cd+, 2009, Kvitnu
This could be defined as "black and white music": the usual minimal experimental conventions are taken for granted, but then impeccably made consistent in both sound and visual forms. Consistency, in fact, is one of the preponderant virtues that Eugene Vashchenko (a.k.a. v4w.enko) has been endowed with. The aesthetics of minimal signs and sounds have been often misused or abused for their striking contrasts and their intrinsic attention-grabbing effect. But v4w.enko is not just playing with aesthetic sensibility and perception; rather he's pursuing substantial research. The author develops specific algorithms for his graphic animations. They can be enjoyed in the collection of javascript-based scripts coming with this CD as bonus content, where black and white forms and lines, limited to a small part of the screen, are generated in perfect synch with the essential but still "harmonic" sounds. In the live dimension, the author manipulates all of these elements creating a video flow that renders the whole alternation of a binary approach. The lightness and darkness, indeed, are constantly balanced in a manner suggested by the title. The goal, accomplished here, is to maintain harmony through a scientific ratio of black and white video and sound "quantities" that mark this production. It's a dynamic sequence, playing persistently on the retina, with a balance that is alternatively shifting without insisting on a single side, as an abstract slow metronome out of synch that imperceptibly mesmerizes the senses.