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AMAZING SOUNDS No.112 / October 31, 2001
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CONTENTS:

NEWS

INTERVIEW WITH DOM F. SCAB. Dom F. Scab is a brilliant
composer, capable of dealing with unsurpassed skill the
technological media available to him. By combining digital
sonorities with analog ones, he knows how to shape a personal
style of electronic music that links to the most thrilling
essence of the Space Sequencer Music

REVIEWS:
HALIM EL-DABH: "CROSSING INTO THE ELECTRIC MAGNETIC" Without Fear
Recordings
POINTLESS ORCHESTRA: "APPROACHING TOTALITY" Without Fear
Recordings
VARIOUS: "LIVES, A POINTLESS NIGHT OUT" Without Fear Recordings
JOHN LAKVEET: "SEQUENTIAGITE" Vagern Records

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NEWS

"Accelerator", the new CD by Bjorn Lynne, is near to be released.
The master CD is pressed, and ready to go to the CD factory.

On November 30, Vasco Martins will be in Lisbon, Portugal, for a
"Lunario Perpetuo" concert, and a workshop about "music poetry".

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

INTERVIEW WITH DOM F. SCAB

Dom F. Scab is a brilliant composer, capable of dealing with
unsurpassed skill the technological media available to him.
By combining digital sonorities with analog ones, he knows
how to shape a personal style of electronic music that links
to the most thrilling essence of the Space Sequencer Music
that so much enthusiasm awakened during the seventies to an
audience wishing for new sensations, and that nowadays
enthusiasms the new generations as well. His style,
nevertheless, has many elements typical of the eighties and
the nineties. He has been compared to the Tangerine Dream of
the early eighties, yet even if it will appeal to those who
enjoy the music this band used to make in that time, his
music turns out to be completely personal.


-Could you tell us how your vocation as a composer started?
And your interest in electronic music?

"I guess that with the purchase of my first electronic
instruments. I used to play the piano from a very early age,
but when I discovered the possibilities offered by
synthesizers , a new dimension opened before my eyes. By
then, and I am speaking about some eighteen or twenty years
ago, my favourite music was Symphonic Rock, and also some
Jazz. I came to discover Electronic Music as I was creating
my own. As soon as I first listened to "Stratosfear" of
Tangerine Dream, my vision of music changed. Then came
"Rubycon", "Phaedra", the works of Klaus Schulze, Vangelis,
etc... What fascinated me most of this style and form to
understand music was the creation of sounds that I had never
heard before, and of course, of this new way to develop the
composition without ties or tight constraints."

-Which are the main differences in your creative process when
you are working with other composers? Or is the process
basically the same as in your solo works?

"There are some differences. Working with other musicians is
somewhat like a marriage because one needs to know how and
when to concede, at times, and try to have some balance. In
my manner of working there is a fairly great component of
improvisation, so I try to see the contribution of a
colleague as a part of this chance that is created in every
process of improvisation. Anyway, at a studio level, I prefer
solo work, although I admit that when performing live, I'd
rather be surrounded by other musicians."

-Do you think there is a clear relationship between science
fiction and some given stylistic trends within music?

"I like Sci-Fi a lot and I believe that this feeling is
present in my music. Yet, Electronic Music is not necessarily
related to Science Fiction. What happens is, both concepts
have clear connotations of imagination, of abstraction. And
the sounds that can be extracted from a synthesizer can help
to re-create impossible landscapes, unreal ambiences,
etc...Don't forget that one of the best Sci-Fi soundtracks of
all times is basically constructed with synthesizers. I am
referring to "Blade Runner", of course."

-With "Innerseed" and "Binary Secrets", did you try to
communicate some message or to shape, in the form of music,
some of your ideas about the topics the titles of these
albums are related with, as well as the pieces included in
them?

"Yes, of course. There is a common nexus between both albums,
which is the relationship between technology and life,
between the machines and nature. This is what I have tried to
transmit. Although I must insist that one's proposal needn't
coincide with the imagination of the listener."

-Some instruments are already legendary in the history of
electronic music. You own one of them. Tell us what it is
that attracts you most, as a musician, of your Yamaha CS-80.

"No doubt, the enormous expresivity it has. You can play the
same note a million times, it always has a different shade.
This, together with its fabulous sound, makes of the CS80 a
unique instrument. There is another important ciscumstance
that is, not having midi and being unable to communicate with
the sequencer, I have to play and record it as I would do
with a piano, with all the impurities that there may be, and
this makes the composition to become all the more humanized.
Nowadays it is an essential part of my studio."

