Piotr Kurek - Lectures (Crónica, 2009)

mp3 / 320 / 92mb / rs | rel. apr 09 | www.cronicaelectronica.org

EARLab review:

"Electro-acoustic compositions with a jazzy touch as a tribute to Cornelius Cardew, one of the great innovators of avant-garde music in the '60's.

Cornelius Cardew was a musician who had his feet in avant-garde music. He worked as assistant of Karlheinz Stockhausen, was member of free improvisation group AMM and at the end of the sixties formed the group Scratch Orchestra.

While in this orchestra he build up a huge aversion against avant-garde music and the elitist nature of this music.

At the same time he turned his career in the direction of politics supporting marxist-maoist organizations. Musically a swing to more traditional folklore music was taken at the same time. For various popular causes he developed musical pieces together with his old AMM colleague Keith Rowe. Until his death in 1981 he stayed active as member of communist parties in the British politics.

The musical career of Cardew has been an influence to several musicians even leading to several festivals, like the Zakrzyienia Igly festival in Warsaw, Poland in 2007. For this festival Polish musician and composer Piotr Kurek composed several pieces to be played. As a starting point several recordings from Cardew were used, while the musicians improvised with additional instruments. With these live pieces as starting point Kurek composed the music we find on the album Lectures.

While the original setting for the festival was improvised, here things are worked out into the smallest detail. The 10 pieces are based around lectures and piano play by Cardew and around these recordings we hear clarinets, percussion and subtle computer generated sounds (among other instruments). What comes to mind is the music by the Berlin based duo Dictaphone, but in a more abstract version. The electro-acoustic music has similarities to modern free-jazz compositions, but as easily can be fitted in with modern avant-garde classical music.

Lectures is a strong release which shows great tribute to one of the innovators of avant-garde music, although Cardew might turn in his grave if someone would say this too loud.

Highly recommended release."

Tetuzi Akiyama & Toshimaru Nakamura - Semi Impressionism (Spekk, 2009)

mp3 / 320 / 138mb / rs | rel. oct 09 | www.spekk.net

"A powerful three-part set of electroacoustic improvisations from two of Japan's finest experimental musicians: guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama and that famed exponent of the no-input mixing board , Toshimaru Nakamura. This latest long-player commences with the fluttering of pure, high frequency tones laced with complex, scratchy undertones. Akiyama's guitar interjections bring a real sense of warmth to this stream of soft yet austere noise, keeping a low enough profile to fit in with the micro-sonic palette yet proving lyrical enough to lend a Derek Bailey-esque quality to certain passages. During the second track the dynamics occasionally resemble the earliest output of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborations, where Akiyama's avant-garde blues phrasings substitute for Sakamoto's open-ended piano emissions. A third and final piece occupies almost twenty-five minutes, arriving with more concentrated emphasis on Akiyama's meandering articulations, and correspondingly, Nakamura's electronics toughen up, arriving in more concentrated and heavily modulated blasts. Recommended." -boomkat

LOiLF: music for a 2003 renualt laguna

mp3 / 320 / 175mb / rs | compiled for my car, 24 nov. 09

01 Abfahrt Hinwil - Triology (2002)

02 Milieu - Plume Train (2007)

03 Miwon - Matchbox (2008)

04 Solvent - Think Like Us (2004)

05 Kettel - Boekebaas (2009)

06 Four Tet - And then patterns (2005)

07 Matmos - Last delicious cigarette (1999)

08 Luke Vibert - Comphex (2007)

09 Autechre - Montreal (1994)

10 Plaid - Abla Eedio (1997)

11 Bola - Pendulus (1998)

12 Proem - Radius (2004)

13 Aphex Twin - We are the music makers (1993)

Simon James French - Anthem (Hibernate, 2009)

mp3 / 320 / 43mb / rs | rel. oct 09 |

favourite label 2009: hibernate

"Simon James French is a sound artist currently based in London, UK. His work is increasingly involved in the art of field recording but often transcends the gap between phonography and sound design. Interested in cross-media work, Simon’s work often contains field recordings, synthesis, and live electronics.

Heavily inspired by the compositional techniques of György Ligeti, Simon’s first release Anthem is full of dynamic movement and heavy textures that, in its entirety make for an ever changing body of work that invites the listener to fall headlong into this world of sinuous, melodic drones, evocative motifs and cleverly incorporated real-world sounds.

