Been listening quite a lot for Eric Cordier "Breizhiselad" CD now. Liner notes of the CD (in french & english) explain the project of recording where he throws all the usual words of "acousmatic", "electroacoustic" etc, and explains little history and intent of the pieces. But in nutshell what this is: 73 minutes disc composed out of very very few moments of field recordings over the music composed from 60's LP re-issue of old 78rmp of nationalistic hymns of French Brittany. It focuses not only on the fragments of music, but all the surface noises, crackles, and pops what nearly erased vinyl surface produces. It starts slightly annoying. Just playing short fragments of the piece, but when time goes on, you will start to hear exceptional skills of re-creating nostalgic hymn in context of experimental sound. It has amazing dynamics from quiet to nearly storming noises. It managed to calm down into eerie female vocal drones drifting from speakers. In liner notes he talks about finding the original recording horrible, but also work of genious. Horrible because of catechsim-like vocal arrangements, but genious in trms of the beauty of melody and the conviction of the singers. And most certainly the nationalism and romantic visions of lost lands and lost cultures/languages is no new to "industrial music", but it's also most certainly nice to see area touched by electro-acoustic works. Most people outside France probably don't know shit what exactly is "Brittany" and how it differs from france, but I guess internet it full of possibilities to learn about history if one wants to.
To me this album shows greatly about the material being functional in terms of pure audio enjoyment, but also awake some inspiration/interest in subject matter, further than the booklet.
I'm interested in any recommendations on these areas of sound works.
Be sure to check out Cordier's Houlque 1996. Some of the sounds hurt my teeth - first track is a powerhouse - final track is a 25-minute organ/casio piece that wouldn't be out of place on a NY minimalist collection - electro-acoustic/music concrete of the finest order.
I like CORDIER's works very much. "Houlque" is great! I recommend his one of the first group U.N.A.C.D, especialy their mini cd published by French Sordide Sentimental in the begining of 1990's.
LUIGI ARCHETTI "null" CD
Listened this thing 2 times today. It's 60 minute CD. And was thinking of writing review since I found the album so great. But it seems too difficult to even say anything about it. So I rather not post on vague talk of electro-acoustics than actual review... hah http://www.dieschachtel.com/ label probably makes the total noise heads puke on its clean contemporary music approach... This sound, as though grains of finest sand trickle onto a membrane–the last thing that the narrator in Stanislaw Lem's "Solaris" hears when he starts out on his journey to a world that is falling apart–is the most fitting way to describe the characteristics of Luigi Archetti's music NULL. Stylistically, the compositions can be placed within the field of planar tonal design, and with this, also an experimental treatment of static sounds and microtonality, out of which finally something like monolithic sound sculptures have emerged.
Well, that's what it is. At the best, album is quite blends in the sounds which could be as well metal pipes or other resonating industrial elements, but most likely are piano strings. Slow, bounding but "tonal" qualities. There are some painfully disturbing moments of almost pure sound waves, where for a while it feels like bands such as Dominator should take some lessons of actually disturbing composition. The best thing is the perfection of many sounds. The dynamics of composition, purity and utmost craftmanship of reproducing the sound on the disc works so well, that even if many times the actual layering is almost nonexistent, those are the moments what work amazingly well. Just the quality and tension of the one thing what is happening, is already so strong. And opposed to many recordings, I find this to be something that requires your attention all the time. Many things happen, and they happen pretty short amount of time.
This could be one of the best purchases that I have done recently without knowing ANYTHING about the artist, or the label. Nor how artwork is. Just bought it when brain registered few phrases and words in description of release. For finns visiting Sarvilevyt, there might be copy at artfag section. Otherwise you probably have to go further than typical noise distro to find it.
...and to add, I guess it's about the time I can hear one computer glitch cd what I won't complain about..
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on February 26, 2010, 09:15:56 PM
For finns visiting Sarvilevyt, there might be copy at artfag section. Otherwise you probably have to go further than typical noise distro to find it.
Ive developed some kind of intrest towards this artsy shit, so im definetly into reading more about it.
how big is the artfag section at sarvilevyt, ive not been to lahti since fa fest.
lately: Krzysztof Penderecki and some johnny cage
does costes belong here or somewhere else, any particular releases to avoid or must haves?
