The British Space Group

The British Space Group

Eyes Turned Skyward

UK  Quiet World  Quiet World 51  CD-R  (2015)

By the looks of the strong design of its sleeve, this disc could be an examination of all those sci-fi, weird (or wyrd) 1970s schools programmes on tv, or their soundtracks, and indeed the first track Remote Viewing is built around a recording of a man talking about déja vous in the kind of officious home-counties accent that tallies with my own recollection of Schools & Colleges programming of that time.  Those expecting a Ghost Box–style, hauntological, period pop will be disappointed though; the music on Eyes Turned Skyward is actually contemporary-sounding drone ambient.  As always, the production is clear and glassy, like peering at the reflection of misty landscapes through the panes of an open window at dawn.

Despite the album being credited to The British Space Group, (although no personnel is listed on the sleeve), I suspect this may be the work of the Quiet World label head Ian Holloway alone.  If so, I admire his attempt to develop his own approach to ambient soundscape with today’s recording equipment, while somehow still simultaneously referencing the experimental sonics of past decades.

Haze Of Summer uses organ tones to steadily build up overflowing feelings of goodwill, while Slow Light, composed as it is of electronic chittering, lightly wah’ed bass and swirling keyboard effects steps up the feeling of being stranded on a star freighter light years from home.

Fourth track The Dust Between The Stars is particularly transporting, and strangely comforting, based around a circling figure played on an analogue electronic bass keyboard of unknown vintage.

The Work Of Fire features a distant mildly ring-modulated electric guitar sound somehow referencing spaghetti westerns and space movie soundtracks.  Breath During Sleep is possibly the most kosmische-inspired piece on the album, reminding me of Amon Duul II’s quieter moments.

The final track; the magisterial The Last Of Time, is a beautiful piece of quiet ambience, where nothing seems to happen much, but in a very good way.

On the cover, a rocket orbits a concentric-circle planet while a lone spaceman is sucked into a graphic representation of a black hole.  The spaceman device is nicely carried over from the vortex on the back cover into the blackness of the inside of the booklet.  This title is limited to 50 physical units but is also available from the Quiet World bandcamp site.

http://www.quietworld.co.uk/

https://ian-quietworld.bandcamp.com/album/eyes-turned-skyward

VA AA LR

VA AA LR

Newhaven

GREECE  Organized Music From Thessaloniki  t27  3” CD-R  (2014)

Purchased from Electric Knife Records in Kentish Town just before xmas, here is a document of VA AA LR’s performance at last year’s Fort Process event at Newhaven Fort presented by the consistently excellent Organised Music From Thessaloniki.  Just under 15 minutes, this trio of Vasco Alves, Adam Asnan and Louie Rice produce an abstract sound world unlike very much else these ears have heard under the guise of “music”, if indeed the production of “music” is actually VA AA LR’s intention, or something else entirely.  They appear to me to be sound artists first and foremost, and refer to their own work variously as “often of volatile nature”, “the potential of…the instabilities of a medium” and “disruptive audio material”.  Active only since 2013, other works have appeared on Consumer Waste, Porta, Intonema and Mantile already.

Newhaven sounds like controlled small explosions and things burning, the only clues are the photographs on the fold-over sleeve which depict a lot of smoke coming from somewhere.  For the most part, the boys are content to let whatever devices they use do their own thing in order to produce a kind of process-based performance.  They could have simply been letting off some flares over the cliffs and amplifying the results.  At seven minutes in, there are a couple of loud cracks – followed by the hissing and fizzing of some kind of minor scale ordnance.  As I was regrettably unable to attend Fort Process and witness VA AA LR’s performance and see what they were actually up to, I feel there is little else I can add here except to recommend Newhaven despite its short-ness and urge you to investigate their back catalogue; I heard their recent cassette on Mantile, Ping Cones, recently and that is utterly different but also utterly wonderful.

http://thesorg.noise-below.org/2/

Seth Cooke

Seth Cooke

Four No Input Field Recordings

UK  Every Contact Leaves A Trace  no number  3”CD-R  (2014)

Four delicious slices of noise of identical duration, titled CERO I to IV from Bristolian Seth Cooke.  Cooke may be known to you from his improvisational work with a cut-down sink disposal unit, his involvement with the Bang The Bore promotional entity, his drumming and percussion duties with Hunting Lodge, Defibrillators and UltraHumanitarian or even his previous releases on labels such as Compost & Height, Impulsive Habitat, 1000fussler or Organized Music From Thessaloniki.

The sparse production notes printed on the small sheet of transparency included within the elaborate packaging claim the work was recorded and edited over the course of a year, from October 2012 to October 2013.  The pieces sound like they could be derived from the sort of interference you would get between channels on analogue television receivers in “the old days”, but I suspect Cooke would be offended by such an assumption as I’m sure there is a lot more going on despite the strangely un-credible title Four No Input Field Recordings – an oxymoron, surely?  Or just a rare, (and welcome), case of an “experimental” musician with a sense of humour?  There is a great deal of development from track to track for those who listen closely, and a wealth of detail within the, at first, seemingly impenetrable fizz.  This has the result that the dark energy contained within the music coalesces inside the part of your brain that processes disquiet and enables you to relax fully.  At least that’s what happens to me when I get to the end of CERO IV.

