Mastered by Sam Weaver
Dadaist poetry and music from German artist Ana Berkenhoff and ONO capo Michael Holland of Islington Mill, Salford.
In tribute to Kurt Schwitters – a core influence on the ONO label – Ana riffs on his parody of a love poem, ‘An Anna Blume’ set to wobbly lower case electronics in six parts. Between them, they blur the lines between poetry and tone poem, with Manchester’s answer to Peter Pan coaxing out a gauzy spectrum of eccentric small sounds, lopped beats and radiophonic quarks matched for quirkiness by Ana’s contributions; from glossolalic rambles to English translations of the Schwitters’ text, because “it is unbearably cheesy in my mother tongue…” according to the artist herself.
boomkat
Loyal Piccadilly Records customers will be familiar with Ono by now. Put simply, Ono is the North West’s and possibly England’s greatest DIY label / art project. A labour of love by Michael Holland, it’s been the platform for many low-key artists hidden in the shadows and without it, it could be argued, the world would be a much more miserable place!
Anyway, with great excitement I glanced at the latest release to see no other than head honcho Michael Holland listed in the production credits! Joined by sound artist Ana Berkenhoff and sounding a little like an Eccentronic Research Council meets Raymond Scott’s Mahattan Research Inc meets Cluster, this is a collection of poetry, electronics and improvisation woven together like a tapestry and drawing you in like a tense but beautifully shot thriller.
Clangers-esque theremin sine tones, ethnic percussion, multi-lingual poetry, mangled strings – a plethora of idents from an all manner of subversive stylings.
Recorded over many days March – April 2015 W/ Roland 303 Groovebox, Zoom H4 Fostex 160 Multitracker, Samplr, Trichord, Plumbutter, Steel on Foam and Littlebits.
This is brilliant!
Picadilly Records
