============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 430 ------------ week 28 ------------ contents: In week 30 and 31 (July 19 to 31) there will be no Vital Weekly. Any announcements for that period should be with us before the 14th of July. COELACANTH - MUD WALL (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency) IRR.APP.(EXT.) - OZEANISCHE GEFÜHLE (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency) JOHN WATERMANN/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA (CD by Hvexas Records) FOURCOLOR - WATER MIRROR (CD by Apestaartje) AERO - RISES & FALLS (CD by Apestaartje) OBJECT SET, AND MOTION (CD compilation by Apestaartje) JANEK SCHAEFER/CHRISTOPHER FLORES (split LP by Apestaartje/Snail Article) NICOLAS COLLINS - PEA SOUP (3"CD by Apestaartje) ECCENTRIS #1 (CD compilation by Tenzenmen) DUNAEWSKY69 - CONTIGUITY (CD by Shaped Harmonics) KILN - SUNBOX (CD by Ghostly International) BJÖRGÚLSSON/PIMMON/THORSSON - STILL IMPORTANT SOMEKIND NOT NORMALLY SEEN (ALWAYS NOT UNFINISHED) (CD by Cronica Electronica) KOTRA - DISSILIENT (CD by Nexsound) CARLOS GIFFONI & LEE RANALDO & JIM O'ROURKE - NORTH SIX (3"CD by Antiopic) SAKADA - NEVER GIVE UP ON THE MARGINS OF LOGIC (3"CD by Antiopic) WARMDESK - PISTACHIO (12" by A Touch Of Class) WARMDESK - SAFETY FIRST (12" by A Touch Of Class) RADIO WORM 52 (CDR compilation by Worm) JE & [.] - SCHIZOIDE ANOMIQUE (CDR by Burning Emptiness) MARSEN JULES - YARA (MP3 by Autoplate/Thinner) MIKKEL METAL - CASSINI PIECES (MP3 by Thinner) AIDAN BAKER - ICHNUEMON (MP3 album by Tibprod) TORE HONERE BOE - MO# PROJECT SOUVENIR (MP3 album by Tibprod) PART OF ME: APPARATUS (MP3 album by Tibprod) NAVNEMO - LIVE AT AMBIENT FESTIVAL, SOFIA, BULGARIA, 26 MARCH 2004 (MP3 album by Tibprod) CHRISTIAN DI VITO - ALONE IN A CHAMBER (MP3 album by Tibprod) CHRISTIAN DI VITO - MYTH (MP3 single by Tibprod) CHRISTIAN DI VITO - SERIGRAFIA (MP3 single by Tibprod) COELACANTH - MUD WALL (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency) IRR.APP.(EXT.) - OZEANISCHE GEFÜHLE (CD by The Helen Scarsdale Agency) I am altogether not too sure if Helen Scarsdale is really somebody and is really running an agency, but apperentely it's the name of a nice label. I missed out on their first release, by Jim Haynes, but the second third and third release make up things. As noted before Coelacanth is the work of Jim Haynes and Lorren Chase. Noted in the review of 'Mud Wall' in Vital Weekly 407. So is this a new CD then or a re-issue? I guess it's neither. It's rather an expanded version of the Mysery Sea CDR, with some extra twenty minutes of material, mainly placed at the beginning. Loren and Jim collected a whole bunch of organic material in the studio, like wood and metal and started scraping them. The sounds are fed through a whole bunch of delay and reverb units, until a thick, waving pattern of sound started vibrating the studio walls. A careful rumbling of objects takes place over the course over forty minutes and off and on they seem to be using field recordings of water. There are some darker edges to be noted in this material, which fits the traditions of Small Cruel Party and Giancarlo Toniutti (though not as sparse as the later) of the older generation and Yannick Dauby, MNortham and Seth Nehil of the newer lot. Good sturdy, earthy minimalism. For some strange reason, many people seem to know the name Irr.app.(ext.), aka Matt Waldron from California. Strange because the man only released two albums, one of Fire inc (1997) and one on Crouton (2003) in the last decade or so. His name popped up in some releations to say Nurse With Wound and Stilluppsteypa. So 'Ozeanische Gefühle' is the third album and it's easy to set this along the finer works of expanded drone music. Music that is related to drone music, but use in a piece more paths, more instruments, and doesn't just rumble from a to b. The title piece, the core of this work, is a forty-some minute collage of all things processed: woodwinds, bells, bowls, organ sounds, maybe even guitars. Everything is thrown in the giant blender which is called the 'studio' and Irr.app.