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for those who enjoy PimmoN_______philippe Ampersand Etcetera - 2001_07 ambient & microwave & electronica & experimental & lowercase & postclassical & minimal & techno & etcetera I first got the idea for this when I saw that Pimmon had a disk in the lovely Material series from Staalplaat, and confirmed I would be getting one. So I started listening to my downloads, getting some other stuff, emailed Paul, drafted and waited. And waited. And still nothing from Staalplaat: in the interim I had also had my brief flirtation with shutting down, so maybe they didn1t send it or maybe it got lost in the mail (which is why its a good idea to let me know if something is on its way). Anyway, with issues 08 and 09 already sent, and 10 and 11 in drafting, I thought I would get this off. I have a copy of the new one on order at Dorobo, so perhaps there will be something in a later issue. And as a teaser, 10&11 will cover document03, tennis, andrew garton, aranos et al, trummerflora, when, bone, martindx, bergman, disasterarea vinyl and maybe more. jeremy@pretentious.net & http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html &&&&&&&&&&&&&& Pimmon MP3 Top Forty Fodder falsch (http://fals.ch) For .tiln .tiln (http://www.tiln.net) InvalidObjects: While Fallt (http://www.fallt.com) Assembler MP3 Fallt F.0012.0002 (http://www.fallt.com) Vinyl James Plotkin v Pimmon FatCat VPE ERS 12/01 ?? Plate Lunch CD Copper Hats freedomfrom CDr Waves and Particles Meme meme015cd Assembler Fallt F.0012.0001 (http://www.fallt.com) (!!!!Orquestra del Arrurruz Staalplaat nonumber) Kinetica (K-raa-k) k021 (http://www.kraak.net) My focus has finally settled onto Pimmon - Australian Paul Gough - who has been bobbing up and making a name for himself over the last couple of years. My first contact was during and through my net music gathering: there are some minialbums at a number of my favourite sites; but the sight of a Staalplaat Material disk made me get out and look more broadly at his material. This will be a somewhat superficial overview and I1ll start with the Œnet stuff, briefly (as you should already have them on my earlier advice!) Thanks to Pimmon/Paul Gough for his assistance in clarifying some points in the review (though he in no way affected my response), answering some questions and giving me access to the vinyl material on cd-r. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Pimmon on the Net Like many of the current experimental electronic artists these tracks tend to be short - the longest are a couple over 2 minutes, a few between 1 and 2, and threequarters of the 43 works are a minute or less (great for downloading). The Falsch collection is diverting but somewhat indistinct from a consumer point of view - it has the feel of a series of experiments (I had trouble with the descriptor: I started with Œirrelevant1 but that was too harsh, possibly Œless engaging1 would do, but engagement is a very varied activity, so by Œindistinct1 I am trying to get a feeling that there is an introspective air, that this is even less for the consumer than normally). Each track is named after a musician (Kylie Minogue, Perry Como, Barbara Streisand, Pat Boone) and appears to be a piece of music (possibly by the title artists) on which a modulation has been done: some loop, most are speeded up beyond recognition, minimal clicks, bubbling - each slightly different and focussed on one technique. The tracks spin past you, bring up a wry smile, and fade. The five parts making up ŒFor .tiln1 are among the longer tracks, and more along the lines of abstract glitch ambient - ŒProsepect1 has a simple rhythm with a pulstaing metallic drone, while ŒRegnar1 is a machine clicking away with clicking over the top. ŒDatasolm1 is uncertain and searching, with a fast forwarding section, and in both ŒHymn for h1 and ŒStirmidleton1 there are high singing tones and scratchy noises, more detailed in the second: five nice pieces As with all the InvalidObject releases (24 in all: and still available for download as I write this) ŒWhile1 consists of 15 oneminute tracks. There is a more worked feeling to the collection, perhaps reflecting the fact that this is a Œcommercial1 album (200+ copies for sale) (not that I want to suggest that web stuff is less worthy: there is crap available for money and good free sounds on the web [and vice versa] - just if its coming out commercially, at least one other person has to think it is good, and put their money up). The structure follows a line I1ve seen or imposed in a number of releases - the first tracks are more