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The Children…’s Blues is a Primal Yowl

06.03.2024 by M Donaldson // 1 Comment

The three members of The Children… sitting around

The Children…, as you have already noticed, follow their band name with three dots, periods, or stops. I detect the implication of something sneakily approaching. Whatever it is, it’s not necessarily coming for the children, but maybe it’s the children themselves, Village of the Damned-style. I say this in hindsight after listening to A Sudden Craving, the second album from The Children… The music evokes multitudes. It’s a layered and cinematic affair with intricate instrumentation, spacious sonic production, and beguiling stranger-lurking-around-the-corner vocals. The songs on A Sudden Craving are also delightfully ominous, spurring a complexity in their deep darkness—a reflection, rather than a warning, of what comes after those three dots. It might be those spooky movie kids with glowing eyes, or it could just be something chasing childhood’s innocence down a night’s cityscape.

The core of The Children… is Michael Wiener, Jim Coleman, and Phil Puleo. Others float in and out, but this trio provides the bulk of the instrumentation and songwriting credits, with Michael also deploying the vocals. Jim and Phil are veterans of Cop Shoot Cop, and Phil has done time in Swans and Swans offshoot Angels of Light. Michael’s artistic journeys have taken him into the avant-garde, as well as writing essays, criticism, and screenplays. Bonus points: Michael is a memorable figure in the fantastic documentary Hail Satan!, described as the film’s ‘performative inspiration.’

The band’s collective curriculum vitae (which I’ve largely truncated—there’s much more to these three) informs A Sudden Craving toward the ambitious, the unrepentantly artistic, and a product of the grimier parts (are there any others?) of New York City. The noisier, perhaps industrial-inflected, side of late ’80s NYC rock echoes throughout, but the imagined spaces frequently found in these songs add a quiet contemplation to the set. Most importantly, it’s a dynamic reading, especially when the album is listened to from head to toe. Whatever malevolent Children… are coming upon us, I’m guessing they’ll be won over by candlelight.

Months ago, I sent a handful of questions to The Children… and received prompt and generous responses from Michael and Jim. However, the interview’s appearance on this site was not as prompt as I suddenly needed a cornea transplant1It went well! I may write more about this soon, or I may not., which put all eye-related goals on the back burner. My apologies to everyone involved, of course, accompanied by gratitude for these illuminating answers from The Children… In this exchange, the two touch on the darkness of an NYC music scene, how improvisation is everywhere, how they embrace a certain definition of ‘gothic,’ and tales from the recording of A Sudden Craving. Enjoy, kiddos.

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Categories // Featured, Interviews + Profiles Tags // Cop Shoot Cop, improvisation, industrial music, music scenes, New York City, Swans, The Children

A Degree of Randomness: A Conversation With Joseph Branciforte

03.22.2024 by M Donaldson // 1 Comment

Joseph Branciforte pops up on my computer monitor as we begin our chat. He’s in an austere studio chamber, pristine and wooden, with racks of audio gear and a familiar Juno-60 behind him, all by its lonesome. Are those a pair of Grammy awards I see on the shelf? It’s not the typical studio I encounter when chatting with a musician making electronic or experimental music. Besides the Juno, it doesn’t look like any studio I’ve recorded in. Mine are always a mess.

Have you ever noticed that graphic artists, especially those with a refined aesthetic, have the nicest workspaces? The idea must extend to mastering and mixing engineers of Jospeph’s caliber and scrupulous dedication. Glance over his client list, and you’ll see names that I’m sure have requirements: the ECM label, known for its consistently polished palette, figures in as a patron of services. This makes Joseph’s Greyfade imprint, established in 2019, an exciting development. We expect a bending of sonic expectations, a lack of preference for electronic and organic, music redefining its terms, all immaculately recorded and presented.

I’ve got Joseph and his studio on my monitor as we’re discussing LP2, a collaborative album with storied vocalist Theo Bleckmann. Joseph is warm, engaged, and obviously proud of his work on this record. He should be—featuring Theo’s wordless melodies and Joseph’s electronics, the album bends all expectations, blurs the electronic and the organic, and redefines plenty. As for how it’s recorded and presented, the sound of it is as stunning as the record’s stark design and packaging is remarkable. Released at the tail end of 2023, on the eighth of December, LP2 made it just in time to become my album of the year.

I should briefly explain Theo Bleckmann. He’s a vocalist and composer of incredible range (“both his pitch and emotional range,” says Joseph in our conversation) and an epically diverse repertoire. He’s a human instrument, as you’ll hear on LP2. and has worked with the likes of Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, Meredith Monk, Philip Glass, so many others. Curiously, and possibly impressively, Theo is credited with an alien language in Men In Black.

As an electronic manipulator himself—Theo submits his instrument to his own rack of effects—the voice is game for dipping in and out of familiarity. Joseph enhances and de-hances, both within live improvisation and in a post-production setting, and the results are magical. I almost wish I didn’t know anything about the who and why of LP2, as that would make its songs so immediately mysterious. What’s the voice? What’s synthesized? Are we outside? What’s electronically rejiggered? Is that a vibraphone?

