Tag: Vital Weekly

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Review – Anther i8u + tomas phillips(petite sono) 2006 – by Frans de Waard, Petite Sono

I8U & TOMAS PHILLIPS – ANTHER (CD by Petite Sono)

Tomas Phillips is not a new name for me, but since his previous release with Tobias C. van Veen (see Vital Weekly 499) I learned that he has had various releases as Sea Optic, Lisbon and Eto Ami (in collaboration with Dean King) and that there is a solo release under his real name on Trente Oiseaux (which we probably missed out on). These days he works with Tobias C. van Veen, Dean King and i8u. Behind i8u is France Jobin, who had a release on Multimedia Pandora (see Vital Weekly 216), Piehead Records (Vital Weekly 325) and Bake Records (oddly not reviewed). Besides making music, she also works with installations and web art, not as separate things, but it can be seen as one big work. She has played around the world (Mutek, Transmediale), but things have been quiet for some time. Maybe the quiet time was used by her to record this album with Tomas Phillips? On the cover (housed in a larger carton box) it says ‘headphone listening suggested’ and normally that is not well-spend on me, because I like to walk around when I want when listening, or hop from chair to computer and back, but in this case it would indeed be a good suggestion to sit back, put that headphone on and have a careful listen. I8U and Tomas Phillips play a nice game of silence. Even when you crank up the volume considerably, things hoover still at the edge of silence. Sometimes a peep comes up, white static emerge from the swamp and something nothing happens at all. ‘Merge’, the final piece, seems to the one with most activity with what seems also the track with the most clear synth lines and what could be a slowed down rhythm. In terms of music, regular music, this track is the most ‘ambient’, whereas the other two are more abstract and microsound. This trio of tracks is a pretty strong collection that deserve to be listened too with headphones indeed and a good glass of wine within reach and two candles in an otherwise dark room.

(FdW) (Address: http://www.petitesono.com)

-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

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Review – 60 artists protest the war (ATAK) 2003 – by Roel Meelkop, Vital Weekly

V.A. - 60 SOUND ARTISTS PROTEST THE WAR (Compilation CD by ATAK)
Well, the title really says it all: this CD contains 60 tracks by 60
artists and they are all protesting the war (the war in question
being the invasion of Iraq by the so called allied forces), simply by
being present on this disc. The initiative for this compilation came
from Keiichiro Shibuya, himself a musician and working for the ATAK
label. Of course, it is easy for people to come up with a one minute
sound bite and yes, it has been done before, but somehow, this
sampler seems to be better than the others I have heard before. This
is probably due to the artists involved and the order in which they
are presented (even if this was decided entirely randomly). It would
go way too far to name them all, although that could be enough for
many people to order the CD at once. Let me suffice to say that
everybody that matters is on it (well, almost everybody) and that it
is a pleasure to listen to. It was my personal pleasure to listen
with the cover in my hand and try to guess who's who. At which I
failed miserably of course........All those opposing the
aforementioned war will have to buy it anyway, so all the others will
have to depend on its quality. Very well done! (MR)
Oh well, here's the list anyway: roel meelkop/shirtrax vs.
shirtrax/keith rowe + toshimaru nakamura/stephan
mathieu/pomassl/slipped disc/bernhard gunter/kim gascone/doron
sadja/yamataka eye/numb/steve roden/steinbruchel/go taneda/akira
yamamichi/tiziana bertoncini + thomas lehn/yuji takahashi/freiband/cm
von hauswolff/keiichiro shibuya/motor/stilluppsteypa/coh/mikael
stavostrand/radboud mens/miki yui/andreas tilliander/minimalistic
sweden/nao tokui + take3tsu nagano/frank bretschneider/evala/taeji
sawai/fennesz/kenneth kirschner/i8u/john hudak/aoki takamasa/mitchell
akiyama/burkhard stangl/goodiepal/hideki nakazawa/aelab/christof
kurzmann/jos smolders/masahiro miwa/janek schaefer/tv
pow/pix/kimken/saidrum/merzbow/m.behrens/maria/klon/mondii/richard di
sant/christophe charles/william basinski/carsten nicolai/yasunao tone.
Adress: http://atak.jp or info@atak.jp
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Review – grasshopper morphine (Piehead Records) 2002 by – Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly,

I8U – GRASSHOPPER MORPHINE (CDR by Piehead Records)

One of two new releases on the limited CDR Piehead Records label and twice
 by Canadian artists.

I8U, who has a real CD on Multimedia Pandora and
 a CDR on Bake Records previously (plus maybe others I don’t know) and
 who plays with Martin Tetreault, David Kristian and Guylaine Bedard
(a photographer). It was David Kristian who changed her way of 
thinking about music. Turning back to simple ideas and flows, she has
 eight new pieces which are best described as utter minimalism.
 Sometimes, as in ‘Numb Summer’ they take the form of one flowing
 chord, with added high pitched sounds, but mostly they take the form
 of a repetitive sound patterns. Not really to be described as
 rhythmic or techno inspired, but rather more dry clicks being 
repeated over and over. There is also a nice piss take at Nurse With
Wound’s Fashioned To A Device under the name of ‘Sun Dogs Rising’,
with the same intense feedback like drones. Very well balanced 
between rhythms and drones. (FdW)
 – Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly