Aube - Re-Chant / De-Coda (Drone Records, 1995)

A Re-Chant (5:38)
B De-Coda (7:40)

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Loren Nerell - The Venerable Dark Cloud (Amplexus, 1999)

1 Dark Horizon (6:14)
2 Eclipse (8:51)
3 Within The Cloud (3:48)
4 Ablution (2:19)

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Tuu - The Frozen Lands (Amplexus, 1999)

1 Frozen Lands (8:31)
2 Silent Writing (7:27)
3 Gangiri (4:55)

Solo set of pieces using gongs and metal instruments over electronically treated and detuned samples. Based on material I played at the ‘Calls From The Rock’ exhibition by the late Nikki Coe.
Tuu

panoramic, otherworldly vistas….a place of rolling clouds of sound, an unknown area bathed in washes of dark and lightness
AmbiEntrance

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Tzesne - Kraken (La Leyenda) (Series Negras, 2003)

1 Part.I - Manadas
2 Part.II - El Secreto De Addison Verrill

Drones à base de field recordings, sombres...

A while ago, in Vital Weekly 461 I reviewed a CDR by Tzesne on Tib Prod, and mentioned that he released a CD on the Series Negras label, which I am now reviewing (although I don't wish to make a hobby out of reviewing older stuff, I'll make an exception). Just like on his Tib Prod release, Tzesne plays lenghty ambient pieces of an unknown origin. Still I can't figure out wether these are field recordings or something that is actually played on 'real' instruments, such as analogue synthesizers. Upon hearing this a few times, I think it's the first, although at the same time I also assume they are heavily processed by whatever means, probably they are digital and called computers. The two pieces here are foremost dark, atmospheric and ambient by any account. Slightly similar to say Lustmord, but without the depth thereof. It's less noisy however than the Tib Prod release, and more refinement in approach, even when the sound is not always very detailed. A nice dark ambient work that should appeal to those who love the genre, but haven't entirely switched off their industrial music days. A nice crossover between ambient and industrial.
Vital Weekly

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Gastr Del Sol / Tony Conrad - The Japanese Room At La Pagode / May (Table of the Elements, 1995)

a1. Gastr Del Sol - The Japanese Room at La Pagode
b1. Tony Conrad - May
c1. Tony Conrad - Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain (#1)
d1. Tony Conrad - Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain #2)

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Dale Lloyd - Volatile And Fixed Principles (Leerraum [ ], 2004)

1 Untitled (7:28)
2 Untitled (24:13)
3 Untitled (16:26)
4 Untitled (11:31)

Abstraction...

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Phonography.org 4 (phonography.org, 2003)

1 Scott Taylor Thames Canon 5/1/03 (2:35)
2 The Beige Channel Coffee With Cat (5:34)
3 Robert Carlberg Snug Harbor (3:28)
4 K.M. Krebs Jericho Sailing Center (Nautical Gamelan) (4:02)
5 Quiet American Donkey Trains Leaving Marpha, Nepal (7:02)
6 Saw Trigge Water And Wings (2:54)
7 Kiyoshi Mizutani Ta-Asobi (5:28)
8 Toby Paddock Holly_Birds (3:11)
9 Anders Östberg Shortwave 1 (1:57)
10 Christopher DeLaurenti Railroad Storm Drain (5:57)
11 Andrew Duke Hoodratdance (3:11)
12 Murmer Buzzing Intercom, Gospel Oak (3:01)
13 Ben Owen SLP23 (4:05)
14 Dallas Simpson Bottledisposal (5:51)
15 Mike Hallenbeck Guggenheim (2:51)
16 Mark Griswold Philadelphia, 30th St. Station (2:09)
17 Glenn Bach Saturday Morning Basketball (1:50)
18 Omnid Science Center (3:59)
19 Robert Millis Blue Jeans Salesman, Weekend Market, Bangkok, Thailand (4:39)

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Kiyoshi Mizutani & Daniel Menche - Song Of Jike (Niko Recordings, 2004)

1 Song Of Jike 1: Kiyoshi Mizutani Mix (21:04)
2 Song Of Jike 2: Daniel Menche Mix (19:56)
3 Song Of Jike 3: Kiyoshi Mizutani Mix (10:29)

Les field recordings sont de Kiyoshi Mizutani, Daniel Menche y rajoutant tout un tas d'instruments (violoncelle, guitare, phonographe, etc). Bien plus apaisé que ce que fait Menche habituellement...

