Artists With Blogs #2: Jez Riley French

Passionate new music listeners have probably heard Jez Riley French's recent album Audible Silence. Beyond that, he is a passionate sound artist (working with various types of field recordings, drones, E-Ambient-I etc). I discovered his blogs while looking for reviews for Annea Lockwood's album; his got quoted, and there's more of that on his blogs. It's lovely that he takes the time to write about the music he likes, the music that inspires him; to document his residencies, to talk about equipment and recording status etc. He runs SIX blogs in total, I'll just list his main one and the one where most of the reviews are (Vanessa Rossetto, a conversation with Brandon LaBelle, mentions of Andrea Neumann etc are on the first page)

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Artists With Blogs #1: Leyland Kirby/The Caretaker

I've decided to post this in the wake of the soon-to-be monumental release by Leyland Kirby, whom you probably already know as The Caretaker or V/Vm. A three-vinyl set that has been already highly praised by the Wire, Sadly, The Future is No Longer What it Was marks a new direction in Kirby's career, this time dedicating himself to various cross-releases: you can download a new long track of his from the Wire website, there's another EP with the LDWR project, etc. History Always Favours the Winners is the place where he documents these activities.

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Listening Log #3: 09/28/09 - 10/04/09

Here are the other good things I first heard this week that didn't get a mention on BCUW so far:

1. Ted Reichman - avant-klezmer, some of the most unique stuff on Tzadik's Radical Jewish series.

2. Markku Peltola - Finnish actor you've seen in some of Aki Kaurismäki's films. He died on the last day of 2007, but has two albums attached to his name, both with references to Buster Keaton(?) and an often dizzying all-encompassing removed-from-the-scene avant-folk approach.

3. Kazumi Trio - Japanese super-group of sorts. Lovely guitar-based music (yeah, I know), with a pretty hypnotic 2009 release on Majikick. The membership, as well as the music, brings Tenniscoats, LSD-March and Fushitsusha together, which are definitely three different sides of current Japanese music.

4. Smile Down Upon Us - wonderful pop, again from Japan. I'll try to post this when I manage to piece together an avant-pop series.

5. Bill Orcutt - Harry Pussy founder has a new album out.

6. A Sunny Day in Glasgow - worth a mention. They are my favourtie shoegaze/dream pop band working today, and their second album is not a letdown.

7. Beñat Achiary - the most unique vocal improviser around? The most articulate, perhaps. Has a perfect album with Michel Doneda, among others.

8. Christine Sehnaoui / Michel Waisvisz - their release together has to be one of the best electronic-oriented EAI albums ever. Shortwave, it's called.

9. The Pneumatic Consort - wind instruments-based Xenis Emputae Travelling Band side-project.

10. Yuko Ikoma - wonderfully sincere music. Erik Satie played on musicboxes etc, small, intimate stuff. One of the greatest gifts this autumn has given me so far.

11. Davenport - do not ignore them in the wake of Second Family Band. They are better. NNCK/Dreamcolour/Jooklo/BOTOS fans take heed.

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Folk Workshop #1: Uton & Valerio Cosi - Käärmeenkääntöpiiri (Fire Museum, 2007)

Placing this album in a folkloric context was a tough decision. Interestingly, Uton and Valerio Cosi specialize in two highly distinct brands of personal and solitary free jams. Uton relies more on the freedom of the sound, on the ambiance, the seemingly telepathic tendency of certain instruments to work together nicely, while Valerio Cosi brings the ecstatic groove and the psychedelic atmosphere into free jazz. Bring the two together and you're bound to get a melange of every folk, psych, kraut, drone and jazz texture ever imagined. I've decided to include this here rather than in the "Different Free Jazz" section, because free jazz has a few restrictions this album doesn't adhere to. I like how the two play together at points, then feeling free to respectively make a track their own (see the last track that, from a gurgly cello(?) drone song suddenly becomes a tribal psych jazz assult a la Dreamcolour or the Jooklo collective). Speaking of assults, in spite of what may be expected, this record is not oversaturated with sound: there are beautiful moments of silence and cohesion. Lovely.

