20-year-old album that I just found out about; difficult to imagine how it could be any more up my alley. Looking forward to seeing Kenny on tour with Dave Holland next week!
I have an extract from that Allan Lamb piece, or another on the same wires, on a compilation somewhere...
NP:
Bugge Wesseltoft & Knut Reiersrud - Gitar
Jazz pianist does acoustic blues guitar. Or something - I am unclear as to Wesseltoft's exact role on this.
Oh, OK, emusic has it misfiled and Amazon has it misleadingly filed. It's really a Knut Reiersrud album, and Wesseltoft adds piano/synth on a few tracks. It's not a new release either, as I had thought from emusic.
GP/kargatron. I was thinking about the Fennesz/Pjusk discussion, and I was wondering if the difference in your feeling about them might be because Fennesz is more song based where Pjusk is more sound based. I listened to Endless Summer and Sart back to back and it sort of confirmed that idea for me. Although I need to do it more with better, closer listens (and it could be that I'm just auto-confirming my own idea anyway), but to me Endless Summer has a lot more traditional music structure, like rhythm and melody, which is not say that Sart doesn't structure sound and time very well. It's almost like a different starting point; Endless Summer starts with songs, and deconstructs them (and the title even leads me to a logical sound progression like Phil Spector/wall of sound -> Beach Boys -> Ramones -> Jesus and Mary Chain-> My Bloody Valentine - > Fennesz) where Pjusk sounds to me like it starts with zero and builds up sounds to reach a construction. And I have to admit these ideas aren't entirely original; anything written about Endless Summer talks about it's relative tunefulness, and GP you've talked a bit about constructing sounds like Pjusk does.
But then anyway this one that I'm listening too sort of crashes the argument anyway; it sounds much less song like and more sound like. Have you tried Black Sea? Oh well, it's all good to me.
Black Sea is one of the ones I keep trying. I've avoided Endless Summer (after sampling it) for pretty much the reasons you indicate; it appeals to me less. I do prefer things without (pop) song structures.
No, "sonic interest" is the big differentiator for me between Fennesz and Pjusk. I'm basically much more engaged by Fennesz's sound spectrum than Pjusk's - speaking reductively, F's frayed crackle over the smoother consonance of Pjusk. The latter's a tad too friendly for my ears to really go ga-ga over. I don't think their structural approaches have much to do with my different reaction.
Otoh, I like loscil plenty. But this is in the same neighborhood as judging people's attractiveness - fickleness dominates.
Was just comparing Rivers of Sand (Fennesz) with Virvel (Pjusk). (Sart is quite a few albums ago now; still a good one, but Virvel is much more recent Pjusk. Of course there is also more recent Fennesz. Oh well.). Comparing any two specific tracks is somewhat arbitrary, but to whatever degree these two are representative, the Fennesz to me has a more buzzing, metallic sheen (that I find mildly alienating), while the Pjusk is more organic, breath-like (which appeals to my ear more). OTOH Blaff by Pjusk has a bit more of a metallic edge at the start, but again less harsh than the Fennesz.
(Alva Noto's Xerrox tracks, which I like a lot, are another interesting point of comparison. More alienated/mechanical than Pjusk, less bright and buzzing than Fennesz).
That's certainly a significant part of it - the particular 'edge' to the textures.
Listening to Fennesz again made me curious about another piece of it, perhaps related. Whenever artists are working with submerged 'conventional' material (distorted song sounds, song fragments, etc.) for me there is sometimes a fine line between experiencing it as evocative - I think this happens when the submerged echoes work "satisfyingly" (not sure what precisely that means in terms of my inner ear) with the new sonic texture - and experiencing it as annoying and tiring in the same way that trying to catch what someone is saying in a noisy room or listening to someone trying to learn to play a tune and not quite getting it can be annoying and tiring. It's an approach to music that I am capable of liking a lot, but it can go either way. Some of the little eruptions of more conventional guitar on Black Sea come closer to the latter response from me.
Comments
20-year-old album that I just found out about; difficult to imagine how it could be any more up my alley. Looking forward to seeing Kenny on tour with Dave Holland next week!
NP:
Bugge Wesseltoft & Knut Reiersrud - Gitar
Jazz pianist does acoustic blues guitar. Or something - I am unclear as to Wesseltoft's exact role on this.
Oh, OK, emusic has it misfiled and Amazon has it misleadingly filed. It's really a Knut Reiersrud album, and Wesseltoft adds piano/synth on a few tracks. It's not a new release either, as I had thought from emusic.
followed by
Sharon van Etten - Are we There
Alexander Turnquist - "Flying Fantasy"
-Lovely 12-string guitar tunes.
The Stoner - "Kinder Call"
-Nils Berg with more bass clarinet dreaminess.
Brunhild Ferrari: Tranquilles Impatiences
GP/kargatron. I was thinking about the Fennesz/Pjusk discussion, and I was wondering if the difference in your feeling about them might be because Fennesz is more song based where Pjusk is more sound based. I listened to Endless Summer and Sart back to back and it sort of confirmed that idea for me. Although I need to do it more with better, closer listens (and it could be that I'm just auto-confirming my own idea anyway), but to me Endless Summer has a lot more traditional music structure, like rhythm and melody, which is not say that Sart doesn't structure sound and time very well. It's almost like a different starting point; Endless Summer starts with songs, and deconstructs them (and the title even leads me to a logical sound progression like Phil Spector/wall of sound -> Beach Boys -> Ramones -> Jesus and Mary Chain-> My Bloody Valentine - > Fennesz) where Pjusk sounds to me like it starts with zero and builds up sounds to reach a construction. And I have to admit these ideas aren't entirely original; anything written about Endless Summer talks about it's relative tunefulness, and GP you've talked a bit about constructing sounds like Pjusk does.
But then anyway this one that I'm listening too sort of crashes the argument anyway; it sounds much less song like and more sound like. Have you tried Black Sea? Oh well, it's all good to me.
Having said that, I am lately entranced with this album, with nary a pop song structure in sight.
I'll have to try Black Sea side by side with Sart too.
starting out with these recordings this morning:
Got free from Noise Trade; worth getting if it's still there.
Shellac - Dude Incredible
Craig
Otoh, I like loscil plenty. But this is in the same neighborhood as judging people's attractiveness - fickleness dominates.
(Alva Noto's Xerrox tracks, which I like a lot, are another interesting point of comparison. More alienated/mechanical than Pjusk, less bright and buzzing than Fennesz).
Listening to Fennesz again made me curious about another piece of it, perhaps related. Whenever artists are working with submerged 'conventional' material (distorted song sounds, song fragments, etc.) for me there is sometimes a fine line between experiencing it as evocative - I think this happens when the submerged echoes work "satisfyingly" (not sure what precisely that means in terms of my inner ear) with the new sonic texture - and experiencing it as annoying and tiring in the same way that trying to catch what someone is saying in a noisy room or listening to someone trying to learn to play a tune and not quite getting it can be annoying and tiring. It's an approach to music that I am capable of liking a lot, but it can go either way. Some of the little eruptions of more conventional guitar on Black Sea come closer to the latter response from me.
I want to know what GP'd think of Endless Summer now. It is less metallic than those other two, and it has melody, but is hardly pop music...
Berangere Maximin featuring:
Rhys Chatham
Christian Fennesz
Fr
An entirely different Black Seas album.