Hominine parts 1 to 3

by Doc Wör Mirran featuring Stadlmeier / De Waard / Gormley

For their release # 168, Northern Bavaria based experimental legends Doc Wör Mirran have invited their longtime transatlantic friend and repeated co-conspirator Adrian Gormley as well as prolific experimental underground friends and colleagues Frans de Waard and Sascha Stadlmeier. While the core Doc Wör Mirran line-up fulfills the rather typical roles of a band, with instruments such as guitars, percussion, and synthesisers, Stadlmeier and de Waard add lots of textural details using taped and digital samples, sound effects, radio noises, and heavily processed voice. However, throughout the best part of the release, it is Gormley's saxophone that guides us on our way through their collective soundscape.

At times lyrical, at times plaintive, sometimes melodic, sometimes weaving itself into the overall tapestry of sounds, the saxophone proves itself capable of bridging the gap between a melody-based and the more sound-based musical approach followed by most of the players here. Some of the best moments of this three-part album that was culled from one single live session happen when the saxophone interplays with percussive noises from plastic bottles and all sorts of other sounding devices, as well as spaced-out guitars and a theremin. The album gets darker and denser from part to part, ending up as a sort of industrial lounge jazz for a David Lynch movie.

File under: Ambient, psychedelic, free improvisation

ACU 1018

factory-produced CDr in cardboard sleeve

Released in 2020

limited to 100 copies, sold out

price: 7.00 EUR (excl. postage)

Personnel:
Adrian Gormley – sax, plastic bottle
Sascha Stadlmeier – samples, bass, ekelele, objects, voice, effects, insert
Frans De Waard – radio, cassettes, electronics
Stefan Schweiger – samples, teramine, percussion
Joseph B. Raimond – guitar, synthesiser, loops, ink drawings
Michael Wurzer – synthesiser

Recorded December 3rd, 2017 at Two Car Garage Studios, Fürth Germany.
All cover art by Joseph B. Raimond from the Hominine series of ink drawings, 2019.

As always, in loving memory of Frank Abendroth and Tom Murphy.
This recording is dedicated to Gary Duncan

This is DWM release # 168

Doc Wör Mirran:
Spitzwiesenstr. 50
90765 Fürth
Germany

www.dwmirran.de
empty@empty.de

fransdewaard.com

emergeac.wordpress.com

Review

NIEUWE NOTEN

Het meest opvallende, nog voor de Cd in de speler gaat, zijn de tekeningen op het nieuwe album van Doc Wör Mirran, het bij Attenuation Circuit verschenen ‘Honinine parts 1-3’. Mensen ja, maar dan wel heel speels en licht anarchistisch vormgegeven. Wie dit trio kent weet dat dit uitstekend past bij de muziek. Op dit album krijgen ze bovendien versterking van saxofonist Adrian Gormley en de in elektronica gespecialiseerde Frans de Waard en Sascha Stadlmeier.

Doc Wör Mirran bestaat inmiddels ruim 35 jaar! Het begon allemaal in 1982 toen Bernard H. Worrick en Joseph B. Raimond, op dat moment wonend in San Francisco de naam bedachten. Beiden verhuisden drie jaar later naar het Duitse Neurenberg waar Raimond een analoge 8-track opname studio begon en de eerste opnames maakte. Vanaf dat allereerste begin was er al sprake van een streven naar teen totaal kunstwerk, bestaande uit muziek, grafische kunst, poëzie en wat je verder nog kunt bedenken. In de loop van de jaren wijzigde de groep van samenstelling, Worrick doet al geruime tijd niet meer mee en op het laatste album vinden we naast Raimond, die ook de tekeningen maakte, Stefan Schweiger en Michael Wurzer.

Het is Gormley die we als eerste horen in ‘Part 1’, een langgerekte, melodische saxklank, al snel omgeven door een wolk van klank. De sfeer is die van spanning, verwachting van wat komen gaat. Die spanning wordt versterkt op het moment dat we onbestemde klanken waarnemen, alsof iemand dicht bij een microfoon vellen papier tot een prop in elkaar drukt (wellicht is dit ook wel echte de wijze waarop dit geluid wordt gemaakt). Op de achtergrond een onweer van noise en die onwezenlijke saxklanken van Gormley. Daar de overige leden van dit gelegenheidssextet zich van diverse vormen van elektronica bedienen is verder niet uit te maken wie nu welk geluid produceert, iets wat overigens vanzelfsprekend niets uitmaakt. ‘Part 2’ valt allereerst op door het gebruik van veldopnames, de traag stromende maar wel ritmische structuur van dit deel ondersteunend. Verderop is het de klank van de sax, met elektronica bewerkt tot echo die de aandacht trekt.

