Issue 1
iNtr.dct.
Thank you for your interest and time to read the very first issue of "The Wind Scrolls"
A free .pdf zine written by me ( Nil ) .
The purpose of this zine is very simple. It is a small short zine with in every issue 10 reviews of
vinyl / cd / cdr / net releases. There is no stable date on which every issue will come out, that fully
depends on how much stuff I get to review. As soon as I have 10, Issue 2 will come. Etc. etc.
In every issue there will be one or two net releases. This out of my appreciation for free releases and
the importance and support of net labels and the artists contributing to them. However please
DONT ask me to do a review about your net/mp3 release, I will only write about the stuff I
download and like myself
However feel free to send me your promo copies of your vinyl / cd and cdr releases, they are kept
by me as a reward and are not being re-sold.
If you want to have your music reviewed please send me an email to: scapesplorer@hotmail.com
And ill give you the shipping data. Please consider to send coverart also so i can write a more
complete review.
In this first issue there are reviews about: John Grzinich, Troum, Peter Stenberg, Ammonites,
Michael Northam, Yui Onodera, Wereju, a compilation cdr and several other artists.
You are free to re-use the text in this zine in whatever way suits you, on your website, blog, label,
artist info, whatever you want. ( Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Germany Licence )
Please credit "The Wind Scrolls" and if possible a link to http://thewindscrolls.wordpress.com/
In the next issue you can expect a Peter Stenberg and an Ekca Liena review, the rest depends on
what you send me folks! :)
Have fun reading and spread the word about these scrolls!
Nil
Jgrzinich - Phase Inversion
I have had this album lying around here for several months and somehow i have never been able to
really get into it. So I patiently waited for the right moment to give it a try and today finally i have
opened myself up for this hypnotic and mysterious release.
The CD is released on Mystery Sea, a very fine and professional label from Belgium.
It comes in a jewel case with beautiful artwork printed on thick sturdy paper.
The sounds are all originating from acoustic sources, recorded in Estonia, London and Riga.
And the piece is a 49:39 minutes long work that consists three parts.
The first part is called "dispersion trajectory" and starts with hypnotic, extremely slowly evolving
tones that take us to hisses, cracklings and other metallic and liquid sounds.
With "membrane formation" there are a lot of disturbing metallic sounds, glitches and weirdness
until they slowly fade into hypnotic tones with sounds that seem to be forest sounds. Bells join the
slow evolving hypnotism. The last piece called "spectral remnants" is the most emotional and sad
one. The sound is cold and minimal, like a frozen river in the middle of a forest.
This is not an album for people with short attention spans or for people who just want a nice
background ambiance. It is a hard to explain and difficult to understand slow evolving and
confusing masterpiece that should be listened with headphones while walking through nature.
In the coverart there is a little story written trying to help you on your way of understanding this cd.
A part of it says: "Unexpected shifts take place, reshaping all the familiar patterns and cycles,
inverting the condition of their state and movement."
www.mysterysea.net to get it from the label
www.maaheli.ee for more information about John Grzinich projects
Michael Northam - Suhina 10'
Every once in a while you bump into a masterpiece, Suhina is one of those.
The cover shows amazing artwork by the Indian artist Rohini Devasher. Bizarre beautiful flower
lifeforms in full color on the front, and in black and white on the back. The vinyl itself is white and
nicely sturdy and thick.
This 10" is a Drone Records release and part of the substantia-innominata series.
A concept that deals with concepts like" unknown / unthinkable / unidentifiable / unspeakable etc.
The story behind this record is very interesting. Michael Northam was camping in Finland in 2005
and a friend told him that the sound of the wind moving through the trees was called "suhina" in
their language. From that moment Michael wanted to capture that feeling in sound.
He started with field recordings, which was difficult to do, and then used Indian flutes and
keyboards. While working on these two tracks throughout 2006 and 2007, Michael travelled
through Belgium, Slovenia, India and France. The final result was produced in Berlin in summer
2008.
The record has two tracks, called "Through" and "Within"
Both are beautiful, very carefully constructed pieces that run over ten minutes of playing time.
