Birgit Ulher/Gregory Büttner - Tehricks (1000füssler)

A very attractive 3", containing three tracks. wherein Büttner channels computer-generated sounds through miniature speaker which Ulher uses as kinds of mutes for her horn, so the the electronic sounds reverberate in the bell and body while the actual trumpet sounds mingle with them, forming a nice little knot of sound. The music tends toward the quiet and active, Ulher gurgling and chirping, spacing her contributions aptly, aggressing where appropriate/ Similarly for Büttner, casting smallish sounds into the works like seeds or rice grains. The last cut in particular acquires a fascinating mix of soft crunches, taps and burbles, very savory.

1000füssler


Roel Meelkop - Grey Mass/Grey Matter (1000füssler)

A double-3" with six tracks, apparently assembled over some stretch of time. My experience with Meelkop's music isn't so extensive but I didn't really expect to hear "The Girl from Ipanema" show up. That's one element in this collection of sounds which ranges widely enough that it's bit bit tough to describe. Ont he one hand, they sound quite loose and natural, fluctuating between concrète and field recordings in a relaxed manner though I suspect there's much more "composition" in play. Whatever, they succeed in avoiding entirely the clunky sterility that besets (to my ears) much concrète music. The first "grey matter" piece (which are quieter than the "grey mass" ones) is an especially lovely merging of near-subsonic rumbles, bell and sine tones. Enjoyable, rich work; recommended.

1000füssler


Pascal Battus/Christine Sehnaoui Abdelnour - ichnites (Potlatch)

Battus plays small rotating surfaces, as from the inside of an old Walkman, using them to excite various materials; he does this pretty much non-stop. Sehnaoui Abdelnour plays alto and you might say is generally in a John Butcher-ish area. I find the pieces to busy and reactive in nature, the pair creating many an interesting texture but, once in the"busy" vein, not being obsessive enough about it to really absorb me, though this problem improves as the discs progresses. There are a few intense moments on the third track, "estocade & coulees" and next piece also gets into some juicy, deep-buzzing territory but even there, not enough purpose for my money. The final track, relatively brief at under five minutes, hints at what the pair is capable of. Here a real unity is achieved, an unforced singularity of purpose. Richard enjoyed it a great deal more, so take my view with a toss of salt; not bad, but only really satisfying in parts.

potlatch


Tim Green/Massimo Magee/John Porter - Of an Evening (Array)

Green (drums/phone), Magee (Sopranino, clarinet, field recordings, multiple electronics, Porter (soprano). In which our friend Massimo and cohorts continue to just play, along the way perhaps looking to reconcile free jazz with at least a taste of eai? Not sure, though this fits far more comfortably in the former, sounding (given the instrumentation), much like an extension of the most outside work of Steve Lacy and sometimes Evan Parker. Though not my cuppa, they do a credible job though, as I often find to be the case, the music is stronger the "straighter" the musicians play, as in the last five or six minutes of the first cut with some very poignant soprano work from Porter. Much of the third track falls into this area as well--reminds me a little bit of early Joe McPhee. Nice sax duet to close out the disc as well.

array

An even dozen new releases from Creative Sources


Kim Johannesen/Svein Magnus Furu - The Ecologic

Guitar and reeds. Johannesen seems to fluctuate between Rowe-ian (bowing, objects on guitar) and Bailey modes, while Furu ranges widely from drones to sputters to quiet abstraction. Mostly improv, though once in a while you get the sense of pre-composition. When Johannesen gets locked in, as on "Ants marching" (yes, the titles are unfortunate), it's pretty enjoyable, though Furu is a bit too up front and gabby for my taste. Good work at its best but inconsistent.


Martin Küchen/Ernesto Rodrigues/Guilherme ROdrigues/Carlos Santos - Vinter

I won't say much about this one since I wrote the liners; suffice it to say that it's a very good one.


Ernesto Rodrigues/Neal Davidson/Guilherme Rodrigues/Hernâni Faustino - Fower

Viola, acoustic guitar, cello and bass, not leagues apart from the prior release but, perhaps due to the absence of someone like Küchen, lacking some of the intensity. They do get there, on tracks like "haugh", but it's an intensity arrived at more through hyperactivity than fundamental being. "Fower" is perfectly fine, a decent improv recording, but not essential.


Mark O'Leary - 4 Urban Landscapes

Four aural images of Cork, Ireland. I tend to like field recordings. In fact, I find myself wondering sometimes: Could there be a field recording I wouldn't like, at least a bit? Well, yes. One way to get there is to introduce echoes, especially on captured voices, as though it's making them somehow more evocative. No. There's a dull sheen in play as well, almost as though the mics aren't paying close attention. Strange. The third piece, "Panarmaic" [sic], dispenses with the echoes and fares better but the fourth, "The Stone Cutter" inches too close to the travelogue for comfort and the inserted poem recitation is far too precious.


Jonas Kocher - Materials

Accordion, object, electronics. Accordion in the Costa Monteiro tradition, that is. The titles indicate the mode of attack, listing the primary weapons, whether bow, buttons, cymbal, electronics or steel wool. Kocher succeeds when his approach is violent as well as when it's soft and considered. The array of colors is large and well-chosen, each of the seven pieces displaying a different angle, a thoughtful appreciation. Good recording-the best extreme accordion I've heard in a while.


Jason Kahn - Timelines Los Angeles

Performed by Olivia Block (prepared piano), Jason Kahn (percussion, analog synth), Ulrich Krieger (alto and sopranino saxophones, electronics) and Mark Trayle (laptop, guitar) in April, 2008. Kahn's been working on his Timelines series for a while (you can see the graphic score for this one here). The score assigns each player three blocks of time, each between ten and twenty minutes, spread over an hour. Not sure what, if any, further instruction is given, but listeners expecting any sort of steady-state rhythmic piece, might be surprised at the slow, contemplative pace, not overtly rhythmic, of this recording. It thickens about midway through, taking on something of the character of Tibetan low horn ceremonies before abruptly cutting off due to the timed nature of the score, leaving a quiet swirl. Soon, Kahn does in fact return to his signature cymbal taps in this final section, capping off a very satisfying experience. Excellent recording.


Ember - Aurona Arona

Urs Leimgruber (soprano, tenor sax), Alexander Schubert (electronics, violin), Oliver Schwerdt (piano, percussion organ), Christian Lillinger (drums, percussion). Rambunctious, gabby and scratchy free jazz, just the kind I have really short patience with! I really don't think I'd have enjoyed this 20-30 years ago had it been issued on Emanem, less so today. Drummer Lillinger has some nice moments and the last track points toward one way out of this thicket, too late. I'm sure it will satisfy some tastes, but not mine.


