This CD was one of the albums of the year in The Wire (UK), 2003
Grooves (USA):
While Fennesz fans anxiously await Venice, his follow-up to the justly heralded
Endless Summer, they can tide themselves over with this majestic recording
of a February 9, 2003 performance at Shibuya Nest in Tokyo. While apparently
some listeners have described it as "the greatest laptop live show in
music history," music of this potency and textural richness hardly requires
such hyperbole to argue in its favour. It begins with a churning, industrial
haze of electronics and continues for forty-three raw minutes in a stream-like
fashion. While snippets of Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen
Degrees 51' 08",
Endless Summer, and 'Codeine' (Fennesz's remix of the Ekkehard Ehlers and
Stephan Mathieu track from the duo's superb Heroin) do surface, most appear
briefly before being sucked back into the volcanic brew Fennesz concocts.
Recognizable elements like the melancholy guitar strummings and vibes of
Endless Summer and the organ of 'Codeine' are shredded by an astonishing
and relentless array of processing treatments. Yet even when such effects
are at their most extreme, Fennesz's unique sensibility ensures that melodic
traces will be heard straining towards the surface. At the very moment when
the sound threatens to become wholly engulfed by static and noise, the familiar
strumming of an acoustic guitar breaks through to provide a stabilizing reference.
Presumably he used a predetermined 'set list' to guide himself through the
performance, but the feel is definitely organic with ideas unfolding in a
natural manner. In conjuring this stunning set, Fennesz maintains a level
of invention and intensity from beginning to end that is both exhausting
and thrilling. The seeming ease with which he shapes these transitions into
a cohesive, grand design is masterful. Conspicuous by its singularity is
the brief interlude of silence near the end, after which Fennesz ends this
remarkable set with the gorgeous 'Caecilia.' [Ron Schepper]
The Wire (UK):
Running parallel to his excursions on the international improvisors' circuit,
Christian Fennesz is also developing a career as laptop abstractionist of
choice for more orthodox musicians. First he turns up applying texture to
David Sylvian's recent return to form, Blemish. Next, he's set to work with
Sparklehorse, arguably one of the more openminded outfits to have emerged
from the alt Country boom in the mid-90s. Listening to Fennesz's latest solo
release, Live In Japan, it's easy to hear why he has become so popular. Essentially,
he offers all the puzzles and adventures of experimental music, but with
a more assimilable grasp of melody - and a prominent role for the guitar
- than most of his Viennese contemporaries. Live in Japan is a new piece,
around 40 minutes long, recorded at the Shibuya Nest, Tokyo, this February.
The sound, though, will be familiar to fans of Endless Summer, his studio
album from 2001: great fields of soft-edged static; rearing symphonic drones;
fragments of balmy guitar melody; unsteady digital editing that, at odds
with many of his contemporaries, enhances the aesthetic qualities of his
music rather than sabotaging them. The last, especially, is critical to Fennesz's
appeal. Rather than succumbing to the multiple disruptive possibilities of
Improv, Live In Japan evolves
serenely from an opening burst of granular noise towards bucolic resolution.
As a result, it often recalls a canny update of the bliss-out chapter of
avant rock - My Bloody Valentine circa "To Here Knows When", AR
Kane, perhaps even The Cocteau Twins - as much as it does to more obvious
contemporaries like Pluramon. The result is quite lovely, and oddly radical
in the way Fennesz manipulates pop and rock classicism with affection rather
than selfconsciousness. Of course, he's not averse to pranks, as the two
Fenn O'Berg CDs with Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg testify. But when he
revisits the watery vibes and smudged harmonies of "Caecilia" from
Endless Summer - which is more reminiscent of The Beach Boys than his cover
of their "Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder) - as an encore,
what's most striking is the unashamed sentimentality which underpins it.
The press release claims the show "has been praised by many as the greatest
laptop live show in music history". That's a big call, but it's hard
now to imagine one that could be more engaging. [John Mulvey]
Brainwashed
(USA):
There are three kinds of human, as you call them. There are the poor doomed
huddled masses who are yet to hear Fennesz, cowering in ignorance of the
F-able;
there are the enlightened who recognise him as a gloriously original experimental
musician orbiting spheres way beyond mere progression; then there are total
morons who probably waste their time listening to Britpap for lack of any
clue whatsoever. The Austrian entity who has totally defined and redefined
the interface between overgrown hedge cutting laptop mutation and pick'n'strum
guitar beauty played for around forty-six minutes in Japan in the second
month
of this year. As the summer hit too hot to move, this CD fell into my lucky
ol' player on the fifteenth and shimmered with utter perfection. If you
didn't
dig Endless Summer you are not worth a flick of my fag ash, and I don't even
smoke. Chrissy F as his friends almost certainly never call him (I mean
have
you seen the guy? He looks so serious no one could call him Chrissy F, except
maybe that utterly punchable dillweed who tries tosing for Blur) would doubtless
not approve of such an irrelevant sentance with parentheses appearing in
what is after all supposed to be some kind of description of his latest
triumph.
Hip Nips (the Jap chaps who clap quiet) hailed the master of cracklepops
as the finest laptop performer they had witnessed. Reviewed, it seemed that
this
was the inevitable hype of the press release, but the disc is ample amplified
evidence that this was one sweet shimmer burn of a unique event. Familiar
fragments and refrains from Endless Summer are repositioned amongst ever
more sundrenched light too bright. Fennesz has shifted his whole unmistakable
shtick
up a gear here, and made the magnificent Endless Summer seem like a mere
rehearsal. If you are one of the enlightened then you know you need this.
If you want
to elevate beyond the bilge this
is the disc to pick, yellow obi 'n' all. Bob Geldof has not been hailing
this as the greatest thing he's heard since the Pistols, and Fennesz has
never
tried to feed the world. How can you tell them it's Xmas time when the summer
is endless? - [Graeme Rowland]
City Pages (USA):
Like Falco, public health care, and Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio remake, the
European phenomenon of the live PowerBook performance hasn't taken very well
on American shores. Perhaps in these war-torn times, audiences need a little
more shock-and-awe onstage than a guy sitting in front of a laptop can provide.
Or maybe the new broken equipment craze that's propelling bands like Wolf
Eyes and Nautical Almanac has made it uncool to buy pre-built, unmodified
gear. Who knows? All I can say for sure is that at a recent house show here
in Minneapolis, New York headliner Chuck Bettis spewed the kind of heart-thrilling
noise Merzbow would kill for--and five minutes into his set, there was barely
anyone left in the room to hear it. Sure, it was the crowd's loss. But perhaps
those deserters afflicted with live-laptop bias should listen to Fennesz's
new Live in Japan, which is the most compelling argument for them to shut
the fuck up and listen that I've yet to hear. Austrian-based artist Christian
Fennesz has already established himself as a preeminent computer musician,
meticulously splicing shards of sound and processed guitar into the hazy
future-pop
of his classic Endless Summer. But where his albums are marked by precise
editing and meticulously layered washes of fuzz, Live In Japan captures Fennesz
in an improvisational mood, flitting through melodies with the kind of dynamic,
turn-on-a-dime shifts that characterize the best that live improv can offer,
laptop or otherwise. This shouldn't really be a surprise, since Fennesz regularly
takes his PowerBook on the road for solo performances and collaborations
with
acts like Polwechsel and Fenn O'Berg. Even so, his performance here (presented
as a single 43-minute track) is remarkable both in its scope and its consistency:
Building up looped melodic phrases into a mass of sound, he then subsumes
the whole thing with harsh screeches and crackles. Though the process may
sound simple, it takes some skillful manipulation to simultaneously tug those
heartstrings and poke them with tiny pins. Each of the several mini-narratives
that arises within the set repeatedly pitches melody against noise, order
against entropy. The grunting noise
that
opens the performance slowly unfolds into a pulsing wall of guitar. The hiss
of reverberating tape-decayed synthesizers ply themselves against flickering
sample-strobes at the 20-minute mark. And at my favorite point in the album,
lush organ-drones and finger-picked guitar cap off the first part of the
set,
variously recalling Ry Cooder, My Bloody Valentine, and early Aphex Twin
ambience. There's a marked playfulness throughout the set, as Fennesz drops
in teaser
samples from his early albums before twisting them into entirely new shapes:
It's a knowing wink to the audience, followed by a stealthily concealed
middle finger. Toward the last quarter of the record, Fennesz brings things
to an emotional pitch, fades entirely to silence, and slowly works back into
a splendidly
noisy recap of Endless Summer's hauntingly catchy "Caecilia" before
fading into quiet fields of pop and crackle. It's a heartbreaking ending
that
makes a damn good argument for the laptop's rightful place on center stage.
And if Fennesz still can't convince the doubters, then it's probably time
for the laser light show. [Nick Phillips]
Drowned in Sound (UK):
Christian
Fennesz has been ploughing a lonely furrow for quite some time now. I say
lonely only because of the stunning uniqueness of his work; while laptop
musicians
are now a dime a dozen, Fennesz' music transcends the usual pitfalls of such
a genre, eschewing technical gimmickry in favour of a distinctly human approach
to digital sound. When Fennesz uses a laptop, he does so not to show off
his
no doubt impressive collection of hardware, nor to create sounds that are
deliberately, self-consciously, difficult or abrasive. Instead, he uses the
micro-editing possibilites of his technology to expand the emotional pallette
afforded him by more traditional instruments. On Fennesz' last original solo
release, 2001's Endless Summer, he combined dense, manipulated digital static
with calm washes of broken guitar and the occasional stab of warm, breathy
organ; it's a fantastic record, certainly one of the best of the recent slew
of laptop-based releases, and it achieves its greatness with nary a regular
rhythm in sight. Live in Japan, however, goes some way to exceeding the emotionally
sharp Endless Summer, protracting that records oscillations to a single,
45
minute ocean of sound. It's impossible to convey just how dense, how thick,
this tangle of living, breathing sonic threads really is; in the space of
a mere 20 seconds, Fennesz seems to reference Ambient, the radio music of
John Cage, his contemporaries, while simultaneously creating a deep sense
of space within the fizzes and the crackles. More than anything, Fennesz
seems
interested in the fallability of technology; his music explodes the innocuous
digital sheen that micro-processing is often prone to, allowing error, disassembly,
and the odd aural double take to permeate his set. It's quite easy, of course,
to forget that this was all conjured during the space of one 45 minute live
set in Toyko at the beginning of this year; not one electronic shudder has
been tampered with since. It's an incredible achievement, a genuine plethora
of sound, fury and fragility, by turns haunting and exultant. Fennesz seems
determined to show us the ghost in the machine, and in the process he may
well alter our perception of what "experimental" and "popular" music
can be. Live In Japan is available by mail-order only at the Touch
website.
Pitchfork (USA):
Rating: 8.5
David Berman tosses off an image in his poem "The New Idea" that
hasbeen stuck in my head: "beauty blew a fuse." Pulled from the
context of the poem, this line gets me thinking about things like Icarus flying
too close to the sun or steel driving man John Henry pounding his way through
that mountain to his death. It's a line about power, reach, and limitation.
I read Berman's words and imagine an aesthetic experience as an electrical
impulse carrying so much energy that somewhere, a breaker is tripped, natural
limits are exceeded, destruction ensues, and the resulting jumble shows the
opposing forces of, well, life. If I had to describe the music Christian Fennesz
is making now with a single line, I could do worse than "the sound of
beauty blowing a fuse." He started off with other goals. Early Fennesz
wound a path through electronic abstraction and then rounded a curve around
the time of the "Plays" single that led to his 2001 release Endless
Summer. That record was a breakthrough that pointed the way toward a new fusion
of guitar melody processed with the limitless textured noise made available
via computer. Listening on the bus home from work today Endless Summer sounded
even more pop than I remember; once again I was humming the title track, which
is actually based on some pretty effective changes. I'm told that on his hard
drive Fennesz has a version of his recording of "Don't Talk (Put Your
Head on My Shoulder)" with Brian Wilson's vocals added on top; someone
should write a vocal song to lay over "Endless Summer".
