Affichage des articles dont le libellé est musique concrète. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est musique concrète. Afficher tous les articles

samedi 5 mars 2011

John Hudak - Experimental_Intermedia (self release, 2011)




1 EI_1 11:49
2 EI_2 08:52
3 EI_3 07:45

On a cool Wednesday evening in December, pasta e fagioli...

credits
released 02 March 2011
Video imaging during the performace was done by Bruce Tovsky (album image taken from video for the first piece)

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mardi 1 mars 2011

Electronic Phantom Orchestra - The Mystical Album (suRRism-Phonoethics, 2011)






1 Quiet Room
2 2'27''
3 Brothers and Sisters shut up
4 Cavalleria Rusticana
5 No Noise in the Soul
6 The Reverend invites to the prayer
7 Unknown Napoli

Electronic Phantoms are:

Hal McGee (USA)
Ben Presto (I-D)
Albrecht-D (D)
Reverend Man Manly (USA-D)
Splithead (D)

Recorded live in the ether
Munich, Germany, Dec. 2010

Very special thanks to LollyPope + Siemers (Sturclub, Stuttgart)
Play it random


'first property mechanics
then spack at their particles'
-undRess Béton

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mardi 22 février 2011

Alexei Borisov & Olga Nosova - Live At Staalplaat (Electronic Musik, 2011)



Borisov/Nosova duo was formed in Moscow (RF), april 2009.
Music components: free improvized, live electronics, noise, electroacoustic, spoken word, tape music, ambient, soundtracks, field recordings etc.

The duo collaborates with different musicians, sound artists, video-artists, dancers and poets from different countries: Anton Nikkila (Finland), Dave Phillips (Switzerland), Matthieu Werchowsky (France), Dora Bleu (Canada), Thomas Buckner (USA), Tom Smith (USA), Jandek (USA), Edyta Fil (Poland), Kim_Nasung (Poland), Ilya Belorukov (Russia), Fear Konstruktor (Russia), Sergei Letov (Russia), Yuri Yaremtchuk (Ukrain), Volga (Russia), Rafal Mazur (Poland), Alexei Rafiev (Russia), Oleg Kornev (France), Nikita Tsymbal (Russia), Mitya Fedorenko (France) and more....

Produces music for silent movies ("The 11th" by Dziga Vertov), art exhibitions, theatrical and multi-media events and actions. International events and festivals: The 10th Anniversary of GEZ-21 International Music Fest (St.Petersburg, Russia, 2009), Spektro Fest (Istanbul, Turkey 2009), Jauna Muzika (Vilnius, Lithuania 2010), Sonic Circuits (Washington DC, USA 2010), Interpretations (NYC, USA 2010), joint tour with Dora Bleu in Russia, Latvia, Estonia and Finland, Borisov/Nosova/Belorukov/Nasung Tour in Poland 2009, Salvador Dali art exhibition at Inartis Gallery (Moscow, Russia 2009), live at Staalplaat record store in Berlin, concerts in Ljubljana, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, Hannover, Prague, Riga, Dusseldorf, Providence, NYC and more...

Showcases and lectures at Berklee Music Collage (Boston), George Washington University (Washington DC) Releases: "Istanbul Kebap" (Live at Spektro 2009) (net-album by www.top-40.org) "No No Music" (net-album by www.kroogi.com - (2010) CD-R releases by Bornos produkt: "Selected works, vol. 1" (2009) "Selected works, vol 2" (2010) "Live recordings" (2009-2010) "Grundig" (2010) CD: "Elektrokooperativ" (Industrial Culture, UK 2010.
Electronic Musik

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mardi 11 janvier 2011

Raionbashi & James Twig Harper - Split (Tochnit Aleph, 2006)




1 Raionbashi - Untitled 19:04
2 Raionbashi & James Twig Harper - Untitled 18:00

Limited Edition CDR version of Raionbashi’s split-cassette with James ‘Twig’ Harper of Nautical Almanac, originally released on their Heresee label in April 2004. "Berlin + Baltimore mail collaboration. Raionbashi side is surgically precise German aktionist audible throat mutilation recorded direct to tape and then sent thru the mail to America. Harper in turn for the other side takes the exact same sound source and send it thru a magnetic rerouting electrical system and mucks, fucks and ducks it all up adding and changing where his seed fit.”
Tochnit Aleph

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mercredi 15 décembre 2010

David Dunn - Angels And Insects (¿What Next? Recordings, 1992)










Tabula Angelorum Bonorum 49
1 Segment 1 4:06
2 Segment 2 4:05
3 Segment 3 4:05
4 Segment 4 4:00
5 Segment 5 4:00
6 Segment 6 4:05
7 Segment 7 4:07
-
8 Chaos & The Emergent Mind Of The Pond 24:31

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mercredi 8 décembre 2010

Jérémie Mathes - Árset (Mystery Sea, 2010) available now !!!!!




a close friend is publishing his sophomore album on Mystery Sea... so buy it !!!! and like always check the back catalogue of Mystery Sea....


"Le jour, je collecte et capture des images sonores que je retire de leur réalité tangible. La nuit lorsque tout est calme en surface,
ces fragments m'apparaissent sous un autre aspect sublimé qui modifie ma perception initiale. Mon attention se porte sur la myriade
de micro détails produits par la captation sonore. Je m'abandonne alors à révéler les imperceptibilités de de leur structure inhérente.
Modélisant cette matière ineffable, je m'efforce de concevoir une architecture du non visible. Hors de toute temporalité, mon esprit accomplit son voyage nocturne."

