“A quartet of artists converge on the Lisboa Soa festival to delve deeper into aspects of sound. Lisboa Soa, Sounds Within Sounds ranges from field recording to drone to improvisation, often within a single track (Cronica, September 26).”
via A Closer Listen
In the stillness we touch the eternal?
With this new edition, Miguel A. García definitively abandons the low fidelity of his early work to give detritus, error and acoustic waste a luxury treatment that is recommended to be heard in good equipment. Just as before we heard their disturbing worlds from afar, we intuited them, now we are in there, we are the very central nucleus; we are part of it. What used to come from outside now comes from within. The remnants of light are brighter than ever. The most blinding darkness.
Quite simply: the first piece begins with the sounds of a field recording of a hypothetical space junk video game that, in an alien environment, organizes itself into a musical symphony, takes shape and organizes itself according to a logic of elusive masses .
The following theme shares with the first the lack of a marked regular rhythm, but instead they do have their tempo, their internal rhythm, their cadence based on micro-rhythms and sequences and frequencies, which make them not static but enormously dynamic. A liquid, mercurial nature (cold, but a good electrical conductor); constantly changing; an apparently imperceptible but profound metamorphosis.
On the other hand, the third theme opens with a mixture of the most unusual rhythms, a bizarre dance session in crescendo; psycho-electroacoustic dance. To close the cycle, the fourth piece brings us the melody seen through a hundred thousand veils, as sensual and seductive as elusive and painful.
The dissolution of all that is solid, the eternal and unstoppable dissolution of matter and its return to nothing.
Fernando Ulzión
Miguel A. García, also known as Xedh, is an artist resident in Bilbao who works on the field of experimental music and sound art. Trained in Fine Arts, he works on electroacoustic composition and improvisation, using sources obtained from the manipulation of electrical devices, sometimes mixing these with sounds of acoustic instruments and field recordings.
Both solo and in different groups, he has performed extensively in Europe, America and Asia. He has collaborated with many artists, both in studio and live, such as, among others: Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Ilia Belorukov, Francisco López, Francisco Meirino, Seijiro Murayama or Jean-Luc Guionnet. His work appears in more than a hundred albums with labels, such as Bestiarie, Crónica Electrónica, Cyclic Law, In Solace Publishing, Intonema, Malignant, Mikroton, Moving Furniture, Pure Reactive, Sentient Ruin, Slaughter Recs, etc.
At the same time, he works as event organizer and curator. He is the founder of Le Larraskito Club (Bilbao), the director of the Zarata Fest (strange/unusual music festival) and part of the organization of the Hotsetan cycle in Azkuna Zentroa (Bilbao), all of them platforms for the dissemination of different, odd and risky music and related disciplines.
Eraginie is now available as a limited-edition CD, download or stream from Crónica.
Miguel A. García launches Eraginie with the sounds of “a hypothetical space junk video game,” and then proceeds to find awe in detritus and debris (Crónica, September 5). via A Closer Listen’s Fall Music Preview.
Roel Meekop, come ogni artista sensibile, si fa molte domande sull’utilità della propria attività, sulla sua capacità di incidere nella realtà. Il suo restare inerme, di fronte alla guerra, è lo stesso del pittore minimalista Ad Reinhardt, che negli anni ’60 cercò un astrattismo geometrico, del tutto separato dai sentimenti personali. Puro colore, forma e razionalità. Reinhardt creò una cartolina con scritte contro la guerra, e anche contro la presenza della guerra nell’arte, per ribadire l’estraneità dalla realtà delle proprie opere. Meekop si è ispirato quasi per contrasto a Reinhardt, in quanto il fatto stesso che un’opera d’arte comunichi di volersi emancipare dal parlare di guerra, si contraddice perché la nomina, dunque si lega ad essa.
Roel Meekop, classe 1963, prima di manipolare il suono, ha studiato arti visive in Olanda, a Rotterdam. La musica è arrivata in un secondo momento, ed è indubbiamente legata a concetti visual. Nell’album “Viva in pace”, uscito per la portoghese Crónica Records, la ricerca sul suono è indirizzata da queste riflessioni sulla consapevolezza di non poter fare nulla contro la guerra, ma anche di cercare di rendere astratta la propria creazione musicale.
