CODES: - Drone Records

eings born out of a dreamer's nomadic invention. Also utopian are —
haven't it been said often enough — these sonic structures attempting
to avoid traditional music codes, disregarding their imperatives, and
offering a stream of mental images to our psyche. However, do we
really have to be reminded of all these things that we know so well
Certainly, for in these cybernetic times, is there anything more
necessary than the reality of utopia So, here are five fantasies to be
listened to with eyes closed; in sequence, they dream up sound in
space, mankind's revolt against its own nature, a few light phenomena,
a symbolic journey, and the tumultuous manifestations of exaltation.'
'Here and There' (2003), 'Je te salue, vieil océan!' (1998, 2000-04),
'Chroniques de la lumière' (1989, 2005), 'Voyage-miroir' (2004), 'Corps
et âme' (2001-02)." [label description]
* DIDKOVSKY, NICK - Tube Mouth Bow String CD (Pogus
Productions P21042-2, 2006) € 13.00
Fünf Stücke des Impro-Gitarristen & Komponisten NICK DIDKOVSKY
(bekannt von DOCTOR NERVE & Zusammenarbeiten mit FRED
FRITH, er spielte aber auch mit KEITH ROWE, ERHART HIRT, etc..),
der mit einem Streicherquartett zusammenarbeitet und konzeptuell
auch Computersoftware einsetzt. Fette Drones, Violinen, recht abseitig
und rauh, Polydrones mit noisigen Ausbrüchen, sehr intensiv & klasse
arrangiert, definitiver Drone-Tip !
"....These pieces are about the details of musical evolution that emerge
from rule-based compositional systems. Using electric guitar, string
quartet, electronics, and computer software, we explored territories held
together by systems of agreements, forms specified in software, realtime
musical choices, and notation.
Two of the compositions here, She Closes Her Sister With Heavy
Bones and What Sheep Herd, are process pieces whose scores fit very
economically on one page. Each score specifies melodic material and a
short set of rules. The music precipitates from the interaction between
the score¹s specifications and the decisions that the musicians make
during performance. By contrast, Tube Mouth Bow String is a throughcomposed
piece which notates foot pedal movements, vocal behavior,
and bowed string performance, overflowing very uneconomically onto
many pages which we pasted onto large poster boards and set before
each player. Though this piece leaves no real-time performance
decisions to the ensemble, Tube Mouth is a process piece in a very real
sense, as the process was first specified, executed, and auditioned in
software, and finally transcribed to common music notation for live
performers. Improvisation (simultaneously the easiest and the most
difficult of all real-time process pieces to perform) is included here as
well, with a solo MachineCore performance providing a bridge between
She Closes and Tube Mouth. Closing the CD, Just a Voice That
Bothered Him sounds like it could have been composed systematically
but evades rules instead, being composed intuitively by ear. The piece
emerged in opposition to one vividly frustrating weekend of fruitless
systematic composition, and for that, gets the last word." [credit notes]
* DONIS – Vacuum CD (Autarkeia acd003, 2004) [ed. of 499
copies] € 13.00
Cosmic dark drones aus Litauen! Unendlich langsam und schwerfällig
bewegt sich dieser one-tracker im Raum und fängt in langen
konzentrischen Bahnen an zu kreisen. Bereits 1997 aufgenommen,
erblickt diese schöne Aufnahme doch noch Jahre später auf dem Label
aus Vilnius das Licht (vielleicht sollte man besser sagen: die
Dunkelheit) der Welt !
“This is not the latest Donis' record. It was recorded in 1997, when
Lithuania was still in deepest electronic music crisis. "Vacuum" had
waited seven years for his real live in personal Donis' archive. The
album consists of only one long track, that could be ascribed to
"ambient' stylistics. Tough the sound of album proposes feeling of dark
emptiness, it can not be described as "dark ambient". By it's influence
"Vacuum" reminds "Coil's" ambient works that take you to the
psychedelic trip. Extremely low generator vibration in record doesn't
allow the feeling that you're high in the mountains to go out. The air is
being crossed by toneless and icy sound, music motives are deep and
sharp. Every stream of sound will work out as if you, the listener, are in
a trip of deep emptiness.
Album lasts for 65 minutes. It’s packed in a special black DVD box. We
recommend you to listen to “Vacuum’ only on Hi-fi stereo. Limited
edition 499 copies.“ [label info]
* DURAND, SOPHIE & MANU HOLTERBACH - Verres
enharmoniques : un maxi-CD (Cloud of Statics COSm 04.02,
2004) € 10.50
Great polyphonic glass harmonic-drones, a one-tracker of about 20
minutes. Professional cover-artwork. To discover !
"The first acoustic recording of a performance in Paris utilizing Manu
Holterbach's invented glass instrument from April of 2003.
