Our Portuguese double act @c (Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais) are here with a new cassette called Espaço, Pausa, Repetição (CRONICA 150-2019). This one arose from an installation project which they did at the University of Porto. Apparently over fifty creators contributed about 300 “sound objects†to this project, and if @c are using these as the basis for today’s cassette, it’s no wonder it sounds so disconnected and bitty – like lots of small plates of raw fish in a Japanese restaurant. I’m never greatly impressed by these things which are described as “multisensory†and “immersiveâ€, when all it amounts to is a bunch of speakers set in a frame in an exhibition space. I appreciate the idea that they’re trying to create an autonomous sound environment of some sort, but it’s not a very interesting one, probably because the original source materials are so banal and bland. Even so, @c deserve some credit for the effort involved in stitching together so many short, diverse pieces of sound in one place. Ed Pinsent