“On Paper” reviewed by Jade

Sobrement Intitulé “On paper”, cette compilation élaborée par Pedro Tudela, armateur de Crónica records est un rêve lointain , une méditation antérieure rendue possible et accessible par un travail laborieux et passionné. Couché sur le papier, ses 13 compositions le sont: réfléchies, pensées, maturées ; chacune emprunte un chemin de traverse sur le parcours de l’initiation et de l’expérimentation.

Etrangement, l’idée, bâtie autour du “collage-décollage” (rien avoir avec les compilation Mille Plateaux) n’est pas venue de la musique, mais de la sphère plastique/artistique. Inspiré malgré lui par les travaux de Villégié et des Hackers publicitaires (lire No Logo de Naomie Klein), Tudela a récupéré des bribes et des lambeaux d’affiches superposés et, en défini, par ce biais, une transposition musicale qui voit aujourd’hui le jour.

Il part de l1idée que cette superposition d’affiches, d’images, de publicités crée une grammaire visuelle, un phrasé cohérent ou des concept donnent vie à d’autres concepts.

Musicalement, le travail de collage-décollage se transpose en un univers de séquençage et de soustraction d’apports personnels à un ouvrage commun.

La part de chacun dans la composition se dilue dans l’échange et la transposition. Les interventions sont multiples et dressent le panorama joyeusement chaotique de la production actuelle au Portugal : on retrouve ici, Paulo Raposo, Vitor Joaquim, @c, Longina, [des]integração, b.Z_ToneR et évidemment Pedro Tudela, qui composent le pré carré du collectif Crónica auquel sont venus s’adjoindre quelques illustres messagers tels Pure, Pal, return ou Stephen Mathieu.

Fort intéressant.

“A Compressed History of Everything Ever Recorded, Vol. 1” reviewed by Funprox

It is not clear to me who or what this project called ‘Autodigest’ is exactly, but from the moment I pressed the play button of my CD player I was totally awed by this CD.

Apparently this project comes from the Portugese electronic arts and experimental music scene, and somehow compressed all their works on this CD (or is it really a history of EVERYTHING ever recorded? It makes you wonder…).

Compositionally, the music on this disc reminds me of the Electro-acoustic compositions from the Empreintes Digitales or INA GRM areas, but somehow it is way more dark and industrialised (maybe this is because of the massive use of reverb, which the electroacoustic scene does not seem to like very much, or maybe because the sounds are sharper and noisier). It certainly also reminds me of Rehberg & Bauer’s releases on Touch and Mego, which seem to radiate something that is almost evil, and certainly agressive.

It therefore commes highly recommended to all that are into extreme audio-processing, tip!

TD

“Hard Disk” reviewed by Neural

Tuning sounds and visuals by fingering a touchpad and a keyboard is an art as complex as playing music and projecting a video. Moreover, including sounds and visuals in a normal compact disc without sacrificing the sound for the animations is not a simple task. Looks like the portuguese label Crónica succeeded in doing both things, with its products where the audio tracks and the essential graphics are put side by side with a visual presentation for PCs, carefully chosen and adapted to the sounds. The first production is by the group @c, formed by Pedro Almeida, Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais, together with Lia, a famous artist from Vienna known for her Shockwave virtuoso techniques which, with the respective microelements in a constant lively evolution, create a digital aesthetic which is minimal but rich in synchrony. If the microsound scene is one of the most sincere expressions of the creative exploitation of numerical processes applied to sound, this coupling (at last of a mixed genre) of talents succeeds in composing a scenario of extremely contemporary symbolic and auditive stimulations.

Alessandro Ludovico

“Hard Disk” reviewed by Loop

(…) The music that they develop comes from wherever they performed, which are with or without public and partly are improvisations. The geometric images and two-color pencils are geared by Lia in the screen shapes.

From a beginning the digital language through the execution of a audio software, unfolds its abstract and dark wings that mix in between clicks and organic noises. In the second track, they show the first microrhythms, with tribal spyings by the echo of its percussions. Entering an industrial rythmical line with the third cut, it makes us remember “Mix Up” of Cabaret Voltaire, specially because of its sound and noises of short waves.

The fourth track, proposes an environmental melodic line, and crackles and fragmented noises emerges in the fifth cut. What sixth track indicates to us, is a trip towards tubular structures with much echo and depth, where also that tribal and primitive rhythm is appraised. Here the most advanced sounds combine with those primitive of animals.

