Here we have two labels from Portugal, from the same city even (Porto), and both labels deliver musicians to the project Maquia Magnetica. Sonoscopia’s boss Gustavo Costa on drums, Cronica boss Miguel Carvalhais, teaming with his @C mate Pedro Tudela. They are both on computers. Rodrigo Carvalho is the fourth player, “on generative visuals and interactive lights”. He might not be on the CD, but images grace the cover. This group has played a few concerts and a few studio recordings, and all of this went into the pieces on this CD. This release is not a documentation of a show or the result of studio recording, but, at least that’s what I gather from the information, a document of their shared interest in playing free music. However, the music is not necessarily pure, free improvisation but a restructuring of sounds. If you will, this music is part of the musique concrète tradition. That means there is an organisation within the improvisation here. At least, that’s how I see this, and maybe I am wrong. With Costa using a fair share of electronics, the music has throughout an electronic character, in which the drums only sparsely sound like drums. There are quite a few drone and drone-related sounds to be noted, and another assumption is that Tudelo and Carvalhais also apply real-time processing. The characteristic hectic of improvised music (well, it is not a rule, of course) is only partly present here. Maybe it is due to the post-recording editing that this was changed, but it might also be inherent to their way of playing this music. I found this CD to be a slow grower. Every time I played this, I heard something more and noted the structures they created within the music. This release could appeal to those who like improvisation and those for whom that is too weird, but whose heads are all turned to musique concrète. (FdW)
via Vital Weekly