Alexei Borisov and Jelena Glazova – Entrance to Hades (2024)

pan y rosas discos

Drone Experimental electronica Sound art Avant-electronica Glitchtronica Micronoise Experimentalism Avant-garde

Vene uue laine põrandaaluse muusika üks isasid Aleksei Borissov on Eesti vastava valdkonna inimestele tuttav nägu – mees on korduvalt käinud siingi esinemas. Seekord koos riialanna Jelena Glazova'ga -- ka teatud eestlastele tuttav -- seitsme loo vältel allilma sisenemas Chicago eksperimentaalplaadifirma pan y rosas discos vahendusel. Ilmselt on tegu maandamata masinaga, mis säriseb-väriseb nagu jeekimeid täis kolavanker. Aga kõrvaklappe on tarvis, et seda põrgumürglit kuulda. Vastasel juhul mikroskoopilised helid ilma kõrvaklappideta tekitavad segadust ja pealiskaudset saginat ning mõttetut st eimidagiütlevat vidinat. Kõrvaklappides hakkab see mikromaailm konkretiseeruma -- tulevad esile jämedad droonhelid, glitchilik elektrooniline prügi, mis iseenesest on ju huvitav ja intrigeeriv; sest see on konkretiseeritud, see on struktureeritud ja eesmärgipäraselt esitatud. Lisaks veel tekitab huvi, et kas see muusika on improviseeritud või on see eelnevalt komponeeritud. See on üldjoontes minimalistlik muusikaväli, mille ülemistes fraktsioonides toimub väga kibe sagimine. Ilmselt tänapäeval ei ole enam oluline arutleda selle üle nagu veerand sajandit tagasi, et kas sülearvutil (mille soetamine tollal oli väga kallis lõbu) loodud muusika on improviseeritud või mitte -- või juhul kui on improviseeritud, siis kas tegu ei ole ikkagi mitte võltsimprovisatsiooniga; omal ajal tekitas neid kiivaid diskussioone ilmselt niinimetatud pärisimprovisatsiooniliste muusikute hirm jääda ilma oma leivapajukist. Taaskord pöördudes tagasi paari nädala tagusesse Tõnis Kahuga tehtud intervjuusse, milles meie esimuusikakriitik-kultuuriteoreetik väidab, et tänapäeval tehakse popmuusikat lihtsalt etteantud klotse erinevalt kokku seades; teisalt on siiski selge, et vähemalt mingis osas elektroonilises muusikas on olnud tendents ette antud klotse lõhkuda, moonutada, kardinaalselt teisendada. Isegi kui tegu on olnud põrandaaluste aktidega, pääsevad need mõjud varem või hiljem popilikemate jüngrite ja stiilide vahendusel ülespoole (popmuusikasse -- Arca, Tirzah, hip-hop). Tõsi, heliloomeprogrammid on paisunud omaette universumiteks, mille piire ja võimalikkusi on raske alati hoomata. Vaatame siis konkreetset albumit detailsemalt -- nagu juba eelpool mainitud, on selle albumi selgrooks droonmuusika sellise jämedusega, et see annab võnkeid, mürtsatusi ning hälbeid igale poole mujale, st tähendab nii vasakule kui paremale, nii üles kui alla; kaunistuseks siin-seal on omaette elu elav digitaalne prügi -- nimetan seda glitch-karmaks -- seda võib käsitleda paroodia või sardoonilise arvamusena digikultuurist -- selle valdavast segmendist. Näiteks seesamune toores puuriv droon, mis seda kursust valitseb, on ühelt poolt muljetavaldavalt valitsev, ent teisalt murdub iseenda raskuse all -- nii võib öelda, kuivõrd mõtlen raskuse all murdumist heli muutumist ja moondumist digitaalse sunni all -- heli peab muutuma, heli peab varieeruma, heli peab olema võimalikkuste realiseerimise tasemel. Heli muutub heledamaks, muutub intensiivsemaks, omandades uusi digitaalseid sagedusi, võnkeid, nihkeid, suletud trajektoore; seda pisihelide ja põhiheli omavahelist suhet võib kirjandusklassikast laenatud näitega võrrelda huntide ulgumise ja krahv Dracula käeviibutuse suhtega -- põhijurakas paneb ka kõige mikroskoopilisemad osakesed nähtavalt võnkuma. Kiidame igati heaks üllitiseks.

