New album, free download.

Musique concrète suite for bullroarer, church organ, cimbalom, vocoder, boat horns, Romanian Catholic choir, Indian ashram temple bell, Radio Afghanistan station ID, and other aural ablutions. Researching melodic patterns in musique concrète.

Recorded in July–August, 2021 in Paris and Poitiers, France.
L.F.: found sounds, samples, loops, sound collage, virtual synth, artwork.

Summer 2021 playlist w/ comments
by Laurent Fairon

It turns out I’ve been immersing myself in little known Far Eastern musics as of late, so I thought I’d come up with this list of electro, ambient, noise, experimental, ethnic, traditional and folk music albums from China, South Korea and Japan ca 1975–2021. I plan to revisit these recent personal discoveries regularly during Summer, some as lovely background music, and some as highly idiosyncratic, exotic jewels. I’m indebted to YouTube channel Crate (possibly from China) who posted half of these albums, allowing the plublic at large a glimpse at musics with often no streaming option and no distribution outside their country of origin.

Howie Lee – Birdy Island (2021)
Deng Boyu 邓博宇 – Tractor Academy 拖拉机学院 (2021)
雲土境樂隊 - 雲土境 Pasteland Beyond The Clouds – self titled (2019)
VA – Secret Sound: Mouth-harp in Southwest China 秘密之音：中國西南民族口簧琴 (2018)
Umeko Ando 安東ウメ子 – Ihunke イフンケ (2018)
Guzz – An Elephant in the Jungle 林中之象 (2016)
Ahkok Wong 黃津珏 – Wuji 物極 (2014)
Kim Doo Soo 김두수 – Free Spirit 자유혼 (2002)
Zhou Zhi-yong 周志勇 – The Great Yellow River 大黄河 (2000)
Quasimode – Jeux De Vertige 真昼 (1986)
Dou Wun 杜煥 – Rare Recordings of Melodies from a Bygone Age 絕世遺音：板眼、龍舟、粵謳 (1975)
Dou Wun 杜煥 – Jade Palm-Leaf Fan 玉葵寶扇 (1975)

Howie Lee – Birdy Island (2021)
https://howielee.bandcamp.com/album/birdy-island
The last album by Bejing electronic music producer Howie Lee– real name Li Huadi–, co-founder of well noted experimental music label Do Hits who published Guzz’s 2016 album An Elephant in the Jungle, featured elsewhere in this list. Birdy Island is a collection of colorful electronic vignettes evoking an idyllic island with traditional Chinese music instruments, sampled choirs and contemporary experimental synth sounds. With its top notch production value, the music has an ambitious, grand scale dimension, if a bit emotionless and standard sounding to these ears.

Deng Boyu (邓博宇) – Tractor Academy 拖拉机学院 (2021)
https://dustyballz.bandcamp.com/album/tractor-academy
Fine and quite varied noise music album by Deng Boyu, a musician from Northern China, better known as a drummer apparently. Tractor Academy features electronic assaults, distorted percussion, post industrial music and occasional manipulated musique concrète, like in the title track. The album is saved from monotony by a certain variety in the music. To be honest, I think I falled for the cover artwork, though.

雲土境樂隊 - 雲土境 Pasteland Beyond The Clouds – self titled (2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CRTn0_zTbs
90 minutes of lush atmospheres, smooth sounds and relaxing music, Pasteland Beyond The Clouds is the project of Chinese musicians Huan Qing and Liao Kai, from Dali, Yunan. In fact the album is split between the two—the first half consist of 5 tracks by Liao Kai solo, followed by 5 tracks by Huan Qing solo after the 43:00 mark. Liao Kai produces lush, ambient electronic music with reverbed digital piano, while Huan Qing has a less polished style with ambient techno and ambient dub echoes and more percussion than his colleague. Also interested in Chinese ethinc music, Huan Qing produced the ‘Secret Sound: Mouth-harp in Southwest China’ compilation in 2018, featured elsewhere in this list.

VA – Secret Sound: Mouth-harp in Southwest China 秘密之音：中國西南民族口簧琴 (2018)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAcdbE1ybGY
Incredible compilation of endengered traditional Chinese folk musics produced by Huan Qing, also known as ambient music producer under the Pasteland Beyond The Clouds alias, see elsewhere in this list. The Secret Sound compilation is a survey of a variety of mouth-harps from the Yi, Nakhi, Pumi, Lahu, Wa and Qiang folk music traditions of Southwest China. Amazing musics based on the instrument’s weird sounds, sometimes with spoken word in local dialects, male and female singing or group choir, occasionally with string accompaniment, handbells or percussion. The range of the instrument is striking, from shrieking metallic sounds to low register mouth-harp playing bass sounds(!) ; from virtuoso solo performances to long-held droning sounds. The album starts with the more traditional material and progressively explores more unusual territories, even including drum machine in the last track, a kind of remix, I assume. Truly unique album.

Umeko Ando 安東ウメ子 – Ihunke イフンケ (2018)
https://umekoando.bandcamp.com/album/ihunke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDwvp66ChaM&t=901s
Recorded in 2000, this is an extraordinary collection of songs from the endengered Ainu folk music tradition of the Hokkaido island, in Northern Japan. The singer is Umeko Ando (1932–2004), one of the last Ainu folk singers to know the local dialect, poetry and songs from a now disappearing, ancestral culture. She also occasionally plays a mouth-harp called a mukkuri and is accompanied by Ainu musician Oki Kano on the tonkori—the Ainu traditional 5-string harp. Oki also produced the album in a contemporary way, bringing new life to the traditonal repertoire with subtle use of background synthesizer and discreet sound effects like multi-tracking, handclaps, percussion or field recordings. These enchanting songs vary from touching lullabies to shamanic, repetitive chanting, to joyous animist and hunting hymns. Most of it is semi-improvised on a simple, pre-determined basis. Lovely album. Umeko Ando’s 2003 Upopo Sanke album is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYqp2llzBis

Guzz – An Elephant in the Jungle 林中之象 (2016)
https://dohits.bandcamp.com/album/an-elephant-in-the-jungle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH713aPxDZI
Electronic music producer from Hainan, Southern China. The album is a collection of exotic miniatures with South Asian traditional music samples (Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, China). Charming, well written and executed music playing like an Asian travelogue. Fourth World music in the middle ground between ambient and electro. Nice album.

