ubu.com: "Yeh is active both as a solo and collaborative artist, as well as with his primary project, Burning Star Core. As an improviser, Yeh is focused on developing a personal vocabulary using violin, voice, and electronics. As a sound artist/composer, Yeh works with all aspects available surrounding a work, aurally and physically, as elements key to the cumulative experience. He is concerned not only with the sensual aspects of 'sound organization,' but the gestural qualities as well. Yeh has collaborated with a deep and ever-growing list of artists and groups, including Tony Conrad, New Humans with Vito Acconci, Evan Parker, Thurston Moore, etc. Included here are several full-length albums, assorted singles and radio works, featuring solo and collaborative works." Download here
The Wire - January 2006: "Jacob Kirkegaard is not so much a composer as a sound hunter - a man on a quest to capture sonic ineffabilities and bring them to our ears. In the past he has used his collection of probes, accelerometers and contact microphones to record the interior noise of ice crystals and the tiny transformative cries of nuclear fission. On Eldfjall (which translates as 'Fire Mountain') he offers an insight into the restlessness of the Earth's core by documenting the geothermal vibrations of Iceland's volcanic geyser regions. Given that they were made in such a tumultuous landscape, it's no surprise that these recordings are wonderfully and fascinatingly various - an utterly inhuman, but strangely immersive array of hisses, slithers, drones and swirls whose cumulative impact far surpasses that of many human contrivances."
wnyc.org: "They met at a party in Paris, but before long they left the city to live in a cabin in the Finnish wilderness. There they wrote songs, finding a quiet, intense musical style that suits long winter nights huddled at the hearth. Mi (Mira Anita Mathilda Romantschuk) is from Finland, L'au (Laurent Leclere) is French, and one of their common languages is music that takes the listener out of the modern hubub, to a more thoughtful, timeless place." Listen here
wnyc.org: "On this edition of New Sounds, listen to the many musical sides of Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose birthday is today. The Japanese pianist, producer, songwriter, classical composer, actor, and DJ has recorded early music (Danceries), film music (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), “glitch” music with Alva Noto, moody songs with David Sylvian, even moodier orchestral music (Discord), and classic Brazilian tunes with the trio Morelenbaum2Sakamoto. Hear some of all of these, and more." Listen here
the insect & individual blog: "an assortment of kraut, prog, free jazz, avant, diy punk, and uncategorizable recordings highlighted by nurse with wound on the legendary/infamous nww list"
bbc.co.uk: "Minamo are a Japanese quartet who perform using an unusual combination of instruments that includes electric and acoustic guitars, computers, keyboards and electronics. If the term 'electro-acoustic' were not so heavily associated with twentieth century modernist composition, it might be an apt one to apply to the group. The music they produce is, however, rather less intimidating than the likes of Schaeffer or Stockhausen." More
boomkat.com: "The fabulous Jan Jelinek is back with his third solo release on ~scape; 'Kosmischer Pitch'. With a sound that is broadly comparable to his own 'La Nouvelle Pauvrete', Jelinek has made a significant move from the crackling lint of 'Loop Finding Jazz Records' whilst managing to retain that special something which made it so damn irresistible. Opening with ' Universal Band Silhouette', Jelinek's time collaborating with Antipodean jazz-boys Triosk is startlingly clear; as a mealy and much worn sample is incrementally layered upon by live instrumentation and thrumming intent – a sound which can't help but recall the more dark-hearted corners of Ennio Morricone's back catalogue." More
kyo-ichinose.net: "Born in Tokyo on June 26, 1972, Kyo Ichinose graduated with honors in composition from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1995, and continued to study composition on a postgraduate course. He received his M.A. in music in 1997. Kyo Ichinose started producing, playing, and composing a wide range of music including soundtracks for commercial film, and collaborations with architects, interior/graphic designers, and artists. He made and released 2 solo albums, “the machineries of joy” (2002/current) and “Lontano” (2004/cubicmusic). His music that is an amalgam of electronic sound which is elaborated algorithmically and instrumental sound which is processed precision scoring. He is now revered as a cutting-edge creator and mastermind in all cultural industries."
