latest audio:
-a question of re-entry #7 jeff gburek - virtuous circles
what's up:
well... to be honest the last 2-3 months have been busy enough, weird enough as well... as life is as usual full of surprises....
absurd has (thanks to magnus schaefer, jos smolders & earlabs) an interview online @
http://www.earlabs.org/text/label.asp?labelID=16
had a great time & fun doing it & is kinda a joint effort w/ magnus scaefer... i provided the raw material which was later mixed and served as a game of silence out of which various sounds are born... starting it from scratch while spending some trully intense moments travelling during daytime and working till late at night then in my home in phokis (www.kaloskopi.gr - the village where my home / absurd central lies) is an ascend/descend to a manipulated field recordings/noisy (or not) intense electroacoustics or seen from another view a trip through bizarre & spontaneous free musics soundscapes. well visit, download and decide whether it was an intense collaboration (as i see it) or not...
regarding other news... just out is the jeff gburek cdr 'virtuous circles', a kinda field recordings set using subtle improvised electronics to create his documentation or better say his own view/approach to the cultural pastiche (allow me to use this term) of our times... blasting it as an idea from the area he lives, kreuzberg, berlin and expand it. starting point his remarkable set in small music theatre, in athens a couple of years ago (seeing greece also as the point where east meets west) and goes further to it...
in the pipeline are the long delayed matthew sansom/rhodri davis cdr (mid november) and jacob smigel cdr. plus the extremely delayed cd of werner durand. guess these 2 will be out around mid december / early january 08.
details to follow. also don't miss the sonic catering band / bohman brothers split/collab. cdr. i know it was meant to be a joint lathe-cut 10" w/ gold soundz back in 2004. shelved for long as both sindre and i had been busy enough but finally here comes a tiny handmade maxi-cdr version of it. still lovely!
plus keep an eye for more surprises that might follow in mid/late november. and also in the 'toys in the room' cdr that is due for release on editions_zero sometime in november/december. one of the most bizarre and totally 'out' lo-fi recordings from my friend dimitris in amphissa (where also the editions_zero central lies in the province of phokis) and friends. a recording not only to bring in mind some of the most intense & insane moments of last summer spent mostly on motherland (www.fokida.gr) but also a slight idea of meetings in dimitris's loft or further sporadic collective meetings in phokis or other places around greece.
love & noise
nicolas
now out:- absurd #57/gold soundz #50 the bohman brothers/the sonic catering band cdr
- absurd #67/entr'acte #47 haptic - correction 7"
destructive sound events:
photos from the ILIOS curated two-day event in athens (13 & 14/10), hidden like a trojan horse in the belly of the first athens biennial (nice exhibition by the way). thanks to ILIOS for not falling back in his comfy chair & re-shaping the boundaries once more.michael gendreau, shaking the house:
dave phillips:
full line-up included costes, antimatter & karkowski, scott aford, v/vm & family battle snake on the decks. sadly i didn't have my camera with me on the first day, plus not all of my pics came out good.
notes from the old man on the mountain:
guess is long since i dropped a line.. lotsa happening the last year here. time for a quick update on news while listening to the tasos stamou CD on editions_zero that sets the office on fire! plus dropping violent onsen geisha & early masonna tunes in between...
most vital is a weekly column in the greek e-zine 'tranzistor' (www.tranzistor.gr) under the name 'multiple personality disorder' writing 'bout new & old releases occasionally as part of a diary documenting our daily life here. tranzistor has turned one of the most beautiful things i've been involved in athens since the days of 'genital grinder' zine or the short lived period of the 'genital necrosis' zine (genital grinder + meganecrosy - the zine 'rotting christ' & 'varathron' were doing back then)!!! great time w/ great pals!!!
plus the frequent releases insanity... the collective thing w/ editions_zero also takes lots of time turning it more to the 'outsider' moniker we were dreaming of...
lotsa forthcomings as well such as...
- absurd #66 tetuzi akiyama / michel henritzi : destruct guitar cdr
(limited to 66 copies. a stellar live recording at alchemy music store, osaka back in march 07)
- absurd #67 haptic 7"
(if you fancied the mouths/haptic 12" on entr'acte, then here's the chance to get more drone dopes of serious and devastating electroacoustics!!!! in conjuction w/ entr'acte!!!!! www.entracte.co.uk )
- absurd #62 imca cd
(at last the reissue of one of my beloved LPs on korm plastics.. includes the LP which was an electroacoustic/concrete collab between ios smolders, frans de waard and das synthetische mischgwebe and was issued in early 90's in a print run of 77 copies and then vanished into obscurity plus bonus pieces of the imca tape including collabs w/ john hudak. reissue artwork by mr. meeuw! www.meeuw.net) couldn't be a better gift for frans's & mine birthday in august!!!
- editions_zero #14 jacob smigel "band nerd love" cdr
as title suggests...found sound tape of a totally in love pal recording audioletters to his love. intended or not to be 'posted' includes some trully stellar moments!!! one of jacob's favest as well!!! (www.jacobsmigel.com) w/ arrtwork by marina & tasos of dynasty zine (www.myspace.com/dynastyzine)
- a question of re_entry #6 sansomdavies cdr
long delayed but super duper drones from the duo of matthew sansom and rhodri davies!!!! artwork by marina & tasos of dynasty zine (www.myspace.com/dynastyzine)
- a question of re_entry #7 jeff gburek : virtuous circles cdr
a lo-fi live set of lovely field recordings and processed electronics.(guess its babis of the 'sunshine lsd' label that i have to thank him for that. he has a 7 minutes of nausea 7" coming out this month as well...)
seems it'll be a busy summer... autumn & on the saga continues.... blasting it w/ a stellar, werner durand cd!!!!
nicolas
new discs:
absurd#red_dot - (ad)vance(d) cdr.
