FULL BUCK MOON (15 July 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

PALESTINE CHARLEMAGNE & HEEMANN CHRISTOPH

SAITEN IN FLAMMEN


Original Issue: 2009 Streamline (STREAMLINE 1026)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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Do not forget to take a look at the comments section :-)

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from Soundohm:

Saiten In Flammen, a new album by Charlemagne Palestine and Christoph Heemann follows their collaborative work on Palestine's heavy-metal-piano workout The Apocalypse Will Blossom with a more textural approach. As on The Apocalypse... the only sound source used throughout these two electro-acoustic explorations of the lower depths is the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, notorious for its unique resonant qualities.

The title is a German translation of 'strings aflame.' ...looking directly at the cloud, he saw that it was not a cloud, although what it was he did not know. It was a massive wall of utter blackness that rose from where it met the surface of the downward sloping sand far into the sky, so that he was forced to crane his neck to see the top of it. Lightning bolts still slashed across its face with devastating ferocity, and thunder crashed and rumbled.

The wall, he saw or thought he'd saw, was a monstrous dam raised against the sky, and over the lip of it was pouring something that was not water, a gigantic waterfall of blackness that was not water, crashing down across the face of it, a waterfall so solid and unbroken that he did not see the actual falling of it, but only had the hypnotic sense of its falling.

Watching it, he realized that it was not only thunder he heard, but the deep, awful roar of whatever was falling over the lip of the dam, the Niagara-like rushing sound of something falling down from great height, falling from the unknown into the unknown. It seemed to him that the very ground beneath him was trembling with the roar.'

FULL SNOW MOON (18 February 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

EMMANUEL J.D.

WIZARDS


Original Issue: 1982 North Star Productions (NSP-2003) Buy it here!

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Do not forget to take a look at the comments section :-)

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from Boomkat:

Chances are you won't have heard of J D Emmanuel before.

This record in particular was a private pressing released back in 1982 and owned by a select few punters who quite clearly did their research. In recent years the record's reputation has spread, with rumours circulating that it was a transcendent blend of Terry Riley, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Popul Vuh and early Kraftwerk - but finding it was about as easy as looking for a connection between Wolf Eyes and The Spice Girls.

Then, without fanfare, the album re-appeared as a limited edition on the Belgian 'Dreamtime Taped Sounds' and we knew as soon as we got our grubby mitts on a copy that this was something that simply had to be heard to be believed, that would stun just about everyone we know with its almost meditative electronic explorations.

I'm sure many of you remember Delia Derbyshire's amazing 'Electrosonic' LP (that lasted about two weeks...) and this album gives us the same kind of chills, it's just THAT sound, it's impossible to put your finger on but even more impossible to re-create. With the amount of retro-electronic music coming out at the moment you'd think someone would have nailed it, but no, it's still these records that emerged at the time, that came from people genuinely excited by the technology and the possibilities this technology could inform that really hit you where you need to be hit. Using three Sequential Circuit Pro-1 synthesizers, a Crumar Organ and some delays (recording direct to tape) Emmanuel manages to conjure up deep, distorted faraway lands, astral plains and shimmering multi-coloured skies - the soft synthesizer tones dictating the journey perfectly. Whether with bubbling, almost sequenced-sounding synth bass, or with organ-like improvised phrases, Emmanuel never takes a wrong turn and this is an album that will rarely leave your turntable (trust me, it's been welded to mine since I got it).

The sensitivity and simplicity of the music is almost impossible to convey, suffice to say we think it's one of the best (and most unexpected) things we've heard this year so far, and followers of early electronic music, Kraftwerk and the Radiophonic Workshop need to get a hold of one right away. Stunning stuff, and incredibly limited - we only have a few so be quick if you want to secure yourself a copy.

ESSENTIAL PURCHASE.

ALCHEMICAL MOON (transformation musick)

VOICE OF EYE

TRANSMIGRATION

Original Issue: 1995 Cyclotron Industries (CYCI CD - 333)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

The first time (it was 1995) that I listened to this work, I was completely blown away...and the same nowadays!

Voice of Eye declared that: All sound sources are acoustic in origin, then processed through little black boxes to warp time and open the listener's perception.

Well, if these are the results, we all should buy a couple of these 'black boxes' and apply them to our auricles during everyday activities. Our boss voice would sound a lot better... ;-)

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1 Transmigration (Bardo I) (19:22)
2 Transcendence (7:35)
3 Sirens (Bardo II) (6:16)
4 Tempest (5:39)
5 Garden Of Earthly Delights (4:45)
6 Oblivion (Bardo III) (23:51)

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from (the late) Electric Shock Treatment:

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Spyderbites:

I waited a long time to hear this; it was worth the wait.

An all-acoustic recording which attains utterly surreal soundscapes. For 67.5 minutes, the tracks of Transmigration document the soul's mysterious afterlife journey, taking the listener through unbelievable sonic realms.