Keith Helt – Divide The Sky (2023)

pan y rosas discos/ Bandcamp

Experimental rock Avant-rock Indie rock Alternative rock Psychedelic Art rock No Wave

Keith Helt on eksperimentaalleibeli/võrguplaadifirma pan y rosas discos asutaja ning juht, kes samas on ka ise muusik – andnud välja eriilmelist muusikat nii oma pärisnime kui aliaste all. Tema käesolev 7-looline on huvitav segu huvitavate bändide elementidest – Sonic Youth'i nurgelisest keerukast kidrakäsitlusest, The Fall'i sardoonilistest põlglikkust väljendavatest sündihelidest, aga ka kodulinna Chicago vabalt lainetavast impro- ja postrokk-skeenest; näituseks John McEntire'i kõrvalpundi Sea And The Cake'i voolav meeleolurokk. Ega siis kaugele jää ka Stereolab ning Electrelane. 80ndate alguse Sonic Youth kasutas ka süntesaatoreid, tõsi, vähesel määral. Sonic Youth oli hea bänd, ent neile kahtlemata oli oluline ka poosetamine. Teisalt poosidest popmuusikas ei pääse üle ega ümber – küsimus taandub sellele, et mida Keith Helt tahab öelda? Kuidas ta midagi tahab väljendada? Teisalt jälle – vastus neile küsimustele on vähetähtis, sest põranda all hoolitakse vähe, mida kriitikud suvatsevad arvata. Keith Helt'i eesmärk on jõuda transsi, ning lasta teistel sellest osa saada – tema tegutsemisviis on kordus, kordus, muutus, kordus, muutus. Põrandaalune horisont on hoopis teistsugune kui Taylor Swift'i oma. Sealsed tungid on ehtsad ja teravad – vähemalt esialgu. Kui seal ongi manipulatsiooni, siis selle algpõhjused ja väljundid on kindlasti erinevad miljoneid müüvast artistist. Tõele au andes – Taylor Swift'i seni suurim popakt oleks, kui ta tõmbaks Keith Helt'i nimega särgi endale selga. Või siis The Hirundu, Origami Repetika või Hanetration'i oma. Nagu omal ajal Kurt Cobain riietus Daniel Johnston'i nimega kaltsu.

Jukka-Pekka Kervinen – Asymmetric Modes (2023)

Pan y rosas discos/Bandcamp

Experimental rock Electro-acoustic Improvised music Avant-garde Experimentalism Avant-rock Improvised noise Musique concrète Math-rock

Soome teeneka eksperimentaatori Jukka-Pekka Kervise 5-loolise taiese pealkiri peaks kätte andma juhtlõnga albumi mõistmiseks, või ajab arusaamise veelgi segasemaks. Saab nentida, et paralleelliinid on igas loos, mis liiguvad iseenda loogikat järgides oma trajektoore pidi -- kuigi põhiliini moodustab siiski kitarril improviseerimine, mis magnetina tõmbab ligi kõiksugu elektroonilist rämpsu; mis justkui elektronkihti(de)na tiirlevad aatomi ümber. Teisisõnu, protsess on kontrollitud ja kindlalt suunatud. Ning pealkirjas püstitatud hüpotees on seetõttu kahtlane. Suht sirge ja sümmeetriline tundub esialgu see kõik. Avardavat ruumi mainitet hõõruv-kraapivasse helindisse lisavad konkreethelid, mis samas on vaat et liigagi kasutatud element. Küsimus on selles, et kas seda lisaruumi on ilmtingimata tarvis või on hoopis tarvis helindit veelgi tihendada. Käesolevat albumit võiks kidramängu silmas pidades pidada pöörase bluusibrassi Lucas Pastina kergteoseks, kui seda elektroonilist segmenti siin ei tiirleks-pöörleks. Või siis kuuleme siin pöörasest bluusist tingitud pohmeluse leevendamist nurgelise math-rock'i abil. Et siis päeva lõpuks peab ikkagi nentima, et kulg tõepoolest on asümmeetriline. Jäägu need teost läbivad arusaamatused-vastuolud lõplikuks arusaamiseks.

