SD15
Katchmare - Lotus Village Plan
3 x cdr with booklet
Released 2008
50 copies

Reviews:

Vital Weekly

KATCHMARE - LOTUS VILLAGE PLAN (3CDRs by Scissor Death)
Nick Hoffman's project Katchmare already performed in the USA and Japan, and has had various releases. The three discs that span this work 'form a trinity... this number will not leave. Seriously though, this is all about cosmology!', he writes on the information. None of these lasts, what you could expect 33.33 minutes, but all around thirty-five to forty minutes and is recorded using max/msp and simple tone generators. On 'One' these are pure and simple, slowly moving like some of the drone pieces of Ikeda. Nowhere close to noise, but best enjoyed when played at a relatively low volume. The second disc starts out with something that is best described as metallic scraping - that must be one hell of a process. Low end rumble comes in and from then on it seems as if the sine waves take command again, but they crack up and down. Disc three starts with a rumble at the lower end of things, but moves up scale as the piece progresses. This is more like the first disc. Although I pretty much like each of the three discs, I think I wouldn't have minded just one at a time. Now it seems all a bit much to take in. (FdW)


Touching Extremes (Massimo Ricci)

KATCHMARE – Lotus Village Plan
Scissor Death

Nick Hoffmann’s Scissor Death imprint is the domicile of several artistic derivations led by the same man, who – about two years ago – was so kind to mail various samples of his multifaceted work. This comprises captivatingly convoluted drawings (a booklet called How To Make Things Happen is quite attractive in that sense) and records printed on CDRs, whose inventive significance ranges from utterly cheap (Bumbrella Donkey’s noisy bashing in Miscommunication) to interesting enough for a few listens (Metatronics’ Throne Of Fog, a laptop duo with Hank Hofler). Indubitably, the very best is to be found in the triple whammy we’re reviewing now. According to the composer, who utilized customized Max/MSP software, the number three was a fixation of sorts in the period in which the music of Lotus Village Plan was created, and – once the process had ended – he realized that Eliane Radigue’s Trilogie De La Mort was not that far in terms of acoustic product. Guess what: for the large part he’s right. This is a hell of a record for lovers of unfathomable pulses and alarming subsonic implications, alternatively inquisitive and entrancing. It even meshes its basic connotations with touches of Lustmordian mystery in some parts, yet – despite the observable similarities – we never cease to be entirely fulfilled by these splendid low frequencies (and flabbergasted by a couple of coughs in between nowhere, towards the third disc’s end). Not a shameful imitation, then; more a sort of respectful homage, often sounding implausibly good. Get a copy of this, you drooling drone maniacs, then send a thankful note to the reviewer (and, especially, the engenderer ).