Interspecies Blues

VCDC Album Review from All About Jazz

VCDC: Insult (2013)

By 

EYAL HAREUVENI, 

Published: November 6, 2013

The sophomore release of the Norwegian-American free improvisation quartet VCDC (following the self-titled album, Hispid, 2011) features the quartet as a highly inventive and playful unit. Clarinetist Frode Gjerstad, one of the forefathers of the Norwegian free jazz and free improvisation scene; cellistFred Lonberg-Holm, who in the last years collaborate regularly with Scandinavian musicians as Gjerstad on other projects or the Swedish-American quintet Seval; drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg and vocal artist Stine Janvin Motland, who work together as the duo MotSol—recorded two extended improvisations at the Galleri Sult in Stavanger, Gjerstad's hometown. 

Both improvisations are anarchistic and eccentric in its spirit. The only rules oblige careful listening to the other musicians uncompromising attempt to expand the sonic envelope with inventive nuances and unconventional usage of the instruments, and maintaining an arresting level of intensity. The parts where Motland sets the tone challenge the other players to accommodate with her imaginative vocalizations, full of humor, drama and emotion with a stunning range of voices. She has a unique approach of using her voice as an instrument, different from other fellow Norwegian vocal artists as Sidsel Endresen or Eldbjorg Raknes, at times closer to Maja S.K. Ratkje noisy, experimental employing of the voice as raw sound. Gjerstad uses extended breath techniques to answer her and to push further the sonic palette, while Lonberg-Holm and Solberg enrich the thick sonic stew with surprising colors, strange, subtle sounds and changing pulse. 

The two improvisations progress patiently. The second one in particular, "Sultan For Seitan," is more theatrical and uplifting. Motland begins with chirping and later ecstatic vocal utterances, Gjerstad joins with brief, poetic blows on the clarinet and unhurriedly the quartet even manages to articulate a fragile rhythmic outline through this chaotic interplay. This improvisation unfolds slowly as a detailed dadaist story, told as by four creative storytellers. 

Masterful and arresting.

Track Listing: Glutton For Insults; Sultan For Seitan.

Personnel: Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello, electronics; Frode Gjerstad: clarinet; Ståle Liavik Solberg: drums, percussion; Stine Janvin Motland: voice..

Record Label: FMR Records

Crystal "Paintings" Made from Swan Lake Music Vibrations

You ever see those pictures of water and how it crystallizes when different words are spoken to it? Well, Japanese artist Tokujin Yoshioka took this one step further - and to spectacular effect.Using musical vibrations from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake as a catalyst, Yoshioka  creates  crystal paintings and sculptures.
See them here: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/tokujin-yoshioka-crystallize

Produce Percussion

Since the venerable Vegetable Orchestra was featured on this blog, there have been others working to incorporate the botanical into their music. MaKey MaKey, a  DIY site for inventors of all ages, have used simple circuits to create percussion instruments out of produce. By interfacing a simple circuit system with a computer, wonderful piano-esque instruments can be made out of forks and apple halves. Great stuff, people. You can find out more and listen to a delicious performance at CreateDigitalMusic.com.

A Birthday Card Out of Season

Happy birthday to John Cage from Sympathies Enlarged

"Artists talk a lot about freedom. So, recalling the expression "free as a bird," Morton Feldman went to a park one day and spent some time watching our feathered friends. When he came back, he said, "You know? They're not free: they're fighting over bits of food."   John Cage



 

 

 

The Sound Art of Bruce Russell

Tree Ring Music

Ever notice how a cross-section of a tree trunk looks like a vinyl record? No? Well, artist Bartholomäus Traubeck did. His latest project, “Years,” plays the rings of a tree by mapping to a scale the lightness and darkness of color in the tree cross-section. You can listen here: http://boingboing.net/2013/05/28/turntable-that-plays-the-r.html