mistika jpeg oscillations cs859

Eine ungewöhnliche Begegnung, da am 20.10.24 in Hannover: Aus Berlin Andreas Gogol mit E-Gitarre, Electronics, Stimme, sein NaabtalDeath-Buddy als Zitherquäler und Guilherme R. am Cello. Dazu Ernesto, sein Vater, mit Viola & Crackle Box aus Lisbon angereist, um mit ihm einige Gigs zu spielen – der mit Maximilian Glass am 26.10. in Berlin ist als „Beyond the mist and the unforeseen encounters“ (CS 863) eingefangen. Als ungewöhnliches 'String Quartet' entfalten die vier ein elektroakustisches Mysterientheater, indem sie, wie Baselitz seine Bilder, Kammermusik auf den Kopf stellen – 'playing the painting upside down'. Mit diskantem und wetzendem Strich, metallischem Touch, amorphem Noise, drahtiger und brummiger Widerspenstigkeit. Als Vorgänge, in denen surrealer Klingklang und absurde Vokalität mit kratziger Art Brut dennoch träumerisch fusionieren. Surrend, federnd, scharrend, pickend, quietschend gibt es eine quasi alchemistische Reaktion von Kakophonem und Sonorem. Pressend und rumorend, plonkend und glissandierend, knarzig und schrillend fusioniert Hartes mit Weichem. Abgründiges gipfelt altissimo, die Crackle Box zwitschert, bis das Schwein pfeift. Doch die zarten Momente halten stand, auch wenn bei der tickenden, pickenden Zugabe nochmal hektisch gesägt wird am Festen und Sicheren und die Fundamente bedenklich knarren. Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy)

With Ernesto Rodrigues, as well as Guilherme Rodrigues, having been suddenly less prolific this year, I thought I'd return to perhaps their most enigmatic recent album, Mistika jpeg oscillations having appeared this past March without being noted here. That's in large part since, as I continue to frame remarks here from time to time, I didn't find much to say. As suggested, it's an enigmatic album (recorded in Hannover last October) — featuring Ernesto also on crackle box, Guilherme, plus AGogol (performing name of guitarist Andreas Gogol) & NaabtalDeath (a performing name of Eberhard Meisel). The latter two also had history as a duo — and then I was reminded of this (hybrid, string) quartet release by the more recent (also from Creative Sources) guitar trio (as in three guitars, plus objects...) album Rchtn Mtnchtn, also mostly recorded in 2024, featuring Gogol overseeing an array of sound production (there with otherwise unknown colleagues...), as he does here as well for (the more consistently textured...) Mistika jpeg oscillations — itself involving electronics & voice, plus e.g. "amplified tortured zither" from "NaabtalDeath." And then this earlier quartet does appear to seek "the negative" in sound, pace the "shadows" & "masks" of the cover... recalling perhaps the almost rustic Chiaroscuro (first reviewed here May 2022...) from the elder Rodrigues's extensive catalog, now in thoroughly post-industrial guise (so pace Traintracks...). It thus attempts to trace a technological ontology of shadows? Or more a kind of foreground-background reversal... (i.e. as sometimes termed revolution)? I didn't really know what to make of the result.... Maybe that's praise. It's certainly not (often) what would be called a wild or particularly assertive album either, although there's plenty of continuity through the main track. (Imagine an outdoor scene at night, maybe under infrared — or phone lights? Concrete & distant barking dogs, long sirens, elevated railways, gusts of wind, insectoids & chain link fences... a slow walk, shadows across shadows.) Indeed Mistika jpeg oscillations yields restrained music, as so often from Rodrigues (& another sort of nocturne it seems...), but with (subtly in the sonic domain...) provocative framing. So maybe there'll be more in this (haunting) direction? Rehearing now, there's already a greater sense of specificity & depth to the results. Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts

In a surreal electroacoustic encounter recorded live in Hannover, the quartet of AGogol, NaabtalDeath (Jerome Noetinger), Ernesto Rodrigues, and Guilherme Rodrigues deconstructs chamber music into a visceral, alchemical performance of modified strings, electronics, and crackling noise, blending absurd vocalizations, brutal textures, and delicate atmospheres into a raw, dreamlike sound theater. (Squidco)