Jason Kahn and Christian Wolfarth: 'An instrument isn’t really that important for the music'
A snare, two cymbals and a voice is all percussionist Christian Wolfarth and all-round instrumentalist Jason Kahn need to create a tense minimalist/maximalist sound world. It’s minimalist in its means, it’s maximalist in its output, engaging the listener into a raw, direct and immersive experience that doesn’t lean on volume or power, but on small yet distinctive gestures in the more subtle realms of sound.
10 October 2019 |
AG 14
The Circularity of Razen
Over the last ten years, Razen have trailblazed the field of minimalist music as cartographers of the unknown, the unfelt and the (im)possible. Their latest record Ayîk Adhîsta Adhîsta Ayîk explores new terrains within the endless shadow world of the irrational and the unconscious that haunts or defines mankind. Unlike the objective inhuman transcendentalism of their previous albums, the record lays down an individual, almost classical approach, unveiling subjective emotions like fear, melancholy and fragility. It is no coincidence that the theories of Carl Gustav Jung, explorer of the collective unconscious, showed Razen the way. To set the mood, I met Kim Delcour and Brecht Ameel at the house of Wiertz, painter of the grotesque.
24 September 2019 |
AG 14
Legion of Andromeda
A hilarious comic-interview with Legion of Andromeda by Niels Latomme (text) and Jonas Apers (artwork).
21 February 2019 |
AG 14
Sofia Jernberg
Sofia Jernberg is one of the rising stars at the Scandinavian new free jazz generation. She is a Norwegian singer, extended vocalist, composer and improviser and is mostly known for her work with the Fire! Orchestra. But she is working on an impressive body of work of both solo and collaborative music, stretching the limitations of the voice towards a universal network of traditions and futurist music. As if music isn’t sufficient, she expands sound towards performance and film, and collaborated with the likes of Matthew Barney, Hailu Mergia and Mette Rasmussen. In between travelling she found some time to give some insights in here methods of working.
05 February 2019 |
AG 14
METABOLISMUS
METABOLISMUS is a long running German collective that easily steeple chase over psychedelic kraut jams, french pop music, library tunes and genuine experimentation. Their music comes from a parallel universe in which the 80s, 90s, the interweb, individualism and digitalism never happened, and in which 60s optimism and freedom gradually unfolded into a beautiful post-May 68 utopism. Consistently releasing a strain of records
in the margin, their influence on the german DIY and tape scene is profound – see the like minded youngsters of Transport, the Kraut collective Datashock and many many more.
16 November 2018 |
AG 13
Duncan Harrison
Over the last 12 years, Brighton based Duncan Harrison has been one of the driving forces in the South English Weird Noise scene. In his music, he displays a broad array of cut-up sound poetry, improvisational strategies and audio collages with sonic left-overs abstracted from daily environments. Not surprisingly, he regularly collaborates with the likes of Dylan Nyoukis, Karen Constance, Pascal Nichols, Ali Robertson and many more. As he features in the Braublff 6 program, we interviewed him about his work.
19 June 2018 |
AG 12
Crys Cole & Oren Ambarchi
One of last year’s highlights was crys cole and Oren Ambarchi’s collaborative Hotel Record. It celebrates the hazy state of being involved in a trans-global musical romantic narrative, not unlike impressionist European art movies that emerged in a post-WW II era. The duo’s sound is a symbiosis of soft sine waves, unreal voices and subtle field recording. Both live and on record, cole & Ambarchi frame touchingly intimate themes in a surreally unique, aleatoric sound world, just as you’d be warranted to expect from this pair of esteemed sonic alchemists. Their music is overtly poetic, and could be an encrypted document of phone sex or pillow talk — or something entirely else, all depending your disposition. We had a talk with the couple about the record that they present at Red Brut’s LP Launch party on 26th of May at De Koer.
03 May 2018 |
AG 12
Editorial issue n° 11
Dear reader,
Recently I stumbled upon an interesting article, published in the mid-60s. Reading old essays about art is something of a habit of mine. It helps filtering out the noise that is inherent to the excess supply of information in our times. Some of that noise pertains to figuring out what the role should be of the KRAAK festival. If you attended last years’ editions, you know that the festival is associatively conceived as an assertion on the state of music, proposing a wild and highly intuitive cross section of who might be who and what could be what in off-stream music (notice the conditional character of last phrase).
