MATILDE MEIRELES – LOOP. AND AGAIN
“Has it ever happened to you while passing by a familiar place that you noticed or heard something for the first time? Something that was always there but because you were not attentive enough it passed unnoticed?”
That’s the kind of introduction that triggers anyone devoted to ‘ambient’ (music and) sound.
It is also the introduction to X Marks The Spot – an ‘environmental walk’ project in Belfast, Ireland, in which telecommunication boxes emitting an audible drone/hum were tagged between 2013 and 2019. The boxes were not only mapped but their sounds were also recorded and recreated into short compositions that can still be found on the project website.
The project was realized by sound artist Matilde Mereiles, who now used these recorded hums to create the electroacoustic soundscapes on this album Loop. And Again. The hums and drones of the boxes – recorded with contact microphones – merge with ambisonic recordings of their direct environment and with hydrophonic recordings of the river Lagan. The result is a fascinating (and surprisingly musical) mix of pure drone, electronic hums and environmental recordings.
Of the three pieces of this album, the third one has a somewhat different atmosphere than the the first two. Apart from the mentioned ingredients this track also includes trombone improvisations by Tullis Rennie, and recent home recordings of Matilde’s time at ‘Fingal, Bronagh, and Paul’s house close to Cross Parade’ (a street in Belfast).
Loop. And Again is a digital-only release on Crónica
BALDINI / DAFELDECKER / STRÜVER – PRISMATIC
In the opening half of Prismatic, the music feels entirely acoustic. The three acoustic instruments are chosen for their ‘transparent and contrasting soundscape’: trumpet (Marco Baldini), double bass, and piano (Werner Dafeldecker). The slow tones set a ‘film-noir-like’ mood ‘of an auditory atmosphere that seems at once real and otherworldly’.
Almost unnoticed, non-acoustic sounds are introduced in the background using tapes and turntables (Jens Strüver) and some electronics (Dafeldecker) – all of them adding to the intensity of the music. Not the kind of ‘physical’ intensity like that of many ‘power ambient’ artists, however: the volume does not increase and the pace remains slow.
‘The recordings create an acoustic connection to the environment and its historical contexts reflected in the music, contributing to the ambiguity of the music as it moves through shadow and light, much like the prismatic lenses of the musicians reflecting the sounds’.
Prismatic presents a completely different sound, a welcome diversion especially if you feel that too much ambient music starts to sound the same nowadays. If this four-part suite should be called ‘ambient’ is open to discussion of course. Other labels are also appropriate here – the music is somewhat unclassifiable (which is part of its appeal).
If putting genre labels is difficult, maybe mentioning it is released on the Room40 label is more helpful. But the best way to find out is to listen to it.
Prismatic is a digital-only release.
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