Live in Japan documents a single show recorded in February 2003, and it contains
several chopped and processed segments of "Endless Summer", but
Fennesz does a lot more here than just cue tracks. Bits of Plus Forty Seven
Degrees 56' 37" Minus Sixteen Degrees 51' 08" stream past, there's
a remix in there along with some scattered Endless Summer quotes, but Live
in Japan is Fennesz in freeform mode, floating from one idea the next and
finding the common core of energy in his varied approaches. You really could
chart the emotional pitch of this set on a graph, as it begins in the middle,
climbs to an early, intense peak, slopes down for some quiet contemplation
before starting for another crest. The word "symphonic" comes to
mind. Japanese label Headz is billing this particular performance as one
of
the greatest laptop shows of all time. I am not qualified to address that
hyperbole, but I can say that Live in Japan is a very good Fennesz album
regardless
of how and where it was recorded.
Though the prettier aspects of Fennesz' sound appear with some regularity,
Live in Japan generally leans toward noisier territory. It's a thick, heavy
mix, and there always seem to be spikes of static bouncing against the floating
organ chords and acoustic guitar picking. Fennesz has a way of teasing out
unexpected sounds from his gear and creating unusual emotional effects. About
2/3 of the way through his set, he constructs a mountain of drone that sounds
like the orchestral sweep of Sigur Ros fused with Merzbow, and then in the
shadow of this monolith he inserts a plucked guitar processed to sound like
a harpsichord, imparting an odd medieval quality that feels completely unplugged
from time. That this towering and heroic mass slowly decays into the comparatively
stark and desolate "Coedine," his remix of a track by Ekkehard
Ehlers and Stephen Mathieu, is a testament to Fennesz' emotional reach.
He wisely concludes his set on this high note and breaks
for a moment before plugging back in and working noisier bits of "Endless
Summer" back into an encore. Fennesz' approach with previous records
has been to explore a small number of discrete sound ideas in each track
and then assemble the varied results
into an album. A lot of the fun of Live in Japan comes from hearing how he
moves from one sequence into something completely different (surely time
spent
improvising as part of Fenn'o'berg was an influence here.) Live in Japan
is mastered as one 45-minute track, and though I've never been crazy about
this
kind of listener coercion (first foisted upon the world with Prince's Lovesexy),
it has forced me to
consider Fennesz' set as a whole. This record is a finely rendered laptop
suite by a master of dynamics and pacing. There are (too?) many people making
similar music on their laptops at this moment, but very few are as accomplished
as Christian Fennesz. [Mark Richardson]
VITAL (The Netherlands):
Let's hope that Christian Fennesz doesn't need an introduction. Many of his
works are landmarks in the world of laptopmusic, maybe with 'Endless Summer'
being the biggest one of them all. Fennesz is also a person who plays live
a lot and is among the best ones to improvise freely on his laptop. A live
solo album was to be expected. Here it is. It was recorded in Japan, in February
of this year and released on the Headz label (run by the same guy that did
Meme some years ago, let's hope this label is somewhat better organised),
of course with permission of Touch, the UK label to which Fennesz is exclusively
signed to. The press blurb raves about the best laptop concert ever given.
Maybe that is a bit too much, but I must agree we are dealing with not just
a very good recording, but also with some great music. Guitar plays a major
part in these recordings, with long passages of untreated guitar playing,
to which Fennesz adds little bits of his special layerings of processed guitars.
Fennesz has his own style of playing (and I mean laptop here), which is not
really about cracks and clicks, but rather psychedelic patterns of sounds,
fields, more or less aggressive drones, which are real-time filtered and collaged
together. In the encore we even are offered a xylophone and Fennesz comes
close to the Beach Boys here. Maybe not the best laptop CD ever made, but
certainly for a live CD, one of the best around. (FdW)
Matiere Brut (France):
Christian Fennesz est de retour avec cette fois, non pas un album mais l'enregistrement
complet d'un concert donné le 9 février 2003 à Shibuya
Nest dans la ville de Tokyo. Fennesz a une rare aisance à improviser
en live ce qui légitime
grandement la sortie de ce disque, très emprunt de son album studio
Endless Summer sorti en 2001 sur le label Mego. Les guitares "non ou
peu traîtées", qui ne cachent
pas leurs racines pop, jouent un rôle majeur ici, se reposant sur les
fines couches superposées de drones et de clics digitaux manipulés
en temps réels. Le tout est comme d'habitude finement mis en place,
l'évolution du morceau faisant preuve d'une grande sensibilité. Bref,
cet enregistement est une brillante démonstration des possibilités
de la "musique laptop" en live. [Yann Hascoet]
Geiger (Denmark):
Christian Fennesz had his big artistic breakthrough in 2001 with the album
Endless Summer. The release, that with an extreme fine touch for combining
cut-up electronic elements, noise and accoustics, that set new standards
for how laptop could be utilized, have since almost obtained something near
classical status. Since the release, Fennesz has among other things taken
advantage
of his popularity, working with an amount of musicians within amost
all genres. As from his involvement in the improv trio Fenn O'Berg,
with Jim O'Rourke and Peter Rehberg, to AMM's Keith Rowe and at last participates
Fennesz on David Sylvians latest album. According to the rumors, the latest
cooperation should be with the american indie-group Sparklehorse. Lately
Christian Fennesz has concentrated on finishing the follow-up for Endless
Summer - Venice, as the album is called should, according to the rumors
contain contributions from David Sylvian and is set for release later this
year. Untill then, his growing audience would
have to pass the time with this live-album, that has been recorded at his
lates concert in Japan the 9th of February this year. In a way, the fact
to release
a live album, particulary with his already
huge level of activity, can seem a bit like an idea, driven more from greediness
than artistic will. On the other side, the music on the album actually shows
something different. Live in Japan contains one long piece, that constantly
supplies elements from pieces from earlier albums, as well as new material.
In this way, space for a much more simple and less noisy version of the original
accoustic-founded title piece from Endless Summer is given. In all, Fennesz
has turned down the more aggressive part of his noise-layering, that has
been replaced by as well noisy, but much more fluent background of tiny skips.
The more fluent result is at the same time confirmed from that a much bigger
part of the music are supported by either small accoustic melodies or wide
blurry guitar-feedback layers. In spite that Fennesz few places gives away
for small passages with white noise, is the atmosphere he creates on Live
in Japan much more restrained and melodious than Endless Summer. The cd seems
with it's greater simplicity immediately more easy-listening than one is
used to - a fact that without doubt will give Fennesz even more listeners
- but
without artistical compromises are taken. His music works simply just great
under these premisses. Live in Japan works, despite the fact that it is a
live
album, not just a cd with live-recordings of what Fennesz earlier has
produced.
On
the contrary part the music here gets a much more fluent and organic touch,
and the well-known tracks here get new blood with more improvised sequences.
That Fennesz with the more improvised pieces gives the music a more free
and floating touch, the music adds an extra dimension in relation to his
studio albums. Live in Japan is in that way a really well done live album,
that on the face of it can
be compared with his studio album. Wheter it can bear to stand as an independent
work, or if this is just a station between two great studio albums, will
Fennesz's next album without doubt reveal. Untill then, Live in Japan will
undoubtly give us plenty of vitamins for many listenings. [Translated
by Jacob Kirkegaard]
Disquiet (USA):
Laptop Concert in a Tokyo Nest:
At a club called Shibuya Nest in Tokyo, Japan, on February 9 of 2003, Christian
Fennesz, who records
under his last
name, took the stage with his laptop and let loose three quarters of an hour
of sublimation and noise. The event is now available as full-length CD, Live
in Japan, from the Tokyo-based label Headz. Aside from one fadeout half an
hour in, it's a single continuous piece of music - continuous, but
not homogenous by any means. What is beautiful in a familiar way about the
recording (the occasional spurts of guitar, the squawking of birdsong, various
lyrical samples) is often muffled by layers of static and fuzz. And that
static and fuzz, in turn, is often shaped into its own musical material -
repeated, for example, until what sounds like interference becomes a riff;
the experience
is a bit like seeing enormous and threatening clouds overhead come to resemble
faces and forms. (Throughout the record, various segments might be recognized
by anyone who has heard Fennesz's previous Endless Summer and Field Recordings
albums.) His music thrives on its proximity to chaos, which is what makes
it sublime. In contrast with cathartic work that openly embraces chaos, his
has the detailed beauty of a carefully produced song, though that song may
take several listens to hear, and the production several listens more to
appreciate. Almost seven minutes into Live in Japan (the disc contains one
single track, 43 minutes in length), after a flurry of fuzz has settled down,
an acoustic
guitar surfaces tentatively to provide a distinct signal. The digital hubbub
subsides, soothed like a pack of digital beasts, rabid robot scouts lured
to the campfire by the promise of a lullaby. The hisses and crunches that
had previously defined the recording seem to coalesce around the guitar,
echoing or otherwise complementing the melody that's being plucked and strummed.
There's an extent to which these fluctuations and irritants are welcome,
since some of the guitar playing sounds like second-rate singer-songwriter
mush. Twenty minutes or so in, as an electric guitar emerges, again it's
downright enticing how peculiar particulate sounds - bleeps like terse
foghorns, scintillate like amplified fireflies - mesh with the guitar.
On first listening, the noise can be little more than a distraction. But
Fennesz has the unique ability to suggest an interplay between what is foreground
and what is background, and how those two merge into one thick moment is
what makes Live in Japan worth sitting through repeatedly. So heat up some
sake, dim the lights, and sink in. [Marc
Weidenbaum]
XLR8R (USA):
(Belgium):
Hij was lang aangekondigd maar het bleef maar wachten op de nieuwe van Christian
Fennesz. Eerst zou die in het voorjaar uitkomen, dan in het najaar en dan
was er niks. Naar het schijnt is hij nu al in omloop en te beluisteren ergens
op het internet en naar het schijnt is hij heel goed. Weten wij veel! Om
de leemte op te vullen, was er dan toch die zeer succesvolle samenwerking
met ene David Sylvian. Deze Japanse liveregistratie was ook niet mis. ‘Live
In Japan’ klonk een stuk agressiever en pittiger dan de studioalbums,
die voorafgingen, maar steeds melodieus. Fennesz op zijn best dus! [Peter
Wullen]
The New York Times (USA):
Fennesz is an Austrian producer and guitarist who makes sublime, stately compositions
out of hovering melodies and white noise. This disc gathers rare and unreleased
music from the last seven years; there's plenty of variety here, but the mood
of blissful tranquillity remains, even when Fennesz is manipulating jagged
shards of sound. "Menthol" juxtaposes a deep, glimmering drone with little
eruptions of static on the surface. And on "Codeine," the disc's final track,
the sonic cobwebs part slightly, and you can make out the soothing sound of
a guitar being strummed. [Kelefa Sanneh]
The Sound Projector (UK):
A very useful and desirable comp of diverse cuts by the Fennery fellow, some
of which are hard to come by - covering a five year period (astonishing to
think he's been around that long, eh?) this includes the Instrument EP in its
totality, plus Christian's contributions to other compilations, film soundtracks,
along with remixes and what are laughingly called 'special projects', plus
an unreleased cut from the vaults called 'Good Man'. This is a long-overdue
goodie and a real treat for fans. Despite the title of course there are no
'field recordings' by way of environmental documents made in the middle of
a countryside meadow, but the conceit reminds us that although all flesh is
as grass, Fennesz's work has not aged and still comes up smelling as fresh
as a bale of new-mown hay. Jon Wozencroft's cover images of a tractor, wooden
fence and field of crops does nothing to contradict this notion. After the
exceptionally powerful opener 'Good Man', we have all four tracks from Instrument,
a belter of a disc which I think was Fennesz's first record and one of the
earliest MEGO 12" releases. Wow. It exhibits CF's sharp genius right upfront
- everything we have since associated with him seems to have been in place
from the start. Here it is in the raw, wild buzzsaw drones and crazy distorted
guitar noise - only back then he used a fairly conventional drum track, an
element which has since been ditched in favour of his far more unrestrained
approach, free-flowing fields of arrhythmic free noise.
