news - aim - releases - reviews - plans - links - distributors - ordering - contact

alm 1 > andrea marutti "traces 94-95"
from re:mote induction

The first 3" CD-R to come from the new French label Taalem (which is related to the Harmonie label) is a 3 track release from Andrea Marutti. A man who is probably better known for his work under the names of Amon and Never Known; with this release he presents older material as the title Traces 94-95 would suggest. The first track is Prequel, which along with the last track is only 3 minutes long. Starting from a real down low bass level, reminiscent of his approach to Amon, Prequel builds as an expansion point. A stroke outward like a cloud motion that falls off at it's peak and moves us onto the body of this release - the 15 minute long Lost In Palenque. This starts from a consistent level, bass pulsations, with clouded mass building up behind that, providing a thick atmosphere in the process. There are little twitched pulses, almost like owl calls, or something similar. Increasingly there is more emphasis on these elements as they mix through the base bass layers. Sweeping through with colder reverberations, sparser echoes, which carry a whipped glitch line. More chromatic edges come in, reflective as they back up the whip line, in turn triggering a light, drifting melody. Deep synth line woven through the atmospheres that have been building to this point. Plinking in chimed, rich tones, carrying through the fore of the layered depths, with the occasional flicker of voices. The result is striking, enveloping the listener in a pure mood.

To end this release we have Pi Kappa which announces its presence with brassy drones, flecked with higher tones. Deep bass notes projected in a horn fashion, extracted into slow fading drone lines. Drifts flicker through the spatial mass, scaled notes playing with hints of reverb.

PTR
May 2002

alm 2 > i: wound "triptych 2 : skarz"
from re:mote induction

German artist I:Wound appears on Taalem with the second in the label's 3" CD-R series. Featuring another 4 tracks which see the artist make heavy use of field recordings from his travels in India. Traffic and chatter layer in a busy start to Skarzworminside v.2, shifting by degrees to provide texture and then backing that up with some manipulation and sampled rhythms. Glitching and mildly chaotic on the whole, but dense in a way that provides the listener with a wealth of detail. Gradually mixing machine noises with flutes and chanting, other vocal elements and festival music playing into the whole. Skarzshive follows with a more manipulated feel - hard, spaced rhythm plays, with drift tones as melodic edge woven through. There are moments of voices and the like as before but initially they are integrated more, or are in turn used as a trigger to shift the focus onto a new rhythm or other detail. Skarzclosed v.3 returns to downplayed stray sound - creaks and rustles - then mixes up a manipulated melody up behind that. train sounds or manipulated bands lead to chatter lead to commercial music samples being integrated with the whir of power tool rotation and buzz. Add sirens and rough street, pattered rhythmic breaks - urban core indeed. Focusing for a phase on a sluggish re-composition of string sounds and hazed melodies, before mixing in repeated TV samples. The last track Skarzworminside v.3 also makes some use of strings, starting of with a sustained drone vibe, warm and effective. Then mixing in background noises, bustle and stray chattered snatches. Glitching in manipulated rhythm at odd moments while extracting more vocal elements in to the mix. Wire strokes play further into the mix, reprising some of the vocal elements that were present earlier in turn.

With this release I:Wound plays heavily with the ideas of field recordings, the layering of sampled found sounds, which isn't to everyone's taste as the sound can often be in a very raw form. But the result is dense, chaotic shifts in the form of deep cultural, snap-shot immersion. Given the textures of some of the sounds that are found here there is an almost inevitable comparison to Muslimgauze to be made, though I don't think it is entirely fair - Muslimgauze tend to be, for me, too rigid and repetitive in their sound, while the same doesn't seem to be true of I:Wound.

PTR
May 2002

alm 2 > i: wound "triptych 2 : skarz"
from immanence

I knew very little of this project before listening to this 3” CD-R, which is probably for the best, as I am not usually a fan of field-recording based compositions. This, however, takes a fairly innovative approach (“innovative” within my limited experience of the genre, that is) and incorporates radio recordings in order to add a dimension of beats and “traditional” music to the pieces. This also adds an element of pop culture to the overall feel and significance of the work.

