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Ampersand Etcetera – 2002_09
Ambient & microwave & electronica & experimental lowercase & postclassical & minimal & techno & etcetera
gaab & hughes & lecanoscope & murmer & o&a & robinson & oetz & rudis/custadio/diaz-infante & thompson & twine
Eclectic mix this time – no attempted sub-text! (Although I have put them in alphabetical order).
To come: the Public Eyesore label review in 2002_10, Poland in 2002_11, then more mixtures of what hits our doorstop. And for the &etc junkies, I have updated the Excel sheet up to and including 2002_08 (mainly for my own records, so I can do the neat cross referencing, but some may find it helpful too). Its at the site – and indicates that there are 474 items reviewed.
For some back patting: that means 484 with this lot, and the total will be over 500 when the 20 disk strong Eyesore issue (already over half done) hits the enews-stands (which will be the 67th emission, if you include the 6 special issues of volume 3). Little did I realise what I was letting myself in for when I started this in July 1999 – over 3 reviews a week, and an average of 3 weeks between issues. No wonder I need more cd cabinets!
As always, seeking feedback from readers!
jeremy@pretentious.net
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http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html
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Larry Gaab
Fugue States
Morphosis Music MM7
http://www.shocking.com/~garbanzo
Morphosis Music releases Gaab's latest ambient excursion (2001_16, 2002_03 & 08), and again the PR suggests an alternative listening order. We'll go straight through, though.
The mood is set strongly with 'Amnesia dream' a slow burn layering of tones with a very slow drum, and a building burr – lovely variation in tonal textures and colour, with the danger of the fugue appearing in 'Synaesthesia'. Here edgy sliding tones, a drone and piano chords create a tension, underscored by a music-box melody – this dark and angular track has a quiet centre of piano and edgy tones before an almost carnical end.
More warm long tonal layers in 'Apparitions of apricots' which has some pastoral aspects, and is followed by a five second track, echoing the final chord. Questioning deep notes in 'Lingering lapse' with lighter filigree and spiralling tones, slowly meanders and develops, with attractive progressions and flutes and shimmers at the end. In 'Dream cycle' we encounter a big organ-y piece with a bell-like underlay, light squeals, pizzicato notes and deep bending notes. A very dreamy narrative that has a light and tender heart, mysterious and delicate.
An increase in rhythm for the 'Bright light unseen' with a dancing melody looping under higher strings: after a little twist and deep echoed rolls into a tentative slow progress to a tonal climax and cut end. Finally a voice-tone garden that does 'Glint and glimmer', suggestive sliding tones, a slight beat and light brightness.
Gaab continues to deliver satisfying complex tonal ambience with sufficient twists to hook you in.
(As a final note on MM's design aesthetic – the two releases discussed here have nicely subtle and appropriate designs which look good. My only piece of unsolicited advice is to reconsider the font used for track titles – it seems a little ornate.)
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Jonathan Hughes
Trillium
The Foundry/Hypnos Fou.16
http://www.foundrysite.com
The latest product from The Foundry is an exciting and enjoyable expansion of the label sound – as demonstrated by the mellower aspects on the Lost and Found anthology (2002_06) and the broader reaches of ambient music explored across the years.
A battery of machines and software are listed – and they are used by Hughes to create varied sound moods. We are led a little astray by the opener 'Imatra' – a beautiful layered tone piece that bubbles and swells, the notes creating a melody and beat, looping into a conclusion and encouraging us in. All of 'A nightmare dreamed of thunder' is based on samples from Ravi Padmanabha indicating something on Hughes' methods, and he creates an atmospheric mood that includes a Tuvan-like drone surrounded by pulsing synth-tones, then some percussion, rumbles and melody with click loops developing more activity as it progresses over the rolling base.