Side A"Through" is distorted and blissful, full of harmony and truly uplifting and carrying you
away with the wind, through forests and plains. It feels like there is lots of wind, gray skies and
rain, but also lots of sun rays and rainbows. And total melancholic euphoria. The B side "Within"
is a wonderful continuation. All i can say is this release is a masterpiece!
Released on: Drone Records / Substantia-innominata ( Germany ) 2009
http : //www, sub stantia-innominata. de
Yui Onodera - Synergetics
SYNERGETICS
yuJL onod^rs
This is a 7" vinyl from Drone Records, it is a dreamy and euphoric one.
Yui Onodera is a soundartist from Tokyo, Japan that runs his own label, makes music for films and
works on all kind of other projects.
The vinyl itself is blue/white and looks like a silent summer sky or a clear ocean.
The cover is white with in the middle a piece of artwork that seems to resemble a pattern of sound.
On each side of the record is one track. Synergetics #1 and Synergetics #2
The music is based on piano and guitar sounds and is very euphoric, calm and minimalistic . This is
a very warm sound that takes you with your head in the clouds and let you drift along and makes
you forget all your worries. Regenerating your body and mind with pure bright light. Synergetics is
about joining forces and enhancement of sound.
Drone Records DR-84 ( 2007 )
www. dronerecords . de
www.critical-path.info ( Onodera's label )
Wereju - The way of the cross
no pic sorry
This is the fifth release of Wereju's label "Idrone Park"
Like all Idrone park releases this comes in a black cardboard card with photographic artwork on it.
the CDr itself is white. It has a photo of a cross on a mountain and in the inlay you see jesus
crawling with a cross on his back.
This music is all about suffering, carrying your own personal cross on your back.
A very heavy album like i am used from Wereju. Wereju itself means in Russian "I believe"
which is an interesting addition to this album from this man from Ireland.
The first track is called "He knows that time is short" which is a 15 minute slow evolving and
mourning piece, soaked with sadness and pain. It is also the most melodic and melancholic piece of
this album. The middle part is very dark but at the ending it gets more euphoric, like a man who
knows he will die finally accepting his own fate. Track 2 "forsaken" is a short 5 minute track. This
track is very cold and distant. "Halo wrapped in thorns" the third is a 9 minute track which gets
more dark and violent then the others, the sound gets harsher and harsher and deeper and darker.
Suffering and nothing else. The end piece is called "the nails go in"which is cold, dark and very
empty. Like all the pain has gone, aswell as all emotions, a dead man hanging on his cross.
Idrone Park cd 05
www.myspace.com/werejumusic for more info about Wereju and to get the release.
V.A In the rhetoric of rupture and re-appropriation
ilfL404
This is very first cdr release from the brand new label called "Ripples Recordings".
From the Italian newcomer Ennio Mazzon. After two mp3 releases and two cdr releases on
Feelscape Recordings and October Man Recordings he starts his own label.
And how., this is the second edition i am holding here in my hands as the first one got
almost sold out immediately. The cdr itself is a blank cdr with a black backside and is housed
in a soft pvc case with artwork by Ennio himself on a sturdy grey piece of paper. The design
is so simple but so complete. And the 9 tracks on the cd itself are almost all very
enjoyable.
The first track on the cd is "Ritmo" from Peter Stnberg and is a very slow, cold and melodic
piece that picks you up immediately and which is a very good choice as intro. The second track
"Fluid Pack" by Hiroki Sasajima is calm with alot of cracklings and glitches. The third
track "Charming, hazy subside" is by Ennio Mazzon itself typical Mazzon style, very
calming. "n2 variations for piano and insects" by Tiziano Milani is a track that brings you
into an uneasy state of mind for sure. The fifth track on this cd is called "ascending mount
restitution" by James McDougall which again is very calm, floating and atmospheric drone
with some pleasant cracklings but to a more darker evolvement. The sixth track "aube" by
Glenn Ryszko is the shortest of the album and brings you into a cold night. And after this
one we move on to Terje Paulsens "drop test" which is to my opinion the most interesting and
strangest track from the whole cd. "Remember December" follows up from Musil that brings
more weirdness in the style of "drop test" and as outro there is "to you" from Ryonkt which
is a calm outro track.
