ODG193 : Baby Fire / The Red Robe 10th anniversary
In October 2013, upon invitation by ex Crass members Gee Vaucher and Penny Rimbaud, and producer Tony Barber (The Buzzcocks) Baby Fire set to record at Dial House - Crass’ legendary former headquarters. The Red Robe was crafted in the Sheddio, one of the sheds on the premises. The album featured special guests Eve Libertine and Penny Rimbaud on vocals.
To celebrate the album’s 10th anniversary (see album here) Off is releasing two remixes: ‘The Red Robe’ - the album’s title track - by Déhà (Wolvennest, La Muerte…) and ‘Victory’ by Emmanuelle de Hericourt (aka EDH). We wish to thank Vincent from Cheap Satanism Records for suggesting the remix by EDH back in 2015.
The original artwork by Alice Smith has been revamped by the artist and is now blood red, reflecting all the more the title track’s raw intensity.
Digital release on the 16th of October 204.
Track listing:
1: The Red Robe - Déhà remix 2: Victory - EDH remix
Miss Canine Hoe composed the album over a period of six months after a live performance in July 2023.
Mytyl composed and arranged all the tracks in her room based on field recordings and sampling working with Ableton and modulars.
The title "B.D.S.M." may sound dubious but the content is not so much or rather contains eight tracks titled by borrowing only acronyms. On the other hand, it is also true that "B.D.S.M." is an inseparable theme from Mytyl and Elly (as much as LGBTQ is), and they hope that their thoughts and feelings can be heard, especially in the two tracks that Elly wrote lyrics.
Mytyl Sheena started Miss Canine Hoe with Elly Sheena in 2021. They have been taking a “personal journey in search of sound” and developing “sonic experiments since then. Second Life, one of the metaverse, is the base of their activities.
Initially, Mytyl started to make music in 2017 with her inclination toward modulars, noise oscillators and field recording. Her encounters with alternative genres such as contemporary music, noise music, and experimental music have now shifted her interest to the resonance and layering of sound itself, rather than commercial "music" production.
Elly always supports Mytyl both physically and mentally, while writing lyrics and promoting.
Kasra Faridi (see his beautiful album here), the performer of the album, has noted:
“I decided to record this valuable collection, firstly because these pieces are rich in compositional value and quality, beautiful in melody, and consistent in form and harmony. Moreover, the collection is deeply pianistic and intimately familiar with common and standard classical piano techniques, which I believe is a distinctive aspect. The pianistic nature of these works is significant—a quality often overlooked by composers in works by living composers.
And secondly, over the years of performing and teaching, I have seen the need for such balanced and refined works among serious audiences and students. Pieces that maintain their identity without merely repeating old traditions without understanding them, but rather offer a perspective born from years of study and research, developed into a mature artistic vision.”
The pieces are classical for solo Piano, not too long, and easy to listen to. I've recorded over half of them myself, and the rest have been captured by another pianist which will be on the Vol. 2. Their scores have been around for a while and have been published in Iran, and we teach the pieces in our teaching methods.
I hope you will enjoy his music and my rendering of those pieces.".
Houman Dehlavi
About Seven Skies Vol.I Houman Dehlavi says:
“The pieces in this collection reflect my personal narratives and musical experiences developed over the years. Drawing inspiration from small melodic ideas, many of which are influenced by the music of Iran and its regions, I have aimed to create harmonic textures that emerge organically from the melodic lines themselves. Rather than following conventional formulas, each piece's harmonic structure is tailored to its individual needs. These compositions feature structures with consciously crafted dissonant chords, intricately designed forms inspired by classical music traditions.
Despite the fact that the sheet music was released years ago, no audio recordings of these pieces existed due to various reasons. It was only through the suggestion and efforts of two talented pianists that this collection was recorded over a span of two years. Recording these performances in different studios with various pianos posed a significant challenge in achieving consistent and suitable audio standards that would match each piano's unique sound qualities. However, thanks to the expertise of the esteemed sound engineer, Sadegh Nouri, this challenge was largely overcome during the final mixing and mastering process.
