Kairos 135, 2 December 2021

Once a month we listen to Kairos and report back on the experience. Kairos is a radio programme of Wino Penris and broadcast on each first Thursday of the month on Concertzender. After this moment the programme can be found, perhaps forever, on the Internet. To make things easy for you, below you find the link to this show, from December 2021. Yes, we do run behind a little.

The familiar tune starts the programme and I'm wondering what comes next. "I'm going for a little trip", my supersonic rocket ship is missing though.

I'm diving off the deep end straight away. A sound, strange percussion and female choral singing. This is only the start, as jazzy music interspersed with underwater sounding music starts. The mood is obviously extremely relaxed. Moods is playing 'Deeper Waters' against this relaxed beat, mixing the modern with the traditional. The mix with the singing is totally weird, until I notice it is the prgramme maker mixing 'Moods' with 'Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis Part 1'. It was never meant to be this way and only grew into this form because of the ears and imagination of the programme maker. It's well done and fooled me alright.

Ilscha returns to Kairos with a a track of her mini album 'Dive'. True to my promise last time, I have played 'Dive' once again and immediately liked it. In 'Mountains' Ilscha lays down a very relaxed track in which I wonder whether there's not a little Guido Morini as well. but it sounds too modern for that. The repetition in the background vocals, does make me think of a loop. When "In the mountains" comes in I know this belongs to the song for certain. The repeated three words produce a trance like mood. Ilscha is not afraid to simply keep repeating the same words over and over. Slowly but surely music and voices rise and rise. More instruments are added and voices stacked. The result is monumental in an extremely modest way.

A bass guitar enters, with just a voice over it. The same progression is repeated until percussion joins, to return a little later. This is totally bare music. Elbow without the bombast of the band, something like that. It is TV Priest. One of the many new alternative rock bands from the U.K., close to punk, in an extremely a-typical song called 'All Song'. In this context the song works really well. It has a jazzy approach, loose and dark. A guitar comes in, where a second one is making noises and scratches.

To be replaced by an electric piano, playing slow notes with a lot of sustain added. Ton Snijders plays a composition from his album 'Solo'. it reminds me how far I'm behind with listening to Kairos. There is a 'Solo 2' album already! Snijders is taking the scenic route here. Slowly and leisurely he plays his song. There's no one to impress, just to relax. To lie down, close the eyes and let the music take you where ever you would like to go.

A hissing sound comes in disturbing the peace. Like a car on a highway, far away. Synth sounds move in, the hiss becomes more prominent. A beat comes in in the background, a slow but sure one. This is space mucic if I ever heard it. The track is called 'Night Falls', the composer or band Melorman. A new name, as far as I'm aware, for me. From the space sounds slowly but surely a melody comes forward. Is it a synth or something organic? I'm inclined to go with the former based on all the other sounds and soundscapes. The fact I'm not certain could be telling a well. The music does bring me into a fairly relaxed state and is interesting enough to keep listening to. Admittedly, six minutes of Melorman is a long time but certainly doable.

In comes Emil Landman, a Dutch singer-songwriter you could have encountered in the earlier days of this blog, but who I've left behind. Today he is on Kairos with a soft track from his EP 'Brooklyn Sessions'. 'Reasons To Stay' fits in the mood of this Kairos but also underscores why I no longer report on Landman's work. Sure, 'Reasons To Stay' sounds o.k., but it is extremely boring. Nothing happens here and melodically the song is poor. I would normally not write (on) this, as I'm certain Emil Landman has put his soul into his music. But, now it's in Kairos and I always share what I feel, undergo, think, etc. without much of a filter. That is what it is.

More esoteric sounds move over Landman's song. It is in line with what I heard from Melorman, except without the long-sweeping soundscapes in the background. Having written this, certain notes are looped endlessly and create a soundscape anyway. This is 'Sounds part 3' by Highland Spokesman. Once the looping starts, this seems to be it. And then a church bell strikes, three? That would be in line with the title. How long will this go on? By comparison 'Reason To Stay' is at least as varied as 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'.

Next Guido Morini's 'Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis' returns and to be precise, part 16. The singing ladies come in immediately. This time there's no jazz trumpet involved. The church music can now be heard in its full glory. The sustain and reverb of a cathedral environment is missing on the voices. This would have made the singing more impressive but also would have detonated with the modest accompaniment. The same notes are played over and over. All the variation is in the vocal melody. Morini is an Italian composer, born in 1959. This makes this work a modern one about the trinity. In part I'm surprised but not because of how elementary this composition sounds. No one did it this basic in the old days. All the power and compositional prowess goes to the voices. The organist, I'm not 100% sure of it being an organ, can almost fall asleep, except for the very final notes where he/she has to slow the tempo down, like the best rock bands do.

Remy van Kesteren comes next. The harpist plays a composition, '(A Minor) Lament', that fits perfectly with 'Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis'. Wino could have fooled me by writing 'Part 17'. An intriguing title. Is it a lament in A minor or only a small lament? Or both of course. Van Kesteren slowly but surely builds out his composition. There certainly is a pop melody hidden in this serious work. I can imagine it being a part of a song. But then it may be, because there are all sorts of fragments used her as well.

