LUGANO FELL
Slice Repair
KARU16
Baskaru 2010
10 Tracks. 47mins21secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Lugano Fell is the side project of James Taylor, best known as one half of Swayzak, but this is when the connection ends. While the duo have been dispensing dance floor-friendly tunes for the most part of the last decade and a half, his concern here is entirely different. Three years in the making, Slice Repair, Taylor’s debut solo following a handful of CDR releases, is a record all in clair-obscure undertones and delicate touches where electronics and processed acoustics cross paths to form evocative little sonic ambient tales which, apart for the epic closing piece, often last barely long enough to flourish fully.

In just under fifty minutes, Taylor assembles a rather varied soundtrack here, from the sombre grainy soundscapes of album opener Bleaker, Slope or Hofnah and the contrasted expanses of Caniculaire, Vallory or 47 Easy 47 to the sliced up folk of Preform Naple or Two Hundred Clocks And A Metre. Working from quite a vast palette, built from both processed and unprocessed acoustic elements and electronic components, Taylor occasionally ventures into territories beyond the realm of simple electronic music by placing drones, musique concrete or noise into his sound constructions. Of these experiments, he draws some particularly effective pieces which have a propensity to develop in unexpected fashion, going from moments of subtle understatement to chaotic explosions, arid expanses or intensely organic textures, sometimes in the space of a few minutes. This is however much more controlled than it appears, and nothing is totally left to chance. The progression from pulsating bell-like electronics to dense atmospheric textures and eventually corrosive noise on Caniculaire for instance, all within just over two minutes, is quite fascinating, especially as it happens surprisingly smoothly. There are similarly extensive developments on Preform Naple or Vallory, although, on these, this is done almost in reverse, from an incredibly busy and complex first half to a much more delicate minimal acoustic second half on the former or, on the latter, from the peaceful setting of the first few minutes to denser middle section, then back to much more minimal forms.

The piece de resistance comes at the end of the record. Spanning almost fifteen minutes, Two Hundred Clocks And A Metre sees Taylor slices up acoustic guitar work into tiny particles, which he then repositions in a seemingly melodic series of patterns, but the random character of these and the constant flow of clicks and glitches reveals that, far from being re-assembled in an order remotely close to the original, these patterns actually shape a totally new overall image. The progression is here much more subtle, as Taylor breaks up the piece into smaller sections, all interconnected and similar in appearance, with only shifts in then intensity of the piece marked clearly. Toward the end however, the mood becomes hazier as the acoustic components are progressively swallowed by a dense noisy sound form. .

With Lugano Fell, James Taylor intended to escape the club aspect he had been interacting with as part of Swayzak. Whether he was aiming at such a vastly different result is quite unclear, but he has certainly managed to step away from his usual work to create a strong experimental piece of work.

4.4/5

Lugano Fell | Lugano Fell (MySpace) | Baskaru
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

LAURA GIBSON & ETHAN ROSE
Bridge Carols
KARU17
Bakaru 2010
09 Tracks. 34mins49secs

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

Coming from very different horizons, Laura Gibson and Ethan Rose meet on Bridge Carols to combine their personal worlds into something entirely new. Both hailing from Portland, Oregon, the pair began working together following a chance encounter, experimenting with the dynamic that started to take shape as they got more familiar with each other. Gibson, a folk singer and guitarist (she plays on a nylon string guitar we are repeatedly told), first appeared with an EP released on Hush Records in 2003, but it took another four years before she published her first album, If You Come To Greet Me. Her second, Beasts Of Season, came out last year and received praises from the press and public alike. Rose’s work is largely based on his keen interest for old technologies and how he can use them to create something contemporary and fresh. He has released a number of albums, his latest, Oaks, last year, already on Baskaru, and has also worked on a number of sound installations and film scores.

