Philip Jeck Songs For Europe (Piosenki Dla Europy) CD

Philip Jeck and Janek Schaefer have shared the same stage -- with and without performing together -- numerous times as part of avant-garde music events, namely the Martin Tétreault-curated turntablist ensemble that toured England in the early 2000s. Songs for Europe is their first full-length collaboration and certainly deserves more than a footnote in their respective discographies. In fact, this album is one of Jeck's best efforts since Vinyl Coda IV, as it eschews facile ambient textures in favor of a harsher discourse, and Schaefer's most "accessible" album in recent times, after a string of very strong yet much more demanding releases (Cold Storage and Black Immure, in particular). The main theme, found in the album title, the artwork, and most of all in the sound sources, is Turkey. Jeck and Schaefer are spinning and sampling a wide range of Turkish (and possibly Greek) music, from classical to rock, by way of traditional folk. The crackling of old vinyl is omnipresent, especially at the beginning and end of each of the album's two main sections. The first three tracks could be seen as making up "side one" of the CD, the highlight being the ten-minute long "Aegean Tea." Opening on a rough rock recording all but drowned in surface noise, the piece moves to quieter pastures before turning into an orgiastic orchestra of assembled sound sources. The second side, consisting of the next three tracks, is somewhat calmer than the first, but follows the same aesthetics: ambient textures that are actually quite harsh, a strong sense of place that is actually severely displaced, a high level of plundering that is hiding an even higher level of composition (instant or not). After the two "sides" comes the "bonus track," the four-minute "Lullaby Duel," a surprisingly quiet and innocent guitar solo (or so it seems), taken from who knows where and extremely disorienting after the thickly ornamented tapestries that came before it. Then again, Jeck and Schaefer are two skilled mystifiers and Songs for Europe captures them at the top of their art. ~ François Couture

Recording information: Athens, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey.

Photographers: Janek Schaefer; Philip Jeck.