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Apulati Bien
is the moniker of Baptiste Outreglot, which is a youngster who is part of the infamous Outreglot collective. He creates a warped out designer-drugged world with fragments of neo-juke, splatter beats and arrythmic sampling. Apulati Bien pushes the electronic realms of equally RP Boo and Hiele further into an radical terrain that is visceral, brutal and danceable. Post-Millennial madness from the true hearted international basement scene. 7 questions for him, so that you would know more of his thoughts behind the music.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Lemones
is born in the bedlam of the highly dynamic underground of Brussel. A (so-called) crap wave explosion that impersonates the best of no wave and dada performance — although they are too unique to reduce them to one or two art movements. Lemones practice the absurd as a highly form of art, rock ’n’ roll becomes a readymade in which self build instruments, chaotic songs and brutal energy are channeled towards a next level; be not mistaken, there is serious poetry in play!
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Peter Burr
Peter Burr is an artist from Brooklyn specializing in animation and installation. A master of computer animation, with a gift for creating images and environments that hover on the boundary between abstraction and figuration, Burr has in recent years devoted himself to exploring the concept of an endlessly mutating labyrinth. Existing as stand-alone pieces, much of his work is also in the process of expanding into a video game, and both music, in collaboration with Lucky Dragons and Jlin.
For the KRAAK festival 2018 he will present a series of films and a exclusive AV performance in collaboration with the Shelter Press head honcho and visual artist/musician Felicia Atkinson.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Paradon't
Paradon’t is a German duo that hails partly from the Black Forest, partly from Southern Germany. The duo — Don’t DJ (part of The Durian Brothers) and Paraklang, both renowned solo musicians — met each other through love: Volker (Paraklang) was the boyfriend of Florian's (Don’t DJ) sister, so when Florian visited his parents (who lived in the same city), Volker's studio became the natural hangout for the night-time. They developed a new form of techno music, for which they infused graceful formal experiment with trance elements and polyrhythms.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Zarabatana
It’s hard not to mention Zarabatana and free jazz in one sentence. But this Portuguese trio of drums, upright bass and trumpet hi-jack the heritage of Art Ensemble of Chicago from the institution, and bring it back to where it belongs: in a urban complex of fast moving bodies, wild exotic night life and tranquilized woods. Quick, some heavy loaded questions with Bernardo Álvares, the bass player of the trio.
19 February 2018 |
AG 11
David Edren
Social Harmony is
a non-academic research universe, in which DIETER DURINCK explores the mind-boggling properties of image, geometry and color. In this research he displays a fondness for the imperfection of RGB colors, VHS and tape grittiness and exotica from lost times when melancholy still was a good thing. Social Harmony presents the new synesthetic experience and tape by the Antwerp-based modular synth master David Edren. He will explore the possibilities of electronic gamelan music, redefine exotica and turn it into a mind burning experience. We had a chat about exotica, his work and his relation with the Antwerp scene over the last 10 years.
14 December 2017 |
AG 10.1
Stroom
The STROOM collective started out as a free from internet radio station and quickly became a bench mark for all things cold and synth wave, as well as pseudo exotica lost in the outer regions of musical history. As a label, they fiercely hit the decks with archival releases of Jan van den Broeke, Cybe and the soundtrack of Jan Zonder Vrees.
12 December 2017 |
AG 10.1
Lea Bertucci vs. Sarah Davachi
On November 9th KRAAK and AB Salon presented two rising stars from the new wave of mystic avant-garde composers: Sarah Davachi and Léa Bertucci.
11 December 2017 |
AG 10.1
Èlg
Our favorite French Bruxellois Èlg effortlessly switches between radical tape music, far out electronics that
even scare the shit out of Throbbing Gristle, and French chanson. Although it was one of the highlights of 2016, his latest record Mauve Zone (Nashazphone) has fallen between the cracks of most end-of-the-year lists. Too bad, because Laurent Gérard is on top of his game when it comes to associative outsider music. On a terrace in Saint-Gilles, we had a talk about the unconscious, The Mauve Zone and what the role of all this is in his music.
