Milieu - A Warm Wooden Hollow (Infraction, 2008)

1 Mirage (2:50)
2 Rope Nest (6:43)
3 Sieve (4:11)
4 Written On Driftwood (11:08)
5 Pollen Cabin Poetry (5:22)
6 Winter Decay (3:15)
7 The Decomposition Of Memory (5:41)
8 A Night Walk Clearing (3:54)
9 Muted Travels (3:49)
10 Burnt Rust (2:13)
11 A Warm Wooden Hollow (6:55)
12 Inside The Sun (18:14)

Un autre superbe album d'ambient par Brian Grainger, avec un petit accent mis sur le piano....

We've had a lot of records in by Milieu this year. Some we've reviewed and the majority we've not reviewed. Mainly cos there's been so many we'd have to employ someone especially to do that and that, put simply, would be nuts. So here we are with another Milieu album and this time it's a proper release album on the Infraction label rather than one of the many CDR's which have arrived. The packaging is all lovely and pastoral which gives you a clue of what you're getting on the inside. The 12 tracks of 'A Warm Wooden Hollow' are quite a change in direction for Milieu as there's much more piano being used. Yes it's still pretty much ambience but the piano adds a different feeling to the music. It's much more spooky and eerie sounding than the usual lush warmth you get from his ambient albums. Float off and tune in for the duration of the album and you'll be sucked into a world of total beauty though. This guy makes some of the best ambient music money can buy and here's another fine example of his work. I'm totally loving the piano on this. I guess it's somewhere between Yellow 6 and William Basinski if you must know (or like a decaying Harold Budd - Ant x) Worra fantastic album!! Ltd to 300 copies in digipack... be quick!!
Norman Records

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Monos - Sunny Day In Saginomiya (Edition ..., 2001)

1 Sunny Day (21:12)
2 October (24:38)

La base de ces deux longs morceaux sont des field recordings (un jardin japonais pour le premier, un hélicoptère et des moteurs pour le second) enregistrés par Daisuke Suzuki, retravaillés par Darren Tate et Colin Potter, qui y ajoutent une électronique vaporeuse...

Monos' music is elusive: if you don't pay enough attention, it blends into the background, becoming an unremarkable soundscape with strange sounds occasionally creeping in. But the moment you focus on it (or listen with headphones, strongly recommended) it becomes immersive and fascinating. Darren Tate and Colin Potter work with the threshold of audibility and familiarity, mixing together vaporous synth textures, field recordings, and electronics to create aural surrealism. Sunny Day in Saginomiya is more demanding than Nightfall Sunshine. The album consists of two extended tracks (over 20 minutes each). The title track is constructed over field recordings made by Daisuke Suzuki. The whole landscape (a Japanese garden, it seems) is clearly audible at first, but as the piece gains in density only the birds, some of them singing from frighteningly close range, signal that the field recording is still there. The other elements are woven into a shifting soundscape with no beginning or end. It is a beautiful experience. "October" adopts a very different perspective. In this piece, the sound of a helicopter provides the basso continuo, accompanied by motor hums and a barely audible synthesizer patch. On top of this basic layer are added odd, disgruntling sounds: a creaking floor, fart sounds in a metal pipe, and various other found sounds, all introduced carefully and purposefully placed into the composition, even though they are often loud, disturb the mood of the backbone layer, and alter -- even contradict -- the peacefulness of the first piece.
All Music Guide Review

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Eric La Casa - The Stones Of The Threshold (Ground Fault Recordings, 1999)

