I must say I also find this to be a significant step in a much less interesting direction. What Alan called the “granular dubspace” of Multila was sonically alluring but structurally disorienting, the pulse constantly upsetting itself, setting up a sort of unpredictable stasis with an excellently attractive tension.

Most importantly I think, the timbres themselves were mysterious, and the settings minimal enough for you to want to wait and see what would happen.

All I’ve heard of Tummaa is the Melankolia edit, but I’m immediately held at arm’s length by it: it’s not so much that the wallpapery modal melody in the first half and the empty chords in the 2nd half don’t develop interestingly, it’s more like I don’t care about them enough in the first place to want to wait for them to develop. And for me the use of more “real” timbres in the percussion is tremendously less compelling than what we’ve heard on past VD releases, critically undercutting VD in one of his strongest areas: pulse.

(Just about to press ‘submit comment’, and I realised I’d said nothing about “Tummaa”.
Guess that says it all…)

With that in mind, I think my favorite track on Tummma may be “Mustelmia” precisely because it has the trenchant, uniform build of early techno, but does it with such an ambitious agenda. To me it’s not jazz so much as composed jazz, a contemporary chamber music that brings to mind early Bang on a Can, the Kamikaze Ground Crew, and stuff like that. Listening to it change slowly, I think it’s quite a remarkable composition. I would love to hear Alarm Will Sound do a transcription of that piece.

Alan: thanks for the leads to the previous works. I find the artwork for Antigones more interesting than the music.

Colin: I can see in that stuff what you are saying about an alternative to the Eno approach but my problem with it, and Tummaa is that I find it all unmoving. Call me a hopeless romantic, but I still seek what Ry Cooder calls “chicken skin” music. I find Eno’s ambient stuff hits me emotionally, as does the work of the Scands listed above. If I have a problem with the melody in “Melankolia,” it is that it is reaching for the plaintiveness of some of Bugge Wesseltoft’s work and falling short.

Coincidentally, I was in a terminally hip record store in Williamsburg the other night and they were displaying both Tummaa and the Moritz Von Oswald Trio. I picked up a copy of Arve Henriksen’s Strion, which I had never hear and must say, “That’s what I’m talkin’
’bout.” I was instantly moved by the sounds and textures therein, in a way that Ripatti —early or current—has so far failed to do. Though I must say that I prefer Tummaa to the earlier stuff. Possibly because I make some of this kind of music, I feel that the earlier stuff I could reproduce in an hour, whereas the Tummaa represents a more complex, personal approach that I wouldn’t attempt to duplicate.

Alan, my favourite Schutze were the two Phantom City releases, but then I’m a huge 70s Miles fan. I think it’s a shame he left that all behind to go art/ambient.

I’d really like to hear more about what everyone thinks of previous Vladislav Delay releases. I find much of the work really unique because not only does it generally refuse structure, but it also avoids finds an alternative to the Eno-derived ambient approach as well.

http://salocin.org/films/antigones.html

http://www.last.fm/music/Vladislav+Delay/_/Raamat

though I can’t vouch for it having the same effect *now* as then, or on *you over there” as me over here.

Excellent post from Colin, though I have nothing to say in response at the mo’, except, yes, I think Paul Schütze was on the way to something back there in the late 90s, in re: finding a fertile and not too noodly fusion of electronica and jazz, though, alas, I have to confess my Schütze favourites of his were released under pseudonyms (Uzect Plaush and Seed).

My iTunes playcount tells me I’ve listened to Tummaa an average of 25 times and I still have mixed feelings about it. I regard his previous releases – the deservedly much-feted debut Multila on Chain Reaction and subsequent works on Mille Plateaux, Staubgold and his own label Huume – as truly innovative and deeply enjoyable art. His unique approach to rhythm, structure and texture position him as the true heir to King Tubby’s paradigm-shifting dismantling of form. (I did ask him about his attitude to the Jamaican genius, but he chose to distance himself from the connection.)

All of Vladislav Delay’s work to date has been electronic in origin and I think Tummaa is an intriguing first step. I struggle with the swampy, repetitive rhythms on Mustelmia and Toive. They refuse to develop, but their form isn’t interesting enough to maintain interest. More importantly, their presence is antithetical to the oceanic and utterly unpredictable progress of the likes of Whistleblower, Demo(n) Tracks, The Four Quarters, Entain, etc.

I too felt frustrated with the quality of Lucio Capece’s contributions – most of the time he’s difficult to identify – Ripatti has done a lot of post-processing. I like a lot of Armstrong’s playing here, but his melody on opener Melankolia just annoys me. It seems to be reaching for the naive simplicity of John McLaughlin’s guitar part on In A Silent Way, but fails.

I don’t really hear the jazz references, but that’s not to say I don’t welcome the potential for exploring a heavily treated, post-produced electronic jazz form. In fact I dream of such a thing – in this case it might be a Jimmy Guiffre Free Fall for the 00′s, but led by an invisible drummer, ahem. Improvisation and electronica is an under-explored continent (exceptions – apart from ’70s Electric Jazz – being Supersilent, Wibutee, Eivind Aarset, Wesseltoft, Paul Schutze et al) and in that sense Tummaa and the Moritz Von Oswald Trio represent a fascinating beginning.

I understand Alan’s reference to ‘soupy murk’, but Tummaa’s occluded textures are, for me, probably the most attractive development over previous albums. I can’t say that I’ve ever found any of that on his previous work. If I could only use one word to describe Vladislav Delay up to Tummaa, I’d choose ‘oceanic’. For Tummaa I’d choose ‘swampy’.

Ripatti is set to release an album with Mika Vainio, Derek Shirley and Capece later this year. Should be fascinating particularly if Vainio is in full-on noise mode.

http://disquiet.com/2009/09/30/vladislav-delay-mixtape-mp3/