PERLONEX: Peripherique - REVIEWS
Berlin based trio Perlonex understand perfectly how to create
improvised music which incorporates the controlled violence of
industry (...) Breaking one of the unwritten rules - ie avoid
repetition - in improvised music (in theory 'non-idiomatic'
and open to anything, in practice far from it) (...) Events take
their time to unfold during this live set recorded last December
at the Instants Chavires outside Paris. The music's slow heartbeat (Francisco Lopez comes to mind), Zeger´s painterly use of the guitar and Beins's mastery of the bowed cymbal often recall AMM (...)
- Dan Warburton, The Wire -
...aufreibend und spannend (...) Melodien sucht mensch hier freilich vergebens. Klang und dekonstruierte Struktur stehen bei Perlonex im Vordergrund, freie Improvisationen und ganz ohne Jazz - sehr angenehm.
- Tobias Lindemann, Testcard -
Ignaz Schick, Joerg Maria Zeger and Burkhard Beins approach music from the post-minimal side of things, stretching delicate musical gestures into long sonic journeys that have as much to do with abstract free improv than with real-time electroacoustics.(...) There is a commanding unity in the movement: things expand, reduce, re-expand, and reduce again with stunning synergy (...) Recommended.
- Francois Couture,/All Music Guide -
Man muss nicht nach Chicago fliegen, um die allerneueste Improvisationsmusik zu hören - Berlin ist auch ein gutes Pflaster. Perlonex liefern in zwei langen Tracks ebenso elegante wie klobige Beispiele dafür ab, was Noise- Musik abseits der Klischees bedeuten kann. Zum Beispiel, dass Noise nichts mit Lautstärke, sondern mit einer unreglementierten Entfaltung von Klangfarben zu tun hat. Perlonex' Musik ist ausserordentlich differenziert, weswegen die üblichen, sicher auch auf diese Improvisationen zutreffenden Issues, z.B. Aufhebeung der Grenze "handgespielt/elektronisch" nicht wirklich den Kern treffen. Das hängt auch mit einer in sich versunkenen, dennoch hellwachen Spielhaltung zusammen, wie man sie (historisch) von AMM kennt (...) ****
- Felix Klopothek, Jazzthetik -
Perlonex was called Perlon when I saw them play last year, but
apperentely there is also a Frankfurt techno label called Perlon, so
exit the name (hence Perlonex). The tour I saw them in my area, was
an extensive one, and towards the end they recorded their set (at
least that's what I assume) on multi-track and mixed it. The
combination of prepared guitar and drums in combination with live
electronics, cum prerecorded sound, works well here. Probably due to
the advances of the multi-track, the music sounds very coherent, with
great flaws in soft and loud parts. From utter concentration to very
loud parts. Everything seems to be carefully thought out and placed
(or maybe mixed) in the audio spectrum. I'd could hardly call this
improvised music, since it's seems very much composed. Whatever, it
is a great thing to listen to.
