VioSac - VATS4

viosac.net

Viosac - VATS7

www.viosac.net

Viosac - VATS8

www.viosac.net

book cover

An extension of the "Angry Eelectric Finger" trilogy of collaborative albums with Jim O'Rourke, irr.app. (ext.) and Cyclobe, this set presents much related material that either feed into or was drawn from that project.  Originally, "Zero Mix", which is the first CD in this set, was presented as a limited edition picture disc available only to those who pre-ordered all three collaborative LPs way  back around 2004.  "Zero Mix" was probably seen as auxiliary as it was the source material which the three other acts worked with for their individual albums.  As such it is a little spare, but certainly does not come off as a backing track.  Quite the contrary, it bears resemblance to some of NWW's more reserved finished releases of recent years.  Created by the duo of Colin Potter and Steven Stapleton, the disc begins with a soft repeating deep chord, possibly the very low end of a piano, over which what sounds like a bicycle provides short cranks overhead, perhaps in reference to Jacques Berrocal's "Rock'n'Roll Station", which NWW covered some years back.  The three tracks are untitled however giving very little to reference like so many of Steve's titles.  The opening piece does gradually become thicker with the addition of more creakiness, little tones, and what sounds like it may be extended horns in the bass range before becoming more active at the end.  The second track is more active featuring more noisy sources and a warping of the sound similar to hand scrabbling tape, although probably accomplished digitally, yet retaining the low end pulse at the bottom.  By the end of the disc, the sound field is enriched by flute and saxophone, which although uncredited on the thick CD sleeve itself, are revealed at the back of the book to be provided by Hansi Fischer and the late Tim Belbe, both of the legendary German jazz-rock Xhol, who lend an open jazz feel in the midst of  more experimental territory.  Somewhere hidden in the swirl of sounds is also a guest appearance by David Tibet, although at what point in the disc, I cannot tell.

The second disc, "Requital for Lady Day", seems to be an extension of the first disc's direction, and does give Belbe and Fischer credit for the title track, which gives very little outward appearance of any connection with Billie Holiday [that said I seem to remember Steve wearing a Billie Holiday t-shirt pretty much every day of his first visit to San Francisco].  Again the tracks here are low key like the overall feel of the first disc and pair with it well.  "Requital" has the flute sounding very languorous in its long and soft tones.  The second track's title, "Ocean [for 'Saucie' Redpath], gives more focus to the slowly undulating sounds which move like waves throughout the entire set.  Both albums come in very thick miniature LP sleeves which are sturdy enough to make extracting the actual discs a little difficult.

Accompanying the CDs is thick, 220-page, hardcover book that is slightly larger than CD size at about five and a quarter inches square.  As I mention above, this is yet another extension of the "Angry Eelectric Finger" trilogy of albums.  One to each spread are 100 riotously colorful artworks that were painted directly onto salvaged junk LPs made for an exhibit in Ireland.  A significant number of the images are bisected by a elaborations on a squiggly line, often in a horizontal, but sometimes in a vertical, orientation.  Another common, but less prevalent, theme is the use of a traced hand, frequently with an eye in the palm.  Of course following the obsessional pattern of Babs Santini artworks in general, there are several cases of abstracted genitals as well.  The book is finely printed, in Hong Kong no less, on glossy stock which helps retain the eye popping quality of the colors used.  I might also add that the dust jacket, which reproduces small images of the artworks used for the four original LP / CD releases (the fourth being "Zero Mix" itself) on the inside flaps, hides underneath it a nice embossed cover.  Text throughout is little, although each circular artwork has a title written on its inside edge.  That only suggests a preference for internally and directly reacting to the art and music without the mediation of verbal framework.