The field recordings used here appear to be all from a rural Indian locale. Thus, we have the hustle and bustle of busy street markets, the crude rumblings of rickety car engines and the aforementioned cursory glimpses of local radio stations, the effect of which is often unsettling, yet uplifting.

It is hard for me to perform a concise analysis of the work present on this disc, as the tracks all contain similar sound sets, yet each is distinct enough to mark it as a separate composition in its own right.

This is not the most exciting CD I have ever heard, but nonetheless it managed to pique my interest in a genre that I find to be often too abstract for my tastes.

Gavin Lees
23.07.2k2

alm 3 > Internal Fusion "NedenBahe"
from re:mote induction

NedenBahe is a 2 track 3"CD-R by Internal Fusion on the Taalem label - the third in a series, designed to be low cost and to remain in print. The two tracks here are both long pieces, about 10 minutes each. Starting with the title track, NedenBahe, we build towards vibrant layers. Starting with a repeated vocal sample, a voice saying "dum dedum...", with bass waves building up behind that along with warm vibrating lines. After sometime the vocal section is replaced with a tribal rhythm, working on two levels, the focused beat drive on one level and an echoed, almost stripped to click rhythm behind that. the feel of the track behind that remains behind that, if anything more reverberant as it fleshes out the deep feelings. This section established we have the return of vocal elements, this time a singing/wailing form of words - richly textured atmosphere with a definite exotic appeal. The second piece, EnheGuenHan starts with low waves of reedy wind instrument, warm and wavering in drone inference, with a certain textural layering. Deep bass stroke plays, a triggered string struck and reverberating, backed by tiny glacial chimes. Hot and cold combining in motions that play across the initial levels. Pinging hand held cymbals play a chiming rhythm with a new found drone, rising to a peak and fading off for a bit. This helps to flesh the sound out, adding more of the richness which was present in the last piece. Low vocal groans play in the background, giving ground to a more sighing form, mixing with the other details as is right.

PTR
May 2002

alm 4 > Lecanora "krack"
from re:mote induction

Lecanora provide the most recent addition to the Taalem 3" CD-R series, the fourth in the series to date and featuring three tracks by the French Cyril Henry who has recorded with Exotendo as well as collaborating with Toy Bizarre. Krack:ca starts the disc with a deep, warm drone, an unfolding sound, that expands out from the initial point of contact. High sounds play through the mix, extracted lines of chime into line - an edge to the core waves. Oxy follows with a more metallic feel, rustling sounds like chimes being jostled, stray and unfocussed. Behind which low bass sustains as it builds from bare to audible. Strokes of string harmony weave between the presence of these elements, building gradually as the metallic patterings become more pronounced in the process. The harmonies start to drift, with a little wavering over-drone around the peripheral as the reverb mounts. Mounting in a heady drone direction, which overwhelms the more stray aspects of the percussion, but the clatter still provides a distinct contrast at its reduced level. To conclude Krack, Lenora comes up with Coma White, starting with low bass pulses and scribbles of higher lines, working through glistening chimes. The bass pulses gathering a density as the lines resolve into glitched loops. Building up into sighing drones dotted with high chimes, pure and effected, along with the soft dip and return of the glitched details - pulsing drones contrasted by smooth harmonics.

PTR
May 2002

alm 1 > andrea marutti "traces 94-95"
alm 2 > i: wound "triptych 2 : skarz"
alm 3 > Internal Fusion "NedenBahe"
alm 4 > Lecanora "krack"
from ambientrance

France's Taalem label specializes in 3" CD-RS of eclectic listening, though this 12-track, 4 artist promo packs nearly 80 minutes of such sounds onto a full-sized disc. andrea marutti's three pieces include opener "prequel" (2:59) which slowly rumbles into existence as a boiling morass followed by stunning " lost in palenque" (14:59); densely churning drones are soon overtaken by layers of soft, pretty tone cycles. Those smooth sounds erupt into rougher scrawls of wavering feedback near the piece's end. i:wound is apparently quite the field-recorder, as evidenced by his three locational-sample-strewn offerings, all of which ("skarzshiva" for example) lean toward middle eastern motifs of music, voices and activities earning an unavoidable Muslimgauze comparison. His arrangements flow notably well, though in "skarzclosed v.3" the occasional outbursts of violence make for less-than-ambient listening.

