Beatriz Ferreyra recent album-short review

[neuroticdog]

Beatriz Ferreyra-Huellas Entreveradas (2020; Persistence of Sound)

Beatriz Ferreyra is among the first generation of Acousmatic composers who worked directly under Pierre Schaeffer at the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales). That puts her in the company of Bayle, Parmegiani, Dhomont and Henry. Unfortunately, many of these composers are no longer with us, so any release by her garners significant interest from me and I’m sure others who are fans of Acousmatic music. Reams can, and have been written about her contribution to the style of music fathered by Schaeffer, and rightly so since she was there from the beginning. Her catalog is deep and wide, and in the last twenty years alone she has created a string of excellent albums in varied styles with many different collaborators, or just her solo. Huellas Entreveradas is certainly no exception.

The album has three pieces of various lengths and the general tone is lighter and more playful than many of the Acousmatic records I’ve heard. Having said that, the exception is the 14 minute title piece, Huellas Entreveradas (Intertwined Footprints). The piece is constructed from the human voice, although you would be very hard pressed to identify that source. Ferreyra takes a fragment of a fragment of a syllable and proceeds to chop that grain up into even smaller bits and pieces. She strings the “parts” into a rather dark and tumultuous whole that ebbs and flows with the force of a small hurricane. Sometimes she’ll leave Planck length silences between the sounds while at other points she’ll connect them into a ghostly, and sometimes fiery nettled drone. Either way, the result is completely unique as it whirls its way across the sound stage.



The second piece is La Ba-Balle du Chien-Chien à la mé-mère (The ball of the old lady’s dog). The mood gets much more playful as this is an Acousmatic representation of man’s best friend interacting with its obviously adoring owner. Ferreyra takes a human/dog play session and dissects it, pulling apart all its defining aspects and examining each under an electron microscope. The sounds are highly processed but if you are a dog lover, I think you’ll identify with this immediately. You’ll hear exaggerated bouncing balls, friendly quizzical doggy exclamations and the alien language that owners use to communicate with their 4-legged buddies. All of this is filtered through Ferreyra’s highly imaginative use of sound technology. I’ve honestly never heard anything like this, and being a lifelong dog lover…completely appreciated it!

The last piece is a short homage to Bernard Parmegiani. Deux Dents Dehors (Two teeth sticking out) is a title similar to Parms Dedans Dehors and in the span of 4 short minutes, Ferreyra packs every second with a veritable cornucopia of mashed up audio information. Jump cut follows jump cut at the speed of sound and it all results in a raucous sprint to the end of this too short (30 minute) album.

Highly recommended, which comes as no surprise given Beatriz Ferreyra’s amazing quality of work over the decades. I’m really looking forward to the Persistence of Sound split release (with Natasha Barrett) dropping in the next couple of weeks!

Best
Michael

[Mister Triscuits]

Cool stuff! I'm going to look into that Persistence of Sound collection.

[battema]

I have her Echoes+ from Room40 last year...haven't come back to it in a while though. Will have to remedy that

[neuroticdog]

Cool stuff! I'm going to look into that Persistence of Sound collection.

If you do, would love to know how the others are Michael, but that split release coming up with Ferreyra and Barrett was an autobuy for me!

I have her Echoes+ from Room40 last year...haven't come back to it in a while though. Will have to remedy that

Yeah, I kinda remember us bringing that release up in an early Bandcamp post possibly. That Echoes album is really strong, on par, maybe even better than this one. Ferreyra has really rolled with the times as she is managing to stay in front of the innovation curve as far I'm concerned.

best
Michael

[Mister Triscuits]

If you do, would love to know how the others are Michael, but that split release coming up with Ferreyra and Barrett was an autobuy for me!

I ordered the lot and paid for it with my economic stimulus card. Free records from the gummint! Yay!

[neuroticdog]

I ordered the lot and paid for it with my economic stimulus card. Free records from the gummint! Yay!

Sweet...the gubmit will sure appreciate you supporting that burgeoning corner of the arts...Acousmatic music

(yes, sarcasm)

...and because she's been mentioned in this thread...I just found out last night that Natasha Barrett has ANOTHER new release out on the Sargasso label.

I popped for it immediately because if you ordered the stereo cd they will give you a link for the album in binaural sound. This got me extremely excited because Barrett's music translates very well into that format. So...another no brainer purchase for me and I got to listen to the first two pieces though buds today binaurally and they were exquisite.

