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Mirza doesn't seem capable of repeating their debut's miracle.
Iron Compass Flux (Darla, 1998) doubles the doses of
transcendental, spiritual attitude, but lowers the action to the point
where it loses its identity.
The band dissolved and
Last Clouds (Ba Da Bing, 2002) collected rare, live and unreleased
material.
In the meantime, Steven Smith had released several collections of
surreal instrumentals:
Gehenna Belvedere (Autopia, 1996),
Autumn Is The End (Darla, 1998), perhaps too static (except for
To This Nothing Then),
From Ashes Come (3 Acre Floor, 1999), slightly more dissonant and
inspired by Japanese folk music,
and Slate Branches (3 Acre Floor, 2000).
Ever more experimental, Smith's vignettes draw from a number of sources
to produce eerie and disconcerting sounds.
The EP The Death Of Last Year's Man (Emperor Jones, 2001) contains four
covers.
The centerpiece of Smith's mini-album Tableland (Emperor Jones, 2000)
is the trancey, 16-minute title-track, a zen-like flow of harmonica, guitar
and piano tones.
Glade, Blood Partridges and A Celebration are
avant-psychedelic distortions
a` la Roy Montgomery.
Caprock and Shelf displays one of his specialties, a demented tribute to
Ennio Morricone's soundtracks.
Smith's next solo, Lineaments (Emperor Jones, 2002), released after his
relocation to Los Angeles, continues to explore the same techniques.
Oriel mixes a stark, fragmented guitar raga and snapshots of chamber
music.
A quasi-mystical experience is evoked by the quivering viola and
majestic guitar strum of Dust on Coils.
The process of gradual composition is tested in the
heavily distorted texture of The Morning Cart, in the
ghostly echoes of Artesia, in the dramatic
overtones of Petersson Alms, etc.
The last two tracks are sort of antithetic:
a busier, thicker, louder dynamic impinges on the tidal waves of
On Paving Stones; whereas Crown Upon These Lines weaves languid
static drones like a transcendent "om" to the universe.
A sense of apocalyptic calm exudes from the alien notes of these trancey pieces.
Smith and Donaldson also play in the improvisational group Thuja,
with percussionist Loren Chasse (formerly of Id Battery) and pianist Rob Reger,
an outfit that has released
the all-instrumental albums The Deer Lay Down Their Bones (Tumult, 2000),
an ethereal symphony of guitar, piano and percussion sounds,
and
Ghost Plants (Emperor Jones, 2002).
The quintet on Ghost Plants pens brief vignettes of
resonating chords (10), grotesque ethnic music (5, 11),
obsessive grooves (3),
alien noises (7), distorted chamber music (9), etc.
If Brian Eno and Faust got together and did a lot of drugs, the result would
sound like this.
Thuja's Museum (Jewelled Antler, 2002) are limited-edition CDROM's
that include art by the members.
Smith's Kohl (Jewelled Antler, 2002 - Emperor Jones, 2005) collects free-form improvisations.
Thuja's Suns (Emperor Jones, 2002), which contains 10 untitled tracks,
presents the group improvisation of Smith, Rob Reger, Loren Chasse and Glenn
Donaldson at their best. Not only
intense and inspired, but also meticulously enhanced with cacophonous
techniques of the avantgarde. The quartet reinvents
musique concrete (1),
populates sonic wastelands of ghostly noises (2),
surveys the squalor of abandoned ambients (5),
drills into neurotic and paranoid psyches (8).
The eeriest moments occur when someone
plays nuclear lullabies on guitar (3) or sitar (6)
in a world that is being engulfed by lethal miasmas.
Mirza's guitarist Glenn Donaldson is also Birdtree, a project that
bridges psychedelic pop, field recordings, droning minimalism, as on
Orchards And Caravans (Jewelled Antler, 2002),
and as Ivytree, whose Winged Leaves (Catsup Plate, 2004), is a
religious concept that relies heavily on field recordings and ethnic
instruments (a Syd Barrett for the post-industrial age).
