Review. JUOZAS MILAŠIUS - DARIUS ČIUTA – P. (2016). Birds of the Dream Forest

There are two tracks on the album:

1     Puse A = Side A     30:39
2     Puse B = Side B     20:35

Juozas Milašius here plays guitar (as always), Darius Čiuta is the one who made field recordings. The birds were recorded at 5 a. m.

The CD which is very aesthetic, has trifold package with a pocket.

First part. Impression

The first track even though it is pretty long and could be a separate album is easy to listen. All the time birds sing. Guitar weeps. Old modem chirps. Many other sounds come and go. It's like the best Zen meditation ever. You just listen and have nothing to say.

The second track is a breathing of a man (D. Čiuta) combined with slow guitar playing. Very slow. There's nowhere to run. The world has stopped after the meditation in the first track. Post-meditational chill.

Absolute masterpiece. 51 minutes of ecstasy if You prefer non-trivial meditation with help of music. It is not New Age meditational music, it is a serious diving into consciousness. Bravo, dear gurus. I listen to the CD once again. Can't stop. Thank You.

Part two. Information

Juozas Milašius and Darius Čiuta both are very modest men. But, nevertheless, they are one of the best experimentalists i've ever heard and could be compared with the best ones you know from history of experimental music.

Juozas Milašius

According to information of Music Information Centre (MIC) of Lithuania, J. Milašius (1968) made his stage debut in 1986 with legendary Petras Vyšniauskas Quartet, in the same year he recorded the first (unofficial) album with D. Čiuta. The guitarist is sometimes called the enfant terrible of the Lithuanian jazz scene, but actually he is more into noise music than jazz. J. Milašius played and recorded with many jazz/experimental music stars (being one of them himself): he has been a member of groups led by Vladimir Chekasin, Vytautas Labutis, Vladimir Tarasov, Tomas Kutavičius, has collaborated with Dalius Naujokaitis, Skirmantas Sasnauskas, Eugenijus Kanevičius, Arkady Gotesman, Jim Meneses, Martin Schütz, Hans Koch, Fredy Studer, Sainkho Namchilak, Ned Rothenberg, Lindsay Cooper, Jimmy Owens, Jonas Mekas, Dror Feiler, Luc Houtkamp, Saadet Türköz, ZU etc.

Also, J. Milašius teamed up with the celebrated improvisers into guitar groups, Guitarmania (1989) and Golden Guitars (1998), and later continued as a solo artist. According to MIC, "in recent years he has added computers to his arsenal of instruments and started performing with experimental sound artists, such as Kouhei Matsunaga from Japan, and as a leader of Milašius Power Trio. He has been featured by many European jazz, contemporary music and art events: Jazz Jamboree (1987, Warsaw), Leipziger Jazztage (1991), Jazz Across the Borders (1991, Berlin), Ars Baltica Prolog (1992, Berlin), Willisau Jazz Festival (1993, Switzerland), International Festival of Music Lucerne (1993, Switzerland), JazzBaltica (1993, Salzau, Germany), Artacts (2003, Tyrol, Austria), SKIF (2005, St. Petersburg) and others.

Juozas Milašius has composed soundtracks for the films "It Also Snows in Paradise" (1994) and "A Journey into the Night" (2003). In 1994 teamed with Valdas Pranulis and Dalius Naujokaitis, they staged a drama performance based on Kobo Abe's "Woman in the Dunes", where the musician has also played a role."

Personally i see J. Milašius more as a noise artist, who could make any experiment that You couldn't even imagine.

Darius Čiuta

Darius Čiuta (1966) is a pioneer of Lithuanian noise music and field recordings, also he has released and/or recorded hundreds of albums of experimental electronic music. This modest man is so unique that You can't even imagine that he is an... architect. Well, also a sound architect, as he is called. 

Also, Darius makes great avant-garde photos like this one:

I know Darius will be probably angry that i write about him, he is really very shy. But this creator is worth thousands of words. Or silence.

You can (and MUST) listen to D. Čiuta's music here:

https://apvaliai.wordpress.com

https://archive.org/search.php?query=Darius%20Ciuta

Nobody really knows how many albums he has created, maybe 500, maybe more. Discogs.com has information only about 40 "official" releases (mainly CDs) with Lithuanian writers Algimantas Lyva and Robertas Kundrotas and world famous artists such as Ilia Belorukov, Bruno Duplant, Chris Whitehead, Luís Antero, Richard Caldicott, Stefan Thut, Chris Silver T, Tony Whitehead, Slavek Kwi, Philippe Lamy, Beat Keller, Pedro Chambel etc. 

One album is totally unique: You can listen to it for 24 hours: http://www.radikaliai.lt/radikaliai/2659-unique-release-by-extraordinary-lithuanian-artist-darius-ciuta-24-hours-of-continuous-playing.

And, of course, i must mention that Darius is the one who with two other musicians (Algis Mielius aka KAL and Rolandas Cikanavičius aka AKALA) has created the first Lithuanian noise music band NAJ: https://www.discogs.com/artist/75591-Naj.