Like with its predecessor, bizaarbazaar #2 is again a media experiment. It hopes to “preserve musical content against the unpredictable mutations of the web,” as Selwa Abd aka Bergsonist, who runs the platform, puts it. While the first compilation was released as a double cassette as well as an accompanying website and publication, bizaarbazaar #2 experiments with a t-shirt and wider digital distribution. Furthermore, the tracks are streamed via NTS and a listening session is held at Motto Berlin—both occasions happen on February 2nd 2019, while the wider digital distribution will follow later on.
The listening session at Motto Berlin on February 2nd 2019 is co-organised with zweikommasieben. As with the first compilation, where we contributed an interview with Ekman originally published in zweikommasieben #14, we again aimed at collaborating with bizaarzbazaar in terms of editorial content. That’s why zweikommasieben asked the 40 artists featured on the compilation for statements regarding their tracks. We wanted to know, if and how their respective musical contributions relate to the two themes of the compilation—”Sonic Fragments,” and “Rhythmic Weaponry.” The statements we received will be presented at Motto—and can be found below, for all those who can’t attend the event in Berlin.
AGF – “QI’RA”
underlying multi.complexion
the kilogirl, layered =
well connected
she does not know éverything
just a little bit more…
at the surface – smooth (depth)
lithesome movements
underneath: flawlessly lethal
she floats at the start
of collective frequency
manilpulation to lead what is
becoming the kindest mastery
ARTICLE C – “MODAFIINIL”
The United States Air Force has used the narcolepsy antidote Modafinil to prevent fatigue and enhance concentration on specific target missions.
BEAU LEZARD – “QU’EST CE QUE C’EST”
Fueled by ecstasy and peaking from a feast of kitten hearts, Beau Lézard spews forth a reptilian half-time/double-time screamer of a love song.
BERGSONIST – “ELECTROLYTES”
“Electrolytes” is a minimal deconstructed composition that was inspired by fasting states and dehydratation. “Electrolytes” is an attempt to represent these two concepts sonically. The main sonic element I used was the sound of a rolling piece of wood.
BOB BELLERUE – “FULL ARMOR OF GOD”
“Full Armor of God” is an excerpt from a longer work called “Material Spirits,” which I was developing in 2004 in Los Angeles. The work used political speeches and campaign songs combined with tense textures and rhythmic foley sequences to address my concerns about the invasion of Iraq, and the challenges of creating social change in a populace numbed by economic, political, and spiritual manipulations.
The source material for “Full Armor of God” is a tape set by Pat Robertson that I found in a thrift store. The full tape set is an amazing glimpse into a deranged way of viewing the world. He talks about commanding the demon of tobacco out of the back seat of his car after it followed him home from a prayer meeting where he admonished a smoker…. My tape deck had speed control based on how hard you pressed the play button, and I was wont to turn voices and musical tracks into oscillators and neo-modern communication patterns.
It’s time for me to bring this piece up to date!
BOOKWORMS – “NGUISHED”
“The study analyzed the gut flora of 757 infants from the general population at age of 3 to 4 months and weight at ages 1 and 3 years, looking at exposure to disinfectants, detergents and eco-friendly products used in the home.
Associations with altered gut flora in babies at the age of 3 to 4 months old were strongest for frequent use of household disinfectants such as multisurface cleaners, which showed lower levels of Haemophilus and Clostridium bacteria but higher levels of Lachnospiraceae. The researchers also observed an increase in Lachnospiraceae bacteria with more frequent cleaning with disinfectants. They did not find the same association with detergents or eco-friendly cleaners. Studies of piglets have found similar changes in the gut microbiome when exposed to aerosol disinfectants.”
CIENFUEGOS – “EXIT COCYTUS”
What is the larger part of a continent? Have you ever dreamt of fragments that created a whole that created more fragments. Once you have reformulated time the possibilities are endless; invisible cities brought to light. Comprised of simple synthesis and raw audio, “Exit Cocytus” is a rearrangement by way of disintegration.
DAFNA NAPHTALI – “MOUTH MUSIC 1_1”
“MouthMusic1_1” commingles several aspects of my practice over many years. Yes (!), sonic fragments—from many new things I am working on, old things lying around, some abstract, some deceptively simple. The name comes from a new project of mine for voice-controlled audio performance, one of driving the music/sound via interlinking sources, side-chained gestures and creating and overlaying several sonic spaces into one.
