Reviews: experimental

(experimental / avantgarde / electro-acoustic)

V/A – Life 85: International compilation

Life 85 is a compilation that features minimal and experimental electronic music from the 80`s. On this record you will find a diversity of musicians like Stratis, Weathermen, Gerechtigkeitsliga and Tara Cross. Very nice is the wavish minimal track `Who’s really listening` by Mark Lane. Also some Dutch acts are present…

Alex Temple – Schwarzwaldmusik III

For a moment album title and artwork gave me the impression of dealing with traditional folk music. After a hearing a few notes of the music it became clear I was mistaken. This is weird stuff, 5 strange experimental tracks between 2 and 28 minutes. Most instruments are played by Alex Temple himself, with a few guest contributions…

Tone & Hecker – Palimpsest

Releases by Mego are usually not very easy- listening, but I guess this must be one of their more demanding releases. Extreme music like this is mostly interesting for the artists creating it, I think. At least I can’t imagine that many people will get much pleasure out of listening to this collaboration between veteran Yasunao Tone from japan and Florian Hecker from Germany…

Grunewald, Weichselbaum, Finkelstein & Ziolkowsky – Yannun yannun

Grunewald, Weichselbaum, Finkelstein & Ziolkowsky may sound like a firm of lawyers, but it is in fact a collaboration of a group of experimental artists from Israel. “Yannun Yannun”, consisting of an audio cd and a disc with a divX movie, is the result of an improvised audio-visual performance…

Ilios – Vento Elektra

This is already the 10th release by Ilios, but it is the first I heard of this project so far. Apparently Ilios is closely connected to the Antifrost label (who also released works by Daniel Menche, Francisco Lopez, and others) for most of his works seem to be released on this label. Vento Elektra was entirely created using electricity and electric signals as a sound source…

Mattin / Dion Workman – Via Vespucci

Via Vespucci is a 19 minute live recording by the artists Dion Workman and Mattin. This work consists of very minimal, static noises (hiss and crackling) that are of a very high pitch, near the inaudible. Somewhere in the background there is some lower rumbling. Suddenly there is a low buzzing sound with occasional interruptions…

Tilia – Vous revez/vous ne revez pas

Tilia is Alexander Peterhaensel, a composer from Munich who has released his music under various names for several years. ?Vous revez?? is Peterhaensel?s debut album under the name ?Tilia?. The music on this album can be best described as ?filmic?. Beautiful and melancholic piano loops are interluded with subtle effects, clicks, guitars and distant voices…

Autodigest – A compressed history of everything ever recorded vol.2

After a highly interesting and surprising debut (see review on this website), Autodigest presents their second work. This time it is released on both Cronica and Ash International. While the first work focussed on highly processed and very abstract digital sounds, this work is a bit less intense…

Merzbow – Sha Mo 3000

After hundreds of releases on cassette, vinyl and CD, Masami Akita aka Merzbow releases his first CD in South America on the Essence Music record label. Essence Music previously released the wonderful double-CD by Atomine Elektrine, and again provides a strong disc in a beautiful packaging…

Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez – A Manual Dexterity: soundtrack volume one

Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez is a member of the avant-gardistic punk/hardcore band The Mars Volta that was formed after his former band At The Drive In quit. During the period in between these two bands he started working on a film project (now almost finished). At the same time he began working on some new music with befriended musicians. This became the soundtrack for the film…

Giscard le Survivant – Par Le Pouvoir Du Feu Auverpin!

A CDR demo by a French experimentalist basicly describes this whole release. The CDR meaning it’s for a small public only, the experimentalist telling us it’s only for a very small group of people indeed. Giscard Le Survivant proudly presents us his eight demo. A demo in which he goes on with the music some people will already know him from; experimental industrial rhythm…

Martini Kulture – God Killing Himself Vol. II: paper & metal

Quite weird experimental stuff on this cd-r! The tracks were created with the unconventional and old-fashioned means of a dual-cassette deck, a reel-to-reel and an old phonograph. Apparently this is the second part of a trilogy which final can be expected in 2013. So we have time to get used to the sounds of these disc…

Eigenwert – A Naxos

This interesting release is already a few years old, but came into my possession recently. The music is quite hard to describe. The structures are quite experimental, with classical/choral elements, industrial and ambient sounds and a ritual mood. Cut up samples and French spoken word and speech samples are added, like a text about Celine in the first track…

Alexei Borisow ” Anton Nikkilä – Typical human beings

Both Alexei Borisov and Anton Nikkilä have been active as solo artists in the experimental electronic scene. This is their first cd together, although they have performed live with each other before. The texts by Borisov seem to be the central part of this release…

Menche, Daniel – Heavy

I’m pretty sure this is one of my favourite Daniel Menche releases ever. It is a 3″ CDR that was released by Banned productions, and comes in a very beautiful handmade packaging.

Menche, Daniel – Ram Horns

This is an intriguing little release. It is a four minute track by Daniel Menche on a business card CDR, which is a CDR in the shape of a business card that simply cannot contain more music…

Menche, Daniel – Eye on the Steel

After a few years of silence, Daniel Menche has been releasing a lot of records lately. This new CD, on Alien8 sidelabel ?Substractif?, contains 11 relatively short tracks with a wide variety of sounds. This is not very typical for Menche, since he mostly releases very long tracks. Another thing that is a-typical is that some of these works are made with the help of a (laptop) computer…

Iversen – Ten times me

Jan-M. Iversen is a prolific experimental artist, with many releases, amongst others on his own Tib prod label. On ‘Ten times me’ he has created ten tracks for the patient listener. Pretty minimal experimental sounds from an unknown source form rather interesting textures…

Aalfang mit Pferdekopf – Im schlachthaus bluhen die Blumen

Aalfang with Pferdekopf is a strange bandname, but fitting for an experimental act with improvised music. This German act has released a few cd-r’s, ‘Im Schlachthaus blühen die Blumen’ was their debut.

Helvetikone – Dgf #1

Helvetikone is the first release on Front, a record label that offers a platform for artists that are affiliated with the radio show Digital Gadget, braodcasting in Berlin. Helvetikone is one side of the live act Taktik. Helvetikone give us heavy beats, with slightly chaotic sounds over them. Borrowing from different dance styles, Helvetikone is able to create pleasant and danceable tracks…