============ VITAL WEEKLY ============ number 433 ------------ week 31 ------------ POPULAR ELECTRONICS (4CD by Basta) TELEPHERIQUE & MAURIZIO BIANCHI - ZEHN TAGE (CD by Afe Records) DE FABRIEK - QUARTRO-EROGENIC-OCCUPY THEME'S PART II (CDR by Afe Records) S:CAGE : REMOTE (CD by Ant Zen Recordings) ISZOLOSCOPE - LES GORGES DES LIMBES (CD by Ant-Zen) ROLLERBALL - BEHIND THE BARBER (CD by Silber) MIKE VANPORTFLEET - BEYOND THE HORIZON LINE (CD by Silber) BIP HOP GENERATION VOLUME 7 (CD compilation by Bip Hop) RAMON SENDER - WORLDFOOD (CD by Locust Music) LETICIA CASTANEDA - ON THE VERGE OF REDUNDANCE (CD by Crippled Intellect Records) NAUTICAL ALAMANAC/VERTONEN (split LP by Crippled Intellect Records) TELEVISION POWER ELECTRIC - 2 (CD by Kuro Neko Music) BJECT - OBJECT 4 (CD by Locust Music) LE DOIGT DE GALILEE - OBJECT 5 (CD by Locust Music) BNSF - OBJECT 6 (CD by Locust Music) JIM FOX - THE CITY THE WIND SWEPT AWAY (miniCD by Cold Blue Music) DANIEL LENTZ - LOS TIGRES DE MARTE (miniCD by Cold Blue Music) MICHEAL JON FINK - A TEMPERAMENT FOR ANGELS (miniCD by Cold Blue Music) STEVE PETERS - FROM SHELTER (miniCD by Cold Blue Music) TAMING POWER - AUTUMN WORKS 2002 (LP by Early Morning Records) PAUL BRADLEY - SEPULCHRAL (CDR by Twenty Hertz) PHIL MOULDYCLIFF & COLIN POTTER - DRONE WORKS #3 (CDR by Twenty Hertz) PABLO RECHE - CONSTELACION (MP3 by Con-V) POPULAR ELECTRONICS (4CD by Basta) In Vital Weekly 117 I discussed the three CD set of the complete tape music by Dick Raaijmakers, one of, if not the, most important composers of electronic music in The Netherlands. He's now in his seventies, but not too late to get his cooperation on perhaps the most importance re-issue of this year - I am not exaggerating. For it was Dick Raaijmakers who composed the very first electronic pop tune in 1957: 'Song Of The Second Moon'. It delt with spacetravel, a theme that was popular due to the first man in space Yuri Gagarin. Electronic music until then delt with serious composed music, in likewise serious studios, in Cologne or Paris. By this time Philips in Eindhoven also had their electronic studio and composers worked there. The director asked a young man to compose 'popular electronic music' and 'Song Of The Second Moon' was the first tune. It was never released because on the b-side it had an electronic version of 'Colonel Bogey', from the film 'Bridge Over The River Kwai', which the widow of the original composer Alford wouldn't allow being released. But maybe the Philips directors didn't like the song. The 7" was not released but found it's way to business relations around the world. Now the history of 'popular electronics' is fully documented on this four CD set. The box comes with no less than seven different booklets, about three composers, about the studio, about film music about the sound restoration and an introduction. It also contains posters of scores and stickers of original artwork. Besides Dick Raaijmakers, it also includes works of the lesser known (at least abroad) composer Henk Badings and composer Tom Dissevelt, whose 'Fantasy In Orbit' was bootlegged many times. Pioneering works from the years 1956 to 1963. Even when it says 'popular electronics', it must be understood that not many were aiming to be a hit. 'Popular' in this case should also be understood as music for ballet or filmmusic. In that respect the second CD contains some really interesting works by Raaijmakers: music he composed for several short films, some educational ones, which sort of fall in between the serious (later) work and the poppy tune of 'Song Of The Second Moon'. In terms of 'poppyness' only the first CD shows an overview of such works, even when the two Henk Badings pieces sort of fall outside. The shorter Dissevelt pieces on this CD predate Kraftwerk by 10 or more years and techno music by at least 30 years. Short witty tracks, with a pumping rhythm. The third CD in the box is just filled with Dissevelt's 'Fantasy In Orbit', which remains after all these years a truely fascinating piece of electronic music. It clearly stands aside from the serious electronic music, because it uses repeated sounds, maybe even loops of sound. The bass sound he achieves in this music clearly forecasts techno. Some people will find perhaps the fourth CD the most interesting, as this contains from many of the works of the other three CDs the sounds used, but also TV and radio tunes composed. Rather than a music CD, this is almost like a sound effects CD. I think this is very nice of Basta and it could surely lead to an extended remix project of say 'Song Of The Second Moon' or a tribute to Tom Dissevelt. A box of treasures is now in your store, and I'd say: tap into musical history and benefit from it. This is landmark in electronic music, and not just the Dutch electronic music scene, but should be heard by all. (FdW) Address: http://www.basta.nl TELEPHERIQUE & MAURIZIO BIANCHI - ZEHN TAGE (CD by Afe Records) DE FABRIEK - QUARTRO-EROGENIC-OCCUPY THEME'S PART II (CDR by Afe Records) The ten days referred to here, are the ten days lost in 1582 when the calender was revised by Pope Gregorius XIII. The concept at work here is the 'uselessness of time calculation compared to the precision of time itself'. Telepherique are of course main players in the underground for many years, releasing a wide stream of CDRs, CDs and vinyl. Maurizio Bianchi was one of the main players of industrial music as MB, but in 1984 he left music suddenly. All of his previous records from the early 80s have been re-issued and are a must have. His return however didn't bring much interesting new music, at least what I heard of it. It's interesting to notice that this new CD is Bianchi's first collaboration ever. From purely judging from what I hear, is that Bianchi has made ten different sound pieces in his recent, more new agey style of synthesizer playing: the area that I didn't find of much interest in his recent music. But the addition of more synths, guitars and slow percussion really lifts this music up and actually makes it quite enjoyable. Slow peaceful music, with the new age element a bit removed, or say, enhanced. More to the credit of Telepherique than of Maurizio Bianchi, me thinks. Also since many, many years active are De Fabriek and they are never the same. They have sounded noise like, psychedelic, electronic, techno and, due to the open membership, here they go into more hippy/psychedelic areas again. Thanks, me thinks, to the member that is called The Use Of Ashes, a , for me, local guitar group with a very recognizable guitar playing style. It's this guitarsound that plays an important role here. The role of other members include mixing in their own field recordings, ethnic music, synth sounds and maybe more guitars. This makes this release into a nice psychedelic affair and of course a totally alien work in the ever expanding catalogue of De Fabriek (but that can of course be said of almost all recordings of De Fabriek, hardly two are alike). This is one of the better ones. (FdW) Address: http://www.aferecords.com S:CAGE : REMOTE (CD by Ant Zen Recordings) Apparently there are a growing number of sound artists that find their way into the border between harsh electronics and gently floating ambient-scapes. Especially German label Ant-Zen Recordings seems to sign quite a few great artists working in these areas. Gridlock is one of the best examples on how brilliant that certain mixture might sound. With the debut album titled "Remote" from S:Cage, the seeds for another heavyweight could have been laid. Where Gridlock mostly works in a sound sphere similar to Aphex Twin, S:Cage on the ambient side more relates to darker ambient scene around Steve Roach and Robert Rich, thanks to his majestic soundscapes of soothing atmospheres that slowly builds up and fades out only to give way for the next wave of dark sounds. Powerful rhythm textures filled with overdoses of heavy bass-lines have been sent towards territories of deep floating ambient. The atmosphere nicely changes from threatening towards more gentle territories. Though not quite reaching the level of Gridlock, S:Cage definitely works on a very high quality level that could make him end up as one of the important names on the future Ambient-Industrial scene. (NMP) Address: http://www.ant-zen.com ISZOLOSCOPE - LES GORGES DES LIMBES (CD by Ant-Zen) In the first place Canadian project Iszoloscope came out as the collaboration between the two Canadian sound artists François Bénard & Yann Faussurier back in 1999. Originally the project was focused on a pure ambient-like expression. But with the farewell to Francois Bénard as an Iszoloscope member, Yann Faussurier made a turn towards the power noise-scene around German label Ant Zen Recordings. One year ago Iszoloscope had its first release on Ant-Zen Recordings. The album that was titled "Au seuil du néant" greatly balanced on the edge between dark ambient and Industrial-based power noise. As a 5th anniversary celebration of Iszoloscope Yann Faussurier has now released the album "Les Gorges Des Limbes" which is a collection of the earliest ambient works of Iszoloscope back in the period around 1999/2000. Compared to "Au seuil du néant ", the album musically is a radical movement into the deepest ocean of ambient sounds. The one hour long journey brings us into the deepest and darkest territories of ambient, territories that first of all have been successfully explored by artists such as Inade, Lustmord and Yen Pox. The atmosphere is dark and threatening with only a very few signs of rhythm texture. And the few rhythmic movements that appear are only discreet loops created on clicking micro sounds. The sounds are echo-ish and first of all built around low speed drones of claustrophobic