one of those cryptic offerings again, don't know much 'bout it myself
except that it writes inside it was made by mr. Mars F. Wellink
and there are some field recordings involved amongst other things.
it's yummy though.
panagiotis spoulos : loops flew over the cuckoo's nest cdr
solo offering from reverse mouth member & phase label boss panagiotis spoulos.
less in your face and more 'in your mind' this time
tasos stamou - infant
the new sensation of the greek music scene is here!
we couldn't have him share a word with his fans at this moment,
but there's signed postcards for all of you who shout hard enough
until then you will have the cd to keep you company
dead traveller : outside my window vol.1
field recordings, tapes & manipulation.
basic ingredients for this aural journeyand here's a review from vital weekly on the last three releases mentioned above:
All of these three new releases on Editions_zero, the name currently used by Absurd are from people from Greece. It's my first encounter with somebody named Tasos Stamou, who delivers eight pieces on his CD (as Absurd still puts these out too). Packed in a piece of hard cloth, this is a strange release. Five tracks appear to be recorded live and three are studio pieces. Stamou plays a variety of instruments, guitars, melodica and electronics and perhaps some toy instruments - titles as 'Toys Coming', 'Toy-waltz' and 'Toy-rock' certainly hint in that direction. The music can best be compared with that of Klimperei, even when Stamou plays it all a bit more dark and edgier. It's all quite sparse material, and it's all highly obscure. What he does and why he does things this way. The material is played in a playful, almost childlike manner, hence, perhaps the title. Certainly the strangest release of this week, and easily an outsider of any kind.
Whoever the Dead Traveller is, I also don't know, but a traveller travels, so much is clear. The four pieces on his CDR are field recordings - unprocessed. The title tells us no tale: outside my window I hear this sound. Which can be machine like drones in 'The Drone', the town square in 'The March' and children and birds in the park in 'The park'. Nice as straight forward recordings but it could have used some editing. 'Under The Bridge', the fourth track of this lot incorporates the far away playing of PS Stamps Back, which add an interesting musical texture to the recording and shows something of interest can be done using field recordings in a strange way.
Panagiotis Spoulos is best known for his own releases on his own Phaseweb label, here however guesting on Editons_zero. Spoulos is a man who likes a bit of noise, playing his guitar and feeding the sounds through his bunch of feedbacks, waiting for feedback to occur. The loops mentioned in the title are not really a present feature on this release. The noise element here is however kept to a minimum. It's there, one feels it lurking around the corner, this is all a bit held back and more creepy noise release, save for the last two pieces which are more noisy and break with the previous six pieces. But throughout I thought this was a most enjoyable release, perhaps even the best I heard from this guy so far. (FdW)
live roundup:
pascal battus & christophe cardoen put on two blazing shows in thessaloniki & xanthi in the middle of june amidst total darkness and audio-visual overload. well, not exactly overload, as i wouldn't necessarily describe their work in such an oppresive manner, but i can happily say that quite a few people walked out from the thessaloniki show with their notions on these performances positively challenged.
the armoury enlisted by christophe was selected lights, control devices & an on-the-spot construction to help diffuse the lights in the space, while pascal had with him a wide range of objects (from coffee mixer, to ebows, to shards of metal) that he used to excite two isolated guitar pick-ups. and while during the soundcheck i enjoyed seeing them work parallel with each other -subtle modifications in the lights from christophe, long stretches of aural explorations from pascal where he would stumble upon a rich source of musical sounds coming from his objects, staying with them until depletion- it was during the concert itself that they concentrated on bringing all the elements together. taking into full account the enviroment and the people gathered they worked less on their own contribution and more on responding with joint, fully improvised, actions. and at some point, after some initial long stretches of silences combined with darkness punctuated by measured sounds & flicker, they exploded into our eyes surpassing all expectations of what an improvising duo like this could achieve.as for xanthi, nicolas informed me that they rocked. and as for my small set opening the show at thessaloniki, all i can say is i sucked; big time. but oh well, this is supposedly the stuff that only makes us stronger.
hats off to the wonderful people at horos theatre company who hosted the show in thessaloniki. the encounter with them was fruitful & of course the show couldn't have been set up without their help.
a view from the window
some of pascal's tools
show inside
live news:
-pascal battus (sound) & christophe cardoen (lights)
-kostis kilymis (mixer)
thursday june 14, 21:00
thessaloniki, olympou 18, 5th floor-pascal battus (sound) & christophe cardoen (lights)
friday june 15,
xanthi folk museumpascal battus & christophe cardoen will be doing a tiny tour of northern greece, playing in usual and unusual places. show your support if you're around, these are bound to be some great shows. pascal will be playing in bulgaria previous to that and, after the shows in greece, they'll be hitting istanbul to play at the improvisation festival there (istanbul improvisation days).
berlin reeds special:
(who cares if it was in fashion last year and not this one, trust us to do things our way)out now, on a question of re_entry, is lucio capece's solo dvdr "bb"
the dvdr contains two performances for solo saxophone and assorted utilities, filmed in berlin & buenos aires. for those who have grown weary of audio & visuals releases, fear not! these are videos of a man doing his work, nothing to distract you from your listening habits (you'll be missing the point of course but what more could we do..).
i should pause here and mention two or three other discs lucio has been involved in lately. first of all there is his duo disc with toshimaru nakamura - IJ on formed, this is not out yet but should be pretty soon according to reliable sources. what is out and circulating on the net though is reviews, ranging from great to ecstatic, from some duo dates these two have been playing during the past weeks. needless to say this is a document that's been generating some expectation. out on azul discographica is the trio of lucio capece/robin hayward/axel dörner - "Kammerlärm". and last but not least, on l'innomable, there is the duo record of lucio capece & axel dörner. i am writing all this info on lucio's projects just to get to this last one, the disc on l'innomable, which you should be by now getting up your lazy asses and buying, it's that good. don't say i didn't warn you.back to our own release, you should be getting that too. it's a smaller, more intimate project, but one that has secrets to reveal too.
also, on the cover you can find a painting by this site's resident artist, gregoria vryttia [shameless publicity].
