Et si “l´oeil écoute”, comme le voulait Claudel, j´ajouterai que l´oreille peut aussi voir. — B.Parmegiani

Metropolis proudly presents Etude Records, Pau Torres label from Barcelona, Spain. Created on 2006 and focused on experimental and obscure sound archives and now located in Toronto/Canada. Pau Torres edited four releases which can be found now in our Metropolis shop here… Pau Torres started with artist’s like Mike Hansen, Augusti Martinez, Lngtche, Ferran Fages and Alfredo Costa Monteiro.

ap´strophe

“objects sense objectes “

Ferran Fages | Dimitra Lazaridou Chatzigoga

ap’strophe is the duo of Ferran Fages and Dimitra Lazaridou Chatzigoga. They began working together in 2006, when Ferran Fages recorded his last guitar album “Cançons per a un lent retard”, where Dimitra Lazaridou Chatzigoga collaborated in the track Paraula clau, which they composed and interpreted together. After recording the album they realized the impossibility of re-interpreting this piece, which is based on the detuning(s) of the guitar, but they decided to continue working together. They decided to treat the piece Paraula clau as finished and started to search for a common sonoric space. The result of this survey gave shape to their present collaboration, which consists of a duo of acoustic guitar and zither. With their music they investigate the perception of the distinctive timbre of the guitar and the zither alongside the differences and similarities of their string instruments.

listen to ap’strophe | Fragment from title 1

Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga

born in Thessaloniki (Greece) in 1981. Left Thessaloniki in 2004. Currently lives in Barcelona, Spain. Has studied semantics and is writing about the notion of (in)definiteness. Was not seriously interested in music, its nature and practice, until 2003. Gradually begun getting involved in experimental non-academic music. Influenced and attracted by free and electro-acoustic improvisation, its multiple historical situations and its concurrences with modern composition strategies and jazz. Then got aware of the various current improv communities. A lot of old habits – not musical- had to be silenced, new possibilities emerged. Plays the zither, seen as another piano or harp, extending its sonic possibilities by attaching objects and amplification dispositifs. Has recorded the piece Paraula clau in Ferran Fages’ guitar cd Cançons per a un lent retard. Has played with Ferran Fages, Ruth Barberán, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Ivan Palacký, Birgit Ulher and Felipe Araya Muñoz. Recently collaborated with Constanza Brncic in the dance piece Entra_ser mirada. Since 2007 formed the duo ap’strophe with Ferran Fages.

Ferran Fages

  plays guitar, turntables and electronics.He lives and works in Barcelona (Spain). He was member of the collective IBA from 1999 to 2006. He plays regulary in different improvisation projects like: CREMASTER (with Alfredo Costa Monteiro), “Fages-Barberán-Costa Monteiro trio”, “Fages-Gross-Guthrie trio”,”Fages-Gross-Möslang trio”, FAGUS (with Pascal Battus), Rega-Fages duo. He did different collaborations with the choreographers and dancers: Olga Mesa, Carme Torrent and Constanza Brncic. He’s played with Mattin, Margarida García, Ivan Palacky, Manuel Mota, Xavier Charles, Francisco López, Thomas Chamertant, Andrea Neumann, Taku Unami, Masahiko Okura, Masafumi Ezaki, Bukhard Beins, Ingar Zach, Guiseppe Ielasi, Mark Wastell…. among others. Also he works in his own compositons for guitar. As a guitarist he normally plays solo, but he has played with Derek Bailey, Pablo Rega, Phil Niblock and Rhys Chatham. He has played in different festivals and venues such as: Nits de la Fundació Miró, Sonar, OFFF and LEM (Barcelona), Sonicscope (Lisbon), Ertz (Bera),Cruce, Auditorio Nacional Reina Sofia and La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Arteleku (Donosti), Sound 323 and LMC festival (London), Instants Chavirés and Les Voutes (Paris), Off-site (Tokyo), A4 (Bratislava), Cave 12 (Geneva), Music Lover’s Field Companion 2007 (Newcastle). More on Ferran Fages can be found here…

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“120”

