For a few years now, Cafe Oto and The Vortex Jazz Club have been two of the most exciting venues in East-London gaining a fully deserved reputation for hosting some of the best improv, experimental and drone-ambient nights on a nearly daily basis. When I heard that Home Normal and Hibernate would be celebrating their end-of-the-year party on 18/12/11 in Dalston, where Cafe Oto and Vortex are located, I expected the event to be held in one of these two places. Instead, the gig took place in a local and charming pub, whose back-room could accommodate 150 people. The evening provided an incredible and talented artist line up courtesy of Jonathan Lees and Ian Hawgood…

Wil Bolton opened the evening with the celestial tones heard on recent ‘Chimes for a Wall Drawing’; manipulations were delivered directly on a laptop to articulate a very detailed and luminous performance. His set, which drew mostly on the exceptional sound palette heard on his recent projects, ebbed and flowed in slow tidal movements, and was a perfect and gentle introduction to the whole event.

Ithaca Trio’s Oliver Thurley took the venue underwater for the next 40 minutes or so. Starting off gently with field recordings of pastoral surroundings, he gradually obscured the landscape, to dive deeper and deeper toward the low end of the spectrum. It was then a matter of navigating dark and troubled waters, through hidden caves and dangerous reefs, to eventually swim back to the surface, having the audience both enthralled and unsettled.

Katie English under her Isnaj Dui moniker used a reduced palette of instruments, amongst which was a beautifully-sounding bass flute, to create a mind-blowing performance. Sometimes tapping on the mic boom to generate a low thump which she looped as a way to give rhythmic motion to her live improvisation, or layering incredibly intricate flute motifs, her performance was certainly a true reflection of raw creative talent.

Ben Chatwin aka Talvihorros gave a truly engaging and quite dark performance, as someone familiar with his rather exceptional release catalogue would expect. Standing in front a table full of effect pedals and various loopers, he used his guitar to draw fuzzy lines and uncertain landscapes, sometimes adding aching melodic lines to an otherwise hazy and sombre atmospheric set.

The Boats are certainly on everybody’s radar at the moment with their recent release on Slaapwel and their new album on 12k. A wonderful review/essay has just been written by fellow reviewer Brendan Moore and should certainly be read by anybody interested in the band. As a live proposition, The Boats joined by Danny Norbury on cello were nothing less than extraordinary. Even when he didn’t play, Norbury had an incredibly haunting presence on stage that was enough to attach a strong emotional narrative to the music. When he delivered the delicate melodic motifs he’s known for, it was always with restrain and humility but with incredible impact- a small musical triumph.

Rutger Zuydervelt‘s wonderful performance was probably the most ‘experimental’ (for lack of a better word) of the evening but nonetheless very subdued and emotionally charged. Using a sole sound source, a tone generator on which he dialed frequencies across the whole sonic spectrum, Zuydervelt carefully crafted a meticulous and delicate sound world which he spent 45 minutes to thoroughly examine under the lens of a complex array of looping devices. In a way, it felt like watching a physicist scrutinising a bubble chamber as he forced elusive particles to collide. Ranging from microsounds looped and patiently deconstructed through to harsh and distorted soundscapes, Zuydervelt’s performance drew on the emotional power of raw frequencies set in motion, somehow reminding the audience that “there is no noise, only sound”.

Finishing off the evening, Anthony Harrison aka Konntinent was accompanied on stage by a singer whose distant and echoed calls were beautifully bouncing on the surface of his droning textures. Over the course of his performance, he drew wonderful and haunting soundscapes and incorporated at times sequenced synths, muffled beats and percussions to his set for what happened to be a perfect combination.

Last but not least the Was Ist Das Soundsystem played a rather exquisite fragmented set throughout the evening, while the different artists were setting up the stage for their respective performance.

- Words by Pascal Savy for Fluid Radio
- Film by Gianmarco Del Re for Fluid Radio

www.hibernate-recs.co.uk
www.homenormal.com
www.wilbolton.co.uk
www.ithacatrio.co.uk
www.myspace.com/isnajdui
www.talvihorros.com
www.myspace.com/bepputheboats
www.myspace.com/dannynorbury
www.machinefabriek.nu
www.konntinent.blogspot.com
www.wasistdas.co.uk

Under the signature of Machinefabriek, Rutger Zuydervelt has become one of the most well-known names in experimental music circles, drawing praise for his releases on labels such as Cold Spring, Kning, and Dekorder. In 2009 film director Chris Teerink invited him to create the soundtrack for a documentary Teerink was working on about Sol LeWitt, an invitation that Zuydervelt accepted, despite knowing little about the artist. After thoroughly researching LeWitt’s work, Zuydervelt found himself responding with enthusiasm, and had soon produced over forty piano improvisations responding to the American artist’s images. Twenty-one of these improvisations have been refined and released as “Sol Sketches”, which, although Teerink’s film has yet to be completed, acts as a sort of pre-soundtrack, a work-in-progress of sorts that nonetheless stands on its own as a complete product.

The music in “Sol Sketches” is dreamlike and evocative, which would seem to put it at odds with its purported inspiration. LeWitt, often considered as one of the key figures in the development of conceptual art, wanted his work to be rational, logical, and self-contained, to the extent that he often did not ‘execute’ the works himself, but instead produced sets of instructions for assistants to follow – as if the art was code to be executed by a machine. But it is precisely by this desire to efface himself – to remove himself from the site of art’s production – that LeWitt inscribes himself at the very heart of that site. The mark of this inscription is the signature that accompanies every set of instructions, guaranteeing its authenticity. The signature is a trace, a ghost of desire that cannot be erased, even if the artwork takes the form of something as impersonal as a calculated series of mathematically-determined geometrical shapes.

From this perspective, it makes perfect sense that in the open, hanging notes, the insistent ostinatos, the uncertainties and hesitancies of Zuydervelt’s improvisations one finds a certain hauntedness. The piano’s frequent tailing off into silence, as if turning away or just leaving the room, is the musical quality most evocative of LeWitt’s flight from the scene of art – sometimes it is as if the music is barely there. I found “Sol Sketches” to be an absorbing and engaging release, standing up well as music despite its ambivalent position as a not-quite-soundtrack; although the twenty-one tracks contain little besides piano and the occasional gentle intrusion of electronics, a subtle invention and that pervasive haunted atmosphere made close and repeated listening a pleasure.

“Sol Sketches” will be released as a limited-edition 4 x 10-inch vinyl boxset on Champion Version, as well as a CD version available through Stashed Goods and also directly through Machinefabriek. The CD comes with a neat bonus “gadget” ? a custom “Sol Sketches”-branded eraser, a reference to LeWitt’s championing of drawing, and perhaps also to the artist’s desire to erase all trace of himself from his art.

- Nathan Thomas for Fluid Radio

www.machinefabriek.nu

Clarinet, fuzzy processing, stubbed out cigars in a back street pub are vehicle, passenger and idealised venue for Machinefabriek & Gareth Davis’ “Jazz Standards Vol.1″. Rutger Zuyderveldt once miked up a zither at a Nottingham club in 2009, and that experimental streak serves, like his huge catalog of recordings already present, to what the second collaboration between him and multi-instrumentalist Davis was going to turn out like…

Murmered clarinet tones commence “My Funny Valentine”, sentimentality blowing through the reeds, swiftly adjoined by an ostinato-esque hum from the mournful backing melody. What makes it so beautiful, is how few notes make such a lasting impression, comparable to Colleen’s “Les Ondes Silenscieus”. Real intimacy for equally small spaces. Plight of the instrumentalist: how you feel more can be done after one task is put into action, goes hand in hand with helping you keep track of your achievements each day. It builds your self-esteem. It shouldn’t be guilt-ridden or feeling you need to do more. With this work, there’s an affluence with jazz’ resolution – how notes evolve and produce chords irrespective of time signature. And as love is entwined in so many daily musical activities: bashing a kit; tuning a harp; live multisampling – it makes channeling focus into digestible blocks all the more worthwhile – to your sanity as well. Lo and behold, years later you may garner endless meaning from altering your life by listening to this ‘ere release.

“To accept a person does not mean that I deny his defects, that I gloss over them to try to explain them away. Neither does acceptance mean to say that everything the person does is beautiful and fine. Just the opposite is true. When I deny the defects of the person, then I certainly do not accept him. I have not touched the depth of that person. Only when I accept a person can I truly face his defects.” ~ Peter G. van Breemen SJ, As Bread That Is Broken

That’s essential to jazz’ instrumental poise  – whether it’s drum solo, guitars and percussion, sax and oboe – transcendence. In this collaboration, it really kicks in for “Oh, Doctor Jesus”, the flipside of the lathe cut 5′ vinyl. What it lacks in organisational business – all 1:57 of it -  it shelves by its complicity to Davis and Zuyderveldt’s dive into jazz and ambient decimal re-shuffle. Adore or despise it, the trademark bushy soundscapes remain unplucked from Rutger’s brow. He’s been applying them further back than “Weeler” on Lampse. But this, as with him and Davis on Sonic Pieces (“Grower” from 2010, with those being less white noise and more searing drone), produces an effect equivalent to violin pizzicato in classical music: a regularly fragile instrument being hectored for sonic information, so that it applies the right tension and release to the occasion. Combined with Gareth’s little revelations in clarinet playing, they turn in five inches to beat any substandard weight loss programme in one fell swoop.

- Mick Buckingham for Fluid Radio

The  limited 5-inch lathe cut looks to be gone forever, however the release is available digitally on Bandcamp:

www.machinefabriek.bandcamp.com
www.brianrecords.co.uk
www.machinefabriek.nu
www.myspace.com/davisgareth

Tapes have a particular resonance with those old enough to remember their heyday, in anything other than a hazy flashback…

“QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 24 mg) There was a slow buildup to a ++ or more over the course of about three hours. Extremely tranquil, and no hint of any body toxicity whatsoever. More than tranquil, I was completely at peace, in a beautiful, benign, and placid place. There was something residual that extended into the sleep period, and was possibly still there in the morning.”

Tapes were the poor cousin to vinyls, with their immense artwork and booming tone, but they still had their own subtle and appreciable charms. Portable, if you were lucky enough to own a Walkman. Duplicable, an easy and affordable way to get music to and from. Replaceable, if they were to go astray, break or wear out.  They also have a tangible nostalgic association with the tech of the day; gaming systems, 8 bit, the same heft as a cartridge, able to collect dust, yet still harbingers of a distant digital future.

Looking back on them now you can still see the ethereal and transportative glint, reminding you in some way of a possible vast horizon beyond the back fence, the defined boundaries of your childhood.

Rob Gibson, the public face of Chemical Tapes, seems to get this dimensional allusion in a very central and undiluted way. In fact, he appears to be totally tapped into it, seemingly mainlining this conceptual element in a way that few others can.

The independent UK/Spain based label was established in March 2011, and has already dropped releases by Machinefabriek, Maps And Diagrams and Indian Weapons. The label specialises in limited edition experimental audio from both established and new artists, themed around psychoactive phenethylamine chemical derivatives, notably those that act as psychedelics and/or empathogen-entactogens.

Are you keeping up so far? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you feel anything yet?

All three cassettes thus far have their own synthetic characteristics –

Cat No: 2C-I (2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine)

Machinefabriek provides an elegant soundtrack, recorded live, to accompany Paul Clipson’s experimental film “Lightmaze”, playing with the concept of a reversible two-sided medium by laying out a twenty-four minute drone, then reversing it on side two. Sounds obvious when spelt out like that, but as is with everything Rutger Zuydervelt does, there is sharp intelligence and obvious talent present. Clipson’s film is a summary of hallucinatory nocturnal landscapes, consisting of colours, textures and varieties of light, considered and passed through several rhythmic movements.