-kostis
and now for our antoine chessex special:
gotta admit that the first time i saw antoine last year in stralau i was amazed from his set! exactly what i wanted... pure sax mayhem via electronics and cheap effects spewn from a shitty marshall amp! thank god i was lucky enough to do a cdr of his work via editions_zero a few weeks ago and while listening to his stuff and recent cdr stuff, etc. i did this mini interview in order to incorporate it in my weekly column for the greek webzine 'tranzistor' (www.tranzistor.gr - absurd's column's called 'multiple personality disorder' and its nearly 17 columns can be found in the 'features' link) but thought it shitty not to include it on absurd's site as well.. so here it is... enjoy, visit his sites, download and play loud his ultra shrieking doom sax sounds!!!!
nicolas
- how did you come w/ the idea of transforming your sax sounds and how did it strike the 'doom sax' sound thing?
Well, first i should mention the influences of different saxophone players who use their instruments with amps before me. Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich from Borbetomagus, pioneers in the abstract and noisy saxophone approach, Kevin Martin from "God" who eventually played his tenor through a marshall stack and also Dror Feiler, great saxophone "destructionist". Those musicians being very important as they managed to propose something original, very energetic and different than the acoustic jazz or freejazz approaches on the saxophone. They definitely had an impact on me. Personnally, being fascinated by the heavy distorded guitar sounds in metal, hardcore and rock music, i sometimes try to have in mind such textures while blowing through the sax, creating heavy drones with circular breathing and some effect pedals...the marshall stack does the rest!!! Other techniques i use are pure feedback and some brutal screamings through the instrument. I also try to make it as physical and intense as possible, live on stage.
- could you please give me some infos in brief around your activities? (antoine, feel free to talk for influences as well, etc)
These days i spend quite a lot of time developing, recording, performing and touring with my solo stuffs... The electric "doom sax" of course, but I also work on an acoustic version where i try to play with the "sonic geometry" of the room im performing in, using mostly low-end drones, multiphonics and circular breathing while moving through the space. A huge influence for that type of work being Tony Conrad who really blew me away when i saw him live a year ago or so and whose music has been an inspiration since then...The works of saxophonists Thomas Ankersmit and Alessandro Bossetti are also very inspiring, allthough quite different. Besides the solo, im working in different contexts involving many forms of sonic experiments (noise electronics, drones, doom-metal, actionism, improv or collaborations with other medias.) Speaking about influences is always tricky as i think mostly everything influences me whether i want it or not...So many great musicians and great musics to discover and enjoy all the time...This is endless...I enjoy as much Morton Feldman as Corrupted, Henri Chopin, Earth, early Celtic Frost, Penderecki, Swans, Thelonius Monk, Phil Minton, Evil Moisture, Luc Ferrari, Masonna, Fear of God, Haitian music, Ornette Coleman, Neurosis, Hermann Nitsch, Skullflower or Keiji Haino, to name but a few. There are sounds everywhere, and they are all interesting if you take the time to listen to them, from the crispy noise of some feet on the snow, to the reactor of a plane starting or all the amazing sounds produced by the animal diversity (birds, frogs, insects,etc...).
- living in berlin gives you the opportunity not only to work solely yourself but also collaborate w/ a host of like minded pals who live in the city. fancy collaborating live or in the studio w/ others or prefer the solo stuff?
Berlin is for sure a very good place to meet open minded artists. It seems that more and more artists from all over the world are moving to Berlin, ´cause you can survive there with very little money (in comparison to other big cities in europe) while having a stimulating and varied cultural environment. Im definitely into all sorts of collaborations. Playing solo is highly interesting indeed but i do love playing with different people as well...Alone on a stage, you only rely on your own energy, while in a duo or a group situation you can really trigger the other performers (and of course being triggered as well). There is something powerfull in having many people playing/reacting together. Sometimes spontaneous actions with people you never worked with can turn out really good as well (sometimes really bad too). It reminds me as i was touring recently, i did a quick stop in Antwerpen for a radio session with Dennis Tyfus. I was a little afraid making music with him, being really into his work as a performer and visual artist and not being sure of what we would be doing whatsoever... We did an acoustic duo sax/vocal in the radio studio...it seemed very natural to play together allthough it was the first time. The result was totally absurd and funny : at some point the music was so deviantly funny (especially Tyfus´spoken words madness) that we weren´t able to play, just laughing like little kids while having a good time, improvising.
- if am not mistaken your are involved in monno as well. could you pls give me some infos around this group?
MoNNo is a very important project for me as it exists since many years and very close friends are involved in it. It is a four piece, featuring sound artist Gilles Aubry on laptop, electronic devices and vocals, Derek Shirley on bass, Marc Fantini on drums and me doing some low-end riffing with the sax. Over the years, the music changed quite a lot...From the free-rock with electronic textures of the beginning to a more doomy noise/metal direction of the last cd/lp, "Error". We have been lucky enough to meet the great folks at Conspiracy records a couple of years ago. They liked our music and released our debut album. Since then, they have been helping a lot in developing the project and gave us the possibility to tour with bands like Lightning Bolt, Isis and Jesu. We are currently working on some new materials...Hard to tell which direction monno gonna takes now...I like that, it takes time to develop and grow, and you never know where it is going to go....
- i've seen in your blog your postings of various alchemist pictures, art brut figures, etc... interested in this piece of art as well?