‘Part 3’ is verreweg het langste stuk, ongeveer de helft beslaand van het ruim 40 minuten durende album. Ook hier een langgerekte toon van de sax, geflankeerd door onbestemde elektronicaklanken, associaties oproepend met een industrieel proces. Stuiterend, ratelend, vallend zoeken de geluiden hun weg door de fabriekshal. Wederom is de spanning groot, klinkt het geheel ongenaakbaar, vervreemdend. Verderop gaat het geheel over in knetteren, knarsen, wrijven, alsof de zaak volledig aan het vastlopen is en de machine het ieder moment, definitief, kan begeven.

https://www.nieuwenoten.nl/?p=9615

Review

FELT HAT REVIEWS

New album from Doc Woer Mirran with great features from Adrian Gormley, Sascha Stadlmeier, Frans De Waard, Stefan Schweiger, Joseph B. Raimond and Michael Wurzer - a hauntingly evocative piece in three parts.
First part starts with a lead from Adrian and beautiful synth and drone work with object manipulation. A soundtrack fit for any trip, sounds both derangely psychodelic and has a quality of 1960's live electronics - a unit of attentive mutual listening and effortless ( as it seems from listener's perspective ) collective work.
Second part sets course in a similar direction with fuzzy synth electronics and reverbrated voice of the sax. Sounding both very fresh and retro at the same time.
The last part starts with object manipulation, The wall of eerie and haunting electronics blends nicely with sax who is meandering and heavily processed.
The devil here, lies in the details, as you might say when discovering slowly the acidy, whimsical tissue of electronics which is splattered around in different doses, all over these three parts. A well-led three parts where improvisation turns into composition quite easily thanks to experienced musicians and their abillity to interact with each other.

https://felthatreviews.blogspot.com/2020/05/hominine-parts-1-to-3-by-doc-wor-mirran.html

Review

BAD ALCHEMY

Mit Hominine Parts 1 to 3 (ACU 1018) verdichten Joe Raimond und Sascha Stadlmeier die Ereignisse um DOC WÖR MIRRAN im Herbst 2017. Nach "Un-Art-Ed" und "Alternative Facts" mit Konzerteindrücken vom 13. 10. in München und vom 14.10. in Augsburg nun mit einer Studiosesion am 3.12. in Fürth. Mit, zu Raimonds Gitarre & Synthie und Stadlmeiers Samples & Bass, wieder Adrian Gormley am Saxofon, Michael Wurzer am Synthie, Stefan Schweiger an Samples, Theremin & Percussion sowie, als besonderem Gast, Frans De Waard mit Radio, Kassetten & Electronics. Die 168. Veröffentlichung von DWM ist gewidmet dem Gitarristen Gary Duncan (1946-2019), dessen Spiel mit John Cipollina Quicksilver Messenger Service geprägt hat. Hominine meint schlicht Menschen, und Raimonds Artwörk zeigt einige Exemplare der Spezies. Die Jam-Session zeitigte einen Soundscape-Triptychon elektroakustischer Psychedelik, in der sich träumerische Saxofonlyrismen paaren mit bruitistischer Sonic Fiction. Mit quellenden und morphenden Dunkelwellen, Zwitschermaschine, gurrender Vokalisation. Unheimlichkeiten von unter¬halb der Schädeldecke. Nicht so narrativ wie bei Philip K. Dick, aber strange enough, mit sirrenden Spuren, gedämpftem Pulsieren, schillernder Oszillation, brummigen Impulsen, in egofugaler Drift. Im Windschatten von Gormleys Saxofon, dessen Sound aber nicht so standfest ist, dass ihn nicht Kaskaden davontragen. Auch der Dauerton, den er zu holzigen Verwerfungen, metallischem Klingklang und changierenden Dröhnwellen anstimmt, ist Wellen und Wind ausgeliefert. Und dann wiehert auch noch ein traumfahles Ross, zu glissandierendem Thereminalarm. Gormley tremoliert und kaskadiert, die Traumwelt ist erschüttert und in aufgewühltem Delayfluss, dräuend beknarrt, das Saxofon diskant zugespitzt, ein Bullroarer schwirrt. Ein Flow aus sirrenden, pfeifenden, dröhnenden Kreisen und Wellen, die, O Mensch! Gib acht!, in der Dämmerung verhallenhallenhallen.