Cat No: 2C-B (2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine)

Maps And Diagrams’ “Red Moon Rising” picks out the 8-bit element, inserts considerably more resolution, and serves up nine tracks of Kosmiche-tinged melodic digitalis, attempting to unearth the moment at which the German pioneers toned down their avant-garde experimental facet and started to develop what we now call Ambient.

Cat No: 2C-E (2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylphenethylamine)

Indian Weapons lean more on the assertive and alert side, two tracks of demanding glare. On “Labyrinth”, Indian Weapons synthesises the ancestral drumming patterns favoured by shamans with claustrophobic obsessional electronic rotations to form an aural vehicle for healing, consciousness expansion, and community building.

“… affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away.” – Albert Hofman

Gibson took some time out to discuss the after effects, the highs and the lows of Chemical Tapes.

Why tapes? What drove you to focus solely on that format?

Gibson: We wanted to launch a label, we knew the kind of music we loved and would love to release and we had an aesthetic that we thought would work.  The next choice was the medium.  Every man and his dog can burn off CDr’s, xerox some covers and start getting some releases out.  On the flipside of that we could have delved straight in with vinyl which seemed much more costly and risky for our first dip into the label game, although it’s something we would definitely like to do in the future.  I had found personally that I was buying more and more music from tape labels, especially from the US, it’s a great tactile physical product and we thought cassettes would also work nicely with our choice of aesthetic, the label name became an easy choice and here we are.

Is it harder to find duplication services for tape?

Gibson: We thought this may be an issue initially and was half expecting to have to get them done in the US at NAC and shipped over. I then got a few recommendations for a UK based company called Tapeline who offer pro-dubbing facilities.  They have been great, always friendly and helpful, I recently moved and I found out they are literally 30mins down the road from my new place which was a result!

How did you attract your contributors?

Gibson: Free chemicals as per their catalogue numbers!

No, I have to say Tim (Maps And Diagrams) has been great for us, I had known him a while and he was the first guy onboard and because so much of this was new to us his advice has been invaluable.  A lot of the guys I approached were really into the aesthetic and design ideas and having Tim onboard also probably helped to settle their initial fears. Also I like to think that our website stands out a bit from the usual blogs with Paypal buttons, as we offer secure credit card options, digital sales direct from site etc..

Who is involved in the label other than yourself? Are there dedicated roles for you both/all?

Gibson: We are a two-man operation. I am the man on the ground, dealing with artists, orders, promotion, stock etc.. The other guy is the design whizz who built the site, designs the covers and keeps the more techy aspect ticking along. He is actually based out in Spain where as I am here in the UK. So it’s a kind of internet collaboration.

How did Machinefabriek and Indian Weapons come to line up their releases?

Gibson: I had been talking to Rutger (Machinefabriek) about releasing something with us for a while, he finally settled on the piece he recorded live and edited for the Paul Clipson film entitled Livemaze.  Paul also provided the imagery for us to use for the cover.  Brad was great, I really wanted to him onboard but was expecting him to either be to busy or not be interested in an as yet unproven new label!  It turned out that he had an Indian Weapons session called Labyrinth, the first time as a trio with Eden Hemming Rose.  He offered it to us, it sounded amazing and was perfect fit for a c30.

What other batches are to come in the immediate future?

Gibson: Next up we have Mohave Triangles, another guys who’s music blows me away, he is perhaps more familiar to people who follow the american labels having released on Digitalis and Sacred Phrases. It will be a c30 of psychedelic synth journeys entitled ‘Smoked Mystics’.

Following that we have another artist who’s work I have admired for a long time and incredibly excited to release something by him, Drekka. It will be a document of his European tour across Italy and Slovenia which was then assembled and mastered back at Bluesanct HQ. Entitled (funnily enough) ‘Live In Europe 2010′. Expect a c46 of ambient experimental folk magic.

Then we have Flotel, another guy who has been in the electronic music game for a long time and needs no introduction, he has been pretty quiet as of late so we very excited to be releasing all new material from him. It will be a c60 entitled ‘Valence’. I have the master and it sounding amazing, a really multi-textured ambient electronic collection.