Subdued scrabbly machine loops over a ringing in 'Alta' eventually breaks into looping scrapish and long tones with cycling percussions which develops and flows. Perhaps manipulated voices crackle in 'Lua' alongside scrabbles warbles and radio swirls: a slow melody emerges and then a distorted beat, together with little filigree and longer tones. It floats into a looping scrape peep that is given a playful extended working out, beautifully controlled, ending with binaural sonars. More mysterious sounds invite us into 'Heavy water' and then a rough edged slow beat, building elements all sweetly manipulated through to the fade.
A juxtaposition of a sweeping long tonal ambience with a crackly 3 dits and a pop sound that gradually speeds up, expands and eventually takes the final moments of 'Frozen, drifting'. A pulse tone, crackly pops, little percussive pieces and a melody create an unusual mix of sounds in 'Ganymede' which suddenly breaks out into a fast groovy beat with a guitar solo, which is active and exciting.
Hughes suggests that all tracks are in a 3/4 time signature – and I would agree it is 'not always obvious at first (or at all)'. What is obvious is that the album provides a complex and enjoyable ambience (both as a descriptor and an atmosphere) with a darker edge.

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Lecanoscope
Comparing Notes
Metabolic Music MMCDEP03
http://www.metabolicmusic.com
An ep of groovy ambient-trance music: the relaxed and smooth type championed by the likes of The Orb – mandalas and flowers on the cover.
'Kuya drill' sets out the mode – some spoken samples lead into broody didg, zwitt-tones and a pitter-patter beat that grows as the samples echo, becomes focussed with more activity (a female voice, balaika, rhythmic mutter and electric guitar) and it builds with a bass into a rolling groove to the fade. An Indian flavour to 'Asaresult' (what a great title, it got a laugh from me) with pulsing tabla and sitar, the ample (which resolves the title, and is about DNA computers), guitar loops and again a flowing to the end.
'Waterlilly' has a semi-Western feel from the acoustic guitar, with a scrabbling rhythm and slow colour over the top. Tribal rhythms to 'Dual unity' with echoed percussive thuds, steel guitar, some flutes and a Kylie-chorus – a simple nanana) and finally a strong rhythm in 'Somnambulist transmitter' which ends with a more moody atmosphere of choppy samples, shimmering synths and strong rhythm.
The album ends too quickly – the 20 odd minutes seems to fly by – and could easily have kept me interested for longer. A positive achievement for any release: I await more from Lecanoscope (who could be Lank Lewe and Kida, but might not be too!)
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Murmer
Murmer
Bake Records 057
http://www.staalplaat.com
Another musician using unusual sounds, Murmer collects what could be described a sonic detritus – the sounds listed as sources include a modem, air vent on a 73 bus, escalator at Pimlico station, refrigerator, long metal pipes, air vent on a red mini and wind whistling through a 3rd storey window (these have been associated with particular track, but I will just refer to the sounds as heard).
'.rumer' is 25 minutes of tones drones and crackles: long rising and falling tones emerge from the silence, whips and rumbles provide highlights; becoming more active calls shuffling and drones phase and change with a harmonium like pulsing; tonepulse loops cycle out and in phase gradually gaining density, while a high ringing develops and long swinging pulses take the foreground; a drop to a ringling that develops into a high tone, clickcrackle noises emerge and fade into a bagpipe-ish cycling and buzz pulse crackle builds to a climax before a fading tone end.
After that tone driven track, '.errum' has a strong mechanical rhythm with pulsey noises clatters and hints of music: then a soft pulsing with plosive noises over, high ringing and a Tuvanic drone creating a very visceral density, building a head of steam to a rumble clatter and fade. In '.meurum' a hiss and growing sine tone create undertones, overtones and interference patterns within the listening , wavering and gulping (is it auditory illusion?). The puttering increases, banging come to the foreground, the tone retakes it a clattering, and again a fade.
Percussive affects in '.rumme' looping, changing speed, puttering, shifting through the soundspace, some tones, all very resonant and moody, with a clanging and little notes appearing in the second half. A minute or so of loud pulsating metallic layers in '.ummer' ('.rumme' is the second shortest at 6 minutes, the others are all around 11-14 minutes). So finally '.mmeru' with a wooshy vent-noise fluttering high and whistly tones, dropping to a pulsating whistle rumble that rebuilds to a mechanical whistle and click, fading and rebuilding again.
