released April 3, 2022
In 2022, attenuation circuit starts a new series of four-way split albums called THING. The aim is to provide a medium for exchange and presentation of a great variety of artists. As each artist spreads the copies to their network, listeners also get to know the other artists featured on the same disc. The title references the fact that the CDs are physical objects – things! – but also refers to the 'thing' or 'ding' in old Norse and other Germanic languages, which designates the place of a popular assembly or the assembly itself and thus alludes to the 'meeting-place' character of the albums on (or around) which the four artists and their audiences meet, if only virtually.
With the fourth issue of the THING series, attenuation circuit unites newcomers to the label roster – sound artist and poet Dardis from Northern Ireland and post-psychedelic guitar experimenter A.Maiah from Spain – with the French-based acts SRVTR and Internal Fusion, who were previously featured on the label. The four tracks of the album could be considered a study in how loops/rhythms can evolve into drones and the other way around. Whenever a 'beat' appears, however, it's not a programmed drum-machine sound, but always loops created from found sounds. This makes a compelling case for repetitive rhythms as a method for experimental music, or experimental hearing: if you hear a sound repeated often enough, sometimes it takes on an aspect that would remain unnoticed at first hearing.
File under: electroacoustic, ambient
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BAD ALCHEMY
THING (ACUF 1004) fügt als vierte Ausgabe in ACs Split-Reihe vor noch winterlich kahlem Firmament ein Quadrat aus 'think tank' von SRVTR, 'ægal' von INTERNAL FUSION, 'impoverished floating' von DARDIS und 'tresna' von A.MAIAH. SRVTR steht für Servator, und Gildas Brugaro gestaltete in Rennes seinen Denkanstoß, wie gewohnt, in französischem Noir, als Kopfnuss mit pulsender und tuckernder Dröhnwelle und ständig wiederkehrenden Klopfmustern. Éric Latteux, der sich mir einst mit Désaccord Majeur als Tlön Uqbar eingeschrieben hat, wirbt, ebenfalls in der Bretagne, in seinen feierlich wallenden, holzig klackenden, rau zischenden, unterschwellig orientalisierten zwölf Minuten, die mich ein wenig an Muslimgauze erinnern, wenn nicht für Fraternité und Liberté, so doch für Égalité. Colin Dardis legt in Nordirland sein Hauptaugenmerk an sich auf Poetry, treibt als armer Poet hier aber auf wortlosem Flow dahin wie auf einem der Flüsse der Unterwelt. Und dringt da durch die dröhnende Umwölkung nicht der Jammer der Unglücklichen, die weder Plutos Kurorchester noch die Erinnerung an Orpheus' Leier trösten kann? A.Maiah hat sich in der baskischen Hauptstadt Vitoria Gasteiz nach über 20 punk/noise-rockigen Jahren mit Gitarre einem 'Psychedelic Populism' zugewandt. Hier mit dongend kreisenden, launig knarzenden, feinmotorisch strotternden Loops, die sich in monoton pochenden, scharrenden, plonkenden, plinkenden, bluesigen Mustern drehen und drehen und drehen.
badalchemy.de
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VITAL WEEKLY
So, 'Thing' is a real thing now; an ongoing series of compilations. Each volume is a four-way group compilation, and none are numbered. Because the information says this is number four, we know it is. Unfortunately, the cover doesn't tell us this. Of the four projects of this instalment, I only know Internal Fusion. The other three areA. Maiah, Dardis and Srvtr. The latter, from France, had a release on Attenuation Circuit before, which I missed. Repetition is an essential feature in all pieces, not out of a rhythm box but looped from found sounds. In the case of Srvtr, it is neatly obscured and impossible to say what its source is. 'Think Tank' has a rather nice industrial ring to it. Internal Fusion leans towards the electronic sound. I'd be surprised to learn there is found sound here, but who knows. His vaguely ethnic-sounding piece of music is a slow burner from the world of techno music, without the steady beats, but most certainly trance-inducing. The label describes Dardis as "a sound artist and poet from Northern Ireland". Maybe there is the use of voice in this piece, but there is no such clear evidence. The music is mostly drone-based, with slow-moving sounds coming and going from the proceedings. A. Maiah is a guitarist from Spain and uses one of those sample devices to sample sounds from the guitar. Not necessarily in a drone-sort of way, but rather like an acoustic object. His piece is the only one with clearly distinguished sections but is also the least convincing one.
www.vitalweekly.net/1334.html
