One seldom gets a chance to review an entire label from beginning to end unless there is some kind of concept behind it. 'Now DAT's What I Call Music' is a project that fits the project's description and label. On November 1st Frans de Waard - yes, that Frans - dropped 16 DAT tapes filled by seventeen different artists (one is a split), each in an edition of seventeen copies, of which two were taken (one for the artist, one for the archives), so fifteen for sale. Rutger Zuydervelt meticulously executed the artwork, and That's it.
All DATs are recycled and reused because that's what it's all about. You don't throw stuff out anymore. The carbon footprint these items generated in the past - when humanity probably didn't even know what the word meant - is quite firm compared to, for example, a CD. So instead of throwing things away, it's better to reuse them. Now THAT's what I call a brilliant idea. If the 15 DATs are sold, the tangible part of this project is over. Now don't be sad. There is always Bandcamp for us living in a digital reality where they will appear in full once a physical DAT sells out.
This review is different than others because sixteen individual ones being as elaborate as usual would mean an extra Vital. I'll keep all the reviews shorter then normal but yet still tell you enough about the artist and music to hopefully make you curious enough to check out this wonderful project and its content. This is the forth part!
POOL PERVERT - DRONE SWARM (120 minutes DAT)
And as we saw before, DATs are also available in 120-minute tapes and here we have another one. Pool Pervert is Egbert van der Vliet from Haarlem, and this DAT holds almost 120 minutes with "an eclectic selection of released and unreleased stuff, selected by frans de waard". 'Fragments of Technology', 'Almost Sleep' parts 1 & 2, 'Color Scene' parts 1 through 4 and 'Ruhrgebiet' parts 3 to 5 are all heavily manipulated field recordings with added drone sounds of unknown origin.
The tracks are all between 8 and 18 minutes, and the fit the description of drones more than they would fit soundscape or ambient. However, there is a bit of all three in there. First, there are the beautiful slow movements one would like to hear in drones; The sounds depict a landscape in decay (especially in 'Ruhrgebiet'), and they can be played to change the environment you're in a while listening. Minimal but powerful stuff here.
MARTIJN HOHMANN - DONKERE KAMER (60 minute DAT)
Martijn Hohmann is a name you could have heard of before as a member of De Fabriek, the man behind Universaal Kunst or maybe a release under his own name. "Donkere Kamer" is a five-part soundscape based on field recordings made at several places in the Netherlands and Belgium with additional processing, (soft)synths and mixing done in 2022. "Donkere Kamer" (dark room) is a soundscape in the word's most direct meaning. In this case, it's dark, and the room gets even darker after about 10 minutes (which might be the second part).
The composition has some bass notes which that are deep that higher frequencies are pushed aside. I don't know if it's meant to be like that, but Martijn seems to know exactly what he is doing and saying with this composition. The atmosphere of someone peeking in the dark room and everybody in there is quiet just so no one is found. And Martijn sits there, recording and composing with infrared goggles, only to be able to tell this story. Hide and seek in the audio domain. Well done.
JONATHAN DEASY - L'EFFONDREMENT DU TEMPS (46 minutes DAT)
At #15, we see a release from the for me unknown Jonathan Dease. Two pieces of just over 20 minutes entitled "Gently" and "Quietly" left me speechless. The theme of this release is "I've got a sine wave, and I'm gonna use it". The tracks are quite alike and know a beautiful minimal play with tones and the interpolation of the purity, which is the sine wave. It reminded me a little bit of Alvin Lucier's "Music for Piano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators" in a completely different setting.
"Gently" seems to follow what we know as notes, while "Quietly" follows the perspective of tones being notes a bit less. Hence the interference patterns created in "Quietly" are a bit less easy on the ear. Being exposed to the difference is quite confronting. You really need a solid system to get all the hidden beauty; headphones aren't getting the subtlety: It needs space. You will not be disappointed if you like minimalism and confrontation. I mean: I wasn't either.
VERTONEN - COLLAPSED RIVERS (60 minutes DAT)
The final catalogue number goes to Vertonen, who is Blake Edwards, and vice versa. The label owner from Ballast covers a full hour of a beautiful soundscape in four parts: 'Absolution', 'Ascension', 'Adduction' and 'Absorption' are situated in a scenic and open outdoor space. Sound-wise, is reminds me a bit of the descriptive nature you could expect from Robert Rich or Jorge Reyes, but Vertonen has a different approach to sound.
Even though the composition has four parts, the good thing about a DAT is that you are obliged to listen to the whole thing. So you're not skipping anything; hence, you get the entire story.
"Collapsed Rivers" starts with the know whistling sound of a tube you circle over your head. It gives the track an instant Australian feel (not bad for someone who resides in Chicago). Human choral treatment and singing bowls are added and subtracted, creating a soundscape between an industrial environment and nature. The really slowly added manipulated voices & field recordings leave you in a different world. Gorgeous.
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