(ext.) takes us to a variety of landscapes, each with it's own colour and tone and is far away from his previous work. The second, shorter piece is 'The Demiurge's Presumption' and harks back to his earlier work. Although drones play an important role in this piece, improvisations made on guitar also play their role. Although this is a fine piece, I think just the first would have been enough. It's quite an overwhelming piece of music going on here, after which you need to relax and served another great piece. But in all, a great CD and hopefully the gateway to some more releases. (FdW) Address: http://www.helenscarsdale.com JOHN WATERMANN/KOUHEI MATSUNAGA (CD by Hvexas Records) It's now almost two years ago that John Watermann died at the age of 67. Throughout his life he remained a bit of an outsider in the world of music and art, but with a small and dedicated group of followers and friends. One of the last things he was working on were pieces that now ended up on this split CD with Kouhei Matsunaga. Two lenghty pieces of electronic music. In his final years, Watermann had a great love for soft- and hardware and these pieces were created with programmes such as Reason. The short, rhythmic cutup of his early work is no longer present, but instead quite melodic and rhythmic music comes instead. Sometimes a drak and sinister synthesizer is fade in, but throughout these a pleasent piece of music. The second piece 'People Was Shake My Hand' is more abstract with electro-acoustic elements. Kouhei Matsunaga could have been his son in age, but here he is. Like many Japanese artists Kouhei plays noise, using his computer and electronics. His short 'Night Shift The Power' is a fierce cut up piece with many short sounds, whilst 'Ddct Jhn Wtrmnn' (note the Cageian leave out of letters) is a more random piece of electronics, swirling in and out of the mix. The piece starts out quite loud, but over the course of time, it gets quieter and quieter and despite the somewhat random feel about it, it stays nicely together. Quite a nice CD, indeed. (FdW) Address: http://www.hvexas.org FOURCOLOR - WATER MIRROR (CD by Apestaartje) AERO - RISES & FALLS (CD by Apestaartje) OBJECT SET, AND MOTION (CD compilation by Apestaartje) JANEK SCHAEFER/CHRISTOPHER FLORES (split LP by Apestaartje/Snail Article) NICOLAS COLLINS - PEA SOUP (3"CD by Apestaartje) The summer 2004 campaign by Apestaartje consists of a whole bunch of interesting new releases. It kicks off with Fourcolour, the solo project of Keiichi Sugimoto, who is part of Minamo (who had a release on Apestaartje before) and also half of Fonica (with a release on Plop). Sugimoto plays mainly the guitar on his release, at least that's what we are led to believe, as the careful notes and tones on this CD could have been as easily generated by some Max/msp software for all I know about this. Very microsounding, microtonal, maybe micro everything music going on here, highly 'ambient' in execution. The CD ends with the magnum opus of the CD, a twenty five minute soundtrack to the film Frontire by Japanese filmmaker Jun Miyazaki. Here the addition of field recordings made a children's playground add just that little bit extra to make it even more nice. The man behind Aero is one Koen Holtkamp, who also runs the Apestaartje label. Originally from The Netherlands, but for ages in the USA to forget his beautiful native tongue. In order of appearance he plays "computer, electronics, piano, guitar, melodica and other objects", although it starts with a banjo thing. In these seven pieces, Aero harks back to the darker world of ambient music, with highly processed tones and textures, in which it is hard to recognize any of the piano and guitar sounds. It is called by some as 'laptop ambient' and maybe that is so, however, I don't think it should have such a negative tone. This is highly entertaining music to play at home (wouldn't be too sure about a concert version of this), late at night in a sparsely lit room. Not surprising new, but nevertheless of the better kind in its genre. Under the banner of 'Object Set, And Motion', Apestaartje offers a second label compilation of people that don't have their own releases on the label, but nevertheless are worth hearing. Sebastien Roux for instance is known for his releases on 12K and plays guitar on his two heavily melancholic tracks. Guitars plays with ebows and long stretched darker ambient is the result. I never heard of Asuna, aka Naoyuki Arashi from Tokyo. He plays harmonium which he feeds through various computer