Slow modulating tones open “Ozark Dream” by The New Honey Shade; it all begins here with the track also named Ozark Dream, a post future retro feel that reminds me of British information films… the mining of a similar past as explored by Ghost Box, Future boards of Canada or Broadcast. This is way off though, completely way off in terms of influence, if not sound and mood.

The album was made to a series of 16mm home recorded films made in Oklahoma between 1950 and 1970, and dedicated to Mark Kuykendall’s mother, so what we have here is a beautifully personal and incredibly special album. ‘Ozark Dream’ is of it’s place of origin but it’s not until “Young Poet” that there is anything I would immediately identify as sonically and geographically reminiscent of this place, at least to whatever pre-conceptions I hold.

Mark records and produces in his hometown of Tulsa Oklahoma, and his music is clearly of great importance, central to his life in many ways, using the Oklahoma landscape of today and also of his memory to create this music. The techniques involved using modern studio equipment, customized instrumentation and old films, creates a sound world all of it’s own and one that is definitely worthy of your attention.

The album continues in fine form – dreamy, hazy, sidereal pieces of sound; this is comforting, perfectly formed music. By the end of the album I was left wanting to hear more and believe they’ll leave you feeling that way too.

- Mathew Shaw for Fluid Radio

www.thenewhoneyshade.com

Here’s a heads up for something new and rather wonderful from the Preservation record label. Below you can read up on the release information and check one of the tracks from the album whilst we get to work on a full review…

The Preservation label presents Valot kaukaa, the second album from Finnish producer Olli Aarni. Valot kaukaa is the first work for Aarni under a new name, Nuojuva, having previously appeared under the name Ous Mal.

As Ous Mal, Aarni’s 2010 debut album, Nuojuva Halava took the early promise of his CD-R releases into a beautiful realisation of a unique sound that evoked both a curious nostalgia and a sense of future pathways, combining classical overtures, narcotic beats and warm atmospherics into blissful song.

Aarni’s beguiling vision holds sparer focus on Valot kaukaa (the title roughly translates as ‘lights from far away’) for a more overtly ambient space filled with delicate instrumentation – including cello, piano, flute and violin – as well as a new interest in the possibilities of voice. Spacey and intimate with wintry and autumnal shades, its whispered melodies and open drift making for an heightened state still somehow grounded in downhome feeling.

The gliding vocal textures of Rachel Evans – aka Motion Sickness of Time Travel as well as one half of duo Quiet Evenings – is a recurring highlight, while Sophie Hutchings’ dazzling, rolling piano propels Laakso into a wonderful orbit.

Honing a special path explored on Nuojuva Halava, Valot kaukaa feels like one long, suspended, beautiful moment.

Available through the Fluid Radio store Stashed Goods and direct from the Preservation label

www.preservation.com.au

Loving this new video by Carter Gunn created for Sitting in a Roofless Room from archival footage courtesy of The Prelinger Archive in San Francisco, California. Carter is most recently known for his award winning documentary film Colony. In-depth interview with Jasper TX / Aaron Martin can be found here

www.label.experimedia.net

The Tratturi are the old shepherd’s paths for transhumance that crossed several Italian regions. The most famous ones are between Abruzzo and Puglia where livestock was moved from the altitudes of the Appennini mountains to the coastal plains of the Tavoliere delle Puglie between Summer and Winter. Measuring 111 metres (or 60 Neapolitan passi), the Tratturi have recently been restored, mainly in the Molise region, where plans have been put forward to safeguard them as a Unesco site.

These photographs and field recordings were taken last September on the Celano-Foggia path. Special thanks are due to Celestino Picanza and family.

