Loop reviews ikon



Eventless Plot the Thessaloniki, Greece-based trio delivers an electro-acoustic sound using clarinet, piano, melodica, guitars, and processed electronics.
"Ikon" is their fourth release to date after some splits and compilation appearances in independent labels.
They blend keyboards, glitchy snippets and jazz like sounds. The effect is a flickering tension between improvised and composed ambience.
The omnipresence piano notes on “Ikon 3” give classical touch alongwith digital sound bits, a perfect soundtrack for a thriller. “Habit Habitant” continues these dark passages with deep keyboard lines that go beyond the horizon. Stunning! On “Two Season and Autumn” merged slide acoustic guitar sounds and domestic found sound objects that interact perfectly.
“Ikon” is a gorgeous album where improv compositions and more structured ones are well-balanced.

Guillermo Escudero
August 2009

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ikon review by textura magazine

After split releases with Mescalina Eden (Gracetone, 2005) and Good Luck mr Gorsky (Granny, 2008) and a few compilation appearances, Eventless Plot steps out with its debut full-length ikon. On the forty-minute disc, the Thessaloniki, Greece-based trio generates electro-acoustic pools of processed electronics, field recordings, microsound textures, samples, and the acoustic sonorities of clarinet, piano, melodica, and guitars in six heavily-textured settings.

“Ideate. Words Cannot,” a slow-motion ambient workout of processed stutter and fuzz, provides a credible opener, if one not much different in character from electro-acoustic settings of its kind heard before. Much of what follows, on the other hand, is distinctive, in large part because many of the subsequent pieces use one or two acoustic instruments as their core. “Harck Back” sounds wholly unique in its marriage of clarinet meander (by Tasos Stamou) and space age electronics. There's a rhythmic pulse at work but it's more felt than stated, and the piece crawls along at a lumbering pace—all the better for the clarinet and electronics to pursue their explorative trajectories. In similar manner, a brooding piano motif occupies a central position in “Ikon.3,” acting as the glue holding together the speckled electronic dust that sputters, clicks, clanks, and pops throughout. The electric guitar takes its turn at center stage in the album's densest setting, “Paraccium,” as a cauldron-like broil writhes alongside guitar shadings and, again, clarinet playing. Though speckled with acoustic guitar fragments, “Two Season and Autumn” is reminiscent of the shape-shifting processions of manipulated sounds that flow through Entain and Multila's long-form tracks—until, that is, a loud whirring noise nearly swallows “Two Season and Autumn” whole.

Though the penultimate piece, “Habitat Habitant,” a heaving cloud formation of electronics and processed sounds, reverts to the protoypical “glitch” focus of “Ideate. Words Cannot,” its doing so doesn't overshadow the individuating quality of the album's surrounding material. Ultimately, one could just as easily imagine 12k releasing ikon rather than Granny, given the album's atmospheric and sculpted character. Still, what sets the release apart from others in its category is its inspired incorporation of acoustic instrumentation.

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Australian magazine Cyclic Defrost reviews Ikon.

Eventless Plot is something of a misnomer, as the post-clicks n’ cuts electroacoustics of this Greek ensemble displays more confidence and direction than most in this game. The three-piece use a variety of organs, field recordings and digital processing to create beatless flickering pieces that resemble the work of 12k artists like Seaworthy and Sawako. It’s almost ambient, but too unsettling, with wavering sine tones touching on almost-painful highs and a cold, reverberant din evoking the alien(ated) terror of the abandoned space stations of science fiction films.

In ‘Ideate.Words Cannot’ a bass drone looms low like a shark, forcing greater shivers from the surrounding waves, while ‘Ikon 3′ pits springy analogue tones against a spacious laptop-keyboard duet worthy of Alva Noto and Sakamoto. Eventless Plot are at their finest in dialogues of this sort, best demonstrated in ‘Harck Back’ where Tasos Stamou guests on clarinet, duelling with aquatic digital blurts like some kind of undersea jig, drowning in a submerged New Orleans jazz-joint in the midst of Katrina.

