Stefan Christoff / Post Mortem – Tape Crash #12 split
3.21.16 by Ian Franklin

Unbeknownst to me, Old Bicycle Records based out of Piazzogna, Switzerland have been releasing some amazing music on cassette, CD, and LP since 2011 especially their Tape Crash series pairing artists from around the world together. #12 in that series is a split C48 between Stefan Christoff of Canada and Post Mortem from the Netherlands.

Stefan Christoff’s side is filled with emotional and sprawling textures of organ, guitar drones, and piano explorations. At times Terry Riley like, Christoff works with rhythmic counterpoint and revolving modes of melody and solos. “Fenetres Sonores” begins with swirling touches of delayed and reversed guitar patterns stacked on top of bass currents and rising synth drone. Christoff does an excellent job shifting form across the tracks and as a result they never feel bogged down by extended periods of exploration or stagnancy. “Silver Organ”’s bouncing synth rhythm hops along under the silver glass shine of stacked organ declaration. “Correspondance” is the most guitar heavy track; slightly distorted resonating solos punctuate the open air and drift along the canyons within. Then to finish it out, the side closer “Reve Populaire a Montreal”, beckons with waves of crescendoed piano flourishing climaxes. Deep mix of Ambient introspection and contemplation across this side that is simply beautiful to experience.

Post Mortem (Jan Kees Helms) “Waasland” kicks off the B side with a warm bath of ambient noise rising in intensity revealing a train like cadence, wind whipping by with the muffled clicks of tracks passing underneath. Looped fragments of distorted vocals punctuate the haze with bass-y mixtures of piano and noise lurking through crevices. As the dense layering of looped field recordings subsides, the piano shines through the spotlight, a slow and measured melody of hesitation. Creeping, heavy blasts of noise are reduced to the mechanical lilt of the train again, unable to escape the constant feeling of escaping. The continuous movement is juxtaposed against fragile piano creating it’s own rhythmic pulse. Distorted vocal chants slash across the stereo spectrum invading your ears. These too fade into the background, revolving back into the continuous loop of fragmented noise and breaths of haunting piano. Really, really solid use of mixing field recordings and acoustic instrumentation and a perfect balance to the melodic beauty of the A side.

Housed in a slick, dot-matrix printed Brad Pack, the white shell tapes have simple and minimal printing of the artists names on each side, and an insert listing track information and instrumentation which is always a welcome bonus. Edition of 100 and even though it came out last November this is still somehow available from the label so get gripping!