Kit Downes and Tom Challenger: Vyamanikal (Slip, 2016) ****

By Joe

This is the second offering from the duo of Kit Downes and Tom Challenger, the first being "Wedding Music", an album of pipe organ and tenor saxophone duets using a conventional idea of melody and improvisation. "Vyamanikal", their new album, takes a sharp left turn musically, giving us a very interesting new perspective on the duos musical thinking. On "Wedding Music" Kit and Tom concentrated on their instruments as the main sound producing sources, on this release the duo have taken all aspects of their performance into account. Using everything around them to create a truly original musical vision which includes not only the two instruments, but also the ambience of each church and the sounds that filter into them. Recorded in 5 different churches in Suffolk, England, the duos label describes it as "[...] a collection of transcendent improvisations where the primordial moans and whistles of remote organs meld with gossamer saxophone.", and indeed they are!

Listening to this album a few names came to mind, ambient musician, Biosphere, the sound artists Tim Hecker or even the work of Ben Frost. Although this acoustic duo's music is far from the sonic world of the aforementioned artists, it does have some similarities. Downes and Challenger's music is made up in real time, with no electronic manipulation, but their interest in capturing, and using, the space that they perform in does come through. The sound of the pumps or vibrations produced from the different organs used, gives the music an effect like being in the engine room of a ship. Apart from these sounds you can also hear birds singing away (inside the church?), giving a very live feeling to what you are hearing.

The music itself is far from the bold melodic statements that came with "Wedding Music".  On this record everything is very minimal, low organ drones swirl around dissonant chords that hover in the air, rarely resolving in any logical sense. The saxophone of Tom Challenger almost caresses these rich organ sounds in a way that feels like he is coaxing a mythical beast (of some sort) out into the open! The two musicians build gradually on these strange and almost unnatural atmospheres throughout the seven pieces, finding imperfections and reflections in the church's acoustics which they develop into their drone quality improvisations. The result of this is that the duo has really brought together their musical vision in a very original, and although I speak of monsters and unnatural sounds the music is in its own way better described as spiritual and hypnotic.

Speaking of 'spiritual' may explain the title "Vyamanikal", which, as we're told, comes from an adaptation of early 20th century Sanskrit texts talking about aerospace technology and flying vehicles in ancient Sanskrit epics. Whatever the meaning, the music the duo makes is magical, or even spellbinding, in the true sense of the word.

Lastly, you'll have noticed I haven't described the individual tracks as, if you're curious, you'd do better to visit Slip's Bandcamp site where you can hear the album, meditate on the music, and even buy it - its a limited edition CD and/or cassette version.   

Highly Recommended!

Note: I'm not sure if there's physical CDs for sale, but, Slip kindly sent me a copy which comes in an intriguing presentation, and certainly well worth getting if you're interested in hard digital versions.  

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GOING II "Machinery" (Silentwater, 2015) ****½

Reviewed by Joe

This is one of those very special records, although this may be a 4.5 star review, there's no doubt it's a five star listen. This is a record that crosses many boundaries and certainly guaranteed to make you not only sit up and listen but also rock around the room (if played loud enough). GOING a Belgian based group, has a skeletal line up which packs a big punch, 2 drummers, Joao Lobo and Mathieu Calleja, and 2 keyboards/synths/objects (and plenty of effects) are Giovanni Di Domenico and Pak Yan Lau. The sound that they come up with could be loosely post-rock, but also closely allied to improvised music (sound wise). To top that off they have a description on their website describing themselves as a "[..] psychedelic groove band".

The album consists of two beautifully organised pieces. The first side/track "Red Machinery" develops slowly from sparse drums and keyboard sounds into repetitive figures and a complex interlocking groove. The combinations of rhythmic patterns are at the heart of this composition, the melodic seed is simple but varies slightly to blend into (and with) the various patterns. You could 'think' of Chicago group 'Tortoise' for a reference, GOING tap into the same area, overlapping rhythms and rock beats, mixing some great experimental sounds and repetitive riffs, its a delightful combination and very addictive!

The second piece "Blue Machinery", has a slightly harder edge. Its brooding atmosphere and constant recurring single note pattern give this a urgent edgy quality. One feels the piece may brake, at any moment, into a up-tempo groove, but the group hold the music back in a way to produce tension. Minimal solo lines give the track just the right balance between a groove and melody, allowing the music to evolve naturally.

The clever combination of two keyboards/effects and two drummers really gives the music plenty of space, and the lack of a bass to drive the group is actually what gives it the group its pure sound. There are plenty of details to hear within the recording due to this combination and the different paths taken by each instrumentalist. There are no real soloists, just co-operative group made music.      

This is a vinyl release, with one track per side, although it's possible to buy a digital version. I received the music on sound-files and I have to say that it seemed (in my humble opinion) a great medium to host this excellent music, as I found myself listening to the two tracks as one long evolving piece.  

This is certainly a highly recommended release, and easily accessible to many people interested in either jazz, rock, electronica and the minimalism of post Steve Reich's world. Anyone interested should quickly head over to their website as this is a limited edition of 300 odd copies.

