Experimental Music on Spotify Worth Checking Out

**Frownland** · 01-18-2016, 12:15 PM

If you're on an Evan Parker kick, you should check out his albums September Winds and Townorchestrahouse (which is under Paal Nilssen-Love on Spotify).

OccultHawk · 01-26-2016, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

If you're on an Evan Parker kick, you should check out his albums September Winds and Townorchestrahouse (which is under Paal Nilssen-Love on Spotify).

It took me some time but I finally listened to both of your suggestions and they are indeed both excellent selections. Not that there's much reason to compare but my favorite of the two is September Winds. Cool third stream vibe. I love when Parker plays those abstract patterns so quickly and deftly. It takes on a mystical quality. The more I listen to him the more amazed I become.

grindy · 01-27-2016, 02:37 AM

Just want so say, that I really like the stuff you're posting here. I know most of it, but it's nice to be reminded. And the few I did't know, turned out to be lots of fun. We seem to have really similar tastes in those musical areas. Cheers.

OccultHawk · 01-27-2016, 05:49 PM

That's impressive you know most of the stuff on here. I'm trying to choose obscure music that's way outside the mainstream. Stuff that has had limited exposure and deserves more. I'm very glad to hear you're checking out my recommendations and enjoying them and I appreciate you saying so.

OccultHawk · 02-09-2016, 04:54 AM

Diane Labrosse, Ikue Mori, Martin Tétreault
Île bizarre
Ambiances Magnétiques
AM 055
1998

Diane Labrosse, Ikue Mori, Martin Tétreault: Île bizarre // Reviews ? electrocd.com ? The Electroacoustic Music Store

Review by:

By Gary Flanagan in Nightwaves #6 (Canada), May 1, 2000

Quote:

Promotional material for this album described it as "cinema for the ear", and that is a pretty accurate description. This is "sound as art" in the truest sense of the term. Grinding, whirs, buzzes, snaps and bangs are all brought together to create a suggestive sonic soundscape. Diane Labrosse (samples), Ikue Mori (electronic percussion) and Martin Tétreault (turntables) have created a work which achieves an almost organic quality from the most inorganic resources. if you are looking for something that is daring and goes nowhere near the mainstream, then this is for you. Most of the moods captured on this disc are stark and hollow, giving the listener a true taste of coldmetal machinemusic. One could almost subtitle this "Symposium for Junkyards". If you enjoy the true industrial approach (ie Einsturzende Neubauten), then you will undoubtedly love the challenge of this work. One suggestion: Île Bizarre must be heard on the best possible sound system that you can get access to. Sound enthusiasts will love turning track two (Ad Ventum Capere Grandes Machinae) up as loudly as their stereo systems will permit!

OccultHawk · 02-13-2016, 12:16 PM

close embrace of the earth

Lenni Bukowski--contra-bass, contra-alto, alto & bass clarinets, alto & baritone saxophones, little instruments,
Mike Khoury--violin, little instruments
Piotr Michalowski--alto & bass clarinets, baritone, tenor, soprano & sopranino saxophones, little instruments

December 2003

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Violinist Mike Khoury also runs the Entropy Stereo label (if you haven't invested in the Griot Galaxy double album he released a few months ago, do something about it fast), and his playing partners on Close Embrace Of The Earth, clarinettist Lenni Bukowski and saxophonist / clarinettist Piotr Michalowksi are also active as music journalists. Not surprisingly then, they reveal a strong awareness of and respect for the whole tradition of free jazz - in its open, airy instrumentation and angular lyricism this often recalls vintage Creative Construction Company - and have little use for the spluttering and fizzes of extended technique that now seem to be par for the course in contemporary improvised music. When such sounds do appear then, as on "MU2", they're fresh and surprising. Also worth seeking out is Khoury's Duets 2001, a limited edition CDR release (50 copies only, be warned) featuring four cuts, three recorded live at his Michigan-based Entropy Studios, which team him up with electronician Chris Peck, clarinettist Jason Shearer, pianist Hans Fjellestad and the indefatigable road warrior of American improv, saxophonist Jack Wright. —DW

