Austrian electroacoustic trio Radian consisted of keyboardist Stefan Nemeth, bassist John Norman and drummer/vibraphonist Martin Brandlmayr
(a member of Werner Dafeldecker's ensemble Polwechsel).
They basically documented the studio technique of the "fin de siecle" on the mini-album Radian (1998)
and on their instrumental tour de force TG11 (Rhiz, 2000).
Ther abstract compositions vivisect
glitch electronica, post-rock and digital processing
with surgical precision. The most original aspect of their compendium is
perhaps the way they both de-emphasizing and re-contextualize the dissonant
and polyrhythmic components of an abstract soundscape.
The rhythm section displayed an uncanny ear for molding bodily counterparts
to ethereal, ghostly music (in a manner frequently reminiscent of both jazz and atonal music).
The experiments run the gamut from the
gentle neurosis of beats and hisses of Ucotherm to the
spastic drumming of Tornio, from the
hypnotizing loops of R4 to the
strident industrial music of Sinus 440,
from
the dislocated techno heartbeat of Okazaki Fragment to
the subsonic events of Moveg and Kadjet.
This is musique concrete for people who are more interested in silence and microtones than in sound and harmony; a psychological experience before the "musical" one.
Rec.extern (Thrill Jockey, 2002) was equally cerebral and microscopic,
albeit more indulgent.
Nahfeld seems to return to old-fashioned musique concrete, but it's too
chaotic. The highlight is the
frantic garage-industrial orgy of Jet.
Juxtaposition (Thrill Jockey, 2004) sounded, again,
trivial and indulgent despite the eight-minute cinematic soundscape of
Nord
and the lethal industrial dance Rapid Eye Movement.
Brandlmayr was also active in a duo with electronic musician Nicholas Bussmann, Kapital band 1, which released 2 CD (2004), Playing by Numbers (2008) and Internationale Solidaritat (2020).
Brandlmayr (on drums) and Siewert (on guitar) formed the trio Trapist with bassist Joe Williamson that released Ballroom (2004) and The Golden Years (2012), two albums of lengthy improvisations.
Brandlmayr (drums, percussion, vibraphone, computer and piano), Werner Dafeldecker (double bass, tape delay and computer) and Christian Fennesz (electric and acoustic guitar and computer) improvised and then edited Till The Old World's Blown Up And A New One Is Created (march 2005).
At the same time, the hyper-active Brandlmayr joined avant-guitarist Dean Roberts and Werner Dafeldecker in Autistic Daughter, a trio that released Jealousy and Diamond (2004) and Uneasy Flowers (2008).
Radian's Stefan Nemeth formed Lokai, a duo with Superlooper's guitarist Florian Kmet that debuted with the instrumental pieces of 7 Million (Mosz, 2005).
The album catalogs free-form sonatas like
Histoire DS for guitar tones and electronic glitches,
34:35 for bells and distortion,
and Mikrostekon for electrocuted drone and radio interference (that converge onto a gentle ambient drift),
as well as the
mysterious inconspicuous sustained sounds of Taora Atoll,
Hellen and of the 13-minute Chuuk (the bleakest but also
the dumbest).
Stefan Nemeth, who had already recorded the solo album
Die Instabilitat Der Symmetrie (Doc, 2003), also released
Film (Thrill Jockey, 2008).
The austere soundsculpting of Lokai's first album turned into more humane
song-sculpting on Transition (Thrill Jockey, 2009).
Its compositions are immersed in a
discreet and ephemeral atmosphere and wrapped into opulent arrangements
of sound effects in what now appears to be highly sophisticated musique
concrete.
The chewing, rattling and bubbling sounds of Roads are attacked by a
swarm of bells, shifting the focus towards a gamelan-like tinkling trance.
The electroacoustic chamber music of Salvador evolves towards
another polyrhythmic trance.
The art of subliminal ambient drones of the first album is represided in
Panarea.
The work on timbres is now almost baroque, yielding both the
delicate hypnotic shuffle with jazz and folk overtones of Volver,
and the almost inaudible cacophony Glimmer.
If the previous Radian albums were fundamentally works of electro-acoustic chamber music and digital musique concrete,
Chimeric (2009 - Thrill Jockey, 2010) is a louder and more barbaric affair. The three lengthy compositions, however, lack narrative cohesion:
the multi-part
ten-minute odyssey Feedback Mikro / City Lights
(droning ambient, slocore, free-jazz jamming, a post-rock crescendo),
the harrowing and noisy nine-minute Chimera,
and the
nine-minute Subcolors, which
bridges glitch ambient music and jazzy prog-rock.
Martin Brandlmayr also played drums and vibraphone in
Christof Kurzmann's
El Infierno Musical (december 2009) with
Ken Vandermark,
Clayton Thomas (bass),
and Eva Reiter (vocals, contrabass, viola da gamba and Vietnamese dan bao).
Radian Verses Howe Gelb (2014) was
a collaboration with
Giant Sand's mastermind.
Jazz guitarist Martin Siewert (a Mats Gustafsson collaborator)
replaced Stefan Nemeth on
On Dark Silent Off (2016), another cerebral tour de force that
yielded the
seven-minute post-techno dance Rusty Machines (12 minutes minus five of silence) and its post-Badalamenti ambience,
but the nine-minute On Dark Silent Off sounds like an arbitrary
collage of unrelated ideas.
Martin Brandlmayr also wrote/composed the radio play
Vive Les Fantomes (2018).
Brandlmayr played drums
in the quartet Diquiet formed by
Christof Kurzmann (electronics, vocals), Sofia Jernberg (vocals) and Joe Williamson (double bass). They debuted with Disquiet (2021).
Radian's
Distorted Rooms (2023) collects six experiments of microtone manipulation.
