VIDEOS:
- Blind Cave
Salamander live in Kortrijk, Belgium at the
Happy
New Ears Festival 2007
- Blind Cave
Salamander live in Athens, Greece at the
Lost In Thyme Festival 2007
- "(Set
The Controls For) The Heart Of The Sun"
Video by Fabiana Antonioli. www.filmika.it
- Blind Cave
Salamander with Nurse With Wound "Cabbalism"
(live @ Artefact Festival, Leuven, Belgium,Feb. 2010. Excerpt)
- Blind Cave Salamander: "Moonfisch"
live @ Cortile Della Farmacia, Torino, Italy, the 1st of Sep. 2010
- Jochen Arbeit/ Paul Beauchamp/ Julia Kent/ Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo "Soundscapes"
live @ Estragon,
Bologna, Italy, the 14th of Nov. 2010
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PICS:
© 2008 Davide
Pepe
© 2007
Davide Pepe
© 2007
Davide Pepe
© 2007
Phil
© 2007
Maude Swift |
REVIEWS:
Cabbalism: Brainwashed.com, Apr. 2012
This live recording from 2009 sees Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter team up with Fabrizio Palumbo, Paul Beauchamp and Julia Kent to perform one of, if not, the classic Nurse With Wound album Soliloquy for Lilith. I cannot pretend that they have succeeded in recreating that amazing work but they have made something equally engaging if aesthetically different to the original. Stapleton is still acting as an aerial or a receiver for the basic sound but the other players build on it to form an entirely novel and separate entity.
The original recordings of Soliloquy for Lilith involved Stapleton playing the electromagnetic fields of various guitar effects pedals like a Theremin. The end result was something akin to a transmission from space, indecipherable but strangely calming. The album has always been a favorite of Stapleton due to the fact that it seemed less like a composition of his own and more of a recording of something else, something beyond the creative process (very much from the same space as Coil’s Worship the Glitch album).
With all this in mind, I was surprised when a few years ago he started performing Soliloquy for Lilith live. I could not envisage how these otherworldly sounds would translate to a concert hall, especially as Nurse With Wound were performing it with Blind Cave Salamander. Listening to Cabbalism now, the answer is that it is little like Soliloquy for Lilith but a whole new work stemming from the same basic premise. The ghostly murmurs from the guitar effects pedals are still there but are pushed back in the mix with the other musicians complementing Stapleton with regular instrumentation and electronics. Barely-there guitar, sweeps of abstracted sound and distant hums of bass tones create a distinct and unexpected world.
However, it is Kent’s cello that brings this piece from being just another Space Music-esque work (though there is nothing wrong with that). Her rich, poignant notes push through the acoustic ephemera. A small amount of echo gives her playing a detached quality, almost as if she is jamming with the reverberations of the cosmos. On the second side of the LP, her playing takes on a Middle Eastern lilt; an odd but effective fit. When high-pitched whines (from Potter’s box of tricks? from Beauchamp’s musical saw? from the Horsehead Nebula?) join her playing near the end, it is a glorious and transcendental moment.
Yet, this is just one of many such moments dotted throughout Cabbalism. Some feel more minor than others but they add up, cumulatively reinforcing the effect of each tiny particle of sound. I seem to say this about most Nurse With Wound-related releases these days but this is one of Stapleton’s best. I honestly think he is on a roll these last few years and obviously constantly changing up his collaborators is a solid move on his part.
John Kealy
Torino 012010: BabySue, Jan. 2012
This is a joint recording from artists Jochen Arbeit (of Einstuerzende Neubauten) and Paul Beauchamp and Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (both are in the band Blind Cave Salamander). If you're familiar with either of these other bands then you're already aware of the fact that this isn't gong to appeal to the average casual music fan. If you aren't familiar with these other bands...then we should warn you that these three artists fit into the 'sound as music' category. So if you think that music have have beats, lyrics, catchy choruses, and an overall familiar feeling then you would probably be best to steer clear of Torino 012010. This double CD set features mind-numbing semi-psychedelic electronics that tend to defy categorization. This is a purely creative endeavor. The point is not to make music in the traditional sense of the word. And there doesn't seem to be any emphasis on trying to make money. Recording this style of music is something that the artists most likely do because they are driven to do so. As such, we have to tip our hats to the fine folks at the Tourette label for releasing this set. We learned many years ago that the very best music on the planet isn't being made out of a desire for fame or money. As such, purely creative endeavors like this tend to push all of our buttons just about as far as they will go. There are no song titles here. The first disc is simply entitled "Studio" with the second being "Live." Trippy killer stuff from another unlikely universe. Abstract and perplexing. Sounds great LOUD. Top pick.