05 December 2017 |
AG 10.1
KERM RECORDS
Since its existence, Kerm Records is one of the strongholds of the Ghent cassette scene. Driven by gut feeling and hypersensitivity, its output ranges from spoken word, broken acid, tape collage and fluxus inspired noise to casio pop, contemporary gabba and hip-hop concrète. A conversation with Niels Kerm, the brain and soul behind KERM.
01 December 2017 |
AG 10.1
Editorial issue n° 10
DEAR READER,
I'm writing to you from
the jungle of Polynesia,
the isle of Tuvalu. I’m here researching the sound- textural qualities of the Tuli bird and its influence on western post-WWII avant-garde. How and why
I ended up here involved
a wild night in Brussels,
a somewhat scruffy man and a dodgy contract. So... At this very moment, I’m sitting in a bar barely worth the name. The bartender only serves warm beer,
and I’m deeply wrapped-up in the significance of Tuli bird chant.
24 November 2017 |
AG 10
Novo Line
Novo Line is the moniker of Nat Fowler, once part of the Baltimore math rock scene, but nowadays transformed into a clusterfucking techno act that delves deeply into the unknown territory of old skool atari computers. Last year he released an amazing record on Ecstatic Records that takes the idea’s of UR, Drexciya and alike deep into the 21st century, without resigning to new technology. Techno used to be a thrilling genre that was all about developing new idea’s and sounds, but then the market started mingling in by producing pre programmed plugins aimed at lazy producers copying each other. Novo Line revives the original spirit and takes techno where it belongs: boldly into a universe where no-one has gone before.
15 November 2017 |
AG 10
Andrew Pekler
The Berlin-based Andrew Pekler delves deeply into playful loop-based electronic exotica. His most recent record is an homage to the legendary anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss and his book ‘Tristes Tropiques’. The record is a sonic journey, composed out of fragments of music made by imaginary tribes. It displays a deeply nostalgic longing of a researcher who is confronted by the big questions about himself and his culture, as he becomes aware that the great enlightened stories are just one of the many truths. An interview without questions on identity, a book, internal logics and wordplays.
15 November 2017 |
AG 10
Editorial issue n° 9.1
Dear Reader,
The Spring is halfway through, and we are gently sliding into the Summer. This is a new edition of the Avant-Guardian, covering KRAAK’s program since January. This edition is for you. You can read it when you are sitting on a terrace, nipping of you well deserved Ricard or white wine, and mesmerize about the evolutions in off-stream music we presented last months.
31 May 2017 |
AG 9.1
Aymeric De Tapol
Aymeric de Tapol is a versatile French sound artist, noiser and modular synth freak that once got lost in Brussels. Nowadays you can call him one of the city’s hidden gems. His most recent concerts and records (Lexi Disques, VLEK, Angström and Tanuki) show him freely steeple chasing between technoise, power drones, french pop tunes, sound art and analogue synth weirdness.
We had, in the days before his concert in In De Ruimte, a nice chat about Climatic Music, Dinosaurs and the Brussels Scene.
31 May 2017 |
AG 9.1
Katz Mulk
Deeply embedded in the Manchester underground, Katz Mulk was born out of the Human Heads crew. The trio makes warped electronics, auto tuned improv and loose pop music that combines the best of hipstertronics and hardcore avant-garde music. Their debut is soon out on the top notch Singing Knives label.
As suiting for the ‘now sound of Manchester’ we had this ‘Facebook messenger’ conversation with Ben Night, Andrea Kerney and Hugh Morris about their avant-pop and performance explorations in experimental music.
28 May 2017 |
AG 9.1
Transport
TRANSPORT is a trio made out of notorious names like Vomit Heat, Teks and Nicolas Wandt. You can call it Kraut rock in its most transcendental form, referring to Amon Düül, Ash Ra Temple, injected with a good dose of rattling and percussion. They play on KRAAK’s next instalment of the not so notorious Yung Sheikhs Series, so we conducted a micro bits and bytes interview with Niklas Wandt.
28 May 2017 |
AG 9.1
White Death
White Death is collaboration between Kelly Jayne Jones and Hannah Ellul. The Internet provided us answers by Hannah on our questions about their work. A deep conversation on improvisation, the experimental scene in Brexit Country and the greater value of Awkwardness.
