performs research center for the pursuit of happiness, xanthi branch

staying for the better part of the year in the lovely city of Xanthi (in the greek northeast), but in a less than ideal situation, i've spent most of my free time doing random walks in the city (mostly in the older part). With my trusted minidisc at hand i've turned some of those walks into soundwalks. Some of the sounds captured you can listen here:

kostis kilymis; performs research center for the pursuit of happiness, xanthi branch http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yfkmmz1yyhh




















see also: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkilim/sets/72157622424435603/

technologically humbled

"Secret Earth was recorded on a 4-track and on a videocassette machine. So, it's using two source recordings and then uploaded to a computer, and then the vocal tracks in. So, it's very very basic..."

what amazes me is not the fact that these guys can pull this off. Not even that i don't care how their stuff is recorded. But most of all it amazes me that, when i hear it, i don't even categorize it as "lo-fi music" of any kind. At the end of the day it's just pure kick-ass music. And, perhaps more importantly, it gets across as such and doesn't get stuck between labels and tags.

post pictures of your setup

not the most recent one, but hey..

syndromes - temporary perspectives

'temporary perspectives' is a set of recordings i'd been working on, on and off for a good part of 2008 and 2009. The pieces only fell in place last spring and some of the mixes kept me occupied during the summer months and early autumn.





contrary to previous studio-based constructions, this one can lay claim to a general "theme" in that it expressly focuses on the experience of biorythms and issues of human perception. It's interesting to see where things will go from here, seeing that -after 'perspectives'- i've been focusing more an more on untampered improvised playing. Though more immediate and 'true', my current practice makes it more difficult to translate these specific issues/feelings into sound. Somehow inconvenient, but welcome as a challenge.




I've been making some tentative attempts to present this disc to some music labels, for the moment i can present here an excerpt from the first track:

less surface noise (excerpt) by syndromesuploadcloud




[credits: field recordings, sine waves, computer data, lloopp, electric guitar, tremolo pedal, condenser microphone, contact microphone, mixing board]

photography by fotini lazaridou-hatzigoga, with permission and thanks

live in thessaloniki, 31/10/09

manekinekod + syndromes sister overdrive
live in thessaloniki

click on the image for full details

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http://www.myspace.com/manekinekod
http://www.myspace.com/sisteroverdrive
http://www.protosorofos.gr/

flick

started uploading some photos, old and new, to a flickr account that i set up:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkilim/

none of them music-related, save for a pretty dark shot of the 'decentred' quartet, setting up for a set at cafe oto during the unnamed music festival last june.

music-related posts coming up soon-ish

syndromes sister overdrive, live recording

photo by eri skyrgianni

syndromes sister overdrive is the duo of myself (syndromes) & giannis kotsonis (sister overdrive). We played together for the first time as part of the 501/502 concerts that took place in athens and thessaloniki earlier this year; we performed in the athens concert. This was actually only the second time we played together (first time was the previous night at giannis' practice space), but the results were quite satisfying. Things are not always very stable with this duo, because we tend to process each others sounds a lot, but on this occasion i think we held back quite a bit and the music benefited as a result.

below is the recording of our set at kinky kong. The sound is a bit boxy, since it was recorded from a camcoder microphone, but i find it captures most of the music quite well

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mwuzbowmeq4

syndromes sister overdrive - live @ kinky kong, march 7, 2009

giannis kotsonis - audiomulch software, samples
kostis kilymis - mixing board, effects, field recordings, contact microphone

much thanks to nikos pastras for the backup recording

reviews roundup

here's a list of the record reviews i've written over the past few months (not many of them, i should really spend more time doing this). All of them in greek, and hosted by tranzistor.

Tamio Shiraishi - Live Perfomances: 1992 / 1994

No Clear Mind / Matteus - Split 3''

The Shadow Ring - Life Review (1993-2003)

Xno Bbqx - Sunshine Of Your Love

tamio

it's nice to see tamio shiraishi in a full-on noise setting



but to tell you the truth, i prefer to hear him playing like this

natural selection

my tender, florist-bred bamboo branch passed away a few weeks ago, but the one that came from IKEA seems to be doing quite alright...

no real music news, as i'm endlessly restructuring an old project i have laying in my hard drive. also putting some work on the label, but that's a different story. next week i will be attending the two London dates of the unnamed music festival, which should provide some food for thought over the next months (anyone reading this, say hello if you're there).

found arrangements

external staircases are quite rare in greek homes, and when one makes an appearance it is more often the main staircase for the building, than it is an emergency one. i don't recall which was the case here, all i know is i wouldn't climb that thing



click on the pictures for larger view

dust

a piece i had recorded during the .accumulated days, but subsequently shelved, is now available online as part of the bagatellen listen series. this is a very simple, but effective piece, it consists mainly of laptop feedback that i later treated with compression effects. i then shaped the structure of the piece by injecting some silence & found sound near the end of the track.

since this never seemed to fit with any of the other stuff i'd record before and afterwards, i sort-of jumped at the opportunity given to present it on its own. thanks to bagatellen for making this possible.

check it out here: http://www.bagatellen.com/?p=2340