Next Friday and Saturday, 5 and 6 February, Crónica will be present at Club Transmediale’s Creative Independents Network Market in Berlin. Looking forward to see you there!
“Sleppet†reviewed by Vital
Its been a while, I think, since I last heard music by Marc Behrens. Perhaps he is not as active anymore when it comes to releasing records? And perhaps more doing commissioned works by, say, German radio? Like this one, which was made for Deutschlandradio Kultur. Unless I am mistaken, I think I heard him play this material in a concert somewhere in 2007, and with his witty introduction by him about he just could escape some heavy block of snow falling. This work was recorded in Norway, in early spring time, when snow disappears and birds return. Both are heavily present in this piece. Seeing this coming in what seems to be the harshest winter in The Netherlands in several years, the sound of snow is now a familiar one. Just today I also noticed birds are still present here and not all escape to warmer parts of the world (maybe that’s a climate change thing I guess). This is a pretty strong piece. Water drops, birds, snow sounds but also motorized sounds of a powerplant and a ferry, along rumble of a kind I don’t recognize. Things move from quite soft to pretty loud, all in a great balance. An electro-acoustic work in great form. Untreated sounds along with short looped bits and computerized processing of the original sounds. A fascinating journey throughout: warm music as it happens for cold days. (FdW)
via Vital Weekly
New Crónicaster: “Futurónica 3 — Cool-age†by Pedro Tudela
“Lectures†reviewed by Neural
Tangled instrumental sequences, dense and fascinating, are improvised by Piotr Kurek, a Polish producer and electronic musician who now lives in Portugal. This work reveals a precisely organised, multilevel sound structure, which throbs with avant-garde jumps, jazzy shards and raw iterations. Kurek is mainly known for his breakcore works, created together with Marcin Stefanski, in the duo named Slepcy – also published by Cock Rock Disco. ‘Lectures’ is both close to and very far away from those projects (I’m thinking for example, of a piece like “With Charles Bukowski On The Ride”). There is still the same abstract, reactive and hyper-clear organisation, but this time they cite other, equally refined works, thanks to very different acoustic recordings, inspired by Cornelius Cardew, a seminal experimental composer and forerunner – with his Scratch Orchestra (1969) – of decidedly unconventional fusions. He also adds interesting fragments taken from conferences and performances of the English composer, mixing everything in an enigmatic editing, philologically careful and very involving. Aurelio Cianciotta
via Neural
“Compilation Works 1996-2005†reviewed by Liability
Il y a des initiatives comme celle-là qui font toujours plaisir. Alors que d’autres vous font casquer le prix fort un malheureux best-of de morceaux entendus quinze milles fois dans tous les supermarchés et les galleries marchandes, le label Cronica se propose d’offrir en téléchargement libre une double compilation des travaux de Marc Behrens. D’ailleurs la structure portugaise est en train de devenir coutumière du fait et, bien entendu, nous aurons l’occasion d’en reparler. Pour en revenir à Marc Behrens, Compilation Works est donc un résumé de dix années de labeur, de recherches électroniques, de drones, de field recordings, d’expérimentations concrètes. Une carrière riche qui est ici retranscrise mais qui ne propose malheureusement aucun inédit. Ceci étant, on voit rapidement que le parcours de Marc Behrens a été des plus sinueux, allant de labels en labels (les plus recommandables la plupart du temps – Ash International, Sirr, Mille Plateaux, Meme, Trente Oiseaux…), se forgeant une réputation de sculpteur sonore qui ne s’est jamais démentie tout au long de toutes ces années. Que ce soient des oeuvres originales ou des ré-interprétations de pièces déjà existantes (de John Hudak ou d’Ilios notamment), tout ici a été remasterisé laissant à penser pour son auteur que ce sont là des versions définitives.
Cette remasterisation est sans doute l’élément clé qui donne à l’ensemble toute son homogénéité et sa cohérence. Un ensemble qui donne aussi un reflet assez fidèle des possibilités infinies de la musique expérimentale et concrète. Marc Behrens a exploré de nombreux espaces et fait reculer bien des frontières. Il compose, décompose, construit, déconstruit, reconstruit de manière insatiable et semble n’avoir aucune limite à sa créativité. Que ce soit une musique saturée, dronesque ou evanescente, il n’y a aucune gratuité dans ce que fait Marc Behrens. Tout y est pensé, réfléchi tout en se laissent le soin de ne s’érriger aucune barrière. Marc Behrens est, à n’en pas douter, devenu une référence en la matière. Comme une piqure de rappel, Compilation Works nous oblige à ne pas l’oublier. De plus, son nouvel album (Sleppet), qui parait également chez Cronica, ne laisse planer aucune hésitation sur le potentiel du personnage. Fabien
via Liability
“Lovely Banalities†reviewed by Liability
Après avoir sorti une longue pièce électronique de 54 minutes (Frozen Time) sur mOAR (sous label de and/OAR) disponible en téléchargement, Gintas Kraptavicius aka Gintas K s’est mis en tête de donner une consistance artistique à ces moments du quotidien, ces sons auxquels on ne fait attention qu’inconsciemment tellement ils sont ancrés en nous et qui provoqueraient une certaine perturbation s’ils venaient à disparaitre. Lovely Banalities, ce titre n’est donc pas un hasard. Gintas K s’est évertué à recueillir chez lui à Marijampole les sons qui lui sont familiers et les ont associé à une musique électronique minimaliste et conceptuelle. Evidemment, l’ambiance est des plus intimiste. On pourrait rester immobile, laisser le temps s’écouler et ne faire qu’écouter cette musique curieuse et minutieuse qui s’installe durablement dans notre cerveau. Ce n’est pas une musique que l’on retient ou que l’on pourrait fredonner. Gintas K n’est pas dans une optique de construire des morceaux aux formes classiques couplet/refrain. Le lithuanien bâti une musique plus aléatoire, diffuse et qui, ici, fait appel à des émotions enfouies. On devrait se sentir en sécurité mais les choses ne sont pas aussi simples.