Muttery vocal chants against a steaming sea of unknowable forces and stylized ethnodrums mark "NedenBahe", the first of two tracks from Internal Fusion . The second piece, "EnheGuenHan" tosses various exotic sounds over a bed of deep pulsing drones and hazy clatter. Lecanora is introduced by way of the sonorous soundwaves which writhe in long, undulating stringcurrents through "krack:ca" ; two other darkly moody expanses follow. A nice display of the unusualities coming out of Taalem; check them out to learn more. B

David J. Opdyke
june 2002

alm 7 > nimh "lanna memories"
from immanence

Nimh is the project of Giuseppe Verticchio, an Italian composer who has self-released a many CDRs since 1999.  For his latest release on French label Taâlem, he exclusively uses traditional Thai instruments to create rich, organic ambiences with a subtle ethnic tint.

The first piece, or “part” of this 3” CD builds from silence to a deep, breathy drone that pins the track together.  In the background there shimmers some small pieces of metallic percussion and subdued vocals, which expand the atmosphere; take it away from the heavily processed, almost electronic, drone towards some more “live” sounding and inherently human.  All the while, the piece is carried along by a repeating chanter melody that evokes the kind of romantic Oriental images that we find sewn into the prose of William Beckford and the Arabian Nights.  As the composition unravels, the drone segues to the faint harmonic tone of resonating bells as they knell the track’s closing.

The second part of “Lanna Memories” finds Nimh no longer rooted in drones and moving towards the realm of processed acoustic sounds.  A small chime melody plays softly in the distance, then slowly builds through the addition of delays and further layers of sound into a almost rhythmic clamour.  The track then erupts with a snare drum roll and burst of chanters into a small journey through the Orient – voices circle all around us, while the lushly captured instrumentation maintains the loose, atmospheric vibe, which cannot fail to entrance the listener.

The closing piece begins with the euphoric sound of the monsoon – a heavy blanket of rain, bringing new life and prosperity – the music, too, finds rejuvenation as it gallops forward with an upbeat percussion line which drives us on through an ambient noise collage of dissonant instruments, chanting voices and shimmering chimes.  It all has a very “found sound” feel to it, as though Verticchio had recorded this straight from the streets of Asia, such is the arrangement and depth of the sounds.

This is a beautifully composed EP that flows remarkably well over its 22minutes, never sounding hurried or truncated, yet still giving itself space to evolve and shift through various dynamic phases.  It is also refreshing to hear obscure instruments used conventionally in experimental music, as opposed to merely sampling and reducing them to anonymous drones.  Highly recommended.

Gavin Lees
19.11.2k2

alm 8 > james p. keeler "5 shades for a grey room"
from immanence

James Keeler is perhaps better known as the ambient noise legend, Wilt, having already released many successful records for the likes of Ad Noiseam, Zaftig Research, The Rectrix and Crionic Mind.  He now presents his first offering under his own name on Taâlem but, to be frank, it seems something of an arbitrary change.  All the classic Wilt-isms are present: the clanging metallic drones, rumbling distorted basses and concrete manipulations – though, this is certainly not to the detriment of the release.

The EP itself is an interesting concept.  We are presented with a trademark Taâlem 3” CD, on which we find five tracks, or “shades”, which evoke five very different psychical states and listening environments. The first is calm and subdued, focussing on a thick, heavy bass sound with the occasional intrusion of subtle harmonic whines, transforming the track into more of a musical composition than merely noise.

…which is certainly more than can be said for the second “shade” – the track spontaneous bursts into life with piercing, crackling distortion; creating an unsettling and tense ambience that doesn’t actually evolve or differentiate, but is (somewhat thankfully) brief.  The third sees Keeler take a more creative noise approach, pacifying the distortion in favour of resonant mid-tones with processed string plucks flitting menacingly in the recesses.

Our fourth shade is, again, a short piece but definitely the most standout track for me.  The mood is rooted firmly in cinematics, with its vague, crescendo strings, crackling vintage vinyl and muffled, obscure dialogue.  I feel it has more depth, substance and instant appeal than the other shades, reminding me, to some extent, of Doubting Thomas.