DOWNLOAD & BUY

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Dubious Tries #1: Yuri Suzuki's Musical Kettle

You laughed, you failed.

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Extras #2: An Interview with David Colohan of Agitated Radio Pilot/United Bible Studies

In the previous post I tried to explain what I like United Bible Studies. Weirdly, I think I missed the most important point: I don't like everything they do; not all of their songs tickle my fancy, not every moment seems perfect to me. What I do like about them is the fact that they aren't exclusive to their thing. They might be entirely immersed in the music and style they tackle, but they never stop at that. It's not about combining different approaches (would that be anything much, considering pretty much everyone does this now?), it's about how they aren't afraid to interweave their opinions and to use different formulas for puzzling up different moments from different genres from the history of music. It's about adding elements that their usually prospected fan wouldn't explore.

So I've come across an interview with David Colohan, aka Agitated Radio Pilot, aka a large part of United Bible Studies, where he does the same thing. He isn't ashamed to talk about his beginnings as a listener, with mentions of "traditional" metal bands or how he listened to Daniel Johnston, the lo-fi likes of The Mountain Goats or riot grrrl and had the desire to form his own band. This is what's great about Daniel Johnston, actually. People usually think those start who by listening to him will end up spawning Daniel Johnston imitations, but that's not always the case today. If we're talking about someone roughly my age (let's say 17-25), even if you listen to "intellectual" music today and can only find inspiration in the latest Creative Sources release when you're sober and the latest 905 Tapes otherwise, you probably started that way when it comes to "older" music. Pre-"basement junk" lo-fi, grunge-era personal acts, "real" punk, "commercial" electronic music (and countless others, of course, with varying degrees of variation).

Here is the interview.

"Ireland is a small country by any standard, but it has a wealth of variety in its landscape. Where I am from in the Irish midlands is mainly flat plains and bogs interspersed with forests and lakes. It can be a very haunting landscape and it has influenced my music in ways that appear again and again - In Goldsmith Country & Like Flightless Birds there are attempts to come to grips with it. The edges are blurred. Maybe it is the ever-present rain! When I lived in Australia I travelled quite a lot, living in a tent mostly. This way I could come and go as I pleased, working on farms and going camping in some truly magnificent places. From the rainforests and crocodile infested rivers of Cape York to the unforgiving expanses of the central deserts... The rolling farmland of New South Wales and the ancient Blue Mountains... The haunting emptiness of the Nullarbor Plain to the heartbreaking vistas of the Ocean Road... It is an astonishingly beautiful country."

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Recent Darker Folk #7: United Bible Studies - The Jonah (Camera Obscura, 2009)

I promised this series would go off with a bang, so here it is. Unlike the other six related posts, The Jonah has become a personal favourite in that sense of the word ("one of the year's best"), and it's still growing. It's no secret that I love a musical collective, and United Bible Studies is just that: a group project for the Deserted Village musicians (of which Agitated Radio Pilot/David Colohan, also the mastermind here, of course, is the most familiar name). Well, this album does sound like a group affair for sure, quite unlike many of their other releases (the Huntly Town EP, for example, sounds like the most personal and poignant little pastoral-desolate account of many hunted villages; villages hunted by memories, of course).