Not too many ethno/tribal influences really, though Transcendence pairs densely quivering violin strings with pounding jungle drums, which are eventually joined by tweedling Middle Eastern flute. That track segues into the blaringly resonant drones of Sirens (which I first fell in love with as part of the 3-Disc Storm of Drones comp).

Other notable passages include the multitudinous ghostly moans of the opening track, the whirlwind stratospherics of Tempest, and the murky festivities of Garden of Earthly Delights. Speaking of murky, it certainly gets that way in Oblivion (Bardo III), the almost-24-minute-long closing piece. Swirling soundclouds obscure everything else, eventually receding to leave a pristine silence which leads to further encounters I won't divulge here.

Find out for yourself, if you can find a copy.

RED MOON (musick & other arts)

KÖNER THOMAS

NUUK

Original Issue: 1997 Big Cat Records (ABB1000 CD - as part of Driftworks box)

Reissue: 2004 Mille Plateaux (MPM 003) (Buy it here!)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

As you all probably already understood, I've a real love for Thomas Köner. Without any doubt my favorite artist.

During my summer holidays, I was lucky enough to experience live his "Pneuma Monoxyd" audio-visual installation (see picture at the end of this post).

Unfortunately, I was totally unable to grab on film the power of his infra-sound barely-lit ambience...

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1 Nuuk (Air) (4:50)
2 Polynya I (6:31)
3 Nuuk (Day) (7:24)
4 Amras (5:35)
5 Nuuk (Night) (4:13)
6 Polynya II (7:22)
7 Nuuk (End) (5:55)

DVD-1 Nuuk (Suite)
DVD-2 Nuuk (Air)
DVD-3 Nuuk (Day)
DVD-4 Nuuk (Night)
DVD-5 Nuuk (End)

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from Dusted Reviews:

Thomas Köner's Nuuk is, in many ways, a crystalline example of ambient music. The album provides ample room for sound to be experienced as mood, thereby allowing the listener to translate his/her emotional reaction into words, with very little interference. As often the case, the process of filling empty spaces with descriptions of the music's strengths seems to run counter to Nuuk's primary objective: To reach beyond the artifice of the conceptual, and to touch more directly upon an individual's core of aural perception.

Tomas Köner is a formidable manipulator of sound and image. As I have not personally experienced the latter, I will do my best to convey my impressions of the former. This is no hindrance, as the four pieces found on Nuuk provide ample fodder for the mind to conjure spectacles akin to the physical landscapes Köner uses in his accompanying visual presentations.

Geological shifts, with their unceasing yet patient modulations, form the crux of Köner’s musical analogies; the full weight and implication of time and its corresponding transmutations are felt deeply as the album extends through its cycles, each piece gaining glacial momentum as sound carves grand canyons in gray matter. Nuuk is superficially similar to albums by other electronic manipulators of sound, most notably The Caretaker and Deathprod; each of these artists are familiar with crafting portentous and unsettling soundscapes. Köner’s creations, however, opt for awe and natural majesty as their core, as opposed to the malign funhouse visions and icy caresses of the aforementioned artists.

It isn’t often that a CD can shock the mind into realizing one’s relatively infinitesimal universal position. How is it that I feel dwarfed by mere audio? Is there a link between spatial magnificence and the delineation of sound? It seems Köner has spent much time investigating the relationships between space, size and time, and has somehow found music to be a more than adequate descriptor of said interrelation.
Casey Rae-Hunter

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from Thomas Köner homepage:

Köner uses sequences of images from webcams as raw material, which remains constant in his basic focuses. He has traces of people and their vehicles come to appearance acoustically, but not visually. The shift from day to night and the influences of the weather give motion to the segments. In this way, in his shortest work NUUK, which lasts just over 6 minutes, he condenses a total of 3,000 individual web images taken from the Internet into one scene. Despite the cinematic motion of the image, it seems like a still photo.

LAMMAS (01 August 2008)

I'll be in the south of France for holidays starting from August, the 4th to August, the 23rd.
I will reply to your beloved comments as soon as I return!

If you are in Provence, Pays Cathare or Rennes-le-Château area, take a look around and be ready to say "Hello" if you see a pair of cute witches walking around...

Kisses & Hugs,
Margot

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The Musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

CRANIOCLAST

ICONCLASTAR (ICON I-VI)

Original Issue: 1992 Musica Maxima Magnetica (EEE 09) Buy it here!

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Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

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1		Condom (11:00)
2		Radar Bowl (11:00)
3		Antibody (11:00)
4		Network (11:00)
5		Interface (11:00)
6		Onezerooneone (6:00)

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from Musica Maxima Magnetica homepage:

'Iconclastar' is the most interesting project ever released by this two german conceptualists (Mr. Soltan Karik and Mr. Sankt Clario) founders of Cranioclast.

