16 October 2016

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Albums and Singles

After a number of years listening to Celer's slow, expansive take on ambient and drone sounds, I would have never expected Will Long to suddenly start making house music. But he has, in a series of three double 12" singles (and compiled into a double CD compilation), and it only takes a few minutes to realize that it is actually a very good combination. Even with the addition of drum machines, Long’s knack for creating warm, inviting spaces of electronic music is still vividly on display, and with some assistance from ambient legend Terre Thaemlitz (under the DJ Sprinkle guise), it may be heralding an entirely new direction in his work.

Comatonse

Through my own personal contact with Will Long, I was aware that he had a strong interest in house music and its various permutations for a number of years, and after thinking about it briefly, the amalgamation of the two styles makes perfect sense.Both are electronic-centric genres that strive to do a lot with very little as far as instrumentation goes, so joining the two is not as bizarre of a thought as it may seem.

In fact, the first few minutes of the opening "Time Has Come" establishes this:the light electronic drone that defines many Celer releases appears shaped into an organ-like passage that fits the house style, married to intentionally stiff, synthetic Roland drum machine beats.With samples of Civil Rights era speeches peppered throughout, the mood and sound is as fitting for 2016 as it would have been in 1986, albeit with Long at the command, the pace is more pensive and the mix is more intentionally skeletal.

These elements recur throughout the seven pieces on disc one."Get in and Stay in" is more of a beat focused song, first a taut, stiff mass of hi-hat programming, and then a heavy kick leads the way, being more of the primary focus as the Celer-like drifting electronics surround the song in a warm, inviting haze.The latter half of "Under-Currents" especially embraces the beat, most explicitly via clinically sharp handclaps that cut through the mix wonderfully.

Each song features an overdubbed (not remixed or reworked) version by Terre Thaemlitz, using the DJ Sprinkles moniker that has been used primarily for dance and DJ related performances.Thaemlitz’s presence is perfectly fitting, being another artist who is well known for first a rich career in electronic ambient music, who then began to implement more in the way of conventional beats and rhythms under a different name.

The distinction between overdubbed and remixed is an important one, because Sprinkles mostly just adds elements to Long’s original recordings and minor production tricks.For example, "Time Has Come" has a slightly more bass-heavy presence, and the addition of a pulsating synth bassline throughout."Daylight and Dark" has some treated hi-hat sounds and additional layers of sequenced synthesizer, and eventually a denser reverb sheen later on.The most dramatic addition from Sparkles is on "Under-Currents":an additional drum loop appears right at first and stays throughout, as more electronics and layering make for a richer, more dance floor oriented performance that is a bit more distinct from Long’s original, but still retains its essential elements.

Even with the addition of beats, Will Long’s music is a bit too subtle and delicate to be fully club ready.Not that this is a shortcoming by any means, it is exactly what makes the music stand out.The overdubs by DJ Sprinkles/Terre Thaemlitz maybe push the recordings a bit more towards the dance floor, but the sound is much more intimate and cerebral, making it best enjoyed in quiet, intimate settings, rather than in a loud, thumping context that would obscure the delicate beauty of these works.

samples:

• Time Has Come
• Daylight and Dark
• Under-Currents (Sprinkles Overdub)

 

16 October 2016

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Albums and Singles

In 1984, long before anyone's grandparents were only a few keystrokes away from obtaining every morsel of information, this non-descript album cover appeared in the shops. Nowhere on the record were there band member photos or names and roles, producer credits, or lyrics. It was a gamble to purchase a costly import record if you were located here in North America, especially without hearing it first, but most of those in-the-know would gladly take that risk. In this case, it certainly paid off.

4AD

In only four years, 4AD had established themselves as a popular "collector's label," as they were an organization who reliably paid meticulous attention to stunning artwork, used solid top quality materials, and were behind critically lauded releases from Bauhaus, The Birthday Party, Cocteau Twins, and (then) ex-Wire members. CAD404 (C was for full length single album; 4 was for year 1984; and this was release 04) followed Modern English's final LP for 4AD (two years after their monster international hit song), the "Say You" single from Colourbox, and preceded the Cocteau Twins' "Spangle Maker" single. With these records, it was apparent that most groupsin the 4AD stable were established by now and the trends were shifting towards the more colorful, away from the somewhat dark, cold, mysterious first years.