Faten Kanaan returns to Kairos as well. But before I know it, I recognise a familiar violin and yes that great voice comes in. Reb Fountain made it to Kairos! Yes, my tip, I take credit here. 'Psyche' is one of the great songs on Reb Fountain's self-titled album. 'Reb Fountain' is one of the best albums released this decade and still played regularly by me. Only six weeks and she plays Paradiso in support of Marlon Williams. 'Psyche' is a song that is beautifully worked out. The violin returns but by then over a piano and drums. Her voice is husky and mysterious, rising to mildly hysteric, to return to the mystical again. Born in the U.S. she lives in New Zealand for a long time already. From there she's bound to conquer the world. Flying Nun is a record store and also a modest record label, with a host of fantastic artists, like Reb Fountain.

A harp returns, played by Hairetis Harper, no pun intended. 'Meadows' is a composition that is simply strange. It has different tempi and an undertone that for some reason slightly worries me. The contrast with my beloved Reb is too big. There might lie an explanation. Another is that the tranquillity of this Kairos is disturbed by Hairetis Harper. There's too much sort of just happening to my mind. partly caused by an acoustic guitar as well.

This guitar may be Okkyung Lee, I now realise. Where does 'Meadows' move over into 'Here We Are (Once Again)? I have not noticed it in a conscious way. In fact, I'm hardly able to tell where any difference lies, except that Lee's work is somewhat more tranquil. Listening a bit longer, it simply dawns on me that I'm not a harp fan. This music is not for me. It all becomes somewhat wider when a violin and a piano enter the song.

Asaf Avidan will forever be a one hit wonder in The Netherlands with his huge hit 'One Day / Reckoning Song in the Wankelmut remix version at that. The man with an almost feminine voice released an impressive album last year called 'Anagnorisis'. 'No Word' is one of the songs on the album. It is an almost jazzy track that fans of Patrick Watson or Jesse Mac Cormack will very much appreciate. Avidan hovers between the ethereal and the wordly here. His vocal are extremely dreamy. The music seems to float on an uncertain underground. The result is beauty. There's no other word for it.

Kairos ends with a Tom Waits lookalike turning into a Louis Armstrong - Ella Fitzgerald like duet between Howie Gelb and perhaps, Scout Niblett. 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' could have been played by my mother when I was still in the playing pen, from that album with the famous Ella and Louis photo cover. This is nostalgia alright.

Wout de Natris

Here is the link to this Kairos: https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_637333/

This is this month's playlist:

00:00 – 00:14  Kairos tune by Wino Penris.

00:11 – 02:18  Moods. Deeper waters.
Album ‘Music Ruined My Life’. Boogie Angst BA083.

00:13 – 00:47  Guido Morini. Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis part 1.
Album ‘Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis’. Cypres Records CYP 1656.

02:10 – 02:44  Guido Morini. Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis part 1.
Album ‘Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis’. Cypres Records CYP 1656.

02:22 – 02:56  Guido Morini. Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis part 1.
Album ‘Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis’. Cypres Records CYP 1656.

02:48 – 08:26  Ilscha. Mountains. Album ‘Dive’. Tiny Room Records TR044.

08:10 – 08:24  Ilscha. Mountains (fragment).
Album ‘Dive’. Tiny Room Records TR044.

08:20 – 12:06  TV Priest. All Thing. Single. Sub Pop Records. 

12:00 – 15:15  Ton Snijders. Dusk. Album ‘Solo’. Munich Records.

14:32 – 20:41  Melorman. Night Falls.
Album ‘For The Sun’. Same Difference Music SDM07.

20:33 – 23:28  Emil Landman. Reasons To Stay. EP ‘Brooklyn Sessions’. V2 Benelux. 

23:05 – 27:38  Highland Spokesman. Sounds 3 three (partly).
Album ‘Sounds’. ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ Records (Pantheon).

25:58 – 26 :11  Guido Morini. Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis part 16 (fragment).
Album ‘Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis’. Cypres Records CYP 1656.

26:43 – 30:05  Highland Spokesman. Sounds 3 three (partly).
Album ‘Sounds’. ΠΑΝΘΕΟΝ Records (Pantheon).

27:45 – 27:58  Guido Morini. Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis part 16 (fragment).
Album ‘Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis’. Cypres Records CYP 1656.

28:48 – 34:55  Guido Morini. Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis part 16.
Album ‘Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis’. Cypres Records CYP 1656.

34:36 – 34:47  Remy van Kesteren. (A minor) Lament (fragment).
Album ‘Amber’. Snowstar Records.

34:51 – 35:01  Remy van Kesteren. (A minor) Lament (fragment).
Album ‘Amber’. Snowstar Records.

34:55 – 38:56  Remy van Kesteren. (A minor) Lament.
Album ‘Amber’. Snowstar Records

38:09 – 39:19  Faten Kanaan. The Heron.
Album ‘A Mythology of Circles’. Fire records.

38:56 – 39:29  Frank Loesser/Howe Gelb/Arizona Amp and Alternator. Recital.
Album ‘Arizona Amp and Alternator’. Fire Records.

39:19 – 45:10  Reb Fountain. Psyche. Album ‘IRIS’. Self-released.

