TTW#61 – Wouter van Veldhoven – Redundant/Rotary/Rotations
Cassette only – limited edition of 150 copies
SOLD OUT AT SOURCE
Track listing:
A1: B.U.L.B.L.U.B.
A2: Second
A3: A Fondness for Broken Mondriaans
B1: Bricks, Corners, Cul de Sac
B2: Approximately 0.65
B3: Migraine Minute Shifts
B4: 72
Illustration – Heitor Alvelos
Wouter van Veldhoven has been fascinated by the imperfection of musical equipment since 2004 when his first sampler broke and he started collecting tape recorders, junk and some rudimentary analogue gear to create music with. After a few years of making experimental ambient he decided to try and turn his studio with modified, half crippled, tape machines into a repetitive beats production center. Here are the results.
All tracks by Wouter van Veldhoven, using 24 reel-to-reel tape recorders used for looping, delay, reverse delay and editing and a Doepfer A-100 system, for filtering and switching things. Sound sources: tape-hiss, a broken valve radio, a defective 50s television set, self resonating filters and sine wave generators. Recorded between February and June 2013.
Reviews
The Wire (UK):
Wouter van Veldhoven’s spark of inspiration was the breakdown of his sampler. Since then he has assembled a kit of defective equipment (TVs, radios) and modified reel-to-reel tape recorders, with which he generates a gentle ping-pong of sine tones and dancing loops. Smudgy low-end mutters beneath these pretty, bashfully repetitive tunes. Although beat based, this too is textural music, playing games with interference and hiss, well suited to the cassette medium.
Boomkat (UK):
Utrecht's Wouter van Veldhoven follows editions for Digitalis and Mort Aux Vaches with these crooked ambient techno happenings for The Tapeworm. Apparently fascinated by “the imperfection of musical equipment since 2004 when his first sampler broke and he started collecting tape recorders, junk and some rudimentary analogue gear to create music with" Wouter has made a virtue of employing electronic infidelities, manifest in seven pieces of hissing ambient techno sounding like Mika Vainio's Ø project scrubbed by Wanda Group. To make this sound he uses 24 reel-to-reel tape recorders for looping, delay, reverse delay and editing and a Doepfer A-100 system for filtering sounds taken from a broken valve radio, a defective 50s TV set, self-resonating filters and sine wave generators.
Aquarius Records (US):
Another killer tape from one of our favorite cassette labels (along with two others on this week's list), The Tapeworm, this one right up our alley for sure, a collection of minimal electronic music, a sort of mutant dark abstract techno, all created from an arsenal of “crippled tape machines", used to transform recordings of tape hiss, broken radios, a defective TV set from the fifties, some sine wave generators, and no doubt lots of other other cool junk, into a pulsing, pulsating array of skeletal sonic skitter. An army of 24 damaged reel to reel tape players all creating a hauntingly spare sprawl of weirdly psychedelic house music, the sort of lo-fi, industrial tinged ultra minimal techno that will definitely hit the spot for fans of Silent Servant, Sandwell District, Shed, Terrence Dixon as well as Porter Ricks and other Chain Reaction outfits. Moody, murky, primitive and raw, but still darkly groovy, tranced out and hypnotic.
Vital Weekly (NL):
…a Dutch man and one that I happen to like a lot: Wouter van Veldhoven is a master when it comes to using reel-to-reel recorders. He has loads of them, and connects them together through some complex system and usually plinks and plonks very atmospheric music on them. The music on this cassette is something different – also – for Van Veldhoven. Using his set-up of “24 reel-to-reel tape recorders used for looping, delay, reverse delay and editing and a Doepfer A-100 system, for filtering and switching things. Sound sources: tape-hiss, a broken valve radio, a defective 50s television set, self resonating filters and sine wave generators” he builts some very nice electronic music with a rather heavy rhythm part – well, heavy for his doing, it seems. This could easily be some wacked out ø/Pan Sonic/Alva Noto stuff recorded on a wobbly tape. Not entirely synchronized, but sometimes, it seems a bit off the mark. Not y’r usual Van Veldhoven music, but then perhaps also not your usual techno music. Now this would have been a great release for Chain Reaction; only a few too late, I guess. Great tape.
