Rummaging the web #3

A regular survey of internet resources.

The heirs of Richard Lerman, US troupe Portland Bike Ensemble (pictured top) and british band The Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra [+] share a split online release on www.lostfrog.net/. The former get some really weird, abrasive sounds from their bikes: rubbing tires, ringing pedals, making their derailleur sing, eventually elaborating unusual concrete ensemble music. The spirit of bicycle music lives on!

One of Test Tube many netreleases, Lezrod‘s ‘Exploraciones sonoras’, is the work of Colombian artist David Vélez. Label blurb imagine it as based on french writer Jules Verne’s universe of underwater exploration, unknown realms and unveiled lost civilisations, though this is only a guess, I think. Composed of 2 tracks of mysterious elctroacoustic music and the occasional pulsating drone, ‘Exploraciones sonoras’ offers engaging electronic sounds and treatments. Nice one. [via La Fresto. Thanks]

Kill Ugly Radio blog pointed to this monthly show on KBOO 90.7 in Portland called Ubu Hour, produced by Rolf Semprebon. Engaging and short (10 to 20mns) radioplays where a group of actors play ferocious contemporary satires specially written for the show. My favorite is ‘The Darkness’ trilogy where a whole city gets into total darkness by some mysterious black-out, while the neighborhood is trying to make sense of it all, obscurity ultimately revealing the wickedness of the citizens during a city-wide orgy. ‘NeoCons In Hell’ is a satirical, hilarious charge against the Bush administration, queuing in Hell before being prosecuted for their crimes. In ‘The Five White Guys of City Hall’, the show also make fun of the ‘young creatives’: healthy people, superficial bloggers (what?) and fashion hordes. Radio Art, no question.

Guillaume Loizillon is a french composer living and teaching in Paris. Since the late 1970s, he has been involved in new music projects, software music, sound poetry and released several CDs on the french Trace Label. The sound files page on his personal website, provides several mp3s from the early 1980s: exquisite electronic music miniatures.

It seems this live recording of a Lounge Lizards‘ show in Berlin, 1981 is already disseminated here and there, but it’s the first time I hear it. On a par with my favorite Lounge Lizards album: the ROIR cassette. The picture is from an actual film shooting of the show, the green hallow around Evan Lurie’s head remaining a mystery to me.

Mathew Swiezynski is a film maker from San Francisco blogging at The Art Of Memory. A fan of french film maker Robert Bresson, he actually provided the entire soundtrack to the non talkative, almost silent film ‘Mouchette’, 1967. The post: ‘Mouchette and some french field recordings’, offers the ensuing 55mn mp3. I keep being perplexed and fascinated by this. It is not concrete music though made of concrete sounds only. It is even not music either, being a sound montage, as the film maker had pictures in mind when he was creating his soundtrack (do I know of any music composer creating with pictures in mind? I wonder). Additionaly, he’s putting Bresson’s soundtrack in perspective with Yannick Dauby, Eric Cordier or Olivier Messiaen, adding to my confusion. Check it out, by all means, if you’ve ever been freaked out by a Luc Ferrari’s Paysage. Kudos, M Swiezynski, for this fascinating post.