Put on the circuit via the Portuguese Cronica-imprint only recently is “Unwritten Rules Of A Ceaseless Journey”, the latest album collaboration by Haarvöl and Xoan-Xil Lopez which consists of three, each 15 minutes spanning tracks which were commissioned works for a theatre piece named “Revolucoes”. Opening with “Something’s Missing (Utopian)” the artists pave the way for things to come, providing a nervous, brooding journey into cold’ish Dark Ambient before progressing into calmer, spaced out territories with this one. The follow up “The Pulsating Waves (Reality)” keeps things on a near static, slowly evolving level of droning Deep Listening Music before “Don’t Look Back, Run (Trauma)” continues on a path of calm desolation and darkness, resembling the greyscale tristesse of a postapocalyptic, and maybe not too far away, future in which only the remnants of the nuclear fallout provide movement on otherwise empty streets, covered by poisonous and deadly dust particles lit by a pale moon.
Jetzt is a chronological deconstruction of Max Bense’s poem with the same title. Meaning “in the nowâ€, it may also be translated as “so farâ€, “up to nowâ€, “but nowâ€, “hence†and so on. Bense refers to the fact that the spoken word JETZT never reaches the point of what is denominated with “in the now†– the moment you say it out loud, it is already gone. The poem is a play on words as well as an acute insight on the structure of German language. The work uses Markov chains to generate text strings that are smashed into sound particles. They are stretched and shrunk on a time axis and enter into a relationship with each other – “in the now†– performed by a synthetic artificial female voice. Jetzt is published in an audio-only format and as an audiovisual piece.
In [269.17, 278.81, 300,77 | 260.33, 312.68, 377.24, 518.55] different sine waves and noise generators produce frequencies in the 19-division scale. These frequencies are combined and clustered with the help of different random variables and probability distributions to create interferences that place the emphasis on the frequency interval between the tones. The electronic is using a fixed framework to create chords, consisting of two, three or four single notes, with wide variation in structure and density. This piece aims to focus the attention of the listener on the vast density and complex richness present in their combination.
The audiovisual version of Jetzt is a one-take recording performed at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts. The connection between music and visuals progresses through different relationships, with control parameters for sound synthesis occasionally affecting the image generation, and spoken words becoming periodic attractors for the moving graphical elements.
Ephraim Wegner holds a chair in Computer Science at hKDM Freiburg and is working at the Media Ecology Lab / Hochschule Offenburg. He received his master’s degree in audiovisual media at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). Wegner has a keen interest in the sonification of complex systems and uses various computer languages (C++, Java, Python, Csound, GL_SL) to combine different forms of audio synthesis and computer graphics, focusing on multidisciplinary approaches and concepts. He collaborated with numerous other musicians, ensembles, festivals and institutions, among others ZKM (Karlsruhe), Ars Acustica (SWR2), Acht Brücken Festival (Cologne) and Donaueschinger Musiktage. In 2015, he was awarded a scholarship from the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg.
Daniel Bisig holds a master’s and a PhD in Natural Sciences. He is active as a researcher and artist in the fields of artificial intelligence and generative art. He has worked as a researcher at the Institute for Biochemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich. He is currently a senior research associate at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology of the Zurich University of the Arts. As part of his artistic activities, he has realized algorithmic films, interactive installations and audiovisual performances, some of them in collaboration with musicians and choreographers. The derivation of generative algorithms and interaction techniques from biomimetic simulations forms a central aspect of his work.
Tracklist:
Ephraim Wegner & Daniel Bisig: Jetzt [stereo] (20:37)
Daniel Bisig & Ephraim Wegner: Jetzt (audiovisual) (5:23)
Thanks to: Astrid Wegner for supporting our work. Stephen Altoft, who inspired the generation of frequencies in the 19-division scale in [269.17, 278.81, 300,77 | 260.33, 312.68, 377.24, 518.55], furthermore he was playing the microtonal trumpet at another version of the piece. Miguel Carvalhais for his continued commitment and the energy he spent in this wonderful label.