This collaboration has grown organically as Gibson and Rose got accustomed to the creative space they occupied together. Inspired by Gibson’s soft vocal tones, Rose started creating soundscapes upon which Gibson applied words and phrases that she had documented in notebooks over the years, but which had never made it onto songs. She later improvised additional lyrics and wordless vocals, getting closer to traditional song forms (Old Waters, Younger, Boreas Borealis), yet remaining for the most part in a much looser context. Rose framed these with extremely delicate sound formations, built indifferently from field recordings, acoustic instruments or shimmering electronic textures, and processed his companion’s vocals, cutting them up into smaller pieces and rearranging them to create entirely new narratives.

Very much like on his own work, there is here a particular grain to Rose’s soundscapes, feeling at once beautifully organic and hauntingly processed, which gives these songs a fragility emphasised even more by Gibson’s half formed songs and restrained performance. This is especially the case on the stunning Younger, which, over its course, takes on a handful of appearances, changing imperceptibly from voice and guitar to dreamy soundscapes or glitchy abstraction, even incorporating a muted trumpet in the distance just past the half-way mark. Later, Sun is another superb moment, as Gibson’s voice finding its way through bright sparkly bells and celesta, while Boreas Borealis finds the pair on the verge of pop music, albeit of a very ethereal and pensive inclination.

Bridge Carols is much more than a simple exchange of ideas, it is the fruit of a real collaborative process, reflected in Gibson’s abstract approach to her lyrics and the tonal subtlety of her voice on one side, and in Rose’s use of more easily identifiable sounds and instruments within his compositions. Their respective sound worlds are substantially enriched by their open approach, and it is a real pleasure to explore the multi-layered soundtrack that results.

4.7/5

Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose (MySpace) | Baskaru
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

@C
Music For Empty Spaces
KARU18
Baskaru 2010
07 Tracks. 54mins27secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD Amazon US: CD | DLD Norman Records: CD iTunes: DLD

Listening to Music For Empty Spaces is like stepping into an alien world, where microscopic sounds are magnified to the point of appearing grotesquely oversized and intimidating. Static crackles and interferences are akin to violent storms, surface noises and frictions become sharp shards of noise, environmental field recordings are overexposed and pressed into stark soundscapes, at times ground to tiny particles, at others surprisingly preserved intact, fossil remains of a life that once was trapped in thick layers of soil.

Curating this extra-sensory approach is Portuguese duo @c, a collaborative project between sound artists Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais, which also occasionally includes visual artist Lia. Founded in 2000, @c have since released a number of albums, CDRs and digital-only collections on labels such as Variz, Fugas Discos, Alg-a, Grain Of Sound or their own Crónica, their Porto-based community imprint. Their latest release, published on the ever-excellent Baskaru, collects seven tracks of dense sound processing, where overblown founds sounds (bees, dripping water, gusts of wind, passing metro trains, the abrasive contact of a needle on a record…) are mixed with intricate layers of noise and electronic interferences and processed to form a particularly coarse fabric from which the rest of the sound structure of this record stems. Occasionally, shreds of conversations or sketches of melody emerge from this thick magma to become for a moment part of the landscape, before being swallowed back and disappear from view. Just past the half way mark on 76.2 for instance, a heavily processed piano, muffled and distorted almost beyond recognition, painfully cuts through layers of statics, environmental noises and distortion, while bird songs come into focus at regular interval. This is imperceptibly carried over to the following piece, but the piano is replaced with a slow pulsating bass toll, or. later a distant electric organ, while the sound of air blown through the reed of a wind instrument is repeated a number of times throughout the piece. At well over sixteen minutes, 76.3 is a rather much more vibrant piece than pretty much any other here, as Carvalhais and Tudela subject the elaborate structure of their work to multiple changes and alterations, yet appear to never alter it in any radical way. The piano makes another appearance on the glacial 76.5 (Listening To K.J.), this time left almost untouched, while a tribal rumble of drums gives 76.6 a particular density.

