FULL STRAWBERRY MOON (07 June 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

DEUTSCH NEPAL

TOLERANCE


Original Issue: 1994 Staalplaat (STCD 067)

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Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

Psycho-active musick!!! Handle with care

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1 Horses Give Birth To Flies (7:54)
2 Tolerance 1 (2:25)
3 Manual To Utilization (6:03)
4 Tolerance 2 (2:59)
5 The Eagles Gift (13:39)
6 Tolerance 3 (4:48)
7 Nonexistance (10:14)
8 Tolerance 4 (2:07)
9 Chip Chop (7:11)
10 End Of Tolerance (3:36)
11 Deathmanners (0:07)

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from Electric Shock Treatment:

I've been mildly fascinated by Deutsch Nepal's earlier work, but this is the business, where Lina's experiments have borne fruit to create a stunning disc of darkly brooding music.

Opener Horses Give Birth To Flies rides in on pounding hooves and disconnected horse whinnies, laid over ominous keyboards.

The rest of the album continues in a similar vein, with ocean-deep rumbles throbbing away beneath insect twitters and discordant electronic grinding noises. Voices echo in the distance, bass sequences turn inside out and upside down, drones swing around each other like stalking wolves. Such disturbing listening makes for interesting dreams.

ALCHEMICAL MOON (transformation musick)

RABELAIS AKIRA

SPELLEWAUERYNSHERDE

Original Issue: 2004 Samadhi Sound (sound cd ss003) Buy it here!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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1		1382 Wyclif Gen. II. 7 And Spiride In To The Face Of Hym An Entre Of Breth Of Lijf. (6:18)
2		1390 Gower Conf. II. 20 I Can Noght Thanne Unethes Spelle That I Wende Altherbest Have Rad. (7:24)
3		1440 Promp. Parv. 518/2 Wawyn, Or Waueryn, Yn A Myry Totyr, Oscillo. (6:36)
4		1483 Caxton Golden Leg. 208 B/2 He Put Not Away The Wodenes Of His Flessh With A Sherde Or Shelle. (21:15)
5		1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 125 Within Which Draw An Other Circle, A Finger Bredth Distant. (0:44)
6		(Gorgeous Curves Lovely Fragments Labyrinthed On Occasions Entwined Charms, A Few Stories At Any Longer Sworn To Gathered From A Guileless Angel And The Hilt Edges Of Old Hearts, If They Do In The Guilt Of Deep Despondency.) (6:09)
7		1671 Milton Samson 1122 Add Thy Spear, A Weavers Beam, And Seven-Times-Folded Shield. (8:06)

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from Samadhi Sound homepage:

What Rabelais has come up with in Spellewauerynsherde, is a haunting spiritual disk that sounds at once medieval, especially framed by Rabelais' beautiful texts, while at the same time, on the cutting edge of electronic music.

Digital technologies, with their use of permutation and combination of seemingly unrelated elements, bring us back to the world of magic, which also sought to transform matter in ways that give it spiritual significance.

Spellewauerynsherde brings back voices from the edges of history, tapes gathering dust in archives, and transforms them into ghosts that thrive in the digital era, albeit in sometimes monstrous forms.

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from Boomkat:

Akira Rebalais is an artist cloaked in mystery, try unlocking the secrets on his magical website, an Irdialesque warren of coded messages, revelatory software programs, cryptic poems and serious essays.

...

Undertaking a project to transfer from tape to digital some old tape recordings of Icelandic vocal lament songs presumed to have been recording in the 1960's Akira claims to have been completely obsessed by them to an extent where he wished to incorporate the vocals into his own music.

'1382 Wyclif Gen. ii. 7' - the single voice swept up into an echoic overlapping framework, subtely falling apart until a strong wind blows across a group of microphones - astonishing.

'1390 Glower Conf. II.20' is a more melancholic song, one which would lie perfectly within context in one of Ingmar Bergman's stark films like 'Winter Light' and 'Shame'.

'1440 Promp Parv. 518/20' finds Akira hightening the ghostly quality of this vocal through reverb, echo and subdued time stretch that would make a Chris Morris disturbathon sketch even more effective.

'1483 Caxton Golden Leg, 208b/2' stretches out for over twenty minutes feeling like a floating fogbound rework of Gyorgy Ligeti's 'Lux Aeterna'.

To round up 'Spellewauerynsherde' brings to myself memories of loved one's passed, favourite films that haunt your consciousness for weeks after viewing and make you want to revisit your favourite spiritually enhancing CD's.

Not many album's will move you in quite the way that this album does. Believe.

STONED MOON (pscikadilik musick)

JACKMAN DAVID

SOL MARA

Original Issue: 1989 Dom Bartwuchs (DOM BW 01C)

Reissue: 1999 Die Stadt/Robot Records (DS19/RR-21)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

Under-rated mind-bending minimalist masterpiece!
High volume listening is recommended for maximum effect

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1 Sol Mara (10:55)
2 Sol Mara (10:17)
3 Sol Mara (20:41)
4 Sol Mara (17:27)

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from The Wire (issue 185):

Irascible maverick and one-time Scratch Orchestra member David Jackman is best known for Organum which specialises in grating noise blizzards, ambient environmental sound and metallic screeching, all with a striking ritualistic quality.