Ultimately, I opted to release this collection in two parts to ensure that the stylistic and structural coherence of each part complements that of the others more effectively. The first part, showcasing the artistry of the distinguished pianist Kasra Faridi, comprises seven pieces recorded in Toronto and Istanbul during the summer and fall of 2023”
Houman Dehlavi was born in 1971. He learned music from early childhood under the supervision of his father, a famous composer and conductor, and his mother, who is a renowned Persian musician. He studied piano and violin under well-known masters, and learned the fundamentals of music composition from his father, Hossein Dehlavi, and later from Ahmad Pejman, an acclaimed Persian composer. Houman holds a bachelor's degree in piano and a master's degree in music composition from the University of Art. During his education, he benefited from training under masters such as Rafael Minaskanian, Emanuel Melik-Aslanian, and Thomas Christian David, an Austrian musician, by participating in master courses in music composition and conducting. He began his teaching career at various music institutes and privately, but shortly thereafter started teaching at the University of Arts.
Throughout his career, he has composed and arranged a variety of music for piano solos, duets, quaDrtets, string orchestras, symphonic orchestras, and other ensembles that include Persian instruments and vocals. His works have been performed in Europe, Canada, and the USA. Additionally, he has composed music for several theatrical plays and documentary movies. Houman has published two music books for piano and has released two CD albums.
Composer : Houman Dehlavi
Pianist : Kasra Faridi
Recorded in : The Canterbury Music Company - Toronto and Babajim studio - Istanbul
Mix and mastering : Sadegh Nouri at Modern studio - Tehran
'Dystopian cities' was built during the so many transformations of the Brussels city and other visited places by Un vrai semblant. He took his ideas of soundscapes while walking a lot all over Brussels. You can visualise yourself wandering in the streets, stoping at demolitions or new constructions or just enjoying a clean and calm spot. It's all in the music! Nicolas Marchant: everything
OVD083 : Pierre Vervloesem / Cue Music for Unsolicited Movie
Is it really???
To cue audio is to determine the desired initial playback point in a piece of recorded music. It is a technique often used in radio broadcasting and DJing. One dictionary definition is to "Set a piece of audio or video equipment in readiness to play (a particular part of the recorded material)."
Up to you to discover with the new Pierre Vervloesem album!
'Mundi' from Japanese composer Wataru Iwata (see also OJP039 and OJP064) is one more time a research musically and cognitively.
Let him explains:
"Working this time The astronomer, mathematician, natural philosopher and astrologer Johannes Kepler published Harmonice Mundi in 1619. It began with regular polygons, then the regular polyhedra, the attributes of the four elements, and the tunings corresponding to the planetary movements of the solar system, in an attempt to depict the harmony of this universe. Mundi here is translated as universe, not world, not to mention literally ‘everything’, including inorganic as well as organic matter. The umwelt of all beings is not the same, although more similarities can be found in the same specie. Of course, some beings, even of the same species, do not have as many worlds in common as one might imagine. This can apparently be translated as multiverse, since worlds are extended to each individual being.
The speed at which the sun moves across the galactic plane is approximately 70-80 000 km/h, and it takes about 226 million years to orbit the galactic centre. If we were able to view our living Earth from the solar system, the galaxy and beyond, we would be able to say that the differences between the individual worlds of the same and different kinds of being are smaller than the dust. At the same time, since the world unfolds as a unique entity to each individual dust, if we can acknowledge the preciousness of the dust, we can understand that each of these worlds is as precious as the dust. Whether living or dying, they are equivalent and that may not make much difference. This world of existence, which spreads out in the form of a three-dimensional net, is the result of the creative activities of the minuscule individual moment by moment, unfolding in such a vast way."
OUI046 : Daniele Morelli - Robert Tiso / Consistenza Umana
The always travelling and experimenting Daniele Morelli (see also ODG047, ODG147, OUI008, OUI036 and OUI037) composed and adjusted his guitar style to team with the great glass harp master musician Robert Tiso for this very original album.
Daniele says:
"I know Robert from a lot of years and it was always fascinating to me the sound of crystal glasses.It's not an easy instrument and Robert is the best in Italy and not only there.Trying to do something together I thought an album inspired to this asylum was the perfect combination (guitars and glass harp) for pictures, emotions and sounds. That's the perfect sound for an album like that!"