Well, so much for the first five cuts. The rest of the comp can seem a bit
disparate and throwaway after that strong opening. 'Betrieb' is a remix version
by Ekkehard Ehlers for a Mille Plateaux release of that name, and Ehlers performs
a small miracle by softening the overall range of frequencies and making Fennesz
sound positively romantic. Maybe not a major miracle; there's always been this
altruistic side to CF (the nice guy out of the meanie Mego gang) and Ehlers
somehow cultivates it electronically. Both 'Stairs' and 'Odessa' are soundtracks
plucked from a movie called Blue Moon, the former a short episode with a glutinous,
cloying atmosphere, the latter a subterranean exploration suggesting pearl
divers in the ocean. 'Codeine' finds acoustic guitar joining the laptoppery
confections - very pleasing effect indeed - mingling with that powerful distressed
surface which CF has made all his own, like musical notes being blown away
in a strong wind. 'Ivend00' is punchier, with a controlled explosion of nasty
static splinters and other micro-blip events, all combined in the mosaic style,
instead of with the usual broad well-charged electronic paintbrush.
For some reason this is one of the strongest Fennesz sets ever released - maybe
he works best with short, single tracks, where he can pour everything he's
got into one intense burst of layered energy. Live recordings, and the much
vaunted Endless Summer are great things in their way, but even they can seem
slightly dissipated and washed-out in comparison to this. Hear Fennesz at his
muscular best on Field Recordings! [Ed Pinsent]
City Pages (USA):
Call it the Prince-Alone-in-His-Studio Syndrome: Electronic musicians, when
confronted with a panel of shiny knobs, tend to spend more time twiddling with
them than using them to actually express something. Sure, it takes a clever
studio engineer to wire a mixer together so that it amplifies its own feedback
into a bevy of screeches and hums. But, as Toshimaru Nakamura proved with his
classic No-Input Mixing Board, it takes a true artist to sculpt said screeches
into a gorgeous wash of primordial pulsations. Which explains why Austrian
laptop mangler Christian Fennesz is such a precious commodity. Though his basic
songwriting method (upsetting pop structures with woozy computer processing)
has remained essentially unchanged over the course of three albums and countless
collaborations, his music's emotional returns continue to build, culminating
in the stunning melancholia of last year's Endless Summer and the surprisingly
adroit tonal studies of his recent FatCat 12-inch. On his newest CD, which
collects his earliest songs alongside later film scores and compilation contributions,
Fennesz assembles a portrait of the artist as a young man that's also a blistering
work of art in itself. Anyone who came to Fennesz's music through the Beach
Boys-refracted lens of his Endless Summer is in for a surprise. In place of
that album's meticulously fractured xylophones and synthesizers is a refreshingly
epic take on My Bloody Valentine's wall-of-sound blast-off. The four songs
collected here from Fennesz's long out-of-print 1995 EP Instrument layer dense,
almost industrial guitars over hectic drumbeats, all to dizzying effect. But
fans of Fennesz's later work can rest assured: The more recent selections from
Field Recordings veer from glitched-out academic pop to minimal sound design
to the almost bombastic film score for Andrea Maria Dusl's fairytale love story
Blue Moon. Within these tracks is the blueprint for Fennesz's fragile, blunted
lyricism. For instance, "Good Man," an unreleased song of unspecified
age, is like a collision between academic sound design and tremulous pop. With
a bed of soft pops and fizzes that gradually give way to waves of processed
synthesizer and hissing guitars, the song shows its Iannis Xenakis-inspired
experimentalism. And yet it still has an emotional tenor that could bring lesser
men - like me - to tears.
Echoes (Germany):
Ah, Fennesz. Mag ich sehr gern. Schön, dass der wieder mal was von sich hören
lässt. “Field Recordings 1995:2002" also. Mhm. Feines Cover-Artwork von Jon
Wozencroft. Compilation, so wie's aussieht. Outtakes, Raritäten, die vergriffene
“Instrument"-EP, Stücke von dem Film “Blue Moon", na ja, mal anhören. Mhm,
ja, sehr fein. Gewohnte Kost, nix wirklich Neues. Aber was er macht, das kann
er halt, der Chris, na ich werd' mal die obligaten 7.5 Punkte vergeben und
ein paar Zeil... Moment! Was war DAS? Muss mal lauter drehen. Der letzte Track.
’Codeine'. Noch mal. Das ist ja... unglaublich. Unbeschreiblich. Großartig.
Und noch mal. Ich muss mich hinlegen. Die Augen schließen. Genießen. Diese
wunderbaren Akkordwechsel auf der Akustikgitarre, die so schwerelos zwischen
den Nebelfetzen aus dem Powerbook driften, ruhig, entspannt und mit unendlich
viel Raum, um sich auszubreiten. Wahnsinn. Ein tiefer, dunkelblauer Bergsee,
inmitten einer hellgrünen Wiese über der sich die Morgennebel lichten. Sieben
Minuten, die endlos so weitergehen könnten. Ein unbeschreiblich schönes Stück
Musik. Wahrscheinlich das beste, das Fennesz je aufgenommen hat. Die akustische
und die elektronische Kontinentalplatte driften aufeinander zu. Kollidieren.
In dem Gebirge, das sich an der Bruchstelle aufzutürmen beginnt, ganz am Gipfel,
sitzt im kalten, klaren Nachthimmel Christian Fennesz und hat Gitarre und Powerbook
auf seinem Schoß. Der nächste Frühling kommt doch bestimmt, oder? [Tobias Bolt]
10.0 Punkte
Boomkat (Web):
As the title suggests 'Field Recordings 1995-2002' is a compliation of works
from the austrian wunderkid Christian Fennesz and in a similar way to Hrvatski's
'Swarm and Dither' it succeeds by digging deep to bring you tracks of serious
quality and unbelieavble rarity. Kicking of with the previously unissued 'Good
Man'. A full on sonic blast which manages not to mangle the senses but rather
envelop you in blue warmth and hidden melodic rushes. Then for the first time
on CD media is Mego 004, Christian's 'Instrument' 12" from 1995 in it's full
glory. Four parts from 'Instrument 1-4', '1' gives a injection of muffled techno
amongst the forward drones and clipped guitar feedback noises. '2' adopts intense
feedback before the calm is brought. '3' chops the intensity up while micro
beats dance to a motorik jungle tempo. '4' adopts Phillip Jeck traits, crackle
loops driven by a hardrive rather than a belt driven Dansette motor. Incredibly
moving and haunting. Other tracks come from his appearances on Mille Plateaux,
Ash International, Keith Hrvatski's RKK label and Orthlorng Musork via his
incredible rework of Stephan Mathieu & Ekkehard Ehkers' 'Heroin'. Twelve tracks
from a modern day master. Incredible.
ei (USA):
Christian Fennesz's music is a lesson in human-computer interaction. Playing
acousticmusic through digital filters and processors, and getting it to sound
emotional and rich, is something many laptoppers have tried to accomplish with
very little remarkable success. WShen Fennesz dropped Endless Summer on
Mego in 2001, an alarming buzz surrounded his name. The soulful cyborg digitally
crooned his way through a miniature binary symphony, Pet Sounds fore the Y2K.
Since Endless Summer, Fennesz has been collaborating with some of
the finest metalmen around, with little new solo material. Enter Field
Recordings 1995:2002, a hulking slab of Fennesz history in the form of
tracks distilled down to a lucky thirteen, including "Instrument," his debut
twelve-inch for Mego, remixes for Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu, some
soundtracks, compilation fodder like "Menthol," from Clicks &
Cuts 2, Mille Plateaux's magnum glitch opus. By far the most inspirational
material comes from the four parts of "Instrument." Densely layered and richly
textured, we see Fennesz all over the canvas: dance beats, noise loops, acoustics
and electronics in every hue and flavor, freely flying from the hands of the
young visionary. In 21 minutes, Fennesz destroys these 'fields' with diamond-sharp
audio bling, loosing captor and victim at the same time to startling ends.
On "Betrieb" and "Codeine," Fennesz is at his electroacoustic best, collaging
the already-collaged tracks of Ellers [sic] and Mathieu. The balance of the
recordings are fact-finding missions about the power and presenhce of noise.
The findings? Droning static, clipped squelch rhythms, bursts of dub bass and
upside-down melodies. Collections like this tend to be solipsistic and lopsided,
but Field Recordings avoids both, mostly because every single track
is torn directly from the reified flesh of the mutant computermensch himself,
and he only has beauty to share. [Michael Bernstein]
Phosphor (The Netherlands):
"Field Recordings" brings together a range of material Christian Fennesz has
contributed to compilations, special projects and film soundtracks (for the
movie "Blue Moon") between the years 1995 and 2002. Also, for the first time
on CD, it includes his debut 12' for Mego, the awesome "Instrument", remastered,
and a new track recorded specially for this release, "Good Man". This is his
first release since "Invisible Architecture 02", together with Mika Vainio)
and a prelude to his next studio album, which will be released on Touch in
January 2003. After "Hotel Paral.lel" (Mego), "Plus
47 degrees..." (Touch) and "Endless summer" (Mego), Fennesz is mentioned
in a lot in reviews as a reference. This album makes clear why. A rich variety
of styles has been presented here. Every track is progressive, well-balanced
and beautiful mastered. The uptempo, almost danceable "Instrument 1", the more
industrial and repetitive "Instrument 2", "Betrieb", a beautiful sensitive
floating remix from a song by Ekkehard Ehlers and the Click & Cuts track "Menthol"
with lots of reworked digital sounds and crisp fragments are just a few examples
presented on one of the best albums released lately...
Flux (UK):
Austrian Christian Fennesz has become someone to reckon with on the international
processed-sound scene, his rise parallelling that of the label, Mego, with
which he is most associated. He is good because his work still sounds like
music while being challenging, gritty and abstract. He began as a guitarist,
and most of the pieces here still sound like guitar playing, though with many
extra layers of distortion and repetition. Hear this and most rock music instantly
becomes pointless. [Andi Chapple]
Muzik (UK):
Fennesz's computer-processed guitar music is like listening to The Stooges
or Velvet Underground with the words, tunes and rhythm track removed. Which
seems perverse unless you remember it's the sound of that music - the fuzz,
feedback, roar and drone - that makes it so exciting, not just Iggy's ereliner
or Lou Reed's barbed observations. Some of the earlier tracks here are rooted
in techno, but by the time you get to 'Codeine' - a cunningly titled remix
of Stephan Mathieu & Ekkehard Ehlers' 'Heroin' - you realise this is the future
of rock 'n' roll. [Tom Mugridge] - (There is also a photo and interview in
the Dec 2002 edition)
Other Music (USA):
While so many indie bands have been toiling endlessly to follow up My Bloody
Valentine's "Loveless" LP and fail, Fennesz manages to do it seemingly by accident.