What's the availability of Magison/INA-GRM in Europe and Scandinavia? As I said on the other board, I can't recommend ANY electro-acoustic higher than Francois Bayle. The collaboration with Parmegiani - Divine Comedie 2CD and the Son Vitesse-Lumiere (Vol.9 &10) 2CD are the best I've heard in this field. The production is out of this world, resulting in imaging, fidelity, and tones that you can't hear anywhere else. I realize this is of little importance to a lot of people...until they hear something like these two albums on a quality stereo, and they can't believe how vivid and spacial this music can be.
A more recent Bayle disc I recommend is Toupie Dans Le Ciel 2002 - great little 21-minute EP - the most "lunar" I think I've heard Bayle take it; he touches upon such sounds often, but the looped quasi-drone behind the trickle of dynamic electros is a nicely stripped down Bayle that is quite "sci-fi" and relaxing.
I concentrated more attention towards ING-GRM and GMVL because Anomalous distro was heavily weighted towards these labels. I'm sorry I'm not better acquainted with Empreintes DIGITALes artists. The Francis Dhomont I've heard has mostly been impressive. I know Michel Chion is highly respected, but I haven't heard any of his work. The list goes on and on.
All three Arsenije Jovanovic CDs are great. Galiola: Works for Radio, 1967-2000 on Alluvial is easily found for a low price, and it is top quality work. It has one of the best booklets I've seen in a long while; a great read. He isn't strictly electro-acoustic. He dabbles in several disciplines, but all at a high level of skill.
Eric La Casa/Syllyk is another name that I'd like to mention. I'm still absorbing his catalogue, so I don't want to make any recommendations just yet. Clouding that line between field recording and electro-acoustic.
three more threads to read and digest...
1 (http://www.chondriticsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=29997&hilit)
2 (http://www.chondriticsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19390&hilit)
3 (http://www.chondriticsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18827&hilit)
Yea, Die Schachtel is a very good label! Nice balance between unearthing old gems of electronic music and eclectic new stuff. I don't have nearly enough of their releases...
Last couple of days I've been listening to the Ilhan Mimaroglu's Agitation cd on Locust. Collects four pieces by Mimaroglu, Tract: A Composition Of Agitprop Music For Electromagnetic Tape parts I & II, To Kill A Sunrise: A Requiem For Those Shot In The Back and La Ruche: An Elegy For Electromagnetic Tape. First two tracks are busy collages of electronics, orchestral music, ethnic stuff, jazz, choral singing, propaganda and tapes. Texts by Bakunin, Marx, Mao, Kropotkin etc. are read (in English and French), like a slogan after another. Some parts work better than others but all in all it's a very charming piece of "program music" (Mimaroglu's words). Not very aggressive like might be suspected, not a call to arms but more like a journey into the mind of a revolutionary. There's aggression and then there's tranquility. Yes it's old-fashioned and "dated" but who cares... A Requiem For Those Shot in the Back is what it says, a solemn "song of mourning". Che Guevara's autopsy report is read, along with names of other fallen comrade's. The music itself is mostly understated electronics, developing into a mass of wailing towards the end. The last piece is less obviously political, although in the liner notes Mimarglu calls it "proto-political". Tape composition from movements written for violoncello, harpsichord and piano with some electronic effects thrown in the mix. Reflective and slightly gloomy stuff, waves of calmness develop nicely into small turbulences. Superb ending to the disc.
A really magnificent group and a great personal inspirator is
Morphogenesis from the UK. Infinite amount of different source materials - various objects, tapes, acoustic instruments prepared and non-prepared,
plants (bio-energy turned into sound)... And doesn't have a hint of the dry and formal 'academic' approach. Personal favourites include
Charivari Music,
In Streams 1 and
In Streams 2 but really everything I've heard from them has been really good.
Check out the website: http://www.stalk.net/paradigm/morphogenesis.htm (http://www.stalk.net/paradigm/morphogenesis.htm)
edit:And if you don't, here's a quote:
QuoteThe groups aim is to unify and integrate many diverse sound elements, (electronic, vocal, instrumental and environmental) within a context of continual evolution and group dialogue. We construct our own instruments in addition to using adapted or prepared conventional instruments - usually violin, piano and acoustic guitar. The range of sounds are further extended by means of filtering and other forms of signal processing. Contact microphones are used to amplify the sounds of bubbling water and other small sounds. All these accoustic sounds are enhanced by electronic filtering etc. One electronic instrument we use is a bioactivity translator which is used to measure the voltage potential of living organisms - including plants, fungi, and the human nervous system - and translate the biological rhythms into electronic sound. Other electronic instruments include a 4 speed portable reel to reel tape recorder and a multi speed CD player, both of which are used to work with short sound samples. We do not use laptops or lengthy pre-recorded material.
