“Flow” reviewed by chaindlk.com

Portuguese multimedia artist Vitor Joaquim has traced a singular path over the last 25 years starting with improvised music in 1982 and then composing for dance, theater, cinema, video, installations and multimedia. “Flow” is his latest work on the Crónica label. The main concept here is the confrontation between voice and computer and in almost all the tracks we can find heavily processed breathings and whispers among the swarming layers of processed instruments or even a sensual female voice(Filipa Hora’s) as in the second track. Ranging from dissonant glitch to languid and dreamlike sounds with bursts of high-speed grainy loops – “Flow” is a complex work, only sometimes indulging in melodic moments. A fresh update to Markus Popp’s lesson and surely a perfect listening for the autumn and winter to come.

Andrea Vercesi

“Flow” reviewed by Phosphor

Each song title of Vitor Joaquim’s latest album contains the word “moments”. The concept of Flow is the possibilities and impossibilities of relationships. A concept that is difficult to translate or incorporate by means of electronics. But the spoken texts by Filipa Hora make up for this.

Vitor Joaquim’s music is built upon abstract, relatively high-pitched digital sequences. A substantial part of the music really sounds digitalized and computerized, accentuating an artificial modernism. Or as the artist puts it himself: all the ideosyncrasics of bare-naked human expression, altered, expanded and processed beyond it’s own flesh and blood.” Nevertheless the music is never fake, nor boring. Listening to these moments makes fun, the’re excellent.

“Flow” reviewed by Big Load

Eine akademisch leicht angetrocknete Beschreibung des “Flow” geht von einer optimalen Herausforderung an das Wissen und Können eines Menschen und seiner damit einhergehenden Absorption in der Tätigkeit, oft mit erhöhtem Lebensgefühl verbunden, aus. Umgelegt auf die Rezeption (oder auch Erzeugung) von Musik, würde ich meinen, dass es sich um einen Idealzustand zwischen Kontemplation und Herausforderung, einem Kratzen am Unbekannten, beispielsweise in der Improvisation, aus dem sicheren Hafen des Erlernten, Verinnerlichten, handelt. Im konkreten Fall vorliegender Veröffentlichungen des verdienten portugiesischen Labels Crónica stellt Vitor Joaquim die menschliche Stimme, hier jene von Labelkollegin Filipa Hora, in ihrer Ausdruckskraft durch den Computer erweitert, oft in einer unentscheidbaren Superposition zwischen beunruhigend und wunderschön oszillierend, der digitalen Reizüberflutung elektronischer Möglichkeiten gegenüber. Diesen digitalen Fluss, besser dessen unzählige Nebenarme, lässt Joaquim wie unter Spannung vibrieren – paust, beschleunigt, überfordert – und immer wieder verstottern; im Extremfall bis, wie in “Thinking Moments”, die Stimme nur noch ein Hauchen ist, während die Musik graduell entschwindet, oder, wie im abschließenden “Misleading Moments”, vollkommener Stille Platz macht. Solcher technischen Ãœberhöhung gegenüber nimmt sich der Beitrag von Filipa Hora schon fast unangenehm intim aus, erreicht durch ihre dringliche Nähe aber auch unglaublich viel Atmosphäre und erinnert bestens an Arbeiten von AGF (Antye Greie-Fuchs). “Flow” meint hier demnach keine verträumt-ambiente Klangtapentenmalerei, sondern ein instinktiv angewandtes Landschaftsgärtnern mit Bewusstseinsströmen – was auf ganz außergewöhnliche Weise gelingt und eine ernsthafte Empfehlung allemal wert ist.

“The Wayward Regional Transmissions” reviewed by De:Bug

In der Welt des digital-arabischen Stakkatodrones ist Slavin nach wie vor ungeschlagen. Das demonstriert diese CD in höchst komplex variabler Form erneut mehr als deutlich. Musik die sich gelegentlich anhört wie Oval aus Jericho, oder Glitch für Marrakesch. Ich bin jedenfalls vom ersten Track an völlig eingenommen. Perfekt um sich einen völlig eigenen Horizont der Welt zu bauen.

“The Wayward Regional Transmissions” reviewed by Vital Weekly

The first time we got introduced to the music of Ran Slavin was on his ‘Product 02’ CD release for the very same label that now releases ‘The Wayward Regional Transmissions’. Slavin hails from Israel, where he produces digital music, experimental cinema and video art. On his latest CD he approaches ‘Oriental Middle Eastern Music with Abstract Glitch’ and to this end he uses in some pieces the BulbulTarang, a three steel string Indian instrument played by Ahuva Ozeri, who was the first female star of Mizrahit music. Another piece uses the Ud, played by Moshe Eliahu. It may seem an odd mixture at work here, but in fact the opposite is true. The minimal patterns played on the traditional instruments mingle quite nicely with the electronic music of Slavin, which is not always glitch like. He employs rhythm through rhythm machines, which he processes by digital means. Of course the hotbed of cracks, hiss, static and such like is present, to make sure that this is the world of glitch.