Ahkok Wong 黃津珏 – Wuji 物極 (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHnJjhMc0JI
Hong Kong musician, lecturer and social activist Wong Chun-kwok working under the Ahkok Wong alias. Wong studied music in the U.K. and pursued his scholarship in Hong Kong. 4 tracks of slow guitar drones and sparse tabletop guitar a la Bruce Russel or The Dead C.

Kim Doo Soo 김두수 – Free Spirit 자유혼 (2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OqImq3tXI0
Said to be the best album by legendary South Korean psych-folk singer Kim Doo Soo, Free Spirit, published by Korean label Riverman Music in 2002, is a collection of 14 desolate or nostalgic songs with interesting arrangements for a variety of guest musicians on acoustic or electric guitars, accordion, cello or percussion, among others. Besides acoustic guitar, Kim himself occasionally plays synthesizer and harmonica. The presence of accordion, cello and harmonica only reinforces the sad, nostalgic atmosphere of these lovely, intense songs. A splendid album if one can adjust to the depressing mood. Exceptionally uplifting song #5 보헤미안 Bohemian, at 17:34, is a must hear if you only have the patience for a small sample.

Zhou Zhi-yong 周志勇 – The Great Yellow River 大黄河 (2000)
https://www.fondsound.com/zhou-zhi-yong-%e5%91%a8%e5%bf%97%e5%8b%87-the-great-yellow-river-%e5%a4%a7%e9%bb%84%e6%b2%b3-2000/#more-9702
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-QpvpPPm-o
A grand scale evocation of the Yellow River, or Huang He, by Chinese composer ZHOU Zhi-yong successively conducting three different vocal ensembles—the classically-trained Beijing Chamber Choral Group, the traditional, folk-oriented Charm Choral Group and the ethnic heritage Indigenous Choral Group. Most tracks feature male and female group singing with only occasional solo vocals, in line with the project of portraying a national, collective vision of the river. The music is composed and played on MIDI synthesizer instruments and MIDI percussion, with occasional use of live erhu players—the traditional 2-stringed violin—, as well as other Chinese harp, flute and string instruments. A two-pronged fusion is at work here: Chinese folk music with synthesizer sounds, on the one hand, and Chinese classical music with Western symphony and choral traditions, on the other hand. The result is a collection of 9 very pleasant melodies with well executed arrangements. Cheesy as hell, maybe, but one I keep returning to.

Quasimode – Jeux De Vertige 真昼 (1986)
http://onlyforphones.blogspot.com/2012/04/quasimode-jeux-de-vertige-lp-japan.html?m=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e3tmQU8Wyo
Atonal piano playing, out of tune violin bowing and susurating female vocals in all kinds of combinations and with various sound effects. As weird as it comes from any Japanese post-new wave production ca mid-1980s.

Dou Wun 杜煥 – Rare Recordings of Melodies from a Bygone Age 絕世遺音：板眼、龍舟、粵謳 (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTe3MpBVCUc
Legendary Cantonese blind singer 杜焕 Dou Wun (1910–1979) made a carreer in Hong Kong after the Japanese occupation ended in 1945. In Hong Kong tea rooms, opium dens and brothels, Dou Wun performed the old traditional Naamyam style repertoire from Canton (Guangzhou, in Southern China). Meaning 'Southern song’, Naamyam is a unique vernacular singing style mixing singing and recitation in Cantonese dialect in a kind of Chinese 'sprechgesang’ called 'shuoshang’, or narrative song. In the 1950s, Dou Wun became famous improvising during monthly broadcasts on Hong Kong radio RTHK. But Naamyam’s popularity declined in the following decades, with fewer and fewer appropriate venues to perform for Dou Wun. When he passed away, he was the last professional Naamyam singer.

In 1975, Hong Kong musicologist Bell Yung decided to record Dou Wun’s old Naamyam repertoire in situ in Hong Kong’s historical Fu Long Teahouse on Possession Street. These historical recordings were eventually issued as 7 CDs by the Music Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2011. The link above is one of these CDs, comprising three 20+mn songs, each in a variety of Namyaam styles: Banngaan, or 'vulgar comedy’, on the 1st song ; 'Longzhou’, or Dragonboat, sung by Cantonese street buskers, on the 2nd track ; and finally 'Yuet Au’, a kind of ballad sung by whores and blind women, on the last track. Dou Wun accompanies himself on the Guzheng, percussion or erhu, a 2-stringed instrument. The singing of birds is heard in the background as Fu Long Teahouse’s customers used to bring the wooden cages of their beloved songsters and suspend them in the tea room, as per the 19th century tradition. Birds are heard constantly in song #2 武松祭靈 Wu Song, starting at 20:53. The singer was known for chattering at length with audience members during performances, sending best wishes to all and their families. The songs on this album are totally unique, unexpected and unbelievable.

Dou Wun 杜煥 – Jade Palm-Leaf Fan 玉葵寶扇 (1975)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSxXAhk93Nw
A 2-hour family saga accompanied on Chinese cymbals and sung in the Longzhou style, or Dragonboat, typical from old Cantonese street buskers.

New album Rithmomachie, July 2021. Free download.
MIDI piano Ragtime approximations programmed in a sequencer, exploring similarities between mechanical piano, tack piano and digital sequencer. A collection of macaronic piano rags, disembodied piano études, Cubist lullabies, pieces for odd number of hands, and other impossible piano configurations. Additionally, some tracks feature radical piano sound manipulations and grotesque sound effects.

