Mai Pen Rai
orl 07 / rekem 02

Thai & Balinese frog rock field recordings
7” (pressed on a 12″ platter) and eco sky lantern
packed in a custom-made, silk-screened frog rock tote bag.

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Mai Pen Rai is an edition of two releases in one, or how two random recordings of a travelogue fit together and after a four year journey are finally released…

the first and the third track of the record capture the experience of Maya Lavda in the summer 2008 during a trip to Bali, where, while shooting with her video camera she noticed frog sounds behind a closed door which she followed to record with her camera. Revisited after the trip, these sounds revealed themselves fitting for a mantra-like locked groove record.

the second track comes from orila’s journey in Thailand over the summer of 2009. Following an after-storm quest for the sound – that a permanent resident jokingly referred to as the sounds produced by water buffaloes – the true origin revealed itself within a scene of majestic nature. In remembrance of this experience, every copy of this release is accompanied by a Thai sky lantern.

as the passion for the frogs was growing both in orila and rekem we decided to unite these findings in the form of a 7″ cut on a 12” plate. This way, these recordings would not only remind us of the actual journey(s), but also the ideas around which a substantial part of our lives evolved through the last four years.

And they lived happily ever after

http://www.orila.net/
http://rekemrecords.tumblr.com/

Rova heads back to Europe for the first extended tour in some years. In Bern, there will be a workshop during the days Feb 21-23, and a performance with the workshop players on Feb 23. A quartet concert on Feb 22. Bring an instrument, or tell friends who play to check it out.

2012 winter European Tour
Feb. 18 – Wels, Austria; Minorite Monastery
Feb. 19 – Vienna, Austria; Porgy und Bess
Feb. 21-23 – Bern, Switzerland; Dampfzentrale Bern
Feb. 24 – Jena, Germany; Saal zur Rosen
Feb. 25 – Berlin, Germany; Jazzwerkstatt Berlin
Feb. 26 – Beyreuth, Germany; Jazz Beyreuth
Feb. 27 – Cottbus, Germany; Glad-House
Feb. 28 – Metz, France; Les Trinitaires
Mar. 1 – Paris, France; Collège des Bernardins
Mar. 2 – Bruges, Brussels; De Werf
Mar. 3 – Torino, Italy; Centro Jazz Torino

In Wels, Metz and Paris, Rova be performing music from our special “sound in space” project where the music – the sound –  is more influenced by the performance hall – the space – than normal, especially because,  in many of the pieces, the sax quartet surrounds the audience instead of playing in front of it.

They will also be travelling with a brand new Rova CD released by Jazzwerkstatt (…it’s called “A Short History”…), including original music by Lawrence Ochs dedicated to Morton Feldman, Cecil Taylor and Giacinto Scelsi.

http://www.rova.org/upcoming.aspx

ok, most of the people in the uk who give a damn about this kind of music have heard by now that jason kahn will be touring the land for the better part of february, playing in most of the obvious places, and some other ones a bit out the way as well. One of those other ones is the city of oxford, where he will be joined by the Albion Players, i.e. Stephen Cornford, Patrick Farmer, Sarah Hughes. Opening for the same bill, will be oxford’s Lawrence Dunn on laptop, and our very own Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga in a solo zither set.

Sunday, February 5
7:30 pm; £5/£4
Art Jericho
King Street, Oxford; OX2 6DF

with the collaboration of the Oxford Brookes Sonic Art Research Unit (http://sonicartresearch.com/)

For the past four months I’ve been living in this rather small (population: 180.00 and decreasing) city in the west of Lithuania, right on the shore of the Baltic Sea. Almost since Day 1, I’ve been exploring and recording my new sound environment and I dare to say that the place is, perhaps surprisingly, a sonic paradise. Forests, beaches, harbors, ferry boats, plus the fact that the city has an extended industrial area, provides me with a great variety of sounds and I still find myself -pretty often I might add- walking around with the recorder at hand. For this post I used the more compositional approach of an audio montage, instead of presenting one recording from a specific location. Nonetheless, the recordings are untreated. The aim is to give a more wide-ranging feeling of Klaipeda’s splendid soundscape.

click here for the recording

Η Χρυσαλλίδα παρουσιάζει:

May Roosevelt
theremin & electronics

Σάββατο, 11 Φεβρουαρίου 2012, 21:00
Σπίτι Πολιτισμού ΦΕΞ, Ξάνθη

To θέρεμιν είναι ένα πολύ ιδιαίτερο μουσικό όργανο που επινόησε ο Ρώσος Λέον Θέρεμιν το 1928. Το θέρεμιν παίζεται χωρίς ο μουσικός να το αγγίζει, παρά μόνο κινώντας οριζόντια και κάθετα τα χέρια του προς τις δύο μεταλικές κεραίες του και ελέγχοντας κατά τον τρόπο αυτό τις συχνότητες που εκπέμπει και την έντασή τους.