Robert Millis

Tracklisting: 1.  (40s is not good) 2. (all balled up) 3.  (suspended) 4. (charcoal twins)

February 2009. Audio: robert millis | Photos: cecil b demillis |

Robert Millis: a Climax Golden Twin, a collector ’78s resulting in the impeccable Victrola Favorites book & compilation, purveyor of searing avant-scum-noise-rock in AFCGT, a world traveler in search of esoterica for Sublime Frequencies…Despite his many activities, Millis’ recorded output has almost entirely been by way of collaboration, making this gem of a solo album all the more special. This is closer related to the collage work that Millis has contributed to the Climax Golden Twins, bridging all of those aforementioned interests in a polyglot of psychedelic smear pocked with snippets of conversation, poetic extracts from his collection of ’78s, and a judicious amount of vinyl crackling. An album such as this would easily be confused for the hermetic revelations that Philip Jeck extracts from his rough shod vinyl and turntables; but Millis seems to counterpoint the crackle and the clean with more drama than Jeck, almost positing the crackle like a punch line in a joke that breaks through one of Millis’ blissed out shimmers constructed from loops and drones from guitar, bells, and glass harmonica, where haunted melodies from times long gone whisper through the mix. The logic of the album may seem absurd from afar; but the internal logic is peculiarly sensible, as if Millis were tapping into some stream of consciousness that subcutaneously connects all of these intermingling sounds…very highly recommended no matter how you slice it.—-Jim Haynes (Coelacanth, Helen Scarsdale Agency, 23Five, etc) in his Aquarius Records review of the extremely limited CDR version of 120, December 2008

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“Al voltant d´un para/.lel “

Ferran Fages | electric guitar.

Recorded live by Pablo Rega, january 19th 2007 at Almazen, Barcelona. Some tracks are versions or new approaches of pieces released before in the album “a cavall entre dos cavalls”. Cover design by Alfredo Costa Monteiro.

listen to Ferran Fages | desprès de la primera pausa

Al voltant d´un para/.lel

brings to light a tension, which matches that of the previous two guitar albums of Ferran Fages. It’s probably because a parallel could also be thought of as the lanes of a horse race, as a permanent conflict, or as a trait of one’s character that never disappears.

The resistance which stands between the theme and something that pushes it not to be. Sibylline strategies. Repetitions which block it. Foldings, which, instead of doubling the sounds, they hide some of them behind others. Expansions that disseminate the notes till the notion of the theme gets lost. And the delay… This delay, this slowness, which, full of rancour, is opposed to the idea of the song.

Nevertheless, several themes, or to be more precise, segments of them, could serve, properly compressed, as the base of a doom metal theme, of a strange folk song, or of a neo-psychedelic passage deprived of any electroacoustic adornment.

This album makes one think the interior of a room. The reverberations give us its size, the latitudes of uneasiness. In the meantime, these harmonic sparks are kept by the ceiling, before they fall to the ground, taking the form of ashes. A consumed acoustic flight. Still more tension. Within his music he’s always taking notes, drafts and breathes. Nothing ever comes to an end. It’s as if Muybridge or Marey, with their cronofotographic devices, were sliding through the guitarist’s criterion without him being aware. There is no minimalism here, but desert/vastness. — German Lazaro, barcelona 2008

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LA REPONSE EST AUX PIEDS

JOSE LUIS REDONDO

Composed-played by Jose Luis Redondo (dobro, a.c baritone guitar, bizarre piccolo bass, electric guitar and banjo). Recorded live -no overdubs- in Hoto Tama Records Studio (Aug-Oct. 2007). Produced by Jode Luis Redondo.

Tracklisting: 1. 2 8 2 2. Dragon.Gemini 3. Younge Blues 4. … 5. Crazy Stamp 6. Ending 7. …Swinging… 8. The Airport 9. Earth Brain 10. Mandelbrot’s Silence 11. Devine a qui je pense?

