ANTASTEN
Excentriques
Loewenhertz
006
ANTASTEN
Echos an kegelrändern
Loewenhertz
007
RUDIS/CUSTDIO/DIAZ-INFANTE
Crashing The Russian Renaissance
Pax Recordings
90353
DONKEY
Big Sur
Accretions
ALP028
Coming to terms with electronics, synthesizers and their offshoots has
become one of the most meaningful obligations facing a certain group of
far-sighted improvisers in the 21st century.
Neither novelties nor toys, these devices can produce absorbing timbres
on their own or in concert with traditional instruments. Yet, on the evidence
of discs like these and others, providing enough aural space to develop
a unique sound field is just as important as rationalizing what it will
add to a piece of music.
Already busy with two other jazz-improv combos completed by drums and
bass or saxophone, Austrian pianist Hannes Löschel has so far also
released two electroacoustic CDs with the Antasten trio. A glance at the
track titles shows that the second is a live continuation of the first.
The former features the pianist with Thomas Lehn's analog synthesizer
and Josef Novotny's electronics, and the second adds two different fellow
Viennese musicians -- lap steel guitarist Martin Siewert and vocalist
Didi Bruckmayr on selected tracks.
To be brutally frank, Echoes is head and shoulders or perhaps a multitude
of computer towers above Excentriques in interest and enjoyment. Subdividing
the sounds over 19 tracks, only seven of which are more than three minutes
long, makes the first CD appear to be more of a laboratory exercise than
a completed statement. Interestingly enough, as well, the pieces recorded
live are in the main longer and more appealing than the mostly one- and
two minute procedures that make up the first 12 tracks of the first CD.
There, the chief musical stimulation seems to lie in figuring from which
instrument different sounds arise, and how well Löschel's wood, wire
and ivory fits with the impulses, kilowatts and dials of the other two
performers.
Sometimes the admixture can be incongruous, as when full-fledged romantic
piano chords meet buzzes and drones of various pitches, volumes and speeds,
or when some right-handed keyboard glissandos meet exploding electronic
whizzes, buzzes and slurps. More noteworthy moments appear when the pianist
creates what could be harpsichord sounds, as Lehn's synth comes up with
harmonica or accordion-like tones. The synth-player is expert at tricks
like this, having matched wits with the likes of experimental drummers
Roger Turner and Gerry Hemingway and British reedist/guitarist Tim Hodgkinson.
Fellow Viennese Novotny has recorded with improvisers such as British
saxophonist Lol Coxhill and French guitarist Noël Akchoté
in the past. However, the many silences here often make even the shortest
musical slices seem overlong.
Things pick up considerably on the longer, live tracks on Excentriques
and the trio efforts on Echoes. However there are still times that the
proceedings remind you of a vaudeville act involved a pianist and his
comic assistants. Löschel's crystal-hard piano notes are individually
delineated on the keyboard, pedals or internal strings, while the other
players appear to be doing everything short of detonating stink bombs
and donning ghost costumes to distract him.
Certainly the collection of sounds includes percussive clicks and clunks;
outer space rocket ship whooshes; Friendly Giant whistling; echoing buzzes
and rasps; door stopper reverberations; lip farts; what appears to be
someone puffing into a plastic tube; and small children amusing themselves
with noise makers. Children's playtime seems to be even more evident on
the two tracks featuring the vocals of Didi Bruckmayr, infamous frontman
of the Austrian avant-garde rock band Fuckhead (sic).
In one nearly-16-minute performance, his noises include those produced
by a colicky baby, a drunk retching, and a cartoon pirate cackling into
a toilet bowl. Apparently a paid up members of the soundsingers club,
which includes such profound cacophony-makers as Briton Phil Minton and
Canadian Paul Dutton he also showcases ordinary gurgles, snorts and mumbles.
Bruckmayr's child-like persona also asserts itself at times when he begins
nonsense dialoging with himself, verbalizing in tones that range from
deepest bass to tiptop soprano. While all this is going on, Lehn creates
thundering crescendos, Löschel's keyboard tone ranges between the
single-note repetition to that of an ersatz prepared piano, then Novotny's
Morse code emulation morph into what sounds like an explosion in the electronics
factory.
