OUW007 : Helder Wasterlain / Code mémoire - Racines de Matonge

Cover art by A.L. / Helder Wasterlain

OUW007 : Helder Wasterlain / Code mémoire - Racines de Matonge

Matonge (from the original named place in Kinshasa) is a neighborhood in Ixelles - Brussels where more than 40 African nationalities meet for an abundant lively place full of shops, restaurants, clubs, beauty salons... 
This place brings also an awful lot of characters and strange people and still has a variety of old shops run by a non less interesting persons living there before the place became like a Kinshasa market zone.

Helder Wasterlain, a Portugese writer, painter, musician living in Brussels since some years now had the idea, after wandering for hours and observing the exciting life in Matonge, to do a street walking with QR codes giving access on any phones or tablets to a number of musical texts depicting some places or people that he had encountered during his long walkings. 
Those texts are fictions but in most cases are based on existing places and people... 
Time to close your eyes, follow the stories and walk in Matonge like it was you wandering in the most colourful place in Brussels!

One of the QR code that gives you access to one of the story, in this case 'The Dealer'

Stories	Actors	Musicians	Instruments
Le dealer	Gilles Van Bunnen	Benjamin Ramos	Contrebasse
Un cœur faible	Pascale Weinberg	Shabaaz Mystic	Sanza
Un rêve accompli	Didier Daras	Thomas Stadnicki	Guitare électrique
Le tunnel	Jan Debski	Rexhep Dany et Sébastiens Stroobans, du groupe Mind Echoes	Guitares électriques
Le carrefour des hommes transparents	Kiù	Helder Wasterlain	Toy Piano
Le Roi du TAM-TAM	Shabaaz Mystic	Marc Derbaix	Tam-Tam
I walk the line	Sarah Hennecart	Pierre Spataro	Saxophone

Produced, written and created by Helder Wasterlain
Pics by Helder Wasterlain
Musical direction by Benjamin Ramos
Recorded and mixed by Marc Derbaix at Cinéma Styx

Web programmation, mobile applications and APP by António Simões / Web contents management by Helder Wasterlain - António Simões

The stories in short and in French:

Le dealer

Badjoko est un dealer qui prend plaisir à faire son métier. Il le fait avec soin et professionnalisme. Il n'est pas là aux ordres de quelqu'un d'autre. C'est lui son propre patron. C’est lui le boss.

I walk the line

Au milieu de ces œuvres trône une affiche de grand format où on peut lire : <<Je suis un vieux peau-rouge qui ne marchera jamais dans une file indienne >>. La phrase est signée. Achille Chavée. J’éclate de rire : liberté et surréalisme belge dans toute leur puissance.

Le Roi du TAM-TAM

Ndingi Vunda a réparé le tam-tam. Après 3 jours, aucune nouvelle de l’inconnu. Il a attendu cinq jours, deux semaines, un mois. L'homme n'est jamais revenu. Ndingi Vunda continuait à fabriquer des tables, mais à chaque fois qu'il regardait le tam-tam rangé dans un coin de son atelier, il ressentait une attraction inexplicable. Une chaleur envahissante, un feu grandissant.

Le carrefour des hommes transparents

Il entre dans l'appartement, traverse le couloir, débouche dans une pièce sans meubles, s’approche de l’inconnue qui semble ne pas se soucier de la présence d'un étranger et regarde ce que la femme observe à travers la vitre. En bas dans la rue, il aperçoit Jan les yeux fixés sur la fenêtre. Jan observe Jan. Un des deux est devenu transparent.

Le tunnel

À l'âge de 11 ans, Fernando est devenu apprenti cordonnier, une activité quelque peu ironique, vu qu'il ne possédait pas de chaussures et qu'il marchait toujours pieds nus. C'est peut-être cette ironie qui lui a inspiré le désir de partir pour chercher fortune ailleurs. Son ami António, pour sa part, était devenu concepteur de tunnels professionnel.

Le cœur faible

Mon mari a fini par ouvrir une petite galerie d'art, la première consacrée à la peinture africaine en Belgique. Il n’y connaissait rien en art, mais son cœur l’aimait. L'art apaisait son cœur. Les couleurs lui faisaient du bien. Le Beau était bon pour lui. 

