Kairos 132, 2 September 2021

Catching up is a hard thing to do, with so much other things in music happening and there are not even live shows. Well there are, but I've decided to skip them for a while longer. With Kairos I'm six months behind actually, but luckily for me it is without consequence and it remains something special to do: listen to an hour of music, that more often than not is removed miles, oceans, deserts and mountain ranges away from what I listen to on a regular, as in daily basis. It's time to submerge myself in an hour of music that was broadcast in September on Concertzender last year. Read this and follow me, click on the link below and let's submerge together on the other side.

The familiar tune, mysterious and promising in one, rings out and fades away to start the programme. Just as mysterious music sounds out, interspersed with a single piano note. A female voice starts singing. It could be any of the female singer-songwriters that have stampeded the world in recent years. However, as far as I'm aware, I have not heard this song before. It is Marta Del Grandi's 'Taller Than His Shadow'. The mix of the hovering soundscapes, coming close to traditional accompaniment and her high tell-singing voice give the song something ghostlike, yet beauty. A violin comes screeching in, giving the impression of a creaking door in a haunted house. Something with shit and fans is about to happen, it seems, were it not that Marta del Grandi fades out,

to give way to Minco Eggersman. It has been a while since he was on the programme. The eeriness gives way to something more light, with a rhythm like a fast heartbeat, the music is somewhere between folk and (modern) classic. To change into something of absolute beauty. Give this to Madrugada, imagine Sivert Høyem's deep-bronzed voice and one of the best rock ballads of the 21st century may emerge.

The mood changes to the more mysterious again. A sound like a looped and treated voice and sounds is what makes the music in the background. On a few occasions I have seen how an artist creates music like this in a live setting. Always in awe how this is possible. A voice is talking over the looped sounds but I'm not following the deathlike voice and find myself concentrating on the human flies buzzing and buzzing, creating a swirling feeling around the voice.

The buzzing continuous when something else comes in. Piano notes, a violin, re-establishing the previous mood. 'Kaykasia', the album of Eggermans is called. After a rising of the violins, a piano takes over.

Tom Snijders is a new name to me. One in a long list by now of pianists, recording solo albums with their compositions. I'm totally unable to tell them apart. Following Eggerman's mood, Snijders works quite well. His 'Sweet memories (For A)' work really well on a Sunday afternoon, I notice. If anything, Snijders caught the sweet memories in this, soft, slow, melancholy music, with the piano playing slow notes and sparse chords over a faint accompanying sound, that may be looped violins. Slow does it here.

Another name that I can't recall comes in next. Again, the music is part a soundscape meandering slowly in the background. Over it some percussion is played. I can imagine a heavy bass coming in, to start a rock song anyway, but no, in reality all sorts of sounds jump forward, only to disappear once again. Moritz von Oswald Trio's 'Chapter 3' is presented to me. It is hard to make heads or tails. This music is certainly special and reaches me, but what I miss is structure, a song. As I already wrote, I could literally hear a bass guitar coming in and introducing a song, a great song even, using the soundscape to set it apart and make it special, but it is not to be. And that is what baffles me.

There's no time to reflect further as another change is announced. Kairos is getting a move on in this episode, with little time for reflection. In fact, I find myself pausing it continuously, something I hardly ever do, to have the chance to finish my train of thought on the music. The change is to another soundscape with treated choir voices or an expensive synthesizer of course. Sounds that come at me, "like the waves out on the beach". to quote Jim Morrison. 'Bending Dreams' by Eluvium' is what I'm listening to.

A song takes over. There's a repeated chord progression and I'm in more familiar territory. Not that I know the song, but I could have, that's for sure. A singer with a voice somewhere in between Kate Bush and Josephine Foster is singing with a soft voice. 'Burn Me Again' by Alpha certainly is influenced by Kate Bush. I recognise a specific kind of chord change, besides the voice. At the same time Alpha is far less commercial than the early Kate Bush. "Burn Me Again", sounds like a witch asking for an encore, I realise. I'm sort of shocked by my association, as it's a rather harsh thing to think.

