CEZARY GAPIK
The Sum Of Disappearing Sound
KR008
Karlrecords 2012
04 Tracks. 54mins44secs

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

Although he started as a punk activist in his native Poland in the early eighties, at a time when the country was facing the first onslaughts of the huge struggle to escape the grip of communism which would characterise the next few years, Cezary Gapik went on to widen his musical horizon greatly as he discovered Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and Public Image Limited, and, later, the musical experiments of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morten Feldman or La Monte Young. His own production, for the most part self-released, has been nothing short of prolific since 1999, but his official debut release came only last year on the excellent White Box Recordings with Contrast I, the first of three instalments planned for the label.

The Sum Of Disappearing Sound is quite an epic offering and is articulated around four atmospheric pieces clocking between eleven and sixteen minutes. Continue Reading »

PHILIPPE PETIT
Off To Titan: A Rework Of Gustav Mahler’s Symphonic Poem
KR006
Karlrecords 2010
03 Tracks. 59mins34secs

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

Philipe Petit’s Off To Titan is based on Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, often referred to as Titan, a piece he composed toward the end of the 1880s when he was in his mid twenties. The work was originally deemed a failure as it showcased some unconventional forms for the time, a view shared by Petit who sees it as a precursor to contemporary music. His reworking of Mahler’s symphony retains much of the original’s orchestral grandeur, but places it in a very different context, and highlights its cosmic perspective with added electronics. Working from a recording of the piece which he re-edits, distorts, stretches to alter its path, Petit applies various brush intensity throughout, at times seemingly restraining his interventions to let the music follow its natural course, at other more openly layering entire sections, adding electronic touches or distorting the source recording to create new musical components. Continue Reading »