All of these pieces were recorded in concerts in Palmela, London and Huddersfield and see them performing their improvised music played on laptops being extended by some guest players such as drummer Andy Gangadeen, guitarist Manual Mota, Joao Hora and Vitor Joaquim. On paper it might sound like an odd combination, guitar improvisations with laptop doodlings, but most the time it works quite alright.
FdW
(…) à terceira faixa chega-se ao terrreno que s @c melhor dominam, o da disseminação de elementos rÃtmicos, onde a incisão é mais notória. A partir de então entra-se nos eixos, a trote de aço, com samples ocasionais a fazerem as vezes de estações. Não adianta procurar janelas porque a devolução é certa, as paisagens aqui são de neblina e neritude. Os @c não são, como se diz dos Kraftwerk, os beatles da electrónica — são o próprio pulsar da electrónica, no que de vital isso possa significar. É a distância que separa o sonho da neurotransmissão. 7/10
Sérgio Gomes da Costa
The disc contains two works, “Tropical Agent”, a nine-movement composition, and “Ears In Water”, separated by thirty seconds of “Product Silence”. There’s something smooth and seductive about Slavin’s work, which manages obliquely to reference ambient techno – the terraced mix, the nearly regular click backbeat, the lush string carpet (check out “Search for Compassion”) – without ever jumping across the fence into em:t territory. His samples are exquisitely selected and skilfully combined (I especially like the snatch of the Brahms Violin Concerto that drifts in and out of “Silent Siren”) and it’s all as sleek, streamlined and suggestive as the accompanying photography by Jewboy Co.
DW
To describe what led to this CD is not an easy task. It started with the artist *0 (Nosei Sakata) who invited a bunch of people to remix his CD ‘O.000’ (which delt in many ways with silence, or at least sounds outside the hearing range) and among them was Marc Behrens.
After the results were released, Marc Behrens continued to recycle the results of others and here is where Paulo Raposo comes in. This Portugese composer is mostly known as the owner of that other fine Portugese label, Sirr-ecords. The result is a CD with no less than twenty-one tracks, which however seem to be mostly one piece with various index points. The silent *0 CD is being scanned by using the fast word button of the CD player and the actual sounds it produces is just throughout this CD as source material. Needles to say that this is a very ‘microsounding’ work: it glitches in many ways, plug ins are applied, the dynamic range is kept wide – ranging from soft to loud and makes this into quite an enjoyable CD. Completed with a conceptual cover design I was very much reminded of P16.D4: extensive recycling of similar sounds and images, from a previous, finished project moving to the next one. A fine but somewaht neglected tradition. It’s good to see people doing that again.
Franz de Waard
Melhor sucesso tem o «Product» que reúne duas facetas bem distintas de um mesmo músico, Ran Slavin, tratadas, devido até à natureza da colecção, como se de dois criadores se tratasse. Se o Slavin da primeira metade, «Tropical Dance», passa por um conceito do “sampling†devedor das manipulações bem-humoradas e joviais de Carl Stone, o Slavin da segunda, «Ears in Water», tem mais a ver com a inquietante postura de uns Nurse With Wound.
Rui Eduardo Paes
L’album est donc divisé en deux parties, toutes les deux à peu près sur le même ton, tandis que c’est la construction des morceaux qui change un peu. La première partie, Tropical Agent, composée de neuf morceaux, propose autant de variations sur des boucles acoustiques complètement retravaillées au laptop, afin de les rendre plus fragiles, fracturées, et souvent noyées dans des souffles, grésillements et autres clicks. On obtient alors des morceaux plutôt ambient et franchement hypnotiques, mais jamais ennuyeux puisque tous les éléments semblent toujours en mouvements, alors que d’autres apparaissent et s’éloignent au fil des morceaux, plus ou moins régulièrement, un peu comme tous ces bruits mécaniques qui servent à rythmer les pièces.