Qu’on ne s’y trompe pas, Lovely Banalities est une oeuvre ultra-personnelle et qui, en premier lieu, ne parle qu’à son auteur. Ici Gintas K nous ouvre sa porte et nous fait partager son quotidien. Il n’est pas toujours facile de s’y identifier mais on reconnait sans peine que les créations de Kraptavicius dépassent l’ordinaire. Ce disque fait cotoyer l’abstrait et le mélodique, le sensoriel avec le virtuel, tout ce qui pourrait s’opposer chez des musiciens aux conceptions trop classiques. Gintas K, lui, prend ce risque aussi parce que le concept de l’album l’exigeait. Le résultat est souvent étonnant, clair, d’une évidence à toute épreuve. Le sentiment que Gintas K a voulu faire passer n’atteint pas forcément l’auditeur mais, dans l’absolu, on est happé par la beauté même des morceaux. Il suffit juste de se mettre en tête quel était l’objectif de l’artiste pour porter un regard différent, plus juste sur ce disque et ne l’apprécier que mieux. Fabien
via Liability
“Hi-Fi Bordersâ€, a new sound installation by Gilles Aubry
“Hi-Fi Bordersâ€, a new sound installation by Gilles Aubry will be previewed during the Club Transmediale Festival, along with other works by Sound Studies members and the TAG group exhibition.
Opening: Friday, 29 January 2010, 19:00 – 00:00
Location: SPA, Spandauerstrasse 2, 10178 Berlin, Germany
From: 30 January – 7 February
15:00 – 22:00
Soon in Crónica: Mathias Delplanque’s “Passeportsâ€
Crónica ad for Neural #35
Designed by Cruz.
“Lectures†reviewed by Tokafi
Piotr Kurek wrote the music and composed the structure of his work ‚Lectures‘ like a surrealistic novel. And most of the time a novel has a hero. In this case that hero is the late Cornelius Cardew. Being a scholar and gifted contributor to the world famous Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, with whom he collaborated for a good three years, Cardew also laid hands on the piece Carre as a composer under the supervision of the master himself.
Not merely satisfied with that he engaged in several musical adventures, frequently changing his compositional structures and developing into one of the most experienced free style adventurers, influencing a legion of experimental musicians in the process. One of his works, The Great Learning, must have been at least one of the major reasons why Piotr Kurek created this album. With the aid of Cardew’s son Walter, who contributed some tapes of his father’s lectures, this musical experimental novel came to life.
While Cardew’s voice, for most of the time, sounds as thought it were being emitted by a partially defunct radio, it is intermixed with what seem to be live-instruments, which drift along in a free style that indeed doesn’t know any limits. Although sometimes harmonic sound parts appear, they are blown away like whirling autumn winds blow apart a bunch of fallen leaves. Driven into corners of wild ineptitude, they are pulled together as if drawn by a mighty magnet again and again, while in the background, the master lectures…
The complete absence of any notion of rhythm, despite the presence of percussive instruments, is another major feature of this album. Rudimentary elements of structure are exclusively provided by the instruments involved. Some electronically produced material can be detected but they seamlessly join force with those instruments. Wavelike sounds wash ashore of the endless musical groundswell that keeps coming and going… maybe one of the basic lessons we are about to learn.
On track 5, ‘Cardboard Cups’, we hear Cardew talk about the differences between jazz performances by the same artist on an album and in a live performance leading some listeners to be disappointed by the very different effects. This is also in some ways a turning point in Kurek’s music. While still experimental, we now hear free jazz elements join in with their typical improvisational elements. Flowing into each other the two genres create a new and surely exiting one, spiced with evenly jazzy and experimentally mixed comments of the celebrated master Cardew.
Overall, this album is something like a musical monument errected in honour of one of the great pioneers of modern music. And I dare say that it could hardly have been built any better than what Piotr Kurek has done here – his music is a genuine testimony of what the masters lectures were all about.
By Fred M. Wheeler
via Tokafi