Music reviews by Laurent Fairon, July 2021

Epsilon-Delta – Music for Recurring Decimals (March 2021)
Dino Felipe – The Gardeners (June 2021)
Shane Cooper – Happenstance (June 2021)
RhaD – Metamusic (June 2021)
Angel Bat Dawid – Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1 Doxology (June 2021)
Ron Nagorcka – Lovregana - Music From A Tasmanian Forest (July 2021)

Epsilon-Delta – Music for Recurring Decimals (433 Records)
https://433records.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-recurring-decimals
Lovely collection of short, poetic synth sequences build on simple mathematical algorithms by Hong Kong mathematician Addy Choi working under the Epsilon-Delta alias. Algorithms are based on decimal fractions like 4/7, 7/9 or 3/11, using the resulting digits as the basis for the sequence. Far from being arid or too cerebral, the tracks are poetic and varied thanks to the beautiful MIDI synth sounds chosen by the programmer, who is also a clever musician apparently. Tracks may be repetitive but the album isn’t. This is textbook Systems Music as practiced in the U.K. during the 1980s by the likes of The Dead Goldfish Ensemble or The Lost Jockey. Exquisite album.

Dino Felipe – The Gardeners (self release)
https://dino-felipe.bandcamp.com/album/the-gardeners
Mini-LP of 16 very short tracks by Miami-based electronic musician with previous full length releases on ¡Mayday! and Schematic. The music on The Gardeners is based on samples, sound collages, occasional beats and various sound treatments like speed modification, sound stretching, accumulation, heavy reverb, or else. Felipe thus creates colorful and humorous vignettes based on ethnic music snippets, found vocals, musique concrète or cheap electronic sounds. Glitch-y textures abound, as well as grotesque sounds and weird juxtapositions, the music being deliciously direction-less and erratic.

Shane Cooper – Happenstance (Kit Records)
https://kitrecs.bandcamp.com/album/happenstance
Gorgeous ambient, ethnic and experimental jazz music by South African double bass player and multi-instrumentalist Shane Cooper. The album is actually constructed as a collage of short excerpts from sessions recorded with Johannesburg guest musicians in 2020. The whole project was commissioned by contemporary artist William Kentridge’s The Centre for the Less Good Idea, an artist run facility he founded in Johannesburg to promote local independent art projects. Cooper obviously selected the interesting and relevant parts from two days’ worth of collective improvisations and the 2 side-long tracks of Happenstance are bursting with ideas and surprises. The 1st side is rather varied in instrumentation, including superb piano and cello parts, lush Rhodes electric keyboard notes and incredible South African traditional instruments played by Cara Stacey. The music is moody and adventurous, jumping gracefully all over the place. The flip side is more about exploring rhythm textures and deep bass sounds and features Shane Cooper on double bass along 3 percussionists. The collage technique is applied here as well, producing pleasant mood changes and exciting U-turns. Cooper delivers a variety of sounds on his instrument, from walking bass lines to long-held notes played with arco (briefly played backward at some point), and also performs beautiful electric bass guitar parts with reverb. The non-linearity and unpredictability of the collage strategy used in Happenstance ensures the music is keeping away from jazz music’s clichés and each new listen is surprising and interesting. Two more episodes were recorded during these sessions and are available on YouTube and other platforms, like the vocal only piece called ‘Tongues’.

RhaD – Metamusic (Unexplained Sounds Group)
https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/metamusic
Standing for Research for Historical Audio Documents, RhaD is a musical project by Italian music activist Raffaele Pezzella, also known as electronic music producer Sonologyst, as well as Unexplained Sounds Group label director and publisher, not to mention radio host and sound researcher, among others. Metamusic is a 40mn sound collage of mysterious radio transmissions, found vocals, spoken words, vintage electronic sounds and a number of guest stars on classical music instruments like organ, guitar, bass or piano – respectively Michael Bonaventure, Stefan Schmidt, Daniel Barbiero, Francesco Arrighi and Mara Lepore. Adroitly avoiding any ca 2021 digital artifact along the way, Metamusic’s sound design is bringing the listener back to the glorious 1960s and '70s, yet the music sounds rather timeless to these ears. Metamusic recreates the sound of early European avantgarde with plenty of tape manipulations, sound collages, buzzing sounds, French spoken word and contemporary classical music instruments. The sound crafting is superb, the collage technique creating an ever-changing musical soundscape full of weird sounds, grotesque sound manipulations and Surrealist juxtapositions. What’s not to love?

Angel Bat Dawid – Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol. 1 Doxology (International Anthem)
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology
Very personal and original album by Angel Bat Dawid, a US clarinet player, singer, electronic musician and DJ from Chicago. Created with a few sounds and a minimum of means, devoid of spectacular solo outing, these mostly desolate tracks form a meditative musical travelogue through the Black people psyche. Track titles deal with themes of slavery, racism, and Black culture tropes, though neither the occasional lyrics nor the strange music on offer here can pass for angry or vindicatory, the music being far too personal for that. The clarinet confers a neo-classical atmosphere to some of the tracks, sometimes interestingly contrasted with synthesizer sounds or electronic beats. Harmonica and vocals on Autotune also contribute to the unique sound signature of this album, with occasional hints at gospel and rural blues. Playing in continuous mode in a kind of stream-of-consciousness style, the music would work just fine as a soundtrack to a Kara Walker exhibition—Bat Dawid actually composed the soundtrack to a Yoko Ono outdoor installation in 2020. On a side note, she also released the Harkening Etudes mini album on Longform Editions earlier in April 2021, where her classically-trained clarinet playing is contrasted with sampled piano accompaniment and electronically processed vocals in a series of short, bizarre classical music études, also worth checking out.