45:00 – 48:58  Hairetis Harper. Meadow. Album ‘Draft’. Same Difference Music.

48:39 – 54:48  Okkyung Lee. Here we are (once again).
Album ‘Heaven On Fire (various artists). Fire Records.

54:28 – 58:24  Asaf Avidan. No Word. Album ‘Anagnorisis’. V2 Benelux.

58:03 – 59:57  Frank Loesser/Howe Gelb/Arizona Amp and Alternator.
Cold Outside (fade out). Album ‘Arizona Amp and Alternator’. Fire Records.

Kairos #134 , November 2021

Time to get a move on. It won't be long before I'm a year behind....

The familiar sound starts this month's Kairos and makes room for Brigid Mae Power's soft acoustic guitar and a warm organ. 'We Weren't Sure' is a modern folk song, where Power's voice hovers more over the track than take command of it. The ahh ahh ahh is followed by words, without changing the impact of her voice. Her highish voice determines what we hear. The sparse accompaniment of rhythm is embellished by the organ's notes that counter Brigid May Power's vocal melody. A banjo, I think, comes in as the lead instrument, playing a subdued solo.

The melodic is changed into rhythm. Dark, repetitive, artificial. Like a machine in a factory. Minutes or so it seems, into the composition Pink Floyd like sequences come in, mysterious and dark. A classical interlude comes next, although for a short while. The rhythm accompanies it next. Slow but significant changes. I'm listening to River Consoles' 'Hands'. Pink Floyd definitely is an influence but also something so much more darker than instrumental parts of 'The Wall'. Yes, darker than 'The Wall'. You've read right.

The little classical piece returns. A lonely flute is playing ahead of other members of the orchestra. The artificial rhythm returns as well, as do other pieces of 'Hands'. It all fits perfectly. Finally, the romantic music takes over. I have no clue as to what I'm hearing. A philharmonic orchestra that's for sure. Now, I know the famous sequence of the 'Bolero', but not what I'm hearing here. But, I cannot say that I'm not liking what I'm hearing.

The tranquillity is slowly being broken by snippets of Nick Cave's Litanies album with Nicolas Lens. It moves over so seamlessly that I'm not certain what I'm hearing. It could be the 'Bolero' with a female voice bursting through as if interference from another station. The music may have the same vibe, it is too modern in the end, is my conclusion. The music is also heavier, less fleeting to what I was hearing before. The touch of lightness does return, as if it belongs. This mix is extraordinary.

River Consoles moves back in with a second track, 'I Like'. It is like video art in a museum for modern art. Totally cut up, distorted, hard to make head or tails from. With lines, as if old-fashioned bad reception, running over the screen continuously. This is not music, it is art. What I'm missing are the visuals.

Violins and a piano come in, accompanying Laurie Anderson's voice reading a text. 'Our Street Is A Black River' is gone before I can form an opinion.

It is replaced by the serious and sonorous sound of House of Cosy Cushion's 'Duinpad'. Slow but steady as it goes, the music meanders around in my ears. Sacred as if in a church. I'm waiting for the choir to chime in, which it doesn't. The organ slowly but surely plays the same few notes, over time a central theme established itself. Then, are they voices, yes, but not like a choir, more as a sample in a Mellotron. Esther Rozenboom reads her poem over the music.

A touch of lightness enters at the end of the poem. I doubt whether I would call this light if I'd listened to the song as a stand alone experience, but here it certainly is. At the same time it flows beautifully from what has come before. It is a track from Rotterdam singer Ilse Hamelink, who made it to this blog late last year. 'Dive' is a beautiful song, dreamy in a way that the filtered light in a large forest can seem. All stripes of light in between the shadows. With the mystery that comes with fantasy behind it.

A choir-like song takes over. This is modern church music. A male and female voice meander around each other as if enraptured in prayer by song in a church. Lisa Gerrard and Pieter Bourke's 'The Circulation of Shadows' is of a transcendent beauty, as if the two voices and the atmospherics surrounding them, could fall apart any second, leaving nothing but the illusion of the voice.

From, perceived praising, we move towards true praising of the Lord with Sergei Rachmaninov's 'Praise the Lord, O My Soul'. What puzzles me is the performing artists, The USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir. The Soviet Union and church music and praising the Lord? Weren't these iconoclast and church demolitioners? I'm totally surprised here. But then, why not? Someone at the time must have been proud of composers of the past. Just imagine hearing this in a cathedral. That would make quite an impact, alright. Also on me, the guitar loving (alternative) rocker. It's not my kind of music but beauty is beauty and certainly under the right circumstances.

Something more modern and certainly more profane takes over. The serenity remains though. A piano is at the basis of this composition but the chords are played wide apart with sparse notes every once in a while in between. An orchestra plays a few notes over and over in Ton Snijders' 'Valley Of Tears'. It must be the mood I'm in or brought into, as, again, this is beautiful music. In the second half Snijders' piano takes over. Slow played piano notes spread out into my mind like memories from long gone. Tiny little thoughts of other songs or classical pieces creep through my brain without me being able to pinpoint them. From long ago, perhaps even from before I truly listened to music but heard it anyway.

