Soon in Crónica: “Is the Space Empty Only to be Filled with the Energy of this Voice?â€
“Bittersweet Melodies†reviewed by Nitestylez
Put on the circuit only recently via the Portuguese Cronica-imprint is “Bittersweet Melodies”, the most recent album effort by Ran Slavin who has released a string of numerous releases on labels like Earsay, Sub Rosa, Mille Plateaux and of course Cronica since the late 90s. With his eleventh longplay effort we see the artist, who’s mainly at home in the field of video installation and film, delve deeper into the musical spectrum of Ambient, Electronica and Clicks’n’Cuts-influenced textures, serving fascinating loop cut-ups like the highly hypnotic “Category: Murdered Entertainers” which introduces scattered bits of Jazz Noir and a tense, gut-stimulating overall feel as well as filtered, off-tune pianos blown over from afar in combination with glitchy beat abstractions and ultradigital sound manipulations in tunes like “Disruptive Lounge”. In “Fake Sunsets” cinematic and kitsch-loaden strings are clashing with dope beats and layers of tribal drums in an Illbient-reminiscing manner, “Dubai Dawn” fuses more sonic cinematography with chopped vocal bits and a little bit of balearic cheesiness, “Sad But True” sees piano loops meet waves of disortion, a steady heartbeat provided by low frequency pulses, alarming signals and a post-fall out atmosphere whilst “Sinatra Was Here” brings in what seem to be Spanish guitars and a tropical feel in contrast to off-kilter classical samples and digital skips, all combined and merged to be a well laid back yet unsettling variation of TripHop / Downbeat. More loops and surface crackles are to be found in the well dark’ish cut named “The Pineapple Assassin” which could be described as an abstract, slomo take on Minimal Techno / Armchair Techno, the “Collapsing Melody” introduces the vacillating, crackling and jarring unsteadiness of glitching, digital sound modification and manipulation in DAW Ambient and “Fast Moving Circumstances” are not that fast moving but exploring Armchair Techno realms in a decent, yet thrilling way. Finally “Deserted New Buildings” seems to be the most dancefloor friendly tune featured in this longplay piece, sporting mechanical, uncompromisingly marching drums and trippy loops in rewind for the Minimal House posse before the concluding track “Discreet Features” builds tension through a feel of immanent danger and fast-paced, slightly robotic sci-fi grooves built from clicks’n’crackles. Defo a good one, this.
“Roha†reviewed by Bad Alchemy
Andreas Trobollowitsch konnte einem schon zu Ohren kommen zusammen mit Johannes Trödel als Nörz und deren “(Also Known As) Acker Velvet†(Schramm, 2009) und als Acker Velvet mit “Carbon & Chairs†(Monotype, 2012). In erstem Fall wurde als sein Instrumentarium Tape, Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Melodica [Prepared] uns Electronics [Inside Radio, Feedback] gennant. Das ist auch bei ROHA (Crónica 105~2016) gut vorstellbar, auch wenn da nur Drum- und Basssamples als weitere Zutaten gelistet werden. Bei “1’11â€â€ wellt sich zitternd und surrend das Feedback von einem E-Bass. “Ratt” dreht sich klapprig quietschend und zwitschernd als mit einem Vokalsample und Melodica tätowiertes, drahtig-blechern mahlendes Etwas. Bei “tapco†lobt schwerfälliges und knattriges Schlagwerk zu einer surrenden und dröhnenden Klangwand mit Kontrabassingredienzen. Auch “tuul†mischt Bass mit Gedröhn und Schlagzeug in einer Reihe von Schüben. “i.ii.†besteht aus elektroperkussiven Drehungen, gesäumt von klickenden und surrenden Klären und einer spitzen Frequenz. Bei ‘Essbeat’ sind ins elektroperkussiv knarrende und läutende, mühsam angeblasene und mit Minuswelle angestochene Dingding Pianosplitter gestreut. Ein weiteres, von Becken leise beticktes, spitz bedrohtes Spiel mit Kontrabass ist mit seinen Schlagfolgen ‘rain’ getauft. Zuletzt beginnt ‘klavirzinho’ als Innenklaviercymbalum, das sich mehr und mehr in sein Geklöppelt einspinnt, plötzlich abdunkelt und allmählich als gedämpft pochender Trauermarsch verhallt. So manches wird ‘organisch’ gennant und ich weiß nicht so recht warum, hier aber, wenn man sich das einigermaßen hybrid und chimärenhaft vorstellt, schon.