While the record is split into distinct tracks, they are actually firmly linked to each other, the sonic formations spilling over from one track to another to ensure a continuous flow from the opening to the closing moments. There is no respite during the fifty five minutes that this album lasts. The empty spaces referred to in the title are found elsewhere. @c isolate the dead spaces between sonic particles unearthed by their focus on macroscopic processing. Blowing sound composite out of proportion not only reveals details that would otherwise remain totally unheard, but also brings to light the silent gaps which are inherent to any sound form.

Music For Empty Spaces is a fascinating, if at times quite overwhelming, piece of work, which requires a certain level of involvement from the listener to get deep into its complex make-up. It is however worth the effort as @c create a surprisingly moving soundtrack by capturing the unheard and exposing it in all its glory.

4.7/5

@C | Baskaru
Amazon UK: CD | DLD Amazon US: CD | DLD Norman Records: CD iTunes: DLD

ROTHKAMM
Alt
KARU15
Baskaru 2009
10 Tracks. 39mins35secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Despite a body of work that spans over twenty solo releases, spread over twenty five years, German-born musician and conceptual artist Frank Rothkamm has remained a fairly enigmatic figure for most. Beside his own music, Rothkamm, who currently lives in Los Angeles, has provided music and sound design for big international corporations (Levi Strauss, Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Warner Bros…), and has worked with a wide range of artists, including the likes of Lesa Carlson, Wolfgang Muthspiel or DJ Spooky.

Released on the excellent Baskaru, ALT sequences ten fairly minimal pieces, all named using seemingly random collections of three letters, some ordered in familiar patterns (SUN, RED, LOW, CON, GUI) others in more mysterious strings (AAA, RND, OOO, DEC). The music appears to focus on the introspective experimentations of granular electronic sounds and tones, often taking the appearance of slow evolutive drones and textures, which are not without evoking some of Tangerine Dream’s early experiments. While the sonic aspect of the record is relatively varied, Rothkamm works from a very limited palette on each track, making the most of the malleable nature of analogue electronics. The result varies from deeply reflective pieces, concentrated toward the middle of the album it appears (SUN, LOW, MID, RND) to more expressive constructions, whether they are purely sound-based (AAA, DEC) or support fragments of melody (GUI, RED, CON), while on OOO, Rothkamm processes an artificial choral loop which has for a moment this album slip into a particularly ethereal and haunting mood.

ALT is in many ways as enigmatic as its creator, its soundscapes remaining for the most part sparse and entirely artificial, with no clear clues to their provenance. It is as if Rothkamm was concerned with the very essence of each sound used here, and that they should work as stand-alone components, . This micro-level approach is fascinating throughout, but it takes a singular dimension in the central cluster of meditative tracks. While they are perfectly delineated, Rothkamm has placed them specifically to create the illusion that these four pieces continuously morph into one another, the range progressively dropping from somewhere toward the higher end of the spectrum on SUN down to much lower frequencies on RND.

Elsewhere, the magnified pulses that ripple through AAA or DEC, although very different, add an element of grit to the record. On the former, the pulses remain fairly constant throughout, only becoming more potent as the track progresses, while on the latter, the bright motif which echoes through the beginning of the piece soon clouds over and eventually disappear into the lower end. With GUI and RED, Rothkamm opens his sound pool more, even adding a brush of guitar to his electronics on the former, but it is with the synthetic choir of OOO that the album reaches its emotional peak, the piece a stark counterpoint to the earlier contemplative compositions.

With this album, Frank Rothkamm has created a particularly effective atmospheric experimental work which, while rooted in the early Kosmische scene by way of austere minimal soundscapes, is very relevant to contemporary electronic music. A particularly refined record, where less is definitely more, ALT is definitely not to be missed.

