Preliminary Saturation is the electro-acoustic, free improv, drone-duo in which Dutch sound artists Wouter Jaspers and Steffan de Turck combine their forces. To some extent, both might be better known for their solo-projects: Franz Fjodor and staplerfahrer, respectively. As Franz Fjodor, Jaspers displays a fascination for the darker side of life; with self-made instruments he creates a sound that shippers between droning soundscapes, depressed noise and dark folk. His style signature varies with his mood: from psycho chants to punk screams, from guitar oriented drones to field recordings. De Turck plays around with crunched and broken (micro)sounds, electro-magnetic waves and noise. Sometimes in a back-to-basics analogue setting, other times solemnly using his powerbook. Every once and a while, they come together in the safe harbor of one of their living rooms, pop open a bottle of wine, light some cigarettes and start improvising as long as the mood is right. It's how this recording was made.
In October 2008, Jaspers and De Turck will team up for a tour that will take them along the US East Coast, both playing shows as their individual projects and as Preliminary Saturation.
out now on Vatican Analog :
PRELIMINARY SATURATION - DISCIPLES OF THE VATICAN CDR
CATALOGUE NUMBER: VA40
LIMITED EDITION: 100
RELEASE DATE: December 1st, 2008
"Its not that these boys, who make up Preliminary Saturation haven't got anything else to do. Wouter Jaspers being Franz Fjodor and Steffan de Turck being Staplerfahrer, which is already 1 + 1 = 4, but then they are also the improvisation duo Preliminary Saturation. They jam, and they jam a lot. In their own houses, with wine and cigarettes at hand, with self-made instruments, microphones (some broken ones), a laptop, and they jam, but I might have said that. Pretty much what they do sounds a bit like Bjerga/Iversen, with whom they seem to share a similar esthetic. The totally free improvisation electronic music, the electro-acoustic guerilla, the drone end of sound, a bit of noise thrown in. All of that in pretty long pieces, but it sounds fairly o.k. I must admit I am not entirely blown away by it, but that's perhaps because I think its a bit too free form and because it could use some more sharper editing, and shape the very best moments. But just like Bjerga/Iversen I'm convinced truly great works will come eventually. This is a step ahead."
-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly 655
out now on Dim Records :
PRELIMINARY SATURATION - HELL'S MOUTH C30
"In may of 2008, preliminary saturation played at an (f)art festival in the Dutch town Helmond. The crowd was though and the organization worse. PS tried to give their best anyway. Hell's Mouth is a literal translation of Helmond; it suited the situation pretty well..."
still available at Dirty Demos :
PRELIMINARY SATURATION - STARING AT EMPTY EYES CDR
CATALOGUE NUMBER: DirtyCDR 030
RUNNING TIME: 29:00
LIMITED EDITION: 40
RELEASE DATE: May 2008
"Suddenly it all came together. Preliminary Saturation was hard to avoid this week. This duo of Wouter Jaspers (sometimes known as Franz Fjodor) and Steffan de Turck (otherwise Staplerfahrer), both from the active forces of the Dutch city of Tilburg, were playing at Extrapool this week, and on returning home I found two of their releases. On stage I noticed a wide range of effect boxes, mixing console, acoustic objects (including tin cans, jar lid and what appeared to be sand) and mechanical devices. Their concert started out with high pitched feedback but fared better when they started to explore the objects with contact microphones and treated the sounds with their sound effects. Both releases are alike the concert, but worked out better, even when they too seem to be live recordings. All of the pieces last around twenty to thirty minutes. 'Staring At Empty Eyes' is slightly under thirty minutes and is more alike the concert I heard, less a noisy beginning. Here things are 'mildly' noisy at the beginning with rotating sounds (mechanical objects on surfaces?) which gradually goes down in volume but cranks up in frequency. Once arrived in the area of a few crackles they built up their sound and end up with much noise."
-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly 626
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still available at Zeromoon :
PRELIMINARY SATURATION - CIGARETTES AND SANDPAPER MP3
"The second release is a MP3 by Zeromoon is a more subdued one. Over the course some twenty three minutes they play around with objects which are fed through an array of sound transformers, of which they mainly use the echo machine, a bit of reverb. Mainly their sound is fed through the lower lines of the sound spectrum making this quite a dark piece of music. As said the noise element is here absent, and there is a subtle, gentle flow to the sound. As a composition it may not work, as an improvisation it does however. The best out of three, this week. I wouldn't be too surprised if Preliminary Saturation would be as active with releases as Bjerga/Iversen, with whom they also share musical similarities."
-Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly 626
download it here
