review on Vital Weekly:
(...)I had a discussion via e-mail with Jaap Blonk about my reviews (see Vital Weekly 839). I thought both releases were a bit too long to be digested all at once, and that it perhaps needed trimming down. Blonk argued that none of his releases were made with the idea of listen-all-at-once, but just like classical pieces or collections of jaz
z pieces, the listener should play a few pieces and then put it aside, and that he was surprised by my 'pop music' attitude towards consuming an album as a whole. I am not sure if that is my attitude, but when it comes to writing about music, I usually take albums as a whole; I am not sure if that is a pop attitude. I played this CD again in its entirety, sorry about that, but I kept in mind I should regard this as separate pieces. I would perhaps skip the title piece, which has a nice computer cut-up of Blonk's voice, but also a sort of (midi-?) piano which I don't like. As with all of his work, the voice plays a central in the work of Jaap Blonk, and sometimes hard to believe, nothing else. Sometimes he uses electronics too, but it's never easy to know which they are, or where we find them. And then sometimes, such as in 'Featherwater River', there seems to be no voice material. That is a nice strange, introspective piece of piano and a drone. Odd for Blonk. I am not sure if Blonk's older solo works are still available, but if you need an introduction into his music, this is a great place to start. It seems to have everything. A piece of noise music, 'Yapp Yapp' or 'AA60', modern classical music 'Lone Sphere', sound poetry/poems such as 'Cimbrod King' or 'Gramm', electronic pieces for voice in 'Rage Rage' or pure computer processing of voices in 'Sympa Cri' (also not the most strongest pieces). Something for everybody and a fine overview of all the techniques Blonk has mastered over the years to use his voices, as well, and this mig....... więcej