Manafonistas

The Conviviality of Solitary Games

When it comes to autumn, and winter still months, or a cover, away, journalists and music lovers take a deep breath looking at the records (so far) that do not only turn to be part of the annual magic list, but have the potential of becoming life‘s company. In regards to song albums, I have the luck to now have heard my stunning „quartet of song albums“ in its entirety, everyone of them being a challenge and a reward.

September songs, October songs, autumnal they all are in certain ways. And lifers, for sure. IMO. And though I am obliged to keep my reviews unwritten and unpublished till the week before the albums‘ release, it is easy to name them, realizing some quite great songworks didn‘t make it to my dozen albums of 2022. But here, the soulfood collection, a labour of love each of them. 

One thought beforehand: don‘t believe anyone telling you these albums are too far out and not easy to approach. The only requirement: open ears, time, time, time. And quietness. And not thinking of the good old 70‘s! No jukeboxes around anyway! Bill Callahan‘s work may be his quietest of all, but a whole lot is going on between acoustic strumming, words delivered with measurance, and delicate arrangements – all flirting with the elemental, and reaching out for the deep.

Lambchop‘s album (the double vinyl comes along orange-marbled) may even appear stranger than the enigmatic brilliance of   „Showtunes“, but it is an equally shining star. More cinemascope, but the same degree of little gestures, discreet offerings, slow motion observations. Profound music of highest order, and food for thought.

As is Brian Eno‘s trip to the stars, not forgetting all things lost in the fire of our lives (as far as we can remember). Sometimes, from a distance, everything (losses first, and hands still to hold) falls into place.  An hour of true vibrations! No catchy songs, no singalongs, no fairytale searches of parallel worlds, no hooks, no future evergreens, oh, hold on, in their own peculiar way these songs which could be coined as modern day lamentations, a collection of future „everblues“ at least, striking quite a special, different note, corner in Brian Eno‘s song life. The album is haunting, uncanny, ethereal, anti-nostalgic, lost in space, and, simply said, beautiful in a dark way.

And, the only work available today and for some time now, waiting for you at your local record store, is the „retro existential wonderland“ of Father John Misty‘s double album „Chloé and The Next 20th Century“. Four impressive song albums in a row, and a great companion to it, another autumnal album without songs sung or spoken, Dutch pianist Wolfert Brederode‘s awesome „Ruins and Remnants“, coming later this year, a lifer, too, with piano, percussion, a string quartet. And Manfred Eicher.

… an Alle, aber besonders für den fernen Hamburger …

Studio-as-instrument science from the labs of Kingston’s pioneering Studio One, where the team of engineers, DJs, and artist assembled by Clement “Coxsone” Dodd changed the shape of music as it was known. 

My good aquaintances at Boomkat allow me to share their „expertise“, from time to time, on this blog. In this case, my all analogue listening to the bravura  of „Studio One Lab“ confirms every line they’ve written. This record shows en detail, for example, why I prefer old reggae to John „Seppel“ Bach. That old music from Jamaica contains in my ears more life, death, vulnerability, heat, passion, twilight, sex, wilderness, imperfection, obliqueness,  sense of wonder than the „holy canon“ of that Mr. Slave-To-The-Rules. No doubt, Jonathan was fucking genius, but I am so happy I don’t have to bow my head when boredom is a price too high to pay. (m.e.)

Soul Jazz HQ put their inestimable compiling skills to work reaping the intense experiments in sound projection and groove of some 17 artists, many sharing common ingredients, put tweaked out in myriad manners of style and pattern built for the dance, radio and back yards. They’ve dug especially deep for this one, plucking ever-salient pieces of reggae spanning roots to funky and dub, vocals and instrumentals, that highlight the way Jamaica punched well above its weight, considering the size of the island and its population, in contrast to almost anywhere else.

