Recorded live at Ensems Festival in Valencia, May 20th 2017. We want to thank to our dear friend Edu Comelles for recording this concert and inviting us to the festival. Photo on Cover by Almudena Villar
Those old, wise Greeks
knew what they were talking about when they said that our senses,
always prone to deceiving us, can only help us form opinions, not
provide absolute certainties. And we couldn't ask for a clearer
example of this phenomenon than "Afterglow".
That's not to say, of
course, that Juan Antonio Nieto and Javier Piñango have set out to
pull the wool over our eyes (at least, I don't think so). It's just
that their mastery in generating and twisting sound means that what
seems as natural as a river can be made to come from such artificial
sources as analogue synthesis or digital processing. Whereas in
earlier work our sensory confusion resulted from the blending of
these two processes, this time around we're faced with their
superimposition. We're left wondering which sonic stratum each
occupies, thanks to a marvellous auditory sleight-of-hand.
"Afterglow"
consists of four pieces of between 8 and 11 minutes' duration,
created expressly for pressing on vinyl. The format choice was no
accident, nor was it a nod to the current retro trend. The inherent
characteristics of the LP are another important ingredient in the
overall illusion we are faced with, where we're grabbed but not
throttled, our senses tuned to pick up on any shifts in anticipation
of the next movement. Without ignoring the ambient nature of the work
of both these artists, on this occasion atmospheric layers take
second place to elements such as sonic details, glitches, frequency
sweeps. And, if you will forgive me for saying so, is that a hint of
an enjoyably out-of-tune melody I hear in 'Sleep, not oblivion'?
Whilst we're in the midst
of letting ourselves be taken in, up steps Almudena Villar, forcing
us to sharpen our visual awareness and not mistake the sleeve
imagery for sandstone cliff faces or prehistoric cave interiors. Even
here, nothing is what it seems.
"Afterglow" is
out on Plustimbre, up to now a netlabel, yet with this release taking
the plunge into physical media for the first time. And who better to
feature in this move than two of its longest- standing signings? David Área, translation by Ben Roberts
Ya lo decían aquellos
viejos sabios griegos: nuestros sentidos, tan amigos de engañarnos a
su voluntad, sólo pueden ser fuente de opinión, nunca de certeza
alguna. Y cuanta razón tenían. Y cómo para afirmar sin titubear
semejantes cosas lo mejor es tirar de ejemplos, en "Afterglow"
tenemos uno.
No, no es que Juan
Antonio Nieto y Javier Piñango nos estén engañando a conciencia (o
quizá sí...), sólo que la maestría en aquello de generar y
depurar el sonido da como fruto que aquello que de primeras se nos
antoja natural como un río, pueda llegar de fuentes tan artificiales
como la síntesis analógica o el procesado digital. Si en su
anterior trabajo la confusión llegaba de mano de una mezcla
extenuante de ambas técnicas, en el presente disco nos enfrentamos a
la superposición de ambos métodos sin saber en qué plano está uno
y donde se encuentra el otro. Prestidigitación sensorial auditiva.
"Afterglow" se
compone de cuatro cortes que oscilan entre los 8 y los 11 minutos
expresamente creados para ser materializados en vinilo. El soporte en
este caso no es casual ni cuestión de modas. La naturaleza propia
del viejo LP aporta un elemento más a este trampantojo al que nos
enfrentamos dónde la línea general atrapa sin asfixiar, nos
mantiene atentos al cambio esperando siempre al próximo movimiento.
Sin dejar a un lado el carácter ambiental que caracteriza el trabajo
de ambos autores, en esta ocasión las capas atmosféricas pasan a un
segundo plano dando protagonismo al detalle, al glitch y al barrido
de frecuencias. Incluso (y ruego me perdonen por esto que voy a
decir) algo similar a una desafinada melodía se puede intuir y
disfrutar en el tema "Sleep, not oblivion".
Puestos a dejarnos
engañar, damos licencia a Almudena Villar para que nos obligue a
trabajar la agudeza visual y tratar de no confundir la imagen de
portada con acantilados de arenisca o cuevas prehistóricas. También
aquí nada es lo que parece.
"Afterglow"
está editado por el, hasta el momento netlabel, Plustimbre que ha
hecho de este trabajo su primera referencia física apostando una vez
más por dos de los miembros habituales de su catálogo. David Área
Isolated
is the logical continuation of Static, the previous record that Plus
Timbre release in 2015.
Isolated
base remains in the idea of combining percussive sounds with dark
drones. If for Static sounds were recorded in public spaces, in this
new record all the sounds have been recorded in my own home, pens,
knives, brushes, and any subceptible objet, beaten or rubbed over
different surfaces, glass, wood, metal, sand in order to get a unique
sound (avoiding the can add effects) this sounds combined with each
other, were able to form a special feeling. Drones were created to
finish adjusting topics. The result is an album that can be heard
both environmental manner or in a deeper listening. The multiple
sounds have been treated one by one, in EQ and volumes.
Static is a short album of abstract concrete music. The main idea was to use "field recordings" from restaurants and coffe shops, mostly the sounds of plates, spoons, knifes, etc) as well as sounds recorded while the artist himself was having breakfast. He also uses sets of found sounds from objects at home. He mixes the different timbres with minimal electronics, trying to give the result a natural feel. For this album he chose 6 tracks out of 12 - the ones that worked better with the concept. the dark drones were composed especially for each theme and then added to the percussive sounds, conveying an abstract, ambient and dreamlike sense.
Released om march 20th 2015
Photo on cover by Almudena Villar