Before I can follow up this realisation, the song is gone. The mystery is what remains. This song is darker. The desire has left Kairos, that was definitely in Alpha's song. 'Frontplate' it's called and over.

A choir comes in, dark male voices dominating my ears all of a sudden, but also not naturally but treated, looped. This is classical, if not church music. I hear a church organ accompanying the, now, natural sounding voices. A woman's voice shoots up high, close to my ability to cope. It is a short composition by Arvo Pärt called 'Veni Creator Spiritus'. Not my kind of music, you will not be surprised to read if you follow this blog. But, let me add, that were I to enter a cathedral and the choir was practising this work, I would definitely sit down to listen with my eyes closed. Even when something is not my music, I can enjoy the sheer beauty of the vocal performance and the acoustics of the cathedral.

Another soundscape takes over. Mysterious sequences and crackling noises, radio frequencies and what not are interspersed in the slowly building tension in the soundscape that gets louder and louder. Reign does not get to deliver a climax, if there ever is one, I don't know, as it's 'Endplate' gives way to another piano.

It is Jeroen Elfferich returning to Kairos. His work is more intricate but also almost minimal as the same progression is played over and over, until a new one is thrown in and repeated over and over. "Fine' is a track from his album 'The Minimal Piano Series Vol. 1'. It is kind of funny, this music, waiting for something to happen. That is what this music is. Can another variation of notes by added to the existing ones? The answer is yes, it takes patience, but the difference can be a small halt before the next, yet same note is played, changing the feel of 'Fine'. "Fine' literally is the point of rest in this Kairos. After having been hurried along for over twenty minutes, Elfferich gets eight minutes to play his piano in a tender, yet decisive way. The main melody does not know any hesitation. The left hand countermelody is where the hesitation and other feelings and emotions are found. Fascinating.

The change is that as well, as some mysterious sound creeps in together with a weird, digital percussive sound, as if coming to me from underwater. 'Dream 52' by Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert brings me in a totally different world, totally unknown as well. I notice I feel like captain Kirk after having been beamed down by "Scotty" to another unknown planet. Friendly? Unfriendly? Kirk can't tell but the accompanying music by Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert is ominous. This does not bode well for the (anonymous) Enterprise's crew. The only comforting sound is the bird song, that does sound familiar. Luckily, we know that after a few setbacks, Kirk always prevails.

More piano. Again slow played notes and chords. Extremely delicate and some chords played so hesitatingly, it is as if the composer is making them up on the spot. As if what I hear, is what was thought up while I'm listening. However, slowly but surely Roger Spees is finding his stride, and turns 'Feeling Of Hope' into a beautiful composition.

When a more eerie tone comes in, it's clear that Spees' time is up already. His final note fades away in a singing saw kind of sound, that goes on and on. What is happening here? Is this it? Yes, it is what Rutger Zuydervelt shares with us this month.

He fades away underneath a very traditional sounding voice. "If you've got leaving on your mind", it sings, accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Totally timeless, although there is a traditional country feel to it. I've never heard this before. So what is it? Patsy Cline. An American country singer who is dead for a very long time. A famous name I think, but from before my time and not something my mother brought with her from Canada. So, it passed me by. I may have missed out on something though, as I really like this song. With a brave lyric by the way. The music is on the verge of horrible country music but is not. Cline strikes the right tone and the irritating fiddle and banjo's, in the wrong kind of country song, are all missing. And then I read some more. This is not Patsy Cline but Brigid Mae Power who sings 'Leaving On Your Mind'. This explains why the song sounds so modern (and perhaps the lack of fiddles and stuff). Despite the misunderstanding, I stand by my words.

More soundscapes that come in underneath Ms. Power. It is Yiu Onodera & Celer's 'A Renewed Awareness of Home'. Droning music comes into my ear, with the, for this Kairos, characteristic waves on the beach sounds. Sounds that come and go. Until they solidify somewhat, I notice. Some percussion comes in, in the form of sounds that is, and very wide apart. It's mysterious and baffling. What to make of it? I really have no clue.

