Simon Whetham’s “Successive Actions” reviewed by The Wire
Matilde Meireles’s “Loop. And Again.” featured on Bandcamp Daily
Residents of Belfast may have noticed strange signs pasted onto telecommunication boxes around their neighborhoods in the past decade. One such sign, on Balfour Avenue, read: “Producing a continuous sound composed of: 92Hz, 120Hz, 178Hz, 235Hz, 408Hz, 580Hz, 1184Hz, 1327Hz, 3282Hz.” These were the work of Matilde Meireles, a sound artist and researcher whose X Marks the Spot project invited participants to alert her to any utility boxes emitting an audible hum. Meireles would then visit the box, record its drone, analyze it, and return with a poster advertising its frequencies. It was urban art meant to get people listening to their city. With Loop. And Again., Meireles takes the results of this research and loops and layers it with further electromagnetic, ambisonic, and hydrophonic recordings. The album is part social experiment, part sonic ecology, part environmental sound and part buzzing, drifting ambience. It should get the rest of the world listening to Belfast, too. Matthew Blackwell
via Bandcamp Daily
New release: Simon Whetham’s “Successive Actions”
Successive Actions is an iteration of the larger kinetic sound performance project series Channelling in which various motor devices, salvaged from obsolete and discarded consumer technology, are activated by playing sound recordings through them. In turn, this produces new sounds from the devices, which are amplified using various microphones and techniques.The title comes from Dirk Raaijmakers’s The Art of Reading Machines as a term for mass production processes. As such, the recordings played through the devices are recordings of other devices used in previous versions of Channelling, in which the sounds used were seemingly mundane sound phenomena that occur unpredictably and irregularly in everyday life, as passing traffic, wind, doors closing. So now the sounds of devices malfunctioning and breaking from their programming are causing further action and disruption. Successive Actions has been presented in a number of international festivals and events, most recently Sofia Underground, Bulgaria; WeSA Festival, South Korea; New Adits, Austria; and Sonica Festival, Slovenia, where it was also exhibited as an installation.
Successive Actions is now available as a limited-release CD, download, or str
“Lisboa Soa, Sounds Within Sounds” reviewed by Neural
Shifting attention to hearing, and creating the spatial and temporal conditions aimed at encouraging this practice, placing a certain amount of care in defining an adequate social context, supporting ecological sensitivity, giving life to significant sound experiences, and in iconic spaces, designing routes that guide visitors through them, while at the same time encouraging reflection on the public’s involvement with the environment and the city. This is what Lisboa Soa, a festival of sound art, ecology, and auditory culture, has been trying to achieve since 2016 when the first edition was held at Tapada das Necessidades, a huge ten-hectare garden located between Alcântara and Estrela. In 2021, during the pandemic and the resulting restrictions, the festival commissioned four compositions from four Portuguese artists who dug into the sound archive of previous editions to create new audio scores. From these compositions was born Lisboa Soa, Sounds Within Sounds, a work on memory with an ear turned to the future. We start listening with ‘Efflux’ by João Castro Pinto, a composition lasting almost ten minutes that initially flows with delicate harmonies testing our perception before evolving into more full-bodied drones. ‘Do que Ressoa’ by Sara Pinheiro starts with various buzzing sounds, almost like insects with metallic resonances – added to them are the recordings of arrivals and departures from before and after the concerts and installations. ‘No Earlids’ from Mestre André offers an interesting journey through various material accumulated over the years, not only recordings but also ‘behind the scenes’ moments, edited and packaged in adventurous, multifaceted, and vivid overlays. ‘Splicing_archives’ by Ana Guedes concludes the selection and is the most intimate and mysterious score of this collection, even though it too makes significant use of the festival archives, filtering and processing for a total of 25 minutes making it the longest offering on the album. Lisboa Soa has now fully resumed its activities and the latest edition was dedicated to the theme Multipli.Cities, once again underlining the importance of welcoming differences and promoting coexistence between communities within urban spaces. These values are intrinsically linked to ecological processes while challenging other systemic inequalities that we all face. Aurelio Cianciotta
via Neural
New release: Hannes Strobl’s “Weben Song”
“The things around us speak like housings that make something sound, like musical instruments…” wrote Jacob Böhme in 1622 in his work De signatura rerum.