Troglobite:
Ritual #42, Jan. 2010
When the meeting of the creative and performative identities of
individual musicians find the right amalgam and perfect balance
within the awareness of the desired goals, then it's more than
possible that the final result will match the expectations of
its protagonists.
This is just what happened with “Troglobite”, the
second full length album by Blind Cave Salamander two years after
their self-titled debut.
Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo and Paul Beauchamp, aided by julia Kent,
Marco Milanesio, Michael Begg and Paul Wallfisch gave birth to
an unexceptionable work, where modulated sound lines embrace each
other to create atmospheres lost between sleepy nocturnal ecstasy,
synthetic psychedelia, mantra induced hypnosis, shady meditation
and subterranean depths.
this is an evocative album, full of melancholic pathos, progressive
and never retrogressive, and embellished by an inspired version
of Pink Floyd’s “Set The Controls For The Heart Of
The Sun”
Roberto Michieletto
Troglobite: D-Side Magazine: www.d-side.org
Blind Cave Salamander’s sound crystals design, on Troglobite,
a carved arabesque: a work imbued of true “spleen”.
Stripped and lunar, this gorgeous reflective plot tells an intimate
story, it fills the space without striking a blow, tender (Blue
Lagoon) and not scared of crossing the threshold of darkness.
That’s how the vision of Paul Beauchamp and Fabrizio Modonese
Palumbo (of the italian avant-rock band Larsen) takes form, authors
and interpreters of all the music, aided by Julia Kent (cello
and occasional vocals).
A mix, that with three extra musicians, gives birth to a delicate
and acrobatic but also spacey sound (Transition).
Troglobite is a minimal work that really dares to experiment thanks
as well to the use of electronics.
We plunge into atmospherics with the beautiful version of Pink
Floyd’s classic Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun
A very strong musicality that reminds us of cinemagraphic atmospheres
: brick-like and sweet and at the same time like a sepia-toned
film with light metallic glints.
A provocative web of drones.
Hemmanuel Hennequin
Troglobite:
www.versacrum.com
Even if it is not easy to to imagine the content of a
work such as this, considering the diverse backgrounds and musical
approaches of its members - Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Larsen
guitarist as well as prolific solo artist), Julia Kent (ex Rasputina,
collaborator in groups such as Angels Of Light and Anthony and
the Johnsons), Marco Milanesio (leading figure of DsorDNE of the
Turinian scene in the 80's and early 90's) and Paul Beauchamp
- certainly my expectations were quite high and I have to say
I was not let down!
Even if it is not necessarily an easy album, Troglobite contains
numerous interesting points torn as it is between clean and elegant,
but never flat, post-rock inflections, the gentle but, at the
same time, obscure and bewildering cello, docile ambient deviations,
layered electronics and pleasing piano interventions. The most
interesting thing is how so many different elements get together
in an almost natural way and everything seems to flow in great
harmony, even when the tension rises (“Magma” and
the finale “Used To Be Last”) or gets to be more psychedelic
(the cover of Pink Floyd's “Set The Controls For The Heart
Of The Sun”). The album opens with the splendid and captivating
“Moonfish”, a track à la Godspeed You! Black
Emperor, but docile and bridled for all of its seven minutes.
I hope this CD doesn't go unnoticed as that would be a true pity.
Troglobite: Rumore# 214, Nov. 2009
The missing
link between evolved Ambient and the most hypnotic pyschedelia.