Donaldson is also half of
Skygreen Leopards
(the other half being Donovan Quinn) that released
She Rode On A Pink Gazelle & Other Dreams (Jewelled Antler, 2001),
The Story of the Green Lamb & the Jerusalem Priestess of Leaves (2002),
the charming One Thousand Bird Ceremony (Soft Abuse, 2004),
the EP Child God In The Garden Of Idols (Jagjaguwar, 2005),
the EP Jehovah Surrender (Jagjaguwar, 2005),
Life & Love In Sparrow's Meadow (Jagjaguwar, 2005),
all of them collections of lazy and hazy psych-folk ditties,
and Disciples of California (Jagjaguwar, 2006), that veered towards the
vintage sound of West Coast's acid-rock of the Sixties.
All Strange Beasts Of The Past (Emperor Jones, 2003) is Thuja's
most gentle and earthly work yet, one in which the superhuman drones and
noises are replaced by acoustic touches, zen-like acoustics
(1, 5),
regular and folk-ish rhythm (3)
and even a vestige of counterpoint (2).
The quartet is even more convincing when it weds that newfound passion for
music composition and the techniques of musique concrete (7).
The main drawback is that these sound more like fragments or ideas than
accomplished pieces.
Smith's next project, Hala Strana (Emperor Jones, 2003), is inspired by
the folk music of Eastern Europe, albeit mentally and physically processed
through his aesthetic filters. The results are often quite estranged from
the sources. After a brief introduction of droning instruments and voices
(Cinnamon Shops), Smith weaves the solemn tapestry of Stria,
a series of melodic variations for transcendental guitar a` la
John Fahey that slowly decays into dissonant
and chaotic tones.
Quarter Mesto, that relies on loud echoes of percussion and guitar tones,
has a Tibetan quality, and Alate exudes a monumental gothic feeling
more akin to Lycia,
and Millstones summons a ghostly wind of organ drones over a
lullaby-like strumming of guitars.
But other tracks take on the ethnic program in a more faithful fashion:
the mournful Streets of Raised Platforms,
the martial crescendo of Spiring Plume,
the triumphal collective dance of A Second Fall.
The program includes parts for flowerpots and bottles.
Hala Strana's double disc Fielding (Last Visible Dog, 2003) employs a huge arsenal of instruments, both classical, ethnic and found ones. The music is basically a set of psychedelic variations on popular folk tunes of the Balkans.
Khol (Jewelled Antler, 2002 - Emperor Jones, 2005), packaged with a handmade book, woodcut insert and silkscreened covers, began a new phase in Smith's
prolific production.
Smith's Antimony (Digitalis Industries, 2004) contains six lengthy
ambient folk instrumental dirges.
Hala Strana's These Villages (Soft Abuse, 2004) is another journey
into the underbelly of Eastern European folk music, scored for harmonium, strings, accordion, ethnic instruments and field recordings.
Thuja's double-disc Pine Cone Temples (Strange Attractors, 2005), recorded between 1999 and 2004, is
another collective improvisation by
Loren Chasse, Steven Smith, Glenn Donaldson and Rob Reger, and
another study on the psychological properties of natural sounds,
exorcizing urban life and trying to recapture the essence of the human condition on Planet Earth while retaining the high-tech world that humans have built.
The first CD contains two tracks. The 13-minute long I/1 grows from a
soundscape of sparse percussion to a subdued dialogue of stringed instruments
only to fade into a black hole of shapeless sounds.
The 26-minute long I/2 spends an eternity toying with subsonic noises
(like of little rodents corroding a surface) over
a distant drone, until bells and a high-pitched accordion-like drone bring a
bit of life to it. But most of the first 21 minutes are a quiet fresco of
minimal sounds. A sudden eruption of white noise causes a bit of commotion,
but it lasts only a few seconds. Then the little rodents can continue their
lunch undisturbed.
The second disc contains six tracks.
The ten minutes II/2 is highlighted by ghostly echoes and metallic overtones.
The 18-minute II/4 builds up a much denser and most threatening mass of sounds, which, after about four minutes, begins decaying into the usual shapeless organic matter against the usual droning background. Loud gong-like bangs lead to another intense concentration of sound for the last three minutes.