An electronic sound disturbs the tranquil playing. A long held or looped note repeats itself over and over. Esoteric sounds come in after a while. What to make of this? The mood totally fits with this Kairos but not with me. My peace of mind is severely disturbed by the industrial sounds, for lack of a better word, Jana Imert makes in her 'The Soft Bit'. I would not be surprised if a steam train would come rolling into the song or the sound of a factory from long ago would barge into my ears. They do not. Other sounds do. Some are made by an instrument, others are harder to determine and waves are crashing on the beach or something like it. 'The Soft Bit' is music when all is said and done but more a composite than a composition.

Something more electronic comes in. Synthesizers, high, buzzing notes, almost as if bees are emulated. Underneath a darker buzzing can be heard. 'Chiascuro' by Alessandro Cortini is played. The high and the deep do right to the term chiascuro, often associated with Leonardo da Vinci as one of the first painters to master the technique to the fullest.

A dark voice starts speaking and then speak-singing; beyond Leonard Cohen, as it were. Justin Sullivan returns to Kairos. More jazzy than the late, Canadian bard. The upright, fretless bass leads the music, accompanied by a piano playing high notes, again chiascuro. Sullivan obviously is influenced by Cohen but makes his style his own by making totally different music. The singing and the harmonies though are dead giveaways. I had to get into the mood of 'Sao Paolo' but it did not take any effort. The more melodic the song became, the more it took me with it.

Right up to the moment I'm in a dreamlike state. My fingers are moving over the board but almost sub-consciously. 'Dream 54' from Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert's live performance in De Waalse Kerk. Filled with bird sounds, the duo's or .No's? It doesn't matter. Slowly the music progresses almost unnoticed.

This month's final song is by Astral Swans, Matthew Swann's moniker to release his songs. 'Cross Bone Style' from the album 'Astral Swann' is one of the songs where he shares his vocal duties with Julie Doiron, to great effect. Listening to the song for the first time in some time, I notice how laden the song is. Following this Kairos' main theme, I'd almost say this is modern church music as well. Just think a church and a choir. That aside, 'Cross Bone Style' again makes a huge impression on me. Time to pull the album out of my collection once again.

Wout de Natris

Here's the link to this Kairos:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_633242/

 

This is #134's Playlist:

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

00:08 – 04:18  Brigid Mae Power. We Weren’t Sure.
Album ‘Heaven on Fire (various artists). Fire Records. 

03:44 – 09:03  Rival Consoles. Hands. Album ‘Overflow’. Erased Tapes Records.

06:29 – 06:50  Claude Débussy. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (fragment).
Album ‘Ravel: Bolero. Daphnis et Chloé Debussy: La Mer. Prélude
Herbert von Karajan. Deutsche Grammophon 427 250-2.

08:35 – 11:40  Claude Débussy. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (partly).
Album ‘Ravel: Bolero. Daphnis et Chloé Debussy: La Mer. Prélude
Herbert von Karajan. Deutsche Grammophon 427 250-2.

09:03 – 09:34  Rival Consoles. Hands(fragment).
Album ‘Overflow’. Erased Tapes Records.

11:26 – 16:48  Nicholas Lens & Nick Cave. Litany of Divine Presence.
Album ‘L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S. Deutsche Grammophon 00289 483 9745.

16:33 – 16:53  Claude Débussy. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (fragment).
Album ‘Ravel: Bolero. Daphnis et Chloé Debussy: La Mer. Prélude
Herbert von Karajan. Deutsche Grammophon 427 250-2.

16:48 – 18:57  Rival Consoles. I Like. Album ‘Overflow’. Erased Tapes Records.

18:38 – 19:58  Laurie Anderson. Our Street Is A Black River. Laurie Anderson & Konos Quartet. Album ‘Landslide’. Nonesuch Records. 

19:52 – 24:03  Richard Bolhuis. Duinpad. House of Cosy Cushions.
Album ‘Underground Bliss‘. Outcast Cats.

23:33 – 24:31  Poem by Esther Rozenboom. Voice and recording by Esther Rozenboom. Private recording.

23:03 – 24:42  Richard Bolhuis. Duinpad (fragment). House of Cosy Cushions.
Album ‘Underground Bliss‘. Outcast Cats.

24:34 – 27:44  Ilse Hamelink. Dive. Ischa. Album ‘Dive’. Tiny Room Records.

27:30 – 29:25  Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke. The Circulation of Shadows.
Album ‘Duality’. 4AD – CAD 8004CD.

29:12 – 34:39  Sergei Rachmaninov. Praise the Lord, O My Soul.
Album ‘Vespers op.37’. The USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, Valeri Polyansky (cond.). Melodiya Record Company SUCD 10-00105.

34:27 – 39:55  Ton Snijders. Valley of tears. Album ‘Solo (2)’. V2 Records.

39:36 – 46:29  Jana Irmert. The Soft Bit. Album ‘The Soft Bit’. Fabrique Records.

45:58 – 49:46  Alessandro Cortini. Chiaroscuro (partly).
Album ‘SCURO CHIARO’. Mute. 

49:07 – 53:45  Justin Sullivan. Sao Paulo. Album ‘Surrounded’. V2 Records.

