Rafael Toral - Space Solo 1 (Taiga - TAIGA 2)

Rafael Toral is a Portugese experimental musician who can be considered an old school artist compared to the new generation of experimentalists. He still mainly adapts the tweaking and restructuring electronic music instruments rather than relying heavily on computer. Being an improvisational guitarist (And quite a good one at that), he has taken this approach to experimental music coming to points where he has literally pushed the boundaries of improvisation.

The Space Solo 1 album was originally released as a CD by Quecksilber label and later on reissued on limited edition red vinyl. The album consists of 5 tracks taken from 4 performances out of the Space Study tour. Actually the track names are mainly self explanatory like "Portable Amplifier" where he uses a modified MS-2 portable amplifier feedback with light-controlled filter.

"Portable Amplifier" is a track that was taken from the Space Study 2 performance in Lisboa. It starts with a mainly spacelike melody which directly resembles the movie "Space Odyssey", but from then on, it takes a totally different turn where Toral pushes the amplifier and the filter to its limits. The frequency levels are constantly altered and I am sure if I was a dog, I could have heard more of it. Closer to the end section of the track, silence is also added as a factor to the composition while small clicks and cuts shows you that you are still in the loop.

"Echo-Feed" is mainly composed of repetitive notes interconnected with spacey textures whereas "Bender" creates the image of a space fight simulator in the intro and turns back into a similar approach like "Echo-Feed", but this time the textures are quite limited. It is more like a Free Jazz Improvisation, but the instrument in question is not a saxophone, but a modified MT-10 portable amplifier. Actually it could have been quite interesting if this approach was fitted with some modern Free Jazz composers. "Electrode Oscillator" is all the more demanding of the compositions due to it's ever changing structure from clicks & cuts and high pitched notes to the use of more distanced elements. One point you feel like there is an electronic woody woodpecker around and next you sit in a room of ancient computers creating click sounds at the same time. The musical understanding is not suited to our standard learnings and therefore following the composition becomes a journey in it's own right. Even though Toral does not rely on classic musicla concepts and notations, from time to time it can be sensed that he still keeps track of them. Yet sometimes, it becomes all too evident that he is in a world of music of his own. A quite interesting and attention grasping world I should say.

To buy this record:

@ Ebay (Currently only CD versions are being sold)
@ Discogs

Woody Guthrie - Library Of Congress Recordings (Rounder - 1041/3)

Woody Guthrie is an interesting character altogether apart from being the idol of many musicians that we and our fathers have been fans of including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger. He is originally a Folk musician as well as an improviser, though during the development of his career, he sang more and more Blues songs. I should also note that he is certainly not a Country singer as that may be sometimes mixed up with Folk. Another interesting aspect of Guthrie is that he was not a rebuplican. More than that, he was an unofficial communist as he was never listed in any party or groups, but his views were clearly in that line. One reason may have been that he grew up in a well integrated town where a quarter of the population was Indians, the other quarter African Americans and rest Whites. Another aspect could be the Great Depression to which he grew into.

No matter his political leanings, one thing that we can be sure of is that he was one hell of a musician. This box set is also a very good proof of that. Most of his recordings are in the archives of Library Of Congress, hence this box set represents most of the best live recordings he has done. Additionally, before and after each song he plays live, he explains the music, his story and his views which makes the records all the more beautiful while listening. We learn that his mother died in an asylum and his father somehow caught fire after losing all his money and ranch (Guthrie thinks his father set himself on fire incidentally). He even explains his experience with a certain dust storm which happened in April 14th, 1935 which eventually turned up into a song named "Dust Storm Disaster".

The tracks which have been enlightening for me were "Railroad Blues", a story about whiskey "Rye Whiskey", "Do-Re-Mi", a self explanatory post Great Depression song called "I Ain't Got No Home", etc.  The main theme of the box set is the post Great Depression era and the dust storms that came with it. During the interviews you hear a lot about the Dust Bowl and it's effect on people, how people migrated from the Great Plains to states like California and how they lived there. Songs are actually about them as well. Due to wrong farming procedures  and the drought that came with it, the whole Great Plains were covered with dust and when came the prevailing winds, they took up the dust to create dust storms which are famous of that era. These storms caused sicknesses (Hence the song "Dust Pneumonia") and changed lives drastically. For the people interested in this era which also gave birth to John Steinbeck's famous "Grapes Of Wrath", you can watch the TV series "Surviving The Dust Bowl" from PBS's website here.

Overall I have to say that this is quite a sincere performance I am listening. It was recorded in 1940 and I have serious thoughts that this was a radio show. Unfortunately I have the newer version of this box set. The original was released by Library Of Congress records back in 1964 while this one is a repress from 1988 by Rounder records. I also have to say that everything about the release is the same with the previous one. No remastering etc, so that is a good thing. The whole box set left me stunned with the interviews, the songs and the stories behind them. It is a must for any music and sociology lover.