What are the plans? What are you going to aim for with the label?

Gibson: We couldn’t have asked for a better start, with releases from established names from the USA, UK and Europe. We hope to continue like this and also introduce possibly lesser know artists whose material will feel deserves a wider audience. Soon we will also offer mixtapes from the artists with downloadable j-card artwork so you can create your own tapes, keep an eye out for some limited edition t-shirts, hopefully some vinyl a little way down the road and of course plenty more doses of experimental audio on tapes!

- Interview by Alex Gibson for Fluid Radio

Chemical Tapes releases are available through Stashed Goods in limited numbers

www.chemicaltapes.com

Here’s your chance to hear an exclusive live session from Rutger Zuyderveldt (Machinefabriek) at the World Minimal Music Festival, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, in Amsterdam, April 30 2011…

The recording is completely unedited and captures Rutger and his very best. Directly after this performance, Steve Reich officially opened the 5-day festival.

Equipment used:

- Guitar
- 3 dictaphones with 30-second loop tapes
- 2 loop pedals
- 1 custom made on/off pedal (Marcus Fischer TM)
- Compression, eq and reverb pedals
- Korg Monotron
- Small mixing desk

www.machinefabriek.nu
www.muziekgebouw.nl

So the story goes that Rutger Zuyderveldt and Gareth Davis met once for 15 seconds and out of that enough music for four albums was spawned. That’s an exaggerated version of events; nonetheless, by now this pairing is the stuff of myths. ‘Grower’ is the result of the same session that brought us last year’s ‘Drape’ release on Home Normal from this pair. Unsurprisingly, ‘Grower’ is surely to be as treasured by all that enjoyed the first round of music.

With ‘Grower’ what we get are two songs clocking in at over 15 minutes apiece. The thing that has made this duo a delight to hear is how well they feed off one another, especially considering the brevity of the sessions that led to this release. These are songs that take their time and are delicately nuanced but also surprising: the stillness is just an illusion as things are always transforming, elements drift in and out of focus, and what seem to be incidental moments actually become motifs within the pieces. Machinefabriek proves himself again and again to be a great collaborator always serving to counterpart the very best attributes of those he works with.

‘Grower Part 1’ begins with a long stretch of Rutger’s droning guitars setting the tone. But once that clarinet enters there is a whole new element added to the setting. When Davis enters there is a sense of foreboding and mystery that becomes clear, almost as if Davis gives the evocative aspects of Machinefabrieks’s works a sort of pinpoint accuracy. Gareth Davis does a lot with a little once again as he seems to be able to reference various world influences in three notes or less a la Demdike Stare. It’s quite unbelievable how many corners of the world this music is able to reference in its 33-minute span.

‘Grower part 2’ is the far more subdued piece at the outset. Davis comes in early on this one and Machinefabriek tends to take a more reserved position in the background. This time the relationship is reversed: it is Rutger who acts to give Davis’s work a sort of platform to build off of. But as it evolves, the piece turns noisier and darker than it’s predecessor. The final minutes seem like some nightmare of dissonance that might serve as part of the score to a Dario Argento film circa 2032.

The two songs that comprise ‘Grower’ are perfectly configured to create a narrative, just as the four compositions that made ‘Drape’ were. It seems odd to label improvised works as ‘perfectly configured’, but really this is a very focused release. Sure, such decisions are made after the fact, but still; we as listeners reap the rewards.

‘Grower’ is an album that often takes its time. These two artists hear each other and hear each other well, never missing a step, never getting ahead of one another. The only way these sorts of musical payoffs exist is when you have two musicians working with a sort of chemistry that is either organic or, well, not-at-all. Needless to say, these are two artists that balance/challenge/coerce the best from each other.

