Donkey - Stone

Donkey is a duo formed by Hans Fjellestad and Damon Holzborn, who started playing together in 1991 as a guitar/piano improvising unit then, as years went by, shifted their focus on the abstractions born from the use of analog machinery, processors and homemade hardware and software. After a five-year hiatus following the two Accretions CDs "Show" and "Big Sur", Donkey decided that the moment had come for another try, thus they secluded themselves in a Mexican ranch and came up with the basic materials for a freeform structure that was performed live at The Stone in Manhattan, in 2006. Fjellestad, a classically trained pianist, has traded synthetic amenities with a lot of like-minded artists, and Holzborn is "currently pursuing his doctoral degree in composition"; this is immediately evident when one listens to the five tracks (fused into a 50-minute aggregate) of "Stone" which, although maintaining the mightiness of a scintillating anarchy, is one of the most coherent improvisational efforts involving "irregular" synthesis and low-budget electronics. The music is abrasive, unpredictable, luminescent, alluringly repetitive, never insolent, always fascinating, a perfect cross of evocation and momentum which lets the listeners thoroughly enjoy every single moment of its life. We’re reminded of the pioneering experiments of Tod Dockstader, but also get thrown in a time capsule populated with freaky creatures whose skin bubbles and fumes. What starts like a fuzz-tone guitar becomes a syrupy magma, and there’s no trace of a "melody" if we look with a lantern. Harmonically gratifying buzzes stand up in the mix every once in a while, but should your dentist try something similar when you’re lying on his chair, expect big trouble. Great stuff, with no exceptions.
- Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

Donkey - STONE: Ha! Ha! From the sweet and lilting tones of the jazz ladies to the somewhat disturbing and odd sounds created by "noise structurists" Hans Fjellestad and Damon Holzborn is quite some leap. Ah, but I don't mind - not a bit, since many of my own creations are founded on the same kinds of madness... the difference, of course, is that these guys are much better at this art than I am. Would I recommend this to Bertha Baptist? Doubtful, as she'd have nothing positive to say. Would I recommend this to the (now defunct) Olympia Experimental Music Society? In a heartbeat, as I know Arrington would know how to digest this accumulation of layers. Their structures are more subtle than most... no onrush of walls of noise assaulting your senses... they have in mind to infiltrate your conscious, then gradually WHACK IT! It's been a while since I've listened to noise sculpture this good, & I give it a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for any and all who like to explore new realms of sound experience. Get more information at www.accretions.com.
- Rotcod Zzaj, Improvisation Nation

Live documents tend to work well with noise; they nurture the spontaneity, the improvisation, the need to force out some fresh abomination from the means of production, that marks out the best of the scene. They foreground the fact that noise is a ludic flinging of sound at the wall, and also, ultimately, a species of performance art. Stone captures Donkey performing at the East Village venue of the same name in late 2006. Hans Fjellestad's analogue synth and Damon Holzborn's short-circuited electronics corkscrew in and out of each other, with a playful agility. The competitive abrasiveness which characterises much noise is sidelined for a series of dialogues in which neither Fjellestad nor Holzborn are afraid to fall completely silent for a while. But most of the time the two are zigzagging into wild tangents, modulating tone and texture, attack and decay with a restless impatience.
- Sam Davies, The Wire

Twisted improvised electronic ambience. LA's Hans Fjellestad and NYC's Damon Holzborn jammed this avant-garde glitchathon out on a Mexican ranch, then recorded it live at a club in Manhattan's East Village. How Bohemian? It is to-the-bone abstract artcore sound manipulation, full of crackles, screeches and pops, in five tracks but designed to be listened to as a whole. A specialist taste, but very impressive.
- Joe Muggs, Mixmag

Fold your hands and listen: Attentively. Actively. Ambitiously.

Even contemporary artists often establish a clear border between sound art - which is essentially made up of noise and (occasionally) harmonic semblances - on the one hand and conventional music on the other - a territory marked by harmonic progressions, themes, motives, their development and scoreable compositions. "Stone" proves that Donkey, made up of respected solo artists Hans Fjellestad and Damon Holzborn, either do not recognise the vailidity of this division - or have decided to ignore its consequences, meeting at the border post for eccentric improvisations in a league of their own.