53:29 – 57:10  Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert. Dream 54 (fade out).
Album ‘In Dreams – Live At De Waalse Kerk 2019’. Circle of Live/Modern Matters.

56:27 – 59:57  Matthew Swann. Cross Bones Style. Astral Swans.
Album ‘Astral Swans’. Tiny Room Records.

 

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.

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.

Kairos 131, August 2021

Slowly I'm moving into mid-summer of last year, with Kairos that is. At the time of the original broadcast I was enjoying the municipal campsite of Vers along the banks of the river Lot in south west France. Hiking through the countryside, visiting medieval villages and towns. Rain and sunshine. A little of both. And the magnificent Cahors wine of course. At the same time .No was presenting the world with this music. Let's move back in time a little and listen to what was and online still is, on offer.

The Kairos tune melts into a singer-songwriter setting. A piano, drums and a bass. A man starts whistling, after which a female voice takes over. It is an album that I passed by, I notice. Big Red Machine is a duo effort of The Nationalist's Aaron Dassner and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). They have invited a host of singers to sing on the tunes on the album. The lead vocalist here is Anaïs Mitchell, who recently released a new solo album. She is known from reviews by Erwin Zijleman on this blog. Her rather high, a little shrill voice graces 'Latter Days'.

The drums stop and a drone, softly vibrating takes over, with another undefinable sound that keeps returning. Sounds like space ships descending come by. As if Absolute Elsewhere's masterpiece 'In Search Of Ancient Gods' needs a remake. The music is faintly comparable as well. If at some time a melody would come in that is. William Selman's 'Extention Of A future Model' keeps emulating spacecrafts leaving the landing bay, the lights on the side moving by faster and faster. Tibetan bells sound out and percussion sets in. A set of bongo's is played and a bottle is used as cymbal it seems. A higher sounding drone hovers in the background. I have no clue what to make of this composition. The rhythm is nice, true, but what more can I say? Nothing.

Seven minutes later a severely treated female voice comes in. Together with a violin, a few even. The second voice sounds mystical. A language? No, I opt for just sounds. It makes me think of Enya, that one album I have by the Irish singer. Except that this would be an Enya incarnation that would take the intake of some hallucinogenics, I'm afraid, to come into existence. The music comes from a totally different part of Europe, Estonia. Marja Nuut and Ruum return to Kairos. Music as if a fog has descended over the world. The instrumental ending is even more experimental. Musical parts come in like a failed transmission from another planet. I can't help seeing a Star Trek episode where the transmission hologram fades in and out.

The atmosphere changes totally to faint sounds and a thunderstorm. From Estonia to Iceland. Why not? îlafur Arnalds is present with two songs from his 'Dyad 1909' album. The second one is a gloomy affair with a beautiful violin part. It rises and falls, accompanied by a piano. It creates mysterious silences in between. I have heard music like this before but can't tell you what or where. For that it is too far from my daily forays into music.

A second song from the album '3/3' comes by. It is a compilation album. Holovr's 'Melancholy of Time (trilogy)' knows a sound as of dripping water, looped to give it some rhythm, and hiss. Over it a keyboard plays long held notes, that stop as abrupt as in the previous contribution, with the difference that Holovr has created different levels music, interplaying off each other. This includes the sound of a church organ as well. All together it is a rather tense affair. As if something is about to burst at the seams soon. Rest assured, it does not. It is extremely interesting.

We return to Iceland, as Low Roar is an American singer-songwriting living and working on the island. A staple on Kairos over the past years, his soft voice will sound familiar to those listening to the programme regularly, like I do. 'Once In A Long, Long While' is the title song of his album. The song is also not easy to digest immediately, as there are different layers woven over the fabric of the song. Not a single instrument has a straightforward role. The voice holds the main melody. I correct myself, the bass holds the fort, all other instruments fill up space in their own way. Adorning the composition, not supporting it. The result is once again a mysterious track.

The next song probably won the longest-title-of-the-year-on-Kairos award 2021. 'A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process' is long right? And why the brackets around less? Nevermind. Stars of the Lid also is present with a atmospheric composition where a piano plays a chord, while all sorts of noises move around it. There's not much more that I can make of it, I'm afraid. The piano chords are somewhat impressive though in the second half of  'A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process', so the song gets some meaning for me after all.

Another piano takes over. A chord progression with a lot of sustain filling my room like it will have filled the recording studio. It is Philip G. Anderson returning to Kairos. We have met him with three compositions last month. The sound is modest, yet big. Somehow it is all consuming me at present. I am hearing a composition after all. No hiss, no noises, nothing, Simply a piano.

A drone takes over and yes some other sounds accompanying it. Long-held notes of an organ. Jana Irmert was on last month as well. 'Of Air' gives the impression of a composition for a church organ. Although a piano and plucked violin are there as well and a fly buzzing around the ears of the organist, distracting him from his playing for some time. In the background a sound like a building activity approaches and leaves again.

A female voice comes in after the builders have left. There's so much echo on the voice that I can't make out what is being sung. It is almost as if I'm in a déjà vu. Wasn't Nava in Kairos last month as well?

