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artist ■■ various artists
release ■■ the voices of the dead
year ■■ 2002
genre ■■ electronic
label ■■ sub rosa
catalogue ■■ sr066
website ■■ www.subrosa.net
date ■■ 24-apr-2003
quality ■■ 192kbps/44.1khz
source ■■ compact disc
■■ tracklist ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
01 konstantin raudive - part 1 4:01
02 scanner - palae 5:32
03 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 2 0:43
04 calla - raudive track 4:51
05 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 3 0:51
06 dj spooky - cadavre magnetique 4:29
07 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 4 0:44
08 ensemble - nature morte 7:56
09 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 5 1:01
10 lee ranaldo - lees raudive mix 2:49
11 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 6 0:32
12 random inc. - bizz circuits 5:05
13 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 7 1:07
14 david toop - kolade spirit 5:51
15 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 8 0:43
16 carl michael von hausswolff - welcome 5:38
17 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 9 0:40
18 dj spooky - temps magnetique 4:28
19 gerhard stempnik - sound piece 10 0:48
20 brett dean - intimate decision for solo viola 10:48
21 konstantin raudive - part 2 11:07
playtime ■■ 01h 19m 44s
■■ comment ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
from the mid-60s until his death, latvian psychologist konstantin
raudive made recordings of "nothing" which mysteriously captured
phrases from thin air, which some attribute to being the voices of
the dead. here, some of those experiments are mixed with (and
into) electronic music from various artists.
between the tape hiss of murky recordings and language-barrier,
the "spirit voices" tend to be quite garbled, yet intriguing
because of their unknown origins. konstantin raudive's own
commentary makes up much of the first track ("part 1"), along with
samples of his recordings, including a cryptic message from the
airwaves translated as "jundal can walk by himself - attach him to
the bed". scanner's "palae for memoire" includes unintelligible
utterances encased in a circling zone of ever-blipping
radar-tones. crunchy static forms a scruffy rhythm, upon which
calla layers slow electric strums which gradually warm up to a
low-smoldering surf-guitar sound. cool!
into "cadavre magnΘtique"'s backdrop of european phrases, paul d.
miller (dj spooky) injects a lively scattering of rhythms and
electronic wraiths. ensemble's quiet symphonics in "nature morte"
are swallowed by a grumbling electric darkness which in turn
recedes to a faint textural rippling. gerhard stempnik, a follower
of raudive, also made recordings using a questions-and-"answer"
technique, as evidenced by the speech (and singing) of his short
tracks which include "sound piece 6" (0:31).
like a deep cellarful of machinery, david toop's "koladΘ spirit"
unfurls a boiling mechanical cloudstream, etched with
semi-rhythmic particles and occasional murky words.
ten-minute-plus "intimate decision for solo viola" by brett dean
seems to trepidatiously tiptoe then dance along artfully bowed
strings. raudive (and "friends") returns to close their show;
translations from "part 2" (11:07) include "let us sleep", "good
evening, i'd like to drink your wine with you" (with its words
being spoken in five different languages!?) and "hello, hello, we
wish you a good night". other contributors are lee ranaldo, random
inc. and carl michael von hausswolff.
i must confess that the the voices of the dead creeped me out a
bit... though the creeps were probably lessened (or perhaps
heightened?) since i couldn't understand most of the
multilinguistic transmissions, wherever they originated from. part
documentary, part experimental paean, konstantin raudive: the
voices of the dead certainly makes for unusual listening. for
purely ambient-listening, there's a lot of speech, of course,
though the more musical tracks are nicely rendered by top-notch
artists.
review taken from www.ambientrance.org
■■ visit ln~#klangwerk