4.4/5

Rothkamm | Baskaru
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

ETHAN ROSE
Oaks
KARU14
Baskaru 2009
08 Tracks. 37mins51secs

Buy: CD | MP3 | iTunes

Hailing from Portland, OR, Ethan Rose works with unusual sound sources which he processes and collates into delicate atmospheric pieces to create wonderfully textural records. His debut album, Ceiling Songs, released in 2006 on Locust Music, documented his work with automated instruments (music boxes, taped up player piano rolls), which, combined with acoustic instruments and electronics, created a fragile and ephemeral world where textures were layered into gossamer formations. His follow up record, Spinning Pieces, published in 2007, once again on Locust, collected three tracks which had previously been released in extremely small quantity, and continued to showcase his work with automated instruments.

For his third album, Oaks, released on Baskaru in Europe, Holocene in the US and Headz in Japan, Rose has sourced all his sounds from a Wurlitzer theatre organ dating back from the mid-1920s, which was originally used to accompany silent films. Later on, the organ was moved to the Oak Park Roller Rink, in Portland, where it progressively fell into disrepair. In recent years, Rose helped bringing the instrument back to its originally splendour, and has since aimed at propelling into the 21st century. Opting from considerably shorted pieces than on his previous two releases, Rose retains nevertheless the same dreamy tone, weaving his processed sound sources into tight little vignettes, which, like leaves caught in the wind, continuously flutter and wave.

While the sounds used here are pretty unidentifiable individually, the warm tones of the Wurlitzer often come through to brighten up a particular sequence, smoothen a slightly too angular piece or pulse incredible resonating depth throughout. Album opener On Wheels Rotating, appears at first pretty straight forward, but the subtle changes in the underlying melody create an interesting counterpoint to the main theme. Rose uses a similar effect on Scene From When, but elsewhere, he scatters sound particles over his compositions to give them a shimmering sheen. This is particularly the case on Rising Waters, with its grainy glitches rendered through a short reverb, or Grand Marcher, which, in its second half, becomes a fascinating mine of microscopic activity. Later on, a discreet buzz is heard circling in the distance on Fortunate, while on Mighty Mighty, Rose assembles various chime-like tones, giving it a particularly airy and crystalline aspect.

With this album, Ethan Rose continues to explore sound in his very own way, bringing together old and new, organic and processed, textural and diaphanous, and makes the most of the rich sound pool of the Wurlitzer. Occasionally reminiscent of Fennezs in his approach to sounds, Rose has created, with Oaks, a wonderfully evocative and dreamy record.

4.2/5

Ethan Rose | Baskaru
Buy: CD | MP3 | iTunes

SYMBIOSIS ORCHESTRA
Live Journeys
KARU12
Baskaru 2009
11 Tracks. 38mins23secs

Buy: CD | MP3 | iTunes

Encompassing everything from modern composition to experimental jazz to electronica, Symbiosis Orchestra is actually quite difficult to place. Originally the idea of Italian sound artist Andrea Gabriele, known as one half of electronic duos Pirandelo and Mou, Lips!, the formation, which includes musicians as diverse as Scanner’s Robin Rimbaud, Iris Garrelfs, Mario Masullo, all three known for their involvement with electronic music, as well as vibes player Stefano Tedesco, flutist Geoff Warren, violonist Diego, trumpetist Robereto di Egidio and pianist Michele Scurti, plus multi media artist Claudio Sinatti, blends in electronic and acoustic into surprisingly spacious and versatile compositions.

The eleven tracks featured here were recorded live during various performances, and feature multiple combinations of the aforementioned artists. The scope is therefore incredibly wide and vast, resounding with the vocal experiments of Iris Garrelfs, the breezy flow of di Egidio, the delicate flute motifs of Warren or the electronic soundscapes of Gabriele or Rimbaud, arranged into ever changing combinations, at times leaning clearly toward the calm spirituality of Nordic jazz or the urban bustle of electronica, at others revealing a much more angular contemporary slant or occasionally evoking the work of Maja Ratkje. Yet, despite this constantly shifting focus, Live Journeys is an incredibly tight and consistent record, which never ceases to surprise, impress and fascinate. Gabriele and co. pack so much here that it beggars belief it all fits in just forty minute.

