GRKZGL

Nuits des solos

2012-01-27T20:37:00.001-05:00

Prochain concert :

Nuit des solos
Le samedi 18 février à l'Envers
185, avenue van Horne

Portes à 21 h, musique à 21 h 30
8 $

Alexandre St-Onge (basse)
GRKZGL (trucs et bidules)
Isaiah Ceccarelli (percussion)
Philippe Lauzier (clarinette)
Vergil Sharkya (synthétiseur)
Eric Lewis (trompette)
Charity Chan (piano)
Gabriel Rivest (tuba)
James Annett (alto)
Alex Pelchat (guitare)

Prochains concerts // Next shows

2011-10-26T12:56:00.002-04:00

Samedi 4 décembre 2011
10e anniversaire de Brise-Cul Records @ Casa Del Popolo

KILT (NYC)
Xothogua
Disguises(Toronto)
A Snake in the Garden
Minibloc avec GRKZGL
Foutredieu!!!

Samedi 10 décembre 2011
Cool Fest XI @ La Brique, 6545 rue Durocher, porte 402

Guilt
ISA Christ
RHS
Steve Jr
Hamond RI
Lizmax Yogazone
Chansons d'amour
Flatgrey
United Waters
Gastric Female Reflex
Roman Pilates
Frasier Crane

CKUT 2011-10-25

2011-10-25T18:17:00.004-04:00

Merci à A Silent Action Film !

Nouvelles cassettes

2011-07-17T10:24:00.001-04:00

GRKZGL (c20)

Totems (c20)

Gmackrrkzgl (c20)

VICTORIA NOISE FEST 2011.5.21

2011-06-07T17:11:00.000-04:00

Bandcamp

2011-04-25T21:41:00.000-04:00

Albums à télécharger en haute qualité sur GRKZGL.BANDCAMP.COM

Albums can now be downloaded in high quality from GRKZGL.BANDCAMP.COM

Nouvelles

2010-10-05T18:36:00.034-04:00

Nouveau site pour Chansons d'amour :http://scumjazz.blogspot.com/

Quelques images du dernier concert de Chansons d'amour :

Chansons d'amour - Deux (C30)

2009-03-31T23:57:00.002-04:00

Les Tapes Sua Yeule 003
Cassette C30
Paru en mars 2010

Extrait
Enregistré en octobre 2009
Cabral Jacobs: saxophone
GRKZGL: bruits, enregistrement/mixage/montage

Chansons d'amour - L'album (CDr)

2009-03-31T23:53:00.002-04:00

Brise-Cul Records SADE 134

1. Squeeekish pop
2. Bleeepsh
3. Wawawa (Judas)
4. 0.9812
5. Uniform
6. Les oiseaux sont beaux
7. Mardi spaghetti
8. Silent but loud
9. Panorama tata
10. Napoléon toilette
11. Kitten sparkles

Enregistré en septembre 2009
Cabral Jacobs: saxophone
GRKZGL: bruits, enregistrement/mixage/montage

Paru en mars 2010

Mare/Cage (C30)

2008-03-16T00:10:00.003-04:00

Les Tapes Sua Yeule 001
cassette C30
Paru en mars 2010

A: Mare/Cage
B: Mare/Cage

Enregistré en novembre/décembre 2009

Daruin/Grkzgl - Drain (CDr)

2007-06-09T20:52:00.019-04:00

Neus-318 Neu-061
Paru en juin 2007.

1. Daruin - 洗脳されたのか？ [Sennō sareta no ka?] (20:23)
2. Grkzgl - 発幻所 [Hatsugensho] (20:49)

Enregistré à Habikino et Hirakata, Osaka, en mars 2007.
Photographie par Amok451.

À propos de ce disque :

Les splits... je dois avouer ne pas être un fervent amateur du concept, mais bon, ce jumelage drone a fonctionné à merveille. Et contrairement à d'autres CDrs Japonais, celui-ci est vraiment sorti!

J'ai rencontré Kazuya Ishigami (Daruin) fin 2006, ayant tous deux joué à un concert organisé par Seal Pool et tenu à la galerie au merveilleux nom de Disco Beans, lorsque celle-ci était encore à Osaka. Micros contact, bols de métal et Max/MSP ; Ishigami sait ce qu'il fait, et aux dernières nouvelles, il l'enseigne même.

La contribution de Grkzgl à ce disque est en fait deux longues pièces raboutées et enrichies de quelques overdubs lugubres, le tout enregistré dans une maison décrépite datant de l'après-guerre et infestée de coquerelles.

J'avais apporté du Canada un plutôt encrombrant délai analogique Korg, et comme si cela n'était pas assez, quand j'ai vu le même modèle en vente pour 10 000 ¥, j'ai été assez con pour l'acheter. Donc, tout mes enregistrements datant de cette période présentent un effet de délai « ping pong » extrême, et cette pièce ne fait pas exception.