Joshua Meggitt

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Sound Proector Reviews ikon

Recently I got the debut work of another, unknown for me Greek project Eventless Plot. Music of this trio is a mixture of experimental ambient and various live instruments such as piano, clarinet, guitar, it all is skillfully filled with characteristic electronic microsounds. One can hear something similar in releases of such labels as Mille Plateaux, Raster-Noton or 12k. I found something interesting and catching in this album. The sound doesn't just spread over the walls and doesn't drone monotonously, there is the development of composition, even not development but a hint at development that makes Eventless Plot's work a little bit delusive and misty. Discernible inescapable melancholy doesn't make acquaintance with this album simple, though it's interesting to listen to it as if you were opening the new verges of your perception. Above-mentioned live instruments perfectly fit into general sounding, using these instruments, to my mind, points ikon out among many other similar works. For example in track "Harck Back" exactly clarinet accentuates the darkish tones creating the atmosphere of such noir from 'twilight zone'. And the repeating piano chords in "Ikon.3" sound even a little bit frightening but at the same time attractive and charming.
The album must undoubtedly interest the fans of various experiments, there are enough of them and the 40 minutes of the record pass without mention. (sound proector)

Eventless Plot have joined sound proector's last podcast here

Vital Weekly Reviews Eventless Plot

Also from Greece are Eventless Plot, who released a split album with Good Luck Mr Gorky which was reviewed in Vital Weekly 618. Eventless Plot is a three piece group ‘using a variety of organs, analog sources, field recordings, as also electronics and processed sounds’, although elsewhere it is mentioned that they use clarinet, piano, melodica and guitars. Whatever, me thinks. Its not that important, the result here is what counts and the result is great. This is not music that is easy to classify. But things come close to some of the music on 12K: glitch like, ambient, atmospheric, but there is throughout a feeling of jazz and post rock to be detected in these pieces. The piano plays softly in the background, the clicks produce a jazzy rhythm, and the organs are nicely adrift. Not very outspoken this music, but rather introspective and throughout highly atmospheric, but they do reach firmer, more solid ground at times, such as in ‘Habit Habitant’. Throughout an excellent debut album

ikon is the latest work by Eventless Plot, following up their split album with Good Luck mr Gorsky (granny02, 2008). In this album Eventless Plot approach an electro-acoustic sound using clarinet, piano, melodica and guitars blended with sampled recordings and processed electronics. As a result there is a complex ambience of sounds which provides the structure of the songs. Warm feedbacks, microsounds and rhythmic pulses create a jazz aesthetic which characterizes ikon's sound. This is Eventless Plot's first full length album to date.

Listen to an expert taken from granny records' forthcoming release, 'ikon' by Eventless Plot.

Eventless Plot - harck back

free piece of tape | inverz
live
facta non verba
i.dragoumi 65
saturday 16 may

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update : pictures from the show
(more will follow)

Greg Haines live
(and an improvisation with good luck mr gorsky)

Saturday 2 may
facta non verba . I Dragoumi 65
21.00




update : images from the show

pictures from good luck mr. gorsky's live at Zenti bar.
(by freon)

good luck mr gorsky
live
29 march 2009
zenit bar
the saloniki

good luck mr. gorsky
live
Saturday 7 March
Kinky Kong
20:00

here is a review of eventless plot|good luck mr. gorsky split cd
from the greek webzine, avopolis written in greek.

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'' Υπάρχουν πολλοί λόγοι που τέτοιου είδους κυκλοφορίες, σαν και το split άλμπουμ των Goodluck Mr. Gorsky και Eventless Plot, είναι σημαντικές. Γιατί σε ένα συρφετό από αδιάφορες μουσικές δημιουργίες, γεμάτες ανοησία και ματαιοδοξία, μάς υπενθυμίζουν ότι υπάρχουν μικροί έστω πυρήνες αντίσταστης, αποτελούμενοι από ανθρώπους με πάθος και μεράκι, οι οποίοι, ξεπερνώντας αυτή την αναζήτηση του εύκολου, ψάχνουν διαφορετικές κατευθύνσεις, μέσα από δύσβατα πολλές φορές μονοπάτια. Και ασχέτως αν τα μουσικά γούστα του καθενός από εμάς πλησιάζουν ή αποκλίνουν με το προσφερόμενο αποτέλεσμα, όσο υπάρχουν τέτοιοι πυρήνες, θα κρατιέται πάντα ανοικτή αυτή η μικρή χαραμάδα ελπίδας. Και το ζήτημα δεν περιορίζεται στη μουσική – έχει να κάνει και με τον τόπο όπου βρισκόμαστε. Γιατί ζούμε σε μια χώρα όπου η λέξη ελπίδα κινδυνεύει να μετατραπεί (αν δηλαδή δεν έχει ήδη μετατραπεί) περίπου σε ανέκδοτο – ο θλιβερός κατάλογος με τα όσα πάνε στραβά στη χώρα μας μοιάζει ατελείωτος. Ίσως η πηγή του κακού να είναι η νοοτροπία που έχουμε εδώ και χρόνια υιοθετήσει σαν κοινωνικό σύνολο, αυτή η επιδίωξη του εύκολου, η οποία φαίνεται να έχει διαποτίσει σχεδόν όλες τις δομές της κοινωνίας, κάνοντάς τη φυγόπονη, λιγόψυχη. Από αυτή την κατάσταση φυσικά δεν μπορεί να εξαιρεθεί ο πολιτισμός, οι τέχνες, η μουσική.

