[Microsound-announce] Two new 'Mort Aux Vaches' releases (Machinefabriek and Mahmoud Refat)

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Artist: Machinefabriek
Titel: Mort Aux Vaches
Label: Mort Aux Vaches
Cat#: 16469

Worldwide, exclusively distributed by Staalplaat

Machinefabriek means 'machine factory'. You might expect a name like that for some Einstürzende Neubauten-like industrial act, but here that's not the case. Okay, at some times Machinefabriek's music might sound harsch and abrassive, but industrial, no. My music is more about combining distorted, raw sounds with subtle melodies and stillness. References are Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Tarentel and Stars of the Lid.

Early 2006 the Cypriotic label Lampse issued my first full lenth 'Marijn'. It got great review in The Wire and Pitchforkmedia. This release was preceded (and followed) by numerous self released 3-inch cdr's. A compilation of those was released as the double cd 'Weleer', in 2007. In the meantime there was a full length on Root Strata ('Slaapzucht'), and a 7-inch single on Type ('Lenteliedjes'). Collaborations with Leo Fabriek (Julie Mittens), Wouter van Veldhoven and Mariska Baars (Soccer Committee) and Jeroen Vandesande also led to cd-releases.

In july I released a double cd-set with artist remixing my track 'Stofstuk'. I was lucky to have (amongst others) Peter Rehberg, Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), Mitchell Akiyama, Greg Haines, Lesser, Steinbruchel, Xela and Frans de Waard (Freiband) taken part in this project..

The pieces for this recording were made just a while after the recording of 'Marijn' was finished. Despite the fact most other 'Mort Aux Vaches' releases are live documents, this one is recorded at home, before having it played by Berry Kamer from the VPRO, on Dutch radio.

This time I decided to limit myself by using mainly the guitar and laptop. And a recordplayer on one track. I roughly recorded some parts and chopped it un on the computer. That's when the compositions came to life. It's a questioning of listening, and the process itself will dictate the way to go.

I tried to make a patient record. A record that slowly pulls you in. Ironically a big influence was the Mort Aux Vaches cd by Oren Ambarchie. For me that's the ultimate statement in 'guitar-and-electronics-minimalism'.

Bathyale means 'the part of the sea between 200 and 1000 meters where no sunlight comes through'. I wanted to do something with water, 'cause that's what i kept thinking of when making and listening to the music. The pieces have a fluidity, but at times they are pretty dark and 'crackly'." Rutger Zuydervelt (Arnhem, The Netherlands)

Vital review:

"It's been a while since we last heard from Staalplaat as a label and the two releases that are now 'new' in the Mort Aux Vaches series, are in fact recorded some time ago. The Refat one in 2006 and Machinefabriek is a bit hard to tell. The cover is made with stamps but on my copy it's a bit hard to read. But it's also been on the shelf for some time, which in the case of Machinefabriek is a bummer.. Rutger Zuydervelt released so much music in the past three years that we got a pretty clear idea about how he developed in that period, but it's a bit hard to say where his Mort Aux Vaches will fit in. We hear him play guitar, more than he does these days, but throughout his carefully created atmospheric music is already present here. It moves away from the previous released live recording in that sense that they are less noise based and forecasts his recent music. However things are less complex around here, and works on a more straight forward level. The
 emphasis lies on the guitar, which shows Zuydervelt here to be a good student of Oren Ambarchi, with perhaps a bit more effects at his disposal. Minimal, atmospheric: it's all there yet not as refined as in much of his later work." (FDW)



Artist: Mahmoud Refat
Titel: Mort Aux Vaches
Label: Mort Aux Vaches
Cat#: 16468

Worldwide, exclusively distributed by Staalplaat

Vital review:

"Mahmoud Refat is from Egypt, who previously released on Leerraum. He's not a player of traditional instruments, but is a 'normal' (??) artist with sound installations, field recordings - following a career in funk/acid jazz/experimental music. I must say I had no expectations whatsoever. I can't say I'm disappointed. The whole notion that it should be ethnic (inspired) is of course bull shit. It proofs that whatever we call microsound (for the lack of any better term) is much more a global thing that we knew. Refat plays laptop music, using sounds of whatever field nearby or far away, but he adds low humming beats - think Ikeda or Noto but on a much more subdued level - which work well as a creepy undercurrent for the music. The rhythmical notion he puts on makes this perhaps more clicks 'n cuts (for the lack of any better term) than plain microsound, but the addition of field recordings is certainly a refreshing look on the subject matter. Meelkop
 meets Noto, Chartier meet Pan Sonic - if you catch my fantasy running wild on the subject. For me an entirely new artist, but certainly someone to watch for the future." (FDW)


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