…i due album firmati Ran Slavin e qui riasemblati in un eraviglioso ambiente fluttuante e mellifluo, dove piccole increspature di suono e crepitii riescono a mandare in estasi gli ascoltatori più delicati. L’utilizzo di chitarre manipolate, di violini triduli e di frequenze molto basse dona sensazioni ora di salubre tepore, ora di leggera asperità , conducendo l’album verso un risultato di piacevole fremito uditivo. (…) Un gran disco, arrichito dal”artwork di Jewboy Co.
Michele Casella
Ran Slavin’s CD is apparently meant to be a split CD with himself (an original approach I must admit). This release is also quite minimal, but contains more accessible sounds (loops and drones) from an instrumental background that form a warm, almost Mediterranean, atmosphere somewhere between the styles of Fennesz and Vance Orchestra. The overall CD is very nice, but I do not really understand why this is supposed to be a split release. The second half of the disc (the “split” side) is a bit colder in atmosphere, but contains the same style elements used on the first half, so it is simply a CD that contains two nice works.
TD
I’ll arrive quelquefois, pour un remixeur, que la proximité imposée avec l’univers d’un autre créateur le temps d’un remix appraisse trop courte, que l’envie soit plus fort de continuer lÃmmersion et la fusion des univers au-delà du travail initialement commandé. Il arrive aussi, même si cela est plus rare, que lesdits remixeurs poussent cette envie siffisamment loin pour en tirer matière à un album entier (…) Extrêmement minimal, mais largement plus sonore que la totalité de l’oeuvre de *0, Further Consequences of Reinterpretation dessine une paysage de clics, de fréquences ténues et de vents numériques, soufflant toujours à la surface de l’audible.
As edições da Crónica Electrónica têm marcado positivamente o último ano, tanto pela regularidade como sobretudo pela coerência e qualidade dos lançamentos na área da experimentação audiovisual. Dentro do movimentado calendário editorial destaca-se a série Product, uma bem delineada recuperação da lógica split que possibilita a conjugação de duas peças distintas por dois artistas diferentes, que se complementam no plano áudio e são complementados na perspectiva visual por um empacotamento elaborado por um terceiro elemento. É manifesto o cuidado e o entusiasmo pela divulgação que é posto nestas edições.
Tropical Agent e Ears In Water formam o Product 02, depois do primeiro split entre Sumugan Sivanesan e Durán Vázquez, com capa de Maia Gusberti [O “Product 03â€, dividido entre André Gonçalves e Jorge Cortés, com trabalho gráfico da InsertSilence, foi também recentemente editado]. Excepcionalmente, é composto por dois trabalhos do mesmo autor, Ran Slavin. Ran Slavin é um experiente artista audiovisual israelita, já editado pela Crónica Electrónica na compilação On Paper com dois temas em parceria com Sebastien Meissner sob o nome de b.Z_ToneR.
Tropical Agent, o primeiro trabalho, está em constante metamorfose, como som a movimentar-se lentamente por um caminho sinuoso, escolhendo aleatoriamente um percurso exposto aos elementos. Há um forte pulsar orgânico na maioria das composições, de entre as quais destaco “Silent Siren†e “Guitar Strings / Empty Streetsâ€. Em Ears In Water há no inÃcio um relacionamento quase literal com o tÃtulo, na maneira em que induz um torpor hipnótico e ondulante, que posteriormente prossegue para um crescente abstracionismo, com maior ênfase na manipulação.
Da soma destas duas partes resultam dois conjuntos distintos, de interesse nem sempre constante, mas coerentes consigo próprias e com uma estética louvável. Os aspectos gráficos foram realizados pelo também israelita Yaron Shin…
Manuel Poças
This album from the experimental Portuguese label Cronica is actually a split disc featuring two separate works, coincidently from the same artist. Ran Slavin is an audio/ video composer and improviser who has previously operated under diverse monikers such as Tonr, Extract, Iran and Rose of Jericho, working with various noise outfits in Israel and London from the late 80’s – early nineties. These days his musical work is purely within the abstract electronic realm, utilising flecks of static and warm metallic drones to come across with the treated lushness and depth of Austrian maestro Christian Fennesz. The initial nine cuts under the umbrella Tropical Agent are quite amazing constructions, gorgeous minimal drone pieces, warm low key pulses that resemble beats, skittery delayed electronics and a craftsman like use of dynamics. Allowing for thirty seconds dead air in between, on Vista Plain, the opening track of the second part entitled Ears in Water, Slavin incorporates the gentle strumming of guitar, a pulsating drone and some gently tearing digital static to hypnotic effect. Whilst the remainder of the disc continues deep within the experimental realm of the first, it is actually stranger, somewhat more abstract, with peculiar muttering over far away drones, and sounds that seem to begin from miles away before slowly evolving into focus.