The Cloud of Statics project is a series for commissioned works on CD
by newly discovered or independent contemporary composers and ar
tists working with suspended acousmatic sound phenomena. Cloud of
Statics releases will consist of two formats, long works and shor t
works. Long works will be full length CDs published in 12 x 15 cm
landscape hardback book packaging. Short works will be 20 minutes
length semi transparant large CDs packaged in double car ton sleeves."
[label info]
* EARTH - Hibernaculum CD & DVD (Southern Lord SUNN74,
2007) € 16.00
"Hibernaculum' is a very special CD and DVD package release from
avant-experimental drone innovators Earth. The audio material consists
of new recordings of three old Earth classics redone in a different, stark
and clean tone, plus the track “A Plague of Angels” which was
previously available on a rare tour-only split 12 inch with Sunn0))). The
video material (on a second disc) is an Earth documentary filmed by
Seldon Hunt. The documentary features interviews with Dylan Carlson
and live footage from the group's 2006 European tour. It is the first time
ever that footage of Dylan Carlson and Earth has been released since
the resurrection of the group. Detailed insight into the process of the
band as well as candid, intimate conversations are captured in the film.
The lineup assembled by Dylan Carlson for this album compliments the
aesthetic and direction perfectly. Adrienne Davies who brought a
patient, consistent and complimentary rhythm and percussion to the
'Hex' album is again behind the drum kit. Don Mcgreevy and Jonas
Haskins provide bass support. Steve Moore assists on keyboards and
horns. Greg Anderson (Sunn 0)))/Thorr's Hammer/Goatsnake adds
subsonics via analogue synth on “Ouroboros is Broken” and “Coda
Maestoso in F (Flat) Minor”. As with 'Hex', 'Hibernaculum' is focused
and precise yet the heavy darkness remains unbroken." [label info]
* EARTHMONKEY - Be that Charge 3 x CD (Beta-Lactam Ring
Records mt049a + mt042a, 2007) [ed. 300] € 26.50
"Deluxe 2xCD edition plus bonus CD limited to 300 numbered and
signed copies with an original art insert by Peat Bog all packaged in a
deluxe 5 color gatefold sleeve. Honey...looks like the monkey's been in
the mushrooms again! Yes, the unstoppable Peat Bog has once again
raised his pulsating colours and thrown himself, and us, into a cosmic
oblivion. And though scientists have recently proven that a person can
swim as quickly through syrup as through water, syrup is still the more
delicious swim. And syrup is the pool that Peat offers up for your
musical laps. This latest has both kinds of music: stoned and stoneder.
The record opens with a kind of Duulish slow groove that one might find
useful while laying in the middle of a field staring at clouds. Before long,
one is laying in the middle of a cloud staring at fields. Peat's production
shows that his sixth form spent in Nurse With Wound school paid off. All
the tracks are quietly layered with subtle backdrops, voices and swells
of thick fuzz. As ever, however, no matter how close Peat brings us to a
need for rehab, Earthmonkey is fat with rhythm and even the occasional
need to, perhaps, ever so slightly, bang the head. A nice electro punker
in the middle not only invokes the spectre of Chrome, but is also sure to
grow a thicker, healthier mullet faster than any other traditional hair
remedy. Looking for that modern something a little 2066-And-Then-olicious
and also a little Galactic-Supermarket-o-rama Earthmonkey is
your Kraut-tastic choice! And somehow I managed to get through this
whole thing without mentioning the word psychedelic. Until now.
Dammit!" [label info]
* EARTHMONKEY - Angelsmans Supernova CD (Beta-Lactam
Ring Records mt140 / BLACK SERIES NEGRO4, 2007) [lim.300]
€ 16.00
Mini-Album in der edel aufgemachten "Black Series" des Portlander
Labels. Drei Stücke mit dem seltsamsten Psychedelic-Drone (Rock)
aller Zeiten, Gitarrenriffs & Orgel & elektronische Beats versinken in
einem Meer an Geräusch- und Sprachsamples & Gitarrensoli, das
ganze mit viel Wucht & Monumentalität vorgetragen...
"Black Series 4 - Ed. of 300 numbered and signed copies of three new
psych tracks from Peat Bog. Each copy includes a sign and numbered
insert with an original piece of artwork by Le Bog." [label info]
* EASTLEY, MAX & MICHAEL PRIME - Hydrophony for Dagon
CD (Absurd #58, 2006) € 13.00
Live-Aufnahmen von 1996, alle Klänge wurden "unter Wasser"
aufgenommen, PRIME ist wieder auf der Suche nach den versteckten
Micro-Sounds im "Innern" der Materie...
“This haunting music was recorded in 1996 at "The Four Elements",
SKRAEP Copenhagen. Every sound was generated underwater by an
array of instruments including hydroarcs, bubble machine, tubing, fans,
motors, tapes and objects. Coherently with their work, which many
times has employed water as means or texture, Eastley and Prime
develop a convincing narrative whose obscurity is made desirable by a
challenging exploitation of aquatic reverberations and refractions. This
means that we're neither in presence of a soundtrack for a dolphin
exhibition, nor ambient music for swimming pools; try instead to conjure