v/a Fourfold Symmetry
[ ns08 / CD ]Continuality of music evolution fits nicely into the original Darwinian concept. Nevertheless, there is one major difference: the evolution of any musician or band, the latter often fashionably referred to as projects, a journey into the yet untrodden, often unnamed, labyrinths of rhythm and sound combinations, melodies and chaotic sounds begins with a firm definition of the starting point. Like all journeys, this one has its diaries, and the title reads: Fourfold Symmetry. The project team is a colourful illustration to the concept of pure communication within the creative context practiced by a number of recognized masters of the chosen style. Diverse locations, creative concepts, musical preferences, perception, and experience were mixed and fused together into a unique artifact presented on the disk.
The most famous Fourfold Symmetry participant is Kim Cascone merited for his work on the sound tracks to David Lynch’s movies, including the renowned Twin Peaks where music played the very special role in creating the very peculiar atmosphere of the film and influencing its perception by viewers. Over twenty-five years in electronics, twenty of them in electronic music and sound engineering, the founder and owner of musically and commercially successful Silent Records and Pulse Sonic Distribution studios for fifteen years, Kim Cascone is a creator capable of combining music and mathematics, formulae and improvisation, art and computer hardware within the time and space to produce the brilliant outcome. Andreas Berthling, a sound artist from Sweden who currently lives in Norway, is the second participant of the project. Holding majors in intermedia arts at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, Andreas uses his academic knowledge of the synthetic music that combines a variety of creation and rendering methods for the achievement of the new expressive effects. He developed a quite unique music style founded on cracking down the sound bytes into single bits and reengineering them within the new structures rendered audible in a sonic range between super high and ultra low sinewaves. Andreas co-runs Hapna, which recently released “Extract from field recording archive #2”, a series of field recordings by the Japanese artist Toshiya Tsunoda. The other two participants of Fourfold Symmetry are from Ukraine: Dmitry Fedorenko, also known as Kotra, currently resides in Kiev, and Andrey Kiritchenko is a musician from Kharkov. A former participant of the locally renowned group called Zet, Kotra is now involved into a number of projects with Akuvido studio founded in Germany by ex-compatriots and quite famous and recognized in Europe. The exhibitions of the unique and unusual art projects by Acuvido are accompanied with Kotra‘s music. Andrey Kiritchenko is a person well known among Kharkov electronic music fans as a TV and radio DJ, author and DJ of his own projects, a young musician who has largely contributed into the development of ambient techno in Ukraine. Being involved mostly in experimental electronic music for the last few years, Andrey is now gaining recognition among the musicians and followers of this style all over the world
And finally, the music itself. First of all, the appropriate disclaimer here is that the outcome of the combined musicians’ effort presented on this disk is by no means commercial-friendly and is not suitable for satisfying the traditional musical needs. And yet, there is definitely more to it than just a curious style sample that will be noticed only by proficient gritch ambient and minimal sound fans. The album is based upon the very questionable in itself creative concept of co-authorship, which is implemented through the sound exchange via regular and electronic mail: musicians play with each other’s samples striving to carve out the new unpredictable sounding. This music is interesting and fascinating by its nature: despite the initial sources similarity the outcome is always highly individual and bears the personal impress of each musician in each track. This music is deficient and soulless for the exactly same reason: the emphasized anonymity and anti-emotionality of the sound collaging process serve as an artistic instrument used for protecting the creative identity and expressing the deeply personal conceptual notion of the world. The purpose of the music here is to deliberately put forth the numerous mistakes in order to invite listeners to the conjoint creation, immerse them into the process of stylistic sound making without offering a single ready-made solution. The rough musical thought presented without traditional cutting and polishing, the lack of sound completion and the absebce of its breakdown into more or less digestible musical elements all of a sudden become a tacit ideology of the project. The result comes through as a clicks and cuts on one hand, and the very process of creation displayed instead of the final product, on the other. This music can be called anything but refined, it contains all the mistakes and confusions that the authors may face in the process of its creation. But whereas the musicians playing the conventional clicks and cuts rely upon the orderly technical collapses, Fourfold Symmetry founds its creative concept on the aforecited antinome: the more electronic and machine-made their music is, the more humane and organic it sounds. All their defiant mistakes proclaim that the process of creation and erring (the latter being its inherent and essential part) has never been so versatile, inspiring and stimulating. This concept contains another paradox in itself: the more redundant, erratic and rough elements the music contains, the more complicated it is to create. The less effort is spend on its hominization, and the more rugged the cuts are, the more interesting it is to listen.
The Fourfold Symmetry music might annoy and tire with unfinished or overloaded constructions, rambling and obviously disjointed sounds, and unmotivated gaps in the tracks. And yet, it is these faults and flaws brought out with the utmost defiance that capture the listeners’ attention and keep them on edge. While the
intentional oddities of the music, its deliberate arbitrariness and imperfection arise very controversial feelings, they also restrain the music from becoming an acoustic background. Which is exactly what Fourfold Symmetry aspired to in the process of creation.
First 300 copies go in a special plastic package, others – in a jewel case.
Track list:
- graftal zahlen
- glass legs
- misplaced
- 7-5-2
- leetch
- even
- rale
- zir-ka
- qts
- shear
- r-e-i-z
- first out
- three figures
- cycle
Kim Cascone eSpace(BMI), Andreas Berthling, Kotra, Andrey Kiritchenko