There are fittingly lucubrate liner notes from „On The Wire“ legend Steve Barker to bury your nose in, and we’ll highlight but a few of these nuggets to get you in the mood. From the earliest ska days Cedric Im Brooks’ horn and organ-led skanker ‘Glory To Sound’ is a joy, and there’s a nice & easy, modal beauty by Jackie Mittoo on signature keys in ‘Lazy Bones’, contrasting with his slant on US funk chops in the up-and-bustling ’Sunshine of Your Love’, or the soul jazz lilt of Roy Richards’ spin on the standard ’Summertime’.

For the dub nuts, Dub Specialist’s ‘Message From Dub’ also riffs on classic US vibes with unmistakeable JA accent, and takes it groggy as on ‘Chainey Roots’, with Sound Dimension trading in overproof bass and psychedelic mixing on ‘Face Man Version’ and heaviest roots trod located in ‘Dread Head’ by Pablov Black, and if you aren’t bobbing and reeling to ‘Surfing’ (Part 2)’ by Ernest and The Sound Dimension, we can’t help ya.

lyric video

“My voice has changed: it’s lowered, it’s become a different personality I can sing from. I don’t want to sing like a teenager; it can be melancholic, a bit regretful. As for writing songs again? It’s more landscapes, but this time with humans in them. I like creating worlds – that’s what I do as an artist – creating sonic worlds. Now after quite a long absence of humans in those worlds, I have tried putting one in and seeing how they feel in the world I’ve made.”

„In der kurzen Zeitspanne einer Pandemie scheint Brian den eskapistischen Tendenzen von Mixing Colours abgeschworen zu haben, seine Agenda ist jetzt nicht nur dringlicher, sondern auch realitätsbezogener. Das ist nicht ohne Präzedenzfall: Das 2005er Album Another Day On Earth befasste sich mit dem Terrorismus und das 2016er Album The Ship mit dem Krieg, und mit ihrer Betonung des Gesangs sind diese Alben wohl auch die offensichtlichsten musikalischen Vorläufer dieses neuen Werks. Aber der Mann, der manchmal als Brain One bekannt ist, hat nun, wenn auch vielleicht widerwillig, akzeptiert, dass ein mitfühlender, intimer, weniger zerebraler Ansatz vielleicht effektiver ist, um die düsteren Verzweigungen der Klimakatastrophe zu vermitteln, die viele von uns, einige absichtlich, zu vergessen scheinen.“ 

Wyndham Wallace, Uncut November 2022, album of the month review (FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE erscheint am 14. Oktober)  

Kurze Anmerkung zu dem Zitat der Besprechung: Eskapismus hat meist einen negativen Beigeschmack, ist aber hier anders gemeint: Mixing Colours wirkte wie ein beseelter Tranquilizer in der ersten Horrorzeit der Pandemie. Und, es lohnt sich auf jeden Fall, im Vorfeld der Veröffentlichung zu den beiden Alben „The Ship“ und „Another Day On Earth“ zurückzukehren. Man könnte „Foreverandevernomore“ beinahe für den dritten Teil einer Trilogie halten. (me)

Die beiden Schriftsteller Paal-Helge Haugen und Nils Chr. Moe-Repstad verfassten eine Reihe von Texten, in denen es um abwesende Götter ging, und ihren Blues. Im ersten Set der Klanginstallation mischte sich die warme dunkle Stimme von Haugen mit Klanggespinsten von Arve Henriksen, Evan Parker, und ausgewählten Passagen einer Komposition von David Sylvian. Es war angenehm, der Märchenerzählerstimme des Norwegers zu folgen, ihr Klang transportierte mich an den Rand des Schlafes. Später dann, im zweiten Teil, strömten einige Stories über die unglücklichen Götter aus den Lautsprechern, mit dem dunklen Samt von Sylvians Sprechstimme. Sidsel Endresen trat ans Mikrofon, John Tilbury saß am Klavier. Das Album „Uncommon Deities“ ist wunderbar.

