2008年8月3日星期日

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Live Actions : 50 copies cdr live series

010 Yong Yand Sen / Abdul Aziz / Thierry Monnier: 20th April 2011, Indicine Klpac
Thierry Monnier: Tapes, Electric Guitar, Effect Pedals
Yong Yand Sen: Tenor Saxaphone
Abdul Aziz: Electric Bass

Tracklist
1. TM
2. AA / TM
3. YYS
4. YYS / TM

Recorded live at Indicine, The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center on 20th April 2011.

Complete Recording.

Artwork: Aziz
Layout: Goh Lee Kwang

Review(s):
Vital Weekly 827
Very much along similar lines is a trio of Yong Yand Sen on tenor saxophone, Abdul Aziz on electric bas and Thierry Monnier on tapes, electric guitar and effect pedals. April 20th of last year they performed at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center. I never heard of these musicians either. They also play carefully and a slightly noise rock edge, sans the drums. But there is feedback too, plucking the bass, and exploration of the instruments. Its hard to say, but it seems like this is too much in an embryonic stage to fully work well. Maybe the concert was really good when it took place, but on CDR, cut away from time and space I must say it didn't do much for me. These players should take more risks, go out all the way and not be shy in producing something that will stir up the others too. Now everybody is too careful.
- Frans De Waard -
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009 Bass Haters: Deux Boulets, Liege 21/1/10


Tony Dryer: Double bass, electronics
Jacob Felix Heule: Drum set, electronics

Basshaters is a duo using double bass, drum set, and electronics to integrate acoustic free improv and electronic noise. Striving to match the fluidity of their textural acoustic music, electronics expand the timbral and dynamic options to new extremes. The duo seeks directness and intensity in execution; subtleties emerge from the bold statement of simple ideas.

In addition to Basshaters, Dryer & Heule have released an album on Creative Sources with clarinetist Jacob Lindsay. They have a trio CD with saxophonist Jack Wright, and have performed live with diverse musicians such as Michel Doneda, C Spencer Yeh, Gino Robair, and Damon Smith. Dryer has toured with the Flying Luttenbachers and Usurp Synapse; Heule remains active with his brutal improv duo Ettrick.

URL

Review(s)
Vital Weekly
A musicality of improvisation, though not in anyway thematic, are Tony Dryer: double bass, electronics, Jacob Felix Heule: drum set, electronics. A live recording made in Liege - Improv - and not bad. they use both electronics and 'conventional' instruments here in one long improvised piece - a strangely compulsive piece at that. it does fall into a rhythm at one point but this is not in anyway unexpected. At my most critical these disk can both be "listened to". Which makes them in present climate strange oddities.. A good thing. Maybe 'just' listened to. surely not a bad thing?
- Jliat -

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008 trio WPB3: Poverb

trio WPB3
Mathias Pontevia : horizontal drums
Nusch Werchowska : piano, objects
Heddy Boubaker : alto & bass saxophones

Recorded live on november 21 2008 in Christianskirche Church, Hambourg, Germany by Olaf Hering
mastering Mathias Pontevia
cover photo Mathias Pontevia

URL

thanks to Nikolaus Gersczewski, Birgit Ulher, Heiner Metzger, C.I.L, Forum Neue Musik

Review(s):
The Watchful Ear
...The disc in question is a newish release on the Live Actions imprint, an offshoot of the Herbal International label. The disc is named Poverb and is by the trio of Mathias Pontevia, (horizontal drums) Nusch Werchowska, (piano and objects) and Heddy Boubaker (alto and bass saxophones), who perform under the (pretty bad) group name of Trio WPB3. As I guess may be the case with all of the Live Actions releases, this disc captures a live performance held in a Hamburg church back in 2008.

Now, on one hand, I could probably describe the music here in vaguely floral, descriptive terms with no problem. On the other though, its actually quite hard to sun up this music with any quick and easy pigeon-hole terminology, which is clearly a good thing. The music is all played acoustically, and for the most part in a quite traditional manner (the piano is ‘played’ via the keys, the sax blown through, the drums hit etc…) and in places there are hints at free jazz (certainly some of the musicians have experience in this area) but they remain only hints. If you asked me to pin this one down to some micro-genre I just couldn’t do it. It isn’t full of silence, but then it also isn’t overtly busy. It contains plenty of expressive playing, but then there are textures and ringing tones in there as well. It is then, a fifty-four minute long CD of improvised music that cannot be easily pinned down. That’s a good start in my opinion.

