Reviews of White Fog

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White Fog review amg François Couture Rédacteur-journaliste spécialisé en musiques exigeantes, Journaliste pour le All-Music Guide, Réalisateur de Délire Actuel, CFLX. Visitez / Visit the All-Music Guide at http://www.allmusic.com Hallett, Sylvia White Fog Emanem 4057 2001 07 01 1998-2001 7 Even though White Fog is Sylvia Hallett’s third solo CD, for the British free improv label Emanem this is a first: in almost thirty years of existence, it had never released an album including lyrics, nor extended sound art techniques. All that to say White Fog is a beautiful album but it may have difficulties finding its public. The CD contains three works. First is “Wheelsongs,” a gripping cycle of improvised songs (with written lyrics), accompanied by bowed bicycle wheel. You read right: these captivating plaintive sounds that form a rich shroud emanate from wheel spokes. Digital delay boxes are used to create soundscapes -- their manipulation is not seamless, but the crude use of the technology enhances the fragility of Hallett’s voice, often bringing to mind Anna Homler. “Violet” and “White Fog” are two highlights. “The Onyx Rook” is a ritualistic-like improvisation on violin and voice, a very fine example of the woman’s performing abilities. The set closes with “Snail and Curlew,” a sound collage piece. Made of water, bird and vocal sounds for the most part, it also includes electroacoustic sounds, synthesized sounds and even fragments of tunes. Gradually moving from one dreamy state of conscience to another, the piece offers an interesting aural journey, but fails to strike the imagination as strongly as the opening cycle. For “Wheelsongs” alone this CD is worth hearing, especially for fans of Homler or other delicate feminine voices of the avant-garde. François Couture 1.Wheelsongs: A Wheelwright Used to Live Here~11:53~Hallett, Sylvia 2.Wheelsongs: Violet~4:56~Hallett, Sylvia 3.Wheelsongs: Woman with Dustpan and Brush~7:25~Hallett, Sylvia 4.Wheelsongs: White Fog~4:34~Hallett, Sylvia 5.Wheelsongs: Private War~5:02~Hallett, Sylvia 6.Wheelsongs: Walnut~2:09~Hallett, Sylvia 7.The Onyx Rook~12:46~Hallett, Sylvia 8.Snail and Curlew~15:07~Hallett, Sylvia Hallett, Sylvia/bowed bicycle wheel/home-built instrument/voice/electronics/violin/producer/notes/design/mastering Minamizaki, Tomoko/photo Hallett, Maxwell/artwork Davidson, Martin/design/mastering
White fog review Rubberneck Sylvia Hallett, White Fog (Emanem 4057 CD) Sylvia Hallet has been involved with the LMC since the mid-70s, and has more recently become involved with creating soundtracks for theatre, dance, puppet companies, and even BBC Radio. Primarily a violinist, Sylvia is not afraid to take her bow to other objects, and also, unlike many improvisors, has not been afraid to introduce electronics into her work. This CD is a fine example of her approach. Half of it is made up of tracks that use a bowed bicycle wheel as their basis. The sound is eerie and rather reminiscent of old Radiophonic Workshop recordings or maybe Nurse With Wound. Sylvia is stimulated by the Cageian unpredictability of her chosen instrument: "...you can never be quite sure which harmonic will sound; it will often skip to the one above or below the one you are trying to play!" Although this is similar in some ways to the work of Kaffe Matthews (who uses violin and electronics), Hallett's work is more mournful than bombastic, and often the electronic aspects are restricted to a cavernous reverb. Subterranean echoes counjure up a murky, frozen world, vibrating with ugly undercurrents. For a visual context, imagine the water-logged, grey landscapes of Andrei Tarkovsky's movie, Stalker. Like the Hétu release, this disc has its poetry, but sadly it sits on top of the sound, rather than becoming part of it. The vocals on one track work for me though. 'Private War' has a lilting, doomladen, almost folksy feel, which is very similar to that of bands of the 'Apocalypse Folk' genre: Sol Invictus, Current 93, et al. The other tracks on the album include a violin and voice improv, and an excellent tape collage which uses natural sounds to build a pleasingly fatalistic texture. Sadly this is marred slightly by the introduction of a rather bland electronic melody which undercuts the simple sadness of the birds, water and wind. Jim Barker Ambiances Magnétiques: http://www.actuellecd.com Emanem: http://www.emanemdisc.com Percaso: http://www.elephantchateau.ch/percaso Text copyright © Rubberneck 2002
