New podcast: Durán Vázquez

Durán Vázquez
Performed at Vigosónico, Vigo, Galicia, October 19th 2011. Durán Vázquez improvised with prerecorded materials, live electronics and occasional fragments of video. Includes samples from previous tracks on Crónica’s “Mus*****c”, Expo_net’s “Physikos, Aphysikos” and Mahorka’s “Selected Ambience Wars”. Main live-sound source courtesy of SynFactory synthesizer software. Dedicated to the ignominious memory of Cecil Rhodes.

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Download here or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Futurónica 75


Episode 75 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, November 16th.

The playlist of Futurónica 75 is:

  1. Eleh, W1sip/Operating Position (2009, Retreat, Important Records)
  2. Etsuko Chida, Omoigawa (2008, Koto Kumiuta)
  3. Eleh, Wires in the Woods (2009, Retreat, Important Records)
  4. Etsuko Chida, Tomo chidori (2008, Koto Kumiuta)
  5. Eleh, W1sip In The Sun (2009, Retreat, Important Records)
  6. Kinshi Tsuruta, Banquet De Printemps (1991, Satsuma Biwa, Ocora)

You can follow Rádio Zero’s broadcasts at radiozero.pt/ouvir.

“Quarz” reviewed by Sound of Music

Quarz
Projektet Quarz tar sig an elektronikens möjligheter på ett intressant sätt. Med österrikaren Alexandr Vatagin i spetsen har sju musiker allteftersom lagt till nytt material till musiken genom en så kallad iterativ process. Termen betyder upprepning och den används bland annat inom matematik och programmering och beskriver, enligt Wikipedia, hur en process med upprepade beräkningar kan nå önskat resultat. Och om jag förstår det hela rätt så har Five years on Cold Asphalt spelats in på just detta sätt, nytt material från enskilda deltagare har mixats in och fortlöpande förändrat och byggt ut resultatet.

Med tanke på arbetssättet är det fascinerande hur organiskt slutresultatet ändå är. Förvandlar man musiken till en bild handlar det om en ganska stillsam kropp i långsam rörelse, långa elektroniska klanger växlar med mer individuella inslag. Fältinspelningar från David Schweighart bryter in, trummor från Bernhard Breuer, gitarrklanger från Martin Siewert. De elektroniska inslagen är lika betydelsefulla men svårare att få ihop med samplingar, syntar och elektronik från Vatagin, Nicolas Bernier, Alexander Schubert och Stefan Németh. Magnus Nygren

via Sound of Music

“eins bis sechzehn” reviewed by Nonpop

eins bis sechzehn
Sounds aus Hotelzimmern haben wir in Form des neuen DEISON-Albums (Besprechung) vor wenigen Wochen schon einmal vorgestellt. “Eins Bis Sechzehn” geht noch einen Schritt weiter und verbindet den Klang mit Fotos. Sämtliche der beiliegenden Einzelbilder oder Miniserien – insgesamt 16 Fotos, daher der Projekttitel – sind den sechs Stücken der CD zugeordnet. Und auch die Sounds entstanden in denselben Räumlichkeiten. Im Gegensatz zu DEISON handelt es sich bei der Gemeinschaftsproduktion von JULIA WEINMANN (Fotografin) und EPHRAIM WEGNER (Soundartist), zwei jungen Künstlern aus Freiburg, um verfallene, verlassene und von der Zeit zerstörte Hotels.

Aus den verschiedenen Räumen versuchen beide, ein fiktives einziges Hotel zu bauen, durch das der Hörer und Betrachter wie ein Tourist geführt werden soll. Sightseeing in Fotos und Sounds aus Ruinen, aus ehemaligen Ferienressorts, die während der 1960er- bis 1980er-Jahre für viele Millionen Euro gebaut wurden.

Die knapp 20 Minuten Sound klingen sehr räumlich und organisch, sind teilweise aber nicht mehr als minutenlanges Rauschen und Knirschen, wenn offenbar die Künstler über den verstaubten und mit Geröll bedeckten Boden gehen oder mit den Betonstrukturen, den Hotelskeletten kommunizieren. WEGNER hat die Geräusche teilweise bearbeitet, zerlegt in weitere Einzelteile, um Frequenzen gelöscht oder bereichert, aber alle stammen im Original aus den jeweiligen Ex-Hotels. Flächiges Nichts bietet wenig Struktur und Halt beim Hören, vermittelt vielleicht Zeitlosigkeit, ist aber schwer zu deuten. Das Audio-Ergebnis erinnert jedenfalls entfernt an BAD SECTOR. Stärker, beeindruckender sind die Fotos, die den Zerfall einfangen, die Löcher in den Wänden, den Schimmel. Dieses fühlbare Auseinanderbröseln, teilweise bis auf ein Gerippe, gleicht einer visuellen Obduktion.

Spannende Idee, ansprechende und emotionale Fotostrecke, schwere Kost für die Ohren. Dieses Gesamtkunstwerk erfordert etwas Arbeit und vor allem das Loslassen jeglicher gängiger Hörgewohnheiten. Michael We

via Nonpop

New release: “Jakov & Gwizdały” by Arturas Bumšteinas


We are very happy to announce the release of Arturas BumÅ¡teinas’s latest edition in Crónica, “Jakov & GwizdaÅ‚y”, now available in the Unlimited Release series.

