It’s already tomorrow, 2014’s Natal dos Experimentais, the yearly event promoted by Crónica in Porto, featuring performances by Haarvöl; Another Hardcore Techno Party (a.k.a. 2.04£); and Chords & Chips (the impromptu quartet of Ricardo Jacinto, Angelica V. Salvi, Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais). After the performances, Crónica’s DJs take over until late.
Entrance is free to everyone, hope to see you there!
Episode 129 of Futurónica, a broadcast in Rádio Manobras (91.5 MHz in Porto, 18h30) and Rádio Zero (21h GMT, repeating on Tuesday at 01h) airs tomorrow, December 12th.
The playlist of Futurónica 129 is:
You can follow Rádio Zero’s broadcasts at radiozero.pt/ouvir and Rádio Manobras at radiomanobras.pt.
Alors que ses ‘Chutes’ de 2013 ne nous avaient que moyennement convaincus, pour ne pas dire autre chose, le cru 2014 du producteur français est d’un tout autre acabit. Tout en jouant avec les codes et astuces du bruit et du concret, ses ‘Transmissions’ (Crónica) varient à la fois les formes et le fond. D’entrée, on ressent un tic tac malsain du fond des mers à la recherche d’une épave grouillante de menace, c’est d’autant plus réussi que la matière sonore est riche. Si on enchaîne sur de brefs instants assourdis d’où s’échappent des échos inquiétants de boîte de Pandore, l’ombre incandescente de la bête humaine vient se greffer sur nos angoisses pre-mortem, avant qu’un immense morceau de bravoure – 39 minutes, svp – n’achève de transformer l’exercice en subjuguante odyssée vers le centre de l’univers, peuplé de bruits surgis de cavités où l’on ne nous veut pas que du bien. Fabrice Vanoverberg
This year’s Natal dos Experimentais, the yearly event promoted by Crónica in Porto, is happening on December 12th at Passos Manuel. This year’s program presents performances by Haarvöl; Another Hardcore Techno Party (a.k.a. 2.04£); and Chords & Chips (the impromptu quartet of Ricardo Jacinto, Angelica V. Salvi, Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais). After the performances, Crónica’s DJs take over until late. As usual, entrance is free to everyone!
Episode 128 of Futurónica, a broadcast in Rádio Manobras (91.5 MHz in Porto, 18h30) and Rádio Zero (21h GMT, repeating on Tuesday at 01h) airs tomorrow, November 28th.
The playlist of Futurónica 128 is:
You can follow Rádio Zero’s broadcasts at radiozero.pt/ouvir and Rádio Manobras at radiomanobras.pt.
Ab OVO originally came to be as the score for a performance by the puppet theater of Porto, developed in late 2011 and early 2012. For this post-mortem recorded edition, the experimental duo of Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela reworked the 19 compositions that constituted most of the play’s sound into this more concise, 6-track album. @c has always relied heavily on improvisation, and the pieces that comprise Ab OVO here are no exception.
It’s most evident on the more sprawling third entry, “100†(each segment has only a sequential numeral as its title), wherein the duo collaborate additionally with Tam, Shirley Resende, and Sara Henriques on guitar, accordion, and voice respectively. I’d be curious to see the actual performance that inspired and complemented this music, though I suspect the reworking for the album is substantailly different. Still, the overall impression and takeaway is likely the same, with these tracks showing off a curious interest in sonic tinkering, experimenting with noise and silence, texture, timbre, and effects in ways that are at times spartan and at others more aggressive (the sputtering, shifting grind of “101†comes to mind). The most accessible track (or at least the most immediate) is probably the closer, “103,†which flirts with rhythm in more obvious ways.
Snippets of sound race in syncopation, vying for listeners’ attention as they scatter across the stereo spectrum in time. In fact, the only predictable part of this entire release is in its closing moments, where a regular, metered pattern repeats in solitude until it’s over. Fans of experimental improvisation and sound sculpting will likely enjoy @c’s material here, which largely eschews convention and musicality for something more visceral, textural, and improvisational. Matthew Mercer
via Ear Influxion
On Thursday, December 4, Lawrence English will speak of his artistic practice at FBAUP, in Porto and, later on the same day, he will perform at Passos Manuel.