This is the second release by Kiyoshi Mizutani (one time collaborator of Merzbow) and Daniel Menche, following 'Garden' on Auscultare Research (see Vital Weekly 400), and like 'Garden' this is based on field recordings made in a village called Jike Yokohama. These recordings were made by Mizutani and Menche adds a cello, acoustic guitar and an antique phonograph player to the scene. Two tracks here were mixed by Mizutani and one by Menche. The first piece, by Mizutani, is a strange affair: the dry field recordings are only occassionally intercepted by a likewise cello drone and towards the end vinyl crackles sounding like crickets. Much more dense is the mix Menche did. He 'thickens' the material by layering various field recordings over each other and adding bits of sound effects. Despite the density of the recordings, Menche creates a very minimal mix too, but one that has more musical events than the first Mizutani piece. The third piece, again by Mizutani, but here with more additions of 'other' sounds, such as the rumblings of metal. Again a very peaceful piece of music. All three tracks are very subtle, even with some of Menche's more piercing sounds half way through his piece, and minimal. Probably just as peaceful as sitting in Japanese garden.
Vital Weekly

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Daniel Menche - Creatures Of Cadence (Crouton / Longbox Recordings, 2006)

1 Untitled (14:50)
2 Untitled (8:48)
3 Untitled (19:59)
4 Untitled (21:06)

Enregistré l'été 2006, ce 'Creatures of cadence' ouvre de nouvelles directions dans le travail de Daniel Menche. Loin des performances ultraphysiques suramplifiées, ou des accumulations de feedbacks, il travaille ici avec des instruments acoustiques (violoncelle, cors, cithare, percussion, voix) passés à la moulinette électroacoustique pour fabriquer des trames, des séquences répétitives qui viennent s'entremêler et s'accumuler, dans un univers fantasmatique très joliment illustré par la pochette.
Metamkine

Despite what the title might suggest, “Creatures of Cadence” is not about endings, completion, or finality. Instead we find Menche inviting a slew of new mediators into his cathartic miasma. The medium now extends beyond the rich and unfathomable depths of somatic sound. His ongoing dialogue between body and mind has found sympathetic resonators in a myriad of instruments (percussion, cello, horns, and zither) that have proven through the ages of being capable of channeling both our most ecstatic joy and profoundest grief.

“Creatures of Cadence” finds Menche in full exploratory mode; excavating well-concealed networks of sonorous information through a systematic deconstruction of drone and pulse. In the process, he further erases any perceived division between hearing / feeling and performer / instrument. The result, if consumed at the appropriate amplitude, is nothing less than a sixty minute journey through a voluptuous and pristine mania.

“Creatures of Cadence” is a work commissioned by Crouton and Longbox Recordings and published in conjunction with Menche’s first Midwest U.S. concerts: in Chicago and Milwaukee, September 29 and 30, 2006. Released in an edition of 500, including three full color inserts and overwrap with images of detailed bird drawings peppered with a whisper of the disturbing by Eric Stotik. It is our sincere hope the listener will find the packaging for this release a fitting visual analogue to the vehement beauty of the aural.
Crouton

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Greg Davis - Borronium (Room40, 2004)

1 Borronium (12:33)

Extrait d'une performance live à l'harmonium et au laptop...

