Morr Documentary MP3s

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The Morr label’s podcast (link) offers an opportunity to peek inside the laptops, and brains, of its musicians. Most recently, Bernhard Fleischmann spoke in detail about the recording of the two long live sets that comprise his most recent album, Melancholy/Sendestrasse. (“I like very long, very repetitive tracks a lot.”) Regarding “Melancholy,” he shows how a few basic electronic chords grew, through accrual and collaboration, to a piece rich with heavily mediated cello. The making of “Sendestrasse” is likewise a narrative of musical sublimation, as a Franz Schubert composition is slowly masked by various production techniques. Throughout, Fleischmann provides musical examples, in the background and foreground, to illustrate his descriptions (MP3).

That blending also blurs the line between documentary and performance for an earlier Morr-cast, in which Radical Face (aka Ben Cooper, aka half of Electric President) describes the two-year development of his recent Ghost album, his voice echoed for effect (MP3). More info at morrmusic.com, bfleischmann.com and radicalface.com.

Pointillist Russian MP3s

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

There’s something a tad antiseptic and just a little maudlin, and yet altogether compelling, about Luxurious, a collection of music attributed to Polina Voronova, said to be a young Russian musician. The album ends with its best piece, in which small bell-like tones repeat over and over against the sort of gauzy synthesis that is the content of much of what came before it. That track, titled “Landing” (MP3), first appeared earlier this year on a compilation set, Arrivals and Departures, released on the Electro Sound netlabel, excentrica.org, that has now brought us, under its Musica Exentrica line, Luxurious (excentrica.org). With it come new favorites, like “This Sky,” in which the melody, so to speak, has the lurching of something slowly spoken rather than sung (MP3), and “Deep Outdoor,” a pointillist lullaby that picks up where “Landing” left off (MP3). One note of thanks to excentrica: kudos for providing the files at 320kbps, double the compressed bit rate of many netlabels. More info at excentrica.org and myspace.com/polinavoronova.

Salt Mine MP3

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Here’s some salt that’s good for the diet. The listening diet, that is. The latest raw field recording from the wanderingear.com netlabel is a 20-minute exercise in cavern tourism. The recording was made in the Salina Praid salt mine, located in rural Romania. The entry’s title, “Subterranean Salt Echoes,” notes its most telling feature and richest attraction, a voluminous sense of space that takes all but the most adjacent conversation and transforms it into audio as swollen as a wet sponge (MP3). More info on the locale at salinapraid.ro.

Bi-Rhythmic MP3

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

You can bob your head to “rows” (MP3), the new aghost track posted for free download at kracfive.com, though to do so you have to imagine your head is placed evenly between two pachinko machines of divergent makes and time periods, one a rapidfire spray of confused percussion, the other a more melodious and jubilant confection of baubles.

Trimpin Profile MP3

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The sound artist Trimpin is the subject of a two-part interview and profile newly uploaded to the Other Minds archive at archive.org. Back in 1990, Charles Amirkhanian, head of Other Minds, spoke with Trimpin in advance of an installation due the following year at the San Francisco gallery New Langton Arts. Trimpin talked about his association with player piano innovator Conlon Nancarrow and about the compositional and technological innovations required for him to accomplish his often room-size musical sculptures, and Amirkanian illustrated with excerpts from various works, including “Lullaby,” a transparent piece for piano. Trimpin also took questions from a live audience. Among other things, he explained why he felt it’s “inappropriate” to document his installations on commercial recordings. Available in two parts (MP3, MP3).