IN THE COUNTRY
Sounds & Sights
RCD2113/RLP3113
Rune Grammofon 2011
08 Tracks. 65mins05secs / 07 Tracks. 70mins19secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM

With three albums published within five years, Norwegian jazz trio In The Country have positioned themselves on the more melodic side of the Rune Grammofon roster. Formed of pianist vocalist Morten Qvenild, who is regularly found operating alongside Susanna Wallumrød as her orchestra or as a member of Shining, bass player Roger Arntzen, also one half of Ballrogg and a member of Damp, and drummer and percussionist Pål Hausken, In The Country started while the three musicians were studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music, in Oslo, back in 2003. A year later, they had signed with Rune Grammofon and released their debut album, This Was The Pace Of My Heartbeat.

Originally intended as a live DVD, Sounds & Sights soon became a much more ambitious project. The band were filmed performing on a couple of Norwegian shows and during a studio session at the end of last year by video director Claus Arthur Breda-Gulbrandsen, who also shot a huge amount of additional material from which the film was cut. The result, shot almost entirely in black and white, acts as an atmospheric counterpoint to the band’s music, with its own narrative and identity. The soundtrack draws from all three of the band’s studio albums and introduces two new original tracks, Afraid and Slow Down, plus a particularly beautiful rendition of Dire Straight’s Brothers In Arms. As it took a life of its own, the trio decided to add an album featuring the material heard on the DVD plus an additional two tracks.

Whilst all three members undeniably contribute to the overall aspect of the music, Qvenild is very much at the centre of it all, his piano being for the most part the main focal point of the band. His extremely fluid and nuanced style infuses each and every second of this record, while Arntzen and Hausken weave perfectly poised rhythmic sections to support him. Tracks such as How To Get Acquainted, Torch Fishing or Tree Canopy Walkway are left to wander for longer than their studio versions, while the ambitious sprawling Kung Home sees the trio stepping away from their usual softly-spoken jazz to inject some fiery passion, as they first fasten the pace, driven by cascading pianos and intense rhythmic activity, then, as they enter a much somber section, ridden with distorted electronics and guitars, before returning to more subtle grounds half way through the piece. Qvenild, Arntzen and Hausken also add vocals to a few pieces here, more prominently on Afraid, Slow Down and in the latter part of Kung Home, but these never overshadow the music itself, instead giving it a different definition, and adding some grain to it.

The two parts of this ambitious project actually work perfectly well as stand-alone offerings, the album part acting as a introduction to the trio’s work, while the DVD opens up the scope of the band to a new dimension and showcases, at least in part, their live incarnation.

4.1/5

In The Country | Rune Grammofon
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AUTECHRE & THE HAFLER TRIO
ah3e0 & a3oe (ae3o3)
DS94/SS2
Die Stadt/Simply Superior 2011
02 Tracks. 240mins00secs

Amazon UK: DVD Boomkat: DVD

The collaboration between Autechre’s Sean Booth and Rob Brown and The Hafler Trio’s Andrew McKenzie started back in 2003 with an enigmatic first release, æ3o & h3æ, published on Phonometrography, which was followed two years later by a much more extensive ambient experiment, æo3 & 3hæ (Die Stadt). Since, nothing else had filtered out from the trio’s laboratory until this third release, limited to 1000 copies worldwide was announced at the end of August.

Released as a double DVD (5.1 Audio Version), ah3eo & a3oe (æ3o3) features three tracks, the first one clocking at an impressive two hours, the second and third stretching over forty-seven and fifty eight minutes respectively, all available both in Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 formats. Like its predecessors, ah3eo & a3oe (æ3o3) explores a series of extremely arid and corroded soundscapes. The succession of bleak textures which forms the core of each track differs greatly. The vast wind formations which appear to make up most of ah3eo, although of varying density, leave very little space for any other structure to develop. It often feels like one is caught in a series of sand storms, and it is very easy to become totally disoriented by the total lack of reference points. Although some of these appear extremely static, they are for the most part subjected to some form of progression, albeit at time almost totally imperceptible. These soundscapes are often placed against each other, with no blending points in between, which can add to the oppressive appearance of the overall piece.

The track which opens the second DVD is even more austere, its constantly morphing soundscapes, although sober to the extreme, sounding like they could have been sourced from a particularly tense and sombre episode of a sci-fi series from the sixties. The tones used often have a metallic quality to them, and are at time layered with distant radio signals. The rampant dumb tension which characterises the first fifteen minutes of a3oe is ramped up somewhat drastically as a strident noise become extremely prominent, but later on, the stark drone-like minimalism which until then prevailed is partly obliterated by the introduction of a patterned loop, reminiscent of an over-amplified clockwork mechanism, over the last twenty minutes.