Even if you're listening to experimental releases on a daily basis, this CD does not make for easy consumption. The document of a live session in New York last Winter, it is both a test of the performers' telepathic abilities, as well as a statement of their conscious or unconscious proximity to other artistic genres they dabble in - film with regards to Fjellestad and dance for Holzborn.

The associations are never all that obvious despite the high metaphorical value of the sounds and even though one could right away imagine this as a great soundtrack for contemporary ballet. Instead, another discipline is much closer: Field recordings. Instead of capturing a street scene, a rural paradise, people talking, dogs barking or bees buzzing, however, it points the microphone at the future. On many occasions, the record creates the illusion of a imaginary musique concrete, of a UFO caught on tape, of flying saucers hovering up above and strange little creatures trying to immitate the Babel thing with their galactic voices.

The world usually labelled "music" only rears its head for a couple of seconds, when Fjellestad sends deep Moog waves into the canyon of bleeps and cuts or when an unidentifiable tune is fed through at least a thousand effect pedals. And yet, it is never completely absent. Donkey use the most wayward aural objects, but they use them in quite traditional ways. Their cosmos is full of melodies, positive and optimistic ones even, if you listen carefully. Fjellestad and Holzborn are playing their samplers, sequencers, stomp boxes, minidisc recorders and tape machines like regular instrumentalists would their violin, piano or accordeon, creating meticulous avantgarde sound battles in the process.

You do not drive your car to this music, You do not sing or swing to this music. You do not wash the dishes to it, nor do we advise to play it while giving water to your flowers. If there is any functional application we could think of related to it at all, then it might be flossing your teeth until your gums bleed. Other than that, you sit down, fold your hands and listen. Attentively. Actively. Ambitiously.

In the meditative mind, the two world of "sound" and "music" converge, leaving just an open space where the border used to be. It's a great moment, full of expectations and adrenalin. Don't let it pass you by.
- Tobias Fischer, Tokafi

Hinter Donkey verbergen sich die beiden "Laptoper" Hans Fjellestad und Damon Holzborn. Seit 1991 arbeiten die beiden Musiker sporadisch zusammen, "Stone" ist die dritte Platte des Duos. Ausgehend aus der freien Improvisation, wo sie zu Beginn noch "echte" Instrumente wie Piano oder Gitarre benutzten - tatsächlich sind die beiden Laptop-Spieler "wirkliche" Musiker, die wirkliche Instrumente zu spielen in der Lage sind - sind sie nunmehr in die freie tonale Landschaft außerhalb jeder Norm gelangt. 5 Stücke sind auf der CD enthalten, die genau 50 Minuten lang ist. Das Duo nennt die harmonischen Strukturen "global sounds" und tritt damit live im Duo, solo oder in anderen Besetzungen auf.

Die beiden in diesem Feld geübten Avantgarde-Spezialisten geben keine Vergleiche zur "herkömmlichen" elektronischen Musik etwa von Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze oder anderer alter Vorbilder. Sie haben die Elektronik viel weiter entwickelt, haben Strukturen und Klänge gefunden, die nach Chemie klingen: das Brodeln einer Flüssigkeit im Reagenzglas, nach Physik: Laserstrahlen einer Amplitude während Labormessungen, nach Natur: stürmische Winde oder Geräusche aus zersplitterten Gebirgen, deren Natürlichkeit wie unwirklich, fast angsteinflößend klingen, nach Industrie: als hätten die beiden mit Mikrophonen bewaffnet in großen Werkhallen Maschinen- und Arbeitsklänge eingefangen: das Rotieren eines riesigen Bohrers, eines elektrischen Hammers, einer Schleifmaschine - das etwa ist der Film, der mir dabei durch den Kopf geht - und dabei sind dies alles nur Geräusche und Sounds, die aus den Laptops des Duos kommen, aus elektronischer Wurzel. Harsche, harte, weiche, melodische, abstrakte, witzige, erschreckende, zarte und düstere Töne, deren einzelner keinen Sinn, deren Gesamtklang aber eine neue Klangsprache erfindet: Elektro Avantgarde in seiner freiesten Ausführung.

