Influenced by a lot of names “to be found outside the music fieldâ€, which include Proust, Poe, Alighieri, Friedrich, Waterhouse and so on, up to director Sofia Coppola and erotic photographers Guido Argentini and Roy Stuart, Portuguese Jorge Mantas wants us to call him a “sound designerâ€, not a “composerâ€. He also hates those who don’t express emotion through their work, and concludes that there’s nothing more uninspiring than an “untitled†piece (a WBA/WBC title unification match with Francisco López looms after this declaration, one surmises). That’s why the large part of the titles in this CD are taken from Marcel Proust. But what’s all the more important is that in its non-revolution – because this is purely and simply laptop-conceived, loop-based music – “Musicamorosa†contains the best things I’ve heard from the artist in question. A touch of romanticism, a good choice of intoxicating spirals of orchestral samples and circular chords and, voila, almost 70 minutes flow away with few annoyances (next to none, I’d say) and several truly arresting moments, at times whispering Basinskian languages, often only showing different schemes for the utilization of common ingredients. Luscious, abstract, caressing; those are the most useful adjectives here, partially negated by the long final track “Soixtante-quatre†which tends to a blacker kind of electronic mystery.
“Filare†reviewed by EarLabs
In talking about Filare, Jan Ferreira (Mosaique) wrote: “I attempted to produce sustained music which at the same time would contain movement and harmonic richness.†As I listen, it’s clear that he reached his goal.
He goes on to say: “It was intended to create a sound that would have depth on several layers, emotionally as well as acoustically, without wanting to emphasize any of them in an exaggerated manner.†As you can readily tell, Jan Ferreira is very thoughtful and passionate regarding his own musical work. Concerning contemporary avant-garde music in general he says: “It seems to me that a great part of the beauty of modern electronic/electroacoustic music lies in its balance between technical finesse/complexity and the emotional nuances/subtleties that can thereby be achieved.†Filare is one realization of this idea emerging from the vast space of sonic possibilities and is the second release in Crónica’s Unlimited Release Series whose am is to develop new means of distributing various digital media, in this case music, with artwork files and information PDF included.
A native of Lisbon and currently residing in Copenhagen , Mosaique used recordings of real instruments including strings, organ, sitar, bouzouki, and harmonium in various settings along with classical music extracts to compose the eight works found on Filare . A recursive method was used in which the processed results of one recording became the starting point of the next recording.
Recursive, harmonically rich, sustained, containing movement, and multiple aural layers, are all words/phrases that describe the underlying sound/technical dynamics of Filare while adjectives such as graceful, intricate, delicate, and affecting all convey its essential sensory nuances. Static is not word that applies to any of the compositions. Beautiful, flowing tones and microtones of varying frequencies are in a constant state of flux – rising, falling, conjoining, conflicting, dissolving, and sometimes canceling each other out. Puzzling track names like Sophil, Vitral, Aidon, Dichron provide a layer of mystery.
Mosaique’s Filare is another outstanding instance of contemporary electroacoustic music from an artist who desires to articulate his methods, techniques, and musical philosophy and from a label eager to share these beautiful sounds. Not to be missed.
“Täuschung†reviewed by Skug
Mit seinem Debüt “Täuschung” (Crónica) entführt uns der Wiener Elektroakustiker DAVOR MIKAN in ein kaum weniger lärmendes Labyrinth. Der ohrenschreddernde entstellte Sound würde gut in die Mego-Riege passen. Stotternde, fahrige Skizzen charakterisieren Mikans Klangkunstwerke, 31 Fragmente auf 37 Minuten. Hut ab.
“Täuschung†reviewed by Bodyspace
Coisas há que passam melhor sem serem detalhadamente explicadas. Ou seja, tudo o que daqui em diante se acrescentar acerca de Täuschung não só atraiçoa o potencial do seu factor armadilha-surpresa, como humedece a pólvora acumulada num barril cujo conteúdo corrosivo e cacofónico faz com que todo o glitch associado aos piores pesadelos passe agora a ser canção de embalar para atrair os mais rosados sonhos. A Crónica, que lança o disco como afronta para superar anteriores afrontas, aclama no press-release que, no fundo, Täuschung tem a música pop como coração. Sim, quando a água for uma comodidade negociada a um preço superior ao do petróleo, Mariah Carey terá de ensaiar outras manobras de marketing para superar nas tabelas de venda o austrÃaco Davor Mikan.
Por agora, Davor Mikan pode gabar-se de um disco que enxovalha os sons como se estes tivessem sujeitos aos efeitos de um colapso nervoso, que torna mais diabólicos os seus parágrafos narrativos ao desrespeitar uma noção vulgar de integridade (desconhece-se o paradeiro do “inÃcio†e “fim†à maioria das composições), que fomenta sensações de torpor (ruÃdo ilimitado) inversas à s mais aveludadas que se conhecem a Musicamorosa de Beautiful Schizophonic, também na Crónica. Visualmente, é como se dos escombros destes sons estilhaçados e pequenos contos atrofiados emergisse um braço de aparência hÃbrida – entre o humano e o robótico, mas por toda à parte semelhante ao que poderia sair de um ecrã de televisão a transmitir o canal Videodrome (tal como conhecido ao filme do mesmo nome assinado por Cronenberg).
