Günter Müller & Lê Quan Ninh - La Voyelle Liquide (2000)

Günter Müller and Lê Quan Ninh are both improvising percussionists who have worked increasingly with electronics over the past few years. Müller has released numerous records on his groundbreaking For 4 Ears label, including collaborations with Christian Marclay, Voice Crack, Otomo Yoshihide, and Erik M. Two more recent records involve Taku Sugimoto, The World Turned Upside Down (Erstwhile), which is a trio concert with Keith Rowe, and a duo released this fall, I Am Happy If You Are Happy (For 4 Ears). Earlier this year, Müller also released the gorgeous Direct Chamber (33revpermi), with Michel Doneda and Fabrice Charles. Ninh has worked extensively both in the improv and in the contemporary classical genres. His improv side has probably best been captured thus far by two superb trio projects on FMP, Burning Cloud (w/Butch Morris and J.A.Deane) and Open Paper Tree (w/ Michel Doneda and Paul Rogers), as well as by his solo tour de force, Ustensiles (For 4 Ears). As for his classical side, he's a member of the Hêlios Quartet, a percussion ensemble which recently released a self-titled CD on Vand'ouevre, containing compositions by Ninh, Jean-Christophe Feldhandler, Vinko Globokar and Toru Takemitsu. Ninh has also recorded John Cage's Ryoanji (Auvidis Montaigne), in duo with Joelle Leandre.

Müller and Ninh first met and played together in 1988, and have occasionally performed together since, most notably in the quartet Plugged in Zeit Reel with Jim O'Rourke and J.A. Deane. In January of 2000, Müller and Ninh traveled to CCAM in Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France and recorded four hours worth of material, from which the 75 minutes contained on this CD has been carefully selected. The title was inspired by a passage from L'Eau et les Rêves (Water and Dreams), a book by French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. The two musicians demonstrate their seemingly limitless palettes, slipping back and forth between percussion and electronics to create endlessly inventive systems of sound.

"The collaboration of these two percussive pioneers offers some of the most inspired performances I have heard by either musician to date. While not minimizing the quality of any of their other superb records, this seems to be a culmination of their history. Müller and Ninh are percussionists of two very different styles, and that is this record's strength- the sparse to the dense, the electronic to the acoustic ... a wonderfully dynamic ride." -- Tim Barnes

A vast improv composition of ordered and soothing intimate electroacoustic sound_objects & soundscapes.

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Günter Müller, selected drums, minidisc, electronics

Lê Quan Ninh, surrounded bass drum, electronics

1. La voyelle a (04.28)
2. La voyelle e (21.27)
3. La voyelle i (13.00)
4. La voyelle o (08.04)
5. La voyelle u (08.10)
6. La voyelle y (08.36)
7. La voyelle liquide (11.16)

Recorded at Studio CCAM, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France on 29/30 January 2000.

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Keith Rowe - A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality (1990)

Solo prepared guitar recording from the AMM member who pioneered the table-top guitar technique in his free improvisations back in the '60s and thus influenced everyone from Syd Barrett through to Fred Frith and Jim O'Rourke. A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality is a live recording of Rowe solo outside of the AMM context he shares with percussionist Eddie Prevost and pianist John Tilbury. The array of sounds that the Englishman coaxes from the mere six string instrument is phenomenal, and his art is to extend upon the prepared piano techniques pioneered by John Cage and apply them to the electric guitar. As ecstatic as Derek Bailey, the comparison stops there as Rowe scarcely even puts his fingers on the string, instead opting for radio feedback, arco, and any number of kitchen implements to attack the guitar. To the uninitiated this may sound like clattering mess of noise. A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality is certainly far from it, as the dexterity with which he approache...s abstraction is prodigal. It is no doubt then that everyone from Sonic Youth, Henry Kaiser, and even Frank Zappa could accredit Rowe as inspirational. His activities on recordings increased dramatically in the year 2000, with the proto-noise artist directing MIMEO and collaborating with improv mainstay Evan Parker on numerous recordings. This CD is a great document of one of his scarce solo performances. - Martin Walters, All Music Guide

Keith Rowe, prepared guitar

1. Untitled (24.03)
2. Ode Machine No. 2 (07.28)
3. City Music (11.08)
4. '73 (17.37)

Recorded at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford on 5 July 1989.

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