The instruments on LP2 insist on being listened to as a whole rather than picked apart. This makes discernment fuzzy, especially if experiencing with mystery, but satisfying for those of us seeking something secure yet impressionistic. What Theo and Joseph have created floats around—a warm mist that’s neither comforting nor ominous but holds gentle touches of both.

My conversation with Joseph was heady and sometimes technical. We delve into his process and dig into the creation of specific tracks on LP2. In contrast to my vague, descriptive flowers above, Joseph delivered a pleasantly straightforward overview of what makes the album something special. We also chatted more than I’m letting on here, and I’m saving our short discussion about a much-anticipated future album until its release. Joseph also teased me at the end by saying, “We could talk about Master Of Puppets for an hour.” Bring it on.

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Categories // Featured, Interviews + Profiles Tags // Audio Production, Experimental Music, Greyfade, improvisation, Joseph Branciforte, Max/MSP, process music, programming, Streaming Platforms, Theo Bleckmann

Simon Berz’s Geological World

11.05.2023 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

Piecemeal improvisations, disconnected by not only time and place but also mortality, take residence in the three-way collaboration, Breath Versus Beats. Swiss sound explorer Simon Berz launched the project by laying down a quintet of spacey drum and percussion pieces at Mariny Studios in New Orleans. Months later, Simon had an onstage encounter with Toshinori Kondo, the Japanese electric trumpeter known for his work with John Zorn, Herbie Hancock, DJ Krush, and Bill Laswell’s band Praxis. As Simon relates, “[Kondo] was standing on stage and tapped me on the shoulder. I saw this guy for the first time in my life, and the first word he said to me was, “‘Recording.'”

Fast forward to the pair taking the unedited Mariny sessions to Kondo’s studio in Tokyo, where he lovingly blanketed his distinctive trumpet excursions over the top. Unfortunately, sometime later, Kondo passed away at the much-too-soon age of 71. The five tracks remained unfinished — the two musicians had stopped short, feeling the addition of a low-end instrument was a necessity — until Bill Laswell entered the picture. As a long-time collaborator and friend of Kondo’s, Bill enthusiastically provided the missing puzzle pieces with his rumbling bass guitar and deft mixing ear. Breath Versus Beats was both born and reborn.

The song’s first four titles conjure the elements — “Water,” “Earth,” “Air,” and “Fire” — while the fifth evokes their absence in “Emptiness.” Simon is a sound artist who often works with raw materials like rocks and trash and describes his process as coming from “the geological world.” Thus, it’s not surprising that natural elements provide sonic inspiration, but the tonal palettes that separate the songs, while distinct, are only discernibly connected to their titles by subtle interpretation. “Water” does flow alongside the gentle ride of Simon’s drum pattern, eventually meeting turbulent rapids once Kondo’s trumpet takes on the role of an overdriven electric guitar. And “Earth” certainly imagines a dirt-clad crew digging downward, Simon’s drums taking on a quick but soil-like plod while Bill’s bass flops around cooly in the mud.

It’s apparent after repeated listens that Breath Versus Beats is actually about three elements: Simon, Kondo, and Bill. The contributions of each are individual in the space occupied within the music’s territory, as well as how their instruments define the works’ collective whole. That each track resulted from three different improvisations recorded at different places and times is an amazing realization. There’s a palpable togetherness and organic color throughout Breath Versus Beats, owing to this trio of remarkable musicians who have spent their creative lives mining unconventional techniques. “Emptiness” is the best expression of this musical solidarity, blending the participants’ contributions into a gorgeous fourth-world soundscape. The performances feel restrained but in an artful way that respects the others’ parts before rising to a majestic hue. It’s as if this album is saying the elements found in nature feel separate, but they work best when they come together.

Simon Berz recently joined Lawrence Peryer for an extended discussion about Breath Versus Beats, the experimental jazz scene in New Orleans, and creating audio art from rubbish and found objects. It’s an excellent conversation — you can listen to it in the audio player below, on the episode’s web page, or in your favorite podcast player. Below the fold is an excerpt from this chat (edited for clarity) where Simon talks about the possibility of creating a symphony from scanning the barcodes of store-bought vegetables.

[Read more…]

Categories // Featured, Listening, Media Tags // Bill Laswell, Everest Records, improvisation, Kaspar König, New Orleans, Simon Berz, sound art, Toshinori Kondo

8sided.blog

 
 
 
 
 
 
8sided.blog is an online admiration of modernist sound and niche culture. We believe in the inherent optimism of creating art as a form of resistance and aim to broadcast those who experiment not just in name but also through action.

It's also the online home of Michael Donaldson, a curious fellow trying his best within the limits of his time. He once competed under the name Q-Burns Abstract Message and was the widely disputed king of sandcastles until his voluntary exile from the music industry.

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