Ron Nagorcka – Lovregana - Music From A Tasmanian Forest (Invisibilia)
https://invisibilia.bandcamp.com/album/lovregana-music-from-a-tasmanian-forest-1990-soundscapes-from-wilderness-1988
This CD reissue combines 2 cassette tapes of manipulated field recordings by Australian composer Ron Nagorcka, born 1948, namely 'Lovregana - Music from a Tasmanian Forest’, 1990, and 'Soundscapes from Wilderness’, from 1988. Both are based on bird recordings from northern Tasmania island, where Nagorcka relocated in 1988, building himself a house and makeshift, solar-powered recording studio deep in the primeval forest. On Lovregana, short samples of bird songs are run through a sampler and harmonized in just intonation, producing eerie soundscapes of disembodied and supernatural bird singing. The music is reconstructing a fictional and artificial forest populated by dozens of birds, some far in the distance, some near ; some slowly developing a song, others performing in sudden bursts, with a variety and unpredictability akin to actual birds in nature. To this, Nagorcka adds minimal electronic loops in the background, dreamy synthesizer notes in strange tunings and discreet didgeridoo playing, all very well integrated to the sampled bird songs. These tracks are thus poetical evocations of a primeval forest via electronic sounds. While Lovregana’s tracks more or less focused on one specific bird song at a time, the two tracks of 'Soundscapes from Wilderness’ take a more holistic approach to nature recordings. The 1st track, 'Black Forest, Victoria’, is a reconstruction of the deep forest sounds via the accumulation of various field recordings, creating a particularly dense soundscape through layers and layers of nature recordings. Here again, the natural-vs-artificial dichotomy is what interests the composer, and arguably this forest never existed, it was rather reconstructed in the studio. The 2nd track, 'Rainforest in Northern Tasmania’, uses forest sounds as the basis for slow, mysterious didgeridoo improvisations, perhaps examining how the musician can dialog with the environment, being a part of it, being one with it. The superb didjeridoo playing is what fascinates most here.
. . .

New album:

Laurent Fairon – Elecktronische tsimtsum

01 Écoute construite (4:22)
02 Elecktronische TsimTsum (18:53)
03 Rire hérité (6:39)
04 Holodomor (9:49)
05 Cadastre (11:39)

Total time: 51mn 25s

Electroacoustic and musique concrète recorded from February to May 2021 in Paris, France.

A small selection from YouTube channel Xenophobia1961, dedicated to obscure Japanese contemporary and experimental music from the 1960s to the ‘80s. Some truly great, radical music in there.

These YouTube videos are usually excerpts from longer LPs, though some 7in singles are given in full. Most have never been reissued or even compiled, as far as I can tell.

The details for these records being usually in Japanese, I’m providing the little information I have in English, with the help from Google Translate and Discogs, and possible errors from my own misunderstanding.

— 1 —
VA – Piano Horizon, LP, ALM Records, ref. AL-24, 1981
Akemi Satomi, piano
– Yoriaki Matsudaira – Elixatone
– Yoriaki Matsudaira – Celebration
– Mamoru Fujieda – Falling Scale No. 6
– Mamoru Fujieda – Rainbow Resonance 1

Mamoru Fujieda – Rainbow Resonance I =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yiR82ytfyU

— 2 —

VA – MUSIC NOW for Harp (1974)
Ayako Shinozaki, harp
Takehisa Kosugi, violin
– Toru Takemitsu – STANZA II, for harp and tape (1971)
– Katsuhiro Tsubono – Rin’s Poem (1972)
– Takehisa Kosugi – Heterodyne (1973)

Toru Takemitsu – STANZA II =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXBS2CzVSRM

— 3 —

Katsuhiro Tsubonoh, composer, 2xLP, King Records, 1980
Satoshi Tenchi & Tomoyuki Okada Percussion Ensemble
– Iron Symphony
– Jyukon
– Metamorphosis of Paper
– Water Psalm

Metamorphosis of Paper =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsxZR86Bp9w&t=86s

Katsuhiro Tsubonoh – Water Psalm =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhzWxleo6Zs&t=359s

— 4 —

Minoru Kobashi – Kijo c/w Aun, 7inch record, CIPANGO ref. CC-5001,

1978
Percussion Group '72
– Kijo
– Aun

Minoru Kobashi – Aun =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLHIKyFswzo

— 5 —

Yoshiro Irino – Variations on a Demon, 7inch record, Polydor ref. JP170,

1960s
Yoshiro Irino, composer
Irino Ensemble
Masahiko Arima, reader
Takashi Tsujii, poetry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mDkF7L3IJg

— 6 —

Toshiya Sukegawa – Compositions for Magnetic Tape, LP, Flora ref. OBK

1001, 1983
Electronic music recorded at NHK Electronic Music Studio.
– The Eternal Morning (1983)
– Chant Du Vent (1980)

