Frank Bretschneider Super.Trigger Raster-Noton Frank Bretschneider does a complete 180° from his last album, Kippschwingungen, released not long ago on Line, for this latest outing on his own Raster-Noton label. Exploring his repertoire, Bretschneider often seems to veer sharply from the rhythmic to the purely abstract, though he does occasionally land in the middle. Super.Trigger is by nature a rhythmic album, with a liveliness and spirit that is nowhere to be found on Kippschwingungen or his older Mille Plateaux albums, all of which are quite good in their own right but much more staid and severe. Instead, the playful spirit of his 2010 album EXP or 2007’s Rhythm comes through loud and clear here. Highly detailed and syncopated sequences of drum samples, sliced and diced, skitter in and out of his signature glitch aesthetic. But I dare say, some of Super.Trigger is downright funky – a word I never thought I’d associate with Herr Bretschneider. “Over.Load” has a special swagger with its snippets of voices and tinny snares that bob in time, and “Flicker.Funk” has it right in its own name, with synth zips that are as close to a wah-wah guitar as anything on Raster-Noton is likely to get. “Machine.Gun” has a nice chunky broken beat groove to complement its skittering sequencing, probably my favorite of the bunch. Despite its playful nature, Super.Trigger falls right in line with Bretschneider’s tendency to focus on a sonic concept for an album; Rand was on the vanguard of the clicks and cuts trend, while EXP was a curious foray into free-jazz-tinged glitch. Super.Trigger shows off Bretschneider’s knack for rhythm deftly, one of my new favorites of the year. Be sure to read Interview with Frank Bretschneider going live tomorrow on Headphone Commute!		Kyoka Ish Raster-Noton Nice, heavy-handed set of noisy techno-esque electronic tracks here from Japanese artist Kyoka, produced by Frank Bretschneider… “Kyoka – the first solo female artist on the Raster-Noton roster works as a musician and composer in Berlin and Tokyo. She has been releasing music since 2008 and is known for her chaotic, direct approach and a heavy-rough sound resulting in a broken pop-beat with experimental yet danceable rhythms. Ish means “around”, “like” or “about” and reflects her way to be clear by being vague – brightness wrapped in a blanket of obscurity and abstractness.” The channel effects are crazy on opener “Hadue,” with the sound gated between left and right to cause strange shifts in sound continuously. Odd syncopation choices keep you guessing but it’s got enough momentum to keep you moving. Atom™ takes his masterful hand at a remix that follows immediately after, streamlining it and focusing on a more reliable groove with some tinges of acid and a clatter that sounds vaguely Wax Trax to me (but with 2012 production values). It’s probably the highlight of this EP, never letting up over the span of 9+ minutes until it suddenly stops with a resounding BOOM. The other originals are quite impressive — lots of editing and snippets of vocals, cascading effects, sampled percussion, crazy sequencing… none of it quite aligns with any trends or genre. It’s not surprising that they called in Uwe Schmidt to do a remix as I hear a good resemblance to some of his more scatterbrained aliases (Naturalist, Los Samplers), in spirit more than in actual sound of course. Very cool stuff, it’s nice to hear Raster-Noton and mainstay Bretschneider exploring more playful territory to complement their more staid, serious repertoire.
Pixel Mantle Raster-Noton Anyone who’s had a cellphone for more than a few years and works with audio or a computer with speakers knows that once upon a time it was nearly impossible to avoid picking up the sound of your phone’s signal with the network — a rhythmic, chugging, gritty digital sound not unlike that of a modem handshake (minus the noise blast). Mantle seems to harness that essence of digital communication and noise in ways that are alternately immersive and head-bobbing. Jon Egeskov’s fourth album as Pixel starts off with a digital sputter of noise. Without sounding too dismissive, because the album is solid, Pixel’s aesthetic is what I’d call “Raster-Noton by numbers.” All of the standard elements are there: white noise, crisp digital rhythm with staggered kicks, high-pitched bleeps, sine wave low-end bass bloops. But there are some really exciting moments here, like the sputtering staccato static that kicks off “Brown Shirt,” before it evolves into a rhythmic chugger that no doubt does his label bosses proud. Typically those more sparse and fragile moments are few and far between, but by virtue of how isolated they are, they stand out in a good way; the utter lack of reverb on many of the sounds gives it an immediate and claustrophobic feeling, as if the sounds are impossible to get away from. Along those lines, the breakdown in the center of “Nestling Screen” is a nice respite from the crowded noisetones of the rest of the track; its skittering, delicate rhythm, joined before long by a relentless drone of white noise on the surface, speaks to Egeskov’s knack for syncopation and contrast. While his toolkit and sonic palette don’t necessarily set Pixel so far apart from the Raster-Noton pack (Byetone, Alva Noto, and Frank Bretschneider, to name a few), he certainly has his finger on the same glitchy pulse. Ten years and four albums in, and there’s no doubt that he knows what he’s doing.		Vladislav Delay Espoo Raster-Noton “Olari,” the first track on this rather odd EP from Sasu Ripatti, starts off unassumingly enough with a sort of machine-gun like stuttering sample of synthesis, with what appears to be a double-time broken beat syncopation. But as is his wont, he confounds expectations by instead lurching into a disorienting, plodding 5/4 groove. It’s surprising and satisfying because he could’ve more easily just thrown down the 4/4 kick that the first minute or two begs for, but Vladislav Delay is not a project in which Ripatti has ever indulged the dancefloor (see Luomo, Sistol or Uusitalo for those perhaps more predictable beats). Even better, though, is “Kolari” which pounds away energetically with an insistent kick drum and gated wall of sound before some light melodic touches accentuate things. The uptempo kick/snare combo reminds me of old electro-industrial stuff like Liaisons Dangereuses or DAF in tempo and demeanor, but it’s all filtered through the Vladislav Delay arsenal of effects and technology in a way that makes this feel both incredibly current but also unique and likely to age quite gracefully, as has many of Ripatti’s productions over the years. Each of these tracks appears in a more abstracted treatment, with “Olari Versio” becoming a lighter, less lumbering study in repetition and rhythm, dropping the heavier handed percussion track altogether and instead opting to focus on the unpredictable stutter of its signature sample. “Kolari Versio” is more exciting to me, with its drum tracks muted but still present, half-tempo, but still effervescent with its bubbly, urgent rhythm. Even though it’s less of a full-on jam than its original version that comes earlier, it’s a nice nod to his more spacious repertoire without looking too far backward, allowing listeners to come down a bit in its more downtempo denouement. Excellent stuff. Along with Ripatti’s full-length under the moniker last year (Vantaa) it’s a reminder that he is constantly evolving and exploring new ideas in new ways. Top notch.

Reviews by Matthew Mercer of Ear Influxion.
Republished on Headphone Commute with permission of the author.

Hi Frank. What’s been going on in your daily routine life besides making music?
Part of my daily routine I spend with the usual office work, maintaining social and business contacts, answering emails, having appointments. Or I’m busy with developing the graphics for my live visuals. Apart from that I like to read, also I have a large music collection and need always some time to keep it up to date. Otherwise I like to go out, visiting galleries, art exhibitions, concerts, meeting friends.

Super.Trigger is a very rhythmic album. Can you please comment on the aesthetic and concept behind the music?
After the more experimental stuff I’ve done over the past few years, with EXP in 2011 and KIPPSCHWINGUNGEN last year, I really wanted to do something more rhythmic again, kind of extension what I did in 2007 with RHYTHM. I wanted to have something what is fun to play, something simple and groovey. I love to listen to black music: funk, r&b, jazz, dub, hip hop… it’s a certain feeling for rhythm. I really admire all of these great musicians and bands, the moments they’re getting tight when they play together and interacting with each other, when music speaks for itself and reaches a certain amount of »soul« or »deepness«. On the other hand I’m this kind of German intellectual middle class guy, probably a bit over-educated from listening experimental, highly abstract »avantgarde« music. So I try to bring together both worlds: my love for rhythm, the joy of listening to urban contemporary music and my desire to explore and experiment and to see what I can do with computer generated music.

You’ve seemed to concentrate a lot more on the actual groove this time, with some rhythms even approaching “funk”. What was the particular mix of organic vs. synthetic that you tried to maintain within this work?
For me working with rhythm is always a bit a strain. I mean its pretty easy nowadays to construct an even more complex rhythm track with the help of computer/machines. But to reach a real organic feel is quite a challenge for me. And I like to struggle with the material till it fits 100% my imagination. I try to keep a balance between abstractness and a certain kind of accessibility, try to keep it organic with computed methods; for example programming a familiar hip-hop groove with using just abstract, high artificial noises. So it sounds familiar but still strange and exceptional. I think its pretty much OK to use a cliché, but also to break it and turn it into something unexpected. I think it leaves a bit more room for imagination.

The samples seem to be all sliced and chopped up, but I have a feeling that they had some past ‘recycled’ origin. If it’s not a secret, can you describe the process of production and sound source?
Yeah, there are some samples. Probably most prominent with »Overload« which is partly made from samples of an unreleased track of my former band AG.Geige. »Pinkthrill« contains a few samples from a jingle I made a couple of years ago for Spanish web radio station »Sub-zero«. Also I use a few sounds from the Elektron library: the synth sound in »Flickerfunk« and the bass line in »Meanstreak« for example. There are some found sounds too, like the 1975 interval signal of Norddeutscher Rundfunk (North German broadcast), what serves as a kind of melody in »Daydream«. Or the noise pad in »Blackout« what is actually a heavy amplified tape noise from an analogue VHS video tape. Usually I start a new track with running through my archive of unfinished stuff and ideas. Putting together phrases, loops, samples and see what fits together, changing speed and tuning, programming additional sounds and so generating some first sketches. After collecting a certain amount I choose what sounds promising and start with arrangements, cutting and altering loops, changing sounds again, adding some effects, eq-ing etc. Most often I leave the material then for a while, to get a bit a distance again. Later on I listen again, take what sounds best and transfer the songs to Logic for final arrangements, fine tuning and spices.

Where do you draw your motivation from and what are some of your inspirations?
In a wider range the circumstances of life, things I experienced recently or long time ago, the environment, the weather and daytime (making music at night changes the sound significant). Science is an inspiration as well, astronomy, psychoacoustics, optics. Or things I found by chance, like recently a collection of interval signals and signature tunes from radio stations. I thought I want to make a whole album just using these sounds. Music of course is a major influence, all kinds: jazz, rock, electronic, contemporary. I regularly go to concerts and listen to music I get from friends, colleagues, etc. Same important is art, architecture and literature, reading, visiting museums and galleries,.

