PERLON
Play it loud!
Zarek
01
PERLONEX
Peripherique
Zarek
07
Apocryphal stories circulate about one or another famous avant garde musician
of the 1960s who is purported to have gone out for dinner with a critic
while another freedom musician was still performing in concert. He told
his companion that "it's more interesting to play this music than
to listen to it."
Attribution is hard to come by, of course, but you can easily see a similar
yarn growing up around electro-acoustics, an even less listener-friendly
genre. Coupled with shows that often end up resembling laboratory research
at a computer peripherals factory, the musicians' immobility and sometimes
ear-straining presentations make CD concentration a dicey proposition
at best. That's the challenge faced by listeners to the discs by this
Berlin-based improvising trio, which was forced to change its name between
its first and second disc when a record label turned out to already be
named Perlon. Although Periperique was recorded in a Paris club and Play
It Loud in a Berlin studio, there's no discernable audio difference, except
the former is about 15 minutes shorter than the later.
Another idiosyncrasy that seems to come with electro-acoustic territory
is the need to play both of these sessions at a level about 25% louder
than usual. That way the musicians' sonic creations won't vanish into
an electronic sludge. This also provides an insight into how you can rank
these discs: when the improvisations rise enough out of the sonic midst
to command attention, lift off has been attained; if repetitive noodling
characterizes the sound field, than distraction results.
In this way you can see that both discs are equally successful or unsuccessful.
For because of the inordinate length of most of the tracks, frequent arid
sections appear. Peculiarly "Peripherique II" at barely 13 minutes
is no more or less immune to this flaw than the longer "Terlenka"
on 01.
Thus some of the sounds literally appear to be what results when the connections
in a tape recorder are reversed and a consistent buzz overcomes what else
has been recorded there. Obviously -- we hope -- this didn't happen, but
often the sound being created by drummer Burkhard Beins, best known for
his collaboration with British guitarist John Bisset, and guitarist Jörg
Maria Zeger, who mainly performs solo concerts, is masked by the electronics
of group mainman and label head Ignaz Schick.
Even deep listening to "Peripherique I" would hear what sounds
at various times like a conveyer belt moving, the crackles and screech
of electricity, an electric band saw being operated and a freight train
passing at a level crossing, before echoing guitar overtones assert themselves.
Perhaps it's that sympathetic resonance that serves as the track's centrepiece,
for shortly afterwards what appears to be a brace of pealing bells makes
their appearance, reverberating in a similar fashion. Finally after a
barren collection of silences, dense sonics get louder and more intense
until a corrosive buzz controls the foreground before fading.
Often sounding perversely as if the conceptions of AMM and Aerosmith were
grafted together, "Terlenka," recorded a year earlier, operates
in a similar soundscape. Beins' percussion and Zeger's guitars in their
natural states are more prominent in the mix, but the low-fi electronics
mean that comparable monotonous quietude drags down several sections.
Designed, intentionally or not, as homage to AMM, the framing of this
massive piece finds a female voice from a radio appear near the beginning
and almost at its completion. However, heavy metal is first suggested
by the drumming, which appears to be taking place as much on the steel
sides of the kit as on the cymbals. Later, a metallic pulse grinds down
the cymbals seemingly getting heavier and harder until it's answered by
bass drum rumbles and intense electronic static. Cycling around until
it nearly becomes earsplitting thunderclaps, you begin to sense that instrumental
samples are helping to build this high-pitched, coagulated wall of sound.
Nevertheless, repetition sets in at that point. Cooing, lyric cuckoo sounds
followed by silences, punctuated by wah-wah electronic whirring and what
could be a bathtub emptying, presage strokes that could be combed from
guitar strings and matched with coins set loose on drum heads. Heartbeat-like
electric pulses predominate until tiny beeps flatline the music to silence.
No one wants the return of the three minute 78, but perhaps Perlonex's
creations would be better formed if more self-editing was done. There's
much that's interesting here, especially if you live and breathe electro-acoustics.
But some of the musically parched sections and sound duplication could
send others out for dinner with that apocryphal avant gardist ... or at
least in search of a cold drink.
-- Ken Waxman
Track Listing Play it Loud: 1. Terlenka; 2. Argon
Track Listing Peripherique: 1. Peripherique I; 2. Peripherique II
Personnel Play it Loud: Ignaz Schick, electronics; Jörg Maria Zeger,
guitars; Burkhard Beins, percussion
Personnel Peripherique: Ignaz Schick, live electronics; Jörg Maria
Zeger, guitars; Burkhard Beins, percussion