SPILL: Fluoresce (Monotype Records)

themilkman on Sep 4th 2012 01:39 am

Spill: Fluoresce

SPILL
Fluoresce
MONO050
Monotype Records 2012
04 Tracks. 64mins58secs

For over twenty years, Tony Buck has provided, with bassist Lloyd Swanton, the rhythmic backbone of Australian improv trio The Necks, but he has been involved in many other collaborative works since, the latest of which, with Berlin-based experimental pianist Magda Mayas, comes under the name of Spill. Earlier this year, Mayas and Buck released a first album, Stockholm Syndrome, on Beirut-based imprint Al Maslakh, quickly followed by this second opus, Fluoresce, on Monotype. Mayas is herself an accomplished performer in the fields of improvisation and composition, and has played with a great number of musicians from all over the world.

To Buck’s regular panoply of drums, gongs, bells and other percussive devices, Mayas ads prepared piano, clavinet, tiger organ, Harmonium and objects. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments Off

KIM CASCONE: The Knotted Constellation (Fourteen Rotted Coordinates) (Monotype Records)

themilkman on Dec 2nd 2011 01:10 am

Kim Cascone: The Knotted Constellation (Fourteen Rotted Coordinates)

KIM CASCONE
The Knotted Constellation (Fourteen Rotted Coordinates)
MONO039
Monotype Records 2011
01 Track. 32mins52secs

 Amazon UK: CD

Although presented as one continuous piece, The Knotted Constellation is in fact, as its subtitle suggests, a series of seemingly unrelated atmospheric soundscapes based on a combination of field recordings, acoustic and electro-acoustic instrumentation and electronics. Although the field recordings were collected in various places around the globe, there are no indication of location or setting in the finished piece. The only hints are purely textual (the church bells heard in the opening sequence, tap water running into a kitchen sink, a helicopter flying overhead, the announcement, in French, warning of the imminent departure of a train), yet they contribute heavily to define the outlines of a narrative which, whilst extremely hazy and abstract, somehow manages to bind the various segments of this work together. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments (1)

MIA ZABELKA: M (Monotype Records)

themilkman on Nov 30th 2011 01:35 am

Mia Zabelka: M

MIA ZABELKA
M
MONO045
Monotype Records 2011
07 Tracks. 59mins46secs

It couldn’t be simpler: one letter, one performer, one instrument, and a battery of effects and electronics. Yet, M is anything but a simple and straightforward record.

Hailing from Vienna, and currently residing in the south eastern Austrian province of Styria where she founded the Klang.haus, a centre for sound and interdisciplinary arts in 2007, Mia Zabelka is an experimental violinist who has performed all over the world. A classically-trained musician and composer who has since developed a style all of her own for which she combines electric violin, voice and electronics. She has won the Prix Ars Electronica no less than three times, regularly performs as part of One.Night.Band, a loose collective she founded with experimental multi-instrumentist and composer Zahra Mani in 2002, and has released a number of solo and collaborative works on a variety of labels.

Published on the decidedly excellent Monotype Records, M was entirely composed and performed by Zabelka. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments Off

EUGENE S. ROBINSON & PHILIPPE PETIT: The Crying Of Lot 69 (Monotype Records)

themilkman on Oct 11th 2011 01:45 am

Eugene S. Robinson & Philippe Petit: The Crying Of Lot 69

EUGENE S. ROBINSON & PHILIPPE PETIT
The Crying Of Lot 69
MONO040
Monotype Records 2011
06 Tracks. 43mins52secs

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

The first time that American writer and vocalist Eugene S. Robinson and French sound artist Philippe Petit worked together was for Petit’s [reciprocess +/-] album, released two years ago on Bip Hop. Since, Petit has gone on to record a string of particularly dense and impressive  albums, some documenting momentary collaborations, others developed into extensive partnerships (Pietro Riparbelli, Lydia Lunch, Chapter 24 or Vultures Quartet).

The vocalist with San Francisco-based experimental/noise outfit Oxbow, with whom he has released a number of records since their 1989 debut Fuckfest, Eugene S. Robinson is also a renown writer who has been published in GQ, The Wire, SF Weekly, Plan B, Hustler and many more publications, and is the author of two books, Fight and A Long Slow Screw, published in the last five years. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments Off

SCANNER + DAVID ROTHENBERG: You Can’t Get There From Here (Monotype Records)

themilkman on Sep 27th 2011 01:27 am

Scanner + David Rothenberg: You Can't Get There From Here

SCANNER + DAVID ROTHENBERG
You Can’t Get There From Here
MONO038
Monotype Records 2011
11 Tracks. 58mins57secs

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

It is not the first time that Scanner’s Robin Rimbaud has confronted his elegant electronica with jazz. Only last year, his encounter with the Post Modern Jazz Quartet was received very favourably, while his extensive work has over the year lead him to collaborate with a wide spectrum of sound artists and musicians coming for extremely diverse horizons, from David Shea, Kim Cascone or David Toop to DJ Spooky, Si-Cut.db or Alva Noto. He has also performed live and produced sound and art installations all over the world.

