Remarkably, the sound for Artifacts, the first of three compositions that make up Rife, is entirely sourced from a small, broken violin that was a childhood gift to Storring from his grandmother. From these initial sound samples, Storring builds a piece of music that is incredibly engaging and rich in detail. Equal parts virtuosic playing—theContinue reading “Nick Storring. Rife.”
Genre Archives
NINA. Place Where the Trees Stand in the Water.
This ten-inch record documents a live performance of NINA—Chris Cogburn, Bonnie Jones, and Liz Tonne—at the 2009 Fusebox Festival in Austin, Texas. The trio explores their converging timbres—Cogburn on bowed and scraped percussion, Jones on electronics, and Tonne on voice—in a performance that highlights their subtle nudges of texture and the limits of expression andContinue reading “NINA. Place Where the Trees Stand in the Water.”
Erdem Helvacioğlu and Şirin Pancaroğlu. Resonating Universes.
Resonating Universes is an apt title for this collaboration between electroacoustic composer Helvacioğlu and harpist Pancaroğlu. Each section of this disc-long composition teems with microscopic activity—flocks of muted plucking and granular shivers weave their way around resounding sheets of sound. Helvacioğlu has a found for his electronics a lovely balance with the natural acoustic andContinue reading “Erdem Helvacioğlu and Şirin Pancaroğlu. Resonating Universes.”
Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville 27 Edition. Victoriaville, Quebec. May 19–22, 2011.
FIMAV has a distinctive character, from its unlikely location in rustic Victoriaville, an hour’s drive from Quebec City, to its insistence on celebrating so many musical frontiers: free jazz, rock, electroacoustic improvisation, DJs, and sound-art installations. Despite its rich history, “Victo” isn’t resting on its laurels. Following its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2008, there have beenContinue reading “Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville 27 Edition. Victoriaville, Quebec. May 19–22, 2011.”
John Wall and Alex Rodgers. Work 2006–2011.
John Wall has been one of the most aggressive of sonic plunderers, shattering recorded electroacoustic improvisations and putting them back as mutated humpty-dumptys in intricate and lively collages. His series of CDs on his own imprint Utterpsalm are essential documents of this meticulous studio style. Since 2006, he has taken up improvisation—remarkable for someone withContinue reading “John Wall and Alex Rodgers. Work 2006–2011.”
Daniel Kernohan, Editor. Music is Rapid Transportation… From The Beatles to Xenakis.
I’m an avid music collector with wildly eclectic tastes, and this book spoke to me like few books have before. I instantly connected with the accounts by the seven individuals involved in the project. In the book’s first section, music enthusiasts and contributors Lawrence Joseph, Dan Lander, Donal McGraith, Bill Smith, Alan Stanbridge, Scott Thomson,Continue reading “Daniel Kernohan, Editor. Music is Rapid Transportation… From The Beatles to Xenakis.”
Montreal’s Constellation Records
Montreal’s Constellation Records rose to prominence around the turn of the millennium, following the explosion of Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s popularity. While it’s sometimes tempting to allow that band and similar acts on the label’s roster to sum up Constellation’s identity, a more-than-cursory glance at its lineup of artists indicates an interest in far moreContinue reading “Montreal’s Constellation Records”
Tara Rodgers, Editor. Pink Noises: Women On Electronic Music And Sound.
Tara Rodgers, a.k.a. Analog Tara, remarks in her introduction to Pink Noises, that the world finds it all too possible to assemble “a historical narrative of electronic music” along “patrilineal” lines, where the best that a female working in the field could expect would be a summation as “a woman in a man’s world.” PinkContinue reading “Tara Rodgers, Editor. Pink Noises: Women On Electronic Music And Sound.”
Marc Battier. AudioScans: from works of Roberto Matta.
The music on AudioScans is the result of an intriguing process of homage. Marc Battier took nine paintings by the Chilean surrealist painter Roberto Matta and scanned them into his computer. He processed the resulting data into music files, scoring the music by observing how his eyes moved around the paintings, moving from visual clusterContinue reading “Marc Battier. AudioScans: from works of Roberto Matta.”
Various Artists. An Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music, Volume 6.
With An Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music, Volume 6, curator Guy Marc Hinant continues his review of this and last century’s hard stuff. He continues his formula—a word that I’m sure would make him bristle—of assembling current artists, influential old-timers, and poppier practitioners. In previous editions, the middle category has included Morton Subotnick, EdgardContinue reading “Various Artists. An Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music, Volume 6.”