[xs-72] Agnes Heginger and Karlheinz Essl - Out of the Blue

THIS IS OFFICIALLY THE LAST XS RECORDS release

artist: agnes heginger and karlheinz essl

album: out of the blue

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release date: 31/03/2010

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contact: webpage

cover: front

On December 9th, 2010 I made my way to the Essl Museum in search of the lost spirit of Advent. It was there that Agnes Heginger and Karlheinz Essl performed for the first time as a duo, developing an improvised musical dialogue 'out of the blue'. Somehow 'out of the blue' fit perfectly for me because I was looking for a way out of my melancholy December mood. Instead of chairs there were cushions spread out on the floor that seemed to invite the audience to a direct, unconventional and comfortable listening experience.
The Essl/Heginger performance: responsive, unpretentious and focused. There was a positive feeling of closeness and a friendly attentiveness towards the audience.

From the very first moment I was stunned and amazed, and at the same time touched and fascinated with what then happened. As I sank deeper into my floor cushion, I felt almost embarrassed by a let's say 'complete sense of happiness'. Two highly sensitive personalities engaged each other in a dialogue that should go down in history as a prime example of musical interaction.

There were many innovative moments, alternating quite willingly the musicians pulled each other into reflection, with clear sighted independence, fusing things into perspective. With a dramatic climax at the perfect moment, they communicated affectionately with virtuoso clarity to a spellbound audience. Whether it was 'out of the blue' or carefully planned, the opportunity to listen to Agnes Heginger's and Karlheinz Essl's musical dialogue was indeed my good fortune.

You were certainly left hoping that this musical conversation will be continued.

Press review by Jörg Duit

[xs-69] heitor alves - gimme some more sounds

artist: heitor alves

album: gimme some more sounds

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release date: 15/11/2009

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contacts: facebook

cover art: back & front

Today we present you the amazing gimme some more sounds, a work done by Heitor Alves, during a workshop with Vitor Rua (GNR, Telectu, Organização), and Dwart, that took place in the summer of 2009. This work is a simple and amazing multi-track recording, featuring a very naif, and well-acomplished work, which features improvisation, with found instruments, namely a whole-range of instruments, that are basically found objects, and which reflect the best spirit and stuff made by Heitor Alves, when trying to seek for transposing with transcendentalism his personal life experiences of the summer, to the music he made. Aesthetically it basically results, in a simple, but well archieved recording which comes from the ideias of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, to Pauline Oliveros, going throught stuff like John Cage, and Beatriz Ferreira. All made with a very personal aproach, throught improvisation, and studio recording techniques

For those who don't actually don't know, Heitor Alves builds electronic instruments, having already build to people such as Vitor Rua, Rafael Toral among others. You can find them in http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/.

Have a nice day listening to this music, and share this experience with your family and friends.

[xs-68] karlheinz essl and matthew ostrowski - flechtwerk

artist: karlheinz essl and matthew ostrowski

album: flechtwerk

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release date: 24/10/2009

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contact: myspace

cover art: back & front

On May 5th 2009, Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl and New York-based sound artist Matthew Ostrowski met for a free improvisation concert at ISSUE Project Room in Brooklyn, NY. Although it had been 8 years since their last performance as a duo, the show turned out to be very powerful, each performer complementing the other in ways neither had anticipated. They were so excited about the results of this almost chance encounter that they decided to make the recording available to the world.
This album is dedicated to the memory of Suzanne Fiol (1960-2009), founder of Issue Project Room.