Le titre est un autre jeu de mots ! 発電所 (hatsudensho) signifie centrale électrique ; 幻 (maboroshi, « hallucination ») dans ce cas-ci se lit gen, pour des raisons lexicales sur lesquelles je n'étenderai pas. Bref, en changeant une consonne voisée pour une autre, on obtient une centrale hallucinogène. Eh ben.

Critiques :

Crucial Blast

More intense Japanese hard-drive carnage from Neus-318! I discovered this Japanese CDR label a few months ago, and while much of their catalog is made up of kooky abstract computer noise and glitch collages, some of their stuff is straight up skullripping digital noise that leans towards the psychedelic ends of the Japanese noise scene. I scoured their catalog and picked up their most aggro, brain wasting releases for Crucial Blast, which Japanese noise fans should definitely check out.
Drain sees the laptop glitch-drone artist Daruin teaming up with another Japanese noise project called Grkzgl that's new to me. Each artist has an epic twenty-minute track, and both use heavy ambient sounds and manipulated computer noise to create an ominous buzzscape that together make for the heaviest release out of all of the Neus-318 discs that we've picked up. Daruin opens the disc with mastermind Kazuya Ishigama sculpting a dark cloud of deep, rumbling drone, distorted and super heavy and somewhat Sunn O)))-esque that drifts in tectonic time as microscopic chiming tones move backwards in time around it. As ritual bells and subliminal rumblings join in, the piece slowly builds in volume until the underlying drone that appeared at first becomes warped by overmodulated fx. The sound is stretched out, pulled apart, streaked with looping metallic scrapes and draped with gossamer layers of black ambience, then evolves again into a blast of crystalline chimes before softening out into a field of dark abstract ambience that closes the track. I hear little bits of KK Null and Sunn O))) and dark ambient and tactile electro-acoustic sound sculpture all swirling together here, and it's a fantastic piece of grim, creepy abstract drift. I'd definitely like to hear more of this type of sound from Daruin!
On the second track, Grkzgl strips the ambience down even further, taking away almost any extraneous sound at first and leaving only a massive slow-moving, slithering sinewave drone. This drone is all low end, a glacial reverberating buzz like the sound of a piece of large electronic equipment humming in the middle of the night, that electrical hum then distorted and shaped into a buzzing and hypnotic rumble, super minimal and spare but rib-rattling when heard at high volume. As Grkzgl's blackened hum uncoils, it's joined by tiny flashes of dark shimmer and chirping feedback tones that circle the drone and recede back into the void, but on the second half of the piece it changes shape and turns into a flattened field of muted pulses and fluttering feedback tones. Super abstract and minimal, the first half reminds me of the minimal amp-buzz scultpures of Not.

Cyclic Defrost

Long nasty drones is what we get here – one each from Osaka’s Daruin (Kazuya Ishigami) and Grkzgl, on Ishigami’s own Neus-318 label. Both seem to take the title as a starting point and attempt to replicate, with artistic license, the sound of things going down the ‘Drain’. Sharp high-pitched sine-swipes dance like fireflies over a muffled air-conditioning hum in Daruin’s ‘Senno Sareta No Ka?’. This is all rather pleasant until the heavy machinery is switched on, a blunt two-stroke chopping the sine tones to shreds before winding down to a restrained purr. Grkzgl’s ‘Hatsugensho’ is a ceaseless modulated bass buzz, fluttering like a digital didgeridoo, with moments of flying saucer tones poured in. Otherwise, there’s little development, or indeed little that is ear-catching.

Joshua Meggitt

Omega Point

石上のノイズユニットとしての名義Daruinとカナダの音響作家Grkzglのドローン系スプリット作品。 Daruinの社会的発言を内包した「洗脳されたのか？」は完成度の高い硬質な音。Grkzglの「発幻所」という作品はトグロを巻く電子音のうねりが素晴らしい。

The Vibes

Pochissime le informazioni riguardo questo lavoro arrivato direttamente dalla giapponese Neus-318 e sicuramente non giova il fatto di ignorare quasi del tutto la decifrazione degli ideogrammi giapponesi. Si tratta di uno split, contenente due lunghissime registrazioni incise a Osaka esattamente un anno fa (nel marzo del 2007) composte una dal label manager Kazuya Ishigami e l'altra dal giovane performer di musica acusmatica canadese Grkzgl (ignoriamo il nome anagrafico, sappiamo solo che il moniker consonantico deriva dalla bislacca ricerca di un nome originale per un gatto...), che probabilmente avrà conosciuto Kazuya in occasione del suo anno di studi nella dinamica Osaka, trascorso dopo aver partecipato ad un programma universitario di scambio culturale. Ma non ci siamo demoralizzati per il gap linguistico e l'abbiamo colmato chiedendo soccorso direttamente agli artefici ubicati all'altro capo del pianeta (benedetta sia la libera circolazione delle informazioni, parzialmente garantita da Internet!!!) e dobbiamo riconoscere che nel coniare coniare neologismi ed evocare le sonorità delle sfrigolanti agglomerazioni di frequenze i due artefici di questo lavoro si sono sbizzarriti non senza divertimento, secondo una presunzione oggettiva!