"During the day, I collect and capture sound images that I separate from their tangible reality. At night, when everything seems calm on the surface, these fragments appear to be sublimed and changed in aspect, which modifies my initial perception.
My attention is set on the myriad of micro details produced by the sound capture. I then abandon myself to reveal the imperceptibilities
inherant to their structure. Modelling this unspeakable matter, I strive to conceive an architecture of the non visible.
Out of all temporality, my spirit accomplishes its nocturnal journey."

- Jérémie Mathes, January 2010

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vendredi 12 novembre 2010

Classwar Karaoke - Survey (Classwar Karaoke, 2010)



01. 6 or 7 - I Will Call You Again (05:47)
02. Akoustik Timbre Frekuency - Shifted Fokus of Intent (07:26
03. Ambient Fabric - Ambiguity (09:59)
04. Anton Mobin - Tout seul (05:10)
05. Astrometria - 6x7 (07:05)
06. Audra Dawn Fleming - Chickensick (01:34)
07. Cezary Gapik - #0466 (08:12)
08. Chevo Légé - Modus Vivendi (06:13)
09. Chevo Légé & TVLASUNOR - l'Élément lent revisited (01:48)
10. Clutter - Isthmus (08:14)
11. Coffin Boffin - Words (02:19)
12. Colin Johnco - L V (03:42)
13. Collectif Sin - Disciplisin (11:07)
14. EHEIM 1000.220 - Imitation 01 (02:05)
15. Gurdonark - Berries (03:10)
16. Ian Linter - The Massive (08:19)
17. Kalistongue - Meadow Song (05:15)
18. Lezet - Seashell Ears and the Pounding Truth (03:18)
19. MaCu - Shadows (05:30)
20. Murmurists - Succotash on Scoria (01:00)
21. Noise Research - Movement Towards Soundtrack (07:18)
22. One Minute Wanda - Abbasong (02:20)
23. Pixyblink - Our Darling (05:27)
24. Pythagora & Pilectro - Bella Notte (10:24)
25. .RR - Irreversible Drum Machine (07:02)
26. Shield Your Eyes Pray For Death - Arc Flash (08:02)
27. Sound Inhaler - Lee Perry Substitute (04:36)
28. TVLASUNOR - This Smell Off Carburattor in the Evening
29. Undress Béton - Salve Error Calculi (Boeff:Boiz) (05:07)
30. YMMV - Bodhi Fetters (04:51)
31. Zilmrah - Centrifugal Force (08:18)
32. Zoologic - No Cause for Alarm (02:17)

visit Classwar Karaoke

description of each track and free download

samedi 6 novembre 2010

Lionel Marchetti - Red Dust (Crouton, 2005)




Livre Maudit (16:41)
Première Partie
1.01 Lionel Marchetti - Prélude (Étude Dite Du Maudit) 0:59
1.02 Lionel Marchetti - La Visite Des Morts (Étude Chantante) 5:36
1.03 Lionel Marchetti - Rotorelief 1 (L'Oreille Doit Descendre) 0:18
1.04 Lionel Marchetti - Pont De Cire (Esprit Des Vapeurs) 2:40
1.05 Lionel Marchetti - Rotorelief 2 0:19
1.06 Lionel Marchetti - Je Suis Vaporeux 0:25
1.07 Lionel Marchetti - Troisième Rotorelief 0:15
Deuxième Partie
1.08 Lionel Marchetti - Série Militaire 3:32
Troisième Partie
1.09 Lionel Marchetti - Final (Étude Idolâtre) 2:20
1.10 Lionel Marchetti - Porte De La Mort 0:13
Livre Magnétique (19:55)
Première Partie
2.01 Lionel Marchetti - 1000 Hz 0:01
2.02 Lionel Marchetti - Saturne 3:48
2.03 Lionel Marchetti - Visiones Nocturnae 9:49
2.04 Lionel Marchetti - Porte De La Mort 0:13
2.05 Lionel Marchetti - Décompte 0:45
2.06 Lionel Marchetti - Porte De La Mort 2 0:13
Deuxième Partie
2.07 Lionel Marchetti - Final (Chant Magnétique) 4:58
Livre d'Eos (21:48)
3.01 Lionel Marchetti & Yôko Higashi - Penombra 13:37
3.02 Lionel Marchetti & Yôko Higashi - Porte De La Mort 0:13
3.03 Lionel Marchetti & Yôko Higashi - L'Incendie 7:58

Years in the making, RED DUST is a three disc boxed set of new work from this master practitioner of musique concrete. Elaborate in its aural presentation, this study reveals Marchetti’s most focused and exciting work to date. Composed in part with Yôko Higashi, the material reveals sounds old and new, acting as a modern looking glass into a tapestry of ideas still grappled with today; human attraction, narcissism, and the function of the artist. The music flows story-like over the course of the three discs; a novel-esque concept/approach to a triptych visual presentation. The combination of ridiculously old recordings melting into obviously modern sounds makes this listening an experience to ponder on many levels. Dissect the layers and enjoy.