1 S'Ombre (17:46)
2 Chrysalithe (20:34)
3 Les Pierres Du Seuil (Parts 1-3) (32:35)

La constellation des musiques pour bande bénéficie encore aujourd'hui du mythe de la nouveauté. Pourtant, comme dans d'autres musiques, les stéréotypes sont plus nombreux que les oeuvres vraiment inspirées, alors que le champ d'innovation du genre est régulièrement nourri de continuels progrès techniques. L'accès facilité des compositeurs à des enregistreurs portables, aux possibilités de restitution extrêmement précises a ouvert une nouvelle voie d'exploration qui permet d'observer et d'exploiter, comme avec un microscope, la trame à l'intérieur de n'importe quel grain sonore. Les ~uvres disponibles sur ces CDs s'inscrivent en partie dans cette démarche.
Dès la pièce "S'ombre" d'Eric LA CASA, on est gagné par la sensation que le compositeur donne du temps au temps, nous permettant de plonger corps et âme dans cet écoulement d'eau. Petit à petit, des minéraux flottants s'entrechoquent et le souffle perd sa couleur naturelle pour prendre celle d'une soufflerie industrielle. Dès le retour au calme. l'auditeur est sorti de la simple jouissance écologique du paysage sonore, pour guetter dans cette nouvelle quiétude le moindre élément sonore ambivalent pouvant devenir agressif: l'écoute, gagnée d.une compréhension supplémentaire, devient moins naïve. Chaque son employé garde sa singularité et le travail de composition se refuse à fondre les corps, irréductiblement différents, dans un même continuum. Cette préoccupation éthique permet d'accorder une attention aux différences dont chaque sonorité est porteuse. Eric LA CASA les a saisi dans la vie et ne les emploie pas dans un projet préconçu. La création musicale est indissociable des rencontres effectuées dès le collectage sonore qui renferme la mémoire, les expériences individuelles et le temps de vie.
Bien que les percussions employées pour "Chrysalithe" soient d'origine ethnique, la pièce est de facture très contemporaine, conjuguant à la fois une volonté de rupture dans l'enchainement des sons ainsi qu'un souci d'homogénéité dans le grain sonore et l'ambiance générale de la pièce. Les harmoniques issues de la voix déjouent les attentes de ïauditeur en quête d'exotisme, créant une atmosphère corrosive. La montée progressive d'une sensation d'effort physique. qui succède, reste le moment le plus délicieux. "Les pierres du seuil - Part I - 3" garde. à travers ses transmutations de coulée, un aspect plus proche du cinéma documentaire. J'imagine parfois les séquences épiques d'un paysage de pluie de Pelechian. Comme dans le cinéma de Tarkovski, la poétique d'Eric LA CASA n'oublie pas d'inclure dans son écoute du monde ses cicatrices, qu'elles soient naturelles ou issues de la civilisation.
Revue et Corrigée

I happen to be a big fan of Eric La Casa's music, which is created entirely from composed recordings of natural sounds such as wind, water, trees, things like that. la Casa explins his guiding philosophy: "Beyond a virtual mapping of the world, I go back to the landscapes of the real, within the geography of being. And I find out that, round the body, the microphone is breathing in all the energies of the shore, where ephemeral and eternal are grazing against each other. All sound fabrics are transmuting into a vibratory ground where both real and reality are slowly unfolding a landscape as yet unheard of. My works are then breathing out the musicality of these invisible reaches. And the listener is patiently taking in everything outside and inside as the Reality of a very same world. My work is looking for this frontier, at the threshold of reality and real, feeling as if there is somewhere else everywhere". Got it?
Intransitive Records

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Eric La Casa - Les Pierres du Seuil 4-7 (Edition ..., 2000)

1 Les Pierres Du Seuil Part 4 (11:45)
2 Les Pierres Du Seuil Part 5 (20:14)
3 Les Pierres Du Seuil Part 6 (17:47)
4 Les Pierres Du Seuil Part 7 (6:50)

Les quatre morceaux de ce disque d'Eric La Casa sont tout entier centrés sur les bruits d'eau (pluie, ruisseau, etc), réarrangés pour mettre en avant l'aspect émotionnel, sans manipulation électronique, mais parfois mêlés au son de divers objets trouvés ou à des instruments...

The latest release from this French sound artist finds his most magnificent and fully realized work to date. Utilizing his usual bevy of sources from wind to water to minerals and properties of the human body such as breathing and skin surface, La Casa has produced a masterful collage of minuscule and enormous events phenomenally bound in an ether of unaffected ambience. Without the use of any studio effects, the sheer palpability of the various textures and the sounds' simultaneous refusal to generate singular identities propagates in the recordings a marked air of unsettling, organic volatility. Yet far from simply documenting the sonic properties of the spaces and events La Casa has utilized, these painstakingly recorded and mastered sound events give way to a dreamy if not sometimes disturbed immersion in unmitigated aural space.
Edition ...

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link removed reissued by Herbal International buy here

Xela / Ajilvsga - I Love Her Till I Die (Digitalis, 2008)

A Xela The Night Of Sevens (A Love Song) (19:09)
B Ajilvsga Haxti (20:40)

Ambient sombre et hantante...