“Against Nature†reviewed by Bad Alchemy
Sehr schön umraunt Jim Haynes, der ja auf Helen Scarsdale Agency Simon Whetham’s “From The Mouths of Clay†(2014) herausgebracht hat, mit “loom… unease… carcinogenic… confusion†die unheimliche Suggestivität, mit der der Brite sich dem Unbekannten annähert. Ausgerechnet in Kristiansand fand Whetham im Herbst 2013 die Sounds, aus denen er Against Nature konstruierte. Er bezieht sich damit auf “À Rebours†(1884, zu dt. “Gegen den Strichâ€) von Joris-Kalr Huysmans, dessen Protagonist Des Esseintes selbst bei Houllebecqs “Unterwerfung†noch die Quintessenz des Dekadenz verkörpert. Bei Whetham ist Natur ein nebulöses Beinahenichts, anfangs noch von Grillen bezirpt. Aber je abgenutzter und abgeschliffener und aus zweiter Hand, desto mehr wird sie zum rauschenden Schleifstein, an dem sich die Gedanken und Gefühle wund reiben. Brausende uns fesselnde Impulse könnten von Regen herrühren, werden jedoch zu einer abstrakteren Wall of Sound und in ihrem wummernden Grau in Grau zu einem Nessushemd für jeden Des Esseintes. Stöhnende Laute sausen umeinander wie poetisch auf Fliegengröße verkleinerte Rennwagen, reibeiserne Verzerrungen zerren am Trommelfell. Nadelige Beats säumen ein abbruchunternehmerisches Rumoren, das abbricht für windspielerisches Geglöckel. Hatte nicht Léon Blog, einer von Huysmans großen Bewunderern, sich als ‘Entrepreneur de démolitions’ vorgestellt? Whetham setzt Verzerrungen als Bohrer an, lässt es links bersten, rechts prickeln, in der Mitte brodeln und brummen. Er scharrt und scheppert mit Eisenteilen und endet mit einem durchflatterten Aufbrausen une einer stotzigen Blechdeppenversion von R2-D2. Ihr schwachen Sträflinge des Lebens, seht es doch ein, die Welt gehört robusteren Naturen.
“Gamelan Descending a Staircase†reviewed by The Sound Projector
Last noted the Lithuanian composer Arturas Bumšteinas in 2014 with his Epiloghi, an ingenious construct which made connections between theatrical sound-effect making machines and the work of the Italian Futurists. His new release likewise confirms that he’s visually literate and informed about the history of art; it’s called Gamelan Descending A Staircase (CRÓNICA 100-2015). He is intending an explicit link between this 50-minute composition and the 1912 painting by Marcel Duchamp, although it’s a not a wholly conceptual link; it came to him in a dream, a vision…he had the fanciful idea of a Gamelan orchestra falling downstairs. In some ways I wish Bumšteinas had pursued this original fancy and staged such an event, even at the expense of injuring himself and some fellow musicians and causing permanent damage to the instruments…it reminds me of John Cale’s irresponsible idea for pushing a piano down a mineshaft. Some ideas are probably better not executed.
I seem to recall that Duchamp’s original painting did contain the idea of expressing movement within a static plane…trying to respond to this visual challenge, a new challenge posed perhaps by motion pictures…but he also ended up fracturing his representation of the human body in some way, as he attempted to see all the way around the figure as it curled around the stairs. He even added what a cartoonist would call “speed lines†or “motion lines†to indicate the movement of the body. What you see in the painting is an attempt at three-dimensional seeing, flattening out several visual events onto a single image. Picasso and Braque had tried to see all the way around static objects in their Cubist paintings, but Duchamp was out to capture movement. From this fine art lesson, BumÅ¡teinas draws two conclusions; the fractured representation of Duchamp’s nude becomes “deconstructed micro-forms and the study of sound structures†in his music here, and the idea of forward movement becomes “progressing in slow motion, without a clear point of destinationâ€.
With these concepts in mind, one should probably hear Gamelan Descending A Staircase as an experimental piece of sound art, rather than the document of a performance. The original recordings have been composed and assembled by Bumšteinas; he wants us to hear tiny, splintered fragments of percussive sound, multiplied into Cubist-like forms by his editing and overdubbing process. Yes, actual Indonesian orchestral instruments were the starting point – he recorded them at the Ethnological Museum Dahlem in Berlin in 2013 (apparently with the help of one Raminta Atnimar, whose palindromic name is a little too good to be true) – but the finished work has very little to do with the history or ethnicity of these instruments, I suspect. The lustre or resonance of the metallic instruments has been sacrificed; what remains is a mosaic of percussive information passing by at some speed. At any rate, he’s probably less interested in Gamelan as Gamelan than Philip Corner, Debussy, or even Harry Partch. There was a live première for the work at the Jauna Muzika festival in April 2015, where he added three improvising trumpet players to a playback of the pre-recorded Gamelan tape. I have no idea if that intervention added anything of value to the music, but I like to report these details.
