PAS Musique – Abandoned Bird Egg and Kine – Meditations in April Green

Both these records are uncompromising, but neither revel in obscurity: and PAS Musique’s brilliant Abandoned Bird Egg is one record you really have to listen to.

Both these records are uncompromising, but neither revel in obscurity: and PAS Musique’s brilliant Abandoned Bird Egg is one record you really have to listen to.

http://alrealonmusique.bandcamp.com/album/meditations-in-april-green-alrn046

http://alrealonmusique.bandcamp.com/album/abandoned-bird-egg-alrn035

Two smashing releases from Alrealon Musique who – a bit like Chicago’s marvellous Pan Y Rosas label – like their sounds wild and independent.  Both these records are uncompromising, but neither revel in obscurity: and PAS Musique’s brilliant Abandoned Bird Egg is one record you really have to listen to.

Abandoned Bird Egg has this questioning, experimental take on matters that is very inspiring. Things like Esoteric Funk Classic, Humor in the Quarry and The Strobe Wheel have got a feel of Stalker or Cluster II about them, a vast sound that is brooding, lush, and febrile. And it’s dance music in the widest sense of the word; tracks like The Light Inside, or Commercial Space hark back in spirit to the atonal wilder bits on those early FSOL or Orb releases, albeit a lot rougher round the edges, a bit harsher and punchier and not so concerned with being playful.   

The record is a real stew of sounds and attitudes, the band adopting a sort of “bricolage approach” to the LP’s creation. It also comes on like Severed Heads at times, especially with the pulsating electronics on Modern Witchcraft; (it must be the sampled voice that brings that old Aussie act to mind). The opener Commercial Space is a veritable jumble of noises, recordings and textures that somehow fuse together to create a driving, rhythmic feel that also possesses a cavernous sense of space.

The second release that’s worth your time is Meditations in April Green. This is, (yes you guessed) a series of meditations and sound collages created by Vietnamese artist  Dao Anh Khanh.  It’s a very busy release, very artistic in spirit, in some ways it doesn’t feel very musical, and its approach to creating sound is closer to a performance than making a recording. As such, the idea of meditative music as suggested by the LP’s title is in some sense a very misleading one. There are areas (such as Meditation 4) that are brim full of pressure and tension.  You could be listening to Faust or Taj Mahal Travellers. It’s fabulous.