Inexplicable Hours is the sequel of the successful six-CD boxset Elapsed Time, also released by Sonoris in 2017. The first LP documents a new direction in his music, with some of his last electroacoustic experimentations with audio generators, field recordings, and various electronic devices. The second one explores the same ambient/drone territories as the boxset, with tracks less static and more complex than it appears on the first listen. And as always with recent Kevin Drumm's music there's a sense of majesty, of mystery and a melancholic beauty that is uniquely his own.
Some words about the boxset are also appropriate for this record:
"Despite Drumm's noisy reputation, his music can be overwhelmingly sensual even at its loudest, providing a form of minimalism replete with a delicate, melancholic motion. How wildly divergent emotions rise, hover, and fall using so little is a mystery that only Kevin Drumm can provide." (Soundohm)
"The vast array of styles and works to be had here makes it an engaging challenge, one that can differ widely from disc to disc, but never lacks the cohesion and touch of a master craftsman and composer working at the top of his game." (Brainwashed)
"These pieces, despiste their lenght, are like perfect miniatures, timeless puzzles that you try and unravel through close listening. And their sense of place, of home, of sanctuary, feels more important than ever right now." (The Wire)
Since his emergence in the experimental music scene, about 20 years ago now, Kevin Drumm has perpetually shaken up conventions of various sub-genres with his major albums, for example, shifting from the tabletop/prepared guitar with his first self-titled album, to noise with Sheer Hell Miasma, to ambient/drone with Imperial Distortion. He has been notably prolific recently, with numerous self-released cdr and digital releases.
Elapsed Time is a collection of some of these recent works, dating from 2012 to 2016: desolate ambient drone (Middle Of Nothing, February), "cassette tape music" or raw musique concrete (Earrach, The Whole House), computer assisted live electronics and rough spectral music (Crooked Abode, Bolero Muter), with additional tracks from Tannenbaum and Shut-In.
This boxset documents one of the key figures of today american avant-garde at his peak of creativity.
Nicely remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi for an optimal listening experience (hifi system recommended).
"Elapsed Time" is undoubtedly destined to be a classic, and one of the finest experimental tomes to emerge over the last years. Despite his noisy reputation, Kevin Drumm music can be overwhelmingly sensual even at its loudest, providing a form of minimalism replete with a delicate, melancholic motion. How wildly divergent emotions rise, hover, and fall using so little is a mystery that only Kevin Drumm can provide.
While you may not find an answer, you can certainly get lost in the question.
SoundOhm
“Rabid” consists of six tracks mixed by Phillip B. Klingler, aka PBK, between 2004-06 using Wolf Eyes source material, this is the Wolf Eyes lineup of 2000-05: Nate Young, John Olson and Aaron Dilloway.
Klingler: “I was given the audio sources (via cdr) by John Olson at the Ear Candy Festival in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2004. None of the compositions on the album were completed using a computer, they were all recorded live in my home studio or at gigs and radio shows directly to digital."
Three of the pieces on the LP were previously released in Russia on the CD, “Under My Breath”, in 2009. Also in 2009, the American Tapes label run by John Olson released a cdr of the PBK & Wolf Eyes collaborative tracks as part of the ongoing "Live Frying" series. Later, "Rabid" was available for a brief time as a net release. One review from the time stated: “Not a single track passes by without conveying grisly and creepy sensations of imminent death or disaster.”
Mastered for vinyl by Giuseppe Ielasi and with the beautiful cover illustration created by Pole Ka.
▪ American composer, Phillip B. Klingler, better known as PBK, has been active in the experimental music underground since 1986. His compositions are created using extreme turntable manipulation, sampling, analog and digital synthesis. Improvising spontaneously and with little preconception, PBK creates pulsing, dense soundscapes of unknown sonic origin. [wikipedia]
▪ Wolf Eyes is a post-industrial/noise band from Detroit, Michigan. They are widely considered the "kings of US noise".