processings and result in a highly fascinating drone piece. Likewise the two boys of Tu M' are also in melancholical moods. Their two tracks have lots of guitar samples and for once (at least to my knowledge) their sound is less broken up and more coherent - way to go, boys. The compilation closes with Duul_Drv, aka Arden Hill, whom I first heard on a 12K/Line compilation. He works solely with field recordings which are sparsely treated in the computer. In terms of microsound, Duul_Drv comes closest to the 'real' thing with nearly inaudible music. Soft, sparse crackles appear at the surface and bass sounds appear just below. About time for his own release. Another new thing, perhaps a new series by Apestaartje, is Snail Article, a split LP by Janek Schaefer and Christopher Flores. Schaefer's side is called 'Orders EP' and consists of five 'ordered' pieces: collaborations and commissions, all of which are funnily described on the cover, like when he works together with the bass player from Rothko, he asks them to remove the snares of his bass and takes them to the studio. Or 'Love Song', the word love sung by seven different women in various pitches, which are edited together to form a vast mass of sound. The shortest piece is a locked groove, based on 333.3 parts of a 10 minute recording. Nicely, dense, atmospheric recordings. I never heard of Christopher Flores, who is from Baltimore, who played in various post rock and experimental, before going solo on acoustic and digital compositions. His compositions 'M.O.R.T.' and 'Edits For Piano' sounds almost like one piece. In the first he tries with digital means to create a piece that sounds like a real instruments being processed, and in the second he actually takes piano sounds into the digital realm. The result is highly similar and just by hearing it's hard to tell where one stops and the other begins. Overall there is a strong ambient feel to the pieces, and not to dissimilar to the work of Kenneth Kischner - long pastoral sounding passages of carefully processed digital sounds. With Nicolas Collins, Apestaartje goes for the real fame. Depending of course how famous you think Nicolas Collins is. He is the second one to add a release to Apestaartje 'listen' series. A series of 3" CDs filled with field recordings and 'other non overtly musical audio'. 'Pea Soup' uses "A self-stabilizing network of circuitry (originally three Countrymen Phase Shifters) nudges the pitch of audio feedback to different resonant frequency every time the feedback starts to build. The familiar shriek is replaced with unstable patterns of hollow tones, a site-specific raga reflecting the acoustical personality of the room" and moving through the space the sound can change. So it can be an installation aswell as a concert. This piece was composed in 1974-76 but the recording here is from 1999 and Collins plays the electronic part and George Cremaschi plays double bass. It starts out some sine wave like stuff but then somewhere, almost unnoted the bass drops in and the piece becomes very musical with several sorts of bowings bouncing against the underpinning sine waves. A beautiful piece and maybe less suitable for the 'listen' series, mainly because it's so musical. (FdW) Address: www.staartje.com ECCENTRIS #1 (CD compilation by Tenzenmen) This is certainly one of the strangest compilations I have come across with recentely. I don't recall ever hearing Can Can Heads, but I was aware of Hinterlandt of course and also Zu I saw play live some ago, and it is a strange combination to see them on a CD together. But the CD opens with Hinterlandt and that's a real surprise. I knew Jochen plays around with the notions of popmusic, but the three cuts here are entirely sampled from death metal, pop and symphonic rock with just that tiny bit of experimental electronica. After 'Poprekordt' maybe the thing to expect but I just dislike death metal and symphonic rock, also when they are sampled. I must admit though that Hinterlandt does a fine job in what he does. Zu are free rock trio from Italy of drums, guitar and saxophone. They play free rock or free jazz, you don't have to call it anything if any terms shocks you, but they play whatever they do with great power. Seven relatively short cuts of intense playing. Maybe the sort of thing I wouldn't play often, but