Field recordings opera o državi koja se raspada, metalno škripeći i urlajući prazninom.
(Nijedna lisica ili muha nije stradala tijekom snimanja.)
streaming: shop.audiotalaia.net/
www.educomelles.com
www.audiotalaia.net
This work has been assembled and composed following a strict set of rules. No conventional instruments have been used during the production of this album. All sound sources come from various field recordings captured on the described locations.
No DSP effects has been applied apart from slight down-pitching as pointed out forward on this text. All sound sources are related somehow with issues such as dereliction, abandonment or miss use. All sounds recorded in Spain, a country falling apart.
Recorded and mixed by Edu Comelles. Recordings done between 2011 ad 2013 using a Zoom H4n, Contact Mics and a pair of Rode NT5 condenser mics. Some recordings on Dry Land, Stir & Season and Boiro have been down-pitched with Ableton Live and PaulStretch. Mixed and mastered using Ableton Live 8, Logic Pro 8 and Audacity.
Sounds in Chairs for an abandoned classroom performed by Crearqció. No foxes or flies were harmed during the production of Dry Land. The fox was already dead and the flies were feasting on the fox. Recordings on Boiro captured jointly with Juanjo Palacios during production of "Senda Sonora". Additional sound performance by Eva Fauste on Stir & Season.
Many thanks to: Sara Galán, Crearqció Valencia (Júlia, Maria, Jaume, Manuel, Marta, Ana, Sara and many more...), Juanjo Palacios and Graham Bell.
Edu Comelles is one half of the duo Cello + Laptop and founder of Audiotalaia, a platform for the diffusion, promotion and production of experimental music, sound art, ambient music and field recordings. He has also released a number of albums of field recording-based sound works, both under his own name and under the alias Mensa. “A Country Falling Apart” is the latest addition to his discography, and was created entirely using sounds recorded out ‘in the field’, with only minimal editing in the form of an occasional shift of pitch. However, it is clear from listening that these sounds have also been carefully scored, either through their arrangement in post-production, their performance on-site, or a mix of both.
As perhaps befits a work intended to convey the chaotic state of Comelles’ native Spain following the economic upheavals of the past few years, the album is dominated by metallic clangs, screeches, throbs, and other sharp sounds. Neglect and abandonment make themselves audible in the squeal of rusted joints echoing in empty spaces, yet do these acoustic phenomena testify to more than this? And how could such testimony be distinguished from the thoughts and emotions we project onto the material at the mere mention of the word ‘crisis’? Treading a thin line between externally-imposed emotional content and the meanings arising from the shape and form of the music itself, “A Country Falling Apart” throws the tired dichotomy of subjective experience and objective document into disarray: the distinctions between projected rage, desolation, and despair, an internal aesthetic logic that necessitates, for example, the irruption of silence to allow reverberate tails to decay, and the groaning of the very architecture under the strain of economic collapse is at times very difficult to draw.
There are quieter moments here too, the gentleness of “Stir & Season” approaching an almost serene beauty; at other times the music’s punch is only complete with the addition of a bitterly ironic title, as in the case of bonus track “The Welfare State” (one minutes of silence followed by two and a half of rubbish being emptied from a dumper truck). The object of a field recording is always fully present and in that sense always already political, as all objects are. Yet getting field recordings to do politics is no easy task, and involves negotiating some tough questions and assumptions regarding the nature of truth, the status of the document, and the ability of both the microphone and its operator to bear witness to empirical events. “A Country Falling Apart” is one of the bravest yet also most competent attempts I’ve heard to grasp this bull by the horns, the moment when literal description tips over into emotional feedback being relentlessly contested, deferred, challenged, and embraced. After catastrophe, what field recording, what art, can henceforth be contemplated? With this release, Comelles brings us a little closer to finding out. - Nathan Thomas
ALBUMS:
| A Country Falling Apart | ||
| Audiotalaia Physical, 2013 | ||
| CD Limited Edition 60# + Booklet | ||
This
work has been assembled and composed following a strict set of rules. No
conventional instruments have been used during the production of this
album. All sound sources come from various field recordings captured on
the described locations.