Jaakko
I had a feeling that Jean-Luc Guionnet was something very special. Was it because of good Groundfault CD? Perhaps. But after few attempts to appreciate for example "tirets" cd (hibari-05), well... If I can't really fully appreciate Herman Nitch organ music, this perhaps goes further into brain disturbance.
Whatever is being played, is random improv. It's not the crystallic minimalist tones of Nitch, but perhaps related to elegance of some drunk in corner of bar giving a try to bar piano. Tones and doodles hit here and there. Some random sounding patterns and a bit of Eric La Casa doing something. Most of these cuts are actually concerts. It sounds more of like test of how long you can show middlefinger on the stage, and get away calling it art? Perhaps the main problem I find is that the organ itself isn't that interesting. The quality it could have for deep tones and nearly brass-instrument like "prööött!!!" sounds.. well, it would have to be done very very differently than this. I know that "anyone could do this" is some argument what can be applied to anything, and is pretty much BS argument anyways. But well... anyone could do this. It has no interesting tonality, hardly interesting sounds. When things start to happen, it's just lame. Don't remember what was the name of the double CD of pretty much equal tortment.
So question remains, if one is to give mr. Guionnet another chance, what could it be?
Can't help with Guionnet. I've heard maybe three albums from him, and they've all been on the disappointing side of things. There's something wonky about his composition that doesn't hold my attention.
I haven't heard Guionnet's solo discs but the trio (Afflux) he forms with Eric La Casa and Eric Cordier is quite good. Very much based on field recordings and playing with intricate feedback from the surroundings + subtle processing. The kind of stuff which is superb in the right state of mind and just unbelievably boring in the wrong one.
I haven't had a chance to listen to the 2nd disc, which is the more contemporary of the two. Doesn't matter. The 2CD is $16, and that is well worth the Alireza Mashayekhi disc alone. You might recognize his name from the highly collectible, infamous V/A Electronic Panorama 4LP from the Philips' Prospective 21e Siecle series. His 4LP track is the first track on the CD. Great electro-acoustics, tape manipulations, etc. Nice touch of subtle ethnic flair as well, which gives those pieces and especially nice touch. Another high quality piece of the puzzle in the history of electro-acoustics and early electronic work from around the world. I'm impressed.
V/A - Persian Electronic Music: Yesterday and Today 1966-2006 2CD
Alireza Mashayekhi and Ata Ebtekar/Sote
SUB ROSA (BELGIUM)
"The Sub Rosa label presents the work of Alireza Mashayekhi and Ata Ebtekar/Sote, two essential, key luminaries in the so far very unknown electronic music scene as composed in Iran from the '60s until today. These Iranian music masters work on ancestral structures to create something radically new, travelling around the world as vivid creators, working through the hazards of history. Alireza Mashayekhi (b. 1940) is a pioneer Iranian avant-garde composer whose ideas and works have been performed in his home country and abroad for more than 35 years. Ata Ebtekar aka Sote (b.1972) is an electronic composer, sound artist and recording engineer who is interested in recasting the tuning of Persian classical scales (radif) and melodies from old Persian folk songs within a new electronic framework. Since he has a firm conviction that rules and formulas have to be deconstructed and rethought, he alters some of these modal systems from their original tonality and rhythm. He has released several CDs and vinyls on Dielectric/RLR, Spundae and Warp. Sub Rosa offers you a Persian history lesson that finally exposes this region's rich and significant contribution to the realm of electronic music. "This feels like the historical electronic music reissue of the year." -- Mimaroglu Music Sales.
"prööött!!!"
What's that in English?
since it's describing brass sounds, I think it can be related to fart sounds.
I guess once could mention source, which demand no financial sacrifices to check out, nor any knowledge of what formats to listen on what player.
pierre schaeffer - "etude aux chemins de fer" 1948:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9pOq8u6-bA
extremely primitive and nasty.
