Kairos 133, October 2021

May 2022 and Kairos of October 2021? Yes. Does it matter? No. Once again Wout delves into Wino's radio show on Concertzender and reports on his ideas, emotions, thoughts, associations all called up by the music presented in Kairos.

The familiar opening tune calls out to me. All mystery in 16 seconds and what lies in wait behind it? As usual I do not have a clue and submit myself to the music, while committing myself to the programme.

Soft music takes over. Slow notes on a keyboard ring out over a bed of atmospheric music. I'm not familiar with the music, although I recognise the name Faten Kanaan as an artist that came by in the albums presented to me. The label is Fire Recordings, so I'm not surprised to hear 'Mist & Madrigal' come by on Kairos. Many releases of the label have found their way to the show. Fire and Kairos are a good match and it is easy to hear why. The music does conjure up thoughts of mist and the mystery that can surround mist.

Something else, far less harmonious, takes over. The contrast is even a little disturbing. The quick notes totally in opposite of Faten Kanaan's music. Time is fleeting, and this music is as well. The music is like the hands of the clock. Seconds, minutes and hours all get their own piece in 'Time' by Poppy Ackroyd. Whether this is intentional, I don't know of course and had I thought of the association had I not read the title? Of course not. Fact is that 'Time' can be listened to in this fashion. Fascinating. Another association I have is with Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' in the way the fast parts are played, on, I think, a piano.

A dark sound moves in with over it piano notes, fairly sparse. The mood is consistent I notice. This music fits well together, despite the double tempo playing having been left behind. 'Sleeping Deer' is a piece by Mary Lattimore. A synth joins in a bubbly, propulsive manner. It creates the tempo that was abandoned anyway. What to make of it however? Is this butter or cheese? This can only be ascertained when you have seen or tasted either before. With 'Sleeping Deer' it's hard to say. The work comes close to being non-music. There is a melody involved but so sparse, so radical that I have a hard time getting through the 6.30 minutes it lasts. What I can't get my head around, is what Mary Lattimore wants to share with me. Atmosphere, a semi, non-pleasant one, sure. But beyond that?

A guitar takes over. A slow, stop-start rhythm. A female voice, hazy, hoarse starts singing. A tinkering, slow piano under a vague chorus. This is different but I like it alright. It's not a female voice at all. It's Sufjan Stevens & Angelo de Augustine who return to Kairos. The soft song is mysterious. The musical accompaniment is kept so small. The slow musical melody is angelic and beautiful in both a gruff as angelic way. Something impossible to obtain. 'Olympus' has it though.

What comes next? Simple Minds' 'Belfast Child'? No, it could have been though. This song has the exact same mood, though created by more traditional instruments, like a droning pump organ or something like it. A bagpipe for instance. It's an organ alright, I notice when the chord changes. It is 'Dew' by Bridgid Mae Power (Fire Recordings again). This is a traditional song alright. Folk at its most elementary. Beautiful, yet unapproachable. Warm and so cold. That is what 'Dew' is, very probably like dew on a cold morning is.

This month's poem is in English. Inspired by the sea. The music must be Ben Lucas Boysen's 'Nocturne 4'. It was woven into 'Olympus' somehow already. Now the slow and atmospheric keyboard, synths and atmospherics slowly works itself to a grand staging. A full drum kit joins giving the composition a giant oomph. Had a trumpet been provided, it could have been a new and more modern work by Ekseption, had its founding members not died that is. Boysen combines the classical with symphonic rock here and in a successful way to. Like it should. It doesn't matter from which side you approach symphonic rock it seems, it works both ways.

Next I hear church chanting come in. Fleeting, from so far away, as if coming to me from another universe. Until the male voices join in. This music of course ought to have been cancelled, coming from Russia and its orthodox church at that. Well, this Kairos comes from October and what did we know then? Nothing. 'We magnify Thee, Most Holy Virgin Theotokos (from the Service of the Baptism in Russia)' also indicates babies and what do they know? Nothing. I suggest we leave this chant be.

More slow notes fill my ears. Beneath it long held atmospheric notes can be heard. This could be a mysterious intro to a rock song and it can be something that continues on its own for half an hour, as sometimes compositions on Kairos do. What is this instrument?, I do wonder. It is a harp. This is Remy van Kesteren, an artist releasing songs faster than anyone can keep up with it seems. 'Waves' comes from his album 'Amber'. It is slow, mysterious and feels like being in the dark, reaching for the light which is, somehow within reach.

Somewhere the song changes or melts into something called 'Here We Are (Once Again) by Okkyung Lee. Another harp, that's easy to discern now. Underneath it other extremely slow playing instruments. A clarinet? The darker notes, coming by every so many measures, will be bass strings of the harp, I guess. To enjoy this music, I would need more rest in my body, which I notice I do not have enough of right now. I'm not submitting to this mood and music. My brain is on and not in a meditative mood.

