This is a limited edition release from Dale Lloyd’s Seattle based label and/OAR. Tobias is a self-described renegade theorist and techno-turntablist, whilst Tomas is a composer of electronic and electro-acoustic music. Both are based in Montreal.
The CD has three shorter tracks by Tobias solo and one long track by both taken from a live performance. The and/OAR label is devoted to environmental recordings and experimental sound, and if one had to put this release in a pigeonhole one would call it microsound.
The Tobias tracks are very reminiscent of Aubrite era Thomas Koner with a couple of clicky scrapes thrown in similar to Pole. The last (and shortest) of these is probably the best with a white noise-ish sound that comes in and out suddenly, a few clicks and a distant tinkly sound that is quite eerie.
The collaborative live track is 35 minutes long and goes through a variety of odd, flickering, crunchy processed sounds that would probably be quite interesting in a gallery context. Unfortunately for me these atmospheres don’t sound very interesting and never generate any tension.
Most of the interesting positions in this musical world were staked out over 10 years ago by the likes of Paul Schutze, Mika Vainio, Moritz Von Oswald, Thomas Koner and a few other minor legends such as Pole, Kit Clayton and Monolake. To move it to the next level is a big challenge to take on. That those people also managed to do it without the mountains of solipsistic postmodern philosophical baggage that Van Veen heaps on in his accompanying notes is an indication that we could all probably do without it.
Compare, for example Van Veen’s writing about New Orleans, with say, a more ‘conventional’ radical such as Michael Parenti.