La traccia di Daruin reca un titolo che traduce in japanese un atroce dilemma e una domanda che le menti più illuminate prima o poi si saranno poste: "Sennou Saretanoka?" ovvero "ho subito un lavaggio del cervello?". Tutte le drammatiche sensazioni che una simile questione può scatenare fra i pensieri di un essere raziocinante quanto basta per porsi nobili problematiche riguardo l'indipendenza del pensiero (non è del resto difficile immaginarsi una simile situazione nel pieno di una campagna elettorale con tutti il fronzoloso corredo di buoni - quanto improbabili nell'atto della concreta realizzazione - propositi) sono tradotte in linguaggio sonoro in maniera eccelsa: dalle iniziali convoluzioni spiraliche sfilacciate da pulsazioni che passano velocemente sul radar sonoro di Ishigami, capaci di manifestare quel senso di claustrofobica costipazione combinate ad una desolante anoressia mentale, che qualcuno potrebbe avere esperito nel contesto mimetico contemporaneo, si passa a sferragliate dissonanti, drones soffocanti, sfarfallii vocalici ultraframmentati che hanno quasi il sapore delle implorazioni dell'artista (o meglio del traduttore sonico... belli i cupi "woaaaa" grabbati con un microfono dalla membrana magnetica compromessa) in una progressiva e sempre più rapida discesa in un gorgo mentale e sonoro, gradualmente più vertigonoso. Sul piano stilistico, i venti minuti della traccia si collocano tra le frange più oscure dell'ambient e l'elettro-acustica concretista, prefigurando un'esperienza acusmatica di indubbio interesse.

Ancora più allucinata la seconda traccia di Grkzgl (il fantasioso titolo Hatsugensho è un vero e proprio neologismo che dovrebbe voler significare "il luogo del delitto di un generatore di illusioni"!): dopo 4 minuti di massaggio binaurale, cominciano a sbucare stimolazioni sonori con un brulicare non molto diverso di quello di una folla scatenata di insetti notturni. Sporadici quanto devianti dall'omogeneità rilevabile da un frequenziometro ben calibrato, gli interventi sonori sono un autentico divertissment per gli amanti di marchingegni psicoattivi come le famigerate dream machine, tanto amate dal disilluso visionario che fu William Burroughs. E' facile notare la dinamica della progressione acustica: via via che il suono si frastaglia, il drone assume sembianze sempre più ipnotiche ad amplificare la paranoia ovvero il dileggio a seconda dei punti di osservazione! Dischetto molto interessante per i più insaziabili esploratori psicosonici!!!

Vito Camarretta

Startling Moniker

Speaking of a physical connection, you should try listening to this disc from the NEUS-318 label sometime! It’s a Daruin/Grkzgl split called "Drain," and features both artists using a variety of drone elements and electronics– and although there are some similarities in their compositions that provide a thread of continuity, the real experience here are the ultra-tactile sounds at play. Both Grkzgl and Daruin manage to uncover real warmth in the pulse of electronic chirps and drones that so many others find cold.

DaveX

Garkzistan Vol. I et II (CDr)

2006-11-13T00:01:00.005-05:00

Brise-Cul Records SADE058/076
Paru en novembre 2006 et juin 2007

Vol. I
1. Sans titre (31:35)
2. Sans titre (13:27)

Vol. II
1. Sans titre (25:33)
2. Sans titre (20:12)

Enregistré à Côte-des-Neiges (Montréal) le 14 août 2006.

À propos de Garkzistan :

Tel que publié, Garkzistan est sans coupures ni matriçage et présente des pics de volume tout à fait inacceptables, quand le problème n'est pas qu'on n'entend presque rien... Faudra demander pardon aussi pour les « déclics » énervants causés par des boucles de ruban piètrement bricolées - j'en prends toute la responsabilité.

Dans notre époque de saturation médiatique, le plus gros crime ici est d'avoir publié l'intégralité de ce que nous avons enregistré durant cette session. Ces deux disques collent parfaitement au cliché des « jams défoncés » d'artistes bidon de l'ère Myspace, qui les régurgitent à la pelletée sans la moindre auto-censure. Bref, la dernière impression que je veux donner.

Mais bon, assez de flagellation : Garkzistan ne s'écoute pas si mal que ça, et certains moments sont mêmes intéressants. Mais si c'est un chef-d'œuvre que vous cherchez, il faudra aller voir ailleurs.

Critique :

Blood Ties
(en faisant référence au Vol.I)

It's kind of unclear but I'm guessing these are 2 collaborative tracks between Wapstan and GRKZGL. The entire CDR clocks in at a little over 40 min which isn't really that long for a drone album. The first track takes up the bulk of the disc at around 31 min where the artists present a mixture of synth-tastic quickly pulsating sounds and, towards the 3rd quarter presents some windy drone elements. It's a slow start, and made even more burdensome by the fact that the first 13 minutes are pretty damn quiet compared to the latter half, a bad move I'd say because I can't really tell wtf is going on unless I jam up the volume only to be turning it down later.

