Reflections on 2009 : Yann Novak, Porn Sword Tobacco and Wes Willenbring

It’s been an amazing year for me. Just before the start of 2009, I relocated to Los Angeles from Seattle. All the new music I have heard this year is intertwined with all of the new experiences moving to this wonderful city have brought me. Due to this, I can’t accurately compose a thesis without going on for pages. So I have simply listed some of the releases, performances and exhibition that influenced my year. I have listed these things in the order that I experienced them. I’m sure I am missing some, but here it goes.

Releases:
Shinkei + Luigi Turra – YU (Non Visual Object)
William Basinski – 92982 (2026)
Steve Roden – Stars of Ice (New Plastic Music)
Richard Chartier – Untitled (Angle.1) (Non Visual Objects)
Tu m’ – Monochromes Vol.1 (LINE)
i8u + Tomas Phillips – Ligne (ATAK)
Pierre Gerard – Plateaux [for gilles deleuze] (Koyuki)

Performances:
William Basinski / Richard Chartier @ Resonant Forms Festival, Los Angeles CA.
i8u @ Mutek 10, Montreal QC.
Mem1 and Sublamp @ Pehrspace, Los Angeles CA.
Steve Roden @ LACE, Los Angeles CA.

Exhibitions:
Scores @ Lawrimore Projects, Seattle WA.
Dominique Skoltz – Dislock_ @ Mutek 10, Montreal QC.
Jennifer Steinkamp – Orbit @ Acme, Los Angeles CA.

Yann Novak
yannnovak.com | dragonseyerecordings.com

Yann Novak – The Breeze Blowing Over Us(Infrequency, 2009)
Yann Novak – In Residence (Dragon’s Eye, 2008)

Looking back I have had some very nice times playing the piano and programming some drum machines during 2009 and I have recorded a few hours of new music as well. I have when I cooked food or gone for a walk enjoyed listening to Larry Heard, Journey, Donald Byrd, Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini and Mulatu Astatke and his Ethiopian quintet to name a few. Also my atari broke so without any sequencer I have used some weigths and stuff to get my studio sounding, a very fun and random exercise I must say and that brought me right back to when I started making sounds some years ago.
Cheers
Porn Sword Tobacco
pornswordtobacco.com

Porn Sword Tobacco – New Exclusive Olympic Heights (City Centre Offices, 2007)
Porn Sword Tobacco – Everything Is Music To The Ear (City Centre Offices, 2009)

This year in music for me has been similar to the last three or four years in that I mostly divided my time between re-listening to my personal favorites that I’ve already heard thousands of times before and listening to music from the past that I’m either unfamiliar with or that I feel I should examine more closely. Very little of my time is spent listening to contemporary music since to me so much of it seems to be recycled from the past that I nearly always would rather listen to the original sources instead of someone’s “re-interpretation” of them (re-interpretation is my attempt at a nice way of saying “blatantly ripping them off”). A lot of what I heard released this year seems focused on creating a “mash-up” of the musician’s (obvious) influences and record collection which ends up feeling soulless, uncreative, and just plain boring to me.

As for what I actually listened to, recently I have been going back and listening to a lot of Steve Reich and Terry Riley. They were so innovative and ahead of their time and, especially considering the limitations of the equipment they were using, what they created is really incredible. I listened to lots of Ennio Morricone, another musician who’s creativity and sheer volume of discography is stunning. I’m still hooked on Portishead’s Third and I’m sure I listened to at least a couple of Bob Dylan songs pretty much every single day of the past year. Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats also got a lot of play, as did William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops and Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’s film scores…and according to iTunes my two most played songs were the Melvins “Hooch” and Suicide’s “Ghost Rider.”

Wes Willenbring
weswillenbring.com

Wes Willenbring – Somewhere Someone Else (Hidden Shoal, 2007)
Wes Willenbring – Close, But Not Too Close (Hidden Shoal, 2009)