Futurónica 170

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Episode 170 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, July 8th.

The playlist of Futurónica 170 is:

  1. Ulrich Mitzlaff, X-one (2016, X-RUN-4 Prismatique, Crónica)
  2. Ulrich Mitzlaff, RUN-one (2016, X-RUN-4 Prismatique, Crónica)
  3. Ulrich Mitzlaff, 4-one (2016, X-RUN-4 Prismatique, Crónica)
  4. Ulrich Mitzlaff, X-two (2016, X-RUN-4 Prismatique, Crónica)
  5. Martijn Tellinga, Three Modulators, for basses (2015, Positions, Crónica)

You can follow Rádio Zero’s broadcasts at radiozero.pt/ouvir and Rádio Manobras at radiomanobras.pt.

“Bittersweet Melodies” reviewed by Rockerilla

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Le colonne sonore sono parte fondamentale di un lm e spesso hanno decretato il successo della pellicola. Poi c’è chi scrive colonne sonore per lm immaginari come fa Barry Adamson e c’è chi estrae frammenti di queste musiche, le scompone e intorno crea un’atmosfera destrutturata fatta di una dark ambient dagli echi quasi jazz noir in formula del tutto sperimentale. L’israeliano Ran Slavin si distingue proprio per questo approccio e nel suo nuovo undicesimo capitolo trascina l’ascoltatore in un mondo parallelo ipnagogico, dove un’elettronica mai lineare si apre poi ad estratti di chissà quali lm di culto, magari anni 50, per creare un suggestivo percorso assolutamente poco convenzionale e proprio per questo convincente, soprattutto perché ben realizzato. INGEGNOSO. Gianluca Polverari

“Three-Body Problem” reviewed by Rockerilla

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La sempre splendida terra del Portogallo viene associata al Fado come principale stile musicale. In realtà anche in queste lande ci sono i più svariati generi e c’è anche chi destruttura completamente la musica, asciugandola del tutto e da lì estrapola qualche suono per nuove forme di contemporanea. In questo sono maestri gli @C, due professori universitari e sound artist di Porto che sono poi coadiuvati dalla video artist austriaca Lia. Attivi su più fronti, in questo nuovo lavoro gli @C hanno musicato uno spettacolo intitolato Agapornis, incentrato su due personaggi femminili e la loro diversità di carattere e portato in scena dal Teatro De Marionetas De Porto. L’esibizione si è mossa partendo da impalpabili suoni di arpa e tromba per poi essere trattati digitalmente dai due artisti, realizzando così una colonna sonora in tempo reale tra concreta sperimentale e microsuoni. Alcuni passaggi di quella performance sono stati rimodellati in studio successivamente per l’incisione di questo nuovo capitolo, ultimo di una lunga discogra a, intitolato Three-Body Problem. L’album non è a atto di semplice fruizione, in molti passaggi è decisamente ostico nella sua impalpabilità ma allo stesso tempo è ammaliante anche nei suoi momenti di cili. Può dar fastidio, può tendenzialmente annoiare ma alla ne riesce a sedurre, a patto di riservargli un ascolto concentrato. Il mondo degli @C È TUTTO DA SCOPRIRE. Gianluca Polverari

New in the Corollaries series: John Grzinich’s “Prevailing Wind, Tangled Under”

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This is the sixth release in the series Corollaries, that compiles works resulting from Active Crossover: Mooste, a cross-cultural collaborative residency curated by Simon Whetham and hosted by MoKS, in April and May 2015. All works are composed from material compiled in a collective archive during the project.

Anyone who has followed my work over the years knows of my interest in several key themes related to sound; resonance, tectonic acoustics and incidental installations. I have often treated these independently either as actual subjects or conceptual studies, but my passion lies in the possibility of fusing these together. This is the special case of one such object which has been the focus of many experiments for over a decade, an unused water tower I call the “cactus” because of its shape and surface covered by spiky metal protrusions. While the tower looks impressive as a solitary monument standing about 4 stories tall, it is its hollow volumetric character that offers possible intervention and acoustic exploration.

With the steady rotation of artists visiting for Active Crossover: Mooste, the water tower became a site for revisitation, to be observed and recorded in different weather conditions and modes of interaction with each visit. What I noticed over time was how the magnetic character of the tower affected people, first with its monumental stature when seen from a distance, then how people are pulled inward upon hearing the depth of the reverberations from within. In numerous instances time seemed to stop as we gathered around, crawling about, climbing, plucking, bowing, striking, howling, stringing and generally playing in and around the great structure. In a matter of minutes the tower becomes a subject of transformation, from relic of Soviet industrial agriculture, to an acoustic temple for ritual intervention. All the while we lend our ears to the moment.

Prevailing Wind, Tangled Under brings together two independent recording sessions at the tower, carried out a month apart. The first was a dialogue of sorts between three artists carried out through sporadic sounds and the second was a solo follow-up to meditate on how the various artifacts attached in the previous months were affected by the windy conditions on a particular afternoon one day just before the solstice. Both sessions were durational in nature which I have left unbroken to give the tower the attention it deserves and to convey in part, the monumental scale in which the tower itself exists in relation to the surrounding environment. Here the reverberant character and material qualities are not merely used for effect but allow one to hear the tower live and breathe in its own element.

Composed by John Grzinich.
Assembled from two durational single-take recordings, one made during Active Crossover: Mooste with Simon Whetham, Arlene Tucker and myself in May 2015 and a second solitary session in June.
Mastered by Miguel Carvalhais.
Cover photo by John Grzinich.

Prevailing Wind, Tangled Under is a free download from Crónica or Bandcamp.