Ltd edition 3" CDr 100 copies made" -hibernate

Gescom - Sounds Of The Machines Our Parents Used (Clear, 1995) 12"

mp3 / 320 / 72mb / rs | rel. 1995

The all-time classic Gescom EP originally released on the Clear label in 1995. Puzl is possibly one of the best Ae/Gescom tracks ever, taking cues from Cybotron and Man Parrish to produce a modern electro masterpiece. Go Sumo/Go Sheep are similarly subliminal bits of work.

Northerner - 1976 (Hibernate, 2009)

mp3 / 320 / 62mb / rs | rel. oct 09 | hibernate

"Northerner, aka Martin J Cummings, is one of a growing band of musicians operating in the UK’s blossoming electro-acoustic scene. ‘1976’ closely follows mammoth double-set ‘The Ridings’ (on Home Assembly Music), a special little release that further enhances Cummings reputation. Avoiding the familiar, Cummings sets about transporting the listener down new paths, where gossamer guitar textures mingle with shimmering, bucolic atmospherics, forgotten voices and deftly laced found sounds, suggesting a kinship with the heart-warming nostalgia of fellow countrymen Epic45. The miniature electronic pulses and glitches adroitly placed throughout add a beguiling sheen, often found lacking in the genre.

Despite its compact running time, this release is no stop-gap, with each track purposefully flowing into the next, suggesting a narrative hidden just underneath the surface. There’s a rich, emotional depth prevalent here and the countless left turns render this record as riveting, taking us from the intoxicating chill of ‘The End of December’ through to the comforting hazy warmth of ‘Red Soil’. (Michael Henaghan – Phantom Channel)"

Lokai - Transition (Thrill Jockey, 2009)

mp3 / 320 / 104mb / rs | rel. sep 09

review from bbc.co.uk:

"Named after a breed of Tajikistani horse, no less, Lokai is the chosen name of instrumental duo Florian Kmet and Stefan Nemeth, sometime guitarists with Superlooper and Radian respectively and serial collaborators with everyone from Rhys Chatham to Christian Fennesz. Their previous album, 2005’s 7 Million, was an electro-acoustic affair which erred toward the forbiddingly austere; but all that interim collaborating seems to have lightened the duo’s touch. Granted, Lokai’s sonic realm is still one which favours ethereal drones, percussion plinks and disquieting, David Lynchian hums over a jolly melody, but for all that, Transition proffers an involving palette of beguiling yet somehow unsettling textures and the odd moment of stygian beauty.

To achieve these, the album’s ten tracks boast an impressively odd instrumental arsenal; everything from ‘prepared’ Fender Rhodes electric piano to the struck body of an acoustic guitar and the aged heating pipes of the Vienna apartment in which the recording took place. None of the discreet, voiceless, digitally manipulated essays ever really ‘goes’ anywhere - there’s very little sense of soundtrack narrative – but nor or are they mere static ambient wallpaper. Instead, pieces tend to begin with a cluster of disembodied layers of sound which become gradually more congruent, often ceding to passages of relatively orthodox, ‘played’ guitar or keyboards.

Curtain raising track Roads is such a symphony of shipwreck creaks, liquid glitches and sub-aquatic purrs that you imagine the titular thoroughfares must be located in downtown Atlantis until the addition of a skeletal Rhodes melody ushers proceedings toward terra firma. Salvador makes room for the opulent toll of metallic prayer bowls and cartoonish, pizzicato violins while Panarea leavens its initial miasma of dissonance with contrastingly genteel acoustic guitar arpeggios that effortlessly marry folk with Steve Reich.

Perhaps the highlight is Volver - a track that recalls Mark Nelson’s post-electronic dub project Pan American or barely recalled early noughties post rock duo Corker-Conboy. Its spectral driftscapes support further chordal guitar traceries, keyboard figures pregnant with watery possibility and blasts of melodica which briefly threaten Morricone mellifluousness before being enveloped in the album’s default sonic murk."

Pub - Do You Ever Regret Pantomime? (Ampoule, 2001)

mp3 / 320 / 172mb / rs | rel. 2001 / ampcd01

the epic Pub debut as requested. amazing listening. i'm sure you'll enjoy this!!