I'm not missing much however because this first part is more or less uneventful with a basic frequency modulated synth tone and some drones fading in and out on the fringes. Towards the middle of the track things begin to pick up and become significantly more interesting with the introduction of polyphony to the synth patch and some filtering squirming around. The amount of layers increase and the windy drones build up a bit. Strangely enough I think I end up liking the 3rd quarter of the track the best where the drones become a bit intermittent and some more basic high-pitched elements are introduced. The breaks in the drones add some much needed anti-movement. The last quarter of the track presents some kind of typical LFO modulation which is an example of the main weaknesses of the album, all the sounds are just kind of mediocre and nothing jumps out and grabs me, it's another “I've heard it all before” kind of vibe.

I enjoy the second track a lot more, it's a bit more raw and lo-fi to begin with but some similar synthy elements are added by the time the peak of the track approaches. There is also a few industrial rhythmic elements here as well. This to me is an example of the total being greater then the sum of its parts because the individual sounds aren't anything amazing but placed together like this they make a formidable wall of gritty textures.

So the long mother of all tracks here I find pretty average but the shorter track I'm really digging. Overall a decent and solid effort from this duo, and a lot of potential here as well, but it still seems a little lacking in terms of thought, intention, and focus goes. I'll be interested to hear where they can bring future material.

Overall Rating: C+
Composition: C+
Sounds: C
Production Quality: C
Concept: C+
Packaging: C

par : Egan Budd/Xdementia
[En plein dans le mille!]

Chansons d'amour - Sans titre (mini CDr)

2006-07-29T02:08:00.001-04:00

Enregistré en février et mars 2010
Sur multipistes cassette
6 morceaux, 18m20s

John Brennan: batterie
Cabral Jacobs: saxophone
GRKZGL: bruits, enregistrement, mixage, montage

Paru le 24 juillet 2010

Antitulé (mini CDr)

2006-07-09T20:44:00.008-04:00

Auto-produit en juillet 2006.
Numéro de catalogue attribué rétroactivement : GRK000

Dupliqué et distribué par Distroboto à Montréal.
100 exemplaires. Épuisé.

Maintenant disponible en téléchargement mp3.

1. Antitulé (21:23)

À propos de ce disque :

Durant la période de conception de Esque, j'ai mis la main, pour un prix ridicule, sur un synthétiseur bien rétro, le Roland SH-1000 ; cependant je ne m'en suis que très peu servi, à l'exception d'échantillonnages dans mes morceaux composés sur portable. Or peu à peu, je me suis intéressé aux sonorités drone aux profondes infra-basses, que peut parfaitement générer le filtre résonant de ce clavier aux allures d'orgue grand-mère. Quelques mois après la sortie de Esque, j'enregistrais Antitulé avec un minimum d'équipement : le SH-1000, le Matrix 6R d'Oberheim, un ring modulator Moog et un délai analogique.

Pas besoin d'expliquer le jeu de mots du titre, j'espère...

Critique :

Startling Moniker

After Monday’s debacle, you’d think I might never review a GRKZGL release again. Whatever. “Antitulé” was on the pile, and unlike the hot mess Brise-Cul let slip through the gate, this one is pretty damn good. In fact, it’s a very good example of why I first got excited about GRKZGL’s work in the first place– nice detail, great sense of dynamic, and a general unwillingness to be purposeful or evocative of some greater message.

Similar to his more recent work on the Neus-318 release “Drain,” this 3″ cdr finds GRKZGL working dexterously among multiple layers of low-end signals, with fine results. Headphone listeners will appreciate many details all but the best speakers may miss, such as the minute additions of high end sibillance occasionally coloring a more noticeable block of sound, or the fluttering subsonics exiting just before truly coming into aural focus.

Then again, my speakers sounded pretty good too, and you’d be a fool to not experience this one rumbling your insides from the next room.

Of course, long-time readers will be advised of my predilection for the 3″ format. GRKZGL puts it to excellent use here, playing to the format’s strength with a single track tightly focused on material worth thoroughly exploring for an extended period of time.

DaveX

Esque (mini CD)

2006-03-25T19:14:00.015-05:00

Angle.Rec .A.R.03.01.
Paru le 25 mars 2006

1. Untlat (3:58)
2. Balance (2:16)
3. My Radiat (2:51)
4. Belcrut (3:14)
5. Dékiff (3:43)
6. Pugnt (2:57)

Tous sons et arrangements par Grkzgl (ordinateur, synthétiseurs, basse).
[Note: les synthés sont surtout utilisés en échantillonage. De la basse mutante apparaît sur certains morceaux.]
Percussion métallique sur Pugnt par Kriss & Grkzgl à la brasserie Dow (enregistré par Kriss).
Réalisé entre octobre 2005 et janvier 2006.

Matriçage par Christian Rivard/Kriss
Pochette conçue par Eve Chabot - photographies prises par Grkzgl au Silo à grain #5.