28 May 2017 |
AG 9.1
Osilasi
Osilasi is a fresh new duo that emerged out the always vibrant and ever revolting Brussels underground. They will play at that concert series that claims to have a finger on the beating pulse of undergrounds everywhere. Time for a typical Brussels multi-lingual interview with Léa Roger, harpist and half of Osilasi!
28 May 2017 |
AG 9.1
Editorial issue n° 9
Dear reader,
Those who’ve read the previous issues of The Avant-Guardian, and the especially the editos, know that I like to play with thoughts. Recently this one sprung up: I think Curiosity Killed the Cat is a strange expression. It’s a common place and I’m not sure what it means. It could hint towards a fault in the animal’s nature. Or, it’s a warning for the dangers that comes with unnecessary investigation or experimentation — quotes Wikipedia. And what about it, if applied to times that are all about the new?
16 February 2017 |
AG 9
Pymathon
We like our metal radical, dirty, and so obscure that you (almost) can’t find anything on the www. Pymathon came to our ears on a beer soaked tape, released through a label that we never heard of. Their sound is harsh, wild and satanic, bringing the best of noise, trash and black metal together in an old school Finnish tradition. The members are well known figures in Scandinavian noise, free improv and experimental scenes.
15 February 2017 |
AG 9
Ameel Brecht
Apart from being the half core of Razen, embodies Ameel Brecht the personae of the master guitar player in the purest form. Using resonator mandolin and guitar he blends European traditions of finger picking into a silent, melancholy world in which suppressed emotion and unspoken poetry are the key words.
The man will release his first solo record this year on KRAAK, so we had a lot to talk about. He will be playing on Sunday at the KRAAK festival 2017. We are sure that after 2 days of madness, his songs will be the perfect cure for the emotional black hole you might experience.
15 February 2017 |
AG 9
Nibul
The Toulouse based duo Nibul proves that France is still producing the most challenging underground transcendentalism and minimalism up to date. With saxophone and percussion they create tribal, open jams in which they take holy tradition of minimalism from the city to the countryside, the lakes and the mountains. We suspect there must be something channeling in artisanal cheese and wine.
15 February 2017 |
AG 9
Annelies Monseré
Annelies Monseré is one of the strongholders of post-millennial slowcore. Surviver of the nineties, she molded her song crafts careful during the 00ties in the cd-r and tape scene. Debris (Morc) is her 4th full album up to date, showing a master on top of her skills. The record is a hidden gem in minimal folk song writing that easily equals the British bards.
15 February 2017 |
AG 9
Henry Andersen
Henry Andersen is a Brussels-based visual artist and composer. Trained as a minimal and reductionist composer under the wings of Peter Ablinger, he moved from music into visual art, writing and sound performances.
His debut vinyl is a recording of the piece 'Stanzas' or 'the Law of the Good Neighbour' (K095). On each side, a pair of his friends reads simultaneously from a list of words. The list is an unfinished result of a word game Andersen has been playing for several years. Stanzas... seems to be a precise text-sound composition, a liquid and elegant piece of concrete poetry that reveals the individual qualities of the voices and their interpersonal relation.
But what sounds like a hardcore conceptual and idealist composition has a lot more to it. As an heir to a playful and prosaic Cagean and Ashleyan tradition, the list of words is a score that acts as a field for an infinite amount of possibilities.
Andersen documents some of these many possible outcomes, expressing an urge to be a human body in space, interrelated with others. The composer reveals on the record another face of conceptualism: as a material, personal and truly moving beauty.
15 February 2017 |
AG 9
Johns Lunds
Danish saxophone player Johns Lunds pushes circular breathing and minimalism towards new territories. He reinterprets minimalist masterpieces in a dadaesk way, for instance by cutting out notes out of Henning Christiansen pieces and using them as source for visual and literally spiralling scores. The highly recommended LP 'Johns Lunds plays baritone saxophone' is in an immersive take on the 2nd generation of minimalist music, played with the intensity of Joe McPhee, and one of our highlights of 2016. Some facts: Lunds is part of the yoyo oyoy collective and worked together with a.o. Mats Gustafson. We had a conversation with the brutalist saxophone player over Skype, about craftsmanship, history and physicality.
