Futurónica 163

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Episode 163 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, April 1st.

The playlist of Futurónica 163 is:

  1. Francisco López, El dia anterior a la emergencia de los adultos de magicicada (1993) (2014, Presque Tout (Quiet Pieces: 1993-2013), Line)
  2. Francisco López & Jorge Reyes: Tlaloc (1991/2015, Tlaloc, Terraza)
  3. Francisco López, Untitled #274 (2015, Untitled #274, Important Records)

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

“Roha” reviewed by Le son du grisli

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Je dois avouer que le « basé à Vienne » Andreas Trobollowitsch (la moitié d’Acker Velvet, que je ne connaissais pas, & de Nörz que j’avais déjà entendu) m’a fait asseoir et m’a inspiré du respect dès le premier titre de son (pas long) Roha (pourtant, c’était comme un drone sourd, rien que ça, qui me tournait autour…).

Je suis donc resté assis et j’ai écouté la suite. Toute la suite. De 1 à 8. Des pièces électroacoustiques qui donnent du rythme et de la boucle (pour ne pas dire de la « répétition »), dans le bizzaroïde en planque, dans le piano d’un autre âge qui souffrète d’accords carrés, et même dans le métal qui gangrène !

Lui qui joue de tous les instruments sauf quand il se sert de la batterie de David Schweighart ou de la contrebasse de Manuel Brunner (un titre pour chacun), comment Trobollowitsch fait-il pour donner le change d’une piste à l’autre ? Après écoute, j’en ai conclu que son instrument de prédilection est le piano. Comment expliquer la place que prennent le rythme et l’électronique dans son jeu ? A tel point qu’on pense à Radian ou Heaven And alors que l’Andreas est seul et bien seul. Et nous seul (aussi) avec nos questions. Mais si bien avec ! Pierre Cécile

via Le son du grisli

“Everything Emanating from the Sun” reviewed by Chain DLK

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“Everything emanating from the Sun which is Divine Love is called spiritual; everything emanating from the sun which is fire is natural.”. Greek electronic music composer Yiorgis Sakellariou took the first sentence of these lines by which Swedish scientist, mystic, theologian and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg tried to explain the link between spiritual world and natural one – he used the term ‘correspondence’ or ‘relation’ to describe it – as well as the Divine in his essay “Life in Animals and Plants”, a sort of revisitation of Christian belief of Creation by means of ideas, which were close to Neoplatonist outlook, as a title for this release, the first one of Corollaries, a new series by which Portuguese label Cronica is going to compile some works that got produced during the Active Crossover: Mooste, the last (but not least) residency of Active Crossover, a sort of permanent cross-cultural laboratory British sound artist Simon Whetham established in Tallinn, Estonia in 2009 in order to search new performative sound-focused strategies and possibilities for a series of workshops and sessions, where a selection of sound artist could check new working methods – an interesting idea that got hosted in many different locations such as England, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Norway, Argentina and Australia and got already documented by a compilation on Cronica in 2012 -. On that occasion, MoKS studios and space opened his gates to the brilliant Greek sound artist, known by field recordings fans for many interesting essays of digitally manipulated environmental sounds that he sometimes performed in completely dark places – I like to think he tries to emulate the “veil” of Pythagorean akousmatikoi, in order to let listeners focus on sounds without any other sensory distractions -; he didn’t make this 31 minutes and 13 seconds lasting field recordings-based composition as an aural postcard of his experience in Estonia, but it seems that his amazing way of compressing and decompressing concrete sounds got inspired by an idea that Igor Stravinski expressed in 1941, according to which natural sounds cannot become music until they are put into order and organized as “conscious human act”, even if he can’t explain the reason of the time-stretching, the pitch-shifting and the filtering of the sounds grabbed at Mooste. According to his own words, “it is about effectively placing sonic events in time and not submitting to any kind of pre-fixed rules about recorded sound”. The dilation over time intervals of sounds is maybe the most relevant aspects: the first similarity I noticed is the one with some experiments on overdubbing of tapes that many performers tried and if you play this composition by changing tempo, what could sound like the slowed noise of a train could turn into the obsessive mechanical hammering of a power loom for example. At the end of his introductory words, Yiorgis returns to Stravinsky’s thoughts by stating that maybe the conscious human act that he required could simply be the act of listening: “this activity, potentially profound and meaningful, establishes a form of communication between the listener and the environment but remains a personal experience. Music, besides making a connection to the cosmos, additionally sets a relationship between human beings, it is a social construction. As a shared activity, music brings together composer and listeners in a transitory time and space.”. His words could even summarize the spirit of Active Crossover… Vito Camarretta

