ALVARS ORKESTER: INTERFERENCE CD  EUR 13
The Wire (UK): Swedish noise combo Alvars Orkester were active in the 80s Industrial cassette underground. Interference marks the return of core members Jan Svensson and Joachim Nordwall after a long layoff. Inspired by faintly ghoulish interest in extreme mental states (both psychic and chemically induced), the duo present four highly involving pieces, some of which feature source material dating back to the group's beginnings. Their approach switches between slowly evolving electronic dreamscapes ("Field Grey") and noise constructions ("Cobra Mist"); "Reality Distortion Field", the album's highlight, pits feedback whine against processed and cut-up voices, occupying a space somewhere between the two poles. There's a sense of careful retsraint about Interference, evincing a reluctance on the part of the duo to be drawn into making noise for noise's sake. [Keith Moliné]

LEIF ELGREN, PER JONSSON, KENT TANKRED: UGN MAT CD  EUR 13

The Wire [Edwin Pouncey]: "Released to celebrate Swedish artist/composer Leif Elggren's 50th year and accompanying exhibition, this double dose of performance art soundtrack stuff continues the Ash International (RIP) tradition of recording strange noises that strain the listener's imagination (and endurance) to the max. Here we are presumably supposed to be listening to vats of porridge spitting inside orange coloured ovens, sledgehammer symphonies and the crash of porcelain, as Leif and chums let rip in the Eraserhead soundscape they have immersed themselves in onstage. Atmospheric, brooding and, at times, quite brilliant, but what the hell is really going down here only Elggren and Ash International (RIP) can know.

HAZARD: WOOD C/W BRIDGE/FIELD CD + LP  EUR 26
Paul Lloyd, Grooves (USA): Ash International have come up with an interesting packaging concept for this release, Hazard's second for the label. It consists of an album and CD, both with their individual sleeves and artwork, that together form a single piece of work. A great idea, but only available as a joint package with the first 1000 copies. The artwork itself shows images of trees and woodland scenery, photographed and designed by Jon Wozencroft. The music takes this theme a stage further, being recorded in the forest of Kungs Norrby in Borensburg, Sweden. Influenced heavily by the international industrial scene, Benny Jonas Nilsen (Hazard) creates emotive ambient soundscapes, reminiscent of Biosphere but with darker overtones. Manipulated sound samples from the surrounding forest are combined with low drones, building the intensity and atmosphere slowly but deliberately. Like Biosphere, Hazard's music takes the listener to another place, sending images cascading through the mind and captivating in an almost hypnotic way. Each track flows and relates to the next, making track names a formality, the package being an experience more than an album. The beauty of the imagery on the sleeve is in stark contrast to the music contained within, raising the question of whether this is an statement regarding the destruction of forests and woodland world-wide. Combining the initial beauty of these images with dark soundscapes, utilising samples of wood being sawn, chopped, falling and being burnt adds to this theory. Whether this is Hazard's intention is not clear, but it fits well with the mental images created when listening to this record and CD.  An excellent album, intense, darkly atmospheric, emotive and captivating. It certainly warrants looking out for more of Hazard's work in the future. One thing though, I would advise against taking it for bedtime listening if you plan on going camping overnight in a remote forest, especially if you've seen the "Blair Witch Project" movie.

OCSID: OPENING SWEEP CD  EUR 13 
Outburn (USA): "CM von Hausswolff (Phauss and king of Elgaland-Vargland), Edvard Graham Lewis (Wire, Dome, He Said), and Jean-Louis Huhta (The Lucky People Center) team up as Ocsid for a highly successful melding of styles covering laptopy academic music, cut-up collage, techno, and dark ambient. A synthetic drone pervades much of the album, but it is never soothing. Disconcerting sounds penetrate and attack the constantly evolving thread of synth while rhythms ranging from abstract noise collisions to subdued techno passages gradually make their presence felt. Mutilated vocal samples, shrill bits of resonant squeals, and glitchy clicks make for very edgy, disturbing electronics. Lighter, more conventional elements enter the mix at points, but their very presence somehow makes it more disturbing. Dense and dream-like, each new listen still finds me wondering what's around the next corner."

