Scott Walker - 'Bish Bosch'

www.bishbosch.com

Peter Wullen vs Inge Depraetere

“Halfweg 2008 stuurde ik op aanvraag enkele gedichten naar John Maes van de Harelbeekse Kunstkring De Geus. De gedichten werden gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift Art04 van december 2008. Door persoonlijke omstandigheden kreeg ik het tijdschrift echter pas drie jaar later in handen. Mijn leven was intussen volledig dooreengeschud. Ik was verhuisd van Kortrijk naar Laken, was opnieuw gehuwd en had een baby. Zelfs na zoveel tijd en met zoveel afstand was de publicatie voor mij een aangename verrassing. Mijn gedichten stonden afgedrukt naast de kunstwerken van de Harelbeekse kunstenares Inge Depraetere. Dat was een intrigrerend toevalstreffen. De verrassing was zo compleet dat ik na enkele jaren relatief stilzwijgen mijn literaire activiteiten opnieuw opstartte. Ik schrijf intuïtief. Ingrid heeft dezelfde intuïtieve schilderstijl. Ik nam contact op met Inge en we besloten om samen een tentoonstelling te organiseren in De Geus. Ziehier: 10 gedichten, 10 kunstwerken. Ze passen bijna naadloos bijeen. Vernissage van de tentoonstelling op zondag 7 oktober om 11u00 in De Geus in Harelbeke.”

'Putain', by Kris Yves J. Verdonck.

'Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer', by Kris Yves J. Verdonck

Saikal & Manas

The story of Kirghiz hero Manas and the maiden Saikal is one of the greatest love stories in world literature. Manas meets Saikal at the lists, a kind of contest on life and death. This time it is between Kirghiz and the Kalmaks & the Kazakhs. Nobody dares to fight the Kirghiz, but then this girl Saikal steps forward. Manas is impressed by her beauty and courage. He decides not to kill her, but to give her the upperhand and to only slightly wound her. A kind of playful and loving battle starts which is among the funniest and greatest epic poetry ever written. They brush, they stab, they touch eachother but they try not to hurt eachother too much. "I will not fight Manas!" she said, "Not even if you cut off my head!" she exclaims. Sadly, this is oral poetry. The love story never develops properly. In a kind of timelapse Manas exclaims "Such a maiden as wife I'd prize!" Evening came and people went home. And that's all! We never hear of Saikal anymore in the rest of the epic....

“Clouds of dust are rolling there yet!
At the lists Manas then appeared,
And Saikal again then cheered,
Cried aloud her slogan ‘Zubun!’
As she galloped upon her roan.
Earlier there Manas had gazed
On her beauty with longing, amazed.
Therefore he carefully aimed his spear,
Not to destroy such beauty dear.
By her red cheeks he had been charmed.
How could he take her yet, unharmed?
Now he had changed his capturing thought
Though he desired her, and eagerly sought,
He was offended, and flew in a rage!”

(‘Manas’, in a version of Sagymbai Orozbakov, translated by Walter May, part II, 1760-1773)

http://www.discovery-bookshop.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=1299

'Cioran' in America.

http://unshodquills.com/2012/06/23/marc-swoon-bildos-featured-artist/

Linkeroor #4 - 'De takken van Sub Rosa'

http://www.enola.be/muziek/columns/19854:column-linkeroor-4

'Das Kapital' by Ian Kubra 道 Studios

das kapital from ian kubra 道 studios on Vimeo.

HF Thiéfaine - 'Fièvre Resurrectionelle'

Sub Rosa - 'Fuck You'

'Fuck you' is a superinteresting doc by the great people of Sub Rosa about the electronic underground in China. It raised a lot of questions when I watched it. How can noise - even devoid of any meaning - ever be apolitical? Can a government forbid young people to make abstract noise? If so, is it a political gesture after all? Even if what they do is just copycatting Western and Japanese acts and if they use noise as a means to escape the very harsh reality for young musicians in China. Subversive 'nihilism' as an act of revolt maybe? Most of the footage was shot with a hidden camera. I was very impressed by the interview with the poet Sun Meng Jin in some restaurant or cafeteria. He is an opposing voice and he took a great risk by saying some surprisingly shocking things about politics that if known could easily land him into a Chinese prison. On the other hand you have an interview with the interesting young Chinese experimental artist Wang Changcun denying by all means that his art has any political implications. It is a frightening vision of a society that controls its citizens with a strong iron fist. Three cheers for Zbigniew and what he does for Chinese musicians! The doc revolved mainly around him. he is an extraordinary man. Admirable effort! See also my article about the Chinese electronic underground from some years ago: http://www.urbanmag.be/artikel/627/post-concrete-chinees-voor-beginners

Francisco López - untitled #284

I don't agree with people who maintain that Francisco López has been doing the same thing all over for years. It even seems to me that he has been seeking a slightly different direction lately. His collaboration with the Dutch MAE Ensemble on 'untitled #275" and some pieces on 'untitled (2009)' even tend to the 'classical' as I may say so. Although for a noise artist it sounds preposterous to make 'classical music', for López it looks like a completely natural evolution. It looks like his looking for a more organic sound while using computers anyway. His new composition 'untitled #284' is a commisioned piece for the Teatro Municipal Maria Matos in Lisbon. The composition features treated environmental sounds that sometimes sound like a spectral orchestra in complete overdrive. I especially love the first 5 minutes that sound like an orchestral drone pounding one spectacular note at a time. Truly impressive piece of work! http://www.cronicaelectronica.org/?p=066