To buy this box set:

@ Ebay
@ Discogs

Merzbow - Minazo Volume 2 (Important - IMPREC107)

Merzbow is Masami Akita. For most people in this world, his music would be referred to as noise. For those of know him, he produces music which is musically categorized as Noise. There you go. Sometimes music is not that hard to figure out.

Merzbow is one of the earliest of Japanese Noise projects and probably one of the most well known in the world of Noise music as well. Akita's project has been followed by many artists and Japan is now one of the leading grounds for the Noise scene.

The sheer number of works released by Akita reminds me of a fellow pioneer in experimental electronic music named Byron Jones. It is truly remarkable how many releases both these men have materialized in a short period of time with both over 10 albums per year.

The album takes it's name from a famous Southern Elephant Seal. Akita was a visitor of this seal who lived in the Tokyo zoo and would also allowed access to it. It seems that Akita has had a strong bond with the seal which I don't know the reason why, but right after his death (The elephant seal was a male), the pieces were produced.

The album is a two part release which this current one is the latter one. The use of samples and pedal effects are quite familiar with the other works of Akita. On the background of all the fuss, there is a soothing architecture even though isolating it from the upper chaotic structure is tough. The deeper structure feels more like an obituary while the face of it all is engulfed in systematic terror. It is not hard to guess that the feeling would be to envision the naive/captive animals living in a caged environment just for the amusement of people. Even though we are not different ourselves, we just don't have physical cages like the animals. We only have the social norms acting as invisible cages. For us, freedom is an idea mainly based on humans.

To buy this record:

@ Ebay
@ Discogs

Various - Musique Persane (Ocora - OCR 57)

Persian music or in today's understanding, Iranian music has been the dominant musical culture in the Middle East. It is known that there was a musical culture in the Persian Empire during the Achaemenian dynasty approximately 2.500 years ago. Unfortunately very little written information is available and furthermore there is no details about the style of music. However, with the Sassanian period which was 1.800 years ago, we have written records of the modal structures which made up of Persian music at that time. This structures made up of the musical system which we have been seeing in the Middle East and Anatolia until today. On the other hand, this should not be mixed with Folk music in the sense that both in Persia and in the later stages in Ottoman Empire, this music structure was mainly taken for granted by the emperor/sultan/shah and was available mainly to the palace. Therefore Folk music of these countries varied a lot from this modal structure.

These modal structures have developed over time, starting as seven in the Sassanian period to twelve in the 16th century with many many derivative modes and pieces. Within each song, there are 5-6 pieces generally which make up the entrance and the end, second entrance, ending with two pieces in the middle making up the general structure.

In terms of modals, the growth was vertically rather than horizontally, but the interesting thing is that notation has never been the strength in this region of the world. Therefore a wide range of improvisational options were left out to the players and singers. This has emphasized the importance of the artist much more. Modern theoreticians have tried quite hard to put these modals into notations with exact timing to be calculated. However, in practice they heartbrakingly found out that nobody much cared. In this sense there is a similarity with the ancient Folk music in Europe as well. We don't have to be able to write down everything in exact science. Somethings are better left vague to make it more interesting and artistic.

Maybe as a result of this improvisation options, Iran has been a dominant figure in the development of contemporary music in the 20th century. Before the revolution, Iranian music scene was flourishing with experimental artists and with Chinese artists, these composers take the leading stage apart from Us and Europe.

The record provides two Dastgah modals, Mahur and Segah. These are also present in the Turkish Classical music which in turn is actually not classical but rather palace music. The instruments are also similar. Tar, Ud, Kamanche, Santur, Nay and Tombak are present in the recording. Kamanche is native to the NorthEast Anatolia region which did appear in the folk songs, but not within the palace repertoire while Santur was never ever quite present in Turkey. Instead Kanun was apparent in the Turkish music. There is also a need to note that Turkish music got some of it's derived modals by reshaping Egyptian music into Persian music. This vast combination option increased the number of modals significantly and superficially.

The pieces are very very limited in terms of giving an idea about Persian music. The material is quite vast and even covering the 12 modals are not enough due to numerous derivatives. I don't know the exact number in Persian music, but in Turkish music, the total number of modals + derivatives reached upto over 500 with probably 50 or so remaining in use today. On the other hand, the music is totally different from the modern notation music we are used to. Even abstract music is quite simple compared to this musical culture since rhythm is a complex phenomenon and varies even during pieces of a modal. Apart from all the complexity of the system, the music is absolutely refreshing and different from the music of other regions. It is certainly a feat to delve into.