“Roha” reviewed by The Sound Projector

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We’ve heard from Andreas Trobollowitsch some time ago in 2009 as one half of Nörz with Johannes Tröndle; their record for Schraum struck me as “disconnected electro-acoustic sounds…thrown into a cardboard box which is gently rattled about”. Trobollowitsch continues his explorations into electro-acoustic composition solo now, with Roha (CRÓNICA 105-2016). On these eight pieces, the starting point is always a conventional acoustic instrument or two, usually played by himself, though drummer David Schweighart helps on one track and Manuel Brunner plays the double bass on ‘zain’. He also makes use of feedback, electric fans, and some home-made instruments. Once recordings are captured, he uses them as “basic materials” to build a composition, through a process of combinations and edits and much careful selection.

This is pretty much the “standard” (if we can call it that) method of creating musique concrète as developed by Pierre Schaeffer from 1949 onwards, except that Trobollowitsch presumably doesn’t use magnetic tape but digital recording, like everyone else these days. He’s also not much for radical reworking or transformation of the sources, and it’s fair to say that for at least 50% of the time it’s quite possible to recognise many of his original sound sources, their acoustical organicness showing through and indeed blending into the digital twistiness. If I’m halfway right, this might place him at some distance from the current Canadian school of composers, who seem to use every digital effect at their disposal to create unrecognisable, alien, and over-processed sounds in their sweeping endeavours. This Viennese fellow by contrast has a certain starkness and precision to his sounds that the ear can engage with, and the air crackles with tension and dynamic force.

The actual compositions are not quite so bold; for some reason the ideas feel a little under-developed, quite often simply repeating the same basic structure which tends to contrast two or more unfamiliar sounds against each other, hoping that through this friction, the fur will fly. While the first 60 seconds produce a tingle, by the end of four minutes I’m wondering what he was trying to communicate. Despite this hesitancy, a good effort from Trobollowitsch. Arrived 11th February 2016. Ed Pinsent

via The Sound Projector

New podcast: Durán Vázquez

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Reduced, Reinterpreted, and reconstructed by Durán Vázquez at bedroom, Vigo (Galicia, Spain), early January 2016. Mastered by Durán Vázquez.

Using Beamrider (Activision, 1984), Demon Attack (Imagic, 1982), Dragon Defender (Ariola, 1984), Dragonfire (Imagic, 1982), Gravitar (Atari, 1983), Space Jockey (Vidtec, 1982), Star Wars Return of The Jedi: Death Star Battle (Parker Bros, 1983), Time Pilot (Konami/ Coleco, 1983). ROMs executed using Stella 3.9.2.

Download here or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Three-Body Problem video program at Curtas

Three-Body Problem (video program preview) from Miguel Carvalhais on Vimeo.

The “Three-Body Problem” video program was premiered at the CD launch event in Passos Manuel, last May, and will now be shown in its entirety at the amazing Curtas, the short film festival in Vila do Conde. With music by @c (Pedro Tudela & Miguel Carvalhais), with guests Susana Santos Silva, Angelica V. Salvi, João Pais Filipe, and Ricardo Jacinto, the program includes videos for all the nine pieces in “Three-Body Problem”, directed by Miguel Leal, Rosi Avelar & Nardran Teluric, Nuno Tudela, Cristina Mateus, LIA, André Rangel, Marc Behrens, Rodrigo Carvalho, and Pedro Tudela & Miguel Carvalhais.

The “Three-Body Problem” session will happen on July 11 at 21h45, and several of the artists will be present. More info at festival.curtas.pt

“X-RUN-4 Prismatique” reviewed by Ondarock

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Tedesco ma da tempo trasferito a Lisbona, il violoncellista Ulrich Miztlaff ha un impressionante curriculum di collaborazioni in progetti di ricerca elettroacustica e collettivi di improvvisatori, e di sonorizzazioni di audiovisivi, coreografie e installazioni: “Invisibility Of The Small Perceptions” (2008), “Pedrinez” (2009), “Stretto” (2014). Una di queste, “X-RUN-4 Prismatique” (improvvisata per il Laboratorio Nacional De Engenharia Civil di Lisbona), è stata anche incisa diventando di fatto il suo debutto discografico solista.

È così possibile isolare e tastare con mano il modus (a un tempo isterico e meditato) del violoncellista. L’elettroacustica di “X-One” nasce da fruscii indistinti fino a ergere stecche che esplorano timbri ai limiti del conosciuto, incarnando folk e armonici aborigeni. Altri elementi folkloristici, una sorta di polka russa, emergono nella sonata per soli stridori di “X-Two”. La doppia “RUN-One”, una delle più virtuosistiche, prevede un pizzicato tarantolato e un tremolo indiavolato.

Il cuore è ovviamente “4-One” (venti minuti), con un’altra introduzione concreta di rumore bianco che si sfoga in un repertorio di tecniche quanto più distanti dall’accademia, dagli “assoli” per polpastrelli sfregati sul legno all’archetto “preparato” con le unghie dell’esecutore, facendo risuonare lo strumento come un fiato da camera, strillare come una bestia sgozzata, sibilare come un allarme nucleare. Vi è comunque anche una parte in qualche modo classicheggiante, un cupo informe fugato che degenera via via in scale fradice di armonici e dissonanze.

Registrato in due tranche nel 2014, supportato dall’ingegneria e la coreografia di Paula Freire per la dinamica dell’installazione, una sorta di nuova antologia in negativo dei codici per lo strumento solista. Dal serialismo si passa al puro gestualismo, in un’aura quasi sacrale. Sotto il segno di Anthony Braxton si transita dalle convezioni del free-jazz al livello più primordiale di plasma sonoro. Un filo rosso lo collega alle suite per violoncello di Bach. Michele Saran

via Ondarock