their concert left me a good impression, so maybe I am positively influenced by that while enjoying this. As said, I never heard of Can Can Head, who are a five piece band from Finland, on guitars, drums, bass, vocals and saxophone. They also play free rock music, and this time it's a bit more traditional, less jazz and a bit more punk related. Of the three bands, this is the one which I had much trouble with. Too traditional for my taste to enjoy these free punk reputations too much. But the renewed connection with Hinterlandt and Zu made this well alright for me. (FdW) Address: http://www.ten-zen-men.com DUNAEWSKY69 - CONTIGUITY (CD by Shaped Harmonics) Some time ago the label Shaped Harmonics was run by Novel 23 and Ambidextrous, both known and important figures from the Russian new stream of melodic idm influenced music, but now the label is run only by the melodic craftsman Novel 23. On this album release all tracks are written and produced by Dunaewsky69, that's Alex Gladun, another unknown Russian artist who makes classy music in the melodic style. It's definitely not typical idm, that's for sure, but nevertheless the songs are still pretty much classic and conventional, with influences from few styles and genres. The general impression is that the artist is trying to achieve the melodic moments with more firm and concrete sound, like Novel 23's album on Bip Hop. Dunaewsky69 probably uses some old Russian analog synthesizers too, I guess. I'd compare this music with the more energetic tracks from Ulrich Schnauss, this time going into shoegaze-idm direction maybe? Shoegaze with synths, not guitar distorsion, even though the guitar (alike) sound is present here from time to time. Also, there's blurry drum'n'bass rhythm in one track called Hilli Jona, and the rhythm is very much pointed out everytime. The synths add an electro flavour sometime, Solvent alike, as in the second track Haresh with it's intensively developing atmosphere and more harsher. Maybe the rhythm is too narrow sometime, as in Luo, when it sounds like it's played with drums, but it's still programed. In all the tracks all these elements are arranged in different ways and they make different shapes of the songs. So, you can choose your favourites. One of mine this time is Wyky. (BR) Address: http://www.shapedharmonics.com and http://www.electrosputnik.com KILN - SUNBOX (CD by Ghostly International) Here's something nice. Kiln are 3 people from Michigan who have been making music since the early 1990s. This short album/EP of 31 minutes is the first release I've heard from them. The label says Kiln are 'one of today's finest downtempo electronic groups', and having heard this release I agree. They're on the crispy side of chilled music, where it's more interesting. And they play and experience it with amusement and make it sound more fresh that way. Nothing new under the sun or the moon maybe, well, who knows...? Yeah, ok, that's probably true, but it's not so important in these cases, when the music is alright. Maybe Kiln sound as Pram trying to make some microsound for Raster Noton, trippy weed inspired microclicks for dancing shrimps and lobsters by the sea, a (not so) new stream in the style maybe? Or maybe Raster Noton should start a new series in their catalogue and call it Sargasso Sea, for supporting music like this? The guitar in the forth track adds a little post-rock to it, in the best Tortoise way. And hey, the music is all around you, not shockingly new but more than just decent. Very nicely done. (BR) Address: http://www.ghostly.com BJÖRGÚLSSON/PIMMON/THORSSON - STILL IMPORTANT SOMEKIND NOT NORMALLY SEEN (ALWAYS NOT UNFINISHED) (CD by Cronica Electronica) The Dutch Earational festival (out of 's-Hertogenbosch as the city is called in every atlas and not Den Bosch as it says on the cover, just in case you may wonder where to find it) is an annual electronic music festival, but it varies in size. Sometimes four days, in 2003 it lasted ten or so days, but probably in 2002 it had it smallest size, when the festival lasted one day. In the evening there was a concert by Main, and a performance with music of Roland Kayn, in the afternoon Pimmon, Heimir Björgúlfsson and Helgi Thorsson each played a solo concert. All three, aswell as Robert Hampson (Main man), arrived a day and there were