BEN BERTRAND – RELIC RADIATION
Relic Radiation is Ben Bertrand‘s fourth solo album since his 2018 debut NGC 1999 (not counting two collaboration albums with Otto Lindholm and Manah Depauw), and the second release on the Belgian Stroom.tv label.
If you’ve heard his music before (or saw him perform live, which I heartily recommend) you’ll have no problem recognizing his sound. The way he plays his (bass) clarinet and embeds it into abstract layers of electronics is a personal ‘interpretation of the bass clarinet as an instrument of the avant-garde’.
Don’t let the ‘avant-garde’ put you off: most of his music sounds gentle, and subdued. But at the same time, a lot is going on within: hints of fragile melodies, occasional minimalist loops – “an at times almost sequenced feel to treated and overdubbed bass clarinet end clarinet notes”
“The music is competent and familiar, distant without being distant. There is no predefined form or context here. It is a different kind of colour. Touching upon ambient and cosmic as well as earthy sceneries, his is a gentle musical paradox come to life.”
The (seven) tracks on Relic Radiation were all composed during a residency in Slovakia, in the water mill of the Slovakian National Gallery in Pezinok. Judged by the music (and by the photos in the link) this is an inspiring – and peaceful – place to create music.
MARKUS GUENTNER / JOACHIM SPIETH – OVERLAY REWORKS
In November 2023 Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth released their collaborative album Overlay – an album ‘where the flow of things knows no distinct start or finish – rather, it’s a continuous stream of material in motion’.
That ‘continuous stream’ can be taken quite literally as the release was followed by three EPs with ‘variations’ and ‘reworks. ‘ The Overlay Variations were additions by Guentner and Spieth themselves. The first Reworks EP featured interpretations of Nukleus by Hollie Kenniff and Rafael Anton Irisarri. The second EP presented additional reworks of two tracks (Void and Scope) by Pole and Abul Mogard.
As if that was not enough, now there’s the full album of Overlay Reworks, featuring all of the tracks from these EP’s. But there’s more: it also features new reworks by Leandro Fresco and (Pepo) Galán and (Karen) Vogt and a new Guentner/Spieth track called Prologue (I’m not sure if this is really a new track: it may also be a rework of Praeludium without the beats).
All in all, this ‘continuous stream of material’ grew into an impressive collection!
It’s interesting to hear that all of the remixers (reworkers) on this album stay close to the sound of the original tracks, while also adding a layer of their own signature sounds.
Guentner/Spieth’s original music is already very immersive. But if Overlay was a HD-movie, Overlay Reworks would be the 4K version.