vitriol
randonée 0.06
_sirr001

"With a run time of just 20 minutes, Vitriol's work here is a surprising 
electronic soundscape with many shifts and nuances. Rich digital tones, 
sparse sounds, clicks and crackles mix with various found sounds, creating 
an atmosphere of digital detachment and distance. The arrangements are never 
predictable and full of details and subtle movements, which makes the 
listening experience more rewarding each time I've put this disc in my 
player. Sounds great; let's keep our eyes and ears peeled." 

Richard di Santo, Incursion Music 


"A minimalistic trawl of sprawling digital soundfragments on this new and 
very promising Portuguese electronic music label. Vitriol are a duo of Paulo 
Raposo and Carlos Santos and their work is utterly beguiling. Glitching 
loops and scrabbling, unplaceable events are intermingled in a completely 
sympathetic and synergistic way; the result is more jagged than most in the 
'genre' but this isn't noisemusic in the slightest. Organic location 
recordings are deliberately Mac-entangled with abstract, emaciated 
soundscapings; distant headphone listening juxtaposed alongside walls of 
swirling viral electronics.? Randonee 0.06 is a really exciting find of a 
disc and short enough to leave you wanting a lot more when it's all over. 
The final piece, the title track itself, is an incredible 8 minute outing 
(part of the 'Headphone Room' internet project apparently) and at times had 
me thinking I was trapped in the hold of some amorphous, semi-conscious 
sea-faring vessel.? At other times, it is like nothing more than listening 
to the sound of your own body as it dehydrates." 

vital weekly


"The crackle of digital glitches pop throughout extended glistening drones 
stretched out of organic scrapes, ending up sounding mysterious and 
sublime." 

Aquarius Records


"Far from attempting to create acousmatic background sounds, Raposo and 
Santos approach what they do with a definite sense of musical drama, slowly 
dripping sounds into big, reverberating atmospheres. 
The main piece here is the eight-minute title track, which throbs with that 
familiar engine-room ambiance. This particular room, however, is inhabited 
by a selection of unnerving sounds, the sounds of skittish half-glimpsed 
things, part insect and part static eletricity, and the sonar pings which 
one can imagine seeking them out. 
Of course, this sound-world will be familiar to many listeners, but it's all 
too easy to go from this to a value judgement. The sound-world of most jazz 
records is just as "hackneyed"; the fact is, it's what you do with it that 
counts, and Vitriol make very involving music with these materials. God 
knows it's easy to employ the same things to tedious ends. 
The other two pieces of reasonable length (both around four and a half 
minutes) explore similar areas. "Durriyyatun" is a good companion piece to 
the title track, subtler, more slow-moving and in this writer's opinion the 
best track here. "Ropica Pnefma", as its name sort of implies, brings some 
of the rainforest into Vitriol's very digital world, but it's the grain and 
pace of the sounds they're interested in, not their imitation. 
This is a strong release from Vitriol. Mercifully parsimonious (this kind of 
music can be hard to digest over an hour or more on CD), it presents a 
concentrated view of their view of their musical style and leaves one 
wanting to hear more."

richard cochrane / musings 


"This EP-length CD is made up of engaging sounds, seemingly from the 
everyday environment, but altered and introduced into strange, unlikely 
contexts, often accompanied by distant tones. This Portuguese collective 
have added an interesting new voice into the worldwide pool of 
sound-altering artists.

Ceiling


"This electronic intermedia music is in the same line of fire such as Steve 
Roden or even slightly Ikeda, Touch territory. Very organic soundscapes 
departing from fieldrecordings and digitally processed." 

Kraak


"Vitriol obtiene un repertorio atractivo y convincente."

Arsonal


"Although it is electronic, this improvised music has an intimate, chamber 
music-like quality."

CDemusic