To buy this record:

@ Ebay
@ Discogs

Steve Reich - The Desert Music (Nonesuch - 9 79101-1 F)

This is a record which took me some time to find a clean one to listen to. Interestingly it's not the rarest of his records, but it became one of the last 3 records of his that I didn't own. Therefore it is special in that way also.

Steve Reich is one of my favorite composers of the 20th century. The only reason is not his Minimalist background also. He has pioneered this genre, had a hard life in the beginning and opened various ways for future composers and artists to follow. He did not compose as much as Philip Glass and was not in the spotlight like him, but all the works he has written are known to be crucial.

Desert Music is structurally Steve Reich, but the vocals and the melodies are reminiscent of Terry Riley. The first thing you can hear in the desert is the wind and your pulse (Or so they sayy). Reich started from the point of pulse and developed from it. Repetition of 8 notes created this effect also pointing out his repetitive style. The use of mallet instruments is also very significant and this style has been a signature of his since he composed "Drumming".

The composition is based on William Carlos Williams's poems which you can also hear in the vocals. The poems themselves have absolutely no relation to desert, but they were also a starting point like the pulse effect. He was also ideally effected by Sinai and the religious importance of it. Moreover, he himself had experiences in Mojave desert. However, the musical feeling in the 5 movement piece has no relation to desert or the feeling of deserts apart from the name. Yet all movements which some are divided in slow and moderate are stylishly developing into one general piece which enables you to savour the moment while listening a true talent. It is also key to notify that Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic orchestra along with the Steve Reich's musicians and chorus. It is a staggeirng record which was obviously worth the wait.

To buy this record:

@ Ebay
@ Discogs

Les Diaboua De Brazzaville - Congo (SFP - FP7-72503)

As part of my latest fascination with ethnic music, I have also delved into African music and found some gems along with it. This record in question is one of those. It is a sample of Congolese music performed by Les Diaboua De Brazzaville at the Festival Mondial Du Folklore in France. This is a live recording and the enthusiasm of the crowd is totally captured.

The rhythms are violent and powerful with percussion taking over the main stage. Every song has a meaning. The opening track "Benguela" is a fisherman's song while "Gandza" is celebrating circumcision, "Waya-Waya" is a welcoming song for an important member of a friendly family. This is African music. They don't do music for the sake of music. It needs to have a meaning. It should be a part of their expressionism in their daily lives.

The music is highly entertaining. Even though you don't get to see the dancers, you can understand their rapid movements by the reactions from the crowd. This being a live recording really raised the level of sheer enjoying of the music.

I honestly don't know if these festivals are still taking place, but I will surely check it out and if possible, go there to view in person. They should be one hell of an attraction both musically and visually. This record has shown me more than enough to give the desired motivation.

To buy this record:

@ Ebay (The search did not bring results, but you can try anytime)

Various - Les Maitres-Tambours Du Burundi (Arion - ARN 33682)

Continuing with my recent purchases of World Music records, we are now facing a very interesting record. I will delve into detail a little later on, but also have to put a dent about Arion records. Arion is a record label which specializes in World Music and some Classical Music. It is a French label like most World Music labels like Ocora and Playa Sound. All these three are well known record labels for any collector and it is a pleasure to find their catalogues anywhere anytime.

As similar to my previous review of Congolese music, this album was also recorded live however in a different festival, "Festival Des Arts Traditionnels". The record consists of 4 tracks. The first three are comparably shorter as they are mainly songs of welcoming and offering. The 4th song is in 2 parts, the beginning in Side A and the rest completely filling Side B of the record. This is the "Suite De Danses Rituelles" which probably means dance ritual song.

The music itself is totally based on percussion. There are also motivating vocals or rather shouts during these percussion movements. The style seems quite similar to that of Kodo. The rhythmic system is also similar. This may either be due to the music being totally percussion or somehow both percussion groups have ended up sharing some ideas. However, apparently especially considering the 4th song, the musical base of both groups seem to be coinciding a great deal.

Unfortunately to a record listener, it is impossible to see the dancers accompanying the music. There is a picture on the back cover which clearly shows that dancers are also present (It probably explains on the back cover information, but my French is non-existent). Tambours seem to be drums of various sizes which the group uses to enhance the rhythmic structure and they achieve this easily. The music is moving and totally attractive. I cannot stop myself from saying that it is also resembling Minimalist Classical music as per evolving rhythms and beats with many repetitions alongside. Steve Reich's Drumming is not too far away from this apart from the extra energy put in by Burundi people. All in all it is a conceptual approach and the result is absolutely enjoying.

To buy this record:

@ Discogs
@ Ebay