“Jakov”, premiered at the Jaunas Muzika festival in Vilnius, April of 2012, is composed from sounds sourced from an old soviet-Lithuanian era electric organ called “Venta”. The unplugged organ was used as a percussive and tactile sound object, being rubbed, scratched, hit, banged, dragged, hammered, patted, etc. All these concrete sounds were woven into the multi-layered structure of the piece with some of the sounds being digitally processed. “Jakov” is dedicated to the composer’s father whom, in the 1970s and 1980s, worked in the Vilnius factory which produced electronic and radio equipment.

In eastern Poland there is a small village called “Gwizdały” which in Polish language means “whistles”. Its primary school is the home of a unique museum of whisles, which collection includes several thousands whistles of various shapes, origins, ages and of course, timbres. Some of these pieces were recorded in a discreet, clinical manner; later the collection of these sound recordings was used in two different parts of the “Gwizdały” project: a sound installation in the public space and an acousmatic concert in a concert venue. For the installation part the whistle sounds were assembled into a bird-song-like sequence with generous silences and were transmitted via a quadrophonic speaker system installed in Warsaw’s busiest spot, near the entrance to the Centrum metro station. The speakers were hidden from the eyes of passers-by, thus creating a ghostly experience. The second part of the project was realized in the darkened venue of Warsaw’s Ujazdowski Contemporary Art Center. In this concert the sounds were structured into more dynamic sequences and denser layers. The version now released is a mix of both installation and concert parts. The “Gwizdały” project was curated by Joanna Turek (Galeria A19 Marymont) and Andrzej Załęski (Sala Laboratorium / Ujazdowski Center for Contemporary Arts), Warsaw, April of 2012.

You can download “Jakov & Gwizdały” as AIFF or MP3 files directly from Crónica and free of charge. Donations are very welcome! :)

Also, don’t forget that until the end of December 2012, Crónica is offering a promotion for all direct sales from our website. Each order entitles you to a second release of the same price or lower. So it’s 2 for 1 in the entire available catalogue from Crónica.

De Rastros, Paisaxes e Arqueoloxías Sonoras

“About Trails, Landscapes and Sound Archaeologies”: a highly recommended performance at the CGAC in Santiago de Compostela. Next Tuesday, November 6, at 20h30.

In the tradition, surely inaugurated by Alvin Lucier, of making audible with the help of technological processes natural acoustic phenomena usually unnoticed into an ordinary ear is a whole school of electronic music and sound art where nature reveals a new and unknown, so far of the use of technology as an innovation in itself, and where sometimes, as in the work of Fernando Casas, promotes an ethic of observation and not intervention; a “natural listening,” either to detect sound through the traces of time and space, or to reveal aspects of reality that otherwise would be inaccessible to us.

In correspondence to the exhibition of Fernando Casas the now was, the before will be, CGAC own production, thus consist in a selection of works by artists of different generations, in order to illustrate the path of an essential theme –the nature– from disparate approaches as the spatial acoustics, the sound ecology, the phonograph, and a current boom in different scientific fields, such as data sonification.

  • Ángel Faraldo – Estudos Sonoros 1 & 2 [2012]
  • Alvin Lucier – Opera with Objects [1997]
  • Mark Bain – StartEndTime (Fragmento) [2003]
  • Andrea Polli and Joe Gilmore – N. 16 April 2006 [2006]
  • Chris Watson – Ant-Steps [2006]
  • Hildegard Westerkamp – Kits Beach Soundwalk [1989]
  • Christina Kubisch – Five Electrical Walks: 1. Homage with Minimal Disinformation [2007]
  • Durán Vazquez – Home, Sweet Home: 5. Boat Dockage [2009]

More info at Vertixe Sonora.

New podcast: @c

@c
The 100th podcast in the series presents a recording from @c’s performance at the Opensound festival in Lisbon. Performed by @c (Pedro Tudela & Miguel Carvalhais) at IPA, Lisboa, 28 June 2012. Recorded live by Marc Behrens and Carlos Santos, mixed by @c. Based on the soundtrack for “Ovo”, a play by the Teatro de Marionetas do Porto, premiered in February 2012. Recorded voice by Sara Henriques. Photo by João Tuna. The Opensound Lisboa event was hosted by Granular.

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Download here or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Futurónica 74


Episode 74 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, November 1st.

The playlist of Futurónica 74 is:

  1. Sylvain Chauveau & Stephan Mathieu, Prince Alone In The Studio (2012, Palimpsest, Schwebung)
  2. Eliane Radigue, Onward 38 (1970/2009, Vice Versa, etc.…, Important Records)
  3. Sylvain Chauveau & Stephan Mathieu, The Floating World, Your Wedding (2012, Palimpsest, Schwebung)
  4. Eliane Radigue, Backward 9.5 (1970/2009, Vice Versa, etc.…, Important Records)
  5. Sylvain Chauveau & Stephan Mathieu, Chosen One (2012, Palimpsest, Schwebung)
  6. Eliane Radigue, Onward 76 (1970/2009, Vice Versa, etc.…, Important Records)
  7. Sylvain Chauveau & Stephan Mathieu, Wild Love (2012, Palimpsest, Schwebung)
  8. Eliane Radigue, Backward 38 (1970/2009, Vice Versa, etc.…, Important Records)
  9. Sylvain Chauveau & Stephan Mathieu, I Break Horses (2012, Palimpsest, Schwebung)
  10. Eliane Radigue, Backward 76 (1970/2009, Vice Versa, etc.…, Important Records)
  11. Sylvain Chauveau & Stephan Mathieu, Soaking the Pages in Tea (2012, Palimpsest, Schwebung)

You can follow Rádio Zero’s broadcasts at radiozero.pt/ouvir.