Pierre Schaeffer - Etude Noire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oBcM1xxmeQ&feature=related
Gloomy and sinister sounding works, with a lot of intense loops
Pierre Henry "Spatiodynamisme" 1954
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXrkt8zkeic&feature=related
talked in other topic. Good LP re-issue with more parts done 2010.
more.. well, its youtube isn't it? "related" on the left...
The Electronic Panorama series are pretty good (although if you want them on vinyl you will have to spend a bit of money, I have and I think they are well worth it). Ivo Malec, Bernard Parmegiani, Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, Francois Bayle, Alireza Maschayeki, Jacob Cats, Maki Ishii, Krzysztof Penderecki, Andrzej Dobrowolski, feature on the compilations to name a few.
Toshiro Mayuzumi.
Helena Gough is one of my recent personal favourites.
Morton Subotnick.
The "OHM - The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music 1948 - 1980" compilation is really worth getting too.
Todd Dockstader.
Bo Anders Persson.
Curtis Roads can be quite interesting.
David Tudor, most notably the Neural Synthesis recordings.
Ragnar Grippe early stuff, and Åke Hodell.
Janek Schaefer.
Quite a few great releases-artists have been mentioned already.
Biota seems to loosely fit in this category. First heard them in 1988 while working at a record store in NYC. They seem to have been largely overlooked my many of the "scenes" which their sound skirts the fringes of.
http://biotamusic.com/
In the eighties I used to huddle next to my portable radio/tape recorder, the only stereo system I had, and record the broadcasts of the Stockholm Electronic Music Festival. Every year, new electro-acoustic works would be showcased, and the ABC would broadcast the recordings, hours of them, for me to tape.
I tried to look up the Stockholm Electronic Music Festival just before and got a whole load of "electronic music festivals" crap, basically excuses for more techno wanks. So, does anyone know if this particular event still exist, then?
As you say it's hard to find any information on the Stockholm EMF; I'm more than certain that there are enough stockholmers here to fill you in. Would be surprised if this wasn't involved: http://www.elektronmusikstudion.se/. (that's not about concrete music / EAM though, I'm sure there is a bunch of purists who would frown at that lack of distinction between techniques...). A big blank in my knowledge of Swedish music history, I would be glad if someone could fill me in beyond what wikipedia has to say about it.
Quote from: Andrew McIntosh on April 05, 2011, 03:07:19 AM
I tried to look up the Stockholm Electronic Music Festival just before and got a whole load of "electronic music festivals" crap, basically excuses for more techno wanks. So, does anyone know if this particular event still exist, then?
This particular festival doesn't exist anymore. The event was a collaboration between the Swedish Radio and the legendary Electronic Music Studio (EMS) and went on between 1979 and (I think) 1982. The Fylkingen venue/society/label released some compilation LP's from these events, see here: http://www.fylkingen.se/fyrec
Then it continued with another Swedish electronic music festival in the rural village of Skinnskatteberg, from the mid 80's until some years ago. People like Stockhausen and Frieder Butzmann played there. Over the last decade the tradition has been upheld with the Norberg Festival, which is hosted at an abandoned mining site. EMS is one of the stakeholders here too. They just announced the lineup for this year (July 28-30) which looks tasty indeed... including Lustmord, Sudden Infant and Raionbashi. Homepage: http://www.norbergfestival.com/artists-2011.html
Listening to Tarab - Surfacedrift (2004), and some of it reminds me of an expansive Small Cruel Party. I have all three Tarab albums, and they're all impressive. Need to find a copy of the Acquiescence 3"CD. And now that I'm looking at past listening notes...
Tarab - Take All the Ships from the Harbour, and Sail Them Straight into Hell 2009 - another great Tarab album - one track; 55+ minutes - Small Cruel Party, Eric La Casa, Zoviet France, JGrzinich, Hands To, Nebris...if you like long, organic, beautifully told sonic stories, here you go - quality listening - RECOMMENDED.
Doesn't add up how I'm somehow more enthusiastic about other artists who aren't as consistent, or as quality, as Tarab reminds me that he is.
Pierre Henry -
has a lot of good stuff. Especially I enjoy his collaboration with then contemporary rockers Spooky Tooth on the album Ceremony. A classic from '69.
http://www.discogs.com/Pierre-Henry-Spooky-Tooth-Ceremony/release/166535 (http://www.discogs.com/Pierre-Henry-Spooky-Tooth-Ceremony/release/166535)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXzNWFw1btA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXzNWFw1btA)
Toshi Ichiyanagi.