Liner Notes by Tom Hamilton

I go to a lot of concerts. I actually try to go to fewer concerts, but it never lasts for very long. I have lots of friends playing electronic music, because I've also been doing it myself for 40 years. Seeing friends and hearing electronic music seem to go together, but that's just me. So that's what happened on May 5, 2009, when I schlepped out to Brooklyn to hear Karlheinz and Matt at Issue Project Room.
Sometimes the experience of listening to electronic music is masked to a degree by the "electronic-ness" of it all; the suspicion that we're now being asked to suspend our musical instincts to allow for the intricacies of the media. So we forget for just a little bit that we really do like a big dose of plain old musicianship. What a relief when we finally get it.
Like in all good concerts, what I did not count on was what I actually heard. And like in all good concerts, it felt like a wholly new experience in the art form itself. And now I listen to the CD and I'm reminded again how valuable and desirable we find contrast, drama and excitement - qualities that we wish for in any other music. I listen again as if it were jazz. Surprise!
OK, I can't help it. I will digress to one technical point: An obstacle that faces every performer of our electronic ilk is that electronic and acoustic instruments do not project their sound quality in the same way. Our ears hear the subtlest changes radiating from a clarinet in almost any space. Not so with the electronic sources in that same room. Loudspeakers are usually the culprits - they just don't deliver the punch the way the clarinet does, and microphones just seem to play dumb when they hear anything from a speaker. But in the present recording, I can hear tremendous contrast in dynamic range and a great deal of detail in the sound. This is not because the loudspeakers or microphones were something exotic (they weren't, sorry). Karlheinz and Matt have made their original computer-based instruments with a great deal of attention to those important sonic qualities and how that bears on the resulting music. High resolution plus large dynamic range plus expressive controls equal a terrific sound. And a little recording common sense never hurts. We're reminded of the room, reminded that it was a live event, but never limited by it.
The key to this isn't that it's electronic, computerized, sampled, or really tied to any particular technology, though ironically each of these artists are well-known for having innovated new techniques that help bring the resulting music across. The importance of their work lies in their abilities to improvise with endless shadings ranging between simplicity and complexity, and to channel the overriding musicality to fuel the performance.
And like a really good wine that we're experiencing for the first time, we just know that it's a good drink. Words don't fail us; we just don't need them any more.

Tom Hamilton
New York, October 2009

[xs-65] DNP X-Citer - algorrithmic chaos

artist: DNP X-Citer
album: algorrithmic chaos

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release date: 25/08/2009
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contact: myspace


When Tiago Morgado idealized Algorrithmic Chaos for his DNP X-Citer alter ego he thought of a way to break, in a certain way, with the IDM tradition, following some of the guidelines defined by Scanner the german musician (in the sense of not confining IDM to reductionist formulas). The background for this DNP X-Citer ep is Tiago's influences and reverence to artists such as Aphex Twin, Autechre (warp records), Alva Noto, Ryochi Ikeda and Byetone (raster noton) but also Nine Inch Nails and his approach to industrial rock that Einsturzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle and etc... brought to music. All this influences can be identified in the electronic part of the DNP X-Citer ep which serves as the basis for an improvised "free/structured" with alto viola. Again in this improvisation several references can be found, such as, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sunders, Frank Zappa, John Zorn, Otomo Yoshihide, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, among others.

The electronic part of the ep was worked with the use of algorithmic composition techniques, where instruments in the DAW (digital audio workstation/sequenciador) were triggered by MIDI, according to simple theoretical and systematized assumptions from the AC Toolbox (designed by Paul Berg from the Institute of sonology - the hague - netherlands). tiago morgado as been working with these tool because he believes that it can be helpful in his work with algorithmic composition (please do not forget that the MIDI and OSC material genarated with ac toolbox can be used to play live; eg: histo+anal+MIDI/OSC source reading and generative/reactive control of parameters).

Algorrithmic Chaos is a technical work, without an a priori conceptual background, but when Tiago Morgado analyzed it a posteriori an organized chaos appeared. And based on that, using contemplation maybe you the listener can identify a theme for this ep.

[xs-64] ziur - granular world

artist: ziur

album: granular world

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release date: 16/08/2009

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contact: myspace

cover art: back and front

In the year that we celebrate 40 years upon the arrival of men at the moon, and so many scientific discoveries, and so many lab discoverers and adventurers I present you a composer – Ziur. His passion for the discovery and study of the unknown leads us to the essence of sound, of its granular essence, presenting us another meaning, invisible to the naked ear. And like a stone is a stone on earth or on the moon, sound will always be sound whether savage or trained by Ziur.