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David Sylvian: “there’s a light that enters houses with no other house in sight” (SamadhiSound, 2014) *****

Reviewed by Joe

The rise and development of noise, electro acoustic sound research, acousmatic composition and minimal music all seem to be coming together in the past few years. The number of serious artists that are investigating the genre has begun to not only expand but also have some popular success. Of course artists like Eno (and his ambient friends), Cluster, Popol Vuh or even Pan(a)sonic have been investigating the various possibilities of noise and minimalism for years. However, more recently we've seen Supersilent (& Co), Christian Fennesz, the Punkt crowd (Jan Bang and Erik Honoré) and more recently Ben Frost, to name just a few, have all made noise more fashionable.

David Sylvian is certainly no newcomer to this scene. His interests date well back to his work within the group 'Japan' and their interesting, and at the time 'individual', take on pop music. With his liberation as a solo artist it became clear that he was interested by a wide range of sonic possibilities, his early albums (Brilliant Trees, Gone to Earth and Secrets of the Beehive) mixed jazz, prog-rock and minimalism. With the arrival of Blemish in 2003, it was clear that Sylvian was making yet another change in direction, working with more experimental musicians such as Toshimaru Nakamura and Derek Bailey. In more recent years he has used his singing-voice almost like a poetic 'bard', incorporating a sort of spoken word quality.

His latest release there’s a light that enters houses with no other house in sight David Sylvian has continued with the idea of the spoken word. Using the American poet Franz Wright, who recites passages from his works (*), combined with sonic backgrounds provided by David Sylvian, guitarist (and sound manipulator) Christian Fennesz and pianist John Tilbury. The effect is quite literally stunning. The combination of ideas and musical resources used spans a large gamut of styles. The basic musical thread running through the 60 minute composition is built from minimalistic soundscapes, these include interludes of piano and guitar in various combinations, and from time to time a string ensemble, brass and percussion (**). The range of musical ideas (or effects) covers a lot of ground from horror movie ambiances to a wonderful string quartet in the closing moments of the piece.

It's impossible to discuss individual sections in this one hour composition as the poetry and music just flow from one idea to the next. The effect of the voice reciting poems, used as a thread, give this album a hypnotic feel, almost as if you are in a dreamlike state. Adding to that Franz Wright's gruff voice - a true master-stroke - you find yourself completely immersed in the piece, unaware of the time passing. The final words (which I'll leave you to discover) of the piece make for a profound ending to this excellent album.  

An album that would definitely have been in my top ten of 2014, if I'd heard it earlier! Very highly recommended.

* If I understand correctly much of the poetry comes from Franz Wright's Kindertotenwald, published in 2011.
** Unfortunately we didn't receive any information other than the sound file, so the instrumentation is a little unclear, especially since much of it is electronically manipulated.

Postscript: It's interesting to remember that David Sylvian has also recorded and produced releases by players Derek Bailey, Toshimaru Nakamura and more recently Stephan Mathieu. I should add the SamadhiSound website is very badly organised and it is often difficult to find past releases on the pages.

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Magda Mayas, Damon Smith & Tony Buck - Spill Plus (Nuscope, 2014) ****½

By Stef  

Just below the surface of silence things are moving, yet what these things are remains a mystery, because what you hear is almost the movement itself, you feel the dynamics, the precise intent, the elegance and the sophistication of the changes, the interaction of color and form ... and even the clarity of the tones, and the physical intimacy of the acoustics are here to touch you, to envelop you, insubstantial yet profound, like the precursors of emotions sending out hazy signals, undefinable but real, enigmatic and present. And moving, in the sense of objects and in the sense of emotions, yet the question remains which objects and which emotions, because only the movement itself appears to exist.

A piano trio, with Magda Mayas on piano, Damon Smith on double bass, and Tony Buck on percussion, like you've never heard before.

Beyond the surface beauty lies hidden, now revealed in sonic shards, sharp as steel, or dark particles, sonorous and rich, sprinkling traces of calm in the nervously vibrating silence.

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Sonar – Static Motion (Cuneiform, 2014) ****

By Julian Eidenberger

Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but there seems to be a resurgence of Minimalist ideas going on in rock music right now. 2013 saw the release of (at least) two albums that managed to apply the basic rules of Minimalism in appealing ways to an avant-rock template: For Appalachian Excitation, the “freak-folk” troupe Megafaun teamed up with legendary composer Arnold Dreyblatt; and only a few months later, Zevious released Passing through the Wall (reviewed on these pages not too long ago). If you object now that it takes at least three bands to constitute a “movement”, well, this is where the Swiss band Sonar comes into play. Published in February, their new album Static Motion is indeed the third record in hardly more than six months that brings to life the Minimalist principle – ceaseless repetition and subtle variation – by means of more or less conventional rock-band instrumentation. Beyond that, however, the Swiss group doesn’t share too much common ground with its peers. Given Minimalism’s emphasis on self-restraint and its supposed narrowness, it’s actually quite surprising how different the three groups sound: In terms of mood, Megafaun’s joyful excitement couldn’t possibly be much farther removed from Zevious’s thorny, noise rock-derived dissonance; and Sonar, for their part, represent a “third way” that’s equidistant from both of them.