Each disc within RED DUST is accompanied by a note card with corresponding details, as well as a separate text card written by Olivier Capparos regarding the work of Lionel Marchetti. Housed inside a small matte red box, the entire package is then wrapped in a fine delicate mulberry paper. Limited to a pressing of only 300.

“Lionel Marchetti was born in France in 1967. His interest in music resides in the qualities of sound. He is one of a handful of artists who in the mid-to-late 1990s took electroacoustic music out of academic studios and into the free improvisation ring. A scholar who worked at the CFMI (Lyon) and GRM (Paris) studios and published a book on acousmatic composer Michel Chion, Marchetti developed a set-up of microphones and loudspeakers he uses on stage along with tape recorders, prepared CDs, motors and radios. He often refers to his “instruments” as an “electroacoustic contraption.” His live work with Jérôme Noetinger found echoes in the approach of Swiss and Austrian abstractionists like Voice Crack, Günter Müller, and Werner Dafeldecker, but Marchetti is mostly active in France, performing regularly at the club Les Instants Chavirés and at the festival Musique Action. His studio work encompasses sound collage ( ) and academic electroacoustics ( , ), although the level of poetry and refusal of genre boundaries in his music puts him closer to Kristoff K.Roll and Luc Ferrari than Pierre Henry or Bernard Parmegiani.” - based on the François Couture penned bio in All Music Guide.

Yôko Higashi: dancer, singer and composer initially began her work in Tokyo, and now resides in Lyon. Since 2002 she creates her own choreographies. She also works on vocal performances with several musiciens (CASANOVA FRANKEINSTEIN, Florent DICHAMPT, John HEGRE, MOKO, Lionel MARCHETTI…) and Nicolas TICOT of XLR Project (Video artist). In 2003, she created a trio of electric pop-rock groupe YOKOHAMA ZEN ROCKS (Compilation DOPE BEAT SUPADOPE RECORDS Factory Vol.1). She also currently is involved with her solo project HAMAYOKO (electropopexperimental).
Crouton

Not since I bought my first LP has a package seemed so stunning. The artwork may be small and the presentation austere, but it carries a personality all its own. This is the work of an individual whose personality shines through his music and his choice of medium. With him comes an entirely new world, a place reshaped in the name of sound and forged beneath the idea that sound is transformative, musical, and everywhere all of the time. Lionel Marchetti is a student of Pierre Schaeffer, a composer whose heart belongs entirely to the uneven pulse of musique concrète's open arms. Both music and musician are welcoming on this collection, enticing listeners to open up the box and travel somewhere for an hour or so, forgetting, in the process, whatever notions might influence the way Red Dust could be heard initially.

The collection is broken up into three 3" discs, each described as a separate movement in a "study" on musique concrète. Do not let the academic language be deceiving. Although Marchetti might be a student of the art, his music is a living mass of people, places, musicians, and ideas. This is not a work of art that belongs in the stuffy atmosphere of a museum or in the halls of an egocentric art gallery; Red Dust is alive, stirring up memories and reanimating old sources of inspiration in its movement. Each disc has an accompanying card included in the set. These cards list the track titles, the musicians responsible for each piece, and in some instances the names of musicians or artists from whom Marchetti has pulled samples or ideas. Included in the collection are the names Fritz Lang, Marcel Duchamp, Pierre Schaeffer, Henri Chopin, and some other, slightly more surprising names: This Heat, Keiji Haïno, The Residents, and PanSonic. It is obvious that Marchetti truly believes music is everywhere and in every time as his choice of sources reflects an expansive appreciation for music in many different forms. Each of the three discs are, in fact, quite distinct, but form a loose narrative in the same way that some cubist art approximates movement. There is room for the listener in this box, plenty of space for him or her to communicate with the sounds and inform where it will go next. The very act of listening changes the outcome of this collection, but every act of listening will also exact a trace of stunning beauty and perverse movement in the brain of the participant.

The first disc, entitled "Livre Maudit," is described as a three part performance in ten movements. Many of the pieces on this disc are less than half a minute long. Four of the tracks, in fact, occupy well over half of this disc. The mood is overwhelmingly dark, the industrial sounds used generating a repressive and dangerous atmosphere. With the inclusion of either hysterical or serene vocal parts, Marchetti creates a pool of ever- changing emotions. The use of romantic, nearly Caretaker-esque samples only strengthens the sense that Jack Nicholson is on the verge of bringing some of his dead friends back from the grave and putting them all in the most grotesque of ballroom dances. Instead of occupying a haunted hotel, however, they're all going to travel by way of electricity and warp every corner of the industrial world. Pierre Schaeffer's train stations and Keiji Haïno's guitars are equally in danger of being haunted and cursed by these apparitions. At the same time, Marchetti includes some exquisite vocals and gentle silences in his compositions. The sense that this disc is, in reality, cursed increases with each listen. Moving to the second disc will only reveal just how dense and manic the first is.