Isa Wiss/Marc Unternährer - Sopstück

OK, I admit it. The prospect of a voice/tuba duo presenting eighteen tracks didn't exactly set my salivary glands flowing. If it was a single 40-minute track, I may have been intrigued. Even the near-alphabetization of the track titles didn't really sway me (though it helped). I've never, to the best of my knowledge, heard either, but I sensed a reduced volume, free improv collection where the vocals tended toward the expressionistically guttural/wheezing/spittlicious and the brass edging toward the flatulent/rapidly breathy. I was pretty close. There's some variation but not nearly enough, and the brevity of the pieces disrupts any potential continuity. Oh, yes, there's some Donald Duck. Yes there is. Not my cuppa.


TonArt Ensemble & Ernesto Rodrigues - Murmurios

TonArt is a nine-piece ensemble (strings, winds, electronics) that's worked with Braxton, Rowe, Parker, etc. though I think I've only heard them rarely. They're rather busy, in a skittering, sliding kind of way (not so very loud), far more so than some other freely improvising nonet, say, Phosphor. But the phrasing is gestural in the manner classically influenced efi, which cloys things a bit for me. The second of the two cuts develops a decent head of steam as the group begins chugging a bit, creating some friction. Overall, not bad but not as good as I imagine they're capable of being.


Mike Majkowski - Ink on Paper

Solo double bass. Majkowski is a youngish (27), Australian musician, new to me. On a couple of pieces, including the lengthy title cut, he finds a fairly unique area of high, quick bowed sounds, several tonalities rapidly interspersed (via overdubs), connoting activity not unlike the dozens of ants prowling the disc's interior sleeve. Personally, I didn't find this ground so interesting, however. On others, he quite ably plies a kind of approach I might think of as pre-Guy, free playing, somewhere between Malachi Favors at his driest and, say, Peter Kowald. On the last track, he takes his time, investigates the properties of the instrument more concentratedly, and fares better.


Ulrich Mitzlaff/Miguel Mira - Cellos

Two of them. Again, I have some of the same problems I had with the solo bass recording above. All very well played but much too much in very well-trodden territory, largely close to what one would imagine any give double-cello recording (not that there were scads of them!) that, say, Emanem might issue would sound like. Very active, very gestural in a 60s/Pendereckian kind of way. But, as before, when they settle in, calm down and listen more, (this is the sense I get) it's fairly rewarding. As with a disturbing number of free improvisers, they sound to me better the "straighter" they play; I often wish people didn't feel obliged to play free....


SKIF++ - .next

Jeff Carey, Robert van Heumen and Bas van Koolwijk, laptops, the latter on visuals, presumably when seen/heard live.

I've carped a bit above about excess activity on the part of some of the musicians. Well, this trio of electronicists can be as active, scurrying and scrabbling as anyone...but it works. Freewheeling while managing to maintain some kind of control, they're perhaps comparable to Lehn/Schmickler in approach when they have pedal to the floor. But also quite capable of reining things in as on the lengthy "[thinner]", a fine, low, rumbling series of quivers and rustles. Good, solid recording.

*********

So the picks of this particular litter for me:

Vinter, Jonas Kocher, Kahn's Timeline Los Angeles and SKIF++.


creative sources

Tomas Korber/Ralf Wehowsky - Walküren am Dornenbaum (Entr'acte)

A fine, strong release. My copied arrived bereft of any explanatory information, but Richard's excellent write-up from earlier this month details the working method employed here, essentially using field recordings and possibly other sources in a file exchange routine wherein the music was constructed over a period of several years. You can certainly pick up hints of crowd noise, birds, perhaps insects and other naturally occurring sounds, but they're consistently used in a non-referential manner, purely as sound elements, blocks adapted and nestled into a thick and rich framework. There's a "concrète-ish" sound to it, in a sense, but the vernacular is quite different from what one normally encounters, much less refined (a good thing), ruder even. Even the gentler pieces, like the fifth track, have something of a whip-like aspect, the twangs carrying burred edges, darting between echoing clinks, voices and high, organ-y tones, creating a marvelously complex, hurtling-forward environment. Great work, that one especially, something I'd love to experience in a multi-speaker space.

********

Jacques Beloeil/Michael Anacker - 30 (Entr'acte)

I had kind of enjoyed the screwy Beloeil release on entr'acte last year, a Casio-driven joyride of sorts. Here, we have a disembodied, synthesized voice counting down from thirty, once a minute, while things fall apart around "her". Tumbling metal, escaping steam, other distorted voices, a regular heartbeat thud, etc. There's a filmic, dystopic feel at play, inevitable in this countdown set-up and it works well as far as it goes, though it has a distancing effect. The steady rhythm becomes more pronounced below "10", the music edging toward the tonal, with a smidgen of Glass. "0" is, inevitably, reached, the electronic rhythm having simplified to a resonant blip and the piece ends, with something of a whimper, no bang. And no lasting impression, I'm afraid to say.

************

Mecha/Orga, Adam Asnan, Pauwel De Buck, Joshua Convey, Adrián Democ (Entr'acte)

A collection of five pieces, one by each listed above. Mecha/Orga's (Yiorgis Sakellariou) "8:36" sounds as though built from sine tone along with, perhaps, wires vibrating on metallic surfaces, though his site suggests enhanced field recordings. Whatever, the piece is quite enchanting, kind of like taken a sliver of early Reich, a vibraphone portion say, and inflating it. Nice. Field recordings certainly figure into Adam Asnan's "Grumbles, Lapses", rather like a slide show, sections flitting by, naturalistic scenes abstracted by displacement, disruptive, uneasy, some appearing with the abruptness of a struck match. I get the sense of very tight control here, admirable and a little oppressive at the same time. Interesting work.

Yet more field recordings make up the material for "Neenah Foundry", by Pauwel De Buck, from an apartment courtyard and within the building, though here the result is airy and ghostly, not heavy, though brooding. A strong piece, both troubling and lovely. Joshua Convey, a member of Fessenden, probably uses a few as well in his "Tone Change on Pops' Farm", a wonderful piece beginning with shimmering tones that form the substructure for a huge load of more irregular sounds, including bluesy guitar, though that throb never quits. A beaut.

The final track stands quite apart: Adrián Democ's "Dve prosby" (Two Prayers) for flute, soprano and string quartet. Plaintive, tonal and very moving, at five minutes a kind of Eastern European blessing on what's preceded. Why it's here otherwise, I've no idea, but I'm glad it was included; good compilation, worth hearing.

