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AMAZING SOUNDS No.105 / May 15, 2001
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CONTENTS:

NEWS

THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN EASTERN EUROPE Chapter 6. POLAND AND EAST
GERMANY. This mini-series is a brief approach to the electronic
music and innovative / alternative styles in Eastern Europe.

REVIEWS:
TRANSJOIK: "MEAVRAA" Atrium / Warner Music Sweden
JUAN CARLOS GARCIA: "THE LUMINOUS PRESENCE" Pulsar Studios
SURFACE 10: "IN VITRO TIDE" DiN Records
SOLAR MOON SYSTEM: "LOGBOOK" Rainhorse / Manikin
MURDER LEGENDRE: "UNDERSTATEMENT OF EXTREMES" Spine Punch Music
HOLLYDRIFT: "HAIL THE FROZEN NORTH" Cuba Club Media

====================

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NEWS

MACC (electronics) and Xavier Pie (saxo) have united their
artistic efforts in a series of brilliant improvisations. A really
interesting meeting that of these two creators of universes of
sound. Miguel Alberto Cruz, better known by his artistic names
MACC and Satori, started a solo career in the musical avantgarde
of the early nineties. His imaginative and unclassifiable music
soon attracted a remarkable attention. The improvised music by
MACC and Xavier Pie flows, evolving, never losing its intrinsic
beauty, deep, hypnotic, with electronic undercurrents that lead to
atmospheres full of a soft energy, at times with space brushes.
More information here:
macc@...

Mauro Lupone is an interesting electroacoustic composer. In his
composition "Himmel-Feuer" (piano, bird calls and live
electronics), he sculpts textures in varied forms, thus weaving an
oniric tapestry full of mysteries.

====================

THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC IN EASTERN EUROPE
Chapter 6. POLAND AND EAST GERMANY.

It is impossible to attempt to compress the musical universe
enclosed behind the iron curtain by decades in a single mini-
series. A basic approach to the reality of the musical avantgarde
in each one of the multiple, rich cultures of this great unknown
which is Eastern Europe, nowadays in full development, would need
the making of a book. Therefore, this mini-series will only be a
brief vision, perforce incomplete, of this avantgarde style
sustained on cultures maybe as ancient or even more so than those
in the rest of Europe.

POLAND
Apart from Krysztof Penderecki, the well known forefather of
Polish New Music, there are other artists in the new musics with
international recognition.
Henryk Gorecki was born in Poland in 1933, and started his
career as a composer in the 1950s, revealing himself at once as an
innovative artist within orchestral music. In 1979 he had to leave
his post as a conductor at the Conservatory of Cracow due to
political pressure. In 1981 he composed "Miserere", as a homage to
the workers of the at the times clandestine trade union
Solidarity, whose premiere was forbidden by the Polish authorities
until 1987. Gorecki began to be internationally known especially
after the political changes of Eastern Europe.
One of the most awarded electroacoustic composers is Stanislaw
Krupowicz, settled in the United States. He has been working there
as a professor of the Department of Music at the Center for the
Musical Research via Computer, of the University of Stanford, in
California. He composes music and designs musical software. In
Poland, he studied Mathematics and later music, receiving a
diploma with honors on the latter. He carried out post-graduate
studies in Germany and wrote music for the cinema and theatre. In
my first contact with him, he was about to premiere a concert work
commissioned by the Union of Polish Composers.
I also contacted Barbara Zawadzka, a composer with great
prestige in the electroacoustic spheres. She studied music tutored
by Krysztof Penderecki. Later, she left for France, where she
studied electronic music. In 1980 she began to teach music in
Cracow. She has received numerous awards and prizes in Poland,
Germany, Austria and Switzerland, also participating in festivals
in China and France. She has composed music for the cinema and
theatre. She has collaborated with the IRCAM in France.
Marek Bilinski has succeeded in attaining a well deserved
reputation as a synthesist with avantgarde ideas.
Czeslaw Niemen, coming from Rock, has embraced numerous
styles.
Wladyslaw Komendarek has been doing Techno music.
Also worthy of mention are musicians Grzegorz Strozniak,
Przemyslaw Goc, Marek Klimczuk, Slawomir Kulpowicz, Josef Skrzek,
Wojciech Karolak, Janusz Grzywacz, Janusz Skowron, Zbigniew
Jakubek and Wladyslaw Sendecki, as well as the duo Up Stream.

