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Hello,
welcome to newsletter 054 from Dense Promotion.
We are starting the new year with plenty of brilliant records. If you discover something that you would like to present to your readers
and listeners, let us know.
Yours
The Dense Promotion Team
Contents:
BEN GIBBARD & ANDREW KENNY – Home EP Vol. V [CDEP/MLP morr music]
COLEMAN/HAUTZINGER/SACHIKO M/ YOSHIHIDE – Concert in St. Louis [CD GROB]
JON MUELLER – What’s lost is something important. What’s found is something
not revealed.
[CD Crouton]
MASHA QRELLA – Unsolved Remained [CD/2LP Morr music]
PASTACAS – Tsaca tsap [CD Kohvirecords]
PIT ER PAT – Shakey [CD/LP Thrill Jockey]
RONNIE SUNDIN – Hágring [CD Antifrost]
SHUTTLE358 – Chessa [CD 12k]
TARWATER – The Needle Was Traveling [CD/2LP morr music]
XABIER ERKIZIA – Entresol [CD Antifrost]
BEN GIBBARD & ANDREW KENNY – Home EP Vol. V [CDEP/MLP morr music 055]
– promo only in FR, Eastern and Northern Europe
http://www.morrmusic.com
After more than 50 releases, it is time for Morr Music’s first licensed
record. Yes, we have more love than for our artists only. Thus, this
release here is also a document of our being fans, because ever since the
“Home EP Vol. 5” had been released on the US label Post-Parlo at the
beginning of 2003, it has a safe and warm place in the upper regions of our
office charts.
The idea behind the “Home” series is simple, clear and good: Take two
artists, ask each for three exclusive songs and a cover version of one of
the other’s song. For their fifth edition of this series Post-Parlo were
able to get Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie/The Postal Service) and Andrew
Kenny (American Analog Set) on board. They prove that reduced singer-/songwriting (both only need their voice and an acoustic guitar)
does not necessarily have to deal with whining self-indulgence or with the
tyranny of songs about the absent (ex-)girlfriend. Instead, Gibbard and
Kenny both succeed in approaching the subject of this ep’s title with
subtlety: Home. After all, this is the place both are longing for most of
the time, as they are constantly on the road with their respective bands.
So it just fits nicely, that all of these songs have been recorded on
fourtrack in the artisits’ living rooms in New York and Seattle.
Considering the minimalist approach of this record as well as the
simplified recording process, it clearly shows, that both Gibbard’s and
Kenny’s songwriting are only fractures of the same thing, meaning they’re
closer musically, than the sound of their bands might initially suggest.
The choice of their covers – Ben Gibbard plays American Analog Set’s “Choir
Vandals’, Andrew Kenny interprets” Line Of Best Fit” by Death Cab can only
stress their close connection.
This record being re-released on Morr Music is also a sign of a
collaboration initiated by Styrofoam, becoming more and more apparent now.
It all started a few years back when Styrofoam did remixes for American
Analog Set’s “Updates EP” on Tiger Style Records. He also did a beautiful
picture-split-7″ on Rocket Racer with Dntel aka Jimmy Tamborello, who runs
The Postal Service with Ben Gibbard. Gibbard and Kenny both have
contributed to Styrofoam’s album “Nothing’s Lost” at the end of 2004 and at
the beginning of 2005, Sub Pop will release something new by The Postal
Service, featuring a Styrofoam-Remix as well.
COLEMAN/HAUTZINGER/SACHIKO M/ YOSHIHIDE – Concert in St. Louis
[CD GROB 656]
http://www.churchofgrob.com
In the last four or five years there has been a clear set trend towards
stillness in improvised music. The classical parameters – the forming of
energy states, the spontaneous, dense communication – are not relevant to
this music, but rather the empty spaces, the disparate, non-dynamic, the
recessed. Stillness.
This trend is not without its detractors, and from various positions
(musicians, theoreticians) it is feared that too much of the former tilled
field is being forfeited. There is polemic: improvised music tends to
attach itself to trends in new music, after they have long become passé.
Like the trend of the non-gestural stillness.
Gene Coleman, bass clarinetist, long-standing protagonist of Chicago’s most
varying experimental and avant-garde scene (he can be heard, among others,
on the albums of Gastr Del Sol), a festival organizer and curator on the
go, lives mostly from his compositions. He does not have to hang onto any
trend, he does not feel any need to innovate and does not see himself
exposed to any scene pressure. Gene Coleman plays and acts autonomously.