15 February 2017 |
AG 9
Editorial issue n° 8
DEAREST READER,
In your hands you hold the 8th issue of the Avant-Guardian. Whilst writing this, I picture your hands, thinking how much they tell about you. Maybe they are nice and soft, a result of visiting the manicurist regularly. I could see the hands of a labourer, full of scars and dust because you build houses or install electricity. Or your hands can be worn out by chemicals because you extinguish rats and unwelcome creatures living in the holes and crannies of a city. Hands can be seen as a pars pro toto — the form can tell you a lot about someone’s life and identity, without knowing him or her.
04 December 2016 |
AG 8
Group A
group A is a Berlin based Japanese duo that has been travelling from Tokyo to London, back and then to Berlin. Throughout their 80ties inspired sound and dadaeske performances they are seeking for freedom. Having found it in a big German city, they are on the verge of struggling with the consequences of being a free mind, that seems hard to pursue without the limitations full time jobs.
02 December 2016 |
AG 8
La Tène
La Tène is a French-Swiss band taking both the heir of minimalist music and traditional mountain music to induce an ascetic trance. Tony Conrad comes in the picture, but also long walks in mountains during which you become part of the nature, and your self-consciousness is getting lower and lower until it switches off.
01 December 2016 |
AG 8
Eric Frye
Jeff Witscher runs the label Salon Records, on which Eric Frye released the sparkling Some Consequences of Four Incapacities. The liner notes are saying that the record investigates new modes of perception and spatial cognition. Interesting words for mathematical beauty a.k.a. far out abstract techno, or the best post-millennial melancholia is currently offering.
01 December 2016 |
AG 8
Editorial issue n° 8.1 — Eastern Daze III
We proudly present you the third edition of the Eastern Daze festival, a co-joined effort between Sound in Motion, Vooruit, and ourselves. This edition is again loosely inspired by the common and parallel paths off-stream music is following in every corner of the world. We shift from post-postmodern exotic music over female Touareg music to possible ethnic tapecollages, zenlike proto-minimalism, kosmische music and more.
11 November 2016 |
AG 8.1
YZ
YZ is Younes Zarhoni’s moniker to create a highly personal blend of Sufi mysticism and electronic music. His powerful voice sings medieval Arabic poems on top of acid-like electronics and beats. Music led him towards a deepened identity in which beauty, freedom and spiritualism is more dominant than culture, background and the place where you’ve been born. In November he will release his debut 10” on Lexi Disque, and he will conclude the Saturday of the Eastern Daze festival in Ghent. We met him at the always cosy Brasserie Verschueren, in the center of hipster Sint-Gilles.
10 November 2016 |
AG 8.1
Manuel Göttsching
AN ESSAY ON E2-E4, AN OPENING MOVE IN CHESS OR A HIGHLY INFLUENCIAL RECORD IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC. Manuel Göttsching is pretty much a living legend. The man behind krautrock pioneers Ashra Temple (with Klaus Schulze) and Ashra, is basically one of the founders of Kosmische Musik, post-Eno ambient and electronic music. With his 1984 solo masterpiece ‘E2 - E4’ he created a 58 minute trip through icy synths, metallic percussion en spacey guitar solo’s. Göttsching geniusly combined the minimalism of composers like Terry Riley and Steve Reich with an irresistible groove. Thus the German musician – along with colleagues Kraftwerk – unknowingly inspired an avalanche of imitators on the other side of the Atlantic who would pioneer genres like house and techno.
10 November 2016 |
AG 8.1
Editorial issue N° 7 — KRAAK festival 2016
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
You are holding the 7th edition of the irregularly published magazine wisely dubbed The Avant-Guardian. It's the third edition published on the occasion of the yearly KRAAK festival.
25 February 2016 |
AG 7
Timeless Reality
Timeless Reality currently is my favorite band. They take the paths where you will find the craftsmanship of decent song-writing. When you are lost in thousand of new genres popping up everyday, their way feels like something to cling onto. Their sound is equally fueled by a loose, tense approach, taken from their earlier explorations throughout the field of drone and noise music. This makes that they walk the road backwards and blinded, the missteps and stumbles add up to their unique sound. I had a nice, although crackly chat with Alexander and Nicolas over Skype on the future of rock, scenes and looseness.
