Aufbruch . . . a Review

“Aufbruch” translates from German into “departure” or “emergence.”

In listening to the 9 tracks that make up this new release (July 16th on RareNoise Records) from J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter, what “emerges” is deconstruction; what emerges is fragmentation; and what emerges  are the disjointed pieces of a disunited culture, reassembled into artistically crafted slabs of slightly caustic, slightly melodic & sometimes jarring sound.  

The nine predominantly post-rock/experimental techno aural constructions are seamlessly blended; incorporating Reuter’s touch guitar (and its plethora of sounds, from electric/acoustic to atmospheric drone) & Schwalm’s multiple & leveraged electronic contributions. Some titles (Der Aufbruch, Von Anbeginn, Der lange Weg & Abbau) are painted with a darker perspective, others (Lebewohl & Abschied) are lighter while still others (Ruckzug, Losgelost & perhaps Ein Riss) occupy a “middle ground“ of timbre & tension.

As for my personal favorites . . . the reader/listener will have to wait until after the album’s release, as we’re crafting a mix/podcast to encapsulate our audiological thoughts on this masterwork.

ALL of the futuristic pieces are enjoyable for the experimental/soft-techno & slightly caustic sound-loving sonic aficionado: dark swashes of chaos, subtle bass-like groanings, explosions of gritty sonance, electro-acoustic strumming, fragmented beats and dulled thuds & thumps (along with several instances of angelic vocals) create a realistic look at the present environment while casting a vision & pointing us toward a better, more united & sustainable tomorrow.

The listener will be the final arbiter of what emerges for them – but for this listener a real sense of departure from industrialization to a not totally clear, slightly dystopian future emerges; yet with a glimmer of hope for humankind.

. . . and all that in under fifty minutes!              

~Ambient Landscape, June 30^th, 2021

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File under #MinimalTechno / #DarkAmbient / #PostRock / #TechNoise / #Glitch

Review Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

J. Peter Schwalm: Synths, Pianos, live treatments, electronic percussion and programming
Markus Reuter: Touch Guitars® AU8 and U8 Deluxe, Soundscapes, Electronics
Sophie Tassignon: Vocals on „Lebewohl“ and „Losgelöst“

Aufbruch (samples), by J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter
Bandcamp (pre-order)
Soundcloud

The Rain Dogs, After Rothco

Nice guitar & synth work here! A mesmerizing collection of crafted compositions; one of which will surface on an upcoming Summer mix project (but we’re not telling which one just yet ;- ] )

Released June 23, 2021
Composed, performed, and produced by Gareth Bouch

elements_painted

elements_painted | Jazz/Ether-Jazz/Experimental Ambient/Noise | 83:02

A subtle ether-jazz tapestry for your Sunday morning meanderings: watercolor swashes, Jazz-textures & full colour ether-jazz bleeds, painted across an audiological canvas.

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01 Andrew Cyrille, Ben Monder, Paul Motian & Pete Rende –
……Tumid Cenobite
02 Jan Garbarek – Still
03 Harry Traksmann, Leho Karin, Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann, Florian Donderer, Tanja Tetzlaff & Signum Quartett – Synergie
04 Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen & Jorge Rossy – Reconstructing A Dream
05 Tomasz Stanko, Bobo Stenson, Anders Jormin & Tony Oxley –
……No Bass Trio
06 J.Peter Schwalm & Arve Henriksen – Unzeit
07 Andy Summers – Lonely Woman
08 Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny – The Moon Song
09 Wolfert Brederode Trio – Rewind
10 Tomasz Stanko New York Quartet – Sound Space
11 Jakob Bro, Arve Henriksen & Jorge Rossy – Housework
12 Rubicon Quartet – Rubicon
13 Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile – Modul 18

Listen via Mixcloud

Vintage Vinyl, the premier NJ record store, closing after 42 years

I’ve been here more than several times over the years – bought a lot of rare Bowie, Monolake aluminum tins & King Crimson side projects — lots of fun, rummaging around.

Jun 21, 2021 | Re-posted from NJ . com

The legendary Vintage Vinyl record shop in Fords is closing July 31.

Vintage Vinyl, the longstanding Central Jersey record store revered for its vast selection and in-store performances, will close for good July 31.

“It’s time to retire,” founder and owner Rob Roth told NJ Advance Media Monday. “I lived the dream. It’s more than I could’ve dreamed. This will be my legacy.”

Roth, 65, announced the closing Monday in a mailing list email sent to customers, writing: “Thanks for 42 wonderful years, it’s been a great ride.”

Roth said the pandemic helped put “life into perspective,” but was not a deciding factor in closing the iconic shop.

“I have children and grandchildren I want to see,” Roth said, also noting his lease is up this year. The store has been a staple of the Fords section of Woodbridge, just off Route 1, since 1984.

Vintage Vinyl is known among New Jersey music lovers as a mecca of rock, punk and metal, as well as a destination for Record Store Day exclusives and high-profile performances on the store’s tiny back stage. The list of artists who have come through the store is immense, but some highlights include emo superstars My Chemical Romance’s first-ever “The Black Parade” album performance — in the store’s parking lot in 2006 — plus performances from New York Dolls, The Gaslight Anthem, Jimmy Eat World, Julien Baker and many more. A final in-store performance may be booked in the coming weeks, Roth said.

At 23 years old, Roth opened Vintage Vinyl in 1979 as 200 square-foot shop in Irvington, to serve his desire for rare albums.

“I couldn’t get the music I wanted in the chain stores,” he said. “It was the era of punk and you couldn’t get those records anywhere. I wanted to fill that void and bring the obscure, selling the punk and British records, and the stuff that was being ignored.”

