New podcast: Andrea Neumann & Guests

Andrea Neumann & Guests
Andrea Neumann, Ana Veloso, Diana Combo, Filipe Silva and João Martins met at a workshop organized by the Serralves contemporary art museum. Together, they explored the relationships between music and gestures, working at two levels: group improvisation and the awareness of the movements necessary for the production of sound and for daily communication. The process involved an analysis of movement during the musical and social performances, the selection of motions, their practice and representation in the context of a stage performance, in synchronization with the music composed during the workshop. This is a recording of one of their improvisation sessions, at the foyer of the Serralves auditorium.

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Futurónica 50


Episode 50 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, December 2nd.

The playlist for Futurónica #50 is:

  • Emmanuel Mieville, Tarapoto, Peru / Kuantan, Malaysia (2011, Four Wanderings In Tropical Lands, Baskaru)
  • Enrico Coniglio, Mantilla (2009, Glacial Lagoon, Laverna)
  • Gilles Aubry, s6t8r (2008, Mus*****c, Crónica)
  • Emmanuel Mieville, Cahuita, Costa Rica (2011, Four Wanderings In Tropical Lands, Baskaru)
  • Arturas BumÅ¡teinas, Purim (featuring Pure) (2011, Eterniday News (Vol. 1), Audioatalaia)

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

“Double Exposure” reviewed by Peter Wullen

Double Exposure
Excellent new concept double album by Janek Schaefer on Crónica. His best to date. 12 commissioned pieces that range from dreamy to truly hairraising. ‘Asleep at the weel…’ is absolutely fabulous. An installation consisting of ghost cars & in-car soundtracks. The 20 minute piece on the album documents the dangers of overconsumption & overuse of natural resources from inside the biggest culprit of the last century: the rise & fall of the car. It’s like praying for survival inside an erupted vocano. It’s really quite spellbinding. One of my favourite albums of the year 2012.

via Peter Wullen

“Double Exposure” reviewed by Was Ist Das?

Double Exposure
Getting up for work before dawn is not really a pleasant experience but with this album as your in-ear companion, you can see things in a slightly different light. Schaefer was conjuring up dazzling minimalist other worlds when the current crop of experimental ambient producers were probably still listening to Blink 182 and failing to kiss girls. The experience is very much in evidence here displayed a restrained but skilled confidence, clear vision and sparkling production.

This download compilation takes twelve pieces made of installations, compilations, soundtracks and other such projects. The format is crucial to the structure of the album as it would not fit on a Single CD, would be too little for two CDs and would not fit on a double LP without diminished sound quality. This is a digital album full stop.

The music collected here is a hearty feats of musical gems. There is the sparkling but slightly haunting piano of ‘City of Dreams’. The vinyl hiss underpinning the sublime dreamscape of ‘Code for Dankworth’ will haunt your memory as you lay on the edges of sleep.

‘Inner Space Memorial (for J.G. Ballard)’ is an epic work of celestial drone. There are the sobering ecological warnings of ‘Asleep At The Wheel’ taken from an installation Schaefer created in a car in a disused supermarket.

‘Crossed Wires’ has a surprisingly dark horror film vibe to it and then explodes into a domineering, fluttering heavy drone but keeps suddenly cutting out to other things. It comes as quite a shake-up but that’s Schaefer for you, ever the unpredictable. Long may he reign that way.

via Was Ist Das?

Arturas Bumšteinas / Piotr Kurek and Janek Schaefer live at Next Festival


This year’s Next festival in Bratislava includes a superb line up of performances, including an Arturas BumÅ¡teinas / Piotr Kurek duo and Janek Schaefer, that recently released “Double Exposure” in Crónica. It’s all happening in Bratislava, from the 1st to the 3rd of December.