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| Sub-magazine v/a-Rural Psychogeography Перед нами невероятно любопытный концептуальный сборник, посвященный сельской психогеографии. Шестнадцать артистов и проектов из разных стран на основе полевых записей, сделанных в выбранном географическом пункте, выполнили экспериментальные композиции. По сути, эти треки являются выражением ассоциаций музыкантов с теми местами, которым они посвящены. Композиции сэмплера являются своего рода звукофотографиями деревень и провинций, содержат звуки, способные соотноситься с конкретной местностью или населенным пунктом. Музыканты ставили своей задачей передать атмосферу этих мест и сформировать у слушателя ряд искусственных впечатлений и ассоциации, своего рода импрессионизм. Оригинальность компиляции очевидна, и подобных сборников я еще не слышал. Предлагаю вам ознакомиться с трек листом диска, чтобы вы имели визуальное представление о том, что я пытаюсь описать. Представленную на диске музыку стилистически можно определить такими терминами, как Music Concrete , Concrete Noise, Fields Recordings , Glitch , Ambient: Обычно я придерживаюсь мнения, что музыкальные термины - вещь не шибко полезная, и музыка, которую можно описать при помощи стандартного набора слов, вызывает у меня сомнения.: Поэтому сразу отмечу, что звучание CD Rural Psychogeography в некоторой степени уникально и не поддается описанию при помощи "голой" терминологии. Все намного сложнее и интереснее: Вообще я считаю, что этот диск лучше постараться услышать, чем пытаться понять, что он из себя представляет по рецензиям: Думаю, у каждого человека сложится индивидуальное впечатление об участниках сэмплера, и я просто рискую ввести вас в заблуждение. Также обращаю ваше внимание на то, что программа, по сути, очень серьезная и не относится к числу развлекательных релизов. Возможно, кому-то понадобится время, чтобы погрузиться в музыку компиляции, возможно, кто-то после первого прослушивания отвергнет диск, кто-то останется равнодушным, а кто-то оценит его по достоинству, но в любом случае сборник стоит того, чтобы его послушать хотя бы один раз. Подобраны композиции очень хорошо, и поэтому треков, которые принято называть "проходными", здесь нет. Конечно, нравится не все, но, наверное, вы со мной согласитесь, что сборника, на котором бы все темы нравились одинаково, в природе не существует: Как наиболее понравившиеся мне треки я отмечу: " beijing c rossroad " TOMAS KORBER / GUNTER MULLER , " double strapontine " LUNT , " koktebel " THE MOGLASS , " distanz " STEINBRUCHEL . В целом же я нахожу CD Rural Psychogeography максимально интересным проектом, способным предельно загрузить ваши мозги, к тому же диск классно упакован и представляет эстетическую ценность для всех поклонников современной экспериментальной музыки. Рекомендую! |
| Sonic Arts Network v/a-Rural Psychogeography The CD comes packaged in a slender, understated yet striking, cardboard sleeve. Unfold to reveal the contents. A disc and some brief liner notes printed on greaseproof style paper. The paper type here may not be all that significant, but its potential in the kitchen is perhaps more inspirational than the text contained upon it; an unnecessarily pretentious rambling that alienates its readers and lacks even a basic critique of what psychogeography is. Here's my explanation: Psychogeography; A study of how the geographical environment affects the behaviour of individuals and society. It is often connected to the ideals of the Situationist International [SI]. The basic concept, as personally interpreted, seems to be that sonic experiences in a rural space can be captured and imported into the city whereupon the listener can construct their own abstracted environment, a 'constructed situation'. Sounds are relocated so that "an underground station in Paris all of a sudden becomes reminiscent of a country backyard". Similarly, the aural characteristics associated with the city, sounds of automated industrialisation and electronic tools, might be manipulated to mimic the complex relationship between sounds in rural surroundings. Insert the CD. The opening twenty minutes comprises four tracks of faintly manipulated environmental recordings. Beautifully captured though they are, especially Geoff Dugan's binaural recordings near Lake Otsego, rural New York State, they're perhaps a little deceptive of the textural architecture that comes to characterise the rest of the compilation. Indeed, it isn't until we arrive at track five, a composition by Andrey Kiritchhenko, that we get a true insight of the CD's nature. 