Fabrique is ROOM40's long standing music program at Brisbane Powerhouse. In October 2004, Fabrique played host to kick ass solo performances from John Chantler and Greg Davis. Borronium is a hypnotic edit of Davis's amazingly powerful harmonium and laptop set which features processing care of his self constructed MAXMSP patches. A dazzling journey through layered singularity.
Room40

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Rosy Parlane - #1-4 (Sigma Editions, 1998)

1 Untitled (3:19)
2 Untitled (4:43)
3 Untitled (5:37)
4 Untitled (5:08)
5 Untitled (4:27)
6 Untitled (5:09)
7 Untitled (7:23)

Electronique répétitive en live.... / Live repetitive electronics...

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Circles Of Infinity (Myotis Records, 1998)

A1 Bad Sector s200gas FX
A2 Troum Krêt
A3 Brume Dervishes On Fire
B1 C.O. Caspar Helix Of Exist
B2 Ultra Milkmaids & Etereo Expandeum Club Telecycle
B3 Inade Ptok Kaleidoscope
B4 Rapoon Trial Of Lies
C1 Toy Bizarre Kdi Dctb 13
C2 Kapotte Muziek Infinity
C3 Aube R-Mist
C4 Klangkrieg Hal
D1 Veil Of Secrecy Time Eternal
D2 Q-Sphere Rotae Mundi
D3 Big City Orchestra Circle Danse
D4 Tesendalo Kein Anfang

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S·Core - Finger Mark (Drone Records, 1995)

A The Killi #2 (8:17)
B Afflicted Area (8:06)

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Para-Noise-Terminal - Fraktale (Drone Records, 1995)

A Fraktale Der Masse (6:22)
B Urmasse (6:48)

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Inade - The Axxiarm Plains (Drone Records, 1995)

A1 Breaking The Walls (4:42)
A2 Above The Plains (4:19)
B1 Movement And Construction (5:06)

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Celer - Tropical (Mystery Sea, 2008)

1 Normal Sadness (The Softness Of The Sea Hibiscus) (13:29)
2 Stipulated Morning Beside The Wreckage (First Sight) (6:46)
3 The Second In A Sequence Of Glances And Introductions (6:58)
4 Heart Shapes And Requiems At The Height Of LamLam (6:55)
5 Empty Hum (An Open, Empty Ocean) (18:03)

"With little more than uneasy tension, a short existence in a humid paradise left our
untrained ears listening to the falling-apart.
The surrounding pink sand beaches, dancing palms, on the edge of
decayed reefs, leading us, swimming in stillness, and lying on the tip of the trench.
We’re left inside sweating jungles, dripping.

Pouring out a summer spent in mint swims, everything that happened left the rush
nowhere to fall. Drives through one-lane mountain roads, plane skeletons tattered
remains in the hidden hills, all inactive and silent; there is little remembered. With
unaware farewells, we’d rather remember the slow-motion dances under the soft glow
of paper lanterns, the tracers from lightning bugs drifting into the endless blackness
of the hidden inland.

The ending, with an arduous voyage home, left signs in the churning water,
but they disappeared into the deep blue depth, as the island fell with the sunset.
The naval ship hum, dooming any hope of silence, left only the moonlit decks
to mimic the loss. Unexposed film of the lost loves that we didn’t have time to fall for,
still and lifeless, swaying with diaphoresis in the humid wind."

- Celer, August 2008

CELER is a fast growing in reputation entity, and also the main artistic expression of lovely couple of Will Thomas Long & Danielle Baquet-Long, currently based on the coast of Southern California... Both have jobs in the educational domain, are versed into literature, and have common interests in Poetry, Painting, Photography, History & Philosophy...
CELER carries out its ceaseless thirst for beauty & emotion through sound, merging techniques of analog and digital world via the use of field recordings, custom software, real instruments, effects + manipulation, and concepts...
Since inception, CELER has been extremely prolific and generous, overflowing the independent market with numerous hand-made releases, soundtracks for installations & art exhibitions, & works for various labels across North America, Japan & Europe...
As a result of their sheer passion, they didn't have to wait that long before seeing unfurling waves of praise... as an example, their collab with Mathieu Ruhlmann, "Mesoscaphe" is now permanently archived in Vancouver's Maritime Museum...