Tell us about some of the upcoming exciting developments for Raster-Noton.
At the moment I look pretty much forward to play at Electric Campfire, our annual raster-noton party in Rome. The next couple of weeks I’m busy with co-production (with Robert Lippok) for a new album by Japanese artist Kyoka. It will be her first full-length album for raster-noton after the EP »iSH« last year. Otherwise I’m about to work on music for a next album, basically similar to SUPER.TRIGGER, maybe not that intense in terms of rhythm, but more focused to explore the possibilities of distortion, probably a bit more »psychedelic«. And recently, when I run-through my archive, I found some unreleased material, outtakes and various compilation contributions from the past. Lots of stuff and maybe worth to collect for a compilation album.

Be sure to check out review of Super.Trigger

frankbretschneider.de

Photography by Arne Reinhardt.

Diamond Version is perhaps an inevitable meeting of the minds of Olaf Bender (Byetone) and Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto). The two have been running the Raster-Noton label for ages, and their aesthetics are sort of two sides of the same coin. They’ve both been exploring rhythm and noise, as well as the spaces between, from the start of their respective careers, with some of Nicolai’s material as Noto being quite severe and minimal. Byetone has typically struck me as more rhythmic, especially in his more recent output, usually with a nice groove that pushes his sound into dance music territory at times. It’s interesting that Mute signed them for this new series of collaborations. But it’s not entirely surprising, though, I suppose, with Mute previously championing Finnish kindred spirits and perhaps forefathers, Pan(a)Sonic.

Anyone who heard Byetone’s Death of a Typographer or especially his more recent SyMeta will not be surprised at all by these cuts. In fact, if I hadn’t known this was a collaboration, I’d have assumed it was Bender on his own, because it sounds so similar to what he’s explored in recent years. On EP1, the broken beat, mid-tempo groove of “Empowering Change” is so undeniably Byetone that it’s irresistible to my ears. “Technology at the Speed of Life” is also quite good, a much faster clip about it, having the same tinge of rock n’ roll attitude that characterized some of Byetone’s SyMeta.

EP 2 is perhaps the most humorous of the bunch, with pitched down, manipulated voiceovers of product sales pitches set to an industrial, mechanized groove that is distinctly Byetone in nature.  The palette of sounds still feels like 100% Byetone — deep bass, white noise, sine waves, etc. — but the attitude is rougher and ruder. “Turn On Tomorrow,” which kicks off EP 3, is the best raging Panasonic track that act never made. Its roaring, ascending grind adds frantic urgency to its propulsive rhythm section. And that propulsion is really at the core of most of these tracks. A mix of industrial textures, up-tempo, chugging grooves, and the occasional biting commentary or soundbyte about commerce and media.

EP 4 carries that personality, with a deep thudding rhythm kit and chugging, stuttering fuzzy synths providing momentum. How refreshing it is to hear these guys making music that’s downright infectious without sacrificing any of their uniqueness or edge in the process. EP 5 comes full circle, starting with what I’d say is a rock n’ roll take on the disjointed electronic rhythms of one of their label cohorts, Grischa Lichtenberger, before throwing down some serious booty-inspiring electro. Both “Operate at Your Optimum” and “Sense and Simplicity” have an infectious physicality that would put it right at home in the center of any smart electro DJ set. Lean and mean, each of these tracks is smart and entirely danceable; perhaps some of my favorite stuff in the whole series, the intersection of mind and the dancefloor. “Make.Believe” ends the series with an undulating phrase of kicks and line noise before it fades away, like the tide going out.

It’s nice to hear these two artists collaborating with such exuberance; in stark contrast to the ethos of Raster-Noton, Diamond Version brings not only a playful spirit but a versatility for both the dancefloor or at-home listening that is refreshing. This collaborative project merges the talents in a way that not only plays to their strengths, but also with a tinge of dark satire. The five EPs are available as digital editions or individual 12″ plates. The Japanese label p*dis has already manufactured a limited edition 2xCD compilation collecting all of the EPs, but I’m sure a similar release will follow on Mute.

diamondversion.info | mute.com

Review by Matthew Mercer of Ear Influxion.

Chris Watson In St Cuthbert’s Time Touch Why do I keep returning to field recordings by Chris Watson? I suppose the answer is similar to the reason behind watching visually stunning BBC documentaries like Planet Earth and Blue Planet. And just as I chase the higher definition quality of those shows, so do I rely on this award-winning wildlife sound recordist to deliver the highest production quality archive of a particular sonic environment. In the case of his latest release on Touch, titled In St Cuthbert’s Time, there is an associated concept that plays a key role in this aural piece of captured time and place. Watson subtitles this four-track hour-long release as “The Sounds of Lindisfarne and the Gospels”. And before diving deeper, we shall allow Watson to explain: “Throughout human history artists have been influenced by their surroundings and the sounds of the landscape they inhabit. When Eadfrith, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, was writing and illustrating the Lindisfarne Gospels on that island during the late 7th C. and early 8th C. he would have been immersed in the sounds of Holy Island whilst he created this remarkable work. This production aims to reflect upon the daily and seasonal aspects of the evolving variety of ambient sounds that accompanied life and work during that period of exceptional thought and creativity.” On the surface of the record, there is nothing more than the sounds of wildlife, dominated by birds, insects, and occasional reptiles. The habitat’s weather adds a backdrop to each piece, making the sound cold, dark or humid. But dig further, and the meditative state of the album opens up, placing one into an exotic climate, exploring its depths and mysterious secrets. And when each phonic snapshot concludes, I realize that I’m back in my [head] space, warm, sterile and dry. And so I hit play again.		Jack Dangers Bathyscaphe Trieste Primary Numbers I absolutely love the mysteries of this record! When I first held the CD in my hand, the cover art of an X-rayed shell conveyed the inner riddles of nature with its golden ratio spirals. The back of the album features a photograph of a massive submarine in dark green waters of ocean, where light barely seeps. And then the name of the composer, Jack Dangers… now where have I heard that name before? It can’t be the same person behind the Meat Beat Manifesto project which I’ve known since the 90s, now can it? Why, yes indeed, it is the same ‘ol Dangers, who has been reserving the releases under his real name for deeper explorations in sound, featuring analog synths and tape manipulations, with records such as Forbidden Planet Explored (Important, 2004) and Music For Planetarium (Brainwashed, 2008). Ok, but I didn’t know that Dangers was also into deep-sea journeys, capturing the low rumbling howls of barely audible sounds in an isothermal environment. And here comes the last surprise of Bathyscaphe Trieste, named after a 1960 two-person free-diving self-propelled deep-sea submersible, which reached a record depth in the deepest known point of Earth’s seabed hydrosphere, called The Challenger Deep. The seven pieces on the record are not some captures via hydrophone at all! “Dangers’ composition honoring this journey is the product of years of work, featuring super slowed down tape manipulations of analog synthesizers (often 30x as slow), bounced from machine to machine to achieve the appropriate soundtrack for a vessel on an exploratory journey into uncharted depths under massive amounts of physical pressure.” Dangers successfully recreated the sounds at the bottom of our world, and while he certainly fooled me, he also delighted in the process!
Felix Gebhard Gone For Walks Tessellate While composing this Sound Bytes entry on field recordings, my friend and I discussed the concept of ‘art’, and more specifically bare captures of sounds in nature. He argued that placing a microphone in an open field should not be called art, while I contended that ‘art’ defines a message communicated between the producer and consumer of the sound, and if such message is received, the goal has been accomplished. “But what did the recordist do?” So I explained that just as producing the wildlife documentaries by positioning the eye (camera) at appropriate time and place, so can the ear (microphone) be considered artful. We finally agreed, that if there was some man made sound played over such field recordings, the piece would surely be considered music. Which brings me to this album. Gone For Walks is the result of Felix Gebhard‘s escape from the Berlin city life into the rural region of Germany’s Elbe River, near his mother’s village house. The four pieces, titled after the particular times during which the field recordings were captured, are accompanied by layers of improvised instrumentation. “Felix strived to visualize the landscape and region by focusing on small sonic and visual details along the way. There was never the intention to stereotype an urbanite’s view on agriculture and country living but somehow the record finds itself being just that.” The result is a perfect marriage between nature and music, a form of art on which my friend and I agree.		Bruce Gilbert and BAW Diluvial Touch With the basic material including field recordings from beaches in Suffolk and London (recorded by Naomi Siderfin, half of Beaconsfield ArtWorks), Diluvial originates from “local preoccupation with rising sea levels – a work that dwells on the dynamics of flood geology and global warming; creation stories and climate change”. The basic material may consist of field recording of natural sounds, but the synthesized sounds generated by Bruce Gilbert (founding member of art-punk band Wire and a pioneer of experimental noise) and David Crawforth (the other half of BAW) in response to those recording take it to a completely different electroacoustic level. The result is a 74-minute soundscape, divided into seven tracks “alluding to the mythical seven days of creation“, guided by the track titles “The Void“, “The Expanse“, “Dry Land“, “Lights“, “Creatures of Sea and Air“, “Beast of the Earth” and “Rest-Reflection” – the latter being the only one featuring traces of rhythm. Diluvial was originally created as a Soundtrap V performance for in 2011, but we can consider ourself very lucky that the specialised Touch label has decided to release this album separately. Field recordings and the fear of a devastating flood due to sea levels rising faster than expected have never been recorded and interpreted more hauntingly than this! For more from Gilbert, check out his 2009 release, Oblivio Agitatum, on Editions Mego, as well as In Esse (Mute, 1997) and Ab Ovo (Mute, 1996).

Review of Diluvial by Peter van Cooten of Ambient Blog.
All other reviews by HC.

Editor’s Note: I have conducted this Interview with the Fabulous (with a capital ‘F’) Billy Basinski over an email. In order to preserve his personality in full I have decided to publish it in unedited form. I hope you will enjoy as much as I did! ~HC

Hi Billy! Where are you these days, and what did you do this past weekend?

I’m in London at the moment, it’s beautiful here today. I’m going to Amsterdam for a week tomorrow to work with my darlings Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand and talk to my buddy Michael Baxter about orchestrating Disintegration Loops 3, then Geneva for La Batie Festival where we will screen Disintegration Loop 1.1 August 31 and The Geneva Chamber Orchestra will perform Maxim Moston’s gorgeous transcriptions of Disintegration Loops 1 and 2 under the baton of the talented young maestro, Ryan McAdams on Sept. 1. Then to Moscow for a Nocturnes concert on the 7th and back to LA on the 9th September. Last weekend I was with friends on the idyllic Sicilian volcanic isle of Pantelleria. We had an amazing, much needed vacation swimming in the beautiful Mediterranean. I feel revived. It is such a special place… indescribable! Jamie got some pictures I’m trying to get from him.