She already gone. A male voice is reciting a text, slowly moving into singing, well almost. Something between singing and speaking. Think Leonard Cohen at his reunion tours and then some. It is Justin Sullivan. Behind him a fretless bass gives 'Sao Paolo' a jazzy tinge. The piano is different though. It follows the, faint, vocal melody. Finally there is a percussive sound of some sort. This is a really strange song. I can imagine Nick Cave doing 'Sao Paolo' in his own style easily. His latest work isn't even that far from Sullivan's but still miles apart.

A violin comes in after a second of silence. Or is it a keyboard anyway on second thought. A female voice comes over the song. A darker tint for a woman. I suppose it is Soho Rezazejad singing to Frederic Valentin's song 'Tears'. Again a far from easy contribution but intriguing, as Rezazejad has a nice voice to listen to.

Lyenn also returns to Kairos. His high voice hovering over the soft music. Within seconds I know who my favourite of the month is. 'Morning Sun' is a beautiful song. So melancholy, so sad, so after having given up hope. That slow piano is heavenly. Just a few notes are enough to enrapture. The bass, jazzy as in Justin Sullivan's composition, and drums, experimental as if this is not a slow, sad song, move around and do their own thing at the bottom end of 'Morning Sun'. Yes, it is a ballad, but so much more is happening. And this is only my first impression, because I have to move on already.

More music from Iceland comes in. An unpronounceable name and title. Hšgni, 'Enn N¾ða Or' it says in the tracklist. That did not deliver anything in Google. It turns out it can also be spelled as Högni Egilsson 'Enn næða orð'. (It is late January and I heard a fly sound in the music just before. Just now, I've stopped the music on Concertzender to have the time to google the name and song and there really is a big, fat fly trying to kill itself on my desk lamp. It's January, mid-winter!) He has been active in the Iceland band Gus Gus, I read as well. 'Enn næða orð' is a very slow and empty song. Grave and sober it travels forth. A male choir is mixed into Högni's song, responding to his Icelandic lyrics, call and response created just for this Kairos. What is what here? Somewhere in 'Enn næða orð' Marynka's 'Still' is mixed. This is more a modern classical tinkering on the piano, as I somewhat disrespectfully call the numerous piano composition albums that have been released over the last few years. There's no choir in sight on 'Still', so was it part of 'Enn næða orð' in any way? And where does the choir belong to? Questions, questions and no answers.

Wout de Natris 

You can listen to this Kairos here:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_621375/ 

 

This is this month's playlist:

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

00:11 – 03:50  Big red machine. Latter Days (Feat, Ana•s Mitchell).
Album ‘How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?’. 37d03d (PEOPLE).

03:12 – 10:32  William Selman. Extension Of The Feature Model.
Album ‘VA #3/3’ (various artists). Concentric Records.

09:44 – 14:52  Maarja Nuut & Ruum. Mahe. Album ‘Muunduja’. 130701.

14:11 – 15:58  îlafur Arnalds. Fr‡ Upphafi. Album ‘Dyad 1909’. Erased Tapes Records.

15:58 – 19:52  îlafur Arnalds. Lokaðu Augunum (Dyad 1909 Version).
Erased Tapes Records.

19:37 – 25:52  Holovr. Melancholy of Time (trilogy).
Album ‘VA #3/3’ (various artists). Concentric Records.

25:12 – 30:29  Low Roar. Once in a long, long while.
Album ‘Once in a long, long while’. Nevado Records.

30:11 – 34:44  Stars of the Lid. A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process. Album ‘And Their Refinement of the Decline’. Kranky.

34:24 – 37:39  Philip G Anderson. Questions. Album ‘Figment’. Self-released. 

37:06 – 41:14  Jana Irmert. Of Air. Album ‘The Soft Bit’. Fabrique Records.

40:55 – 42:29  Nava. Sleepless outro. Album ‘Bloom’. Oyez! Srl.

42:05 – 46:43  Justin Sullivan. Sao Paulo. Album ‘Surrounded’. V2 Records.

46:29 – 48:58  Frederik Valentin. Tears (ft. Soho Rezazejad) (fragment).
Album ‘0011001 & 0011000’. Posh Isolation.

48:19 – 48:51  Lyenn. Morning Sun (fragment).
Album ‘Adrift’. Near Gale Records – WasteMyRecords.

48:44 – 53:36  Lyenn. Morning Sun.
Album ‘Adrift’. Near Gale Records – WasteMyRecords.

53:20 – 57:56  Hšgni. Enn N¾ða Orð.
Album ‘Two Trains’. Erased Tapes Records eratp103.

54:10 – 54:22  Marynka. Still. (fragment) Album ‘Red Moon’. Orphono Records.

57:44 – 59:57  Marynka. Still. (partial) Album ‘Red Moon’. Orphono Records.

Kairos #130, July 2021

July, July? The avid reader of this blog has every reason to ask this question, as the previous instalment of this series was kairos 129 from May. The answer is easy. There was no new Kairos in June of 2020. So without further ado let's go and find out what this Kairos has in store for us.