Η May Roosevelt είναι μια ασυνήθηστη θερεμινίστρια, συνθέτης και παραγωγός. Κουβαλώντας επιρροές από Bach, Bjork, Residents, Klaus Nomi, τα φαντάσματα του παιδικού της casio, αλλά και την κλασική παιδεία του βιολιού, δημιουργεί απόκοσμα ηχητικά περιβάλλοντα που συνοδεύονται από ηλεκτρονικούς ρυθμούς και αχνά industrial περάσματα. Πρόσφατα κυκλοφόρησε το άλμπουμ “Haunted” που απέσπασε εξαιρετικές κριτικές, μέρη του οποίου θα παρουσιαστούν στη συναυλία. Πρόκειται για μία εντυπωσιακά καινοτόμα προσέγγιση οκτώ παραδοσιακών ελληνικών χορευτικών ρυθμών.

Ενδεικτικά, έχει συνεργαστεί με πολλούς καλλιτέχνες στην Ελλαδα και το εξωτερικό όπως Matisse, Xaxakes, ION, Daisuke Tanabe, Mujuice.

http://www.mayroosevelt.com/

ok, here it’s much more understandable how i’d miss these as phase! had the good sense of announcing their two latest editions on the evening of december 29 out of all days. Maybe they were trying to beat the clock and not release anything on a jinxed year such as 2012 -though i doubt that. Anyway, two greek projects, beaTol & the Eagol‘s ‘Ολντ Σκουλ’ is an idiosyncratic plunderphonic pop something, certainly a curio. Proper pop music for the dazed and terminally sane. On ΤΟ ΔΥΟ ΕΥΡΩ‘s ‘Το Βασίλειο του Χοντρού’ i have very little to say cause i’m not familiar with the project, suffice to say though that the credits (vocals / chant / prose by one member, and musical accompaniment by the other) are promising. They are also described as a ‘greek transvestite duo’, don’t know if that’s an actual description or if it’s meant to suggest something in the music. Both discs come in lovingly packaged and severely limited cdr editions.

specifics on phase!’s page here

inverz
my machines LP | granny07
edition of 250
more info + samples here

‘my machines’ is quite the departure for Savvas, given that his previous ones carried a heavy Oren Ambarchi influence and also relied, predictably, on guitar, while this one builds its ambient soundscapes mostly out of processed and reproduced vinyl records, disembodied extracts from other sources and so on. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, cut and D+M in berlin, a bright future carved out for it.

ok, this is what a proper label headquarters looks like when you’ve got new releases coming up (and probably much worse, mind you). You definitely have no space for yourself to sleep on the bed (let alone your dog, cat, or, god-forbid, your girlfriend). And this is apparently what more mars‘ hq looks like these days, as they have not one but two new editions on their 3″ nous series. All the better for us!

these two, very lovely, quite limited (120 each), 3″ releases are:

Chris Heenan + Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga – Der schlaue fushs [web] [excerpt]
Yiannis Tsirikoglou – Dust [web] [vimeo]

the first one being an improvised duo from US-born, Berlin-based sax/clarinet player Chris Heenan and our very own zither player, Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, while the second one is a construction that resulted from an audio/visual collaboration that Yiannis Tsirikoglou had with artist Mariska De Groot.

Chris is an improviser/composer/promoter/member in various groupings. Dimitra is best known for her collaboration with Ferran Fages in ap’strophe, but more and more these days as a solo artist as well. Yiannis is known for his part in the Thessaloniki-based band, eventless plot, but has been lately spending time on his own in The Hague.

more here:
http://www.moremars.org/news.html

(musicbazz is a record-trading website http://www.musicbazz.com/. Apparently they have the good taste to also unearth some stuff along their way while at it)

yea, lest we forget or something:

PAN Festival

C.C. Hennix
Rehberg/Schmickler
John Wiese
Werner Durand
Valerio Tricoli
Eli Keszler

Cafe OTO
London, England
January 27–28, 2012

Poster by Bill Kouligas

http://www.pan-act.com/

ILIOS live and screening at gallery New Jerseyy (klappfon)
Basel, Switzerland
21 January

ILIOS live at Cave12, (and collaboration w/F. Meirino)
Geneve, Switzerland
22 January

ILIOS live at Le Bourg
Lausanne, Switzerland
26 January

Mohammad (ILIOS, Coti, Veliotis) live at Cable festival,
Nantes, France
17 February

ILIOS live: Symphony n.4 for oscillators and internal combustion engine vibrations at Musjbikzimmer / KR
as closing of the Polaplasiepimoria exhibition,
Aarau, Switzerland
19 February

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and:
release of “Nigra Sango / Teleregataj Hundoj”( in occasion of the “Polaplasiepimoria” exhibition)
10″ vinyl,   edition of 20 copies.

forthcoming release:
tba LP on Misanthropic Agenda

http://www.siteilios.gr/

hey, we’ve mentioned before xysm as one of the more promising new projects coming out of greece haven’t we? [Yes, we have: case in point -though that one was in greek, sorry]. Anyway, they now have a bandcamp up, with three of their past cdr releases up for download. I suggest you indulge yourselves, I myself have ‘yagna’ on my shelves and it’s not half bad, no it’s not. Apparently, they have a new one coming up soon as well…

http://xysm.bandcamp.com/