Unlike other Fennesz releases, "Field Recordings" has a grittiness that allows
us to actually seem to hear the hand stroke upon the guitar strings, but still
ends up being totally inhuman. Wave upon wave build, break down and surge beyond
expectation repeatedly. A one man Glenn Branca orchestra (see track three:
"Instrument 3"). Chords and notes fall through the cloud wall in unnatural
yet beautiful patterns. Remember at the end of MBV's set when Kevin Shields
planted his guitar upright in the middle of the stage while it fed back an
unbelievable, countless amount of hypnotic sound waves through the audience?
This album is full of moments like that except it's way more sculpted. "Guitar
bands" take heed -- better than Van Halen. Necessary music. [SM] ("Field Recordings"
collects material created between 1995 and 2002 for compilations, soundtracks
and special projects. Included is "Instrument," Fennesz's first 12" for Mego,
plus a brand new track.)
The Wire (UK):
Review can be read here
Stylus (USA):
overheard by tobias c. van Veen
dear Christian Fennesz, (a love letter):
letters of tenderness to your particle caresses, to your subconscious synaesthesia
that runs fingers down my spine. I realised I could only write you a love letter
when, after licking my words, and readying those wounds (love bites from that
fateful night I took you on the subway!), I could not come without your consent.
You held me ready, and in waiting, your throbbing sound coursing through my
body... Because here, you play your Instrument (remember that long lost night
on the Rhine? when we sung in Italian to a wall of water?). Yes, that ancient-1995!-Mego
004 12", so desperately desired by so many, you have finally given it over,
percussive swellings, staccato over your moaning guitar, processed through
erotic warmth of laptop circuitry... it was just a breath of what was to come,
wasn't it?
dear Fennesz, it's all about feeling. About feeling you and you feeling me.
About sound playing a layering of so many parts, so many melodies in that noise,
deep in rubbing textures, that the sonic itself thins itself out into feedback,
hitting the repetition that draws blood from skin. Here, and like Nietzsche
told me late one night through the whispers of Derrida, my whole body becomes
an ear.
I think I've heard you, Fennesz. But I still don't understand you. That picture
I keep of you on the mantlepiece, with your sunglasses and open white shirt,
that night after we painted the tones in multicolours and your acidic smile
turned sour-you're dangerous, Fennesz, and I love you for it. Even when the
ocean rears its ugly hydra-head behind your back, even then your lovely fingers
will keep plucking. "Fennesz is a composer of electronic music for electric
guitar," I read in the Saturday morning papers. But you're so much more than
that. You're mysterious. And they got it all wrong, anyways (they always do).
They said that everything prior to Endless Summer was just philosophical treatises,
and that Endless Summer was the poetic exploration...but it's really just the
opposite, isn't it? Philosophy, philo sophia, has always been about love. With
Endless Summer you just had to spell it out a bit more clearly for those still
not getting it-that love can also involve being a little tied up.
I dreamt about us swimming in that processed ocean of echoes and feedback chambers,
of sound so thick and warm that you could breath it in. And we do breath it
in, don't we? Sound is air-waves, afterall, and with your compressed carbon
copy close to my mouth I suck in all you have to offer. It's all there in the
"Surf," when the delay closes in, like when you tumble in the white and get
pounded down into the wash, body broken and huddled in the foreign water and
then, propelled up and out, towards air, breathing the roaring of the ocean:
you're alive I am alive you yell...and out for the next wave "rock" "electronic"
– such silly terms, aren't they, as I hold you close-as we all do, out here,
grabbing your sonic body and ripping it to shreds, carne vale, throwing of
the flesh . I'm sorry, Fennesz, that it had to come out this way. And you are
too, at the end, when you left for Stephen and Ehlers to make beautiful Musork.
But we'll always have our memories of those days spent 'in the field,' those
wonderful recordings from the hotel, and that unforgettable summer lost in
the surf...
yours,
VITAL (The Netherlands):
About 20 years ago, the CD arrived. I never thought that so many of the obscurities
of my vinyl collection would be on CD. Since I move houses too often, I am
so delighted to get rid of my vinyl and replace them by CDs. So a collection
of Fennesz is most welcome, even when one can get rid of one piece of vinyl
after that... This collection has the famous 'Instrument' 12" - the first statement
of Fennesz as a guitarist working with samplers and computers (after his initial
career as a rock guitarist) and what a great relaunch of a career. Besides
this we find a whole bunch of compilation tracks that might be hard to get
or which are deleted (and in a most curious case, also one that will be released
next year, his remix for Mathieu/Ehlers 'Heroin' project). It's interesting
to see Fennesz work evolve over the years. 'Instrument' is still a fairly 'normal'
piece of music, with rhythm machines and gliding drones. Compare that with
'Odessa' or 'Codeine' - pulsating drones in which electronics celebrate (with
a guitar strum never far away). But in all it's aspects, Fennesz slightly fuzzy
electronic sound, which is warm most of the time, the musical element is never
far away. He never drowns in letting the plug ins wander freely, but limits
himself to composing a small, yet definte composition. A rare quality not often
seen among the glitchtoppers. Fennesz is still the best! (FdW
Brainwashed:
Kicking off with the previous unreleased track "Good Man", Christian treats
us to a taste of what's to come: warm, earthy textures in the digital whirrs
and purrs, handled with his usual careful composition. This is followed by
the four pieces from the out-of-print "Instrument" 12", released by MEGO in
1995. Created using guitar-based sounds, these early tracks are marked by unusual
juxtapositions of mood-switching from swift, controlled grittiness to bassy,
dreamy, brittle washes. Among the tracks culled from various other compilations
is "Menthol" from Mille Plateaux's 'Clicks and Cuts Vol. 2', which is slightly
uninspiring, standand glitchy fare. This, however, is the only low point on
'Field Recordings'. Other standouts include "Surf" from the Ash International
compilation 'Decay' with its epic walls of sound and Fennesz's remix of a Stephan
Mathieu and Ekkehard Ehlers track from their collaboration 'Heroin'. Those
hungry for a follow-up to Fennesz's acclaimed 2001 album 'Endless Summer' will
have to wait a bit longer, but in the mean time, this compilation serves as
an excellent appetizer. - [Jessica Tibbits]
(Belgium):
Op een korte termijn brak het laptop en -gitaarwerk van de Oostenrijker Christian
Fennesz bij een groter publiek door. Zijn output centert zich rond de labels
Mego en Touch. Het Britse Touch heeft de naam reflectief en 'serieus' met hun
artiesten en uitgaven om te gaan en het bundelen van Fennesz' moeilijker te
vinden materiaal ligt dan ook in die lijn. 'Field Recordings 1995-2002' is
geen verzameling van veldopnames die Fennesz nog in de kast had liggen, maar
een compilatie van werk dat eerder op andere bloemlezingen verscheen, remixes
(voor ondermeer Stephan Mathieu en Ekkehard Ehlers) en composities voor (kort)films.
Het werk steekt van wal met de eerste uitgave die de dertiger bij Mego in 1995
bracht: de uitverkochte single 'Instrument'. De vier versies werden aangelengd
met 'Good Man', een werk dat Fennesz recentelijk met de geluidsbronnen van
'Instrument' componeerde. Hoewel de Oostenrijker over de laatste zeven jaar
voornamelijk in de diepte evolueerde, valt het op dat hij vroeger meer naar
ritme en repetitie zocht: 'Instrument 1 & 3' bevatten een uitgevaagde breakbeat
en verwijzen naar de destijds boomende drum 'n' bassesthetiek. De overige tracks
gaan volledig horizontaal en schilderen - zoals gebruikelijk - traag evoluerende
kleurlandschappen waar bijtijds een melancholische kilte doorwaait. In januari
2003 verschijnt bij Touch een nieuwe soloplaat van Fennesz, ondertussen is
hij ook vertegenwoordigd op de compilatie 'Star
Switch On'. Daarop zijn veldopnames van de Britse geluidsman Chris Watson
door een keur van populaire geluidskunstenaars onder wie Mika Vainio, Philip
Jeck, Hazard en Biosphere onder handen genomen (de originelen werder eerder
bij Touch als de albums 'Stepping into the Dark' en 'Outside the Circle of
Fire' uitgebracht). Fennesz levert een nogal statische bijdrage: op enkele
loops na lijken Watsons registraties van dierengeluiden nauwelijks behandelt.
Wel erg intens is het werk van Vainio en dat van Jeck: met respectievelijk
elektronica en vinylmanipulatie tillen ze het griezelige basismateriaal naar
het niveau van driedimensionale, beklemmende en fascinerende luistertrip. [Ive
Stevenheydens]
[trans:
- Quite
rapidly the work (guitar and laptop) of Fennesz reached a larger audience.
His work is brought out via the labels Mego and Touch. The British label
Touch
is famous for dealing reflectively and seriously with both artists and their
releases. Bringing together Fennesz harder to find work on one CD seems
a
logical step. 'Field Recordings 1995-2002' is not a collection of field recordings,
but a compilation of earlier recorded tracks, of remixes (for Stephan
Mathieu
en Ekkehard Ehlers) and compositions for (short) movies. The CD starts with
an edition of the now sold out single Instrument that was brought
out on Mego in 1995. The four versions were followed by Good man,
a work that Fennesz made recently with the sound sources he used for Instrument.
Although the Austrian evolved the last seven years more into depth, it is
striking that he sought more for rythm and repitition in his early years:
'Instrument 1 & 3' contain a phased-out breakbeat and refers to the formerly
booming drum 'n' bass aesthetics. The remaining tracks are fully horizontal
and they paint as usual slowly evolving coloured landscapes
with a sometimes chilling melancholy. In january 2003 Touch will bring out
a new Fennesz solo CD. Meanwhile Fennesz is also present on the compilation
'Star Switch On'. This CD contains the field recordings of Chris Watson interpreted
by popular sound-artists such as Mika Vainio, Philip Jeck, Hazard and Biosphere
(the original versions were earlier released on Touch as the albums 'Stepping
into the Dark' and 'Outside the Circle of Fire'). Fennesz contribution
is rather static: apart from a few loops he seems not to have treated Watsons field
recordings. Very intense however are the contributions of Vainio and Jeck:
with respectively electronica and vinyl manipulation they manage to
lift up the spooky original material towards a three dimensional, haunting
and fascinating listening trip.]
%Array (UK):
Not field recordings per se, rather an attempt to cast the spotlight onto
some of Fennesz' other, perhaps less well known, activities - particularly
his remixes - and cast a backwards glance over several notable contributions
to compilations that might otherwise have slipped beneath the radar. The
reproduction of his critically acclaimed 'Instrument' EP (originally
released on 12" vinyl on Mego in 1995) is reason alone to own this compilation.
As if that weren't enough, Touch have generously drawn together a host of
remixes and contributions to a number of compilations making 'Field Recordings'
an indispensable release. 'Menthol', from 'Clicks & Cuts Vol. 2', shimmers
and throbs in true Fennesz fashion - heat haze electronics, scattered tonal
fragments suspended in molten glass. 'Betrieb', remixed from Ekkehard Ehlers'
album of the same name, is four minutes of swirling chords, distended and
set atop low end buzz. 'Surf', from Ash International's 1997 compilation
'Decay', a shuddering
cascade
of multi-timbral hiss unwinding slowly but surely... Fennesz' restrained
electronics are the digital equivalences of Morton Feldman's gently-unfolding
aural
soundscapes or Mark Rothko's captivating canvasses.
