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Ampersand Etcetera – 2002_11
Ambient & microwave & electronica & experimental lowercase & postclassical
& minimal & techno & etcetera
Another big package from a single source. Some time ago we reviewed Poland's EA
(2001_08), and then a few issues ago Moir Drammaz (07). Kamil from EA contacted
me about his new releases and to alert me that they would be on their way.
Anyway, expecting a couple of disks, a packet of 10 cds and a vinyl release arrived.
Over half offer a survey of a close knit part of the Polish music scene –
members from various units collaborate and mix with each other on a variety of
labels. And the rest are local and international acts on the Ignis label.
An apology that should have been made before – to try and meet universal
system requirements I have always based spellings around western font sets –
the compromise is even more so in this issue of course.
Coming soon: Accretions, Grob, Duke, some crouton Bees, amanita/idoia compilation,
Vir Unis/Stokes and more.
And a final new caveat – obviously these are my own views, but also my own
identification of instrumentation. And every now and then an artist I've reviewed
emails me and lets me know what they were really playing (no complaints –
I like to know what's what). So while this is what I hear, it may be off beam
a bit!
jeremy@pretentious.net
&
http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html
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Labels and releases reviewed (not in this order) are:
Drone
Ea: 11'00 DR-53
Mik Musik/Neurobot
Wolfram: Superrecombination_sys Even More Special Series vol.2
Neurobot vs Moir Drammaz: l.i.v.e.v.i.l neorobt3rd
Polycephal
Wolfram: Mind Locations 052001
Facial Index/Membrana/Vion: Tektonika 1 052001T
Wolfram: Atol Drone 032002
Ignis
Origami Arktika: Fantomlust DI007
Francis Lopez: Untitled (2000) DI009
Spear: Sapphire Flower DI010
EA: r DI011
Ultra Milkmaids/Telepherique/Inoz Kapell: Nan Ticum Remixes DI012Part 1: the great
chain of being
One way into this fantastic selection of music is by tracing a chain of group,
collaborative and solo releases, suggestive of a strong music scene. As the package
came via Kamil, we may as well start with EA.
Vion, Patryk Zakrocki and Kamil Antosiewicz are EA, and seem to work as a group
in an area where you normally see an individual or sometimes a duo – they
currently work with field and site recordings, manipulating them into a unity.
'11'00' is a pair of short pieces (totalling I guess 11 minutes – I timed
one side) on the impressive Drone Records – a vinyl enterprise that releases
limited edition clear vinyl first round, then more standard issues rereleases
(an excellent policy that avoids elitism but allows collectors to assuage their
needs – more on Drone in a later issue). Side A (from the engraving, aka
the blue label) is more active – water against a dock, long tones, a squarble
noise; pulsating bubblings, breathing, strummed guitar (or echoed gong) shifting
into sustains, a whale, more echoes, shimmering crickets; settling to more wave-like
and gongs, underwater, winds and echoes: in short a shifting and intense soundspace
for 5 mintues. On the white (B) side longer wavering tones, chimey metal loops,
big rumble, tap and breathing – a ringing continues and dominates with drones;
then drops to a piano-tones, a room(?), a train rumbling through, quieter drones
and voices: less busy, more a flow. Together an excellent example of what you
can do on vinyl – and why.
However, more likely to be accessible to most punters (how big is the vinyl community?)
is the full length cd on Ignis: 'r' is a 56 minute work composed of 'manipulated
field recordings' and comes in a minimal recycled card cover (more on Ignis design
later). How to convey the sound without being list-centric? It is a complex piece
which is decentred, there is no focal point, nor much sense of a movement to somewhere
(though as the last few minutes of my copy remix the content due to a scrape I
can't be conclusive – but that is the suggestion of what I hear). There is
a sense of movements – the opening very busy period (scrabbles, clicks, distorted
cries, kitchen sounds, buzzes and phonetones) shifts, through the vehicle of walking
footsteps, into a changed mood of lighter field recordings. But the main form
is of possibly recognisable sounds – talking, parties, trams, birds, metallic
clanging, machinery, guitar, kitchens and orgasms (which I could have done without
as I think it’s a slightly tacky touch: but its fairly brief) – that
are abstracted from their context and joined with electronica – buzz, tones,
sinewaves, squalls, effects, crackle – and manipulated and layered together
with percussive sounds and modifications to create a 'symphony of sound'. You
lose interest in trying to place a sounds and conjoin it to reality, and the weaving
diving and flow of the piece takes you along for the journey – where the
travel is the objective not the destination. An intricate construction and production
take it beyond field recordings and provide a depth of interest. A great piece
of work.