baker / ritch – articular facet 5.3 (2014)

pan y rosas discos

Free Music Archive

• Improvised noise 
• Avant-garde 
• Noise
• Sound art 
• Psycho-acoustic 
• Experimentalism 
• Abstract 
• Drone 
• Non-music

See 4-looline üllitis Chicago eksperimentaalleibeli pan y rosas discos`e alt sobitub väga hästi minu veregrupiga. Tõsi, kõigepealt pidin kontrollima helisüsteemi korrasolekut, kuna tekkisid teatud kahtlused heli kulgemise loogikas. Siin on madalat ja keskmist, siin on hillitsetust ja poolenisti vabakslaskmist (s.t kontrollitud müra). Aga see kontrollitud müra võtab aeg-ajalt veidra kuju – justkui alamõõdus sümfoonia kerkimas eikusagilt, vaarudes elliptilisi poognaid võttes ning siis välkiirelt ühest stereokanalist teise tormates. Nõukogude ajal seesugust muusikat mängivad artistid ei oleks mitte ainult ansamblite registreerimiskatseid läbinud, vaid oleks pistetud hullarisse. Väga mässuline on see, mida teevad Jim Baker modulaarsündil ning Sarah J. Ritch tšello, kitarri ning elektroonikaga. 

5/4 (3.5-4.5)

getdizzzy – strange loop infinity bliss LIVE 2017 (2017)

pan y rosas discos

• Electronic music 
• Avant-electronica 
• Drone 
• Ambient 
• Musique concrète 
• Experimental electronica 
• Micronoise 
• Wonky 
• Improvised music 
• Dubstep 
• Post-psychedelic electronica 

Chicago leibeli pan y rosas discos'e üllitatud 8-looline album Chicago artistilt peegeldab Tuulise Linna eksperimentaalmuusikaskeene elujõulist. Kas tohutusuure Michigan'i järve tumesinistest voogudest viirgab energia inimestesse, et nad saaksid selle konverteerida helidesse? getdizzzy on nii diskor, helide genereerija kui mängude väljamõtleja, mistõttu liikumine nende väljade vahel annab tema tegevusele nii dünaamika, pürgimuse kui suuna. Ka kastist välja mõtlemise. Luubid, lõputuse tunnetamine ja õnnis tunne päeva lõpuks? Nii see on. Purjakil wonky ja dubstep-rütmidest, mida võivad palistada nii konkreethelid, piiksumine, väljavenitatud akordid kui vibrafoni meenutav sulnidus, tuleb välja enamat kui on algosakeste summa. Või siis vabas vormis põtkiv droonrütmiline duaalsus. Pealtnäha toores, viltune ja hooletu, aga ülimalt mõjus. Küsimus on, et kas luupidest koosnevaid kompositsioone saab pidada improvisatsiooniliseks muusikaks? Mõisteliselt ilmselt mitte, sisuliselt seevastu küll. Luup on heli ühik, mis geomeetrilises ettekujutluses peaks liikuma mööda ringjoont või elliptilist trajektoori – liikuma lõputult ja täitma ideaali. Igati rammus vaimutoit.

Nicolas Tourney – Drop Shadow on Airport Runway (2021)

pan y rosas discos

Bandcamp

• Sound art 
• Drone 
• Electronic music 
• Field recording 
• Micronoise 
• Microsound 
• Abstract 
• Avant-garde 
• Drone 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Acousmatic music 
• Experimentalism 
• Musique concrète 

Prantslane Nicolas Tourney on viimastel aastatel üllitanud posu albumeid erinevate leibelite all, seekordne 12-looline Chicago eksperimentaalmuusikaleibeli pan y rosas discos all. Album on loodud rääkima lugu lennujaama hoovõturaja kaamera-video perspektiivist, ning kõik need mikroskoopilised muutused, elektrifitseeritud prõginad-särinad ja kahinad justkui kehastaksid varje. Eks seesugune kontseptuaalne (üle)mõtlemine on sageli kurnav ja mängulisusest kaugel, ning konkreetne idee tundub piisavalt loll olema. Parem jääda jaburatest mõtetest enne albumi kuulamist vabaks, et need ei hakkaks kuulamist ja mõistmist segama. Samahästi võiksin arvata, et see muusika on seotud maanteelähedase alaga, salvestatuna kusagil võsas. Kui ide(oloogili)ne butafooria kõrvale jätta, siis muusikaliselt on üllitis tasemel. Pierre Schaeffer'i pärand jätkab väärikat edasikestmist. Ega siis midagi, kui kõrvaklapid pähe ja heli põhja, kuna tegu on mikrosaundiga.