One side: Type records head honcho John Twells' ambient doom outfit, creating another haunting, crumbling, creepy world of doom-ed sound, epic and heavy, intense and soaring, layers upon layers of coruscating guitars, woven into moody moving droning beauty. The other side: new discovery Ajilvsga, another ambient doom outfit, a duo, one half of which is Digitalis overlord Brad Rose, their side is a thick viscous grinding sludge of blown out guitars, crumbling distortion, heaving slow motion glacial heaviness, that manages to imbue its buzzing creep with haunting melodies and strange blackened beauty.
Gorgeous full color covers printed on textured paper, each one hand numbered, gone before you know it...
Aquarius Records

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The Buried Civilizations - Tunnels To Other Chambers (267 lattajjaa / Jewelled Antler, 2004)

1 Earthen Jars (0:17)
2 As Cold As The Clay (2:44)
3 Long Since Buried (0:14)
4 Moss Banjo (1:46)
5 Eastern Alluvial Plains (2:19)
6 Gallery Of Ancient Birds (3:40)
7 A Port In Sacred Waters (1:42)
8 Ostrich Eggs (0:58)
9 The Long Voyage From Sea To Sea (5:26)
10 People Of The Land (1:01)
11 The Transient Lakes (2:13)
12 Lily Of The Hills (2:31)
13 Ghosts In The Tunnel (4:04)
14 Vacation Route For Emperors (5:12)

folk rituelleet seulement à moitié structurée...

The Buried Civilizations are Kerry McLaughlin & Glenn Donaldson with Christina Boepple (tracks 5, 8, 10 & 13) and Rob Reger (track 9).
recorded at true cross & the church basement. mixed/mastered by gd at true cross.

"The Buried Civilizations perform strange Summerian liturgical music, perhaps found in the listening room in the ancient library at Alexandria or in a crumbling turret in Old Germany. Mysterious but semi-structured song-forms emerge from organ, guitar, flute, banjo & vocal explorations."
267 lattajjaa

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OV - Noctilucent Valleys (Soft Abuse, 2007)

1 Arms Of The Mountain (2:13)
2 Spring Clock (5:03)
3 The Noctilucent Valley (3:37)
4 Bone Of The Bone Scholar / Moon Of The Moon Scholar (10:23)
5 Ghost Of The Future (4:59)
6 Centaur In Saturn (3:36)
7 Soul Of Swan (1:54)
8 The Noctilucent Cloud (8:03)
9 Canals (11:51)

Drones, lo fi, psych, free folk, etc, projet de Loren Chasse et Christine Boepple....

Ov is the collaborative project between Christine Boepple and Loren Chasse (a leading figure in Jewelled Antler groups like Thuja), and sees the duo taking on a kind of organic approach to soundscape abstraction. There's a genuine sense of magic to these recordings, which although steeped in a lo-fi haziness nonetheless manage to capture a real sense of compositional rigour and all-round thoroughness. 'Spring Clock' is the first track to really get the balance right between the degraded sound quality and the musical intricacy of the piece, and following on from there the album's title track features some of the most withdrawn, low-key vocals you're likely to hear on any record, while a corona of cymbal swell gives breadth to the otherwise rather small stereo field the album tends to occupy. The song itself is most clearly redolent of Charalambides at their very gentlest and is, frankly, incredibly beautiful. Taking a cue from Chasse's own field recordings album (The Air In The Sand) from a couple of years back 'Soul Of Swan' begins with a simply gorgeous watery ripple, making a bed for ancient-sounding guitar chimes. Even further removed from conventional song structuring are the droning bow strokes and sustained tones of 'Centaur In Saturn' and the closing driftscape, 'Canals', which over its 12-minutes incrementally converges on a bewitching sense of calm. Highly recommended.
Boomkat

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Loren Chasse - Synthesis Of Neglected Places (Unique Ancient Tavern, 2001)

1 Untitled (6:15)
2 Untitled (11:05)
3 Untitled (6:53)
4 Untitled (4:59)
5 Untitled (7:51)
6 Untitled (12:41)

Rythmiques assurées par des choeurs de criquets avec qquiLoren Chasse se met à dialoguer en musique...