THE GOD OF CROSSROADS

In the one spot where all roads meet he is bound. He sees that there are more points to the compass than the heavens can hold. Curved behind His back, the universe encloses him. All roads dissolve into the dusk. He has deep Mongolian eyes that stay open as long as sight remains. He sees the light broken into Small fragments bevor his very eyes, shattered into a thousand colours that can never reassemble. All our desires converge in him, our longing to find the way, the one way. He can hear our questions, but He cannot answer. He stammers and falls silent. Under a coffee-brown sky He has lost his sense of time and direction, in the dwindling windless light. Above him there is a clashing of clouds, the rain soaks him, and his feet are cold. He paces, without direction, wanting to be replaced. He is dreaming of a long holiday, a heavenly break, He would prefer to leave all responsability to a senior official in a grey suit. He dreams of cycling off on an upright placid bicycle of unknown make, cycling into green roadless woods and disappearing.

The poems by two Norwegian lyricists are sensual explorations and mythical fantasies about the lifes of absent gods. A journey that might even please hard core atheists. A shangrila for agnostics, open ears, lyric lovers and other strangers. Sidsel Endresen is the singer here, not the the speaker. She nearly never sings conventional language. But The listener can detect more torch and passion in her performance than in any well-mannered, recycled love song. The landscape created by the musicians adds to the lyrics another layer, inspires an intimate approach to the verses. The voice of Sylvian in the center, calm, focussed, within these stories about twilight worlds, power, well, the loss of power, and alienation. And it is a voice that knows when to leave the stage for the spirits around him. The album was released in 2012. on the early September days 2011 all came into being, on stage. Great Punkt memory. 

Wilco: Cruel Country (out)
The Smile:  A Light for Attracting Attention (out)
Neil Young w/ Crazy Horse: Toast (out)
Daniel Lanois: Piano (23. September)        
Lambchop: The Bible (30. September)    
Keith Jarrett:  Bordeaux (30. September)    
Brian Eno: Foreverandevernomore (14. Oktober)
Bill Callahan: YTI⅃AƎЯ (14. Oktober)

„Sometimes you forget the most basic things. The biggest things! And it just takes a little nudge to get your head back on track. I wanted sounds and words that made you feel and that lifted you up. But first there was a need to bond, to clear the air. Or to just acknowledge the air. So there is some of that on the record. I went for horns because horns are heralds, triumphs, second line funerals and just breath forced through a metal maze or amusement park slide. And I wanted voices, I wanted multiple voices, not just mine. There is too much of just mine right now. So there are 6 or 7 people singing on this record.

Listening to this record takes one hour. Ah hour sounds like a year to me these days. Taking an hour of someone’s life. I fault the internet. I fault ourselves for falling for the internet. An hour is actually lovely, nothing, a lifetime. You have to live that lifetime though in order to appreciate the hour. I’m not suggesting people must listen to this record all the way through in one sitting. It IS sequenced for that particular purpose, though, in case anyone wants to.“

 

– Bill Callahan 

Michael: Who wouldn‘t want to know how that has sounded, a performance with Sidsel Endresen and Jan Bang, painted probably „in real time“ by Henning, years and years back. To see the „Punkt family“ at work since 2006, is, honestly, one of the few family gatherings where you are not looking for the escape signs after quite a short while. They have kept their adventurous spirits high.

And what I do remember apart from all the musics of these searchers of the horizon, were the talks, small ones, extended ones, informed with love for music of now and music long gone. Jon Hassell  David Sylvian, Joni Mitchell in the 1970’s (my „pub talk“ with Sidsel about Joni’s three, four best albums), Brian Eno’s On Land (for Erik and Jan a irresistible masterpiece), the key experiences, the desert island discs … 

Now, my question for you, Henning: you will remember this special gig that made you go for such soft colouring. Just tell about your memories, and how it happened, opening up this slightly seducive „landscape“. That seems to be quite different to other „live music drawings“.