-Can you tell us some anecdote about your experience playing
live?

"I could tell you a great deal, yet perhaps the most
surrealist one happened during a concert together with Albert
Gimenez during the festivities of the Mercè in Catalunya
Square, in Barcelona (Spain). We had been hired, but what we
didn't know was, the rest of artistic performances before and
after ours were of a traditional folk kind, and the fact that
the audience was, in a vastly major part, senior citizens. It
was a disaster. The poor old people covered their ears and
made gestures with their hands, like when your grandma tells
you, "child... lower the volume of the television". When we
finished, an old man came to us, with a hallucinating face,
telling us he had found the concert truly wonderful, and
asking us where he could get our albums."

-What do you think about the attitude that some purists of
acoustic instruments hold before synthesizers, which they
find "lacking in human warmth" as well as inexpressive?

"In general, I have the impression that they show an attitude
of fear and rejection. I only coincide with them in the fact
that a synthesizer will never replace an acoustic instrument.
This is not its function, although manufacturers insist on
filling them with “presets” of pianos, guitars and trumpets.
The terrain a synthesizer must explore is the creation of
new, unreal sounds, sounds that do not intend to imitate
anything already known. And at a level of pure expressivity,
a synthesizer can be as expressive as an acoustic instrument.
Anyway, the coldness would lie in the composition itself."

-In your opinion, have the analogical and the digital sound
different personalities?

"Certainly, yet I am a true defender of the former, as it
tends to occur with some synthesists. In your previous
question you were inquiring about "purists", and in the
controversy analogic vs. digital these "purists" are present
as well, I think that, as you well say, they have different
personalities, and this circumstance makes them become wholly
complementary To emphasize the virtues of one you need to
combine it with the other."

-Tell us about the projects you are working on and your
future plans.

"In this moment I am waiting for my new CD, "A-con
(Analogical Confessions)", to be released. I guess it won't
be long for that. It somehow represents the continuation of
my previous work, "Binary Secrets",. and so I have chosen to
play a little with the title. I will surely start to work on
a new album soon, together with John Lakveet. With respect to
concerts, I am working now on a project in a trio format,
together with Odracir Lavid (midi guitars) and Jose Maria
Zyrya (drums and electronic percussion).On December 14 we
will be in the auditorium Barradas de L Hospitalet. It can
be, I believe, an interesting experiment that will combine
different styles, like say, electronic, jazz, world music..."

(Interview conducted by Jorge Munnshe)


If you wish to purchase any recordings by Dom F. Scab you only
have to use this link:

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More info about Dom F. Scab, here:

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

Michel Huygen has granted to Amazing Sounds the privilege of
exclusively selling via internet the CDROM "Hypnotika vol.1".
More information here:

http://www.amazings.com/articles/article0082.html

Free samples of the CDROM here:

http://www.neuronium.com/CDROM.htm

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

REVIEWS:

HALIM EL-DABH:
"CROSSING INTO THE ELECTRIC MAGNETIC"
Without Fear Recordings
The release of this album is a true event. Electronic composer
Halim El-Dabh, a pioneer among pioneers and a giant of the musical
avantgarde far longer than the creativity of many composers tends
to last, shows his talent with a CD brimming with amazing sounds,
constructions and atmospheres. This album gathers a collection of
pieces recorded from 1944 to 1974. Quite of them were recorded in
1959 at the legendary Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center,
where many of the fundamental concepts of electronic music were
being shaped. The astounding "Wire Recorder Piece" was recorded in
1944. Halim El-Dabh opened with this ghostly piece a door towards
an unexplored sonic region: the electronic universe. Using wire
recorders as a tool to compose music, he was able to create a
peculiar world, with eerie yet wondrous landscapes, as well as
zones of anguish and darkness. In pieces such as, for instance
"Venice" (1961) and "Pirouette" (1974), we can listen to the
almost impressionist work of Halim with the audio-art and the
sound collage. "Leyla Visitations" is an experimental opera, full
of complex sonic architectures. In "Electronic Fanfare", Halim had
the collaboration of Otto Luening. In all, this is an imaginative
album of electronic experimental music, with the philosophy of
exploring new sonic continents. Besides its artistic value, this
CD also has an unarguable importance as a firsthand sound witness
in the history of electronic music. Born in Egypt in 1921, El-Dabh
came to the United States in 1950, acquiring U.S. citizenship in
1961. He began to serve on the faculty of U.S. Kent State
University's Hugh A. Glauser School of Music in 1969. He has
received numerous awards and grants. His music has been featured
everywhere from prestigious cathedrals and recital halls to the
Giza Pyramids (his music for the Giza Pyramids is still performed
there on a daily basis); from major record labels to the
background of a James Bond film.
JORGE MUNNSHE

