SUI
BENGUELA
CATALOGUE
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a double album of 6 live tracks and a disc of remixes. this improvising trio create bowed, scraped, looped & warped soundscapes over which they develop ever intensifying grooves. TRACKS:
sui
(cd 1) TRACKS:chop
sui (cd 2) * - it seems we managed to get the listing of track's 8 + 9 on the 'chop sui' side of the benguela album wrong - track 8 should be rovertman and 9 should be captain asthma - huge apologies to both - we will correct the mistake by the second pressing. how embarrassing.
the
6 original live tracks were recorded in front of 30 friends (and
later mixed) at sui studios, cape town on 08/02/02 by dirk hugo
assisted by ramon dasilva. the set was completely improvised,
and is presented as it happened with only a couple of small edits
on tracks 5 and 6. brydon
bolton - electric upright bass remix by burnt friedman & the nu dub players: bernie the bolt: drums, andrew uren: bass clarinet, ian perry: bass trombone, charles mcinnes: bass trombone, timothy sutton: bass trombone, daniel schršter: bass guitar, josef suchy: electric guitar, b. friedman: kalimba, harmonica, keys, fx. drum samples used with kind permission of robert nacken, cologne. trombones 1,2 recorded by byron at mousse mastering in melbourne, december 2001. trombones 3 and bass clarinet recorded by b. friedman in auckland, january 2002. remix produced, guitars edited by b. friedman in cologne, january 2003. special thanks to david franzke, melbourne / jim gardener, auckland and drums of chaos, cologne. andrew uren and tim sutton appear by courtesy of 175 east, new zealand. djopperman
- cape l'agulhas where two oceans meet mix PRESS
QUOTES: |
cd: sui
benguela was formed and found it's direction by default. guitarist alex bozas needed some back up for a gig at the folk club and roped in drummer ross campbell and double bassist brydon bolton for the night. what happened that evening was largely spur of the moment creation around a few loose ideas due to lack of rehearsal time. six years down the line they're still improvising every set, feeding off the audiences energies and evolving spontaneously as they themselves feel the way.
"people think of improvised music as jazz because it has been marketed as jazz. a lot of performers you can't classify get put into jazz, but jazz has a style, rules and common practices, and jazz musicians improvise within those boundaries. improvised music - true improvised music goes beyond that. it has no preordained language. it entirely creates it's own form and genre. it just creates, which is beautiful. what's interesting about an improvising band is that everyone in it is changing all the time, listening to new music, seeing new things, experiencing new emotions, developing.. so your perspective on life is changing. and because you're never playing the same chords or singing the same lyrics, you're never acting: it's always a true and immediate expression of who you are."
the name 'benguela' was taken from the cold current running up the west coast of southern africa and reflects both the flowing nature of the music as well as being geographically representative of where the band came together and the climate in which they live.
they have just released their third album - "sui" – on the open record label. a double album, one disc features 6 live tracks performed in cape town’s sui studios in front of a small audience, and a second disc of remixes by local and international artists such as burnt friedman & the nu dub players, felix laband, goodmorningboy, paul riekert and captain asthma. their two previous albums are - "sputnik" (1998) and "digital inability" (2001 - rhythm records) - both live recordings captured at various venues around cape town and namibia.
the band has played most of the festivals around the country including oppikoppi '98 & '01, grahamstown arts festival, splashy fen, up the creek and appear on five compilations / collaborations, including both recent breyten breytenbach cd's - "lady one", "mondmusiek", and the new koos kombuis cd - "equilibrium".
brydon bolton (electric upright bass) has recorded and performed with many projects including hilton schilder, robbie jansen, bomvu, fred kuit & kopano, blacky swart, frank mallows (adamastor), on both of chris letcher & matthew v.d. want's critically acclaimed albums, with sir name on 'not for sale' & 'conference', 'elx' with trumpeter alex van heerden and has more recently scored all the music for jackie job's dance "spirit" which toured to dusseldorf last year. he has also taught double bass at the beau soleil music center and now works as one of the managers at cd wherehouse.
alex bozas (guitar), a professional photographer by trade has been in and out of the music scene around south africa for many years. starting with the mike smith band in durban in the late eighties, the zap dragons in cape town around '94 who recorded a single "hard and heavy" and shot a video for it's release. the dynamics around '95 who also recorded an album "organic" and more recently with mark harris performing as 'cool bananas'. alex also performed in and created the soundscapes for jackie job's dance production "daai za lady".
ross campbell has recorded and toured extensively with bands such as landscape prayers (releasing "landscape prayers"), urban creep (releasing "sea level" and "tightroper"), and fetish (releasing "shade of a ghost" and "so many prophets"). he's reviewed cd's for sl magazine for three years and launched www.openrecord.co.za, a critical review site of local artist's cd releases. he also works for sheer sound as their cape town branch manager / webmaster and is in the process of setting up his own record label also under the name "open record" with partner albert du plessis of rhythm records.
contact ross: 083 709 0496 or iliketea@iafrica.com
benguela:
sui/chopsui (open record) – 9
“the latest from these capetonian rhythm rebels is a humdinger,
a smorgasbord of beats, riffs, intense grooves, melodic signatures and
musical textures, all carefully captured on one of the most atmospheric
albums of the year.” - pretoria news 27/8/03 review by craig canavan
“uit die tuisgebore open record-stal kan julle nou reeds die beursies oopknoop om die nuwe benguela ("sui") aan te skaf. dis 'n dubbel-cd bestaande uit ses benguela-snitte op nr.1 en (op nr.2) verwerkings van hierdie intieme, fluweelsagte groove tunes deur bekendes soos felix laband, paul riekert en dj opperman. 'n skitterende cd.” - die burger 11/8/03 from chutney de ridder se pop'se gedagtes
“amoungst it's (open record’s) first four projects are some of the freshest work by jazz-oriented artists to surface from our shores. the ambient improvisation group benguela released a double-album featuring live pieces and remixes by local and international electronic producers.” – julian jonkers (bejazzed journal vol 2, 2003)
"benguela's sound is an atmospheric, uncompromisingly adventurous fusion of constantly shifting elements..". "allow digital inability to work it's magic, and you won't be able to get enough." - james garner (dec 01 big issue) 8/10
"spine
chilling. the combined forces of the benguela threesome create heart-core,
deep listening music that bestows the ultimate respect on the listener
by allowing them to wander freely through the sound field without prescribing
a melody or beat to them."
"digital inability is a victory of improvisation and experimentation."
- james
webb (dec 01 SL) 5/5
"listening to jazzy post-rock improvisational trio benguela's latest album is like reading the kama-sutra while watching mulholland drive - a melding of the cerebral and the visceral." - miles keylock (aug 02 GQ) album of the month
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open
01 enkeleen ek is legio full details buy online |
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open
02 alex van heerden & derek gripper sagtevlei full details buy online |
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open
03 brendon bussy diesel geiger full details buy online |
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open
04 benguela sui full details buy online |
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open
05 derek gripper blomdoorns full details buy online |
ARTISTS |
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alex
van heerden |
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all
content © open record cc.
all rights reserved.
CONTACT
ross campbell
iliketea@iafrica.com
cape town
south africa
distributed
in south africa by
kurse music distribution
contact alastair
tel: 021 424 1959 alastair@kursemusic.co.za