Phosphor: II (2009)

Mark Corroto

Senior Contributor since 1999

Mark misses his large dog Louie, but endeavors daily to find and listen to new and interesting sounds.

Recent articles (997 total)

Published: July 14, 2009

Phosphor, whose self-titled album came out in 2001, waited nearly five years to record its follow-up with Phosphor II. With editing, mixing and manufacturing, it has taken nearly eight years for the session to reach the marketplace.

With all that time that has passed, it is interesting to hear that the original super group, minus Alessandro Bosetti, can easily pick up right where it left off. These Berlin-based musicians practice the microtonal art of minimalist improvisation, yet their sound constructions are easily transferable to disc.

In fact, not having the visual component to their performance pushes the focus onto the sound, not which performer is making what sound—not always any easy thing to achieve.

The music here is, as Miles Davis once described it, about "the silence in between the notes." These eight compositions take that concept to the nth degree. Switches switch, air passes through instruments without notes, static takes the same place as rhythms, and electric charges fuel the tension that gives way to a cosmic release.

The sounds—noise, perhaps—are strangely inviting creatures whose vocabulary is one of a decayed future that meshes the human touch with computer and mechanical sounds that have slipped the moorings of beat and meter.

Track Listing: P7; P8; P9; P10; P11; P12.

Personnel: Burkhard Beins: percussion, objects, zither, small electronics; Axel Dorner: trumpet, electronics; Robin Hayward: tuba; Annette Krebs: guitar, objects, electronics, tape; Andrea Neumann: inside-piano, mixing board; Michael Renkel: prepared nylon string acoustic guitar via computer; Ignaz Schick: turntable, objects, bows.

Record Label: Potlatch Records
Style: Free Improv/Avant-Garde