While working on a performance-installation (doublelucky productions) at the former Leipzig Cotton Mill (founded in 1884 and at the time the largest cotton mill in continental Europe), I began experimenting with the sound of the supporting cast-iron columns that ran through all floors of the building. Each of these iron columns has its own sound signature, which consists of a fundamental frequency (keynote) and the distribution of a series of overtones or partials (sound spectrum). These spectral properties and patterns determine the unmistakable timbre and unique sound quality and serve as the foundation for the composition Weben (Weave) Song — they are the elementary sonic building blocks from which the composition is derived.
Fine overlapping spectral fabrics and rhythmic beat patterns unfold over time, weaving ever-new structures.
Hannes Strobl works as a musician, composer and sound artist based in Berlin. The essential starting point of his music is the sonic potential of the electric bass guitar and the electric upright bass. Its characteristic expressive repertoire is expanded through the use of advanced playing techniques in combination with live electronics, dissolving the boundaries between instrumental and electro-acoustic music. One important focus of his compositional work lies on musical expression forms against the backdrop of urban sound spaces. On the other hand on installation works, where the starting point lies in the relationship between sound and architectural space. Since 2000 Hannes Strobl has been developing this concept together with Sam Auinger in the project TAMTAM. In collaboration with David Moss and Hanno Leichtmann the project DENSELAND was founded in 2008 and with Reinhold Friedl the project P.O.P. (Psychology of Perception) in 2012.
Weben Song is now available to stream or download from Crónica.
Bruno Duplant’s “Écouter les Fantômes” reviewed by Chain DLK
Bruno Duplant’s “Écouter les fantômes” is an immersive journey that sits at the intersection of sound art, memory, and the imagination. A prolific composer from Northern France, Duplant draws inspiration from literary figures such as Gaston Bachelard and Stéphane Mallarmé, blending their philosophical musings with musical influences from the likes of John Cage and Eliane Radigue. His work is often concerned with the intangible – what he refers to as “fictions” – allowing his compositions to transcend reality and delve into a dream-like, forgotten space.
The album, consisting of two expansive tracks, creates a haunting auditory experience. It’s not haunted in the traditional sense of eerie noises or ghostly apparitions; rather, it feels like an exploration of the shadows cast by forgotten memories and distant echoes of life. Duplant’s fascination with what’s invisible and unspoken is clear, reflecting the influence of theorists like R. Murray Schafer, who examined the relationship between sound and its environment. In “Écouter les fantômes”, these “ghosts” seem to represent the remnants of what we can’t consciously recall but continue to carry within us – both sonically and emotionally.
Duplant’s use of acoustic and electronic devices crafts a sonic narrative where boundaries between time, place, and memory are blurred. The pieces unfold slowly, with layers of delicate sound textures that reflect his keen attention to the small, often unnoticed elements of life. Echoes, distant murmurs, and drones overlap like half-remembered conversations or the faint traces of a dream. These auditory choices invite the listener to engage in a deep, almost meditative form of listening, akin to how one might approach the works of Luc Ferrari or Radigue – both of whom Duplant clearly reveres for their ability to manipulate sound into abstract landscapes.
There’s a strong narrative current running through the album as well, in the sense that each sound element feels like a chapter in a larger, surreal story. This is where his connection to writers such as Georges Perec comes into play, particularly in the way Duplant’s music evokes memory. Perec, known for his explorations of loss, memory, and absence, shares with Duplant a fascination for what’s unsaid or invisible. It’s as if “Écouter les fantômes” is a sound map of forgotten moments, allowing us to access places within ourselves we didn’t realize we had lost.