The last piece appears to return to some of the vast soundscapes of ah3eo, but here, fragments of musical components can be heard in the background. The extreme granularity of the expanding sound form which progressively sweeps across the whole piece reveals just how complex, intense and refined the process adopted by the trio is. Perhaps the denser of the three pieces, it is also the most open and airy Autechre and McKenzie have created yet.

ah3eo & a3oe (æ3o3) finds its place somewhere between extreme ambient experimentation and musique concrète, yet it doesn’t follow any of these genres’ respective codes. Like the two previous instalments in this ongoing collaboration, it is impossible to truly place this release in context even to the work of its authors. The detailing is extreme here as Auteche and The Hafler Trio work from microscopic particles, painstakingly building up layer after layer to create incredibly complex, yet minimal, sound structures. They have here come up with yet another challenging piece of work which stands entirely outside of anything else around.

4.8/5

Autechre | The Hafler Trio/Simply Superior | Die Stadt
Amazon UK: DVD Boomkat: DVD

SPUNK
Light
RDV2112
Rune Grammofon 2011
01 Track. 42mins29secs

Amazon UK: DVD Boomkat: DVD

For all intents and purposes, all-female Norwegian experimental noise improv ensemble Spunk are extremely difficult to pin down. Experimental, they are without a doubt, and noise is their primary field of expression, but reducing them to just this is most certainly missing the point entirely. All four members (Kristin Andersen – trumpet, Lene Grenager – cello, Maja Ratkje – voice and electronics, Hild Sofie Tajford – French horn and electronics) are highly regarded musicians and composers in their own rights, with respective careers to put to shame even the most fervent of serial collaborative individual on the Norwegian scene. They have performed together for over fifteen years, and recorded four albums, their most recent, Kantarell (2009), was released ten years after their debut.

This DVD captures the quartet in their most natural environment, improvising live in front of an audience. Commissioned by the Henie Onstad Art Centre, in Høvikodden, near Oslo, for its fortieth anniversary back in 2008, this performance was designed to fit in with the venue and takes place in a room with footage projected on all four walls. Unlike their records, the performance consists of one single forty minute exploration during which the quartet go through a series of drastic changes and push their collaborative effort as far as it can sustain. They are used to flirting with breaking points, and it is sometimes a wonder how they manage to extricate themselves from situations they have purposely created, but this is exactly what makes their records, and even more their live performances, such thrilling experiences. It is as if they thrived on taking the exact counterpoint of a situation, at times suddenly breaking a relatively peaceful moment with heavy slices of noise and distortion, or, following a terrorizing wall of sound with a delicate little melody played on a recorder or scintillating miniature electronics. Contrast, not noise, is the essence of their work.

The piece is subjected to a constant tidal movement as the density of sound and the complexity of the performance ebb and flow throughout, providing regular calmer spots in between the more uncompromising moments. This is, in all fairness, quite a relief as it regularly defuses the tension which ineluctably builds up through the more demanding passages. This also allows the quartet to explore a wealth of subtle textures and sonorities and occasionally lets musical elements in, away from the overwhelming sound formations they assemble.

While the quartet face each other through the whole performance, there is very little visual contact throughout, yet they are definitely working together here. It is actually difficult to know for sure who, if anyone, is leading at any point, so deep is their understanding of each other and of Spunk as their common platform of expression. All four operate solely with improv in their respective projects, yet, as Spunk, they attain a dimension all of its own, with no equivalent. The intriguing thing about them however is that, despite the sometimes extreme nature of their work, it remains surprisingly accessible and thoroughly exhilarating. This live DVD gives a chance to go beyond the band’s records an appreciate Spunk it its entirety.

4.7/5

Spunk | Spunk (MySpace) | Rune Grammofon
Amazon UK: DVD Boomkat: DVD

EFTERKLANG & THE DANISH NATIONAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Performing Parades
BAY69
The Leaf Label 2009
11 Tracks. 56mins31secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP Amazon US: CD | LP Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD

When they released their second album, Parades, back in October 2007, Danish formation Efterklang probably had very little idea that they would literally live on it for two years. Right from the onset, Efterklang have truly come to life performing live, and this was undoubtedly key in their moving from the largely electronic textures of their early releases toward much more acoustic and instrument-based. Their 2007 mini album Under Giant Trees, recorded while the band were on tour, established the blueprint for Parades, released a few months later. A much more ambitious effort than its predecessor, Tripper, published in 2004, the album was recorded with a number of additional contributors, including Peter Broderick and Our Broken Garden’s Anna Brønsted, together with a variety of formations and choirs. Shortly after Parades was released, Efterklang were contacted by Karl Bjerre Skibsted, of DR, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, with the idea of playing the album in full with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. The performance took place a year after the album was released, on 26 September 2008 at DR’s Koncerthuset in Copenhagen. The performance was captured both on film and on tape, and is presented in this CD/DVD set.