Η Granny Records αποτελείται από μια ομάδα ανθρώπων (μια κολεκτίβα, όπως μας αρέσει να λέμε τελευταία) που μοιράζονται μεταξύ τους προβληματισμούς, αγάπη για παρόμοια μουσικά ακούσματα και κοινές επιδιώξεις, η οποία με τα πενιχρά μέσα που διαθέτει φιλοδοξεί, καθώς φαίνεται, να γίνει περισσότερο κάτι σαν δίαυλος επικοινωνίας μεταξύ των φίλων του συγκεκριμένου είδους με το οποίο ασχολείται, παρά ένα κανονικό label με την εμπορική έννοια του όρου. Η μουσική δε κινείται κάπου ανάμεσα στο ambient, το post rock και την electronica, παίρνοντας ίσως την σκυτάλη (τουλάχιστον όσο αφορά τη Θεσσαλονίκη) από την εξαιρετική, πρωτοπόρα και δυστυχώς εν αναστολή των λειτουργιών της (ελπίζουμε προσωρινά) Poeta Negra.

Τα δύο τριμελή σχήματα που παρουσιάζονται εδώ, έχοντας αναπτύξει ισχυρούς δεσμούς φιλίας, αποφασίζουν να συμμετάσχουν στην όλη προσπάθεια με την κυκλοφορία αυτού του split δίσκου, συνεισφέροντας από τρία κομμάτια έκαστο, δίνοντάς μας ένα δείγμα της εξαιρετικής τους δουλειάς. Αμφότεροι έχουν μικρή δισκογραφική εμπειρία – οι μεν Goodluck Mr. Grosky συμμετείχαν στις συλλογές Bits Of Quarter Blitz (στην πρώτη κυκλοφορία της Granny, το 2005) και Non Linear Views (ανεξάρτητη παραγωγή, 2006), ενώ οι Eventless Plot κυκλοφόρησαν ένα split 7'' βινύλιο με τον Ιταλό Mescalinaeden μέσω της Gracetone Recordings το 2005, συμμετείχαν κι αυτοί στη συλλογή Non Linear Views, καθώς και στη Yuria 2006 - ενώ αξιοσημείωτη είναι επίσης η εμφάνιση και των δύο στο περσινό Synch, καθώς και η κοινή τους μουσική απόδοση της βουβής ταινίας The Phantom Carriage (διαδικασία που μάλλον έφεραν σαν «εναλλακτική» μόδα οι Cinematic Orchestra με τη μουσική τους για το Man With A Movie Camera).

Μιλάμε για δύο συγκροτήματα με κοινή καταγωγή, κοινή αφετηρία, παρόμοιες αναφορές, αλλά με μικρές, ωστόσο, ουσιώδεις διαφορές στον τρόπο σύλληψης και απόδοσης των αργόσυρτων ιδεών τους. Οι Eventless Plot, για παράδειγμα, δείχνουν μια αφοσίωση σε μια πιο ηλεκτρονική χροιά του ambient, με χρήση πολλαπλών παραμορφώσεων – είτε αυτές προέρχονται από laptop, είτε από τις ατμοσφαιρικές κιθάρες που χρησιμοποιούνται κατά κόρον (εκτός από ένα σχετικά καθαρό, επαναλαμβανόμενο ριφ στο "Gram/ma") – σαφέστατα επηρεασμένες από καλλιτέχνες όπως ο Christian Fennesz. Με τις οποίες δημιουργούν ένα τείχος λευκού θορύβου, όπου και χτίζουν την εκάστοτε σύνθεση. Συνθέσεις που ακολουθούν μια κλιμακούμενη ένταση (στοιχείο που τελευταία μας οδηγεί – πολλές φορές εσφαλμένα – στον χαρακτηρισμό post rock), με όργανα και samples να προστίθενται στην πορεία και να συνυπάρχουν με τα ευφυέστατα beats, τα οποία παραπέμπουν σε σύγχρονους minimal techno πειραματισμούς και χρησιμοποιούνται και σαν ένα ακόμα στοιχείο έντασης: όπως για παράδειγμα στο "Caudatum" την πιο μακροσκελή και κατά την ταπεινή μου άποψη πιο «προοδευτική» σύνθεση του δίσκου. Αντίθετα οι Goodluck Mr. Grosky δείχνουν μια τάση σε μια πιο καθαρή μορφή του ambient, με καθαρές μπασογραμμές, ένα minimal drum set και καθαρά ακόρντα στη κιθάρα, θυμίζοντας σε διαστήματα τον Yellow 6. Φυσικά αυτό δεν σημαίνει ότι οι Goodluck Mr Grosky δεν χρησιμοποιούν την τεχνολογία. Το Autechre-ικό π.χ. beat στο εισαγωγικό "Organisa", καθώς και η όλη διαδικασία απόδοσης του εξαιρετικού "Olchmin" – ίσως η καλύτερή τους σύνθεση – την οποία φαίνεται να οδηγεί με έναν εξαιρετικά ευρηματικό τρόπο η μελόντικα και ένας διαολεμένα παραμορφωμένος ήχος τσέλου, φέρνει (έστω και αμυδρά) στο μυαλό τους Tied + Tickled Trio του Aelita.

Θα μπορούσε γενικά να ειπωθεί το πλέον κοινότοπο σχόλιο για ό,τι αξιόλογο κυκλοφορεί εντός των ελληνικών συνόρων. Ότι δηλαδή η συγκεκριμένη κυκλοφορία άνετα θα ευσταθούσε σε ένα κορυφαίο για τη συγκεκριμένη μουσική ευρωπαϊκό label, ότι τα δύο συγκροτήματα δεν έχουν κάτι σημαντικό να ζηλέψουν από τους Ευρωπαίους συναδέλφους τους κ.ο.κ. Αυτό όμως που έχει σημασία στους σημερινούς δύσκολους καιρούς είναι ότι το συγκεκριμένο split άλμπουμ μας γεμίζει με την ελπίδα ότι τελικά κάτι μπορεί και να αλλάξει. Μας δίνει μέσα στη σκοτεινιά των συνθέσεων την πεποίθηση ότι, όσο υπάρχουν μουσικοί με φαντασία, ευρεία αντίληψη του αντικειμένου και διάθεση για πειραματισμό, όπως οι Goodluck Mr. Grosky και οι Eventless Plot (στεκόμενοι δίπλα σε ονόματα όπως οι Peekah Tayloh, Dani Joss, Your Hand In Mine, Spyweirdos κ.α.) υπάρχει πάντα η πιθανότητα να δούμε αυτό το αναθεματισμένο φως στην άκρη του τούνελ, το οποίο δυστυχώς φαντάζει πάντα τόσο μακρύ.''

inverz - songs
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''As far as ambient electronica and soundscapes go in 2008 this is among the best that I have heard (along with Curtis Crayon and Black To Comm). Dense, full and dynamic tracks that vibrate and hum with organic life and praise the details and most minimal things in life as the most important. The simplicity and straightforwardness is just on the surface, but if you dive into the tracks, or let them drown you in their gentle sparkle, then you'll realize all the microscopic sparks glistering around you. In some ways Inverz still has the organic structure that I am missing so dearly with Fennesz these last years. This album burns with its own translucent beauty.''
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cracked

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inverz ||| opening the machinefabriek ||| show in Athens.

inverz live @ kinky kong with Machinefabriek

phantom carriage II

good luck mr. gorsky and eventless plot gave a great performance during the screening of 'the phantom carriage' for the 49th Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The musicians would like to thank the 'independence days' department and Lefteris Adamidis, the 'facta non verba' team for providing the rehearsal space, Michael Albright, Apostolos Karakasis and all their film students, and all the people who came.

| the phantom carriage |

good luck mr gorsky and eventless plot will perform live at the 49th thessaloniki film festival, playing along the screening of the Swedish film 'the phantom carriage'. The event will take place on Tuesday ,November 18, at 'John Cassavetes' theater , 22:30 .

for information on the film go here

new release | inverz-songs

‘Songs’ by Inverz is granny records’ third release following the split release between eventless plot and good luck mr gorsky (2008) and the compilation cd ‘bits of quartz glitter’ (2004).

