Edward Ruchalski - Having It Out

Label: Humbug
Format: LP (ltd. 50)
Released: 2002

First post for me, but I'll keep it short. Although this release doesn't out-do the fantastic Dark Night, it comes startlingly close. I'll let someone else do the talking...

'Maybe Ruchalski's most beautiful work yet, and another example of his densely layered, swirling sound constructions. Working from basic materials such as nondescript scrapes & buzzes, feedback, self-made motor mallet instruments, metal sheets, field recordings, vinyl loops from old 78's, one could easily imagine a bleak and/or very "difficult" music but neither is really the case as Ruchalski has a way of bringing real life to these inanimate objects, letting them breathe, sigh or sing in their own peculiar, rustic way. Sometimes even a narrative element is felt as if a story were being told (most likely a sad one - perhaps of the destiny of the WW1 soldier staring blankly at us from the collage on the cover?). Who knows? The music of Ruchalski remains shrouded with a sense of mystery to me. The underlying ideas are often familiar, like the almost obsessive study of the minutiae of sustained vibration.....(maybe it's "minimalism" to some extent?), or the environmental/field recordings thing .....but there's always something else in there, too. This LP contains mostly unreleased material (the side-long "Having It Out" and a shorter piece on the B-side), as well as some choice cuts from previosuly released CD-Rs "Moveable Sites" (Humbug011) and "Radio Journal" (Homemade Records). Edition of 50.'

Tracklisting:

A1. Part 1
A2. Part 2
A3. Part 3
B1. Moss Lake
B2. Highway 6A
B3. Refined Localities
B4. Elegy for V

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Satwa - Satwa

Label: Time-Lag Records
Format: CDR
Released: 2005 (Originally as a private press LP in Brazil in 1973)

"...Largely void of voice and word, the songs – Côrtes plucking steely leads from his sitar while Lailson's 12-string thrums crystalline chords – are loose and lovely. The sole interference in these glistening arabesques is the hoary electric fretwork of one Robertinho on "Blues do Cachorro Muito Louco," the most explicitly fried track. Otherwise, Côrtes and Lailson are left to experiment in musty silence. Seemingly taped live, each track is a dry documentation of the duo's gently rambling improvisations. Far from the recombinant psychedelia of tropicalismo that reigned over the pre-hippie underground in Brazil's bustling metropolises five years earlier, Satwa play bed peace bards. In double-mono, or fake stereo, Satwa is raw, untreated mentalism translated into pure songflow. At times exhausted and dusty – "Atom" – or archaically splendorous – "Valse Dos Cogumelos" – the duo's spiraling scrolls etched in rustic timbres unfurl gracefully."

awesome.

Tracklisting:

Satwa
Can I Be A Satwa
Alegro Paradissimo
Lia A Rainha Da Noite
Apacidonata
Amigo
Atom
Blue Do Cachorro Muito Louco
Valsa Dos Cogumelos
Alegria Do Povo

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Edward Ruchalski - Dark Night

Label: Foxglove
Format: CDR
Released: 2004

excerpt taken from a most visual interpretation of this record:-

"..The disc begins with a swelling ringing drone that rolls and sways like wheat in a gentle breeze. Over this lulling undulation one can hear the whistles of distant trains passing by. The second track marries lightly stroked piano with resonating bells and chimes that are overshadowed briefly by screeching harmonics of bowed metal before the mournful cry of the train whistle returns. Underneath this swell, the steady insistent sweep of a sprinkler hovers into range.

Over the next several parts of the piece, these basic elements are manipulated and modulated expertly to build a narrative in which individual events can be discerned (the slightly spooky piano figure from "Part Three", the "clock" striking the hour in the middle of "Part Four") but never interrupt the leisurely movement of the whole. As "Part Five" begins with gently plucked guitar frames chiming bells, one can easily picture the easy harmony of an elemental duet between a solitary farmhouse occupant and the wind chimes on the back porch. It is the first hint that acceptance and peace can be attained even amidst the turbulence of nocturnal noises.