As symbolic celebration of reaching its 50th release, MS is proud to serve as a showcase for their highly personal album "Tropical"

"Tropical" is all muggy heat,
an intimate pulse swelling,
raising from the depths, the scars of past...
The sound of an invisible river
reaching out and afar,
while palm trees cry some golden tears...
The sound of a slow breeze
making twigs dance...
-
"Tropical" touches you, reads you,
leaves you forlorn and naked,
rough, unpolished as lava rocks
close to burst into pieces, flakes of pure wonder...
-
The torn landscape is aglow,
eyes are wild, and truth is in the air...
And a single flower crystallizes all hope,
hands open, all sand fleeing...
A notion of eternity,
or just perennial Father's traces...
Mystery Sea

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Ninth Desert - Zone (Mystery Sea, 2007)

1 Strate (4:35)
2 Marhbe (7:30)
3 Green (3:04)
4 Gathe (6:35)
5 Alke (7:05)
6 Ghorg (4:14)
7 Kollected (7:33)

My first wish when working with sound is to carve a landscape ; an open mental space which will change while going from one ear to an other.
This work in itself offers an infinite number of possibilities specific to the way the sound material is processed. For "zone", this landscape is directly bound to the visuals & to the name "Mystery Sea".
Each tone had to vehicle a feeling of immersion within the visual material, through its texture, in depth. It was thus a question of shaping a landscape from a graphic landscape, organizing a link between the two supports, into time & space, in motion, like two extensions responding to themselves.
Like with image, the sound appears to me like a porous body with multiple entries. Everything is a choice regarding the processing of the texture, and the combinations between the different gained results.
This version of "zone" (the 4th one) is the closest to what Mystery Sea evokes to me in visuals & sound terms : mental wanderings into graphic surfaces & through sound fluxes in constant transformation.

There are seven sequences : seven possibilities to wander into a same landscape."

- Cyril Herry , April 2007

Currently installed with minimum comfort in Creuse, in a secluded hamlet, Cyril Herry is dedicating most of his time to various forms of art (writing, graphics, photography, video...) and their intercombination...
Also veteran of the french experimental music scene, he had co-founded SECHRES MOUND (with Cédric peyronnet/TOY BIZARRE) EXOTOENDO, and expressed himself through various solo projects, LECANORA being the most known...
NINTH DESERT is his latest one with works released on TAÂLEM, VERATO & AFE... let's also mention that Cyril creates all the beautiful graphics for the TAÂLEM 3"cd-r series and the KOKESHIDISK sister-label... he also realized a special video which has been used by TROUM on tour...

ninth desert's "zone" is an invitation to merge into the layers of sound,
extending in a sea of intimate sensations & recycled memories,
opening up a myriad of universes, existing like small vortexes of condensed energy...
-
Cyril Herry fashions sound as clay, exploring interstices, variations of recurrent motifs, echoing a process of permanent elemental mutation...
-
"zone" attempts to freeze the quintessence of an experienced moment, building a sort of shelter... a place of reflection & ultimate contact...
-
Listen to these aural sculptures, apprehend their outlines & inner vibrations, and possibly, you'll get far deeper into the understanding of our surrounding world...
Mystery Sea

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Moth Electret - Lil (Mystery Sea, 2007)

1 Cygal (6:51)
2 Kalaa (10:53)
3 Lyel (6:36)
4 Isal I (3:08)
5 Isal II (5:56)
6 Aelia I (4:42)
7 Aelia II (5:29)
8 Aelia III (8:08)

"the giant shimmering blades against the ancient landscape seemed more like a tribute. it would be a few hours before we reached the island sand. typically a colin archer will float in the water like a nut, but this one – she said – was a rare species.

we loved those early hours, before the day drove the mystery away. people that venture out early share a secret unspoken bond, and a question.

it was a spur of the moment thing. she reached eureka late in the afternoon and settled at that victorian by the harbor. it channeled the spirit of the old winston. a train was stranded in the middle of the rusty industrial, sentenced without trial. gazing north it all seemed so impenetrable, like some final outpost."