via Chain DLK

New release: Mise_en_scene’s “Primary Fields”

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Crónica is delighted to present a new release from Shay Nassi’s project Mise_en_scene, after the previous 443 and Leftovers (Reworked). Nassi hails from Tel Aviv, where he began studying sound engineering, obtaining a degree in Practical Sound Engineering. He subsequently put those skills to good use producing music where he delicately integrates elements of minimalism and noise.

Primary Fields is a series of works based on the same single field recording in different variations. In each of the six pieces in this release, Nassi presents the recording in a different context, developing new sonic results and allowing various interpretations. The composition process started from the preparation and editing of the field recordings, while ideas were sketched and patches were programmed in a modular synth. The field recordings were then played through the patch and manipulated towards the creation of new layers and loops, with each of the pieces in Primary Fields resulting from recordings of these performances.

Primary Fields is now available as a free download from Crónica or cronica.bandcamp.com.

“Roha” reviewed by Polyphonia

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Austriacki eksperymentator właśnie wydał swój pierwszy solowy album.

Andreasa Trobollowitscha należy kojarzyć z projektami Nörz i Acker Velvet. Płytę tego drugiego przedsięwzięcia opublikowała warszawska wytwórnia Monotype Records. Artysta korzysta z różnego instrumentarium (m.in. kontrabas, gitara elektryczna), ale na tym nie poprzestaje i często projektuje własne instrumenty, których brzmienia przepuszcza przez elektronikę. Ważnym składnikiem kompozycji Trobollowitscha jest improwizacja, choć nie jest to dominujący składnik muzycznej filozofii Austriaka.

Krążek „Roha” (marzec 2016) opublikowała portugalska oficyna Crónica, gdzie szczególnie zachwyca mnogość pojawiających się barw, odcieni w obrębie jednej frazy czy całego nagrania. Sprzężenia zwrotne, pętle przechodzące lub stopniowo zanikające, noise’owy biały szum i dronowy minimalizm tworzą wciągającą całość. Łukasz Komła

via Polyphonia

“Roha” reviewed by Aural Aggravation

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It’s not a criticism to state that oftentimes, the material on Roha feels more like a collection of sounds than a succession of actual compositions. There’s a certain randomness about the sounds, which range from clanking, arrhythmic percussive sounds, squeaks, tweets and flutters, groans and drones and distant, barely audible and completely indecipherable speech. There are rhythmic elements, but these are more emergent than overt or focal to the eight pieces. The listener is likely to find themselves pondering the connections between the sounds, or subconsciously creating, ways on which they relate to one another, the ways that certain juxtapositions affect the effect of the individual sounds.

Often delicate, subtle and quiet, if not exactly calming, there are passages which build from nowhere to great sonic density. ‘tuul’ brings great hefts of doomy overdriven noise that could as easily be a sludgy guitar as a synth sound, and is more metal than ambient, and elsewhere, the tropes of traditional folk music drift into the album’s eclectic sonic pallet. Trobollowitsch is something of a magpie, and while it would be a mistake to suggest he takes from a range of sources indiscriminately, there is a very strong sense of organicness and fluidity in the way he treats the material assembled here.