But the solo album, Sol Mara, takes a very different track. First released as a one sided record included with Organum's Ikon, its CD version accompanies the original with three variations, all built entirely from looped samples of bamboo flute.

It lies somewhere between the Fourth World music of Jon Hassell, a limpid, reverie set in a World Music netherzone, and ponderous, hypnotic minimalism.

FULL STRAWBERRY MOON (18 June 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

ZOVIET FRANCE

WHAT IS NOT TRUE

Original Issue: 1993 Charrm (CHARRMCD17)

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

I've been often asked about my favorite-all-times-album; as you can imagine it is somewhat impossible provide a credible answer to such a request; when one's has listened to thousands of records it is a true nightmare trying to put them in any sequential order.

Without any doubt the same question, formulated once a day for one year, would receive 365 different answers.

Anyway Zoviet France's "What is not true" is for sure one of my favorite because it is made of my own essence - dark, ritual, ethereal, esoteric, mysterious - and has provided me with excellent out-of-body-experiences during all these years.

One record that MUST be present in every DEEP LISTENER's collection.

1 Public Service Announcement
2 Not Just What To Say
3 Cyclonic Sub Alien

from group website:

:z*f:'s live masterpiece, combining samples and atmospheric electronics into a work of what Phil England described as "unreserved beauty" (The Wire July 95). The extended, awe-inspiring Cyclonic Sub Alien, which accounts for two-thirds of the total duration of the CD ends the disc as it began - with a distant Shipping Forecast - over an endless, shifting drone: a truly transcendental experience!

from Trouser Press:

The far superior (respect to "Vienna") "What Is Not True" assembles three long tracks from shows in Sheffield and Nottingham into a work of album-like cohesion. The 54-minute closer "Cyclonic Sub Alien" is a masterpiece of shifting drones that develop slowly into an ungodly cavern of noise before ending with the ghostly floating voices of a distant broadcast. Magnificent head music, to say the least.

Scott Lewis / Jesse Simon

REVOLUTION MOON (groundbreaking musick)

LUCIER ALVIN

I AM SITTING IN A ROOM

Original Issue: 1981 Lovely (VR 1013)

Reissue: 1993 Lovely (LCD 1013) Buy it here!!!

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

1. I Am Sitting In A Room

from Rate Your Music:

Alvin Lucier steps into a room and sits down on a chair. He relaxes himself. And confidently he starts reading the following text. He even stutters a couple of times.

"I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice, and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is destroyed. What you will hear then are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by speech. I regard this activity, not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to smooth out any irregularities my speech might have."

On the other side of the room is a tape recorder that records the text that Mr. Lucier has just read. After having recorded it. The tape recorder plays it back. On the other side of the room the process is repeated.

Overall there process is repeated 32 times. Alvin Lucier even leaves the room after some time.

Thus the explanation of the piece is the actual piece. Can’t think of any other work of art where that is the case.

But how does it sound?

Well at first the words are clearly heard. You can even make out every phrase without any difficulty. After a couple of repetitions the words begin to sound muffled. A bit odd because of the several layers. A slight echo is almost heard but not yet. A couple of repetitions later it starts to get hard to understand the actual words. They have become a bit deformed and stretched out. New sounds seem to be emerging out of nowhere. But nothing has been added to the original text.

A repeated hollow ringing drone becomes apparent. As the words become indistinguishable after about 15 minutes. This constant pulsating hollow, ringing drone comes more and more to the foreground. A constant slight gentle drone becomes apparent somewhere in the background. This sounds/drones become more and more distinct as time passes by. Almost a carefully constructed pulsating melody. But we know that there is no such things.

The natural resonating frequencies of the room have become apparent. The drones keep on pulsating. Slowly expanding and ringing in your ears. The words have dissolved long ago. There are only these drones. The sound of the room itself. And then it stops.

Recommended to fans of drone and experimental music.

77 Ships

REVOLUTION MOON (groundbreaking musick)

OVAL

94 DISCONT

Original Issue: 1995 Mille Plateux (MP CD 13)

Reissue: 1996 Thrill Jockey (thrill 036) Buy it here!!!

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

1 Do While
2 Store Check
3 Line Extension
4 Cross Selling
5 Do While [Cmd]X

from Amazon:

94 Diskont arguably did for music what Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon did for art: contributed to artist evolution using the established traditions of the medium and smashing it all to pieces. In an era when most musicians reach decades back to rummage through the classics vaults for inspiration, 94 Diskont comes off as a refreshingly forward-thinking album that doesn't quite abandon the electronic music of yesteryear, but rather turns it on its head in previously unimaginable ways. Oval's method of making music involves manually marring compact discs (with paint, magic marker, nails...) and piecing the damaged sounds together so that the resultant outcome is a dizzying sonic stew of clicks, scratches, and fragmented melodies. His previous album, Systemisch, was a fine work of electronic minimalism, but on 94 Diskont those shards have coalesced into actual songs with increased depth and complexity.