What sets the Swiss four-piece – Stephan Thelen and Bernhard Wagner (g.), Christian Kuntner (b.), Manuel Pasquinelli (dr.) – apart is the comparative calm exuded by their music; for the most part, Static Motion eschews the propulsive-ness favored by the other groups mentioned. This, of course, is inseparable from the philosophy underlying the whole album: As its title suggests, Static Motion sees the band wrestling with an old dilemma, a dilemma that revolves around the difficulty to represent stasis by musical means. The first track, then – which also happens to be the title track –, can be viewed as a statement of intent. All the key elements of the band’s sound are present here – the unusual tuning of the two guitars (and the bass, as well) and the extensive use of complex (poly-)rhythms –, and they are combined in such a way as to give the impression of something that moves but doesn’t make any progress.

Paradoxically, it’s the ceaseless activity of what I assume to be micro-intervals that accounts for a sense of stasis here, whereas the slower-moving melody that eventually creeps into the song is at first perceived as an actual forward motion. Once they run parallel to each other, however, the “giant steps” of said melody – which references Mahavishnu’s Meeting of the Spirits – seem to be not moving forward at all; all of a sudden, this melody is more akin to the image of a mountain as mirrored in a lake, seemingly solid and yet constantly blurred and obscured by ripples in the water. It’s an intriguing reversal that brings the band’s philosophy to life.

Moreover, it illustrates the main strength of this record: its evocative power. Far from being a merely mathematical exercise in rhythm and repetition, Static Motion manages time and again to envelop the listener in a vivid atmosphere. Consider, for instance, how the dubby bass and chiming guitars in the aptly titled “Shadowplay” convey the feel of a late-night car ride, where the constant change of light and shadow lulls you into a dream-like state, and the potentially lethal velocity is seemingly softened to calm hovering. Or listen to how the guitar in “Continuum” seems to tell tales of bygone times, recalling Takoma Records-fingerpickers like John Fahey. Still, not everything on this largely strong record works. While “Vertical Time” is an apt track to end this album – what else but silence could follow on twelve minutes of near-stasis? –, it doesn’t really manage to grab the listener’s attention. With that complaint out of the way, it only remains for me to add that this Minimalist resurgence may continue as far as I’m concerned – if future contributions are as strong as Sonar’s, that is.

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The Necks: Open (Northern Spy, 2013) ***½

Reviewed by Joe

This, according to what I see on the Necks' website, is their 17th album, quite an achievement for a band that plays improvised music! I have to admit this is the first Necks album I've heard and the reasons I choose this out of the pile of records. I'd heard, and read, so much about this band who seem to have a very faithful fan base, something not unlike EST did before the untimely death of Esbjörn Svensson. The group's 'ethic' for those who don't know them is to make one long improvisation per set/album, not unlike the fabulous Mujician did. To define a style would be difficult, but from what I've listened to in the last few days - I've tried to hear a couple of their other records for comparison - most of the music is fairly minimalist, melodic, modal, and groove oriented. Interestingly we haven't reviewed any of their records on this site, but if you put 'Necks' into our search engine you'll find a few of the projects involving the band members - Chris Abrahams (piano), Tony Bucks (drums) and Lloyd Swanton (bass). 

As with their other albums, each record has a 'feel'. As an example the well loved "Hanging Gardens" album, released back in 1999, was what fans called a logical extension to Mile Davis' "In a Silent Way", and it's true that that album has a sort of contemporary feel that one can imagine Miles would have approved of. In the case of "Open" the album starts with a quasi Indian raga/sitar like atmosphere that will define the next 40 odd minutes (the album is a little over an hour). With the use of light glistening arpeggios and gentle bass notes they cleverly manage to conjures up, via sound, a picture of a hot, dry and dusty place. When the piano leaves the drums to play percussive fills at around 11mins, the trio cleverly manage keep us 'within the atmosphere' and also give the music plenty of space.

Of course it would be possible to go through the record with a minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow account of each little change, but what is more important is the overall atmosphere of the music they create. It's full of shimmering images, crescendos that build up over several minutes only to die away leaving space for another idea. The modal style gives their music a very hypnotic and powerful direction, keeping you fixed listening, wondering what is that sound, where is it coming from and how will it develop. Of course, like all good music this record is like a film, one has to listen to the whole thing to get the point.
 
What is the point? I guess that in recent years musicians have really developed the idea of music with 'space' and 'atmosphere' as prime components - Arve Henriksen, Jon Hassel, the Foton Quartet or even Skogen. On this record the Necks manage to combine all these strands 'minimalist', 'new-ageism', 'world-music', 'improvisation', 'groove', to produce atmospheric music which can be listened to on many different levels. Could it be described as exiting, and soothing?
       

