Wednesday 31 August 2022

Noise-Maker's Fifes – Soundscapes Of The Inner Eye (1995)


Country: Belgium

Tracklist
1. Beyond Description 21:40
2. Burnt By Ice 16:07
3. Dead City 17:27
4. The Battló House #2 08:23
5. The Battló House #1 09:33

Noise Maker's Fifes was a Belgian experimental/improvised music collective
that was formed in 1990 by Geert Feytons and Timo Van Luijk.
Their music was created by a variety of often self-made instruments
in combination with electronics, effects and environmental sound recordings.
During its 17 years of existence the group underwent a big evolution.
They started solely as a music group and gradually became more multidisciplinary
incorporating video, dance, sound installations and performance in order to create complex audio visual events.
In 1993 Greg Jacobs joined the group and sound engineer Eric Faes became a regular member until 1998.
In 1996 Timo Van Luijk moved to the background to concentrate on his personal musical work
and Marc Wroblewski appeared in the fixed NMF line-up.
NMF slowly grew out to an audio visual unit working with many different artists depending on the nature of the projects.
All video work, where surreal imagery and visualisation of sound play an important role, was realised by Geert Feytons.
Ciro Carcatella, Vilbjorg Broch and Stella Spitaleri were mostly responsible for the performance and dance aspect
while the sound installations were conceived and created by Marc Wroblewski and Geert Feytons, the core of NMF.
The regular participants for the musical part, depending on the project were Greg Jacobs,
Timo Van Luijk, Bryan Seating, Luc Van Lieshout and Michael Prime.
Other guests for specific projects were Miet Brands, Laura Maes, Jacques Brodier,
Hans Van Koolwijk, Daniel Denis and others.
Improvised music, mostly on self made instruments, structured within a visual frame
remained a constant in the NMF creations and especially the visual aspect became more and more sophisticated.
For the construction of the instruments and the autonomously functioning sound sculptures and installations,
materials as cords, recycled metal, glass, wood, stones, liquids were used.
The video work was determined by the desire to visualize different sound sources
and to use images in which sounds manifested themselves.
The last few years Marc and Geert also concentrated on pure audio-visual installations (eg. Naos).
NMF created about 10 major audio visual projects
and over the last decade the group toured extensively throughout Europe in different configurations.
Apart from their proper activities the group was also active creating music for dance.
About 20 titles (CD's, 7", 10") got released on various international labels.
With the death of Geert Feytons in 2006,
the other members decided to stop working under the NMF banner and formed the group Onde.
However, they also decided to preserve all existing audio and video material
and to release archival material on a regular basis.

Sunday 28 August 2022

Drift – The Beyond (1995)


Country: Italy

Tracklist
1. Burial Ground 24:22
2. Before Silence 18:58
3. Under 21:59
4. My Eyes Still See 21:11

Ultra bleak soundtrack atmospheres and sinister-droning sounds created by Drift.
Gabriele Giuliani is the main person behind this Italian dark ambient project,
mostly known for his act Dead Body Love among others (Alzheimer T.V., Discordance, Gridlock, Oleoresin Capsicum).
Drift existed from mid 90s to 2000 and published several releases on cassette and CD format.
"The Beyond" was recorded between April - May 1995 and released on cassette by Slaughter Productions 
in an A5 sleeve with decorated transparent covers.

Friday 19 August 2022

Omala – Germ (1988)


Country: Sweden

Tracklist
1. (Theme From) Cockroaches 04:55
2. Davul 07:33
3. Cataplasm 03:51
4. 709 05:36
5. Smell Touch Taste 05:25
6. Essential Embrocation 02:19
7. War 03:33
8. He Who Hath 06:19
9. Sand Of Nubia 08:33
10. Blue Azur Valley 14:19
11. Shaping Blades With Bare Hands 05:41
12. Somniferous 06:54

Omala (Andreas Karperyd and Mattias Tegnér) was one of the early Swedish ambient/industrial acts 
that produced several releases from late 80s to early 90s before disappearing.
The duo later resurfaced with the project He Said Omala, collaborating with Edward Graham Lewis.
Andreas Karperyd and Mattias Tegnér are also known for their electronic/trance project Obconic 
where in the late 90s they produced a couple of releases.
"Germ" was originally released on vinyl in 1988 by the Swedish label Frequent Frenzy
 and reissued in 1993 by Hyperium Records on CD format featuring four bonus tracks
that were taken from their 1987 cassette release "Cataclysm".