"Their development since the earliest rumblings in 1997 has yielded some of the most staggering and genre-defining sounds of noise and sound art's dense, largely obscured history." (Allmusic)
L'art de la fuite is a selection of first recordings originally released on selftitled homemade tape in 1995. Mainly composed with turntables and prepared records (with various other sources), these recordings have laid the foundation for his future work as turntabilist / improviser / composer. 20 years later, this unique blend of musique concrète and post-industrial still sounds fresh today.
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
«Over the years there have been reviews of the work of eRikm, as he likes to spell out his name, sometimes solo, but by my own estimation more in collaboration with other people. His main instruments are media products, such as vinyl and CDs, which he damages and then starts playing again, layering them together into new compositions. He has been doing so for more than twenty years. In 1995 he released his fourth cassette, in which he worked with vinyl more than CDs, using, if the postcards are any help, three turntables at the time, scratching records, carving grooves to create loops, cutting records in half and sticking them back together, making burn holes and such like. It's not unlike the work of Milan Knizak, who coined the term 'broken music' already in the sixties and Christian Marclay. eRikm put this on a four-track cassette and created his own compositions with these sounds, and I must say I quite enjoyed this lot. If I'm honest I find the whole turntablist movement a bit tiring, but what eRikm does here is very good. His pieces aren't some scratch records being played, but by layering various sounds together he creates pieces of music, which are engaging to hear. Minimal at times, loop-wise of course, but eRikm takes exactly the right sound of a record and fiddles around with it, so he slip in a melody of some kind, such as in the beautiful 'Rose'. Occasionally of course there is noise, which seems hard to avoid if you do this, but they don't seem to be around here a lot. All ten pieces are kept to a minimum in length, except perhaps for 'Ich War Ein Armer Heidensohn', which is almost nine minutes, in which eRikm explores his material and plays a 'song', rather than presenting some experiments of an electro-acoustic nature. I must admit I didn't hear any of the eRikm cassettes in the nineties, but if the others were like this, then I'd say: bring it on. This is an excellent record; if you are into turntablism, good ol' fashioned experimental music with a fine dash of noise sewn into this or just into overlooked obscurities: this is the place to be.» (Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly)
David Maranha – hammond organ
Z’ev - stainless steel discs, bass drum, maracas
Recorded live at zdb, lisbon, 24 june 2010.
"Certain musicians names can speak for themselves, before even a note of music has been played. Their reputations proceed them, although of course there will also be those ignorant of both reputation and name. David Maranha - solo or with Osso Exotico - explores the territories opened up half a century ago by John Cale and Tony Conrad. Z'ev is the grandmaster of industrial/ tribal percussion. The fusion they create together is a magma of movement and stasis before which only legless cripples will remain motionless." Jérôme Noetinger / Metamkine.
"Terry Riley meets the Velvet Underground." Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly.
Yannick Dauby, originated from Mediterranean Alps and currently based in Taiwan. Sound and location, sound and community, sound and ecology, are the main topics of his projects.
Overflows is a composition based on field recordings in natural, industrial and urban environments dealing with the overwhelming of listening.
"So while I think Dauby does something great actually - all the right sounds, a fine composition, and such like - its also something that is well explored, by Dauby himself as well as by others. If you are new and think 'what is music made with field recordings' than this might be an excellent place to start." (Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly)
"All of these field recordings originate from France and Taiwan, although Dauby is very cautious not to make either locale too obvious, even when the chatter of children intermixes with that of incessant insect noise. It makes for a great, psychogeographical listen!" (Aquarius Store RIP)
Furl is the sequel to Seth Nehil’s critically acclaimed 2009 release Flock & Tumble, also on Sonoris. Continuing his exploration of physically charged, acousmatic sound, these compositions whip, crash, swoop, glide and burble. Clusters of bell-like tones pierce hazy, corroded atmospheres. Animalistic yelps, distant pings, percussive bursts and glassy swells all merge in this unique sound-world. These five pieces are both rigorously-assembled and gracefully sparse. Furl will be a welcome addition to the expanding catalogue in Nehil’s futuristic organic paradox.