I believe the whole album streams on that page I linked above. This will be another one I'll be spending alot of time with.

best
Michael

[neuroticdog]

Beatriz Ferreyra – live ateliers clause [les albums clause; 2021]



Here we have another wonderful release by Beatriz Ferreyra, a live album recorded in Brussels in 2018 but only recently released. There are three extended pieces presented, all of them being varied in style and intent. The album has a very “live” sound which gives it a nice ambience that you don’t often hear in Acousmatic recordings. The only downside (and it’s minor) is, I found myself adjusting the volume level on the first piece down a little to compensate for the loudness of the electronic organ, that at times was a bit overpowering.

The album starts off with Siesta Blanca (1972) which is In Memoriam Astor Piazzolla. After about a 15 second recording of one of Piazzolla’s Tangos as introduction, the piece abruptly morphs into an extended atmospheric organ workout. Ghosts of Piazzolla’s music randomly materialize, but only for a few seconds before they are abstracted away by Ferreyra’s processing. At times, the organ is used to create long form drones only to deconstruct into short bursts creating a playful dialog with the occasional sample of Tango music (which is also processed to barely recognizable levels). I didn’t take to this piece immediately, but after 2 or 3 listens it really started to click for me. Strangely enough it has a sort of 1970’s Krautrock vibe and at times I felt it was channeling early Ash Ra Temple or Amon Düül II. I haven’t heard this side of Ferreyra’s music before and it was a refreshing change.

The second piece L'Autre ... ou le chant des marécages (1987) is described by Ferreyra as such: “I was deeply impressed with Blaise Cendrars’s paradoxical personality, his terrifying « Double » which strips itself with an naked extreme and sadistic cruelty in his book « Moravagine, It was impossible for me not to record the depth of my feelings in a brutal and wild vocal composition”. I haven’t read this book personally, but from what little I know of it Ferreyra seems to have succeeded in giving us an accurate aural document of the depravities contained within. She has worked with the human voice quite a bit throughout her career and I’ve greatly enjoyed the pieces that I’ve heard…this piece is certainly no exception to that string of successes. There seems to be less processing in this work, but that is counteracted by the actual voices stretching to their natural limits. You’ll hear shouts, screams, wails, what sounds like speaking in tongues and general vocal histrionics all woven together to form a very disturbing sound entity. When she does layer in the audio processing over this backdrop, it becomes a uniquely strange thing indeed…and yes, it’s quite scary!

The final piece, L’autre rive (2007) is the longest clocking in at almost 17 minutes…and it’s 17 minutes of sonic excellence. This work was inspired by the Bardo Todol (the Tibetan Book of Death) and was composed for percussion and electroacoustic sounds. (I should say that the previous piece, and this one sound fantastic at loud volumes.) On L’autre rive we are treated to a complex array of various percussive objects and instruments, some being electronically manipulated while others are not. As the piece progresses, it begins to manifest itself in many different ways, culminating finally into a shifting organic mass of sound. It’s one of the most exotic, detailed things I’ve heard within the Acousmatic/electroacoustic space… and provides a very fitting tour de force to end the album.

live ateliers claus gets a huge thumbs up from me! I’m anxiously awaiting her split release with Natasha Barrett that drops in a couple days and I’m quite sure I’ll have some words on that one too. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to check this one out.

best
Michael

[neuroticdog]

Beatriz Ferreyra/Souvenirs Cachés-Natasha Barrett/Innermost (2021; Persistence of Sound)



Since I’ve reviewed single releases by both of these composers recently, I was highly anticipating this split release that has just become available on Persistence of Sound. Given my high regard for both, this was like a present just for me (yay!!!). Thus, my excitement when I first heard about this project was quite high, and now that it’s here, I can say that the wait was well worth it!

Leaving my own personal bias’s aside, anything new by Ferreyra should reach “event” status by people following the Acousmatic space and on this release, we get one long form work, Souvenirs Cachés (2021) (Hidden Memories) at about 13 minutes, and a shorter work Murmureln (2003) at about 4 minutes. Souvenirs Cachés has the composer mining her own back catalog of stored sounds and using those fragments as building blocks for this new creation.