From what I can follow, the "Zero Mix" CD and the "Images / Zero Mix" book are both produced in editions of 1500 copies.  Like many releases on Beta-lactam Ring Records, there is a more deluxe sub-edition with extra music, which the current review focuses on.  The additional material here is the "Requital for Lady Day" CD, a CD sized insert signed by Steven Stapleton, and an oblong, cloth bound, two part box.  This special boxed edition is stated as being in an edition of 400 copies, although it is not numbered  anywhere on my copy.  The box itself is a bit awkward measuring approximately 14.5" by 7.5" by 1.5" with a hard foam insert to hold the discs and book in place.  Kind of an obnoxious size for storing with other audio releases.  In contrast to the colorful contents, the box itself is only marked by the artist name and release title embosses on the lid with no ink, or at least a dark black.

Beta-lactam Ring Records - mt103/mt201/mt202

blrrecords.com

C.I.P. / Complacency - CIP 21

www.cipsite.net

www.illusionofsafety.net

Drone Records - SUB-05

www.dronerecords.de

www.substantia-innominata.de

ubuibi.org

Although often associated with deep bass sounds, the A side of this brown 10" focuses more on the mid-range with a buzzing high-tension drone.  It is the sort of sound that you would associate with being inside of a electrical power line transformer.  Certainly the "Radiant" part of the title fits with the sounds in this track.  The second side lets some sparks fly, but more intermittently and above repeated notes played on the low end of the piano, as well as a subtle mid-range drone.  It is a contrast to the first side as it offers a pulse and stays away from creating a static field.  Both are supposed to fit into the concept of the Substantia Innominata series of 10" records, of which this is the first installment.  The concept is stated as embracing "the prospect of infinite possibilities for artists to create music about the intangible such as: the unnameable, the unspeakable, the unthinkable, the unidentifiable, etc."  Given the history of Drone Records, I would say that this statement could probably just as well apply to a lot of their earlier 7" releases.  Likewise, clocking it at around 9 minutes per side, it about the same duration as some of those 7" entries.  But maybe letting the grooves expand over a large surface is better for the fidelity in the end as 9 minute sides seemed to be pushing the limits for 7" records.  As for the packaging, it is a nice match of matte brown paper and brown vinyl with streaks of green, black and possibly white.  The cover art comes courtesy of Robert Schalinski of Column One and evokes the collage work of his countryman Max Ernst.  Pressed in an edition of 500 copies, "Radiant Blood" has hung around in print longer than the smaller runs of the earlier 7"s - a format that Drone Records has now put to bed after 100 titles.  This 10" series, now up to 17 releases, as well as a new series of four-way-split LPs look to be the way forward that Stefan Knappe wants to pursue.

Drone Records - SUB-01

www.dronerecords.de

 www.substantia-innominata.de

Equation Records - E=mc6

www.chronoglide.com/equation.html

I don't remember the exact circumstances I first met Damian... it was more than a couple of decades ago, during his days with Points of Friction and the beginning of his releases on cassette under the name of Agog.

I do remember how impressed I was with both his audio work and his elaborate packaging (which were works of art unto themselves).
When he showed me his collages, I immediately knew that I would love to have some on the covers of my own releases, and was happy and honored that he agreed to allow that. I used two of them that were already in existence for the covers of Bacteria and Gravity (the LP on RRR) and Shadowtraders (the cassette on my own label). For the cover of the Fragment 56 CD (which Dan Burke collaborated on), I got to watch alongside of Damian as it was pieced to together especially for the release. He was so meticulous, creating a beautiful image I was quite proud to have.

Damian's own cassette releases stood out from the crowd with their attention to detail and subtlety. I was regularly asking him when the next would come out, but he explained that it took him well over a year, as he would endlessly be re-working it-- not one to be satisfied with his own work easily. His attention, of course, was apparent when listening to his amazing work. We talked about collaborating on a project, and finally got around to it. Damian brought to my place strange and lovely instruments he put together to get unique sounds. I remember one was a type of auto-harp, but played with the blades of a small, hand-held electric fan. (Beautiful!)
We recorded several hours of improvising onto DAT, and the results were often more than intriguing. The idea was to edit that and re-mix it for a release, but sadly, we each got distracted with other events in our lives and we never got around to it.

