Jack Hertz - Black Sunday (Just Not Normal, 2011)

1 Black Sunday

As oft throughout the year electro-music.com feasts on special occassions with a team of performers galore. And so they did on Halloween, be it a day later though, sunday october 31st. One of the sets of that evening was from Jack Hertz.
And I’ve been listening to it now for the last hour. There is but one thing missing in all this; images.
Then again, all you need to do is put this on your player and for a full hour you’ll find yourself in a haunted story. One that happened on a black sunday! Jack features his quisp quake and tells a tale of horror.
Just Not Normal

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Philippe Faujas – Deriva Sonora (Just Not Normal, 2011)

1 Deriva Sonora

Joining the ranks of avid Field Recordists is Philippe Faujas from Spain. Making Just not Normal not per say a field recordings netlabel, but since I personally am a big fan of field recordings and feel they go extremely well amidst experimental music Philippe is very much welcomed to the world of JNN. Follow his link to an even bigger world of recorded sounds, but let this release be your guide into the world of this fine French artist living in Spain. He won my heart with his great sounds and I know you’ll love it too.

Photograph is by Jacqueline Heeley – www.fotosdesdeelzaguan.net
Just Not Normal

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Buben vs Anton Mobin – On The Different Side Of The Object (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Ping
02 RTFM
03 Help desk
04 Go brain shop
05 BOFh
06 WRU

Vladislav Buben, well known under the name Buben, is a sound artist and an imminent pioneer of the underground scene in Bielorussia.
The connexion between Buben and Anton Mobin was established by Rinus van Alebeek, a few months ago, when Rinus asks Anton a technical help to digitalize sounds from a tape which be used by Buben to compose the great album released on Clinical Archives : Moral Tranformations (ca377) > http://www.archive.org/details/ca377_bra

After this technical support, Buben naturally asks Anton if he have some sounds to send him to start a new collaboration.
Of course, Anton Mobin had sounds and he is always interested in new connexion and web collaboration. Sharing sounds with Buben was very spontaneous; Anton picked up in his sound bank many different textures, like extracts from Live improvisation, radio fragments, Field recordings and every day life moments.

Then, Vladislav Buben was alone to compose, assembly, edit and mix all the materials. The real and unique composer still being Buben in this release !

Listeners must know that nothing in Creation is a easy thing and to complicate the story, the first version of this collaboration was killed by Buben’s laptop, which its hard disk burned !!

The revenge was terrible ! And it’s not one album, but TWO that Buben realized in a total different aesthetic !!
One influenced “darkbeat” and the second more “experimental”…

Thanks to Just Not Normal and Off/Bruma, the two releases are OUT simultaneously on December 7th, 2010 !
Please visit the both websites, to have a complete vision on the project called:
” On the Different Side of the Objects “

> http://astrangerparadise.com/offbruma/
> http://justnotnormal.wordpress.com/
Just Not Normal

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Daniel Barbiero – Monuments Seen Through Peripheral Vision (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Monuments seen through peripheral vision
02 Listen to the room
03 Violet grey black on blue

A native of New Haven, CT, Daniel Barbiero has been involved in creative improvised music in the Baltimore-Washington area for several years as a performer, composer, and sometime bandleader. He has worked in a variety of contexts, including modal and post-bop jazz, free improvisation, and world fusion drawing on the Indian classical and Middle Eastern musical traditions.

Fans of NTNS radio know that I have a strong taste for free improv jazz, where the likes of D’Incise and many others have passed the airwaves. It is with great honor that I may introduce this fine gentleman that provides the JNN airwaves with a very strong free jazz sound that is interspersed with field recordings and all kinds of other background noises that have one big commonfactor; the sensuous sounds of the standup bass. It is just delicious!
Just Not Normal

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Altocumulus - Household Apocalypse (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Household apocalypse
02 Night fears
03 Stairwell of souls
04 Bag it
05 Spring song
06 Highschool game (She’s dating Max)
07 August anxiety
08 Four days of rain

What if an artist that previously released one of the more fabulous experimental albums done on the Buchla 100 system from the Brandeis University would take a trip in a time capsule and use all anewed tools of the day and chooses to build a brand new album made from sounds of ordinary household equipment? Well; remember the ‘My name is Marieta Cashman’ album here on JNN? Altocumulus takes control again 40 years later!