The final piece is also the longest: a dark journey through barren churchyards, the bowels of Purgatory with its moaning souls and other nightmarish landscapes that lie beyond words, woven into the fabric of Keeler’s musical vision.  While the individual phases of the fifth shade work nicely in of themselves, I feel that they don’t gel together as well they should, leaving the track slightly disjointed.

This is perhaps my only criticism of “5 Shades for a Grey Room”, that for a release seemingly geared towards ambient, background listening, its changes are too jarring to lull the listener into any kind of hypnotic trance.  Instead, it requires a very focussed listening session, toying with the listener’s ear with every subtle tweak and twist of the music, playing with their heightened perceptions and warping minds with dark atmospheres as only James Keeler knows how.

Gavin Lees
19.11.2k2

alm 8 > james p. keeler "5 shades for a grey room"
from recycleyourears

James P. Keeler is a hell of a productive musician. The man behind the now recognized Wilt project, half a year after the massive "Radio 1940" double CD album, chooses to switch to a much smaller format, the 3" CDR, and to present 5 new tracks under his own name. And if he has proven in the past that he was able to write very varied music (ample and dark with ""Amidst a spacious fabric"", soundtrack-ish and hypnotic with "Radio 1940", noisy and sharp with "Wither), the 5 shades of this little item act like a very good introduction (or summary) to the audio territories the man is exploring.

The first track is a deep immersion into low frequency drones, distant and huge, a small glimpse of the first era of Wilt. It is followed by a gritty saturated piece, whose particular kind of distortion, powerful but not ear piercing, reminds me quite a lot of Mental Destruction, all the more because of the slow, somber beat that gives its strength to this track. Not as noisy as "Wither" or the split with Stolen Light, this is still a good example of what James Keeler can do when he choose to distort the many accoustic recordings he uses for his music. The third "shade", still slightly overdriven, is more subtle and detailed, playing with two entertwining elements (a high pitched oscillating sound that was probably recorded somewhat accoustically and a variety of more electronic tones), providing a bleak but touching aspect to this track, which I would compare more to "Radio 1940", for it is very deep and efficient. The fourth track, a bit too short, revolves around a distant voice sample (which is too muffled to understand), something which is quite rare with Wilt, but links well the previous emotional piece with the final (and longest) one, in which chopped up bell sounds introduce some fast outbursts of high frequencies and a collage of various edits from field recordings. This is the most experimental side of Wilt, who gives here homage to the veterans of noise and sound experimentation.

I will never repeat it enough: James P. Keeler is one of the very few experimental / ambient artists which no one should miss at the moment. Not only does he writes extremely encompassing and profound tracks, but he is also able to present something which is musically challenging and genuinely interesting. Putting together something that both appeal to the feeling and to the brain is a rare thing when it comes to this style of music, and I can not but recommend to listen to this artist's output. "5 shades from a grey room" is a good introduction, and should lead to discover the rest of Wilt's discography.

(Nicolas Chevreux)
11th december 2002

alm 1 > andrea marutti "traces 94-95"
alm 2 > i: wound "triptych 2 : skarz"
alm 3 > Internal Fusion "NedenBahe"
alm 4 > Lecanora "krack"
alm 5 > désaccord majeur "la neuvième heure"
alm 6 > liquid sphere "hypocracy"
alm 7 > nimh "lanna memories"
alm 8 > james p. keeler "5 shades for a grey room"
from vital weekly