Chaque morceau possède donc son propre son, suivant que le matériaux de base soit une boucle de tintements chaotiques (Dirty Needles), ou d’un timide piano et harpe (If You Should), un violoncelle (Search for Compassion), ou une guitare traitées à la Fennesz sur U Think U Konw Who U Are. A l’écoute du premier morceau on se dit que l’on a affaire à un disque très expérimental, peut-être difficile d’accès, mais on se laisse vite prendre au jeu de ces mélodies écorchées, de ces lentes évolutions vers l’épure, par cette impression que le temps s’arrête au beau milieu d’un morceau, uniquement ponctué par le mouvement, lent et régulier des pales d’un hélicoptère, ou par cette façon de rendre un morceau ambient oppressant (Triggers of Violence).
La deuxième partie, intitulée Ears in Water, composée de cinq morceaux, met en avant des souffles grésillants, métalliques, aux oscillations régulières, qui servent de tapis sonore à des mélodies ou collages sonores. Une lente mélodie de guitare sur Vista Plain, une voix féminine fracturée subissant de multiples effets au milieu de fins bruitages et sons sur le superbe Girls in Water, ou sa version masculine, plus grave à tout niveaux, avec Untitled #1.
Pour finir, deux morceaux opposés avec Untitled #2, magma de souffle et micro-bleep qui s’organisent petit à petit en une mélodie pointilliste, puis Piano, avec une superposition de claviers très francs au regard du reste de l’album.
Encore une fois le label portugais nous étonne, réussissant à marier expérimentation et sensibilité, efficacité et originalité, se révélant être l’un des labels les plus excitants du moment.
Fabrice Allard
Like its title suggests it is a further interpretation and reworking of a work called “0.000” that was once released by Japanese artist Nosei Sakata (perhaps better known as *0). The original work of Sakata contained no audible sounds, and was therefore ideally open for interpretation. The work was “remixed” and reworked by a score of other artists, and then Marc Behrens decided to rework all of this material again. Then Raposo joined in, and everything got reworked again.
The result is a work of minimal, and sometimes noisy bits of sound that could be either organic or electronic. The sounds form a sort of minimal soundscape of seemingly random bits and pieces, that actually works quite well. It is a nice piece of extremely minimal experimental music that is really quite entertaining to listen to.
TD
experimental bands and now does audio-visual work. He works with computer processed sound and field recordings. Much to my surprise, the main instrument being fed into the computer is the guitar, which is rather joyfully being processed in the first work ‘Tropical Agent’, which are nine tracks in total.
In a strange the music is rather uplifting. In ‘Ears In Water’, five tracks, the mood is a bit darker, introspective. The guitar might be there too, but maybe not. These tracks are also a bit more minimal (…) there are certainly some nice tracks to be found here.
FdW
Aqui, a primeira parte é ocupada com “Tropical Agent”, tÃtulo que nos remete logo para os campos do romance policial. O resto da sugestão é dado pelos tÃtulos dos temas, tais como “Silent Siren”, “Guitar String / Empty Streets”, “Flat tire at the dead sea” ou “Triggers of Violence”. Escutados, são registos bem menos lineares do que isso. São percursos por texturas com as pontas dos samples frias, vigiados por um rumorejar constante. A cada faixa um latejar próximo da insónia, em deturpação lenta, como reminiscências de ecos. Não são paisagens onÃricas porque a adrenalina não deixa, não são progressões dinâmicas porque o torpor é excessivo. Fica-se entre a familiaridade e a estranheza, numa terra próxima do que a ambiguidade permite. É desse enclave que o negrume nos crepita.
A segunda parte do disco chama-se “Ears in water”, o que não significa transição pronunciada. Por o método ser semelhante também a atmosfera é próxima de “Tropical Agent”. Começa em estado de perturbação cândida, quase melódica (“Vista Plain”), passa por um spoken word monossilábico (“Girl in water”), ruma à abstracção (em dois temas apropriadamente sem tÃtulo), e termina na sugestão instrumental de “Piano”. Também esta é uma sequência belÃssima, num dos discos mais acessÃveis da Crónica — talvez por ter uma maior intervenção orgânica, cortesia de sons instrumentais ou informais. (7/10)
Sérgio Gomes da Costa
Dir kompositionen offenbaren ihre eigenartige und fragile Schönheit in langsamer und konzentrierter Entwicklung durch separate Tracks, die in bizarr konstruierter Feinarbeit aufeinnder hin arrangiert sind. Das so entstehende Panorama aber ist organisch und sinnlich.
