Listen / download a free track first? here is one called "Behind" from the
above album..."The emphasis is on hyper-crisp elliptical
beats, textural grains and dense shoots of white noise.
It's so clean, so doggedly electronic, it makes you want
to scream. In a good way." Alexis Georgopoulos, XLR8R
Review from www.themilkfactory.co.uk: French
label Bip-Hop have always encouraged their artists to
collaborate with other musicians, so the launch of
Reciprocess +/vs., a new split series, released in
collaboration with Northern Ireland-based Fällt label,
doesn’t come as a surprise. The concept behind the
series is rather simple: take two musicians with
different sonic realms, let them remix a couple of each
other’s tracks, collaborate on some joint compositions
and include a few more tracks of each in solo. The first
two to present their common work are Bip-Hop’s Chris
Dooks, aka Bovine Life, and Raster-Noton’s Frank
Bretschneider’s Komet.
Both are accomplished sound designers. If Bretschneider
refutes the minimalist tag attached to his music, he
acknowledges its austere shape, referring to it in the
booklet accompanying this release as economic. His passion
for clean sounds and unorthodox arrangements has benefited
each one of his releases, confirming the man’s ability to
unveil surprisingly attractive qualities to his structures.
Of Dooks’s own admission, the processes he uses while
recording are deliberately disorganised. His sonic
arrangements are rich, built around a multitude of
fragmented elements arranged together in complex
formations. This album reflects the considerable
differences between their specific works through their solo
compositions included, four tracks for Komet and seven for
Bovine Life, but also reveals the connections between both
artists. Combining short, impulsive sounds with clicks and
glitches, Bretschneider puts together intriguing sound
combinations, emblematic of Mille Plateaux’s releases.
He however tends to support his music with linear beat
constructions, giving a perverse dance twist to it. He
happily claims preferring sound design to melodic
structures, and the tracks included here are all
representative of this. By contrast, Chris Dooks’s
compositions appear more open and connected with the
outside world, feeding on a variety of sources ranging from
film samples to environmental noises. The tracks included
here are however more minimalist than some of his previous
work. If Vone, Platuex and Behind are startlingly simple
linear ambient moments, things get more intricate with the
rest of his compositions.
The four tracks providing the core of this album sees both
artists merging their unique soundscapes, creating
intricate moments of abstraction. Using very basic sounds
and developing scarce rhythmic patterns around them, Dooks
and Bretschneider blur the boundaries between their
respective worlds by bouncing back of each other
constantly. The most intense of the four, Second Question
and The Conclusion are also the compositions that reveal
their common grounds in the sharpest light.
Both artists have got good experience of collaborative
work, and this album shows their adaptability to new
environments, focussing on their approach to sound design
and soundscapes. The inclusion of solo tracks, remixes and
collaborations works perfectly in the present context,
highlighting the artists’ impact of each other’s work,
creating a thrilling collection of abstract music.
Review from DUSTED MAGAZINE / USA / September
2002
Double Sided, Double Density
The remix is a curious genre. Within the course of modern
music there have been "standards", songs for which a scored
foundation is provided in order to be reinterpreted by
others. Similarly there is the "cover", the reworking of a
piece, the results of which vary in relation to the
original, but presumably explore its virtues and intentions
to some degree.
The remix, however, seems a little strange when you think
about it. Most musicians labor obsessively over their
creations refining and honing them until deemed "perfect" A
most apt description of any given piece of music would be
that it (normally) reflects the vision of its creator or at
least, in the case of film or other program music, aspires
to convey a mood or tone envisioned by the composer.
Analyzed in this sense the remix seems absurd. I, the
artist, slave away tweaking my composition bit-by-bit,
acutely aware of every element of its creation. I complete
it and send it into the world. It represents me and defines
me. I have contributed a piece of my being to the world at
large. The remix, on the other hand, is the systematic
destruction of a given piece of music; it depersonalizes it
to the extent that the author no longer has control over
the results. The work is further divorced from its creator
as it filters through the consciousness of another and is
in effect disfigured and disguised ? it is appropriated and
presented anew as the work of someone else. This is
deconstruction, fellows. This is fun.
In an effort to display the remix process, the French label
Bip-Hop has released the first in a series of what it calls
the "Reciprocess" series. The idea is akin to the Dutch
label Konkurrents (you have to be European to rightfully be
theoretical) In the "Fishtank" projects; which pit the
likes of Low together with the Dirty Three and Tortoise
with the Ex. The idea behind the juxtaposition being that
shared and interdependent composition ignites the creative
juices. For this first attempt, Bip-Hop commissions two
musicians to create original songs, which are presented
along with a handful of collaborations and remixes, or
reciprocal (re) processes, as the series moniker suggests.
This first installment contrasts (and intertwines) the work
of Berliner Komet (Frank Bretschneider) and Scotland's
Bovine Life (Chris Dooks). Their independent works are
quite different. Bovine Life favors a noticeably analog
synth sound and the playful ebb of bleep and blips. Komet's
works are longer and more contemplative. They evolve in a
sweeping, methodic manner. The two artists were familiar
with each other's work before beginning the project and
presumably Bip-Hop chose them partially because of their
equal admiration for one another. Despite making the two
ideal office mates (or file-sharing mates as the case may
be), it seems as though it might smooth the process out a
little too much. Less tension, less divergent strategies,
that perhaps fosters and encourages a slightly more
homogenous recording than one had hoped for.
The album begins with two standard remixes, each of which
conforms to the basic characteristics of the artists'
aesthetics. Following this are the Komet originals, which,
as mentioned earlier are sweeping lengthy affairs. "Chrom"
finds Komet adding some minor key melodies to a
metronome-like tick; the song fades
effortlessly(unnoticeably?) into "kom" which covers ground
similar to that of its predecessor. Komet faintly sheds the
monotone of the previous tracks with his final solo
composition "sog" which has a more overt beat despite
sticking with a minimal, pointillistic theme. The remixes
follow and seem to be overly influenced by Komet's
demeanor. Jerky, traffic-jam-gridlock exposition and vague
intimations of melody characterize the most "reciprocessed"
passage of the disc.
Bovine Life's solo section closes out the album and is
worth the wait.
More attention is paid to coherent, engaging structures and
listening to his tracks is good fun. It's not an effortless
listen, but concentration and perseverance pay off. In
contrast to the Komet section, Bovine Life comes across as
"conceptual with feeling." This isn't to suggest that
you‚ll be pumping Bovine Life on the dance floor, but the
details are subtle and delightful. "Vone" has a carefully
plotted theme, disjointed, yet enveloping. "Platuex" has
similar characteristics, and the closer "Behind" pulses
like a sorrowful, clipping elegy, definitely the album's
greatest accomplishment.
By Marc Gilman
http://www.dustedmagazine.com
Tracklisting:
Bovine Life Riss Frank Bretschneider Reconstructs Bovine
Life
Komet Flux Chris Dooks Remix Komet's "Flex"
Komet Chrom
Komet Kom
Komet Ohm
Komet Sog
Bovine Life vs. Komet The Question
Komet vs. Bovine Life The Reply
Bovine Life vs. Komet The Second Question
Komet vs. Bovine Life The Conclusion
Bovine Life Vone
Bovine Life Platuex
Bovine Life Kaibilder
Bovine Life 60 Minutes Strictly I
Bovine Life 60 Minutes Strictly II
Bovine Life Sony
Bovine Life Behind