Derek Rogers/Sindre Bjerga split
Derek Rogers and Sindre Bjerga are two of the more ubiquitous and exceptional presences in the realm of modern drone composition, with both forging their own prolifically distinctive identifies among the dignitaries of the experimental underground. This split release finds both musicians operating at their strongest, with each crafting their own long-form statement that aptly provides perhaps a definitive entry-point for those who’ve yet to delve into both Rogers’ and Bjerga’s dense and diverse catalogs. Rogers’ side welds his gorgeous and hypnotic guitar work over a platform of excitingly unwieldy digital glitches, resulting in a distinctly gorgeous composition that recalls Christian Fennesz at his most contemplative. Bjerga’s piece documents a live performance from a few years ago in the Ukraine, with dynamic and pulsating electronic drones working a concurrent mood of serenity while also exploring a more abstract intensity that builds throughout underneath. A crucial testimony from this pair of absorbing performers. Edition of 100.
AG Davis – ‘Audio Works’
AG Davis has been pursuing his own distinctive and powerfully unpredictable patchwork of avant-garde madness throughout the past decade, from the epileptic grind edits of Boy + Girl through the plunderphonic-punk pastiche of Extra Sexes, and perhaps most infamously the vocal-chord exorcisms he unleashed alongside saxophonist Jamison Williams for a pair of singles. Audio Works devotes focus to yet another set of Davis’ impulsive methods, this time compiling two works released in incredibly limited editions via neo-Dada genius Kommissar Hjuler’s Der Schöne-Hjuler-Memorial-Fund imprint. Hjuler and partner Mama Baer provide source material for the first side, with Davis reigning in their ambiguous declarations with rapid edits and a plethora of cryptic sonics. The flip finds Davis continuing this confrontational force of perverse musique concrete, thus aptly book-ending this confident declaration that calls to mind the pioneering abstractions of pioneers like Pierre Henry as much as it does the absurdist nihilism of Schimpfluch-Gruppe. Davis has declared this to be possibly his final recorded work; for sure, it is one of his very best. Edition of 100.