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The Musique Concrete Ensemble "Disonancias y Repeticiones Ambiguas" CD
[Eco]
Raphael Irisarri is the sole member/composer of this project, appearing here with help from American experimentalist Jeff Surak, Swedish "microsound" composer Thomas Ekelund, Jorge Castro (Cornucopia), and Nuria Currįs. The Musique Concrete Ensemble uses guitar, bass, vocals, tape loops, field recordings, drones, and of course various electronics to create some wonderfully exotic pieces of experimental music in the truest sense. "Segmento A" starts the disc with 11 minutes of beautiful choral synths and ethereal tones with some clean guitar passages and plenty of experimental effects. It's hypnotically repetitive, and almost "starts over" partway through, fading to silence and back - this time with some subtle percussive beats. "Segmento B" opens softly with nice acoustic guitars and bass mixed with similarly dense and ethereal textures. It's a bit more "natural" sounding, both literally and figuratively, since field recordings are obviously used. Ironically this track also introduces some beats just past the halfway mark, giving off sort of a trip-hop meets progressive rock vibe - it's more musical and moving, a very superb piece. The aptly titled "Interludio" is by far the shortest and most melodic/musical composition herein, with reverberating guitars and bass, smooth female singing tones, tactful electronics and beats, etc. "Segmento C" also uses layers of clean guitars and flowing synths, starting to bring to mind what might even be classified as an indie rock sort of influence to the playing. It literally sounds to me like slow, morose indie rock with a tinge of prog rock (superbly sustained notes in the distance) and ambient noise... wonderful! "Segmento D" closes very much in line with the other pieces, though it does introduce some carefully manipulated samples in the heart of the mix (backwards speaking) along with some additional singing tones (I'm fairly certain that no lyrics are involved, simply notes). After several minutes of blank space it picks back up with some busy reversed sounds and echoed feedback to end. The recording is superb, very smooth and warm with a full mix. I can't cite any true problems. On rare occasion it sounds like there might be minor glitches as far as levels peaking to slight distortion, but it's very hard to tell, I might just be hearing things as the music is so spacious and soothing. The layout is quite simple and sort of has the look of an old LP or something, using only white, red, and black, with minimal abstract designs and such. Text is fairly minimal, leaving room for open space, but there is some detailed recording information inside along with a small thanks list, and a quote that reads: "Real art lies towards transforming something that's already been discovered into your own vehicle of expression." This is a very strong offering. I would highly recommend checking this out as it could appeal to many different music fans, and not just those who lean towards the experimental side. Excellent. (8/10)
Running time - 40:00 (approximately), Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Segmento B, Segmento C]
The Musique Concrete Ensemble - http://www.themce.com
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