…vibrations, the sound of unknown machinery moving through tunnels, empty spaces, and suddenly there is silence….then tones, waves and more vibrations, and suddenly you realize that sounds have your full attention, nothing else exists in the room, you’re just there, and the sounds of static, white noise, motors, radios, and sine waves make all the objects in the room strange, and every point of visual focalization outlandish; …and more waves. There’s a constant movement of the environment; ugly and dark drones transform the rest of the sounds into an uncomfortable space, but at the same time it creates a physical addiction, an addiction that helps to transcend to those strange places and reach a state of contemplative quietness.

Frêle à Vide are 4 untitled tracks, 4 compositions of pure sonic matter without any harmonic or melodic consideration. This project is reminiscent of the work of sound designer Alan R. Splet, were the sounds create and modulate on itself and where the musicians can just record what’s happening by letting the sound’s natural movement compose the passages as if it were a false field recording.

Walkman feedbacks, short wave radio, microphone, mixer, op amp, tone arm, and sw/mw radio are the tools used by Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Ben Owen for the creation of the compositions. Small tools used in an absolute and beautiful handcrafted coup d'état...

-Pau Torres / Toronto, winter 2011.

Alfredo Costa Monteiro + Ben Owen 'Frêle à Vide' (Contour Editions, 2011)

Anticipation turned to delight, as another offering from Contour Editions has graced my ears. Two offerings to be exact, one a cdr and the other a dvdr collab between Richard Garet (visuals) and Asher Thal-Nir (audio). Both of these are exquisitely packaged in double-gated oversized paper. Review of the dvdr release forthcoming.

There is something to be said of the procuring of refined Power Electronics – and something else entirely of the artists who are still attempting to make it – in that anything post-PE is perhaps a feeble attempt to revive a dead genre. Keith Moline from the Wire speculated on the regression of noise into old school forms as a way to curb a lack of contemporary creative steam. Maybe he has a point, there's no use kicking a dead horse. However, I wouldn't begin to knock acts like Baltimore's Copper Glove, for example, who seem more as carriers of the Broken Flag and Schimpfluch legacies, as opposed to just cheap knock-offs. Some artists can just bring the creative flare, even if it's to a dead horse.

I'm not confident of the parallels between Power Electronics and this recording, more like I'm running with an initial thought. If anything, Frêle à Vide borders more on Power-Electroacoustics. Sure, Monteiro and Owen take cues from noise's past, particularly in their use of sustained frequencies and penchants for grime. However, history has proven a strong cut-and-paste mentality among noisicians, and this is somewhat subdued (except in obvious spots) in this work. I also get the sense that the duo have approached the music from the angle of improv - though it's hard to say for sure - allowing for an ebb and flow between players, which, as obscured as it is here, is a style that finds its roots in Jazz.

The two utilize a battery of electronic gear, Monteiro with walkmen and shortwave radio and Owen with a mixer, mic, tone arm, radio and something labeled an op arm. Over the span of four tracks the music tends to crescendo over long arcs, extended quieter sections often submitting to controlled tone bursts. Over the course of these arcs, it becomes clear that the music's austerity is its championing characteristic, as this sort of junkbox "jamming" all too often leads to meaningless prodding and poking, and therefore, a lack of directionality. Not the case here, as it's clear that these two are taking their music to particular places. A fine work.

Alfredo Costa Monteiro/Ben Owen - frêle à vide (contour editions)

A strong, tough recording from Costa Monteiro (walkman feedbacks, shortwave radio) and Owen (microphone, mixer, op amp, tone arm, sw/mw radio). Four tracks, sustained noise (though I don't read them as drones)--more or less from static or humming regions with an isolated feel. I'm not sure whether this was a long-range interaction or not (I suspect so) but the music carries a kind of detached sense which I think works very well. I've been reading a lot on Robert Ryman lately and found myself relating this music to his paintings insofar as allowing the material to simply speak on its own, with no interpretive intermediary. Similarly, the blankness and thereness of these sounds causes one to shift away from Costa Monteiro and Owen as such and to just experience the sounds instead of talking about them, contextualizing them, etc. Which I'd invite folks to do as it's very rewarding.

Good, raw work.