Etude Records is proud to present the first release statement of this unexpected and amazing guitar/ composer/ musician call Jose Luis Redondo. His first release for Etude Records “La reponse est aux pieds” (Etude017) is an astonishing 11 tracks suite with some of the most adventurous guitar pieces. Using a whole range of string instruments (Dobro, banjo, electric guitar, piccolo bass, etc…), Jose Luis develops an amazing and unique personal world of sounds, techniques and compositions. Beautiful, bizarre , strange and lovely!

Jose Luis Redondo is a well know musician from Barcelona whose work has appear in tons of different session recordings with local groups, from the Jazz/space/cabaret records of Le Diablo Mariachi, the traditional irish/funk music of Camalics, to the Gallegan/experimental work of Keympa. His solos shows at some squads are also remembered.

 

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LA CIUTAT ETS TU

TOMASZ KRAKOWIAK

All music performed and recorded by Tomasz Krakowiak 2007. Tools: percussion and microphone placements.

Tracklisting: 1-Bal 2-La ciutat ets tu 3-Drgacze 4-Sink 5-o_vbrdub 6-Aigua per A 7-Diners per N

Tomasz Krakowiak (b. July 31, 1972, Tarnów, Poland) is a percussionist and composer. During the last few years, Krakowiak has performed and recorded with artists such as Mike Hansen, John Oswald, Ireneusz Socha, Le Quan Ninh, Kaffe Matthews, Mike Snow, Domenico Sciajno, Alessandro Bosetti, Anna Zaradny, Ute Völker, Sophie Angel, Otomo Yoshihide, Phil Minton, Paul Dutton, John Butcher, Gert-Jan Prins, Karlheinz Essl, Pau Torres and others throughout Europe and North America e.g. Musica Genera Festival, Victoriaville FIMAV, AudioArt Festival. Influenced by experimental and electroacoustic practices, Krakowiak’s sounds are explorations of different sonoristic drum qualities. He currently lives in Toronto, Canada.

 

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ÉPICYCLE

Alfredo Costa Monteiro: Computer

Tracklisting: 1-Épicycle (38:44)

Even in the rarified, difficult to define world of contemporary electro-acoustic improvisation

there are artists who can be said to fall into one of two general categories: for some, the listener has a fairly good idea what to expect from a new recording; for others not. There’s no qualitative judgment being made here—certain musicians can mine a narrow area very profitably—but Alfredo Costa Monteiro definitely falls into the latter grouping. From works for prepared accordion to creative abuses of turntables to at least two recordings where the sole sound source is paper, he’s rendered it futile to approach a new offering with any particular sonic expectations. And with “Epicycle”, he does so once again.

One constant, something that’s always drawn me to his work, is that he possesses an inherent sense of pure musicality. This is a feeling one encounters more often in jazz perhaps, the notion that a musician (say, Monk or Don Cherry) has such a strong musical touch that virtually anything he puts his fingers to sounds good, equivalent to a visual artist like Rauschenberg—whether it’s a goat wrapped by a tire, a white painting or cardboard boxes flattened on a wall, it simply looks beautiful. It’s an ineffable characteristic, something nearly impossible to pin down but at the same time just as apparent when you hear or see it. Costa Monteiro both surprises with “Epicycle” and retains that wonderful musicality.

One surprise lies in the steady-state, relatively drone-ish character of the piece. Much of his earlier work is less fluid, choppier in the sense of consisting of slabs of sound placed alongside or atop one another. Disjunctive when heard “up close”, the music nonetheless tended to resolve into satisfying, cohesive wholes. Another unexpected aspect of the present recording is the sound source: Costa Monteiro’s voice. Although processed virtually beyond recognition as such, the listener may still pick up vocal inflections, the sort of shift in pitch occasioned by opening and narrowing the oral cavity while intoning, for instance. “Epicycle” fluctuates from roars to barely perceptible pings, often with an abruptness that initially startles but on second listen seems entirely natural, like a cloud suddenly blotting out sunlight. And like a cloud’s shadow, it covers vast stretches of terrain. Costa Monteiro’s work has always had a graininess, a sense of soil and sand (it sometimes reminds me Antoni Tapies’ gritty work) and that impression remains even when the sounds are derived from modulated airflow. The music recognizes the bumps and irregularities of the ground at the same time as it envelops them, navigating through buffeting winds and acidic rain, not to mention an electrical storm or two before evaporating into a prickly haze. It’s a fascinating, chillingly beautiful journey; you never feel quite safe but always have the sense you’re in capable, acutely sensitive hands guided by a deep musical imagination. – Brian Olewnick.

Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Porto (Portugal), 1964.

He lives and works in Barcelona since 1992. He finishes his studies in sculpture/multimedia at the fine art school of Paris in 1992. The same year, he moves to Barcelona. Since then, his work stands somewhere between visual arts, visual/sound poetry and sound.He has shown his visual and sound installations in individual and group exhibitions since 1995. From 1998 to 2007, he was member of 22a, an independent collective for contemporary art. From 2001 to 2007, he was member of IBA col.lectiu d’improvisació.

In sound poetry, he works with Leos Ator, writing and performing (words and sound) in portuguese, french and spanish. Since 2001, he’s been involved in many improvisation projects and has toured in Europe and Japan. He is currently member of the following formations: CREMASTER with Ferran Fages/ I TRENI INERTI with Ruth Barberán/ NEUMÁTICA with Pablo Rega / FAGES/BARBERÁN/COSTA MONTEIRO. Since 2006, he’s been involved in two collaborations that have set up a new context in his work:- with labelm, a collective from Lyon (France) which work is based on the convergence of different disciplines such as theatre, sound, video and happening.- with emile saar a theatre company from Marseille (France), as an author, writing in french.

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CANÇONS PER A UN LENT RETARD

FERRAN FAGES

Ferran Fages: Acoustic guitar | Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga: Detuning on track 6.

Tracklisting: 1- Suspens vertical (9:31) 2- Més ràpid que l´ull (3:26) 3- Tanget al dit (3:54) 4- L´ombre del dit (7:08) 5- Suspens horitzontal (16:08) 6- Paraula clau (17:39) 7- El retard del mirall (2:29) 8- Gir lent (5:15) 9- Retard llarg (6:05)

… Guitar compositions

curving time with suspense, delay, slower or faster remnants. We are confronted with intensity “colored” with dense and resistant materiality and aggressiveness… and it is not pure materiality. The musical event is immanentized by a death operation. The Imminent death of a close person, totally unpredictable, was constantly interrupting or (not) the process of synthesis, retroactively forming the song by assuming and distorting their materiality. The emotional and predetermined character of this operation dissolves through the insistent and continuous listening of the cançons, thus it seems that the songs´time can truly exist outside Ferran´s emotional temporality (that´s why the ARE songs).

The conjunction and interconnections of these autonumous musical events, that coexist in many levels, produces refrains, small melodies, and many other different figures…in short Ferran designates a “new” musical timeplace where improvisation and composition is open-from being open-form or aleatoric, a destinerrance where something eventually must happen, something beyond calculation and labor, not negating death, but something that comes from the other, wich is any-particular song listener.” –Michalis Kyratsous (July 2007)

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LNGTCHÉ

MUSIC FOR AN UNTITLED FILM BY T.ZARKKOF

Composed, produced and performed by Pau Torres (january/february 2007). Artwork by Seldon Hunt.

Titled “Music for an untitled film by T.Zarkkof”, the release is a long 44:22 piece of dark isolation, drones and exploration of the ambient music blending the electronic soundscape with the sound of the raw guitar.Beautiful, haunting and darkly complex work packaged in an exclusive triptic panel with a brilliant artwork by Seldon Hunt.