"Its hard to say what that is exactly, but it doesn't sound like anything else, which is the best compliment a composer can get, I guess. Its by far the best Nehil CD I heard and a fine career move." (Frans de Waard - Vital Weekly)
Mike Shiflet is one of the most interesting artists of the new US noise scene. He ran the Gameboy label with 100 releases in 10 years and, as musician, besides his solo recordings, he worked with C. Spencer Yeh/Burning Star Core, Brendan Murray, Francisco Meirino/Phroq & many others.
Daniel Menche is recognized since late eighties as a major figure of the experimental music world, exploring the fringe between noise and drone in a heavy and organic way. For 20 years Daniel Menche has harvested a vast discography of solo and collaborations.
Stalemate, the first collaborative work between these two prolific American artists, is based on Hammond organ sounds and electronics. The result is a heavy body of work - a powerful drone based music with densely textured sounds and some deep bass that'll make your walls shaking.
This record gathers a selection of recent compositions from this french electroacoustic composer. His work follows the path of french pioneers of 'musique concrète' with an emphasis on the intrinsic beauty of captured sounds and poetic compositions that let your imagination go - very far from standardazed today production from well-established studios in France or in Canada.
Each track focuses on one sound source from daily life (trains, a demonstration, a voice, ...) and tells a story that each one can built for himself - therefore, we can speak of a true cinema for the ear.
JM Rivet is a Bordeaux-based composer of electro-acoustic music who studied composition at GMEB in the late 70's and has completed a training course at Xenakis' Cenamu in 82. He works today as research professor in digital studio practice and sound recording. He has been composing music since 30 years, mainly for theatre but also for radio and exhibition.
Seth Nehil is an American artist involved in various projects ranging from compositions for dance, installations, multimedia performances, publications and visual art. Over the years, he has collaborated with other significant sound researchers (John Grzinich, Olivia Block, Michael Northam, Matt Marble and Brendan Murray) and has released many CDs on international labels such as Kaon, Alluvial and ...Edition.
It's not so easy to describe the music of Seth Nehil: like a compound of several substances, obtained by capturing natural and urban sounds, manipulated instruments, as well as by electronic treatments and textured objects.
Flock & Tumble is another fine example of his new direction : shorter tracks with an almost song-like structure and a large sound palette that includes the human voice as material. Flock & Tumble explores haphazard clusters, abrupt shifts, percussive rattles and gentle clouds.
“Extraordinary… a wonderful sense of confidence in the material, an ability to go somewhere quite new.” – Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)
“Not too often you come across something that just sounds like little else.” – Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)
“An important demonstration of Nehil’s abilities, this is a classic sleeper which deserves immediate exposure, well beyond the small circle of experts to which music like this is usually addressed.” – Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)
This 2CD set gathers two compositions each by Michael Gendreau and Francisco Lopez. TDDM is based on sound materials recorded in factories in Asia. The 2 Michael Gendreau tracks focus on factories sound environment meanwhile Francisco Lopez works more on machinery and engines. The result is a strong and intense body of work, a total immersion into industrial estates sounds. This isn't a work on microsound or lowercase music but a real physical experience.
Michael Gendreau (San Francisco), former member of the underground duo Crawling with Tarts, studied composition at Mills College and now works as an acoustician specialized in machinery vibration isolation and environmental noise studies (among other things). He releases now his works under his own name.