Das Duo mixt keinen Techno-Rhythmus oder anderen harmonisierenden oder strukturell vereinfachenden Dinge in ihr Soundgeflecht, sie lassen einfach ihre Klänge sprechen - und haben Erfolg damit. Das Duo und die beiden Einzel-Laptoper arbeiten live erfolgreich weltweit, treten auf Jazzfestivals und solchen für Freie Improvisation auf, spielen mit Bands oder anderen Musikern zusammen und gelten als die "verrückten Wissenschafts-Improvisateure". Kein Wunder, klingen ihre "Songs" doch stets wie aus dem Labor, wie ein wissenschaftliches Experiment, ein zuhöchst interessantes Experiment, bei dem sie ungeahnt abstrakte und kernige Sounds erfinden, dabei aber auch allerlei harmonische Einflüsse zulassen, da klingt eine Partie mal wie Disko-Funk, eine andere wie eine sehnsüchtige Anspielung der Berliner Schule oder wie ein bekanntes Musikstück - Zufall? Will ich das so hören? Es gibt eine Menge in diesen Sounds zu entdecken. Ich frage mich nur, wann endlich das Duo in das nördliche Stralsund kommt, um hier zu spielen - immerhin ist das hier der Mittelpunkt der Welt, oder will das jemand abstreiten? Bitte ausführlich begründen - und nicht im Internet abschreiben!
- Volkmar Mantei, Ragazzi

Die Schnellen und Hellen setzen sich ins Flugzeug, um sich zwischen der East- und Westcoast keine staubigen Füße zu holen. ‚Esel‘ wie Hans Fjellestad & Damon Holzborn, der eine in L.A., der andere in Brooklyn, überwinden die Kluft durch eine Klangbrücke. Stone (ALP043) ist schon ihre dritte Veröffentlichung als Duo, nach Show (2000) und Big Sur (2002), doch gemeinsam aktiv sind sie bereits seit 1991. Warum sich zwei Elektroniker ausgerechnet den Esel als Wappentier gewählt haben, keine Ahnung. Aber ihr Projekt heißt nun mal DONKEY und in dem Sprichwort ‚otra véz la burra al trigo‘, übersetzt "once again the donkey's in the wheat", mit dem sie den Konzertmitschnitt aus dem Stone im New Yorker East Village in 5 Abschnitte gliederten, zollen sie dem Grautier weiteren Respekt. Zuvor hatten sich die beiden im Sommer 2006 ins mexikanische Hinterland zurück gezogen, um gemeinsamen Stoff zu entwickeln. Fjellestad mit Analogsynthesizer, Prozessoren und Vacuum Tubes, Holzborn mit Software Instruments (MacDuffs Anthem?) und selbstgebauten Hardware Controllers erzeugen altertümliche, charaktervoll und eigensinnig trottende Geräuschverläufe. Krumm und buckliges Geläuf, Disteln und Dornen, sind ‚normal‘ im elektronischen Mittelalter, das Donkey durchpilgern, schnarrend, blubbernd, zwitschernd, knarzend, wummernd, zischend, zuckend, bratzelnd. Als ritte der Elektrische Mönch statt einem Pferd einen Esel und sähe die Welt nicht pink, sondern in ‚a whiter shade of grey‘.
- Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy #56

Damon Holzborn - Adams and Bancroft

Though he's no stranger to the studio, this is the first disc of Damon Holzborn's to come my way. On this outing, the founding member of the experimental/improv Trummerflora collective abandons his guitar for the world of solo electronic manipulation. From a video game in hyper drive to what could easily be mistaken for closely mic'd kitchen appliances, he crafts sounds into what even the electronics-skeptical might identify as music despite themselves. Though his compositional pedigree includes Frederic Rzewski, Brian Ferneyhough, Will Ogden, and Rand Steiger, I couldn't help but imagine a closer alliance with the work of Nicolas Collins while listening to tracks like "O/Radio." The piece is a ten-minute struggle to tune in not this week's Top 40 hits, but more likely the communications of extraterrestrials or maybe even God. Regardless, John Cage must be smiling down and maybe even phoning home.
- Molly Sheridan, newmusicbox

DIGITAL ASHES IN A DIGITAL STURM
California improviser Damon Holzborn's Adams And Bancroft (Accretions) is computer noise at its most candid. Although it's a stomach-turning jet-engine blast, every digital corner, computer glitch and clinical edit is nakedly audible. Rumbles, field recordings and silence provide a bed for grungy digital accents to noisily bonk the air, undressed and robotic. They are startling and infuriating, but the open space provides a wide arena to discover the color and mood of Holzborn's misshapen punctuation-the album reading like random bursts of typewritten gibberish, the perfect template to admire the stateliness of a font.
- Christopher R Weingarten, CMJ

