CD – Aagoo

The Minutes is a refined and committed work by Isreal Martinez, a Mexican audio-artist enjoying increasing success in recent times. The ten tracks captivate the listener in a continuum of field recordings and fragmentary audio captures. These elements evoke a candid yet apprehensive country in which a fear of “living” in public space is palpable (something not confined to Mexico, of course). The anxiety suffered by those dealing with a constant and increasing threat of violence is impossible to gloss over. In the tracks of this record we encounter fragments of conversations, nature sounds, whistles and synth elaborations created on a Minimoog and a Korg MS2000. The abstract noises featured in the record undermine neither the formal qualities of the work, nor it’s sociocultural and economic content. The elements are organized in an exchange of reflections, recalling distinct, yet multi-layered atmospheres and environments. Echoes of the environments explored by the artist resound throughout: Martinez’s coherent and concise work manages to create room for a clear narration and sense of place; the record functions as a kind of sound genome that marks the exhausted flux of the urban area. Acoustic resonances, shaded settings, electronics and cold melodic tensions testify to the inconvenience, the disappointment and the contemporary unease of human beings, a condition that is common to many geographical areas, but one always coloured by local tastes and flavours. Aurelio Cianciotta

Israel Martínez – Tribonera