| A constant low rumble, earthquake-like explosions or tectonic plates agitated by slow brownian movements, images of desolated landscapes and noise filtered by the walls ; SLEAZE ART (bass unit) is not your typical group with songs, compositions and solos, it is not even a "noise" act, it has more in common with a real-time installation of deep noises and sub-harmonic structures and very long states of bass density. Architectures of electric frictions, tensions of many shades of fuzz or the beauty of static nothingness - not a concert proposition but an immersion in the density of a standing wave. | ||
| SLEAZE ART is an entity of electric basses using all kind of bass guitars (fretted, fretless, double-neck, bowed, scratched, rubbed, fitted with any number of strings) and hooked to all kind of electronic devices : computer, effect boxes, modular synths etc. All played live and producing a long electric howl, a slow chaotic dive. |
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"INFRA-BLAST" (a 30 minutes short sub-bass aggressive blast ) Eryck Abecassis: bass
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"INFRA" (a 71 minutes long sub-bass noise rumble) Eryck Abecassis: bass "Un mur du son, un monolithe sonore - des basses et toutes les vibrations qui en découlent - Infra renvoie plus loin et plus bas que les fréquences basses elles-mêmes"
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| VITAL WEEKLY #1011 | Hold on. Didn't I already review something called 'Infra' by Sleaze Art, the quartet of bass-players under the guidance of Kasper T. Toeplitz, along with Eryck Abecassis, Frederick Galiay and Jb Hanak? Yes, I did, in Vital Weekly 995. This is however another version, called 'Infra-blast'. Back then I wrote: "at seventy minutes this is also quite a long work and not one that one easily digests. Heavy bass drones, loud bass noise, sounding almost like the sound of plane engine from time to time, the work takes quite some time to develop. Perhaps a bit too much time I would think". This new work is along similar lines; very much in the low end of the sound spectrum (what else would you expect from four bass players?), but it is only twenty-nine minutes long. That is, compared to the first recorded version of 'Infra' quite a blast. Much of this piece, about two thirds this is quite low rumbling, but slowly works its way in noise land, with all sorts of bass treatments, creating a varied myriad of noise elements. It then cuts out for about eight minutes and becomes much softer, but stays dramatic. There are a few thumps on the bass and crackles (maybe electronic residue when the basses are shut down). In the last five minutes everything works up into a might crescendo, of the well-known Merzbowian proportions. Yes, this is something I prefer over a seventy-minute version indeed. Short and very much to the point. (FdW) |
| BOOKMAT | Kaspar T. Toeplitz and his squadron of bass guitars return in shorter duration after the Infra album for Bocian Records: a third of its length but just as heavy, Infra-Blast stalks the rim of the subsonic abyss along a knife's edge of tension. As the 3rd edition of In Paradisum's IPX series of live recordings, it's perhaps their most frightening, atonal and impassive example of the live aspect, invoking and capturing a spirit comparable with Wolf Eyes at the trough of an acid trip, or Ambarchi playing blindfolded in a Parisian crypt. |
| VITAL WEEKLY #995 | Sleaze Art is a quartet of bass players: Eryck Abecassis, Frederick Galiay, Jb Hanak and Kasper T. Toeplitz, the latter also being listed as the composer of the piece. His compositions are usually, as far as I know, along the graphical side of things, and rather giving instructions than specific notes to play. Toeplitz is a man with a background in modern classical music but with penchant for all things quite loud. Loud and bass-heavy of course, as the bass is his primary instrument. […] The Sleaze Art release is causing serious damage to my speakers, because of the bassiness of the music (and I have to seriously consider my relationship with neighbours all around here: the bass sound is more penetrating that the high end sound to surrounding areas; good to know if one of them has a loud party which I would want to end). At seventy minutes this is also quite a long work and not one that one easily digests. Heavy bass drones, loud bass noise, sounding almost like the sound of plane engine from time to time, the work takes quite some time to develop. Perhaps a bit too much time I would think. Here and there, especially in the first half, there are moments where Toeplitz could have asked his mates to keep things a bit tighter. The massive impact of the sound gets a bit lost in here, I think. A blast works better when the impact is short and heavy; otherwise your interest might wane. But in all fairness I hasten to add that I may have turned the volume down a bit, for reasons explained, and maybe there is more in here that I haven't found out about. I am not sure which place that should be, but no doubt seeing and hearing this in concert would be the right place. (FdW) |
