insular regions
jgrzinich | sirr021
The doorway to a space of very deep
listening:
jgrzinich's insular regions is one of
the most beautiful drone/field recording
combinations i've heard in a long time.
surely it's all in the source materials,
which are some incredibly sensitive
field recordings from estonia; but more
so it's the way that he's put the compositions
together - every sound has it's own
place. nothing seems to linger for too
long, and everything is given it's breath.
the cd contains two tracks, the first
a bit more "brittle" sounding
like an after rain's random drops falling
on tin, while an engine hums in the
distance. it's a shorter work that i
can't listen to without thinking of
the environment of tarkovsky's film
stalker. the second track is called
second portal, and indeed it is the
doorway to a space of very deep listening.
it begins with a drone whose tones seem
to move slightly in and out of each
other. it's a patient composition that
allows the drone to spread it's wings
for about 15 minutes or so until other
activity begins - creaking, crinkling,
dustings...it sounds like we are listening
from the inside of a giant ship's hull,
gently swaying in the sea. the seemingly
stillness and beauty of both works comes
from grzinich's patience with the compositions
- giving all of the recordings that
make up the works a purpose within them.
the first few times i listened to the
cd i had no interest in knowing the
source materials, i simply rolled along
blissfully for the ride. eventually
i felt the need to open the booklet
and find out what i was listening to.
here instead of unraveling the mystery,
grzinich gives us more poetry. instead
of listing sounds for each track we
get "reconstructed notes from the
field", which are diaristic writings
about field recording sessions and grzinich's
listening experiences that lead to the
work. certainly there are moments when
a listener can hear "interjections
of tossed peas" or "the constant
hum of a large fan", but without
exacting which track has which sounds,
one is left not quite knowing. is the
cd a shadow of the text or the text
a shadow of the recordings? either way,
from within the great span of this disconnect
is a world containing an absolutely
beautiful listening experience.
__Steve
Roden, MovementNouveau.com
The
insular regions of the title are, one
could argue, both the Mooste area in
Estonia and John Grzinich's rather isolationist,
self-developing sound world. Grzinich
recorded the sound materials for this
album in Mooste, a small rural Estonian
community, between August 2003 and October
2004. From the sound of cracking ice
to the resonances of old oil tanks,
the composer turned his microphone toward
anything making a sound, but aiming
it mostly at sonics that evoked wide
spaces (outdoors and indoors) and abandoned
vestiges of the village's past. From
these materials, he has composed two
long works that take the listener on
an aural journey without words. Grzinich's
music flows naturally, with uncanny
easiness. Whereas other artists document
sound events or take pictures of environments,
he reinvents his recordings by organizing
them in narratives that remain abstract
yet sound so clear, so obvious. There
are a lot of field recordists who have
a good ear for what they do -- and whose
works are interesting because they offer
listeners strange juxtapositions --
but Grzinich's art (like Michael Northam's
or Murmer's) transcends its sources
to create poetic, engulfing music that
is inhabited by a certain romantic conception
of the North. The 44-minute-long "..Second
Portal" deserves a place among
the key works in this field, because
of its slow yet sustained pace, its
detailed textures, and its mesmerizing
leitmotifs. Highly recommended to sound
art enthusiasts.
François Couture, All
Music Guide
It's
6:30 in the morning while I'm listening
to one of those manufacts designed to
modulate your living smoothness, channelling
unfinished thoughts and gruelling grief
into a stream of healing vibrations.
Having captured all sounds in Mooste
(Estonia) and reworked the sources in
the studio, John Grzinich shows to the
dead-end amateurs of this genre how
a drone based record should be done:
the recurring sound waves move like
in a slow turnstile, setting the field
for a prodigious recycling of self-regenerating
hidden fears; the environmental echoes,
coming out sparsely throughout the two
long tracks, expand the dimension of
your mental room, which gets ready to
accept new forms of aural intercourse.
Although it's pretty much a gradual
revelation process, "Insular regions"
rouses the awareness of the receivers,
becoming part of that moment of their
life without imposition, just seducing
the nerves until it's a necessary presence.
__Massimo
Ricci, Touching
Extremes
The
domineering, eerie particles of sound
on “.e 27 : n 58” were recorded
between 2003-04 in Estonia. John Grzinich
inebriates the acoustic field with a
sensual, subdued drone that is as mysterious
as black ice, yet begs to be confronted.