Side one opens with crashing noise, followed by robotic drum machine, brooding bass guitar, and an ominous anthemic lead guitar riff more reminiscent of Martin Hannett productions of years gone by than anything from 1984. Even its title, "The Fatal Impact," is bleak and not surprising for what is probably yet another British group whose members grew up in a grey industrial factory town. The contrasting styles of tunes that follow opened all of us first listeners up to the diversity of the group, but also set us up on some preconceptions, which were destroyed sooner or later.

The drums, chugging bass, and abrasive guitar on "The Trial" provided more insight to the band behind the music. It's a rock band, right? The rugged instrumentation is no match, however, for the male singer's beautiful, brooding voice. His powerful, flawless voice feels like some stunning larger-than-life nordic hero has just hijacked a viking ship and is steering it with all his might. The next song sounds like an entirely different group, however, as all traditional "rock" instruments are foregone. What follows, "Frontier," would be more apt for a chase scene through a rainforest jungle, with all of the aggressive, fast-paced percussion, faint hums of a male voice, and a nearly incomprehensible, yet shimmering beautiful female voice. Whoever is behind this recording are certainly experienced for a debut record.

The trading off of vocal duties continues throughout the record, as a bombastic Perry-sung rock piece is usually followed by the more unconventional Gerrard-sung pieces, ending on the hammer dulcimer dominating "Musica Eterna," which gives a hint as to how the group's music was going to evolve.

In the years following, photos, interviews, magazine articles, press releases, and performances would help give the rest of us the context for who Dead Can Dance were and how they evolved to this debut and through subsequent albums. Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard were identified by the following year's Spleen and Ideal as the core of the group. Perry, born in England--but played in New Zealand punk group The Scavengers/The Marching Girls in the late '70s--emigrated back to the UK in 1980 with Gerrard, whose distinct vocal style graced some very short lived Australian groups. Group members for the debut included James Pinker, an early SPK member from New Zealand,percussionist Peter Ulrich, who continued to contribute to the group through Spiritchaser, and Scott Roger, whose name never appeared on any subsequent releases.

The debut album may sound slightly out of place, as it consists of music composed from 1980-1984, a time with rapid progression of styles and technology, from a duo with different backgrounds who brought different approaches to the songs they sung.

As a whole, this is a forceful debut. This isn't easy listening by any means. The biggest criticism over the years of the music on the record is that during the rock songs, the music can arguably tend to be derivative. The presence of Gerrard's vocalizations, hammer dulcimer, and unconventional drumming, however made the album unique, and those elements remained as a mainstay for future releases while the more aggressive rock arrangements faded.

For this reissue, the artwork has been faithfully restored. The album continues to be a beautiful item, lacking the abundance of information littering the space as its original issue, but don't throw out your MFSL remaster! There have been some complaints about the pressing have an abundance of sibilance, and I do hear it on this record. It's not a deal breaker but it is a reminder that this album should be accepted as not one for the high fidelity junkies.

16 October 2016

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Albums and Singles

The ongoing project by Los Angeles-based sound artist Richard Chartier (b.1971) sends you a new coded message of sumptuous distant drones and glacial orchestral heartrendings. Poised and polished slow motion pulsations tug at your emotions (but only a portion of them).

For those listeners desirous of the output of The Caretaker, Angelo Badalamenti, William Basinski, and other such dark wistful wonderment.

Pinkcourtesyphone is dark but not arch, with a slight hint of humor. Amorphous, changing, and slipping in and out of consciousness, operating like a syrup-y dream and strives to be both elegant and detached.

Please don’t hang up. This call is important. You’re coming with Pinkcourtesyphone… leave everything… it’s getting late.

Out November 25th, 2016 on Editions Mego.

25 September 2016

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Albums and Singles

Some of Jason Anthony Harris' previous recordings as Public Speaking have flirted with more traditional song-like material, but would just as often end up being more in line abstract and chaotic world of noise. For this newest album, however, it seems as if he has settled more comfortably into the role of songwriter, and here, across these seven pieces, he creates a dark, at times very disturbing world presented as off-kilter, bizarre electronic pop.