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005RI8X/thesciencebookbo

If you wish to purchase any recordings by this artist you only
have to use this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/223945/thescienceboo\
kbo

POINTLESS ORCHESTRA:
"APPROACHING TOTALITY"
Without Fear Recordings
Pointless Orchestra develop their style with an absolute
confidence, without hesitations nor concessions, exploring
marginal and dark areas sited somewhere between Electroacoustic
Music, the most radical expression of Industrial, and Experimental
Chamber Music. The themes in "Approaching Totality" are remarkable
given their timeless nature, as well as their deep and often
somewhat bleak character. Pointless Orchestra draw with energic
brush-strokes a stage to let imagination run free towards life-
and-death situations. The instrumentation and the sonic effects
maintain a disquieting tone throughtout the album, contributing a
series of undescribable sensations for the listener. Pointless
Orchestra is made up of a constantly changing lineup of musicians
from many different musical backgrounds. The most regular members
are Mike Hovancsek, David Badagnani, Mark Allender and Jen
Singleton. The other musicians who have participated in the album
are: John Hajeski, Mike Foster, Paul Guerguerian, Panya
Roongruang, Anna Homler, Matt Turner, Blake Tyson, Amy Denio, Dan
Burke, Mark Klein, Joseph Celli, Z'ev. This album is highly
reccommended for those who love the most risky, experimental, deep
side of electronic music.
DOMINIQUE CHEVANT

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005RI8Y/thesciencebookbo

If you wish to purchase any recordings by this band you only have
to use this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/223946/thescienceboo\
kbo

VARIOUS:
"LIVES, A POINTLESS NIGHT OUT"
Without Fear Recordings
This album is a live compilation of music from the Billy Tipton
Memorial Saxophone Quartet, Pointless Orchestra, New Family,
Siamese Twins, John Hajeski and Umbilical Trio. In their different
styles, many of these artists follow a given common path. Taking
the most experimental areas of Jazz as their main starting point,
the musicians break with many moulds and explore new musical
continents. Touches of New Music are present, and even come to
have a leading role in different parts of the album. This is the
case of such pieces as for instance "Improvisation Excerpt 1" and
"Improvisation Excerpt 2" by Siamese Twins. Likewise, certain
traits of World Music can be detected in some pieces, such as for
instance "Az Du Furst Avec" by the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone
Quartet, and "Obligatory abstract piece" by the Pointless Orchestra.
There also are mysterious passages, including the theme "Yet
another abstract piece" by the Pointless Orchestra. Though there
are slow parts, much of the music has a lively rhythm. Prophetic
urban folklore, or oniric surrealism as real as life itself, the
fact is that the music has a pleasant freshness.
ALEJANDRO HINOJOSA

If you wish to purchase this recording you only have to use this
link:

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JOHN LAKVEET:
"SEQUENTIAGITE"
Vagern Records
Energy, warmth and sensibility would perhaps be the most adequate
words to refer to this work of Space Sequencer Music. The CD has 6
tracks, 6 themes with a warmth of sound rarely seen within these
types of technology-based music. In the current alternative
musical panorama, there are artists that have something new to say
and others that don't. John Lakveet no doubt belong to the former.
>From the precise instant of the beginning of the album, we witness
a display of creative, sonic energy of a high degree. Powerful
rhythms based on complex sequencers, melodies brimming with
mystery and drama, and a turmoil of atmospheres, are the master
guidelines of a solid work that shows a display of fresh ideas,
enthusiasm and a great strength. The music has a certain unearthly
nature, yet at the same time it turns out to be so near to what is
human as our own emotions are. The artist utilizes electronics
with a great imagination and skill. The orchestrations of the
themes also prove his experience as a composer. The most
impressive piece in the album is, in my opinion, "Circumvolito".
This CD is a very commendable addition to the collection of the
fans of Space Sequencer Music as well as genres connected to this
one.
JORGE MUNNSHE

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