The ten-minute II/6 focuses on pastoral strumming of the stringed instruments, on their interaction rather than on environmental sounds. As usual, their improvisation is subdued, anemic, distorted, primitive, blurred.
Ultimately, all Thuja albums (and the solo projects of its members) are duets
between the human brain and the human environment, duets that are meant to
reinvigorate the human heart. This music is a feedback from the brain back to
the brain via the environment, except that first the rational brain interacts
with the environment and then the output of the interaction is sent to the
irrational brain, the primitive, reptile core of human cognition.
Hala Strana's Heave The Gambrel Roof (Three Lobed, 2007) continued
Smith's exploration and reinvention of Eastern European folk music.
Glenn Donaldson also plays on Flying Canyon (2006), the brainchild of
folk-rock vocalist and guitarist Cayce Linder.
Steven Smith's Crown of Marches (Catsup Plate, 2004) contains one long
track that seems to hark back to his psychedelic roots.
His The Anchorite (Important, 2006 -
Root Strata, 2008)
was recorded live with no overdubbing. Its dense and meticulous blend of fiddle, hurdy gurdy, cello, xaphoon, bombard, ney, bouzouki, glockenspiel, organ, melodica, guitar and percussions reenacted Smith's private ghosts, the primordial spleen that is the undercurrent of so many of his works.
All of Smith's album boasted elegant and elaborate packaging.
Yet another Steven Smith alter-ego, Ulaan Khol, was conceived for a trilogy titled "Ceremony", whose first installment was I (Soft Abuse, 2008),
consisting of cosmic-psychedelic instrumental pieces for guitar and organ.
Thuja (Important, 2008) documents various live performances by the
core group of
Loren Chasse, Glenn Donaldson, Steven Smith and Rob Reger augmented with
Greg Bianchini, Keith Evans, Bryan DeRoo and Christine Boepple.
Steven Smith's
Owl (Digitalis, 2008)
was his first album with vocals.
The pieces are mostly duets for vocals and guitar.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Paolo Latini)
I Mirza non sembrano essere capaci di ripetere il miracolo il debutto dell'esordio. Iron Compass Flux (Darla, 1998) raddoppia le dosi di trascendentalità e spiritualità, ma ne diminuisce l'azione al punto di spogliare il tutto di una sua identità.
Il gruppo si dissolve e Last Clouds (Ba Da Bing, 2002) raccoglie materiale raro, brani live e tracce inedite.
Nel frattempo, Steven Smith pubblica diverse collezioni di musica strumentale surreale:
Gehenna Belvedere (Autopia, 1996),
Autumn Is The End (Darla, 1998), forse troppo statico (con l'eccezione di To This Nothing Then),
From Ashes Come (3 Acre Floor, 1999), leggermente più dissonante e ispirato alla musica folk giapponese,
e Slate Branches (3 Acre Floor, 2000).
Ancor più sperimentali, le vignette di Smith derivano da molteplici fonti per produrre suoni irreali e sconcertanti.
L'EP The Death Of Last Year's Man (Emperor Jones, 2001) contiene quattro covers.
Il perno del mini-album Tableland (Emperor Jones, 2000) è l'ipnotica title-track di sedici minuti, un flusso stile zen di armonica, chitarra e pianoforte..
Glade, Blood Partridges e A Celebration sono distorsioni avant-psichedeliche à la Roy Montgomery.
Caprock and Shelf mostra una delle sue specialità, un tributo demenziale alle colonne sonore di Ennio Morricone.
Il successivo disco solista di Smith, Lineaments (Emperor Jones, 2002), realizzato dopo il trasferimento a Los Angeles, continua ad esplorare le stesse tecniche.
Oriel mixa un aspro raga frammentato di chitarra e istantanee di musica da camera.
Un'esperienza quasi mistica è evocata dalla viola fremente e dal maestoso strimpellio di chitarre in Dust on Coils.
Il processo di composizione graduale è eplicito nella texture altamente distorta di The Morning Cart, nelle eco spettrali di Artesia, negli overtoni drammatici di Petersson Alms, etc.