While three musicians play here, you could almost call this recording a quartet, with the venue and its resonant space playing the fourth part. Every sound we hear is extended by the rich natural amplification provided by the church. We hear each sound reflected back slightly, and the sudden attacks on the huge drums that characterise the second half of the disc in particular benefit from this. The music then has a dark, brooding feel to it, helped no end by the echo in the room. The musicians can be felt listening to one another very closely, resting together in the quiet recesses that pocket the music often, but also billowing out into little explosions of joint activity elsewhere. Pontevia’s drums impress me the most here. I am not 100% certain what a horizontal drum is, but I am guessing at a sizeable barrel turned sideways, maybe suspended or sat on a frame. Certainly when hit hard they make a formidable, deep crash, and in several places Pontevia does just this, sending shockwaves through the music and breaking up any shift towards the jazzier end of things that the music may have suggested.

Listening right now as I type, I find myself coming back to the interaction between the trio, the way they seem to listen really well and respond to one another in a manner that feels natural and yet somehow not predictable. The music flits between the delicate and the powerful, in one minute a fine combination of sax fluttering and piano skittering might be undercut by a thunderous strike at a drum, or gentle chiming piano notes might merge into ringing metal percussion of some kind. There is quite a range of dynamic here that is amplified furtehr by the resonant recording space.
So this isn’t a CD likely to garner rave reviews in the hippest of places, and it isn’t remarkable enough in any way to stand out from the crowd, but what it is is a nice document that captures a thoroughly creative and highly enjoyable live gig in a great sounding space. Listening to it tonight, as with the last couple of nights when I have given it a spin I have felt quite close to the performance, which is what a live CD probably should achieve. This isn’t a disc likely to top anyone’s shopping lists, but I don’t think its one that should be ignored. The musicianship, shown both through the skilled playing but also through the careful listening that feeds it is top notch, and the resulting music will please a good number of listeners if they got the chance to hear it. Good stuff.
- Richard Pinnell -

Just Outside
Despite AMM being a virtual wellspring for most of the music we hold dear, it's rare enough (and a good thing too, I guess) that a given recording really recalls that group. This one does, somewhat. I could almost imagine hearing the music contained here on a blindfold test and thinking it might be a Prevost/Gare/Tilbury recording from around the time of "The Nameless Uncarved Block". I'm not at all saying that Poverb is of the same quality, just that it imparts something of a similar feel, with a like appreciation for space, duration and large scale form. Like that era of AMM, where both Prevost and Gare weren't quite beyond an untoward jazzish burst, Heddy Boubaker (alto & bass saxophone) and Mathias Pontevia (horizontal drums [?]) also, once in a while, emit bleats and explosions that might better be withheld. As did Tilbury, pianist and object manipulator Nusch Werchowska often serves as mediator and conciliator, bringing the trio back into more considered realms. Overall, though, its a strong, cohesive performance, carving out the king of spatial block that few trios manage consistently.
- Brian Olewnick -

Vital Weekly
The 3 in Trio WPB3 stands for the fact that this is a trio, but then so does the word trio, so, a bit too much? The Trio WPB3 is Mathias Pontevia on horizontal drums, Nusch Werchowska on piano and objects and Heddy Boubaker on alto and bass saxophones. The world of improvisation as recorded on November 21 2008 in the Christianskirche Church, Hambourg [sic]. This concert, in two parts (one being the encore, perhaps?), is a lengthy affair of slowly changing sounds. The instruments aren't always easily to be recognized, although at other times they are. The horizontal drums perhaps the best, occasionally the piano, whereas the saxophone with its lengthy and sustained tones is perhaps the most 'difficult' one to recognize as such. Trio WPB3 move from the quiet moments to the very loud notions and makes some very intense listening music, which requires full concentration from the listener, before it unfolds its beauty. But when you decide to open up for this music, you won't be disappointed. Very intense music, beautifully recorded.
- Frans de Waard -