Afferma di avere paura del pensiero radicale di Reinhardt, perché, dice, se l’arte arriva davvero ad un punto definitivo, dopo averlo raggiunto che si fa? Si smette di creare, perché si è giunti alla fine dell’arte? Quindi, in “Viva in pace”, per quanto il suono sia elaborato nella sua forma d’onda, senza riferimenti extramusicali, Meekop ha tenuto i propri sentimenti come spunto di partenza. Poi non so se, senza averlo saputo dalle sue dichiarazioni, noi avremmo potuto ravvisare tali sentimenti, in questi suoni cangianti.
L’album è suddiviso in quattro tracce. Nella prima, possiamo notare un estremo “pampottaggio” (da pan pot), cioè il suono che dapprima si sposta tutto sulla sinistra (si nota soprattutto con le cuffie), poi tutto sulla destra, per un bel po’ di secondi. Gradualmente, il passaggio nelle orecchie si fa sempre più repentino, come un motore. Nella seconda traccia, ascoltiamo più rumori attorno allo stesso suono di base, che si fa sempre più levigato e luminescente, come una superficie che fa scintille tramite un saldatore.
“Viva in pace III”, il terzo capitolo, è scandito all’inizio dalle lancette di un orologio a muro. Così, facciamo caso ai secondi che scorrono. Accanto alla loro regolarità, si aggiungono gradualmente sempre più rumori irregolari, schiocchi di plastica, legni, disturbi bassi come vibrazioni di vecchie caldaie. A un certo punto, le lancette svaniscono, lasciandoci soli con gli impulsi elettronici, via via sempre più spigolosi.
Queste prime tre tracce durano rispettivamente 15, 13 e 10 minuti circa. L’ultima invece dura 4’49”, ed è fatta con polveri di rumore per i primi tre, per poi passare ad un lontano e suggestivo scampanellio, un loop di campane sempre più deformato dalla “corruzione” elettronica del suono. In chiusura, riconosciamo il verso di una tortora.
Il processo è freddo; il che, va specificato, non è un male. La freddezza è un antidoto all’estrema espressività, che se per alcuni può essere catartica e purificatrice, per altri può essere ulteriore fonte di stress. Come quando sei triste, e ti ascolti canzoni tristi sperando di sfogarti, e invece poi sei più triste di prima. L’astrattismo astrae, ti sottrae. E se non possiamo attivamente agire contro il male, possiamo almeno non sostenerlo, sottrarci. (Gilberto Ongaro)
via Music Map
Alcuni concetti sono ricorrenti perché affascinano numerosi artisti. David Lee Myers ne riapre uno spesso frequentato di recente, grazie alle continue conferme dalla fisica quantistica: il tempo non esiste. Noi siamo organismi che crescono e cambiano, in un prima e in un dopo. Ma quello che misuriamo è un continuum. Giorno e notte li consideriamo perché siamo sulla Terra, ma in realtà il tempo come forza è lineare, siamo in un eterno presente.
Ecco perché l’artista newyorchese, in “Strange attractors” (uscito per Crónica Records), crea esperienze sonore dove i suoni sono dilatati, e privi di una ritmica. Perché la ritmica ci scandirebbe un tempo, la percezione da cui egli vuole emanciparci. Artista visual e del suono, Myers dice che questa musica è un meccanismo di “rimozione del tempo”. Coi suoi lunghi suoni lentamente cangianti nei brani “Equability of powers”, “Iniquities”, “With perfect clarity” e “Yet another shore”, David Lee ci fa concentrare sul qui e ora.
Quando un suono viene così prolungato, si finisce per notarne i dettagli più piccoli. Hai mai dovuto ascoltare un allarme per tanto tempo? Se all’inizio sembra di sentire un’onda che sale e che scende, dopo un po’ ti accorgi che sono due o tre singoli suoni, alternati rapidamente, che danno l’illusione del movimento rotondo. Questo accade anche ascoltando le oscillazioni di questi suoni, evidenziando forse quegli “strani attrattori” tra le frequenze.
