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Issue 80: Drive - Inside the Untimate Synthwave Soundtrack (Magazine)
This month's Electronic Sound cover feature tells the fascinating story of the soundtrack to 'Drive', one of the greatest movies of recent times.
La Vie Electronique 4
The third in Klaus Schulze's series of three-disc compilations of live and rare material (all of it previously released in his 50-disc Ultimate Edition box from 2000) is pure bliss for fans of early-'70s analog synthesizer music. The melodies swoop and whoosh like comets passing by a slowly drifting space station manned by dudes and ladies in unisex jumpsuits with long, perfectly coiffed hair, and beards on the men. Close your eyes and you're there. Many of these tracks are grouped into half-hou…
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smells Like Teen Spirit is premised in a haptic interrogation of each of the label's previous editions. Berlin-based and Mexico City-born multi-disciplinary artist Mario de Vega occupied the gallery space of Rumpsti Pumsti (Musik) for three consecutive days in October 2016 with a hitherto complete Tochnit Aleph catalog, sanding machine, hammer, and recording equipment. Conflating acts of "playing" with destruction, de Vega took to the recorded works and assorted media with his Spartan too…
Yesterday + Today, A Music Of Time
"Vincent Wrenn works with a microtonal system of seven octaves and each octave being divided into 360 notes, with Saturn being the lowest and the sun being the highest octave. That may sound also pretty esoteric, but the six pieces here are excellent studies in what seems to be sine wave like sounds. Each of these pieces appears to have very few variations and when played very loud may burst an eardrum, or destroy your relationship with your neighbour. I would think these pieces are best enjoyed…
Exploratorium
Swedish experimental outfit White Stains created five highly influential albums. Band members Carl Abrahamsson and Thomas Tibert later on went on to form the equally influential act Cotton Ferox. Their improvisational approach and dark musical atmospheres created a following which remains to this day, and which even led to a one-off reunion gig in Gothenburg in 2013 together with long time collaborator Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV). The album Exploratorium is a compilation of…
Defragmental
Cotton Ferox key members Carl Abrahamsson and Thomas Tibert have composed, performed and produced groundbreaking music since the late 1980s. After their time in White Stains and several solo projects, Cotton Ferox have been their main mothership. Always producing cutting edge stuff, they have also always made an issue out of collaborating with other interesting artists. In both White Stains and Cotton Ferox, they’ve worked together with industrial pioneer/legend Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. Some ex…
Solo Etudes I
"We begin with the flickering, fire-like erraticism of the first track. Despite bearing the title of “Snow”, I’m drawn to imagine the very opposite: an intense heat that billows and dwindles across the stereo frame, suddenly erupting from left to right as if devouring an oil slick, promptly receding through oxygen exhaustion. To what extent are these fizzing, crackling chords – presumably electronics, but ultimately too distorted to accurately identify – under Hahn’s control? To what extent does…
Fragen
Kluster - Cluster - and now Qluster - an extraordinary shedding of skin of one of the most important german electronic groups. Hans-joachim roedelius was there from the beginning (kluster from 1969 on with conrad schnitzler and dieter moebius; cluster from 1971 on with dieter moebius; qluster with onnen bock since 2010). Little need be said about roedelius, whose collaborations with conrad schnitzler, cluster and harmonia earned him a worldwide reputation as a pioneer of electronic music. Onnen …
358 Oblique
Baltimore’s PJ Dorsey has traversed a lifelong journey delving into psychoactive music which can alter one’s cognitive and conscious state. He harnesses his experiences to create music as Tarotplane. Using guitar, effects and processing he produces time suspending soundscapes - immersive music for merging the mind and body. 358 Oblique is the follow up to First which was released on Aguirre Records in 2015. Find yourself adrift in the lapping waters of a slow unraveling sea of sound, a sp…
Roananax 1999 / Obliq 2014
Roananax 1999 (Axel Dörner, Robin Hayward, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann) and Obliq 2014 (Hannes Lingens, Pierre Borel, Derek Shirley). Powerful archive recordings from the legendary group Roananax at the very start of 'Berlin reductionism'. Combined on a split disc with a beautiful example of reductionism 15 years on played by Obliq, a group of younger Berlin-based musicians.