He resists the urge to over-produce, building careful compositions which
are beautifully understated. His light touch, nuanced ebbs and flows, and
distinctive
voice unquestionably seductive. Closing with 'Codeine',
his contribution to the remix/version album accompanying Stephan Mathieu
and Ekkehard Ehlers' 'Heroin' re-release on Orthlorng Musork, is perfect.
Musical
narcotic you'd willingly become addicted to. [Chris
Murphy]
also Field Recordings 1995:2002 appeared in the top 10 albums of the year
in the folowing magazines:
humo 17.12.02 [belgian weekly tv mag]
The
Wire - electronica section, Jan 2003 edition
%Array (UK):
Not field recordings per se, rather an attempt to cast the spotlight onto
some of Fennesz' other, perhaps less well known, activities - particularly
his remixes - and cast a backwards glance over several notable contributions
to compilations that might otherwise have slipped beneath the radar. The
reproduction
of his critically acclaimed 'Instrument' EP (originally released on 12"
vinyl on Mego in 1995) is reason alone to own this compilation. As if that
weren't enough, Touch have generously drawn together a host of remixes and
contributions to a number of compilations making 'Field Recordings' an indispensable
release. 'Menthol', from 'Clicks & Cuts Vol. 2', shimmers and throbs
in true Fennesz fashion - heat haze electronics, scattered tonal fragments
suspended
in molten glass. 'Betrieb', remixed from Ekkehard Ehlers' album of the same
name, is four minutes of swirling chords, distended and set atop low end
buzz.
'Surf', from Ash International's 1997 compilation 'Decay', a shuddering cascade
of multi-timbral hiss unwinding slowly but surely... Fennesz' restrained
electronics
are the digital equivalences of Morton Feldman's gently-unfolding aural soundscapes
or Mark Rothko's captivating canvasses. He resists the urge to over-produce,
building careful compositions which are beautifully understated. His light
touch, nuanced ebbs and flows, and distinctive voice unquestionably seductive.
Closing with 'Codeine', his contribution to the remix/version album accompanying
Stephan Mathieu and Ekkehard Ehlers' 'Heroin' re-release on Orthlorng Musork,
is perfect. Musical narcotic you'd willingly become addicted to. [Chris Murphy]
Disquiet (USA):
Best of 2002:
Fragile as they are visceral, Christian Fennesz's compositions often sound
like instrumental approximations of everyday noise filtered through a pop
sensibility -- what seems like distant traffic could just as easily be a guitar
symphony, and what seems like a distant industrial hum is more likely a precisely
constructed experiment in rhythm and sound.
Tyden (Czech Republic):
can be read here
-
- D-Side
(France):
review can be read here
Side Line (Belgium):
First there's the funny cover of this album, showing a picture of an old
tractor in the midst of a field. It more than probably represents the title
of the
album by Christian Fennesz. His "Field Recordings" are a selection
of contributions to compilations, special projects, film soundtracks, his
debut 12" and a few previously unreleased tracks. Diving into the universe
of Fennesz is like a trip through diversified ambient impressions. The opening
cuts are real attention grabbers for showing an elaborated writing process
in the ambient style! He recovers his textures with a wealth of sound, adding
several industrial ideas to the whole work! The "Instrument 1" and
"Instrument 3" pieces are both real pearls! It's a while ago that
an extreme form of ambient has caught my attention that much. Especially
the
2nd cut is remarkable for the cold and sterile atmosphere that has been reinforced
with a sort of space bleeps! I just regret that the entire album doesn't
sound
the same direction! Fennesz also experiences with acoustic guitar soundscapes,
opening a door to pure experimental form! I realize that the main part of
his oeuvre comes closer to the real soundtrack composition, but I can only
hope that this artist will ever create a pure opus in the style of of the
debut songs! Anyway, a worth to listen! (DP:6/7)DP.
Dusted (USA):
-
- Grounds
for Renown. Christian Fennesz's relative superstardom is fascinating given
the opaque nature of his craft. Disfiguring, and in the process often disenfranchising
the guitar through a series of audio synthesis programs doesn't normally
translate
into wide-ranging recognition. Previous works like Hotel Parallel and plus
forty seven degrees 56' 37" minus sixteen degrees 51' 08" merit
their masterpiece reputations, but remain intensely esoteric and austere.
Similar European artists have blazed equally captivating excursions into the
avant-garde (see the Raster-Noton label for example) without developing the
buzz worthy of promotional comparisons and RIYL stickers. Fennesz's recent
forays into popular culture ("covering" the Rolling Stones and,
for all intents and purposes, the Beach Boys) undoubtedly attracted music
enthusiasts outside of the Powerbook nation and inside a more media-driven
marketplace. The potential novelty value of "Paint It Black" and
outright melodicism of Endless Summer caught avant-rock fans by surprise in
2001, filling a niche for something "new" and redefining the extent
of their genre. However, an argument can be made that Fennesz's fame is partially
linked to his prolificacy. The man has played a part in over a dozen full-length
recordings since 1995, ranging from his solo studio albums to improvisational
group collaborations on labels like Erstwhile and Grob. It also doesn't hurt
to be one-third of a "supergroup" with Peter Rehberg and the ubiquitous
Jim O'Rourke. Fans of Fennesz's permeation of the avant-garde and not just
his pop sensibility are more apt to fall for Field Recordings 1995:2002, a
collection of compilation donations over the past eight years plus the entirety
of 1995's Instrument EP. Many of the recordings and remixes on Field Recordings
unfurl with the gentility that marked Endless Summer, but not necessarily
the explicit detail to melody. In a sense, Field Recordings acts as an introduction
to the recently converted fashionista who know only of his sun-kissed systemische.
Instrument, his debut 12" for Mego, is the key installment on Field Recordings.
The long out-of-print EP, here remastered, features some of Fennesz's most
overtly rhythmic compositions. "Instrument 1" consists of looped
guitar roughage and danceable beats that could be adequately deemed "post-industrial".
"Instrument 2" dusts mechanical dither with hesitant, almost translucent
piano, while "Instrument 3" overlays cyclical guitar stabs and a
skittering cymbal to dizzying effect. Instrument's finale "Instrument
4" is perhaps the jumping-off point for Fennesz's later work. Here he
trades rhythm for hues, looping a languid guitar piece underneath some digital
dust. The resolute attention to backdrop, and on a grander scale the delineation
of space, on "4" was manifest in greater detail on Hotel Parallel
and remains one of Fennesz's studio specialties. The various Various Artists
tracks assembled here vary in profundity. "Ivend00", which was composed
for the rkk13 CD on Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge, is a thin exercise in
pretense. "Surf", taken from Ash International's Decay is an aptly-titled
and engrossing dive into shoegazer drone. "Good Man", which was
reportedly composed specifically for this compilation, actually sounds like
material from the cutting-room floor of the Endless Summer sessions. Fans
of the Summer sound have two far-better tracks to digest here, both remixes
for Ekkehard Ehlers, possibly Fennesz's closest contemporary. "Betrieb"
features a serene string drone with momentary glitches, while the album's
closer "Codeine" (a remix of the Ehlers/Stephan Mathieu track "Heroin")
executes the Endless Summer blueprint to perfection. Its folky guitar strums
and ethereal drones are a blissful counteractant to the harsher complexities
of Field Recordings. Whether "Codeine" is enough to satiate the
latter-day Fennesz fan is questionable, but for those who hold Hotel Parallel
in the same regard as Endless Summer, the inclusion of Instrument more than
justifies Field Recordings. Plus, nothing cements rock star status like a
spotty B-sides compilation. [Otis Hart]
Blitz (Portugal):
In "Field Recordings" there is a game of ironies which is not circumscribed
to the relationship of the CD title and its cover. Contrary to what one is
led to think, the album is not made up of field recordings, but rather of
a compilation of Fennesz's studio works. It comprises a period between 1995
and 2002, and includes tracks previously scattered, namely remixes, new versions
and themes only available on compilations or vynil. However, despite such
disparate origins, despite the wide time length, there is a link between the
tracks which confirms Fennesz's aesthetic coherence. On the other hand, the
intrinsic quality of each track reaffirms Fennesz as one of contemporary electronics'
most interesting exponents. But this edition is, foremost, a perfect opportunity
to deconstruct his method. It hits stridently, it dissecates coldly, it performs
autopsies on the borderline of maximum voltage. the parisitism that sustains
the endemic systems reveals its granular progression, it offers itself in
calculated corrosion. It's the noisiest side of Fennesz, the one in which
acidity acts more explicitely upon the melodic surfaces. "Field Recordings" resists
against any ambient context, it slowly thunders its back against tranquility.
It is an album that which opens space with hypnotic precision, absorbs the
air in a crawling progression. The idyllic cover is, therefore, misleading.
But that is part of the game of ironires - this one is simply one more. (8/10)
[trans. Heitor Alvelos]
nthposition (web):
Having made a considerable splash with last year's 'Endless Summer', Fennesz
has gone back through his catalogue and put together this compilation of
small
projects from the last seven years. Much of the material here is similar
in feel to 'Endless' - powerbook click and cut combined with guitar producing
curiously pastoral drone-based soundscapes. Given this kind of palette, it
is easy for musicians to become complacent and just loop a few samples, sit
back and let the laptop make the running. Christian Fennesz is not one for
the easy option, however; every piece here is carefully thought out and structured,
giving even the simplest-seeming drone an absorbing structural complexity.
Pieces included here range from the ragged roar of Name with no Horse, an
energetic deconstruction of America's Horse With No Name, to two tracks from
the soundtrack of the film 'Blue Moon, Stairs' and 'Odessa', which quiver
with low-key microtonal subtlety. Here, in its entirety, is Fennesz's first
12" single, Instrument - four tracks, Instrument 1-4 which first appeared
in '97. Going back to the roots of the Fennesz sound, some of the inspirations
for his music become clearer, with Instrument 2 having strong overtones of
Cabaret Voltaire circa 'Red Mecca'. The CD opens with the one entirely new
track here, Good Man, which takes a simple guitar piece and pulls it apart
like one of those exploded diagrams of aircraft etc that used to front The
Eagle, abstracting the elements into buzzes, clicks and hums. The whole album
is consistently strong, with curiously tuneful elements emerging from the
drone and rumble that makes up the core of these pieces. Fennesz is proving
himself to be a subtle worker within the limited paramaters he sets himself
for his work. He shows confidence, dedication and an impressive imagination,
The music that results is curiously beautiful in a way one would not expect,
given the source material. This is also much stronger than one usually expects
from a stop-gap archive-trawling album and has thoroughly whetted my appetite
for Fennesz's next proper album, due in early 2003. [Ian Simmons]
super45
(Peru):
Sin
pecar de fanatismo, hay que decir que Field recordings es lo que cualquier
artista o banda
requiere
para enfrentarse a un nuevo público: una
compilación de trabajos para películas, remixes y el hoy descatalogado
EP de 1995, Instrument. El disco se abre con la genial e inédita ‘Good
man’ en
la que Christian Fennesz demuestra lo grandioso que resulta el ruidismo con
toques melódicos y tintes sonoros guitarrescos. Quizás sea
la gema del disco junto con lo que viene a continuación: el hoy buscadísimo
Instrument EP que en este compilatorio aparece en su totalidad. La primera
parte del disco acaba con Instrument 4, que debe mucho a Brian Eno por sus
ambientes y sus teclados. La segunda parte empieza con la genial
'Betrieb', tema de un ruidismo y paisajes sonoros puros con toques finales
similares a latidos; en 'Menthol', extraído del compilado Clicks and
cuts vol. 2 (para el mismo sello), se aprecia la complejidad del sonido del
vienés. 'Surf' remite a sonidos casi shoegazing, mezclados con la
ambientación, ruidos y la música progresiva alemana de décadas
atrás – krautrock, que le dicen. 'Stairs', 'Odessa'(de la película
Blue Moon del 2002) e 'Ivendoo' son ambientaciones de minuto y medio. Los
dos minutos de guitarra y ruidos a los Merzbow de 'Name with no horse' casi
se acercan a la versión original de America. El disco acaba con otro
buen tema: 'Codeine', el remix para Heroin de E Ehlers y Stephan Mathieu,
con los ya conocidos sonidos electro-acústicos de guitarras acopladas
a sonidos paisajistas. Field recordings rescata para el "gran público" una
excelente parte del catálogo de Fennesz que, de otro modo, habría
sido patrimonio exclusivo de los coleccionistas. Más que recomendable. [Reynaldo
Gonzales Ágreda]
and a review from Turkey can be read here
fakejazz.com:
SETTING: It is New Years Eve and I am having dinner at a friends apartment.