Leonardo Rosado (xs records curator)

André Ruiz is a composer and professor at the Braga’s Conservatório Calouste Gulbenkian and he is also known in the electronic music as Ziur. He released is work concrétement at xs records [pt netlabel] in which he explored the digital media and the paradigm of composition initiated by Pièrre Schaeffer or Pièrre Henry. Ziur as been working in a series of initiatives and collaborative projects using the icompositions platform. Granular World he presents us with a series of experiments that take us to the granular synthesis domain, using the ixiquarks software developed by Italian softwarehouse ixisoftware developed with supercollider (this software is freeware and opensource). This music is as a performance component based upon the mentioned software which was refined a posteriori.

Tiago Morgado (xs records curator)

“Granular World” is an album conceived from inumerous experiences made by André Ruiz aka Ziur (the composer) using granular synthesis processes. All compositions were made in real time, i.e., all transformation processes and progressive developments were done and recorded in real time, which excludes it’s exact remake. Starting from simple recorded sounds (crystal glasses, tam tam’s, piano chords, etc.) it was possible to create diversified and individual compositions, which can suggest the listener several environments.

André Ruiz (composer)

[xs-59] essl.burger - live!

artist: essl.burger

album: live!

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release date: 07/06/09

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contact: Karlheinz Essl myspace  homepage & youtube - Klaus Burger myspace & homepage

As a netlabel, we've always been worried about bringing music with an ascending quality to people, although some our releases seem a bit controversial, since we try to get as much diversity as possible.

This month, we can say that we are extremely proud to release Karlheinz Essl's and Klaus Burger's duo ESSL.BURGER. Not only because Karlheinz Essl is one of the most relevant figures of nowadays improvised music with live electronics in Europe, but also because we believe that together with our previous release and the following we might be heading to new pathways and manners of discovering ourselves in the music we are in contact with (in our music as an ascetic path belief), and in what we believe to be our role in this universe.

[xs-48] rainbows - songs for someone

artist: rainbows

album: songs for someone

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contact: myspace

Songs for someone é como que um tardio iniciar de uma nova etapa e como que um preparar de uma novo ciclo de releases (e quem sabe, até projectos) por parte de Tiago Morgado, mentor da netlabel XS Records [portuguese netlabel]. Songs for someone faz-se então adivinhar como que um abrir de novos caminhos no sentido de uma espiritualidade vivida essencialmente através da música, e que encerra tudo aquilo que faz com que o autor do mesmo sinta a existência de uma razão para continuar a fazer música. Uma espécie de mística onde a angústia, a paixão, o sofrimento, o amor, o equilibrio se encerram numa vivencia espirtual conduzida através da musica. Trata-se portanto de uma maneira de transmitir através do seu instrumento com recurso a processamento (pedais e racks direccionados essencialmente para o processamento de guitarra electrica), aquilo que sente em relação a alguém ou algo, em relação ao tudo ou nada, caminhando num sentido de abraçar uma linguagem que cruza em alguns momentos o minimalismo presente na musica de compositores como steve reich ou philippe glasse, a uma quase sugestão de tratamento micropolifónico, típico da música de brian eno.

[xs-36] salad - ubiquo

artist: salad

album: ubiquo

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If the holy graal of the free jazz, may goes through american musicians such as Frank zappa, Ornette Coleman, John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Peter Brotzmann, Charles Mingus or Evan Parker, going to the oriental world where important names of improvisation don't stop echoing, and where we can find musicians such as Kawabata Makoto, Otomo Yoshihide, Kenji Haino, among other, I am sure that we cannot say that we have a bad improvisation scene here in Portugal, although many times musicians rejected by the portuguese society as Carlos Zíngaro, António Pinho Vargas (in a past now in recovery), Nuno Rebelo, Vítor Rua, or Jorge Lima Barreto appear many times in an indiscrimination motion of marginalization of some of the best music that has been made in here for the last 20 years. it is right that although recent, and practically hidden and limited to the anonymous identity of life in the deep of portugal this project salad, of the authory of João Clemente created in May 2007 (first recordings) that is now presented in this release, takes the notion of free improvisation with base in pre-defined structures where most of the times the line which separetes the rigid structure and the free improvisation is almost imperceptible, at an high state, so high that it may even take the risk of becoming a reference in the national scene at medium long date. It's the author's papper to create a fluxus, where the motivic gathering, in a support close to the standard, lead to all this magic, in the style of what we can see in different contexts, and with different aesthetic backgrounds, in masada recordings of john zorn in his own label tzadik just as some of Frank Zappa work if we want to go a bit more back in the past. To notice also the possibility of future releases with another formations, dued to the existance of more studio recordings, and to the high notion of social structure present in all the musical trama. The spontaneous portuguese creation is in good health and it is highly recommended - a release to be listened and re-listened and enjoyed times without count.