Entr'acte

Robin Hayward - States of Rushing (Choose)

Solo tuba, tough sledding. Seven tracks here from Mr. Hayward, the first four of which seem to form a kind of suite, all involving soft breath tones of one kind or another. Much grain (or spittle) lending a soft bumpiness to the texture, very gray in character, the sort of music that I enjoy more when not listening too closely. Sounded ok in and of itself but was kind of what I'd have expected anytime in the past decade--a studied examination of certain textures, but if didn't really grab me. The fifth track is a 13-minute exploration of plosives, I'd imagine created by valve popping, quite an imposing, even rude little juggernaut, boom-boom-boom almost the whole way through before the regularity begins to splinter. Rather unpleasant in a sense, but forceful. Track six, "Recoil", deals in strangulated tones, again a bit harrowing but here carrying some extra depth, the two or even three simultaneous plies providing much greater richness than the previous tracks. Still, I wish there was more material with the beauty of the final track, "Tone". Hayward returns to the softness of the earlier pieces but imbues it with a powerful sense of beauty, mystery, even sadness. Less than four minutes long but worth the price of thee disc.

choose


(Various) Klingt.org (Mikroton)

Various indeed. Forty-five tracks spread over two discs, so averaging three-four minutes each. If I have a complaint, it's only that I wanted many of the better of the pieces to go on longer. As is, we have multiple snapshots of the Vienna scene, including musicians passing through.Is it a rule of thumb on comps like this that most stuff is going to be just "ok"? Seems so to me. In any case, there are works I enjoyed a good deal by Alexandr Vatagin, Kazuhisa Uchihashi/Burkhard Stangl, Toshi Nakamura, Susanna Gartmeyer/Thomas Berghammer, Pendler, Jez Riley (French), Nifty's, noid, Los Glissandinos, frufru, Goh Lee Kwang and Angelica Castello. The final track, a giggling Star Trek parody--in Austrian--is painful in a thankfully rare manner.

mikroton


Dawn of Midi - First (Accretions)

A NYC/Paris based piano trio with Qasim Naqvi (drums, toys), Aakaash Israni (bass) and Amino Belyamani (piano). Maybe it's just me, but almost every time I hear a pretty good jazz pianist these days, I hit on Paul Bley. My guess is that Bley was, in many respects, ahead of his time and over the last decade or so, many folk are catching up, not a bad thing. This trio has something of his improvisational feel (not compositional), which they weld with a certain amount of experimental techniques including prepared piano. All three musicians are quite strong and, more importantly, show a good amount of restraint, allowing each other ample space in which to operate. Israni has a sound that's both large and nicely dry while Naqvi is light and fluid, making for a tasty combination. Belyamani makes sparing use of preparation but when he does, it's an effective color, not used for mere decoration. Listeners searching for rich, post-Bley jazz would do well to check this out.

accretions


Philip Brophy - I Am Piano (Sound Punch)

Speaking of jazz piano...the indefatigable Philip Brophy returns with two discs, one of which consists of mutated samples from five notables: Evans, Monk, Garland, Hill and Brubeck. Very mutated, often sliced into small shards (each piece derived from a single 3 to 7 second sample) then reassembled into new rhythmic frameworks and loops, more or less managing to convey the spirit of the samplee. Is it anything more than an (often attractive) technical exercise? I can't say that it is. Artful? Yes, very. Amusing? Kind of. Nourishing? Hardly. Made me yearn a bit for Carl Stone's "Mom's".


Philip Brophy - Filmmusic Vol. 2 (Sound Punch)

Works for five films, all performed by Brophy, from 1993 - 2005 and a far more enjoyable go. A wonderfully restrained guitar/drum shuffle from "Anyone Home", nice, soft electric keyboards on "The Pining Tree", rich and hazy Hassell-ian resonances from "Whispering in the Dark" and the noir/techno (much fun) from "Maidenhead". This disc ends with a suite of pieces from "Only the Brave", the music lying in some quadrant between Terry Riley and Wayne Horvitz--bubbly and smooth but with enough gristle to satisfy and make for an engaging ride. Not bad at all.

Philip Brophy

A couple o weeks ago, on the drive up to Boston, Jon mentioned to me the various options laid out by Robert Kirkpatrick (or, Hollow Earth Recordings, mgmt.) for procuring one of his releases. It was in an edition of only five and, should you desire one, you only had to meet him and give in exchange some item of value. Jon had just such an object in hand but I didn't give it too much thought until, later on, I saw the individual packages, about 10 x 12", carefully wrapped in fine, brown paper and my interest, not to mention my latent collector's streak, was piqued. But aside from money (crass) and my keys (not advisable), I had nothing remotely of value on my person. Except some gum. As it happens, "a stick of gum" was one of the items presented as an example of a thing of value in the initial offering, so Robert accepted it and I, feeling quite guilty, handed it over.

I'd been expecting a mere CDR or something. Instead, I was given a matted watercolor (above), on the back of which were attached two CDs in sleeves. A week later, in Jersey City, I gave Robert a watercolor of my own, easing my conscience somewhat.

Not sure how much sense it makes to review something of which there are only five copies extant (don't know if one of the recipients will upload it somewhere) so I won't, really. The release is called "aeolian electrics" and, is the title implies, there seems to be wind-activated sounds in play. I think I would have come to the decision even without the advisory that accompanies the discs, but playing them simultaneously works very well. They're quiet and spacious and, as near as I can perceive, the activities are fairly random. One disc involves ringing metallics (a Tibetan bowl buffeted in some manner by wind?), the other more "whistling wind" (through some aperture?). They compliment each other quite well.

I have them on at the moment on this fine, brisk Saturday morning, drinking coffee, doing the NYT crossword. It makes for a very beautiful environment.

a spiral cage

Manuel Mota/Afonso Simões - Ao Vivo no Espage, Centro de Desastres (Dromos)

Not the Mota I was expecting. In my head, I, doubtless unfairly, would have conjured up a phrase like, "the Iberian Sugimoto". Well, here, in the company of drummer Simões, it's more like "The Portuguese Sharrock or Capspar Brotzmann". He raises quite the squall in this freewheeling, high-energy blowout. It's only about 25 minutes long and seems to cut out while things are still going on. I can't say it's an approach that holds much attraction for me, but if you've been aching for some Fushitsusha-style flailing explosiveness, you could do worse. Nice cover, with an individual smoke-burn on each copy.


