Eric La Casa + Eamon Sprod ‎– Friche : Transition

eric-la-casa

CD – Swarming

The hyperrealistic artwork with a twelve page elegant booklet immediately grabs our attention. Friche: Transition is the first collaborative project of Eamon Sprod and Eric La Casa.. Sprod is an Australian sound artist working for almost two decades; La Casa is an experienced French experimenter and field recorder. In Spring 2015, they spent a week making recordings in areas in the northeast of Paris and over the canal Ourcq. These are areas that are mostly full of garbage, spaces of waste located within the city. They can be considered as alien outposts where it’s possible to listen to the wheezes of a contemporary metropolis regurgitating its own development. Behind a continuous hiss, the weave of the first “transition” is basically made of small buzzes; dogs barking; and piercing audio emergencies; noise made by small movements and by the wind; whistles and crackles. In the following section, the alternation between silence and sound sets a different perception of the space, with a larger presence of machinic elements. But this is just a fleeting impression, because the nature of this indistinct rummage consists of moving inside an enormous variety of dull and dark sounds. In our imagination, the artists are guides walking over a slow and deep, cathartic travel in some difficult lands. There are also rolls, liquid sounds or sounds produced by materials burning, metallic or glass resonances. It’s possible to obtain a list of audio recordings from the garbage, a sum of vibrating data, which is given a certain development (we don’t know if it’s the result of some post-production work or just the raw recordings). The final result is outstanding; the duo is able to transform something from everyday life belonging to a still and depressing environment into an engaging, mysterious and unforgettable experience. We are next to the border of a huge city: its undifferentiated whispers talk about what is just residual, functionless, just deaf sounds and putrid substance. Is this still music? Is it art? Is it social commentary under poetic forms? A clear answer is not possible, or, actually is not convenient: in some cases the vagueness offers more resources and shows us all the ambiguity of everyday life, which cannot simply be reduced to formulas, discourses and rational analysis.

 

Eric La Casa + Eamon Sprod ‎– Friche : Transition