No, I'm not buying every release by the French-Chinese label WV Sorcerer Productions. But since all of them are interesting at least, I'm surely getting tempted a lot.
Additionally Ruò Tán doesn't only publish his own releases, but also distributes some great Asian treasures to the rest of the world. Among those is a double CD from Psych Delta Productions, which starts this little roundelay of reviews:
水門汀 CEMENTIN - 稍縱即逝 糟選集 Worst of Cementin (CD) (2021)
Why waste time to find my own words, when I can just cite the Sorcerer's introduction to the band: Cementin was formed in July 2015 in Shanghai, combining Krautrock, Psychedelic Rock, ethnic music, and experimental music. Indulging in aimless improvisation is a katharsis and also the starting point of their creativity, and they keep exploring the fusion of traditional Chinese music and psychedelic sound.
As the title suggests this is a compilation, namely a collection of live recordings from 2016 to 2019, which means over two hours of sprawling jams with an ever-changing line-up, which includes guitars, sitar, keyboards, bass, drums and further percussions, but also occasional vocals and the bouzouki on one track. So yes, this is a lot of a lot - and it's all fantastic. The blend of Chinese sounds and melodies with Psychedelic Rock is a match I don't see myself getting tired of anytime soon, and these guys get the most out of it. Who even needs to record a studio album, when you can fill two CDs to the brim with so much and diverse awesome unfiltered live magic?
The double disc comes with a poster and postcard, which look nice, but also raise the question: Where to put all this stuff? Vinyl releases make this a little bit easier: If you don't hang it up your wall (which I would if I had a giant hallway with free space left), you just leave the extras in the record sleeve. But since CDs or cassettes are too compact for that solution, you always have to find another place to store these extras. At least the OBI strip fits inside the CD booklet.
The double disc comes with a poster and postcard, which look nice, but also raise the question: Where to put all this stuff? Vinyl releases make this a little bit easier: If you don't hang it up your wall (which I would if I had a giant hallway with free space left), you just leave the extras in the record sleeve. But since CDs or cassettes are too compact for that solution, you always have to find another place to store these extras. At least the OBI strip fits inside the CD booklet.
COLD DEW - Yuyu 欲欲 (Coral Pink vinyl LP) (2023)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]Now let's get to the bunch of actual WV Sorcerer albums! Jumping from the continental mainland to Taiwan we encounter Cold Dew, whose album "Yuyu 欲欲" is based on the contemplation about the Buddhist concept of the same name, which describes a never-ending desire, growing so strong that it prevents us from actually being free.
Soaked in big watery reverb it opens with the almost too sugary and schmaltzy ballad "雲 Cloud", but then already in its solo part, yet especially during the course of the following kaleidoscopic long tracks "山地情歌 San-Di Love Song", "溫泉 Hot Spring" and the live recording "六神無主 In a Daze" develops into a wild boundless ride through Psychedelic, Eastern and Western music, pulsating with energy and creativity. This album is the ideal medicine if you are looking for substitutes to fill the void which the departure of Kikagaku Moyo left and you don't want to rely on Minami Deutsch alone for that matter.
So far "Yuyu 欲欲" is the 2023 release which I have listened to on repeat the most. Which is quite unexpected for a work which on multiple occasions features vocal lines which in Germany would be filed under the dreaded category of "Schlager". But then they just work this in so fluently and there are also those big sincere emotions and raw chaotic Acid Mothers Temple excesses...
As you would expect the packaging of the beautiful record meets the label's high standards. It features liner notes, credits and a lyric sheet, all with English translations. As an original twist this is a gatefold where you put in the medium from the inside. You often see this with CDs, but in 12" format not so often.
(As always OBI strips are cool, but I just still wish they were glued to a complete ring like those from Guruguru Brain, so you could simply keep it on and didn't have to bugger about with it every time you you handle the record.)