Later, the store’s slogan, “from the obvious to obscure,” was born as it expanded in its Fords location four times.

The store’s closing is a seismic loss for the local and independent music communities as stores across the state and U.S. continue to shutter, even before the pandemic. Asbury Park’s popular Holdfast Records closed last summer. Longstanding Iris Records in Jersey City shut its doors in 2019 and reopened in a smaller space last year.

Roth knows the closure will be a hard pill to swallow for customers, but is at peace with his decision.

“Everything comes to end,” he said.

Aufbruch

This sounds amazing . . . releases July 16th, 2021 . . .

Listening to this now, courtesy of RareNoise Records; we’ll have more, by way of review, later — but it envokes an exquisite post-rock, glitch laden aural tapestry that more than satisfies the off-the-beaten-trail listening ear . . .

Aufbruch (samples), by J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter
Bandcamp (pre-order)
Review (All About Jazz)

Aufbruch, the title of the debut collaboration between electro-acoustic composer J. Peter Schwalm and guitarist Markus Reuter, translates as “departure” or “emergence.” Either definition offers an evocative interpretation of the powerfully immersive soundworld they’ve conjured together, but even more suggestive is the ambiguity between the two meanings. For the music of Aufbruch feels like both an awe-inspiring journey of discovery and a welling up from the murkiest depths of the subconscious.

Begun as a correspondence and fully realized as an in-person collaboration, Aufbruch captures and sustains an imposing air of alluring menace, an atmosphere that feels somber and distressed yet powerfully optimistic. “It seemed like we had the same sort of image in our minds,” Reuter says. “It feels like a dystopian future where the industrialized cityscape of the past has begun growing over with green – moss and trees and leaves. Which doesn’t really surprise me.”

It’s true that the global conditions in which the album was produced might lend themselves to thoughts of rebuilding after an apocalyptic disaster rather then the somewhat more hopeful idea of preventing such disasters outright. But the aufbruch, the “emergence” at which the title hints suggests that some remnant of humanity might be able to pull itself free from the wreckage and rebuild, about as cheery a thought as one could discern in these mesmerizingly bleak yet captivatingly rich aural landscapes.

Credits

Releases July 16, 2021
J. Peter Schwalm: Synths, Pianos, live treatments, electronic percussion and programming
Markus Reuter: Touch Guitars® AU8 and U8 Deluxe, Soundscapes, Electronics
Sophie Tassignon: Vocals on „Lebewohl“ and „Losgelöst“

Gyral, by Scorn

An old favorite . . .. right proper minimal techno & experimental ambient; released October 31, 1995

Sleep Cycle I, by Valley View Records

Volume one of Valley View Record’s Sleep Cycle series. Featuring 18 stunning tracks from some of the most talented ambient producers in the industry. The album is focused on sleep, relaxation and meditation.

Released February 19, 2021

Solo Acoustic Guitar Improvisations I, by Dirk Serries

Released January 15, 2021 | Dirk Serries played a 1957 Höfner archtop guitar.

Performed, recorded, mixed and mastered at the Sunny Side Inc. Studio, Anderlecht (Belgium) on July 31st 2020.

This is a mono recording, using the AEA R44 Anniversary Edition ribbon microphone placed 50cm away from the body of the guitar. One band eq and variable-mu compression was subtly applied across the spectrum to smooth out dynamics. No other audio processing was used.

Sleeve notes : Guy Peters.
Layout : Rutger Zuydervelt

Osafune, by Betts(JP)

The field recording was done in a town called Osafune, at the foot of a bridge girder where the Shinkansen runs through.

This is a rural town where Japanese swords have been a traditional craft since ancient times. The town is blessed with rich nature and kind people. Not only in the crafts, but also in agriculture and food industry, tradition is always preserved with sincerity.

By the way, there is a place in this city where modern high-speed trains roar past like they are cutting through a river. This is where I feel a strange feeling that I can’t put into words, neither negative nor positive. This is the most important inspiration for this work.

Recorded ambient sound :
Osafune-town, Okayama, Japan
長船町, 岡山県, 日本

Released August 4, 2020

All tracks recorded, mixed, mastered by Betts(JP).
Recorded 2020 at Home Studio, in Japan
Photography, Cover designed by Betts (JP)

D E 5 I G N 3

D E ₅ I G N 3 | experimental ambient tapestry & noise | 77:08

Part 3 of 3.
Miniature shards of obfuscating sound . . . purposefully shredded & rearranged.

Created very stream-of-consciousness/in-the-moment style from a VAST collection of downloads & zipped folders agglomerated over the past several months.

Listen via Mixcloud

01 Ayers, Everall & Harris – Mesmeric Enabling Device
(excerpt, interpolating Perletta & Turra, edit ‘c’)
02 Monolake – Credit (excerpt)
03 Fabio Perletta + Luigi Turra – Ma (scrambled span; edit #1)
04 Coagulent – I Did Not See My Ceiling it Was Gone!
05 Riverrun – North of Longstone
06 Jared Sagar – Bool
07 Neuro…No Neuro – Do You Feel the Effects of Sugar
08 Minamo – Appear
09 Fabio Perletta + Luigi Turra – Ma (redundancy; edit #2)
10 Arbee – Marre
11 Mark Schlipper – The Zero Universe (excerpt)
12 Poppy Nogood – The Light Hits Your Eyes, I Blink
13 Brian Eno & Jah Wobble – Where We Lived
14 Nest – Amroth
15 Morimoto Naoki – Nod
16 Fourcolor – The Pool
17 David Torn – Someday Find a Waltz