CD – 23five
Richard Garet is an investigator accustomed to audio/visual performances that are very careful in the analysis of the spaces and processes that determine the resulting phenomena. His approach often includes mixing different media that evolve in intimate spaces, giving rise to delicate mechanisms able to modify the processes of perception and cognition. In Areal, too, the feeling is that silence – or rather – what’s left of an emptiness which is never absolute, is inverted in a sort of subliminal elaboration, becoming an active presence, a continuous interference modulated by electromagnetic noise extracted from a radio. Using controlled techniques – both electric and acoustic – Garet meticulously organizes new acoustic realities comprising of feedback, cracks, resonances and incorporeal audio eddies, recomposing drones, uncertain harmonic sources, layered textures and static patterns. Garet’s set-up also includes several “exciters”, which are used in a carefully circumscribed workspace. Nonetheless, there’s no trace of virtuoso resoluteness in the sound designer’s manipulations . That is, there’s no way this process can be overcome: his attention seems not to be focused on execution. The “author” is just a means of channeling forces that would otherwise be contradictory and unheard. The reciprocal inflection of spurious signals, used in other modulations and then registered, is not always clear. This – however – doesn’t affect the cohesion of the project, shrouding it in an uncertain and immanent appeal.