Various Artists
Void/Full
Antifrost 2019/2020
This is a two-disc concept collection wherein the participants were asked to submit a piece designed to fit into one of two categories: Void or Full. Not too surprisingly, these terms can possess multiple meanings and enable a wide range of approaches. In fact, someone taking a blindfold test and asked to determine which section a given work resided in would likely fail as often as not. However, I presume that merely haven been given this loose constraint, the musicians created their pieces in a slightly different manner than they would otherwise have so there’s some amount of inherent interest that might be lacking in a simple, arbitrarily chosen collection.
The tracks are relatively short (two to eight minutes), twelve on “Void”, thirteen on “Full”. Generally speaking, there’s some very nice work on both, though nothing that’s truly remarkable or (to the extent I’m familiar with the work of the artists involved—some are new to me) very different from other examples of their craft. Ami Yoshida leads off “Void” with a fine, brief piece that appears to be entirely electronic, though it’s quite possible her amazing voice is mixed in somewhere. There are also strong contributions from Antifrost founder Ilios, Roel Meelkop, M. Behrens, Francisco Lopez and Dieb 13. While the tendency on this disc is toward quieter music with more empty space, this isn’t at all adhered to universally; Lopez’ piece, for example, derives from the same roaring engine sound field as much of his recent work (albeit with an odd, pop song radio grab appended). It’s an open question whether a given musician decided to read “void” as more than a physical condition.
Starting the “Full” disc with one of Toshi Nakamura’s “nimb” constructions (#39 if you’re keeping count) is a nicely perverse idea. His static manipulation might strike many listeners as the epitome of emptiness but it’s well within his character to play with such vague notions and cause you to reconsider your premises. The qualitative range on this portion of the project is somewhat greater than on “Void”, the best works (Daniel Menche’s “The Hagakure and Myself” and Sachiko M’s “33”) being outstanding tracks while the weakest (Evol’s “Jiggerypokery” and Maja Ratke’s “Punkhouse Conversation”) tilling a rather shallow furrow in the extreme noise field. But again, the offerings maintain a pretty stable level of interest, including strong work from Nikos Veliotis, Joe Colley, Edwin van der Heide and Eric la Lasa. It concludes with a delightful quasi-lullaby by the team (new to me) of Alejandra and Aeron called “Now I’m Full”, just the sort of surprise that can make an entire set seem rosier in retrospect.
So while there may be nothing of overwhelming import herein, the two discs are solid enough overall to warrant investigation. Fans of this music will likely encounter several voices they’ve not yet heard and may be interested to follow up on (in my case, Edwin van der Heide and Alejandra and Aeron) and the semi-completists among us will enjoy having the tracks by our hometown favorites.
~ Brian Olewnick
Posted by on March 27, 2004 7:02 AMI'm sort of OD'ed on compilations (shouldn't moan, I've just popped up on one myself on an Indonesian label). There are always some good tracks but the sheer multiplicity of different approaches often results in me forgetting them. On the Void / Full the Nakamura and Veliotis pieces are lovely (but if you know Nikos' Confront solo and/or his Malfatti premiere on Bremsstrahlung, and if you're familiar with any of Toshi's work over the past year, you don't exactly need this), and to be honest I'd have to go back and listen to them both again in order to remember what else I enjoyed first time round.
I've always suspected the reasons for wanting to release compilations in the first place, especially in our corner of new music. It seems to be a relatively easy way (I would have thought) for a small label like Antifrost, or whoever, to shift units. Press 500 copies and put a Masami Akita track on there and you can bet your earplugs half of them will be gobbled up by Merzbow completists. Throw Reynols, Volcano The Bear, Climax Golden Twins, Francisco Lopez and everyone else in there and you've got a hit record. (Well, just a thought.)
What's more baffling about Void / Full is how the good people at Antifrost decided what was "void" and who was "full" (Eric La Casa was particularly baffled when he saw where his piece ended up).
The only compilation that has totally blown me away in the past 12 months is the Amaterasu double set on Fractal. What about anyone else?
I generally share Dan's thoughts on compilations (which is probably why I haven't checked out the ones in question here yet), though I don't think it's necessarily so bad that a small label like Antifrost gets some greater exposure by using a compilation of "stars" like this. That Amaterasu comp. is good, though it suffers bigtime from inconsistency -- maybe half the tracks are great (that "House of the Rising Sun" cover is killer), half just OK. I've also enjoyed the Kompakt Total compilations I've heard, which do well because the similarity of styles makes them much more coherent than your average compilation. Likewise for last year's City Rockers Singles comp., and the Schematic label showcase "Well-Suited For General Purpose Audio Work."
Posted by: Ed Howard at March 28, 2004 12:46 PMAs response to previous messages:
Actually Antifrost does not like compilations! And this is the reason why we published "Void/Full" and "Suffer/Enjoy" before that. We believe that compilations must have a concept and should not be a mere gathering of names. But after you come up with the concept (which is the main issue) you get in touch with the artists you want to have in this project and at least in our case, sales is not the idea when looking for the artists. (from the names you mention that sell, there is only Francisco Lopez in the compilation and he has already 4 works released in Antifrost).
Someone was baffled on how we good people in Antifrost decided who is Full and who is Void.
Well, didn't: That was what we asked the artists and they had to decide. 23 out of 25 decided firmly that their tarck would be either listred under Void or under Full. Only 2 could not decide and left it to us (La Casa being one of them) to choose.
In any case this is just to clarify the thoughts presented at the first comment in this page.
It is a pity however to see (not only here) that there is a general tendency for people to judge something without even listening to it, or in any case express thoughts which have nothing to do with the sound itself but with the forms and technical issues.
Since this is the first time I post a comment I would like to congratulate Bagatellen in public for the great site they are building.
afro, thanks.
Posted by: al at April 15, 2004 6:16 PMThanks for the clarification! Trust me to pick the exception in citing Eric above! Welcome to the Bagworld and congratulations on the Antifrost catalogue, which is certainly one of the most dynamic in Europe right now. Someone should write an Antifrost label profile, eh, Al?
Posted by: dan warburton at April 15, 2004 9:52 PMhello
maybe in dan's first comment, i can hear something like 'too many stuff around in general'. i know we are not forced to listen always to the same music, of course, but somehow i feel the cd market is a bit saturated. please do not hesitate to react if i talk total crap or just simple clichés. fact is i want to understand. because myself i run a cdr serie, and i kinda purposly release too many of them... as bit of a joke somehow. and i start quickly thinking maybe i do much less very soon.
hummmm
alexandre
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