Seth Nehil & Jgrzinich - Stria (Erewhon, 2002)

1 Tome Gather 20:00
2 Arboreal 8:30
3 The Mirrored Corner 16:15

by request

Seth Nehil and John Grzinich have been sound collaborators since 1994 when they began the electroacoustic ensemble Alial Straa. In 1998 they initiated a process of recording and experimentation that would result in a pair of full-length cds. The seed of the project originated in Austin, Texas with location specific recordings of found objects played by groups of people.. In the end, it had expanded into a three-year, transcontinental exchange of intensive interaction, questioning and dialogue.

The exploratory focus of stria/confluence is the idea of resonance; the phenomenon of natural vibrations that give rise to intensified or stable structures within sound bodies and fields. In the production of these works, the composers' approached resonance in both the acoustic sound behavior and the social phenomenon in group interaction and/or participation within the context of sound generating activities. It was again applied to the studio in the use of massive multiplications and layerings, resulting in deeply transforming, evolutionary sound fields.

These records extend the perspective elaborated by both artists through their previous solo and collaborative work (as can be heard on Seth's releases on Kaon, Alluvial and 20 City, or John's duet with mnortham on Staalplaat and Orogenetics). These works further an interest in physical materials and natural acoustics which are consequently composed into imbedded, altered and engaging structures. Taking form with the integrity of a living organism, these pieces invite the listener to find his way through the reticulated and stratified development of a subtly unfolding, organic sound-body.
Erewhon

Belle musique de ces deux poètes du sonore qui vont faire résonner leurs drones organiques aux lisières d'un temps immobile. Les mouvements lents de ces sons, comme des coulées épaisses de matières offrent des paysages tendus et étrangement sereins, faits de grincements, de frottements, d'ondes vastes, de résonnances scintillantes, révélant majestueusement dans le temps leurs contours gracieux. On pénètre dans ces flots lourds comme un animal géant, prenant nos aises en se laissant porter par le courant, quittant une certaine pasanteur pour une autre, plus subtile. Le courant nous entraîne dans des cavités obscures, dans des cirques ouverts et gigantesques, d'autres échos apparaissent, habités de fantômes. Dense-musique de déplacement de masses titanesques, on s'y arrête timide et observateur, et au final on n'est pas déçu du voyage.
revue et corrigée

Stria - layers, the overplaced sounds that make up these compositions; strings, the connections and movements that work through them. In 'Tome gather' for example, both these aspects are heard as the piece elides from: burring tones, modulated tonal metals with longer tones and pulses in there as a hidden music; the burring becomes less pronounced, emergent long drones, dense and gorgeous with a percussive note; becoming more voicelike, edgy high tones; the drones start to diverge, becoming more pulsing and noisey; to an atonal conflict of purer tones that interfere-pulse, disturbed voices. There are no points of change on this journey, more gradual modulations, and layer lays on layer.

Building percussive clicks and clatter in 'Arboreal' are rhythmic, slow washes through, sounds separate and rejoin (stringed together), a rapid flowing, then fluttering to the end.

Finally 'The mirrored corner' is buzzing metallic with a clicky click, shimmering and pulsing; a resonant echo deep emerges and is a dark hollow voice that becomes more voice-like; the middle section simples-out, more clicks. A dominant tone develops, shimmering with a sine pulse and a sequence of melodic ringing tones ebb and flow before a brief climax and fade.

The line notes suggest Nehil and Grzinich take recordings of large groups (playing who knows what) in the first two tracks, and wire drones in the third, and then 'compose' them. Interestingly Nehil is the credited composer of the first two, Grzinich of the last (with additions by Nehil), and the pieces have taken a number of years to create. There are some liner notes that may help understand their process - there are hints in terms of 'unfocus' and an overseas collaboration - but it is very trendily obscure. Anyway, irrespective of their methods, the results are dramatic e(in)volving minimalist works.
Ampersand Etcetera

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Lionel Marchetti - RISS (L'Avalanche) (Erewhon, 2002)

1 RISS (L'Avalanche) 15:30

Lionel Marchetti is a young and brilliant composer of musique concrete, with a growing body of work released on Metamkine, Selektion and, more recently, Ground Fault and Intransitive. He also dedicates himself to improvisation, in duo with Jérôme Noetinger (manipulating objects, microphones and loudpeakers), or within ensembles such as Le Cube and Archipel.

