ROEL MEELKOP
Grey Mass / Grey Matter
2 x 3“CDR, (2 x 21:20 min),
100 copies / DIN A5 cardboard cover, one CDR on each side.
1000füssler 014, release date: February 2010
The tracks on 'grey mass / grey matter' have come together in a very satisfying way. They were all concieved as single tracks except one and were composed with quite some time intervals inbetween. Now they converge on this release as if they have always belonged together. In a sense that is certainly the case, because the essence of these tracks lies in their concrete origins: all sound material is based on recorded sounds. No electronic sounds whatsoever were added. As if in some mysterious way this can be percieved and it should indeed be noted. Or maybe it should just be enjoyed?.
Roel Meelkop, 2010
Tracklist:
grey mass 4‘09
grey mass 3‘56
grey mass 13‘13 (mp3 excerpt)
grey matter 8‘34 (mp3 excerpt)
grey matter 4‘48
grey matter 7‘56
About the Artist:
Roel Meelkop (1963) studied visual arts and art theory at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. During a post-graduate course at the same academy he decided to dedicate his work to sound and music. His musical activities date back to the early eighties when he started THU20, together with Jac van Bussel, Peter Duimelinks, Jos Smolders and Guido Doesborg. THU20 have released several tapes and CD‘s and performed regularly in Europe.
The working method of THU20 included many discussions about how to compose and why. This period was crucial in forming his ideas and concepts about sound and how to organise it, but it was not until the mid nineties that he was able to fully realise these ideas. The purchase of a sampler and later a computer radically changed his possibilities of working with sound, offering infinitely more control and freedom.
Since then he has worked steadily on a body of work, most of which was recieved enthusiastically in the small but dedicated world of sound art. His other activities include working with Kapotte Muziek and GOEM and organising sound events, mostly in Rotterdam. Aside from releases, Meelkop also creates site-specific sound installations and performance pieces in collaboration with other artists.
www.r0m.nl
REVIEWS:
The Wire / UK
Meelkop is a Dutch visual artist/musician probably best known for his work with THU20 and Kapotte Musik. His solo discography is extensive, however, and this new double 3" CD set provides a fine earful of classic musique concrète. The source material was recorded at home and during Meelkop's travels, and was obviously processed in a lot of strange ways, but he takes pains to note that none of the sources is electronic, so we'll have to take him at his word. That said, the two discs are complementary. Grey Mass is a bit louder than its companion and features an inexplicable AC Jobim quote that threw me for a loop. The majority of the work is patched sound, far from its origins, melded into almost logical strings of bleats, drawn out thuds, and sweetly fizzing shards of organic bone failure. Dizzy in spots, rock solid in others, it's a low-key blast.
Byron Coley, The Wire 316, June 2010
Vital Weekly / Netherlands
The press text by Meelkop himself is pretty sketchy. He tells us that the tracks on this release have come 'together in a very satisfying way', although he doesn't give a reason for it. What is clear though is that all the sounds were taped in his environment (at home or when traveling) and that no electronic sounds were used. We have to believe him of course, but some of the sounds do seem electronically generated. No doubt he throws his sound material into the computer and then starts transforming each one beyond recognition. He uses all the tricks in the book to change those sounds. Then, in the next stage, he starts to compose with those sounds. Unlike so many other who don't get beyond the point of transformation and who are merely interested in showing their transformations, without presenting an actual composition. In that respect Meelkop is much closer to the original musique concrete composers than many of his peers (and those of the next generation). Relying both heavily on
field recordings and computer treatments, Meelkop is more a traditional composer than a modern one. For him the beauty doesn't lie in the fact of being experimental or not, but in the beauty of everyday sound, which is so perfectly well suited for composing. The six pieces on this double release are just another perfect example of that. It made me wonder: why didn't he rise to the same fame as others have? Curious. He deserves it.
Frans de Ward / Vital Weekly 723
Just outside / USA
A double-3" with six tracks, apparently assembled over some stretch of time. My experience with Meelkop's music isn't so extensive but I didn't really expect to hear "The Girl from Ipanema" show up. That's one element in this collection of sounds which ranges widely enough that it's bit tough to describe. On the one hand, they sound quite loose and natural, fluctuating between concrète and field recordings in a relaxed manner though I suspect there's much more "composition" in play. Whatever, they succeed in avoiding entirely the clunky sterility that besets (to my ears) much concrète music. The first "grey matter" piece (which are quieter than the "grey mass" ones) is an especially lovely merging of near-subsonic rumbles, bell and sine tones. Enjoyable, rich work; recommended.
Brian Olewnick, Just outside, April 05, 2010
The Watchful Ear / UK
The two little discs contain three short tracks each, and come attached to either side of an oversized, subtly printed card. Its a nicely put together package, but I wonder if it would have been much cheaper for the label to have just put all of the music onto one full sized disc. I love the 3″ format, but I do wonder about the financial sense behind this one. That said, there are differences between the two pieces. Grey Mass is generally a little louder than its companion disc. Both contain a kind of modern, slightly less frantic musique concrete mad up in equal parts computer generated sounds and field recordings, but Mass , while not really ever becoming particularly boisterous contains less of the quiet, mid period Bernhard Günter textures. Quite a lot of ground is covered across the forty or so minutes of music presented on these discs. Although there is always a certain tone to the sounds, a kind of yes, greyness to the music that is given further strength through the generally slow pace of the music, the actual sounds bounce from cheesy synthesised squiggles to gritty white noise to a series of carefully placed field recordings that range from the obvious and familiar (trains, murmuring crowds in large enclosed spaces, helicopters) to the unexpected ( a strange, chopped up rendition of The Girl from Ipanema) Everything is very nicely put together, with some good use of silence. Nothing feels rushed, and the overall structure of the music suggests a nice sense of symmetry and careful order. Grey Matter uses perhaps less field recordings, or maybe just drops the volume on them and breaks them down more so as to disguise their presence, but there is more of a sense of rumbling, distant sound here rather than old school cut ‘n splice concrete.
