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brokenhz · 6 years

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SUB ROSA SR190- Various Artists: AN ANTHOLOGY OF NOISE & ELECTRONIC MUSIC #1 first a-chronology 1921-2001 Reviewed format: 2CD digipack + 37 page booklet (still available) Welcome to Broken Hz, a new blog I've started for 2018 on which I'm going to expand on my project to document and review underground, extreme and experimental independent music on physical formats as released through various prolific record labels, the Cobalt Mindwave tapelabel blog is also part of this project and will also be updated later this year. Let's get right into the very first release I'm reviewing for Broken Hz. This is an excellent compilation released on Belgian label SUB ROSA which ever since the 80s released a wildly expansive selection of music in the fields of classic experimental electronic music pioneers, obscure folk music from countries far away, Fluxus works, classic and new music by contemporary composers and also plenty of music in the fields of Noise and related extreme music practices. This 2CD release AN ANTHOLOGY OF NOISE & ELECTRONIC MUSIC #1 first a-chronology 1921-2001, packaged with 37 page booklet features a rather wide-reaching selection of experimental electronic music by a variety of artists and composers and clearly showcases SUB ROSA's radical different approach to documenting classic and unreleased music like this. From the start in the booklet, Guy Marc Hinant points out that this anthology is in no way a traditional academic or chronological collection of electronic music. And after having read the included notes in the booklet as well as having listened to the 2 CDs of this compilation I can tell that this compilation is compiled in a way that instead of telling you as a listener how the history of Noise and Electronic music was in a dry manner, this anthology clearly lays out connections between pieces featured on the 2 CDs that are much more based on their sound, textures than mere historical significance / importance. This first volume is a joy to listen to as, rather like a mix the pieces flow rather naturally in the stream of sometimes Noisy, sometimes more abstract and quiet music that is presented here. Due to the free form and flexible presentation and enjoyable liner notes (that also show the thought process behind this compilation in a really fun way) you can also find connections between the pieces on this collection and electronic music of today. But like the title points out, this anthology is really focused most of all on Noise in the history of electronic music and is not going for the "traditional" expanded modern classical composition that other compilations dive into but gets straight to abstracted, intense and sometimes Harsh music. So this compilation is definitely one for people new to Noise and Industrial music or Noise fans, as most of these pieces have barely anything resemling melodies, instead being focused all on the deeper aspect of concrete and created sound, composed, structured or destroyed. Let's have a look at 18 tracks contained on these two CDs and how they often relate rather well to eachother. 1. kicks of with probably the first ever Noise piece recorded, Corale (1921) by Luigi and Antonio Russolo. It is an obviously already lo-fi piece of futurist art and while the noises the Intonarumori Noise devices make aren't easy to make out, the mixture of the orchestral music and strange rumblings still causes an effect of slight unease to me. Mysterious like an orchestra playing in a storm, the piece introduces the effect much Noise would continue to cause, a feeling of unease, mystery and (as shown later on on this compilation) danger. This is followed by the film without picture Weekend (1930) by Walter Ruttman, a piece that appropriately introduces the concept of sound montage. It's really fun and sounds like an absurd story of a rather wild weekend holiday in Germany. The industrial sounds and speech recordings in very old-fashioned german are rather hilariously edited together. I can imagine the audience who originally "saw" this film must have had quite some fun listening to this as it's very accesible in its light-hearted sense of humour. This piece is followed by the classic Cinq Etudes de Bruits: Etude Violette (1948) by Musique Concrete pioneer Pierre Schaeffer. This is classic musique concrete, a mixture of train sounds and mysterious instrument recordings. It's much more rhythmic than the previous piece and shows a rather more melodic and emotional side of organized sound. This is followed by a totally different kind of music, Scambi (1957) by Henri Pousseur, this piece features a lot of well-known elements from early electronic music, also called tape music, like the many silences in between the sounds, but this piece has a remarkably glitchy sound for its time. It's very abstract, it consists of a lot of glitchy noises, sometimes peaking into tape saturation or flowing into old-school reverb effects. It's one of those pieces that really feels like pure Noise sound worship, but it's definitely dynamic and exciting to listen to as well. The choppy progression and silences do disrupt my attention a bit while listening to it, so in this hyperspeed day and age, it takes more attention to really get into this. This piece is followed by The Dresden Interleaf 13 February 1945 (1965) by Gordon Mumma, again a piece that features a lot of those silences, this one's harsher though, with much more variation in sound texture. It couples well with Scambi though, in that it follows the Noise based composition style. Plenty of harsh Noise in here in some parts but also mysterious drones and a part of the piece builds up into a rather surprising loud climax. I won't spoil too much, have a listen. This piece is followed by Trance #2 (1965) by Angus MacLise, Tony Conrad and John Cale, a droning, hypnotizingly flowing piece that is admittedly more lo-fi in the recording quality than I expected but it doesn't take away from the fact that this is a rather captivating and immersive piece of music by three well-known veterans in Avant-Garde music. It might not be very "electronic" but it's percussion, metallic and almost industrial like, does add a surprisingly slight element of harshness to the generaly relaxing atmosphere. This is followed by a piece that on paper mind sound like a strange follow up track to Trance #2 but it works very well actually. This piece is called Untitled #1 (2000) by Philip