The familiar Kairos theme opens the show, after which a somewhat complex sounding guitar line takes over. A female voice starts singing in a longing way, slightly mysterious. The music is extremely spacious and reverb laden. It is Rotterdam singer Luka with a song from her first album, 'Nightcap'. If I had known better my guess would have been Donna Blue, as the atmosphere is certainly similar, except that the rhyhm section of Donna Blue is missing in action here. Luka is able to able to sing as if in a huge cave, with her voice coming back to her from all sides.

A cello takes over, after a few crackling sounds. The mood darkens considerably, even after a much lighter violin chimes in. There's the hint of a folk tune hidden inside of the moody music. At the same time, I notice the beauty inside of this music. Slowly but surely it is coming to my ears from all sides. The mix brings different tunes in stereo creating something bigger and more forceful than it actually is. The music is by Philip G. Anderson, a composition called 'Reflections' and totally unknown to me.

A choir takes over in a language I do not understand. Nordic? I truly do not know. Old, new? Choir is the wrong word. This is a limited number of male voices. Icelandic, it turns out. Mystery is once again the word that comes to me. Expectation another. The short contribution of Séra Magnús holds the promise of more when it is cut off by another piece of moody music.

This time by a band that has had its day in the late 70s and early 80s before singer David Sylvian left for a solo career with his album 'Red Guitar'. 'Oil On Canvas' is already so close to the music Sylvian was going to make, that the question why leave the band?, is justified. He was clearly enthralled by Ruichi Sakamoto at the time. Perhaps the rest of the band was not?

In between a short snippet of Gustaaf Hortense Ledoux' 'Synth prelude 34' can be heard as well. What is exactly what is hard to say. Music changes so fast that I can not order my thoughts and type fast enough, because a boy's voice comes in, in what I guess to be Icelandic. Moving towards a height that I'm slightly allergic to. Remember the fate of that boy in that English movie about a cook and a lover? I recall thinking he deserved what was coming to him. It's not that bad here, lucky for me. "Kri kri"?, isn't that the special goat on Krete he's singing about.

When the primitively played harp gives over to a more lush harp playing, I know another composition has started. Once again the atmosphere is one of mystery. The reverb on the harp sustains the notes no little, again creating the notion of space. Remy van Kesteren returns to Kairos with 'She, She Moves' from his album 'Amber'. Snowstar Records can truly be content with this edition it seems. It's music and Kairos fare fairly well together. Van Kesteren's composition is nice, even beautiful, it's just not my kind of music. It fits in with a trend of solo pianists who are releasing albums in a high tempo and I can listen to almost all of them but somehow I just do not get any true joy out of the listening sessions.

A female singer takes over. Again singing in a way that suggests angelic chit chat coming through to me from places that I'm not supposed to hear. Remember Mulisch's 'The Discovery Of Heaven'? Something like that, except that, knock on wood, I'm not struck by a comet yet, so must be alright. This time the singer or band is called Nava, a new name to me. The music is somewhere in between the modern dance acts that occupy the charts and totally alternative dance, where the rhythm is chopped up and randomly glued together. As if things are happening that are not supposed to. Music for me? No, of course not. Is it music for Kairos? That question is like David Geffen threatening to sue Neil Young for not releasing Neil Young albums with Neil Young music on them.

Mystery strikes some more when I hear water dripping and streaming over a soundscape. Almost music is what I hear. The hint of a melody but still close to synths emulating a warming up and tuning orchestra. Swaths of sounds come to me, like rolling mist over a field. 'Nilas' by Jake Muir is definitely non-music. It's atmosphere created by sounds created by synths and sequencers, without the intention to come up with a melody. With a headphone on, it may certainly be worthwhile to listen up close to all the effects and changes but after that? Please give me a song!

One album and already a remix released as single? Yes, Luka did so last year. I wrote the following in May of last year:

"The song is so beautifully crafted, so well built up. From the almost bare intro over which Luka starts singing. A myriad of names enter my mind that I ignore, because of the way the song develops, the beat and keyboards kick in, kicking out all other thoughts. Slowly Barbagallo works towards a climax but takes his time, in fact even holds back before the rhythm and band truly are released. Barbagallo being a drummer* most likely explains the fierce drumming in the second half of the song. It is not often that I listen to remixes, but for the second time this year, after Reb Fountains's 'Hawks & Doves (Tali Remix)', I'm totally surprised in the most positive of ways."

Listening once again over a half year later, I stand by my words. This remix is simply well and tastefully made.( * with Tame Impala)

Another new name is introduced on this Kairos, Jana Irmert. The Berlin based sound artist and composer is present with 'Against Light' from her fourth album, 'The Soft Bit'. A dark composition  full of treated voices sounding in a way that would have caused Irmert to have been burned on the stake in darker ages. In 2022 I hear mystery, once again. There's a hint of melody, distorted, torn into pieces, with sounds like the crackling of wood pushed through an endless string of electronic devices and gadgets. I can't help wondering whether June, when this Kairos was made, was this bad. Spring was cold for a long time, true, but this cold? I am sure there are people who truly enjoy a composition like 'Against Time'. I can only say, I'm not one of them.