Le rêve accompli

Drogo avait décidé de devenir professeur d'Histoire car il pensait qu’enseigner cette science sociale rendait les gens plus conscients et ainsi plus libres. Pour lui, la liberté était une valeur à vivre dans le présent, un combat quotidien, pour que l’on puisse la conserver dans l’avenir.

And English:

The dealer

Badjoko is a dealer who enjoys doing his job.Hedoes it with care and professionalism. He is not there under someone else's orders. He's his own boss. He's the boss.

I walk the line

In the middle of these works sits a large poster where one can read: "I am an old red-skinned man who will never walk in an Indian file". The sentence is signed. Achille Chavée. I burst out laughing: freedom and Belgian surrealism in all their power.

The King of TAM-TAM

Ndingi Vunda repaired the drum. After 3 days, no news of the unknown. He waited five days, two weeks, a month. The man never came back. Ndingi Vunda continued to make tables, but each time he looked at the tom-tom stored in a corner of his studio, he felt an inexplicable attraction. Overwhelming heat, growing fire.

The crossroads of transparent men

He enters the apartment, crosses the corridor, emerges in a room without furniture, approaches the stranger who seems not to care about the presence of a stranger and looks at what the woman observes through the glass. Down the street, he sees Jan staring at the window. Jan observes Jan. One of the two has become transparent.

The tunnel

At the age of 11, Fernando became an apprentice shoemaker, a somewhat ironic activity, since he did not have shoes and he was still walking barefoot. It is perhaps this irony which inspired him the desire to leave to seek fortune elsewhere. His friend António, for his part, had become a professional tunnel designer.

The weak heart

My husband ended up opening a small art gallery, the first devoted to African painting in Belgium. He didn't know anything about art, but his heart loved it. Art soothed his heart. The colors did him good. Beauty was good for him.

The dream fulfilled

Drogo had decided to become a history teacher because he believed that teaching this social science made people more aware and thus freer. For him, freedom was a value to live in the present, a daily struggle, so that we could keep it in the future.

Helder Wasterlain

Photos taken during the texts recording:

 Jan Debski

 Kiù

Sarah Hennecart

Digital release on the 3rd of July 2020.

Track listing:

1: Le carrefour des hommes transparents (feat. Kiù)

2: I Walk the Line (feat. Sarah Hennecart, Pierre Spataro)

3: Le dealer (feat. Gilles Van Bunnen, Benjamin Ramos)

4: Le roi du tam-tam (feat. Shabaaz Mystik, Marc Derbaix)

5: Le tunnel (feat. Jan Debski, Rexhep Dany, Sébastiens Stroobans)

6: Un cœur faible (feat. Pascale Weinberg, Shabaaz Mystik)

7: Un rêve accompli (feat. Didier Daras, Thomas Stadnicki)

And on Bandcamp:

ODG132 : Jürgen Augusteyns / Bilderdämmerung

Cover art by Jürgen Augusteyns

ODG132 : Jürgen Augusteyns / Bilderdämmerung

Jürgen (see also ODG108 and ODG109) made this EP after a visit at the Dachau concentration camp. The 4 tracks resonate like the interaction between the place itself and the history of the place. 


In Jürgen's words:

"Bilderdämmerung is inspired by both a visit to the Dachau concentration camp and by the painting “Gaskamer” (1986) by Luc Tuymans.

Solemn and sterile the painting perfectly encompasses the overwhelming weight that I felt when in that particular place myself.

The title refers to a text by Stephan Berg from the book “Luc Tuymans - The Arena”. 

Much in the same way that Tuymans is incapable of portraying the worst aspects of human history, neither can I translate it into music.  

The worst is by its very nature always unimaginable and the moment in which the unimaginable occurs is pristine in its horror; no representation can come close. 

It would be perversely pretentious and plainly impossible to create a rendition of what happened there and then. Instead, “Bilderdämmerung” is an endeavour to take the listener to that place of unspeakable dread and an attempt to evoke what I felt when I was there.

Headphones are highly recommended."

A video for Versteintert. The timing of the track - 4:29 - is a reminder that the camp was liberated on the 29 of April 1945.

Digital release on the 30th of June 2020.