Elsewhere, instrumental associate Martin Siewert on guitar, lap steel
guitar and devices introduces some finger wiggles and thumb exercises
on his axe, along with tones that sound as if they could arise from touching
a wet glass. When someone shrills a police whistle, this contraption meshes
with the drone and whirrs of both electoacoustic implements and the keyboard
tickles and arpeggios from the acoustic one. Siewert has participated
in similar Austria-located sessions with the likes of bass guitarist/electronic
whiz Werner Dafeldecker and guitarist/device master Burkhard Stangl.
Taking the sounds that could be radio signal buzzes, rush hour traffic
inserts and fireplace crackles showcased on the rest of the disc, Echoes
may serve as a perfect summation of how musicians in the Old World deal
with electronics. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in California, two
electroacoustic combos from nearly opposite sides of the state have come
up with their own solutions to deal with the electronic/acoustic mixture.
Bay area musicians, Lx Rudis on Matrix 12, André Custodio on percussion
and Line 6 [green pod] and Ernesto Diaz Infante on stringed instruments
has gone Antasten many times better -- or worse. Their disc has 30 (!)
tracks ranging in length from three seconds to almost six minutes. Most
appear to run into one another to such an extent that the timing mechanism
of your CD player may be fooled.
Meanwhile, in San Diego, the inelegantly-named, 10-year-old, Donkey duo
-- Hans Fjellestad on analog and digital synthesizers, sampler, electronics,
and Damon Holzborn on guitar, sampler, electronics -- have produced three
drawn-out tracks, only one of which was recorded in a studio.
Making a joke of their experimental status, the three Bay area types begin
Crashing with three so-called "college radio edits." These,
of course, are nothing of the sort, but merely self-contained variations
on the larger sound picture, that are as likely to find heavy rotation
on college radio as extended Charles Gayle solo saxophone performances
will.
The
trio has enough experience with the curious mixture of art and commerce
that makes up electronica, however. Rudis is a media artist and video
game creator, who has been involved in interactive computer entertainment
since 1988. Custodio has done solo electronic/computer projects and collaborated
with local instrumentalists such as The Splatter Trio and saxophonists
Dan Plonsey and Rent Romus. Co-founder of experimental festivals in Big
Sur and San Francisco, Diaz-Infante has also composed chamber music and
traded licks with other committed improvisers like Boulder, Colo.-saxophonist
Jack Wright and New York-based pianist Dan DeChellis.
On this uniquely
titled disc, the three avoid some of the drawbacks of Antasten and Donkey,
minimizing the pauses between tracks and making sure that the improvisations
proceed at a rapid clip. Helping this idea along are the tones that are
added to the mix from the so-called real instruments -- Diaz-Infante's
guitar and Custodio's tom toms and darbuka, a horizontally held, goblet-shaped
African drum.
Not that there are instrumental passages per se, but, for instance, the
quick slashes on his guitar's strings, frets and bridge that Diaz-Infante
brings to the session help distinguish these improvisations from other
drone-based expositions. With a style that sounds midway between that
of Derek Bailey and Eugene Chadbourne, he can also add buzzing feedback,
banjo-like picking and sections when it appears that that he's attacking
his strings with a drumstick. General utility contributor, the guitarist
also saws away on violin at one point and adds his voice to the proceedings,
though it's often altered or sampled, a favorite trick of the Donkey duo
as well.
Custodio's hand percussion isn't that prominent, either, except in a couple
of sections when he produces beats that could come from a conga drum.
However, the snap, crackle and pop of electronics are everywhere. Often
used as a background drone, other suggested sounds as those of a slinky
being wiggled; static crackling; dice rolling in a thunderstorm; dinner
plates being moved; a door being forced open; and a jet engine taking
off within an echo chamber.
Crashing's achievement lies in constantly keeping the listener off balance
to such an extent that he or she will marvel at extended falsetto cries
turning into Donald Duck-style dialogue, or concentrate as the rattle
and clink of chains morphs into mechanical buzzes, rumbles and whirrs.