'Babai' is the first composition that cuts and splices field recordings and combines them with anomalous sounds, here some freely improvised acoustic guitar and bubbling sine wave bleeps. The geography of the CD, the positioning of the tracks, causes some confusion on first listening. Unlike most contemporary music albums, which give each artist's work its designated plot of digital space, 'Rural Psychogeography' emphasises a continual mix from track four onwards. The experience isn't unwelcome though. Taking the mastering process of a contemporary album to this new phase emphasises more acutely the 'journey' aspect of the disc. Each of the sixteen tracks states a dedication to a particular location on the planet, ranging from Arizona [USA] to Huia [New Zealand], passing through Korea and Ukraine, the homeland of the releasing record label, Nexsound. Despite the initial troubles, this album proves itself on compositional elegance alone, with well-known composers such as Francisco Lopez, Kim Cascone, Rosy Parlane [Touch records] and Radian [Thrill Jockey records] contributing to the project. Its terrain starts at a reasonably low, minimalist level and gradually crescendo's toward the pinnacle, to the heightening pressure from feedback and fractured connections of kouhei and freiband's live set. Upon hearing the sound of the disc spinning down, it begs to be revisited. This won't become a dusty shelf-filler. Sit back and enjoy another journey. Where will your ears take you? Reviewed by DJC de la Haye |
| Dream v/a-Rural Psychogeography This excellent international anthology of various artists utilizes extensive field recordings of rural atmospheres, as well as instrumental manipulations to create sixteen highly evocative soundscapes. From well known, to lesser known entities: Tom Carter & Vanessa Arn, Francisco Lopez, Radian, The Moglass, Rosy Parlane, Kim Cascone, and many others. Rain drizzles and drips, a distant airplane passes, wind and water gurgles, murmurs and roars, insects sing, automobiles pass, generators hum inside of a wintery storm, random strings are plucked in an icy grotto while alien frequencies bleed through the walls. A submarine filled with ghosts floats weightlessly through a cluster of electric eels, as codified languages of stone intone and undulate. |
| Aural Innovations v/a-Rural Psychogeography According to Wikipedia, psychogeography is "the study of specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals". Those who study psychogeography wander (sometimes obsessively, it is said) around any given environment, to experience it in new ways. They have developed unusual methodologies for doing this, such as following their nose by chasing after smells, or navigating the streets of one city using the map of another city. I'm not sure what specific systems the artists on Rural Psychogeography used, but this is environmental recordings of the purest variety, sometimes set to experimental electro-acoustic music, sometimes not. This is not the kind of environmental recordings featuring pleasant birds chirping or waves crashing, designed to lull and soothe the listener by floating around in the background along with some soft new-agey music. Nor is it harsh or unpleasant noise either. Sometimes it is just simply a recording taken of some acoustic environment. Avant-garde musician John Cage did a famous piece where he sat at a piano for four odd minutes and played nothing. The idea was to get the audienced to listen to the sounds around them, to fully experience their natural sonic surroundings. The pure environmental recordings on Rural Psychogeography have this effect. By removing the other senses from the landscape, one tends to focus on just the sounds, hearing the background noise of everyday life in a new way. I'm not sure if that was the goal of this album, but it is an interesting experience. Most of the pieces, however, do feature some form of music, most often abstract, minimalist electronic music, but occasionally acoustic sounds as well. It sounds like an old idea: marry environmental recordings with music. But the artists on Rural Psychogeography have somehow managed to make this old idea sound fresh. Though it's by no means as groundbreaking as say, Brian Eno's development of ambient music in the late 70's and early 80's, Rural Psychogeography does nonetheless draw you into its unique environment of sound. Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald |
| Welovemusique v/a-Rural Psychogeography Psychogeography is a term coined by the situationist poet Guy Debord, and was developed in the late 1950's as a critique of urbanism. Defined as the study of the effects of geographical settings on the mood and behaviour of the individual, psychogeography is a field pursued on an academic level by geography researchers, but non-scientific research also emerges by way of artists and radical thinkers. One such research document is Rural Psychogeography, a compilation album of experimental pieces based on various locations around the world including Switzerland, Argentina and New Zealand. This international project features artists such as Nexsound label head Andrey Kiritchenko, Francisco Lopez, Jason Kahn, Radian, Lunt and Quebecois composer Martin Tetrault among others.Stand out cuts from this compilation include "Koktebel" by The Moglass, "Beijing Crossroad" by Tomas Korber and Gunter Muller, "Nica" by Rosy Parlane as well as "DMZspace" by Kim Cascone. Both conceptually interesting and aesthetically appealing, the resulting collection is an engaging combination of minimalism, improvisation, sound art, live and field recordings. Vitaliy Kotendgi designed the brown paper sleeve the compilation comes packaged in, which is kept together with a length of twine. For more words, sound clips and information, direct your internet browser to the Nexsound website. Constantine K. |