Henning: Diese Zeichnung ist entstanden bei einem Duo-Konzert Sidsel+Jan am 20.August 2017 beim Oslo Jazz Festival in Sentralen. Der Saal ist eine spezielle dunkle Höhle. Zeichnen ist da nicht ganz einfach. Dies ist eine  reine Buntstiftzeichnung, die strikt in Real Time* zum Konzert entstand. Es gibt noch drei andere Zeichnungen  zu selbigem Konzert. Es gibt auch ein Youtube-Fragment von diesem Konzert.

Music aims at ears. The ears are the basecamp for all things music can set in motion. Thoughts, sensations, emotions, dances, words, whatever. Henning Bolte‘s way is peculiar. Often when listening to a concert, with a collection of coloured penicils in place, and blank paper at hand, he starts with the first sounds – drawing lines, energetic repsonses, mood reflections, instant composing (visually). No post-production, except the artists‘s autographs.

So, after the duo Sidsel Endresen – David Toop had delivered their show (see Sidseliana (1)) – the live-remix team took center stage, and worked with snippets of sound, short motives, loops, of voice and sounds from duo before, extending its suggestions, making diversions, deepening the space, drifting, going somewhere else entirely, who knows? Henning listened, painted – it is a simple modus operandi, and often, in the end, so rewarding. I chose one with a calmer mood, there are lots of others, with deep colour fulfillments, elements of „action painting“, breathing spaces. Always good to stay at one drawing a bit longer.

It might not be so easy, to reflect on how the live remix of Bang, Honoré, Eilertsen, (who was the fourth one?), might have sounded like, but, looking at the picture, there are certain indications: a deep amount of quietness seems to be involved, an exploring of tiny things, a melodic touch to recurring textures. And Sidsel’s voice looming from hidden places!

– Michael Engelbrecht

26. Januar 2017. When I found the two first Kraftwerk albums in a vinyl record store in Berlin two days ago, I immediately bought them carefully watching both sides of the street when leaving the shop. Now, fact is, I wanted to get hold of these highly acclaimed works for a very long time, ready to wait for the real thing, not updating my memory with youtube. Fact is I only heard them two or three times in my teenager days, and missed the copies when a very limited, officially blessed, number of vinyl reissues had been published in the 90’s. Fact is, too, I only have a pale memory, and the guys from Kraftwerk didn’t care for these objects of desire very much. It will be a delight to hear if they stand the test of my ears (or time). Will the experience be overpowered by nostalgia, is it just a thrilling insight into the band’s first line-up and their first steps to stardom and class?“

(I came to fall in love with these early works again. Wonderful stuff. And one of them was a first pressing)

13. August 2022. Bei den „first pressings“ gab es damals eine zeitweilige, seltsame Allianz der Fernseh- und Radiozeitschrift „Hörzu“  und der Horizonte öffnenden Popkultur: ob bei Kraftwerks „Radio-Aktivität“, oder bei „Sgt. Pepper“. Dass diese beide  Welten sozusagen auf Vinyl zusammentrafen, fand ich schon als 11-Jähriger erstaunlich. Martina zieht mich gelegentlich – halb bewundernd vielleicht? – damit auf, was für ein frühreifer Musiklover ich gewesen sein muss. Naja. Das war leicht damals. Und weit verbreitet. Ich ärgere mich noch heute, dass ich, ungefähr 15-jährig, Kraftwerk im Westfalenpark verpasste. Dann hätte ich sie wenigstens einmal live gesehen, Jan. Die waren in der BRD lange Zeit kein Act, der Stadien füllte, sie waren Underground. Wie ich, Martina – ich war auch Underground!!!😅