Loren Chasse (Id Battery, Thuja, Knit Separates) originally released "Synthesis of Neglected Places" as a limited edition cassette but has finally released a second pressing as a cdr. The majority of these recordings were made during Chasse's sabbatical in the Pennsylvania countryside during the summer of 1999 and reconstructed later in San Francisco. This album reads somewhat like a diary through sound, at first merely documenting the landscape with an extended field recording of crickets endlessly repeating their rhythmic chorus. Even for his crickets, this environment appears to have been a lonely and lethargic space. Chasse slowly begins a textural duet with the insects with shortwave crackle and labored rock scrapings. In keeping up with Steve Roden's retro-grade process of being "experimentally incorrect" (where such 'pop' aphorisms of melody and Martin Baytes' baroque singing could be included with archetypal experimental techniques such as musique concrete), Chasse concludes his album with a beautiful selection of plaintive piano improvisations, rippling with a hazy production wash and tweeting birds in the distance. "Synthesis of Neglected Places" acts as a nice bridge between the droning abstractions of his solo work and his collaboration in Thuja.
Aquarius Records

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Id Battery - The Foot (Drone Records, 2002)

1 Sea
2 Sky

Loren Chasse et Brandon LaBelle: lo fi, field recordings, musique répétitive et électronique....

"The Foot" is perhaps the last document to be released from Id Battery, the collaborative effort between Loren Chasse and Brandon LaBelle. With Chasse well entrenched in the Jewelled Antler Collective (Thuja, Blithe Sons, Child Readers, etc), in Coelacanth, and in his solo projects, and with LaBelle pursuing a career in the academic realms of avant-garde composition, the likelihood of Id Battery recording again is small. Nevertheless, the acclaimed duo's Drone single "The Foot" is another wonderful document of their organic textures through low-fi found sounds, repetitive rock scrapings, soft electrical field disturbances, and strange hummings. "The Foot" is edited from the recordings made during Id Battery's performance during the Activate The Medium festival in San Luis Obispo in 1998. Artwork by Loren and AQ's Jim Haynes, and limited to 250 copies on marbled yellow and green vinyl. Very nice!
Aquarius Records

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Yannick Dauby - Low Valley (Edition ..., 2004)

1 10:19
2 10:49
3 06:45
4 09:49
5 16:04

Yannick Dauby fait partie de cette famille de musiciens travaillant à partir du sonore de l'environnement naturel. Captations de paysages, de vents, de feuillages, de traces plus ou moins civisilées, qui seront ensuite réorganisés et minutieusement remodelés, refiltrés en studio. Au final des paysages imaginaires et poétiques dans des temps ralentis.
Metamkine

Yet another enigmatic disc on this prodigious sound art label from the USA. I am sure that I've heard Dauby's name before, but it escapes me at the moment where that could have been. Low Valley consists of five tracks, ranging from almost 7 to almost 17minutes in duration. Since there is no accompanying information, all explanations about this work stay in the realm of the fantastic. So let's stick to the audible: small sounds drift in from silence, fading in and out. It must be rain or other water sounds, filtered, manipulated, but recognisable. There are also cicada's and buzzing insects, birds singing, together with a person doing almost nothing, just being there, electrifying things. Furthermore there are electronic devices going haywire and sinewaves weaving themselves through the fabric of sound. Okay, this may sound complicated, but it is actually not so much so. I believe that Dauby is enigmatic with a good reason: ultimately hte sound sources are not overly important, the result is. And it must be said without hesitation that his compositions are strong and compulsive and deserve all the attention the listener can give them. This work is very well crafted and there is no doubt that Dauby has learned the tricks of the trade very well indeed. Recommended!
Vital Weekly

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Sawako - Yours Gray (and/OAR, 2004)

1 As:unacir (2:20)
2 A Message From Bed Of The Sea (2:22)
3 Petit Garçon (7:15)
4 Hole (4:02)
5 Cache Cache (10:58)
6 Night Midlight (6:00)
7 Go To Ocean (3:25)

Sawako se sert ici de field recordings comme base de morceaux qui évoluent de l'abstraction la plus pure à des pièces évoquant l'innocence de l'enfance....

This is the first full length CD for Sawako Kato and the first replicated CD release for and/OAR. This is a perfect release for the Spring and Summer, and a beautiful one at that. Yours Gray shows Sawako's work begin to drift into slightly different directions from her previous releases, with more ambient, and at times, vaguely melodic flourishes that can evoke wistful hazy daydream memories of childhood or perhaps lifetime dreams yet fulfilled. Obviously each listener can derive what they wish from this music. All the more so, since Sawako's paradoxical work tends to encompass deep contemplation, yet with no premeditated intentions on her part.