[xs-35] jackpooote - jackpooote

artist: jackpooote

album: jackpooote

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In this release we are took into the deep lands of portugal, and we are self presented with a release of jackpooote (aka xarope), some sort of punk (I didn't want to use that word, once I just wanted to give the idea that we are facing something recorded in low fi terms), where we can listen to a project that makes us remind, in certain terms, all the universe of which reminds us of stuff ranging from FRICS to stealing orchestra music (another portuguese project with a similar language - although jacpooote is more closed to cut-up music - doesn't matter if the musicians are more technical or less skilled).. But if we get close to this music we can just understand that it is something completely naked of stereotypes - something where punk and low fi meets with tribal noise improvisation, and if you are open minded and don't have problems with music cliches (kinda it's low fi music - so I won't listen it as a principle), we can probably meet something which brings us some ethnographic ideas of music, allied with some sort of originality and will to make something different.

[xs-31] aaldo - selected works

artist: aaldo

album: selected works

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contact: myspace & email

"AAldo 'and' a sound project by Aldo Ammirata, bassist and contrabbassista from Palermo (Italy) after several musical experiences ranging from punk / new-wave classic studies in collaboration with various artists of various trends, has undertaken a few years of research in the field of music concrete and minimalist theatrical feature, starting from the collaboration with the actor vanguard: Claudio Ambrosetti with which it has cooperated for a long time. 
The "fragment" and "Les dieux frozen '" are compositions for theatrical monologues, "fragment", part of a single tatrale opera, "Les dieux frozen '" less minimalist precedents (with the voice of reverse FTMarinetti) is part of a representation is not achieved. 
Currently "AAldo" is implementing and completing various compositions that will form an entire album that will ' probably finished by 2008. 

Aldo Ammirata 

[xs-25] la stanza bianca - cristina bardo thodol

artist: la stanza bianca

album: cristina bardo thodol

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This fine band brings another great release to our netlabel where we can listen to some sort of intercourse between free improv and progressive/post-rock, resulting in an astonishing musical stuff.

[xs-14] tiago morgado - playing to ghosts

artist: tiago morgado

album: playing to ghosts

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You are in the middle of nothing.you are surrounded by the darkness and the emptiness of your mind, surrounded by ghosts. your ghosts, not the ghosts of anyone else. you want to run, but you cannot hidde from yourself. and then, at the end of a tunel, you see yourself highlighted with a piano, in the middle of a theatre. you want to play, but you cannot because there is not anyone to listen to you. only your ghosts are sitted in the middle of the audience. then, when the concert ends up, you wake up. you see that you were not sleeping. and then you want to continue with your routine, but you are not able to because you feel empty and tired of living and bleeding the dreams of someday.

[xs-11] tiago morgado - 363

artist: tiago morgado

album: 363

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release date: 2008-04-10

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Another release of the netlabel founder a set of three performances where he uses mighty moogerfoogers to generate both psycadelic noise textures on drum machines, and smooth drones to his viola. A vintage analogue hardcore registry.

[xs-10] tet open ensamble - zen trip

artist: tet open ensamble

album: zen trip

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release date: 2008-03-16

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In this performance recorded in Braga, at CAB, we can listen to a trio free improvised Jam Session, somewhere between Dream Theatre, John Zorn, and something else. A tribal zen experience leaded by Tiago Morgado, Caldas (haven't denied) and Gilly (the crew), where you can listen to a very progressive sound.