Undoubtedly, the fluid aspect of Symbiosis Orchestra is also its strength. Where most formations would only manage to create increasingly disjointed compositions, lose themselves in the meanders of their conjectures and ultimately crumble under their own weight, Gabriele’s loose ensemble thrives on the constant flux of ideas and challenges that results of its variable geometry. Placed against sounds and genres they are not necessarily accustomed to, the various members rise to the challenge to create one truly inspired soundtrack.

4.9/5

Symbiosis Orchestra (MySpace) | Baskaru
Buy: CD | MP3 | iTunes

MICHAEL SANTOS
The Happy Error
KARU11
Baskaru 2008
11 Tracks. 52mins04secs

London-based musician and sound artist Michael Santos has already been featured on a handful of compilations, and a first collection of compositions was released as part of Benbecula’s Mineral Series of CDRs in 2006, followed by another CDR release for U-Cover. The Happy Error, brought to you by the rather excellent Baskaru imprint is, however, is first proper release.

Working from a classic set up of processed guitars and sine waves, Santos creates evocative little atmospheric pieces. At times reminiscent of Fennesz or Mountains, especially in its most serene moments, The Happy Error is a varied textural platform upon which emotions flourish gracefully, but Santos’s more openly glitched up soundscapes point in other directions. While the work here is certainly cinematic, and the slow motion process which is applied gives the compositions a surprisingly rich and vivid grain, there is an impression of constant erosion throughout which, instead of radiating a wonderfully warm glow, strips the tones of their inherent splendor and drown them in thick blankets of decay. The music here resembles an autumnal rainy day, dragged down by nonchalant despair and vagrant chill, but held together by abundant shades of earthy browns and yellows.

Textures and moods are not the sole concerns of Michael Santos. Amongst these occasionally arid soundscapes blossom delicate melodies, which, while never lifting from the ether entirely, manage to bring some more refined touches to this album, especially on pieces such as Supercolour, Hopefully Helsinki or Big Shifty. Santos builds his pieces slowly, applying layer after layer of grit and dust, never veering away from this template much to creating a collection that is at once consistent and exquisite, and while his approach is not original in any way, he manages to give his compositions a certain depth which contributes greatly to the overall fascinating appeal of this record.

3.9/5

Michael Santos | Michael Santos (MySpace) | Baskaru
Buy:  iTunes

YOSHIO MACHIDA
Hypernatural #3
KARU10
Baskaru 2008
08 Tracks. 53mins42secs

Yoshio Machida began working on his Hypernatural series in 1997. The first volume in the series was self-released two years later, and the second came out in 2001, on German label Softl Music. Since the Tokyo-based artist has been busy with other experimental projects and has released a handful of records on his own imprint, Amorfon, but this year sees the third and final part of the series.

The first Hypernatural release focused on memory in Eastern Asia, while the second investigated the concepts of transparency, unconsciousness and invisible existence. With Hypernatural #3, Machida turns his attention to oblivion as a one of the many processes of life. Creating sonic pieces from field recordings, electronics and acoustic instruments, Machida presents a captivating journey through tightly held organic sound formations which incorporate essentially natural elements, which, although heavily processed, retain some elements of their original aspect.

Machida’s elegant textured soundscapes appear prematurely aged and roughened, often resulting in the pieces sounding grainy and slightly out of focus, as if decay was attacking their very core. Pieces such as Ocean Of Memory, with its ever-changing treated steel pan, drowned in pools of echo and distortions, Scene 16: Retrospective Future, full of complex sonic variations, or Scene 27: Symphony, which at times evokes a hugely amplified ice melting process, appear particularly distressed, while the thirteen minute epic title track, which closes, goes through various phases of decomposition, yet appears strangely uniform thoughout, as a metallic tone goes in and out of focus while forest noises float above. It is a different process that is expose here; as components are progressively ground down to nothing, similar ones take over and the process is repeated with almost mechanical precision.