This release features collaboration work with people such as Toshimaru Nakamura, Kiyoharu Kuwayama (Kuwayama/Kijima & Lethe), Mitchell Akiyama (Sub Rosa, Raster Noton, Force Inc), Asuna (Lucky Kitchen), and Yuichiro Fujimoto (Smalltown Supersound).
and/OAR

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John Hudak - Room With Sky (Spekk, 2003 (2004 reissue))

1 Room With Sky (60:00)

Le son progresse lentement, sur une heure, tandis que la lumière envahit la pièce....

When listening to this sixty minute piece from veteran experimental sound-artist John Hudak it's hard to believe the way it was created. 'Room With Sky' was forged one day in New York, the room it was recorded in was flooded with sunlight thanks to two large windows and Hudak proceeded to record himself speaking in a stream of consciousness style. He took this recording and went on to process it until the words themselves were gone entirely, leaving only the skeleton of speech, leaving what can only be recognised as haunting, dripping tones. You could say this 'repeats' throughout the duration of the track, but there is little room for repetition in Hudak's work, he references the sound of crickets for instance in the way it sounds similar, but it's not the same and the more you listen the more you realise just how varied the sound is. Like all good minimal music too, 'Room With Sky' is only minimal because of people's pre-conceptions of what 'music' should do, and this is a rich, beautiful and involving a recording as you could hope for. It's another great addition to a superb catalogue from Plop, sitting very comfortably next to Taylor Deupree's 'January' and Richard Chartier & William Basinski's untitled collaborative album. Gorgeous and understated bliss.
Boomkat

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Aidan Baker - Noise Of Silence (Hyperblasted, 2007)

1 Noise Of Silence (50:03)

Réflexion d'Aidan Baker sur le silence et sa représentation, 50 minutes de guitare et d'enregistrements ...

A lot of people sank in Aidan Baker’s world - the world of a multi-artist. Each one of them came out alive. Each one of them came out better. The diving place could be the port of the ARC collective, the opening among Pederecki String Quartet’s rocks or the abyss of his personal discography and the one that contains the magic condemned world of the slow, destructive and bestial shell of Nadja. Or even the landscapes of his writings, these collections of words stashed inside the art-spitting sack of despair. Not one of these divers lost anything. Not even Aidan Baker.

Which is the sound of silence? A noise. Bearing no similarity to anything we’ ve met until now. The noise of silence does not shriek in high db’s, it doesn’t yell to declare its presence. In the silent system, noise is merged with peace and quiet, holding (up to the point of nailing) the listener to his place, almost in a metaphysical manner as it leaves us with the gaze of a fool, the one we stick in our faces when confronting the incomprehensible. During the 50-minute presentation of the sound of silence theory a voice whispers the word “suicide” every now and then, driving the listener at top speed towards the wall of madness. By the looks of it, Aidan Baker carefully planned this destructive machine, as suicide stands as the only salvation from the beauty of the moment, a moment which adresses you in slow motion, subsequently allowing the study of the microfilm in order to spot the tiny dots in which the mute storyteller carefully hid the elements of the ancient Greek tragedy and made space for tapes and guitars to narrate the story. And what does a story teach? Get real, there’s no answer to that question. It depends on the story. What happens when you end up having the part of a wordless troubadour’s audience whose ultimate goal is the spreading of a mix of stories that as it seems are not connected by any means? You stand surprised for you know that your education did not take any step at all towards completion, still, you feel a better man. Nobody ever succeeded in defining what “becoming a better man” means. Yet, you are a better man. You know it. “Noise Of Silence” gifted you with the “death to poets” saying. And now you understand why it’s so true. Words can be explained. The teachings of silence not.

...P.S.: In case i didn’t make myself clear (highly possible), i loved this record.”

Electric Requiem

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Aidan Baker - Antithesis (petite sono], 2004)

1 Antidromic (12:10)
2 Antiphon (13:25)
3 Antitoxic (12:43)
4 Anticlime (10:17)

Quatre drones composés à partir de deux improvisations de guitare méconnaissable...

