My Reviews of CDs

4’33”
0’00” editions provisoires, 2008
This mini CD is a short and elegantly packaged special edition release of John Cage’s 4'33" (1952) and 0'00" (1962).

Originally released on Cramps discs in 1974 and performed by Gianni-Emilio Simonetti, Matthieu Saladin expresses the concept of this re-release on the inside booklet flap: “Maximum amplification of the first release of 4’33” by John Cage…”. The listening instructions suggest one écouter à haute volume. I like my hearing just fine so I ignored this instruction at first. But then my curiousity got the better of me and I was rewarded with a profoundly intense state of otic euphoria after 4 minutes and 38 seconds. As the sound stopped my ears had that fuzzy sounding feeling that occurs after rock concerts in large stadiums. But wait a minute! This CD is 4’38” not 4’33”?! I can only assume that the duration is slightly off because of the simultaneaous performance of 0’00”. Or did the performer take liberties with the composer’s score? Did John Cage prepare a special version for the premiere recording? Did the engineer forget to shut off the record button?

Be that as it may it is still a beautiful if slightly deranged concept to present this work in a recording of the first release on Cramps at maximum amplification. What results is an astonishingly aggressive noise piece with few variants in its dense and gritty texture. Of special note are moments at 2’57” and 4’33”. Who would have thought someone would turn Cage’s so-called ‘silence’ piece into an Italian futurist-esque tape noise composition? It might be conceptually similar to when Eugene Chadbourne covered J.S. Bach’s cello suites on the banjo. This cover version of 4’33” may not be popular but it’s definitely a keeper. *** (thirty-) three stars.

- I review CDs for Musicworks Magazine, and on this blog.

Jan 10, 2013


Pierre Bastien, Visions of Doing (western vinyl: WEST053):

With this latest release from Pierre Bastien, I can safely say that every recording Bastien releases I like – a lot. Most impressive is his ability to put elementary musical materials and found sounds together into an enjoyable and extraordinary listening experience. Like songs you may have forgotten, each piece can sound familiar but inevitably takes you where you don’t expect. Pierre Bastien’s music includes homemade sound making machines that create series’ of drones and rhythmical patterns. His ‘toy orchestra’ is made up of many mechanical parts (from the toy set Meccano) and other found objects that create layers of sound like several beds of rustling leaves. Over this Bastien sometimes solos, sometimes plays his own wobbly ostinatos on acoustically altered trumpet or small guitar and occasionally on older electronic keyboards of the sort you don’t hear much anymore. The drones and patterns are unique to Bastien as are the physicality of the instruments and their ability to make sounds. All of the invented asymmetries are taken into account in any given composition of Bastien’s where rhythmical peculiarities and odd gestures abound. His musically meandering solos also have a wonderful low-tech ambiance. Such as the enchanting electric piano solo in South African Lady that moves from atonal chords to modal riffs to rhythmically uneven clusters as though the pianist has lost his way indefinitely – and then suddenly the precarious line of a slow moving musical saw will float in and out like a ghost on its own train.

At times there is a feeling of nostalgia in Bastien’s tunes, a nostalgia that might resemble being in a smoky laid-back nightclub listening to Duke Ellington and his band play a super slow yet swinging rendition of Mood Indigo for the fortieth time. Such is the tone of The Thermodynamic Orchestra. Or the trippy lips-buzzing-singing-into-a-bowl-of-water solo that beats the hell out of any kazoo I’ve ever heard in The Girl from Surinam.

Visions of Doing is different from other Bastien records in that it marks his collaboration in sound/film with audiovisual artist Karel Doing. “Now twenty years after our first encounter I am paying homage to Karel Doing’s images…more than just the soundtracks to his films, these pieces are the result of years of collaboration…” writes Bastien. Several of Karel Doing’s sounds have been incorporated into the fabric of Bastien’s musical selections. And Bastien’s music inspired Doing’s development of several of his ‘Optical Toys.’ The main difference I hear from previous releases is a more processed sound attributed to the types of musical materials used. Here Bastien deftly layers the acoustic with the electronic while letting the sounds ‘behave as themselves’ as though they were simply found on the beach before being thrown into the composition. Although there are definitive Bastien ideas in these selections, there are also elements of the unknown.

And the one thing that brings Bastien and Doing together is not to be left off of this disc: as an added bonus there is an excerpt from the film collaboration, Four Eyes. Here the listener views the visual imagery of this duo’s collective mindset.

But even without seeing the film I had a very definite visual experience of the music after listening. The images – rightly or wrongly - can be created in the fiction of one’s mind and I like that very much about this recording. Even upon hearing sonic references the overall effect is not one of a particular narrative, but more like a non-existent fiction - the kind that is not written, only imagined.

If you haven’t heard the music of Pierre Bastien nor seen his collaborations with filmmaker Karel Doing I highly recommend seeking them out. But this work is not easy to find in stores or catalogues. Online it can be found from www.pierrebastien.com and www.westernvinyl.com.

Jan, 2010