Damon Holzborn's 'Adams & Bancroft' is a rough ride through the contemporary sonic landscape, a random and sizable assortment of sounds plucked from the air like WiFi spillage siphoned from routers by drive-by sniffers. Though he pays little if any attention to musicality, at least in the extremely traditional sense, Holzborn is highly attentive to sonorousness and rhythm, and even his most outward-bound excursions are kept to a song-like length (with the exception of one 10-minute piece). What could be a field recording of mall traffic, on "Adams & Bancroft II", is folded until it has the comfort of routinely worn cotton; when it gives way to verbal refuse that only a mystic could interpret, it emphasizes a slow modulation that registers in all but the least inclusive ears as tonality. "Field and Stream" starts with the latter and builds quickly to long tones and traffic noise; in just under five minutes, you experience suburban sprawl secondhand. "DDDsc" takes electric piano sounds and tosses them like a high velocity riff on the more introspective minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich; the cut has no immediate metrical core, but one develops over time, coming to view like an image buried deep in static. Other tracks venture closer still to straight-ahead composition, as on "DDDs", a quarter-speed epiphany for what sounds like solo organ, and "Clutch", which resembles a cheap microphone overwhelmed by the intense sonic toxicity of a rave. Throughout, Holzborn moves from sonic element to sonic element, rarely repeating himself, and avoiding anything familiar--like, say, a guitar, the instrument with which he was previously most closely associated.
- Mark Weidenbaum, e/i

This founding member of the Trummerflora collective is a favorite of chin-strokers, and even a cursory pass through his improvisational electronics bears that out. These are closer to sound experiments than songs, with gurgling digitalis and pulsating tones creating an expressway to LSD island. It'll scare kids.
- Bucky Dent, URB

Subtle and quiet but somehow aggressive. That's the direction my mind went upon hearing Damon Holzborn's Adams & Bancroft a strange and slightly spooky drifting exploration of experimental soundscapes. A dark ambience pervades while textures buzz and flow. It's not exactly white noise; it's more of an electronic stir fry, like the recorded sounds of cosmic transmissions run through some kind of random filter operated by a Martian experimental artist. Of course, that's an odd description but hopefully an evocative one. Some audio of this variety defies ready description and it's easier to convey a tone, a feeling, than it is to simply say, "it sounds like this." Holzborn's Adams & Bancroft falls into that category. It ebbs and flows in the most elongated way, with extended crescendos and reversions to quietude, electronic lifeforms stretched to non-recognition, thus reformed into new beings entirely, much in the way your brain might be once this audio journey is completed.
- Kristofer Upjohn, Raves.com

Damon Holzborn appears on a range of San Diego/Trummerflora releases, and has an album of solo electronics, Adams & Bancroft, out on Accretions (ALP035 www.accretions.com). And it is very much electronics - much of it is hard edged and scrabbly, processed sounds vying for foreground. The title track (part 1) opens it with a cycling thud which sounds likes processed guitar, fast squiggles propelled over (possibly voice - there are a few voicey components through the set), squiggles sweep at the end (part 2 is more silvery and buzzing). Or the slow controlled explosion of hissing harshnesses, swirling, thereminish sweeps that builds through Summit; most extremely in O/Radio which is a scrawl of noises that sounds like a trawl through radio-space, with a very occasional hint of speech. Between these and other electronica are the DDD series - four tracks with a different suffix (eg DDDp) which are based on more musical elements (computer music, layered tones) which seem to change randomly, some fast some slow, but are much lighter elements. And then there is the pairing of If we're all going to get it and Field to stream - both of which are much subtler and incorporate obvious and extensive samples. This could in no way be described as a pretty album, but an initial uncertainty is tempered by repeated listenings that reveal subtle complexities.
- Jeremy Keens, & etc.

