Number four in Austrian saxophonist Boris Hauf's series of private releases also offered as digital downloads, Shameless 0202 was recorded on February 7, 2002, and released at the end of the same month. At the time, the artist was staying in the U.S., hanging around Chicago with Adam Sonderberg, a young sound artist with whom he already recorded -- - in 1999 (the pair also appears on Sonderberg's 2001 EP, Say No). This 3" CD contains one 19-minute studio track with Hauf solely on computer and Sonderberg on guitar and junk. While the material on -- - consisted mostly of very short, abstract improvisational gestures, this is a long static piece that feels more like sound art than free improv. The mention "recorded and assembled" (typical Sonderberg vocabulary) preceding the date on the cover adds to the mystery. No matter how it was produced, the piece is brilliant: It pushes Hauf's art into more minimalist territory. Hums, sine waves, and sparse clicks form the basis of the sonic shroud over which Sonderberg pins indistinct sounds, rummaging through junk or using objects on the guitar without ever sounding a string. One thinks of Otomo Yoshihide's most extremely anticlimactic projects (I.S.O., Filament) or the group Polwechsel. Recommended but very demanding, Shameless 0202 is free to download at hauf.klingt.org/shameless/0202 (and also released as a private edition of 20 copies). ~ François Couture, Rovi