CD – arbitrary

This is the third release in the Black Box series from the arbitrary label. Here Mads Emil Nielsen, a Danish sound artist, has taken the opportunity to archive his compositions for theatre, alongside radio soundtracks and various other recordings. Black Box 3 is mainly based on the pieces produced for Sprækker (Cracks), a 2021 dance performance and installation, whose scores originated from improvisations developed with the dancers. These six pieces, were mostly made using synthesizers, field recordings and further radio archives. Everything was in turn reworked and modified a year later in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The release deserves credit for the rediscovery of a melodic vocation on the part of Nielsen, who in recent years has been involved in more abstract electroacoustic research. Take, for example, his collaboration with Andrea Neumann, or the graphic scores of the Framework series, conceptual style exercises that are attentive to the relationship between sound and space. Right from the start, with “Installation – 2”, the listening experience is very compelling. The nocturnal mixes between insects and liquid audio samples are punctuated by percussive rhythms with an almost atavistic blend, while in the following “Untitled (Wind)”, the sequences become more elegiac, suspended and minimalist, sensibly lyrical, synthetic and dilated. Even “Climbing Plants” is engaging, ambient and dark, inexorably proliferating and grainy, while in “Installation – 1”, glitch is contrasted with natural sounds to great effect. Finally, “Vibrations” reconnects to an organic context that enhances Nielsen’s ability to innovate on a microscopic scale, intertwining vibrations, creaks and gurgles, giving life to a pulsating and decidedly imaginative whole. Black Box 3 gives voice to a tactile and all-encompassing language, with a great balance between the different elements.

 

Mads Emil Nielsen – Black Box 3