PABLO PICCO “The Bombastic and Repetitive Sound of Tashi Ling Buddhas in Pokhara, Nepal” C40 (More Mars)

Pablo Picco, of Argentinian outfit Bardo Todol, traveled to Nepal and did some field recording there. He recorded chants and other indigenous performances and here presents them as an ethnological exhibit, much like Alan Lomax did with folk music back in the early twentieth century. Side A is reserved for voices, as chants and throat singing featured in a Buddhist ceremony make for a mesmerizing experience before fading into a different ceremony, one with a bit more percussion. Side B includes recordings from a “river, caves, and a wedding band,” and showcases the fascinating trademarks of a full-fledged musical experience from a culture that I’m not terribly familiar with. (Maybe I should change that.) The droning chants once again return by the end of side B.

And this is just a taste – Picco and companion María Victoria Arener filmed their experience traveling through Buddhist sites and released it as a film called Kalinga Uktal. I think it’s time to dig a little deeper.

https://kalingautkalthefilm.wordpress.com/

https://bardotodolmonofonia.bandcamp.com/

http://www.moremars.org/

--Ryan

ROSS MANNING “te t on on ti computer” (More Mars)

Brisbane’s Ross Manning is pretty inventive when it comes to making music. In fact, he makes “his own percussion instruments,” which are composed of “steel, aluminium and scrap metals.” On side A, the so-called “Blue Side” of the tape, he strings together recorded experiments he’s made with these and other electronic devices and objects. The result is industrial but alive, buzzing with energy both potential and kinetic.

Side B, or “Gong Side” (which I guess is the opposite of blue), is more melodic, the electronic arrangements taking on the timbre of gamelan music and serving as a nice counterpoint to the electroacoustic vibrations on the flip. These emerge as if aided by wind, and their rhythmic qualities and tones recall the patterns of Indonesia, etc.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1998674-Ross-Manning

http://www.moremars.org/

--Ryan

DAS SYNTHETISCHE MISCHGEWEBE “Zwischenmenschen” (More Mars)

“Zwischenmenschen” is a collection, sort of, of Guido Huebner’s live performances as Das Synthetische Mischgewebe. The Berlin-based sound artist is a master of electroacoustic experimentation, and has been doing so since the early 1980s. Wanna know what I was doing in the early 1980s? Hiding my eyes from the Rancor in the movie theater. It was scary!

I say this is a “sort-of” collection of live performance because Huebner did some editing and mixing together and within the source material, rendering it not quite as it appeared on stage. Perhaps for the home environment this was the correct move: each sound fragment and noise and source is heard perfectly through a nice set of speakers. This at least enables the possibility that the home user will at least come close to the experience of the live set, the intensity of which translates nicely to cassette. I’ll say, for me, I feel like I’ve got my head right up DSM’s PA – I don’t know what he’s doing in there, but it sure is intense!

https://www.discogs.com/artist/76933-Das-Synthetische-Mischgewebe

http://www.moremars.org/

--Ryan

ROSS MANNING "Deforming A Virtual Ribbon" (More Mars) C32

Percussive catacomb music which, like a river of blood, swells and recedes. For the most part this tape (which came from Greece) finds a rhythmic stasis akin to tossing tons of bones down a ladder or stairs. Rose of Rosy and the Roses came by and agreed that "Deforming" was a skull-slapper. Very artistic, not spooky.

https://m.soundcloud.com/moremars/ross-manning-deforming-a-virtual-ribbon-cs32-excerpt

-- Alaina Stamatis