FENNESZ + SAKAMOTO
Flumina
TONE46
Touch 2011
24 Tracks. 124mins06secs

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

Flumina is the third collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christian Fennesz, following Sala Santa Cecilia (2005) and Cendre (2007), and, with twenty-four tracks spread over two discs, it is also by far their most extensive. The project began when Sakamoto was touring in Japan some time ago; opening each one of the twenty-four shows of the tour with a different improvisation, each played in a different key to cover the complete steps of the western tonal system, and documenting them all, he then sent his recordings to Christian Fennesz in Vienna for him to add textures and ambiences before the pair reconvened in New York to mix the record.

Very much like their previous work, where the balance between Sakamoto’s modern classical piano compositions and Fennesz ambient soundscapes fueled the creative process, Fennesz here replicates Sakamoto’s minimal melodic treatment and sparse performances, the difference being that, on Flumina, the compositions are all extremely bare and pure, at times sounding more like sketches than fully developed pieces. Instead of treated guitars distortions, Fennesz opts here for much more restrained atmospheric soundscapes, built primarily from electronics and synths. He still uses guitars extensively, but he chooses to work from much softer sounds sources and processes them so heavily that they retain very little of their natural aspect once incorporated into his overall soundscapes.

Sakamoto’s improvisations are all extremely intimist and delicate, at times almost grinding to a halt or going through intensely quiet moments, at others building from note sequences which, whilst arranged into clusters, are so complex or disconnected that no melody as such can develop. His pieces are like miniature impressionist narratives, their angles purposely blurred and out of focus to leave space for the mind to wander, and this is how Fennesz approaches his parts too, emphasizing Sakamoto’s performance with restraint rather than completing it. It is therefore easy to get lost in this record, the relative absence of distinctive features resulting in the whole record sounding somewhat uniform and indrawn, especially considering that it stretches over two hours, making it easy to miss some of its most wonderful moments, of which the cloudy aspect of 0320, the pastoral feel of 0327 or the medieval tones of 0424 for instance are only the tip.

This is rather quite a shame as individually, each one of these creations is utterly exquisite and tastefully set, Sakamoto’s sparse and elegant improvisations beautifully showcased against Fennesz’s impressionist backdrops. There is no doubt that as a pair, Fennesz and Sakamoto form an intensely creative partnership, and that they instinctively know how to respond to each other. The downfall of this record may be that they ultimately have stuck to the original idea a tad too closely and lost sight of its overall harmony and balance.

2.7/5

Fennesz | Ryuichi Sakamoto | Touch
Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

As 2010 bows out, it is time to look back on a year that has been rich in new music, some from very well established artists, and some from entirely new comers. Here are themilkfactory’s twenty favourite records of the year, and this year for the first time, this list is augmented with thirty other records that have marked the year.

With no less than four albums in the top 20, the year belonged to Rune Grammofon, and more particularly to Supersilent, who occupy two places, including the top spot. Room40 also place two albums in the twenty best records on 2010, while new imprints Desire Path, Hibernate and Textura also feature with some strong releases.

1.

SUPERSILENT
10
Rune Grammofon

2.

CHRIS ABRAHAMS
Play Scar
Room40

3.

PHONOPHANI
Kreken
Rune Grammofon

4.

STIAN WESTERHUS
Pitch Black Star Spangled
Rune Grammofon

5.

SOLO ANDATA
Ritual
Desire Path Recordings

6.

RENE HELL
Porcelain Opera
Type Recordings

7.

PAN SONIC
Gravitoni
Blast First Petite

8.

FENNESZ DANIELL BUCK
Knoxville
Thrill Jockey

9.

K11/PIETRO RIPARBELLI & PHILIPE PETIT
The Haunting Triptych
Boring Machines

10.

ERIK K. SKODVIN
Flare
Sonic Pieces

11.

COCOROSIE
Grey Oceans
PIAS Recordings

12.

SUPERSILENT
11
Rune Grammofon

13.

MINAMO + LAWRENCE ENGLISH
A Path Less Travelled
Room40

14.

BJ NILSEN
The Invisible City
Touch

15.

ARANDEL
In D
InFiné

16.

FOOD
Quiet Inlet
ECM Records

17.

ANDREA FERRARIS & MATTEO UGGERI WITH MUJIKA EASEL & ANDREA SERRAPIGLIO
Autumn Is Coming, We’re All In Slow Motion
Hibernate Recordings

18.

AUTECHRE
Oversteps
Warp Records

19.

MAINS DE GIVRE
Esther Marie
Textura

20.

