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AMN Reviews

AMN Reviews: José Guillén – Órbitas [Plus Timbre]

An orbit entails a fine balance between two objects—one trying to pull in another that in turn is trying to escape that pull with forward motion. Through the tension between these invisible opposing forces an equilibrium is struck.

The play of invisible forces between two orbiting bodies provides the conceptual background for José Guillén’s Órbitas, a concise collection of six electronic pieces. Each composition is made of a base recording to which a second track is improvised and overlaid. The layered drones, chords and tones approach and recede from each other, seemingly moving in and out of proximity; this, combined with the rising and falling dynamics, evokes changes in an orbiting body’s altitude. Guillén’s choices of sounds and textures reflect the workings of a subtle sensibility.

Daniel Barbiero

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Performances

The Transducers in Albuquerque

From The Spectre Series:

Featuring: Martin Back, James Brody, Philip Mantione, Christian Pincock, and Frank Rolla

The Transducers is a group of five composers and improvisers from diverse backgrounds spanning three generations of experience. They utilize laptops, custom software, sound sculptures, circuit bending and custom electronics to produce unique sonic worlds. Within the context of unstructured improvisation, they incorporate audience collaboration by means of the Photo-Instigator, a light-sensitive device suspended above the performers that picks up light beams originating from the audience. These rays are transduced into MIDI controller data streams that are sent to the performers to use or ignore as they see fit. So in essence, audience members become collaborators, instigators and possibly saboteurs.

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Reviews

Musique Machine Reviews

From Musique Machine:

The Idealist – I Am the Fire

The Idealist is Joachim Nordwall, known as a member of the Skull Defekts. This solo excursion may surprise people acquainted with the usually more extroverted, guitar oriented music that the latter band puts forth. I am the Fire consists of what might be termed industrial drone music, but beyond that, it defies description. It’s not clanking industrial noise, nor is it of the ear-piercing feedback variety. It’s quiet, almost silent at times. But underneath it all, there’s a pall which hangs over this music which is hard to shake.

Cisfinitum – Nevmenosis
Cisfinitum sound sits in a wonderful place between chorale and classical based ambience, subtle industrial and electronica elements to make music that’s both haunting & beautiful yet at times edgy and head swimming- but it’s always captivating and deeply atmospheric.

Human Larvae – Home Is Where The Hurt Is
“Thanks to: family and friends for inspiration”, it makes you wonder what inspiration this could be, as Home Is Where The Hurt Is drags you in into a pitchblack pool of noise, dark ambient and power electronics that seems to be an adequate depiction of nothing less than hell.

Jarrod Fowler – Percussion’ as percussion
‘Percussion’ as percussion presents it self as a fairly high brow and scholarly project and is supposable a reading/ performance of John Mowitt’s book Percussion: Drumming, Beating, striking; but in reality it’s an attack on the sonic sensors using wall noise, deeply layered and bewildering spoken word elements and overload sonic collages that take in TV chatter, crowd sounds, all manner of music and other sonic matter.

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Performances

Bunsen/Buser-Molatore/Reese in Portland

From Portland Eye and Ear Control:

Portland New Music Society Presents:

Michael Bunsen: “Square Waves in Nature” (electronics)
Giles Buser-Molatore & Ensemble: New Choral Works
Adam Reese: “Live Mixing”

Thursday April 16th @ 8pm
Free (donations gladly accepted)

Enterbeing
1603 NE Alberta St. @ NE 16th
Portland, OR 97211
503.808.0385

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