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Open Graves - Somewhere Beyond Or Behind (Prefecture, 2013) ****

By Stef

Not only the band's name, but also the music is something exceptional. I gave "Flight Patterns", one of their former albums a good rating, and this album, even more minimalist, is at the same high level. The band is actually a duo, Jesse Olsen Bay on metal percussion, broken and acoustic guitar, and Paul Kikuchi (also Empty Cage Quartet) on metal percussion, prepared piano and drum kit.

In a way, the instruments used are relatively pointless, since both musicians manage to create sound environments with possibly any kind of instrument or object.

On "Sirocco", the first track, they only use percussion, creating a tense and flowing sound, often barely touching the silence underneath, like the wind mentioned in its title, creating an incredible sense of space and intensity, a kind of menacing beauty that defies explanation.

They switch instruments on "Blues For Morton", with the broken guitars taking a lead role. Tuning and chords and harmony have become irrelevant, yet despite this, the sounds are harmonious and well-paced and in a way almost natural, as in intimate, and recognisable, even if you can't and haven't heard this before - a welcoming strangeness.

"Somewhere Beyond Or Behind" is possibly the most explicit piece, with piano and guitar easily identifiable, offering more substance to the slow and eery progression, a slow evolution and transgression into maintained silence.


Listen and buy from Bandcamp.

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Common Objects - Live In Morden Tower (Mikroton, 2013) ****½

By Stef

Somehow several musicians - British and German - have found a second home at Mikroton, the Russian label, that offers opportunities next to Another Timbre, the UK avant-garde label where we find the same musicians.

"Common Objects" are Rodhri Davies on harp, Lee Patterson on amplified processes and devices, and John Butcher on saxophone.

All three men have played together before, in duo or trio settings or in ensembles with other musicians. What they share is a clear disrespect for tradition and a relentless search, deep into sound, not only of the instrument itself, but of the sound in an environment, full of wonder of what they might find, yet sufficiently in control of their instruments to bring something of value.

The album kicks off with three solo pieces. "Spatial Principle" starts the album with a single piercing tone on the electric harp. If you have any idea about what a harp sounds like, please forget the concept, this is somethig else. Other tones, somewhat warmer, lower and extended, replace the piercing intro, generating some rhythmic changes - barely audible - or does this happen only in my mind?

With "Grade A Fancy", John Butcher enters the scene, with high notes, tongslaps, windy sounds and birdlike chatter, through circular breathing almost dialoguing with himself, moving the short piece into many twists and turns, of volume and silence, excitement and calm.

Patterson delivers "Thoracic Pattern", a pure electronic drone, and strangely enough, possibly the piece with the most human warmth, especially when the track softens - or can I no longer trust my heart either?

The real "pièce de résistance" is the long "Breathless, Sodden Trash", on which the three artists engage as a trio. The difference is immediately clear, there is more density - even if that is a somewhat futile word here - but especially with stronger musical dynamics, with voices that find each other and amplify the sounds that erupt out of the silence, or grow organically, slowly, deliberately and unpredictably, to be welcomed by even lesser known sonic friends, welcoming them in this world beyond silence, chattering and dancing full of suprise and excitement, then calming down again, enjoying the languid pleasure of sustained notes, superimposing them on the same journey with similar sounds that are yet also totally different, with sudden outbursts of the sax, with some emotional anxiety presenting its story, evolving in absolute incomprehension - and distress even - among the colleagues - are they arguing? - are they celebrating? - yet soon they settle back in little sounds like bubbles in water, and resign themselves to silence, their natural default position, when no more energy is left for physical exertion.

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Looper - Matter (MonotypeRec, 2013) ****½

Reviewed by Joe

Ingar Zach, Martin Küchen and Nikos Veliotis make up the trio known as Looper. If I've read correctly this is their 4th album together - which includes an album in collaboration with UK pianist John Tilbury. To call this music understated would be an understatement! Being very minimal I ended up listening on headphones to make sure that I was indeed listening to the record, and not the ambient sounds around me. It is certainly a music which needs your whole attention, probaby the perfect record for very early in the morning, or last thing at night when surrounding world sound is at its lowest. 

Minimal music (*) such as this is always an interesting listen I find. The musicians create an intimate sound world that needs attention, a little like someone who speaks softly whilst explaining something, it would be interesting to hear/see how music such as this works live. The detail the three musicians put into each piece is fascinating, and also very delicate. Although it's difficult to pin-point exact instruments Ingar Zach's soft bass drum, or the fluttering of Küchen's saxophone pads clearly come through from time to time. The cello of Nikos Veliotis like his role in the drone string trio of "Mohammed" is somewhere within the sound of the ensemble, but trying to identify it may be more difficult. On "In Flamen" (tk2) I found myself comparing the sound of the trio to that echoing through the corridors and passages of the London Underground, a sort of fully realised ambient live performance. Everything is slightly blurred, yet you clearly hear all the details.  

