“Against Nature” reviewed by Black Audio

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‘Against Nature’, comprises of five tracks with the same title (that of the album). Coupled with a press release that provides more in a literary context than its audio companion could ever, can make your mind boggle as to just what medication people are on (or should be).

Regardless of the reference to the decadent work by Huysmans; ‘Against Nature’, for the most part, is nothing more than a collection of electronic noises, field recordings and frustrating pitches. Whetham does display an ear for ambient; and when he does, it’s a successful intervention. However, these excursions are too few and far between to appease the irritation of having your eardrums audibly scraped out along the way.

There is a whole market out there for people who produce audio in such a fashion; indeed the Portuguese label this resides on is a large exponent of it. More power to those that actively support and appreciate sound sculptors such as this; but I find it a touch too self-indulgent and irritating. 6/10

via Black Audio

“Everything Emanating from the Sun” reviewed by againstthesilence.com

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Ύπουλο χτύπημα χαμηλού βαρομετρικού με μια σύνθεση που ισορροπεί μεταξύ μυστηρίου και διάλεξης περί πειραματισμού στη μουσική. Κάπως έτσι θα μπορούσε να περιγράφεται το άλμπουμ του Γιώργη Σακελλαρίου. Συνήθως σε ανάλογες περιπτώσεις όπου έχουμε μια μοναδική σύνθεση-γίγας που καταλαμβάνει τη διάρκεια ενός άλμπουμ, στη περίπτωση μας μετράμε τριανταένα λεπτά, δεν μένουν και πολλά να ειπωθούν. Είτε εισχωρείς ευλαβικά στο σύμπαν της, είτε όχι. Σίγουρα εδώ συμβαίνει το πρώτο, υποκειμενικά μιλώντας, με την αίσθηση που μένει να θυμίζει αυτή της βροχής που σέρνει προς τα έξω ανείπωτες σκέψεις υπό τον ήχο ηλεκτρακουστικών μουσικών πέπλων.

via againstthesilence.com

“Roha” reviewed by nitestylez.de

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Another one that’s soon to come on Portugal’s Cronica Electronica-imprint is the labels cat.no. 105, Andreas Trobollowitsch’ eight track album piece “Roha”. On this album we see the 1980-born artist combine elements of droning, (neo)classical compository techniques with an electro-acoustic approach, close contact pick-up microphones and prepared instruments, preferrably but not exclusively taken from the string section. These tracks, alongside feedback-heavy pieces of dark, threatening and reprocessed radio static fused with bits of Dark Jazz like in the super massive “Tapco” or even killer bits of super-experimental headbanger riffs provided in “Tuul”, elements of Clicks’n’Cuts or even uberly dramatic prepared piano – “Ssbeat” – are defo a quite interesting ride into the sonic world of Mr. Trobollowitsch’ widely varied work of modern composition and performance and go well beyond the idea of moving experimental bits and pieces along a timeline displayed on a laptop screen.

via nitestylez.de

Futurónica 160

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Episode 160 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 19th.

The playlist of Futurónica 160 is:

  1. Simon Whetham, Against Nature [1] (2016, Against Nature, Crónica)
  2. Simon Whetham, Against Nature [2] (2016, Against Nature, Crónica)
  3. Simon Whetham, Against Nature [3] (2016, Against Nature, Crónica)
  4. Simon Whetham, Against Nature [4] (2016, Against Nature, Crónica)
  5. Simon Whetham, Against Nature [5] (2016, Against Nature, Crónica)
  6. Simon Whetham, Mic.Madeira (Stereo version) (2011, Mic.Madeira, Crónica)

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

“Against Nature” reviewed by nitestylez.de

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Soon to come as cat.no. 103 of the Portoguese Cronica Electronica-imprint is Simon Whetham’s most recent album entitled “Against Nature” which consists of five takes of the same name, all recorded and generated throughout his residency at the Agder Kunstsenter in Kristiansand / Norway in late 2013. “Against Nature [1]” is a quiet, partly repetetive piece that might be generated from contact microphone recordings overhearing digital processors and their micro currents for lovers of Clicks’n’Cuts , “Against Nature [2]” brings in wistful electronic moaning and tense, Morricone-like atmospheres of lurking terror whilst “Against Nature [3]” caters layers of polyrhythmic sinewave tones, rumbling field recordings, clanging glasses and indifferent moving objects accompanied by vibrating tubes. Furthermore we see “Against Nature [4]” start off with scraping tones and stereophonic noise pulses later joined by muffled sounds resembling slowly boiling liquids before a harsh metallic strike leads into a total plot twist, turning the whole tune into a robotic, mechanical audio sculpture. Finally “Against Nature [5]” brings in hissing drones, electrical buzz and nice waves of low frequency bass wildly disturbed by experimental filter works to round things off nicely here, concluding a well-recommended album for lovers of experimental electronic music.

via nitestylez.de

New release: Simon Whetham’s “Against Nature”

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It’s always a good strategy to open with a salvo of tension, dynamics and volatility. The threat of another will continue to loom throughout the following, lending a disquiet to even the most minimal of passages. Such is the unveiling of these five chapters in a highly refined practice of telescoping sound from the British artist Simon Whetham. If it is not a sense of unease, then something carcinogenic, septic, or unstable is felt, heard, and / or alluded to. Against Nature makes for an apt title, though a literary reference to the decadent work by Huysmans is an implausible one. Here, we find Whetham confronting an existential question in relation to a principle working method, what Whetham qualifies as “an intervention.” The process is relatively straight-forward and somewhat commonplace, as the sound artist seeks out spaces with interesting acoustic properties and activates those sounds through physical or electrical means. The question that Whetham ponders is in regards to the mark-making, the disruption, and the destruction of that site through his action. Out of that investigation, Whetham presents a confluence of activity: white noise scabbed from physical abrasion, static and circuit amplification from electronics gone haywire, the resonance of bell tones grotesquely transformed into a chorale of noxious buzz, the complication, the confusion, the unknown. Jim Haynes

Against Nature is Simon Whetham’s third full length release in Crónica, after Mic.Madeira, in collaboration with Hugo Olim, and Never So Alone.

With Against Nature, Whetham explores errors and failures. Although this is by no means a new concept, in this work these were used as part of an organic process in the generation of source materials. Sounds emitted by badly built microphones, over-burdened amplifiers, motors driven by sound impulses, misbehaving software, objects toppling, were all arrived at through sonic investigation — and often as an unexpected result.

Rather than deleting the unexpected outcomes, Whetham found them more interesting to work with than the desired results.

With Against Nature, as with all of Whetham’s work, the material was allowed to dictate its order. The nature of the sounds collected and the way they were collected has led to a more erratic and unpredictable composition than in many of his previous works.

Against Nature is now available from Crónica, Bandcamp and all the best digital and physical goods retailers!

“Against Nature” reviewed by Le Son du Grisli

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Une façon peut-être de s’éloigner du field recording pur… Simon Whetham joue ici contre nature : cinq fois, à partir de sons attrapés en compagnie d’Agder Kunstsenter en Norvège entre octobre et novembre 2013.

La branche sur laquelle il se pose n’est donc plus réaliste : pas concrète non plus, puisque l’électronique la travaille. Souffles endurants, rumeurs électriques, signaux alternatifs, plaintes animales ou céramiques, trembleurs de toutes sortes : dans le matériau qu’il trouve et transforme, Whetham trouve toujours de quoi composer – et même, étonner (dernières minutes d’Against Nature [3]). Avec un naturel, justement, confondant. Guillaume Belhomme

via Le Son du Grisli