I know I get into deep trouble doing what I am about to do now: review a download only release. It will spawn mails that scream ‘me mine me mine too’, or ‘what has Jos Smolders that I don’t?’ (let’s see how many got this last sentence, and immediately mailed me when they read the …
Continue reading ““Modular Works 2015Q1†reviewed by Vital Weekly”
The metaphrasis of musique concrete presented by Jos Smolders in this short cycle of rather recent compositions has the merit of expressing carefully selected concepts with logical precision. Repeated plunges into the realm of impenetrability also reveal many of its attractive features. The three movements of “For RH†(about time that someone dedicated a work …
Continue reading ““Modular Works 2015Q1†reviewed by Touching Extremes”
The trombones at the top of Positions droop like aged oak trees, hunched under the insistent weight of centuries alive. The drones curve solemnly; sepia memories of passing spitfires, fanfares pointed downward to rattle through the ground and the buried dead, swarming into a microtonal smog of weariness and withering vibrancy. Their tones are noble …
Continue reading ““Positions†reviewed by ATTN:Magazine”
Released earlier this month via the Porto, Portugal-based imprint Cronica is Martijn Tellinga’s debut album “Position” in which the artist, who’s also been a part of the great experimental project Zona Fumatori which has released one CDr named “Enteng” via the Staalplaat-related label Stichting Mixer in the early 2000s, explores experimental territories as well albeit …
Continue reading ““Positions†reviewed by nitestylez.de”
In the recent surge of modular synth use, the hardware and the process occasionally overtake the music. Lost is the power of modular systems as tools for composition. In this latest installment of his continuing Modular Works series, Dutch underground maven, Vital Weekly contributor and longtime mastering engineer Jos Smolders corrects this imbalance. Smolders made …
Continue reading ““Modular Works 2015Q1†reviewed by The Wire”
Kort daarna heeft Smolders “Modular Works 2015Q1” uitgebracht, een muzikaal verslag van zijn bezigheden in het eerste kwartaal van dit jaar. Zoals de titel al aangeeft, is de muziek gemaakt met een modulaire, analoge synthesizer. Drie titels verwijzen naar Robert Hampson (Loop, Main), maar het album is eerder geïnspireerd door Pierre Henry. Smolders masterde een …
Continue reading ““Modular Works 2015Q1†reviewed by Gonzo Circus”
Vitale e ingegnoso, il disco parla la lingua ritmica delle macchine. Novellino e Rosi ne ascoltano e registrano la voce, dediti a magnificare i suoni prodotti in questo antico stabilimento tessile nei presso di Catanzaro. Trattasi di field recordings: puri e semplici nella prima parte (testimonianza audiofila e timbrica da manuale), re-inventati in chiusura. Magnifico …
There aren’t many cases in which a musical instrument is imbued with the characteristics of architecture and environment in addition to sound production. The organ is essentially a tool of location and has a special connection to liturgical music. It was described as the king of musical instruments by Pope Benedict XVI at the unveiling …
“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) /its always ourselves we find in the sea”. These well-known lines that close E.E.Cummings’s poem “maggy an milly and molly and may” already inspired many artists with a love for one of the most beautiful nature’s contribution to our planet that the American poet described …
Continue reading ““Unfurling Streams†reviewed by Chain DLK”
Grand témoin des passerelles entre la création contemporaine, la musique et le multimédia nées de la révolution numérique, le label Crónica fait son état de l’art. Avec Hidden Name, l’étonnant label-media, comme il aime à se définir, nous livre une de ses cartes blanches proche de la perfection, tant la magie de Stephan Mathieu et …