Floordoor Records

The most recent release I heard from Harris was last year’s Mountainmurals tape:a well executed release of found sound tape collages, so the rhythmic throb and clean vocals of opener "Blacksite Blues" were a drastic departure, though not far removed from the 2013 Blanton Ravine record.It is the perfect start to the album, with clattering noises, synthesizer, and saxophone (by Johnny Butler) melded into an insistent blues throb.Harris’ vocals are croon-heavy and appropriately dramatic, shifting between notes effortlessly as the backing track bludgeons.Only during a jolting, unexpected delicate breakdown passage does the hammering cease, but when it comes back it is all the heavier.

"I Turn Over His Body" is another more rhythmically focused piece, this time a pastiche of programmed militaristic snares and more conventional saxophone leads.Compared to "Blacksite Blues," the instrumentation and musical structure is more varied and dynamic, while Harris’ vocal performance is more restrained and muted.The album closing title song is another one where he puts the beat first, via a steady thumping rhythm and strange, far off guitar from Zach Ryalls.With the voice processing bending the lyrics largely indecipherable, the focus is the beat and effects.

Where Caress, Redact shines the most is Harris' narrative lyrical content being juxtaposed with drastically different musical accompaniment, making for a stark and fascinating contrast.The twinkling electronics and up-beat tempo of "Protect Me From My Own Paws" have a light, electronic pop sensibility to them, but with lyrics about immolation being delivered so smoothly, the pairing is unsettling.The understated, electronic tinged piano ballad "Shifting Weight" may superficially come across like an experimental R&B song, but the lyrics from an abusive father’s perspective, tossing out homophobic slurs about his son, is something much darker.

This sensibility is continued on "Processed By The Pound," at first by means of rave synth stabs and bent electronics, it eventually comes together with a dark, rhythmic structure and sputtering tremolo effects.With its lyrics covering spousal rape, domestic violence, murder, and body disposal via meat processing, I could not help but draw some parallels to the lyrical content of a big portion of Big Black's discography, though Harris’ presentation is more of a sympathetic, introspective one compared to Steve Albini's over-the-top shock tactic style.

Caress, Redact is not only an excellent work on its own merits, but it also excels because it sounds so little like no one (or nothing) else.The songs are all rich in composition but intentionally fragmented and disjointed in their production, channeling the familiar and the alien perfectly.When this is mixed with Harris' strong lyrics and powerful vocals, the combination is compelling and fascinating and stands out exceptionally among this year's best records.

samples:

• Blacksite Blues
• Protect Me From My Own Paws
• Processed By The Pound

 

25 September 2016

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Albums and Singles

This collaboration between David Tibet and early Current 93 alum and erstwhile Killing Joke bassist Youth is quite a fascinating, bizarre, improbable, and intermittently perplexing release.  Given how little attention I pay to mainstream music, I had completely forgotten that Youth also has an ongoing project with Paul McCartney (The Fireman) and a long history of production and remix credits involving artists like U2, Depeche Mode, Erasure, and almost Duran Duran.  In short, he is primarily an ingenious chameleon whose greatest gift lies in adapting to new situations, figuring out how to make the most of them, and egolessly fading into the background.  That is exactly what he has (mostly) done with Create Christ, Sailor Boy: consciously opting to be as invisible as possible.  As such, this album is primarily a showcase for David Tibet's snarling and singular poetic rantings presented on an epic scale, some of which rank among his best.

House of Mythology

Throughout its many incarnations, Current 93 has always been a reliably eccentric and aberrant project, both musically and lyrically.  Consequently, the most immediately striking aspect of Create Christ is the straightforward simplicity of Youth’s synthesizer arrangement on the opening "Your Eyes in the Skittle Hills." In one respect, it feels somewhat anonymous when compared to David Tibet's usual fare, but the lush neo-classical grandeur nevertheless suits Tibet's wild-eyed proclamations quite beautifully.  If Tibet has composed an epic, impassioned, and otherworldly tale, it makes sense that it should have a suitably epic-sounding backdrop.  It is no small feat to wield dynamics so effectively that lines like "You and moonbeams walking through the walls" or "In the dead forest, your lips like planet cream" can seem incredibly heavy and deeply profound.  Also, it definitely seems like Tibet found his new sonic environs quite inspiring, as he does a lot more actual singing than usual, surprising me with lots of sustained notes and frequently straining into the upper end of his range.  He is also quite throaty throughout Sailor Boy, escalating the intensity of significant moments with an impressive battery of growls and howls.  In fact, the album actually feels like a bizarre religious experience at times, unpredictably and seamlessly veering from sublime chant-like beauty to demonic snarling ("you groovy girls with teeth!") within the same song.