'Iconclastar' is a simoultaneosly released two-CD project with nearly identical graphic artwork in two different colors (green and blue) and accompanied by recipes for two (green spider & blue devil) drinks to be taken while listening to the music.

In 1992 Iconclastar - Icon I-VI came out on Musica Maxima Magnetica in Italy (the CD is now available again) and Iconclastar - Icon VI-XI on Dom America in the US.

Iconclastar- Icon I-VI, called also the green part (I), is the first half of 121 min iconclastaring soundtracks rudely interrupted by 55 sec of grey coded messages from unknown pressure groups.

The green part is accompained by the half of 36 iconclastaring photographic-text tableaux, sistematically penetrated by the grey vibres of a well known matrix - the 16 tableaux are dispalyed on a 360 x 360 mm poster printed two sided , bi-coloured.

.....Mr Coitra leaned back. As he looked up from the greenish and bluish tableaux he met Clara K.Tonsi's wide-open eyes. "Well, I don't agree that Sankt Klario and Soltan Karik obscured the purity of the structures and relations by their additions. You see - if you drop the peppermint from a 'Green Spider' and the curacao blue from a 'Blue Devil' you'll get an almost pure Vodka Soda and Gin Sour. You'll get a good drink anyway, maybe you'll get drunk also - anyway".

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.

REVOLUTION MOON (groundbreaking musick)

NIBLOCK PHILL

A YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO PHILL NIBLOCK

Original Issue: 1995 Blast First (BFFP 102 CD)

Reissue: 2002 Experimental Intermedia (XI 121) Buy it here!!!

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

1-1 Held Tones (22:40)
1-2 Didjeridoos (13:30)
1-3 Ten Auras (21:20)
1-4 Ten Auras Live (21:20)
2-1 A Trombone Piece (22:13)
2-2 A Third Trombone (20:54)
2-3 Unmentionable Piece For Trombone And Sousaphone (18:33)

from Indieville:

Phill Niblock is, without a doubt, one of the most esteemed experimental composers around today. Musically active since the sixties (he was born in 1933), his music has inspired a whole slew of modern avant-garde composers around today.

A Young Person's Guide to Phill Niblock was originally released in 1995 as a co-project between the Blast First label and British publication The Wire. Comprised of recordings from 1978 to 1994, it is largely considered to be the definitive introduction to Niblock's music. 2002 marks Experimental Intermedia's reissue of this album, under the shortened title of YPGPN. The release is contained on two discs, comprising a total of seven long pieces.

It starts off with "Held Tones," a twenty-two minute flute drone piece that is completely mesmerizing. As the flute tone passes by endlessly, you start to notice the minor imperfections in the sound, little drops or waivers that lend the track a sense of depth and personality. This adds much depth to the piece, and enhances the listening experience greatly.

Second on the block is "Didgeridoos and Don'ts," a shorter (thirteen and a half minute) track that features Ulrich Krieger on the didgeridoos. Its dense, dark sound is apocalyptic. The almost industrial shifts in sound are devastating, and though the track is, in a grand sense, merely a minimal drone, it's effects are intensely frightening. One can feel Krieger's breath going into the instrument, and as the track progresses, the sound becomes less and less organic; at the start, you are completely aware of the didgeridoo's presence, but by the end, it's merely a dark, noisy beast - even though nothing has really changed.

After these two pieces come the two performances of "Ten Auras," a live rendition and a studio recording, both performed by Ulrich Kreiger on the tenor saxophone. Both versions are similar, featuring long, held drones that are constantly evolving - they gradually shift in tone and sound intensity, lending the track a sense of grungy depth. Contrasting between the two is difficult, though small differences do appear upon detailed observation. The live rendition ends the first of the two discs.

The second disc houses three more tracks, the first of which is "A Trombone Piece," a twenty-two minute trombone composition played by James Fulkerson. Its lengthy drone is at times mysterious and at other occasions comical, depending on which frame of reference you're listening to it with.

"A Third Trombone," meanwhile, is much lower than "A Trombone Piece." It's sound is so low, in fact, that the recording actually rings from the excess of bass. Performed by Jon English, it is characterized by three trombones, the third of which offers it a more dense, layered sound.

The collection's last track, "Unmentionable Piece for Trombone and Sousaphone," ends things off well. Featuring some of the most subdued drones on the entire album, it is a decidedly challenging listen. The trombones establish a dark, grimy atmosphere, which is then enhanced when the sousaphone comes in. The sousaphone is lifeless, merely a tone, and this nearly mechanical impersonality serves the track well.

YPGPN is valuable to both Niblock devotees and those just discovering his music. The musicians all play their instruments perfectly, and Niblock's multi-channel dubbing is carried out with seamless mastery.

Though definitely not for everyone (one listener I presented this to likened it to the type of droning tones used for torture practices), to those interested in this style of music, YPGPN is a classic.

Matt Shimmer

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