While I was looking for some more information on Violet, I came across the archived version of the staalplaat mailing list which had several reviews of stuff by violet. But the review is nar to unreadeble, so I "took" it and puted it in a proper form here on my web log. I hope the people behind Staalplaat don't mind.

VIOLET - LET THE SUNSHINE IN (3"CDR by Zeromoon) VIOLET - GREEN (CDR by Zeromoon) ANDREY KIRITCHENCKO INTERPRETS SECOND VIOLIN - VE.COND.SIO.LIN (3" CDR by Zeromoon) RINUS VAN ALEBEEK - KULISSEN ABRISS (3"CDR by Zeromoon) NORMAL MUSIC - BREV (3"CDR by Zeromoon) ZEROMOON SAMPLER (businesscard CDR by Zeromoon)

Here is a whole bunch of 3" CDRs by Zeromoon, the label from V. or Violet as it is called these days. Most of these releases are in very limited editions available, ranging from 23 to 50 copies per release. And it's like a who's who on the Zeromoon, with various cross connections and solo projects.

To start with Violet, the solo project of Jeff Surak (once of -1348- and New Carrollton, currentely of Second Violin and V. or Violet as his solo monniker). For 'Let The Sunshine In' he uses guitar, recordplayer, autoharp and tape. It's a kind of strange interaction going on that defies the categories such as 'improvisation' or 'composition' - maybe it's a combination of both. No doubt the use of a record player delivers the somewhat vague industrial character of some of the music, but it never gets to a point that it's too noisy or too industrial.

The only full length of the new lot on Zeromoon is "Green" by Violet. Captured in a live concert with sine wave, guitar and record player. The three tracks form a highly hypnotic affair of drone music. The first piece with it's pulsating and phasing ending reminded me of Jim O'Rourke circa 'Disengage'. 'Part B' is also rhythmical but with a certain amount of decay in the sound. As far as ambient goes, the final track might be it. One could be fooled for thinking that this is just a laptop work... Great stuff.

Second Violin was an improvisation group featuring Jeff Surak, Zann Hoffman, Adam Bohman and Rinus van Alebeek - I believe the latter two collaborated via the postal system. The busy as ever bee Andrey Kiritchenko remixes, or maybe more appropiate, recycles recordings by Second Violin in his "usual" laptop manner. None of the bands normal work can be easily recognized in here. It beeps and hisses, hums and hisses. Over the course of twenty minutes he works nicely through the material and transforms the pure acoustic material into pure electronic material.

From Second Violin member Rinus van Alebeek a limited release becomes available. He dwells entirely on field recordings for 'Kulissen Abriss'. A girl reading a letter, street sounds that seem recorded with a cheap recorder. Strange atmospheres, static hiss. It's hardly music going on here, but more a ready-made poem. Normal Music is a trio, whom, I think, work by mail. It includes Jeff Surak (of Violet), Raphael Irisarri (of The Musique Concrete Ensemble) and Thomas Ekelund (of Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words). Knowing some of their music, I think the result is quite a surprise. Five tracks of beat oriented music, for which they use surface noise from vinyl and acoustic sounds. These are sampled and put into minimal beat stuff. Not something I haven't heard before (the influences are obvious Pan Sonic, Goem or Pole), but it's done rather nice and certainly adds to the genre. Less minimal Goem, louder then Pole and certainly as danceable as Pan Sonic. This deserves a full length release.

And if nothing of the above means anything to you, then I recommend getting the Zeromoon sampler. A business card CDR with five minutes of music, displaying no less then nine different bands, including the above aswell as Critikal, Second Violin, The Music Concrete Ensemble, V+Sumerki and Pleasure Girls. Address: www.zeromoon.com

Taken from: www.staalplaat.com