| Ink19 v/a-Rural Psychogeography Typically, when you put a CD in the player and press play you hear some sort of music:or crap doubling as music. When I pressed play and started listening to the first track, "No Trespassing" by Geoff Dugan, my first reaction was "What the hell is this?!" For the first five minutes, the only sound is of someone walking. No beat. No instruments. Just walking!And then I realized that Rural Psychogeography is not a band, but an indie nature album. This is an album for pompous geography students, professors and surveyors for whom the latest "Trickling Water" album is too mainstream.This sixteen track compilation was recorded all over the world, from Ukraine to upstate New York to Korea. Nexsound, the distributor of this bizarre but interestingly packaged work, made this as a way to show how "rural psychogeography" can be a total "sensory" experience.Here is why this does not work: "Babai" by Andrey Kiritchenko is two and a half minutes of electronic rain. Not actual rain, but blips randomly scattered with the intent of killing music as we now know it. And it comes close. "Beijing Crossroad" by Tomas Korber and Gunter Muller is over three minutes of static. My question: What is so geographic about static?! I can get static on my radio dial. I don't have to go clear to friggin' Japan to record it, nor do I need to hear it on a CD!The craziest track is "DMZspace" by Kim Cascone, which, according to the back cover, is "taken from Korean spam instillation." I know spam was good for a lot of things, but I have a hard time taking this one seriously. Not to mention the track sounds like R2D2 defragmenting his hard drive.If you want to deafen yourself, you could listen to "Lost River" by Kotra or "(Under the) Waalbrug, Nijmegen" by Kouhel & Freiband. Both tracks sound like someone took a microphone, placed it right in front of a speaker, turned the volume all the way up and walked away.Rural Psychogeography is something that must be heard to be believed. This is not music, and I really hope they were not trying to make it so. This half nature walk/half torturous gibberish and ear-piercing squeals is something that should never have seen the light of day. But now that it has, we can just put it away and fire the person who came up with this garbage. Tim Wardyn |
| Vital v/a-Rural Psychogeography Psychogeography (the term was coined by the situationist poetGuy Debord around 1950) is the study of the precise laws andspecific effects of the geographical environment, whetherconsciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior ofindividuals. This compilation attempts to explore this concept,by presenting the listener a series of changing sonicenvironments. Field recordings would seem to be the obviousapproach to such a concept, but only the first track on this cdis composed purely of such recordings. Geoff Dugan offersbinaural recordings made near a lake in New York state. Thefirst half of the cd flows seamlessly together, and quite oftenI felt that I was listening to one long track. Its as if we havean audio version of the old Surrealist game, where on personstarts a drawing on a sheet of paper and then covers it leavingonly the edges of the drawing visible so that the next personwould continue the drawing using the visible parts as a startingpoint. No doubt this is the result of the skillful track programmingby the editor of this compilation. Artists like Francisco Lopez,Courtis (of Reynols), Jason Kahn, Andrey Kiritchenko, TomasKorber / Gunter Muller, Lunt, the Moglass, Radian, Tom Carter(of Charalambidies) & Vanessa Arn, Martin Tetreault, RosyParlane, Steinbruchel, Kim Cascone, Kotra also appear on the cd.The contribution from Kiritchenko mixes outdoor sounds withspastic acoustic guitar coupled with digital noise. The peak ofthis cd is the track by the Moglass entitled "Koktebel" an outerbody drone which levitates above your ears which would easilyput to shame any post rock or digital shoegazer punter. Thesecond half of the cd doesn't maintain the cohesiveness of thefirst 8 tracks. Yet none of the tracks are slackers, but takenas a whole they create a work stronger than its individualparts. The CD ends with a collaboration by Kouhel & Freiband, asurprisingly noisy track, something which I would not ex pect from a Freiband work. Nothing better than going out in ablaze of glorious noise. (JS) |