Versitile composer. Electronic, film scores, psyche, plus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJuLBycxImg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJuLBycxImg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsqGNCvsiCA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsqGNCvsiCA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ4TmijOPV8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ4TmijOPV8)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Ihl4aF4z0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Ihl4aF4z0)
Film score, Eros plus Massacre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_Plus_Massacre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_Plus_Massacre)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkCrTUhJjU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkCrTUhJjU)
Tod Dockstader
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Tod+Dockstader
The three Aerial CDs are all I've heard but are very good.
I didn't know anythng about "Eros plus Massacre" other than it's a great title. I think I originally ran across it in a book & the title just stuck in my head.
anestis logothetis fantasmata 1960 ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuHJJOMd70s
hard to believe this was composed in 1960. was performed at hermann nitsch's first public aktion in 1963. as "proto-noise" as it comes
josef anton riedlpaper music ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM_iIcoZnvY
riedl worked at both grm and wdr. work spans musique concrete, pure electronic music, sound poetry, fluxus style pieces, etc. very diverse output, all absolutely amazing
pierre-andre arcandthe
eres trilogy is hands down my all time favourite music. the first volume is on ubuweb ... http://www.ubu.com/sound/arcand.html ... i think the second volume is my favourite but it's a real tough call, especially between the first and second volumes.
Quote from: ubuwebTape loop accumulations. All pieces are composed in real time with the loop box: a customized stereo tape recorder which allows, by means of short variable loops, delays and overlaps, to construct a constantly changing continuum of sounds. The verbal, the vocal (inhaled, exhaled), the various noises, these acoustic phenomena are processed on the spot and the piece demonstrates the structuring procedure.
Short and shifting loops, delays and overlaps create a constantly renewed continuum of concrete or instrumental or vocal sounds and acoustic reverberation, which after a while spatializes the sound, invading the whole space in its exponential development. A true magnetophony.
for fans of aaron dilloway, jason lescalleet, etc. never really hear a whole lot of discussion about arcand (as far as i can see anyway) but i couldn't recommend these discs any higher. i don't know how many times i've listened to them now and they never fail to floor me. as a curiosity, the discs are only available as individual cd's but the track numbers continue from previous volumes (the tracks on eres +16 are indexed from 8 - 16, eres +21 has 17 - 21)
and speaking of jason lescalleet, the two collab discs with graham lambkin are incredible. don't think i've heard anything from either that i haven't loved though
There's a fairly recent Editions Mego sublabel called Recollection GRM which is a "series of reissues of records and archival recordings from Groupe De Recherches Musicales, produced by Peter Rehberg in coordination with Christian Zanési & François Bonnet at GRM" (from Discogs). They're all LPs, 8 so far: http://editionsmego.com/releases/recollection-grm/
I have 6 of them, listened to 3 so far (Pierre Schaeffer, Guy Reibel and Ivo Malec). They're all great, with excellent vinyl pressing quality. The Schaeffer is his only electronic piece, very different from his classic musique concrete. Reibel sounds very modern, it could easily pass as electroacoustic music of today. Malec is very electronic too, with some other sources (like a young woman's voice in one piece). The atmosphere is surprisingly mysterious at a few places.
They're all what someone has once described as "cinema for the ears". Especially the Reibel LP is pretty intense: lots happening. I don't claim I understand or am able to discern the structure of the pieces (no doubt they're there, but perhaps I should be a trained musician for that?) but it doesn't bother me cause the sounds and the pieces are great anyway.
All in all, a fantastic series that I hope will keep on going.
Don't know anything about it but I stumbled across this on SONM archive and enjoyed it a lot.
http://sonmarchive.org/index.php?option=com_muscol&view=album&id=2510&lang=en (http://sonmarchive.org/index.php?option=com_muscol&view=album&id=2510&lang=en)
Good album! Don't blame you for digging it, it's got a lot to offer. But I'm going to have to track it down because that website sure is glitchy.
I THINK IT'S SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE THAT
but seriously, did you know it already? would really like to find it in real life somewhere!
No, first introduction to it. Sounds great (what I've heard). A shame such gems fall through the cracks.
Definitely, though that's why SONM is such a great site, despite its flaws (one of which is having to wade through aeons of shit to get to the gems).
Would also like to mention that josef anton riedel thing mentioned earlier is great.