Yeah, all of these are very inspiring...I feel like there´s an obvious connection between the likes of Pierro Della Francesca, Bruegel, Borges, the alchemists, Antonin Artaud, Gilles Deleuze, Jodorowsky, Guy Debord, Sun Ra, Tarkovsky and the millions of other interesting human beings very famous or totally unknown...It is fascinating to search for sources of inspiration by discovering the works and experiences of other people, whether they are musicians, writers, painters, scientists, poets, grocers, bakers, mechanics, etc ... Speaking of ART BRUT: In Lausanne, Switzerland, there is this amazing museum: www.artbrut.ch Jean Dubuffet gave them his whole collection. If you have the chance to go there, i really would recommend you to check it out. There is so many amazing works in there...The Art Brut authors (some were mentally ill) weren´t always aware that they were doing art and therefore didn´t play the art games like fighting to find exihibitions, looking for success, money or stuff like that. That aspect brought to most of the Art Brut movement something really intense, honnest, pure and direct.
http://www.antoinechessex.blogspot.com
http://www.antoinechessex.tk
hello again folks, just added a few more discs in our little noise-dom. stuff is coming out from every angle once again and soon i'll have news of more long-promised releases (our first dip in the dvd medium), and maybe one that was never planned in the first place. wait for a may update on these together with definite plans for the concerts that will mark the end of the season (and will set the north of greece on fire maybe?). coming up...
now, check these out
there are some special releases in absurd's catalog and this is one of them, but like all the rest you can only scratch your head and wonder. it arrived one morning surrounded in secrecy and i chose to photograph all the inserts to shed as much light as possible. beautiful inlay cards, the music contained is by the xenis emputae travelling band and ashtray navigations. from what i gather, this is not intented for sale.next up a solo cd by kiwako kaneda: cake of sea, jointly released by absurd & eclipsis to celebrate little orion's birthday.
last but not least, the noise sax & electonics of antoine chessex in lost in destruction. i'm very much excited about this myself since antoine is the man who can really tear the house down (or build it up, depends on your point of view). have yet to give it a proper listen but all the previous recordings that came my way left me thirsty for more of his sonic assault. housed in a special package honouring the civil service that guides the lives of music lovers around the globe.
dig in and listen.
kostis
-------------------------------
live bulletin board:
AUX
REVERSE MOUTH
LIVE
SATURDAY 31 MARCH at 13:30 NOON! FREE!
A STRANGE ATTRACTOR
SOLOMOU 14
ATHENS
ok.. the francisco lópez / ilios tour came and went. i caught the two solo sets in thessaloniki (sadly no duo set there). that date was sandwiched between the multiple efforts in athens and the field trip to xanthi. there are rumours that this tour is to receive an extensive review treatment elsewhere but if any of you kind souls out there has taken a decent picture from these shows & would like to share it, please send it my way so i can post something up here. the pictures i took couldn't have been any more black (none more black that is..).
also, i've been silently updating this page with new releases as they come and will continue this practice so keep your eyes open. those who feel attached to nicolas' absurdities might want to check out the fine site at http://www.tranzistor.gr (provided your greek is up to it) as he has been channeling some of his efforts in record-review-bloging there. siltblog and others might be paving the way but it is nicolas' various personalities that are educating the young and thirsty for knowledge.
lest i forget, the main reason why i'm here. long-rumored, three years in the making (or strategically delayed, take your pick), now available, the double impact of an emil beaulieau / jason lescaleet split 7". available in a good mailorder near you.
flashy ain't it? my copy, get yours..
another one out, on editions_zero this time: earzumba - "Real Ruido Pastizo" ,
whatever that means. earzumba beign the project of Christian Dergarabedian, this sampladelic trip comes straight from barcelona
welcome to the first edition for old '07. this one's a little late coming (the nmm cd has been out for ages) so appologies for those who have been waiting patiently. nevertheless, here's the word on the absurd side of things.
first, bear with me a bit while i tell you about concerts we have put a hand at organising. valerio tricoli swept thru northern greece in november (more on that if you scroll a bit down to the main absurdities section) in what was deemed by everyone as a few great days of music and travelling. but, coming in late january we have the mini-tour of francisco lópez and ilios presenting their new antifrost cd ΗΣΥΧΑΣΤΗΡΙΟΝ (HYSECHASTERION). here's the schedule:
24 & 25/1/06
francisco lópez / ilios @ small music theatre, athens26/1/06
francisco lópez / ilios @ zenit, thessaloniki27/1/06
francisco lópez / ilios @ folk museum, xanthi
out now:
absurd #65
mecha/orga : 56.24cd
editions_zero #12
loukia katsimeri - sohoscdr
absurd #64
sudden infant / bill kouligas - splitcdr
absurd #63
no more music - universal prostitutioncd
co-produced with iDEAL & 8mm
a question of re_entry #3
michael j. schumacher / stephen vitiello - untitled/exchangecdr
a question of re_entry #4
roel meelkop - numbered fourcdr
out soon:
on absurd
#33 emil beaulieau/jason lescalleet split 7"
#65 mecha/orga : 56.24 CDon editions_zero
#11 panagiotis spoulos : loops flying over the cuckoo's nest cdron a question of re_entry
#5 lucio capece : bb dvdr
religion 1 / valerio tricoli & tasos stamou live in thessaloniki 8/11/06, valerio tricoli live in xanthi & iasmos 10 & 11/11/06
it's thursday evening 6:30 pm and i'm sitting at the airport terminal in herakleion, crete. a pretty crowded place during the holiday season, the airport now serves pretty much only domestic flights & i'm left drowsing after two days of minimal sleep and food in its empty hall. the first song to pop up in my player is yo la tengo's "by the time it gets dark", which fits perfectly the state of things. today we said our last goodbyes to my grandmother so it's only natural i'm thinking about the actual importance of things and such. last month valerio tricoli played three shows in northern greece and that i felt going around with him was that we were definitely doing something important, despite the fact that not everyone shared our opinion.