Tetuzi Akiyama/Eden Carrasco/Leonel Kaplan - Moments of Falling Petals (Dromos)

Just as I had been expecting a quieter Mota, I was probably anticipating a noisier, bluesier Akiyama but once again, I was flummoxed. Here he, along with Carrasco on alto and Kaplan on trumpet, play it soft and borderline melodic all the way through. Much space, a nice array of texture. Several lovely moments here, including one about 20 minutes in where I was strongly reminded of Roscoe Mitchell's Sound Ensemble from the early 80s (high praise). Again, it's a short disc, about 33 minutes, but strong and well-paced throughout, definitely one to hear. This release also has a great sleeve, folded origami like, as is the interior tissue sleeve. Good one.

dromos

Struggling to recover from an exhausting and entirely enjoyable weekend in the company of Keith. I suppose I should offer capsule summations of the two evenings of concerts at Diapason in Brooklyn though be forewarned, I wasn't taking notes.

I was very pleased to meet Sebastian Lexer earlier on Saturday, who proved to be an all-around fine fellow, causing me to look forward to that evening's events with even more anticipation. The performance was structured solo (Lexer)/solo (Rowe)/duo and all three were fine. Lexer had studied for several years with John Tilbury and while you could clearly hear the influence in the touch and preparations, he was very much his own person in how he structured his solo. One thing that struck me was his balance in varying attacks--he moved from place to place, often running the sounds through software but also letting them generate "naturally", but never seemed to be going through any sort of mental catalog, just flowing unhurriedly, revisiting certain areas that would begin to register as themes or guideposts.

Rowe also has a recent penchant for returning to the scene of approaches or individual devices he'd abandoned in recent years. He's mentioned that, just as one doesn't want to come to depend on a given sense of structure or device, so one also should never be afraid to revisit them. This performance hearkened back to somewhere in the area of recordings like "harsh," or the kinds of sets he was doing circa 2004 (on the US tour with Fennesz, for instance), much denser and more layered than recent outings (eg, "contact"). Details seem superfluous, but I noted one relatively long exposure of a distorted Latino radio station that sounded especially marvelous in contest. The duo worked quite well, though my specific memory of it is hazier. It was one of those events that, a couple hours after it occurs, you think, "Yes, that was very satisfying." Lexer wasn't so reticent as one might have expected (or, rather, as I might have expected prior to hearing him ably debate his side of various issues that afternoon). When he struck loud, ringing chords amidst a sea of agitated calm, they sounded entirely appropriate, not forced. As earlier, there was good conversation to be heard, tendentious here, accommodating there. I'd love to hear this pair again.

Sunday evening combined Rowe with Sean Meehan for the first set and Jason Lescalleet, a week after their Boston show, for the second. Sean chose not to bring his cymbals and dowels to the gallery, opting for his fork, some rice and I think a handful of other devices (I was sitting toward the back of the chairs set-up and, in the dim light, had a view (a delightful one) of only the top of the snare drum itself and Sean's hands entering and leaving my "porthole".) As you might expect, the set was a very quiet one, though extremely intense, the pair exchanging considered comments, pausing to reflect, moving on. Nothing that would surprise a listener versed in the pair's music, but a very moving half-hour of music nonetheless, in many ways my favorite of the weekend.

I was very intrigued to see the second collaboration between Rowe and Lescalleet in the space of a week, having had issues with the first such affair in Boston the previous Sunday. The good news is that it was a far more cohesive set. The "bad" (it wasn't a bad set at all) was that the cohesion seemed to come via the technique of drone maintenance, something that struck me as too easy, as gratifying as it was in other ways. On his own, Jason's way of layering massive, irregular planks of sound atop and in between one another can be nothing less than thrilling to behold. With others, those planks can become opaque, leaving little entryway for his compadres. Of course, this can be approached as a challenge by those musicians but I get the sense it can be fairly daunting. And there may well have been more Rowe in play than I picked up in the first 15-20 minutes of the set (lasted about an hour?) but it seemed to be a Lescalleet tsunami of sorts, exciting on a visceral level, less so to me when thinking about it (perhaps something I shouldn't do?) Still, there were certainly moments. Jason introduced a slowed-down (backward?) tape with vocal sounds that was extremely evocative and eerie and at one point doused his raging arsenal completely allowing otherwise inaudible (and beautiful) Roweian sounds to percolate calmly/agitatedly for several minutes. I think I wanted more of that give and take and less of a tidal bore (I mean "bore" as a drilled hole, of course, not as...)

Then there was the ending. Lescalleet mysteriously faced the rear of the room, adjacent to a think column. Eventually it became apparent (when I say, "apparent", I mean that the decibel level rose to cochlea-shattering levels) that he was manipulating his beloved Slinky, pulling and stretching its contact mic'd coils and creating an ungodly welter of noise, circling around behind the column, advancing on the poor, newly-into-his-seventh-decade Rowe (who, incidentally, was unaware that this was to be the finale, as it were). Jason reached to a point right at Keith's side, the end of the Slinky ready to take a bite, when the maelstrom abruptly ceased--end of set.

Was it spectacular? Assuredly. Was it more than that? I don't know, but I don't think so. I should say that, as near as I can determine, I was in the extreme minority (not alone, though) insofar as having some qualms about the performance. Ed Howard, for example, has an excellent and tightly-observed review here. So take all the above with the usual grains of rice.

But all in all, a marvelous weekend in the company of some great people. Thanks Keith, Sebastian, Sean, Jason, Jon, Yuko, Richard. Aside from the music and folk, I finally made it to the legendary Sripraphai, a wonderful Korean restaurant on W. 32nd whose name I forget (plus the waiter wouldn't let me order the oysters wrapped in pork belly--next time!), fourth time at Hill Country BBQ and had the most delicious chocolate almond croissants I've ever encountered at Madeleine Patisserie on West 23rd St. I'm now very fat.

Michael Pisaro - July Mountain (engraved glass)

Not that it's so important, but I don't think I've ever experienced 21 minutes passing so quickly. The first several times I listened to "July Mountain", I was afraid there had been a disc defect and it had somehow skipped ahead; it felt as though about ten minutes had elapsed.

That's only one amazing aspect of this recording. Another rather subsidiary one comes into play when one sees the score and realizes not only how densely packed and thought through this piece is but how it still manages to feel light and air-permeated.

But these are sideline things next to, simply, how it sounds, which is extraordinary, mysterious, life-abundant. Twenty phased field recordings done in mountain or valley areas mix with ten percussion extracts (performed superbly by Greg Stuart) sourced from specific instrumental orientations covering an enormous range of timbre and pitch, all sequenced in a temporally exact manner (i.e., piano chord entering at 8:00). Again, as fascinating as it is to know this, the great joy is simply in lying back and letting "July Mountain" cascade over you. The sounds begin quietly with birds, wind, the low throb of an airplane engine, etc. and gradually mass into an onrush that remains strangely delicate for all its force. The piano, children's voices, sine tones, light metallic clatter and much more begin to funnel into an ever widening vortex that absolutely sucks you in while always providing oxygen. It's as if you're sitting on the mountain or in that valley having had your ears hyper-sensitized so they were picking up every sound within miles and, more, making a kind of sense of them, collating them into a semi-recognizable pattern.