Ultimately, “Écouter les fantômes” is less an album to be listened to casually and more a space to be inhabited. Like many of Duplant’s works, it defies conventional musical structures in favor of a more immersive, philosophical approach. This release on Crónica captures his signature ability to bend sound, time, and memory, reminding us that often the most meaningful things are those we cannot see or touch but rather feel hovering just out of sight – like ghosts. Vito Camarretta
via Chain DLK
Matilde Meireles’s “Loop. And Again.” reviewed by Anxious Musick Magazine
Loop. And Again. zagłębia się w dynamikę pól magnetycznych, skomplikowane układy okablowania i ich wzajemne powiązania ze zmianami w otaczającym krajobrazie. Album jest częścią X Marks the Spot, większego projektu, który wykorzystywał dźwięk do mapowania określonych skrzynek telekomunikacyjnych – tylko tych emitujących słyszalny dron – w mieście Belfast w latach 2013-2019. W projekcie dźwięk sugeruje różne sposoby zaangażowania się w Belfast, gdzie trasy spacerowe mogą być improwizowane, aby włączyć drony jako część tego, jak doświadczamy miasta.
X Marks the Spot rozwinął się jako projekt partycypacyjny przypominający grę slow-mapping, zainicjowany przez Matilde w ramach jej badań doktoranckich. Projekt skłonił ją do zaangażowania się w części miasta, których prawdopodobnie inaczej by nie poznała. Projekt pozwolił jej również rozpocząć rozmowy na temat wędrówek w mieście po konflikcie oraz znaczenia zwracania uwagi na to, co nas otacza, poprzez metodologie krytycznego słuchania.
Loop. And Again. powraca i odkrywa na nowo nagrania terenowe skrzynek zmapowanych dla X Marks the Spot. Album oddaje cześć tym zwykłym przedmiotom, które są częścią niewidzialnej tkanki miasta, zapraszając nas do szczegółowego wsłuchania się w ich materialność. Poprzez tę uważną zmianę perspektywy i skali, Matilde zaprasza nas do rozszerzenia tego, co postrzegamy jako wibracje dźwiękowe w środowisku miejskim.
Album zawiera nagrania wykonane za pomocą dwóch mikrofonów kontaktowych i czujnika elektromagnetycznego, nagrania całego środowiska, w którym znajdują się pudełka, wykonane za pomocą mikrofonu ambisonicznego 360˚ oraz nagrania rzeki Lagan wykonane za pomocą dwóch hydrofonów. Nagrania terenowe przepływają przez trzy utwory; pojawiają się również w różnych przetworzonych formach i działają jako podstawa pętli generatywnych.
via Anxious
New release: Matilde Meireles’s “Loop. And Again.”
Loop. And Again. delves into the dynamics of magnetic fields, intricate wiring arrangements, and their interconnectedness with the shifts in the surrounding landscape. The album is part of X Marks the Spot, a larger project which used sound to map specific telecommunication boxes—only those emitting an audible drone—in the city of Belfast between 2013-2019. In the project, sound suggests different ways to engage with Belfast, where walking routes could be improvised to incorporate the drones as part of how we experience the city.
X Marks the Spot developed as a slow-mapping game-like participatory project initiated by Matilde as part of her PhD research. The project prompted her to engage with parts of the city she probably would not otherwise get to know. The project also allowed her to start conversations about wandering in a post-conflict city, and the importance of attending to what is around us through critical listening methodologies.
Loop. And Again. revisits and reinvents field recordings of the boxes mapped for X Marks the Spot. The album honours these ordinary objects that are part of the invisible fabric of the city by inviting us to listen to their materiality in great detail. Through this attentive shift in perspective and scale, Matilde invites us to extend what we perceive as sonic vibrations in the urban environment.
The album includes recordings made with two contact microphones and an electromagnetic sensor, recordings of the overall environment where the boxes are located made with a 360˚ ambisonic microphone, and recordings of the river Lagan made with two hydrophones. The field recordings flow throughout the three tracks; they also appear in various processed forms and act as the foundation for generative loops.
