10″ – Ediciones Éter

Yubartas is released by Ediciones Éter, the Colombian experimental label of Miguel Isaza and Alejandro Henao. There are three compositions that Ross dedicates to underwater field recordings of humpback whales, a species of mostly coastal whales particularly known for the male’s complex song. The purpose of this song – which can last from 10 to 20 minutes and which is repeated for several hours – is not yet clear but the magic of its flow is indisputable. By bearing witness to it, the composer seems to be aspiring to a better interspecies relationship. If living organisms interact with each other in a natural environment, then this is a very specific sort of relationship, sought by the musician to reconnect to intense and mysterious primordial energies. The sonic texture of the auditory samples is somewhat ghostly, deep and disturbing. The overall effect reflects a stylistic figure that is not the result of pure documentation but, on the contrary, is the result of a formal application of an aesthetic and even poetic matrix. The first track, “Eoceno”, is an explicit reference to the geological era in which the current great mountain ranges were formed, before the global cooling that gave rise to modern glaciation. The name comes from ancient Greek and indicates the new dawn of modern mammals, which appeared precisely in that historical era. The sounds – although the composer’s wish is highly proactive – stand out among other auditory samples, subdued drones, guttural emissions, gurgling, rinsing, rumbling and sucking, often of a granular consistency but difficult to decipher. How exactly space is constituted and lived is not known, one can only fantasise about these enormous whales, taking note of the fact that “acoustic space, as men knew it before writing is presumably the natural modality of spatial awareness, since it was not the by-product of any technology ”, as Marshall McLuhan reminds us. In the other two tracks, “Leviatán” and “Canción”, the question of acoustic space is also predominant. How do we perceive this space and how does Ross intensify the listening experience through the manipulation of sounds? The answer involves the concepts of sensory and affective dimensions, as well as an understanding of how the specific practices and materials of the investigated sound environment affect the result, which nonetheless capture our attention with their beauty and measure.

 

Ross – Yubartas