The minimalist one-tone lining builds
with a fierce babbling brook of crackling
tempered hatchings that scratch for
the surface. The work is weighty and
thick. The cover art shows dried flowers
rising up through densely packed snow,
looking more like scratchy lines on
a blue-white canvas. “..second
portal” is the other side of this
diptych of the lengthy pieces here (44
mins). Deep, dark, grey ambient tones
with a nearly invisible second layer
of Pop-Rock™ sounding campfire
snap-crackle-pop. But this is only ear
candy for those suiting up for a funeral
pyre, as it’s rather spare and
gloomy. Through the impenetrable fortress
of sinister hues the listener may feel
as if they are getting sleepy, but at
the same time the bass drone hits the
pit of your G.I. system like lead. It’s
a long trek through this vast forest,
and I am not sure if granny would be
awaiting anyone with pie of any kind.
__TJNorris, Igloo
Magazine
Exploration
et reconstruction de sites spécifiques,
jeu avec des objets trouvés,
investissement des microphones dans
le lieu, utilisation d'une électronique
antique, drones envoûtants, construction
d'espaces imaginaires JGrzinich, installé
actuellement en Estonie, continue son
travail spécifique d'explorateur,
paysagiste et poète sonore, tout
comme ses collégues Loren Chasse
ou MNortham.
__Metamkine
John
Grzinich's new album reflects the surroundings
and pace of life in a small Estonian
village called Mooste, where the sound
was recorded and assembled. The work
takes the form of two long pieces (18
minutes and 44 minutes respectively)
which could be pigeon-holed as 'deep-listening
drones with field recording textures'.
It is noticeable that though the liner
notes describe the making of individual
field recordings, the two most prominent
sounds are complex evolving drones,
used mainly to anchor the field recordings,
to give some connecting motion to the
pieces. In some ways these drones, though
extremely detailed and rich in warmth
and sonority, can at times feel at odds
with the dynamic gestures captured in
field recording, which occasionally
become subservient to the flat, slowly
propulsive drones. Sometimes because
of the sheer spectral richness of these
drones it causes the elements of environmental
sound to be almost banished to the highest
frequencies where some of the sounds,
no matter how poetically described,
sound like rustling:
[from the liner notes]
"The first snow was wet and melted
upon contact with the trees. Drops fell
across the forest causing a delicate
cracking giving the feeling that the
dead leaves were crawling back to life."
"It was the sound of the lake freezing.
The ice was solid enough to stand on
but shifting slightly."
What really makes this album of interest
is the continued development that Grzinich
is making in his work with manipulating
captured sound. It is as if he has come
to the conclusion that the sound environments
he currently inhabits and records [the
Estonian countryside of Mooste] are
not enough to fully portray this world.
Field recordings will and always have
suffered from the same framing device
that limits everything from painting
to digital photography, and makes it
very difficult to truly 'capture' a
place with sound. Recordings separated
from their context will always be lessened
in some subtle way, a way in which Grzinich
is compensating for by creating this
synthesis of sound that evokes the slow
time of village life. Rather than chase
the inevitable disappointment of trying
to simply document a sound world, Grzinich's
method is to try to manifest the pace
as well as the place.
Isn't it strange that the very nature
of computer music with it's 'limitless
possibilities' for sound creation should
attract so many who are devoted to documenting
and capturing 'real' environmental sounds?
By using more synthesized sound Grzinich
is really progressing the vocabulary
of field recording into a wider world
of abstract composition. He is creating
an area that is rooted in place and
yet becomes much more emotionally engaging
than just presenting well recorded 'sound-marks'.
This work rewards both loud listening
on speakers and deep headphone listening.
In fact headphones reveal a much more
balanced relationship between the tones
and the environmental recordings.
Both compositions are simple and uncluttered.
The first piece is full of unrealized
tension, created by the complex drone,
providing a perfect drive and narrative
for the popping and crackle textures
of the field recordings, evoking everything
from making popcorn, huge vats of boiling
oil, stepping on dry twigs to footsteps
and shuffling around indoors.
The second piece places more emphasis
on the drones and the weight of bass
that accompanies these sounds. For me
it works much better. The atmosphere
of this piece is one of almost a gentle
siren - undulating like a slow thick
liquid in waves, a very expansive sound
- completely synthetic and yet densely
evocative of still waters and reflected
winter skies.
