TERRE THAEMLITZ
You? Again?
MULE007CD
Mule Electronic 2007
10 Tracks. 70mins39secs

Writer, DJ and owner of the Comatonse Recordings music label, Terre Thaemlitz has established something of a reputation for restless social activity and focussed artistic intent. Japan-resident Thaemlitz dabbles promiscuously with electroacoustic computer music, deep house and composed works for solo piano, yet despite all of this endless sliding, not to mention the voluminous pseudynms under which he operates, his distance from the respective styles and concentration on seducing the signs themselves animates and organizes much of his data peddling. Continue Reading »

AKIRA KOSEMURA
It’s On Everything
RMSG002
Someone Good 2007
12Tracks. 53mins49secs

Yet another testament to the fact that each event receives its signification retroactively, the debut full-length effort from musician and Schole label manager Akira Kosemura ruminates with poetic reverie on the tender emotions and cheerful obsequious humor of summer’s past. Music of the hushed type, the compositions are fuzzy at the edges, yet abound in detail and incidents that are newly burnished.

The title-track, for one, is a slow build up of steady minimalist piano strokes, dabbed carefully with children’s voices and traces of paranormal emissions while the atmospheric sonics, emitting a laconic light, continue in their legato course. Continue Reading »

VLADISLAV DELAY
Multila
HUUME09
Huume Recordings 2007
07 Tracks. 71mins87secs

For over ten some odd years now, Vladislav Delay has been exploiting a simple collection of elements - dub, techno, ambient - and the different sets one can form out of them. In so doing, paradoxes and inconsistencies set in - on no seldom occasion, they were coddled, understood, and integrated, but at yet others, they remained an antagonistic challenge, representing a crisis and critique that sustained, on Sasu Ripatti’s part, an endless sliding from one motif to another. Continue Reading »

ULTRALYD
Conditions For A Piece Of Music
RCD2065
Rune Grammofon 2007
12 Tracks. 54mins20secs

The third full-length effort from Norway’s Ultralyd rings true as an allergic reaction to the present-day obligation to see, to the impossibility of not seeing. To the extent that the quartet compresses their frenetic energy - displayed with some extravagance on previous efforts - producing tightly wound compositions that exploit extremes of pitch and dynamics, they cling to a certain disheveled denial of words, and a conscientious objection to the transparent object. Album opener Saprochord seeks to demobilize itself, the players nailing themselves down to sharp-honed, muted tone and harmonic contour and a bubbling rhythm section. Continue Reading »

AARON MARTIN & MACHINEFABRIEK
Cello Recycling/Cello Drowning
TYPE029
Type Recordings 2007
02 Tracks. 21mins. 54secs

Cello Recycling incarcerates the listener in Netherland’s Rutger Zuydervelt and American multi-instrumentalist Aaron Martin’s penchant for staccato, pointillist constructions, layered together into quaking masses that positively purr with energy. The opening twelve minute composition unfolds like a rolling cloud of harmonics shot through with querulous whines and whimpers. In an almost obsessive manner, it constantly grates against itself, picking at its own scabs, trying to break free of its moorings, to lose its depth of field, and float in a space free of resistance. Continue Reading »

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MOTEER012
Moteer 2007
10 Tracks. 54mins29secs

Chris Stewart strokes sounds from piano, guitar and a string quartet, and sows them into ambitiously lengthy pieces and dense multitracked constructions. Lyrical passages of violin batter at a sepulchral fog like a moth at a bulb, acting as the driving force behind most compositions. This core is dressed in simple yet largely effective abstract color patterns, making for bruised instrumentals marked by moments of atmospheric aural illusion.

Album opener, Morning takes place within a crystalline, combustible horizon, against which scenes of fidgety strings and one-note piano lines stand out, occasionally resulting in syncretic peaks, but more often than not simply waiting for the interaction to reach its natural endpoint before weaving in new elements. Continue Reading »

HANS APPELQVIST
Sinfantin Och Morkret
H35
Häpna 2007
12 Tracks. 25mins00secs

Sweden’s Hans Appelqvist shows concern for that deep and incommensurable element of animal nature that cannot be made to work. A vertiginous warmth spreads slowly across most tracks. On Tank Att Himlens Alla Stjarnor, breathy, diffident vocals drift alongside a patient frenzy of field recordings, riven by the sparkling interplay of acoustic guitar and piano. In its wistful chord changes and modest yet sophisticated arrangement, the piece conveys a desire to get at continuity without crossing any barriers. Were it otherwise, and the need for an overwhelming wrench of violence was not left wanting, the rush of joy would be all the more stronger. Things being what they are, most pieces settle for the prosaic; for lusciously crisp, spacey harmonics, roving melodic guitar lines and percolating analogue beats. Continue Reading »