- Review by Brendan Moore for Fluid Radio

www.sonicpieces.com
www.machinefabriek.nu
www.myspace.com/davisgareth

Following on from their debut release, ‘Glisten’ released by Low Point in 2009, ‘Patina’ is the second collaborative album by Tim Catlin, a guitarist and sound artist based in Melbourne, Australia and Machinefabriek, the nom de plume of Rutger Zuydervelt from Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

For the creation of ‘Patina’, Catlin and Zuydervelt adhered to the tried and tested method of working successfully employed on their previous collaboration. Catlin made initial recordings drawing upon a wide range of approaches, preparations and techniques for guitar and electric sitar that were then sent to Zuydervelt for the addition of extra sounds, overdubs and sequencing.

With both artists’ sharing a passion for developing upon the minutiae of the guitar, ‘Patina’ is an immersive album of unfurling layers of sound, acute harmonic gestures and deeply embedded drones. Throughout the course of these two long-form tracks, one can sense that the working relationship between these two artists has hit its stride. With a broader sound palette, including the introduction of field recordings and rhythmic elements being utilised to great effect, ‘Patina’ is an album of both gentle nuance and compelling intensity. – Low Point

Ltd edition white vinyl LP, pressed by Record Industry in the Netherlands for optimum sound quality. On sale for £11 plus shipping. Pre-orders available over at Low Point

Fluid Radio review coming soon

www.low-point.com

From Steve Roden, Rutger Zuydervelt (whom some of you may know as Machinefabriek) and Sabine Burger comes an audio-visual release that is as much an exercise in general minimalism as it is a celebration of subtlety in music and the embedded hypnosis of the natural world. The tone for everything heard and seen is generally delicate and enchanting – a pairing of stimuli that won’t come as a shock to anyone, but forms a welcome reminder of the graceful interaction to be enjoyed in such multidisciplinary works. This EP length disc is comprised of extracts from what is presumably a much larger body of work exhibited at Galerie Vayhinger late last year – offering such an elegantly presented item as a record and souvenir of such an event is a commendable move in itself… all too often the exhibited material is left to be forgotten, replaced by the next thing that comes along and robs it of its place in the memory of the attendee.

And indeed elegance runs through every aspect of Lichtung. The physical package is sparsely decorated – light grey with a single leaf printed on the front; the extensive liner notes are all black text on white folded card and the disc plain white. As the DVD menu pops up it’s much the same affair – black background, white text and the bare minimum of words and options… basically, ‘play’.

And when you do, barely anything happens for a few moments. The title fades into existence and then disappears… then footage of a water’s surface being struck and displaced by droplets emerges to the sound of whirring drones and textures, with rustling, almost mechanical non-musical sounds scattered over the top. Familiarly lulling and enchanting, it is deliciously easy to get caught up in the fragility of the visuals and tones. The stasis and restraint continues throughout the subsequent unfoldings, split into sections by black fades or gaps of silence, where faint pads, resonant chimes and bubbling, jangly field recordings are enfolded the mist. It is during the second half that a real sense of characterful drama seeps in, mainly brought about through Aaron Martin’s quietly commanding cello playing and the blissfully reflective, very Zen-like conclusion. These represent points where the music is at its most alluring and captivating and they form sections that are essential in keeping away any niggling feelings of ‘wallpaper ambient’… but thankfully these fears are for the most part fleeting, distant and highly subjective anyway.

Typically melancholic this style has come to be, Lichtung isn’t much different… but to define it in such a way is almost disrespectful to the minimal and organic nature of what is presented. I prefer to see it as exactly what it is, no stigma attached, especially when emotional ambiguity in this kind of music can often be it’s downfall. It seems that this work is more about the elusive mysteries of natural texture than it is the mysteries of the human psyche.

- Review by Daniel W J Mackenzie for Fluid Radio

Available through Rutger’s web site

www.machinefabriek.nu
www.inbetweennoise.com

With the recent review of ‘That it Stays Winter Forever’ looking to be one of our end of year hot picks, we just had to post the live performances of Liondialer and Machinefabriek on their recent japan tour…

www.myspace.com/liondialer
www.machinefabriek.nu

‘That it Stays Winter Forever’ is a group of three individual recordings by artists Machinefabriek, Kleefstra/Bakker/Kleefstra and Liondialer…

Limited to just 300 copies and set to accompany a forthcoming tour of the Far East, we’re delighted to provide an exclusive review of this record which marks the conclusion of a strong year for Manchester based White Box Recordings.

