“Ab OVO” reviewed by RNE3 Atmosféra

Ab OVO
Comenzamos el programa con el nuevo trabajo de @c, “Ab Ovo” y un montaje con dos de sus tracks para tener una visión más amplia de este trabajo que se deriva de la banda sonora que el artista realizó para OVO, una obra de teatro de marionetas de Oporto, que estuvo en cartel a finales de 2011 y principios de 2012. A partir de una idea original de Eric de Sarria, OVO fue creado durante una serie de ensayos que involucraba a todos los participantes en la obra: actores, titiriteros, músicos y otros creadores – y se estrenó finalmente el 10 de febrero de 2012 en el Monasterio de São Bento da Vitória.

La traducción musical de este proceso son 19 composiciones grabadas que constituían la banda sonora de esta obra teatral y el problema les surgió a la hora de plasmar este trabajo sonoro y visual en un formato tan solo de audios, sin los actores, sin los títeres, sin la dramaturgia en una palabra. Así pues Pedro Tudela y Miguel Carvalhais nombres detrás de @C sintieron la necesidad de reelaborar todas las piezas, optando por reeditar partes de la banda sonora original y componer una serie de seis piezas nuevas que es lo que han presentado en este Cd que abre hoy nuestro Atmósfera. El resultado final, aunque se mantienen muy cercano a lo que es la banda sonora de la obra, es un disco que conserva principalmente rastros de recuerdos de la obra pero ampliando su proceso de creación y llevando a cabo una relectura, una reinterpretando y un redescubriendo de la original obra “OVO”.

“Meubles” reviewed by RNE3 Atmosféra

Meubles
Arturas BumÅ¡teinas es un reconocido artista visual y compositor lituano conocido por vosotros, porque hemos ido presentando su obra en Atmósfera desde hace tiempo. Arturas nos presenta ahora “Meubles” un disco con cuatro piezas creadas con varios métodos de composición a partir de las experiencias vividas por el artista durante una gira por Europa. Las grabaciones de campo se encuentran siempre presentes, pero tratadas de una forma suave, casi ocultas tras un velo, y acompañadas también por colchones y pads con un estilo suave que se van desarrollando lentamente.” El disco está interpretado por The Works&Days ensemble compuesto por 8 músicos, entre los que por supuesto se encuentra Arturas que se hace cargo de los órganos eléctricos, sampler y flauta.

“Concret-Sens” reviewed by Déphasage

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The show ended with Emmanuel Mieville and “Concret-Sens” released on Cronica at the end of the last year. This french sound artist is close to the electroacoustic school of the GRM from which he took some teaching. This is not a coincidence if he has chosen this title that is a reference to an adjective used by the composer François Bayle to describe in his music, the concrete substance of the sounds he used. Their texture, if we can say that, that gives them a materiality.This term is also playing on the meaning of “sense” that means “direction” here, we can talk about the direction towards the concrete of sounds, in more simple terms, where does their substance lead us ? This is one of the questions that we’re asking to ourselves when we listen to those three pieces appearing of “Concret-Sens”. Emmenuel Mieville plays here with the soul that characterized some sounds, and as the late-lamented Bernard Parmegiani said “the sounds objects are living souls”, we can say that this sentence finds a certain justification with this release. Everything is terribly living no matter the type of sounds we’re hearing, from the neon lights and electrical outlets that we encounter on “Cillages” to the field recordings and other “corps sonores” captured and finally transformed or not. This a true biotope of fixed sounds to which we attend here, a deep wild sonorous life.

via Déphasage

“Lemuria” reviewed by Beach Sloth

Lemuria
Lemures make industrial field recordings. Far from these evoking some sort of pretty pastoral scene they are harsh unrelenting explorations into the dark underbelly of machines. Thanks to the intensity of the vision there is hardly any relief from these foreboding soundscapes. Aspects of it do focus on the natural when necessary but even these fleeting moments are relatively hopeless. By staying consistent throughout nearly the four expansive passages the listener is forced to confront the sounds that often escape attention. In a way it is a celebration of the ugly ambient noise that surrounds everyone. Only here it is amplified.

‘II’ grates at the ears with random effects that spin out of control. Digital processing is extremely strong on this particular track. For the first three minutes these noises are completely left alone. When an actual motor arrives to give the piece some context it is greatly appreciated even given the mechanical nature. ‘I’ takes an anxious approach to sound design with greatly unstable pieces flirting with outright chaos. Eventually the chaos does arrive at the very end in bitterly harsh angry static. ‘III’ offers a rare melodic glance. Surrounded by light ambient sounds it builds up into a large swell similar to that frequently used by Fennesz. Pleasantness fades away after a while revealing a positive maelstrom at the end.