starting in thessaloniki, valerio played a show in zenit together with our friend tasos stamou (up-and-coming musician, photographer and all-around great guy); the sets were: tasos solo, valerio solo, tasos & valerio duo. from the beginning we had quite a few minor misfortunes: late publicity, average turnout, indifference; some people seemed to be trying in vain to fit the idea of this music into their comfortable lifestyle instead of reveling in the beautiful world of possibilities. Still, there was persistence; valerio pushed forward filling the room with gorgeous feedback, electric disturbances and his own version of a light show. by the time 40 minutes had passed he was off-stage feeling he was done for the night only to meet demand for more by the faithful few. twenty minutes later he was off again only to return for the triumphant duo set. earlier, tasos' solo set had been a slight let-down (mostly to himself) because he hadn't been able to make a coherent statement out of the numerous moments of brilliance. in the duo set he shone through; guided by the steady hand of valerio, they provided the perfect closing. once again i have to stress the importance of creating the possibility for valerio to come and play in thessaloniki (thanks nicolas and michael), also the importance of giving the chance to someone like tasos to play a gig like this in his own hometown.
the next day valerio along with his gf manu were off to xanthi to make field recordings and have a good time. we found them one day later in the trusty hands of nicolas malevitsis swimming in a sea of greek delicacies. there were great sounds to be found in the streets of xanthi and in the basement of the xanthi folk museum, above which the 2nd show was held later in the evening. we spent half the day making preparations and the rest saving energy (oh, and we argued a lot about valerio's heathen religion - catholicism). the performance was at the small conference room of the museum, in a good cozy atmosphere. more like an informal meeting maybe, quite a few people who were in the audience contribute in one way or another in organizing these events. here valerio, stationed in the center of the room and with all the lights out, deployed his trusty speaker feedback and added along with other things the sounds of the street market or those of rusty tools from older times. these sounds, which are usually left in the past, were not dissected or attacked in any way that would attempt to show their inside out and display something hidden inside; simply projected in the mass of sound i felt there was more dissecting to do on our part, for once i was happy not to have my food chewed for me.
oh, the joyous cacophony! valerio next had to face the challenge of performing at a children's party -together with the children. he was initially looking forward to this but when the kids started showing up he was helpless. the plan was: give out toy instruments to the kids and have them play while giving rough directions, manipulate their input at the same time. with the toy sounds feedbacking helplessly and the kids giving it all they had, velerio had to give up the control part of his plan and the party turned into a dark free-jazz blowout; or so i was told because i had to leave early. anyway, it seems that the kids sustained a full-on noise attack for as much as 40 minutes, finally calming down only for the last few moments. apparently somewhere in the mix there were also adults to be found, either picking up where the kids had left off or adding their own stuff -as in the case of nicolas malevitsis using his tapes to add more spice to the proceedings. actual evidence from the event is rumored to be circulating and i'd be curious to take a peak.
before our italian friends left, we met them for one more drink in thessaloniki. throughout the days we spent together i kept bugging valerio with technical questions about a basic recording set-up i wanted to make, but i also got as much insight by simply watching him work. and by watching him i knew it does matter; despite being open to criticism (sometimes lighthearted, superficial or self-serving), music (the action) still raises the hair on my back, what more could i ask for? now, had i had valerio with me by my grandma's deathbed he would have of course felt very uncomfortable. i'm sure though that a part of him would have been fascinated by the deeply pagan rites of honoring the departed (being sicilian he might have known, they're pretty hardcore too). still, there's no other way of projecting some things. as in birth, as in the stuff above our heads. [kostis kilimis]
Savina Giannatou - Costis Drygianakis (Live at Folk Museum of Xanthi - 1 April, 2006)
The concept of that live performance was "free improvisations for voice and magnetic tape", so Savina provided her larynx as a source of raw material and Costis his equipment (the REVOX A-77 tape machine,a sound console and a harmonizer). That big wooden retro tape machine created an absurd sense of freshness and innovation, a disintoxication from the countless laptop experimentalists who carry themselves around producing the same boring and tiring digital output. Another interesting point about the tape machine is that you could see in real time the direct relation between Costis' physical, hand activity and the sound result-almost like a DJ playing with his vinyl records. The hall of the Museum was suffocatingly loaded with people hungry for that kind of live events and happily the two artists gave them enough food...
From the first minutes of the session, the whole thing didn't remind me at all the classic ping-pong improvisation I was expecting, as Costis was completely focused on Savina's voice which was the prevailing element of the session. It was not the usual interactive improvisation, on the contrary I think it was a kind of instantaneous composition. As the session progressed, Savina demonstrated her endless store of vocal distortions and her instictive ability to pull something new from her throat, while at the same time Costis was treating that sound material using classic musique concrete techniques such as speed variations, superimpositions and sound textures overlapped, overlaid and intersecting. His resonant and reverberative effects created a warm and reverent atmosphere similar to performances in cathedrals. Savina gave me the impression that she is trying to unify her past and present repertoire and influences, blending her early conservatory training, her interpretations of melodious greek composers (Hadjidakis, Platonos, etc.), her love for legendary singers (Demetrio Stratos, Diamanta Galas,etc.), her rare improvisational attempts and her last ten year-obsession with traditional world music.
That stylistic openness combined with the skilled control of pace and pattern and the technical refinement of Costis created an expressive, dynamic sound result extending from vocal abstractions, guttural distortions, tuvan throat singing, african-asian colours, dadaistic automatic, spontaneous newspaper reading, sound poetry, glossolalia deliriums, surreal tape collage, layers of hum and roar, tape scratches, fragments of sounds from the audience, choir effects, greek traditional lullabies, Hadjidakis' mellodies, mellow ambient to minimal, repetitive ethnic trance and massive ritual sound.All these in an amazing and outstanding 60 minute-package. Savina was like a medium transmitting the voices of other - world entities, while Costis was making his alchemical transformations creating gold sounds...