Janek Staniszewski is Facial Index, part of Neurobot and founder of Polycephal,
and he improvs with Vion and Membrana – who the PR suggests are both from
EA, but it doesn't indicate whether it is Kamil or Patryk. Tektonica 1 is from
a show in Warsaw (during their shows old porn plays on a back screen – perhaps
explaining the unnecessary intrusion into 'r'). This is one of those albums which
is indescribable – a 55 minute journey, somewhat like 'r' which is constantly
shifting through regions of mutating sounds. It opens with deep hums, tones and
stuttering machines, high and hollow tones, a feeling of industry and activity.
Sudden change and we have chopped voices, looped with more visceral noises and
tones, moving and becoming scratchy and scrabbly. Constants throughout the variation
is a machine vision (through the looping and choice of samples), visceral sounds
deep and resonant, shifting between dense and spacious, fast and slower. We pass
through a transit from dense to light and back to fast dense again, crackling
tones and bells. Whistling and an orchestral sounding sample that will loop for
a while, buzzing and humm, almost voices. More moving into a rumbly moody space
long tones and high buzzing, slow melancholy; a child's voice loops and into active
buzz click plick lotsa layers, then stripped down only to regain whirrs and clutts;
and then the finale (I hate to say, climax) a combination of a Je t'aime like
song, whispers and soft strings, together with the organic clicks and an ongoing
orgasmic voice; a rocket like whoosh to the end. Not unlike EA, a complex piece
which is a great example of what laptopjocks can do on stage with some machinery
– it has a very nice flow and just about excuses the final samples (my complaint
– its getting a bit cliched these days, and why is it always a woman?)
The next stage in the connection is symmetrical – we could go in either direction.
(All?) three members of Neurobot have a role in L.i.v.e.v.i.l, part of a pair
of disks where Neurobot and Moir Drammaz remix each other: on this one Moir is
being worked over. Each member gets about a third of the album – starting
with Artur Kozdrowski (Dr Kudlatz) followed by Facial Index and finally Dominik
Kowlaczyk (Wolfram – what a welter of pseudonyms).
Dr Kudlatz kicks of with 21 minutes of 'Siktribe' which builds a palimpsest of
loops – clicks and ticks with a three tone melody, fast drum loop, cymbal,
creak, snare and finally a high melody and a vocal blurt. It drops back then switches
to a high fast loop with a lower burble, a calling voice loop and then an electro
voice (or is it a percussion loop) – all fast and furious, but switching
back to the three note loop and the calling voice at the end. Minimalist –
developments and repetitions gradually changing and settling – a very nice
time had by all listening. A shorter time for Facial Index (about 11 minutes),
divided into 4 very short tracks (less than 20 seconds) of looped percussion,
horns or blurting, but given titles such as 'Klikuczi' and 'Terkert'. In between
are three 'N vs M' pieces. Number 1 is a complex fast tour of the concert –
lots of short bloops and samples jumping around, some lighter parts but a fast
ride across the aether, 3 sets up a rapid click with rumbles under which is more
consistent with an inner rhythm, becomes buzzy then simplifies down, while 4 is
spacious with horns, pops and voices but also hyperactive. His other track is
the mid-length (40 seconds) 'Piecvcxz' which continues from 4 adding some tuned
percussion. An exciting burst of sound in this section. Two tracks from Wolfram
– 'Ding_dong_tweet' takes some nice little loops and adds radio squiggles
and crackles then a stepping click-pulse and crackle. 'It's all right' starts
slowly with low rustle crackle and deep tones swirls enter and forming a mellow
and attractive almost spooky mood as echoes and speeds up. The tension and density
builds and there is a section with gong like tones, before the last few minutes
where pulses blurt under an almost folk song solo female rendition of a song called
'Strip mall mama'. I have no idea what the original sounded like – and the
way of sampling what is on here could represent only a small fraction – what
is more interesting is the similarity and variation of the aesthetics of Neurobot's
members. The result is an underlying consistency across their various approaches,
and an enjoyable complex release.