For a tour in the Autumn of 2002 he put together a quartet out of musicians
with whom he has worked together before. Franz Hautzinger (quarter-tone
trumpet, GROB 211, GROB 313/4, GROB 425, GROB 435, GROB 544), Sachiko M
(sinus generator, contact microphones, GROB 432, 435), Otomo Yoshihide
(guitar, turntables, GROB 432) are all world renowned musicians and
improvisers who have mastered the use of musical stillness.
So these are the best prerequisites not to reproduce the “cliché of
stillness,” but rather to initiate a restful as well as very open and
highly flexible improvising process. Stillness is not assumed here, is not
a result and an purpose worth aspiring for, but rather it is a means to
form. The strong rustling improvisation does not deplete itself, but rather
brings forth new constellation of their playing together (also next to each
other)
It is slow, peaceful, very relaxed flowing music. But whoever listens
closely will hear the tension and the exertion, the wrestling to create
expression.
Next year GROB will release a CD that will present some of his current
compositions.
JON MUELLER – What’s lost is something important. What’s found is something
not revealed.
[CD Crouton crou026]
http://www.croutonmusic.com
After seven years in existence, Crouton is pleased to announce its first
solo release from Jon Mueller. For the past two years, individuals have
been invited to contribute a specific form of hair from their bodies, which
would then be filed and placed in a special wooden case, for no apparent
reason. The process, on the other hand, revealed many conversations that
would not have taken place; moments of understanding, insight, curiosity,
and and overall positive manifestations that possibly would not have
happened under ‘normal’ circumstances. The intent of this recording is to
mimic this process. On the surface, it is two compositions for solo
percussion, using pieces from a typical drum set. But one would likely not
realize this by listening.
Jon Mueller either spent the necessary time to teach his drums how to
actually sustain something, or he found them lying in the same swamp as the
Warner Bros. frog. In any case, he has coaxed a gorgeous CD out of them:
complex textures of sustained snares, nocturnal bells, and asymmetrical
rhythms arising as if from within the drums; all subtly ordered, sometimes
melting from passage to passage, sometimes popping with tape-edit
precision. The pieces have the gravity of fine drone work, but they are
also injected with a dry wit and assembled with the mechanations of a
puzzle master.
There are no singing frogs on this disc, no merely novel moments. Mueller
makes the most of his chorus, and the music resonates as something beyond
the sum of its parts, however interesting those parts may be. Thus
hopefully this CD, like the collection of hair, will also inspire
conversations that might not have otherwise taken place, moments of
understanding, curiosity, etc.
Mueller has worked with Pele, Asmus Tietchens, Jason Kahn, Bhob Rainey, Hal
Rammel, Jack Wright, Achim Wollscheid, Steve Nelson-Raney, and is a
longtime member of Collections of Colonies of Bees. He has recorded for
labels such as Auf Abwegen, Penumbra, Polyvinyl, RRRecords, Mode,
Sixgunlover, Feverpitch, and Stasisfield. Performances occur regularly in
the basement, as well as various public venues around the world.
MASHA QRELLA – Unsolved Remained [CD/2LP Morr music 052]
– promo only in FR, Eastern and Northern Europe
http://www.morrmusic.com
With Unsolved Remained Masha Qrella now releases her second solo album. Her
debut Luck (which for many soon became one of the most important new indie
releases of the season) was conceived as a surprise, prepared in secret.
But this time surely some friends of her music are holding their breath
already, anticipating these new songs.
When listening to Unsolved Remained closely it becomes apparent how
elegantly attention towards the smallest details in sound is coupled with a
feeling for the emotional impact of the songs. Of course, this impact
originates exactly in the delicate production, the complex rhythm
programming, the sometimes intentionally rough, mostly subtle use of
effects, sounds, rooms and the accentuated guitars between acoustic and
noise. Still, the songs remain more important than any obvious
demonstration of (plentifully available) production skills. Also electronic
and acoustic are no antagonisms that need to be reconciled, they are
equally valuable means of expression. Unsolved Remained is sophisticated
in the most positive and experimental sense of the word.
