XXXX Goh Lee Kwang:::: Internal Pleasures

All track were improvised, edited between may ~june 2004 @ studio 2, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany.
No pre-programming, on going effects or post-overdub.

(excerpt, vbr mp3)

Audio CD, 6 panels digipak
50min++
Release date: August 2004
12 Euros + shipping

click HERE to make your order

Review(s)
Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlatic, Jan 2005, France.
Malaysian-born Goh Lee Kwang's Innere Freuden ("Internal Pleasures") comes with an A5 handout containing the following text: "By using an analog DJ mixer with the line connection of 'output back to input', the electronic signal becomes audioable [sic] NO synth, NO pre-programming, NO on going effects and NO post-overdub." (That's almost as many "no"s as a Lou Reed interview..) Dunno whether Lee's contemplating teaming up with Toshimaru "No Input Mixing Desk" Nakamura, Sachiko "No Samples In The Sampler" M and Otomo "No Records On The Turntable" Yoshihide, but the seven tracks on offer here are every bit as austere and compelling as that trio's recent excellent Good Morning Good Night double on Erstwhile. I admit I still have a soft spot for the more eclectic train wreck electronica of GLK's Nerve Center, but no matter ? the vocabulary here is drastically pared down but he still uses to poetic effect. Innere Freuden is by no means an easy listen, but it's a very rewarding one.

Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly no.436 The Neitherlands.
Some parts of this world are just not very well known for experimental music, and Malaysia is no doubt one of them. From there comes a man, Goh Lee Kwang, who has already produced six albums and several tracks for compilations. He is also one of the founders of Experimental Musicians And Artists Cooperative Malaysia and has made music for theatre and visuals. His album presented here was recorded in Stuttgart in Germany and contains improvisations for a DJ mixer. "The line connection of 'output back to input', the electronic signal becomes audioable", I read on the press blurb, so I think it's another example of feedback treatments. It could have been a normal mixer too, as far as I'm concerned. That, maybe poor concept, aside, what I hear on this CD is also not sounding utterly fresh and new, but it's not bad either. Kwang stays firmly in his concept, but he somehow manages to produce an album that carries enough variation in it to be enjoyed throughout. Sometimes I think the stylus can be heard here and there, but maybe it's not. If Otomo Yoshihide is your man, maybe Goh Lee Kwang can be yours too.

Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, May 2006 Italy
All that's needed by Goh Lee Kwang is a "prepared stereo DJ mixer"; the rest is up to your volume control, which is the key for deciding if "Innere Freuden" ("internal pleasures") will be a nice frequency massage for your ears while you read or - god forbid - watch TV, or if instead you prefer trying to communicate with animals and/or extraterrestrial creatures while risking to shatter all the glass in your house. Everything nearing hiss, feedback, white noise and subterranean gulps and bumps is contained in these tense soundscapes of "next-to-nothing" intimacy. Ectoplasmic forms succeed to electrostatic currents and popping/glitching penetrations, an invisible net of infectious microsounds which Kwang has assembled with a spartan yet functional compositional touch. The coldness of this sequence of events inside a dead-blank framework is alluring in its peculiar way, leaving many open possibilities for the self to become a part of the process.

Kpo, unknown source, found online
Het kartonnen doosje, met foto's van straatstenen in verschillende patronen, biedt op het eerste gezicht weinig informatie. 'Innere Freuden Solo-Improvisationen mit präparierten DJ-Mischpult' staat op de voorkant. Binnenin is te vinden dat 'alle Titel gespielt und aufgenommen' werden 'von Goh Lee Kwang'. Goh Lee Kwang is een muzikant uit Maleisië, die een tijdje in Berlijn gewoond heeft, en daar de gelegenheid kreeg een plaat te maken. Goh Lee Kwang is geen gewone muzikant. Hij bespeelt op 'Innere Freuden' een zogenaamde non output mixer. Het is elektronische muziek, maar dan wel van een beperkt soort. Door met een mixer zonder input te werken, werk je eigenlijk met de ruis van het apparaat. Gemanipuleerd door de vele instellingsmogelijkheden van een mixer en uitversterkt levert dit muziek op dat zowel intrigeert als irriteert. Het cd-doosje vermeldt nog: "No pre-programming, on going effects or post overdub". Daar moet je het als luisteraar mee doen. Live in een concertprogramma in Utrecht, waarbij Goh Lee Kwang samenspeelde met gitarist Lukas Simonis, bleek waartoe hij werkelijk in staat is. Blijven de ruisjes, geratel en de opgewekte ritmes op de plaat nogal statisch, in een combinatie met een andere muzikant worden die klanken pas werkelijk muziek.

Dionisio Capuano, Blow up, unknown date, Italy
per mixer stereo preparato del malese Goh Lee Kwang e il duo con Blechmann appartengono a quella tal sperimentazione sul suono-rumore analogico e (nel secondo cd anche) digitale (Blechmann è al laptop) che sta tra il già (molto) sentito e possibili nuove (?) elaborazioni (la fine della musica, il cambio di attività), l’estemporaneità dell’impro e pensate sulle de-strutturazioni elettrico-elettroniche. Il ‘solo’ di Kwang avvicenda locked groove di feed-back controllato con simulazioni glitch, rumori bianchi che aumentano di frequenza fino alla soglia della sparizione-fastidio; manipolazioni con equalizzatori, cursori e volumi; emulazioni di motori a scoppio; false registrazioni di aritmie respiratorie. Semplice-complesso parlare di ‘Drone’. La lunga sequenza è costruita di sezioni disomogenee ma senza soluzione di continuità. Un tappeto di suoni granulari irregolari; feed back serpeggianti, rombi temporaleschi; piovaschi di frequenze, le solite scariche analogiche. Per finire, venti minuti d’un’alta frequenza, sottile quasi immobile. Se il discorso dei voti equivale a saggi consigli, per i neofiti dell’ elettrone questo è un (6) preoccupante. Per quanto mi riguarda sono solo preoccupato. Avessi ‘bucato’ due capolavori in una volta sola?