From Ledge To Ledge

Noteherder & McCloud

From Ledge To Ledge

UK  Spirit Of Gravity  7” vinyl  (2017)

Great lathe-cut seven here from Brighton’s saxophone/electronics duo of Chris Parfitt and Geoff Reader respectively.  Both cuts are excerpted from live recordings from the fag-end of 2015 in Brighton and Worthing.  The A side, “From Ledge To Ledge” is the nearest I’ve heard them get to dub, but even now, you’ll have to listen hard to get that.  The prepared bass line that starts the piece off is what makes me make that reference; other listeners might assume I’ve gone mad.  The saxophone comes in from the end of a very long station platform bringing with it recordings of voices and bit-crushed kiddytronica.  This rich stew is then availed of some dub-style delay effects while cranking up the spookiness factor.

The flip; “Jammed In The Middle Shingle, It Comes Right In The End” is more minimal and less of a foot-tapper than the A side, but: if you are reading this blog, since when have you been concerned by that?  The saxophone is more prominent and in control from the start; the electronics initially chug along in the background.  Voices are heard; possibly audience members, lurking.  Chris Parfitt is sending a pulse signal out into deep space.  And then we’re on Broadway in the Birdland club back in 1959, briefly…

Both cuts stop abruptly in order to fit the meagre timeframe of 7” vinyl, but I like that.  Better than faffing about trying to find “the best” four minutes to edit; just cut it there – great!  The mastering job is handled, appropriately, by Dan Powell, he of improvising outfits The Static Memories, Nil and Brambling, who infuses more clarity out of a live recording destined for lathe-cut vinyl than is decent.  The Cover image is a roadbridge over the A27 at Shoreham, unless I’m much mistaken.  Which is a nice continuation of Noteherder & McCloud’s fascination with Sussex architecture; previous releases have been decorated with images of Brighton’s New England House and Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion.  Back cover and label images of the band by Far Rainbow’s Bobby Barry.

The Three Things You Can Hear

Seamus Cater

The Three Things You Can Hear

NETHERLANDS  Nearly Not There Records / Annihaya Records NNTR01  LP/CD  (2016)

On this, his first solo album, Seamus Cater aims to combine “new song-writing and contemporary acoustic music drawing on revivalist folk music and 60s minimalism as source material”.  What sets him apart from practitioners working in similar ways like Richard Dawson or Richard Youngs or Alasdair Roberts?  There’s the minimalism of course, and the production is high quality but very spare.

As well as Fender Rhodes, the familiar junk-shop-find 1941-vintage duet concertina accompaniment abides for those who enjoyed Cater’s last studio outing; The Anecdotes with Viljam Nybacka.  Although positioned as a solo record, Cater is not always alone on The Three Things You Can Hear; there are also rather understated contributions from Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke of The International Nothing, Koen Nutters and Morten J. Olsen of The Pitch and Konzert Minimal and Johnny Chang, also of Konzert Minimal.  Han Jacobs contributes saw.  Incidentally, this album was mastered by Jeff Carey; the man who contributed “reverb” to a piece on The Anecdotes.  There’s a crossover here for those interested in quiet music: Berlin-based Johnny Chang is part of the Wandelweiser collective, in fact alongside Koen Nutters, he co-curates the Wandelweiser group-based concert series Konzert Minimal.

Despite working with what could be termed “traditional instrumentation”, Cater is not afraid to deviate from traditional songform.  His unhurried approach to his material tends to focus the listener’s attention.  His is more than simply a considered approach; he has a deep and sympathetic relationship with his material and the history and tradition within.  His family’s musical background can be seen as a way of determining Cater’s interests for sure.  His own experiences as a young man deep within the anti-authoritarian, transient, atmospheric, acid house culture of the late 1980s may possibly be important; possibly not.  Interestingly, he seems to have been a recognisable figure at the time in the acid house scene – Cater has recently survived being name-checked by The Prodigy's Keith Flint.