À propos de ce disque:

Pendant plusieurs années, j'ai bâti tout un arsenal de synthétiseurs, d'échantilloneurs et de banques effets, avec lesquels je composais de l'électronica des plus douteux pour ensuite distribuer des démos à des gens comme Angle.Rec. Cependant, ce n'est qu'une fois au Japon, contraint à n'utiliser que l'ordinateur, que mes productions ont enfin pris du caractère. Les autorités de Angle.Rec ayant bien apprécié Déglutations, s'ensuit rapidement une invitation à lancer un mini CD - un format nouveau pour l'étiquette.
De façon un peu ironique, je me suis vite lassé de l'approche numérique et ai gravité dans une toute autre direction.

Critiques :

Touching Extremes

In case you're wondering, the artist's nom d'art is pronounced "Grak-siggle". This is a 3-inch CD, duration about 19 minutes, containing six short tracks for laptop, synthesizers and bass. The average quality is good, also because the composer intelligently chose not to focus on a single idea - which can work at times but more often spells "tons of boredom" - but decided to add a little multidimensional powder to the music, whose various colours and directions make it sound organic and icy in the space of a few minutes. Utilizing the most known techniques of digital distortion, spatialization, virtual ambience and what the press release rightly defines "psychoactive noise", Grkzgl has created a coherent enough composition (the tracks are linked as a whole piece) that carries a decent punch and allows us to count it amidst the "things to consider" in today's laptop field - in the cathegory of junior middleweights, though.

Massimo Ricci

Tokafi

There is something else going on here, something private and individual.

It will remain a point for dispute whether or not the 3’’ mini-CD is the “format of the gods”, as online-editor “moron” (name not changed by the editors) of the influential messageboard industrial.org so eloquently put it (the 7’’ single is pretty neat in my opinion as well). But there can be no doubt whatoever that “esque” was made in heaven.

The six pieces on this disc waste no time, the clock stops at almost exactly 19 minutes and yet they pass by in a hush, without hurry or haste. But then again, one was kind of inclined to expect something special from a musician who titled his project after a name for an imaginary cat, pressed a 7’’ EP in an edition of one copy and his first self-released album in a run of 10. “esque” is by no means a revolutionary work – these structures of crackling, cracking, creaking, clicking, locustive, hissing and snapping sounds, mumbling in riddles, suddenly appearing and disappearing, assemblying into rhythms and clusters of noise, whispering in the background or screaming in the limelight, slowing tonal movement down or pushing it forward, feeling familair and consoling or foreign and claustrophobic are no strangers to anyone with a more or less keen inerest in the clicks and cuts scene or the supposedly intelligent structures of a genre without appropriate title yet obvious heroes (Autechre). And still, there is something else going on here, something private and individual, something making this worthwhile not only as a short moment of pleasure but also of exploration. Grkzgl has no interest in stretching his pieces into aural landscapes or expanding their complexity to test his listeners’ IQ. Rather, these tracks are refined snapshots, detailed sketches and intense semblances, beginning right in the middle of the action and dissolving without long goodbyes. While techno, whether for the brain or the body, is about development, “esque” is about the moment.

The material could easily have been moulded into a full-length but it is extremely applaudable that Grkzgl has resisted the temptation. It is an open invitation for repeated listening and for approaching the music from different angles. At least for the duration of these 19 minutes, you can call a moron a wise man.

Tobias Fischer

Vital Weekly

This release was handed to me when being in a clothing store in Montreal. I never heard of Angle Records/Mondes Elliptiques, nor from the artist, Grkzgl, but who is from Montreal and he worked under various guises before. It should be pronounced as 'grak-siggle'. The cover credits him for laptop, synth and bass whereas he received help on metal percussion on one track, although it sounds more like tin cans (or perhaps they are heavily processed). Grkzgl plays music that is best described as a more chaotic version of Pan Sonic or Goem when it concerns his rhythm stuff. But he expands on this material, by adding laser beam like sounds and a heavy layer of bass sounds. In that sense he merges together the current minimal rhythm boys with some of the more old school industrial lads. Not every track is as convincing I must say: some seem to be a bit too much of a haphazard affair, but it's certainly a nice and somewhat original affair.

Frans De Waard

Heathen Harvest

I initially was going to do a small piece of sexual innuendo to start off this review. Mentioning the 3 inches of this release in comparison to my dick, cock or penis…depending on where you’re from reading this. Then saying some more crass comments about size not mattering and other stuff in very poor taste. A bit like my cock. Oops! One slipped in. Oops! And another. A filthy mind is a bad mind as my mother always said. Usually after she caught me staring at her naked in the shower. And that was when she was 62. I’m weird and twisted that way. Therefore I apologise for this opening paragraph. It won’t happen again. Fingers crossed firmly behind my back.