When the second track starts and continually adds layers of custom-tuned plucked string instruments, then bowed strings, then very organic-sounding percussion, then a harmonica, then synthetic ambiance, then dual male-female vocals stating "We sleep in the skeletons of large animals / we rise with our backs to the sun / we live in the shadows of waterfalls" you know this is an elaborate, complete record. The rule of thumb is: never quote lyrics in reviews. It only makes them seem shallow, but it doesn't take away from this particular album, as every element included is a tribute and, at the same time, an attempt to recollect past musical ideas that didn't get enough exploration. The said second track is the centerpiece of the record and, at 16 minutes in length, it manages to jump seamlessly from shimmering and haunted folk to a Yo La Tengo-sounding section and then to a black metal sort-of pastiche. The entire thing somehow sounds like a chance encounter with a long lost companion and the feeling is augmented by the temporary and brief contributions of musicians like Sharron Kraus (she's everywhere, and that's excellent!), Richard Skelton (A Broken Consort etc) and even Alison O'Donnell of Mellow Candle, Ivan Pawle of Dr. Strangely Strange and Richard Moult of Current 93 fame.

That's why one shouldn't mind the infusion of contemporary elements and knowingly-cheesy synth sounds. They have been seen improvising with up to twelve members in their live shows or play straight traditional folk as a trio. "Anything" is good for them, but never "anyhow". Their philosophy is that all paths are equal, all approaches are relevant, just like mine, and members have sometimes met on stage for the first time. I love that approach and chance should be explored more widely in art (despite having it around for over 100 years, I think we haven't seen enough of it). The album title is a reference to the James Herbert novel where a "Jonah" is a person who brings bad luck everywhere, but this album is about avoiding that bad luck.

BUY

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Immense Albums #2: Annea Lockwood - A Sound Map of the Danube (Lovely Music, 2008)

I have to say it from the very beginning: I doubt that most people will appreciate this album. If you were born/you live in a country/place which is graced by the Danube, you will probably understand. If not, think of your river - be it the Thames, the Seine, or whatever. This is why I knew A Sound Map of the Danube would appeal to me on a personal and affective level from the first moment I heard about it. A few more things that have to be said: this is a huge album, at almost three hours in length. Its nature does not really imply that you could listen to it intermittently, but I do recommend it. There are thirteen tracks which feature nothing more and nothing less than sounds of the Danube AND interviews with various people who live somewhere close to the river and who know a few things about it and its history. It's both sad and intriguing that these interviews are all presented in original aka in each interviewee's native language (two of them, the ones on the 11th and 13th tracks, I think, are in Romanian) - I can't understand 11 of them. I wish I could. However, this issue isn't left unresolved - the booklet does include translations; I couldn't find it on the internet, though. Some might say the interviews distract, but I think they are crucial to the journey as a whole. They remind that objectivity can only be reached through the juxtaposition of several parallel accounts/perceptions; they also prove that this isn't just a background ambient album. Aside from that, this is three hours of water sounds. But think about it - someone might record something similar in fifty years from now. The places will be different, the river will be different, the sounds will be different. Imagine this record and the imaginary future version played in parallel, giving the listener the opportunity to observe the differences. It is a sound map, after all. It doesn't want to be more. It's just a sound equivalent to an objective documentary. Do not dismiss it.

More words, for a parallel perspective:

Jez Riley French says, "I have read a few comments about this release from Annea that seem to forget that it must be listened to as being her work & appraised as such. I could of course listen to this 3 CD set and quite easily comment on areas of this vast river that Annea hasn't explored, methods she has avoided. I could ponder on what another artist with a different approach might have produced and I can think about the sounds of rivers that I enjoy capturing myself. However, this release is, simply, the set that Annea wanted to release and all that matters for the listener is whether it offers something to them. It does of course, but only if one allows it to be what it is. It is a sound map, as the title says. Listening to it in one sitting gradually gives one the sense of a journey, of Annea taking these trips and wanting to express that experience. Personally, I find the interviews (in sound at least) distracting at times. I would have liked to be able to choose to skip these but as they are embedded in the soundscapes that isn't possible. However, that is my own wish to listen to the 'music' of the river on its own but Annea clearly wanted to produce a document that had other elements."