With Masha, “solo” defines a personal sonic space, not a territory in need
of defending, and so she involved ideas of different other musicians on
this album: In addition to Norman Nitzsche (Masha’s petit copain, band
mate in Mina and NMFarner, und co-owner/operator of their studio Villa
Kurella) who is responsible in big parts for the recording and production
of Unsolved Remained, some room on this record was handed over to other
musical voices as well. The snapping and crackling rhythm track on vertical
destination was programmed by Berlin sound/visual-collective Rechenzentrum.
Similarly, the laconically dragged out backing track of I can’t tell was
created in the laboratory of Swedish Henrik Johansson.
Finally in the four-and-a-half minute long C.Bones a sample of ISO 68 finds
itself respectfully integrated into the logic of Qrellas song writing.
Unsolved Remained individually and uniquely continues to formulate Masha
Qrella’s world of sound, warmer, more confident and multi-layered than its
predecessor, with a production that gives these 11 songs, written by one
of the most interesting songwriters of her genre, proper density as well
as space.
PASTACAS – Tsaca tsap [CD Kohvirecords KREC 010] http://www.kohvirecords.ee
PASTACAS (Ramo Teder) new album under Kohvirecords “Tsaca tsap” includes 16
instrumental and vocal pieces from the years 2002-2004.
The lyrics are moslty written by Teder. All instruments on current album
were also played by PASTACAS himself.
Comparing with the past two albums (“Kõrvaklapid” LP 2001, “Dehemardik
datis” split LP 2003), PASTACAS has decided to sing more. More important
than words are still harmony and sound of voice, so it’s impossible to say
what is the language he is using for singing. Single words are borrowed
from estonian, finish and from Ramo’s own language. Teder has strong
musical background from childhood: youth music schools + jazz quitar player
father. That’s the reason he uses fluently live quitar, flute and bass in
his tracks and not at all samplings. His music has turned more sharp and
clear and it isn´t so random as on past albums. Ramo is naitive estonian,
but lives in small village called Kirjakkala in Finand’s west coast. All
tracks on his new album (except Füüsikapood – made in Helsinki) are made
there. The place has interesting anomaly – mornings are there 33:33 longer
than in the rest of the world. That’s the actual reason that Pastacas new
album length is 44:44.
Pastacas: ” All I wanted to say with my new record is in music – people who
don’t like it and people who like very much – they all understand the
message”
“Pastacas’s new album takes traditional estonian folk-jazz concept, adds
vocal tracks and then allows machines to talk about the importance of the
human aspect in music”
Tristian Priimägi, Eesti Ekspress, Estonia
“It’s like Squarepusher “Ultravisitor”, but better” DJ Marius Reisser,
Berlin
PIT ER PAT – Shakey [CD/LP Thrill Jockey thrill154]
– promo only in DE and Eastern Europe
http://www.thrilljockey.com
Pit er Pat is Rob Doran (bass, vocals), Fay Davis-Jeffers (keyboards,
vocals) and Butchy Fuego (drums, vocals). Originally calling themselves
Blackbirds, the group began as a backing band for a singer/songwriter.
After playing a handful of small shows in Chicago, the guitarist/singer
abruptly decided to move to New York, leaving the threesome to quickly
write a set for a show that was already booked. There was something
striking about the dynamic of the sound the three of them made, something
unusually compelling about this rhythm section. Without the
singer/guitarist, this sound allowed the space to be heard. They wrote a
handful of instrumental, rhythm heavy songs, and decided to continue onward
since the audience and band both seemed to be pleased with their work.
Thus, Pit er Pat was formed. The name was chosen after seeing the words
“pit er pat” written in a painting by the Chicago artist, Jim Nutt
(responsible for the infamous Hairy Who movement).
Prior to Shakey, Pit er Pat released the Emergency EP on Overcoat
Recordings during the winter of 2004. This signaled the arrival of singing
in their music, which has since become very important. The Emergency EP
was released on vinyl with hand silk-screened covers (printed by the band)
on Mythologies. The original self-released CD also had hand silk-screened
covers and elaborate origami inserts by the band. A 12″ of additional
material was released by Born and Raised on Sugar Disks as well.