What I should have done was this. A small opening paragraph explaining all about this release. I wish I could delete that opening gambit. Too late for that. This is the first release from the label in mini cd format. Not a crappy and cheap cdr. A proper 100% genuine cd. I do like the 3 inch recording. Too often I come across releases that would benefit from some trimming of the bush. Keep it short and snappy. That’s the way to hold a listeners attention. And boy does this artist know how to use every available minute at his disposal to reaffirm this belief. Grkzl, pronounced ‘grak-siggle’ of course…unless you’re Scottish like myself in which case it comes out as something completely different…works his peculiar brand of magic on this release using computers and a variety of other instruments…or a very good piece of computer software.

Whatever the case may be what cannot be denied is that here is a Canadian, and to think South Park has the nerve to take the piss out of them, that makes 6 individual micro masterpieces all meld into one complete whole by the end of the recording. These tiny sound sculptures, for that is what they are, shimmer like glacial ice in the Artic in twilight. A noisy and quite alien twilight if I’m being honest with you. Which I am. He utilises all the usual components that one associates with the Experimental electronics / Glitch community…but does so in a rather refined and refreshing manner. The sounds crackle and hum intensely, intricate sonic patterns and rhythms are interlaced throughout, strange noises are introduced when least expected, frequencies of every variety appear and disappear and the adventurous spirit of the avant-garde is alive and well and never far away. What’s not to like?

If this had been a full 70+ minutes of music the review might have panned out differently. To have eked this work out any further would have introduced a viewpoint that erred on the negative side Keeping things short has worked to the artists advantage. The 19+ minutes fly by in a whirl of imaginative and creative sonic manipulation. Its dramatic and sudden conclusion leaving a sense of longing for the music that has just past. Less, in this case in particular, is more. Or short and sweet you could say./

Alan Milne

Black Harvest

I love three inch cd's. especially when they aint of the cdr variety. Excellent. The thing is...these are generally miniature ep's and there isn't a lot you can fit on them, making it hard for the artists to really grab your attention. GRKZGL (lord knows how you pronounce it) are pure experimental glitch. Clean, pulsating rough, harsh and grating all in the same breath. In all fairness I believe this probably does work better in such a small format. I do believe a full album like this could be just over bombing and maybe over indulgence as well. There are a variety of organic sounds on this release obviously and it does achieve what it sets out to do. Interesting in very small doses and this is exactly that.

Tony Young

Elegy Iberica

''grak siggle'' é o modo correcto de pronunciar o nome repleto de consoantes deste projecto de Montreal, que estreia com um mini-cd limitado a 500 copias editado pela canadiana Angle Records. Sao aproximadamente 19 minutos dividos em 6 faixas ininterruptas dentro da musica Noise-Experimental, o que pode parecer uma tortura para alguns e deleite para outros...Este curto e tortuoso percurso expressa os pensamentos ou delirios de Grkzgl, através de um ambiente pulsante, altas-frequências, baixos profundos, infindaveis estalidos, modulaçoes e ruidos apocalipticos...Contudo é preciso destacar que a composiçao e produçao estao muito bem feitas. Ama ou odeia!

Luiz Soncini

Vital Weekly

'Esque' is the first 3" mini-cd ep release on Angle Records. To create the music Grkzgl uses laptop, synths and bass, plus there is metal percussion on the last 6th track, which is the most noisy of all. Otherwise, the sound is in the atmospheric glitchy areas, loosely improvised but with a clear direction of where it's going, sometimes even a rhythmic patterns appear. Grkzgl is obviously inspired and influenced by the post-industrial ambience, not being too minimal or too harsh, but still merging all those styles into one whole piece, divided in 6 tracks which are mixed into each other. Very nice ep for this artist and hopefully more releases in the same format to come on the label.

Boban Ristevski

Bande à part

Quoi?
Une première parution sous format mini-CD 3 pouces, du label ANGLE Rec qui souhaite se consacrer à la musique qui se cache dans les coins ou dans les apparents « angles morts, ces zones grises inaccessibles de prime abord aux sens en général, mais néanmoins animées, vibrantes et porteuses de mystères si nos sens s'y attardent un tant soit peu ». C'est dire que rien ne sera acquis.

Où?
Dans le territoire de l'exploration non instrumentale. Musique électronique minimale quoique bruitiste, noise quoique ambient, dans le sens large, à l'occasion. Territoire d'angles vifs et d'arrachés au vol. Territoire d'angles morts aussi, puisqu'il n'y a pas de place pour une catégorisation toute faite, hop là.

Qui?
Qui est celui qui signe GRKZGL (dire « grak-siggel »)? On ne sait pas car on ne dit pas. Peu importe. Les six pièces du mini-CD portent toutes la trace d'un artiste sonore habile qui ne vit pas dans l'ombre.