‘Nocturnes’ is another fantastic revisit of your past material. Talk about the decision and the process of its revival.

Thank you. Well, Nocturnes was an early formal tape loop experiment. There is a graphic score and I was layering the loops, multitracking on a cassette deck with tape over the erase head. I think there were about 12 loops made from prepared piano in my studio in San Francisco in 1979. In some of the loops I would start the recorder after the attack so I was experimenting around with that. Unfortunately, I got a little carried away at the end and put in a few loops I wished I hadn’t but there was no way to edit it since everything was overlayed on two tracks (stereo). so it took years until digital editing came along and I had time to get to it for me to be able to release it. she needed a little corrective plastic surgery. I finally got around to it last year and decided to pair it with the newer second track The Trail of Tears. For me it is a dark album… a passio, if you will. I love the way it resolves at the end. I’m hoping to release it on vinyl soon.

Tell us about “The Trail of Tears”. How did you meet Robert Wilson and how did this project for his opera come about?

The Trail of Tears was done with two loops and a reel of tape spooling between two tape decks. I think it was created live in a performance in Milan a couple of years ago. Basically, using a reel-to-reel tape delay the loops, which start out very distinct and dirge like, melt together into a drone. I then brought in a third loop at the end for the denoument/resolution. Bob Wilson is fantastic; an absolute genius at what he does and learning from him and working with him was a major highlight of my life. He is an absolute doll and has the most amazing stories that come out in rehearsals usually to enhance a point relating to his technique for the actors. I have hours of recording of rehearsals while we built the show over two years and seeing what he does is incredible. his light paintings are scrupulously detailed, incredibly nuanced and he can tell if a light in the syche is off by 1 degree! Bob loves artists and really nurtures young people and young artists. He lets you bring what you’ve got to the table and it’s like giving a kid crayons. he wants the full set! Antony called me in the spring of 2010 I think it was out of the blue with a small request. I said sure darling, anything, what do you need? He said, well, I’ve been asked by Marina Abramovic to score the new Robert Wilson opera about her life and I need you to help me. I think I dropped the phone I was so stunned. I said, YES! HELLO? really??? so, we worked things out with management and got the books and I began doing research on Marina and the Balkans, Serbian music etc. and came up with a whole box of crayons for Bob to hear when the time came. Antony in his innate brilliance put together the best small band to accompany him on his songs and fill out the color range. Antony and I are both pretty much on the purple blue range but the crazy boys from Matmos brought full red, orange, yellow and white hot in their arsenal so Bob was happy and so was I! ’cause I can’t do that shit. The other three outstanding musicians, Gael Ratocondrabe on piano, Doug Wieselman on reeds and shredding guitars and Oren Bloedow on Bass and acoustic guitar have all worked with Antony and the Johnsons and many other famous musicians. The back of the house sound design team are the most brilliant in the world and make it happen every night with loads of computers, wires, monitors, house sound, stage sound, headsets, musicians in the pit, musicians on stage, sound effects and electronic music cues that have to be spot on with the lighting and actors and really one has no idea just how easy everything could go down, but knock on wood… when it matters most these mofos bring it! failure is not an option. Sound designer Nick Sagar, sound design operator, Jon Clarence, and music supervisor, Dan Bora made everything sound sooo good. My boys! so good! then… there’s the amazing Svetlana Spajic Group. absolutely fantastic Serbian folk singing group. Svetlana is a musicologist and brilliant singer preserving the history of ancient Sebian folk songs from different regions. What Svetlana, Minja, Zorana and Dragana brought to the show is so beautiful, so powerful, so melancholy. and they are great actors as well, instantly falling into the very difficult Robert Wilson technique and bringing such grace to the show. My girls! Christopher Nell, the fantastic German actor and counter-tenor… brilliant… I could go on and on… really, thinking about this show is making me choke up. I love everyone in the cast and crew. we all became so close. and Marina! “Oh Lord”, as Bob says… she’s amazing! so loving and caring and precious and Fabulous… with a capital F. I thought she would be so formidable, I was kind of terrified to meet her. Antony wanted me to go to the MoMA show and sit with her but luckily by the time I got to NY it was the last week of the show and all of the sittings were booked. When I did finally meet her it was in Madrid three years ago September I guess where we all came together to sketch out the show in a rehearsal space there. Oh, Madrid in September! so gorgeous. so sexy. the light!!!! ohhhh. anyway, everyone was invited to an outdoor cafe near the palace to meet for drinks the first night we got there. I was sitting next to the beautiful Gael and we were chatting and talking with some of the cast members all of us just meeting for the first time. Marina sashayes in and made her way around the table saying hello and sat at the head of the table with the producers. A few minutes later she came swanning over to me and said in her fantastic Serbian accent and low voice, “I just ask Tracy, who is dat man dere and she tol me it vas you! Beely… Antony played me your music … I love it! i’m so excited. ve vill have fun!” We got her a chair and she sat down and proceeded to put us all in stitches with a stream of bawdy horribly un-PC jokes she collects from all over the world. none of which I can remember enough to repeat thank god! I’ll leave that to her. she’s a riot! To meet these amazing performing artists from all over the world to put a massive production of this kind together is such a rich experience. I had never done theater so this was all new to me. Bob builds his shows from beginning to end… like a drawing or painting. So we start with the prologue and move our way from scene to scene sketching it out. then fleshing it out and coloring it in… editing a bit at the end to make things really tight. there can be no lag time. behind the scenes are crazy costume and set changes that have to happen like clockwork. In my position as composer, since my work is electronic, I was the one person on the music team that sat in the house with Bob for every rehearsal so I got to see it grow from scratch into this fantastic triumph. I’m so proud of all of us and love the show and everyone in it. Antony came up with these amazing songs on the fly and boom! another piece was added to the puzzle. Bob would say, “that’s beautiful, Antony, thank you, just great” and he’d know just what to do with that crayon. And when you see Antony on stage singing well it’s just spellbinding. What presence! Watching Bob work with the actors was amazing and watching Willem DaFoe is seeing a master at work. He is off the charts. Bob would give him a blocking idea and he would just take it and fly with it. I learned so much from Willem. At one rehearsal shortly before the premiere in Manchester I think it was, it became apparent that the show was running too long, so the dramaturge decided to cut a big block of this very convoluted dialogue Willem spouts throughout the show and perhaps there were too many people coming at him at once but he got a little frustrated and explained very professionally that it was going to take him a moment to work the changes out as he has a score (just like an orchestral score) in his head that relates to the words. there’s a line for his left eyebrow, one for his right, left arm, left hand, right arm, right hand, pelvis, butt, legs, mouth, tongue etc, that he uses to cue his performance. I was so amazed when he said that. Of course! how else could he do that? and if you haven’t seen the piece, Willem is sort of the narrator and has massive quantities of ridiculous dialogue repeating and going backwards and forwards throughout the show so it takes a master to pull this off and Willem is a master! he just keeps getting better and better. I highly recommend everyone try to see this show at the Park Ave. Armory in December in NY if there are any tickets left. I can’t imagine what kind of pressure the sound design team is going to be under in that huge reverberant space but thank God that’s not my job! anyway… just go! google “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic Park Avenue Armory”

Can you take a moment to speak about your collaboration with Richard Chartier on “Aurora Liminalis”? I really enjoyed that piece!

It turned out really nice I think. We began working on it several years ago when Richard came to visit me in “the pink house” in Venice Beach. we tossed it back and forth a bit then I couldn’t hear it anymore and we both got caught up in other projects. Last year he tossed it back with the idea of releasing it and I heard it again and decided it was ok, so I said yeah…sounds good. I managed to come up with a title after a few false starts which I won’t mention and Jamie allowed us to use the beautiful picture of his light sculpture in Beijing for the cover art. I’m thrilled with the response as well. It’s on it’s second pressing so we’re all quite happy. Richard has recently moved to LA from Washington, D.C. and we are already working on something new. he recently tweeted an excerpt on Soundcloud. remind me to send you the link if you didn’t see that. I was in La for a few days last month and caught a show of Richard doing his “Pink Courtesy Phone” work. so good. he’s an amazing sound designer.

How was the reception of your amazing “The Disintegration Loops” boxset? What do you think about the progression of this sound from tapes, to CDs, and finally vinyl?

phenomenal… Jeremy Devine at Temporary Residence did such an amazing job on the artistry and the lovely people at Bellwether Manufacturing did it up flawlessly. I was stunned when I got mine. what joy! you have no idea… at first when Jeremy came to see me in LA to pitch the idea I was wondering about breaking up the tracks so as to fit on vinyl sides, but he reminded me that classical music was done that way for years, so I said, what the hell… go for it! he hit it out of the park. The response has been huge. I’m so happy. so busy this year. damn. touring all year though to Christmas. To have this work in such a classy massive boxset is a mind blower for me. I never thought I would see the day, so it’s really something! and getting a 10 on Pitchfork… whoa! when I got the google alert and saw it I looked at the number and thought oh, number 10 of the top ten… cool! Later that day when Shaun his manager told him about it, Antony called me screaming… “Billy, you got a 10 on Pitchfork!!! Do you know what that means??? NOBODY gets even in the nines! The Beatles complete catalogue boxset is the only thing to ever get a 10! Girl!” those guys have been so supportive! love ‘em!
Talk about your label, 2062. Where does the name come from and will it ever feature a release other than your own?

The name of James Elaine and my production company is Music and Media Laboratories & Unknown Industries, Inc. or MMLXII. it’s hard to say “emm emm ell ex eye eye” so I decided to name the record company 2062 which would be the Arabic numeral translation to MMLXII if it were a Roman numeral. I like the numbers together graphically as well. as far as releasing other people’s work, I get asked that all the time and I tell everyone, I’ve got my hands full with my own work, so for the time being no but down the road… who knows? we’ll see… It’s so much work to release an album and run a label. I only have time now to concentrate on mine.

I’m looking forward to your performance in New York. What could we expect from your live show?

I’m looking forward to resonating that gorgeous space at Issue Project Room again. I’ve got a beautiful new video by James Elaine to go with the Nocturnes show and a little something new/old for the end to ease everybody back. an accident that happened in the studio this year when I was having to compensate for a naughty new tape deck that got damaged in transit. thanks TSA. anyway, something cool came out of it when I was making new loops to play on the girl that decided she would only play on a speed faster than the required one. crack ho… she did it again a couple of weeks ago so she is out of commission for the time being. can’t have her throwing loops into the audience!

