Stephen Fruitman

Eric La Casa & Cédric Peyronnet, La Creuse (Herbal International)

Innovative sound manipulators Cédric Peyronnet (who usually trades as Toy Bizarre) and Éric La Casa (who indeed does sport an accent over the first letter of his name, despite appearing without one on the cover) travel to La Creuse, one of the internationally least well-known departements in France, to conduct an unusual topographical survey and do a bit of sonic gardening.

Selecting a specific territory wedged between by two rivers, they set out to prove that the map is not the country by underlining the fact that any and all observation and recording is subjective. The course of action they choose is for the one to compose an impression out of what he had collected in one area, which is then sent to the other who dips into his personal bank of sounds – some of them, if I understand correctly, not necessarily recorded in La Creuse - and further flesh it out according to his own taste. And then vice-versa.

For all this interaction between strong personalities, the results are abstractly cohesive and engaging. Totally untreated natural sound hardly ever rears its head, except for the burble of the rivers bookending the album. Occasionally your ears might convince you that that particular irregular tattoo is rainfall on a corrugated metal roof, or that those sussurations must be crickets baking in the July sun, but how can you be really sure? And is it really important to know?

It is handsomely packaged, in common with all of the Malaysian label Herbal International´s releases, featuring a French language diary, plenty of photos of microphones standing alone among the hills and dales, maps and a short but informative description of the process in English.

http://www.herbalinternational.tk

Doc Wör Mirran, Doc Wör Mirran (Historical Obscurity, Vol 1) (CDR Miss Management)

To celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary, Doc Wör Mirran has re-recorded its very first production, a self-titled cassette, featuring original members Joseph B. Raimond, BH Worrick, the late Frank Abendroth and latter-day additions Ralf Lexis and Peter Schuster. Inside the striking new cover is a reproduction of the original hand-drawn j-card.

Today, Doc Wör Mirran can be solo artist or a small collective, a drone machine, a cosmic electronic outfit, a rock´n´roll band, an author and a painter, depending. This initial foray, created with now-vintage analogue synthesizers and an electric guitar, maybe a tape recorder, is a crazy-quilt of industrial, collage, cosmic electronica tipping one moment toward the quietly spacey, the next toward the noisily earthly, squiggly osciliations, fizzling short-circuits, bright sparks and dark moans, noodlings, doodlings and a little poetry.

By ”re-recorded” I am not not quite sure if that means simply pressed a new edition or somehow recreated the original. Because it does sound very much twenty-fve years old. Which is not a bad thing. It is truly an "historical obscurity", but one which is indeed informative and thought-provoking.

This record also marks the beginning of a new series released under the auspices of the MissmanagemeT sub-label, a unique proposition on today´s music and art market, where the conversation seems to be dominated by moneytalk.

In combining the ethos of punk, the seemingly universal opportunities for access of the Internet, and the desire to keep the physical CD alive, MissmanagemenT is literally giving it away. Printed on the back of the CD case in big, bold lettering, is ”Pay No More Than $0.00!” Because as they say, ”You want a copy? Here, have one, enjoy it.” All you have to do is to visit the website.

http://www.empty.de/

Dronæment, Fieldbox (3 CDR Fieldmuzick)

Packed in a snazzy metal box with stuffed with goodies, in an edition of a mere fifty copies, comes this triple CDR set by Dronæment, the ongoing field music/electronica project of Marcus Obst.

"Fields 1" has been released before under a triple billing with Andrea Marutti and Aidan Baker. It begins with a ”field map” (both opening and closing "field maps" feature sounds contributed by Marutti and Baker) which jauntily surveys the terrain before abandoning all rhythm for a quirkily airborne view.

The sound of rushing water is zoomed in on next, and we find ourselves in apparently lush surroundings populated with a large variety of species, some real, some electronically generated. A steady, very basic rhythm returns to guide those electronic birds further on their journey, soaring and zinging through the air, very reminiscent of the cosmic electronica of the 1970s.

”…Is So Quiet” is really not so, it is rubbery and repetitive and irresistable, a kind of naturalist´s dubstep. ”Anduasende” sounds like someone has opened a factory in the jungle. But as the disc rounds off with a second ”field map” and the drums return, it would seem the jungle growth has overtaken the machinery and wild order and harmony have been restored.

Whereas the first disc was ostensibly divided into eight tracks (which regardless flowed smoothly into one another), ”Fields 2” boasts three long tracks, each longer than the one before – approximately eleven, eighteen and twenty-five minutes, respectively. Although the first, untitled track begins rather haphazardly, we are without a doubt outside, the air fairly throbbing with human and avian activity.

The second must have been recorded in the morning, in some small village, I would like to think. The birds are indeed active, but the rest of the world seems just to be waking up. We may we be following the milkman on his morning rounds. The odd chime of a church bell would suggest a Sunday. Eventually a lovely drone, some seraphic choir, rises to the fore and is joined by the church organ.

The third track shatters this tranquility with what sounds like a motor starting and waking up all the owls in the neighbourhood from their daytime slumber. And they are not happy about it. The rumble turns into a sustained high-pitched drone, again very organ like, but with the rattling of mechanical cicadas giving it an edge.

Curiously, the final disc, "Fields Bonus", said to contain among other things raw mixes of some of what we´ve heard before, is the most cohesive and distinctive of the discs. Obst sets off a cheap beat machine and shapes the air around it, experimenting with timbre.

Combining field recordings with slow, simple percussion conjures a unique but natural habitat where man, flora, fauna, consumer society and heavy machinery, playgrounds and killing fields, all seem equally integrated and at home.

Obst characterizes the entire collection as a sort of melding of the little world he inhabits and the big world outside his door into some kind of fantasy realm. Which does not seem far-fetched. Obst glories in sound-as-world and as refuge-from-world at the same time, juxtaposing unexpected aural fields, bemused by the results. But a backstory is quite unnecessary to the pleasures of this generous and optimistic collection.

The elaborate metal boxed set is due to come out in an economy-sized, two CD edition in the near future.

http://www.fieldmuzick.net