Comment?
C'est articulé comme une suite, les six pièces s'enchaînant naturellement les unes dans les autres,une pratique courante en musique électronique. Les plages ne signifient pas une rupture mais agissent comme une borne. Il peut y avoir une cassure, une interruption brutale entre deux plages, mais plus souvent le flux sonore se poursuit de l'une à l'autre. Tout est dans tout comme chacun sait! Ainsi, on a le sentiment qu'un projet se développe et qu'il ne s'agit pas que d'une succession de pièces indépendantes les unes des autres. GRKZGL fouille la peau et les os de divers circuits électroniques, il manipule, transforme, triture et mixe les fragments de matière obtenus. Le temps s'échappe, s'agglutine, s'éclate dans les flambées et les flammèches. Même les titres s'en ressentent : untlat, belcrut, pugnt...

Le format?
Le format du mini-CD à moins de 20 minutes invite très aisément à une exploration sonore. Sans surcharge audio ou visuelle. Le petit CD se manipule bien et se porte comme une lampe frontale, comme un écouteur léger, comme une machine à prospecter le champ sonore.

Pour qui?
Pour tout mélomane majeur et consentant à faire une activité solitaire légale et moins répandue qu'il n'y paraît : écouter.

Et mon argent?
Ne vous sera pas remis. Puisque c'est petit, pas cher et qu'on en redemandera.

Une écoute maximale d'Hélène Prévost

Witte Ruis

Glitch. For some an ordeal to sit through, for others an absolute festivity for the ear. And depending on in which category you belong, you will either love this to death or hate it. But !!! Earlier this year I had the pleasure of seeing grkzgl live at the COMA festival in Montreal and they were definitly impressive. I remember one of the visitors coming to me stating "This my friend, this was absolute brillliant!". And that visitor was none other the Cordell Klier, who himself is definitly also capable of doing nice glitchy stuff.

So when I had the chance to review this 3" CD (6 tracks, 19 minutes) I right away said yes. Do I regret being that eager? No, definitly not.

grkzgl, which should be pronounced as 'grak-siggle', made a CD which is a true work of art. The layering is close to perfect, as is the production. Deep basses and rattling high frequencies form the base of structures which could be rhythms. Music to guide your thinking process.

At some points it reminds you of the tweaking sounds which you can find in tracks by Vromb, or 33mHz. At other points it's close to the Ultraphonist release on Foton records.

Easy? No, but it is beautiful, very beautiful.

Bauke Van Der Wal

Déglutations (CDr/CD)

2006-03-12T23:24:00.004-05:00

Enregistré à Kyoto en mai-juillet 2005
Paru en CDr sur Shrine.jp en mars 2006 (SRCDR019)
Édition CD sur Shrine.jp / Underground Gallery (UGCD-SR019) parue en novembre 2011

1. Cdég
2. Wertell
3. Débouffe
4. Xerme
5. Korbe
6. Torlk
7. Molaç
8. Gluotre
9. Lirgg
10. Yggv

Critiques :

Ameet.jp

アナログシンセ、テープループなどを用いて独自のIDMサウンドを構築するカナダ人アーティスト、アレクサンドル・スカルフォネ氏によるソロユニット、grkzgl（ジラクジグル）がCDR作品としてshrine.jpからリリースした同名アルバム（SRCDR019）の再発盤（スカルフォネ氏はリリース当時京都在住）。無機質なリズムにフィルター系、空間系エフェクトが効いたノイズや持続音が重ねられたサウンドは、70年代後半から80年代初期にかけてのThrobbing Gristleを想起させるような呪術性を放っている。クラッシックなIDMのアイデアだけでなく、現代的なエレクトロニカのアイデアが盛り込まれているところが興味深い。

中本真生　Nakamoto Masaki

Luigi★Box

10月に発売された2枚、higuchi eitaro "pimrico"、armchair reflection "hoopla"に続くエレクトロニカ・ファンクネスことPsysExの糸魚さんのレーベルshrine.jp再始動の第三段！grkzgl "déglutations"を購入。

このgrkzgl "déglutations"も、ジャケット画像は上下左右表裏を自分好みに合わせて使う仕様。お好きな様にどうぞ。一度抜いたら元の位置が判らなくなりますけど(笑)

ちなみにこのshrine.jp再始動について、京都のアート情報を発信しているAMeetのサイトにインタビューがありますので、shrine.jpを知っている人も知らない人も一読をお勧めします。
京都発のエクスペリメンタル／エレクトロニカ・レーベルshrine.jp再始動

grkzglさんのキャッチコピーは、
「ジラクジグル。アレクサンドル・スカルフォネによるストイックに貫かれる耳障りの面白いIDM作品。」
最初何語か判りませんでした(笑) 名前ですね。確かに面白いIDM作品。

音の方は前2枚とはちょっと趣が異なり、所謂エレクトロニカというより、音響・実験音楽というかIDMってやつです。

IDMとはIntelligent Dance Musicの略で、必ずしもダンスフロア向けではない、独特で幻想的なリズム、メロディーラインが特徴である。
Wikipedia - インテリジェント・ダンス・ミュージックより。

