1. Dwaal
2. Wold
3. Dwaal (Nicola Ratti version)
4. Wold (Benoît Pioulard version)
cd and download on Moving Furniture Records, March 2018
Re-issue of the Dwaal/Wold tape (released by Dauw)
Stream and/or buy at Bandcamp
or send an with your order
Dauw, the great tape label based in Ghent, invited me in 2015 to do a release for them. This resulted in two 18 minute tracks, ‘Dwaal’ and ‘Wold’. Both are exercises in creating an auditory space or sphere rather than sculpting a structured composition. With its orchestral washes amidst a barrage of radio static and erratic noise, ‘Dwaal’ is the noisy brother of the two. It's a balancing act or battle perhaps between disruptive tumult and serene calm. On ‘Wold’, with its sparse piano notes spread out over a bed of subtle hiss, the serenity is left largely unadorned. Wind recordings and bird song - the piano as well as the field recordings captured during a holiday in Vriescheloo, (NL) - slowly guide the listener into an hypnotic, dream-like state.
The cassette for Dauw (accompanied by Femke Strijbos' beautiful artwork) was released in February 2016 and sold out quickly. Moving Furniture Records has decided to re-release it as a cd and download, adding two interpretations to the album, by Benoît Pioulard (whose ‘Sonnet' was a clear influence gor the album) and Nicola Ratti (another source of inspiration, both solo and with Bellows). The latter strips ‘Dwaal’ down and injects it with wonderful synth sputters, rhythms and bloops. Pioulard’s version of ‘Wold’ features his recreation of the atmosphere of the original using organ and guitar with mesmerizing results.
Reviews
Vital Weekly
The Omni-present Rutger Zuydervelt, also known as Machinefabriek, is like a true factory, producing release upon release. Sometimes he produces very limited releases, such as ’Dwaal/Wold’ on cassette for Belgium’s Dauw Tapes in 2015. Quickly sold out, it is now re-issued on CD with for each piece a remix, ‘Dwaal’ by Nicola Ratti and ‘Wold’ by Benoit Pioulard. The two Machinefabriek pieces are each eighteen minutes long and quite different. ‘Dwaal’ is clearly the more experimental piece here, with what would could be quite an amount of radio’s receiving a whole lot static, crackles and hiss, but Zuydervelt plays around with that quite a bit, forming cascading waves washing ashore and going on, while in among these ways we find some snippets of electronic sound and a bit of bass. ‘Wold’ on the other end is very sparse with a few notes on the piano, which are stretched out to fine drone-like proportions, slowly mingling with what could be an organ sound. This is perhaps the kind of music for which Machinefabriek is well known, his trademark sound if you will, crafting with a few sounds, a single instrument and some sound effect a whole painting of a misty landscape. Nicola Ratti takes ‘Dwaal’ into a totally new world and it is very hard to recognize any of the original in here, as he cuts things up quite a bit, puts them in some sort of sequenced order and creates a fine rhythmical piece out of it. This is one of those rare cases in which the remix goes out and does something out of the ordinary, which can’t be said of Benoit Pioulard’s remix of ‘Wold’, which is very much ‘more of the same’. He surely does a great job with his remix and it is a fine piece, but hardly something else than what Zuydervelt already beautifully did in the original.
Yeah I Know It Sucks
This release is one of those peculiar ones hailing out of the electronic corners that are dusty, cozy and grainy but also incredibly high tech at the same time. Forget all about these things and within a few minutes length, it simply hijacks your mind and senses and takes it into a calming fantasy audioland. A seemingly kind place, one in which all seems fresh and sandy, croaky and clean cut. It’s a matter of contrasts working finely together, the elements of opposites colliding like the best possible friends with benefits.
When I closed my eyes I dreamed of trees, smelled green grass (not the weed thing, but actually the grass that hopefully happy cows stand on – excluding their own cow shit) , deep watery drops of a previous morning on some leaves from green plants (not those special green plants … although why not? They are lovely to look at as well!).
With Wold the sounds are going for a much more emptier feel and vibe. It comes across as a very slow piano orientated work in which every note is seemingly stretched towards the long lengths of a pretty eternity. This lengthy drone with music notes becomes more beautiful as the ears slide along, crackling kindly the snares of a sentimental nature, just like an old black and white movie from the past would do. But this wooly wold only gets better and better, softly adding real life field recordings to the mix, perfect for a friendly bird-spotters feel and vibe.
After this there are two remixes of both tracks, creating the opportunity to enjoy them in a new way. Revitalizing not only the listener’s ears, but also the actual music! If that’s not your time / money’s worth than I would t know what is?
Subjectivisten
Het zou mij niets verbazen als astronauten binnenkort tot de schokkende ontdekking komen dat niet de Chinese muur, maar de discografie van Machinefabriek vanaf de maan zichtbaar is. Dit geweldige en langlopende elektronische project van Rutger Zuydervelt (Cloud Ensemble, CMKK, DNMF, Shivers, Piiptsjilling) weet keer op keer te verrassen met kwalitatief hoogwaardig materiaal. De ene keer is dat met glitch, ambient of minimal music, maar op andere momenten ook met filmmuziek, veldopnames, drones en elektro-akoestische muziek of een combinatie van dat alles. Er bestaan geen grenzen voor hetgeen hij naar buiten brengt. Hij heeft me gekscherend al eens gevraagd of ik niet genoeg van zijn muziek in huis heb en ik denk dat mijn antwoord een overtuigend “nee” is geweest. Iedere keer zorgt Machinefabriek ervoor dat je weer iets op je bord krijgt, wat je niet verwacht had. Daarin schuilt de kracht van de meester. Nu is er de nieuwe cd Dwaal/ Wold+, uitgebracht op het innovatieve Moving Furniture Records van Sietse van Erve (Orphax, Zonderland). Machinefabriek brengt hier de twee tracks uit de titel, die elk 18 minuten lang zijn en bestaan uit een mix van ambient, veldopnames, noise en drones, Met name onder de koptelefoon ervaar je pas echt de subtiliteit van dit alles, hetgeen een isolationistisch geheel oplevert, Het is muziek van de buitencategorie, die je even helemaal weg neemt uit de realiteit. Bezinnende pracht voor de avontuurlijke luisteraar. Als bonus krijg je nog twee herinterpretaties van Nicola Ratti en Kranky artiest Benoît Pioulard, die de klasse van de meester enkel onderstrepen met eigenzinnige creaties. Het levert wederom een onderscheidend meesterwerk op.
