Trondheim EMP’s “Poke It With A Stick / Joining The Bots” reviewed by Bodyspace

Percebe-se imediatamente aquilo que nos espera, logo à primeira faixa: ouvem-se vozes, assobios, numa espécie de coro call and response, dialogando ou, melhor ainda, duelando entre si. E depois há saxofones, guitarras, contrabaixos, canto, spoken word sem serem amálgama. Cabe de tudo, porque todas as estradas servem para chegar até ao destino ou, pelo menos, para apreciar a viagem.

Assim é este disco do projecto Trondheim EMP, que na verdade é dois: Poke It With A Stick, experiências atrás de experiências e retalhos atrás de retalhos, e Joining The Bots, que se apresenta mais coeso e definido – a isso atestando, também, o facto de as peças que o compõem serem maiores. A ideia de base de um e outro é, pelo que percebemos, a comunicação entre os músicos presentes, que parecem estar sempre dependentes daquilo que fazem primeiramente os seus colegas – as acções de um influenciam o som de outro, conforme é explicado.

Poke It With A Stick / Joining The Bots são, por isso, uma espécie de diálogos entre o homem e a sua própria sombra; a sombra é forçada a imitar o homem, qual marioneta nas suas mãos, mas: também pode crescer mais que o homem, dobrar-se, esconder-se noutras sombras e escuridões. Tudo isto resulta numa colecção de sons que, individualmente, nada diriam; juntos, formam uma obra bizarra, e extremamente interessante derivado dessa mesma bizarria. A conferir sem medos. Paulo Cecílio

via Bodyspace

Haarvöl + Xoán-Xil López’s “Unwritten Rules for a Ceaseless Journey” reviewed by Toneshift

A startlingly effective drone runs through the new collaboration between Galician artist Xoán-Xil Lópezand the trio Haarvöl (Fernando José Pereira, João Faria, and Rui Manuel Vieira) on the three stilling pieces on Unwritten Rules of a Ceaseless Journey. In 2019 to date, this is by far, my favorite record. It’s a bit breathtaking and hard to write about as I listen. The track The Pulsating Waves (Reality) calls for more of a lateral experience since the mediating tones are as sublime as subliminal. These works touch on three nearly intangible states of mind: utopia, reality and trauma – in that order. The first two really find a perfect balance even while referencing impossible texts such as The Utopian Function of Art and Literature (1964), and making references to “cataclysms of industry, rampant misery, naked exploitation, the ecological apocalypse“. Oh, such is the everyday.

Though their collaboration juxtaposes the sense of euphoria that comes with hovering drones by imposing the concept of all variants of time: past, present, and future. This work documents pieces composed for dance (Ballet Teatro‘s Revoluções) by choreographer Né Barros. Field recordings abridge electronics somewhere in the middle and the pairing of this quartet of creatives is genius. And by the end of the second part it’s as though we’ve been through some sort of industrial cleansing.

As Don’t Look Back, Run (Trauma) opens somewhere in the darkened orchestral corners, the setting sort of falls to the depths of the soundstage as if falling away into space. The bare bones percussion is uniquely minimal and the waveform is set back, drifting moderately. About one-third through you hear what sounds like strings calling out, wavering a bit as if sending an encoded distress signal. López has taken this amalgamated tale to a secret place while upending the tension with the harmonics of Haarvöl. While a rotor seems to be at play the bereft refrain continues through until nearly the end, and after fading from earshot the listener is left with something pressurized that seems to be sinking away into some sort of watery depths. You can easily imagine bodies (dancers) undulating into darkness. TJ Norris

via Toneshift

New release: Haarvöl + Xoán-Xil López’s “Unwritten Rules for a Ceaseless Journey”

Haarvöl’s three permanent members — Fernando José Pereira, João Faria, and Rui Manuel Vieira — collaborate with Xoán-Xil López, a Galician sound artistic working on field recording and experimental music.

Haarvöl develops cinematic soundscapes, with analogue or digital sound sources weaved in complex and detailed compositions. They have been active since 2012 and have thus far released albums at PAD and Moving Furniture Records, presenting now their first release in Crónica, Unwritten Rules for a Ceaseless Journey. 

This album documents three pieces composed for dance, commissioned by Ballet Teatro for the play Revoluções (Revolutions) by choreographer Né Barros. The work is divided in three parts, embodying formal idealisations of the three decisive layers of time — past, present, and future.