In another chain of remixing Mik Music has created the Even More Special Series:
starting with a piece by Wotzk (half of Moir) there will be a chain of remixes,
using the previous release and adding some new material. Wolfram from Neurobot
has produced the first iteration from that original. Again, no idea of the original
for this 20 minute excursion. 'Slowgamelan' echoes light bops over a slow tone,
with little swirls at the end – a restrained opening which is mirrored by
the final track. In 'Smokgamelan' there is a quiet rumbling and separate gamelan-like
tones, then a strange shimmering, building in density and confusion with backwards
tones. Layers of sounds in 'Minimumgame' – fast passing ringing, slightly
distorted, deeper crackles and tones, dislocated. Much more strident and in your
face, 'Smokspeed' builds from a soft burring with hard tones, horns, rapid scratches
and knocking drum, running into 'Checkgameversion' where a high tone and fast
drum pulse drive along, slightly changing doubling layering dramatically and drivingly,
galloping to the end. The longest track is the intriguing 'Smokgame' which has
complex orchestral seeming periods of sound that erupt and fall back, gradually
running in to each other fascinating and somewhat unsettling. In 'Gamelan' a pure
pulsing sine tone is given a bed of squiggles, while in 'Minimumcheck' a pair
of knocking loops interferes with each other as a machine rumbles and noise bursts.
Finally the elegiac 'Ciapociap' a white noise furf with string loops behind. As
with many mini-albums, this is dense with ideas and activity and holds you tight
during its brief but effective passage.
And finally, two Wolfram releases on Polycephal (linked back to EA as there is
a remix of one of a track by Patrik). Mind Locations is a perfect underground
album – stimulated by subterranean transport it combines field recordings,
production manipulation and recordings to create a spell-binding sound, that opens
with 'In' a short building piece of train arrival. Straight into 'Plan' with low
drone, high soft whoosh – a spear shaking that sounds like a slumbering giant
– with some electric crackles: a beat grows under and it builds to an active
climax and fades. A site recording in 'Shibuya' of talking and trains becomes
a slow tonal music with under-rumbles, fades and develops as an ear-to-ear crackle
and fascinating backwards sounds before returning to the station. We are pulling
into 'Coburn' at the opening of this long piece: joined by high resonant tones
like a glassophone, clickyticks jumping through, more site recordings: a banging
ringing erupts, harsh edged, scraping: a transition to a drone and burring, more
voices deep behind, pulses, crackles that sound like lost messages, a melancholy
end of field recordings, including some singing. Backward tones and a tinkly keyboard
in 'Fastbackward' and into 'Player' that builds layers of looping – a complex
crackle, reverbed tone, percussion, voices over, a high strangled bagpipe tone
building to a dense noisiness rolling to 'Out' another short piece of field recording
– people moving, talking, the echoes, rumbling. Then finally 'Tranquilizer'
continues 'out' but seems to loop parts of the recording, manipulating it and
putting chimey music over to a rhythmically musical effect. Dense dark dramatic
and highly enjoyable.
An intriguing start to Atol Drone: a slow tapping, speaker hiss, a deep rumble
and swinging metal pings a radio crackle burrs, breathing or faint voices and
finally birds singing – we are at 'The edge (1)' of another layered experience.
Moving 'SE' chord pulses accumulate with percussive shimmers, suddenly becoming
louder and adding organ tones, click and bass loops building a gentle intensity
before swirling keys to a subtle climax. 'S' is the remix of Zakroki's and opens
with sub-aquatic strummings (in the atoll foreshores?) that are resonant and droney
with a buzzing tone playing over, an Eastern atmosphere that somehow emerges is
emphasised by horns and strings in the second half. As we move 'N' bursts of crackly
white noise form a rhythmic underpinning to metallic ringing tones that increase
and are joined by more edgy sounds to a climax and then long crackling fade. The
atol's 'NW' is a place of dread – light taps, soft noises, echoes, squelched
resonance and a melody is a dark surround for the embedded long sample, probably
of the police radio, a relentless drive. A brief 'Flashback' of long tones buzz
and crackle, some voices near the end, before the extended 'The edge (2)'. After
an intro of layered tones we get a backwards melody and drones over a rumbling
machine base, squiggly noises spiral over the top and the relative balances of
sounds changes. Near halfway it fades through to a metallic processed percussion
and little shimmers with a sirenish melody over and these interweave in a rumbling
visceral play before a long fade with resonances and a final rain storm over the
atol. These two albums from Wolfram are excellent dark ambient excursions, and
quite distinct.
