Kairos 106, May 2019, Concertzender

Come a new month come Kairos. Wo. settles in to listen for an hour to .No's radio show on Concertzender and shares his experiences with you, unfiltered, direct to screen. Let's read on and see where the music takes Wo.'s mind this time.

A piano moves through the familiar intro. Soft, darkish notes meander towards their fully own moment. The composition comes from an album I reviewed earlier this year. Another of the Dutch composers that have a piano as main instrument. 'Abandoned City' comes from Jacco Wynia's album 'Discomfort'. Soft, soothing and unpretentious his music comes to me and is welcomed.

Slowly female voices mix with Wynia's piano playing. It is not until a drum sets in that I'm certain a new song has started. With 'Fly' an un-Kairos like pop song enters my room. It may also be the first artist from Cyprus on this program. Eleni Era currently lives in and works from Berlin, her record is released via a Cyprus record label. The review of 'Rise Love' can also be found on these pages. "Fly' is a soft flowing song that is made just a little different by the rhythmically played organ. This gives the song a different feel from most of these sweet and soft sounding songs, showing Eleni Era's talent as an arranger.

Harrold Roeland returns to Kairos with 'Five Landscapes For 23 Speakers'. As if the sea washes over me, ghosts make old doors and wooden floors creak. This fragment is an experience in itself. All immersive and almost scary. Luckily I'm listening through two speakers only. Somewhere along the way 'Sile' from KJ Rothweiler was mixed into this experience. I have no clue where the one started nor the other ended. It could also be a complete mash up by .No. Whatever this was what I was listening to, it was impressive.

A dialect sets in with an acoustic guitar as accompaniment. I leave the crashing waves and creaking doors behind. Peter Clijssen sings 'Smoor' from his album 'Vagantenkost'. I notice I am faintly remembered by 'Sad-eyed Lady of the Low Land', one of Bob Dylan's greatest songs. The song does not last for 17 minutes as the playlist tells me. That would have made 'Smoor' a long, long song.

No, I am being taken into unchartered territory instead. A sound scape is going to test my resolve it seems. Strange noises creep from under the keyboard sounds and something more undefinable. I close my eyes trying to discern what it is I am hearing, but I just can not lay my finger on. After a lot of bells being played against each other, I move into something that for a lack of a better word I call modern classic, yet it is ripped apart by a dark sound, as if a motorcycle with a broken exhaust pipe is driven through a nature reserve. Nature reacts though, with a deep dark sound showing its discontent. The monthly poem is read, a poem by Harrold Roeland. The sound of water returns, like drops of water falling on the ground, yet there's also something creeky in this sound as well. A woman's voice reads out the same text over and over and I am reminded of a modern art video, where things can be repeated over and over and over. The whole is estranging. I feel like going on a trip within my own head. Substances seem to have been entered there without my consent but are there anyway for me to deal with. Is this pleasant? No, but not unpleasant either. Whatever it all is, it has nothing to do with me, yet effects me directly. There's no hiding from the voice nor from the droning sound in the background. Slowly it gets even weirder, a sound like erasing all comes up regularly. And then a Pink Floyd like sound enters.

'Unkrûd' by Piiptsjilling must have started. The mood remains ever so dark, but the extreme weirdness has left Kairos. I am still firmly within my mind. There's nothing taking me out of there just yet. The composition becomes louder, an electric guitar enters and a voice singing long, long held notes. Mariska Baars, Romke Kleefstra & Rutger Zuydervelt form a trio that I have encountered before on Kairos. The singing is exotic, like Greek singing, enchanting. The Frisian text is like a incantation, as if I need to be put under a spell. Nothing happens in 'Unkrûd', yet everything slowly changes, my mood, the very room I'm sitting in it seems. It is like claws reaching out to me, without ever being able to get to me, so I can remain where I am. The threat is there though, constantly. Somewhere in the dark behind this music.

The music changes, the light does not return though. My mind has been influenced by the music that came before. KJ Rothweiler's 'Caro' has sounded on Kairos before. I remember the few played notes that are repeated over and over again. First the higher ones than the lower. There's a guitar behind the piano, a bass and a whole studio's atmosphere filled with the residue of the sounds escaping from the instruments. 'Caro' is totally atmospheric. Rothweiler is not in a hurry and plays his small theme for us over and over. I feel like in a loop and guess that it may just be that.

