Nobile – pelktron (kg001)

(file under: Ambient, Avantgarde, Contempoary classical, Avantgarde)

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release date: 23 October 2006

The premiere klanggold release is by label head Andreas Usenbenz (aka Nobile) whose laptop strategies involve the reinterpretation of classical music elementsnot that anyone would necessarily recognize them as such after Usenbenz is through with them. The sounds themselves may remain recognizable but the remarkably unusual configurations that emerge within his arrangements sound completely unfamiliar. In the opener bahnhof, chattering electronic organisms incessantly shudder and squirm while softer, recorder-like tones eke out some faint semblance of conventional melody over restless activity churning below. The equally-surprising durch pairs acoustic bass lines and tom-tom accents but combines them with croaking tones and glockenspiel tinkles into some mutant variation of a jazz ballad. Each piece explores heretofore undiscovered terrain: an army of trilling percussive rattles streams through k.rogk; a funereal two-tone lurch drags tagtraum forward while dense bird-like masses overtop threaten to attack; and, like a ping-pong match taking place in some alternate galaxy, gaseous surges hypnotically alternate at both left and right channels throughout renoise. Identifiable acoustic sounds rub shoulders with abstract noises in organically unfolding pieces that both command one’s attention and simultaneously exhaust it. Unpredictability reigns throughout, and consequently the listener is engaged at each moment, constantly thrown off-balance by the jarring paths the pieces pursue. Though Usenbenz’s Nobile material sounds nothing like Oval, the two artists are similar in the degree to which they challenge the listener with entirely alien yet wholly captivating experiences. Pelktron is an auspicious label debut, to say the least.

Nobile – k.rogk

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Nobile – hapy

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Reviews:

The premiere klanggold release is by label head Andreas Usenbenz (aka Nobile) whose laptop strategies involve the reinterpretation of classical music elements—not that anyone would necessarily recognize them as such after Usenbenz is through with them. The sounds themselves may remain recognizable but the remarkably unusual configurations that emerge within his arrangements sound completely unfamiliar.
In the opener “bahnhof,” chattering electronic organisms incessantly shudder and squirm while softer, recorder-like tones eke out some faint semblance of conventional melody over restless activity churning below. The equally-surprising “durch” pairs acoustic bass lines and tom-tom accents but combines them with croaking tones and glockenspiel tinkles into some mutant variation of a jazz ballad. Each piece explores heretofore undiscovered terrain: an army of trilling percussive rattles streams through “k.rogk”; a funereal two-tone lurch drags “tagtraum” forward while dense bird-like masses overtop threaten to attack; and, like a ping-pong match taking place in some alternate galaxy, gaseous surges hypnotically alternate at both left and right channels throughout “renoise.” Identifiable acoustic sounds rub shoulders with abstract noises in organically unfolding pieces that both command one’s attention and simultaneously exhaust it. Unpredictability reigns throughout, and consequently the listener is engaged at each moment, constantly thrown off-balance by the jarring paths the pieces pursue. Though Usenbenz’s Nobile material sounds nothing like Oval, the two artists are similar in the degree to which they challenge the listener with entirely alien yet wholly captivating experiences. Pelktron is an auspicious label debut, to say the least. (2007 Textura.org)

Klanggold boss Andreas Usenbenz brings us some customary avant-gardisms under his Nobile moniker with Pelktron, a collection of tracks documenting the adventures of acoustic, instrumental source material through an array of laptop noodlings and processing. Shards of traditionally non-electronic instruments rise through a froth of prickly bit crushing, insectoid conversations, mechanical bell tones and contemplative silences to provide for an endearing listen.
The nicely compressed industrial ambience of opener Bahnhof provides the backdrop for some stereo field-widening low-end bubbles whilst shiny machines fan their metal wings in the centre. The factory is soon joined by flautists, no less, to create a mechanical wheeziness reminiscent of early 70s Kraftwerk/Tangerine Dream, or indeed, Isnaj Dui’s Amacrine.
Square waves all around chime away to what sounds like a jam between a music class at a junior school, a jazz band and Steinbruchel in Durch, a charming track full of modulating microloops of shiny metal, a happy double bass and much fun hacking away at snare drums and glockenspiels.
Back to a wide stereo field now with Hapymoming, and when a tom-tom from a vintage drum machine comes to life, it comes to life bubbling and microlooping through a rubber tube accompanied by a quasi-oriental guitar in this track that opens with some bright treble drones interfering to create warm beat patterns.
Such tones soon turn into a grey-black wall of transformers and substations now as we move onto K.rogk. Insectoid inhabitants of an alien power station discuss energy levels to a deep strumming that would not be out of place in the stoner doom monoliths of Boris or Om.
The use of extended silences and gating towards the final moments of some of Pelktron’s tracks give the listener room to contemplate the sounds. This is particularly effective towards the end of Durch, where the gaps between, say, a chime and a burst of double bass enhance Durch’s (dare I say it) cuteness. Not so cute is the gating finalising K.rogk, providing a nice, stuttering roll-off in preparation for the electrical phenomena of Renoise and bass riff filtering of Tagtraum that rising from molten, subterranean depths to a narrow, mid-range light keeping constant amidst the swarm of fuzzy noodlings and electronic box-shaking.
We finalise our cutting-edge pioneering with the appropriately named Mikroorganisation, a more static document of almost-choral air tubes keeping a bed of deep strings at bay, compressing them to the bottom of the mix as the columns of air brush either side of our heads, guiding us in crescendo after crescendo to proceeding Klanggold releases which we can be sure will be as enjoyable as Pelktron. (2010 Adam Davis)