Material Composition 1 and 2, start from the mysterious timbre of a beautiful Rin Bell, played solemnly, in a ritualistic fashion. Over the development of the pieces, delayed electronic sequences, rhythmic patterns of metallic percussions, synthesized sounds with industrial overtones and a wide range of other sounds are modulated, revealing several new patterns in a stratified acoustic landscape.
Material Compositions intersects genres such as jazz, techno, or folk, approaching them as forms that are able to mutually contaminate each other. The results blur boundaries and develop an emotional, cinematic, and meditative listening experience, with intoxicating and dazzling tones with many high-order overtones and electronic sounds, an intricate and complex soundscape.
Mad Disc is a solo project by Takamichi Murata, a composer, drummer, and percussionist working in Nagoya and Kitakyushu, Japan. Murata was involved in several bands, including his own, and he is engaged in a wide range of activities, having collaborated with several other improvisers and composers.
This album further comprises three remixes, by Murata’s collaborators Toru Kasai, Koutaro Fukui, and Ryoko Ono, the first of these is also included in the limited release tape edition.
Tracklist:
Material Composition 1 (21:46)
Material Composition 2 (09:23)
Material Remix: Toru Kasai (08:49)
Material Remix: Koutaro Fukui (05:08) (extra track in the digital version)
Material Remix: Ryoko Ono (07:48) (extra track in the digital version)
Takamichi Murata: Drums, Percussion, Electronics, Synthesisers. Recorded at Tokuzo by Satoru Kono. Mixed by Ramza. Remixes by Toru Kasai, Koutaro Fukui, and Ryoko Ono. Mastered at Crónica.
Collectif formé par Pedro Tudela (électronique), Miguel Carvalhais (électronique), GustavoCosta (percussions) et Rodrigo Carvalho (vidéo), Máquina Magnética est un projet qui fait se rencontrer les approches musicales de chaque artiste, appuyé par des projections aux allures cinétiques.
Sur Máquina Magnética, organique et électronique repoussent les frontières, créant des espaces futuristes flirtant avec un futurisme sombre, où pulsations tournoyantes et expérimentations parasites se cèdent la place et se superposent, volant aux dessus de paysages urbains dévastés.
Chaque élément trouve son espace, happant les silences dans des grouillis de glitchs poussiéreux traversés de nappes coupantes comme des vents glacés.
Máquina Magnética compose des zones accidentées aux imprévus permanents, surprenant l’auditeur à travers ses narrations souterraines et ses éclaboussures de lumière, volant en rase-motte sur des pistes enfouies dans des histoires dystopiques aux dangers menaçants. Superbe. Roland Torres
Gustavo Costa, einer der Köpfe des Sonoscopia-Kollektivs in Porto, der als Drummer mit acoustic & electro-mechanic percussion schlagwerkt, hat sich seit den frühen 90ern vom schlimmen Finger mit Genocide und Malevolence zum engagierten Free Jazzer und Improvcrack gemausert, mit Red Albinos, Radial Chao Opera oder Lost Gorbachevs („From Neoliberalism to Totalitarian Capitalism“), als Most People Have Been Trained To Be Bored, in der Bandbreite von Martin Bladh bis Jamie Saft, von Vitor Joaquim bis Gonzo Almeida, mit dem er als Ikizukuri sogar im Trio trommelt. Nach „Entropies and Mimetic Patterns“ (Sonos020) als couragiertem Alleingang, zeigt Máquina Magnética (Crónica 176~2021 / Sonoscopia, Sonos021) ihn zusammen mit den beiden Crónica-Machern Pedro Tudela &Miguel Carvalhais, die man als das Computer-Duo @c kennt – live gehört zu MÁQUINA MAGNÉTICA noch Rodrigo Carvalho mit generative visuals + interactive lights. Unterhalb der audiovisuellen Dimenson dominieren der Zusammenklang des Manuell-Organischen mit dem Synthetischen und der Input des Spontanen in kompositorischer Nachbereitung. Denn die sechs Tracks entstanden im Studio-Mix aus zwei elektro-akustischen Improv-Sets, wobei Costas Tockelbeats und rauschende Becken morphend und gestaltwandlerisch noch einmal vertieft mit den Computersounds verschmolzen wurden. In Soundscapes, die wie im Traum oder wie unter Wasser gedehnte Bewegungen suggerieren, mit dongenden Schiffswrackklängen, kratzigen Impulsen, knattrigen Pixeln, klapprigen Kaskaden und Strudeln. Costa traktiert Metall und Holz zu Herzschlag-Tamtam, Knisterspuren hüpfen über Becken und Gongs. Klänge flattern und dröhnen, Finger trappeln, Sticks tanzen über die Felle, impulsiv umsurrt und bespritzt, rau beknarrt, wobei der @c-Computerclub nicht weniger agil pollockt, zischt und wummert. Zu gedämpftem Pulsen morphen Dröhnwellen, singen Metallkanten, schnurren Automaten, Geräusche knistern, ploppen, werfen knattrige keine Wellen zu wetzendem Bowing auf dröhnendem Fond in zuletzt aufhellender Tönung. Ein Mensch-Maschinen-Ballett am digitalen Fliegenpapier des Anthropozän. Rigobert Dittmann