Taalem is a sublabel of Harmonie, a French label that is specialized in releasing dark ambient music. In their Taalem series there have been so far eight releases in 3" CDR format, all very simple in layout: a crystal box with a sticker on the front and back and nothing else. Without doing justice to each release, this review is an overview of all releases so far.
Andrea Marutti works also under the names Amon and Never Known and is a master of dark soundscapes using mainly analogue and digital synthesizers. Although his approach is nice, it's also a bit too much on the normal side of affairs like this. But executed with care.
I:Wound has many releases on his own label, and Sascha Karminski is a collector of sounds found on the streets, mainly in a country like India. Many of his releases are multi-layered, and thus chaotic assemblages of street sounds, with just a little bit of sound processing.
Internal Fusion has two lengthy pieces which do not sound like a big surprise if one knows his CD on Staalplaat. A mixture of samples, dark electronics and rhythms in a pseudo ethnic style.
Behind Lecanora is Cyril Herry, whose previous names included Exotoendo and Sechres Mound, his collaboration with Cedric Peyronnet, aka Toy Bizarre. His three pieces also deal with sampling of various acoustic instruments, like cello and violin (euhh me thinks of course). The result is intimate chamber music.
Desaccord Majeur is a kind of sister band with Internal Fusion (with whom they made a CD as Tlon Uqbar) and here too pseudo ethnic rhythms, sampled tablas and street sounds are embedded in a less dark ambient atmosphere.
Liquid Sphere is a new name for me. They have apperentely released some works, but this is my first introduction. The four pieces are dark ambient pieces of a more raw nature, a less refined Main or Lull, kinda like slowed down instruments which have been attacked by a bunch of sound effects.
Also new for me is Nimh, aka Giuseppe Verticchio, who works exclusively with instruments from Thailand, which he processes through effects. The trumpets trough delay sound of course ritualistik, but it's nice music - even for me, the non lover of this kind of stuff.
Keeler also works as Wilt, whose CDR on Mystery Sea we reviewed before (Vital Weekly 323 and his CD on Ad Noiseum, Vital Weekly 344). More dark, unearthly rumblings from his side. I think it's a bit more looped then before, but overal no major career move.
Many sides of ambient industrial are covered in these eight 3" CDRs, so there is a little bit for everyone in this nice series.

(Frans de Waard)

alm 9 > chaos as shelter "message"
alm 10 > arc "13th"
alm 11 > raumerkundung "flug 4-5-6"
alm 12 > yannick dauby "chant de dune"
alm 13 > tidal "silent knife speaks"
alm 14 > kristian olsson "laudanum"
from vital weekly 410

The Harmonie sublabel Taalem just released another six 3" CDR releases and they all fall more or less in the category of ambient music.
The first one is by Israelian Chaos As Shelter, who has become a household name in the world of dark ambient music. For his piece 'Message' he uses a spy message lifted from shortwave radio. He feeds this into a whole bunch of electronics and builts over
the course of twenty minutes a hallucinating piece of dark, broading music. Loops built and built and electronics are added. Nice piece.
Behind Arc are Aidan Baker, Richard Baker (whom are no brothers, much to my surprise) and Christopher Kukiel. They operate in a very traditional ethno ambient style with deep washes of synths and sparse percussion and a heavily treated guitar. Not unlike bands such as Voice Of Eye or Life Garden and maybe not with a very up-to-date sound, but still quite alright chill out music.
Raumerkundung is Lutz Pruditsch, whom you may know as Tarkatak and Robert Steinberger, the man behind Disaster Area. Although the exist since 1990 they have not released other than one cassette. They play their music on guitars, samplers, tapes, contactmicrophones, metal and radio. Their sound is not unlike a band like Troum: thick and dark clouds of sounds of heavily processed instruments. I had the pleasure to see them a couple of times live, but over the years they certainly progressed. The new quiet approach suits them very well.
The name Yannick Dauby might be known from his collaborative works with Mnortham, Alio Die or Thomas Koner. The title piece was already released in 1999, but now added with a new piece. Dauby specializes in field recordings which he records. On the title piece he uses sounding sands, dunes that make sound. Over the course of the piece he builts up towards a large crescendo. In 'Mlil (part 1)' he uses a close miked rattle sound. Quite nice.
And with Tidal we hop back into the world of dark ambient music. Tidal is David Brownstead and he has a couple of releases already. Thick clouds of sound over the course of some twenty minutes. Minimal but kind of hallucinating.
I never heard of Kristian Olsson, but apperentely he is one half of Heid and also known as Survival Unit for more aggressive noise. He too sit nicely in the world of dark ambient, but unlike Tidal his material is much more 'present'. Using samples of metallic percussion he represents a more violent approach to ambient music.