| Neural v/a-Rural Psychogeography Solo sbrogliando delicatamente un nodo da una davvero artigianale cordicella ucraina (tale la nazionalita d'origine di questa raffinata compilation) e dopo aver estratto il cd dall'artwork cartonato di stampo neo-rustico, finalmente e possibile attingere ai suoni dilatati ed ambientali selezionati per noi dalla Nexsound. Artisti differenti per ognuna delle sedici incisioni, provenienti da ogni dove, con in evidenza Kim Cascone, Geoff Dugan, Francisco Lopez, ben affiancati da The Moglass, Radian, Tom Carter, Andrey Kiritchenko, Steinbruchel, Rosy Parlane, tutti meritevoli, calibratissimi nell'affrontare le suggestioni di una 'resistenza attraverso la fuga', plaudendo per voce di Natalia Zagurskaya nelle dotte note (stampate su un pieghevole trasparente) ad uno stile etico, rurale, marginale e rizomatico. Derive psicogeografiche che abbandonando il tradizionale campo dell'investigazione urbana, si adagiano comode fra le frequenze degli spazi aperti, campi d'esperienza dove (forse) ancora albergano semplicita, naturalezza, suoni puri e pulsioni non corrotte. Paesaggi sonori dalle sfumature articolate, segnati da click, tenui trasalimenti e micro-emergenze, in una gamma di registrazioni che ai fruscii della natura sovrappone i rumori piu meccanici di un aereo o di un'automobile di passaggio. Sospensioni di tempo e spazio che ci riportano ad alcune intuizioni della 'musica concreta' innestate su matrici e decostruzioni maggiormente contemporanee. Aurelio Cianciotta |
| Touching Extremes v/a-Rural Psychogeography This compilation is a perfect introduction to the Ukrainian label, its target being to present the cream of concrete/field recording-based artistry available today. One can instantly acknowledge the notable sound quality while enjoying long moments of food for the ears: from the wonderful binaural recordings by Geoff Dugan opening the CD, the listener just has to shuffle through the disc to seize priceless beauties such as Rosy Parlane's "Nica" - pure rainbows of luscious high frequencies - or the subsequent masterpiece by Steinbruchel, "Distanz". Sorting out names in such a context is not easy but something must also be told about the treated wind used by Anla Courtis - and I don't want to forget what maybe is the most emotional moment of the whole set, namely The Moglass' "Koktebel": probably such a piece defines what lost souls feel while waiting for something that will never be revealed to them. Most of the musicians involved in "Rural psychogeography" are masters of their game, therefore this sampler's level is one of the highest I've met in years: indeed, not an easy result to achieve. |
| Aquarius v/a-Rural Psychogeography From the mysterious Ukranian label that brought us those amazing Moglass records comes this new comp, heady in concept, but equally heady in sonic experimentation. Psychogeography is explained in detail in the accompanying leaflet, but is a little too dense to explain here. The gist, as far as we can discern, is that psychogeography is a search for secret places, in cities, where madness and transgression result from areas of concentrated sociality. The pieces on this compilation, are the impressions of certain artists, of many of these places, real or imagined. A who's who of minimalism, Francisco Lopez, Courtis (of Reynols), lNexsound label head Andrey Kiritchenko, the Moglass, Radian, Tom Carter, Martin Tetreault, Kim Cascone, Rosy Parlane and more. All utilising the sounds of, or crafting a sonic homage to rural New York state, Patagonia, Arentina, Zurich, France, the Ukraine, Croatia, Bullhead City Arizona, New Zealand and more. From slow subtle rumbling shimmer, to distorted, fractured melodies, to straight up field recordings, this is an amazing document of abstract minimalism. |
| Jadeweb v/a-Rural Psychogeography Le label Nexsound est une structure ukrainienne qui affiche un certain attachement aux courants de pensees philosophiques contemporains comme base de sa creation artistique, a l'instar de Sub Rosa, pour n'en citer qu'un.La psychogeographie rurale est un theme developpe par le situationniste Guy Debord dans le courant des annees 50 ayant pour analyse le rapport intime et psychologique qui se cree entre un individu et l'espace, le lieu qu'il frequente ou traverse. Une expertise qui dresse ensuite un etat des lieux des affects et de la geographie intime de chaque individu. Chaque auditeur peut alors par un jeu d'enigmes se laisser porter par les experimentations sonores de chaque intervenant, et en deduire les experiences sensorielles, visualiser les lieux qui les ont suscites. Sur un pur plan musical, ce travail etreint les spheres des musiques ambiantes, atmospheriques, environnementales mais aussi quelques interventions a base de micro- evenements (Glitch, clik n'cut) liberant de ce fait une certaine poesie de l'ere (aire) digitale.Comptant une frange large de l'international des musiques independantes, on retrouve ici.Francisco Lopez, Korber/ Muller, Jason Kahn, Courtis, Lunt, Martin tetreault, Radian, Steinbruchel, Kim Cascone, entre autres.A noter que le label ukrainien met a dispositions un site de telechargement de productions au format MP3 d'artistes du cru. Une reflexion sensible sur l'espace et la territorialite simplement passionnante. |