Mechanical minimalism, a exciting venture into a cross ambient-electronica-noise area. An excursion worth exploring, and another success for Staalplaat's Bake venture that offers wider distribution for self-produced material.
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O&A
Box 30/70
Tourette tick7
http://www.netzradio.de/box3070
O&A are Sam Auinger and Bruce Odland (who were on the previous Tourette disk from the Format 5 festival [2001_14], and A is half of Berliner Theorie [2001_06]) and Box30/70 is an installation which seems (from the PR and what I can extract from the extensive German text) to take noises from the environment in which it is placed and work on them to create a sound environment for the listeners inside the box – which is a darkened space with small windows onto the area you are hearing. On the album we get extracts recorded from the box's European tour (between 3 and 8 minutes) alternating with extracts from an 'Alphabet of sounds' that the pair have been building. In addition to the extensive text in the sleeve, there are also pictures and maps of the box in situ.
The basic sound of the box is a low throbbing resonance that echoes around your head, through which the sounds that are picked up pass, themselves manipulated and trailed. The selections that have been made from each city emphasise subtle differences between them with the ground remaining similar. The 'L.A. mix' gives a starting point with rising road noises, some bird noises and a little clattering; In 'Spandau' the traffic is busy, the higher sound of motor bikes picked out (and some pass a few box-sites), brakes squeal, some walking and the background droning seems more forceful and swirling than other sites; 'Witten' has some very large trucks and fast traffic passing, followed by some lighter moments (this one is compiled from a number of samples); a clever placement in 'Rotterdam' puts the box near a train crossing with the bells ringing, a rhythmic train passing and later a couple of whistles (probably from boats – the map shows it was placed near both a railway and water), together with children playing; along the 'Alexanderplatz' people walk by talking, busses pass, birds sing and a siren rushes by; there are church bells in 'Dusseldorf' and lots of banging and a big vehicle in 'Dresden' (also near a train line); 'Wien' is placed in a busy spot with horns and some loud bikes and a horse. Finally 'Boxbasic mix1' seems to reflect a variety of sites.
The interleaved sections provide a contrast with a mixture of relatively straight and processed sounds. 'Watersong' compiles a number of sounds, one is a soft putter that builds and distorts (presumably 'gefiltert und geloopt') while there are metal tins clanking, squeaks and running water over it; 'Crickets' and 'Wind' are; 'Basic water' has a cycling wooble with dits pops and echoed drops that gets noisey at times. A piece from a performance at 'Hive NYC' starts with buzzy chugs, squeals and long tones and then shifts into a city sample and then echoed resonances, while 'f-loop' combines a metallic wind tone and drippy noises. The most processed is 'Landscape 1' which uses a supercollider patch by Nikolas Bussmann to create a pulsing crackling audioscape.
While I enjoyed this album a lot and felt that the contrast worked well, I also had a hankering for something more. It would be really fun to be able to experience the intensity – and possibly boredom – of one site for a more extended period. While a full disk of the box in situ might be over the top as a sole release, I think a double album would have worked very nicely – this disk as the main one but also a full 70-80 minutes from one recording that you could immerse yourself into. But while that version is not available, this is an evocative and satisfying release.
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Jason Robinson: Tandem
Joscha Oetz: Vieles Est Eins
Accretions ALP025 and 026
http://www.accretions.com
These despatches from San Diego share a focus on collaboration. Robinson joins his tenor sax (and occasional flute, clarinet, electronics) with a variety of artists in duos that navigate 'through the dialogic space of negotiation, interaction and meaning'. Oetz (contrabass) has three solo tracks on his album, but the bulk sees him in three duos. The other thing they share is an accessibility and sonority without complacency which is the hallmark of the label.
