“strings.lines” reviewed by Essmaa

strings.lines
Nicolas Bernier est né en 1977 à Ottawa, Canada et réside désormais à Montréal. La musique de Nicolas Bernier est à la fois entre » l’ancienne et la nouvelle « . Créées entre 2008 et 2010, les cinq pièces qui composent ce disque sont autant de visions transverses, de passerelles entre viole de gambe, violon et aménagements électroniques. Comme il aime la définir lui même « c’est la musique électronique fait à partir d’objets du passé: la machine à écrire, machines anciennes, diapasons, sonore memorys et instruments de musique. » Une musique gorgée de micro sons capturés dans le sables, d’infimes résonances qui nous viennent de la mer, des complaintes de mouettes et des images oscillant à la lueur d’une bougie. Sans difficulté, nous plongeons dans cet univers méditatif où les drones et les nappes grésillantes tentent une correspondance avec des estampes en contre-plans dessinés par des projections d’archives en noir et blanc. Doux mélange de crépitements désordonnés et d’ondulations aquatiques, parfois traversé de crashs numériques, ce disque est une belle confrontation de styles et d’époques qui place notre canadien à la pointe de la modernité, qui rappelle à la fois Labradford et le duo Fripp & Eno, ou plus récemment Christian Fennesz renouant avec le touché soyeux de Ryuichi Sakamoto. Ce qui laisse présager de nouvelles et fructueuses compositions. A noter également, la participation de Nicolas à la compilation Essmaa.

via Essmaa

“So On” reviewed by Dark Entries

So On
In het kader van “geschifte geluiden” presenteren we u Gintas K.

Neen, wij weten er niks van behalve dat deze Gintas K een mens is die graag experimenteert en dan bedoelen we geluiden die op het eerste zicht niks met elkaar te maken hebben.

Het zijn zelfs geluiden die niet eens op muzieknoten lijken ook al zouden we zweren dat bepaalde tracks te vergelijken vallen met één of andere elektronische beiaard die op hol geslagen is.

Jawel, het zou best kunnen dat je mixer uit uw keuken meer melodie voortbrengt dan het experiment gekraak en gebiep van deze Gintas K.

We geloven ook best dat er mensen zijn die braakneigingen krijgen als ze dit soort muziek op hun boterham krijgen, maar als ochtendmuziek op je radio zou het impact maken geloof ons. Ook al zouden de mensen plots in paniek schieten dat hun favoriete radiostation herschapen is tot monotoon gekraak.

U zegt dat we zot zijn? Waarschijnlijk wel.

U zegt dat u best van die krankzinnigheid wil proeven? Dit kan want “So on” is een gratis downloadrelease geworden en dat vind je door hier te klikken. Didier Becu

via Dark Entries

Paivascapes #1

From March 4 to 8 the first edition of the Paivascapes festival will happen in and around river Paiva in Portugal. The list of participating artists includes Alicja Rogalska (PL), Anna Hints (EE), Charles Stankievech (CA), Craig Dongoski (US), Ignaz Schick (DE), Jez Riley French (GB), John Grzinich (US), Katherine Liberovskaya (CA), Lasse-Marc Riek (DE), Luis Costa (PT), Maile Colbert (US), Manuela Barile (IT), Marc Behrens (DE), Marja-Liisa Plats (EE), Martin Clarke (GB), Masayo Kajimura (DE), o.blaat (JP), Patrick McGinley (US), Phill Niblock (US), Rui Costa (PT), Rui Silveira (PT), Sérgio Cruz (PT), Tiago Carvalho (PT), William Lamson (US) and Yasuno Miyauchi (JP).

More info at paivascapes.org.

“So On” reviewed by Monsieur Délire

So On
Following up on Lovely Banalities, Gintas K releases So On, this time in Crónica’s “Unlimited” series – and therefore freely available in mp3 or Apple Lossless format. As in Lovely Banalities, So On consists in several short tracks of experimental electronica, all self-standing yet all sharing a similar aesthetics. This time, the music is less ambient and more arid, stripped-down and raw, almost 8-bit-sounding at times. Gintas K gets close to Pita’s glitch and to the formalism of Florian Hecker. Not an easy listen, esthetically interesting and strong, but not really enjoyable.

via Monsieur Délire

“Pastoral” reviewed by Monsieur Délire

Pastoral
Another release in the “Unlimited” series (therefore free): an album dvoted to Lithuanian/Polish electroacoustician Arturas BumÅ¡teinas. Four pieces for instrument and tape: one for tuba, one for violin, one for violin and viola, and one for guitar and accordion. Nice plurisemantic writing. “Dough” (17 minutes) is very well done. The whole thing is rather ambient, though without any post-rock or post-classical velleities. Convincing. And free.

via Monsieur Délire

“strings.lines” reviewed by De:Bug

strings.lines

Ausgangspunkt des Stücke dieses Albums ist der Klang von Stimmgabeln, deren sinusnahe Töne moderne Elektronik assoziieren und die doch gleichzeitig in der westlichen Musik tief verwurzelte, fast archaische Werkzeuge sind. Bernier hat zunächst Aufnahmen dieser Töne melodisch arrangiert, dann umspielen lassen von einem Duo aus Viola da Gamba und Violine, ihrerseits konzentriert auf lineare Schichtung, auf den Instrumentalklang selbst. So angenehm die zwischen alt und neu vermittelnde Musik ins Ohr geht, so schwer greifbar bleibt sie jedoch auch, denn Bernier fährt an Erweiterungen seines an sich strengen Konzepts allerhand auf, was sich an elektroakustischer Garnierung einfügt, schlichtes Kontaktmikroknistern und blechernes Klappern unbekannter Herkunft, auch virtuose Klangverschneidung, in der Streicher und Stimmgabeln zu Glocken und Synthesizern mutieren. Nie geht es jedoch entschlossen in eine Richtung, die einzelnen Fasern krümeln sich zunehmend in eine beredte und doch leere Melancholie hinein, die das Ohr ermüdet, und es ist ein bisschen schade um den Aufwand.