My overall impression of this compilation cd is very very good, especially as first release
from this new Italian label.
RPLOOO - "In the rhetoric of rupture and re-appropriation" Cdr
http://www.myspace.com/ripplesrecordings
Arszyn - Woda
Arszyn
-a
Woda 23'28
konkretourist.de 2009
myspace.com/arszyn
Photo: Jarek Boczko
Creative Commons
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In every issue of the zine I want to do one or more reviews of free net releases. And so
this is the first one. I stumbled on this interesting piece called "Woda" which means water
if translated to English, and I'm impressed about the concept and the sound.
Krzysztof Topolski is a Polish soundartist and this work contains sound from 5 years of
recording water sounds. All recorded at different locations in the city of Gdansk, which is a
city close to the Baltic sea.
The piece itself is a 23:28 minutes during piece with really ALLOT of water sounds.
Lots of sea waves, rain, dripping sounds, all mixed into a great melange of sound.
Very gentle but also a bit rough at times, The most interesting part here is the end, when the waves
are very loud and suddenly all sound falls away and you hear a very high peeeeeeep, exactly the
same peep when you get temporary deaf from loud fireworks or other things. I would like to
recommend this for the phonography lovers out there.
http://konkretourist.de/ Download here for free
www.myspace.com/arszyn To contact the artist
Thorsten Soltau / Margitt Holzt split
This here is a 7" vinyl released on the M.M label from Germany.
A split 7" from Thorsten Soltau from Oldenburg and Margitt Holzt from Hamburg.
This one is successfully a very obscure and weird one.
The art on the vinyl itself already gives you a good preview of the weirdness you are going
to experience. Like some dark freak show in black and white.
Side A "Tierbeobachtungen im Merz" is the Thorsten side and is made out of 3 separate
stories. It starts with an eerie drone sound
but dies away quick again and instead of a drone you hear strange glitches and obscure
crackles and vocals. A big mixture of these elements create a funny mix and then more eerie
sounds follow with samples of vocals like "tormented horribly" and weird muttering of all
kind. Water bubbles, clock sounds.
some harmonic tones with weird ploppings and scratches follow up, and again the weird vocals
and glitches get slowly into it. The vocals remind me of old black and white 30s movies and
somehow i also visualize this whole record as black and white. There are allot of playful
sounds and at some point some old music starts to play softly in the background while the
obscure sounds in the foreground continue to play.
This part gets more violent aggressive and faster. Like all this madness soon will collapse
onto itself Some peeping sounds prepare you for the end and then everything slowly fades
away and dissolves into space like its never have been there in the first place and leaves
you sitting in the dark with your mouth wide open of confusion.
The second side is called: "werausmirtrinktwerdeinreh" and is a obscure piece of work by
Margitt Holzt. If i remember correctly this was an old russian fairytale about a small boy
that was thirsty and drank water from the ground while his sister told him not to do so. and
the boy turned into an animal. This side starts very smooth with looped samples and glitches
in between the loops, sometimes old obscure vocals drop in on the background and it goes on
like this for a while until there are more IEEE sounds and radio pieces till suddenly some
kind of movie dialogs appear about death. These samples are really cool and really add the
finishing touch to this great obscure vinyl.
This vinyl is fun if you like weird and obscure things, and i would recommend it to everyone
who likes twisted and sick samples and glitches mixed with weirdness.
http ://virb . com/bureaumm
http://www.myspace.com/mmlabel
Ammonites - The Tenth Transmitter
Ever since i heard the 33.3 EP from Ammonites I have been impatiently waiting to hear a follow up
EP or album of these guys. This CDr is as the previous EP both released on the wonderful Reverb
Worship label. The CDr comes in a soft pvc case with a cover of handmade structured paper in the
form of ammonites with a transparent coUour printed inlay with all the track titles. The CDr itself is
from both sides silver.
Track one is called "Three Sea's" and starts off with 4 minutes of pure phonography of the beach
and the waves until a strange soft melody starts to play which transforms itself into a beat and a
looped sample of a starting motorcycle. And around that a new beat manifests itself This track is so
weird and funny that it made me laugh out loud when i heard it for the first time. The track gets
wilder and wilder until it slowly fades away. "Baxtergate 1 "follows up with some deep sounds
mixed with fieldrecordings from a shop and some plings and plongs. More fieldrecordings of
conversations mixed with recordings of some attraction music that again fades into drone sounds
and conversations and switches again with attraction music.