Labelled as the ‘Masters of the Dark Arts’, there can be no denying the ambition and scope of the tracks presented by each of the artists here. Machinefabriek provides a 17 minute drone fest to open the proceedings with a track labeled ‘Instuif.’ Laced with an accessible, warm and fuzzy loop of electronic haze, the track builds slowly with minute glitches and crackles. The immediate effect of this is a meditative trance that is inflicted on the listener. As the music builds and the listener becomes more enveloped in the sound, the frequency of these glitches increase, while occasional drones fuse into this mesh of electronic glow. Certainly one of the more comforting recordings from the huge outpouring of music we’ve come to hear from Machinefabriek, ‘Instuif’ evokes thoughts of luminous colours such as oranges and yellows whilst still maintaining the coolness of a winter sun. One senses the flickering light of a burning wood fire, its spitting flames and the moody shadows it gives off, as the track comes to its slow conclusion.

‘Dat it Altyd Winter Biluwt,’ composed by Kleefstra/Bakker/Kleefstra continues the ambient, drone filled path of this record’s opener, but strips itself of the warm colours found within ‘Instuif.’ Instead, one senses an icy coolness thanks to the humming, wind-like drones that fill this piece. Metallic sounds provide an unintentional percussion and these fabricated bells are joined by an echoed voice and guitar. In what feels like a greater exploration of the outdoors, the drones from the beginning of the record meld together to form a backdrop to a gloomy, sorrowful guitar. When the spoken voice returns, there is an eerie sense of loneliness that transcends the music. One senses an isolated individual lost in a blanket of snow covered fields. Indeed, as the electronic sounds take over from the voice to close off the track, it as if the individual has been consumed by this emptiness and is engulfed in an expanse of white.

Liondialer closes off the record with a 22 minute composition entitled ‘Mitt Andra Hem.’ Unlike the previous two tracks, a defined use of acoustic instrumentation, rather than a grouping of processed instrumentation introduce the listener to this piece of music. Nonetheless, the playing here is as melancholic as it is beautiful, with Danny Saul providing an emotional take on American folk and raga fused string play. This builds over the first five minutes or so before becoming entrenched with a smoke of echoes and exaggerated notes as Liondialer slowly introduce an electronic manipulation to their instrumentation. Such is the impact of this coating, that eventually all remnants of acoustic guitar become lost, before emerging from the clouds of noise that had previously surrounded it. We hear whispers and cries of what might be Greg Haine’s cello, which is tinkered with greatly to remove any true sense of the instrument’s natural output. As the track evolves into a more ambivalent existence, torn between its acoustic roots and a highly experimental flow of electronic consciousness, we hear a greater churning of laptop enthused tones before the acoustic sentiments return to conclude the record.

With three esteemed artists providing rich, detailed, vast and vivid compositions, ‘That it Stays Winter Forever’ ensures listeners can explore a body of work that explores experimental musicianship of a high standard. The tonal variety on display here coupled with lengthy tracks means that listeners have plenty of time to invest in gaining a deep understanding of the work produced. As is a constant with limited editions, we understand the packaging will be of a high quality with Jonathan Lees, Hibernate Recordings label head, providing the photography. A recommended purchase, providing even more reason to catch the tour for those lucky enough to be based in Japan!

- Review by Josh Atkin for Fluid Radio

Machinefabriek, Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra & Liondialer – November 2010 Tokyo tour dates.

Nov 19 2010 – Ringoya, Tokyo
Nov 20 2010 – Loop-Lines, Tokyo
Nov 21 2010 – Loop-Lines, Tokyo
Nov 23 2010 – Super Deluxe, Tokyo
Nov 26 2010 – Otoya-Kintoki, Tokyo
Nov 27 2010 – Uplink Factory, Tokyo

www.whiteboxrecordings.co.uk
www.machinefabriek.nu
www.myspace.com/janromke
www.myspace.com/liondialer