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Mars Reveri cs818
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Turning back to Creative Sources, another album extensively featuring electronics, also something of a reprise of an earlier favorite, Mars Reveri involves Miguel A. García (electronics), Abdul Moimême (guitar & metals), Ernesto Rodrigues (piano harp & viola) & Carlos Santos (electronics) returning from Sitsa (recorded in 2018 & first reviewed here in June 2019), now joined by Alex Reviriego (double bass, substituting for more obscure previous performers on organ & amplified paper). And I've continued to enjoy the rather atmospheric Sitsa, a sort of post-industrial church music, its "roar & tinkle" yielding a kind of post-Cage austerity & distance, (ergodic) layerings of organesque tone.... I've mentioned García since then as well with Les Capelles (reviewed September 2022), a quartet album (with an explicitly churchy title...) with Vasco Trilla & accordionist Garazi Navas, actually as it happens my only mention here of (the relatively prolific) Reviriego to this point as well.... And Les Capelles was likewise vague about when it was recorded: Mars Reveri says 2018 in one place & 2020 in another (& I didn't inquire...), but what it states more concretely is that it was mixed via grant in Bilbao in 2023-24. I suspect both are pre-pandemic recordings. In any case, Mars Reveri does make an impression, particularly with its strong opening, grains & static soon suggesting (quasi-Braxtonian) locale, "tinkling" feelings of ascent beginning... & soon plunging into a sort of sonic maw below. Evocations turn to doom, post-industrial again (even glitchy...), perhaps suggesting the more recent Behenii (& Trilla again...) in some ways, albeit there with aggressive horn at least to open.... Versus Sitsa then, lines unwind (less layered or étude-like...), becoming longer arcs, opening sweeping & colorfully twisting vistas.... (Per the cover art, we are supposed to imagine reveling on Mars? The music actually seems more equivocal, the martial reference looming... i.e. as return to war.) And then the unknown "Ibonrg" joins on voice for track #4 (of 5), emphasizing bass (e.g. growling, perhaps pace Phil Minton...), lending some novel textural aspects. Both there & in parts of the longer opening track, there're some unique & compelling textures, finally ending loudly (as if we're finally inside the machine...). So is García still performing? And how much of the sonic result on Mars Reveri involves editing or post-production? It seems that he could be a part of this ongoing conversation on electroacoustic landscapes & textures.... Todd McComb's Jazz Thoughts
El producto final de una reunión de surrealistas tras decretar el fin del mundo. |