Soaked in big watery reverb it opens with the almost too sugary and schmaltzy ballad "雲 Cloud", but then already in its solo part, yet especially during the course of the following kaleidoscopic long tracks "山地情歌 San-Di Love Song", "溫泉 Hot Spring" and the live recording "六神無主 In a Daze" develops into a wild boundless ride through Psychedelic, Eastern and Western music, pulsating with energy and creativity. This album is the ideal medicine if you are looking for substitutes to fill the void which the departure of Kikagaku Moyo left and you don't want to rely on Minami Deutsch alone for that matter.
So far "Yuyu 欲欲" is the 2023 release which I have listened to on repeat the most. Which is quite unexpected for a work which on multiple occasions features vocal lines which in Germany would be filed under the dreaded category of "Schlager". But then they just work this in so fluently and there are also those big sincere emotions and raw chaotic Acid Mothers Temple excesses...
As you would expect the packaging of the beautiful record meets the label's high standards. It features liner notes, credits and a lyric sheet, all with English translations. As an original twist this is a gatefold where you put in the medium from the inside. You often see this with CDs, but in 12" format not so often.
(As always OBI strips are cool, but I just still wish they were glued to a complete ring like those from Guruguru Brain, so you could simply keep it on and didn't have to bugger about with it every time you you handle the record.)
ZAGUŠLJIVI DIM - Dolina Kralja Viktora (Blue Marble vinyl LP) (2022)
The focus on Far Eastern artists shouldn't cloud the fact that WV Sorcerer obviously understands music as a global language. So here are Zagušljivi Dim ("suffocating smoke") from Croatia!
Drifting between dream and reality, tangible grooves and surrealsistic ambience, the trio takes us through one beautifully crafted piece in two parts and multiple subsections. Sometimes light and hallucinatory, sometimes gripping and heavy (yet not going into Noise or Metal territory), it would already be more than enough, if guitar, bass and drums carried this wonderful album alone. Yet when they are aided by strings or Italian horror style synths, that's when "Dolina Kralja Viktora" has its most glorious and memorable moments. All in all a very substantial, meaningful Psych release with a noteworthy distinct atmosphere. Anyone with interests in that direction should check this one out!
Drifting between dream and reality, tangible grooves and surrealsistic ambience, the trio takes us through one beautifully crafted piece in two parts and multiple subsections. Sometimes light and hallucinatory, sometimes gripping and heavy (yet not going into Noise or Metal territory), it would already be more than enough, if guitar, bass and drums carried this wonderful album alone. Yet when they are aided by strings or Italian horror style synths, that's when "Dolina Kralja Viktora" has its most glorious and memorable moments. All in all a very substantial, meaningful Psych release with a noteworthy distinct atmosphere. Anyone with interests in that direction should check this one out!
ALESSANDRO PARISI - La Porta Ermetica (Sanguine Marble vinyl LP) (2013/2023)
Speaking of Italian horror: Let's switch the genre from all this psychedelica to... yes, an indeed Italian Electronic artists, who lets his synths creep and wail in the tradition of Goblin.
"La Porta Ermetica" celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and this reissue presents the album in a remastered, rearranged and extended form. I don't know the original release, so there's no ground for comparison, but what I'm hearing from Alessandro Parisi here and now has me completely sold.
The selection of beats and sounds seems more retro than say Zombi or Carpenter Brut, so this music definitely breathes a lot of nostalgic vibes. But above all the whole production is just super tasteful and finds the perfect balance between danceability and being scary. The "Profondo Ross" style artwork and vinyl colour certainly is a great match.
What? You have no idea what Italo Horror Electronic even is? Good, then start here, because this is such an exemplary album of its genre. It is as much that as Judas Priest's "Painkiller" is Metaaaaaaaaal!!! *screamsinhighpitchedHalfordvoice*
"La Porta Ermetica" celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and this reissue presents the album in a remastered, rearranged and extended form. I don't know the original release, so there's no ground for comparison, but what I'm hearing from Alessandro Parisi here and now has me completely sold.