active and complex with lots of clicks, machine rhythms, whirrs, burring and noises (some even sound like ducks or subdued voices), moving towards a stiller centre - While8 is a very drone based ambience, and is followed by some more restrained, steady tracks, such as While141s tonal ambience, before a final explosion in While15 (although While2 is also a more ambient piece, stuffing up this easy categorisation!). A couple of the pieces also seem to use the technique played with in ŒTop40 Fodder1, speeding and cutting. A mention of the Assembler tracks - the album is accompanied on the website by companion pieces: graphic scores created with the Faalt designer Fehler (F.0012.0004) which were used and modified during the composing process; 60 1 second SimpleText audio works, created by Otaku Yakuza (F.0012.0003 with Pimmon, based on text versions of the music files) which are gradually accumulating on site and are, not surprisingly, very brief fragments; and 10 sixty second Pimmon pieces which are like sketches or ideas for the album, mainly working on a single idea - billowing drone clouds, dancing clicks over whistling winds, strident controlled fast forwarding followed by spooky slowed voices, and so on. While I don1t know how they can Œbe listened in conjunction to1 the album, they make a nice accompanying minialbum, and reflect some of the themes of the main work. Putting all these tracks in one playlist, or burnt onto a single disk, gives you a nice varied 48 minute album of moments. &&&&&&&&&&&& Vinyl A problematic medium: fewer people now have/use their equipment or listen where its not possible (like the car), reproduction becomes degraded over time (sometimes an added attraction), fewer stores stock it. But it is still attractive to many people, the problems can be overemphasised, and small scale productions meet a market niche. Balancing these issues, a look at three vinyl works Pimmon sent my way. & Pimmon has the second side of the FatCat disk, and opens it in a medium referential way with a stuckrecord orchestral loop on Œserenade sedan1, which shifts into some metallic ambience as long tones shimmer, scratchy crackles ply and a shaky flute attempts a melody as the tones well behind and around it, ending with a slowsung tone. ŒFictitious cells1 develops slowly, a breathing pulsewave, wavering and resonant tones, creaking and scratching, squeaks and clicks accreting: then switching to a morsecode beep over sustains and surrounded by clittering and unstable connections - quite a dramatic change. Seen again in ŒBetter kempt1 which shifts from a scratcy industrial ambience to a pulse/beat driven crackling before another slow fade. & The album on ERS is, unfortunately, out of print - and contains some very different and very ambient Pimmon. The first three tracks are about 6 minutes - ŒVPE1 cycles some complex beats which vary and shift in each audio track, rapidly static and subtly dramatic, over which some burbling and clicking develops in the last third; ŒFrouquuenzen1 is an icy visage of a very quiet deep rumbling with clicks and pops on the surface - again playing with what use will do to the vinyl - dense and dark; and Œtorn zeta1 has a sustained pulsing loop - possibly strings - slowly changing with more interference clicks over it, and some deeper sounds underneath: reminiscent of some of the more ambient ŒAssembler1 tracks. And then ŒWatch the step, mind the gap1 the second longest Pimmon track, and probably one of his livestudio tracks (see ŒCopper Hats1). A slow breathing tone, echoing pulses, passing sonars opens this expansive landscape, and these elements gently and slowly interreact and change, occasional new elements passing by. A lovely album. & With the Plate Lunch 72 we get four shortish tracks - it looks like about seven minutes a side. Œbent waxes1 is quite upbeat and jazzy, a backwards groovy tone (it reminds me of something - work brain work - fripp or nelson-ish) with a beaty accompaniament of clicks like a brushdrum, a talking chitter, and some wooshing backdrops and tone washes. Things are even more backwards on Œwent baxes1 - quite possibly the previous track played in reverse - anyway it is definitely Pimmon showing us the lack of devil messages in his pieces (and with the vinyl you could play it forwards to see what it was). Witty. ŒPost-dry1 is a big tonal synth piece, quite forceful and dramatic which slides into a tapdance rhythm and looping vinyl, followed by Œcar park1 where the tonal ambience is continued and maintained, deep softly swelling tones rolling beside each other. &&&&&&&&&&&&& CD And into the disks - all of these have been/are available (though like many releases these days in limited numbers), and though ŒCopper Hats1 is a cd-r release, it does appear in the Staalplaat catalogue, so must be Œcommercially available1 at a reasonable level. The Meme release was the first full length appearance by Pimmon and revels in its variety: Œetude per.dll1 opens with an aggressive attacky click like a match strike surrounded by flocks of twittering, into disturbed keyboards, then a buzzing end, while Œzwischen die sprunge1 is fast, chittering over a back pulse, stable but slowly building, cracks and sqrls making it noisy, squeeking then a hammering end. Things become more static with Œ@ five 2 six1 with layered squeeks, birds and an almost melodic loop, and Œlime min1 and Œsakas1 both of which are longer slowly shifting pieces, the first looped high tones, scratching and a slow machine, the second placing blurts and squarks over deep layered loops, both adding and modifying components. More whipping scratchy randomness in Œmoosehoch1 where ringing and tones surround what could be a fals.ch-like record manipulation. In Œcafu1 a whrring drone and some speaching computer noises (that bubbling babble sometimes seen on films) dominate the first half before blurts, squeaking, phasers play over before a fade which sees the drone and a soft squeaking voice take us out with some gentle shimmering added. Some ambience in Œlittle fleet1 with an organ pulsing and some woodblock clutter, but behind are some hidden voices and groans - this track slowly develops over its 8 minutes, softly changing. Speed and clicky change return with Œeeleemon scheme 31 along with a buzz, vinyl scratches and submergd voices, all bubbling softly along and into Œdepended on[off]1 a swirling collage of various elements - voices, fast disk, popping, helicopters and more - which provides an active conclusion & ŒCopper Hats1 was the first full album that I got, and is rather unusual for Pimmon - it has one track 18 minutes long and 3 others 8 or more. It was recorded before and after ŒWaves and Particles1, but has more pieces Pimmon describes as Œlive studio works1 - presumably where he works the pieces in the studio, recording the variations and shifts, and leading to generally longer, more static pieces. It opens with ŒJaipur hobo1 a complex layering of clicking crickets, buzz, soft percussive hammering forming a bed for the whole track and bells, high synth notes and tones and chings weaving in and out over the top. And like many of these tracks, it has a great, long fade. ŒOlda waba1 runs over a phone-tone sequence with an aching pulse with harmonic pulses around it, long tones shimmer and metallic notes join a slow pulsation. This more minimal tonal approach continues with ŒRadiates, codes locked1 where a runoff groove crackle underpins the whole ten minutes, a dark ambience developed from shimmering tones which are hard to focus: high ones like voices and deeper chants. Gradual changes are made, and occasional metallic noises roll through. Vinyl crackling in ŒSel1 with soft machinery, almost melodies, squeaks and microphone brushes are mysterious; is that a guitar? Then the second half is a different direction, percussive splinters, sustained organ tones all building to the conclusion. ŒVodrats1 is short, for this album - 4 minutes - as sounds cut and sped shimmer against each other in a voicey swirling to a bleepy pulsing end. An overwhelming 18 minutes is provided by ŒDon1t fence me in1 where a harsh buzzing seems to conceal a melody: metallic and subtly noisey it builds tones and buzzes, subsumes some singing and works towards some melodic lines near the end. A static shifting metal storm, to be followed by ŒPareelcorte1 deep tonal ambience, tuneful, with clattering and scratches, deep and distant. Some of these lodes will be mined and developed further, but the we will never again visit Œlots of land under starry skies above1 or Œthe wide open country that I love1. & ŒKinetica1 follows the pattern I have mentally imposed on some releases - a varied opening track/s followed by more sustained pieces: this opens with ŒHexham scent1 which shifts through a variety of phases in its course: cycling mechanical loops, riverruns of dense glitch over that, breakups and dippy note runs, into a stuttering angelic computer choir, deep rumbles and clattering balls, electronic sparking, and finally a topfortyfoddered singing underneath and into the fade. And it is followed by more static pieces: ŒBetween the heart1 is machine room with blips, deep rumbling, subtle whips, crackling and high tones like distant