Le ultime due tracce sono una sorta di antitesi:
una dinamica pià affannosa, più fitta e più rumorosa urta contro la marea di
On Paving Stones; mentre Crown Upon These Lines tesse statici droni languidi come un "om" trascendente verso l'universo.
Un senso di calma apocalittica trasuda dalle note aliene di questi pezzi ipnotici.
Smith e Donaldson suonano anche nel gruppo improvvisato Thuja,
con il percussionista Loren Chasse (già Id Battery) e il pianista Rob Reger,
un progetto che ha realizzato l'album strumentale The Deer Lay Down Their Bones (Tumult, 2000),
un'eterea sinfonia di chitarra, piano e percussioni, e
Ghost Plants (Emperor Jones, 2002).
Il quintetto su Ghost Plants tratteggia brevi vignette di accordi risonanti (10), musica etnica grottesca (5, 11), grooves ossessivi (3),
rumori alieni (7), musica da camera distorta (9), etc.
Se Brian Eno e i Faust si incontrassero e prendessero un po' di droga assieme, il risultato potrebbe essere questo..
Gli albums solisti di Chasse Siphon Glimmers (1997) e
Exfolia Motors (Unique Ancient Tavern, 2001) documentano sculture sonore di musica concreta e musica interattiva electro-digitale.
Museum (Jewelled Antler, 2002) dei Thuja è un CDROM in edizione limitata che include arte caria prodotta dai membri del gruppo.
Smith raccoglie su Kohl (Jewelled Antler, 2002) delle improvvisazioni free-form.
Suns (Emperor Jones, 2002) dei Thuja, contiene 10 tracce prive di titolo, e presenta l'improvvisazione di gruppo di Smith, Rob Reger, Loren Chasse e Glenn
Donaldson nel loro stato migliore. Non solo intenso ed ispirato, ma anche meticolosamente arricchito di tecniche cacofoniche dell'avanguardia. Il quartetto reinventa la musica concreta (1),
popola terre disabitate di rumori spettrali (2),
osserva lo squallore di lidi abbandonati (5),
penetra nelle psicosi nevrotiche e paranoiche (8).
I momenti più irreali giungono con le ninnananne nucleari suonate con la chitarra (3) o col sitar (6)
in un mondo ingolfato da miasma letali.
Il chitarrista dei Mirza Glenn Donaldson è attivo anche come Birdtree, un progetto che unisce pop psichedelico, registrazioni sul campo e minimalismo.
Orchards And Caravans (Jewelled Antler, 2002)
All Strange Beasts Of The Past (Emperor Jones, 2003) è ad oggi il lavoro più terreno e semplice dei Thuja, un lavoro in cui i droni sovrumani e i rumori lasciano spazio a rintocchi acustici, meditazioni zen acustiche
(1, 5),
ritmiche regolari e folk (3)
e anche una parvenza di contrappinti (2).
Il quartetto è ancor più convincente quando sposa la ritrovata passione per la composizione e le tecniche della musique concrete (7).
Lo svantaggio principale è che questi pezzi sembrano più dei frammenti o idee che pezzi finiti e compiuti.
Il successivo progetto di Smith, Hala Strana (Emperor Jones, 2003), è ispirato dalla musica folk dell'est europeo, sebbene mentalmente e fisicamente processato attraverso i suoi filtri estetici. I risultati sono spesso un po' estranei alle fonti. Dopo una breve introduzione di droni strumentali e voci
(Cinnamon Shops), Smith tesse la solenne Stria,
una serie di variazioni melodiche per chitarra trascendentale à la
John Fahey che lentamente degenera in toni dissonanri e caotici.
Quarter Mesto, che poggia su echi rumorose di percussioni e toni chitarrisitici, ha un tocco tibetano, e Alate trasuda un monumentale sentimento gotico molto affine a Lycia,
e Millstones usa un vento spettrale di droni di organo su una ninnananna di chitarre strimpellanti.
Altre tracce riprendono il programma etnico in una foggia più fedele:
la dolorosa Streets of Raised Platforms,
il crescendo marziale di Spiring Plume,
la danza trionfale collettiva di A Second Fall.
Il programma include parti di vasi da fiori e bottiglie.
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