(Frans de Waard)

alm 10 > arc "13th"
from funprox

ARC formed as a band in 1999 when Aidan and Rich Baker met with Christopher Kukiel in Toronto at the ambient live series called Ambient Ping. They decided that their music should be improvised, to keep all perfomances unique and fresh.
This release on Taalem seems no exception on that. This improvisation was recorded on friday 13th nov 2002. It starts out with mainly percussion and guitar, creating a ethic sound. Then slowly samples come in, and the percussion goes, leaving a deep loopbased drone. The second song has the same deep feeling, combining samples with guitar, percussion and drums. There are many layers to focus at, giving the music a time deep and warm feeling. Arc never looses itself in endless solos, giving the listener the opportunity to focus on the deep structure of their music.
You could compare this release to many bands, ranging from Ummagumma style Pink Floyd, to Voice of Eye, to Subarachnoid Space. This release on Taalem should be heard by everyone that likes ethnic drones, you wont be bored.

(BvG)

alm 15 > aidan baker "the taste of summer on your skin"
from touching extremes

The title captures the nostalgic character of this short composition by Aidan: its 20 minutes give the exact idea of a person meditating in isolation, in front of the waters, when summer is soon to be over. The masterful looping treatments are like a polaroid taken many weeks earlier but already faded and consumed after being exposed to the light. Even if the "taste/skin" element could obviously conduct to some kind of romantic afterthought, I also liked thinking to the rippling waves transporting straws, organic materials and oil residues in a sea that by now is nearing its death. But any negative connotation is cancelled by the sun light, making the water glow at sunset; indeed, we all want to be there for the rest of our lives.

(Massimo Ricci)

alm 15 > aidan baker "the taste of summer on your skin"
alm 16 > edward ruchalski "refined localities part one"
alm 17 > no xivic "i do blame you"
alm 18 > ellende "bitter lemons"
from vital weekly 426

Taalem's series of 3"CDR continues, of course with ever-present Aidan Baker. He presents three solo tracks of his ambient guitar playing. Multi-layered it seems, Baker puts various layers of ambient guitar playing on top of eachother and presents some haunting soundscape.
Which can also be said of Edward Ruchalski. He had a couple of releases on Humbug. Apperentely he is using field recordings and samples of of string and percussion motor instruments Edward built himself. This release is a bit less of ambient work for the usual Taalem release, and a bit more about industrial music. Machine-like sounds, coupled with modulations of various machines humming in sync, makes this a raw and crude work, but nevertheless it's powerful and intense work throughout, with enough variations in its modulations.
No Xivic is the name Henkka Kyllönen uses. You may recall his first 7" on Drone Records from last year. On this CDR release is a lot less ambient and droney, but finds himself in a harsh territory of rather lo-fi loops being played along reel-to-reels with dirty heads. Dust made audible. Crude raw ambient industrial. It may appeal to some people, but I must admit it didn't do much for me.
Just like Aidan Baker, Ellende is also everywhere. A collective of people sending sound material to a Dutch in Japan and he mixes it all together. Hence the various areas of music in which Ellende moves about. The title piece is a rumble of percussive like field recordings, with droney, machine hum in the background. 'Our Disagreements' is surprisingely a much more noiser piece than most of the recent stuff by Ellende but towards the end a voice is used and things become a tad more ambient. New roads ahead for Ellende here.

(Frans de Waard)

alm 21 > aube "pôle nord"
alm 22 > kar "sfrigor"
alm 19 > mathieu ruhlmann "somne"
alm 20 > dronaement "fuer mur"
from vital weekly 461