Inverz is the moniker under which Savvas Metaxas records his music the last four years. The ‘songs’ album was recorded during the winter of 2008 at inverz’s home and the compositions were built upon various layers of electric and acoustic guitars, vintage synths and field recordings. The album is enhanced with two collaborations, one featuring Iraklis Iosifidis from 2l8 on ‘bow song’ and the second featuring one mile tar on the remix of ‘q song’. Inverz, being an actual member of good luck mr gorsky and also playing and recording for the 2L8 band has established his presence in the underground musical community of Thessaloniki. In this album he offers his own interpretation of wide landscapes, abstract ambience and noise that stands out as his most complete work to date.

tracklist

l song

d song

r song

k song

f song

v song

bow song

q song

thessaloniki lotus |rollin under|wax
athens vinyl microstore
online lotus | playourmusic | catch the soap

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Recorded and mixed by Inverz (real name Savvas Metaxas, based in Thessaloniki, Greece and a founding member of Good Luck Mr Gorsky) at home during last winter, Songs' eight settings were assembled from multiple layers of electric and acoustic guitars, synthesizers, field recordings, loops, electric piano, an old tape recorder, melodica, and samples. Though they're short for the genre (most are in the five- to seven-minute range), the pieces are fundamentally ambient noise drones that Metaxas has shaped into slow-moving panoramas of immense textural depth. And though they're not conventionally pretty in character, they're not unmusical or dissonant either. The source materials are sometimes melded into teeming abstract wholes and lose their identifying character as a result: “l song” pursues a linear trajectory as it slowly swells into an immense vortex of droning layers, and “r song” opens with scattered pings of tinkles that are eventually buried under a hammering wave of noise. In other cases, the instruments remain identifiable: “k song” brings the intensity down a few notches which allows the electric guitar to be clearly heard amidst the industrial churn, “v song” opens with peaceful layers of acoustic guitar picking that are eventually engulfed by sheets of noise, and “t song” presents a seething blend of piano tinkles and what sounds like amplified seashore sounds. The fifty-four-minute collection includes two collaborations. The deep groan of the bowed contrabass underpins upper register string fragments in the album's longest and most memorable piece, “bow song,” which Metaxas constructed using several contrabass samples played by Iraklis Losifidis and which grows into a heaving, near-tribal mass of percussive accents and layered strings. The closing “q song,” a remix treatment featuring One Mile Tar, seems a rather anomalous inclusion by comparison, given the degree to which it gravitates towards conventional rhythm-based electronica. Even so, the rather cheekily-titled Songs should certainly satisfy listeners with an appetite for abstract sound sculpting.


textura
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''Savvas Metaxas (which sounds like a good drink) is the guitarist from 2L8 and a member of Good Luck Mr Gorsky but also active solo under the guise of Inverz. For his album 'Songs' he plays guitar (electric and acoustic), vintage synthesizers and field recordings. That may seem like old hat, and obviously the end result doesn't offer much new under the micro sun, but I thought the result were pretty neat. Tinkling guitars in the middle of sea of swirling electronic sounds, field recordings being processed to quite an extent where they become unrecognizable. Maybe its all done and said before, and occasionally also better than this, this is still a fine copy of say Fennesz meets Machinefabriek. Core piece is 'Bow Song', which features only the contrabass by Iraklis Iosifidis, in various, layered samples, building a nice drone piece. On a hot day like this, I'd like to sit back and enjoy whatever is coming to me in a nice way, and this is just the one for such a day; when more thinking is not necessary''. (FdW)

VITAL WEEKLY 639

|my space|
|last fm|

synch images

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_________________ good luck mr gorsky ______ synch 2008 ______________ __


__________ eventless plot ____ __________ synch 2008__ pic by katrakazis antonis
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thanks to those who supported the two live acts and to the people who gave the bands pictures from the shows.

live photos from the facta non verba sessions

good luck mr gorsky

_____________________|______________________mecha/orga
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freon+inverz
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kostis killymis
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eventless plot
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tasos stamou
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thanks to everyone for coming | | | | _______________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________more images will follow