S.E.T.I.: POD CD  EUR 13
The Wire (UK): "Hermetic sound artist Andrew Lagowski (aka Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) uses surveillance devices and shortwave transmitters to sound the static codes of the night sky. Formerly of murky Throbbing Gristle fanboys Lustmord, Lagowski escaped from the 80s with an industrial strength dose of X-Files inspired geek paranoia, using SETI releases to further document his gradual uncovering of 'above top secret' government/alien backhanders. The third part of his alien trilogy, Pod sees him freeting over mankind's need to leave the planet and grow space brains. Sonically, it's not as beautifully disconcerting as Disinformation's wiretapping, but it's still fairly a absorbing listen, as distant electronics break up, voices crackle into dead hiss and the whole thing begins to pulse with a cold, silver radiance. But don't listen to it alone." [David Keenan]

VARIOUS ARTISTS VS. DISINFORMATION: AL-JABR CD  EUR 13
Interface (USA): "The artist known as Disinformation collects the popcorn bursts and shrill whistles of atmospheric disturbances and converts them into a lattice-work of noise. On Al-Jabr, MECHOS, TACTILE, JIM O'ROURKE and others manipulate and remix these crystalline objects, ferreting out new musical structures previously hidden in the swells. The most arresting track on the CD is EVAN PARKER's "London's Overthrow" - the wails and blurts of his saxophone become fused with the ceaseless, mesmerizing palpitations of London's electrical network, the National Grid. On this compilation, order comes streaming out of chaos - depending on how hard you concentrate." (Micjael Woodring)

VARIOUS: ANTITRADE CD  EUR 13
The Wire:"Isn't there a more imaginative way of packaging noise than yet another revisionist aesthetic sleeve? Ash International, for instance, go with a photo of a dreamer on Hampstead Heath, a bunch of minimal Jon Wozencroft typography, and a barely-there barcode strip to present the 20 audio science experiments on Antitrade (Ash International [R.I.P.] Ash 4.1). Disinformation's "9V DC Supply With Homemade Copper Solenoid" belies its techie title with lovely wisps and tatters of VLF static. AER, "an airline that doesn't own any aircraft", are location recorders without a clear object; while "A Happy Belgrade", another uncredited field tape of Guy Fawkes night, vividly imagines gunfire and explosions over London. Short static bursts from hhh; good abstract cuts from Hazard and Bruce Gilbert; less successful conceptual pieces from Leif Elggren and S.E.T.I.; surprise voices and silent tracks - they all add up to a decidedly mixed take-home bag from Ash's arty-party."

VARIOUS: CHIKY(U)U - THE JAPANESE COMPILATION CD  EUR 13
The Wire (UK): "Part one of a proposed series of three slickly presented CDs documenting the international 'Zen and the art of microtonal brick resonance' scene. Chiky(u)u presents the Japanese approach to recording naturally occurring sound. Ten new sound artists, including Akifumi Nakajima's Aube project and a whole host of previously unheard circuit burners, are set loose on a series of contorted field recordings 'gathered from the earth (stones, water, etc) or ctivity resulting from movement in the earth (earthquakes, etc)'. As far as CDs go its pretty 'interactive' with lots of secret tracks (97, to be precise!) and blank gaps. Rewinding from track one triggers 'Quake', a stereo shakedown high on the Richter scale, like a CD with teeth, gnawing away at your sense. Felow entrants in the howl stakes include Hatohan, whose 'Eldorado' is the sound of hurricane winds being sucked through tunnels, with phantom train carriages sparking on the rails dissolving into Buddhist bells and flowing water. Possibly the most unsettling of all is 'crackstratum' using only the 'the sound of the Ground Stones', holy stones that seem to speak (the 'everything is vibration' school of thought). The stones drone darkly, like drunken didgeridoos beneath a patiently dripping tap, until Nakajima starts skelping them with a large stick while his belly rumbles. They soon shut up. Another stand out (and every one's a boggler) is Tamaru's 'Water Margin', generated by 'attaching electrodes to the bank of the Arakawa River'. It's a hymnal of silent hum with occasional deep Morse Code blips bubbling to the surface while downstream a music box spins. "Listen, the snow is falling," Yoko Ono once sang. We should have done at the time, but collected here are many invigorating attempts to do just that. Listen, the planet is humming." (David Keenan)

VARIOUS: SCATTER-THE AMERICAN COMPILATION CD  EUR 13
The Sound Projector (UK): "Investigate this Trilogy or Triptych of compilations as soon as possible. A tripartite electronic and field recording international survey, mostly new artists from (respectively) Japan, America and Europe...all extremely strange and worrying sounds, and even if you like droning Ambient noise you may find some of it a bit too far-out for your tastes. As a listener, you've got to do some of the work yourself. Little of it is actually 'musical' at all, deriving from other sound sources. The project almost comes across like an antidote to music.
Scatter - the second in the trilogy showing our Mother Earth theme is taking off in a big way. Agriculture is one key; the first part offers the sound of the earth crying, in part two the farmer plants his crop, 'scatters' his seed. For further detail, perhaps the secret blueprint is another Touch-distro release Farmers Manual. Nature allusions are evident in the titles of the five tracks here, John Hudak's 'Sketch of a Field' and Daniel Menche's 'Unholy Cricket Fuck', and the third artiste is simly named Earth. 'Cricket Fuck' suggests a crop failure on a par with the disaster in Days of Heaven, as a swarm of locusts invade in a beautifully photographed vignette. Menche's visceral power is no less persuasive."

© Biophon Records 2003