Albums, more albums, three albums of a more experimental nature, three of a perfect pair…
Hye-gang \ Barbara Rosemary \ Cats of Dust – Kalpa 겁 (Ubocze) – And here we are in the middle of an uncomfortable Summer and not wanting to move too much, and this is just what we need. Something far more than just background music, this is experimental sound art with an inviting depth to it; “We invite you to check out the album by the Polish-Korean ensemble Hye-gang \ Barbara Rosemary \ Cats of Dust entitled Kalpa 겁” said the short message. it is a rather beautiful album, a slow moving graceful set of pieces, a rather recommended piece of art that really doesn’t deamnd too much in terms of review. Graceful
“One kalpa (劫) is the time it takes a drop of water to break through a large stone every 1000 years, or the time a stone is wiped off by the hem of a fairy’s skirt, which comes down to earth every 100 years. The original expression “겁” is a phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit word kalpa – so in Buddhism, eternity means that this kalpa continues in a circle, referring to an incalculable amount of time.
The music on the over-an-hour-long album is based on drone structures. Spatial ambients, slow evolutions of tones and blurring the boundaries between sound and silence create a sacred, almost ritualistic mood. Over this sonic background float the sensual, dreamy vocalizations of Barbara Rosemary and the Korean-English melodeclamations of Hye-Gang, reciting her own poetry. We invite you to meditate”. Bandcamp / Facebook
And while we’re in Poland, here’s a rather strong Ubocze Records sampler that they want you to download for free and explore.
From Poland to Wales…
Ysbryd Mawr – Pollen Woollen (Ysbryd Mawr) – The music of an experimental musician and artist based in Rhayader, Wales who runs a record label of the same name, something of great spirit. This is an album that’s very much at ease with itself, a collection of pieces that are easy to be with, pieces that breathe so well, pieces that enjoy the space they exist in.
Thirty-five or so minutes, Pollen Woollen is a collection of improvised guitar pieces, recorded in Rhys’ home studio on the edge of the Cambrian Mountains in Mid-Wales. “The album is a reflection of the remote landscape and rural community around him. Keeping the instrumentation simple has pared back the need for excessive production techniques and overthinking, maintaining the immediacy in which the album was written and recorded, for the most part, improvised and in one or two takes. What few words to be found are meant as abstract decoration rather than forceful narrative” – and it is another case of less is so much more, it feels like the mountains of Mid Wales, like the space, the vastness, a place to be alone.
“The conflict surrounding land-use, particularly present in Rhys’ locality, inspired and informed Pollen Woollen, at times quietly melancholic and pensive, equally conflicted, frustrated and hopeful. A hike through the mountains, meadows and marshes, filled with strident, looming chord progressions and delicate, pinched notes that hover in the air. Pollen Woollen echoes both the human legacy and the pure wonder of nature” –
Not sure if this is frustrating?
When there are vocals then they are hopeful, Lupins is just beautiful, if you do just dip in and have a quick listen, don’t leave without listening to the sparse beauty of Lupins as well as the spoken word and field recording that is album closer Woollen. These pieces sound like landscape paintings, sparse Welsh landscape paintings. I rather like this album, actually, I really like this album…
Here’s something related to the new Rival Consoles album…
And more Welsh, well at least a Welsh album title…
Incapacitants – Chwalfa (Otoroku) – Chwalfa (Welsh for dispersal, rout, upheaval, upset, or a confused or chaotic state) documents “the first return of Incapacitants to the UK since 2016. With the windows boarded up and the subs doubled, two ordinary looking blokes Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosaka obliterate OTO’s usual whisper hush with clipped out, scorched earth tape loops and pedal chains – transporting the room to the planet’s furnace core and back again. It’s all music, all at once, in a whorling vortex of time bending velocity”.
This is a release on Cafe Oto’s nearly always rewarding in-house label of course and this release is particularly interesting…
Oto tell us that “Incapacitants are a Japanese noise music group formed in 1981. It consists of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai, whose stated aim is to produce “pure” noise, uninfluenced by musical ideas or even human intention, using primarily feedback, vocals, and various electronics. The group was formed in 1981 in Osaka, Japan, as the solo project of Mikawa, a member of the noise improv group Hijokaidan. Mikawa, a bank employee, later moved to Tokyo, where he joined with government office worker Kosakai (also an occasional member of Hijokaidan, as well as a former member of C.C.C.C.) to make Incapacitants a duo”.
Not sure if this is “uninfluenced by musical ideas”? It might be uninfluenced, it feels rather musically influenced to these ears, hard boiled, full on, musical (influence) though. Abrasive, intense when played loud, and it is best when played very loud, this is not background music, this needs to dominate the space the listener is occupying, both the physical space and the head space – Chwalfa contains two tracks, one from each night of the residency. It arrives as a glass mastered CD in a digipak. Edition of 500 with liner notes by Vymethoxy Redspiders. Recorded live at Cafe OTO on the 6th and 7th of September, 2024 by Billy Steiger. Mixed by Oli Barrett. Deemed best left unmastered. Layout by Abby Thomas – I’m reviewing this via the Cafe Oto website, I can only hear one of the two tracks (we’re not The Wire so Oto have never been that interested in anything we do or say, we don’t get advance listens), we can only hear the thirty-eight minute recording of the Incapacitants second night at the North London venue that is a mere stones-throw from the Organ bunker, can’t tell you how different the second thirty-odd minute track is.
Right now Incapacitants sound like they’re squeezing whatever they are using to make the sound, it does sound like they’re crushing music making machines, it is all gloriously abstract, alive, committed, the committed art of noise. Cathartic more than enjoyable maybe? No, this is intensely enjoyable – harsh, jagged, relentless yet intensely enjoyable (that ending is a little abrupt though, it needs to be on a never ending loop), if this is non-music or not influenced by music then it is very musical non music and it might be just be that they’ve failed to achieve what they’re trying to achieve?
I guess we could talk of free jazz or abstract improve, of something verging on but never quite touching sonic violence? We could talk of raw consciousness (as Vymethoxy Redspiders, who writes the release’s extensive liners does), we could pounder the possibilities (or the impossibilities) of painting something this intense; it isn’t quite an urgent thing, it never feels out of control, it never feels like it is going to fall off those rails it is riding and it never become something to chin-stroke over, this is not an academic exercise, you don’t need to be a soundart nerd to enjoy this rather positive experience…
You can find details of this album but hear nothing (at the time of writing) via Bandcamp, or you can hear one of the two excellent pieces (we assume the second track is just as good) and find out more (or indeed order it) via the Cafe Oto/Otoroku website
Previously on these pages
THE ORGAN 