This is a disc of great intensity, where it is not left any space without being explored by sounds that come from the immensity that today offers the digital programming.

Guillermo Escudero

“Hard Disk” reviewed by Y

“Hard Disk” é uma ampliação, um acto de voyeurismo que tira prazer do processamento digital. Os sons nascem do vazio e a ele regressam. Mas analise-se a radiografia sonora desta sequência de tempo e encontrar-se-á um universo em metamorfose evolutiva. Crónica número um da terra digital: aprovada sem reservas para usos indiscriminados. 8|10

Fernando Magalhães

“!Siam Acnun” reviewed by BBC Online

Instead of throwing us head first into a world of sounds we’ve never heard before, Longina’s modus operandi is to take tribal house and deep techno one step further down the rabbit hole; like a fun house mirror, you recognize the image, but it’s not quite what it seems to be.

“Nosac” kicks the CD off with a muted breakbeat and pan delay melody which never seems to come to the forefront. The mix keeps the beat tucked away in a dark corner and never quite lets it out of the shadows.

“Tiwokre” and “Aloiuqru” imagine a Felix Da Housecat or DJ Sneak track ripped apart and then pasted back together with glue that doesn’t quite hold the way it should.

“Oexe Ram” is sultry techno jazz underpinned by a minimalist dub bassline that will stick in your head for days. The atmosphere on this track alone is worth the price of admission.

A lot of Longina’s work has focused on acousmatic music specifically built around surround sound audio for very intimate audiences. This is evident in his songwriting; the devil is in the details. Minute, subtle nuances lurk at the very edge of the stereo spectrum; sometimes a little melody, a little harmonic resonance but something always catches your attention in this little CD, no matter how many times you play it.

Again, it’s refreshing to see that experimental music is really starting to take hold outside of the usual centres of its popularity. !Siam Acnun is a fabulous little peek into a world of experimental electronic music that while relegated to semi-obscurity at the moment, is sure to make an impact in coming days.

Olli Siebelt

“!Siam Acnun” reviewed by Blitz.pt

“!Siam Acnum” é o grito “Nunca Mais!” invertido, dissimulado, mas nem por isso menos forte. Um grito lançado à catástrofe ecológica ocorrida na Galiza com o derrame do “Prestige”. Um grito atirado com toda a fúria da indignação, com toda a calma da razão. Foi, por isso, de diálogos entre o orgânico e o digital, o atmosférico e o pulsativo, que viveu este óptimo concerto.

Sérgio Gomes da Costa

“!Siam Acnun” reviewed by A Puta da Subjectividade

Num movimento de leitura invertida lemos que Nunca Mais! é o título deste disco, tal como num movimento invertido deciframos o nome das faixas que aparentam descender da mesma estirpe louca de Aphex Twin. No entanto, é caso para dizer: !Ossid Adan.

Longina é um galego de nome próprio Chiu, co-fundador do colectivo SINSAL-Áudio que faz parte da mais estreita ligação electrónica entre a Galiza e Portugal, mais propriamente com a nortenha Matéria Prima, tendo vindo a dar origem a vários intercâmbios performativos. A completar um triângulo animado essencialmente por linguagem binária, está a editora Crónica Electrónica que já em 2003 nos presenteou com um dos trabalhos mais interessantes do que nesta área já se fez por cá: falo de Là Où Je Dors, de Pedro Tudela, um conto encantatório pós-moderno que foi composto como banda sonora de uma peça de dança contemporânea idealizada por Isabel Barros.

!Siam Acun não é a valsa robotizada que o membro dos @C concebeu. É um movimento conjunto encarnado num só individuo e numa só máquina, onde sentimos instrumentistas vaporizando o ar com jazz futurista através do dissipador que alivia o processamento, sendo que agora a tecnologia existe em prol de algo menos meditativo, fundindo-se no mesmo comprimento de onda o trabalho e o lazer, a noite durante o dia e o dia durante a noite. Joga-se no desprendimento laboral em pleno emprego com uma piscadela ao tom catedrático de Murcof ou com a mesma vontade de confrontar o superficial e o imenso.

