DM&P Trio - Insular Dwarfism [AudioTong]

Pawel Dziadur - electronics: wave_attack improvisation software, laptop, synth, controllers, feedback loop, miking
Slawomir Maler - tenor saxophone, alto saxophone
Philip Palmer - alto saxophone, found objects

AudioTong 2011

A while ago I've wrote about this Krakow-based group's performance - half torn between appreciation for their experimental and no-compromises attitude and struggle to absorb and get through the wall of abundant and invasive wall of electronics.

Pawel Dziadur created wave-attack software as a tool for electro-acoustic improvisation that allows for real-time sound manipulation without any presets or pre-recorded materials and his scope is to achieve and explore the level of swiftness that was supposedly available only performing on acoustic instruments. And quite simply he's close to it - on the stage his gesture control interface is impressive, as is the number of ways he's able to transform and disfigure any musical input to the point it's impossible to individualize its connection to the source material.

Zero Centigrade - Unknown Distances [AudioTong]

Zero Centigrade :
Tonino Taiuti - acoustic guitar & composition
Vincenzo De Luce - trumpet

AudioTong 2011

While it's great to get to have yet another album by one of my favourites (like Vandermark or Trzaska or Brotzmann just to name some examples) some of the most inspiring listening experiences for me lately came in the form of total surprise, music delivered by artists whom I know nothing about and as I've been introduced to them it's the goal of this blog to introduce them to you.

Konrade Gęca / DM&P Trio / Fuka Laka at Alchemia (01.06) last concert of this Muzykoterapia season

The last concert of this season of Muzykoterapia series that promotes experimental music of any kind, co-hosted by the AudioTong, a small but active label in the field of undergournd, experimental and uncommon (check out their website http://www.audiotong.net/ for more informations, also much of the catalogue is available for free download)

1. Konrad Gęca 

is not only the instigator and main behind-the-scene making force of the Muzykoterapia concerts but is also an active improviser in the field of electronics, mixing tape field recordings and electronically generated sounds. His performance is very introvertic and thoughtful. Kind of a music where duplicated errors in the transmission become a rule, assimilated mutation, glitch becomes the structure. Endless static noises give the illusion of endless spaces. The latter half incorporates more clearly field recordings - silence that through the imperfection of the recording device and amplification becomes hushed noise. This music is accompanied by the series of pictures of the city, mountains, ocean (or is it the other way?) creating a sort of sonicscape. Really hard for me to give any kind of evaluation as, nonetheless the live presence behind all the devices, I find that any kind of structure, narration, meaning or value is not inner to this kind of performance but comes only from its perception. As such I'd say that in musical terms the concert didn't have enough variety and lacked emotional impact, in terms of a multimedia performance though it was  in fact very poetic - which brings me to the conclusion that sounds were secondary to pictures. And the other conclusion is that any kind of reading and interpretation would be valid in its own rights - which probably makes this performance a success.

You can find more information about Konrad Geca (including some of the video footage used during the concert as well as presentation of musical forms he's interested in - field recordings, electro-improvisation, noise, dub influences ecc) on his website http://dropr.com/konradgeca#/

Konrad Geca - electronics, tapes, visualization

2. DM&P Trio

This Krakow based trio celebrated with this concert the release of their first cd and it does indeed make proud to see that the there's so much happening in Krakow. That being said I never really could get through the invasive electronics use in this project. There's a great and subtle interplay between the two sax players, beginning with focused search for harmony then moving towards balancing between Slawomir (abstract lines yet phrasing clearly influenced by jazz tradition) and Philip (extrovertic madness of free-improv, shouts, screams, overtone blows). Occasional live filtering and processing of the instruments provided Pawel Dziadur (echoe, distortion, loop) give the music an extra dimension, so do the occasional quieter passages of unidentified scratches and drones. But every time Pawel Dziadur pushes it more into the noise regions I have the impression that he overshadows the saxophones instead of complementing them. While I definitely appreciate this trio's passion and dedication, I find it hard to like their music, I've never been a fan of hard electronics and can't really find a key to crack this open.

a selection of videos featuring other performances can be found here : http://www.sonicart.republika.pl/

Paweł Dziadur - electronics

Sławomir Maler - alto saxophone

Philip Palmer - alto saxophone

3. Fuka Lata

A duo from Warsaw wchich also celebrated its first release*. It's a highly hypnotic and dreamingly surreal mixture of electronic landscapes, occasional dance beat, endless guitar delays and vocal that achieves shamanic effects through modern electronic filters (echo, harmonizer, delay). The trans thus achieved is quite tantalizing, with simple yet effective lightning and mysterious dancer-performer accompanying the duo, the effect is quite compelling and as such it was one of the most complete stage performances I've ecently seen (understandable since you don't see too often any lightning or extra-musical elements of concert performance when attending mostly free jazz events).

The line between hypnotic and monotonous or transcendental and tiresome is very thin and I felt that the music was for some passages too close to crossing this one. On the other hand the way they manage to blur the line between dream and reality was quite captivating. But from under all those layers of guitar echoes, vocal delays and electronic landscapes occasionaly a catchy song tries to emerge and I must say (surprised myself to write it) I was waiting the entire concert for this more avant-pop aspect of their playing, something I had been able to see during the rehearsal. Still, it was something visually and audibly intriguing.

* The music was released under the Creative Commons License and is available for free download at http://fukalata.com/ (it focuses on electronics and guitar, with very little vocal compared to the live performance)

Fuku Lata duo
-vocal, electronics
-guitar, electronics, vocal
-dance/performance

Alchemia. Krakow. 01.06.2011

Rafal Mazur & D'Incise Electro-Acoustic Quintet at Alchemia (08.05)

by Krzysztof Penarski

Among the late occasions to see Rafal Mazur's activity on Krakow's improvisation scene this was the most unusual combining both the electro and acoustic side of improvisation as three different nations on the stage.