HOUSEHOLD APOCALYPSE is made from the sounds that come through my window and up through the stairwell. It is also made from sounds of household objects used as percussion or drones: ceiling fans, struck pot lids and stroked springs,
crunched paper bag, rain in the gutter, shaken metal cans, clinking glass jars…whatever is at hand in my dwelling. All these were recorded on a Zoom H2 digital microphone and then imported and processed in Macintosh’s “GarageBand” digital audio workstation/synthesizer. I then added synthesized sounds from GarageBand to accompany the household sounds, playing on a MIDI keyboard.

1. HOUSEHOLD APOCALYPSE: Pot lids, metal boxes, glass jars, helicopter flying overhead, GarageBand drones and sound processing.
2. NIGHT FEARS: Wall clock, GarageBand synthesizer
3. STAIRWELL OF SOULS: Stairwell ambience and neighbors. Banging on iron railings with a rubber shoe. Bouncing plastic toy ball on wooden surface. Shaking empty paint cans. GarageBand synthesizer.
4. BAG IT: Crumpled paper bag, GB synthesizer. Piece made for a challenge by Stillstream’s Mike Metlay, to produce a piece that was between 2:00 minutes and 2:20.
5. SPRING SONG: Scraping and striking a spring in a bendable light fixture; miniature wind chimes, tree frog, GB synthesizer
6. HIGH SCHOOL GAME (She’s dating Max): Distant football game ambience and voices, autumn crickets, two gossipy boys on bicycles, GB synthesizer
7. AUGUST ANXIETY: Bathroom fan drone, chair scraping floor, August night insect ambience with thunder, GB synthesizer with MIDI electric piano
8. FOUR DAYS OF RAIN: Rainwater in a gutter, plastic water bottles, soda cans, coffee scoop, more rainwater in the gutter, GB synthesizer
Just Not Normal

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Shane Morris - Train.To.Knowhere (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Train.to.Knowhere
02 Train departs [field recording]

One of the thriving forces behind the electro-music scenery and it’s quarterly marathons is quickly becoming the illusive and flamboyant releaser of sounds to hold dear. With albums on Earth Mantra and EdP (forgive me if I’m wrong on this one) the reputation of this usually live performing longtracker has now reached the outer realms of Just not Normal territory.
Why you may ask is such the case; Well Shane besides his love for the synthetic also has a growing love for the useage of field recordings. There was the ‘No Labels No Music’ compilation album recently on EdP that was initiated by Shane on the electro-music.com forum for one. But Shane will not stop there, nor with this release right here.
Train.to.Knowhere starts of with one of Shane’s own field recordings and from that builds into an hour long epilogue. One that captures your attention; so much so that if you aren’t paying enough attention, you might just miss the train…
Just Not Normal

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Krabatof - Sea Of Trees (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Intro
02 Jyukai
03 Sea of trees
04 Aokigahara
05 Ki no umi

How these mystical artists find their way into the realms of JNN is beyond me sometimes, but behold; this ‘Sea of trees’ will astound you. But before we talk of this album here, let’s share a previous review of ‘Insect’s Brain’ shared on Touching Extremes;

“a little more than 31 minutes of very interesting “bruit art” by Geneva-based Ludovic Guerry, who manipulates “noises, field recordings and many weird sounds” in seven personal definitions of a peculiar world of embryonic utterances and disembodied dreams about the inhospitality of life.”