Chant Du Vent =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fh9Vpn-VF8

Music reviews by Laurent Fairon, May 2021

Martyn Schmidt – Kammerton a'a (January 2021)
VA – Objetos Musicais: Homage to Walter Smetak (April 2021)
VA – The Same River Twice (April 2021)
Mark Vernon – Magneto Mori: Vienna (June 2021)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Martyn Schmidt – Kammerton a'a (self-release)
https://martynschmidt.bandcamp.com/track/kammerton-aa-i
“Kammerton a'a” is a hörspiel, a German radio art piece centered on the city of Aalen in the Swabian Alps in Southern Germany. It is the birth-place of Martyn Schmidt, born 1969, a German sound poet and musician, publisher of sound poetry releases on his own Atemwerft label from 2014 to 2017 [www.atemwerft.de]. Currently living in Augsburg, Schmidt is naturally associated with the prolific Attenuation Circuit label and the very active local live scene. “Kammerton a'a” is actually called a hörpoem, or sound poem, a poetic, free-flowing meditation on post-WWII Germany in a small provincial city devastated by Allied bombings. The focus is on piano sounds—actual or remembered, verbal or musical, from the present or from the past—, in a city where the mayor after 1945 was a piano builder himself. According to Martyn Schmidt, the underlying concept behind “Kammerton a'a” (meaning Standard Pitch A440 Hz) is to consider the role of the post-WWII piano tuner as having to re-tune Germany to the universal harmony, a lovely metaphor for post-war normalization, I think. Indeed, in “Kammerton a'a”, the city literally exudes piano music. In addition to readings from a piano manufacturing manual and poems from local poet Christian Schubart (1739-1791), “Kammerton a'a” is based on interviews with 3 main protagonists from Aalen: a former journalist during WWII ; memories from a former piano builder working at the local piano factory until its closure in 1973 ; and a contemporary piano tuner. There are other references to local citizens, piano teachers, philosophers or journalists located in or originally from Aalen, so that “Kammerton a'a” is also a portrait—and a redeeming—of a city. The language is mostly Schwabish, the vernacular Swabian dialect derived from German, and this picturesque dialect is part of the charm of “Kammerton a'a”. Alternating between interviews, poetry readings and archive radio broadcasts, the spoken word is completed with piano music snippets, inside the piano playing, church bells, location recordings and occasional musique concrète or electronic sounds. These musical and documentary sounds punctuate the hörpoem and, along with the superbly recorded voices, contribute to its unique sound signature.

VA – Objetos Musicais: Homage to Walter Smetak (Buh Records)
https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/objetos-musicais-homage-to-walter-smetak
Conceived as an homage to Swiss-born, Brazilian composer and instrument builder Walter Smetak (1913–84), this compilation collects music produced by sound artists and contemporary artists from South American countries and Switzerland. These artists present their own vision of ‘Caossonância’, a Smetak concept based on the Portuguese words for chaos and sound, where invented or modified instruments are used to produce strange sounds in musical experiments welcoming unusual tunings and aleatoric sonic discoveries. Participants to this compilation tend to focus on strings and percussion instruments, sometimes with motorized objects hitting or scraping strings, skins or metal tubes, with only one wind instrument (Javier Bustos’ Aerodrones). Many contributors use electronic sound processing or computer post production to complement their music. 'Objetos Musicais’ features many interesting sounds from weird music instruments—some pleasantly otherworldly, some on the nice side of noise—though, on the whole, there is a lack of contrast from one sound excerpt to another as well as within each track. Indeed, contributors here are not improvisors nor composers, and they often fail to engage with the sound in interesting and exciting ways. The number of music instruments one can conceive of being limited, the musical invention must come from the way they are played, contrasted with other sounds, and part of a larger musical vision. I enjoyed this compilation’s concept very much, though, and think it’s great there are still instrument builders and sound sculptors around.

VA – The Same River Twice (Hotham Sound Recordings)
https://hothamsoundrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/the-same-river-twice
The ancient art of compilation making is more or less lost nowadays and it’s rare to stumble on a well curated project with a strong, unifying concept. Conceived by Canadian, Vancouver-based label Hotham Sound, 'The Same River Twice’ is that rare beast: a Various Artists album that flows effortlessly and excitingly like a regular album. Fifty artists worldwide contributed one minute of music each using the last sounds of the previous contributor as their starting point, adding up to the whole via the internet in a kind of mail-art chain, or Surrealist Exquisite Corpse. The style is experimental-ambient with a great variety of sounds, from abstract textures to real instruments like piano, harp, flute or Spanish guitar, onto electronic music through to spoken word. I suppose someone at Hotham Sound curated the whole shebang throughout in a way or another, because transitions between tracks are both seamless and pertinent, full of surprises and excitement. The LP comprises 2 side-long tracks, the A-side roughly featuring the more abstract and acoustic music, while the B-side includes more electronic sounds and occasional beats, as well as field recording and melodica. In any case, both sides hugely benefit from the Exquisite Corpse process, a brilliant idea yielding quasi magical results here. I recognized only a few names in there, like Karl Fousek, M Geddes Gengras or Lance Austin Olsen, most of the other names being new to me. A fantastic album anyway.

Mark Vernon – Magneto Mori: Vienna (Canti Magnetici)
https://cantimagnetici.bandcamp.com/album/magneto-mori-vienna
Commissioned by Austrian national radio ORF Ö1, “Magneto Mori: Vienna” is a hörspiel conceived by Scottish sound artist Mark Vernon as a portrait of the city through original location recordings done in 2018, plus other vernacular sound documents like dictaphone recordings, cassettes or reel-to-reel tapes, all found in Vienna flea markets. We hear street noises, dictaphone spoken word and outdoor conversations in Viennese dialect, street musicians, manipulated sounds, electronic sounds, musique concrète. Typical from Mark Vernon is the very lively montage of short sound excerpts, adroitly contrasted with each other in cut-up fashion before quickly moving on to other things. Additionally, the original hour-long radio work was broken into 11 short, manageable tracks for this LP release—so every precaution was taken to avoid listening fatigue. Vernon’s sound palette in “Magneto Mori: Vienna” is keen on playing with dichotomies and striking oppositions in his choice of sounds: outdoor vs indoor, near vs far, natural vs electronic, resonant vs damped sounds. The technique could be called 'extended hörspiel’, blending the hörspiel idiom with electroacoustic music and musique concrète. A less skilled composer might have come up with a boring travelogue smelling tourist perambulations and Traveler’s cheques, but not so with Mark Vernon, as he managed to give a vivid impression of Vienna’s busy streets through sound collage and electroacoustic music technique. This talent of his was also prevalent in a previous work, The Dominion of Din (2020), which consisted solely of street recordings made from his Glasgow flat windows over an 18-year period, and was incredibly lively, eventful, surprising and fun.