Another very interesting point in the music is the amount of rhythmical detail the trio creates. Track three "Alignment", like "Slow" (tk1), uses very subtle - I guess - saxophone key noise to create a sort of clickerty-clack (not unlike a train track) helping the music have a sort of subliminal rhythm. The only piece on the record that is louder than a whisper is the last piece, a sort of electronic drone "Our Meal" (tk4). Here, sounding like an oscillator orchestra, you get different frequencies rubbing together to create a crescendo. We hear the sounds of overblown sax, bowed/rubbed glasses, percussion clicks, cymbal sounds and ..?.. all played and mixed into a highly charged industrial soundscape. This final piece is well placed after all the delicate sounds beforehand, releasing the listener from the previous pieces which have up until now been like listening to the delicate sound of snow falling in the night.

Highly recommended!

p.s. Released on a vinyl LP, and you can find a copy at instantjazz.com.  

*= As an example check out Another Timbre's catalogue for an excellent representation of what you can do with modern minimalism.

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John Butcher, Thomas Lehn & John Tilbury - Exta (Fataka, 2013) ****½

By Stef  

As the label explains :"In ancient Roman religious ritual, 'exta' were the organs of a sacrificed animal offered up to the gods - the lungs, heart, liver and gall bladder; here, Exta is a selection of four pieces (one in two parts) carefully extracted from a long studio session". The trio are John Butcher on saxophones, Thomas Lehn on synth and John Tilbury on piano, three magicians of free improvisation presenting their art as a trio. 

And as can be expected, the result is stunning. As so often with the minimalist approach to music, building sparse sounds around silence, the listener gets shifted between the deception of calm and the illusion of darkness. Nothing you hear is predictable, yet you also know that it will not explode either. The result is an uncanny and relentless tension that starts the album and keeps haunting the listener even after the last sounds have ebbed away. 

John Butcher's sound is as multiphonic, vibrating and resonating as usual, like Tilbury's piano can either be played with a few clear notes or by scraping the inside of it. Lehn is something else. The synth and electronics are not my favorite thing, but Lehn is a master of control, adding the right level of depth and contrast to the sax and the piano, mixing in some white noise and ear-piercing high sustained tones, or some industrial harshness to the cautious sounds of his colleagues. 

"Pulmo" (Latin for lung) comes in two parts, as you can expect from an animal's anatomy. The first part is slow and barely breathing, in contrast to the second part, which is more lively, and extremely beautiful. What the trio brings here is absolutely astonishing in terms of joint soundscaping, and again, Lehn's control and suggested colors add a layer to the music, making it indeed more complete.  

On "Cor" (Latin for heart), the piece shifts from fragile high-pitched playing gradually and slowly, to a more voluminous, dense and tense center part, with rash electronics and heavy piano chords, then silence, but no ... something's still vibrating, pulsing, throbbing far away in the distance, brought to life again by a few carefully placed single notes on the piano, with the sax adding its typical vulnerable beauty. 

"Iecur" (liver) is built around Tilbury's piano introduction, with ominous open arpeggios, with Lehn gradually adding the faintest of sounds, replacing the silence between the piano keys. And like all minimalists, their great strength is the power of restraint, the discipline to let notes resonate in emptiness before a new note is played, at a pace that remains slow and controlled. It takes seven minutes into the piece before we get to hear the sax, nothing more than a faint whisper, then few ripples are made for a while, only to end in some cluttered tones, disoriented somehow, lost in the piece, but coming in structural harmony by the three instruments. 

The album ends with "Fel" (Lating for gall bladder), a short piece, but no less intense than the rest of the album. The tones are low, dark and eery. However generous the offering to the gods may have been with these four organs, the omens do not sound too good. 

Yet a very highly recommended album for fans of Butcher, Tilbury, Lehn, AMM and other minimal improv. 


You can buy from  Instantjazz.com.

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Christian Wallumrød Ensemble: Outstairs (ECM, 2012) ****

Reviewed by Joe

I haven't been a fan of Christian Wallumrød's music for so long, it's a recent fad that seems to have grown on me whilst listening to some live recordings I have of this band. His approach is completely original, if you listen to his other records - trios, the ensemble, solo etc - you'll notice how he's developed his style bit by bit over the years. Moreover, that is what makes it so interesting, one could say it's all the same even! It's a music that works on small details, simple ideas that develop slowly, not unlike a melodically organised version of Skogen's "Ist Gefallen in den Schnee". Interestingly Stef also saw a connection with Wallumrød's collaboration on "Dans Les Arbres", so maybe I'm not dreaming after all!

The texture of the ensemble is of utmost importance to the colour of this music. The original band had Arve Henriksen on trumpet, which may give you a clue to the music stylistically, but since a while Eivind Lønning has been in the trumpet chair. The rest of the group is Gjermund Larsen - violin, hardanger fiddle, viola. Espen Reinertsen - tenor saxophone. Tove Törngren - cello and of course the unstoppable Per Oddvar Johansen on drums and vibraphone, and for all who don't know him, Christian Wallumrød plays piano, harmonium and toy piano. You'll notice there's NO bass and this really makes the music sound somewhere between classical and a sense of world music, which is created via the harmonium and the clever use of drums, often played with the hands. The great use of bass 'movement' via the cello, or sax even gives the music a very special sound. 

