CD – Misanthropic Agenda

Here is the new studio album by Francisco Meirino, an experienced artist with more than 100 live performances under his belt. Meirino’s projects are always very interesting and feel almost custom-made for the major international electronic music and audio art festivals. Now based in Lausanne, the artist has returned to Misanthropic Agenda, a label keen to have him back since his last release for them in 2010. At that time Meirino was fostering collaborations with a number of other composers such as Dave Phillips, Gerritt Wittner, Paul Knowles, Kam Hassah and Alleypisser. Notebook features eight different compositions that unravel through field recordings and abrasive electronics recorded with contact microphones and other devices. The track “Techniques Of Self-Destruction” was originally imagined as a composition for eight speakers commissioned by Jerome Noetinger for Audible Festival in Paris in 2012. The song impresses us for the density of its sounds and the evolving geometric patterns, sharp stepwise movements and elegant leaps that are consistently engaging and stylistically very well balanced. The atmospheres permeating this record are all very “worked”, creating a textured cinematic quality that has been designed to hold the attention of the listener. Meirino had succeeded in this endeavour and while the listening is not easy, it is never penitential, with harsh audio emergencies and sketchy melodic grafts complemented by gaseous outbursts, hissing with pleasant and expertly-crafted vibrations.

Francisco Meirino “Le Processus De La Significat