First moment: Something’s Missing (Utopian)

Theodor Adorno and Ernst Bloch discussed the problem of utopia as a possibility in a heated debate they produced in 1964 and later published in the book The Utopian Function of Art and Literature. It is in this context that Bloch launches the notion of “something’s missing”, to seek to configure the utopian possibility. It is also from this notion of Bloch that the possibility of thinking and forming forms the whole utopian revolutionary essence that presides over emancipatory developments. This “before” is decisive for the understanding of the idea of revolution. It is here that the necessary possibilities are produced and, above all, the utopian aspirations of fracture and change. The Blochian “something’s missing” leads to the emancipatory idea from that place without place that is utopia. Or, putting it another way, it powers the immensity of thought without limitations. The revolutionary effervescence of the before is, perhaps, the most essential condition in the approach to the idea of revolution. Exactly because it does not come across any limit, because it is located in this place without place. But it is from this realisation that we can deal with the power of free thought, with the immense intentionality of this missing something which, being above all a naturally porous and cloudy thing, offers itself to the immense beauty of total openness. It will be there, in the dematerialised embodiment of free thought, that the whole process develops and is also in the possibility of art as a place of freedom (another place with no place that exists only between the artist and his work in a utopian dimension) it has its approximate representation.

Second moment: Pulsating Waves (Reality)

Pulse tone waves are frequencies embodied in a pulsar that is at the same time decisive for all humans and, metaphorically, for the revolution. Feeling the pulse of events, of agitation, of breaking, is essential for the revolutionary moment. It is this kind of continuous auscultation that determines success or, rather, the inversion of the whole emancipatory movement in the process of pragmatic transfiguration which, by obvious ineffectiveness, becomes implosive. The pulsations of events thus assert themselves as a decisive engine, and yet, in the face of the weakening of the utopian drive in its inevitable collision with reality, everything changes. The passage from one moment to the other brings with it the presence of the now and the consequent structural modifications that the utopian impossibility needs to maintain itself as an emancipatory impulse. It will then be in the programmatic transfiguration of the revolutionary event that its pulsation is played, more or less strong, but never absent. The decisive clash also affirms the reality, stripped of all the romantic drive that forms the revolutionary utopia. The fracture induces realism, and this is never the dreamed face of emancipation. We are told in the last book of the Invisible Committee that “All the reasons for making a revolution are there. There is none missing. The wreck of politics, the arrogance of the powerful, the reign of the false, the vulgarity of the rich, the cataclysms of industry, rampant misery, naked exploitation, the ecological apocalypse … do not deprive us of anything, not even being informed of this. ‘Climate: 2016 beats record of heat’ says Le Monde in its main title, now already like almost every year. All the reasons are met, but not the reasons that make revolutions; are the bodies. And the bodies are in front of the screens.” Right.

Third moment: Don’t Look Back, Run (Trauma)

Says Hal Foster in his seminal book The Return of the Real: “An event is only recorded through another that recodes it; we become what we are only as deferred action (Nachträglichkeit). This is the analogy that I want to emphasize for the modernist studies of this end of the century: historical and neo-vanguard vanguards are similarly constituted as a continuous process of protension and retention, a complex retransmission of anticipated and reconstructed futures-that is, in a deferred action that abandons any simplified scheme of a before and after, cause and effect, origin and repetition.” The same scheme of thought can be used to analyse the revolutionary event in its complex structuring and temporality. An emancipatory event can only be constituted if it recodes traumatically past past events which will obviously mean a learning that will bring you the possibility of introducing the necessary changes to be made. That is to say, still according to Foster, that the emancipatory events are, therefore, less new and more deferred. Suppressed in part, they will return and continue to return, and yet they will return from the future, such is the paradoxical temporality of utopia.