isolationism. After the rhythm based "Au seuil du néant"-album it is a remarkable experience, diving into the deepest areas of Iszoloscope where there isn't any rhythm texture to avoid you from sinking deeper and deeper into the black soundspace. Listeners of dark ambient should take notice here! (NMP) Address: http://www.ant-zen.com ROLLERBALL - BEHIND THE BARBER (CD by Silber) I'm constantly following this label through their releases. Their sound differs from release to release. From post punk and guitar oriented sound of Lycia and Twelve, acoustic indie pieces of Jamie Barnes to ambient and dark electronic variations of Small Life Form and Mike Van Portfleet. Here we have release by Rollerball. Another project on Silber records that gives completely different sound perspective from before mentioned styles. "Behind The Barber" is follow up of their previous Silber release "Real Hair" (silber 28) and it's their tenth album release. "Real hear" was combination and exploration of classic jazzy trumpet and piano flows, cabaret sounds, ska and duby experimentation, hip hop wannabe moments and real noisy and psychedelic improvisation. With this latest release (silber 33), very similar like on its predecessor, they are again playing with jazz forms and psychedelic atmospheres. All that versatility and mishmash of, on first look incompatible and eclectic sounds, is connected again, mixed with more mood and new aspects to develop the totality one level higher. Dark and ambient moments, free jazz reminiscence, much improvisation, noisy elements, half broken melodies, arrhythmic falls and dissonances, electro acoustic minimalism from one side as their dark face and funky bass lines, melodic vocals, slow and calm atmospheres, dub combinations, electronic layers from the other, just to show their sweet side... This eclectic collective (featuring impressive names of collaborators: Portland electronica genius Nudge, Italian avant stars OVO, spastic celebralists Point Line Plane, improvisational icon Bill Horist and tenor sax maniac Jef Brown of Jackie-O Motherfucker) at this time again emerge with another combination of chaos and harmony, disturbance and mood, presenting their both sides showing that they are equally good in both. All aspects of their versatility are exposed. (TD) Address: http://www.silbermedia.com MIKE VANPORTFLEET - BEYOND THE HORIZON LINE (CD by Silber) I already mentioned Lycia in previous review for Silber records earlier release (silber 33). It was mentioned as one of projects that gives one of various perspectives in sound that Silber releases. This time we have Lycia?s founder Mike VanPortfleet with his solo release. Opposite from his Lycia work (Empty Space, silber032) where he was combining cold, dark and pure ambient post-punk from late 80's up through the late 90?s in influential hybrid that had never existed before, here he is extracting just finest ambient moments isolating them from any classic guitar influence. Pure calm frosty polar sound made in sandy desert south-western Arizona. Layers of long, calm, shadowy haystacks are mixing one over another. Traditional rock structures are morphed into shimmering, crystalline soundscapes and much of his glass-cutting guitar work is replaced by loop manipulation with just small parts of beautiful ambiental guitar trails. Those moments are angelic guitar tone breaks through the ice. Dark and at all ambient sound nowadays is becoming somehow passé. VanPortfleet succeeded to translate and modify dark ambient and post apocalyptic sound without loosing its basic aim, integrity and depth as well as to sound fresh and exciting even today. "Beyond The Horizon Line" is work that merges majestic misery, tension and darkness from one and glacial beauty, clarity and contemplation from other side. It is work that mirrors tone and alienation of the desert. Work that can only be earned by years spent in solitary isolation and contemplation and yet somehow to be filled with humanness and beauty. (TD) Address: http://www.silbermedia.com BIP HOP GENERATION VOLUME 7 (CD compilation by Bip Hop) After releasing six volume of 'Bip Hop Generation' it was time for a break. A new design had to come in place and the label had to take things quieter for a while. Now they are back with the seventh volume of the series and with a fresh design. The series plays around with the notion of new electronic music, that is rooted in techno, ambient and glitch. One can find well-known names, here Taylor Deupree, Ghislain Poirier or Janek Schaefer and some lesser knowns as Fonica or entirely new ones such as Emisor or FM3 (there are always six artists on each compilation). Taylor opens up with three pieces of Ovalesque electronica that are along the lines of his recent collaboration with Christopher Willits (see also last week's issue). Good pieces, of course I need to say. Deupree is a