| Twilight-Zone v/a-Rural Psychogeography "Rural Psychogeography" e una compilation alla quale vi partecipano artisti di varie nazionalita, si tratta di un interessante progetto di sonorita experimental-ambient. I suoni delle 16 tracce del CD ci conducono attraverso una deriva psycho-surreale che attraverso differenti strati empatici, descrivendo ambienti reali e immaginari (con i loro rumori e componenti varie) e riproducendo ricercati segnali extra-sensoriali. Sequenze cinematiche di percezioni subliminali, guidate da coinvolgenti trasmissioni e campionamenti, e disseminate su territori indefiniti ricchi di misteriose esperienze audio-visivi. Una ricognizione aurale lunga ed intensa, ideata per catturare le essenze nascoste in ogni minimale fotogramma del nostro inconscio. Tra le onde risonanti di Magwheels e le intuizioni mesmeriche di Wilt. Proiezioni scenografiche di atmosfere sfuggenti. |
| Groove v/a-Rural Psychogeography Psykogeografi ¤r ett begrepp som myntadesav den situationistiske poeten Guy DebordpҐ 1950-talet fҐr jag l¤ra mig i det lillah¤ftet som fжljer med Rural Psychogeography.Begreppet betecknar de effektersom den omgivande geografin har pҐ detm¤nskliga psyket. De sexton medverkandeartisterna pҐ denna samlingsskiva har allafжrsжkt gestalta detta, vilket resulterat imusikstycken som ¤r fascinerande svҐrgripbara.Till stor del handlar det om f¤ltinspelningar.Det vill s¤ga, omgivningsljud somspelats in och som fungerar som ljudinstallationereller ambienta ljudsjok utan varesig rytm, harmoni eller melodi. Andra artistersom till exempel жsterrikarna Radianbearbetar sina omgivningsljud och strukturerardem tillsammans med datorljud ochfжrsiktiga smҐ antydningar till rytmer.Som sagt, det ¤r en ganska svҐr skivadet lilla ukrainska bolaget Nexsound gettut, men samtidigt ¤r det en fascinerandelyssning. Med hj¤lp av dessa sexton styckenkan man fжrest¤lla sig en v¤rldsomsp¤nnanderesa: bidragen ¤r inspelade pҐ vittskilda platser. H¤r finns en tunnelbanestationi Toulouse, Frankrike, en stadsdel iZмrich, Schweiz, en stad pҐ Nya Zeelandoch d¤remellan Sydamerika och Kina. Jordenrunt pҐ 73 minuter ungef¤r. Mats AlmegҐrd |
| Skug Magazine v/a-Rural Psychogeography Andrey Kiritchenko, der mit seinem Nexsound Label die Ukraine auf die Landkarte der elektronischen Musik brachte, wendet auf vorliegender Compilation das Konzept der Psychogeographie, welches zumeist im urbanen Raum Betrachtung findet, musikalisch auf den landlichen Raum an. Die Psychogeographie, ein von Guy Debord geschaffener Begriff, ist die Erforschung der Gesetze und der genauen Wirkungen einer bewusst oder unbewusst gestalteten geographischen Umwelt, die einen direkten Einfluss auf das Gefuhlsverhalten ausubt. Auf vorliegendem Review geht es dabei vor allem um akustische Psychogeographie, Klangraume und deren Verbreitungszonen in der Umwelt. Wetter, Wind u.a. Naturgerausche treffen auf menschverursachte Kulturgerausche. Die Landstra?e als zentrales Motiv, als Forschungsgrundlage, auf der entlangwandelnd, den Horer 16 Stucke, bestehend aus weniger bis mehr verfremdeten Field Recordings, erwarten. Beigesteuert von Kunstlern wie Francisco Lopez, Kim Cascone, Steinbruchel, Radian und, neben einigen mehr, auch Kiritchenko selbst, wird in den Tracks dabei mehr das Zuhoren und Erfahren von Klangzonen verlangt, als dass versucht wird ein modernes Arcadia zu schaffen. |
| Fallofbecause v/a-Rural Psychogeography This sizeable collection of "environmental music" contains 16 tracks from 16 different international artists, and much of it does indeed come off as a literal representation of "environmental music", though "environmental recordings" might be more accurate. Things are generally very quiet and repetitive, take for instance the thick/windy rumbling of Francisco Lгpez in "Untitled #151", which was created using materials recorded during a flight. Andrey Kiritchenko's "Babai" is dedicated to a province in the Ukraine and is the first track that gets a bit more active by splicing up raw and open recordings of a stringed instrument so that things sound a little jumbled and blippy. "Double Strapontine", by Lunt, is listed as being "associated to the subway station of Matabiau in Toulouse, France", whatever that means, and is one of my favorite tracks with its ambient hums and sparse ringing tones/stringed instrument notes - much louder than the preceding six tracks. The Moglass' "Koktabel" (also dedicated to an area of the Ukraine) is by far my favorite track, though. Using faint distortion over thick, almost orchestral ambient hums and drones that really conjure up an amazingly abstract emotional/musical quality. Radian also offers up a very nice piece of minimal and droning ambience, not too dissimilar from that of the following "Mojave", by Tom Carter and Vanessa Arn, though they sort of ruin the core beauty of their track with some unnecessary musical notes that really sound off to me. Dedicated to Huia, New Zealand is a composition from Rosy Parlane, another superb selection of droning dark ambient, here with a very bright and ethereal sort of texture to it - possibly the most simplistic piece herein, but also one of the finest. Kim