Nobody's Listening

Nomenclature of the sound postures (currently used in the visual arts) by Marie-Pierre Bonniol

2010-10-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

“In our noisy culture, - not only the jets above our heads or the enormous trucks on our roads, but also the psychic noise generated by the bankruptcy of our institutions, the social conventions, of morals, all this crescendo of a decaying civilization - in this culture of the noise, it seems that one can still only find peace in the middle of one larger din, in which one creates his own individual sound and a new possibility of direct communication. ”

Sound as plastic matter: if the history of the art of the twentieth century were rich in changes and schisms, the incorporation of sound in the visual was one of the important revolutions of artistic creation, even if it means becoming a new standard of the contemporary art, where it would be from now on “unthinkable to imagine a collective exhibition without a sound installation. ” However, the use of sound data could not have been accomplished without the greater use of technology in the past century, particularly consequent research with regard to the reproduction, the treatment and the diffusion of sound, like the appearance and the rapid progress of electroacoustic techniques and the exploration of timbres. Consequently, the plastic practices which result from this can have multiple ends: sound sculpture, sound installation, radiophonic support, sound environment, performance, recorded sound, the indexing of methods and musical representations, multi-media and new technologies, phonography, etc.

In order to be able to peacefully engage our research into the presence of the musical sign in the plastic field, today it is a question of us giving a progress report on the sound postures and of defining the attitudes which can induce the use - impossible to circumvent - of media resulting from recent technologies in the plastic treatment of sound: Which creative margin offers the use of these media? With which aesthetic autonomy can it be claimed that sound works? How should the main medium be considered? Similarly: What are the semantic limits of the plastic and musical fields in this case?

Thus we engaged in a classification without giving the affect of the possible attitudes of the plastic act, incorporating the sound and claim their possibilities with a relative exhaustiveness, at least from the point of view of the visual arts, being our field of study of origin. This argument can have a reducing appearance that brings us down to reducing the value of intervals and the description of a park of hybrid postures. In the same way, it is essential to keep in memory the proclaimed autonomy of the artists, who are the last to wish that their practices be reduced to the canonical reference marks of a discipline.

We chose three poles of reflexion: the video soundtrack as placed sound (composition), sound devices as "mise en espace" (organization) and the disc as cultural product (diversion); three supporting arts. Among the attempts at classification of sound postures, we are aware of that of German Rene Block, whose musicological configuration recalls an advance of the Pythagorean design of acoustic environments with a real clearness of connection. Our reflexion is of a different order, through the point of view of the plastic, and a prevalence of media in the practice.

Equally, we will articulate part of our reflexion - so, the relationship with musical fields - in a diagram which can emphasize the exchanges between the practice of the supports concerned and erudite and popular music, as it is from the point of view of the tools, the methods, the repertory or the lexicon.

Interview - Jonah Schwartz

2010-10-25T09:44:00.001-07:00

Let's widen the noise boundaries a second to include a folk-inspired songster, Philadelphian, bicycle activist and general lover-of-a-good-knees-up, Jonah Schwartz.

I. Name:

Jonah

los palos borrachos

II. Name of completed projects, projects under way, and what you play:

springlizard, los palos borrachos, and a band with which we have been playing since may, but we still don't have a name. so..if there are any suggestions...

los alamos

III. Influences:

lucho bermudez, thomas mapfumo, ian mackaye, wallace stevens, john fahey, harry smith....people who have an uncompromising sense of artistic purpose, i guess.

IV. What motivates you?:

anxiety and love, and also walking.

Handmade homemade CDR "Dreams of the wolf", and its lushious vinyl sister below

V. Friend bands:

betty confettiiiiii!!!!!!! y warning with the snake, mariano rodriguez, rolando bruno, dick el demasiado, azur, mama rosin, amoeba

VI. What’s your music like from a political point of view:

in the sense that music is a serious democratizer, we like that lots of different people can listen to us. internet and such, etc. but we don't sing about politics. and musically i don't know if we are proactive or subversive in a political sense. journalists tend to like to disagree, and read messages that were perhaps unintended. that's what critics do, though. and that's alright. people used to say with my former band (los alamos) that singing in english was subversive. which is and isn't true. subversive with respect to the dominant paradigm of pop music in argentina, sure. but we were (and continue to be) so disinterested in commercial music that it almost seems a moot point.

Springlizard

VII. Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

the tomato of 2010 is so far from a recognizable source of vitamins that i would call it something more akin to a red water balloon.

VIII. Instruments:

acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmonica, clarinet, charango.

IX. What particular quality would you give to the sound that you like?

i don't think i understand this question. aren't we already making music? isn't the proof in the blood pudding?

X. What period of history has been a significant catalyst for the birth or development of the music you make?

i like thinking about history. but i am pretty happy to be alive now. clearly. because otherwise i wouldn't be alive at all. i like todorov and his history of the conquest of the americas. and i am reading about medievalness too. but again, and lest i become pedantic, better to be alive now.

XI. How do you combine your visual aesthetic with the aural?

whenever you have two things that should be related, people automatically look for the link, and form this kind of dialectic between them. in the case of springlizard, or really any of the other bands i play in, few of these things are actually consciously premeditated. when we released "dreams of the wolf," everybody except for one reviewer (julio nusdeo) wrote about how it sounded like we were sitting on a porch in alabama, drinking moonshine and ogling our sisters. because it is folk-sounding music and in english. and maybe because we have sideburns. and it made me think that these critics had either not listened to the album we had made, or had a very skewered idea of what southern american music typically sounds like. so clearly we need to redefine our visual+audio aesthetic to make it more congruent.