Bristophe – Music For The Masses (2020)

Pan y rosas discos

• Electro-acoustic 
• Avant-garde 
• Live 
• Experimentalism 
• Electronic 
• Improvised music 
• Art music 
• Acousmatic music 

Tõeline katsumus on elektroakustilise albumi kuulamine. Esiteks tuleb läbi murda žanrile nii omasest hallist massist ja leida see erispärane tera, mis annab konkreetsele üllitisele mõtte. Teiseks nimetet žanri lood ja albumid kipuvad pikad olema – nagu käesolev üllitis, mis koosneb kahest osast, enamik lugusid pikemad kui kümme minutit; üks neist küündib suisa 54 minutini. Kindlasti on muusikutel vahvam ja huvitavam tänu protsessis osalemisele ja erinevate võtete kasutamisele; kindlasti oleks laivis selle peaaegu kolme ja poole tunnise üllitise jälgimine intrigeerivam, kuigi jah, kolm ja pool tundi laivis istuda oleks ikka väga ränk. Eelpoolmainitud halli massi all pidasin silmas keelpillidega saagimist ja kiiksutamist, kuigi Brice Catherin ja Cristophe Schweizer kasutavad väga suurt hulka muusikainstrumente ja mitte-instrumente. Lisaks peaaegu igas loos on neil kaasategev külalisartist. Siinkuulaja lemmikpartiid on seotud gongide kasutamisega – selle heli võimendamise ja ülal/alalhoidmisega. Läbinisti eksperimentaalne ja kalkuleeriv, ometi improviseeritud teos. Ütleme nii, et keskmisest improviseeritud ja elektroakustilisest albumist kindlasti väljapaistvam teos, mis siiski kipub kohati lohisema. Teisalt lohisemine on paratamatu, kuna eksperimentaalne tulevärk eeldab vaikusest esilekerkimist. Modaalne hullus on muljetavaldav. See on duo kolmas üllitis Chicago eksperimentaalmuusikaleibeli pan y rosas alt.

Fulmedesh – caracoles de una ciudad enterrada (2020)

pan y rosas discos

Amor Loco

• Improvised music
• Avant-garde
• Electro-acoustic
• Drone doom
• Experimentalism
• Spoken word
• Abstract
• Electronic
• Psycho-acoustic
• Sound poetry
• Micronoise
• Improvised noise

Comment: Fulmedesh is the long-distance project of Argentina-based Mariela Arzadun (ARP Odyssey, volca bass, guitar, field recordings, poems), and the US-based Keith Helt who runs the imprint pan y rosas discos (guitar, pedals, flute, keyboard, drums, computer, poems) who play an instance of improvised music full of feeling. More profoundly, the soundscape of six compositions is sonically and stylistically angular and spiked with sheer sonic effects, transgressive progressions, fast and frequently unanticipated turns. I did perceive how the music had resonated with sounds coming from the street outside which in fact consists partially of recorded real concrete sounds. In general, all the obligatory elements of experimental/improvised music/noise are represented and something a little bit else additionally here. Mariela Ardazun-played the austere sounds and minimally functional sonic trickery on the vintage Korg ARP Odyssey permeate throughout the course. At Oh yes! It was a different tiger o quién habló de eso antes Anne Boyer reads her poem Not Writing being performed on June 28, 2016 in Zagreb, Croatia. The personal favourite of mine is Forced Landing On The Stomach Of A Turtle which is channelized into a minimally trudging drone doom-laden rock composition being embellished with shards of electronics and stoned intonation. Addtionally to the Keith Helt curated imprint the issue is released in conjunction with Amor Loco.