Robinson combines live (and improvised) pieces with studio works (which 'rely heavily on improvisation') on his album. Rather than track by track, I'll run through by collaboration – in the order of their first combination on the set. So we start with pianist Anthony Davis – 'Now and here' opens the album strongly with a pulsing sax and rollicking piano into a more sustained and progressive piece. This combination also creates the album highlight 'C.T.' which seems to be credited to Robinson alone (it is one of only 3 pieces with a name after the track title, which seems indicative of authorship). This is a simply delightful 20 minute piece, including a piano solo in the first half and sax in the second ending with plucked piano: it is a classic/classical jazz piece and combines mellow experimental and dynamism.
There are two pieces with Peter Kowald on contrabass: 'Dark matter' has an underlying crackle-drone with bowed double bass and blowy sax that harmonise in an atonal edged slow sensuality. On 'A song for tomorrow' a scrabbly blowy squiggled duet is enhanced by Stephanie Johnson's electronica from an earlier duet. Stephanie also has a 'solo' 'Sblat' which is a fascinating musique concrete reworking of Jason.
George Lewis plays trombone which marries in with the sax sound – 'Hogs & swine' combines popping sax with squiggling trombone in a strong interplay that includes some strange barking as well as sweeter notes; aggressive sax and puttery trombones, soften and then become almost electro in the varied 'Tea with george'. With Marcelo Radulovich we enter the studio and multitracking of flute and sax and live electronics from both so that drones hums and radio samples form a backdrop for 'duets with self' and some manipulations, continued on 'Discrete jungle' where Radulovich's guitar provides some piano-like notes and a forest sample runs through an emergent and layered piece.
'In the tradition' is appropriately named as Nathan Hubbard provides a driving drum kit (with solo and quieter periods) for a varied excursion into some of the more expected jazz solo fields (you expect a piano to drop in at times). Another trombonist (Michael Dessen) works with Robinson on 'Birdrock dub' where the two instruments play slowly and almost in unison, the slight delays or extra notes adding a frisson – this is also credited and probably scored. Their second piece 'Tbone for two' is another mellow piece as the trombone takes the melody over cycling sax.
Finally, with Hans Fjellestad there are two more studio tracks – 'Telepatheomatic' and 'Black market higgle' – that are complex multilayered and provide an exciting interface between improv and studio manipulation. The added dimensions throughout this album make this a fascinating and rewarding listen that appears to have kept a wider audience sensibility in mind.
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In 2000 Joscha Oetz moved from Cologne to San Diego, where he fell in with the crew that is Trummerflora. With one track from his pre-Diego days, it generally reflects the 'radical change of environment' that has recently stimulated him, though some of these partnerships have evolved over a longer period. His work with the contrabass not only extracts a variety of sounds through plucking bowing tapping, but also includes preparation 'with small round wooden sticks put between the strings close to the bridge' to provide even more percussive effects.
Three solo pieces scattered through the album demonstrate Oetz skill and methods: 'Musica alemana' combines a percussive clattering with standard bowing and rhythmic percussion; the longer 'Konstantin' demonstrates various methods, almost as an exemplar, moving from percussive and short bowing, plucking, more explorative string work; atonal bowing and finally some more mellow work; and 'Moorzahn' closes the album with a jazzy melodic delight.
The bulk of the duos – 5 – are with a collaborator since 1995, Barre Phillips who also plays contrabass. This allows for an exciting display of varied techniques, and each player is in a separate channel, so you can pick them out. 'Nurdim' demonstrates the two players accord as their voices respond to each other, in a piece that has some mournful slow slides and resonating harmony. In 'Bajoife' a plucked duet is percussive and scratchy, and then a bouncing bow draws flute-tones, high bowed wailing and finally fast percussive into a sweet end. Also main plucked, 'Toqua' is drivingly pulsive and melodic, while there is great interplay in 'Zweins' as one bows and the other percusses. And lastly 'Roronra' pops and taps, note runs and pulsing, rapid and rhythmic – all of these tracks demonstrating a fine and subtle communication.