Shakey was recorded over six days at Key Club Recording Company, a studio
just outside of Chicago on Lake Michigan, and mixed over five days at Soma
Studios, both with Griffin Rodriguez and the band. The basic tracks were
recorded live and came together in a few days, leaving Pit er Pat time to
utilize the studio as an instrument, adding dense yet subtle coloration to
the arrangements. Shakey’s album artwork was created specifically for this
record by their friend Jon Widman.
Fans compare various aspects of their music to The Raincoats, early Soft
Machine, Slap Happy and Blonde Redhead. The end result is a constant
propelling of rhythm and melody steeped in innumerable influences and
emotions. Like the Hairy Who movement the band so admires, Pit er Pat can
be described as an expressive work of fantastic adventure — compelling,
arousing and mysterious.
RONNIE SUNDIN – Hágring [CD Antifrost afro2028] http://www.antifrost.gr
Hágring is the third and final part in the Hypnagogic trilogy that started
with Sleepwalk (Ground Fault Recordings 2001) and Morphei (H pna 2002)
which is based upon a fascination for wake dreaming, auditory
hallucinations and the memory of sound. Composed using delicate field
recordings, computer processed sounds, vibrating piano and guitar strings
to create a sensitive dreamlike state. Or was it just a mirage?
Visually trained Swedish sound artist Ronnie Sundin (b.1973)has been
publishing music under his own name since 1999 and has been sending out
micro ripples in the underground experimental circuit with a string of
releases on critically acclaimed labels as H pna, F llt and Ground Fault
Recordings showcasing his sensitive approach to sound. He currently resides
in Malmö , Sweden.
SHUTTLE358 – Chessa [CD 12k 1030] http://www.12k.com
Without a doubt Shuttle358 has become one of the most admired artists to
emerge from modern electronic music’s sea of musicians. From the humble
beginnings of a demo CD in 12k’s mailbox to 4 critically acclaimed cds, Dan
Abrams is, to some, the one credited for bringing a warmth and human touch
back into what has often been considered a very cold, sterile genre. It
began with 1999’s Optimal.lp (12k1005), a groundbreaking debut release that
immediately defined the Shuttle358 sound; a hybridization of the
then-emerging “microsound” genre with Eno’s true ambient explorations. In
2000 Abrams outdid himself with Frame (12k1011) by honing his sound design
and exploring production techniques at rates that made his “now” quite brief and creating what was to become one of the most sought-after cds in
the 12k catalog.
Chessa is the third release from Abrams’ Shuttle358 moniker on 12k and he
continues to do what he does best: attempt to move microsound away from the
world of theory and towards absolute real life. Like his photographs,
Chessa is music about, and to be listened to in, unexpected places. It is a
narrative, a simple slice of life that plays out through the incidental
photography of the cd cover. To achieve this Abrams fuses irregular
granular sound particles, like the movements of everyday life, with a
deliberate melodic base that captures emotion and simplicity.
TARWATER – The Needle Was Traveling [CD/2LP morr music 054]
– promo only in Northern and Eastern Europe
http://www.morrmusic.com
Good news coming up for Tarwater, even better ones, too. After leaving
Kitty-Yo, Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram have found a new artistic home.
“The Needle Was Traveling” is their fifth regular album and their first
release on Morr Music. It shows the duo that in 1996 sprang from East
Berlin underground bands like Rosa Extra and Ornament & Verbrechen at the
height of their artistic abilities. Among those who already had a chance to
listen it’s widely considered to be their masterpiece.
With the minimalist “Silur” which came out in 1998 and marked their
artistic breakthrough, and the even more successful follow up album
“Animals, Suns & Atoms”, released two years later, it was still somehow
possible to relate the music to buzzwords like “Triphop” and “Electronica”.
Today, Tarwater’s hermetic and ambiguously shining sound alchemy is at a
point where you just cannot tell anymore when it has actually been created.
Even the question wether producing music electronically automatically leads
to an artistic advantage ‘a topic heavily discussed a few years ago’
completely loses its meaning here.
The reason why “The Needle Was Traveling” sounds as strong and coherent
as it does might on the contrary be Tarwater’s turning away from organising
their music repetetively. What used to be tracks is turning more and more
into songs, a development that already started with their last album
“Dwellers On The Threshold”. For the first time, the band didn’t develop
their music by first layering keyboard sounds. They rather worked on the
interaction of “traditional” instruments like bass, drums and guitar.