Note: At a certain point in Giorgio Agamben’s book The State of Exception, he refers to a determinant question: the point of view that, in this context, is determined by a legal order that requires recognition by another that opposes it. Quoting Italian jurist Santi Romano, he says: “… after having recognized the anti-legal nature of the revolutionary forces, he adds that this only works in this way in relation to the positive law of the State against which it is directed, but this does not it means that, from a very different point of view, from which they define themselves, it is not a movement ordered and regulated by its own right. This also means that it is an order that must be classified in the category of originating legal systems, in the sense that is attributed to this expression. In this sense and within the limits that have been indicated one can therefore speak of a right of revolution.” That is to say, still in Agamben’s view, that the idea of state legal ordering is the only one, by effectively opposing what is usually called chaos, is first and foremost reductive and fallacious. One thing, however, is correct: all the mental structuring concerning the duality exclusion vs. inclusion simply depends on the point of view. And this is perhaps the most important point to make clear the relationship that is intrinsic and impossible to conceal, first of all, because it is also the source of the essentiality of the politician, that is, the necessary verification of antagonism. It is, therefore, the place where we want to be.

  • Composed and performed by Haarvöl and Xoán-Xil López.
  • Haarvöl (Fernando José Pereira, João Faria, Rui Manuel Vieira): Electronics and field recordings
  • Xoán-Xil López: Electronics
  • Mastering: Stephan Mathieu
  • Images: Rui Manuel Vieira
  • Design: José Carneiro

Trondheim EMP’s “Poke It With A Stick / Joining The Bots” reviewed by Toneshift

It is entirely indicative of the calibre of those involved, that Trondheim EMP manage to do something that is so often done terribly, so remarkably well.  Regardless of a listeners’ particular fondness for the types of sound they produce, there is no denying that the group is comprised of an extremely proficient membership, a fact that, more so than perhaps the confines of the research project upon which they are working, underscores the album as a whole. 

There are several strings to Trondheim EMP’s bow. On the one hand, it is an album of semi-improvised, ultra-collaborative free-jazz and contemporary composition, with an almost ritualistic take on its subject. On the other, it is the sonic output of an academic research project exploring ‘cross-adaptive processing as a radical intervention in the communication between performing musicians’. Cronica have put together a pretty in depth press release, which impresses by virtue of both the interesting concept, and the aforementioned calibre of those involved – a quick scan of the personnel reveals luminous figures such as Ã˜yvind Brandtsegg, Miller Puckette and Simon Emerson attached to the project. 

Musically, the group harness a range of influences and styles, invoking both the more esoteric composers of the Darmstudt school – in particular the likes of Kagel / Stockhausen – and the slightly saccharine, cheesy end of free jazz.  Whilst we are not dealing with anything resembling ‘traditional’ or even ‘popular’ music, there is no small amount of bass licks and saxophone squeaks such as has become synonymous with a certain genre.  To temper this, Trondheim EMP toy with a darker, murkier edge, pushing their collective machination in to the arena of doom-jazz – indeed, certain moments of certain tracks wouldn’t feel entirely out of place on a Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble record. 

For all the focus on group dynamics that the system presumably promotes, it is the quieter, sparser moments in which the album shines. Subtle, bubbling textures and a more considered approach to extended vocal techniques are revealed whenever the collective pull back enough to allow it, and, it is then that I hear, or at least think I can hear, the nuance of the performance system they are exploring. Tracks such as  ‘Heavy Meta’ utilise droning, ambient tones played alongside sporadic drums, demonstrating an intriguing synergy between its players in the process. Likewise, the genuinely bonkers ‘Synchronise your Dogmas’ is part vocal drone, part post-punk, weaving potentially desperate elements together to form an intense and unusual experience. 

Whilst there is a great deal of interesting music on offer, the project is perhaps slightly hampered by the sheer volume of its output.  Consisting of two albums – the first more abstract, the latter more structured – the whole affair clocks in at over 2 hours, and it would be reasonable to suggest the quality fluctuates. Whilst there is a great deal of innovative and exciting music therein, it does occasionally veer into areas that are a little tired, perhaps even incongruous. Extended vocal warbles, and some borderline offensive bass-lines, whilst they may assist the exploration of the system as a whole, dampen the overall experience, reducing the power of some of the more refined, amorphous elements.  Ultimately, it feels there is a sublime 50 minute album here, buried amongst another hour or so of stuff that, though largely very good, sometimes repeats the ideas on display and feels somewhat less urgent.