The other two pieces are 'Sipan' with saxophonist Andreas Wagner where the clattering strings and plucked percussive bass weaves through popping sliding and squeaking sax, and a wonderfully extended work ('Friden bitte') with Greg Stuart on percussion which is delicate and gestural, with some more demonstrative sections, but is pure de/light.
This album expanded my understanding and appreciation of what the double bass (as I used to know it) can do – and while it explores atonal and unusual territory it is approachable and enjoyable, made as it is with such joy and spirit, and sequenced in a way that enhances the variations.
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Lx Rudis, Andre Custadio and Ernestto Diaz-Infante
Crashing The Russian Renaissance
Pax Recordings PR90253
http://www.paxrecordings.com
In 2001_14 we listened to an earlier Pax release, an improv album with some members shared with this one. Rudis on Matrix 12, Custadio darbuka, tom-tom, Line 6 and Diaz-Infante guitar, violin, voice (he will reappear in the Public Eyesore issue) deliver another edgy seemingly improvised set (seemingly as to me it sounds like it was constructed from improvs).
The bulk of the album is 'Overthruster', 27 tracks of generally continuously mixed improv: the typography suggests some parts (the track times are set off into groups) but the differences aren't obvious, and (by the way) quite a few of the times are wrong.
As with all albums of this form, perhaps harder than others, it is difficult to describe as it is a shifting complex movement. It opens with fast wild jittery guitar underlaid with some dirty synth with blurts and tones, then there is a looped and layered scattish vocalline which is then given a whistly tappy layer over it – that’s the first two tracks which are the longest (4 and 6 minutes). The remainder is cut into smaller segments, from 3 seconds to 3 minutes.
The balance between the instruments falls mainly to the synth-computer which has drones solos, blippy bleepy periods, choppy mixing, string chords, noises tones, squeals and buzzing. Into this mix various components are added – clattery percussive and loose guitar work, whistling, percussion, found sounds (like dropped coins and clatterings), muttering and vocalising (including a backwards period) and violin in various guises (some melodic, at other sounding like a braying donkey). The whole thing ebbs and flows, shifting between computer solos, quieter spots, wild communal music-making and stasis. Straying towards chaos it never comes that close, nor to cacophony, and (like a few others) after the first track had worried me about mindless noise, the album as a whole is quite captivating (for this style). I really enjoyed the strength and variation of Lx's computer artistry which provide a powerful base. However, the usual caveats apply – this is not easy mood music for all ears, and not to be consumed if you are in an edgy mood already.
The first three tracks are the collectively titled 'Three college radio ready edit' and do present various aspects of 'Overthruster': the first emphasises the plunky guitar first, has a quieter centre then a more computery finish, the second very percussive and jumpy and the last is big and resonant, quite spooky. An interesting concept.
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Phil Thompson
Scan
S'Agita Recordings 003
http://www.sagitarecordings.dot.nu
A cd-r from a small label – a series of 26? tracks created with that oddest of modern instruments. It seems a strange idea to take a file created in one program and open it in a sound-related one so that the binary data for a text file, for instance, is interpreted as the data for a sound file. It seems to be the recipe for terrible noise. And yet musicians(?) like Thompson are doing that, then (the secret) editing and working with the results to create things which are worth listening too. Yes, much of the base component is noise (clicks, electrical eruptions, whines, humms) but the skill comes in putting them together interestingly.
The first eleven tracks are 'user.dmp' composed from 'the residue of software failures and computer errors', opening and closing with fairly constant high tone interrupted by cable-wobble sound. Between these two are a variety of tracks – some are short focussed ones: crackly percussive, edgy fading interference, pulsing regular beats with pulses or more stable ambiences. Then there are longer more varied pieces which explore the sounds for longer, the whorly squashy tuneful tones of the third track that are almost musical, delicate melodic gestures in the sixth that change into nosiy voice like noises, and the jumping ninth that pulses and adds a deep pulsing tone the long pulses finally edgy. All added together it creates a complex display of possible musics.
