XAVIER CHARLES / NIKOS VELIOTIS
Kaspian Black
(Alt.Vinyl - AV061) LP $22.50 (Out-of-stock)
Former kingpin of the Athens pop / electronic scene and founding member of In Trance 95 uses unorthodox cello techniques, in collaboration with the French improv clarinettist known for vibrating speaker installations, noise and electro-acoustics. The duo balances between extremes of uninhibited cacophony and painstakingly detailed exploration of static floating sounds, powerful attacks and serene atmospheres. 180-gram vinyl. Screen-printed sleeve. Edition of 250
XAVIER CHARLES / KRISTOFF K. ROLL
La Pièce
(Potlatch) Used CD $8.00
Dynamic headphone music from 1999 by French electroacoustic duo and clarinetist who can get it on via noise electroacoustics or sound poetry. See-sawing violin sample glides through a quiet storm of bowed cymbals, tiny skittering sounds and gestural clarinet that generally offers up timbres rather than melodic lines.
XAVIER CHARLES / JEAN-PHILIPPE GROSS / FRANZ HAUTZINGER / LIONEL MARCHETTI
TSSTT!
(Monotype - MONO048) CD $14.00
“TSSTT matches the textures emanating from the electric-acoustic devices of … Gross [and] the tape recorder and short-wave sounds of musique concrète composer Marchetti,” says Jazzword, “With the acoustic contributions of clarinetist Charles and quarter-tone trumpeter Hautzinger…. Short-wave signals and computer-game-styled buzzing and explosions … reveal distinctive concussion-like impulses…. [A]lso audible are bugle-like triplets from Hautzinger and pseudo dog yelps from Charles’s clarinet…. [W]hile blurry loops and an undertow of tape-machine buzzing predominates on other tracks – along with unexpected gun-shot like pops – so do aleatory and contrapuntal acoustic squeak and peeps…. [A]ir-filled vibrations … gradually turn to harsher, narrower sine waves with tandem instrumental extensions…, escalating and burbling timbres from Gross’s … devices and flanged abrasions from Marchetti’s motor-driven Revox join with the horns’ multiphonic hisses and whistles.”