Kairos 119, juli 2020, Concertzender

Just about each month Wo. listens in to the radioshow .No produces for the Dutch (online) radio station Concertzender. The show is called "Kairos, a meditation on contemporary music". Usually there's not much meditating going on in Wo.'s head as he is listening intently to the music, if the sounds he hears at times is allowed to bear that title. It seems every once in a while he begs to differ. Listening intently to share with you the ideas, feelings, associations that come with the music. Let's hand over to him and see where this Kairos takes him.

The familiar few notes intro come by and changes into, yes ,what? The musical interpretation of a fighter plane crossing the sky overhead? Not one but several. Long held electronic sounds come at me like the waves on the sea. One after the other, each one crashing louder, bigger, better, faster. It's one of those moments when I doubt whether I'm truly listening to music or more to an experiment in sounds. The result of playing with the nobs on an old synthesizer. 'Monolith' the composition is called from a band or artist named Hotel Neon. It is impressive though, very aptly titled. I'm playing it fairly loud and the soundwaves crash into me, envelope me. There's no escape, relentlessly one after the other hits me.

A piano comes in and an old voice speaking Italian or Spanish? I'm not certain but opt for the latter. The piano is recorded spaciously, as if it is standing in my own room, resonating and all. Do the voices belong? I can't tell. It seems an interuption of Olec Mün's piano playing. It is beautiful and touches me, I notice. I'm sure Mün plays the instrument very well. Yet somehow it seems as if he's making the notes up on the spot, taking a fraction of a second too long before playing them or can only barely keep up with the notes on his sheet music. The effect is a slow song that unwinds slowly.

A rough male voice cuts in. I'm hearing an album that passed me by. It happens, I get too many of them these days. An acoustic guitar is played quite aggressively, rhythm and lead. Both (or the same player of course) attack the snares to make them sound as loud a possible. The recording seems closed miked not to lose a single reverberation. Thomas Olivier featuring Ashton Sellars presents 'She's Mine'. I'm paying attention alright, wishing I could play guitar half as good as either Olivier or Sellars (I don't know). Perhaps I do these days, but this good will always remain elusive.

From the intense music in 'She's Mine' another form of intensity comes forward. A bell reverberates loudly, but it's also like a crystal glass filled with water is a part of the sound as are smaller bells and a kind of percussion. There's so much sound going on in 'Chance' that I seem to have two ears short. That there's more between what is played and what I can hear, what my ears can keep up with. Intriguing it is. I would never play this at home (well I am home but you know what I mean) but I am glad I have heard this. Impressive sounds alright. Towards the end of this fragment more starts happening but to me the extra sounds are more like an interruption than a nice addition. If I was meditating I would have been quite rudely interrupted though.

A piano enters and for the second time Marynka comes by on Kairos. This time with 'Spiral To Heaven' from her album 'Red Moon'. 'Spiral To Heaven' is more direct than what I usually hear on Kairos. Not unlike 'She's Mine', Marynka attacks the piano without throwing subtlety over board. The notes are still distinguishable but played faster and louder. The result is that I am listening with joy.

The interruption is rude. Electronic sounds like an electrified beehive and flowing water. What is it I'm hearing. An experiment, for sure, but what else? It is called 'Nilas' by Jake Muir. Again, I have a hard time calling this music. Because I'm playing this Kairos a lot louder than usual, it was on this loud from something played before that must have been recorded/mastered a lot softer, I hear all sorts of sounds coming towards me. Not all nice ones. There are hints at music in the carpets of synth sounds that are being woven ever so slowly but mostly there are sounds. They may even have been familiar before being sampled, sequenced and what else Muir did to them. Strangely enough I can listen to this for a while at this level of sound, but six minutes? No, that's stretching things a bit.

Next up is Broeder Dieleman with a song from his latest album 'Liefde Is De Eerste Wet'. '42' holds the last sounds of 'Nilas', mixed under the banjo of Toon Dieleman. Singing in his Zeeuws-Flemish dialect he makes for a distinct feature in the show. Solo, impressive.

The sounds return and '42', no not '43', a favourite drink, fades away. Harrold Roeland more or less takes over where Jake Muir left off. There's a female voice singing a no text melody, later on more. Again sounds wash over me, taking possession of my ears. Again, as if a glass is rubbed on top. Next to many other sounds, but not noises from objects Muir seemed to have used.

Slowly but surely Job Roggeveen is mixed into Roeland's soundscapes. His dark piano with synth sounds impersonating a modest orchestra. 'Pan' is very melancholic. After the intro the piano plays a little motive as if Charly Chaplin is walking in his characteristic way, stick, hat and all or Oliver Hardy plucking at his clothes or hat when acting being totally embarrassed, fingers plucking and fluttering. Slowly the song flashes out taking parts that came before. 'Pan' becomes almost funny.