Se a pop anda realmente por aqui, aproveite-se o lamento que 50 Cent e Justin Timberlake cantam em “AYO Technology†como sinal da carência que sentem por não terem as suas damas – em “carne e osso†– sentadas ao colo, em vez de apenas presentes na virtualidade de um ecrã de telemóvel. Porque não dar o melhor uso à tecnologia e contacto fÃsico? Täuschung gere quase fisicamente sons xistosos com o auxilio paralelo de programas digitais que Davor utiliza normalmente para desenho gráfico. Devora todo o juÃzo que lhe é dedicado e arrota o agrado desse repasto trinta e uma vezes, sem direito a resposta.
Miguel Arsénio
“Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, Bottom†reviewed by Jazz e Arredores
Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, Bottom, disco recente do duo portuense @C (Miguel Carvalhais e Pedro Tudela) regista uma experiência criativa que lida com a microtonalidade e a criação de sons digitais e/ou digitalizados produzidos em ambiente laptopiano, tanto em circuito fechado como em espaço amplo e aberto ao longo de um perÃodo de cinco anos. Nesta nova edição da Crónica Electrónica, o duo aplica com saber e efeito um vasto conjunto de técnicas de estúdio no tratamento de material sonoro produzido e captado em actuações ao vivo em trabalho de campo, via recolha de sons ambientais. PartÃculas que se organizam para produzir/reproduzir propostas consequentes no domÃnio da arte sonora. Em Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, Bottom não se chegam a formar linhas contÃnuas de sinal, tantas são as alterações no fluxo narrativo, que já não o é, antes se afirma como o resultado de um conjunto ordenado de eventos em cadeia que se condicionam uns aos outros e formam novas sinergias. Recusando a passividade do paisagismo descritivista e contemplativo, a música do duo @C prefere interpelar-nos, ao exigir um compromisso da parte do ouvinte no sentido de, através da atenção concentrada, criar o magma mental que acabará por ligar os incontáveis fragmentos que compõem os quatro puzzles sonoros (62; 71; 72 e 61) em constante movimento. Em tudo se nota uma preocupação (conseguida) de integrar vestÃgios do mundo orgânico (voz humana, percussão, saxofone, violoncelo, ladrar de cães, tráfego, sons nocturnos e aquáticos) num tecido digital cativante na sua sóbria beleza formal e na solidez fragmentária das esculturas que a dupla nos propõe e que parecem assumir-se simultaneamente como sÃntese e projecção futura das diferentes abordagens que têm dado a conhecer ao longo da sua actividade artÃstica, de que se conhecem já sete saÃdas, três delas na editora por ambos fundada e dirigida.
“Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, Bottom†reviewed by Vital
Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela are @C, armed with their laptops they play mostly improvised music. However, important, they don’t release improvised music. How is this possible. Their improvisations are restricted for playing together, in a concert like situation, with or without audience. All of the resulting recordings are taken into the studio and used as building blocks for their music. On this, their seventh release, they use recordings from concerts, studio work and field recordings which they recorded over a period of five years and deals mainly with the improvisations they did with others. Sometimes the ‘other’ was present while everything was played, sometimes the ‘other’ arrives through the form of a sample. They remove all the ‘unwanted’ bits of improvisations and use only that which hold the test, and these are used in these four constructions. They are vibrant, lively pieces of musique concrete, sometimes not unlike releases on Empreintes Dgitales, but with a more anarchistic, free approach. The software used is not the what it is about, but it’s result, which, as @C say, ‘becomes itself, and will become music each time it is played, to everyone and everywhere it is so’. Which I believe is very much true. There is so much happening on every level of this disc, that it requires a few rounds of listening until everything is uncovered and then the ‘real’ thing starts again: finding the overall picture again. It’s a full CD, but one that has a lot to give. Great work. (FdW)
“Up, Down, Charm, Strange, Top, Bottom†reviewed by Boomkat
Although by no means one of the more prominent acts currently operating in the microsound field, @C have consistently made valuable contributions to the genre, publishing work through labels like Sirr, Room40, Grain Of Sound and of course, Crónica. For this album, the duo render vivid acousmatic soundscapes from a variety of recordings: room sounds, voices, running water and even a stray cello make up this electroacoustic banquet, and it’s all structured in a highly unconventional fashion. The album is bookended by the two most substantial pieces, the first lasting twenty minutes, the last more than double that duration. Through these two lengthy works you’ll bear witness to a vast and evocative auditory environment, coloured by intimately recorded details and enigmatic clouds of drone wafting past. Importantly, youâ€ll find two incredibly brief miniatures wedged between these, proving that @C arenâ€t all about the long haul. These two compositions reveal an incredibly vivid, intensely tactile sound world and break up the other more expansive, pensive pieces. In their own way these 90-second interludes are they key works here, painting rich sonic portraits of some imaginary location. Highly recommended.
