Disquiet

Zbigniew Karkowski is one of the least gregarious musicians around, at least musically speaking. His performances are more like assaults than they are concerts, and the rough static that opened a December 2006 show is no exception. A recording of that show (MP3) is combined by the noisejihad.dk netlabel with an airy, live set by Danny Kreutzfeldt (MP3), the latter of which comes across as all the more elegant for the pairing. According to the noisejihad site, “Karkowski divided his concert into two parts: One with him performing on his laptop, another with the laptop generating sound on its own.” It makes sense that someone who often seems to do his best to ostracize his audience might make music that involves no human interaction at all.

By Marc Weidenbaum