Kyriakides/Moor

Rebetika
Unsounds CD 20U

Ernst Karel/Annette Krebs

Falter 1-5

Cathnor cath 008

On the surface is may appear that there are similarities between these European CDs which pair an eclectic guitarist with an academically trained electronics manipulator for extended improvisations. But while both have much to offer the adventurous listener, they couldn’t be more unlike.

For a start, Rebetika is involved with the rearrangement, reassembling and deconstruction of nine rebetika tunes, using samples of the early 20th century so-called Greek blues as the base on which to perform electronically altered, re-compositions. Falter 1-5, on the other hand, deals with abstraction and pure sound, treating the reconstituted sonic properties of the one “real” instrument – the guitar – as a sound source no different from those created by objects such as a mixing-board, tapes and analogue electronics.

On the other hand, because the recorded material with which Yannis Kyriakides and Andy Moor work includes vocals by songsters with the aggressive timbres of Country Blues singers such as Son House and Charley Patton, the tracks are suffused with emotion. In contrast, Ernst Karel’s and Annette Krebs’ five improvisations are precise and clinical, only divorced from microtonal parameters at those junctures when triggered samples clash with simultaneously outlined electronic pulses.

Perhaps that’s to be expected. Cyprus-born, London-raised, Amsterdam-based Kyriakides teaches composition at The Hague’s Royal Conservatory of Music, is artistic director of Ensemble MAE and has composed in a wide variety of media. Concerned with traditional performance practices, digital media and sensory space, he has improvised with players such as London saxophonist John Butcher. Even more visceral in his creations, British guitarist Moor has been a mainstay of Dutch Punk-Improvisers the Ex since 1990, works with French sound poet Anne James Chaton, creates film soundtracks and improvises with the likes of drummer Han Bennink.

Classically trained, Berlin-based guitarist Krebs is more interested in reductionist sounds and their relation to the sonic impulses from objects and electronics. Over the years she has improvised with trumpeter Axel Dörner and harpist Rhodri Davies among others. Manager of Harvard University’s Sensory Ethnography Lab and the Film Study Center, Karel has researched the anthropology of sound; recorded, mixed and sound designed himself; has mastered and re-mastered CDs; as well as improvised on trumpet and/or analog electronics, most notably in the EKG duo with oboist Kyle Bruckmann.

Animated with chunky granular synthesis, radio-tuning static and undifferentiated drones, Falter’s five tracks are punctuated with samples of captured broadcast sounds –and silences. A definitive guitar lick appears on track one, but isn’t replicated anywhere for the remainder of the disc. Instead a contrapuntal intermix of impulses from both sources precede fortissimo explosions which seem to consist of scrubbed friction, shaking wave forms and samples of remote mumbling voices These tones slowly unroll until the staccato impulses are superseded by envelopes of abstracted ring modulator-like whooshes and clawing abrasions.

Layered and spiraling, the mercurial drones and mechanized sideband pulsations, cascade throughout before reaching a crescendo of intermingled pops, thumps and ruffled extensions during the 20 minutes of “Falter 5”. Grinding and inconsistently balanced flanges buzz motor-like and are mixed with split-second voice samples that squeal, burp and resonate as their properties are mixed down alongside snatches of music and synthesized, granular intermittent yelps and buzzes. Following a vigorous intermezzo that exposes refractive whistles, pressurized machine-gun-like fire and signal-processed sound leaks, plus additional novel tones that could come from a jackhammer or recording tape running off a reel, these timbres are finally superseded by strident, inchoate drones that in this context appear positively relaxing. Before a fade, the timbres resulting from each improviser’s strategy begin to mirror one another.

Crackles, buzzing and granular pulses also emanate from Rebetika’s nine tracks, but whether some of the dirty glitches result from processing or have been ground into the surface of 78 rpm discs during the past century remains moot. What Moor and Kyriakides do is to match the extended Country Blues-like growl of the original performers with oscillating references from a laptop plus Moor’s percussive strumming and near bottleneck styling.

