005Gavin Bryars, Alter Ego, Philip Jeck - The Sinking Of The Titanic (1969-)

Gavin Bryars, Alter Ego, Philip Jeck - The Sinking Of The Titanic (1969-) (Touch, 2007)

This is fantastic. You owe yourself to check it.

Let's get back to the Boomkat review:

Gavin Bryars' 'The Sinking of the Titanic' is, and I say this with confidence, one of the finest pieces of music you could ever wish to own. Written in 1969 it has journeyed through the lands of modern classical, experimental and electronic music netting dedicated followers on its way, and each and every time I hear it I become more convinced of its genius. Bryars wrote the piece to mirror the last moments of the doomed voyage, when the Titanic sunk and famously the band played on. According to survivors the music being played was a rendition of 'Autumn', an Episcopal hymn which forms the basis of Bryars' composition. The notes and phrases from the hymn are worked in and out of the piece, sinking through the waters, effected by time, nostalgia and the cavernous reverberations of the ship itself with each scrape and hiss worked into Bryars' incredible vision. For this special performance of the piece we see Bryars (on double bass) alongside Italian ensemble Alter Ego (not to be confused with the German electronic duo of the same name) and experimental turntablist Philip Jeck, and the result is arguably its most stunning rendition to date. The most noticeable addition is Jeck, whose expertise and unique style seems to fit like the final piece of the puzzle as his crackles and motifs melt into the architecture of the recording as if they had always been there. This additional layer of nostalgia brought forth by these found sounds adds a significant sense of history , forcing the mind back into hazy film footage and decomposed photos, a perfect match for the subject matter. Also of note are Alter Ego, who surprised me with their stunning renditions of Philip Glass recently, and work comparable magic here on Bryars' composition, with their ensemble bringing in the sounds of bottles, tape recorders, laptops and percussion on top of more traditional instruments. The sounds are merged together effortlessly to form a fog of harmony and memory, perfectly melting the themes which Bryars intended his piece to convey in the first place. Really words can't do justice to 'The Sinking of the Titanic', like William Basinski's 'The Disintegration Loops' there is a timelessness, a patience and an ineffable beauty to this music that almost impossible to describe. Unique, flawless and totally essential music.

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004Dreamfish (Mixmaster Morris & Pete Namlook) - Dreamfish 2

Dreamfish (Mixmaster Morris & Pete Namlook) - Dreamfish 2

The follow-up. Not as good, but it's nice to zone out to.

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003Dreamfish (Mixmaster Morris & Pete Namlook) - Dreamfish

Dreamfish (Mixmaster Morris & Pete Namlook) - Dreamfish

A review I found:

In 1993, Pete Namlook and Mixmaster Morris paired up to make Dreamfish, an album that perfectly captures what the Fax +49-69/450464 record label was about at the peak of its output. The opening track, School of Fish, has to be one of my favourite pieces of music of all time, right up there with Bach's Aria and Brian Eno's An Ending (Ascent). In my opinion, this sublime track is about as good as music gets. Like much ambient music, it's composed of a few simple elements that blend together well: it has stepped sequences, plenty of slowly evolving pads, a marimba for rhythm and some filtered noise for effects. Such a technical description doesn't begin to do it justice, however. Emotionally, it's a wonderful, dreamy piece of music that washes over you like the ocean washing over sand. It's simply beautiful.

Charting deeper waters, the second track, Hymn, is a much darker piece. Fueled by short step sequences and swirling pads, it has an ominous, almost scary atmosphere as Terence McKenna talks about patriarchal monotheism. This track compliments the first well, but personally I'd rather have had the chance to explore the happier, more playful side of things more.

The third track, Fishology, is downright weird. The pair of musicians worked out how to coax strange noises like frog calls out of synthesisers, but I have to wonder why. This album is generally seen favourably by most people who have actually heard it, so perhaps I'm missing something, but I didn't think this swirly, bleepy track was worth releasing.

Dreamfish ends with Under Water, which amounts to a bit of noodling on a synth for ages. Again, it doesn't really contribute much to the album. This time, I doubt it's just a matter of personal taste, either: listening to it objectively, this track is embarrassingly simple, featuring a few strange synth noises starting up and spinning back down again. The whole thing's caked in reverb, naturally, and... that's it. It just doesn't feel like much effort was put into this track, as if the duo felt they needed to fill up the remaining space on the CD.

This is a hard album to rate, because I'd recommend it to anybody who likes ambient music for the first track alone. However, the pair of musicians understandably seemed to run out of creative energy after producing this sublime piece of music, leaving arguably most of the album with what amounts to filler.

According to Mark Prendergast in his book The Ambient Century, this album was created in only two days. While impressive, I think it does show. Maybe if Pete Namlook and Mixmaster Morris had spent more time together, they could have created a whole album that fulfils the promise of the first track. That would have really been amazing.

If you can justify to yourself buying an album for just one track, then I urge you to try to hunt down Dreamfish. At least the track in question is over eighteen minutes long. Just don't expect the whole album to live up to its fantastic start.

I'm not sure I completely agree with the review. But hey, what do you do.

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002Various-Biosystems

Here's a rare one. Biosphere remixing a bunch of people.

Various - Biosystems- The Biosphere Remixes (Beatservice Records, 1999) (320)

01. Nicolette - No Government (In The Biosphere)
02. Alanïa - L'eglise (Deuxième Partie) (Biosphere Trekking Mix)
03. Download - Attalal (Remixed By Biosphere)
04. Illumination - Hope To God (Biosphere Remix)
05. Front Line Assembly - Circuitry (Rmx By Biosphere)
06. Motion Control - Digits 3 (Biosphere's Astragalus Remix)
07. Mind Over MIDI - It's Gonna Be Alright (Biosphere's Angulaq Remix)
08. James - She's A Star (Andrea's Biosphere Mix)

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001Biosphere-Cirque

Let's start things out here. So, I've been meaning to do this for awhile. Here goes...

Biosphere - Cirque (Touch 2000) (320)

This is my favorite album of his, even though Substrata is probably better.

Gorgeous ambience.

Here's the obligatory Boomkat review:

'Cirque' was originally released by Touch seven years ago in 2000, and they have finally seen fit to re-issue the record so those of us who missed it first time around can hear what all the fuss was about. Interestingly too, it hasn't dated much at all - of course there are things where you have to think about the context of the time, but Jenssen's expert blend of minimal dub-leaning techno and gorgeous ambience is masterful and hugely enjoyable. This is where he really began to experiment beat structures and the framework of 'dance' music, yet he submerged the rhythmic elements so far beneath his expertly crafted drones and field recordings that it's difficult to place this in the same genre as more dancefloor oriented work. Take the Basic Channel influenced 'When I Leave'; vinyl crackle and dissonant pads float around gloriously before being punctured by a pulsating bassline and then a simple, minimal 4/4 thud to bring the track together perfectly. Elsewhere 'Iberia Eterea' takes a jazzy hi-hat rhythm and pushes it through a haze of lo-fidelity noise and buzzing synthesizer drones giving it the quality of an ancient movie seen through the eyes of David Lynch. It's easy to see on this album where acts such as Deaf Center managed to mine so much inspiration - Geir Jenssen's work has served to influence so much modern electronic music that it is almost crucial to re-visit everything the man has to offer. A gorgeous record - buy.

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