Francisco Lopez (Madrid) : "Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the underground experimental music scene. Over the last twenty five years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion." [Pedro Higueras, Sonom Studios]
“One morning this week I played an old 7" by Vivenza - the futurist inspired musician, who used machine like sounds. I was thinking about Vivenza and that someone told me he didn’t use actual machine recordings, but a Putney synthesizer, which somehow sounded like machines. Curiously enough in the afternoon a new 2 CD arrived from Micheal Gendreau and Francisco Lopez. Looking at the sparse credits on the cover this seems not to be a collaborative effort, but both deliver two long pieces entirely based on their own recordings of machines in Taiwan and Malaysia (Gendreau) and Singapore, China, Taiwan and Japan (Lopez). In the first Lopez piece he comes close to the old Vivenza sound: hammering machine rhythms with lots of sound effects to transform the sound, but his other is entirely different. Very low in volume, and the sounds of the machines seem to be pushed to the background. There is a sense of rhythm to it, but it sounds quite strange. Ultimately, in fine Lopezian twist, things go up and the real machines comes in and as suddenly disappear. In the two pieces by Micheal Gendreau machine sounds play, obviously I say, a role too, but somehow he seems to be interested to create ’more music’ out of it, especially in ’M928’, with its organ like tones comes in and out of the piece, before it slips into silence first and then into noise. The first piece by him has a similar built-up but a different ending. Four different sides of the same coin. Excellent stuff, but I don’t think I expected something else”. (FdW - Vital Weekly)
"Behind Bowline we find the more and more present musician David Maranha, who was once best known as Osso Exotico, and these days also works as a solo musician and one Francesco Dillon. He is from Italy and studied the cello. These days he is a member of Alter-Ego (see Vital Weekly 602 for their work with Gavin Bryars) as well as playing with people like Matmos, Pan Sonic and Scanner. A man of many talents. Here too Dillon plays cello, whereas Maranha gets credit for 'hammond organ, violin, vox amplifier (with Francesco cello signal), glass harmonica, tremolo and distortion pedals'. Of the four tracks , the first is the most silent one, taking several minutes to get started. Like with so many other projects of David Maranha, in which ever form it takes, this is a work of minimalism. Of sheer, utter minimalism and what beauty, once again. The careful strumming of various string instruments, the drones added, sparsely of course, from the other instruments. Three short tracks which eventually culminate in the fourth track, which takes up about two-third of the CD and in which the three previous excursions return but glorified. Everything comes together here. If you love Osso Exotico or any of the works Maranha did after that, this is will be a most welcome addition. Also fans of traditional minimal music, especially Lamonte Young will find this a great release, I'm sure of that." (FdW - Vital Weekly 605)
Kozo Inada is a japanese sound artist who has previously released records on various labels around the world (Staalplaat, Selektion, Digital Narcis, V2). His last record published is a collaborative work with Philip Samartzis on the australian label Room40.
His music is a balance between austere minimalism and immense spaces in sound that creates a very strong tension and keeps the listener captivated from the beginning to the end.
For J[], he uses samples and loops of classical music as sound materials for Max/Msp treatments. The result is a densely layered and strong sound work, with slow rises and falls, hypnotic loops and some ruptures that give texture to silence. A sonic journey into aerial and hypnotic universes.
« Inada’s music sucks you really into it when played loud, it hardly leaves you anything other to do. It’s sound that really locks you in.» (Vital weekly)
Moving away from the field recordings which Inada used in his previous releases, for this release he concentrates solely on classical music samples and loops. At first that sounded a bit cheap to me, clearly since they are not too difficult to recognize. Inada produces perfect loops that don't skip or anything, but make a sustaining wave of sound. In each of the five pieces things move slowly but steadily and Inada continues his working methods: from soft to loud, although it seems to me this time on a less radical level than before. It's again quite a powerful work, and opening up new worlds to explore for Inada. It would be great to see more of his work being available. (FdW - Vital Weekly 566)
A third stream folk instrumental, partly recorded at the HQ of folk – Cecil Sharp House - played on acoustic instruments with very sparse effects but plenty of beautiful accidents that might recall early 20th century french music (Satie, Debussy, …), Brian Eno’s Obscure collection and aspects of the post-rock scene. Will appeal to fans of Tape, Mountains, Mark Hollis, Nick Drake, and some of the folk-infused music from the ’70s…
Reviews for Senseless acts of beauty :
“One of the most ear catching albums of the year” –BBC Late Junction show
“ Sounds like chamber music, played by gangsters, mixed by minimalists”
“Durutti column on the piano. Perfect modern day living room music.”–Vital weekly.