The strength of the academic system upon which the album is based is perhaps most evident when the music is at its least associative.  The interplay between often quite diverse elements seems more explicit, more fully realised, and presents wonderful changes of dynamic and timbre that seems to somehow transpose across the instrumentation. Such an approach tends to tame some of the more… outlandish (read: potentially irritating) elements. In a track like ‘Within Reason’, the range of the human voice, rather than demonstrating extended capacity for its own sake, instead determines or feeds off the increasingly caustic and arrhythmic composition that frames it. If the wealth of material on offer is perhaps excessive, there is an audible logic to its presentation. Whilst the second half sheds the vitality of the first, it replaces it with a certain precision that, ultimately, benefits the project as a whole. And whilst I might wish for an abridged version of the album, some trimming of its metaphorical fat, the project, from its conception to its realisation is of an undeniably high standard. Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully

via Toneshift

Haarvöl + Xoán-Xil López’s “Unwritten Rules for a Ceaseless Journey” reviewed by nitestylez.de

Put on the circuit via the Portuguese Cronica-imprint only recently is “Unwritten Rules Of A Ceaseless Journey”, the latest album collaboration by Haarvöl and Xoan-Xil Lopez which consists of three, each 15 minutes spanning tracks which were commissioned works for a theatre piece named “Revolucoes”. Opening with “Something’s Missing (Utopian)” the artists pave the way for things to come, providing a nervous, brooding journey into cold’ish Dark Ambient before progressing into calmer, spaced out territories with this one. The follow up “The Pulsating Waves (Reality)” keeps things on a near static, slowly evolving level of droning Deep Listening Music before “Don’t Look Back, Run (Trauma)” continues on a path of calm desolation and darkness, resembling the greyscale tristesse of a postapocalyptic, and maybe not too far away, future in which only the remnants of the nuclear fallout provide movement on otherwise empty streets, covered by poisonous and deadly dust particles lit by a pale moon.

via nitestylez.de

Haarvöl + Xoán-Xil López’s “Unwritten Rules for a Ceaseless Journey” reviewed by Die Subjectivisten

Fernando José Pereira en João Faria zijn sinds 2014 de kernleden van de Portugese groep Haarvöl, hoewel er dikwijls gasten aanschuiven voor de muziek dan wel beeldmateriaal. Voor dat laatste mogen ze nu steevast rekenen op Rui Manuel Vieira. Ze maken veelal een grofkorrelige mix van drones, glitches, veldopnames, ambient en allerhande experimenten. Voor hun nieuwste album Unwritten Rules For A Ceaseless Journey werken ze samen met de Spaanse muzikant Xóan-Xil López, die doorgaans met veldopnames en experimentele muziek werkt. De drie langgerekte stukken van elk een kwartier, die ze hier presenteren, zijn gecomponeerd voor dans, in opdracht van Ballet Teatro voor het toneelstuk “Revoluções” (revoluties) van choreograaf Né Barros. De drie composities staan voor het verleden, heden en toekomst. Die noemen ze op de cd overigens respectievelijk “Trauma”, “Reality” en “Utopian”, hetgeen ze tussen haakjes achter de titels van de nummers plaatsen. Ze brengen een broeierige mix van drones, experimenten en ambient, aangedikt met diverse veldopnames. Hoewel de muziek behoorlijk duister en abstract is, weten ze je genadeloos mee te sleuren op een biologerende trip, waarbij heel veel te ontdekken valt in hun intense geluidsbrij van hoge viscositeit. Je moet het daarbij ergens zoeken tussen Orphax, Celer, Philippe Petit, Machinefabriek, Jasper Tx, Svarte Greiner en Kreng. Een geweldige en indrukwekkende muzikale reis, waar je (inderdaad) onophoudelijk naar wilt blijven luisteren.

Een schitterende soundtrack voor de nacht, verval en andere duistere zaken. Klasse!

via Die Subjectivisten

New release: Ephraim Wegner & Daniel Bisig’s “Jetzt”

Jetzt is a chronological deconstruction of Max Bense’s poem with the same title. Meaning “in the now”, it may also be translated as “so far”, “up to now”, “but now”, “hence” and so on. Bense refers to the fact that the spoken word JETZT never reaches the point of what is denominated with “in the now” – the moment you say it out loud, it is already gone. The poem is a play on words as well as an acute insight on the structure of German language. The work uses Markov chains to generate text strings that are smashed into sound particles. They are stretched and shrunk on a time axis and enter into a relationship with each other – “in the now” – performed by a synthetic artificial female voice. Jetzt is published in an audio-only format and as an audiovisual piece.

