Album Notes

A collection of mostly live recordings comes to us from Seattle, Washington in the form of Kevin Goldsmith under the guise of Intonarumori (for you avant garde buffs, its what the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo called his noise-making instruments). It sits somewhere between more formal composition and more traditional musique-concrete techniques (surprise, surprise) but this self-titled disc has the added bonus of being absolutely breathtaking in parts. The introduction to the first of three solo tracks by Goldsmith, obliquely titled "GTR," (perhaps because it features lots of processed guitar?) is absolutely mindblowing - think the most melodic and uplifting parts of the current crop of post-rock favs (Godspeed You Black Emperor! comes to mind almost immediately) and you're on the right track.

The second set of recordings were performed with the Paul Celan Suite, and have a distinctly bizarre appeal, and involve everything from a chattering choir to droney processed string instruments, a little Sousa and what sounds like Marc Almond harassing barnyard animals with a stapler. In other words, it's really very good. If you dig music that falls between "difficult" and "beautiful," (a la Nurse With Wound and the like) go pick this one up. - Michael O'Connor (Digital Arifact, Issue #17)