The last time I ran into Damian was a few years back at Amoeba Records after a Nurse With Wound performance. He seemed energetic and enthusiastic, and we once again talked about getting together to do some music. Like so many casual plans, it fell by the wayside for a later time. Now there's no more "later time". I think I'll dig up that old DAT and give it a listen. Maybe it's time to edit and remix it, but without Damian's input it certainly won't be the same.

I am sad to report the death of Damian Bisciglia. He took his own life earlier this week. He was only 52 years old, but leaves behind a great legacy of work.

I first became aware of Damian in the 1980s when a friend wrote his name and number on a piece of paper for me. He mentioned Points of Friction and thought we should meet each other. At that time I did have the nerve to call people out of the blue. So it wasn't until several years later that I got in touch with Damian. I knew of his work as Agog and his visual art from the cover to Randy Greif's "Bacteria and Gravity" LP released by RRRecords. I think it was probably through Randy that I first heard Agog as I got the "Putting Legs on a Snake" cassette from him.

The music of Agog was homemade musique concrete - amazing tape collages. It was really outstanding work that stood above a lot of what was coming out of the cassette culture at that time. Damian's work was superbly recorded and edited, and lovingly packaged. The packaging in a way was his downfall as he spent so much effort on it, that he made few copies of the cassettes on his own Spagyric label. The only cassette that was easily available was a split cassette with Zan Hoffman published by N D magazine in 1990. He also did a cassette for the legendary Broken Flag label, but it was towards the end of their first run and very few copies seem to have been made of that either. Probably the most heard was the Agog track on the five 7" box set edition of RRRecords's "Testament" series. His own cassettes reached fewer and fewer people over the years as his packaging grew more and more elaborate. Visiting him at his parent's house in the late 1990s, I was blown away by the creature sculptures that he was showing me. My amazement increased as he split them open to show me the cassettes that lived inside of them.

With so little available and such high quality, I wanted to do what I could to share his music. It ended up being a three year project, but I was able to release the only Agog LP on Anomalous Records in 2001. By the end of that year I was able to reissue one of the Points of Friction cassettes on CD. Both were very special releases for me. They didn't sell particularly well, but represented what "anomalous" meant to me.

But I am failing to mention Damian's work as an improvisor. He was a collector of junk materials and built his own instruments and sculptures. At times he would put himself down for only having these non-instruments. Perhaps this contributed to his shyness towards performing. I only saw him perform in front of an audience once. That was at Anomalous Records in 1994 in a duet with Joseph Hammer. Need I even say that it was amazing? His association with Joseph went all the way back the beginning of the 1980s when Points of Friction was formed with Kenny Ryman and Tim Alexander. After the group broke up, he worked mostly solo, but did collaborate through the post with Minoy, Adam Bohman, Johannes Bergmark, and Zan Hoffman. In recent years Mitchell Brown roused him to more activity helping encourage the reformation of Points of Friction and releasing a new CD of their music.

Damian's music and art remains little heard and known for the most part. I congratulate Mitchell Brown, Fredrik Nilsen, Dylan Nyoukis, Seymour Glass, Hitomo Arimoto, Ron Lessard, Eric Blevins, Zan Hoffman, Daniel Plunkett, and the others that helped get bits of his music into the world. I hope that his music does not disappear with his passing.

Earlier this year, Points of Friction played for the first time in a few years. Damian was excited about the event and excited about music in general. I got the impression that he was ramping up for more activity. Obviously there were other things that troubled him though. His life has sadly been cut short. I am thankfully for all that he gave us and will miss him.

Thank you Mitch for passing along this sad news. Thank you Nils for first pointing me in Damian's direction all those decades ago. Thank you Randy for helping me pick up that thread. Thank you Joseph for all you did.