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007 Nick Hoffman: Stratagem
006 PM (Goh Lee Kwang / Olaf Hochherz): Live Actions - Berlin
005 Anla Courtis: Live Action
004 Mike Bullock: Great Marsh
003 Jeff Gburek & Raven Chacon: Jesus Was A Wino
002 Billy Bao: Auxilio
001 Tetuzi Akiyama & Jeff Gburek: Live At KULE, Berlin 30 May 2005

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Review(s):
Vital Weekly
PM (Goh Lee Kwang / Olaf Hochherz) - Live Actions - Berlin cdR
Behind PM are Goh Lee Kwang (mixer feedback) and Olaf Hochherz (piezo). I remember reviewing a rather obscure 3"CDR by them, but this one is actually quite nice. Four pieces, recorded in three different places in Berlin, with only few days in between (so you can tour a city!) of an endless stream of feedback like sounds and small crackles and big noise. It emerges on the borders of improvised music, electro-acoustic, microsound as well as noise. I know this sounds like a strange mixture, but it works well here. A great work, a strong leap forward. (FdW)

MIKE BULLOCK - GREAT MARSH
Mike Bullock is already a renowned player of the upright bass in the areas of his home city of Boston, where he frequently plays with people such Vic Rawlings and Howard Stelzer. The cover for his release seems to be a hasty job: the cover says it's a live recording, but there is no date. Also the label nor the website address isn't mentioned anywhere. 'Great Marsh' is a musical trip of about thirty minutes of bass playing and electronic treatment, but not necessarily a treatment of his bass playing. It starts out with some strumming and bowing but as the piece progresses electronic sounds drop in and even seem to be taking over the proceedings. Quite an interesting recording of some extended bass playing. (FdW)

NICK HOFFMAN - STRATAGEM
So far the music by Nick Hoffman has been pure electronic affairs, working with laptops and sine waves. Perhaps I mentioned however he is graduate in music, and on 'Stratagem' are three works for a small chamber orchestra, which includes, although I'm not sure if all at the same time, four piano's, percussion, trumpet, guitar, and electronics. I am sure I mentioned this before but true, modern classical music is one of those I find very hard to review. Of the three pieces here, I think 'Clearing' is great. It has modern classical feel to it, but its also acoustic with pipes being blown and there are small bits of electronics. I must say I liked that a lot, whereas the short opening piece and the title piece were also alright, but perhaps it didn't have the same impact on me.(FdW)

JEFF GBUREK/RAVEN CHACON - JESUS WAS A WINO
I never heard of Jeff Gburek or Raven Chacon. The first one is from Berlin and plays guitar along with his computer. He played with Ephia in Djalma Primordial Science (theater) and improvised with Keith Rowe, Micheal Vorfeld, Tetuzi Akiyama, Kyle Bruckmann, Pascal Battus, and Tom Carter (Charalambides). About Raven I still don't know anything. Their disc holds a solo piece by each and one duo piece. Gburek's solo piece is quite distantly there, playing the softer card in music of faint hums and deep end sound. But as soon as they play together things get more and more heavy. The duo piece is one of droning short-wave sounds and contact microphone movements over some objects. Quite an alright piece of noise music. Chacon's solo piece is of very high pitches and low end rumble, but it's causes a bit of headache. This we heard done better by others. (FdW)

BILLY BAO - AUXILIO
A short live release by Billy Bao, the group around vocalist Billy Bao (also Xabier Erkizia on guitar and computer, Mattin on guitar and computer and Alberto Lopez on drums). Their short release is quite powerful. It opens with a few blasts on guitar and drums, before exploding into a heavy weight noise rock release. The computers are nicely hissing somewhere deep down in the vaults of this otherwise top heavy release. And not a second too long.
(FdW)

ANLA CURTIS - LIVE ACTIONS
Of these three new releases on Herbal Records, the most well-known artist is Alan Curtis, formerly of Reynols, now known as Alan Curtis. These days he is active a solo musician, playing stages around the world. On 'Live Action' excerpts from three such performances, one in Japan, one in Belgium and in the USA. Armed with electric guitar, tapes, mini disc, toba violin (whatever that is), contact microphones and 'no-instruments' he crafts some interesting pieces of loud experimental music together. Not noise in the strictest sense of the word, but clearly present. The guitar plays the important part in these improvisations, fed through boxes of distortion and other foot pedals, whereas the tapes have a more modest role in the background. Densely layered, dirty, raw but with lots of tension underneath, this is a highly enjoyable release. (FdW)

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