A great, great work, one I can easily see listening to for many years to come.


Anne Guthrie - Standing Sitting (engraved glass)
As beautiful as Pisaro's release is, please don't ignore this lovely one from Anne Guthrie. I'd only known her work in association with musicians like Richard Kamerman and Billy Gomberg where she generally wields a french horn. Here we have three processed field recordings, one recorded in DIA Beacon, the other two from a train station and aboard a train. Not so dissimilarly from work Pisaro has done before, Guthrie interweaves sine tones (or something akin; I'm not quite sure) with the recordings, creating a dreamy between-world of the real and the shimmering. The DIA piece resonates with the kind of disembodied, space-molded voices and sounds one encounters in large interiors like those found in that converted factory, here underlain with hums that, in this case, recall the sound installation on DIA's rooftop by the late Max Neuhaus.

The sine tones seem to have been applied intuitively, Guthrie allowing the field recordings to sit by themselves for a while, to establish a presence (very beautifully), then to be accompanied. It's difficult to describe why this works so well except to accede to the composer's ear and the choices she makes, but the impression, again, is of being hyper-aware, of a space and, too, picking up subliminal frequencies normally outside the range of hearing, these tones enhancing the overt sounds and imparting an air of wonder.

Very impressive work.

engraved glass

Kyle Bobby Dunn - A Young Person's Guide to Kyle Bobby Dunn (Low Point)

It's always interesting to speculate on aesthetic seepage, on how music that, in a give example, seems to be an obvious direct influence but turns out not to be, though one assumes it's present at two or three removes. To my ears, so much of what one might call (acknowledging the over generalization) "tonal ambient drone" carries the scent of Eno between, say, 1975 and 1985. Much of this entirely enjoyable 2-disc set did to me as well. I was even being more specific, mentally checking off "Evening Star" as a decided point of reference. But I happened to have an e-mail exchange with Dunn who said he was only marginally familiar with Eno's work and had never, in fact, heard "Evening Star".

So there you go. And while it's possibly unfair to compare the two, I daresay that fans of Eno during that period (his most creative, I might say) with enjoy this release as well. Dunn generally takes acoustic or found sources and transforms them ("letting them bleed" as he puts it) into shimmering drones that tend to evince multiple layers. He often uses what I think of as a kind of "French horn" tonality, a Bryars-ish quality I've always found attractive, implying a watery, foggy ambiance. The textures vary from piece to piece, throat-sing-y here, organ-y there, never harsh, often with slow, tidally repeating surges--very well constructed. The one work that breaks this mold is actually the one I like best, "Sets of Four", a stately, heartfelt piece for piano that recalls some of John Cale's early 70s music. Ultimately, the music is a hair on the gentle side for my taste, but listeners attuned to this area with find a rewarding experience.

Dunn's myspace page


Marc Spruitt - Patterns (Soul Shine Through)

Spruitt set himself a challenge here, to create something perhaps less overbearing and in your face than his previous works. And there is an amount of space here, thought he surrounding sound is quite aggressive and virtually 3D in the manner it bursts from the silences. It's very filmic in the sense of abstract images flashing out against a white background, harsh and ragged, disappearing quickly. Not to suggest a comparison in quality, necessarily, but I found myself thinking of some Michael Snow videos, for example. So, yes, I guess it's less in one's face than prior music from Spruitt, but still
very much so, not so much as to be bothersome, though. Good, tough work.

You can hear some (all?) of it on Spruit's myspace page

The first ever encounter between Keith Rowe and Jason Lescalleet occurred last night in Boston at the Mills Gallery (a Non-Event event). The second will happen this coming Sunday at diapason in Brooklyn.

It was rather rocky going, which was more or less to be expected. Offhand, the approaches of each don't seem overly complimentary though that very push and pull--Keith more considered, Jason more volatile (oversimplifications, both, but, you know) could serve to generate fine results. At several points during the set (about an hour?) this was indeed the case, though interlaced with what seemed to be more frequent searches for common ground. Rowe had a metal plate in front of his guitar-neck that he rubbed and scraped with various items; he later explained that it was the inverse of the guitar strings, similarly sized but with the open spaces between the strings replaced by solid mass. As is his habit, he probed in the spaces left by his partner, nudging here and there but seeming content to "fit in". Lescalleet had a couple of old tape players, a turntable and other electronica. His contributions, by there nature as tape loops, often had repetitive elements which lent a good ground for Rowe to scrabble atop and within. At one point, Jason generated a very tonal wash, a thick ambient drone which Keith went along with for a bit before attempting to dirty things. The volume level fluctuated, several times reducing to near silence, once violently interrupted by a burst triggered by Lescalleet that momentarily sounded like a speaker loudly shorting.

There were several points along the way, including a lovely multiple-popping, percolating one toward the end, that were fantastic, though the whole never quite achieved a unifying, driving power. But it will be interesting to see how they fare the second time around. Audio seepage from, I think, a bar next door, imparted an odd ending the set as a jazz-bluesy belter intruded through the walls....

Great to see everyone there, looking forward very much to this weekend.

Nina Katchadourian - Sky Mall Kitties

Paul Abbott/Daichi Yoshikawa - Broken Tree

When does a harsh, disruptive, oddly-angled and altogether difficult set of music not work for me? And why? Damned if I know but this one fails to do the trick. I was thinking, while listening, of sets I've heard fairly recently by, for example, Richard Kamerman and Reed Evan Rosenberg (Tandem Electrics) that might, broadly speaking, fall into a similar area but which I greatly enjoyed. Something to do with the perceived flow, maybe, the internal logic that somewhere well below the surface, makes sense to me. Here, I could never really pick up any proper thread, which could well be my failing. Or perhaps Abbott and Yoshikawa intended no thread to be available. Maybe it's that too large a percentage of the sounds for my taste, evoked a kind of saxophonic emotionalism, the wailing feedback-y moans. Too wiggly here, too meandering there. Happily, you can listen for yourself and determine I know not whereof I speak (or hear):

authorized version


(Various) physical, absent, tangible (Contour Editions)

Good news: Richard Garet has started his own label, Contour Editions, and the first release is a compilation of five artists, once again--as has beenthe case quite often recently--all new to me.

