Kairos 117, May 2020 Concertzender

Running a little behind again with .No's radio show Kairos on Concertzender, Wo. once more attunes his ears to the often not daily sort of music he listens to and reviews for WoNoBlog. Quite often he hears experience moving, even horrifying kinds of music; to his ears. Pure beauty to the ears of .No. Of course, after years of listening and writing some artists have become familiar and the shocks of what he learned is also called music also has abated. So let us continue and hand over to Wo. to present his musings to the Kairos #117, of May 2020.

The familiar sounds enter my ears and I brace myself, what will come up first? Soft atmospheric sounds, a drone enters my space. I have to turn up the volume a lot to really hear. A passing train obscures the drone with ease, despite the volume. Will I get a fright because of a musical injection at normal volume?, I find myself thinking. I have to stop typing as I can't hear the "music" properly.

Before I could stop, drums set in, Harrold Roeland's drone is replaced by a pick up from Leo Fabriek. 'Jacobsladder' by Broeder Dieleman is one of the best songs on Dieleman's new album, 'Liefde Is De Eerste Wet'. He sings like well-known singers, only with an accent from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. I have written twice on this song already, but it is of the kind that allows praising it over and over again. People this is 100% beauty. Something to listen to.

It stops early, abrupt, the drone or a drone returns, much louder, wider and more spacious. It is Harrold Roeland again. Reading the title now, the drone is an electronically altered didgeridoo, the traditional instrument of the Aboriginees of Australia.

The drone continues for 12 minutes and all underneath other music. The first is Tibulilena returning to Kairos. .No has a really big thing for ambient piano playing as month after month this music returns. I am totally o.k. with it though. Not that I will put it on at home, no give me the new Porridge Radio album or the upcoming The Beths release. But, 'Endless' is beautiful. The slow played notes make a beautiful melody. It is as simple as that, were it not that the didgeridoo returns in force.

Over it slowly but surely a rhythm is mixed into it. I can almost imagine this as an interlude at a rave. The drone is expanded in ways Roeland will never have imagined it but .No's remix and mash up with Etapp Kyle's 'Unseen' works like a miracle. Dancing time on Kairos, who'd ever have imagined it? Not me. I foresee a huge international career for .No if he keeps this up and we are allowed into the world for real again.

Next up are two musicians that have featured on the blog before. Job Roggeveen and later Pieter Nooten. Both play romantic, ambient piano pieces. Roggeveen, also known as Happy Camper, created the music for his album 'Giese' while in retreat in France, playing on an old piano he found there. The playing is delicate in 'Kalyke', the mood bittersweet. The notes played sound light and played delicately, fragile.

Nooten comes in over the piano. On his new album, 'Stem', he presents a composition for an orchestra with underneath modern electronic influences defining the background atmosphere. 'Variation in F# Minor' is a dark piece. There's not a lot of light let in, even if between the instruments there's room left in the mix.

Jack Poels sings in a Limburg accent and .No must feel closer to "home" immediately. On his first solo album Poels keeps it all small. No abundant music of his band Rowèn Hèze here. In 'Kermis In De Hel' Poels looks back on his night outings in the local pub that sounded like a good idea last night but not the next morning. The melancholy mood stresses the feeling, the chorus shows the enthusiasm of last night and the feel of the morning after. This is simply very well done. A song of a true songsmith.

It is not often that I can write here in Kairos that an artist is on that performed admirably in my living room. Out of Skin did. 'Yrin' is the title of its new and more experimental EP. You can find the review on the blog. 'Yrin' is a moody song, but so interesting and, let me not forget to add, extremely good. There's a lot going on around Maartje's harp, electronically and acoustically.

Bowed instruments replace Wouter Mol singing "closer". My guess is two cello's, but what do I know? Dark notes are sort of repeated over and over. And then a dark male voice comes in. Lyra Pramuk was introduced to the program recently and returns with a mysterious piece of atmospherics. Is the male voice an inverted Smurf sound, so a female voice slowed down? Somehow I have that impression but am not certain. I notice I have to settle in for 9 minutes with this, yes, what is it? I can't call this music for the life of me. Even singing is far-fetched. It is more producing sounds in the form of sung notes. The cello's disappear and a female voice joins the whole. More melodies enter 'Cradle' and I am remembered of 'The Prophet's Song' by Queen. The "now I know" part. That certainly could have been an influence. Now that song returns to its rock roots. Those are totally missing here: song and rock. Synths do join but never to become a song. It's over and a piano and a hum take over.

'Svalbard' was an album I looked/listened into for this blog as well. Again a light piano sits at the heart of this music, except that Niklas Paschburg from there started work with other sounds and instruments. That gives his work a light form of progrock background, making it an interesting combination to listen to.

The Orb is an act that played at large festivals as the dance component. .No mixes Paschburg with The Orb. 'Pervitin – Empire Culling The Hemlock Stone Version' however has nothing to do with dance (any more), it is all atmospherics with perhaps a hint towards a melody. Is it the poem of the month or a part of 'Pervitin ...'. The voice is treated suggesting The Orb. What is the language? It sounds like I should recognise it, but can't. That suggests Frisian or Schweizer Deutsch. Sophie Hunger speaking in her mother tongue. The music is of the soothing kind but why would someone want to listen to it for fun? Not me.