Robert and Daniele
The sound of a wine glass may be familiar to most people, but the voice of the glass harp is always a surprise to everyone. Its tones have been described as "celestial", meaning they sound like they come from another world, and lead the listener into a mesmerizing and ethereal atmosphere.
The glass harp, or more commonly musical glasses, consists in a set of stem glasses of different sizes and shapes, fixed to a wooden base. Each glass is tuned by adjusting the quantity of water it contains.
The sound is produced simply by rubbing the moistened fingertips along the rims, the friction causes the vibration that makes the glasses resonate.
With this enchanting musical sound Robert Tiso performs a repertoire of classical masterpieces by Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky... and many others, each piece carefully chosen to suit the sound and arranged to express the full potential possibilities of the glass harp. Continuously evolving his performing style, Robert Tiso has been appreciated and acclaimed worldwide as one of the few glass harp masters of the present.
9 tracks with guitars and crystal glasses by the inimitable Robert Tiso.
9 pieces dedicated to the history of the Volterra mental hospital.
9 songs made of human consistency.
'Consistenza Umana' is an album dedicated to a place, a person and their combined history.
The place is Volterra, a town in Tuscany, that hosted the largest mental asylum in Italy for over a century. The Volterra mental asylum became both home and prison to 5000 people during the First and Second World Wars. It was very easy to end up in a mental hospital: alcohol, homosexuality, and trauma from the war were all diagnoses, not given as a path to treatment but rather as a method to marginalize and exclude troubled people from society. The nurses themselves said that they did not follow any courses of treatment, instead they acted liked prison guards.
The “treatments” were straitjackets and electroshock. Walking through the ruins of the mental hospital, one perceives that, for over a century, people were interned here, each with a different story, each with their different trauma and pain. From the beginnings of psychiatry until the final closure of mental asylums in 1979 society decided who to marginalize often because they didn't fit societal norms. But seen up close, is anyone normal?
And the person is Oreste Fernando Nannetti. Among the many stories from Volterra, his in particular has captured the imagination of many people.
We don't know much about him, only that he was the son of a young, single mother, had been sent to an orphanage in Rome, his hometown, at the age of seven., was discharged in his adolescence, then disappeared until 1948 when he was charged with resisting arrest and judged to be mentally ill. Nannetti spent the rest of his life inside the Volterra asylum, moving from the "Ferri" pavilion to the "Charcot", dedicated to the agitated and dangerous. In reality, from what we know, he likely wasn’t a particularly problematic patient. The nurses allowed him to spend two hours outside every day. In the courtyard, he did not spend his time with the other patients. Taciturn and elusive, he preferred to be alone and used the buckle of his waistcoat to engrave his thoughts and reflections on the asylum walls, giving life to his inner world… and his communications with aliens.
The stories engraved on the plaster walls, sometimes accompanied by drawings and graphics, in some cases reflected his psychosis and in others his incredible lucidity.
He was methodical, dividing spaces on the walls to create large frames in which he jotted down stories of life in the asylum, messages received from other galaxies, and news relating to his past. He used a boustrophedonic script, alternating Italian letters with Etruscan characters. He often wrote as if tracing the silhouettes of the other patients sitting on the benches next to the wall; lines that bent and rose, making decoding them even more difficult. Nannetti also wrote of wars between planets aimed at conquering unknown worlds. In the hundreds of words he wrote, Nannetti describes himself as "Mr Nanof, astronautic mining engineer of the mental space-time system" and “NOF4”, an acronym which he composed from his name, Nannetti Oreste Fernando, and the number 4 whose origin remains uncertain.
Both Nannetti and Volterra continue to be a mystery and an inspiration. And so this album was born—guitars and crystal glasses—to tell through sounds the imagined stories of Nannetti and Volterra, stories filled with pain, sadness, joy, wonder and grief, all trapped within the walls of the Volterra mental asylum.
Now NOF4 is considered an important artist and a piece of his wall is in The Collection de L’Art Brut in Lausanne.