Track listing:

1: Eingang (resonanz 1) - 8:20

2: Brausebad (resonanz 2) - 10:18

3: Einschlag (resonanz 3) - 8:04

4: Versteinert (resonanz 4) - 4:29

A Bandcamp only release:

OVD036 : Pierre Vervloesem / Ponorogo (The Art of Going Somewhere)

Cover art by A.L., pic by Pierre Vervloesem

OVD036 : Pierre Vervloesem / Ponorogo (The Art of Going Somewhere)

From his 'The Art of Going Nowhere' albums (see OVD019, OVD020, OVD021, OVD022, OVD023, OVD024 and OVD025) to his new album 'the Art of going Somewhere' Pierre is demonstrating again  all his craftsmanship when composing a 45 minutes piece of music. 

All his science and technique of mixing guitars, heavy basses and synthesizers is this time associated with Indonesian radios captations which add this time the spices to a road going Somewhere! 

A thrilling adventure as always with Pierre!

Digital release on the 25th of June 2020.

Track listing:

1: Ponogoro ( The Art of Going Somewhere) - 43:22 minutes

And on Bandcamp:

ODG125 : OdNu / Virtual Reality Reality

Cover art by Michel Mazza

ODG125 : OdNu / Virtual Reality Reality

After the beautiful  and organic 'Falling Down In Slow Motion (see OUC021) comes the intriguing and more complex 'Virtual Reality Reality'.

Each track on “Virtual Reality Reality” uses the midi guitar (without following the DAW’s grid) as the primary tool to organically record and layer a rich dialogue of melodies and textures.

The effect is rather orchestrally dystopian where there is a diverse array of musical influences from experimental electronic, jazz, tango, 1920’s orchestral recordings, 4th world music and more.
The listener of the album “Virtual Reality Reality”. will find themselves entering into a juxtaposition of feelings under an architecture of melodies that orbit each other independently integrating and disintegrating. 
Each song feels like it inhabits both the past and the future, is both familiar and alien where one feels lost and found and also equally hopeful and sad.

Headphones recommended  for a total immersion in sounds!

'Parade':



Credits:
All music composed, performed, arranged and recorded and mastered by Michel Mazza.
Artwork by Michel Mazza.

Michel

Digital release on the 19th of June 2020.

Track listing:

1: Not impossible
2: Thinning
3: Blank Paper
4: Another Friendly Reminder
5: Snowblower
6: To Know the Lies
7: Parade
8: Part of It





And on Bandcamp:

OJP043 : Shinji Kikuchi / Crow

                                                                               

Cover art by A.L.

OJP043 : Shinji Kikuchi / Crow

Guitarist and composer Shinji Kikuchi was born 50 years ago in Kanagawa Japan and is living now in Shimane prefecture. He lived also for 4 years in the US and 4 more years in Brazil and you can definitely listen that the musical scene of both countries influenced him when composing his songs. He had piano lessons when he was 7 and started to lear classical guitar at 15. 

17 was the year he started to compose and play in bands.
What he is saying about playing with people:
« I’ve played most of my life with Andean musicians from Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia… professionally, not because that kind of music was my favorite but because life works that way. I enjoyed to play with them but I always had the desire to play other kinds of styles to express different emotions.
That was the strongest reason why I was composing and recording when I had time working with them. I was mostly playing in Japan but we traveled around Asia, like Korea where we stayed 2 months. When in brazil I was in many different projects playing jazz ,bossa nova kind of things and I guess I learned a lot of different technics. In the Us, I was too young to play professionally but played and learned a lot as well.  I love listening to the cicadas insects as the melodies they do is like a message contained in their music and they are the reason I sing wishing I could have their spirit when I sing or play. »

Shinji

It was about time to rediscover this great spiritual musician and here is a compilation of some of his songs: 8 own compositions in the various styles that inspired him from his 17 till today and 4 covers of his favorite Japanese songs. 

Digital release on the 20th of March 2020.

Track listing:

1: Fukurou
2: Saru Ni Tuite
3: Haruka Kanata
4: Minn Minn
5: Inu No Fuun
6: Tokyo Dodonpa Musume
7: Karasu
8: Motto Koinno
9: Makirika
10: Imomushi
11: Everything
12: Namida Kun Sayonara

And on Bandcamp:

ODG129 : Ravi Padmanabha - Alex Glenfield / Niskam

Cover art by A.L.

