CD - ZeitKratzer
This is the first of a series of three releases on Zeitkratzer Records, titled 'Electronics' which will soon be printed in a 3CD box set format. Here, Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) together with the Zeitkratzer ensemble, directed by Reinhold Friedl, restate many of their typical musical strategies, experienced throughout their seminal collaboration, which began a decade ago. Among them we find alternating drones, thorny frequencies, electrically generated sounds (hums), digital manipulations and more sensual and comfortable - but also de-structured and estranging - traditional instrument overlays. These kinds of sonorities are present in 'C1', a suite of twenty-seven minutes, divided into two tracks and obtained by superposing asymmetric loops, creating an elegiac, dark and fascinating tonal effect. Otherwise, in 'Synchron Bitwave', the sounds are shining, iterated micro-melodies upon which lysergic counterpoints, synthetic textures and carefully balanced auditive dystonia are modulated. This is a joining of non academic contemporary electronic music and cultured neo avant-garde. Here, we witness a well-established presence in the (more than ever) multiform field of the latest research music.
Aurelio Cianciotta