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"HiGH ▀ iNTELLiGeNCE tRoLLS"
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a r t i s t : EKG
t i t l e : Object 2
d a t e : 2003
l a b e l : Locus Music (locust024)
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : December/2004
t r a c k s : 06
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 93,8 MB
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EKG
Kyle Bruckmann english horn, suona and/or analog electronics
Ernst Karel trumpet and/or analog electronics
material from studio, radio and live performances recorded
between June 2000 and February 2002 by Ernst Karel, except
track 3 recorded by Todd A. Carter.
mixed and edited by Ernst Karel.
thanks to Philip von Zweck (WLUW, Chicago), Larry Marotta and
Mike Shiflet (Mad Lab, Columbus), Tim Daisy (Nervous Centre
Festival of Improvised Music, Chicago), James Ilgenfritz III,
Helen Mirra (magnets).
series designed & prodiced by Dawson Prater.
(c) 2003 locust music
Volume two of our splendid Object Series. EKG is the Chicago
based duo of sound artist and musician Ernst Karel on trumpet
and analogue electronics and classically trained musician Kyle
Bruckman on english horn, Chinese suona, raita and analogue
electronics. On Object 2 , prepare yourself for a remarkable
miasma of extended, swelling sound meditations that at once
soar an emotive, elevated plane while still tracing the coarse
contours of sudden eruptive pulses and rumbling electrical
sound signals.
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. . . Judging from these pictures, it seems logical to surmise
that Bruckmann and Karel's inspiration or focus in this set of
recordings is that of energy. The bulk of the disc's music find
its genesis in EKG's manipulation of analog electronics, and
even when the duo's acoustic instruments make their appearances
(Bruckmann plays english horn and suona, a sort of Chinese
oboe, Karel, the trumpet), they tend to do so inconspicuously,
seeming to mimic the sounds of the album's electronics. Object
2 deals mainly in microscopic sound, glitchy electronic hums,
crackles of static, blips and beeps, and fragile undulations.
But, just as with the matches or frayed cord on the album's
cover, the potential for a much more noticeable occurrence is
always present, with interruptions of harsher sounds ever
looming. The disc's six tracks are thoughtfully constructed and
well-balanced, especially appropriate in regards to the photo
of the electrical cord on the album's cover, as the listener
never knows when EKG's more placid and easy-flowing moments
will begin to spark, flare, or even begin to flame. - 11.5 ,
FakeJazz
. . . Here the improvised music takes a different course. EGK
have a strong interest in the more droning aspects of
improvised music. Their sound takes long courses, which are
intercepted by trumpet playing, aswell crackles of contact
microphoned objects. Most of the time it stays subdued, but
there are occassional outbursts of noise. It takes it's
influences from anything to Bernard Gunther to Merzbow or Voice
Crack to Roel Meelkop. -Vital Weekly
. . . Kyle Bruckmann and Ernst Karel, a.k.a. EKG, take D÷rner's
style of improvisation to its next logical step: D÷rner and
others make improv that sounds like cheap electronic
appliances, so why not improvise with cheap electronics? When I
last saw them live, EKG were about half electronic, half
acoustic, with Bruckmann and Karel playing oboe and some sort
of pocket trumpet, respectively. On Object 2, they're credited
with playing english horn, suona and trumpet, but only
occasionally is it possible to identify those instruments.
Perhaps, like D÷rner, Bruckmann and Karel are really good at
playing acoustic instruments so that they sound like
electronics, but they've probably actually just processed their
acoustic instruments to such a degree that the 'natural' sounds
of those instruments are no longer audible. Here, Bruckmann and
Karel mostly eschew the event-pause-event feel of much
extended-technique improvisation, instead creating dense,
static-heavy soundscapes that sound a bit like Keith Rowe's
recent work, even though Object 2 features a greater number of
dramatic changes than a new Rowe album probably would. Like
D÷rner's, EKG's music sounds something like a new sort of
musique concrΦte: improv as the whirs and hums of everyday
life. But EKG's music is more directly related to the idiom of
electronic music than D÷rner's, both for obvious reasons û
Bruckmann and Karel actually use electronics û and
not-so-obvious reasons: EKG's sustained textures are closer to
those used in current non-academic experimental electronic
music (which was itself born from moving-moving-always-moving
DJ culture) rather than the sparser, more non-linear approach
taken by improvisers like D÷rner and nmperign (born, perhaps,
from the non-linear phrasing of Iannis XenakisÆ stochastic
electronic music)...Bruckmann and Karel are offering new
possibilities for improvisation that are far removed from the
traditionally melodic, call-and-response moves of free jazz. In
their own ways, Object 1 and Object 2 are fine examples of
improvÆs embrace of electronics û not just the technology
itself, but the sounds and approaches associated with it. -
Charlie Wilmoth, Dusted Magazine
. . . Kyle Bruckmann (on English horn, suona and electronics)
and Ernst Karel (trumpet and electronics), collectively known
as EKG, continue the [Locust Music Object] series with a set of
six austere, slow moving soundscapes in keeping with the
prevailing tendency in new improvised music to move away from
rapid-fire interplay - improv's free jazz heritage - towards
territory more traditionally associated with contemporary
classical and electronic music. . . "Object 2" is as much a
landmark of the genre as the highly acclaimed releases on Jon
Abbey's Erstwhile label. Bruckmann has in recent times
preferred to downplay his dazzling virtuosity on the double
reed instruments in favour of patient exploration of the
microtonal and micro-timbral inflections of long-held tones,
which combine with Karel's plaintive trumpet and the grainy
analog electronics, blasts of white noise and crackling static
to create music of an extraordinary intensity which richly
repays repeated listening. - Dan Warburton, Paris Transatlantic
Magazine
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01-(11 16) [11:17]
02-(13 43) [13:44]
03-(05 10) [05:10]
04-(05 01) [05:02]
05-(07 36) [12:42]
06-(07 57) [07:48]
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55:43 min
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