OK, anyone who knows me knows how short my patience is for noms and can imagine what it took for me to get past a piece from someone going by the moniker, i8u (count to ten, Brian) but damn if this isn't a wonderful work. She (France Jobin) has been around for a while, actually, I've simply never encountered her that I can recall. "Rarefaction" is a drone piece but one containing exceptional warmth and wit. After several minutes, she introduces this luscious seesaw between a soft high hum and a super-low loud one, the relationship between the pitches sounding oddly familiar as though extracted and mutated from some pop standard. Very nice. Christopher Delaurent's two works are darker, airy rumbles spiced with poppage, that convey a fine, slate-like texture. Not bad, though maybe a bit similar to much other music in this area.

Gil Sansón presents a suite of eight shortish pieces that mix field recordings with electronics, some of which are very lovely on their own while others drift a bit aimlessly. Their relatedness, as well (perhaps intentionally) seems tenuous, though they're the kind of work that I feel I'd enjoy far, far more in situ, in a sizable room, rather than over speakers. The final track, by Brian Mackern and Gabriel Galli closes the disc out in excellent fashion. 14 minutes of Morse Code-infused, gritty hum, whine, whistle and assorted noise that is absolutely convincing and corporeal. Even the warped music box-y cum Jarrett-on-Fender-Rhodes-with-Miles sound emerges some ten minutes in manages to work. Good stuff, want to hear more from this pair.

contour editions

Violet - Violet Ray Gas and the Playback Singers (SRA)

Violet is Jeff Surak. Differently sourced, but some of the material here reminds me of Scanner from the mid-90s: tense, vaguely threatening electronics with a hint of pulse melded with a garbled voice recording on the first track (among many other sounds elsewhere), creating a strongly dystopic aura. The music veers between troubled calm and aggressive harshness, sometimes suddenly. The title piece shifts gears, combining lowed bowed string tones (sampled?) over a dire rumble, very cinematic and really quite effective--the highlight of the disc, which closes with a cut that's oddly beatific, though possessing enough warpage for one not to be gulled into passivity. Not quite in my normal comfort zone these days, but a good recording.

sra sounds


Christian Pruvost - Ipteravox (Helix)

Solo trumpet from a name new to me. It's odd--the accompanying material namechecks Dorner, Kelly, Hautzinger and such but Pruvost's approach, at least here, can only be heard as overtly virtuosic in a manner generally eschewed by those fellows and similar musicians. So, for example, the opening track uses breath tones, strangulated cries and extreme tongue-flutters but the overall sense is as if one's listening to, say, Toshinori Kondo taking a solo turn during an FMP gig. The second has a more interesting, very low rumbling attack, something that sounded fairly new to my ears (similarly, the didgeridoo-like tones on the final cut) but, as on all five tracks, there's nothing much in evidence apart from exploration of technique and, more often than not, that technique is thrust upon the listener in a "look what I can do manner". Not satisfying.

helix/circum-disc


Ludl - Ludl (CDR)

Ludl is Lisa Ullén (prepared piano) and David Linnros (alto saxophone). Three pieces on this brief, 23-minute disc, recorded in August of 2009. The sounds elicited by Ullén sre familiar in a Cage-sense, many dulled, buzzing thuds while Linnros pretty much sticks with gritty, wavering long tones. The music won't knock your socks off but it's very well played and conceived, the structures (improvised, I assume) have a nice irregularity to them, stopping and starting unexpectedly as though cut from some rough material with unwieldy shears. Worth a listen.

linnros myspace page


Vertex - Shapes & Phases (Sofa)

Yet more musicians I've never encountered previously (that the case for all four today). Another duo, Petter Vågan (lapsteel guitar, acoustic guitar, electronics) and Tor Haugerud (percussion, signal generator, field recordings). They get off to a shaky start, somewhere in kind of avant-Frisell territory but recover their balance quickly enough as the music attains some degree of depth and grit, helped significantly by the electronics and recordings. The third and longest track, "Attractor" (true, some of the titles scream out, "90s!"), works very well, a thick stew of hums, whirs, sirens, clanks and more, hurtling forward. They fluctuate a bit between that more melodic tendency and a richer, darker one, my preferences running to the latter ("Morphometrics", "Ellipse"--in which you'd swear there was a raging bass sax back there somewhere); I'll be interested to hear more.

sofa

Morton Feldman - Music for Piano and Strings (Matchless)

Yet another brief note:

I can't possibly do this release justice simply because, as a Region 0 DVD, I can only play it through my PC speakers which, while ok enough, only give me a decent taste of the music. Two works: For John Cage (1982) with Darragh Morgan on violin and John Tilbury on piano, and "Piano and String Quartet" (1985) with Tilbury and the Smith Quartet, recorded live in 2006. Each piece is an hour and a half long. Each is stunningly beautful--that much I can discern. I can pick up the vaguest glimmers of the overtones I know are there. Tilbury appears to be in (typically) excellent form, weaving wondrously through the strings on the second piece--you get a strong physical sense of that, of the strings as a kind of flexing matrix, the piano wending its way through, the lines like bright threads.

One of these days, I have to invest in a multi-region player and hook the whole up to my speakers...there are two more Feldman DVDs planned by Matchless. The first will include "Patterns in a Chromatic Field", "Cello and Piano" and "Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello". The next several works for piano and strings from 1950-1980, including "The Viola in My Life".

Well worth hearing even if only in less than optimal conditions.

matchless

Just wanted to make a few brief comments about the dual work by Michael Pisaro (with Barry Chabala), "black, white, red, green, blue"/"voyelles". This was released as a cassette on winds measure which I believe has sold out though a cd issue of "voyelles" is, I think, in the works.

"black, white, red, green, blue" is performed solo by Chabala. It's an hour's worth of suspended, individual notes, of varied tone, length and texture, generally separated by five to ten seconds. It's quite lovely and thoughtful, like all of Pisaro's work I've experienced, requiring fairly intense concentration and immersion to fully appreciate. His conception is amazing at suspending time and Chabala offers a very fine, sensitive reading.

For "voyelles", Pisaro took the same recording and infiltrated it with sounds sourced from sine tones and field recordings (possible others). As good as the original piece is, "voyelles" really brings it into its own and makes it extraordinary. As with other works (like the great Transparent Cities set), Pisaro has an unerring ear with regard to precisely what sound will most strangely but somehow appropriately compliment a given instrumental tone. By adding a single layer, Pisaro multiplies the piece's depth many fold. A great, great work, one that unfurls differently on each hearing.

Keep an ear out for the "official" release.