"Stille Rock" starts the album like a mournful prelude to the music that follows, Wallumrød's music has that sound, but is in fact uplifting. "Bunadsbangla" is 'the hit' of the album, and believe me he can write some catchy tunes! The album, like most of his work, is best listened to as a whole. There is little space between improvisation and composition, it sounds very organised, but it works well that way. You can make out small sections of improvisation, but don't buy this if you're looking for mind stretching new approaches, it's all about control and the beauty of restraint. There are too many pieces on the album to talk about everything. "Tridili #2" is a baroque piece with saxophone playing overtones and clusters in response to the melody. "Very Slow" is a quite piece (and slow!) using tone clusters. "Folkskiss" is a beautiful ballad that reminds you of a tune you heard long ago, but where - almost Gaelic in feeling! The scrapings and scratchings of "Third Try" could be from a gore movie.

This is a fine album that hangs musically between many worlds of sound. If you love film sound tracks that create space, and if you like organised beauty, then this is certainly one for you. 

    

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Alexey Lapin - Concerto Grosso (SoLyd, 2012) ****

By Stef

As written in earlier reviews, Russian pianist Alexey Lapin has this knack for musicality in whatever he does, even if he goes beyond the traditional boundaries of his instrument. On this live performance, recorded a year ago in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, he is joined by Dmitry Bibikov and Olga Krukovskaya, both on double bass, or double double bass if you want.

The title, "Concerto Grosso", referring to the alternation of various soloists performing a suite and supported by an orchestra, may give the impression that the music here is composed, which is not the case. As Lapin explains "the overall plan of the musical composition and its conception were not determined formally by any known means. In other words, the structure, stylistic direction, character and form were not discussed in advance. We just talked a bit half an hour before the concert started. But this does not mean that the music flowed spontaneously, or that the form was created in a random manner during the development of the music".

This enigmatic description is also revelatory for the music. It is indeed suite-like, with six pieces flowing coherently into one another.

Lapin is a lyricist of the extended techniques, and Bibikov and Krukovskaya communicate well in the same idiom. An open, fragmented and dark atmosphere is created, in which sounds well up from the soil or appear  as shimmering images in the mist. It is equally intimate, close to you, both physically and in (relative) accessibility, despite the lack of repeated patterns and recognisable forms. The trio manages to create interesting interactions, and developments within strict confines.

They do not explore wide spaces, they stay close to tonal centers and small figures, testing reactions with different approaches of bowed and plucked and hammered and scraped strings, with all three instruments becoming percussive and voiced, never moving far away from each other, in a strange and dark dance on a square meter, revolving around each other, touching in a very physical and sensitive way and conjuring up these images of tension and release (Part I) or harsh mystery (Part II) or uncanny eeriness (Part III) or sheer beauty (Part IV) or unexpected abundance (Part V) or strange struggle (Part VI). I may even be totally wrong by qualifying these parts as such, because the wealth of sounds of course exceeds these few words.

Highly recommended for those with open ears.

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Dark Poetry (Creative Sources, 2012) ****½

 By Stef

The title of the last - and fourteenth - track on this debut album is called "For Sale - Baby Shoes, Never Worn", and gives you an idea of the chilling darkness of "Dark Poetry", a trio consisting of Norwegians Dag-Filip Roaldsnes on prepared piano, Kim-Erik Pedersen on alto saxophone, and Tore Sandbakken on drums and percussion.

The approach is minimalistic, shimmering between normal and extended techniques, slow and ominous, restraint and intense, in the same category of Dans Les Arbres or Mural and other endeavours by fellow countrymen Christian Wallumrød, Kim Myhr and Ingar Zach. This younger generation is far removed from the expansive coldness of broad skies that Jan Garbarek or Terje Rypdal opened for us. They offer us intimate coldness instead, very close to you, very penetrating and moving, of things happening in your immediate reality, in your house, in your room, in your head ... disturbing, sad and bone-chilling.

It frightens at the same level as it attracts. It has a rare eery beauty, as discomforting as it is soothing. It creates environments as dark as night that invite further exploration, dragging you into the unknown with the expectation to understand more, to find meaning, yet the only thing you find is even more mystery, luring you even further into the dark.

And like with all good music, the listening journey is never over. You listen to it again and again, and it remains as mysterious and compelling as the first time.

Fabulous.



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String minimalism and the power of tone

By Stef   

Two albums with Frantz Loriot on viola, two minimalist albums, very avant, equally good in terms of musicianship, coherence, interplay and intensity, yet totally different in terms of tone and listening experience.


