“v3” reviewed by Black

Ja, ich gebe zu, nachdem ich Crónica zunächst in die “Abgehobene Kunst”-Ecke gesteckt habe, muss ich wohl meine Meinung nach den letzten paar Releases etwas korrigieren. @c kannte ich bisher nur vom “On Paper” Sampler, der ebenfalls auf Crónica erschienen ist und unter anderem diese CD war Grund für meine bisherige Einschätzung. Ok, einfache Kost ist “v3” auch nicht, jedoch bildet sich nicht ständig das große Fragezeichen über dem Kopf, man lässt sich einfacher von den Klängen gefangen nehmen und kann die Musik einfach nur hören, weil sie Musik ist und nicht, weil sich irgendjemand etwas Tiefgründiges dabei gedacht hat. Die Aufnahmen auf “v3” stammen aus drei Liveauftritten des Projektes, bei denen jeweils andere Line-Ups durch unterschiedliche Gastmusiker vertreten waren. Im Studio wurden diese Aufnahmen nochmals überarbeitet und neu gemixt, wohl auch etwas miteinander kombiniert, so dass neun Tracks aus Glitches, minimalen Rhythmen, Fiepsen, Zischen und gelegentlichen Einsätzen von Schlagzeug oder Gitarre entstanden, die nur selten in zu abstrakte und zu verkünstelte Klangcollagen abdriften. Sonderlob auch an die Videoanimation auf dem Multimediapart der CD, selten sieht man Visuals, die trotz Einsatz minimalster Elemente so beeindruckend sind. So etwas möchte ich mal zu genau dieser Musik auf großer Leinwand sehen. (CS)

Improvisation ist immer eine hit-and-miss angelegenheit. Musikalische Momente sind in diesem Kontext schwer auf längere Zeit zu bewahren. Die Momente, wo dies geschieht, sind dann aber meist besonders schön, weil sie so unvermittelt erscheinen. Der Laptop Experimentierer @c tritt mit einiger Regelmäßigkeit als Duo mit der Videokünstlerin Lia auf, die dem improvisierten Elektronikgeknackse eine visuelle Seele entlockt, die mir immer sehr poetisch in ihrer verweilenden, schwebenden Art erscheint (diesmal in schönen Weiß/Blau Grafiken). Dieses dritte Album präsentiert Ausschnitte aus drei Liveauftritten, bei denen sie noch dazu mit Gitarristen zusammenarbeiteten. Da man den Videotrack nicht auf alle Stücke beziehen kann, muss man leider wieder nur die Musik allein stehen lassen. Mal erscheint es mir im Duktus und in den Gitarrensounds wie eine geglitchte Version Cabaret Voltaires zu sein, andere Male pulsiert es fast schon minimaltechnoartig durch verwaschene Drones und rauschige Beatechos, dann wieder zerfasert sich das Klangbild in Bruchstücke, die nicht wirklich im Gehör bleiben wollen und sich an den bekannten Knirsch/Noise/Cut-Up Laptopstrategien abarbeiten. Hit and miss eben.(TTM)

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by Rif Raf

Wie houdt van Kaffe Matthews of Ikue Mori zal zich graag begeven in het universum van de New Yorkse audiokunstenares o.blaat. Het mag das ook niet verbazen dat de twee bovengenoemede dames ook meedoen op “Two Novels”, een expositie van hyperscherpe, ultradigitale geluidsmanipulatie; ambient voor het getrainde oor. Ook Aki Onda en DJ Olive wagen zich aan zeer spannende collaboraties met o.blaat. Verras uw trommelvlies!

