This CD is a recording from the Summer of 2000 of a Berlin performanceby Ilpo Vãisãnen and Dirk Dresselhaus (i.e. Schneider TM). Vãisãnen isplaying the typewriter, that beautiful device pictured inside thePanasonic "Kulma" CD, while Dresselhaus is playing electric guitar. Themusic is electric noise improvisation and is generally prettyenjoyable. This is nice music to play while doing the dishes, ironingor checking email. But the trouble with that is, as the music is mostlynot very attention-grabbing, it's easy for the mind to wander andsuddenly I find that the CD has come to its end and, with a measure ofguilt, I admit that I can't recall much of what happened. It is notfair to expect a 45-minute improvisation to be enthralling all the waythrough. Even if it were, how much of that can we expect to remainafter the transfer through CD into your living room, with the soundtoned down and smoothed out, with the drama and tension of the eventreplaced by the banality of everyday surroundings? So I get theheadphones on and concentrate. (This enhanced CD has a couple of videostaken from the performance that can be played on a computer and,despite the video effects, the images help me to visualize the event.)Under these conditions, this turns out to be an exciting performance.Vãisãnen is the more dominant player in duo. While rather conventionaland fairly transparent, the guitar playing is always tasteful,sometimes exciting, and very sympathetic to its surroundings, thesebeing presumably Vãisãnen's doing. The same personality known from PanSonic is immediately recognizable but is largely without the Pan Sonicsound. After years playing a unique instrument it is perhaps no wonderthat a personal style emerges. Vãisãnen introduces considerableoriginality to the unfolding process at several points throughout theshow. My only quibbles are the smart-ass track mastering and theinscription on the inside of the digipack that says "set the volume andlisten." But perhaps this is no more than the anticipation that certainin the audience will in fact set the volume and do the dishes orironing instead. Read More