The idea for this project is certainly intriguing, but the record isn’t an especially compelling listen somehow; at 50 minutes it feels like stretching a simple idea a little too far. However, I do like the strangely jumbled feel to the surface; the instruments stand on the verge on creating an incoherent, overdubbed mess, and as a whole work it does indeed succeed in conveying the sensation of chaotic forward movement towards no apparent goal. Maybe this is the composer’s gentle statement about the futility of contemporary life; for all our busy-ness, we’re getting precisely nowhere. From 26 November 2015. If you buy the digital download, you get an extra track ‘Sad Young Man On A Train’. Ed Pinsent
New in the Corollaries series: Sound Meccano / Jura Laiva’s “Sireli Aegâ€
Sireli Aeg is based on field recording sounds captured during the Active Crossover residency at MoKs in Mooste (Estonia) and its surroundings. This is the fourth release in the series Corollaries that will span 2016, compiling works resulting from Active Crossover: Mooste, a cross-cultural collaborative residency curated by Simon Whetham and hosted by MoKS, in April and May 2015. All works are composed from material compiled in a collective archive during the project.
The field recording locations that most affected the compositions were:
- Mooste Järv (GPS: 58.159798, 27.183463)
- Põlva Tuul (GPS: 58.066352, 27.110513)
- Sireli Laul (GPS: 58.162323, 27.192781)
- Emajõgi Delta (GPS: 58.343671, 27.267653)
Mirva Tarvainen : vocal, double bass;
Jura Laiva: guitar drones and glitches;
Sound Meccano: field recordings, electronics, sound processing and composition.
Painting by Anastasija Rekuta-Dzhordzhevich.
Mastered by Miguel Carvalhais.
“Bittersweet Melodies†reviewed by DLSO
Ran Slavin, artista multimediale israeliano, ha una carriera lunga e variegata alle spalle che lo ha portato a presentare il propri lavori nei quattro angoli del mondo, allacciando collaborazioni di tutto rispetto con altri artisti e produttori ed etichette discografiche. Dopo la pubblicazione della bellezza di undici album, uno dei capitoli fin´ora inediti del suo percorso discografico vede la luce proprio in questi giorni grazie alla label Crónica. “Bittersweet Melodies†infatti è una raccolta di dodici inediti, rispolverati e rimasterizzati per l´occasione, risalenti ai primi anni 2000 ed originariamente pensati per la pubblicazione sulla defunta Mille Plateaux. I brani sono la rappresentazione di uno stile molto personale dove l´uso apparentemente casuale di samples di respiro cinematico sconfina nel il rumorismo più astratto. Un disco eccitante e coinvolgente nella sua originalità . Tony D’Onghia
Futurónica 165
Episode 165 of Futurónica, a broadcast in Rádio Manobras (91.5 MHz in Porto, 18h30) and Rádio Zero (21h GMT, repeating on Tuesday at 01h) airs tomorrow, April 29th.
The playlist of Futurónica 165 is:
- Simon Whetham, Contact (2016, Contact, Crónica)
- Sound Meccano / Jura Laiva, Mooste Järv (2016, Sireli Aeg, Crónica)
- Sound Meccano / Jura Laiva, Põlva Tuul (2016, Sireli Aeg, Crónica)
- Sound Meccano / Jura Laiva, Sireli Laul (2016, Sireli Aeg, Crónica)
- Sound Meccano / Jura Laiva, Emajõgi Delta (2016, Sireli Aeg, Crónica)
You can follow Rádio Zero’s broadcasts at radiozero.pt/ouvir and Rádio Manobras at radiomanobras.pt.
“Three-Body Problem†reviewed by Aural Aggravation
The sixteenth album from @C, like its predecessor Ab Ovo, began as a soundtrack for puppet theatre play Agapornis, inspired by the life and works of Anais Nin, and as such, has nothing to do with the kind of Three-Body Problem Elton John has. It also isn’t a soundtrack album per se: the soundtrack was rewritten after the play’s premiere, and as such, Three-Body Problem is a satellite work which evolved from the original concept.
So, what is the problem around the three bodies? It transpires there are in fact two distinct but related problems: the first descends directly from the production of the play itself, which is centred around two main characters, played by puppets, and a third character with several spoken lines, played by an actor. The challenge of representing the characters in sound was core to the development of the album, the actor being replaced by musicians.
And then there was the process of developing the album itself, from the initial soundtrack, through the album, to a third, ongoing process, of creating video pieces to accompany the album’s tracks. As such, the problem is concerned with both physical bodies and with body of work.
The nine pieces are sparse, static crackles, hisses and fizzing sounds spin in co-ordinates around dank, gloopy bass rumbles. Creating a spooky kind of ambience, it’s darkly atmospheric, ominous and unsettling. Toward the end, trumpet squawks and honks add additional texture and discord, and introduce further contrast to the squeaks and scrapes which flitter and twitter. The final track marks a change of direction, drifting toward the horizon on a wash of delicately strummed harp chords which ultimately evaporates in a wash of noise, far removed from the original starting point.
It’s this gradual, subtle progression that proves to be the album’s ultimate success, because it’s a work that confounds the expectations it sets. Intriguing and quietly compelling, the problem is solved. James Wells