Roland Kayn - Tektra (Barooni, 1981 (1997 reissue))

1.1 Tanar - Part 1 25:56
1.2 Tanar - Part 2 17:24
1.3 Etoral 29:29
2.1 Khyra - Part 1 27:17
2.2 Khyra - Part 2 17:33
2.3 Khyra - Part 3 24:45
3.1 Tarego I 14:20
3.2 Tarego II 11:57
3.3 Tarego III 21:12
3.4 Rhenit 23:59
4.1 Amarun I 20:03
4.2 Amarun II - Part 1 25:45
4.3 Amarun II - Part 2 26:42

Roland Kayn was born in 1933 in Germany. He composed his first orchestral piece while only 17, and three years later composed Kammerkonzert, which won first prize in the Festival of Twentieth Century Music in Japan in 1958.

Sometime during 1956, Kayn created a system of composition which paralleled contemporary ideas in information theory. He applied statistical methodology to determine musical characteristics like pitch, duration and
density of the tones and chords. Kayn felt that the music of the future would be compositions in which 'all the sounds are points in space, without melody or rhythm', citing Stockhausen's Spiel Fur Orchestra `as a perfect
example. It wasn't long before he started modifying the tuning of the 'unison' strings in a piano to avail himself of the frequencies which occur between the standard half tones. Not only were new fundamental notes created, but the entire overtone series of the instruments became an enormous spectrum of sound. So it was that Kayn got closer and closer to his idea of cybernetic music.

At this point, and as contradictory as it may seem, Kayn started to suggest ways of working in which composers themselves could be somehow excluded from the compositional process. Not surprisingly, this idea alienated him
from his contemporaries who probably didn't want to relinquish their authorship and consequent funding. It wasn't long before he was excluded from the concert stage either, and it was after a short sojurn with the improvisational group Gruppo d'Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, that he made the choices that were to determine his methods of working from then on.

At that time, musical events in a composition were still largely defined by the composer. Kayn was primarily interested in a form of music which regulated itself. He started designing complex systems of instrumentation
in which he practically gave up his control over the resulting piece, abandoning the narrative elements and all the asprects usually associated with the ideas of 'authorship'. His scores started looking more and more like abstract, mathematically derived paintings, with increasingly more freedom being allowed the performers.

His electronic pieces start with a defined network of equipment. All conceivable events within that network are collated and then used to develop a system of signals and commands which are then incorporated into the triggers and controllers of the machines. All of this preparation took much longer to complete that the compositions themselves, which were recorded to tape once and once only !

Tektra, a 4CD set is the 16th release on Amsterdam based label Barooni, and it is a re-release of the latest availible work (originally on vinyl in 1982) by Kayn. This set was mastered from the original tapes used in the
manufacture of the records. Consequently, these quite lengthy pieces were faded in and out so they would fall within the time restrictions inherent to that medium. As a result of this, the various compositions which
comprise Tektra are themselves sub-divided.The music slowly swells from silence. Each of the compositions has it's own unique character and all of them are amazingly unique examples of what can be done with a drone. You'll hear sounds not heard before-in Khyra the sound of all the ringing bells on earth alternate with five billion voices
close to the right note (you're floating in space, of course, and listening to the sound of the whole planet). The industrial backfed repetition of Tarego, which eventually shatters into it's individual components. In Amarun, we are suspended on a synapseweb of overtones inside a Tibetan monks skull. It's magnificent, more now than then and certainly zen.

Barooni were the first to release the works of Tommy Koner way back when and have played the greatest part in reviving interest in the almost forgotten minimal music discoveries of Charlemagne Palestine. Special congratulations to them for this beautiful package and for their care and continuing love of this medium. Most certainly one to watch...
Vital Weekly

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Charlemagne Palestine - Godbear (Barooni, 1987 (1998 reissue))

1 The Lower Depths (20:55)
2 Strumming Music (11:06)
3 Timbral Assault (8:57)

Trois pièces de piano où se révèle tout l'art de Charlemagne Palestine....

When I was younger, I took the obligatory piano lessons. Maybe my parents thought I’d become a great pianist or something, or that I’d carry on a family tradition. Needless to say, that didn’t really come to fruition. The only thing I remember from those lessons is how to play “Here We Go” and the opening notes to “The Volga Boatmen.” And looking back, I can’t help but wonder what my old piano instructors would thing of this album. And back then, I probably never would’ve dreamed of the music contained on this album.

On Godbear, Charlemagne Palestine creates huge waves of sound by simply banging on the piano’s keys and holding down the sustain pedal. Well, that’s the crass way of saying it. But then you hear the end result. As Palestine himself says in the liner notes: “I heard Debussy, Ravel, gamelans, carillons, ragas, oscillators, and orchestras…in the overtones… like a shimmering fountain.” Overtones collide and crash into eachother, until all that’s left is a pulsing wall, a sea of sound.

Then he introduces new melodies and new notes using the same technique, moving over the keys, hammering in sound after sound. Somehow, that humble piano has transformed itself into the roar of a jet engine as on “The Lower Depths.” On “Timbral Assault,” you’re standing inside a tower as the bells above chime out their song, each one fighting to be heard, but everything coming together in a sound My Bloody Valentine might dream of. The sounds begin to sway and careen and the walls begin to pulse and shift as Palestine dives deeper and deeper into the mass he creates.

“Strumming Music” opens fairly lightly, with a light sprinkling of notes played. A single note being hit rapidly can be heard, providing a beacon of sorts among the eventual waves of sound. But on this one, the waves are lighter and brighter. But the result is the same. That humble instrument, the one that never receives any glory in light of the all-important electric guitar, releases forth a glorious sound that is at once reminiscent of Seefeel or Windy & Carl’s “Antartica” and yet much more elegant and refined.

All in all, a very interesting album, and one that is guaranteed to make you think twice about the piano. It is, as Palestine said, “a shimmering fountain.” It requires patience on a track like “The Lower Depths,” but when you hear the end result, it’s the sun breaking over the horizon, the seas crashing on the breakers, and a bunch of other poetic similes and metaphors for a revelation.

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