Anne-James Chaton - Événements 09 3.7

                Raster Noton is known for difficult releases. Usually you have to do a certain amount of ‘elbow work’ to undercover the joys of the work. I respect this approach. Often musicians go towards the easiest way of expressing ideas. That payoff that I get from their releases can be amazing, like discovering a new landscape or geography. For all the alleged experimentation going on within this album, I felt bored and disappointed with the pieces.

                Anne-James Chaton isn’t a stranger to the Raster Noton label. Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) worked with him on his Unitxt album. Those expecting a repeat of pitch perfect performance are bound to be somewhat disappointed with the results on this album. None of that dreamy quality, an exploration of language and rhythm is found on here. 

                Instead you’re treated to some extremely lazy looping. Nothing is done with these loops. They are merged together to create songs. Layered on top of each other, they are meant to show off the competing rhythms of language. Does all language eventually blend into itself? Most of Événements focuses on that very question. In fact, Anne-James even offers up the backing beats at the end, going in order of how they appeared on the album. You’re offered the chance to sculpt his language and create your own work.

                Sadly, the work he’s created is disappointing. Clips of himself speaking never rise above just plan that: clips of himself speaking. It fails to engage on any level, especially when compared to similar projects, such as “COH Plays Cosey” or the more classic language experiments, such as Kurt Schwitter’s “Ursonate”. It doesn’t live up to either scenario. Even the language he uses bothers me, especially the cliché “Pop is Dead”. 

                Raster Noton rarely makes a misstep. When it does it is usually a doozie. Anne-James Chaton’s album is a doozie.

ANBB (Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld) Ret Marut Handshake 3.7

Anne-James Chatton provided the vocals for the beginning song on Alva Noto’s solo album “Unitxt” reading off credit card numbers and other important personal information. Somehow his odd voice and the beats worked together so well, to provide a perfect abstract of an emotionless detachment from humanity.

I translated that piece into a thought. That thought was that future collaborations with vocalists would work well for Alva Noto, injecting other-worldliness in his harsh terrain. Excluding the first track of “Ret Marut” I was very wrong.

Most of this could not be cheesier if it tried. Alva Noto should have gotten all the kitsch desires out of him when he contributed to the “Recovery” compilation. The rest of this is so dreadfully bad it’s actually depressing. I respect both artists in their respective fields, but they phoned this one in hard. Even Alva Noto’s trademark beats and noises feel lazy. No one needs some Avantgarde musicians covering “One” which is the loneliest number. A very big disappointment for fans of either artist, please avoid.

Alva Noto – For 7.8

While everyone went crazy over Carsten Nicolai’s work with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s piano, I thought they were missing out on this. Sure, everything sounds more emotional once it comes from an organic instrument, a greater challenge would be to get that same sort of emotional response from delicate electronics.

“For” sets out to do just that. Later, he’d follow up with these more melodic, less rhythm based songs in Xerrox 1 and 2. But when I first heard these, I was shocked. Hearing him move away from his natural environment of harsh clicks, cuts, and general noise was pretty shocking.

Shock still plays a part in this, often with the songs starting out the way much of his better-known work is. “Counter” plays to that effect, working its way up to screeching hiss. From there, you hear a naïve, stumbling melody. Those same light touches are heard throughout “Station Remo” and “Transit”. Others use high pitches to get the melody across, often over an extended period of time.

Apparently these all are dedicated to various composers. I’d be curious which composer was the inspiration for “JR” easily the most innocent and child-like of all the songs on here. This one sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place in a PBS commercial for Sesame Street.

Put simply, these songs are grand, and despite the fact they were written over an extended period of time, they form into a coherent whole.