Opposing forces

Sasu Ripatti serves a pair of contrasting pummellings - in off-kiltering machine mode as Vladislav Delay with the Espoo EP on Raster-Noton & in a suppler, more slippery guise as the Moritz von Oswald Trio's timeshuffler on Fetch (Honest Jon's)...

Blurbs (one more illuminating than the other, but anyway): "Vladislav Delay‘s EP 'Espoo' features two new conceptual, rhythm-intense tracks. Whereas the groove of the opener 'Olari' derives from a sound loop which is manipulated by filters and echoes and finally brings forth the intensifying beat, the reverse is done with 'Kolari' on the b-side. starting from an impulsive, staccato beat, a sound carpet is woven by means of modifiers which gradually shape a permanent vacation-like melody, close to terry riley‘s minimalistic concepts. both tracks share a linear increase in density, and because of their break with the common four-four time, they create a certain folkloric atmosphere." 


"The Moritz Von Oswald Trio operates at the bleeding edges where musical lineages collide. Feeling for the shared heartbeat that pulses through dub, techno and jazz, it seeks out points of contact before exploding them outward into hypnotic explorations of rhythm, texture and tone...At once umbilically connected to and completely distinct from all the musics that they draw from, the Trio's subliminal musings on the connections between musical forms are expressed by Fetch as a series of beguiling contradictions. Rigid vs. fluid; playful vs. deadly serious; machine vs. human; sensual vs. austere: all of these seemingly opposing forces are allowed to intermingle across four longform tracks, sometimes played off against one another, occasionally brought together in tense unison before springing apart once again."

Vladislav Delay - Espoo (Preview Mix)

Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Fetch (Preview Mix)

 

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Herds of fools

These ears have been twitching in anticipation ever since Vladislav Delay disclosed his first album for Raster-Noton in a recent interview with LMYE. The first excerpts from Vantaa seem to redeem all that expectancy - Narri ('fool' if your Suomi needs work...) in particular is a beautiful, beguiling piece in which a lop-sided rhythm, something like a wind-up toy starting to spasm, meshes with a shifting bed of ratchet, scrape & jangle to freight a moving, blurred theme. 


To name it our Track of the Day is the bathetic least we can do...


Blurb: "Even though complex electronic manipulations are used, Vantaa wants to sound like a piece of nature, resulting in a mixture of techno/dub and organic textures. The tracks oscillate between a decadent, greyish, post-industrial sound cloud and the intimate atmosphere of a vast and desolate Finnish landscape. Ripatti plays with tiny rhythmic bricks that drift and collapse, but nevertheless create spaces that radiate calmness and tranquility. Being an experienced producer, he uses his know-how to layer compact sound fabrics in unusual ways. In this case, these elements arouse associations with gushing water, crackling wood, or growing grass. The tracks on Vantaa merge into each other and their density escalates with „Lauma“ into an energetic climax, which is all at once the ecstatic, shamanic and truly moving peak of the album."

Vladislav Delay - Narri (excerpt)


Vladislav Delay - Narri (Excerpt)



Vladislav Delay - Lauma (excerpt)

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Tradition & reinvention

Striking that one of the musicians of the past 15 years whose work is most likely to endure for another 15 & beyond, Vladislav Delay, also feels a deep need to make immediate, almost disposable sounds - & insists on the inter-connectedness of the two. We can't have the textured depths of Delay or his stunning new(ish) quartet without the gleaming pulse of Luomo.

With a new album imminent in this friskiest of his many restless guises & participations (Uusitalo, Sistol, Moritz von Oswald Trio, Conoco, Bright People, The Only Copy, Kinovida, AGF/Delay, I hired a contract killer, The Dolls...), Sasu Ripatti talked to LMYE recently about tradition & reinvention.

"i push myself quite hard with what i'm working on and after that i feel quite empty and need to recharge myself by doing something quite different.

i also have quite an urge and interest to various types of music and i enjoy having it all. one at a time though."

He's currently lying fallow for a while, having followed up working as Luomo by moving to the other end of his spectrum. Last week he completed his twelfth Delay album (at LMYE's count) - & his first for Raster-Noton.

Ripatti is fairly dismissive of the bulk of new releases ("most new music can handle few times of listening and it's done, all said there is to say in a quick one"). He mostly listens to older jazz or reggae/dub - "also hiphop a lot".