There is however something quite warm about this CD, almost like a lazy tropical afternoon, such as in ‘Jericho 6AM’ (although the title suggest a different time). The music is not unlike that of Thilges, who have been working on this kind of merging of western digital techniques and middle eastern instruments. This CD fits quite nice the Cronica label, who have been before bringing special themes to the world of glitch and not being an ordinary label for ordinary glitch. Slavin’s disc works with traditional approaches, both in computer music and in oriental music but the combination thereof is quite new. Very nice work.

FdW

“The Wayward Regional Transmissions” reviewed by Basebog

Fin dai suoi primi lavori Ran Slavin era intensamente legato alla sua terra. Memorabile il suo contributo nel corale ‘Walking In Jerusalem’ di Random Inc/Sebastian Meissner insieme ad Electric Birds e Tim Hecker per Mille Plateux. E ancor più nell’edizione sperimentale sempre di Mille Plateux delle raccolte di ‘Intifada Offspring’ insieme ad altri artisti israeliani. Ran Slavin è un artista contemporaneo che lavora e sperimenta con il suono, grazie al quale ricrea scenari di alterazione di notevole intensità e originalità. Il materiale alla base di questo ultimo disco sono le registrazioni di musicisti folk strappate ai quartieri dei Territori e combinate con altri suoni ‘sincretici’ dell’ambiente metropolitano (ambienti e voci). L’autore si è accostato alla chitarra da quattordicenne, mentre ora elabora il video e l’audio con patch sviluppate da lui stesso. Tutto digitale quindi, fatta eccezione per l’intervento dello strano strumento detto Bulbultarang, interpretato da Ahura Ozerri.

‘Hagalil’ è una traccia di loop e piccoli intarsi. ‘Village’ e ‘Jericho 6AM’ seguono il discorso elaborato da una chitarra accelerata, mentre altre corde si intrecciano in una fitta tessitura. Altrove, come in ‘Wayward initial’ è un basso pesante e profondo a scatenare il lirismo emotivo. Ran Slavin ha il merito di essere grezzo ed elegante al tempo stesso: la manipolazione esprime un’estetica originalissima e si produce anche dalla scelta di campioni ambientali sporchi (o sporcati) con gusto personale. Sono forse sogni, riverberati, che riportano l’eco di melodie rese familiari al lontano mondo urbano grazie agli artifici di un abile distorsore. Batteria irregolare ma originale in ‘Shelters and Peace’ e ‘Silence’, dove il ritmo è somministrato senza pudori. E’ forse nel ‘Kiosk in Furadis’ che una filastrocca con solista e coro femminili diventa quasi dnb. Tanti interventi di voci che mutano timbro, cantano talvolta sommessamente, e si accalcano o dilatano. Ne risulta un blues confuso, una babele piena di eccezioni.

Il concept dell’album è forte a monte e i suoni sembrano voler rappresentare uno spazio fisico già riprodotto nelle vedute aeree del pack. Per questo il paragone con musicisti della stessa senbilità (Philip Jeck and Janek Schaefer per primi) rende un’idea di massima ma non esaurisce l’ampio discorso di Ran Slavin. In un’intervista, definisce lo stile di questo suo disco ‘oriental abstract spiritual music’. Sempre quest’anno Mille Plateux gli ha pubblicato la terza versione del progetto inizialmente commissionato dalla Biennale di Venezia ’04 “Insomniac City”. Si tratta di una meditazione sulle conseguenze estreme della vita urbana contemporanea ed è disponibile come doppio dvd PAL-NTSC e come CD con la colonna sonora. “The Wayward Regional Transmissions” ricorda nel nome le tracce da ‘radio pirata’ pubblicate dall’autore nel 2002, ed esprime la naturale evoluzione di una preziosa sensibilità artistica: elettronica da esplorazione, bella, dentro il presente e pure intelligente.

“The Wayward Regional Transmissions” reviewed by Comunicazione Interna

Ran Slavin è un artista multimediale israeliano con già alle spalle un’esperienza ventennale nei campi della musica digitale, delle installazioni sonore, della video art e del cinema sperimentale. Realizza adesso per la portoghese Crónica uno splendido disco nel quale tessiture elettroniche minimali assorbono note di strumenti acustici ed aromi etnici lungo percorsi geografici/immaginifici che dall’India conducono al Maghreb attraversando tutto il Medio-Oriente: le corde vibranti del bulbultarang (“Village”), glitches ribollenti (“Wayward initial”), note di ud disciolte in polvere desertica (“Jericho 6AM”), opacità e riverberi acquatici (“Shelters and peace”), voci tagliate e inoculate in plumbei suoni frastagliati (“DAT beats”), graffi su sottili membrane in tensione (The silente”), vita di strada e dolci melodie femminili (“kiosk in Furadis”), ultimi bagliori d’Oriente (“Hagalil”). Senz’alcun dubbio uno dei lavori più interessanti ascoltati in area elettronica da diversi mesi a questa parte.