Short, to-the-point electronic tracks exploring MIDI sound possibilities and pseudo-Vocoder abuse. Some electro beats appear here and there, simile-analog synth creeps everywhere, but mostly the focus is on the weird side of electronic music.

Spelled in German fashion for extra impact, the ‘Lexicon Katapult’ concept refers to recurring, abstract Vocoder utterances in the music as well as whimsical individual track titles—mostly actual English words plus French portmanteau words of my own design.

Recorded January–April 2021.

Music reviews by Laurent Fairon, April 2021

Ute Wassermann und Joke Lanz – Half Dead Half Alive (February 2021)
Christian Marclay – Graffiti Composition (March 2021)
Louis Dufort – Volume (March 2021)
Makunouchi Bento – Post​-​Muzica 34 (April 2021)

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ute Wassermann und Joke Lanz – Half Dead Half Alive - Live In Nickelsdorf (Klanggalerie)
https://klanggalerie.bandcamp.com/album/half-dead-half-alive-live-in-nickelsdorf

Sound poetry and sound collage duet by German vocalist Ute Wassermann with Swiss turntablist and noise artist Joke Lanz, formerly of Sudden Infant and Schimpfluch groups, recorded live during a performance in Germany in 2019. Ute Wassermann’s vocal range is astonishing, from high shrieks to gargling to deep low moans, and she proffers an incredible variety of utterances and noises here, while also complementing her vocals with toy instruments and bird whistles. Joke Lanz plays found vinyl records, special dubplates and sampler—perhaps the bespoke sampling function of a Technics turntable. Some sounds from records are recognizable, like child babble, film music, spoken word, accordion, Japanese shamisen traditional, or even techno, but most of the sampling only plays a fraction of a sound, sometimes reduced to a mere pulp or abstract texture. The duo’s music is jumping all over the place in search of new sound combinations, and the album is constantly playful and fun throughout thanks to many unexpected U-turns.

Christian Marclay – Graffiti Composition (Superpang)
https://superpang.bandcamp.com/album/christian-marclay-graffiti-composition

This is a new version of Christian Marclay’s 1996 Graffiti Composition, a graphic score created from thousands of blank sheet music papers posted in Berlin streets for passers-by to graffiti over. Their anonymous contributions apparently included actual notated music and words as well as any kind of blotches Marclay eventually collected and assembled into a graphic score. Graffiti Composition was premiered in the UK in 2005 by an instrumental ensemble led by Steve Beresford, and then recorded by a New York guitar quintet including Elliott Sharp and Lee Ranaldo in 2006—also available on Bandcamp. This new version is interpreted here by British avant-garde music ensemble Apartment House, and they manage to elevate Graffiti Composition to a gorgeous sound art piece for piano, cello, flute, harp, synthesizer, toy instruments, vocal interjections and noises, all superbly played by ensemble members. While the score itself is a semi-aleatoric assemblage of unconnected abstract parts, it ultimately sounds here like a Fluxus event mixed with classical contemporary music. Apartment House leader Anton Lukoszevieze delivers a great performance on cello, yet he shall also be credited for providing coherence to the original collage work, here delivered as a decent piece of contemporary music in itself, both playful and great fun to listen.

Louis Dufort – Volume (Superpang)
https://superpang.bandcamp.com/album/volume

Canadian Louis Dufort, born 1970 in Montréal, is a composer of electronic and electroacoustic music, contemporary instrumental music, as well as compositions combining electronic and acoustic instruments. His music is published by the Empreintes DIGITALes and Pogus labels, among others. Volume is a series of 5 electroacoustic compositions for environmental sound recordings and synthesizer, mingled into dense, homogenous textures with a variety of sound events occuring at all times. Spectacular electroacoustic sound treatments are at work here, with a profusion of radical EQ-ing, algorithmic sound processing effects and stereo positioning, all deliciously ear-tickling, especially on headphones. Unfortunately, both orginal location recordings—rain, stones, stones throwned into water, footsteps—and sound treatments are a tad too traditional and conform to the Empreintes DIGITALes dogma. While the music is cleverly assembled into a coherent whole, the end result is perhaps too polished and lacks diversity and excitement. This is still superb electroacoustic music but more originality and fresh ideas would have been welcomed.

Makunouchi Bento – Post​-​Muzica 34 (self released)
https://makunouchibento.bandcamp.com/album/post-muzica-34

The duo of Felix Petrescu and Valentin Toma from Timișoara, Makunouchi Bento are the first experimental electronic musicians we heard from Romania 20 years ago—before that, us Westerners only knew of the Romanian composers like Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana-Maria Avram or Costin Miereanu. Post​-​Muzica 34 is a radiophonic sound art piece Makunouchi Bento created for a Romanian radio broadcast in April 2021. It is entirely based on environmental sound recordings from Timișoara, processed and assembled into an aural narrative, a portrait of their hometown. To the unexpected ear, the music might sound entirely electronic, but in fact is largely based on processed field recordings of trains, car engines, car horns, sirens, birds, animals in a zoo, voices, etc. All original sounds being heavily processed, you have to pay attention to recognize some of them. What you can’t fail to notice, though, is the great variety of sound effects applied, the weird, fantastic sounds, and the Surrealist atmosphere of the piece, which is also remarkably assembled into a coherent narrative, almost like a hörspiel. My only complain is the lack of stereo use throughout, perhaps because this was an improvised live broadcast and the duo didn’t care for stereo then. This petty drawback only adds to the vintage aspect of Post​-​Muzica 34, which brought to my mind echoes of Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna’s “Ritratto di Città” [Portrait of a City], 1955, and even Walter Ruttman’s silent movie “Berlin, Symphony of a Great City”, 1927, in regard to the narrative form. An ambitious hörspiel, Post​-​Muzica 34 has that kind of historical-cum-avantgarde approach.