Both the second and third discs, "Livre Magnétique" and "Livre D'Eos," are given more room to stretch. Instead of occupying either of these "books" with a spattering of very short pieces, both contain a series of longer compositions that reflect more than attack. The inclusion of robotic voices over the duration of the remaining music instills a strong sense of narrative omnipresence. Both "Saturne" and "Visionses Nocturnae" on the second disc contain robotic conversations that include the composers name and, supposedly, his own explanation for the work he does. Not only does this put the music in an immediate proximity to the listener, but it bestows a sense of purpose, interrupting what might be considered a purely abstract collection and interjecting cause and effect or even history into the project. The robot asks questions like "Do you like my music?" and situates the recordings by addressing them as "modern." It's an almost comical moment considering much of what Marchetti does is rooted in a past that may seem more distant than it really is. All the while an exquisite drone passes by in the background with only the most subtle of thunderous rumblings interrupting it. Piano, static, radio signals, and marching bands all press together and by the end it feels as though Marchetti has opened the temple of his body and invited everyone inside for the remainder of the show. It's a stunning moment where the artist and the observer switch places, where the artist is forced to address the fact that he has an audience that he must listen to and understand as an artistic group. The artist can, after all, only compose to the extent that he is hindered by other, perhaps invisible factors. An audience is a perfect example of this kind of censorship and it seems to me that Marchetti is aware of that.

The final disc is my favorite; it is a sprawling work composed primarily of two compositions. The atmosphere is nocturnal, slow, and organic. "Penombra" features guitar and percussion as well as some seductive, near-operatic vocals, but is also satisfyingly abstract, floating hazily in the distance and slowly releasing the pressure that was built over the previous 40 minutes or so. It is amazingly beautiful and strikes me as the most musical piece in the collection. By the end of the disc, Marchetti has traveled from the dense, layered affairs that were characteristic of many of the earliest experimental recordings, to the open and free compositions that typify the work of many drone artists and other sound collage enthusiasts. "L'incendie" closes everything with the ringing bells of a church, the movement of ideas, information, fears, and problems passing below its incessant vibration. The piece seems to ring on forever, the inclusion of screams, radio interference, and other strange sounds only increasing the power of its hum. Marchetti affects this change subtly, allowing it to occur slowly, almost to the extent that it is unnoticeable. The melodic phrases that appear on the final disc seem to chart the end of abstract composition, but do not rob it of its grandeur and its ability to travel through time and reveal the music that is the world. On the other hand, perhaps these pieces reveal that everything is essentially musique concrète. All the music of the world has, in one way or another, been influenced by sounds that already existed. Composers simply structured them according to what they had available. Compositions are often written before they are expressed in sound, but perhaps sounds has always been there before the composition. There is no escaping the world as music.

There are very few boxed sets, much less records, that seem as well thought out as this one does. There are very few abstract recordings impressing me anymore, their weight and power seemingly fading away due to over saturation. Marchetti, however, has invigorated my belief in this medium and its ability to remind the listener that music is more than a product or a way to pass some time in an entertaining fashion. Music is ultimately an art and art ultimately informs, challenges, and provokes. There can be little doubt of that after listening to Red Dust. It strips the musical world of barcodes, FBI warnings, and greedy punks, and places music firmly in the realm of the listener's ears and mind. There are 300 copies of this collection available from Crouton and they are not asking a lot for it. This is highly recommended, as both a cerebral experience and a musical one.
Brainwashed

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mercredi 3 novembre 2010

Preslav Literary School - Echolalia (NO-FI, 2010) out now !






will release 'Echolalia' on October 18th 2010 as 12” vinyl with a booklet containing an essay by Tom Recchion of Los Angeles Free Music Society. The album is a live recording of a tape-loop orchestra led by Berlin-based artist Preslav Literary School and features contributions from Machinefabriek, Posset, Poldr and
many others.

Preslav Literary School held two days of workshops on making tape-loops from compact cassettes in December 2009 at Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Participants then worked with the new archive of loops in front of a live audience in a performance involving multiple playback machines, mixers, real tape delays and live cassette manipulation.

Recalling the sounds of Faust, Popol Vuh, Throbbing Gristle, The Skaters and Broadcast the album draws on the energy of other decades and scenes as diverse as US underground noise, German krautrock and French musique concrète. At times melodic and blissful, at others dark and cut-up, the album seems to move beyond its constituent parts and methodology to reach something haunting and engaging. The album was mixed and mastered as it was played live, with no extra overdubs, by the cult Berlin dubstep producer Lord Cry Cry (Blunt Force Trauma).

The vinyl, whose packaging is based on vintage cassette design features commissioned artwork from Supanaught and photography from Marion Auburtin with a free digital download of all material, plus a bonus, exclusive Machinefabriek solo tape set from the same performance...

As Preslav Literary School, Adam Thomasmakes live tape collages using sounds drawn from an evergrowing archive of self-generated or discovered outsider noise, found sound and spoken word cassettes. A process of transference, overdubbing and live manipulation reworks these source materials into compelling, ambient broadcasts. Adam has released several albums and live CDrs, and played alongside
Machinefabriek, Leif Elggren, Sudden Infant, Antoine Chessex, Matt Elliott, Shitty Listener & many others.

He has toured the UK, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Poland and will play at 2010's flux/s and Shift festivals.
NO-FI

“I am half inclined to think we are all ghosts, Mr. Manders. It is not only what we have inherited from our fathers and mothers that exists again in us, but all sorts of old dead ideas and all kinds of old dead beliefs and things of that kind. They are not actually alive in us; but there they are dormant, all the same, and we can never be rid of them. Whenever I take up a newspaper and read it, I fancy I see ghosts creeping between the lines. There must be ghosts all over the world.”
(Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen, 1881)


The circles of original and copy, of forgotten sounds and awoken memories, of origins unknown and destinations unseen, came alive in the cold winter of 2009. Collecting a group of almost strangers and an archive of cassettes borrowed, lost and found, we began to explore these ghosts.