Nick Hennies - Lineal (SRA)

Listening to Hennies' meditation on his grandfather, one is inevitably reminded of Jason Lescalleet's profound release, "The Pilgrim", from a few years back. I thought at the time it would be tough, unfortunately, for someone to venture into similar territory and, at the same time, I thought, "Well, why not?" Hennies follows his own tack here, beginning with an absolutely gorgeous sequence of thin, bell-like tones, a coruscating layer that glistens in one's ear. Its nine minutes are a kind of invocation to the body of the piece which commences with a tape of his grandfather, Charlie Nichols, reciting a Longfellow poem in a rich, Texas accent. It sits unadorned through completion, followed by a harsh, windswept vista that slowly gains richness and depth before cutting off abruptly at the sound of struck metal, giving way to....birds? insects? maybe fire? Soon dulcet tones enter, as though from some ethereal steel drum, Another recitation, religious in nature, then echoing sounds over what sounds like a distant choir, those more prominent sounds whirling within one's ears, leading to "Home", by Edgar Guest. The in and out of the voice and fairly ambiguous, harsh/smooth ambiance connotes a spirit, a memory, receding and advancing from focus. The piece ends with a tape of a lively Mexican (?) band and another single note from that plain, dully resonating bell.

A fine recording, quite stirring and movingly conceived. Very different from standard fare. Get it.

hennies

sra sounds


The Wingdale Community Singers - Spirit Duplicator (Scarlet Shame)

Speaking of departures...Friend and Record Club confrere (consoeur?) Nina Katchadourian joined David Grubbs, Rick Moody and Hannah Marcus in the Wingdales a while back and this album is the first fruit. I caught them at Issue Project Room last year and was treated to a wonderful set, somewhere between The Roches (at their best) and Laurie Anderson...in Brooklyn. Dunno, but it was loads of fun, very sharp, caustic lyrics (not without tenderness) spun in bittersweet harmony with folky guitars, violin and accordion accompaniment. Songs about everyday observations, lost loves, departed cities. If I have a quibble, it's that this recording might be a bit over-produced, a tad too smooth compared to the engaging raggedness of their live show. That plus they failed to include my favorite piece heard that night, the one about happily disengaged lovers who can't get far enough apart. Some fine songs here, though, including "Naked Goth Girls", "AWOL" ("I'm going AWOL from the army of the Lord") and "My Les Paul". Art-nerd country/folk? Enjoyable work but catch them live.

the wingdale's myspace page


Carol Robinson - Billows (Plush)

Robinson was the featured player on the very fine Morton Feldman release, "Late Works with Clarinet" (Mode 119). This disc contains twelve of her own works, soft, slow clouds, often overdubbed, sounding at least semi-improvised. Robinson has an extremely delicate and light touch; if you're not paying attention, you might think you're hearing a flute. She's quite deft in manipulating overtones, controlling them beautifully, using subtle electronic enhancement, layering contrasting tissues of sound atop one another. The piece are all between about three and five minutes and do have something of the character of clouds--what structure there is, shifts slowly and without much more direction than a random puff of air might supply. At times I found this a bit trying, especially over the course of the entire discs. But I found if I was able to mentally place myself in situ, as it were, to imagine myself in a larger space wherein these tones were circulating, it was a very satisfying experience. Robinson provides just enough grit to keep the pieces from slipping into overly new age stylings. It's not Feldman, no, but there's some nice work here.

plush

If you've not already heard, excellent news on the blog-roll front: Jesse Goin has begun one with a far cooler title than mine, crow with no mouth. Please go check it out.

Good luck, Jesse!

Apologies for the light post load here recently...busy at work, busy at home and this weekend, busy attempting to solve crosswords. As has often been the case, managed to make one mistake which cost me a bit, depositing my in 50th place (out of about 640), costing me 37th or so. Getting to be somewhat of a strain on these old eyes, that small print in not-so-great lighting situations, slowing me down a hair.

As ever, a fantastic time, though, seeing some great people, who I see all too rarely, meeting others, finding unexpected connections, including the amazing George Rosenfeld's story of giving Charles Mingus a ride home from a party in the 60s and Dan's plans for the Old Jews Telling Jokes franchise.

Elodie Lauten - Piano Works (Unseen Worlds)

Lauten was born in 1950, some 12 to 15 years after the first wave of minimalists and her work didn't surface by and large until the early to mid 80s, so she's always stuck in my head as "second generation minimalist" along with people like Daniel Lentz and John Adams. Like Lentz, she's much more overtly melodic and playful than her predecessors which is sometimes good, sometimes not so.

This 2-disc set contains four works from 1983 to 1991. Disc One has two suites, Piano Works (1983) and Concerto for Piano and Orchestral Memory (1984), plus a brief Tango. The former is pretty rollicking, somewhere between Young's The Well-Tuned Piano (it's not justly tuned, however) and Charlemagne Palestine's lush elaborations. There's synth involved. both for textural accompaniment and some bass. It also has an improvisational feel; in his better moments, Jarrett in the 70s came close to this music.I wrote a while back about Ron Geeson's solo piano album, "Patruns"; there's a good bit of that flavor here as well. The second suite is in similar territory, at first maybe even more propulsively burbling, with Arthur Russell (cello), Peter Zummo (trombone), Voirabh (violin) and Ron Lawrence (viola) accompanying (and electronically enhanced). Sometimes, the keyboard almost bows out and the strings and brass edge into a Bryars-y morass (an attractive one). But overall, it meanders overmuch from section to section, not establishing any solid feel or theme, more like a string of unfinished ideas. The tango, though, with a vocal in French, is quite lovely.

Variations on the Orange Cycle is the most recent work (1991) and is even less in the minimalist vein than earlier ones (which are reasonably far afield themselves) though again one thinks of Young and even Riley in his more expansive, less rigorous moments. I've been listing many references because I find it tough to hear much I can specifically think of as Lauten in much of this music. I don't know that that's necessarily an awful thing as much of it is attractive and even beguiling, but I do often find myself hearing strong echoes of others (perhaps in some instances it's actually the reverse). Indeed on "Sonate Modale", a live performance for piano and tape from 1985, I could add Muhal Richard Abrams and "Blue" Gene Tyranny to the list. Here, the electronics, softly screeching and whistling are an intriguing offset to the ruminative piano. Once the listener settles in and accepts the dichotomy, it's a sensual and evocative journey.