Today I’m back with a Fluid Label Focus on CRÓNICA on this blog. And I’ve got an excellent album by a familiar name for you. This is the album BITTERSWEET MELODIES by RAN SLAVIN, released on CRÓNICA in 2016. Miguel was so kind as always to send me a review copy of the Limited-edition CD version which comes with some lovely artwork by RAN SLAVIN himself. This Limited-edition CD comes packaged in a two panel gatefold cardboard sleeve on which you can find the cover artwork on the front, album credits, tracklist and copyright info handwritten into the artwork on the back. The spine lists the same info as on the cover in text as well as adding the full CRÓNICA name and year of release.The inside of the sleeve features some gorgeous photography blended with layers of painted washes of colour that give the artwork a surreal look. The CD itself is housed in a flap on the right panel and features the CRÓNICA logo, catalogue number, artist name and album title and CD logo on a blue circle background which is cut off slightly to reveal a metallic edge of the CD around as a border.Â
BITTERSWEET MELODIES showcases RAN SLAVIN more easy going and at times less abstract sound, with a more prominent focus on melodic and rhythmic structures that feel very organic and human. The 12 tracks all subtly evolve in waves of enjoyable melodies and grooves that are both calming and inspiring the imagination. I would definitely recommend this album not only to fans of SLAVIN’s other music and cinematic experimental music but also listeners who are into the more underground, Dub or minimalist styles of Techno with a strong sense of inventive sound design with a personal touch. Fans of Glitch and Turntable music will definitely find a lot of enjoyment in this album as well, so I highly recommend you to go check this out.
Crónica is very happy to announce the release of Trondheim EMP’s new double CD “Poke It With A Stick / Joining The Botsâ€!
This project explores cross-adaptive processing as a radical intervention in the communication between performing musicians. Digital audio analysis and processing techniques are used to enable features of one sound to inform the processing of another. This allows the actions of one performer to directly influence another performer’s sound, and doing so by means of the acoustic signal produced on the instrument. This may be reciprocated, too: the sound of the second performer may in turn influence the sound processing of the first.
The project includes researchers, performers, programmers and a philosopher. From 2016-18 it was funded by the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme and the Norwegian University for Technology and Science, with collaborations from De Montfort University, Maynooth University, Norwegian Academy of Music, Queen Mary University of London and University of California San Diego.
The work is strongly based in practical experimentation, to explore these novel techniques in real musical interaction. For this, we rely on collaboration with a large group of excellent performers, many of whom are presented in the performances here. We are deeply grateful for the relentless energy and creative effort that the performers have contributed in trying to negotiate the pitfalls, swirls, vortices and uphill struggles of cross-adaptivity while at the same time integrating it with their existing deeply rooted practice.
These two albums represent different stages of the process of working with cross-adaptive techniques. The first album (“Poke It With a Stickâ€) represents the exploration, stumbling, finding, missing, and trickle of possible ways to tackle these challenges. These tracks were recorded during the main research period from late 2016 to early 2018. The second (“Joining the Botsâ€) represents the assembly, knitting together, gathering of explored solutions, and composing of (still wildly) running streams. These tracks were all recorded in May 2018.
Cross-adaptive processing adds potential for instability – but this often forces us to explore and innovate. The performer has more to take in: anything they produce acts on the sound processing of another performer – and vice versa. We could say that’s four times the attention needed!
But what is intriguing about these two albums is that we see the emergence of a kind of accommodation with all the possibilities. The learning curve can be slow and difficult. But these musicians are rarely tentative or too careful their enthusiastic energy often bursts forth into highly expressive exchanges contrasting with beautifully controlled sustains.
For both performer and listener, causality is decidedly ‘fuzzy’. Often we cannot really be sure exactly what caused a particular result technically. But we can hear the musical process that results. This is what we might call an emergent property – the overall feel takes over and we go with the flow so as “not to intellectually focus on controlling specific dimensions but to allow the adaptive process to naturally follow whatever happens to the music.†[*]
This has been likened to learning to ride a bicycle – suddenly it ‘just happens’. We know it’s a learnt skill but we no longer have to try so hard. That said we can trip up – indeed as soon as the bicycle is up and running the system is designed to push it into unexpected terrain. A fellow musician might play something that trips us up unintentionally! We can only slowly learn to respond meaningfully – accidents become opportunities. You can hear over the course of these two albums this increasing sophistication of response to this potential instability. There is increasing sureness of touch, breath, shape and exchange. This has also been described as two (or more) musicians playing a single instrument – but not in parallel. This situation is much more interactive! One pianist even remarked: “It felt like there was a 3rd musician present.†[*]
The sound world is extremely rich throughout. Whether vocal, percussion, wind or string there is plenty of contrast of the sustained and the explosive. Above all a deep resonance permeates the sound – but one that changes over time sometimes abruptly! In the discussions following the cross-adaptive playing sessions, one musician remarked: “It is like giving away some part of what you’ve played, and it must be capable of being transformed out of your own control.†[*]
Cross-adaptive processing in performance offers new and exciting challenges most especially for improvisation – these two albums are just the beginning.