The selection of beats and sounds seems more retro than say Zombi or Carpenter Brut, so this music definitely breathes a lot of nostalgic vibes. But above all the whole production is just super tasteful and finds the perfect balance between danceability and being scary. The "Profondo Ross" style artwork and vinyl colour certainly is a great match.
What? You have no idea what Italo Horror Electronic even is? Good, then start here, because this is such an exemplary album of its genre. It is as much that as Judas Priest's "Painkiller" is Metaaaaaaaaal!!! *screamsinhighpitchedHalfordvoice*
李劍鴻 LI JIANHONG & 文智湧 WEN ZHIYONG & 鄧博宇 DENG BOYU
- 歲寒三友 Les Trois Amis de l'Hiver (2CD) (2023)
- 歲寒三友 Les Trois Amis de l'Hiver (2CD) (2023)
And so it ends as it began, with a double CD live album. This however is not a compilation, but one single full giant performance of experimental Noise guitar master Li Jianhong, drummer Deng Boyu and Wen Zhiyong on trumpet, bone flute and synths, recorded in Beijing in November 2021. This monumental improvisation session was simply too big for a reasonable vinyl release, the sixth track "銀島 The Silver Island" alone being an over thirty-two minutes long behemoth.
One thing is for sure: This album offers more than enough magic to nourish any fan of experimental guitar Noise and Drone (Li's sounds just as rich and satisfying as on "山霧 Mountain Fog"), Free Jazz drumming, smooth transcendent horns and Ambient passages with traditional Chinese atmosphere. And if you don't think that this descrption fits you, it still might. You just don't know it yet!
The communication and interplay, the organic melting of textures, unburdened by the pressure of catering to a specific genre... the whole symphonic approach of these three virtuosos is that sensational.
"The Three Friends Of Winter" (referring to the plant species of pine, bamboo and plum, who all remain strong during the winter months) is a suite one could write whole chapters about. But that rabbit hole is too cosmically endless to even enter for me. This post already is long enough as it is.
And this recording defies an adequate account anyway. I'm asking myself: Hey, which live album is actually definitely not just on a par, but better than this one? And I know that there are probably plenty, but while I'm listening to this masterpiece I'm having an extremely hard time pinning only one of those down. It's such a breathtakingly powerful piece of art.
Even among the high-quality peers of this WV Sorcerer / Psych Delta haul this double album stands out as a class of its own.
The CDs come in a digipak, together with four fine matt postcards. Beautiful - but as I elaborated on earlier above: Where do I put all this stuff?
One thing is for sure: This album offers more than enough magic to nourish any fan of experimental guitar Noise and Drone (Li's sounds just as rich and satisfying as on "山霧 Mountain Fog"), Free Jazz drumming, smooth transcendent horns and Ambient passages with traditional Chinese atmosphere. And if you don't think that this descrption fits you, it still might. You just don't know it yet!
The communication and interplay, the organic melting of textures, unburdened by the pressure of catering to a specific genre... the whole symphonic approach of these three virtuosos is that sensational.
"The Three Friends Of Winter" (referring to the plant species of pine, bamboo and plum, who all remain strong during the winter months) is a suite one could write whole chapters about. But that rabbit hole is too cosmically endless to even enter for me. This post already is long enough as it is.
And this recording defies an adequate account anyway. I'm asking myself: Hey, which live album is actually definitely not just on a par, but better than this one? And I know that there are probably plenty, but while I'm listening to this masterpiece I'm having an extremely hard time pinning only one of those down. It's such a breathtakingly powerful piece of art.
Even among the high-quality peers of this WV Sorcerer / Psych Delta haul this double album stands out as a class of its own.
The CDs come in a digipak, together with four fine matt postcards. Beautiful - but as I elaborated on earlier above: Where do I put all this stuff?