で、これは是非部屋の明かりを消して真っ暗な中で、ヘッドホンで音量をちょっとあげ気味で聞いてもらいたい。音に集中して行くとあっちの世界に入り込んでしまう。あっちがどこなのか、明確なイメージが沸かないんだけどね。でも音の跳ね具合は気持ち良いですので、変な世界では無い筈。CGで作られた3D空間に次々と建物？が構築されて行く。そこにポツンと置き去りにされた感じ。なんて言うか、説明放棄(笑)

正直、これは好き嫌いが別れるかな〜とも思います。聞き易い方だとは思いますが。ただshrine.jpの音が好きな人には是非聞いて欲しいアルバム。音は確実にshrine.jpです。そしてこういう音楽を聞いた事が無い人にこそ聞いて欲しいと思います。

Louie Udagawa

C'est de la marde (CDr)

2003-05-08T00:54:00.003-04:00

Brise-Cul Records SADE 096
Red Series 006

Parution en mai 2008

1. Un (8:34)
2. Deux (7:13)
3. Trois (9:16)

Enregistré en mars-avril 2008.

À propos :

Par où commencer ? Vers septembre 2007, les apparitions live de Grkzgl sont devenues de plus en plus bruyantes et divertissantes. Cependant je n'avais jamais fait paraître quoi que ce soit de sérieusement sauvage. Ayant remarqué ceci, Martin des disques Brise-Cul a entrepris de me solliciter un peu à la blague : « Pourquoi tu ne me fais pas un album vraiment harsh pour la Red Series ? »

Je me suis donc mis au boulot, enregistrant des heures de ridicules explosions de bruits psychédéliques, et enchaînant en séquence rapide les meilleures parties. Le résultat : un hommage quelque peu accidentel à un des tout premiers disques noise sur lesquels j'ai mis la main : Frequency LSD.

Pourquoi le titre ?
Je dois admette ne plus trop me souvenir du raisonnement ayant mené à ce titre, quoiqu'à bien y penser il est probable que l'expression C'est de la marde ait tout simplement une place importante dans mon vocabulaire quotidien. Alors à quoi cela fait-il référence ? Peut-être à la frustrante démarche derrière un album de noise satisfaisant ? Ou plutôt à l'inépuisable esthétique « dur à cuire mysogyne » du noise américain contemporain ?

Est-ce une blague ?
Oui et non. Le titre et la pochette ne sont évidemment pas très sérieux. Cependant, le désir de créer un album solide qui détruit tout, lui, était authentique. Bien sûr, avec le recul, j'entends quelques secondes que j'aurais dû abréger ici et là, et de ces temps-ci je transférerais le tout sur cassette avant le matricage final afin d'apaiser un peu vos oreilles, mais en gros, je suis plutôt fier de ce disque.

... et le chat ?
Quand la charmante Katsura Mouri (Parallax Records/BusRatch) a invité Grkzgl à jouer au premier concert de la série Loupe tenu au Café Indépendants à Kyoto, elle m'a dessiné (deux fois plutôt qu'une !) un chat qui m'a paru si génial qu'il me fallait l'emprunter. Par contre, le « aargh » est de moi ; à l'origine, le chat disait nyā (miaou). Donc voilà.

Critique dithyrambique :

Startling Moniker

I suppose the title should stand. It is shit– just three tracks of “harsh” noise indistinguishable from practically anyone else toiling in the increasingly narrow confines of the genre. GRKZGL is loud, busy, and wading about in deleriously distorted sounds– but for anyone who remembers his earlier release “Esque” on the Angle Rec label, “C’est de la Marde” is just the noise made by GRKZGL setting the bar a bit low.

Although I fully recognize that the sheer number of available recordings is one aspect of noise, (it’s just another type of volume, see?) this definitely isn’t where I’d want a new listener to start with this artist. For all of releasing label Brise-Cul’s hype that “C’est de la Marde” is “so harsh that it is ridiculous,” and “so meticulously recorded and mastered” the noise genre remains a game of limits, not unlike speed metal. These bold statements invite listeners to make comparisons, with the result that “C’est de la Marde” doesn’t stand in any such category.

Brise-Cul, having over 100 releases, should know better. Like DJs, the folks who run labels get a birds-eye view of music the public isn’t afforded– turning out some old spray-painted CDR that sticks to its cheap plastic slipcase and turns over no new ground is an abuse of the buyers’ goodwill, and hardly serves to do anything but falsely inflate the artist and leave much of the label’s catalog suspect as well.

It’s bad enough that experimental artists relying on CDR labels will have tremendous amounts of product spread across innumerable imprints and still receive little more than a handful of copies to sell on tour, but when these labels neglect their responsibility to help positively shape the music they love, we all lose something.

GRKZGL’s “C’est de la Marde” isn’t the only example of this, and by no means is Brise-Cul the worst offending label. Still, we’d deserve whatever we get if these sorts of things weren’t pointed out.

DaveX

GRK001 (mini CDr)

2002-03-09T18:15:00.010-05:00

Auto-produit, numéro de catalogue GRK001
Tirage indéfini
Paru en mars 2009

1. Sans titre (15:03)

Enregistré en janvier 2009