While it baffles me to know who might be behind Krabatof, since I’ve read a few different names now I find myself lost in the sounds of the album you see in front of you now. The mysticism to me only ups the anté and I find myself caring less for the creator, but dwell only more the the creation. You should try it yourself too! If you too get lost, try the breadcrumbs option, but beware of the geese.
Just Not Normal

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Somnaphon – Sarasota (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Copal
02 Aloha
03 Lugal
04 Vucub
05 Ceiba
06 Unial
07 Wayeb

A large portion of this album was composed from ‘disturbances’ that were recorded while living in an active haunted house.
You may consider this your after Halloween treat, or just a plain immersive and fantastic album filled with darkness and just plain great tracks! What the maker probably don’t realize though is that 112 in the Netherlands is the equal to 911 in the US.
You may keep that number near while listening to this!

Created by A. Traeger
additional sounds on ‘lugal’ by Mere
additional sounds on ‘unial’ by Relvm
Just Not Normal

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Phillip Wilkerson – Particle (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Particle Zwei
02 Particle Drei
03 Particle Vier
04 Particle Sieben
05 Particle Neun

There was an interview the other day in which, if I remember correctly Phillip stated that he was going to concentrate less on the experimental free releases. Well since you are reading these words here you are clearly recognizing that the great Phillip Wilkerson has yet done it again. Right before your eyes is the latest experimental release from Phillip that can be regarded as a blessing for your wanton ears. If you’ve heard some of the previous JNN releases by Phillip I can but say, the man is taking it all a step further, another step deeper into the sounds and mechanics of these sounds. Particle is a treat and it should be welcomed to your harddrive with honor. Thank you Phillip for creating this and sharing it with the world through JNN.
Just Not Normal

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Khate – Therapy (Just Not Normal, 2010)

What are you saying; you never heard of Khate before. What rock have you been living under?
One of the finer mistresses of the world of experimental electronics resurfaces with a brand new album!
After the longest absence from music making and as she claims ‘the crazies’ this fine fine artist returns and boy are we in for a treat. From one of our back and forth emails:

“But! I’m on the mend (or at least pretending to be). And one thing me & the ol’ therapist are working on is me being able to let go of artwork. Like, it’s never good enough, so it languishes in the hard drive/studio forever. I’ve got hours of material that have been building up over the past couple years that I just can’t let go of. Yet I’ve kept them around and worked on them over and over, so I must think they have some merit.

I wanna set some of these captive animals free, just grit my teeth and let them go. In my head, these are terrible tracks… but I can’t exactly hear someone argue otherwise unless I let them go, right?”

Let’s give Khate a warm welcome back and for now delve into this 17 track madness called Therapy, being Therapy.
Just Not Normal

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Muied Lumens - Start Point (Just Not Normal, 2010)

01 Moonrise at Start point
02 Alienative
03 Antidistance recalculator

For as long as I can remember Rob Solheim aka Muied Lumens has been an active participant in the solstice marathons over at Electro Music. Still for some reason it has taken up untill now for Rob to release his first ever full featured album. And boy are we proud at JNN to be the host of this very first sublime album.
As Rob states in one of his emails to me: “It has kick started something that I have been missing for a while – which is to make composed stuff instead of just playing live material. I will continue doing more tracks as and when I have time”.
The world of CC music has just gained a new fantastic artist in its mids.
Just Not Normal

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Mystahr, Ian Linter & Anton Mobin - A Maïzing session with … (Just Not Normal, 2010)

A Maïzing session with…

Project: Created in May 2009, “ A Maïzing session with…” is dedicated to live improvised music and organised at the Maïzing Studio in Paris, by Anton Mobin.
The programmation is established according the meeting and the artist who come in tour in Paris.
For the first saison (May 2009-May 2010), “ A Maïzing session with…” was 13 radio shows with 22 european artists.

Date: July 21th, 2010
Artists: Mystahr – Ian Linter – Anton Mobin

For the passage of Mystahr in Paris, Ian Linter and Anton Mobin decide to join their forces to organize several sonic events to celebrate this occasion.
Each artists are in contact on the web since a long time, but never have the opportunity to meet together.
That’s done on July 21th, 2010 at the Maïzing Studio in Paris, where these three friends set up their complete gear to a special two hours radio show !