Sometimes we all disappear
A restrained electronic improvisation from the duo of Jamie Drouin on suitcase modular & portable radio, and Lance Austin Olsen on amplified objects and audio cassettes, utlitizing space, isolated and connected events, and the listener's own environment.
The Harmonics of Real Strings
Four realisations of John Lely's simple but brilliant composition 'The Harmonics of Real Strings', which is basically a very slow glissando along the full length of one bowed string. Anton Lukoszevieze plays one realisation on each string of the cello, following the harmonic transformations as they occur and producing an extraordinary example of 'the virtuosity of restraint'. John Lely originally composed the piece in 2006, and it was recorded in April 2014. "When I'm composing I'm learning, ask…
Spinet and Violin
Recorded At Christoph Schiller's Atelier, Basel. Painting by Andrew Lutz. Recorded By – Christoph Schiller, Morgan Evans-WeilerSpinet – Christoph Schiller, Violin – Morgan Evans-Weiler
Tse
Beautiful and thoughtful music by the trio comprised of Cyril Bondi (indian harmonium, pitch pipes), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba, pitch pipes), Christoph Schiller (spinet). Improvised, but on the basis of a pre-agreed sequence of pitches, allowing the musicians to explore melody in a way that is rare within improvisation. "Five pieces by a new trio, who improvise but on a pre-agreed sequence of pitches, allowing a much greater use and exploration of pitch and melody than is usual in impro…
Momentary Encounters
Finally the second batch of CDs in the highly-acclaimed Canadian Composers Series is here.Momentary encounters(5) (2015) by Heather Roche (clarinet). Any three players (2016) by John Lely (melodica), Simon Limbrick (vibraphone), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello). A grey, bent interior horizon (2016) by Cristian Alvear (guitar), Distributed tourism (2014/17) by Mira Benjamin (violin), Simon Limbrick (vibraphone), Heather Roche (clarinet), Nancy Ruffer (flute), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello).Four fine, delic…
Extinguishment
In some experimental music circles melody is virtually verboten, but you have often embraced it in your work. Do you feel that you are to some extent going against the grain in this?AG: First off, I think melody can be defined separately from harmony. I think of melody as a single voice or layer, and with multiple layers, I like them to overlap in non-structured ways. I am interested in homophony more than polyphony or harmony, where if you take a cross-section through these independent lines y…
Aftermaths
Works for solo piano by Mark R Taylor, beautifully played by Teodora Stepancic, the first CD release by a remarkable but neglected English composer whose piano works present a metrically rhythmicized exploration of a generative spectrum, here featuring works dating between 1979 and 2018 and performed by Serbian pianist Teodora Stepancic.
Lines and Tracings
Two compositions, one by composer Michael Pisaro and performed by the electroacoustic ensemble "Ordinary Affects" including violinist Morgan Evans-Weiler, then an acoustic composition from Evans-Weiler himself performed with violin, clarinet, cello, harpsichord and piano; both exquisite works that draw out tone and time in patiently unfolding fluidity.
Dethick
Another church, another country, and another unique collaboration. Angharad Davies combines with Japanese sound artist Rie Nakajima and the virtuoso cellist from Distractfold ensemble, Alice Purton, in a series of explorations in the small church in the Derbyshire village of Dethick. The trio improvised, then developed and refined ten short pieces across two days, producing music which is as good as improvisation gets.
Tocando fondo
Two slowly unfolding improvisations from trumpeter Leonel Kaplan using extended and unconventional techniques, and electronic artist Klaus Filip performing on sine waves, in a two part extended piece recorded in Buenos Aires after the two met in live performance.