Sharply picking his guitar strings, Moor’s vibrating chord structures mirror the original performances in intensity, with his snaps and runs toughened by Kyriakides’ vibrating chordal pulsations. Examples of this appear on “Haremi” and “A School Burnt Down”. On then later, Moor’s straight-ahead flat picking is only audible in snatches as the backing oscillations almost subsume guitar licks. Cutting through the computer program’s time-stretching, the guitarist eventually reappears with a broken chord reprise. As for “Haremi”, an aleatoric overlay of wiggling whistles, ramping pops and repeated grooves from Kyriakides finally manage to connect with Moor’s neck tapping and downward string splintering. This pulsing interface adds lyrical depth both to Moor’s playing and the original melody.

Then on “Five in Hell”, the two manage to mix ganularized software samples with the acoustically-recorded 78, in such a fashion that not only does the weight of the elderly needle create its own percussion line, but the distorted and refracted fiddle and guitar samples are also accompanied by accelerated pulses from the computer. Moor’s bass string thumps help the laptop pulsations create a pedal-point base for the initially recorded sounds, with the distinctive tune’s coda an unprocessed, old-time fiddle solo.

Using traditional and newly invented instruments and processes, both international duos have created distinctively novel electro-acoustic melding, neither of which owes anything to the others’ strategies. Preference for stark abstraction or melody glimmers will influence whether listeners appreciate one more than the other.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Falter: 1. Falter 1 2. Falter 2 3. Falter 3 4. Falter 4 5. Falter 5

Personnel: Falter: Annette Krebs (guitar, objects, mixing-board, tape) and Ernst Karel analogue electronics)

Track Listing: Rebetika: 1. Minores 2. Katsoros 3. Vamvakaris 4. All is Well 5. Haremi 6. Delias 7. A School Burnt Down 8. Sucker 9. Five in Hell

Personnel: Rebetika: Andy Moor (guitar) and Yannis Kyriakides (computer)

November 16, 2010

MATTHEW EARLE/WILL GUTHRIE/ADAM SUSSMAN

Bridges
Antboy Music 03

KYRIAKIDES/MOOR
Red v Green
Unsounds 08U

Although Australian percussionist Will Guthrie is the centre of these and other releases on the Antboy label, like all truly engaged in rhythm men, he meshes his sound with the others for a complete aural picture. Someone who performs on homemade and found instruments as well as a regular traps set, he’s interested in developing an original Australian improvised music identity. But that hasn’t stopped him from playing with overseas improvisers like British reedist John Butcher as well as locals like flautist Jim Denley. Both his associates have a rock background, with guitarist Adam Sussman splitting his time between free rock and sine wave collaborations. Electronics manipulator Matthew Earle, works regularly with Sussman and has played in Japan with Onkyo musicians.

On the other CD, guitarist Andy Moor from Edinburgh, has been guitarist with the Dutch anarcho/punk/improv band The Ex since 1990. Besides writing for dance, he often plays in different improv situations with folks like Australian drummer Tony Buck, German synth player Thomas Lehn and Butcher. Yannis Kyriakides, who plays live electronics here, is a British-raised Cypriot who studied with progressive Dutch composers like Louis Andriessen and Dick Raijmaakers. Utilizing physical space on this disc, Kyriakides has also been in the Icebreaker and MIMEO aggregations.

Boasting as many sound differences as Down Under has geographical differences, all three Assisi help sculpt the lapidary contours of BRIDGES. The nearly 19 minute first track includes timbres that suggest matches being struck and sticks being rubbed together, although they vie for space with snaky guitar reverb and scraped string pressure. Neither in the background nor the foreground, Earle’s electronics move from a wavering buzz to watery bubbling tones to what could be a car motor turning over on a chilly day.

Eventually the uniform, whirling hum adds to the mix, reverberating building blocks that themselves are shaped by additional machine-like vibrations. Although the overall drone is so dense that not one instrument is fully defined, sometimes percussion-like clatters and clucks can be heard -- as can the barest pressure on a resonating string. Finally as the tempo speeds up, juicy bird-like trills and whistles, pebble rolling tones and sawing on unyielding surfaces are noticeable through the undulating drone.