- Vital Weekly -
Wie bereits angedeudet, hat sich das von Berlin aus operierende Trio Perlon nach einer Vereinbarung mit einem gleichnamigen Frankfurter Technolabel in PERLONEX umgetauft. Mich erinnert das an Kleenex, die sich allerdings nicht in Kleenexex, sondern in Liliput umbenannten. Auch wenn "Perlonex" ein wenig nach ausgebranntem Ehemaligem klingt, ihre Musik tut es nicht, zumindest nicht die im Dezember 2000 am Instants Chavires Paris gespielte, die jetzt als "Peripherique" (Zarek 07) veröffentlicht wurde. Schick und Beins beginnen mit elektroakustischen Loops, versetzen den Klang in Rotation, in die elektronisches Pfeifen und zunehmende "Störeffekte" gemischt werden. In ganz langsam wachsender Verdichtung und Dynamisierung bildet sich ein Maelstrom, der durchdröhnt wird von J.M. Zegers geheimnisvollen Gitarrenriffs, die sich wie Glockengeläut unter Wasser anhören. Das Trio hat sich nach etwa einer Viertelstunde zu einem gemeinsam atmenden Pulsar aufgebläht, in dem ein glühender Kern immer neue Protuberanzen an Noise ausschleudert. Nicht nur haben sich inzwischen sämtliche Nackenhaare gestellt, die bebenden Hände suchen nach Gegengewichten, um nicht durch die Decke ins
Nirwana abzuheben. Kurz vor der Implosion senkt sich der kraut-psychedelische Intensitätspegel in eine vor Spannung vibrierende Beinahestille. Jede einzelne Körperzelle schreit danach, dass sich dieser Paradieswärts-Trip wiederholt. Und bei Dionysus, Marsayas und allen Dämonen des Rock'n Roll, der Wunsch wird erfüllt, bevor 45:50 um sind! Im danach folgenden "peripherique II" versucht PERLONEX, die überreizten Sinne nicht mit einem Potlatsch, sondern mit einem ominös rumorenden 13-Minüter auf subtilere Weise zu fesseln, durch protestantisch-sublimierten Luftaufschub. Vielleicht ein dezenter Hinweis, dass das was wir suchen, nicht in der Musik ist.
- Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy -
The Berlin scene has fascinatingly burgeoned in recent times, and much of the city's developing
electro-acoustic improv activity centres around or to some extent visibly involves Ignaz Schick.
His electronics have featured on a series of releases - mostly on his own Zarek label
(formerly known as Edition Zangi) - which all document an intriguing probing of the improvisational
interface between acoustic instruments and electronically- and computer-generated sounds, an area
currently being explored by Berlin-based players like Burkhard Beins, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann,
Michael Renkel and Axel Doerner. (...) Peripherique is more improvised electroacoustic than electroacoustic
improv. Despite the presence of percussion and guitar, texturally speaking, the instrumental flow comprises
a succession of almost flawless segues, the fallibility implied by acoustic instruments nearly totally
removed. The two pieces (...) slowly build from quiet beginnings into multi-hued, headily buzzing layered
masses of sound which are drenched in fine timbral detail.(...) The music is in a state of constant
movement and advance, and though the rate and speed at which it shape-shifts varies greatly, it is never
static. Comparison has been made to AMM, and there are surface similarities in the use of layers of sound
in the construction of the improvisations, but Perlonex's electronic source material is significantly more
dynamic, and the range of sounds it generates broader. Given the marked tendency towards low volumes and near
if not total quiet amongst those active in this sphere of improvisation, the amount of actual music
Peripherique contains is surprising; one suspects that the longer this group exists, the more thorough their
engagement with silence will become.
- Nick Cain/Opprobrium -
Guitarist Jorg Zeger and percussionist Burkhard Beins join Schick under the Perlonex moniker and pool their orientation-destroying resources.On the Peripherique CD (Zarek),the forty minute "Periperique 1" reveals a
naiad's eye view of Killimanjaro escalator pulsations, ,enhanced by competing herbivores swooping down to pluck kosher morsels from radish-and-marjoram
hairpieces.This trio of hatters seeks to engage the skull in unhindered,three-hundred-sixty-degree chafe by inverting listeners in fluctuating hemp helmets a size to small,spinning them like unconscious breakdancers, and placing bets on the revolutions per minute.The cavities Perlonex grinds into the dance floor resemble Voodoo intoxiglyphs burned into the palm,as if scarred by a malicious rope tow.By the conclusion of the thirteen minute"Periperique2",which cauterizes the splay with brushed cotton swabs dipped in Listerine poultice,
only melting-tungsten body odor lingers.
- Bananafish -
Apocryphal stories circulate about one or another famous avant garde musician of the 1960s who is purported to have gone out for dinner with a critic while another freedom musician was still performing in concert. He told his companion that "it's more interesting to play this music than to listen to it."