cyclicdefrost.com: "Hailing from Adelaide, a breeding ground for a large proportion of Australia’s top electronic artists, Stefan Panczak has recently released a mini-album, any colour you like, as well as a beautifully packaged one-track business card CD called root drinking in the dark. His music takes sampled acoustic instruments and sequences them with electronic beats, but what sets Inch-time aside is the depth of feeling that’s produced by his tracks. Gamelan instruments and warm double bass combine with beautiful string arrangements to create something very special." More
themilkfactory.co.uk: "Following a series of appearances on labels such as Melodic or Static Caravan, Dublin-based artist Thomas Haugh, who officiates under the Hulk banner, is now releasing Silver Thread Of Ghosts, his debut album, on new Irish imprint Osaka Recordings. The result of over a year’s work, this album follows a growing trend in electronic music that sees musicians assimilating complex electronic structures with classical-inspired soundscapes. Here, Haugh combines found sounds and treated field recordings with live instrumentation, including acoustic guitar and cello, to create a rather haunting series of compositions." More
allmusic.com: "Along with Olaf Dettinger, Ulf Lohmann, and Argentina's Gustavo Lamas, Markus Guentner represents the ambient-leaning end of the Kompakt label spectrum, proof positive that the label offers far more than tech-house; his productions for the Cologne, Germany, imprint are rarely reliant upon beats and overt melodies, often sticking to drifting, oceanic atmospherics and chime-like effects." More
allmusic.com: "Austrian ambient/electronica composer Susanne Brokesch is one of a small-but-growing contingency of female producers releasing innovative experimental music in an unfortunately predominantly male field. Born in Austria and currently residing in Vienna, Brokesch has recorded as Sil, Sil Electronics, and under her own name for such labels as Cheap, Sahko, Tension, and Disko B." More
Every year, Radio Borderline plays selected songs from The WIRE's top 50 records. Those shows are available online as Real Audio streams and will be online for a couple of month. Also available are the Top 50 selections from 2004 and 2003. Link
incursion.org "Clearly breaking new ground, the music on this disc goes beyond ambient, beyond electroacoustic, beyond all things "Cologne", and into new and undiscovered territories. Using field recordings, concrete sounds and a vast array of acoustic instruments (harmonium, accordion, piano, clarinet, saxophone and guitar among others), this innovative duo has created nine completely unique soundworlds of such depth and precision, I cannot give this music enough praise."
brainwashed.com "French-born Cécile Schott has recorded two albums as Colleen. While the first one was primarily sounds reworked through software, her second album is a step backwards in technology, working more with live instrument playing and looping. The show was as fun to watch as it was to soak in the rich layered sounds."
allmusic.com "Biosphere's Geir Jenssen hails from Tromso, Norway, a city 500 miles above the Arctic Circle. A founding member of quasi-new age Norwegian trio Bel Canto, Jenssen recorded a pair of albums with that group for the Belgian Crammed label before departing to record solo, first as Bleep, then as Biosphere. He released a number of Bleep singles through the late '90s on Crammed subsidiary SSR, as well as the full-length The North Pole by Submarine, issued in 1990 and an acknowledged precursor of what became known as ambient techno. Fusing elements of composition derived from environmental experimentalists such as Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, and Walter Carlos with the rhythmic backbone of urban dance styles such as techno and acid house, ambient techno's popularity would grow with the popularity of artists such as the KLF, Irresistible Force, Higher Intelligence Agency; and of course Biosphere." More
raster-noton.de with "insen", alva noto (aka carsten nicolai) and ryuichi sakamoto continue their collaboration which started with "vrioon". The debut album released on raster-noton in 2003 was voted record of the year 2004 in the electronica category by british magazine "the wire". particular interest was shown in nicolai’s creation towards a new synergy of acoustic piano and digital post production that had not witnessed before, in his approach and interpretation of sakamoto’s piano clusters.
the strict splitting of the composition process on this record (piano: sakamoto; production and additional sounds: nicolai) reminds one of the debut album. however, "insen" carries a kind of "transcendental aura" of an early morning meditatory exercise but at the same time avoiding the field of new age philosophy. enriched by new elements, this "high-tech meditation" follows a consistent line." mp3 samples
Isoleé - My Hi-Matic
DJ Koze - don't Feed The Cat
Motiivi:Tunetmaton - 1939
Don Atom feat. Tea Time - Mueve La Cintura
Skream, Midnight Request Line
Tori Alamaze - Don't Cha
Les Visiteurs - Snoop's Acid Drop
Lindstrom - I Feel Space
Paul Kalkbrenner - Tatü-Tata
Matias Aguayo - Drums & Feathers
Hell - Follow You (Dominik Eulberg Remix)
Aswefall - Ride (Der Schmeisser Lovelysplintermix)
Rude 66 - Die Starke Der Vernichtenden Schlage
George Issakidis - Understand What I'M Saying
MANDY vs Booka - Shade Mandarine Girl
ON THE COVER: Rewind 2005: Eyes down for The Wire's annual selection of the year's best music, including the 50 Records of the Year, plus critics' and musicians' reflections on the last 12 month’s of underground music activity
FEATURES: Noah Howard, Invisible Jukebox: Nurse With Wound, Volcano The Bear, Tetuzi Akiyama, Burning Star Core, Dan Wilson, Yannis Kyriakides
REVIEWS:
SOUNDCHECK: Angels Of Light & Akron/Family, Robert Ashley, Aube/MB, Pierre Bastien, Bigg Jus, Blue Collar, Tom Carter & Robert Horton Duo, Gendos Chamzyryn, Echohce, Lawrence English, Gato Libre, Grizzly Bear, David Grubbs, Mats Gustafsson/David Stackenäs, Ben Gwilliam & Lee Patterson, Haco/Diane Labrosse/Martin Tétreault, Hasegawa-Shizuo, Fritz Hauser, Hecq, Kato Hideki, Initial Prayer, Ove Johansson, Nikaidoh Kazumi, K-Space, KTU, Christina Kubisch, Steve Lehman, Al Margolis/If, Bwana, Shawn David McMillen, Mi & L'au, Miminokoto, Minsk, Gordon Mumma, Neptune, Operettamorale, Henri Pousseur & Michel Butor, The Primetime Sublime, Community Orchestra, Steve Reid Ensemble, Terry Riley & Arte Quartett, Sawako +, David Shea, Spunk, Taurpis Tula, John Tilbury, Tortoise & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Various: Choubi Choubi! Folk And, Pop Sounds From Iraq, Stephen Vitiello & David Tronzo, Mark Wastell, Trevor Watts, Wilco, Peter Wright, Michiyo Yagi and more...
