New release: Miguel A. García’s “Evhiblig”

“Is it possible to choose between the terror of silence or the terror of noise? Is emptiness more intoxicating? Does presence welcome us into its bosom, or does it expel us, usurping our place? The boundaries, if there are any, are blurred and, like false doubles, interchangeable. Sound and silence are conjoined twins. Those same noises with which Miguel A. García has been working compulsively are shadows of absences, and the silences are emergency exit doors to who knows where.

His music is an attempt at discourse, intuited in murmurs, that wants to be silenced. It is a rope barely tied somewhere, although it is inevitable that it is already loose and falling. But it maintains its tension; it even vibrates, although perhaps they are parables of recollection. The problem lies in detecting the end, distinguishing beginning and ending, knowing whether one wants to begin or to end, going somewhere, or staying still.

Miguel A. García builds sound sequences like a hermetic architect, an orate trapped in his decomposed cosmos that, like an abysmal worm, seeks to catch its tail to devour itself and disappear. Restlessness and restlessness. His order is his logic. And it is in this unravelling or its impossibility that lies the enjoyment, in a flow that may seem fortuitous, but that is inescapable.

Miguel A. García has been working with electronic music for more than two decades: from the most abrasive dynamics of power electronics and the noise music of his beginnings as Xedh, through free improvisation in multiple collaborations with a large number of artists (Seijiro Murayama, Sebastian Branche, Jean-Luc Guionnet…) to focus in recent years on electroacoustic composition, generally accompanied by acoustic instrumentation in ensembles of variable formation. A path of purification of his own language, a stubborn work on the same waste materials that have become his lexicon, an absolutely non-transferable voice.” (text by Fernando Ulzión)

This piece was originally commissioned for the exhibition Audiosfera. Experimentación sonora 1980-2020, curated by Francisco Lopez for the Reina Sofia museum in Spain.

“Evhiblig” is now available for stream and download.

Jos Smolders’s “Submerge-Emerge” reviewed by Nieuwe Noten

Voor het bijna twee uur durende ‘Submerge-Emerge’ liet Smolders zich eveneens inspireren door een kunstwerk, nu het gedicht ‘Un Coup De Des Jamais N’Abolira Le Hasard’ van Stéphane Mallarmé. Al veertig jaar is Smolders gefascineerd door dit gedicht, maar pas na meer onderzoek naar de achtergronden, was hij in staat om er ook muzikaal iets mee te kunnen. Daar hoorde bij dat hij in dezelfde tijd werkte aan een album met als basis de veldopnames die hij de afgelopen jaren aan zee had gemaakt en waar hij ineens van merkte dat die ook in dit project bruikbaar waren. Het hele proces dat alles bij elkaar vijf jaar in beslag nam, beschrijft hij op de site van Crónica, boeiend om te lezen. Een paar opmerkingen pik ik eruit, omdat die goed duidelijk maken waar de worsteling lag: “So, I thought, perhaps I should not try and get to the bottom of what is actually written down? Maybe I should just let myself be taken into the maelstrom of thoughts that are presented?” Verderop geeft hij zelf het antwoord: “I concluded that it was an operation as much impossible as it was futile. Some things just cannot be translated from one art form into another without compromise or corruption.”

Vijf jaar werk, maar je hoort het er wel aan af. De integratie van veldopnames met elektronica is hier ronduit subliem en Smolders slaagt er op prachtige wijze in zijn gedachten te verklanken in een volwaardige compositie voor elektronica. Wat vooral opvalt is de spanning die hij in de compositie weet te leggen, juist door die zeer geslaagde combinatie van veldopnames en elektronica. Stukken als ‘Plate 1 en 2’ zijn in alle opzichten een lust voor het oor. Op een aantal momenten gebruikt Smolders regels uit het gedicht, voorgelezen door Valerie Vivancos, bijvoorbeeld aan het begin van ‘Plate 4’. De wijze waarop hij die regels verweeft in zijn muziekstuk, sterk elektronisch bewerkt, is een ander voorbeeld van de doordachte wijze waarop hij hier te werk is gegaan. Prachtige voorbeelden van hoe Smolders spanning in zijn werk brengt zijn ook ‘Plate 6’, ‘Interlude 4’ en het slotstuk ‘Interlude 10’. Diep doordringende klanknevels worden hier ons deel.

