RED MOON (musick & other arts)

MARCHETTI LIONEL & ROCHE BRUNO

DANS LA MONTAGNE (KI KEN TAÏ)


Original Issue: 2003 Chloë (chloë004)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

A must for all musickheadz loving both Marchetti and Kendo (the japonese "way of the sword"). Do not miss this one!

P.S. Do you agree with Foxy Digitalis review???

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

1 Dans La Montagne (Ki Ken Taï)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Incursion:

Twelve minutes of mysterious sounds, screams, exclamations, musique concrète, during which you might think that you've tapped into a radio broadcast from some secret torture chamber, but which more likely has been constructed from recordings of Kendo sessions, aural glimpses into the art of Japanese swordsmanship, to which the subtitle "Ki Ken Taï" refers, something of the integration of spirit, sword and body.

Thus abstracted from their sources, the sounds have an alarming effect, I winced as I listened to each cry, to each scream and exclamation, shuddered as I heard the clash of bamboo sticks, or perhaps even swords, amazed and alarmed at the strange echoes in this theatre for the ears, which impresses a feeling of confrontation, of immediacy, an exquisite discomfort.

And indeed, it seems only natural that this piece was composed for radio, and even won a prize at the Muse en Circuit radiophonic competition. The recordings were made in 1996, and are released for the first time on Mike Bullock's always intriguing, always challenging label, Chloë Recordings, based somewhere in the heart Boston, Massachusetts.

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Chloë:

This piece dates from 1996 and is a complement to Lionel's acclaimed 3" CDs on Metamkine from the same era. It's 12" long and it will make your hair stand on end. It's based on the sounds of Kendo, the Japanese art of swordplay (though in this case, the sounds come from students using bamboo rods instead of swords).

"In the mountain, the art of gesture and cry searches for the breathable height of an unblocked space: It's a pulp made in the combative heat of a bamboo reed. This space, delineated and open by sound, allows me to live in the game of its depths and surfaces, of its raucous materials, of silence and of shouting, of the colors of a body escaping in a breath ... Raining sky beneath a tireless sun.

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Foxy Digitalis:

This is incredibly bad. My older cousin use to try and scare me by inviting me into his room and closing the door and blocking it from my exit. He would then turn off the lights and try to frighten me. I think what scared me more than anything else was just the fact that he was trying to frighten me.

This record is a collage of ?hellish? sounds. Moans, groans, clanking chains, werewolves, post-Halloween discounted candy and all other things creepy and crawly. It is a soundtrack to Hieronymus Bosch?s painting ?The Last Judgement? or a collage of audio outtakes from Van Helsing.

The artwork looks like it might even be a sample to a Bosch painting. There is a nice fidelity of sound, strange electronic intrusions and slashes across the aural canvas of inferno field recordings. But in the end the attempt to frighten comes too post-pubescence and I am all the wiser from the days of Mike Schmidt at third base and E.T.