Nicolas Bernier is presenting his electrified tuning forks project, frequencies (a), at the Electric Spring Festival in Huddersfield, UK. From February 20th to 25th, the event bring together cutting edge sound artists: Franck Vigroux (FR), John Wall (UK), Francis Dhomont (FR), Nicolas Bernier (QC), Julio D’Escrivan (VZ), Benjamin THIGPEN (FR), Jean-François Laporte (QC), Eryck Abecassis (FR) and more!
More information at electricspring.co.uk.
Tomorrow, Saturday 16th, Angelica Vazquez Salvi and Miguel Carvalhais will premiere their duo performance at Sabaduos #24 at A Vizinha, in Rua Duarte Belo in Lisbon. Entrance is free!
More information at FB
Einen durch den Ausbruch eines isländischen Vulkans und die damit verbundene Stilllegung europäischer Flughäfen bedingten Zwangsaufenthalt in Lissabon nutzte der Klangkünstler Simon Whetham für ausgiebige Feldaufnahmen. Urbanes iberisches Treiben hat er dabei außer Acht gelassen, sein Interesse galt eher normalerweise unhörbaren Vibrationen und Unterwasserklängen, die er mit Kontaktmikrofon, Hydrophon und Tonabnehmer aufzeichnete. Dadurch ergeben sich “klassische“ Fieldrecording-Arrangements genauso wie fast keyboardartige Drones, die Whetham zu melancholischen und spannend arrangierten Hörstücken voller Naturgeräusche von Wind und Wasser sowie menschengemachten mechanischen Klänge verarbeitet. asb
Album de musique électroacoustique très délicate, sur fond d’enregistrements de terrain souvent ténus. Certaines ambiances sont bien réussies, et la recherche sonore de Whetham pousse l’oreille à chercher de nouveaux types de liens entre les sons, mais à 77 minutes, Never So Alone pèche par excès. François Couture
via Monsieur Délire
Slithering low frequencies, oxidised sounds, dull tumbles, subdued shouts and a general feeling of decay impregnate the first part of this one track album by Quarz, a Wien-based collective project assembled by versatile musician Alexandr Vatagin, member of Tupolev and Port-Royal and label boss of Valeot Records, who involved many musicians of the lively artistic entourage of the Austrian capital, such as Stefan Meneth (Radian, Lokai), Alexander Schubert (Sinebag), Nicolas Bernier, Martin Siewert (Trapist, Heaven And) together with two guests, Bernhard Breuer (young drummer of Elektro Guzzi and Metalycee) and David Schweighart, Tupolev co-airman, who gave same field recordings on the occasion of “Five Years on Cold Asphalt”. Then the sound perks up before alternates ups and downs, so that it could surmised a sort of underlying narrative intent about the facts of life, where temporary relief gets followed depressive moments in an erratic way. Such an epic odissey conveys the musical path by each contributor and even if there are some occasional hesitancies, this hybridization together with a certain shoegaze-like approach succeed in avoiding that high-falutin drift, which is quite common for similar bands. Quarz sometimes lacks in that completeness which has been reached by other ensembles, but they’re coming closer and closer to it. Vito Camarretta
via Chain D.L.K.
Episode 81 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, February 8th.
The playlist of Futurónica 81 is:
You can follow Rádio Zero’s broadcasts at radiozero.pt/ouvir.
This is an audial interpretation of surreal poetry by the Latvian poet Andris Ogriņš. A composition with a comic character was created according to subjective associations and my sense of aesthetics. There is only technical file name under my nameless work. This is because mentioned poets work was intended without name, but unfortunately the name appears by the editor’s choice. So I reject it here.
Nel 2011 Simon Whetham ha dovuto prolungare il suo soggiorno a Lisbona a causa dell’eruzione dell’Eyjafjallajökull. Ha così sfruttato il tempo a disposizione per esplorare la città e i dintorni dalla sua prospettiva di ricercatore di suoni, catturati attraverso microfoni e idrofoni e, dopo lunga decantazione, rimaneggiati come base per il nuovo lavoro del compositore sperimentale inglese. Nei quasi ottanta minuti di Never So Alone, quei sono tornati materia viva di un paesaggismo d’eccezione, che muove da silenti persistenze di statico isolazionismo ambientale per addensarsi in un flusso magmatico, talora sfociante in clangori post-industriali. L’essenza di una città in movimento, riassunta in field recordings da cartolina. Raffaello Russo