Youth's decision to hang in the background "so you only hear the stories" means that Create Christ is a lot like being harangued by a half-mad prophet who just emerged from a few decades (or centuries) of seclusion in the desert: the breathless torrent of words is a bewildering mixture of striking poetry, arcane wisdom, cryptic jokes, puzzling allusions, beautiful imagery, and personal obsessions.  I mean that in the best way possible, of course.  Skittles, the stars, cats, penguins, Christ, Archie comics, ghosts, dead languages, flowers, the moon, and Pinocchio all seem to hold a place of honor within Tibet's hermetic personal mythology and all seem importantly intertwined.  I have long believed Tibet to be one of most brilliant and fascinating artists around, but his vision is a unquestionably uniquely personal one.  The gulf between his world and mine is quite substantial, so the trick is always to harness and present the phantasmagoric fever dream of his words into something more universally meaningful.  When that fails, Hypnopazüzu merely sounds like distinctive free-associative poetry that presents an enigmatic and beautifully worded puzzle of associations.  That is fine, obviously, but it is an intellectual pleasure rather than a visceral one.  When the trick works, as it does on pieces like "Skittle Hills" and "Christmas with the Channelers," it can be absolutely revelatory.  Words are Tibet’s unquestionably primary weapon of choice, but the meaning and power of these pieces can greatly transcend those origins when the flow, content, emphasis, melody, and underlying chords unexpectedly converge in the perfect place.

As distinctive, striking, and mesmerizing as this album is, it is not without its occasional misfires.  The most egregious one is "Sweet Sodom SingSongs," where Youth abandons his trusty Moog for a foray into a languorous tabla- and tambura-fueled raga groove.  Initially, it is quite good, but then it unexpectedly departs from Om-like territory into a major key hippie jam with the deeply unfortunate refrain of "It’s tool time!"  Elsewhere, Youth is guilty of over-egging the pudding a bit, particularly with the dramatic faux-string flourishes of "Pinocchio’s Handjob" and the soaring orchestral swells of "The Crow at Play." David Tibet is already a dramatic supernova, so bolstering his performances with any sweeping, cinematic touches just feels uncomfortably over-the-top (though the line separating epic and bombastic is admittedly quite a blurry and subjective one).  Elsewhere, I found the shifting nature of the Hypnopazüzu aesthetic a bit awkward, as "trippy Eastern-damaged rock band" and "lush neo-classical goth pop" are fairly divergent threads to seamlessly bounce between.  The brief and gently psychedelic interlude of "Incidentally, Shaitan" worked quite well though–I wish that facet had been explored much more.  Shortcomings, missed opportunities, and unevenness aside, however, Create Christ is still quite a unique and inspired statement and worthy addition to Tibet's impressive oeuvre.  Obviously, it would be nice if every song were as wonderful as "Your Eyes in the Skittle Hills," but it is hard to be begrudge an album for only containing a couple of stone-cold, transcendental masterpieces.

• Your Eyes In The Skittle Hills
• Sweet Sodom SingSongs
• Night Shout, Bird Tongue

 

25 September 2016

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Albums and Singles

This latest opus captures The Dead C at their most endearingly perverse, brilliant, and anti-virtuosic, as they have somehow managed to craft a double album without actually having any conventional content at all: no real riffs, no hooks, no grooves, and no songs (unless some mumbling in a sea of feedback counts).  That approach seems to tailor-made to alienate most potential new listeners, but the towering monolith of guitar squall that is Trouble is an absolute delight for the faithful like myself.  These five sprawling and amorphous pieces sound like someone dropped napalm on rock music, leaving nothing but a smoldering, heaving, and howling wreckage.  Occasionally something resembling a melody will emerge from the blown-out entropy, but the album’s real appeal is its visceral chaos.  In some ways, this may very well be The Dead C's finest album yet.