I first heard Toronto, Canada-based Aidan Baker through the Australian label Dreamland Recordings. 'Cicatrice', was one of the highlights of their ambient / drone mini-cdr series (which incidentally kicked off some fine releases). Baker's ability to mutate his guitar to create tonal loops and shifts has put him high on my list of favourite artists. 'Antithesis' is the second release from Canadian label Petite Sono] who have since released the highly recommended compilation 'Ten Below'. They release limited edition cdr's with packaging that shows care and commitment. Toronto-based Aidan Baker has far too many releases to note at this point. However, this has to be one of the highlights. From the liner notes: "All songs spontaneously composed, all sounds produced by electric guitar. Made up of two stereo tracks recorded in two single takes". The whole cd presents a journey through this work and each track is more than 10 minutes long. However, there is no discernable start or end. Baker allows the listener to drift away with him as he fades in the first track. When he introduces another layer it almost sounds like an echoing vocal sample. The tones loop and fade.

What confronts you on first listen is the complete lack of any recognisable guitar sounds. Baker has created a subtle, textural work that deserves to be heard and is mesmerising when it is.
Further Noise

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Adam Pacione - A Still Life (Infraction, 2007)

1 A Still Life

CDr inclus avec les deux cent premiers exemplaires de From Stills to Motions... Drone tout en pulsations...

Bonus CDr with the first 200 copies of From Stills to Motion... Pulstaing drone...

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Northern - Jessa (Infraction, 2007)

1 December
2 Gray's
3 Aviate
4 David
5 Jessa
6 Patrol

CDr bonus accompagnant les 150 premières copies de Drawn, orchestration minimaliste, profonde, dense au goût de drones...

The first 150 copies come bountifully endowed with a bonus cd-r, Jessa (INFX 025), a collection
which signals the next phase in Northern development, though the seeds of Jessa’s future-indicative are retievable from Drawn’s present-past. It evidences a deeper denser dronier zone-out music, minimizing digital intervention and renouncing microsonic patter. The gestures here are towards a half-light almost-orchestralism, moving from the likes of Marsen Jules and the secular sacral of Eluvium, shoulder-to-shoulder with the submersible slowcore starriness of The Lid (whose time of greatest influence and recognition has finally now come). Sidenote: Northern bid their myspace visitors: “be quiet with us.” More resonances of SotL, and their “Be Little with Me”? Sshhh. It’s Northern. It’s the New Quiet."
Infraction

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Steve Roden & Brandon LaBelle - The House Was Quiet And The World Was Calm (Meme, 1999)

1 A Torn Element (6:45)
2 Within The Clearest Stem (2:47)
3 The Quiet Mist Drones (2:36)
4 Raw Star Calm (2:27)
5 Water Messiah (5:16)
6 Shoe Steam Drowns (5:32)
7 Soon Has He (2:58)
8 The Alm Die (2:21)
9 A Hidden Hour (2:05)
10 With Calmer Word (7:15)
11 Drawn Low Material (10:09)
12 Wood Hiss (5:10)

Steve Roden et Brandon LaBelle assemblent des field recordings domestiques aux limites du silence....

Everything you need to know about this record is contained within the title. ID Battery member Labelle's courteous "take only memories; leave only footprints" approach to field recording nuzzles gently against the resourceful Roden's scavenger-hunt sound discoveries. Labelle stakes out the yard, flat on his stomach, discerning ear to the ground, sampling the bouquets of natural statics the way a vintner tastes for the perfect marriage of earth, wood, flower and fruit. Roden (in between noise) pads about the house, rubbing, prodding, tapping and flicking mantlepiece bric-a-brac and other manufactured miscellania like an appraiser testing leaded crystal for the correctly pitched 'ping.' They're both the fussiest of collectors, searching high and low (but mostly low) for sounds to add to their archives of little noises. When they pool their very well recorded collections - Labelle's antenna-twitches, hairy- wing scritches, rustling reeds and sighing stems with Roden's brushed bowls, bowed splints, prepared wheels, souvenir gongs, thumb-pianos and makeshift string-things - they gently bring together the unheard worlds within the walls and without; to the point where sounds become untraceable. The clicking on "the quiet mist drones" may be that of an ant washing its mandibles with feathery feelers. Or it could just be Roden playing with a retractable pen. Too many of the so-called sound archivists are quick to go for the gusto, funneling the grandest of natural phenomena and showiest of domestic and artificial events into their pocket tape-recorders. Labelle and Roden think small - Roden even refers to such work as "lowercase music." One imagines the artists piecing together their perceptive collage with a jewellers' loupe and steady fingers. Even without clamor and din, their art reveals wonderful secrets, about the place of things in this world and about the hidden worlds within commonplace things. Maybe the volume and contrast have been turned down, but Labelle and Roden's work could hardly be more populated. The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm is filled with sounds so easily overlooked (or, even more embarrassingly, mistaken for silence,) - a fastidious spider swinging between radii on her web; water-bugs excreting and hugging their dear, tiny air-bubbles before the splash and descent; the inner hum of wood, metal, plastic and glass coaxed forth with strokings, thumpings and bowings; the shallow reverberations of a dusty gong; a leaf's annoyed response to sudden changes in wind-direction. If you dismiss these riches of quietude as "minimalism," you've missed the point entirely. Toned down? Yes. Stripped? Hardly. Between what is audible and what has been left to inference, ten minutes of "dawn low material" - or the tensile whine of "wood hiss" - vibrate with drama, color, texture, emotion, tension - all the seeds of music in its most exhibitionistic, string-drenched and opulent state. So, go ahead. Turn up the volume, if you need to, and you'll find that it's all there. Remarkable.
Sonomu