The overarching mood of the album is dark and sombre, with the funereal ‘ssbeat’ sounding a dolorous death knell, but Trobollowitsch manages to avoid creating a work that’s completely oppressive. It’s a form that takes a little acclimatisation, but in its ever-changing nature Roha is an album that deserves exploration. Christopher Nosnibor

“Gamelan Descending a Staircase” reviewed by Gonzo Circus

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De verwachtingen zijn hoog gespannen. De Litouwse componist Arturas Bumsteinas heeft een behoorlijke reputatie opgebouwd met elektronische muziek en crossmediale projecten. Als hij een cd uitbrengt met de titel ‘Gamelan Descending a Staircase’ roept dat uiteenlopende associaties op. Met dat schilderij van Marcel Duchamp, dat de bewegingen van een omlaag lopend naakt probeert te vangen. Met het Javaanse orkest van gongs, bellen en trommels, dat desnoods langs de treden naar beneden komt rollen. Deze cd is de registratie van een uitvoering in het Volkenkundig Museum in Berlijn. Vijftig minuten lang liepen Bumsteinas en Raminta Atnimar rond tussen de instrumenten, sloegen, tikten, roffelden. Hij noemt het een compositie, maar je krijgt toch vooral de indruk dat ze zonder vooropgezet plan aan het musiceren waren. De instrumenten kunnen prachtige, ruimhartig gonzende resonanties voortbrengen. Die zijn ze meestentijds uit de weg gegaan. Ongeacht of Bumsteinas het precies zo bedacht had, of dat ze zich hebben laten leiden door wat hen ter plekke voor de geest kwam, ze weten de aandacht niet vast te houden. Daarvoor zijn de muzikale acties te lukraak. Een zetje van de trap had mogelijk een even strakke structuur opgeleverd, maar was wel sneller afgelopen geweest. René van Peer

“Everything Emanating from the Sun” reviewed by Musique Machine

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Crónica presents Everything Emanating from the Sun, a single track CD by Yiorgis Sakellariou. Sakellariou is a long-running experimental composer and musician based out of Athens, Greece. On this outing, he receives some additional sounds courtesy of Simon Whetham and John Grzinich. This release marks the first in a series called Corollaries, compiling works produced during the Active Crossover: Mooste, a cross-cultural collaborative residency curated by Simon Whetham during April/May 2015.
Everything Emanating from the Sun features a single long-form track. Over the span of 31 minutes we are treated to the sounds of: focused drone, field recordings, metallic sounds, and other makeshift instrumentation. The track begins in the ethereal realm with some ambient drone, which progresses to near speaker rattling vibration. Along with the drone appears to be the sounds of a locomotive or subway train, slowed down and stretched out. The track can be broken into segments where particular sounds take the stage only to be replaced by another set of sounds, and on and on. The next set of sounds we hear are the sounds of a laundry dryer spinning and what is perhaps a looped piece of a children¡¯s choir. Those sounds are replaced by what appears to be the field recordings of a beach scene, populated by birds, water, and a creaking wooden dock. Sakellariou continues along with the nature sounds, this time exploring what sounds like a jungle or forest teeming with birds under the cover of rain.

With nearly ¨ø of the disc completed Sakellariou and pals depart from field recordings of nature to metal abuse courtesy of Simon Whetham. Using bowed and beaten sheet metal, this section of the disc features some high end resonance and percussive elements. From there they wind down the track with some xylophonic action (which might be some well played glass bottles) and some manipulated suspension wire that sound akin to synth-like laser blasts. The backdrop of this section sounds like the negative space of an abandoned warehouse. The piece ends with some subtle scraping and clinking, kind of like digging through an old, rusty tool box.

Overall this is an effective collision of sights and sounds, with enough diversity to make this stand out from a myriad of field recording based albums. An excellent first entry in the Corollaries series. I look forward to related releases in the not too distant future. Hal Harmon

via Musique Machine