“A wonderful record recalling the Post rock elegance of Rachel Grimes” - The Wire
"Sufficiently, electronics is not used, with just musical instrument sound extracts the good quality part of 20 century musics and as for their abilities which are shown, says suitable ones does not obtain. With saying even when, not to become top-heavy, as for the sound which enters to the heart of the person smoothly and is refined, it works intellectually as BGM of the workplace where, it holds also the popularity where the kind of item which can be used sufficiently is good." - digitalnarcis
Paul O'Hara - Wurlitzer piano, Acoustic piano, Acoustic and electric guitars, Flutes, written and produced by.
Stephen Harrison - Double bass
David Barbenel- Cello
Cover painting - Susie Brown
this work was originally an installation presented at inmo gallery, in chinatown/los angeles, december 2000. the work was created using 3 objects purchased at chinatown giftshops: a toy wooden flute, a small aluminum wind chime, a small paper accordion. each track was created using one of these objects as the only sound source. some of the sounds have been processed electronically. the installation was created in response to: the generic sounding 'muzak' playing in most of the public spaces of chinatown; the private landscape of chinatown lingering unnoticed in alleys and second floor windows; and, a book on the history of chinese philosopher's stones. the audio was installed in front of a large picture window facing the chinatown pedestrian area. (Steve Roden)
Beginning his recorded career as a turntablist, Erik M advanced over the years to include all manner of electronic manipulation, his work becoming progressively richer and more mysterious. Mono.Face.Mirror, a brief (26-minute) disc, offered one of the most compelling examples of his sonic investigations, piling allusion upon allusion into a huge and healthy sandwich of sound. There are surprising free jazz sax squalls toward the beginning of the single track that merge into what might be some ultra-low Tibetan horns, all overlaid on vinyl scratches and humming drones. A jumpy piano attack surfaces, is looped, and competes against whirring synth-like tones before abating, then reappears several minutes later as though grabbed from a parallel universe. Shards of contemporary strings appear, set against light percussion in a "sampled" manner that recalls some of John Wall's work. Eventually, a male voice speaking in French is heard over a mix of natural sounds and drums, very reminiscent of the musique concrete of Luc Ferrari. Still, Erik M manages to make this particular sound world very much his own and, despite its apparent fragmentation, Mono.Face.Mirror ultimately coheres into a powerful, abstract statement, if one which belies easy explanation. Though brief, it's a fine, mature statement and highly recommended. (Brian Olewnick / All Music Guide)
Dailleau is a member of Triolid and Le Complexe de la Viande and perfoms from time to time with Helmut Schafer and Atau Tanaka. I'm unfamiliar with the bands but I know the two others as composers of powerbook music, both in their very own style. This CD is a solo CD recorded at various concerts, where he performed on theremin, msp-propelled theremin, aks synth and computer. These eight pieces can be best described as dense. Layered sounds with a drone like character, which can grow into noise (but it never reaches the peak of noise). Although some of the tracks remind me of laptop like cracklings and even a rhythm, such as 'Little Odyssey', Dailleau never gets out of control and structure of the music remains important. The drone like character remains his important thing. Therefore this is an utmost enjoyable CD if you like the work of Asmus Tietchens, Troum but also Mego. Not the least names to be compared with. Great stuff indeed. (FdW / Vital weekly)
Poire Z is almost like a super group, as it's collaborative work between drummer Gunter Muller, electronics by Erik M and the cracked everyday electronics of Moslang and Guhl - the latter two known as Voice Crack. Presented here are two lengthy and heavy weighted pieces recorded at two different festivals. Overall the music is densely layered (although I can't say if this is a straight recording or a mixed multi-track version; I assume the first) which moves into various places and spaces. Small events happen all over the place, get their shape and move to the next small event. You can detect sine waves, radio signals, static drones. Poire Z moves cleverly from subdued areas into more noisy ones, in order to slide back into softer passages. They even hit upon a strong rhythmic section in their recording at the "Taktlos festival", that is almost Pan Sonic like. Great stuff. (FdW / Vital weekly)
"Hanging above the audience, metal cans are linked to some strings of a piano frame by long steel wires (3 to 5 m.). Strings are excited by percussion, friction, magnetic fields and electric motors." (extract from inner notes) First solo record, before the CD released by Sub Rosa, from this musician/instrument builder from Liege, Belgium (after a collaboration CD of strange songs with Frederic le Junter and one long track on a Sub Rosa compilation), also collaborator of Arnold Dreyblatt for performances. A first part in a Dreyblatt style, a center part of layered and droning sounds (but without any effects) and a more strong finale.
