“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by Paris Transatlantic

There’s a Quicktime movie on Two Novels too, an evocative hand-held camera night ride on the BMT Jamaica elevated subway. Brooklyn-based o.blaat, real name Keiko Uenishi, is best known for her interactive audio environments (including the reasonably self-explanatory “beat piece (with Ping-Pong game)” and “audio coat check”) but has laptopped her way throughout North America and Europe in the company of, to name but a few, Kaffe Matthews, Toshio Kajiwara, DJ Olive, Aki Onda, Akio Mokuno, Ikue Mori and Eyvind Kang. These seven make cameo appearances in the nine-movement “Gaze”, a varied and inventive survey of the electronica landscape, from field recordings to the cut’n’splice of “egg salad sandwich” (as chopped up and scrambled as its title suggests), from de rigueur crackles and crunches to booming drones and explosions of vicious noise. All very listenable, even if it is hard to detect Uenishi’s own personal signature. That said, stylistic plurality has long been a hallmark of the so-called Downtown scene; Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins and Marina Rosenfeld are just as eclectic. “In the Cochlea”, the second so-called novel, is, as its title suggests, more intimate. In fact, it’s best appreciated on headphones, though if you think that means you’re in for nice long stretch of onkyo pianissimo, you haven’t heard “eight-o” yet, heh heh. Though there are plenty examples of par-for-the-course low-volume whispers, crackles and whooses (“miminohome”), Uneishi does come up with some real and very beautiful surprises. “nightvision” is particularly haunting. Like the video.

DW

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by Underground Society

Sonorités extrèmes comme plus souples, ce O.Blaat et ses guest stars ont déployés toute une inventivité rythmique pour mettre au point une musique séquentielle à basse de sonorités distordues pour créer un environnement semi fragile. C’est l’absence de toute mélodies qui renforce le côté indus minimaliste de cette oeuvre. On assiste par le biais des guests Gaze et In The Cochlea à une leçon de rythmique à base d’impulsion électroniques. D’une très grande qualité sonore, visuelle et esthétique, O.Blaat et son nouvel album est une réussite à tout point de vue. Et si par expérience auditive vos nerfs ne sont pas encore à rude épreuve, je vous invite à vous plonger dans la vidéo qui vous mènera dans le métro de new york pour un voyage introspectif. A découvrir.

Philippe Duarte

“v3” reviewed by Cyclic Defrost

@C are the Porto based electronic artists Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais. Regularly utilising field recordings, samples and strange electronic sounds, over the course of three albums they have displayed a firm commitment to improvisation and deconstruction, in creating new and interesting links via their internal electronic dialogue. Their second outing on the strange and uncompromising Portuguese Cronica label, V3 is significant in that it is culled from live performances and features the duo improvising with numerous collaborators, often in the electro acoustic realm. Though all the pieces have come from their live work in 2003, they were later edited and remixed by @c. And the results are quite startling. Though the various ensembles have been shuffled throughout the disc, there are performances with guitarists, visual artists and percussionists, all of which illustrate @c’s amazing ability to craft innovative and quite challenging soundscapes with multiple partners. The sounds verge on near silent improvised jazz, gorgeous droning strums of guitar, strange jittery electro speak, high pitched waves of electronic atmospheres, to some of the most uncompromising semi industrial improvised house music around. Perhaps due to its improvised nature V3 feels incredibly freeform, yet thanks to the remixing the pieces always have a vague, thoroughly unexpected structure and always continue to develop. It’s avant experimental electronics in its purest form. Startling and genre defying.

Bob Baker Fish

“v3” reviewed by Rui Eduardo Paes

Pelo que verifiquei nos seus dois discos anteriores e se confirma em «v3», as propostas dos portuenses @c vivem do cruzamento de estéticas e de modos de abordagem, indo de reminiscências do techno ao experimentalismo improvisado, e do “beat” mais explícito ao desconstrucionismo pró-abstraccionista. É sobretudo esta última vertente que nos é presenteada na sua nova edição, uma recolha remisturada de uma série de concertos ao vivo em Portugal e no estrangeiro realizada pelo agora duo de Pedro Tudela e Miguel Carvalhais com músicos convidados, como Andy Gangadeen, Vítor Joaquim, João Hora, Manuel Mota e Pedro Almeida, que pertenceu ao colectivo entre 2000 e 2003. E ainda que tudo o que aqui é reproduzido tenha sido trabalhado em estúdio a posteriori, fica clara a vocação performativa do projecto – esta é a melhor música que já lhes ouvi em CD (…) estando ao nível do que vem deitando cá para fora a frente vienense representada por Kurzmann, Siewert e Dafeldecker.

Rui Eduardo Paes

“Still Important Somekind Not Normally Seen (Always Not Unfinished)” reviewed by Neural

Microsuoni, elettronica sperimentale e variazioni tonali, condensati in una raffinata performance di Björgulfsson, Gough e Thorsson, registrata live al Melkfabriek, Den Bosh, nell’Ottobre del 2002 e successivamente editata da Robert Hampson negli studi del Thirst a Londra. Nonostante il titolo certamente non sintetico abbastanza chiari all’ascolto risuonano gli intenti di questi tre valenti musicisti, il primo proveniente da Reykjavik ma di base ad Amsterdam, focalizzato sul rapporto naturale-digitale e sulla concettualizzazione dell’organico, il secondo australiano, ben conosciuto sotto il moniker di Pimmon per le sue uscite su Tigerbeat6 e Staalplat (nella serie Mort Aux Vaches). Questi si rivela più eclettico ma altrettanto rigoroso nella scelta e nella elaborazione dei suoni, approntati in questo live insieme con Helgi Thorsson, stessa età (30 anni) e provenienza natale di Björgulfsson, un passato come membro degli Stilluppsteypa con diverse uscite discografiche in Europa, Usa e Giappone. Sono le sonorità sguiscianti, i click e i tappeti di frequenze ad essere in evidenza, fra sporadici inserimenti ritmici (tenuemente industriali) ed emergenze naturali trasfigurate attraverso l’uso delle macchine. Commissionato originariamente dall’ Earational Festival il progetto si snoda per oltre quarantuno minuti (divisi in nove tracce), immateriali sequenze che rendono merito dell’evoluzioni e della contemporanea sensibilità alle nuove forme sonore.