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Chris Watson - Stepping Into The Dark (Touch, 1996)

1 Low Pressure (3:46)
2 Embleton Rookery (4:24)
3 The Crossroads (5:02)
4 River Mara At Dawn (6:27)
5 River Mara At Night (4:59)
6 A Passing View (1:51)
7 Bosque Seco (9:03)
8 Sunsets (5:02)
9 The Blue Men Of The Minch (4:51)
10 High Pressure (5:13)
11 Gahlitzerstrom (4:05)
12 The Forest Path (4:52)

Field recordings non retravaillés...

The thing I really love about Chris Watson is that his recordings are not 'merely' field recordings. There is something inherently lazy about so much field recording, where artists tend to look to filling a passage of time rather than really listen to the sounds and the textures they are capturing - not so with Chris Watson. The British sound recording expert who honed his talents working with the Hafler Trio and Cabaret Voltaire (before being snapped up by the BBC as a wildlife recorder) seems to have an inexplicable ability to capture environmental sound as music. These are simple, unprocessed recordings yet are more captivating to listen to than so much straight music out there. Although there are plenty of wildlife recordings on offer here (the most striking being the birds and insects of 'River Mara at Dawn') there is nothing trite or cynical about Watson's work. Watson treats the call of a bird or the fluttering of a dragonfly's wings as a layer or instrument in his piece and you get the feeling that these recordings were selected from hours and hours of work. In my opinion Watson is at the absolute top of his game, and these recordings are simply incomparable to anyone else working within the genre right now. Totally essential listening...
Boomkat

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Andrew Deutsch - The Sun (and/OAR, 2005)

1 Untitled (29:46)
2 Untitled (15:05)
3 Untitled (10:06)
4 Untitled (12:08)
5 Untitled (6:31)

Enregistrements constitués de sons de vagues sur la plage de Rye, reconstruits pour donner une impression d'immobilité tout en drones...

and/OAR is extremely happy to present this powerfully mesmerizing work; carefully remastered and reissued for the first time on CD format. Under the original title of "Der Sonne", this work was originally issued as a limited quantity CDR release on Andrew Deutsch's Magic If label several years ago.

"The Sun was constructed by passing ocean waves (recorded at Rye Beach, New Hampshire), through various digital processing devices. The most articulate of these processors was a tone generator able to isolate and respond to specific frequencies present in the ocean waves. The concept behind The Sun was to make a static music or a kind of music that just shimmered in place. This concept can be traced back to the works of Anthony Braxton in his Tri Axiom Writings, and to Stockhausen in his early serial pieces. As Stockhausen says, "there is a difference between starting and stopping and beginning and ending". The pieces presented here do not begin and end but simply start and stop. The Sun is also a work, in a series of works, I have created to aid in the process of drawing. I call these works 'image drones/sounds for drawing'. The sounds were all inspired by the 'power field theories' of Joseph Beuys and are
dedicated to him and his family." (Andrew Deutsch)

This release will present the first of a new line of packaging for and/OAR. Nicely printed oversized cardstock inserts inside a sturdy clear plastic sleeve with a flap. The CDs will be protected by cloth safety sleeves made in Japan. Special thanks to Kiyoshi Mizutani and Kiyoharu Kuwayama for their help in obtaining the sleeves.
and/OAR

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Omit - Intromit (Deepskin Conceptual Mindmusic)

A1 Damn It
A2 In Terms Of Life And Death
A3 Discs
A4 High Density
A5 Wavering Mind Part 3
A6 ?Excerpt From Tape Two
A7 ?Excerpt From Tape One
A8 One Afternoon
A9 Wavering Mind Part One
A10 The Jaw
A11 Ten
A12 Guts
A13 Excerpt From Domestic Recordings
A14 Excerpt From Metric Capacity Of Nosie On Easter Monday
A15 Ukelele Experiment
A16 Excerpt From Domestic Recordings
B1 Quarter To 12 On A Saturday Night
B2 Small Angry Insect
B3 Excerpt From The Repetitve Industrial Nightmare (The Workers Dream)

Premiers enregistrements, octobre 1987-août 1989...

