5. From: "Klaus Oldanburg [tm]" Diskono present......Felix Kubin in concert. Sci-fi pop, magnetisms and X-Rays. 13th Note Club, Mitchell Street,Glasgow on 28th March. (with Barbara Morgenstern, Mendel & Diskono Dj's) Entry ?5. Doors : 8pm On Air East (aka The Mission), 15 Ward Street, Dundee on 29th March (with El Hombre Trajeado) Entry ?4 / ?2 cons. Doors : 9pm information : diskono@lineone.net 6. From: "G K" Below is the itinerary of an upcoming European tour in which I will be participating with a handfull of sound artists from Miami, FL, USA. As for my involvement, I'll be performing solo and in combinations using rearranged sampled solo pieces of music by Cornelius Cardew and Henry Cowell. Also touring will be: RENE BARGE -a collage artist, performing w/ electronics BEN WOLCOTT -a sculptor, performing w/ oscillators LAUNDRYROOM SQUELCHERS -a collective akin to the Nihilist Spasm Band, performing w/ homemade electronics We are playing both improvised and prepared, solo and group pieces. So far we have a number of tentative to confirmed dates but also have a number of dates still open. If anyone can suggest possible venues, would be willing to host a performance or would like to perform with us, please contact me. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Gerard Klauder gjklaude@lycos.com APRIL 2001 tu 3 Miami >>>> w 4 LONDON th 5 BRIGHTON fri 6 PARIS sa 7 PARIS su 8 MARSEILLE m 9 CANNES / NICE / MONACO tu 10 PISA / FLORENCE w 11 ROME th 12 VENICE fri 13 MILAN sa 14 ZURICH su 15 MUNICH m 16 BERLIN tu 17 BERLIN we 18 COPENHAGEN th 19 COPENHAGEN fri 20 HAMBURG sa 21 AMSTERDAM su 22 LILLE m 23 BRIGHTON tu 24 London >>>>Miami 7. From: richard chartier byetone (Olaf Bender) komet (Frank Bretschneider) noto (Carsten Nicolai) Richard Chartier Taylor Deupree raster-noton.......12k.......Mille Plateaux tuesday, april 10, 2001 @ TONIC 107 Norfolk Street New York, NY 10002 Information: 212-358-7501 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: Vital Weekly/Frans de Waard - P.O.Box 11453 - 1001 GL Amsterdam - The Netherlands All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), The Square Root Of Sub (MP, ), Radboud Mens (RM), Sister Clika (RTH), BAraka[H] (BAR), Howard Stelzer (HS), Heimir Bjorgulfsson (HB), Dolf Mulder (DM), Meelkop Roel (MR), David Cotner (DC), Rene van Peer (RVP), Jos Smolders (IS), Brian Lavelle (BL, ), Gerald Schwartz (GS), Niels Mark Pedersen (NMP), Henry Schneider (SH) This is copyright free publication, except where indicated, in which case permission has to be obtained from the respective author before reprinting any, or all of the desired text. The author has to be credited, and Vital Weekly has to be acknowledged at all times if any texts are used from it. Backissues may be found at: www.staalplaat.com and www.earlabs.org (this one includes a search engine)