Cascone's "DMZspace" was taken from a Korean spam installation and has the most glitchy and electronic style of any of these songs, softly beeping and cutting its way through almost five minutes with a calm demeanor that doesn't jut out from the overall atmosphere too much, while still defining itself as an individual. Closer "(Under the) Waalbrug, Nijmegen" is a live recording from Kouhei & Freiband, using a bit more distortion than any other contribution, but still remaining calm and consistent with the general tone of this collection. The CD comes in a nice digipack folder that's held shut by a loop of twine. The package unfolds in all directions to reveal the disc and a small one-sided insert printed on vellum, which looks quite nice - containing plenty of lofty text outlining the notion of psychogeography. I think that a lot of this work is very fucking good, but as a whole there are too many boring selections, and one or two that simply aren't very good at all. Those more literally based around the sounds of field recordings or whatnot are a little stale, and it takes a good 15 - 20 minutes for the CD to really start hitting the intriguing material. But I would classify this as one of the more truly experimental pieces of music I've heard as of late, and I think there are a lot of artists here worth checking out, so the good overcomes the bad. |
| Phosphor v/a-Rural Psychogeography Psychogeography is the study of precise laws and specific effects of thegeographical environment, whether consciously organised or not, on theemotions and behaviour of individuals.This Ukrainian compilation is a collection of field recordings fromvarious different rural areas have collected by 16 internationalcontributors and aim to highlight the specific effects that a particularlandscape and geographical location can have. Well known artists such asFrancisco Lopez, Rosy Parlane, Andrey Kiritchenko, Steinbruchel as well asa handful of others portray some of the most impressive sights ofArgentina, New Zealand, Ukraine, Switerland and much more.Perhaps this album portrays some of the true meaning of Musique concrete,taking sound from its original environment and putting in another context,i.e. onto a CD for us to listen to in a completely different space. Theclean, unprocessed recordings are largely unspoilt field recordings and tomy ears are some of the most interesting pieces of music I've heard. Oneis most impressed by the powerfulness of the sound of weather and all itsdiversity.There is a soothing atmosphere created on parts of this CD, the kind offeeling that you might remember getting while sitting on a balcony or atan open window listening to the rain lash down and knowing that there'snothing you can do but relax and enjoy thecalm silence of it while you wait for it to stop.Each track is roughly ended and the listener is brought into a new soundenvironment. Subtle differences and sounds creep into the landscapes andone is struck by the amount of rain that seems to be common to a lot ofthe tracks. For me the CD started off as an environmental exploit and Iwas surprised to discover that it deviated greatly from this as the CDprogressed. Each contributor brought something very new to the concept andsome tracks are completely processed and some even have an acousticinstrumentthrown in.One of the processed tracks, for example track 05 by Andrey Kiritchenko -babai, contains environmental recordings of somebody walking around mixedwith some guitar playing and complex electronic beats.The track by Tomas Korber/Gunter Muller is almost altered beyondrecognition from its original material. In fact there are quite a fewtracks that are hard to relate to their recordings and perhaps I've gotthe wrong end of the stick and they are not all processed field recordingsbut are just dedicated to a certain place.Either way, this album covers quite an enormous wealth of sound and musicand is incredibly diverse in it's range and purpose. If you're looking forinteresting and experimental variety this compilation comes highlyrecommended. |
| Rock Sound v/a-Rural Psychogeography Various Artists - "Rural Psychogeography" If ordinariness is the stuff of life, then music is surely a medium for its transformation. Listening is, afterall, a study in itself, and when you listen in the right kind of way, noises become rumours, hints at the rhythms of life fleeting in and out of view. The study of the mundane, in all its fascinating complexity, is the starting point for 'Rural Psychogeography', a compilation Ukrainian in origin but international in authorship and appeal. This is music formed of wandering and reflection, composed of a variety of mechanical drones, clicks, and soundscapes interlaced with barely comprehensible cries, distant noises, the whirr of the motorcar, rhythms that call to and answer each other. Nothing here qualifies as a song in conventional parlance, but this hauntingly beautiful study of the real and the possible is all the better for it. Alex Whitehead 9/10 |