In [269.17, 278.81, 300,77 | 260.33, 312.68, 377.24, 518.55] different sine waves and noise generators produce frequencies in the 19-division scale. These frequencies are combined and clustered with the help of different random variables and probability distributions to create interferences that place the emphasis on the frequency interval between the tones. The electronic is using a fixed framework to create chords, consisting of two, three or four single notes, with wide variation in structure and density. This piece aims to focus the attention of the listener on the vast density and complex richness present in their combination.

The audiovisual version of Jetzt is a one-take recording performed at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts. The connection between music and visuals progresses through different relationships, with control parameters for sound synthesis occasionally affecting the image generation, and spoken words becoming periodic attractors for the moving graphical elements.

Ephraim Wegner holds a chair in Computer Science at hKDM Freiburg and is working at the Media Ecology Lab / Hochschule Offenburg. He received his master’s degree in audiovisual media at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). Wegner has a keen interest in the sonification of complex systems and uses various computer languages (C++, Java, Python, Csound, GL_SL) to combine different forms of audio synthesis and computer graphics, focusing on multidisciplinary approaches and concepts. He collaborated with numerous other musicians, ensembles, festivals and institutions, among others ZKM (Karlsruhe), Ars Acustica (SWR2), Acht Brücken Festival (Cologne) and Donaueschinger Musiktage. In 2015, he was awarded a scholarship from the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg.

Daniel Bisig holds a master’s and a PhD in Natural Sciences. He is active as a researcher and artist in the fields of artificial intelligence and generative art. He has worked as a researcher at the Institute for Biochemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich. He is currently a senior research associate at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts. As part of his artistic activities, he has realized algorithmic films, interactive installations and audiovisual performances, some of them in collaboration with musicians and choreographers. The derivation of generative algorithms and interaction techniques from biomimetic simulations forms a central aspect of his work.

Tracklist:

  1. Ephraim Wegner & Daniel Bisig: Jetzt [stereo] (20:37)
  2. Ephraim Wegner: [269.17, 278.81, 300,77 | 260.33, 312.68, 377.24, 518.55] (15:01)
  3. Daniel Bisig & Ephraim Wegner: Jetzt (audiovisual) (5:23)

Thanks to: Astrid Wegner for supporting our work. Stephen Altoft, who inspired the generation of frequencies in the 19-division scale in [269.17, 278.81, 300,77 | 260.33, 312.68, 377.24, 518.55], furthermore he was playing the microtonal trumpet at another version of the piece. Miguel Carvalhais for his continued commitment and the energy he spent in this wonderful label.

Haarvöl + Xoán-Xil López’s “Unwritten Rules for a Ceaseless Journey” reviewed by Vital Weekly

Portuguese trio Haarvöl (Fernando José Pereira, Joao Faria and Rui Manuel Vieira) have so far released five albums, three of which are on the Dutch Moving Furniture Records label, one on Pad and one of Family Film Project Edition. Not every member plays an instrument, as they are very active with film as well. Their music is an excellent blend of dark electronics, heavily processed field recordings and such like while using a combination of analogue and digital instruments. Their work is a mixture of improvisation and composition. Here they work together with Xoán-Xil López, “a Galician sound artist working on field recording and experimental music”, as Cronica notes, without giving much other information. Ballet Teatro together commissioned their work for the play ‘Revolucoes’ by choreographer Né Barros. There is a lengthy explanation in the press text about the three movements of the piece (each around fifteen minutes), which I couldn’t summarize. With releases like this or soundtracks to movies, the lack of visual experience is something that we have to live it. I find assurance in the fact that the label thinks it is worthwhile to release the soundtrack independent of the film or the dance, and as such we are at liberty to judge these without having to consider the film or the dance. I am not sure how roles are divided here with the players in relation to the total experience, but from what I hear they do exactly as I think I would expect. In all three of these pieces they work their way through some lengthy, massive blocks of drone-based sounds, from sources unknown (but believed to be field recordings; obviously!) and in the final track, ‘Don’t Look Back, Run (Trauma)’ the looped sounds of a violin/cello/otherwise stringed object, all of which are fed through a long line of effects, loop devices, granular synthesis and who knows what else. Reverb plays an important role to suggest space and atmosphere (perhaps: another box ticked there?) and in ‘Something’s Missing (Utopia)’, there is fuzzy melody played out, which is quite nice. The piece in the middle, ‘Pulsating Waves (Reality)’, is the most obscured piece, with very closely knitted tones and field recordings, without much differentiation. It is all quite fine, solid work without being a great, original masterpiece. That, of course, is not really a big problem; it is the current state of work and that is a great one. (FdW)