via Nieuwe Noten

Dan Powell’s “Four Walks at Old Chapel” reviewed by RNE 3 Atmosfera

Dan Powell es un artista sonoro que utiliza grabaciones de campo, electrónica hecha a mano y percusión afinada. El foco principal de su trabajo es explorar lugares que tienen una resonancia personal particular. Ha participado activamente en la improvisación electroacústica en Londres y Brighton, especialmente con Gus Garside en The Static Memories y Chris Parfitt en Nil. Actualmente actúa como parte de Muster con James O’Sullivan.
Old Chapel Farm es una aventura de vida, una comunidad que tiene como objetivo acercar a las personas a los fundamentos de la existencia humana: la creación de alimentos y el refugio. Es un puente que avanza hacia una forma de ser más nueva y más sostenible en un mundo densamente poblado y que cambia rápidamente.
Dan Powell y su familia han estado visitando este lugar cada año desde 2011. En 2017, Powel decidió crear una pieza sobre Old Chapel Farm como parte de su serie que se centra en la experiencia personal de un espacio. En su viaje de 2018, su hija Bea y él recolectaron objetos que encontraban alrededor del  lugar y los reunieron en una choza de balas de paja suspendida sobre un arroyo en un valle boscoso que los dueños de la granja pusieron a su disposición para que los usaran. Grabaron pequeñas actuaciones con ellos, cepillándolos, raspándolos y frotándolos para producir una amplia gama de sonidos íntimos. También hicieron grabaciones de campo, incluido el uso de un piano que había estado expuesto a los elementos durante algún tiempo.
De vuelta en el estudio en Brighton, Dan Powell arregló los sonidos grabados en un nuevo trabajo. “Quería intentar comunicar algo del misterio y la revelación que he experimentado en mis visitas, y las conexiones que siento con la tierra y las personas que encuentro cuando visito la granja.

New Release: Mad Disc

Material Composition 1 and 2, start from the mysterious timbre of a beautiful Rin Bell, played solemnly, in a ritualistic fashion. Over the development of the pieces, delayed electronic sequences, rhythmic patterns of metallic percussions, synthesized sounds with industrial overtones and a wide range of other sounds are modulated, revealing several new patterns in a stratified acoustic landscape. 

Material Compositions intersects genres such as jazz, techno, or folk, approaching them as forms that are able to mutually contaminate each other. The results blur boundaries and develop an emotional, cinematic, and meditative listening experience, with intoxicating and dazzling tones with many high-order overtones and electronic sounds, an intricate and complex soundscape.

Mad Disc is a solo project by Takamichi Murata, a composer, drummer, and percussionist working in Nagoya and Kitakyushu, Japan. Murata was involved in several bands, including his own, and he is engaged in a wide range of activities, having collaborated with several other improvisers and composers.

This album further comprises three remixes, by Murata’s collaborators Toru Kasai, Koutaro Fukui, and Ryoko Ono, the first of these is also included in the limited release tape edition.

Tracklist:

  1. Material Composition 1 (21:46)
  2. Material Composition 2 (09:23)
  3. Material Remix: Toru Kasai (08:49)
  4. Material Remix: Koutaro Fukui (05:08) (extra track in the digital version)
  5. Material Remix: Ryoko Ono (07:48) (extra track in the digital version)

Takamichi Murata: Drums, Percussion, Electronics, Synthesisers. Recorded at Tokuzo by Satoru Kono. Mixed by Ramza. Remixes by Toru Kasai, Koutaro Fukui, and Ryoko Ono. Mastered at Crónica.

Máquina Magnética reviewed by Silence and Sound

Collectif formé par Pedro Tudela (électronique), Miguel Carvalhais (électronique), Gustavo Costa (percussions) et Rodrigo Carvalho (vidéo), Máquina Magnética est un projet qui fait se rencontrer les approches musicales de chaque artiste, appuyé par des projections aux allures cinétiques. 

Sur Máquina Magnética, organique et électronique repoussent les frontières, créant des espaces futuristes flirtant avec un futurisme sombre, où pulsations tournoyantes et expérimentations parasites se cèdent la place et se superposent, volant aux dessus de paysages urbains dévastés.

Chaque élément trouve son espace, happant les silences dans des grouillis de glitchs poussiéreux traversés de nappes coupantes comme des vents glacés. 