All in all, an interesting set. Probably too "gentle" for both the eai crowd and the stricter minimalist fans but a damn sight better than Adams. IF work like Lentz' "On the Leopard Altar" appeals to you, this should be right up your alley.

unseen worlds

(Various) - Improvised Music from Japan 2009 (IMJ)

The magazine is comprised largely of interviews with persons involved with maintaining and booking performance spaces in Japan; their thoughts and opinions are likely of more interest to residents there or perhaps others in the field. The one exception is a very interesting self-interview by Taku Sugimoto that's well worth a read by admirers. This issue comes with three discs worth of music as well, 31 tracks, almost entirely from people with which this writer is unfamiliar. Needless to say, it's an uneven uneven collection, but piece's that stood out for me included: Katsura Mouri's brutal opening track of repeated tapes and noise; Takahiro Hirama's delicate, incessant series of six rising piano notes (realized via computer)--obsessive and precise; Hiroyuki Ura's very delicate two minutes of almost nothing; Koji Saito's (similar to Hirama) four-note, repeated guitar phrase, perhaps sublimating early Sugimoto--lovely; Makoto Oshiro's mysterious and evocative combination of piezo mike, feedback and wind, a wonderful piece, my favorite from this collection; and the concluding piano song by Saya is disarmingly simple and moving.

IMJ

erstdist

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I received two cassettes from entr'acte. But I have no means of playing them, my last cassette player having long since bit the dust (never too keen on the things anyway). So Allon was kind enough to send mp3 files my way.

Steven Hess' "System Failure" comprises two brief pieces using iterative layers of static and other clickery. There's always a pulse in play, virtually a rhythm, though quite a mechanical one (though the second piece eerily--and I presume unintentionally--recall the loping meter of that classic one-time wonder Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky"!). They morph somewhat, the outer layers shredding a bit, but at core they're similar throughout and, for myself, they cast a pall, lessen the interest in the fuzzier, more amorphous sounds.

The second cassette is a compilation of five persons/groups, none of whom I'd encountered previously, I believe compiled by DJ Ordeal. Deepkiss 720 seems to be squawling sax in the Zorn tradition with motor-like electronics--noisy, that is to say. Think Brotzmann pere et fils on meth. DJ Ordeal conjures up an avian scene with a distant wooden knocking and closer, though muffled, conversation; pleasantly immersive. I always thought it was Van Vliet who came up with the not so deep line, "The stars are matter; we're matter; but it doesn't matter." In any case, that's what The Spartacus Stargazer begins its track, with the female (?) vocalist muttering those words before the band launches into a beat-noirish piece; not quite sure of the point.

Side two commences with The Tarbox Tentacle. I feel I should stop there. The Tarbox Tentacle...love it (its sole google hit refers to this cassette). Well, the song, "Honey Boy", has casually tossed off lyrics, ambient sound, goofy percussion and beats and more. It's rather fun. Finally, The Vitamin B12 offers a bit of the "Raw Deal", sort of circling back to the beginning, spitfire sax offset with electronics, out of a free jazz bag for all its noise surface. Scattered...

entr'acte


Mural - Nectars of Emergence (Sofa)

Jim Denley (alto sax, flutes), Kim Myhr (guitars, preparations), Ingar Zach (gran cassa, percussion) [yes, I had to look it up--a bass drum]. This is a fairly delicate, mellifluous set, the trio tending toward soft, tonal whistles (Denley), gently plucked guitar and a wide range of colors from Zach, leaning toward the bowed or quietly struck. In fact, with Denley's flute often evoking shakuhachi, there's a decided East Asian cast to the session. The result is a kind of pleasant stasis, with modicums of drama now and then, but overall a sense of brooding serenity. I wanted to hear a bit more grit, more of the world outside this isolated garden, but Mural does achieve an involving, kind of floating equilibrium that has its attractions.

sofa

Terry Jennings/John Cage - Lost Daylight (Another Timbre)

Any new release with John Tilbury is the cause of great anticipation on my part (not to slight the fine Master Lexer!) but I was especially antsy when I learned he'd be performing several pieces by Terry Jennings. Like many, perhaps most, I'd heard a thing or two of his over the years but had certainly read far more about him than heard his work. Tilbury plays five pieces, written between 1958 and 1966. They took a while to worm their way into me. Jennings is often cited, with Riley and Young, as one of the true precursors of minimalism and you can hear that in this music, though to a far lesser extent than I'd imagined. You perceive more of an antecedent to work like Young's "The Well-Tuned Piano" than subsequent Riley, much less the more routine minimalist pantheon. There's little in the way of repetition, though kernels appear and iterate now and then; I said less of Riley, but in some ways it's like Riley with a strong enough dose of Feldman to all but obliterate his standard tropes. They have the appearance of disarming simplicity; it takes a while to hear all the superfine subtlety with which Jennings (and, one presumes, Tilbury) imbue the pieces. (another referent that just popped in my head: a hyper-sensitive, ultra-contemplative Paul Bley). It's very thoughtful, beautiful music, wonderfully realized. Very glad to have finally heard Tilbury's take.

The Cage work, "Electronic Music for Piano" (1964), exists in another universe, though an equally beguiling one. Tilbury and Lexer (handling the electronics) weave a 40-minute gossamer tapestry that's entirely unpredictable and totally immersive. I don't own another version and am not sure if I've heard it before. I know Stefan Schleiermacher has recorded it on vol. 2 of his MDG series, which I should hear. Apparently the instructions are rather vague, Cage having jotted them down on hotel letterhead, Tudor having first performed it. Whatever the possibilities, here Tilbury and Lexer have opted for a very wide open reading, with great amounts of space, the sounds almost like leaves (or dust motes) irregularly swirling in an eddy from a hidden draft. Every so often there's an upsurge in volume, a clang or loud ringing as though that breeze has succeeded in knocking over some delicately balanced object. But it all occurs at such a "natural" sounding, unhurried pace that one accepts every event as proper. It disappears for a minute or two and you don't quite notice. Clusters form, sometimes mellifluous when clear piano tones contribute, often comprised of rumbling static, each with equal weight, each simply an event in time.

In both cases, this is music I can see returning to many times over the years. Very beautiful, invigorating and deep work.


Stephen Cornford/Samuel Rodgers - Turned Moment, weighting (Another Timbre)

A recent entry in Another Timbre's "byways" series, intended less as finished releases and more as snapshot documents of a scene. Cornford (piano feedback) and Rodgers (piano & objects) are both new names to me and based on this, I hope to hear more soon. Very calm, soft underlying drones, presumably generated via feedback, accompanied by plectral sounds from within the piano, vibrating devices against strings, etc. (you can get more of an idea of Cornford's approach and obsessions--including the delightful one on trespassing, here and those of Rodgers here). I could see some listeners finding the first two pieces overly drone-y/chime-y, though I enjoyed them throughout. The last track, however ("turning"), edges into darker environs, the drones arcing toward scrapes, the chimes hardening into more foreboding thuds. It's a very strong and complete piece, well worth hearing. Looking forward to more.

Another Timbre

also available via erstdist