Early Recordings Oct 1987 - Aug 1989....
Liner Notes:
Side One
1. Damn It - Feb 88
(glass, loop, breath)
2. In Terms of Life and Death - Feb 89
(tape echo, kerosine can, voice, egg slicer)
3. Discs - Dec 87
(phonograph disc, tape)
4. High Density - Nov 88
(feedback)
5. Wavering Mind Part 3 - Feb 88
(guitar, loop, electronic device)
6. ?Excerpt from Tape Two - Dec 87
(board, electronics, loops)
7. ?Excerpt from Tape One - Nov 87
(electric motor, casio calculator, violin loop)
8. One Afternoon - Jan 89
(clarina, tape, tin, guitar)
9. Wavering Mind Part One - Feb 88
(guitar, clarina, loop, tape)
10. The Jaw - Aug 89
(loops, spring, tin, tape)
11. Ten - Aug 88
(radio, electronics, loop)
12. Guts - Dec 88
(stomach digestion, loops)
13. Excerpt from Domestic Recordings - Jan 89
(casiotone, loops, guitar, tape)
14. Excerpt fromMetric Capacity of Nosie on Easter Monday - Apr 88
(electronics, tape)
15. Ukelele Experiment - Oct 87
16. Excerpt from Domestic Recordings - Jan 89
(guitar, loops, tin, tape)

Side Two
17. Quarter To 12 on a Saturday Night - Jan 89
(radio, loops, kitchen sundrys)
18. Snall Angry Insect - Dec 88
(feedback)
19. Excerpt from the Repetitive Industrial Nightmare (The Workers Dream - Apr/May 89
(calculator, telephone, tape, factory equipment, machinery, analog delay, piano)

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Omit - Interior Desolation (Corpus Hermeticum, 1999)

1 Solitary Disembarkment (23:03)
2 Type:One [Stationery Movement] (2:39)
3 Type:Two [The Backdown] (7:44)
4 Type:Three [Mimesis] (2:03)
5 Type:Four [Overflow] (2:26)
6 Type:Five [Unfaithful Resolution] (2:40)
7 Type:Six [The Screw] (9:36)
8 The Withdrawal (23:47)

Longs morceaux d'électronique monotone et mélancolique troublés par des field recordings cauchemardesques (cochons, machine à laver, etc)....

With Interior Desolation we go back to the original Omit's sound which is not quite different from their last efforts, delivering long monotonous hypno-textures, loops and micro-electronic clicks. However the difference appears in the arrangements. The sonic electronic atmosphere of Interior Desolation is disturbed by alienated, negative, evocative schyzo noises and effects that give to this album a rather bizarre & creepy dimension. the epic dark experimental ambient Solitary disembarkment is one of the central pieces here: a gory / bloody traumatic hypno-electronic piece covered (during the first minutes) by abusively violent noises of animals...the ambience becomes totally surreal and seriously haunted with a general mood that recalls Conrad Schnitzler's buzzing electronic effort called Zug. The backdown tooks back the same ingredients, extended spectral noises, deeply cinematic, dangerous, sinister, melancholic organs, hypnotic-looped drum pulses. Mimesis, Unfaithful resolution are also spacious, catchy and weird electronic mechanics. The withdrawal which closed the album is the second haunting epic piece and once again it starts with terrifying sampled concrete noises to reach into a tense, buzzing electronic effervescence. Not revolutionnary but brilliantly immersive, nightmarish / electronic-horror experience not recommended to everyone. Fans of Conrad Schnitzler, Seesselberg, Asmus Tietchens should give listen.
Prog Archives

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Birchville Cat Motel - Firepower Fragrant Cloud (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, 2005)

1 Gigantic Planetary Collapse (29:34)
2 Firepower Fragrant Cloud (32:14)

Tour CD de 2005, deux longs drones...

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