- Gianmarco Del Re

Ghedalia Tazartes is a nomad. He wanders through music from chant to rhythm, from one voice to another. He paves the way for the electric and the vocal paths, between the muezzin psalmody and the screaming of a rocker (…) Ghedalia is the orchestra and the pop group all in one person; the solitary opera explodes himself into an infinity of characters. The self is multitude and others. The author and his doubles work without a net, freely connecting the sounds, the rhythms, his voice, his voices. The permanent metamorphosis is a principle of composition, it escapes control, refuses classification. Off limits music descends, cries and screams when it touches the ground. – Andre Glucksmann

2011 has been a busy year for Ghedalia Tazartes. A personal highlight was the live soundtrack to the 1922 silent film classic Haxan by Benjamin Christenson first presented at the Fondation Cartier in Paris in April and subsequently at the CCA in Glasgow and Cafe OTO in London back in December.

Not exactly a precursor of Ken Russell’s 1971 The Devils, Haxan suffered a similar fate at the hands of censors for its depiction of torture and nudity within a religious context. Based on Malleus Maleficarum, the film was intended as a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness at the beginning of the XX century could lead to the same hysteria of the witch-hunts.

Aside from live performances there have also been two new releases in 2011 from Tazartes: a new version of his 2009 album Repas Froid released on vinyl by PAN and the collaborative project Superdisque by Tazartes, cult trumpet player Jac Berrocal, and Parisian based David Fenech on electric guitar, out on Sub Rosa.

On the 11th of February, Tazartèe, Fenech and Berrocal will be performing live at the Atelier Claus. Support comes from The Catamites: Stephen O’Malley – Sunn O))) – and Chris Brokaw – Come, Codeine.

“The album is like a music travel in sounds, somewhere beyond the borders of rock, jazz, punk, and sound poetry. The vocals seem to come from another planet, with lyrics in an improvised language. The winds are blown from Tibetan human bones and conch seashells.”

Saturday 11 February 2012 | 8 PM | Atelier Claus | Bruxelles

- Gianmarco Del Re for Fluid Radio

www.subrosa.net
www.lesateliersclaus.com
www.davidfenech.fr

As I write this the eyes are slightly blurred and the brain is slowly giving way… I guess that’s what seven hours sat in front of a computer screen will do to you! I hope you will agree that it has been worth it as this months digital edition is packed (125 pages to be exact) full of fantastic content.

Most of you will know by now that as well as viewing the publication online (above), you can also download a PDF zip file from this link. Included in the download is a superb track from Jasper TX / Aaron Martin (From The Mouth of The Sun). Many thanks to Jeremy over at Experimedia for making this possible.

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Interview Articles:

From The Mouth Of The Sun, Marcus Fischer, Enrico Coniglio, Jacaszek, Simon Scott, Stephan Mathieu / Taylor Deupree, Qluster, Willamette, Sylvain Chauveau, Peter Broderick & Nils Frahm

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Review Articles:

Daniel Thomas Freeman / Attila Faravelli / Mem1, Ilyas Ahmed, Nova Scotian Arms, Windy & Carl, Christina Vantzou, Markus Gunter & Simon Scott, Greg Haines & 0 (Sylvain Chaveau), Nils Frahm & Peter Broderick, Lubomyr Melnyk, Ensemble-Son-Et-Lumiere & Hauschka, From The Mouth Of The Sun, Birchall / Cheetham Duo, Muhr, Marcus Fischer, The Boats, Andre Vida, Aspidistrafly, Plinth, Gultskra Artikler, Message To Bears, Dustin Wong, Radere, Secret Pyramid, Good Weather For An Airstrike, Convex Mancave

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This months writers:

Nathan Thomas, Mick Buckingham, Adam Williams, Fred Nolan, Charles Sage, Pascal Savy, Katie English, John McCaffrey, Brendan Moore, Mohammed Ashraf, Gianmarco Del Re, Josh Atkin

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This months photographers:

The Humble Bee, Pascal Savy, Nathan Thomas, Daniel Crossley

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If you appreciate what we do then a small contribution will go a long way to keeping Fluid Radio productive and also support the upcoming physical printed publication that we are saving up for.

The Leaf Label recently released five rather wonderful videos of pianist Matthew Bourne performing pieces from his upcoming Montauk Variations album (out February 6). The clips were filmed just before Christmas at Leeds College of Music, and give a sense of Bourne’s remarkable technique.

