Articles
2009 Artists' Picks
Lymbyc Systym

Albums
Cory Allen
aus
The Bird Ensemble
Canaille
Catlin & Machinefabriek
Greg Davis
Loren Dent
Dirac
Drafted By Minotaurs
Flica
Sarah Goldfarb & JHK
Gown
John Hollenbeck
Viviane Houle
I/DEX
Akira Kosemura
Andrew McKenna Lee
Le Lendemain
LRAD
Lymbyc Systym
Melorman
Muskox
The Mercury Program
Nikasaya
Northerner
nörz
Noveller / Aidan Baker
Redshape
Marina Rosenfeld
Stripmall Architecture
Sturqen
Wes Willenbring
The Tony Wilson Sextet
Julia Wolfe
Peter Wright
Zelienople

Compilations / Mixes
Blackoperator
Glimpse Four:Twenty 03
Kod.eX
Portland Stories

EPs
Molnbär Av John
Tommi Bass & B.B.S.C.
Julian Beau
Colours-Volume 5
Dalot
Echologist
Simon James French
Geiom & Shortstuff
General Elektriks
Geskia
Ernest Gonzales
Gradient
Jacksonville
Joker
Ann Laplantine
Loko
Machinefabriek
Stefano Pilia
Damian Valles

nörz: (Also Known As) Acker Velvet
Schraum

Par for the Schraum course, (Also Known As) Acker Velvet is another uncompromising exercise in explorative electro-acoustic music-making, in this case by nörz partners Andreas Trobollowitsch (tape, electric guitar, bass, melodica, radio, etc.) and Johannes Tröndle (cello, prepared cello, live electronics). The duo's debut album under the nörz name burrows deeply into thirty-two minutes of granular textures, fuzzy drones, and crystalline swirls. Though indexed on paper as eight separate tracks, the material unfolds as an uninterrupted flow of shape-shifting material. Because it's the most identifiable and natural sound present, the bow and pluck of the cello occupies a central though hardly a singularly dominant role.

That the two began their collaboration by producing experimental soundworks for radio stations is evident in the disc's material, not simply due to the presence of radio static and interference but because of the abrupt shifts from one flickering episode to another. Trobollowitsch and Tröndle initially spent a day in May 2009 laying down solo live improvisations at Amann Studios, which they subsequently developed into the album's pieces by editing, manipulating, and re-composing the original recordings. The result is material that doesn't alternate between acoustic and electronic sound worlds but instead melds them into one, such that the listener feels as if he/she is wandering through a forest of alien sounds. Bass tones and cello traces may be audible in “ka,” for example, but the piece more resembles six obsessive minutes of amplified micro-insectoid activity than anything resembling conventional musical form.

January 2010