Bobun - Suite Pour Machines À Mèche (Creative Sources, 2012) ****

Bobun is a duo of French-Japanese viola-player Frantz Loriot, whom we know from the excellent "Baloni", and French cellist Hugues Vincent. The line-up is rare and we have so far only reviewed two other albums on this blog (Stefano Pastor & Kash Killion, and Vincent Royer & Séverine Ballon). Both musicians have played together for ten years, as a duo, but also with lots of Japanese and French musicians, including the great Joëlle Léandre, who was a teacher to both of them.

By their very nature, string duets bring us away from jazz as we know it, and Loriot and Vincent take us even a step further away from the known. Their open-ended minimalist music is built around either a drone-like tonal center as on the first track, or around silence like zen drawings or zen gardens. The strings carve out the space around the silence. With little touches, soft movements of surprise and wonder. But like Japanese art, the approach is equally direct and in-the-moment, intimate, recognisable yet at the same time shocking, revealing, pushing the listener (and the players?) out of their comfort zone, challenging his or her perceptions until you give up and just go with the sounds. And this is rewarding, because by the time you've completely let go, the approach changes slightly in the ear-piercing last-but-one track and then into the last track which miraculously opens like a flower.

A strange compelling aesthetic.

 


Carlo Costa, Frantz Loriot & Sean Ali - Natura Morta (PromNights, 2012) ****

We find the viola-player back in this trio setting with Carlo Costa on drums and Sean Ali on bass.

We reviewed the Italian, but now Brooklyn-based drummer Carlo Costa before, in a duo-setting with Japanse flautist Yakuri and the more jazzy (although still very relative) Minerva piano trio with "Saturnismo".

Despite the minimalism of this album, the tone is entirely different. It is amazing to experience the same concept of sound piercing through silence, but whereas the duet between Loriot and Vincent leads to gentle openness and wonder, this trio - using the same approach - offers us a dark, ominous and intense piece.

Whereas new elements and suddenly emerging sounds in the duo album led to fresh surprise, here they are a source of menace, adding an increase of tension, not actually assaulting the listener - the volume is too low for that - but adding a layer of danger - undefined like creaking floorboards - creating an anticipation of the inevitable doom.

The album is short, some thirty minutes only, but really worth looking for.


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Culture Of Un - Moonish (Bocian, 2012) ****

By Stef    

Reality is sometimes to be found in the cracks of what we perceive, in the fissures in walls, through holes in fences, through torn curtains, through broken shutters, yet even then there is hardly anything to grasp, to connect or frame. The picture is incomplete, evasive, unknownable but because of this quality, is it creates attention, it attracts, it forces you to look closer, to come closer, to look differently, to actively search for other means of coming to grips with what is already gone, what disappears before your eyes.

It is in this space that the music of David Brown on guitar and Chris Abrahams (The Necks) on piano comes to live. What they bring has a kind of natural feeling of familiarity:  you hear guitar and piano, you sense some pulse, some repetition even, but never long enough to comprehend it, to predict it, to anticipate it. This constant and soft-spoken renewal of simple sounds has an effect of fresh surprise.

Yet there is a story somehow, some unity that keeps it all together, some drama even, as in "The Saw Had A Job To Do That Summer" in which some electrical instrument breaks through the sound, after which the music falls like percussive shards into nothingness, and gets built up again, note by note. With the beautiful "Watery For Two Days", the album ends in repetitive yet changing flowing piano phrases, with muted guitar sounds offering cross-currents and other obstructions, sometimes moving along, often going against the grain.

Clever and beautiful music.


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Magda Mayas & Christine Abdelnour - Myriad (Unsounds, 2012) ****

By Stef   

German pianist Magda Mayas and Lebanese saxophonist Christine Abdelnour are known for their sonic explorations that go way beyond the sound you can expect from their respective instruments. After last year's "Teeming", we find them back for this album. Again a short one, thirty-five minutes in total, yet as you can expect each one of them incredibly intense.

Basically, the only thing you get on this CD are sonic sculptures, raw, organic, sensitive, .... rhythm, pulse, patterns, harmonies and lyricism are absent, totally absent, just to be replaced by new sparks of imagination, full of as yet unimagined territories, with effects that can as easily frighten as move the listener.

The end result is beautiful, with music stripped of every useless ornamentation or decoration, revealing a level of physical and emotional sensitivity coupled with a coherent aesthetic vision.

The fascinating aspect is that despite the succession of a myriad of sounds, their interaction also offers an interesting dynamic movement, with changing scenes and evolving levels of intensity.

Fragile, ethereal, intense and beautiful. A great listening experience for music lovers with open ears.


Listen and download from CDBaby.


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Dans Les Arbres - Canopée (ECM, 2012) ****½

By Stef   

In April 2008, I guess I was the first reviewer to hail the unique musical vision of "Dans Les Arbres", the debut album of the French-Norwegian minimalist band with Xavier Charles on clarinet and harmonica, Ivar Grydeland on acoustic guitar, banjo and scruti box, Christian Wallumrød on prepared piano and harmonium, and Ingar Zach on gran cassa and percussion.