This performance follows the exact same order as the original album, but the context is very different. Efterklang have performed these songs live a considerable amount of time in the last two years, but they had to do with just a restricted set of musicians to recreate the riches of Parades. While the sheer energy of the band has certainly made up for the shortage of musicians over time, these songs were written with extensive formations in mind. Here, it is as if blood was rushing once again through dry veins, flooding melodies with lush acoustic sounds and powerful orchestral swathes. The versions presented here are quite different from the original. Of course, in the year that Efterklang had been touring, the songs had grown and matured quite drastically, but the performance is also much more vivid and contrasted. The song at times, as on Him Poe Poe, Frida Found A Friend or Caravan for instance, gain here incredible relief, to the point of making the originals sound pale and lacklustre in comparison. This however occasionally obliterate the extremely delicate side of the music of Efterklang a tad. This is perhaps mostly the case on closing track Cutting Ice With Snow, which, on paper at least, sounds the ideal candidate for the orchestral treatment, but which ends up losing part of its subtle undertones, especially in its latter part.

Beside the whole DB Koncerthuset performance, directed by Benjamin Hesseldoldt, showing the orchestra dressed in full Efterklang regalia (pointy hats, odd traditional-looking costumes and even odder make-up) and a stage set designed, all by Nan Na Hvass and Sofie Hannibal, the duo responsible for the covers for Parades and Under Giant Trees and the video for Mirador, the DVD also features a thirty-five minute behind-the-scene documentary and the seven videos of songs from Parades. The documentary, in Danish, with English subtitles available, gives a good insight into the two weeks leading to the performance, from the first rehearsal to moments before the performance, documenting tensions, stress, joy and energy rush resulting of the build up to the main event.

As Efterklang are leaving Leaf for 4AD, with whom they’ll be releasing their third album sometime next year, they are, with this wonderful set and the imminent performance with the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican next week, closing a long and rich chapter in their young career. Performing Parades is a superb document of what a band with a wild imagination and the will to take things as far as they can, can achieve in a relatively short period of time.

4.6/5

Efterklang | Efterklang (MySpace) | The Leaf Label
Amazon UK: CD | LP Amazon US: CD | LP Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD

310
Lifeline
310 (Self-released) 2009
43 Tracks. 177mins29secs

310 appeared on The Leaf Label ten years ago, originally with an EP, NOD, quickly followed by an album, The Dirty Rope, yet, while they hadn’t benefited of a proper release network until then, this was actually the band’s third album, after the self-released Aug 56 (1997) and Snorkelhouse (1998), which were later collated on Downtown & Brooklyn Only. The project of Seattle-based Joseph Dierker and New Yorker Tim Donovan, 310 rapidly gained praises for their haunting blend of electronica, tainted with found sounds and occasional guitars and laid over hip-hop-infused beats, and continued to do so with their following releases, After All (2001) and Recessional (2003). After a four year gap, 310 returned with Sixes & Sevens, published on Conduit Records, in 2007. Split over two DVDs, Lifeline documents twelve years in the career of the band. The first disc collects a handful of live performances recorded in New York and London between 2000 and 2001, plus additional tour footage, while the second offers a retrospective mix of their work through twenty three tracks.

The first disc captures 310 in its live incarnation, with Andrew ‘Fire/Fly’ Sigler, then an almost full-time member, adding vocals, keyboards and other electronics. This DVD collates recordings made within a couple of weeks in October 2000, both in London, at Smallfish, the Arts Café and 333, and New York, at Brownies, plus an extra set recorded at the legendary Knitting Factory in June 2001. Each time, the music was recorded on DAT straight from the mixing desk and was later synchronised with the footage of the same performance. Most of the video filming is rudimentary to say the least, with often just one camera, placed on one corner of the venue, or, as it seems to be the case at the Arts Café, on top of an amplifier, filming the whole performance. Due to the concentrated time frame during which most of these recordings were made, there are many duplicate tracks here, but while the basis of the trio’s work is undoubtedly electronic, there are enough live input from each of them to make this a worthy document. The Knitting Factory and Brownies footage also benefit of a slightly more elaborated filming process, allowing, especially on the latter one, the viewer to feel much closer to the band and experience the performance in a more engaging way.

