Disappears. A New House in a New Town. Sleeperhold Publications.

Sleeperhold #5.3.

“Disappears” with their release called “A New house in a New Town”. Chicago’s Disappears are Brian Case (also of the Ponys and 90 Day Men), Jonathan van Herik, Damon Carruesco and Noah Leger. Their latest album “Pre-Language”, released on Kranky records, features Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley on the drums. Disappears’ druggy, rythmic rock music has often been compared to Neu!, Spacemen 3 or Jesus and Mary Chain at their noisiest.

This output features the demo versions of 2 new songs and a rework of “Love Drug”, from their acclaimed last album “Pre-Language”, recorded in a single track at their rehearsal space The material could not be more unpolished and this rawness only adds to the magic of the songs. The blown-open sound and potential of these versions is enormous. Brian’s barked, deadpan vocals remind of The Fall’s Mark
E. Smith, while the music shivers on. The drumming on this release is taken care of by a drumcomputer, adding a dry rhythm to underline the repetitive nature of the 3 songs. Disappears’ haunting basslines, monotone singing and shivering guitar sound are just enough to convey the mood of 21th century suburbia, with its nihilism and loneliness, the perfect soundtrack for hazy nights. In a unique blend of krautrock, minimalism and garage the group evocates desolation, despair and catharsis. This record seems to build up to an explosion that never seems to arrive. Their smoggy, narcotic sound makes everything come to a stop and builds up in a dynamic thrust, only to stop again. This is truly a thrilling release. Disappears’ interplay between tention and release is seamless and compelling.

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The etched artwork on the b-side of this vinyl was done by Belgian photographer Stine Sampers. The diptych she created, captures the mood of the music so perfectly one could see it as the 4th song of the album.

Sampers’ pictures seem to dissect the beauty of the empty, simple moments within the human lifespan. Her pictures capture the hidden self of her subject. It seems as if the spectator is allowed to gaze into a world that’s completely indifferent to his/her presence. Her work is highly personal, helping her cope with love, loss and regret.

But Sampers doesn’t just register. By taking a picture Sampers builds a visual narrative around the subject, similar to a diary entry. They often speak of despair or disillusion, as often as they evoke happiness. There is no in-between in Sampers’ work.

Listen to a sample here.

D 17€

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The Molem Collective gathers a collection of hip hop sneakers of the young Morocco-born Zakaria Haddou aka Zak from Molem. He was commissioned by the Croatian-Belgian artist Hana Miletić to portray his collection of 24 pairs of sneakers, bought during the last eighteen months. The succession of different sneakers can be regarded as a short historiography of the hip hop subculture.
The bold aesthetics, reflecting a rather objective approach, is very close to Miletić’s own artistic practice. Haddou is holding up every shoe against a slightly different background which consists of different walls of his bedroom; every close-up is shot from the same side angle.
A record of rap songs, selected by the youngster, reveals more about the remarkable collection and his owner. Here the rigour of the photographic series is played out against the personal tone of the project. Against the background of his favourite songs, Zak shares stories related to his collection that introduce the audience to some landmarks of the hip hop culture. But along the lines of dress codes and status symbols, a more personal story is told, related to the boy’s experience of ‘coming of age’.
The Molem Collective is released as a limited edition LP record (Art Paper Editions #026, 2013). The yellow record sleeve and the blue vinyl label refer to the flag colours of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, better known as ‘Molem’ in slang, the multi-ethnic neighbourhood the young man inhabits.
The Molem Collective is part of a larger socio-artistic research project by Miletić, Molem (www.molem.be). This versatile project has an organic structure where meetings and experiences can lead to a further exploration of this contested Brussels area. Resulting in an interactive archive consisting of digital photographs and videos made by a multicultural group of young individuals from Brussels, Molem is a very generous project, on the part of the artist as well as of the participating youngsters. (Tanja Boon)

Hana Miletić (b.1982) is a Croatian-born photographer and video artist based in Brussels, Belgium. Her work documents, gathers and questions distinctive contemporary phenomena related to cultural identities, often located in the margins of European capitals. Miletić studied art history and archaeology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. She currently researches and lectures in photography at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels.

D 15€
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mono.kultur #33 – KIM GORDON: DISSONATINE.

“I hope that it still retains a certain wrongness.”

Kim Gordon, of course, created a legacy of musical innovation. Thriving on the playgrounds of noise music for more than three decades, her band Sonic Youth stoically pursued their own particularly dirty blend of noise-punk experimental rock music, building along the way not only a league of dedicated followers, but also miraculously achieving mainstream success without ever ceding ground to mediocrity. If anything, Sonic Youth became a household name for integrity and that specific kind of cool in a genre where cool is firmly attached to youth – which certainly had a lot to do with the detached charisma of Kim Gordon.

While Sonic Youth’s influence on past and current generations of experimental and punk music is undisputed, Kim Gordon’s role as a female figurehead in music and also in the visual arts might be a more complex one, based on the highly personal pursuit of her diverse interests without, unlike so many of today’s pop stars, any discernible strategy or intentional provocation. Instead, it seems to be Gordon’s unfailing belief in subculture and staying true to herself that over the years gave her a voice that would be heard clearly even within mainstream culture.