Attribution is hard to come by, of course, but you can easily see a similar yarn growing up around electro-acoustics, an even less listener-friendly genre. Coupled with shows that often end up resembling laboratory research at a computer peripherals factory, the musicians' immobility and sometimes ear-straining presentations make CD concentration a dicey proposition at best. That's the challenge faced by listeners to the discs by this Berlin-based improvising trio, which was forced to change its name between its first and second discwhen a record label turned out to already be named Perlon. Although Periperique was recorded in a Paris club and Play It Loud in a Berlin studio, there's no discernable audio difference, except the former is about 15 minutes shorter than the later.
Another idiosyncrasy that seems to come with electro-acoustic territory is the need to play both of these sessions at a level about 25% louder than usual. That way the musicians' sonic creations won't vanish into an electronic sludge. This also provides an insight into how you can rank these discs: when the improvisations rise enough out of the sonic midst to command attention, lift off has been attained; if repetitive noodling characterizes the sound field, than distraction results.
In this way you can see that both discs are equally successful or unsuccessful. For because of the inordinate length of most of the tracks, frequent arid sections appear. Peculiarly "Peripherique II" at barely 13 minutes is no more or less immune to this flaw than the longer "Terlenka" on 01.
Thus some of the sounds literally appear to be what results when the connections in a tape recorder are reversed and a consistent buzz overcomes what else has been recorded there. Obviously -- we hope -- this didn't happen, but often the sound being created by drummer Burkhard Beins, best known for his collaboration with British guitarist John Bisset, and guitarist Jörg Maria Zeger, who mainly performs solo concerts, is masked by the electronics of group mainman and label head Ignaz Schick.
Even deep listening to "Peripherique I" would hear what sounds at various times like a conveyer belt moving, the crackles and screech of electricity, an electric band saw being operated and a freight train passing at a level crossing, before echoing guitar overtones assert themselves. Perhaps it's that sympathetic resonance that serves as the track's centrepiece, for shortly afterwards what appears to be a brace of pealing bells makes their
appearance, reverberating in a similar fashion. Finally after a barren collection of silences, dense sonics get louder and more intense until a corrosive buzz controls the foreground before fading.
Often sounding perversely as if the conceptions of AMM and Aerosmith were grafted together, "Terlenka," recorded a year earlier, operates in a similar soundscape. Beins' percussion and Zeger's guitars in their natural states are more prominent in the mix, but the low-fi electronics mean that comparable monotonous quietude drags down several sections.
Designed, intentionally or not, as homage to AMM, the framing of this massive piece finds a female voice from a radio appear near the beginning and almost at its completion. However, heavy metal is first suggested by the drumming, which appears to be taking place as much on the steel sides of the kit as on the cymbals. Later, a metallic pulse grinds down the cymbals seemingly getting heavier and harder until it's answered by bass drum rumbles and intense electronic static. Cycling around until it nearly becomes earsplitting thunderclaps, you beginto sense that instrumental samples are helping to build this high-pitched, coagulated wall of sound.
Nevertheless, repetition sets in at that point. Cooing, lyric cuckoo sounds followed by silences, punctuated by wah-wah electronic whirring and what could be a bathtub emptying, presage strokes that could be combed from guitar strings and matched with coins set loose on drum heads. Heartbeat-like electric pulses predominate until tiny beeps flatline the music to silence.
No one wants the return of the three minute 78, but perhaps Perlonex's creations would be better formed if more self-editing was done. There's much that's interesting here, especially if you live and breathe electro-acoustics. But some of the musically parched sections and sound duplication could send others out for dinner with that apocryphal avant gardist ... or at least in search of a cold drink.