It’s also one of the strongest pieces I’ve heard from her. It presents itself (to my ears) as a running narrative by flautist Hernan Gomez forging a path through an ever-morphing landscape. The (sometimes barely recognizable) flute weaves a passage that we can latch ourselves onto, acting at times as a guide, or at other times, a life preserver. This tether is welcome, because “Hic sunt dracones”. Stay focused, look forward and whatever you do, don’t stray from the path. Surrounding your stony byway is a vortex of chaos. Lovecraftian wraiths and phantasms are everywhere…beckoning, enticing…pathetically calling, no…demanding whatever is left of your damaged soul. Souvenirs Cachés is Ferreyra at her battery-acid best and as the piece ends, with blowing winds and bleating cries…it’s up to you whether you escaped, sanity intact or capitulated to that unholy cacophony.

So, what do you do for an encore after that? Well, you add a little light hearted humor, thats what. Her second, shorter piece, Murmureln does just that. Billed as a danceable electroacoustic piece, Murmureln stitches hundreds of mono-syllabic bursts along with the occasional longer wordless vocal, none being longer than a few seconds, into an instantly recognizable Tango rhythm. Interspersed within are tiny samples of “real” Tango by famous Argentine composers including Astor Piazzolla. Ferreyra has worked in this style before, achieving sort of an information overload effect for short periods of time. See her previous release on Persistence of Sound, Huellas Entreveradas in the short piece Deux dents dehors which also had that frenetic jump-cut feel. Overall, even the most attentive, dedicated listener will have a difficult time processing one sound to the next since it’s happening so fast. After several listens, I finally decided to approach it as one large macro soundscape, which very well may be the intent anyway. Either way, it’s a fascinating 4 minutes.

Innermost (2019) is Natasha Barretts contribution, clocking in at almost 19 minutes. Per the composer: “The materials for Innermost stem from two major Norwegian outdoor public events, absent of protest, political rally or violence, and amassing the free expression of individuals. Innermost is about inner individuality finding outward expression and commonality. Our innerstate is often reflected in our posture and the way we move - or our gait. Innermost reveals, plays with, and develops this expression in sound. Yet a darker tone underlies the work: the materials are created by applying the latest processing techniques for image and sound recognition, already in use for mass population surveillance and tracking.”

The piece was made in collaboration with digital 3D video artist Marc Downie to be experienced in 3D ambisonics, but for this release, it was mixed down for stereo listening. I’ve heard quite a few binaural recordings by Barrett recently so I found myself pining to hear Innermost in that format, but honestly, this stereo version sounds stunning, especially at louder volumes. I guess I’ve just become spoiled lately since many of her recent releases have become available in the binaural format.

The piece itself, like many of Barrett’s works was, and still continues to be an uphill climb for me. I have no doubt that once it clicks, it will click hard so I’m confident this journey will have an eventual “aha moment” (They always do!)…but I’m just not there yet. That being said, things are starting to fall into place for me as it seems I’m getting used to the sheer density of sound events that are taking place. I love the way the crowd ambience insinuates itself into the piece, and the way it’s “played”, sometimes panning in and out quickly to establish different proximities. Should any of us be surprised that the surveillance technology in use is able to isolate individual voices, as if they were next to you? (Are we talking “innerstate” or “deep state” here?)

The second half of the piece has Barrett exploring what she calls “spatial counterpoint”. At this point, the crowd ambience disappears and is replaced by some complex and layered drone structures. The “counterpoint” aspect is described “where many layers of minimal pitched sounds linger, intersect and interact.” Active listening reveals a latticework of sonic colors that morph and expand with every play. This patchwork eventually gives way to a reprise of the public event, only this time there seems to be more synthetic processing. Fractured carnival-like music and wisps of frolicsome children appear and disappear like distant memories fighting to stay alive as age sets in, ending in one last joyful cry.

Innermost is a work that I’m sure I’ll be revisiting many times, with a different experience each time. Because of the highly detailed nature of Natasha Barrett’s music, the “re-play” value is very high…and for me, that’s the most valuable quality Acousmatic music can have.

This release comes highly recommended. It’s another great document of two of the most forward looking composers within the field. Definitely not to be missed!

best
Michael

[neuroticdog]

A new one out on Room 40---haven't had a chance to delve in yet.





Best
Michael

[neuroticdog]

Here is my write up on her most recent on Room40 which will be published on avantmusicnews.com. BTW, if you are interested in music that sits outside the norms, I would suggest you subscribe to Mike's blog. It's not just the shit I listen to, it's all kinds of music that the avant prog crowd would dig...you guys should check it out if you haven't already.