Mesías Maiguashca – Música para cinta magnética (+) instrumentos (1967​-​1989)
2xLP, Buh Records, April 2021
https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/m-sica-para-cinta-magn-tica-instrumentos-1967-1989

Another carefully curated, landmark release from Peruvian label Buh Records, after their reissue of the legendary Walter Smetak LPs. This time it’s an anthology of Ecuadorian electroacoustic music composer Mesías Maiguashca, born in Quito in 1938. After classical music studies in Ecuador and abroad (USA, Argentina, Germany), Maiguashca relocated to Germany in the mid-1960s where he worked in famous studios like Cologne’s WDR, Karlsruhe’s ZKM as well as Paris’ IRCAM, and has since led an international career as educator, composer and performer. Titled ‘Music for magnetic tape and instruments’, this 2xLP is an overview of Maiguashca’s work circa 1967–89 encompassing musique concrète, electroacoustic composition, as well as electronic music combined with live instruments like percussion, string quartet or organ.

The album starts with the musique concrète piece Ayayayayay, from 1971, a brilliant tape recorder collage from a variety of outdoor sound recordings done in Ecuador, including environmental and street recordings, animals, conversations, radio broadcasts, political speech or folk music. Cleverly assembled, sometimes transformed through ring modulator or other sound effect, these sounds are in a constant dialogue between each other and contrasted with synthesizer –the latter used as counterpoint, transition device or simply texture– to form a lively and colorful soundscape, at times nostalgic or ironic.The earliest and shortest piece here is El Mundo En Que Vivimos [The World We Live In], from 1967, a great musique concrète collage of found sounds and electronic music. We hear folk music instruments like koto or shô, as well as Western string instruments and bells, all interknitted with pure electronic tonalities from some voltage controller or what sounds like radio waves and static noise. Tape-manipulated parts are a real joy to listen and I only wish the piece would be a little longer.

The other works on the disc combine live instruments with electronic music. Intensidad y Altura, from 1979, is a piece for percussion instruments and synthesizer. The percussion –drum, cymbal, marimba, gong– favors non rhythmic, semi-aleatoric sounds while the synthesizer itself alternates between church organ-like, long-held notes and sequences of very nuanced and subtle, tape-manipulated synth sounds. Various modes of dialogue between percussion and synthesizer are explored throughout with an extreme attention to pitch and tone – the title means Intensity and Pitch. Whether in contrast or in homophony, these sounds at times combine into some purely magical sound epiphanies.

Composed in 1989, The Wings of Perception I is part of a cycle of 6 compositions inspired by books of Carlos Castañeda. The string quartet part uses advanced playing techniques of contemporary music (glissando, pizzicato, sforzando, noises, etc), à la Ligeti or Lachenman. The tape section was recorded using a specially-build cubic structure with various hanging metal objects used to create specific, unpitched sounds. For my own taste, though, this percussion section is a bit subdued in the final mix and the string section a tad too polished and conventional, so that nothing really stands out in the end.

Nemos Orgel (1989) pairs church organ played by Zsigmond Szathmáry with prerecorded organ and synthesizer sounds from an earlier 1971 Maiguashca piece titled Übungen. Inspired by Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, this is a wonderful exploration of organ textures and abstract, long-held synthesizer notes, creating a truly mystic and otherworldly music. The analog synthesizer takes the lead in the second half and the music becomes rather weird at times. The entire piece succeeds in offering a beautiful, organic amalgamation of acoustic and electronic sounds, an apt equivalent of Captain Nemo’s fantastic underwater organ.

As you can see, the Música Para Cinta Magnética anthology is a fine selection of tracks and comes with superb sound quality, a perfect introduction to Mesías Maiguashca’s work.

[review by Laurent Fairon]

Music reviews by Laurent Fairon, March 2021

Naturaliste – Temporary Presence (January 2021)
Maninkari – Fahon (February 2021)
Langham Research Centre – Tape Works Vol. 2 (February 2021)
Charles Rice Goff III – One Twenty Twenty One (February 2021)

. . . . . . . .

Naturaliste – Temporary Presence (Public Eyesore Records)
https://publiceyesore.bandcamp.com/album/temporary-presence

US band Naturaliste apparently existed from 1998 to 2005 out of Omaha, Nebraska, and reunited in 2019 to record these sessions. For the occasion, the group was composed of musicians Bryan Day, Christopher Fischer, Charles LaReau and L. Eugene Methe. Most tracks are based on atonal piano playing and inside the piano experiments, over which a series of musique concrète sounds and analog synth washes add confusion and uneasiness, creating a rather disorienting, abstract soundscape. Among the instruments used, piano, electric guitar, found percussion, vocals, synthesizer and outdoor street recordings are recognizable, but often transmogrified by radical sound processing. Source tracks for the album were allegedly recorded in an instrument shop and later re-processed and assembled in studio with additional sounds, blurring the line between live and studio recordings. Ultimately, the album sounds rather analog to these ears, if perhaps marred by a slightly lacklustre final mixdown. The music on Temporary Presence is rather homogenous throughout and surprises are few and far between. Some great piano and guitar parts could have been singled out of the mix with proper EQ, I believe. Indeed, in line with European leftist avantgarde improvisation groups of the 1960s-70s (think AMM, MEV or even Stockhausen’s improv group), no demonstration of instrumental proficiency or solo outing is allowed here and everything is kept within an egalitarian, anonymous and abstract grip. Despite these strict proceedings, I find many things to like in this album, not least the superb integration of instrumental and concrete sounds, combined into a rich sonic experience for the listener.