The Taalem label, subdivison of Harmonie, is by now bigger than the mothership and more and more they attract well-known names.
There was a time when Aube circulated in these pieces almost every week (the press release talks about more than 160 releases in fourteen years), but I can't remember when was the last time. Maybe about a decade or so ago, Aube released a lot of singular works, all dealing with one sound source (say a lightbulb, metal, glass etc) but in retrospect many of his compositions sounded singular too. Somewhere along the lines I lost interest, but I was keen to hear what he is up to these days. Still he uses one single soundsource, feedback in this case, but not, as one could expect, a loud one. In the four pieces, Aube shows his usual minimalist interests, but his compositional structures have changed a bit. These four pieces are less based on rhythms and layers, but rather layers of sound. Quite an interesting come-back (don't know if he was away, but at least for me it's a come-back).
Kar, from Italy, had a few self-released CDRs and a few on S'Agita (a label that recentely stopped their acitivities), have just one piece, circa twenty minutes. The opening sounds made me think of Organum, but then some sort of trumpet sound kicked in and things sounded a bit more free form improv, but half way through the piece, things gradually changed electronic - I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this is the same piece but then fed through a couple of max/msp patches.
The other two new Taalem releases are by artists who had recent releases on Mystery Sea. Mathieu Ruhlmann continues in his own style: processing field recordings (here of an unknown source) and by adding layers of processings, he creates his own deep listening ambient. The rumblings of the original sounds leak through these dense clouds of sounds, but altogether it's a well-crafted piece of dark ambient music.
Dronaement has a lot of previous releases (Drone Records, Dachstuhl, Mystery Sea or on his own Field Muzick) and here has two pieces showcasing his two different approaches to ambient music. 'Fuer Mur' is a soft and subtle one of shimmering sounds, birdcall-like piano notes and much delay and reverb. Very lighthearted ambient of a pastorale nature. 'Immer Da' on the other hand is much noiser and less subtle (to say the least), with similar sound sources sounding much more distorted. It's nice to hear both approaches, but I rather had a full twenty minute version of 'Fuer Mur'...

(Frans de Waard)

alm 19 > mathieu ruhlmann "somne"
alm 20 > dronaement "fuer mur"
alm 21 > aube "pôle nord"
from paris transatlantic may 2005

Canadian artist Mathieu Ruhlmann builds his music from his own field recordings, adding layers of drones and less decipherable sounds from disparate sources. The results he obtains in Somne reveal a post-concrete, muffled, almost gothic ambience where everything seems to fall in its right place, maybe too much so. Sliding doors reveal a view over No-Man's-Lands where frozen breath and abstract rumbling make way for nuclear wind and metallic resonance; amidst this obscure panorama, strange kinds of flying creatures try to converse with mechanical frogs escaping a polluted marsh. Though neither too unsettling nor overly innovative, this stuff is certainly well assembled and should certainly appeal to fans of Lustmord (ca. Heresy).
Arvo Pärt's Für Alina is the basic material over which Dronaement develops Fuer Mur, a kind of cross between the softer sides of Brian Eno's On Land and selected moments of Akira Rabelais' Eisoptrophobia. Pianos are engulfed in long reverberations that make them glow in a faint, almost ill sunlight. Under the surface, whispered voices and what sounds like an engine add some much-needed dirt. "Immer da" is shorter and angrier, with a basic sequence of notes repeated by an analog synth progressively distorted and mutilated by ever more frequent discharges of piercing buzz. Not exactly groundbreaking but pretty effective if listened to in the right mood.
Akifumi Nakajima, aka Aube, is the mastermind behind the best of this batch of 3-inch releases on this French label specialising in dark ambient, hypnotic/concrete soundscapes. Pole Nord uses feedback as the sole sound source and is divided into four continuously running sections. Exploring extreme frequencies at both the lower and the upper ranges of human perception, Aube generates a stream of pulse and fluorescent hum that soon becomes quite nerve-wracking and destabilizing, but just when we are getting used to the abrasion, the third movement provides some respite from stasis with its lunatic patterns of crazed circuitry. Order, in a fashion, is restored in the final segment, in which feedback harmonics intertwine with more tranquil controlled investigations of space and disturbance.

(Massimo Ricci)