DAWN OF MIDI
First
Accretions

… AND 30 MORE ESSENTIAL ALBUMS

21. BENOIT PIOULARD Lasted (Kranky)
22. PHILIPPE PETIT & FRIENDS A Scent Of Garmambrosia (Aagoo Records)
23. K-X-P K-X-P (Smalltown Supersound)
24. CLEM LEEK Holly Lane (Hibernate Recordings)
25. TO ROCOCO ROT Speculation (Domino Recordings Co.)
26. ANDREA MARUTTI/FAUSTO BALBO Detrimental Dialogue (AEF Records/Boring Machines/Fratto9 Under The Sky)
27. TAYLOR DEUPREE Shoals (12K)
28. K11 Metaphonic Portrait: 1230 A.D. (Actual Noise Records)
29. HAUSCHKA Foreign Landscapes (130701/Fat-Cat Records)
30. THE BLACK DOG Music For Real Airports (Soma Recording)

31. CHICAGO UNDERGROUND DUO Boca Negra (Thrill Jockey)
32. LUGANO FELL Slice Repair (Baskaru)
33. TVO/THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (Broken20)
34. JOANNA NEWSOM Have One On Me (Drag City)
35. ICARUS All Is For The Best In The Best Of All Possible Worlds (Not Applicable)
36. ESKMO Eskmo (Ninja Tune)
37. ROOF LIGHT Kirkwood Gaps (Highpoint Lowlife)
38. NIK BÄRTSCH’S RONIN Llyrìa (ECM Records)
39. ON Something That Has Form And That Does Not (Type Recordings)
40. JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees (Type Recordings)

41. SEELAND How To Live (LoAF)
42. DANÍEL BJARNASON Processions (Bedroom Community)
43. STRIË Sléptis (Soundscaping Records)
44. BILL WELLS & STEFAN SCHNEIDER Pianotapes (Karaoke Kalk)
45. TALVIHORROS Music In Four Movements (Hibernate Recordings)
46. MARCUS FJELLSTRÖM Schattenspieler (Miasmah Recordings)
47. MAX RICHTER Infra (130701/Fat-Cat Records)
48. RJ VALEO Atman (Io Records)
49. RICHARD SKELTON Landings (Type Recordings)
50. BIRD SHOW BAND Bird Show Band (Amish Records)

FENNESZ DANIELL BUCK
Knoxville
THRILL246
Thrill Jockey 2010
04 Tracks. 31mins07secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP Norman Records: CD | LP

Improvisation is an art form which Christian Fennesz, David Daniell and Tony Buck have made theirs in their respective field. Recorded live at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee at the beginning of last year, this album documents the trio’s first ever performance as an ensemble. Having never performed before was never going to be an issue for these three veterans of live improvisation. On one side is Australian drummer and percussionist extraordinaire Tony Buck, best known as one third of The Necks, with whom he has been performing and recording for twenty years. On the other are Atlanta-born David Daniell, who, beside his solo work, has collaborated with an impressive number of musicians over the years, from Thurston Moore and Douglas McCombs to Greg Davis or Sylvain Chauveau, and Austrian experimental guitarist and laptop artist Christian Fennesz, whose list of collaborators is equally as impressive, including people as diverse as Jim O’Rourke, Peter Rehberg, David Sylvian, Ryuichi Sakamoto or, recently, Sylvain Chauveau and Steven Hess.

Knoxville barely makes it to the half hour mark, but the trio pack in an incredible lot during that time as the set, split into four tracks of roughly the same length, continuously shifts between quiet sequences, where Buck’s extremely detailed and textural use of a rich and varied percussive palette often fills the sonic space, and much denser moments as the guitars, both processed and raw, become more prominent. The album opens with extremely faint brushes of metallic friction and shimmering touches of cymbals, from which progressively emerge gentle guitar forms, which eventually become more incisive and distorted. Cutting through layers of distortions and feedback, Buck responds by intensifying his cymbal work and adding rumbles of bass drums and toms, before the piece settles again and turns into Heat From Light. Treated guitars, electronics and drums are caught in a much tighter power struggle from the start here, but, far from working against each other, the trio build up the intensity of their sound as a whole and seriously increase the level of electricity running through it, until all three retreat as one and move on.

Of the four sections of the set, Antonia is by far the most atmospheric and, at times incredibly ethereal. Building on a backdrop of distortions, Fennesz layers some wonderfully airy guitar textures, at times reminiscent of Robin Guthrie or Kevin Shields, over which Daniell carves a series of delicate motifs which add to the somewhat pastoral moment, but these soon become entangled with the processed distortions scattered all over Diamond Mind, and struggle to regain a dominant position. Meanwhile, Buck once again brightens the mood by deploying an array of metallic percussions and bells, adding fine kickdrum and tom work as the intensity rises again, until the piece reaches its chaotic paroxysm when all three musicians combine their energy to give this set a last deafening blow.