Donkey - Big Sur

"If electronic music can be described as energetic, then this album certainly is, leaping between towers of abstraction, dragging note clusters over cruelly sharp rough terrain, they mess around in the margins of an ever-playful train of sonic events. Not one corridor of possible sound combinations is left unexplored. In the way that people believe that an infinite universe may house an infinite possible lifeforms, so DONKEY explore all avenues... this is another triumph for this duo."
- Antony Burnham, Metamorphic Journeyman (UK)

"[Donkey] exhibit a coherent sympathy too many modern players miss completely; you can hear them following each other all over the map."
- Marc Tucker, e|i

"An expansive, never-ending battle of fantastic sounds with references ranging from Morton Subotnick and AMM to '80s harsh noise artists - sometimes, it's hard to believe so much substantial din is emanating from only two people."
- Manny Theiner, Grooves

"'Crick' ist ein halbstündiger, rein elektronischer Soundscape, der die Henry-Miller-Landschaft Big Sur im Studio nachzeichnet, nicht etwa als ambiente Idylle, sondern als üppig wuchernden Noisedschungel. Musique concrète im Brobdingnag-Maßstab 1 : OH, MEIN GOTT, ES IST RIESIG!. Das Gras wächst mit Star-Wars-Volume. Die beiden anderen Landschaftsmalereien 'Wood' (23:14) und 'Fog' (8:17) entstanden live auf dem Big Sur Experimental Music Festival und sind von ähnlich eindrucksvollem Kaliber. Kein Wunder, dass dort drüben laufend der Wald brennt."
- Rigo Dittman, Bad Alchemy

"Fjellestad and Holzborn create a dense, festering tropical sound texture... a compound sonic miasma of slushing water, skittering toots, crooning and mooing. It's a decidedly queasy and groaning soundworld, like a journey through a mud pool, at times reminiscent of the bubbling inventive density of Matmos and the psychotic drawl emerging from the bottom of a Frank Zappa cheeseburger."
- Matt Ffytche, The Wire

"Donkey tinker and toil with guitar and synthesized electronics in the development of eccentric arrangements that experiment with the infinite edges of their medium. On the studio recorded 'Crick' we are voyeurs to contained chaos in tinny languages and blurry subtexts. In moments a U2 bomber's surveillance of the depths and then suddenly dwelling on quieter flights into spacious caverns. With the anthropomorphic equivalents to a certain synesthasia this is a wild ride into forbidden cracks and crevices - an exploration in the weight of high pitched, deformed tones. At over one hour this is a participatory listen that might just keep you up all night."
- TJ Norris, SOUNDVISION (Portland)

"Fjellestad and Holzborn excel at combining sound and tonal exploration with continually evolving patterns to create a sound art bonanza that also happens to be a hell of a fun cosmic trip into the wildest and most turbulent regions of space. These guys cover a LOT of territory, leaving the field wild open for exploration and discovery, while remaining impressively cohesive and controlled. Sound art and space exploration fans who want something that reveals new treasures with subsequent listens will find Big Sur to be delightfully challenging."
- Jerry Kranitz , Aural Innovations

"Wenn Merzbow der Avantgardist ist, sind Donkey die Melodiker. So einfach ist es zwar nicht. Aber die Richtung stimmt. Man muss sich nicht weit hinauslehnen, um diese 'Musik' zu lieben, in der heutigen ambientverliebten Welt ist 'Big Sur' längst nicht die avantgardistischste Variante musikalischer Möglichkeiten. Der Lärm auf dem Wege zur Stille."
- Volkmar Mantei, Ragazzi

"Forest-related field recordings provide a backdrop for some mad improvising. Noisy, occasionally brutal, the piece nevertheless leaves room to breathe. This is not a Merzbow-esque assault. There is pace, tension and most of all invention, but it sure feels overwhelming at times. If Xenakis had been an improviser, he may have sounded like Fjellestad. One imagines him torturing his knobs with red-hot iron tweezers."
- François Couture, All-Music Guide

"Vous voilà embarquez dans une aventure extra-terrestre qui vous laissera des souvenirs impérissables... Fjellestad et Holzborn font de Big Sur un disque qu'on ne fait pas qu'écouter. On le réécoute, le ré-réécoute, et on découvre toujours avec le même étonnement des espaces sonores chaleureux et inattendus. En mêlant admirablement une musique complexe à un univers visuel et captivant, DONKEY réussit là ou peu nous émeuvent, nous attirant tout en douceur vers un rêve éveillé."
- Quentin Dève, Soit dit en Passant (Toulouse)

Trummerflora Collective - No Stars Please

"I say that right now it's amazing. It's nothing like I have ever seen, and I'm just happy that this sort of homegrown collective in what many people think as an out of the way, very conservative place, which would never have a scene of new and transgressive music, would suddenly develop one out of nowhere which I think eventually will be known around the world. I'm sure that is going to happen."
- George Lewis, The Wire (UK)

