CD – Unsounds
This is the second release on Unsounds for Francisco López, a sound-artist who doesn’t require much of an introduction in the international digital-electroacoustic experimentation enclave. The two tracks, respectively 22 and 25 minutes long, were recorded at the Amsterdam MuzyQ Studios between 2009 and 2011. In Movement 1 the composition has been conceived for the pianist Reinier van Houdt, a musician who often uses particular “preparations” of his instrument, here induced to share mechanical sequences characterized by strong percussion and timber connotations. The piano also rules the roost in Movement 2, but here there are consistent and overflowing structural modifications of the original weaves, new sound forms and settings that, elaborated in-studio, recombine the materials and develop the caesuras in an even more immersive and charming dimension. Both of the scores become very elegant and abstract – however – without yielding one iota in consistency and stylistic quality. The sound elaborations of the Spanish experimenter are always rigorous in the procedures, enlightened by a strong conceptual approach but also by a polished intrinsic beauty and by an uncommon intensity. However theories are secondary if we focus exclusively on the effectiveness and the quality of the sounds, a outlook that seems to have inspired this collaboration with van Houdt – a talented performer who has shared auditoriums with John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Luc Ferrari, Olivier Messiaen and who can be rightly proud of a specialist background in such performances.