Ba Da Bing

The trio does not waste any time at all in establishing their malign intent, as the opening "One" erupts with a stammering two-note riff amidst a roaring gale of white noise, then the almost-riff disappears entirely to leave a gnarled miasma of distortion and feedback bolstered by Robbie Yeats' wandering and fitfully spirited drumming.  Such a formula hardly seems like ideal grist for a 20-minute song, but somehow Michael Morley, Bruce Russell, and Yeats make it work, seamlessly ebbing into interludes of lazily sputtering guitar noise and almost-vocals, then building back up to eruptions of churning and formless density.  Unexpectedly, however, the piece ends with an eerily beautiful coda of quivering feedback.  Dynamic wizardry and feedback-wrangling aside, I am also particularly fascinated by Yeats' bizarre drumming choices, as he continually rides the line between lunatic and genius, seemingly losing interest in his beats almost instantly yet somehow maintaining a weirdly appealing and faltering momentum despite himself.

The following "Two" roughly adheres to the same formula, but initially features a fairly coherent groove.  In fact, it almost sounds like the band attempted to play an actual song, but were instantly derailed by their inability to control their chain of effects pedals.  Even that semblance of order soon disappears, however, and the rest of the piece is a push-pull between shambling, overloaded meandering and rare, ephemeral convergences into actual chords and hints of melody.  Near the end, the more structured elements seem to finally win and something songlike briefly emerges before falling apart again.  In classic Dead C fashion, even the most coherent parts still features mumbled, unintelligible vocals and a guitarist who sounds like he does not realize the song started and is still unhurriedly trying to tune.  Unsurprisingly, the remaining three songs essentially offer up more of the same, albeit with somewhat shorter durations.  While The Dead C do not have any tricks up their collective sleeve, they compensate with their admirably thorough commitment to this aesthetic of snarling and wrongheaded feedback sludge.  If the band does have a trick, it is only that they create such an effective illusion of lumbering sloppiness at times that I am still caught off-guard whenever a piece like "Three" suddenly blossoms into a striking passage of strangled notes or hauntingly swooping feedback howls.

If possible, I suspect Trouble might be the most ingeniously incompetent-sounding Dead C album yet, as it is very easy to imagine a guitarist with no fingers or a kid who just bought a drum set being able to happily jam along with it.  That is not dissimilar to how some people view free-jazz, yet the gulf between titans like Ornette Coleman and Pharaoh Sanders and mere dabblers and dilettantes is enormous.  With Trouble, it would not be crazy to say The Dead C have become the Ornette Coleman of noisy rock deconstruction, as this is arguably their artistic zenith.  Previous classics like Harsh 70s Reality certainly have better (or at least more accessible) songs, but Trouble willfully throws away absolutely everything that makes rock music great and still sounds amazingly vibrant, dynamic, unpredictable, and complex.  It is easy to see why The Dead C is so underappreciated, as this is a singularly messy and uncompromising vision, but I cannot think of any other bands that could produce a satisfying double album without the benefit of hooks, melodies, or strong rhythms.  The Dead C admittedly offer some raw power at times, but Trouble would quickly become a numbing experience if that was all they had to offer.  What they bring to the table instead is considerably more unique and intangible: an intuitive hive-mind genius for both artfully falling apart and unexpectedly shaping ruin into beauty.

• One
• Two
• Three

 

24 September 2016

Administrator

Albums and Singles

A companion piece to the 2016 LP Strangers, consisting of home recordings contemporary to that album's sessions.

More information can be found here.

24 September 2016

Administrator

Albums and Singles

THE CARETAKER IS RELEASING SIX NEW WORKS.

Everywhere at the End of Time is a new and finite

series exploring dementia, its advance and its totality.

Featuring the sounds from the journey The Caretaker

will make after being diagnosed as having early

onset dementia.

Each stage will reveal new points of progression,

loss and disintegration. Progressively falling further

and further towards the abyss of complete memory

loss and nothingness.