SEMJA Update - October 2003

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Lenni Bukowski (contra-bass, contra
-alto, alto & bass clarinets, alto & baritone saxophones), Piotr Michalowski(alto & bass clarinets, baritone, tenor, soprano & sopranino saxophones) and Mike Khoury (violin) work so well together that it is hard to believe this is the group's first recording. Their compositions are thoughtful and introspective, easily giving way to reflective and at times brooding improvisational statements and conversations. The interplay between the three musicians shows a level of maturity uncommon for a group that has been together for so short a time. Each of the three displays time and again the ability to seamlessly drop out of conversation to pick up a needed thread of support, or just as easily leave a supporting role to pick up off of something heard from one of the other two. Equally impressive is the trio's attention to sound, tone and dynamics. And once again, here the interplay seems nearly flawless. Restraint with regard to a partner's need to be heard without straining seems to have been the order of the day.

Bravo! With Close Embrace of the Earth this trio reveals itself solidly in the tradition of the avant-garde.

At the time of this review it appears that Lenni, Piotr and Mike have no plans for another CD anytime in the near future. One can only hope that circumstances will change such that they will favor us with a second CD before too long.

cadence

Quote:

Review of Close Embrace of the Earth (Abzu) in Cadence Magazine 30/1, January 2004 p. 48.

Two woodwind players and a violinist compose the reaching, probing trio of Michalowski/ Khoury/Bukowski on (Close Embrace of the Earth). Moody clarinet, explosive violin, and high-pitched saxophone sounds send the initial message signifying the intensity built into this music, which develops further into an open forum for free interaction of challenging dimensions. Wide diversity marks the tonal range pouring from these musicians' instruments, giving the program a deep bottom, robust midrange, and exhilarating high end. Bukowski and Michalowski both play alto/bass clarinets and baritone saxophone in addition to several other reed varieties, and although stage positioning is not noted, one can surmise the specific source using the location depicted on the liner photo-graph. They encompass Khoury in a ring of aural warmth, and together the three artists weave complicated threads into an integrated pattern marked by passion and compassion.

The recording is an unstructured collection gleaned from three live performances in Ann Arbor. Each selection is a sculptured work denoting a high degree of communication among the three free spirits. The overriding emotion, however, leans toward the sullen side. A sense of melancholy pervades the songs, even when the musicians reach pinnacles of excitement. Khoury's strings sing out with frenzied energy while Michalowski and Bukowski explore opposite ends of the sound spectrum, yet the music retains its deep, disconsolate persona. Despite this, the trio is able to instill an aura of calm through these brooding conversations. Michalowski, Khoury, and Bukowski speak a refined language where inner feelings dictate the direction they collectively traverse. They carry one along on this extended mind journey to coalesce all traveling souls into their contemplative circle.

Frank Rubolino

OccultHawk · 02-14-2016, 12:27 PM

This next recording, like the last two, is on the less abrasive side of the music featured in this journal. It also falls into what I consider to be third stream music. If that is a genre you enjoy this and the one above are recordings I think you're likely to enjoy.

Sven-Åke Johansson

Six Little Pieces For Quintet

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7377283

Quote:

Description
Personnel includes: Sven-Ake Johansson (drums); Axel Dorner (trumpet); Rudi Mahall (bass clarinet); Sten Sandell (piano); Matthias Bauer (acoustic bass).

Drummer Sven-Åke Johansson's argument is simple: now that over 30 years separates listeners from early free jazz, you can revisit the genre from a distance. On Six Little Pieces for Quintet, the man who drummed with Han Bennink on Peter Brötzmann's landmark 1968 LP Machine Gun delivers tunes in the spirit of early free jazz. The structure is simple head/solos/head, communication language remains limited but unambiguous, and musicians have been selected for their knowledge of the period and the fact that they have ventured further down the experimental road. These are not free improvisations, but structured free jazz pieces, with the emphasis on jazz: it bops, it swings, it has rhythm, whether it is kept or ignored. Rudi Mahall (bass clarinet) and Axel Dörner (trumpet) deliver inspired solos, keeping extended techniques to a minimum -- Dörner has proven he is a seasoned experimentalist with his CD Claque but, although he does get "excited" on a few solos, he usually remains closer to more "standard" free jazz playing. "Medium, Ruhig (Bom-Zeke-Bom)" pitches and tosses wonderfully. "Forsches Legato" contains a ripping bass clarinet solo and "Iangsam" features a piano solo by Sten Sandell that has almost more in common with Charles Ives than with Cecil Taylor -- a highlight. Six Little Pieces for Quintet is light and friendly without drowning in nostalgia. Simply enjoyable. Recommended. ~ François Couture

