[Microsound-announce] Out now on Grain of Sound: @c - "Study"

Mon Dec 4 20:56:07 EST 2006

We´re happy to announce the new cd release on Grain of Sound by @c ::

@c - "Study"

5"cd / gos20
december 2006

It's not without irony, which is probably one of the most distinctive
features of our generation creative skills, that the fourth @c's
installment is appropriately called Study. After all, it's their first
studio album. @c's members are laptop musicians or to be more precise
laptop artists, and this is because more than often the output of
their laptops is not restricted to sound. Laptop music, at least in
its most interesting expression, seems to relate mainly to a sort of
processual engagement. Again, a study of processes, an ongoing study
or devoted investigation that may find its way all up to the very
stage. Performing interesting laptop music is just another step in
that ongoing process where research, chance, improvisation, and the
endless tweaking of an immense flow of data are the very essence of
creation and once again, study. While their other releases developed
from stage improvisations that later crystallized as a released
recording (this obviously after a quick drop at the studio), Study,
composed between 2003~2006, Porto, appears as an ongoing
quasi-academic construction that seems to be going to make it the
other way around. Well, ironically, once again, a laptop musician
studio is, most of the time, a laptop, and although probably more
interconnected at the studio than at the stage (which of course also
constitute different spaces and contexts), its core is still the very
same laptop. And that studio, which as recording studio appears almost
infinitely compressed both physically and economically (but still with
a never ending array of possibilities), becomes an instrument more on
stage. In the liner notes of the album, one can find physical evidence
of what is perhaps the central element in studio music production,
sound files (not the instruments that generate them, because what's
inside a laptop is sometimes hard to grasp, and once again in
contemporary music the definition of instrument can be very vague). To
each track, a corresponding number of sound files, probably as diverse
as the time and the multiplicity of processes that every one bears.
Certainly not all the designations are as descriptive as others, but
nevertheless constitute an attempt to provide some sort of mapping to
each of the tracks' essence. What it says, its not only that the music
contains a multiplicity of sound files and that each of them also
probably contain even more and more files in an endless path to
complexity. What it says is, with some irony, that this is a studio
album, a study, and a study on the subject of sound, will certainly
involve sound objects, and thats what these files are. The artwork, a
series of illustrations by Júlio Dolbeth, bear an informal touch that
is an obvious result of its own ongoing research and brilliantly
encapsulate the main concept and spirit of this album. The relaxed
informality of the studio dynamic is captured with a blurred
combination of looseness and precision. The cables work as a visible
metaphor for the complexity of the composition process and its beauty,
after all something not very far from the mental engagement that
drawing implies, drawing being also the place for studies, sketches,
mistakes, chance, a processual playground that can also be presented
as closure. Inside, in the actual record, one realizes that an @c
studio album retains the same compelling freshness and vivid dynamics
of their live acts. On every single track, and this probably due to
that special mindset that the studio timeframe conveys, they manage to
modulate with utmost elegance moments of abandoned contemplation with
the most shearing and sonically engaging peaks of indeterminacy. The
smooth swinging across the tracks is peppered with the intensity and
surprise of a sonic roller coaster for the ear that even the casual
computer music listener can enjoy. The overall attention to every
aspect of the composition is remarkable and the sonic richness of
every slice of audio transforms every listening into a stunning
experience of rediscovery and newness. It's also interesting the way
in which some sonic evidences of previous collaborations with other
musicians, echo sparsely across the composition layers, working both
as an almost nostalgic recollection of the audial past and a vivid
feeling of stage improvisation-like artifacts. Interesting music, as
everything that is deemed to be deeply appreciated, demands a special
engagement from the listener that certainly goes beyond a superficial
relationship with the subject. However, this release seems to also
favor that sort of less demanding approach, you can listen to this
record on an almost daily basis, establishing deeper contact only when
your mind is withdrawn to its exquisite sonic modulations, or you can
dedicate your full attention span to every masterful detail of its
intricate and luxurious composition, where not all is what it appears
to be. As said, this study spans from the last three years of public
performances and studio reworking, if you've never caught them live,
be sure to grab a sit on the next opportunity and prepare yourself to
sonic delight, after all, the stage is the space and space is the
place.

João Cruz

all info at:
http://www.grainofsound.com
http://www.at-c.org

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Grain of Sound and Ristretto will be present at Feira Laica,
independent publishers fair in Lisbon, December 16 and 17, 2006:
http://espacoespaco.blogspot.com

[ portuguese version ]

@c - "Study"

5"cd / gos20
december 2006

Quem estudou um pouco de matemática e percebe de computadores sabe que
diferentes algoritmos podem realizar a mesma tarefa de várias
maneiras, com performances necessariamente distintas para a completar.
A esse propósito, a Wikipedia dá um exemplo curioso, que passo a citar
com a devida vénia: "Um algoritmo pode especificar que você calce
primeiro as meias e os sapatos antes de vestir as calças, enquanto
outro especifica que você deve primeiro vestir as calças e só depois
calçar as meias e os sapatos. Fica claro que o primeiro algoritmo é
mais difícil de executar do que o segundo." A divertida alusão tem um
pressuposto, o de que um algoritmo não é apenas executável com uma
máquina. Afinal, trata-se do nome que se dá a um conjunto de processos
determinados por um cálculo, processos e cálculo esses que podem ser
desempenhados por um indivíduo com os seus próprios meios físicos e
mentais. Para todos os efeitos, o ser humano ainda é a máquina mais
complexa que existe, e também a mais espontânea nas execuções a que se
propõe. Ora, o núcleo de trabalho algorítmico na área da música e do
audiovisual designado por @c tem a particularidade de combinar
algoritmos humanos e algoritmos informáticos nas suas actuações, o que
quer dizer que a sua arte electrónica não é "auto-erótica" (nesse
aspecto estando bem longe dos conceitos aplicados por Markus Popp no
projecto Oval) e sim um sucedâneo da excelente imagem de William
Burroughs em "Naked Lunch" na qual o personagem-escritor estimula o
ânus de uma máquina de escrever mutante com uma mão que antes
mergulhara em veneno para baratas. Ouvimos a encenação da
disfuncionalidade digital que é "Study" e essa referência performativa
vem-nos inevitavelmente à memória. Aliás, lá está a máquina de
escrever de Burroughs a manifestar-se ruidosamente na faixa 6... Os
algoritmos utilizados ao longo das peças deste CD do duo constituído
por Miguel Carvalhais e Pedro Tudela e respectivos "laptops" (cada um
deles com mais capacidade do que o computador que levou os americanos
à Lua) preferem, na maior parte dos casos, calçar primeiro as meias e
os sapatos e só depois as calças. Levam mais tempo a consegui-lo, mas
é na dificuldade, e na ultrapassagem desta, que está a mais-valia dos
seus conseguimentos. Travail accompli.

Rui Eduardo Paes

+ info:
http://www.grainofsound.com
http://www.at-c.org

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A Grain of Sound e a Ristretto vão estar presentes na 5ª Feira Laica,
feira de editores independentes:
16-17 dezembro no Espaço - Rua Maria Andrade, Nº5, Anjos, Lisboa
http://espacoespaco.blogspot.com

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http://www.grainofsound.com
http://www.grainofsound.com/ristretto
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