A droning, serious sound takes over. Fun is over as well. Kairos becomes darker, moody, brooding. A total shift from all that came before. It is 'Ascencion' by Tim Six. I have to brace myself I see, as this will last 9 minutes. I start wondering whether this is a minimal music composition as nothing much seems to change. Just the soundwaves repeating and repeating or being held like forever. I'm on look-listen for a change. Every once in a while there's a creaky sound. There's birdsong (or crickets?) hidden deeply in the music, looped for certain. Is it my imagination or is one sound gaining in sound or is it me focusing on it more? Finally, there is a change, as if a sounding of all the bells of a cathedral at the same time was recorded, electronically treated and mixed into the composition.

When the real change comes, it is not Six but Milos Valent, John Surman and Stephen Stubbs playing a combination of traditional folk music with something quite different played loud over it. Slowly Six fades out leaving the trio on its own and they take the stage assuredly and loudly. 'Ein Iberisch Postambel' is a weird name for a song, but then an instrumental piece can have any name as it doesn't matter. The dominant sound is a flute I've decided, with some kind of effect on it. A banjo and a violin make up the three. In its own way the song is cheerful, somehow reminding me of Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five'. I can't explain you why but it does.

A drone is laid under the Postambel that slowly but surely loses its position in the mix. The drone flashes out in various drones. Six again? Yes, it is but far more diversified than where I left him close to six minutes ago. Much more has happened to the drones and still happens. Somewhere in there is 'Pan' as well, I have to assume that is so as I can't hear it.

A guitar joins and takes over. Fink has been on the show many times by now. The moody song 'We Watch The Stars', dark, impressive, fills my ears. Everything in it has been done before in popular music, yet Fink gives this song his own distinctive sound. By stripping or leaving out familiar elements most other artists would have added. E.g. parts of this song could have been recorded by Crosby, Stills and Nash. Just imagine how it would have sounded like then. I also have the impression that the violin is lifted from the trio mentioned above but that would be something if .No manages a mix like that. I have to put on the album to check but leave that to you as I have to finish this review. 'Bloom Innocent' is an impressive album. Search the blog to learn more if you like.

A massive interruption cuts into the relatively empty Fink song. Lyenn's album 'Slow Healer' could be found on Kairos a few years back, I notice that it is returning. This time I do notice some sounds that I think do not belong in the original. .No at work. (BTW, .No, there's a new album by Lyenn.) This is not a happy song, but it is beautiful. Fragile, delicate, wounded even perhaps Lyenn sounds in 'Vaguely Lit'. The voice is so prominent, unavoidable. The mood construed here is excellent by the way. So elementary yet so impressive. What a way to end a Kairos, although I think I wrote the same of the June Kairos' ending. Credits where they are due though and Lyenn and .No deserve them here.

Wo.

You can listen to this Kairos here:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_563078/


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


Playlist
00:04 – 05:50  Hotel Neon. Monolith. Album ‘Profile of the lines, various artists one. Concentric Records.
04:59 – 09:15  Olec Mün. Freddy. Album ‘Reconciliation’. Lady Blunt Records.
08:58 – 13:59  Thomas Oliver feat. Ashton Sellars. She’s mine (acoustic). Album ‘The Brightest Light (Deluxe Edition)’. V2 Records.
13:49 – 18:48  Philip Sollman. Chance (fragment). Album ‘Monophonie’. A-Ton 10.
18:16 – 21:34  Marynka. Spiral to Heaven. Album ‘Red Moon’. Orphono Records.
21:15 – 27:17  Jake Muir. Nilas. Album ‘Profile of the lines, various artists one. Concentric Records.
26:57 – 29:03  Broeder Dieleman. 42. Album ‘De Liefde is de Eerste Wet. Snowstar Records.
28:36 – 32:20  Harrold Roeland. Berusting _ Herfst. Album ‘Ceres OST’. Self-released.
31:49 – 36:06  Job Roggeveen. Pan. Album ‘Gliese’. Excelsior Recordings.
34:04 – 43:26  Tim Six. Ascencion (fragment). Album ‘Dialectica. Self Released.
42:06 – 47:55  Milos Valent/ John Surman / Stephen Stubbs. Ein Iberisch Postambel. Album ‘The Dowland Project – Romaria’. ECM NEW SERES 1970 476 5780.  
46:27 – 50:16  Tim Six. Ascencion (fragment). Album ‘Dialectica. Self Released.
48:29 – 48:34  Job Roggeveen. Pan (fragment adapted by Wino Penris). Album ‘Gliese’. Excelsior Recordings.
48:53 – 48:59  Job Roggeveen. Pan (fragment adapted by Wino Penris). Album ‘Gliese’. Excelsior Recordings.
49:13 – 55:11  Fink. We Watch The Stars (fragment). Album ‘Bloom Innocent’. R’Coup’D/DGR.
54:56 – 59:57  Lyenn. Vaguely lit (slightly adapted by Wino Penris). Album ‘Slow Healer’. V2 Records Benelux.