Great hand-assembled multi-part packaging held together with a mini bulldog clip.  The grey card outer sleeve is embossed by what looks like a large sheet of Lego, there’s a digital print of spiral-type design, (see above), with the aforementioned transparency info sheet and disc in its own poly sleeve; all of this encased in a folded second digital print, this time the image is a kind of CAD update of something you might produce using the Spirograph drawing toy.

old covers

    

      

Ampism / Spicer Duo

Ampism / Spicer Duo

Leaving The Halo Dark

UK  White Lodge  WL009  CD-R  (2014)

Two members of Brighton’s crazed free-jazz improvising cabal Bolide moonlighting here with a nocturnal session in a tower block in the centre of town, probably.  This is top quality late-night psych-drone for yr fevered fontanelle.  Gongs, sitar loops, baritone groaning, occasional dings on a cracked bell; miscellaneous wind instruments and electronics outside in some dark corner of the Sussex countryside.  Or Ampism / Spicer’s back garden on a Wednesday night.

Titles set off at a tangent; Frog Lane, Yaffle, (was that the name of the woodpecker from the BBC’s 1970s stop-animation childrens’ show Bagpuss?), Purusha and Twitches, Twigs And Treasure.  “In early Vedas, Purusha meant a cosmic man whose sacrifice by the gods created all life.  This was one of many creation theories discussed in the Vedas.  The idea parallels Norse Ymir, with the myth's origin in Proto-Indo-European religion” is what that great modern technological sage Wikipedia has to tell me.  From what little I know about this Duo, this goes some way to illustrate the personal philosophies of at least one of the participants.

White Lodge is the home of Bolide themselves; other items from this imprint have not disappointed.
Highly recommended for those interested in free music of any stripe.  Presented to us in a plain white cd-r and typed insert in a dvd case with full colour wraparound sleeve designed I suspect by F. Ampism if not both parties.

Splitting The Atom, Green Door Store, Brighton 5 APR 2015

It is staggering to realise that this already is the 25^th STA.  That’s silver and time for a celebration, surely?  I couldn’t stay for the whole day, but here’s what I did manage to see:

Ardisson & Pugh

Charlotte Pugh and Charles Matthews utilising gamelan, recorder and computer in various interesting ways.  Delicate improvisation utilising gamelan bowls hung from a microphone stand and Pugh’s recorder which I initially mistook for a Sho or Shakuhachi.  Here’s a taste of their music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAIPAEbOwv4

They were playing against a back ground of Věra Chytilová’s 1966 film Daisies.  It worked really well.  I’m not sure if Ardisson & Pugh had chosen it specifically or whether it just happened to be projected at the time but it was great.

Timeron

Accidental beats, conflict between man and machine, misbehaving loops Aphex filtered through a sedated TG/industrial sieve.  I liked the overall result, but judging from Timeron’s perplexity toward the end of his set, what we we getting wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.

Antipattern is Alastair Strachan who is a long-time fixture on Brighton’s experimental scene.

More misbehaving beats minimal but searching when the kick drum is found it is colossal through the Green Door’s massive pa.  Sttrachan seems slightly taken aback before taming the beast somewhat although I for one could have listened to that untamed kick for hours.  Alastair introduces a hydrophone in a pint of water which is treated to a tube outputting some kind of sonic material into the liquid.  A nod to Lee Patterson, perhaps?

Inwards

2 lads, 1 x mac + doepfer a100, producing pleasing minimal electronica although I was in and out of the room during their set so I’m not best qualified to report on this with any authority.

Cao is Constanza Cao originally from Peru, now based in London.  She produces some beautiful harsh electronics from just a laptop and a Korg ms20 synth.  Dark stuff.  Fantastic.

As I am one quarter of Kuroneko, I can’t and won’t comment further, apart from to say that I enjoyed playing at STA very much.

Orok whom I have seen before at a previous STA felt it necessary to make an announcement to the effect of asking for silence, saying his was “…quiet music…and relaxing – you might want to sit down on the floor…”  Audiences for experimental music are there because they want to be and don’t need to be told what to do, in my experience.  That said, Orok’s set was excellent and fulfilled his own criteria perfectly.  I would have sat on the floor if it wasn’t for the Green Door’s uneven cobbles.

Mouthful o’ Hakarl & The Fiery Biscuit are a new-ish collaboration between two Kevs and a Graham.  Pleasingly reminiscent of North African musics to these ears, possibly due to The Fiery Biscuit’s duduk drum and Hakarl’s saz-like instrument.  Mouthful Of Worms’ Kev Kilter augmented these very musical proceedings with karaoke-mic feedback shenanigans from what I could make out.  Possibly my favourite part of the day.

