Johann WLIGHT "Dauswkn"
Sijis | siji10 | CD-R | 2004
FREIBAND "Sijis rmx"
Sijis | sijis08 | CD-R | 2004

Two releases on Sijis, a CD-R label that's closely connected with an internet radio show of the same name www.resonancefm.com. The first artist, Johann Wlight, is totally unknown to me. However, giving an insight into his small catalogue I guess it's not only me who hasn't heard much about Johann so far. Anyway, I gave him a chance to surprise me at this initial listen to Sijis' offer. And I was "surprised" by an over minute-long silence that starts the record. In the meantime I tried to recall how many records I'd known that started that way. Luckily, Johann Wlight doesn't go into Francisco Lopez's volume gradations that could be an obvious way here. The 'musical' part of "Dauswkn" (what does it mean, I wonder?) is slightly shifting stuff that bears resemblance to Heemann & Chalk's Mirror veering a little towards lowercase music. This is a sound collage wherein no element seems to fit the whole, but on the other hand, in its own subversive way, it does!!! The music is ear-friendly by its quiet nature, although an appearance of hisses, hummings, and even field musique concrete would say something otherwise. Yes, in the course of over 30 minutes, Johann Wlight does a lot in order not to get his music easily pigeonholed, which is good.
On the contrary, Freiband's founder Frans de Waard needs no introduction. Behind 'Sijis rmx' stands a concept of using only excerpts from Sijis' back catalogue. Brandon LaBelle did the same with Groundfault records once, but the technique and the final result differed much from Freiband's. No low frequencies, noises disturb the over 15 minute long band of delicate, floating music that's not really static in its motion. There're some undercurrents that carry humming and sound wavings. The closer to the end, the more Frans interrupts into general calm mood - he starts to loop sounds, which gives some spatial effect to this rather single dimension music. Quite good background music - but would you expect any crap from this man?

[krzysztof sadza]