While it is impossible to capture the obvious tension and energy in its entirety, Knoxville still manages to document the incredible synergy between all three musicians involved and the superb level of mutual understanding of each other’s natural space. Despite its brief format, this album is particularly dense and exciting, and can only leave the listener want for more.

4.8/5

Fennesz | David Daniell | Thrill Jockey
Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP Norman Records: CD | LP

FOOD
Quiet Inlet
2734919
ECM Records 2010
07 Tracks. 46mins58secs

Amazon UK: CD iTunes: DLD

Formed around the nucleus of British saxophonist Iain Ballamy and Norwegian drummer and percussionist extraordinaire Thomas Strønen, Food once also counted trumpet player Arve Henriksen and bass player Mats Eilertsen as permanent members. The quartet debuted over twelve years ago when Ballamy joined the three Norwegian musicians for a one-off performance on stage. A self-titled album, then a second, Organic & GM Food, two years on, followed, both published on Ballamy’s short-lived Feral Records, before the quartet moved to Rune Grammofon, where they released two more albums, Veggie (2002) and Last Supper (2004), before both Henriksen and Eilertsen left, leaving Ballamy and Strønen sole in charge for the 2006 album Molecular Gastronomy. The pair regularly perform with additional contributors, and it is two of these occasions that have been captured for Quiet Inlet, Food’s sixth album, and their first for ECM.

Built around live recordings made at Oslo’s legendary Blå club in 2007 and at the Molde Festival in 2008, Quiet Inlet sees Food joined by Austrian experimental guitarist Christian Fennesz and Norwegian trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær, the former contributing to three tracks (Tobiko, Mictyris and Fathom), the latter to four (Chimaera, Becalmed, Cirrina and Dweller). Like with every Food release until now, Quiet Inlet is a highly textural and atmospheric record, focussed primarily on Strønen’s exquisite percussive displays and gentle electronics, which serves as a stunning backdrop for Ballamy’s evocative melodic motifs, in turn on tenor and soprano sax.

It is perhaps Molvær’s contribution which is most immediately apparent here as he weaves his own improvisations around Ballamy’s, evoking for a moment Food of years past as the warm glow of the trumpet circles around the softer sound of the soprano sax on Chimaera and Cirrina. On the introspective Becalmed, the pair enter into a fascinating dialogue, both players stepping out in turn at first, then echoing each other’s lines in the second half of the piece. Fennesz remains a more discreet presence on the three tracks he is featured on, his often visceral live noise processing kept well under wrapped here as he favours instead discreet brushes of treated guitars on Mictyris and Fathom, creating wonderfully ethereal moments, especially on the latter, and adds fragments of gritty electronics on album opener Tobiko, which is swept by a powerful wind in its later part, growing increasingly cold and piercing as Strønen’s drumming becomes more defined and assertive.

This ECM debut finds Food in fine form, Ballamy and Strønen effortlessly continuing to reinvent their sound while retaining the principles that have, until now, served them well. Strønen does here what he does best, providing the backbone for these improvisations to flourish, with Fennesz adding some interesting textures to the duo’s natural environment, and it is a pleasure to hear Iain Ballamy once again battling it out with a trumpet player, and he finds in Nils Petter Molvær an inspired companion.

4.8/5

Iain Ballamy | Iain Ballamy (MySpace) | Thomas Strønen | Thomas Strønen (MySpace) | ECM Records
Amazon UK: CD iTunes: DLD

Natural Snow Building is a French duo formed of Mehdi Ameziane and classically trained cellist and pianist Solange Gularte, who met over a decade ago in Paris and whose records, often released in very limited quantities, have gained much praise and respect since. Opening the hostilities for this performance at St Giles in the Fields church, niched in the heart of London’s West End between Soho and Covent Garden, Natural Snow Building spent the major part of their set weaving layers of distorted guitars into a tapestry of dissonant drones, Ameziane and Gularte apparently evolving in their own universe, but converging to a central point. Ameziane provided the bulk of the cloud of noise, Gularte knitting faux melodic features over the top, until the distortion dissipated unexpectedly to leave just a few guitar textures floating in mid air. A ghostly voice then rose from the debris of the previous twenty or so minutes, feminine in aspect, yet belonging to Ameziane, who over the last few minutes of the set blew a gentle breeze over a rather stunned audience.