PARTICIPANTS: Me, Pete Spynda, Ken Camden, Paul Groper, Ang Gagnon, Christie
Gagnon, Portobello Mushrooms, Salad, Water, Vegetable Pie, Chocolate Chip Cookies
STORY: Dinner is about to begin when I suggest that we should put on the
new Fennesz CD. I had already told Ken and Pete how much I liked it so it
was agreed
upon that Fennesz would be our dinner music. I turned the CD on and sat down
at the table. I began by pouring myself a glass of water. The music begins
with a quiet, rolling, scraping sound, smooth distorted tonal patterns begin
to evolve slowly under the rolling. I pass Ang a mushroom and take one for
myself. Pete comments on the progression, something to the extent of "I like
this, it really pushes forward without really going anywhere." He passes me
the vegetable pie. I can see that Christie is beginning to look anxious. Ken
comforts her with his hand on her shoulder. The music continues to grow, raising
frequencies and constantly enveloping itself sometimes being interrupted by
electronic glitches. Paul comments on the fact that my glass of water is beginning
to shake. The progression continues building in intensity. Time begins to slow
down for me. I am completely lost in the sound. Pete begins to choke on a piece
of vegetable pie when the tones fade into what I will consider to be the meanest
gangsta rap beat I have ever heard. This only lasts for a short while as the
beat subsides and morphs into a new static tone. Pete gives himself the Hymleck
against a chair. He pours himself a glass of water and tries to relax. A small
digital rhythmic pattern begins to develop. Ken stands up screaming, "I feel
like Darth Vader is serenading at me from the bottom of my fish tank." Ang
gets a look of fear in her eye and tells Ken it is just the music. He settles
but is obviously not well. Everyone seems to be getting a bit edgier. Paul
begins to twitch. Clicks, pops, and glitches begin to have small conversations
between short computer tones slowly dripping together into a digital popcorn.
We are all looking for a pattern here. I begin to talk about my love for early
video game sound while eating a cookie, suddenly I spit the cookie out as the
greatest wall of distorted sound this side of Merzbow takes over. No one can
eat. No one can speak. We are all in the midst of the wild harsh drones. We
are no longer in the apartment. We have entered into a laptop computer consciousness.
I feel like my nose will bleed soon. Finally the distortion fades into a beautiful
wave of slow morphing tones, "sound", and mild skipping interruptions. A sense
of structure begins and dinner continues. Pete says something about the simple
rhythmic complexities being static like rain after thoughts. It is obvious
to me at this point that this music has made us all insane. We continue to
eat slowly and the music continues to morph into itself creating a tonal symphony
between distortions, low end hums, scratches, and pops. Dinner is silent as
the music fades. Only sixteen minutes and thirty three seconds had past but
we were all different by then. Ken was convinced that his metabolism had changed.
Pete just wanted to listen to Folke Rabe. Ang decided to go to sleep but complained
of machine-like bugs tearing at her feet in her dreams. Christie tried to wash
dishes but dropped three of them on the floor. I drove home and wrecked into
a fire hydrant. When I awoke in the hospital the doctor told me that the tumor
I had been diagnosed with the week before had miraculously disappeared. Thank
you Fennesz!!
RESULTS: Don't just worship Fennesz because he is from Austria. Worship him
because this record is incredible
The Wire:
-
- More
engaging by far is the Fennesz CD-R, recorded live in Melbourne during
the
same [Mego] tour. Only 16 minutes long, the improvisation springs
from a rustling, low pitched loop and a curiously churchy fuzz organ. Fennesz's
minor-key play is quite affecting, setting up a fragile melodic fragment that
is eventually swallowed up by swarms of hiss and buzz. In its second phase
the piece is taken over by a roaring, guitar-derived blast of sound that is
counterposed by clicks and whistles. Then a shimmering chord rises to the
centre of the piece. Fennesz likes notes - his pieces pit expressive chords
and tones against the coarse and thrilling evasiveness of noise. Deliciously
softcore. [Will Montgomery]
-
- Other
Music:
RealAudio
link
Perhaps
one of the pitfalls of laptop-performance-oriented music is that the artists
tend to corner themselves either into undirected improvisation or bland repetition.
In this, his first solo live CD, Christian Fennesz overcomes and completely
avoids these issues to create one of the most powerfully intense live sets
with
the same tools. His piece evolves and changes rapidly, yet remains completely
cohesive and focused. The sound itself is pure and undiluted; textures wash
over each other, lush and beautiful melodies rise up to the foreground, or
fall
back, just underneath the waves. Much attention is paid to dynamics, from quietly
sparse textures to passionate swirling walls of sound. It's neither too short
nor too long: therefore time doesn't exist, just the sound itself. Clocking
in at just under 17 minutes, this live performance has more focus, depth
and
direction than others twice its length. The two minutes in RealAudio above
are among the best two minutes I've had all year. [JZ]
Electronik:
- This
is the third in Touchs series of live recordings, following Philip Jeck
in
Tokyo and SETI in Brussels. Recorded at the Revolver Club in Melbourne on
the Mego tour of Australia, it follows Fenneszs critically acclaimed Plus
Forty Seven Degrees 5637 Minus Sixteen Degrees 5108 album (also on Touch).
The CD itself is 16:33 long and amounts to a snapshot of the Fennesz live
experience. Taking a range of electronically generated buzzes, tones, blips
and clicks; he turns them into a work of art. His music shifts and evolves
as you listen; tones and pitches change and new sounds are introduced.
The
intensity and sound level slowly increase before dying out again, only to
reconstruct itself again. Electronic tones crackle and fizz as guitar feedback
whistles over them. Never static or showing any sign of a programmed loop,
Fennesz's music twists, turns and evolves before you. Amazing. Totally
engaging beautiful music that provides an insight into the intensity of Fennesz's
work in the live arena. A thoroughly excellent CD that is well worth investigating
further, especially if you enjoy the work of Biosphere, Hazard and alike. [Paul
Lloyd 12 October 2000]
Francois Couture [AMG]:
This EP was recorded live at the Revolver in Melbourne, Australia, on February
3, 2000. Although it bears a CD-R catalog number and is packaged like Touch's
CD-R line, it is not a CD-R but a limited pressing of 1,000 copies. Christian
Fennesz has quickly become a major figure on the free improv electronics scene,
and here he shows what his live magic is all about. The piece is made of white
noise, analog electronics, some digital real-time editing, and (maybe?) electric
guitar. Fennesz' approach here is rather minimal. He eludes the standard built-up
format and keeps the music delicate and low-profile for the first half, before
it suddenly explodes at eight-and-a-half minutes into the track, creating
a wake-up call effect. A few minutes later, the piece quiets down into a polluted
new age mood. Impressive.
Array [web]:
At a guess
'Live at Revolver' was recorded at this year's 'What is Music' festival and
amounts to a snap-shot (at just over 16 minutes) of a single performance
by
Christian Fennesz, one of the laptop participants. Fennesz is known to source
many of his sounds from guitar, recording straight to hard-disc, and although
he often gives free rein to the the laptop's facility as a noise-generator
he
tempers his sound with ghostly melodies in which fragmentary guitar chords
are often discernible just below the surface. By the time we join this performance
the kindling sticks are crackling. Fennesz improvises a stunted melody for
some
minutes in which he stops and unstops organ-like notes in a somewhat random
fashion, managing to make his presence without exactly blowing the barn doors
away.Ê At a point about half-way through this recording, however, after his
earlier activities have fizzled out in a mild gust of radio interference, Fennesz
chooses to drop a quite stunning slab of guitar-viscera into the left channel.
One can imagine the bar sitters grabbing for their earplugs, hairs standing
up on the backs of necks, as one onslaught follows another of quite delicious
melodic noise. The storm subsides and Fennesz finally bears his listeners aloft
on a turbulent carpet ride of uplifting chords and ionic interference. I wouldn't
exactly describe this as an essential piece of Fennesz (for that look to his
3" CD on Tanz*Hotel 'Il Libro Mio' in particular, or his earlier full-length
on Touch) but then, it doesn't exactly present itself as being that either:
it comes in a plain white card sleeve bearing a CDR catalog number and monochrome
artwork which shadows that of his earlier Touch CD. For such humility this
CD
rather recommends itself. [GM]
remote induction
[web]:
This live
recording from Christian Fennesz starts with a crackling layer. This has a vibrating
feel as it loops, buzz and whirr being added slowly to provide a certain melodic
suggestion. Mild tumbling sounds and strong string can be heard within the sighing
flow. These elements go through moments of intensification - the background
layer streaming in a tinny fashion, before stepping up a notch. The initial
rumbles become more a ridge, a wave that rises and falls. Then everything falls
down to a sigh of notes and barest crackle. From which we have a mild build,
followed by a more pronounced level of detuned signal. The form of crackle and
buzz becomes a translation of data, accelerating with each punch card processed.
The buzz almost grinds as this builds into a bubbling whole - layers amassing
with the momentum. Stripping down to a tight crackling oscillation, the frequency
then falling and threatening to collapse. Though before it does a smooth tone
comes up and we have a more melodic micro section - punctuated by high blips.
Shifting again this takes on a more pulsing feel while retaining consistent
elements. Then its over, being the third in Touch's series of live recordings,
consisting of 1 track just over 16 minutes long.
frequency
[web]:
Clocking
in at a nadge over quarter of an hour long, Live At Revolver, Melbourne makes
up for its shortness with some intensity instead. The whines and drones of clickety-snickety
underpinnings meet tones at fifty paces then closing to quarters more uncomfortable.
These things should sometimes be kept at arms length, but bringing the sound
of what resembles a wardrobe being manhandled into a coal cellar this close
to the ears can be enjoyable up to a point. That point is probably about right
at the length presented here. Hypnosis is acheived, interventions made and proposed,
the texture of hiss and decay propounded on the bones of rhythm and melody just
about gets remembered like a distant cousin. There are guitars resident in the
cloacum of rendered acoustic transformation, but they don't stand a chance against
the forces of sputter and disc-error scrum which evolves into purgative electronic
outburts; which is as it should be on such occasions. One of the key lessons
of this unrestrained noise-chunder format is knowing when enough is enough for
the audience or listener if not the performer; so easy to misjudge, to collapse
into the delights of letting freeform spats of the kind of noise your grandmother
wouldn't like unless she happened to be Alice Coltrane fly free. Even if it
was time restraints which brought about the limit to this performance, such
are the benefits of restriction. As the downward coast in territories of less
opprobrious earache engenderment suggest closure, it is to Christian Fennesz'
considerable credit that it's with a flitter of fond farewell rather than endurance
that the CD concludes. [Antron S. Meister]
Chain D.L.K. [USA]
One track,
16 minutes, 3rd live album for Touch (after Philip Jeck's Tokyo performance
and S.E.T.I.'s Brussels concert) and 2nd release by Fennesz (after his acclaimed "Plus Forty Seven Degrees 56'37" Minus Sixteen Dregrees 51'08".
