IRM member Erik Jarl has been quite productive lately. One of the new CD?s is entitled ?sealed void? and was released on the American labels ?Force of Nature? and ?Annihilvs? (the label of Navicon Torture Technologies), two labels that focus on releasing power electronics and dark ambient music…
Horchata – Basidia
October 16, 2004 by
Horchata is one of the acts that has been really active in the dark-hop/illbient scene on the internet. Many of the acts involved in this ?scene? were insprired by the many works of Mick Harris (Scorn). After numerous CDR albums and a vinyl 12?, Horchata now presents a new full-length disc on Ad Noiseam. Horchata creates slow moving electronic music with beats, bass and strings…
Duncan Avoid – Metaphysics
October 16, 2004 by
Duncan Avoid is a collaboration between Undacova and Kaebin Yield, both of whom I?ve never heard before. Together these artists create a soundscape of broken beats, noise, digital glitches and electronic pulses. The entire work reminds me of Somatic Responses in a way or various other acts from the idm and breakcore scenes although ?Metaphysics? is a lot more ambient and atmospheric…
S.Q.E. – The Abyss stares back
October 16, 2004 by
SQE is the project of J. Greco, an American musician who also works under the name ?The Fruitless Hand?. Greco already released three other works under the names SQE and SQI (smooth quality excrement/instrument) on which he collaborated with Ure Thrall (amongs others). The previous releases focussed entirely on — slightly psychedelic — dark ambient drones…
Minimal Self – Formula of Reversal
October 15, 2004 by
?Minimal Self? is a new project by John Everall, who is well known for his project ?Tactile? which has links to Coil and other famous projects such as Scorn and Pan Sonic. Everall, is also known as the label-manager of the Sentrax label. John Everall uses electronic instruments to create minimal and static soundscapes with bits of noise and lots of looping synthetic sounds…
Monstrare – Novum ott
October 15, 2004 by
The third release by the upcoming label ?Force of Nature? is by an act called ?Monstrare?, which has something to do with the better known Cordell Klier (who releases material on Ad Noiseam, see reviews on this site). This album contains ten long tracks of dark ambient soundscapes with an industrial, machine-like atmosphere…
Ultra – Stain
October 15, 2004 by
The ?cult? group Ultra released some years ago on DOM America, and was now re-issued on Stateart?s Avant label. On this CD we can find 26 short tracks of ingraspable, unprocessable and unclassifiable weird music…
V/A – Domizil vs. Antifrost
October 15, 2004 by
On this strange double CD by the Antifrost and Domizil record labels we can find live recordings and collaborations between artists of both labels. Artists include: Ilios, Coti, Jason Kahn and Steinbruchel…
David Toop & Max Eastley – Doll Creature
October 12, 2004 by
The music on this CD is apparently based on a short story by David Toop about – you guessed it right – a doll creature. The story is a kind of bizarre tale of a sexless creature of which I do not know what to tell, except that it is kind of a sad freak. I never liked dolls very much, in fact they always used to scare me (just as clowns and old ladies with too much make-up did)…
o.blaat – Two novels
October 12, 2004 by
o.blaat is apparently a female laptop performance artist from New York who does a lot of performances in the art scene all over the world. This kind of thing makes me somehow doubt the quality of the music presented. First of all I really dislike so called ?laptop-performances?…
@c – v3
October 4, 2004 by
This project with the strange name ?@c? delivers a moody soundtrack of experimental live-improvisation with guitar and other soundsources. Soft drones and an occasional chitter are used to create a sloooow soundscape. The effect of the typical use of minimal guitar is quite remniscent of the post-rock delivered by labels such as Kranky…
Bjorgulfsson/Pimmon/Thorsson – Still important somekind not normally seen
October 4, 2004 by
Microtonal composers Heimir Bjorgulfsson, Helgi Thorsson (both of Stilluppsteypa) and Pimmon performed at the Melkfabriek in Den Bosch and recorded this CD, which is their live set. The sound got edited by Robert Hampson (Main). The CD contains a mix between microtonal noise, clicks and drones, and sporadic electronic beats…
Iron Monkey – Iron monkey / Our problem
October 3, 2004 by
It does not happen often that I review releases that are already out for a number of years, and of which the band has already split up. In this case however, I felt it was really necessary to write something about Iron Monkey because they are certainly one of the heaviest bands I ever encountered…
Paulo Raposo & Marc Behrens / Ran Slavin – Further consequences of reinterpretation / Ran slavin
October 3, 2004 by
Cronica must be one of the most active Portugese labels in the underground of electro-acoustic and experimental music. Two new CD?s by Paolo Raposo & Marc Behrens, and by Ran Slavin further define the musical direction of this upcoming label. ?Further Consequences of Reinterpretation? is a collaboration between the well known experimentalist Marc Behrens, and the less known Paolo Raposo…
Holkham / Stendec / Myrakaru – Komatta saru / A study of and / Tammetoru
September 29, 2004 by
Before I started writing the reviews for these new releases I had never heard of any of the artists nor the label. Apparently I seriously missed out on something worthwhile. The expanding records label seems to focus on the gap between composed ?electro-acoustic? music, and more accessible electronic dance or ambient music…
Zeena Parkins & Ikue Mori – Phantom Orchard
September 29, 2004 by
Mego is a label that releases a lot of music that can be called experimental electronics. This can range from subtle and minimal electronic compositions to full-out (and unsubtle) noise and sound collages. This CD by Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori therefore came as quite a surprise. First of all the music is not entirely electronic…
Lionel Marchetti – L’incandescence de l’?toile
September 29, 2004 by
Lionel Marchetti is a French composer who has been very active lately. With releases on Metamkine and Staalplaat, he is one of the upcoming composers in the field of ambient-concrete-noise music. This Mini-CD contains material that reminds me most of a noisey and less subtle version of the works of Iannis Xenakis, the legendary Greek composer and one of the founders of ?Musique Concrete?…
Jasch – Shimmer
September 29, 2004 by
Shimmer is a CD full of highly abstract, and often high-pitched ambient drone based on the sounds of string instruments with elements of jazz-improvisation and hints of voices and other organic sources.
Courtis / Marhaug – North and South Neutrino
September 24, 2004 by
Lasse Marhaug is well know for his involvement in Norway?s experimental music scene (read: noise scene). He releases numerous releases of harsh and soft noise, performed everywhere and collaborated with artists such as Aube and Merzbow. This collaboration is with someone called ?Courtis?, whom, I must admit, I have never heard before…
Gilles Gobeil / Rene Lussier – Le contrat
September 20, 2004 by
[this review also deals with Stephane Roy – Migrations] Empreintes Digitales simply keeps bombarding the world with their high-quality releases of old and new electro-acoustic composers…
