Metal / Flesh
(Bocian - BC05) 7-inch $10.00
This Australian avant garde percussionist’s long-standing preoccupation with extended technique and acoustically generated noise applied to the conventional drumkit in a freely improvised context has helped push the bounds of the acoustic drumkit’s sonic potential (alongside compatriots Robbie Avenaim, Tony Buck, Steve Heather, Joe Talia and Will Guthrie). Baxter’s concise improvisations, performed with unconventional implements, extract unusual timbres from the drumkit. His vast and dense sonic worlds, created without overdubs or processing, allude to avant garde electronic music, Modernist chamber music in the style of Xenakis and Lachenmann, extreme noise and the maximalist spectrum of post-AMM free improv. On “Metal,” piercing untuned aluminium windchimes flail against the rims and membranes of the kit in a chaotic flurry, creating a barrage of stochastic rhythms and accidental harmonies, exploiting the high frequency ranges of metallic sound. “Flesh,” in complete contrast, employs the exclusive use of the body; fingers, hands, fists and elbows strike, coddle and pummel various components of the drumkit, coercing and coaxing more rounded, but equally uncompromising and slightly uncomfortable bottom-end sounds from the instrument.
KEVIN DRUMM / JÉRÔME NOETINGER / ROBERT PIOTROWICZ
Wrestling
(Bocian - BR04) 7-inch $10.00
A devastating electronic maelstrom recorded at Musica Genera Festival in Szczecin, Poland in May 2005. Two slabs of furious, improvised noise by a trio of giants.
Pèl Nord
(Bocian - BC06) 7-inch $10.00
Improvisor, composer, former member of IBA col.lectiu d'improvisació, current collaborator with Alfredo Costa Monteiro in the Cremaster duo, Fages launches full bore into a piercing, whining squall conjured from manipulated AM radios. The monolithic yet prismatic "Pèl" needles its way into the ears before splaying in a layered slab of splintering harshness, while the rounder, more hollow "Nord" cuts a similar, slightly more negotiable path.
More Impossible Futures
(Bocian - BC07) 7-inch $10.00
Building upon A Handful of Automation (Editions Mego 2010), the two shimmering EMS VCS 3 diamonds of More Impossible Futures are succinct electronic statements; one teases a jittering melody out of a flickering environment, while the other is decidedly abyss-bound. Based in Melbourne, Australia, for whom he is building a giant outdoor Theremin, Fox shoots lasers onto clouds (good work if you can get it), and regularly experiments with Anthony Pateras, oscilloscopes, Nyquist Variations and Australian dance companies.
A/P
(Bocian - BR03) 7-inch $10.00
Free-improv that penetrates the acoustic properties of individual percussion instruments. Krakowiak departs from the hi-fi aesthetics of his peers (e.g. Christian Wolfarth, Jon Mueller or Jason Kahn) and goes after the sound of a single cymbal recorded with an old cassette tape; imperfections and the characteristic analog sound (objects, rotation, overtones, layers) are Krakowiak's goal, comparable to Harry Bertoia's sculptures, or the textures of Morphogenesis.
ROBERT PIOTROWICZ / C.M. VON HAUSSWOLF
Robert Piotrowicz / C.M. von Hausswolff
(Bocian - BR02) split LP $25.00
Piotrowicz’s single long track, "Clinamen 3" continues his study of the analog modular synthesizer. The first movement is characterized by a high-frequency tone and an erratic rhythmic bass pulse that slowly build to a wall of symphonic roar. The second movement, a low-end, dark passage, infests the symphonic leads with a sense of evil and menace, the two writhing together in a horror movie haze. The third goes all out, mixing a low end thump with a siren melody lead, dropping subtlety in favor of pure force, before going out like a lamb with a short, simple melodic coda. The first of Von Hausswolff’s quiet, textural studies of sound, "Ritual Shaving of an Ass in Belgium (aka Eating A Piranha Wouldn't Be So Bad The Way Things Are These Days)," is based on loops composed for an installation performance. The textures are light and scratchy, with careful variation on the crunchy textures, with the vaguest insinuation of bass hidden. "Ritual Shaving of an Ass in Poland (aka The Snoring Innocence)," is rawer, static, heavy, and abrasive. With extraneous sounds and audience conversations captured on ragged audio tape, its mangled, worn, decaying nature gives it an historical, hollow quality. Edition of 200.