As
avid listeners surely has noted, exercises in improvised sound has, to
an increasing extent, begun to bridge the gap between restrained tone
clusters and the underworlds of grit and abrasion. But what is the
nature of this "noise” being adapted? If what we are dealing with
truly is a case of adaptation, this might prove problematic,
implicating the displacement of sound into new contexts rather than a
profound familiarity with the matter at hand. While such strategies
have rendered interesting results in their own right, it remains a rare
thing to experience a merger not compromising either position. Releases
like Kevin Drumm’s Sheer Hellish Miasma naturally comes to mind when
reaching for standout examples, but listening to Trunking, it is
evident that also Hindi and Riis are stating a vision of their own,
exposing a similar understanding of the harsh noise vocabulary.
Alongside delicate wave structures and concrete object rustles the duo
naturally cranks out the crude feedback squeals, throbbing crunch and
junk metal crashes characteristic of another stratum of the
experimental music scene. Yet, what seems to distinguish the playing of
Hindi and Riis are not primarily the specifics of the sounds
themselves, but what appears to be the genuine pleasure derived from
their crafting. Coarse music, not for the sake of exotica, but for the
genuine love of a heavy jam. With a burgeoning understanding of
noise, electro-acoustic improvisation might find itself once again
embracing the ecstatic qualities of free music that were once rejected
on the basis of excess. How are we to come to terms with the, perhaps
vulgar, pleasure of noise while still aiming for the refined aesthetics
of contemporary improvisation. Or, one might ask, has such a dichotomy
of "body” and "soul" been wrongly stated to begin with? A partial
answer lies buried in the binary code of these digital sound files,
since, to its merit, Trunking seems to raise questions of this very
kind. Could this be music for fans of Burkhard Beins and Black Leather Jesus alike? (Peter Henning, Malmö 2010)
Jassem Hindi
(FRA/LEB): lo-fi electro-acoustic material: diverted machines,
amplified objects, contact mics, found tapes, no-fi field recordings,
no input mixing board. Jakob Riis (DK/SWE): laptop, MaxMSP, real time processing. Recorded at Mains d'Ouvres, Paris feb. 2007 Cover photos by Nguyenmaler http://www.tuannguyen.co.nr/