There's a bootleg label called Creel Pone that releases CDR replicas of more or less obscure electronic/electroacoustic/musique concrete LPs from the 50s to the 80s. I just counted and I have 23 of the roughly (I believe) 150 releases so far. I haven't heard most of them yet, but there are some real gems among the ones I have:
- Thorkell Sigurbjornsson: La Jolla Good Friday I-II
- Pythagoron™: s/t
- Cecil Leuter: Spectacular Stereo Sounds
A great label, and one that highlights the existence of quite unknown artists working independently of the musical centres of those days (e.g. INA-GRM, WDR, American tape music centres).
They have releases by several of the names mentioned in this thread, like Josef Anton Riedl.
Is Creel Pone still going? I seem to recall reading somewhere that it had stopped. Couldn't find much information one way or the other.
QuoteIs Creel Pone still going?
I'm not sure. I think Mimaroglu Music Sales always has their new releases and the latest stuff they're selling is from a year ago. That doesn't mean there haven't been newer releases that have since sold out. I have a friend who has collected almost all of them and I seem to recall him saying it's still going, although there's no regular release schedule.
Belgian history :
http://www.metaphon.be/index.php?page=ipem (http://www.metaphon.be/index.php?page=ipem)
Kaija Saariaho - Six Japanese Gardens & Trois Rivieres Delta 2002 on INA-GRM is an impressive album. If you're interested in this type of music through a percussive perspective, this would be a good album to try.
so we played a HÄKKI gig last thursday in oulu. it was an evening of "nordic sound art" etc... before us there was a "concert of electronic composition" where veteran elektroprofessor Jukka Ruohomäki presented some of his students' works. wow top caliber EA stuff. basically you sit in the middle of the room, there were 2 stereo speakers in front and 2 in back. then someone presses play, the piece starts, but the authors stood at the mixer and "drove" the sounds around the room. stuff swooshing from front left to rear back etc, powerful granular kung-fu axion shit, sometimes like putting your head in a washing machine full of bricks. also some pieces pretty close to your favorite dark ambient kvlt artist. except they're not on some embarassing goth label but academic compositions with equally embarassing liner notes. ha!!
trivia for reaper users: sir xenakios was one of the performers. he's written some plugins for reaper and the xlent hourglass software. like so:
https://xenakios.wordpress.com/
that dude couldn't look more like a mad professor.
so these guys delivered some heavy academixmindfuck music: teemu ontero, marko suorsa, paavo impiö, jukka ruohomäki, teemu lindgren, anssi laiho
and bonus fsu/diy "electronix rainforest" sounds from jaakko junnila
Quote from: pentd on August 21, 2016, 03:23:16 PM
so we played a HÄKKI gig last thursday in oulu. it was an evening of "nordic sound art" etc... before us there was a "concert of electronic composition" where veteran elektroprofessor Jukka Ruohomäki presented some of his students' works. wow top caliber EA stuff. basically you sit in the middle of the room, there were 2 stereo speakers in front and 2 in back. then someone presses play, the piece starts, but the authors stood at the mixer and "drove" the sounds around the room. stuff swooshing from front left to rear back etc, powerful granular kung-fu axion shit, sometimes like putting your head in a washing machine full of bricks. also some pieces pretty close to your favorite dark ambient kvlt artist. except they're not on some embarassing goth label but academic compositions with equally embarassing liner notes. ha!!
trivia for reaper users: sir xenakios was one of the performers. he's written some plugins for reaper and the xlent hourglass software. like so:
https://xenakios.wordpress.com/
that dude couldn't look more like a mad professor.
so these guys delivered some heavy academixmindfuck music: teemu ontero, marko suorsa, paavo impiö, jukka ruohomäki, teemu lindgren, anssi laiho
and bonus fsu/diy "electronix rainforest" sounds from jaakko junnila
Was going to write about this event also. My personal favourites were probably Marko Suorsa's compositions. I find it quite amazing that there are some loners living in the north of Finland, doing world-class electroacoustic composition, completely on par with works by let's say... more renowned INA-GRM people, without pretty much no-one knowing. Apparently Suorsa has self-released his material on CD ('Konkreettista Musiikkia'), but there is not even a Discogs entry on the guy. On a mission to get my hands on the record ASAP...
A biographical entry in Finnish - with amazing academic formalism guaranteed. ;-) Got to love this.
