“Modular Works 2015Q1” reviewed by The Wire

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In the recent surge of modular synth use, the hardware and the process occasionally overtake the music. Lost is the power of modular systems as tools for composition. In this latest installment of his continuing Modular Works series, Dutch underground maven, Vital Weekly contributor and longtime mastering engineer Jos Smolders corrects this imbalance.
Smolders made this set of four pieces under the influence of the Pierre Henry box set he had recently mastered, and the French auteur’s specter looms large, both in the patience of these compositions and flair for dramatic development. The restrained use of concrete sound and extended field recording excerpts creates an organic dialogue with the carefully crafted synth figures. Matt Wuethrich

“Modular Works 2015Q1” reviewed by Gonzo Circus

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Kort daarna heeft Smolders “Modular Works 2015Q1” uitgebracht, een muzikaal verslag van zijn bezigheden in het eerste kwartaal van dit jaar. Zoals de titel al aangeeft, is de muziek gemaakt met een modulaire, analoge synthesizer. Drie titels verwijzen naar Robert Hampson (Loop, Main), maar het album is eerder geïnspireerd door Pierre Henry. Smolders masterde een selectie uit diens werk voor een set van tien lp’s. De grote theatrale gebaren van de Fransman, maar ook zijn liefde voor de schoonheid van klanken hebben hun weg gevonden naar de muziek van Smolders. Zeer aan te raden. René van Peer

“Modular Works 2015Q1” will be available in Crónica on September 15.

Alexander Rishaug: fall concerts

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Alexander Rishaug has just announced three upcoming performances:

  • 17 September: A.Rishaug presents Ma.org Pa.git feat. Sigbjørn Apeland/Ivar Bjørnson, Incubate Festival, Tilburg, Netherlands.
  • 22 October: A.Rishaug, Gail Priest (AUS) Er’e eksperimentelt a, Kulturhuset, Oslo, Norway.
  • 01 November: A.Rishaug presents Ma.org Pa.git feat. Sigbjørn Apeland/Ivar Bjørnson, Ekko Festival, Bergen.

Marc Behrens releases “The Religion of Toxins”

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Marc Behrens’s new mini-album “The Religion of Toxins” was released as a digital edition. The work was first presented as a sound installation at Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal, May 30–31, 2015, during “Serralves em Festa 2015”, inside the Serralves chapel.

“The Religion of Toxins” is now available to stream and buy in Bandcamp.

Futurónica 148

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Episode 148 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, September 4th.

The playlist of Futurónica 148 is:

  1. Martijn Tellinga, Branching into Others, for a large instrumental field (2015, Positions, Crónica)
  2. Martijn Tellinga, Three Modulators, for trombones (2015, Positions, Crónica)
  3. Martijn Tellinga, Sur Face, Carriage Works parking lot (2015, Positions, Crónica)
  4. Martijn Tellinga, Truth, exercise for a listener (2015, Positions, Crónica)

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

New release: Martijn Tellinga’s “Positions”

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You could light a space with fire. It would burn for as long as there was flammable material and oxygen. It would leave ash for you to clean up (sweeping the floor with a large broom). It would provide heat. It would smell bad – and perhaps set off fire alarms. But for a while the space would be altered in way that let you know something about its capacities and fragilities.

On the evidence of this recording, Martijn Tellinga’s music does something like this with a sounding space. The architecture and the people and objects who inhabit it are made to resonate. The aural landscape that is revealed is unbalanced, creating a sense of vertigo as the ears re-orient. It is filled with potential.

Low and/or loud sound sources meant to send reports to the walls and surfaces, waiting sometimes to hear the report, but forging ahead anyway, as if digging an aural tunnel. The dogs like this.

Sometimes (as in Three Modulators for trombones) the movement is slow, as if attempting to rebalance or reground the structure from the bottom up, like a small earthquake. At other times (as in Three Modulators, for basses) the movement is impatient, a whirlpool of Styrofoam peanuts changing density, coagulating and dissipating, bouncing off walls, creating fleeting winds.

Sound is utterly dependent on position. We occupy one at a time, but are aware of others. We’re drawn for mysterious reasons to other places, we pace and move to the walls and windows. We whistle, we rattle and sing and stamp. The dogs like this too.

Michael Pisaro
July, 2015

Positions is available as a limited-edition CD or a digital download, available from cronica.bandcamp.com and selected retailers.