"Playing such unpredictably meshed music must be a totally absorbing experience. Listening to it at a distance, a degree of detachment is inevitable. Hearing No Stars Please is like taking a walk and noticing things, with room for noticing other things when taking the same walk later. The musicians are not out to flaunt their technique, but to enjoy the plurality of options available when they get together to organise sound. It's not a showcase for virtuosity but a record of shared investigations and an auditory environment for occasional use."
- Julian Cowley, The Wire

"These musicians make no attempts to hide their diverse backgrounds in rock, jazz and world music and things really cook... fine examples of the no-frills approach to free improvising that makes the American scene so refreshing. It's got the same fuck-you-this-is-what-we-like buzz as Ian Davis' Micro-East Collective (operating on the other side of the country). It's fresh and original..."
- Signal To Noise

"The music on this 2-disc set is QUITE MAGNIFICENT SHIT. Cock an ear to the last cut on disc one, "Frosty the Snowman/Silent Night." George Lewis is on there, you might recognize him, but beyond that there's just so much shit going on you could LIVE IN IT. It would be a viable place to live! How many bands in the fucking WORLD, in conservative navy towns and elsewhere, do anything remotely similar to what Trummerflora does, a hundred? Eighty? Fifty? Seven, including Smegma? The number is SMALL. Trummerflora Collective! In our merry midst! Treasure 'em, people!
- Richard Meltzer

"What a strange, telepathic, and progressive semi-freejazz ensemble this is! Here's the question: After hearing really good spontaneous improv and listening to Sun Ra's "Magic City," how does one figure out what is and what is not extemporaneous? Well, it doesn't matter. When it sounds as good as these guys, who cares? Shifting from five to nine players, the ensemble is hardcore committed. You just can't play like this without being topped out... the sound is quintessentially live and almost dangerous: there are just too many flipped-out ideas flying around. Two discs of mind-altering truly progressive music.Sloppy, tight, tribal, spaced, schizophrenic, enlightened, alien...hell, just listen to those percussionists on the first track and you'll know all."
- Marc Tucker

"Hans Fjellestand's organ from his solo and Donkey CD's sounds great within this fuller band context. But this is 23 minutes of avant rock and jazz, and experimental sound explorations that don't let the listener snooze for a moment. Even the quieter subtle passages are busy and full of life and intensity. Dark droning guitars compete with birdsong flutes and chaotic percussion to create a primordial soup of pure sonic beauty. There's LOTS going on that only the most attentive listening with reveal. An excellent set of improvised music."
- Jerry Kranitz , Aural Innovations

"...rumbling like brown infra-hoses beneath the floor, as synthesized rats gnaw at the cables before encountering a fabulous electrocution by crude amplifier-destined electricity from nuclear power plants thrown out across the prairies like doomsday ice-cream cones of infertility... in ever-changing nuances, as the sounds move like the shadow clouds over the plains, in constantly changing patterns; Trummerflora music!"
- Ingvar Loco Nordin, Sonoloco (Sweden)

"... if you like improvised music, free-jazz or noise art, and like your musical boundaries challenged, this is...for you."
- Bart Mendoza, San Diego Union-Tribune

"When not committing additional subversive acts, the members of Trummerflora can be found at random locales around San Diego and points beyond aiding and abetting others with experimental music."
- Dylan Roberts, DigitalCity.com

"...you can rest assured that soon enough you will find yourself in the midst of an essential part of the local arts community when participating in any of the many activities of San Diego's newest proprieter of, well... new music."
- Chris Williams, San Diego New Music

"...at the heart of everything done for Trummerflora is the notion of original sound composition and discovering music that has never been done before -- even if the players are forced to look a little strange doing it."
-Angela Ashman, San Diego Union-Tribune

Donkey - Show

"These guys demonstrate a sensitivity of expression that naturally is in intense demand among improvisers but not always present... Exciting! Turn the volume up!"
- Ingvar Loco Nordin, Sonoloco (Sweden)

"[Donkey] veer from the heady extremes of pure adrenaline noise to the more cerebral and chin stroking intellectual excersise that is improvisation at its most inventive."
- Cris Baldwin, Acid Attack Music (UK)