One of the year's highlights! I am waiting for their next live session and why not, an album release. [Dimitris Sofianos]
1-stop news for absurd & assorted actions,
first of all, absurd is organizing a series of concerts by valerio tricoli (of bowindo & 3/4hadbeeneliminated fame) in northern greece in the early days of november. timetable is as follows:
* thessaloniki. november 8th or november 12th (yet to be finalised), live @ zenit club
* xanthi. november 10th, live at xanthi folk museum
............ november 11th, special eventtouring crew is getting prepared, will be back with pics from the road & stories to tell.
as far as releases go, the latest ones are:
mattin / axel doerner : berlin CD
michael prime / max eastley : hydrophony for dagon CD
lost transmisions from planet zero fanzine & 2cdr
howlin' ghost proletarians : the singer cdrreissue:
to celebrate absurd's 10th anniversary
leif elggren : 45 minutes from underneath the beds CDalso available is an all-new nmm t-shirt (picture to the right),
[nmm is the joint project of mattin & lucio capece, they've had a
couple releases online and they have more stuff coming up for
your 'earing pleasure]more releases bubbling under the surface...
CCMR activities' presentation @ xanthi's folk museum
'below is a hacked text of mecha/orga's private dreamdiary regarding his memories of the 2 days sets that took place in xanthi's folk museum dealing with the activities of the CCMR...'
It was the second time I had the chance to visit my beloved Xanthi. It was absurd Nikolas' original idea for a concert and presentation of the Centre Of Contemporary Music Research (founded by Iannis Xenakis officially in 1986) at the city's Folk Museum and after the nessesary arrangements between Costas Matzoros (of CCMR), Paschalis Xanthopoulos (of Xanthi's Folk Museum) and Michalis Elafros (of Pakethra), the whole thing took place on September 2, 2006...
We listened to a lot of "tape" music by various Greek electroacoustic composers. Although some pieces were interesting my CCMR fellows felt that just to press play on a CD player to listen to a track is not really that exiting -not for us nor the audience- even when someone's able to difuse the sound in real time...Of course I had a good time performing with my laptop, either solo or jamming with Costas Matzoros (who was playing with a VCS3 synthesizer!) and Akis Daoutis who was doing some live electronics...
I have to mention that the night of the conert was just one day before the official opening of Xanthi's Old Town festival. This means that our electronic music was mixed together with traditional greek clarinets and bouzouki which were heard from all over as the people of Xanthi were "warming up" for the next day's beginning of the celebrations. Not to mention the smell which was surrounding us because the Festival includes the set up of outdoor grills that were preparing souvlaki, sausages etc...I insisted that we forget all about the concert and go have some fun in the town but my suggestion was rejected...
The day after the concert Pachalis was kind enough to take us to see the archeological site of Abdira (located a few kilometers out of Xanthi), a very fascinating and beautiful area. Well, it's not hard to imagine, the idea is to organise a concert there, in open space, hopefully next summer. It's kind of difficult to prepare it but I think everyone is willing to give it a try...
Of course our little trip included food, drinks and discusions, all these in good quality and quantity. It's nice to hang around with the other members of CCMR. I was pleased to hear from someone that she doesnt consider me a musician but a noise maker -or something-...Finally, someone is telling me a flattering comment!
goem/rm, freiband, kapotte muziek, zebra @ xanthi & thessaloniki 15-18/9
yes, i realise the above bands are basically two people, frans de waard and roel meelkop. and they complained that nicolas worked them like dogs. well, sort of, they just said it was the first time they did a tour where they played every night. don't start thinking there were sore feelings or anything, i'm sure they had a great time. anyone who has done the xanthi mini-tour (slowly turning into a fixture in the absurd canon) has had nothing short of a blast.
the shows too were all over the place; clubs, werehouses, museums and a front lawn. unsuspecting residents of xanthi, together with weekend visitors, were treated to the special flavors of frans & roel's musics. the thessaloniki show was a little underattended but it had a great atmosphere. many non-believers were converted and there was also that special moment early in the evening when i saw cities in desolation, (gr/ch) who accompanied in two of the shows, singlehandedly burn the in-house mixer. they then kindly offered their own mixer for the rest of the night, which went on as planned, ending just in time to catch the plane back home.
end of chapter 4(?) of the xanthi adventures
ok ok ok... it's been a while since the site of anet's being down & i've been too lazy to upload a new one. soonish i hope that the old site will be uploaded in a server run by some cool pals. and here's the new effort...'noise, a few decks below'. the site you'll navigate at the bloody moment looks most like a hybrid rathen the actual one... just a test let's say and not the permanent thing or the entity absurd has in mind to create. more changes are bound to happen from mid/late august & on.
for a long time now i had the wish to return back to the early absurd days, probably cos i was bored of absurdities and the sole review thing. not that it'll stop, but wanna focus also on reports, interviews,etc. won't say more at the moment, i'll let it flow and see what happens when the actual zine's site will start functioning.at the moment, just a few links 'bout greece, a couple of reviews of which 'self portrait' i consider it the best as it was the performance that made me see things more clear at a certain confused point i was engulfed. like the early days of absurd's 'zero trilogy' striked me, it is an one take text, w/ just a little editing that i did after... since this performance i feel like words are sounds again! or to paraphrase 'two shot sons''s lp title 'in sound my memory is stored'..
also later this year a new zine is bound to start, 'lost transmissions from planet zero' kinda an entity of absurd's 2nd part of the 'zero trilogy'. uh, in greek.
plus finally the final part of the 'zero trilogy' (absurd #7 'bye bye butterfly') is bound to come as a supplement to overdub zine, influenced from the topic of sound as energy & the energy of sound... more details on it to follow later too.plus more releases are bound to see daylight in the ongoing absurd's audio diary... check the releases page for more.