An Autumnal chill came down on St Giles with the next set, as a persistent wind engulfed the venue, catching distant vocals in its grip while shadows of leaves blown in all directions were projected onto the back of the church.  Rising from this seasonal setting, a lone guitar materialised for a moment before a gentle loop took its place, providing the backdrop for the voice to lie in.

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Grouper is the solo project of Elizabeth Harris, who has released a string of albums on Free Porcupine Society, Root Strata and more recently Type. In this particular setting, her ethereal vocals, occasionally layered into choral form, framed by desolate soundscapes, appeared oddly at home. Cast into a series of meditative pieces, the gently swirling voices, cloudy guitar textures and atmospheric soundscapes invited to pause and reflect for a moment. Like an infinitely hazier and denser version of the Cocteau Twins, and with a very different guitar/voice context, Grouper dispensed a handful of elegant songs with extreme parsimony, blending them gracefully to the point where it became totally impossible to distinguished where one ended and another began, or indeed whether the whole thing was one long journey through crumbling surroundings.

Topping the bill was Christian Fennesz, master of gravity-defying guitar textures and laptop wizardry. Coming all the way from Vienna, where he performed the night before, and looking quite the dandy in an aquamarine blue jacket, dark shirt and floppy hair, his set denoted, right from the start, a serious increase in volume, with vibrations rushing through the church’s walls and floor. Entirely engulfed in dense yet surprisingly clear layers of distortion, treated through effects and processed extensively, at times to become totally alien and hostile, at others resembling post industrial decay or, on rare occasions, feeling almost pastoral, the granular guitar textures which serve as main feed for his work appeared caught in relentless sonic ebb and flow throughout.

There are few more rewarding moments than when these walls of sound occasionally collapse into a single heavenly chord, and that is exactly what Fennesz offered barely fifteen minutes in, amidst a violent, deafening storm which had, no doubt, the entrails of the whole audience pulsating with cardinal fear. Calm followed, for a moment at least, but as ever with Fennesz, clouds gathered again, bringing with them more visceral torment. At such level, the music is not so much heard as felt. It becomes unmistakably concrete, every abrasion felt like raw tarmac hit at high speed. Fennesz is expert at inflicting such experience on an audience, and its only relief comes amidst the pain, dispensed as another comforting, albeit ephemeral, chord. In contrast, moments of relative quietude are only potent manifestations of the waves that are bound to follow.

One such wave never quite made it though, as, right in the middle of possibly the most delightful moment of his set, the sound cut off entirely, leaving the man alone, standing, guitar in hand, his set irremediably cut short at a key section, trying to comprehend what was happening before retreating, defeated, under the warm cheers of the crowd. Fennesz had, it seemed, just been preparing us for the masterful blow that he was in the process of delivering. Technology might have let him down but this shortened set is a vivid, if involuntary, expression that Fennesz’s best is possibly still to come.

Fennesz | Fennesz (MySpace) | Grouper (MySpace) | Natural Snow Buildings (MySpace)

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Musique Pour Statues Menhirs
ARBOU026
Arbouse Recordings 2009
21 Tracks. 123mins59secs

The musée Fenaille, in Rodez, South of France, is an archaeological museum which has in its collection a wide array of ‘statues menhirs’, or carved stones which are the first known life-size representations of man. Local record label Arbouse Recordings commissioned a number of artists to create a soundtrack for the museum collection, each providing one track to the project, and three of them were later invited to perform live in the museum.

The panel of musicians and sound artists invited to take part to the project is extremely diverse, with the likes of Fennesz, Benoît Pioulard, John Hughes, Sylvain Chauveau, Greg Davis, Schneider TM, Mapstation, Mira Calix or Jasper TX, rubbing shoulders with less known contributors such as ww.lowman, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Astrïd, Serafina Steer, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma or Orla Wren to create a truly evocative and sumptuous document which constantly shifts between dense soundscapes, ambient electronic, delicate avant-folk or truly experimental, yet appears surprisingly consistent and meaningful. And this is very much the tour de force achieved with this record, to combine musicians coming from such diverse backgrounds and create a very coherent piece.

Initially, Fennesz, Rafael Anton Irisarri, David Daniell,  ww.lowman or Benoît Pioulard create somewhat sombre and meditative pieces with their respective contributions, while Parlour offers the much more contrasted A Permanent Night, breaking up the mood for a moment, but soon the tone becomes richer, more diverse, first with the beautiful I Guess This Is Yours That You Haven’t Picked, by young British harpist Serafina Steer, who processes her instrument and renders it through moody electronics, then with the delicate motifs created by John Hughes or Astrïd, the former in a predominantly electronic register, the latter with guitars, strings, double bass and clarinet.

