review from In The Fence Of Reality webzine (canada)
Tore Honoré Bøe
Koh-I-Noor
(Sounds From The Pocket; CDR (limited to 50); 4 tracks; 37 minutes 41
seconds)
(File under : You can¹t mix the concept of DIY, noise and art more than this
I guess)
Another finely presented release from the very cool east coast noise artist
of Sound From The Pocket (responsible for the super cool Microcassetor and
Found Sound series.) This time Tore Honoré Bøe who¹s also part of Origami
Republika and The Nordic Miracle along with Lasse Marhaug of Jazzkammer¹s
fame. Titled about the name of a pencil company, this release is called an
³Opus for self-made laptop + dual speed + slapstring tapas². As we can see
on his website, THB craft some self-made portable machines with some strange
devices to produce some noises as I may understand. This one is made with
some metallic gizmos and some stings. The whole recordings were recorded I
guess and edited on guess what? Yes those awesome microcassette recorder.
What a better instrument in the world than that. That mean that each tracks
are recorded and edited while playing with the 2 speeds these recorders got.
The result of this is something really raw, like with a constant tape buzz
with some fucking wicked sounds. It reminds me a lil¹ bit that Brandon
Labelle record on Ground Fault. But the sound is a really purely crafted
experimental sound. The artistic value of this is awesome, the meeting with
Sounds From The Pocket make the experience better. Sounds from the pocket
really reinvent the concept of DIY packaging and this one is no exception.
The album come on an handmade digipack made from recycled LP jacket with
some info screen printed on it, mine is a woman¹s leg with a green
background and looks really great inside there¹s 2 sewed acetates with some
infos and there¹s a clean tray with some tapes stuck behind. Well trust me
the presentation is one of the most beautiful I¹ve seen along with that
recent Chefkirk one. Man, this is really crazy I really think the meeting of
the 2 persons (Tore Honoré Bøe + Justin Water, main visual crafter of the
Sounds From Pocket label) is another one that have been inevitable I guess.
But it¹s really interesting to see all this recycled movement in the
underground world like that magazine called Found publishing only found
pictures and paper sent by people and putting records of found music.
Sociologically speaking I guess this should be a very interesting movement
to look at, if it¹s a movement Anyway, I am very curious about hearing more
form THB and maybe seeing him performing live as he should be a very great
entertainer. Just go at their website to see the genius behind Tore Honoré
Bøe
double review from Vital Weekly
TORE HONORE BOE/REYNOLS - MICROCASSETTOR 3
TORE HONORE BOE - KOH-I-NOOR
(Both CD-R by Sounds from the pocket)
Anybody who regards CD-Rs as an inferior medium should immediately check out these two releases. They are truely exquisitely packed in silkscreened recycled LP covers and look stunning. Also the labels are very well done. Lectio is a split disc with Reynols in what is called the Microcassettor series. The name implies exactly what the content appears to be: a recording of a live gig by Reynols on microtape and Tore's Lectio Parts I to IV, an 'opus for found dysfunctional tape deck + loose magnetic tape + microcassettors'. So yes, this is very lo-fi, no question, and of course that's exactly the charm. The Reynols concert was apparently a very good one, it starts off pretty messily, but soon evolves into a layer of feedback (?) sounds that has a strong captivating quality. Tore's tracks are almost drones, long sounds with a rough and grungy texture, unpolished and bleak. They posess a very natural inherent beauty, something that Tore is a very keen observer of.
Koh-I-Noor is Tore's 'opus for self-made laptop + dual speed + slapstring tapas'. Though I have personally witnessed Tore on his laptop (a wooden box with piezo elements, pieces of metal, wood, strings and other odd stuff attached to it), I have never seen him play slapstring tapas, so what these are must remain a mystery for the time being. These reocrdings are different from the Lectio ones, because this involves more playing. We can hear scraping and brushing on metal, drones and buzzes from tape and other unidentifiable sound sources, but all with the same lo-fi character. Again this has a strong charm, but I can hear a slight danger in this quality: it lacks a certain dynamic depth that would give way more energy to the whole. Other than that, these are two good releases. (MR)
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