The third track called "Pylon" starts of with waves and crackles, slowly building up glitch scapes
with slightly more harsh sounds. This is an interesting glitch drone track.
"The controlling sun" starts with bird sound phonography that gets blended with drone sound until
the birds disappear and the pure dronescapes continue with in the end some hissing.
Track 5 is called "Baxtergate 2" is basically a harmonic dronescape mixed with phonography of
shopping malls or shops.
Track 6 "Khyber pass" is again typical ammonites humor. People playing drums with a funny
melody and children sounds.
I am very happy to finally hear something new from these two guys and i hope that in the future
there will be more ammonites to enjoy!
www. reverb worship . com
www.myspace.com/ammonitesound
Peter Stenberg - Let's Go / So far away
This is a new CDr / MPS release from Peter and the CDr comes in a soft plastic case with
handdrawn ( and printed ) black and white coverart. and sealed with a handwritten and
handnumbered seal.
Track one is called "A splinter ( for Audrey ) and starts with slow guitar sounds until the
fieldrecordings mix in. The same tune goes pretty much on for the rest of the track and the
fieldrecordings are vocals and public transportation ambiance. Both fit very wel together to create a
melancholic mood. The second track is called "Wedding" and is based on urban fieldrecordings,
ringtones and drone sounds. Why it is called wedding is a bit unclear to me. Track three "Exil" are
soft guitar pling / tuning sounds with in the end more urban fieldrecordings. "Genius Loci" is a very
warm, harmonic and uplifting track which makes you feel like on a nice summer evening, the next
track is a piece of humor called " No i think its a beaver donkey, because, because he likes to eat,
eh, trees" which some one actualy gave as a serious answer. "Station to station" the sixth track are
more guitar plinging sounds and public transportation field recordings. Melancholic and lonely
sounds to expect here. And the ending track called "So far away" starts with interesting windy
sounds and cracklings of wood in the wind. This track is the darkest track until there is some
busking and singing where you can recognise the words "so far away"
This is a nice release that creates an interesting symbiosis between pure phonography and guitar.
Mellow, Calm and Melancholic are the keywords here. Personaly i liked Peters "Aufzuge" EP more
which put a smile on my face during a walk on a sunny midday.
www.myspace.com/petste
www.merzbau-label.org
TROUM - A.I.W.S
This is a great CD release from the Bremer duo TROUM. The cd has spiral artwork on it and comes
in a digipack designed by Alan McClelland. The CD was released in 2007 and was the first full
length since 2003. All the music on this CD is produced with instruments like guitar, bow, bass,
voice and whispers and crackles. The result is a very magical and difficult to describe journey. The
album name AIWS means "eternity" in Gothic.
The first track is a ten minute long track called AHMATEESTS ( inspiration ) which is a very
hypnotizing and emotional intro track. The second track AGGILUS ( angel carrier ) is very cold and
makes you feel very lonely. There are echoing winter whispers and melancholic soft drone sounds.
SPIRARE means breathing, sighing, smelling and is a mysterious, dark dronescape. Nr 4 PER
SONUM ( through sound ) I cannot really describe in words. The fifth track is called PANTAH
( way ) which is an echoing guitar soundscape, calm yet with a bit of darkness lurking around the
corner. Nr six (GA) PLAIAN (supplication) Is a dark mantrascape with vocals and mourning
sounds. And my most favourite track of this album is nr 7 PENTHOS ( the sorrow or mourning)
and this is extremely emotional. It makes me think of grey Russian industrial cityscapes in the 20s
with a smoking boat with burning dead bodies on them and their families crying on the shore. 8
NEHEH ( eternity ) reminds me of track 2 and is again a very "wintery" track. PELETA (flight) is
its outro, and sounds sad but liberating.
It is difficult to describe the music of TROUM in words, and maybe it shouldn't, maybe you should
just listen to this great album yourself and see where it takes you to. Success guaranteed!
www.troum.com
www.dronerecords.de