Memorymusic – Up (2019)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

• Improvised music 
• Fusion 
• Jazz 
• Post-rock

Comment: this patch of 5 tracks is composed and arranged by a guy known behind nom de plume Memorymusic – keyboards, production; Ujstin Echno – electronics, album artwork; and Tommy Carroll – drum set being released on Pan Y Rosas Discos, an imprint from Chicago, Illinois, USA of which purpose has been over the years to promote cutting-edge music of jazz, improvised music, experimental rock, electronic music and synergistic crisscrossing between them. By adding to it a conceptual measure frequently, as in the recent case, more profoundly, memory and relentless passing of time and permanent changing, it adds some kind of extraneous theoretical dimension to music or just keep amplifying it in an unusual way. An album is something one can listen to at any time the outing is always physically over there yet one's perceptions may change (remarkably) over the years. However, emotive elements within it do work as steady anchors by letting threads in one's memory even if you later would forget about technical minutiae of the album – some sort of polyphonic and modal music by each of them starting alone and then growing stepwise together and into a seamless one. Lonely bouncing piano chords, scruffy drumming, faint electronic accents and dusty keyboard strands used come together sometime, I mean being decelerated by playing music in a laid-back and thoughtful manner. Reminds of a little bit Tortoise but having premiered in a more academic manner.

Bleak House – Outwardly (2019)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

• Improvised music 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Post-classical 
• Minimalism 
• Modern classical 
• Art music 
• Post-rock 
• Chamber rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Experimental rock

Comment: it is always being the privilege to explore the discography of a Chicago-based imprint, Pan Y Rosas Discos, the imprint of multifaceted music. This time the British trio Bleak House (the members of it are involved in Keshco, a represented and praised group at RMH) blesses the listener with a 13-notch issue either imbued with watery smooth piano shapes full of hypnotic iterations with the aid of varied discreet electronic music and beguiling orchestrations or improvising on hoarse yet artsy guitar chords which also have been managed to establish round orbits in one's perception. However, the abovementioned elements and details make up lots of different combinations in balance and intensity inclined variations throughout the pace. Alternately the instruments get along well, it seems to be even complementary to swap an instrument for the other one. By listening to either guitar or piano playing one can hear profound serpentine layers of the echo flickering relentlessly behind playful chords. Additionally, those repetitive chords have been set up and bridged with one another in the way to ultimately result in brilliant flashes of the music. In other words, the formative side is saturated with the emotive side. For instance, enjoy a track called Repaired Swing Set. All in all, it is one of the most enchanting releases I have heard during this year. And the issue is a good example of recommendation how the energy of a human being should creatively be transformed for. There can be drawn disparate parallels upon the artists, from kindred souls like Hauschka, Max Richter and Lubomyr Melnyk to chamber rock/post-rock acts like A Silver Mt. Zion to vagabonds like John Fahey, and Vic Chesnutt to post-progressive acts like Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

May HD – Sonho Dobrado (2019)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

• Experimentalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Electronic music 
• Improvised noise 
• Turntablism

Comment: I definitely like this handful of tracks being released on a Chicago-based avant-garde/experimental music imprint, Pan Y Rosas Discos. An artist called May HD who exploits turntables and a microkorg synth builds up a whole imbued with some kind of dark matter, debris, crackles, sonic effects, haphazard samples and faint sounds. At times it is about abysmal ambient undercurrents, at times about black-hued yet quite light noisy incantations, at times about convulsive electronic and vowel-based iterations, at times about electro-acoustic music with obvious live touch (in fact, all the whole is improvised at a live session in Brazil). There is even up something which can be considered an off-kilter sort of hard/psych-rock. For Zappa or Captain Beefheart it would have been the case. As we have already experienced beyond the club culture turntablism as a sort of experimental genre is gloriously introduced by such agitated artists as Philip Jeck, Otomo Yoshihide, Janek Schaefer, Martin Tetreault, and Christian Marclay but May HD now with this outing could certainly be added to the noble list.