Somewhere in there were .No's own field recordings, but I missed them, sorry. A sad organ has taken over. One of the many, many guises of Richard Bolhuis' House of Cosy Cushions. The music is slow, meandering and yet for some reason Ekseption enters my head. 'Air' to be precise. I can't tell why exactly but it is in one part of the melody and the hint at Rein van den Broek's trumpet in a single organ note. The music can be called stately. It sounds so official, yet also sad.

The switch to Donna Blue is almost as if the two compositions were intended that way when they were made by the two different bands. 'Fool' is one of the songs on Donna Blue's new, digital EP 'In Between' and one of the most empty one's it ever made. The music is almost an afterthought in the first half of the song. I have been a fan after musically digesting the first single now two years ago. It took me the summer months and then I was won over as this blog shows. 60s, reverb and empty spaces. On top of everything the sigh girl style singing. A longing bigger than the ocean is suggested successfully. Donna Blue is a unique act, from The Netherlands at that.

'Fool' is encapsulated by 'Duinpad' that returns for a short while. There's a short, confusing sample of voices in between so I think I have noticed the .No fragment 'Wetter 4' this time around.

Does the music really change? Yes, elements are getting more prominent, so I think we have moved into 'Es Dur Sista' by Trio Ramberget. A bass and a lone horn calling out over a vast empty musical space. All ever so slowly seem to come closer and play louder because of that. Something slightly dissonant, confusing creeps in as well. This piece is fascinating though. And that might not be the first time I write that on this trio. In the Kairos context this works extremely well.

Next up is another track from that album that I think is impressively good but just can't listen to a lot. Luckily .No has a track is Kairos for months already after my tip. 'Ghosteen' was one of the best albums of 2019 and of this century so far. I will not be around, normally, to make up that balance and in 2099 who will know who Nick Cave was? 'Waiting For You' is a beautiful song. As fragile as his 15 year old son who fell to his death in Brighton. The album is so top heavy that it is simply not for every day for me. But what a way to end Kairos. It may be with the most beautiful song ever on the show and then silence.

Wo.

You can listen to the full show here on Concertzender:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_555807/


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g


This month's playlist:

00:00 – 02:54  Harrold Roeland EAD5 part 1 (adapted fragment). Album ‘Electronically Altered Didgeridoo’. Self-released.
01:38 – 04:00  Broeder Dieleman. Jakobsladder. Single. Snowstar Records.
02:29 – 14:06  Harrold Roeland EAD5 part 2 (adapted fragment). Album ‘Electronically Altered Didgeridoo’. Self-released.
06:02 – 09:19  Tibulibena. Endless. Single ‘Endless’. Private recording Tibulibena.
09:30 – 12:34  Etapp Kyle. Unseen (adapted fragment). EP ‘Nolove’. Ostgut Ton.
13:07 – 14:48  Job Roggeveen. Kalyke (fragment). Album ‘Gliese’. Excelsior Recordings.
14:47 – 16:27  Job Roggeveen. Kalyke (fragment). Album ‘Gliese’. Excelsior Recordings.
15:37 – 18:57  Pieter Nooten. Variation in F# Minor (fragment). Album ‘Stem’. Rocket Girl RGIRL115.
18:38 – 22:34  Jack Poels. Kermis in de Hel. Album ‘Blauwe Vaer’. Snowstar Records.
22:26 – 25:35  Out Of Skin. Ydin. Single. Self-released.
24:53 – 33:56  Lyra Pramuk. Cradle. Album ‘Fountain’. Bedroom Community.
33:29 – 37:30  Niklas Paschburg. Season Shift. Album ‘Svalbard’. K7! Records.
37:04 – 41:00  The Orb. Pervitin – Empire Culling The Hemlock Stone Version. Album ‘Abolition of the Royal Familia’. Cooking Vinyl. 
40:27 – 40:32  Wino Penris. Wetter 1. Private recording.
40:41 – 40:47  Wino Penris. Wetter 2. Private recording.
40:53 – 45:04  Richard Bolhuis. Duinpad. House of Cosy Cushions. Album ‘Underground Bliss‘. Outcast Cats.
40:57 – 41:02  Wino Penris. Wetter 3. Private recording.
44:39 – 45:18  Richard Bolhuis. Duinpad (fragment). House of Cosy Cushions. Album ‘Underground Bliss‘. Outcast Cats.
45:12 – 50:16  Donna Blue. Fool. EP ‘In Between’. Snowstar Records.
49:54 – 50:34  Richard Bolhuis. Duinpad (fragment). House of Cosy Cushions. Album ‘Underground Bliss‘. Outcast Cats.
50:16 – 50:22  Wino Penris. Wetter 4. Private recording.
50:16 – 56:35  Trio Ramberget. Es Dur sista. Trio Ramberget (Johanna Ekholm, Gustav Davidsson, Pelle Westlin). Album ‘Musik att somna till’. Self-released.
56:05 – 59:57  Nick Cave. Waiting for you. Album ‘Ghosteen’. Ghosteen Ltd.
56:53 – 57:33  Richard Bolhuis. Duinpad (fragment). House of Cosy Cushions. Album ‘Underground Bliss‘. Outcast Cats.