“Bittersweet Melodies” reviewed by Fuild Sonic Fluctuations

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Today I’m back with a Fluid Label Focus on CRÓNICA on this blog. And I’ve got an excellent album by a familiar name for you. This is the album BITTERSWEET MELODIES by RAN SLAVIN, released on CRÓNICA in 2016. Miguel was so kind as always to send me a review copy of the Limited-edition CD version which comes with some lovely artwork by RAN SLAVIN himself. This Limited-edition CD comes packaged in a two panel gatefold cardboard sleeve on which you can find the cover artwork on the front, album credits, tracklist and copyright info handwritten into the artwork on the back. The spine lists the same info as on the cover in text as well as adding the full CRÓNICA name and year of release.The inside of the sleeve features some gorgeous photography blended with layers of painted washes of colour that give the artwork a surreal look. The CD itself is housed in a flap on the right panel and features the CRÓNICA logo, catalogue number, artist name and album title and CD logo on a blue circle background which is cut off slightly to reveal a metallic edge of the CD around as a border. 

Before listening to BITTERSWEET MELODIES, I’ve revisted RAN SLAVIN’s 2004 release on CRÓNICA, Product 02 which featured a pretty varied selection of pieces, often with a cinematic sound created by layers of vinyl music samples, glitch elements and electro-acoustic manipulations. BITTERSWEET MELODIES (which was compiled from musical material that was originally intended for a release on th Mille Plateaux label) finds RAN SLAVIN working with a similar approach but with more subtle and slower progressions embedded in the 12 compositions on the album. Indeed most of the 12 tracks have a more “song-like” atmosphere in them but composed as melodic washes of multi-layered cinematic soundscapes that all fade out, like a collection of melodic memories, moving towards a more rhythm based sound towards the end of the album. BITTERSWEET MELODIES starts with SATURDAY’S DATES, a piece that admittedly takes some time to get into. Built around an evercontinuing synth drone, the piece features lo-fi crushed glitchy percussion that recalls early 90’s IDM / Braindance percussion. The progression of the piece is very subtle with only slight changes in the percussion and melodic background over it’s 6:09 length, the extra notes added over the drone in the second half as well as changes in the sound of the percussion do add some nice evolving elements to the piece however. It’s definitely very trance-like in nature so in that sense it works well. Then we have CATEGORY: MURDERED ENTERTAINERS which has a kind of “late night café” ambience to it, created out of (mostly) jazzy vinyl music samples as well as some Middle Eastern samples which add some film soundtrack like surrealism to the mixture, feeling like waves of music coming through the open door of this late night café. RAN SLAVIN varies the melody he’s created using the samples in a very fun rhythmic manner and the vinyl crackle and bell samples all add there own kind of little details of “percussion” to the music. The dissonant combinations of music samples do however also add a sense of mystery to the piece which adds a good dose of intrguing to the music, very nice. On DISRUPTIVE LOUNGE, SLAVIN moves into more abstract glitchy territory with more manipulation of the vinyl samples, weird squelchy pitch shift effects and crackles. Indeed referring to the track title, it’s a bit like multiple record players in a lounge have started to take their own lives and freely manipulate whatever music they are playing in strange quirky ways, sounds very fun. FAKE SUNSETS is an extended sonic vignette build up of a stuttery drumloop over which Middle Eastern music samples and sharp synth notes are laid creating an ambience that feels both meditative and alien at the same time, intriguing sonics in here. On DUBAI DAWN we have vinyl samples with similar Middle Eastern strings but the sound of this piece is much more abstract with the samples stuttering, tumbling and glimmering around the sonic stage. Combined with crystallized samples and choppy female voice samples an atmospheric space is created that is very much Glitch based but in which the melodies from the Middle Eastern music still resonant and create an ever continuing loop of one point in a musical piece like freezing a moment in a situation in time and magnifying all the details in the environment around you. The heavily chopped drums that pop up at some point in the second half are even a bit reminiscent of Breakcore but in a very subtle way. SAD BUT TRUE is a piece that reminds me more of Product 02 in its style, a continuous kind of droning stream of layered melodic fragments and glitches combined with crackles like lo-fi sea waves and tense mysterious tones. The piece holds a continuous feeling of uncertainty that is made more “human” through the glitchy textures by the piano samples. Mellow “hollow” glitchy samples in the second half form stabs that subtly reference Dub Techno too however, making the piece also feel a bit like a leftfield beatless atmospheric Techno track too. Very intriguing again. SINATRA WAS HERE features some hilariously off the wall Plunderphonics techniques that come straight out of the blue. It is indicative of the more light hearted sound this album has at times compared to the more diffuse / abstract Product 02 release. The piece follows a pretty simple structure, being based around a looping Latin American music samples that is layered with all kinds of other quirky maninpulated music samples, some pitch shifted, some chopped up heavily. The main returning phrases in the samples are Latin American melodic patterns performed on guitar that perfectly fit the main loop. The piece as a whole is an enjoyably odd musical collage but the slight roomy sound to the music still adds a cinematic edge to the music that SLAVIN’s music often has. THE PINEAPPLE ASSASSIN moves into more Techno influenced territory with a low bouncy kick and filtered subdued vinyl samples and mechanic crackles and rhythmic structures. Subtly evolving in waves, the music reminds me of Jan Jelinek’s turntable works but with the mysterious melodic edge SLAVIN’s like to use. The music is calming but never without its hidden secrets. COLLAPSING MELODY features some classic styled abstract swirling Glitch work accompanied with subtle repeating music samples laid on top of what sounds like the field recording of a quiet almost empty café. A nice shorter piece with plenty of enjoyable sonic manipulation within. On FAST MOVING CIRCUMSTANCES we have a lo-fi Downtempo groove combined with swirling streams of music samples, again with prominent bell sounds. The piece has a minimalist Techno feel to it too and the swirling phaser effect on the samples gives the music a deep and trippy feeling. A hypnotic entrancing piece of music that also carries mystery and an intriguing “nostalgic” vibe within it. Desert New Buildings has a lot of Techno in its sound signature with 4×4 drum patterns giving the music a strong drive and the sharper, more hi-fi sound of the samples makes this quite a jam really. A very fun mixture of intriguing music samples and a fat driving beat. DISCREET FEATURES ends the album with an equally driving Techno vibe and actually feels a bit like what the “hi-fi” version of a Lo-Fi / Outsider House track could sound like. The metallic drums, Dub Techno styled melodic samples of especially the first half recall that sound, in the second half however the music moves into a more subdued wave of filtered droning music samples. The samples recall material used on Product 02 and RAN SLAVIN seems to be particularly fond of bells and harp music samples but fortunately it feels rather more like music from an alternate universe rather than recycled material. The intriguing filtered music loops, rhythmic crackles carry that sweet sense of mystery in it that I really love about RAN SLAVIN’s music so it’s a great ending to this album.