| BOOKMAT | "Kasper T. Toeplitz presents 70 minutes of choking bass subsidence and glacially evolving noise in his 1st Sleaze Art outing for quite some time. 'Infra' operates at Sunn 0))) levels of sludging subharmonic pressure with eyeball-quivering, atom-rearranging effect coming from four bass guitars played by Eryck Abecassis, Fréderick Galiay, Jb Hanak, and Toeplitz himself, who also composed and processed the piece. This is sound for deepest immersion and triggering hallucinations in your next door neighbours." |
| METAMKINE | Sleaze Art est un projet de Kasper Toeplitz réunissant divers guitaristes. Ici quatre bassistes, Eryck Abecassis, Frederick Galiay, JB Hanak et Kasper T. Toeplitz, interprétent une composition de ce dernier. Un mur du son, un monolithe sonore - des basses et toutes les vibrations qui en découlent - Infra renvoie plus loin et plus bas que les fréquences basses elles-mêmes. |
SLEAZE ART playsINFRA-Blast at "Le temps machine" - video Gilles Paté:
sleaze art from pate gilles on Vimeo
| Sleaze Art has a long story : first a quintet on electric basses (around 1985-1989) then an orchestra of electric guitars and basses (around 1995-2000) and finally the current "Bass unit" (2014-current day). Today the core playersof Sleaze Art are: | |||
| Eryck Abecassis | Frederick Galiay | JB Hanak | Kasper T. Toeplitz |
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| double-neck Ibanez, modular synth, Sherman filter, chain, bow, e-bow etc... | Warwick, NS CelloBass, effects, bow, e-bow, metal plate etc... | Fender, fretless & headless Cort, bow, e-bow, many Big Muffs etc... | composition, Philippe Dubreuille custom bass, bow, e-bow, maxMSP, WMD Geiger Counter etc... |
| INFRA | # on 22 & 23 May 2014 SLEAZE ART played "INFRA "as the live music for the dance project of MyriamGourfink : SOUTERRAIN (Forum du Blanc-Mesnil - France) # the same project was replayed 16 dec 2014, APOSTROPHE / THÉÂTRE DES ARTS 95000, Cergy, France _______HERE is a pdf of the (minimalistic) score for INFRA |
In Vital Weekly #995, Frans de Waard says : Sleaze Art is causing serious damage to my speakers, because of the bassiness of the music […] . At seventy minutes this is also quite a long work and not one that one easily digests. Heavy bass drones, loud bass noise, sounding almost like the sound of plane engine from time to time, the work takes quite some time to develop. […] I am not sure which place that should be, but no doubt seeing and hearing this in concert would be the right place. |
| INFRA_PURR | a 150 minutes long concert/live installation of bass sounds played by 4 basses and many speakers basses: eryck abecassis, jb hanak, raphael ortis, kasper t. toeplitz # 7 & 8 march 2015, Centre Pompidou Metz, France |
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| INFRA-BLAST | 4 basses for a new composition : INFRA-BLAST . Basses : Eryck Abecassis, Frederick Galiay, JB Hanak, Kasper T. Toeplitz, composition KTT # 19 march 2015, festival Super Flux 2, Le temps Machine, Joué-les-Tours, France |
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| Infra_Exposure | a 5 days-long, all day long, continously evolving bass sculpture played in(un)- real time # 13-17 may 2015, WRO biennale Wroclaw, Poland |
Dominique Moulon in MediaArtDesign : Et puis, il y a ce son d'une richesse absolue bien que pouvant être résumé à une note, ou presque, et qui semble s'étirer jusqu'à nous. Comme pour nous guider jusqu'à l'artiste Kasper T. Toeplitz qui, jour après jour, sans relâche performe. Un fauteuil, dans la pièce où il joue d'une guitare basse augmentée de quelques composants électroniques, ne lui fait pourtant pas face. Aussi on s'y assoit, le regard ballant, pour se laisser porter par une multitude de textures sonores qui s'unissent dans la durée pour ne faire plus qu'une. Cette immersion n'ayant ni début ni fin, c'est au spectateur lui-même de s'en extraire sans pour autant que le son ne disparaisse véritablement. |
a video teaser of INFRA (b Eryck Abecassis):
here you can listen to some demo/parts of "INFRA" _(of course use good speakers or headphones - as the piece is mostly made of low frequencies, none of them can be heard on computer speakers !!) ; those are only little bits, on MP3...... not the best quality for this music........ :
_INFRA_demo-1 _INFRA_demo-2 _INFRA_demo-3 _INFRA_demo-4 _INFRA_demo-5 _INFRA_demo-6
Sleaze Art pictures by Sybil Montet
Sleaze Art logo by Thomas Kieffer
___________noise by Sleaze Art
contact sleazeart@sleazeart.com