Books on Tape was recently nominated for an award in the L.A. Weekly in the uncategorizable category. Although it didn’t win (many publications called it a robbery), it stands alone on top of the electronic heap. The brainchild of Books on Tape, Todd Drootin, composed, performed and recorded all the music contained on this disc. Upon first listening, I was absolutely floored by what I heard. Uncategorizable is a complete understatement! Comprised of complete electronics, this disc takes you on an unexplainable ride into everywhere and nowhere all at once. There are so many sounds and noises throughout you have got to wonder how this one guy came up with all this and put it together the way he did. This definitely is not for everyone and is definitely not hardcore by any stretch, but it’s uniqueness is one of the main reasons I like it. Nine Inch Nails and Pavement fans take notice! There is a new electronic project on the block that is above and beyond anything you might have heard, and it’s name is Books on Tape.

Metaxu’s first album [Metaxu, 2001, Plate Lunch] is disappointing, but their second [Rumors of War, 2003, No Type] is a very different affair. The claustrophobic electro-glitch of the 2000 eponymous CD has transformed into a lush set of romantic sample-based constructions. Obviously, the main theme is war. The 12 tracks are titled after key 20th-century historical events of a belligerent nature, from Sarajevo, June 28, 1914 to New York, September 11, 2001. Throughout the album, the music expresses melancholia, mourning and sadness as filtered through the prism of romanticism. Samples of piano and guitar motifs, chants, orchestral music, historical speeches and intimate voices have been assembled to create strongly evocative tracks. Compared to the dryness of the first album, Rumors of War is downright a crowd pleaser. The sound palette is varied and rich. The electronic textures are used as an accompaniment to the sampled instruments, preserving a certain warmth and a “song” structure. One thinks much more of Tibor Szemzö’s emotional evocations of past memories than of any member of the experimental ambient community (the label’s press release is prone to mention Fennesz and Ekkehard Ehlers, but Metaxu’s music is here even easier to absorb). And despite the fact that some followers of Maurizio Martusciello (one half of Metaxu) since his departure from the group Ossatura will be quite surprised by the accessibility of this music, the project is a success. Each piece proposes a historical reading open to interpretation, a precise evocation of the event, and a powerful emotional charge. Highlights include: the quiet fragmented electronics in Hiroshima; the delicate water sounds providing the basis for Falkland; and the Arabic melody heard in the distance at the beginning of New York, a hint to the fact that this event would have as big (if not bigger) an impact on the population of the Middle-East than on Americans — and there is no other way to describe the finale of that piece than to say that it literally collapses on itself. Recommended.

In the notes he supplies to shed light on these two versions of Aparanthesi, Canadian sound alchemist John Oswald enthuses over A, the single pitch used to make the piece, and he talks excitedly of the relevant frequencies measured in Hertz. Yet there’s nothing abstract about this remarkable music. On the contrary it engages with some of the countless potential incarnations of that pitch, from a thunderstorm rumbling across a prairie to Joan Jeanrenaud’s Intensely focused sounding of a cello.

The opening A is a monolithic chord, an Ayers Rock (aka Uluru) of an A. Like that Australian landmark, it then appears to change colour in response to changing light and atmospheric conditions. Oswald’s material undergoes more extensive and fundamental change however. Mass, texture, shape, dynamics alter too as one embodiment morphs into another. A piano tuner at work melts into the weather, a foghorn bellows, rain falls, a mosquito whirrs, sine tones drone, an aviary of birds emerges from a low hum, and miraculously flocks to A. Oswald recalls how, as he morphed the sound of wind instruments, he imagined “the physicality of the instrument transforming, so a conical clarinet would curl into a French horn for instance, and then straighten out into a didgeridoo.”

Aparanthesi could be approached as a philosophical investigation of identity and correspondence, or as a meticulously crafted guide to the intricacies of listening. But those options might be unnecessarily arid. High levels of technical skill and fine judgment are invariably accompanied in Oswald’s music by a clearcut sense of dramatic possibilities, and an awareness of tensions that give form to sonic events and radiate from them to involve his audience in active relationships with evolving structures of sound. Even in a piece that gravitates continually and predictably to a single pitch, strange things happen that spark unexpected images and open up unfamiliar spaces. His generous commentary elucidates but doesn’t even begin to exhaust the fascinating metamorphic drama Oswald has discovered in A.

Åke Parmerud s’est engagé dans la voie des musiques instrumentales et électroacoustiques depuis la fin des années 70. Son travail, reconnu par les professionnels, les critiques et le public est omniprésent dans les arts visuels tels que le multimédia, la vidéo, le cinéma, la danse ou le théâtre. Dans Jeu d’ombres, le musicien suédois nous présente quelques-unes des créations réalisées au cours de ces dernières années, le plus souvent sur commande. Quelles que soient les techniques de création utilisées pou ces différentes pièces, Åke Parmerud est guidé avant tout par le désir d’offrir une musique singulière, inventive et ouvrant des espaces à des introspections futures. Entre souvenance, réécriture et mouvance vers des ailleurs à explorer les pièces s’ouvrent à nous: libre alors à chacun d’y puiser la force et l’élan qui le guideront vers un plaisir d’écoute épuré et originel.

Front is rich, dense, multi-directional, and very challenging. But is it good? Honestly, this reviewer doesn’t know. Even after a handful of listens, its code remains unbroken, its meaning evasive, its structure oblique, its intentions obscure. A collaboration between Max Haiven (Nova Scotia, Canada) and Jon Vaughn (Saskatchewan, Canada), two conceptual electronica artists, Front is a continuous 73-minute collage work indexed in 33 arbitrary tracks. A sound art buffet, it includes harsh electronics, ambient textures, electroacoustic manipulations, sampling, fragments of guitar tunes, advertisements, pop attempts, and who knows what else. An LP skipping maniacally can lead to a lengthy episode of organ chords or a comical keyboard interlude or a fast-paced collage of harsh fragments. You never know what will come up next — but the problem is, at some point during these 73 minutes, you stop caring or trying to guess what could come up next. The flow of the piece is overwhelming. Its chaotic unfolding obviously hides a deeper structure — it is not gratuitous, you can feel it, it has to be following its own logic — but this structure is very well hidden. You don’t come out of Front with the impression of having wasted over an hour of your time, but you do get the feeling that you missed on something. And this impression only becomes stronger with every listen. This reviewer found himself questioning every shift, every turn, and being unable to find a single convincing answer. So if Front doesn’t provide an enjoyable listen, it sure provides a stimulating one.

[…]»Télépathie«reprösentiert einen der spannendsten Aspekte zeitgenössischer Tonkunst, nömlich den der elektronischen Liveimprovisation. Und was Diane Labrosse (Sampler) und A_dontigny (Computer) hier bieten, ist eine der dichtesten und fesselndsten Aufnahmen seit langem. Angesiedelt irgendwo zwischen Ambient, Noise und Glitch, manovrieren die beiden durch einen hochgradig beklemmenden Klangraum, der die perfekte Untermalung für ein Zusammentreffen zwischen Freddy Krueger und Mad Max bieten würde. Aber nur, wenn beide inzwischen promoviert haben.