Live gig review Sylvia Hallett TERMITE FESTIVAL 2003 CLIVE BELL +MIKE ADCOCK SYLVIA HALLETT ANNETTE KREBS The Adelphi 2O Nov 2003 A small-ish crowd gathered upstairs in the Adelphi to witness the first night of events for the 20th Termite Festival. It began as it meant to go on, quietly. Quite literally the quiet before the storm of tomorrow night, German table-top improv guitarist Annette Krebs was the first on the bill to perform. The diminutive musician sat herself behind her table of equipment including a contact-mic'ed acoustic guitar, dictaphone and radio. Once positioned and ready, Krebs surged into an understated beginning, looking all the part like a conductor. She rubbed scouring pads over the guitar strings and manipulated these sounds via her two foot pedals. Further in she utilised a violin bow on her guitar and slowly built up a fragile framework of similar sounds, all the while incorporating static and white noise from the radio. Equal parts silence and noise, the highlight of her set was the finale of a small hand-held fan, its blades tickling the guitar strings on the machinehead, triggering insectile chatterings to escape from the speakers. The occasional burst of underground bhangra from some local radio station merely added to this wonderfully idiosyncratic performance. A personal highlight of this festival was Sylvia Hallett, who was next up. Stood at the back of the stage, Sylvia began by bowing her infamous amplified bicycle wheel, processing and looping the results via the rack of FX gear to her left. I was somewhat surprised at the mournful, emotive sounds a bowed wheel can produce. Over this bed of sound, she sang beautiful wordless vocals which she also delayed and processed. Other implements for sound she used were a saw and the more traditional violin. Full merit is due to Sylvia for the way she handled the rather rude interruption of some bright-spark bursting into the room to ask whether the owner of an L-reg Cavalier could rescue their vehicle from imminent towing. She instigated a round of applause for the man, before giving us a further 10 or so minutes of solemn beauty. Clive Bell and Mike Adcock were a breath of fresh improv air. They performed an acoustic set played on a wondrous array of bizarre and intriguing instruments. Mike Adcock began by playing his amazing prepared guitar. He appeared to wind it up and it seemed to have music / toy box parts inside that rang out an occasional broken clockwork lullaby every time he played a melody on the actual strings. Bell continued to impress as he pulled out ever larger and weirder wind instruments from his box of delights, from simple recorder-esque single reed flutes, to multi-horned pipes... emitting all nature of haunting, wonderful tones and sounds. Back on stage Adcock swapped between a squeeze box and glockenspiel. This was something of a completion of a cycle as Bell told of how he had been one of the artists who played on that very first Termite Fest. To round off the night, all four artists returned to the stage to begin a 10 minute collective improvisation. It was a joy to watch these three acts from disparate musical genres gel so well together. All had a masterful ear for interaction and knew when to hold off or chip in. The mix of acoustic and electric as well as analogue and digital sounds was excellent. A wonderful start to the festival. Jamie Stephenson
Live Gig Clive Bell and Sylvia Hallett online review of Freedon of the City Fest at Dan Warburton's Paris Transatlantic magazine at: http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/monthly2004/06jun_text.html#2 here's the bit about us........ The final act of the afternoon session was Clive Bell and Sylvia Hallett. Using violin, amplified bicycle wheel and saw (all three played with a violin bow), Hallett set up shifting looped samples of her own playing, over which Bell played a succession of woodwind instruments taken from various musical cultures. It was refreshing to see the resources of non-Western music explored with none of the pietism or commodified assimilation to Western popular music endemic to so-called World Music. The unique juxtaposition of Bell's alternately piercing and floating woodwind sounds and Hallett's metallic rotations was striking, and their encore, one of only two during the entire festival, was richly deserved. and his concluding para...... Overall, I enjoyed the festival. The atmosphere was casual, unpretentious and friendly, and the music often displayed some excellent improvisational skills. My reservations concern the advancing age and perhaps staleness of the musical paradigms in which the featured groups tended to embody their improvisations. Newer currents of improvisation do exist in London, being regularly presented in the basement of Mark Wastell's Sound323 shop and elsewhere in the city, but have never been strongly represented at Freedom of the City. This is no doubt a reflection of the tastes and preferences of the organizers, who are of course under no obligation to put on performers who do not appeal to them. Nonetheless, the fact remains that the main festival dedicated to free improvisation in London is largely given over to the music that established the city's reputation as a centre for free improvisation in the late 1960s and early 1970s and not the cutting-edge developments that will keep the music alive as a radical force in the twenty-first century.—WS
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