Alan Dearling shares some of the vibes
Trades Club in Hebden Bridge: Very much an evening of experimental sounds and visual treats. Krautrock and improvisation with Amaury Cambuzat’s solo project I FEEL LIKE A BOMBED CATHEDRAL (and well-known from FaUSt and Ulan Bator). From Trades Club, Amaury was set to travel off to France and Italy to continue his musical adventures. Imagine a buzzing wyrdness of electronica – an evil heretical maelstrom of experimental ambient noise – an existential Tubular Bells created far beyond the river Styx in deepest Hades!
Way back in 1993, Amaury Cambuzat formed Ulan Bator. Amaury with Ulan Bator have chalked up an impressive ten albums. But alongside this, Amaury has played live and recorded with the German band FaUSt. A busy musician he’s also recorded two albums with his side-project, CHAOS PHYSIQUE, in addition to three solo albums.
He has also collaborated with Michael Gira, Robin Guthrie, James Johnston, Nikki Sudden, and Pascal Comelade.
The ‘Inside the cathedral’ sessions are available as a free digital download. It’s a dark melange of electric guitar, soaked with effects, analogue synth sounds and heartbeats.
Here’s the live video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcngm8lG8a0
Back in July in the USA, as part of FaUSt, he performed with MC5 legend, Wayne Kramer, Pere Ubu and an industrial cement mixer. “This”, said frontman, Jean-Hervé Peron, “…is Krautrock!”
More recently, Amaury commented: “This is the soundtrack that was playing in my head while we were working on the Oslo Tapes future LP. A musical universe that reminds me of my teenage years, tracks and particular sounds that have sculpted my ears as a producer. I hope you will like it.”
In this double-headline show, Lines of Silence were mightily impressive. They were very much in Tangerine Dream modus operandi. Plenty of snaking, ever-repeating, instrumental melodies, some real aural, even slightly surreal and psychedelic ear-worms…
Here’s a sample from that show: ‘A New Ritual for Dead Gods’ live at the Trades:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnKHX3iSIYc
David Little from Lines of Silence (LOS) told me:
“Lines of Silence is currently finalising mixing and mastering of a new album, working title ‘A New Ritual for Dead Gods’ – which we hope will be released in 2024.”
The previous album was an ambient and drone creation, ‘Stations of the Sun’.
LOS started out in life as David Little’s solo project in 2020. It has expanded to become a loose collective of like-minded musicians. At the Trades’ gig and for the new album, LOS are working as a core duo of David, plus Dave Clarkson, with additional input from other artists such as John Bonner who produces and mixes the mesmeric and really rather wonderful live visuals for the band.
David Little adds: “I first met Dave ‘virtually’ a few years back as label mates on the London-based experimental music label Linear Obsessional. We then met in person in 2021 when I attended a Scissorgun gig in Manchester (Scissorgun is Dave’s project with ex-Crispy Ambulance member Alan Hempsall).
Dave is well-known and loved in the experimental music scene in Manchester and beyond, having released a number of albums in different genres – and is probably best known for Scissorgun and his hauntological series of ‘Pocket Guides’ of atmospheric field recording-based albums.”
David and Dave have become good friends and musical colleagues. And having worked on the new album together and the arrangements and mixing of the pieces of the new album, it is very much a joint effort. David Little told me that he wanted to move beyond the drone and ambient music of previous releases and work in different styles. So the new music which was on show at the Trades was full of explorations into the worlds of jazz as well as kosmische/Krautrock and electronic music.
David explained, “We have mixed in elements that point to these influences, for example, Miles’s electric period: ‘On the Corner’ and ‘Get Up With It’ were firm favourites, along with Can, Neu!, FaUSt and contemporary kosmische acts such as Utopia Strong. The new album is a mix of avant-funk, classic driving motorik pieces, with electronic as well as more expansive ambient passages.”
Web site: https://linktr.ee/linesofsilence