Listen to a fragment of Music for an untitled film by T. Zarkkof

I’ve been spending probably too much time on the edge of righteous oblivion by making repeated listens to MUSIC FOR AN UNTITLED FILM BY T. ZARKKOF by the strangely-monickered Lngtché. Released on the Barcelona record label Etude, Lngtché’s music is herein presented as a single 44-minute track that issues forth from the speakers like one continuous and unrestrained flow of lava bursting out from under the floorboards and seeping out of the walls, like bubbling plasma from the mind of Roky Erikson.- Julian Cope (Head Heritage | Adress Drudion)

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AT EVERY POINT

MIKE HANSEN – prepared record player, guitar, percussion

Tracklisting: 1-the day before the day (15:35) 2-tidying up after (11:08) 3-the alarm went off sooner than expected (11:06) 4-once held a lighter high in the sky (6:59) 5-an example of what I meant (7:40)

With Mike Hansen’s “At Every Point,”

the Toronto-based musician steps out of his familiar role of turntablist-improviser to explore thepossibilities of a purely digital medium. While each of these five compositions is clearly sequenced, the improviser’s sense of openness and play consistently comes through. The raw materials of Hansen’s compositions are the sounds of cowbells, harmonicas, Vietnamese drums, an electric guitar and amp, and of course sounds and samples captured off a set up of prepared turntables, reassembled from thekind of rugged record players kids played with in grade schools across Canadain the 1970s.

The compositions of “At Every Point” avoid making a grand statement – say, a theme followed by variations – in favour of exploring textures and moods: the introspective “An Example of What I Meant,” the brash nod to the rock and roll drum solo in “Once Held a Lighter High in the Sky,” the between-waking-and-dreaming of “The Alarm Went Off Sooner than Expected,” the overt minimalism of “Tidying Up After.” Yet it is the lack of a grand statement that allows the listener to focus on the depth of each detail. –Andrew Johnson. Toronto 2006.

 

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ARE SPIRITS WHAT I HEAR?

AGUSTÍ MARTÍNEZ

Tracklisting: 1-Serie B (To Scelsi) 2-For Pau 3-Tic 4-Are spirits what I hear? 5-Meeting 6-Stateless folk song 7-Cross-Light 8-Moc and Caniche (To Paula) 9-Che collons! 10-Island Lava

Recorded by Agustí Martínez and Pau Torres 2006/2007 Agustí Martínez: Live solo alto saxophone (no overdubs).

This is the first release

by composer Agustí Martínez, born 1960 in Barcelona, this is the first ever released record of some of his minimal,graphic scores and homemade compositions for alto saxophone. A figure in the underground avant guarde of Barcelona, “Are Spirits what I hear?” is an unique oportunity to hear the ghosts inside this amazing composer.

Agustí Martinez is a saxophone player from Barcelona who grew up in several chamber orchestras and jazz bands, then began to perform solo in the mid-nineties. This is his first release, a very good one. The initial “Serie B (for Scelsi)” is a one-note theme alternated with lyricism spotted by irony and desperation, a firm statement of intents under any circumstance. “For Pau” nears certain areas of John Butcher’s work, but instantly runs away from the dangers of classification, becoming infectiously multicoloured and rhythmically unpredictable; Martinez is a player that loves silences and pauses, which deepen the meaning of every note he plays. Even the occurrence of (by now commonly used) lingual-and-salival spurts is more welcomed than accepted. In “Meeting”, voice is added to augment and expand the palette; sharp outbursts and membrane-carving harmonics precede a whistling anti-song whose body is boned by additional glottolalia.

Indeed, Martinez’s personal approach makes him different from most saxophonists, essentially due to a more pronounced rhythmic presence (check “Cross-Light” for reference). “Moc and Caniche (to Paula)” is the most rage-and-enthusiasm act, where smoothness and elegance are thrown into a pot of dense articulation and sulphuric straightforwardness; the result is probably the best in terms of compositional interest. “Che Collons!” – a title that makes me suspect that Martinez knows Italian idiomatic expressions quite well – is a long improvisation whose balance of collateral significance, serene melodicism and disturbed spontaneousness is probably the best summary of everything that Agustí is able to conjure up from his right mind.

Instead, “Tic” allows him to mix bubbles and rainbows in a metamorphosis of technical prowess, as effervescent scalar runs collapse all at once, delivering the instruments from jazz impediments. The title track is based on the tube-ish sound of the air, things we heard in a thousand records of the genre, but executed with precision and musicality by the Catalan. Overall, this album is permeated by an evident mastery of spacing and timing that renders the listening an extremely pleasing experience any time. –Touching Extremes.

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