“Product 02” reviewed by Data.Wave


Internet is a giant sound supermarket, with music labels supplying products and Ran Slavin is a master chef of the high quality music. Product 02 record offers an exquisite dish of sound design with a desert of music
metamorphosis. This is quite a light record with a distinct therapeutic effect. I went through a lot of records in my life and have to say that this is one of the rare examples of drifting, atmospheric sounds that will remain in your memory for a long time. The sound of the Product 02 is always in motion, it transforms from one shape to another, flows and changes its state. Such dynamic approach makes Ran’s music very different to the music of many other artists, which use more traditional, static sound approach.

Slavin’s sound design is always on the go, it is a permanent consistency inside ongoing changes. Every track is a sketch, music story or a fantasy tale. The author has a unique and often surprising approach, his experiments and numerous improvisations make you feel at ease and free.

Ran Slavin has started as a guitar player and you are reminded of this throughout the whole record. You can describe every track one by one, but this album is much better to be consumed in one piece. Such an unusual music treat brings guaranteed satisfaction to most demanding fans and experimental music aficionados. Product 02 is another great release of Crónica label, recommended to all those tired of junk food tracks flooding today’s music market with its bland pap. Krib

via Data.Wave

“Intuited Architectures” reviewed by Bad Alchemy


GRAEME TRUSLOVE Intuited Architectures (Crónca 130~2017): Truslove ist Composer-Performer & Audiobaumeister in Glasgow mit einem Ph.D. in Music Composition. Ihn interessieren die Ãœbergänge von Unfestem zu Festem, von Probiertem und Improvisiertem zu skulptural oder konstruktiv Montiertem und Fixiertem. ‘Portals’ ist als weiche Plastik ein Prachtstück, hochgradig plastisch, nie fassbar in seiner knurpsigen und dröhnenden, kommenden und gehenden Beweghtheit mit drahtigem Innenskelett. Gitarre und laptop gehören zum Handwerkszeug. Bei ‘Convergence’ kullerpoltern Moleküle über bebenden Saitenklang, die Gitarre als Spurenelement zur Mikrosteinschlagillusion. ‘Divergent Dialogues’ behält die poltrige Bewegung bei, Bällchen springen und kaskadieren als hoppelige Percussion, bis sirrender Betrieb einsetzt zu wummrigen und flattrig kauenden Lauten. ‘Elements’ ist ganz brummige Motorik und erst schnell fluktuierende, dann dröhnend changierende Bewegtheit, dazu zwitschern flasche Vögel, die sich quecksilbrig verflüssigen, stottrig auf Blech niedergehen und im Dunkeln vergehen. Mit rauem Arr… arr… arr hebt ‘Concrètisation X’ an, kakophon, kratzig, impulsiv, prasselnd zu dumpfer, hohler Artikulation. Metallkram rollt, laut und leise schwanken, es beginnt fein zu prickeln, dann auch wieder gitarristische Laute, zerfallend, verhallend, perkussiv tockelnd, krackelig, hypernervös und brodelprasselig rumorend. Protagonist beim 20 1/2-min. ‘Strata’ ist der Kontrabass des im März 2016 verstorbenen George Lyle (Burt/MacDonald, GIO), den Truslove als plonkendes und dröhnendes Layer Cake-Troja schichtet und verdichtet. Unterspült von einer homerisch raunenden Quelle, überfunkelt mit Pizzikato, beknarrt mit Acrostrichen, von Bogenschlägen beflirrt. Unter Spiccatohagel spinnt Truslove Legatofäden, Tenutoströme, bis hin zu einem final schrillenden Flageolett.

“Thermo Swing & Quanta​+​Else / Studio Blanks 01​-​02” reviewed by Data.Wave

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In this double record, Crónica has reissued the first and the third albums of Ran Slavin specifically for all those fans who wanted to get an insight into Ran’s early works. This is a very interesting release, since I always wanted to know where Ran has started, to trace his journey to the later works. Thermo Swing – is a set of frank and direct experiments with jazz.

I am very sympathetic to the easy flowing and dynamic structures of futuristic jazz created by Slavin in this record. Ran uses a number of music instruments, producing unique sound solutions. Just listen to such tracks as Intro, Piano Loop Alien and Straight Cycle – which will get your interest immediately and the next thing you will want to know is how these tracks fit in the body of the album Thermo Swing. I really want to point out a dub track, called Dus Dub, which is built using echo, delay and reverberation effects. You can listen to this nightlife soundtrack forever.

