Manafonistas

Dies ist Morgen-, Abend- und Nachtmusik. Entspannt, beiläufig, unauffällig. L. Pierres Album „The Island Come True“ lebt von schlichten und schlicht ergreifenden Momenten. Ein murmelnder, in Schleifen sich drehender Kindergesang, eine Opernstimme, die aus grosser Entfernung erklingt und mit einem „groove“ angereichert wird, der dieses feine Album (mit seinen „field recordings“ und Samples) äusserst entdeckungsfreudig ins Fahrwasser von Les Baxters Exotica-Platten aus den 50er und 60er Jahren trudeln lässt, allerdings mit extrem reduzierten Sound und einem damals eher selten zu vermehmenden melancholischen Grundton. Ich bin mir sicher, L. Pierre kennt Les Baxters „The Jewels of the Sea“, Schauerromantik pur, easy listening der kunstvollsten Art und schwebende Klangbilder. Aus Orchestrierungen werden bei L. Pierre Fragmentierungen. Seltsam verloren wirkende Musik erzählt von flüchtigen Erscheinungen, und wartet mit einigen süchtig machenden Melodielinien auf, bei denen letztlich gar nicht wichtig ist, ob Aidan Moffat (aka L. Pierre) sie gefunden oder geschrieben hat.

Over the course of his 15-plus year career, whether with Arab Strap, working alone, or with others, as on ‚Everything’s Getting Older‘, last year’s Scottish Album Of The Year winning collaboration with Bill Wells, Aidan Moffat’s work is always characterised by a certain degree of quality. His solo moniker of L. Pierre allows him to indulge in the more experimental side of his psyche. ‚The Island Come True‘ is his fourth under this name, and is a deeply beguiling work that suggests his best form of creative expression may come in this format.

The record is named after the chapter in Peter Pan where they first discover Neverland, an apposite title for the enchanting fantasy world that Moffat has created. The eleven pieces here are all made up of field recordings, found sounds and samples he has collected. There are no sonic embellishments or additions. The primitive hiss, crackle and drone of old tapes is a constant theme throughout, giving the album a ghostly, otherworldly quality, and listening to it intently in a dark room on a pair of headphones is akin to a transcendent experience – perhaps the reaction that was desired. The nature of the sound collage approach allows listeners to experience the album in a number of different ways; it’s entirely open to their imagination and their ability to float off in to a distinct dream state.

If there is one overt emotion generated by these pieces of music then it is one of sadness. There’s a hugely affecting bleak beauty to the funereal string lament of ‚The Grief That Does Not Speak‘, or the morose classical stylings of ‚Sad Laugh‘ which adds the sound of children playing for a drastic juxtaposition.

As well as being hugely emotionally heart-wrenching at times, ‚The Island…‘ is also steeped in the surreal and slightly disturbing. The ice cream van tune of ‚Now Listen!‘ and ‚Dumbum“s crackly voice humming an obscure tune are slight but important pieces in conveying the general atmosphere and tone of the collection. The one constant throughout is the beauty of the sounds and the carefully crafted way in which Moffat has constructed them in to a lucid and coherent album. ‚Harmonic Avenger‘, with its balletic and graceful piano figure and ‚KAB1340‘, full of birdsong and the sound of nature and the elements are both hugely compelling pieces of music. ‚The Island Come True‘ has a real innate beauty that makes it an utterly bewitching listen. (Martyn Young)

nonine recordings proudly announces their upcoming album

non039 – mycroft. quincunx (cinematic, eclectic, experimental)

to be released on february 18.
 
 

sherlock holmes is one of the most fascinating fictional characters ever. published by sir arthur conan doyle between 1887 and 1914, his adventures and skills have since created a plethora of interpretations. wether it’s holmes’ ability to draw major conclusions from the smallest observations, or the thrilling decadence of the late 19th century bathed in an omnipresent, mysterious fog, doyle’s stories offer a fruitful ground for free creative interpretations.

next to holmes, his friend and biographer dr. john watson, and holmes’ obscure relation to irene adler, the stories cover a huge range of personal and interpersonal topics.
however, the two most captivating personages seem to be holmes’ brother mycroft and his archenemy professor moriarty, a.k.a the evil lord. this is where the latest nonine recordings release ‘mycroft. quincunx’ comes into play. the album is a sonic fiction dedicated to a literate one.

in command of deductive powers exceeding even those of his younger brother, mycroft holmes is nevertheless incapable of performing regular detective duty. instead he works for the british govermment, serving as a sort of human computer. ‘the conclusions of every department are passed to him, and he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse that makes out the balance’.