I gave the album a five-star rating and rightly so. The band manages to create a sonic universe built of pure sound, carefully improvised as one minutely paced coherent and minimalist vision. Every single note requires attention and respect as it adds something tiny to complete the slowly evolving dynamics of timbre and lightly woven texture.

So it is on this album. Bringing again this strange magic of purity and beauty, pristine and mesmerising and free and fragile like insect wings, transparent as mist, yet the result of incredible concentration, self-constraint, control of the various instruments, masterly interplay, and strangely enough driven by an uncanny intensity.

Like lots of great music, it is this paradox of lightness and intensity, of freedom and control that leads to again a magnificent result.

It is hard to believe that it took four years to release their sophomore album.

Again highly recommended.


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Fire! with Jim O´Rourke: Released! -- Looking from a different perspective?

As you can imagine we (the team) all get to hear the same records, and who reviews what basically works out as 'whoever fancies writing a review .... is welcome'. This of course means that you can get beaten to the post by another reviewer. As happened with me once, Stef was so interested by what I wrote he listened to the album and wrote a second review, which he then posted next to mine. It was an interesting experience to see two (more or less same) opinions, or one could say looking at the same thing from two viewpoints! Here, is a second, no third take on the 'Fire!' record with Jim O'Rourke.

Fire! with Jim O´Rourke: Released! (Rune 2011) ***

 

Reviewed by Joe

A short review of this small offering from Rune Records which could easily slip by without anybody noticing. This 10" EP (I think it's a very limited pressing!) with music by the undefinable Jim O'Rourke is 11 minutes of uncluttered (improvised?) music that passes you by within the blink of an eye. I'm not sure what the story behind this recording is but it's a shame there's not more of it, or at least I wonder what would of happened if they'd developed it a little further. To my mind it sounds like a sketch for a larger project which it is, and that's what makes it (for me) a slightly 'unfinished' sounding record. The group as you'll see below is a classic quartet line-up, however the music isn't easily classifiable. On 'Certainly those older and released...' (Tk1) you get to hear sampled and manipulated sounds mixed with guitar, minimal repeated bass riff and simple drum fills which develop gradually into a mournful melody played on sax which leads us out. On Tk2 'Particular local and plastic wrapped' the group builds in intensity with Gustafsson leading the troupes into battle over a repetitive bass riff with the other instruments following on gradually building in intensity, subsiding only as the sax steps aside. In fact you could sum up the basic idea of both sides of this EP as music which pulsates over a simple harmonic base.

There's not much else to say about the music as at the very moment it starts to take off the track runs out, or should I say the record stops. But what is here is quite interesting, it's just there isn't much of it. I guess if you're a Jim O'Rourke or Matts Gustafsson completist you may want this one in your vinyl collection, otherwise I'd pass this one over and wait for a fully fledged recording, which I hope will materialize one of these days.   

The Group : Mats Gustafsson baritone saxophone, fender rhodes, live electronics, Andreas Werliin drums, percussion, Johan Berthling electric bass, Jim O'Rourke electric guitar, synthesizer, harmonica.

Just to add to the fun here's the other two reviews (it seems we all reviewed it!) ....
Review (March 2012) - This is Paul's take on the record. As you can see he reviewed with a bunch of other records in the Matts Gustafsson section, always a good thing (name) to start a discussion!

Review (June 2011) - this is a review of the original album that has the rest of the material from the above release. I hadn't done my homework and only read this review after writing mine. However, I imagined that there was more material and of course there is. Read the Review March 2011 for more info.


Buy from Instantjazz. 

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Skogen - Ist Gefallen In Den Schnee (Another Timbre, 2012) *****

By Stef 

Rarely has a title been as precise as for this album, capturing a feeling in mid-phrase "has fallen in the snow", offering possibly one of the most delightful and lightest musical dishes you may have consumed ever.

The band consists of Angharad Davies and Anna Lindal on violin, Toshimaru Nakamura  on no-input mixing board, Petter Wastberg on electronics, Leo Svensson Sander on cello, Erik Carlsson on percussion, John Eriksson on vibraphone & crotales, Henrik Olsson on glasses and bowls, and Magnus Granberg on piano, but equally rarely will you have heard a nonet with a more open, lightfooted and fragile sound.

Magnus Granber takes the lead on piano, using sparse notes as the reference for the other musicians who intervene with the beauty and transparance of single snow flakes, single-toned, well-paced and creating an atmosphere of perfect tranquility and peace.

The album contains one single track, lasting just over an hour, and despite its minimalism is not boring for one second. On a superficial level you might say that nothing much happens, but quite the contrary is true, nothing is ever the same, as the partly composed piece evolves with subtle and sometimes unexpected sounds. As with other bands using the same approach, such as "Dans Les Arbres", "Silencers" or "Mural", the musicians' utter instrumental control and restraint are astonishing, resulting in this wonderful coherence that is the result of high level common improvisation, made interesting because of the real intensity of the created soundscapes.

Again, as with lots of new music in the past decades, Scandinavian musicians offer us new aural experiences, and indeed very welcoming ones. Highly recommended!

 

  © stef

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