Sabine Ercklentz & Andrea Neumann - LAlienation

Sabine Ercklentz: trumpet, electronics
Andrea Neumann: inside piano, electronics

LAlienation is about as fun an eai record can be. One of the first things people notice is the odd cover art (above) with Erklentz and Neumann in some sort of marine camo. I think such things rarely generate a net positive or negative reaction. That is, although the cover certainly doesn’t fit the typical eai release, all seriousness and simplicity, it also is weird enough to draw in people fans outside of that niche. Still, I doubt there are too many people that don’t know the artists involved who will give this record a chance because of the quirky presentation.

Even if the art didn’t hint at a sense of humor, the music inside will. Erklentz isn’t a name that I know, although she may be involved in some collaborative works I’ve heard, but Neumann is a mainstay of the scene, and her work usually projects seriousness common to the genre. This isn’t to say this particular record isn’t serious in the sense that it is surely a smart, artistic set of tracks. But there is a devious smirk at play, a “listen to this shit” kind of attitude that isn’t a regular trait of the average eai session. In fact, while the lineup and aesthetic is truly eai, after a little bit listening to this in the car for the first time, I swore this was the first eai-industrial hybrid I’d ever heard. The best parts sound of the old, ugly ’80s variant of industrial that is random noises patched together to make a completely undanceable groove combined with some spice from Cage’s prepared piano pieces.

This groove has been something that has been debated in the few reviews I’ve seen for LAlienation. I think this divergence from the eai template, given how accessible it makes the record, confuses some listeners. Not that they don’t understand the record, but they don’t know what to make of it. I like it for this very reason. eai doesn’t have to be clinical, and it doesn’t have to be minimal in every sense. There are no rules to music, and this pair’s willingness to invigorate the familiar sounds of eai with a pulse is commendable. It is serious in the way Throbbing Gristle is serious. That is to say, high art in spite of itself.

The recording quality on this record is immaculate. You can really hear all the textures, and all the placement of sounds seems to be well considered. All the little details are magnified in that special way that makes microtonal gestures psychedelic in a way (think about it: sounds and their sources recognizable, but distorted and in odd proportion). With everything in the right spot, the tracks breathe, progress from station to station, and become distinctive.

So, you should take a relatively small chance on LAlienation, especially given how big of a chance it is to defy the strict expectations of the free improv listening community. This record is fun, different, and still delivers on all the things that make eai/microtonal/improv so satisfying. (from KILLEDinCARS)

2010 LALIENATION (rapidshare/mediafire)

Phosphor - Phosphor

Burkhard Beins: percussion
Alessandro Bosetti: soprano saxophone
Axel Dörner: trumpet, electronics
Robin Hayward: tuba
Annette Krebs: electro-acoustic guitar
Andrea Neumann: inside piano, mixing desk
Michael Renkel: acoustic guitar
Ignaz Schick: live electronics

This outing features a consortium of Berlin, Germany-based musicians who tend to explore the outer limits of abstraction via live electronics, acoustic instruments, and subversive dialogue. Less in your face than similar productions of this ilk, the instrumentalists create an air of suspense amid subdued moments and sparse frameworks. Andrea Neumann utilizes her stripped-down piano parts (strings, resonance board, metal frame & EFX) to counteract tubaist Robin Hayward, percussionist Burkhard Beins, and others for a set teeming with sparsely concocted themes. The octet provides a series of illusory effects in concert with moments of tension and surprise, due to its shrewd amalgamation of peculiar backdrops and concisely executed improvisational episodes. On Part 3 (no song titles), you will hear low-pitched gurgling noises and plucked strings. However, trumpeter Axel Dorner’s atonal hissing sounds cast a strangely exotic spell throughout many of these sequences. Not casual listening, but fascinatingly interesting - the music or noise, depending on which way you perceive it, rings forth like some sort of impressionistic souvenir. Sure, some of us may not include this release among the ongoing rotation. The content might parallel something akin to an avant-garde sculpture or oil painting: thus an artistic entity that deserves to be revisited from time to time.

2001 PHOSPHOR

Phosphor - Phosphor II

Burkhard Beins: percussion, objects, small electrics
Axel Dörner: trumpet, electronics
Robin Hayward: tuba
Annette Krebs: guitar, objects, electronics, tape
Andrea Neumann: inside piano, mixing board
Michael Renkel: prepared nylon string acoustic guitar via computer
Ignaz Schick: turntables, objects, bows

Phosphor, whose self-titled album came out in 2001, waited nearly five years to record its follow-up with Phosphor II. With editing, mixing and manufacturing, it has taken nearly eight years for the session to reach the marketplace.

With all that time that has passed, it is interesting to hear that the original super group, minus Alessandro Bosetti, can easily pick up right where it left off. These Berlin-based musicians practice the microtonal art of minimalist improvisation, yet their sound constructions are easily transferable to disc.

In fact, not having the visual component to their performance pushes the focus onto the sound, not which performer is making what sound—not always any easy thing to achieve.

The music here is, as Miles Davis once described it, about "the silence in between the notes." These eight compositions take that concept to the nth degree. Switches switch, air passes through instruments without notes, static takes the same place as rhythms, and electric charges fuel the tension that gives way to a cosmic release.

The sounds—noise, perhaps—are strangely inviting creatures whose vocabulary is one of a decayed future that meshes the human touch with computer and mechanical sounds that have slipped the moorings of beat and meter. (from ALLABOUTJAZZ)

2009 PHOSPHOR II