I have the lp version here which is housed in a great die-cut sleeve – nice, rounded corners; very unusual –a three colour silkscreened etelage card sleeve adorned with an image of a human head, deep in thought?  There is also a full-colour printed card bookmark inscribed by hand with a download code, plus a gigantic A1 fold-out silkscreened/digital print lyric sheet.  The vinyl is an edition of 300, although Annihaya Records have also released the cd version in an edition of 500.

www.seamuscater.bandcamp.com

entropy is what the state makes of it

Steerage

Entropy Is What The State Makes Of It

CANADA  Caduc  CA11  CD  (2015)

Entropy can be defined as a “lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder”.  What does any State make of it?  Barry Chabala and A F Jones; aka Steerage set an interesting question for the times we live in.  This carefully chosen title may refer to the impending changes fast approaching North America, but could equally be a warning for our own near-future here in the UK?  Entropy… is a work about decay – figuratively and literally.  Caduc proprietor Mathieu Ruhlmann’s ghost ship design on the front cover and overlaid abstract mapping on the rear raise a signpost which points in all and no direction.

Like the inconvenient iceberg that did for the Titanic, electronics crash into acoustic guitar violently.  A strong hand on the tiller is essential.  The first piece, “The Predominance of Fading Decorum” features interesting split tones, wavering.  Barry Chabala’s approach to his guitar is reminiscent of Robert Fripp’s late 70’s /early 80s “frippertronics” experiments briefly.  With Jones’ input, the piece takes on the giddying scale of a tanker or modern cruiseship.

Next, “Entropy” combines drones and abstraction with glacial development and purposeful augmentation – music as if in opposition, but to what?  The soundfield becomes a siren at 8 minutes and later on colossal motors power down.  At 9:20 a tape delay caught my ear.  At least it sounded like tape delay to me.  I love the sound characteristics of analogue tape delay.  One of the players managed to hold a good long section of controlled delay feedback there.  Tricky.  I noticed a small bit more at 15:35.

“Upon Maelstroms of Unbearable Reality” predict the future for north America with its agitated, paranoid chirruping, while final track “A Faculty of Encounter” presents gutteral noises courtesy of Jones perhaps?  It’s hard to imagine even the most experimental guitar set-up sounding like that.  “Upon Maelstroms…” has a cicada-like crust with a dry joint pulse underneath.  Overdriven synth growl.  Guitar is heard in a room with passing traffic and workmen in the background.  The piece ends with some beautifully restrained minimal guitar phrasing.

Another sumptuous package like I’ve come to expect from Caduc – a bookmark, track listing insert, folded sleeve; all full colour printed on art card/paper stuffed into a heavy transparent poly sleeve.  Photography by Jennifer Atchley and design by Ruhlmann and “ship concept” by Sean Jewell.

www.caduc.org

Voices

Alice Hui-Sheng Chang / Jason Kahn

Voices

USA  Pan y Rosas Discos  pyr172  download  (2016)

Four pieces on offer here; numbered simply 1 to 4 recorded in Melbourne, Australia in January of 2015.  A departure of sorts for Jason Kahn, who has previously been heard improvising at the controls of shortwave radios and analogue synthesisers, [see his recent cassette Thirty Seconds Over on Aural Detritus], or on percussion.  Alice Hui-Sheng Chang is a new name to me.  Alice has this to say about her work:  “…(she) challenges the boundary of a presentation site physically and imaginatively, viewing each performance as a site-specific response…”.  Her music has been released on Antifrost, Trente Oiseaux, Homophoni, New Weird Australia, Kwan Yin and Sub Rosa among others.

In terms of its basic construction, Voices runs the gamut of vocalese.  The material here reminds me somehow of the way birds communicate.  The internet tells me: "Songbirds learn their songs and perform them using a specialized voice box called a ”syrinx”.  For a bird, singing can be draining. It is both energetically expensive and alerts predators. So then why do birds sing? Evidence suggests that in part, it is to proclaim and defend their territories.  The chances are when you hear a bird singing it’s a male. The majority of female songbirds in temperate zones use shorter, simpler calls while the males produce the longer and more complex vocalizations we think of as song.  The story is different in the tropics where females commonly sing, and many species engage in duetting."  In Chang and Kahn’s case, their duetting is strangely comforting and their voices respective timbres complement each other well.

