Today, the Petcord label announced a new release by Giorgos Stefanou from Greece called Internal Sonic Pathway. It is a compilation of two earlier works of the Greek composer and explores the terrains between Musique Concrète and sparsely arranged electro-acoustic music. It may not be easy listening to everyone, but has its charme and there are moments where the great Iannis Xenakis seems to watch over his shoulders from time to time. Whether you like the music too? See for yourself…

He had finally reached the end point: Where everything he said, wrote or broke would vanish unnoticed, because there was nobody left to care about it anymore. Freedom he was granted, but the peace of mind was traded for dead calm. Once deprived of the recognition as a human being, he was free to sever the last bindings to civilisation: Erostratus clouds cover hanging over the city, Paul Hilbert for just one day, spinning drums and bullet’s nothingness.

He was aware about what was happening to him, but he had not the power to stop it.

The white room. People staring at me, a blank stare, blanket of stars around my neck. Wide stairs, black room. I was asked to leave but could not find the exit. And now I am not here, not sitting on a chair and not trying to lift my left hand to reach out for the right. Top bottom left right cornered and well shielded from the silent world. All I asked for was freedom, but instead the death was served me well. Little did the wishing wall to save me from the paint.

After a rather underwhelming premiere with d’incise, I was particularly curious about the direction iod would head to with their second release. Much to my surprise it was worth the wait and Offthesky aka Jason Corder present us evolute of an ion apple, a sound construction that is characterised by warmth and harmony without being too obstrusive. Positively mentioned should be the artwork with its tension between verticals and horizontal bars on the right and the curved bands of a halo phenomenom on the left.

If we look at the presumable genealogy, then evolute of an ion apple is an interesting crossing between the 90ies school of glitch and crackles a la Mille Plateaux and continious ninth chord progressions outlined by a deep sinus bass similar to the later Autechre. The construction also carries some of the ideas of the Minimalist school, in that patterns are gradually mutating and spining off arbitrary sound combinations. Jason Corder not only captures a scenery here, but an entire moment in life and despite the prevailing harmony the track does not lose its attraction throughout its gradual mutations.

I admit this presentation may not be terrifically innovative, perhaps even oldfashioned to elite sound designers, but Offthesky do know their stuff and make it happen with a certainty and a fine sense for arrangements that puts a lot of overhyped laptop stars into shame. In my opinion evolute of an ion apple is a fantastic work and I am confident that by the end of the year it will be found in some individual “best of” lists for 2008. Highly recommended for downloading, without any restrictions.

For its latest release the Testtube netlabel has a go at buzzword bingo and introduces Bård Farbu as sound designer of his Zink EP. Whilst design implies finding a suitable form to make a product memorable and attractive to a potential customer base, the cover art cannot quite hold up the expectations: Especially the back cover looks rather dull and awkward as a result of it ignoring basic (visual) design principles. This has been a fundamental problem of Test Tube from the start, as musicians have little incluence on the label’s “corporate design” and should not be taken into the review’s account.

The Zink EP consists of five rather short and sparsely arranged pieces of minimalist ambient sound events. A lot of reverb and dub-like delay was added and the sonic construction as such remains consistent throughout the EP, perhaps lacking actual culmination points with its regularily shaped earcandy approach. One has to keep in mind that these tracks are thought as functional music in the first place, as a supplement to other points of attraction in front of a listener and thus cannot entirely draw the attention to itself in order to leave room for the remaining elements of the multimedia presentation. Despite this restriction, Bård Farbu’s sound constructions reveal enough variability to remain interesting: For example Uaktsom Stillhet and Flau Fure even explore the area of dark ambient and do not shy away from utilising piercing feedback as stylistic means.

Other tracks from this EP show some similarity to the latest productions of ec4 and David Velez, but this may be accidental and a result of common influences. Occasionally passages wind up as juxtapositions without worked out relationships and interconnection between single sound components and leave the impression of cold and sterile music. But, as already mentioned, by creating absolute music that distracts the listener from other stimuli, the “sound design” would lose its principal functionality as supplement, therefore these limitations may as well be technical necessities. By and large, Bård Farbu’s Zink EP is a decent production without any significant weaknesses to me and even works out well as standalone music to a certain degree. Thus I feel very comfortable to recommend it as download to my regular readers.

The final curtain call was made and Kikapu left the field with VXXII by Mikronesia. As the cover art suggests, a departure means also a new beginning. In this case the production is opened by a dampened piano and unconnected stutter samples. A deep bass regularily accentuates the first quater note. Tight 4/4th structure. The music is indecisive whether to stick with the melodic similarity to J-pop ballad kitsch or to fall apart in fragmented sonic events, which are more compliant to a typical electro acoustic production. And and therefore noisy samples remain desintegrated ornaments and interfere with the mellow piano line.

Fortunately the remainder of Mikronesia’s VXVII is much more focussed and consistent, where all components work as a whole and contain melodic lines that serve as binding element between the glitchy chord snippets and layers of noise. Moments where Mikronesia unfold their musical potential with soundscapes of iridescent beauty. Hibersea is another strange orchid in the morning sun, with confusing bitonality, distant hallucinatory female voices and pentatonic theme progressions. Mikronesia also undertake forays into Minimalist music, with subtiles changes in modulation and micro details or explore the noisy distortion of the later Oval. Gate could even run as digital Psychedelia with hammond organ emulations and resonant feedback vibrations that come close to the sound of a sitar.

Apart from the opening track, the remainder of the release turns out as a well thought, contrastive and a joy to listen to. Mikronesia’s VXVII is a worthy final chapter of Kikapu’s history and a recommended download in my opinion.

After a promising start with completing two compositions within a few days (a rare occurance) it looks like I am stuck with themes that somehow do not really cut it. Four unfinished tunes are now lying around, probably doomed to remain fragments forever, as there does not seem to be a way to complete them. In general I am able to spin a composition further, once a counter motive springs up naturally and enables me to derive a solid stack of themes. On few occasions an idea can be salvaged by experiments until by chance something useful comes into being. In most cases, however, nothing will happen and the idea is lost, because it did not really deserve to exist for itself.

Still I preferred a more productive phase. Pressure perhaps, to have a new release for my vanity netlabel. Two finished tracks in one month is a rather meagre yield. A blank stare on an empty screen, putting together tones that do not necessarily disturb each other, but somehow lack a “soul”. “Soul” should be described as a property, that makes the course of a tune appear natural and consistent. These fragments I produced are a far cry away from that: Plastic fantastic, solid arrangements made of uninspired themes. My stock of sonic sources does not really cut it either at the moment. I cannot really say I am happy with my current achievements, but I still hope I can finish the new release by the end of the month.