Effortlessly the music moves into something else. It could be Akkyung Lee changing his song to incorporate another instrument, violins. It is not, however. What I'm listening to is 'Valley Of Tears' by Tom Snijders. Although, where the mood is concerned, this song is totally in line with the previous one. So is it a harp, that I can't relax myself on? As this music totally releases me from whatever occupied my brain just now, immediately. What am I writing?, I notice myself thinking. You enjoy listening to violins?! Am I getting old? No, I just totally enjoyed 'Wet Leg', one of the best albums recently released. The contrast to 'Valley Of Tears' is huge and yet this also works for me. The soft and relaxed but above all modest mood Tom Snijders presents is simply beautiful.

Another violin enters the last, muffled piano notes of Snijders. Also soft, yet by comparison harsh and biting. It's almost weird to notice how through comparison something soft containing long-held notes can be so loud, simply because of what came before. The composition is called 'Articulated Silences (part 1)'. It's also strange how this title articulates my first impression. Of course the effect quickly dissipates. The long-held notes create their own rhythm and atmosphere. I can imagine to mentally surf over the notes, catching wave after wave on an endless ocean without a beach in sight. Stars of the Lid has been in Kairos before and again claims its rightful place it seems.

To be replaced by world music. An exotic, to my ears, wood instrument whether bowed or blown introduces a female singer, singing deep from her throat, more sounds than words sometimes. The guitars, acoustic, give 'El Sikameya' a modern feel. This recording is less traditional than the song is. I always have a hard time to listen to this, but in this context, it feels totally right.

Some sort of modern church music takes over. With a reverb on the voice giving the impression to be recorded in a huge cathedral, catching the voice from a huge distance, using the acoustic qualities and ambiance of the big church fully. There are instruments involved in Gavin Bryars' 'Incipit Vita Nova' but they are totally subjected to the vocals. As I have written several times before, repetition is unavoidable over so many years, this music is not for me. Yet, I can hear the inner beauty in this music. Just like I can imagine myself sitting in that cathedral. Eyes closed, letting the music and singing grab me fully. At this moment someone starts using an electric saw or something like it outside. Speaking of dissonance within total tranquillity.

Kairos closes with another artist who has found his way fairly recently to Kairos for the first time. The mood in music hardly changes, despite faint percussion and digital sounds. It is the Moritz von Oswald Trio's 'Chapter 3'. What to truly make of it? Slowly the music fades out and Kairos comes to an end, before I can really make up my mind.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to this episode of Kairos here:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_629469/

 

The playlist:

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

00:11 – 03:23  Faten Kanaan. Mist & Madrigal.
Album ‘A Mythology of Circles’.  Fire records.

02:37 – 08:47  Poppy Ackroyd. Time. Album ‘Resolve’, Poppy Ackroyd, Joe Quail, Mike Lesirge, Manu Delago. One Little Indian Records.

08:17 – 14:56  Mary Lattimore. Sleeping Deer.
Album ‘Collected Pieces II’. Self-released.

14:34 – 17:41  Sufjan Stevens & Angelo de Augustine. Olympus.
Album ‘A Beginner’s Mind’. Secretly Group.

17:31 – 18:08  Ben Lukas Boysen, Nocturne 3 (fragment).
Album ‘spells’. Erased Tapes Records.

17:58 – 21:25  Traditional. Dew. Brigid Mae Power.
EP ‘Burning Your Light. Fire Records.

21:09 – 27:57  Ben Lukas Boysen. Nocturne 4 . Album ‘Spells’. Erased Tapes Records.

21:27 – 22:32  Poem by Esther Rozenboom. Voice and recording by Esther Rozenboom. Private recording.

27:23 – 29:18  Anonymous. We magnify Thee, Most Holy Virgin Theotokos (from the Service of the Baptism in Russia). Znamenny Chant. Album ‘Hymns to the Mother of God at the Moleben’. Publisihing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate.

29:03 – 33:58  Remy van Kesteren. Waves. Album ‘Amber’. Snowstar Records.

33:09 – 39:19  Okkyung Lee. Here we are (once again).
Album ‘Heaven On Fire (various artists)’. Fire Records.

34:51 – 35:05  Fragment from poem by Esther Rozenboom, adapted by Wino Penris.

38:48 – 44:16  Ton Snijders. Valley of Tears. Album ‘Solo (2)‘. Munich Recrds.

43:58 – 49:23  Stars of the Lid. Articulate Silences (part 1).
Album ’And their refinement of decline’. Kranky.

49:18 – 52:05  Traditional. Istikhbar Sahli. El Sikameya.
Album ‘Atifa’. Editions Le Mur du Son.

51:44 – 57:52  Gavin Bryars. Incipit Vita Nova. (David James, countertenor; Annemarie Dreyer, violin; Ulrike Lachner, viola; Rebecca Firth, cello).
Album ‘Vita Nova’. ECM NEW SERIES.

57:34 – 59:57  Moritz von Oswald trio. Chapter 3 (fade-out).
Album ‘Dissent‘. Modern Recordings.