On 1 both Kahn and Chang creak and hum; wheeze and whisper.  Initially, Kahn seems to use an intimate close microphone technique at times, whereas it sounds as if Alice Hui-Sheng Chang’s approach is more full bodied and interacts with the recording space.  However my perception of this changes as the piece progresses.  There is a granular quality to both voices and it is impossible for me to tell who’s doing what.  By the last couple of minutes Kahn is clearly making noises which remind me of Dylan Nyoukis’ saliva-filled mouth/throat-noise explorations but without the tape manipulation typical of Nyoukis’ live vocal performances.

The second piece is more structured (academic) to my ears, although due to the brevity of information I have been given with this album, this assumption may be erroneous, or even irrelevant.  I suspect that there are incidents of double-tracking of Kahn’s vocals on this piece but again don’t take my word for it.  The duo employ space as more of a feature in 2, which results in the feeling of slower pace overall.

The third piece begins with whistling and very electronic-sounding close-up mouth noises before developing the first full-throated display of what you might traditionally recognise as “singing” on the album.  This is the shortest piece on Voices and something of a lull before the maelstrom of 4.

Track four is possibly the most confrontational featuring as it does Alice’s joyless cackle and Jason’s wet ululations from the very start.  Weird high pitched whistling like the noises coaxed from a slowly deflating balloon follow; pops, multitimbral exhalations, the distant overheard mumblings of a confused great-uncle, osculations, wavering, lip-smacking and so forth, but now with a restraint and sense of calm that you just don’t get from practitioners like Phil Minton.  Until Alice starts screaming like a hungry goat, that is.

Jason Kahn appears to be working exclusively with his voice at the time of writing, so it will be interesting to hear his development of this way of working over future recordings.  Interest in an older generation of vocalising artists like Bob Cobbing and Henri Chopin is on the increase and the aforementioned, (and previously seriously underground artist), Dylan Nyoukis was recently subjected to a sympathetic piece in The Guardian, [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/15/dylan-nyoukis-interview] so perhaps Kahn’s timing of this album is spot on.

http://www.panyrosasdiscos.net/pyr172-alice-hui-sheng-chang-jason-kahn-voices/

Cueb

Yiorgis Sakellariou

Cueb

COLOMBIA  Éter Editions  eter 10  3” CD-R  (2014)

A composer operating exclusively, as far as I am aware, with his own field recordings, Yiorgis Sakellariou presents us with this neat little one track 3” cd-r titled after the gallery in London where the piece was premiered as part of the Sonicueb Festival.  For the sake of transparency, I should divulge the fact that I was handed this disc personally by Sakellariou at a concert I was involved with at Kentish Town’s excellent record shop Electric Knife last December.

Cueb was mostly recorded on the 11^th of March 2014 at Canary Wharf in London and its environs; Sakellariou augmenting the raw material with additional sounds from his archive to create a single twenty -one minute piece.

Certainly there’s a rhythmic, mechanical quality; sounds that could be produced by heavy machinery and/or large engines.  It seems to me that dynamics are important to Sakellariou in his work and here is no exception.  To balance the noise of the machines at the beginning is a quiet passage; perhaps those same machines but from a much more distant vantage point.  This section increases slowly in amplitude until a hard cut throws the listener down an ill-lit shaft into a section of disused London Underground.  As with all of Sakellariou’s work, the production values are high – the sounds are all crisp and clean and designed to be played at high volume in order to immerse the listener in his sound-world.  What I find particularly satisfying about his approach is his success in finding ways of juxtaposing commonplace noises in very musical ways.

A great, although all too brief, release – but I wonder how many people actually own cd players that have the ability to play 3” discs these days.  I was in a commercial recording studio recently, and the engineer only had the drive of his Mac to play cds on and it refused to play a 3” disc; in fact he spent fifteen minutes coaxing the disc back out of the machine with a pen lid.  Could this, like MiniDisc, DAT and DCC before it, be another digital format to soon become obsolete?

Éter look like an interesting label; they also have in this download/3” cd series releases by David Vélez, Jose Gallardo, Yann Novak, Tony Whitehead & Fransisco Meirino and Miguel Isaza among others.

http://eter-lab.net/es/