“Bridges 2” and “Bridges 3” are more abrasive. Intersecting buzzes and percussion rattles characterize the former, with clanging bells, anvil resonation and jackhammer drilling appearing out of the oscillating waveforms. They too head towards industrial noise, with only the odd guitar arpeggio peeping through.

“Bridge 3” is constituted when the descending shrill that ends the previous track reconstitutes itself into a protracted Bronx cheer of buzzes. Cylindrical, motorized and metallic sine waves echo, with a snatch of melodic finger picking and what sound like unselected cymbals being propelled across a floor make their appearance through the gigantic bee-like drone. Guthrie’s thunder-like drum beats show up after higher-pitched crackling and hissing radio wave fluctuations meet the basso drone, finally submerging all other tones into a solid mass.

Featuring 15 tracks to BRIDGES three, RED V GREEN offers more scope for well-delineated musical statements, even though one fewer performer is present. On “Time Files[sic]” for instance, over the hiss and cackle of Kyriakides’ electronics, Moor plays what sounds like a fretless guitar line that could be country blues filtered through punk rock. As reverberations resonate back onto themselves, Kyriakides’ looping hoofbeat percussion reconstitutes itself as claves or ratchet tones.

Microtonal flat-picking makes its appearance on “Carrier Wave” as well, part of guitar fingering that at other times resembles clawhammer banjo picking. Here the electronics are no more than near-silent static. That’s some contrast with “Luther”, where the unorthodox sound sources appear to arise from the cranking of a metallic barrel organ. Bronx cheers and toilet-flushing recreation seems to figure as well.

Then there’s “In Dreams I Talk to You”, where whirling, rocket-launching sounds morph into droning echoes that became as much reflections of deep water as the cosmos. Midway through, the rhythmic guitar thumps and organ-like echoes are interrupted by sounds of a radio being played just out of hearing range. After mechanically repeated fluttering, ululating static comes to the foreground as the intonation fades even more into the background.

Elsewhere, the versatile sine waves constitute themselves into the sounds of what could be a tape recorder played backwards, quacking and quaking percolating pulses that build up from hisses, plus squeezed noises powerful enough to reflect overtones created by responses to original unheard vibrations.

Tracing an arc that includes rock, folk and improv timbres, the guitarist at one point appears to be playing lead while taking the axe apart with a screwdriver. Bouncing from light taps on the guitar’s neck to galvanizing reverb, he uses slurred and splayed fingering to result in cockatoo-like whistles. Recalling 1960s American guitarist Sandy Bull, some of his work on “Dead Bee” evolves from folk to a rasping bass string ostinato that almost presages a foot tapping rock tune. Meanwhile the shifting speeds in Kyriakides radio static provide unobtrusive buffering.

This understated hiss is also on show during “Nocturnal”, the final and longest tune. Built around a LaMonte Young-like repeated pattern, these microtonal bits are reflected both in synthesizer-like chords and echoing, single string pulses and scratches. Adding the additional suggestion of marching feet in a military parade, the repetition becomes almost mind-numbingly repetitive until it dissolves into silence.

Short and long, both CDs bear investigation. But the casual visitor may choose to cross BRIDGE before becoming involved in RED V GREEN.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Bridges: 1. Bridges 1* 2. Bridges 2* 3. Bridges 3+

Personnel: Bridges: Adam Sussman (prepared acoustic* and electric guitar+ and electronics); Will Guthrie (percussion); Matthew Earle (electronics)

Track Listing: Red: 1. 3 Lobed 1 2. Luther 3. Snow 4. Time Files 5. Dead Bee 6. In Dreams I Talk to You 7. Eels 8. Little Bittern 9. Hardboiled 10. Possible Wheels11. Negative Cast 12. Boriska 13. The Eye on its Side 14. Carrier Wave

Personnel: Red: Andy Moor (guitar and radio); Yannis Kyriakides (live electronics)

July 19, 2004