CD – Murmur
Using field recordings, a multiscreen projection and other rarefied sounds, Yann Novak & Robert Crouch have created a fascinating narration with multiple concatenations and measured minimal arrangements. Appropriately, the title “Fata Morgana” is a direct reference to the optical effect that can be seen in a narrow zone above the horizon, a mirage that viewed from different angles produces a compression or enlargement of vision (an effect the investigators appear turn into a technique, expanding and containing the drones in the unraveling of patterns and ambiance). The evocation of perceptive illusions goes together well with the sound continuum, unfolding fascinating abstractions in a constant dialog between frequencies, with added audio captures that were recorded mainly in the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Lake Mead area, America’s largest water reservoir. Just as ghostly images can appear in empty spaces surrounded by water and air, so can sounds emerge from equally intersected substrates, the result of a clear sense of bewitchment caused by “layered illusions” – upside-down lights that can create virtual images and sounds. There are no vibrations in the void and sounds can’t exist, but it just takes the slightest control over acoustic emissions on a surface to propagate a vibration that leaves us sweetly enchanted.