CD - Uzu Sounds
Francisco Meirino - under the pseudonym Phroq - continues unabashed in his fascination with bugs and micro-sounds. His is a meticulous investigator, pushing the limits of the audible, cataloguing the frequencies and hums of electrical equipment under stress. The sources of the samples - in the different elaborations - are personal computers or "simple" stereo piezo transducers, pipes or microphone contacts, broken headphones used as speakers and external hard drives. Even the sounds of water dripping in a refrigerator, sampled separately and then reassembled, peek from the recordings. In addition we are treated to sounds from three separate live performances: one at the Espace Julien in Marseille in 2004 (using Max/MSP and a broken subwoofer), another from a live set at Paradox in Tilburg in 2006 and a third from 2008, at the Totally Intense Fractal Mindgaze Hut in Oakland, which made the venue's parquet floor vibrate. Such a diversity of materials and techniques are then reduced to a self-referential aesthetic, creatively pursued and entropic.
Aurelio Cianciotta