Review - Old Bicycle Records Round-up - Tape Crash #12 / Hexn / Giona Vinti
For those with a more experimental bent to their music tastes, you could do no better than to head over to Old Bicycle Records and their latest trio of releases. Old Bicycle are a Swiss label that specialise in tape based releases that veer towards the experimental/ambient/electronica end of the musical spectrum. The latest 3 releases neatly encapsulate all that's good about the experimental electronica scene.
HEXN - al-khīmiyya
'al-khīmiyya' is a concept album based around alchemy, it purports to take the listener on a journey, a "mystical dance that tells the alchemical vision of the universe". It is a wonderful conconction of loops, echoes, effects and drones that in turn excite and lull the listener. The journey takes in six stops along the way. First stop is some electronic industrial ('Never Again Again Again) that pulses with menace and harsh electronics. 'Still Praying In The Middle Of A Sun' is a moody drone laden exercise in atmospherics, the eastern melody and mysterious chanting providing a counterpoint to the echoey drones. Next stop on the journey is 'Since Everything Was Anything', another drone based number with more hauntological overtones. We reach 'A Sacred Ring Around The Earth' via 'Now Then Black's oscillating feedback and staccato stabs of noise, 'A Sacred...' is a lesson in suspense, the slow, darkly ambient build up worthy of Lustmord. The plaintive wails of a misbegotten soul haunt the track and the crashing percussion add to the dread invoked by the track.....easily the standout number. 'Eye' marks the end of the journey...a cataclysmic finale full of sonic dissonance and discord. This is not always an easy listen, but if you let yourself become enveloped it is an immensely satisfying one.
Stefan Christoff & Post Mortem - Tape Crash #12
Tape Crash #12 sees 2 artists acclaimed in their own fields sharing a release. Stefan Christoff is a Montreal based artist and social activist who, on this release, has produced some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking music these ears have heard. Primarily ambient based, Christoff utilises minimal instrumentation but the results portray a glacial beauty. Tracks like 'fenêtres sonores' are based around a single keyboard and some backmasking effects that lull the listener into a reverie, while the more experimental moments, such as 'organ rhythms under the rain', with its ambience of a rainy day and snippets of looped spoken word bring to mind some of the greats of experimental music i.e. Coil, Nurse With Wound etc but way more peaceful than any of their material. The six tracks that Christoff brings to this release are all, without exception, exemplary and will prove to be the soundtrack to many a relaxing moment around these parts. Post Mortem (aka Dutch artist Jan Kees Helm) brings his own experience and talent to the fray and is by no means a spectator. His contribution, 'Waasland' is an epic foray into found sounds, field recordings and melancholic keys...it's a journey in its own right, an evolving fusion of ambience and experimentation that showcases Helm's long and acclaimed career in ambient noise. This release is a fascinating and immersive collection of tracks that get better and better with each listening.
Giona Vinti - Nox/Lux
I must admit that Giona Vinti was not a name with which I was familiar and so had no idea what to expect. What I heard were two long tracks (entitled, not surprisingly, 'Nox' and 'Lux') that really brought to mind some of the great works of musique concrete. A series of drones overlaid with sonic glitches and swathes of sound, interspersed with the chimes of synthetic bells and random electronic chatter. If ever there was a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, then this is it; what seem to be a series of discordant sounds combine to make a beautiful noise, but not for the fainthearted! It is an ambitious and experimental work that creates its own type of ambience....not the lay back and chill type but one of deep listening and imagination. A glorious racket!
HEXN - al-khīmiyya
'al-khīmiyya' is a concept album based around alchemy, it purports to take the listener on a journey, a "mystical dance that tells the alchemical vision of the universe". It is a wonderful conconction of loops, echoes, effects and drones that in turn excite and lull the listener. The journey takes in six stops along the way. First stop is some electronic industrial ('Never Again Again Again) that pulses with menace and harsh electronics. 'Still Praying In The Middle Of A Sun' is a moody drone laden exercise in atmospherics, the eastern melody and mysterious chanting providing a counterpoint to the echoey drones. Next stop on the journey is 'Since Everything Was Anything', another drone based number with more hauntological overtones. We reach 'A Sacred Ring Around The Earth' via 'Now Then Black's oscillating feedback and staccato stabs of noise, 'A Sacred...' is a lesson in suspense, the slow, darkly ambient build up worthy of Lustmord. The plaintive wails of a misbegotten soul haunt the track and the crashing percussion add to the dread invoked by the track.....easily the standout number. 'Eye' marks the end of the journey...a cataclysmic finale full of sonic dissonance and discord. This is not always an easy listen, but if you let yourself become enveloped it is an immensely satisfying one.
Stefan Christoff & Post Mortem - Tape Crash #12
Tape Crash #12 sees 2 artists acclaimed in their own fields sharing a release. Stefan Christoff is a Montreal based artist and social activist who, on this release, has produced some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking music these ears have heard. Primarily ambient based, Christoff utilises minimal instrumentation but the results portray a glacial beauty. Tracks like 'fenêtres sonores' are based around a single keyboard and some backmasking effects that lull the listener into a reverie, while the more experimental moments, such as 'organ rhythms under the rain', with its ambience of a rainy day and snippets of looped spoken word bring to mind some of the greats of experimental music i.e. Coil, Nurse With Wound etc but way more peaceful than any of their material. The six tracks that Christoff brings to this release are all, without exception, exemplary and will prove to be the soundtrack to many a relaxing moment around these parts. Post Mortem (aka Dutch artist Jan Kees Helm) brings his own experience and talent to the fray and is by no means a spectator. His contribution, 'Waasland' is an epic foray into found sounds, field recordings and melancholic keys...it's a journey in its own right, an evolving fusion of ambience and experimentation that showcases Helm's long and acclaimed career in ambient noise. This release is a fascinating and immersive collection of tracks that get better and better with each listening.
Giona Vinti - Nox/Lux
I must admit that Giona Vinti was not a name with which I was familiar and so had no idea what to expect. What I heard were two long tracks (entitled, not surprisingly, 'Nox' and 'Lux') that really brought to mind some of the great works of musique concrete. A series of drones overlaid with sonic glitches and swathes of sound, interspersed with the chimes of synthetic bells and random electronic chatter. If ever there was a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, then this is it; what seem to be a series of discordant sounds combine to make a beautiful noise, but not for the fainthearted! It is an ambitious and experimental work that creates its own type of ambience....not the lay back and chill type but one of deep listening and imagination. A glorious racket!
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