Aurelio Cianciotta

“Still Important Somekind Not Normally Seen (Always Not Unfinished)” reviewed by Rockerilla

La musica di “Still Important Somekind Not Normally Seen” à chiaramente visionaria: la sua realtà è virtuale, esiste solo in uncontesto ben determinato, tracciato nei suoi confini da macchinosi esperimenti di ingegneria musicale, difficilmente decifrabili. E allora à il caso di chiudere per un momento gli occhi, di misurare il respiro concentrandosi sui battiti del proprio cuore: potreste rendervi conto di che lingua parlano gli alieni, potreste incantarvi in un’assoluta contemplazione del suono, potreste confondervi tra le immagini e i colori dell’altrave, e accorgervi che questa musica è magnetica, è pura, è fantasia.

Giancarlo Curro

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by Dusted Magazine

For her debut, she brings a bunch of her friends aboard, downtowners like Ikue Mori, dj Olive, Toshio Kajiwara, Aki Onda, Kaffe Matthews, and violinist Eyvind Kang. All players get puréed in her Powerbook, along with subway screeches, ringtones, and other urban clamor. The second-half of the album is meant for headphones, and microscopic tones and sinewaves are threaded through your head. Despite so many ingredients, Uenishi’s attention to detail and flow makes for a solid abstract listen.

Tad Abney

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by The Wire

With sleeve notes by Christian Marclay (who recorded her tapping her feet on the floor for his Footsteps record) and guest collaborations with the likes of Kaffe Matthews, Toshio Kajiwara, DJ Olive and Ikue Mori, Keiko Uenishi aka o.blaat’s debut album is something of an event. The album is split into two sections – the second to be heard trough headphones. The sounds produced on “Gaze” range from abstract electronic squigglings to high-pitched beats that unexpectedly phase into walls of static and falling water. Assisted on one track by sound modulators aki Onda and Akio Mokuno, o.blaat’s high tech computer music suddenly, and enjoyably, becomes embroiled in Onda’s more basic push-button cassete recorder loopings. Elsewhere her meeting with Ikue Mori produces a sublime electronic sound collage of distant voices and melting glacier effects that reverberates with psychedelic colours. On “In the Cochlea”, her mood is more minimalist and sensitive, a personalised conrontation with the listener. although fascinating, the latter’s more a selection of tone poems than a gripping novel.

Edwin Pouncey

“Still Important Somekind Not Normally Seen (Always Not Unfinished)” reviewed by ei magazine

Combining the compositional talents of Stilluppsteypa alumni Heimir Björgúlfsson and Helgi Thorsson with talented Australian Pimmon, Still Important Somekind Not Normally Seen (Always Not Unfinished) documents two live performances at Melkfabriek, Den Bosch, which were further enhanced by the editing skills of Main’s Robert Hampson. By simply compiling the best bits and pieces of the performances into nine untitled tracks of reasonable length, Hampson foregoes his drone / ambient leanings to pursue a creative editing process that allows the disc to achieve a level of listenability that’s sadly lacking in the majority of “nuts and bolts-included” live electronic recordings. Those familiar with Björgúlfsson’s solo and collaborative works will recognize the playful mood prevalent on Still Important’s nine untitled tracks. Not that Thorsson and Pimmon do not add to the proceedings; the opening track makes it quite clear that three minds are at work via the blending of competing echo-laden effects. Three tracks later, melodic phrases are distorted beyond recognition only to be split open in two by creeping iceberg frequencies that would give Thomas Köner a run for his money. Elsewhere, benign tones work their way around undercarriage rattling, only to be overcome by strands of pink noise wich somehow develop into a fairly catchy rhythm track. This is not music that stays in one place very long, yet all nine tracks come to logical, if at time dadaist, conclusions. If the results could hold a light to Still Important…, these three would do well to work together in a studio setting, preferably with editor Hampson at the console.

Everett Jang-Perdue

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by Rockerilla

Perfettamente calibrato e decisamente curato fino all’ultimo particolare, il debut album di o.blaat svela la sua dopoia anima attraverso un percorso destabilizzato ed allo stesso tempo illuminante. Opportunamente impreziosito dal geniale artwork di Helen Cho, “Two Novels” si distende su tappeti ambient dagli effetti perturbanti, esperimenti minimali dall’impatto straniante, glitch frastagliato e semi-destrutturazione. Spesso affiancata da nomi altisonanti della scena elettronica contemporanea, la newyorchese riserva la seconda parte del disco a tracce espressamente preparate per l’ascolto in cuffia, ed è qui che la ricerca del suono e la premurosa attenzione per il detaglio diventa determinante. Un’esperienza non certo inedita ma in ogni caso di alto livello, a cui si aggiunge un bonus video che sfrutta luci, effetti sonori, scritte e colori registrati durante un viaggio in treno.

Michele Casella