‘VI’ ends the album off on a relatively mellow note. Though it is not outright beautiful there is something charm about its restrained mechanical hum. Unlike the previous tracks there is no sudden increase in volume or distortion. It simply chooses to fade out like the ambient noise the entire collection celebrates.

via Beach Sloth

Simon Whetham live in Porto

simon whetham
Next wednesday, January 29th, we will be very honored to welcome Simon Whetham for an unmissable solo performance at Porto’s Passos Manuel. Simon has so far released two albums in Crónica, “Mic.Madeira” (with Hugo Olim, in 2011) and “Never So Alone” (in 2013), as well as the wonderful “Crossovers” compilation, available as a free download.

Simon-Whetham-520

More information on the event.

“Concret-Sens” reviewed by Monsieur Délire

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Voici ce que j’ai entendu de plus convaincant à ce jour de la part d’Emmanuel Mieville. Le titre de l’album est un jeu de mot sur la notion de “concrescence” développée par François Bayle pour parler de la substance concrète des sons. Ainsi, Mieville propose trois morceaux où la source sonore est magnifiée dans sa réalité concrète et détournée dans sa présentation hors contexte. On a droit à des néons qui bourdonnent, des enregistrements de terrain, des extraits de documentaires radiophoniques et des transformations par synthèse granulaire, le tout combiné avec un sens esthétique qui vise à tirer l’oreille vers des régions inexplorées. François Couture

via Monsieur Délire

“Ab OVO” reviewed by Monsieur Délire

Ab OVO
@c est un merveilleux duo d’électroniciens portugais (Pedro Tudela et Miguel Carvalhais). En 2012, ils ont réalisé la musique d’un spectacle de marionettes pour adultes intitulé “Ovo”. Ils ont ensuite retravaillé ce matériel pour en faire un album (on me dit que le résultat final est très différent de la musique de scène, tout en en conservant l’esprit). J’y retrouve la vivacité d’esprit, la profondeur de champ et le sens théâtral auxquels ce duo m’a habitué… sauf dans une pièce, la plus longue, dont je décroche totalement: interminable, vacueuse – peut-être que si j’avais vu le spectacle… mais sur disque, elle ne passe pas la rampe. Autrement, on a droit à de la solide électroacoustique, mais vous feriez mieux de vous initier à @c ailleurs (avec leur CD chez Baskaru, par exemple). François Couture

via Monsieur Délire

“Lemuria” reviewed by Blow Up

Lemuria
Il duo composto da Enrico Coniglio and Giovanni Lami utilizza field recordings ed elaborazione digitale per creare soundscapes dai toni avvolgenti estremamente dilatati, che spesso si espandono sino a lambire i territori dell’ ambient. In “Lemuria” la cura del dettaglio nell’ opera di tessitura elettronica si coniuga con efficacia al flusso impressionista generato dalla progressiva stratificazione delle diverse fonti sonore, dando vita a quattro movimenti dalla forma molto curata e nitida. M. Busti

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“Lemuria” reviewed by The New Noise

Lemuria
“Nelle credenze religiose di Roma antica, anima o spettro vagante di defunto che tornava sulla terra per molestare i vivi”. Così dice il mio Zingarelli del lemure, mentre apprendo da Wikipedia che le “Lemuria” siano delle cerimonie dell’Antica Roma attraverso la quale esorcizzare i morti. Dietro a questo progetto troviamo Enrico Coniglio, ormai sound artist di lungo corso apparso su un sacco di etichette che amiamo, e Giovanni Lami, visto/sentito un paio d’anni fa su Fratto9 col nome di Terrapin. Entrambi partono quasi sempre dal paesaggio e dai field recordings. Qui, in ossequio forse al nome maligno che si sono scelti (i loro presupposti teorici sono di certo più profondi), slittano progressivamente in un altro mondo, pur avendo iniziato a muoversi in una costruzione semi-abbandonata nei dintorni di Ravenna, città cara a un altro field recorder (e fotografo come Lami) italiano, Adriano “Punck” Zanni. A un certo punto, suggestionato dal fatto che Enrico e Giovanni menzionino Ovidio e i “Fasti”, nei quali si parla anche delle Lemuria, mi sono fatto l’idea che i rumori degli oggetti e delle cose, qui, suggeriscano lo svolgersi di qualche rito, prima di lasciare spazio a suoni astratti che rappresentano l’apparizione di un “altro” inconoscibile. Uno dei punti di forza del disco è proprio questo senso di vertigine che si prova nel passaggio tra realtà, anche ordinaria, e non-realtà, a tratti abrasiva e spesso deprimente/mortifera come solo i cari vecchi gruppi Cold Meat Industry sapevano essere, ma senza la benché minima comunanza con qualsivoglia cliché horror, gotico o grandguignolesco. A me questa virata onirica sta più che bene. Date un “giro” a questo disco sulle varie piattaforme virtuali, mi sa che potrebbe star bene pure a voi.
Fabrizio Garau

via The New Noise

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