The dominating physical form of a cassette tape, once you take it apart and examine its capstan holes, guide and pinch rollers, screws, supply hubs and takeup
reels, is also a circle. Reviving the arcane art of tape loops, the group began to make ellipses from the spools of magnetic tape too. Hundreds of cassette shells were prised apart and unscrewed, spools removed and then cut into short sections, following precise measurements from some forgotten handbook, before being individually spliced into loops, turned into helices and replaced into
the cassette's body.

In the process, we began also to decipher the apocryphal scrawls on label and box unverified alphabets of authorship both before listening to hours of anonymous singers, abandoned narratives, obscured sounds and unmistakable analogue hiss. Beyond this we observed the occasional glitches, recording imperfections, erasures and drifting tracks inherent to the medium, open to the possibility of ciphers and hidden messages from long absent sources.

A new archive of endless loops was born, the original recordings of others somehow both destroyed and preserved. The cassettes now were a collection of odd aural coincidences, repetitive vocalisations and endless musical refrains growing narrower in frequency and somehow more beautiful with each revolution as each artefact settled into its new circularity.

From somewhere buried deep within the magnetic mire, spectral announcers preempt
grand movements of distorted symphony. Discordant static and pulses rise and fall cued, apparently, by chance. Unrehearsed, several people began to simultaneously play different recordings of the same instrument. Dropouts and cuts provide unplanned rhythmic accompaniment to haunting disembodied voices and environmental sounds. Accidental sonics fall into perfectly harmonious repetitive phrases. All the time in the background wow and flutter, slowly degrading magnetic tape and the revolutions of the players' mechanisms provide an accompaniment to the circular, spectral processes of memory and forgetting present within the everyday.

On 12th December 2009, in NewcastleuponTyne, England, the elevenstrong
group orchestrated a live composition in front of an audience using their tapes, offcuts, mixers and cassette players. The performance of concurrence, coincidence and circularity is presented here with minimal editing and no overdubs.
Adam Thomas, Preslav Literary School

preview

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and buy it!

mercredi 20 octobre 2010

Steve Peters - Filtered Light (Chamber Music 4) (Dragon's Eye Recordings, 2008)




1 Filtered Light (Chamber Music 4) 60:00

Chamber Music is a series of site-specific sound installations derived from recordings of the empty rooms in which the work is exhibited. No people are present, so the only sounds recorded are those that are incidental to the building itself, or those that leak in from outside. These recordings of ambient room tone are processed to isolate subtle resonant frequencies that become the only materials of the piece. Aside from equalization and gating, no other electronic treatments or instruments of any kind are used. Every version of the piece is different, due to the acoustic and architectural characteristics of each venue.

Filtered Light was made in 2008 for the University of New Mexico Art Museum, in conjunction with the annual UNM Composers’ Symposium. Fourteen frequencies between 70 Hz and 3 kHz were extracted from an unedited hour-long recording made in the empty gallery. That hour was divided into thirty-two segments of varying length that recombined randomly in the continuous four-channel installation. The mix heard here represents one set of possible combinations. A low playback volume is recommended.
Steve Peters

The poise and concentrated quietude of Steve Peters on these pieces elevates tiny, random sounds into a hushed symphony of chance. Resonant frequencies between 70hz and 3khz rise out of rooms as though from nothingness and are recombined in the kind of disordered and associative manner that often accompanies intense grief.

The rooms are first seen careening in a crepuscalar atmosphere flecked with feint glottals and lulling cadences whose echoes lift them into surprisingly experssive, multiphonic pieces. In this sense, Peter's starts one off at the climax of a slow motion ceremony and afterwards leaves the listener to dwell in the aeons between. The listener is henceforth brought into high-pitched, flickering tones flirting around a full-bodied drone of considerable harmonic subtlety or intricately sliding microtonal inflections and almost hymnic cadences suggestive of the il y a.

It's none to hard to form a sympathetic relation with this work: it not only quite ingeniously demonstrates how one is always already in communication with the world owing to one's sense organs, but also how objects in the sensory field already harbor the opacity of a primary past.
Earlabs

Explorer of acoustic phenomena, Steve Peters, has conceived a new take on chamber music. It's not Music for Chambers but by chambers - the empty rooms in which his installations are exhibited being miked and milked for liminal ambient resonances. Sounds from empty rooms are minimally manipulated and then recycled. Peters' pieces are presented under the banner of being "primarily engaged with issues of place, presence, perception, attention, and duration." The sceptic might dismiss this as art-bollocks, and, sure, there ain't nothing like a smarty-pants artistic mission statement to provide a smokescreen behind which the artist-onanist can legitimate indulgence of a solipsistic habit. This is not intended as criticism of Peters in particular, but fair warning should be given that just as the presence of academic-art music is announced by its textual accompaniment, so within the first few minutes of Filtered Light all but the most intrepid of listening explorers will likely find themselves "engaged with issues" of their own in the face of such musically challenging - and challenged - work.