Part 2: Outsiders looking in looking out
Ignis looks more broadly – across and outside Poland. Its one of those labels
that seems to have a different package design for each disk: and I don't mean
jewel inserts: they are all different sizes, fold variously and range from minimalism
to complexity in aesthetics. And all are attractive.
Fantomlust is also a KomKol Autoproduct from the Origami Republika collective
discussed at various times here – centred around T H Boe in Norway, it is
a loose grouping of operatives who work solo or in various combinations (check
out the web site). A selection that is Origami Arktika gave a live concert in
St Johns Church in Gdansk, on 15 September 2000, and there are 7 pieces from it
here, in a glossy card cover with pictures of the church and concert. The acoustics
of the huge empty space are incorporated into the mainly acoustic act, and the
recording also captures the ambience – you can hear audience shuffling and
coughing, steps and doors opening/closing and at one point I swear there was a
camera motor. It doesn't indicate how much of the concert is present, but what
is here has a great trajectory. 'Innstev' is a short track that represents a repeated
motif – a solo male voice singing in Norwegian in a folk/choral projection
that uses the church's volume. The issue of what instruments are used (the PR
indicated it was acoustic) is raised with 'Savn' which is based on a soft rumble
(of what?) delicate percussion, possible rain or movement, then some pedal steel
guitar nicely spaced. What seems like tapes of animal calls (crickets, frogs)
runs through creating an evocative atmosphere as a bodhran and gongs join the
building mood, and then fades. In 'Rode gullseng' another vocal opens the piece
and then is replaced by a Tuvan-drone and deep horns, a tapping and clarinet,
mutterings then fades to chimes. They continue through 'Je gott fnakk' with long
horn tones that have a waver through them that suggests breathing requirements.
Again straight through into 'Ny stein/Trank: vill' adding a shimmering electric
guitar that speeds and slows rather like some turntabling is going on: an edgy
crackle, deep drone and drums join, there are creaks and voices (unplanned?) building
a nice density and then opens and drops out and rebuilds as a noisy excursion
of scraping burr, harsh blowing noises, long tones, plucking and big drums, dropping
briefly before regaining energy to drive to the end of the track – controlled
anarchy. A slow solemnity of voice, bodhran and guitar in 'Kat' with some mouth
harp, after which 'Kvist' closes with another more electroacoustic base of scrabbling
noises and knock-mike percussion, a whistle and oral noises, pulsing tones all
suggestive of a ceremony, that drops to a pulse and hollow knocking and then the
Church ambience before sustained applause. At 45 minutes it passes too quickly
– an album of beauty and coherence that is quite unique.
Not sure what the Polish connection is with Francisco Lopez, but this is another
of his sets of untitled – in a clear cd-single jewel case with no information
other than the printing on the disk. I haven't had much experience of this series
– which seems very different to his work on La Selva for example. The disk
plays around with the sense of sound and silence, noise, music and ambience. Mastered
at a low volume, each track is separated by a 30 second silence – so that
you can be sure that what you were listening to was 'composed' and not system
noise. The two even numbered tracks 2 – 'Untitled #100' and 4 'Untitled #102'
– are non-eventful, gradual building of a white noise susurrus that just
exists. Around them are more active tracks. Opening with 'Untitled #107' which
has 20 seconds of silence, then a white noise with a low sine under it, which
seems to get louder and may have events in it (though they could be auditory hallucinations),
after nearly minutes it drops to a shimmering soft crackling, a few minutes later
to an even softer fast chitter, before silence at 10 minutes. 'Untitled #101'
is relatively loud, an active amalgam of little voice loops – that sound
like animal calls as well as electro-loops – with clicks and little wooshes
though it, but fairly constant. And the final track, 'Untitled #103' develops
an underground sound not unlike some of Wolfram: rumble and clatter with pulses
and clicks in it, a quite intense journey that flattens out and then starts to
drop away, leaving a deep drone and percussive pops that fades slowly away. Typical
of microsound, this makes you listen to the surrounding environment as outside
events are built into the vanishing sound ambience (which you could do to an untuned
radio?). Neither obviously dramatic nor exciting, it continues his minimal experiments
– and as I indicated, I don't know what it adds to the others in the series.