- Ken Waxman/ Jazz Weekly -
Peripherique is Perlonex's 2nd cd. Their debut from last year was a
beautifully subtle, textured exploration by three instrumentalists who
worked together to create a massive bed of sound. This follow-up sees the band working closer together to create a sonic cloud where it's hard to hear who is making what noise. Discerning interplay is pointless here, all one can do is hear this massive cloud of sound. Percussionist Burkhard Beins uses a prepared drumset, where he can elicit a variety of timbres and textures. Jorg Maria Zeger uses a guitar (modified in some fashion, I'd imagine) to.ummm..well.do something. Once again, other than a few
recognizable sections of skronk, I can't figure out what Zeger really is
noisy sections to more understated segments filled with tiny gestures. It's
the really quiet segments that really do it for me, though. When a slightly
bowed cymbal radically alters the direction the music is going, you can tell
that you're dealing with players with a deep sensitivity towards sound.
- Nirav Soni/Ink19 -
Peripherique 1' is 43 minutes long and has a strong symmetrical structure, based on a gentle
opening, noise climax, quite centre, second climax and quite end. The first ten minutes is a gradual accumulation of quietness as they walk on and start playing - a tape hiss that builds to a rumble, tapping, distant strummed guitar: all very delicate and focused. Some improvised percussive sounds - a ball rolling over a plate, sand being shaken - plays and builds for 5 minutes; also suggestive that part of Schick's electronics is mixing and looping as some sounds appear to cycle and change. Some minutes of chords and squeaks, a reduction of sounds and then building 5 intense minute verging on noise. The second quiet period sees soft electro, cow bells and other percussion build into a second storm with tones and feedback after about 30 minutes. At 35 it drops right away, revisits the ball and scrape percussion, before a long fade. In 'Peripherique 2' the group stays in thesubtle concentrated mode as a breathing hiss, cracklepops, a tock and scraping guitar amongst other sounds interplay in a delicate soundpiece.
These days its hard to say what instrument is what as prepared guitars and percussion meld into the areas of electronica - so I wouldn't dare to say which instruments are dominating. Suffice to say that this combines the drama of its narrative flow with intense and rewarding soundplay. A deft balance is struck between periods of delicate development, exploration and dramatic expostulations, again raising questions of how much improv is scored, making for great listening.
- Ampersand -
Egy újabb elektroakusztikus album, mégpedig egy berlini triótól, amelynek egy tavalyi párizsi koncertjének
dokumentuma a Peripherique. De azt hiszem, ennél azért több. Egy koncertdokumentum nem feltétlenül vetekszik
egy stúdióban érlelt lemezzel, már ha itt lehetne errol szó. Az elso 43 perces felvétel lassan fejlodik csendes
suhogó maszatoló kezdettol egy sípoló, zakatoló majd borzasztó eroszakos zajzenévé. Mivel szépen lassan, rácsok
mögül összes hangszörnyet megvizsgálhatjuk, s így haladunk az egyre kíméletlenebb a középtájon megpiheno,
de újra begerjedo, zord terrénum felé, megijednünk sohasem kell. A harmadiknegyedben, ennek ellenére,
emberpróbáló eroszakossággal, fémes sikolyokkal találjuk magunkat szemben, majd újra lelassult kaparászás
vezeti le kompozíciót. Mondom kiszámítható ritmusos, lükteto a zene, és érezhetoen elore megírt nem túl eredeti,
viszont igen hatásos forgatókönyvvel rendelkezik. A triót foként a mindvégig domináns elektronika vezeti, s hozzá
kezesen idomul a dob és a gitár. Ami ezen túl van, az már minden bizonnyal improvizáció, s ebbol kiderül, a három
zenész finom egységben mondja el az egyenes vonalú történetet.
A második, rövidebb, 13 perces szerzemény már inkább vélheto hagyományos improvizációs felvételnek, ahol
a visszafogottan szöszölos mikrohangokat ambientes, víz alatti hatást kölcsönöznek. Az elozohöz képes jóval
csendesebb, szinte relaxált darab mintegy, erre egyébként utal a cím is, további levezetése az elso, igen
harsány csúcsponttal rendelkezo elso résznek. Összességében, és elsore nem különösebben hatott meg a
lemez, de minél többet hallom, annál jobban tetszik.
- András, Ultrahang-
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