The pieces include Bourne’s version of Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Smile’ and a brand new composition, ‘Unloved’, unavailable elsewhere.

Bourne will also be performing a live show at London’s Cafe OTO on February 15th. Leaf alumni Icarus have been confirmed as support for the gig.

www.theleaflabel.com
www.matthewbourne.com

Here’s a hauntingly beautiful video for MayMay’s upcoming self titled EP released through flau records. You may or may not (no pun intended) remember we reviewed MayMay way back in July, 2010 after they had come to our attention via the Portland Stories compilation, released through Sonic Pieces. The new EP looks like being another wonderful release for flau and comes highly recommended!

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MayMay’s self-titled E.P. is a collection of 5 songs, written on a tattered lawn chair in the backyard…

Recorded during the fall and winter of 2008 in Portland, Oregon, MayMay shares a history through the sounds of fingerpicked nylon guitars, haunting vocal melodies and beautifully crafted string arrangements. With quietude and warmth, Laurel’s compositions flow full of emotivity and a natural sense of restraint. The music of MayMay transports us to a world in which we can dive to the bottom of the sea, ignoring the pressure of the water above us. – flau

www.flau.jp

The so-called ‘modern classical’ scene has furnished the world with a number of interesting and highly praised artists in recent years, but few have garnered a wider or more devoted following than Peter Broderick and Nils Frahm. Their respective solo work has charmed and delighted listeners of many different stripes, as has their recent collaborative release under the name Oliveray. It is perhaps only when seen in live performance, however, that the depth of their talent – and the strength and vivacity of their friendship – becomes apparent. We talked to the pair before their rapturously received concert at the Ambientfestival “Zivilisation der Liebe” in the old basilica of St. Aposteln, Cologne. Mass was being celebrated in the nave next door, so we had to keep our voices down…

2011 was a very productive year for both artists, with solo releases, their first album together as Oliveray, and a number of collaborations and live performances – a heavy schedule that suggests many nights spent working into the wee small hours. “We both could use a little more sleep than we’ve been getting…” remarks Broderick, prompting laughter.

“Your weekends are always kind of erased from the schedule,” Frahm agrees. “You never know when you’re working and when you have time off. Even when you travel on a beautiful ferry ride from Copenhagen to Berlin, you’re actually working but on the other hand it’s travelling. I visited Ólafur Arnalds for a couple of days in Iceland, and I was like, “….WOW! It’s amazing!” People say, “oh, you’re so busy!”, and it’s like, “yeah, but it’s also been pretty mellow”.

“It is like ‘holiday/work’,” Broderick explains with a smile.

Did any particular moments stand out from last year? “For me a highlight was definitely that we put out the Oliveray record,” Frahm says. “And also Peter invited me to come to Japan with him – that started the whole Oliveray idea, really. The contact [in Japan] asked if we were interested in bringing a tour CD or something like that.”

The pair are certainly not alone in facing an increasingly busy schedule of record releases, performances, and collaborative work, causing some to suggest that maybe there is too much pressure being placed on artists to produce new work. “I think there’s definitely something to be said about how quickly things move these days and how quickly things are forgotten,” Broderick asserts, “just because of the pace that keeps speeding up. But I don’t feel any kind of pressure. I feel more pressure to slow down, actually – that people are saying, “whoa, this is too much!”, you know, and that’s really got to my head at some point. And I thought “yeah, maybe it is a little too much”. And so I started to try to make an effort to slow things down in the future. I mean there is just so much music out there that a lot of things get forgotten about really quickly.”

With artists from all around the world making music with each other via the internet, it may appear that location is no longer such a restraint when it comes to finding a community of like-minded musicians. However, both Broderick and Frahm have consciously chosen to base themselves in Berlin. What does the city offer them that makes it such an attractive place to be a musician?

“It’s cheap!” they immediately declare in chorus, to more laughter. Broderick expands: “It’s great for travelling around Western Europe. If you want to fly somewhere for a one-off show, you can get cheap flights pretty much anywhere, for short distances.”