What's so remarkable about 94 Diskont is that pure technical and theoretical innovation is here used to create something that's both intriguing and beautiful (as opposed to the pop culture-driven skipping frenzies of John Oswald). "Do While" is the album's centerpiece track: a thick, meditative piece that doesn't grow weary over its ambitious 24 minutes. Shimmering bells crackle over a hazy, four-note organ drone-the musical equivalent of sleepless exhaustion or swimming through tranquil water. Other standout tracks include the bottom-heavy, menacing "Commerce Server" and "Shop in Store," whose manic, stuttering wails bring to mind a warped superhero theme.

Uncompromising though it may be, 94 Diskont reveals itself to be more accessible with subsequent listens; the warm, gooey textures of "Do While" and "Cross Selling" effortlessly pull the listener in, and even the colder songs are stunningly provocative. If the album is difficult in its scope and methodology, it's also one that reveals no influences and takes many risks, augmented by a keen sense of melody and songcraft. If ever a case had to be made that an odd musical approach can be aesthetically enjoyable, or that an album can transform into something far greater than the sum of its parts, 94 Diskont may be all the proof you need.

Mike Newmark

BLUE MOON (musick by request)

BRYARS GAVIN
THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC
JESUS' BLOOD NEVER FAILED ME YET

Original Issue: 1975 Obscure (Obscure 1)

Reissue: 1998 Virgin (CDVE 938 7243 8 45970 2 3)


Margot-meter: 4.5 moons / 5

1. The Sinking Of The Titanic
2. Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet

Excerpt from "The Voice of New Music" by Tom Johnson:

Gavin Bryars’s Work Is Good Four Ways

Sometimes I think that the crucial question in evaluating music is not simply whether it is good or not, but in how many ways. There are plenty of pieces in every category that excel in one way or another. But once in a while one finds a piece that crosses many boundaries, has many facets, and somehow manages to excel from a whole lot of points of view. That is the case with a piece by the British composer Gavin Bryars. The work, ‘Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet,’ occupies a side of a recent album issued on the new and modestly named Obscure label.

To begin with, ‘Jesus’ Blood’ is good as a piece of avant-garde minimalism. One little vocal tune repeats over and over and over, maybe 50 times in all. It’s just another tape loop really, but as in all good minimal works, the material keeps revealing more and more about itself. The tune never changes, but my perception of it shifts continually.

‘Jesus’ Blood’ is also excellent religious music. Neither the melody nor the voice are at all refined, but I believe the man totally as he sings. ‘Jesus’ blood never failed me yet. This one thing I know, that he loves me so. Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.’ He conveys the kind of sincerity and conviction that any cantor or gospel singer tries for, but which only the best ones achieve.

‘Jesus’ Blood’ also excels as a documentary recording. The singer is not a professional gospel singer at all, but just an ordinary London tramp. This recording of his meandering song reminds me of some of the best photographs I’ve seen. It’s one of those everyday street images that somehow turns out to be utterly poignant. Incidentally, a filmmaker, Alan Powers, deserves credit for capturing this anonymous tramp’s song on tape. But Bryars deserves credit for rescuing it from Powers’s outtake file.

On yet another level, ‘Jesus’ Blood’ is some of the best easy listening I’ve heard in some time. After the bum’s tune is heard six or eight times, strings begin to accompany him. Later on, Bryars gradually adds guitar, bass, woodwinds, horns, harp, brass, oboe, organ, and vibes. The arrangement moves through a series of lush orchestrations, worthy of the classiest Muzak arrangers.

Call it minimalism, call it religious music, call it documentation, or call it easy listening. Any way you look at it, Bryars has put together a good piece, and it is impressive that he could make it work on all these levels at once. Incidentally, the piece is also likely to make you cry, which I suppose makes it good kitsch, too, but that’s another problem.

The other side is devoted to ‘The Sinking of the Titanic.’ This is also a first-rate piece, though in only two ways. Most important and most unusual, it is a first-rate documentary. That is something that is rarely done in music, and it is a most interesting direction. In this case, Bryars did a great deal of research about the sinking of the Titanic, reading all the reports, diary notes, and recollections he could get his hands on. He investigated the story about the ship orchestra playing hymns on the deck as the ship went down. He tried to determine what hymns they played and what the composition of the sinking orchestra was. He found names, dates, times, and places, and, with an obsessive thoroughness, went about attempting to recreate the general sequence of events.

The music itself is an Iveslike collage, and that is the second way in which it is good. The strings play very slow uncoordinated versions of the authentic hymns, while choirs, voices, and unidentifiable elements obtrude faintly in the background, like ghostly memories.