Reviewed by: Frans DeWard

Bremstrahlung so far brought us two double CD compilations under the name 'lowercase'. Music that is beyond the threshold of hearing, pointing at the microscopic details of sound. Now they started a most curious project: a series of double mini CDs (even when they are pressed on 5 inch CDs) packed in a nice metal box. In total there will be ten metal boxes. Inside the first box we'll find Toshiya Tsunoda and Civyiu Kkliu. The first one is already known from his releases on Hapna, Sirr and Lucky Kitchen. Tsunoda is a man who tells what he is doing, even when the messages are cryptic. In 'Recorded Landscape: Pier' it is most obviously the environmental recording of a pier (although no water sounds are heard) and is a very dense recording which covers a really low bass end sound. The other two pieces are electronic pieces, unlike much other work by him. The first 'Fragments For Stereophony' is crackly and the second one consists of high pierced sounds. Unlikely pieces for Tsunoda but he is a man to record unlikely sources, so nothing is really a surprise... The second CD in this box is by Civyiu Kkliu, of whom I only know his Bake Records release '111'. It turned out that that work is part of a larger series, named '111-11111111111'. Unlike Tsunoda Kkliu doesn't describe what he is doing. I think he uses spaces with special acoustic conditions to play back his unnamed sound-material in. This new work is called '1111111' and is much louder, sound-wise, then the previous Bake Records release. On the surface, it seems a very static drone, in which not much seems to be happening. Changes in the material only seem to happen at a very superficial level. Even upon very close listening, the changes might not be fully there and only when played at a moderate volume, things become alive in your own space; I am sure that's exactly the sort of thing Kkliu is aiming for. Here the conceptualism is at work on a great level.

The second box has a work by Radu Malfatti and Ilya Monosov. Malfatti is mostly known as an improviser with people like Phil Durrant and Thomas Lehn, and he is one of the most minimal players around. His instrument is the trombone. In 'Selbander' he uses three of them (I am sure not at the same time) which uses the 16th intervals. Cutting silence as an equal part to the music - which is quite loud, I might add, in contrary to some of his more silent work - makes this into quite a crazy release. Maybe not as powerful as some of his other work, dwelling a bit too much on the conceptual approach, but nevertheless a powerful work. Ilya Monosov you may know from his LP on Elevator Bath, earlier this year (see Vital Weekly 359). For his work 'Structure #1, #2 and #3' he uses 'a computer, a trumpet, a nice day, a bad day and several other days in the year of 2002'. The shortest CD so far, which lots of silence in between very very sparse sounding material. Just an occasional bleep here, there, then and sometimes now. It certainly stretches the patience of the listener. With the use of silence both apparent in the Malfatti work as well as here, it has become an important, if not equal factor in the composition. Once more the question of what music really is has been asked. I think the Monosov pieces are powerful pieces, contemplative and Zen like, with massive silence and only the smallest particles at work.