EASTERN GERMANY
In the black market, up to three hundred dollars could be paid
for a Klaus Schulze album. The concerts held in Western Berlin
could be heard in Eastern Berlin close to the Wall. Berlin, or at
the very least Western Berlin, was the cradle of the so-called
"Berlinese Electronic Music". In this environment, a musical
culture very much influenced by the "electronic wonders" perceived
or guessed from the other side was developed. This caused an
important amount of synthesists to appear, surpassing that of
acoustic avantgarde musicians.
Pond was created as an electronic music duo, with diverse
stylistic sides, ranging from atmospheric music to percussive
rhythms. Most remarkable is the fact that they wrote the
soundtrack for a Chinese television series. This was possible for
them to do as they belonged to a Communist country. The music they
made for the series received excellent reviews, and it was said
that it sounded "far Easterner than that of many Japanese
synthesists".
Servi was another electronic duo that achieved remarkable
prestige in the former GDR. Having received a scholarly education,
their music fusioned German classicism with "German Rock". They
have released a number of albums.
Synthesist Reinhard Lakomy became known in the late 1970s. He
uses sequencers and keyboards to build rhythmic cosmic music. In
the beginning he was compared to the Tangerine Dream of the early
1980s, yet he soon progressed towards a very personal style. He
has perhaps been the most prestigious synthesist in Eastern
Germany.
Dieter Zobel is a self-taught musician who began to compose
when he purchased a Yamaha CX-5. His music is completely
disconnected from the music composed in the Western countries. It
is a complex mixture of futuristic classicism, medieval
ressonances, cosmic textures and experimentation.
Lord Litter is the artistic name of a multifaceted artist
highly involved with the Culture of the Cassette. He has a variety
of self-released and self-distributed tapes. He has written
articles and reviews for American fanzines. He has carried out
many other activities, such as directing and presenting a
programme on new musics for Radio-100 in Berlin, or being in
charge of a record label also devoted to distribution. His
university doctoral thesis consisted in a book on the home-taper
movement (independent musicians who sell their taped works by mail
directly to the audience), and its feasibility as an artistic
alternative to official / commercial music.
Moritz Reichelt, the keyboardist of Der Plan (a Hamburg-based
band that occupied Kraftwerk's place), comes from Eastern Europe,
although he has developed his artistic activity in the Western
sector. However, he performed in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and
Poland.
Also important is the work of Bayon, a World Music band,
centered in the fusion of both Europes, using traditional
instruments from the Eastern and Western countries; Unit, a band
sited between Jazz and New Age, in a style of electronic World
Music; and Rainer Oleak, a synthesist who collaborated with
Reinhard Lakomy. Mention must be made as well of guitarist
Wolfgang Paulke, Julius Krebs, Jorn Kanitz and Hans-Hasso Stamer.

(By: JORGE MUNNSHE)

For more information about the available releases by those artists
and sound clips, use these links:

Krysztof Penderecki
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004R7N7/thesciencebookbo

Henryk Gorecki
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000005J1C/thesciencebookbo

Marek Bilinski
http://gemm.com/q.cgi?rb=AMAZINGS&artist=marek+bilinski

Reinhard Lakomy
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/192798/thesciencebookbo

Dieter Zobel
http://gemm.com/q.cgi?rb=AMAZINGS&artist=dieter+zobel

Lord Litter
http://gemm.com/q.cgi?rb=AMAZINGS&artist=lord+Litter

====================

REVIEWS:

TRANSJOIK:
"MEAVRAA"
Atrium / Warner Music Sweden
This is an ambitious work where the frontiers between Atmospheric
Pop, Trance, Ambient and the World Music become blurred, thus
weaving an harmonious whole, with the idea of exploring new sonic
continents.
ALEJANDRO HINOJOSA

For more information about the available releases by this band and
sound clips, use this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ts/artist-glance/169699/thesciencebookbo

JUAN CARLOS GARCIA:
"THE LUMINOUS PRESENCE"
Pulsar Studios
The artist has succeeded in transmitting intense feelings with
this album of cosmic New Age Music, full of poetry and beauty,
which leads the listener to a world of wondrous soundscapes by
means of the masterful use of synthesizers.
JORGE MUNNSHE

SURFACE 10:
"IN VITRO TIDE"
DiN Records
The style of this CD, openly experimental and avantgarde, combines
the most risky aspects of Industrial Music with Ambient.
ALEJANDRO HINOJOSA

SOLAR MOON SYSTEM:
"LOGBOOK"
Rainhorse / Manikin
The music of this CD wanders around Trance and Atmospheric Pop,
with ethereal vocals, slow rhythms and strong doses of avantgarde.
Klaus Schulze participates as the executive producer in the album.
DEREK DOARN

MURDER LEGENDRE:
"UNDERSTATEMENT OF EXTREMES"
Spine Punch Music
Murder Legendre, the new project by Cedric Rokkgod, presents in
this album an interesting electronic tour through different styles
fused within a general structure near to the darkest areas of
Ambient and Noise Art.
JORGE MUNNSHE

HOLLYDRIFT:
"HAIL THE FROZEN NORTH"
Cuba Club Media
The style of this work fluctuates among the various areas of
Ambient, as well as other avantgarde trends within experimental
music. The use of sound collages enhances the oniric atmospheres.
EDGAR KOGLER

====================

We are preparing an international directory of record companies,
artists, festivals, radio shows, zines, webs, journalists,
associations, and other organizations & people working in the
field of electronic music, Ambient, New Instrumental,
Experimental, World Music, and so on. The inserts are free. The
persons or firms wishing to be included can send us a file of no
more than 600 words with the data they consider as being of
interest (contact addresses - snail mail, telephone number, fax,
email, URL... -) and an explanatory text on their activities in
English) to: amazings@...

We are also preparing an encyclopaedia of composers of electronic
music. The artists wishing to be included can send us a biography
(with a list of works and contact address if they wish to) of no
more than 900 words, in English, to amazings@.... Inserts
are free.

The persons or firms having a page in internet related in some way
to the alternative musics can communicate the URL, as well as a
brief description of its contents, to webmaster@..., and
we will set a link from our web to theirs (The insert of a link in
our web is free whenever it is corresponded with a similar link
from their web to our web)

====================

Our warmest greetings for our readers and until the next edition
of Amazing Sounds.

====================

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