23 February 2016 |
AG 7
Volmacht
Volmacht is de nieuwe band van Dennis Tyfus en Floris Vanhoof. Toen ik een tijdje geleden een promotekst schreef, vond Floris de tekst te referentieel, te beschrijvend. Toen opende ik mijn brein, wroette — want voortwee grote geesten doe je moeite — en het volgende vloeide uit mijn pen: "Boze en grandioze muziek, hard en weird, laverend tussen powerelectronics
en slapstick. De heren pokten en mazelden zich elk in
de gevorderde stemtechniek en de modulaire geluidssynthese, en
scherpten zich respectievelijk tot archivaris der Oost-Belgische
folklore en documentalist der Groot-Antwerpse Ondergrond. De
rurale syntesthetische poëet en de grootsteedse collagekunstenaar
vinden elkaar in Volmacht. Ze verwekten een breinkind dat
walst zoals enkel homo-erotische macho’s en chaotische estheten
kunnen. Verknipte neo-fluxus vervuilt post-manieristisch
structuralisme, pure poezie is het resultaat."
23 February 2016 |
AG 7
Księżyc
Księżyc is a project from Poland, active since the 1990s. Members included
Agata Harz (vocals), Catherine Smoluk (vocals, piano), Robert
Niziński (wind instruments, keyboards), Lechosław Pole (accordion,
keyboards, synthesizers) and Remigiusz MazurHanaj (lyrics, tapes.
The spirit of the moon captures early and late medieval music
with a sound, rooted in the Slavic tradition combined with elements
of minimalism and vocal experiments of the 20th Century. The alchemy
of these constituent parts results in a breathtaking original
music, both delicate and sinister. The surreal fairy tale inspired lyrics
add to the inherent beauty, sadness and madness within. Their
songs display an intense and profane spiritualism and are as such the
perfect antitode to these consumerist and superfluous times.
A conversation with Księżyc!
23 February 2016 |
AG 7
Widt
WARSAW, WIDT, GOMBROWICZ EN DE SINGULARITEIT. Er is iets gaande in Polen. Dat valt op zijn minst te vermoeden wanneer
je de uitstekende VHS beluistert die het audio-visuele duo Widt
uitbracht. Met analoge video, stem en elektronica scheppen zee
en psychedelische jungle dat het midden houdt tussen eigentijdse
post-internetelektronica en de tapecomposities van grootmeesters
L. Berio of P. Henry.
23 February 2016 |
AG 7
Guttersnipe
The New Wave of Northern England noise has finally arrived. Until 3
years ago, the scene was led by VCO and side projects, but a couple
of youngsters took over the scepter. Guttersnipe is one of the hardest
outfits, guitar & drum are their tools to make explosive and brain
melting noise. Hail to England’s Freak Empire.
23 February 2016 |
AG 7
Editorial Issue n° 6
Dear reader,
You are holding the 6th edition of our irregularly published newspaper. It presents the second edition of the great collaborative project called Eastern Daze. For those who missed out the first edition: it’s a one day festival and draws you into the immersive effect that trance music supposed to have. It leaves you with a burning ache in between your ears, or stomach. Depends what you engulf too much, the music or the hallucinogens. It hints towards an euphoric feeling caused by becoming part of the collective, a drop in the ocean as zen buddhists say.
25 November 2015 |
AG 6
Insanlar
Once in Istanbul, on the Taksim square, my attention got drawn towards an old man in a wheelchair, covered with christmas lights. He played a one-stringed banjo, and chanted strange rants. The first time I heard Kime Ne, the debut album of Insanlar, it reminded me of this magical moment of outworldish beauty—to be found on one of the many obscure streets in this overwelming and labyrinth-like city. In a similar way, Insanlar seemed to come from nowhere. Digging deeper, I found out that they emerged out of the Istanbul underground jam and club scene, blending transcendental sufi jams, Anatolian Rock music, 17th century poems with electronics. Insanlar is based at the MiniMüzikhol, a club which covers an array of genres, incorporated at an old cultural building, just a stone’s throw of the famous Taksim square.
We sat down through a dirty sounding Facetime connection and talked with Insanlar’s Barış K, about his inspirations and about the world in which Insanlar started.
24 November 2015 |
AG 6
Ashtray Navigations
Phill Todd en Melanie Delaney are the core members of the legendary British noise duo Ashtray Navigations. Called after an album by an obscure 70ties psych band, they produced since 1991 an endless stream of cd-r’s tapes and lp’s embodying an unique form of British pyschedeliae. It’s a trashcan full ow wild tape collages, far out electronics, pastoral drones and acid guitar soloing. No wonder the great VHF records released last summer their new and highly recommended album ‘a shimmering replica’.