BITTERSWEET MELODIES showcases RAN SLAVIN more easy going and at times less abstract sound, with a more prominent focus on melodic and rhythmic structures that feel very organic and human. The 12 tracks all subtly evolve in waves of enjoyable melodies and grooves that are both calming and inspiring the imagination. I would definitely recommend this album not only to fans of SLAVIN’s other music and cinematic experimental music but also listeners who are into the more underground, Dub or minimalist styles of Techno with a strong sense of inventive sound design with a personal touch. Fans of Glitch and Turntable music will definitely find a lot of enjoyment in this album as well, so I highly recommend you to go check this out.

New release: Trondheim EMP’s “Poke It With A Stick / Joining The Bots”

Crónica is very happy to announce the release of Trondheim EMP’s new double CD “Poke It With A Stick / Joining The Bots”!

This project explores cross-adaptive processing as a radical intervention in the communication between performing musicians. Digital audio analysis and processing techniques are used to enable features of one sound to inform the processing of another. This allows the actions of one performer to directly influence another performer’s sound, and doing so by means of the acoustic signal produced on the instrument. This may be reciprocated, too: the sound of the second performer may in turn influence the sound processing of the first.

The project includes researchers, performers, programmers and a philosopher. From 2016-18 it was funded by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and the Norwegian University for Technology and Science, with collaborations from De Montfort University, Maynooth University, Norwegian Academy of Music, Queen Mary University of London and University of California San Diego.