Øyvind Brandtsegg & Simon Emmerson, November 2018
All researchers and performers in the crossadaptive project: Simon Emmerson, Gary Bromham, Joshua Reiss, Victor Lazzarini, Miller Puckette, Marije Baalman, Solveig Bøe, Andreas Bergsland, Sigurd Saue, Carl Haakon Waadeland, Tone Åse, Trond Engum, Bernt Isak Wærstad, Gyrid Kaldestad, Bjørnar Habbestad, Mats Claesson, Maja S.K. Ratkje, Siv Øyunn Kjenstad, Ola Djupvik, Rory Walsh, Stian Westerhus, David Moss, Michael Duch, Ingrid Lode, Sissel Vera Pettersen, Heidi Skjerve, Kyle Motl, Steven Leffue, Jordan Sand, Kjell Nordeson, Iver Jordal, Ada Mathea Hoel, Kim Henry Ortveit, Ylva Brandtsegg. Students of the Institute of Music at NTNU, both in the Jazz department and the Music Technology department.
Support from the Norwegian Programme for Artistic Research, NTNU, University of California San Diego, Maynooth University, De Montfort University, Queen Mary University of London, Norwegian Academy of Music.
Recording Engineers and life savers: Thomas Henriksen, Rune Hoemsnes, Andrew Munsey, Tor Breivik, Terje Hallan, Gary Bromham.
It’s time again to put a focus on the back catalogue of CRÓNICA as part of the Fluid Label Focus series with ths 2011 album by JANEK SCHAEFER titled DOUBLE EXPOSURE. This Digital Album is a 12 track selection of music JANEK SCHAEFER made for compilations, installations and other projects he was invited to create music for. While indeed there’s a variety of releases, installations and theatre projects these pieces are taken from, SCHAEFER has compiled this album to actually be a second “exposure†of this material to the listeners, creating a flowing album of music rather than an archival compilation with a focus on bringing this material together in contexts that will appear in the mind and imagination of the listeners. The album’s track list is also divided in 4 “sidesâ€, a bit like a double cassette tape album, matching music from various years together this way. This Digital Album comes with the album cover in good resolution, the 12 album tracks in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality and a PDF file with an album description, thank you note, track list featuring track by track info on where the pieces were taken from as well as source links, the label link and distribution info and additional artwork photos on both pages of the PDF file.
DOUBLE EXPOSURE starts with A1: Spark Rising Over the Lights of Scarlett Heights on Side 1. A calm piece featuring music box, cello and piano. In the descritpion it says that the piece was composed for a site-specific play titled “The Mill – City Of Dreams†which was presented in a deserted weaving mill in Bradford. A photo of Bradford city night-lights was laid over the score paper of the music box to produce the central theme. And indeed the music has a kind of “shape†to it, with the tones of the music box and cello twirling around a (for the listener) invisible shape, creating an atmosphere of peace and comfort but there’s also some cool wind blowing through the streets. A nice little interlude to begin this album with. Next up is A2: Broadstairs Childrens Piano Trio, a piece which is made up of layered loops of music for piano, gradually moving in organic waves of earth like sonic textures, with the mellow sound of the piano like glimmering hidden minerals. The music is indeed rather minimalist in the composition but the “waving†sound of the spectrum and progressively changing arrangement of layers creates an ambience that is not only meditative but also has a lot of small details and movements within the sound that are interesting to focus on while listening. Shifting from layer to layer as the music calmly flows. Then on A3: Requiem for West Wittering we have a similar approach, although here the source sounds themselves are more filtered and diffuse, like ambient pads the vinyl recordings subtly shift into one another, again moving in waves both in arrangement and spectrum. There are also some subtle field recordings in this piece however, which are especially audible in the beginning with the sound of crows as well as more pronounced crackles and ticks and pops from the vinyl itself. At one point there is also a recording that pops up that might be a field recording (which I guessed from a very soft but still audible high frequency whine from the recording) but it does blend in rather well with the vinyl crackles and with this SCHAEFER shows his strength at immersive and expertly shaped blends of soundscape and deeply intriguing atmospheric music. Then we get to Side 2 with B1: City of Dreams – Theme Tune, a long piece that was again composed for “The Mill – City of Dreams†play. This piece featured as entrance title music in the play. Ethereal and droning, the theme tune has ab even more subtle atmosphere to it than some of the other pieces on this album but also with hints of contemporary (classical) music. The piano driven piece features layered loops of constantly ascending scales as well as additional piano melodies. The music progresses very subtly in its stream of tinkling piano notes in which these notes blend together in the distance, forming clouds of bright “morning†ambience. This music is more about feeling