| Loop v/a-Rural Psychogeography Various Artists - "Rural Psychogeography" From the independent republic of Ukraine, situated in East Europe and that belonged until 1991 of the ex-USSR, comes this interesting experimental compilation released by Nexsound - under the direction of Andrey Kiritchenko - with artists from Germany, Argentina, Austria, Spain, United States, France, New Zealand, Russia and Ukraine. The concept of this compilation deal with the sounds obtained from different rural places, is as well as Geof Dugan presents field recordings with people walking, voices of children, a truck motor that approaches and soon it moves away recorded at the Otsego Lake, near New York, then the Spanish Francisco Lopez exposes a dynamics of average rank with noisy textures but that does not arrive at high ranks that he registered in the Argentine Patagonia. In as much the Argentinean (Alan) Courtis - ex-Reynols - showcase wind recordings from Antofagasta de la Sierra in the Argentine province of Catamarca. Jason Kahn uses field recordings and rain returns to be a common element. Andrey Kiritchenko improvised with an acoustic guitar, clicks and diverse noises inspired by Babal, located in the province of Kharkov, where Nexsound is based. Tomas Korber and the German Gunter Muller work on a noisy recording of Roland Hausheer that made in the Chinese capital Beijing. Lunt from Paris (interviewed on loop) provides with guitar improv and drones inspired on the Matabiau metro station in Toulouse. The Ukrainian trio The Moglass dedicates the track 'Koktebel' to a place with this name located in the mountainous peninsula of Crimea, Ukraine. The distorted and environmental guitars remember me of the devastating places that Third Eye Foundation's music. From Austria, Radian produces static, granular decomposition and Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Vanessa Arn establishes a dialogue with guitars improvisation that suggests images of the desert of Mojave to which it is dedicated. The French Martin Tetreault combines crackles and noises and the New Zealander Rosy Parlane insist with long layers of tones that he slightly changes of frequencies. The sound artist (Ralph) Stenbruchel makes microscopic sounds via digital means, thus also makes the North American Kim Cascone on a dark atmosphere. The Ukrainian Dmytro Fedorenko, aka Kotra, is inspired by the Lybid river of the capital of the Ukraine, Kiev, for which mixes different piano samples to finish with an acute and deafening sound. Finally, a live and quite noisy performance of Kouhei & Freiband at the festival of 'Gekeerde Wal' from the Dutch city of Nijmegen, was edited by Franz de Waard, head of Staalplaat. More info. en nexsound. Guillermo Escudero, May 2004 |
| Foxy Digitalis v/a-Rural Psychogeography Various Artists - "Rural Psychogeography" To stare at the landscape, urban or natural, and witness the sort of tiny shiftsthat you'll never notice unless you're patient, and are willing to give things timeis one of the most mind-cleansing things I can think of. So maybe it doesn't come asa big surprise that I really like the concept behind this Ukrainian compilation,aptly titled Rural Psychogeography. The keyword of the 16 internationalcontributions is psychogeography and every single one is built up to illustrate thespecific effects of a certain geographical location. If the sounds presented are anyindicators, there's quite a few rainy days in these places. Most of the tracksexplore some of the bleakest landscapes ever illustrated with sounds but thatdoesn't prevent pretty much all of them from being just as beautiful as they arestark. The album as a whole brings to mind a small island of narrow streets withhouses all painted in a similar grayish color. It's a place where you continuouslywill have a difficult time finding your way but where you somehow are well aware of the outer margins. You will never pass the limit of being seriously lost and instead you will be ableto focus on the ancient cobblestone walks and endlessly discovering newassociations between the already known and unknown locations. Ukrainian Moglasstakes the nightshift and their claustrophobic dronescapes and swelling detailedcluster of sound are sure to make you watch over your shoulder every second stepyou take. Austrian Radian's electro-acoustic clusters offer a rhythmic meetingbetween the sunshine and the historical heritage of Unije, an island in the outerCroatian archipelago, but the real masterpiece of them all is Tom Carter andVanessa Arn's "Mojave". It's a track that sounds a whole lot more open than any ofthe previous ones and I can't help but imagining myself wandering the vast expansesof the desert. Other contributions range from digitized distortion,electro-acoustic minimalism, immersive drone constructions, metallic sonatas, mechanical screeches and superfluous ambientabstractions to microscopic sine drones. But what unites them all is the sheerinterest in exploring a particularly impressive view and painting aural imagesreminiscent, or at least inspired, by that specific vista. With that in min we'reserved glimpses of a lifetime of travels. Beyond what's already been mentionedFrancisco Lopez, Rosy Parlane, Andrey Kiritchenko, Steinbruchel as well as ahandful of others portray some of the most impressive sights of Argentina, NewZealand, Ukraine, Switerland and much more. Recommended. Mats Gustafsson |