Alfredo Costa Monteiro + Ben Owen - frêle à vide (contour editions)

Two quietly busy sound-artists wrangled together a not-so quiet album of unstable electro-acoustics. Ben Owen is a NYC based sound artist we have been familiar with over the years, in part due to his work running the always impressive Winds Measure Recordings label, complete with some exceptional letterpressed packaging to house the hushed minimalism and subtle field recordings. Monteiro Alfredo Costa is one of those artists who's been very prolific throughout the European sound-art / improv circles but is something of a mystery to us. His work purports to share an interest in low-fi technologies and unstable processes - with crappy tape decks, feedback systems, found objects, and old record players working into his repertoire of electro-acoustics. It is a model of instability that seems the modus operandi for this collaboration with pierced tones of variably sourced feedback wavering upon that high-tension wire between sonic evaporation and sonic obliteration. These oblique, ear-ringing hums couple with microwave sizzlings, deadened electrical buzzes and gravel-crusted static to form chunks of sound that butt up against one another. Compared to the brutalist agenda of Merzbow, Prurient, The Rita, etc, this would hardly qualify as a noise record, as the compositions are thoroughly detached from any overt confrontation, but these grey rumbles and bright rattlings can get quite noxious. One can think of Joe Colley, Chop Shop, or Kevin Drumm during their introspective ruminations on electro-acoustics and noise disintegration. Released on the small Contour Editions imprint, run by the very talented Richard Garet. Limited to 150 copies.

Alfredo Costa Monteiro + Ben Owen - frêle à vide (contour editions)

Two artists who rarely garner the attention they deserve, join forces here on Richard Garet’s Contour Editions imprint. More a summary of recent experimentation along well trodden paths, Frele a Vide deploys various textural layerings of feedback, and an assorted armoury of de-tuned shortwave radio signals, walkman, tone arms, and various forms of amplification (presumably to add richness to the feedback). These recordings, despite summoning up the lost spirits of Jap-noise heroes such as Merzbow, or CCCC, offer little in the way of originality as an opening gambit, as overdriven electronics clash with feedback or radio distortion to create a swirling mesh of sound, an uneasy mixture for these jaded ears..the sleeve notes promise a physical addiction to these discomforting, angular assaults, but having heard this all before, I’m afraid I was almost prompted to press the eject button. Having spent a lot more time with the four untitled pieces on offer here, and having read through the accompanying press release I couldn’t help but think I’ve missed the point though. There is an obvious connection between both artists, and their use of the sonic materials they choose to work with, an effortless joy and affinity with creating sounds and textures from technologies that can be found in most domestic environments. These elements, when pushed to their limits, are forced into configurations not intended for their purpose – perhaps this is the Rosetta Stone that unlocks Frele a Vide, simple, yet purposeful experimentation, and the resulting restless soundscape formed from the hybrid sounds created. As we approach the finale, the fourth (untitled) piece, for me is a sublime inversion of the previous three works, as the signals are suddenly reduced and distilled into a warm granular, textural field that forms a compelling, visceral scenery that ends way too quickly, as I am gently lulled into it’s gravitational pull. Only my biased preconceptions, combined with many years of total immersion in the world of experimental sound prevented me from truly engaging with this work on the level that it was intended, but with all due respect to the artists involved, for me, Frele a Vide worked best when the foot was taken off the gas pedal, allowing the sounds more space to move and evolve, an opportunity to experience their warmth and physicality, a stripping back to fundamentals, rather than a full on, amped up aural assault.

BGN - WHITE_LINE, 4/25/11

Take a look at the array of sonic generators that Costa Monteiro and Owen employ in Frêle À Vide before analyzing the remarkable effects that the resulting music achieves on a listener’s sense of balance over the course of four segments. As a matter of fact, the sources include walkman feedback, radios, amplifiers, tone arm and mixer; but should someone start thinking about a chaotic concoction, the truth has never been so distant. The general impression is one of complete control, both on the acoustic dynamics and the direction to which shifting masses are pushed in an environment saturated by ear-clogging tones. Different types of altered stillness are examined by the duo, with a privilege for meagre clusters of pitches possessing a peculiar harmonic richness even when they don’t move at all. The wrecking potential appears to some extent limited by the intentions of the very designers; think of a charged hostility if you will. Also appealing is the combination of opposites – acute stabs and humming buzz, starkness and malleability – which finds a natural accomplishment in the third track (all pieces are indicated as “Sans Titre”). Here the tendency to nuclear eeriness is manifested through painstaking parabolas scarred by overdriven stridency, in a way recalling an atmosphere of metropolitan conflict. Everything sounds unsettling and beautiful at once, the representation of opposite forces that – for inexplicable reasons – produce stimulating energy from the gathering of smothering frequencies. An excellent album, surely going to be appreciated by those who treasure John Duncan’s output circa Phantom Broadcast, or the more “in your face” idioms produced by Toshimaru Nakamura’s no-input mixing desks. Its psychological momentum increases with each new listen.