ECCE HOMO - Portrait of Célestin Deliège, the Last Master of the Modernists

I just finished watching this DVD that I received a couple of days ago from the good people of Sub Rosa about the enigmatic Belgian music theoretician Célestin Deliège, the Antonin Artaud of Belgian musicology. In the beginning he declares quite frankly that 'democracy is bad for music' and that music is in 'decline since the end of the fifties'. But isn't all art? The film is a very moving portrait of Deliège being interviewed by several composers like Pascal Decroupet, Fred Lerdahl, Ictus Ensemble, and others... The part about 'Index of metals' by Fausto Romuletti is revealing to say the least. Although very sick and already at the end of his life during the interviews he retained a keen memory and a fighting spirit. The interviews range from rightly polemic to didactic and truly amiable. Overall, it is an homage to a man that i've really start to admire very much who is maybe not well known to the general public but who certainly deserves a little bit more attention. http://subrosa.itcmedia.net/en/catalogue/dvd/ecce-homo.html;jsessionid=408F71012E8D266FE79B8E63FE8DBB9C

Cioran by Swoon

Linkeroor #3 - 'Monument voor Fukushima'

New column on www.goddeau.com with reviews of release on obs* label from Rostov on Don in Russia: Chris Whitehead, Richard Garet, Denis Shapovalov/Five Elements Music, Takanobu Hoshino and Takanobu Hoshino/Roel Meelkop. http://www.goddeau.com/content/view/10349

Calliope Tsoupaki - 'Medea'

I've been listening to this one for a week now continuously and I still discover things that I didn't hear before. 'MEDEA' is an excellent composition by Dutch-Greek composer Calliope Tsoupaki and very beautiful in an unusual way. I am one of these people who is convinced that 'classical' radio should be much more audacious and daring. Slip some new music ensembles between the usual Currans, Luciers and Scelsis. Nobody will notice. Or, maybe yes, they will surely notice... Take Dutch ensemble MAE Ensemble who boldly dare to go where no musician has gone before. The stark intensity and dramatic musical evolution of 'MEDEA' threads a fine line again between tradition and experiment. The first ten minutes are very alluring: it's all about prepared piano, violons gliding off tonescales and bell-like sounds. The 8 instruments of the ensemble are very surprisingly a combination of violin, recorder, e.guitar, piano, percussion, clarinet, trombone and contrabass. The cd is lavishly designed with images by Isabelle Vigier. Very nice album! http://www.unsounds.com/28u.html

'Putain' op Moving Poems

http://movingpoems.com/2012/04/putain-by-peter-wullen/

Swoon about 'Cioran'

Voor ik aan deze kon beginnen, kwam er een uitdaging mijn kant uitgewaaid: "Hei Marc, durf je het aan om één van mijn meest beeldende gedichten in beelden te vatten? Ik daag je uit." Getekend Peter Wullen. Een handschoen die ik met plezier wilde opnemen. Hij stuurde me enkele gedichten en liet Bart Stouten (Klara) ze inlezen, ik koos voor Cioran. http://networkedblogs.com/wtgPn

Bérangère Maximin - 'No one is an island'

Interesting new name on Sub Rosa: Bérangère Maximin. On her brand new album Maximin worked together with luminaries like Fennesz, Rhys Chatham, Richard Pinhas Richard and Frederic D. Oberland. I've really come to appreciate this one. Even if I don't particularly like her singing though on 'Knitting in the air' - it sounds a little bit too artificial - this is largely compensated by two outstanding tracks: 'Bicéphale Ballade' with its suppressed singing sighing sounds exactly like a Christian Fennesz track and it probably is too. And I could swear that Ekkehard Ehlers played on 'Where the skin meets the bone', which sounds like a deranged Jon Hassell track. Very nice one, this!

http://subrosa.itcmedia.net/en/catalogue/new-series-framework/new-series-framework-11--berangere-maximin.html

Linkeroor #2 - 'Synesthesie & muziek'

New column on www.goddeau.com with reviews of From The Mouth of the Sun, Franck Vigroux, Andrea Belfi, Sven Kacirek and Marcus Fischer.

http://www.goddeau.com/content/view/10282

Keiji Haino/Oren Ambarchi/Jim O'Rourke - 'Imikuzushi'

Listening to the 24-minute long track "invited in practically drawn in by something facing the exit of this hiding place who is it? that went in…" on 'Imikuzushi', the new Keiji Haino/Oren Ambarchi/Jim O'Rourke album on Black Truffle Records. I wondered what 'imikuzushi' meant in Japanese. I thought it meant something like 'erase all colours till there's nothing left'. That would fit the gray, colourless sleeve of this album exactly. I checked with my Japanese FB friend Yukihiro Takahashi.It actually means 'meaning' (imi) 'destroyed' (kuzushi). What an apt title. The album sounds exactly like the title suggests. Like nothing else. Like poetry. Wonderfully addictive! Get it before you die! Then die!

www.blacktrufflerecords.com