While, for personal reasons, the future of Sonic Youth remains uncertain, Kim Gordon shows no signs of standing still, returning to her beginnings as a fine artist and pursuing her fascination with noise, in sound and on canvas.

With mono.kultur, Kim Gordon talked about the vulnerability of male rock stars, the myths of New York and why fine art was her first love.

True to Kim Gordon’s DIY philosphy, the issue is somewhat of a treasure chest filled with new and old artwork by Kim Gordon, coming in a set of loose sheets and cards in varying sizes and printed on no less than five different paper stocks, all held together by the most basic commodity of all: the good old rubber band.

Spring 2013
Interview by Fiona McGovern
Artwork by Kim Gordon
Design by Willem Stratmann / Studio Anti

Price: 5€

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The Onement label is inviting the audience in the hall of WIELS on Friday 8th March for a listening session of its newest release: a recording of English pianist John Tilbury performing a series of short pieces by Howard Skempton (« John Tilbury Plays Howard Skempton », Onement #5). Tilbury is well-known since the 1960s for his interpretations of the music of Morton Feldman, Cornelius Cardew, John Cage, and for being one the key figures of free improvisation, notably with cult band AMM (pioneers of european improv).

But this recording is really special: like every release on Onement  it’s a one-copy vinyl record! The object is totally unique and will not be reproduced, which makes it a real collector item. Like for all the Onement records, the packaging has been created by graphic designer Nicolas Couturier.

The concept behind the label, founded in 2006 by musician Sylvain Chauveau, is inspired by the world of painting. The works are not reproduced and when a painting is sold, only the owner possesses it and even the painter himself has usually no access to to it. The uniqueness of the object is part of its strength.

The idea in Onement is to do the same with recorded music. Since their invention recordings have been meant to be reproduced. The time has come to try to use the recorded medium in different ways.

The name Onement comes from a series of pieces by American abstract expressionist painter Barnett Newman. This series (Onement I, II, III, IV et V) shows a thin vertical line over a monochrome background.

The aesthetic choices of the Onement label go towards experimental musics such as modern composition, free improvisation, minimal drone, musique concrète, field recording, with releases by Keith Rowe, Robert Hampson, Yannick Franck and Antti Rannisto.

The label’s website: www.onement-label.com

‘The Lost Park’ is a project including film, music and poetry by Maria Barnas.

Side a is with music by Peter Lunow.
Side b is with sound and music by Nathalie Bruys.
Design: Felix Weigand

D 15€

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Anarchic Rehearsal & Sessions 72. Willy Roggeman Solo and Willy Roggeman Jazz Lab. het balanseer.

Sessions 72 is a historical document, full of exuberance, humor and mistakes. The release of these recordings makes it possible to compare this ‘action music’ with the characteristics of the recent solo album Anarchic Rehearsal. Forty Years of existential knotting and signs of wear on the human carcass have past between the euphoric group achievement and the recent solo idiosyncrasies.
A solo recording on saxophone, like Anarchic Rehearsal, is always what the French call ingrat, because the dialectics in structure and active processes are assigned to one monodic instrument. But it also invites the listener to explore the spherical qualities of music that usually aren’t distinguishable in a performance by a more conventional group of musicians.

Sessions 72 – WR Jazz Lab 3 & 4-Unit was recorded August 30 and September 1972 and released 12 December 2012. Comes on 180 grs vinyl. Edition of 200 copies. Includes download coupon. Published by het balanseer.

D 20 €
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Anarchic Rehearsal – Willy Roggeman Solo was recorded on September 8, 2011 and released 12 December 2012. Comes on 180 grs vinyl. Edition of 200 copies. Includes download coupon. Published by het balanseer.

D 20 €
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transmediale 2013 BWPWAP

BWPWAP (Back When Pluto Was A Planet) is the catalogue of the 2013 transmediale festival.

transmediale is a Berlin-based festival and year-round project that draws out new connections between art, culture and technology. The activities of transmediale aim at fostering a critical understanding of contemporary culture and politics as saturated by media technologies. In the course of its 25 year history, the annual transmediale festival has turned into an essential event in the calendar of media art professionals, artists, activists and students from all over the world. The broad cultural appeal of the festival is recognised by the German federal government who supports the transmediale through its programme for beacons of contemporary culture.

Editors, Translators: Kristoffer Gansing, Teresa Go, Sabine Weier, Lina Zuppke
Editorial Coordinator: Lina Zuppke

368 pages
German / English

D 12€

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The Wire’s crucial review of the last 12 months in underground sound and music, including the releases of the year, opinions and reflections from a host of musicians and critics, and analyses of 2012’s most significant audio culture trends.

Editor: Chris Bohn
Language: English
Pages: 100
Size: 28 x 23 cm
Binding: Softcover

Price: €8.00
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AZURAZIA, «Lowering the Mediterranean, irrigating the Sahara»: the first volume of “original soundtracks produced for film which doesn’t exist yet”. Produced in Morocco during the summer of 2011, this record contains tracks made out of local music in North Africa and field recordings, transformed and remixed. Welcome to the Azurazian world, along the lowered Mediterranea by the Gibraltar dam, and follow the adventures of Ghazi Van Keering, searching to learn the new Daseinphilosophy in wasted landscapes. A print art work is included with the record.

Pressed by: Grautag Records

D 20 €

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