One leg on manipulated electricity (almost Nurse With Wound, with
whom they have recently performed) and one on the (Umma) gamma
of post Pink Floyd sounds. Not by chance Waters and friends. Right
in the middle of the album there is in fact a remarkable version
of (Set The Controls For) The Heart Of The Sun, thirteen solemn
minutes with almost velvet ( undergorund) bows ploughing through
cosmic expansion. Elsewhere romantic vapors flower (Untitled),
European fogs (Used To Be Last) and illuminated immobility (Moonfish).
The distinctive small strokes style that characterizes Modonese
Palumbo’s large frescos finds itself perfectly encircled
in the electronic dowry of Paul Beauchamp and in the contribution
of the trusted Marco Milanesio and Julia Kent, alongside that
of their excellent guests Paul Wallfisch and Michael Begg (Fovea
Hex).
Maurizio Blatto
Troglobite: www.cyclicdefrost.com, 2009
As foreboding as the habitat of the creature that Blind Cave Salamander
are named after, Troglobite is an enveloping listening experience.
It’s difficult to avoid the subaquatic and subterranean
metaphors which the group deliberately evoke in their nomenclature
but, thankfully, they live up to these with sounds and structures
that don’t fall into clichés or trite descriptiveness.
The trio of Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo, Paul Beauchamp and Julia
Kent are joined by producer Marco Milanesio and other guests to
deploy synth and electric guitar atmospheres, field recordings,
piano and, most potently, deep cello, viola and musical saw groanings.
‘Moonfish’ opens the album with a dark, almost subliminal
bass drone. This really lays the foundation for all that follows,
as cello and slow moving piano phrases colour the yawning spaces
opened up over the rest of the disc. Seemingly incongruous field
recordings, for example a bandsaw in action during ‘Transition’,
act as evocations of the outside world, stopping the music from
receding into ambience. A cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘(Set
The Controls For) The Heart Of The Sun’ takes the psychedelic
impulses of the original and amplifies them into a darkly euphoric
shamanistic trance over an ever repeating 10 note riff. It could
have come across as a blandly populist move in the midst of an
otherwise unique body of moody work, but the group harnesses the
song, makes it truly their own and successfully replant it as
the 13 minute crux of the album.
Troglobite is an excellent example of dark ambience. Beautifully
produced and deeply evocative, I highly recommend it with a good
set of headphones and a lonely corner of the room.
Adrian Elmer
Blind Cave Salamander: www.ilmucchio.it, 2008
The bit melancholic and slightly repugnant image of the blind
amphibian that lives in the cold narrow tunnels far from the light
of the sun inspires the touching instrumental score of the quartet
which over the base of simple looped guitar chords elaborates
sonorous settings of notable effectiveness, at intervals sweet
and dreamlike, other times bleaker and full of anguish. A tiny
jewel of avant-garde music arises that cleverly torments the abused
mannerism of dark ambient and several other noisy disciplines
that crowd the shelves of my private discotheque.
Fabio Massimo Arati
Blind
Cave Salamander: Rumore #188, September 2007
Having clearly
established the sonic field and key inspiration of the overall
work, know that this is a successful and highly evocative disc.
The musicians are: Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (Larsen, (r)) and
Paul Beauchamp (Radon Collective) with the contributions of Julia
Kent (Antony and the Johnsons) and Marco Milanesio (DsorDne).
Guitar, electronics, cello and bass lead the listener down the
fluid and inaccessable path of Proteus, the neotenic salamander
that lives for a hundred years, capable of surviving for twelve
years without eating, living in the total darkness of subterranean
lakes, keeping its gills for all its life and which has an up
till now unknown reproductive method. Not exactly a pet for your
niece , but certainly the ideal amphibian for melodic weavings
that can restore solitude, infinte isolation and quiet diversity.
Apart from Proteus anguinus, the album does not have an oppresive
concept but mixes waves of ambience, in a Kranky style, with folk
music vibes that could conquer fans of Calexico and Dirty Three’s
desertic atmospheres. A faultless soundtrack for a cavernicolous
vetebrate.
8 out of 10.