Viewing dementia as a series of stages can be

a useful way to understand the illness, but it is

important to realize that this only provides a rough

guide to the progress of the condition.

Drawing on a recorded history of 20 years of

recollected memories this is one final journey

and study into recreating the progression of

dementia through sound.

--

Stage 1 - September 2016

Here we experience the first signs of memory loss.

This stage is most like a beautiful daydream.

The glory of old age and recollection.

The last of the great days.

--

More information can be found here.

18 September 2016

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Albums and Singles

Shirley Collins – legendary folk singer and one of England’s most respected song collectors –  has announced her return to recording after 38 years. The new album, Lodestar, will be released on November 4th, and with it, Shirley has created the unlikeliest release of the century so far.

Lodestar is a collection of English, American and Cajun songs dating from the 16th Century to the 1950s, recorded at Shirley’s home in Lewes by Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown of Cyclobe and produced and musically directed by Ian Kearey.

The first track to be shared from Lodestar is ‘Cruel Lincoln’. Shirley explains the history of the song: “This is an ancient ballad, found only rarely in England. The theory is that Cruel Lincoln was a mason who was not paid for the work he did for ‘the Lord of the Manor’ and so extracted a terrible revenge”. It also features bird song recorded at the back of Shirley’s cottage.

Born in Hastings in 1935, Shirley was fascinated by folk songs as she was growing up, songs she heard on the radio or sung by her grandparents in Anderson shelters. She left home for London to immerse herself in the burgeoning folk scene; at a party held by Ewan MacColl she met Alan Lomax, and in 1959 she joined him in the USA on the renowned field trip ‘Southern Journey’, recording American folk songs and blues, a formative journey for her personally and professionally.

On her return to the England, Shirley cemented her role at the forefront of the Folk Revival,  recording over a dozen albums including the influential Folk Roots, New Routes with avant-garde guitarist Davy Graham, and No Roses, from which The Albion Country Band was formed. However, in the 1980s, Shirley lost her singing voice – later diagnosed as a form of dysphonia - and withdrew from performing live. It was only in 2014, after coaxing from David Tibet (Current 93), that Shirley sang in public for the first time since 1982.

Though Shirley Collins (MBE) has been absent from the music scene for many years, her impact has not diminished, the likes of Graham Coxon, Jonny Greenwood, Stewart Lee and Angel Olsen laud her and a documentary The Ballad of Shirley Collins is currently in progress. Additionally, she was given the ‘Good Tradition’ award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2008, elected President of the English Folk Dance & Song Society in the same year and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Sussex University this year. Shirley released her first memoir, America Over the Water, in 2004 and is currently working on her second book.

Now Shirley Collins has sung once more (with a mischievous delight in defeating expectation), the accepted canon of her great recordings will have to be comprehensively recalibrated, yet again.

More information can be found here.

18 September 2016

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Albums and Singles

Reinier Van Houdt has performed as a classical trained pianist in premieres of works by Robert Ashley, Charlemagne Palestine and many others. He has worked with composers such as John Cage and Luc Ferrari and plays in Current 93, recently releasing an album with contributions by Nick Cave, John Zorn and Antony Hegarty.

This album taps into the artist's obsession with recording everyday objects, situations and moments. The act of recording seems to create a third ear, a little loophole in time through which sometimes unimagined parallel fields of sound can enter. Here listening is delving into the imagination already contained in matter. Perception is a vice that constantly hallucinates realities. Creating music from these recordings was fort the artist like a process of divination of things found crawling under rocks, whirling in shaded corners, traversing the atmosphere, propelling through the ether. The ears focused as if in a gaze – but an errant gaze, sleepwalking through the different strata of matter; a gaze uninterested in possibilities, complexity, openness or totality; an errant gaze, melancholy as well as pervasive, inviting contingency by ignoring it.”

"I’ve never heard a better mix of piano, electronics and amplification than during van Houdt’s program."

Live review, New York Times

“Reinier van Houdt’s performance was radical, extreme and without compromise. One of the most impressive examples I have witnessed of maximally mesmerising an audience with ever more reduced materials.”

Live review, Weserkurier Germany

More information can be found here.