Here we have two labels from Portugal, from the same city even (Porto), and both labels deliver musicians to the project Maquia Magnetica. Sonoscopia’s boss Gustavo Costa on drums, Cronica boss Miguel Carvalhais, teaming with his @C mate Pedro Tudela. They are both on computers. Rodrigo Carvalho is the fourth player, “on generative visuals and interactive lights”. He might not be on the CD, but images grace the cover. This group has played a few concerts and a few studio recordings, and all of this went into the pieces on this CD. This release is not a documentation of a show or the result of studio recording, but, at least that’s what I gather from the information, a document of their shared interest in playing free music. However, the music is not necessarily pure, free improvisation but a restructuring of sounds. If you will, this music is part of the musique concrète tradition. That means there is an organisation within the improvisation here. At least, that’s how I see this, and maybe I am wrong. With Costa using a fair share of electronics, the music has throughout an electronic character, in which the drums only sparsely sound like drums. There are quite a few drone and drone-related sounds to be noted, and another assumption is that Tudelo and Carvalhais also apply real-time processing. The characteristic hectic of improvised music (well, it is not a rule, of course) is only partly present here. Maybe it is due to the post-recording editing that this was changed, but it might also be inherent to their way of playing this music. I found this CD to be a slow grower. Every time I played this, I heard something more and noted the structures they created within the music. This release could appeal to those who like improvisation and those for whom that is too weird, but whose heads are all turned to musique concrète. (FdW)
Máquina Magnética was born from the meeting of four experimental artists with consolidated practices across both solo and collective work: Gustavo Costa, drummer, percussionist, and one of the heads of the Sonoscopia collective, on acoustic and electro-mechanic percussion; Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais, of the @c project and the Crónica label, on computers; and Rodrigo Carvalho, of the Openfield and Boris Chimp 504 collectives, on generative visuals and interactive lights.
Máquina Magnética explores the synergies and boundaries of each artist’s territory, intersecting the organic, the mechanical and the synthetic; studio and live recordings; free improvisation and composition; musical gestures and acousmatic sounds; audiovisual performance and visual music. These tensions build a cathartic space for performance developed across six pieces in an album recorded and mixed between two live settings — O’culto da Ajuda in Lisbon and gnration in Braga — and two studios — Sonoscopia and Crónica, both in Porto — in an ongoing creative process.
Tracklist:
A (9:35) B (4:12) C (6:30) D (5:02) AA (4:11) BB (6:47)
Joint release with Sonoscopia, Crónica 176~2021 + Sonos021
Executive production by Sonoscopia.
Recorded at O’culto da Ajuda (Lisboa) by Miguel Azguime, gnration (Braga) and Sonoscopia (Porto).
Das aus Portugal stammende Label Crónica ist mein Geheimtipp, wenn es um experimentelle elektronische Musik geht. Das Projekt @c hatte es sogar mal unter meine Top Ten eines Jahres geschafft. Das Projekt „Máquina Magnética“ ist ein guter Einstieg ist die Klangwelt von Crónica.
Máquina Magnética entstand aus dem Zusammentreffen von vier experimentellen Künstlern, die sowohl als Solisten als auch als Kollektiv tätig sind: Gustavo Costa, Schlagzeuger, Perkussionist und einer der Köpfe des Kollektivs Sonoscopia, mit akustischer und elektromechanischer Perkussion; Pedro Tudela und Miguel Carvalhais, vom Projekt @c und dem Label Crónica, mit Computern; und Rodrigo Carvalho, von den Kollektiven Openfield und Boris Chimp 504, mit generativem Bildmaterial und interaktivem Licht.
Hier kommt eine Komponente dazu, die oft in den Veröffentlichungen von Crónica etwas zu knapp kommt. Ein Rhythmus oder etwas, das einer sein kann. Dazu kommen noch jede Menge geschickt eingesetzte Loops und so entstehen Soundcapes, die sehr fesselnd, ja fast hypnotisch sind. Im Video dazu sehen wir noch eine weitere faszinierende Komponente. Das alles ist in sich geschlossen, kompakt und spannend.