XII. What do you think about the production and edition of records in Argentina?

i don't participate in the system of legal releases in this country because it is incredibly economically unsustainable for small to mid-size bands. for a series of reasons, which i have thought about a lot but won't expound upon here, bands today still think it is important to spend 10,000 pesos to release 1,000 cds which will, in all likelihood, not even sell. my friends and i live by hazlo tu mismo. fuck sadaic, fuck the major labels. they will all be dead within 15 years anyway.

XIII. Which was the most popular pop song in the year you were born?

i am not one of these savant-memory people (not to mention i can't remember the year in which i was born (memories of the year, that is. i was born in 1980)), so according to google, this would be "call me" by blondie. could i chalk this up to lazy journalism?

XIV. Where is a musical group in Argentina heading, which doesn’t enjoy the same open medias and opportunities like those of, for example, Europe, the United States?

they could make music that they themselves like and fully believe in. who cares about press coverage? it is a means to a totally unsure and often insignificant end. but i guess it's cool for people that aren't yr friends or parents to listen to yr music.

XV. Describe the best concert you´ve seen in your life.

os mutantes, 2007 or 2008, i can't remember. they played for free at 3 in the morning in the center of sao paolo in the street. there were millions of people there, something like 15 blocks of human-ness. it was their first show in sao paolo since the 70s. not only did they totally rock (and not like these typical half-corpses from the 60s), but the level of emotional intensity that mutantes generated was so high, at one point i looked around and there were dozens of people in the crowd crying hysterically. holy shit. it was like a multi-million person orgasm.

Download Jonah's DJ set

http://frescoybatatamusic.blogspot.com

Interview: David Loayza

2010-09-27T16:31:00.000-07:00

David graced the FLA with his patio playing band of naughty hecklers, and toured Argentina in March of 2009, dressed as Oso el Roto and singing like a broken bear.

I. Name:

daevid loyza(oso el roto)

II. Name of completed projects, projects under way, and what you play:

Under way :

dudu geva

1400 points de sutures

squelette de georges

rock monsieur

Completed :

steak fromdelta

oso et les léopards du vin rouge ,

,vaporetto ,

,Mc Patate,

,jesus de dos,

superbeet ,caca

,bite anus 750 ,

les patates radioactives

les ochmoneqs ,

giorgio porgio ,

uataru

chichi y los putos del orto

,H P ,

chantal

the jeanpierre's

los chupacabras

les fréres d épinay

badztmaru

lechevailer derinchy

veau negro ,

the porno fuck off,

the fonzarellis

salpicon

III. Influences:

VIOLETA PARRA

boredoms

ufo or die

hanatarash

ooioo

reynols

captain beefheart

the shaggs

jad fair

yma sumac

christian marclay

dna

lydia lunch

jodorowsky

beatles

suckdog

costes

caroliner rainbow

fat worm of error

sonic youth

pixies

royaltrux

pussy galore

henry chopin

kurtz schwitters

fred frith

and looooads are missing

IV. What motivates you?:

I really don’t know

I think that, for me, the music is a medium which helps me a lot to be sociable and makes my brain sane; it’s a politicotherapeutic act

And also the more I learn about music the more I learn about the world. And the more I feel good and sometimes I can help some people with little things.

V. Friend bands:

chocolat billy

radikal satan

crack und ultra eczema

le sport

cheb samir and the black soul of leviathan

the dreams

manuel j grotesque

agripon

ero babba

romaric sobac

le club des chats

VI. What’s your music like from a political point of view:

I think it has something to do with dull anarchist gatherings but also with something more sexual.

It’s trying to find another path which functions but not intellectually because with the intellect you lose the taste of things.

VII. Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

A fruit, sometimes I eat the tomato like an apple

VIII. Instruments:

Banjo keyboard electric guitar drums bass singing trumpet anything that falls into my hands everything is an instrument

IX. What particular quality would you give to the sound that you like?

It should sound like a recording of children who play at recording a fake radio [show].

X. What period of history has been a significant catalyst for the birth or development of the music you make?

heuuuuu uuummm I don’t know, there are lots

When I was 14 in Chile with a friend who is a Beatles fan we wanted to form the most surreal group in the world, like “I am the walrus”

When I was 19 I met Manuel with whom I made most of my music

When I was 22 JF Pichard showed us how to organize a tour and concerts and then millions more gatherings…

XI. How do you combine your visual aesthetic with the aural?

I make the aesthetic, there should be some sense in it, because the same person is making the visual as the aural. It should be something that feeds the imagination.

XII. What do you think about the production and edition of records in Argentina?

I know very little about how record [production] works in Argentina. But what I really like are the CDs of MP3s that they sell in the train stations. In Europe everyone should do that.

XIII. Which was the most popular pop song in the year you were born?

It was 1977 so it should be “Anarchy in the UK”, I imagine, I don’t know, something by Elvis who died that year, I think

XIV. Where is a musical group in Argentina heading, which doesn’t enjoy the same open medias and opportunities like those of, for example, Europe, the United States?

“Open medias” is a lie to chop off the balls of the Leftists.

The rich are equally as lost in the confusion of art as the poor.

The strength of the rich is the diabolic cleanliness.

The strenth of the poor is the sacred dirtiness.

The good music is stronger than all of that shit.

XV. Describe the best concert you´ve seen in your life.

It was in St Malo in Brittany walking in the streets of that city that I accindentally found the concert.

There were two Eskimo girls with a French 8 year old girl and the three of them were singing breathing chants that were very very very very very strange and truly the most beautiful thing I have seen in my life.

http://osoelroto.free.fr

Review: La copa de un arbol sin raiz, Ø+yn

2009-10-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

Titled ¨La copa de un arbol sin raiz¨ (The top of a rootless tree), the defiant Ø+yn (Omasin) present their latest LP which contains 8 songs recorded in three and a bit years. The rounds come to us from Cordoba, San Juan and La Cordillera de los Andes. The long sonoric journeys, together with the immense help of a trumpet, tuba or cello, small hypnosis produced by the the context which takes possession of listening ears. As a result of their explorations this trio (Mavi Arener, Pablo Picco and Gustav Valergal) have found the momento in which their fruits can be harvested.

The record starts with ¨Ulla, the gigantic trumpet¨, the sun rises resplendent. The day also falls, the night has to break. That´s how it goes by, leaving its trace: its print remains. Nobody, nothing: just prints. And the fantastic tension of the strings or the voice singing ¨Lalala till eternity¨.

The key to this record comes from the third track, a mountain of monotony and harmony which take unique and continuous forms amplified at the limit of their obscurity. The songs begin to have an energetic noise and the instruments change, almost indifferent, with new choruses and electric currents accompanied by winds, water and wood which brings the next song into view. The strident sound of the Ø+yn spirit is interrupted, unpredictibly, by ¨Amilcar prepares the shadow of the tea¨ , which leads into the best of the record.

To call this a great and excellent band would not be an exaggeration.

- Mamber

Omasin in interview with Martin Sandoval

2009-10-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

intervieu!
Ø+yn at home
The Middle East and The Top of a Rootless Tree

From an egg on the top of a mountain a centipede is born. Which, travels long distances through valleys, forests and deserts. On a good day he knits a coccoon and rests in it. From this structure small rats are born, which bring with them innumerable tiny instruments.

That’s how Ø+yn was born, in the centre of the city of Cordoba, buzzing quietly and making folk noise. After launching Ese juego que te hacía tan feliz (2005) (That game which made you so happy) and La canción del ciempiés (2007) (The song of the centipede), they made their third record: La copa de un árbol sin raíz (2009) (The top of a rootless tree).

In a homely conversation we enter the world of the animals which sing and dance around the fire.

How did Ø+yn begin?

Pablo: In 2006 Gustavo and I started playing, then Mavi joined and we played live for the first time. She’s stopped playing live with us, but she still records.

Gustavo: After that Cesar joined, who started as a “guest” and then became part of the band.

The first time I heard you play I couldn’t help but think about the Middle East. There’s something in your music which brings forth mantric sounds and the sense of a permanent trance.

Pablo: I’ve read some oriental things, the Hare Krishna interests me a lot. It relates to our music. For example I’ve read things by Paramahansa Yogananda who was a Hindhu yogi. Yogis are the people who reach a higher level of meditation than those who practice yoga.

Some of the instruments you use are very strange. What is that little guitar which has three strings and tuning keys on the neck?

Gustavo: It’s called an akonting. It’s an African instrument. Actually it’s a Cordobese version of that instrument, the African one is made of bamboo cane. This one’s made of gourd and nylon strings. Also it’s smaller.
The strange thing for me is that the neck is round. It’s really difficult for me to play it. The finger doesn’t press down on the string, but slides along it.
We try to squeeze the juice out of every instrument we play. I really like to know what the instrument can give me. That’s why we don’t just play one thing, but we try out different instruments

Pablo: I agree with Gustavo. Also, I like to study the scales of each instrument. I never finished studying music, at one point I started to search for a way to combine chords in such a way that it directs you towards one thing. I wasn’t looking to improvise, because I wanted to change the way I play. You reach a point where you’re doing the same progression more than twenty times. So I try out other ways of doing it. I play the progression backwards between notes, for example.

Gustavo: We’ve also got a Vietnamese harp. Also a Cordobese version.

La copa de un árbol sin raíz is a record which takes you all over the place, from improvisation, through the textures of tape and noises, to something completely composed, like the sounds of flutes or the trombone. The question is if it’s an improvised record or if it’s composed.

Gustavo: It’s a mixture. Because we compose the songs but we leave room for improvisation.

Pablo: The recordings on this album are from 2006.

Gustavo: We’ve been making this record for three or four years. Since about 2006. We’ve been mixing it for a long time.

Pablo: What happened is that for us it meant changing lots of things that had taken one form, and with these recordings we started to think about them in another.

Gustavo: That changed the form of all the songs. So we can’t say that they’re the same. We went back and recorded the same things a lot of times but in a different way.

Pablo: We started to search and investigate among so many things that it took us up until 2008 to be able to finish it. That’s when we said stop, that’s enough. This is where we are.

The particular sound that you get out of each instrument is really great, in the sense of concrete music, beyond electric amplification.

Gustavo: We like this a lot. Above playing the instrument like a concert musician, we like the instrument itself. Even just hitting it or whatever. We search for the particular sound of the instrument. That’s why we like to have a great variety of things and search for a texture. And that’s what we do when we play live. Everywhere we play we take loads of things with us.

What happens live is that this style of music, in a big space and without adecuate amplification, runs the risk of the sound being lost. For me it’s ideal for a small, intimate gig.

Gustavo: It’s true that a record is going to have a different effect on the people than what we do live. And for that reason it has a different structure. But in some form it’s similar.
When we play live we get together to improvise and we choose which parts we like, and with the things we don’t like we try to find a way around them.

Pablo: We look for a dialogue. Sometimes this dialogue doesn’t work. We like it when what we’re playing is difficult. But we also like it when what we’re playing is difficult for the audience to listen to, not that it’s deafening or physically damaging, but that it’s not easy and already digested. If at times it seems violent it’s because we try to connect with the people who are in front of us. There are people who allow themselves to be taken places; and there are people who think what we’re doing is bullshit.
It’s about creating an ambience and connections.

Gustavo: It’s pretty narrative. We want to narrate something. It seems that the necessity we have at the moment is to tell, to recount. So we get together and we tell each other things. And when we play we look around to see how that begins and how it ends.

This need to tell is related to a very poignant characteristic of this record, which has to do with the epic.

Gustavo: Yes, for me it has something epic in the sense of a story.

Pablo: Listening to the record again and again we realised that there is a search for the truth, the truth in everything.

The music on this record appears to me very nocturnal. And playing with the animals gives it the epic factor.

Gustavo: For me it has a lot to do with the oriental. With their music. With a state of being.

Pablo: It also has a lot of acoustic things, that’s why it could also be Medieval. More than anything else we make folk, noise and drone. Also improvisation, of course. What we like most is folk from Asia, Mongolia, Vietnam, and Indonesian Gamelan music.

http://www.omasin.com.ar
www.myspace.com/copadeunarbol

Lio Zanarini, interview

2009-09-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

I. Name:
Lionel Paolo Zanarini a.k.a Pequeño Leon mutante

II. Name of completed projects, projects under way, and what you play:
Capitanes del Espacio, Syn Criterio, Pequeño Leon Mutante
I play everything and anything that doesn’t dirty my hands, so muddy guitars, freshly painted bass, and powdered drums.
With the Capitanes del Espacio we’ve finished a record called “Oh bananas Ho (the whalesong)¨, which will soon be flooding many record shops in other galaxies.
With Syncriterio we have two records: “Satan” and “La ora del despertar”
And Pequeño Leon Mutante says that he is making things but most of the time he´s a comic.

III. Influences:
Everything and Black Sabbath

IV. What motivates you?:
The Holy Spirit

V. Friend bands:
Siquicos Litoraleños, Hipnoflautas, Pakidermos, Copronautas, Soy tu padre, Klub der Klang, and millions of thousands of millions more.

VI.What’s your music like from a political point of view?
The politics of the Riachuelo by the Makro bridge.

VII. Is the tomato a fruit or vegetable?
I believe that in certain questions man should make silence in honour of knowledge, just so as not to affect or condition the tomato´s self-image.

VIII. Instruments:
The buttocks are THE PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT of excellence

IX. What particular quality would you give to the sound that you like?
COMIC COSMOS

X. What period of history has been a significant catalyst for the birth or development of the music you make?
The period of the life of Walt Disney

X. What period of history has been a significant catalyst for the birth or development of the music you make?
With a lot of imagination

XII. What do you think about the production and edition of records in Argentina?
I don´t know. I asked Syd Barrett and he didn´t know what to say to me.

XIII. Which was the most popular pop song in the year you were born?
THIS MAKES ME REALLY HAPPY
According to the website I consulted
the year that I was born there were lots of great HITS
but this was the song that exploded that year
Y.M.C.A. – The Village People
I think it’s a marvellous song
I feel identified (adjective in feminine)

XIV. Where is a musical group in Argentina heading, which doesn’t enjoy the same open medias and opportunities like those of, for example, Europe, the United States?
In the direction of Love.
In the direction of love?

XV. Describe the best concert you´ve seen in your life.
One with The Fall, but I dreamed it
Nick Cave left me gobsmacked in 98
Sonic Youth converted me into a groupie
Ramones / Motorhead in Velez Stadium
Pantera in Obras Stadium
Pffff, there are lots, Los Autenticos Decadentes

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lionelz/

http://www.capitanesdelespacio.com.ar/

http://www.pequenoleonmutante.blogspot.com/

Buen Viaje Los Siquicos

2009-09-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

Crack a bottle of Champagne on the hull of Los Siquicos Litoraleños, as they disappear off to Holland on tour

Here´s a work in progress of the documentary that´s going to warp your mind:

(here´s what Jorge and Dick say)

ENCANDILAN LUCES – Lights Dazzle

Jorge:
Imagine that aliens land in Curuzu Cuatia, but instead of invading Corrientes they fall in love with Chamame, Peñas, the Cumbias at parties, and they become musicians.
Only the delirium of nature can explain Los Siquicos Litoraleños

Dick:
You can get lucky living in a lost village where strong characters get together, with no outside influences reaching them, they can go further than in a city where all the information reaches them. They live in a town where nobody bombards them with their own criteria.

Jorge:
Without doubt this lacking, and the limitations of the resources with which they record, creates the magic of the group. I can´t imagine anything similar being made with professional instruments. It would lose all its magic, and I think they know that.

Dick:
The good thing about the Siquicos is that they are actually living in those conditions, so there´s no doubting their sincerity, they´re doing an investigation just using their own points of reference. That´s great.

Jorge:
Cumbia, Chamame, which is something I´ve been getting into, popular music, but if you give it a strange or bizarre twist, of course it´s going to be more powerful.

Dick:
It´s really easy, with few resources, to transform this into magic. There are a lot of people doing it, but once you´re into it you can send it out into the world, it´s easy. It´s just that, well, you´ve got to be found.

Mambo Sandoval, interview

2009-09-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

I. Name:
Mariano Juan Sandoval o Mambe.

II. Name of completed projects, projects under way, and what you play:
Azur since 2005, Mainumby Ediciones label since 2006, Minimalista País since 2008, La Luz Cadente since 2009, collaborator with Leeev´b

III. Influences:
Fellow bands (and not so fellow bands) are a really really big influence. Also other things like the sound of boats passing slowly, the voices of my family, the streets, animals, extra-musical forms and the combination of colours in sunsets, are a good influence at times. Its in those moments that I feel enthusiasm with those who give me music, and this is sharing and releasing at the same time: Kate Bush, My Bloody Valentine, ABBA, Tiny Tim, Young Marble Giants, The Ronettes (and lots of 50s pop), The Knife, Kellies, Epiref, Dick El Demasiado, Wave Tank, MALARIA!, Strawberry Switchblade, Martin Rev, Leonard Cohen, Nico, Dark Day, Klaus Nomi, Dan Deacon, Cecilia Todd, Os Mutantes, Gilda, Los Mirlos, Transito Cocomarola (and the amazing Paraguayan harp), Shirley Collins, Violeta Parra, Norman McLaren, Jan Svankmajer, Ingman Bergman, David Lynch, Jorge Luis Borges, Fernando Pessoa, William Blake, “Acéphale”, Louis Wain.

IV. What motivates you?:
What pushed me towards doing these exercises which ended in ¨music¨was something similar to an intuition, an image, a sound, an interrupting voice, and wanting to share the experience, run the risk, something naughty, something imaginative, like playing, living, trying, playing and listening again: it all came out fairly casually, like luck, trivial, even though it wasn’t through error. And it can be something so unusual, the strength which motivates one to discover oneself, to come out from the enclosed, to express oneself, to dilute oneself in the preponderance and its creative faculty, with which the conscious intelligence isn’t the motive, the incitation, but talent, excitement, temperament in the development, dreams. Trust, caring for those who are present, enjoyment at spreading the word by word of mouth, or inventing according to the situation, the majority of times with amusing results, but at other times they are proverbs or formulas. They seem to be useless sacrifices, “lets drink”, “a friend on Myspace”, “let’s fuck up” and somebody comes up with something new which changes us, pushes us forward. So we put adornments, loops, a guitar, obsessive little songs, improvised fragments, and in that moment the heart brings us a smile.

V. Friend bands:
Pretzel, Im, Betty Confetti, Omasin, Nebel Dots, Liz, Mothers Day, Los Siquicos Litoraleños, Klub Der Kang, Trampa de Osos, Good Time For Dynacom, Yon, Puffy Eyes.

VI. What’s your music like from a political point of view:
The music is like something given to us, offered from the most delicious, and like one of the things that one wants most of all. One tries to give, offer respect, friendship, make it grow and multiply what one learns from the others and oneself. Because if you don’t submit (and you force it) you don’t get anything back, and in that case giving and receiving get confused. It’s basically making your instrument distribute, look for the amplification, make it something that has lots of strengths, diversions, series, combinations and in these conditions the music becomes visible and relative and one becomes multiple.

VIII. Instruments:
Bass, double bass, synthesizers and 60s technologu, ukelele, Casio keyboard, voices, delay, chorus, flanger.

IX. What particular quality would you give to the sound that you like?
Particularly noisy, simple, repetitive.

X. What period of history has been a significant catalyst for the birth or development of the music you make?
In its oldest and most general form there’s a really long period of time that I love, in which the “scene” fills me with wonder, back then in the 5th Century B.C. Also Palestrina. And the “Lollypop generation”, those boys and girls from the 50s and 60s. Also Teutonic Post Punk.

XI. How do you combine your visual aesthetic with the aural?
I try not the disassociate the two, even though sometimes the search to make the disassociation bring about new sensibilities. From the corporeal, the light, videos and slide projections, the optic begins to associate, motivate, generate, effect what appears to me as worth making the most of.

XII. What do you think about the production and edition of records in Argentina?
The production has been increasing in quality and quantity, displaying differing and similar forms. There are things in Argentina that really deserve to be seen and heard.

XIV. Where is a musical group in Argentina heading, which doesn’t enjoy the same open medias and opportunities like those of, for example, Europe, the United States?
I think that the locus of the musician is very important, and in some cases it’s a determining factor. In poor places there is a lot of incredible music, beautiful, transparent. In the rich and economically powerful places there are more institutions and institutionalized relationships which guarantee and support production. There is production, communication and technology in both places, even if they exist in different forms. In poor and rich places things come out of the exclusion and inclusion, or from the conditions and opportunities. There are always conditions, but through not being total, unchangeable, they constantly create opportunities. Those who are victims of an economic impotence show that they can also play music and dance, that’s to stay, what is a real subjection gives birth to a fictitious relation.

Fede Paladino with Azur

2009-09-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

Here's a video made by Fede Paladino using a live recording of Azur.

Azur and La Octava Sagrada

2009-09-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

Archibrazo 4th September

This was the first of a kind of siamese gig, with Azur playing the same place, same time the next day but with Los Siquicos Litoraleños. Unfortunately I missed the latter, but thankfully not this one.

Weathering the shifting forms of the groups that surround them Azur remain solid after more than four years of playing and recording their dreamy soundscapes.
Gabi Coll plays keyboards and synth, Ale Coll generally picks away at his guitar, Mambo Sandoval is the meditative bassist while Nico Valiente gets his laptop whirring.

In Nico's absence the three found their sound without the computer, which tends to give the music its hypnotic packaging, and this removal of the comfort blanket revealed a sturdy unit of musicians, locked into their own groove but in definite unison.

Gabi's poppy keyboard sequences are pushed out of the speakers with a sinister tinge, filtered through loops and pedals, where they intertwine with Ale's adept guitar and mandolin twiddlings. It's always easy to fall back on delay pedals to get that distant electronic sound, but here there's an avoidance of the obvious, a weaving of the strange and beautiful, and then the simple. The bass is nothing complicated, but a point of relaxation for the ear, at a good slow pace, a tonic.

www.myspace.com/estoesazur

Charly Zaragoza couldn´t have anything but stage presence, this time with a cherry on top with his red t-shirt and Santa´s Helper hat. La Octava Sagrada is his solo project after ÜL, Klub der Klang, Virgin Vapor... where his astute aural fiddlings are irreplaceable. He plays strange shaped guitars, roll-up toy keyboard, Kaos pad plus numerous pedals and devices, and some normal instruments too! The best part of his set was an accordian sample doing some very visceral things over modified sounds and sputters. He plays layering, building on loops and organic blips, and shows us what it is to do the ¨noise¨ thing all alone. Long live La Octava Sagrada!

www.myspace.com/laoctavasagrada

Lautaro

2009-08-20T06:08:00.000-07:00

I. Name:
Lautaro

II. Name of completed projects, projects under way, and what you play:
LeeevB, E.S., La luz cadente, Cromañón.

III. Influences:
Witchcraft

IV. What motivates you?:
Witchcraft

V. Friend bands:
Several

VI. What’s your music like from a political point of view:
Peronist.

VII. Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
Vegetable

VIII. Instruments:
Mice.

IX. What particular quality would you give to the sound that you like?
It’s yellow.

X. What period of history has been a significant catalyst for the birth or development of the music you make?
The Medieval.

XI. How do you combine your visual aesthetic with the aural?
I throw coins.

XII. What do you think about the production and edition of records in Argentina?
---

XIII. Which was the most popular pop song in the year you were born?
I don’t know.

XIV. Where is a musical group in Argentina heading, which doesn’t enjoy the same open medias and opportunities like those of, for example, Europe, the United States?
Inwards.

XV. Describe the best concert you´ve seen in your life.
There were witches.

leeev´b in the FLA

ÜL and Hunter Gracchus

2009-08-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

Monday 17th August
Archibrazo
Mario Bravo 439/441, Buenos Aires

The question goes beyond noise and random improvisation, directly to a shared voyage into defined soundscapes and their audiovisual connections with our imaginations.

ÜL, the humble superstars of Argentinian noise (see Reynols, Minexio VII, Virgin Vapor...) opened the show with three guitars in constant grinding cycles of intergalactic aural exploration. Sci-fi landscapes come to mind, real spatial reverberations in the white space of the ¨theatre bar¨. I am taken on a paranoid journey through amps and guitar paraphernalia as Charly Zaragoza sets the violin bow on the strings, Fernando Perales is on one side hunched over the guitar, fiddling with tools and providing gritty detail, and Alan Courtis dangles his guitar in midair and sucks out all possible frequencies from beating and shaking it.

Hunter Gracchus come from Sheffield, England, providing us with a nugget of the city´s experimental nucleus. On stage they replaced Michael Nyman´s orchestral envelopment of Peter Greenaway´s ¨A walk through H. The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist¨, itself an imaginary hike through mental maps and absurd anecdotes of the stirling British narrator. The sound muted, the camera is a finger walking along line drawings and scratchy X´s which mark the spot, of what we don´t know, of where we aren´t enlightened. We´re just given small clues and footage of birds in their surroundings. The film encapsulated the feeling of the exotic in Hunter Gracchus´s whirring music; some kind of spiritual searchings along colonial lines; the forageing of sounds strange to them, like obsessive rare bird watching. In the background the constant drone of the shruti (the bellowed box of Indian origin) is like the dark ink on corrupted paper. South American instruments, collected along the group´s tour add the cacophony of foreign chaos, and guitar and tom drum are recognisable guides.

Hunter Gracchus have just completed their tour, which sped them through Argentina to Chile and back again, playing with Omasin, Nebel Dots, Los Siquicos Litoraleños, Azur...

They left me their cd Sacred object of the yiye people, and Kamran´s solo project Harappian Night Recordings, both surprising recordings reminding me of the intrigued tappings of Sun City Girls. Thanks guys.

http://www.myspace.com/ulnoisesouthamerica
http://www.myspace.com/thehuntergracchus

Los Siquicos Litoraleños

2009-08-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

These boys grew from Cucumelo spors on the humid underside of cowpats in Corrientes, Argentina.
They make shamanic Cumbia Folklore with an energy that sprouts from whatever enters their blodstream.

Nicola sings with guttural absurdity and jumps around like a cucaracha, playing acoustic guitar or bass, rolling on the floor while Kuku whittles out electric guitar riffs to keep any Woodstock rocker content. And then there´s German on drums tapping out rowdy folk rhythms and Diego on synth. His sounds are a combination of those bad taste Latino keyboards mixed with animals dreaming of a life in the Cucu fields.

And they´re all masked up like glitzy underworld demons.

They played last night in Cobra Libreria in Caballito, a corner gathering , blasting out the sudden cold with such hits as El Chipa Chiriri (a recipe for Corrientes style cheesebread) and Necesita Ecualisacion, a call for aural and mental equilibrium.

Watch out for Los Siquicooooooooooos in Europe. They'll be on tour in with Worm records throughout September, playing in Psych-land Holland and Belgium. Wowser.

http://www.myspace.com/lossiquicoslitoraleos

Manu Osorio

2009-08-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

Epiref fieeeeeends

Manu makes music, instruments and forms part of Mun Discos, based in Cordoba. The other day he played as half of Epiref, a deformed power-electronic party using the dirty sounding homemade square guitar, keyboard, beat machines and robotic vocals. It was great, we were all dancing like fuckheads.

I. Name:
Manuel Osorio

II. Name of completed projects, projects under way, and what you play:
Mun Discos, Epiref, Puffy Eyes, Dolores, Toxido Max. I defend myself best with the bass and the guitar.

III. Influences:
Der Plan y Stereo Total, but above all, my friends

IV. What motivates you:
That there is nothing similar to what I want to go and see. But perhaps I lie to myself, and if I was in a place where there were 20 bands that do exactly the same as what I like, I would carry on making music anyway. I’d love to try.

V. Friend bands:
¡¡¡¡Las Kellies!!!!

VI. What’s your music like from a political point of view:
Epiref would be like the Centre Right: it looks like something is changing, but underneath it is profoundly conservative

VII. Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
It’s a fruit! Bunch of ignorants!

VIII. Instruments:
Lots. Lots and lots! When you don’t know how to play anything a good strategy is to diversify.

IX. What particular quality would you give to the sound that you like?
I don’t understand the question.

X. What period of history has been a significant catalyst for the birth or development of the music you make?
1976 - 1983 Punk, New Wave, and above all NDW [Neue Deutsche Welle].

XI. How do you combine your visual aesthetic with the aural?
I try to make the instruments sound as deteriorated as they look.

XII. What do you think about the production and edition of records in Argentina?

If the question is referring to independent production, I think that the biggest problem isn’t that there is no money, but that there is no decent circuit of independent records. Record shops aren’t interested in stocking those records and so everything ends up being sold at gigs, and there aren’t really many people interested in buying those records in general. It’s great when recordings can be put straight onto a netlabel, or put your stuff on myspace, and get it to lots of people in a way that would otherwise be impossible, but it’s a bit sad that importance isn’t given to the disc format. And among the few people who do care about it, there is a lot of prejudice, for example if the edition is made in CDR, for a lot of people it isn’t worth anything at all. So I think it’s pretty complicated to carry on making records. I don’t know, maybe it’s a complaint from a silly old man who wants to keep adding records to his collection.

XIII. Which was the most popular pop song in the year you were born?
mmmm... don’t know, probably "Noelia" by Nino Bravo

pufffy eyes

XIV. Where is a musical group in Argentina heading, which doesn’t enjoy the same open medias and opportunities like those of, for example, Europe, the United States?
I suppose it is heading towards a quick dilution, so insist on enjoying it while you can.
Although on the other hand I don’t believe the medias and opportunities only depend on how poor a country is. Recently I read an article about the phenomenon of Nigerian cinema – they make more films per year than in Bollywood.
The resources also depend on the creative capacity of the band. Just as much here as in Europe there are loads of bands with the best equipment and time and money, and still they make bullshit. I also believe that being far from the places where, supposedly, everything is going on, can be a virtue: you don’t have to worry about being on the crest of the wave (because there is no wave), and because you start to realize quickly that putting together a band, a label, etc, is not going to easily give you much more than the happiness of doing it, you can calmly dedicate yourself to setting up what you like while you work in a newsagents.

XV. Describe the best concert you´ve seen in your life.

Uh, that’s a tough one, I haven’t decided which one was best, but reaaally good gig that I remember was the Chics On Speed, which was fun to the extreme, from start to finish. They played in the cellar of Unione y Benevolenza, the place and the stage pretty small; when they played “We don’t play guitars” everybody went crazy! Partyyy!

http://www.myspace.com/mundiscos
http://www.myspace.com/epiref
http://www.myspace.com/puffffyeyes

I. Nombre:
Manuel Osorio

II. Nombres de proyectos hechos, en camino, y qué tocás:
Mun Discos, Epiref, Puffy Eyes, Dolores, Toxido Max. El bajo y la guitarra es con lo que mejor me defiendo.

III. Influencias:
Der Plan y Stereo Total, pero sobre todo mis amigos

IV. Qué te motiva:
Que no haya algo parecido a lo que tengo ganas de ir a ver. Pero tal vez me miento a mi mismo y si estuviera en un lugar donde hay 20 bandas que hacen exactamente lo mismo que a mi me gusta yo seguiría haciendo música igual. Me encantaría hacer la prueba.

V. Qué bandas amigas (preferidas):
¡¡¡¡Las Kellies!!!!

VI. Como es la musica que haces desde una visión política
Epiref sería como de centro dercha: pareciera que algo cambia, que es música diferente, pero en el fondo es profundamente conservadora.

VII. Es el tomate una fruta o una verdura?
¡Es una fruta! ¡Manga de ignorantes!

VIII. Instrumentos:
Muchos ¡muchísimos! Cuando uno no sabe tocar nada una buena estrategia es diversificar.

IX. Qué cualidad particular pondrías al sonido que te gusta?

No entiendo la pregunta

X. Cual periodo de la historia fue un catalista significante para el nacimiento o desarrollo de la musica que haces?
1976 - 1983 Punk, New Wave, y sobre todo la NDW.

XI. Como combinas tu estetica visual con el audio?
Trato que los instrumentos se vean tan podridos como suenan

XII. Qué opinas de la producción y edición de discos en Argentina?
Sí la pregunta se refiere a la producción independiente, me parece que el mayor problema no es que no haya plata, sino que no hay un buen circuito de discos independientes. A las disquerías no les interesa tener esos discos y entonces todo se resume a las ferias de discos en los recitales, y tampoco hay mucha gente interesada en comprar esos discos en general. Está barbaro que se pueda editar directamente en un netlabel, o subir tus cosas al myspace y llegar a mucha gente que de otra manera sería imposible, pero es un poco triste que no se le de importancia al formato disco. Y dentro de la poca gente que le da importancia hay mucho prejuicio, por ejemplo si la edición está hecha en CDR para muchos no vale absolutamente nada. Así que creo que es bastante complicado seguir editando discos. no se, tal vez sea una queja de un viejo boludo que quiere seguir sumando discos a su colección.

XIII. Cual cancion de pop fue mas popular en el año que naciste?

mmmm... no se, probablemente "Noelia" de Nino Bravo

XIV. En qué dirección apunta un grupo de música en Argentina que no goza de amplios medios y oportunidades como los de, por ejemplo, Europa, los Estados Unidos?
Supongo que apunta a diluirse rapidamente, así que insistan cuanto puedan y difrutenló mientras lo hacen.
Aunque por otro lado creo que los medios y las oportunidades no dependen solo de que tan pobre o aislado esté un país, hace poco leí una nota sobre el fenomeno del cine nigeriano que filman por año más peliculas que en Bollywood.
Los medios dependen también de la capacidad creativa de la banda. Tanto acá como en Europa está lleno de bandas que tienen los mejores equipos y el tiempo y el dinero a su disposición, y sin embargo lo que hacen es una bosta. Incluso creo que estar lejos de los los lugares por los que se supone que pasa todo puede ser una virtud: no tenés porque preocuparte por estar en la cresta de la ola (porque no hay ninguna ola) y como rapidamente entendés que armar una banda, un sello, etc. dificilmente te vaya a dar algo más que la felicidad de hacerlo, te podés dedicar tranquilamente a armar lo que te guste mientras trabajás en un kiosco.

XV. Describí el mejor recital que viste en tu vida.

Uh, muy dificil, no tengo decidido cual fue el mejor, pero un muuuuy buen recital que me acuerdo fue el de Chics on Speed, fue diversión al extremo de principio a fin. Tocaron en la parte del subsuelo de Unione y Benevolenza, el lugar y el escenario todo bastante chico, cuando tocaron "We don´t play guitars" la gente estaba sacada! ¡fiestón!

Nobody's Listening to NOISE

2009-06-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is a blog by two Brits, Kit McKenzie (Bristol, UK) and Julia Worley (Buenos Aires, Argentina), which has been started up to take a look into a particular music "scene" which is going on in Buenos Aires right now.

Kit first came across this breed of Argentinian "noise" on his second trip to South America where he met Julia and played in her then improvisation group Klub der Klang, and witnessed the buzz that surrounded the members and their projects. That was in 2007, and upon returning in 2009 he realized that the aural experimentations were dividing like cells and spreading to create other forms.

The blog will first include a number of homogenous interviews, written by them both, translated into Spanish, sent out to all connected to the Ciclo Euzine!, answered and sent back and then translated into English.

Ciclo Euzine! has formed around the Euzine! fanzine started up in 2006 by Martin Sandoval, which continues to this day, bringing unsigned "experimental music" acts to the stage in such venues as the Federacion Libertaria Argentina - home to the anarchist movement, in Constitucion, and the Sexto Cultural, Chacarita. These events have seen local and international names on the bill, with some regulars like Klub der Klang, Azur, Los Psicicos Litoralenios, and irregulars like Dick el Demasiado, Darisbo and Horace Pollard (to name but a very few) bringing varied and exciting performances.

The name Nobody's Listening is not intended as a negative reflection on the scene, but the general feeling of the intimacy and comfort provided by the solidarity which we've found in playing and being part of what's going on.

I'll be more specific as the blog unravels.........