The work is strongly based in practical experimentation, to explore these novel techniques in real musical interaction. For this, we rely on collaboration with a large group of excellent performers, many of whom are presented in the performances here. We are deeply grateful for the relentless energy and creative effort that the performers have contributed in trying to negotiate the pitfalls, swirls, vortices and uphill struggles of cross-adaptivity while at the same time integrating it with their existing deeply rooted practice.

These two albums represent different stages of the process of working with cross-adaptive techniques. The first album (“Poke It With a Stick”) represents the exploration, stumbling, finding, missing, and trickle of possible ways to tackle these challenges. These tracks were recorded during the main research period from late 2016 to early 2018. The second (“Joining the Bots”) represents the assembly, knitting together, gathering of explored solutions, and composing of (still wildly) running streams. These tracks were all recorded in May 2018.

Cross-adaptive processing adds potential for instability – but this often forces us to explore and innovate. The performer has more to take in: anything they produce acts on the sound processing of another performer – and vice versa. We could say that’s four times the attention needed!

But what is intriguing about these two albums is that we see the emergence of a kind of accommodation with all the possibilities. The learning curve can be slow and difficult. But these musicians are rarely tentative or too careful their enthusiastic energy often bursts forth into highly expressive exchanges contrasting with beautifully controlled sustains.

For both performer and listener, causality is decidedly ‘fuzzy’. Often we cannot really be sure exactly what caused a particular result technically. But we can hear the musical process that results. This is what we might call an emergent property – the overall feel takes over and we go with the flow so as “not to intellectually focus on controlling specific dimensions but to allow the adaptive process to naturally follow whatever happens to the music.” [*]

This has been likened to learning to ride a bicycle – suddenly it ‘just happens’. We know it’s a learnt skill but we no longer have to try so hard. That said we can trip up – indeed as soon as the bicycle is up and running the system is designed to push it into unexpected terrain. A fellow musician might play something that trips us up unintentionally! We can only slowly learn to respond meaningfully – accidents become opportunities. You can hear over the course of these two albums this increasing sophistication of response to this potential instability. There is increasing sureness of touch, breath, shape and exchange. This has also been described as two (or more) musicians playing a single instrument – but not in parallel. This situation is much more interactive! One pianist even remarked: “It felt like there was a 3rd musician present.” [*]

The sound world is extremely rich throughout. Whether vocal, percussion, wind or string there is plenty of contrast of the sustained and the explosive. Above all a deep resonance permeates the sound – but one that changes over time sometimes abruptly! In the discussions following the cross-adaptive playing sessions, one musician remarked: “It is like giving away some part of what you’ve played, and it must be capable of being transformed out of your own control.” [*]

Cross-adaptive processing in performance offers new and exciting challenges most especially for improvisation – these two albums are just the beginning.

Øyvind Brandtsegg & Simon Emmerson, November 2018

(* see the Project blog crossadaptive.hf.ntnu.no)

  • Crossadaptive research project leader: Øyvind Brandtsegg
  • Album editor: Øyvind Brandtsegg
  • Mastering: Morten Stendahl at Redroom Studio
  • Artwork and design: Skurktur 
  • All researchers and performers in the crossadaptive project: Simon Emmerson, Gary Bromham, Joshua Reiss, Victor Lazzarini, Miller Puckette, Marije Baalman, Solveig Bøe, Andreas Bergsland, Sigurd Saue, Carl Haakon Waadeland, Tone Ã…se, Trond Engum, Bernt Isak Wærstad, Gyrid Kaldestad, Bjørnar Habbestad, Mats Claesson, Maja S.K. Ratkje, Siv Øyunn Kjenstad, Ola Djupvik, Rory Walsh, Stian Westerhus, David Moss, Michael Duch, Ingrid Lode, Sissel Vera Pettersen, Heidi Skjerve, Kyle Motl, Steven Leffue, Jordan Sand, Kjell Nordeson, Iver Jordal, Ada Mathea Hoel, Kim Henry Ortveit, Ylva Brandtsegg. Students of the Institute of Music at NTNU, both in the Jazz department and the Music Technology department.
  • Support from the Norwegian Programme for Artistic Research, NTNU, University of California San Diego, Maynooth University, De Montfort University, Queen Mary University of London, Norwegian Academy of Music.
  • Recording Engineers and life savers: Thomas Henriksen, Rune Hoemsnes, Andrew Munsey, Tor Breivik, Terje Hallan, Gary Bromham.