So let academic material be given sympathetic academic treatment. Materials: University of New Mexico Art Museum. Spartan slivers of ambient airwave-forms, drawn only from the life of the room itself or leakage from outside. Method: fourteen filtered frequencies are turned to thirty-two and rearranged randomly. Results: simple placid flows of pitched sonorities of relatively unassuming texturality emerge, spend time just being there individually, sometimes rubbing up against each other. Discussion: The rooms' inarticulate speech seems to struggle towards theme and rheme in the in-between of two frequencies, as long thin prosaic sustains are punctuated by essays at poetic detail - virtual marimba-esque water drops, sonar spectra, and some dot-dash dot-dash dot-dash. The low-event nature of the provisions demands that the listener make more of a meal of it, actively constructing his/her own Music of the Walls. Conclusion: each will then make of this what they will - the connections and disjunctions of Peters' material may be served up into an individual meaty micro-feast or, equally, may induce fast. It is interesting to note that both were experienced here, and in successive plays.
Igloo Magazine

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samedi 25 septembre 2010

Lionel Marchetti - Portrait D'Un Glacier (Alpes, 2173m) (Ground Fault Recordings, 2001)









1 Portrait D'Un Glacier (Alpes, 2173m) 28:40

"Tape-music composer Lionel Marchetti seems to be most comfortable when creating short works. To his credit are two 3" mini-CDs (on the Metamkine label), one split CD with RLW (on Selektion), only one full-length album (on Intransitive), and now, a brief 28-minute work. It is far different from the complex tape-splicing Marchetti has become known for, a rather more sedate and deliberately paced collage made from footsteps walking through wet snow, metallic clanking (perhaps of hiking equipment?), and occasional voices murmuring or calling to each other. The events within the piece are small ones, and an understated calm prevails as the overriding mood of this trip up Mont-blanc to le Glacier de Tre la Tete in France. One steady tone modulates quietly behind the main events, a musical ground to offset the concrete documentary aspects of the piece. These finally come to the fore for a beautiful finale of long high tones; an airplane flies overhead, and we arrive at the top of the mountain. The duration is an excellent compositional decision, concisely implying (rather than demonstrating) distance and remoteness." Howard Stelzer

"Some of the best concrete, environmental works you could hear, weaved location recordings I guess from the Alps, adorned with sound sources that come from far away to the left or right occasionally. You are always travelling, there's always movement, seamlessly, calmly, not sudden switches of environment, but a steady flow of change and new characterization. I like the use of one time sounds that don't get repeated. You want to click back and hear it again but then some other current scenario is making your mind work by then. These works are great, not since some of the best Eric La Casa or the Liminality comp have I been transported so completely. The wind, the crunch of snow underfoot, the bent branches left behind, the far away hail of a fellow trekker." Manifold Records

Lionel Marchetti has blended field recordings with electronic drones and other sounds to create an incredibly dramatic recording. Recorded on the Glacier de Tré-la tête on Mont-Blanc, in France, at an altitude of 2173 meters we hear low rumbles, creaking, water splashing and sounds of footsteps crunching the icy surface all appearing out of the silence. Voices in the distance...a small propeller rescue plane overhead?

Portrait d'un Glacier is a Series I release which puts it in Ground Faults quiet category. While most of the CD is relatively quiet, there are moments at the middle of the CD where things get a little nerve wracking. It's very cold, dark and dramatic.

This is one of those CDs that is great to drift asleep to in a darkened room only to be awaken by the sudden "events" that occasionally happen.
Ground Fault Recordings

"I used to hike mountains, (the Alps), and the first time I descovered the Glacier "Tré-la tête", on Mont-Blanc, in France, with my friend Bruno Roche, I realized that we met a strange "vivacity". This glacier is coverd with stones, on 5 "kilometres" at less. It's a sort of desert where it's possible to see, on the floor, near our feet, a strange blue eye looking at us, saying : - do you want to know more about my face ?"...

In "Portrait d'un glacier (Alpes, 2173m)", I tried to find beauty of the mountain when it is abble to give us an incredible geomorphic entity as the glacier ; I tried to represent the breath of who is walking in a such beauty, dealing, in that way, with more than only his human condition - "the most difficult area" - ; but with not forgetting this idea of "panic" i can feel when mountain is danger too, archaicism i can feel under my feet, and sometimes should distruct me only with a breath..." LM

Glacier de Tré-la tête (2173m)

Ce matin, réveillé vers cinq heures

couleurs métalliques et vertes
lumière, force
tournoiement de l'esprit projeté
psychisme, sécrétion
lente humeur animale

soudain sonore

aurore en montagne

intelligence.

Lionel Marchetti

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samedi 18 septembre 2010

Classwar Karaoke - At Philosoph. (Classwar Karaoke, 2010)




1 At Philosoph. 28:18

Made by Adrian Beentjes, Anthony Donovan, Arturo Ortega, Bryan Lewis Saunders, Colin Johnco, Hopek Quirin, Igor Jovanovic, Jaan Patterson, Laura K. Tattersall, Kidderowski, Pixyblink and Thomas Fernier.

