In the press sheet sent with this CD, Jorge Mantas states that a primary influence for his music is the literary realm. For this particular album, he has used Marcel Prout\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153La recherhe du temps perdu\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a jumping off point. The track titles are quotations from the book and are meant to convey the loneliness experienced by the French writer as well as the Portuguese musician making these pieces. Oddly, all this is spelled out eloquently in the texts sent to reviewers and distributors but lacking in the CD package itself. It strikes me that had this project been taken on by a Frenchman instead, the work may have been a setting of the texts being read, as so often was done at the INA-GRM and their colleagues. Mantas does include a short reading of the original French by Colleen (C\u00c3\u00a9cile Schott). However, the album focuses on what that artist calls \u00e2\u20ac\u0153romantic drones\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d something not unlike Maeror Tri\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcs past practice. Rather than inspiring literary soliloquies, it seems that this music is likely to cause one to just space out among the swelling chords dripping in reverberation. Even the three tracks which feature guest guitar playing are very soft and dreamy. In this respect, I think it does a fine job of evoking the lonely laptop artist creating his music in isolation. Perhaps this is an ambient emo \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the self reflecting artist wishing to show his need to connect with someone. Overall, I have heard things which evoke loneliness better, and I think I may have not reached these conclusions without the added text. Which begs the question of why this was left out= Did this person really think the music would magically convey its intended context with only a few subtle clues? Given the number of people out there who probably haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read Proust, I really think the deeper part of this will easily be lost on those who will simply hear this as pleasant ambient album. As such, I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel this reaches the heights of, or rather the lows of, those whom Jorge cites as influences \u00e2\u20ac\u201d among others including Edgar Allen Poe and Wong Kar-Wai. One thing this album lacks is complexity. On the bonus track \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soixant-quatre\u00e2\u20ac\u009d @c remixes the work, creating a much more glitchy sound editing ending with a Coil sample and recording of fireworks. It is a contract to the main album mood but does not show any deep involvement with the form of the work. Overall, this is a pleasant album, but not one that displays any distinctive qualities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the press sheet sent with this CD, Jorge Mantas states that a primary influence for his music is the literary realm. For this particular album, he has used Marcel Prout\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153La recherhe du temps perdu\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a jumping off point. The track titles are quotations from the book and are meant to convey the … <\/p>\n