On the second disc, the pair present a retrospective mix of their career, with twenty three tracks culled from their first five albums plus a handful from the very limited and rare mini album Nothing To See Here, a short collection of atmospheric pieces the pair released in 2001, with archive black and white footage of New York in the early twentieth century, looped to work with the music. The use of old images is nothing new in the work of 310. Indeed, apart for Recessional and Sixes & Sevens, each one of their albums featured an old black and white photograph on its cover, and the pair pushed this further with Nothing To See Here, with each hand-made copy of the album featuring a unique picture. Here, while there is no specific narrative through this retrospective, these footages only accentuate the hypnotic character of the music and project the urban undertones of the tracks into a totally different time. This is perhaps best encapsulated in Urban Mantra. The track uses car horns as its basis, but on screen are looped sequences of traffic shot in the twenties first, then in the fifties.

This bumper audiovisual package is clearly targeted at fans of 310, bringing them two distinctive sides of the band, none of which have been particularly exposed before. Lifeline acts as a document of the band’s work over the years. While the live disc is just a snapshot of a particular time in the band’s life, the Retrospective Mix brings different periods together and demonstrate how, through their evolution, Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan have created an extremely strong and consistent catalogue.

4.1/5

310

ALVA NOTO + RYUICHI SAKAMOTO WITH ENSEMBLE MODERN
utp_
RN96
Raster-Noton 2009
10 Tracks. 71mins57secs / DVD 112mins07

CD+DVD: Amazon.co.uk | Boomkat | Download:  iTunes | Boomkat

utp_ is the fourth collaboration between legendary Japanese innovator Ryuichi Sakamoto and German sound artist Carsten Nicolai, as Alva Noto, following Vrioon in 2002 and Insen and Revep in 2005. In 2007, the pair were commissioned an audio-visual performance with eminent German contemporary orchestra Ensemble Modern, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the city of Mannheim, situated in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in the South West of Germany. Released as a CD, presenting the various compositions, and DVD, documenting both the live performance, complete with synchronised visuals projected at the back of the orchestra, and utp_ Tryout, a behind the scene documentary showing every aspect of the preparation for the performance, from composition to the creation of the visual components, utp_ is quite a big piece of work, totally in contrast with the minimal aesthetic of the work itself.

Right from the opening moments of Attack/Transition, the tone is set, its electro-acoustic context and modern forms, built upon long string drones which are repeatedly stabbed by much sharper, incisive and short orchestral shards in its first section (the attack, supposedly), then left to sustain the rest of the piece, placing it resolutely in a totally different league to the pair’s previous work. The piece then flows into Grain, which introduces richer and more consistent layers of sound, with Sakamoto digging deep in the entrails of his piano to source metallic noises or warmer wood textures, while the orchestra gives out autumnal resonances, contributing to the melancholic mood of the piece. On Particle 1, and later Particle 2, the entire formation turns to much more granular soundscapes, as each instrument is used to create microscopic elements which in turn disperse into the ether as soon as they appear or gather in effervescent grapes of noises, eventually growing in presence to the point of becoming overwhelming.

Elsewhere, the music relies on slightly more conventional orchestral exchanges, giving Ensemble Modern the chance to create interesting tones and shades. This is the case on the wonderfully pastoral and smooth Transition, with its vast plains of exquisite slow-moving string work, which become much more muted on following piece Broken Line 1 when Nicolai introduces piercing electronic dots, recalling the bleeps of early digital watches, and pneumatic rhythmic patterns, while Sakamoto finds here one of his most straightforward moments. The ensemble once again leads the way on Plateaux 1 and 2, this time with somewhat dense and threatening monumental orchestral slabs, which are not without recalling Murcof’s Cosmos I, while on Broken Line 2, bass, drums, piano and orchestra all join forces to push forward an elegant moment which, despite its overly reflective mood, hints at intense moment of happiness.

The DVD helps placing these compositions in context and adds to the overall impression of the piece. Performed live, they become even more visceral and intense, the hypnotic visuals, often changing at an extremely slow pace, mirroring at times the progression in the music, seemingly substantiating the abstraction of the music. With utp_, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Carsten Nicolai have created a superb piece, and have, in the process, moved forward into their collaborative work a great deal.

5/5

Alva Noto | Carsten Nicolai | Ryuichi Sakamoto | Raster Noton
CD+DVD: Amazon.co.uk | Boomkat | Download:  iTunes | Boomkat