DOWNLOAD: PART 1 / PART 2 & BUY

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The Instrument #2: Birgit Ulher - Radio Silence No More (Olof Bright, 2009)

For Birgit Ulher's wonderful idea and for the fact that the right person had it at the right time, in the right place (this would by no means work with, say, a piano instead of a trumpet), I can't praise this release enough. Ulher, the oft-called bleak trumpet improviser, carves out an even bleaker album. Okay, the premise is rather technical, but I can attest that the playing and construction are personal and definitive. Try making this album again, whoever you are. You will fail.

Here's the deal: the only two instruments present on Radio Silence No More are the trumpet and, how do you call it, radio noise/hiss. They are both given solo time, but the most relevant moments are when they are played together. Then, Ulher manages to make her trumpet sound precisely like radio noise. The two sound sources become indistinguishable at points and, when that happens, Ulher can pretty much be called successful in her approach.

There's not much other information on this album online, aside from two reviews, so I can't give more technical specifications. Why have them, though? I don't care "how" the trumpet was played while I listen to the album (though post-listening, I do wonder, out of pure curiosity; not knowing does not detract from the impact, of course) and, more importantly, I don't care what she actually did to her radio to sound like that (did she just record random frequencies?). The intangibility of the instruments is given reason when added to the intangibility of the forms they manage to create on the album.

There are a lot of nuances, but they intentionally don't add up to dynamics. I tend to forget that Ulher actually studied visual arts and her background as such is probably what generates the spatial reasonings of Radio Silence No More. There are enough moments on it that can be reductively described as sounding like rough surfaces being carved. It is, despite what you're inclined to think, a three-dimensional album, one that situates the listener only on the border.

DOWNLOAD & BUY

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Monthly Features #1: September 2009 - Birgit Ulher, Annea Lockwood and Evan Parker

If you check the bottom panel of my blog, you'll notice three sections called "Monthly artist", "Monthly album" and "Monthly quote". These came up almost randomly while I was re-designing By Chance Upon Waking. I was trying to build up a more permissive approach that would allow me to include more features than a usual music blog. The new template I chose had these three boxes at the bottom, so I thought that actually making use of them would be stimulating, one way or another. Layout-wise, this is probably the only new feature that I've managed to include but, since the posts try to cover everything else, I think it's reasonable.

Obviously, as each month passes by, previous monthly features would get lost, unless I post them here for future reference. So that's why you get this post.

Evan Parker already got an upload; that means the next posts will be Birgit Ulher and Annea Lockwood uploads. Stay tuned. The current features will still be up for a few more days, since I only restarted the blog towards the middle of the month, by the way.

Monthly artist: Birgit Ulher - improv/experimental trumpet player. Official website & myspace.

Monthly album: Annea Lockwood - A Sound Map of the Danube (Lovely Music, 2008)

Monthly quote: Evan Parker - all-rounded musician and saxophone player.

"The first set had an opening clang, a sample from Ashley of some bells, something he had prepared as the opening of the set. Then a two-note guitar response that was repeated a few times. Then it was up to people to find their way into whatever that set up. Then a period of collective improvisation with the saxophone as a lead voice. After a good deal of playing, there was a transition to a piece with three chords that were given, that set up an almost kitsch mood. OK, now we all know where we are again. That was open for me to play around on those chords. The set finished with a figure that John played on the piano that was like a ballad feel. In rehearsal, I had worked out a kind of counter melody or response to that figure. So that was it. If you tried to write these things down, you would be struggling to fill more than about three lines.

But because, from the rehearsal, we had a good sense of how that stuff would be used to generate and influence improvisations, there was no trouble making that into a set. It was all we needed. Of course, I play a lot of times in other contexts where the only preparation is that we all know one another. It is so hard to talk about this stuff. You sort of contradict yourself whatever you try to say about free improvisation you turn out to be saying something that is true but also not true at the same time. It is very slippery. Yesterday I was using 'minefield', which is perhaps overdramatic. I think 'slippery' is good. It is a slippery beast. You try and grab it and whoops! It's gone."

(read the entire interview here)

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