Sunday, February 10, 2013


Atolon - concret (Intonema)

A welcome return from Atolon--Ruth Barberán (trumpet, objects), Ferran Fages (acoustic turntable, objects) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (accordion, objects). A single, 35 minute performance from a bit over two years ago, it largely dwells in an area full of keening groans, the accordion wheezing, the trumpet emitting low flutters and the acoustic turntable doing whatever it is that hose devices do. Dronish in character, in the sense of long sounds, but within those tones there's great irregularity and the overlaps also follow no perceptible pattern, resulting in a fine, rich shifting-sands feel, with vast amounts of welcome impurities. The steady state occupies the first 20 or so minutes, drifting into a lovely place where one hears flute-like tones, the accordion respiring beneath, at which point there's an eruption, the turntable splintering into extremely sharp shards, howling. It subsides, not without anxiety and pinpricks, resuming the nervous flow, Barberán's steady horn providing the signposts.

Well-structured, solid and forthright in its trek, happy to hear them again.
Intonema

Cremaster/Komora A - Haz/Crystal Dwarf Opens His Eyes (Monotype) http://www.boingboing.net/filesroot/Picture%201-111.jpg

Split 45rpm vinyl. The Cremaster side (Ferran Fages, feedback, mixers and Alfredo Costa Monteiro electroacoustic devices) is as excellent as it is aggravatingly short. Careening, echoing blasts and howls sounding as though you're on a gurney ripping through a collapsing, subterranean power plant. Tempted to play it at 33 to draw it out some more...It's rare that I've found a 7" release in this neck of the woods (ie, non-pop) that's both excellent and of perfect duration. More often, it's a cruel tease. That's the feeling I get here: would've loved to have heard more but am satisfied, I guess, with this dollop. Very tasty

Komora A is Karol Kosniec (electronics), Dominik Kowalczyk (laptop) and Jakub Mikolajczyk (modular synth). Their track is quite different, swirling electronics with enough bitterness to maintain interest and a suggestion of pulse that recalls Gunter Muller, Voice Crack, etc. Again, the brevity intrudes a bit, though it's impossible to say whether the essentials of the piece had already been delivered.

A smidgen, necessarily, but worth it for Cremaster fans.

Monotype

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