the subtle details, new melodies and slowly rising and falling intensity of the stream than moving from one point to the other in the composition, which gives this music a very pleasant infinitely continuing kind of peaceful vibe. On B2: Coda for John Dankworth SCHAEFER uses “sharper†manipulation of various vinyl recordings, including guitar and a strange warbly kind of filtered sound. It’s a shorter, more straight forward piece of music that quickly shifts from a subdued filtered mixture of warm sonics to brighter, hissier and clicky Ambient ambiences created by the layers of vinyl recordings. Besides being a nice ambience there’s also some sweet rhythms in here, with the snare sounds from the guitar and vinyl crackles and pops adding some “percussion†to the glowing warmth of the soundscape. On B3: Fields of the Missed we have a composition created around many field recordings, which feature various bird sounds, bees, a horse with cart and wind sound. This piece has more of a movement in it that tells a sonic story moving from the initial peace and mystery from the beginning, where field recordings and filtered drone are combined to create a feeling of camping outside in the forest while a storm is coming up soon to the “euphoric storm†filled with a much brighter drone, wind chimes and intense wind back to the calm and peace from the beginning again. A great immersive and smoothly flowing soundscape story. Then we have Side 3, which starts with C1: Unfolding Honey. Here we have looped filtered tones over which a “blowing†sound is laid. The tones play a subtle soft and warm melody that forms a curious juxtaposition with the more raw sound of the blowing and the music has a very “close, but at the same time distant†air around it, like playing back through the subconcious instead of being perceived by listening and at the end ticks that sound like heels can be heard as well. This is music that is both calming and mysterious. On C2 Inner Space Memorial [for J.G.Ballard] SCHAEFER creates a long and very intense bright drone scape filled with organ like harmonies and resonances and a lot of vinyl crackles, almost sounding like rain on leaves in a forest. It’s a great drone piece in which you can dive into the deep waters of this river of organic atmospheres and constantly discover new details and melodic patterns within the dense layers of sound and melody. Like in the other pieces on DOUBLE EXPOSURE SCHAEFER also makes great use of panning in the stereo image, with a wide space the music is located in and smooth dynamic panning from several layers throughout the music, very good. Then on Side 4 we have D1: Asleep at the wheel… in-car soundtrack 7 [featuring Richard Heinberg] which is a key track from an installation. It features a mixture of vinyl sample drones and filtered drone manipulations together with sounds of cars and occassional radio dial browsing sounds as a background to Richard Heinberg’s speech criticizing the forced reliance on oil and fossil fuel based transportation that was especially encouraged in the US many decades ago. It’s definitely a good thought provoking speech that is especially relevant today and SCHAEFER’s music accompanies the text rather well with the continuous droning tones and crunchy crackles which aren’t dramatic or tense but let Richard Heinberg’s carry the piece and besides the music at some points being almost overshadowing Heinburg’s voice is mixed well together and it’s also a good invitation to check out more about the installation this was part of. Then we have D2: Crossed Wires, which is the piece that probably differs the most from the other pieces on this album. It features samples from an episode of a Canadian Radio series called “The Wire†which was about the history of music from electricity. It has a more raw and glitchy sound to it, featuring both music samples and samples from various sound effects and bits of voice. The music has a much darker sound to it, ominously droning down pitched tones, clicks of electronic equipment, tensely edited breathing samples as well as some low Industrial percussion. A thrilling, varied and quickly progressing sound collage that features various colours and many exciting moments in the composition. D3: Tinkerbelles is a sweet tinkling atmospheric music boxes interlude from the soundtrack from “The Mill – City of Dreamsâ€. On final track D4: Exposure we have an Industrial soundscape blending machinery noises, plane sounds and various other hissy sounds with looping drones that carry a more degraded lo-fi sound to them too. Sounds very good, makes me think of Philip Jeck’s music a bit.
DOUBLE EXPOSURE by JANEK SCHAEFER is a great album of immersive, entrancing and expertly shaped atmospheric experimental music and soundscapes that delivers new experiences on every track blending concrete sounds and music recordings together in 12 highly imaginative pieces. I recommend this album especially for fans of the more abstract types of Ambient music, Turntable Music and cinematic sound art, but also if you’re not familiar with those sounds it’s a great immersive listen that is meditative but also really captivating and adventurous in both sound and compositions. Orlando Laman