QuoteMarko Suorsa (s. 1977) säveltää elektronimusiikkia lähtökohtanaan konkreettiset äänet. Jo koululaisena hän kuunteli Darmstadtin koulukunnan säveltäjien musiikkia ja tutustui sitä kautta myös Karlheinz Stockhausenin elektronimusiikkiin.
Suorsa aloitti kokeilut elektronisen musiikin parissa Oriveden opistossa. Hän opiskeli elektronimusiikkia ja musiikin teoriaa Oulun konservatoriossa Jukka Ruohomäen johdolla.
Ensimmäinen konservatorioaikana valmistunut teos Verstas (2001) esitettiin samana vuonna Ung Nordisk Musik -festivaalilla Tanskan Århusissa.
Suorsaa ovat kiinnostaneet myös muut esittävät taiteet ja erityisesti äänen ja liikkeen yhdistelmä. Hän on tehnyt yhteistyötä tanssija-koreografi Jouni Järvenpään kanssa, aluksi improvisoivana soittajana ja vuodesta 2000 säveltäjänä. Yhteistyön tuloksena ovat syntyneet mm. teokset Peilitär (1998), Säännöt (2003), Kuolema (2005), Aurinko on perseestä (2007), Suo (2009), Betonilähiö (2007/2010), Mätäkuu (2011) sekä Kitka ja kuusi muuta (2014). Useat teokset ovat saaneet ensiesityksensä Uuden musiikin lokakuu -festivaalilla, Kitka ja kuusi muuta Turun Barker-teatterissa.
Vuonna 2014 Suorsa julkaisi cd-levyn Konkreettista musiikkia, jonka sävellykset ovat vuosilta 2009 - 2014. Levyn teoksista Kitkan (2010) äänimaailma on lähtöisin pääosin styroksin kappaleista. Organisoituja ääniä (2014) on aiempien töiden käyttämättä jääneistä aineksista koottu teos. Kuolema (2009) on omistettu Kalervo Palsalle, jota Suorsa pitää hengenheimolaisenaan. Muita sävellystyön inspiraation lähteitä Suorsalle ovat kalevalainen mytologia ja pohjoisen luonto.
Lähteet:
Marko Suorsa: Konkreettista musiikkia -albumin tekstivihko.
Kimmo Pihlajamaa: Suo kuokitaan yhteistyössä. Uuden musiikin lokakuu -tiedotuslehti 2009.
Pia Kaitasuo: Rhythm and blues. Kaleva 11.7.1998.
Esko Aho: Leikkaa ja liimaa on oululaisten paraatilaji. Kaleva 17.5.2001.
Sirpa Heikkinen: [arvostelu], Kaleva 2.2.2003.
Quote from: Salamanauhat on August 21, 2016, 03:42:14 PM
My personal favourites were probably Marko Suorsa's compositions. I find it quite amazing that there are some loners living in the north of Finland, doing world-class electroacoustic composition, completely on par with works by let's say... more renowned INA-GRM people, without pretty much no-one knowing. Apparently Suorsa has self-released his material on CD ('Konkreettista Musiikkia'), but there is not even a Discogs entry on the guy. On a mission to get my hands on the record ASAP...
yes it seems he is completely ungoogleable for non-finns. is there anything to listen to online? or a contact address?
I'm currently exploring Francisco López's works, I really like the double CD "Machines", great compositions made of field recordings of machine sounds as the title suggests (clockworks apparently and other mechanical sounds i can't identify). I love the crystal clear clarity of the sound, amazingly recorded and put together. I think is a perfect album to start getting into this style for someone who enjoys industrial music.
I'm not very well versed on musique concrete and the like, but started doing some research on the style, I'm checking the other artists mentioned in this thread.
very humbled bout the opportunity of hearing 5 nights of TORBA on the road. top level crude EA noise made with tapes, some samples, looper pedal + reverb.
https://torba.bandcamp.com/
as good as it gets. i hope the plans for an album with (all?) the old tapes works out sooner than later
Lately I've been exploring Roland Kayn's music, which has been nothing short of a revelation to me. He was a German composer who lived between 1933-2011. It's a shame he's little known, as his electronic music (he wrote contemporary classical music, too) is the best electroacoustic/electronic music I've ever heard. His music is unique; he very rarely utilised the kinds of sounds and motifs that are characteristic of academic composers. Often, his music is a kind of very intense ambient, with huge blocks of sound shifting constantly (I don't like ambient, but I can get totally lost in Kayn's music). The vast, expansive sense of space that's characteristic of his music is just amazing.