The Maïzing session was divided in two different parts:
First, each artist present a solo set around twenty minutes, which is the better solution for everyone to discover the sound of each other.
Then, all three join for the real Maïzing session of 40 minutes, during this one three sound universe collapse in a singular one.

After the session, Mystahr and Ian Linter, both owner of a fantastic netlabel, decide to release the two different parts in an identificable netrelease: Three solos on OFF/BRUMA and the collective improv’ on Just Not Normal.

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Carlos Suarez - Ars Poetica ( Just Not Normal, 2010)

1 – Pessimus interpres (interludio)
2 – Vulgus veritatis pessimus interpres (Artaud)
3 – Ubi est mor (Interludio)
4 – Ubi est mor victoria tua (Borges)

With the utmost honor Just not Normal presents the fantastic music of the Spanish Carlos Suarez. Exporing the poetry of Artaud, this masterpiece was originally intended as a physical CD release, but as Carlos said; he is more interested in exploring new sounds rather then setting out to find a label to be published. We could not have been more proud to have him sign on for this grand release. Darkness has set and settles in your ears!

About the poet/poem: (only in Spanish)

2.- Vulgus veritatis pessimus interpres (Artaud).

En 1948 Artaud muere en el asilo de Ivry-sur-Seine después haber sido sometido durante años a tratamientos de electroshock e insulinoterapia. Paradójicamente es en estos años cuando escribe sus textos más lúcidos. En uno de sus poemas “Alineación y magia negra” explica como estas agresiones de la psiquiatría afectaron su existencia. Sin embargo, más allá de una crítica a los métodos terapéuticos de su tiempo, Artaud hace un hermético análisis de la sociedad burguesa, y expresa veladamente que esta agresiones eran en realidad un intento por: “vaciar al hombre de su yo, y de esta forma mostrarlo vacío, extraordinariamente vacío y disponible”. Explica que para la sociedad burguesa aquel que no este vacío y disponible a la voluntad del poder entonces en un enfermo mental que debe ser reducido o marginado.
A pesar de todo, Artaud supo escapar por momentos de los limbos del electroshock para explicarnos que su aparente locura: “ha dado siempre mejores indicios sobre la plétora de mi poder que las creencias pequeño burguesas de que: BASTA LA SALUD” Los representantes del sistema que diagnosticaron la supuesta locura de Artaud, basaron sus juicios en los atavismos de una sociedad que en realidad estaba muy lejos de la cordura.
Esta pieza es una dramatización sonora del texto “alienation e magie noire” leído por el propio Artaud en 1946. La composición intenta a través del discurso sonoro amplificar los significados del texto, su extática espiritualidad y la indoblegable lucidez de sus metáforas.

“Frente a todo esto, ¿qué resta del viejo Artaud? algunas notas, aquellas del obrero de pozos que trepa sin sol, hacia las afueras de la bóveda redonda, peldaño a peldaño por la escalera del tiempo gangrenado por la eternidad. Helas aquí a través de un cierto pasado.” A Artaud
Just Not Normal

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Gabran - Secrets (Just Not Normal, 2010)

1 Secret 1
2 Secret 2
3 Secret 3
4 Secret 4
5 Secret 5
6 Secret 6
7 Secret 7
8 Secret 8
9 Secret 9
10 Secret 10

Return in the forest for a new harvest of sounds...
I'm looking for other sounds ... other worlds ...

These are just some of the sounds that I brought home after my last trip ...
After my last dream ...

Echoes of distant nebulae disappeared into infinity of the mind...
only a few sounds, a gift for those who want to listen ...

To hear them turn off the light and let the images exploding in your mind ...
only a candle... and, then, a full immersion into sounds ...

Sounds help us to understand ourselves...

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