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by Paris Transatlantic

There’s a Quicktime movie on Two Novels too, an evocative hand-held camera night ride on the BMT Jamaica elevated subway. Brooklyn-based o.blaat, real name Keiko Uenishi, is best known for her interactive audio environments (including the reasonably self-explanatory “beat piece (with Ping-Pong game)” and “audio coat check”) but has laptopped her way throughout North America and Europe in the company of, to name but a few, Kaffe Matthews, Toshio Kajiwara, DJ Olive, Aki Onda, Akio Mokuno, Ikue Mori and Eyvind Kang. These seven make cameo appearances in the nine-movement “Gaze”, a varied and inventive survey of the electronica landscape, from field recordings to the cut’n’splice of “egg salad sandwich” (as chopped up and scrambled as its title suggests), from de rigueur crackles and crunches to booming drones and explosions of vicious noise. All very listenable, even if it is hard to detect Uenishi’s own personal signature. That said, stylistic plurality has long been a hallmark of the so-called Downtown scene; Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins and Marina Rosenfeld are just as eclectic. “In the Cochlea”, the second so-called novel, is, as its title suggests, more intimate. In fact, it’s best appreciated on headphones, though if you think that means you’re in for nice long stretch of onkyo pianissimo, you haven’t heard “eight-o” yet, heh heh. Though there are plenty examples of par-for-the-course low-volume whispers, crackles and whooses (“miminohome”), Uneishi does come up with some real and very beautiful surprises. “nightvision” is particularly haunting. Like the video.

DW

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by Underground Society

Sonorités extrèmes comme plus souples, ce O.Blaat et ses guest stars ont déployés toute une inventivité rythmique pour mettre au point une musique séquentielle à basse de sonorités distordues pour créer un environnement semi fragile. C’est l’absence de toute mélodies qui renforce le côté indus minimaliste de cette oeuvre. On assiste par le biais des guests Gaze et In The Cochlea à une leçon de rythmique à base d’impulsion électroniques. D’une très grande qualité sonore, visuelle et esthétique, O.Blaat et son nouvel album est une réussite à tout point de vue. Et si par expérience auditive vos nerfs ne sont pas encore à rude épreuve, je vous invite à vous plonger dans la vidéo qui vous mènera dans le métro de new york pour un voyage introspectif. A découvrir.

Philippe Duarte

“v3” reviewed by Cyclic Defrost

@C are the Porto based electronic artists Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais. Regularly utilising field recordings, samples and strange electronic sounds, over the course of three albums they have displayed a firm commitment to improvisation and deconstruction, in creating new and interesting links via their internal electronic dialogue. Their second outing on the strange and uncompromising Portuguese Cronica label, V3 is significant in that it is culled from live performances and features the duo improvising with numerous collaborators, often in the electro acoustic realm. Though all the pieces have come from their live work in 2003, they were later edited and remixed by @c. And the results are quite startling. Though the various ensembles have been shuffled throughout the disc, there are performances with guitarists, visual artists and percussionists, all of which illustrate @c’s amazing ability to craft innovative and quite challenging soundscapes with multiple partners. The sounds verge on near silent improvised jazz, gorgeous droning strums of guitar, strange jittery electro speak, high pitched waves of electronic atmospheres, to some of the most uncompromising semi industrial improvised house music around. Perhaps due to its improvised nature V3 feels incredibly freeform, yet thanks to the remixing the pieces always have a vague, thoroughly unexpected structure and always continue to develop. It’s avant experimental electronics in its purest form. Startling and genre defying.

Bob Baker Fish

“v3” reviewed by Rui Eduardo Paes

Pelo que verifiquei nos seus dois discos anteriores e se confirma em «v3», as propostas dos portuenses @c vivem do cruzamento de estéticas e de modos de abordagem, indo de reminiscências do techno ao experimentalismo improvisado, e do “beat” mais explícito ao desconstrucionismo pró-abstraccionista. É sobretudo esta última vertente que nos é presenteada na sua nova edição, uma recolha remisturada de uma série de concertos ao vivo em Portugal e no estrangeiro realizada pelo agora duo de Pedro Tudela e Miguel Carvalhais com músicos convidados, como Andy Gangadeen, Vítor Joaquim, João Hora, Manuel Mota e Pedro Almeida, que pertenceu ao colectivo entre 2000 e 2003. E ainda que tudo o que aqui é reproduzido tenha sido trabalhado em estúdio a posteriori, fica clara a vocação performativa do projecto – esta é a melhor música que já lhes ouvi em CD (…) estando ao nível do que vem deitando cá para fora a frente vienense representada por Kurzmann, Siewert e Dafeldecker.