How has your relationship with music [and indeed its loops] change throughout the years?

I don’t know how to answer that one, darlin’. Listening to a new mixtape Jamie made for me called The El-Bow Room featuring alternating tracks of Elton John and David Bowie from the 70s… so fine! so divine! ciao bello, Billy

Read Headphone Commute review of Nocturnes

mmlxii.com

Saimon Saimonse is back once again for another mix on Headphone Commute Podcast. This time, he carefully picks his selections which span an hour long journey in just a few tracks. These slowly open up to reveal an inner beauty of each piece and unravel a sentimental journey – a journey on the road to home. Please enjoy responsibly and support the featured artists!

soundcloud.com/saimonse

[ S T R E A M ] | [ D O W N L O A D ] | [ P O D C A S T ] | [ i T U N E S ]

The last two years I have transported myself from the fluorescent lights of New York City to the nighttime seductions of Seattle’s charm. So when Decibel Festival announced its Ten Year Anniversary edition, you know I couldn’t miss this monumental event. On September 25 – 29, the seaport city of Washington, in the Pacific Northwest of USA, will light up for the tenth time with one of the largest programs in North America, spanning 5 full days and nights, with 130 confirmed artists from 20 countries, 26 club showcases, day-time boat and after-hour parties, educational conferences, film series, and a lot more! And I will be there to cover the festival as an official media partner once again!

Founded in 2003, Decibel has become a unique platform for exposing attendees to leading-edge multimedia art from around the globe. With a focus on live performance, interactive multimedia art, state-of-the-art sound and technology based education; Decibel has solidified itself as one of the premier electronic music festivals and promotional organizations in the world.

This year there are many exclusive label showcases, including Hyperdub Records with Kode9, DJ Rashad and Ikonika; Ghostly International with Shigeto, Lusine, Beacon and Dauwd; Erased Tapes with Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm (yes, performing on the same stage!); Kompakt with John Tejada, Matias Aguayo and Thomas Fehlmann; Sub Pop with Shabazz Palaces, The Helio Sequience, and Kingdom Crumbs; Hessle Audio with Ben UFO, Pearson Sound and Pangaea; and Timetable Records with Nosaj Thing, Lorn and Teebs just to name a few. There are also media sponsored showcases, like the one by Resident Advisor with Actress, Lapalux, Natasha Kmeto and Ghost Feet; XLR8R with Evian Christ, Vessel and Huerco S.; and Mixmag with Kyle Hall, Derrick Carter and Pezzner. Perhaps one day HC will sponsor one as well!

Of course I’ll be sure to grab a seat at all the Optical installments, this year showcasing many of my all-time favorite artists including Hauschka, Peter Broderick, and Oliveray (that’s Peter Broderick and Nils Frahm together!), the above mentioned performances by Arnalds and Frahm, plus Mivos Quartet, Pharmakon, Oren Ambarchi, The Sight Below and Raime! Whew! I think this year I will also get a ticket for the boat parties, since I’d love to catch Ben UFO, John Tejada, and Kyle Hall during the day (if I miss them at night). And maybe… just maybe… I’ll have energy this time to stay up for the after parties and party with Green Velvet, Jimmy Edgar, Max Cooper, and Speedy J among the many! And that’s not all! I’m also getting excited about performances by Nicolas Jaar, Ben Klock, Diamond Version (that’s Alva Noto and Byetone!!!), Gold Panda, Machinedrum (he always puts an amazing show!), Mount Kimbie, Blockhead, and of course The Orb!!!

As usual, I’m already drooling over the lineup, stressing out over the tough choices I would have to make, as many excellent events are happening at the same time! I think I got myself all out of breath just going through the roster again. If you think that I missed something, and must absolutely witness, be sure to drop me a note here and I’ll check it out! Although you know I won’t skip another Nils Frahm performance, this year I’m also going to attempt and experience many unknown to me names – something a festival like this is great for exposure! It is usually through these events that I discover a new artist while getting to know a long time favorite composer in the flesh.

For full lineup and tickets, be sure to point your clickers to dbfestival.com. Also, if you have any doubts about the experience, check out my past in-depth coverage of Decibel 2011 and Decibel 2012. Stay tuned for two exclusive Decibel Festival mixes on Headphone Commute: I’ve got one from Erased Tapes and another from Ghostly International! Really looking forward to those! And last, but not least, check out this Decibel 2013 Collection playlist created on Spotify just for you, compiling over 800 tracks of featured festival artists!

dbfestival.com

[editor's note: answers provided by Will Long and Rie Mitsutake as noted]

Hi Will, how are you? So where are you at the moment? Japan? How did you end up there?
Will: I’m doing fine. Right now I’m on a train to Niigata in Western Japan for a show, my next-to-last show with Christoph Heemann and Jim O’Rourke. I came to Japan in 2010 for a tour with Yui Onodera to promote and play shows for our album “Generic City”. I liked Japan so much, and since I was looking for a place to relocate to at the moment, I moved here on New Year’s Day 2011.

How did you and Rie meet, and more importantly decide to work together?
Will: Rie and I had been in contact over email before, because we have released on the PLOP and Spekk labels (owned by the same company), and we had contacted each other to trade music, and maybe make a collaboration together. When I came to Japan, we met in person for the first time. After I moved here, Rie and I started working on our music together.

Hi Rie, is this your first collaboration? What was it like working with Will on the music?
Rie: I’ve collaborated with some other artists before, but this was my first time to make a whole album with other artist. It was really fun to make music with Will. Our music style is very different, but we have lots of things in common, like we both love nature, enjoy simple life and appreciate small things in everyday life. We also have a similar sense of humor. We are both have open-minded, and have a flexible attitude toward making music. Our collaboration was really natural. Most of the time we were very relaxed, having fun and laughing lots. I think all those elements were expressed in the sound of this album.

How different would you say is this album from your solo works as Miko?
Rie: I think my approach to this album was very different from Miko’s album. In Miko’s music, I’m focusing more on composing and arranging. The arrangement is more detailed, and the sound is busy and colorful, putting lots of sounds, melodies and rhythms all together. But in Oh, Yoko’s music, I was trying to be more relaxed, release myself to be open and fit in with Will’s music. I was more focusing on playing instruments and singing, trying to see what I can add to the sound Will makes, rather than trying to do something complicated. Will was a great producer too and had many great ideas about the direction of each song and how I should sing. I think it worked out very well. I also think that using vintage synthesizers helped a lot to blend our music together. We were just playing around instruments and waiting to see what comes out. We were influenced a lot by the characteristic sounds of vintage instruments, the special effect of richness of sound, lingering echoes and reverberations. They definitely directed the flow of sound. It was my first time to make music this way and it was a really exiting and inspiring process.

Will, would you say that this was a slight departure for you and your sound as Celer?
Will: Oh, Yoko is definitely a departure from Celer, but I really tried to use many of the same production and mixing styles that I do for Celer, but just in a more pop-song centered style. Instead of using processing and effects to blend sounds together, I was instead mixing many acoustic and hardware electronics together in a more collage-based, tapestry-like way, similar to the way I do with Celer music. It was just with light treatment, and instead focusing more on the pure sounds from the instruments and voice, as opposed to the images and memories that the effects blend the music into.

And you’ll still work on Celer music, right? What do you have coming up in the pipeline?
Will: I do still have Celer releases coming out at the moment, and there are some planned for the next few months into next year as well. I haven’t been actively creating new material except for this current tour with Christoph Heemann and Jim O’Rourke (because I never play the same material at solo shows twice), but maybe sometime soon I will make new music. Right now I’m just trying to focus on the releases I’ve already finished and support them as they are released by the labels. Just a few days ago there was a release on CD of my album “Radish”, on the Japanese label Commune Disc. This has been in the works for a long time, but I’m glad that it is finally released, because I respect the label a lot and love the music they release. Unfortunately they don’t really distribute at all outside of Japan, so it is really more of a Japan-only album. Other things coming up is a film score I made a few years ago called “Voyeur” that will be released on LP from the German label Humming Conch, and an album on CD called “Climbing Formation” on the French label Entropy Records. There are still some releases planned for the Japanese label Spekk that have been in the works for almost four years, and next year will also see the release of an album on the French label Baskaru. Some of those things may change, but for the moment, that is where things are.

Every time I google “Oh, Yoko” I get a bunch of results with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. So where does the name of this project come from?
Will: I think both of us have different reasons for why we chose this name. When Rie and I started our collaboration, I had a job archiving old Beatles interviews and fan videos, and had the idea of mixing the audio with music. For the name, Yoko seemed like a cute name, something that could be related to Yoko Ono, but not necessarily directly related. I was born on the day John Lennon was shot, so that was also the inspiration for the sample in our song “Newsbreak” on the album.

Tell us about Normal Cookie. How was this label born, where does its name come from, and what would you say is its musical aesthetic?
Rie: The name came from a silly conversation we had when we were touring in Australia in 2011. I bought a bag of cookies for my night snack from a local supermarket. When I was eating it at the hotel Will asked me “What does it taste like?” and I answered “It’s a normal cookie”. I didn’t know why but Will was laughing because it was weird English. Anyway, we liked the phrase and decided to keep it for something for future, and we used it when we stared our label. Normal Cookie was born basically as our private label only for releasing Oh, Yoko’s music. When we finished our first single “Seashore”, we were not sure which label to send demo to. Also, we didn’t want to wait too long for labels to release it. Especially Will has had many problems with waiting for his releases. We thought we could do it by ourselves and just tried it out. It worked out pretty well with the “Seashore” single, so we decided to do it for our album too. I’m not sure about its musical aesthetic yet to be honest.. but we want to release more music other than Oh,Yoko in the future too. We also want to make the label more related to art. We want to release materials like movies, photo books, children books.. we have lots of plans.

What should we expect in the future from you, the label, and Oh, Yoko?
Rie: For my solo project Miko, the progress is very slow, but I am still working on the 3rd album. I am also working on another solo project called Soft Candy, a synthesizer only project, for which hopefully I can finish a mini album soon. For Oh, Yoko, since we’ve just released our first album, we are still working of promotion, doing other interviews and contacting etc,. We hope more people find us and listen to our music. We want to tour in Japan and other countries too.

