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




Heard In

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


  Ganesh Anandan / Hans Reichel 
  Self Made
  (Ambiances Magnetiques) 


  
   review by Massimo Ricci
  2010-02-03
Ganesh Anandan / Hans Reichel: Self Made (Ambiances Magnetiques)

Even if the name of Ganesh Anandan didn't ring any bell while approaching this shared outing, everything released by Hans Reichel over the course of a lengthy creative career is deemed as consistently rewarding by this writer. An underappreciated experimental guitarist Reichel used to express himself via monstrous stringed hybrids, generating sparkling harmonics and uncommon chords through customized circuits and fingerboards, releasing masterpieces such as Bonobo Beach and The Death Of The Rare Bird Ymir. In recent years Reichel has concentrated on the Daxophone, an amazing invention exploiting the vibrational capacities of oddly shaped samples of selected exotic woods rubbed with a violin bow. Reichel and Ren้ Lussier are amongst the few Daxophone virtuosos existing on earth, the latter's Le Corps De L'Ouvrage probably the greatest (...the lone?) album of progressive music (meant in the strictest acceptation) featuring this incomparable sonic tool.

But Anandan, too, is the engenderer of an uncharacteristic machine: the 12-string Shruti Box, an electric zither that can be "bowed, plucked and struck among other things", whose timbre is extremely rich and suggestive (especially when the strings are left to resonate for long, allowing the upper partials to flutter around in magnificent combinations). He also plays the Metallophone, a nearly "regular" mallet instrument that, in conjunction with the former, allows this artist to sound like a mini gamelan orchestra one moment, a highly sophisticated improviser the next.

The twelve tracks comprised by Self Made — eleven duos and an extensive solo by the percussionist — are both remarkably ingenious and a symbol of integration, in every sense. Though the overall sonority is always perceptibly structured and lean as a well-trained body without an ounce of fat, the extemporaneous phenomena generated by the duo are many, all completely welcome. The Daxophone is Phil Minton's closest relative in terms of vocal outrageousness, its incredible tones acquiring the semblance of a native Indian flute, a broken viola, a drunken horse's whinny, an angry monkey, a hoarse fowl, an old man's gargle. Reichel is in total command, exciting the wood's cells with unarguable dexterity and formidable sensibility, squeezing out of those little sculptures the distillate of a biological responsiveness that ultimately belongs to the trees from which they originate. Anandan represents an ideal partner, intersecting the German's anarchic dissertations with the composure of a sage, eliciting iridescent auras, subdued clusters and freckled counterpoints, interweaving garlands of quietly inscrutable radiant resonance, an example of restraint and soberness entailing an irreprehensible logic.

A gorgeous record that reconciles with the concept of listening with the mind delivered by prejudices and formats, at the same time tickling our own desire of picking an instrument — whatever it is — to start searching for new paths to tread. Procure yourselves an authentic exemplar of such a nugget, not forgetting a visit to Reichel's humorously interactive website (www.daxo.de) to learn about his inimitability in anything he's involved in. Needless to say, I'm equally interested in hearing more from Anandan after this. To put it concisely, a winner.







Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


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

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Sifter (
w/ Lisa Mezzacappa):
Flake/
Fracture
(Queen Bee Records)



Jean-Marc Foussat:
Abbatage
(Fou Records)



Chester Hawkins:
Apsis
(Intangible Arts)



Jean-Jacques Avenel/
Daunik Lazro:
Duo
(Fou Records)



Karl Evangelista's
Apura + Andrew Cyrille:
Bukas
(577 Records)



Frode Gjerstad/
Alexander von Schlippenbach/
Dag Magnus Narvesen:
Seven Tracks
(Relative Pitch)



Georg Graewe/
Brad Jones/
Hamid Drake:
More Than Anything
(Random Acoustics)



Kaze (
Fujii/
Tamura/
Orins/
Pruvost) with/ Koichi Makigami:
Shishiodoshi
(Circum-Libra)



Koenjihyakkei:
Live at Club Goodman
[2 CDs]
(Skin Graft)



Sun Ra:
Sleeping Beauty
[VINYL]
(STRUT)



Earle Brown/
David Ryan/
Christian Wolff/
Morton Feldman/
Thanos Chrysakis/
Tim Hodgkinson:
Music for Guitars,
Bass Clarinets &
Contrabasses
(Aural Terrains)



Joe McPhee & Strings (
w/ Maneri/
Lonberg-Holm/
Bisio):
We Know Why
The Caged Bird Sings
(RogueArt)



Nakatani Gong Orchestra:
NGO, Live in Ojai,
California
[VINYL GOLD]
(Weird Cry Records)



Mats Gustafsson/
Ken Vandermark/
Tomeka Reid/
Chad Taylor:
Pivot
(Silkheart)



Lance Olsen Austin:
Death in
the Urban Jungle
(Confront)



John Butcher/
Phil Durrant/
Mark Wastell:
Poznan:
Appropriate Density
(Confront)



Kassel Jaeger:
Fernweh
[VINYL 2 LPs]
(Black Truffle)



Marteau Rouge (
Foussat/
Pauvros/
Sato)/
Evan Parker:
Gift
(Fou Records)



Sun Ra:
Nuits de
la Fondation Maeght
[4 CD BOX SET]
(STRUT)



John Zorn (
Hashimoto/
Gosling/
Smith/
Roeder/
Mori):
Fantasma (
Illusions From
A Surrealist Mirror)
(Tzadik)







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. (27098)