Bob Baker Fish
Vorbei die zeiten, in denen avantgarde anstrengend und schräg klingen mußte! Beide musiker haben die remixten versionen der 0.000 Cd von Nosei Sakata auf der sich kein hörbares material befand, genutzt, um live, im rahmen eines konzertes beim Goethe Institut in Lissabon, diese aufnahmen herzustellen. In einem ping-pong verfahren spielen sich beide musiker die gleichen samples zu, um eine flirrende, leichte musik zu schaffen. Abstrakt sind die einzelnen sound ineinander verwoben, sirren von einem lautsprecher in den anderen und machen das hirn mit gepiepse nervös. so geht das in allen stücken mit erstaunlicher variationsbreite, ohne daß es langweilig wird. Mir hat die Cd beider sehr gut gefallen, weil es beweist daß auch avandgarde sehr unterhaltsm sein kann, ohne verflachen zu müssen.
Blinding flashes, quick mirages and sad memories seem to be what Ran Slavin builds upon. Here he presents two works, “Tropical agent” and “Ears in water”; both parts very well functioning as “active ambient” material, perfect to be listened during other activities – nevertheless, the care in assembling sounds is total, guaranteeing a stimulating perspective from the listener’s point of view. Tasteful morsels of ahead-thinking knowledge about the psychology of aural reception are continuously served during the 70+ minutes of the disc; the music itself becomes a mechanism for turning up a mellow unquietness which is essential in this “product” appreciation process. This music does not attack you directly, it rather settles into your humour transforming itself, helping filling those voids that are the first signs of uneasiness in a nice example of emotional juggling.
Massimo Ricci
This disc published on the Portuguese Crónica Electronica label, is a collaborative project between the sound artists Paulo Raposo [who runs the Sirr.ecords label] from Lisbon, Portugal and the German Marc Behrens [Raster Noton, Trente Oiseaux, Sirr.ecords] from Darmstadt. This disc has its origins in the CD “0.000” of the Japanese Nosei Sakata, aka *0 [Instinct, 12k]. The dynamic range frequencies are so low that the sounds are almost imperceptible to the human ear. Then, Behrens made a remix of this disc that was titled “*0-0.000” published on the Inflation label. For it was used rremixes made by other musicians like Taylor Deupre [12k]; Hsi-Chuang Cheng, Aube [G.R.O.S.S., Manifold] Richard Chartier [Line], Akira Rabelais [Orthlorng Musork, Ritornell]; John Hudak [Bremsstrahlung, Ash International] Bernhard Günter [Ash International] and Steve Roden [Fällt; Trente Oiseaux, 12k, Line] and worked on them to deepen in a new reinterpretación of this music. Alongside his colleague Paulo Raposo -with whom he is collaborating on the design for the Portuguese Sirr.ecords label -, he received from Behrens the sounds used and from these he made a new reinterpretation. What we can listen here are timeless skips, glitches and digital processed noises forming dense atmospheres. Without a doubt an abstract sound from the new generation.
Guillermo Escudero
Einer dieser remixer war Marc Behrens, mit dem wir schon mal einen der an dieser CD beteiligen Künstler beisammen hätten. Jener war dann vom Ergebnis der Remixarbeiten so begeistert, dass er diese Remixe erneut als Grundlage für einen erneuten Remix hernahm. Irgendwann stiess Paulo Raposo zu diesem kreativen Prozess hinzu, alles steigerte sich immer mehr in diese Arbeit hinein, bis nun schlussendlich ebenjene CD als (vielleicht auch nur vorläufiges) Endprodukt herauskam. Und wie klingt sowas? Erstaunlicherweise nicht nach “Nichts”. Vor allem kurze Pleeps und Clicks, dazu hochfrequente Sinustöne, mal Rauschen. Selten ist bei den 22 Tracks ein Ansatz einer abgeschlossenen Struktur zu erkennen, wenn man nicht ab und zu auf das Display des CD-Players schaut, könnte es genausogut ein einziger langer Track sein. Trotz spricht eines der Hauptkriterien, dass ich an solch Soundexperimente habe,für die CD: Selbst bei mehrmaligen Hören nervt es noch nicht.
CS
Au premier abord on a l’impression d’avoir en écoute un long bidouillage électronique ponctué de drones empruntés et lunaires. En fait il faut bien avoir à l’esprit le concept de l’élaboration de ce disque. Une démarche qui se rapproche plus des concepts de l’art ou de la musique contemporaine. Un musique concrète qui fait fi des conventions habituelles et qui arrive, malgré son minimalisme abusif, à créer un univers sonore structuré qui n’est pas sans rappeler les disques de Ryoji Ikeda. Un disque, qui bien qu’il ne soit pas si évident que cela, apporte une forme d’approche différente de la musique. Le duo n’est certes pas le premier à s’aventurer dans ce genre d’expérimentation casse gueule mais il arrive à maîtriser son sujet sans avoir à dégoûter définitivement tout prétendant à ce type de musique complexe et cérébrale.
« Further» n’est certes pas un album auquel on adhère facilement et il est certain qu’il s’adresse déjà à des gens qui ont une certaine expérience dans ce genre d’effort mais il laisse quelques ouvertures qui permettent de le trouver un peu plus accessible qu’il n’y paraît. On peut toujours prendre le risque.
Fabien
