Fans of the
musicians associated with the Seoul axis (and I'm one) have certainly
come to expect a fair amount of...difficult listening. Edges are
usually not just rough but rusty and jagged. This collaboration with
the American Nick Hoffman, recorded in Seoul in 2009, might actually
stretch that metaphor into the poison-coated zone. It's severe.
Excellently so. One is almost tempted to say, "malign". It's a couple
of harsh, harsh tracks spread onto two sides of an LP (also available
for download at bandcamp, code: gmbx-k37p), scouring one's ears,
upsetting the dog, making the room deliciously uncomfortable, flinging
detritus, emitting high screech after high screech, refusing to accede
to any categorizable form, resolutely opaque.
Good stuff, very
invigorating; give a listen.
The
Watchful Ear (Richard Pinnell) September, 2012
Pilgrim
Talk
Sonne is a vinyl
or Bandcamp enabled download release on the Chicago based Pilgrim Talk
label. The disc contains two fifteen minute long tracks recorded in a
concert setting in Seoul, 2009 by the trio of Seoul based Ryu Hankil
and Hong Chulki alongside the visiting American Nick Hoffman, who also
runs the Pilgrim Talk label. As with quite a few of the releases
involving the Seoul crew, while I did enjoy this release, I suspect I
might have enjoyed attending the concert at which it was captured quite
a bit more. The album is on the noisier side of things, a mix of
various electronics, feedback shrieks, clattering, vaguely percussive
elements and who knows what else in there, but having been lucky enough
to have witnessed Ryu Hankil and Hong Chulki perform live a few times
over recent years I suspect that the aural results of this meeting may
just have been the tip of the iceberg. certainly there is enough
variation in there to make me suspect that watching the concert could
have been a lot of fun.
There is no
instrumentation listed on the sleeve, but given the date of the
recording and having listened a good few times I am pretty certain that
Hong’s turntable and electronics are in use alongside the clattering
motors and objects used a lot by Ryu Hankil at that time. Exactly what
Nick Hoffmann is using is anyone’s guess. Previous releases by Hoffman
have seen him use an amplified electric sewing machine on occasions,
and certainly that would fit with the way the music sounds here, but I
am guessing. Its a harsh affair then, occasionally really very harsh
indeed, with just about every sound dirty and gritty in its finish, and
sometimes really quite fearsomely abrasive. There are shrieking squeals
of feedback, metallic scrapes that get right under the skin and a
general feel of lo-fi sound capture amplified up to high volumes. This
isn’t to say that Sonne is always a particularly loud album however,
with some parts, such as the opening minutes of Side B actually quite
subdued, but even when the music slips away into these quieter spells
there is a grainy, rough-edged menace to the music. Picking your way
through it as a listener feels a little like trying to walk through a
scrapyard full of old cars, there is a path through it all, but along
the way you are likely to get scratched and grazed by various jagged,
rusty surfaces.
In many ways
there is a lot here to be found in common with much noise music, from
the hand-drawn monsters of the sleeve to the non-CD format to the raw,
brittle atmosphere of the sounds used. There is however a very strong
sense of restraint and placement running through these two sides of
vinyl that sets it apart from the bulk of what could be put into that
genre. Despite the occasional volume and the ugliness of the sounds put
to use, they are arranged carefully with a sense of communal
progression between the musicians clearly audible. While it is rarely
easy to tell exactly who is making which sound, there is a consistent
feeling of sounds applied either to compliment or counterpoint others.
This isn’t just three guys making a racket, and that’s what sets this
music, and the Seoul scene in general apart from much other noisier
improvisation. All in all, this is a perfectly good, if not necessarily
remarkable addition to the output of that tiny Korean scene, and one
does wonder how much better the trio could get with more time and
without the geographic restraints that made this session a one-off. I
am also very certain that this is one release that could never live up
to how it must have looked / sounded in the room, but this can only
ever now be a moot point.
Vital Weekly 834 (Frans de Waard) June 2012
RYU HANKIL & HONG CHULKI & NICK HOFFMAN –
SONNE (LP by Pilgrim Talk)
In 2009 Nick Hoffman of the Pilgrim Talk label and an
improviser/composer in his own right went on tour in Japan and Korea
and met up with Ryu Hankil and Hong Chulki, both improviser in their
own right, using a variety of materials, including turntables, CD
players and MD recorders. This record – limited to merely 108 copies –
was recorded on the first night they played together, in an abandoned
factory turned in a concert/venue. The cover doesn’t specify which
instruments have been used, but they must be of some
electric/electronic origin, I would say. Heavy type improvisation, in
which feedback plays an important role, along with the amplification of
objects, taken to the limit. Crude, rough noise based improvisations,
hissing, objects falling and loud most, but not all of the times. Quite
nice music I’d say of three highly gifted improvisers playing with
unusual means. This would be something to see in concert one day – the
record is nice, but a substitute for the real thing. (FdW)
The Sound Projector (Ed Pinsent) May 2013
Ryu Hankil / Hong Chulki / Nick Hoffman
Sonne
USA PILGRIM TALK PT20 LP (2012)
Some vinyl overlooked since May 2012 from the Pilgrim Talk label. In
these quarters we like Nick Hoffman and his many low-key projects which
cover quiet improvised music, Black Metal, and power noise, but are
mostly quite hard to classify. We also like the way he doesn’t boast or
gab loudly about his achievements. This vinyl is also unassuming in
spite of its freaky, bloodthirsty cover image, and the music resists
simplistic appraisal. Sonne documents a trio comprising Hoffman, Ryu
Hankil, and Hong Chulki and was recorded in Korea. American Hoffman is
actively engaged in a hands across the water programme with Asian
improvisers. He’s done more for Korea than the United Nations Security
Council, that’s for sure. Both of the young Korean players here have
moved away from their respective pop group / rock band beginnings, and
taken turns into their own form of weird and far-out exploratory
improvisation, one of them inspired to do so by Otomo Yoshihide. Now
they both make odd noises with electrical devices, Chulki in particular
choosing to subvert normal functions of his various playback devices.
This shortish slab of vinyl has many of the label’s hallmarks, being
decorated with old engravings and Hoffman drawings that invoke Satanic,
morbid or esoteric themes, and the music itself is not explained at
all. All we know is that it was recorded in a former industrial complex
of some sort. Intentions, ideas, role-playing – even a simple
instrument list – all of this contextual detail is denied to us,
leaving us face to face with the stark void of strange and
haphazard-sounding crackles and rumbles, interrupted by clonking
percussive strokes. I much prefer it this way and while the music may
occasionally appear baffling, boring and pointless, it is also very
honest and has a rawness that is very bracing. For my previous
speculations on the unique qualities of Pilgrim Talk releases, see this
post. Limited pressing of 108 copies!