I'm saved by a guitar and a high voice. Faintly I recognise the music, as I'll admit not to have played the album a lot after reviewing it last year. Hearing 'Mirror', I have to admit to that having been an omission. Sufjan Stevens is revered by many a critic, but never did much for me. Not in the beginning of his career and not in the 10s. His cooperation with Angelo de Augustine was to my liking and perhaps I should be listening to it more. The song comes by twice it seems.

Slowly but surely sounds can be heard that are not a part of 'Mirror. Finally, weird sounds take over completely. Don't ask me to speculate on what it is. Industrial rhythms take over. Sounding a little like the 'Rain Chant' at 'Woodstock'. Everything available to ram on is used by Moritz von Oswalt Trio. 'Chapter 7' even turns into sounds resembling a melody, the percussion into real drumming. Something is really happening here. There's no need to imagine a bass guitar here or whatever. The trio does its own thing, no matter how mystifying at times.

 My apologies, I only now notice that I have missed one composition. Every four seconds of it! To atone, I've added the cover art. Let me know if you notice.

Wout de Natris

Click here to listen:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_624858/

 

Playlist. Kairos 132

00:00 – 00:16  Kairos Tune by Wino Penris.

00:10 – 01:57  Marta Del Grandi. Taller Than His Shadow. Single. Fire Records.

01:38 – 04:31  Minco Eggersman. The Crossing Place. Album ‘Kavkasia’. Volkoren.

04:08 – 06:34  Héctor Oaks X Coco-Paloma. Intro. EP ‘No Hay Mañana. KAOS.

06:16 – 07:24  Minco Eggersman. Hidden in Clouds. Album ‘Kavkasia’. Volkoren .

07:14 – 09:47  Ton Snijders. Sweet Memories (for A.)
Album ‘Solo (2*). Munch Records.

09:25 – 12:16  Moritz von Oswald Trio. Chapter 3 (partial).
Album ‘Dissent‘. Modern Recordings. 

11:34 – 14:15  Eluvium. Bending dreams. Album ‘Similes’. Temporary Residence.

13:50 – 18:00  Alpha. Burn me again (partial). Album ‘The Sky is Mine’. Green UFOS.

17:41 – 19:41  Reigns. Frontplate. Album ‘The House on the Causeway.
Monotreme Records.

19:29 – 22:49  Arvo Pärt Veni Creator Spiritus. Theatre if Voices/Ars Nova Copenhagen/Paul Hillier. Album ‘Creator Spiritus’. Harmonia Mundi USA.

22:29 – 24:30  Reigns. Endplate. Album ‘The House on the Causeway.
Monotreme Records.

24:20 – 32:03  Jeroen Elfferich. Fine. Album. The Minimal Piano Series Vol I. BSR.

31:17 – 38:56  Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert. Dream 52.
Album ‘In Dreams- Live At De Waalse Kerk 2019’. Circle of Live/Modern Matters.

38:35 – 41:46  Roger Spees. Feeling of hope. Album. ‘Piano Tales’. Self-released.

41:10 – 41:14  Heinrich Schütz. Ego sum tui plaga doloris (fragment), from ‚Cationes sacrae quatuor vocum (SWV 53-93). Album ‘Schütz, Cationes Sacrae – Kleine Geistliche Concerte I – Madrigali. Brilliant Classics.

41:28 – 42:40  Rutger Zuydervelt. Sol sketch 7. Machinefabriek.
Album ‘Sol Sketches’. Self-released.

42:30 – 45:27  Patsy Cline. Leavin’ On Your Mind. Brigid Mae Power.
EP ‘Burning Your Light’. Fire Records. 

45:14 – 49:21  Yiu Onodera & Celer. A Renewed Awareness of Home (partial).
Album ‘Generic City’. Two Acorns.

49:08 – 49:14  Sufjan Stevens & Angelo de Augustine. Mirror (fragment).
Album ‘Chorusing. Secretly Group.

49:14 – 54:01  Sufjan Stevens & Angelo de Augustine. Mirror.
Album ‘Chorusing. Secretly Group.

53:52 – 59:57  Moritz von Oswald Trio. Chapter 7.
Album ‘Dissent‘. Modern Recordings.