Category: 2021

Mediale Muzik

John Duncan / TR Kirstein out on Moving Furniture CD+Bandcamp.

CD

JOHN DUNCAN has operated for decades at the cutting edge of performance, video, experimental music, installation, pirate radio and television. He has played a pivotal role in the development of performance art in Los Angeles, of experimental music as a member of LAFMS, of Japanese noise and pirate radio in Tokyo. Duncan’s work in experimental music continues to have a lasting influence as his art overall continues to be honed, refined, sharpened. http://www.johnduncan.org/

Moving Furniture Records is a label based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands specialized in releasing experimental electronic run by Sietse van Erve, started in October 2008. The label has a strong focus on drones, experimental ambient, minimalist, microtonal and field-recordings music, but we don’t limit us to this.

Moving Furniture Records has released music by both renowned, musicians such as Frans de Waard, Gareth Davis & Merzbow, BJNilsen and Machinefabriek, as (young) new talent such as Find Hope In Darkness, Zeno van den Broek, Bas van Huizen, Rose & Sandy and Haarvöl.

Review in Vital Weekly “I heard the name John Duncan for the first time in the mid-’80s, and ever since I heard his music off and on. In the last decade, mostly off. I am not sure if there are many new releases from him, or maybe they simply don’t reach me. Duncan was once part of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, starting a trajectory that brought him to Tokyo, Amsterdam, and then Italy, where he performed radical music. The shortwave radio is one of his main sound sources (well, perhaps ‘is’ should be ‘was’). Kirstein, on the other hand, is someone of whom I heard not too much music, save his work with Pär Thörn (Vital Weekly 1261) and that he is a member of Lights People (Vital Weekly 884) and Topos, a trio with Jacob Kirkegaard and Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard. I believe you could call him a computer musician, but that is also what you could call Duncan.
    This collaborative work started with a dream Kirstein had in which Duncan repeated the phrase ‘You Are Safe’ (the dream was on the day that Roky Erickson from the 13th Elevators died, March 31, 2019, if that has any relevance). Kirstein asked Duncan to record that phrase, as well as ‘Come To Me’, which is the second piece here, and around that, they spin an intricate web of sine waves or drones; or both. You never know how these are generated nowadays. Likewise, I am not entirely sure what was done here, beyond the voice of Duncan. ‘Come To Me’ is repeated more times than ‘You Are Safe’ and has more words. It is a song if you want. I don’t know how the drones/sine waves were made, but my best guess is that these are computer-generated. In ‘Come To Me’, the drones at the beginning sound like a buzzing insect, which is slightly annoying, but over twenty or so minutes, it morphs into a gentler variation. By then, the repetitions of the voice are also less. ‘You Are Safe’ starts with a similar drone as ‘Come With Me’ ends, maybe tying both pieces together, but the drones remain sober and atmospheric throughout this piece. The repeated text is almost like a warning signal. I enjoyed this piece a lot for its minimal character and, honestly, the lesser amount of text. The other one is not bad at all, certainly in the second half of the piece. It is altogether a most interesting collaboration. (FdW)”

Bandcamp: https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/john-duncan-t-r-kirstein

Madrigal (for Gesualdo) by Christian Rønn & TR Kirstein

Topos, the danish forefront of interesting musings and beyond, is releasing “Madrigal” today. A piece of music by Tobias Kirstein and Christian Rønn recorded live in 2017. Two organs, 8 oscillators, wooden floor and ceiling, stonewalls, some people and a good amount of time and patience.

Christian Rønn works with improvisation, electroacoustics, fixed composition, soundart and film-music, performing and writing in a variety of combinations and constellations. F.ex. with Ikue Mori, Peter Peter, Aram Shelton and P.O. Jørgens. Points of interest: unrecognizable states of being, transcendence, journey beyond language. His energetic and out-of-body-playing-style has been likened to Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra. As an organ-and piano-player, he creates solo- and collaborative works for organ, piano and multi-channel electronics as well as installation-works. Writes and produces “Panser” with Peter Peter as well as the popular electronica-act “Ganga” and has been scoring film-classics as “Battleship Potemkin”, “Metropolis” and “Man with a Moving Camera”.

More about Christian Rønn: https://christianronn.dk/