AMN Reviews: Beatriz Ferreyra: Canto+(2021; Room40)





Well, Maestra Ferreyra has done it again! Canto+ is yet another essential listen in her ever-growing register of brilliant Acousmatic releases. This is her second on Room40 and, if you enjoyed her previous 2020 release (Echos+), this one should cause cartwheels, happy dances and straight-out exuberant joy. (I have a few other write-ups on some of her recent material here, here and here.)

Despite my totally uncalled for hyperbole, I will temper it a bit with a caveat. It’s a harder, more difficult to grok/grasp collection of works and generally requires more patience, more attention and a deeper commitment to unlock its particular loot box. To continue with the gaming metaphors…once you do, the level up will provide sonic triumphs orders of magnitude above what typically earns the “badge” of experimental music.

The previous release, Echos+ certainly earned that badge, and I reveled in its “unusualness” on numerous listens but, at least at first blush, Canto+ masked its virtues to me under a (mistaken) guise of an overabundance of mid-range distortion and overly repetitive sound events that I just didn’t feel were that interesting. So, what caused the change of heart for me? The answer quite simply is, I have no idea…but my best guess is, it was my baggage. I’ve said this many times, but I think it’s appropriate for this record, ESPECIALLY for this record. Acousmatic music in the abstract, i.e. (to quote Francis Dhomont),

“works that have no other subject than music itself and which unfold solely along sonic criteria: rhythmical motifs; variations in density, intensity, material, shape; studies on how to occupy space; etc.”

require a sort of mind wipe from the listener. On my first few listens, I don’t think I approached the work with the clean slate that is required to experience the sounds first and correlate them to whatever atavistic notions I had in my head at the time, usually of the Lovecraftian variety.

Of course, me equating these sounds with Lovecraft, or anything else for that matter then makes it a thematic or figurative listen. Without knowing Ferreyra’s intent to begin with, it’s hard to know where she’s coming from, and to be honest…I have a feeling she wouldn’t care how you listened to it if it resulted in a rewarding experience, and that it did!

This is all a long way of me saying, when this album clicked for me…it clicked HARD! The mid-range distortion was easily fixed by lowering the volume a bit and frankly, the album packed a massive punch even at this lower volume. Once again, Ferreyra mined her vast library of raw sound events, slicing, dicing and arranging them like a master puzzle maker into epic towers of organized sound. As in much of her recent output, the human voice plays a huge role.

On the 12-minute opening piece, “Canto del loco” (Mad Man’s Song), it took me a few listens to realize what exactly I was hearing. What sounded like a synthetically produced sound at first, as the piece went on, I was able to conclude that I was hearing the human voice. This revelation induced a rather unwholesome chill as my mind immediately went into overdrive. Ferreyra started with a single layer of one human sound and stretched, contorted, sped up and slowed it down to barely recognizable levels. Several other voice segments were slowly mixed into and on top of this unholy, inhuman cesspool of sound until the whole space was one large, darkly hued puddle of organic but unnatural pealing’s. Clive Barker's Cenobites, angels to some…demons to others exploring the further regions of experience are out of the Lament Configuration and searching for you. Look out for the one with the Pins!

On another longer piece, “Etude aux sons Flegmatiques” (Essay with Phlegmatic sons), Ferreyra examines the decaying ringtones of various metal objects. Some are infinitely elongated into an endless deathroll; others experience a much shorter lifespan. All are stacked together in a single sound space but presented in a staggered cadence emulating a sonic relay race…as one sound dies, a new one continues to carry the flag over a finish line that never seems to come. Lurking underneath, her ever present human voice, this time in the guise of a female two note chant, provides the cheers from the grandstanding spectators.

On “Pas de 3…ou plus”, human breath is utilized as an unsteady bridge over a rolling, tumultuous chasm of vocal chaos. Ferreyra’s skill of treating each single sound piece as a quantum contributor to the overall composition is on full display. A sigh here, a cough there, a sinister chuckle above, the tinkling of glass below…all these fit like a glove into the overarching form factor of the greater whole. This piece is as dark and foreboding as the other two, aided by a growing sense of nervousness and a masterful manipulation of dynamics. Brilliant stuff!

Two shorter pieces round out the album, one dedicated to Francois Bayle and the other to Bernard Bashet. As expected, both are packed with details that are unmistakably Ferreyra. Canto+ is another gift from a composer that has lived and worked though the entire timeline of the Acousmatic space. This fact alone earns “must listen” credibility to her output and one can only hope she continues her rapidly innovative pace of exploratory sounds. Highly recommended!

best
Michael