Read Headphone Commute review of I Love You

normalcookie.com

[Editor's Note: I began this review in November of 2012, while I was on vacation in Costa Rica. When I returned, I was swallowed into the real world, with the Hurricane Sandy presenting one of the bigger challenges. The review just sat there, marinating in its words and sound. While listening to Billow Observatory for another round this morning, I finally decided to finish these thoughts and share them with you. And please remember - there is no such thing as "old" music. Music just is.]

I’ve been sitting on a beach for about four days now, thinking about these waves. How these waves have always been here, calmly licking at this beach, endlessly folding all over each other, even without my observation. How whether or not I was here, sitting on this beach and writing these words, their motion would go on without me. Similarly, in the depths of digitally stored data lies another enigma of sound. Somewhere, in the heap of binary numbers, another wave is waiting for my undivided perception. The music of Billow Observatory, which arguably could have been playing there all along. But unlike the tree that falls in a forest, or a wave that splashes on the beach, this particular act of aural transmission carries a message. It is a message of being, presence, and time. Even beyond all of the numbers and waves…

This debut self-titled release by Billow Observatory is a culmination of two well-known musicians, working on the material for over six years. The duo is comprised of Jonas Munk, whom you should already know as Manual and Jason Kolb, a guitarist from Auburn Lull. The two met in 2004 for a potential split EP. But it wasn’t until the 2007 Michigan show, when Munk and Kolb began exchanging ideas, and so Billow Observatory was born. The development of each piece was a slow and deliberate process, “one that required meticulous attention to detail and nuance.” The result is a polished album, with smooth curves, solvent shapes and luscious textures , that retains its quality and withstands the erosion of time.

“The basis for most of this material comes from guitars and effects devices but every bit has been processed and treated with software… the focus on my part has been on shaping each bit of sound to perfection, still maintaining the character of a guitar but turning it into something that doesn’t sound ‘played’. I think of a lot of this material as sounding as if it comes from surroundings rather than from hands touching instruments.” - Munk

Space conscious guitars glide in the vast space of consciousness. Minimalist elements approaching reductionist limits perfectly settle in the microscopic grooves carefully etched just for them. And then a vast cloud descends. A cloud of blank sound in a blanket of clouded mind. It lowers itself on the melody and swallows it whole, completely and dead. But in this cavernous carnivore consumption something else is born. It is a sound of a single gliding note that starts its life anew. And so the waves go on. “The music the duo have created is immersive and somehow timeless, evoking places and ambiences as exotic as some of those that give the songs their names.“

If it wasn’t particularly obvious from my choice of words, the music of Billow Observatory puts me in a solemn, meditative mood. A little dreamlike, calm, and barely conscious. There is a state of mind between the two worlds that this sound inhabits. The one where you may think that you are sleeping, and the one where you believe you are awake. In both cases the thought is unreal, while the music still exists. Billow Observatory allows you to introspectively dream into your wakefulness. Billow Observatory wants you to dream.

feltesounds.com

13 years ago, Mego label released Pure’s the.end.of.vinyl on a 3” CD. The release marked a shift in Pure’s sound from more dancefloor-oriented productions toward something more abstract and experimental. Ironically, the release was pressed on CD because it was the prevalent format at the time; the name describes the techniques used to create the music (working with vinyl run-out grooves as the primary source material). Now the CD format has waned to such an extent that it appears to be on its way out, while vinyl has continued to flourish as a format for avid music listeners.

No End of Vinyl organizes several formidable artists to revisit, rework, remix, and reinterpret Pure’s original recordings into new tracks. The approach varies from sculpted noisescapes to more beat-driven excursions, a range that is not only broad but also quite nice in terms of listening dynamic. To fully appreciate the process of the album, I recommend downloading the original the.end.of.vinyl, which is available as a free download from Crónica. It’s quite good on its own, but it’s also interesting to hear the source material that inspired this new collection.

Several artists opt to remain in the same highly abstract arena in which the source material existed, including the swirling, manipulated “Zeiundneunzig (für Pure)” by @c or the post-industrial, shimmering haze of “Miyamizu” contributed by Cindytalk. Elsewhere, a handful of contributors steer the material more in the direction of beats and hooks. Christoph De Babalon, someone from whom I haven’t heard new music in years, contributes my personal favorite, with a shimmering, hazy refrain and sputtering drum patterns. As a point of contrast, a close second favorite of mine is Pita’s surprisingly meditative “This & That Edit,” buzzing with beatless tension but oddly serene considering his tendency for noisier material. JSX and Goner each use Pure’s source material as a starting point for fairly dense, more industrial and rhythmically musical workouts, while Rashad Becker stands apart in manipulating the source material into the weirdo chorus of synthetic organism voices that characterize his recent solo album.

“the.end.of.vinyl” was one of the early releases on Mego, the Vienna-based label that in the end of the millennium showed us what the music of the future could be. In 1999 its title resonated with post-analog angst, recalling the transformation (maybe even the demise) of the music market and of the cultures that it had helped to breed. It announced and perhaps confirmed an end that is still latent.”

It’s a decidedly mixed bag of material, but the scope of styles and sounds within maintain a healthy balance between worlds of abstraction and accessibility. Fans of the original Pure work will no doubt find at least a few tracks that fall in line (different enough to be interesting but similar enough to feel of the same world) with several others that might broaden their horizons. The compilation is released on Crónica, a Portugal based label and is available on CD as well as digital download.

cronicaelectronica.org

Review by Matthew Mercer of Ear Influxion.

I briefly encountered the output of Primary Numbers, a mysterious new label “without a limited genre, style, or feel,” back in 2011, when Aidan Baker released his avant-garde and jazzy album, titled Still Life, as the imprints only second catalog entry. The seventh label release (presumably with PRIMA004-006 still in the works… five is a primary number, right?) was a fascinating album by Jack Dangers (the same Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto), and his analogue-synth slash tape-manipulation ode to Bathyscaphe Trieste. So we’re already spanning a few various genres here. Imagine my surprise when I put in a third catalog release by Robert Haigh, and the sounds of gorgeous modern classical piano streamed out of my hi-fi into the living room!

I took a double-take at the cover, but the riddles wouldn’t break. In the 80s, Haigh worked on Nurse With Wounds albums and released dark ambient albums as Sema on Le Rey. In the 90s Haigh has developed a new ‘ambient drum’n'bass’ style and created Omni Trio, and has released The Deepest Cut (Moving Shadow, 1995), which many still recognize as the very first jungle album. How was I supposed to know that under his real name, Haigh has already released a series of modern classical works: Notes and Crossings (2009), Anonymous Lights (2010), and Strange and Secret Things (2011), all on Japanese Siren Records.

“Darkling Streams is a collection of piano miniatures with occasional wisps of shimmering electronic texture. [...] The pieces are intimate, atmospheric, hauntingly melodic and introspective.”

It would be impossible not to liken Darkling Streams to music by many classical masters. Barely reverberated keys float through the minimalist chords to construct vapors of beauty, tranquility and lull. Subtle arpeggios, appearing in similar tonalities, sprinkle the album with patience and poise. There is even a waltz appearing as “Cage of Shadows,” dancing through the flowing curtains of my open space. On “Of Eros and Dust” we hear a first echo of a synth, reminiscent of minimalist works by Brian Eno, Harold Budd and Steve Reich. Walking keys across abstract and chromatic scales of course, remind me of Ryuichi Sakamoto, and there is an essence of the last breath by Erik Satie, Henryk Gorecky, and even John Cage.

As of this writing, Darkling Streams has remained on rotation throughout the weekend, and it doesn’t subside. If anything, the music brings a particular lightness to the external atmosphere, sounding very cinematic rather than new-agey. On the last piece of the album, “Rain for Avalon“, Haigh awakens a deep bass that adds thick layer of texture to the music, mixed with distant thunder and strings, leaving me somber and aching for more. There are sixteen tracks on this album and I’m having trouble picking out a favorite. Well done, Primary Numbers – I’ve got my ear on you now!

Read Headphone Commute Interview with Robert Haigh

primary-numbers.com

I definitely hear a lot of Erik Satie in your works. Are you a fan of the composer, and if so, how have his works influenced you as a musician?
Satie has a timeless quality to his music – and I think that there are specific reasons for this. His most timeless works are the ones in which notes, harmony and counterpoint are kept at their sparsest. The listener is not overloaded with a barrage of notes and layers of harmony – rather his music is suggestive of a tonal basis and just when we think we have it he introduces a little dissonance or a subtle shift in key that keeps the listener engaged. His interface between the tonal and the atonal is a great influence on my music.

What inspires you as a composer of solo piano pieces?
I like the fact that composing on the piano imposes a certain discipline from the start – it makes you an instant minimalist – you have a certain number of notes with this hand and a certain number with that – and off you go! And so, some choices are predetermined – but within that there is a wealth of possibility. Also, as mentioned earlier, I’m really interested in exploring this interface between the tonal and the atonal. I think that the piano is the perfect instrument for this.

How do you go about deciding which works will be released under your real name?
After Omni Trio I decided to just go back to using my own name. My first post Omni Trio album is credited to Robert Haigh and Silent Storm – but Silent Storm is also me. At that point I had the intention of keeping the alias Silent Storm for any projects that involved beats (as that album did.) But from now on I don’t really have any intentions to use aliases.

I understand that you’re a classically trained musician. Talk a bit about your musical background and how your journey has evolved.
No, I’ve never had any training – apart from a couple of guitar lessons at school when I was nine. I owned my first acoustic guitar at 13 and taught myself chords from books. I started writing songs with a friend at school and later followed him into a band. We were called Labyrinth and we played mostly our own material (Bowie and Roxy influenced stuff.) Around this time my older sister gave me her unwanted copy of Faust Tapes – and although I was a bit resistant to it at first, I grew to love it. It changed the way I listened to, and thought about music. From then on I was interested in the more alternative side of music – including some classical. In the late 70s I moved to London to go to art college and soon after formed the Truth Club.

Do you think you will ever return to drum’n'bass? – And while I’m still talking about dnb, what are your thoughts on the evolution of that genre?
Rogue Satellite was a conscious attempt at a really minimalist approach to drum and bass. And after that I wanted to take it even further – and not have to adhere at all to what were becoming drum and bass conventions. I wanted to experiment with time signatures and different approaches to composition. By the early noughties, in response to the rise and popularity of UK garage, drum and bass was on the offensive in order to stay relevant to mainstream club audiences – but this was at the expense of some of its innovative edge. I had a lot of material already written that just didn’t seem to fit in with where drum and bass was going – I felt it was the right time to pursue this fresh direction.