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jeudi 19 août 2010

Wehwalt - Approche De L'Ineffable (Isolatonism Records, 2010)




01 D'un pas haletant
02 Camouflage liquide
03 Détermination nerveuse
04 Un éjaculat strident
05 Voix ciconcentrique
06 L'oculaire absent
07 L'ineffable révélé

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jeudi 27 mai 2010

Lionel Marchetti - RISS (L'Avalanche) (Erewhon, 2002)






1 RISS (L'Avalanche) 15:30

Lionel Marchetti is a young and brilliant composer of musique concrete, with a growing body of work released on Metamkine, Selektion and, more recently, Ground Fault and Intransitive. He also dedicates himself to improvisation, in duo with Jérôme Noetinger (manipulating objects, microphones and loudpeakers), or within ensembles such as Le Cube and Archipel.

"RISS", with its suggestive subtitle ("l'avalanche"), is a 15 minute piece of musique concrete produced in 1990, already asserting a very personal universe and a strong set of themes. A female character attempts to impose her brittle voice in a landscape of ice and distress which slowly turns out to be an extension of her own inner space. A particularly evocative imaginary sound world, a staggering dramatic tension succeed in making of "RISS" a powerful miniature, and definitely confirm the early talent of Lionel Marchetti among a new generation of composers reinventing musique concrete.
Erewhon

Courte pièce électroacoustique composée en 1990, Riss de Lionel Marchetti est une oeuvre de jeunesse mais témoigne d'une maîtrise époustouflante; le son, tantôt caressant, tantôt agressif et mordant, transperce l'auditeur à mesure que le froid envahit les membres d'une infortunée prisonnière d'un piège de glace aux contours indéfinis. Mais lorsque celle-ci décrit sa lente agonie, ajoutant ainsi à la tension dramatique, qui, de nous ou de la misérable victime, se retrouve finalement captif, enfermé dans ces masses aux frontières floues? Glacial mais magistral.
Octopus

Metamkine's Cinema Pour L'oreille series of Musique Concrete 3" releases has been one of those essential collections - the things that even the critics buy! Why start an Erewhon review this way? Well, Marchetti (as well as other work, including one in 2002_05) has had two disks on Metamkine, and this 1990 work would fit easily in the series (and indeed the internal layout seems to be an homage to the original Metamkine one).

Deceptively simple, it is based around a text (written and read) by Anne Decoret, that recurs through the piece between the sound interludes. My monolinguality frustrates me here - I am sure that the texts adds to the musical experience: the title and cover image suggests snow-related aspects and I think there is reference to an ice palace and tomb in the final stages. Anyway, Decoret has a delivery that suggests a meaningfullness and intensity, lightly manipulated and with a bed of simple and extended tones to support her.

The interludes, in contrast, are dense and dramatic: bird noises surrounded by big grinding tones, strings stretched to breaking, swirling around. Softer tense rumblings and breath-intakes, percussive, whispers and distant voices, shimmering coldness. Slowly spiralling tones down into the crinkling, sliding, uncertainty of the ice. Pops, crackling with tonal music within, pulsing. Birds throughout.

This is an exciting piece of music and I have no idea how it could have sat around since 1990. Whyever, it is great that it is now available, and provides an intense aural-visual experience.
Ampersand Etcetera

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dimanche 21 mars 2010

Jean-Luc Guionnet - Axene (Ground Fault Recordings, 2000)



1 Ivraie/Baragnes 27:14
2 Axène 15:54
3 Ressac/Ressac 28:13

Jean-Luc Guionnet, born in Lyon now living in Paris, has formally studied Electa-acoustic music at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory as well as the Pantin Conservatory in France. While working on his Bachelors Degree at the Sorbonne School of Art in Paris, Jean-Luc started recording with good friend Andrè Almuro. Soon after while working on his Masters degree he started working with fellow French Electra-acoustic musicians, Éric Cordier and Éric La Casa. In addition to music he has worked in the experimental film field.

Jean-Luc Guionnet is not a highly prolific recording artist; only about 16 recordings to over a 10 year span, but the quality of his recordings are top notch. Two of the recordings on Axène were recorded 10 years ago and were never released. After first hearing them I was amazed that the have never been heard by the public. They are absolutely brilliant recordings that the public has unfortunately missed out on for all these years. I am very proud to bring these recordings to the surface for all to hear.

Axène is catagorized as Series I, but don't let that fool you. While a good part of this CD is rather quiet, it does build to a fever pitch while never losing its smoothness. Erik Hoffman

"It is a little strange to find a CD by French electroacoustic artist Jean-Luc Guionnet on the noise label Ground Fault, but then again musique concrète can be seen from an avant-garde noise perspectives. The three extended (16 to 28 minutes) works included on Axène were created between 1989 and 1996 and had not been released before. In "Ivraie/Baragnes, " recorded for an André Almuro film by the same title, and "Ressac/Ressac", the composer favors textures over plasticity. Both pieces have drones, water and wood sounds, at their basis. Non-linear, these sound events are meshed together to form the soundtrack of a trek of some kind. Concrete and synthesized sounds intervene, arousing new imageries. "Ressac/Ressac" is embedded in a strong ocean theme (ressac = undertow), waves of sounds slowly approaching to gracefully come crashing at the listener's feet. Slotted between these two works, "Axène" becomes all the more academic and cold. This piece follows more traditional esthetics of sound sculpting, INA-GRM-style. It lacks movement and ambition to really captivate. But the two longer pieces are definitely worth hearing, especially for those favoring atmospheric electroacoustics" François Couture