The track Cross Parade wraps the album and hints at the social aspects of X Marks the Spot. It includes additional recent recordings of Matilde’s time at Fingal, Bronagh and Paul’s house close to Cross Parade in Belfast, and several trombone improvisations by Tullis Rennie—who mapped the Cross Parade box for X Marks the Spot a decade ago.
Marla Hlady & Christof Migone’s “Swan Song” reviewed by The Sound Projector
Spirits Drifting
Here’s two discs of very enjoyable drone music produced by various processes…Swan Song (CRÓNICA196-2023) was realised by Marla Hlady and Christof Migone, and they did it during a three-month residency in Glenfiddich.
From what I can make out, it’s a clever bit of “repurposing” of old equipment from the Glenfidich still, specifically the copper “swan necks” which are essential to the character of each still, and the taste of the whiskey. According to one online source, “the shape of the swan neck can give the vapours a smooth ride or act as a baffle, leading heavier elements to condense against the copper surface and drop back down into the pot, leaving the lighter elements in the vapour to carry over the top.” When our two European friends arrived in 2019, it so happened that two old stills were being replaced by new ones, and they seized their chance as the crane lowered the copper tubes to the ground. The swan necks became part of a “kinetic sound sculpture”. The musicians used them to amplify sound recordings they made – field recordings captured around the distillery, all methodically listed here, all of them important stages in the production of whiskey (even including the spring water from Robbie Dhu), thus telling the whole story from start to finish, in sound. This results in the quite sublime soaring drones – three very long ones – on the first disc, while the second disc presents eight shorter pieces referring obliquely to pumps, processes, and mash…this second disc, although heavily abstracted, is perhaps the more process-heavy of the two, and not as successful as achieving the sublimation of the three long pieces. Part of that success is down to the choir – not a choir of professional musicians, but workers and staff at the distillery in Dufftown, who were required not to sing in a mass but simply produce two short voice recordings, high and low. Hlady and Migone then arranged the recordings according to a system – some sort of mathematical calculation based on how long the staff had been in the job in relation to the age of the plant.
The project, and the record, align with a certain trend I’ve been detecting in experimental music for a few years now – it’s to do with the decline of built infrastructure, the collapse of certain industries that can’t compete in the modern world, or just general observations on 21st-century decay and entropy. The last time I mused on this trend was here. There was also Iain Chambers and The Eccentric Press record. Many of these projects find ways to capture, or generate, sound from buildings or machinery, and reprocess it into something new. In the case of Swan Song, this time it’s not a pessimistic take, since the distillery in question continues to thrive and do business; the “Swan” part is of course a reference to the copper swan necks, not to the dying gasps of a neglected industry. And as already noted, I like the comprehensive way that their holistic understanding of the process, and their research, has been used to structure this particular piece. From 2nd March 2023. Ed Pinsent
Simon Whetham’s “Successive Actions” reviewed by Vital Weekly
Music by Simon Whetham we reviewed quite a bit. ‘Successive Actions’ is already his fifth release for Cronica and another apparition of his “kinetic sound performance project series ‘Channelling’ in which various motor devices, salvaged from obsolete and discarded consumer technology, are activated by playing sound recordings through them. This produces new sounds from the devices, amplified using various microphones and techniques.” For other works in this series see also Vital Weekly 1437 and 1405. I am unsure to which extent this particular set of recordings differs from the previous instalments. Judging by the sounds, there may not be that many differences. As it happens with this kind of release, documenting installations with sound, without the visual component, it is very hard to imagine what these look like and what the hell one hears. That said, as before, this sounds all quite fascinating. On the risk of copying too much of the previous review, the music has a solid electro-acoustic character, vibrant and energetic. Percussive music, if you will, but none of the standard percussion bits, more akin to a drummer playing household objects and debris. With the hushed and muffled tones, the music gets a layer of mystery about, with the listener being locked up in a dark dungeon, not a cave, but a plastic one, made out of waste, and we hear waste dumped on top, rolling off a hill and we don’t know if there’s an escape. Again, as before, lovely stuff, with the note about not being too sure what the differences are. (FdW)
via Vital Weekly