ERIC FRYE – “CACTUS JUICE”
“The image: fixation of the idea. The abstract—it is a way of remaining in motion. The image is a means of getting anchored, the return to solid ground. Without images abstraction would not prove its point. You couldn’t tell whether it were really an idea or an ignis fatuus. The image is the proof of its successful arrival, its landing, its well-earned rest. One advances only by means of abstractions, but one finds rest only in the image.
In Mescaline, the images are epiphenomena (abundant and encumbering), but it is the abstract that counts.”
- Henri Michaux, Miserable Miracle
GAUL PLUS – “WORLD DIVA”
“World Diva” is probably the truest “sonic fragment” I’ve ever made, as I had never in my life tried so hard to use a track as a personal time capsule. The whole time I was making it, I was imagining it buried in the sand, an artefact dedicated to all the various genres I like—all compressed into a powder-coated magnesium frame.
GUTNOSE – “WORLD PICTURE”
Samplers are amazing. I feed ‘em bits n pieces from anything that has an audio output—for this one I grabbed some vocals from an esoteric mysteries DVD, some random Souncloud vocalist, a wrestler getting smacked, drums from some random vinyl and off the net… There’s other things I captured to form the larger picture but I forget.
In my sampler a hi-hat can conjure up sounds reminiscent of swords clashing… In my sampler rapid fire snares let off shots directed at pretentious seensters and vile enemies…. From my sampler kicks have the ability to roar like thunder from a pissed off god in the heavens. This one’s 4 U status quo ;)
GREG Z – “DEMONSTRATION”
“Demonstration” fragmentizes a vocal sample of the word “demonstration” via manually modulated parameters while the audio output of a drum machine runs through the open preamp of the sampler and MIDI output from the drum machine sends it note data. It was created to demonstrate the sampler’s capabilities and character for a sale listing on Craigslist. This version is one half of a pair of performed recordings, the other of which is a capella.
ISABELLA – “PRANKSTERS LULLABY”
“Pranksters Lullaby” is the imitation of a trick… You can hear the mockery. I find it similar to the process of stripping threads, the components “fit together” however, forced, and they’re compromised. The result is an upsetting hiss and the only thing carrying it through is the distressed melody. And then, by proxy, a somewhat furtive rhythm is exposed, and it’s just chuggin’ along. It’s a track that thrives in disruption and couldn’t be discarded, it has some type of mystique that I hold dear and felt relevant to the idea of sonic fragments.
JAMES PLACE – “LE REVE”
Rhythmic weaponry—tones to dispel dreams and force reality’s hand. Can’t move forward without accepting how far back you really are. Swallow that pill then take a step.
KING VISION ULTRA – “FLOOD”
King Vision Ultra operates through the language of archiving, frequency, and The Spirit. “Flood” is the recruitment call, another entity has entered the channel.
LOVE LETTERS – “THE BLOWS THAT DO”
There’s only one sound, it’s a single signal passing through two cables. It picks up an errant FM frequency, inviting or stealing. It could be either. Sound as interference or sound as a web of entry and protection. A calling card for a way of life. Ripped from its usual context and a thing can be a piece of a whole or a whole new piece. And the question remains: are we to know where the sounds will go, should we choose their target? What we might get in return has resonated beyond our bounds, filtered through cables, picked up, potentially, by an errant FM frequency…
MACE – “THROWIN’ DARTS AT 500 RSPS”
A sonic war to 5000 years of debt. A peaceful, helpless war that takes its opposite direction straight to bartering.
MORTEN JOH – “SC_180116_171541”
My contribution is something I made for my bandmate in N.M.O. to show him the direction I wanted to take with some stuff we were working on.
It’s indeed just a fragment and the underlying idea is that it combines the two BPMs 160 and 128 to form a sort of oval rhythmic feel (?) using so many entry points from either BPM and playing with how many of each (how complex) before it crosses the line.
NAANO TANI – “ACED (UNE CARENCE EN DOPAMINE)”
To frame content as a “sonic fragment” is to acknowledge the broader processes of production, mining and extraction behind it—no matter how shattered it may be, a fragment should have a multitude of contexts in order to be presented, distributed and consumed responsibly. “ACED (une carence en dopamine)” is an extract from a live set done some time ago, and is a sonic simulation of a fictitious passage in a fictitious medical note ++ . . The title (translated as “a deficiency in dopamine”), which is once uttered verbatim in the track, is a small nod to the prevalent use of dictaphones among French doctors for voice-recorded medical reports.