Und was immer ich in den Siebzigern von ihnen hörte, mochte ich sehr. Aber erst das Album, in dem das „Model“ zu hören ist, schrieb den Soundtrack meines Lebens mit. Die ganze Platte war ein Trip. Beim Duschen, auf dem Balkon, nachts im Bett. Wir wohnten in Gerbrunn in einem Hochhaus, in einer Wohnung, die Uschi kennenlernte, als C., „my greatest love of the 70‘s“ ausgezogen war. Und das angesprochene Album sollte immer meine No. 1 von Kraftwerk bleiben, weil die elektronischen Lieder auf dieser LP so einen seltsam tiefen „human touch“ hatten. Wie ging das? Die berüchtigte Sache mit der „soul in the machine“. Michael Ludwigs hat eine andere No. 1 – und stellt sie HIER vor. Aber das Schöne, Uschi, wenn ich heute die remasterten Werke der Band höre, auf Vinyl oder Cd, dann kann ich mich in der Musik genauso verlieren wie damals. Life‘s company. Bei den hundert Platten meines Lebens wäre „Die Mensch-Maschine“ dabei. Irgendwo zwischen „Another Green World“ und „Solstice“. Manche lernten durch Kraftwerk die Liebe ihres Lebens kennen, anderen leistete die Musik, ihrer Künstlichkeit, ihren robotorischen Elementen zum Trotz, beste Gesellschaft, Trost, Seelennahrung, elementare Freude, schöne Unheimlichkeiten – und Flowfaktor 10!

Sie grummelt, stöhnt, gibt Laut. Richtige Wörter und Sätze mit Sinn und Syntax nutzt die norwegische Ausnahmesängerin Sidsel Endresen kaum noch. Das hat sie lange genug getan, auf Soloalben, die etwa So I Write heißen, oder wenn sie an der Seite von Bugge Wesseltoft einem Oldie wie Paul Simons 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover das Sentimentale austrieb. Seit Jahren hat sich Sidsel Endresen von der Last des Sinnstiftens, von gepflegtem storytelling gelöst. Ihre Sprachschöpfungen knüpfen an eine Urwelt der Laute an, an wenig erforschte Gesetze von Einkehr und Ekstase. Und so wirken Endresens Eruptionen und Soundforschungen merkwürdig archaisch. Wer weiß, inwieweit sie unbewusst Gesangstechniken übernimmt, die bei fernen Ethnien zu den Ritualen zwischen Leben und Tod zählen!

Jazztugenden from a whisper to a cry realisiert sie allemal mit uralter nordischer Intensität. Die beiden Musiker an ihrer Seite sind das ideale Pendant. Als Humcrush haben der Trommler Thomas Strønen und der Keyboarder Ståle Storløkken schon mehrfach Unverbrauchtes aus der Fusion-Ära (einen Hauch von Joe Zawinul) mit seltsamen Sinnlichkeiten der E-Musik (einer Prise Arne Nordheim) sowie kaum definierbaren Quellen kombiniert, rhythmisch trickreich und sphärisch entrückt. Der elektroakustische Jazz der CD Ha! wirkt wie ein Destillat detailverliebter Studioarbeit, entstand aber, in einer einzigen Stunde wahrer Empfindungen, live in Willisau.

Aus alten Jazzträumen, die sich selbstverliebt im Kreis drehen, wird bei Humcrush w/Sidsel Endresen ungebremster Vorwärtsdrang. Das Unerhörte spielt eine Hauptrolle, und die Sicherheiten des guten Geschmacks helfen nicht weiter. Diese furiosen Unberechenbarkeiten werden zwar niemanden aus dem Diana-Krall-Fanclub überzeugen. Wer aber der Meinung ist, dass es im Jazz beim Singen vielleicht noch um andere Dinge gehen könnte als um gekonntes Wiederkäuen von Nostalgieveranstaltungen in memoriam Ella Fitzgerald im Hochglanzkostüm, wird diese Musik unter der Haut spüren, und sie wird kein Ruhekissen sein. Man kann eben auch mit Lauten jenseits der Sprache richtig spannende Geschichten erzählen.

– Michael Engelbrecht