artist : Francisco L≤pez
title : Untitled #123
date : 2001
label : Alien 8
genre : Avantgarde
release date: 03.11.2006
street date : 00.00.0000
tracks : 01
bitrate : VBRkbps
size : 81,7 MB
source : CDDA
type : Album
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Announcing our second and latest release with Madrid, SpainÆs
Francisco L≤pez. ôUntitled #123ö follows the very successful
ôUntitled #104ö, his death metal release, which appeared on
Alien8 Recordings just over a year ago.
While ôUntitled #123ö is devoid of any connection to metal,
it has the same power and intense climaxes found in ôUntitled
#104ö and in LopezÆs live performances.
This latest outing by SpainÆs most prolific experimental
artist was prepared with sounds recorded in Grain Silo #5, in
Montreal, Quebec. Last year the experimental duo known as
[the user] began the Silophone project, transforming an
abandoned grain silo into a gigantic instrument. The project
ran for a year and artists from around the world were invited
to Montreal to use the instrument. Participants included
Aube, Carsten Nicolai, Martin Tetreault, [the user], Jaap
Blonk and many others. Without question the yearÆs highlight
was the live performance by Francisco Lopez that took place
in an abandoned foundry with telephone links to the
Silophone. ôUntitled #123ö is not simply a recording of
LopezÆs live performance using the Silophone; the piece uses
source material that was harvested in Silo #5 and then
further developed at the Centre CrΘation Musicale Iannis
Xenakis in Paris, France.
ôUntitled #123ö starts off with a minute of silence, forcing
the listener to pay close attention, like on many of LopezÆ
recordings. Incredibly subtle changes and fluctuations in
volume and body begin to take place. The piece begins to
display the Silophone sounds more clearly at the 10-minute
mark, dark metallic resonation that feels strangely gothic.
This continues until sharp piercing slices of mechanical
sounds cut in an out of the piece every few seconds (imagine
being subjected to giant blasts of machinery). This continues
until the 19-minute mark where all audible sounds dissolve
and all that is left is some of the most demanding low-end
ambiance one is likely to experience. Later, sounds begin to
take shape again and if you were not aware of the sound
source you would swear this was the soundtrack to a very dark
and frightening place. At the 43-minute mark, with the power
constantly mounting your heart pounding, trembling with fear,
you wonder what lies ahead. You imagine being in absolute
darkness and something incredibly loud, a mechanical drone is
approaching and you have absolutely no idea of what it could
be. Finally after an incredible 14-minute climax the piece
falls into near silence. For the next 8 minutes the piece
continues with just a murmur of sound deep below the surface,
is it really that low? Are your ears just not picking up
sound due to what has just transpired? The end result is an
incredibly unique listening experience that bears many of the
qualities of the stunning concerts of Francisco Lopez.
As far as we are concerned Francisco Lopez is the reigning
king of what is being marketed as lowercase sound and we are
incredibly delighted to be documenting another one of his
glorious achievements.
Packaged as one might expect at this point, slimline jewel
case with next to no artwork. There is a photo of the Silo
where the sounds were originally harvested accompanying
ôUntitled #123ö.
Francisco Lopez is one of the leading artists in
electro-acoustic music in the 1990s. From a background in
biology and ecology, he has created a singular and focused
musical style centered around immersive sonic environments
which are intended to strengthen and enhance the user's
listening capabilities. His live performances are often
performed in complete darkness and he has also been known to
distribute blindfolds to the audience in order to reduce the
visual impact of the performance, requiring the listener to
concentrate more fully on the music itself. Although many of
his pieces are based on drones in one way or another, the
dynamics range from very loud to nearly inaudible. A prolific
artist with over 100 releases on cassette, vinyl, and CD
starting from the early '80s, Lopez continues to work the
concept of "sound object" (objet sonore) described by musique
concrete creator Pierre Schaefer in the 1960s. Although his
most famous work, La Selva, shares a clearly recognizable
framework with other soundscape artists like Eric LaCasa and
Douglas Quin, Lopez has distanced himself from the soundscape
as a concept based on R. Murray Schafer's book The Tuning of
the World and the acoustic ecology movement that followed it.
Lopez' first releases were in the international independent
cassette networks that started appearing in the 1980s, but
his work that brought him to the attention of many listeners
was the maiden release on Bernhard Gunter's Trente Oiseaux
label, Warszawa Restaurant in 1995. Since then, his CDs have
appeared on many of the most prestigious electro-acoustic and
new music labels, such as Staalplaat, Table of the Elements,
Touch, and Alien8. Although his emphasis on pure sonic
environments means that many of his releases have Spartan
cover designs and no information about the recordings, his
landmark release La Selva is an essential soundscape
recording of the Costa Rican rain forest with extensive liner
notes about the recording and the philosophy behind it. His
work Paris Hiss is composed of many layers of tape hiss (and
was released, appropriately, only on cassette). One of his
more surprising releases is the 2000 release Untitled #104,
which is alleged to have been composed from samples of heavy
metal music. His collaboration with singer Amy Denio, Belle
Confusion 00 uses only her voice for the origin of all the
sounds on the piece. At the beginning of 2001, he started his
own record label, .absolute., on which he intends to document
his collaborations with other innovative musicians and sound
artists from around the world.
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01-Untitled #123 73:00
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73:00 min