M.A.K.T. Sono – Tinnitus Flowers (2019)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

Bandcamp

• Abstract 
• Experimentalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Electronic music 
• Non-music 
• Psycho-acoustic 
• Improvised noise 
• Post-industrial 
• Micronoise

Comment: M.A.K.T Sono is a duo from France, the embodiment of Magali Albespy, and Kecap Tuyul who provide a long-running issue called Tinnitus Flowers. One can hear every kind of electronic (music) experiments and manipulations subjugated to different pitches and speeds and phase changes. It may be not correct to speak of it as the music given that the sound represented over there is overtly sparse and abstract. It seems to be more about sonic signals one can yield while extracting a sound at a sampler pad and then manipulating it within the scope of peripheral frequencies (which is just a fallout of the previous sound). However, as usual, radically built-up issues used to provide some interludes which create an intriguing counterpoint to prevalent debris. In the first part there are up some buffoonish melody progressions, however, which soon get warped and assimilated into the predominant madness of exploring the physical entities of the sound. Later on, there are also represented some droning whiffs resembling of some woodwind instruments and sonic blinking whose sound and handling otherwise could be quite extreme (but not in the case of a signal-spiked outing). I can remember for listening to an anthology of noise and electronic music by Sub Rosa which included such legendary composers as Konrad Boehmer, Ryoji Ikeda, Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varése, Henri Pousseur and I guess in further future any of these three tracks would be considered as a part in a glorious history of experimental electronic music and noise. The overwhelming issue is a part of the discography of Pan Y Rosas Discos.

Càtodo Dùo – Al Tiro (2012)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

Bandcamp

Free Music Archive

Archive.org

• Improvised music 
• Avant-garde 
• Live 
• Experimentalism 
• Electro-acoustic

Comment: Amanda Irraràzabal (double bass), Ramiro Molina (electric guitar) aka Càtodo Dùo´s music first appeared at RMH some months ago when I wrote about their sophomoric issue Sizigias. Let's have the conversation introspectively. The debut album was different due the scope of instrumentation, the debut one was without analogue synths (played later by Amanda Irrarràzabal) by resulting in more dry timbres, suppressed noises and clanging and fewer electronic effects. However, it is an intriguing 36-minute improvised collaboration between Chile, and Argentina. If they meet once in a while it will result in music. Given that one does have enough attention in music and inclined to jazz and improvised glass bead game. The 2-track composition was recorded live on June 3rd, 2012 at Piso 3, Santiago De Chile. Similarly to the second issue the debut album was also recorded on Pan Y Rosas Discos, an imprint from Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Cátodo Dúo – Sizigias (2018)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

• Improvised music 
• Avant-garde 
• Psycho-acoustic 
• Experimentalism 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Improvised noise 
• Electronic music

Comment: What is the cathode? By a first definition it is a negatively charged electrode that is the source of electrons entering an electrical device. By a second definition it is the positively charged terminal of a voltaic cell or storage battery that supplies current. Amanda Irarrázabal (analogue synthesizer, double bass, processors) and Ramiro Molina (electric guitar, processors) collaboration has been prolific for more than 6 years when they created a sonic bridge between Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Santiago (Chile). Sizigias is their sophomore outing consisting of a couple of albums full of screeching chords and suppressed noises as if an embodiment of an angry person who has lived for a while with obsessive purpose to control his/her overwhelming crushing sensations. What about disc 2? It is certainly more expressive than disc 1 due to those abrasive sounds played on the analogue synth and high-pitched guitar chords and even funny quackish sonic effects here and there. Disc 1 seems to be more donnish though there is thoroughly up a downright experimental/cutting-edge attitude. It might be I split hairs while trying to differentiate the two discs. The main intention of the release is to preserve the invigorating tension/madness between the acoustic instruments and the electronic device. In other words, it is a witty dialogue between the aforementioned instruments. Given that the most intriguing aspect of the music is to represent some elements of the acoustic instruments as electronically treated and vice versa. It is partly a strange mimic and decoupling process in the same whole. Indeed, the purpose gets fulfilled. The intriguing issue is a part of the Chicago, US-based imprint Pan Y Rosas Discos.