Actually the musicians played in the middle of the room, surrounded by the audience, with speakers situated on all for corners of the room making for quite unique sound scene experience (unique for a concert as the 'sourround sound' is now something quite obvious in a home cinema). 

In such events what excites me the most is quite frankly not the music itself but the possibility to see the laptop whizz produce sounds in a way that escape my cognitive capabilities. Ludger would use some kind of touchpad, and he started with magnifying the air-conditioning noise in the room. D'incise, apart from using the laptop would also bow small gongs, use the wooden table, metal plates and other objects. Jonas Kocher's playing was pretty minimalistic, as he would create dark and brooding backgrounds on the accordion. Rafal would keep the touch of the strings lighter and more abstract than usual, utilizing bow quite often, plucking gently, playing the bass guitar like a cello (which was his primarily instrument). The music was quite minimalistic, dreamy-like, somehow hypnotic, exploring different textures. Tomek Choloniewski did a good job of stirring the proceedings every now and then with a sudden cry or thundering drumroll.

Definitely and intriguing performance although with this kind of music-creation it's really different to give any kind of quality evaluation as this music kind of comes firectly from the strenght of the individuals playing, but then gets zen, looses the sense of individuality, becomes this kind of formless, shapeless energy cloud. Which can be as much disturbing as relaxing experience, or a mix of both sometimes.

D'incise - electronics, sound objects
Jonas Kocher - accordion
Ludger Henning - electronics
Tomek Chołoniewski - drums, percussion
Rafal Mazur - acoustic bass guitar


Alchemia. Krakow. 08.05.2011

Jacek Kochan & Dominik Wania - One Eyed Horse at Piec'ART (17.03)

Piec'ART is a mostly mainstream jazz venue but I wander there from time to time quite happily. This time it was Jacek Kochan's project which caught my eye. A very active composer and agile drummer, working mainly within a formula that he called AJIEE - Acoustic Jazz in Electronic Enviroment - his compositions use extensively post-bop language while he adds layers of electronic noises, loops and rhythm patterns beneath (around? over?) created on the laptop. I'm not a big fan of electronics in jazz music but I always appreciated his drums skills - keep that in mind as these preexistent oppinions clearly conditioned a lot my feelings about the concert.

With Dominik Wania, a very capable keyobard player, they start off hard and that is how both the sets will go on. Kochan plays drums like the Lord commands - loud and fast, he's playing precise patterns with ankle-breaking speed, keeping it all clean and tight. I really like it especially when he lays this phat funky groove. Wania adds a lot of brewing on the keys (moving beetwen piano, fender piano or moog sounds) and he adds very nice bass touches with the left hand. Make it a drum'n'bass era version of "Bitches Brew".

While the compositions aren't bad, there's too much similarity between them, cohesity of the material and closed formula become quite monotonous. The electronic enviroment feels quite redundant in this case, limiting musicians instead of expanding the possibilites. I quite miss the horn section or at least one other instrument to fly over the dense and thick structures produced by the keyboard-drums duo (hope I don't hurt the laptop's feeling by omitting it). 

Fortunately what lacks in variety is made up, at least partially, with the energy level. Wania contributes some strong, searching solo statements in the 2nd set and things are really cookin' when they both hit the high gear - making for a nice headbanging and foot-tapping invitation. And the last track is possibly the strongest of the night, making the appreciative, if small audience call for 'one more' (which they get).

Enjoyable if not exactly stellar performance. I have seen better by these musicians (in slightly larger groups) and I hope to do so in the future. On the other hand, it wasn't that bad at all. 

ps. What is surprising (given the fact that it's just a duo and one led by a drummer) there were no drum solos (not one), positive sign (as in: it shows Kochan's egoless conception of the music) and actually bit dissapointing (as in: I'd like to hear at least one).

Dominik Wania - el. piano

Jacek Kochan - drums, laptop

Piec'ART; Krakow. 17.03.2011

Free Impro Session - Kawiarnia Naukowa

As a substitute for the concert in Bydgoszcz, I went to see a free impro session in Kawiarnia Naukowa (not Eszeweria as i believed yesterday).

The line-up, as usual in those kind of situations, was different than announced - with 2 computers, electric guitar, electro-acoustic guitar (played mostly as a bass, or in electro-acoustic way - using the feedback from speakers) and saxophone (alto and soprano).

Free improvised sessions with ad hoc line-up are a risky business. There's no procedure to make this music work, sometimes it does, quite often it doesn't. When it does, it's wonderfully unpredictable, hypnotic, adventurous. When it doesn't the same musical elements seem random, repetitive, flat and even boring.

I'm not a big fan of electronics, or noise elements, so my perception of this performance (and it is as much 'performance art' as 'music concert') could be bit prejudiced.

1st part, with two improvs was pretty much the example of music not working, electronic drones and quirky rhythmic scratches overwhelming the overall sound, not leaving enough space for the 'live' instruments, and not elastic enough to react in real-time to their playing.

2nd part, one long improv, on the other hand was really good, with more spare use of electronics, great playing by Dymny on guitar (using all kind of different objects on the strings), otherwise very zen - with all the sounds creating a cloudy sphere, loosing their characteristics, dense, shapeless, colorless magma or amalgam of shades. This sort of performance when you have a strong feeling that something actually happened, though you're not sure what exactly.

Free improv music kind of looses its (very unclear and unspecific) identity when it's written about so I won't linger on this session anymore, thanks a lot to Kawiarnia Naukowa (stage for young alternative rock, punk, electronica in Krakow) for giving a place to young improvisers to gain their experience in live confrontations. Keep it up!