Tell us about the concept behind Darkling Streams. Is it intended to be a continuation of your earlier trilogy on Siren Records?
I like to come to each project with no intentions or expectations – in fact it doesn’t really become a project until it’s complete. I tend to compile material and then decide what to use and which pieces might work together etc. In the case of Darkling Streams I also had a few compositions that I was considering for a film project. So I think there is a wide range of material here from the more intimate fragile pieces to an almost cinematic approach. But I don’t think there is a major shift from the Siren releases.

Speaking of Siren Records, after releasing the three prior albums, how did you end up on Primary Numbers?
I’ve been in touch with Jon Whitney on and off over the years and he approached me to do something for his new label. I do have plans to work with Siren again.

Have you considered working on movie soundtracks?
Over the years I’ve been fortunate to have quite a bit of my stuff used as bedding music on TV – so soundtracks seems like an obvious area to move into. I have recently composed some pieces for a British film in the making – but the film is struggling to secure finance in these troubled times so we’ll have to see. It is a difficult area to get into – especially if you don’t move in those circles. But I’m definitely open to that possibility.

What about touring and performing your solo piano works?
I used to do quite a bit of live work in bands in the early days. And the Truth Club were primarily a live band. But as I get older I feel less and less drawn to performing. I don’t think it will ever happen but I won’t completely rule it out.

What are you working on right now?
Darkling Streams was completed in October of last year and since then I have been writing and compiling fresh material. I am in talks with a couple of labels and it is possible that something could surface by the end of next year. After that I have plans to take a break and focus on some other areas of my life. Also VOD Records are putting together a vinyl set of early Robert Haigh material (as a follow up to the SEMA box set.) This will include A Waltz In Plain C, Valentine Out Of Season and other material of that era. It will also include a lost studio session of previously unreleased piano improvisations – unearthed and sent to us by Andrew McKenzie (Hafler Trio.)

Be sure to read Headphone Commute review of Darkling Streams

The seventh and final installment in Sub Rosa’s massive series. I’ll admit that this is the only one to which I’ve given proper attention, but with three discs totaling nearly four hours in playback, in itself it is an undertaking in terms of curation as much as in listening. While no compilation can ever really be considered comprehensive, Sub Rosa does the loose genre ample justice, covering not only a broad span of time (the oldest piece from 1930 and the most recent in 2012) but also in aesthetics. Not surprisingly, the terms “noise” and “electronic music” rae fairly vague. After all, how many times has any one of us heard someone describe music they don’t like as “noise” when in fact it’s simply pop music? My only point there being that “noise” means a lot of different things to different people and is often in the ear of the beholder. These three discs encapsulate the fringes of musicality into noise territory by virtue of a lack of discernible melody, song structure, or even rhythm in many cases.

I find it utterly fascinating, especially immersing myself so fully into this world in which I used to spend much more frequent time as a listener 10 or 20 years ago. Rarely does the music veer fully into the full-on sonic assault of an artist like Merzbow, but it does flirt with some pretty abrasive sounds, whether from an instrument like the guitar or from more concrete sor electronic sources. A nice aspect of this set when comparing it to a more self-proclaimed authority or primer on electronic music, like the 3-disc OHM set that came out in the 90s, is that Sub Rosa have opted to keep many pieces in their entirety here, rather than resorting to chopping them into edits or excerpts for the pure sake of variety or brevity. So while there are some concise, shorter pieces here, there are just as many that go well beyond ten minutes each.

Disc 1 begins with some of the earliest pieces here and starts off feeling a bit overly academic. Henry Jacobs’ “Sonata For Loudspeakers” was recorded in 1954 and falls loosely in line with other sound library recordings of its time, complete with Jacobs himself narrating the process behind the music (comparable to other fairly recent retrospectives of contemporaries F.C. Judd and Daphne Oram). Other early pieces by Dziga Vertov, Bebe & Louis Barron, and Bulant Arel share a similar exploration of effects and tape manipulations, with a standout being Luciano Berio’s “Thema (Ornaggio a Joyce)” from 1958, with its bending, warped voices and swirling sounds that still sound fresh today. It’s an interesting curatorial choice to then switch gears into contemporary music for most of the rest of this first disc, all post-2000 pieces by the likes of Slawek Kwi & Siobhan McDonald, Benjamin Thigpen, Hermut Schäfer, Thanasias Karpoulias, and Saule.

Thigpen’s “Thread0” from 2011 starts off with a shrill, high series of tones but then evolves into a chirping, squirming creature, sounding not unlike an homage to David Tudor’s  heaving, breathing, electronic organisms of yore. Karpoulias’s “The Insolence of a Poppy” from 2011, presumably a vague reference to Terry Riley’s “Poppy Nogood,” is a personal favorite, a meditative series of drones that eventually shifts focus towad an almost irritating supersonic series of tones. Saule’s “Paperfilm” from 2002 is another highlight, built largely around looping phrases of sound layered upon one another with feedback and effects, bringing the noise but in a somewhat lulling way.

The second disc is much noisier than the first, although John Oswals’s “Vertical Time” is a nice introduction that transitions from the first disc’s explorations. Israël Quillet’s “Pour Percussions et Saturation” is just what it sounds like: percussion and noise, fully saturated with distortion, and at 2:24, it’s just the right balance of brevity and abrasion. Pieces by Dennis Wong and Alan Courtis push the limits of shrill, textural noise, while selections from Justin Broadrick (of Godflesh and Jesu), Fausto Romatelli, and Storm Bugs are comprised largely (if not entirely) of guitar recordings.  The most satisfying and engaging pieces on the second disc for me are from E.A.R., whose music I hadn’t heard in some time, and from Henry Cow, whose bizarre “From Trondheim” almost certainly laid the groundwork for just about anything Nurse With Wound created in the early 80s. It’s Cow’s piece that I find to be perhaps the crown jewel of the set.

The third disc is varied, including late 70s drum machine experimentation (Cabaret Voltaire’s very early “Chance Versus Causality”), full-on rhythmic assault (“Blockade Is Resistance” by the New Blockaders, 1983), shrill, dense noise (Gustavo Serpa’s “Astro Metal,” To Die’s “Jurang Nustapa”), and absolutely terrifying vocal screeching (Warong Rachapreecha’s “Shambles,” from 2012). As in the other two discs, I tend to find myself most enjoying the pieces that incorporate varied techniques and dynamics, often touching on noise without fully immersing in it. Mika Vainio offers up a reliably doom-laden piece, “Transformer in 7,” while Klangkrieg’s “Korpus I” is a fascinating collage of objects and sounds. Jamka’s “Wild Rose Trees” is a healthy slab of post-industrial clatter and texture, another one of my favorites here. The odd man out is Agro/Brandon Spivey + Richie Anderson’s “Only Those Who Attempt The Impossible Will Achieve The Absurd,” a ridiculous acid-gabber track from ‘95.

Of course, I haven’t heard the other editions in the series, and so it’s hard for me to have context for this final installment in that scheme. On its own, however, it’s an impressive body of work from a wide variety of artists, times, and locations. This is very far from easy listening, but those interested in the outer limits of musicality and what “noise” can be in its various permutations and variations will likely find this to be a treasure. Highly recommended. (For American readers, it’s a total steal on Amazon for $15 digitally.)

http://www.subrosa.net

Review by Matthew Mercer of Ear Influxion.

You’ve surely witnessed some coverage of techno on these pages. There are many a time when I delight in the 4/4 kick and its hypnotic derivatives. As a child of the 90s electronica, I grew up with the Surgeon, Jeff Mills, Adam Beyer, Chris Liebing and the likes. I am lately excited about the evolution of the genre and its fascinating permutations through works by Lucy, Vatican Shadow, Demdike Stare, Silent Servant, Raime, and Emptyset. Just thinking about those names again, gets me all excited about the upcoming Decibel Festival when I will finally experience the genre of prolonged dancing at deafening volumes. You should definitely check out the lineup (and yes, Speedy J is playing). But I digress…

One of the names I’m adding to my list of genre-bending producers is Moe Espinoza, founder of Droid Recordings, releasing under the alias Drumcell. There are more than a handful of 12″ EPs and split releases by this LA based classical trained musician, who, like yours truly, fell into the rave scene during its infancy. Getting deeper into the West Coast techno community Espinoza and the Raíz brothers founded the Droid Behavior collective, and produced many Interface warehouse events. Espinoza’s sound slowly build-on with his fascination of technology and analogue gear. He first appeared on CLR on a split with Brian Sanhaji in 2012, and this year, Sleep Complex debuts as his first full length release.

The thirteen-track album [including two bonus tracks on digital release] spans almost an hour and a half, yet there are plenty of gripping moves along the way that keep you guessing at what the next turn will deliver. With a heavy drum kick, Espinoza traverses broken rhythms, that although do not [always] land the deep bass on each fourth note, still retain that techno essence. This is a dark, harsh and semi-cold journey. I augment my temperature reading, because the sound is not as hollow and sterile as some German tracks may throw off, but rather a wide-encompassing glowing experience, tingling with aspects of fear, tremor and angst. There are hints of noise and industrial elements, no doubt because Espinoza spent some time playing guitar in the industrial bands, before the nocturnal techno snatched his careless soul.

“On the one hand “Sleep Complex” pays respect to the root-element of Techno, the raw, dirty and hypnotic vibe that goes back to early Detroit Techno, on the other hand it almost has some kind of a rock attitude, especially when it comes to the beats, making it stylistically independent and impossible to pigeon-hole.”

Although Espinoza is not revolutionizing the genre, he nevertheless cements its ongoing expansion by pushing it further, beyond the standard cut. Even when the bass kick falls into its throbbing rhythm, the space beneath the beat evolves into a complex monster, ruthless in its total dominance and intelligent in design. The album and track titles hint at dystopian environment, with something “Behind You“, “Empty” and “Mind“. Although I wish I would have discovered Drumcell earlier, I still have to thank the above mentioned Liebing for picking him up on his monumental CLR, which by the way, prior to 2010 used to stand for Chris Liebing Recordings, and now means Create Learn Realize. Well, let’s CLR on and on!

droidbehavior.com | clr.net

I still remember the day I bought my first pair of “audiophile-grade” headphones. They were a pair of Grado SR125 and I remember a whole month preceding the purchase, agonizing over the $100+ price-tag, convincing myself that this would be the next step in my ultimate sonic journey. I wasn’t wrong! I remember holding the ear cups closer while listening to the latest Lusine Icl‘s Language Barrier album and hearing new things for the first time. I remember running over to all of my friends and thrusting a pair over their heads exclaiming “Listen! Do you hear all those little sounds? It’s like you’re really there!” I clearly remember the sudden realization that I could have been possibly deaf up until this very moment, and then proceeding on a long and continuous path of re-listening to every single album again. It was a new era and my ears were open. And I’m still bravely marching on my new sonic path.