Recorded live on the Mego tour (at the What is Music Festival) in Melbourne,
Australia, Mr. Christian 'anti festival-sponsors' Fennesz live sessions aren't
obviously a recreation of the unique sounds of his debut (it would be quite
difficult to create sounds of his garden - where he recorded the foresaid debut
album - on the stage). Subtle noises feeding loud amplifiers, cutting edge know
tweaking and softer crystal layers... all together... I can't picture a concert
like this without an extraordinary Orb-like light show... who knows... [Marc
Urselli-Schþrer]
goldteeth.blogspot.com [web]:
I finally got the fennesz _03.02.00 Ð live at revolver, melbourne_ cd (touch
to:cdr3, but it's not a cdr), and if you're interested, I would recommend picking
this up before the collaboration with rosy parlane. that's good, but this is
great - almost a 17-minute summation of what our boy christian is all about,
with guitar mulched via expensive, 3733t h4x0r warez made by old french guys
Ð from the harshest sub-melody to the most candy-sweet noise, it is incredibly
expressive/impressive and should be a model for guys with laptops and efficient
euro haircuts everywhere. I like fennesz when he collaborates with others,
but
I love him when he works alone, excepting that last cd on touch, the longitude/latitude
one. which I might actually buy again.
- Mojo
(UK):
-
- AND THIS...
-
- RECORDED
IN his back garden using a Powerbook and a mixing desk, fennesz' second
album
'plus forty seven degrees 56' 37" minus sixteen degrees 51' 08"' (Touch)
is an object lesson in just how far out there you can go with a little technology.
Through layering, shaping and distorting sounds fennesz has created an intensely
varied, often disjointed slice of outre electronica that encompasses mesmeric
textures, harsh frequencies and churning sheets of noise. Recommended listening
for anyone with an interest in the sonic manipulations of Oval, Pan Sonic
or the Mego label, who released fennesz' 'Hotel Paral.lel' debut. (Andrew
Carden)
-
- Othermusic
(USA):
-
- Created
using field recordings of his backyard and signature guitar playing, this
CD shows Mego artist Christian Fennesz taking a different approach from
the
fragmented and cracked pop treatments of "hotel paral.lel" and "Plays". Far
subtler and more abstract, melody is hinted at, but never achieved, buried
beneath layers of sound. Any resemblence to the source material is obliterated,
yet each sound somehow retains some vague, inherent qualities Beautifully
designed with photography by Jon Wozencroft. [JZ]
-
- VITAL
(The Netherlands):
-
- Herr
Fennesz released his first solo album 'Hotel Paral.lel' on Mego. Earlier
this
year his CD Single of covers of the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys came
out on Moikai, and he's been busy contributing tracks to compilations and
performing as one of the laptop gang. [He won a prize at Ars Electronica
in Linz, Austria this year, which I discovered in the press release, he promptly
broke in protest 'of the festival organiser's bias towards sponsor politics'.
A man of danger, obviously. Still this sort of petulant behaviour has to happen
at least once during the lifetime of any festival, I suppose. Personally I
think that if he'd slowly squatted down on it until it completely disappeared,
he - and it - would have made a more lasting impression. I mean, even Marlon
Brando can bite the face off an Oscar, for God's sake. Never mind, I just
wish this sort of redundant behaviour wasn't used to advertise to what marvellous
and subtle heights human expression can rise.] Rather leave it to the
things we manifest to display our brilliance, for these are infinitely more
refined than we can ever hope to be. This new CD by Christian Fennesz is
just
such a beauty spot on the face of Pulchritude. Basic material was apparently
recorded in his back garden - you can find out where he lives by using the
map coordinates which are the title - using a Powerbook and a small mixing
table. I'm not sure if the sounds themselve are all manipulations of natural
sound events - doesn't really matter actually - this CD is a recording of
a garden somewhere. A strange one, for sure, as some small creepy thing might
hear it - resplendent, with microaudible made macroaudible, where sprinklers
roar and scuffed gravel becomes an avalanche. The creaking arc of blades
of
grass straining towards the light, the soft hiss of dew chasing the sun.
The murmurs of dirt, the stretching of stone and falling leaves crash like
a gun.
A terse 38'00 of shimmering, swirling electronic sound. A perfect length
as it has to be played again immediately. Mysterious and pure. (MP)
-
- The Wire:
-
- Of the
names associated with Austria's Mego label, Christian Fennesz is the one
who
has tapped most into the legacy of psychedelic and industrial music and the
resources of organic noise production. Here he takes the standard Mego
language
of needling synthetic tones, random clicks, buzzes and electronic blisters,
and fuses them into a fluid rush of energy. If at times the results recall
Merzbow, it's nothing to do with the scale and density of the noise, but
more
the rhythm of cutting and collapsing between streaming bodies of sound. As
vibrant as this music becomes with the friction of speeding numbers and
fine-tuned
acid fugues, it remains inventively lucid. Much of the disc is rollercoaster
stuff: digital psychedelia, speedfreak agitation, virtuososound derailments.
A more tranquil track shows that he can alter the configuration too &endash;
it has the hushed spirituality of Arvo Part meditation heard beyond the
burning
rim of a bleached and blasted foreground.
-
- What
sticks in the ear is the clarity with which he shifts between different
swathes
and bandwidths of noise. From moment to moment what you catch feels like
a pinball machine, a child's electronic toy, a rasping insect, a fax, or
simply
the abstract whirr of digital information &endash; all caught up in an articulate
but pressured streamline.
-
- Illuminations
(Turkey):
Would
you pay listening to the microscopic world with telescopic ears? No, not
a micro-nature documentary we're talking about, at least not an ordinary one.
Austrian musician Christian Fennesz, who's long known for his experiments
with the electric guitar here presents 8. pieces of sonic mastery, totally
entitled with the coordinates of his home, which he used as an abundant sound-source. "Plus Forty 56'37" Seven Degrees Minus Sixteen Degrees 51'08"" is
a boiling pot of noisescapes which are distilled from the micro sound-universe
of Mr.
Fennesz's backgarden and processed in a powerbook and mixing desk - a brilliant
example of proggression without being engaged to equipment fetishism. What
he achieved is a meshwork of drebbling, rattling, pulsating and squelching
noises, which are often washed with thick streams of icy echoes or backed
by microwave swarms. The often disjointed organization of soundwebs can be
connected to the Japanoise school but in regards of saturation the sounds
do not surpass a certain limit. A pure and profound release that sticks a
new definition to naturalism. [M.Y.]
Weekly Dig (USA):
-
- Ambient
synthesis and experimentation comes in many forms, ranging from syncopated
gentle humming sounds with minimal beats to noisy atmospherics seemingly of
extraterrestrial origin. Christian Fennesz, armed with only Powerbook and
guitar, conceived his latest astral-ambient experimental piece in the comfort
and privacy of his own backyard. The 8 tracks, obscure in nature and designated
only by spatial numeric sequences like 010, 011, 012, 013 etc., offer a unique
perspective of man and machine in a natural setting. The music itself contains
soothing, minimalist segments, seamlessly recorded in a real-time fashion
without noticeable breaks or interruption. Very reminiscent of early work
produced by Robin Rimbaud a.k.a Scanner and solo material, Fennesz becomes
the human link where terrestrial and celestial become one, as fragmented minimalist
sound structures provide the dimly lit path Fennesz now walks. (Alkemist)
-
- gg (USA):
-
- Why is
Vienna's Christian Fennesz one of the most widely respected and imitated guitarists
of his generation? His notion of using new technology to reinvent an old instrument
isn't unique in and of itself. But few execute these ambitions with the sparkling
musicality that marks Fennesz's self-sampled computer-and-guitar treatments.
Guitar may be the last thing to come to mind as coruscating wavebreaks, torrents
of resampled sound, and crystalline glitch showers pour forth from Fennesz's
second album. Yet six strings and a Powerbook are the sole sources of the
sonic phenomena Fennesz conjures on +475637 -165108. Even as sounds are drastically
crunched, compressed, and rejiggered, the lushness and luminance of Fennesz's
compositions go against the sterile anti-nature of computerized synthesis.
The eight untitled tracks resemble sensitive, telescopic recordings of rainforest
insect life or natural atmospheric occurrences, not calculated computer-lab
findings. This inherent naturalism extends to the warm, lifelike pulses that
find their way into each piece. Fittingly, +475637 -165108 takes its title
from the coordinates of Fennesz's backyard garden, the site of the open-air
studio where these tracks were created.
-
- City
Newspaper (USA):
-
- Imagine
the electric guitar severed from cliché and all of its physical
limitations, shaping a bold new musical language. Based in Vienna, Austria,
Christian Fennesz
sources all of his sounds from an electric guitar and takes the instrument
into completely new territory. An articulate rush of cracked ambiance,
digitalia,
and musical malfunction. See also: Second by Chicago's Kevin Drumm
on Perdition Plastics, and, in 2000, Insulation
by Australia's Oren Ambarchi on Touch.
-
- Jazzthetik
(Germany):
-
- Data
torn apart becomes new, different data. Cut and paste in a format of sound...sometimes
just paste, paste, paste. 014 - that's no vapours, that's a single cover.
A plank. Made of nails and full of fluff. Surfaces appear from everywhere
and change into a great rustling which is whirling in itself, compressed and
dense. When there's suddenly quiet, then there's nothing. Nothing. Other tracks
are made of angles. Thousands of angles which never become a circle. But a
crystal made of oscillating interferences and ether noises. Christian Fennesz
makes the conditions of production, under which sounds remain to be developed,
seen and heard via his laptop. And he's marking his own interventions in that
process. So there's the crackling noises of tools switched on as well as technical
errors and high-frequency flirring of the tools themselves. The production
of sounds reduced to its economical and social reality. (Klaus Smit)
-
- Alternative
Press (USA):
-
- My Bloody
Valentine are famous for having thrown the guitar into the digital blender,
whipping up catgut froth in a radically new mélange (meringue?)
of pop and noise. Ten years down the line, Christian Fennesz has given
Kevin
Shield's electric mixer an exponential power boost, proving that there are
still hitherto unimagined flavors to be juiced out of the mixture of guitar
pick and microchip. Picking up where his Hotel Paral.lel (Mego, 1997)
left off, Plus Forty Seven Degrees sails by charts and map the chance
geometry of digital sound manipulation. You may never hear the six-stringed
underpinnings here, but you'll certainly feel echoes of their resonance in
the frozen tones like water currents caught, snap-shot style, in a glacier's
crawl, and transformed into something brittle and menacingly beautiful. Like
the best artisans of 'microscopic sound', Fennesz recreates the organic from
the atom up; he's a Romantic seduced by the binary.
-
- The
press release for the album says that is "was recorded by Fennesz during July and
August this summer, transforming his back garden into an open air studio,
using only guitar and powerbook". That unlikely idyllic duality comes through
on the CD, reinforced by Jon Wozencroft's lush landscape photographs, which
adorn the package. Imagine a chorus of modems caroling cricket fantasias
and
you're halfway there. (Philip Sherburne)
-
- USA (net):
- Fascinating
walls of wiry sound stretched and kneaded by the prolific Christian Fennesz
(the enclosed info sheet has him playing with a multitude of bands and
musicians
who reside on the outskirts of experimental). The music was created using
only guitar and Powerbook, and recorded in his back garden; the impression
of space is quite prevalent when the guitar's feedback and slippery noise
wails to the open sky, while more earthbound, the sneaky cadences of manipulation
are jittery like ants attacking an intruding beetle. "010" sweeps down on
wings of wind-battered sound, wings that flutter, flap and glide. " 013" on
the other hand, is nervous and twitchy, gurgling spastically before slipping
into disjointed sequences that mesh musicality with static noise. Huge chords
tumble forth during "014," coagulating like blood from a wound after the
bleeding has ceased, slow and thick, while underneath, mesmerizing slashes
of corrosive
noise slice into fresh veins and arteries, forcefully draining more blood.
