blog.Crónica

Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela recorded these files from 2002 to 2007, assembling the result in a multi-faceted patchwork that fuses improvisation, electronic, sampladelia and musique concrete. Surprisingly, after a couple of headphone sessions – in which, admittedly, this writer admired the quality of the studio work and the clever methods of combination applied by the duo – I gave the CD a try in my overall favourite listening setting: tranquil evening, open windows, moderate volume. The music became a great active ambience: incredibly rich, complex, full of chiaroscuro yet flowing without obstacles, sounding extremely natural to the ears. In a word, rewarding. To achieve this effect, @C taped several among the musicians with whom they had an artistic relation in the above mentioned time span (most names are not really familiar to yours truly, though Neil Davidson and Raymond MacDonald are well known in this place). Not that you can spot someone, as the timbral personalities get thoroughly mashed by a “quest for the unidentifiable” that makes Carvalhais and Tudela define them as “sampled guests”, although they also describe this work as a homage to the involved artists. So what does all this mean in terms of sonic manoeuvre? The definitive picture is one of technical excellence, a little less heart (but it’s not mandatory for this kind of stuff) and the will to discern deeper implications in something that, in all probability, is not containing them. It does remain a very good release, whose real value is not explicable on a single listen. This record needs persistence and attention.

Massimo Ricci

É uno dei più facili della copia portoghese: percussioni elettroniche sparse, flussi e tessitura che scivolano, voci che sgusciano e si ritraggono, rumori concreti (acqua che scorre da uno sciacquone, fulmini e saette, canti etno), qualche passaggio parasinfonico e qualche inserto acustico sotto forma di capionamento (sax, violoncello, altre corde non identificate). Poi finisce anche questo. Stefano I. Bianchi

Dieses beeindruckende Audio des offenen Klangkunst-Improv-Kollektivs wurde von Miguel Carvalhais und Pedro Tudela in Porto zu vier langen Stücken komponiert und gemastert. Die Studiobearbeitung des Materials aus dem Zeitraum von 2002 bis 2007 vergleichen die beiden bisweilen mit der Arbeit eines Mechanikers oder Uhrmachers, wo individuelle Teile in einem viel größeren und komplexeren System zusammengefügt werden. Schön gesehen, und so ganz nebenbei eine der überzeugendsten Medienmusiken der Jetztzeit.

Pour ce septième album – le troisième sur le label Crónica -, les plasticiens sonores Miguel Carvalhais et Pedro Tudela continuent leur interrogation de la musique en tant que forme d’art, en tant que message médiumnique davantage que médiatique susceptible d’établir un lien entre la nature extérieure et la forme intériorisée contenue dans ce cd. Alors évidemment, les quatre pièces présentées activent les notions de mobilité et de voyage. Dans la durée (deux pièces de 20 et 40 minutes, deux pièces de moins de deux minutes), dans l’espace, les field recordings servant de matière modelable et agençable ayant été saisies dans différentes villes européennes, dans le temps également puisque leur captation s’étale sur cinq ans, de 2002 à 2007. Et dans la forme bien sûr, puisque voix, résonances spatialisées de sons électroniques, bribes d’instants de vie saisis au détour d’un micro, collaborations émaillées avec divers artistes, percussionnistes notamment, se télescopent et s’interpénètrent avec cette force du document sonore vivant, du work in progress intrigant, qui caractérisent le travail poético-fantasque de ces deux manitous d’une musique concrète de traverse.

Laurent Catala

This bizarrely entitled album is another fevered and improvised trip into musical and sound from the minds of the @c (Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela)- it’s a dense mix of rhythmic elements, field recording, modern classical and avant jazz textures, electronic elements, noise and of course improv- having been quite taken by their De-Tour collaboration from last year with Vitor Joaquim I had high hopes for this.

Through out this mainly homes in on the more manic and dense side of their work with sadly none of the tense and almost suffocating feel of De-Tour present here. The pair layer up all manner of rhythmic matter, field recordings, electronic textures, stretched voice elements and musically side lines and it often feels quite big and cinematic in it presence. Sure it’s strange, manic and otherworldly but it feels often too dense, too over loaded in its sound make up, so as a result interesting sonic elements seemed to get drowned or brushed aside in the storm of sound. Sometimes improvised music, Musique concrete and experimental music can become too clever, too muilt-layered for it own good and that what’s happened here. The pair seem to be concentrate so much on detailing and painting up the sound layers that they just about stripped all the atmosphere, entertainment and sonic wonder from the album.

I really tried to like this as I’d been so taken by De-Tour , but sadly I just keep return to feeling that it’s just too dense and trying to be clever for it’s own good. Sure it’s impressive in its construction, depth and density of sound but emotional it just so flat and unappealing

Roger Batty