“Musicamorosa†reviewed by Sands-zine
Questa, per quanto ne so, è la prima vera uscita di Jorge Mantas, e l’autore tiene fede alla sua ragione sociale con un disco assolutamente schizofrenico, non tanto perché contiene atmosfere sonore particolarmente schizzate, tutt’altro, quanto perché potrebbe essere benissimo attribuibile a due o tre autori diversi. Le prime 4 piste dispensano una musica rilassata e completamente aritmica, se pure non rarefatta e comunque condotta a volume sostenuto, oltreché venata da una malcelata vena romantica. Les oiseaux qui dorment en l’air, con il suo look rumorista concreto condotto su più bassi volumi, rappresenta un primo stacco netto dal modello iniziale. On se souvient… è un bozzetto minimale che ripropone la vena romantica ma, viceversa dalle prime piste, è condotto in modo più raccolto e potrebbe essere stato suonato benissimo da un duo pianoforte-violino. La lectrice rappresenta un altro taglio netto, e infatti vi si sente solo la voce di Cécile Schott (aka Colleen) che legge un testo di Proust (e proprio Proust sembra essere una delle massime ispirazioni dell’autore). L’amour… torna alla ambientazioni iniziali, se pure con atmosfere più cupe, e Dans la chambre magique d’une sibylle rompe completamente ogni logica precedente basandosi sul trattamento digitale della chitarra arpeggiata da Tobias Strahl. Dopo due piste che riprendono il mood dominante, Un jardin encore silenceux avant le lever du jour chiude sullo stesso tema, ma presenta come variazione iniziale un sottofondo di carillon. Anzi, non chiude, ché c’è spazio per una tredicesima pista nella quale i portoghesi @C frantumano e ricompattano la musica del ‘bello schizofonico’, nell’arco di oltre una dozzina di minuti, in un’operazione riorganizzativa davvero eccellente. “Musicamorosa†è sicuramente un bel disco ed è anche piacevole da ascoltare, come è stato osservato da più parti, però si macchia di una pur unica colpa: passa e va… senza lasciare traccia. Boh!!!, ma consigliarne l’acquisto mi parrebbe comunque esagerato.
“Täuschung†reviewed by The Wire
Vienna based Mikan’s broken english is strangely helpful in highlighting the existential and creative confusion that informs these 31 short pieces, conceived using graphic tools and granular synthesis. “After four years, the distance to this music is completely lost,†he writes. He cannot recall what emotional spasms gave rise to these knotty, fragmented scrawls of abstract electronic music, despite searches through his notes and correspondence. Certainly, the most effective and distinctive aspect of Täuschung is the way in which pieces disappear abruptly, drowned in infancy, after less than a minute sometimes. Several tracks are barely titled, while others are more vividly monikered: “Das Gewitter hat sich in eine Bahnhofshalle zurückgezogenâ€. It’s as if, to misquote Satie, these are the sonic memoirs of an amnesiac.
David Stubbs
“Täuschung†reviewed by Cyclic Defrost
The thirty-one tracks on Täushung betray a nest of family resemblances, but they are lost on the one who, using graphic tools and granular synthesis, gave rise to them in the first place. Some four years later, the atmosphere, as it were the corona of lightly indicated uses that accompanied their first gesticulations now appears foreign, incomprehensible yet dangerous, like a veiled threat.
Hence the caution, care, and confusion with which Mikan arranges and manipulates the music. For a good part of the time he dwells in a conflicted state. At one end of the spectrum, he wants to decipher and find a certain intimacy with the material. This is evidenced by pieces in which Mikan tries more overtly to mould and tease the material into tense, angular shapes. When this is done, however, certain other pieces don’t fit, the elements never gel, and the compositions appear as a bit of plastic surgery gone awry – thick, droning white noise and mulched electronica echo and bounce off of one another in innumerable ways; loud cascades of swirling sound slashed and cut up by clashing frequencies. At the other end, Mikan approaches them as unapproachable, communicating directly but at a distance, adding and dissolving motifs in the miasma’s so as to bring out their enigmatic quality. With “Flimmerâ€, for instance, he does very little, stalling the structural flow, and allowing the underlying electronic sounds to rise to the surface.
Mind you, outside of this narrative, the ideas don‘t exactly remain fresh at every turn – however little, its spirit wilts when unlit by this light source. Mikan carves out a number of paths within this space, though, and the bracingly gritty alliances that are formed assume many expressions, displaying varying degrees of translucency.
Max Schaefer