The cynical me might suggest that these pieces of music, which, for all their craft and occasional surprise are perhaps very easily filed under some ugly heading labeled like “sound sculpture” or another equally offensive moniker, a box containing a whole lot of post-concrete computerised composition. There is however just enough character and individuality in the musical decisions made to keep the music just about fresh enough. While not coming anywhere close to matching Tomas Korber and Ralf Wehowsky’s recent efforts in this field, the music on Grey Mass / Grey Matter inhabits similar ground and is a pleasant, satisfying listen with just the occasional jab of something quite different added in to keep us on our toes. The chances are though, this release will get buried beneath the vast amount of material in this vein that is appearing on disc these days, and while the two little discs make for a nice forty minute diversion I cannot see me reaching this one down off of the shelves here too often. Still, one for fans of well put together modern musique concrete for sure.
Richard Pinnell / thewatchfulear.com, 20th May 2010
Neural Magazine / Italy
Dual 3" CD-R, enclosed within beautiful A5 dark cardboard packaging has been released by the experimental German label 1000füssler. This is a production by Roel Meelkop, a visual artist with a strong interest in music, who is somewhat attracted to decidedly minimalist, skinny and abstract codes. We say "somewhat" because the actual source of the sounds in these aleatory sequences is openly dubious: to the ear they may seem synthesized sounds due to the extreme rarefaction of the melody, but the author assures us in the presentation of the project, that "no electronic sound was added" - all the collected material is created from recordings. Here is an expedient that is really minimal, because in music everything is always in relation to human intelligence and the compositional techniques associated with a particular and specific approach. Implicitly affirmed here is the concept that perception is imperfect when it comes to assessing complex aesthetic phenomena: "how to compose and why" depends on a clear set of choices and the work of Roel Meelkop testifies to this, in a cryptic but unexceptionable way..
Aurelio Cianciotta / Neural Magazine 37, (you can read also in: italian)
Bad Alchemy / Germany
Zwei Schönheiten in einem Format, das ich sehr mag. Erst sieht man nur den weißen Rücken, pflückt man die Scheibchen von der Cardboardhalterung, zeigen sie eine schwarze Bauchseite. Das Auge hört mit. 2 x 3 Tracks bilden ein Doppeltriptychon aus ausschließlich konkreten Klängen, aus „recorded sounds“, wie der Niederländer betont. Manchmal hört man diffuses Stimmengewirr, Schritte, einmal auch deutlich die Einfahrt und die Abfahrt einer U-Bahn, das Vorüberschrappen eines Hubschraubers. Die Klangbilder an sich sind aber bewusst Grau in Grau gehalten, als so vage wie suggestive Facetten eines Ambientes, das wir als unser alltägliches kaum wahrnehmen. Wir schachteln uns nur mit dem Grey Room, in dem unser Bewusstsein wohnt, in ein größeres Grau voller Masse und Mächten, die wir nicht beherrschen. Wenn ein ‚Girl from Ipanema‘ durchs Zimmer schwingt, können einem die anderen Mächte auch gestohlen bleiben, oder? Dingdongt da ein Glockenspiel im Gedröhn, umkurvt von feinen Wooshes? Feuchtes und knatterndes Gefurzel schubst einen aus feinsinniger Tagträumerei. Die graue Welt ist stereo, mal getüpfelt, mal besirrt oder gewittrig durchgrummelt oder einfach nur ein Ticken. Wenn sie so verhalten und hintergründig klingt, dass ich sie beinahe vergesse, scheint über uns beiden der Honigmond, Grau in Grau.
Rigo Dittmann / Bad Alchemy 66
Aufabwegen / Germany
Roel Meelkop gehört sicher zu den radikalsten Minimalisten. Aber im Gegensatz zu Richard Chartier oder Bernhard Günter ist seine Reduktion nicht auf die Hinwendung zum Glitch zurückzuführen, noch Zen-artigen Konzepten zu verdanken. Die Stille ist vielmehr das Kontinuum im Werken Meelkops, das Liniensystem gewissermaßen, auf dem die einzelnen “Noten” platziert werden. Diese Zurückhaltung fokussiert die Einzelsounds, die wie Gesteinsbrocken oder rostige Schrott-Teile in den Raum fallen. Diese Klänge sind immer sperrig und spröde, Roel Meelkop verhilft ihnen aber zu maximaler Wirkung, weil er sie von “Stille” umgibt. Wieder einmal: großes Kino!
Zipo, Aufabwegen, 31. März 2010
le son du grisli / France
Si Roel Meelkop a préféré sortir deux petits disques au lieu d’un grand (c'est à dire d'un disque “normal”), c’est qu’il est encore possible à certains d’envisager la musique sous forme d’œuvre d’un format arrêté.
Tout ça pour que Grey Mass et Grey Matter forment en plus un seul et même objet : deux faces qui sont celles d’une même envie de musique qui s’infiltre jusque sous les sinus sous formes de collages d’enregistrements environnementaux (par exemple, le bruit d’un métro suspendu) et de jeux de guitare (qui joue par exemple Girl from Ipanema sur une corde et avec difficulté mais pour rire). Sur la durée, les deux disques font figure d’œuvres expérimentales fortes, travaillées, et aussi hypnothiques que loufoques.
Pierre Cécile / le son du grisli, 5. June 2010
www.1000fuessler