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RECORDED MUSIC: REVIEWS Szkieve Des germes de quelque chose Hushush [2000] CD 2001/06 : Feardrop Dimitri della Faille ne se "contente" pas diriger le jeune et brillant label canadien Hushush, il aime aussi s'excercer à la composition. Ce CD, réalisé sous le nom de Szkieve, permet de cerner la relation qui existe entre certaines de ses amours affichées et celles qu'il publie (comme en temoignait l'album hommage au Hafler Trio, première référence de Hushush). Construites avec des samples de sons tous enregistrés par D. della Faille, les pièces sont agencées sur certaines conventions, dont le spectre balaie le musique concrète, la musique industrielle et le minimalisme lowercase. Il s'agit bien de germes, de leur lente évolution en milieu souterrain. On perçoit le mouvement de ramification, de reptation en zone tellurique et aqueuse. L'obscurité règne sur les structures qui sont rarement bouclées, en permanente reconstruction. Des limages, des progressions linéaires, créent le mouvement horizontal, relevé par mille rencontres avec les éléments minéraux et organiques puis par leur corolaire: les récations chimiques. Les crépitements et les reconstructions qui en résultent sont autant de départs vers un nouvel alambic sobre, dont les circonvolutions maîtrisées dessinent bien les germes de quelque chose. Denis Boyer 2001/06 : Grooves Magazine [...] Some producers, however, experience this aspect of music - making as an intolerable burden, attempting to purge their work of any traces of previous music that the listener might connect with some real-world equivalent, in the hope that it will be received as pure, untramelled, uncomplicated sensation. Such an ambition is, of course, manifestly unattainable. Aiming to transcend the complexities of social involvement, ant to emerge into a utopian space of direct, unmediated expression, this music instead sounds utterly parched, constricted, dry, and depthless [...] Gareth Medford 2001/03 : États limites Electronique minimaliste dérangée ? Musique industrielle expérimentale ravagée ? Szkieve semble avoir livré ses machines à quelques malins virus acharnés à en grignotter les circuits et oscillateurs. Avec “Silence Fiction”, l’opus s’ouvre sur le souffle d’une longue rafale aérienne s’estompant vers les stridulations suraigües d’un générateur de bruits défaillant (?) qui manifestera sa présence, de manière plus ou moins sensible, tout au long de l’album. Le “Piano Aqueux” laisse vaguement résonner de sourdes sonorités qui pourraient bien être l’amorce d’une rythmique, mais, déjà tout s’efface derrière une nouvelle couche de bruit avant de refluer vers le silence. Alors que certaines formations de ce registre affublent leurs compositions de titres scientifico-ronflants, Szkieve opte pour une note d’humour décalée : “Des Fois J’Attends Vite”, ou l’excellent “Leipzig Zig Spoutnik”. Mais, ces jeux de mots surréalistes semblent également avoir pour fonction de donner la réplique à ses créations sonores dont le fonctionnement est similaire : la rencontre et l’interpénétration d’éléments contradictoires, mécaniques et organiques, qui parfois perturbent l’audition par leur déplacement dans les extrêmités du spectre, parfois forcent l’attention par les détails naturels qu’ils contiennent (vent, eau…). Etrange. Jean-Michel Wagner 2000/10 : Amazing Sounds Hellish machines, the buzzing of killer insects and ominous landscapes are the elements that are evoked in the imagination of the audience when listening to this album. Created by means of treatments of electronic experimentation, the general style of this work, could be placed on the border between the most abstract side of Ambient and the most industrial trends of the manipulation of noises. Dominique Chevant 2000/09 : Manifold Dimitri della Faille makes pieces that when taken on their own remind me of Aube; the slow climax, the changing tempatures, static yet resonant textures that grow and die and ressurect in new forms. But with the organic noises and pulses maybe a combination of Aube and Zoviet Frace.There is a smartly done lack of repetition to the less interesting sounds, but some of the more interesting sequences can stretch on to just perfect lengths. A great example is track 7, "Leipzig Zig Spoutnik", which shimmers in an incandescent ambience like flying saucer hum and glow, this feathers out and shifting, torn-paper sound slowly repeats, gets louder, then dominates all. A sort of relaxed tension goes on throughout the disc, and each track creates a space of its own. 2000/09 : Re:mote Induction Des Germes De Quelque Chose is started by Silence Fiction. Slight windy tones gathering with a droning forming in its core. The piece is mild and with two minutes is gone, bringing the bubbling chatter of Two Green Jumpin' Dragoons in its wake. Beneath the chatter drones build - one level higher and the other in the mid range with a more dispersed sound. This continues the minimal sound