The absolute peak of this album is about
twenty minutes into this second piece:
as the wind and a creaking wooden building
slowly overpower the distancing drones.
It sounds as if Grzinich and his companion
are drifting lost at sea, but also high
in the air, suspended in a sort of impossible,
rickety air balloon, waiting and listening
to be gently put back to earth.
__ Mark Mclaren, SonicArtsNetwork
Composer
sur ou à partir d’un lieu
est une gageure. C’est l’un
des rêves absolus de la musique
électroacoustique de reconstituer,
de retrouver, d’imaginer ou peut-être,
osons le mot, d’illustrer un lieu,
une unité géographique,
un écosystème, en sons.
Est-il possible d’en rendre compte
avec fidélité sans se
‘’limiter’’
au field recording brut… restreindre
ainsi la marge d’intervention
qui caractérise chaque regard
artistique… Quoi qu’il en
soit, certains s’y essaient en
profondeur, cherchant l’âme
plus que le paysage, la charpente plutôt
que la façade. John Grzinich,
compositeur expérimental américano-estonien,
a réussi avec intelligence et
gravité une exécution
musicale dont seuls les habitants ou
les visiteurs de Mooste en Estonie (c’est
la ville dont toutes les sources sont
issues) sauront dire si elle reflète
exactement l’unité du lieu.
Le plus important est sans doute de
considérer sa musique, indépendamment
de sa référence explicite.
Elle doit donner à l'auditeur
pour le moins un système, dont
le bonheur complet serait certainement
de s’accorder à l’atmosphère
de Mooste, mais dont la première
qualité est la cohérence
poétique interne. De brillances
en crépitements, d’émanations
métalliques en vent glacé,
d’effondrements en épaisses
strates boisées, Jgrzinich ne
projette pas au hasard le produit de
sa glane. Il se fait peintre sonore
complet et attentif (on le savait déjà
minutieux, sur ses splendides compositions
en compagnie de Seth Nehil par exemple),
distribuant l’éclairage
avec économie, précisant
certains contours plutôt que d’autres,
hiérarchisant les plans. Il est
concentré sur la résonance
et sa vertu pictogène, la douce
inflation des éléments
du décor, la construction rythmée
comme alternance de nuit et de jour.
Cette vivacité dans l’instant
neigeux rappelle, même si les
méthodes diffèrent considérablement,
les denses bouillonnements mélancoliques
de Janek Schaefer ou les réverbérations
nostalgiques de Stephan Mathieu…
Pourtant, l’on devine ici un autre
geste, on entend comme un souvenir dans
la matière, on se prend à
IMAGINER Mooste, appelé par tant
de beauté sonore à trouver
les impressions que Jgrzinich a gardées
dans ses yeux et ses oreilles. On oublie
alors sa promesse de retrait, séduit
par la lumière et les eaux effilochées.
Qu’importe, une telle harmonie
excuse la prévarication, elle
relève de la poésie, d’un
système métaphorique qui
doit bien avoir respecté son
objet pour s’approcher tant de
la vie.
__Denis Boyer, Fear
Drop Magazine
I
due brani di questo CD sono stati costruiti
con registrazioni effettuate in quel
piccolo borgo, in (o nei pressi di)
sei siti e in periodi stagionali diversi.
Per la precisione i siti rispondono
alle fattezze di un vecchio capannone
agricolo, di un serbatoio per il gasolio
abbandonato, di una residenza estiva
per studenti, della foresta, di un capannone
in metallo e del lago. La sensibilità
dell’autore, nello specifico derivata
anche dal suo coinvolgimento nelle attività
artistiche di Mooste, hanno poi convogliato
queste registrazioni in due sinfonie
‘concrete’ di straordinaria
coesione e bellezza. Due flussi di emozioni
che raccolgono ricordi atavici come
stupori quotidiani. L’uomo e la
terra, potremmo insinuare, dove la grandezza
dell’uomo (o di alcuni uomini)
sta nel saper tacere, ascoltare, recepire
e raccogliere. Per chi già conosceva
l’attività di Grzinich
(anche insieme a Seth Neil e Michael
Northam) si tratta di un’ottima
conferma e per gli altri di una piacevole
sorpresa. Per la Sirr.ecords “Insular
Regions” è invece un altro
colpo gobbo portato a felice conclusione.