Lucía Chamorro - Luna Anfibia (2017)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

Free Music Archive

• Abstract 
• Experimentalism 
• Avant-garde 
• Electronic music 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Improvised music 
• Post-industrial

Comment: in the second half of the 00s and the first half of the 10s a major experimental music platform was a prolific Moscow, Russia-based Clinical Archives, since then fecund France-based Sirona-Records, and after it ceased to exist fertile Chicago, US-based Pan Y Rosas Discos is up there to provide us sounds mostly from improvised, free jazz, sound art, and at times from experimental/avant-rock world. Fortunately there is also up Portuguese imprint Enoughrecords having already been active since 2001. This 9-track album is created from recordings of sound environments and free improvisations. She sought to recreate situations and sound environments of imaginary places, proposed new ways of listening and re-value the everyday soundscape. Musically it is intriguing as if consisting of elongated sonic snippets and warped ambiences which in turn seem to be created from concrete sounds, indecipherable voices and vowel and electronic effects. By the way, I can hear mutant cicadas and stoned cats to be singing. Now and then, for instance, at Pacto Roto one can partake in an enchanting rhythmic pattern which seems to come from nowhere and last for a while. She was backed up by such artists as Jimena Arruti, Lucía Campugiani, Nicolàs Gonzàlez, Ingrid Palacios, Laura Rodríguez, Elena Solis and Agustín Texeira. Indeed, very pro by any means and full of pleasure to be discovered.

Los Pilotos – Under The Breath (2018)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

• Doom rock 
• Sludge rock 
• Art rock 
• Avant-metal 
• Improvised music 
• Experimental rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Post-metal 
• Angst rock

Comment: Los Pilotos is the solo project of Keith Helt with a swarm of rotating musical collaborators. In fact, Keith Helt has headed a prolific Chicago, the US-based imprint, Pan Y Rosas Discos for years and it is obviously one of the most represented if not the very most represented project in the discography of the record label. Regrettably I have to admit my experience with the oeuvre by Keith Helt is being moderate because I have reviewed just an album (The Process Of Learning, 2016) before the recent one. However, by comparing these issues I have to assume the releases are quite different ones by their accents and formats. The Process Of Learning was more motorik, psychedelic and electronic music soaked and obviously krautrock influenced but on Under The Breath Keith Helt does away with any electronics and synths. On the other side, this 10-notch whole is a fascinating result due to its repetitive chords on rough yet vibrant guitars and basses and a bit interrupted, convulsive singing manner (yeah, his voice does convey strong passion and intense pain) as if a weird bastard between doom, and sludge rock/metal being subjugated to an improvised algorithm. In a sense, the sparse instrumental premises put huge pressure on the artist's technical virtuosity and aesthetical creativity. At times the listener can perceive even cinematic hovers atop the aforementioned guitar and bass built scaffolding as if some kind of salvation for compensating artsy suffering and fear. All in all, the result is impressive due to Keith Helt's ability to balance between expressive playing style, and a creative formative output. This interaction as a result is truly worth on its own.

Brice Catherin – Best Hits – Recent Works For Percussion Ensembles (2016)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

• Improvised music 
• Avant-garde 
• Experimentalism 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Live 
• Conceptual

Comment: this bunch of 5 compositions is not a usual way for defining his/her own oeuvre. Indeed, the French composer Brice Catherin's music is being far away from an average pop album, far away from an average pop jazz issue either. It is a tight improvisation by exploiting magnified cello chords, droning melodica spans, storytelling, windbells, intense drumming. The description can be attributed to the chronologically second part of the issue dedicated to Baubo, the mystical goddess of fertility and performed live by the Norwegian Pinquins in Oslo. The first part being inspired by a Russian composer of classical music, (Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya), rotates mentally and physically around one piano being played by three pianists and two percussion players though they use their voices as well (Ensemble Batida). Musically it is an affair between tumultuous progressions and sonic clusters and on the other side by silent, as if still life incantations. This is the fifth issue by Brice Catherin on Chicago, the US-based Pan Y Rosas Discos.