Years later [and a dozen of headphones later], I still have and treasure my very first pair of Grados, reserved for the most delicate of listening sessions. I now know the difference between the open- and closed-back headphones (see my earlier equipment reviews for a detailed explanation, as in this example of Audio-Technica ATH-AD900X), and actively select an appropriate pair for a particular sound, just like I pick the right glass for the next drink. Since then I’ve upgraded to Grado Prestige Series SR325is, which are a subject of this particular article, and I can’t wait to share my many thoughts with you! But first, a bit about the company…

Grado Labs manufactures dynamic open-air supra-aural high-fidelity headphones, phonograph cartridges, headphone and phono amps, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, USA. It was founded by Joseph Grado in 1953, and is considered to be one of the oldest family owned companies in the audio industry, holding 48 patents, including the invention of the stereo moving coil cartridge (for a turntable). Today, the company is operated by John Grado (Joseph’s nephew), leading the development of the Prestige Series of headphones, which, after more than 15 years of production, are still recognized by many audiophile publications around the world, with nearly annual category awards.

The SR325is is the top model in the Prestige Series line. The pair features a vented diaphragm, aluminum air chamber, and ultra-high purity long crystal (UHPLC) copper voice coil and connecting cord. This is a 32ohm pair, which can easily be driven by your portable device (although a nice headphone amp is always recommended). Because this an open-back pair, I personally recommend the SR325is for all of your favorite ambient, modern classical, vocal, piano and experimental pieces. As I write this review, I’m listening to Erased Tapes selections which boast some of my beloved compositions by Ólafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm and Peter Broderick. And you know that I’m in heaven…

The highs are crisp and a very bright, vividly retaining the texture and details of dynamics. The mids are warm and lively, with just the right amount of tonal balance. The bass is punchy and clean, without being too overwhelming. The piano sounds natural, detailed, and real to the touch, while all of a sudden I pick up on a distant breathing of a performer. I close my eyes, and suddenly the bells, the bows and drum sticks are in front of me, conveying more than sound, but ultimately their very existence through an aural archive of this sonic bliss. Soon I forget that I am listening, and slowly drift away into that special distant place. And that’s exactly where I want to stay. So why not thank a pair of Grados for that.

Besides the Prestige Series, Grado also manufactures the Statement and Reference Series which feature a hand-crafted mahogany air chamber. There is also the Professional Series with PS1000 being the “finest headphone Grado has ever produced.” But until I can afford this [most expensive] pair (currently marked at $1695), I’ll stick with the SR325is, which, as of this writing, are listed at $295 USD MSRP.

MSRP – $295 USD
gradolabs.com

Oh man, I’ve got good news all around! First of all, even if there wasn’t anything to celebrate, this mix from Heathered Pearls is absolutely superb! Almost two hours in length it navigates many favorite genres and artists represented by the Michigan based label, Ghostly International. Just look at this amazing tracklist! In 2009, Ghostly celebrated its 10 year anniversary as a label, with many shows across the globe. This year, the label is commemorating a decade of performances at Decibel Festival. The 10th Ghostly showcase at Decibel will feature live performances from Dauwd, Beacon, Lusine and Shigeto (Friday, September 27th at the Crocodile) and you know that I’ll be there all night!

Meanwhile, Jakub Alexander (that’s Heathered Pearls), a curator of the ISO50 blog and founder of Moodgadget Records, has just released a digital remix album, titled Loyal Reworks, featuring many great artists, including Sun Glitters, loscil, Markus Guentner and Lawrence. Alexander made this mix for us while on a tour, which he will finish up in Brooklyn’s Cameo Gallery on September 28th. Please enjoy responsibly and support the featured artists!

Cover art by Charles Bergquist

ghostly.com | dbfestival.com

[ S T R E A M ] | [ D O W N L O A D ] | [ P O D C A S T ] | [ i T U N E S ]

Matthew Cooper‘s beautiful music has been an inspiration and awe for many years now. Those who know him just by his real name may have come upon his original soundtrack for Some Days Are Better Than Others (2011). But it is his Eluvium moniker which is a more prominent project on the scene of modern classical, ambient, and shoegaze genres. In fact, his home label, Temporary Residence Limited has cemented his presence and relevance with an immense 7xLP box-set, titled Life Through Bombardment (2009), collecting nearly all prior releases, including Lambent Material (2003), An Accidental Memory In The Case Of Death (2004), Talk Amongst The Trees (2005), and Copia (2007)… that is until Nightmare Ending came out…

Right off the bat I was impressed by the fact that it was a double disc release! Where did Cooper find all the time to record this music? Yet although the album spans two CDs, a keen eye will observe that it still clocks at 84 minutes in length, so it’s not necessarily too overwhelming. The last Eluvium album, Similes (2010), surprised many fans [including yours truly] by featuring his very own voice on almost every track. A somewhat ambient-pop record, it was a bit “different” and slightly challenging to accept by many longtime followers. With Nightmare Ending, Cooper returns to the roots.

Conceived as a way of helping loosen his self-imposed ideals of perfection, Cooper labeled each Nightmare Ending track as either a “dream,” or an “imperfection” – a way of differentiating the philosophical concept of “dream vs. reality,” couched in the more tangible technical distinctions of “flawless vs. flawed.”

There are darker moments on the album, wrapped in a distorted guitar haze and a pounding industrial heartbeat. Scraping ambient textures swell up and absorb the frequency spectrum in a swoosh of torn memories, splattered with murmur, discord and drone. A train goes by. A wind blows. Crickets announce themselves to their mates. And then Cooper plays the piano. This is where time stands still. Somewhere on the edge of dream-like unconsciousness, where melodies create their own language between people unable to speak. There’s nothing to say. There is only music. And getting lost in Eluvium’s sound is right where I want to remain.

The story of this Nightmare Ending actually began years earlier and was originally intended to follow up Copia. Perhaps, when working on the album Cooper felt that he became a bit too formulaic in his output, and Similes was a way to experiment in a new direction. Well, I’m glad that he got that out of the way, and returned to complete this release with “renewed vigor“, because Nightmare Ending is the Eluvium I have come to love! The double-disk release is still only $12 USD, and is available directly from the label’s online shop. I’m sure a vinyl is in the works! This is a must for any Eluvium fan, or for those just beginning to explore the genre…

eluvium.net | temporaryresidence.com

Steve Hauschild S/H Editions Mego Fans of the drippy synth stylings of Cleveland act Emeralds will likely delight in the bounty of former Emeralds member Steve Hauschildt’s sprawling two-disc retrospective. Despite Hauschildt’s origins in the 00s Midwestern noise scene, his introspective synth pieces here owe much more to Terry Riley than Masami Akita. A whopping 37 tracks recorded between 2005 and 2012, S/H ranges in nature from what feel like sketches or impressions to more full-bodied pieces. Not only is there that sense of contrast, but the sound ranges from lush and beautiful (“Familiar Scene”) to more abstract or surreal excursions (“Flatbed Scanner,” “Rapt for Liquid Minister”). In most cases, though, Hauschildt crafts a chiaroscuro landscape of sound, soft-focused but impressionistic. Whether the earlier, more droning fog of “Passing Cars” or the more recent onomatopoeia of “Galloping,” this is music that manages to get under my skin. I made the mistake of initially writing off much of S/H as simple sketches or experiments, but this is music that lingers much like its trails of delay sometimes peppered within. The three-part “Liberty” suite is especially handsome, particularly the gorgeous arpeggios of the second act. “By Buildings” is also gorgeous, a healthy contrast to the grittier sputter of a piece like “Flyswatter.” His more recent material (showcased on the first disc) is my personal favorite, although the set combined really demonstrate his versatility as well as his growth as an artist.		Ensemble Skalectrik Trainwrekz Editions Mego Nick Edwards has built a substantial repertoire in the last several years, much of which has revolved around his Ekoplekz project. But listening to more recent Ekoplekz efforts, it’s clear that Edwards is veering further and further away from the dancefloor into something more experimental and nightmarish. I liken the sound of Trainwrekz to the heaving, breathing, sighing electronic organisms of David Tudor, with unusual sounds squawking, chirping, and decaying in tandem, with a dash of the on-the-fly turntablism of Christian Marclay. For this album, Edwards used a stack of old vinyl (mostly sound effects and library sounds, according to Editions Mego) and played with them through a series of effects and manipulations in real-time. The result is disorienting, swirling sound, quite unlike the other stuff I’ve heard from him. It’s not surprising that these tracks channel some of the spirit of early industrial and noise artists; this is the project that recorded a lengthy homage to Maurizio Bianchi for its maiden voyage last year. While Trainwrekz is hardly easy listening, there’s something mesmerizing about its cycling, decaying phrases and patterns. Fans of vintage tape music and looping improvisations will likely enjoy getting lost in Edwards’ unusual world, getting pushed and pulled in any and every direction by his toolkit. It’s exciting to hear him step so far from dance music; indeed, Trainwrekz suggests that the outer limits may be home for Nick Edwards.
Chris Abrahams Memory Night Room40 Chris Abrahams works more conventionally as the pianist for the Necks, but his solo music is far more interesting to me. Memory Night is something altogether different than its predecessor, Play Scar. Somehow it feels more visceral to me — whether you like it or not, this music is likely to evoke a strong response. It’s divided into four pieces, with a faint hum and texture leading off the first half of “Leafer.” The track progresses with a crescendo of feedback before it tumbles into a shifty cacophony of metallic surface scrapes, like someone wrestling with air ducts progressively more wildly as it proceeds. “Bone and Team” is a different kind of texture, a tiny racket of piano tickling, clanging triangles, and other sounds I can’t quite identify. Is that a disembodied guitar? Strange stuff; this music gets under my skin. There are slight references to some of the more overt musicality of Play Scar, but none of the obviousness. When the second cut ends with a prolonged organ drone, it’s not at all like the elegaic poise of his last one. “Strange Bright Fact” seems like onomatopoeia, a swirl of both high and low end textures and sounds, zipping across the stereo spectrum from left to right and back again. When Abrahams’ piano comes through bright and clear, it’s startling but somewhat of a relief, something familiar to hold onto. But it’s fleeting; the remainder of the piece sounds like a chorus of bats screeching. (Somehow it all works!) “Stabilised Ruin” feels like a deconstruction of that piano and other ideas explored on the first few cuts, but nothing is obvious. Abrahams has a knack for manipulating sound and moving it far from its source into something otherworldly, and these four pieces are no exception. Memory Night could not be further from easy listening, but those interested in the outer limits of improvisation and sound tinkering will find delight in its strange world.		Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek Do You Know Otahiti? Faitiche Jan Jelinek, the keen mind behind projects such as the Exposures, Farben, Gramm, and a plethora of releases under his own name, collaborates here with Masayoshi Fujita (El Fog) on two tracks before contributing two more on his own. The two live pieces with Fujita are organized around manipulated vibraphone recordings, often looping through repetitive, unusual patterns of filtered sound (almost like water percussion) while other sounds both electronic and organic are sprinkled overhead. The first goes down smooth with an esoteric jazz tinge, but the second is my favorite in its wandering patterns, looping in on itself with expansive curiosity. By comparison, Jelinek’s solo pieces are more distilled, lacking the organic immediacy of Fujita’s playing. The title track happens in two acts, the first being more of a vocal sound collage (using German-language clips that I don’t understand) and then transitioning into a more musical second half (also built around vocal fragments). It’s only in “Toton” that Jelinek introduces more of an electronic pulse, borrowing a bit from the clicks & cuts of his repertoire and fusing them with his obvious love of early computer music and sound libraries. It gallops at a leisurely pace with blips and bloops that suggest dancing without ever overtly referencing techno. This is the third in a series of four Faitiche releases that will be compiled into a collection; it’s my only listen of the series, but it intrigues me enough to dig deeper. Fans of Jelinek’s repertoire will no doubt enjoy this material, skirting the line between something as low-key as his loop-finding-jazz-records and hinting at his more active work as Farben. It’s cool to hear the collaborative angle coming through so nicely on the first two cuts, something that sets these apart from the rest. The final installment and compilation was released on Faitiche in September.

Reviews by Matthew Mercer of Ear Influxion.
Republished on Headphone Commute with permission of the author.

As Senking, Jens Massel has been plumbing the depths of dark electronic music for 15 years now. Capsize Recovery continues along those lines, another almost entirely instrumental album (save for a few vocal samples and fragments) that is as informed by the general Raster-Noton digital aesthetic as it is by the annals of industrial music and more current dubstep, halfbeat, and bass music trends. What I find most appealing about the album is that Massel is unafraid to juxtapose contrasting light and dark elements freely. He did this intermittently on 2010’s Pong, but here I find it a more fully symbiotic relationship.

The delicately assertive lead of “Tiefenstop,” for instance, is a really delightful counterpoint to the snarlier low-end of its arrangements, with tiny snares that lend it a militaristic flare. Often times human voices appear either in little samples or sometimes even whispers. On opener “Chainsawfish” it reminds me of the weird context-less samples of Skinny Puppy’s “Stairs & Flowers,” but otherwise instrumental and more understated. Even in its title, “Shading” denotes the grey area between light and dark, with its woozy, swirling low-end synths complemented by an airy, light lead just below the surface. “Nightbeach” is a perfect name as a track, with all of the darkness and rippling moonlight it suggests. It’s not all doom and gloom, but rather cool and dark with a glimmer of light to illuminate things now and then.

Only on the last track does Massel flirt with something more overtly uptempo. “Enduro Bones” moves at a good clip with an industrial chug that is eventually reinforced by a bulbous kick, skittering snare fills, and syncopated hihats. It’s an odd choice for a closer, leaving me wondering if the album wouldn’t have benefited from a bit of tempo variety sprinkled throughout its playlist, but this is a minor complaint; it actually works well as an active final piece, sort of the culmination of all of the darkness that preceded it with added momentum.

To be fair, Capsize Recovery will probably surprise any experienced fans very little in its continued explorations of the murky waters that characterize most of Senking’s discography so far. However, in its flirtations with bass music trends and its intriguing contrast between light and dark, it’s more than merely another reliable entry in his repertoire and one worth a more thoughtful and thorough listen. Recommended for all fans of Raster-Noton roster, especially Frank Bretschneider, Byetone, Kanding Ray, and Robert Lippok. Be sure to also check out Pong, which was featured on Headphone Commute’s Best of 2010.

raster-noton.net

Review by Matthew Mercer of Ear Influxion.

Why do you think music has kept you hooked for so long?
Because it’s my life. I’m not an artist as such. I meet celebrities and to them, it’s a job. But to me, making music is like eating or breathing. It’s a totally natural thing for me. I did a bit of acting and I could have taken it further, I had an agent at one time. But I didn’t feel like doing it forever. Music is a constant with me. I met a kid who was in a coma for ten days and his mother and father played my music to him. And he got well again. Or, where I live in Paris, there’s a couple who have a kid. They came up to me and told me: This kid was made to your music. And they’re not the only ones. To me, that’s what music’s about. If I can help someone, that’s what I’m here to do… I don’t understand how that works. But if it does help, I should be doing it.

Are there things you can only express through music?
For one thing, I can’t help anybody through acting. If I’d become a successful actor, I don’t think anybody would come up to me and say: I’ve had big depressions and then watching your movies made me feel better. I’m not money-orientated and I don’t care about fame, so why would you bother doing it? You have to have a reason to do anything. Everybody says I’m dark, but I’m quite sensitive towards people’s feelings. And I’ve been very lucky to be able to do music, travel around the world… It’s a gift and I think you have to give back. You can’t just keep taking.

Before you met the guys of Massive Attack, though, you were a listener, not a creator, correct?
I was a total listener. Always had the headphones on, listening to the same thing over and over again. And then hip-hop came. I’d already started writing before hip-hop, but I didn’t know what to do with it, I just had words. I wasn’t a singer, I wasn’t a rapper. So I did kind of what you’d call poetry. And I used to love lyrics and I’ve always loved words. And then through rap and joining the Wild Bunch, I became a doer.

What made you realize you could make music yourself?
It was actually a guy called Milo, he left Massive Attack ages ago, cos he didn’t agree with signing a major record deal. And he used to encourage me. He would tell me: ‘I’m DJing, come down and put some lyrics down’. And he wanted me on the mic. So through him wanting me on the mic, out of all the people he could have asked in Bristol, I realized I must have something, because he was a purist. One time, we did this thing in someone’s house, him on the turntables and me on the mic and we did this cassette. And it went all around Bristol. Not through it being sold, but people passing it and passing it. And then I know I could do this.

Did you, already at the time, feel that Massive Attack were taking it too seriously?
Yeah … 3D has a good heart and he’s not a malicious man. But he tries to get intellectual about stuff … For me, you give me a drummer, a guitarist and a bass player and I get up there and rock that fucking stage. Fuck all your LED light, the pretentious slogans you put on, your so-called anti-popstar attitude … You ARE a fucking pop-star. I don’t need your visuals, your statements. I’ll perform and make the statement myself.

You don’t like to over-analyze your music, do you?
No, because I can’t. I don’t own this. I’ve been told I’m a genius, but I can’t be, because I don’t know what I’m doing. When artists say they make music, that’s wrong. No, music makes an artist. Everything I’ve ever gotten in life comes from music. Music made me. I don’t get writer’s block or anything. Because I realize I don’t control it, it comes and goes when it wants. And I don’t need to write with anyone to be inspired.

When you’ve finished a track, are you still as excited by it as you were in your early days?
Absolutely. Once I’ve finished it, I’ll listen to it and when I get the vibe, I stop listening to it. I’m not obsessed with my own music.

Does it feel as though a different person wrote it after a while?
Yes, I’ll sit down and wonder how did that happen? Where did that come from? I love making it, doing it. Not knowing what something will become. You start off with just a little sound and then it grows. I still find that fascinating. And I love the part where you write the vocals, then put them down – or the girls put them down – and you first hear them and it’s no longer the same thing. It’s like a present, it’s like Christmas. I still love someone else singing my lyrics, it takes your words somewhere else, it give them a different life. Music, for me, is meditation. Some people might do yoga or ski. When I make music, I don’t have a stress. We all have our everyday problems, maybe we might wake up in a bad mood or we’re too busy. When I’m doing music, I don’t have problems, I’m not hungry, I’m not cold. And when I’m on stage, I’m asexual. I don’t need water, I don’t need sex, I don’t need food … It’s the closest you can come to being god – and I don’t mean god as this divine being. Everything is simply perfect.

Do you think knowing too much about production can be a problem?
I think it’s the worst thing you can do. This finger here (raises his pinkie) does my music. I’ll get a sound (makes an ‘eeeh’ sound with his voice) or a bassline (knocks on the table) … If you get taught music, you’ll have rules. If I have rules, I can’t make mistakes. Either I make something I like or something I don’t like. But it’s never right or wrong. I had someone tell me one of my first songs had two blues notes next to each other, it’s not musically correct. And that’s the song that got me my record deal. If you get the equipment, learn it yourself, work it yourself, but don’t go to school for it.

Underneath all the technology, you really believe in the art of songwriting, don’t you?
You know what? You could be involved in new music, but that’s got to evolve. There are some talented drum n bass artists, but none of them can write songs. You can have all the technology in the world, but at the end of the day, it comes down to old-fashioned songwriting.

What do you look for in a song?
Take Curt Cobain. He can make you feel the same with an acoustic guitar as with a full band. He’s someone who can touch your soul without anything. Like Billy Holliday. In those days, the entire band would be behind one mic. That just couldn’t fucking happen today. It would sound shit, even with all the technology. I like honesty in music and purity. Because it touches me.

Just like mistakes touch you.
In my music, if I see a mistake, I’ll keep it. Because you can’t write that, you can’t create it with technology, it’s magic which happens by itself. We’re not perfect as people, so I don’t understand perfect music. Like 3D, he’s obsessed with perfection. And that’s why a lot of their music doesn’t do anything to me. Again, take Curt Cobain. Sometimes, you’ll hear him sing and it may seem like he’s going the wrong way and you think: Oh dear! Or I’ve seen Lee Scratch Perry play this mad musical instrument and a couple of sounds were like ‘oh please, don’t embarrass yourself’. But all of a sudden, it’s fucking beautiful. Because it’s not perfect.

It’s a trapeze act.
Exactly. Life is up and down. I sent my daughter this remix I did the other day and asked her what she thought. And she said, why don’t you change the beat? Things like that keep your feet on the ground. And then I have a decision to make, do I listen to my daughter or do I keep it anyway?

So what did you do?
I kept it anyway.

What did your daughter say?
She told me I was lazy.

trickysite.com

Interview by Tobias Fischer, the editor-in-chief of the tokafi webzine on experimental and contemporary music and the publisher of 15 Questions.