some rehearsals for a collaborative improvisation between the three afternoon guests. Everything was recorded, rehearsals and concert, and Hampson has edited this release out of it. I just happen to know that the recordings were all two track and not multi-track, so Hampson did have a difficult task editing this out of it. It's not difficult to guess what ti expect: crackling electronics, occassionally rhythmical loops, noisy bits thrown in and some plunderphonica. Some of the pieces (which of course have no title) are quite exciting, like the opening piece, but occassionally it leaps into straight boredom, when the improvisations drag on and go nowhere. Therefore this is a bit of hit and miss, or maybe rather: the document of hit and miss. I think it can be heard that none of these three involved musicians are experienced improvisers and that that is the main reason why it's nice sometimes and boring at other times. Robert Hampson did a nice job glueing the whole thing together - and that seems to me no easy task. (Fdw) Address: http://www.cronicaelectronica.org KOTRA - DISSILIENT (CD by Nexsound) The man behind Kotra is one Dmytro Fedorenko, who played bass in a jazz-noise band, had a noise duo called Zet and has worked with the likes of Kim Cascone, Andreas Berthling and Andrey Kiritchenko. Here he plays twenty-one tracks in just over thirty-four minutes. When I started this CD, I thought my opinion would be ready after 2 minutes: noise, generated through feedback and processed digitally. But as this CD progressed, and the sound remained almost similar throughout, I realized that I was not listening to twenty-one tracks, but to one work broken up in twenty-one different pieces. As the piece evolves more sounds are added, even a guitar can be heard, and the whole thing is broken up with smaller sound particles. Although noise is in general the thing I am no longer concerned for, the conceptual approach is something that I like very much. Given the concise and precise dealings with Kotra, I am all for it. That's the way to do it. (FdW) Address: http://www.nexsound.org CARLOS GIFFONI & LEE RANALDO & JIM O'ROURKE - NORTH SIX (3"CD by Antiopic) SAKADA - NEVER GIVE UP ON THE MARGINS OF LOGIC (3"CD by Antiopic) The small but nice Antiopic label (who also have a website with many MP3 releases) just start out with a new series of live recordings of improvised electronic music. The first one is by Carlos Giffoni (computer, synth and guitar), Lee Ranaldo (guitar, firebell) and Jim O'Rourke (synth) with a recording from August last year. If ever there was lo-fi punk version of musique concrete, then it must be this trio. They play furious music, one giant wall of noise that can easily meet Merzbow, but with a wider variety in sound textures. Sometimes the guitar sips through, psychedelic walls of synthesizer sounds only to erupt in a further wall of feedback and noise mayhem. The entire thing clocks in at 18:58 which will leave one breathless once it's finished. Essential listening for those who love noise and a text book for those who want to try their own hands at noise. The second release is by Sakada, a group of Rhodri Davies (harp), Eddie Prevost (percussion), Mattin (computer feedback), Margarida Garcia (double bass) and Mark Wastell (amplified textures). All of these people are well-known in the world of improvisation, playing in various combinations throughout the world, and of course more than that in the UK. In their live recording the emphasis lies on bowing sounds on all of these varied instruments. In the back the death digital humm of Mattin provides the backdrop of the piece. For such an extended line up it is rather a surprise that there is such an overall pace in this recording. Everybody is waiting for the others, and everybody seems to take their own role and take it from there. As opposed to the other mini CD, this is a very silent release, but with a likewise intense outcome. (FdW) Address: http://www.antiopic.com WARMDESK - PISTACHIO (12" by A Touch Of Class) WARMDESK - SAFETY FIRST (12" by A Touch Of Class) Here are some well balanced critical beats Philip Sherburne should definitely review, if he hasn't done that before? Sorry, I'm not that regular Wire reader. Warmdesk is William Selman from Chicago, there's nice interview with him @ www.modsquare.com, he