PRINT RUN: Xenakis, by Nouritza Matossian; Warp, by Rob Young with Adrian Shaughnessy; and Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics Of Jazz In Britain by George McKay
CROSS PLATFORM: Black Mountain College & Playing John Cage: an exhibition and concert series at Bristol's Arnolfini explore the legacy of the legendary BMC; Sound And The City: Don Watson listens to Brian Eno and David Toop in Beijing. Reviews: Her Noise in London; Relay ~ NYC! in New York; The Nomi Song on DVD. Plus, The Inner Sleeve: Electrelane’s Emma Gaze on Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home; and Go To: Our monthly Net trawl
ON LOCATION: LMC’s Annual Festival of Experimental Music, London, UK; Okeanos, London, UK; Anton Lukoszevieve: The Art Of The Curved Bow, Cambridge, UK; High Zero Festival, Baltimore, USA; Ruff Sqwad, London, UK; On The Outside, Newcastle, UK
PLUS: Epiphanies: The Sprawl's Iris Garrelfs and Douglas Benford on ten years of club running in London; Global Ear: Toronto; Savage Pencil's Trip Or Squeek and more
ONLINE WWW.THEWIRE.CO.UK
LISTEN to selections from our 50 Records of the Year
DOWNLOAD three Noah Howard tracks to accompany Phil Freeman's interview with Noah in this issue.
DOWNLOAD two exclusive tracks by Leicester's dada pranksters Volcano The Bear
LISTEN to the Tokyo Improv guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama
DOWNLOAD two exclusive tracks by Ohio violinist/sound artist C Spenser Yeh aka Burning Star Core
HEAR an unreleased track by Dan Wilson of Meadow House
DOWNLOAD three exclusive tracks from The Sprawl to celebrate the electronic music club's 10th anniversary
TO listen/download click here
ongaku.de: "ISOLÉE is Rajko Mueller, born in Frankfurt/Main. Lived with his family in Algeria at the age of 7 to 12 and went to a French primary school (and on the week-ends to a beach called bomo plage…).Came back to Frankfurt with his family in 1983 and went to school where he made a lot of spelling mistakes...
Around that time his parents bought an organ for Christmas and he tried to do some synth-pop with a school friend. They decided to buy a syntheziser and a drumcomputer…
Rajko was bored by synth-pop and EBM in the end of the eighties and listened more to rock and independent music. Friends made him discover house-music, hip-hop and techno in the early 90ies. He restarted to copy this on his old syntheziser and soon realized the need of more equipment, that luckily his elder brother already bought because he liked electronic music too.
He gave a tape to his friend and DJ Andreas »ND« Baumecker, owner of FREUNDINNEN records, who worked in a record-store where the Playhouse guys used to work, too." More
wikipedia.org: "Jandek is a musician, presumably from Houston, Texas. Since 1978, he has self-released 43 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting a real interview (but see documentary below for a phone interview early in his career) or providing any biographical information.
Jandek plays a very strange and frequently atonal form of folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. Jandek's music is unique, but his lyrics closely mirror the country blues and folk traditions of Eastern Texas.
Barely a handful of people claim to have contacted Jandek, whose steadfastness in anonymity is legendary. Without any conventional attempts at promotion, he releases albums through his own record label Corwood Industries, which is addressed at a Houston post office box. Fans can write to Corwood for a typewritten catalogue and order Jandek’s albums, usually at inexpensive prices. Jandek’s work has been available on vinyl and on compact discs. Many of his albums feature pictures of the same young man (seen above) at various ages; in light of Jandek's live performances it is almost entirely certain that the person featured on the album covers is Jandek himself." More
dustedmagazine.com: "At first glance, inclusion of C. Spencer Yeh’s Burning Star Core might seem to make for an odd inclusion in a feature such as this. After all, BxC isn’t exactly a new project, but rather the culmination of ten-plus years of work in and around rock, improv, and electronic fringes with a small personal library of cassette and CD-R releases to trace a path back to his own origins in sound exploration. But then again, maybe not. Recent years have shown bands from these same outskirts (like NNCK and Jackie-O Motherfucker) gaining increased critical and popular support, inasmuch as possible, and after mining the territory with a series of self-releases (courtesy of his Drone Disco imprint) and praise for his first vinyl long-player on Thin Wrist, now might be just the right time for more widespread notice. To wit, he’s an artist equally comfortable issuing bellowing violin drones, granular electronics, or just remixing the likes of new-school industrial types Cock E.S.P. And live, he’s a strong force to be reckoned with, either by his lonesome or in conjunction with any number of compatriots to add percussive or electronic support to his vision." More