OBERGMAN – “SENTINOV”
This track project was initiated while reflecting on the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) as a superior (next to divine) species, superseding our own kind. AI has the potential to exceed our own intelligence by far; our collective human intelligence would be similar to the intelligence of ants or snails, in relation to an omniscient AI—developing such explosive intelligence, would—or will—eventually evolve into Autumn for humans and a giant leap in evolution. The track title is a wordplay in Swedish merging the words ‘Late In November’ [Sent-I-Nov.]—late autumn, winter approaching.
SEA URCHIN – “SINUHE III”
Polyrhythmic weaponry are make you dance in your head… an internal dance, one percussion stay, the other one goes vertical in your eyes. Polyrhytmics are made to dance with multiple. The trails of a sonic fragments . Bona!
SHA SHA KIMBO – “WE THE LIVING”
I made this tune a few years ago while experimenting with Abelton’s Push 2. I loaded up the sampler with lots of different sounds that seemed unconventional and seasoned the song with them. The original song was 130Bpm but I slowed it down to give it a heavy but spacious feel.
SOLPARA – “VEIT’S DRUM SET (SHORT MIX)”
This track is a gathering and layering of small fragments from a recording or recordings where I was playing on my friend Veit’s drum set—the track is entirely composed of sonic fragments in this sense.
SPEAKER MUSIC – „RHYTHMANALYSIS“
Speaker Music is a digital audio and extended media praxis. Inspired by Rhythmanalysis, a book of essays by urbanist philosopher Henri Lefebvre, Speaker Music desires to engineer affect and sculpt sentiment into a multitextural sound object in response to rhythmanalytic speculations and curatorial decisions within a given vibrational ontology. Speaker Music is the production of a rhythmic body, quivering the nexus event of the moment into a collapsed “nonpulsed time” toward a shared sphere of intimacy.
TRISTAN ARP – “COIL”
“Coil” is made to disarm via playfulness. Snaking, modular, atonal percussion creatures finding weaponry in self-defense. An upward spiral.
VENDERSTROOIK – “SUGAR RUSH”
Bloodsugarsadness. We go for the attack and pick up toothpicks for arms. Fade into the background. Sugar is the devil who is in the details who was working a nine to five-er counter clockwiser the whole year round. No more resolutions for corporate cruisers go deep deep deep into dark nights and bleachblonde—beech nut early mornings. Makes your eyes hurt, red and runny. Make a collage of capabilities. I heard the West was failing, falling splintered fractured, shattered smashed and broken into smithereens. In a dreamworld we waver and match our colors, set our watches. It marches on through muddy fields. We are there for those who are left to mold away in corners. Shaking and shivering like monkeys with milkshakes on our backs as our familiar. We are there for you. Let us hold you, enfold you, spring and sprung in wake of all the different hell dimensions yet to come. Check the papers reality is what we make it. So so fragmented, my little legume, fragile in your existence. Don’t drink Coca Cola, Cola Coka is evil because it comes from A-A-A-America.
VIA APP – “STAGE_X4”
Arp juggling live in Kazakhstan
WAHONO – “BEDA GROUNDWET”
“Beda Grondwet” was composed using various fragmentary recordings from drum machines and synthesizers. The main theme of the track were played using a celempung—a Sundanese bamboo instrument from the West Java region of Indonesia. The intent was to mold the melodic and rhythmic nature of the celempung with resampled analog sounds to search for a peculiar blend of textures.
ZOE MC PHERSON – “FUCKED UP CLUB (JAM)”
“Fucked up club (jam)” is a jam recording indeed.
It’s a sonic fragment from my mixer’s master out where I played with multiple delay pedals, as to experiment, aka fuck up a bit with some “club” beats.
Rhythmic weaponry is fat, loud and big, quite literally, it’s the rhythms of gun shots. But to me here, weaponry is within rhythmic explorations.
But really, it’s a compilation of rhythmic weaponries, a collection, a collective. That is a true weaponry. To me, bizaarbazaar and Selwa’s activities bring back what making music is supposed to be: simply sharing good stuff, sharing doubts, trying to do our job without the pressure of the music industry, enjoying, gathering and continuing all kind of explorations, including sonic explorations.