Maninkari – Fahon (Ikuisuus)
https://maninkari2.bandcamp.com/album/fahon

Parisian improvised music duet of Frédéric Charlot on viola and Olivier Charlot on frame drums, Maninkari manage to conjure up superb images of ancient, sacred ceremonies through their limited instrumentation. The frame drum usually provides the ground-bass, the drummer exploring the instrument’s nuances and resonances while only occasionally locking into a regular rhythm. The viola contributes magical and heavenly notes in a variety of playing modes, be it long-held notes, repeated notes or pizzicato, yet eschewing virtuosity in favour of persistent exploration of a limited number of chords. Bathed in a long reverb and a sacred atmosphere throughout, these studio sessions invoke a live church recording, thus putting the listener in the appropriate frame of mind to receive the music delivered as sacred and mystic. Used as creative tools, reverb and stereo positioning are hugely expanding the duo’s scope, while re-recording also allows the duet to sound like a small orchestra at times.

Langham Research Centre – Tape Works Vol. 2 (Nonclassical)
https://nonclassical.bandcamp.com/album/tape-works-vol-2

Excellent musique concrète tracks by a quartet of British musicians from London (Felix Carey, Iain Chambers, Philip Tagney and Robert Worby), working under the tutelage of Luc Ferrari – one track here is derived from Ferrari’s Les Anecdotiques and even features sounds from the latter. In addition to piano, analog synth and sampler, their music features sound collages from a variety of sources: found objects, hacked electronic devices, voltage controller, delay, tape recorder, plus outdoor, urban sounds of machinery, engines and other noises, yet used sparingly in light touches. It would be difficult, and perhaps irrelevant, to try and guess whether the tracks collected here were recorded live or constructed in the studio through re-recording. In any case, this is very dogmatic music – you can easily guess what the premises of the project were: ‘No Melody, No Computer, No Words, or you’re banned, Iain!’ The entire album might sound like a mere revival to some, but I’m glad we still have this kind of music approach around these days. It seems to me the band lacks the ability to focus on one specific sound at a time and squeeze it mercilessly to make it give more juice, something the French pioneers in the field did so well. Perhaps there’s even a contradiction, after all, between musique concrète per se and being a quartet of British Researchers. But, anyway, these Tape Works are a joy to listen.

Charles Rice Goff III – One Twenty Twenty One (Taped Rugs Productions)
https://archive.org/details/OneTwentyTwentyOne

A supreme oddity by American sound maverick Charles Rice Goff III, a stalwart of the 1990s DIY cassette scene, still very much active today. One Twenty Twenty One consists of live improvisations recorded during Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony on 20th January 2021 plus heavily processed vocal excerpts from the radio broadcast of the same ceremony. Played on various Korg and Moog keyboards, the music was originally recorded on a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder and later expertly mixed-down digitally. The 40mn continuous track is actually an assemblage of various themes, sequences and textures where the constant flow of Kosmische musik synth and weird vocal utterings combine for a highly Surrealist, LSD-infused experience, the craziest music I’ve heard in a long while.

Suite Rustique is a collection of musique concrète tracks recorded during winter 1990–91 in Angoulême, France. The album features experimental and collage music inspired by nature sounds – animals, gardening, hunting, bird watching. Sounds were created using traditional music instruments, self-build instruments, manipulated cassette tapes, mini Casio sampler, sound effects, voice, poetry. The album also features 2 poems by the composer. All originally recorded and mixed on a Tascam Porta 05 analog 4-track cassette recorder.

First published as a special, handmade packaging cassette limited to 5 copies given to friends. Reissued by French cassette label Nos Yeux Aveugles as side B of “2 Pistes (A & B)”, 1991 – see Discogs.

Recorded in 1990–91.
Digitized and remastered in February 2021.
Total time: 41mn.
Artwork+design: L.F. 2021.

Óscar Domínguez – Jamais, sculpture, 1938
From the ‘Jamais, Óscar Domínguez & Pablo Picasso’ exhibition at Museu Picasso de Barcelona, Spain, July 15 – November 8, 2020
http://www.bcn.cat/museupicasso/en/exhibitions/jamais-oscar-dominguez-pablo-picasso.html

'Jamais’ [Never] is a Pathé 78 rpm phonograph player repurposed into an auto-erotic machine by Spanish Surrealist artist Óscar Domínguez (1906–1957). Featuring unspecified feminine curvatures (bosom or buttocks), the platter is rotating but the machine doesn’t actually produce sound. It was considered lost since 1938 and is currently shown in Barcelona for the first time in 82 years.

The piece was included in the legendary International Surrealist Exhibition at Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1938, along with works by Dali, Ernst, Man Ray, Picasso and Duchamp’s 1,200 coal sacks hanging from the ceiling. During the opening night, dancer Hélène Vanel performed a frenzied dance inspired by (what else?) French neurologist Charcot’s studies on female hysteria. Here’s Salvador Dali reminiscing about her performance back in 1973:

’[Hélène Vanel] jetted from the wings like a tornado in an unbelievable movement that induced a demential delirium within all in attendance. She created a total uproar with her violent entrance, lunging up onto the bed, holding at arm’s length a live rooster which cackled in terror. She herself began screaming in hysterical mimodrama as she rolled and contorted herself on the bed. She jumped up and down before throwing herself into the pond surrounded by reeds that we had set up in the middle of the room.’

In recent years, Museu Picasso director Emmanuel Guigon finally tracked down and unearthed Óscar Domínguez’ masterpiece as well as rare photos by Nick de Morgoli from 1947. In fact, Domínguez offered 'Jamais’ to Pablo Picasso in 1945 and the sculpture has been languishing since in a warehouse in the outskirts of Paris. For this exhibition, the sculpture has been restored by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, but I understand it still belongs to the Musée Picasso in Paris and will eventually return there – and hopefully not to be stored away in some warehouse, this time.

In an interview with El País journal last July 2020, Guigon mentioned there were more lost treasures to discover from the 1938 exhibition, including, he believes, rare photos of the opening night.

[note by L.F. after El País article and internet sources]