Veteran electronicist Pure is someone I associate with the Mego label, but his new release Ification is out on the Portuguese label Crónica. As far as I can make out, he hasn’t played a note of music himself but recruited various fine European avant musicians to contribute samples of their instruments, which he has proceeded to rework into a meandering, mulched-up digital soup. Martin Brandlmayr, Anke Eckardt and Alexandra von Bolzyn are among those sampled, the latter notable for contributing her ’screams’ to ‘Sonomatopoeia’ and ‘Iron Sky’. A lot of the CD is a little too over-processed for my tastes, but I like the noisy guitar bursts of Christoph de Babalon on ‘Fire’, and ‘Iron Sky’ also has moments of considerable menace in its fizzing, subliminal layers of stern minimalism. Perhaps ‘End’, which uses a bass guitar sample, is the most successful, offering nigh-on 16 minutes of highly testing minimal deep drones and coming on like the refrigeration unit of Beelzebub himself. Striking cover art is by Jan Rohlf, depicting a gigantic venting tube such as you attach to a tumble dryer, bursting forth its intestines on inner gatefold. Ed Pinsent
“Lovely Banalities†reviewed by Boomkat
Lithuanian sound artist and composer Gintas K returns to Cronica with a selection of self-confessed Lovely Banalities – a set of beautiful auditory trifles, often rather short and lacking in any defined sense of structure. These are more like objects, loitering around in the ether and establishing loop-based sequences like ‘Q’ or the strange and otherworldly ‘Music Box’. Elsewhere, the watery modulations of ‘Before When’ brings to mind the sort of digital experiments heard on Pita’s album for No Fun – but only for a couple of minutes, before Gintas halts proceedings and re-boots with some other slice of electroacoustic meandering. Far more interesting than its title would have you believe, this album is a rather entertaining, unstuffy piece of microsound.
via Boomkat
New CD release: Gintas K’s “Lovely Banalitiesâ€
“Lovely Banalities†is the second release in Crónica from Lithuanian sound-artist Gintas K, after the much acclaimed double CD from 2006 “Lengvai / 60 x one minute audio colours of 2kHz soundâ€.
“Lovely Banalities†presents fourteen short pieces — a collection of miniatures, impressions, sketches, innuendos and errors — inspired on the exceptionality and suprisingness of the quotidian, on the extraordinary everydayness.
Gintas K draws analogies between these pieces and Modest Mussorgsky’s suite “Pictures at an Exhibitionâ€, mapping fourteen individual moments, ready to be visited by the listener. The pieces of synthesized digital music are contrasted with evocative field recordings, captured in Gintas K’s hometown of MarijampolÄ—, during a windy summer Sunday afternoon. These are sounds of lovely and quotidian moments, unremarkable sounds that are an evocation of forgotten and rediscovered feelings, of small and precious things from the past that still hover in the air, that remain in the streets, somewhere in the grass. The field recordings weave the pieces together, guiding this auditory visit. “Lovely Banalities†thrives by its apparent formal and structural simplicity, but this simplicity — as in everyday life — is an illusion.
“Lovely Banalities†was composed by Gintas K. The lovely cover art was created by David Muth. It was designed and mastered by MCarvalhais.
You can listen to C2 or Lovely Banalities, read the Press-release, buy the CD directly from Crónica, or download through Boomkat or Zero Inch.
The Beautiful Schizophonic live on Valentine’s day
The Beautiful Schizophonic will perform live on Valentine’s Day, saturday 14th February, at Sport União Colarense, Colares. On the bill there’s also a romantic dinner, F. W. Murnau’s masterpiece Aurora screened with live soundtrack by Hugo Claro and dj set by City Forest. Ticket includes tea and home cookies, starts at 6:30 pm.
New Crónicaster: Pure Hati
André Gonçalves live in Montreal
André Gonçalves will perform tonight at Lab Synthèse in Montreal. Also playing will be Peter Kutin, Blake Hargreaves and The Human Athlete.
From the archives: Club Transmediale’s Creative Independents Network Market
Two pieces by Cem Güney at First Spark
Factitous Phobia & Hysteresis 1 + 2 by Cem Güney will be broadcasted by www.soundartradio.org.uk for First Spark. Friday February 6 from 12 to 14h, and Saturday February 7 from 14 to 16h.
“Factitious Phobiaâ€, from the album Praxis: the structure of the composition is built on a recorded, and then edited shortwave radio broadcast of a middle eastern song.
“Hysteresis 1+2†(unreleased pieces): 2 tracks constructed to be played sequentially. Hysteresis, is an improvised recording of pre-recorded shortwave radio transmissions, online radio broadcasts and TV transmissions, with the company of a minidisc player, a stereo walkman headphone and computer.