voices; while in ŒCircumlocution1 a pulsing drone, a high tone that occasionally develops notes and stuttering crackles form a long ambience out of which more melodic notes emerge, returning to a more stripped down conclusion. ŒEmapanar:redacter1 is quite melodic as various cycles of shimmering notes dance behind sustained organtone tunes creating a soft sensuousness (for this genre!) And is followed by a darker piece - ŒFroda1 is a gloomy landscape of scratches, clicks and buzzes, while computer tones and whistles pass over a low background of churning machinery or stuttering electronics which rises to the surface with a sustained tone. There is a tentativeness to the opening of ŒLime pow1 as high shimmers, deep woobles and chattering computers gently jockey beside each other, with a greater spaciousness than much Pimmon. Some crackling static, processed voices and choppers enter about halfway in, but still not crowding the soundspace, allowing it to remain 7+ drifting minutes. Appropriately named ŒBuzz like blue children1 is built from variously harsh, edgy, resonant, suggestive buzzingtones, layered as background and a descending foreground motif, focussed for its whole length. Space returns again with ŒIndigo_upper1 as a echoing gong, occasional crackles and interference, and a soft light squarrling slowly build without overwhelming. And into ŒWest spaghetti west1 densely layered crackling loops, which like much Pimmon suggest their origin without revealing it, sustained tones within their strata, crackling developing, and a feeling that this could run forever - and that we have just been given a glimpse. A nice mix of dense and spacious, active and more ambient, which we have come to expect from Pimmon. & With ŒAssembler1 Pimmon once again shows his control of the medium in tracks ranging from 2 to 12 minutes, and also the reviewer-annoying track titling so popular among electronic artists: very hard to type, often impossible to say, conveying nothing. The titles were preset, though, as the music was created to represent the graphic scores created by the Fallt artists Fehler - it was an iterative development as Fehler responded to Pimmon1s tracks and Pimmon to the scores. The 12 tracks are grouped into three sets typographically on the cover, and some similarities or continuities can be ween within them, but not striking. The components are much the same, and again assembled with skill. Œ%macro.prologue1 shifts beween buzzing and a crackling squeak through a bleepy section into long metal chords to close, and metal shimmers to open Œrotate_11 with chordal tones and where a hint of voices seems certain later in the track, an atonal passage, chittering pulses and a quiet end. Two complex tracks to open followed by the simple layers of squeak, rumble and ratchet which build in ŒLp1 or the simple crackle and pop and shaky wind over risingfalling cimetone loop of Œrandom n1. The long Œrepeat1 passes through a number of stages - there is some music under a swirling rumbling noise, a clickety passage, the loop develops to become like a stuck record then builds to a sustained scratchy tone, through which a squeaking intrudes gradually building to dominate, although the loop is still vaguely present, to end suddenly. The second group opens differently with Œxlat1, a subtle clicky softness with looped music below, gentle and subdued, fairly static until suddenly replaced by buzzes, clicks and a high intrusive sine tone. A short clicking metal swirl based around a similar tone in Œdt 3.14159265358979523841 moves into Œasm volatile1 where an interesting stasis of components - squiggles, birds, whistles, a record loop - weave around each other before a soft clicking ending. There is a continuity between these three, so perhaps they do form something of a larger unity suggested by the cover. With Œnot_PATH1 a pulsing organ-like music is lightly touched by vinyl pops, while an almost Bachian passage dominates Œnumber_overflow1 where crackles and scratching try to intervene but unsuccessfully. Its stuttering end continues into Œint 31 but fades as a deep engine purr takes over, shot through with phaserguns and then hightones and stuttering machines, and into more areas as the track rapidly shifts grounds - some subtler ambient phases, scratchy records, tones - a kaleidoscope. A contrast to the stability and sensitivity of Œ%macro.end1 almost 5 minutes of gentle shifting drone with light glitch interruptions - a beautiful conclusion to a strong album. & And from Staalplaat the cd that stimulated this exploration: ŒOrquestra del Arrurruz1 (arrowroot orchestra) is