Spear's Sapphire Flower: lush matt card cover in blue (of course) with gloss blue
printing and an abstract rose, a similar card sleeve for the cd in one pocket,
an insert with details/lyrics in the other. A bit of a web poke revealed that
Ignis is a Spear project, that they use concrete techniques but nothing about
whether they are singular or plural. The album reveals they create a lush darkly
ambient sound, complex and layered full of texture and nuance, incorporating acknowledged
samples and collaborators. 'Nightlights' has a big tonal wind, a distant choir,
rippling percussion and backward accordion rising then falling to a tonal end.
Vocals are important on the album – either as the cut up and treated components
at the start of 'No difference' or the poem recited at the end (there are four
over the album, in English, lyrics on insert) and they enhance the mood of anguish
and angst. In between the track features sliding tones shimmers and wooshes developing
a dark atmosphere continued in 'Thunder dew' with extended synths and strange
scrapings. 'Bright water' is mysterious as the poem drifts over foreshortened
long tones, rumbles crackles deep tones waves of sound and static clicks –
hard to describe but engrosses. Layers of varied tones opens 'N:O:T:H:I:N:K' joined
after a while by a distorted tannoy shimmers and eruptions and then develops an
edgy angularity. A lighter mood in 'Open' as a slightly dancing wooble plays with
shimmers and calls over, a zither-like sound and then what sounds like a train
running through from ear to ear, the tones still under, ringing and resonant.
The poem in 'Away' is delivered flat and almost droning (a slight tweak to the
voice) with undertones which eventually sweep over it, and then clipped stepped
tones swirls and weird mellotron builds to complex orchestral peaks in 'Snow flare'
with frightening distorted voices, a gong pulse tone is percussive and there is
mad organ as more strangeness and voices close the album. Intense and dark, the
album contains the hard edge facets of the jewel with the softer complexity of
the flower – compelling.
Finally from Ignis, another remix disk: Ultra Milkmaids, Telepherique and Inox
Kapell in a collaborative project Nan Tikum Remixes. Part of the album is live
material from a festival in Nantes, March 2000, remixes of studio stuff offered
up by the individuals. The album is generally a complex mix of layered loops and
sounds: '_sehn.1' has a lyrical loop (which is almost tuned percussion) with clicks,
pops and a soft industrial rumble, all gently building and becoming more insistent
and adds more elements: the clicks flatten out, tones, distant crackles, wooshes
and hiss, almost strings under and little eruptions all bubbling along. The fourth
track is '_sehn.2' and quite different, chopped up organ looped with big burbles
clicks whirry noise all growing denser and noisier with squiggles near the end.
'_kultur.1' is a dense array of scratching sounds, pits and rhythmic pops, synth
chords, guitar shimmers all active moving and burring noises swirling through
with other strange sounds, simplifying at times before regenerating: a mesmerising
swirl that shifts into '_kultur.2' a short play of long sine tones with little
interference clicks, stepping up a little and then exploding into '_sehn.2'. (The
album has been mixed to provide neat segues and some great fades). The next two
tracks are remixes of a couple of Ultra Milkmaid pieces: '_nantig spiel (1)' squiggles
and crackles with a low-lying organ and simple percussion that builds squelches
and layers actively swirling and dense, while '_nantig spiel (2)' has a big bold
rhythm with a sax over, jazzy and bright, then devolves into the organ and the
calls of strange little electro-animals and then rebuilds the sax and rhythm.
The final three tracks see each member playing with a jam from the concert. Telepherique
give us '_summertime remix' a musico-rhythmic layering of long tones, rhythm loops
and percussive clicks that builds, slows and regenerates; Ultra M's '_a-z file'
is a very minimal long tones with a shimmering underneath and highlights through
them which expands in the last minute; and Kapell delivers weird looping fragments
of percussion, keys, burbles in the hyperactive '_schurren'. Presented in an oversize
folded card sleeve with a moody cover image this is a bright and active album
– while unfamiliar to any extent with the individual participants, I could
feel a synergy from their interaction.
&
No conclusion – other than that there is a fine deal of great music coming
out of and through Poland – and that it pays to look beyond some of the usual
places.
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Label contacts
Drone radiantslab.com/DroneRecords/
Ignis terra.pl/ignis/
Polycephal neurobot.art.pl/polycephal
Mik Musik www.molr.terra.pl
Neurobot neurobot.art.pl
Origami kunst.no/origami
&&&&&&&&&&&&
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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