of Szkieve even though it layers into a vibrant whole. Buzz and lightly popping crackle become the main elements over a rotary loop that fades to allow buzzing conclusion. Piano Aquex sounds like someone has gutted a piano and is playing on the intestinal strings. Vibrating tones are interspersed with string abuse and the sound of running water. Brushing lops pass across a barely audible whine, a near rhythm to the smoother tones. The whine builds into Grotesque Wounds, becoming an undeniable presence across the groans of structures. Within this a little melody plays out flute like - but it can't touch the tonal washes that only intensify with progress. Increasingly this starts to sound like swarming insects - clouds of bristling, buzzing masses. Bass wells up with the melody coming up in the mix once more till the whole fades out. Whirring tones lift us into Des Fois J'Attende Vite. A passing rumble adding to the high sounds and suggestions of electronic crackle. Crackle through rrrr-tinged motions, for moments that punctuate the return of piercing hearing tests. The buzzing layers with the whine, covering the sounds of working hammer strokes, clatter of regularity. Without noticing we are deep into the territory of Il Faut Allecher Le Coiffeur, the shift sufficiently seamless. Micro sounds are the beginnings of Leipzig Zig Spoutnik. Gravel falling on plate and dust sifting through, with fresh bags brought in, in the background. Machinery is switched on, and we have the chugging drone of its action, building to overwhelm the first elements as it gets under way. As it progresse it becomes a cleaner sound, though its waves are no less cyclic. A rumbling hum vibrates in a Monoise fashion. But as we listen we are aware that it is constructed of individual layers that create the overall sound. a second conscious leel comes in, a more drawn out sound, working in a higher pitch. Between these two levels other elements creep subtly in, giving detail and texture to the constant whole. In an almost tuneful drone we have the rise of Tes Mots Insultent Le Silence. Layering warmly and rising in round tones through which sharp spikes jut in sudden motions. From the presence of the intro this piece becomes progressively subdued working towards subaudible. With Ce Soir, C'est La Samba Du Demon emerging slowly from the silence as a bare crackling rumble. Remaining minimal for a couple of minutes with the barest hint of a melody buried in there. At 2.20 the tones shift to a light drizzle of off/on sound. Then comes silence interspersed with a clip more silence and the conclusion with Farsifalafel/Heavy Metal. This last track giving way to layers of glitches and mechanisms - toys and industry forming the melody of static and interruption. Pulses and the unravelling of tape mix with the whirr of radar signal and detection software. Szkieve is Dimitri della Faille, and represents the first musical outing by the man behind hushush. With Des Germs De Quelque Chose he offers a series of sound pieces, all based on original samples. Many of which are subtle and have a tendency to include high pitched tones. It is not an album that you pick out a favourite song from - rather, for me, it is about the purity of sound and their combination. With certain pieces having longer stretches that emerge than others, though all the tracks certainly have their moments. 2000/07 : Ambient for the Masses Not a bad set of noises on this one. I think i'm just becoming more acclimated to it, because shit like this used to just freak me. Ask Fohm... he works down at Wall of Sound now, and don't forget to call him Fohm to his face. He won't know what you're talking about. Still, it's got enough of those spacial elements to provide those un-filled audio gaps i so crave. Dangeous though, lots of dramatic volume changes, so don't drop all that acid before sacking out. Ask the folks at hushush, they know what i'm talking about. Dan Foley 2000/07 : Ambientrance Strange experiments in sound breed des germes de quelque chose; Hushhush helmsman Dimitri della Faille wears the guise of szkieve when performing these 11 drastic sonic alterations. Disorientingly enigmatic listening keeps one wondering what the original, completely unidentifiable, sources might have been. The impenetrable fogbank of silence fiction quietly leads into the surreal surroundings. two green jumpin' dragoons powers up into a pulsing, rumbling, shimmering, sputtering soundstream, which shifts into a more crisp, sporadic mode of operation, buzzing out finally. The random clunks of piano aqueux are flooded with roughly intertwining strands of flutter/ruffle/rumble. Noisier squeals, buzzing static and woofer-shaking subfrequencies bare grotesque wounds; the track subdues, revealing an almost flute-like musical pattern. des fois j'attends vite (1:40) could be some kind of submolecular recording, capturing the soundspace between the electrons of an irradiated atom. Faltering rhythmic pulsations and