a Material release (clear green case [printed with the details, not engraved this time], inserts of astroturf, green ab-cd - two from the series looked at in 2001_05) and thus S &&&&&&&&&&&& After all that, any chance of a conclusion? Not likely! Pimmon knows what he is doing and does it well - his appearance on a range of exemplary labels is no coincidence (and there is more than I have reviewed, and much more coming, such as an appearance on Bip-Hop Generation v3 [which I hope to get]or Diskono 07, scheduled for a future review). He uses interesting, intriguing and complex sounds in ways which make you want to listen to each component and hear if you can extract its origin, plus to the whole piece to find the rhythms, movement and interactions of those sound components, and provides contrasts between activity and stasis, sensitivity and aggression. And as the above shows - it is very hard to pigeonhole him, as I found out while doing this. The click/cut artist I first heard (and expected) then transformed into a dark ambienteer and then mixed it all up again, finally congealing in my head into a seriously interesting and intensely satisfying experimental/electronic composer/creator. If we are looking to suggestions, the ŒInvalidObject:While1 release if still available as MP3 is a great example - if you like that you will probably enjoy the others (you may even want to buy the actual CD, and others from the set). ŒCopper Hats1 is fascinating for its difference, ŒVPE1 should be reissued on CD, and each of the Œcommercial1 cds has much to offer, with different moods and directions. Anyway, a very interesting artist. &&&&&&&&&&&& And of course, all past issues, with hundreds of reviews, on site. Copyright for these reviews remains with me, Jeremy Keens. Artists and labels are free to use and quote them as long as they acknowledge Ampersand and don1t mess with my words! And if anyone else happens to mention one of these reviews, do pass on the web address or my email address so new readers can find me. Thanks.

quoted 9 lines hmm usually most of us who want to share a link with other people to a

> hmm usually most of us who want to share a link with other people to a > web > page we give them the link and not 10 pages of fucking text. its > called a > "hyperlink". copy the browser address and paste that only in the > email. this > way the user can be magically whisked away to the same contents of hte > web > page as you were viewing!!!!!

Thank you for the precious advice and sorry but I did not track this down on the net. This is his infoletter and I just forwarded it after i had read it. Sorry if getting a lot of text bother you. philippe http://www.bip-hop.com ambient landscapes, creative and melodic musica... SPACEHADS and MAX EASTLEY : the time of the ancient astronaut [bleep 04] Spaceheads have teamed up with Max Eastley, who wields The Arc (an electric acoustic monochord), and done just that -- removed the motorik syncopated driving beats and replaced them with shimmering cymbals and small percussive gestures and squiggles, while extending the trumpet into neverendingly evocative chilled-out washes of pure vibratoless horn. Although I am not quite sure what the monochord looks like or how it works, it sounds much like an early analogue moog synth, erupting in wails at times hellish and chaotic, at times placid and harmonious. An ambient record. Relaxing yet with an undercurrent that will unsettle you in a good way.

quoted 1 line Aquarius newslist - May 2001

>Aquarius newslist - May 2001

--------------------------------------------------------------------- The superb Spaceheads expand to a trio with the addition of sound sculptor and instrument inventor Max Eastley. Their recording, starts with a distantly eerie set of music with soaring trumpet, drums in irregular march and Eastley's 'Arc' (an electroacoustic monochord) imitating an out-of-tune violin for the feel of a soundtrack to a particularly grim part of a '60s Biblical epic. Though recorded as one long piece, they've thoughtfully indexed the CD into 'songs' or sections as the sounds change. Andy Diagram's trumpet flutters like a voice in tremolo, other times filling the space with impossibly long notes (he blows then expands the sound beyond the temporal range of human breath). Richard Harrison's work is far more detailed than his usual sensitive funk, mostly altered bowed and scraped and bent metal. Eastley dances in slow curlicues around them both (at least I think that's him). Very, very nice.

quoted 1 line [RE] Other Music Update (May 16, 2001)

>[RE] Other Music Update (May 16, 2001)