Ground Fault Recordings

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vendredi 5 février 2010

Gerald Fiebig - Public Transport (Field Muzick, 2008)



1 Public Transport — Musique Anecdotique In Memoriam Luc Ferrari 17:03
2 6'39'' über Halberstadt (Bonus) 6:39

The French composer Luc Ferrari, a major explorer of the experimental borderland of musique concrète, instrumental music and hoerspiel and a true pioneer in the aesthetics of field recording, died in September 2005. In homage to Ferrari, this piece refers to his practice of “Musique anecdotique”: everyday sounds recorded within a given period of time are examined in order to realise their musical potential, while the chance encounter of fragments of dialogue might start narratives in the listener’s imagination without ever spelling them out.
Field Muzick

On Gerald Fiebig’s “Public Transport”, long sold out by the time you are reading this, field recordings with a high degree of speech have been left almost entirely untouched, with layering and repetition creating rhythmical repetitions, metaphorical abstractions and an increasing degree of estrangement. Fiebig’s perspective is fascinating, because it suggests that it is not so much timbre or knowledge about a sound’s origins which awards it a familiar feeling, but rather its intonation, the “way that things are expressed”.

This realisation goes a long way in explaining why these passages, filled to the brim with everyday sounds, appear so utterly alien. In the long run, however, “Public Transport” offers an appeasing appendix to its initial observation: Our sensory system can adapt to the most surreal environments and safely find its way through foreign spaces if only awarded sufficient time. Rest assured: You don’t arrive at this kind of confidence-building conclusion just by taking a hike or opening the window.
Tokafi

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mardi 19 janvier 2010

irr. app. (ext.) - Radiant Black Future: Step Forward And Address The Present Amidst The Wreckage Of The Past (Errata In Excelsus, 2001)



1 "Die Unsterblichkeit Ist Nicht Jedermanns Sache" 11:15
2 "The Emperor Of Disgust" 1:44
3 "Auslöschen Der Unnötigen Lichter" 6:31
4 "Claires Bêtes Nouvelles" 4:15
5 "Nascere E Crescere E Ardere D'Inconsapevolezza" 7:47
6 Le Merde: C'est Inéluctable 3:46
7 Silk Sow With Pursed Ears 4:52
8 The Black Bird's Final Words 3:08

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irr. app. (ext.) - Foreign Matter, Nor Frequency Carrier (Errata In Excelsus, 1999)



1 Cognitive Disorder 1 - Expectation 4:39
2 Cognitive Disorder 2 - Expansive Uselessness 2:56
3 Cognitive Disorder 3 - Detrition 8:02
4 Cognitive Disorder 4 - Melancholia 7:49
5 Cognitive Disorder 5 - Stasis-Neurosis 3:29
6 Cognitive Disorder 6 - The Subdivision Of Space Through Error, Derived From The Movement Of Air In A Single Room During The Afternoon Nine Times 6:44
7 Cognitive Disorder 7 - Omitted 1:52
8 Cognitive Disorder 8 - Morbidity Of The Cortex By Result Of Exposure To Commerial Broadcasting 8:16

Recorded 1991-1999. Intended for release on the Plate Lunch label, but the release never materialised. Self-released and only available directly from the artist in this present form, with four-page booklet artwork by the artist.

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mercredi 11 novembre 2009

Joel Stern - Unplugged / Jodphur (TwoThousandAnd, 2002)



1 Untitled 3:20
2 Untitled 0:53
3 Untitled 6:20
4 Untitled 3:01
5 Untitled 3:35
6 Untitled 2:55
7 Untitled 1:55
8 Untitled 3:11
9 Untitled 5:27

Listening to unplugged/jodphur is like exploring a derelict building. Inside one room you can hear water running. You find a light switch and press it-sparks burst from nowhere as the ignition of distant machinery begins to hum all around. The walls are peeling. Behind some broken tiles there's a tin box holding old coins and photographs.
Stern treats these artifacts to reveal a place of submerged activity, an ambiguous space filled with static objects bearing the faint trace of human gesture. Documentation and manipulation interact and overlap in an environment that's charged with an awareness seldom heard by our ears.
TwoThousandAnd

Australian artist Joel Stern's Unplugged/Jodphur (sic) is an enticing collage in nine parts that blurs the line between taped "natural" sounds and electronic processing. From the onset, it's richly cinematic, with a buffeting wind sharing space with muffled metallic clangs and static interruptions. The music ebbs and rises throughout the disc with great attention paid to sonic detail and the combination of pillowy and harsh sounds. One will sometimes hear, for example, amorphous throbs paired with splintering slivers of high-pitched tones forming a delightfully ambivalent and complex texture. Stern also periodically returns to more purely concrete territories which, for the listener, is something like waking from a dream; one suddenly is aware of ambient sounds like birds and faraway voices and the effect is startling. The listener is pulled back and forth between these poles, sometimes gently, other times with a certain amount of force, even harshness. All told, this makes for a bracing, never less than fascinating journey and stands Unplugged/Jodphur alongside the work of artists like Lionel Marchetti, which is strong company indeed. Recommended, especially for those interested in the ongoing history and evolution of musique concrete.
All Music Guide

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