No DSP effects has been applied apart from
slight down-pitching as pointed out forward on this text. All sound
sources are related somehow with issues such as dereliction, abandonment
or miss use. All sounds recorded in Spain, a country falling apart.
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Camino, Parte Primera | |
| Wandering Ear, 2012 | ||
| CD-R Limited Edition + Booklet | ||
Camino,
Parte Primera is the first part of a full length project based on
recordings done along the Way of Saint James, a famous Middle Ages
pilgrimage route along the northern regions of Spain.
The recordings and compositions were made on
route trying to gather sounds and soundmarks from every step in the way.
Those recordings were captured using a Zoom H2 handy recorder with a
Rycote Windshield. Mixing and post-production was delivered using Logic
Pro. The final mix and master was made in Valencia (Spain).
streaming: shop.audiotalaia.net/album/camino-parte-primera-ltd-edition |
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Albufera | |
| 48 Laws, 2011 | ||
Albufera
has been recorded and mastered between January and July 2011 The
original sound sources were captured on a field trip at Albufera in
Valencia. The result of layering and filtering those recordings is this
dronish piece that evolves softly.
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Orange Country | |
| Impulsive habitat, 2010 | ||
Orange
Country is the outcome of various recordings done between october of
2009 and august of 2010. This project is a combination of soundscape
compositions and non edited field recordings captured in Valencia and
Tarragona, Spain. All compositions are aural portraits of different
places and locations. Also some of the non edited soundscapes are sound
documentation of different events happening along this period of time.
All tracks were done under a certain set of rules. Those are written on
my Personal Contract for Site-Specific Soundscape Composition. This text
tries to set some guidelines according to sound editing techniques and
soundscape composition.
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Moorland | |
| Test tube Netlabel, 2009 | Download | |
'Moorland'
is the outcome of a year living in Scotland. As part of Mensa project
this album tries to describe sonically my personal point of view of
scottish landscape. The album is based on the idea of seeking a shared
space in which sound composition and landscape can meet.
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Braid Heritage | |
| Resting Bell, 2009 | ||
Both
tracks on “Braid Heritage“ are alternate (extended) versions of
compositions originally released on the album “Moorland“ via Test Tube.
The work is strongly related to Edu’s recent sound project “Walking
Composition“, a great concept between technology and nature. The general
sound is shifting between deep droning elements and more rhythmical
glitches and bleeps, layered on top of each other and beautifully woven
together.
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The Clifts | |
| Audiotalaia, 2009 | ||
Edu
Comelles aka Mensa moved to Scotland where he is studying sound design.
From the ashes of Southern recording arosed an extended mix of one of
the track of this mini album.
The Clifts it's another turning point on the concrete approach of Mensa in issues like soundscapism and composition. The piece it's almost 17 minutes long and goes on like a changing landscape that evolves in different shapes keeping a slow pace of progression. |
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Southern Recordings | |
| Resting Bell, 2008 | Download | |
“Southern
Recordings“ is the counterpart to Mensa’s earlier work “Nordic
Recordings“. Mensa works again with subtle sound-structures, but this
time the sound seems to be a bit warmer, and sometimes rougher, covered
with a thin layer of dust. The soft delay flickers like the hot summer
sun in the noon. Little sound-glitches are flying around like
grasshoppers and some soundscapes are reflecting like the surface of a
cold lake.
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Nordic Recordings | |
| Resting Bell, 2007 | Download | |
This
album was concived using the legacy of early works on sound done in
Sweden during the spring of 2006. Those first recordings were produced
in Stockholm and Säxnas (Lappland). The actual mix of the album is
finished in Barcelona on october 2007.
Aswell, in Lappland, Mensa produced many other tracks that still haven’t been published. The aim of the album is to develop a personal soundtrack for a moving landscape in the northern part of europe. | ||
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