Mattin/Axel Doerner
Berlin
absurd/1000 + 1 Tilt
Three new releases that place noise front and center, compelling the listener to recalculate ideas about musical structure and putting him/her in the awkward, not to say futile position of determining some notion of quality therein.
“Berlin”, with Mattin on computer and, as near as I can tell, Doerner sticking entirely to trumpet (though perhaps he uses his laptop as well), begins with several brief, isolated fragments, the computer generating both bits of recorded piano and washes of static that blend in seamlessly with Doerner’s patented breath whooshes. It’s blocky and a little tough to readily grasp as it’s occurring but manages to make “sense” in retrospect; I’m assuming this is the result of post-performance collaging. Throughout the disc, the two musicians play with structure and upend expectations of same, choosing not to arc into predictable crescendi and decrescendi, instead doling out slabs of harsh but oddly poetic sonic imagery. In particular, Doerner’s accents are often precisely the “right” sound at the right time. More, the disc’s three pieces increase in fascination, the final 32-minute track the strongest of the lot, again fragmented with irregularly placed lacunae separating some scrumptious mixes of spittle-trumpet and electronic keening. As unpredictable as the structure is, sometime after hearing the music, either immediately or a little while later, I tend to think, “Yes, that was an excellent move, and that, and that…” It works; tough to quantify why. Incidentally, the disc comes in a printed canvas “sack”, the texture of which fits the music well.
No More Music
at the service of capital
Noseso
NS009
Here, Mattin teams with Argentinean saxophonist and electronicist Lucio Capece in a live recording from April, 2005. The structure here is rather simple, if one not often employed, where the first half of the performance is intense, loud and prickly, the second half abruptly quiet. There’s a brief manifesto of NMM’s (interesting acronym, that…) purpose at Mattin’s site that states in part: “The intensity of NMM performances test the values and the conceptions of [sic] the audience might bring to the concert. This is done by fucking up structurally traditions of the avant-garde such as improvised music, noise, musique concrete…” However attractive that goal, I’m not certain how much of it is achieved here as the over-riding affect for this listener isn’t all that different from any number of quasi-similar recording or performances I’ve encountered over the last several years. That it remains enjoyable enough as noise would seem to imply its failure as a paradigm-shifter or tradition fucker-upper. By the latter minutes of the first section, the duo have concocted a rich, rumbling mix that sounds as though you’re inside a large, propeller-driven engine and when it cuts out, there is something of a sense of loss and disquiet; one’s sweets have been removed. Not as revolutionary as imagined, perhaps, but not a bad listen, either.
Lucio Capece
Space/Time Modulations
Noseso
NS010
Capece’s solo disc intimates none of the specific goals of NMM but the music generally suffers from the same lack of real inspiration in that performance, something which this listener could feel in the noise of the Doerner collaboration. Inspired by Moholy-Nagy in the 1920s, Capece constructs the two title pieces from a blend of mixer feedback and modified reed sources (soprano saxophone and bass clarinet). The first piece, a mere two minutes in length, works perfectly well in its concision. The second, extended to some 44 minutes, fails to maintain interest. As in “Berlin”, part of the structure is organized around chunks of sound and unexpected gaps of silence. Unlike that disc, however, one senses arbitrariness rather than an underlying (if impossible to pinpoint) logic. Perhaps that’s Capece’s point, who knows? But it makes for a trying listen. The final work, “mixer in feedback modified by inside amplified saxophone”, also utilizing taped viola from Julia Eckhardt, is the strongest here, a roaring maelstrom where neither viola nor saxophone is remotely recognizable but which streams along in a solid wave. It’s an “event” involving few real structural choices but works all the better for that.
Posted by Brian Olewnick on September 17, 2006 2:22 PMThe printed canvas sack for "Berlin" appears to be the cover art for the Lou Reed album of the same name. I take it this is the only relation between the two....
Posted by: soulfrieda at September 19, 2006 1:02 PMthis and the fact that absurd & tilt are using lou reed's lyrics to promote the disc..
this one is a party album! (improv style of course)
They'd better watch out for lawsuits - remember what happened to Tribe Called Quest when the former Mrs Reed went into attack mode..
Posted by: Dan Warburton at September 20, 2006 9:41 AMI admit to having an enormous gap in my musical knowledge when it comes to the Velvets and Reed. Nonetheless, I sorta knew there was an album, "Berlin" and thought the cover image looked familiar. I meant to check it out but.....forgot. Not knowing the record in question, I can't say positively that the music bears no relation, but I pretty much doubt it.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at September 20, 2006 9:45 AMcan't confirm about the lyrics 100% as i haven't received the promo text myself. nicolas of absurd told me so but he might have been exaggerating or saying in his way he would love to pull that off. all in all i can say it's one disc he has really enjoyed putting out.
i myself am loving it more on each listen. it's always at the brink of expression, you can feel the calculated gestures of doerner and mattin but at the same time it is pleasantly loose. i'd be interested to know if each track is an uninterupted recording or if there's some stitching-together going on
Posted by: Kostis Kilimis at September 20, 2006 10:52 AMIt's the result of post-production stitching, far as I can tell. The CD liner note comprises the first two verses of the title track from Reed's Berlin, and the cover of the Mattin/Doerner 'samples' the cover art of Reed's album. To what purpose? No idea. But, as Mr Olewnick said of the music, "It works; tough to quantify why."
Posted by: Brian Marley at September 21, 2006 2:21 AMThanks Mr Brian Olewnick for listening and writing about the first work with Mattin and my solo one.
I would like to write a comment about your impressions on the second piece of " Space- Time Modulator " : "one senses arbitrariness rather than an underlying (if impossible to pinpoint) logic. Perhaps that’s Capece’s point, who knows?". As it ' s written in the booklet, two of the voices consist in pre recorded sounds played in random function by two mini discs. In fact it's a work about that ,in contradiction with the other two pieces, where I have complete control of the time in which each gesture is produced. The decision of working with the minidiscs in this way is inspired in Moholy Nagy’s kinetic sculpture, where three sectors of elements move in different velocities, producing random combinations ,with some important amount of arbitrariness.
About your comment “ The piece fails in maintain interest”. Honestly it was not my intention to build interest throught the piece, not even to have moments of inspiration on it. The only interest IN the piece is the random combinations that may happen ( and I feel that DO happen) among diffent kinds of materials. I tried to reproduce the mechanical and unexpresive aspect of Moholy Nagy’s sculpture, mainly to make it clear that the only and exclusive interest is the characteristics of sound and these combinations, and not on me, or even the music. The sounds played by the mini discs appear in a mechanical way, and I tried to put myself in that place, as one of the three sectors of the machine. The length of the piece, and it’s lack of appeal, is a way to say where the interest is on. In a 44 minutes piece, after several minutes of “nothing happening” I expect the listener not to be “catched” by a musical discourse, but to try to put the attention somewhere else: internally (as I said) in it ‘s particular combinations, externally: in the two other pieces, where I worked trying to build a musical discourse with permanent high intensity. The whole album is considered in this sense a piece, working in the specific aspects of time, expression and musical discourse .
I find some arbitrariness in comparing the piece “Space Time Modulator ” with Axel and Mattin’s album, where they play music together. This piece is completelly another kind of work. I would say that my intention is closer to build a 44 minutes sound installation, in the listeners’ home speakers than offering a music piece.
I dare to write this comment having the impression that these aspects, mentioned in the booklet , have been missconsidered. I find these aspects crucial to understand the piece and the whole work, and to appreciate the quality that it might have.
Best regards. Lucio.
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