(Avant-Garde Jazz) Serge Baghdassarians, Boris Baltschun, Lars Scherzberg, Jacob Thein - Ilinx - 2002, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 2 from 29. April 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 28. March 2013, 18:01
Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein / Ilinx
Used drive  : Optiarc DVD RW AD-5280S   Adapter: 1  ID: 1
Read mode               : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache      : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction                      : 48
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks   : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
Used interface                              : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling                                : Appended to previous track
Used output format              : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate                : 128 kBit/s
Quality                         : High
Add ID3 tag                     : No
Command line compressor         : C:\Program Files\FLAC\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "Genre=%genre%" -T "Artist=%artist%" -T "Title=%title%" -T "Album=%albumtitle%" -T "Date=%year%" -T "Tracknumber=%tracknr%" -T "Comment=%comment%" %source%
TOC of the extracted CD
     Track |   Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector
    ---------------------------------------------------------
        1  |  0:00.00 | 11:32.39 |         0    |    51938
        2  | 11:32.39 |  8:02.66 |     51939    |    88154
        3  | 19:35.30 |  3:26.23 |     88155    |   103627
        4  | 23:01.53 | 10:57.68 |    103628    |   152970
        5  | 33:59.46 |  3:45.66 |    152971    |   169911
        6  | 37:45.37 |  8:27.67 |    169912    |   208003
        7  | 46:13.29 |  4:09.65 |    208004    |   226743
        8  | 50:23.19 |  5:31.67 |    226744    |   251635
        9  | 55:55.11 |  7:53.63 |    251636    |   287173
       10  | 63:48.74 | 11:21.07 |    287174    |   338255
Track  1
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     Track quality 99.9 %
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Track  2
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\02 - Resonators Response.wav
     Peak level 87.3 %
     Extraction speed 3.6 X
     Track quality 100.0 %
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Track  3
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\03 - Initial Motion 1.wav
     Peak level 86.3 %
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     Track quality 100.0 %
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Track  4
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\04 - Quilt.wav
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     Extraction speed 4.3 X
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Track  5
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\05 - Initial Motion 2.wav
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Track  6
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\06 - Plane Of Consistency.wav
     Peak level 87.3 %
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     Track quality 100.0 %
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Track  7
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\07 - Encore.wav
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Track  8
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\08 - Position Of The Plucking Point.wav
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     Track quality 100.0 %
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Track  9
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\09 - Somehow Metallic.wav
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     Track quality 100.0 %
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Track 10
     Filename C:\Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein (2002) - Ilinx\10 - Autoreverse.wav
     Peak level 87.3 %
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     Track quality 100.0 %
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum 7A58F97A3AE47A077F448C02944A289A9949434FFDAB125CD11F2B26A77F90AC ====

REM GENRE Jazz
REM DATE 2002
REM DISCID 8B119E0A
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PERFORMER "Baghdassarians-Baltschun-Scherzberg-Thein"
TITLE "Ilinx"
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Tracks 1, 6 & 7 recorded during the "Total Music Meeting Compact" on November 3, 2000 and Track 9 recorded on June 17, 2001 at the "Podewil" in Berlin; Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 & 10 recorded on October 16, 2000 at "Wedding Elektra Ton" in Berlin.