The whole disc is a balance of clash and resolution between disparate sonic
entities, a balance of stormy turbulence and itchy experimentalism. (JC Smith)
-
- FAQT
(USA):
-
- Those
damned Austrians and their glitch worshipping slop. Since 1994, the world
has been subjected to zero and one heresy - Viennese label Mego acting out
as corner stable - by the country's laptop wielding byte-monger elite. Who
will save us? Call the UN. Bomb the fuckers.
-
- Christian
Fennesz is one such infamous footsoldier, notorious for obliterating Rolling
Stone and Beach Boys classics, and a recent honoree at Austria's Ars Electronica
festival. His second full length solo album was recorded in his backyard
,
under the open sky with just a guitar and a powerbook. You'd never know by
listening, but it's fascinating just the same. Typically abstract and random
in form, Fennesz's "degree symphony" is best when he turns up the heat
and boils the sauce. The tension within the pool, the molecular shuffle
of digital
beads, the jagged brittle tones - sometimes faintly heart-tugging - it's
mesmerizing and inspiring to behold. Like easy listening for the noise
fan. Not so compelling
is Fennesz in telegraph mode, but that's personal taste, I guess. Take it
with a grain...
-
- New York
Press (USA):
These
three important new albums from core practitioners of the glitchwerks movement
represent the next step in the genre's evolution. While the first batch
of glitchwerks releases (reviewed here a year ago) tended to stress the
formal aspects of the music, these new offerings begin to take the cold
digital source material and add emotion and warmth to it. It's fascinating
to witness the melding of a didactic approach to computer-based work - some
genuinely personal statements emerge.
-
- Out
of the thick waves of white digital noise, melody begins to appear. Christian
Fennesz's latest begins with a soft atmospheric track - an electronic Satie-esque
tune awash in sensual, transistor-radio-like static; it's a thick, calming,
digital fog. The fourth track starts out with standard skipping glitches
but
soon shifts focus to a piano, which is digitally mangled, creating a savvy
binary update to Cage's prepared pian - think of it as a "processed piano." The
piano serves as a melodic basis for the piece, which is constantly interrupted
by mechanical noises of every stripe. It's a great metaphor for the way
electronics
are altering the function of traditional concert hall instruments, giving
them entirely new leases on life. A track in the middle of the disc at
first
sounds like a sheer assault on the ears, but as the piece progresses and
your ears become accustomed to the volume, a gorgeous melody emerges from
the density.
It's a bit like listening to Morton Feldman - once you get on Fennesz's wavelength,
small, unexpected occurrences leap out of every nook and cranny of the
recording.
It's a complex, varied and luscious landscape, echoing the cover art, which
features photographs of lush, green landscapes that have been altered in
some
way by man and machines.
-
- The Sound
Projector (UK):
-
- Christian
Fennesz, one of the Mego 'superstars', and the man who brought us the sublime
Fennesz Plays 45 last year, is on the warpath like a roaring beast here. The
Mego team, concentrating on generating truly modern electronic music, have
dispensed with conventional instruments like sequencers, drum machines and
synths - and started to tinker directly with the sort of computer programming
that makes such machines work in the first place. The most efficient way to
do it seems to be to bypass the instruments and go straight to the programme,
via a Powerbook. Using the keyboard and mouse, an intelligent artisan can
vary the nature of his soundforms however he chooses.
-
- You'd
be forgiven for thinking this is record in no way 'musical'. Under normal
circumstances I'd be put off too, but one listen to the furious and powerful
sound textures on this (and other Mego-related items) will excite your neurons
in ways you'd never dreamed possible - and change your mind in a second. This
work is in fact more musical than much of what passes for musical entertainment
in the welter of techno-based releases. At first listen, this may seem an
excessively abstract work - perhaps brutally so. But all the features of exciting
music are there, really - depth, texture, dynamics, volume and rhythm - but
expressed as purely abstract, digital tones, freed from the associations of
melody and harmony.
-
- There
are at least three great features to Christian Fennesz's work. One - unpredictability.
His best moments - and these would include the wonderful final track on this
not-overlong CD - confound the expectations of any listener, leaving one puzzled.
What was that? Why did it stop so suddenly when it was just starting to say
something? This sense of puzzlement can turn into a good thing, if you'll
let it. This music is not inconsequential, because it leaves a very strong
impression with you.
-
- Two -
Brevity. There's a lot of information in a Fennesz track. He has more ideas
than most electronic buffoons manage in their entire career, so many indeed
that he plays two or three of them together at the same time. Each component
is clearly stated, and the listener needs only to work that little bit harder
to distinguish the lines of thought. But be quick, because many of these tracks
are tight and concise.
-
- Three
- pleasure. Fragments of musical notes bubble up from time to time within
the flying sheets of crunchy, textured noise. A noise so palpable it's like
the inside of a Crunchy Bar. Or is rather that some of these tracks started
life as a melodious tune, and have been extensively reworked and taken apart
into their basic, mechanical components?
-
- This
is the second solo full-length recording from Christian Fennesz - the first
was Hotel Paral.lel - and it's made entirely with a guitar and a computer.
And it's absolutely superb.
-
- Minneapolis
City Pages (USA):
-
- THERE'S
A THESIS to be written on the shared sociocultural factors that lead both
middle-European electronic composers and their Middle American postrock kin
to attempt to milk melodrama from irony. Maybe this affinity has something
to do with the fact that each genre's metropolitan center occupies a similar
spot on the nexus of labor and leisure. After all, Chicago is a union town,
Berlin has a four-day workweek, and each has pressed musicians from diverse
global crannies into paying their dues.
-
- Lacking
such an academic dissertation, we'll just have to settle for the aesthetic
rewards that transnational collaborations like the Fenno'berg disc offer up.
A meeting between Chicago post-rock avatar Jim O'Rourke and a pair of Austrians
(math-rock/ambient guitarist Christian Fennesz and electro-minimalist Peter
Rehberg), Fenno'berg is the sound of three men sitting at a table pecking
at computers that chomp and flush what could pretty much be called the Entire
History of Recorded Music. As the trio finds the anger in MOR samples and
the beauty in sine-length manipulation, they manage to show up much modern
tuneage, from film soundtracks to alt-rock. And yet they find the path to
real emotion within that pathos.
-
- For soundscapes
without subtext, there's the Fennesz solo disc. Packaged in what appears to
be an elaborate picture postcard of Teutonic milking country, the music scurries
between the skitter of Oval, the squelch of Pansonic, and the drugged-out
chest-beating of My Bloody Valentine. Most of the sounds here originate from
beat-free laptop orchestrations that scrape away all musical details. Still,
this is a pretty sensuous disc, particularly for music seemingly created largely
to bore the girlfriends of smug audiophiles.
-
- These
discs represent different sides of the same musical coin. The orchestrator
Fennesz secretly desires to transform a single note into a symphony. The collage
artist O'Rourke hopes, conversely, to find the single note that ties together
all sound. (David Strauss)
-
- Outburn
(USA):
-
- Quirky,
volatile Guitartistry: Fascinating walls of wiry sound stretched and kneaded
by the prolific Christian Fennesz (the enclosed info street has him playing
with a multitude of bands and musicians who reside on the outskirts of experimental).
The music was created using only guitar and powerbook, and recorded in his
back garden; the impression of space is quite prevalent when the guitar's
feedback and slippery noise wails to the open sky, while more earthbound,
the sneaky cadences of manipulation are jittery like ants attacking an intruding
beetle. 010 sweeps down on wings of wind-battered sound, wings that flutter,
flap and glide. 013 on the other hand, is nervous and twitchy, gurgling spastically
before slipping into disjointed sequences that mesh musicality with static
noise. Huge chords tumble forth during 014, coagulating like blood from a
wound after the bleeding has ceased, slow and thick, while underneath, mesmerizing
slashes of corrosive noise slice into fresh veins and arteries, forcefully
draining more blood. The whole disc is a balance of clash and resolution between
disparate sonic entities, a balance of stormy turbulence and itchy experimentalism.
(JC Smith)
-
- Resonance
(UK):
-
- In the
last issue of Resonance, a single by Fennesz nearly drove me gaga with
excitement with its melding of melodic themes and PowerBook manipulations.
His new CD on the reliably recondite Touch Label, the snappily titled 'plus
forty seven degrees 56' 37' minus sixteen degrees 51' 08' (TO: 40) is a
step sideways into textural geography. The lavish packaging provides scant
clues to what's going on, with each track illustrated by a pictures of
natural landscapes with some evidence of human activity. On certain tracks
the music seems to have been atomised into thousands of tiny stippling
sounds with extreme stereo panning splitting the music into two parallel
event sequences. Track 5 (called .. er.. '014') is a noisy drone- a chord
almost drowned out by caustic white noise which stops dead after eight
minutes. It's illustrated by pylons. Occasionally a texture appears which
suggests that Fennesz's guitar may be the source, but stays tantalisingly
out of reach. The CD is a magnificent and infuriating conundrum, and I
love it. More fancy packaging comes with Pierre-Andre Arcand's 'Le Livre
Sonore' (ohm/avtr 013) the jewel case of which is stuffed with a super
illustrated book of
the artist's sculptures and installations. They look great. Unfortunately
the CD (which seems almost tagged on as an afterthought) is a bit dull. Consisting
of a heavily echoed microphone snuffling around various bits of debris, sounding
a lot like small loops of Adam Bohman, but lacking any convincing sense of
structure. Even with the aid of the book it failed to hold my attention.
I'd like to see an exhibition of his work though.. (Richard Sanderson)
-
- Grooves
(USA):
-
- The
last anyone heard of Fennesz he was doing strange re-assembly jobs on "Don't Talk
(Put Your Head On My Shoulder)" and "Paint It Black", but his new album is
entirely sourced from his own material, performed on laptop and guitar in
his garden over the summer. As tends to be the case with those associated
with Touch and/or Mego, Plus Forty Seven Degrees is certainly not an easy
listen and a fair way from his earlier Hotel Parallel album to boot.
-
- Processed
feedback is the order of the day here, and plenty of it. The first track
is
the least adventurous but the most accessible: A throbbing feedback riff
reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine hovers in the midst of icy laptop scree.
Highly desirable.
Subsequent tracks (there are no titles; the tracks are merely numbered from "010" to "017") are almost entirely given over to computer processing, organized
in irregular patterns of blips and static to give a stuttering impression.
Over time, though, the tracks do develop their own identities. A real highlight
is "014", 7 minutes of cacophonous quasi-industrial computer drone with half-formed
shapes stacked up behind. This tracks gets right to the innermost parts of
your brain in a way few others do - very much like Farmers Manual if they
decided to pursue ideas for longer than a minute and a half. None of the
other
tracks measure up to this, but they do have enough variations in their grainy
resonance to keep you guessing what might emerge next.
-
- It's
difficult to know exactly what to make of Fennesz. His music is undoubtedly
of a psychedelic nature. However, there's no particularly obvious reference
to drugs here and the record's packaging (all rural scenes from Austria) doesn't
exactly lend any clues about his intent. Maybe it's better just to immerse
yourself in his mutating channels of noise without trying to figure out what
it means. Chances are you'll find plenty to explore. (John Gibson)