love & noise
nicolas
antoine chessex/evil moisture/mattin/hotogisu @ stralau 68 21/04/06
since the pal w/ whom we travelled to berlin last april & myself booked our tickets, started seeking live sets that we'll be able to catch up w/ while we were there. luckily we had the chance to see the super set of fantomas/melvins big band on saturday the 22nd. and gotta admit that friday the 21st was also stellar! having missed the previous day the uk noise fest in ausland or the y-ton-g set in globusbar, as we decided to hang around w/ sascha of i:wound instead, we were anxious to see the stralau thing the day after. arriving in stralau found andy, daniel & mattin hanging around so was a cool chance to say a word and finally meet in person w/ some of the pals we've been in contact via mail for a god knows how many years... and must say that the sets that followed were giving more the feeling of a family (re)union, rather than a standard live crap... antoine's set was really blowing, sax via effects & electronics that turned it to a real blaster! imagine borbetomagus as an one man show... well don't wanna make comparisons but just to give the idea... after this great set, we had mattin doing the what i told him a 'whitehouse parody'... a sine wave from his laptop, while wearing his suit and sunglasses and starting an interaction w/ the audience, wondering if we are so stupid listening to his pathetic noise sounds or not... or what we like of his set (i admit that the sunglasses was the top of it!).
by the end of this cute performance can't say i wasn't anxious to see andy doing the evil moisture set. been a fan of his work must admit that i liked his crazy noisy games a lot. me speaking, considered it as the night's best set....sadly ended soon thanks to burned gear but was super! a real noise set as i fancy it being... to hotogisu... i hadn't heard any of their works before i saw them playing live. can't say i felt the need also to get any either earlier from mailorders, or so. don't know why, perhaps because i had friends who had purchased their stuff and didn't fancy that much or so.. was pretty funny though to see the set starting w/ mathew as a black metal freak playing his tunes out of his guitar and marcia playing the violin via effects & electronics on the other... a contradiction that i found fascinating enough. in their 2nd set we had both on their guitars doing the noisy thing as well. can't say it was their set(s) i enjoyed but the whole atmosphere in stralau during them. super!
mail art exhibition (february/march '06, elassona, greece)
to tell ya the truth when thanasis & alexandra (dimosioipalliliko retire/alli poli) forwarded me the email about this exhibition i thought they were joking. however they didn't.
to understand what i mean is get a city, put it in the middle of nowhere and you get where elassona is. or at least how it sounds as for absurd sounds logic for such a thing to take place (& anymore am after such events here & there in greece). perhaps the only name i knew of the participants (some more than 270 artists from 37 countries and more than 370 works) was the one of vittore baroni... as i had lost such events in the 80's, mostly the ones that thanasis chondros & alexandra katsiani had organised in thessaloniki via the alli poli gallery and so, as i was young enough, i was always curious to see such an exhibition in greece... no matter that for me mail art (even 'e-mail art' as continues today) still sounds like a hype mostly of the 70's & 80's (& if you are lucky try the www.artpool.hu address in case they still carry copies of the amazing 'a halo' encyclopedia, issued in early 90's and includes an extensive history of mail art. keep in mind the book's all in hungarian with the exception of a brief english synopsis that lies in a few pages at its end but has lots of photos and a stunning catalogue documenting various events & editions from late 60's & on...). my little knowledge & interest was sometime in early 90's influenced from that time's net plus people like francoise duvivier, frans de waard, gx jupitter larsen, etc.. or projects/people like p16d4, merzbow, graf haufen who have been also involved in this net participating in compilations, etc back then... such as the 'mail music' lp, etc... well, i think i beat a lot about the bush... to the exhibition. finding a cool chance to see it, i visited my friends kalorifeur in larissa to hand them some copies of their cdr on editions_zero and thanks to that we did an excursion to elassona (that's about 30' from the city of larissa, almost in the heart of central eastern greece). the exhibition was held in a new cool building in the outskirts of the city and since we entered must say we were dazzled from the way it was set up... luckily we had our pals nixilx.nijilx and costas sharing the experience with us so the 5 of us started not only seeing the exhibition but also documenting each bit of it on our cameras. me speaking i fancied a lot all those participations that reminded me of the late 80's/early 90's mail art or experimental/industrial/noise records i fancied plus 'zines of that time. i know i sound obsolete but c'est la vie. there were other ones that i fancied too. can't say i liked a lot the works of most of the greek participants perhaps as they didn't reflect much to me. sorry pals. i fancied a lot one of vittore baroni's participations being solely the lyrics of jerfferson airplane's 'white rabbit'!
the 'curators' of the exhibition were thomai kontou & ioanna papachristou (actually ioanna was responsible to collect the participations as far as i am concerned or from the little few i realised). overall was really cool to see such a lively effort happening in central greece showing an interest also in a genre that can't say is an 'easy' one... if am not mistaken the exhibition was also shown in athens, however i didn't mind to pay a visit... decided to keep for me the experience we had up there doing the trip to elassona, the fun we had, etc...
for more infos you can still visit www.leukipoli.gr/mailart check the rest of the site as well. they are also working on a new exhibition (unfortunately deadline's gone am afraid).
self-portrait (7-17 june @ thisseion theatre, tournavitou 7, athens)
have you ever been confused? not knowing what you should or should not do in your life at a certain point? been so far a bizarre year for absurd, w/ lots of weirdos happening in its life, as since last february is undergoing its socialization phase, which (good or bad) engaged after 5 years of releasing madness, the 'zine's circle of changes again, w/out knowing where this phase will lead it to... .. anyway.... it was a couple of weeks ago when i got the email about the 'self-portrait' performance of marilena petridou under the guidance of omada zita and the music of nikos veliotis. i must admit here that, the last few years i've never attended any dance co's performances or lives no matter that in many cases my pals made music for... however as (refered above) absurd is under its socialization phase, so decided to go and attend it... can't say of course i was in my happiest mood... actually been totally confused and uncertain for lots of things at that certain point, totally fucked up emotionally, and to make things worse a few hours before going out to attend the performance and have my moods changed, i had a pice of suckin' bad news that made my moods worst... so i poped up in thiseion theatre to attend the 'self portrait' performance as a real wreckage...