alm 22 > kar "sfrigor"
from kathodik

“Sfrigor” è una piccola (grande) suite; uno spazio ben congeniato dal duo romano il quale, in un'unica danza dalle tinte oniriche, colloca umori, tempi e movimenti dallo spirito molteplice. Il suono mai come ora, viste le diverse ‘tematiche’ che avevano accompagnato le precedenti uscite, acquista una valenza policroma che si adagia con scioltezza durante tutto l’ascolto. Un ipotetico percorso cinematico dove si è rapiti e condotti tra striature d’ambient music claustrofobica che tra sè annida velati inserti industrial. Un lamento notturno dove un groviglio di suoni (elettro-acustici) graffianti e urticanti si azionano sotto forma di (plausibili) loops, pacatamente interrotti da stacchi di quieta e meditata musica concreta. Micro-wave elaborata attraverso le lenti di un microscopio, l’idea del suono che da materia esplode (o implode) e si tramuta in una cascata di infiniti pulviscoli sonori, in frenetico contrasto tra loro. La fine… una discesa verso l’assenza di rumore scandita dai lontani rintocchi ancestrali di qualche dimenticato strumento percussivo. Sceso il silenzio, tra le mani rimane un oggetto: Sfrigor, in cui le sensazioni nutrite nei confronti della musica da Marco Carcasi e Adriano Scerna affrescano una tela imbevuta da infinite possibilità e combinazioni auditive; un background / caleidoscopio di ascolti, ripetiamolo ancora una volta, posto tra la poetica lisergica dei Coil, le oscillazioni interiori dei sottofondi di Lustmord, le brulicanti tensioni di Illusion of Safety e Main, il naturalismo dei Thuja, il folk-nero dei Current 93…Un grazie particolare alla Taâlem per aver messo le armi in campo, affinché questo nuovo progetto del combo sperimentale capitolino vedesse finalmente la luce.

(Sergio Eletto)
april 4th, 2005

alm 22 > kar "sfrigor"
from sands-zine

Era da tempo che attendevo questo nuovo lavoro dei Kar, e le cose attese troppo a lungo spesso finiscono con il deludere... ma per fortuna non è il nostro caso: “Sfrigor” è un disco splendido, forse la miglior cosa fin qui prodotta dal duo romano. Solo una manciata di minuti, ma sufficienti a far lievitare l’entusiasmo ed a solleticare l’idea di una produzione futura dannatamente intrigante. Sfrigor è un brano estremamente articolato, come mai i Kar ci avevano fatto sentire, che potremmo suddividere, ma solo per comodità di descrizione, in quattro parti ben distinte. La prima parte è quella più tesa, infernale, con suoni metallici che sfociano in un lamento sinistro e indistinto. Poi la tensione sfuma, si dissolve, e viene sostituita da quello che sembra un richiamo primitivo, come di un corno soffiato, e ad esso fa seguito uno sfrigolio ancor più sottile, l’idea del silenzio in macroamplificazione, o la captazione dilatata dell’industrializzazione in un nido d’insetti. Tutto si risolve infine nello scampanellare vitreo della breve coda, suggello di un piccolo grande racconto sonoro. Sfrigor è l’appendice mobile e guizzante dell’industrial, quello che da Z’ev porta a Illusion Of Safety, Michael Northam e, infine, a Seth Nehil. Ma Sfrigor ha anche qualcosa, seppure siano assenti tutti gli elementi associabili al genere, che fa pensare al folk apocalittico dei Current 93, magari distorto, inselvatichito, filtrato, mondato delle parti cantate e delle parti di chitarra, ridotto ad un onirico viaggio nell’inconscio, subdolo esempio di poesia senza parole, di canzone senza cantanti, di arringa senza oratori, di lezione senza maestri… Forse Carcasi e Scerna non lo hanno neppure creato, ma lo hanno semplicemente trovato, così com’è, come ci appare… megagalattico.

alm 23 > daniel menche 'scather"
alm 24 > nullkommajosefh "infidel part 2"
from vital weekly 475

If I am not mistaken, this is Daniel Menche's first release on CDR format, albeit a short one. Despite common knowledge, I don't think Menche's music is really that of hardcore noise. Of course things are loud and maybe a bit mean, but there is also a subtleness in his music, a great deal of dynamics that moves on various levels in his music. From the softer moments to downright louder moments, this is 'noise' of a much more intelligent kind. As always it's hard to tell what it is that Menche does on his recordings, other than perhaps translating raw bodily sounds with electronic means. Great work.
Nullkommajosefh is perhaps not as well-known as Daniel Menche, despite his various CDR releases for Tosom. One of those releases was 'Infidel' and here is Infidel Part 2' - in two parts. Dark ambient music, perhaps made on a bunch of analogue synthesizers, or maybe a bunch of computer plug ins - one can't tell these days, but of course it's the end result that counts and those are quite nice. Nullkommajosefh stay firmly inside the areas of dark atmospherical music, with a haunting and almost horror movie like soundtrack and don't add something new to the genre that is so well defined by Lustmord, but finds his own spot in there.

(Frans de Waard)