meta |cs090

MEtA AtEM (cs 090) versammelt fünf Arbeiten von GUNNAR GEISSE, ‚per sona’, ‚MEtA’, ‚grattager g-eis-es-e’, ‚Das diskrete Jetzt’ und ‚Die Quelle’, allesamt ambient, allesamt E-Gitarren-basiert und mit E-Bass, Signalprocessing oder Nature-Recordings perfektioniert. Das Strömungsverhalten von Flüssigkeiten, Gasen, Wellen und – speziell bei ‚Das diskrete Jetzt’ – von Wolken und ähnliche nichtlineare Phänomene werden verwandelt in atmendes Rauschen und Tönen. Geisse ist ein Grenzgänger zwischen Neuer Musik und Improvisation, ein komplexitätstheoretisch gefestigter Holist, der Ordnung aufspürt, diskrete Topologien und Perlenschnüre, mit denen das Jetzt sich schmückt. Grattage ist ein Verfahren, Malschichten abzuschaben, so dass neue Farbtöne erscheinen. Die danach benannte nuancenreiche Komposition von 24 Min. korrespondiert mit Geisses audio-visueller Performance ‚may i erase one of your drawings?’ (das hatte Rauschenberg de Kooning gefragt), wobei sein Verfahren weder weißes Rauschen noch Stille anstrebt. ‚Die Quelle’ wird durchflüstert von Stimmen, russischen und chinesischen Lauten, und verweist gen Osten. Oder auf den menschlichen Faktor? Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy)

The mystery surrounding this music is equal to my ignorance about the composer, but this is one of the most fascinating releases that I’ve heard in 2008. Geisse used electric guitar and bass, signal processing, field recordings and voice to father a fairly unpredictable album that stands halfway through serious acousmatics and the living room experiments of an evolved home recording geek. “Per sona” opens the CD with a mix of rarefied movements and contrasting frequencies, mostly remaining on the dark side of the sonic spectrum. The title track exploits processed hums, vocal fragments, interference and various types of glitches together with extended techniques on the instruments, the whole manifesting its significance in ever-surprising spurts where scenes changes continuously in a concentrated exposition of accurate tampering and heterogeneous noise. “Grattager”, the longest selection on offer, is also the one where bass and guitar - although treated with effects - are initially recognizable, chiming harmonics and rumbling tremolos sparkling ethereal combustions of long reverbs and delicate dissonance. But after a few minutes the piece becomes a nightmare of slanted waves paralleled by morphing ambiences, dramatically turning the whole into a rather inharmonious picture - which is even more absorbing from this point of observation. “Das diskrete Jetzt” is a cross of free improvisation and selected studio manipulations, coming off as the most anarchic segment of the lot (it recalls both Tim Olive and Paul Dolden to these ears), while “Die Quelle” ends the show with a juxtaposition of elongated utterances and electronic titillations. A record that deserves repeated attentive listens from a musician whom I’d easily define as a revelation. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

De Gunnar Geisse, improvisador alemão que tem sido visto e ouvido na companhia de artistas tão diversificados como Phil Durrant, Barry Guy, Franz Hautzinger, Wilbert de Joode, Jason Kahn, Thomas Lehn, Günter Müller, Phill Niblock ou Evan Parker, saiu META ATEM na Creative Sources Recordings. Esta é uma edição que conto entre as melhores que me foi dado ouvir no primeiro quadrimestre do ano. Produto acabado da improvisação livre de características europeias, com guitarra eléctrica, baixo, processamento de sinal, tratamento de voz humana, field recordings, é no trabalho de montagem e edição em estúdio que o artista desenvolve a sua alquimia sonora através da pesquisa microtonal a partir de ondas electromagnéticas do mais variado tipo, produzidas e transformadas por processos analógico-digitais. Se o pontilhismo da guitarra eléctrica é o ponto de partida e de chegada, pelo meio há um mar de referências. Gunnar Geisse pensa e toma cada som em si mesmo considerado e na relação com os outros, com apurado sentido de economia, capacidade de escolha e organização. Em META ATEM (CS #90), obra amadurecida de um artista que sabe o que procura, importa tanto o modo de gerir a acção que está a acontecer num dado momento, como o lugar específico em que cada forma e unidade de tempo ocupa no hiperespaço. Num interessante equilíbrio de contrastes, Geisse procede à “desmontagem” do espectro sonoro, sopesa todas as peças, domestica-as, estuda-lhes as formas e encaixa-as umas nas outras, deixando-as propositadamente permanecer em equilíbrio instável de modo a criar oscilações, fracturas, dissonância, reverberação e glitch, de que resulta um extravagante composto multiforme de sons com valor musical. Eduardo Chagas (Jazz e Arredores)

From what I can argue from the booklet coming with the cd the majority of the sounds featured on this cd are coming out from voices, so what? a Bobby MacFarrin like cd? Of course no. "Meta atem" is divided in four long tracks and a conclusive one were electronic sounds, guitars and voice treatments are well melted together for a cocktail that as a weird contemporary aftertaste. Behind the majority of the sound sources and of author of the field recordings is Gunnar Geisse himself , but I see other names like Ernesto Rdrigues, Ishani and Mercan Arda, Hamid Khezdi, Thomas Mahr just to name a few. While some tracks like the opening and the third one are quite dense, some other play with sounds and stops and goes, and the last kind of tracks reminds me much more of early quasi industrial sound designer a la Asmus Tietchens instead of contemporary music, even thought as many of you can guess there's a thin line separating the two afore mentioned categories. There's a dead serious atmosphere haunting the majority of these compositions, just take the third one and you see the guitar sounds are not exactly softening the result. This interesting collection of compositions reminds us the incredible importance of avant garde composers like Bruno Maderna and the influence they had on contemporary music. Andrea Ferraris (Chain DLK)