has one album on Deluxe + few EPs on his own A Posteriori label (I know Mr. Sherburne reviewed one of them) and now 2 EPs on A Touch Of Class. That's sub-label of the German Background Recordings, and they say A Touch Of Class is for deep-house music but they also leave it to you to decide what's deep house for yourself. How wonderful, since I'm always a bit confused about the sub-genres of house. Pistachio is the older release of the both. It's a really wonderful release. Three great tracks with warm bass lines, quite linear ongoing sound, in the best new tradition of this music, say, what labels like Trapez or Traum Schallplatten mostly put out. Safety First EP opens with the title-track that has a bit more upbeat feel, but still very well thought-out. All music by Warmdesk on these EPs is excellent, dancey of course but in a background landscape way, like Cpen's music on Aesoteric, this is specially true with the calmer Pistachio EP, so what you got is Chicago and more teky answer to California's endlessnessism. A bit more sculptured sound than a classic Cpen composition, going more in minimal clicky direction. Sometimes more jump-up, like in Pression, but always pretty well balanced. No explicit melodies you can remember but rather echoes of melody in a wider soundscape, minimal but still kinda groovey. Is this deep house because of the warm basses that add depth to the sound? What's deep house for me? I really don't care that much. It's very good music, and if it's deep house then I'm fan of this kind of that sound. (BR) Address: http://www.background-records.de RADIO WORM 52 (CDR compilation by Worm) Although this says 'Radio Worm' and is indeed broadcasted on radio (both real radio in Rotterdam aswell as digital radio), it's also available on CDR. Normally things like this don't last very long - just like magazines on CDR - but 'Radio Worm' is already up to number 52. It's a rather random pick of me to review this and not one or all of the others. Apart from one track licenced from somewhere else (the Osso Bucco track, see also Vital Weekly 416), it's all new tracks send to Worm or taken from like cuts made at Worm's excellent stage in Rotterdam. Although not frequentely listed in Vital Weekly's announcement section, this is the place to be in Rotterdam for experimental music. Many of these names may not mean much to you (or me for that matter), but it's presented as a radio programm, including jingle's in between, here and there. Because of the number of tracks, it sounds like 'real radio', less the boring talk - luckily enough. In current years Worm programms a lot of breakbeat, broken beats and plunderphonica alike, so it's not a surprise that this leaks through to the 'Radio Worm' editions. Bands like Xian, Toecutter, Enduser, Droon and Mash Up Soundsystem but there are also more quieter moments such as with DJ Pausa, Yituey and Osso Bucco. Everything is placed in such a way that various styles are in row, but luckily just enough before starting to get tedious. If real radio was like this, I would switch on. (FdW) Address: http://www.wormstation.nl JE & [.] - SCHIZOIDE ANOMIQUE (CDR by Burning Emptiness) Even after checking JE's website, I can't tell you much more about this guy, other than that he plays guitars and electro-acoustic objects. He is playing a sort of duet with himself, because as JE he plays 'electric+tronics' and as [.] he plays electroacoustics. I can be brief about this release: the tracks (fourteen in total) were made in the process of improvisation using guitar, occassionally a rhythmmachine and more obscure noisy sounds. However in none of the fourteen tracks, a sparkling idea was heard by me. Everything stayed on a similar level, in a rather uninspired fashion. Not the sort of thing that I like very much. (FdW) Address: http://www.burningemptiness.fr.st MARSEN JULES - YARA (MP3 by Autoplate/Thinner) MIKKEL METAL - CASSINI PIECES (MP3 by Thinner) First things first: I have called the label 'Audioplate', but it's 'Autoplate'. They have just released the second MP3 by Marsen Jules, one half of Krill.Minima. Whereas on his first release (see Vital Weekly 393), Jules is playing around with classical music, in the best tradition of Gas or Ekkehard Ehlers' 'Betrieb', this time he fiddles around with some live recordings by a band named 'Trio