| Paris Transatlantic v/a-Rural Psychogeography Various Artists - "Rural Psychogeography" If you're looking for one compilation that truly samples the world of electronic music, and the world itself, from Arizona to Argentina, Nijmegen to New Zealand, look no further. Rural Psychogeography features a veritable Who's Who of sound artists in a fabulously recorded and exquisitely sequenced selection of work that kicks off spectacularly with Geoff Dugan's "No Trespassing", an outstanding binaural recording of Lake Otsego in upstate New York (watch yo woofers when dem trucks start rolling by). Francisco Lopez provides yet another inscrutable reworking of field recordings, this time from Patagonia, and Alan Courtis, of Reynols fame, collages sounds of the wind recorded in the Atacama Desert at Antofagasta de la Sierra Catamarca. Judging by the thundering oppressive rumbles that result, neither place is particularly hospitable. Probably just as well we segue right into Jason Kahn's "Kreis 5", which if my Google sleuthing is to be trusted (I guess I could always ask Jason himself but snooping around is more fun) is an industrial estate in Zurich, Switzerland, where's it's clearly raining. Nexsound's own Andrey Kiritchenko is up next, and from the sound of it, the label's home base in Babal in Eastern Ukraine is a pretty wet place too. Here the album begins to slip its moorings: Kiritchenko isn't content to leave the field recordings alone, adding swirls of laptop and shards of improvised acoustic guitar (imagine CM von Hausswolf jamming with John Russell at a bus stop in the rain). In similar vein, back in Switzerland, Tomas Korber and Gunter Muller get busy eai-style on a recording of a crossroads in Beijing. Lunt, aka Gilles Deles, dedicates his "Double Strapontine" to Matabiau subway station in Toulouse - goodness knows how he used the recordings he made there, but the result is absolutely spellbinding. Back in the Ukraine, The Moglass have taken a trip to Koktebel, in the Crimea, and here my Googling took me straight to a Russian-only Website introducing the ex-Soviet Union's most famous nudist beach (you think I'm making this up? Check out the photo.. seems to be the ideal place for cutting edge sound artists to hang out, if you ask me). Their magnificent and spacious track - for once not long enough! - is definitely one of the disc's highlights. Quite what relation Radian's "Unje" has to do with the island of Unije off the Dalmatian coast that gives the piece its name isn't clear (nor is the reason for including the track, which had to be licensed specially from Thrill Jockey, where it first appeared on the Rec.Extern album), but Tom Carter and Vanessa Arn's "Mojave" is a beautiful and evocative portrait of the Arizona desert. After the crackle and grit of Martin Tetreault's "D'apres Gaycre #3", dedicated to the valley of the same name in the Tarn department of Southern France and the album recorded there in situ by Jean Pallandre, Xavier Charles, Michel Doneda on the splendid environmental improv Ouie Dire label, Rosy Parlane's "Nica" returns us to the antipodean poise of Huia (somewhere not far from Auckland, NZ, as far as I can make out). Meanwhile, back in Switzerland, Steinbruchel's laptoppery is as meticulous and unfathomable as ever, as is Kim Cascone's "DMZspace", which is "taken from a Korean spam installation", whatever that means. By the time we get through the Cascone to Kotra (aka Dmytro Fedorenko)'s "Lost River", an agglomeration of oppressive piano samples, we seem to have left "geography" behind and moved firmly into the world of the "psycho". There's not much rural about it anymore either, especially the last track, a decidedly noisy performance by Kouhei and Freiband recorded at a festival in Nijmegen in The Netherlands. It certainly makes a change for compilation albums to go out with a bang - most of them are far too polite and play-safe - and with the feeling that we've really been on a journey; flip track one on again and you'll realise how far we've travelled. The only mildly annoying thing about this collection is the accompanying liners, a rather pretentious (and frankly unnecessary) essay by Natalia Zagurskaya - though then again I'm instantly suspicious whenever I come across words like "schizoanalysis" and "mobile psycho-prosthesis" - who might instead have mentioned (though I guess she supposes we all know anyway) that the term "psychogeography" was first coined by Guy Debord to refer to the effects of the geographical environment on the emotions and behaviour of individuals. Speaking for myself - can't get more individual than that - I think this is one of the most varied and thought-provoking compilations of recent times. DW |
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