http://badalchemy.de/

Review

IDWAL FISHER

Dragging myself away from ‘the VAPE’ I find I’ve amassed a small number of releases that you could loosely file under the electro-acoustic improv label. Doc Wör Mirren have been around since God was a lad and according to Discogs have already released 1,562 albums. Or somewhere near that figure. To offset the fact that I don’t have any of these albums, nor have I ever heard a note they make, I’ve taken to evening bouts of self flagellation in a bid to atone for my sins. Without having ever heard a note I sort of know what they’re all about anyway. Like an arty Morphogenesis maybe? Presumptuous moi? Yes. Guilty as charged. A multi-disciplinary, revolving collective then. Improv, sculpture, art, sound. The core collective here joined on Hominine Parts 1 - 3 by saxophonist Adrian Gormley whose tooting, parping and skronking weaves its way through these three pieces. Frans de Waard and Sascha Stadlmeier work in sound effects, radio noise, processed voices and all in all it makes for a meditative, loose, airy and at times tuneful 45 minutes worth of improv, a place where the crinkling of dried leaves meets sax honk meets the tinkling of pipes. A bit like Jan Garbarek wandering in to an electro-acoustic improv session. I can’t say it set my world on fire but neither was it that bad that I wanted to turn it off.

https://idwalfisher.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-sound-of-microphones-being-boiled.html

Review

VITAL WEEKLY

You never know what you’re going to get with a Doc Wor Mirran album. Doc has been one of my favorite bands ever since I first heard some 7”s of theirs back in the late 90s. I was struck by how disparate they all were, sounding like several different bands from one track to the next. That said, I follow whatever they do, and don’t expect all of it to be to my tastes. The group cover so damn much ground that it would be unlikely for all of it to speak to any one listener. I admire that quality! With an extensive discography stretching back to the mid-1980s until today, main docs Joseph Raimond and Bernard Worrick have taken their omnivorous group of ever-changing collaborators through recordings of psychedelic improvisation, rude noise collage, pop songs, free jazz, stately drones and whatever else catches their ears. Albums have come adorned with drawings, paintings, poetry, and a charmingly crude sense of humor that makes it clear that whatever path Doc is taking on any particular album, the group is having fun. The 168th (!!!) release to bear the DWM name, “Hominine 1-3”, is a small-run CD that features three guests in addition to the main duo: sax player Adrian Gormley (also of industrial band PCR), Sascha Stadtmeier (aka Emerge, and the guy who runs Attenuation Circuit), and Vital Weekly’s own Frans de Waard (aka Modelbau etc etc). The entire album has the feel of a live-in-the-studio improvisation. The players are audibly searching and wandering in a loose, easy-going drift at an appreciably leisurely pace. As I listen, I can picture the five musicians jamming, enjoying an afternoon without worrying too much about the final shape these sounds will be edited into. For my ears, though, that ever-present saxophone is hard to take; over three tracks, each one around 20 minutes, the sax almost never stops. Amid less easily identifiable electronic elements, like synth and effected percussion and radio static fuzz, the plaintively melodic horn takes me out of the music too much. I found myself trying to l isten around it. Even when put through delay effects, it always sounds like a player taking a solo while the rest of the group was creating a more unified electro-acoustic texture. Perhaps the album can be heard as a saxophone solo with electro-acoustic accompaniment? Improv fans may enjoy it more than I did.

http://www.vitalweekly.net/1220.html

Doc Wör Mirran featuring Stadlmeier / De Waard / Gormley Hominine parts 1 to 3 cover front
Doc Wör Mirran featuring Stadlmeier / De Waard / Gormley Hominine parts 1 to 3 cover back
Doc Wör Mirran featuring Stadlmeier / De Waard / Gormley Hominine parts 1 to 3 InlayDoc Wör Mirran featuring Stadlmeier / De Waard / Gormley Hominine parts 1 to 3 Inlay
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