OccultHawk · 02-20-2016, 04:52 PM

Dave Phillips – Homo Animalis (Schimpfluch)

Hanson Records — DAVE PHILLIPS - Homo Animalis Double CD (Schimpfluch Associates)

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Dave Phillips (*1969) has been a purveyor of radical sound since the mid 80's, as a founding member of Fear Of God in 1987 and since 1991 as part of the Schimpfluch-Gruppe (with Rudolf Eb.er, Joke Lanz and others). Working solo since 1987, dp has developed a unique sonic language typified by sharp compositional techniques and existentialist/environmentalist connotations.

Listen: Dave Phillips compositions - The Wire

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The album develops Phillips's concept of humanimalism. Nick Cain (in The Wire 366) says: "An exact definition of humanimalism is hard to pin down – a kind of different state of awareness and inquiry achieved through withdrawal and rejection – but it’s clearly derived from Phillips’s commitment to animal rights (buried in several of the tracks are what could be the sounds of animals in varying degrees of distress) and his frequent critiques of organised religion."

Dave Phillips – Homo Animalis (Schimpfluch)

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Homo Animalis is unrelentingly dark, foreboding, and at times grim and malevolent sound art. Electrics are mixed on equal footing with the primal, with the human voice, and undefined animalistic roars, with deep guttural growling and terrifying screeching to create an unsettling edgy uncomfortable landscape.
Swiss based sound artist Dave Phillips seems to love the drama, he loves to induce palpitations in the listener, enacting the fight or flight response with impossibly deep, impossibly close mic’d growling often occurring in tandem with multiple dogs barking. Lots of inhuman sounds appear and disappear throughout the pieces, meshed together in an unwieldy web of voluminous sound.

OccultHawk · 03-21-2016, 07:51 AM

One piece of trivia I didn't find on line is that the above mentioned record samples this long quote from the film Bad Boy Bubby

Bad Boy Bubby (1993) - Quotes - IMDb

Now let's take the Latin out of the last one and go to Human Animal by Wolf Eyes on the very famous Sub Pop Records. This album received honorable mention on Pitchfork's list of Top Twenty Sub Pop releases.

Wolf Eyes: Human Animal | Album Reviews | Pitchfork

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instead of noise made from pure abstraction, we get music beaten until it shatters into noise, with what sounds like 100 simultaneous punk songs piled into endless climax

If we were back in the day when people put checks in the mail I'm sure yours would be.

OccultHawk · 03-21-2016, 12:25 PM

Austere by Pedestrian Deposit

Straight out of Bandcamp!

https://pedestriandeposit.bandcamp.com/

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Reverse tension noise composition; existing somewhere between electroacoustic music, sound collage, and pure harsh noise, with elements of nearly every style of experimental music in-between.

Pedestrian Deposit Austere

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Austere bridges the worlds of power electronics and haunted ambient

CAN YOU DIG IT???

01-18-2016, 12:15 PM	#21 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	If you're on an Evan Parker kick, you should check out his albums September Winds and Townorchestrahouse (which is under Paal Nilssen-Love on Spotify). __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

01-27-2016, 02:37 AM	#23 (permalink)
grindy . Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: . Posts: 7,201	Just want so say, that I really like the stuff you're posting here. I know most of it, but it's nice to be reminded. And the few I did't know, turned out to be lots of fun. We seem to have really similar tastes in those musical areas. Cheers. __________________ *A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.*

01-27-2016, 05:49 PM	#24 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	That's impressive you know most of the stuff on here. I'm trying to choose obscure music that's way outside the mainstream. Stuff that has had limited exposure and deserves more. I'm very glad to hear you're checking out my recommendations and enjoying them and I appreciate you saying so.