Samples and other parts triggered by keyboards have only been added at a
later stage of the songwriting process ? as well as contributions by
friends like Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM), Marc Weiser (Rechenzentrum)
or Hanno Leichtmann (Static), who accidentally popped into Bernd Jestram’s
newly established studio and got more or less spontaneously involved into
the artistic process.
The result is an album displaying both a strong formal concept and a
wealth of details at the same time. “The Needle Was Traveling” is one of
those highly addictive records with a long half-life, where a lot is to be
discovered instantly and some unfolds itself only after listening week in,
week out.
XABIER ERKIZIA – Entresol [CD Antifrost afro2026]
http://www.antifrost.gr
Entresol is the debut album of multi disciplinary Basque artist Xabier
Erkizia.
Erkizia’s principal characteristics are investigation, some kind of
curiosity on any art or communication form and diversity.
In Entresol (which if translated freely from Catalan could mean something
like: between 2 floors) his compositions tend to stick in the intermediate
point, not accenting the limits but looking for the sounds in between the
sounds that sometimes we are not even capable to hear. the 3 compositions
maintain themselves in this point in between and they give form one to each
other.
Xabier Erkizia has collaborated with the likes of: mattin, eddie prevost,
ilios, tv pow, alejandra & aeron, margarida garcia, mark wastell, josh
abrams and others.
XABIER ERKIZIA + ILIOS live:
19/02 DE – Münster, cuba
MORE LIVE DATES
ENCRE + MY JAZZY CHILD [Active Suspension]
15/01 FR – Point Ephemere / Paris
16/01 FR – Reims
19/01 FR – La Briquetterie / Amiens
20/01 NL – Paradiso, Amsterdam
21/01 FR – Molodoi / Strasbourg
22/01 TBA
23/01 NL – Patronaat / Haarlem
25/01 SE – Panora / Malmo
26/01 NL – Merleyn / Nijmegen
27/01 DE – Astra Stube / Hamburg
28/01 DE – Berlin TBC
29/01 NL – Theater Kikker / Utrecht
HYPO [Active Suspension]
20/01 FR – DV1 / Lyon + O.LAMM
21/01 FR – Lieu Unique / Nantes + O.LAMM
22/01 FR – Zoobizarre / Bordeaux + O.LAMM
29/01 FR – La Passerelle / St Brieux + O.LAMM
04/03 FR – Olympic / Nantes / + THE KONKI DUET + M83
O.LAMM [Active Suspension]
20/01 FR – DV1 / Lyon + HYPO
21/01 FR – Lieu Unique / Nantes + HYPO
22/01 FR – Zoobizarre / Bordeaux + HYPO
29/01 FR – La Passerelle / St Brieux + HYPO
THE KONKI DUET [Active Suspension]
12/01 FR – Nouveau Casino / Paris + THE CONCRETES
04/03 FR – Olympic / Nantes + HYPO + M83
18/03 IT – Spazio 211 / Torino
23/03 BE – festival “haunted folklore” / Bruxelles
LALI PUNA [morr music] 12/02 RU – Moscow, 35mm
PANDA BEAR, ARIEL PINK, SIGNER [Paw-Tracks]
12/01 UK – London, Glass Shrimp show, Resonance FM
14/01 UK – Nottingham, The Maze
15/01 UK – London, Spitz, Commercial Street, E1
17/01 UK – Exeter, The Angel, 36 Queen Street
18/01 UK – Brighton, Freebutt
19/01 UK – Cambridge, Portland Arms
20/01 UK – Bristol, Cube
21/01 UK – Oxford, Wheatsheaf
25/01 DE – Cologne, Subway Club
26/01 CH – Geneva, L’usine
27/01 IT – Bologna, XM24
28/01 BE – Gent, Frontline
30/01 FR – Bordeaux – La Centrale
01/02 ES – Vigo, Club Vademecum
02/02 PT – Porto, Teatro Paços de Manuel
03/02 PT – Lisbon, Galeria Zé dos Bois
ARIEL PINK w/ SIGNER [Paw-Tracks]
07/02 ES – Barcelona, Sala Apolo
09/02 SE – Gothenburg, Pusterviksbaren
10/02 NO – Oslo, Garage
11/02 SE – Stockholm, Klubb Accelerator
12/02 SE – Malmo, Pink Flag
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