master in what he does. Emisor is one Leonardo Ramella from Buenos Aires, who sits more in the techno-glitch corner of music, but I can't say I am too impressed by his work. Fonica are from Japan and play one long pieces of current day glitch and ambient. Maybe sounds boring on paper, but actually works out really fine. Fm3 are a Chinese group around long term China resident Christiaan Virant. In his group he combines cleverly traditional instruments with electronica, in two very nice pieces of improvised acoustic and brooding electronics. Ghislain Poirier's music is also not always convincing me, but the three cuts here are sort of alright - although not brilliant. Janek Schaefer closes the compilation with a very nice composition based on street sounds from six different cities. Quite a nice example of soundscaping. A booklet with information is of course still part of the deal, so this 'encyclopedia electronica' is growing again. (FdW) Address: http://www.bip-hop.com RAMON SENDER - WORLDFOOD (CD by Locust Music) Besides releasing CDs of current day improvisation, Locust Music has some great access to the archives of electronic music. They release some mighty strange works by people that, at least I think, are mighty unknown. I never heard of Raymon Sender. His two works on this CD date from 1965 - which in my case is a life-time ago - and though I read the liner notes, I must admit it didn't mean much to me. Sender describes his time at the San Francisco Tape Music Center and how he dabbled around with reel-to-reel machines, creating tapeloops of orchestral pieces which he then layers on end. If you are familiar with 'Come Out' or 'It's Gonna Rain' by Steve Reich, you can sort of grasp the idea. The two pieces are lenghty (29:32 and 43:15) and from the series of pieces called 'Worldfood'. In 'Worldfood VII (To See Him With My Eyes), he chooses a soprano singing a Bach cantata, which is on at least sixteen different loops of different lengths. The result is a massive, dense sound field, in which the vocal is quite distorted, but nevertheless recognizable as such. Due to minimal mixing of the loops a hallucinating sound mass is pictured. 'Worldfood XII' takes it's source from an 'FM modulator with a square wave generator' in varying octaves and different speeds of playback and is a more synthetic piece of music. It may start out sounding a boring piece of synthesizer sounds, but of the lenghty course of this piece, things really develop and again the slight hypnotic patterns evolve. Very nice works of a long time ago, which made me wonder: who is this guy anyway? (FdW) Address: http://www.locustmusic.com LETICIA CASTANEDA - ON THE VERGE OF REDUNDANCE (CD by Crippled Intellect Records) NAUTICAL ALAMANAC/VERTONEN (split LP by Crippled Intellect Records) In this day and age it becomes more and more difficult to put new artists on the market, but Crippled Intellect is one of those rare labels who actually keep on trying. They now come up with Leticia Castaneda, who hails from Los Angeles and plays her music live with people from Solid Eye and the Los Angeles Free Music Society. This is her very first CD and it turned out to be a great one. Her music stands in the tradition of musique concrete recordings of the sixties and seventies, but maybe with today's technology. That is something of importance to realize since some of the material hoovers at a low volume level. She uses organ sounds next to the amplified sources of say a comb and craftes five delicate pieces together. Each of these five compositions is a pleasure to hear, with the Lopezian 'Statue' as the most radical encounter here. On the same label, but different medium and also different music is a split LP by two, by now, veterans of underground music. Nautical Alamanac has a side full of really fucked up electronica and even more fucked up musique concrete. It seems like they use analog tape recorders and about every sound it played in a different speed than any of the other sound that is used at the same time. Slowed down and sped up tape mayhem of analogue synths versus raw abuse of acoustic sounds. On the b-side there is Vertonen, CIP labelboss Blake Edwards' solo project. He has a couple of releases and much to my surprise more than before, he returns to a more raw and noisy sound, especially in say the first half of the side. A rhythmic noise and feedback make up this sound, before moving over into more droney material towards the end and a sample of piano playing ends the piece. Despite these totally different tracks, this works however quite well and is one of the best Vertonen pieces I heard so far. The cover is a silk-screen thing, which definetly give this a true eighties feel. (FdW) Address: http://www.cipsite.net TELEVISION POWER ELECTRIC - 2 (CD by Kuro Neko Music) I am a bit puzzled why TV Pow are called Television Power Electric here, but I think it has to do with the fact that there is an extended line up here. Besides core members Todd Carter, Micheal Hartman and Brent Gutzeit, we also find Boris Hauf, Ernst Karel and Toshimaru Nakamura. TV Pow, as I prefer to call them, are a laptop band with strong ties in improvised music. They are also a bunch of sturdy minimalists. 