The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!

The Squid's Ear
Facebook: Squidco Sales



Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Cat Hope / Erkki Veltheim 
  Works for Travelled Pianos
  (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd) 


  
   review by Brian Olewnick
  2020-08-06
Cat Hope / Erkki Veltheim: Works for Travelled Pianos (ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)

Two works for piano, performed by Gabriella Smart, from this pair of Australian composers.

Hope's 'Kaps Freed' stems from ideas formulated by their compatriot, composer Percy Grainger (1882 - 1961), who envisioned a kind of "free music" where melodic lines were unencumbered by rhythms or specific tones, instead being allowed to "hover about any 'note' without ever alighting upon it". Her piece, played on a Kaps piano, a type that Grainger would have used, consists of spare but very tonal notes hanging in a kind of electronic bed that gently, very gently, nudges them this way and that, as if buffeted by a mild breeze. It's a very unique sounding work insofar as the subtle manner in which the notes are encased, almost protectively. Its 20 minutes elapse quickly, dreamlike, exceedingly lovely and heartfelt, a wonderful piece.

The elaborately titled, 'Two New Proposals for an Overland Telegraph Line from Port Darwin to Port Augusta, from the Perspective of Alice Springs', by Veltheim, is a different beast entirely. Based on the image of the first piano to arrive in Alice Springs in 1872, transported by camel, it uses as its basic material a tweet expressed in Morse Code. For what it's worth, he chose the most popularly retweeted message of 2014, originating at the fingertips of Ellen DeGeneres, Veltheim commenting on the current "obsessive retweeting of meaningless messages". And that view certainly comes through, via the relentless hammering of the code, swathed in a nest of electronic effects that, though definitely in the (relative) background, make themselves felt in the form of loopy synth sounds, birdlike tones, static and more. It's both oppressive and impressive, off-putting to a degree (as is, in this listener's opinion, tweet culture) but at the same time, over the course of its almost hour-long duration, immersive and even, oddly addictive, the dense web of sound always enticing one to extract more and more detail.







Comments and Feedback:



The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Kim Jae Jung:
Shamanism
(Relative Pitch)



Joe McPhee/
Susanna Gartmayer/
John Edwards/
Maria Portugal:
Monster
(Klanggalerie)



Signe Emmeluth/
Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten/
Axel Filip:
Hyperboreal Trio
(Relative Pitch)



John Butcher/
John Edwards:
This Is
Not Speculation
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Izumi Kimura/
Lina Andonovska/
Dominique Pifarely:
Seven Dreams
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Jerome Deupree/
Sylvie Courvoisier/
Lester St. Louis/
Joe Morris:
Canyon
[2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Marc Baron/
Eric La Casa:
Contrefacons
(Swarming)



Francisco Lopez:
Untitled (
2021-2022)
[2 CDs]
(Bu Lang Tribute Cake)



Eventless Plot |
Haarvol:
The Subliminal Paths
[CASSETTE + DOWNLOAD]
(Innovo Editions)



Akmee:
Sacrum Profanum
(Nakama Records)



Karl Evangelista Quintet
feat. Bobby Bradford and
William Roper:
Solace Angles
(Asian Improv)



Sveio:
Latent Imprints
(577 Records)



The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters (
Rasmussen/
Mitelli/
Rezaei/
Koenig):
The Sleep Of Reason
Produces Monsters
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)



Dan Brown/
Dan Reynolds:
Live At
The Grange Hall
[unauthorized][CASSETTE]
(Sacred Realism)



Matt Mitchell:
Sacrosanctity
(Obliquity)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Das B (
Mazen Kerbaj/
Mike Majkowski/
Magda Mayas/
Tony Buck):
Love
[VINYL]
(thanatosis produktion/
Corbett Vs Dempsey)



Mary Halvorson Septet:
Illusionary Sea
[2 LPS]
(Firehouse 12 Records)



Darius Jones:
Legend of e'Boi (
The Hypervigilant Eye)
[VINYL + DOWNLOAD]
(Aum Fidelity)



Irene Schweizer/
Rudiger Carl/
Johnny Dyani/
Han Bennink:
Irenes Hot Four
(Intakt)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (8188)