step-like thumps permeate the growing energy-haze of il faut allécher le coiffeur. What sounds like tiny pebbles being dropped into a pan, transforms into something mechanical-yet-airier, as leipzig zig spoutnik's thrumming core begins to spiral with dense, smoky swirls and feedback-like coils. Another pulsating vortex, mononoise glimmers with a strange gritty beauty. tes mots insultent le silence is an audio-aroura-borealis of keening shrillness rippling over a smoldering bed of darker undertones, laced with rhythmic static. Ce soir, c'est la samba du démon slips in on almost subaudible frequencies that are felt by the eardrum more than heard. The disc reaches a crazily chatoic crescendo with the cut-and-paste collage of farsifalafel/heavy metal (11:37); cyclic bloops, gaseous hissing, clockwork mechanics, quavering frequencies, grungy blasts, machine-like drones, seismic shifts and other disjointed shards emit from this spouting geyser of noise. The frenetic hodge-podge is, strangely, not as overbearing as that description might imply. Des germes de quelque chose is the kind of stuff that friends, family and coworkers will think you're a freak for listening to... and they'll really wonder about that distracted grin and faraway look in your eyes. Szkieve's radical sound treatments are not so harsh as they are simply indecipherable... not that there's anything wrong with that. Intrepid listeners will find plenty of utterly mysterious 8.4 soundworlds to explore. David Opdyke 2000/07 : Hypertunez Mais puisque l'on parle dark-ambient, impossible de passer sous " silence " SZKIEVE qui répand " Des germes de quelque chose " (Hushush Rec.). De quoi, au juste ? De bio-morphes rampants sur des brisures mécaniques. Un travail d'entomologiste sonore auquel répond les bourdonnements d'AMBRE & MARK SPYBEY, "Sfumato". Laurent Diouf 2000/07 : Grind Into Emptiness Most of the tracks are saturated with piercing frequencies that send my dog running from the room whimpering... I imagine a large enough dose of these shrill pitches will introduce you to to insanity in a hurry. To fully absorb this material it needs to be played quite loud, allowing all the subtle elements and hidden nuances to surface. This scares me though, since I know my speakers weren't designed for any of it. "Leipzig Zig Spoutnik" is one of the stronger tracks. It opens with the sound of closing doors and an interesting random cackle, which slowly fades as a haunting set of drones move in and pick up intensity. "Monoise" begins with low bassy rumbles, and then moves on to remind me of the monolith scene from 2001 as a chorus of sharp tones grow louder, as if building up a foreboding, eerie suspense. This track is definitely an example of the minimal approach della Faille has mastered - the 'less is more' dictum is not lost on him. The final track, "Farsifalafel / Heavy Métal," is by far the most chaotic - an uneven, haphazard collage of ringing, static and squeaky samples that reminds me of recent Illusion of Safety material. Szkieve isn't my idea of a comfortable listen; in fact it fuels the grudge my sense of sound has been building against me for years. But it's well worth it. If you can appreciate a noisey aesthetic, however subtle, and hold the originality and artistic elements of a CD as paramount, then Des Germes de Quelque Chose just might be for you. Ben Didier 2000/06 : Totentanz (Recycle Your Ears) The whole thing here is very calm, but feature a lot of unnerving sounds, either very low or very high pitched. From times to times, you'll think there's nothing going on on the disc, and then find out some infrabasses are being used. Then, your ears will be crushed by a continuous feedback (has anybody really enjoyed listening to "Il faut allécher le coiffeur"?). No voice, no beat, no rhythm whatsoever, there's nothing here that will help you find your way. Whatever you think of it, "Des germes de quelque chose" has a very artsy side (think Ultra Milkmaids, Squaremeter's "14id1610s" CD dor the Ambre/Mark Spybey "Sfumato", also on Hushush). This minimal and strangely noisy album is something that deals more with your brain and your idea of music than with any other feeling. Don't expect anything catchy here. Nicolas Chevreux 2000/05 : Vital Labelheadhoncho Dimitri is also doing his music thing under the name of Szkieve (which is a missplled equivalent for the word 'Skew' in Belgium, where Dimitri hails from). His music is quite like the Ambre & Spybey, but in a much abstract form. Eleven pieces of fairly static ambient drones, low-end rumbles, hisses and an occasional high pitched tone that oscillates. I assume that much of the sounds here are generated from samples that are fucked up, or otherwise treated beyond recognition. I see a thank you going out to Scott Gibbons, aka Lilith, and maybe I wouldn't have thought about it, but that's indeed a point of reference. This CD is well put together with very interesting music and is well executed. Frans de Waard |