Tamtam is a duo of Sam Auinger on sampler and field recordings and Hannes Strobl on electric upright bass and here they have a piece that deals with the old German saga, called Die Nibelungen, as immortalized by Richard Wagner in his opera cycle Die Ring Des Nibelungen. In the Rhine River lies a treasure buried and so for this homage (for the lack of a better word) they use field recordings made at the Rhine. There is also the self-made gong by Robyn Schulkowsky. The piece lasts twenty-eight minutes and on the second side there are remixes by Eosin, Maile Colbert and @C. Very much like the mighty Rhine itself the music moves in very slow waves; apparently there are five parts but that’s not something I heard. It has tranquillity here and the sounds, whatever they are, were played majestically. In Eosin’s remix the tamtam is used to create a fierce rhythm, along with some fine drones and Combo created an excellent piece I must say. In Maile Colbert’s remix it seems as if the water of the Rhine has been replaced by street sounds and @C as usual call out all laptops and amplify the waves and shorten them and thus a mechanical sort of drone is generated. The whole element of nature is gone within this powerful remix, but it resulted in a fine piece of music. (FdW)
via Vital Weekly