"...a new sonic horizon, and booga to the "oh, electronic music! It's so Cold! so Unfeeling! Waah!" crowd, the excitement that the interchange of creativity and challenge these two are engaged in fairly leaps into your ear. What makes all this consistently fascinating listening is Fjellestad's complete refusal to reuse any of the same tricks; one moment his synth resembles a steel guitar note, luxuriously sprawling as the dusty plain it evokes, the next a set of chimes your three-year-old got drool all over, then an epileptic car alarm dropped in your soup pot."
- Mike Zimbouski, Signal to Noise

"The staccato and surging electronics which begin "Dziggetai" evolve and develop in engaging and compelling ways with the perfect balance of unity and variety in color, sonority, rhythm and texture. While you won't find yourself humming any tunes, Donkey cranks out some mighty fine noise."
- Dean Suzuki, Progression

"On this series of live recordings, these two members of San Diego's Trummerflora collective explore the netherworld of electroacoustic improvisation, noise art and free form jazz. Fjellestad and Holzborn manipulate their hard wired instruments with a bracing intensity, shifting between outright sheets of noise and more modulated orchestral patterns. This is music that is just as capable of growling as it is signaling the landing of a alien spaceship. This is not jazz in the conventional sense of the word, but more in the spirit of constructing adventurous sounds in the moment, regardless of genre and style."
- All About Jazz

"Whether its source is sampled voices, Fjellestad's synthesizer or Holzborn's acoustic guitar, the music assumes the quality of aural graffiti, jagged hints and smeared traces of illicit communication between members of some clandestine network, tags of the Trummerflora."
- Julian Cowley, The Wire

"What struck me after a few listens was how electronic space, noise, jazz, and avant-rock meet across these tracks at a crossroads that defies easy labels and genres. Whimsically freaky, but beautifully executed, the music demands the listener's attention, yet the reward is a strangely lulling experience."
- Jerry Kranitz, Aural Innovations

"With Donkey you get something tasty, elusive... probably the result of some divine accident at the factory. With one foot in Improv Jazz, the other in wild Electronica and at least its heels dragging in the furthest point left of early European Kraut Rock, Donkey make a music which borders on chaotic madness but never actually becomes isolated with its own obsessions. It manages to grate on the nerves with its kitten-on-Speed explorative nature while never alienating. It's rare you find music which so satisfyingly crosses genres, but this should equally appeal to both the Modern Improv Jazz fraternity and those into Trad Noise Industrial. Wild yet controlled, crazy yet somehow in possession of a knowledge beyond the ken of yer average man in the street, this is much recommended."
- Antony Burnham, Metamorphic Journeyman (UK)

"Show is more of a sonic collage then a linear listen. But that's not to say this isn't a masterpiece. The intensely industrial sound is a heavy improv audio feast... Show is quite possibly the best experimental album of the new millennium."
- J-Sin, Smother E-zine

"Show incorporates quick and sturdy electronically-generated pulses with acoustic improvisations, rich musical soundscapes, and well-balanced forms."
- Curtis Glatter, San Diego New Music

"...electronic exploration, chittering, wobbling, shimmering jitters and abstractions, but in a playful wandering through some interesting sonic spaces... varied and engaging pieces for those with a penchant for the experimental & improvisational, as you would expect from Accretions."
- Jeremy Keens, Ampersand Etcetera (Australia)

"There are plenty of enlightening moments in these haunting and aggressive 'songs.'"
- Troy Johnson, SLAMM (San Diego)

Fernandes/Fjellestad/Holzborn/Radulovich - ...and the reindeer you rode in on

"The BEST Christmas album ever!"
- Jesus

"You guys are just whacked...Just when I was thinking that the Christmas season was all dull along comes '...and the reindeer you rode in on.' We love it!"
- Elaine Erb, KGNU (Colorado)

"This ensemble fares best when it casts caution to the wind, as on a percussion-only version of 'Jingle Bells' that evokes the Christmas classic in name only, and on an envelope-pushing 'Frosty the Snowman'..."
- George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune

Various Artists - Trummerflora 2

"Working with a range of electronic equipment, Hans and Damon create a constantly changing soundscape in 'LOT 12' as they improvise - it is much too hard to describe the wandering synths, tones, cracking clicks, warbling electro, percussive elements, organ and various bleeps that comprise the piece, and just say it is a fascinating landscape to wander through with them..."
- Jeremy Keens, Ampersand Etcetera (Australia)

"...experimental music that defies convention. If you dig out-there stuff and you're willing to take chances with your listening, this rates a (4)."
- Carbon 14 (Philadelphia)