- Stig Berg, February 2007

Already a long time ago, Norwegian/US man Stig Berg released under the R|A|A|N moniker "The Nacrasti" on Malignant Antibody, an influential dark ambient work of epic proportion inspired by desert views...
Now, after years of patient maturation & experimentation in subdued mode, he comes to the surface again with an even more poignant & less categorizable sound which will undoubtedly arouse interest among a new type of audience...
For this sloughing, Stig has adequately opted to work under another name : moth electret...
After years of crossed correspondence with my humble self, moth electret has given birth to "lil" which has been based around impressions & field recordings made in sea/fish industry areas, mainly gathered from a trip to Eureka on the northern californian coast, but also from Barcelona harbor & the island of Sandøy, as well as some specific related digigraphic vignettes created by me as impulse elements...
"lil" is a Mayan word for vibration... the one you can feel passing through the whole piece, and which brings it to life...

"lil" is like running on an imaginary river
swollen & stripped with copper & rusty tones,
bracing scraps & scoria
in a mysterious underflow...

scintillations & gleams eddy
in an imperturbable metallic ringing choreography
-
"lil" makes you listen
to an emerging dense inner song
along which we drift effortlessly,
trying to catch some primal dormant energy
relocating us to an higher & more sensitive plane...
-
"lil" has enough evocative power
to drag you along its torrent
till you osmotically become it...
Mystery Sea

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Gydja - Umbilicus Maris (Mystery Sea, 2007)

1 Beyond The Earth's Edge (8:47)
2 The Wave, With Red Stain Running (6:52)
3 Snakestone (11:29)
4 A Siren Stood Hymning Upon Each Circle (11:23)
5 Cold Water Flowing Forth (10:59)

"Nec satis procul ab hoc de quo praemisimus litore, contra occidentalem partem, profundissima aquarum illa vorago est, quam usitato nomine maris umbilicum vocamus. Quae bis in die fluctus absorbere et rursum evomere dicitur, sicut per universa illa litora accedentibus ac recedentibus fluctibus celeritate nimia fieri comprobatur.
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Not very far from this shore of which we have spoken, towards the western side, on which the ocean main lies open without end, is that very deep abyss of waters which we call 'the navel of the sea'. It is said twice a day to suck the waves into itself and spew them out again."

- Paulus Diaconus (Historia gentis Langobardorum)

Gydja (old Norse word for priestess) officiates since 1995, led by New Zealand muse Abby Helasdottir, also active in design & performance art, creating supernatural soundscapes with transforming potential.
Having contributed to various compilations, online projects, and rich in some collaborations (including one with Aidan Baker "Corpus Callosum", and another with Austrian musician Marunfura Fufunjiru "Ma-mo Rbad Gtong"), Gydja has also under its belt a series of self-released works ("Liber babalon", "Cold Seed", "Rivers..." to name, but a few...)... close to all are soaked with magical/shamanic connotations, obeying to some peculiar inner laws, merging electro-acoustic & experimental techniques, and formally often based on abstracted field-recordings...

On "umbilicus maris", Gydja drags us along a quest for a lost mythic world beyond frontier...

After a dazed drift in a foggy mangrove,
we reach an unmapped regio of concentric superimposing circles
& endless ripples
preparing us for a sheer descent into murky waters...
-
adorning the dive,
huge, drowned thousand years stones
seem to betray an ancient ceremony,
a passage through Time
to a supreme Essence...
-
Small lights flicker in the cold current,
and thoughts snake along the moss walls
whispering lunar tales...
-
immersed in this strange universe, we grow
in constant mutation
at the mercy of the waves
towards a better Self...
Mystery Sea

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