Jeck, Otomo Yoshihide and Martin Tétrault, again a droning piece of some sweet turntable music by Philip and Martin coupled with Yoshihide's signature sinewave and Noise abrasion, though in this case much more subtle than I know of him. Based on what I read I think that a lot of the ambience is created by Philip Jeck, while the turntable noise rhythm is Martin Tétrault's work and wow is it a great piece, plenty of dynamics and some amazing bass created by the turntable make this a great introduction piece as well for all of these three artists. The piece is followed by October 24, 1992 Graz, Austria (1992) by Survival Research Laboratories which is essentially a sound recording of a live performance by the legendary industrial performance group. It is the piece on the compilation that's most similar to plain Noise and even more so because of the added distortion / overdrive added to the mix (probably). It definitely sounds like an event that you should've seen actually, but the recording with its bursts of low pure distortion filth and the weird cartoon sounds involved is a nice listen of Noise, definitely satisfying. This piece is followed by Küchen Rezept von Einstürzende Neubauten (1998) by Einstürzende Neubauten, which is pretty much what it says on the tin, sounds of cooking by Einstürzende Neubauten but there's also a mysterious faint guitar-like drone in the background which does make the piece a bit disturbing actually, interesting. 1. ends with Aspekt (1966) by Konrad Boehmer, a very intense piece of some good old-school synth Noise mayhem. The composition is very very dynamic and satisfying to listen to with its endless barrage of rhythmic and glitchy / harsh Noises being fired at you. This is great. 2. starts with Hommage à John Cage (1958-59) by Nam June Paik, a strange sound collage of noises that features a lot of disturbingly mangled voices, I found it a bit more disturbing than enjoyable at first but after listening I think it does have its original qualities to it. It's a grower for me personally. Rozart Mix (1965) by John Cage that follows it is better though, it's one of Cage's Electro-acoustic proto-plunderphonics style piece of clashing sound mayhem. What I like about this piece though is that while at times the piece sounds rather chaotic with its stack of music recordings and speech samples clashing frontally into eachother, it has again some rather funny elements to it, tho again also disturbing. The chopped up baby sounds add a great element of rhythm to the sound but also sound disturbing at the same time. Rozart Mix does have a great sense of texture to it and even with all the weird sound manipulation going on, the cloud of sound is quite relaxing in some strange manner. This piece is followed by Audience (1983) by Sonic Youth. It's admittedly another piece on here that'll take time for me to like really, it's basically a live manipulated (down pitch shifted) recording of the audience after a Sonic Youth concert. It's interesting but does require a less direct more trancelike way of listening, cause honestly not a lot happens in here really. The piece that follows it is better though, it's Poème électronique (1957-58) by Edgar Varèse, a classic piece of electronic music, composed in a tape music style but what makes this so unique is the mysterious element the theremin (?) adds to the mixture, with so many concrete sounds and textures being used, the "melody" gives this piece such a nice sense of cohesion that it really feels like telling a story rather than pure sound enjoyment. What follows then is companion piece Concret PH (1958) by Iannis Xenakis, a nice sweep of sound that feels like tiny little stones falling in a cave, it's like a sonic massage of the ears, very pleasant. Afterwards we have the piece FTP > Bundle / Conduit 23 (2001) by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. It's a kind of plunderphonics / drone ambient hybrid piece that is pretty dark in its ambience but the music sample glitches layered over the ambience add a nice bit of abstraction to the deep flow of music. I like that these piece also has an old school "CD player skipping" sound in the glitches, sounding much more hands on than the clean cut glitches of nowadays. Very deep and original. After that we have a piece that is another favourite of mine on this compilation. A little Noise in the System (Moog System) (1966) by Pauline Oliveros. It's a (in 2001 unreleased) piece of music by Pauline Oliveros that predates a lot of Noise music of nowadays but has that very predicting forward-thinking sound of Oliveros. It is indeed for the most part a lot of modulated white noise that this piece consists of, coupled with Oliveros's signature high frequency manipulation techniques adding often strong intense washes of sound signal to the mix. Yes it gets very intense and harsh at times, ruthlessly blasting an enormous amount of high frequencies in your face but it's very progressive too, not just soundwise but also composition-wise. And the beds of white noise feel rather relaxing after some time, like a blanket of sound to put over your head. This is followed by what might be the most courageous piece to follow this up with, One Minute (1997) by Ryoji Ikeda. Yes, more high frequences, courtesy of Ikeda's now signature pure sine wave glitch rhythm, this track features some bursts of random sound though, and ends appropriately with a test-tone. A great ending of 2. and this excellent compilation. AN ANTHOLOGY OF NOISE & ELECTRONIC MUSIC #1 first a-chronology 1921-2001 is an interesting selection of experimental and Noise music throughout the years that is uncompromising in its selection and offers a rather varied look at all the possibilites and creativity that's been worked on in these 18 pieces. The 37 page booklet in the CD version is a great inspiring read as well as a nice reference to the CDs. It's a great mixture of music to listen to on its own or as introduction to more music by these artists and while not all tracks might be equally strong, there's no bad tracks on here. A recommended compilation for Noise and experimental music fans and people new to Noise and related and its exciting history. 2CD digipack + 37 page booklet version is available through SUB ROSA: https://www.subrosa.net/en/catalogue/anthologies/an-anthology-of-noise---electronic-music-1.html digital version is available on the SUB ROSA Bandcamp: https://subrosalabel.bandcamp.com/album/an-anthology-of-noise-electronic-music-1

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