“strings.lines” reviewed by Polychromic

strings.lines
Créées entre 2008 et 2010, les 5 pièces qui composent strings.lines sont de Nicolas Bernier. Compositeur canadien, entouré de Pierre Yves Martel et Chris Bartos, livre 5 lignes ou 5 diagonales entre passé et présent ou entre viole de bambe/violon et électronique. Une musique instrumentale et minimale gorgée de micro-sons, d’infimes résonances… Une musique traditionnelle moderne nécessaire et douce.

via Polychromic

Futurónica #29


Episode 29 of Futurónica, a broadcast in Rádio Zero (every two weeks, on Friday nights, repeating on Tuesdays at 01h) airs tomorrow, February 25th at 21h (GMT).

The playlist for Futurónica #29 is:

  • Christian Marclay, Footsteps (1989, Footsteps, RecRec Music)
  • James Eck Rippie, Black Transmission (2008, Mus*****c, Crónica)
  • Otomo Yoshihide, Cut Records (2007, Multiple Otomo, Asphodel)
  • Milan Knížák, Composition n. 3 (1979, Broken Music, Multhipla Records)
  • Hecker, Yoshihide Otomo / Isoo (2000, [R*] Iso | Chall, Mego)
  • Eosin, Self-Reproduction Loops [live at Transmediale.11] (2011)

You can hear Rádio Zero’s broadcasts at radiozero.pt/ouvir.

New unlimited release: @c’s “Homem Fantasma”


Composed by Miguel Carvalhais & Pedro Tudela in Porto, 2009-2010, except “78” with Pierre Alexandre Tremblay in 2010.

“Homem Fantasma” presents three new compositions that steer @c’s work into new domains of audial exploration.

@c’s music is about complexity, dispersal, multiplicity and active listening. It’s about the complexity of what is in the music, what is not, and what may be filled in by the listener’s brain. Dispersal and multiplicity walk hand in hand in these pieces, created by a (sometimes staggering but never overtly evident) layering effect, through the composition of rich and complex soundscapes that challenge the listener to focus on single threads while inevitably reserving parallel sequences to be discovered on later hearings. Multiple viewpoints enrich the compositions with the struggle and balance between (dis)concordant strains of sound that create multiple perspectives, varied departure and landing points for a listening experience that is never facilitated and nothing short of challenging.

The length of the compositions is dilated, to allow the listener to re-enter the same piece consecutively, developing multiple and varied listening experiences during its running time. False-starts or pauses are used as markers for this traversal, dragging one out of the continuum just to plunge back into it.

@c’s music is constructed. After the initial sound building, the exploratory work from which the basic elements are created, they proceed to a layering stage, where sounds are arranged in order to build the unified whole. This music is not hermetic or gratuitously difficult, much on the contrary. As complex as these constructions may be, and as far as they may stand from easily categorizable format or straightforward descriptions, they are able to generate immediate and strong aesthetic reactions, leaving strong and lasting impressions on listeners. But they do demand attention, interpretation and scrutiny of the nuances and details of the pieces.

The three compositions in “Homem Fantasma” were created during a period of almost two years. They were slowly chiseled and refined, they integrated bits and pieces of chance encounters, mishaps, dérives, and contaminations, emerging from the meeting of multiple forces, semantic contexts and actions. Field recordings and found sounds, a very important part of the sound palette, bring with them recognizable (although vaguely alien) timbres and textures, but @c’s music is also built from segments of live recordings and studio recordings, processes and experiences that are collated in the compositions.

Besides being an homage of sorts, the title of this release originates from the ghostliness of computational music and the immateriality of the musician’s role in its creation and performance, their simultaneous presence, immanence, and absence from the music. This is @c’s first release in Crónica’s Unlimited series of freely downloadable editions.

You can download “Homem Fantasma” as high-quality MP3 or Apple Lossless files directly from Crónica and free of charge. Donations are welcome! :)

“Pastoral” reviewed by Resonant Strata

Pastoral
“Pastoral” from Arturas Bumsteinas the latest release on the portuguese Crónica label starts off quite eerie. A haunting piece called “Boletus Satanas” offers exactly what the title suggests: A sonic exploration that oscillates between field recordings, shamanic rituals and drones forming a dark and brooding sound monolith. Voices whisper and mumble in the background, slowed down noises echo left and right, while woodwind and brass instruments resonant and swell in a constant stream.

Dough, the second track, presents itself in a lighter mood. Situated somehwere between textural works in the vein of La Monte Young and early free jazz recordings, Dough is a live recording of a small ensemble – disjointed rhythms flicker in the background, strings clash against eather other forming dissonant clusters.Although being based on samples, the third piece titled “Violin, Viola & Untitled” sounds more like an early study in synthesized sounds. Whirring tones, beating harmonics shifting against each other forming a dense textural cloud.

After those three intense pieces, Bumsteinas closes the album with a soothing meandering 24 minutes long drone track that ventures along beautiful harmonics and provides a perfect counterpoint to the more intense first half of the album.

At first “Pastoral” might seem to lack a little structure or direction, but the different approaches complement each quite well making Pastoral a really stunning work. Arturas Bumsteinas’ “Pastoral” is a brillant joyride through various themes of modern and post modern music ranging from drone works and ensemble recordings to dense atonal textures. As usual Crónica doesn’t disappoint and releases a great album that shows how important well curated labels are. Given the fact that this release is available for free and for donation, this shouldn’t be missing in any record collection.

via Resonant Strata