Maurizio Blatto
Blind
Cave Salamander: Blow Up #113, October 2007
Finally the long-awaited debut of Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo
and Paul Beauchamp, a disc that offers an unusual and unpredictable
mixture of electronics, strings, guitar, drones and field recordings:
a collection of sounds sculpted with care, that at times lean
towards hypnotic, monotonous melodies (accompanied by Julia Kent,
who in addition to cello also orchestrated the string arrangements)
and at times accentuates a tendency to abstraction thanks to the
contribution of Marco Milanesio. The field recordings captured
in the Bossea Cave wrap the disc in a bursting and organic atmosphere,
in which morbid strings infect sweet lullabies, and wrapping expanses
are sucked into the slow whirlwind of obstinate rythms.
Though inseperable from the numerous and illustrious collaborations
of its components (Larsen, Michael Gira, Current 93, Antony, just
to name a few) the sound of Blind Cave Salamander presents itself
as completely original: a very personal inflexion that insists
on a hybrid vision of natural and synthetic of which, like the
salamander that gives its name to the project, we will never discover
the origins, but of which we can get the penetrating and submerged
unraveling.
7 out of 8.
Daniela Cascella
Blind Cave Salamander:
www.musiquemachine.com, 2007
Blind Cave Salamander debut album is an often shadowy
yet elegant mix of atmospheric classical textures, electronics,
dark post rock and ambience. Featuring Paul Beauchamp handling
Electronics & Voice, Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo(Larsen, XXL,
and ( r ) ) on Effects & Electro-acoustics elements, Marco
Milanesio (DsorDNE ) Programming, bass and sound design and lastly(but
not leastly) Julia Kent (Antony and The Johnsons) on cello and
string arrangements.
Inside the cd cover there’s a lengthy write up about something
called the Human fish, a subterranean fish/ snake creature that
are rarely seen by the human eye, the often brooding mix of sounds
here would be the perfect soundtrack for drifting in underground
vast cave network in search of the human fish. The sound of the
album is set between dark post rock, rich yet dark string textures
with subtle electronic and field recording elements weaved through-out.
The tracks are usual quite harmonic, structured and beat-bound,
with a sound that is effectively atmosphere and original blend
of sounds that does sound unlike anyone else.
A dark compelling debut of instrumental music that brings together
classical grace, downturned post rock shimmer and electronic atmospheres
in a rewarding and original package.
Roger Batty
Blind Cave Salamander:
www.sentireascoltare.com, 2007
Bind Cave Salamander’s debut album is a true dive into a
deep and alien subterranean world. A full sensory trip into the
primordial total darkness of the reptilian habitat the project
has taken its name and original inspiration from. Fabrizio Modonese
Palumbo (electro-acoustics) and Paul Beauchamp (electronics),
along with Julia Kent (cello) and Marco Milanesio’s production
and sonic structures, have created an emotionally unstable sound-flow
through the dark and mysterious lands of the primeval amphibian.
Their music is an electroacoustic elegy to static and hidden living
that requires taking sounds into the most remote depths of one’s
self to be entirely understood. A work of perfect balance between
acoustic movements and electronic lulls, ambient (a la Kranky)
and apocalyptic folk vibes, Blind Cave Salamander is an highly
evocative and introspective album, distant from the other projects
of its members (Larsen, Antony and the Johnsons) thanks to an
almost hallucinatory visionary power.
(Do not) see with the eyes, to see with the ears.
Stefano Pifferi
Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo & Paul Beauchamp (PRE 001):
Wire #252, February 2005
Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo (of Larsen) and Paul Beauchamp
(of Radon Collective) have collaborated on what is cleary the
heaviest release i've held this month.
Blind Cave Salamander (PREcordings 3" CD) is packed with
a five inch square piece of copper palting, that gives it a heft
you won't forget once it has hit you in the head.
The four pieces included on the disc have surprisingly gentle
inflections, combing low voices, ground-hugging mists of keyboards,
genial electronic hucklebuck, and even acoustic guitar to create
small vistas of delightful otherness that are sure to tickle stoners
in alla languages
Byron Coley
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