'Title Track' consists of twenty three minutes of miniature crackling of radiophonic static. In 'Storks International: Chicago Chapter' things are overtly more dark, but still likewise minimal. TV Pow are rightly so a microsound band - rather than so many others microsound solo. In their playing together they really feel how to add and adjust their individual sound to that of the whole group. That makes this into a really interesting CD and sets TV Pow apart from so many others in the same field. (FdW) Address: http://www.kuronekomusic.com BJECT - OBJECT 4 (CD by Locust Music) LE DOIGT DE GALILEE - OBJECT 5 (CD by Locust Music) BNSF - OBJECT 6 (CD by Locust Music) Sometimes I have the best jobs: sit at home, stare out of the window and listen to music. When the music comes in all forms and shapes it's even more nice. But sometimes they come en masse in similar forms, like no less than three discs of improvisational music on the Locust Music label. I played them in a row and then again. Then I slowly went crazy. Does this mean they are bad discs? Of course not. Locust Music have a good sense for good music. But it was just a bit too much to take in at once. Bject is a Japanese trio of Masahiko Okura (tubes and alto sax), Tetuzi Akiyama (turntable without records, contact microphone on electric guitar) and Utah Kawasaki (analog synthesizer, cellular phone and contact microphone). Their four pieces are mostly evolving around electronic sounds (crackling, hiss, static noise) and improvised doodlings on the guitar. Though not every moment is great, like the fourth tracks which takes too much time, me thinks), it's the sort of improvised music disc that is alright. A strange duet is put on by Le Doigt De Galillee, aka Nicolas Field and Jaime Fennelly - they play bass drum, drums, percussion and electronics. Strange because I noted this half way through the CD, but it doesn't sound like pure drumming CD. I noted the percussive elements in there, but there is a great deal of electronics, feedback and electro-acoustic sound (the picl up of sounds with contact microphones) in there, which makes this into a pretty varied CD. Maybe at some sixty minutes in total, maybe a bit lenghty too, which could have used some more editing to make it stronger, but a fine disc anyway. Behind BNSF we find one Adam Diller (saxophone, timbales, microphone), Matt Crane (drums, percussion, samples) and Jason E Anderson (guitar, laptop, electronics, harmonica, microphone). In general they play shorter pieces (anywhere between 29 seconds and 11 minutes) of more regular improvised music. The techniques used on the saxophone don't seem to extend beyond the regular playing and also say the drums are used in a rather normal free improv manner. The most interesting parts are played on the guitar, laptop and electronics, such as in 'Domani E Troppo Tardi', with it's slow built up. Sort of alright, this disc. (FdW) Address: http://www.locustmusic.com JIM FOX - THE CITY THE WIND SWEPT AWAY (miniCD by Cold Blue Music) DANIEL LENTZ - LOS TIGRES DE MARTE (miniCD by Cold Blue Music) MICHEAL JON FINK - A TEMPERAMENT FOR ANGELS (miniCD by Cold Blue Music) STEVE PETERS - FROM SHELTER (miniCD by Cold Blue Music) Under the banner of 'Complete One Course Meals', Cold Blue Music releases four CD singles - well, packed in digipack and looking like a big CD anyway, it's hard to tell they are CD singles - by four different composers. The first one is by Jim Fox and turned out to be the only one in the series which uses trombones, but also (as usual for so many Cold Blue releases) violins, piano and cello. The sound of the trombone and bass trombone add a haunting, dark effect to the music, over which the piano and the strings play their more lighthearted tunes. The main instrument is the piano however, playing the main lines and everything swirls around it - desolated music, or rather the music of desolated places - maybe the sound happening when a city is indeed swept away by the wind. 'Los Tigres De Marte' by Daniel Lentz is a piece for clarinet, electronic keyboards, violins, viola and cello and is a rather lively piece, quite tonal too with some shimmering of Lentz' old influences (which he says are serialism and bebop). Although this is a nice piece, I must also say that it's not a piece made for me. Too regular orchestral sounding, without too much of sharp edge in there, maybe too sweet and smooth. But nevertheless pleasent to hear. More angular is the work by Micheal Jon Fink. Also scored for violins and cellos, but also cymbals and sampler keyboards, the piece evolves around sustained pitches of sound that are closely related, but played with some pastoral touch. A bit microtonal in approach and for sure highly minimal. Over the course of the piece sounds are added by means of sampling until towards the end they make a crescendo and fall back into quietness. Nice piece! Along similar lines is the CD single by Steve Peters, whom you may know for his more electro-acoustic work. Unlike the others, this contains four shorter pieces and it's primary instrument is the viola, but there is also piano and voice. In 'Three Short Stories' the violin plays the important role, gliding gently around. The fourth piece, 'My Burning Skin To Sleep', is for voice and piano, but the 'ooohhhh' singing is just not ok, at least for me. (FdW) Address: http://www.coldbluemusic.com TAMING POWER - AUTUMN WORKS 2002 (LP by Early Morning Records) It seems as if Taming Power sits on an endless pile of recordings, and has enough money to make them all public on vinyl. All of his records are limited to say some 200 copies and each has a photograph and some text on the back. The eight pieces here are all played by guitar, feeding it through some distortion and delay and putting it to four track cassette recorder. Except the first piece which also contains some 'reversed guitar and some stop motion recording' (whatever that may be). This is very minimal concept, and I couldn't help thinking that I was listening to eight or more less similar pieces. The guitar is being strummed, some delay (where's the distortion) and that's about it. The guitar sounds the same through out each of these eight pieces - slightly high pitched. I think more could have been of this simple idea and it's a pity that Taming Power didn't do that. One of the weaker brothers in his vast catalogue. (FdW) Address: PAUL BRADLEY - SEPULCHRAL (CDR by Twenty Hertz) PHIL MOULDYCLIFF & COLIN POTTER - DRONE WORKS #3 (CDR by Twenty Hertz) On his latest CDR release, Paul Bradley (one of the rising stars from the UK drone music scene) processes the sound of guitar. Nothing new, this guitar as the source of drone music. But unlike many other, Bradley had composed a strange work that lasts about thirty minutes. Strange in the sense that it is not one long drone from start to finish, but it moves between strong drone passages, but then things slip back and it seems to be starting again. There is a slightly metallic sound to these recordings, a bit harsh at times. But overall, this is a fine work that fits the tradition (Ora, Monos, Mirror etc) quite well. On the same label comes the third part of 'drone works', a series of CDR's that roughly last twenty minutes. Of course one knows the work of Colin Potter, but Phil Mouldycliff might be lesser known. The two worked together before (see Vital Weekly 388) and it was said back than that Mouldycliff plays 'audio debris field'. In the meantime I still don't know what that is. Their piece lasts almost twenty three minutes and contains some very strong hypnotic drone music. Set against a wall of sound, it seems that in the foreground there is the sound of papers flying about, but it might as easily be the edges of sound effects of some heavily processed field recordings. Like with many recordings by Potter, this is loaded with sound effects, but he is a genius with these things. Very nice work. (FdW) Address: http://www.twentyhertz.co.uk PABLO RECHE - CONSTELACION (MP3 by Con-V) The name Pablo Reche is already quite know from various releases, mainly on Spanish labels such as Gracia Territori Sonori. On this new MP3 he offers five pieces of music, which are fine examples of the sort of music he makes. Taking field recordings of a highly minimal character, knitting all the sound together into a very dense, closed field of sound. Utterly minimal in approach, but the result is great. It's both ambient and industrial, for some of this sounds like nuclear rainfall on the desert, with contact microphones slowly decaying under the fall-out. 'Agua (Medio)' shows us water life as seen from the bottom of the ocean, everything happens above somewhere and down there not much is going on. Five pieces of some intense sound processing. (FdW) Address: http://www.con-v.org 1. From: jelle crama DEATH PETROL BRUNCH AIR !! 