The compositions main purpose is to research the psychological effects of hysteresis (a lag between an effect or response and the force that caused it), compositional elements such as silence and amplitude modulation, and the effects it may have on the listener.
“Praxis†reviewed by Neural (english edition)
With sudden audio constructions, electro-acoustic and microsound influences, the Turkish multi-instrumentalist Cem Güney (who can boast past experiences as DJ and trumpet player) gives birth to a fascinating sequence of synthetic sounds and field recordings for the Portuguese experimental label Crónica. Compositions orbiting around an authorial attention focused on the perception of fragments, in forms of reverberations, crackles and wide iterations that come together in ambient and acousmatic scores. Gentle but still somewhat harsh, an elaboration of conceptually sophisticated and shining themes, experimental in articulating algorithmic sequences between science and spirituality. A meditation on the audible universe that bases its exploration on the same imagery evoked by our bodily automatisms: the flowing of blood, the electricity of nerves, the crackings in our ears. ‘Nada Yoga’ without melodies, words, rhythms or harmonies: just the sound of a humming breath. Aurelio Cianciotta
via Neural
“Digital Sound Drawings†reviewed by 5 against 4
Many moons ago, i wrote a lengthy retrospective of the work of Ryoji Ikeda, creator of some the finest raw digital music yet created • It’s an unfortunate corollary that Ikeda, like all great innovators, has a sizeable cluster of imitators (‘flattery’ be damned), many of whom form part of the now woefully tautological output from the once interesting Raster-Noton label • But something quite new appeared today, from the Crónica netlabel that i’ve praised so highly in the past • Out today is the fifth of their ‘Unlimited Releases’ series: Digital Sound Drawings by the Danish composer Morten Riis • The short programme note speaks of these six compositions being “composed through the drawing of images and their direct conversion into sound”, which brings to mind the well-known spectral imagery occasionally used by, among others, Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares & Plaid (about which more can be read here) • Riis’ compositions are quite different, however, more akin to ‘sculptures’ than anything else, something that becomes strikingly apparent when the music is listened to using audio editing software, as recommended by the composer • i found this a fascinating way to listen, proving revelatory about the sound structures Riss has created •
The opening track, “[d.raw]”, is uncompromising from the outset, hard-edged & frenetic, its material skittering & glacial, sounding precisely how one might have imagined it would • Not surprisingly, it suggests Ikeda (or Alva Noto, in one of his more inspired moments), & yet there’s an undeniable warmth & richness demonstrated that is quite disarming • Nonetheless, it’s the kind of opening track that might put off a timid listener; but that would be a mistake, as what follows is markedly different •
“new.s” presents an immediate shift, opening with a delicate fluttering of blips that quickly yields to a surprisingly gentle noise journey • This journey, as the waveform shows, exploits the creative potential of the DC offset, something most sound engineers would seek to avoid • It’s highly effective, bestowing on the sounds a paradoxical powerful softness, punctuated by sharp jumps in voltage that are also usually avoided • Already, this is material most unlike the majority of digital sound artists •
This expressive use of DC offset is taken to further extremes in the surreal but very beautiful “[wav.form]”, the waveform of which betrays clearly its image-based origins • The result is rather like bombarding the ears with a ton of feathers, a myriad of light poundings that are forever changing in shape & timbre • It’s tough at first, but ultimately very rewarding •
As its name suggests, “[nor.m]” returns to more ‘normal’ sonic territory, this time founded upon stable fundamental voltages • It’s the most timbrally varied track on the EP, juxtaposing many kinds of noise beside jittery drones & fragmentary high sonics • The whole is somewhat reminiscent of Cage’s music involving radios, but without ever alighting on something concrete •
Extremes of DC offset return in “[raw.d]”, by far the most ethereal track, exploring a microsound landscape worthy of Roden or Hudak • It suggests the transcendental possibilities of such voltage extremes, simultaneously hovering on the brink of audibility & overload, its unrelenting pressures again taking its toll on the ears (especially through headphones), while never departing far from pianissimo •
Similar extremes in the final track, “[pic.ture]”, that serves as a suitable (if a little less engaging) denouement & summary of what has gone before • Once again, dynamic restraint is considerable, submerged in the high pressures DC offset affords • i say it’s less engaging, but the way in which the material hovers in a place that defies tangibility is interesting, & perhaps the standout quality of the EP as a whole •
Available for free download from Crónica here, in high-resolution (44.1kHz, 24-bit) AIFF files • i recommend listening through headphones (as long as they have excellent frequency response), & with the aid of audio editing software (for those who lack some, Audacity is a reasonably good, free program), in order to follow the trajectories of the sound waves as they progress •
via 5 against 4