mycroft investigates in the hidden reasons behind john moriarty’s treatise ‘upon the binomial theorem’ that won the man the mathematical chair of a smaller university, and made him professor. soon he discovers cryptic links to the work of sir thomas browne, hermetic author and writer of ‘the garden of cyrus’, a neo-pythgorean vision of the interconnection of art, nature and the universe. the idiosyncatic work contains a vertiginous procession of visual imagery and objects, reinforcing constantly how god geometrizes via the symbols of the number five and quincunx patterns.

searching deeper in this subject, mycroft discovers philosophical and religious articulations leading him to another hermetic mathematician and analyst of occult studies, sir isaac newton, and his law of gravity. mycroft soon finds out that if professor moriarty would question these essential laws by proving their hermetic false background in the quincunx …

a society based on these laws had to fall apart …

sit back, relax, and listen to the musical score of this outrageous fiction.
mycroft holmes’ first own novel on the stunning mystery of the quincunx will hold your breath.

practicing both as artists and critical writers, italian experimental musician andrea ferraris and nonine head me raabenstein are the ones behind the mycroft project.
enjoy the plot they created and their melody !!!

watch the related video on vimeo and you’ll know …
 
mycroft. pyramids of tin
 

Das Jahr fängt gut an: früh im Januar schon lässt ein Akt des Labels ACT das Herz eines entdeckerfreudigen Jazzfreunds höher schlagen. Die Musik des Rudresh Mahanthappa hatte man seit längerem im Blick und Arbeiten wie Raw Materials (im Duo mit Pianist Vijay Iyer), Apex oder Samdhi enthielten gewiss hörenswerte Momente. Jetzt aber ist mit Gamak eine neue Dimension erreicht. Schon immer interessant waren diese Quartettkonstellationen im Jazz mit Schlagzeug, Bass, Saxofon und Gitarre … Wenn man nun Gamak hört, denkt man: „Auch gut, dass nicht Alles von ECM ist!“ Denn neben der Haltung innerer Einkehr gibt es auch jene kinetische Kraft hemmungsloser Verausgabung. Hinzu kommt das Kalkül weiter Spannungsbögen und es kann Musik entstehen wie die von Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer und dem artverwandten Berne auf seinem Label Screwgun. Was nämlich Gamak auszeichnet, ist diese intelligente, virtuose und zitatfreudige Mixtur verschiedener Stile. Die Gesetzmässigkeit indischer Musik ist allen Beteiligten wohl vertraut – und dies nicht im Sinne romantisierender Sitarklänge. Der sensationelle David Fiuczynski spielt eine doppelhalsige Gitarre mit bundfreien Griffbrett. Damit lassen sich Mikrotöne zu erzeugen: Tonabstände, die kleiner sind als Halbtöne. Diese Reibung aus Tonalität und einer Mikrotonalität, die das westlich geschulte Ohr zunächst als fremd („Katzenmusik“) wahrnimmt, bestimmt den aussergewöhnlichen Charakter dieses Albums mit. Die Songs sind abwechslungsreich gestaltet – mit lyrischen Momenten und harten Metal-Riffs. „Waiting Is Forbidden“, „Are There Clouds In India?“, „Ballad For Troubled Times“ heißen die Titel – und als krönender Abschluss „Her Majesty The Blues“.

„The Waves“ is the strongest track on here and a strong early contender for song of the year. Its changes in mood are so dramatic and yet so natural they envelope you, crash around you and throw you into a sea of glorious tumult that suggests the title was chosen on the song´s aesthetic alone, but moreover it is emblematic of the album as a whole. The shifts from a „Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box“ percussion and acoustic guitar to glorious swelling to droning-guitar-and-electronic-beeps stormier waters should jar, they shouldn´t work, and yet it´s no exaggeration to say that it´s perfect. (Dan Lucas, Drowned-in-Sound)

 
„The Waves“
 

Gestern im Briefkasten: ein sauber adressierter Umschlag an die Manafonistas, eine CD enthaltend. Fühle mich angesprochen und stellvertretend für die anderen Fünf lege ich die frische Musik sogleich in den Player, nicht ohne vorher zu recherchieren, wer der Dirk Serries sei. Nie gehört den Namen, war auch bekannt als Vidna Obmana, das man natürlich erstmal als Vidma Obama las. Arbeitete mit Steve Roach zusammen und vielen anderen … Neues aus der Ambient-Flut? Siehe da: es funktioniert! Eine monochrome Mikro-Monotonie, die sich öffnet, sich vertieft; die entspannt – jenseits aller esoterischen Techniken. (J.S.)

„There’s A Light In Vein„

from: Dirk Serries – Microphonics XXI-XXV (realease date: March 16, 2013)

www.microphonics.be