Guido Gambacorta

“Flow” reviewed by The Sound Projector

Another strong project by this Portuguese electro-acoustic composer, whom we first noted with his 2004 CD A Rose is a Rose on the Austrian D0c label. The Rose CD made sparing use of TV and radio samples alongside churning, trundling loops of electronic noise; Joaquim does much the same here, allowing disembodied and treated voice fragments to come in at carefully-chosen points, and state disconnected words which sometimes outline a vague “theme” to these instrumental pieces. For anyone who’s ever admired the use of sharply compacted lyrics on Kraftwerk’s The Man Machine, here’s the perfect modern update on that formula. Very interesting, single-minded textures and patterns are worked into the ground as Joaquim relentlessly rotates each virtual object over and over in his virtual hands, like foam rubber cubes in a hot tumble dryer.

The eight themed woks explore highly existencial concepts, as suggested by their titles “Moments of your time”, “Moments of silence”, “Moments of emptiness”, and (my personal favourite) “Moments of skin”. Have you ever had a skin moment? It’s a lot worse than watching a L’Oréal commercial on TV. Like any good modernist, Joaquim is painfully self-conscious and aware of the fleeting moments of time alloted to us petty mortals, as we helplessly watch opportunities slip between our fingers while we’re locked in our paralysing states of indecision. This paradox is best expressed through two deeply ambiguops pieces in this record, “Thinking moments” and “Misleading moments”, the latter work proving to contain a particularly difficult stretch of desolate emptiness, followed by a minimal white-noise pulse beat and an uncertain looped chord of synthesised music.

Flow is intended as a real confrontational exercise, asking deep and imponderable questions about the nature of real human expression. The taped voice of Filipa Hora is a key part in this plan. Joaquim shows no mercy as he “alters, expands and processes” her voice in the computer, stretching possibilities to the limit. “I think this is so dangerous, this intimacy”, she whimpers helplessly. “I think I’m going to have to stop you from getting closer.” But it’s too late. Joaquim advances like an isatiable beast. Nothing left for her but “moments of skin”. All of this excellent music, which somehow manages to be very precise about quite vague subjects, could be used therapeutically — to better enhance you capacity for clear-sighted thought during those crisis-filled moments of existencial doubt. In this regard, it will deliver much better results than playing that Nintendo® DS Lite Brain Training game.

Ed Pinsent

“The Wayward Regional Transmissions” reviewed by Foutraque

Les débats politiques aidant, ces dernières semaines ont vu apparaître une nouvelle tendance que l’on pensait appartenir à un temps révolu : celle du nationalisme, du repli sur soi et du conformisme. Fort heureusement pour nous (amateurs avertis de musique que nous sommes), ces notions nous semblent abstraites et désuètes car l’une des grandes qualités de la musique est son métissage, sa capacité à se confronter à de multiples courants et à se recycler sans cesse pour créer de nouveaux espaces sonores. C’est dans cet état d’esprit que s’inscrit la dernière oeuvre de Ran Slavin.

Originaire de Tel Aviv, Ran Slavin est un artiste protéiforme, tout à la fois artiste vidéaste, cinéaste et musicien. Avec son dernier projet, The Wayward Regional Transmissions, il explore une nouvelle voie : celle de la confrontation entre musiques traditionnelles orientales et électroniques par le biais d’accidents numériques ou d’ajouts de gimmicks aléatoires. Uniques et sensorielles, les structures du compositeur israélien s’apparentent à d’immenses paysages souvent désertiques où les collaborations croisées de Ahura Ozerri (Bulbultarang – instrument à cordes venant d’Inde) et de Moshe Eliaha (Oud) servent de trames de fond, sur lesquelles viennent s’ajouter par couches ou par ruptures des éléments électroniques disparates. Le tout forme un mélange foisonnant et méditatif, une musique en aucune autre pareille, une musique du futur toute empreinte de passé, une musique sans frontières, une musique libre de tout carcan où l’auditeur surpris puis émerveillé se laisse porter vers ces paysages sonores abstraits. L’une des meilleures découvertes du moment.

Dr. Bou

“Leise” reviewed by Testcard

Es war einmal eine Gruppe names Kapotte Muziek, die vor allem das als Instrumente nutzte, was sie am Konzertort oder rund um den Konzertort vorfand, zum Beispiel Pappe, Kies oder Sand. Für Leise hat Frans De Waard, Mitglied von Kapotte Muziek, seine Tocher Elise aufgenommen, als sie drei Jahre alt war. Elise spielte mit all den “Instrumenten”, die Frans für Kapotte Muziek in seiner Wohnung herumliegen hatte, Papier, Plastik, Abfall. Der CD-Titel ist ein Anagramm auf den Namen der Tochter, aber auch musikalisches Programm: Hier geht es sehr leise zu. Die fragilen Geräusche, das Knacken und Rascheln, wurde zu warmen, dezenten elektroakustischen Sounds verarbeitet, deren Sirren den Raum erfüllt ohne allzu viel Präsenz zu beanspruchen.