Once the delicate piano chords at the start of "Part Six" have been swallowed by gamelan-like echoic bells, a babbling brook emerges as the underpinning for Rebecca Klossner’s "singing bowls". The presence of unfettered water (as opposed to its earlier appearance in sprinkler directed form) is emblematic of the softening the piece has undergone over its length. The final "Part Eight" breaks like dawn illuminating the previous evening’s sinister room corners as merely an innocuous and essential meeting place for the walls of home." - steve rybicki (fakejazz)

Tracklisting:

Part One (5:17)
Part Two (7:25)
Part Three (6:42)
Part Four / Part Five (8:02)
Part Six / Part Seven "Night Pasture" (6:52)
Part Eight "For Rebecca" (4:19)

Composed, performed and recorded by Edward Ruchalski.

Rebecca Klossner: singing bowls and field recording on Part Seven.

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Various Artists - Naturalism

Label: Nature Tape Limb
Format: CDR
Released: 2004

for me this record teems with life & spirituality, containing a world i could happily submerge myself in for quite some time! wonderful.

"a compilation ranging from minimal forest droppings to ritualistic bloodbath songs." - nature tape limb

"like an outpouring from all the forest creatures hiding under the protection of old growth trees. lay down and put this on headphones, and as soon as you close your eyes, you'll smell the pines in the distance." - foxy digitalis

Tracklisting:

The Nether Dawn - Talking Northoly
The Wooden Cupboard - Cabin In The Sky
Neil Campbell & Robert Hayler - Live
The Skaters - Fishing Continent Horizon
The Wooden Cupboard - The Sun Dances With The Animals
The Candle Magicians - Lanterns Of The Black Witch
CJA - Clutha
Calf - Iron & Wind
The Gnome Eaters - Fly A Garlic
Noun Cocoon - Silhouettes Of The Sabbath

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Various Artists - Radio Phnom Penh

Label: Sublime Frequencies
Format: CD
Released: 2005

thought i would further diversify this blog by posting one of the best compilations to yet come out of sublime frequencies. the music here is infectious and that which leaves me revelling in all its multi-faceted glory. a must hear!

"Rebel Guitars, Assorted Dialects, Heat-Stroke Synthesizers, and thats just a taste of this diverse assortment of Cambodian musical treasures you’ve NEVER heard before. Flowing from traditional to Modern, from rock and pop to folk and hybrid, all sequenced in the spirit of how it was captured: as radio programming designed to immediately transport you into the heart of Cambodia’s Capital."

Tracklisting:

Don't Want to Let You Go
Multi-Pop Indigenous
Blondie in Khmer Camouflage
Street Guns and Studio Drums
Synthesizers East of Siam
Indefinite State of Emergency
Phnom Penh on the Seine
Bubble Gum Independence
Rebel Guitars in Strange Dialect
Shiny Radio in a Blind Man's Wallet
Re-Mixed Culture or: The Graffiti Walls of Angkor Wat
Condoms and Condors
Sign-Off/The Venerable Anthem

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Masayoshi Urabe / Chie Mukai - Dual Anarchism

Label: Siwa
Format: LP
Released: 2002

Masayoshi Urabe : alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass block floten, alto block floten, electric guitar, harmonica, chains, bamboo harmonica, metal joints, bell, action.

Chie Mukai : kokyu (er-hu), vocals, piano, kengali, cymbals, bells, tambourine, toys, action.

An LP of music culled from performances recorded over a ten year period and edited by Masayoshi Urabe. A companion video containing different audio material was also produced by the Japanese 'There' label and an artists edition boxed set combining the LP and video was released in an edition of 20.

contains some breathtaking shifts in dynamic with its title offering a most perfect description of the aural conflict within, a very special record indeed.

Tracklisting:

A Dual Anarchism Part 1 (22:57)
B Dual Anarchism Part 2 (23:23)

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Hush Arbors - Live, Heeley Institute, Sheffield, England

Label: Backest Rainbow
Format: Cd-r
Released: 2007

A wonderful live set from Keith Wood recorded in october of 2006 in sheffield. released on blackest rainbow in a handnumbered edition of 101 copies.

tracklisting:

1 May All Your Pastures Now Spring With Herbs
2 Where The Black Bear Hides In The Sky
3 The Light
4 Bless You Girl
5 Bones Of A Thousand Suns
6 Oar Of Bone
7 Mr. Bones See's The Sea Again
8 Broken Bones

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~apolpgies for infrequent posting of late. i have been (and still am) rather busy. things should pick up again soon. on that note, we are currently looking for contributors. if you're interested, send an email to:- bonemallow@gmail.com

thanks