Donkey tries for the same effect, but there are times the improvisations
seem to go on far too long, especially "Crick," the studio number
that lasts almost a half-hour. Recorded live in studio to multi-track,
without any overdubs or linear edits, it begins with watery whooshes and
sampler wiggles that seem to suggest amphibious creatures gathering around
a marimba player. Soon, though, creating its own rhythm and momentum,
all sorts of other sounds are introduced, including high-pitched echoes
and synthesizer-created thunderstorms. These then give way to a catalogue
of sound surprises: the whistle of plastic toys, the wiggle of radio transmissions
from space, tinny mini piano keyboard jiggles and what appears to be a
buzz saw cutting through tough metal. Early on a disembodied voice repeating
the word "police" appears, only to be sped up and transformed
into tone modulations intermingled with the onomatopoeia of tapes ending
and unraveling.
Throughout that track and the more than 23 minute "Fog" recorded
live at the 2001 Big Sur Experimental Music Festival, you begin to yearn
for something more. While unidentifiable, these machine-like drones, whirring
top sounds and roaring electronic farts are becoming too familiar, as
expected in their way as the 12-bar structure is in the blues. With some
sections of the track slow moving and the textures continuing for minutes
on end, you start to wonder if you've wandered into the experimental equivalent
of an endless Grateful Dead jam.
Perhaps neither man hears how "conventionally avant-garde" Donkey's
music seems to be, which is odd considering both studied improvisation
with one of the masters of both jazz and electroacoustics, trombonist
George Lewis, while Holzborn also studied composition with Frederic Rzewski.
Both longtime members of the San Diego-based Trummerflora collective,
they've played with a variety of local and international musicians, and
Fjellestad has composed for film, video, theater, and dance.
Obviously with such credentials, singly or together, they'll probably
produce much better work in the future. But as it stands now, it appears
that only Antasten with guests and Rudis, Custodio and Diaz-Infante possess
theoriginality to bend electronics to their own means and impress listeners
at the same time.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing: Excentriques: 1. S1; 2. S2; 3.S3; 4.S4; 5. S5; 6. S6; 7.
S7; 8. S8; 9 S9; 10. S10; 11. S11; 12. S12; 13. L1; 14. L2; 15. L3; 16.
L4; 17. L5; 18. L6; 19. L7
Track Listing: Echos: 1. L8; 2. L9*; 3. L10; 4. L11+; 5. L12; 6. L13;
7. L14*
Track Listing: Crashing: Three College Radio-Ready Edits: 1. 4:40; 2.
3:55; 3. 5:14 Overthruster: 4. 4:05; 5 5:59; 6. 0:34; 7. 3:17; 8. 0:52;
9. 2:20; 10. 0:56; 11. 2:51; 12. 1:43; 13. 1:42; 14. 2:00; 15. 0:41; 16.
0:41; 17. 0:41; 18. 1:03; 19. 1:20; 20. 0:35; 21. 1:08; 22. 0:29; 23.
3:01; 24. 1:57; 25. 0:23; 26. 0:26; 27. 1:55; 28. 0:03; 29. 0:03; 30.
3:03
Track Listing: Donkey: 1. Crick; 2. Wood; 3. Fog
Personnel:
Excentriques: Hannes Löschel, piano; Thomas Lehn, analog synthesizer;
Josef Novotny, electronics
Personnel: Echos: Hannes Löschel, piano; Thomas Lehn, analog synthesizer;
Josef Novotny, electronics plus Martin Siewert, guitar, lapsteel, devices+;
Didi Bruckmayr, vocals*
Personnel:
Crashing: Lx Rudis, Matrix 12; André Custodio, darbuka, tom-tom,
Line 6 (green pod); Ernesto Diaz-Infante, guitar, violin, voice
Personnel:
Donkey: Hans Fjellestad, analog and digital synthesizers, sampler, electronics;
Damon Holzborn, guitar, sampler, electronics