Le impressioni possono essere diverse, a seconda dell’esperienza che uno ha avuto, nel sentire suoni simili. Ad esempio, “With perfect clarity”, a me ricorda a tratti un macchinario industriale, a tratti il suono del monoscopio della Rai… Mentre “Yet another shore” sembra un aereo appena passato, il cui suono arriva in ritardo, però qui si fa via via più cristallino e rilucente.
David Lee Myers consiglia di ascoltare “Strange attractors” di notte, ed effettivamente confermo, anche se io sto scrivendo alle 13.17, con gli spaghetti al ragù davanti! A seconda della condizione in cui ti trovi, questo disco ti darà vibrazioni diverse. Ma di sicuro la notte è l’ideale, quando la coscienza è più attiva. (Gilberto Ongaro)
via Music Map
Sound is everywhere. It exists on so many scales at times it is difficult to grasp. Its energies intertwine with the wider systems of a city, bleeding beyond borders and passing through our perceived boundaries. Many of these intersecting energies are imperceptible to humans. Even spaces we consider quiet are, in fact, extremely busy, full of action and energy. To produce Vanishing Points, I documented how some of these urban flows intersect with my own everyday movements, and how I also contribute to them by recording the quiet space of my home as I cook and work; the quiet path surrounded by trees on the old railway line where I often run; the busy trains as I commute across the southwest of England; the crowded London tube lines; and the flow of people and traffic in the dense urban environments of Brixton and Bristol. As I traverse these spaces through stereo and electromagnetic field recordings, it becomes clear how everyday scenarios brim with life and activity, more than we might dare to imagine.
I recorded these urban movements using various types of field recordings such as an electromagnetic sensor, my smartphone, as well as stereo microphones connected to a small Zoom F3 field recorder. This semi-documental sonic drift and exploratory journey collates these various types of unprocessed field recordings and set them alongside heavily transformed recordings of electromagnetic pulses that underwent various iterations of sound processing until they became an evolving drone present throughout the composition.
These flows are a consequence of, and crucial part of, what it means to participate in contemporary societies, however, they are believed to negatively impact humans and other animals. This intense sonic abundance may well suggest a tragic future for urban environments, but perhaps instead we can consider what we can learn from these movements and contribute to alternative futures.
Vanishing Points is part of my larger artistic research on interconnectivity and extended critical listening methodologies for listening with, through and for, which includes various live performance iterations of the album Sunnyside released by Crónica in 2020; Multiple Perceptions of the Everyday Unfolded: The Case Study of Sunnyside, an academic journal article published on the Journal of Sonic Studies in January 2022; Echoes, a wandering concert for the European night of museums at Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris, a collaboration between SONCITIES and Eric de Visscher; critical listening workshops led by the SONCITIES research team; and this album, which combines traces of my movements in various urban spaces and their dialogue with the electromagnetic pulses around me.
Matilde Meireles is a sound artist and researcher who makes use of field recordings to compose site-oriented projects. Her work has a multi-sensorial and multi-perspective critical approach to site, where Matilde investigates the potential of listening across spectrums as ways to encounter and articulate a plural experience of the world — human and otherwise. These range from the inner architectures of reeds and complex water ecologies, to the local neighbourhood, resonances in everyday objects, and the architecture of radio signals. She often highlights collaboration and participation as catalysts for a shared understanding of place, developing project-based or long-term collaborations. Her work is presented regularly in the form of concerts, installations, releases, and community-based projects. Matilde is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford University in the project Sonorous Cities: Towards a Sonic Urbanism.
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme as part of the project Sonorous Cities: Towards a Sonic Urbanism (grant agreement No 865032)
Miguel A. García is an artist living in Bilbao who works in experimental music and sound art. He is active in various groups or collectives and is also known under his other project name, Xedh. In another life, for another magazine (back in 2010), I got to review his release “Vinduskarm” on the Athens-based Triple Bath label (whatever happened to them?). In that review, I wrote, “The tracks form a nicely composed soundscape ranging from the watery sound of children’s toys to somewhat more harsh sounding noise. At no moment, it gets
dull or boring.” That was a CD with seven tracks, and “Eraginie” is a four track CD under his own name. Many differences, though the previous conclusion, ‘at no moment it gets dull or boring,’ remains.