You Can’t Get There From Here sees him collaborate for the first time with philosopher and clarinetist David Rothenberg. A professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute Of Technology in Newark, NJ, Rothenberg has published a number of books and studies on communication between species through music. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments Off

LIONEL MARCHETTI: Une Saison (Monotype Records)

themilkman on Jul 27th 2011 01:48 am

Lionel Marchetti: Une Saison

LIONEL MARCHETTI
Une Saison
MONO036
Monotype Records 2011
06 Tracks. 86mins33secs

Norman Records: CD

Une Saison collects four works from French musique concrète composer Lionel Marchetti composed between 1993 and 2000. While a relatively unknown musician and sound artist, Marchetti has been recording since the beginning of the 1990s, and has been working as part of the Groupe De Recherche Musicales in Paris since 1993. He also organises regular workshops centered on the recorded sound, electro-acoustic music, musique concrète and what he calls the art of the loudspeaker. Beside his work with sound, he also writes poetry and has published a number of essays on musique concrète. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments Off

WASTELL & MARHAUG: Kiss Of Acid (Monotype Records)

themilkman on Jul 20th 2011 01:25 am

Wastell & Marhaug: Kiss Of Acid

WASTELL & MARHAUG
Kiss Of Acid
MONO033
Monotype Records 2011
01 Track. 41mins45secs

Amazon US: CD Norman Records: CD

‘Some guy in Norway making noise’. So goes Lasse Marhaug’s Twitter profile and it is fair to say that it is a pretty accurate description of the man’s extensive body of work. Kiss Of Acid is quite a different proposition altogether. This album is the result of a collaboration in the looser meaning of the term. Wastell and Marhaug never actually recorded together, or even defined any part of the idea behind the record as a working pair. The project started almost ten years ago when Wastell hired a 32” tam tam to use for a performance in Paris which never actually happened. Left with the instrument for the weekend, Wastell used the opportunity to arrange a recording session. The resulting sound sources were later sent to Marhaug who modeled and processed them into a series of slow evolutive drone formations. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments Off

LYDIA LUNCH & PHILIPPE PETIT: Twist Of Fate (Monotype Records) / PHILIPPE PETIT: Philippe Petit Scores Henry: The Iron Man (Aagoo Records)

themilkman on Mar 10th 2011 08:47 pm

Lydia Lunch & Philippe Petit: Twist Of Fate Philippe Petit: Philippe Petit Scores Henry: The Iron Man

LYDIA LUNCH & PHILIPPE PETIT
Twist Of Fate
MONO035CDVD
Monotype Records 2011
08 Tracks. 47mins34secs / 06 Chapters. 43mins01secs

PHILIPPE PETIT
Philippe Petit Scores Henry: The Iron Man
AGO030
Aagoo Records 2011
03 Tracks. 40mins17secs

LYDIA LUNCH & PHILIPPE PETIT: Twist Of Fate
Amazon UK: DLD US: DLD Boomkat: CD + DVD iTunes: DLD
PHILIPPE PETIT: Philippe Petit Scores Henry: The Iron Man
Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Twist Of Fate documents the creative partnership between American songstress, poet, writer and actress Lydia Lunch and French experimental sound artist and turntablist Philippe Petit across an album and a DVD. Lunch emerged in the mid-seventies as part of No Wave combo Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, which formed in New York in 1976, and has maintained the same fiercely individual and independent spirit for over thirty years. Her considerable body of work spans countless solo records, collaborations with anyone from Einstürzende Neubauten, Henry Rollins or Sonic Youth to Oxbow and Omar Rodríguez-López, as well as numerous films, books and plays.

A journalist, record label owner and musician, Philippe Petit has been a figure of the underground music scene for over twenty five years, yet his first solo release, Henry: The Iron Man, only came out in 2009. Since though, he has delivered a number of essential records on labels such as Boring Machines, Aagoo, Sub Rosa or Trace Recordings, collaborating with numerous artists and musicians often operating as Philippe Petit & Friends. He his also one of the masterminds behind Strings Of Consciousness, a loose collective counting some twenty more or less regular members.

On Twist Of Fate, the pair bring together their respective sonic universe into a bleak and disturbing soundtrack. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments (2)

Z’EV + JASON KAHN: Intervals (Monotype Records)

themilkman on Feb 4th 2011 01:36 am

Z'ev + Jason Kahn: Intervals

Z’EV + JASON KAHN
Intervals
MONO032
Monotype Records 2010
02 Tracks. 47mins31secs

Intervals documents the first collaboration between two American experimental artists, recorded during two concerts in Lausanne and Zürich in April 2009. Z’ev, born Stefan Weisser in Los Angeles in the early fifties, is a poet and percussionist who has been active in industrial music for near on forty years, and has released an impressive number of solo and collaborative records. Over the years, Z’ev has worked with the likes of Stephen O’Malley, BJ Nilsen, Max Eastley, Merzbow, Oren Ambarchi and many more. Almost ten years his junior, New York-born Jason Kahn, who now lives in Switzerland, also a drummer and percussionist, has been making music since the early eighties, either as part of various formations or as a solo artist. His work also incorporate sound installations, scores and radio work.

While the pair had been in contact once before, a few years ago, they didn’t actually meet until Z’ev, who was due to visit Geneva, suggested some live performances together. Using Kahn’s recording of the two evenings, Z’ev built the two pieces collected here. Continue Reading »

Filed in Albums | Comments Off