__ Mario Biserni, SandsZine
Diario
di viaggio acustico di un lungo soggiorno
nel villaggio rurale di Mooste in Estonia,
Insular Regions dell'artista mixed-media
americano John Grzinich reperta materiali
direttamente catturati sul campo: ansimare
di vecchi ventilatori, rumori di calcinacci,
registrazioni effettuate in cisterne
abbandonate, oggetti trovati e strumenti
occasionali, sbatacchiare di lamiere
in una vecchia baracca e altri suoni
ambientali catalogati con certosina
precisione e pacatezza quasi religiosa.
Emozioni e ricordi suscitati da eventi
unici ed estemporanei, come la glaciazione
delle acque di un lago, tramutati in
quiete e tremolanti soundscapes di caldo
colorito ambient, formicolanti tessiture
che ancora una volta ci ricordano quanto
sia interessante e bello ascoltare il
mondo e la sua complessità.
__Nicola Catalano, Rumore Magazine
John Grzinich (aka Jgrzinich) è
un autentico outsider / enfant prodige
della scena elettro-acustica audio visiva
e lo svela il suo curriculum, munito
di progetti e collaborazioni con etichette
specializzate, della stazza di Pale-Disc,
Digital Narcis, Staalplaat, Intransitive
Recordings, Cloud of Statics, Orogenetics...
Questo lavoro si struttura sulla evoluzione
/ mutazione – a ritmo catartico
- di due suite, la prima appena confinante
con i 20 minuti, la seconda poggiata
su tempi più dilatati, ancorati
attorno i 40 e oltre...
La trama, o meglio l'ispirazione scesa
incontro al compositore risale dalla
sua esperienza, avuta per circa un anno,
come residente nel piccolo centro di
Mooste: un villaggio rurale di circa
400 anime, situato nel sudest dell'Estonia.
Come mai, un artista statunitense si
trova distante migliaia di chilometri
dalla propria casa?... e perché?
Beh... al contrario di come si potrebbe
intuire, non è direttamente dalla
musica che sorge il ‘primo contatto’
tra l’artista e il luogo di residenza,
ma dalla collaborazione aperta da Grzinich,
già da tempo, con i tipi della
MoKS: un'organizzazione locale, nata
dall'iniziativa di Evelyn Muursepp e
Maia Moller, per seguire l'intento di
diffondere e introdurre forme di attività
creativa nel piccolo centro, alquanto
dimenticato e sprovvisto, sino ad allora,
di simili manifestazioni.
Da allora, pian piano, sono cominciati
a fluire dentro le mura del paese una
cospicua rete di artisti, per via anche
della creazione di un simposio artistico
annuale, battezzato PostsovkhoZ; e nel
quale si vede interessato proprio John
per la figura di conduttore di un media-lab
con la gente di Mooste.
Cosa troviamo dentro le mura di "Insular
Regions" sono . 27 : n 58 2 e ..second
portal, due lunghe emozioni (personali
& musicali) collaudate e trascritte
sotto forma di sinfonia concreta: field
recordings presi in prestito-rubati
dalla vita quotidiana e dai pochi respiri
di questo borgo. Per la precisione ad
essere campionati, per fluttuare come
forma ibrida dentro le suite, sono i
suoni catturati da un vecchio capannone
agricolo, da un serbatoio per il gasolio
abbandonato, di una residenza estiva
per studenti, della foresta, di un capannone
in metallo e del lago. Le registrazioni
riguardano siti situati, sia dentro
il centro del villaggio, sia nelle sue
prossimità e diverse sono state
le stagioni che hanno accompagnato il
periodo di lavoro.
Cosa resta da dire?
Di sicuro, a scorrere davanti è
un’altra grande uscita nata dalle
sapienti mani della SIRR. Ottima qualità
e stile raffinato nel selezionare, ancora
una volta, un nome di rilevo, tutto
da conoscere, nel mastodontico e seducente
campo dei micro-suoni.
Un disco, “Insular Regions”,
che per i tessuti oscuri, messi da filtro
ai suoni campionati, piacerebbe non
poco ai vicini Kar per la sintonia nell’intendere
e vivere i suoni in profondità.
Sergio
Eletto, http://www.kathodik.it