Rui Eduardo Paes

“Still Important Somekind Not Normally Seen (Always Not Unfinished)” reviewed by Neural

Microsuoni, elettronica sperimentale e variazioni tonali, condensati in una raffinata performance di Björgulfsson, Gough e Thorsson, registrata live al Melkfabriek, Den Bosh, nell’Ottobre del 2002 e successivamente editata da Robert Hampson negli studi del Thirst a Londra. Nonostante il titolo certamente non sintetico abbastanza chiari all’ascolto risuonano gli intenti di questi tre valenti musicisti, il primo proveniente da Reykjavik ma di base ad Amsterdam, focalizzato sul rapporto naturale-digitale e sulla concettualizzazione dell’organico, il secondo australiano, ben conosciuto sotto il moniker di Pimmon per le sue uscite su Tigerbeat6 e Staalplat (nella serie Mort Aux Vaches). Questi si rivela più eclettico ma altrettanto rigoroso nella scelta e nella elaborazione dei suoni, approntati in questo live insieme con Helgi Thorsson, stessa età (30 anni) e provenienza natale di Björgulfsson, un passato come membro degli Stilluppsteypa con diverse uscite discografiche in Europa, Usa e Giappone. Sono le sonorità sguiscianti, i click e i tappeti di frequenze ad essere in evidenza, fra sporadici inserimenti ritmici (tenuemente industriali) ed emergenze naturali trasfigurate attraverso l’uso delle macchine. Commissionato originariamente dall’ Earational Festival il progetto si snoda per oltre quarantuno minuti (divisi in nove tracce), immateriali sequenze che rendono merito dell’evoluzioni e della contemporanea sensibilità alle nuove forme sonore.

Aurelio Cianciotta

“Still Important Somekind Not Normally Seen (Always Not Unfinished)” reviewed by Rockerilla

La musica di “Still Important Somekind Not Normally Seen” à chiaramente visionaria: la sua realtà è virtuale, esiste solo in uncontesto ben determinato, tracciato nei suoi confini da macchinosi esperimenti di ingegneria musicale, difficilmente decifrabili. E allora à il caso di chiudere per un momento gli occhi, di misurare il respiro concentrandosi sui battiti del proprio cuore: potreste rendervi conto di che lingua parlano gli alieni, potreste incantarvi in un’assoluta contemplazione del suono, potreste confondervi tra le immagini e i colori dell’altrave, e accorgervi che questa musica è magnetica, è pura, è fantasia.

Giancarlo Curro

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by Dusted Magazine

For her debut, she brings a bunch of her friends aboard, downtowners like Ikue Mori, dj Olive, Toshio Kajiwara, Aki Onda, Kaffe Matthews, and violinist Eyvind Kang. All players get puréed in her Powerbook, along with subway screeches, ringtones, and other urban clamor. The second-half of the album is meant for headphones, and microscopic tones and sinewaves are threaded through your head. Despite so many ingredients, Uenishi’s attention to detail and flow makes for a solid abstract listen.

Tad Abney

“Two Novels: Gaze / In the Cochlea” reviewed by The Wire

With sleeve notes by Christian Marclay (who recorded her tapping her feet on the floor for his Footsteps record) and guest collaborations with the likes of Kaffe Matthews, Toshio Kajiwara, DJ Olive and Ikue Mori, Keiko Uenishi aka o.blaat’s debut album is something of an event. The album is split into two sections – the second to be heard trough headphones. The sounds produced on “Gaze” range from abstract electronic squigglings to high-pitched beats that unexpectedly phase into walls of static and falling water. Assisted on one track by sound modulators aki Onda and Akio Mokuno, o.blaat’s high tech computer music suddenly, and enjoyably, becomes embroiled in Onda’s more basic push-button cassete recorder loopings. Elsewhere her meeting with Ikue Mori produces a sublime electronic sound collage of distant voices and melting glacier effects that reverberates with psychedelic colours. On “In the Cochlea”, her mood is more minimalist and sensitive, a personalised conrontation with the listener. although fascinating, the latter’s more a selection of tone poems than a gripping novel.

Edwin Pouncey