Utility Fog

Sunday, 22nd of March, 2020

This post represents the continuation of this week's Utility Fog - find the main post here. Times being as they are, I'm socially distancing myself at home (not quite self-isolation), and have recorded the show(s) here. The wonders of the cloud! The lovely Joseph Earp who presents This Is A Love Song usually after me has been feeling a little under the weather, and that's enough for him to keep himself at home. So here we are... two more hours of Utility Fog selections!
We've got a few repeats of artists from earlier, and some extraordinary longform works.

So tuck yourself in and LISTEN AGAIN for the longform love... You can stream on demand from the This Is Not A Love Song page on FBi's website, or of course podcast it here.

Beatriz Ferreyra - Echos [Room40/Bandcamp]
I'm so glad that Lawrence English has introduced me to the work of Argentinian composer Beatriz Ferreyra via his Room40 label. Active since the 1960s, she is still making music now. These works can be seen as musique concrète, but to me they're actually more engaging than a lot of the original concrète work which seems strangely gimmicky now (an unfair generalisation no doubt!). These three works are all quite fabulous - two based around vocal manipulation, one involving percussion and a lot of spatial movement. The piece "Echos" goes back to 1978 and is made up entirely of recordings of her niece, who was killed in a car accident. It's quite a beautiful tribute to her - lively and full of movement.

Luciano Berio - Altra voce [col legno]
An even more longform work now, from groundbreaking and highly influential Italian 20th century composer Luciano Berio. This piece from 1999 is for mezzo soprano (here Monica Bacelli), alto flute (a beguiling sound, here performed by Michele Marasco) and live electronics (Francesco Giomi, Damiano Meacci and Kilian Schwoon), taken from the double CD Les Espaces Électroacoustiques II released by the col legno label. I find the dischords beautiful here, many created by live electronic manipulation, and the way the low female voice and low flute's sonorities interact is exquisite. The text is by Berio's third wife, Talia Pecker Berio.

Wacław Zimpel - Release [Ongehoord]
Polish composer Wacław Zimpel is one of those talented young artists who is classically trained but also plays jazz improv and draws from techno and psych rock and whatever else he pleases. His latest album Massive Oscillations grooves through four long tracks - kosmische synth pulsations, something like minimal techno, and this final track featuring the voice of Holly Hock. It's the most "classical" sounding piece on the album, with rhythmic tuned percussion, but it could also be ambient electronica of some sort. The whole album is mixed by James Holden, who adds his organic techno feel to the proceedings.

FEAN - Wetterreid [Moving Furniture Records/Bandcamp]
You can read more about FEAN on my earlier post. This track comes from their first album, released in late 2018.

Síria - Gloria [Crónica/Bandcamp]
Síria - Danse macabre [Crónica]
Like FEAN, I played Diana Combo's Síria on the earlier show tonight, so much more info there. I played her wondrously strange cover of Patti Smith's "Gloria" from 2018, and a swirling, crushing track from her new one.

Mise_En_Scene - Patterned Clouds (Adam Basanta's Random Groups Rework) [Crónica/Bandcamp]
Also on Portugal's Crónica, Mise_En_Scene is the work of Tel Aviv musician Shay Nassi. The fabulously glitchy piece here is a remix by Tel Aviv-born but Vancouver-based Adam Basanta.

Pablo's Eye - Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien [Longform Editions/Bandcamp]
Belgian collective Pablo's Eye have been around since 1989 and are one of those groups that you're sure you've heard of and you know you've heard some tracks somewhere... Well now I need to go and find out, because this track for Sydney's Longform Editions is quite a delight. Over nearly 19 minutes, the same things happen in various orders, at times coalescing into lovely electronica with beats and bassline, at other times gently flowing back and forth. The track is named for a practice of the French experimental author Georges Perec, sitting in a French café and recording every single event and thing that passed through his field of vision...

Ground Patrol - Rain/Fracture [Art As Catharsis/Bandcamp]
The Sydney-New York duo Ground Patrol are made up of familiar fellow Alon Ilsar on drums (not AirSticks!) and Kyle Sanna on guitar. Both are comfortable working across many genres, but here the project circles around math rock, krautrock and even postrock - although after a mathy first half, this track melts away into patient ambient sound. It's my favourite track from their new album Geophone, so I'm glad I have this opportunity to play the whole thing.

The Plains - The Zone [chemical imbalance]
Finally tonight, one side of the debut cassette from Sydney duo The Plains, made up of two Sydney music stalwarts. Luke Telford played in the long-lost, lovely postrock/indie band Derwent River Star, and is a very talented writer. Kell Derrig-Hall is known as The Singing Skies, and also had an experimental duo called Moonmilk with his wife Lia Tsamoglou aka Melodie Nelson. The Plains is an exercise in patient minimalism, centred around their two acoustic guitars, layered with distant field recordings and synth fx. Blissful late-night listening.

Listen again — ~210MB

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