Slowly another keyboard or perhaps violin mixes with the soundscape. Not that the dark mood is lifted. There is a melody working its way through the darkness. Slowly but surely. It is not letting itself be held back, without feeling any urgency or inclination to hurry. The notes come to me one by one. The long-held bass tones of the cello, the different violins working together to create one composition. It is Philip G. Anderson again with the title track of his album 'Figments'. The music truly touches me. And not just because of the stark contrast with what came before.

A woman's voice comes through the violins. Voices, I should add. The violins very slowly drop away. 'Sail On, Sailor'? The Beach Boys interpreted by one woman singing in different voices as a canon? I'm not certain. If it is, it is a very imaginative cover of the song, as it has become unrecognisable. Kristin Oppenheimer is responsible for it.

A dark male hum takes over, 'Sailor' or something else? No, it is something completely different. It's Jason Sullivan's 'Dirge'. A funeral song, isn't that what a dirge is? For that it is a tad too positive, but do not expect a laugh and a song. For that it is too dark. A short return of 'Sailor' before Donna Blue's 'In Between' comes in for you to discover. By coincidence I had already mentioned the band. (I never read what is coming until I've noticed a change in the music.) The 60s drenched-in-reverb song washes over me but far too short as far as I'm concerned. Finally a real song that I like. Donna Blue manages to mix 60s pop with 'Twin Peaks' to come up with beautiful songs that it delivers convincingly on stage as well. 'In Between' is one of my favourites so far by the band. It's time for an album in my view.

Violins come in once again. More Anderson but that is fine by me. Paul G. Anderson composes beautiful tunes that go beyond the solo tinkering of so many recently released modern composers of what I call classical music. 'Dreaming Of Chicago' is led by a piano. The strings accompany the piano, that plays a soft and dreamy, yet forceful melody. Stick a lyric to the song and this will be more successful, I'm sure. The introduction to 'Figments' has been welcome.

The collaboration between Broeder Dieleman and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy was given a second rendition. This time the two played the music underneath the other singing. 'There are Worms in your circle, there are Wolves' is a melancholy song sung by Will Oldham, with all the traits of Broeder Dieleman underneath his voice. The banjo, the female voice. 'There are Worms in your circle, there are Wolves' is a beautiful song that does right to both artists. And, a small miracle that an artist like Broeder Dieleman can work with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Both kindred souls make the most of it.

Kairos goes to its close with another instrumental. 'Dream 38' starts out as a soundsape as well, but slowly, yet surely a melody arises from it. Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert return with a track from their live album 'In Dreams- Live At De Waalse Kerk 2019’. This Kairos ends as mysterious as it started with Luka. It seems like this months theme was revealed to me in abundance.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to this Kairos here:

https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/kairos_615482/

This month's playlist:

00:00 – 03:59  Luka. Nightcap (partial).
Album ‘First Steps of Letting Go. Snowstar Records.

00:01 – 00:17  Kairos Tune. Wino Penris.

03:40 – 07:16  Philip G Anderson. Reflections. Album ‘Figment’. Self-released. 

07:00 – 08:34  Islandica. Séra Magnús / Ó min Flaskan Frída.
Album ‘Fold & Fantasy. Fimmund.

08:28 – 09:52  Japan. Oil on Canvas. Album ‘Oil on Canvas’. Virgin Records.

09:41 – 10:31  Gustaaf Hortense Ledoux. Synth prelude 34. Private recording.

09:55 – 12:19  Islandica. Módir Mín Í Kví Kví. Album ‘Fold & Fantasy. Fimmund.

12:11 – 16:17  Remy van Kesteren. She she moves. Album ‘Amber’. Snowstar Records.

16:01 – 19:13  Nava. Mah. Album ‘Bloom’. Oyez! Srl.

18:42 – 24:44  Jake Muir. Nilas. Album ‘Various Artists One’. Concentric Records.

24:26 – 30:57  Luka. Without U – Barbagallo Remix (slightly altered by Wino Penris).
Single. Snowstar Records.

30:43 – 37:04  Jana Irmert. Against Light. Album ‘The Soft Bit’. Fabrique Records.

36:33 – 40:55  Philip G Anderson. Figment. Album ‘Figment’. Self-released.

40:23 – 42:10  Kristin Oppenheim. Sailor (partial).
Album ‘Night Run Collected Sound Works 1992-1995’. INFO.

41:57 – 45:39  Justin Sullivan. Dirge. Album ‘Surrounded’. V2 Records.

45:29 – 45:43  Kristin Oppenheim. Sailor (fragment).
Album ‘Night Run Collected Sound Works 1992-1995’. INFO.

45:39 – 50:01  Donna Blue. In Between. EP ‘In Between’. Snowstar Records.

49:56 – 54:13  Philip G Anderson. Dreaming of Chicago.
Album ‘Figment’. Self-released.

54:01 – 57:16  Bonnie Prince Billy& Broeder Dieleman. There are Worms in your circle, there are Wolves. Single ‘Love is the first law / There are worms in your circle’. Snowstar Records.

57:06 – 59:57  Johanna Knutsson & Sebastian Mullaert. Dream 38 (partial, fade out).
Album ‘In Dreams- Live At De Waalse Kerk 2019’. Circle of Live/Modern Matters