Later on, abstract sound formations of the likes created by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Greg Davis or Schneider TM, find their place next to much lighter and melodic pieces, from Orla Wren and Zelienople to Nathan Bell, Melodium or Mapstation, while Sylvain Chauveau creates the typically bare and sparse La Chanson Des Pierres, which almost appears to mimic the static nature of the stones at the heart of the project. Mira Calix’s epic contribution is built from sounds sourced from stones of various sizes and ornamented with abstract string work, electronics and field recordings. Later, Jasper TX, who is closing proceedings, offers a typical piece where processed guitars and field recordings are arranged into incredibly vast and ambitious soundscapes. Just before, vs_price launches a virulent electronic assault on this otherwise relatively introspective project.

Musique Pour Statues Menhirs is a project like no other, and the resulting soundtrack is nothing short of stunning. It is difficult to understand fully how these compositions could work within the context of the permanent exhibition of the museum’s collection of carved stones, but the great variety of approach and genres collated here works surprisingly well as a standalone piece and acts as one of the strongest document of contemporary music heard in a long time.

4.8/5

Arbouse Recordings | Musée Fenaille

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Touch 25
TONE25
Touch 2006
25 Tracks. 79mins43secs

With a solid twenty-five years at the forefront of contemporary music, releasing music by artists as diverse as The Hafler Trio, Sweet Exorcist, Sandoz, Oren Ambarchi, Chris Watson, Scala, Philip Jeck, Mika Vainio, Biosphere, Christian Fennesz, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ryoji Ikeda or BJ Nilsen to name but a fraction, Touch have collected one of the most impressive and inspired catalogues around, encompassing a wide array of genres, from noise to post-modern classical, ambient and electronic.

To celebrate this massive slab of work, the label, founded in 1982 by Jon Wozencroft Mike Harding, Nevelle Brody and Andrew McKenzie, of Hafler Trio fame, have put together a collection of twenty-five exclusive tracks from the likes of Biosphere, Fennesz, Pan Sonic, Chris Watson, Mark Van Hoen, Rafael Toral, Mother Tongue, BJ Nilsen, Philip Jeck and many more. Touch 25 doesn’t intend to document the label’s history, and only seems to give a vague and short insight into the various musical grounds covered by these artists, yet it is true to the label’s ethic in every way, from the instantly recognisable cover artwork, by Wozencroft to the depth and reach of each one of the tracks featured. Acting as inserts are seven short pieces, scattered all across the album, none of them attributed to a particular artist. Set against fully developed compositions, these short intervals regularly bring in some fresh air and occasionally provide some welcome light relief.

Right from the outset of Gotland, contributed by BJ Nilsen, which opens the album, the tone is set. In this short piece (1’47), the Swedish composer works found sounds into an ebbing and flowing structure which eventually morphs into a vague white noise blob before merging into the first interlude. The mood here is somewhat introvert, with Nilsen taking the ambient scope which he has been developing in one way or another since his Morthond days to its environmental noise extreme. Orem Ambarchi’s Moving Violation is a stern and mournful drone-based composition. Here, he processes electric guitar sounds into an ever-changing drone where traces of statics and feedback provide the clearest signs of life. Fennesz’s Tree is, in comparison, a far more approachable affair. Built on the sonic shards of an acoustic guitar, the man constructs a delicate and peaceful composition. While Chris Watson’s double contributions rely heavily on found sounds, the next couple of tracks steer this compilation towards a more urban tone, first with Mother Tongue’s tribal Rewording, a track recorded back in 1988, then with Peter Rehberg’s minimal TT1205. Yet, while Pan Sonic juggle for a moment between post-industrial and desolate ambiences, it is back to more introvert pieces with contributions from Jóhann Jóhannsson, Ryoji Ikeda, Philip Jeck and Bruce Gilbert. Only Mark Van Hoen’s dreamy Put My Trust In You appears somewhat connected to reality. The album concludes with the bucolic Spring Fever, from Biosphere, and Rosy Parlane’s haunting Atlantis.

While Touch 25 doesn’t represent a comprehensive review of the label’s outputs over it’s twenty-five year history and is only a fraction of what the Touch team have put together to celebrate this major milestone, it still represents an important release and proves to be a truly essential collection. Although there is an undeniable consistency all throughout, each track reveals one of the facets of this most stimulating of labels.

Explore: Touch
Further reading: Touch 25
Buy: CD