Máquina Magnética compose des zones accidentées aux imprévus permanents, surprenant l’auditeur à travers ses narrations souterraines et ses éclaboussures de lumière, volant en rase-motte sur des pistes enfouies dans des histoires dystopiques aux dangers menaçants. Superbe. Roland Torres

via Silence and Sound

Máquina Magnética reviewed by Bad Alchemy

Gustavo Costa, einer der Köpfe des Sonoscopia-Kollektivs in Porto, der als Drummer mit acoustic & electro-mechanic percussion schlagwerkt, hat sich seit den frühen 90ern vom schlimmen Finger mit Genocide und Malevolence zum engagierten Free Jazzer und Improvcrack gemausert, mit Red Albinos, Radial Chao Opera oder Lost Gorbachevs („From Neoliberalism to Totalitarian Capitalism“), als Most People Have Been Trained To Be Bored, in der Bandbreite von Martin Bladh bis Jamie Saft, von Vitor Joaquim bis Gonzo Almeida, mit dem er als Ikizukuri sogar im Trio trommelt. Nach „Entropies and Mimetic Patterns“ (Sonos020) als couragiertem Alleingang, zeigt Máquina Magnética (Crónica 176~2021 / Sonoscopia, Sonos021) ihn zusammen mit den beiden Crónica-Machern Pedro Tudela &Miguel Carvalhais, die man als das Computer-Duo @c kennt – live gehört zu MÁQUINA MAGNÉTICA noch Rodrigo Carvalho mit generative visuals + interactive lights. Unterhalb der audiovisuellen Dimenson dominieren der Zusammenklang des Manuell-Organischen mit dem Synthetischen und der Input des Spontanen in kompositorischer Nachbereitung. Denn die sechs Tracks entstanden im Studio-Mix aus zwei elektro-akustischen Improv-Sets, wobei Costas Tockelbeats und rauschende Becken morphend und gestaltwandlerisch noch einmal vertieft mit den Computersounds verschmolzen wurden. In Soundscapes, die wie im Traum oder wie unter Wasser gedehnte Bewegungen suggerieren, mit dongenden Schiffswrackklängen, kratzigen Impulsen, knattrigen Pixeln, klapprigen Kaskaden und Strudeln. Costa traktiert Metall und Holz zu Herzschlag-Tamtam, Knisterspuren hüpfen über Becken und Gongs. Klänge flattern und dröhnen, Finger trappeln, Sticks tanzen über die Felle, impulsiv umsurrt und bespritzt, rau beknarrt, wobei der @c-Computerclub nicht weniger agil pollockt, zischt und wummert. Zu gedämpftem Pulsen morphen Dröhnwellen, singen Metallkanten, schnurren Automaten, Geräusche knistern, ploppen, werfen knattrige keine Wellen zu wetzendem Bowing auf dröhnendem Fond in zuletzt aufhellender Tönung. Ein Mensch-Maschinen-Ballett am digitalen Fliegenpapier des Anthropozän. Rigobert Dittmann

Máquina Magnética reviewed by Vital Weekly

Here we have two labels from Portugal, from the same city even (Porto), and both labels deliver musicians to the project Maquia Magnetica. Sonoscopia’s boss Gustavo Costa on drums, Cronica boss Miguel Carvalhais, teaming with his @C mate Pedro Tudela. They are both on computers. Rodrigo Carvalho is the fourth player, “on generative visuals and interactive lights”. He might not be on the CD, but images grace the cover. This group has played a few concerts and a few studio recordings, and all of this went into the pieces on this CD. This release is not a documentation of a show or the result of studio recording, but, at least that’s what I gather from the information, a document of their shared interest in playing free music. However, the music is not necessarily pure, free improvisation but a restructuring of sounds. If you will, this music is part of the musique concrète tradition. That means there is an organisation within the improvisation here. At least, that’s how I see this, and maybe I am wrong. With Costa using a fair share of electronics, the music has throughout an electronic character, in which the drums only sparsely sound like drums. There are quite a few drone and drone-related sounds to be noted, and another assumption is that Tudelo and Carvalhais also apply real-time processing. The characteristic hectic of improvised music (well, it is not a rule, of course) is only partly present here. Maybe it is due to the post-recording editing that this was changed, but it might also be inherent to their way of playing this music. I found this CD to be a slow grower. Every time I played this, I heard something more and noted the structures they created within the music. This release could appeal to those who like improvisation and those for whom that is too weird, but whose heads are all turned to musique concrète. (FdW)

via Vital Weekly