“A lot of people in Berlin seem to be looking for something,” Frahm muses. “They just live there from their mid-twenties to their mid-thirties, and just have the drive to do stuff. And they might go, and new people come, and other people just stay for a couple of months… You can just stay there and wait for people to visit you. It’s pretty comfortable. And I think we also like to collaborate in one room. I’ve just totally stopped this, “can you play piano on this track for me?” business…”

Broderick quickly agrees. “Email collaboration was really fun when you first start to do it. But then I would have this thing where I’d be collaborating with someone over the Internet, working on a bunch of music, and then you meet them in person and they don’t have anything to say to you, you know. And it’s like, if you can’t even have a conversation in person then… I very much prefer to make music with someone when we have a good vibe together.”

One suspects that it was the experience of working together that led them both to such a decision. Despite having only known each other for a relatively short time, it’s clear that a strong professional and personal bond has developed between the two, although they are by no means identical in terms of personality or musical background. Frahm’s dynamic approach to the piano is underpinned by many years of rigorous classical training, which prompts the question of what he has had to unlearn or re-imagine in order to keep on innovating. He sees things differently, however.

“I think I never have to unlearn things,” he declares. “A lot of my playing is probably because I never finished learning. If you have the perfect classical style, you can change your style in many different ways – I only have mine. You can play Mozart like that [mimes playing softly] or like that [mimes playing heavy-handedly]. And so when you’re only a classical player you spend your whole life learning different costumes to wear, and different masks, so that you can play different roles – like any good actor. I realised it’s too much to deal with, and way too hard at school. And so I stopped, and figured that I have enough intuition to just know what I like and not. So I just use that instead.”

Broderick’s own musical journey is in many ways very different. Inspired by a musical family, he picked up skills on a whole range of instruments, and this diverse approach has slowly come to characterise both his recorded and live output. Without a clear focus on a single instrument, as is the case with Frahm and the piano, this arguably makes the question of instrumentation much more pertinent.

“Well, I think the first real solo record I made, called “Float”, at that time I knew that I wanted to make this music that was based around piano and strings,” Broderick recalls. “Even though I played these other instruments I just wanted to use those. And at that time I thought maybe that’s the type of music I want to make, and the sound I want to have for a long time. But after I made “Float” I started to play live shows, and when I was onstage I realised I also like to sing and play guitar. So on the next record I said, ok, let’s see if I can make one without piano and strings, and then one thing kind of led to another. Most of the time there aren’t really any rules. If I’m working on a score project, sometimes they tell me, “ok, we want a score with piano and strings” or something. Otherwise I just kind of use whatever feels right. With the latest record I just finished, I made a conscious decision not to make any rules, and to just use whatever instrument feels right for the song.”

At this point Frahm interjects: “But also when you were travelling a lot you were writing songs on whatever instrument you were finding in places…    ”

“That’s the thing, yeah, whatever was there,” Broderick agrees. “If I don’t have a piano available then I’m going to write songs on the guitar instead.”

With “Wonders”, the pair’s debut album as Oliveray, Broderick and Frahm have managed to capture some of the intimacy and directness experienced when two musicians with complimentary approaches work together in the same room. However, it is in live performance that their shared creative spark really ignites.

“That was also the purpose, to write some songs which we could recreate live,” Frahm states.

Broderick agrees. “Some of them were definitely just improvisation,” he explains. “What we do onstage is also improvisation, but it’s not really going to be the same thing. But some of the more ‘singy’ songs we do for sure.”

Judging by their performance in the cavernous, reverberate hall of St. Aposteln, it is to be hoped that this partnership will continue to inspire both artists for many years to come.

