2CD – XI

Cecilia Lopez is an Argentinian composer, musician and multimedia artist. She habitually makes engaging and delicate sound explorations, here realised through overlapping layers and with the use of small speakers and contact microphones. In Red the use of feedback is pushed into twists that are made of a suspended network of cables. When the net swings, the cables slowly move and generate countless permutations, producing sonic resonances. Machinic Fantasies uses a set of special instruments: two 55 gallons rotating drums and two internal speakers, with multiple openings working as acoustics filters. In this case, the drum’s rotations give life to some swirling and hypnotic sounds, even more enigmatic and cyclical than the previous recording. Field recordings and minimal interventions from the trumpet player Joe Moffett and the trombonist Christopher McIntyre complete the set. Obviously the best of this project comes from the live performance. Here, the direct correspondence between the machinic system and the resulting sounds highlights an acoustic spatiality. The simple audio documents of this release by XI Records demonstrate a sculptural style and some characteristics of ambient, drone and noise. In the first two scores the line between cause and intention plays a central role in the listening experience, thanks to the unpredictable and random reciprocal swing of the microphones. In the other, the rotation of the drums, suspended through metallic structures, is run manually and led by two performers, who also refer to a written score. Cecilia Lopez defines these works as “executed installations”, suggesting a time of suspension. In the cacophonous emphasis of the sequences, she catches “an eternal return of the equal”, that sets the cyclical time and the union of an infinite number of recurring elements. This highly articulated multimedia show is not easy to illustrate through a sound recording alone, but in this case the work is irreproachable.

 

Cecilia Lopez – Red / Machinic Fantasies