For his first CD, Laurent Grappe has created a fascinating electro-acoustic tale. Le Luxe de la Réflexion! (The Luxury of Reflection!) blurs distinctions between field recording and acousmatics, urban and rural, French and Arab. At the center of the work is Isabelle Bassil, a Lebanese woman splitting her time between France and Lebanon. Her life experience, bridging two cultures, provides the main thread. Her interventions are spoken in Arab and other protagonists speak French, but comprehension of any or both languages is not a requisite to appreciate the listening experience - the same way understanding Spanish did not constitute an obstacle in Kristoff K. Roll's South American sonic travel diary, Corazon Road. Grappe plays with the sound of speech, the emotions it conveys on a musical level transcending linguistic signification. His sound constructions at times evoke Fred Frith's soundtrack to the film Middle of the Moment: atmospheric nomadic journeys into another culture. In other places, the music is resolutely musique concrete. The three "Interludes" feature vocal performances similar to Shelley Hirsch or Joane Hetu. Although a reduction of "life," Le Luxe de la Réflexion! feels surprisingly non-abstract. Of course, the unsuspecting listener will be destabilized, but most sound elements are traceable to their sources and many bits of music are left untouched. It makes a rewarding listening experience, even for seasoned sound art fans - a very impressive debut. (François Couture - All Music Guide)
Sensorband is a trio of musicians using interactive technology. Gestural interfaces -- ultrasound, infrared, and bioelectric sensors -- become musical instruments. The group, Edwin van der Heide, Zbigniew Karkowski, Atau Tanaka, each soloists on their instruments for over six years, formed Sensorband to create a performance ensemble. Edwin plays the MIDIconductor, machines worn on his hands that send and receive ultrasound signals, measuring the hands’ rotational positions of and relative distance. Zbigniew activates his instrument by the movement of his arms in the space around him. This cuts through invisible infrared beams mounted on a scaffolding structure. Atau plays the BioMuse, a system that tracks neural signals (EMG), translating electrical signals from the body into digital data. Together, Sensorband creates a live group dynamic, bringing a visceral physical element to interactive technologies. The basic materials are pure oscillator waves. The result can be considered as the missing point between Hafler trio (Z. Karkowski used to be a regular member), Ryoji Ikeda and no-rhythmical Panasonic.
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"Shame of course upon myself: I have never seen the Sensorband live, and that is a pity. Three guys with a bunch of ropes, connected with sensors. By moving around, climbing in the ropes, the sound is changed by the sensors. These three guys are Edwin van der Heide, Atau Tanaka and Zbigniew Karkowski - three guys with a wide experience in sound, electronic music and performances. The question of course is: will their sound last on CD? Since they use pure tones and oscillations which change because of bodily movements, nothing might happen if you play this at home. It's unclear wether these four tracks, one analogue and three digital, are recorded live, or used in live performances. The CD opens with 'digtal.1', a slowly moving static line with small pulses, gradually increasing tension. The 'analogue' track is much a like, but much slower. The built-up takes more time (no surprise in a track that lasts 28 minutes) and is very austere in setting. The two shorter 'digital.2' and 'digital.3' are like the opening track. More pulsating, without getting anywhere near a beat. Number is almost like a sentimental song, with a tone of sadness in there. The presstext talks about the missing link between Hafler Trio and Pan Sonic, I'd like to add a link to Alvin Lucier's Music On A Long Thin Wire: pure tones changed by the environment. A very minimal, but very nice work..." (FdW / Vital Weekly)
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