Quanta​+​Else/Studio Blanks 01​-​02 is much closer to the line, started by Slavin in his later records. It is filled with a large number of glitch, experimental sounds, clicks’n’cuts, dynamic noise textures. All 19 tracks are complex and require several listening finishes. These are disassembled structures, sound design approaches and improvisations, that can be joined in a specific and unique music ensemble. Some of the music examples on this album indicate us the direction for the future works of Ran Slavin, where Quanta​+​Else/Studio Blanks 01​-​02 is only the starting point. Krib

via Data.Wave

“The Waste Land” reviewed by Data.Wave


One more cassette release that came out on the label Crónica. This record serves best to start exploring the world of the noise music. This is truly a textbook example of experimental electronic music! I had a feeling that I opened the window and a real thunderstorm with heavy rain and wind rushed into the room. Apparently the thunderstorm came from the wastelands, inspired by the opening title track The Waste Land. All three tracks of this release, The Waste Land, Voices from the Coal Mine, My Extra Personal Space, display the author’s most serious attitude towards processing sound. It gives us the impression of listening to a news report from an inexistent city.

I haven’t encountered this kind of records ever since a series of CD releases Mort Aux Vaches; the album The Waste Land surpasses the conventional notion of music by a long shot. The Italian school of noise ever since the days of Luigi Russolo has been a special interest for an in-depth inspection and stays this way even today. This very release, The Waste Land is no exception. Hypnotic time-stretched landscapes, ever-changing noise constructions, an incredible and anxious architecture of sound, strange voices, troubled territories… I have no idea what miraculous method Luca Forcucci uses to create his noisy masterpieces, but you can clearly detect the hand of a true master. Album cover photo by Luca Forcucci, mastered by Taylor Deupree. Crónica, limited edition 100 copies. Krib

via Data.Wave

“Intuited Architectures” reviewed by Silence and Sound


Une fois encore, le superbe label experimental Crónica, livre à nos tympans une nourriture céleste conçue par l’écossais Graeme Truslove, avec la sortie de son album Intuited Architectures, plongée abyssale dans les souterrains de l’électro-acoustique, gorgée de dérives soniques hantées.

Artiste multi-primé, Graeme Truslove joue sur les paradigmes, composant un monde proche du chaos, où silences et montées abrasives forment un tout cohérent multipliant les pistes et les interprétations. Les dissonances jonchent le sol alors que les grattements étoffent les silences de l’absence.

Pris entre sonorités organiques et électroniques, Intuited Arhitectures n’est pas sans évoquer les recherches d’artistes majeurs du GRM, comme Bernard Parmegiani, Guy Reibel ou Beatriz Ferreyra, entre autres. Subtil de par l’utilisation des sources sonores qu’il transpose et transforme en minuscules organismes vivants, Graeme Truslove crée un monde que l’on semble découvrir au microscope, fait d’amoncellements d’entités aux capacités de mutation impressionnantes. Très fortement recommandé. Roland Torres

via Silence and Sound

Futurónica 194


Episode 194 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, June 9th.

The playlist of Futurónica 194 is:

  1. Yiorgis Sakellariou, Stikhiya, part 1 (2017, Stikhiya, Crónica)
  2. Mecha / Orga, 30:13 (2014, 30:13, Impulsive Habitat)
  3. Yiorgis Sakellariou, Stikhiya, part 2 (2017, Stikhiya, Crónica)

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

New release: Mise_en_scene’s “Constellation / Deformation”


Crónica is proud to present a new release from Shay Nassi’s project Mise_en_scene, after the previous 443, Leftovers (Reworked), and 2016’s Primary Fields. Constellation / Deformation is a direct continuation of Primary Fields, putting a stronger emphasis on digital processing. As in Primary Fields, these works are based on a single field recording, in different variations and contexts that lead to an assortment of sonic results and varied interpretations.

Shay Nassi is based in Tel Aviv, where he studied sound engineering. He subsequently put those skills to good use producing music where he delicately integrates elements of minimalism and noise.

Tracklist:

  1. Constellation / Deformation 1 (06:44)
  2. Constellation (03:50)
  3. Constellation / Deformation 2 (05:50)
  4. Deformation (04:28)
  5. New Deformation (08:46)

Composed by Shay Nassi.
Mastered by Harel Schreiber.
Photo by Tami Wiesel.

Constellation / Deformation is available as a download through Crónica’s bandcamp page or stream in Apple Music and Spotify.