Miguel’s music is ‘based on electroacoustic composition, using as the main medium waste from electronic devices’ combined with ‘field recordings and acoustic instruments’. And as we all know by now, it’s in the ear of the beholder what is done with it and what it turns into. “Vri Seg” opens the album quite chaotic with a lot of time-based manipulations; That is, the manipulations are static, yet they are implemented on sounds for a smaller period. The composition gets a bit erratic, but it’s what it’s meant to be. In “Harmattans”, the erratic behaviour is better placed and timed (as well as faded in and out), creating a more coherent flow. When in the end, the sounds of (almost) real instruments enter the composition, it gets an unworldly feeling.
The third track, “Roh”,
builds on microtonal and micro rhythmic differences and adds to the chaotic feeling from the first track. Out of the perspective of getting relaxed, it’s my least favourite track of the album, but because it made me feel uncomfortable, it also emphasizes its strength. But, then the fourth and final “Stellaire”. It seems to be built from classical themes combined with Miguel’s method as basics for this album. The microtonal and micro rhythmic manipulations also find their place in this, and as the title suggests: It’s stellar. “Eraginie” is a lovely album and a must-hear for the electroacoustics. (BW)
via Vital Weekly
We are thrilled to present the first release by Philippe Petit in Crónica his brilliant “Drinking the Acheron River at Its Source”, now available as a download or stream.
This is a prequel to A Divine Comedy…
Philippe Petit has completed his most ambitious work to appear on Cronica early in 2024, A Divine Comedy, taking Dante Alighieri’s immense poem as a point of inspiration and developing a double album soundtrack-voyage.
Drinking the Acheron River at Its Source was composed just after and is what one might call a prequel since its story precedes that of the previously created work and depicting Dante dreaming that he is with Virgil alive and bathing in the legendary river, accidentally drinking the poison that will engulf them and mark the beginning of the journey…
Dante had a dream
Meeting Virgil
Leading to the waters of Acheron.
Thick with mire
Of fathomless flood
A whirlpool seethes and belches all its purity
Just as blue as autumn,
The desire to bathe too strong,
To lose one’s footing is easy and the cup will drink whoever is not careful…
The poison shall creep in and the journey to the underworld’s entrance begin
Philippe Petit celebrates forty years of activism in 2023! Born in Marseille, South of France, he started Djing, animating radio shows and editing zines in 1983. His current and past projects and collaborations can be found at philippepetit.info and modulisme.info.
Gerade ist ein neues Album des New Yorker (Klang-)Künstlers David Lee Myers erschienen, der auch unter seinem Projekt Arcane Device bekannt ist, es enthält vier auslandende Tracks von meist kreisender Dröhnung, die sich in Fülle und Intensität stetig steigert. Ein wesentlicher Fokus des u.a. auf Feedback, gesampleten Geräuschen und digitalen Zeiteffekten (Delay, Reverse etc.) basierenden “Strange Attractors” ist in Myers eigener Beschreibung das Suspendieren der gewöhnlichen Zeitwahrnehmung: “Strange Attractors is an example of what may be called Time Displacement Music. A varying mix of feedback, other noise sources, and found sounds are fed to a series of stereo digital delay units whose parameters (delay time, reverse, freeze, etc.) are manipulated in real-time via LFOs, sample and hold controllers, and so on, as well as live manual adjustments to produce an ever-evolving pastiche of sound washes. Sitting quietly (especially late at night) and listening to these compositions can be strangely exhilarating.
My earliest involvement with electronics in music was the introduction of tape delay units. They utterly fascinated me: take a moment of time and store it, move it about, bend it into different shapes. Unbelievable! I spent hours unearthing the possibilities. Years later, technological advances have allowed much more complex capabilities in this realm, and modern versions of the time delay have always been at the core of my sonic explorations. Thus, Time Displacement Music. Taoism, Buddhism, and even contemporary physics state that fundamentally, there is no time, that there is only an incomprehensible eternally existing now, which we have little to no understanding of. But as a composer, I play with time. Unlike painting, for instance, all music is time-based. This creates a conundrum: if time does not exist, what is a composer working with, working upon? I cannot give a meaningful answer, but continue to play”. Das Album erscheint als CD und zum Download bei Crónica.
via African Paper