ODG129 : Ravi Padmanabha - Alex Glenfield / Niskam

Niskam Karma , self-less or desire less action, is an action performed without any exception of fruits or results, and the central tenet of Karma Yoga path to Liberation. 

Alex Glenfield and Ravi Padmanabha have been playing in various groups for about ten years. Luckily a mutual friend realized their similar music backgrounds and set up a jam session. Many musicians dabble in world music by noodling on an exotic instrument and can have decent results, but Alex and Ravi have spent many years studying with master musicians and traveling in pursuit of authentic music. The combination of world, jazz and experimental music both musicians have makes for perfect collaborations. 
The Bul-bul Tarang Gang was a psychedelic world jam band that Ravi led and released a few recordings on SLOOW TAPES :Kali 2012, Purandara Dasa Day 2015. Ravi played the bulbul tarang and Alex played trumpet. Later they played in Ravi’s MY NADA BRAHMA. 

Ravi and Alex

In 2018 Alex and Ravi recorded “ TO A BLUE MIRAGE” and released it on ravi’s label , good karma, bad karma records. This recording was a improvised session concentrating on more traditional meditative vibes. 

After many of years of playing in large and small groups Alex and 
Ravi decided to do a one off improv session, but this time using more jazz elements with trumpet and drum kit. In the session, world music elements can be heard with usage of tabla and voice. The improv session resulted in NISKAM!. 
The session was pure improv with no discussions or game plans, just letting the music flow and the musicians reacting in real time. Every take was used in the session. There were no 2nd takes. 

Ravi and Alex recording

Ravi Padmanabha is composer, improvisor and multi-instrumentalist. He has spent many years studying and playing a wide variety of music including: jazz, world, Indian, and experimental music. 
He has studied with many masters from India including Pandit Samar Saha, Pandit Sharda Sahai ,and Pankaj Misra. Ravi is on many recordings and has led various musical projects such as :My Nada Brahma, the Bul-Bul Tarang Gang and most recently the Transindental Karmacist and Americana Raga. He has performed in Duo with Steve Baczkowski , Tom Chess , Alex Glenfield and Brandon Terzic for many years. Ravi has performed with many others including; William Parker, William Cole, Junni Booth, Robert Dick, Daniel Carter, Cooper Moore,Arrignton DeDionyso, and Paul Flarherty ( www.ravip.net) 

Ravi

Born in Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada, Alex Glenfield left home to play the trumpet and flugelhorn in Toronto. While there, finding more to do than just brass and jazz, Alex studied music composition, with James Tenney, and Hindustani khyal singing. Simultaneously, he taught himself to perform multiple styles of overtone singing. With a focus on the throat-singing styles of Tuva and Mongolia, Alex completed a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at York University after performing fieldwork in Central Asia. Presently, Glenfield resides in Buffalo, New York, where he performs and composes music that has resonances of jazz, Indian classical music, and American minimalism.

Alex

Digital release on the 12th of June 2020.

Track listing:

1: Gopi Ma

2: Cortège des esprits

3: Aikyam Mundus

4: Niskam

5: Maha Alap

6: Nisus

7: Dadra

8: The Pearls of Bahrain

And on Bandcamp:

ODG119 : Arowan / Sense Data

Cover art by Arowan - A.L.

ODG119 : Arowan / Sense Data

This album was made in Arowan’s bedroom, Irishman and soon-to-be 20 year old graduate philosophy student. 

It continues with Arowan’s intention to explore the phenomenology of sound design, and follows the release of Welträthsel on Somewhere Cold Records and Common Quale on Histamine Tapes. 

The tracks explore the highs and lows of emotional subjectivity through a vignette style 13 track cycle, mostly instrumental but some with texts read like poetry lost in kinds of soundtracks. 

There is a rare balance between some of the almost noise tracks, some which sound like they were written to be performed in huge cathedrals and subtle almost classical folk guitar ones.

Arowan may be only 20 years old but he does bring to his music the maturity of an already seasoned composer.

Digital release on the 5th of June 2020.

Track listing:

1: Sense Data

2: Man-Child

3: Always Curious

4: Institutionalise

5: Cloudy Days

6: Hangman God

7: 1000 Oceans

8: Alchol Proof

9: The Lesser Man

10: Preconceptions

11: We're Nothing

12: Thy Fearful Symmetry

13: Transfiguration of Sorrow

And on Bandcamp: