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

“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

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

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

tg

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

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

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

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

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.