Yara'. These recordings were made in a smoke filled bar, with quite some distance between band and audience, and the microphone being set half way through. So we hear some vaguely piano's, distant mumbling voices, glasses at the bar but to enhance the moody atmopshere, Jules adds a fine dose of delay and reverb to it. Somehow this sounds very much along the lines of his 'Lazy Sunday Funerals', even when the input is so totally different. An piece of ambient music throughout. Very very nice. No surprise that his next CD will be released by City Centre Offices. Autoplate is a side-label from Thinner for their more ambient excursions, and Thinner for the more rhythmic stuff. Mikkel Metal aka Mikkel Meldgaard is from Danmark and after playing in some rock bands, he switched to electronic music and has produced two 12" records. The works collected on his MP3 release are from 2001-2003 and we get six of them, plus four remixes by others. Mikkel's music is click related with some fine dub influences, along the lines of Chain Reaction. Delay lines on the synths and the crackles, while the bass nicely jumps forward. The remixes, by Off The Sky, Lufth, Krill.minima and Theodor Zox all extend more or less the original Mikkel Metal sound, except maybe for Theodor Zox who offers a more uptempo sound. You wouldn't recognize them as remixes but rather as different tracks by the same person, and that's a pity and maybe beyond the idea of a remix. (FdW) Address: http://www.thinnerism.com AIDAN BAKER - ICHNUEMON (MP3 album by Tibprod) TORE HONERE BOE - MO# PROJECT SOUVENIR (MP3 album by Tibprod) PART OF ME: APPARATUS (MP3 album by Tibprod) NAVNEMO - LIVE AT AMBIENT FESTIVAL, SOFIA, BULGARIA, 26 MARCH 2004 (MP3 album by Tibprod) CHRISTIAN DI VITO - ALONE IN A CHAMBER (MP3 album by Tibprod) CHRISTIAN DI VITO - MYTH (MP3 single by Tibprod) CHRISTIAN DI VITO - SERIGRAFIA (MP3 single by Tibprod) Hardly a week goes by without something new by Aidan Baker, and here it comes in the form of a MP3 album. Three lengthy tracks of music that Aidan plays best: ambient music with guitars and occassional percussion and samples. Of the three pieces I thought that the opening title piece was the best. Voice samples, guitar lines and percussion are finely interwoven and none of the elements takes the leading role here. "The Footprints Of Flies" is the most ambient piece here, but it's rather too vaguely structured, but maybe that's the whole point of ambient anyway. 'Crawl Inside' is too minimal for what it does - just an ongoing rhythm. Only last week I had the pleasure to see the very last concert ever by Tore H. Boe - at least that's what he claimed. He played a short set on his self-built laptop: two identical wooden cases with identical small objects being amplified. Therefore is his 'Mo# Project Souvenir' indeed, at least for me, a great souvenir to a crazy night, although not strictly similar to what he did that night. Here he plays indeed the small amplified acoustic objects, but unlike the concert, there is a great addition of electronic sounds, but mostly unwanted, such as hiss and feedback. Short and sweet pieces of raw electro-acoustic music. Tibprod also just released a whole bunch of MP3 works by people I never heard, nor have any information about. Part Of Me: Apparatus for instance, nine pieces are to be found on his or her MP3 album, and it seems to me that the apparatus in question is the laptop. A lot of crackling, plug ins running amok, and always a bit on the noisy side. This is the kind of thing that many people, myself included, have against laptop music. Without too many ideas of their own, without too much structure and similar things repeated throughout. Just not my thing. Likewise I never heard of Navnemo and was surprised to see a live recording from such an unlikely place as Sofia, Bulgaria. Navnemo use two cardboard boxes and places 0.5 Watt speaker in the smaller one and put the small box in the bigger one, and was then able to work with the resonant feedback, using two microphones and a small mixer. I am not sure how works either and it starts out with some feedback sounds, albeit controlled, so I expected something static, but in fact throughout the piece, things started to be alive, with samples coming in, forming loops and mutating feedback. About Christian di Vito I know