"RISS", with its suggestive subtitle ("l'avalanche"), is a 15 minute piece of musique concrete produced in 1990, already asserting a very personal universe and a strong set of themes. A female character attempts to impose her brittle voice in a landscape of ice and distress which slowly turns out to be an extension of her own inner space. A particularly evocative imaginary sound world, a staggering dramatic tension succeed in making of "RISS" a powerful miniature, and definitely confirm the early talent of Lionel Marchetti among a new generation of composers reinventing musique concrete.
Erewhon

Courte pièce électroacoustique composée en 1990, Riss de Lionel Marchetti est une oeuvre de jeunesse mais témoigne d'une maîtrise époustouflante; le son, tantôt caressant, tantôt agressif et mordant, transperce l'auditeur à mesure que le froid envahit les membres d'une infortunée prisonnière d'un piège de glace aux contours indéfinis. Mais lorsque celle-ci décrit sa lente agonie, ajoutant ainsi à la tension dramatique, qui, de nous ou de la misérable victime, se retrouve finalement captif, enfermé dans ces masses aux frontières floues? Glacial mais magistral.
Octopus

Metamkine's Cinema Pour L'oreille series of Musique Concrete 3" releases has been one of those essential collections - the things that even the critics buy! Why start an Erewhon review this way? Well, Marchetti (as well as other work, including one in 2002_05) has had two disks on Metamkine, and this 1990 work would fit easily in the series (and indeed the internal layout seems to be an homage to the original Metamkine one).

Deceptively simple, it is based around a text (written and read) by Anne Decoret, that recurs through the piece between the sound interludes. My monolinguality frustrates me here - I am sure that the texts adds to the musical experience: the title and cover image suggests snow-related aspects and I think there is reference to an ice palace and tomb in the final stages. Anyway, Decoret has a delivery that suggests a meaningfullness and intensity, lightly manipulated and with a bed of simple and extended tones to support her.

The interludes, in contrast, are dense and dramatic: bird noises surrounded by big grinding tones, strings stretched to breaking, swirling around. Softer tense rumblings and breath-intakes, percussive, whispers and distant voices, shimmering coldness. Slowly spiralling tones down into the crinkling, sliding, uncertainty of the ice. Pops, crackling with tonal music within, pulsing. Birds throughout.

This is an exciting piece of music and I have no idea how it could have sat around since 1990. Whyever, it is great that it is now available, and provides an intense aural-visual experience.
Ampersand Etcetera

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MNortham - :coyot: (Erewhon, 2001)

1 Observation Of Wind At Molecular States Of Evolution (21:49)
2 Effects Of Atmospheric Pressure On Air-Born Particles Of Solids And Liquids (17:23)
3 The Copulation And Subsequent Conception Of Vacuums Between Wires And Winds (22:05)

En juillet 1998, Michael Mnortham installe sept harpes éoliennes près d'un ancien bunker sur l'île de Suomenlinna, en Finlande, il les enregistre, les amplifie dans le bunker et y mêle des field recordings faits sur place, le tout donne une impression de calme et d'immobilité...

in september 1998, i assembled the sound installation "filtering the current" for the AMORPH98! festival, held on suomenlinna island off the coast of finland. with the help of students from the sibelius academy in helsinki and organizers of the festival, i installed seven aeolian harps on the sod roof of an old and heavily fortified gunpowder bunker named "kaponieeri coyet." each aeolian harp consisted of a wire strung between two planks of wood that focused the wind across the wires, inducing harmonics that were picked up by contact microphones and subsequently mixed and amplified in the interior chamber of the bunker.

over the course of the weekend exhibition, i spent many hours adjusting the sounds and the wires, working late into the night within the massive stonewalls and on the roof. i was listening into the darkness of the sea through the wind that was courting my wires. the bunker was located on a peninsula at the southern extreme of the island, facing the gulf of finland; during the day, i explored the peninsula and made recordings of the rocky coast, the resonant interiors of great cannon barrels, a kite flying in heavy wind, and the grass of quiet little nooks between rolling granite forms that made up the body of the island.

more than a year later, the transmuted sounds and memories of suomenlinna island have evolved into :coyot: -- a sound journey through mnemonic debris blown by winds from a distant place.

mnortham, july 2000

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link removed Michael Northam presses cdr releases of his OOP releases on demand