The second part of this exploration 'Mqp' focuses on microsoft office executable files. The first movement is a long and varied from hiss crackly pop tones that builds buzzes and a crackle and a big whine/buzz with boobles and into a long ringing scrape to the end. Shorter, more restrained the second has some quiet eruptions developing a buzz scrape that fades then reworks into an active end.
Then follows 'Four trios' and I realised where the name was familiar from – these tracks were available from the Aesova web site. The trios are short with a similar structure – each has movements of 107 53 53 seconds – and Thompson works further within these constraints by adding sonic similarities. Largely (and simplifyingly) the long movement is lighter, composed mainly of soft shimmers and crackles that sound like rain or wind in bamboo, tones and buzzes adding highlights, the second crackles buzz and pulses while the is faster crackles that can sound like fire. This sequence of miniatures are subtle and fascinating variations within these themes.
Finally we are given a glimpse of 'perhaps what a computer hears when it malfunctions' in 'Acoasma' – a flowing twelve minutes where a bubbling sea of electronic burbles washes past, different strata at various speeds and tones, with high calling, harsh tones and other features floating across the surface. An almost ambient closure.
An excellent demonstration of what can be extracted from computer files which doesn't descend into noise or chaos, and is actually very engaging and subtle.
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Twine
Recorder
Bip-Hop Records Bleep11
http://www.bip-hop.com
The Twine brothers are unlike most musical twins – they don't have the same surname, don't have the same parents and don't even live in the same city. In fact they aren't related and have a very po-mo musical collaboration. The fruits of that relationship – two previous albums and a track on a bip-hop generation comp have been reviewed here (although we have just found that in2001_20 we called them Twain – which has now been corrected) – are an always surprising mix of melodic and more abstract-noise elements. In 'There is no one else' a fuzzy crackling with a tone melody underneath it, there is also loose cable futzing, more crackles and tune, together with spoken samples and snatches of opera, creating a melancholy and complete whole: however, a sample within it seems to be talking about Twine. A woman talks about having a 'beautiful dream and a terrible nightmare' at the same time, which seems strangely self-referential.
'None some silver' opens the album with a clear demonstration of the dichotomy – throughout a twangy western guitar provides a base for interference crackles, spirals and squeals, then a buzz-tone that fragments into a tune with zitty fireflies after which the guitar regains the focus before a buzzy final act. In 'Cign' a high pulsing tone and a very complex phasing rhythm and bass form the main elements, with occasional voice and ringing tone, weaving through each other fading in and out. 'Fine music' is a collection of sounds – a scratch, heartbeat tom, ringing scrape, horn synths, metal clanging, samples and distortion – that build broodingly. A choppy piano, tones and voices, followed by a scratchy mechanical sound are the 'Player piano' which presents echoed tones and voices, phased tones and more piano in various combinations.
A soft drone and pulses of sampled voices (you can discern 'budget' at one point) that flutter from ear to ear create a strong rhythm in 'Factor' and when the propulsive bass drone and organ tones join in, there is an exciting, groovy air; which changes for the slowly modulating tones of 'Curved' combined with tuvanish drones, reverbed bangs, crackling, dippy tones and probably some number stations – metallic and spooky. 'Touched' is the penultimate track – pulsing modified ping-tones with a noisy and dirty manipulated rhythm track underneath that ebbs and flows, driving into the final track.
As with the previous Twine works, a complex and invigorating take on techno – very listenable and well within the Bip-Hop remit. And comes with a very nice video 'Where things seem to glow without end' that shows videos of clouds and close up videoscreens to music that combines the ambience of acoustic guitar with metallic tonal sounds.
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And of course, all past issues, with hundreds of reviews, on site.
Copyright for these reviews remains with me, Jeremy Keens. Artists and labels are free to use and quote them as long as they acknowledge Ampersand and don’t mess with my words! And if anyone else happens to mention one of these reviews, do pass on the web address or my email address so new readers can find me. Thanks.

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