gotta admit that it was my first contact w/ a dance company as somehow i've been isolated from events of mixed or call it multimedia things... however as been in a mood of seeking answers, i was curious to attend this one... since the first noise of nikos veliotis's obscure musics (for me his best so far) and upon seing marilena in one of hers outmost performances, i must admit i was blown... gotta say here that i write these lines after having attended this amazing set twice (& wish i had attended all the 10 days it lasted).. the first (saturday the 10th) i was in one of the worst moods i've been the last 5 years (since 2001 that absurd's phase 1 ended and phase 2 - the 'i release faster than i fart'- started)... totally confused, abused, looking for answers to silly questions, etc.. it looked to me more as a descent to an obscure fairytale rather than attending a stunning performance... but since the whole thing started i must admit i found myself in a totally bizarre dimension... the first part full of niko's digital noises and marilena's neurotic acts seemed as if i was seeing a chrysalis turning slowly to a buttefly, opening its wings and out of it trying to discover the universe... the 2nd part that was turning more into a theatre (or better say a bizarre movie's plan) where cello, lighting and choreography most reminded me of an insane fairytale (like 'through the looking glass' or so). actually this party, was the one that, that specific day made me feel like pinhead and friends from hellraiser are coming w/ their hooks to hook me up, tear me apart and deconstruct me, which is actually the feeling i felt throughout the whole performance to be honest... that specific part was the one that made me feel tears in my eyes ...since that part and after a silence (which also played a great part in the whole work... making you listen to your own heartbeat/thoughts in such a way that you could feel yourself deafened), started the 3rd a la musique concrete part where the interaction between the (a la musique concrete) noises and marilena's moves and sceams were giving the whole visual canvas's a touch of a schizophrenic live painting were so strong that you could feel yourself engulfed in a phrenetic void, which ended in the what sounded as a madman's 'monologue' after the 4th and also intense part...
i have to admit that is the first time in the last 5 years that not only did i attend an entire performance (where usually i could find myself doing more the PR thing rather attending a set, or ending drunk w/ pals mumbling 'bout usual bullshit, sleeping during a live set, or feeling bored to death upon its first drones, etc etc) but -thank god- i had strong emotions evoked (i know some of you might laught at my saying so... but am no kiding at all) in such a way that found myself a couple of hours later almost dropping dead from alcohol in my room, finding myself the next day having played 'rock bottom' a god knows how many times... gotta say that it was the experience that clicked inside me and started again seeing things the realistic thing they should be... whereas a few weeks ago i felt 'fear' for the unknown or the new phase absurd is heading to, i saw myself as he had found the answers to those problems... picture yourself standing on the leap of an abyss, wondering, if you leap into the void will you find heaven, hell or just yourself torn apart? i have to admit that it took a day or two to find the answer... or better say thanks to that experience i found again the energy after a month or so of uncertainty to stare the problem and say as if joyce's ulyses's 'and i will YES'! so found myself next wednesday attending the performance, under a completely different mood, pure excitement for the unkown that lies ahead... attending with such moods the performance again i could see someone that looked as if crucified and afterwards ressurected but the most important of all, whereas the first time i could smell fear inside me, this time i could see or at least i had the ilussion i saw the lust for the unkown having revealed inside me... was it marilena's last glance when the whole self portrait was ending or my idea? however that was the feeling i felt... igontium per ignotius.. thank you marilena! thank you nikos! thank you omada zita!
donna parker/reverse mouth/dead traveller's harsh noises @ arder, thessaloniki 19/05/06
nicolas has the tendency of omiting information, so when he emailed me about donna playing a show in 'arder' i assumed 'arder' was some club in athens (6 hours drive from my home) where they usually have shows like this. one month later we speak on the phone and i realise "fu*k, arder is that art basement downtown, why didnt you tell me that before?", i hadn't realised that noise acts came all the way to my place when in fact donna was doing a mini tour of the southern balkans.
one week later i'm late for the show cause i figured they wont start on time and here i am ten minutes into nicolas' set with dead traveller (along with giannis karabellas). drones laid out from a guitar & amp along with various noises from nicolas' table set-up, the music is focused and there's pictures taken afterwards -i keep telling nicolas i dig his sets but he wont believe me. the action seems to be appreciated by the local crowd (savage republic & buzzcocks were playing the same night but we still drew 20 people, keeping the show free helped) and the appreciation turns to excitement with reverse mouth's noise-as-rock/rock-as-noise shorter-than-ten-minutes-assault played out with 1 & a half guitars and a bunch of pedals. halfway (halfway? i mean three minutes after they started) through panagiotis disposes of the guitar body and gets down on the pedal board for some real noise action. started up but i was also starting to worry about noise complaints because i've seen shows in the basement cut short because of that.
donna parker sets up with only a stomp box, a mixer, a mic (i think) for feedback & the amp, welcomes us amongst praises to greek cheese pies (she could live on them apparently) and delivers a full-on sensual/exhilerating/feedbacking noise blast and keeps it up for fifteen minutes until she moves to grainy static with blips & cracks. or so i thought because apparently her intention was to keep on with that "big fucking noise" except a cable broke. so she rants a bit about the problem and carries on with the rest of the set while holding the cable in place. soon though there is movement up in the street and i realise we're getting some hassle from the bars & restaurants, apparently some people dont like their dinners peppered with noise. so nicolas negotiates 'five minutes more' and that cuts the set terribly short. at that time there were still people coming thinking the show was starting at 12 or something.. donna & panagiotis leave for skopje & sofia and i make it home with a copy of donna's lp 'debutante' on twisted village. noise on, i hope to see some of these people again next time around.
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