He touches too on the differing dynamics of his quartet & MvOT - "it's very much a group thing whereas MVOT is Moritz's thing to big extent". While he has no plans to spawn further groups or even take on the odd remix, regrettably, he's open to following his collaborators von Oswald & Loderbauer into ReComposed/Re: ECM reconstruction territory - labels please note!

Vladislav Delay - Ele

Do you see yourself as working in any kind of tradition (or traditions)?

not at all. i change my path quite constantly, my points of view changes, i get bored easily.

i might have background in jazz or percussion tradition but that all is long gone, and i certainly don't follow any tradition other than my own thing which i can't specify at all. or don't want to restrict it by analysis.

How would you characterise the ways in which your music has changed since you began recording?

i see it as a continuous path i'm on with peaks and valleys and whatnot.

main thing i'm happy about is that my music has changed during the years, otherwise i should not do it anymore; i really don't believe in repeating myself.

when i look at the changes i can see smaller and bigger cycles that do repeat but i think there's growth and progression in those cycles when they appear again and again.

i really do try to be conscious about what i do and try to pay attention to push things to new directions and not allowing myself to become comfortable with what or how i'm doing music.

Luomo - Good Stuff

How do you see your recording personas influencing each other? Which, if any, has the greatest influence on Luomo? Do you need Luomo in any way to be able to make VDQ or your other musics?

i do need one to make the other for sure.

the whole thing is that i push myself quite hard with what i'm working on and after that i feel quite empty and need to recharge myself by doing something quite different.

i also have quite an urge and interest to various types of music and i enjoy having it all. one at a time though.

How has the experience of playing in MvOT influenced what VDQ does (& how it does it), if at all?

influences are quite minor and subconscious because i play so different role in each group.

not meaning though that i'm a leader in VDQ except for managing and producing it.

when we make music live it's very much a group thing whereas MVOT is Moritz's thing to big extent although luckily i'm allowed lots of freedom in my part.

Moritz von Oswald Trio - Structure 1

Vladislav Delay Quartet - Salt Flat [re-up]

Do you expect to work in new groups in the future - either as leader or a player?

not thinking about it at least.

for sure as long as these two groups are active i won't expand more, it's really time consuming and sometimes exhausting to manage or run a group. two is definitely enough!

Do you make all of your solo music, including Luomo, in the same place & with the same tools?

same place, yes. mostly same tools as well but used in quite a different way.

Vladislav Delay - Raamat

Anyone you'd like to collaborate with? Or remix?

there are lots of interesting people i'd like to work with of course but it's too hard to make it happen when you are not commercially potential.

i don't have a wish list and i'm also happy to work with people i already work with.

remixing is something i don't want to be involved in much.

Can you see yourself making a Re: ECM or ReComposed? Whose music would you be interested in reshaping in a similar way (if anyone's)?

if someone offered me to work on some music i really like i'd love to do it.

ECM for sure if i could pick up the music. jazz, African, Jamaican, hiphop, i'd be happy with lots of stuff....

Who else do you listen to (for pleasure, for inspiration, for a change)? What are some of this year's crucial releases for you? What are some releases you couldn't/wouldn't be without?

i go for extreme range of music and have also periods where i stick to certain music for a long time. not so much any more but for example i listened only Frank Zappa for about two years when i was about 16-18. before that i only listened jazz from 50s and 60s. then was the dub period..

nowadays i mainly listen older jazz or reggae/dub for music pleasure.

i also entertain myself with hiphop a lot.

Kanye West's last album is the only one i really thought was a special one since a long while in any genre.

most new music can handle few times of listening and it's done, all said there is to say in a quick one.

Vladislav Delay - The First Quarter

Best thing anyone's said/written about your music? Worst?

i don't keep that info i guess as nothing comes to mind.

well, there was really stupid review of VDQ on the Wire which i thought was embarrasing for the magazine, pure ignorance and misunderstanding.

but i try to stay away from it all and just focus on doing what i think i should do.

What's next for you?

hm... i'm right now on vacation since yesterday when i finished new VladislavDelay album for Raster Noton release late this year.

i'm planning to spend some time in the studio next and reconfigure it and try out new things without aiming to finish anything.