Ένα έργο αποτελείται από μια ιδέα η οποία ξετυλίγεται στο χρόνο για να μας τυλίξει σε ένα δικό της χώρο εντός της. Στην πειραματική μουσική, όπως και στα εικαστικά, πολλές φορές οι νέες ιδέες που παρουσιάζονται μόνο νέες δεν είναι. Λογικό, θα έλεγε μια κυνική φωνή εφόσον έχουν παιχτεί όλα. Ο κυνισμός είναι, όμως, η απαρχή της ήττας και κάθε δημιουργία που βγαίνει από το σκοτάδι είναι σαν να πιάνει τα πάντα από την αρχή.
Ο δημιουργός Γιωργής Σακελλαρίου επισκεπτόμενος το εργοστάσιο βότκας Degtine στο Βίλνιους όπου μένει, αντιλήφθηκε ότι υπάρχει ένας ολόκληρος κόσμος ήχων ο οποίος δεν παραπέμπει απλώς σε ένα βιομηχανικό μοτίβο. Μια αόρατη αύρα συνέδεε εργάτες και μηχανές κάνοντας ένα μέρος όπου πέρα από υπεραξία και προϊόντα, παράγει μια δική του τυχαία και φαντασματική ζωή. Όντως, ακούγοντας τη σύνθεση του πειραματιστή “Degti”, μπαίνεις πραγματικά σε ένα κόσμο υπερβατικό πέρα από την κούραση των εργατών και τα ντεσιμπέλ των μηχανών. Το έτερο “Be Pavadinimo” αποτελεί ένα στρόβιλο εξωτερικών ήχων και ηλεκτρονικών κυμάτων που πατά πάνω στα άγνωστα ηχητικά βήματα μιας φύσης που όσο νομίζουμε ότι φθίνει, αυτή μας καταβροχθίζει. Κάτι μηχανικό υπάρχει στη φύση και κάτι φυσικό στις μηχανές, με τη μουσική να είναι ο σύνδεσμος τους.
On the 17th March 2020, one week before the UK national lockdown, Yan Wang Preston decided to photograph a single rhododendron tree every other day at half an hour before sunset, for a year, with sounds from the site recorded by Monty Adkins and Yan Wang Preston each month. The rhododendron was introduced to the UK by colonial botanists in the late 19th century as an ornamental plant, it is now seen as a highly invasive species by ecologists. Many of the rhododendron species currently grown here are originally from China, Yan’s motherland. Living as an immigrant in a country going through Brexit and COVID, Yan felt a strong personal connection with such invasive plants. They remind her of her homeland as well as the complex perceptions around nature, national identities, landscapes and migration.
The area, Shedden Clough at the outskirt of Burnley, was an open-cast limestone mine 400 years ago. Nearly 200 years ago the local landowners planted rhododendron and beech here, in an effort to change it to a hunting estate. Now it is an “ecological wastelandâ€, colonised by these non-native plants and by sheep-grazing farms. Hidden in the heartland of the South Pennines, the local landscape is simultaneously post-industrial and post-colonial. Yet the ecology can also be said as being cosmopolitan. This particular rhododendron tree happens to have a natural shape of a love heart. An alien species sending out love. As such it is a rich metaphor to anchor considerations of landscape and identity.
The repetitive photographic act over a year allows nature to run its own course. This has been the year of the global crisis caused by COVID-19. To date, over three million people have died from the virus. A natural disaster has also become a political issue, in which racial tensions re-surface over and over again. Yet the rhododendron carries on with its own rhythm of growing, flowering, seeding, and growing again. The art piece is therefore becoming a space: a context for us to consider such political issues within the context of nature. The fact that this nature is made of unwanted species further complicates the issues at hand.
Yan Wang Preston is a photographic artist interested in the intercultural connections between landscape imagery, ecology, identity and migration. Her work has won many international awards such as the 1st Prize, Syngenta Photography Award and the 1stPrize, Professional Landscape, 2019 Sony World Photography Awards. She has exhibited widely and internationally at venues including Fotofest Biennial 2020, USA, Gallery of Photography Ireland, the 56th Venice Biennale and Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum. Preston’s monographs are Forest and Mother River (Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2018). She received a PhD in Photography at the University of Plymouth in 2018 and currently lectures at the University of Huddersfield, UK. She is originally trained in Clinical Medicine in Fudan University, China.