Elsewhere, Machida deals with seemingly more consistent forms, especially on the rarefied Silhouette or Siesta, but here again it is the sensation of progressive loss and ineluctable slip toward emptiness that prevails.  Yet, Machida doesn’t expose these as sombre and fatalist moments. While it is in essence destructive, decay is part of life as much as conception. On this record, Machida uses sounds in various stages of erosion and collects every usable substance to generate new structures. It is, after all, the very point of decay, to destroy the old and frail and fuel the new and fresh. On Camouflage, and even more so on Scene 05: Bubbles, Machida uses fragments of conversations and field recordings extensively, to the point where music is almost entirely absent of the latter.

With this album, Yoshio Machida has created a strangely compelling piece of work. The attention to detail and the subtle relevance of the treatment applied to the various sound sources serve the compositions rather well, and while the leading concept is somewhat abstract, it transpires through the work and becomes more concrete as the record progress. While it could at first sound like an obscure and arid record, Hypernatural #3 is actually very much at human scale and deserves to be heard.

4.1/5

Yoshio Machida | Baskaru
Buy: iTunes

Maurizio Bianchi is one of the leader of the Italian noise and experimental scene. He first appeared in 1979, and in the first five years of his career, he released a considerable amount of work on a variety of labels before retiring from the music scene completely. For the next thirteen years, he remained silent, but he resumed his relentless work pace. His latest project is a collaboration with Emanuela De Angelis Twenty years his junior, De Angelis has nevertheless an already impressive body of work behind her, as a member of various formations and, in recent years, as a solo artist. As MD+EDA, the pair have, for a moment, left behind their respective noise remit to investigate a much quieter realm, developed over the whole length of their first album together. Robert Rowlands caught up with the pair to discuss age difference, the pros and cons of working on a collaborative project and how their calm soundscapes are much noisier than it seems.

How did the two of you end up collaborating?

Maurizio Bianchi: I’ve been in touch with Emanuela since 2004 and I was fascinated because she was the only woman in Italy who is involved in the experimental field; I decided to propose a collaboration between us, and she accepted. I sent her some basic sounds, she added her treatments and sent back everything to me for me to do the final loops treatment.

Emanuela De Angelis: We got in touch by e-mail. Maurizio sent me some of his tapes. I sampled and “played” with them and sent him a CD with some tracks that he manipulated and remixed.

One of you is twenty years younger than the other. How easy or difficult is it for two people of different musical generations to work together?

MB: No difficulties at all when you have the same intentions and the same feelings.

EDA: I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all about our age or musical experience difference. Maurizio is such a respectful and easy going person!

What have you both learnt about each other from working together?

MB: I learnt that with honesty, loyalty and perseverance you can be successful.

EDA: Maurizio worked a lot for this record, he was constantly giving me strength and positive vibes about Regolelettroniche and that helped me feeling more confident about what I do with sound. He’s a very human and supporting person. Although we never met in person I immediately felt that this experience was more like ‘two human beings joining and playing with sound’ instead of being a matter of ‘two self-centred musicians trying to make some cool music’.

Has it changed your views on certain ideas or artists?

MB: It has increased my respect for them.

EDA: I think this is the kind of collaboration I like. When it works like that it’s just perfect to me.

If each of you were to describe the other’s personality, what would you say?

MB: I can perceive her from her musicality that Emanuela is very humble but determinate.

EDA: Like I said before I think that Maurizio is a very kind and respectful man, warm, honest, enthusiastic and positive.

The album seems very carefully put together. Are you both perfectionists in the studio?

MB: Usually not, but for this project I tried to be more precise, but not at an exasperated level.

EDA: I wish I could be a perfectionist! Actually I end up being instinctive and often I have to go back and correct my mistakes.

Does working in a collaboration make it easier or harder to produce an album?

MB: It’s not harder, just a little bit more longer.