Nesta pequena sinfonia composta ao piano pode-se dançar de olhos fechados em estados de hipnose hormonal via house ou optar por algo mais selectivo como algumas convulsões jazz escavadas no dub; só que esta brotou de um piano digitally yours.

Pedro Torres

“!Siam Acnun” reviewed by Loop

Chiu Longina is from Galicia and is the man behind this proposal in which he combines different rhythms, samples of domestic machinery and noises produced with program audio software. This album was release in April this year [2003] by the Crónica Electrónica label from Porto, Portugal, and is an answer to the ecological damage that produced the tanker of African flag Prestige, on Cies Islands, in the coast of Vigo. That’s why the title of this CD that if you read it the other way around it means “Never More”. Along with Longina, Montse Rego y Roberto D. Bouzas, the collective Flexo and Horacio G. Ifi participate with the visuals and music.

“Nósac” with sample drums is developed on rythmical dub, whereas the registry of an automatic device – that can be a very simple stuff – makes reference to the electroacoustic character of the music of Longina. “Mar exeo” has an interesting game of percussion in which the drums mark a jazz rhythm, next to crafty lines of bass. A processed piano chord and voices and an 4/4 tribal rhythm has an hypnotic effect that it does of “Aloiuqru” and “Tiwokre”, two tracks perfect for the dancefloor [for demanding ears, of course]. The track “Rednammocylop” again has that delicate taste for rhythm, with it redoubles of drums and and randomly beats. This style remembers me of low winding and free percussion to Two Lone Swordsmen at his magnificent “The Fifth Mission” period. Finally in the audio tracks it appears “!Siam Acnun” -that gives title to this album- with hesitating keyboard lines and persistent rhythm. After the audio tracks we have the organic “Aispesa seires part.1” and the minimal “Aispesa Seires part.2”, both in charge of Longina. Flexo is responsable of “P____S” where he plays very sly rhythm and Horacio G.ifi exposes “Rannacs rorre” with schizophrenic game of clicks and noises. This is avant-garde electronic music that proposes a fresh and captivating sound.

Guillermo Escudero

“!Siam Acnun” reviewed by Bodyspace

“!Siam Acnun”, o terceiro CD com carimbo Crónica, é um daqueles discos perdidos num referencial de nomes, momentos e lugares. Não sabemos muito bem de onde surge esta música – sabemos que vem dos lados de Espanha, mas isso nem é muito importante – porque quando começa a “rodar” na aparelhagem ficamos com a noção de que tudo, momentaneamente, fica invertido. Uma possível explicação poderá ser esta: apesar de já contactarmos com o género há alguns anos, nunca, como hoje, se mostrou tão entusiástico em abordar terrenos tão pouco regulares e adventícios.

Começando com uma dialéctica que invoca em “nósac” e “oexe ram” uma música mais etérea (?!) e ambiental, recorre depois às batidas da música de dança, que acabam por conduzir o álbum nos temas que se seguem, para definir uma lógica de disco quase conceptual. E é todo ele uma “paixão pelo laptop e pela tecnologia, paixão e vício”. Um magote de colaborações com Montse Rego, Roberto D. Bouzas, Flexo e Horacio G. Grooves, baterias alheias, baixos a marcar a pulsação e demais anagramas que encontram em “rednammocylop” o seu mais perfeito fluir conjunto, mas que chegam a provocar alguma convalescença. “Intelligent Dance Music“, dirão alguns. Os mesmos a que agradará o lado da espontaneidade (isto é, música orgânica) conjugada com “aquele” procurar da fidelidade das patterns que muitas vezes não temos a certeza de alcançar e que, confessemos, também nos agradou.

Mas isto é só a primeira parte, antes (ou se quisermos, depois) de os conteúdos áudio darem lugar aos conteúdos vídeo. Aqui é de assinalar a brilhante construção cénica, certamente trabalhosa, da associação som/imagem em “Aispesa Series part. 1” ou da replicação diligente na segunda parte do tema. Igualmente interessantes são os vídeos “P____S” (colaboração do colectivo Flexo) e a construção de 38 segundos “Rennacs Rorre”.

“!Siam Acnun” é, por tudo isto, essencialmente um disco para compreender melhor os trilhos da música actual e a sua cada vez mais frequente relação com o vídeo, mas também para desfrutar (ao contrário de muitos similares) aquilo que se ouve. E claro, para ler ao contrário. 7/10

Tiago Gonçalves