that he is born in 1979 in Rome and that he started after hearing 'On' by Aphex Twin. and that he uses just a laptop. On the title track of his 'Alone In A Chamber' both of these things hardly seem relevant: no rhythms and the dissonant frequencies heard could also found there original in windsounds, but which group in the course of twenty-five minutes in intensity. The others works, including the second piece of his Mp3 album, are shorter and here the computer plays indeed an important role. However, I thought not much of it. Mainly noisy, yet unfocussed slabs of noise in a rather dull manner. (FdW) Address: http://www.tibprod.com 1. From: oren ambarchi Thu July 8 Tetuzi Akiyama/Oren Ambarchi/Alan Licht Dunedin Public Art Gallery 30 The Octagon , Dunedin, New Zealand Sat July 10 Tetuzi Akiyama/Oren Ambarchi/Alan Licht Creation, Worcester St., Christchurch, New Zealand http://www.orenambarchi.com 2. From: "guido.huebner" Concert non-stop of Electroacoustic Music In the yard of the fine arts museum / cafe Mamsel in the castle of Caen, France on Tuesday the 5th august 2004 from 9:30 p.m. until late night «Carte blanche» to Christine Groult a selection of works interpreted by Jonathan Prager on the Acousmonium Motus with premières by Christine Groult, Guido Huebner / DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE and Frank Ravail. light conception by Jean Michel Plot Programme : 9:30 p.m. Guido Huebner / DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE : Entgleisungen pt. 04 * 17?00 Bernard Parmegiani : De natura sonorum 20?02 (1ère serie, movements 1,2,3 and 5) Denis Dufour : Caravaggio 10?00 Patrick Ascione : Métamorphose d?un jaune citron 14?03 François Bayle : Tremblement de terre très doux (first 6 movements) 15?26 11:00 p.m. Christine Groult : La condition captive * 12?40 Roger Cochini : La schiuma dei rumori 11?00 Beatriz Ferreyra : Rio del sueno 22?00 (first and third movement) 0:00 midnight Pierre Henry : Prisme 15?17 Jacqueline Ozanne : Dedans, de haut (last two tabloids : Déchaîne, Exhale) 15?00 Franck Ravail : Autrefois, des psaumes * 15?00 Alexandre Yterce : Foudres traversées 9?38 1:00 a.m. Federico Schumacher : Estrellas compactas 12?30 Mirtu Escalona-Mirajes : Sur le chemin la brume 14?00 (premières *) 3. From: "Ansgar Wilken" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, 8th July 2004 / 20:30 h Knieschussclub@ZAKK, Sielpfad 11, 28203 Bremen / Germany K I I L A (Finnland) -- freefolk psychedelia -- venue: http://zakk.klubraum.org/ info: happyzloty@web.de bandinfos: http://www.kiila.com/ http://www.fonal.com/ http://www.kraak.net/en/kiila.html http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/review.php?id=12206 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. From: extrapool EXTRAPOOL Tweede Walstraat 5 6511 LN Nijmegen tel 024 3888234 FAX 024 3601811 info@extrapool.nl http://www.extrapool.nl Extrapool visits the Valkhofaffaire: 6 days of music and performance on 4 stages. check www.valkhofaffaire.nl for the whole program and location. Extrapool in the Absis (ruïne) sunday 18 JULY 19.45-20.45 hours Boca Raton (NL) www.stichtingmixer.nl 21.45-22.45 hours Lem (B) www.pneu.org Monday 19 JULY 21.45 -22.45 hours Langspeelorkest (NL) http://langspeelorkest.8m.com Tuesday 20 JULY 21.45-22.45 hours Team Plastique (AU) www.team-plastique.com wednesday 21 JULY 21.45-22.45 hours Candie Hank aka Patric Catani (D) www.candiehank.com Thursday 22 JULY 21.45-22.45 hours Olivier Lamm (F) www.olamm.fr.st/ Friday 23 JULY 21.45-22.45 hours My Jazzy Child (F) http://myjazzychild.free.fr/ -- 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 - Acaciastraat 11 - 6521 NE Nijmegen - The Netherlands All written by Frans de Waard (FdW), The Square Root Of Sub (MP ), Dolf Mulder (DM), Meelkop Roel (MR), Gerald Schwartz (GS), Niels Mark Pedersen (NMP), Henry Schneider (SH), Jeff Surak (JS), TJ Norris (TJN), Gregg Kowlaksky (GK), Roger Teeling (RT), Craig N (CN), Boban Ristevski (BR), Maurice Woestenburg (MW) and others on a less regular basis. 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. Announcements can be shortened by the editor. Please do NOT send any attachments/jpeg's, we will trash them without viewing. There is no point in directing us to MP3 sites, as we will not go there. 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