Lawrence English has worked at the nexus of music, field recording and listening for over a decade. In that time he has sought to develop an array of activities that coalesce with these interests. He will speak to his research around the modes of listening and specifically about how creativity plays a central role in our listening. He will also speak to the nature of multitasking as an act of maintaining a multifarious art practice.
Lawrence English is a composer, media artist and curator based in Australia. Working across an eclectic array of aesthetic investigations, English’s work prompts questions of field, perception and memory. English utilises a variety of approaches including live performance and installation to create works that ponder subtle transformations of space and ask audiences to become aware of that which exists at the edge of perception.
The talk will start at 17h at FBAUP, the performance at 23h30 at Passos Manuel.
Dopo il sorprendente passaggio organico di “Chutes†offerto a Baskaru l’anno scorso, Mathias Delplanque torna ad accasarsi presso il più austero catalogo Crónica sul quale aveva già visto la luce il lodato “Passeportsâ€, contravvenendo pure alla sua usuale anti-prolificità . Sulla sound art in perenne equilibrio fra field recordings e soundscape digitali del portoghese il discorso è stato già approfondito in passato, ma stavolta siamo di fronte ad un cambio di rotta, nel suo piccolo, decisamente radicale.
Nulla più di una “sceltaâ€, in realtà : quella di lasciar fuori i suoni generati dal laptop per concentrarsi sul concetto di trasmissione meccanica e sulla sua resa sonora, ben introdotta dall’azzeccatissimo artwork che accompagna il disco. Scontato collegare quest’ultimo all’esperienza post-industriale di gente come Tattered Kaylor e, soprattutto, Chris Watson. Prendendo le mosse da quelle ricerche, Delplanque istituisce un monolite in quattro parti che si propone di riprodurre con estremo realismo l’archetipo sonoro della fabbrica.
Già sul bell’affresco della “Part 1â€, però, il portoghese tradisce il suo scopo, “sfruttando†le registrazioni di un telaio come elementi sonori da utilizzare nella costruzione di un soundscape ben più pittoresco e soggettivo, la cui natura è rivelata dal progressivo farsi spazio di un drone. Il frammento della “Part 2†riesce invece nello scopo di isolare il suono della macchina, sovrastando a livello concettuale il ben più approfondito primo brano ma risultando nel complesso decisamente meno suggestivo.
Per le restanti due “Part†si cambia scenario: negli otto minuti di lontani richiami della terza siamo introdotti ad una schiera di non specificati strumenti, i cui suoni sono stati registrati dagli studenti di un seminario condotto dallo stesso Delplanque a Nantes. La quarta, di minuti, ne dura ben 40 e prende la forma di un’autentica sinfonia macchinale, la cui forza espressiva è incrementata dalla moltitudine di trattamenti sonori ed effetti “umanizzanti†che minano paradossalmente il realismo, evidenziando al tempo stesso la vittoria della sostanza sulla forma.
Matteo Meda
via Onda Rock
This project is authored by Giovanni Lami and Enrico Coniglio, recorded by Miguel Carvalhais and enriched by the charming artwork of Dead Meat. The vinyl edition of Lemuria immediately grabbed our attention with its universe of sounds. These recordings were not made in a studio, but in an abandoned house and have a certain ‘clotted’ quality; dreamy, abstract and essential. The ancient Romans had a broad calendar of celebrations and feasts: Lemuria or Lemuralia consisted of five days of celebration dedicated to the spirits of the dead, the so-called Lemures. However, the term later began to refer to the souls of people unable to find eternal rest because of the violent manner of their deaths. They were thought to spend their time wandering among the living, persecuting them until madness ensued. We are unsure how these historical musings inspired the duo, or if the ritual aspects of the sound are supposed to be dominant. Nor do we know whether the implied sonic realities or the editing and subsequent manipulations matter more. There is, however, a feeling of a fertile exchange between ‘presences’ and ‘characters’ and the generation of a mental landscape that is potentially dangerous; one that stimulates individual and shared visions. This is an imaginary kingdom in which our internal and external worlds meet and merge. The references to “death scenes†is delicate and light without being minimized or exaggerated. Enrico Coniglio claims that, for him, the only possible artistic direction is that implied by the interaction between the performer and the “raw material†of the field recordings. Aurelio Cianciotta
via Neural