Shiver me timbers, an FMP release! I thought the grand old German label was defunct, so this is nice to see. From the very start, this is rambunctious post-industrial free improv in the early ’00s GROB vein. Think Konk Pack for sure, or some similarly aggressive amalgam of electronics and European free music. Lars Scherzberg slices and dices through the field of perky electronics his session mates Serge Baghdassarians and Boris Baltschun frequently plow, framed by the rolling, Lovens-ish percussion of Jacob Thein. This punchy approach to improvisation is especially evident on the blunt jab “Position of the Plucking Point.” My initial thought was that it speaks well of Baghdassarians and Baltschun (heard to good effect on recent releases from labels Absinth, Creative Sources and Potlatch) for throwing themselves into such a wide variety of situations; they’re resourceful and imaginative enough players (much like Thomas Lehn) to handle their business in a lusty European free improv (or efi) session like this. But then I checked the recording date: this music comes mostly from 2000 (only the tentative “Somehow metallic” was recorded in 2001). Regardless of periodization, what about the music? There are a lot of birdsong moments where Scherzberg sets the tone (and I could swear I hear Lovens’ saw). Elsewhere, however, there are thick clusters of variety, as where Baltschun and Baghdassarians set up a nice contrast at the end of “Bridge Velocity” (crackling flames and lower register gurgling, probably a detuned guitar) or the skirling, skittering noise on “Resonators Response” (which is more hushed but still insectoid). On some level, I appreciate the way in which Scherzberg and Thein don’t self-consciously try to modify their approach due to the presence of electronics. But this doesn’t always mean that the result is successful. Consider the snorting swine and 50s sci-fi on “Quilt” – this piece is, like many here, filled with tiny gestures that don’t really amount to much. It’s not the case that this is simply episodic or a reflection of the group’s efi methodology; what I mean to say is that there just isn’t enough of interest here to sustain the length of the pieces. Too many times the group falls back on now very familiar techniques, resulting in music that’s impressive but a bit tedious. For example, on “Plane of Consistency” chirruping electronics are met with a Butcher-esque sax burr and scraped percussion (both rough and luxuriant). But how many tracks like this are available, and how many more are needed? In fairness, it’s not substantively worse than a lot of other stuff in this vein, just as it’s not substantively better. But there have been an awful lot of records like this in the last 10 years. For what it’s worth, this release would likely be more impressive had it been issued promptly. If you haven’t heard much in this efi vein, you could do a lot worse than this record, but for veteran improv freaks, little here will shake you from your ennui. ~ jason bivins, dustedmagazine.com
An interesting kind of "nexus" recording, from three events in 2000 and 2001, with a quartet of musicians, two of whom seem to be coming from more of an EFI (European Free Improvisation) approach while two are on their way toward a more eai (electro-acoustic improvisation) take on things. With the latter field just beginning to come into its own at this point, there's certainly an amount of oil and water in play, making "Ilinx" perhaps more satisfying to observe as a kind of object lesson than as a more or less successful series of pieces. Alto saxophonist Lars Scherzberg and percussionist Jacob Thein hold up the "traditional" FMP attack, which is to say they favor activity over reticence, anxious expressiveness over considered detachment. Guitarist/electronicist Serge Baghdassarians and sampler/electronicist Boris Baltschun occupy the other hemisphere, attempting to cool things down, to investigate purely sonic aspects while placing their discoveries within the space they reside. The twain rarely meets. Oddly, given what one assumes to be essentially an improvisatory situation, compositional credits are listed, the first five tracks sourced to either Scherzberg or Thein, the last five to the electronics pair. They may indeed be somewhat more prominent in the second half of the disc, but the general attack doesn't vary so much: chattering, a profusion of bird-like tones and an apparent goal of filling the sonic space consistently rather than introducing sounds into the mix in any subtle manner. In relation to prior FMP-style recordings, this fits in securely, the electronics providing some added spice, but essentially, it's nothing conceptually different than any hundreds of albums produced over the preceding twenty years. If Baghdassarians and Baltschun were attempting to steer their companions into different realms, they were only minimally successful, coming closest on the concluding track, "Autoreverse", where the pings and clatter mesh into something of a Tudor-esque weave that's very attractive. In that divide between EFI and eai, fans of the former may enjoy Ilinx just fine while those partial to the latter are likely to be annoyed at what Radu Malfatti famously referred to as gabbiness. ~ brian olewnick, squidsear.com

Serge Baghdassarians - electric guitar, electronics
Boris Baltschun - sampler, electronics
Lars Scherzberg - alto saxophone
Jacob Thein - drums, percussion