08 AUGUST 2004 / 12u / Scheld'apen, Antwerpen FREE - musick - entrance - movie - bbq - expo check site for program (+ 40 bands!) bring your own food.. http://www.deathpetrol.tk 2. From: as ...as... airs: every SATURDAY midnight 104.4FM [london, uk] live streams: http://www.resonancefm.com other places/times: http://www.worldtimeserver.com contribute: b[at]estsoks.demon.co.uk 07.08.04 [ -HYPH- ]: one hour as breathing as if dependent on gadgets composed and produced by nicholas weise, hamburg, 2003/4 sound sources used: bass clarinet without mouth piece, breathing, various kitchen devices, disturbed synth signal, feedback, cello, piano strings, splinters of glass on wet concrete, pneumatic brake of a freight wagon, self produced techno music through 1 broken speaker, the fragmented voice of victoria fernandez, the fragmented singing of blue lake choir there has been countless research, poetics, allegory and politics around the phenomenon of brathing as one [or t-h-e] central function and symptom of being alive. [recently, another audio composition called 'as a breath has been featured on the ...as... radio series]. there are as many different potential forms of dealing with the 'material' of breath as there are people breathing. my personal concern is fragmentation - not merely as an artistic technique, but as a principle form of perception, communication, thinking , feeling and generally living in today's techno capitalist society. in my work, non-linear swithces between analogue and digital, sometimes beyond any calculation, are taking place. layers take over layers, transparency turns opaque. fragments infiltrate layers composed of other fragments. structures are being torn apart, rasterized digitally and then manually/illogically re-assembled. disruption and disjointment in all that we receive as 'normalised' and 'funtionalised' is keeping us awake. we can only breath if we are conscious of the gadgets and the dependencies... requiem89[at]gmx.de www.skam.org ........ 14.08.04 Raymond Dijkstra: one hour as un oiseau enfermÈ, sauf le tete, dans une boite contenant de l'hydrogËne sulfurÈ meurt assez rapidement piece for two harmoniums recorded Amsterdam, 12.01.04 ........ 21.08.04 Andrew Hayleck: one hour as... - - - ... This piece was begun in August 2002 to be played through a four channel sound installation for the High Zero Festival in Baltimore. At that time it was called "Lazy Afternoon." The gong was played by bowing a 6 foot wire that was attached to it. Four microphones were place at various points on the gong. "Lazy Afternoon" was (is) 32 minutes long. Since that time, "Lazy Afternoon" became an ironic title, and came to mean something different. I mixed the four channels down to two and added an additional 28 minutes. It has to do with memory. andyhayleck[at]yahoo.com ........ 28.08.04 Mike Shannon/Jeph Jerman/Luca Miti: 90 minutes as Spring-Summer 2002 recorded in Cottonwood, Arizona by Jeph Jerman, Rome, Italy by Luca Miti, and Seattle, Washington by Mike Shannon; mixed by Mike Shannon at Joy Street Studios, Florida April 2004 I AM PERPLEXED BEHIND THIS TAPE if listening is the thing, why then all the fuss about anything else? when mind interferes can we not change it? if there is no discernable human intent behind a "work of art", is it then still worth the attention? this tape has taken a long time. about a year in fact, due to the careful considerations of it's makers. i initially thought we were going to make an improvised music tape through the mail. luca's idea was for the three of us to record the sounds of our environments, inside and out and then mix them together, which is what we ended up doing, luca in rome, mike in seattle and myself in cottonwood. mike did the mixing. after hearing the initial mixed tape, luca had some reservations, or so as he called them, "doubts and perplexities". the speed of his tape recorded was slightly different than either mike's or mine, the people who he'd recorded may not want their voices published, (which turned out not to be true), the subject matter of the conversation (shit) may not be "appropriate" for a "work of art", the tape was boring. mike fixed the speed problem by remixing the whole tape. conversations in italian may not be comprehensible to many, ...and boredom is a state of mind that can easily be overcome by changing it. truly listening supercedes all of these. luca admitted a quest for perfection. to my mind, these things are already perfect. we often do not perceive them as such. so where is the perfection, the boredom, the inappropriateness? ego very often conceals itself in seemingly correct thought. who would want to publish a work that did not bear the imprint of it's maker? behind the idea of "communication", there is often lurking the desire to be perceived in a certain special light. this impulse is difficult (though not impossible) to disengage, but i believe the results are much more interesting, if one can disengage it. each time i have listened to this tape i have heard something new. the mind not burdened by resistance is open to experience, and that is what this tape is. a sound experience that we offer you, and it's up to you to put it to use. jeph jerman, cottonwood az, march 2003 Produced by:Mike Shannon/Joy Street Studios joystreetstudios[at]hotmail.com -- Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted for free to anybody with an e-mail address. 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