It was at this point that my own domestic existence cut in rather abruptly and halted my participation in this latest STA, so regrettably I missed Graham Dunning & Embla Quickbeam, Left Hand Cuts Off The Right, Harmergeddon (who Kuroneko performed with at a live cinema event in London earlier in the year and who I recommend seeing wholeheartedly for their unique presentation of video and self-built instruments) and Q’LIL GLB GELLS THALL.

Keep ‘em peeled for the next STA.

Quiet World

The South Wales-based electronicist Ian Holloway has sent me five of the latest discs from his Quiet World imprint including one of his own solo items, and another of his previous machinations under the now defunct nomenclature Psychic Space Invasion on the Persepolis label which dates back to 2008.  A nice touch is that all the Quiet World discs come with a professionally printed business card with the musicians’ initials/signature/doodle/whatever and numbered on the reverse.  This gives each item more of a fine-art feel.  In fact, featuring as they often do, Ian Holloway’s own photography, they are very nice-looking objects when viewed as a group; a great start to my collection of Quiet World releases!

Kostoglotov Love Song For Broken Buildings

Fantastic genre-hopping journey into the recesses of memory and psyche.  This reminded me of many, many nocturnal wanderings in the early 90s sat in the back of tiny hatchbacks searching endlessly for illegal raves in the dank countryside of middle England.  Sometimes you’d follow some fellow nomads identifiable by the ubiquitous red Kiss FM sticker stuck to their back window, or if they were trying to be a bit more discreet, a pair of trainers on the parcel shelf.  Here and there it resembles a stripped-back version of an analogue work by Brian Eno.  Digging this.  Artwork on the sleeve by label head Ian Holloway.

The Dead Mauriacs Sans Chapeau, Visite d’Hallucinations

More ambient electronica here from Kostoglotov’s Daryl Worthington.  Slow moving but in a pleasant dream-state kind of way.  Very easy to get sucked into this after a couple of glasses of red on a Tuesday evening after the kids have gone to sleep, such is the pull of the sonic vortex Worthington develops.  Strong ambience here, if that’s your bag.  It’s not mine so much, so if you will forgive me, I’ll move on.

Ian Holloway The World After Autumn

This cracking album begins with folk-tinged drone gut string guitar on the first track, She Walks In Beauty; the drone is almost bassoon-like.  Pleasing metallic reverb on the acoustic guitar.  The drones work their way through a series of chordal shifts without too much hurry while the melody on played guitar activates and leaches further and further into the mix.  Like an ink and water blotting paper experiment in double Chemistry at school.  Or standing water on open heathland in early summer.  Where do water boatmen go when it rains?  I can almost smell damp earth and woodsmoke after a summer rain shower.  Drone morphs into reed organ but then disappears.  No New Age, I’d call it.

The next piece, A Time Of Glass, transports us from a secluded copse to a deserted space station.  Support systems hum, machines activate and de-activate.  But there is no-one aboard; no mission.  Water condenses and is pumped into holding tanks that no-one will tap.  The third track, The Daughter Of The Sea And Me rolls the dice.  Thunderstorms.  Small pebbles are manipulated.  Waves crash on a distant beach.  Filtered.  Shells are dealt with in similar ways.  Wind.  Larger pebbles.  Are these pebbles in a bag?  Electronic clockworks.

I Will Settle Like A Tiny Cloud rounds off this excellent collection of contemporary electronica.

Brian Lavelle My Hands Are Ten Knives

A quiet drone piece in fact Lavelle includes the instruction to listen at “medium to low volume” which a refreshing change from seeing the unwanted and over enthusiastic message “PLAY LOUD!” emblazoned over demo cassettes and cd-rs with deadening routine over the last 25 years.  This seems to be predominantly comprised of sine tone with the occasional well placed interjection from piano or electric guitar.  Some field recordings make an appearance at around 12 minutes but it’s not intrusive enough to put off the flow of the slow, evolving drone.

Psychic Space Invasion Transitions

Slow burning drone core from the centre of the sun viewed by a passing deep space probe.

Fazio All At Once The Remote Go Forth My Soul And My Seeking, The Unknowable Becomes Known

Great title.  The first track, Extending Wings, could easily be those of either a demon or a tern.  Track three, The Pearl Of The Sea, channels the spirit of 80s guitar pop like Cocteau Twins by employing what sounds like a Roland Jazz Chorus 120 guitar amp paired with an RE201 tape echo.  I’m a fan of this sort of thing.  It wanders fairly aimlessly but I think that is rather the point.  Around seven minutes, it seems to me that the guitar sounds reveal themselves to be digital emulations as a rather effective tremolo/snipper logarithm transforms the guitar into an alien broadcast.  The last track, A Place For Giving, would sound perfect in a hotel room in Barcelona at 4am on a Sunday morning.

http://www.quietworld.co.uk/