- Interview and photography by Nathan Thomas for Fluid Radio

www.peterbroderick.net
www.nilsfrahm.de
www.erasedtapes.com

On the 16th of January, SoundFjord curated an evening of music and sonic arts at Cafe Oto where Daniel Thomas Freeman, Attila Faravelli and Mem1 shared the bill and had the small but dedicated audience both enthralled and unsettled…

Daniel Thomas Freeman is by now well known from the Fluid audience for the wonderful album ‘The beauty of doubting yourself’ released last year on Home Normal. The context underpinning the release was, as discussed in an interview, the depression he suffered from a few years ago and the way he recovered to finally get to the present state of self-acceptance and happiness. At Cafe Oto, he very humbly introduced each piece in relation to the illness, turning his short performance into a rather emotional affair. Freeman began his set striking a small gong for 10 minutes and gently processing it through his laptop. That first piece, which should appear on his next album, really impressed me by its sheer simplicity and its rather ritualistic outcome. He then proceeded to play tracks from ‘The beauty of doubting yourself’, made of looped violin drones, emotive piano miniatures and a final piece that beautifully embodied Freeman’s new-found inner peace. When he asked his wife to join him on stage to play celestial chimes towards the very end of the set, one couldn’t help thinking about that aforementioned interview where he said: “The beauty of doubting yourself is that you have to rely on someone else”.

I first came across Attila Faravelli’s work whilst reading Gianmarco Del Re’s first ‘Postcard from Italy’ for Fluid a few months ago. I remember being intrigued by the way Faravelli described his process: “I always try and work with the space I play in, and tend to avoid the sound system of the venue. I still work with a laptop, I physically manipulate the sounds I send to my speakers through differently shaped objects. This makes sounds almost visible.” Seeing him play the second set of the evening at Cafe Oto was a unique opportunity to experience his rather unique music. The setup: a laptop diffusing sound files through an array of small speakers distributed throughout the venue – as far as I could tell, there were cheap hi-fi speakers, walkman headphones, piezo speakers and maybe more. The performance: Faravelli moving around his speakers with shaped object (serving plates, metal cheese bell, a 12” record amongst others) and catching the reflections of soundwaves in order to alter their properties. At times, he would manipulate the speakers themselves as a way to localize some sound sources at very precise locations or went through more esoteric gestures that would dramatically change the nature of the diffused textures. Even if the audience couldn’t directly translate everything Faravelli did into tangible sonic outcomes, the physicality of the performance, that could at times become quite theatrical, made for a very engaging and powerful statement about the nearly solid nature of sound, manipulated like clay by Faravelli for the matter. In a sense, it was like watching a sculptor moving about his creation, using unusual tools to further elaborate his artistic discourse. But unlike a solid and inert block of clay awaiting to be shaped, Faravelli’s material was very much alive and dependent on the acoustic reflection of the room, thus turning this performance into a fine sonic balancing act.

US-based duo Mem1 (Mark and Laura Cetilia) played the last set of the evening – a 30-minute performance using laptop, cello, electronics and radio broadcasts. The concert was an occasion to showcase their work during their Visiting Hours residency at SoundFjord, documenting their experience of London through location recordings. I found their performance surprisingly restrained but nonetheless true to the spirit of their beautiful and visceral album ‘Tetra’ released in 2010 and described by fellow reviewer Michael Vitrano as a work whose “three profound pieces move beyond the reality of the sounds to create an ongoing expedition into the uncanny”. Mem1’s set began with sounds emitted from what looked like an AM radio receiver and manipulated with custom software, thus reducing them to a ghostly core whose remnants of electromagnetic transmissions were gently wafting into the venue. Soon, emotive and plaintive cello motifs, played and processed with pedals by Laura Cetilia, added subdued layers of melancholia that wonderfully related to the feeling of walking in the deserted streets of London just before dawn. In the second section of the set, things took a more abrasive turn with what sounded like the processed sound of roadworks, but careful electronic manipulations once again stripped the outer layers from their rawness to reduce them to beautiful and undulating droning textures where one could decipher distant calls in the far reaches of the city, unveiled by the delicate electronic deambulation of Mark and Laura Cetilia – an “ongoing expedition into the uncanny” indeed.

- Review and photography by Pascal Savy / Film by Gianmarco Del Re

www.cafeoto.co.uk
www.soundfjord.org
www.descendingangel.com
www.attilafaravelli.com
www.mem1.com