EDA: I think that it’s easier because you have another point of view on the music and it is something very intriguing to see how different sounds and influences could blend together. Personally I enjoy working with other musicians’ sound sources because I tend to get stuck on the same samples I create. It could get difficult when it comes to compromise about something, but this happens in everyday life too, not only in a creative process, so it’s not a major problem.

I understand you came up with some rules before beginning this project. What were they, and why were they so important?

EDA: That was not set before of beginning this project. Maybe Maurizio could explain better than me…

MB: Because our whole existence is regulated by rules, without them there is only anarchy and a chaotic orgy.

Some people would prefer to improvise as they go along. Is it important to have a firm set of rules before making an album?

MB: The improvisation for me is the normality, but sometimes we need to regulate ourselves to be more conscious of our limits.

Is this an album that you could easily replicate in a live performance?

EDA: I don’t think so, and I think that if we ever perform live we won’t choose to replicate it exactly as it is. I guess it would be the same mood, but constructed differently.

I expected the album to be a lot noisier coming from two so-called noise artists. Why is the album so peaceful?

EDA: I think it’s quite noisy, actually. But I can see why you think it’s peaceful: the mood is peaceful, and it develops very slowly. It is probably because we both are fascinated by long cycles, like the one you have in nature.

There is a lot of repetition on the album. How important is that to your music?

MB: Repetition is all around us, starting from sunrise and sunset. Transposed to the music, repetition reminds us our need of eternity.

EDA: Well, music is about repetition (I think someone said this before me), so I think it is important in every kind of music: rock and roll, folk, electronic… I like to get lost in repetition when it seems like every loop has its own ‘weight’ and ‘meaning’ to the track structure. I’m often inspired by organic textures which are based on repetition.

How have people been reacting to this album?

MB: Very positively, I think.

EDA: Quite good I think. My dad said that it is music for films!

Will there be more collaborations between you?

EDA: We have been talking about it, so hopefully yes we will.

MB: Probably in the near future.

If you were to describe this record, what was the sound you were looking for?

MB: Meditative sounds for diligent people.

In terms of contemporaries, who are the artists you most admire and respect?

MB: All the artists who like to express their feelings without pressures.

EDA: Of course I admire K.H. Stockhausen, Steve Reich, David Toop and other big names… but this is a bit obvious, isn’t it? So I would like to mention a few ‘families’ of artist who are good musicians and very nice people: Baskaru, Highpoint Lowlife, Slow Sound System, Stasisfield, Active Suspension, 12k -Line. I always keep an eye on them and I recommend their music.

What about the state of modern music? Does it depress or excite you?

MB: It gives to me a sense of empty.

EDA: There are plenty of good musicians out there. When you start looking for something on the web, for instance, you find that a lot of unsigned bands and solo musicians (basically boys and girls in their rooms) are producing good stuff. They make their own website and pretty good visual design as well. I find that very exciting. On the other hand I know that it gets difficult to become a ‘professional’ musician when you have a full time job or when you have to look after you children. Just a few of them are truly motivated and/or could afford the amount of work/expenses that it involves. Most of the mainstream basically tends to depress me, because I find that there’s nothing new. Most bands just sound like a horrible mixture of already heard stuff wrapped in a new shiny pack.

There is a lot of talk about the future of the music industry at the moment because of the decline of CD sales. How do you think this will affect the underground or avant-garde music scenes?

MB: With the rise of album downloads, the underground scene received a big finishing blow. Only the intelligent labels will survive.

EDA: I think it will have some kind of bad effect somehow, I’m afraid. Most of the people are getting used to download, even when it comes to underground or avant-garde. It is hard for a small independent label to survive, people must know that some owners have a second job to help them with expenses. They do this because they love music and this should be more than a good reason to support them by buying their records and downloading MP3 legally.

What about the Italian music scene – are you excited by some of the music coming out of the country at the moment? If so, who?

MB: I respect artists like NIMH, MDT, TH26, Claudio Rocchetti, Crìa Cuervos.