Luomo - Plus (Exclusive Track Preview)

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Corporeal wilderness

Hot on the heels of his post-jazz quartet, more Vladislav Delay goodness - this time in the gloopy, lateral form of the nicely non-generic Latoma EP. A kind of meta dub techno, both the swampy slurring original (eventually flogged along into something more kinetic) & the spacious, almost languidly round-the-houses Loderbauer/Villalobos remix seem to energise themselves - the Villo to the extent it can be arsed... - by toying with the genre's tropes. But the best of all may well be the pounding, shuddering lope of Korpi.

Photos by Emanuele Sason (top), Allert Aalders & Nicola / Fotonix (bottom).

Vladislav Delay - Latoma EP (Preview Mix)

More excerpts via Hardwax: Latoma / Korpi / Latoma (Villo Remix)

Delay treasure-trove...

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

Radio Yugoslavia

The Vladislav Delay Quartet blows in! Sasu Ripatti cements his place in the vanguard of post-jazz - or whatever else you want to call the clattering, swooping territory staked out by his VDQ & its kissing cousin Moritz von Oswald Trio (intruding, I guess [though no expert], into a once almost exclusively Norwegian domain thanks to Jan Petter Molvaer, Supersilent/Arve Henriksen et al...) - with a densely vibrant Honest Jon's release that seems to redefine what improvisation with a jazz inflection/infection & an electronic palette might yield.

Below hear the exquisite, wistful Salt Flat, the wry Presentiment & Killing the Water Bed's dark whirls & eddies, as well as extracts from VDQ's loping, sparkling remainder (Louhos & Des Abends notable higlights...).

Blurb: "Vladislav Delay Quartet features an electro-acoustic ensemble with Ripatti on percussion. Other members of the lineup are Mika Vainio, who handles electronics and processing, and live instrumentalists Derek Shirley and Lucio Capece (the latter of whom appeared on Vladislav Delay's 2009 album Tumaa). Those two play double bass, bass clarinet and soprano sax. The album is mixed and produced by Ripatti himself.

“This was the most difficult and challenging record I ever worked on,” admits Delay, who in recent years has found inspiration in producer Teo Macero’s innovative work on Miles Davis’ fusion material. “It remains somewhat raw and natural, even though there are tons of processing and mixing involved. It was also difficult, because everything was recorded live, with spilling between tracks and microphones. And Mika's stereo channel not only had his loops and sounds, but also the processing he was doing on my drums or Lucio’s horns.”

Recorded at the former Radio Yugoslavia studios in Belgrade, throughout one week last year, Vladislav Delay Quartet is an expansive and multifaceted listening experience. In Delay’s scrupulous production, the ensemble’s “raw and natural” interaction finds a deep coherence: the articulation of absolute freedom."

Vladislav Delay Quartet -

Minus Degrees, Bare Feet, Tickles

/ Santa Teresa

/ Des Abends / Hohtokivi / Louhos

(extracts from Vladislav Delay Quartet, Honest Jon's)

Vladislav Delay Quartet - Killing The Water Bed

Vladislav Delay Quartet - Presentiment

Vladislav Delay Quartet - Salt Flat

Photos by sierus (middle) & Luka Knezevic Strika

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.

158 Bleecker?

Dubby menace, spiralling squirts & tones, reflective Bitches Brew minors, & future sheen degraded into blurry, puffy washes - all flogged along by oil drum percussion once again, but framed now by a venue acoustic & studded with appreciative yelps: the sound of the Moritz von Oswald Trio Live in New York.

Was it their US debut (February 6 at Le Poisson Rouge)? I assume not, since that had ReComposed orchestral action. But I shouldn't be getting into this, as I've really no idea & Honest Jon's aren't saying...

Anyway, a resequenced (extracts #4, 1, 3 & 2, fellow trainspotters!) LMYE hack of samples from the forthcoming album - a companion to our earlier bodge of Vertical Ascent.



Absent any decent footage of MvOT in NY, two slants on their recent performance in Detroit:





Interview. & another (video, way longer).

Moritz von Oswald Trio > Live in New York [extracts] / [lo-res] (from Live in New York, Honest Jon's)



NB: photos by pablosanz.

Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.