Micromelancolié’s Crónicast 94 reviewed by Disquiet

Micromelancolié
The Crónica podcast is a steady source of abstract sound, but abstraction comes in many forms. To listen to the fragments that comprise the latest entry in the long-running series — it is number 94, and is by Micromelancolié, aka Poland-based musician Robert Skrzyński — is to hear slim noises, bright crunches, whizzes of passing static, and other material that is truncated just shy of recognizability. The manner in which the material is collated suggests if not composition or narrative, then at least association and sequence. Apparently some of the source audio comes from recordings from two labels, 77industry and 49animals. This might explain why for all their abstraction, the noises seem, in fact, orderly — because their presence here is a secondary stage of collection, of curation. Whatever the provenance, the result is best appreciated as a survey of tensile sonic structures, of small noises given the chance to be considered as idealized objects. Bracing stuff.

Marc Weidenbaum via Disquiet

You can download Micromelancolié’s Crónicast 94 directly from Crónica’s website or you can subscribe to get all the regular updates via iTunes.

“eins bis sechzehn” reviewed by Vital Wekly

eins bis sechzehn
The other new project on Cronica is more an art like project dealing with ruins of hotels. Julia Weinmann did the photography of them, while one Ephraim Wegner made recordings in these abandoned places. Waking up and down those stairs, large empty rooms of bare concrete. There is not of processing going on here, although it’s also not entirely without. Wegner was originally a DJ, but now deals with field recordings and sound installations and creates music for films. A rather short CD here, only twenty minutes in time, with recordings, I believe, from various places. It’s I think a fine work of pretty interesting field recordings and it sounds great, but I must say the reason behind all this eludes me a bit. Maybe it’s too brief for me, these five rather short and one longer piece, and perhaps it needed as much as attention as the whole package has. In a strange way this looks very much like a recent package on Gruenrekorder, more so than one on Cronica Electronica. It’s as a total experience, image and sound (in that order) quite a fine package. (FdW)

Nicolas Bernier’s “frequencies (a)”

frequencies (a) | nicolas bernier from Nicolas Bernier on Vimeo.

Nicolas Bernier is premiering a new performative work using mechanically triggered tuning forks with light synchronisation. The work will kickoff on October 10 at Electric Fields Festival (Ottawa, Canada) while the European premiere will be launched on October 25-26 at Lab30 (Augburg, Germany) and October 27 at Oddstream (Nijmgen, Holland). The project will continue to tour in 2013.

Futurónica 72


Episode 72 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, October 5th.

The playlist of Futurónica 72 is:

  • Wang Changcun, King Of Image 1995 (2006, The Mountain Swallowing Sadness, Sub Rosa)
  • @c, 89 (2012, Re:Fujaco, Galaverna)
  • Lawrence English, Ghost Towns (2004, Ghost Towns, Room40)

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

Fall program at Mercedes, curated by MANA


Mana‘s residence at O Meu Mercedes É Maior Que O Teu, in Porto, will return with performances by Tropa Macaca (October 5), Loosers (November 2) and a new formation with Pedro Gomes, André Abel and Gabriel Ferrandini (December 7th)! If in Porto, stay tuned for these! Tickets are available at Matéria Prima (Porto) e Jo-Jo’s Music.

“Five Years on Cold Asphalt” reviewed by Freistil

Five Years on Cold Asphalt
Die Idee zu diesem Quarz-Projekt stammt von Alexandr Vatagin, von dem in dieser Gazette schon mehrfach zu lesen war (siehe u.a. das valeot-Labelporträt), und seinem Tupolev-Bandkollegen Lukas Scholler. Zweiterer hat sich inzwischen daraus zurückgezogen, Vatagin hält Quarz seither allein am Leben. Für diese bewusst offen konstruierte Combo lädt er gerne Gäste ein, vorwiegend aus der Elektronik/Synthesizer/Sampler-Belegschaft. Auf der vorliegenden Platte sind das u.a. das einstige Radian-Mitglied Stefan Németh und sein direkter Nachfolger Martin Siewert. Dazu gesellen sich für „Fünf Jahre auf kaltem Asphalt“ die zwei prächtigen Perkussionisten Bernhard Breuer & David Schweighart, wovon letzterer sich auf field recordings beschränkt. Wir hören hier ein einziges, gut halbstündiges Stück, das kurz vor der Finalisierung heftig zu schwingen beginnt und mit einemmal abhebt wie ein Heißluftballon. Es ist eine außerordentlich eindringliche Musik, eine „mit scharf“. Fesselnd wie ein Thriller, hart wie Quarz. Und glänzend! (felix)