A female voice takes over. Eleni Era returns in this Kairos with a second track from 'Rise Love', the title track. A song that combines 'Twin Peaks' with Moby's huge hit of over 20 years ago. At the same time it somehow plays with modern dance music, without ever letting huge beats enter her song. It is all so subtle, with a little jazz influence woven in for good measure. Her clear voice makes the best of this song and lifts it up even more. .No weaves in a poem in just the right place. 'Rise Love' is an impressive song (and yes, there are the birds once again) and all enriching the real talent Eleni Era is.

'Rise Love' seems to somehow fall to the floor at the ending, crashing like a crystal vase in to a thousand and one, irreparable pieces. From these pieces Manu Delago emerges with a flute and modern sounds, made into a collage of sounds, where there is no telling where Delago starts and .No's work ends. And when female voices enter as well, it becomes even more confusing. I do notice though that I have left the darkness behind totally and am smiling because of what I am hearing. So these are the Trondheim Voices in a way I am sure they have never heard themselves and neither has Manu Delago. A new experience for all except for the creator of this program. He seems to be outdoing himself and let all loose where his creativity is concerned.

Tall Ships sings a little something, after it has taken over from the creative part. 'Road Not Taken' is moody, yet beautiful song. Birds are everywhere and certainly not a part of the original song. A modern singer-songwriter is at work here. There are so many of them, yet Tall Ships manages to touch me with 'Road Not Taken'.

Followers of this blog know that Jesse Mac Cormack has released a new album, his first full length, an album he worked on for years. Gone is the extreme madness of his live shows, the exorcism that is a huge part of his work, certainly remains in place. The demons within Mac Cormack's head are all in place. 'Nothing Lasts' is not a pleasant title, A defeatist one. The music is accordingly dark. Yet, when I listen how the song is built up from his acoustic guitar and voice, it is clear how much hard work and laboriously layering of the accompaniment on 'Nothing Lasts' has taken. Mac Cormack knew what effect he wanted to reach for and succeeds totally. 'Now' is one of the better albums released this year. Jesse Mac Cormack took his time and has an album he can be proud of as a result.

Emmanuele Errante's piano sounds out, a little erratic after Mac Cormack's stately music. After 30 seconds 'Memoirs' is cast aside for another piano. Gabi Sultana plays a Benjamin van Esser composition. Again behind the piano all sorts of noises are going on, including a dark sounding cello. This piano plays slow notes that could be a part of a Radiohead song, if the context was different. It hovers somewhere between romantic and alternative rock music. In such a way that it is almost possible for me to filter out all the unsettling things going on behind it. Why? is the question I would like to ask.

A last bird's song and this Kairos is over.

Wo.


You can listen to this Kairos here:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_503673/

Playlist 20190502 2300 Kairos 106
00:00  Jacco Wynia. Abandoned City. Album ‘Discomfort’. Mosaic Music.
04:14  Eleni Era. Fly. Album ‘Rise Love’. Louvana records.
07:58  Harrold Roeland. Five landscapes for 24 speakers (fragments). Self-released.
08:43  KJ Rothweiler. Sile (complete plus several fragments). Album ‘Ex’. DRONARIVM RD-54.
10:58  Peter Clijssen. Smoor. Anna & Peter Clijssen. Album ‘Vagantenkost’. Self-released.
28:10  Mariska Baars, Romke Kleefstra & Rutger Zuydervelt (text: Jan Kleefstra). Unkrûd. Piiptsjilling. Album ‘Wurdskrieme’. Expermedia XPCD012.
34:32  KJ Rothweiler. Caro. Album ‘Ex’. DRONARIVM RD-54.
40:27  Eleni Era. Rise Love. Album ‘Rise Love’. Louvana Records.
44:28  Manu Delago. North cluster. Album ‘Parasol Peak’. TPLP1450CDP.
45:36  Trondheim Voices. Pulser (fragment). Trondheim Voices. Album ‘Rooms & Rituals’. Grappa LC49093
47:38   Ric Phethean. Road Not Taken (fragment). Tall Ships. Album ‘Impressions’. FATCAT Records FACTCD 145P.
49:48  Jesse Mac Cormack. Nothing Lastst. Album ‘Now’. Secret City Records.
54:28  Emeanuele Errante. Memoirs (fragment). Album ‘Time Elapsing Handheld’. Karaoke Kalk CD 75.
54:42  Benjamin van Esser. DART for piano and electronics. Gabi Sultana, piano. http://www.benjaminvanesser.be/discography.html
Gedicht: Harrold Roeland