We sat down, passing the wires of the www, with Phil and Meg and talked about ethnic music, the Northern England DIY scene and On The Beach.
24 November 2015 |
AG 6
Editorial issue n° 5
Dear Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
I am obsessed with cycling. You now might suspect the opposite, having devoured the fifth issue of this publication so utterly devoid of any irony.
08 March 2015 |
AG 5
MADALYN MERKEY
Madalyn Merkey is a visual and sound synthesis artist who uses the post-romantic idea of the landscape to carefully sculpt fluid and organic electronic pieces. She debuted with the record Scent on Ducktails’ New Images label. It’s successor 'Valley Girl' was a highlight of 2014. We had a Skype conversation on her music, vocoders and Brandy.
07 March 2015 |
AG 5
Bryan Lewis Saunders
Bryan Lewis Saunders is an intense performer and visual artist. He searches the dark corners of himself and mankind in general. He goes to places where average people are not willing
to go. His life seems to be a continuous per- formance in which taking drugs to make self portraits is a logical thing to do. Or regardless of what people think of his disturbed mind, he records himself while sleeping and uses the recordings as source material for albums. He has collaborated on performances and other recordings with fellow dark hunters of the true grotesque John Duncan and Leif Elggren. Most interesting is the unconscious book on tape called, The Confessor, in which our own Razen provided the soundtrack for the title chapter.
07 March 2015 |
AG 5
Vex Ruffin
Vex Ruffin smashed all his guitars, but that doesn’t stop him from making minimal post punk no new wave. In the HBO series Girls, Adam lifts weights to his song ‘Take it’. That’s what Vex Ruf- fin does. Pumping adrenalin in your brain circuit. So you can get ready for that booty call. LAMINA!
07 March 2015 |
AG 5
VALERI SCHERSTJANOI
Valeri Scherstjanoi is a Laut poet, a visual artist and one of the strongholders in the field of Futurist and Dada poetry. As a child he grew up in Kazakhstan, in what was once the Soviet Union. As an expert in the field of Futurism and Dada,
he uses language as the raw conduit of sound and music. On his most recent tape, released by No Basement is Deep Enough, he displays excellent Lautdichtung, a form of abstract poetry injected with a deep emotional power.
05 December 2014 |
AG 4
Editorial issue n° 3
Eastern Daze... Een veelbelovende, exotische naam voor een nieuw festival dat KRAAK samen met Vooruit op poten zet. Op het programma: zes transglobale acts die hun heil zochten in oude Europese tradities, etnische muziek of in oeroude trance.
15 November 2014 |
AG 3
Norberto Lobo
The first time I saw Norberto Lobo playing was almost by accident. Hectoliter asked me to help them out with
some musical gear for this Portuguese musician I never heard of. I met on that day a shy, but friendly small guy who blew me away with intense acoustic finger picking. During his set, he scorched his way through traditional solo guitar playing by incorporating instrumental fado and American Primitive-style finger picking. Out of the blue, he started to whisper, moan and sing nonsense sounds on top of it, switching between whistling and Mongolian throat singing.
It was like he tapped in directly to an unknown ethnic tribe, reverberating their music through his.
Later I discovered that Norberto Lobo is one of the most renowned guitar players in the underground and experimental scene in Lisbon— he released more then 5 solo albums and worked with people like Joao Lobo and Pak Yan Lau. Over a virtual beer, through skype, we spoke with him about his new record (released in November) the importance of Portugese music and folklore for him.
14 November 2014 |
AG 3
Razen
On the 15th of November, Razen presents their first double LP. Razen is the duo of Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour. After a split-lp with Sheldon Siegel and the debut-cd Rope House Temper (both on Kraak), a number of tapes and the album Reed Bombus LFO (Deep Distance), the duo retreated to various chapels and churches in the countryside around Brussels. They started exploring the practices of deep listening and acoustic research during a series of recording sessions. Using largely forgotten or ignored instruments such as shawm, church organ, Ondes Martenot, bombus and baroque flute, Razen forged and refined their sound into a form of contemporary minimalist classicism, albeit one that completely bastardises Early Music traditions.
14 November 2014 |
AG 3