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PT5

Nick Hoffman - Anima c47

A.  Earth Altar
B.  Into the Clouds          mp3

Nick Hoffman: trumpet, voice
Recorded January-February 2010
Released May 2010

OUT OF PRINT


REVIEWS:

Holidays
holidaysreview.wordpress.com

June 11, 2010
Nick Hoffman – Anima
Anima is more like the Regosphere/Hoffman split I reviewed around a week ago in sound and instrumentation, unlike the split above. Again on a C47- this tape is very eerie and can be a bit unsettling. It seems to be influenced by a Lovecraft quote recited inside the artwork from The Rats in the Walls, stating “I heard voices, and yowls, and echoes, but above all there gently rose that impions, insiduious scurring; gently rising, rising, as a stiff bloated corpse gently rises above an oily river that flows under undless onyx bridges to a black, putrid sea.”

The quote is a mouthful, but just the first line is enough, as this tape certainly gives an eerie vibe like that of voices, yowls, and echoes rising. While the idea of a corpse rising from a river as it attributes itself to is a great mental image, when I heard this, it was more like opening a basement door to an abandoned psych ward and finding a tortured jazz band stuck in purgatory.

As stated above, the entire release is minimal in instrumentation, with the first side- “Earth Altar”- giving sounds of a trumpet and tortured, desperate vocals (or simply “voices”)- either separate, or layered on top of one another- it’s haunting. The second half of the track is very minimal, with even creepier trumpet and vocals softly coming in and out, as well as sound sounds of shackles and desperate wimpering. The second side, titled “Into the Clouds” is where I’ve taken the “jazz band” term from- while still given some squealing trumpet sounds as heard on the first side- they’re now accompanied by drawn out drum hits. The percussion definitely adds something to the release in its entirety, and gives me, personally, a whole new level of appreciation for the tape as a whole. The percussion becomes more a part of the music towards the end of the track, and concludes the tape wonderfully.

I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who digs minimalism- more specifically, acts like Graveyards, as that’s what it reminds me of a lot. It’s a excellent release with great, simple artwork, and I can’t wait to let it age on my shelf until the leaves start to fall in autumn, when I’ll definitely be bring it back out for a few more spins in my tape deck. Get this one!

Vital Weekly (Frans de Waard)

NICK HOFFMAN – ANIMA (cassette by Pilgrim Talk)
A while ago we received some CDRs by Nick Hoffman, usually under the guise of Katchmere, but somehow things seem to have slowed down for him. In the apartment of his great grandfather he found an ancient tape machine, which is used to record two improvisations, one for voice and one for trumpet. The tape machine also generates sound by itself. It slows down or speeds up, had sudden volumes changes and other peculiar changes in sound, which Hoffman uses to his advantage. He cleverly uses the buzz of the machine to interfere with the sounds he produces. Its not easy to recognize a voice on the a-side, whereas the trumpet on the other side is more present. Hoffman produces sound in a minimalist manner, with slow changes, along while the buzz continues, especially on the trumpet side. On that side he uses the trumpet as a wind instrument, but also in a percussive manner. Although I thought this was a nice release, its also a highly obscure release. This kind of music, in which the experiment is the main objective, is highly suitable for a release on cassette, me thinks.

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