It seems Kayn's name has become somewhat more well-known after the release in the last couple years of the "A Little Electronic Milky Way Of Sound" 16xCD box set and the 3xLP reissue of "Simultan". While I like these works (although, ironically, his most well-known and easiest to get release, "A Little Electronic Milky Way Of Sound", is the least exciting in my view), the real deal for me are the CDs he released on his own label, Reiger-records-reeks. This is a lot of music: 12 double CDs and one single CD, not counting his contemporary classical works. He classified his music into several categories: cybernetic music (these are the CDs I least like at the moment, but I haven't really familiarised myself with them yet), electroacoustic music and what he termed multiplex sound art (almost all of these works contain surprising elements, like samples of techno-like music or classical music).
If I had to pick a favourite of his works, it'd be "Gärten Der Lüste", which is a totally unique electroacoustic piece. Play it on a good hifi at night (which suits the music's atmosphere) with no distractions of any kind, and you'll be transported to a strange place. It's as if you're walking through a dense, organic, constantly changing and alien environment at night with various sounds and sound textures surrounding you at different distances. I'm reminded of the movie Annihilation where the protagonists enter a strange world. "Gärten Der Lüste" is like being in such an alien and mysterious world. (Unfortunately there are no sound samples from any of his CDs on his own label on YouTube.)
I highly recommend Kayn to noise fans and people into strange and innovative electronic music (some of his early works as well as parts of the above-mentioned 16xCD box can be heard on YouTube). And for those who already like his music, there are good news concerning reissues: following "Simultan", the rest of Kayn's mythical and impossible to get LP box sets from the '70s and '80s will also be reissued by Die Schachtel ("Tektra" should be out this spring), and Reiger-records-reeks will release a CD box this year.
There was a miniburst of interest in Kayn in the 90s when Anomalous dug up some vinyl box set copies of Makro I-III, Infra, and Tektra. The latter two didn't last but a minute, and Makro was sold out shortly thereafter. I can't remember if Soleilmoon stocked the Barooni reissue of Tektra before or after that. You couldn't find Kayn anywhere, and that obviously didn't help with interest. It's interesting that it seems like he's still only experienced a small bit of attention in a way Harry Bertoia has. Different...but not all that different at moments.
Quote from: Zeno Marx on March 31, 2019, 07:12:40 PMYou couldn't find Kayn anywhere, and that obviously didn't help with interest.
It's true that one reason for his obscurity must be the lack of availability of the early vinyl box sets and the basically non-existent distribution of his self-released CDs. Aside from Discogs (where they ain't cheap), you can pretty much only buy them from his daughter on kayn.nl, and they're a bit pricey too. I wonder why they're not distributed. Oh, and the 4xCD reissue of "Tektra" on Barooni is long out of print and very expensive too.
Luc Ferrari: Complete Works by Brunhild Ferrari
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44148847-luc-ferrari
This is the first English monograph of legendary French musique-concrète pioneer Luc Ferrari (1929–2005), founding member of Groupe de Recherches (GRM) with Pierre Schaeffer—the group and studio dedicated to the electronic medium that changed composition forever. This sumptuous volume includes facsimiles of Ferrari's original compositions, notebooks, and the first English translations of his writings, including poetry and fictional works and correspondence, as well as a special full-color section that includes the composer's own collage artwork.
There is coming some Torba (compilation?) CD via AAD soon, but does anyone know is this guy still going on under different alias? Torba is one of most impressed project year after year to me. I have been hunting his records but some of those are so limited that it must be impossible to get whole Torba catalog. I'm sure I'm not the only one and his works would get much more praised if people have possibility to hear those! There's a little tip to someone publisher to do a CD box example?
Edit; just found tape under his own name under JDV 2022
https://falt.bandcamp.com/
Wow! Thanks for the link. Just checking but there is really interesting stuff here. Didn't know this label. Few evenings listened Mauro Diciocia tape here.
Quote from: piisti on January 17, 2024, 06:52:15 PMWow! Thanks for the link. Just checking but there is really interesting stuff here. Didn't know this label. Few evenings listened Mauro Diciocia tape here.
Don't forget to check out their "radio" mixes which often contain unreleased recordings ;) - https://faltradio.substack.com/