EDA: There is quite a good underground scene in Italy and it is well supported by music magazines and radios shows like the ones broadcasted by Rai Radio 3 (Italian National Radio). I appreciate Baskaru’s Italian artists, but there are many others like friend Globster, Stefano Tedesco, Wang-inc that I like.

The music on Regolelettroniche sounds very distant from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Is it trying to escape from the harshness and discord of modern life?

EDA: It was not meant to be like that, but personally I often tend to escape from the chaos and pressure of modern life. I like to imagine my own ideal landscape or soundscape, reading and looking at pictures I like, so I think it could be possible that it affected the sound on the record.

MB: It’s a sophisticated way to redeem the lost souls.

Just from what I have read about you, you appear to both be very studious and serious musicians. Is this an accurate judgement?

MB: I can only tell you about me: I take every experiment I do very seriously, because it it my life.

EDA: I’m not that serious and studious, honestly. I think it’s my glasses’ fault: they make me look geekier than I am.

And finally, what are your five favourite pieces of music at the moment?

EDA: At the moment I’m listening a lot of Tunng, Belle and Sebastian, Nick Drake, Neil Young… so you can pick randomly five tracks from their discographies, really. I’m lazy!

Emanuela De Angelis | Baskaru

M.B. + E.D.A.
Regolelettroniche
KARU8
Baskaru 2008
04 Tracks. 47mins24secs

Born in 1955, Maurizio Bianchi is a long-standing member of the Italian experimental music scene. He debuted in 1979, and, until 1984, he released a considerable amount of work, but then withdrew from the music business completely as he entered a deeply religious and spiritual part of his life. He came out of retirement in 1997 and has since resumed a very productive work pace, with a mix of new releases and re-issues being made available. Twenty years Bianchi’s junior, Emanuela De Angelis first emerged as lead singer and guitarist with noise formation Joyce Whore Not in the early nineties and later founded Mou, Lips!, an experimental electronic project, with Andrea Gabriele, and has been working as a solo artist for over four years.

For their first collaboration, Bianchi and De Angelis create long and expensive drone-like forms, developed over the four tracks and nearly fifty minutes of Regolelettroniche, which vaguely translates into ‘electronic rules’, and which informs the record and sets its the boundaries. Indeed, the pair focus on processed textural loops, layered into vast cyclic suites, the longest of which, Cosmic Norms, covers twenty five minutes. Built around what sounds half way between processed electric guitar distortions and a medical ventilator, this centre piece defines the austere aesthetic of this collaboration. Very little happens during the whole piece beside a slight change in the opening of the filter and almost imperceptible variations in consistency, but this almost static state, when contemplated from afar, hides a depth of tone which justifies the track title.

Albeit shorter by half, Universal Order works according to similar rules and defines a comparable spiritual space where the mind is free to reflect or wander without obstacles or distractions. As the dense layers move imperceptibly and change shape, frequency and rhythm, the hypnotic character of these two compositions becomes more apparent.

Bookending these are two shorter compositions, Earthly Principle, the shortest of the four tracks at just under three minutes, and the six minute closing track, Electronic Rules. With these two pieces, Bianchi and De Angelis tie their vast soundscapes and slow moving drones into bite-size vignettes which, whilst still retaining some of the motion stillness elements explored in the two core compositions, do away with the slow progressive approach. While this is especially true of the former, the dark atmospherics of the latter conjure images of desolate landscapes and, surprisingly for artists who come from a region where the sun plays such an important part in everyday life, eternal nights. Incidentally, Electronic Rules is also the point where M.B. + E.D.A. get closest to conventional ambient electronica, evoking in part Biosphere or Deathprod.

With Regolelettroniche, Maurizio Bianchi and Emanuela De Angelis have produced a much more serene record than what they respective work could have led to think, and this composed restraint, at times palpable, is possibly the greatest strength of this collaboration, as it actually carries the restricted scope and focus of the compositions and fuels their apparent immobility.

3.8/5

Emanuela De Angelis | Baskaru
Buy: iTunes