Vavabond – No-Brain Improv (2016)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

Free Music Archive

Bandcamp

• Improvised music 
• Avant-garde 
• Microtonal 
• Glitchtronica 
• Experimentalism 
• Electronic music 
• Abstract 
• Drone 
• Avant-electronica 
• Experimental electronica

Comment: this issue being released on Pan Y Rosas Discos is played by Li Qing, Liu Xinyu, and Adam Macgregor in an exhausted state of mind with intention to reject the purposeful work of mind and brain being switched off as much as possible behind it. It is a paradoxical case to come out as a somehow conceptual work because the concepts are the brain related only. As I have understood the audience was also absent-minded at the performance so for a distant listener it is a privilege to try the both variants. At the moment while listening to it in clear state of mind it is a quite extreme case as if partaking in a recycling process of noisy debris being cut into a thousands of pieces and thereafter organised into either fluffy or faintly drilling droning process. Does represent such a sort of "faulty", messy thing for inability of the body to exist without the brain? Could you perceive any traces of mental energy? Could you see/hear bare electrified impulses running between the synapses across the brain? At least in the beginning the listener can hear a little span of piano playing to be rejected very soon. However, the piano playing seems to be rational and structured. Maybe it was just added to accentuate the following glitched-out chaos. Yeah, it is intriguing in its conceptual and non-musical sense through the process of creating and abandoning at the same time. By its minimal, even defiantly microscopic/tonal approach it reminds of Kaffe Matthews' some works. What's next? After having listened to such a sort of austere yet mind-provoking format for many times in a row I am tempted to put on The Commodores' United LP.

Los Pilotos – The Process Of Learning (2016)

Pan Y Rosas Discos

Free Music Archive

• Krautrock 
• Psych-rock
• Electronic 
• Experimental rock 
• Avant-rock 
• Improvised music 
• Motorik

Comment: just discovered that the 4-notch outing was released exactly two years ago. Behind the project are three men, more profoundly, Eric Es, Alex Morales, and Keith Helt (I guess obviously the one and same person who sends announcements and information about coming brand new releases on Chicago-based imprint Pan Y Rosas Discos to your email address if you are subscribed at the site). They play guitars, the bass, the drums, and synths/electronic devices to produce a dizzy rock embodiment with incisive angle toward knee-deep psychedelia, and avant-garde/avant-rock. More detailedly, the combo employ many electronic manipulations and sampled spoken word cuts to create both disorienting and somehow lofty feeling as if tearing off the conventional social borders around them. They set themselves and the listeners free. All what we want to be is to be free. Scarf Of Hair is a stoned mix of speed metal and psychobilly. Lemmy would have been proud of it. One of the compositions, We Ooze In All Directions, can temporally be considered the central composition because it will have clocked at a 20 minute. However, musically it is an analogous yet exalting case. I like the trio's approach by crafting rehearsal room tinged raw sound (all that massively tectonic romp at the bottom and keyboard skronking atop). The mentioned track reminds of some anti-establishment bound rock compositions like Velvet Underground's Sister Ray, and Faust's Krautrock. It is followed by the self-titled track based on an electronically, filter-heavy and debris filled storytelling and the whole track as a disturbed composition in overall as if driven by a convulsive interplay between the closed and opened stereophonic channels. In a word, it is a truly overcoming, truly cutting-edge release even in terms of the era of postmodernism. What else could I add? The rest of the albums by Los Pilotos the listener could get from within the site of Pan Y Rosas Discos (and Free Music Archive) should also be listened to.

la corporación – rerum novarum (2017)

pan y rosas discos

Free Music Archive

• Improvised music 
• Electro-acoustic 
• Electronic music 
• Experimentalism 
• Live

Comment: this set of 5 compositions is the demonstration of female power by Amanda Irarrazabal, Cecilia López, and Cecilia Quinteros who play a synthesizer, a double bass, and a cello, respectively. In fact, this handful of tracks could be considered one lengthy track as well because the theme and formal appearances are the same. Formally throughout a 31-minute it chimes like the big shriek of a rusty door moving from one side to the other one. At times those short atonal splashes and shrieks will progress into drones. It does have a bit ivory tower effect upon me due to having drawn-out encapsulated and buried moves while providing a few progressions and a monochromatic timbre only. I could imagine if it was heard by the bourgeoisie most of them would consider it as weird, and irrational yet having been performed in a buttoned-up place they would think of it as put up for them and thereafter forget it by going home. It was recorded live on August 24, 2017 at Cuatro Tres, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The issue is a bit in the discography of pan y rosas discos.